Spiritual Pharmakon of Western Spirituality

Contrary to popular belief Psychadelics have played a major role in the development of Western spirituality. Spiritualists have been using Psychadelic since the days of the Bible. Such Psychadelic pharmacon would include opium, cannabis,henbane, mandrake root, mushroom etc.  They have been used to access the divine, empower magic, cause deities to materialize you name it,

Going back to biblical times. We have Kane Bose or sweet cane being used in rituals and in healing aids. Sweet cane is Cannabis. It may well have been present in the incense they used in their rituals. Jesus used it to heal in his anointing oil. Many Christian sects especially Gnostic Christians used psychadelics in their rituals as a way to becoming closer to god. When Pagans converted to the  new faith they often brought their use of psychadelics with them. Most Christians had a taste for mandrake root as it resembled a man.

The Greeks and Romans made use of many Psychadelic plants. Most noted are the mystery traditions associated with Dionysus and Demeter. Dionysus was associated with wine and his followers were known for their drunk revelries. The Eleusinian mysteries was about going down to the netherworld in a shamanistic experience. Other deities associated with magic also had knowledge of Psychadelic plants.

Indeed Circe and Madea both associated with Hekate had knowledge of plants and how to use them. Plant knowledge most likely goes back to the first women who learned how to use them . This was feminine based spirituality. They had the access.

 Fairy women in Europe knew all about these plants and were often the village healers.

The Church when converting Pagans often used psychadelics themselves. The incense often contained psychoactive chemicals. This would make a believer out of anyone. Plus pagans brought their psychadelics with them.

Throughout Medieval times psychadelics were used in high magical rituals. Apothecaries gave magicians access to these p,us a whole lot more. The use of psychadelics only became demonized over time when it was associated with witchcraft.

This is one great book. Not only does it give the hisotry of psychadelics in western spirituality but it also teaches one different angles of the myths we know and loved. Look forward to reading more by this author.

 

African Roots of Judaism

 

This is a great book in that it gives a very thorough overview of Jewish history since the beginning and over many lands. I thought I would see more documentation of how the African continent influenced Judaism but instead I got a great over view of the beginning going through the Egyptian slavery, first and second temple periods. The survey covers some of the diasporas specially Europe and North Africa. The book finished off with discussing Jewish life in America and the lost tribes.

The only main African influence I found was at the beginning. The Hebrews or Hapiru came from Ethiopia and went to Mesopotamia and built society there. From them the Israelites evolved especially after they went back to Egypt. After being redeemed from slavery some of them went back to Ethiopia. King Solomon’s wife Sheba May have been from Ethiopia and or Yemen. Saba the kingdom encompassed both lands. Through out history humans have been going back and forth between Yemen and Thiopia . From the union of Sheba and Solomon came King Menelik. The Kebra Negast document the line of Solomon in Ethiopia.

There was a Jewish kingdom in Yemen. It was the Himyar King Dhu Nawas that converted to Judaism . He was also its last king as he died fighting against an Ethiopian invasion backed by Rome. The Persians were supposed to back Yemen but failed.

The Igbo in Nigeria claim Jewish descent. Many will tell you they Hail from Ethiopia Jews . Needless to say there were tribes that practiced Judaism . During historic progress many Jews also married people of Africa. Descent.

Many people are unaware that most Jews are dark complectjoj and not the pale skin of the Ashkenazi. Many from the Middle East hold true to their African features. Some from the Far East look Indian. The Sephardic Jews at one time had intellectual leadership over the Ashkenazi Jews .

Judaism is like a prism. It is a design comprised of many colors and shapes with plenty to explore.

Marie Laveaux the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans

 

Her aura is surrounded in mystery. Legends circulate about her well after he demise. She herself left now written record but the stories about her are numerous. While many of the real facts are hidden the stories told about her conform not to reality but to our own imagination, desires and fears. It takes a lot of research to get the real picture. In fact there may not have been just one but three in fact. Legend and fact are mixed. Who was this famous Voodoo priestess everyone is gabbing about?

Her name is Marie Laveaux the famous voodoo queen. As mentioned earlier fact and legend are mixed and it is hard to tell the difference between the two.  The authoress of this book set to work on doing just that to give us the real picture of Marie Laveaux.  Legends have it that she is descended from a line of Voodoo queens or was indoctrinated in secret from a family member  In fact her Father was Henry Laveaux a mixed race freeman. Her great grandmother all thee way to her mother were born in slavery. Only her mother was man united. Legend further states that she owned a hair salon which had a back room which she did her working. This cannot be verified.  What can be verified is that she cared for prisoners and consoled those about to be put to death. She also used herbs to heal others. Her first husband was named Pari and it is believed that he was a freed mulatto. They had two children together and then he exits the scene. Her second husband was Christophe Glaca or something like that. .  While not legally married they were together and had 4 children together. He was a white French man with aristocratic blood. Back in those times Caucasian and African could not legally be married. Laveau reigned as voodoo queen until her early eighties and when she passed rumor and fact begin to blend yet again.

Most prevalent is that her daughter also with the first name of Marie took over giving the impression that she reigned longer than she really did. This seems most likely.  Voodoo ceremonies were held out in the woods away from society. Sometimes they were held discreetly in some building. It was attended equally by both white people and those of African descent. She was highly influential. Unconfirmed legend also has it that she was a procures . Arranging for rich white men to hook up with mullatoes or women of pure African descent. Sometime this lead to Placage where In the man maintained another house for his mistress and many times they shared children.

The authoress goes deep into the New Orleans culture and history with this book to give the reader a good backdrop to the story of Marie Laveaux. Finding the Voodoo queen was a challenge.  She left behind no writings, so court records, church records and funeral records to find the real Marie Laveaux

The Pauline Origins of Christianity

The Christianity that many people practice today is not the Christianity that Jesus authored but rather it is Paul’s revelations that gave birth to the Christianity practiced today.

Paul’s Christianity veers sharply away from it’s parent religion Judaism. In fact is was meant to supersede and replace it.

Jesus and his original follower were Orthodox Jews who firmly believed in the Torah and ways of Judaism. After Jesus was crucified the movement beacame a Jewish Christians sort of religion. They believed that Jesus was the messiah born from a human mother and father. Jesus himself was most likely a rabbi. After the death of Jesus his brother James took the helm.

Paul came about like a decade after the death of Jesus. Paul was originally Saul who was from the tribe of Benjamin. Himself a practicing Jew, originally he had been a persecutor of the Jewish Christians .  It was coming back from/Damascus That he had his revelation. He met Jesus in the spirit as opposed toJesus in the flesh.

Paul’s revelation was from Jesus’s spiritual body.Paul brought a revelation that salvation could come through accepting Jesus. Jesus was not just a messiah but he was also so new Adam. He was the first of spiritual being that God created . He would bring heaven on earth and everyone would have spiritual bodies. The leadership In Jerusalem adhered more strongly to Jewish traditions and were opposed to Paul. There was a break between the two. In fact it was open hostility.

Most of it has been glossed over in favor of Paul’s version with the Christianity of Jesus being lost in a literary battle. Most of the New Testament in Pauline rather then but traces slip out like in the Q source and in Didache and Jerome.

If trying to figure out who Jesus was challenging enough try figuring out Paul. Only seven original letters of his exist. Other writing that are attribute to him are written in a different style, vocabulary and used of setting.

Djinn Among us

 

Bijou means Jewel in French . Bijou is also a very beautiful girl who tends to get pidgin hold as exotic looking or rare. She is also super smart and her academics are years above grade level. Having never met her mother as she died giving birth to her ,  Bijou was raised by her grandmother who she calls “Gigi” Gigi writes for living, using a pseudonym and for some strange reason they tend to move around a lot. Bijou has also been homeschooled most of her life. This is her first year trying out regular school.

Bijou is also plagued by a certain ability which threatens to overwhelm her. Her coping mechanism is to shuffle a deck of cards. As an empath she can read the emotions and feel them off of other people. Most people are typicals who can be read real easily by the non typicals are not so easy. Needless to say such a unique person tends to stand out. Upon her first day of school she befriends Sebastian and his twin sister Amina.

Bijou uniqueness comes out during swimming practice . She is a damn good swimmer. Too good. Everyone takes notice. Grandmother who was never so hot about her going to school in the first place wants her off the swim team. Like Superman she has got to stay hidden.

Sebastian and Amina are rather hot blooded and by that it is meant that when they touch Bijous skin it leaves burned hand marks. All her life she has had dreams of a hooded figure and I. This new town she actually meets this guy and it is not pleasant.

The town is plagued by a mystery. Every 17 years a whole bunch of girls end up going missing. This has a lot to do with Bijou. The djinn are everywhere and an organization called Solomon knights want power over them and the Djinn want something as well.

What follows is a face paced exciting story that will not let you go. The story is filled with faery lore from Europe and numerous faery types make an appearance. I hope she writes more of these kind of books.

Enter the Trance World

 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53324.Supernatural" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390171021l/53324._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53324.Supernatural">Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18520.Graham_Hancock">Graham Hancock</a><br/>

My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3496379926">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />

There are caves in France that are really hard to access so hard that it is like why even bother? Going in through difficult passages you end up in like a room that has hybrid animal / human painting along with picture of hunting. Several picture show a hybrid man being hung up by arrows as though they are piercing through him. The caves are a mystery. No one has a reason to go down there. These painting are 50 thousand years old. They seem to have popped up all of the sudden. Modern man has been on earth for 200 thousand years. Why the sudden spate of developments what does this mean?<br /><br />Author Graham Hancock takes the reader on a journey through several different worlds. All of them are very similar. His main contention is that 50 thousand years ago man started consuming Psychadelic plants that caused him to hallucinate. Such drugs under discussion are Ibogain, ayahuasca and psilocybin just to name a few. These substances enable mankind to enter into a trance or altered state of consciousness . This altered state of consciousness caused man to see different kinds of spirit beings. Among them are these Theranhropic figure who are part man and part animal. There were also short being with big heads and large eyes. These being taught mankind .<br /><br />Shamans in South America are usually initiated after a certain illness. The shaman will venture to the spirit world and be ripped apart or eaten by the spirits. After which the shaman is reborn. His purpose is to get healing knowledge for the people . He sees being as well as therianthropic beings. Shamans Wouk consume Psychadelic substances which felt like pins going through you.<br /><br />The reader is also taken on a journey into faery lore of Europe and the modern ufo abductions. There are many parralels between the two including abductions, mating between humans and these beings. At times the human parent is brought in to take care of the child. The author believes that the faery abductions and the UFO abductions are one and the same. If you like faery lore , UFO abductions and spiritual growth through Psychadelics then you will enjoy this book. The author himself experiments with Psychadelic.<br /><br />The main ingredient in ayahuasca is dmt. Ayahuasca has other chemicals like harmaline. Dmt is also produced in the body naturally. Roughly two percent of the population can enter an altered state of consciousness at will. There are other ways of entering an altered state of consuousnes like through rhythmic music, dancing to exhaustion and fasting. As was mentioned earlier the author himself is experimented with these substances.<br />Ibogain let’s the user contact the dead that was what it was used in Africa for. Ayahuasca allowed them user to access almost another dimension and contact spiritual beings to gain knowledge and bring it back, strait dmt put the author in a a technological classroom so he could learn new things.<br /><br />The author also covers the relationship between our DNA and these altered states of consciousness. The information could be in our DNA. What is the purpose of these trips. Some say it is connected to the after life.

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How to Raise a Dragon

Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On the almost desert all desert planet of Austraria 4 in perhaps a time in the distant future when mankind has colonized other planets in the galaxy, there exists dragons. They were almost extinct when humans arrived but then they began breeding them. The purpose was for fighting in fighting pits. Not all dragon are domesticated , to be sure there are plenty of feral dragons. Our hero Jekkin lost his father to a feral dragon while trying to tame it. This planet is seemingly medieval despite being well into the future. People can sell themselves into bond servitude for money to pay off debt and survive. Only thing is you have to buy your way out if you ever want to be free. Some of the dragon slaying weapons are futuristic and require a power source.

Jekkin as mentioned earlier lost hi father to a feral dragon. His mother in order to make ends meet sold herself and her son into bond servitude. She dies while he is young. He is a one servant to Sarrukhan a master dragon breeder and owner of fighting dragons. Jekkin has only one shot at freedom and That is to steal an uncounted egg before it hatches in hopes of raising a dragon in secret strong enough to fight. Which he does. All through out the year in secret he raises, feeds , trains and protects the dragon until it is big enough for the pit.

A perfect book for young adults. It explores the relationship of a young orphan bonding to a pet that both needs his protection and he needs it. A bond developed . There is also some romance with what appears is a bond nurse. She nurses Jekkin back to health on several occasions.


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