"The Madonna with Saint Giovannino" - Mysteries date back...

Painting called "The Madonna with Saint Giovannino". Painted in 15th century by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494). Above Mary's right shoulder is a disk shaped object. Below is enlarged view of a man and his dog looking up at the object.

The average of the world's great civilizations before they decline

"The average of the world's great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."

- Alexander Tytler, Cycle of Democracy, 1770

Human Interactions...

...Human Interactions...
In presenting this method of voting, we recognize that there are two main systems for human interaction:

Dominance
Equality (Sharing Power)
We hope you opt for sharing of power and only force your will by dominance when necessary.

Avoid Cursing Others
Cursing others weakens your own aura (our protective energy field) and could allow you to be cursed in the same way.

Magick in times past often was performed using curses. I, Harold, am Irish. The last thing anyone wanted to be was cursed by an Irish Saint. Curses of old could go on for generations.

Be Aware of What You are Already Doing
We don't live in an vacuum. We feel certain ways about certain things. Spiders are scary? Snakes are scary? Democrats are scary? Republicans are scary? Africans are scary? Big people are scary? Certainly we live in a scary world? Maybe, especially if we have lots of preconceived notions that we haven't examined.

When you read the paper and watch the news, you feel emotions when you see (or look at) certain things on the news. The most scary part of the news is, of course, what they don't show you and don't imply, e.g.: The body under the blanket. When certain emotions are aroused in us we, in effect, shoot those emotions through our eyes and our auras at the pictures we see.

Why aren't we aware of this? We are. It just depends on how conscious you are. This discussion is only to show that everyone who sees an image responds to what they think they see with a consequent effect on the image.(this effect has been referred to as the "observation paradox" i.e.an experiment is already skewed by observing it and who the observer is!) In the United States, a picture of Bin Laden gets a thumbs down response from almost everyone when in other areas it might not. If you are not conscious of this, you have what Carl Jung called "unconscious complexes that function independently of the personality" (see ego) or what wizards call "archons" and Jesus called "demons". This is obviously debatable. However, it may be a good idea to re-think .

We all "vote on" and many times act as judge and jury on the pictures we see. Lets avoid blanket judgements of good and evil on the images you see at this site. We are giving direction with our "vote" (as described below) especially in the USA, because of our arrogance brought about by our perceived sense of power and right.

Why Use Magick to Vote?
An example:

I have my doubts that I could ever get, through normal channels, an appointment to talk with Bill Gates. If I thought that good ol' Bill (fine fellow that he is, we've never quarreled) was doing a good job, my letter probably wouldn't get to him, I most likely wouldn't have the chance to give him a hardy hand shake or a pat on the back to reinforce the fine work he's doing. The wise have always been able to get around this. Magick has always been the treasured secret of the rich and the recourse of the poor.

As practitioners know, a photo is a witness and a witness stands as, or stands in place of a person. So, Bill and I have had a relationship that's rather one-sided, on his part as well as mine. He influences me by being the richest man in the world and many of his agenda items could possibly become my statutory laws. I influence him by possessing his witness. Because of his fame, many pictures of his smiling visage are available. If I have a picture, I can tell him to his face what a good job he is doing! Every time I feel he's put out a fine product, I put a Popsicle stick on his picture to show him, in abstentious, that I feel he's a sweet guy. If he does a particularly good job, I might even put a rose or some honey or maybe even some of my very effective good luck oil. Or, if nothing else, I can look at his picture, focus my mind and tell him what a good job he is doing.

This is nothing new, folks. We all have the power to influence others through a witness. This doesn't even take any rituals/sigils/seals/candles/oils/words/appeals/black boxes/gems/potions to drive the magick!

So....

If you think the "beast"of Revelation is running the planet,
If you think your vote doesn't count,
if you think the taxes are too high,
if you think the Bohemian Club is running the country,
if you think Majestic 12 is still in power,
if you think that Adolph Hitler is still in hiding, etc.,
you're now a practitioner: do something about it!

These people's pictures are everywhere. If Hitler isn't dead enough already, grab a picture of him and stomp on it! :-)

Note: We do NOT recommend negative uses of a witness. Why? It's complex. It's easier to let you find out yourself. Then after you burn your fingers ... you'll know better.

Our Recommended Method
The best idea is to wait until someone does something you like, then reinforce (reward) it. Then, if they do something you'd like them to stop, remove your support (no more reward, sorry). This method was developed by Dr. B.F.Skinner, the behaviorist.

Remember, Harold is often misquoted as saying, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." I never said that, I said, "Absolute lack of power corrupts absolutely."

- Harold, http://old-mage.com/free/vote.htm#Avoid

The Origins of Satan...

The Origins of Satan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Satan is a complex figure who is popularly taken as the personification of evil which opposes Gods’ work both on a cosmic level and upon earth by inspiring human beings to work in opposition to Gods’ divine plan. Satan as a distinct figure has emerged from early Christian writings which are, in turn, based on ancient Hebraic texts. Whilst Satan is originally an agent of God, rather than an opposing power, he becomes more important and malevolent as the mythology is appropriated, firstly by dissident Jewish sects, and later, by early Christian authors.

Satan as God’s Messenger

As he first appears in the Hebrew Bible, Satan is not necessarily evil, much less opposed to God. He appears in both the book of Numbers and in Job as one of God’s obedient servants - a messenger or angel - a word that translates the Hebrew term for messenger (mal’ak) into Greek (angelos). In biblical sources the Hebrew term the satan describes an adversarial role - it is not the name of a particular character. Although Hebrew storytellers occasionally introduced a supernatural character which they called the satan, what they meant was any one of the angels sent by God for the specific purpose of blocking or obstructing human activity. The root stn means "one who opposes, obstructs or acts as adversary." The Greek diablos (later translated as devil) literally means "one who throws something across one’s path." Hebrew storytellers often attribute misfortune to human sin. Some however, also invoke this supernatural character, the satan, who by God’s own order or permission, blocks or opposes human plans and desires. But this messenger is not necessarily malevolent. In the story of Balaam (Numbers) God sends a supernatural messenger, taking on the role of the satan to prevent Balaam from disobeying God. In the Book of Job, it is the satan (who is described as one of the Beni Elohim - sons of God) who challenges God to put Job to the test. The Lord agrees, authorizing the satan to afflict Job. Here, the satan terrifies and harms a person, but remains an angel, a member of the heavenly court.

Around the time that Job was written (c. 550 B.C.E) however, other biblical writers invoked the satan to account for division within Israel. The author of 1 Chronicles suggests that it was the satan who incited King David to introduce census taking - and taxation into Israel, which aroused vehement and immediate opposition. The prophet Zachariah also depicted the satan inciting factions within Israel. Some 4 centuries later in 168 B.C.E., when Jews regained their independence from their Seleucid rulers, internal conflict became more acute. For centuries, Jews had been pressured to assimilate to the ways of the foreign nations that had ruled them. These pressures reached breaking point in 168 B.C.E., when the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes decided to eradicate every trace of the Jews’ "barbaric" culture. As told in 1 Maccabees, some Israelites determined to resist the foreign king battled on two fronts - not only against the occupiers, but also against those Jews who were inclined towards assimilation. The latter, the "Hellenizing Jews" were seen as traitors to God and Israel alike. In the decades that followed the Maccabean revolt, extreme dissident groups, bent on separating Israel from all foreign influences gained strength. These dissidents began increasingly to invoke the satan to characterize their Jewish opponents - accusing them of having been seduced by the power of evil (Satan, Beelzebub, Azazel, Belial, etc.) These dissidents also borrowed stories, and wrote their own, telling how angelic powers, swollen with lust or arrogance, fell from heaven into sin. As Satan became an increasingly important and personified figure, so stories about his origin proliferated.

The early stories of the origin of Satan characterize him as an intimate enemy - a trusted colleague or brother upon whose loyalty the well-being of family & society depend - but whom becomes unexpectedly hostile and jealous. Those who asked "How could God’s own angel become his enemy?" were asking, in effect, "How could one of us become one of them?"

The Enemy Within

This idea of Satan as the intimate enemy - the source of challenge and conflict from within a community of believers was to become a central theme in early Christian belief.

It was the sect known as the Essenes who placed the cosmic battle between angels and demons, God and Satan, at the centre of both their cosmology and politics. They saw the foreign occupation of Palestine - and the accommodation of the majority of Jews to that occupation - as evidence that the forces of evil ruled the world - and, in the form of Satan or Mastema, had infiltrated God’s chosen people, turning most of them into allies of the Evil One. Thus the war in heaven was also taking place on earth, with the Essenes casting themselves as the ‘Sons of Light’ against the ‘Sons of Darkness’. The Essenes were influenced by apocryphal texts such as The Book of the Watchers, which introduced the idea of a division in Heaven. The author combines 2 stories, describing how Semihazah, leader of the Watchers, coerced 200 other angels in violating divine order by mating with human women - producing the nephilim (fallen ones) and demonic spirits who brought violence to the earth. It is also described how Azazel sinned by giving humans the secrets of metallurgy, that inspired men to make weapons and women to adorn themselves with gold, silver and cosmetics. These stories offer a paradigm which is not restricted to one historical situation, but which can be applied whenever an analogous situation arises. The author of Watchers places moral identity at the forefront of the question of who is God’s chosen people. Thus it is not enough just to be a Jew - one must also be a Jew who acts morally. If angels could fall from grace, how much easier it will be for humans to be seduced by immorality?

Satan v Jesus

The first Christian gospel, attributed to Mark, was written during the last year of the rebellion against Rome, as chronicled by Josephus. Mark describes how the spirit of God descends on Jesus at his baptism, driving him into the wilderness, where he is tempted by Satan. Even after his return from the wilderness, the powers of evil continue to attack him. Jesus’ execution is the culmination of the struggle between God and Satan that began at his baptism. But his death is not a final defeat, but actually heralds God’s ultimate victory. The cosmic war serves primarily to interpret human relationships in supernatural form. The figure of Satan becomes a way of characterizing the enemy as the embodiment of transcendent forces.

Luke, the only Gentile author among the gospel writers, makes explicit the connection between Jesus’ Jewish enemies and the "evil one." Luke also states that Satan "entered into Judas Iscariot" who went and conferred with the chief priest to arrange the betrayal of Jesus. Luke’s Gospel provides many details that contribute to the later Christian perception that Pontius Pilate was a well-meaning weakling and that it was the Jews who were ultimately responsible for Jesus’ death.

In the Gospel according to John, the accusation against Jesus’ intimate enemies - his fellow Jews is reiterated. When Jesus predicts his crucifixion, he declares that instead of showing a judgement against him, it shows God’s judgement against "this world"; instead of destroying Jesus, it will destroy the diabolic "ruler of the world" (John 12:31-32). John likewise terms the Jews as "Satan’s Allies."

Christians v Pagans

Between 70 and 100 C.E., the Christian movement became largely Gentile. As earlier Christians had claimed to see Satan among their fellow Jews, the new Gentile converts now saw Satan and his demonic allies at work in other Gentiles. Many converts found that they were threatened not by Jews but by pagans - Roman officers and city mobs who feared that Christian "atheism" could bring the wrath of the gods down on whole communities. One follower of Paul, in a letter attributed to him called the Letter to the Ephesians, writes:

Our contest is not against flesh and blood but against powers, against principalities, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places (6:12).

This sense of spiritual warfare was felt by many Christians facing persecution for their beliefs. The Gentile converts believed that worshipers of the pagan gods were driven by Satan to attack God’s people. The movement which was rejected by the majority of Jews, whom it repudiated in turn, now appealed to people of every tribe and nation to break all former bonds of kinship and affiliation. For Christians, there were only two kinds of people - those who belong to God’s kingdom (Heb. 12:22-24;13-14) and those who were ruled by Satan. Not only did Christians teach converts that these bonds were not sacred, but that they were of a diabolic character.

Heretics

The apostle Paul, when confronted by rival teachers, dismissed them as Satan’s servants:

Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness (2 Cor. 11:13-15).

Christians dreaded Satan’s attacks from outside - from hostile pagans - but many of them believed that even more dangerous were Satan’s forays among the most intimate enemies of all - other Christians, or, as most said of those with whom they disagreed, among heretics.

Around 180 C.E., Irenaeus wrote a massive attack on deviant Christians - calling them heretics and "servants of Satan." This enormously influential work, titled Against Heresies, states that false believers use the name of Christ only as a "lure" in order to teach doctrines inspired by Satan and are themselves driven by lusts of the flesh. The Greek word ‘heresy’ (from hairesis) literally means ‘choice’. Irenaeus, and his followers such as Tertullian insist that making such a choice is evil, since choice destroys unity. For Tertullian, asking questions and discussion is in itself suspect as the true Christian should have faith alone.

Conclusions

So powerful is the vision of cosmic struggle that Christians have used it time and time again over the last two thousand years to interpret opposition and persecution - against "pagans", "heretics", unbelievers and atheists. Even among non-Christians, there is a tendency to portray social and political movements as being forces of good arrayed against the forces of evil. Anything which is seen as in opposition to the beliefs of an individual can be castigated with the label ‘Satanic’ - as has been the case in the twentieth century with Rock Music, Communism, and The United States of America. Satan not only represents the enemy without - but also the enemy within - and in the latter is seen as more dangerous and diabolic.
- Fra. Anastasius 217, http://www.philhine.org.uk/archives/sp_orsatan.htm

Jefferson on Deism...

Jefferson on Deism
Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was

proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A

departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our

religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in

proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its

protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and

Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.

-Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia

Act for Religious Freedom

----------------------------------------------------------------- I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Hopkinson, March 13, 1789

----------------------------------------------------------------- They [the clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion.

-Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Sept. 23, 1800

----------------------------------------------------------------- Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802

----------------------------------------------------------------- History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.

-Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, Dec. 6, 1813.

----------------------------------------------------------------- The whole history of these books [the Gospels] is so defective and doubtful that it seems vain to attempt minute enquiry into it: and such tricks have been played with their text, and with the texts of other books relating to them, that we have a right, from that cause, to entertain much doubt what parts of them are genuine. In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, January 24, 1814

----------------------------------------------------------------- Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814

----------------------------------------------------------------- In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814

----------------------------------------------------------------- If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? ...Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God.

-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Thomas Law, June 13, 1814

----------------------------------------------------------------- You say you are a Calvinist. I am not. I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Ezra Stiles Ely, June 25, 1819

----------------------------------------------------------------- As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurian. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, Oct. 31, 1819

----------------------------------------------------------------- Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him [Jesus] by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, April 13, 1820

----------------------------------------------------------------- To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no god, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by Locke, Tracy, and Stewart. At what age of the Christian church this heresy of immaterialism, this masked atheism, crept in, I do not know. But heresy it certainly is.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, Aug. 15, 1820

----------------------------------------------------------------- Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind.

-Thomas Jefferson to James Smith, 1822.

----------------------------------------------------------------- I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false god, he did.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

----------------------------------------------------------------- And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.

-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

----------------------------------------------------------------- It is between fifty and sixty years since I read it [the Apocalypse], and I then considered it merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to General Alexander Smyth, Jan. 17, 1825

--------- But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782.
- Wikipedia; All other elements are (c) copyright NationMaster.com 2003

Conspiracy theorists...

Conspiracy theorists rarely, if ever, deal with a charge ("trick") such as this. The 'Religious Intolerant' though will find this convenient to use in an attempt to persuade others that Freemasonry excludes Blacks while their own church may practice the same type of discrimination they accuse Freemasons of doing.

However, the charge of racism in Freemasonry seems to come primarily from the mouths and pens of the 'Self-Server' in the United States. Here's why:

The United States began as a segregated country. It was segregated at first by religious groups (recall, for example, the founding of Rhode Island) and later - as religious differences blended - by the introduction of slaves whom many treated as 'property'. This is a fact that many accepted. Others acquiesced or ignored it completely (or as much as possible). A precious few spoke out against it - and they were nearly universally condemned for doing so.

Masonry, like virtually all other organizations of the 1700's and most of the 1800's in the United States, followed the mores of society.

Masonry today in the United States can be seen through the eyes of two different independent 'controlling entities' (grand bodies) which are - primarily - divided along racial lines.

In the earliest days of the United States, white men and black men did not mix socially - in any way. It is not unusual, then, to appreciate that this didn't occur in Freemasonry either. In other parts of the world, however, Freemasonry was and is quite integrated with race not an issue at all. We hold, therefore, that the charge of 'racism' is a mere ruse!
- http://www.masonicinfo.com/racism.htm

Actually, the "Illuminati" does not exist as the Illuminati ;)

----- Original Message -----
From: Abraxas Incarnate
To: IlluminAlch
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2003 10:09 PM
Subject: [IlluminAlch] Re: Question to Steve, regarding Freemasons

David wrote:

>>>>> Actually, the "Illuminati" does not exist as the Illuminati. However, there are other secret societies that are part of an overall network to bring about a New World Order, and the Freemasons are part of that group. The Freemasons are part and parcel of a movement to abolish the ecclesiastical order;

David, your use of the verb "are" in the above paragraph is totally without basis in reality. You seem to be regurgitating the standard conspiracy line quite well, which I'm sure the Illuminati love for people like you to do. As long as people believe the nonsense, the truth can stay safely hidden.

>>>>> and substitute that order with the belief that people are their own god.

If that is the case, then great! I already know that I am my own God, and if everyone else knew that then the world would be a much happier place.

>>>>> Ultimately, Freemasonry is really a form of Luciferianism, which is a by-product of one of the NOW's objectives.

This Luciferianism propoganda is more bullshit straight from the bottom of the conspiracy cespool.

>>>>> It's apparent that you are a neophyte to the Freemasons and do not understand the underpinnings of this group. How ironic and sad.

Your use of the words "it is apparent" advertises yet again your elitist snobbery, David. You know nothing other than what you assume.

>>>>> I colleague of mine is a former 33rd degree Freemason and he said that at its ultimate level which he attained, is about Luciferianism, and is part of the overall New World Order movement.

That's great for him! Now how about something other than rumour and fear? How about a few facts to support your ridiculous assertions?