Assyrian Art and the Royal Warrior

In the 9th century BC, Assyrians controlled a region that extended from the border of Egypt to the Persian Gulf. The Assyrians identified themselves through warfare and a divine belief in their duty to enforce their gods on the territories they had vanquished. The first people to use iron weapons, they were masterful strategists who mastered using horse drawn chariots in battle.

Their army was well-trained and relentless, so many foes simply surrendered to the Assyrians without a struggle. The opponents who resisted faced an advanced military force with battering rams, charioteers and rolling siege towers that were a huge tactical advantage.

Not surprisingly, the ancient art of Mesopotamia suggests that hunting had an important symbolic value for the culture. This was certainly true of Assyria where many of the works of Assyrian art depict the Royal Hunt. The Royal Hunt was an important ritual that established the Kings domain over brute nature, and demonstrated his courage. By participating in the Royal Hunt, the King added to his own prestige and a heroic reputation. There is certainly exaggeration in the depiction of these activities, but the reliefs suggest that the kings were generally worthy rulers.

Ancient Assyrian art also offered a glimpse into the ceremonial aspect of the Royal Hunt. In many of the reliefs discovered by archaeologists, the king is shown offering up animals as a sacrifice to the sun God Nergal. Known as the god of war, this Mesopotamian deity also ruled the underworld.

Of all the animals hunted by the king and his royal party, the lion presented the greatest challenge and prestige. From his chariot, the king would bring down the lion with either or bow or spear. When the lion was injured and down, the king would dismount the chariot and finish the lion off with his blade. It's unclear just how much assistance he might have had in dispatching his prey, given glorification of the king in this art.

In a relief currently on display in the British Museum, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal is depicted riding on horseback, bow raised. He is hunting wild donkeys which at the time were considered a nuisance. It was thought to be a very noble and worthy activity for the king to hunt the herd of wild asses and thin the population. The last great king of Assyria was Ashurbanipal. He was king at the zenith of Assyrian dominance but the empire crumpled shortly after his death.

The Assyrian wall reliefs we see today in museums suggest that hunting lions was wildly popular and the lion population was severely impacted. Lions were imported in from other regions and release for the purpose of hunting. This conclusion can be drawn from some Assyrian wall reliefs that show a lion being released from the cage.

Rob Mabry is a former military journalist, screenwriter, father of five and ecommerce entrepreneur. He owns the Balance Bikes 4 Kids, a specialty store offering a large selection of balance bikes and wood bikes that help young children learn to ride a bike by focusing on mastering balance first.

The High Court of Osiris - Louvre museum

Osiris (Greek language, also Usiris; the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Aser, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, or Ausare) was an Egyptian god, usually called the god of the Afterlife. Osiris is one of the oldest gods for whom records have been found; one of the oldest known attestations of his name is on the Palermo Stone of around 2500 BC. He was widely worshiped until the suppression of paganism by the early Christian church under Theodosius I in the later fourth century. The information we have on the myths of Osiris is derived from allusions contained in the Pyramid Texts (ca. 2400 BC), later New Kingdom source documents such as the Shabaka Stone and the Contending of Horus and Seth, and much later, in narrative style from the writings of Greek authors including Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus. Osiris was not only merciful judge of the dead in the afterlife, but also the underworld agency that granted all life, including sprouting vegetation and the fertile flooding of the Nile River. The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death — as Osiris rose from the dead they would, in union with him, inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death if they incurred the costs of the assimilation rituals. Osiris was at times considered the oldest son of the Earth god, Geb, and the sky goddess, Nut as well as being brother and husband of Isis, with ...

Ancient Greek Agora South Side

From pre-historic times, there was always a road that crossed the south side of the Agora, even before it became the centre of the City, and which still exists today, beyond the archaeological site. In the 6th century, two significant structures were located at either end of this road: to the west, the main Athens courthouse, the Heliaia, and at the other end, the monumental fountain Pausanias called the Enneakrounos. After the Persian Wars, the Southern Stoa and the Mint of the Athenian Republic were added. During the Hellenistic years, it became the commercial centre of the city, with three colonnaded areas forming a large rectangle open on the west side near the courthouse. Other structures included: a new southern Stoa, aligned with the Heliaia, a small eastern Stoa which was the official entrance to the complex, and a stately Middle Stoa which can still be distinguished by the reddish colour of its ruined columns. Unfortunately, the successive capture and destruction of the Agora, and the restorations which followed, altered the original layout of the site, since the same building material was re-used on new buildings. Crucial dates in the various changes were the siege of Athens by the Roman general Sulla in 86 BC and the Herulian raid in 267 AD. After the 3rd century, the south side of the Agora ceased to be the commercial centre, and the ruins of old porticoes were covered by other buildings. Finally, in about 1000, this pagan site was hallowed by the building of the lovely Byzantine church of the Holy Apostles. All these changes make it somewhat difficult to understand the chronology of the south side of the Agora as seen today in its excavated ruins.

Of the stoae on this side of the Agora, the long Middle one stands out. Built in the 2nd century BC, it occupied an east-west position, was about 148 m. long, 18 m. wide and was surrounded by 160 unfluted Doric columns. The interior of the building was divided in two lengthwise by another long colonnade. Characteristic marks have been found on the sides of some columns which testify to the existence of a wall joining them together, up to a certain height, creating a back wall to the shops housed in it. A similar low wall probably connected the interior columns leaving passageways at certain intervals. This large stoa was built on top of some older ruins, and then later, as more interior space was required, the initial layout was changed. The public offices were built in the 2nd century AD, and rested on the north part of the Stoa right next to the ancient boundary mark.

Then the narrow sides east and west were opened out and the Middle Stoa became the shortest route for citizens to take as they crossed from one end of the Agora to the other or, if they wished to leave by the central Panathenaic route which cut across the site diagonally. Finally, by the 5th century AD, most of the remains of this structure had been covered over by various unrelated buildings, thus chronicling the decline of the Athenian Agora.

The visitor to the site can identify the ruins of the Middle Stoa immediately owing to its red stones and the remains of three rows of columns. Stepping through the fallen wall and crossing the width of the stoa, one can see to the left the old rainwater drain which used to be under the ground. Across the way and a little higher up is the base of a poros stone wall; these are the minimal traces remaining of the great Athenian court of Heliaia.

The Heliaia was one of the first buildings to be constructed on the road through the south side of the Agora. The courthouse may initially have been an open space, but in the early 5th century, a large square structure was built with thick walls, many rooms and an inner colonnade. On the exterior western wall was a public fountain, the largest in the Agora, the monumental construction of which showed that it served the needs of many citizens. On the north wall of the Heliaia vestiges are discernible of another type of fountain dating from the 4th century: it was a water clock, which is why the fountain was called Clepsydra. The water came underground from the large fountain to the west; it passed through a hole in the wall of the Clepsydra and filled its deep basin before finding the corresponding outlet on the opposite side. This overflow appears to have activated some system which indicated the time. The existence of such a device on the wall of the main Athens courthouse confirms how important it was for the citizens to know the exact time of the trials. This hydraulic clock ceased to function when the Middle Stoa was built, as this spot became the entrance to the city's commercial centre. The extensive building in the space in front of and beside the Heliaia did not affect the courthouse at all. It was greatly damaged during Sulla's siege and rebuilt only to be totally devastated in the 3rd century AD.

The dispensing of justice was one of the major concerns of the citizens of Athens. We know that courts existed as early as prehistoric times: from the supreme court of the Areopagus where murders primarily were tried, to the people's court of the Heliaia, founded by Solon the Lawgiver in the 6th century. But the most novel aspect of the Attic courts was certainly that of the Phreattys in Piraeus, where trials were held of persons who were not allowed to enter the state of Athens. In such cases, the judge and jury stood on the beach while the accused, with Solomon-like logic, would be in a boat beside the shore.

Trials took place only on days considered to be favourable; they should never coincide with the convening of the Assembly of the People, since the citizens participated in both of these state functions. Although any citizen who wished to do so could attend the Assembly, jurors were selected for the courts by complex procedures, beginning with the annual draw of six thousand men, the Heliastes, i.e. 600 from each tribe. These free citizens had to be more than 30 years old, and to have no penalty or fine outstanding. After their election, the Heliastes received their juridical identification card: a metallic plate containing their name, their father's name, the Deme to which they belonged, and the letter of the alphabet that represented their tribe. All these elected citizens had to be ready to present themselves at the courts for the entire following year.

To determine who would go to which courts, the Heliastes had to go through another draw held using the stone allotment machine found on the Agora site. These machines were a miracle of inventiveness to prevent corruption, and avoid the possible bribery of public officials, by applying the very simple measure of non-permanency. Nobody knew in advance when and in what court he would serve, or even whether he would serve.

On the previously appointed days on which certain cases were to be tried, the preparation would begin very early in the morning with the setting up of the allotment machines. These large upright stone plaques had horizontal rows of holes grouped in columns and each column was under a letter of the alphabet indicating the tribe. One machine that was found to have 11 columns even though there were only 10 tribes, has made scholars hypothesise that there may have been occasional temporary tribes: perhaps to honour some important figure of the times.

On the left side of the machine was a pipe starting at the top in the shape of a funnel and ending with a narrow opening at the bottom. Black and white cubes would be placed in this pipe. Each Heliastis would already have placed his metal card in the container representing his tribe, from which names would be drawn at random. In this first draw all tribes took part, other than the one which held the office of prytanis at that time. The persons whose names were drawn would place their cards under the relevant letter on the allotment machine. There were as many cubes in the pipe as there were names in the shorter column, while the cards which were at the bottom of this smaller column were automatically cancelled. Each cube that fell concerned the horizontal row for all ten tribes. A white cube meant election, a black exemption from judicial duties for the day.

The employee responsible then took the identity cards of the citizens who had been thus selected and presented them to the Archon in confirmation of legality. Then another draw followed which determined the court at which each one was to present himself. The entrances to the courts each had a different colour, and this was why the judges of the day would take a rod with the colour of the court in which they were to serve. In this way, there was no possible justification of error; as for the rods, symbol of judicial authority, they may possibly have been an echo of the royal sceptre from the much earlier times, when the hereditary leader was also the judge. After this draw as well, the cards were sent to the court where their owners were to serve. The Heliastes got them back after the trial, along with their fee.

At the entrance to each courthouse, the judge of the day was supplied with two ballots, metal discs with a raised part in the centre. The one was was solid, meaning acquittal, the other had a hole in it, meaning conviction. The total number of judges always had to be an odd number, so as to avoid the problem of a tie vote which would have made it difficult to enforce decisions. Citizens being charged, having already gone through a preliminary examination by the Archon, would come to face the final decision.

The procedure for each trial started with the plaintiff explaining why he had brought the charges. Then the accused spoke in his own defence, after which the judges would vote "innocent" or "guilty" according to their conscience. If the accused was judged to be guilty, a new procedure began, with the plaintiff first proposing a sentence, then the convicted person would counter-propose another; ultimately the judges would vote on which of the two opinions they considered most correct. There was always a water clock which restricted the time people could speak, both the plaintiff and the defendant, to six minutes.

There were various types of sentences. The most common were: a cash fine, deprival of civic rights, seizure of the convicted person's property, even exile. There were also moral penalties, such as e.g. forbidding unfaithful wives to wear jewellery. The penalty of imprisonment did not exist then as a means of correction, although there are known cases of citizens who were condemned to death for acts of blasphemy, treason against the homeland or failure to obey the laws. This ultimate punishment was carried out either by flinging the condemned person over a precipice, starving him to death or obliging him to take poison, as in the case of Socrates.

The trial of the great philosopher has given us not only a wealth of information about the judicial system of Athens, but also a psychological profile of its citizens, as seen in their opposition to someone who defied the rules of the community. Procedure may have been flawlessly observed, but the irony of the accused, regarding the flagrant lack of serious charges, may very likely have led some of the Heliastes to vote against him, since there were only thirty more votes against him than votes to acquit him. Certainly, a major moment in the pioneering people's court of Athens was the day on 399 BC when the convicted Socrates prepared to present himself to the prison for those condemned to death and addressed a magnificent message of forgiveness to his judges saying: "The time has come for us to part - I to death and you to life. Which of us is going to something better, no one knows but God".

At a fair distance from the Heliaia, at the northwestern foot of the Areopagus, the ruins of the prison have been identified, where the events which we know so well from the Platonic dialogues "Criton" and "Phaedon" were enacted. In the former, Socrates' favourite pupil Criton proposed that his teacher escape, because for religious reasons his execution had been postponed. It was the custom in Athens that every year the ship Paralos would sail to Delos for the feast of Apollo. When the boat was on this sacred mission, it was not permitted to take human life because Apollo, as god of light, loathed death. The wealthy Criton, wishing to save the philosopher, came to the prison and revealed his plans. Then in a dialogue of remarkably condensed ethical content, Socrates refused to be saved and explained the reasons why a shameful escape could never be equal to an honest death. And that, if the citizens, in order to gain a few years of life, considered disobedience to the laws as a minor offence, then the State would collapse.

The dialogue "Phaedon" described the last day of Socrates' life and at the same times, provides us with details about the prison, which have been confirmed by excavations, such as that the philosopher washed before drinking the hemlock. Indeed, on the floor of one of the prison rooms, a hole was found for a basin and pitcher which would have been full of water for the use of the prisoners.

Having already bade farewell to the members of his family, the condemned man discussed with his friends, as he waited for dusk, the customary hour for executions. His composure and the sorrow of those present have given us moments of incomparable tension and calm: two contradictory elements which characterised Socrates' whole life.

At the appointed time, the guard appeared, having already mixed the poison.
We do not know exactly what else was in the hemlock; but it seems to have been prepared in small amounts, as would appear from the tiny, thimble-like cups found on this site. Socrates drank the liquid calmly and began walking up and down his cell to hasten the action of the poison, which brought a slow paralysis starting from the lower limbs until it reached the heart. When his legs started to give way, he sat on the bed, still talking. But when the paralysis crept higher, he asked his pupils to withdraw because the moment of death is ugly and should not be seen by anyone. When he was alone, Socrates covered his head with his robe and quietly gave up his spirit.

East of the Heliaia, the South Stoa I was built in the 5th century, following the direction of the public road. This point was higher than the level of the Agora proper and would certainly have offered a panoramic view of the temple of Hephaistos and the other buildings on the site. Today we reach the level of the South Stoa by walking up some stairs from the site of the ancient courthouse.

The excavations have shown clearly that this stoa had fifteen rooms, almost equal in size, the back wall of which was the stone retaining wall for the public road. The rooms were divided by brick walls and opened out onto a double colonnade overlooking the open space on the north side. There seem to have been twice as many outer columns as inner ones. Very few traces have remained of this colonnade, although the rooms can be clearly distinguished. On the floor of one room is an elevated section around the walls, a feature characteristic of symposium halls, as the couches of the dinner guests were raised slightly higher than the floor. This detail, as well as the position of the stoa next to the courthouse, has led archaeologists to speculate that this may very possibly have been quarters for public officials, who would not or could not be absent from their posts. Let us not forget that many of them came to the Agora at dawn to perform their civic duties.

The South Stoa I was abandoned during the Hellenistic period with the creation of the business centre, and quite a bit of the material from this site was used to build the South Stoa II, on a line with the renovated Heliaia, and forming a rectangle with the other Stoae on the site. The facade of this building consisted of thirty Doric columns; one facade touched the wall of the Heliaia and the opposite one was incorporated into the Eastern Stoa, where the official entrance to the complex from the main Panathenaic Way was located.

The back wall of South Stoa II rested on part of the retaining wall that supported the older, South Stoa L In its centre was a recess for another public fountain. The wall of South Stoa II is a typical example of the many vicissitudes of structures on this site. Its bottom part was built of carefully cut poros stone; on top of this is masonry from the Hellenistic period; the Romans covered one part of it with mortar and finally it was used to support a later aqueduct. The Stoa itself was abandoned during the Roman years and became a working area for the masons who had been assigned to improve the Agora. The commercial centre moved eastward toward the Stoa of Attalos and the new Roman Agora; the entire south side was allowed to fall into ruins and, in the general indifference, to be partially covered by other buildings.

In Attica, with minimal rainfall, it has always been important to secure an adequate water supply. From Plutarch we learn that Solon had instituted laws encouraging the residents to dig wells in times of water shortage. The office of the Epoptis (Superintendent) of the fountains was an elected one and the citizen entrusted with it had the power to impose fines on persons caught taking water illegally from the state water pipes. When Themistocles was elected to this office, he took the money obtained from these fines and commissioned a bronze statue showing a girl carrying water from a fountain. He saw this same statue adorning the city of Sardis in Asia Minor, having been plundered from Athens during the Persian Wars, during his later exile from the place of his birth. Plato, in his Laws, pointed out that the overflow from the fountains should properly be used to water public gardens. Even the Roman architect Vitruvius left instructions about how to find underground water and what kind of pipes should be used to distribute it. The 400 or so wells which have been uncovered in the Agora have shown us the extent to which this vital detail of survival concerned the Athenians. This was even expressed in art, for there were quite a few cases of vase painters being inspired by the charming procession of girls to the nearest public fountain and the wonderful balance of full water jars carried on their young heads.

Often the walk to the fountain was of particular significance, such as in the case where water was being carried to bathe a bride-to-be. Then women, preceded ceremonially by a flute-player, would go to the Kalliroe spring. Thucydides noted that this spring was along the course of the Ilissos river, near the present day chapel of Ag. Photeini, a district which was until fairly recently called the Kalliroe Rema. During the years of Peisistratos, a fountain was built which Herodotus referred to as Enneakrounos. Some centuries later, the traveller Pausanias wrote about the famous fountain of the same name in the Agora, which was built near the only natural spring on the site. These three different references have given archaeologists rich grounds for dispute.

Indeed, right beside South Stoa I, the ruins have been found of a magnificent fountain from the 6th century BC, built by Peisistratos. The presence of groundwater was confirmed both by the dampness of the ground close to the surface and by the other fountain buildings nearby. It is likely that there was a very ancient spring here with a constant flow of water at all seasons of the year - a true "kalliroe" (good flow) - which gave Peisistratos an opportunity to offer his fellow citizens yet another public work to preserve his fame for posterity. Perhaps there was more than one fountain called "enneakrounos", which means "nine spouts". In any event, this was the best known and perhaps oldest fountain in Athens, as shown by an archaic pipeline which supplied it with water from some point to the east. The building was long and narrow and probably roofed, having an entrance with three columns on the northern facade and a regular wall at the back where the water pipe ended. On the inner sides of the Enneakrounos, there were basins over a marble floor which the terracotta pipes would fill with water. The residents of the district would come to these basins to fill their water pitchers, which were round in shape with a small base and narrow mouth, equipped with three handles: two in the middle to assist the lifting of the vessel when it was full of water, and one near the mouth to help empty it. The water was brought to the homes by servants, mainly girls, although in "Lysistrata" there is a line in which the heroine, an Athenian lady, complains about the crowds at the public fountain.

The sufficiency of water in the area is also confirmed by the ruins of a structure which was right beside the Enneakrounos, and which many scholars have identified as the state Mint. There are traces of a courtyard which had rooms around it, with a running water installation and a furnace for casting metals. But the most important finds were bits of unprocessed copper which was usually used in the minting of coins. Part of this building was covered in later years by a magnificent Nymphaion, the Roman equivalent of a Greek fountain.

Nymphaia were initially sanctuaries dedicated to nymphs, charming fairies of the Greek pantheon. There were dryads of the forests, naiads of the waters, nereids and oceanids of the waves. Since nymphs were closely linked with nature and water, it became customary to build their sanctuaries on water sources and call them nymphaia. This impressed the Romans and gave them the opportunity to use the same term for the monumental buildings with which they adorned cities under their rule, and at the same time, to make practical use of the waters. A characteristic example of such a Nymphaion was the large fountain called Peirene at the entrance to the Agora in ancient Corinth. Somewhat similar, but on a smaller scale, was the Nymphaion in the Athenian Agora: it was semicircular in shape, with a northern facade and a very thick wall in which there were probably niches designed to receive statues of their owners; another well known Roman custom. The excavations here turned up the statue of a young woman, considered to be the 2nd century AD copy of an original from the classical period. The indolent position and delightfully unkempt female figure holding a pitcher in her left hand offer eloquent testimony to the tedious task of carrying water every day, even for a nymph.

But the existence of water was responsible for yet another change of worship on the site where, in about 1020 the lovely Byzantine church of the Holy Apostles was built. This was the period when Athens had become an insignificant village in Christian Byzantium, and its inhabitants, who had gathered around the rock of the Acropolis at "Rizocastro", built churches to exorcise the taint of their forefathers' idolatry, using the plentiful, choice building material provided by the ruins of the ancient monuments. The water on the site would have been regarded as "Agiasma" (holy spring) making it particularly blessed.

Among the other Athenian churches built at about the same period - Kapnikarea, Sts Theodore and St Eleutherios beside the Cathedral - the church in the Agora is distinctive for its height and its tall narrow dome. It is a cruciform church, each arm of which ends in an apse. Later a narthex was added on the western side, increasing the space available for liturgical needs, but built at a lower level than the church proper because of the uneven ground. There were three stairways from the narthex to the church: a main entrance and two side ones. The wall paintings we can see today in the narthex belonged to one of the demolished churches in the area and were brought here when the church of the Holy Apostles was restored in 1956. At that time, all later additions were removed, as services had ceased to be held there in 1952.

The interior of the nave is dominated by a dome supported on four columns with different capitals. Three of these columns were built during the restoration; the only original one is the first one on the right; its capital is decorated with lotus leaves. There are traces of 17th century wall paintings which had been plastered over, but were preserved when the church was restored with love and care by architect J. Travlos. The work was funded by the American School of Classical Studies which had undertaken the entire excavation of the ancient Agora, and proved that Athenians had never stopped living and worshipping their gods on this site.

North of the Byzantine church are the remains of the Roman Nymphaion together with the drain, which passed under the ground of the Eastern Stoa and the commercial centre to join up with another in the Heliaia area and ending in the main pipe near the Tholos. But this point in the Eastern Stoa underwent enormous changes owing to the various buildings which covered it during the post-Byzantine period. Today we can make out traces of an octagonal building as well as a few giant grinding stones with the characteristic notches signalling their function.

Right behind the church of the Holy Apostles is what remains of a temple built during the Roman years with material from older, abandoned sanctuaries. This was shown by some Doric column drums that have been identified as belonging initially to the temple of Demeter at Thorikos, near Laurion. This detail, as well as the parts of a large statue found on the site of what must have been the inner shrine of the temple, make it very likely that the building was the temple of Demeter that the tireless Pausanias reported having seen near the most sacred Eleusinio.

The name of the goddess Demeter is derived from Earthmother, and indicates her mission clearly: to feed the faithful like a mother, blessing the grains which were called "demetriaka" (the modern Greek word for cereals) after her. Thus, when Pluto, god of the Underworld, kidnapped Demeter's only daughter, Persephone, the goddess became angry and stopped fostering vegetation. A terrible famine fell upon the land and the people begged Zeus to intercede. Then the father of the gods decided that Persephone should come up to earth for eight months, and spend the other four months in Hades with Pluto. This was because the sly god of the underworld had given her a red pomegranate seed, binding her to him eternally. This myth enabled the ancient Greeks to explain the vegetation cycle: the dark earth received the seed, held it for a few months and then returned it to the earth as a living plant.

When Demeter lost her daughter, she began looking frantically all over the world for her. The search lasted for nine days and ultimately led her to Eleusis where she was looked after by people who tried to give her back her zest for life. Nobody recognised her of course, since the goddess had disguised herself as a poor old woman. When she found her daughter again, Demeter did not forget the city which had given her shelter during the days of her suffering. She gave the parents of the Eleusinian family of Eumolpides the exclusive right to be her priests and conduct her rites, and she granted the young Triptolemos her winged chariot so that he might go round the world and teach mortals how to cultivate cereals. Because of Demeter's favour, her Mysteries came to be established in Eleusis, and at the same time it became the custom to call the goddess' sanctuaries Eleusinia.

Take a look at Greece Travel Guide and learn more about Ancient Athens and the Acropolis of Athens.

Murder Nurse as Persephone @ Geek Goddesses.

Performed for Geek Girl Productions "Geek Goddesses" show at Public Assembly in Brooklyn, NY - 09/28/10. Song: "Slept So Long" - Disturbed. (Queen of the Damned Soundtrack) Persephone, Goddess of the Underworld. Info: Appearance: Persephone appears as a beautiful young maiden, just on the edge of womanhood. Symbol or Attribute: The pomegranate. The narcissus, which Hades planted in a meadow to entice her to pluck it; pulling on the flower opened up the Underworld and Hades sprang out, carrying her off. Strengths: Loving and lovely. Weaknesses: Beauty so ravishing it attracts Hades' unwanted attention. Spouse: Hades, with whom she must stay part of each year because she ate a few pomegranate seeds in the Underworld. Some Major Temple Sites: The spooky Nekromanteion, still visitable today. Basic Story: Hades springs out of the earth and captures Persephone, dragging her off to be his queen in the Underworld; her dad Zeus told him it was okay to take her as his bride, and Hades took him a bit literally. Hades was also her own uncle, which didn't make this exactly a myth of good family mental health. Her distraught mother Demeter searches for her and stops all foods from growing until she is returned. Even Zeus has to give in and help work out a deal - Persephone stays one-third of the year with Hades, one-third of the year serving as a handmaiden to Zeus, and one-third with her mother Demeter- ... an interesting ancient balancing of family, spouse, and career. Interesting ...

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Brush Up Your Mythology! Review

Brush Up Your Mythology! Overview

Greek and Roman tales are more popular and influential than ever and can be seen in all aspects of our modern culture. Brush up Your Mythology! takes an irreverent look at those gods and spirits whose myths and legends have become commonplace today. Chaos, Mother Earth, and Cupid appear, along with the origins of the days of the week and an alphabetical listing of all the important gods and goddesses. Black-and-white illustrations further enliven this terrific reference book.

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Update Post: Nov 26, 2010 05:40:18

How to Select and Register a Name for Your Security Company

Your name is everything with business. The right name can make your business, while the wrong name can put you out of business. You need to ensure your company has a name that matches what you do and gets the point across to your customers. If your customers don't understand your name, they may choose not to do business with your security company.

Five Considerations for Your Business Name

Finding the right business name does not have to be difficult. All you have to do is follow these five tips to creating a great business name that will help your security company gain customers.

1. Your business name needs to be easy to spell and pronounce. If your security company name is complicated it will be very difficult for your customers to remember it. That is not to say you shouldn't have a unique business name, but a business name like Cerberus may seem unique since that is the name of the Greek guardian of the underworld, but it can be hard to remember. First, your customers may not get the reference; they may not know how to say it and they may not be able to spell it. If they can't spell it, it will be difficult for them to find you in the phone book.

2. Your security company name needs to have a visual element to it. This will make it much easier to remember for your customers. Think of apple and its recognizable logo. If your company name is simple and easy to spell, and you can incorporate it into a visual logo, then your company will be able to create brand awareness with customers. Humans learn by seeing images when we read and listen. Not to mention a good visual name can be a great advertising tool as well.

3. Make your company name have a positive feeling towards it. Remember Cerberus? That is the Greek guardian of the underworld, but is the underworld, or Hell, what you want your customers to think of when they see your company name? When you choose a name it will fall within the categories of positive, neutral and negative. When you choose a name, use words that have a positive connotation to them. In the security company world, you want to express security and the feeling of safety. A good example of this is Shield Security Systems. The shield is a representation of security and strength, and that helps to create a positive feeling for customers. A good choice for a company name is Castle Security. Castles have a positive connotation and they represent strong security, which is important to your customers. Castles can also make great logos. In contrast, Straw House Security would be a bad choice because there is nothing secure about a straw house.

4. When you choose a company name for your security company, make sure you represent what your company does in the name. Try and have words like "secure", "shield", "fortress" and "castle" because they represent security. Your company name needs to give your customers an idea of what you do. Not putting the word "security" in your business name would be a big mistake.

5. While John Smith's Secure Strength Security Company may seem like a great name to you, it is way too long for your customers. Your business name needs to be short. Think of some of the most famous brands on Earth, "Pepsi", "Adidas", "Nike", "Wal-Mart" and "K-Mart". These names are all short and to the point. Your business name needs to fit easily on a business card, be easy to type into a browser and be easy to remember. Instead of John Smith's Secure Strength Security Company, a better name would be Smith's Security.

Registering Your Company Name

Once you have chosen your company name, you will need to register that company name in your state. One reason to do this is to help when you are being paid from customers and to aid in tax benefits during tax time. It also ensures there is not another company with that same name in your state. Try these websites to register your company name:

1. Thomas Register

2. Niten Research Corporation

3. Mahtta Trademark Company

4. Legalname.com

5. Mark Monitor

Choosing the right company name and registering it is one of the first steps you take in creating a security company that gives you financial security and gives your customers the security of peace of mind.

Pam Neely writes about how to start a handyman business, including how to choose a name for a handyman business.

Check Out HADES: An entry from Macmillan Reference USA's <i>Encyclopedia of Religion</i> for $5.90

HADES: An entry from Macmillan Reference USA's Encyclopedia of Religion Review

HADES: An entry from Macmillan Reference USA's Encyclopedia of Religion Overview

This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of Religion, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses. The length of the article is 1772 words. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. The second edition of this highly regarded encyclopedia, preserving the best of the first edition's cross-cultural approach, while emphasizing religion's role within everyday life and as a unique experience from culture to culture, this new edition is the definitive work in the field for the 21st century. An international team of scholars and contributors have reviewed, revised and added to every word of the classic work, making it relevant to the questions and interests of all researchers.

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Update Post: Nov 24, 2010 05:20:36

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The Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book One: Lightning Thief Deluxe Edition Review

The Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book One: Lightning Thief Deluxe Edition Feature

• ISBN13: 9781423121701
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

The Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book One: Lightning Thief Deluxe Edition Overview

Book Description

In this stunning collectors' edition of The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson's world is brought to life with eight full-color plates by the series jacket artist John Rocco. The edition comes in an elegant slipcase with a ribbon bookmark, rough edges, and cloth cover--a perfect keepsake for fans of this truly epic series.

After getting expelled from yet another school for yet another clash with mythological monsters only he can see, twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is taken to Camp Half-Blood, where he finally learns the truth about his unique abilities: He is a demigod, half human, half immortal. Even more stunning: His father is the Greek god Poseidon, ruler of the sea, making Percy one of the most powerful demigods alive. There's little time to process this news. All too soon, a cryptic prophecy from the Oracle sends Percy on his first quest, a mission to the Underworld to prevent a war among the gods of Olympus.

This first installment of Rick Riordan's best-selling series is a non-stop thrill-ride and a classic of mythic proportions.

---

A Note for Amazon Customers from Illustrator John Rocco

Dear Readers,

When I was about eight years old I had the great luck of stumbling upon my father’s collection of Classics Illustrated comic books. I instantly fell in love with the stories of Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, and James Fenimore Cooper. Many years later, when I became interested in illustration, I discovered the beautiful hardbound editions of these stories featuring the arresting artwork of incredible artists like N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, and Maxfield Parrish. What I love about their paintings is not just the beautiful draftsmanship, color and composition, but their ability to capture a moment that held the promise of swashbuckling adventure. That promise let me know that if I read the words surrounding that picture, I could unlock the adventure.

That promise is what I tried to achieve when creating the pictures for this incredible series. My approach has never been just to describe a scene from the book, but to create an illustration that offers tension and mystery--an image that provides just enough information to leave the viewer wanting to know more.

When I was asked to create images for the Deluxe Edition of Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief it was a dream come true. It was my chance to illustrate what I consider to be a new classic. The Lightning Thief has so many wonderful moments it was difficult to choose what to paint, but I knew I wanted to create a balance of dramatic scenes and quiet moments and to capture the spirit of Rick’s unforgettable characters. It has been my own great adventure to help bring this book to life in a new way, in color, on the page.

I hope you enjoy this Deluxe Edition of The Lightning Thief.

Yours,

John

---

Illustrations from Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief Deluxe Edition
(Click to Enlarge)

Percy and a Nereid	Percy and Annabelle on their way to Las Vegas	Percy at the Entrance to Mount Olympus

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• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide
• The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 5)

Update Post: Nov 23, 2010 05:10:19

Alpha To Omega-Beginning To End-Alpha Dog Covers What Makes A Film Fine

What makes A Film fine?

The Story:
Written by Nick Cassavetes (John Q, The Notebook) also known for shared writing credits with Denis Leary for the screenplay of the movie Blow, it is based on a true story in which a series of events amongst a team of misguided youths ran inexorably out of control. Cassavetes developed his tale as a cautionary one, while at the same time allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions about the individuals and the morality at play.

On August 6, 2000, 15-yearold Nick Markowitz was seen just after noon, strolling down a road in West Hills, California. The previous night he had a run-in with his parents when they discovered drug paraphernalia bulging out of his jean pocket. He bolted. His parents, upon hearing his return in the middle of the night, resolved to hold any discussion until the following morning. They would never see him again.

The Plot:

As events unfold, a group of apparently voiceless teenagers, Tiko, (Fernando Vargas) Frankie, (Justin Timberlake), and Elvis, (Shawn Hatosy) fall under the spell of their drug-dealing friend, Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch) to the extent that not one of them sounds the alarm after helping Johnny cross the proverbial line by kidnapping the brother of a client, and holding him over the course of the next three days for ransom for a bad drug debt.

The story flows effortlessly into its own abyss and Cassavetes, who also directed, should be lauded for the conciseness and tightness of every frame. This tale has all of the elements of Greek Tragedy. In Greek Tragedy, the word "tragedy" refers primarily to tragic drama: a literary composition written for actors with a central character, a tragic protagonist or hero, who suffers some serious misfortune which is not accidental nor is it meaningless. It is significant in that the misfortune is usually connected to the hero's actions. This story has more than one central character. The hero is young Zack Mazursky, the antagonists - his brother Ben and Ben's nemesis, drug-dealer Johnny Truelove.

The Music:

Backed by a flawless and exciting soundtrack specifically designed to enhance the visual impact of the story, it unfolds as if one were watching it play out from a window as close as next door, a la Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched. From the opening refrains of Somewhere Over The Rainbow poignantly sung by Eva Cassidy behind visuals of home movies of various young boys and girls - to the pure street beats of Tupac Shakur - the soundtrack has everything in between, including David Bowie, Paul Bushnell, Citizen Cope, Lazarus, Mic Holden, Lowd, Tech N9ne, Miredys Piguero & Paul Graham and original work by Aaron Zigman and Nick Cassavetes. This exciting compilation is sure to make the soundtrack a music- industry winner.

The Cast:

Ben Foster plays big brother and, oh-so loose cannon, Ben Mazursky. The performance is a brilliant one, as tightly controlled as Mazursky is tightly wound. It is a riveting portrayal of a meth freak gone mad. He leaves you breathless by dint of his rapid switching from calm to convulsive in a heartbeat. Sometimes, the same heartbeat.

Younger brother Zack, (the name of real-life victim Nick Markowitz' dog,) is played with ethereal presence, by Anton Yelchin, (Taken, Jack and Hearts in Atlantis.) He radiates good and all things innocent. It is a perfect contrast to the rough and tumble teenage mayhem that surrounds him - teens with too much time on their hands and too much dope in their heads. The girls, who appear in various stages of wantonness, upon discovering that he is being held for ransom, give him the moniker 'Stolen Boy.'

Emile Hirsch, who was phenomenal in his portrayal of Jay Adams in Lords of Dogtown, is equally stellar in his role as Johnny Truelove; Cassavetes name for the story's real-life dealer and small-time hood, Jesse James Hollywood. His research on Jay Adams has stood him in good stead for this role as Adam's has had numerous run-ins with the law and has spent time in prison for assault and drug crimes as well as being a member of the Venice Suicidals street gang.

The part of Jesse James Hollywood's main man, Jesse Rugge, known in the movie as Frankie Ballenbacher, was played with a curious sensitivity by Justin Timberlake. Loose and light-hearted was the overall persona presented effortlessly by Timberlake. It was incongruous with the key part that Rugge played in the three days that culminated in the death of a fifteen-year old. One can only assume that the research Cassavetes did on his subjects led him to believe that Rugge had simply gotten in over his head and, in order to save face, went along with the caper to the point where he couldn't retract himself. There are clearly no winners in this story.

As the real story goes, Nick was taken to various houses in Santa Barbara [Palm Springs is substituted for Santa Barbara in the movie] over the course of three days and often ended up at Rugge's family home. In the movie, as in the court transcripts on the case, there was what can only be described as one long roving party that continued over the course of the kidnapping and took place at the many spots they visited, accumulating numerous witnesses to the kidnapped hostage along their route. In a Los Angeles Times article, Rugge's father, Baron Rugge (Chris Kinkade) said that, "I thought Nick was up here visiting." And that, "when I saw him, I saw him just to say 'Hi,' and 'Yeah, you can stay here if you want."'

As with most of the parents represented in this film, the senior Rugge's lack of attention or concern for the comings and goings of his son and his son's friends is telling. In the film, Cassavetes points a few fingers at parents who are too busy partying and hanging on to their own misspent youths to be of much use in child-rearing. Minutes into the film Johnny is arranging a large drug buy through his father Sonny, (Bruce Willis) an alleged underworld figure who hangs with an older, withered crony, Cosmo Gadabeeti, (Harry Dean Stanton) the man who ultimately handles the mess Truelove makes of his life by making it go away. For awhile.

The exception to this is Zack's mom Olivia Mazursky. Sharon Stone plays real-life mother to Nick and step-mother to Ben, Susan Markowitz. By the end of the film, Stones heart-felt portrayal of a mother's grief was so intimate that her pain brought tears to my eyes. Maybe it's because I'm a mother. I applaud her ability to get inside Markowitz' skin and allow her normally-gorgeous self to be seen as a middle age overweight basket-case with such flawless conviction.

Susan Markowitz, a formerly attractive sunshine-blonde, gained 65 pounds during the ordeal of the ensuing trials and attempted suicide twice. The in-your-face camera-work in Stone's final scene is reminiscent of director John Cassavetes work with his wife, actress Gena Rowlands, - and every bit as arresting.

Probably not by coincidence, Susan, (Dominique Swain) happens to be the name of the only sane one of this bunch of party animals. Hers is the only voice of reason raised amongst this group of stoners oblivious to the trajectory of their lark.

A lark that ended tragically when Elvis Schmidt, (Shawn Hatosy) in the role of convicted murderer Ryan Hoyt, fires a semi-automatic weapon into Zack at the edge of a pre-dug grave. Hoyt was convicted of shooting Nick in the head and torso nine times with a TEC-9 semi-automatic.

In November, 2001, he was found guilty of first-degree murder and he sits on Death Row at San Quentin, waiting to die by lethal injection. Jesse Rugge was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in five years. Two others received short sentences for their part in the caper.

Like the movie, River's Edge, the majority of the players flitting around the flame of this tragedy received punishment meted out by their own conscience.

One hopes that it screams long and loud.

Devorah Macdonald

Lose Weight Effectively

One of the greatest frustrations a person can have is not being able to lose weight immediately. It is not uncommon to hear of complaints from several individuals that losing weight for them is like the task of Sisyphus, who, according to Greek myth, was condemned to the Underworld with the job of rolling a boulder up a hill, only to find that it will roll down back afterward.

Just like Sisyphus, those who try to lose weight are constantly faced with the irksome frustration that even when they have succeeded a little, something happens; they start gaining weight once again. Just like the boulder that had been pushed up the hill, the weight figures that had once been plummeting now go up high once again. You can imagine the frustration of being so close to what you have been trying to do only to see your efforts become vain.

For some people, it could be a problem of discipline: discipline to keep on exercising, the discipline to be able to eat only the right kind of foods, and the determination to avoid eating food in amounts that can only contribute to weight gain. However, even when people adhere to a strict regime designed for them to attain optimal gain loss, some people still find their weight loss attempts at a standstill.

When that happens, this probably means that you are having problems due to the wrong dietary supplements that you are using. If so, you should start thinking twice about continuing with your current supplement and find a new one. Fortunately, there is one new supplement that you can use to augment and to make your weight loss regime a bit more successful for you.

This drug is what people call "clen." It is an abbreviation of its generic name clenbuterol. What does this supplement do and how does it contribute to optimal weight loss for a person?

What Is Clenbuterol?

Clenbuterol is a bronchodilator. Its primary indication for treatment is for people with bronchial asthma. Its primary effect on the body is to reduce obstruction in the human airways so that people with these conditions can breathe easier. Clenbuterol's effects are long-lasting as well.

However, aside from being a bronchodilator, clenbuterol has other effects on a person's physique. It particularly increases the body's muscle mass, making the body leaner by reducing the amount of fat that a person has. Primary users of clenbuterol are athletes and body builders who want to maintain a lean and muscular body.

Clenbuterol Is Good for Losing Weight

You can see now that this drug is the wonder that you might have been looking for in all those years that you have been trying to shed off those excess weight. Clenbuterol is ideal for your weight loss regime, and should be taken together with your food and the regular exercise that you are working with. With its ability to augment your muscular composition while at the same time shedding off fats, one can indeed achieve more than just weight loss. You can also have the physique that can make people envious of your success.

OM to Ogham

Plato observed that the advent of an alphabet making writing efficient for average people actually lead to less knowledge or disciplined communication. We need not blame the Phoenicians for this because people really could benefit from writing.

John Locke and many other scientists during the time when man thought there was some reality in prejudices like The Scale of Nature observed that language was a pre-requisite for consciousness. Although there is some truth in his observations which include the Tabula Rasa, this is pure hogwash and perhaps even worse than that. He may well have sought to make people feel inferior just as that Scale of Nature was designed to do to so many non-Europeans.

Common sense is a most uncommon thing it appears. We still have many people living under the pall of the Bible Narrative and other 'absolute religions' (Fukayama and social engineers know how to use) which have whole histories of deceit woven into their dogma and the laws that form the structure of our society. I am all for the Kat-ma concept of Karma which would have these social engineers meet their maker and put an end to that Dog-ma. It is unfortunate that scholars who are interested in making a living often have to go along with things they know are only half true at best. It is more unfortunate that good money can be made debunking real scholarship and exploration by the likes of Barraclough Fell and other Epigraphists. Please take a look into Rob Gombach of Utah State University as he says Fell was only a hobbyist.

The treatment of the concept of OM by the Catholic Encyclopedia is a fine example of what is wrong with our society I think. Here is a little of what they say to start our voyage beyond conventional thinking. Om is the sacred syllable of Hinduism used by all schools in their meditation system. It expresses the 'world-soul' concept of Brahman. It is pronounced at the beginning of the recitation of the 'mantras'. In practice, this concept is expressed in Hindu teaching as:

"'All humanity converging at the foot of that sacred place where is set the symbol that is no symbol, the name that is beyond all sound.' In the system of practices that make up Hinduism, there is the possibility of introducing this concept through an intensified psychic response or through practices that are diabolic {What?! This is certainly a great expression of the Pope's ecumenical interests. This mentions nothing about it being like the Holy Spirit or what physicists say which I relate to the Logos. It is racial in the level of its prejudice and it is the kind of thing one should expect from 'Crusaders' with no soul.}. Here there is real danger, for this concept permits one to enter into a simple, self-delusive attitude {Rather than one created by the priests of this group of 'churchians' who do not follow the 'living father within' that Jesus taught.} that misleads while at the same time acts to shut out all other avenues of Christian response. Its danger is in the blandishment whereby a Universal Religion (the core of Karma or the at-onement of divine assumption of all into one) precludes sin since there is no one to sin against. Thus it has often been cryptically likened to the evolutionary religious concepts advanced by Teilhard de Chardin {Who almost was ex-communicated and is a great ecumenicist.}, namely, the 'omega' concept: 'The revealed Christ is identical with omega. This christology of Chardin, an evolutionary complex, is stated in like manner: 'Man bears along with him the world of beings inferior to God.' (Letter 8/7/23 in 'Letters to Leontine Zanta.') (See Omega Point: Teilhardism.)" (1)

The Homeric scholars have found some things to prove the myth was not all mere fiction and this continues to the present in even more fascinating ways due to satellite technology as well as a weakening grip of Biblical intrigues or religious suppression. In the final analysis it is my sincere hope that people will become more spiritual and able to appreciate their religious icons were far more than the interpreters who used their image and good works. I am of the belief that when Homer wrote about 'the underworld' he was writing about North America and I know for certain that these people knew the earth was a sphere and had means to map and travel throughout the whole world since long before Homer. Much of knowledge started with observing the stars in world adventures or travels and man has always been adventurous. Here is the other 'Om' written as Ogham or Ogam.

"'While some marks may be related to Ogam, we are skeptical of translations because the perception of the marks on the rock, often worn or damaged, is subject to considerable variability from one observer to the next.'

No nation has a monopoly on illegibility, and the authors could profitably have consulted any edition of any ancient work, at the bottom of any page (where the variant readings are listed); there they would find subjectivity galore, and accepted as a matter of course. In any case, they should keep mum; some people have the same complaints about standing stones and alignments." (2)

The cover-up of Ogham and all of its branches of knowledge may have started before Rome and there certainly was a lot of plagiarization or Hellenizing going on as new leaders usurped the history, technology and science of the Kelts or 'keltoi' and 'Ogygia', as the Greek (Danaus) called them. Ogygia in itself means 'ancient ones' and Plutarch has a map identifying Iceland as Ogygia but that does not mean it was anything more than an ancient Thulean outpost.

Not long ago the Catholic Church had a fit of honesty and considered removing St. Patrick as a Saint. They knew all along that it was a near total fiction replete with removing snakes that had never been there in recorded or remembered history. They knew he had been sent there to make deals and re-write Scriptures or destroy things which would show the real roots of their faith and culture. He personally destroyed over 150 hand drawn books and we have proof of his editing of the Senchus Mor which had been a fantastic book with numerous volumes of law and culture. There are only a few glosses with obvious re-writes remaining. But the enslaved people of Ireland who have had their true history destroyed or hidden from them were all upset to find their Patron Saint might be a saint no more.

Uncial and Insular are languages that were developed in Irish language centers for writing the Scriptures (Uncial) and what later became English (Insular). Ogham was around a long time before these more sophisticated alphabets as any person with no grasp of linguistics can easily see and yet Britannica and others maintain the cover up to this day. Here is a little confirmation that St. Patrick was part of a major effort to bring certain people into the fold and develop schools to teach what the Druids like Columcille (later St. Columba) had learned at real centers of learning like the Isle of Druids or Iona. This is taken from the Annals of Ulster. This is a record of just one source in just one year (439). Bishops gathering in one place like this is not common as I understand it but I may be wrong.

"Secundinus, Auxilius and Isserninus, themselves also bishops, are sent to Ireland to assist Patrick." And there is also an entry that has Patrick being confirmed as a bishop a couple of years later. So he clearly was not the top person or grand Pooh-Bah of the hegemony that was there in the first place. Rome was always looking to get more local 'fronts' for their deals so that the average person would not clue in to what was really going on. Here is that entry from year 441. "Bishop Patrick was approved in the Catholic faith." Of course I could be cute and suggest he had not even been Catholic before this but I frankly don't think that would be unusual either. Augustine is a study in greed and need for power too.

In the apologetic words of the current Pope whose heritage includes the 'Holy' (?) Emperors of this heinous group of 'churchians' he asks for 'forgiveness and renewal' as he admits to dastardly deeds of the Crusades, Flagellants, and Inquisitors. But is there a day care center in the Vatican? How about a female priest or God forbid, a Bishop? Most of humanity doesn't even know what a Druid or 'proto-Celt' is or was. There is an old saying 'if you want to know what a Druid knows, ask a wild bee.' The bee was important to the Phocaeans, Napoleon and now the Mormons. Symbols (like the bee) communicate, letters are symbols, language or communication is more than the intellectual sum of its letters or words. The heart and soul make the beauty of true wisdom comprehensible to far greater depths than the intellect can imagine.

How did we sink so low as to barter the lives of our mothers and 'sisters'?

Why have those who arranged these horrors tried to blame the Jews (and in an indirect manner, all 'sinners') for the death of Jesus? He did not claim to be a co-equal member of the Holy Trinity. It wasn't the Jews who 'killed our Saviour'. John Ralston Saul says this about the whole matter

"HOLY TRINITY-CHRISTIAN A pre-alchemist alchemist concept developed by early Christian administrators to soften the hard-edged simplicity of straight monotheism.

The three-in-one/one-in-three mystery of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost {That the beatniks called 'Laddio, Daddio and Spook'.} made tritheism official. The subsequent almost-deification of the Virgin Mary made it quatrotheism {And raised un-natural 'virginity' or possible non-sense such as immaculate conceptions, which fathers must have loved and priests certainly benefit from, to heights of increasing obscenity!}. Twelve Disciples as semi-deities then made it sextusdecitheism. Finally, cart-loads of saints raised to quarter-deification turned Christianity into plain, old-fashioned polytheism. By the time of the Crusades, it was the most polytheistic religion ever to have existed, with the possible exception of Hinduism. This untenable contradiction between the assertion of monotheism and the reality of polytheism was dealt with {And this is the MOST important observation of a technique known in psychology as 'projection of a pluperfect paranoid' or the 'BIG LIE' of alphabet soup agencies and 'black ops'; the less organized criminals like the Mafia call it a 'frame-up'.} by accusing other religions of the Christian fault. The Church - Catholic and later Protestant - turned aggressively on the two most clearly monotheistic religions in view {Also they began at least 700 years of war, A CRUSADE! against the remnants of the Kelts in Ireland.) - Judaism and Islam - and persecuted them as heathen or pagan. ..These pagans must therefore be converted, conquered {ego 'Manifest Destiny'} and/or killed for their own good in order that they may benefit from the singularity of the Holy Trinity, plus appendages.

HOLY TRINITY - POST CHRISTIAN So far Nietzsche has been wrong about GOD. We have not managed to become Him in His place. Instead we have replaced God with a yet more abstract divinity based upon pure rational power... Organization or structure replaced the Father, TECHNOLOGY displaced the Son and the Holy Ghost gave way to information. The new priesthood was made up of technocrats. As the etymology of the word 'technocrat' indicates, from the beginning they were to be specialists in power... And they would stand guard over information." (3)

The fears and apathy of average people are as much to blame for this history of managed and 'guarded information' that records the acts of bad people. 'We are all our brother's keepers' is not just an idle platitude. The Druidic concept called IESA or 'The Brotherhood of Man' apprehended the Cosmic Thought Field of Faraday and Tesla or the 'Cosmic Soup' of Deepak Chopra. NASA scientists have just announced that Life is Everywhere including microbes in outer space. They talk about cell membrane formation that makes we wonder if these are conscious connected 'info packets'(Tesla) or 'templates' (Teilhard de Chardin) from which energy can create in a manner more akin to ancient creationist theories of the supposed pagans.

Author of Diverse Druids
Columnist for The ES Press Magazine
Guest 'expert' at World-Mysteries.com

Clash of The Titans - Part 4 - Full Movie!!!

Watch the full movie here: watch-moviez.info Clash Of The Titans (2010) Part 1 Full Movie, Clash Of The Titans (2010) Part 1 Movie, Clash Of The Titans (2010) Movie Part 1, Clash Of The Titans (2010) Part 1 The Movie, Clash Of The Titans (2010) Part 2 Full Movie, Clash Of The Titans (2010) Movie Full Movie, Clash Of The Titans (2010) (2010) Movie Part 1 English Full, Clash Of The Titans (2010) Movie HD trailer. The ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus is helpless to save his family from Hades, vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus and unleash hell on earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, he will only survive if he can accept his power as a god, defy his fate and create his own destiny.

Ancient Mysteries of the Seven Dimensions

"The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books - a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects."     --- Albert Einstein

Do you ever wonder about this "mysterious order" of creation and the Universe? According to my dictionary a MYSTERY is something not understood or beyond understanding; whatever resists or defies explanation; profound, inexplicable, or has a secretive quality; and/ or a religious truth that one can know only by revelation and cannot fully understand.

Is Humankind's identity a mystery? How can you really know who you are if you don't know where you came from? It is clear from archeological evidence that there are many documented mysteries in our ancient past, and that there are clues to that past around the world in the form of sunken cities, artwork and cryptic hieroglyphics, ancient structures (pyramids, etc.). It is also clear from archeological findings that humankind has not progressed in a steady upward linear progression - as science and achievements of long-lost civilizations had advanced technologies that cannot be replicated - even by the science of today.

Has modern science disproved human evolution? In 2006, genetic researchers at the University of California at Santa Cruz discovered an area of the genome they called HAR1 that appears to be unique to humans. Scientists believe the HAR1 gene plays a critical role in the advanced development of the human brain, and is a key element that sets us apart from other animals. But where did it come from? Did humans develop this distinct gene naturally through evolution? Or did it land here from another planet?

The common myth or idea that the Origins of humankind are from the stars is widespread in many ancient cultures to include the ancient Egyptians, the Mayans, the Aztecs, and the Indians. Francis Crick, the British scientist who helped discover the structure of DNA, believed that human genes could not have evolved by chance. Crick didn't feel in that period of roughly 600 million years, from the formation of the planet down to the time when the planet could first support life, there was enough time for DNA to evolve by accident. It's an enormously complicated molecule (History Channel transcript).

Crick gave this analogy: You would be more likely to assemble a fully functioning and flying jumbo jet by passing a hurricane through a junkyard than you would be to assemble the DNA molecule by chance in, any kind of primeval soup in five or six hundred million years. It's just not possible (Ancient Aliens - The Visitors, HISTP, aired on Saturday, May 01, 2010 (5/1/2010) at 07:00 PM).

All of the major religions of the world have documented that God, Gods, and/ or angels came to earth to create humans. Scientists are now speculating that extraterrestrials and/ or ancient astronauts may have come to earth from outer space to seed the human civilization.

Following are what I believe to be the origins of ancient knowledge and ageless wisdom that have been passed down to us by our ancestors through what some call the 7 Rays of Light and what I call the 7 Dimensions. Please see my article entitled, "Contemplating a 7 Dimension Theory of Everything," that lays the ground work for this article.

Although this is a collaboration of information taken from various historical, biblical (Jewish and Christian), Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, and Islamic literature, such as the Bible, the Quran, the Dead Sea Scrolls, many apocryphal books, Enoch 1, 2, 3, Jasher, Jubilees, Baruch, Solomon, the book of giants, the pyramid texts, the Egyptian book of the dead, --- I will present this as a MYTH or an unverifiable legendary narrative that presents part of the beliefs of a people - especially those dealing with their gods and heroes.

I have made every attempt to make this article accurate and complete. I would however, like to apologize in advance for offending anyone's religious sensitivities, as this is a work in progress that is very, very far from perfect. With the above disclaimer to having and/ or knowing the absolute truth, I would like to present to you a mythical 7 - Part outline of the 7 Dimensions.

1. The Seven Dimensions of God and Creation

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Hebrews 11:3). If you can believe that God created the world in 7 Days (Genesis 1:1 to 2:3) - then you may not have any problems believing the rest of this 7 Dimension story. Note: Some bible scholars interpret one biblical day as 1000 years.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, Let there be light," and there was light - and God saw that the light was good (Genesis 1:2,3). It's interesting to note that one of the first things that God created was light. The Bible proclaims that: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).

The scientific inherent physical laws of the universe indicate that there are 7 electromagnetic energies, and 7 colors in the visible light spectrum - that when randomly mixed make up all colors, and when equally contained make up the white light. In Physics, the orbits of the electrons, from the simplest Hydrogen to the most complex Uranium, revolve in 7 electronic orbits. In Chemistry, the Periodic Table consists of 105 elements which fall into 7 grades based on the atomic structure.

Seven Dimensional Time and Space

Time itself is based on our 7 day weekly calendar derived from the 7 days of creation. Space, our earthly physical space is divided up into 7 continents, 7 oceans, and 7 seas. According to Judaism tradition, 7 is a highly spiritual number representing godliness and completeness and there are 7 heavens, 7 days of passover, Seven days of purification, and the 7 branched candelabrum or menorah. In Islamic tradition, there are also 7 heavens, 7 fires in hell, and 7 doors to hell.

7 Heavens

The First Heaven: Shamayim or Shamain
The Second Heaven: Raquia or Raqia
The Third Heaven: Sagun or Shehaquim
The Fourth Heaven: Machanon or Machen
The Fifth Heaven: Mathey or Machon
The Sixth Heaven: Zebul
The Seventh Heaven: Araboth

7 Dimensional Ancient Solar System

Prior to the invention of the telescope, man could only look up into the sky with the naked eye and only observe 7 heavenly bodies. The 7 days of creation were given names for the 7 days of the week after the below 7 Classical Planets: Sun (Sunday), Moon (Monday), Mars (Tuesday), Mercury (Wednesday), Jupiter (Thursday), Venus (Friday), Saturn (Saturday) - The 7 Rings of Saturn. Esoteric science proclaims that there are 7 streams of energy, vibrations, or 7 Light Rays that interact at every conceivable frequency - that created the Stars, Solar systems, Galaxies, and Universes that exist.

The 7 brightest stars of the Pleiades are named for the 7 Sisters of Greek mythology: Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygete, Celaeno, and Alcyone. The beautiful group of stars known as the Pleiades is mentioned three times in Scripture. Job 9:8-9 and Amos 5:8 explain their origin, stating that the Creator 'stretches out the heavens' and is the Master of the Pleiades. Job 38:31-32 further declares that only the Lord can 'bind the beautiful Pleiades' and bring them forth in their season.

The number 7 is also linked to the moon having four phases that it goes through, with each phase lasting roughly 7 days.

7 Stars of the Big Dipper

The Big Dipper is a collection of 7 stars that has been recognized as a distinct grouping in many cultures from time immemorial. The component stars are the 7 brightest of the formal constellation Ursa Major and are named: Alkaid, Mizar, Alioth, Megrez, Dubhe, Merak, and Phecda.

7 Dimensional Earth

Along with having 7 Continents, 7 Oceans, and the 7 seas, it is commonly accepted that there are 7 major chakras (Energy Centers) on earth - one on each continent. The cardinal 7 chakras are:

1st chakra - Mt. Shasta, California
2nd chakra - Lake Titicaca, South America
3rd chakra - Uluru-Katatjuta, Australia
4th chakra - Glastonbury-Shaftesbury, England
5th chakra - Great Pyramid-Mt. of Olives
6th chakra - Kuh-e Malek Siah, Iran
7th chakra - Mt. Kailas, Tibet.

2. The Seven Archangels

Traditionally, there are 7 Archangels. The letter of Jude 1:14-15, in the New Testament makes reference to the first Book of Enoch that names the 7 as: 1. Michael, 2. Gabriel, 3. Raphael, 4. Uriel, 5. Raquel, 6. Zerachiel, and 7. Remiel. Legend has it that these 7 Archangels stood in the presence of God Almighty and reflected the 7 Rays of Light from God's throne in Heaven to the Universe.

The 7 Rays of Life

Like our Sun, which irradiates rays of visible light all over our Solar system, there is a spiritual Sun (Solar Logos) which is a source of the 7 rays of spiritual light. These rays are the 7 emanations from the "7 Spirits before the Throne of God". Their emanations come from the monadic level of awareness. In a certain sense, these 7 great and living Energies are, in their totality, the etheric vehicle of the planetary Logos:
Ray 1: Will or Power,¨Ray 2: Love and Wisdom,¨Ray 3: Active Intelligence or Adaptability,¨Ray 4: Harmony, Beauty, and Art,¨Ray 5: Concrete Knowledge and Science,¨Ray 6: Devotion or Idealism,¨Ray 7: Ceremonial Order

The Fallen Angels (Nephilim)

Prior to the flood of Noah's day, there is a very brief excerpt about the Fallen Angels in Genesis 6:1-4. "When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose,....The Nephilim were on earth in those days - and also afterward - when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them." These angels taught man sciences which were forbidden by God such as the magic in herbs, reading the stars, divination and sorcery. Enoch goes on to say: "...but they chose husbands and wives from among the humans and led greatly debauched lives, neglecting their heavenly duties..."

Ancient Egypt

"The evil happening in those days focused heavily in the land of Egypt, for this place became the center for the fallen angels and many of the deeds they did. These fallen angels, "became known as the builders of the megalithic pyramids. The leaders, who were the angelic fathers of these builders, knew the secrets of the stars and waited for the time when the morning star moved directly north of the Earth." At this time, the weight of the Earth was affected and these builders built nine great pyramids in a short time. To the men of the Earth, these structures appeared as if they were reaching to the heavens. Along with the monsters made from the miscegenation of animals, the fallen angels took the form of half-animal, half-man beasts, and with the assistance of their giant prodigy, forced mankind to worship them as gods," (The Last Days of Noah).

The Nephilim are also mentioned again in Numbers 13:32-33, "And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored (Canaan) devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

7 Nephilim Nations of Giants (Fallen Angel - Offspring)

Deuteronomy 7:1, 2 and Acts. 13:19 - refers to God's command to the Israelites to exterminate the 7 Nephilim tribes living in the land of Canaan: "When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations-the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, 7 nations larger and stronger than you. . . then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy."

The apostle Paul confirmed this extermination: "When he (God) overthrew 7 nations in Canaan and gave their land to his people as their inheritance," (Acts 13:19).

The Nephilim were the origin of idolatry and polytheism. Polytheism is the belief in multiple deities, called gods or goddesses, or both that can be found in Greek, Roman, and Hindu mythology along with the worship of demigods or half-god, human-god hybrid mythological figures whose one parent was a god and whose other parent was human such as the Greek Gods': Zeus, and Apollyon.

It is interesting to note that Apollyon is also mentioned by the apostle John as the king of the fallen angels:
"And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon." (Revelation 9:11).

7 Rays of Fire

In ancient Greek mythology, Zeus takes the bull-form known as Taurus in order to win Europa. Taurus is also associated with Aphrodite and other goddesses, as well as Pan and Dionysus. The face of Taurus "gleams with the 7 rays of fire".

3. The Rainbow's Seven Rays of Light

God also sent His 7 Rays of Light (The Rainbow) after the flood as a sign:
"And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth" (Genesis 9:12-16). These 7 Rays of Light are also referred to as the 7 Archangels. These 7 great streams of energy represent each and every vibration in space, nature, and form, and they permeate all beings, objects, and all events in the manifestation of reality.

Enoch - the 7th Generation from Adam (Jude 1:14)

Legend has it that the fallen angels (Nephilim) knew that their behavior would not be tolerated by God Almighty, so they appealed to Enoch (the only righteous man on earth at the time) to speak to God on their behalf. The Bible reports in Genesis 5:24, that Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. This may have been the time when Enoch went to plead their case before God. The fallen angels behavior angered God greatly and he banished the "fallen". Sadly these angels were not suited to this job and instead of playing a positive role they began to teach man sciences that God had deemed to be forbidden. These subjects included astrology, divination, herb craft and magic.

The 7 Laws of Noah

It has been suggested that one of the main reasons for the great flood, was not only to punish man, but to cleanse the earth of the half-bred creatures created from the union of the fallen angels and humans. According to the Talmud, God gave Noah a set of 7 moral imperatives as a binding set of laws for all mankind - more than 1000 years before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. According to Judaism any non-Jew who lives according to these laws is regarded as a Righteous Gentile and is assured of a place in heaven. The 7 laws listed by the Talmud are:

Prohibition of Idolatry: You shall not have any idols before God.
Prohibition of Murder: You shall not murder.
Prohibition of Theft: You shall not steal.
Prohibition of Sexual immorality: You shall not commit any of a series of sexual prohibitions, which include adultery, incest, anal intercourse between men, and bestiality.
Prohibition of Blasphemy: You shall not blaspheme God's name, and
Dietary Law: Do not eat flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive.
Requirement to have just Laws: Set up a governing body of law (eg Courts).

The Noahide Laws comprise the six laws which were given to Adam in the Garden of Eden according to the Talmud's interpretation of Gen. 2:16 and a 7 th one, which was added after the Flood of Noah (prior to 2500 B.C.). Later at the Revelation of Sinai the 7 Laws of Noah were regiven to Moses (1500 B.C.) with theTen Commandments, which are part of, and not separate from the 7 Laws of Noah.

4. Alchemy and the Seven Classical Planets

Early alchemists Isis and Zosimus report that alchemical knowledge came from fallen angels sexually attracted to human women, and the early Christian church fathers believed them and claimed the angels had sinned against the orders of god. The Egyptian God Thoth - the god of wisdom, however is credited with the creation of alchemy. He was believed to have invented the sacred art of writing and the concepts of justice. He taught mankind astronomy, architecture, geometry, medicine and religion. and he was the carrier of Divine messages and recorded all human deeds. The word alchemy is derived from the Greek for "The Egyptian Art," or the "Wisdom of Egypt."

The Chaldeans who existed over 7 thousand years ago and who lived in the Mesopotamian city of Babylon were alchemists who used this knowledge and the wisdom filtered down through time from the ancient Egyptian gods. They believed - 'As it is above, so it is below,' and that everything was connected to everything and based the existence of time on the movement of the 7 Classical Planets. They were the first to develop the science of astrology - by observing the order of the planets in our solar system to develop: our 12-month solar calendar; the 12 signs of the zodiac; the two 12 hour divisions of night and day; and the 28-day Lunar cycle each with it's own full Moon.

Ancient Alchemy was practiced around the world: Egyptian alchemy (5000 BC - 400 BC), beginning of alchemy; Indian alchemy (1200 BC - Present), Greek alchemy (332 BC - 642 AD), Chinese alchemy (142 AD), Islamic alchemy (700 - 1400), and European alchemy (1300 - Present).

The 7 Babylonian Gods

The Chaldeans associated the 7 classical planets with the names of their 7 Babylonian gods: Moon Nanna, Jupiter Marduk, Venus Ishtar, Saturn Ninib, Mercury Nebo, Mars Nergal, Sun Shamash. The Greeks and the Romans subsequently adopted this system and replaced the Babylonians gods with their own.

Moses was of the race of the Chaldeans. The Chaldean Mithra had his 7 Rays, and Moses his 7 Days. The Chaldeans believed in the 7 Spheres of the 7 Planets of which the sun is the center, and that from the Sun came fire and spirit. This was the astronomical religion of the Chaldeans, Jews, Persians, Syrians, Phoenicians and Egyptians." There was also the 7 Rays of Dionysus, presiding over the orbits of the 7 planets. The 7 Rays are found also in the Chaldean mystery of the "the God of the 7 Rays, who held the 7 Stars in his hand, through whom (as Chaldaeans supposed) the souls were raised",. Prior to the Christian era, this deity was known as Iao (the first birth) or Sabaoth (the Sun), and later described as "Christos of the Resurrection of Souls."

The Number 7 and Egyptian, Sumerian, Greek, Ireland (Mythology)

The number 7 was apparently the Egyptian symbol of such ideas as perfection, effectiveness, and completeness. Sumerian mythology documents that there were 7 gods in the underworld and 7 gods of destiny. In Greek mythology, there are 7 strings on Apollo's lyre, one for each of the 7 musical notes. Ancient Ireland mythology indicates that goddess Medb had 7 sons who brought space and time together, and became the 7 days of the week. These 7 sons were called the 7 Maines.

5. The Seven Vowels of Ancient Greece

The ancient Greeks had 7 vowels in their alphabet - not five. Their grammarians believed the 7 vowels contained pnuema (spirit) or the "breath of life" because the sound of each vowel could be sustained as long as one had breath in his lungs. There are three types of vowels: long (H and W), dual (A, I, and Y), and short (E and O). In the Book of Revelation, there is some evidence that the 7 Greek vowels were viewed as the "7 Spirits-of-God." The Greeks, who recorded the number of the root-races in their temples by these 7 vowels. There is an esoteric mythological tradition that links these 7 vowels to the 7 planets of astrology and the "gods" that rule them along with invocations of planets used in Egyptian temples.

Ancient World Empires run from Cities on 7 Hills

The ancients symbolically looked on the various capitals of the world - with 7 Hills as being the centers of divine sovereignty on this earth. It was common custom in the centuries before Christ for people in the Roman world to refer to the City of Rome itself as the 'City of 7 Hills. The City of Jerusalem, as it existed in the time of Christ Jesus, was reckoned to be the 'City of 7 Hills'. Babylon on the Euphrates (which became the capital of the world in the time of Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century B.C.) was called the '7 Hilled City'. The Roman Emperor Constantine wanted to build a 'new Rome' in the eastern part of the Roman Empire and he selected a spot on the Bosphorus called Byzantium, because it was a small village also located on '7 Hills'. This made 'New Rome' as a City of 7 Hills. The apostle John, who, wrote the Book of Revelation also mentions that the last world capital would be, "Mystery Babylon, " and that it would have "7 mountains" (Revelation 17:9).

6. The Seven Ancient Wonders of the World

It is interesting to note that some of these 7 Ancient Wonders of the world are directly related to Greek gods (or some would say the fallen angels).

1. Statue of Zeus at Olympia (Greek god), 2. Colossus of Rhodes (statue of Helios the Greek god), 3.Temple of Artemis (Dianna the Greek god), 4.Tomb of Mausolus (World Leader of Persia), 5.Lighthouse of Alexandria, 6. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, 7. Great Pyramid of Giza.

7 Lucky Gods of Ancient - India, China, and Japan

The Shichifukujin are an eclectic group of 7 deities from India, China, and Japan. Only one is native to Japan (Ebisu). Three are from the Hindu-Buddhist pantheon of India (Daikokuten, Bishamonten, & Benzaiten) and three from Chinese Taoist-Buddhist traditions (Hotei, Jurojin, & Fukurokuju).

The mystery of number 7 has enraptured the Japanese as well. Ancient Japan was founded around 7 districts. In Japanese folklore, there are 7 Buddhist treasures and 7 deities of good luck mentioned above. Japanese Buddhists believe people are reincarnated only 7 times, and 7 weeks of mourning are prescribed following death. The list goes on and on -- the 7 ups and eight downs of life, the 7 autumn flowers, the 7 spring herbs, the 7 types of red pepper, the 7 transformations, and the popular 7-5-3 festival held each November for children. Girls (age 7) are welcomed into womanhood and allowed to wear the obi (decorative sash worn with kimono). Their 7 virtues are candor, fortune, amiability, magnanimity, popularity, longevity, and dignity.

7. King Solomon's Temple and the Seven Books of Wisdom

King Solomon was the ruler of a kingdom in 967 B.C.E. that extended from the Euphrates River in the north to Egypt in the south. The Bible describes Solomon as the son of David and credits him as the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem - which took 7 years to build. He is portrayed as great in wisdom, and is credited with having 7 hundred wives and authoring the following 7 Books of Wisdom: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, and the Book of Wisdom. He was also known for his power and wealth, but ultimately as a king, his sin including idolatry, turned him away from God and lead his kingdom to be torn in two during the reign of his son Rehoboam.

It is believed that King Solomon's temple contained the golden alter of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron's staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant (Hebrews 9:4-5), and it is believed that Solomon collected and stored the known ancient wisdom of the world.

Conclusion

I could go on to discuss in detail the Bible's use of the number seven 424 times. Although I will mention the 7 dimensions of the book of Revelation, I will save the "7 Dimensional God" for a future article:

The Seven Dimensions of the Book of Revelation

There are the 7 Spirits of God (Rev. 1:4), 7 Lamps (Rev.4:5), 7 Seals (Rev. 5:1), 7 Horns (Rev. 5:6), 7 Eyes (Rev. 5:6), 7 Trumpets (Rev. 8:2), 7 Angels (Rev. 8:6), 7 Thunders (Rev. 10:3,4), 7 Angels (Rev.10:7), 7 Thousand People (Rev.11:13), Red Dragon with The Beast with 7 Heads (Rev.12:3), 7 Crowns (Rev. 12:3), 7 Last Plagues (Rev.15:1), 7 Golden Bowls (Rev.15:7), 7 Hills (Rev.17:9), and the 7 Kings (Rev.17:10).

The questions, however still remain: Is there an intelligent, divine design or mysterious order to the Universe or do we just live in a chaotic, purposeless, and meaningless world?

What are the origins of humans? Did extraterrestrials, ancient astronauts, and or angels, gods, goddesses, or God come to earth from outer space to seed the human civilization. Surprisingly, the Bible itself gives us direct answers:

"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible," (Hebrews 11:3)

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth," (Hebrews 11:13).

So here we have it. the extraterrestrial/ ancient astronaut "God" created the Universe and humans by faith, and all those that live by faith in His righteousness are aliens on earth looking to return home.

This article was not written and should not be viewed or considered to be a formal scientific or theological treatise on ancient civilizations, spirituality and/ or religion. It is merely a simplistic introduction to these topics to reveal how critical they are to the human experience with the hope of assisting individuals to reassess their values, and reexamine their priorities to redefine what is really important in their lives.

My intent is not to persuade, influence, convince, or convert anyone to my personal beliefs. My goal is to help others to clarify and identify where they presently stand at this point in time, so that they can consider charting a course to get from where they are to where they desire to be someday. After all, you cannot make flight reservations if you don't know what airport you will be departing from.

References: All biblical verses are from the New International Version Bible

For more info see: http://www.7dimensions.net

James Slobodzien, Psy.D., CSAC, is a Hawaii licensed psychologist and certified substance abuse counselor who earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology. He is credentialed by the National Registry of Health Service Providers in Psychology. He has over 25-years of mental health experience primarily working in the fields of alcohol/ substance abuse and behavioral addictions in hospital, prison, and court settings. He is an adjunct professor of Psychology and also maintains a private practice as a mental health consultant.