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thoughts and reflections on witchcrafts now and before
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Modern Witchcraft
Magical Manipulation
Many witches do not believe in spirits, and most if not all reject belief in a literal Devil or demons. Naturally, therefore, they reject the idea that sorcery and divination are accomplished by the agency of evil spirits. Many offer naturalistic explanations for the working of magic and divination and other "psychic technologies." On the whole, the occult community today has expanded its definition of "the natural" to incorporate elements that were earlier considered supernatural, placing them in the category of the super- or paranormal instead. Yet, they are still involved in the "old ways" -- that is, the occult.
Now You See it, Now You Don't
What has happened in the occult world in the past two or more decades is just what C. S. Lewis described in his classic work, The Screwtape Letters -- which portrays an experienced demon (Screwtape) writing letters of advice to a novice demon (Wormwood):
I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalize and mythologize their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, a belief in us, (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy [i.e., God]. The "Life Force," the worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis, may here prove useful. If once we can produce our perfect work -- the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls "Forces" while denying the existence of "spirits" -- then the end of the war will be in sight. (1)
Lewis's insights on the insidious strategy of Satan -- the archenemy of our souls -- appear to have been right on target in regard to modern occultism. (2)
When observations like Lewis's are made, however, it is not uncommon to hear remarks to the effect that Christians attribute to the supernatural everything they cannot comprehend -- if it cannot be understood, it must be the Devil. However, this charge is unwarranted.
While it is unfortunately true that some Christians tend to hyperspiritualize events and exclaim "the Devil did it," or "the Devil made me do it," this is certainly not the case with all. Many Christians have pointed out alleged demonic (or divine) occurrences which were -- in fact -- instances of fraud, anomalies, psychosomatic phenomena, auto- or heterosuggestion, and so forth. (3) Such Christians have demystified baffling occurrences and accounted for them by their natural causes.
Throughout Into the Wild, Krakauer portrays Christopher McCandless as an infallibly eager young man hoping to distance himself from the society he so obviously loathes, to "live off the land," entirely independent of a world which has "conditioned [itself] to a life of security." Chris, contrarily to this depiction, is disparagingly viewed by some as a "reckless idiot" who lacked the sense he needed to survive in the Alaskan wilderness. This derogatory assessment of Chris's mindset is representative of the society he hopes to escape and contains all the ignorance that causes him to feel this way. Nevertheless, he is misjudged by these critics, allowing Krakauer to hold the more accurate interpretation of Chris's character, his goals, and his accomplishments.
Nikola Tesla was born on July 10,1856 into a Serbian family. He was born in the village of Smiljan, Croatia. He was the fourth of five children born to Milutin & Duka Tesla. Milutin, Nikola’s father was an Orthodox priest and a writer. His Mother, Duka had a talent for making home craft tools and mechanical appliances. His father wanted him to become a priest but he was more like his Mother and drawn to inventing and the sciences.
To start with, McCandless was not someone who gave up. Despite others trying to scare him out of continuing with his journey into the Alaskan wilderness, nothing deterred McCandless. He anxiously awaited to experience life off the land. The people McCandless encountered on his way to Alaska often commented on his determination. Jim Gallien, a man who drove McCandless into the Alaska interior, described McCandless as “real gung-ho”. McCandless's attempt to undertake such a risky endeavour is something to admire in itself. To travel two years, mostly on foot, is certainly not an easy task. However, McCandless still persevered through the hardships he faced throughout his journey. McCandles...
The ancient Greeks developed a system of orders which were known as columns. There were three different types of columns and each had they own special twist, both structurally and appearance wise. The three orders consisted of the Doric order, Ionic order and the Corinthian order. One shocking fact was that the Romans used the Corinthian columns more than the Greeks did and they were the one that came up with them. Each order could be found in many different parts of ancient Greece. The columns were put into use by creating ancient temples. Since Greek life was mainly focused around religion, their temples were very big and beautiful (“Ancient Greece” 1).
This essay will show why interest in the occult manifested in the Victorian Era and the ways in which it did. The word ‘occult’ is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as; ‘Not apprehended, or not apprehensible, by the mind; beyond ordinary understanding or knowledge; abstruse, mysterious; inexplicable.’ And it is with this definition that we will gain an understanding of the Victorians interest in occultism, and the very different ways in which these interests were shared by female spiritualists, as well as those whom had been left spiritually bereft by the work of Charles Darwin, and the scientific thinkers of the day who believed that their work was for the greater good of humanity.
As long as one can remember, paranormal beliefs have always existed in human society. They are living in every man’s childhood and in every corner of human’s life. From the burning belief about Santa Claus’s gifts under a Christmas’s tree in the morning to a scary game about Bloody Mary and her coming back from the dead, it seems that people cannot help but draw themselves to these stories. Even when these beliefs fade, there would be a new one that eventually shows up. No matter how much science has progressed, the belief in paranormal phenomena still remains in society. Eventually, the question about paranormal phenomena seems pale in comparison to the human’s undying belief about such things. It is really hard to pinpoint an exact cause for human’s belief in the paranormal for only one cause is not enough; however, it is sure that psychological, sociological, and biological factors play an enormous role that contributes to this belief.
Cases of demonology have been well documented throughout many cultures today. This is widely depicted within today’s society through cinema and stories. Folklore, however, is not the only driving force behind demonology. Demonology can be rooted back to the beginning of religious conception. It is also important to differentiate between demons and demonology. Demonology is the study of demons whereas demons are malevolent spirits that cause harm or discomfort.
Even though the ancient sculptors had limited resources, they had created numerous, well-known pieces. As time passed by, more artists began to use these ancient sculptures as reference and guidelines to create their own art pieces. The influence of the Greco-Roman sculptures has tremendous effect on human cultural development.
There are differences and similarities between Greek and Roman architecture because the Romans built on the earlier Greek knowledge but invented from there. Roman architecture was highly influenced by Greece, but the Romans also diverged to create a separate identity and uniqueness. Similarities between
The term occult means ‘knowledge of the hidden’, as opposed to knowledge of what is measurable, or scientific. These beliefs of magic, astrology, alchemy and other supernatural studies have been in practice as far as recorded human history goes. Primitives believed external manifestations of fearful and capricious spirits must be supplicated, and so a caveman would record his belief system on his walls as a daily reminder of his dependence upon these unseen forces. His superstitions and expectations led him to illusory interpretations of natural events. Thus as his mental and artistic developments advanced, his spirits became gods, then...
In Ancient Greece, religion dominated their life, so it is understandable that their architecture would be dominated by their religion. Before Greece became many different city-states, they had kings, and they would build a room called a megaron to show they King’s authority. A typical megaron is a single chamber with a fire pit in the middle with a throne off to the side. This room opened up into a porch (portico) that had four columns in the front. After there were no more kings these megarons turned into temples. The fire pit, which turned into some type of altar or a place to show a sacrifice for that god, was now outside in front of the temple. The altar was now outside so people could see you make these sacrifices to their gods. The first Greek temples were made out of wood and were long rectangular buildings with a porch all the way around which was supported by columns made from tree trunks. A Greek temple consists of five basic parts: the pediment, entablature, columns, base, and the cella, or the inner sanctum. The pediment is triangular and would have a type of sculpture or ornament known as acreteria on each corner. An entablature consists of three parts: the cornice, frieze, and architrave, which holds up the pediment. The columns are the support between the entablature and the base. The base usually consists of three steps. The cella is the inner sanctum, which has different rooms with more columns for support. Each temple would have a cella but they were not identical.
...pirituality of a Christian but there is still the awareness or enlightenment of the surrounding and what could have caused a confusing situation or an unsolved situation. Unlike the occult, decisions are not just made right at the point of discovery of a strange looking object or a strange situation, all their opinion is based on the belief of unseen forces. It gets to a point where all that is going on around them is not considered natural anymore, an example of pulsar mentioned earlier at the beginning.
Both the Greeks and the Romans dedicated their temples to the gods, however, unlike temples today that are used for congregation, Greek and Roman temples were used differently. Greek temples were used as the home of a certain deity and as a place to worship the specific god that was housed there. The Romans used temples to praise a god for military victory or for a politician to show his increase of wealth and status by commissioning the construction of a temple. Roman Temples were also often used as a meeting place for people to express a multitude of social and political concerns whereas the Greek temples were typically used by one person at a time. Within the cella of both the Greek and Roman temples was an altar dedicated to the gods. The Greeks used elements from their temple design in the creation of these altars, and Romans sometimes modeled their sarcophagi after this design. The Sarcophagus of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus from his tomb on the Via Appia from 200 B.C.E depicts the elements that the Romans borrowed from Greek temples. It is a mixture of two styles of Greek temple, Ionic and Doric. The Ionic style can be seen in the curves on the lid whereas the Doric style is depicted in the squares on the side of the sarcophagus, where each of the vertical lines of the square is a set of columns. This shows not only Greek
Next to cosmology, Hawking is one of many physicists who are seeking out a flawless theory of Quantum Gravity. This topic is listed under the "Stephen Hawking" Wikipedia entry as one of Hawking's primary fields of research.
...research about black holes and explaining radiation. Stephen was awarded couple of awards such as Prestigious Albert Einstein Award, Pius XI Gold Medal for Science, and became member of the Royal Society. Soon after Hawking condition was at a point where he couldn’t talk. He then developed a speaking program for his illness. (biography.com) With the help of his computer base commutation system, Stephen was able to interact with others inspite of his disability. Some features of the technology included a keyboard,webcam and speech sinre. To operate the machine he would use his cheek muscle. ( Hawking.org)