August 14, 2010 · Filed under Hot Topics · Tagged 2001 attacks, 2012, 9-11, 911, about.com, afghanistan, ambassador, america, armageddon, ask.com, blog, blogging, border patrol, BOS, Catholic church, CNBC, cnn, contoversy, coven, election, election year, elements, end of the world, facebook, free movies online, freedom of religion, google, ground zero, guide, hallowed ground, headlines, holy war, home-based business, how to, hussien, illegal, immigrant, immigration, indonesia, international, international news, iraq, islam, Islamic holy day, Islamic terrorist, jetliner, law and ordinances, linkin, local coven, local law, make money now, make money on the internet, make money on the net, mexico, mexico boarder, Michael Bloomberg, mosque, mosque near ground zero, mosque plan, muslim, myspace, national, news, Newt Gingrich, Obama, oil spill, Opinion research poll, pagan, penthouse, Peter King, playboy, plinky, plinky.com, porn, Press secretary, Ramadan, religion, Robert Gibbs, ruin your life, Sarah Palin, sept. 11, September 11, spanish, spell, spiritual, spirituality, state, State dining room, synagogues, terrorism, Top news stories, travel, twin tower, united states borders, USA, vacation, war, war on iraq, Wiccan, witch, withcraft, work-from-home, write, writing, yahoo
WASHINGTON — After skirting the controversy for weeks, President Barack Hussein Obama is weighing in forcefully on the mosque near ground zero, saying a nation built on religious freedom, simply, must allow it.
“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country,” Obama told an intently listening crowd gathered at the White House Friday evening to observe the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
“That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances,” he said. “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable.”
The White House had not previously taken a stand on the mosque, which would be part of a $100 million Islamic community center two blocks from where nearly 3,000 people perished when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001. Press secretary Robert Gibbs had insisted it was a local matter.
It was already much more than that, sparking debate around the country as top Republicans including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich announced their opposition. So did the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group.
Obama elevated it to a presidential issue Friday without equivocation.
While insisting that the place where the twin towers once stood was indeed “hallowed ground,” Obama said that the proper way to honor it was to apply American values.
Harkening back to earlier times when the building of synagogues or Catholic churches also met with opposition, Obama said: “Time and again, the American people have demonstrated that we can work through these issues, and stay true to our core values and emerge stronger for it. So it must be and will be today.”
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent who has been a strong supporter of the mosque, welcomed Obama’s words as a “clarion defense of the freedom of religion.”
But some Republicans were quick to pounce. “President Obama is wrong,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. “It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero.” Entering the highly charged election-year debate, Obama surely knew that his words would not only make headlines in the U.S. but be heard by Muslims worldwide. The president has made it a point to reach out to the global Muslim community, and the over 100 guests at Friday’s dinner in the State Dining Room included ambassadors and officials from numerous nations where Islam is observed, including Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.
While his pronouncement concerning the mosque might find favor in the Muslim world, Obama’s stance runs counter to the opinions of the majority of Americans, according to polls. A CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week found that nearly 70 percent of Americans opposed the mosque plan while just 29 percent approved. A number of Democratic politicians have shied away from the controversy.
Opponents, including some Sept. 11 victims’ relatives, see the prospect of a mosque so near the destroyed trade center as an insult to the memory of those killed by Islamic terrorists in the 2001 attacks.
I located this story on FoxNews.com. The original link to this article is here.
~E
May 6, 2010 · Filed under Religion/Spirituality, Uncategorized · Tagged craft, evil, Evil Eye, eye, Falcon, hex, hexes, ladye, pagan, poem, read, Wicca, withcraft, write, writting
The Evil Eye
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunnèd it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole:
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
– William Blake, “A Poison Tree,” 1794
The Evil Eye is one of the more unsettling concepts of traditional witchcraft. The idea that someone can cause you psychic and physical harm with a dirty look is bad enough. Someone who has this gift doesn’t have to burn a candle, sprinkle powder on your doorstep or sacrifice the neighbor’s cat to the Prince of Darkness: a good (or bad) gaze is all they need. But to make matters worse, they don’t even have to hex you deliberately. They might see you as a dear friend and be outraged at the idea they would wish you harm. Like most magic, the Evil eye is fueled by the subconscious: it operates not on the lies we tell ourselves but on the truths we wish to keep hidden.
Many Chaos Magic workings attempt to tap into the subconscious. Anyone who has ever worked with sigils knows they are to be charged with intense emotional and/or sexual energy, then left to ferment in the deepest parts of the magician’s mind. In time the forgotten sigil will blossom forth to work changes in the magician’s consciousness and in the surrounding world. It is a way to tap into the immense power of the hidden mind and to reorder Chaos in a shape more suitable to our needs.
Austin Osman Spare and disciples like Kenneth Grant and Peter Carroll have explored techniques by which we may introduce specific symbols into our subconscious. Another great scholar of the psychosphere, Sigmund Freud, explored the non-consensual ways in which our subconscious can be reprogrammed. His name for one major impetus for this involuntary sigilization – repression – bears careful consideration. The process of adjusting ourselves to our culture and becoming a functioning member of society involves repressing many of our natural drives and instincts. Freud concentrated most of his efforts on exploring the suppression of lust and the sexual drive. He might have done well to explore the ways we try to distance ourselves from anger, avarice, envy or other states which were once classed as “deadly sins” and are today scorned as “unevolved emotions.”
I’ve run into many New Agers and spiritually-inclined folks who work desperately to avoid any kind of “negativity.” They rule over their psyches like a Victorian schoolmaster trying to save his charges from the evils of masturbation. Any hint of anger is greeted with a cold shower of mantras and a bland diet of affirmations and channeled transmissions. Expressing honest objections and setting boundaries is replaced by passive-aggression and the condescending smug superiority that masks itself as “tolerance and acceptance.” After reading Sophie’s report, I’m not surprised to see that some of these people are also manifesting the ability to cast malocchio. If you don’t own your shit, it gets backed up and sooner or later it explodes in a fecal volcano. And those who are trying to tamp down anger and jealousy with sparkly crystals and soothing music are most certainly, not owning it.
Many cultures have come up with traditional amulets, incantations and spells designed to ward off the Evil Eye. If you are spending a lot of time dealing with Highly Evolved Passive-Aggressive types, you may want to invest in some of these. At the very least you may want to pick up a holy symbol or other means of protection and wear it as a shield. If you have been zapped by someone who has been letting their jealousy and rage cook in a cauldron of benevolence, some of the remedies Sophie mentioned in her post may prove efficacious. Do not underestimate the power of the Evil Eye. If you can empower a sigil with a couple minutes of auto-erotic asphyxia, imagine what kind of a charge you can get out of locking your shadow away for a decade or a lifetime.
Author: Kenaz Filan
LadyE's Blog 