Atlantis, Plato, Today.

 

In case you missed the news, the lost continent of Atlantis has been found.  

Plato wasn't bullshitting when he spoke of the land called Atlantis, where a mighty empire vanished beneath the waves after a series of “excessively violent earthquakes and floods.” 

Douwe van Hinsbergen, a geologist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, has been exploring one of the most dramatic of these lost continents — known as Greater Adria. In a paper published in September 2019, in the journal Gondwana Research, he and his colleagues studied rocks around and beneath the Mediterranean Sea to reveal the full extent of Greater Adria for the first time. “It’s enormous! About the size and rough shape as Greenland,” he says.

If you don’t recall seeing Greater Adria on a map, there’s a reason for that. It is completely buried — not under the ocean, but beneath southern Europe. About 140 million years ago, the two continents began to collide. Greater Adria got bulldozed and buried in the process and mostly sank beneath what is now Italy, Greece and the Baltics.

 So pull out your crystals boys and girls, because from Plato to Edgar Casey to Isaac Asimov people have been telling us about the lost city of Atlantis, where everyone was rich and took care of each other.  Funny, how the finding of this continent comes at a time when "Climate Change," "Over Population," and "Greed" have given us a distressed world where people are killing people for fame and "hate-thy-neighbor" is on the tongue of most nations.

So, what am I saying here?  

Simple:  change is a coming, a good, happy, New Atlantis... which includes medical care for all and free education.  Okay, so you 1%ers will have to downsize your five-thousand square feet homes down to something more manageable like, say a forty-five-thousand square foot bungalow.  I mean, how many rooms does your kid's hamster need?

The Tale

According to the Egyptians, or rather what Plato described Critias reporting what his grandfather was told by Solon who heard it from the Egyptians, once upon a time, there was a mighty power based on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. This empire was called Atlantis, and it ruled over several other islands and parts of the continents of Africa and Europe.

Atlantis was arranged in concentric rings of alternating water and land. The soil was rich, said Critias, the engineers technically accomplished, the architecture extravagant with baths, harbor installations, and barracks. The central plain outside the city had canals and a magnificent irrigation system. Atlantis had kings and a civil administration, as well as an organized military. Their rituals matched Athens for bull-baiting, sacrifice, and prayer.

But then it waged an unprovoked imperialistic war on the remainder of Asia and Europe. When Atlantis attacked, Athens showed its excellence as the leader of the Greeks, the much smaller city-state the only power to stand against Atlantis. Alone, Athens triumphed over the invading Atlantean forces, defeating the enemy, preventing the free from being enslaved, and freeing those who had been enslaved.

After the battle, there were violent earthquakes and floods, and Atlantis sank into the sea, and all the Athenian warriors were swallowed up by the earth.

 

So there you have it boys and girls, sounds a little like the Russian/Ukraine war going on right now.  I guess Plato was right when he said, "Only the dead have seen the end of war." 

 

~~ Dr TV Boogie

An 1882 Look At The 21st Century's Short Attention Span

I am going to ask you to put down your 21st Century Attention Span -- which research says is now less than that of a "goldfish" -- and read the following article written in 1883 by Annie Besant in her "Our Corner" publication.  I'll give you the esoteric significance afterwards. 

Peeps through a Microscope

It is startling to think how the universe has increased in size for us during the last 200 years. When Galileo roamed, a boy, through Florentine streets, his “large eyes full of speculation” gazed questioning at sky and earth, at stars that were mere far-off lamps hanging from the firmament, at the surface of land and water. He dreamed not of the realms of space, world-peopled, rolling around him, of the realms of minutest beauty in the air he breathed, in the earth he trod on, in the water that sparkled before his eyes. When Galileo died, his telescope had swept the boundary of the visible out of sight backwards into space, his microscope had lifted the veil that hid from man daintiness of beauty more exquisite than fancy had ever given to fay or elf. The old man dying, blind from long work or from Inquisition torture—darkness hangs over the cause of this pathetic blindness of the star-gazer—left to the world new eyes wherewith to see. 

This “world of the minute” made visible to us by the microscope is one of the most fascinating foreign countries into which it is possible to travel. And it has this great advantage over more commonplace lands, that you can journey all over it with very little expense, and without moving away from your favorite chair in your study. Besides, if you meet any very pleasant acquaintances among the natives of the land, you need not part with them, but can just put them by in a box, and renew your conversation with them whenever you please. Every study corner should have a microscope set on a steady table—a small table with thick legs is the best—in a good light. The first cost would be amply repaid by the good temper, bright interest, pure recreation that would flow perennially from that corner, and many a healthy walk would be taken to find “specimens” for evening work.  

Let me introduce to you, readers mine, some of the curious folk who live in this foreign land. And, as some of the wiser will try to see for themselves, instead of through my eyes, I will let you into the secret of how to find your way there for yourselves. 

The first thing we will peep at may be found in water. Put a few flowers in a glass of water, and leave them there till the water is discolored—discolored sounds better, more scientific, than dirty; take a clean slip of glass (a “slide”), and put on it a drop of the greenish water; take a “cover-glass” in your left hand, a needle in your right; rest the edge of the cover-glass against the edge of the drop and support the free side on the needle, and then let the cover-glass gently down, so that you get the water spread out evenly, and no air-bubbles in it. Now place the slide on the stage of the microscope and take a peep. 

The first inhabitant to which I introduce you often passes so swiftly across the field of the microscope that, as you realize his presence, he has disappeared. A will-o’-the-wisp of a thing, most aggravating to the novice, who sees a whirlwind, with a darkish space in the middle, shoot across and vanish. If we look for a little clump of vegetable matter, however, we shall probably find some of our friends busy there, moving in and out, round and round it, and so we can get a better view of them. If still they are too active, we can put a drop of tincture of iodine on one side of the cover-glass, and a little bit of blotting-paper on the other side, so as to draw the iodine under the glass, and as the brown fluid touches our lively friends all movement will cease, and you will see something like Fig. 1. 

This granular fringed object is one of the living things that hover on the limits of the animal and vegetable worlds, and is a member of a very large class, the INFUSORIA, so named because they are found in infusions of vegetable matter. The animal consists of a single cell, a wall enclosing semi-fluid contents. The wall, or ectosarc, is a thin delicate cuticle, and from this grows out the fringe of hairs, or cilia, to the continual motion of which is due the whirlwind noted above. The cilia sweep the animal along, and they also make currents which catch up all the little particles of matter suspended in the water round them, and drive these up towards the mouth, a. The semi-fluid contents are the endosarc, finely granular protoplasm, and in this at d is the nucleus, or endoplast, of more aggregated protoplasm, within which again is a small nucleus, the nucleolus or endoplastule. As the food is driven into the mouth and passes down the gullet it gets rolled into little balls, c, and these, each one surrounded by water, are 

in turn suddenly pushed into the endosarc, and travel slowly through it along a definite path, the innutritive part being finally ejected through the cuticle. At b is a remarkably interesting organ, the contractile vesicle, a structure probably respiratory in function, and allied to the complex water-vascular system of higher animals. As we watch this open space we see it suddenly contract and disappear, and then it again slowly opens, and again suddenly contracts, this rhythmical movement being constant. At its full expansion only the cuticle intervenes between it and the water, and as it contracts delicate radiating canals are seen to go off from it and to be charged with liquid. Thus the contractile vesicle acts like a water-lung, the water, carrying oxygen in solution, passing in through the cuticle....

Okay, gentle readers, I'll end the article here since it's definitely too wordy for our 21 Century Attention Span, and if you stuck it out this far, you must be itching to check you iPhone -- I am! You can read the full 1883 article written by Annie Besant on Archive.org, conversely, I will tell you that she goes on in her article to show reproducing cells, or "Vorticella" cells and its "pranks" under the microscope -- how exciting.

So what is esoteric about this?  A few things: First, this 1882 article shows how far we've sunk in our brains, and with our shortening attention spans, there can be little doubt that in another hundred years we will be nothing more than mindless bodies being fed information from a storage devise.  Secondly, with the thousands of exoplanets being found daily in a Goldilocks Zone with water and plant life, how can anyone think there is not other life out there, life far more advanced than ours in the 13.787 billion years the universe has been developing.  Are we not but spiraling fission between earth and heaven on a slide of class under another dimension's microscope? Obviously we are!!! 

I'll now return you to your iPhone and google maps.  Enjoy your day!

~~ Dr TV Boogie

 

My Madame Blavatsky Labor Day Story

In the late 1800s, many Americans toiled 12 hours a day, seven days a week, often in physically demanding, low-paying jobs. Children worked too, on farms and in factories and mines. Conditions were often harsh and unsafe.

It was in this context that American workers held the first Labor Day parade, marching from New York’s City Hall to a giant picnic at an uptown park on Sept. 5, 1882.

The America Labor movement had begun and over the next century we would see a minimum wage, 40 hour work week, child protection laws, etc...

Personally, I celebrate Labor Day by relaxing and hiding from the world.  It's MY day.  I do this for my grandmother, who in her early twenties, back in 1922, had the misfortune of working in a Detroit auto-factory where one of the giant presses skipped a beat and took three fingers off her right hand.  A hand you wouldn't see because she kept it hid behind her purse, or wore gloves whenever possible.  

I can't imagine the pain she must have felt that day as they took her away screaming with a greasy rag over her hand.  She didn't speak much about the accident, but she did speak about the employer who gave her a one-week's pay before letting her go because she no longer had two good hands.  That was all she got.  She would join in labor strikes after that, showing off her hand as a reason to fight for justice from greedy employers who choose profits over worker's safety.

Why am I writing about Labor on an Esoteric blog?  Truth is, the Esoterics have always been for workers.

For example, the argument that, Pythagoras and his students were for the workers of the day can be made by his philosophy that the basic property of numbers was expressed in the harmonious interplay of opposite pairs, and that, harmony assured the balance of opposite forces.  This obviously means there must be a balance between the workers and the profiteers.

Freemasons like Uriah Stephens who created a "brotherhood" to bring together every laborer, mechanic, and artisan who desired professional improvement, was founded in 1869, and was inspired by the ritual and lessons he himself had learned as a Mason in his Philadelphia Lodge. 

Probably the greatest testament to esoterist involvement in Worker's Rights is none other than Madame Blavatsky.  That's right, the woman who gave us the Secret Doctrines which is the foundation for most esoteric studies today, was also a supporter of worker's rights. 

Annie Besant was a Theosophist who studied under Blavatsky during the last years of Blavatsky's life.  In her biography, Besant gives a written documentation of Madame Blavatsky's support of the early labor movement in England.  Besant writes, "Thus was ushered in 1889, the to me never-to-be-forgotten year in which I found my way 'Home,' and had the priceless good fortune of meeting, and of becoming the pupil of, H.P. Blavatsky." 

Besant goes on to explain her personal growth in Spiritualism from her studies with Blavatsky, but also tells of her involvement in fighting for the working class people, more precisely, the "Female Labor" called the Matchmaker Girls, which Besant called "White Slavery" in an article in which she points out: "A typical case is that of a girl of sixteen, a piece-worker; she earns 4s(English Shillings) a week... out of the earnings 2s. a week is paid for the rent of one room.  The child lives only on bread and butter and tea, alike for breakfast and dinner...." 

Besant's article title "White Slavery" got the girls fired and Besant sued for libel.  The factory owner won the law suit by paying the workers to lie, and painting Besant as an evil atheist -- worked everytime in 1882.  Without jobs the workers were thrown out on the streets and Besant trashed in the newspapers.  Still, Besant wanted to give the woman a home filled with "comradeship, and self-respecting freedom."  This is where H.P. Blavatsky steps in. 

Besant writes in her autobiography: "On August 15th it (the women's home) was opened by Madame Blavatsky, and dedicated by her to the brightening of the lot of hardworking and underpaid girls...Very tender was H.P.B.'s heart to human suffering, especially to that of women and children.  She was very poor towards the end of her earthly life, having spent all on her mission, and refusing to take time from her Theosophical work to write for the Russian papers which were ready to pay highly for her pen.  But her slender purse was swiftly emptied when any human pain that money could relieve came in her way.  One day I wrote a letter to a comrade that was shown to her, about some little children to whom I had carried a quantity of country flowers, and I had spoken of their faces pinched with want.  The following note came to me:

    My Dearest Friend, I have read your letter...and my heart is sick for the poor little ones! Look here; I have but 30s. of my own money of which I can dispose (for as you know I am a pauper, and proud of it), but I want you to take them and not say a word.  This may buy thirty dinners for thirty poor little starving wretches, and I may feel happier for thirty minutes at the thought.  Now don't say a word, and do it: take them to those unfortunate babies who loved your flowers and felt happy.  Forgive your old uncouth friend, useless in this world!

                                                                             Ever yours, 

 

                                                                                       H.P.B

 

That's my Madame Blavatsky Labor Day story.  On an interesting note, I will leave you with this passage written by Annie Besant about her work in 1882.  It was written over a hundred and forty years ago, but seems like something written today.  

     This branch of our work led to a big fight -- a fight most happy in its results.  At a meeting of the Fabian Society, Miss Clementina Black gave a capital lecture on Female Labor, and urged the formation of a Consumers' League, a pledged only to buy from shops certificated 'clean' from unfair wage....

~~ Eso Terry 

Jimmy Buffett's Power of Suggestion, and Death Took a Break in 1752, I Have the Proof!

It's Labor Day Weekend, and well, another example of the Power of Suggestion. 

I have written about this before, how people have said things lightly which ended up being premonitions of their deaths.  Sports players, airplane pilots, famous writers, etc., have all done it publicly.  In college I got accepted in a Nondisciplinary Graduate program at the University of Texas, my study was titled: The Power of Suggestion In Song.  I wrote about how the popular Southern Rock band, Lynyrd Skynyrd's, airplane crashed killing the lead singer shortly after the release of an album with them burning in flames on the cover, and one of the songs was titled: "The Smell of Death."  The band was on their way to the opening show in Dallas when their plane went down.  The album cover was changed to not show the men burning in flames. 

Flames Cover Removed after Death.

A similar thing happened to John Lennon in 1980.  He had just released an album with a song called, "I Had to Let it Go."  In the song he said he was, "No longer riding on the merry-go-round, I just had to let it go...." The song became a rock-station hit while they were burying John. 

And now, for this Labor Day Weekend, I read this morning that Jimmy Buffett, the Margaritaville singer with a religious following of Parrot Heads, died just in time for his Labor Day Weekend.  I didn't think much of it until I found myself singing one of his songs while I was making my breakfast tea:

Headin' out to San Francisco
For the Labor Day weekend show
I got my Hush Puppies on
I guess I never was meant for glitter rock 'n' roll
And honey, I didn't know that I'd be missin' you so

 

The song is titled: Come Monday.  And yes, a coinkydink at the very least, but he has, "Headed out for the Labor Day Weekend," as the song says, and of course, he now knows that he is "...missin'" her so.  Now if that's not Esoteric I don't know what is?

 

The other Esoteric thing I want to mention today is that on September 2nd of 1752, England and its American colonies switched to the Julian calendar, dropping the Gregorian calendar.  To do this, eleven days disappeared and so they went from September 2nd of 1752 to September 14th, and simply skipped the eleven days in-between.  So, in all reality, Death took a vacation in England and the American colonies from September 3rd to September 13th of 1752.  That's right, no one died in England or its colonies between September 3rd and the 13th of 1752.  Google it!

~~ Eso Terry

September Is Here! Esoterically Speaking that is.

September, for the uninitiated, it is a time to conclude the rites of summer with a long Labor Day weekend, that weekend, originally intended to be a salute to the working people and their struggles for fair work week with time off, now, nothing more than a celebration of the end of the vacation season, signaling that it's time to go back to work.  It's also a warning to children that it's time to hit the books for summer is over and school is back.

For those of us with eyes to see who see, September is the ninth month of the year, the first month of Autumn, and it derives its name from septem, the Latin word meaning "seven," as September was the seventh month of the old Roman calendar. 

The traditional birthstone of September, is the blue sapphire, to which the pagans of old incanted:

A maiden born when rustling leaves

Are blowing in the September breeze,

A Sapphire on her brow should bind,

'Twill cure diseases of the mind.

Oh, the good old days. 

September is shared by the astrological signs of Virgo the Virgin and Libra the Scales (or Balance).  Before the Virgo sign's symbol of a virgin was co-opted by the patriarchy, the figure representing Virgo was simply an unmarried woman who chose to live by her own laws and to never, ever give it away for free.  To embrace the sign's motto, 'I serve', we must first and foremost serve with determination at the altar of the self.  As the sign that arrives just before the zodiac's midway point, Virgo marks the last moment we have solely to ourselves before we step into the wider collaborative communion of the final six signs. 

September is sacred to the following Pagan deities: Persephone, Thor, and the Wiccan Goddess in Her aspect of the Mother. The Celtic tree-calendar month of Coll ends on September 1, and from September 2 until the September 29, it is the vine month of Muin, sacred to the god Lugh (Loou-ggh).

During the month of September, the Great Solar Wheel of the Year is turned to the Autumn Equinox, one of the four Lesser Sabbats celebrated each year by Wiccans and modern Witches throughout the world. 

Being the ninth month of the year, September is represented by the 9th card of the Major Arcana, The Hermit.  The Hermit is usually depicted walking with a lantern and a stick; he represents meditation, isolation and quietude.  The card also signifies crystalized wisdom and practiced discipline.  The Hermit is a taskmaster who motivates conscience and guides others on their path.  The perfect card to get things ready for the coming chills of Winter, the death of and resurrection of the Sun, the all enchanting moon goddess and her mesmerizing rights. 

Hex 12

According to Carol Anthony's book, The Philosophy of the I Ching, "the hexagram representing the ninth month is called Standstill (Hex. 12).  Here three Yin lines have advanced into the hexagram from the bottom.  Visually, this hexagram represents the mid-point between the summer and winter solstices.  Heaven is above, drawing farther and farther away, while the earth below sinks farther into the depths of winter.  "The flowing and ebbing of the earth's energies was a primary theme in early matriarchal societies.  Accordingly, the hexagrams representing the last six months of the year give counsel that accords with the time, i.e., retreat, conserve, and store up supplies to prepare for the coming time of decrease (winter)."

In Bess Matassa's book, Cosmic Year, the astrology of September asks us to kneel at our inner altars, anointing ourselves in the signature of scents of self-understanding so that we can bring our unique mystique to the world.  She goes on to  say, "Wed to witchery of the sixth sign of Virgo, this month is for letting our constituent parts come into clarity, as we take an inventory of our assets and mine our own mineral make-up for magic."

Finally, the number 9 is considered a symbol of spiritual enlightenment and completion.  It is often associated with a higher consciousness, selflessness, and compassion.  So, those of you on the path of true enlightenment, the Bodhisattvas of the earth in service to others, relax, enjoy a cup of hot chocolate, trace a leaf with your souls pen, in your spiritual journal, begin that masterpiece the universe is calling you to produce, get ready for cooler days, longer nights, the Autumn reunites, the stars are bright, it's September! Enjoy! 

~~ Eso Terry 

 

August 28, and the Echos of MLK's "I Have a Dream."

Martin Luther King

On this day in 1963, Martin Luther King (MLK) gave his electrifying "I Have a Dream" speech.  Those with him that day who had seen the written speech, will tell you that the "I Have a Dream" part was not in the written speech they had seen, and that it came out of the heart of MLK, or as we like to say here on EsotericDaily.com, the Mystic Universe.  

What we don't often remember about MLK's words that day, along with the other speakers, are the words about police brutality, lynching, intimidation, beatings, and murders underpinning the American form of apartheid known as "Jim Crow," and which were not limited to the Deep South.  Case in point: as MLK was delivering his speech, two women in their early twenties were stabbed to death in their Manhattan apartment.  Seven months later, George Whitmore Jr. of Wildwood, New Jersey, an African-American drifter with a limited IQ, was picked out of a photo lineup by an assault victim.  It turned out to be a misidentification, but before the case was solved, Brooklyn police beat Whitmore, interrogated him for hours, and finally extracted a false confession to the killings.  The defendant immediately recanted, but he was convicted and put on Death row.  

Eventually, the facts were sorted out, and the real killer imprisoned.  Whitmore was found innocent based on a dozen witnesses who remembered seeing him in New Jersey on the day in question because it was the date of Martin Luther King's speech.  It was all anybody in their circle was talking about that day, because it was a dream they all shared, and still do.  

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today....)

King Cetshwayo

Coincidentally enough, on this day in 1879, King Cetshwayo, the last great ruler of Zululand in South Africa was captured by the British army; subsequently, this would result in England taking countless numbers of artifacts still in the British museum as spoils of the war, not to mention creating wealth for generations to come in mineral rights sent abroad.   

Tiger Woods at 18

On a pleasant note, on this day in 1994, the universal mystic law would have Tiger Woods, at the age of 18, becoming the youngest winner in the history of the U.S. Amateur Golf Championship, which opened golf up to those of us who had seen it as an old white-man's sport.  

~~ Eso Terry 

August 24 the Biggest Sick Day in the USA!

In a study by Flamingo, a firm which helps companies manage employee absences and medical leaves, August 24th is the day most American workers call in sick. And why would this be?  Hmmmm?...

Historically, Hawaii became an official state this day in 1959 and subsequently, Daniel K. Inouye was the first Japanese-American congressman to the U.S. House of Representatives, and Hiram L. Font of Hawaii became the first Chinese-American U.S. senator to the U.S. Senate.  Now, there’s a good reason for a sick day on August 24th from a long night of celebrating.  

On this day in 79 CE, Mount Versuvius erupted in Italy leaving us the Pompeii ruins of people frozen in time trying to escape death.  This reminder of how quickly life can end is another good reason to skip work for a day of leisure at the company’s expense. 

 The craziest August 24th fact of all is a personal one for me, you see, on August 24th in 1930, it was announced that the recently discovered Planet X, the 9th planet in our solar system which had been named Pluto after the Roman god of the underworld, was not a massive Jupiter size planet as promised, but in all actuality, a “dwarf planet.” Which was okay, because it remained the ruling planet of those born under the Scorpio horoscope.  That is, until August of 2016 when the International Astronomical Union- Bastards, (IAU-B), took Pluto off the list of planets in our solar system and life for Scorpio’s like me, got more confusing than ever. Fortunately, however, I am a Buddhist and understand that change is a part of life to be celebrated, and so, on August 24th in 2019 I received a gohonzon for my Buddhist altar — is it any wonder that I called in sick today to write on my blog?    

Finally, August 24 is also the Festival of Luna, the goddess of the Moon.  In her temple, Luna Noctiluca (Moon that shines by night), the cover was removed from the Mundas Cereris, the labyrinthine passage to the underworld, to allow the spirits of the dead to roam free.  

Another good reason to skip work if you ask me. 

So, brothers and sisters, if you are reading this from your “sick day” by the pool, you’re not alone, even if you think you are.  

~~ Eso Terry

Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo to the rescue!

It was four-years ago that I first chanted Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo.  I thought it was more than four years, but guess not.  It has changed my life and so I share it with you now.  

For those of you who have been reading my blog, I've written about my Nichiren Buddhism faith a few times; I've told you about the practice, the history, and of course, how it saved my life from cancer.  Today, I want to talk about the words we chant: Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which is timely, because it is a lesson I will be sharing with friends at a study later this week -- we call stuff like that the Mystic Law. 

To chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is to summon forth our own innate Buddhahood.  It is the direct path to manifesting that highest state of life.  Chanting these words put us on par with Buddhist priest who have spent their whole life in a monastery, instantly -- and without the revealing robe!

Nam comes from the Sanskrit word namas, meaning "bow" or "reverence."  It means "dedication."  In Nichiren Buddhism we dedicate our lives to the happiness of self and others. 

Myoho consists of myo, which means "mystic" or "wonderful," and ho, meaning law. Myoho is often translated as Wonderful or Mystic Law, the fundamental Law of the universe that works in wondrous ways. 

Renge, literally "lotus flower," symbolizes the simultaneity of cause and effect in Buddhism because the lotus blooms and produces fruit simultaneously.  In our Buddhist practice, chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the ultimate cause for bringing about the greatest effect of Buddhahood.  So, the instant we chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo we transform our lives into the life state of a Buddha, because, as the Lotus Sutra states, we are all Buddhas, we just don't know it (paraphrased). 

Kyo means "sutra" or "teaching."  Nichiren Daishonin teaches that our legs correspond to Kyo, indicating that the benefit of the Law spreads when we take action for the happiness of others.  Like I'm doing to you now 😇  -- I promise, you will never find another emoji in my blog ever.

So there you have it friends, take it or leave it, but if you chant it once you will spark a spark in your life that ignites your Buddhahood.  Yes, it is the secret priest knew about in ancient times but did not share until Nichiren Daishonin shared it with us, and well, almost lost his head for it.  You see, the other Buddhist priest of the day were not please with him sharing their secret with us, but that is a story for another day.  Stay tuned!  

"This is fun!"

~~ Eso Terry

August 18: Hungry Ghost and a Signed Contract With The Devil.

On or around August 18th each year the Chinese celebrate the Festival of the Hungry Ghost with offerings for the dead.  It is believed that during this time the gates of hell are opened to free the ghosts, who then wander the Earth seeking food.  The offerings are made to pay them tribute, appease them, and ward off bad luck from the prior year. 

Maybe this is why the gates of hell opened up to receive the likes of Genghis Khan on this day in 1227.  According to legend, when his Mongol troops were approaching a town a pungent stench signaled the approach of death even before you could see the clouds of dust from the drumming hooves.  When Genghis Khan conquered an enemy city he either annihilated the population entirely or sold it into slavery.  In one of his victories he ordered the massacre of all those taller than the height of a cart axle.  By the time of his death he had destroyed the Chin dynasty of China and his empire extended from Peking to the Caspian Sea. 

Another Gates of Hell story on this day in 1644, is of a French priest named Urbain Grandier who was burned alive on this day for sorcery.  According to a post in Bad Days in History written by Michael Farquhar, this was not a typical case of religious fanaticism run amok, no, this was an actual case of a man making a pack with the devil, and they had proof of this in a signed agreement with the devil himself.

The story goes that the authorities had proof of the actual pact Father Grandier had signed with Lucifer and his fellow devils -- obtained after one demon, Asmodeus, was compelled by priestly powers to snatch it right out of Lucifer's private cabinet in hell.  The signed and notarized document produced at the trial and now preserved at the Bibliothèque National de France, read:

We, the influential Lucifer, seconded by Satan, Beelzebub, Leviathan, Elimi, and Astaroth, together with others, have today accepted the covenant pact of Urbain Grandier, who is ours.  And him do we promise the love of women, the flower of virgins, the chastity of nuns, the respect of monarchs, honors, lusts and powers.  He will go whoring three days long; intoxication will be dear to him.  He offers us once in the year a seal of blood, under the feet he will trample the holy things of the church and he will ask us many questions; with this pact he will live twenty years happy on the earth of men, and will later join us to sin against God.   

Okay, it's no surprise that the folks at Columbia College in New York offer a literature class on this subject in which they believe the nuns were either tortured to give false testimony, or had an erotic vision of the Christ which probably happened a lot to sexually deprived people during the dark ages; the class also ask us to distinguish between a genuine divine encounter and a demonic possession?  For, as Descartes asks, how can we be sure that our whole reality is not merely a vision simulated by a malicious demon? 

I'll add here on EsotericDaily.com, that Monsieur Urbain Grandier may have been having a little too much priestly fun with the nuns, but we all know Satan's contracts are never in writing, he's too smart for that one. 

Finally, this historic event became the subject of a book by Aldous Huxley, The Devils of Loudon (1952), which in turn inspired Ken Russell’s film, The Devils (1971). Here is a clip from that film, a fun watch for the Hungry Ghost out and about today.  Oh, don't forget to leave them a few grains of white rice.  That will keep them happy until next year. I'll let you know how it worked for me in tomorrow's post. 

~~ Eso Terry

Stormy Daniels On Trial, Esoterically Speaking.

 

HOLD on to your seats boys and girls, today we are talking about the Esoteric Porn Star.  That's right, she goes by Stormy Daniels.  Truth is, she has a fascinating story with her clothes on and has a book I can't wait to read.  Of course there is the President Donald Trump experience which made her famous.  Yes, the president Christians love so much got himself some Stormy Daniels as she recounts in her book, also, on the Jimmy Kimmel Show if you want to watch it now.  In her book she tells how Trump had her spank him with a magazine that he was on the cover of.  

Ouch, that has to hurt, a little.  

I had a feeling Trump was one of those materialistic guys that likes to be spanked by a Dominatrix.  He is an open book when it comes to masochism.  I mean, have you seen some of the looks his wife Melania makes?  No doubt she's been in leather boots with a whip to get her way with the man-child.  

 

NOT to forget her nude shots as shown in GQ magazine before she married the Donald:

 

Yeah, Trump is a kink, and our first Fifty Shades of Gray president.  According to a paper published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, by Joris Lammers and Roland Imhoff, social power (having control over others’ outcomes) reduces inhibition. In other words, powerful men with a screw loose are more aroused by fantasies involving being submissive, than not.  

Getting back to Stormy Daniels, her real name is Stephanie Gregory Clifford, and she was raised in Louisiana.   She wanted to be a journalist in high school, but found stripping for money more rewarding. Recently, she was placed under oath in a civil law suit she has with her ex attorney, Michael Avenatti.  He is an idiot, but he did get Stephanie, I mean, Stormy to open up about her Esoteric Side, and this is my topic of the day:  the Esoteric Porn Star. 

In his line of questioning, Michael Avenatti asked Stormy:

"How do you speak to the dead?"

"I don't know, it just happens," she said. 

"How does it happen?"

"Cards, meditation."

 "Do the dead speak back to you?" he continued. 

"Yes."

"According to you, you experienced unexplained and frightening experience in you New Orleans home?" 

"Yes."

"You experienced poltergeist?

"Yes."

"And shadow figures?"

"Yes."

"You claim that the experiences have caused you to have a mass in your head?"

"An energy worker told me that."

"You had a scan?"

"Yes, a Reiki scan."

"I want to talk with you about Susan, who you claim is a haunted doll."

"Correct."

"And she can walk?"

"No, but I have seen her in a different spots, I don't know how."

"And she can talk, and she calls out?"

"Anyone who's seen the video knows this."

"You heard her call out mommy?"

"We heard a voice and we assumed it was her."

"You charge people to read Tarot cards right?"

"Technically, oracle cards, but yes."

"You believe you're a medium right? "

 "Correct."

"Can you explain what a medium is?"

"A medium is someone who communicates with spirits, non-living spirits, to be specific."

Wow, what a line of questioning from an idiot who just lost his case thinking anyone would find her answers weird.  I mean, the esoteric is everywhere in everything we do.  Right, Susan?

One of the Many UFO Sitings We've Forgotten, Again and Again....

 

Reverend William Huffman had been an evangelist for many years, but had taken the resident minister reigns of the Red Star Baptist Church in early 1941. Church records corroborate his employment there during the period in question.

After receiving this call to duty, he was immediately driven the 10-15 mile journey to some woods outside of town. Upon arriving at the scene of the crash, he saw policemen, fire department personnel, FBI agents, and photographers already mulling through the wreckage.

He was soon asked to pray over three dead bodies. As he began to take in the activity around the area, his curiosity was first struck by the sight of the craft itself.

Expecting a small plane of some type, he was shocked to see that the craft was disc-shaped, and upon looking inside he saw hieroglyphic-like symbols, indecipherable to him.

He then was shown the three victims, not human as expected, but small alien bodies with large eyes, hardly a mouth or ears, and hairless.

Immediately after performing his duties, he was sworn to secrecy by military personnel who had taken charge of the crash area. He witnessed these warnings being given to others at the scene also.

As he arrived back at his home at 1530 Main Street, he was still in a state of mild shock, and could not keep his story from his wife Floy, and his sons. This late night family discussion would spawn the story that Charlette Mann would hear from her grandmother in 1984, as she lay dying of cancer at

Charlette's home while undergoing radiation therapy.

Charlette was told the story over the span of several days, and although Charlette had heard bits and pieces of this story before, she now demanded the full details.

As her grandmother tolerated her last few days on this Earth, Charlette knew it was now or never to find out everything she could before this intriguing story was lost with the death of her grandmother.

She also learned that one of the members of her grandfather's congregation, thought to be Garland D. Fronabarger, had given him a photograph taken on the night of the crash. This picture was of one of the dead aliens being help up by two men.

Charlette Mann gave, in her own words, an account of what she knew for a television documentary. Some of that account is given here:

"I saw the picture originally from my dad who had gotten it from my grandfather who was a Baptist minister in Cape Girardeau Missouri in the Spring of '41. I saw that [picture] and asked my grandmother at a later time she was at my home fatally ill with cancer so we had a frank discussion.

"She said that grandfather was called out in the spring of 1941 in the evening around 9:00-9:30, that someone had been called out to a plane crash outside of town and would he be willing to go to minister to people there which he did."

"Upon arrival it was a very different situation. It was not a conventional aircraft, as we know it. He described it as a saucer that was metallic in color, no seams, did not look like anything he had seen. It had been broken open in one portion, and so he could walk up and see that.

"In looking in he saw a small metal chair, gauges and dials and things he had never seen. However, what impressed him most was around the inside there were inscriptions and writings, which he said he did not recognize, but were similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics."

"There were 3 entities, or non-human people, lying on the ground. Two were just outside the saucer, and a third one was further out. His understanding was that perhaps that third one was not dead on impact. There had been mention of a ball of fire, yet there was fire around the crash site, but none of the entities had been burned and so father did pray over them, giving them last rites.

"There were many people there, fire people, photographers, and so they lifted up one, and two men on either side stood him up and they stretched his arms out, they had him up under the armpits and out here.

As I recall from the picture I saw, he was about 4 feet tall, appeared to have no bone structure, soft looking. He had a suit on, or we assume it was a suit, it could have been his skin, and what looked like crinkled, soft aluminum foil. I recall it had very long hands, very long fingers, and I think there were three but I cannot swear to that."

"My grandfather upon arrival, said there were already several people there on the scene, two that he assumed were local photographers, fire people, and so not long after they arrived, military just showed up, surrounded the area, took them off in groups separately, and spoke to each of them.

"Grandfather didn't know what was said to the others, but he was told 'this didn't happen, you didn't see this, this is national security, it is never to be talked about again.'

"My grandfather was an honorable man, being a preacher, that's all that needed to be said to him. And so he came home and told the story to my dad, who was there, and my grandmother and my uncle. Now my mother was expecting at the time, so she was off in the bedroom."

"My sister was born May 3, 1941, so we are assuming this was the middle to the last of April. And he never spoke of it again. But about two weeks later, one of the men who had a personal camera that he had put in his shirt pocket, approached grandfather and said I think someone needs a copy of this.

"I have one and I would like you to keep one. So that's how it came about that grandfather had the picture to begin with. But he never spoke of it again. The other people seem to be very intimidated and very frightened and paranoid."

Other living supporting witnesses include Charlette Mann's sister who confirmed her story in a notarized sworn affidavit, and the living brother of the Cape Girardeau County sheriff in 1941, Clarance R. Schade. He does remember hearing the account of the crash, yet does not have many details. He does recall hearing of a "spaceship with little people."

There are also Fire Department records of the date of the crash. This information does confirm the military swearing department members to secrecy, and also the removal of all evidence from the scene by military personnel.

Guy Huffman, Charlette's father also told the story of the crash, and had in his possession the photograph of the dead alien. He showed the picture to a photographer friend of his, Walter Wayne Fisk.

He has been contacted by Stanton Friedman, but would not release any pertinent information.

Charlette had no luck in getting Fish to return calls or answer letters. It has been rumored that Fisk was an advisor to the President, and if this was the case, would account for his silence on the facts of the Missouri crash.

This case ends like many others, but appears by all indications to be authentic. All who have come in contact with Charlette Mann found her to be a trustworthy person who is not given to sensationalism, and has sought no gain from her account.

There is still research being done on the Missouri crash, and hopefully more information will be forthcoming to validate this remarkable case.

Surviving a Financial Crisis the Manly P Hall Way.

Economic downturns such as the financial crunch we are presently experiencing come and go, and each is driven by a force or forces debatable at best, predictable at worst.  There were the "panics" of 1785, 1789, 1792, 1796, 1857, 1873, 1893, 1896, 1907, and 1910, to name a few, and then there were the "depressions" of 1807, 1815, 1873, 1882, 1920, and the biggie of the twentieth century, 1929.  It is this "1929 Depression" that I want to talk about today, more specifically, how an article written in 1923 is so relevant today.   The article was titled, "The Economic Depression," the author, Manly P Hall.  In that article, Hall writes, "The present financial crisis is the favorite topic of conversation.  Persons in every walk of life gather in solemn conclave to explain and predict...."

Hall goes on to references the complaints of the people of 1923 who were saying such things as, "...it's the corrupt condition of the political system...,  ...machinery is not only jeopardizing jobs, but in many cases has practically destroyed the economic integrity of the individual...,  Women in the workforce has doubled the number of those desiring employment...."

As I write this article today, I see the complaints are the still the same, of course, the "political system" to blame in 1923 is the same political system we blame today, the names have changed but the players remain; and then the "machines are taking jobs" in 1923 can be compared to today's AI, or Artificial Intelligence problem on the lips of every news outlet as "taking intellectual jobs from checkout cashiers to television script writers."  And of course, the "woman taking our jobs" argument in 1923, is the same as the "immigrants  taking our jobs" today.  And as Manly P Hall wrote in 1923, "This list of causes could be continued indefinitely, but the above is sufficient to reveal the general scope of the grievances.  When it comes to the subject of cure, the dilemma is apparent.  The disease is so widely distributed and the whole body social so completely infected that a panacea is almost inconceivable.  That which would cure one phase of the trouble would complicate another.  A vicious circle exists.   

Manly P Hall

 Buddha declared ignorance to be the common disease of mankind, but it would seem that we should go still further and declare selfishness to be the most dangerous and most universal form of ignorance.  The world in general and America in particular is suffering from the fact that very few people can forget themselves long enough to think of anybody else at all."

Hall goes on to say, "We all exist in servitude to uncontrolled emotions and excesses. The only release from the present circumstances comes in release from possessions, from attachment and those factors which are the fundamental elements of the dilemma.  A philosopher was once asked what wise men did when they could no longer eat.  His answer was: 'They Starve.'  The disasters which are occurring around us today are really not as important as they seem.  It is a terrible thing to have all that we have and love swept away, yet we seldom realize that it occurs to all us at death, regardless of how successful our living seems to have been.  There is no beggar on the street who has less than the greatest financier after death has separated us from possessions.  

A wise person once said that the quickest way to get a thing is to stop wanting it.  To fortify oneself for trying periods, the realization of true values is essential.  If each individual will live as well as he/she knows, and will perform conscientiously that which is her's appointed task and divorce from heart and mind all thoughts of profits and reward, she may gain in poverty and distress a peace which she never discovered in success and power.  To paraphrase a famous Teuton:  'If we must stave, let us starve philosophically.'"

Finally, Hall writes: "A path will probably be found which will carry us temporarily through this crisis.  Realizing that this trying condition will arise again, the wise, however, will equip themselves and leave to their heirs a legacy of knowledge that will enable them to meet such future recurrences in a more rational manner.  

Manly P Hall wrote this article in 1923, since this time there have been 17 recessions, that is one recession every seven years.  Be wise, consume less, and give more.  It's the Manly P Hall way.  

~~ Eso Terry