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Singing Sand Dunes Explained

Posted: November 3, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science

Sand grain size dictates how dunes whistle, study finds.

A sand dune in Namibia.

Sand blows from a dune in Namib-Naukluft National Park in Namibia in 2009.

Photograph by Frans Lanting, National Geographic

Shannon Fischer

for National Geographic News

Published October 31, 2012

When Marco Polo heard it in China, he suspected evil spirits. When residents of Copiapo, Chile, heard it emanating from a sandy hill, they dubbed the peak El Bramador, for its roars and bellows.

Scientists today call it “singing sand,” but they’re all referring to the same thing: As sand grains shuffle down the slopes of certain sand dunes, they produce a deep, groaning hum that reverberates for miles.

But how these dunes produce this “music” remains a much debated mystery. Another vexing question is why different dunes sing different tunes—and how can some even sing more than one note at a time?

A trio of Parisian biophysicists think they know the answer. It’s not necessarily the motion of the sandy ocean that determines the pitch of the note—it’s the size of the grains, though why the size matters is still unknown.

The researchers first tracked down a pair of singing dunes, one in Morocco, the other in Oman. Working literally by the seat of their pants, they scooted feet-first down the hills to trigger the avalanches. They found that, while the Moroccan hill moaned at a steady 105 Hz—or a low G sharp—the Omani dunes sang a nine-note blare that ranged from 90 to 150 Hz.

Listen to Sand Dunes Sing

With the sounds identified, the team packed their suitcases with 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of Moroccan sand and 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of Omani sand and hauled them back to their lab at Paris Diderot University. “If you want to make it sing, you need a lot,” noted study leader Simon Dagois-Bohy.

Making Mini-Avalanches

In the lab, the team recreated the avalanches in miniature, analyzing the speed, depth, and makeup of the cascades. As it turns out, the one-note Moroccan sand grains are almost entirely the same size—160 millionths of a meter, or microns across—but the noisy Omani sands run the gamut, from 150 to 300 microns.

But when the messy sands were sieved down to just the 200-to-250 micron particles, the tone cleared into a single tone. “The size of the grain controls the actual sound,” Dagois-Bohy concluded.

Why exactly this happens, and how the sound itself is created, is still uncertain. However, the Parisian group suspects that, during an avalanche, grains of sand move together down the dune—each grain colliding with and rolling around its neighbors, creating a constant stream of collisions. Larger grains of sand move around each other at slower rates, and vice versa for smaller grains.

Each bump makes a shock that, on its own, would be all but inaudible. But add them together in the right conditions, said study co-author Stéphane Douady—and the team is still working out what those precise conditions actually are—and you get “the sound of millions of little shocks.”

The singing-dunes study was published October 26 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Who is Baphomet?

Posted: November 2, 2012 by phaedrap1 in Occult, Spirituality, Uncategorized

Baphomet is an enigmatic, goat-headed figure found in several instances in the history of occultism. From the Knights Templar of the Middle-Ages and the Freemasons of the 19th century to modern currents of occultism, Baphomet never fails to create controversy. But where does Baphomet originate from and, most importantly, what is the true meaning of this symbolic figure? This article looks at the origins of Baphomet, the esoteric meaning of Baphomet and its occurrence in popular culture.

Throughout the history of Western occultism, the name of the mysterious Baphomet is often invoked. Although it became commonly know name in the twentieth century, mentions of Baphomet can be found in documents dating from as early as the 11th century. Today, the symbol is associated with anything relating to occultism, ritual magic, witchcraft, Satanism and esoterica. Baphomet often pops up in popular culture to identify anything occult.

The most famous depiction of Baphomet is found in Eliphas Levi’s “Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie“, a 1897 book that became a standard reference for modern occultism. What does this creature represent? What is the meaning of the symbols around it? Why is it so important in occultism? To answer some of these questions, we must first look at its origins. We’ll first look at the history of Baphomet and several examples of references to Baphomet in popular culture.

Origins of the Name

There are several theories concerning the origins of the name of Baphomet. The most common explanation claims that it is an Old French corruption of the name of Mohammed (which was Latin-ized to “Mahomet”) – the Prophet of Islam. During the Crusades, the Knights Templar stayed for during extended periods of time in Middle-Eastern countries where they became acquainted with the teachings of Arabian mysticism. This contact with Eastern civilizations allowed them to bring back to Europe the basics of what would become western occultism, including Gnosticism, alchemy, Kabbalah and Hermetism. The Templars’ affinity with the Muslims led the Church to accuse them of the worship of an idol named Baphomet, so there are some plausible links between Baphomet and Mahomet. However, there are other theories concerning the origins of the name.

Eliphas Levi, the French occultist who drew the famous depiction of Baphomet argued that the name had been derived from Kabbalistic coding:

“The name of the Templar Baphomet, which should be spelt kabalistically backwards, is composed of three abbreviations: Tem. ohp. AB., Templi omnium hominum pacts abbas, “the father of the temple of peace of all men”. ¹

Arkon Daraul, an author and teacher of Sufi tradition and magic argued that Baphomet came from the Arabic word Abu fihama(t), meaning “The Father of Understanding”. ²

Dr. Hugh Schonfield, whose work on the Dead Sea Scrolls is well-known, developed one of the more interesting theories. Schonfield, who had studied a Jewish cipher called the Atbash cipher, which was used in translating some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, claimed that when one applied the cipher to the word Baphomet, it transposed into the Greek word “Sophia”, which means ” knowledge” and is also synonymous with “goddess”.

Possible Origins of the Figure

The modern depiction of Baphomet appears to take its roots from several ancient sources, but primarily from pagan gods. Baphomet bears resemblances to gods all over the globe, including Egypt, Northern Europe and India. In fact, the mythologies of a great number of ancient civilizations include some kind of horned deity. In Jungian theory, Baphomet is a continuation of the horned-god archetype, as the concept of a deity bearing horns is universally present in individual psyches. Do Cernunnos, Pan, Hathor, the Devil (as depicted by Christianity) and Baphomet have a common origin? Some of their attributes are strikingly similar.

The ancient Celtic god Cernunnos is traditionally depicted with antler horns on his head, sitting in “lotus position”, similar to Levi’s depiction of Baphomet. Although the history of Cernunnos is shrouded in mystery, he is usually said to be the god of fertility and nature.

In Britain, an aspect Cerennunos was named Herne. The horned god has the Satyr-like features of Baphomet along with its emphasis on the phallus.

Pan was a prominent deity in Greece. The nature god was often depicted with horns on its head and the lower body of a goat. Not unlike Cerenunnos, Pan is a phallic deity. Its animalistic features are an embodiment of the carnal and procreative impulses of men.

Pope Sylvester II and the Devil (1460). In Christianity, the devil has similar features to the pagan gods described above as they are the main inspiration for these depictions. The attributes embodied by these gods became the representation of what is considered evil by the Church.

The Devil Card from the Tarot of Marseilles (15th century). This card’s depiction of the devil, with its wings, horns, breasts and hand sign is undoubtedly a major influence in Levi’s depiction of Baphomet.

Robin Good-Fellow (or Puck) is a mythological fairy said to be a personification of land spirits. Bearing several attributes of Baphomet and other deities, he is here shown on the cover of a 1629 book surrounded by witches.

Goya’s 1821 painting “Great He-Goat” or “Witches Sabbath”. The painting depicts a coven of witches gathered around Satan, portrayed as a half-man, half-goat figure.

A Baphomet-like figure on the Notre-Dame-de-Paris Cathedral, which was originally built by the Knights Templar.

Eliphas Levi’s Baphomet

This depiction of Baphomet by Eliphas Levi’s from his book Dogmes et Rituels de la Haute Magie (Dogmas and Rituals of High Magic) became the “official” visual representation of Baphomet.

In 1861, the French occultist Eliphas Levi included in his book Dogmes et Rituels de la Haute Magie (Dogmas and Rituals of High Magic) a drawing that would become the most famous depiction of Baphomet: a winged humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a torch on its head between its horns. The figure bears numerous similarities to the deities described above. It also includes several other esoteric symbols relating to the esoteric concepts embodied by the Baphomet. In the preface of his book, Levi stated:

“The goat on the frontispiece carries the sign of the pentagram on the forehead, with one point at the top, a symbol of light, his two hands forming the sign of Hermeticism, the one pointing up to the white moon of Chesed, the other pointing down to the black one of Geburah. This sign expresses the perfect harmony of mercy with justice. His one arm is female, the other male like the ones of the androgyn of Khunrath, the attributes of which we had to unite with those of our goat because he is one and the same symbol. The flame of intelligence shining between his horns is the magic light of the universal balance, the image of the soul elevated above matter, as the flame, whilst being tied to matter, shines above it. The ugly beast’s head expresses the horror of the sinner, whose materially acting, solely responsible part has to bear the punishment exclusively; because the soul is insensitive according to its nature and can only suffer when it materializes. The rod standing instead of genitals symbolizes eternal life, the body covered with scales the water, the semi-circle above it the atmosphere, the feathers following above the volatile. Humanity is represented by the two breasts and the androgyn arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences.” ³

In Levi’s depiction, Baphomet embodies the culmination of the alchemical process – the union of opposing forces to create Astral Light – the basis of magic and, ultimately, enlightenment.

A close look at the details of the image reveals that each symbol is inevitably balanced with its opposite. Baphomet himself is an androgynous character as it is bearing the characteristics of both sexes: female breasts and a rod representing the erect phallus. The concept of androgeniety is of a great importance in occult philosophy as it is representative the highest level of initiation in the quest of becoming “one with God”.

Baphomet’s phallus is actually Hermes’ Caduceus – a rod intertwined with two serpents. This ancient symbol is has been representing Hermetism for centuries. The Caduceus esoterically represents the activation of chakras, from the base of the spine to the pineal gland, using serpentine power (hence, the serpents) or Astral Light.

The Caduceus as symbol of chakra activation.

The Science is a real one only for those who admit and understand the philosophy and the religion; and its process will succeed only for the Adept who has attained the sovereignty of will, and so become the King of the elementary world: for the grand agent of the operation of the Sun, is that force described in the Symbol of Hermes, of the table of emerald; it is the universal magical power; the spiritual, fiery, motive power; it is the Od, according to the Hebrews, and the Astral light, according to others.

Therein is the secret fire, living and philosophical, of which all the Hermetic philosophers speak with the most mysterious reserve: the Universal Seed, the secret whereof they kept, and which they represented only under the figure of the Caduceus of Hermes. ⁴

Baphomet is therefore symbolic of the alchemical Great Work where separate and opposing forces are united in perfect equilibrium to generate Astral Light. This alchemical process is represented on Levi’s image by the terms Solve and Coagula on Baphomet’s arms. While they accomplish opposite results, Solving (turning solid into liquid) and Coagulation (turning liquid into solid) are two necessary steps of the alchemical process – which aims to turn stone into gold or, in esoteric terms, a profane man into an illuminated man. The two steps are on arms pointing in opposite directions, further emphasizing their opposite nature.

Baphomet’s hands form the “sign of Hermetism” – which is a visual representation of the Hermetic axiom “As Above, So Below”. This dictum sums up the whole of the teachings and the aims of Hermetism, where the microcosm (man) is as the macrocosm (the universe). Therefore, understanding one equals understanding the other. This Law of Correspondence originates from the Emerald Tablets of Hermes Trismegistus where it was stated:

“That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above, corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Thing”. ⁵

The mastery of this life force, the Astral Life, is what is called by modern occultists “magick”.

The Magician tarot card displaying the Hermetic axiom “As Above, So Below”

“The practice of magic – either white or black – depends upon the ability of the adept to control the universal life force – that which Eliphas Levi calls the great magical agent or the astral light. By the manipulation of this fluidic essence the phenomena of transcendentalism are produced. The famous hermaphroditic Goat of Mendes was a composite creature formulated to symbolize this astral light. It is identical with Baphomet the mystic pantheos of those disciples of ceremonial magic, the Templars, who probably obtained it from the Arabians.” ⁶.

Each of Baphomet’s hands point towards opposing moons, which Levi calls the Chesed and the Geburah – two opposing concepts taken from the Jewish Kabbalah. In the Kabalistic Tree of Life, the Sefirot, Chesed is associated with “kindness given to others” while Geburah refers to the “restraint of one’s urge to bestow goodness upon others, when the recipient of that good is judged to be unworthy and liable to misuse it”. These two concepts are opposed and, as everything else in life, an equilibrium must be found between the two.

The most recognizable feature of Baphomet is, of course, its goat head. This monstrous head represents man’s animal and sinful nature, its egoistic tendencies and its basest instincts. Opposed to man’s spiritual nature (symbolized by the “divine light” on its head), this animal side is regardless viewed as a necessary part of man’s dualistic nature, where the animal and the spiritual must unite in harmony. It can also be argued that Baphomet’s grotesque overall appearance might serve to ward off and repel the profane who are uninitiated to the esoteric meaning of the symbol.

In Secret Societies

Although Levi’s 1861 depiction of Baphomet is the most famous one, the name of this idol has been circulating for over a thousand years, through secret societies and occult circles. The first recorded mention of Baphomet as a part of an occult ritual appeared during the era of the Knights Templar.

The Knights Templar

Baphomet presiding over a Templar ritual by Leo Taxil.

It is widely accepted by occult researchers that the figure of Baphomet was of a great importance in the rituals of the Knights Templar. The first occurrence of the name Baphomet appeared in a 1098 letter by crusader Anselm of Ribemont stating:

“As the next day dawned they called loudly upon Baphometh while we prayed silently in our hearts to God; then we attacked and forced all of them outside the city walls.” ⁷

During the Templar trials of 1307, where Knight Templars were tortured and interrogated by request of King Philip IV of France, the name of Baphomet was mentioned several times. While some Templars denied the existence of Baphomet, others described it as being either a severed head, a cat, or a head with three faces.

While books aimed for mass consumption often deny any link between the Knights Templar and Baphomet, claiming it to be an invention of the Church to demonize them, almost all reputed authors on occultism (who wrote books intended for initiates) acknowledge that the link. In fact, the idol is often referred to as “the Baphomet of the Templars”.

“Did the Templars really adore Baphomet? Did they offer a shameful salutation to the buttocks of the goat of Mendes? What was actually this secret and potent association which imperilled Church and State, and was thus destroyed unheard? Judge nothing lightly; they are guilty of a great crime; they have exposed to profane eyes the sanctuary of antique initiation. They have gathered again and have shared the fruits of the tree of knowledge, so that they might become masters of the world. The judgement pronounced against them is higher and far older than the tribunal of pope or king: “On the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,” said God Himself, as we read in the Book of Genesis.

(…)

Yes, in our profound conviction, the Grand Masters of the Order of the Templars worshipped the Baphomet, and caused it to be worshipped by their initiates; yes, there existed in the past, and there may be still in the present, assemblies which are presided over by this figure, seated on a throne and having a flaming torch between the horns. But the adorers of this sign do not consider, as do we, that it is a representation of the devil: on the contrary, for them it is that of the god Pan, the god of our modern schools of philosophy, the god of the Alexandrian theurgic school and of our own mystical Neo-platonists, the god of Lamartine and Victor Cousin, the god of Spinoza and Plato, the god of the primitive Gnostic schools; the Christ also of the dissident priesthood. This last qualification, ascribed to the goat of Black Magic, will not astonish students of religious antiquities who are acquainted with the phases of symbolism and doctrine in their various transformations, whether in India, Egypt or Judea.” ⁸

Freemasonry

Shortly after the release of Levi’s illustration, the french writer and journalist Léo Taxil released a series of pamphlets and books denouncing Freemasonry, charging lodges with worshipping the devil. At the center of his accusations was Baphomet, which was described as the Mason’s object of worship.

“Les mystères de la franc-maçonnerie” (Mysteries of Freemasonry) accused Freemasons of satanism and worshipping Baphomet. Taxil’s works raised the ire of Catholics.

The Book cover of “Les mystères de la franc-maçonnerie” depicting a Masonic ritual presided by Baphomet, who is literally being worshipped.

Anti-Masonic image by publicist Abel Clarin de la Rive, 1894.

In 1897, after causing quite a stir due to his revelations on French Freemasonry, Léo Taxil called a press conference where he announced that many of his revelations were fabrications ⁹. Since then, this series of events has been dubbed the “Léo Taxil Hoax”. However, some would argue the probability that Taxil’s confession may have been coerced in order to quell the controversy involving Freemasonry.

Whatever the case may be, the most likely connection between Freemasonry and Baphomet is through symbolism, where the idol becomes an allegory for profound esoteric concepts. The Masonic author Albert Pike argues that, in Freemasonry, Baphomet is not an object of worship, but a symbol, the true meaning of which is only revealed to high-level initiates.

“It is absurd to suppose that men of intellect adored a monstrous idol called Baphomet, or recognized Mahomet as an inspired prophet. Their symbolism, invented ages before, to conceal what it was dangerous to avow, was of course misunderstood by those who were not adepts, and to their enemies seemed to be pantheistic. The calf of gold, made by Aaron for the Israelites, was but one of the oxen under the layer of bronze, and the Karobim on the Propitiatory, misunderstood. The symbols of the wise always become the idols of the ignorant multitude. What the Chiefs of the Order really believed and taught, is indicated to the Adepts by the hints contained in the high Degrees of Free-Masonry, and by the symbols which only the Adepts understand.” ¹⁰

Aleister Crowley

The British occultist Aleister Crowley was born about six months after the death of Eliphas Levi, causing him to believe that he was Levi’s reincarnation. Partly for this reason, Crowley was known within the O.T.O., the secret society he popularized, as “Baphomet”.

A signed picture of Crowley as Baphomet.

Here’s Crowley’s explanation of the etymology of the name Baphomet, taken from his 1929 book The Confessions of Aleister Crowley:

“I had taken the name Baphomet as my motto in the O.T.O. For six years and more I had tried to discover the proper way to spell this name. I knew that it must have eight letters, and also that the numerical and literal correspondences must be such as to express the meaning of the name in such a ways as to confirm what scholarship had found out about it, and also to clear up those problems which archaeologists had so far failed to solve…. One theory of the name is that it represents the words ???? ??????, the baptism of wisdom; another, that it is a corruption of a title meaning “Father Mithras”. Needless to say, the suffix R supported the latter theory. I added up the word as spelt by the Wizard. It totalled 729. This number had never appeared in my Cabbalistic working and therefore meant nothing to me. It however justified itself as being the cube of nine. The word ?????, the mystic title given by Christ to Peter as the cornerstone of the Church, has this same value. So far, the Wizard had shown great qualities! He had cleared up the etymological problem and shown why the Templars should have given the name Baphomet to their so-called idol. Baphomet was Father Mithras, the cubical stone which was the corner of the Temple.” ¹¹

Baphomet is an important figure in the Thelema, the mystical system he established at the beginning of the 20th century. In one of his most important works, Magick, Liber ABA, Book 4, Crowley describes Baphomet as a divine androgyne:

“The Devil does not exist. It is a false name invented by the Black Brothers to imply a Unity in their ignorant muddle of dispersions. A devil who had unity would be a God … ‘The Devil’ is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes … This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade ‘Know Thyself!’ and taught Initiation. He is ‘The Devil’ of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is Baphomet, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection … He is therefore Life, and Love. But moreover his letter is ayin, the Eye, so that he is Light; and his Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty.” ¹²

The Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, the ecclesiastical arm of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), recites during its Gnostic Mass “And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mystery, in His name BAPHOMET.” ¹³ Baphomet is considered to be the union of Chaos and Babalon, masculine and feminine energy, the phallus and the womb.

The Church of Satan

Although not technically a secret society, Anton Lavey’s Church of Satan remains an influential occult order. Founded in 1966, the organization adopted the “Sigil of Baphomet” as its official insignium.

The Sigil of Baphomet, the official symbol of the Church of Satan features the Goat of Mendes inside an inverted pentagram.

The Sigil of Baphomet was probably heavily inspired by this illustration from Stanislas de Guaita’s La Clef de la Magie Noire (The Key to Black Magic).

Illustrations from La Clef de la Magie Noire (1897)

According to Anton Lavey, the Templars worshipped Baphomet as a symbol of Satan. Baphomet is prominently present during in Church of Satan rituals as the symbol is placed above the ritualistic altar.

In The Satanic Bible, Lavey describes the symbol of Baphomet:

“The symbol of Baphomet was used by the Knights Templar to represent Satan. Through the ages this symbol has been called by many different names. Among these are: The Goat of Mendes, The Goat of a Thousand Young, The Black Goat, The Judas Goat, and perhaps the most appropriately, The Scapegoat.

Baphomet represents the Powers of Darkness combined with the generative fertility of the goat. In its “pure” form the pentagram is shown encompassing the figure of a man in the five points of the star – three points up, two pointing down – symbolizing man’s spiritual nature. In Satanism the pentagram is also used, but since Satanism represents the carnal instincts of man, or the opposite of spiritual nature, the pentagram is inverted to perfectly accommodate the head of the goat – its horns, representing duality, thrust upwards in defiance; the other three points inverted, or the trinity denied. The Hebraic figures around the outer circle of the symbol which stem from the magical teachings of the Kabala, spell out “Leviathan”, the serpent of the watery abyss, and identified with Satan. These figures correspond to the five points of the inverted star.” ¹⁴

In Popular Culture

Mostly due to the influence of Aleister Crowley and Anton Lavey on popular culture, references to Baphomet can be found throughout popular culture. In some cases, such as with heavy metal bands, the references are rather clear and unequivocal – these bands in no way conceal the influence of these schools of occultism on their imagery. Here are some examples:

Death Metal Band Behemoth – Cover of Zos Kia Cultus

Death metal band The Black Dalia Murder – Album cover of Ritual.

Marilyn Manson – Anti-Christ Superstar album cover

Rammstein’s Pussy refers to the androgyny of Baphomet. The second guy from the right also does the “As Above So Below” hand sign.

In mainstream (“corporate”) pop culture the references are a lot more vague and concealed. Aimed at a younger crowd, the references are existent but, probably not recognized and understood consciously by most of the audience. Here are some examples.

Lady Gaga.

Pop singer Kerli.

Screen shot from the popular online game Ragnarok.

Album cover of “Baphomet” by Kiichi

Many more obscure references can be found by those “who have eyes to see”.

In Conclusion

Baphomet is a composite creation symbolic of alchemical realization through the union of opposite forces. Occultists believe that, through the mastery of life force, one is able to produce magick and spiritual enlightenment. Eliphas Levi’s depiction of Baphomet included several symbols alluding to the raising of the kundalini – serpentine power – which ultimately leads to the activation of the pineal gland, also known as the “third eye”. So, from an esoteric point of view, Baphomet represents this occult process.

However, over time the symbol has come to signify much more than its esoteric meaning. Through controversies, Baphomet became, depending of the point of view, a representation of everything that is good in occultism or everything that is evil in occultism. It is, in fact, the ultimate “scapegoat”, the face of witchcraft, black magick and Satanism. The fact that the symbol is rather monstrous and grotesque has probably helped propel the symbol to its level of infamy as it never fails to shock organized religions while attracting those who rebel against them.

Since gaining widespread recognition in popular culture, the image of Baphomet is now used as a symbol of anything regarding occultism and ritualism. In corporate-owned mass media, which has ties with secret societies, the figure of Baphomet appears in the oddest places, often to audiences too young to understand the occult reference (Secret Arcana’s sister site Vigilant Citizen documents the occurrences of Baphomet and other occult symbols in music videos, movies and fashion). Is Baphomet used in pop culture as a symbol of the power of the occult elite over the ignorant masses?

After centuries of myths, hoaxes, propaganda and disinformation on both sides of the spectrum, can we truly answer the the original question posed by this article: “Who is Baphomet?”. Is it a symbol of Satan or of spiritual enlightenment? Is it a symbol of good or evil? The answer lies within the symbol itself: It is both. In Egyptian mythology, Toth Hermes was a mediating power between good and evil, making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other. Baphomet represents the accomplishment on this cosmic task on a very small scale, within oneself. Once perfect equilibrium is attained on a personal level, the occult initiate can point one hand towards the heavens and one hand towards the earth and pronounce this hermetic axiom which reverberated through millenniums: “As Above, So Below”.

Eliphas Levi, Dogmes et Rituels de la Haute Magie ↩
Arkon Daraul, A History of Secret Societies ↩
Eliphas Levi, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie ↩
Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma ↩
English translation of the Emerald Tablet ↩
Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages ↩
Malcom Barber and Keith Bate, Letters from the East: Crusaders, Pilgrims and Settlers in the 12th-13th Centuries ↩
Op. Cit. Levi ↩
The Confessions of Léo Taxil, April 25 1897 ↩
Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma ↩
Aleister Crowley, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley ↩
Aleister Crowley, Magick, Liber ABA, Book 4 ↩
Helena and Tau Apiron, “The Invisible Basilica: The Creed of the Gnostic Catholic Church: An Examination” ↩
Anton Lavey, The Satanic Bible ↩

John Dee’s Calendar and God’s Longitude

Posted: November 2, 2012 by phaedrap1 in Conspiracy, Occult
Tags: John Dee

By Peter Meyer – Hermetic Systems

John Dee was an advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, in particular, on the reform of the calendar. His activities in this area are described in an article on this website by Dr Robert Poole. What is not mentioned in that article is that (as shown by investigations by Simon Cassidy) Dee did not in fact propose the adoption of a modified form of the Gregorian Calendar (with the omission of 11 days instead of the Pope’s 10 days) but actually intended a quite different and superior calendar reform — an Elizabethan calendar with a 33-year cycle (based on the life of Jesus) including eight leap years and with the spring equinox always occurring on March 21 (provided the calendar was used at a certain meridian of longitude).

In the Gregorian Calendar a year whose year number is divisible by 4 is a leap year unless it is divisible by 100 but not by 400 (in which case it is not a leap year). Thus the years 1600 and 2000 are leap years, but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not.

In the calendar proposed by John Dee the rule for which years within a 33-year cycle are leap years is: A year is a leap year if (and only if) the remainder, when the year number is divided by 33, is non-zero and is an exact multiple of 4. The Dee Calendar, and its variant, the Dee-Cecil Calendar, is discussed in more detail in The Dee-Cecil Calendar and its Date Conversion Algorithms.

Simon Cassidy has proposed that John Dee had a secret plan for the implementation of his calendar, one which (a) would have confounded the Catholic calendar reform (if implemented) and (b) did catalyse the first attempts at a trans-oceanic British Empire under the Protestant monarchs Queen Elizabeth I and James I.

The primary motivation for the Gregorian calendar reform was that the date of Easter was slowly slipping (reaching about ten or eleven days by the 16th C.) towards summer. This date is sometimes loosely defined as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring (a.k.a. vernal) equinox (which, as astronomer Duncan Steel has stated, implies that Easter can occur any time between March 22 and April 25).

Simon Cassidy has stated (private communication):

The actual rule in both the Gregorian and Julian calendars is that Easter is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon day, on or after the date of March 21st (the ecclesiastical spring equinox).The ecclesiastical full moons are determined by the Golden number of the year and in the Gregorian calendar also by the epact shifts of all the Golden number dates (which shifts occur only in certain century years). No one really knows whether the Nicene fathers got any further than deciding that all christians had to obey the same rule (without specifying an actual rule, other than the probable introduction of the Sunday endpoint).

Those who like to say the rule is “the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon day, after the date of March 20th” are forgetting that the Church documents actually state the date of the church’s equinox as the 21st of March (as King Phillip II of Spain emphasized to the Pope, Gregory XIII, prior to his reform).

Unfortunately in the Gregorian Calendar the vernal equinox can occur on any of March 19, 20 and 21, as shown in Figure 3 of Simon Cassidy’s Stonehenge Speaks: An Open Letter to Umberto Eco (PDF file).

Thus the Gregorian calendar reform was flawed at its inception, since it did not result in the vernal equinox always occurring on March 21 in the new calendar, contrary to the presumed wishes of the Nicene fathers [at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD] — an embarrassment that presumably the Church preferred to remain silent about. (After the official introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in 1582 the vernal equinox stayed either on March 20 or 21 until 1652 (British time) or 1656 (Italian time), when it occurred on March 19.)

The vernal equinox cannot always occur on March 21 in the Gregorian Calendar (or on any single date) because in that calendar it is possible to have a leap year followed by seven non-leap years, e.g., 1796 (a leap year) followed by the years 1797-1803 (since 1800 was not a leap year). The true length of the seasonal year is about 6 hours longer than 365 days, so the vernal equinox occurs about 6 hours later from year to year. Over a period of seven years the last vernal equinox will occur about 42 hours later than the first, unless the date of the vernal equinox is made to be earlier by the insertion of an extra day in the preceding February. But if those seven years are all non-leap years, then this adjustment will not occur, so the 42 hours will always span at least two calendar dates.

Sometimes during these seven years the vernal equinox will span three calendar dates, as in the following example (times are GMT). Note that 1800 is not a leap year in the Gregorian Calendar.

1796-03-19 CE 20:54
1797-03-20 CE 02:48
1798-03-20 CE 08:39
1799-03-20 CE 14:31
1800-03-20 CE 20:12
1801-03-21 CE 01:56
1802-03-21 CE 07:48
1803-03-21 CE 13:34

1804 is a leap year, so a February 29 occurs in 1804, which pulls the vernal equinox back to March 20 (at 19:17).

The time-of-day of the vernal equinox moves forward by about six hours each year, so in four years it moves forward by about 24 hours. Actually it always moves forward by less than 24 hours.

What follows is a heuristic argument to show that, under certain conditions, the vernal equinox could always occur (at least, within a certain range of years) on the same date in the Dee Calendar.

A 33-year cycle in the Dee Calendar consists of seven 4-year periods (years 1-4, 5-8, etc.) in which the 4th year is a leap year, followed by a 5-year period (29-33) in which the 4th year (the 32nd year of the cycle) is a leap year.

Consider a 4-year period. Consider a day (more exactly, a nychthemeron) as divided into quarters (midnight to 6 a.m., etc.). If in the 1st year the vernal equinox occurs in the 2nd quarter (6 a.m. to noon) then it will usually (though not always) occur in the 3rd quarter in the 2nd year, in the 4th quarter in the 3rd year, and in the 1st quarter in the 4th year. Since the 4th year is a leap year, the date of the vernal equinox remains the same as for the 1st year.

The vernal equinox in the following year, which is the 1st year of the next 4- or 5-year period, occurs in the 2nd quarter, and so has the same date as the preceding four years.

Consider now the final 5-year period. If in the 1st year the vernal equinox occurs at about 7 a.m. then in the 2nd year it will occur about 1 pm., in the 3rd year about 7 p.m., and in the 4th year about 1 a.m.. So the date of the vernal equinox in that year remains the same as for the 1st year because the 4th year is a leap year. Then in the 5th year the vernal equinox occurs about 7 a.m., on the same date as in the previous year.

Thus for the vernal equinox to occur on the same date each year in the Dee Calendar vernal equinoxes must always (or at least usually) occur in the 2nd quarter in the first year of each 4-year period and at about 7 a.m. in the first year of the final 5-year period.

This might seem to be asking a lot (that is, the assumptions might never be fulfilled). Note, however, that the time-of-day of any event (such as the vernal equinox) is relative to local midnight, and local midnight depends on the place on Earth (more exactly, the longitude) where one is. So it may be that for most longitudes the assumptions are never fulfilled. But in fact for certain periods there is a longitude where the vernal equinox always occurs at just the right times of day, so that it always occurs on March 21 in the Dee Calendar.

Simon Cassidy has proposed that John Dee, after formulating his calendar in the 1560s (1564-1568), considered the question of whether there is some longitude at which the vernal equinox always (or at least for several centuries) occurs on March 21, and that (after much observation, diplomacy and computation) he arrived at the correct answer: 77° west of Greenwich. At this longitude the vernal equinox will always occur on the same calendar date: March 21 in Dee’s calendar (in accord with the ecclesiastical spring equinox date), or March 20 in the Dee-Cecil variant, during the 300 years from 1580 through 1879.

The 33-year leap-day cycle of Dee’s calendar accords with, and repeats indefinitely, the actual leap-days in the traditional lifetime of Jesus (years 1-33 AD). Dee (according to Simon Cassidy) believed that the obvious superiority of his calendar over the Gregorian would so much appeal to Christians everywhere that they would abandon the Gregorian reform in favor of his calendar, which was to be promulgated under the auspices of the Protestant Queen, Elizabeth I.

In his Stonehenge Speaks Simon Cassidy writes that:

the adoption of the mathematically simplest, and most Christian, implementation of the 33-year cycle would logically specify the existence of a meridian or narrow band of longitudes within which, and only within which, the Nicene edict could stay correct. This would probably have come to be seen as God’s chosen meridian by all Churches that recognised the Nicene council.

After reading this, Duncan Steel coined the term “God’s Longitude” to denote this “narrow band of longitudes”.

Further details are given by Simon Cassidy in his articles Re 4-1/8 yr. Leap Rule responses of Richard, Jim and Amos and Implementing a correct 33-year calendar reform.

The problem in implementing Dee’s calendar in the early 1580s was that longitude 77° W was then under the control of the Spanish (who had colonized the Caribbean and parts of South America), and unfortunately they owed allegiance to the Pope. It would not do to announce the new Protestant calendar when God’s Longitude was not in the possession of Protestants but rather of Catholics. Thus Dee proposed to Queen Elizabeth that an expedition should be mounted to colonize the East Coast of North America, so as to take possession of at least part of God’s Longitude, thus preparing the way for the advent of the new calendar and the demise of the Gregorian reform.

Because of this interest of Elizabeth in colonizing North America Duncan Steel considers Dee’s calendar to be the most important invention in the last 2000 years (see his The Non-implemented 33-Year English Protestant Calendar).

Bill Napier’s novel Shattered Icon (2003, Headline, UK; published in the US as Splintered Icon and in Germany as Der 77. Grad) is partly a semi-fictional account of the voyage to establish the colony in Virginia and the reason for it, and is partly set in the present, where one of the main characters (after the plot is explained to him) says:

OK, I get it. The English establish a colony on the seventy-seven degree meridian, operating in secret. Once they’ve established it, they announce the Dee calendar to the world. A calendar that paces the life of Jesus, that’s more true to the Biblical Easter, that holds more closely to the seasons. Irresistible! England’s influence with other Protestant nations is increased, and the Antichrist, in the form of the Pope, is stuck flogging a second-rate ecclesiastical calendar which they’d only just introduced. Game, set and match to the Protestants. Quite a lad was our John Dee.

Consider now how to locate God’s Longitude exactly. This longitude cannot be found by analytical reasoning but only by computation (using data obtained by observation, in particular, vernal equinox times).

Based on algorithms that I developed for conversion of dates in the Dee(-Cecil) Calendar to and from Julian day numbers, I wrote software for Dee(-Cecil) date conversion. This software includes the ability to calculate the date and time of the vernal equinox both for the Gregorian Calendar and for the Dee and Dee-Cecil Calendars as used at any given longitude from 70° to 79°59′ west of Greenwich. Furthermore, this software allows use of both apparent solar time and mean solar time (as explained in the user manual).

The primary result from using this software (in the context of this article) is that during the period from 1555 through 1879 the vernal equinox would always have occurred on March 21 in the Dee Calendar (using apparent solar time, as Dee did) if that calendar had been in use at longitude 77° W.

A poem which Dee wrote and included in a calendrical treatise written for Queen Elizabeth has these lines:

To shew the sun of Christ birth day.
Three hundred yeres, shall not remove
The sun, one day, from this new match

If Dee was counting years from 1580 then he was saying that during the 300 years from 1580 through 1879 the vernal equinox always occurs on March 21 in his new calendar (at longitude 77° W). This is true (though in 1880 it occurs on March 20). Simon Cassidy has pointed out that this is evidence supporting his hypothesis that Dee was (secretly) advising Queen Elizabeth to mount an expedition to North America in order to take possession of God’s Longitude.

If we consider the 292-year period from 1588 through 1879 we find that the vernal equinox always occurs on March 21 in the Dee Calendar for any longitude from 75°30′ W to 78°30′ W (using apparent solar time). Thus during 1588-1879 God’s Longitude was this 3-degree range of longitudes, centering on 77° W. It is interesting to note that the longitude of the Capitol Building in Washington DC (denoted zero degrees by the District of Columbia’s original architect Pierre L’Enfant ca. 1790) is 77°0′ W. Coincidence?

Due to the decrease in the speed of the Earth’s rotation, God’s Longitude has been slowly moving east since Dee’s time. So where is it now? That depends on whether we use apparent or mean solar time. Midnight as now understood occurs at the same instant throughout any single timezone. That instant is local midnight at the longitude taken as the reference point for that timezone (which is usually a multiple of 15° different from the Greenwich Meridian). That local midnight is midnight mean solar time, not midnight apparent solar time. Therefore we should use mean solar time.

We then find (using the Julian-Gregorian-Dee Date Calculator) that for the 400-year period 1801 through 2200, for all longitudes from 73°36′ W to 75°29′ W, the vernal equinox always occurs on March 21 in the Dee Calendar. Thus God’s Longitude now exists at this band of longitudes around 74°30′ W. Consulting a map of the world we find that New York City (73°58′), Bogota (74°5′) and Guantanamo Bay (75°14′) are all within this band. This seems appropriate, seeing as how the world is currently dominated by international bankers, South American drug lords and the US military.

If, however, we take into consideration the use of Daylight Savings Time in the U.S.A. (and in particular the new rules recently introduced) then we might arrive at a different view of the present location of God’s Longitude. Simon Cassidy has stated (private communication):

From the end of the nineteenth century (1883), local midnight has become synchronised by time-zones, using the meantime of standard-longitudes, generally at 15 degree intervals from Greenwich. Thus we see that, currently, during Vernal Equinoxes, the whole of the USA’s central time-zone is running on the local meantime of the standard-longitude of 75° W. (due to Daylight Savings Time being now effective in the USA at every Vernal Equinox). Thus America’s heartland, and all regions having this property (of using 75° W. meantime, during Vernal Equinoxes) now share the specter of John Dee’s Imperial Godly Longitude.

Elephant personalities revealed by scientists

Posted: November 1, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science

Elephants have four distinct personalities that help their herd survive in the African bush, scientists have found.

African elephant and calf: Researchers found that some elephants had more gentle personalities

Researchers found that some elephants had more gentle personalities Photo: Burrard-Lucas / Barcroft Media

With their grey skin, mournful eyes and slow plodding gait, you could be forgiven for thinking elephants are uniformly melancholy creatures.

But scientists have now discovered the largest living land animals have personalities to match their size.

In a new study of African elephants, researchers have identified four distinct characters that are prevalent with a herd – the leaders, the gentle giants, the playful rogues and the reliable plodders.

Each of the types has developed to help the giant mammals survive in their harsh environment and are almost unique in the animal kingdom, according to the scientists.

“Each individual in a group has a very different personality type,” said Professor Phyllis Lee, a behavioural psychologist at University of Stirling and chair of the scientific advisory committee for the Amboseli Trust for Elephants.

“It is the ability to influence others and sustain friendships are important to an elephant group, while in other animals it is often aggression or dominance.”

Professor Lee and her colleague Cynthia Moss studied a herd of elephants in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya known as the EB family – famous for their matriarch Echo before she died in 2009.

Using data collected over 38 years of watching this group, the researchers analysed them for 26 types of behaviour and found four personality traits tended to come to the fore.

The strongest personality to emerge was that of the leader. The researchers, whose work is published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, looked for those elephants that tended to influence the movements and direction of the group.

They also looked for the elephants that produced the most deep calls known as “let’s go” rumbles, which the animals use when started to move as a herd.

Unlike other animals, where leadership tends to be won by the most dominant and aggressive individual, the elephants instead respected intelligence and problem solving in their leader.

Professor Lee said: “This is something that is particularly unusual in animals. Normally dominance is the main element in leadership in dogs, macaques, chimpanzees and many more. What we find in elephants is it more about their ability to get agreement.

“Leadership is not equal to power or assertion in elephants, but illustrates the respect accorded to individuals as a function of their problem-solving ability and their social permissiveness.”

Echo, the matriarch and oldest in the group, her daughter Enid, and Ella, the second oldest female, all emerged as leaders.

The playful elephants tended to be younger but were more curious and active. Eudora, a 40-year-old female in the herd, seemed to be the most playful, consistently showing this trait through out her life while playfulness in some of the other elephants declined with age.

Gentle elephants, which included two 27-year-old females Eleanor and Eliot, caressed and rubbed against others more than the others.

Those that were reliable tended to be those that were most consistent at making good decisions, helped to care for infants in the herd and were calm when faced with threats. Echo and her youngest daughter Ebony seemed to be the most reliable.

Professor Lee said that elephants with these traits tended to be the most socially integrated in the group while those who tended to be less reliable and pushy were more likely to split from the herd.

She said that less integrated elephants also tended to produce fewer calves, suggesting that personality could determine reproductive success.

The researchers now hope to study other elephant groups and male elephants to see if any other personality characteristics emerge.

Professor Lee said: “We have only looked at one elephant group so we intend to look at other elephant groups that are less successful to see if there are other personalities that are causing this. We really don’t know much about the personality types in males yet either.

“Males develop strong friendships and older males tend to mentor younger ones, who follow them and learn from them.”

The Telegraph

Tsunamis in the Alps?

Posted: November 1, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science, Uncategorized
Tags: science

A killer wave slammed medieval Geneva, a new study says. And it could happen again.

Chateau de Chillon on Lake Geneva, Switzerland.

The circa A.D. 1000 Chateau de Chillon on Lake Geneva, Switzerland.

Photograph from ADS/Alamy

Daniel Stone

National Geographic News

Published October 31, 2012

Nearly 1,500 years ago a massive flood in Geneva reportedly swept away everything in its path—mills, houses, cattle, even entire churches.

Now researchers believe they’ve found the unlikely sounding culprit: a tsunami-like killer wave in the Alps. The threat, they add, may still be very much alive.

Spurred by a huge landslide, the medieval Lake Geneva “tsunami” (technically defined as a seismic ocean wave) swamped the city, which was already a trading hub, according to a new study.

Far from any ocean, the massive wave was likely generated by a massive landslide into the Rhône River, which feeds and flows through Lake Geneva, according to a group of Swiss researchers.

The team analyzed a massive sediment deposit at the bottom of the lake’s easternmost corner and determined that the material had once sat above the lake and had slid all at once into the Rhône, near where the river flows into the eastern end of Lake Geneva (map).

The sudden splash sent a tsunami barreling down the length of the 225-square-mile (580-square-kilometer) lake toward Geneva, at the western end of the lake, the study suggests. Researchers estimate the wave was between 9 and 26 feet (3 and 8 meters) tall, depending on how quickly the rockfall occurred, which they were unable to measure.

(From National Geographic magazine: Where and when will the next tsunami hit?)

Geneva in the Crosshairs

The Alpine tsunami, the researchers caution, isn’t just a thing of the past.

A similar event at Lake Geneva could affect the modern-day Swiss cities of Lausanne, Nyon, and Thonon-les-Bains—but Geneva itself may be at greatest risk.

The city is home to major financial and international organizations as well as nearly 200,000 people, many of whom live in low-lying areas near the lake. Unfortunately for them, the lake narrows as it approaches Geneva, creating a funnel effect that would amplify an approaching wave.

For now, there’s little indication that another Geneva tsunami is imminent, researchers have said. But the new study found evidence of several large flooding events in Geneva since the last glacier retreated from the city’s site.

“If this has happened five to six times since the last glaciation, there’s reason to believe it could happen again in the future,” said University of Geneva geologist Guy Simpson, who study team’s modeler.

“A three-meter [ten-foot] wave that hit Geneva today would be a scary wave.”

The Geneva-tsunami study appears this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Saxon find in Lyminge has historians partying like it’s 599

Posted: October 31, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News
Tags: Archeology

Remains of great hall, the first unearthed in 30 years, dug up on Kent village green

The foundations of a spectacular Anglo-Saxon feasting hall, a place where a king and his warriors would have gathered for days of drinking and eating – as vividly described in the poem Beowulf – have been found inches below the village green of Lyminge in Kent.

There was one last celebration by the light of flickering flames at the site, 1,300 years after the hall was abandoned, as archaeologists marked the find by picking out the outline of the hall in candles, lighting up the end-of-excavation party. Heaps of animal bones buried in pits around the edge of the hall bore testimony to many epic parties of the past.

The unexpected find, by a team from the University of Reading funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and working with local archaeologists and villagers, is exceptionally rare. Digging under the curious gaze of drinkers in the garden of the Coach and Horses pub a few metres away, it is the first great hall from the period to be discovered in more than 30 years.

At 21 metres by 8.5 metres, it would have been the most imposing structure for miles, large enough to hold at least 60 people. Beowulf, the most famous of all surviving Anglo-Saxon poems, describes the hero coming to just such a hall, Heorot – “the timbered hall / splendid and ornamented with gold. / The building in which that powerful man held court / Was the foremost of halls under heaven; / Its radiance shone over many lands.”

The director of the Lyminge excavations, Gabor Thomas, said: “This would undoubtedly have been the scene of many Beowulfy type activities, great assemblies for feasts that lasted for days, much drinking and story-telling, rich gifts like arm rings being presented, all of that. There could have been no more visible sign of wealth and status than raising a hall like this.”

The royal family and retinue would have visited sporadically. “This is before centralised tax collecting and coinage, too early for royal palaces as such,” Thomas said. “To keep control you had to keep on the move, stopping at significant places, literally feeding off the land, off the rich food offerings that would be brought everywhere the king arrived.”

Thomas believes the hall marks a crucial transition, the last flicker of the ancient pagan ways before the site was abandoned, after the hall had stood for perhaps no more than a generation.

A rare piece of beautifully decorated and gilded horse harness, broken in antiquity, was found in the foundations. It is the first such find from a domestic setting – similar examples are isolated finds by metal detectors, or from graves – and helps date the hall to the late sixth or early seventh century.

“The horse harness decoration is very significant,” Thomas said. “It’s not just a wonderful find, but evidence of the status of the people who used this site – the ability to own and upkeep a horse was the mark of the warrior aristocracy.”

Other finds include pieces of jewellery, bone combs, and a remarkably well preserved manicure set – three little bronze rods, probably for cleaning fingernails or ears, strung on to a piece of wire. The site also yielded quantities of glass, some evidently scavenged by the Anglo-Saxons from nearby Roman sites and melted down to make glass bead jewellery.

Earlier excavations at various sites in the village, including the graveyard of the village church, which is said to have been founded in AD633 and to be the original burial place of St Ethelburga, uncovered evidence of thousands of years of habitation. The village is only a few miles from the Eurotunnel terminal, but is still surrounded by rich farmland, and remarkably isolated in a tangle of narrow country roads, hills and valleys.

Last summer, when the archaeologists moved on to the village green, which has been open land for almost 1,000 years, ground-penetrating radar suggested some structures lay beneath – but there was no hint of anything as significant as the hall.

The timbers are long gone, either rotted away or removed for reuse, but the outline of the huge building was clearly traced by post holes and the slots for planks laid horizontally to form the walls. It had a partitioned space at one end, either a sleeping place or a private chamber for the most aristocratic.

There is evidence that the building was at least damaged, if not destroyed, by fire – a common fate for timber buildings centred around open hearths – but Gabor believes the hall was deliberately abandoned as the tribe, as with the other Anglo-Saxons in Kent, turned to Christianity. The settlement was soon abandoned, too, and a new village grew higher on the hill around the new church – another lofty building, grander than any of its neighbours, which Thomas believes took on the role of the old pagan hall as the place for gatherings and celebrations. The archaeologists will return to Lyminge next summer. “There’s more of this story,” Thomas said.

Maev Kennedy

guardian.co.uk,

Conserve Your Willpower: It Runs Out

Posted: October 30, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science

Photo: Getty

Ever wonder why your resolve to hit the gym weakens after you’ve slogged through a soul-sapping day at work? It’s because willpower isn’t just some storybook concept; it’s a measurable form of mental energy that runs out as you use it, much like the gas in your car.

Roy Baumeister, a psychologist at Florida State University, calls this “ego depletion,” and he proved its existence by sitting students next to a plate of fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies. Some were allowed to snack away, others ordered to abstain. Afterward, both groups were asked to complete difficult puzzles. The students who’d been forced to resist the cookies had so depleted their reserves of self-control that when faced with this new task, they quickly threw in the towel. The cookie eaters, on the other hand, had conserved their willpower and worked on the puzzles longer.

Further studies have suggested that willpower is fueled by glucose—which helps explain why our determination crumbles when we try to lose weight. When we don’t eat, our glucose drops, and our willpower along with it. “We call it the dieter’s catch-22: In order to not eat, you need willpower. But in order to have willpower you need to eat,” says John Tierney, coauthor with Baumeister of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.

But there are ways to wield what scientists know about willpower to our advantage. Since it’s a finite resource, don’t spread yourself thin: Make one resolution rather than many. And if you manage to stick with it by, say, not smoking for a week, give your willpower a rest by indulging in a nice dinner. Another tactic is to outsource self-control. Get a gym buddy. Use Mint.com to regulate your spending or RescueTime.com to avoid distracting websites. As Tierney explains, “People with the best self-control aren’t the ones who use it all day long. They’re people who structure their lives so they conserve it.” That way, you’ll be able to stockpile vast reserves for when you really need it, like hauling your lazy ass to the gym.

By Judy Dutton

Archaeologists find tomb of first important Maya ruler

Posted: October 30, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science
Tags: Ancient civilizations, Archeology

Jade vulture.

A jade pendant of a vulture discovered at the Maya site of Tak’alik Ab’aj. (Tak’alik Ab’aj Archaeological Project / Associated Press / October 29, 2012)

By Thomas H. Maugh II Los Angeles TimesOctober 29, 2012, 11:27 a.m.

Guatemalan archaeologists have found the tomb of what may have been one of the Maya’s earliest rulers and perhaps its most influential. King K’utz Chman introduced many cultural features that eventually defined the Maya, including building pyramids instead of square structures and commissioning the production of carved sculptures that depicted the royal family. His grave is the most ancient royal Maya burial to be found and it contains a variety of carved jade objects indicating his wealth and status.

“He was the big chief,” archaeologist Miguel Orrego of the Guatemalan Instituto de Antropologia e Historia told Reuters. Chman was “the ruler who bridged the gap between Olmec and Maya cultures and initiated the slow transition to Maya rule.”

The tomb was found in June at the site of Tak’alik Ab’aj, a large city in the Retalhuleu department of southwestern Guatemala, about 110 miles south of Guatemala City. Tak’alik Ab’aj is the Maya name, meaning “Standing Stone,” given to the site by scientists. Its ancient name may have been Kooja, meaning “Moon Halo.” The city flourished from about the 9th century BC through at least the 10th century and its residents traded heavily with other cities, some as far away as Teotihuacan in Mexico. It is one of the largest Maya sites along the Pacific Coast.

The newly discovered tomb contains no human bones, but carbon-dating of other organic materials indicates that it was constructed sometime between 770 and 510 BC. The Maya empire began to thrive around 400 BC as the Olmec empire faded.

Inside the tomb, the team found a variety of jade objects, including a necklace with a pendant carved in the shape of a vulture’s head. Such objects were generally the property of very powerful men and a symbol of great respect. Because of the necklace, the team named the king K’utz Chman, which translates roughly as “Grandfather Vulture.”

Other objects in the tomb included ceramic pots, ceramic dolls and jade beans.

“The richness of the artifacts tells us he was an important and powerful religious leader,” said archaeologist Christa Schieber of the institute. “He was very likely the person who began to make changes in the system and transition into the Maya world.”

Near-death experiences occur when the soul leaves the nervous system and enters the universe, claim two quantum physics experts

Posted: October 30, 2012 by phaedrap1 in News, Science, Spirituality

Ground-breaking theory holds that quantum substances form the soul
They are part of the fundamental structure of the universe

A near-death experience happens when quantum substances which form the soul leave the nervous system and enter the universe at large, according to a remarkable theory proposed by two eminent scientists.

According to this idea, consciousness is a program for a quantum computer in the brain which can persist in the universe even after death, explaining the perceptions of those who have near-death experiences.

Dr Stuart Hameroff, Professor Emeritus at the Departments of Anesthesiology and Psychology and the Director of the Centre of Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, has advanced the quasi-religious theory.

It is based on a quantum theory of consciousness he and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose have developed which holds that the essence of our soul is contained inside structures called microtubules within brain cells.

They have argued that our experience of consciousness is the result of quantum gravity effects in these microtubules, a theory which they dubbed orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR).

Thus it is held that our souls are more than the interaction of neurons in the brain. They are in fact constructed from the very fabric of the universe – and may have existed since the beginning of time.

The concept is similar to the Buddhist and Hindu belief that consciousness is an integral part of the universe – and indeed that it is really all there may be, a position similar to Western philosophical idealism.

With these beliefs, Dr Hameroff holds that in a near-death experience the microtubules lose their quantum state, but the information within them is not destroyed. Instead it merely leaves the body and returns to the cosmos.

Shocked back to life: The theory holds that when patients have a near death experience their quantum soul is released from the body and re-enters the cosmos, before returning when they are revived

Dr Hameroff told the Science Channel’s Through the Wormhole documentary: ‘Let’s say the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing, the microtubules lose their quantum state.

‘The quantum information within the microtubules is not destroyed, it can’t be destroyed, it just distributes and dissipates to the universe at large.

‘If the patient is resuscitated, revived, this quantum information can go back into the microtubules and the patient says “I had a near death experience”.’

He adds: ‘If they’re not revived, and the patient dies, it’s possible that this quantum information can exist outside the body, perhaps indefinitely, as a soul.’

Evidence: Dr Hameroff believes new findings about the role quantum physics plays in biological processes, such as the navigation of birds, will one day prove his theory

The Orch-OR theory has come in for heavy criticism by more empirically minded thinkers and remains controversial among the scientific community.

MIT physicist Max Tegmark is just one of the many scientists to have challenged it, in a 2000 paper that is widely cited by opponents, the Huffington Post reports.

Nevertheless, Dr Hameroff believes that research in to quantum physics is beginning to validate Orch-Or, with quantum effects recently being shown to support many important biological processes, such as smell, bird navigation and photosynthesis.

By: Damien Gayle

MailOnline

Strange tale: Ojibwa tale of a ‘Skyman’ visitor may have been alien

Posted: October 30, 2012 by phaedrap1 in Uncategorized
Tags: ancient astronauts, Legends

The modern Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) craze began in the late 1940s, when a wave of people reported seeing strange objects in the skies above America.
Indeed, it was in 1947 the term flying saucer entered the popular consciousness after pilot Kenneth Arnold witnessed several brightly-lit saucer-like objects weaving in and out of distant mountain peaks while he was flying in Washington State.
This wasn’t the first wave of UFO sightings, however. An earlier wave occurred in Britain in 1909, when hundreds of people described flying objects shaped like dirigibles and emitting beams of light carrying out extremely advanced manoeuvres overhead. A decade earlier, throughout 1896 and ’97, there was a rash on similar sightings in the United States.
But these weren’t the first accounts of alien spacecraft on record. Legends of god-like beings coming from the heavens exist in many cultures. Throughout North America, there are numerous caves that date back thousands of years. These paintings figures and objects much like the modern imagery of aliens and flying saucers.
One intriguing legend comes from the First Nations people of central Ontario. Their ‘Skyman’ tale may in fact be one of the earliest alien encounters on record.
According to the story recorded in 1917 by ethnologist Colonel G.E. Laidlaw, 500 years ago there was a large Ojibwa village about 550 native people living somewhere in our region. One day, a pair of them stumbled upon a stranger sitting on the grass in a field. This figure, a male, was notably “clean and shining bright.”
The natives approached the stranger and asked who he was and how he came to be in the field. “I am not one of you. I do not belong to this land. I dropped down from above,” the stranger explained.
Showing unusual hospitality, the Ojibwa invited him back to their village. The stranger agreed, but on one condition: “Go home and clean the place where I will stay, and when you come back for me, I will go with you for a few days.”
Agreeing, the Ojibwa men went back to their community, told their fellow villagers about their experience, and cleaned the hut where they would house the ‘Skyman.’
The stranger did in fact accompany them to their village, but he was clearly restless. He watched the skies often and told people that in two days something would come and get him to take him back up to the sky.
One afternoon, Skyman looked up and said, “It is coming.” The villagers craned their necks and turned their eyes above and saw something that looked like a bright shining star streak down from the heavens and hover near the ground.
This was the most beautiful thing any of them had ever seen. Skyman entered the shining star and disappeared from view. The shining star then shot back into the sky and faded away.
This tale seems to be a description of an encounter with an ‘ancient astronaut,’ as seen in many cultures and popularized by Swiss theorist Erich von Daniken of Chariots of the Gods fame.
Many modern UFO theorists believe Skyman was a marooned extraterrestrial astronaut whose own craft was somehow damaged or destroyed. They point to the fact Skyman clearly entered the glowing star as proof the object was a spacecraft of some sort. Was he ‘clean and shining bright’ because he wore a silvery pressure suit? Did he request his hosts clean his quarters out of fear of contracting human viruses against which he had no immunity?
Many researchers believe Skyman was no mythological tale, but rather an actual encounter of the first kind between an ancient alien and an entire Ojibwa community. And it was said to have occurred somewhere nearby. Maybe we too should be craning our necks and scanning the skies.

By Andrew Hind

Orangeville.com