I first met the pimp/musician/rapper/producer/poet/martial arts instructor/drunk Reverend Spook something like two years ago in the old disinfo.com Java chat room -- before it was replaced by the current meebo travesty as a sop to our indignation as denizens of that beautiful & sacred space which had been removed from the main site altogether for some months. Spook first introduced himself to me as a Christian rapper. Christian rapper? I didn't know where to look.

But we hit if off and it transpired that this Reverend was most definitely not of the orthodox persuasion, being closer in spirit and morality to the charismatic & corrupt head of an ecstatic sex cult -- a lucrative path he may well decide to pursue in the future. But more than that, he has given himself up body & soul so that every part of his being radiates and vibrates in the worship of Eris; even though he knows it for a near certainty that this will be the path to his eventual moral and physical ruin. Spook has transformed his whole Self into a temple of discord and is not merely inviting disaster upon his head, but positively begging for its arrival.

In fact for me the man will always remain, first and foremost, a pimp. But a pimp not only in the profane and materialistic sense of the word -- commonly understood as a filthy criminal, the ultimate misogynist and exploiter of women, and a completely unrepentant transgressor of society's taboos -- which he is; Rev Spook is also a spiritual pimp, coldly and without any hint of sentimentality, yet compassionately, *always* compassionately, guiding his students towards spiritual self-realisation. So that here he was: an ascetic given over to bouts of extended fasting -- at least until his food stamps arrive -- and to performing spiritual exercises of terrifying rigour, completely fearless, yet who has also had (and would likely be tainted in the eyes of many by his) intimate involvement with the sex trade.

This combination of the gutter, the sordid and the venal, with the holy and pious as embodied in the person of the Boddhisattva Pimp (Spook's own coinage) resonated deeply with me. It also brought to mind the teachings and practises of the Indian school of the Tantrics; the Tantriks and their empirically derived philosophy being another source of endless fascination for me. OK, by now I'm firmly convinced that Guru Spook was and is definitely onto something with this purity through transgression shit.

But, more than this, to me his example seemed to point to something that has also been articulated in numerous eastern philosophies: the paradox that to really open yourself to and to truly appreciate discord and uncertainty, you need to lay the ground so to speak, by putting yourself through the most arduous discipline & asceticism.

And yet this is just one aspect of the Rev's contradictory chaotic Erisian self -- admittedly the aspect I latched onto most strongly because of my own inner needs and inadequacies, ok and like most other men (whether they care to admit it or not) I think pimps are really cool. The other main facet of Spook's personality, and the one which I have always been most palpably aware of, is his tendency towards extreme romantic infatuation, to the point of obsession -- especially with regard to a certain young woman who I also first came to know via disinfo.com.

However to my limited understanding, this extreme dependence and reliance on the other, this devotion beyond reason to another human being, seemed completely inconsistent and at odds with the Boddhisattva Pimp's philosophy of unaffected and disinterested nonattachment. Alas, I'm just beginning to realise what little right I have to make such comments given my own lowly and deplorable state of almost complete (non blissful) ignorance. Such thoughts only interfere with true understanding, as Spook himself demonstrated to my edification on many occasions.

I knew Spook as a musician and composer from the start of our friendship, but I was hesitant from the first when it came to actually sitting down and listening to his music, which felt somewhat disloyal. I was scared I might be disappointed, or more accurately that *I* might not be up to the task myself: that, as has been so often the case recently, I would end up being the disappointment. Plus, I don't really like or listen to rap, Spook’s chosen genre.

However it turned out I needn't have worried too much: as powerful and as rich as the music that Spook and his regular musical collaborator & partner in crime, the genius Dr Tedley (who fortunately has the requisite piety and scientific training to himself be able to successfully channel certain chaotic energies with the power to annihilate most people) create is; it still offers the diligent and sympathetic listener a way in -- regardless of the genres they decide to lay waste to.

Together, Spook and Tedley are disturbingly prolific; in fact together they are capable of mercurial musical feats. Finding themselves on legendary label Some Bizarre as GL1TCHG0R3, this year they released Gearball as a first major volcanic statement of intent; a record with its own mythos, invoking the beloved Eris as well as the truly terrifying spectre of Mr Twinkles, created as a means of helping the bewildered listener navigate what on first hearing seems a pure noise overload.

The more you listen though, the more accustomed you get to the noisy discord, gradually overcoming your initial uneasiness and your head stops groaning a bit, the more you realise that this is a record utterly dripping with sensuality, the soundtrack to some savage orgiastic black rite; the music is dense and liquid, pulsating and throbbing, utterly saturated with passion and sex. Following on from Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Merzbow, Oval, Maurizio Bianchi, Autechre, Scott Walker (tilt + after) and the Aphex Twin, GL1TCHG0R3 makes music that is so attuned to our squalid, noisy, and dissonant times, embracing everything we strive to ignore and to filter out, that it sounds as if it was beamed directly from some future dystopia. It is in fact an affirmation of NOW.

And there's more to come...With his Heartfuct project, Spook invokes the spirit of pre-war Blues magi Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Robert Johnson, fashioning a form of devotional music that is painfully, in fact devastatingly, raw and vulnerable, and forsaking poetic artifice to create something that is simple and direct and well religious in tone. And their Aleister Christ Project is directly intended to be used in Magick rituals…and there’s a lot more holed up in their vaults. A few weeks ago I sent a few questions via email to initiate the interview we had planned for a while to undertake, here’s the result of the ensuing series of back and forth emails that were sent. Apologies for the lameness of some of my questions.

Anas: Please introduce yourself/How would you best describe yourself ?

RS: "hmmm??? - tough one, uh, let's see my real name is Patrick Chauncey, born in St. Augustine, Florida, oldest city in the US. born in 1977, son of Richard and Miriam Chauncey, two fuck sots who should have never been able to breed - but they did and i'm their first mistake, there's one more, his name is Brian, my younger brother. anyways i usually introduce myself as 'Patrick' and i'm a kung-fu and tai-chi instructor first before anything else. it's been a few years since i've been introduced as 'Spook.' - the name originally came from my first 'producer' Marvin Harley of UDP records... cause i was 'light skinned and scary.' not the guy you wanna meet in a dark alley at night he used to say. So the name just stuck and became my handle. yeah, i'm white, and i'm 31 and i'm about to drop a hip-hop album unlike any other. no. this isn't something i just decided to do one day cause i thought it would be cool. i've been freestylin' and writing poetry since i was 14. music is therapy for me. it keeps me sane. i'm a free man today because of music.

Anas: Explain the use of the eye imagery you use in the artwork for your projects? Eyes are said to be the mirrors of the soul. Does the use of the eye imagery relate to this?

RS: yes, there is a method to our madness. the 'eye imagery' has to do with everything from 'The All Seeing Eye' to the 'Pineal Gland' in your head - to darker more disturbing things that really do no good for me to discuss because they'll only make it so far thru the "oh, thats your personal-opinion" filter most people keep strapped to their frontal lobes. "those who know - don't say." it does no good. like the old saying... "i can point the way for you - but you must walk the path yourself." i will however tell you this: in the GL1TCHG0R3 mythos, the Gearball, Mr. Twinkles, is the eye of Eris. the reason she plucked out her eye and cast it into the great star ocean was to seek out and discover the origins of our wonderous sounds. She heard Dr. Tedley and Rev. Spook's first tune together: "Ode To Eris" and was deeply pleased and at the same time quite distrubed that someone would actually take the time to honor her with an 'ode.' hehehehe.

Anas: I asked about eyes being the mirrors of the soul because we've had discussions before about the use you make of mirrors in certain initiation rituals, for want of a better description. On the other hand, and again in relation to this, you've mentioned the manifestation of ’worm’-like entities in many of the hallucinations you’ve experienced. I was having trouble understanding Blakes poem 'o rose thou art sick', but we had an interesting conversation about your interpretation of that rather obscure poem (see below). Are these worms, archetypes, and a sign of initiation into higher mysteries? And how does your use of mirrors relate to scrying?

RS: I donot know everything about the worms, so my answer is thus: there is the unknown and the unknowable, you can map the unknown thru trial and error, but the unknowable is unknowable. a great part of these worms are 'unknowable' - we cannot yet study them thru any devices such as microscopes or radio telescopics. so all we can know of them is what we experience thru the trial and error of skinny dipping into the unknown. two explanations i have aquired about them so far are thus: i have experienced them as seperate entities that taunt me into giving them attention that they seem to feed off of. fear is their favorite food in this experience. and also experiencing them as being myself. turned inwards upon myself, like a many headed ouroboros. here's an ancient picture that depicts this experience very well:

- much of what they are is still a mystery to me. but i do know for a fact that interacting with them is a necessary bardo.

The use of mirrors has to do with using your own eye's reflection as your yantra. By simply starring into your eye (either one, it doesn't matter.) and using the pupil as your center point of focus will bring you to a place where you can see the worms yourself without having to induce the experience with drugs. All you need is privacy, darkness, a candle between you and the mirror, (not for hocus pocus reasons, the candle is just for the greater effect of natural illumination and the small spark of light it will reflect in your eye which makes an even better focal point than just the black dot of your pupil.) you wait, patiently, shutting down your internal dialogue, and drinking plenty of water. It normally takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour for it to take effect which is why so many cultures use power plants of some form or another to speed up the process.

"Our hearts are like a mirror that reflects what is pictured in the Tablet of Fate. But, even in sleep, thoughts of worldly things dull this mirror, so that the impressions it receives are not clear. After death, however, such thoughts vanish, and things are seen in their naked reality. Dear friend, your heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it clean of the veil of dust that has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets."

Imam al-Ghazali.

Anas: how important is Discordianism in your work and in your life? What do you do to maintain your relationship with the goddess Eris?

RS: hahahahahaha. how important is Discordianism in my work? - well, being a true Discordian i'd have to say it has no importance in my work at all. There is NO 'importance' in anything you or i do - or ANY God for that matter. and there is NO Goddess but Eris. and there is no Eris but Eris. 23 Skidoo! - OHM MANIPADME 42! oh, and what do i do to maintain my relationship with the goddess eris? - absolutley nothing, our prayers are like: "Fucksake! - Shit Happens!" or chanting 5 times to ourselves: "STOP TRYING TO CONTROL EVERYTHING!" - "You are not your fucking khaki's!!!"

Anas: LOL, most people have less personality than their khakis anyway. During your youth you lived what from your descriptions comes across as a very uncertain and extremely unstable, if not downright dangerous existence. As an armchair/cod psychologist, I'd assumed that that would have led in adulthood to your need for stability, and order.

And yet you embrace chaos, not least in your art -- where I originally assumed it was a means of pursuing inner stability by given your demons full reign artistically. Is this because of your immersion and training in Oriental martial arts, with its basis in Daoist philosophy?

RS: yes and no. i don't necessarily 'embrace' chaos, i've just excepted there's no use in fighting it. like in the new Coen brothers movie "No Country For Old Men" where the deputy asks the sheriff: "this is some mess huh?" where he replies: "i reckon so, if not - it'll do til the mess gets here." - such is life. now that may not make much sense to you so i'll say it this way: you can go thru life hoping and praying and attempting with all your soul to acheive some ideal and never get it and be left in the fog of regret and resentment and unfulfillment. or you can except the unpredictability of life and roll with the punches and still not achieve anything save for the peace of mind that comes with knowing you're fucked no matter what you do.

Anas: give me an overview of your philosophy of the Boddhisattva Pimp, and how it brings together the work of Iceberg Slim and the philosophy of Buddhism

RS: as simple as the man says: "always keep ya stash in ya stomp" - such is mutha fuckin life yo. you keep that stash in your stomp. just like i stated above: "Those who know - don't say"

just read the damn book and if your smart enough then try reading it from the scientific premise of micro-cosm/macro-cosm. (as above - so below)

Anas: I assumed that the relation between Pimpism and Buddhism was related to the doctrine of nonattachment – in particular to the master/guru/pimp's maintaining a steely, cold, and (seemingly) cruel attitude towards his charges; ultimately under the sincere and profound understanding that the master knows best and that his is the most compassionate way.

But what I love about you and your work is that you yourself are led by your heart and your emotions -- we've spoken of this dichotomy between the aspiration towards inner calm through the disciplining and mastery of one's emotions and sentiments, and your enslavement by your heart and your tendencies towards the obsessive pursuit of romantic love. Do you think that these are twin poles that would be futile to even move towards attempting to reconcile?

RS: futile to try and reconcile? yes. Hail Eris! and remember the pimp is really the whore's whore. so its the same in everything. what is a teacher without a student? and what is a student without a teacher? as in nature, the two polarities are always chasing the others tail, but the universe is tricky; it'll do anything to keep two particles from touching. but thats not the point. thats what i mean by just giving up. you cant stop the chase, and you cant win it. so you just give up trying and go with it and except your fate already. like the ancient Egyptian saying: "once you have accepted inevitable death you can finally begin to really live."

alot of people think im very obsessive, and dangerously die-hard romantic. they often ask me things like, 'how can you say you understand and are enlightened on the subject of non-attachment and inner peace when you allow yourself to get so fucked up over matters of the heart?' ...

i have come to KNOW that romantic love is one of the many heads of Maya, illusion. i know that it is a trivial thing when placed next to any state of heightened awareness.

i have truely accepted this within myself, but by doing so ive also come to realize that my 'earthly' life is very very short and while im here, why not indulge in the illusion that is the most fulfilling of them all. some would say that it is too dangerous so you must discipline yourself to avoid it at all costs....

"Whoever does not draw near to God as a result of the caresses of love is shackled to Him with the chains of misfortune."

i leave my self open and vunerable to the 9 swords of a womans love, and i will fall very very far into Daath (the abyss between Tiphereth and Kether), but i have attained the hermetic-knowledge of soul ressurection. so i can indulge and be destroyed and have the fear of being destroyed, but i have the security of knowing that at anytime i will i can dismiss the illusion...

so yes, i can appear to be completely crushed, and as in a very recent situation - truely be so. - but i allow it by my own choosing, and know that i can recover if i so choose. so i dont fear it so much or see it as a distraction, all the heavenly yak yak that the buddha's spit out is wonderful but they themselves dont see that by completely denying that part of themself that they too are just falling into another extreme.

Siddhartha went thru the very same thing actually - but people seem to skip over that part of his story

Anas: Change of tack. Musically who are your biggest influences, and who are your biggest anti influences-- musicians whose example, perhaps their fakery, and inanity, antagonises you into creating the music you do?

as far as GL1TCHG0R3 goes, it's straight up - cEvin Key AKA: Kevin William Crompton. my hip-hop influence list is just too insanely long so i'll chop it up some: the first rap i ever heard that hooked me in was Mr. Scarface of the Ghetto Boys' album "Mr. Scarface is back" that fuckin album was the shizzle, like The Chronic was the bomb of it's day. let me see if i can keep it down to just two others... ok next: the RZA of Wu Tang (Bobby! Bobby!) and Mos Def. - really though, all kinds of music inspires me. i mean, i took my ex to go see the Oregon Mozart Players last year and that had an intense influence on alot of my GL1TCHG0R3 tunes that followed after.
now music that antagonises me... man, hahahaha - ok... here goes, i love Jethro Tull, i despise Lynard Skynard, i dig Ministry, i love every single song by Download, Brighteyes and Against Me! i never cared for Marylin Manson, Faith No More was boring, the Scorpions were the shit, Aguilera should switch to porn, Gwen Stephani should team up with Aqua, and mother-fuck Elvis! he was a thief and a fake, which reminds me - No Limit Records.... yeah i said it, and fakers in general and their commerical jingles drive me to fantasize of serial murder.

Anas: Aguilera should definitely make the switch to porn. I saw these adverts for her perfume and she has that insatiable look in her eyes. Seriously I think it would be the best thing for her own contentment as well: debasing herself on camera would be the truest, holiest, thing she could do. But aside from the hip-hop, I hear a lot of industrial/experimental/electronic influences in your music, e.g., Merzbow, Oval, Coil, Throbbing Gristle, Autechre. Sonically it's what gives your hip hop in particular stuff the edge. To what extent did these dudes influence you and to what extent did you and your collaborator, Dr Tedley, come up with that sound independently?

RS: alot of people ask me if the artists you mentioned plus a zillion others influenced me. the truth is: i've never even heard of Merzbow or autechre, i've heard a handful of tunes by Oval and Coil. never cared much for Throbbing Gristle. Skinny Puppy, Download, The Teargarden, Gaston Zirko and my friend Jeff Ring are the biggest influences in my experimental music. i listen to a handful of muscians, most of what i listen to is GL1TCHG0R3 - if there's something we want to hear we just make it. The music I grew up on mainly was Cash Money Records AKA 'The Hot Boys', Skinny Puppy, Danzig and The Exploited. the origin of the GL1TCHG0R3 project started in a topic by Benjamin Davies in the Church.0v.iLL group: groups.myspace.com/illchurch titled: "real glitch music." we decided to do a track together for the hell of it and i was so happy with what we did i made a special music page for it, then we just kept going. Dr. Tedley was already friends with Ben's 'Empty Boxes and Rooms' page, i can't remember who asked him to collaborate first, me or Ben. but either way it led to 'Ode to Eris' - then 'Gearball' and 'Mr. Twinkles' soon after Stevo Pearce of Some Bizzare Records stumbled upon our page somehow and fell in love with 'Mr. Twinkles' and 'Gearball' - so he signed us. an old friend of mine, Gerald from my New Orleans days contacted me and very much wanted to be apart of the group, so i said ok. but later Ted and I felt we needed to streamline things a bit, especially if we were going to be a signed band we needed our shit tight. Ben said he didn't care about getting signed or getting paid, so there was no problem there. Gerald on the other hand was quite peeved at our decision to cut him. He was never readily available to do work when we needed him, and his life was very unorganized so we took the necessary measures. We had a brief falling out, and then later made amends.

ANAS: Of all the music of yours I've heard I've loved your Heartfuct project the most. Your heartfuct tracks are really open, honest and vulnerable -- with a real purity of intention and emotion. You call it emotronic music, but most of the Emo I've heard is rather contrived without the directness of your stuff. How much of an influence was Emo on your music and in fact on your life?

RS: well, as Ted and I have tried to explain before, mySpace has a limited choice of genre's for you to select as your tags. so I chose what I thought was most appropriate. Emo? yes, i admit, i like alot of it.... well maybe not alot, like I said, I love Brighteyes. and I even listen to The Used sometimes. contrived? you must be listening to the wrong shite. lol. you think my music is direct? wow, thanx. uh, i kinda cant help it i guess, in someways im not that imaginative so i just end up getting straight to the point instead of trying to take some kind of tragic tale and turn it into a pretty painting. fuck that. i just lay it out like i feel.

ANAS: Finally, I hear your solo album is being released soon, and that you're featured on a major new Some Bizzare comp. What else have you got coming up?

RS: we have our GLI1TCHGOR3 album "Gearball" out right now, and besides having a track on the new Some Bizzare Double album and my solo album comming in August titled: 'Bigspirit' - there is the little known fact that Oregon finally has a hip-hop mixtape comming out featuring the states best rappers and i'm on it. you can check the details about that here: Oregon State In Emergency / track titled: 'Turn That Shit Up!' (i made the music, i do the chorus and the second verse.) other than that Ted and I are currently working on a soundtrack for a new horror movie in the makes called: 'The Hatman': www.myspace.com/hatmanmusic

now all that being said:

(here's an example of using the micro-cosm/macro-cosm formulae superimposed upon the 'concrete' philosophy of 'Pimp' by Iceberg Slim. again - the truth of non-attachment; i suspect most people won't be able to follow this {proof} but oh well.)

------------------------------------

O Rose, thou art sick. = "simply put: life is a sick game."

The invisible worm,That flies in the night = "Shai-Hulud, the great worm, the many headed hydra that is The Wormz Beyond the Vortex" <--see Space Monkey Cafe

In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy: = "refering to the great worm again as the 'howling storm' - the great whirlwind, tornado, i.e Lo-Phi / 4d spiral force, and it as an entity has touched down in the center of your human soul, or Anahata Chakra, and has made all within free & visible and by doing so has also made you vunerable. opening then the gate that leads down the path of 'The Crux.' the Jesus Syndrome."

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy. = "saying that the ultimate enlightenment of The Crux Path is dying as a human, the death of the 'persona-man' / rending the veil and revealing the 'sick game' that is existance."

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]]> http://savedbyhisblood.wordpress.com/?p=693 Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:23:24 +0000 Test All Things http://savedbyhisblood.wordpress.com/?p=693 The title of this article, as you find it above, refers to the suffering of the anointed Son of God upon the cross for the sins of God’s elect, so that they should not perish but have everlasting life.
Children, the word “passion” means suffering. The word “suffering,” as we use it now, does not refer to the suffering inflicted upon Jesus by the hand of men, a suffering then that He felt with the nerves of His body. But the suffering that we refer to is the suffering inflicted upon Him by the hand of God, when God poured forth His holy wrath into the soul of His own Son. This is the suffering of the Christ.

When we use the words “the Christ,” we mean the truth of the Scriptures that Jesus Christ was the anointed or ordained of the Father from all eternity to do the work of our redemption, as the Heidelberg Catechism teaches us. The Scriptures call Him “the Christ.” Andrew, in John 1:41, came to Peter his brother and said, “We have found the Messiah,” which is being interpreted “the Christ.” The Bible portrays Him as the only One who can bring us back to right-standing with God through His work as the Christ. The Bible tells us that there will be many who will come, saying, “I am Christ,” and there will be many who will try to pretend to be Jesus.

The passion of the Christ will be set before us today in the way that God the Father who gave His Son has willed that this passion be set before men and women. The way that He has chosen, as we read in I Corinthians, is through the foolishness of the preaching of the gospel. We will preach Christ and Him crucified.

We will not present the passion of Jesus Christ this morning by projecting a 3-D image on the wall behind me. We will not seek to have a dramatic presentation of those sufferings (or of His last twelve hours). But we will trust the means that God Himself has given to us, a means that God says will produce the effects that He intends. It will be the power of God unto salvation in everyone that believes. And it will also be, in God’s own determination, the hardening of those who reject Him. We will preach Christ crucified.

The title of this article obviously reminds us of and brings to our attention the release of the movie that has so captured the world’s attention and has received the endorsement of much of the professing Christian churches. With almost one accord, professing evangelical Christians have rallied around this film and have defended it. Entire churches on Wednesday night bought tickets that they might watch it. The sons of the Protestant Reformation have extolled this film and have given their blessing to it. Probably even today it is being viewed in Christian churches on large screens after men have first taken the pulpit away and put it into a corner or into the closet of the church.

That film, dear radio listener, is blasphemy.

That film distorts the gospel of Jesus Christ and conveys a false gospel. The film is a blasphemous affront to the very Savior Jesus Christ whom it claims that it wants to honor. It is a trampling of the glory of God in the cross.

We could oppose and condemn the film, perhaps, on the basis of its crass commercialization. The very basis of the Christian faith is being used in a way to earn obscene amounts of money. Now profit is made over Christ crucified.

We could condemn it (and will condemn it) for its perversion of the gospel.

For the film portrays, among other things, Mary as the co-mediator with Jesus Christ and is nothing but the propagation of the old Roman Catholic teaching of Mary as a mediator with her Son.

But we condemn this film primarily because it is idolatry!

The Protestant church no longer knows, evidently, and does not care, evidently, about the second commandment that there shall be no graven images in the church.

A man will pretend to be the very Son of God in flesh!!??

The sufferings of the eternal Son of God will be portrayed by a make-up artist!!??

They will act out His sufferings through special effects?

The agonies of Jesus are now to be dramatized?

On the basis of the gospel, we condemn the film as being anti-Christian. And we weep that strong delusion is sent into the churches.

But my purpose in this article is not simply to condemn the film, although it is on my heart! As a pastor, I want to make it very clear to our children and to our young people that this film is not the friend of Jesus Christ, but it is His enemy.

That is not my only purpose. My purpose is that we may delight in the cross of Jesus Christ, for in His passion and suffering is eternal life. We believe that those sufferings of Jesus Christ are powerfully and effectually conveyed to us in the preaching of the gospel.

I want to consider with you “The Passion of the Christ.” I would like to make it very clear to you and to our children what His suffering was. In the second place, I want to make it very clear to you and to our children how God wants His sufferings to be conveyed to the world. Finally, if only briefly, I want to show you two things that His sufferings produce in the hearts of those who believe.

What was the passion or the suffering of Jesus Christ?

According to God’s Word, the suffering of Jesus Christ was when He bore the just wrath of the holy God against all the sins of God’s chosen people in grace. We read in Galatians 3:13 that Christ was made a curse for us. In Isaiah 53:6 we read that the Lord laid on Him the iniquities of us all. That means, young people and children, that His sufferings were not primarily, not most importantly, those sufferings that were inflicted upon Him by the hand of men, as gruesome and as brutal as those sufferings were and as the Scriptures tell us about them. But primarily the sufferings of Jesus Christ, the heart and the core of those sufferings, were inflicted upon Him by the hand of God. It pleased (Isaiah 53) the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief.

The physical sufferings of Jesus Christ, we might say, were the most severe any mortal ever experienced. But even if they were the most severe, they were not unique. He is not the only man who has suffered brutality by the hands of men. There were two other thieves crucified with Him. Those physical sufferings were not the suffering that caused Him at the end of the cross to cry out from His heart, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” What men did to Him did not cause Him to sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. But His passion was the indescribable, it was the immeasurable, it was the unique bearing (1 Peter 2) in His body our sins on the tree. And then, bearing them in love for God.

We want to note in Mark 15:33 that the emphasis of the Holy Spirit at that point shifts dramatically from that which He was suffering at the hands of men to that which He suffered at the hand of God. “And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour” — three hours of darkness. And out of that came His cry.

That darkness signified, which I will show in a moment, that God came down to Golgotha at that point in a special work of judgment. But the darkness was not something that man did. God did that.

It was after the ordeal of being in that darkness for three hours that it seemed finally as if a dam burst in our Lord’s heart and He cries out of the darkness, “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

Jesus Christ hung upon the cross for six hours. He was crucified, we read, at 9:00 in the morning. And for the first three hours men were fiendishly active. They beat Him. They scourged Him. They nailed Him to a tree. They mocked Him. They jeered Him. They ridiculed Him. They held Him up to contempt. But then, at 12:00 noon, the sixth hour, God put the lights out over the whole world. (The word land is not simply a section, but earth — over the earth.) For three hours in human history, over the whole globe of men, men did not do anything but sit in fear and darkness. It was the darkness that God once put upon the land of Egypt, the darkness in which, the book of Exodus tells us, a man could not see his hand in front of his face. Darkness came upon the earth, says the Holy Spirit. And every human action at that point ceased. We are not told of one action of man during those three hours of darkness. And in the day of days, I believe, when the book of all human deeds are opened, you will not find recorded there during those three hours of darkness one act of man, because the earth is now going to be silent. God is going to appear in judgment. He will come to His own beloved Son with all the fury, the just fury, of an offended God because of our sins.

What happened in the three hours of darkness that no camera could record?

God dealt with our sins. God punished them all in His Son.

I said the darkness represented God’s judgment. And so the Savior taught us when, numerous times in His ministry, He said that those who rejected Him would depart and be cursed in outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is the darkness of being cast away from the presence of God and experiencing only the horrible wrath of the almighty God. Darkness is simply when God gives sin what sin deserves. That is darkness. Upon the cross God gave to Christ, the head of the church, what the sin of the church deserved. This is the gospel.

2 Corin­thians 5:21
He made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

God made His Son to be sin, to be the sin-bearer for us.

Isaiah 53:5
He was wounded for our transgressions! He was bruised for our iniquities.

Isaiah 53:8
For the transgression of my people was He smitten.

Isaiah 53:10
It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. Verse 11: He shall bear their iniquities.

Now although those three hours of darkness are an eternity that is too great for us possibly to fathom, the Scriptures are nevertheless abundantly plain. We are told exactly what the passion, the suffering, of God’s Son for us was. God was punishing our sins on His Son. God was breaking over the head of His own Son the vials of His own wrath that our sins deserved. God in love gave His Son to bear what our sin deserved so that we would not have to bear it. His Son was there suffering for all the sins for which we are accountable.

He endured hell, our hell, for our sakes. He was abandoned and He was cast into the darkness. And He experienced it for us.

At the end of the three hours He cried: “My God, My God, why hast Thou abandoned Me?”

He is not asking, “God, why do men do this to Me?” He knew why they did it to Him. He is not asking, “Lord, why do My disciples forsake Me?” He knew why they must forsake Him. But He asks, “Why hast Thou forsaken Me? The very Son and the beloved of the Father. Why hast Thou made Me to be abandoned?”

As the Lord took His words deliberately at that point from Psalm 22:1, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” so also in His own heart He knew the answer, also given in Psalm 22:3, “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”

God did this because He is a holy God. That sin which is committed against Him must be punished. And in mercy He brings that punishment to the heart of His Son, that His Son might take it away and replace it for us with love. God did that.

Romans 8:32
“He that spared not his own Son.”

Fathers, you know what it means to spare your son. It means that you do not inflict upon your son what he has coming. But God did not spare His Son, “but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

Who gave Jesus to the cross?

It was not Judas Iscariot for money. It was not the Jews for envy. It was not Pontius Pilate out of fear. But it was God in justice and in love for us.

When men had done their absolute worse, God pulled down a curtain and He plunged His Son into the wrath that is ours that we might never bear it but have life eternal

Now, young people and children, if that is the passion of Jesus Christ, do you think we can act that?

Do you think that men may attempt to act that?

Do you think that we can fit eternity of suffering on a 3-D screen?

It is exactly this truth of the passion of Jesus Christ — that He bears the sins of God’s people — that offends men apart from grace. It offends us, apart from grace. For the passion of Jesus Christ is a declaration concerning us as men and women that we do deserve the eternal judgment of God for our sins. And it is the declaration to men and women that there is no escape of that punishment. There is no possibility that we can possibly blot out that punishment or take away our sins unless by grace alone God gives the substitute — His own Son.

Instead, man (and that means us — for we are no different) would rather tend to view the cross of Jesus Christ as some kind of expression that in the end everything is going to turn out OK because God will not punish sin. We would rather be moved in our hearts by the brutality of men against Christ. We would rather have the Christ become one who is able courageously and serenely to endure such brutality in order that He might gain sympathy in our hearts and so that we would all leave after this sermon resolved to live a little better and to do better. What I am saying is that we all want that cross down to the human level. We want the cross to be about man. We want it to be about man’s cruelty and man’s innocent suffering. But the cross is not about that! It is about God. It is about sin. It is about your sin. It is about the need that the eternal justice of God cries for payment.

There is only one way of payment. It is in the tender mercies of God through a substitution in Jesus Christ. This is what His passion is saying to us. It is saying to us that God takes sin seriously. That little three-letter word, sin — I have told you that the most important letter in that word is the middle one, the “i.” Sin is everything that I am and everything that I have done that is contrary to the law of my Creator. Sin is, at bottom, nothing less than my awful, stinking, and besetting pride. That pride breaks forth into my deeds and into my thoughts and into my words.

Is God indifferent to sin?

Is God indulgent about sin?

The cross and the passion of His Son tells you, No! He takes it seriously. So seriously that, rather than it should go unpunished, He punished it in His beloved Son.

Do you think that we can fit eternity of suffering on a 3-D screen?

God tells us from the cross that He not only takes sin seriously, but that He punishes sin severely and justly. That is not popular today either. In Romans 11:22 the apostle says, “Behold the goodness and the severity of God.”

Do we dare?

By God grace we do.

Do we dare proclaim publicly the word severe?

And God?

It seems the moment we would do so, the devil himself would attack us. God judges sin severely. I did not say excessively. I did not say wildly. I did not say evilly. I said severely. God will give to sin that which sin deserves, for He is holy.

Therefore the cross and the passion of Jesus Christ proclaim to us that there is but one hope — that is Christ and Him crucified, which is the power of God unto salvation. There is no other way. There is no work, there is no feeling, there is no tear, there is no act that can take away your sin except His own passion. Not the virgin Mary, not if you sympathize for Him, not a million good deeds. But only His laying down His life for the sheep.

Therefore the passion declares, “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”

How shall we convey the passion of Jesus Christ to the world?

What is the vehicle that we must use to carry the truth of this passion to mankind?

What is the way, the medium, to convey effectively and to create in the hearts of men and women Spirit-worked faith and the experience of this passion as being personally for them?

In the intense words of the apostle Paul in Philippians 3:10, how shall men and women be brought to know Him and to have fellowship with His sufferings?

That word suffering there means passion, “being made conformable unto his death.”

Has God thought about this?

Or has He simply given the passion of His Son, the crucifixion of His Son, and then left it up to us to convey it through the media and through the means that we believe will be most effective? We may be sure that God has thought about this, that He has thought about the way in which He will effectually, that is, in an effective and efficacious way, portray the passion of His Son upon our hearts. He has decided the way by which He will accomplish exactly what He intends.

What is that way?

The gospel also here is abundantly plain to those who will read it. We preach Christ crucified. This will be, says the apostle, by the Word of God as it is expounded. The Holy Scriptures brought to our hearts — this is the way whereby the power of salvation shall be effectually worked.

The enthusiasm over this movie during past weeks in the evangelical church is not so much a testimony about what the church thinks about movies, as it is a testimony about what the church really believes about the Word, and about the preaching of that Word. It is a testimony that they do not believe that the preaching is an effective way of bringing the passion of Christ by the Holy Spirit to the hearts of sinners whom God calls by grace to Himself. They do not believe that the services of the church are really effectual if they consist of just preaching the gospel.

Drama is not new to our society. Paul was well aware of it. Drama had its crowning point under the Greeks and the Romans and their playwrights and in their theaters. The apostle Paul was well aware of its appeal and its power.

When he went forth to preach and to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and bring the sufferings of the Savior, how did he go forth?

Does the book of Acts tell us that he entered into every theater and contacted every actors’ guild and arranged for them to put on the last twelve hours of the passion of Jesus Christ?

The media existed in the apostle’s day.

The enthusiasm over this movie is a testimony about what the church really believes about the Word, and about the preaching of that Word.

He says to us plainly, “Christ sent me forth to preach, because it is the preaching of the gospel, the expounding of the living and the abiding Word, by the power of the Spirit in the heart, that is the power to salvation.” The passage can be read in 1 Corinthians emphasizing to us that God has appointed the means by which the church is to bring the gospel unto the world. It is a means that the apostle says is going to be called foolish and weak. That means is that God has inspired the truth of the crucifixion in every page of His Word. You may read of it. And now He has commissioned the church to preach that Word. He has given ministers an office to preach the gospel. The apostle said there that he is well aware that the Jews of his day would rather that he bring them a sign. “The Jews require a sign.” They were a people who believed that you needed to have an impressive, and a visible, and a physical display if you really want to catch and rivet people’s attention. Paul, do something like Elijah did and call fire from heaven and we will believe that this Jesus is the Christ. But you certainly cannot expect that the gospel is going to get anywhere if you just stand there and preach.

The Greeks, on the other hand, says the apostle, want wisdom. That is, they were telling Paul, you need to learn how to put your message together in a crafty and in a skillful manner, aiming primarily at the emotions of men, trying, through your words, subtly to manipulate and control their reaction even unconsciously.

The church world today is saying the same. We require a sign. We require the wisdom of this world. They say to us, “We don’t dispute the contents of the gospel.” That is what they say! “We want the content of the gospel.” That is what they say. “But we want an effective way to get it across.” Paul says, “But we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called (notice, to those who are called) both Jew and Greek, Christ the power (effective) and Christ the wisdom of God.” Paul says, “We preach, we testify from the Holy Scriptures, through the office that is given to us, and through this preaching God calls.” We don’t have time to go into that beautiful truth, but that call is a personal work of the ascended, risen Jesus when He brings the Word to your heart and calls you by name to Himself. Paul says, “This is the power of God to salvation.”

Do we believe this?

Are we committed to this?

Are we as committed to this as we are committed to the gospel itself, to Christ our Lord, our only Savior?

Are we committed also to this, that the effective tool is the preaching of Christ crucified?

Is that why we are here?

The apostle Paul would say to the Thessalonian church, “for this cause also we thank God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, (now note) which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” The Word of God works powerfully in you who believe.

It is always going to come down to this, you know.

Does the church believe that this is God’s Word which is the power?

Or do we not.

There is convincing evidence that the means that God uses to bring the passion of Jesus Christ to our hearts is the preaching of the gospel, especially in Galatians 3:1: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, (now, note the words) before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?”

The apostle Paul says that the crucified Christ was set forth before their eyes.

How is that so?

Is it possible that some of these Galatians had been at the foot of the cross?

No. The apostle says “He was crucified among you.” He was crucified right among them. In their church. He was crucified, and you saw Him in your church.

How did that happen?

Did the apostle Paul, then, beat Mel Gibson to the punch and stage it and act it out so that they could see it?

Is that what he means?

No. See Galatians 3:2, “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”

It was through the hearing of faith. That hearing becomes eyes. The Word of God is received through faith, which becomes eyes whereby we see to the heart of the passion of Jesus Christ. And we apprehend that and lay hold of it to eternity.

The Word of God is received through faith, which becomes eyes whereby we see to the heart of the passion of Jesus Christ.

God has chosen the means — the preaching of the Word. Woe to us if we depart from that, if instead we insist that we want signs and wisdom of men. Then it must be declared to us, to the Protestant church, whenever men arise to represent God’s truth in the way that we want to represent it, we destroy the truth and make an image. We bring it down to man, and the center of our message becomes man, not God, and not the glory of the incorruptible God. The apostle in Romans 1 says that that is our nature — we take the glory of the incorruptible God and make it like unto man.

Can man paint God on a canvas?

Can man act God on a cross?

Can man express eternal wrath being borne in darkness?

He can not! All he will succeed in doing is making God like unto himself.

Leave it to man. Leave it to me. Leave it to a worship committee. Leave it to a theater group — and you will not have the passion of Christ plus a few errors, or minus a little bit. No, you will not have that — you will have the lie!

But the means of God are effectual. The means of God do not return void, God has said, and of this we are sure, “My word shall not return empty to me. It shall accomplish the purpose to which I sent it.”

That, after all, is the question. We do not want to hide the passion of Jesus Christ. We do not believe that that passion is somewhere off in the corner and that it should not be displayed before this world. We want that passion displayed. And, above all things, we want that passion displayed to our own hearts as foundation and assurance of my salvation this morning. I need to know that. I need to know that He suffered for me.

How shall we do that?

Shall we buy tickets to a movie and pass them out in the neighborhood?

Shall we show a film tonight to underscore the brutality?

I want to know about those sufferings.

And I want to know that they were for me.

How?

By the Word of God. The Scriptures are saying that the One who put Him on the cross is the One who must tell you in His Word. He must open your heart so that your ears become eyes and you see Him.

Then we will leave, by the grace of God, with those effects produced by the Holy Spirit, which are a conviction of sin and its pardon. Before the cross of Jesus Christ we will be convicted of its horror, of our sin, of its consequences, and of the fact that it cannot be removed by us.

Leaving the cross of Jesus Christ, I will not think that sin is a joke, that sin is light, and that sin is my friend.

Do you leave the cross of Jesus Christ that way, thinking that sin is a joke, that the cross simply means that you have insurance, so that you can go on in your sins?

Those who do not know the cross go on in their sins and do not have insurance. Woe be to us, then. For then we have not seen.

But we will leave the cross convicted of our sin, that it is no joke. We will be convicted that the guilt of our sin, which nothing could remove, has been borne away by the Lion of Judah’s tribe. Now we are righteous before God. We will, then, leave the cross in amazement at the love of God. There is nothing that is going to reveal to us the character of our God as does the cross. Even in eternity, the Bible tells us, the revelation of God will always be through His Son and through the Lamb that has been slain. Everything that has to be known of God is revealed in the cross. In the cross we see that He is unchangeably holy, inflexibly just, marvelous in grace, perfect in wisdom, immeasurable in love. For at the cross we ask the question:

Why?

Jesus cried out “Why?”

We do too.

Why?

If this were His passion that He endured for me, the hell I made, Why?

Why would the Son of God, who could gain nothing from it personally, why would He do that?

The answer is too big, too much for our hearts. It is because of the unconditional love of God, the infinite and unchangeable love, that He gave His Son to bear what would have made us perish, in order that we might live eternally.

Now hear the passion of Christ.

“And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,… My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

So that we might never be forsaken of God.

By Carl Haak

Adolf Hitler's chart shows some configurations which other astrologers have claimed explains his motivation, I cannot agree. The inclusion of Eris, Goddess of strife and discord in his nativity, aspects to the ascendant too, evidences an incredible and absolutely perfect fifth harmonic pentagram. If Addey is correct and the 5th denotes the abuse of power, then clearly Hitler was the perfect 5th harmonic instrument.

Of course, there are other interesting factors in his chart that support the historical outcomes. The partile conjunction of Ma/Ve in square to Saturn on the midheaven tells a story of idealism brutally expounded, and Taurus, fixed earth is powerfully material, Venus disposits the chart, is energised by Mars (which it overwhelms) and is given ruthless staying power by Saturn in fixed, autocratic Leo. With all of those ponderous outer-planet energies configured in this pattern, the Moon-Jupiter conjunction creates the most obvious channel for its expression, in the 3rd: by use of slowly building oratory (Cap. on 3rd) he was able to focus the fanatic zeal for power of Saturn in Leo and the near spiritualised intellect of Neptune in Gemini, itself lent destructive intellectual power by Pluto, accidentally dignified in the fixed 8th.

The quintile when viewed retrospectively in this way is comprehensible, and even beforehand it might be possible to put these clues together, but really, the most remarakble feature of this configuration is its power. It is like a Yod, but supercharged, and without the element of hunting dissatisfaction found in that pattern; it becomes, once activated, innate and in some manner overwhelming and undeniable.

The 'Golden Yod' then, is an intriguing configuration formed from a quintile between two planets which each biquintile a third. An angle works just as well. From my research the Golden Yod is often found in the charts of musicians and actors. Kevin Costner has a Golden Yod to his Mc. Many iconic film stars charts evidenced Golden Yods, or what I call 'Golden t-squares' (two quintiles joined by a biquintile), such as Joan Crawford, Charlie Chaplin and James Dean. James Dean has an incredible configuration of quintiles if you take a look at his chart.

Musicians too, Buddy Holly and Carole King for example.

The negative potential is found in the charts of many notewrothy individuals. Murder victims like Albert Ayler who was found dead in NYs East River on 25th Nov. 1970 for one; there are many other examples; victims of anothers power misuse; like Patty Hearst for example.

I have a fairly extensive library on the [bi]quintile now. You may wish to include 36 deg. and the sequiquintile of 108 deg. That's a magical number too, according to Crowley it is the sum of Jesus and Mary, and there are 1080 bricks in a Turkish oven, always, and of course it is representative of 9 and 12 numerologically.

So, how do you interpret the quintiles in everyday astrology? For practical purposes it is uninterpretable, at least, not without the gift of hindsight. The majority are quite oblivious to this aspect because it is - as in music- an off-beat rhythm, it is decidedly Uranian in that respect, if the aspect were a style of music it would be a rather obscure form of jazz. On the other hand, it may be possible to explore some of the theme blends and see where that leads you. Consider this list of personages with Moon in 5th harmonic aspect to Saturn:

• Adolf Hitler
• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Willy Brandt
• Bill Clinton
• Betty Ford
• Edward Kennedy
• Robert Kennedy

Are you seeing a common quality? Moon - Saturn always speaks to matters of self-discipline, self-control inadequate maternal relationships and staying power; but here it is lent a different quality, one that if "switched on" can become a true asset, for good, or for evil.

1. He who is not being busy born is busy dying

2. Now the rainman gave me two cures, Then he said, "Jump right in." The one was Texas medicine, The other was just railroad gin.

3. Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood With his memories in a trunk Passed this way an hour ago With his friend, a jealous monk (You may say that's the opposite, Dylan is saying science surpasses relegion--- Api says, bugger off, they are just jealous of each other!)

4. But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues You can tell by the way she smiles (Is Mona Lisa Leonardo as a lady? Is it Eris? I think she's smiling 'cause she just got some)

5. Now the medicine man comes and he shuffles inside He walks with a swagger and he says to the bride "Stop all this weeping, swallow your pride You will not die, it's not poison" (We know what she is taking... Maybe... Is it sexual, is it drugs? I think drugs but man, it's true, it's false it's meaningless)

6. Now you see this one-eyed midget Shouting the word "NOW" And you say, "For what reason?" And he says, "How?" And you say, "What does this mean?" And he screams back, "You're a cow Give me some milk Or else go home" (Now, does it get more Discordian then this? Cow-Chao, eh? Or as Camden Benares might say, "What Time is It? Now)

Anyway, being that my page hits are always low, probably not many comments but if ya got some, add it. I also may add more Dylan lyrics at a later date. Or I may not. You know Apikoros. Flakiness is a respected charm, skill and talent in this Cabal!

Oh, and dig this:

It was just about a year ago that the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto from planet to dwarf planet. At the same time, two other solar system objects -Eris and Ceres- were upgraded from lower categories. Ceres, discovered in 1801, is the largest asteroid belt object, and is composed of a rocky mantle and icy crust. It may also have a liquid ocean and water vapor in its atmosphere, making it a prime candidate in the search for life on other planets. Eris resides three times farther from the sun than Pluto, in the 'scattered disk' beyond the Kuiper Belt, and is larger than both Ceres and the former planet. It too has a moon, named Dysnomia (the pair's names come from the Greek goddess Eris (of discord) and her daughter (of lawlessness). The pair are currently the farthest known objects in the solar system. But back to Pluto. Poor Pluto, no longer an equal of mighty Jupiter and fair Venus, relegated with the rest of the tiny rocks of the solar system.... until now! As of June 11th, Pluto and Eris are reclassified as 'Plutoids' - as they are both dwarf planets and Trans-Neptunian Objects (Ceres does not qualify). What difference does this make? None. It seems like a poor consolation prize to me, and kitschy to boot. If it was meant to rectify the disgace conferred upon our ninth planet (or whatever it is now) with a whole category, the fact that there are only two members is rather sad... In other interesting solar system information, there are droves of icy planetoids wandering between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune, called Centaurs (orange above). These lie inward of the Kuiper Belt (green) but outside the asteroid belt (pink). Nifty.

For more information on dwarf planets, click here.

A few years ago, the Grand Council of the Great and Serious Men of Science assembled in their mountain lair and declared by fiat that Pluto was no longer a planet. The decree, which was read from a sheepskin scroll from atop Mount Gravitas, induced a deafening wail from middle school science teachers and rendered inaccurate my prize-winning 5th grade diorama of the solar system.

Now -- because no dying embers of controversy should go unstoked no matter how boring the subject -- the Grand Council of the Great and Serious Men of Science has decided that the appropriate category into which Pluto fits is that of the "plutoid."

What is a plutoid, you ask? According to the Times, a plutoid is a "dwarf planet beyond the orbit of Neptune."

Despite the specificity of the name, there is another planet that fits the description:

There is only one plutoid other than Pluto: Eris, the sphere of rock and ice formerly nicknamed Xena that is slightly larger than Pluto.

...And somewhere in New Jersey, a 14-year-old boy writes "eris" on the insole of his sneaker, next to "goffrey chaucer" and "aron burr kill alx hamilton dool."

Not a Planet, but a Plutoid [New York Times]

The International Astronomical Union has decided on the term "plutoid" as a name for dwarf planets like Pluto.

Sidestepping concerns of many astronomers worldwide, the IAU's decision, at a meeting of its Executive Committee in Oslo, comes almost two years after it stripped Pluto of its planethood and introduced the term "dwarf planets" for Pluto and other small round objects that often travel highly elliptical paths around the sun in the far reaches of the solar system.

The name plutoid was proposed by the members of the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), accepted by the Board of Division III and by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN), and approved by the IAU Executive Committee at its recent meeting in Oslo, according to a statement released today.

Here's the official new definition:

"Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighborhood around their orbit."

In short: small round things beyond Neptune that orbit the sun and have lots of rocky neighbors.

The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris, the IAU stated. The organization expects more plutoids will be found.

Controversy continues

Already the IAU recognizes it is adding to an ongoing controversy.

The IAU has been responsible for naming planetary bodies and their satellites since the early 1900s. Its decision in 2006 to demote Pluto was highly controversial, with some astronomers saying simply that they would not heed it and questioning the IAU's validity as a governing body.

"The IAU is a democratic organization, thus open to comments and criticism of any kind," IAU General Secretary Karel A. van der Hucht told SPACE.com by email today. "Given the history of the issue, we will probably never reach a complete consensus."

It remains to be seen whether astronomers will use the new term.

"My guess is that no one is going to much use this term, though perhaps I'm wrong," said Caltech astronomer Mike Brown, who has led the discovery of several objects in the outer solar system, including Eris. "But I don't think that this will be because it is controversial, just not particularly necessary."

Brown was unaware of the new definition until the IAU announced it today.

"Back when the term 'pluton' was nixed they said they would come up with another one," Brown said. "So I guess they finally did."

More debate coming

The dwarf planet Ceres is not a plutoid as it is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, according to the IAU. Current scientific knowledge lends credence to the belief that Ceres is the only object of its kind, the IAU stated. Therefore, a separate category of Ceres-like dwarf planets will not be proposed at this time, the reasoning goes.

A meeting, planned earlier this year for Aug. 14-16 at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, aims to bring astronomers of varying viewpoints together to discuss the controversy. "No votes will be taken at this conference to put specific objects in or out of the family of planets," APL's Dr. Hal Weaver, a conference organizer, said in a statement in May. "But we will have advocates of the IAU definition and proponents of alternative definitions presenting their cases."

The term plutoid joins a host of other odd words -- plutinos, centaurs, cubewanos and EKOs -- that astronomers use to define objects in the outer solar system.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20080611/sc_space/plutonowcalledaplutoid

iNPLACENEWS

It is not wisdom or zeal to blast those that do not understand your change. Jesus Christ taught His disciples to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matt 10:16). Paul avoided offence when he could without compromising the truth (1 Corinthians 9:19-23; 10:31-33). He even claimed to be a Pharisee, when he thought the ploy would save him in a religious trial (Acts 23:6-10). And it did!

1. Prepare your defense.

Do not wing your presentation. Measure your audience (see #4 below). Choose your approach and gather material to bolster your testimony. This website has documents with plenty of Bible, historical evidence, and links to convince anyone that you are not merely being emotional or over reactive. For example, most people are entirely unaware that Christmas celebrations were against the law in the early days of the U.S. and in Puritan England. Show that your decision is based on thorough study of much information.

2. Do it in October.

The best time to discuss holidays is October! Lump them together – Halloween, Christmas, and Easter. Since most can see the pagan origin of Halloween, put the emphasis on this devilish day. You can then tack on Christmas and Easter. By dealing with all three holidays at once, you avoid two more conflicts in the next six months. By choosing October to inform them, you can objectively present the truth before the “Christmas spirit” or spring enthusiasm makes it impossible for most people to even think.

3. Reassure your family.

They need to know you still love them, gatherings, feasts, birthdays, giving gifts, etc. Plan a big family event at Thanksgiving. This holiday did not come from pagans; it came from the Pilgrims. The Bible requires and commends thanksgiving, unlike a Christmas tree or Easter egg hunt. It is by carefully presenting your continued love of the family and acceptable gatherings that you can disarm them from thinking you have become a nutcase like the Jehovah's Witnesses or Worldwide Church of God!

4. Measure your audience.

Every audience is different, and you should approach each one differently. If you are dealing with professing Christians, then select a few of the plainest and most powerful Bible verses for your position. If dealing with unbelievers, consider the history and origin of the holidays with articles from encyclopedias, books, or newspapers. If dealing with a civil rights activist, appeal to your right to worship God according to your own conscience, as long as you do not violate the rights of anyone else. Be wise!

5. Accept allowed holidays.

Make sure they know you will celebrate allowed holidays such as July 4, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, family birthdays and anniversaries, and so forth. There is nothing in the Bible against these days, in spite of what Russellites claim (the Jehovah’s Witnesses). Abraham threw a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned; the Jews threw a great feast called Purim after defeating their Persian enemies; and Jesus attended an extra scriptural feast (Genesis 21:8; Esther 9:28; John 10:22).

6. Reject all cults.

Emphasize you are not a Jehovah’s Witness, member of the Worldwide Church of God, groupie of Jim Jones or David Koresh, or an orthodox Jew. You are a Bible Christian seeking to practice Christianity according to the Bible, rather than according to the traditions received from Roman Catholicism or other human sources. Do not go to foolish extremes to avoid incidental contact with the holidays, for the Lord understands that you cannot avoid any and all indirect association with them (2 Kings 5:18-19; 1 Corinthians 5:9-10).

7. Affirm Christianity.

Declare your total devotion to Jesus Christ, and confess Him as the one and only true God. Remind them that you celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus in the way He ordained, through baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper with wine and bread. Some will think you must not be a Christian, because you are not celebrating the world’s “Christian” holidays. You can settle this confusion by defining true Bible Christianity – the worship of Jesus Christ according to the Bible without any addition of human traditions.

8. Appeal to conscience.

For the most stubborn cases, make an appeal to the right of an individual to worship God according to his own conscience. Remind them that you allow them this freedom, and you are simply asking the same for yourself as well. Explain that to celebrate these three holidays has become a matter of conscience for you, which does not allow you to participate without sinning against God and yourself. If appropriate, say to them, “Please do not require me to sin against my conscience and against God.”

9. Be ready to answer.

Many will simply hear your appeal and arguments and grant your withdrawal from the holiday activities. However, others will defend themselves and attack your position. If they say, “I do it to the Lord,” answer with Deuteronomy 12:29-32. If they say, “Romans 14:5-6 allows each person the right to holidays,” answer that those were Jewish days from Moses’ Law, not pagan holy days from devil worship.

10. Live above reproach.

The greatest testimony with the most power is a righteous life. Shame any person that speaks against you by living a godly and holy life that is known by all (1 Pet 2:11-12; 3:15-16). The greater your daily character, the more credible your doctrine and practice. If you have any outstanding character flaws or known sins, then confess them freely to those that know. The goal of every Christian is to let his good works glorify His Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). Do not give anyone an excuse from your life to discount your words.

And if Eris, an ancient Greek goddess, seems like a particularly odd name for, of all things, an atheistic blog written by a decidedly (so saieth the beard) male Finn --- well, then you should know that --- for me --- Erisian antics are to religion the same as FSM-ism is to Intelligent Design cretinism.

Sorry, ID creationism. These funny, revealing slips...

As I was saying, Eris is just another funhouse mirror for your illumination, just another Invisible Pink Unicorn.

That's all; here's a picture for you.

Though I drew these fellas I don't know who they are, though the leftmost one looks a bit like one of the Tenure Overlords (i.e. professors), and the rightmost is a bit grad-stud-ish.

Benar! Eris adalah sebuah Planet Katai(Planet Kecil)yg ditemukan tahun 2005 lalu oleh 3 ahli Astronom di Amerika. Sebelumnya, nama planet ini bukanlah Eris. Melainkan, 2003 UB313(nama lainnya Xena). Awalnya, banyak pengamat yg mengatakan itu bukanlah Planet. Melainkan bagian dari Sabuk Kuiper. Eris mempunyai sebuah sattelit yang bernama Dysnomia yg ditemukan di Tahun 2005 juga.

Eris memiliki diameter 3000 kilometer yang lebih besar dari Pluto. Eris berjarak sekitar 15 miliyar Kilometer atau sekitar 9 miliar mil dari Matahari! Waw! Berapa tahun cahaya yah kalau kita kesana? :mrgreen: Eris Merupakan benda langit yang menegelilingi Matahari paling Jauh! Untuk sebuah Revolusi(kalau di Bumi butuh waktu revolusi selama 1 tahun), Eris memakan waktu sekitar 312 Tahun sekali!!! Bayangkan! Kita di Bumi saja menunggu 1 tahun lamanya minta ampun! Apalagi disana! :|

Ini Gambarnya:

Gambar Eris yg sangat jauh dari Matahari!

Sama seperti Pluto, gas yang terdapat di Eris adalah Helium dengan suhu dipermukaanya sekitar -982 derajat Celcius. Dingin Sekali! :mrgreen: Namun, para peneliti mengatakan bahwa gas yang terdapat di Eris bukanlah Helium, melainkan ada sedikit Oksigen dan Hidrogen dengan suhu permukaan mencapai 121 derajat celcius!

[Bersambung.....]

This is an audio sermon by Randy Wages titled "Your God - Dead Or Alive?"

The scripture text that brother Randy is preaching from is Deuteronomy 4:28 and the audio is 33 minutes long.

Russian doomsday cults in caves, Japanese death cults in subways, US racist cults in silos...  At least the creepy Mormon cults are getting their day in the sun.  Child-brides and forced family swapping, all led by a charismatic and tyrannical Father.

Praise Eris, that the internet is there to provide context.  Understanding.  Solace.

Ahhhh... that makes everything feel much better.  Thanks internet!

-BRP

PS:  Jon 'Baldy' Gates will be at java - tomorrow night.  You have been warned...

him: "ok, goddess of chaos"

thanks, buddy

Sistemul nostru solar cuprinde 8 planete si 3 planete pitice. Cele 4 planete mai apropiate de Soare - Mercur, Venus, Terra si Marte - sunt numite planete terestre din cauza suprafetei lor rocoase. Planetele dincolo de orbita lui Marte - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus si Neptun - sunt numite gigante gazoase. Planetele pitice sunt: Ceres, Pluto si Eris.

Aproape oricare dintre aceste planete - si cativa din satelitii acestora - are o atmosfera. Atmosfera Pamantului este formata, in primul rand, din azot si oxigen. Venus si Marte au o atmosfera subtire formata din dioxid de carbon. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus si Neptun au atmosfera predominant formata din hidrogen si heliu.

Astronomii din trecut credeau ca Pamantul este in centrul universului si ca Soarele si celelalte stele se rotesc in jurul lui. Copernicus a dovedit ca Terra si celelalte planete se rotesc in jurul Soarelui. Incetul cu incetul incepem sa cunoastem Universul si astfel apare intrebarea: Mai exista planete pe care viata ar putea exista? De vreo cativa ani astronomii au reusit sa detecteze indirect si alte planete (numite planete extrasolare) ce orbiteaza alte stele, insa deocamdata nu se poate spune daca exista si viata pe acestea.

On closer reflection it occured to me that this is actually true of all religions, so no special privilege to Discordianism there.

* * *

Words have great and eerie power over the minds of religious folks.

No-one has ever tried to sell his soul to Stan, or would want to, right? But add one letter...

Are the people that live on the Isle of Man the Sons of Man? And about the Biblical Son of Man --- isn't he the, er, the Son of Woman, with no man involved, only a sex-neutral It-Deity? Or is this one of those metaphorical thingies?

Repeat any word long enough and it starts to look absurd, just a meaningless string of sounds. Keep repeating, and you'll notice a deep, scary, spooky aura of power, a greater mystical meaning... and then, if you're lucky, you'll notice that it's all in your mind.

"This is not the Stan you're looking for."

* * *

I've seen a Christian statue where a random archangel was trampling on a random devil, and I've heard of the three pillars (now walls, I hear) that Muslim pilgrims are supposed to fling stones at when visiting Mecca.

I think some enterprising Discordian should follow this way and make punching-bags and dartboards and illustrated toilet-bowls featuring the likenesses of our Bad Guys.

The foes and often also the unwitting (or witless) allies of a Discordian are the various Greyfaces of the world: all those types that say life is serious, and play a sin.

Sin... spooky language!

Actually, this group of Greyfaces includes almost every politician and almost every religious leader... and I'm guessing the clientele of such a toilet-maker would extend far beyond Discordians as well.

Just imagine: "Hot diggity! Toilet bowls with a screaming bobblehead doll of the Great White Bush in the water! Gimme five! Hot scatological waterboarding will ensue!"

If the toilet-bowl idea seems extreme, let me tell you that, during the Napoleonic Wars, the ever-polite Englishmen manufactured chamberpots with a small bust of Napoleon in the bowl, straight in the way of the, er, brownies.

* * *

If this piece of Discordianism isn't enough for you, continue reading the posts in the category "Eris", or then order the absolutely fabulously gorgeous edition of the Principia Discordia, the holey Book of Eris.

Meanwhile, much further away than the moon, on April 4 Eris moved to 21AR01'58", a mile-marker for this distant planetoid. The Sabian Symbol for this degree reads: THE GATE TO THE GARDEN OF ALL FULFILLED DESIRES. The keynote says: Abundance made possible by human together-ness and cooperation. Eris will remain in this degree until November, 2008...which, interestingly, coincides with the next shift of the Mayan Calendar, the beginning of Day Six.

Given all that I've been following with spinning planets, ancient calendars, and A New Earth birthing, it's become increasingly important to continue with my yoga practice. How else can we possibly integrate all that is happening? Being Here and Now feels good and removes the stress of multiple possibilities in a changing world.

Early this morning I read Barbara Hand Clow's New Moon horoscope which was the inspiration for this post. Below is a small part of her article (including the link so you can read all of it).

From the perspective of the Mayan Calendar and astrology, we are in the darkest days of Night Five, and I feel like I am seeing the probabilities very clearly. With this New Moon in Aries, we enter the most critical phase of the Galactic Underworld since it began in 1999-a phase I label "evolutionary bifurcation." Using Chaos Theory (an advanced math system examining the way natural systems change and evolve), a bifurcation happens when an old evolutionary pattern is collapsing while a new wave is building. During great evolutionary shifts, mature species are no longer able to adapt to changing conditions, such as the extinction of the dinosaurs when placental mammals emerged 63 million years ago. With the breaking point-the bifurcation-evolution continues through new species while the old ones die off. This is always a very dangerous moment for any creature that wants to survive. As humans, if we are to survive, we must move to a more cosmic level and re-enter the universe. We need to consciously flow with the new wave while keeping ourselves free from the collapsing systems.

http://www.handclow2012.com/astroflash.htm#New%20Moon

When you look at all of the astrological aspects within the context of the Mayan Calendar it all makes perfect sense. I am reminded of the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."

It's getting very interesting.

On a personal note, I've entered the balsamic phase of my personal lunar cycle. Phew. Resting will feel good today.

Om Nimah Shavaya.

I came home earlier this evening to find this braw racing pigeon (racing pigeon I assume cause of the little green tag attached to its majestic feet) had lodged itself into the narrow space between the kitchen cupboards and the celling. I dont know how the fuck it got in, or what it was looking for. However, it decided to stay the night perched up there atop the cupboard -- or rather wasnt able to launch itself into flight and escape the misery of companionship with yours truly.

So to celebrate I threw crumbs of stale bread up at it, filled up my absent flatmate's tupperware container with tap water, et voila it had its own little resevoir of water up there, glaring down at me. Shitting itself to its heart's content it soon made itself at home. The RSPCA tell me they're coming round sometime this year to get it the fuck out, but till then it's my new best friend. Erik Heinecke suggested I interview pidgey (as I call him) as a follow up to my Rev Spook interview.

Anas: Please introduce yourself/How would you best describe yourself ?

coo-coo-coo. coo coo. coooo

Anas: how important is Discordianism in your work and in your life? What do you do to maintain your relationship with the goddess Eris?

coo. coo-coo-coo. coo (pidgey squeezes out another load onto the dusty cupboard top)

Anas: Change of tack. Musically who are your biggest influences, and who are your biggest anti influence

coo. coo, coo-coo-coo. coooooo.

ANAS: What have you got coming up?

Getting the fuck away from you, ya fanny.

Now, waking up in a Saturday morning with a head filled of pain is as regular as it is unwanted for sure. Some may, in their ignorance, say that a hangover is but a justified punishment for those that overdid the celebrations last night and that Saint Zarathud's Day is still almost a month away anyway and shouldn't be the cause of so much unraveled drinking. But what do they know, eh?

As the Rev. Tuskaloosie Charles once said: If there is ever a reason to drink and make merry it is this. And that, and come to think of most other things as well.

Hangover is not a punishment. I tend to think of it as a reward gone slightly wrong. It was probably intended that mankind should wake up feeling just fine after a whole nights partying and drinking and, well, probably doing a lot more stuff that doesn't really come back to me right now but would, for sure, explain this decapitated mannequin from the ladies wear department and the slightly scuffed cap of a postal worker that I found resting on my bedroom floor. And probably it would also tell me were my left boot and underwear has gone.

We must imagine that the activites needed to gather all that seemingly random stuff, long after closing hours I might add, must have been both arduous and tedious. Such punishing action would surely merit a reward, not a punishment?

Anyway, that is my position and I'm sticking to it. Now, hand me those aspirin and Go Away In the Name of Eris.

Ep. M. Glib