Demeter's Kore

I have been surfing around the web lately reading a lot of Gnostic Christian and Gnostic Pagan sites. The Gnostic Christian sites have disappointed me greatly because they all seem to claim that Gnostics believe that Jesus was a real person. I don't know how you can be Gnostic and claim such an absurdity. Gnosticism is the quest for spiritual knowledge and how can you obtain spiritual knowledge when you hold firm to man. We don't need to believe that there was once any man that walked the earth as the son of god. In Gnosis we are all the sons of God. Have these modern Gnostics missed the point. YES!!!! Most likely they have come from a literalist Christian background and can not make the transition without the authoritarian feeling that a Jesus man did actually exist. These are the ones who are truly falling short of Gnosis and they are bringing who follow down with them. I don't claim to be superior but I do know the difference between myth and fact. Jesus was a myth, an...

The spirit lies within all of us. It teaches, if we choose to listen, about every wonder within this Universe and beyond. We learn that we are all one, man, woman, child, animal, plant, even the very soil we walk on, we are all one. We learn that everything that happens is not without ourselves but within. Every experience, every hardship, every joy, every minute is within us. The spirit can probably be best described as a big pool of dark water. Many are afraid to go near it because to the naked eye we can not see the bottom. When we look in the water all we see is what we think is a disfigured mirror image of ourselves, but in reality that is our true image and the image that we perceive every day is the disfigurement. As we dive deep into the water and become engulfed in its darkness we feel the helplessness that comes from the pressure of the water pounding around us. Some of us become scared, begin to struggle to the top, some of us lose all control and are lost within the ...

Aleister (Alexander Edward) Crowley was born on the 12th of October 1875 in Leamington Spa, England, into a family of Plymouth Brethren, a strict Christian sect. The Bible was the only book Crowley was permitted to read .The Plymouth Brethren were a sect that believed even Christians of other denominations were going to hell. Hmmmmm, not too much unlike the many denominations around now. Anyway, his father was the only person that kept Aleister from being abused completely by his mother, who called him the Beast, and his uncle. He was enrolled in many schools that were run by men in the Plymouth Brethren, they would find every reason they could to "discipline" Crowley as well as the other students.In time, the young Crowley rebelled against the bigoted atmosphere in his home. His first gesture of defiance was to masturbate, a grave sin for Christians in Victorian times.In 1895, Crowley went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, and a year later, at the age of 21, came into a subs...

The first thing to be understood is what ego is. A child is born. A child is born without any knowledge, any consciousness of his own self. And when a child is born the first thing he becomes aware of is not himself; the first thing he becomes aware of is the other. It is natural, because the eyes open outwards, the hands touch others, the ears listen to others, the tongue tastes food and the nose smells the outside. All these senses open outwards. That is what birth means. Birth means coming into this world, the world of the outside. So when a child is born, he is born into this world. He opens his eyes, sees others. 'Other' means the thou. He becomes aware of the mother first. Then, by and by, he becomes aware of his own body. That too is the other, that too belongs to the world. He is hungry and he feels the body; his need is satisfied, he forgets the body. This is how a child grows. First he becomes aware of you, thou, other, and then by and by, in contrast to you, thou, he...

The re are 38 religious symbols approved for placement on government-issued grave markers and memorials for military veterans, but the pentacle isn't one of them. The five-pointed star within a circle that represents the Wiccan religion, a neo-pagan, earth-based belief system, is not on the list. As a result, the space reserved for Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart's memorial plaque at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley, Nev., remains empty. Stewart, 34, was killed in September 2005 when his Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. He was a follower of the Wiccan tradition, and his wife is fighting to have the fact engraved in stone. "My husband's faith got him through the war in Desert Storm, through life's problems. It is our spirituality," Roberta Stewart, 36, said. "This is who we are as Americans." The effort to get the symbol of a tradition that for many conjures up thoughts of devil worship and steaming cauldrons has been ...

Arthur C. Clarke once said that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Perhaps that's why witches love the Web. Pagan priestess Lunaea Weatherstone says that many members of the "Old Religion" have wholeheartedly embraced new technology. "You can't swing a sacred temple cat without hitting a Pagan online," Weatherstone said. Guy Vestal, CEO of Pagan Internet Industries Inc., agrees that the Web has a significant Pagan population. His study of "pagan demographics" indicates there are roughly 3 million Pagan Internet users. And he suspects the actual total is much higher. Pagans typically define themselves as followers of an earth-based religion with roots in the ancient practices of traditional tribal cultures. Weatherstone suggests that many a Pagan's interest in technology is rooted in their fascination with science fiction. "Sci-Fi is a modern type of mythology, and mythology is central to Paga...

A PAGAN meeting that will discuss whether Jesus Christ was "a witch or a showman" is taking place in Croydon tomorrow (Saturday). About 2,000 pagans are expected to attend the gathering at the Fairfield, with speakers arriving from the USA, Africa and Pakistan. Last year, 30 demonstrators gathered outside the venue to protest against the Pagan Federation's annual general meeting. Brian Botham, the organisation's convention manager, said: "Wherever we go, around 98 per cent of people are happy to have us. But there will always be a small number who will protest. "I can understand how some people, who have held a belief for a while, might say 'You're wrong' when it is challenged. "But if somebody challenged my beliefs and put up a strong enough argument, then I would sit down and listen to them. The Pagan Federation says it is a group of people who acknowledge God "but not in the Christian sense". The federation says it aims to be pr...

Do what you will, does not mean do what ever you want as long as you don't hurt anyone. It ultimately means that one must find the true will of ones self and live by that, because living by the true will you can not possibly harm anyone, it is not of the true will to do so. Aleister Crowley explains it best in his book Magick in Theory and Practice. I believe his best analogy is that of the "criminal man" . "Men of "criminal nature" are simply at issue with their True Will. The murderer has the Will-to-Live; and his will to murder is a false will variance with his True Will, since he risks death at the hands of Society by obeying his murderous impulse." Our will to do things such as have sex with a person because he or she is attractive or because they make you feel attractive, is not actually the True Will, it is the will of the flesh. As well when one gets drunk after having a bad day or to be more social with friends, this is not because the True Wi...

I did some studying on the words magic and magick, cause I got into a serious argument with a really good friend about the spelling. Anyway, I found some pretty interesting evidence that substantiates that the original spelling already meant what these users claim the new spelling means, and actually has even more weight toward what practitioners of the craft and other magical practices do, than the new spelling. Aleister Crowley used the letter “k” because it is the 11th letter of the alphabet; and in numerology the number 11 represents hidden energies and thereby magick. Therefore it is thought that to add a "k" to magic makes the word itself more "magickal". However, the letter “k” is not needed to make the word “magic” any more real than it already was considering the dividend of the word “magic” is already 11. If you add the numerical values of each letter, they equal 33, which in numerology is already a Master or a Power number, then divide that number by 3, y...

An Italian court is tackling Jesus -- and whether the Roman Catholic Church may be breaking the law by teaching that he existed 2,000 years ago. The case pits against each other two men in their 70s, who are from the same central Italian town and even went to the same seminary school in their teenage years. The defendant, Enrico Righi, went on to become a priest writing for the parish newspaper. The plaintiff, Luigi Cascioli, became a vocal atheist who, after years of legal wrangling, is set to get his day in court later this month. "I started this lawsuit because I wanted to deal the final blow against the Church, the bearer of obscurantism and regression," Cascioli told Reuters. Cascioli says Righi, and by extension the whole Church, broke two Italian laws. The first is "Abuso di Credulita Popolare" (Abuse of Popular Belief) meant to protect people against being swindled or conned. The second crime, he says, is "Sostituzione di Persona," or imper...

Demeter by Micha F. Lindemans The Greek earth goddess par excellence , who brings forth the fruits of the earth, particularly the various grains. She taught mankind the art of sowing and ploughing so they could end their nomadic existence. As such, Demeter was also the goddess of planned society. She was very popular with the rural population. As a fertility goddess she is sometimes identified with Rhea and Gaia . In systematized theology, Demeter is a daughter of Cronus and Rhea and sister of Zeus by whom she became the mother of Persephone . When Persephone was abducted by Hades , lord of the underworld, Demeter wandered the earth in search of her lost child. During this time the earth brought forth no grain. Finally Zeus sent Hermes to the underworld, ordering Hades to restore Persephone to her mother. However, before she left, Hades gave her a pomegranate (a common fertility symbol). When she ate from it, she was bound to spend a third of the year with her husband in t...

Eleusis by Dr Alena Trckova-Flamee Ph.D. Eleusis is the place, where the cult of the goddess Demeter existed many centuries and where the most famous religious festival, called the Eleusinian mysteries were performed in the honour of this deity. According to the "Homeric Hymn to Demeter" (7th century BCE), when the goddess Demeter was desparetely looking for her daughter (=Kore) Persephone -kidnapped by Aidoneus ( Hades )- during her wandering she came to the city Eleusis. Here she was welcomed by the Queen Metaneria. To thank her, Demeter took care about prince Demophon . Each night she brought the boy near the fire to make him immortal and she fed him with the nectar and ambrosia of the Gods. When the child´s mother saw once at night what was happening, she was astonished. Demeter revealed, who she was and she asked to build a sanctuary in her honour to teach them secret rituals. She closed herself in the temple, troubled for her daughter and she did not allow a...

Now, while I realize that the reserve officer, which isn't really a law enforcement officer but a volunteer, sent them a letter urging them to convert. I don't know where they get the right to say that they should get off scott free because of that man. They were breaking some pretty valid laws, I know, I've broken them and I was pulled over for it and had my car towed away because of it. I didn't have stickers on the back of my car stating my religious beliefs. I was pissed but it was just a routine check and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have posted a lot of news articles I have found of pagans standing up for their rights when faced with adversity from Government officials, but I really don't know how I feel about this one. They were driving around illegally, it's not as if these officers fabricated things to fine them with, they were perfectly within their rights to fine them. While I say stand up for yourself, I have to say have some comm...