December 17th, 2008 §
Update: the Athenaeum is no longer available for download. The articles Meeting the Dream Master, Mapping the Inner Landscape, and the Coligny Calendar are available as blog posts.
The Athenaeum is a biweekly magazine / almanac, a fortnightly gathering of philosophy, religion, puzzles, language, spirit, meditation, inner landscapes, art, magic, manifestation, weather… There are 26 fortnights in the year, and 26 letters in the English alphabet. This is issue Z of 2008.
In this issue:
- Three original articles:
- Meeting the Dream Master. Who is the Dream Master? Easily told: he is the Sandman — the one who brings dreams. He is your guide through the one third of your life you spend asleep. In this interview / meditation, I ask him what sleep is for, how dreams work, and the relationship between sleep and death.
- Mapping the Inner Landscape. My personal landscape in meditation has been consistent for a couple of years now. Why is it arranged the way it is? Insights into spiritual development.
- The Coligny Calendar. A description of the Druid lunar / solar calendar from 2000 years ago, and musings about how life would be different if it were in use today.
- Word Puzzle
- Letter of the Fortnight: Z
- Almanac Information: holidays, moon phases, weather, etc.
- Two Words of the Week: SHOE and SNOW.
- Original Art.
- And more!
A few notes:
- I am considering offering subscriptions to the Athenaeum – for example, 26 issues (a full year) for $70, 13 issues (6 months) for $40, something like that. The Athenaeum would be emailed directly to you, so that you don’t have to download and pay for it every two weeks. If you’d be interested, let me know via the Contact Form.
- It has been brought to my attention that the last Word Puzzle was unreasonably difficult. I’ve tried to make it easier by making some of the clues more obvious, and by organizing the puzzle so that there are longer words with more crossings and fewer abbreviations. Let me know how it goes!
- Also, if you would like the answer to the previous word puzzle, let me know via the Contact Form.
- The Athenaeum is a time consuming labor of love. I cannot keep it going unless I receive more donations. But it won’t take much! If every subscriber to this blog donates just $1 — JUST ONE DOLLAR! — it will completely compensate me for my time, and make it possible for me to continue putting out the Athenaeum every fortnight, indefinitely. It will also allow me to spend more time writing, developing, and improving Druid Journal. Nothing would make me happier! So please do consider donating.
Thanks! And enjoy!
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December 11th, 2008 §
That the ancient druids practiced astronomy and astrology is beyond doubt. It would be amazing if they did not, since practically all ancient cultures did. But beyond that, their astronomical knowledge is specifically cited by many of the Roman, Greek and Irish authors that describe them; and there are even a few archaeological finds that suggest it.
Primary among these is the Coligny calendar, discovered as little more than a pile of bronze fragments in 1897 — most likely smashed by Roman authorities during the suppression of druidic practice — and painstakingly restored piece by piece. Less than half of the calendar remains, but there is enough to clearly see a beautiful time-keeping system that aligned the sun and moon into a single calendar, and listed dozens of holidays, rituals, celebrations, and the like.
But if Gregory Clouter (Lost Zodiac of the Druids, 2003) is right, the Gundestrup Cauldron puts the Coligny calendar to shame.
» Read the rest of this entry «
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December 3rd, 2008 §
Update: The Athenaea are no longer available for download. The articles listed below (Barack Obama: A Reading, Dealing with Anger and Fear, and Becoming Death) are available as blog posts.
What is an athenaeum?
Athenaeum (noun). Originally it’s from Greek Athenaion, “of Athena”, borrowed into Latin and then into English around 1700. It first referred to Athena’s temple, and the teaching and performance rehearsal that was done there. (Pronounced ath-en-EE-um.)
Spiritually, the sounds of athenaeum tell a story of Source energy that travels a path of trials and challenges, and empties into a relaxed pool; then is gathered up, narrowed and targeted, raised in pitch and intensity, and then released once more, resulting in magic.
This is the energy of learning, germinating, teaching, and the new manifestations that follow.
The Druid Journal Athenaeum is a biweekly magazine / almanac, a fortnightly gathering of philosophy, religion, puzzles, language, spirit, inner landscapes, art, magic, manifestation, weather… All for the low, low, LOW price of [donations gratefully accepted!]. Each issue of the Athenaeum will include:
- Three full Druid Journal articles. This issue has:
- Barack Obama’s Astrological Reading. A complete analysis couched in terms of Steve Pavlina’s Truth / Love / Power system — an in-depth look at Obama’s heart, mind, and soul. What manner of man is this new president?
- Dealing with Anger and Fear. Musings on the sources of fear and anger, and what to do about them.
- Becoming Death. A landscape meditation unlike any I’ve had before.
- A Word Puzzle of a new kind — an unholy union between a crossword puzzle and philology.
- The Letter of the Fortnight. There are 26 letters in the alphabet, and 26 fortnights in a year. This issue, for the 25th fortnight of the year, is brought to you by 25th letter of the alphabet: Y.
- Almanac information. Two weeks of holidays, weather, etc., just like last year’s Druid Journal Almanac.
- Two Words of the Week, in the tradition of the Word of the Day.
- Original full-color art, in the Druid Journal style.
- AND MORE!
Like everything else I offer, the Athenaeum is available for a donation of any amount. I have set the default donation at $3.50, but in accordance with the principles set out in Selling Salvation, please pay whatever you think is fair. If you can’t pay what you think is fair, please pay what you can. If you can’t pay anything now, please take it for free — I’d much rather you read it free, than not at all!
If you’re not sure whether you want it, then by all means simply download it for free and take a look. You can always leave a donation later by clicking on my “DONATE” button in the sidebar.
I had a real blast putting this together, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And I hope it’s a huge success, so I will have an excuse to do it again in two weeks’ time…!
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December 2nd, 2008 §
This article is a sequel to On Physical Violence, and carries forward a lot of its themes. However, I think a lot of the issues around emotional violence are less clear cut, and so the intent of this article is much more speculative and investigative.
What is Emotional Violence?
Some examples of emotional violence are:
- making threats
- trying to incite feelings of guilt or inadequacy
- constant non-constructive criticism
- isolation
- intentional public embarrassment
What do these actions have in common? They are intentional, and they are an attempt to elicit an emotion; and furthermore, the emotion is an unpleasant one.
However, I don’t think the unpleasantness of the emotion is the defining characteristic here. If you’re in a bad mood, and some horribly cheerful person comes up to you and tries to cheer you up, I think this falls under emotional violence as well — not as severe, certainly, but nevertheless unwelcome. I suggest that emotional violence be defined as intentional elicitation of undesired emotion.
In other words, emotional violence is what is commonly called emotional manipulation, but with the addendum that the manipulation be toward emotions that are not wanted by the victim.
Does this correspond in any way to physical violence?
» Read the rest of this entry «
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