Quickest Girl in the Frying Pan's Weblog

I just bought 4 Neil Gaiman books on abebooks.com.

Me=tickled.

I think it’s a multi-layered thing really.  Like an onion.  Or a parfait.  Everybody loves parfaits!  Right?  No… sorry, hehehe.  Right now I feel… strong… confident… I have this sense of… rightness… about where I’m at and where I’m headed.  Let me tell you… it feels good.

All Bibles or sacred codes have been the causes of the following Errors.
1. That Man has two real existing principles Viz: a Body & a Soul.
2. That Energy, call’d Evil, is alone from the Body, & that Reason, call’d Good, is alone from the Soul.
3. That God will torment Man in Eternity for following his Energies.But the following Contraries to these are True
1. Man has no Body distinct from his Soul for that call’d Body is a portion of Soul discern’d by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.
2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy.
3 Energy is Eternal Delight.

William Blake The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

I love this passage.  I have not read the entire writing (though now I think I will seek it out and do just that) but this small bit of it has captivated my thoughts since I first read it last night.  In mulling it over the part where he says “Man has no Body distinct from his Soul for that call’d Body is a portion of Soul discern’d by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.” Is the part that has stood out most sharply to me.  I’ve been trying to figure out what, exactly, he means by that.  “Man has no Body distinct from his Soul” I was thinking earlier today that perhaps he meant that body and Soul are one, not separate, or perhaps inseparable. How can this be, I thought, if body and Soul are inseparable what becomes of that Soul when the body dies?  What then happens to that Soul that much of mankind believes to be immortal?  I have spent all of my Life believing that my body is but a vessel for my Soul.  Nothing more.  Just a shell.  This, no doubt, is carried over from my Christian upbringing and this is the first time I have truly ever questioned that or even, really, considered any alternative.  But upon re-reading the passage this evening the rest of that sentence caught my attention, “for that call’d Body is a portion of the Soul discern’d by the five Senses”.  That which we call “Body” he explains is a part of the Soul, part of the Soul which we perceive through our senses that he describes as “inlets of Soul”.  The ancient Celts believed the head was the seat of the Soul.  They described enlightenment and Spiritual fervor as a fire in the head.  It makes one wonder… if the body and Soul are one and indiscernible from each other perhaps, the body being merely a part of the Soul, is sloughed off at Death like a serpent would shed a skin. Perhaps the Soul does not reside in the head nor the heart… perhaps our whole being is our Soul.  Perhaps the mind works like a Spiritual CPU for the Soul, processing that information which is captured by our senses (personally I believe we are not limited to the five, but that’s another post for another day).  The idea of it interests me to distraction and has much potential for further understandings…

They don’t come often, but when they do I hold on for dear Life and just let it ride.  I have some great friends at work. They are, hands down, the only reason I am not completely miserable in that Gods forsaken corporate American cess pool. I’ve had a bit of an emotional week revolving around my Spiritual Path and I’ve been in some deep discussions with my SO’s and my friends trying to work through a decision I was facing. Today, having made the decision, this came out in email with one of my very good friends. He humored me by speaking little and letting me get it out. I thought I’d revisit it and type it out here, maybe add to it if the Spirit moves me. He called me his “favorite existential detective” today, lol.  Thanks X.

Magic is born in the realm of thought, that’s the first step. But sometimes it’s difficult to move to the next.  Writing it down helps me focus my intent.  Whether it’s to finish a project, help a friend heal from an illness, or bring someone special into your Life for a fulfilling relationship; it’s all the same.  All goals have to have a starting point, steps along the way, and an end point.  And that’s really all it is when it comes down to it… just lining up the dominoes to fall where you want them to fall and hope that somewhere out there is a god that will smile on you and help a little along the way.  Someone very dear to me made the domino comparison to me a long time ago, years, but it didn’t make sense to me at that time… I just couldn’t grasp what he was trying to say, but now it seems crystal clear… it’s almost ridiculous how clear.  The problem lies in thinking that magic is separate from ourselves somehow… like we have to pull from somewhere without and that somehow, if we want it bad enough and concentrate hard enough it will happen… but it doesn’t work that way.  We have to work for it in the physical realm, mental realm, and the Spiritual realm… that’s the only way we can ensure the dominoes are lined up and what we desire comes to fruition. Our World today has convoluted that image.  People think magic is something only found in fairy tales.  We wonder at magicians all the while calling them illusionists.  We think that we can’t possibly do magic even if it is “real”.  We think that “reality” is something outside of us and our control rather than something we create.  But thatis the real illusion. The only step up magicians have on us is that they know how the feat is performed.  They created it in the mental and physical world and perfected it to a level that seems somehow supernatural to the unknowing observer.  Many people in the World are starving because they’ve dedicated so much time and energy to trying to perfect their work on the physical and mental realms but have neglected the Spiritual.  We go day to day believing that there is something “out there” but don’t take the time to try and commune with it… but “it” isn’t “out there” either !  It’s within us.  The Divine Creator is within and around all of us.  God is not a separate entity sitting somewhere far removed observing and directing us.  God is here.  God is within you and within me and the Earth beneath us and the Sky above us and the sun and the moon and the rain… Woo, I need to stop before I get dizzy!  But then even those people who believe God is separate from us seem to be happier and lead more fulfilled Lives if they have a healthy Spiritual Life.  If they take the time to maintain the balance between the three.  They see the dominoes too, they just believe that God set them up apart from them rather than through them or as them… mmm, that’s wordy.  I think I’m losing my point.  It’s all the same.  Ha!  The blanket!  The blanket is everything!  Have you seen I <3 Huckabees? Don’t tell me you’re learning from me.  I shudder to think… but I learn from you too, so I’m glad I can give back.  I guess that’s what it’s really all about though… learning from each other and with each other… how else are we to make happy Pagans who know how to ask the right questions and have fun with Life?

it’s amazing what comes out.  I like these moments though.  I’m a pretty opinionated person and it’s good for me to be forced to stop and think about why I feel the way I do from time to time.  A few days ago my mother sent me an email with an anti-Muslim article attached to it.  There was no message from her, just the attachment.  I wonder… if my mother sent it to me because she doesn’t know me or if it’s because she wants to get to know me and wonders what I think of it or if I would even respond.  Well, respond I did.  In fact I wrote a pretty lengthy response to it.  I thought that, for posterities sake, I would post it here as well.  The first is the article I was sent.  The second is my response to it.  Enjoy!

 ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez and published in a Spanish newspaper on 5-22-07. It doesn’t take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and possibly to the rest of the world.
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REMEMBER AS YOU READ — IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 14:30:20 -0500

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez(*)I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth – Europe died in Auschwitz . We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crimeShut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstitionWe have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for hoping for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.
***********************************A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.Absolutely No Profiling! Pause a moment, reflect back,These events are actual events from history. They really happened! Do you remember?1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by A Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40
2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
4. During the 1980’s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
No, I really don’t see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President’s security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males between the ages 17 and 40 alone lest they be guilty of profiling. Let’s send this to as many people as we can so that the Gloria Aldreds and other dunder-headed attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart com mon sense, feel ashamed of themselves — if they have any such sense
.
As the writer of the award winning story “Forrest Gump” so aptly put it, “Stupid is as stupid does.”Come on people wake up!!! Keep this going. Our Country and our troops need our support. 

 Fear and Ignorance Breeds Fear and Ignorance:

A response to All European Life Died in Auschwitz, by Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez. 

Stupidity and ignorance, Senior Rodrigez states, are two things that the Muslims brought to Europe. I wonder if he knew about Jabir Ibn Hayyan, he lived in Kufu in about 776 A.D. and is known as “the father of modern chemistry”. Or maybe the degree to which the Muslims developed physics through the work of physicists Kindi, Jahiz, Banu Musa, Beruni, Razi and Abdur Rahman Ibn Nasr. Perhaps he had never heard of the Spanish Muslims that made some of the greatest contributions in botany, by discovering sexual differences in plants such as palms and hemp and classified plants into groups according to those that grow from sees, cuttings, and of their own accord, i.e. wild growth. I suppose he’d never heard the name Abu Zakariya Yahya Ibn Muhammad Ibn AlAwwan who was the author of what has been heralded as one of the most important books on agriculture during the mediaeval times.  (http://members.tripod.com/~salems2/sciences.htm)  No doubt he didn’t know that Baghdad had set up a method for training and licensing physicians a thousand years before the United States did and that modern European schools follow the pattern set by early Muslim medical schools. Or that Muslim doctor “Al-Razi wrote the first medical description of smallpox and measles – two important infectious diseases. He described the clinical difference between the two diseases so vividly that nothing since has been added. Ibn Sina suggested the communicable nature of tuberculosis. He is said to have been the first to describe the preparation and properties of sulphuric acid and alcohol. His recommendation of wine as the best dressing for wounds was very popular in medieval practice. However Razi was the first to use silk sutures and alcohol for hemostatis. He was the first to use alcohol as an antiseptic.” (http://www.islam-usa.com/im4.html)  Phenomenal contributions to the World Society from a culture “who brought us stupidity and ignorance”. 

I support freedom of speech and so support this journalists right to continue writing and publishing such tripe.  What frightens me is that it is given merit, was added to and has been distributed as a cry to somehow support our Country and our Troops. What is even more disturbing to me is this writer’s harkening back to Auschwitz.  He bemoans the death of millions of Jews and the subsequent rise in Muslim population.  The last line of his article says “What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe”.  This coupled with his apparent hatred of the Muslims in Spain leaves one with the distinct impression he would have preferred it the other way around. Would the World witness another attempt at ethnic cleansing?  Would the World stand and watch as the Muslims took a turn in the ovens?  Would our children’s children tell the horrible tales of Muslim concentration camps?

The second (unknown) author in this message uses the word “extremist” a total of thirteen times in his short message.  The intelligent reader must stop to question, to ponder the inclusion of that word so frequently in this two page incensing article. Dictionary.com defines “extremist” as 1. a person who goes to extremes, esp. in political matters.  2. a supporter or advocate of extreme doctrines or practices.  3. Belonging or pertaining to extremists.  What we have to keep in mind is the extreme is on the far outer edge of whatever entity one applies the term to.  But of course, the Muslims are the only group with extremists, right?  In 1999 eight different abortion clinics across America were set ablaze by three different extremists; Ricky Lee McDonald, Martin Uphoff, Peter Quinn, and Benjamin Matthew Williams.  But, wait a minute, those aren’t Muslim names… Okay, but there was the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 that claimed 168 lives and wounded 800. That was planned and perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael Fortier… well, they weren’t Muslim either… Let’s reach back further then.  America, from the 17^th to the 18^th centuries approximately 12 million black Africans were brought into slavery… of course, it wasn’t the Muslims that did that.  Then how about between 1692 and 1693 over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned in Salem, Massachusetts.  Accused of practicing Witchcraft 19 men and women were hanged to death, 4 died in prison and one poor man was pressed to Death beneath a board and stones in a torturous attempt to obtain a confession.  But they were prosecuted by their friends and neighbors, the townsfolk of Salem, not Muslims… Well, perhaps further back.   How about the Crusades! That one, arguably, the Muslims did start, but they backed off by 1039 when the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was rebuilt and they realized that a large portion of Jerusalem’s wealth came from the Christian pilgrims visiting the city.  The Christians did not forget, nor forgive it would seem… Or was it the politicians?  Of course Christians, Muslims, and Jews all died together during those bloody wars that spanned from 1095-1272 and left an innumerable mass of dead in its wake. Then we have the cruel and bloody crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, a man who taught love and peace and questioned the leaders of the time. Of course, that was done by the Jews.  That isn’t nearly the end, nor does it come close to encompassing the blood-soaked history of humankind.  Since the dawn of time brother has been killing brother, tribes have fought tribes, kinsmen have turned against kinsmen. 

So, what then is our hope?  Is Peace on Earth little more than a dream?  I say it is.  It is an ideal, a wholly believable and accomplishable goal that all of Humankind should set their minds to.  But we must think.  Our problem lies in the illusion that we are all somehow separate.  We are not.  We are all connected, if by nothing more than the fact that we are all one Race and we all live together on this beautiful planet.  We have all been given Life by some Divine Creator that none of us fully understands nor comprehends no matter how much we argue, debate, or discuss.  When we accept that we are all connected, when we view the World and our Brother and Sisters through Love, when we stop the vicious cycle of ignorance and hatred; only then can we begin the work for World Peace.

Love’s nationality is separate from all other religions,The lover’s religion and nationality is the Beloved (God).The lover’s cause is separate from all other causesLove is the astrolabe of God’s mysteries.

~ Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi 

Love is patient, love is kind.It does not envy.

Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude;

It is not self-seeking, nor easily angered.

It keeps no record of wrongdoing.

It does not delight in evil,But rejoices in the truth.

It always protects, trusts, hopes, and preserves.

There is nothing love cannot face;

There is no limit to its faith, hope, and endurance.

In a word, there are three things that last forever:

Faith, hope, and love;

But the greatest of them all is love.

~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

~Mohanda K. Ghandi  

I want to change the World.  I choose Love. Let the legacy of hate, fear, and ignorance end here.  

I love New Year’s Day.  I can’t help but be optimistic on New Year’s no matter what my Life situation may be.  This year, however, I’m feeling particularly happy and optimistic.  When the ball dropped Monday night I was sitting on the couch with my SO’s and the darklings.  We toasted champagne and kissed and piled into one big family hug and I cried.  Couldn’t help it, couldn’t stop it.  The tears just poured but I was smiling.  I’m just so happy to be where I am headed in the direction I’m headed in.  I have a Life filled with Love and I wonder at being here.

My goals for 2008:

1) Maintain Honor’s GPA in school.

2) Tie up my one remaining big loose end.

3) Research Maternal bloodline.

4) Make our household greener.

5) Get a job with a local Funeral Home.