Kaiser in a Tutu and 500 Germans.

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.

Happy Science Day

 Brazilian physician Drauzio Varella calculated that the world invests five times as much in male sex stimulants and female silicone implants as in finding a cure for Alzheimer's.

"In a few years," he prophesied, "we will have old women with huge tits and old men with stiff cocks, but none of them will remember what they are for."
Galeano, Eduardo "Children of the Days" pg 344

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 In olden times, the pagan festival of Nincnevin, or Old November Eve (later Martinmas Eve), was celebrated throughout the Scottish countryside on this date.  It honored an aspect of the goddess Diana with feasts and prayers.  It was thought that the goddess made herself visible to mortals and rode through the air during the night hours. 

 Scientific journals are not usually known for their general interest reporting ("Reproductive Sequences of the Sumatran Sand Flea"...Anyone?)  But Deinsea, the journal of the Rotterdam Natural History Museum, took esoteric to a whole new (and, some migh say, disturbing) level on November 9, 2001, when it subjected readers to the published article "The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae))."

C. W. Meliker, a scientist at the museum, related in the piece how six years earlier he had witnessed a dead male mallard duck -- referred to clinically throughout as "NMR 9997-00232" -- being repeatedly raped by another male mallard, "with great force."  The unfortunate NMR 9997-00232 had apparently crashed into one of the museum's reflective windows and dropped dead as a result.  Within moments, his companion swooped on top of the corpse and did his business.

"Rather startled." Moeliker wrote, "I watched this scene from close quarters behind the windon until 19.10h during which time (75 minutes!) I made some photographs and the mallard almost continuously copulated his dead congener.  He dismounted only twice, stayed near the ded duck and picked the neck and the side of the head before mounting again.  The first break (at 18.29 h) lasted three minutes and the second break (at 18.45) lasted less than a minute."

Duck soup anyone?

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November 9th is scared to Helena, deified wife of the Roman Emperor Julian II, know as "The Apostate" to Christians and "The Blessed" to pagans.  Today's Feast of the Four Crowned Martyrs is held in great regard by Freemansons.  In Thailand, this day is Loy Krathog, a wish-magic festival when people launch their little boats along with a wish.

Moctezuma's Revenge and the Islamic State.

In the year 1519 messengers reported to the Aztec king Moctezuma that several strange beings were on their way to Tenochtitlan.  They split thunder and had metal breasts, hairy faces and six-legged bodies.

Four days later the monarch welcomed them.

Quetzalcoatl had departed in ancient times, and Moctezuma believed that Hernan Cortes was the god returning.  He said to him, "You have come home."

Well, turns out Cortes wasn't one of the returning Space Aliens who had created Moctezuma's people, but was indeed just a greedy, conquering, Spaniard, who would take all of their gold and eventually burn all their books in the name of Christianity.

And for this, Moctezuma would be stoned to death by his people.


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On this day in 1979, the 444-day Iran hostage crisis began when Shiite Muslim militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran.   The Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the release of all women and Afican-Amercan captives as well as the release of thirteen other hostages within a few weeks.   But for the fity-two remaining hostages, this was the beginning of the 444-day ordeal.


Just how powerful was this revolution?  Well, the emergence of Hezbollah in Lebanon came from this, the moral boost provided to Shia forces in Iraq, the regional cold war against Saudi Arabia and Israel, lending an Islamic flavor to the anti-imperialist, anti-American sentiment in the Middle East, and inadvertently widening the Sunni-Shia cleavage, are for me the most important by-products of the Iranian revolution," said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, professor of political science at Syracuse University, when asked for the top five geopolitical events set off by the Iranian revolution.

And to think, before this revolution Tehran was considered the Paris of the Middle East, now, just another radicalized Islamic state.

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Every year in medieval England, a festival was held on this date (the Eve of Guy Fawkes Night) to propitiate the spirit of the Lord of Death.  Remnants of this observance can still be seen in the mischievous pranks and bonfires associated with Mischief Night, which is still being celebrated in some parts of modern-day England.

Greedy Inventor Killed Your Great Grandparents and probably stunted your growth.

New York City went bankrupt on this day in 1975.  The city defaulted on $2 billion in bond obligations.   Fortunately, the federal government loaned the city the funds to pay its commitments and reorganize its financial affairs.   A $2 billion loan without collateral would never happen.   What kind of deal with the devil did the city make to retain its dignity?   Is it any wonder a inside job like 9-11 would eventually happen there?   A wicked lie that would take years to devise.


Now here's an example of corporate greed that probably shortened the life to most of our city dwelling great-grandparents: Thomas Midgley was the engineer who on this day in 1924 mislead the world in believing his lead additive to gasoline to stop engines from knocking, was completely safe to breath.  At the time it was a well known fact that lead refinery workers were dying from the neurotoxins they were working with.   This fact simply didn't mean shit to Midgley, and instead of bypassing his fortunes in royalties from the sale of this additive to Standard Oil, Midgley divised a perfect scheme to sell his product to the public:  Standing before a group of reporters at Standard Oil's headquarters in New York City, the scientist proceeded to pour a clear, thick liquid infused with lead over his arms.  The, after drying himself, he inhaled deeply from a jar of the same liquid for a minute -- proof, he declared, that there was no danger associated with limited exposure to diluted lead, and that the dead and dying refinery workers had obviously not followed basic safety precautions.

What Midgley neglected to mention was that just a year earlier, he had become gravely ill himself from lead poisoning and had to take six weeks off work as a result.  And a few months after the press conference, Midgley was sick again with lead poisoning.  But the irrepressible scientist returned better than ever, with a brand-new chemical refrigerant he had discovered:  chlorofluorcarbons, those pesky little ozone chewers better known as CFC's.

What a guy!

Another day in paradise, Chemtrails, stock crash, and corporate greed.

If you believe in Chemtrails, and why wouldn't you, then today is a very historic date in this covert New World Order activity because on October 29th, 1947, The General Electric Company successfully seeded clouds with dry ice, producing rain in Concord, New Hampshire.  Do you really believe it ended there?   COME ON PEOPLE WAKE UP!

Also on this date in 1998 Astronaut John Glenn joined the space shuttle Discovery crew, participating in a scientific study of the aging process... now that probably did stop there.

Other interest of October 29th, is that in 1929 it was considered Black Tuesday after the second day of massive losses in the USA stock markets which is only of interest because ten months earlier -- while the 1920's were still roaring -- The Washington Post polled a group of financial leaders and asked them for their predictions for the year ahead.   Their opinions were so glowingly positive that the newspaper featured them on the front page, under the banner headline "GOOD TIMES ARE PREDICTED FOR 1929."

Finally, in his book "Children of the Days," Eduardo Galeano writes that in 1981 on this day, General Augusto Pinochet gave away the rivers, lakes and subterranean waters of Chile for a few coins.  Several mining companies, like Xstrata of Swhtzerland, and power companies, like Endesa of Spain and AES Gener of the United States, became owners in perpetuity of the country's mightiest rivers.  Endesa received a watershed the size of Belgium.

Farmers and indigenous communities lost their rights to water and were obliged to buy it.   Ever since, the desert grows ever larger, devouring fertile lands and emptying the countryside of people.

Yes, another day in paradise.  

Yale lock

In 1843 Linus Yale, inspired by something the Egyptians invented four thousand years before, patented the most invulnerable lock ever make.


Yale went on to secure the doors and gates of nearly every country, and became the greatest defender of property rights in the world.

These days, cities ill with fright are nothing but gigantic locks.

Few hands hold the keys.
"Children of the Days, pg320"

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October the 20th is the feast day of Roman Catholic Saint Paul of the Cross.  In his youth, his family planned for him to become a merchant, but Paul was granted a vision.  While still a young layperson, Paul founded the Barefoot Clerks of the Cross and the Passion.  At one point, all the brothers deserted him, but his order eventually received Pope Benedict's approval.   

Lindbergh, Trump Supporter

On October 19, 1938, Charles Lindbergh, the world-renowned aviator accepted, "by order of the Führer," Hermann Göring's, the Service cross of the German Eagle at the 1938 Berlin Olympics.  This medal was giving to him for his historic flight across the Atlantic ocean in 1927.   Pure propaganda which Lindberg never apologized for, nor would he return the medal even after the Nazis atrocities were openly reported by the world.


Is there any doubt that in today's America, Lindbergh would be a Trump supporter(?)

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On this day in Tokyo, Japan, an annual fair called Bettara-Ichi, or Sticky-Sticky Fair, is held near the sacred shrine of the god Ebisu.  The children carry sticky pickled radishes tied to straw ropes through the streets in the hope of chasing away evil spirits and receiving the blessings of the seven Shinto gods of luck and good fortune.  

Oct 12, 1492

Christopher Columbus received the warmest of welcomes when he first arrived in the New World that he immediately claimed it for Spain on October 12, 1492.  The native people of that Bahamian island were so excited to see him that they swam out to his ship to offer greetings.  The explore, in turn, was much impressed by their gentle hospitality:


"They...brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells.  They willingly traded everything they owned... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance.  They have no iron.  Their spears are made of cane."

Columbus also saw the vast potential in the natives he met that fateful day:  "They would make fine servants...  With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

And so he did.  

Meanwhile, back in Rome, this day was sacred to Fortuna Redux, the goddess of successful journeys and safe returns.

Hmmm....

Swaggart

It was sixteen years ago on this date that the most Hypocritical preacher since one of those child-molesting Popes -- pick one -- Jimmy Swaggart resigned from his TV Ministry for having sinned by sleeping with a prostitute... repeatedly.   What is really bizarre, but not that surprising to us who have witnessed the hypocrisy of Christians who look down at others for sins they don't do, while making their sins of greed, glut-ency, and racism popular by covering it in "God Wants You To Be Successful at any cost just as he wants homeless people to get a job -- paraphrased."

Speaking of religion, every year on this date, Witches in the countries of Denmark and Germany honor the Old Lady of the Elder Trees, an ancient spirit who dwells within and watches over each and every tree of the elder family.  Before cutting any branches to use as magic wands, a libation of elderberry wine is poured onto the tree's roots and a special prayer is recited to Jimmy Swaggart.

So, David Meade, a numerologist, is predicting the end-of-the-world this Saturday (Sept 23, 2017). 

He is doing this based on the Bible's Book of Revelations, specifically Revelation 12:1–2, which reads:

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.

Meade interprets this passage as referring to the constellation of Virgo, which is often depicted as a woman. Currently, Virgo advances through the sky ahead of the moon, and with the sun. Ahead of the constellation are the nine stars of Leo, along with the planets Mercury, Mars, and Venus. Meade believes these stars and planets are the "crown of twelve stars" in the prophecy.

Fortunately for us, he did back step by saying: "The world is not ending, but the world as we know it is ending" on September 23. "A major part of the world will not be the same the beginning of October."

 I'll get back with you on Sunday to see if the guy was right or wrong. 

From the heart of Madame Blavatsky

It was a day not unlike today that they took Madame Blavatsky away.  Russian born, she was a mystic.  From 1848 to 1858, she traveled the world without a man.  She entered Tibet to study with the Masters for two years, and in 1871 she went to Cairo where she founded the Society Spirit for occult phenomena along with Emma Cutting (later Emma Coulomb).  In 1879 Madame Blavatsky emigrated to New York where she impressed all with her psychic feats.  She was no one-trick pony, she did it all:  mediumship, levitation, out-of-body projection, telepathy, clairvoyance,  and clairsentience.

Her first book, Isis Unveiled, appeared in 1877.  In the preface she stated that the book was "a plea for the recognition of the Hermetic Philosophy, the ancient universal wisdom."  And no doubt it was, for the Hermetic Society which still exist today, began with her book.

Just google Madame Blavatsky and you'll find pages and pages of opinions, good and bad.  In his book, "The Spear of Destiny," Trevor Ravenscroft writes that the Madame was used by the Alister Crowley's "Golden Dawn" group along with soon-to-be Nazis party leaders to raise demons out of her...  well...  private part.   I don't know about that, but I do know she was a great woman in a time where woman weren't allowed to vote or have organisms, and so if she did materialize something good or evil out of her vagina, more power to her.  

Happy White Lotus Day!

Guinevere

In Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King, King Arthur's court is faux medieval and high Victorian at the same time.  Any work of Victoria's poet laureate couldn't be anything else.  But what do we know about a historical King Arthur?  There are dozens of books about Arthur and his court.  Was Arthur a sixth-century Romano-Celtic chieftain?  In 1191, monks discovered the bones of Arthur and Guinevere in a ruined abbey on Glastonbury Tor.  They took them to King Henry II, but the bones have long since disappeared.  Were they genuine?  Was the Arthurian court pagan, christian, or both?  does it matter?

Was there a real Guinevere?  It is possible that she is a Welsh triple goddess, for variants on the Arthurian legend say he married three women, all named Guinever.  The ancient tradition says that the king must "marry" the land.  If he is happy and well, so are the land and the people, if he is wounded, so are they.  This is vividly shown in John Boorman's chessy but fascinating film, Excalibur.

Early in Lerner and Lowe's musical Camelot, Guinevere sings "The Merry Month of May" and invites several knights to ride with her.  Then she meets Lancelot.  What do people always remember about guinevere?  She betrays Arthur, whom she loves, by sleeping with Lancelot.  Like other Celtic goddesses (Maeve and Blodewedd), Guinevere can make a king through sacred marriage and unmake him by choosing a new hero.
 (Ardinger.B, "Pagan Every Day" pg 123)