Changing My Karma on a January 3rd.

 

 

In each life a little rain must fall, and I have seen my share.  Is rain bad?  No, not if you are a Buddhist like me for pain makes us stronger.  Haven't said this, as a Nichiren Buddhist I also know happiness in this lifetime is not only a possibility but also, a guaranty by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.   For my Pagan brother and sisters, don't be alarmed for you can bring your pagan gods to our alter and you may choose to keep them, or not.  It is a personal thing and will be revealed to you while chanting.   This brings me to today's post that is a result from this mornings prayers and chants and the truth that was revealed to me.  The truth is there was something holding me back from the financial rewards I am seeking.  It is the magic wand I made out of the branch of a willow tree that hung outside a previous condo I owned.  I loved that willow tree and knew it held a magic.  I had charged my wand using the spells I wrote about years ago in a post title "Spell Casting 101."  In this post I show you how to "charge" an object and this is what I did to my magic wand.  Has it worked?  I don't know, I really never tried it.  But in today's chanting for happiness and financial freedom it was shown to be a force competing with my Buddhist practice in changing my Financial Karma.  So today I will free it by tossing it in a field.  Stay tuned.  

Oh, and more about my Nichirin Buddhist practice can be found at SGI-USA.org. 

I'm chanting for you.

In other thoughts on this January 3rd that fit today's magical thoughts.  It was way back in 1977 on this day that Ronald Wayne thought it was a wise decision to leave Apple Computers before they incorporated because he thought it "too risky" to hang around.  And so his partner at the time, Steve Jobs paid Wayne $800.00 and terminated the relationship.  Wayne eventually lived in a trailer in Nevada collecting Social Security.

In 2013, Wayne told the U.K's Daily Mail, "If I had stayed with Apple and accepted the limitations on my philosophy of life I could have well ended up the richest man in the cemetery."

To which, I say, maybe so, but if you had chanted on the decision, you would have been a happy man either way.
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Jack Ruby et al

Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of U.S. president John F. Kennedy, died of cancer in a Dallas hospital on this day after haven spent four years in a jail cell overlooking Dealey Plaza adjacent to the infamous Book Depository where the alleged gun-shots came from.   Every day of his remaining life, Ruby could look out that window with the reminder to keep his mouth shut.   Which he did.  I only wonder what happened to his dogs?   I use to work at a music store in Dallas Texas and met an old piano turner who use to tune Jack Ruby's pianos and so would be in the empty restaurant on quiet afternoons when Ruby would come in and start slapping the cocktail waitresses around -- he was a real son-of-a-bitch that way.   My piano-turning friend told me: "He had these two dogs with him all the time.  I think he tweeted (had sex with) those dogs."

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Both kinds of explorers: Lewis and Clark.

Speaking of Dogs:

 I leave you on this blessed day with a journal entry from the beloved explorer who first wrote about these here United States back on their famous Explorer Expedition (warning, it will be disturbing to dog lovers):


January 3rd, 1806

One party, from necessity having been obliged to subsist some length of time on dogs, have now become extremely fond of their flesh.  It is worthy of remark that while we lived principally on the flesh of this animal, we were much more healthy, strong, and more fleshy than we had been since we left the buffalo country.  for my own part, I have become so perfectly reconciled to the dog that I think it an agreeable food and would prefer it vastly to lean venison or elk. 

                                                                                        -- Meriwether Lewis

New Years Day 2022 Waiting on the Coup

 

 

So it is new years 2022 and what have we done?  

 

Another year over and a new one spun

with miss-information and hate

 

last year at this time

we celebrated the defeat of Donald Trump

 

this year 

 

we fear his return

 

Has our country really come to this?

 

a country destroyed by fear, white lies, and God?

 

where once there was hope?

 

hope in people

 

hope in neighbors

 

hope in generations.

 

We are now divided by economics in the name of God, and baby killers

chalk outlines on a sidewalk, eye black crosses on a face, 

and save the planet, save the planet,

but first,

save the race!

In my lifetime I've watched us go from peace on earth and good will to all

to, "eat shit mother fucker, I'm taking what's mine,

 

that's all."

No one cares about getting along.  

No one has the energy to fight Fake News

and no one sees the whole

 

from their narrow point of views.

 

Yes, it's New Years Day, 2022.

 

waiting on the coup

waiting on the coup

~~ a Poem by Dr Eso Terry and his Traveling Band of Gypsies. 

 

The first day of January was dedicated by the ancient Romans to the god Janus (whom the month is named after.)  Janus possesses two identical faces looking in opposite directions: one to the past, and the other to the future.  He is a god of gates and doorways, and a deity associated with journeys and the beginning, and ending, of things.  

 

Ces't tout!

The Origins of Christmas: Satan and Coca-cola.

 

So it is Christmas.  Now, I love the "Peace on Earth and Good Will to...  All" as much as the next guy, but I also know this day has nothing to do with Jesus.  Now, if that's how you want to celebrate Christmas, so be it, I prefer to celebrate the inclusive Christmas without Jesus for its humanistic qualities.  Everyone knows Jesus wasn't born on December 25th.  Historian may argue about why this lie came to be, but nonetheless, all agree it is a lie.  December 25th was adopted by the Christian Church sometime in the 4th century.  Before that, December 25th was part of the Roman Saturnalia celebration that involved feasting, merry-making, and gift-giving.  But like everything else in history, i.e., Football, Beer, and Elvis, Christians change things to fit their beliefs instead of letting things be as they are.  Blasphemy?  Maybe.  Truth is, Christmas is nothing but Blasphemy.  

The origins of Christmas began with Odin, who was the god of intoxicating drink and ecstasy, as well as the god of winter death. Because the Feast of Saturnalia dealt with all those things, he naturally became the most popular god of Saturnalia. 

 

Odin was a tall, old man that had a long white beard and carried a spear.  Odin traveled around the world on a WHITE HORSE that had eight legs. This is where the eight reindeer came from. With Santa, originally there were eight reindeer. Rudolph was added later in modern times.

In virtually every version of Claus, he carried along with him a dark helper.  Eventually, these became the elves.  Originally, however, they were a demon looking helper that stood next to Claus with a horrid red tongue hanging from its mouths and it was called Krampus.  If the children weren’t good, Krampus  would beat the children.  So, the good guy or Savior, Odin who eventually became St. Nicholas, would come and give you gifts if you were good. If you were bad, Krampus disciplined you.  

The picture upbove shows the naughty children being carried away by a Krampus, who is a combination of a human and goat. We see this all throughout history, a human mixed with a goat. The picture on the left is a modern day picture of a festival in Germany where they continue to do this celebration and bring out Krampus or Santa’s helpers to this day. 

St. Nicholas and his demons are still celebrated in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Italy, and more. Every time you would see St. Nicholas he would be accompanied by his bells. They use to have bells that would hang from their necks. You would hear the bells as they announced to the next town that they were coming.  This is where we get the references to the bells of Christmas.

How did the progression of Odin to Santa Claus happen? Well, by the 1500’s in Holland, St. Nicholas became Sinterklaas; a kind and wise old man with a white beard, white dress, red cloak, a crosier and riding the skies and roofs of the houses on his white horse, accompanied by his Black Jacks, leaving gifts for people under his sacred tree, the fir tree. He would visit you on his birthday (December 25th), and give you gifts if you had been good or if you had been bad, his Black Jacks would beat you.

By the 1700’s a Dutchman immigrated to North America and brought his SinterClaus with him. The English dialect was then changed to “Santa Claus.”

In 1930 a designer for Coca-Cola Company was trying to get people to buy their drink in the winter time. They took their company colors of red and white, borrowed the Sinterklaas story, changed a few things and out came the modern Santa Claus complete with reindeer and elves. The 1900 designer borrowed a picture from the 1800’s, modernized, added the colors, and out came the Coca-Cola Santa Claus today complete with the long white beard, chubby cheeks, and red and white suit.

IN THE 1970’S THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL FORMALLY STATED THAT NO ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP BY THE NAME OF NICHOLAS EVER EXISTED!

They down graded his saint hood because there was evidence that was presented to the Vatican that he never even existed. Vatican further confessed that the legends contributed to this “saint” had no Christian origin, and probably came from pagan traditions!

The evidence showed this saint was made up and connected to the sun god worship of Odin but had been Christianized and a saint was made out of him. Eventually, the colors got changed, the elves came into the picture and they went from being evil to cute little guys that make toys which is another American modernization.

Now you know the real origins of Christmas: 

Happy Xmas. 

 

Comparing Druids and Native Americans This Christmas

 

So, it is a fact that the Christmas we celebrate today begun with the Druids, and so let's have a look at the Druids.  First of all, most of the historical facts we have about the Druids are bull crap because they were written by the Greeks and Romans who were extremely hostile to the Celtic people, and so reading those accounts of the Druid people written in the history books is like reading Davy Crockett's writings to understand the Native Americans.  

 "We shot them like dogs," Crockett said after he had slaughtered 186 men, woman, and children in the Creek War.  

The Romans confiscated the lives of the Druid people much as the European Settlers confiscated the lives of Native Americans. In both cases a spiritually dead group of people took over a spiritually alive people.  The Romans were materialistic, the Druids spiritual. The American Settlers were greedy-land grabbers, the Native people, spiritual.  For the Romans and Americans Settlers the State was a monolithic structure spread over territories deliberately organized into a hierarchy.  With the Druids and Native Americans the State was a freely consented moral order with an entirely mythical central idea.  The Romans and American Settlers based their law on the private ownership of land, with property rights entirely vested in the head of the family; the Druids and Native Americans considered ownership COLLECTIVE.  The Romans and American Settlers looked upon women as bearers of children and objects of pleasure, while the Druids and Native Americans included women in their political and religious life.  Is it any wonder that the spiritual peoples would have to be "Christianized" in the name of God, or slaughtered.  

That's right, Capitalized: the gift that keeps giving.  

And, least we forget, here is the Druid roots of Christmas:

The roots of the Christmas traditions that we recognize today can be traced back to pre-Christian celebrations of the Winter solstice. The solstice is the twice yearly event when the sun appears to be at its highest or lowest point above the horizon. In the northern hemisphere the Winter solstice usually occurs annually between December 20 and December 23.

The Winter solstice was seen by the ancient Celts as one of the most significant times of the year. The Neolithic monuments of Newgrange in Éire, Maes Howe in Orkney, Scotland and Bryn Celli Ddu in Ynys Môn, Wales are examples of burial chambers scattered throughout the Celtic nations constructed to capture the full impact of sun’s rays during the solstices.

Druids, the priestly class in ancient Celtic society, celebrated the festival of Alban Arthuan (also known as Yule) at the time of the Winter solstice.  It was on this day that they ceremonially gathered mistletoe from oak trees.  A practice described in the writings of Roman historian Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus AD 23 – August 25, AD 79).

The name Christmas is from the Mass of Christ (Christ-Mass).  The actual date of the birth of Jesus is not given in the Bible.  The spread of Christianity during the first millennium (January 1st AD to December 1000 AD of the Julian calendar) was aided by the new religion adapting to the ceremonies and traditions of the existing religions.  At times the early Christians also adopted existing deities to ease the transition from old beliefs to new ones, as is thought to be the case with Brigid the Celtic fertility goddess who became known to Christians as Saint Brigid.

So when celebrating Christmas the traditional trappings that go with this festive season have roots that go far back into Celtic history.  The Mistletoe gathered by the Druids for its magical and health giving properties.  The Yule log burnt by the Celts to counter the darkness of mid-Winter when they thought the sun stood still for twelve days and to bring good luck.  The Holly and Ivy; evergreens that Celts saw as important to keep evil spirits at bay. The Tree decorated with symbols of solar objects and gifts to Celtic gods and goddesses.

 

 

Anti-Vaxxers: Get Vaccinated or Stay Home! Period!

So it is happening again, Covid-19 is shutting down everything. The latest reports I've read of as of this morning are:

The NFL is postponing 2 football games because so many players have tested positive for Covid -- 20 players on the Cleveland Browns alone; schools are shutting down again because so many kids have snotty, runny noses; and even the measly city theater production company down the street from me has had to cancel its musical revue of "Back to the 80's!" because so many of the actors have been in contact with infected people -- okay, so maybe all the shutdowns aren't bad, but still, we're talking about starving actors here -- wink. 

 And who do we have to blame for this increase in a virus there is a vaccine for?....  You guessed, idiots like these:

 

 

 

 

If they don't want to be vaccinated so be it, the problem is that they can't be trusted to stay home and do the right thing for the greater good, and not infect the rest of us.  These are the same people who bitch about taxes and pot holes in the roads.  They only care about themselves, and bitch about welfare programs for the poor until they need one, then they are the first ones in line screaming the loudest for their "fair share."  Simply put, they haven't joined the human race yet and apparently never will. 

Why am I saying this?  Well, not only are they killing us, but they are killing themselves as well, here are a few stories I am sad to have to share with you:

Marcus Lamb, the televangelist who warned his followers not be vaccinated because it was "a spiritual act from the enemy."  He died of Covid 19. 

  

Bob Enyart, a Denver-based pastor and talk show host, died in September. He was against mask mandates and the COVID-19 vaccine.

 

Dick Farrel, another conservative radio host who changed his mind about the vaccine after he fell sick from the virus, but it was too late. He died after a two-week battle on August 4, 2021

Tod Tucker was a conservative talk show host from Oklahoma City, OK who called the virus "fake news." He died August 11, 2021, after an onset of viral pneumonia as the result of COVID-19.

 

Dr. Jimmy DeYoung Sr. was a Christian radio host and Bible Prophecy Teacher. DeYoung, who died August 15, 2021, once called the vaccine “government control,” and was not vaccinated.

 

 

 Wallace, Caleb

 

Caleb Wallace was the Founder of the “The San Angelo Freedom Defenders” anti-mask group and he organized anti-mask rallies. He died August 28, 2021. He had been unconscious and on a ventilator for weeks before he died.

 

 

 

Herman Cain was American businessman and activist for the Tea Party movement. He was an active Trump supporter who unfortunately didn’t live long enough to become a true anti-vaxxer. Before he died he vocally opposed to masks and stay at home orders. He died July 30, 2020 from COVID-19.

 And even as I write this there is a new report out that the Senator Doug Ericksen who was anti-vaccine and mask guy, has died from the virus on a trip to El Salvador.  

Sad but true.

Okay, so these are some of the famous ones, and the question is how many other unnecessary deaths will there be from these idiots politicizing this virus.  

Cut the shit people.  Not everything is political!  Join the human race.  Get vaccinated or stay home!

 

 

December 16th, Poke Man, tax Bezos

On this day in 1997 that classic parental saying that  "Television will rot your brain" came true.  Over seven hundred Japanese schoolchildren became dizzy and nauseated while watching an episode Pokémon.  Some even had seizures.  Hospitals across the country were inundated with retching, convulsing kids, and a few parents, in scenes reminiscent of a really bad Japanese sci-fi movie.

 

 

"I was shocked to see my daughter lose consciousness," said Yukiko Iwasaki, whose eight-year-old suffered a seizure.  "She started to breathe only when I hit her on the back."

The spasmodic mass reaction was triggered about 20 minutes into Pokémon episode 38, "Computer Warrior Porigon," which, like other episodes of the top-rated show, was produced in an intense version of animation known as anime.  A vivid explosion, with pulsating strobe-light effects, apparently walloped those kids with their eyes glued to their television sets on the evening of December 16.

Warning, the following episode has been know to cause seizures in young children.  Watch at your own risk:

 

 
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  Also on this December the 16th, I think we should remember the hungry:  it was this day in the year 2007 that experts from the world Bank, with the assistance of the International Monetary Fund and a few United Nations agencies, updated their statistical tables from the Regan/Bush era projections to admit that the estimated numbers of poor people in the world was five-hundred million more than previously recorded.

As Eduardo Galeano said in his book Children of the Days,  "They, the poor, already knew."

Update, the number is 736 million as of 2015.  That's right, 736 million people will go hungry tonight while we spend millions to send an ex-football player into space for the experience. 

 Maybe f&*king Bezos should send one of the 736 million poverty kids on a space flight instead, at least they'd get a meal out of it. 

All I got to say: Tax the bastard. 

Or at least make him watch this:

 

 

December 15th, oddities.

 

On or near this day in 1942, the English Poet Keith Douglas found himself in the Western Desert during the Second World War fighting in the North African campaign.  These are his observations that he must have been writing for a book one day:


I looked down into the face of a man lying hunched up in a pit.  His expression of agony seemed so acute and urgent, his stare so wild and despairing, that for a moment I thought him alive.  He was like a cleverly posed waxwork, for his position suggested a paroxysm, an orgasm of pain.  He seemed to move and writhe. But he was stiff.  The dust which powdered his face like an actor's lay on his wide open eyes, whose stare held my gaze like the Ancient Mariner's.  He had tried to cover his wounds with towels against the flies.  His haversack lay open, from which he had taken towels and dressings.  His water bottle lay tilted with the cork out.  Towels and haversack were dark with dried blood, darker still with a great concourse of flies.  This picture, as they say, told a story.  It filled me with useless pity....

Keith Douglas died in Normandy two years later.

Enjoy the Holiday Seasons and be thankful for the peace we have this year.   It's Yuge!

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Speaking of war, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine were Hollywood's feuding sisters--leading ladies locked in a bitter rivalry that reportedly went all the way back to childhood.  "I married first," Fontaine once commented on the enduring sibling spat, "won the Oscar before Olivia did, and if I die first, she'll undoubtedly be livid because I beat her to it!" On December 15, 2013, at age 96, Fontaine did indeed beat de Havilland to the grave.

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In 1939 on this date, the American film "Gone with the Wind" premieres, in Atlanta Georgia.  The movie, based on Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, became an instant hit, breaking all previous box-office records and winning nine Oscars.
 

Clark Gabble

                                                                                                
Was the most famous “love child” of Hollywood’s Golden Era actually conceived when actress Loretta Young was “date-raped’’ by the legendary Clark Gable? That bombshell accusation broke Sunday at Buzzfeed, and it seems to me there are reasons to be somewhat skeptical.
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In case you forgot, December 15 is the first of seven Halcyon Days prior to the winter solstice when, according to legend, the halcyon bird creates a time of tranquility by calming the wind and waves.  During this peaceful period, the kingfisher was able to lay her eggs in peace.  A magical bird, the kingfisher is a symbol of the Greek goddess Alcyon, daughter of the wind king.

December 14: things to know at a boring art show.

 

It was the last thing Kaiser Wilhelm II needed after a gay sex scandal had already embroiled not only the highest echelons of imperial Germany but also the sovereign himself.  On Novermber 14, 1908, Dietrich Graf von Julsen-Haeseler, chief of the German Imperial Military Cabinet, dropped dead at a private party for the kaiser while performing a balleric pas seul, or solo dance -- in a tutu.

Homosexuality had long been an unmentionable subject in Germany, one that the press avoided assiduously--until 1906, that is, when a journalist by the name of Maximilian Harden launched a campaign to expose the sexual proclivities of the kaiser's inner circle.  And much of his scoop was provided by none other than Otto von Bismarck, the "Iron Chancellor," who, like Harden, had vigorously opposed Wilhelm II's policies and was dismissed by the kaiser as a result.  In a letter to his son, Bismarck wrote of the relationship the kaiser enjoyed with his devoted friend Philip Frederick Alexander, Prince of Eulenburg and Hertefeld--the details of which could "not be confided to paper."

Harden was wise enough to know that any compromising insinuations about the monarch's personal life with Eulenburg would be foolhardy, so he oped to discredit Wilhelm by disclosing instead the homosexual relationship between Eulenburg and the kaiser's adjunct, Count Kuno von Moltke-- or "Sweetie," as Harden referred to him--the military commander of Berlin.  In so doing, historian Alexandria Richie wrote, Harden "broke on of the most sacred taboos in imperial Germany."

Kaiser Wilhelm sought to insulate himself from the emerging scandal by distancing himself from his loyal friend Eulenburg and dismissing Moltke.  But neigher man was prepared to slink away with his reputation so thoroughly shredded.  What resulted was a flurry of libel suits, filled with salacious details, that sent the press into an unprecedented feeding frenzy.

"German newspapers were full of the story," wrote historian James Steakley, "and it dominated their headlines for months; an anti-homosexual witch-hunt of unparalleled proportions was unleashed.  Nealy every high government official and military officer was suspected or accused of homosexuality."  A number committed suicide in the face of such shame; Wilhelm II suffered a nervous breakdown.

"It has been a very difficult year which has caused me an infinite amount of worry,"  the kaiser wrote in December 1907.  "A trusted group fo friends was suddenly broken up through ... insolence, slander and lying.  To see the names of one's friends dragged through the gutters of Europe without being able or entitled to help is terrible."

The, just as the scandal seemed to be simmering down, Dietrich Graf von Hulsen-Haeseler performed his fatal piouette.  Worse, rigor mortis set in before he could easily be extricated from his tutu.

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On this day in 1940, 500 German bombers pound the English city of Coventry.  The raids killed over 1,000 civilians and destroyed most of the medieval cathedral.  This raid followed Adolf Hitler's public promise that an attack on the capital of the Nazi movement would not go unpunished.  Historians surmise that Prime Minister Winston Churchill had advance knowledge of the raids and chose not to inform city officials.  This seemingly barbaric decision was an act of tactical genius.  Had Churchill informed officials, partial evacuation of the city would have been ordered.  German pilots would have noticed and reported back to Hitler.  This would surely have revealed Ultra, Great Britains' top-secret system for decoding German communications.

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On this day in 1945, Tony Hulman buys the dilapidated, disused Indianapolis Motor Speedway from Edward Rickenbacher.  Renovations allowed the post-war resumption of the famous 500-mile races. 

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In ancient times, the Feast of the Musicians, a Druidic festival dedicated to barbs and musicians, took place on this date.  It's celebrated today by some neo-pagans with offerings to the Celtic gods of music.  It is customary to gather around a bonfire for an evening of songs and storytelling, ending with everyone tossing a wish into the flames.

December 13: a St Lucy's Day Greeting

 

So it is December 13, the real day that begins the Christmas season to me.  In Sweden they celebrate Saint Lucia's Day (St. Lucy's Day). 

St. Lucy's Day is a festival observed throughout Sweden in which the first-born daughter of each family wears a flowing white gown and a crown of candles around her head, obviously in reference to the ancient Pagan symbols of fire and life-giving light.  The daughter traditionally serves her mother and father breakfast in bed.

So the story goes something like this: around the year 283 when Christianity was starting to catch on and replace the earth religions,  a Christian virgin named Lucy was offered to a Pagan for marriage by her dying mother, but, before the God-forsaken Pagan could get his dirty hands on Lucy, Saint Agatha appeared to her in a dream and told her that her mom would be heeled and that she didn't have to marry the mean old Pagan, and could remain a devout virgin the rest of her life!  When her Pagan suitor heard of this, he demanded she denounce her beliefs or be sold into prostitution.  She refused and the shit hit the fan: a soldier stabbed her in the neck with his sword to stop her from talking bad about the Pagan Gods, but Lucy survived and kept on stating her love for the Pope.  This infuriated the soldiers and so another stabbed her in the eyes which bled like crazy before miraculously healing.  In other words, the bitch just wouldn't die, that is, until a priest came along and read her the Last Rites.   Then all was well, so the story goes.  

Another story says St. Lucy hid in the catacombs of the city attending to injured Christians with candles on her head.  

The truth of the matter is that around the year 283, when the Christian Calendar was being used by some while most of the world was still on a lunar calendar, December 13 was the on the winter solstice and so it was the shortest day of the year and everyone outside had candles on their heads.  And Lucy, well, an inscription in Syracuse dedicated to Euskia mentions St Lucy's Day as a local feast that dates back to the 4th century A.D., which states that "Euskia, irreproachable, lived a good and pure life for about 25 years, and died on my Saint Lucy's feast day, she for whom I cannot find appropriate words of praise: she was a Christian, faithful, perfection itself, full of thankfulness and gratitude"

 

So, the celebration was going on before Lucy came along, but, in a time when living to thirty was considered a long time, she lived a good life for twenty-five years, apparently, a rare thing back then.  In other words she was a good woman and should be remembered as such.  So, put those candles on your head in honor of her and pray to whom ever you want, winter is here!

 

Live, love, and prosper.  And to all, a good night.

 

~~ Eso Terry