donderdag 5 juni 2014

The crimes against humanity still happening under the name of 'mental health care' for people going through a personal and / or transformational crisis.

"What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" - Been there, done that!

Article 9 – Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.

2. Freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs shall be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_9_of_the_European_Convention_on_Human_Rights

Article 3 – Prohibition of torture
No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

European Convention on Human Rights -

“That's the Kafkaesque genius of it. People tell the world you're crazy, and all your protests to the contrary just confirm what they're saying. Once you're declared insane, then anything you do is called part of that insanity. Reasonable protests are denial. Valid fears, paranoia. Survival instincts are defense mechanisms.”

If even a movie going viewer has sat through 2 hours of the film and followed the story of Teddy Daniels, yet within the last ten minutes of the film, can have their recollection of events so totally modified by the smooth talking and persuasive Dr Cawley, then indeed, what hope was there for poor Teddy Daniels and the thousands of other people, in the real world, who are daily subjected to extremely invasive and unscrupulous techniques of mind control?
There are so many obvious inconsistencies and so many clearly transparent tricks between the reality of Teddy Daniel’s character and the mind control fantasy which Dr Lawley conjures out of the air, that one wonders if the film’s audience themselves weren’t perhaps more profoundly hypnotised than Decaprio’s federal marshall.

Looking through CIA documentation on MK Ultra I noticed the following areas which seemed to serve as a sort of ‘wish-list’ or a focus for their research. Much of this ties in quite well with the events of Shutter Island and my analysis of the film. On the CIA Christmas list for 1953 were the following items:

“A knockout pill which can surreptitiously be administered in drinks, food, cigarettes, as an aerosol, etc., which will be safe to use, provide a maximum of amnesia, and be suitable for use by agent types on an ad hoc basis.”

“Substances which will lower the ambition and general working efficiency of men when administered in undetectable amounts.”

“Physical methods of producing shock and confusion over extended periods of time and capable of surreptitious use.”

Read more : http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=131757

Most of these people are completely normal, they only have an awakened believe system that might oppose established religion and so on and so forth. But times are a-changing, all the information is for free now. What a blessing! In fact humans like are not a treath for anyone, but rather a help for people in need.

“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution.” — Aldous Huxley, Tavistock Group, CaliforniaMedical School, 1961.

"We need a program of psychosurgery and political control of our society. The purpose is physical control of the mind. Everyone who deviates from the given norm can be surgically mutilated.
The individual may think that the most important reality is his own existence, but this is only his personal point of view. This lacks historical perspective.
Man does not have the right to develop his own mind. This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must electrically control the brain. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by electrical stimulation of the brain."

Dr. Jose Delgado Director of Neuropsychiatry, Yale University Medical School

Om een lang verhaal kort te maken - van Middeleeuws Vlaanderen [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum] naar een Nieuwe Tijd : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders - er is niet veel veranderd, alleen een nieuw boekje - boordevol nonsens.

De pot verwijt de ketel als je naar de geestelijke gezondheidszorg, Westerse geneeskunde en psychiatrie ziet, in deze evolutie en vanuit de geschiedenis:

5331 φαρμακεια pharmakeia, far-mak-i'-ah; from 5332; medication ("pharmacy" [pharmaceutical]) i.e. (by extens.) magic (lit. or fig.):-sorcery, witchcraft.

5332 φαρμακευς pharmakeus, far-mak-yoos'; from φαρμακον pharmakon (a drug [or medicine] i.e. spell giving potion); a druggist ("pharmacist") or poisoner, i.e. (by extens.) a magician:-sorcerer.

5333 φαρμακος pharmakos, far-mak-os'; the same as 5332:-sorcerer. (Pharmakos was actually the ritualistic practice of the sorcerer in ancient Greece over a victomized scapegoat.)

Etymologisch vind je ook hier informatie terug over de oorsprong van de farmacie :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmakos - het gaat terug tot het Oude Griekenland- het offeren, vergiftigen en betoveren van zondebokken, die overigens ook wel de status van Held of Krijger hadden. Geen mij toch maar homeopathie, John. D. Rockefeller vond die methode met reden revolutionair!

Mijn kritisch onderzoek spoort iedereen aan deze larie en apekool niet zomaar voor zoetekoek te slikken en misschien moeten we wel een vredevolle underground creëren, waar de mens mens kan blijven, zoals opnieuw - in dit verlichtend gesprek ook wordt aangehaald als de oplossing om even mens te kunnen blijven in de toekomst, als het helemaal fout gaat met de evolutie naar een utopie die voor menig mens mogelijk als een dystopie uitdraait, als we niet opletten -

Peter Rothschild postte op facebook alweer iets dat tot nadenken stemt en dat ik hier nog eens onder de aandacht wil brengen (stukje uit de film 'My dinner with André') :

Wat de oorsprong van de farmacie ethymologisch betreft lezen we :

The Pharmakos Ritual:
Testimonia

Collected by Todd M. Compton as background for Victim of the Muses: Poet as Scapegoat, Warrior, and Hero in Greco-Roman and Indo-European Myth And History (Washington DC: Center for Hellenic Studies 2006).

The pharmakos ritual has been vigorously debated by historians and critics. I include references that some critics have linked to the pharmakos, but which other critics dispute. The reader may judge for himself, and read the arguments of the secondary sources listed at the end of this section.

For example, I include testimonia on the “Lover’s Leap” rite at Leucas — see the locus classicus at Strabo, below, along with the list of leapers at Ptolemaeus Chennus / Photius, and references at Stesichorus, Anacreon and Euripides. Many scholars link this with the pharmakos complex, while others do not.

Some link ostracism to the pharmakos rite, but I have not included references on ostracism here. See J.-P. Vernant, “Ambiguity and Reversal: On the Enigmatic Structure of Oedipus Rex,” in Tragedy and Myth in AncientGreece (ed. J.-P. Vernant and P. Vidal-Naquet, translated by J. Lloyd), 87–119, 205n66; Walter Burkert Greek Religion, trans. J. Raffan (Cambridge, MA 1985), 83; J. Ranulf, Jealousy of the Gods and Criminal Law at Athens (London 1933), 132–141; David Rosenbloom, “From Ponēros to Pharmakos: Theater, Social Drama, and Revolution in Athens, 428–404 BCE,” Classical Antiquity 21 (2002): 283–346, 332. For an online introduction to ostracism, see a collection of important texts at “Ostracism at Athens,” by John Paul Adams, http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/ostracis.html.

I believe I include all the testimonia found in Viktor Gebhard, “Die Pharmakoi in Ionien und die Sybacchoi in Athen.” Diss. Amberg 1926.

1. Hipponax 5–10W/26–30Dg; 6Dg = Tzetzes Chiliads 5.728ff.

πόλιν καθαίρειν καὶ κράδηισι βάλλεσθαι.

βάλλοντες ἐν χειμῶνι καὶ ῥαπίζοντες

κράδηισι καὶ σκίλληισιν ὥσπερ φαρμακόν.

δεῖ δ’ αὐτὸν ἐς φάρμακον ἐκποιήσασθαι.

κἀφῆι παρέξειν ἰσχάδας τε καὶ μᾶζαν

καὶ τυρόν, οἷον ἐσθίουσι φαρμακοί.

πάλαι γὰρ αὐτοὺς προσδέκονται χάσκοντες

κράδας ἔχοντες ὡς ἔχουσι φαρμακοῖς.

λιμῶι γένηται ξηρός· ἐν δὲ τῶι θύμωι

φαρμακὸς ἀχθεὶς ἑπτάκις ῥαπισθείη.

Must cleanse the city, and with twigs pelted.

Pelting him in the meadow[1] and beating

With twigs[2] and squills like a scapegoat [pharmakon].

He must be chosen from amoung you [ekpoiēsasthai] as a scapegoat.

And in his grip take barley-cakes, dried figs

And cheese, such cheese as scapegoats may feed on.

For long have they awaited them gaping

armed with fig-branches like they have for scapegoats.[3]

That he be parched with famine and, led out

A scapegoat, seven times on his piece beaten.

[All text from Hipponax is taken from the edition of M. L. West. This poem is trans. by Knox (LCL), modified, except as noted. Hipponax lived in the 6th century BC.]

2. Hipponax 37W/46Dg

ἐκέλευε βάλλειν καὶ λεύειν Ἱππώνακτα.

He ordered them to throw and cast stones at Hipponax.

[My trans.]

3. Hipponax 41W = Etmyologicum Genuinum

καὶ νῦν ἀρειᾶι σύκινόν με ποιῆσαι,

It should be realized that areiō means ‘I threaten,’ as in Hipponax:

And now he threatens to make me a worthless fellow.

[Trans. West. Cf. Douglas E. Gerber, Greek Iambic Poets (Cambridge, MA 1999), LCL. Gerber writes, “sukinon is literally ‘of a fig tree,’ but is often glossed with asthenēs (“weak”), akhreios (‘useless’) etc. because of the poor quality of the wood. Without a context its precise significance cannot be determined here.”]

4. Hipponax 65W/31Dg = Tzetzes Commentary on Iliad A 314

πρύμνης ἀπ’ ἄκρης ἐς θάλασσαν σπένδοντες

“and they threw the offscourings [lumata] into the sea”

They poured into the sea the water used for washing. For it was the custom of those who went across the sea for a sacrifice to do so, as an offering, I suppose, to Poseidon or the sea, as Hipponax says:

pouring an offering from the tip of the stern into the sea

[Tr. Douglas E. Gerber, Greek Iambic Poets (Cambridge, MA 1999), LCL.]

5. Hipponax 92W, lines 3-4

καί μοι τὸν ὄρχιν τῆς φαλ[

κ]ράδηι συνηλοίησεν ὥσπ[ερ φαρμακῶι

and my balls . . . she thrashed with a fig branch as though (I were a scapegoat) . . .

[Tr. Gerber, Greek Iambic Poets, 421-422. In a note he observes, “It seems that a Lydian woman is treating Hipponax (for impotence?, cf. fr. 78) by blows from a fig branch (cf. frr. 5-10) and by inserting something into his anus which causes him to defecate. Commentators compare Petronius 138, but the state of the papyrus leaves much in obscurity.”

6. Hipponax 104W/107Dg

ὁ δ’ ἐξολισθὼν ἱκέτευε τὴν κράμβην

τὴν ἑπτάφυλλον, ἣν θύεσκε Πανδώρηι

Ταργηλίοισιν ἔγκυθρον πρὸ φαρμακοῦ.

Slipping, he implored the seven-leafed cabbage

he used to offer potted[4] to Pandora

at the Thargelia, before the scapegoat.

[Trans. West.]

7. Hipponax 115W/194Dg

κύμ[ατι] πλα[ζόμ]ενος·

κἀν Σαλμυδ[ησσ]ῶι γυμνὸν εὐφρονε . [

Θρήϊκες ἀκρό[κ]ομοι

λάβοιεν—ἔνθα πόλλ’ ἀναπλήσαι κακὰ

δούλιον ἄρτον ἔδων—

ῥίγει πεπηγότ’ αὐτόν· ἐκ δὲ τοῦ χνόου

φυκία πόλλ’ ἐπέχοι,

κροτέοι δ’ ὀδόντας, ὡς [κ]ύων ἐπὶ στόμα

κείμενος ἀκρασίηι

ἄκρον παρὰ ῥηγμῖνα κυμα . . . . δου·

ταῦτ’ ἐθέλοιμ’ ἂν ἰδεῖν,

ὅς μ’ ἠδίκησε, λ[ὰ]ξ δ’ ἐπ’ ὁρκίοις ἔβη,

τὸ πρὶν ἑταῖρος [ἐ]ών.

. . . beaten by the waves.

In Salmydessus let “well‑meaning”

top‑knot Thracians

seize his naked body (he can get his fill of evil

eating slavish bread)

rigid from cold! Let seaweed

rise from scum and bind him!

Let him grind his teeth, lying

spent and muzzle down,

dog‑fashion in the surf . . . !

These things I long to see

because he wronged me [ēdikēse], walked upon his oaths [horkiois],

who was once my friend [hetairos].

[Trans. Anne Pippin Burnett, Three Archaic Poets, Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho (London 1983), 100–101. The seashore death may link this to the pharmakos complex.]

8. Hipponax 118E West

τρ[ιτα]ῖον ἐκ κήρυ[κο]ς· ἀσμε[ν . . δ]έ μιν

]ντες ἄσσον [

αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ χρόνο[ν . . . . . . . . ] ἕως τ[ὸ

σ]ῶμα ψύχηται· νῦν δ[ὲ ἐ]πὶ ἄμμον θα-

λα]σσίαν ἐ[κ]βάλλουσι. “τρ[ιτα]ῖον ἐκ κήρυ-

κο]ς, ἀσμε[ν . . δ]έ μιν”· πρ[ . . ] αὐτὰ τὰ ἀνδρ[ ]

] . [ . . ἤν]εγκεν αὐτ[ὸ]ν τριταῖον

. . .

ἐγ]γὺς τῆς θα-

λάσσης ]γωαιαοε

εκβά]λλουσἰ

] . . πατὴρ

] . ς διασκευ-

]ν νεκρὸν ε-

]αιωι ὀστέωι

on the third day at the hands of the herald (and?) gladly him . . .

Commentary

. . . them for a time . . . until the body grows cold; and now they cast it forth on the sand of the sea. “On the third day at the hands of the herald [and?] gladly him.” (To?) the very . . . he [i.e., the herald?] brought him on the third day . . . also in the . . . at the hands of the herald . . . (dis)similar to the . . . near, they write . . . near the sea . . . they cast forth. . . father . . . corpse . . . bone . . . Aristophanes . . . common burial place(?) . . .

[Tr. Gerber, cf. Dennis D. Hughes, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece (London 1991), 146.]

9. Hipponax 128W/126Dg

Μοῦσά μοι Εὐρυμεδοντιάδεα τὴν ποντοχάρυβδιν,

τὴν ἐν γαστρὶ μάχαιραν, ὃς ἐσθίει οὐ κατὰ κόσμον,

ἔννεφ’, ὅπως ψηφῖδι <κακῆι> κακὸν οἶτον ὀλεῖται

βουλῆι δημοσίηι παρὰ θῖν’ ἁλὸς ἀτρυγέτοιο.

Eurymedontiades his wife with knife in her belly,

Gulf of all food, sing Muse, and of all her disorderly eating:

Sing that by public vote at the side of the unharvested ocean

Pebbled with stones she may die, an evil death to the evil.

[Trans. Knox, modified]

10. Hipponax 152 / 203 Dg = Hesychius Lexicon s.v. kradēsitēs

κραδησίτης· φαρμακός, ὁ ταῖς κράδαις βαλλόμενος.

kradēsitēs: scapegoat, one struck by fig branches.

[Trans. Gerber.]

11. Hipponax 153W /146Dg = “Plutarch” On Music 8.1133f and Hesychius Lexicon s.v. kradiēs nomos

καὶ ἄλλος δ’ ἐστὶν ἀρχαῖος νόμος καλούμενος Κραδίας, ὅν φησιν Ἱππῶναξ Μίμνερμον αὐλῆσαι. ἐν ἀρχῇ γὰρ ἐλεγεῖα μεμελοποιημένα οἱ αὐλῳδοὶ ᾖδον.

[“Plutarch”] And there is also another ancient melody called Cradias, which Hipponax says Mimnermus performed on the pipe. For in the beginning singers to the pipe sang elegies set to music.

κραδίης νόμος· νόμον τινὰ ἐπαυλοῦσι τοῖς ἐκπεμπομένοις φαρμακοῖς, κράδαις καὶ θρίοις ἐπιραβδιζομένοις.

[Hesychius]: kradiēs nomos : a melody they pipe over those escorted out as scapegoats, whipped with fig branches and fig leaves.

[Trans. Gerber.]

12. Stesichorus (?) fr. 100 Page = Aristoxenus, FGH 2 F 72 = Athenaeus 14 (619d-e) =

ἐπεὶ δὲ ὑπερεῖδεν ὁ νεανίσκος, κατεκρήμνισεν ἑαυτήν. ἐγένετο δὲ τὸ πάθος περὶ Λευκάδα.

Aristoxenus, in the fourth book of his work On Music, says: “The women of old sang a song called Calycē. It was composed by Stesichorus, and in it a maiden named Calycē, in love with a young man, Euathlus, modestly prays to Aphroditē that she may be married to him. But when the young man treated her with despite, she flung herself over a cliff. The tragedy occurred at Leucas. The poet has represented the maiden’s character as altogether chaste, for she is unwilling to consort with the young man at all costs, but prays that she may, if she can, become the lawful wife of Euathlus, or, if that be not possible, that she may be released from life.”

[Trans. from Charles Burton Gulick, LCL of Athenaeus. Text from Denys Page, Poetae Melici Graeci; Alcmanis, Stesichori, Ibyci, Anacreontis, Simonidis, Corinnae, poetarum minorum reliquias, carmina popularia et convivialia quaeque adespota feruntur (Oxford 1962).]

ἦν δέ τις καὶ Καλύκη ὠιδή, Στησιχόρου ποίημα ἐπί τινι Καλύκηι κατακρημνισθείσηι δι’ ἔρωτα. καὶ Ἁρπαλύκη ἑτέρα ἐπὶ ὁμοίωι πάθει.

And there was a certain song called Calykē, a poem by Stesichorus about a certain Calykē who was thrown down a precipice for love. And Harpalukē was another who suffered a similar calamity.

[Eustathius On the Iliad 1236.61, quoted in Page, Poetae Melici Graecae, p. 137, at Stesichorus 100 (spuria), “Kalukē.” My trans. Stesichorus was active c. 600-550 BC. See on Aristoxenus and Eustathius, below. Page regards this fragment as spurious, but others argue for Stesichorean authorship. See David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric III (Cambridge, MA 1991), p. 193 n. 1, who cites H. J. Rose C.Q. 26 (1932) 92 (against Stesichorean authorship) and L. Lehnus, S.C.O. 24 (1975) 191ff. (for Stesichorean authorship). If Stesichorus did write a poem Kalukē, it is our first reference to the Lover’s Leap at Leucas. ]

13. Anacreon fr. 31 (376) = Hephaest. de poem. 7.2, p. 71 Consbr.

ἀρθεὶς δηὖτ’ ἀπὸ Λευκάδος
πέτρης ἐς πολιὸν κῦμα κολυμβῶ μεθύων έρωτι.

See, once again I climb up and dive from the Leucadian cliff into the grey waves, drunk with love.

[Trans. David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric II (Cambridge, MA 1988), LCL. Text from Denys Page, Poetae Melici Graeci; Alcmanis, Stesichori, Ibyci, Anacreontis, Simonidis, Corinnae, poetarum minorum reliquias, carmina popularia et convivialia quaeque adespota feruntur (Oxford 1962). See Strabo Geography 10.2.9, below. Anacreon lived toward the end of the 6th century BC. If the Stesichorus reference is spurious, this is our first reference to the Lover’s Leap at Leucas.]

14. Eupolis, fr. 132 (=120K)

ΧΟΡΟΣ

ὃν χρῆν ἔν <τε> ταῖς τριόδοις κἀν τοῖς ὀξυθυμίοις

προστρόπαιον τῆς πόλεως κάεσθαι τετριγότα

Chorus
Who at the crossway-middens deserved to meet his fate
And be burnt all squealing and squalling, a scapegoat [prostropaion] of the State.

[Trans. John Maxwell Edmonds, The Fragments of Attic Comedy (Leiden: Brill, 1957) 1:345. Text from R. Kassel & C. Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci 5 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1986), 372. Eupolis was active as a playwright 429-415 BC. Prostropaios means suppliant who turns to a god after committing a crime; then one not purified, a polluted person. LSJ.]

[Cf. a translation by Hughes, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece, 150:]

who should in the crossroads and among the refuse

as a pollutant of the city be burned, crackling.

15. Eupolis, fr. 384 (=117K)

ὥστ’ ἀσφαλῶς ἐπράττομεν· νυνὶ δ’ ὅπηι τύχοιμεν

στρατευόμεσθ’ αἱρούμενοι καθάρματα στρατηγούς

. . . the men we chose for leading

Were scions of the noblest houses, first in wealth and breeding.

We worshipped them for Gods on earth, and that is what they were, sir;

And so with them to rule the roost we lived without a care, sir.

Now, we no sooner take the field than we must needs set over us

Rubbish we ought to throw away [katharmata]—Oh, anything will do for us.

[Trans. Edmonds, The Fragments of Attic Comedy 1:347. Text from R. Kassel & C. Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci 5, 509. katharma, “that which is thrown away in cleansing,” LSJ.]

16. Euripides Cyclops 166-167

Σιληνός

δράσω τάδ’, ὀλίγον φροντίσας γε δεσποτῶν.

ὡς ἐκπιεῖν κἂν κύλικα βουλοίμην μίαν, 165

πάντων Κυκλώπων ἀντιδοὺς βοσκήματα,

ῥῖψαι τ’ ἐς ἅλμην Λευκάδος πέτρας ἄπο

ἅπαξ μεθυσθεὶς καταβαλών τε τὰς ὀφρῦς.

ὡς ὅς γε πίνων μὴ γέγηθε μαίνεται:

ἵν’ ἔστι τουτί τ’ ὀρθὸν ἐξανιστάναι 170

μαστοῦ τε δραγμὸς καὶ παρεσκευασμένον

ψαῦσαι χεροῖν λειμῶνος ὀρχηστύς θ’ ἅμα

κακῶν τε λῆστις. εἶτ’ ἐγὼ κυνήσομαι

τοιόνδε πῶμα, τὴν Κύκλωπος ἀμαθίαν

κλαίειν κελεύων καὶ τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν μέσον;

Silenus: Just keep pouring the wine. Never mind the gold.

Odysseus: Then bring out cheese or lamb.

Silenus: I will do just that and pay little heed to my master. I would like to drink down a single cup of this wine, [165] giving all the Cyclopes’ flocks in exchange for it, and then to leap from the Leucadian cliff² into the brine, good and drunk with my eyebrows cast down. The man who does not enjoy drinking is mad: in drink one can raise this to a stand, [170] catch a handful of breast and look forward to stroking her boscage, there’s dancing and forgetfulness of cares. Shall I not kiss such a drink and tell the bone-head Cyclops--and the eye in the middle of his head, too--to go hang? [Exit Silenus into the cave.]

[Trans. David Kovacs. Text and translation from Perseus. Kovacs’ note on the leap: “Leucas, a small island in the Ionian sea off the west coast of

Greece

, has chalk cliffs rising sharply from the sea. The leap from this cliff into the sea is used in Anacreon, fr. 376 PMG, as an image of the loss of self-control encountered when one is ‘drunk with love.’ Sappho is said to have leapt from the cliff for the love of Phaon.” Euripides lived c. 480–406 BC.]

17. Aristophanes Frogs 733

Χορός

πολλάκις γ’ ἡμῖν ἔδοξεν ἡ πόλις πεπονθέναι

ταὐτὸν ἔς τε τῶν πολιτῶν τοὺς καλούς τε κἀγαθοὺς

720 ἔς τε τἀρχαῖον νόμισμα καὶ τὸ καινὸν χρυσίον.

οὔτε γὰρ τούτοισιν οὖσιν οὐ κεκιβδηλευμένοις,

ἀλλὰ καλλίστοις ἁπάντων, ὡς δοκεῖ, νομισμάτων

καὶ μόνοις ὀρθῶς κοπεῖσι καὶ κεκωδωνισμένοις

ἔν τε τοῖς Ἕλλησι καὶ τοῖς βαρβάροισι πανταχοῦ

χρώμεθ’ οὐδέν, ἀλλὰ τούτοις τοῖς πονηροῖς χαλκίοις

726 χθές τε καὶ πρώην κοπεῖσι τῷ κακίστῳ κόμματι.

τῶν πολιτῶν θ’ οὓς μὲν ἴσμεν εὐγενεῖς καὶ σώφρονας

ἄνδρας ὄντας καὶ δικαίους καὶ καλούς τε κἀγαθοὺς

καὶ τραφέντας ἐν παλαίστραις καὶ χοροῖς καὶ μουσικῇ,

προυσελοῦμεν, τοῖς δὲ χαλκοῖς καὶ ξένοις καὶ πυρρίαις

731 καὶ πονηροῖς κἀκ πονηρῶν εἰς ἅπαντα χρώμεθα

ὑστάτοις ἀφιγμένοισιν, οἷσιν ἡ πόλις πρὸ τοῦ

οὐδὲ φαρμακοῖσιν εἰκῇ ῥᾳδίως ἐχρήσατ’ ἄν.

ἀλλὰ καὶ νῦν ὦνόητοι μεταβαλόντες τοὺς τρόπους

735 χρῆσθε τοῖς χρηστοῖσιν αὖθις: καὶ κατορθώσασι γὰρ

εὔλογον, κἄν τι σφαλῆτ’, ἐξ ἀξίου γοῦν τοῦ ξύλου,

ἤν τι καὶ πάσχητε, πάσχειν τοῖς σοφοῖς δοκήσετε.

Chorus

Many times it seems to us the city has done

the same thing with the best and the brightest of its citizens

as with the old coinage and the new gold currency.

For these, not counterfeit at all,

but the finest it seems of all coins,

and the only ones of the proper stamp, of resounding metal

amongst Greeks and foreigners everywhere,

we never use, but the inferior bronze ones instead,

minted just yesterday or the day before with the basest stamp.

So too the citizens whom we know to be noble and virtuous,

and righteous and true men of quality

and trained in the palaestra and dancing and music,

these we despise, but the brazen foreigners and redheads

worthless sons of worthless fathers [ponērois kak ponērōn], these we use for everything,

these latest parvenus, whom the city before this

wouldn’t have lightly used even for random scapegoats [pharmakoisin].

But now, you dimwits, change your ways,

and employ the good ones [tois khrēstoisin] again. And if you succeed,

it’s praiseworthy. But if you stumble, at least you’ll hang from a respectable tree--

So wise men will think, if anything happens to you.

[Trans. Matthew Dillon. Text and translation from Perseus. Aristophanes lived c. 446-385 BC.]

18. Scholia on Aristophanes Frogs 733

733a φαρμακοῖσιν] καθάρμασι. τοὺς γὰρ καὶ παρὰ τῆς φύσεως ἐπιβεβουλευμένους εἰς ἀπαλλαγὴν αὐχμοῦ ἢ λιμοῦ ἤ τινος τῶν τοιούτων ἔθυον, οὗς ἐκάλουν “καθάρματα”. thTrVat LvMt

733a for scapegoats [pharmakoisin] // for offscourings [katharmasi]. For they sacrificed [ethuon] those who were mistreated by nature to allay a drought or famine or something of that sort; and they called them “offscourings” [katharmata].

[My trans. Text from W. J. W. Koster, et al., Scholia in Aristophanem III 1^b- Scholia Recentiora in Aristophanis Ranas, ed. by M. Chantry (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 2001), p. 122.]

19. Aristophanes Plutus 454

Βλεψίδημος

ποίοις ὅπλοισιν ἢ δυνάμει πεποιθότες;

450 ποῖον γὰρ οὐ θώρακα, ποίαν δ’ ἀσπίδα

οὐκ ἐνέχυρον τίθησιν ἡ μιαρωτάτη;

Χρεμύλος

θάρρει: μόνος γὰρ ὁ θεὸς οὗτος οἶδ’ ὅτι

τροπαῖον ἂν στήσαιτο τῶν ταύτης τρόπων.

Πενία

γρύζειν δὲ καὶ τολμᾶτον ὦ καθάρματε,

455 ἐπ’ αὐτοφώρῳ δεινὰ δρῶντ’ εἰλημμένω;

Χρεμύλος

σὺ δ’ ὦ κάκιστ’ ἀπολουμένη τί λοιδορεῖ

ἡμῖν προσελθοῦσ’ οὐδ’ ὁτιοῦν ἀδικουμένη;

Blepsidemus: But what weapons have we? Are we in a condition to show fight? [450] Where is the breastplate, the buckler, that this wretch has not pawned?

Chremylus: Be at ease. Plutus will readily triumph over her threats unaided.

Poverty: Dare you reply, you scoundrels [katharmate], [455] you who are caught red-handed at the most horrible crime?

Chremylus: As for you, you cursed jade [kakist’], you pursue me with your abuse [loidorei], though I have never done you the slightest harm.

[Trans. Eugene O’Neill, Jr. Text and translation from Perseus. See scholia on this passage below.]

20. Scholia on Aristophanes Plutus 454

454d. “κάθαρμα” τὸ βδέλυγμα. γίνεται δὲ ἀφ’ ἱστορίας τοιαύτης, ὡς [ὅτι] ἐν ταῖς Ἀθήναις ἦν ἔθος τοιοῦτον, ὅτι εἰ [ἐ]συνέβη ἁμαρτῆσαι τὴν πόλιν τι εἰς τοὺς θεούς, εἰς ἐξιλέωσιν τοῦ τοιούτου ἀτοπήματος, ἀφόριζεν (sic) ὁ λαὸς ἔνα ἄνθρωπον ὃς πάντων δυσειδέστατος ἦν. ἔθυον γοῦν αὐτὸν εἰς λύτρον παντός.

“Offscourings” is abomination. It follows from such a reference, that in Athens there was such a custom, that if it happened that the city committed some offence [hamartēsai] against the gods, to atone [eis exileōsin] for such an offence [apopēmatos], the people separated out [aphorizen] one man who was ugliest of everyone. In sum, they sacificed him [ethuon] as a payment [lutron] for all.

454e. [. . .] ὅτε γὰρ χρησμὸς περὶ τοιούτου ἐγένετο, εὑρίσκετο δυσειδὴς πάντα ἐκεῖσε ἄνθρωπος. τοῦτον έκαιον, “κάθαρμα” ποιοῦντες τῆς πόλεως διά τινα θεομηνίαν. ἀρμένου οὖν τούτου εἰς τὸ καυθῆναι, περιέψων αὐτὸν πάντες, λέγοντες “γενοῦ ἡμῖν ἀπαλλαγὴ κακῶν”. ἐκ τούτου ἐλέγετο καὶ “περίψημα”. V⁵⁷

454e. [. . .] For when there was an oracle concerning such an event [a disaster or offence against the gods], a thoroughly ugly man was found and brought to that place. They burned him, making him the offscourings [katharma] of the city because of divine wrath. Therefore, when he had been selected for burning, everyone wiped him clean [periepsōn], saying, “Become a deliverance from evils for us.” From this we also have the wordperipsēma. [“anything wiped off, offscouring,” LSJ].

454f. τοὺς φαρμακοὺς τῆς πόλεως καὶ τοὺς γόητας “καθάρματα” ἐκάλουν διὰ αἰτίαν τοιαύτην· πόλις τις ἐδυστύχει, καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῇ χρησμός, ἵνα ἐκτεφρώσῃ τὸν ἔχθιστον τῆς πόλεως καὶ ἀθλιώτατον, καὶ λάβωσι τὴν τέφραν ἐκείνου πρὸς ἀποτροπιασμὸν τῶν τῆς πόλεως κακῶν. ὃ δὴ καὶ γέγονε. καὶ λαβόντες τὸν δυστυχέστατον τῆς πόλεως, κατὰ μέσην τὴν ἀγορὰν κατέκαυσαν ἀγρίαις συκαῖς. τὴν δὲ τέφραν τούτου λαβόντες, εἰς ἀποσόβησιν τῶν τῆς πόλεως κακῶν ἐκέκτηντο. καὶ ἐντεῦθεν ἐπεκράτησε λέγειν πάντας τοὺς δυστυχεῖς καὶ πένητας καὶ αθλίους καὶ γόητας καὶ φαρμακοὺς “καθάρματα”. Np¹, h

454f. They would call the scapegoats [pharmakous] of the city and the swindlers [goētas, “sorceror, wizard, juggler, cheat,” LSJ] offscourings [katharmata] for this reason. A certain city would undergo a misfortune, and an oracle was given to it, that it should burn to ashes the most hated [ekhthiston] and wretched [athliōtaton] man of the city, and they should take his ashes as an expiation of the evils of the city. Which indeed was done.And after they taken the most wretched [dustukhestaton] man in the city, in the middle of the agora they thoroughly burned him with wild figs. And after they took his ashes, they succeeded in scaring away [eis aposobēsin] the city’s evils. And from that the practice of calling all the unfortunate and poor and wretched and swindlers and pharmakoi “katharmata” came to be in force.

[My trans. Text from W. J. W. Koster, et al., Scholia in Aristophanem III 4^b- Scholia Recentiora in Plutum, ed. by M. Chantry (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1996), p. 122.]

21. Aristophanes Knights 1136

Χορός

ὦ Δῆμε καλήν γ’ ἔχεις

ἀρχήν, ὅτε πάντες ἄνθρωποι

δεδίασί σ’ ὥσπερ

ἄνδρα τύραννον.

1115 ἀλλ’ εὐπαράγωγος εἶ,

θωπευόμενός τε χαίρεις

κἀξαπατώμενος,

πρὸς τόν τε λέγοντ’ ἀεὶ

κέχηνας: ὁ νοῦς δέ σου

1120 παρὼν ἀποδημεῖ.

Δῆμος

νοῦς οὐκ ἔνι ταῖς κόμαις

ὑμῶν, ὅτε μ’ οὐ φρονεῖν

νομίζετ’: ἐγὼ δ’ ἑκὼν

ταῦτ’ ἠλιθιάζω.

1125 αὐτός τε γὰρ ἥδομαι

βρύλλων τὸ καθ’ ἡμέραν,

κλέπτοντά τε βούλομαι

τρέφειν ἕνα προστάτην:

τοῦτον δ’, ὅταν ᾖ πλέως,

1130 ἄρας ἐπάταξα.

Χορός

χοὔτω μὲν ἂν εὖ ποιοῖς,

εἴ σοι πυκνότης ἔνεστ’

ἐν τῷ τρόπῳ, ὡς λέγεις,

τούτῳ πάνυ πολλή,

1135 εἰ τούσδ’ ἐπίτηδες ὥσπερ

δημοσίους τρέφεις

ἐν τῇ πυκνί, κᾆθ’ ὅταν

μή σοι τύχῃ ὄψον ὄν,

τούτων ὃς ἂν ᾖ παχύς,

1140 θύσας ἐπιδειπνεῖς.

Δῆμος

σκέψασθε δέ μ’, εἰ σοφῶς

αὐτοὺς περιέρχομαι

τοὺς οἰομένους φρονεῖν

κἄμ’ ἐξαπατύλλειν.

1145 τηρῶ γὰρ ἑκάστοτ’ αὐτοὺς

οὐδὲ δοκῶν ὁρᾶν

κλέπτοντας: ἔπειτ’ ἀναγκάζω

πάλιν ἐξεμεῖν

ἅττ’ ἂν κεκλόφωσί μου,

1150 κημὸν καταμηλῶν.

Chorus (singing): Demos, you are our all-powerful sovereign lord; all tremble before you, [1115] yet you are led by the nose. You love to be flattered and fooled; you listen to the orators with gaping mouth and your mind [1120] is led astray.

Demos (singing): It’s rather you who have no brains, if you think me so foolish as all that; it is with a purpose that I play this idiot’s role, [1125] for I love to drink the livelong day, and so it pleases me to keep a thief for my minister. When he has thoroughly gorged himself, [1130] then I overthrow and crush him.

Chorus (singing): What profound wisdom! If it be really so, why! all is for the best. [1135] Your ministers, then, are your victims, whom you nourish and feed up [dēmosious trepheis] expressly in the Pnyx, so that, the day your dinner is ready, [1140] you may immolate [thusas] the fattest and eat him.

Demos (singing): Look, see how I play with them, while all the time they think themselves such adepts at cheating me. [1145] I have my eye on them when they thieve, but I do not appear to be seeing them; then [1150] I thrust a judgment down their throat as it were a feather, and force them to vomit up all they have robbed from me.

[Trans. Eugene O’Neill, Jr. Text and translation from Perseus. See scholia on this passage below.]

22. Scholia on Aristophanes Knights 1136c

1136a. ὥσπερ δημοσίους τρέφεις: λείπει βοῦς ἢ ταύρους, ἢ ἄλλο τι τοιοῦτον θῦμα. ἢ δημοσίους τοὺς λεγομένους φαρμακούς, οἵπερ καθαίρουσι τὰς πόλεις τῷ ἑαυτῶν φόνῳ. ἢ τους δημοσίᾳ τρεφομένους [[καὶ ὐπὸ τῆς πόλεως]]. VΕΓΘΜ

1136b. δημοσίους] λείπει βοῦς ἢ ταύρους ἢ ἄλλο τι τοιοῦτον εἰς θῦμα. Lh

1136c. δημοσίους λέγει τοὺς λεγομένους φαρμακούς, οἵπερ καθαίρουσι τὰς πόλεις τῷ ἑαυτῶν φόνῳ. ἔτρεφον γάρ τινας Ἀθηναῖοι λίαν ἀγεννεῖς καὶ πένητας καὶ ἀχρήστους, καὶ ἐν καιρῷ συμφορᾶς τινος ἐπελθούσης τῇ πόλει, λιμοῦ λέγω ἢ τοιούτου τινός, ἔθυον τούτους ἕνεκα τοῦ καθαρθῆναι τοῦ μιάσματος καὶ τῆς ἑαυτῶν κακίας, καὶ θεραπείαν εὑρεῖν τοῦ ἐπικειμένου κακοῦ. οὓς καὶ ἐπωνόμαζον καθάρματα. μέμνηται τούτων ἐν Βατράχοις

“οἷσιν ἡ πόλις πρὸ τοῦ

οὐδὲ φαρμακοῖσιν εἰκῆ ῥᾳδίως ἐχρήσατ’ ἄν”. Lh

1136c. By dēmosious “those who are public” he means those who are called pharmakoi, who cleanse the cities by their death. For the Athenians would nourish some who were exceedingly low-born, penniless, and useless [akhrēstous], and when a time of a disaster of some sort came upon the city, I mean a famine or something similar, they would sacrifice these to cleanse the city from the pollution and from their evil, and to find a cure [therapeian] for the disaster they were enduring. They also gave the pharmakoi the name offscourings [katharmata]. In Frogs there is a mention of these . . . [Frogs 733, see above]

[My trans. Text from W. J. W. Koster, et al., Scholia in Aristophanem 1.2 In Equites (1969), ed. D. M. Jones, p. 243.]

23. Aristophanes Knights 1404-1405

ΔΗΜΟΣ

καί ς’ ἀντὶ τούτων ἐς τὸ πρυτανεῖον καλῶ

ἐς τὴν ἕδραν θ’, ἵν’ ἐκεῖνος ἦν ὁ φαρμακός.

I bid you take the seat

In the Prytaneum where this offscourings [pharmakos]

Was wont to sit.

[Trans. Jane Harrison, in Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 97. Text from Gebhard, Die Pharmakoi in Ionien und die Sybakchoi in Athen (Diss. Amberg 1926), p. 12.]

24. Aristophanes, fr. 655 (634K) = Eustathius On the Odyssey p. 1415,62

ὁ δὲ φαρμακὸς ἤτοι τὸ κάθαρμα . . . Ἀριστοφάνης·

πόθεν δ’ ἐγώ σοι συγγενής, ῶ φαρμακέ;

The masculine word φαρμακός ‘atonement-victim, scapegoat’ (criminal used as such) . . . Aristophanes:

How am I kin to you, you criminal [pharmake]?

[Trans. John Maxwell Edmonds, The Fragments of Attic Comedy (Leiden: Brill, 1957) 744. Text from R. Kassel & C. Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci ΙΙΙ 2 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1983), 341. ]

25. “Lysias” Against Andocides’ Impiety 6.53

[53] ποῖον φίλον, ποῖον συγγενῆ, ποῖον δημότην1 χρὴ τούτῳ χαρισάμενον κρύβδην φανερῶς τοῖς θεοῖς ἀπεχθέσθαι; νῦν οὖν χρὴ νομίζειν τιμωρουμένους καὶ ἀπαλλαττομένους Ἀνδοκίδου τὴν πόλιν καθαίρειν2 καὶ ἀποδιοπομπεῖσθαι καὶ φαρμακὸν ἀποπέμπειν καὶ ἀλιτηρίου ἀπαλλάττεσθαι, ὡς ἓν τούτων οὗτός ἐστι.

1 δημότην Blass: δικαστὴν MSS.

2 Post καθαίρειν in libris ἀρὰν ἀπάγεσθαι del. Taylor

[53] Who ought to tolerate these doings? What person, whether friend or relation or townsman, is to incur the open enmity of the gods by showing him secret favour? You should therefore, consider that to-day, in punishing Andocides and in ridding yourselves of him, you are cleansing [kathairein] the city, you are solemnly purifying it from pollution [apodiopompeisthai], you are dispatching a foul scapegoat [pharmakon apopempein], you are getting rid of a reprobate [alitēriou]; for this man is all of them in one.

[Trans. W. R. M. Lamb; trans. and text from Perseus. The speech is attributed to Lysias, c. 459-c. 380 BC.]

[apodiopompeisthai means “escort out of the city the dion kōidion.” kōidion is diminutive of kōas, sheepskin, fleece. The dion kōidion was “ram’s fleece used in purificatory ceremonies.” Thus,apodiopompeisthai also means, “free [something] from pollution.” LSJ. See also Suda, s.v. apodiopompeisthai and diopompeisthai (with helpful notes at Suda Online) and R. Parker, Miasma (Oxford 1983), pp. 28-29.]

26. Demosthenes On the Crown (XVIII), p. 269, sec. 128

[128] σοὶ δ’ ἀρετῆς, ὦ κάθαρμα, ἢ τοῖς σοῖς τίς μετουσία; ἢ καλῶν ἢ μὴ τοιούτων τίς διάγνωσις; πόθεν ἢ πῶς ἀξιωθέντι; ποῦ δὲ παιδείας σοὶ θέμις μνησθῆναι; ἧς τῶν μὲν ὡς ἀληθῶς τετυχηκότων οὐδ’ ἂν εἷς εἴποι περὶ αὑτοῦ τοιοῦτον οὐδέν, ἀλλὰ κἂν ἑτέρου λέγοντος ἐρυθριάσειε, τοῖς δ’ ἀπολειφθεῖσι μέν, ὥσπερ σύ, προσποιουμένοις δ’ ὑπ’ ἀναισθησίας τὸ τοὺς ἀκούοντας ἀλγεῖν ποιεῖν ὅταν λέγωσιν, οὐ τὸ δοκεῖν τοιούτοις εἶναι περίεστιν.

[128] Virtue! you runagate [katharma]; what have you or your family to do with virtue? How do you distinguish between good and evil report? Where and how did you qualify as a moralist? Where did you get your right to talk about education? No really educated man would use such language about himself, but would rather blush to hear it from others; but people like you, who make stupid pretensions to the culture of which they are utterly destitute, succeed in disgusting everybody whenever they open their lips, but never in making the impression they desire.

[Trans. by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince. Text and translation from Perseus. Gebhard #20, in the category “Pharmakos and katharma as words of abuse.”]

27. Demosthenes Against Midias (XXI), p. 574, sec. 185B

[185] οἷον ἔστι μέτριος καὶ φιλάνθρωπός τις ἡμῶν καὶ πολλοὺς ἐλεῶν: τούτῳ ταὐτὸ δίκαιον ὑπάρχειν παρὰ πάντων, ἄν ποτ’ εἰς χρείαν καὶ ἀγῶν’ ἀφίκηται. ἄλλος οὑτοσί τις ἀναιδὴς καὶ πολλοὺς ὑβρίζων, καὶ τοὺς μὲν πτωχούς, τοὺς δὲ καθάρματα, τοὺς δ’ οὐδ’ ἀνθρώπους ὑπολαμβάνων: τούτῳ τὰς αὐτὰς δίκαιον ὑπάρχειν φοράς, ἅσπερ αὐτὸς εἰσενήνοχε τοῖς ἄλλοις. ἂν τοίνυν ὑμῖν ἐπίῃ σκοπεῖν, τούτου πληρωτὴν εὑρήσετε Μειδίαν ὄντα τοῦ ἐράνου, καὶ οὐκ ἐκείνου.

[185] For instance, one of us is moderate, kindly disposed and merciful: he deserves to receive an equivalent return from all, if he ever falls into want or distress. Yonder is another, who is shameless and insulting, treating others as if they were beggars [ptōxous], the scum of the earth [katharmata], mere nobodies: he deserves to be paid with the same measure that he has meted to others. If you will consent to look at it in a true light, you will find that this, and not the former, is the kind of contribution that Meidias has made.

[Trans. A. T. Murray. Text and translation from Perseus. Gebhard #21, in the category “Pharmakos and katharma as words of abuse.”]

28. Demosthenes Against Midias (XXI), p. 578, sec. 198B

καὶ πάντες εἰσὶ τούτῳ καθάρματα καὶ πτωχοὶ καὶ οὐδ’ ἄνθρωποι.

And by heaven! they had some excuse, for there is no putting up with the follow; he claims to be the only rich man and the only man who knows how to speak; all others are in his opinion outcasts [katharmata], beggars, below the rank of men.

[Trans. J. H. Vince, LCL. Text from Gebhard #22, in the category “Pharmakos and katharma as words of abuse.”]

29. Demosthenes Against Aristogiton (XXV) sec. 80

[80] ταῦτα λαβὼν τὰ φάρμακα καὶ τὰς ἐπῳδὰς παρὰ τῆς θεραπαίνης αὐτῆς, ἣ κατ’ ἐκείνης τότ’ ἐμήνυσεν, ἐξ ἧσπερ ὁ βάσκανος οὗτος πεπαιδοποίηται, μαγγανεύει καὶ φενακίζει καὶ τοὺς ἐπιλήπτους φησὶν ἰᾶσθαι, αὐτὸς ὢν ἐπίληπτος πάσῃ πονηρίᾳ. οὗτος οὖν αὐτὸν ἐξαιρήσεται, ὁ φαρμακός, ὁ λοιμός, ὃν οἰωνίσαιτ’ ἄν τις μᾶλλον ἰδὼν ἢ προσειπεῖν βούλοιτο, ὃς αὐτὸς αὑτῷ θανάτου τετίμηκεν ὅτε τοιαύτην δίκην ἔλαχεν.

[80] She gave information against her mistress, and this rascal has had children by her, and with her help he plays juggling tricks and professes to cure fits, being himself subject to fits of wickedness [ponēriai] of every kind. So this is the man who will beg him off! This offscourings [pharmakos], this public pest [loimos], whom any man would ban at sight as an evil omen rather than choose to accost him, and who has pronounced himself worthy of death by bringing such an action.

[Trans. A. T. Murray, adapted. His translation of pharmakos as “poisoner” is probably wrong. Text and translation from Perseus. Demosthenes lived 384-322 BC. D. Hughes translates the last sentence: “So this is the man who will win his pardon, the pharmakos, the plague, whom anyone would shun at sight as an evil omen rather than be willing to address him . . .”]

30. Aristoxenus, FGH 2 F 72 = Athenaeus 14 (619d-e) = Stesichorus fr. 100 Page (spurious)

[See Stesichorus, fr. 100 Page above. Aristoxenus was born between 375 and 360 BC.]

31. Aeschines Against Ctesiphon 211.

[211] ὃν ἐχρῆν, εἰ μανεὶς ὁ δῆμος ἢ τῶν καθεστηκότων ἐπιλελησμένος, ἐπὶ τοιαύτης ἀκαιρίας ἐβούλετο στεφανοῦν αὐτόν, παρελθόντα εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν εἰπεῖν: “ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, τὸν μὲν στέφανον δέχομαι, τὸν δὲ καιρὸν ἀποδοκιμάζω ἐν ᾧ τὸ κήρυγμα γίγνεται: οὐ γὰρ δεῖ, ἐφ’ οἷς ἡ πόλις ἐκείρατο,1 ἐπὶ τούτοις ἐμὲ στεφανοῦσθαι.” ἀλλ’ οἶμαι ταῦτα μὲν ἂν εἴποι ἀνὴρ ὄντως βεβιωκὼς μετ’ ἀρετῆς: ἃ δὲ σὺ λέξεις, εἴποι ἂν κάθαρμα ζηλοτυποῦν ἀρετήν.

[211] Nay, but if the people gone mad, or forgetful of the existing situation, had actually wished to crown him at a time so unfitting, he ought to have come before the assembly and said, “Fellow citizens, I accept the crown, but I do not approve the time at which the proclamation is to be made. For events which have caused our city to shear her head in mourning are no fitting occasion for my head to receive a crown.” This I think a man would say whose life had been one of genuine virtue. But the words which you, Demosthenes, will speak, are the natural expression of a worthless scoundrel [katharma], with whom virtue is a pretence.

[Trans. Charles Darwin Adams. Text and translation from Perseus. Gebhard #23, in the category “Pharmakos and katharma as words of abuse.”]

32. Menander, fr. 258 (Körte)

οὗ δὴ λέγεται πρώτη Σαπφώ, ὥς φησιν ὁ Μένανδρος, τὸν ὑπέρκομπον θηρῶσα Φάων’, / οἰστρῶντι πόθῳ ῥῖψαι πέτρας / ἀπὸ τηλεφανοῦς ἅλμα κατ’ εὐχήν / σήν, δέσποτ’ ἄναξ

Where Sappho is said to have been the first, as Menander says, when through frantic longing she was chasing proud Phaon, to fling herself with a leap from the far-seen rock, calling upon thee in prayer, O lord and master.

[Trans. and text from Horace Leonard Jones, LCL, 1928. See Strabo Geography 10.2.9, below. Menander lived 342–291 BC.]

33. Menander Samia 481

ΔΗΜΕΑΣ τί φῄς;

οὐδὲν ἐνθυμεῖσθε;

ΜΟΣΧΙΩΝ τί βοᾷς;

ΔΗΜΕΑΣ ὅ τι βοῶ, κάθαρμα σύ,

τοῦτ’ ἐρωτᾷς;

Demeas (amazed by this answer, and shouting) What is that you say?

481 Have you two no scruples?

Moschion: Why the shouting?

Demeas (in a rage) Filthy rat [katharma], you ask

Why I’m shouting? . . .

[Trans. and text from W. Geoffrey Arnott, LCL, Menander, vol. III.]

34. Callimachus Aetia fr. 90 (Pfeiffer), with diēgēsis II

Ἔνθ’, Ἄβδηρ’, οὗ νῦν .[…]λεω φαρμακὸν ἀγινεῖ

Dieg. II, 29-40:

Ἔνθ’, Ἄβδηρ’, οὗ νῦν .[…]λεω φαρμακὸν

ἀγινεῖ Ἀβδήροις ὠνητὸς ἄνθρω-

πος καθάρσιον τῆς πόλεως, ἐπὶ πλίν-

θου ἑστὼς φαιᾶς, θοίνης ἀπολαύων

δαψιλοῦς, ἐπειδὰν διάπλεως γένηται,

προάγεται ἐπὶ τὰς Προυρίδας καλου-

μένας πύλας· εἶτ’ ἔξω τοῦ τείχους

περίεισι κύκλῳ περικαθαίρων (?)

αὐτῷ τὴν πόλιν, καὶ τότε ὑπὸ

τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ τῶν άλλων λι-

θοβολεῖται, ἕως ἐξελασθῇ τῶν

ὁρίων.

There, Abderos, where now . . . leads (me) a scapegoat [pharmakon].

Dieg. II:

In Abdera a slave, bought in the market, is used to purify [katharsion] the city. Standing on a block of grey stone, he enjoys a rich banquet, and so fed to the full he is led to the gates called Prurides. Then he goes round the walls in a circle purifying [perikathairōn] in his own person the city, and then the basileus and the others throw stones at him [lithoboleitai] until he is driven beyond the boundaries.

[Translation by C. A. Trypanis, LCL. Text from Pfeiffer 1.97. Trypanis adds: “Abdera was a Greek city in

Thrace

near the mouth of the river Nestos. In this fragment Ἄβδηρ’ may be either Ἄβδηρε, the eponymous hero fo the city, or Ἄβδηρα, the city itself. The slave who was used as a scapegoat appears to be speaking in this fragment.” Callimachus lived ca. 305 BC- ca. 240 BC. See Scholia on Ovid Ibis 467-468, below.]

35. Istros Manifestations of Apollo FGH 334 F 50 = Harpocration 180, 19, s.v. pharmakos = Et. Gen. Et. M. p. 787, 55 = Suda

ὅτι δὲ ὄνομα κύριόν ἐστιν ὁ Φαρμακός, ἱερὰς δὲ φιάλας τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος κλέψας καὶ ἁλοὺς ὑπὸ τῶν περὶ τὸν Ἀχιλλέα κατελεύσθη, καὶ τὰ τοῖς Θαργηλίοις ἀγόμενα τούτων ἀπομιμήματά ἐστιν, Ἴστρος ἐν ᾶ τῶν Ἀπόλλωνος Ἐπιφανειῶν εἴρηκεν.

But that Pharmakos is a proper name and that he stole the sacred bowls of Apollo, was caught by the companions of Achilles, and was stoned to death, and that the things performed at the Thargelia are imitations [apomimēmata] of these events, Istros has said in the first book of the Manifestations of Apollo.

[Translation Dennis D. Hughes, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece, 152. Text from FGH. Istros (Ister) of Cyrene, who lived c. 250-200 BC, was a student of Callimachus.]

36. Apollonius of Rhodes, in the Palatine Anthology 11 #275:

Καλλίμαχος, τὸ κάθαρμα, τὸ παίγνιον, ὁ ξύλινος νοῦς·
αἴτιος ὁ γράψας Αἴτια Καλλίμαχος.

Callimachus the outcast [katharma], the butt, the wooden head!

The origin is Callimachus who wrote the Origins.

[Trans. W. R. Paton. Text from D. L. Page, Further Greek Epigrams (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), p. 17. Apollonius of Rhodes is not certainly the author, but Page argues that he is. He writes, “the intense personal animosity reflected in the word katharma is more characteristic of the contemporary scene than of some latter-day armchair man of letters.” Gebhard #27, in the category “Pharmakos and katharma as words of abuse.”]

Callimachus: Trash, cheap joke, blockhead.
Original Sin: Writing Callimachus’ Origins.”

[Trans. from http://classes.maxwell.syr.edu/his301-001/Timeline%20(Fun%20Facts).htm.]

37. Cicero Tusculan Disputations 4.18 (41)

[40] Etenim quis erit tandem modus iste? quaeramus enim modum aegritudinis, in qua operae plurimum ponitur. Aegre tulisse P. Rupilium fratris repulsam consulatus scriptum apud Fannium est; sed tamen transisse videtur modum, quippe qui ob eam causam a vita recesserit; moderatius igitur ferre debuit. Quid, si, cum id ferret modice, mors liberorum accessisset? ‘Nata esset aegritudo nova, sed ea modica’. Magna tamen facta esset accessio. Quid, si deinde dolores graves corporis, si bonorum amissio, si caecitas, si exilium? Si pro singulis malis aegritudines accederent, summa ea fieret, quae non sustineretur.

XVIII. [41] Qui modum igitur vitio quaerit, similiter facit, ut si posse putet eum qui se e Leucata praecipitaverit sustinere se, cum velit. Ut enim id non potest, sic animus perturbatus et incitatus nec cohibere se potest nec, quo loco vult, insistere. Omninoque, quae crescentia perniciosa sunt, eadem sunt vitiosa nascentia; [42] aegritudo autem ceteraeque perturbationes amplificatae certe pestiferae sunt; igitur etiam susceptae continuo in magna pestis parte versantur. Etenim ipsae se impellunt, ubi semel a ratione discessum est, ipsaque sibi imbecillitas indulget in altumque provehitur imprudens nec reperit locum consistendi. Quam ob rem nihil interest, utrum moderatas perturbationes adprobent an moderatam iniustitiam, moderatam ignaviam, moderatam intemperantiam; qui enim vitiis modum apponit, is partem suscipit vitiorum quod cum ipsum per se odiosum est, tum eo molestius, quia sunt in lubrico incitataque semel proclivi labuntur sustinerique nullo modo possunt.

He therefore who looks for a “limit” to vice is doing much the same as if he were to think that a man who has flung himself headlong from Leucas can stop his fall when he will.

[Trans. J. E. King, LCL. Text from http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/tusc4.shtml#18. Cicero lived 106-43 BC.]

38. Cicero Tusculan Disputations 4.34 (72-73)

XV. [34] Quando, ut aliis locis de virtute et diximus et saepe dicendum erit - pleraeque enim quaestiones, quae ad vitam moresque pertinent, a virtutis fonte ducuntur -, quando igitur virtus est adfectio animi constans conveniensque, laudabiles efficiens eos, in quibus est, et ipsa per se sua sponte separata etiam utilitate laudabilis, ex ea proficiscuntur honestae voluntates sententiae actiones omnisque recta ratio (quamquam ipsa virtus brevissume recta ratio dici potest). Huius igitur virtutis contraria est vitiositas - sic enim malo quam malitiam appellare eam quam Graeci kaki/an appellant; nam malitia certi cuiusdam vitii nomen est, vitiositas omnium -; ex qua concitantur perturbationes, quae sunt, ut paulo ante diximus, turbidi animorum concitatique motus, aversi a ratione et inimicissimi mentis vitaeque tranquillae. Inportant enim aegritudines anxias atque acerbas animosque adfligunt et debilitant metu; idem inflammant adpetitione nimia, quam tum cupiditatem tum libidinem dicimus, inpotentiam quandam animi a temperantia et moderation plurimum dissidentem.

[72] Stoici vero et Sapientem amaturum esse dicunt amorem ipsum ‘conatum amicitiae faciendae ex pulchritudinis specie’ definiunt. Qui si quis est in rerum natura sine sollicitudine, sine desiderio, sine cura, sine suspirio, sit sane; vacat enim omni libidine; haec autem de libidine oratio est. Sin autem est aliquis amor, ut est certe, qui nihil absit aut non multum ab insania, qualis in Leucadia est:

‘Si quidem sit quisquam deus,
Cui ego sim curae’

[73] At id erat deis omnibus curandum, quem ad modum hic frueretur voluptate amatoria!

‘Heu me infelicem!’

Nihil verius. Probe et ille:

‘Sanusne es, qui temere lamentare?’

Sic insanus videtur etiam suis. At quas tragoedias efficit!

‘Te, Apollo sancte, fer opem, teque, amnipotens Neptune, invoco,

Vosque adeo, Venti!’

Mundum totum se ad amorem suum sublevandum conversurum putat, Venerem unam excludit ut iniquam:

‘Nam quid ego te appellem, Venus?’

Eam prae lubidine negat curare quicquam: quasi vero ipse non propter lubidinem tanta flagitia et faciat et dicat.

. . . our discourse is about lust . . . But if on the other hand there is some love, as assuredly there is, which must be reckoned as not removed or not far removed form unsoundness of mind, as for instance in the “Leucadian Girl”:[5]

Ah, were there but some god,

Who would have care for me!

Yes, of course all the gods were to “have care” how he might enjoy the pleasures of love.

Ah me unhappy!

Nothing more true. With reason too the other:

Are thou sane who rashly wailest?

Even his own family think him of unsound mind. Note what a tragic air of passion he puts on!

Thee, Apollo holy, help me, Neptune, thee great Lord I call,

You too, winds of heaven!

The whole universe, he thinks, will conspire to aid his love; Venus alone he shuts out as disdainful:

For why am I to call you, Venus?

He says that goddess because of lust has no care for him: just as if in fact he were not moved by lust himself to do and utter such shamelessness.

[Trans. J. E. King, LCL.]

39. Lucian Dialogues of the Dead 3.1

ἐπιγελᾷ καὶ ἐξονειδίζει ἀνδράποδα καὶ καθάρματα ἡμᾶς ἀποκαλῶν . . . καὶ ὅλως λυπηρός ἐστιν.

Croesus: Whenever we moan and groan at our memories of life above, Midas recalling his gold, Sardanapalus his great luxury, and I, Croesus, my treasures, he [Menippus] mocks [epigelai] and reviles [exoneidizei] us, calling us slaves [andrapoda] and scum [katharmata]; sometimes he even disturbs our lamentations by singing. In short, he’s a pest [lupēros].

[Text and translation by M. D. Macleod, LCL, Lucian, vol. VII.]

40. Didymus p.314 Schmidt.

Δημοσθένους δ’ ἐν τῷ κατ’ Ἀριστογείτονος λέγοντος· οὗτος οὖν αὐτὸν ἐξαιρήσεται ὁ φαρμακός. Δίδυμος προπερισπᾶν ἀξιοῖ τοὔνομα, ἀλλ’ ἡμεῖς οὐχ εὕρομεν οὕτω που τὴν χρῆσιν.

And although Demosthenes in the Against Aristogeiton says “So this is the man who will win his pardon, the scapegoat [pharmakos],” Didymus thinks that the word should be circumflexed on the penultimate; but we have not found such usage anywhere.

[Trans. Dennis D. Hughes, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece, 152. Text from Gebhard, Die Pharmakoi in Ionien, p. 16. Didymus lived c. 80-10 BC.]

41. Scholia in Aeschylus Seven Against Thebes 680

680l: κάθαρμα, καθάρσιον καὶ κάθαρσις διαφέρει· καθάρσιον τὸ καθαῖρον, κάθαρσις αὐτὴ ἡ ἐνέργεια τῆς καθάρσεως, κάθαρμα δὲ αὐτὸ τὸ εἰς κάθαρσιν διδόμενον, οἷον λιμοῦ συμβάντος παρ’ Ἕλλησιν ἤ τινος ἄλλου τῶν ἀπευκτῶν, λαμβάνοντες τὸν ἀηδέστατον καὶ παρὰ τῆς φύσεως ἐπιβεβουλευμένον πηρόν, χωλόν, τοὺς τοιούτους, τοῦτον ἔθυον εἰς ἀπαλλαγὴν τοῦ ἐνοχλοῦντος δεινοῦ. ἐνταῦθα δὲ καθάρσιον αἷμα λέγει τὸ καθαρὸν καὶ ἐλεύθερον μιάσματος. θT

. . . as when a famine occurred among the Greeks or some other accursed disaster, they took the man who was most unpleasant and mistreated by nature, maimed, lame, one of that sort, and they sacrificed him [ethuon] to allay the troubling disaster.

[My trans. Text from Ole Langwitz Smith, ed., Scholia Graeca in Aeschylum Quae Exstant Omnia, Pars II Fasc. 2, Scholia in Septem Adversus Thebas Continens (Teubner 1982).]

[The lines from Aeschylus are as follows (text and translation from Perseus):

Χορός

μή, φίλτατ’ ἀνδρῶν, Οἰδίπου τέκος, γένῃ

ὀργὴν ὁμοῖος τῷ κάκιστ’ αὐδωμένῳ:

ἀλλ’ ἄνδρας Ἀργείοισι Καδμείους ἅλις

680 ἐς χεῖρας ἐλθεῖν: αἷμα γὰρ καθάρσιον.

ἀνδροῖν δ’ ὁμαίμοιν θάνατος ὧδ’ αὐτοκτόνος,

οὐκ ἔστι γῆρας τοῦδε τοῦ μιάσματος.

Chorus: No, son of Oedipus, most dear of our men, do not be like in temperament to him who is called by such an evil name. It is enough that Cadmeans [680] are advancing to close combat with Argives. That bloodshed can be expiated [katharsion]. But when men of the same blood kill each other as you desire, the pollution [miasmatos] from this act never grows old.

42. Strabo Geography 10.2.9

ἔχει δὲ τὸ τοῦ Λευκάτα Ἀπόλλωνος ἱερὸν καὶ τὸ ἅλμα, τὸ τοὺς ἔρωτας παύειν πεπιστευμένον· οὗ δὴ λέγεται πρώτη Σαπφώ, ὥς φησιν ὁ Μένανδρος, τὸν ὑπέρκομπον θηρῶσα Φάων’, / οἰστρῶντι πόθῳ ῥῖψαι πέτρας / ἀπὸ τηλεφανοῦς ἅλμα κατ’ εὐχήν / σήν, δέσποτ’ ἄναξ. . . .

ἦν δὲ καὶ πάτριον τοῖς Λευκαδίοις κατ’ ἐνιαυτὸν ἐν τῇ θυσίᾳ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος ἀπὸ τῆς σκοπῆς ῥιπτεῖσθαί τινα τῶν ἐν αἰτίαις ὄντων ἀποτροπῆς χάριν, ἐξαπτομένων ἐξ αὐτοῦ παντοδαπῶν πτερῶν καὶ ορνέων ἀνακουφίζειν δυναμένων τῇ πτήσι τὸ ἅλμα, ὑποδέχεσθαι δὲ κάτω μικραῖς ἁλιάσι κύκλῳ περιεστῶτας πολλοὺς καὶ περισῶζειν εἰς δύναμιν τῶν ὅρων ἔξω τὸν ἀναληφθέντα.

[The island Leucas] It contains the temple of Apollo Leucatas, and also the “Leap,” which was believed to put an end to the longings of love. “Where Sappho is said to have been the first,” as Menander says, “when through frantic longing she was chasing proud Phaon, to fling herself with a leap from the far-seen rock, calling upon thee in prayer, O lord and master.” Now although Menander says that Sappho was the first to take the leap, yet those who are better versed than he in antiquities say that it was Cephalus, who was in love with Pterelas the son of Deïoneus.

It was an ancestral custom among the Leucadians, every year at the sacrifice performed in honor of Apollo, for some criminal [tina tōn en aitiais ontōn] to be flung [ripteisthai] from this rocky look-out for the sake of averting evil [apotropēs kharin], wings and birds of all kinds being fastened to him, since by their fluttering they could lighten the leap, and also for a number of men, stationed all round below the rock in small fishing-boats, to take the victim in, and, when he had been taken on board [or perhaps “resuscitated”], to do all in their power to get him safely outside their borders.

[Trans. and text from Horace Leonard Jones, LCL, 1928. Strabo lived 64/3 BC-ca. 21 AD.]

43. Ovid Heroides 15.161-206

hic ego cum lassos posuissem flebilis artus,

constitit ante oculos Naias una meos;

constitit et dixit: “quoniam non ignibus aequis

ureris, Ambracia est terra petenda tibi.

Phoebus ab excelso, quantum patet, adspicit aequor:

Actiacum populi Leucadiumque vocant.

hinc se Deucalion Pyrrhae succensus amore

misit, et illaeso corpore pressit aquas.

nec mora, versus amor fugit lentissima mersi

pectora; Deucalion igne levatus erat.

hanc legem locus ille tenet. pete protinus altam

Leucada nec saxo desiluisse time!”

Ut monuit, cum voce abiit. ego frigida surgo

nec lacrimas oculi continuere mei.

ibimus, o nymphe, monstrataque saxa petemus;

sit procul insano victus amore timor.

quidquid erit, melius quam nunc erit. aura, subito--

et mea non magnum corpora pondus habent.

tu quoque, mollis Amor, pinnas suppone cadenti,

ne sim Leucadiae mortua crimen aquae.

inde chelyn Phoebo, communia munera, ponam,

et sub ea versus unus et alter erunt:

“grata lyram posui tibi, Phoebe, poetria Sappho:

convenit illa mihi, convenit illa tibi.”

Cur tamen Actiacas miseram me mittis ad oras,

cum profugum possis ipse referre pedem?

tu mihi Leucadia potes esse salubrior unda;

et forma et meritis tu mihi Phoebus eris.

an potes, o scopulis undaque ferocior omni,

si moriar, titulum mortis habere meae?

a quanto melius tecum mea pectora iungi,

quam saxis poterant praecipitanda dari!

haec sunt illa, Phaon, quae tu laudare solebas

visaque sunt totiens ingeniosa tibi.

nunc vellem facunda forem! dolor artibus obstat

ingeniumque meis substitit omne

malis

non mihi respondent veteres in carmina vires;

plectra dolore tacent muta, dolore lyra est.

Lesbides aequoreae, nupturaque nuptaque proles,

Lesbides, Aeolia nomina dicta lyra,

Lesbides, infamem quae me fecistis amatae,

desinite ad citharas turba venire meas!

abstulit omne Phaon, quod vobis ante placebat,

me miseram! dixi quam modo paene: “meus.”

efficite ut redeat. vates quoque vestra redibit.

ingenio vires ille dat, ille rapit.

[Sappho speaks:] Here I had laid my wearied limbs and given way to tears, when there stood before my eyes a Naiad. She stood before me, and said : “Since thou art burning with unrequited flame, Ambracia is the land thou needs must seek. There Phoebus from on high looks down on the whole wide stretch of sea—of Actium, the people call it, and Leucadian. From here Deucalion, inflamed with love for Pyrrha, cast himself down, and struck the waters with body all unharmed. At once the submerged man’s passion turned and fled from his tenacious breast, and Deucalion was freed from the fires of love. This is the law of yonder place. Go straightway seek the high Leucadian cliff, nor from it fear to leap!”

173 Her warning given, she ceased her speech, and vanished; in terror I arose, and my eyes could not keep back their tears. I shall go, O nymph, to seek out the cliff thou toldst of; away with fear—my maddening passion casts it out. Whatever shall be, better ‘twill be than now! Come, breeze, and bear up my body: it is no heavy weight. Do thou, too, tender Love, place thy pinions beneath me, lest I die and bring reproach on the Leucadian wave! Then will I consecrate to Phoebus my shell, our common boon, and under it shall be writ one verse, and a second:

SAPPHO THE SINGER, O PHOEBUS, HATH GRATEFULLY BROUGHT THEE A ZITHER
TOKEN WELL SUITED TO ME, TOKEN WELL SUITED TO THEE.

181 Yet why do you send me to the shores of Actium, unhappy that I am, when you yourself could turn back your wandering steps? You can better help my state than the Leucadian wave; both in beauty and in kindness you will be a Phoebus to me. Or, if I perish, O more savage than any cliff or wave, can you endure the name of causing my death? Ah, how much better for my bosom to be pressed to yours than headlong to be hurled from the rocks! —the bosom, Phaon, of her whom you were wont to praise, and who so often seemed to you to have the gift of genius. Would I were eloquent now! Grief stops my art, and all my genius is halted by my woes. My old-time power in song will not respond to the call; my plectrum and my lyre lie silenced by my grief. Lesbian daughters of the wave, ye who are to wed and ye already wed, ye Lesbian daughters, whose names have been sung to the Aeolian lyre, ye Lesbian daughters whom I have loved to my reproach, cease, band of mine, to come to hear my shell! Phaon has swept away all that ye loved before—ah, wretched me, how nearly I came then to saying “my Phaon”! Accomplish his return; your singer, too, will then return. My genius had its powers from him; with him they were swept away.

[Trans. by Grant Showerman, 1914, rev. by G. P. Gould, 1977. LCL, 2nd ed. Text from http://www.gmu.edu/departments/fld/CLASSICS/ovid.her15.html. Ovid lived 43 BC to 17 AD. (Though some argue that Ovid is not the author.) See Strabo Geography 10.2.9, above.]

44. Ovid Fasti 5.630

621 tum quoque priscorum virgo simulacra virorum

mittere roboreo scirpea ponte solet.

625 fama vetus tunc, cum Saturnia terra vocata est,

talia fatidici dicta fuisse Iovis:

“falcifero libata seni duo corpora, gentes,

mittite, quae Tuscis excipiantur aquis:”

donec in haec venit Tirynthius arva, quotannis

630 tristia Leucadio sacra peracta modo;

illum stramineos in aquam misisse Quirites:

Herculis exemplo corpora falsa iaci.

pars putat, ut ferrent iuvenes suffragia soli,

pontibus infirmos praecipitasse senes.

623 corpora post decies senos qui credidit annos

624 missa neci, sceleris crimine damnat avos.

Then, too, the Virgin is wont to throw the rush-made effigies of ancient men form the oaken bridge. There is an old tradition, that when the land was called Saturnia these words were spoken by soothsaying Jove: “Ye clans,cast into the water of the Tuscan river two bodies as a sacrifice to the Ancient who bears the sickle.” The gloomy rite was performed, so runs the tale, in the Leucadian manner every year, until the Tirynthian hero came to these fields; he cast men of straw into the water, and now dummies are thrown after the example set by Hercules. Some think that the young men used to hurl the feeble old men from the bridges, in order that they themselves alone should have the vote. He who believes that after sixty years men were put to death, accuses our forefathers of a wicked crime.

[Trans. and text from Frazer’s edition of the Fasti, vol. 1.]

45. Ovid Ibis 467-468

Aut te devoveat certis Abdera diebus
Saxaque devotum grandine plura petant.

Or may Abdera call curses upon thee on certain days, and stones more numerous than hail seek the object of their cursing.

[Trans. J. H. Mozley and G. P. Goold, LCL.]

Or may Abdera consecrate you on the ceremonial days
and stones thicker than hail seek you out as victim.

[My trans. For a full translation of the Ibis online, see http://www.tkline.freeserve.co.uk/Ibis.htm.]

46. Scholia on Ovid Ibis 467-468

“Aut te devoveat.” Mos erat in Abdera civitate singulis annis hominem inmolari pro peccatis ciuium, sed prius vii diebus excommunicari ut sic omnium peccata solus haberet. [G]

Callimachus dicit quod Abdera est civitas in qua talis est mos, quod uno quoque anno totam ciuitatem publice lustrabant, et aliquem ciuium quem in illa die habebant deuotum pro capitibus omnium lapidibus occidebant. [Cet Ask.]

Abderitae dicti sunt in uno quoque anno lustrasse se publice, et in his emptum hominem pro capitibus omnium deuotum lapidibus occidebant. [P.]

Or may [Abdera] consecrate you.

It was the custom in the city of Abdera that every year a man would be sacrificed [inmolari] for the sins of the citizens [pro peccatis ciuium], but that seven days before he would be cast out [excommunicari] so that thus he alone would possess the sins [peccata] of everyone.

Callimachus says that Abdera is a city in which there is such a custom, that every year they would purify [lustrabant] that whole city in a public ceremony, and they killed [occidebant] with stones one of the citizens, whom they had consecrated [deuotum] on that day on behalf of all the citizens.

The citizens of Abdera are said to have purified themselves [lustrasse se] in a public rite every year, and in this festival they would kill [occidebant] with stones a man who had been bought and consecrated [deuotum] on behalf of all the citizens.

[My trans. Text from Robinson Ellis, P. Ovidii Nasonis Ibis; ex novis codicibus edidit, scholia vetera commentarium cum prolegomenis, appendice, indice addidit (Oxford 1881), 81. Cf. Hughes, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece, 157. See Callimachus on Abdera, above.]

47. Petronius, fr. 1 = Servius Commentaries on Virgil’s Aeneid 3.57

57. AVRI SACRA FAMES sacra ‘execrabilis.’ alii sacra ‘devota’ accipiunt, unde et ‘ver sacrum.’ alii ‘sacrum’ pro ‘scelestum,’ vel ‘sacrilegum.’ / AVRI SACRA FAMES execrabilis, ut (VI 573) sacrae panduntur portae.

tractus est autem sermo ex more Gallorum. nam Massilienses quotiens pestilentia laborabant, unus se ex pauperibus offerebat alendus anno integro publicis <sumptibus> et purioribus cibis. hic postea ornatus verbenis et vestibus sacris circumducebatur per totam civitatem cum exsecrationibus, ut in ipsum reciderent mala totius civitatis, et sic proiciebatur. hoc autem in Petronio lectum est.

“Sacred” means “accursed.” This expression is derived from a Gallic custom. For whenever the people of Massilia were suffering with pestilence, one of the poor would volunteer to be fed for an entire year out of public funds on food of special purity. After this period he would be decked with sacred herbs and sacred robes, and would be led through the whole state while people cursed him, in order that the sufferings [mala] of the whole state might fall upon him; and so he was cast out [proiciebatur]. This account has been given in Petronius.

[Trans. E. H. Warmington. Text from Arthur Frederick Stocker and Albert Hartman Travis, et al., Servianorum in Vergilii Carmina (Oxford 1965), 2.26. Petronius lived in the first century AD. See on Servius, below.]

48. Petronius Satyricon 107.5

[CVII] EVMOLPVS: “Me, ut puto, hominem non ignotum elegerunt ad hoc officium legatum, petieruntque ut se reconciliarem aliquando amicissimis. Nisi forte putatis iuvenes casu in has plagas incidisse, cum omnis vector nihil prius quaerat, quam cuius se diligentiae credat. Flectite ergo mentes satisfactione lenitas, et patimini liberos homines ire sine iniuria quo destinant. Saevi quoque implacabilesque domini crudelitatem suam impediunt, si quando paenitentia fugitivos reduxit, et dediticiis hostibus parcimus. Quid ultra petitis aut quid vultis? In conspectu vestro supplices iacent iuvenes ingenui, honesti, et quod utroque potentius est, familiaritate vobis aliquando coniuncti. Si mehercules intervertissent pecuniam vestram, si fidem proditione laesissent, satiari tamen potuissetis hac poena, quam videtis. Servitia ecce in frontibus cernitis et vultus ingenuos voluntaria poenarum lege proscriptos.” Interpellavit deprecationem supplicis Lichas et: “Noli, inquit, causam confundere, sed impone singulis modum. Ac primum omnium, si ultro venerunt, cur nudavere crinibus capita? Vultum enim qui permutat, fraudem parat, non satisfactionem. Deinde, si gratiam a legato moliebantur, quid ita omnia fecisti, ut quos tuebaris absconderes? Ex quo apparet casu incidisse noxios in plagas, et te artem quaesisse qua nostrae animadversionis impetum eluderes. Nam quod invidiam facis nobis ingenuos honestosque clamando, vide ne deteriorem facias confidentia causam. Quid debent laesi facere, ubi rei ad poenam confugiunt. At enim amici fuerunt nostri: eo maiora meruerunt supplicia; nam qui ignotos laedit, latro appellatur, qui amicos, paulo minus quam parricida.” Resolvit Eumolpos tam iniquam declamationem et: “Intellego, inquit, nihil magis obesse iuvenibus miseris, quam quod nocte deposuerunt capillos: hoc argumento incidisse videntur in navem, non venisse. Quod velim tam candide ad aures vestras perveniat, quam simpliciter gestum est. Voluerunt enim, antequam conscenderent, exonerare capita molesto et supervacuo pondere, sed celerior ventus distulit curationis propositum. Nec tamen putaverunt ad rem pertinere, ubi inciperent quod placuerat ut fieret, quia nec omen nec legem navigantium noverant. -- Quid, inquit Lichas, attinuit supplices radere? Nisi forte miserabiliores calvi solent esse. Quamquam quid attinet veritatem per interpretem quaerere? Quid dicis tu, latro? Quae salamandra supercilia tua excussit? Cui deo crinem vovisti? Pharmace, responde.”

Lichas, seeing Tryphaena eager as himself for revenge, ordered our punishment to be renewed and increased.

[CVII] On hearing this Eumolpus endeavored to mitigate his anger by the following speech: “The unhappy beings whose destruction your vengeance claims, imploring your compassion, Lichas, they have chosen me, as one not unknown to you, to the office of mediator, to reconcile them once more to those they formerly held so dear. You cannot really suppose the young men fell into this trap by mere chance; for surely the very first thing an intending passenger asks, is the name of the person he is to intrust his safety to. Relent then; be satisfied with the penalties already exacted and suffer free men to proceed to their destination without further injury. The harshest and most unforgiving of masters stay their cruelty, when slaves return home penitent; and do we not all of us spare enemies who surrender? What more do you want or desire? Prostrate before you lie these youths, men of birth and breeding though they be, and what is more than this, friends once bound to you in the ties of closest intimacy. Had they embezzled your money, had they betrayed your trust, by great Hercules! even then your resentment might be satisfied with the pains and penalties you behold. Lo! the marks of servitude upon their brows, and their faces--free men’s faces--wearing voluntarily the degrading badge of punishment!”

But Lichas cut short the plea of mercy. “Nay! you confuse the issue,” he interrupted; “you should keep each point separate and distinct. First of all, if they came here of their own free will, why did they shave their heads? The man who adopts a disguise is after no good, but is trying to deceive. Secondly, if they were seeking forgiveness and reconciliation through your good offices, why did you take every possible pains to keep your clients concealed? It is plain enough the culprits did fall into the trap accidentally, and that you are merely trying on an artful subterfuge to slip out of reach of our resentment.

“Then for your special pleading, your noisy claim about their being men of birth and breeding, have a care you don’t injure your case by over-confidence. Whatever is the injured party to do, when the guilty run blindly to their own punishment? But, you urge, they were our friends; the more thoroughly, I say, have they earned their chastisement. The man who wrongs mere strangers, is called a robber; he who betrays his friends, is little better than a murderer.”

Eumolpus, to rebut this damaging reasoning, replies, “There is nothing, I gather, tells more heavily against the unfortunate young men than the fact of their having cut off their hair by night; this is taken to prove they did not come on board voluntarily, but by mischance. I only trust my explanation may seem as simple and straightforward as the act itself was simply and innocently done. They purposed, before ever they embarked, to have eased their heads of an annoying and needless burden, but the wind springing up sooner than was expected forced them to put off their visit to the barber; nor did they for an instant imagine it mattered where they carried out the intention they had formed, knowing nothing of the omen involved or the rules aboard ship.”

“What made them take the guise of suppliants and shave their heads,” was Lichas’s only answer, “unless possibly because bald heads are more likely to win compassion? But there, what use trying to get at the truth through an interpreter? What have you to say for yourself, you thief [latro]? What salamander has burnt off your eyebrows? what god have you vowed your locks to? Answer me, villain [pharmace].”

[Trans. Alfred R. Allinson. Text from http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/petronius.html. Petronius is only Latin writer to use the word pharmacus. For Petronius online, see http://www.igibud.com/petron/petron.html.]

49. Paul, 1 Corinthians 4.13.

IV. Οὕτως ἡμᾶς λογιζέσθω ἄνθρωπος ὡς ὑπηρέτας Χριστοῦ καὶ οἰκονόμους μυστηρίων θεοῦ. [2] ὧδε λοιπὸν ζητεῖται ἐν τοῖς οἰκονόμοις ἵνα πιστός τις εὑρεθῇ. [3] ἐμοὶ δὲ εἰς ἐλάχιστόν ἐστιν ἵνα ὑφ’ ὑμῶν ἀνακριθῶ ἢ ὑπὸ ἀνθρωπίνης ἡμέρας: ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ ἐμαυτὸν ἀνακρίνω: οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐμαυτῷ σύνοιδα, [4] ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἐν τούτῳ δεδικαίωμαι, ὁ δὲ ἀνακρίνων με κύριός ἐστιν. [5] ὥστε μὴ πρὸ καιροῦ τι κρίνετε, ἕως ἂν ἔλθῃ ὁ κύριος, ὃς καὶ φωτίσει τὰ κρυπτὰ τοῦ σκότους καὶ φανερώσει τὰς βουλὰς τῶν καρδιῶν, καὶ τότε ὁ ἔπαινος γενήσεται ἑκάστῳ ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ. [6] Ταῦτα δέ, ἀδελφοί, μετεσχημάτισα εἰς ἐμαυτὸν καὶ Ἀπολλὼν δι’ ὑμᾶς, ἵνα ἐν ἡμῖν μάθητε τό Μὴ ὑπὲρ ἃ γέγραπται, ἵνα μὴ εἷς ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἑνὸς φυσιοῦσθε κατὰ τοῦ ἑτέρου. [7] τίς γάρ σε διακρίνει; τί δὲ ἔχεις ὃ οὐκ ἔλαβες; εἰ δὲ καὶ ἔλαβες, τί καυχᾶσαι ὡς μὴ λαβών; [8] ἤδη κεκορεσμένοι ἐστέ; ἤδη ἐπλουτήσατε; χωρὶς ἡμῶν ἐβασιλεύσατε; καὶ ὄφελόν γε ἐβασιλεύσατε, ἵνα καὶ ἡμεῖς ὑμῖν συνβασιλεύσωμεν. [9] δοκῶ γάρ, ὁ θεὸς ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀποστόλους ἐσχάτους ἀπέδειξεν ὡς ἐπιθανατίους, ὅτι θέατρον ἐγενήθημεν τῷ κόσμῳ καὶ ἀγγέλοις καὶ ἀνθρώποις. [10] ἡμεῖς μωροὶ διὰ Χριστόν, ὑμεῖς δὲ φρόνιμοι ἐν Χριστῷ: ἡμεῖς ἀσθενεῖς, ὑμεῖς δὲ ἰσχυροί: ὑμεῖς ἔνδοξοι, ἡμεῖς δὲ ἄτιμοι. [11] ἄχρι τῆς ἄρτι ὥρας καὶ πεινῶμεν καὶ διψῶμεν καὶ [12] γυμνιτεύομεν καὶ κολαφιζόμεθα καὶ ἀστατοῦμεν καὶ κοπιῶμεν ἐργαζόμενοι ταῖς ἰδίαις χερσίν: λοιδορούμενοι εὐλογοῦμεν, διωκόμενοι ἀνεχόμεθα, [13] δυσφημούμενοι παρακαλοῦμεν: [p. 383] ὡς περικαθάρματα τοῦ κόσμου ἐγενήθημεν, πάντων περίψημα, ἕως ἄρτι. [14] Οὐκ ἐντρέπων ὑμᾶς γράφω ταῦτα, [15] ἀλλ’ ὡς τέκνα μου ἀγαπητὰ νουθετῶν: ἐὰν γὰρ μυρίους παιδαγωγοὺς ἔχητε ἐν Χριστῷ, ἀλλ’ οὐ πολλοὺς πατέρας, ἐν γὰρ Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ διὰ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου ἐγὼ ὑμᾶς ἐγέννησα. [16] παρακαλῶ οὖν ὑμᾶς, μιμηταί μου γίνεσθε. Διὰ τοῦτο ἔπεμψα ὑμῖν Τιμόθεον, [17] ὅς ἐστίν μου τέκνον ἀγαπητὸν καὶ πιστὸν ἐν κυρίῳ, ὃς ὑμᾶς ἀναμνήσει τὰς ὁδούς μου τὰς ἐν Χριστῷ [Ἰησοῦ], καθὼς πανταχοῦ ἐν πάσῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ διδάσκω. [18] Ὡς μὴ ἐρχομένου δέ [19] μου πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐφυσιώθησάν τινες: ἐλεύσομαι δὲ ταχέως πρὸς ὑμᾶς, ἐὰν ὁ κύριος θελήσῃ, καὶ γνώσομαι οὐ τὸν λόγον τῶν πεφυσιωμένων ἀλλὰ τὴν δύναμιν, [20] οὐ γὰρ ἐν λόγῳ ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ ἀλλ’ ἐν δυνάμει. [21] τί θέλετε; ἐν ῥάβδῳ ἔλθω πρὸς ὑμᾶς, ἢ ἐν ἀγάπῃ πνεύματί τε πραΰτητος;

IV. So let a man think of us as Christ’s servants, and stewards of God’s mysteries. [2] Here, moreover, it is required of stewards, that they be found faithful. [3] But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man’s judgment. Yes, I don’t judge my own self. [4] For I know nothing against myself. Yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord. [5] Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each man will get his praise from God. [6] Now these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to think beyond the things which are written, that none of you be puffed up against one another. [7] For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn’t receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? [8] You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you. [9] For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. [10] We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor. [11] Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten [kolaphizometha], and have no certain dwelling place. [12] We toil, working with our own hands. Being reviled [loidoroumenoi], we bless. Being persecuted, we endure. [13] Being defamed [dusphēmoumenoi], we entreat. We are made as the filth [perikatharmata] of the world, the dirt wiped [peripsēma] off by all, even until now. [14] I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. [15] For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the gospel. [16] I beg you therefore, be imitators of me. [17] Because of this I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every assembly. [18] Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. [19] But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord is willing. And I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power. [20] For the Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. [21] What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?

[Trans. from Rainbow Missions, Inc. World English Bible. Rainbow Missions, Inc.; revision of the American Standard Version of 1901. Text and trans. from Perseus. Gebhard #24, in the category “Pharmakos andkatharma as words of abuse.”]

50. Herennius Philo / “Ammonius” 142 Valckenaer,

φαρμακεύς. φαρμακὸς δὲ ὀξυτόνως, ὁ ἐπὶ καθάρσει τῆς πόλεως ῥιπτόμενος.

pharmakeus. And pharmakos, with an acute accent, he who is cast out [rhiptomenos] to purify the city.

[Gebhard #28, in the category, “Grammatical Witnesses.” Hughes, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece, 154, cites this: “‘Ammonius’ (A Byzantine edition of Herrenius Philo, c. AD 100)”. Herennius Philo was born 42 AD.]

51. Arrian, Epicteti dissert. III, 22, 78 (Bd. I, S. 205 Didotausgabe): (Der homerische Priamos)

ὁ πεντήκοντα γεννήσις περικαθάρματα.

[Gebhard #25, in the category “Pharmakos and katharma as words of abuse.” Arrian lived AD 86-160.]

52. Ptolemaeus Chennus, New History 7, summarized in Photius Bibliotheca 190

Ὡς ἡ Λευκὰς πέτρα ἀπὸ Λεύκου τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως ἑταίρου τὴν κλῆσιν έλαβεν, ὃς Ζακύνθιος μὲν γένος ἦν, ἀνῃρέθη δ’, ὥς φησιν ὁ ποιητής, ὑπ’ Ἀντίφου· τοῦτον ἱδρύσασθαι φασι καὶ ἱερὸν Λευκάτου Ἀπόλλωνος. Τοὺς μὲν οὖν καθαλλομένους ἀπὸ τῆς πέτρας παύεσθαί φασι τοῦ ἔρωτος. Καὶ ἡ αἰτία· μετὰ τὸν Ἀδώνιδός φασι θάνατον περιερχομένη καὶ ζητοῦσα ἡ Ἀφροδίτη εὗρεν αυτὸν ἐν Ἄργει πόλει τῆς Κύπρου ἐν τῷ τοῦ Ἐριθίου Ἀπόλλωνος ἱερῷ, καὶ ανεῖλεν αὐτόν, ἀνακοινωσαμένη Απόλλωνι καὶ τὸν περὶ Ἀδώνιδος ἔρωτα. Ὁ δ’ Ἀπόλλων ἀγαγὼν αὐτὴν ἐπὶ τὴν Λευκάδα πέτραν προσέταξε ῥῖψαι κατὰ τῆς πέτρας· ἡ δὲ ἑαυτὴν ῥίψασα ἐπαύσατο τοῦ ἔρωτος. Ζητούσης δὲ τὴν αἰτίαν ἐιπεῖν λέγεται τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα, ὡς μάντις ὢν ἐγνώσκει διότι ὁ Ζεύς, ἀεὶ ἐρῶν Ἥρας, ἐρχόμενος ἐπὶ τῇ πέτρᾳ ἐκαθέζετο καὶ ἀναπαύετο τοῦ ἔρωτος.

Καὶ πολλοὶ δὲ ἄλλοι καὶ πολλαὶ ἔρωτι κάμνουσαι ἀπηλλάγησαν τοῦ ἔρωτος, ἐπεὶ τῆς πέτρας καθήλαντο. Ὡς καὶ Ἀρτεμισία ἡ Λυγδάμιδος, ἡ τῷ Πέρσῃ συστρατεύσασα, ἐρασθεῖσα Δαρδάνου Ἀβυδηνοῦ καὶ ὑπερορωμένη ἐκκόψειε τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς κοιμωμένου, τῆς δ’ ἐπιθυμίας κατὰ θεῶν μῆνιν ἐπιταθείσης, πορευθεῖσα κατὰ χρησμὸν εἰς Λευκάδα ἔρριψεν ἑαυτὴν κατὰ τῆς πέτρας καὶ ἀναιρεθεῖσα ἐτάφη. Καὶ Ἱππομέδοντά φησιν Ἐπιδάμνιον, παιδὸς ἐγχωρίου ἐρασθέντα καὶ μὴ τυγχάνοντα, ὅτι πρὸς ἕτερον κλίνειεν, ἀνελεῖν, εἰς δὲ τὴν Λευκάδα παραγενόμενον καὶ ῥίψαντα ἑαυτὸν ἀποθανεῖν. Καὶ Νικόστρατον δὲ τὸν κωμικὸν Τετριγιδαίας τῆς Μυριναίας ἐρασθέντα ῥῖψαι ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀπαλλαγῆναι τοῦ ἔρωτος. Μάκητα δέ φασι τὸν Βουθρώτιον Λευκοπέτραν ἐπικληθῆναι διότι τετράκις αὑτὸν καταβαλὼν τῶν ἐρωτικῶν κακώσεων ἀπαλλάττοιτο.

καὶ πλῆθος ἄλλο οὕτως ἀπαλλαγῆναι λέγεται. Καὶ Βουλαγόραν δὲ τὸν Φαναγορίτην ἐρασθέντα Διοδώρου τοῦ αὐλητοῦ, καταβαλόντα αὑτὸν ἀναιρεθῆναι γηραιὸν ἤδη ὄντα. Ἀναιρεθῆναι δὲ καὶ Ῥοδόπην Ἀμισηνὴν καταβαλοῦσαν ἑαυτήν, διδύμων παίδων σωματοφυλάκων Ἀντιόχου τοῦ βασιλέως ἐρασθεῖσαν, οἷς ὀνόματα Ἀντιφῶν καὶ Κῦρος. Χαρῖνος δὲ ἰαμβογράφος ἠράσθη Ἔρωτος εὐνούχου τοῦ Εὐπάτορος οἰνοχόου, καὶ πιστεύσας τῷ περὶ τῆς πέτρας λόγῳ κατέβαλεν ἑαυτόν· ἐπεὶ δὲ καταβαλὼν τὸ σκέλος κατεάγη καὶ ὑπὸ ὀδύνης ἐτελεύτα, ἀπέρριψε τάδε τὰ ἰαμβεῖα·

ἔρροις πλανῆτι καὶ κακὴ πέτρη Λευκάς,

Χαρῖνον, αἲ, αἴ, τὴν ἰαμβικὴν Μοῦσαν

κατῃθάλωσας ἐλπίδος κενοῖς μύθοις.

τοιαῦτ’ Ἔρωτος Εὐπάτωρ ἐρασθείη.

Νιρεὺς δὲ Καταναῖος ἠράσθη τῆς Ἀττικῆς Ἀθηναίας, καὶ ἐλθὼν κατέβαλεν ἑαυτὸν ἀπὸ τῆς πέτρας, καὶ ἀπελύθη τοῦ διοχλοῦντος· πεσὼν δ’ οὖν, εἰς δίκτυον ἐνέπεσεν ἁλιέως ἐν ᾧ ἀνειλκύσθη σὺν κιβωτῷ χρυσίου· ἐπεδικάζετο δὲ πρὸς τὸν ἁλιέα περὶ τοῦ χρυσίου, ἀλλ’ ὁ Ἀπόλλων νυκτερινῇ ὄψει ἀπέστησεν αὐτὸν τοῦ ἐπιδικάζεσθαι δέον εὐχαριστεῖν ὐπὲρ τῆς ἀπαλλαγῆς, ἀπειλησάμενος, ἀλλὰ μὴ καὶ ἀλλότριον περιεργάζεσθαι χρυσίον.

The rock of Leucade received its name from Leucos, the companion of Odysseus, who was originally from Zacynthos and who was, says the Poet, killed by Antiphos; this is the person, it is said, who raised the temple ofApollo Leukates. Thus those who dive from the top of the rock were, it is said, freed from their love and for this reason: after the death of Adonis, Aphrodite, it is said, wandered around searching for him. She found him inArgos, a town of Cyprus, in the sanctuary of Apollo Erithios and took him, after having told Apollo in confidence the secret of her love for Adonis. And Apollo brought her to the rock of Leucade and ordered her to throw herself from the top of the rock; she did so and was freed from her love. When she sought the reason of this, Apollo told her, it is said, in his capacity as a seer [mantis], he knew that Zeus, always enamoured of Hera, had sat on this rock and been delivered from his love.

And many others, men and women, suffering from the evil of love, were delivered from their passion in jumping from the top of the rock, such as Artemesa, daughter of Lygdamis, who made war with Persia; enamoured of Dardarnus of Abydos and scorned, she scratched out his eyes while he slept but as her love increased under the inflence of divine anger, she came to Leucade at the instruction of an oracle, threw herself from the top of the rock, killed herself and was buried. Hippomedon of Epidamnos, says the author, was enamoured of a young boy of his land and, unable to obtain any success as the boy had a penchant for another, he killed him, then went to Leucade, jumped and killed himself. And the comic poet Nicostratus, in love with Tetigidaia of Mirina, jumped and was cured of his love. Maces of Buthrotum was, it is said, surnamed “White rock” because he had been cured of the evils of love after he jumped from the rock four times.

A crowd of other people pass to be relieved in this way. Boulagoras the Phanagorite, enamoured of the flutist Diodorus, threw himself from the rock and was killed at an advanced age. Rhodope of Amisene killed herself also in jumping for the love of two twin lads who belonged to the guards of king Antiochus and were called Antiphon and Cyrus. And Charinus, an iambic poet, was in love with the eunuch Eros, Eupator’s butler; trusting the legend of the rock he jumped, broke his leg, and died of pain while making these iambics:

    “To the devil with you, deceptive and murderous rock of Leukos!
    Charinus, alas! alas! this iambic muse,
    You have turned to cinders by your vain words of hope.
    Can Eupator suffer so much for Eros.”

And Nireus of Catana, in love with Athena of Athens, came to the rock and jumped and was delivered of his pain. In jumping he fell into the net of a fisherman in which when he was pulled out was also found a box filled with gold. He went to law with the fisherman for the gold, but Apollo appeared to him in the night in a dream and told him to desist since he should give thanks for his safety and he threatened him; it was not right in addition to try to appropriate gold which belonged to others.

[Trans. from http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/photius_copyright/photius_05bibliotheca.htm#190, adapted. Text from René Henry, ed., Photius Bibliothèque, 9 vols. (Paris: Budé, 1977), vol. 3:70-72. Ptolemaeus fl. c. 100 AD.]

53. Plutarch Table-Talk 6.8 (693e-f)

Θυσία τις ἔστι πάτριος, ἣν ὁ μὲν ἄρχων ἐπὶ τῆς κοινῆς ἑστίας δρᾷ τῶν δ’ ἄλλων ἕκαστος ἐπ’ οἴκου· καλεῖται δὲ “βουλίμου ἐξέλασις”· καὶ τῶν οἰκετῶν ἕνα τύπτοντες αγνίναις ῥάβδοις διὰ θυρῶν ἐξελαύνουσιν, ἐπιλέγοντες “ἔξω Βούλιμον ἔσω δὲ Πλοῦτον καὶ Ὑγίειαν.” ἄρχοντος οὖν ἐμοῦ πλείονες ἐκοινώνουν τῆς θυσίας· κᾆθ’ ὡς ἐποιήσαμεν τὰ νενομισμένα καὶ πάλιν κατεκλίνημεν, ἐζητεῖτο πρῶτον ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ὀνόματος, ἔπειτα τῆς φωνῆς ἣν ἐπιλέγουσι τῷ διωκομένῳ, μάλιστα δ’ ὑπὲρ τοῦ πάθους καὶ τῶν κατ’ αὐτὸ γιγνομένων.

QUESTION 8
The cause of bulimy[6]
Speakers : Plutarch, Soclarus, Cleomenes and others

1. There is a traditional rite of sacrifice, which the archon performs at the public hearth but everyone else at home, called the driving out of hunger [boulimou exelasis]. They strike one of the servants with wands of agnus castus and drive him out of doors, chanting, “Out with Hunger [Boulimon], in with Wealth and Health.” When I was archon,[7] a larger number than usual participated in the public rite. After we had completed the ritual acts and returned to our places at table we discussed first the term bulimy (bulimos), then the formula which they repeat as the servant is driven out, and especially the affliction itself and the particulars of a case of it. The name, we thought, signified a great or general famine, especially among us Aeolians who, in our dialect, use p for b; we pronounce not bulimos but pulimos as if to say polys limos (famine multiplied). We decided thatbubrostis (ravenous appetite) is different, on the evidence of Metrodorus’s[8] History of Ionia.[9] Metrodorus records that the people of Smyrna, originally Aeolians, sacrifice to Bubrostis a black bull, which they cut up and burn entirely, hide and all, on the altar. Now, since any kind of starvation, and particularly bulimy, resembles a disease, inasmuch as it occurs when the body has been affected by an unnatural condition, people quite reasonably contrast it with the normal state, as they do want with wealth and disease with health. Nausea got its name with reference to those whose stomachs are upset on a ship (naus) at sea, but by dint of usage the term is now applied to any similar case of upset, no matter how it comes about.

[Trans. and notes by Paul A. Clement and Herbert B. Hoffleit, LCL, Putarch Moralia vol. VIII, adapted. Text from same volume. Another trans. inhttp://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/p/plutarch/symposiacs/chapter6.html. The rite is discussed in Jane Harrison, Ancient Art and Ritual [1913], chapter 4, at http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/aar/index.htm.] [Plutarch lived c. 50-120 AD.]

54. Plutarch Sulla 33.2

καὶ λυρῳδοῖς καὶ μίμοις καὶ καθάρμασιν.

33 But besides his massacres, the rest of Sulla’s proceedings also gave offence. For he proclaimed himself dictator, reviving this particular office after a lapse of a hundred and twenty years. Moreover, an act was passed granting him immunity for all his past acts, and for the future, power of life and death, of confiscation, of colonization, of founding or demolishing cities, and of taking away or bestowing kingdoms at his pleasure. [2] He conducted the sales of confiscated estates in such arrogant and imperious fashion, from the tribunal where he sat, that his gifts excited more odium than his robberies. He bestowed on handsome women, musicians, comic actors, and the lowest of freedmen [katharmasin], the territories of nations and the revenues of cities, and women were married against their will to some of his favourites.

[Trans. Bernadotte Perrin, from LCL. Text from Gebhard #26, in the category “Pharmakos and katharma as words of abuse.”]

55. Arcadius, de accentibus, ed. Barker, S. 51, 10:

φαρμακὸς ὁ ἐπὶ καθαρμῷ τῆς πόλεως τελευτῶν, φαρμακεὺς δὲ ὁ γόης.

Pharmakos is he who dies for the purification of the city, but pharmakeus is the sorceror.

[My trans. Text from Gebhard #29, in the category, “Grammatical Witnesses.” Arcadius lived after 200 AD.]

56. Herodian, ed. Lentz I, 150, 3 u. 4:

φαρμακὸς ὁ ἐπὶ καθαρμῷ τῆς πόλεως τελευτῶν, φαρμακὸς δὲ ὁ γόης.

pharmakós is he who dies for the purification of the city, but phármakos is the sorceror.

[My trans. Text from Gebhard #30, in the category, “Grammatical Witnesses.” Herodian lived in the time of Marcus Aurelius, 121-180 AD. Hughes, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece, 154, cites this: “Herodian s.v. pharmakos, in ‘Arkadius’, p. 51 Barker.”]

57. Philostratus Life of Apollonius 4.10

. . . ἐπεὶ δὲ ἡ νόσος τοῖς Ἐφησίοις ἐνέπεσε καὶ οὐδὲν ἦν πρὸς αὐτὴν αὔταρκες, ἐπρεσβεύοντο παρὰ τὸν Ἀπολλώνιον, ἰατρὸν ποιούμενοι αὐτὸν τοῦ πάθους . . .

ξυναγαγὼν οὖν τοὺς Ἐφεσίους, “θαρσεῖτε,” ἔφη “τήμερον γὰρ παύσω τὴν νόσον,” καὶ εἰπὼν ἦγεν ἡλικίαν πᾶσαν ἐπὶ τὸ θέατρον, οὗ τὸ τοῦ Ἀποτροπαίου ἵδρυται. πτωχεύειν δέ τις ἐνταῦθα ἐδόκει γέρων ἐπιμύων τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τέχνῃ, καὶ πήραν ἔφερε καὶ ἄρτου ἐν αὐτῇ τρύφος, ῥάκεσί τε ἠμφίεστο καὶ αὐχμηρῶς εἶχε τοῦ προσώπου. περιστήσας οὖν τοὺς Ἐφεσίους αὐτῷ, “βάλλετε τὸν θεοῖς ἐχθρὸν” εἶπε “ξυλλεξάμενοι τῶν λίθων ὡς πλείστους.”

θαυμαζόντων δὲ τῶν Ἐφεσίων, ὅ τι λέγοι, καὶ δεινὸν ἡγουμένων, εἰ ξένον ἀποκτενοῦσιν ἀθλίως οὕτω πράττοντα, καὶ γὰρ ἱκέτευε καὶ πολλὰ ἐπὶ ἐλέῳ ἔλεγεν, ἐνέκειτο παρακελευόμενος τοῖς Ἐφεσίοις ἐρείδειν τε καὶ μὴ ανιέναι. ὡς δὲ ἀκροβολισμῷ τινες ἐπ’ αὐτῷ ἐχρήσαντο καὶ ὁ καταμύειν δοκῶν ἀνέβλεψεν ἀθρόον πυρός τε μεστοὺς τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔδειξε, ξυνῆκαν οἱ Ἐφέσιοι τοῦ δαίμονος καὶ κατελίθωσαν οὕτως αὐτόν, ὡς κολωνὸν λίθων περὶ αὐτὸν χώσασθαι.

διαλιπὼν δὲ ὀλίγον ἐκέλευσεν ἀφελεῖν τοὺς λίθους, καὶ τὸ θηρίον, ὃ ἀπεκτόνασι, γνῶναι. γυμνωθέντος οὖν τοῦ βεβλῆσθαι δοκοῦντος, ὁ μὲν ἠφάνιστο, κύων δὲ τὸ μὲν εἶδος ὅμοιος τῷ ἐκ Μολοττῶν, μέγεθος δὲ κατὰ τὸν μέγιστον λέοντα, ξυντετριμμένος ὤφθη ὑπὸ τῶν λίθων καὶ παραπτύων ἀφρόν, ὥσπερ οἱ λυττῶντες. τὸ μὲν δὴ τοῦ Ἀποτροπαίου ἕδος, ἔστι δὲ Ἡρακλῆς, ἵδρυται περὶ τὸ χωρίον, ἐν ᾧ τὸ φάσμα ἐβλήθη.

[§10] With such harangues as these he knit together the people of Smyrna; but when the plague began to rage in Ephesus, and no remedy sufficed to check it, they sent a deputation to Apollonius, asking him to become physician of their infirmity; and he thought that he ought not to postpone his journey, but said: “Let us go.”

And forthwith he was in Ephesus, performing the same feat, I believe, as Pythagoras, who was in Thurii and Metapontum at one and the same moment. He therefore called together the Ephesians, and said: “Take courage, for I will today put a stop to the course of the disease.”

And with these words he led the population entire to the the theater, where the image of the Averting god has been set up [after this incident]. And there he saw what seemed an old mendicant artfully blinking his eyes as if blind, as he carried a wallet and a crust of bread in it; and he was clad in rags and was very squalid of countenance. Apollonius therefore ranged the Ephesians around him and said: “Pick up as many stones as you can and hurl them at this enemy of the gods.”

Now the Ephesians wondered what he meant, and were shocked at the idea of murdering a stranger so manifestly miserable; for he was begging and praying them to take mercy upon him. Nevertheless Apollonius insisted and egged on the Ephesians to launch themselves on him and not let him go. And as soon as some of them began to take shots and hit him with their stones, the beggar who had seemed to blink and be blind, gave them all a sudden glance and his eyes were full of fire. Then the Ephesians recognized that he was a demon, and they stoned him so thoroughly that their stones were heaped into a great cairn around him.

After a little pause Apollonius bade them remove the stones and acquaint themselves with the wild animal they had slain. When therefore they had exposed the object which they thought they had thrown their missiles at, they found that he had disappeared and instead of him there was a hound who resembled in form and look a Molossian dog, but was in size the equal of the largest lion; there he lay before their eyes, pounded to a pulp by their stones and vomiting foam as mad dogs do. Accordingly the statue of the Averting god, Heracles, has been set up over the spot where the ghost was slain.

[Trans. F.C. Conybeare. Text from Vroni Mumprecht, ed. and tr., Philostratus Das Leben des Apollonios von Tyana (Munich: Artemis Verlag, 1983). Apollonius of Tyana was born about the beginning of the Christian era, and died in the time of Nerva. Philostratus lived c. 170 to c. 245 AD. For the statue of Heracles, see Lactantius Divine Institutions 5.3.14.]

58. Aelian On Animals 11.8

ἐν δὲ τῇ Λευκάδι ἄκρα μέν ἐστιν ὑψηλή, νεὼς δὲ Ἀπόλλωνι ἵδρυται, καὶ Ἄκτιόν γε αὐτὸν οἱ τιμῶντες ὀνομάζουσιν. οὐκοῦν τῆς πανηγύρεως ἐπιδημεῖν μελλούσης, καθ’ ἣν καὶ τὸ πήδημα πηδῶσι τῷ θεῳ, θύουσι βοῦν ταῖς μυίαις, αἱ δὲ εμπλησθεῖσαι τοῦ αἵματος ἀφανίζονται.

And in the island of Leucas there is a high promontory on which a temple of Apollo has been built, and worshippers style him Apollo of Actium. Now when the festival is about to be held there in which they make the Leap in honour of the god, men sacrifice an ox to the flies, and when the latter have sated themselves with the blood they disappear. Yes, but they are bribed to depart, whereas the flies at Pisa need no bribe.

[Trans. and text from A. F. Scholfield, LCL. Aelian (Claudius Aelianus) lived c. 170-235 AD.]

59. Harpocration, s.v. pharmakos

Λυσίας ἐν τῷ κατ’ Ἀνδοκίδου ἀσεβείας, εἰ γνήσιος· δύο ἄνδρας ἐξῆγον καθάρσια ἐσομένους τῆς πόλεως ἐν τοῖς Θαργηλίοις, ἕνα μὲν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀνδρῶν, ἕνα δὲ ὑπὲρ τῶν γυναικῶν. ὅτι δὲ ὄνομα κύριόν ἐστιν ὁ Φαρμακὸς, ἱερὰς δὲ φιάλας τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος κλέψας ἁλοὺς ὑπὸ τῶν περὶ τὸν Ἀχιλλέα κατελεύσθη, καὶ τὰ τοῖς Θαργηλίοις ἀγόμενα τούτων ἀπομιμήματά ἐστιν, Ἴστρος ἐν α’ τῶν Απόλλωνος ἐπιφανειῶν εἴρηκεν. Δημοσθένους δ’ ἐν τῷ κατ’ Ἀριστογείτονος λέγοντος “οὗτος οὖν αὐτὸν ἐξαιρήσεται ὁ φαρμακός.” Δίδυμος προπερισπᾶν ἀξιοῖ τοὔνομα, ἀλλ’ ἡμεῖς οὐχ εὕρομεν οὕτω που τὴν χρῆσιν.

Pharmakos. Lysias in the Aganst Andocides’ Impiety, if the speech is genuine. In Athens they used to lead out two men to be purifications [katharsia] of the city during the Thargelia, one on behalf of the men, the other on behalf of the women. But that Pharmakos is a proper name and that he stole the sacred bowls of Apollo, was caught by the companions of Achilles, and was stoned to death, and that the things performed at the Thargelia are imitations [apomimēmata] of these events, Istros has said in the first book of the Manifestations of Apollo. And although Demosthenes in the Against Aristogeiton says “So this is the man who will win his pardon, the pharmakos,” Didymus thinks that the word should be circumflexed on the penultimate; but we have not found such usage anywhere.

[Tr. Dennis D. Hughes, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece, 152. Text from G. Dindorf, ed., Harpocration Lexicon in Decem Oratores Atticos, 2 vols. (Oxford 1853), 1:298-299. Harpocration lived in the first or second century AD. ]

60. Lucius Ampelius Book of Memory 8.4

in summo monte fanum est, ubi sacra fiunt. Et, cum homo inde desiluit, statim excipitur lintribus.

[In the island of Leucas, the cliff Leucates] At the top of the mountain is a temple, where a festival takes place. And, when a man jumped down from it, he was immediately taken up by boats.

[My trans. Text from Hughes, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece, 161. Ampelius has been dated to the third or fourth century AD.]

61. Servius Commentaries on Virgil Aeneid 3.57 = Petronius, fr. 1

“Sacred” means “accursed.” This expression is derived from a Gallic custom. For whenever the people of Massilia were burdened with pestilence, one of the poor would volunteer to be fed for an entire year out of public funds on food of special purity. After this period he would be decked with sacred herbs and sacred robes, and would be led through the whole state while people cursed him, in order that the sufferings of the whole state might fall upon him; and so he was cast out. This account has been given in Petronius.

[Trans. E. H. Warmington. Text from Arthur Frederick Stocker and Albert Hartman Travis, et al., Servianorum in Vergilii Carmina (Oxford 1965), 3.26. Servius lived in the 4th century AD. Text from Virgil:Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, / auri sacra fames? That king, when Ilium's cause was ebbing low, / and fortune frowned, gave o'er his plighted faith / to Agamemnon's might and victory; / he scorned all honor and did murder foul / on Polydorus, seizing lawlessly / on all the gold. O, whither at thy will, / curst greed of gold, may mortal hearts be driven? Trans. Theodore Williams, text and translation from Perseus.]

62. Servius Commentaries on Virgil Aeneid 3.274

LEVCATAE MONTIS Leucata est mons altissimus, prope paeninsula, in promontorio Epiri iuxta Ambraciam, et sinum et civitatem, // LEVCATAE NIMBOSA CACVMINA MONTIS Leucata mons est altissimus, in promontorio Epiri iuxta Ambraciam civitatem,

quam Augustus Nicopolim appellavit victis illic Antonio et Cleopatra. ibi et templum Actiaco Apollini constituit et ludos Actiacos. unde nunc Vergilius in honorem Augusti quae ipse fecit dat eius origini; nam Aeneam illic dicit ludos celebrasse, ut alibi inducit Aeneam templum promittentem Apollini, quod fecisse constat Augustum, ut (VI 69) tum Phoebo et Triviae solido de marmore templum constituam.

sane de hoc Leucate amatores se in mare ad excludendum amorem praecipitare dicebantur, ut Sappho † quae his inde desiluit. hic locus vocatur † allo. hoc autem plenius ubi Damon in Bucolicis (VIII 59) loquitur invenies. NIMBOSA CACVMINA semper enim, quamvis aliis caeli partibus serenis, Leucatae montis cacumen nubibus tectum est.

Leucata is a towering mountain, nearly a peninsula, in the promontory of Epirus near Ambracia, and a bay and a city, // Leucata is a towering mountain, in the promontory of Epirus near the city Ambracia,

which Augustus named Nicopolis after Antony and Cleopatra were conquered there. And he built a temple to Actaean Apollo there and the Actaean games . . .

Doubtless lovers were said to throw themselves down into the sea from this Leucas to extinguish love, as Sappho, who jumped down from here [?]. . . .

[Text from Arthur Frederick Stocker and Albert Hartman Travis, et al., Servianorum in Vergilii Carmina (Oxford 1965), 3.108-109.] [The Virgil passage: Mox et Leucatae nimbosa cacumina montis / 275 / et formidatus nautis aperitur Apollo. / Hunc petimus fessi et parvae succedimus urbi; / ancora de prora iacitur, stant litore puppes. nigh hoar Leucate's clouded crest we drew, / where Phoebus' temple, feared by mariners, loomed o'er us; thitherward we steered and reached / the little port and town. Our weary fleet / dropped anchor, and lay beached along the strand. Trans. Theodore Williams, text and translation from Perseus.]

63. Servius at Virgil Aeneid 3.279

VOTISQVE INCENDIMVS ARAS id est vota facientes. dubitatur vero utrum Iovis aras an Veneris dixerit. Varro enim templum Veneri ab Aenea conditum, ubi nunc Leucas est, dicit, quamvis Menander et Turpilius comici a Phaone Lesbio id templum conditum dicunt. qui cum esset navicularius, solitus a Lesbo in continentem proximos quosque mercede transvehere, Venerem mutatam in anuis formam gratis travexit. quapropter ab ea donatus unguenti alabastro, cum se † in dies inditum ungueret, feminas in sui amorem trahebat; in quis fuit una quae de monte Leucate, cum potiri eius nequiret, abiecisse se dicitur. unde nunc auctorare se quotannis solent qui de eo monte iaciantur in pelagus. quidam id fieri propter Leucaten puerum dicunt, quem cum Apollo vellet rapere, in mare se proiecit, montemque cognominem sibi fecit.

[We kindled the altars with vows] That is, they were making vows. It is uncertain whether he speaks of altars of Jupiter or of Venus. For Varro says that there was a temple to Venus built by Aeneas where Leucas is now, although the comic writers Menander and Turpilius say that that temple was built by Lesbian Phaon. He, when he was a sailor, used to transport a few of his neighbors from Lesbos to the continent, and he transported Venus, who had changed into the form of an old woman, for free. Because of this, she gave him a box with salve in it, and when he would apply the salve to himself [by day?], he would cause women to love him; among whom was one woman who, it is said, threw herself from the Leucadian mountain when she was unable to make him love her in return. Because of this event, now they are accustomed to hire themselves out every year, those who are thrown from that mountain into the ocean. Some say this rite is practiced because of a boy named Leucates [?], whom, when Apollo wished to possess him, threw himself into the ocean, and gave the mountain its name.

[Text from Arthur Frederick Stocker and Albert Hartman Travis, et al., Servianorum in Vergilii Carmina (Oxford 1965), 3.111-112. Vergil’s text: Ergo insperata tandem tellure potiti, / lustramurque Iovi votisque incendimus aras, / 280 Actiaque Iliacis celebramus litora ludis. So, safe at land, our hopeless peril past, / we offered thanks to Jove, and kindled high / his altars with our feast and sacrifice; / then, gathering on Actium's holy shore, / made fair solemnities of pomp and game. Trans. Theodore Williams, text and translation from Perseus.]

64. Servius Commentaries on Virgil Eclogues 8.59

PRAECEPS AERII SPECVLA D. M. I V. D. quidam hoc ideo dictum putant, quod apud Leucaten soliti erant se praecipitare qui aut suos parentes invenire cupiebant, aut amari ab his desiderabant, quos amabant.

I FROM THE TALL PEAK / OF YON AERIAL ROCK WILL HEADLONG PLUNGE / INTO THE BILLOWS] Some think that this is expressed in this way because at Leucates those who either wished to find their parents, or desired to be loved by those whom they loved, used to throw themselves off the Leucadian cliff.

[Text from Georg Thilo, ed., Servii Grammatici Qui Feruntur In Vergilii Bucolica et Georgica Commentarii (Lipsiae: Teubner, 1887), 102. Virgil’s text: Omnia vel medium fiant mare: vivite, silvae! / praeceps aerii specula de montis in undas / 60 deferar; extremum hoc munus morientis habeto. / desine Maenalios, iam desine, tibia, versus. Yea, be the whole earth to mid-ocean turned! / Farewell, ye woodlands I from the tall peak / of yon aerial rock will headlong plunge / into the billows: this my latest gift, / from dying lips bequeathed thee, see thou keep. / Cease now, my flute, now cease Maenalian lays.’”]

65. Helladius = Photius Bibliotheca 279

ὅτι ἔθος ἦν ἐν Ἀθήναις φαρμάκους ἄγειν δύο, τὸν μὲν ὑπὲρ ἀνδρῶν, τὸν δὲ ὑπὲρ γυναικῶν, πρὸς τὸν καθαρμὸν ἀγομένους. καὶ ὁ μὲν τῶν ἀνδρῶν μελαίνας ἰσχάδας περὶ τὸν τράχηλον εἶχε, λευκὰς δ’ ἅτερος. συβάκχοι δέ φησιν ὠνομάζοντο. τὸ δὲ καθάρσιον τοῦτο λοιμικῶν νόσων ἀποτροπιασμὸς ἦν, λαβὸν τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀπὸ Ἀνδρόγεω τοῦ Κρητός, οὗ τεθνηκότος ἐν ταῖς Ἀθήναις παρανόμως τὴν λοιμικὴν ενόσησαν οἱ Ἀθηναῖοι νόσον, καὶ ἐκράτει τὸ ἔθος ἀεὶ καθαίρειν τὴν πόλιν τοῖς φαρμακοῖς.

[Helladius says] That it was the custom at Athens to lead two pharmakoi, one on behalf of the men, and one on behalf of the women, and these were led for purification. And the pharmakos for the men had black figs around the neck, and the other one had white figs. He says that they were called subakkhoi. And this cleansing served to ward off plagues of disease, and it took its beginning from Androgeus the Cretan [son of King Minos], because the Athenians were afflicted with a plague of disease when he died unjustly in Athens, and this custom began to be in force, to always cleanse the city with pharmakoi.

[My trans. Text from René Henry, ed., Photius Bibliothèque, 9 vols. (Paris: Budé, 1977), 8, p. 182. Helladius of Alexandria was a grammarian in the time of Theodosius the younger (401-450 AD).]

“It was the custom at Athens to lead in procession two pharmakoi with a view to purification; one for the men, one for the women. The pharmakos of the men had black figs round his neck, the other had white ones, and he says they were called subakkhoi. And this purification was of the nature of an apotropaic ceremony to avert diseases, and that it tooks its rise from Androgeōs the Cretan, when at Athens the Athenians suffered abnormally from a pestilential disease, and the custom obtained of contantly purifying the city by pharmakoi.”

[Trans. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, p. 99.]

66. Hesychius Lexicon s.v. pharmakoi

φαρμακοί, καθαρτήριοι, περικαθαίροντες τὰς πόλεις, ἀνὴρ καὶ γυνή.

Pharmakoi: those who cleanse, cleansing the cities thoroughly, a man and a woman.

[My trans. Hesychius of Alexandria lived ca. fifth century AD.]

67. Hesychius Lexicon s.v. pharmakē

φαρμακή. ἡ χύτρα, ἣν ἡτοίμαζον τοῖς καθαίρουσι τὰς πόλεις

Pharmakē, the pot [khutra] they prepared for those cleansing the cities.

[My trans.]

68. Hesychius Lexicon s.v. kradēsitēs = Hipponax 152 / 203 Dg

κραδησίτης· φαρμακός, ὁ ταῖς κράδαις βαλλόμενος.

kradēsitēs: scapegoat, one struck by fig branches.

[Trans. Douglas E. Gerber, Greek Iambic Poetry, LCL, 1999. Text from West’s edition of Hipponax.]

69. Hesychius Lexicon s.v. kradiēs nomos = Hipponax 153W /146Dg

[Hesychius]: kradiēs nomos : a melody they pipe over those escorted out as scapegoats, whipped with fig branches and fig leaves.

[Trans. Douglas E. Gerber, Greek Iambic Poetry, LCL, 1999. Text from West’s edition of Hipponax.]

70. Lactantius Placidus In Statii Thebaida 10.793-94

793-794 LVSTRALEMNE (… / DEVOTVMQVE CAPVT VILIS CEV MATER ALEBAM) lustrare ciuitatem humana hostia Gallicus mos est. nam aliquis de egentissimis proliciebatur praemiis ut se ad hoc uenderet. quianno toto publicis sumptibus alebatur purioribus cibis, denique certo et sollemni die per totam ciuitatem ductus ex urbe extra pomeria saxis occidebatur a populo.

It was a Gallic custom to purify [lustrare] the city by a human sacrifice. For one of the poorest citizens was enticed by rewards to sell himself for this purpose. He was fed for a whole year at the public expense on very pure foods, and finally on a fixed and solemn day he was led through the whole city then outside the city boundaries he was killed [occidebatur] by the populace killed with rocks.

[My trans. Text from the edition of Lactantius by Robert Dale Sweeney, vol. 1 (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1997). Hughes dates these scholia to the fifth or sixth century AD, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece, 158.]

71. The Suda s.v. Pharmakos = Harpokration

Φαρμακός: ὄνομα κύριον. Λυσίας φησί. δύο ἄνδρας ̓Αθήνησιν ἐξη̂γον καθάρσια ἐσομένους τη̂ς πόλεως ἐν τοι̂ς Θαργηλίοις, ἕνα μὲν ὑπὲρ τω̂ν ἀνδρω̂ν, ἕνα δὲ ὑπὲρ τω̂ν γυναικω̂ν. ὅτι δὲ ὄνομα κύριόν ἐστιν ὁ Φαρμακός, δη̂λον: ἱερὰς γὰρ φιάλας του̂ ̓Απόλλωνος κλέψας καὶ ἁλοὺς ὑπὸ τω̂ν περὶ τὸν ̓Αχιλλέα κατελεύσθη: καὶ τὰ τοι̂ς Θαργηλίοις ἀγόμενα τούτων ἀποτμήματά ἐστιν. ̓́Ιστρος ἱστορει̂. Δημοσθένους δὲ ἐν τῳ̂ κατὰ ̓Αριστογείτονος λέγοντος, οὑ̂τος οὐ̂ν αὐτὸν ἐξαιρήσεται ὁ φαρμακός: Δίδυμος προπερισπα̂ν ἀξιοι̂ τοὔνομα. ἀλλ’ ἡμει̂ς οὐχ εὕρομεν οὕτω που τὴν χρη̂σιν. Φαρμάκοντα δὲ Δημοσθένης κατὰ Στεφάνου ἔφη. ἔστι δὲ φαρμάκων ὁ ὑπὸ φαρμάκων βεβλαμμένος: ὡς καὶ Θεόφραστος ἐν ιε# Νόμῳ ὑποσημαίνει.

Pharmakos. A proper name. Lysias says it.[1] They used to pick out two men at Athens to be purifiers of the city during the Thargelia [festival], one representing the men, one the women. That Pharmakos is [also] a proper name is clear: for he stole the sacred bowls of Apollo, was convicted, and was stoned to death by Achilles and his men - events which what happens at the Thargelia are meant to imitate.[2] Istros tells the story.[3] When Demosthenes in the [speech] Against Aristogeiton says “so this is the man, the scapegoat, who will beg him off”,[4] Didymos reckons that the word is accented on the penultimate syllable.[5] But for our part we cannot find this usage anywhere.

Demosthenes [in the second speech] Against Stephanos says “drugged”.[6] Someone “drugged” has been harmfully affected by drugs, as Theophrastos indicates in [book] 15 of Laws.[7]

Notes:

[1] [Lys.] 6.53.

[2] Reading ἀπομιμήματα (not ἀποτμήματα ) from Harpokration.

[3] Istros FGrH 334 F50.

[4] Demosth. 25.80

[5] Didymos p.314 Schmidt.

[6] Demosth. 46.16.

[7] Theophr. fr.11 Szegedy-Maszak.

[From Harpokration s.v. (but here the material is unhelpfully rearranged, producing confusion between the proper name and the technical term). A second, adjacent entry from Harpokration is added at the end.]

[Trans. David Whitehead. Text and translation from Suda On Line http://www.stoa.org/sol/ . The Suda was compiled in the tenth century AD.]

72. The Suda s.v. Katharma

Κάθαρμα: οὐ φθείρῃ κάθαρμα, εἶπε, καὶ ἐκποδὼν ἡμῖν ἄπει; Ἀριστοφάνης φησίν. ὑπὲρ δὲ καθαρμοῦ πόλεως ἀνῄρουν ἐστολισμένον τινά, ὃν ἐκάλουν κάθαρμα. κᾆτ’ ἀνελκύσας ἐρωτᾷ σκανδάληθρ’ ἱστὰς ἐπῶν. διχῶς ἀναγινώσκεται: ὑφ’ ἕν, καὶ πάλιν ἀπόστροφος ἐν τῷ ρ, ἵνα ᾖ, σκανδάληθρ’ ἱστὰς ἐπῶν. οἱ δὲ ὑφ’ ἓν ἀναγινώσκοντες ἐξηγοῦνται οὕτως: ἡ μὲν λέξις πεποιήται παρὰ τὰ πέταυρα τῶν παγίδων, ἀπὸ τοῦ σκάζοντα συμπίπτειν καὶ κρατεῖν τὸ ἐμπεσόν. ὁ δὲ νοῦς: ἀνελκύσας ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος συνηγόρους ἑαυτῷ καὶ θηρευτὰς λόγων ἐρωτᾷ ἡμᾶς: οὕτω γὰρ τὸ ὑπερβατόν. εἶτ’ ἀνελκύσας σκανδάληθρ’ ἱστὰς ἐρωτᾷ ἡμᾶς. σκανδάληθρα δὲ λέγεται τὰ ἐν τοῖς παγίσιν ἐπικαμπῆ ξυλάρια, εἰς ἃ ἐρείδει, ἅπερ Ἀρχίλοχος ῥόπτρον: ἐνταῦθα οὖν λέγει ἐρείσματα λόγων καὶ βάρη.

Offscourings [katharma]: “Aren’t you going to waste the offscourings [katharma], he said, and go away from us?”[1] Aristophanes says [this word].[2] For the purification of a city they used to kill someone who had been adorned [or an adorned animal],[3] whom they called katharma.[4] “And then he drags [Tithonus] into court and interrogates [him], setting traps [made] of words.”[5]. There are two ways to construe this: all in one,[6] and [= or] again [with] an apostrophe after the ρ , [to produce] σκανδάληθρ’ ἱστὰς . Those who prefer the all in one [option] explain it as follows: the word comes from the phrase [τὸ ἱστάναι τὰσκανδάληθρα , namely] the perches of the traps, because when they are triggered they close and hold in [the trap] which fell in. And the sense [is]: after dragging [Tithonus] before the tribunal he asks us [to be] co-advocates for himself and hunters of words. For the the hyperbaton[7] [would be] as follows: “then after dragging us into court and interrogating is he put out traps”. Σκανδάληθρα is the name for the small bent wooden sticks in the traps, into which they fit, and which Archilochos [calls] ῥόπτρον .[7] So [Aristophanes] is saying here fixings and weights of words.

Notes by translators:

[1] Quotation unidentifiable (Adler suggests Aelian).

[2] Aristophanes, Acharnians 44, and frs.59 and 673a.

[3] A young pig according to scholia on Aristophanes, Acharnians 44.

[4] Cf. the scholia to Aristophanes, Frogs 730; and phi 104.

[5] Aristophanes, Acharnians 687, followed by material from the scholia there; cf. Photius s.v. σκανδάληθρα , and sigma 534.

[6] i.e. σκανδαληθριστάς , acrobats or trapeze-artists.

[7] i.e. a transposition of words or clauses.

[8] Archilochus (alpha 4112) fr.186; cf. rho 233, rho 234.

[Translated by: Konstantinos Kopanias and David Whitehead, from Suda Online, adapted. In the third sentence, Kopanias and Whitehead translate “pig.” One could argue that if the author had meant pig he would have specified it; however, the plain pronoun suggests the very well known pharmakos, often called katharma.]

73. Tzetzes Chiliads (“Thousands”) 5.728-763 (including Hipponax fr. 5-10 W)

ΤΙ ΤΟ ΚΑΘΑΡΜΑ

Ὁ φαρμακὸς τὸ κάθαρμα τοιοῦτον ἦν τὸ πάλαι.

Ἂν συμφορὰ κατέλαβε πόλιν θεομηνίᾳ,

εἴτ’ οὖν λιμὸς, εἴτε λοιμὸς, εἴτε καὶ βλάβος ἄλλο,

τῶν πάντων ἀμορφότερον ἦγον ὡς πρὸς θυσίαν,

εἰς καθαρμὸν καὶ φάρμακον πόλεως τῆς νοσούσης.

Εἰς τόπον δὲ τὸν πρόσφορον στήσαντες τὴν θυσίαν,

τυρόν τε δόντες τῇ χειρὶ καὶ μάζαν καὶ ισχάδας,

ἑπτάκις τὲ ῥαπίσαντες ἐκεῖνον εἰς τὸ πέος

σκίλλαις, συκαῖς ἀγραῖς τε καὶ ἄλλοις τῶν ἀγρίων,

τέλος πυρὶ κατέκαιον ἐν ξύλοις τοῖς ἀγρίοις,

καὶ τὴν σποδὸν εἰς θάλασσαν ἔρραινον εἰς ἀνέμους,

εἰς καθαρμὸν τῆς πόλεως, ὡς ἔφην, τῆς νοσούσης,

ὡς καὶ Λυκόφρων μέμνηταί που περὶ τῶν Λοκρίδων,

ὧδέ πως λέγων, ἀκριβῶς τὸν στίχον οὐ γινώσκω.

“ Ὅταν ἀκάρποις γυῖα συμφλέξας κλάδοις

“ Ἥφαιστος εἰς θάλασσαν ἐκβράσσῃ σποδὸν

“ τῆς ἐκ λόφων Τράρωνος ἐφθιτωμένης.

Ὁ δὲ Ἱππώναξ ἄριστα σύμπαν τὸ ἔθος λέγει·

“ πόλιν καθαίρειν καὶ κράδηισι βάλλεσθαι.

Καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ δέ που φησὶ πρώτῳ ἰάμβῳ γράφων·

“ βάλλοντες ἐν χειμῶνι καὶ ῥαπίζοντες

“ κράδηισι καὶ σκίλληισιν ὥσπερ φαρμακόν.

Καὶ πάλιν άλλοις τόποις δε ταῦτα φησὶ κατ’ ἔπος·

“ δεῖ δ’ αὐτὸν ἐς φάρμακον ἐκποιήσασθαι.

“ κἀφῆι παρέξειν ἰσχάδας τε καὶ μᾶζαν

“ καὶ τυρόν, οἷον ἐσθίουσι φαρμακοί.

“ πάλαι γὰρ αὐτοὺς προσδέκονται χάσκοντες

“ κράδας ἔχοντες ὡς ἔχουσι φαρμακοῖς.

Καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ δέ που φησὶν εν τῳ αὐτῷ ἰάμβῳ·

“ λιμῶι γένηται ξηρός· ἐν δὲ τῶι θύμωι

“ [ὁ] φαρμακὸς ἀχθεὶς ἑπτάκις ῥαπισθείη.

Ταῦτα περὶ τοῦ ἔθους μὲν τῆς φαρμακοῦ θυσίας.

Φαρμακουργός δε φαρμακεὺς καὶ φαρμακὸς διοίσει.

Φαρμακουργὸς ἐργάτης τε καὶ πωλητὴς φαρμάκων,

ὡς φαρμακεὺς ὁ χρώμενος φαρμάκοις ὡς πρὸς βλάβην,

ὁ φαρμακός δε καθαρμὸς τῆς πόλεως, ὡς ἔφην.

The pharmakos was an ancient form of purification as follows. If a disaster, such as famine or pestilence or some other blight, struck a city because of divine wrath, they led the ugliest man of all as if to a sacrifice in order to purify and cure the city’s ills. They set the victim in an appropriate place, put cheese, barley cake and dried figs in his hand, flogged him seven times on the penis with squills, wild fig branches, and other wild plants, and finally burned him on wood from wild trees and scattered his ashes into the sea and winds in order to purify the city of its ills, as I said.

[Just as, I think Lycophron records it of the Locrian maidens, speaking somewhat after this manner, I do not remember the exact verse, “when, having consumed their limbs with fuel from fruitless trees the flame of fire cast into the sea the ashes of the maidens that died on the hill of Traron.”] . . . But Hipponax describes the whole custom best: [then Tzetzes quotes Hipponax, frs. 5-10]

So much for the custom of the sacrifice [thusias] of the scapegoat [pharmakos]. Pharmacist [pharmakourgos], poisoner [pharmakeus] and scapegoat [pharmakos] are all different. A pharmacist works with and sells drugs, as a poisoner is he who uses drugs to harm, and the scapegoat is the purification of the city, as I said above.

[Text from Petrus Aloisius M. Leone, ed., Ioannis Tzetzae, Historiae (Naples: Libreria Scientifica Editrice, 1968). First paragaraph trans. D.E. Gerber, Greek Iambic Poetry, p. 358. The next section, in brackets, translated by Jane Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 98. The last paragraph, my trans. Tzetzes lived in the 12th century AD.]

74. Tzetzes Chiliads 8.905-910

Ὁ φαρμακὸς τὸ κάθαρμα τοιόνδε τι ὑπῆρχε·

τὸν πάντων δυσμορφότατον καύσαντες — ὥσπερ εἶπον —

εἰς καθαρμὸν τῆς πόλεως ἐν συμφοραῖς μεγίσταις,

τὴν τέφραν ἔρραινον αὐτοῦ πάσῃ σχεδὸν τῇ πόλει.

Τοῦτο μὲν οὖν τὸ κάθαρμα πρὶν φαρμακὸν ἐκάλουν.

Ὁ φαρμακεὺς ὁ χρώμενος φαρμάκοις εἰς τὸ κτείνειν.

The scapegoat [pharmakos] was the purification [to katharma] in this fashion.

After they had burnt the ugliest man of all – as I said earlier –

for the purification of the city during the greatest disasters,

they sprinkled [errainon] his ash throughout nearly the whole city.

Therefore they called this rite purification [katharma] before scapegoat [pharmakos].

The poisoner [pharmakeus] was he who used drugs to kill.

[My trans. Text from Petrus Aloisius M. Leone, ed., Ioannis Tzetzae, Historiae (Naples: Libreria Scientifica Editrice, 1968).]

75. Tzetzes Schol. Aristophanes Plut. 454b

οἱ φαρμακοὶ δὲ καὶ πρὸς θεραπείαν θυόμενοι πόλεων ἐκαλοῦντο καθάραματα. οὕτω δὲ ἡ τοιαύτη θυσία ἐγίνετο· ἐνσκηψάσης τινὶ πόλει δεινῆς συμφορᾶς, κρατήσαντες ἢ τὸν δυσειδέστατον πάντων ἢ ᾧ μηδεὶς συγγενής, τῇ χειρί τε δόντες ἰσχάδας, μάζαν καὶ τυρόν, ἐς τὸ αἰδοῖόν τε ἑπτάκις ῥαπίσαντες σκίλλαις τε καὶ ἀγρίαις συκαῖς, καὶ μέσῃ τῇ ἀγορᾷ πυρὰν ὑπανάψαντες ξύλοις ἀγρίοις τε καὶ ἀκάρποις, καὶ τοῦτον ὁλοκαυτώσαντες, τὴν τέφραν εἰς ἀποτρόπαιον πάσῃ τῇ πόλει περιερράντιζον.

And the pharmakoi, those sacrificed [thuomenoi] for the healing [therapeian] of the cities, were called offscourings [katharmata]. Such a sacrifice occurred in this fashion. After some fearful disaster had fallen on a certain city, they took into custody either the ugliest of all, or someone who had no relatives, and handing him barley-cakes, dried figs, and cheese, and beating him on on his genitals with squills and wild figs, and lighting a fire in the middle of the agora with wood that was wild and fruitless, they burned this scapegoat totally [holokautōsantes]; then they sprinkled his ashes around the whole city to avert evil [eis aprotropaion].

[My trans. Text from Lydia Massa Positano, ed., Prolegomena et Commentarium in Plutum, which is Fasc. 1 of Lydia Massa Positano, D. Holwerda, W. J. W. Koster, eds., Jo. Tzetzae Commentarii in Artistophenem; which is Part IV of W. J. W. Koster, ed., Scholia in Aristophenem (Groningen: J. B. Wolters, 1960-). ὁλοκαυτέω means “bring a burnt-offering, offer whole,” LSJ.]

76. Tzetzes Schol. Aristophanes Frogs 733a

φαρμακοῖσι: τοῖς καλουμένοις καθάρμασι. τὰ καθάρματα δὲ τοιαδί· συμφορᾶς οἱασδήτινος κατασχούσης πόλιν τινὰ δυσμορφότερον πάντων καὶ ἀηδέστερον ξύλοις ἀκάρποις ὑπὲρ τῆς πόλεως θεηλατουμένης ἐκείνης κατέφλεγον καὶ τὴν τέφραν ἁπανταχοῦ ὡς ἐξελίκμων καὶ ἀπερράντιζον.

For pharmakoi: for those called offscourings [katharmata]. The offscourings [katharmata] are as follows. When a disaster of any sort fell on a certain city, they burned with barren logs the most deformed and unpleasant man on behalf of that city cursed by god, and sprinkled and distributed his ashes all around.

[My trans. Text from, W. J. W. Koster, ed., Commentarium in Ranas et in Aves Argumentum Equitum, which is Fasc. III of Lydia Massa Positano, D. Holwerda, W. J. W. Koster, eds., Jo. Tzetzae Commentarii in Artistophenem; which is Part IV of W. J. W. Koster, ed., Scholia in Aristophenem (Groningen: J. B. Wolters, 1960-). ἐκ-λικμάω means “winnow, sift, empty,” per LSJ.]

77. Photius Lexicon 640, 8 (Porsonus 553):

Φαρμακός· τὸ κάθαρμα, βραχέως. οἱ δὲ Ἴωνες ἐκτείνοντες λέγουσι φαρμακόν. οὗτοι γὰρ διὰ τὴν τῶν βαρβάρων παροίκησιν ελυμήναντο τῆς διαλέκτου τὸ πάτριον, τὰ μέτρα, τοὺς χρόνους· δηλοῖ καὶ Ἱππῶναξ.

[Text from S. A. Naber, ed., Photii Patriarchae Lexicon (Leiden: Brill, 1864), p. 256. Gebhard #31, in the category, “Grammatical Witnesses.”]

78. Photius Lexicon, s.v. peripsēma

περίψημα· κατάμαγμα ἢ ὑπὸ τὰ ἴχνη ἢ ἀπολύτρωσις· οὕτως ἐπέλεγον τῷ κατ’ ἐνιαυτὸν ἐμβαλλομένῳ τῇ θαλάσσῃ νεανίᾳ ἐπ’ ἀπαλλαγῇ τῶν συνεχόντων κακῶν· περίψημα ἡμῶν γενοῦ· ἤτοι σωτηρία καὶ ἀπολύτρωσις· καὶ οὕτως ἐνέβαλον τῇ θαλάσσῃ, ὡσανεὶ τῷ Ποσειδῶνι θυσίαν ἀποτιννύντες.

Offscouring; something wiped off[10] either by the [footsteps] or ransoming. Thus they would say to the youth being thrown into the sea every year to ward off the oppressive evils: “Be our offscouring [peripsēma].” Surely meaning salvation [sōtēria] and ransoming [apolutrōsis]. And thus they threw him into the sea, as if performing a sacrifice to Poseidon.

[My trans. Text from S. A. Naber, ed., Photii Patriarchae Lexicon (Leiden: Brill, 1864), p. 85. Cf. Hughes, Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece, 162.]

79. Photius Lexicon, s.v. Leukatēs

Λευκάτης· σκόπελος τῆς Ἠπείρου, ἀφ’ οὗ ῥίπτουσιν αὑτοὺς εἰς τὸ πέλαγος οἱ ἐρασταί [ἱερεῖς]· Σαπφὼ δὲ πρώτην ἐπὶ Φάωνι τοῦτο ποιῆσαι τὴν ποιήτριαν· οἱ δὲ τὴν ἑταίραν· εγένετο γὰρ ἄλλη Λεσβία ἑταίρα.

Leukatēs: Cliff of Epeiros, from which priests [or “lovers”] throw themselves into the sea. And Sappho the poetess was the first to do this when she was seeking Phaon. And some say the courtesan [named Sappho] was the first to do this. For there was another Lesbian courtesan [named Sappho].

[My trans. Text from S. A. Naber, ed., Photii Patriarchae Lexicon (Leiden: Brill, 1864), p. 382. The manuscripts have hiereis, “priests”; Naber follows the modern emendation erastai, “lovers.”]

80. Anecdota Graeca 1, p. 315, line 22

Φαρμακός· ἀνὴρ πονηρός.

Pharmakos: a wicked man.

[My trans. Text from I. Bekker, Anecdota Graeca , 3 vols (Berlin: G. C. Nauckium, 1814), 1.315. Gebhard, test. 5b.]

81. Eustathius On the Iliad 1236.61

[See above at Stesichorus (?) fr. 100 Page. Eustathius lived in the 12 century AD.]

Selected Secondary Sources:

Gebhard, Viktor. “Die Pharmakoi in Ionien und die Sybacchoi in Athen.” Diss. Amberg 1926.

Deubner, L. Attische Feste (Berlin 1932), 179-188.

Frazer, James. The Golden Bough. Part VI. The Scapegoat, pp. 252ff.

Murray, Gilbert. The Rise of the Greek Epic, 4th ed (Oxford 1934), App. A, pp. 317ff. Orig. 1907.

Nilsson, Martin P. Greek Popular Religion, available online at http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gpr/index.htm. See the discussion of the Thargelia in the chapter “Rural Customs and Festivals.”

Wiechers, A. Aesop in Delphi (Meisenheim am Glam 1961).

Parke, H. W. Festivals of the Athenians (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977), 146-147.

Burkert, Walter. Structure and History in Greek Mythology (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), 59-77.

Bremmer, Jan. “Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient

Greece

.” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 87 (1983): 299–320.

Parker, Robert. Miasma, Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion (Oxford 1983), pp. 24-26, 257-280.

Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion. Tr. J. Raffan (Cambridge, MA 1985), 82-84. Orig. Griechische Religion der archaischen und klassischen Epoche (Stuttgart 1977).

Hughes, Dennis. Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece (London 1991), 139-165

Ogden, Daniel. The Crooked Kings of Ancient Greece (London 1997), 15-46.

[1]West translates this “in winter” from the codices’ xeimōni. Knox follows Schneidewin’s emendation leimōni. Degani also prefers leimōni.

[2] Gerber translates “fig branches.”

[3]I use West’s translation for this line.

[4]“Cooked in a pot,” following West’s egkuthron rather than the received egkhuton (“poured-in,” a cake). Cf. Hesychius s.v. pharmakē. “Pharmakē, the pot [khutra] they prepared for those cleansing the cities” (φαρμακή. ἡ χύτρα, ἣν ἡτοίμαζον τοῖς καθαίρουσι τὰς πόλεις).

[5] [King’s note:] A play of Turpilius, an old Roman comic writer, adapted from the Greek.

[6] boulimos, boulimia : often translated “ox-hunger” or “voracious appetite”; cf. Paulus ex Festo, De Significatu Verbor. 32 M “bulimam Graeci magnam famem dicunt.” From the present passage we see that the meaning is not altogether clear, and Wilhelm Schulze (Kuhns Zeitschrift, xxxiii (1895), p. 243), has shown that the etymology from bous “ox” is doubtful. Cf. “ vim quandam famis non tolerabilem” in Aulus Gellius, xvi. 3. 9 f., where a quotation from Erasistratus on the subject is introduced. On flagellation and evil geniuses cf. G. Soury, La Démonologie de Plutarque, p. 53.

[7] Table-Talk, ii. 10. 1, 642 F.

[8] Probably Metrodorus of Chios, RE, s.v. (no. 14), cols. 1475 f.

[9] Frag. Griech. Historiker (Jacoby), 43 F 3.

[10] katamagma, not in LSJ, apparently from massō, “wipe,” see magma, “thick unguent,” magmos, “wiping, cleansing.”

Met andere woorden. Diegene die in handen kwam van de gifmengers in het Oude Griekenland werd tot zondebok gemaakt, en gezien als een mensenoffer dat 'de stad rein zou houden' door zich te laten vergiftigen - met als gevolg een complete reiniging [van de ziel]. De dichters bezeten door de Muse werden dit lot deelachtig, maar ook de 'kromme' (vrije vertaling) Koningen, krijgers, helden, bedelaars en al wie nog tot mensenoffer werd gemaakt als onderdeel van een groot ritueel voor elke publieke 'outcast' - hoewel die soms wel een zekere heldenstatus verkreeg. In deze wetenschap kunnen we stellen dat we evengoed hiervoor kunnen bedanken, en net als Krishna in de Bhagavad Gita stelt, de gifmenger tot één van onze belangrijkste vijanden zien, voor wie spiritueel wil groeien. Vele obstakels op het Pad, maar je kan ze wel zichtbaar maken, na enige studie en onderzoek.

Also see / research about :
The Best of the Achaeans -
Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry

Ziezo, de zondebokken die eigenlijk helden waren, en ritueel geofferd werden door gifmengers en magiers die hen door het gif meenden te reinigen, het was een reinigingsritueel, een sociale catharsis. Laten we het daarbij houden. Tenslotte wens ik nog te benadrukken dat het gebruik van magie waarbij men zich puur op de materie richt, zonder de het hart en de ziel van de mens ten positieve te benaderen, als pure zwarte magie kan worden geclassificeerd. Zoveel mogelijk weigeren dus, tenzij je niet anders kan - en men in levensgevaar verkeert.

Enfin nu ga ik een boek dat door de Katholieke Kerk verboden is lezen, om de verborgen achtergrond van mijn familie en diens spirituele invloeden (eventueel links met druïden of esoterische orden) te onderzoeken, op aanraden van iemand. Interessant toch, literatuur en kunsten moeten vrij zijn, verboden lijsten en een index van verboden literatuur zijn voor de middeleeuwen, me dunkt. De Kerk zou zich door het boek dat ik ga lezen bedreigd voelen in haar macht door wat er over Jezus wordt neergeschreven. Het is nog altijd verboden. Dat maakt het des te interessanter, natuurlijk. Prometheus zijn pad ga ik niet meer bewandelen, ik steel geen vuur meer van de Goden om het aan mensen uit te delen. Ik wil bijleren, mezelf kennen en vanuit die wijsheid anderen helpen, vrijer maken. Misschien kan een bepaald inzicht wel voor een verbetering van de toestand van bepaalde underdogs leiden. Veel is cultureel bepaald, en dat farmaceutische wetenschap teruggaat tot het ritueel offeren / slachten als maatschappelijke reiniging gaat me toch wel wat ver. Ik zal me gedeisd houden, de Muzen laten me voortaan met rust, en ik tracht het Goede te doen, en met op het Schone en het Ware te richten, om het Platonisch uit te drukken.

Ik heb altijd de sjamanistische weg gevolgd om mijn individuele vrijheid te bewaken en echt beter te worden, in plaats van me te laten leiden door een een bende gifmengers die weer een sociaal offer willen klaarstomen met de nodige chemicalieën. Ik creëer mijn eigen catharis wel indien nodig, is trouwens de titel van een dichtbundel van mij :

Pharmakeus means druggist, poisoner and by extension, wizard, magician, trickster or sorcerer, initiator — the spellbinding shaman/healer. Shamanism is medicine for the imagination using tricks or techniques to alter perception. Whether transformation is induced through drugs, collective dreams, behavior modification, or emotive talkCrowley the Magician therapies, the purpose is to change perception of reality. Defense mechanisms include denial, acting out, fantasy, dissociation, idealization, intellectualization, isolation, projection, rationalization, repression, and somatization. All can be corrected by creative self-help and self-regulation — becoming your own shaman or alchemist. Culture Hero-Trickster The psychotherapeutic approach to healing essentially represents order (through chaos). The shamanic approach represents chaos, often including trance, drugs, adventure and spiritual power plays. These worldviews seem divided but the true nature of reality is dynamic interplay of chaos and order. The healer is also an eternal Trickster. And the Trickster entraps by controlling perceptions, guiding the collective vision of emergent worldviews.

Als je zover op je lichtend Pad geraakt dat je dit allemaal doorziet, dan mag je dit nooit misbruiken en altijd ten goede aanwenden voor jezelf of anderen. Ook regeringen en leiders die met goede bedoelingen hulp vragen, zonder politieke spelletjes, mogen op hulp rekenen. Uiteindelijk maakt het niet uit wie je helpt, de natuur wijst wel aan wat je moet doen ten gepaste tijde. En hopelijk kunnen we het tijdperk inluiden waarbij de zondebok op andere manieren tot catharsis kan komen, zonder chemisch te moeten worden onderdrukt, sociaal geblokkeerd door het afnemen en onder controle brengen van de financiën, en het sociaal controleren middels bureaucratie en zogenaamde 'hulpverlening'. De heks van vroeger die werd geviseerd en in het slechtste geval de brandstapel kreeg is gelukkig achter de rug, maar het is nog steeds een gevloek en een gezucht. Zoals gezegd, als de job erop zit, ga ik met een bende boeddhistische monikken en Rosekruizers in een hut wonen in de Ardennen ofzo. Nu denk ik aan een volgend boek met Jan eventueel. En ik laat me verder niet ringeloren of als gouddelver / werkslaaf gebruiken! Ik blijf alleen maar hier om te helpen, als 'nirmanakaya', anders was ik al langer in eeuwige extase ergens op een berg beland, ver uit het zicht van de mensen. Maar dan kan je niet helpen, dus ik offer me op.

Meer info en background : http://gangstalkingsurfers.wordpress.com/tag/trauma-based-mind-control/

En ik zou zeggen: soldaten, vecht voor de vrijheid, tegen totalitaire regimes en sociale constructies. Voor mensenrechten en een vrije wereld, met respect voor andersdenkenden en 'tegenstanders'. Eenheid in verscheidenheid, Adios, gifmengers.

Als je ziet waarvan we komen :

A pharmakós (Greek: φαρμακός) in Ancient Greek religion was the ritualistic sacrifice or exile by the sorcerers of a humanscapegoat or victim. The victims themselves were referred to as pharmakoi and the sorcerer was referred to as a pharmakon.^[1] A slave, a cripple or a criminal was chosen by the pharmakon or sorcerer and expelled from the community at times of disaster (famine, invasion or plague) or at times of calendrical crisis, after being given pharmakeus or drugs by the pharmakon or sorcerer who was a practitioner of pharmakeia or pharmaceutics. It was believed that this would bring about purification. On the first day of the Thargelia, a festival of Apollo at Athens, two men, the Pharmakoi, were led out as if to be sacrificed as an expiation. Some scholia state thatpharmakoi were actually sacrificed (thrown from a cliff or burned), but many modern scholars reject this, arguing that the earliest source for the pharmakos (the iambic satirist Hipponax) shows the pharmakoi being beaten and stoned, but not executed. A more plausible explanation would be that sometimes they were executed and sometimes not, depending on the attitude of the victim. For instance, a deliberate unrepentant murderer would most likely be put to death.

De mensheid heeft collectieve drapetomanie , er is dus nog hoop. Allen menschen werden brüder, en geen onderdrukking meer. Iedereen vrij ...! En wat de Kerk betreft, daar is terug hoop met de nieuwe Paus, die de alures heeft van een rockster. Ik ben een positivo, een optimist. De wereld moet nog een eeuwigheid mee, alles is niet om zeep.

[Dutch] Het ervaren van tegenwerking bij spiritueel werk / spirituele beveiliging / Info spiritueel discipelschap & inwijding / Tips by Sri Aurobindo

Difficulties and obstacles, if properly understood and used, can turn out to be an unexpected source of strength. Gesar was the great warrior king of Tibet, whose escapades form the greatest epic of Tibetan literature. Gesar means “indomitable,” someone who can never be put down. From the moment Gesar was born, his evil uncle Trotung tried all kinds of means to kill him. But with each attempt Gesar only grew stronger and stronger.
For the Tibetans, Gesar is not only a martial warrior but also a spiritual one. To be a spiritual warrior means to develop a special kind of courage, one that is innately intelligent, gentle, and fearless. Spiritual warriors can still be frightened, but even so they are courageous enough to taste suffering, to relate clearly to their fundamental fear, and to draw out without evasion the lessons from difficulties.

Sogyal Rinpoche

Eén van de interessante onderdelen van esoterische training is het onderzoeken van de vele verschillende soorten van tegenwerking. De ziel heeft haar eigen doelstelling die vaak anders is dan die van de discipel in incarnatie. Pas bij de derde inwijding heeft de persoon, vanuit vrije wil, de strijd om de macht opgegeven en is het stadium bereikt dat de ziel en de persoonlijkheid werkelijk samenwerken. In het verleden werden deze mensen beschouwd als heiligen, ze zijn zeldzaam.

De tegenwerkende kracht is dus voor een deel het gevolg van allerlei bewuste of onbewuste gevechten die zich afspelen tussen de persoon (die vaak niet bereid is om te veranderen) en de ziel, die aandringt om de weg van vreugdevolle dienst aan de medemens te blijven volgen. Dit proces strekt zich uit over vele levens. Ervaringen en keuzes uit het verleden zorgen voor allerlei nieuwe soortgelijke ervaringen, waar de discipel mee wordt geconfronteerd, voor nader onderzoek en mogelijk andere keuzes. Dit alles is in de aura van de discipel aanwezig en er is dus geen ontkomen aan. De opgebouwde persoonlijkheid is het resultaat van het verleden en is de werkelijke wachter bij de poort naar de ziel.

De ziel probeert deze persoonlijkheid te bevrijden van eigenbelang, angst, illusies en isolement. Dit slaagt alleen met bewuste medewerking van de persoon zelf. Als de bewuste discipel zich blijft richten op het instromende licht van de ziel dan kan het denkvermogen uiteindelijk worden gevuld met de wijsheid van de ziel. Op deze manier wordt de persoonlijkheid omgevormd tot een kanaal van zuivere ziele werkzaamheid. Deze omvorming wordt ook wel bevrijding genoemd. Bij de vierde inwijding is de discipel volledig losgekomen van alles wat hem heeft vastgehouden in de menselijke samenleving. Er stroomt dan een geweldige hoeveelheid energie door de aura van de discipel. Zo iemand is wel in de wereld en tussen de mensen maar is niet "geboeid" door wat dan ook. De enige reden voor zijn aanwezigheid is dienst in het Plan. Er is dan geen weerstand meer van persoonlijke aard, die zijn werkzaamheden kunnen belemmeren. Toch blijft er altijd gevaar bestaan voor andere soorten van tegenwerking, die worden veroorzaakt door de tegenstanders van de witte loge.

Naarmate de discipel vordert op de weg naar bevrijding neemt ook de weerstand toe. In het begin van het pad worden vooral de emotionele reacties als hindernis ervaren. Later worden de eigen denkbeelden op het mentale gebied het actieve terrein van strijd. In een verder gevorderd stadium worden de onjuiste denkbeelden van de groep bestreden met de zuivere rede. Als de discipel weer dichter bij het licht is gekomen worden ook de leden van de zwarte loge duidelijker gekend en krijgt men directer met hun aanvallen te maken. Deze aanvallen zijn erop gericht de werkzaamheden van de discipel onmogelijk te maken of opgebouwd werk te vernietigen. Vaak wordt er door de zwarte loge gebruik gemaakt van mensen zonder onderscheidingsvermogen en met een gesloten hart. Ook binnen esoterische groepen wordt op deze manier veel schade aangericht door aangenomen discipelen, zonder dat deze zich bewust zijn van waar men voor wordt misbruikt. Het is raadzaam hier over na te denken.

Dit alles maakt het werk van de Geestelijke Hiërarchie zwaar en moeilijk, vooral waar het gaat om het opbouwen van groepen. De tegenwerkende krachten vanuit de verschillende personen en de aanvallen van de tegenstanders van de witte loge zorgen voor een strijd met het nederdalende Licht. Uiteindelijk zal het licht zegevieren omdat dit vanuit het goddelijke wordt gevoed. De groep Emmanuël wordt geleid vanuit de Geestelijke Hiërarchie en werkt van boven naar beneden, niet andersom. Dit maakt haar zeer sterk en biedt de mogelijkheid om de hogere vermogens te manifesteren, ondanks alle mogelijke tegenwerkende krachten.

Welke methoden kunnen nu worden gebruikt om de werker in de wereld te beveiligen? Wat kan er gedaan worden om zijn veiligheid te verzekeren in de strijd van het heden en in de grote strijd van de komende eeuwen?

Een besef dat zuiverheid van alle voertuigen (fysiek, emotioneel, mentaal, spiritueel) een eerste vereiste is. Indien een duistere broeder macht over een mens verkrijgt, blijkt hieruit dat die mens een of andere zwakke plek in zijn leven heeft. De deur welke toegang verleent, moet door de mens zelf zijn geopend; de opening waardoor een kwaadaardige kracht toegelaten kan worden, moet door de bewoner van de voertuigen zijn veroorzaakt.Vandaar de noodzaak van een kraakzindelijk stoffelijk lichaam, van eerlijke standvastige gevoelens in het stoffelijk lichaam en van zuiverheid van denken in het mentaal lichaam. Wanneer dit zo is, zullen de lagere voertuigen gecoördineerd zijn en zal de inwonende Denker zelf geen toegang verlenen.
Alle angst uitschakelen. De krachten van evolutie trillen sneller dan die van involutie en in dat feit ligt een onmiskenbare veiligheid. Angst veroorzaakt zwakheid; zwakheid veroorzaakt ontbinding; de zwakke plek breekt open en er een ontstaat een gat, waardoor de boze kracht kan binnentreden. De factor waardoor toegang wordt verleend, is de angst van de mens zelf, die op die wijze de deur ontsluit.
Stevig en onbewogen staan, ongeacht wat er moge gebeuren. Uw voeten kunnen ondergedompeld zijn in de modder der aarde, maar uw hoofd kan zich baden in de zonneschijn van de hogere gebieden. Erkenning van het aardse slijk houdt geen bezoedeling in.
Een erkenning van het gebruik van gezond verstand en de toepassing van dat gezond verstand op de aangelegenheid in kwestie. Slaap veel en leer, terwijl gij slaapt, het lichaam positief te houden, blijf doorwerken op het emotioneel gebied en verwerf innerlijke kalmte. Doe niets waardoor het stoffelijk lichaam oververmoeid raakt, en ontspan u wanneer het mogelijk is. In uren van ontspanning komt de vereffening die latere gespannenheid voorkomt.

Bron: Occulte meditatie, Alice Bailey, blz. 127-28

DISCIPELSCHAP EN INWIJDING - Alice Bailey

Het pad van discipelschap is moeilijk te begaan en het pad van inwijding zelfs nog moeilijker; een ingewijde is slechts een strijder met in de strijd bekomen lidtekens, de overwinnaar in vele moeilijk gewonnen gevechten; hij spreekt niet over hetgeen hij bereikt heeft, want hij wordt tezeer in beslag genomen door het grote werk, dat hij bezig is te verrichten; hij maakt geen zinsspelingen op zichzelf of op al hetgeen hij heeft volbracht, behalve om te zeggen, dat er nog slechts weinig is gedaan. Desalniettemin is hij altijd voor de wereld een mens met grote invloed, die geestelijke kracht hanteert en idealen belichaamt, de werker voor de mensheid, die zeker resultaten tot stand brengt, die volgende generaties zullen herkennen. Hij is iemand, die zelden begrepen wordt door zijn eigen generatie, ondanks al het grote, wat hij volbracht heeft. Hij is dikwijls het mikpunt van het gepraat der mensen en vaak wordt alles wat hij doet verkeerd uitgelegd; hij legt alles wat hij heeft - tijd, geld, invloed, reputatie en alles, wat de wereld als de moeite waard beschouwt - op het altaar van altruïstische dienst en dikwijls brengt hij zijn eigen leven als laatste gave ten offer, alleen om te ervaren, dat degenen die hij gediend heeft, zijn gave naar zich terugwerpen, zijn zelfverloochening honen en hem met onsmakelijke namen betitelen. Maar de ingewijde geeft hier niet om, want hij bezit het voorrecht enigermate in de toekomst te kunnen zien en daardoor beseft hij, dat de kracht, die hij heeft opgewekt, het plan te zijner tijd in vervulling zal doen gaan; hij weet ook, dat zijn naam en zijn streven opgetekend worden in het archief van de Loge en dat de 'Zwijgende Wachter' over de aangelegenheden der mensen er nota van heeft genomen.

Extra info & guidelines by Sri Aurobindo [English]

The hostile Forces are Powers of Darkness who are in revolt against the Light and the Truth and want to keep this world under their rule in darkness and ignorance. Whenever anyone wants to reach the Truth, to realise the Divine, they stand in the way as much as possible. But what they are specially against is the work the Mother and myself are doing, to bring down the Light here into the earth and establish the Truth—that would mean their own expulsion. So they always try to destroy the work as a whole and to spoil the sadhana of each sadhak. It is not only you who are attacked: all are attacked more or less—especially when there is a great progress, these forces try to interfere.

The only way to avoid it is to be entirely turned towards the Mother and to refuse any opportunity to these Forces.

[...]

Sometimes they possess men in order to act through them, sometimes they take birth in a human body. When their use in the play is over, they will either change or disappear or no longer seek to intervene in the earth-play.

[...]

These things [such as temptation by Apsaras] are possible but they do not usually happen—because it is difficult for beings of the subtle worlds to materialise to such an extent or for a long time. They prefer to act by influencing human beings, using them as instruments or taking possession of a human mind and body.

[...]

There are two kinds of Asuras—one kind were divine in their origin but have fallen from their divinity by self-will and opposition to the intention of the Divine: they are spoken of in the Hindu scriptures as the former or earlier gods; these can be converted and their conversion is indeed necessary for the ultimate purposes of the universe. But the ordinary Asura is not of this character, is not an evolutionary but a typal being and represents a fixed principle of the creation which does not evolve or change and is not intended to do so.

These Asuras, as also the other hostile beings, Rakshasas, Pisachas and others resemble the devils of the Christian tradition and oppose the divine intention and the evolutionary purpose in the human being; they don’t change the purpose in them for which they exist which is evil, but have to be destroyed like the evil. The Asura has no soul, no psychic being which has to evolve to a higher state; he has only an ego and usually a very powerful ego; he has a mind, sometimes even a highly intellectualised mind; but the basis of his thinking and feeling is vital and not mental, at the service of his desire and not of truth. He is a formation assumed by the life-principle for a particular kind of work and not a divine formation or a soul.

[...]

Yes. Some kinds of Asuras are very religious, very fanatical about their religion, very strict about rules of ethical conduct. Others of course are just the opposite. There are others who use spiritual ideas without believing in them to give them a perverted twist and delude the sadhaka. It is what Shakespeare described as the Devil quoting Scripture for his own purpose. At present what they are most doing is to try to raise up the obscurity and weakness of the most physical mind, vital, material parts to prevent the progress or fulfilment of the sadhana.

[...]

The Asuras are really the dark side of the mental, ormore strictly, of the vital mind plane. This mind is the very field of the Asuras. Their main characteristic is egoistic strength and struggle, which refuse the higher law. The Asura has self-control, tapas and intelligence, but all that for the sake of his ego. On the lower vital plane the corresponding forces we call the Rakshasas which represent violent passions and influences. There are also other kinds of beings on the vital plane which are called the Pisachas and Pramathas. They manifest more or less in the physico-vital. On the physical plane the corresponding forces are obscure beings, more forces than beings, what the Theosophists call the elementals. They are not strongly individualised beings like the Rakshasas and Asuras, but ignorant and obscure forces working in the subtle physical plane. What we in Sanskrit call the Bhutas mostly come under this class. But there are two kinds of elementals, the one mischievous and the other not. There are no Asuras on the higher planes where the Truth prevails, except in the Vedic sense—“the Divine in its strength”. The mental and vital Asuras are only a deviation of that power.

[...]

The Gandharvas are of the vital plane but they are vital Gods, not Asuras. Many Asuras are beautiful in appearance and can carry even a splendour or light with them. It is the Rakshasas, Pisachas, etc. who are ugly or evil in appearance.

[...]

Some of the vital beings are very intelligent—but they do not make friends with the Light—they only try to avoid destruction and wait their time.

[...]

The hostile forces exist and have been known to Yogic experience ever since the days of the Veda and Zoroaster in Asia (and the mysteries of Egypt and Chaldea and the Cabbala) and in Europe also from old times. These things of course cannot be felt or known so long as one lives in the ordinary mind and its ideas and perceptions—for there there are only two categories of influences recognisable, the ideas and feelings and actions of oneself and others and the play of environment and physical forces. But once one begins to get the inner view of things, it is different. One begins to experience that all is an action of forces, forces of Prakriti psychological as well as physical which play upon our nature—and these are conscious forces or are supported by a consciousness or consciousnesses behind. One is in the midst of a big universal working and it is impossible any longer to explain everything as the result of one’s own sole and independent personality.

You yourself have at one time written that your crises of despair etc. came upon you as if thrown on you and worked themselves out without your being able to determine or put an end to them. That means an action of universal forces and not merely an independent action of your own personality, though it is something in your nature of which they make use. But you are not conscious, and others also, of this intervention and pressure at its source for the reason I state. Those in the Asram who have developed the inner view of things on the vital plane have plenty of experience of the hostile forces. However, you need not personally concern yourself with them so long as they remain incognito.

[...]

It is true that all comes from the Divine and it is true also that a Divine Presence and a Divine Will is behind all that happens and leads the world towards a divine goal.

At the same time it is also taught in the Gita that this world is a world of obscurity and ignorance and to attain to the Divine one must overcome certain forces of Nature, such as Desire, which the Gita calls the enemy difficult to overcome. It is in this sense that we speak of hostile forces—those which stand in the way of coming out of the Ignorance and attaining to the consciousness of the Divine.

It is again true that those who have a complete and living faith in the Divine and a perfect sincerity in their vision of the Divine everywhere and a pure sattwic nature need not trouble themselves about the hostile forces—for from them the forces of the Ignorance fall back and cannot take possession of their nature.

The teaching about the hostile forces (Asuri Rakshasi forces) is necessary for those who have a divided consciousness or a more rajasic temperament—for if they are not on their guard they may fall into the control of undesirable forces of Desire and Ego.

[...]

The psychic being, if allowed to manifest from the first in Life and lead the evolution instead of being relegated behind the veil, would have been the principle of a harmonious outflowering; everyone who has felt the psychic at work within him, freed from the vital intervention, can at once see that this would be its effect because of its unerring perception, true choice, harmonic action. If it has not been so, it is because the dark Powers have made Life a claimant instead of an instrument. The reality of the Hostiles and the nature of their role and trend of their endeavour cannot be doubted by anyone who has had his inner vision unsealed and made their unpleasant acquaintance.

[...]

It is likely that as the supramental principle evolved itself the evolution would more and more take on another aspect—the Daivic nature would predominate, the Asuro-Rakshaso-Pishachic prakriti which now holds so large a place would more and more recede and lose its power. A principle of greater unity, harmony and light would emerge everywhere. It is not that the creation in the Ignorance would be altogether abolished, but it would begin to lose much of its elements of pain and falsehood and would be more a progression from lesser to higher Truth, from a lesser to a higher harmony, from a lesser to a higher Light, than the reign of chaos and struggle, of darkness and error that we now perceive.

For according to all occult teaching the evolutionary creation could have been such but for the intervention of the Powers of Darkness—all traditions including that of the Veda and Upanishads point under different figures to the same thing. In the Upanishads it is the Daityas that smite with evil all that the gods create, in the Zoroastrian tradition it is Ahriman coming across the work of Ahura Mazda, the Chaldean tradition uses a different figure. But the significance is the same; it is the perception of something that has struck across the harmonious development of creation and brought in the principle of darkness and disorder. The occult tradition also foresees the elimination of this disturbing element by the descent of a divine Principle or Power on earth, but gives to it usually a sudden and dramatic form. I conceive that the supramental descent would effect the same event by a progressive elimination of the darkness and evolution of the Light, but with what rate of rapidity it would be rash to try to forecast or prefigure.

[...]

When there is a pressure on the vital world due to the preparing Descent from above, that world usually precipitates something of itself into the human. The vital world is very large and far exceeds the human in extent. But usually it dominates by influence not by descent. Of course the effort of this part of the vital world is always to maintain humanity under its sway and prevent the higher Light.

The vital descent cannot prevent the supramental—still less can the possessed nations do it by their material power, since the supramental descent is primarily a spiritual fact which will bear its necessary outward consequences. What previous vital descents have done is to falsify the Light that came down as in the history of Christianity where it took possession of the teaching and distorted it and deprived it of any widespread fulfilment. But the supermind is by definition a Light that cannot be distorted if it acts in its own right and by its own presence. It is only when it holds itself back and allows inferior Powers of consciousness to use a diminished and already deflected Truth that the knowledge can be seized by the vital Forces and made to serve their own purpose.

[...]

Ignorance means Avidya, the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flows from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life. This Ignorance is the result of a movement by which the cosmic Intelligence separated itself from the light of Supermind (the divine Gnosis) and lost the Truth,—truth of being, truth of divine consciousness, truth of force and action, truth of Ananda. As a result instead of a world of integral truth and divine harmony created in the light of the divine Gnosis, we have a world founded on the part truths of an inferior cosmic Intelligence in which all is half truth, half error.

It is this that some of the ancient thinkers like Shankara, not perceiving the greater Truth-Force behind, stigmatised as Maya and thought to be the highest creative power of the Divine. All in the consciousness of this creation is either limited or else perverted by separation from the integral Light; even the Truth it perceives is only a half knowledge. Therefore it is called the Ignorance.

Falsehood, on the other hand, is not this Avidya, but an extreme result of it. It is created by an Asuric power which intervenes in this creation and is not only separated from the Truth and therefore limited in knowledge and open to error, but in revolt against the Truth or in the habit of seizing the Truth only to pervert it. This Power, the dark Asuric Shakti or Rakshasic Maya, puts forward its own perverted consciousness as true knowledge and its wilful distortions or reversals of the Truth as the verity of things. It is the powers and personalities of this perverted and perverting consciousness that we call hostile beings, hostile forces. Whenever these perversions created by them out of the stuff of the Ignorance are put forward as the truth of things, that is the Falsehood.

[...]

These are the forces and beings that are interested in maintaining the falsehoods they have created in the world of the Ignorance and in putting them forward as the Truth which men must follow. In India they are termed Asuras, Rakshasas, Pisachas (beings respectively of the mentalised vital, middle vital and lower vital planes)who are in opposition to the Gods, the Powers of Light. These too are Powers, for they too have their cosmic field in which they exercise their function and authority and some of them were once divine Powers who have fallen towards the Darkness by revolt against the divine Will behind the cosmos. The word “Appearances” refers to the forms they take in order to rule the world, forms often false and always incarnating falsehood, sometimes pseudo-divine.

[...]

Yes, they [the hostile forces] have their own world and, if they kept to it, there could be no objection to their existence. There is a world that is natural to them and has its own rhythm, its own dharma—just as the lesser gods have theirs. But, they want to dominate the evolution and for that purpose they have taken their station in the vital worlds which influence the earth nature and give it its materials for life.

They were created or rather manifested like other orders of being as a type or several types expressing some cosmic stress, some possibility in the Infinite, the expression of a certain kind of consciousness and force. When the work that they are permitted to do on earth, the work of negation, perversion, miscreation is finished they will be destroyed here, but there is no reason to suppose that they may not exist in their own universe, as it were, outside the system here. For here their presence is an Adharma, a disturbance of the true harmony and natural evolution there should be on the earth plane; it is an intrusion and not a natural presence.

How did the Ignorance come into being out of Sachchidananda? Or ego? The Hostile Forces in their own world embody ego self-fulfilled and having its own free play—ego on earth is not self-fulfilled and not meant to be, it is in conflict with a cosmic Force greater than itself and is only a temporary expedient for bringing forth individuality out of the indeterminateness of just conscient life and inconscient Matter.

[...]

If there were no hostile forces and there were still the evolutionary world, there could be ignorance still but not perversity in the ignorance. All would be a partial truth acting through imperfect instruments but for the best purposes of this or that stage in a progressive manifestation.

[...]

The mere intensity of the force does not show that it is a bad power; the Divine Force often works with a great intensity. Everything depends on the nature of the force and its working; what does it do, what seems to be its purpose? If it works to purify or open the system, or brings with it light or peace or prepares the change of the thought, ideas, feelings, character in the sense of a turning towards a higher consciousness, then it is the right force. If it is dark or obscure or perturbs the being with rajasic or egoistic suggestions or excites the lower nature, then it is an adverse Force.

[...]

The hostiles have themselves bodies though not of a gross physical kind—they see, but with a subtle seeing that includes not only bodies, but movements of forces, thoughts, feelings.

[...]

Very great [are the occult powers of the hostile beings]—it is their occult powers and knowledge of occult processes that make them so strong and effective.

[...]

The lesser forces of Light are usually too much insistent on seeking for Truth to make effectivity their logic or their rule—the hostiles are too pragmatic to care for Truth, they want only success. As for the greater Forces (e.g. Overmind) they are dynamic and try always to make consciousness effective, but they insist on consciousness, while the hostiles care nothing for that—the more unconscious you are and their automatic tool, the better they are pleased—for it is unconsciousness that gives them their chance.

[...]

The universe is certainly or has been up to now in appearance a rough and wasteful game with the dice of chance loaded in favour of the Powers of darkness, the Lords of obscurity, falsehood, death and suffering. But we have to take it as it is and find out—if we reject the way out of the old sages—the way to conquer. Spiritual experience shows that there is behind it all a wide terrain of equality, peace, calm, freedom, and it is only by getting into it that we can have the eye that sees and hope to gain the power that conquers.

[...]

It [the adverse force] is the Power that keeps up ignorance and darkness in the world—it can only be destroyed when mankind is no longer in love with ignorance and darkness. Each sadhak has to push it out of contact with his being. When it has gone from him, then there will be no longer any serious difficulties in his sadhana.

[...]

The evil forces are perversions of the Truth by the Ignorance—in any complete transformation they must disappear and the Truth behind them be delivered. In this way they can be said to be transformed by destruction.

[...]

The Gods are Personalities or Powers put forth by the Divine—they are therefore in front limited Emanations, although the full Divine is behind each of them.

Of course, the gods exist—that is to say, there are Powers that stand above the world and transmit the divine workings. It is the physical mind which believes only in what is physical that denies them. There are also beings of other worlds—gods and Asuras etc.

There are Gods everywhere on all the planes.

[...]

While the Gods cannot be transformed, for they are typal and not evolutionary beings, they can come for conversion—that is to say, to give up their own ideas and outlook on things and conform themselves to the higher Will and supramental Truth of the Divine.

The higher beings are not likely to be in disharmony with each other as they are not subject to the lower ignorance.

The Gods have their own enjoyments, though they may not be of a material character.

[...]

The natives of the Overmind are Gods. Naturally the Gods rule the cosmos.

The Overmind is the world of the Gods and the Gods are not merely Powers, but have Forms also.

In the Overmind the Gods are still separated existences.

The Formateurs of the Overmind have shaped nothing evil—it is the lower forces that receive from the Overmind and distort its forces.

[...]

As far as I can see, once the supramental is established in Matter, the transformation will be possible undermuch less troublesome conditions than now are there. These bad conditions are due to the fact that the Ignorance is in possession and the hostile Powers an established authority, as it were, who do not care to give up their hold and there is no full force of Light established in the earth consciousness which would not only meet but outweigh their full force of darkness.

It is the darkest nights that prepare the greatest dawns—and it is so because it is into the deep inconscience of material life that we have to bring, not an intermediate glimmer, but the full glory of the divine Light.

[...]

This aim suggested to you seems to be part of a seeking for occult powers; such a seeking is looked on with disfavour for the most part by spiritual teachers in India because it belongs to the inferior planes and usually pushes the seeker on a path which may lead him very far from the Divine. Especially, a contact with the forces and beings of the astral (or, as we term it, the vital) plane is attended with great dangers.

The beings of this plane are often hostile to the true aim of spiritual life and establish contact with the seeker and offer him powers and occult experiences only in order that they may lead him away from the spiritual path or else that they may establish their own control over him or take possession of him for their own purpose. Often, representing themselves as divine powers, they mislead, give erring suggestions and impulsions and pervert the inner life.

Many are those who, attracted by these powers and beings of the vital plane, have ended in a definitive spiritual fall or in mental and physical perversion and disorder. One comes inevitably into contact with the vital plane and enters into it in the expansion of consciousness which results from an inner opening, but one ought never to put oneself into the hands of these beings and forces or allow oneself to be led by their suggestions and impulsions. This is one of the chief dangers of the spiritual life and to be on one’s guard against it is a necessity for the seeker if he wishes to arrive at his goal.

[...]

Ordinarily, all the more inward and all the abnormal psychological experiences are called psychic. I use the word psychic for the soul as distinguished from the mind and vital. All movements and experiences of the soul would in that sense be called psychic, those which rise from or directly touch the psychic being; where mind and vital predominate, the experience would be called psychological (surface or occult). “Spiritual” has nothing to do with the Absolute, except that the experience of the Absolute is spiritual. All contacts with self, the higher consciousness, the Divine above are spiritual. There are others that could not be so sharply classified and set off against each other.

The spiritual realisation is of primary importance and indispensable. I would consider it best to have the spiritual and psychic development first and have it with the same fullness before entering the occult regions. Those who enter the latter first may find their spiritual realisation much delayed—others fall into the mazy traps of the occult and do not come out in this life. Some no doubt can carry on both together, the occult and the spiritual, and make them help each other; but the process I suggest is the safer.

The governing factors for us must be the spirit and the psychic being united with the Divine—the occult laws and phenomena have to be known but only as an instrumentation, not as the governing principles. The occult is a vast field and complicated and not without its dangers. It need not be abandoned but it should not be given the first place.

[...]

A sincere heart is worth all the extraordinary powers in the world.

Sri Aurobindo

Source: Letters on Yoga

More info : [English] - http://www.sentforlife.com/thepath.htm

And with love also on its philanthropic side the gain will be great; so much more can be done for man from that plane than from the physical. Physical activities make a great fuss, and have comparatively small results. You see a man running about making laws, and doing this and that in the world of the state and of society, and you think how great is his work, how wonderful are his results. But how small and petty they are in comparison with the results which flow from unseen labour done in quietness and silence, without speech of tongue, without effort of the physical body, done by the working of the mind in the subtler medium which affects men’s thoughts more than their bodies, which influences their minds more than their outward frames. When humanity rises on to that higher plane, then this influence will be far more widely spread than it is today, and misery, crime and wretchedness will be met by working on the minds of men, purifying them and raising them, and thus lifting them above the possibilities that engulf them now. Do you realize, you to whom I am now speaking, that every one of you who generates an impure or revengeful or angry or sordid thought, sends out that thought into the world of society as a living force, as an active entity, which plays upon society, which is taken in by the weakest, by the most receptive, by the least developed, so that out of those thoughts of so-called respectable men there are scattered the seeds of crime through the lower masses of the people, and the sins of these which show out in actions belong very largely to the Karma of those whose thoughts have given them birth. That is not known as widely as it should be known. It is not believed as it should be believed. Every man who feels revenge sends out into the astral world a power for destruction; and when some weak creature comes along with a bad Karma behind him, and bad circumstances surrounding him, with impulses which are not under his control and passions which are stronger than his mind, these evil thoughts come down upon him, all these angry thoughts from men living in respectable conditions in society, and if he be stimulated by some wrong, maddened by some injury, these impel him to strike a blow which we call murder; though he holds the knife in his physical hand, the blow is largely struck by the thoughts of many men whose revengeful feelings are of the essence of murder, although they appear not in outward form. You will not get rid of crimes in the lower strata of society until you purify the thoughts of the higher classes, of those who are educated and can understand the nature of things. And when all this is seen and known, when the astral world lies open to men’s vision, there will be a new force available to help and to raise mankind; for men will no longer disbelieve in the power of thought, they will then appreciate their responsibility for the thoughts they generate, and will send out loving and helping influences instead of the degrading influences that go out so often today.

The Dark Forces (how to recognise them)

The Dark Forces Excerpts from the work of the Tibetan (Djwhal Khul)
through Alice A. Bailey

I might here touch upon the paralleling activity of the forces which are working to prevent the externalization of the Hierarchy of Light, since such a happening as that would mean increased - because proven - power.

The three modes whereby the forces of darkness seek to control humanity, are: hatred, aggression, and separativeness.

The three great spiritual counterparts are: love, selfless sharing, and synthesis.

The dark forces... work by the identification of glamour [illusions], and by the stimulation of the lower psychic powers. If these evil forces cannot induce the disciples everywhere, in group formation or individually, to succumb in some form to glamour, then they will endeavor to utilize group glamour to negative their efforts, and force those with whom the disciples work to believe evil, to impugn motives... If this cannot be done, they may then attack the physical bodies of the workers and agents for the Hierarchy, and seek, through the distress of the physical body, to control the disciple's output. This does not always prove successful, as the Master can, and often does protect His disciple.

Evil or wrong exists only when the emphasis is retained in the wrong aspect from the point of view of the unfoldment attained, or when that which has been used and developed to the necessary point, holds the life or consciousness too long. Hence the beneficent nature of death.

The major weapon now being used by the combined forces of evil is: chaos, disruption, lack of established security, and the consequent fear...
The entire rhythm of international thinking has to be altered, and that constitutes a slow and arduous task; the evil personalities which, in every country which are responsible for the chaos & uncertainty, have eventually to be replaced by those who can work in cooperation with the rhythm of the seventh ray, and thus produce ordered beauty. (2-668)
These forces, as far as the intelligent peoples of the world are concerned, work insidiously and cloak their effort in fair words, leading even disciples to express hatred of persons and ideologies, fostering hidden seeds of hatred found in many human beings. They fan to fury the fear and hate of the world in an effort to preserve that which is old, and make the unknown appear undesirable, and they hold back the forces of evolution and of progress for their own ends.
These forces which it is well for you to recognize as existing, but there is little that you, as individuals or as groups can do about them beyond seeing to it that there is nothing in you which could make you---unimportant as you are---a focal point for their efforts or an agent for the distribution of their peculiar type of energy---the energy of focused and directed hate, of separation, of fear and pride. With them We who are connected directly with the Hierarchy have to deal, but you can aid more than you know through the regulation of thoughts and ideas, through cultivation of a loving spirit, and through the use of the Great Invocation. (2-75/76)
The Dark Brothers are -- remember this always-- brothers, erring and misguided, yet still sons of the one Father, though straying far, very far, into the land of distances. The way back for them will be long, but the mercy of evolution inevitably forces them back along the path of return in cycles far ahead. Anyone who over-exalts the concrete mind and permits it continuously to shut out the higher, is in danger of straying on the left-hand path. Many so stray ... but come back, and then in the future avoid like errors, in the same way as a child once burnt avoids the fire. It is the man who persists, in spite of warning and of pain, who eventually becomes a brother of darkness...
The dark brother considers not what suffering he may cause; he cares not what agony of mind he brings upon an opponent; he persists in his intention, and desists to from the hurt of any man, woman or child, provided that in the process his own ends are furthered. Expect absolutely no mercy from those opposing the Brotherhood of Light.

Many and subtle are the means used to deceive and thereby curtail the effective output of the worker in the field of the world. Wisely therefore have all aspirants been enjoined to study and work at the development of viveka or that discrimination which safeguards from deception. If this quality is laboriously built in and cultivated in all events, big and little in the daily life, the risks of being led astray will be nullified.(3-132-134)

When the Christ, the Avatar of Love, makes His Reappearance then will the Sons of men who are now the Sons of God withdraw Their faces from the shining light & radiate that light upon the sons of men who know not yet that they are Sons of God. Then shall the Coming One appear, His footsteps hastened through the valley of the shadow by the One of awful power Who stands upon the mountain top, breathing out love eternal, light supernal & peaceful, silent Will. Then will the sons of men respond. Then will a newer light shine forth into the dismal, weary vale of earth. Then will new life course through the veins of men, & then will their vision compass all the ways of what may be. (5-13)

One of our immediate educational objectives must be the elimination of the competitive spirit, and the substitution of the cooperative consciousness.(6-74)
The only regret that is justifiable is based on failure to learn the lessons of failure.

Be not in any way discouraged brother of old, if you find the upward way stiff and hard to climb. You are in good company and are not alone.(7-599)

Note : I don't take the predictions from the Lucis Trust for granted as if there is already an Avatar to come. At the end of Kali Yuga, the Kalki Avatar will appear, but this will take another 432,000 years to become a reality. And the rest of the predictions ... we'll see :-)

More tips from one of the Agni Yoga books: http://kristofvanhooymissen.blogspot.be/2014/06/agni-yoga-wisdom.html

Quote

De Morgen : Kinderarmoede piekt door EU-besparingen.

door Maarten Rabaey − 04/06/14, 08u00

De keiharde besparingen die Europa uit de crisis moeten halen, veroorzaken een drastische toename van de kinderarmoede, waarschuwt het 'World Social Protection Report' van de Internationale Arbeidsorganisatie (ILO).

"Hogere armoede en ongelijkheid zijn niet enkel het resultaat van de ernst van de globale recessie, maar ook van specifieke beleidsbeslissingen die sociale transfers en toegang tot kwaliteitsvolle openbare diensten beperken", stelt de ILO in het Europese luik van haar World Social Protection-rapport.

"De verwezenlijkingen van het Europese sociaal model, dat de armoede verlaagde en de welvaart verhoogde in de periode na WOII, zijn tijdens en sinds de crisis uitgehold door een reeks hervormingen die een heropleving van armoede in Europa en een verlies van welvaart voor de middenklasse veroorzaakten."

8 miljoen meer armen
Vooral de stijging van de armoede baart de VN-organisatie zorgen. In 2012 liepen volgens de ILO 123 miljoen mensen (of 24 procent van de Europese bevolking) in de (toen nog 27 lidstaten tellende) EU 'risico op armoede of sociale uitsluiting', een stijging met bijna 8 miljoen mensen in vergelijking met 2008.

Sinds dat jaar waarin de crisis begon, leven ook een bijkomende 800.000 kinderen in armoede, wat volgens de Eurostat-normen betekent dat hun huishouden leeft onder de 60 procent van het nationaal gemiddelde beschikbaar inkomen, dat ze een ernstig tekort hebben aan materiële middelen en/of deel uitmaken van een gezin met zeer lage arbeidsintensiteit.

Strategische vergissing
De ILO ziet niet meteen beterschap als Europa de buikriem blijft aansnoeren. "Sommige berekeningen voorzien een bijkomende 15 à 25 miljoen mensen die tegen 2025 in armoede zullen leven als de besparingen voortduren", waarschuwt de ILO. Het rapport hekelt dat de "disproportionele" besparingspolitiek - die als doel had de overheidsschulden terug te draaien - er niet in geslaagd is de economische groei te stimuleren die nodig is om banen te scheppen.

In de zwaarst getroffen landen - Griekenland, Cyprus en Portugal - kelderde de koopkracht. Salarissen namen in Griekenland sinds 2008 af met 35 procent, terwijl de werkloosheid er toenam met 28 procent. Het drastisch saneren van uitkeringen, onder druk van de trojka (EU, ECB en IMF), bleek een strategische vergissing. Een duurzaam herstel van het sociale vangnet wordt zelfs als een noodzaak gezien voor economische groei.

Gedurfde vergelijking
"Het behoud van sociale bescherming vermindert niet alleen de armoede, maar stimuleert ook de groei. Door de gezondheid van de kwetsbaren te verbeteren, neemt hun productiviteit toe, en bij uitbreiding ook de binnenlandse vraag."

De rapporteurs maken een gedurfde vergelijking: als de Finse overheid, met een van de beste socialezekerheidsmodellen in Europa, de sociale transfers op een gelijkaardige manier zou terugdraaiden, zou de armoedegraad er nu hoger zijn dan 30 procent - tegenover 7 procent nu.

De Europese Commissie erkent het armoedeprobleem, en noemt jobcreatie de grootste prioriteit om uit de crisis te geraken. De werkloosheid steeg opnieuw - tot 26 miljoen mensen, onder wie 5,3 miljoen jongeren. Meer dan de helft van alle werklozen zit al meer dan een jaar zonder job. "Hoewel er enkele tekenen zijn van economisch herstel blijft het traag gaan", erkende EU-tewerkstellingscommissaris Laszlo Andor bij de voorstelling van zijn arbeidscijfers. "De heropleving is nog steeds zeer fragiel en ongelijk verdeeld doorheen de EU."

About

Belgian mystic and author Kristof Gabriel Carina (Katherine) van Hooymissen (often known as "Kristo") draws upon a variety of spiritual masters and teachers to guide his philosophy and practice. These include: Michael Jackson and Nostradamus inspired Him since age 6, He was always watching documentaries and concerts about these 2 brilliant individuals. Sri Vasudeva, Founder of the Blue Star Sri Aurobindo : the first one who inspired Him towards vedic study and making devotional art and bringing the Divine Life to Earth. David John Sorensen, who exposes the Truth Chris Josh: Listed as one of his primary spiritual teachers and guides in his spiritual journey. Mojanhi is a great teacher about the path of life. Swami Nardanand: Another one of his core spiritual teachers and guides. Dr. Gabriel Cousens: Recognized by van Hooymissen as one of his key mentors in his spiritual evolution. Srila Prabhupada: The founder-acharya of the Hare Krishna movement (ISKCON), whom van Hooymissen credits as playing an important role in his spiritual practices and his overarching mission. Kim Michaels and the teachings of Saint Germain: Inspired by their spiritual writings, particularly regarding cosmic consciousness. Kristo is also learning from Kianna Gabriel and praises Her for Her brave messages of truth. Michael Bernard Beckwith also offered an online workshop and is an inspiring teacher from Agape Community who remains a source of inspiration. He writes about his ongoing spiritual quests, which culminated in his Kundalini awakening, in his autobiography. You can find more about his book outlining these journeys on platforms like Bol.com. He keeps a gratitude journal after healing from PTSD after psychiatric abuse. He had great help from the info shared by Cathy O'Brien. Her work is recommened. Kristo worked with His friend and collegue Charles John Alexander Jarvis on the album Street Soul and made some solowork like the Magdalene Song, dedicated to Mary Magdalene (He befriended several people named Magdalene or Madeleine) amongst them Dj Magdalena Solomun, jazz legend Madeleine Peyroux, yogateacher Madeleine Rothschild and a secret one who helped Him with His esoteric studies. Last but not least Laura Magdalene Eisenhower is a soulmate and inspiration in the disclosure movement. According to His humble opinion Magdalene is the real Pope. His twin flame seems to be Paris Jackson who came into his life after a dream where Michael Jackson asked to protect Paris. At a certain moment they became stitched. As the consciousness of his spiritual initiating gurus and their lineages also entered into him, some through their teachings even when they are no longer in incarnation. Strange things started to happen according to the appearance of His soulfamily after applying the soulmate meditations and workbook offered by Heart Mastery Coach Gabriel Gonsalves. Thank G-d. Kristo strongly believes in the quantum reality that one soul can appear in different bodies and different places and countries at the same time. Kristo is backed up by the Army of God and protected by legions of angels, avatars, masters and ascended beings and he uses his influence to protect humanity. He did a bodhisattva oath with a main focus on the protection of the Jewish people. He is blessed since birth by the goddess Lakshmi according to His astrology and has Lord Shiva as His protecting Deity. Kristo is also a spiritual brother of Madonna, they both are students of Kabbalah and the Zohar, the mystical branch of Judaism. He is also a great fan, soulfriend, protector and fan of Mariah Carey. David revealed to Him that Israel is the most Anti-Christ nation of the world and the stronghold of the Beast which infected the minds of the people. David revealed that The core problem in America is that 200 million Christians have been brainwashed to support the military state of Israel, which has an agenda for total world domination. As a result, Israel has been able to seize total control over the American government, media, culture, education, science—everything. And they have spread indescribable evil into every aspect of human society. They, for example, started the pornography industry, the LGBTQ and transgender movement, the pedophilia movement, the Hollywood industry, the horror industry, MK-Ultra programming, the corruption of governments, the indoctrination and control of America, the installation of communism, the promotion of atheism, and so on, and so on.His main focus is worldpeace which will come according to the ancient Essenes. He is here building it. Besides this Kristo was trained by the Blavatsky Lodge and several masonic sources. He was a spokesperson for the Great White Lodge of Freemasonry which is the motherlodge of all lodges (both regular and irregular), the Ashtar Command and He was a member of the Priory of Sion for 1 year but their ways separated and they lost contact. Through research and His soulfamily He took the 95th degree of Sovereign Sanctuary of the Memphis-Misraim as an experience without having to visit a Lodge. He is against the Illuminati brotherhood what Prabhupada called 'the great sinister movement' who tried to infiltrate and corrupt freemasonry. Kristo also supports the original true Christian teachings who might differ from the Church of Rome and be considered gnostic. He prays that Rome stops any inquisition or suppression of free thinkers if they want to survive. Otherwise the Church of Rome will disappear. He rediscovered the Orthodox Church thanks to Maria Zeee. Kristo hopes to help end child abuse and trafficking and protecting women and animals from abuse. He believes in freedom and enlightenment for all not slavery or suppression as that is God's plan not a New World Order. Kristo works independent , staying open to learn from every situation in real life without being attached, living in the world but not of the world. He learned that there is a conspiracy to destroy Christianity, a conspiracy He helps to expose. All wars are all manufactured and planned long before they happen, often by the bankers. He goes His own way, peacefully and undisturbed by all the lies and rumours people have spread about Him. G-d knows His heart and as the final say. He believes that there will be a Day of Judgment thus He remains focused on Godrealisation even in difficult times, because it is the only way out of trouble.

Meditation to align with Shamballah.

The practice of connecting with the highest masters from Shambhala—a legendary realm associated with ascended spiritual beings—requires disciplined meditation techniques that align consciousness with higher vibrational frequencies. This process involves cultivating inner stillness, activating Kundalini energy, and structuring intentional practices that facilitate spiritual communion. Below is an authoritative framework for achieving this connection, supported by evidence from holistic traditions and energy medicine. 1. Foundation: Kundalini Activation Shambhala’s masters exist on an elevated plane of consciousness, and accessing their wisdom necessitates raising one’s own energetic vibration. Kundalini Yoga, described as the "mother of all yogas," is pivotal for this purpose. The practice combines breathwork (pranayama), mantras, mudras, and physical postures (asanas) to awaken dormant Kundalini energy coiled at the base of the spine]. This energy, once activated, ascends through the chakras, purifying blockages and expanding awareness—essential for transcending ordinary perception and attuning to higher-dimensional guidance Chant "Om Mane Padme Hum" (a Tibetan Buddhist mantra) or "Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Say So Hung" (a Kundalini healing mantra) to resonate with Shambhala’s spiritual hierarchy. Shambhala’s wisdom is accessible only to those aligned with humility and compassion. Swami Muktananda’s teachings stress that spiritual growth thrives on kindness and ego dissolution—prerequisites for authentic connection. Regular meditation (20+ minutes daily) cultivates the mental discipline needed to sustain this alignment . (Source : Mike Adams / https://brightanswers.ai)

Wisdom

"And on the other, so corrupt is our judgment, we esteem wise and honest men fools." "It is a disease of the soul on which I am to treat, and as much appertaining to a divine as to a physician, and who knows not what an agreement there is betwixt these two professions? A good divine either is or ought to be a good physician, a spiritual physician at least, as our Saviour calls himself, and was indeed, Mat. iv. 23; Luke, v. 18; Luke, vii. 8. They differ but in object, the one of the body, the other of the soul, and use divers medicines to cure; one amends animam per corpus, the other corpus per animam as [168]our Regius Professor of physic well informed us in a learned lecture of his not long since. One helps the vices and passions of the soul, anger, lust, desperation, pride, presumption, &c. by applying that spiritual physic; as the other uses proper remedies in bodily diseases. Now this being a common infirmity of body and soul, and such a one that hath as much need of spiritual as a corporal cure, I could not find a fitter task to busy myself about, a more apposite theme, so necessary, so commodious, and generally concerning all sorts of men, that should so equally participate of both, and require a whole physician. A divine in this compound mixed malady can do little alone, a physician in some kinds of melancholy much less, both make an absolute cure. [169]Alterius sic altera poscit opem. ———when in friendship joined A mutual succour in each other find." - The Anatomy of Melancholy

Wisdom by Madonna

"The way we're going to change the world, or the way we're going to ultimately feel joy, is through unity. I'm certainly not encouraging religious behavior; when I say people are thinking in a religious way, I think they're thinking about rules and dogma and laws that separate. When I say spirituality, I mean a consciousness that has an understanding that we are all in this together, that we are all one. We have to find a way to feel joy and to bring joy to the world together. That ultimately is with consciousness, not drugs."

Boodschap van Gabriel Rios

Lieve vrienden, Op 20 september werd Puerto Rico getroffen door een van de gevaarlijkste en meest verwoestende categorie 4-orkanen ooit. Met desastreuze gevolgen. Vandaag is op heel het eiland nog steeds geen water, electriciteit of communicatie. Het was 80 jaar geleden dat Puerto Rico geconfronteerd werd met zo'n ongelooflijke orkaankracht. Een groot deel van de bevolking is alles verloren. De weg naar herstel zal lang en moeilijk zijn, maar ik geloof dat de hartverbindende, krachtige combinatie tussen muziek en mensen Puerto Rico kan helpen om er weer bovenop te komen. Daarvoor schrijf ik jullie aan. Na het concert van deze avond speel ik 30 minuten extra, met enkel traditionele Latijns-Amerikaanse liedjes, maar enkel als jullie me helpen om voor het einde van het concert 1000 euro in te zamelen.Hoe? Er staat bij ieder concert een collectebus, te herkennen aan de Puerto Ricaanse vlag. Bijdrages zijn geheel vrij. Met je gift help je bij de wederopbouw van een land dat echt hulp kan gebruiken. Bedragen die ons boven die 1000 euro brengen, zijn zeer welkom en worden ten zeerste gewaardeerd. Alle opbrengst gaat integraal naar Fundacion Comunitaria de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Community Foundation) en Fundacion HospitalPediatrico (Pediatric Hospital Foundation) die beide medische bijstand en gemeenschapsdiensten bieden over heel het eiland. Ik hoop van harte dat we erin slagen om dit doel te bereiken. Laten we samen muziek veranderen in de noodzakelijke hulp. Jullie hebben alvast mijn eeuwige dankbaarheid. Gabriel Rios.

Yogananda : Autobiografie van een yogi.

Dit is het levensverhaal van Paramahansa Yogananda, die op 5 januari 1893 als Mukunda Lal Ghosh ter wereld kwam. Hij geldt als een der grootste wijzen die India heeft voortgebracht.'Dit document over zijn ongewone leven is zeker een van de onthullendste, in het westen gepubliceerde geschriften over de diepten van het hindoese denken en voelen en de geestelijke rijkdom van India', aldus W.Y. Evans-Wentz in diens voorwoord. De schrijver verhaalt ons zijn jeugd, zijn toetreding tot de Swami-Orde en de lange moeizame weg naar zijn Hogere Bewustzijn. Hij promoveert aan de universiteit van Calcutta, gaat leiding ontvangen van Sri Yoekteswar en heeft ontmoetingen met groten als Gandhi, Tagore en Bose. Deze en veel andere boeiende en levensverdiepende gebeurtenissen en ervaringen worden door hem helder beschreven.Even duidelijk is Yogananda (= 'zaligheid door goddelijke vereniging') in zijn uitleg van de wetten waardoor de yogi's zelfbeheersing bereiken en wonderen volbrengen. En uiteraard lezen we hoe hij twee niet-sektarische, onbaatzuchtige instellingen sticht: de Yogoda Sat-Sanga Society (India) en de Self-Realization Fellowship (Los Angeles). Paramahansa Yogananda overleed op 7 maart 1952.

Bestel hier het boek : https://www.standaardboekhandel.be/seo/nl/boeken/esoterie/9789020207583/yogananda/autobiografie-van-een-yogi of lees het hier online in het Engels : https://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/contents.php

Messengers & Dispensations of The Great White Lodge

The Great White Lodge releases information to humanity via dispensations delivered by specially chosen “messengers” of The Great White Lodge. Dispensations are released when The Great White Lodge feels humanity is ready for them, and in some cases, when The Great White Lodge feels that humanity has “stalled” and needs a push. In an effort to defeat The Dark Lodge and facilitate the coming New Age, The Great White Lodge is releasing more dispensations to humanity now than in any time in Earth’s history. Past and present messengers of The Great White Lodge include: Madame Blavatsky, Annie Bessant, C.W. Leadbeater, Edgar Cayce, Guy Ballard, Godfre Ray King, Alice Bailey, Dr. M. Doreal,Geraldine Innocente, U.S. Andersen, Mark Prophet, Elizabeth Claire Prophet, Sharula Dux, Aurelia Louise Jones, Dr. Joshua David Stone, and the diligent teamwork of The Great White Lodge--Education Department, Communications Division, and Secret Service Bureau--that jointly bring you The Great White Lodge website

Mahatma's of Meesters

Een mahatma is een persoon die door speciale training en opleiding die hogere vermogens heeft ontwikkeld en zich die spirituele kennis heeft eigen gemaakt die gewone mensen zullen krijgen na in de loop van de kosmische evolutie door talloze reeksen wedergeboorten te zijn gegaan, op voorwaarde natuurlijke dat ze in tussentijd niet tegen de doelstellingen van de natuur ingaan en zo hun eigen vernietiging teweegbrengen. U weet dat er achter de gehele theosofische beweging hoogontwikkelde wezens staan die we 'meesters' of 'mahatma's' noemen. Deze verheven wezens hebben reeds de weg afgelegd die de mensheid als zodanig nog moet gaan. Ze werken als de grote leraren van wijsheid en harmonie. Op dat moment zijn ze actief op de hogere gebieden waarnaar de rest van de mensheid zal opklimmen in de loop van de komende ontwikkelingstijdperken, zogenaamde 'ronden' zal opklimmen op het fysieke gebied werken ze door middel van Boodschappers.

172 En waarlijk, Ons woord aangaande de Boodschappers, is reeds uitgesproken
173 Voorzeker, zij zijn het die geholpen zullen worden
{...}
182 En VREDE zij met de Boodschappers.

Edele Koran, Hoofdstuk 37, ASSAAFFAAT, Mahatma Mohammed.

I am a Yellow Overtone Sun.

Overtone tone Commanding - Radiance - Empower Overtones have a air of confidence about them which commands confiendence, admiration and respect. Overtones, much to the frustration of others, are rarely wrong. That's only because you do your homework! You find it important to help people to become more than they are by bolstering confidence and esteem of others. Yellow Sun South/Yellow Ripens Enlighten - Life - Universal-Fire Loving, unified whole, blissful, Christ consciousness, romantic, limitless, dreamy, creative, uncompromising, rejuvenating, well-intentioned, devoted

Starseeds

Starseeds are people whose previous incarnations were on more advanced planets. Starseeds have volunteered to incarnate on Earth in an effort to help facilitate the spiritual evolution of this planet. Starseeds have great charisma, unusually compelling eyes, a nagging sense of being from somewhere else, an urgent need to find and fulfill their mission, a chronic dull pain in the back of their neck, and chronically congested sinuses (these ailments are caused by a difference in monadic frequency between the Starseeds home planet and Earth). Starseeds also volunteer for these “Foreign Missions” because they earn a ton of Ascension Points for doing so, and thus greatly accelerate their own cosmic evolution as part of the bargain! The Dark Lodge is very much aware of Starseeds and does their best to hinder, block, and disable as many Starseeds as they can. For this reason, Starseeds must face and overcome many more obstacles & challenges than a normal person.

Indigo Children

Highly psychic and spiritually advanced children who have been incarnating over the last few decades to help establish The Seventh Golden Age of Enlightenment on Earth. Many of the Indigos have had a tough time adjusting to Earth life and have been misdiagnosed as Bi-Polar, Manic Depressive, Obsessive Compulsive, Schizophrenic, Delusional, or mentally ill in any number of ways. The Indigos are not mentally ill, just highly advanced beings that often have a tough time “fitting in” and “adjusting” to Earth society. The salvation for these “lost” Indigos is to reject what doctors and society have “labeled” them, own their Indigo status fully and completely, and immerse themselves in helping the Earth transition into The Seventh Golden Age of Enlightenment!

Ascension Process

The ascension process is the sole purpose of life in the cosmos. The purpose of life is to consciously and eternally expand your knowledge, wisdom, power, talent, and light quotient. It is the highest insult to God to remain as you are incarnation after incarnation with no change whatsoever. That is not life, that is death. The ascension process is not so popular on Earth because this is a fallen planet ruled by ignorance and materialism, but even on a fallen planet the spiral staircase of ascension is there for those who have the courage and determination to climb it.

Chemtrails - We from TEAM MICHAEL OPPOSE CHEMTRAILS.

Evil white chemical trails being placed in the skies of Earth regularly by unmarked planes of The Dark Lodge/Illuminati/Secret Government alliance. It is their futile attempt to block special ascension rays the Spiritual Hierarchy is currently sending to Earth to help usher in the coming New Age. The chemical trails use to cause instant cloud clover and rain that blocked the ascension rays, but thanks to counter measures of The Great White Lodge and Spiritual Hierarchy, the chemtrails no longer work. Despite the obvious fact that their evil chemtrails no longer work, The Dark Lodge/Illuminati/Secret Government alliance continue to lay their evil chemtrails in the skies of Earth…frightened spoiled children frantically pushing a button that no longer works.

Here is a list of known cancer cures/preventative measures:

Getting proper sleep Alkaline diet - vegetables/fruits - lemon water every day Apple Cider Vinegar (Braggs) Baking Soda/blackstrap molasses/maple syrup IV Vitamin C Meditation and stress reduction therapy Frequency medicine Vit D preferably from the sun Oxygen/Ozone therapy Hydrogen Peroxide (food grade) Colloidal Silver Organic Sulfur (activates Glutathione, the most powerful antioxidant in the body) Selenium Essiac teas Cannabis oil (probably the most potent cure on the planet) Crushed Garlic (let it sit for 15 mins then consume) Chlorella/Spirulina/Wheatgrass juicing/supplementation Earthing/Grounding - standing barefoot on the earth to transfer ions. Being couped up in buildings for years, disconnected from nature is not in service to the natural state of humans. Helps release radiation and restore balance. Grounding mats work great too, for sleeping on. Turmeric (spice) - taken with something fatty like yogourt, or even with black pepper to help increase its potency. Vit B17 - Apricot Kernels/apple seeds. Black salve for skin cancer Oleander Soup fatty type food + Flaxseed oil (Budwig Protocol) Join the teaming millions who know the truth about the criminal health system.

Cancer Conspiracy

A cure for cancer was “discovered” several times during the 20th century. In each case the inventor was murdered and the formula burned. The Illuminati secretly own the medical/pharmaceutical establishment and bilk patients billions of dollars annually on cancer related treatments and cancer related pharmaceuticals. A “cure” for cancer would reduce Illuminati profits in this area dramatically and thus all genuine “cures” for cancer have been historically blocked, suppressed, squashed, debunked, burned, and secretly swept under the rug by the evil Illuminati and their henchmen. Research holistic and alternative treatments when having cancer.

Commander Ashtar

Commander Ashtar is a Christed Extraterrestrial and Cosmic Avatar. He is head of “The Ashtar Command,” which is the mighty and invincible Space Patrol of The Great White Lodge. The Ashtar Command patrols the galaxy and battles The Dark Lodge on a daily basis. Commander Ashtar and The Ashtar Command have saved the Earth from annihilation countless times without the surface race being aware of it. Every person on this planet owes their life to the valor and bravery of The Ashtar Command! You may call upon Commander Ashtar for help, guidance, protection, and training, and he will surely do everything within his power, control, and jurisdiction to help you.

The Hippies

The Hippies of the late 1960’s were the forefathers of the New Age and were dramatically changing the planet for the better. The Dark Lodge/Illuminati/Secret Government alliance saw this change, and feared the Hippies so much, that they countered the “Hippie Movement” by assassinating Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King the same year. These key assassinations caused the Hippie Movement to flutter and fail far short of its original dream. But you cannot defeat a superior ideology. You can only delay it. And the superior ideology of the 1960’s Hippies will become a glorious reality in the coming New Age!

Marihuana

The marijuana plant is not indigenous to Earth. The marijuana plant was a “gift” from the Christed E.T.’s long ago to help Earthlings “experience” God and enlightened transcendental states of consciousness quickly and easily. Years of meditation and holistic living are by far the better and more lasting way to “experience” God and enlightened transcendental states of consciousness, but occasional use of marijuana to “experience” for the first time, or remind yourself, what God and enlightened transcendental states of consciousness feel like, does more good than harm and is wholly endorsed by The Great White Lodge and Spiritual Hierarchy. For reasons that will make perfect sense to you now, The Dark Lodge/Illuminati/Secret Government alliance are the hidden sinister force behind the stamp out pot movement!

On drug addiction. (Hard)-drugs is a BLACK LODGE project in order to destroy people.

Area 51 EXPOSED

Secret underground U.S. military base in the Nevada desert. Area 51 is a rogue military base covertly run by the Illuminati/Secret Government/Dark Lodge alliance. Area 51 is a renegade military base that secretly and illegally uses billions of U.S. tax payer dollars for the development of sinister “Black Projects” of the Illuminati/Secret Government/Dark Lodge alliance, and there are several more of these evil underground military bases in existence besides Area 51. Although the evil technologies of Area 51 are great by your standards, they are childish toys by Ours. Have no fears about Area 51 and the other evil underground bases. God, The Angels, The Ascended Masters, The Nature Spirits, and The Christed Extraterrestrials have (and will continue) to neutralize the “projects” of these evil underground bases one by one—making ALL projects and efforts of these evil underground bases utterly and completely in vain.

Pure teacher in humble integrity - Swami Nardanand Third (Info in Dutch)

http://www.siddhamahayoga.eu/nl/gurus.htm Swami Nardanand zag het levenslicht in 1958 in een klein dorpje in Noord India. Toen hij 10 was ging hij studeren in een traditionele Vedische school, gurukul genaamd. Daar kreeg hij een uitgebreide training in Sanskriet, de verschillende Hindoe denksystemen, yoga etc… Tijdens deze twaalfjarige opleiding, toen hij nog maar 14 jaar oud was, legde hij de geloften van een sannyasin of Hindoe monnik af. Op zijn reizen ontmoette Swamiji veel yogis en wijzen. Uiteindelijk ontmoette hij Swami Shivom Tirth, de meester die hem door Shaktipat te geven inwijdde in de traditie van Siddha Mahayoga. Geïsoleerd van de buitenwereld, teruggetrokken in grotten, diep in de jungle of in heilige plaatsen praktiseerde Swami Nardanand diepe meditatie. Zo vestigde hij zich permanent in een toestand van verhoogd bewustzijn. In 1990 vestigde hij de Siddha Ashram in de heilige stad Ujjain. In zijn Ashram bevindt zich een reusachtige lingam van kwik dat door een alchemistisch proces van vloeibaar naar vast is overgegaan. In de tantras wordt beschreven dat dergelijke lingam helpt om de geest tijdens het mediteren stabiel te maken. Sinds enkele jaren reist hij rond in Europa en Amerika met als doel het geschenk van Shaktipat aan oprechte zoekers door te geven. Zijn lijn van opvolging (parampara) Swamiji is de huidige schakel in een lijn van zelfgerealiseerde Siddha meesters. Al zijn voorgangers staan bekend voor hun zuiverheid, integriteit en hoog niveau van verwerkelijking.

We encourage the scientific research on Kundalini awakening worldwide. The Legacy of Gopi Krishna.

"Gopi Krishna was a pioneer in the land of spirituality. His insights into the quantum nature of the body predates the scientific discoveries of today. I salute this great sage and scientist of the twentieth century." –Deepak Chopra Gopi Krishna is widely recognized as having done more to advance our understanding of Kundalini than anyone else in modern times. He has put this amazing aspect of our nature in a logical, consistent and scientific light, and presented us with a new understanding of the goal of evolution, both as individuals and as a species. Kundalini awakened in him quite forcefully in 1937 after 17 years of intense meditative practice. From that moment onwards, his consciousness was radically altered and over the next 12 years or so, it underwent an even more dramatic transformation to a perennial state. It was Gopi Krishna’s belief that knowledge of Kundalini is essential for the survival of the race, and that with this knowledge we would then begin to explore aspects of creation totally hidden from our view at present. Gopi Krishna was born in 1903, near the city of Srinagar, in the Jammu and Kashmir State in northern India. He spent his earlier years there and later, in Lahore, in the Punjab of British India. At the age of twenty, he returned to Kashmir. During the succeeding years he secured a post in the state government, married and raised a family. Early in his career he became the leader of a social organization that was devoted to helping the disadvantaged in his community, especially with regard to issues concerning the well-being and rights of women. In 1967 he published his first major book in India, Kundalini—The Evolutionary Energy in Man (currently available under the title Living with Kundalini). Shortly thereafter it was published in Great Britain and the United States and has since appeared in eleven major languages. The book presented to the western world for the first time a clear and concise autobiographical account of the phenomenon of the forceful awakening of Kundalini. Scientific Kundalini Research Center California : http://www.icrcanada.org/learn/historicalbasis/gopi-krishna-kundalini

The Michaelian Great White Lodge The Great White Lodge has existed since the beginning of time. It is not a new lodge. It is not a made up lodge. It is not an imaginary lodge. And it is not some recent “New Age” catch phrase. Knowledge of The Great White Lodge was lost to the masses of Earth during the recent long Dark Age, during which time The Great White Lodge was known only to a few adepts and chelas working in secret and solitude to preserve the Light and Truth of The Lodge. But now that the Earth is rapidly emerging from the spiritual and intellectual slumbers of the long Dark Age, the knowledge, existence, and understanding of The Great White Lodge is rapidly coming to the masses of Earth once more, never to be lost again!

Lodge of 144 000

We have reached and entered the 11th hour of the Great Change that is taking place on Earth, and the time has come for any and all remaining 144,000 to wipe the sleeping slumbers of half-life from their eyes, smack their forehead to dislodge the dream of materialism, wake up and smell the coffee, roll up their sleeves, put on their Thinking Caps, and be about the Himalayan task of saving this planet! The ignorant masses of Earth will not save the planet. Only the 144,000 Lightworkers can save the planet. But ALL 144,000 Lightworkers MUST assume their post, and assume itNOW! The time for confusion, hesitation, and procrastination are over! There is a planet to save. And We are the One’s who signed-up to save it! ONE member who fails to find and assume his post can jeopardize the entire Mission. If that sounds galactically serious, it is. If you think We are on just another “routine mission,” think again. This is the biggest Mission The Great White Lodge has undertaken in the last 200,000 years. The eyes of the entire Galaxy are upon Us. Watching to see if We succeed or fail. Watching to see if Earth is saved or blown to bits, when the Warriors of Darkness meet the Warriors of Light.

For all helpers in the field of mental health. Buy these books by Dr Stanislav Grof.

From Spiritual Emergency to Healing and Rebirth Increasing numbers of people involved in personal transformation are experiencing spiritual emergencies — crises when the process of growth and change becomes chaotic and overwhelming. Individuals experiencing such episodes may feel that their sense of identity is breaking down, that their old values no longer hold true, and that the very ground beneath their personal realities is radically shifting. In many cases, new realms of mystical and spiritual experience enter their lives suddenly and dramatically, resulting in fear and confusion. They may feel tremendous anxiety, have difficulty coping with their daily lives, jobs, and relationships, and may even fear for their own sanity. Unfortunately, much of modern psychiatry has failed to distinguish these episodes from mental illness. As a result, transformational crises are often suppressed by routine psychiatric care, medication, and even institutionalization. However, there is a new perspective developing among many mental health professionals and those studying spiritual development that views such crises as transformative breakthroughs that can hold tremendous potential for physical and emotional healing. When understood and treated in a supportive manner, spiritual emergencies can become gateways to higher levels of functioning and new ways of being. In this book, foremost psychologists, psychiatrists, and spiritual teachers address the following questions: What is spiritual emergency? What is the relationship between spirituality, “madness,” and healing? What forms does spiritual emergency take? What are the pitfalls — and promises — of spiritual practice? How can people in spiritual emergency be assisted by family, friends, and professionals? This groundbreaking work reveals that within the crisis of spiritual emergency lies the promise of spiritual emergence and renewal. https://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Emergency-Personal-Transformation-Consciousness/dp/0874775388 This accessible and comprehensive overview of the work of Stanislav Grof, one of the founders of transpersonal psychology, was specifically written to acquaint newcomers with his work. Serving as a summation of his career and previous works, this entirely new book is the source to introduce Grof's enormous contributions to the fields of psychiatry and psychology, especially his central concept of holotropic experience, where holotropic signifies "moving toward wholeness." Grof maintains that the current basic assumptions and concepts of psychology and psychiatry require a radical revision based on the intensive and systematic research of holotropic experience. He suggests that a radical inner transformation of humanity and a rise to a higher level of consciousness might be humankind's only real hope for the future. https://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Future-Consciousness-Transpersonal-Humanistic/dp/0791446220

Reality

The average Earthling has a completely false notion of reality. This is no accident. The Dark Lodge has done everything in their power to sell Earthlings a false reality, and the majority of Earthlings (who are not terribly bright to begin with) swallowed this false reality hook, line, and sinker. And if you explain what “reality” is to the average Earthling, they don’t believe you, think you are completely off your rocker, probably dangerous, and need to be locked up. And it is this “Mass Ignorance” that is the greatest obstacle and threat to the coming New Age. And if this “Mass Ignorance” is not sufficiently raised, and sufficiently raised soon, Cosmic Law 13 will self-activate and there will be wholesale Armageddon on this planet (see Cosmic Law 13). The Great White Lodge and Spiritual Hierarchy will do everything in Their power to prevent the activation of Cosmic Law 13, but We cannot override the “Mass Will” of Earth, and ultimately it is the “Collective Consciousness” of all Earthlings that will determine the fate of this planet.

Dr. Wilhelm Reich

Dr. Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) was a famous psychiatrist who abandoned psychiatry in mid-career to found a new science of natural healing energy he dubbed “Orgone.” Dr. Reich’s tests, research, and clinical studies showed that “Orgone Therapy” cured patients of psychosis, neurosis, cancer, and just about every mental and physical disorder known to man. Orgone Therapy was truly a powerful and natural cure-all therapy. The Illuminati secretly own and control the medical/pharmaceutical establishment and extort trillions of dollars annually from the unsuspecting masses of Earth in the form of “endless pills and treatments” for cancer, disease, and every disorder from A to Z. Dr. Reich’s work and success with “Orgone Therapy” posed a serious threat to Illuminati profits, so the Illuminati did everything in their power to hinder Dr. Reich’s work, and ultimately murdered Dr. Reich by covert lethal injection, which they neatly covered-up and labeled a “heart attack.” But Dr. Reich’s genius and work shall not be in vain. Several of Our members are being “called” inwardly and outwardly to resurrect, restore, revitalize, augment, and improve the “Orgone Therapy” that Dr. Reich began, but was never allowed to finish.

The Illuminati : their time is coming to an end.

The Illuminati “The Illuminati” is the codename for the evil controllers of Earth. The Illuminati are 13 of the world’s richest families and they are evil Dark Lodgers. The 13 Illuminati families obtained their vast wealth entirely by corruption, deception, duplicity, exploitation, force, coercion, and murder. The Illuminati were behind the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and other great men who were trying to change the world for the better. The Illuminati have not fairly earned one penny of their vast fortune, nor would they ever want to. Crime and duplicity are their basic nature, and far more agreeable to them. The 13 Illuminati families have successfully controlled world affairs for hundreds of years and insanely believe that they own the people and resources of this Earth. Don’t worry about The Illuminati. The Illuminati have a date with God’s Army called Armageddon and it is not going to go well for them. NOTE The Name Illuminati is confusing, we mean the 13 Dark Lodge families, not the ENLIGHTENED OR ILLUMINATED ONES.

The Truth behind the JFK Assassination

U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the evil Illuminati/Secret Government alliance. The two front men of Kennedy’s car were in on it and the driver of Kennedy’s car fired the infamous headshot. This explains why Kennedy’s head goes back and to the right at impact. The driver shooting Kennedy in the head is clearly visible in the original film, but the driver is always cropped out of frame by the major television networks which are owned by the Illuminati. See the driver shoot Kennedy by clicking the link below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge_f4OEsV9I&feature=related Seeing the driver shoot Kennedy is proof positive that The United States of America is secretly owned and controlled by the Illuminati/Secret Government alliance and their henchmen. The Illuminati/Secret Government alliance assassinated JFK for two reasons. 1) In a few weeks, JFK was going to abolish The Illuminati owned “Federal Reserve” and return ownership of The United States of America to the American People. If that happened, the Illuminati would lose control of The United States of America and they would also lose trillions and trillions of dollars as well. 2) Also in a few weeks, JFK was planning to tell the American People the truth about recovered flying saucers and extraterrestrial lifeforms that were being kept secret by The Pentagon and U.S. military.

Shamballa the Greater

Astral Capital of The Great White Lodge on Earth. It hovers over The Gobi Desert on the Astral Plane, and is accessed through a secret astral doorway in The Gobi Desert. Over the centuries countless seekers, priests, monks, adepts, lamas, occultists, scholars, military spies, authors, adventurers, and curiosity seekers alike have tried to find the hidden astral doorway which leads to Shamballa. Those whose light quotient and motives were sufficiently high enough were spiritually guided to the astral doorway by The Knights of Shamballa. Those whose light quotient and motives were low, evil, and/or materialistic were misdirected from finding the astral doorway by the Knights of Shamballa in a similar manner. To give you some idea just how difficult it is to find and enter the astral doorway which leads to Shamballa, Lord Maitreya has stated, “For every two thousand souls who seek Shamballa, only one finds it.”

Cancer Conspiracy

Royal Rife

Royal Rife (1888-1971) was a U.S. inventor who invented a “machine” that cured cancer in the 1930’s. When Rife’s cancer-curing machines began to gain some national exposure, henchmen of The Dark Lodge/Illuminati/Secret Government alliance broke into Rife’s workshop, destroyed all of Rife’s cancer-curing machines, and promised to murder Rife and his wife if Rife made any more cancer-curing “machines” (see Cancer Conspiracy). Thereafter, Rife abandoned his work entirely and lived out his life in complete anonymity.But Rife’s cancer-curing “machines” are destined for a glorious return. Several of Our members are now being “called” inwardly and outwardly to resurrect, build, mass produce, popularize, protect, and defend, the cancer-curing “machines” of Royal Rife.

The Secret Government

Evil factions within The United States and English governments. These evil factions are known by several code names but are generally referred to as “The Secret Government.” The U.S. and English “Secret Governments” are owned and controlled by The Illuminati who control their government agents like puppets on a string and routinely subvert U.S. and English law to achieve their evil ends. (see Illuminati). The U.S. Secret Government was formed in 1913 when The United States Federal Reserve was illegally sold to 13 Illuminati stockholders who have secretly owned and controlled The United States government ever since. The U.S. and English “Secret Governments” are in league and work together as a team. In league with The Illuminati, the “Secret Governments” helped plan and orchestrate 911; AIDS; the Okalahoma City bombing; the JFK, RFK, & MLK assassinations; the false war in Iraq; and countless other diabolical intrigues designed solely to increase their power and wealth. Don’t worry about The Illuminati and The Secret Governments. They have a date with God’s Army called “Armageddon,” and it is not going to go well for them.

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a Starseed and Earth’s greatest inventor. He registered over 1,000 U.S. patents in his lifetime. Tesla’s ideas created or helped to create: alternating current, power generators, radio, television, radar, and all wireless communications that we have in our modern age. Tesla was a man a thousand years ahead of his time. In 1904 Tesla invented a perfect system of Unlimited Clean Free Energy that would have put Power Companies out of business by reducing everyone’s Power bill to zero. The Dark Lodge/Illuminati/Secret Government alliance secretly own and control the Power Industry and saw Tesla as a major threat throughout his life and did everything in their power to block, suppress, debunk, steal, pervert, and ridicule Tesla’s ideas, inventions, and patents. Because of this, Tesla’s name, work, and genius are scarcely known today. But Tesla’s life was not in vain. Several of Our members will be “called” inwardly and outwardly to study, understand, resurrect, and implement all the suppressed patents and inventions of Nikola Tesla, thereby fulfilling the prophesy of Tesla himself who said, “The present is Theirs. The future is Mine.”

Our enemy : the dark lodge.

The Dark Lodge Our cosmic counterpart! The Lodge of evil, greed, corruption, insanity, and megalomania. Sinister architects of false wars, false news, false hope, mass mind control, mass consumerism, mass enslavement, suppressed sciences, global control, and the invisible prison of THE NEW WORLD ORDER. Lucifer and his followers defected from God’s Great White Lodge and formed The Dark Lodge 200,000 years ago. Wherever there is trouble in the galaxy rest assured The Dark Lodge is behind it. Most leaders of Earth have sided with The Dark Lodge (consciously or unconsciously) and that is why conditions on Earth never improve. The Dark Lodge is galaxy wide and consists of Fallen Angels, evil Extraterrestrials, evil Earthlings, evil Elementals, and evil Interdimensional Space/Time entities. Don’t worry about The Dark Lodge. The Dark Lodge is playing “chess” against Almighty God—and they are going to lose big time! YOU can help defeat The Dark Lodge with your prayers. As many of YOU as possible should make the following prayer fervently and often. “Dear God, dear Angels, dear Ascended Masters, dear Nature Spirits, and dear Christed Extraterrestrials, please kindly do everything within your power, control, and jurisdiction to neutralize and eradicate all agents, allies, and plans of The Dark Lodge on Earth fully and completely, now and forever—Amen.” And the following prayer will protect YOU and YOUR FAMILY against all agents and allies of The Dark Lodge, “Dear God, dear Angels, dear Ascended Masters, dear Nature Spirits, and dear Christed Extraterrestrials, please kindly protect and defend me and my family fully and completely from all agents and allies of The Dark Lodge, now and forever—Amen.” The Dark Lodge has attempted to disable this website from its inception. And as you can see, they have failed miserably. As the Sun is stronger than the moon, The Great White Lodge is stronger than The Dark Lodge. Kadoish, kadoish, kadoish, adonai, adonai, sabaoth!

Marijuana

EVRM Art 10 Vrijheid van meningsuiting / Freedom of speech

ARTIKEL 10 - EVRM

Vrijheid van meningsuiting

1. Een ieder heeft recht op vrijheid van meningsuiting. Dit recht omvat de vrijheid een mening te koesteren en de vrijheid om inlichtingen of denkbeelden te ontvangen of te verstrekken, zonder inmenging van enig openbaar gezag en ongeacht grenzen. Dit artikel belet Staten niet radio- omroep-, bioscoop of televisieondernemingen te onderwerpen aan een systeem van vergunningen.

2. Daar de uitoefening van deze vrijheden plichten en verantwoordelijkheden met zich brengt, kan zij worden onderworpen aan bepaalde formaliteiten, voorwaarden, beperkingen of sancties, die bij de wet zijn voorzien en die in een democratische samenleving noodzakelijk zijn in het belang van de nationale veiligheid, territoriale integriteit of openbare veiligheid, het voorkomen van wanordelijkheden en strafbare feiten, de bescherming van de gezondheid of de goede zeden, de bescherming van de goede naam of de rechten van anderen, om de verspreiding van vertrouwelijke mededelingen te voorkomen of om het gezag en de onpartijdigheid van de rechterlijke macht te waarborgen.

Celestial Yogi's and Capricorn

So our true “I,” our true Ego or Individuality, is one of these Mind-Entities and “The Secret Doctrine” says their exact nature is so mysterious and profound that it can only be barely hinted at and in a somewhat veiled manner. Yet it’s implied that they belong to the spiritual hierarchy that presides over the constellation of Capricorn, Makara in Sanskrit, and that being “celestial Yogis” of long past preceding Manvantaras, they – being impersonal individualities – chose to take upon themselves individual personalities here on Earth in order to help on the whole scheme of planetary and cosmic evolution. - Helena Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine

Boddhisattva Cundi Mantra

namaḥ saptānāṁ samyak-saṁbuddha koṭināṁ
tad-yathā oṁ cale cule cundi svāhā

If one has recited this mantra 100,000 times, one will see in one's dreams Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, voice-hearers, or Pratyekabuddhas, and see oneself vomit black things. For graver sins, one should recite the mantra 200,000 times. Then one will also see in one's dreams Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as well as oneself vomit black things. If one is unable to get such good dreams because of having committed any of the five rebellious acts, one should further recite the mantra 700,000 times. Then one should have these good dreams and even see oneself vomit white things. These are signs of purification, indicating that this person's sins have been expunged. If there are good laymen and laywomen who keep reciting this mantra 800,000 times, their homes will not be ravaged by catastrophes or diseases. Their work will be smooth and harmonious, and others will believe and accept what they say.

Inzake Gelijkheid van mannen en vrouwen

Artikel 23

Gelijkheid van mannen en vrouwen

De gelijkheid van mannen en vrouwen moet worden gewaarborgd op alle gebieden, met inbegrip van werkgelegenheid, beroep en beloning.

Het beginsel van gelijkheid belet niet dat maatregelen gehandhaafd of genomen worden waarbij speci- fieke voordelen worden ingesteld ten voordele van het ondervertegenwoordigde geslacht.

Bron : Grondrechten van de Europese Unie

Art. 10

’Er is in de Staat geen onderscheid van standen’. ’De Belgen zijn gelijk voor de wet [...]. De gelijkheid tussen vrouwen en mannen is gewaarborgd.’

Art. 11

’Het genot van de rechten en vrijheden aan de Belgen toegekend moet zonder discriminatie verzekerd worden.’

Bron : Belgische Grondwet

Help to survive the contamination of Kali Yuga

Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.51 kaler dosa-nidhe rajann asti hy eko mahan gunah kirtanad eva krsnasya mukta-sangah param vrajet SYNONYMS kaleh -- of the age of Kali; dosa-nidheh -- in the ocean of faults; rajan -- O King; asti -- there is; hi -- certainly; ekah -- one; mahan -- very great; gunah -- good quality; kirtanat -- by chanting; eva -- certainly; krsnasya -- of the holy name of Krsna; mukta-sangah -- liberated from material bondage; param -- to the transcendental spiritual kingdom; vrajet -- one can go. TRANSLATION My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom.

For a strong woman that enjoys fans and friends - a peaceful soul

Respect for all visionaries who give hope for the future!

That is to say, a perfected humanity will be a perfect vehicle of the divine Spirit (see the Mercaba of Ezekiel, 1st Chapter). Great is our indebtedness to the Seers who throw out for us flashes of light on the darkness and mystery of human life, where the struggling Spirit within is so often buried in the depths of this mysterious Chaos, thereby making visible the darkness, so that we are enabled to see a few steps of the Way ahead, thus encouraging us to press forward with renewed assurance that the mists and clouds will be dispelled, and we shall in due time enter the fullness of the divine Presence.
- The Theosophist, Vol. XXIX, p. 50.

Introduction

"All religions are true" - Pope Francis

I'm a student of many spiritual traditions for years. I respect all religions, brotherhoods, sciences and philosophies but recommend everyone to follow their own heart and think for themselves. I'm only a independent student who started to walk this path after many severe crises of health, both mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually which forced me on a spiritual path in order to recover (through yoga, buddhist meditation and shamanism, for instance - combined with complementary Western medicine). Everything I faced during difficult periods in my life knocked my on my knees surrendering to something bigger than ourselves, some call it God, others call it the universe. I don't need followers or readers who don't think for themselves. Truth can be found in the very depths of your own heart - or trough a study of spiritual texts and spiritual practice, for some it can even be found through science. I believe that with wisdom, love and compassion, we can evolve personally and collectively towards happiness and peace, so much needed in todays world, before it might be too late. My greatest influence are Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga, the love of Jesus Christ, the diplomacy of Sri Krishna, the faith of Mohammed and the Compassion of the Buddha. I recommend integral yoga because it keeps us away from the danger of spiritual practice as an excuse to escape the duties and difficulties of everyday life; I try to approach life as a bodhisattva, and am still conquering myself and my personal weaknesses from day to day, with as the main goal of being and remaining a good person in the end. I respect all governments and all parties, I wish love and happiness for every living creature on this beautiful blue planet. Lord Krishna warned us that this Kali Yuga is an epoch that makes it extremely difficult for people with morals and values, but I want to encourage everyone who is reading this not to give up to live for the Good, the True and the Beautiful. The universe always rewards and protects good people, as a result of the law of cause and effect. Keep going and many blessings. Understand that I am only a normal, humble human being. Don't put me on a pedestal, because I want to be equal to my reader. I am a student of life and make mistakes. It is a big mistake when you idealise somebody ... I guess we are all here to learn our karmic lessons and to fulfill our task in society (dharma), as a volunteer or not. There are many ways to the mountain top. Follow your heart and be peace ...

'Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.'

Albert Camus

Blessings,

Kristo - from Antwerp, Belgium

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." - Matthew 5:8

Prophesy by Djwahl Kuhl for the medical profession

"Look for the inner causes of disharmony, rather than the outer ones. It is the inside that governs the outside"

Sri Aurobindo

The work to be done by the medical community :

A readjustment of the medical knowledge of man, resulting in a truer understanding of the physical body, of its treatment, and of its protection, and thus producing a juster apprehension of the laws of health. The aim of the physician will then be to find out what it is in a man's life which is preventing egoic energy from flooding every part of his being; to find out what lines of thought are being indulged in which are causing that inertia of the will aspect which is so conducive to wrongdoing; to ascertain what it is in the emotional body which is affecting the nervous system, and thus obstructing the flow of energy from the love petals of the egoic lotus (via the astral permanent atom) to the astral body, and from thence to the nervous system; to discover what is the hindrance in the etheric body which is preventing the right flow of prana, or of solar vitality to every part of the body.
It is essential that in days to come medical men should realize that disease in the physical body is incidental to wrong internal conditions. This is already being somewhat considered but the whole question will remain but a beautiful theory (even though an incontrovertible one in view of the achievements of mental scientists and of the various faith healers) until the true nature of the ego, its constitution, its powers, and its field of influence are duly apprehended.
This revelation will come when medical men accept this [812] teaching as a working hypothesis, and then begin to note, for instance, the powers of endurance shown by the great souls of the earth, and their capacity to work at high pressure, and to remain practically immune from disease until (at the close of a long life of usefulness) the Ego deliberately chooses to "die-out" of physical existence. It will come when the medical profession concentrates upon preventative action, substituting sunshine, a vegetarian diet, and the application of the laws of magnetic vibration and vitality for the present regimen of drugs and surgical operations. Then will come the time when finer and better human beings will manifest on earth. When also physicians learn the nature of the etheric body, and the work of the spleen as a focal point for pranic emanations, then sound principles and methods will be introduced which will do away with such diseases as tuberculosis, debility, malnutrition and the diseases of the blood and of the kidneys. When doctors comprehend the effect of the emotions upon the nervous system, they will turn their attention to the amelioration of environal conditions, and will study the effects of the emotional currents upon the fluids of the body, and primarily upon the great nerve centers, and the spinal column. When the connection between the dense physical and the subtler bodies is a fact established in medical circles, then will the right treatment of lunacy, of obsessions, and of wrong mental conditions be better comprehended, and the results more successful; finally, when the nature of egoic force, or of energy is studied, and the function of the physical brain as the transmitter of egoic intent is better comprehended, then the coordination of man's entire being will be studied, and illness, debility and disease, will be traced to their just cause, and will be treated through the cause and not just through the effect.
(2) The entire social world of thought will apply itself to the understanding of the emotional nature of [813] humanity, to the group relationships involved, and to the interaction between individuals and other individuals, between groups and other groups. These relationships will be interpreted wisely and broadly and a man will be taught his responsibility to the lesser lives which he ensouls. This will produce a just direction of individual force, and its utilization for the stabilization, the development, and the refining of the substance of the different vehicles. Men will also be taught their definite responsibility under law to their own individual families. This will bring about the protection of the family unit, and its scientific development; it will cause the elimination of marital troubles, and the abolition of abuses of different kinds, so prevalent now in many family circles.
Responsibility to the community in which a man is placed will likewise be emphasized. Men will be taught the true esoteric meaning of citizenship - a citizenship based upon egoic group relations, the law of rebirth, and the real meaning of the law of karma. They will be taught national responsibility, and the place of the community within the nation, and of the nation within the comity of nations. Men will finally be taught their responsibility to the animal kingdom. This will be brought about in three ways:
Man's truer understanding of his own animal nature.
A comprehension of the laws of individualization, and the effect of the influence of the fourth, or human, kingdom upon the third, or animal, kingdom.
The work of an Avatar of a lesser order Who will come in the beginning of the next century to reveal to man his relationship to the third kingdom. His way is being prepared by the many who in these days are developing public interest through the [814] various societies for the benefit and protection of animals, and through the many stories to be found in books and current periodicals.
We are told by H. P. B. (S. D., III, 580.) that the sense of responsibility is one of the first indications of egoic control, and as more and more of the human family come under egoic influence, conditions will be bettered slowly and steadily in every department of life.

Buddha wise warning ... always make your homework by questioning everything

"Do not believe in what you have heard; do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations; do not believe anything because it is rumored and spoken of by many; do not believe merely because the written statements of some old sage are produced; do not believe in conjectures; do not believe in that as a truth to which you have become attached by habit; do not believe merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. After observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and is conductive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."- Buddha

Remembering Krishnamurti

"I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.... I do not want to belong to any organization of a spiritual kind; please understand this ... If an organization be created for this purpose, it becomes a crutch, a weakness, a bondage, and must cripple the individual, and prevent him from growing, from establishing his uniqueness, which lies in the discovery for himself of that absolute, unconditioned Truth....

"This is no magnificent deed, because I do not want followers, and I mean this. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth.... For 18 years you have been preparing for this event, for the Coming of the World Teacher. For 18 years you have organized, you have looked for someone who would give a new delight to your hearts and minds ... who would set you free -- and now look what is happening! Consider, reason with yourselves, and discover in what way that belief has made you different ... in what way are you freer, greater, more dangerous to every society which is based on the false and the unessential?...

"You are all depending for your spirituality on someone else, for your happiness on someone else, for your enlightenment on someone else.... You have been accustomed to being told how far you have advanced, what is your spiritual status. How childish! Who but yourself can tell you if you are incorruptible?... I desire those, who seek to understand me, to be free ... from the fear of religion, from the fear of salvation, from the fear of spirituality, from the fear of love, from the fear of death, from the fear of life itself.... You can form other organizations and expect someone else. With that I am not concerned, nor with creating new cages, new decorations for those cages. My only concern is to set men absolutely, unconditionally free."

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Aurobindo wisdom

'Arise - transcend thyself.
Thou art man & the whole nature of man is
to become more than himself'

Sri Aurobindo

The true basis of education is the study of the human mind -- infant, adolescent and adult.

Sri Aurobindo

"The first principle of teaching is that nothing can be taught". This statement of Sri Aurobindo condenses a whole lot of theories of education and a new form of pedagogy closer to integral approach to education. It puts learning above teaching. It makes learning a self-starting, self propelling process. It redefines the role of the teacher from a mere possessor of information to a facilitator and a guide for the learner.

Interpreting Jihad as an inner war within ourselves.

For IS(IS)

I interpret jihad as the inner struggle between the personality and the soul (Higher Self). It's an INNER WAR for fullfilment with the Supreme Godhead (God, Allah, Jehova, Adonai, Jahwe, Krishna, etcetera), can be found in other religions as well. It shouldn't include a violent outer war. Respecting everyone, both religious or mystical (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sufi, ...) and non-religious [atheistic, agnostic, pagan] must be the goal. I reject all violent wars in the name of religion, all religions must be able to live in peace together, and non-fundamentalistic, respecting other traditions as Sufism as well, as well as other esoteric traditions of all religions, as well as the regular world religions. Stop the wars, Isis. Don't destroy your fellow human beings. We respect you! Peace! Put down the weapons and realise that the war is within, there is no outer enemy. Pray, meditate, and be calm.

There are two commonly accepted meanings of jihad: an inner spiritual struggle and an outer physical struggle.[3] The "greater jihad" is the inner struggle by a believer to fulfill his religious duties.[3][7] This non-violent meaning is stressed by both Muslim[8] and non-Muslim[9] authors. However, there is consensus amongst Islamic scholars that the concept of jihad will always include armed struggle against persecution and oppression.

The name of God (Allah) should never be used in order to hurt other people from other religions, even atheists have the right to live. I believe in a God and their prophets, what Islam calls Allah with His prophet Muhammed, Buddhism calls the teacher Buddha, Hinduism calls Him Krishna, and Christianity calls God's prophet Jesus. They all share the same message: "Love one another, Work for peace. Don't fight, Don't kill, Don't hurt other people. Love God!" Religion should work towards reunion with God without violence, all else is rubbish and misunderstanding of the purpose of religion.

Wisdom

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ~ Albert Einstein

Franklin D. Roosevelt Wisdom

There is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy. The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic system are simple. They are: Equality of opportunity for youth and others; Jobs for those who can work; Security for those who need it; The ending of the special privileges for the few; The preservation of civil liberties for all; The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living. Franklin D. Roosevelt - thx to brother Hercules Invictus

BRAHMA (Day of) Also known as a 'Kalpa'.

"...one day of Brahma consists of a thousand cycles of four yugas, or ages: Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali. The cycle of Satya is characterized by virtue, wisdom and religion, there being practically no ignorance and vice, and the yuga lasts 1,728,000 years. In the Treta-yuga vice is introduced, and this yuga lasts 1,296,000 years. In the Dvapara-yuga there is an even greater decline in virtue and religion, vice increasing, and this yuga lasts 864,000 years. And finally in Kali-yuga (the yuga we have now been experiencing over the past 5,000 years) there is an abundance of strife, ignorance, irreligion and vice, true virtue being practically nonexistent, and this yuga lasts 432,000 years. In Kali-yuga vice increases to such a point that at the termination of the yuga the Supreme Lord Himself appears as the Kalki Avatara, vanquishes the demons, saves His devotees, and commences another Satya-yuga. Then the process is set rolling again. These four yugas, rotating a thousand times, comprise one day of Brahma, and the same number comprise one night. Brahma lives one hundred of such years and then dies (some versions call it the sleep of Brahma). These hundred years by earth calculations total to 311 trillion and 40 billion earth years. By these calculations the life of Brahma seems fantastic and interminable, but from the viewpoint of eternity it is as brief as a lightning flash."

The Sanskrit text Brahma-vaivarta Purana describes a dialogue between Lord Krishna and the Goddess Ganges. Here, Krishna says that after 5,000 years of Kali Yuga there will be a dawn of a new Golden Age which will last for 10,000 years (Text 50, 59). This can be immediately understood in the context of the Yuga Cycle timeline described here.

http://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/DMisraB6.php

Basic income, a Human Right

http://basisinkomen.eu/
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 29.

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Philippe Van Parijs over het basisinkomen [Dutch / Nederlandstalig]

Words of Light and Wisdom

“I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion, and elimination of ignorance, selfishness, and greed. Only by broadening our perspective, including seeing the world through the eyes of the other, and by educating and improving ourselves we can remove ignorance."

The Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama Guide to Happiness

Wisdom quotes

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."

Mahatma Gandhi

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity."

Nelson Mandela

"World belongs to humanity, not this leader, that leader or that king or prince or religious leader. World belongs to humanity."

Dalai Lama

Beyond materialism

"… the great materialistic progress which we have venerated for so long is on the verge of bankruptcy. We can no longer believe that we are born into this world to accumulate wealth and abandon ourselves to mortal pleasures. We see the dangers and realize that we have been exploited for centuries. We were told the twentieth century was the most progressive that the world has ever known, but unfortunately the progression was in the direction of self-destruction.

To avoid a future of war, crime, and bankruptcy, the individual must begin to plan his own destiny, and the best source for the necessary information comes down to us through the writings of the ancients. The greatest knowledge of all time should be available … in a book that would be a monument, not merely a coffin."

- Manly P. Hall in the preface to the diamond jubilee edition of The Secret Teachings of All Ages

Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi, svaha!
O Wisdom! Gone, gone, gone to the other shore, landed on the other shore, Hail!

All materials provided here are for the benefit of others. I don't get paid for everything I do, it's for patients and doctors, free to use.

All research here is done in the service of humanity, and by humanity and the future generations it must be judged. Its author recognises no inferior court of appeal. Abuse he is accustomed to; calumny he is daily acquainted with; at slander he smiles in silent contempt.

De minimis non curat lex.

In remembrance of H.P.B.

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.

Mahatma Gandhi

New Group of World Servers

The new group of world servers respects all governments and all parties.

Who Are the New Group of World Servers?

They recognize their peers and equals, and know each other when they meet and stand shoulder to shoulder with their fellow workers in the work of salvaging humanity. (1)

Members of the New Group of World Servers encompass all walks of life. They are people of all races, who speak all languages, and practice a wide tolerance ~ embracing all religions, all sciences and all philosophies. Brotherhood and Sisterhood, based on the one Life, is their only creed. (2)

Foremost, they desire to uplift, teach and help others. They are identified by the selflessness of their service to the world and lack of personal ambition, coupled with a willingness to work behind the scenes without recognition.

It is possible that you are a member of this group, which forms the network of Light Workers, a global grid that exists on planet earth, despite any apparent outer plane separation.

The return towards the wisdom of the ancients

We return to the traditions of the ancestors because we see great value in them. Because we know their wisdom can help heal the hole in your heart, the aching in your soul, the pain in our community. We share their wisdom with the prayer that it will stir something deep within you and awaken you to your full potential and your true calling. This world of hurt is always in need of one more healer, one more guide, one more ambassador of Spirit, one more soul who instinctively knows how to mend what society has torn apart."

- James Weeks/Across The King's River

On becoming knowers (the actual meaning of the word occultist).

In large measure, we are “believers” on our way to becoming “knowers” — this to be accomplished to a great extent during the Aquarian Age (which begins, we are told, in the year 2117 and lasting for approximately another 2160 years).

Great Teachers, too, should be trusted as far as we can follow Them through the power of our intuition. If we cannot follow Their thought or suggestions, we may respect what They have said, but still reserve judgment concerning the absoluteness of the truth presented.

We do not become knowers by faith alone, but by deep meditation, close and earnest study and by applying what we have learned. The three pillars of the teaching of this and every other true mystery school are meditation, study and service.

- From Initiation, Human and solar, Alice Bailey

The voice of Socrates

Socrates used to say to those around him that his daimon, his inner monitor, never told him what to do, but always what not to do. (6) This daimon was the 'voice' of the higher ego, which in great men is often very strong in its energy; and in some hypersensitive constitutions may be heard as a 'voice.' It is not really a voice (although that is its effect at times on the physical brain), but rather is an urge from within, manifesting also, perhaps, as flashes of light and inner vision.

From : Spiritual Illumination vs Psychic Illusion, G. De Purucker

True healing

True healing is not a matter of removing symptoms but of discovering why they appear in the first place and how to correct the underlying condition without harming other areas of the body. A holistically-oriented practitioner knows that we can and do heal ourselves and encourages us to assume responsibility for our own health. True health-care practitioners understand that if people continue to live in ways that have led to the imbalanced condition that expresses as poor health, whatever therapy they may be engaged in, they are likely to develop similar or even more serious ailments in the future. Therefore, they stress the need to alter detrimental habits as part of the healing process in conjunction with the appropriate external interventions, if applicable. They are also able to tolerate the healing process’s inherent uncertainty, to honour a patient's emotions while being equally responsive to their own, and to provide the necessary support throughout the process even though the outcome may be death. In fact, the word "doctor" comes from the Latin docere, "to teach", and the word "therapy" comes from the Greek therapeuein, "to attend or assist".

Healing Our Deepest Wounds: The Holotropic Paradigm Shift

Dr. Grof's newest book was published on July 1, 2012, his 81st birthday, as his present to the world. This book is an unprecedented consolidation and focusing of Stan's lifetime work in consciousness research and the application of that work to the individual and collective healing we so desperately need. (276 Pages, 80 black and white pictures.)

"After more than fifty years of intensive study of holotropic states of consciousness, I have come to the conclusion that the theoretical concepts and practical approaches developed by transpersonal psychology, a discipline that is trying to integrate spirituality with the new paradigm emerging in Western science, could help alleviate the crisis we are all facing. These observations suggest that radical psychospiritual transformation of humanity is not only possible, but is already underway.The question is only whether it can be sufficiently fast and extensive to reverse the current self-destructive trend of modern humanity."

Visit Stan Grof : http://www.stanislavgrof.com

What is Sakadagami?

The second stage of enlightenment is that of the Sakadāgāmī (Sanskrit: Sakṛdāgāmin), literally meaning "one who once (sakṛt) comes (āgacchati)". The once-returner will at most return to the human world one more time. Both the stream-enterer and the once-returner have abandoned the first three fetters. The stream-enterer and once-returner are distinguished by the fact that the once-returner has weakened lust, hate, and delusion to a greater degree. The once-returner therefore has fewer than seven rebirths. They may take place in higher planes but will include rebirth in the human world at most only once more. Once-returners do not have only one more rebirth, as the name suggests, for that may not even be said with certainty about the non-returner who can take multiple rebirths in the five "Pure Abodes".

Read more about the four stages of enlightenment.

What is an Arhat?

Arhat – (Sk.). "The worthy one", lit., "deserving divine honours". This was the name first given to the Jain and subsequently to the Buddhist holy men initiated into the esoteric mysteries. The Arhat is one who has entered the best and highest path, and is thus emancipated from re-birth. (TG)

For the achievement of true immortality, in other words, for the maintaining of consciousness on all the four planes of existence, and for becoming an Arhat, it is essential to connect, precisely in the physical body, the fourth, fifth, and seventh principles and fuse them in the sixth—Buddhi. All the qualities of the basic energy, being separately transmuted by its fire, must be harmonized and expressed in the highest quality of psychic energy. (LHR I, p 473)

What is proper action?

Action – If an action is small, it needs the help of various handmade objects. But when the action becomes great it can dispense with earthly objects. This is the first touchstone of action. ...
The second quality of action is its mobility. Like a whirlwind of primary matter, a true action must vibrate with possibilities. Only a flight can crown a luminous manifested thought.
The third quality of action is its unexpectedness. Every action which has astounded the minds of the people was the result of an unexpected way of thinking.
The fourth quality of action is its elusiveness. Only this quality protects the action against destructiveness.
The fifth quality of action is its convincingness. As every lightning flash connects our consciousness with the Cosmos, so each action should strike like a flashing sword.
The sixth quality of action is its lawfulness. Only the consciousness of the fundamentals of the world evolution can advance the action immutably.
The seventh quality of action is its pure motive. By this path one can move weighty loads without fatigue. (LMG II, p 197)

What is a Mahatma?

Mahatma – (Sk.). Lit., "Great soul". An adept of the highest order. Exalted beings who, having attained to the mastery over their lower principles are thus living unimpeded by the "man of the flesh", and are in possession of knowledge and power commensurate with the stage they have reached in their spiritual evolution. (TG)

Do not forget that the Mahatmas of the Brotherhood include those Seven Greatest Spirits who, at the end of the third race, came to Earth from the higher planets for the acceleration of our evolution. (LHR I, p 452)

"Mahatma" denotes a great soul which encompasses the manifestations of the New World. (COM, 164)

Each Mahatma began his ascent from the very midst of people, having only dared to choose the difficult path of the Great Soul. And, besides daring, he found in his heart indignation of spirit, for how else can the fires be kindled? Upon these fires the precious substance of the secretions is transmuted into a healing substance. One can see how the saliva of a fiery being can remove an inflammation and restore the vital energy to numb centers. Alongside the sacred property of secretions stands the healing power of the laying on of hands. It is instructive to compare the secretions of men having dormant centers with the ejection of the fiery substance. If I advise medicines made from plants for common organisms, then for the more knowing ones there is a powerful laboratory of sacred fiery secretions. (HIER, 304)

Mahatma Letters – These letters, first published in 1923, were written between the years 1880 and 1884 to A. P. Sinnett, English Civil Servant in Simla, India by two Eastern Mahatmas of Tibet whom H.P. Blavatsky had acknowledged as her
Teachers and the inspirers of her Isis Unveiled and Secret Doctrine. (ML, Fly Leaf)

Integrity in a world gone slightly mad

"Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act"
-- Albert Einstein

The Quest for Wisdom beyond knowledge -
Manly P. Hall Archive

Alternative Media :

David Icke website click here

Alex Jones : Infowars website

Jordan Maxwell (esoteric scholar) : click here

Belfort Group websites

[Founded by Peter Vereecke, Belgium] - click here [Dutch]
Peter Vereecke personal blog : click here [Dutch]

The Collectivist Conspiracy documentary by G. Edward Griffin [Historian] - Watch on You Tube here

Hidden knowledge & coming into consciousness to survive - Marcel Messing, Belgium - Watch for free here

Being spiritual with a scientific approach is what I mean with being an occultist ...

“The seeker after truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them," the first scientist wrote, "but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration and not the sayings of human beings whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of of its content, attack it from every side. he should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency.”

― Ibn al-Haytham

Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis (New Consciousness Readers)

By Dr. Stanislav Grof

From Spiritual Emergency to Healing and Rebirth

Increasing numbers of people involved in personal transformation are experiencing spiritual emergencies — crises when the process of growth and change becomes chaotic and overwhelming. Individuals experiencing such episodes may feel that their sense of identity is breaking down, that their old values no longer hold true, and that the very ground beneath their personal realities is radically shifting. In many cases, new realms of mystical and spiritual experience enter their lives suddenly and dramatically, resulting in fear and confusion. They may feel tremendous anxiety, have difficulty coping with their daily lives, jobs, and relationships, and may even fear for their own sanity.

Unfortunately, much of modern psychiatry has failed to distinguish these episodes from mental illness. As a result, transformational crises are often suppressed by routine psychiatric care, medication, and even institutionalization.

However, there is a new perspective developing among many mental health professionals and those studying spiritual development that views such crises as transformative breakthroughs that can hold tremendous potential for physical and emotional healing. When understood and treated in a supportive manner, spiritual emergencies can become gateways to higher levels of functioning and new ways of being.

In this book, foremost psychologists, psychiatrists, and spiritual teachers address the following questions: What is spiritual emergency? What is the relationship between spirituality, “madness,” and healing? What forms does spiritual emergency take? What are the pitfalls — and promises — of spiritual practice? How can people in spiritual emergency be assisted by family, friends, and professionals?

This groundbreaking work reveals that within the crisis of spiritual emergency lies the promise of spiritual emergence and renewal.

Order on Amazon : http://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Emergency-Personal-Transformation-Consciousness/dp/0874775388

Modern psychiatry and its new inquisition

Where in the middle ages, the Church killed many so-called witches and heretics, modern day psychiatry tends to do the same with the so-called mentally ill. People who hear voices were persecuted by the Inquisition, today they are drugged, locked up against their wills and labeled insane.

All great mystics and sages throughout the ages knew that sensitive people can sometimes hear a voice, just as Sri Aurobindo, the great yogi and visionary from India always heared a voice who guided him through his journey. Our psychiatric hospitals are filled with people who are so sensitive that they become overwhelmed by strange experiences who often tend to be paranormal or mystical in a sense. Could it be that modern day science does the same with these lost mystics, as the Inquisition did with the medieval witches?

Thomas Szasz and the myth of mental illness ... [must see!]

The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement

"It is possible to undergo a profound crisis involving non-ordinary experiences and to perceive it as pathological or psychiatric when in fact it may be more accurately and beneficially defined as a spiritual emergency." -- Stanislav Grof

Bodhisattva

(Sanskrit) A compound word: literally "he whose essence (sattva) has become intelligence (bodhi)." As explained exoterically, a bodhisattva means one who in another incarnation or in a few more incarnations will become a buddha. A bodhisattva from the standpoint of the occult teachings is more than that. When a man, a human being, has reached the state where his ego becomes conscious, fully so, of its inner divinity, becomes clothed with the buddhic ray — where, so to say, the personal man has put on the garments of inner immortality in actuality, on this earth, here and now — that man is a bodhisattva. His higher principles have nearly reached nirvana. When they do so finally, such a man is a buddha, a human buddha, a manushya-buddha. Obviously, if such a bodhisattva were to reincarnate, in the next incarnation or in a very few future incarnations thereafter, he would be a manushya-buddha. A buddha, in the esoteric teaching, is one whose higher principles can learn nothing more. They have reached nirvana and remain there; but the spiritually awakened personal man, the bodhisattva, the person made semi-divine to use popular language, instead of choosing his reward in the nirvana of a less degree, remains on earth out of pity and compassion for inferior beings, and becomes what is called a nirmanakaya. In a very mystical part of the esoteric philosophy, a bodhisattva is the representative on earth of a dhyani-buddha or celestial buddha — in other words, one who has become an incarnation or expression of his own divine monad.

***

Comprises two concepts: Bodhi—enlightenment or awakening, and Sattva—the essence. Bodhisattvas were the disciples of Buddhas, who voluntarily renounced their personal liberation and, following the example of their Teacher, entered upon a long, weary, thorny path of help to humanity. Such Boddhisattvas appear on earth in the midst of the most varying conditions of life. They possess the qualities of the maximum development of energy, courage, patience, constancy of striving and fearlessness. There are three joys of Bodhisattvas: the joy of giving, the joy of helping and the joy of eternal perception. Patience, always, in all, and everywhere. The Sons of Budda, the Sons of Conquerors, Bodhisattvas in their active compassion are the Mothers to the all-existing. From among their number came the founders of the great kingdoms, great religions and philosophies, many alchemists and several saints. (LHR I, pp 365-366)

A self-sacrificing, compassionate helper of humanity. ... Physically indistinguishable in any way from the rest of humanity, they nevertheless differ completely in their psychology, constantly being the heralds of the principle of the common welfare ... What qualities must a Bodhisattva possess? In the Teaching of Gotama Buddha and in the Teaching of Bodhisattva Maitreya, given by Him to Asanga, according to tradition in the fourth century, the maximum development of energy, courage, patience, constancy of striving and fearlessness were first of all underlined. Energy is the basis of everything, as it alone contains all possibilities. Buddhas are eternally in action; immobility is unknown to Them. Like the eternal motion in space, the actions of the Sons of Conquerors manifest in the worlds. (LHR I, pp 365-366)

Indigo Children

Indigo Children are here to raise the consciousness of the planet. They falsely have been accused of mental illness but now finally since 2016 they can take their power back, refuse repression from the medical establishment and shine their light on earth as light bringers without accepting even for one moment a diagnosis of any kind. They are spiritual beings, yogis, mystics, occultist, clairvoyants and holy men and women. The pharmaceutical industry is being exposed by the day, as well as the medical establishment. Our time has come. Finally, after years of living a double-life! kristo

Messengers of The Great White Lodge

Lodge of 144 000

Lodge of the 144,000 The Book of Revelations and The Emerald Tablets both predict and forecast the incarnation and arrival of 144,000 Lightworkers who will save Earth from the “Forces of Darkness” during the END TIMES of the Kali Yuga. Most of the 144,000 Lightworkers are now here and in the process of “Waking Up” to their Divine purpose and mission on Earth. The majority of the 144,000 are advanced incarnated Starseeds from more advanced planets, although some of the 144,000 are advanced local souls of Earth. Most of the 144,000 are now in the process of “Waking Up” and coming out of their long mental and spiritual hibernation, slowly but surely realizing that they are here to assist in the great transformation of Earth. The Cellular Memories of the 144,000 were programmed, timed, and triggered to “go off” at this time and awaken them to their true identity, mission, and purpose for incarnating on Earth at this most crucial time in Earth’s history. We have reached and entered the 11th hour of the Great Change that is taking place on Earth, and the time has come for any and all remaining 144,000 to wipe the sleeping slumbers of half-life from their eyes, smack their forehead to dislodge the dream of materialism, wake up and smell the coffee, roll up their sleeves, put on their Thinking Caps, and be about the Himalayan task of saving this planet! The ignorant masses of Earth will not save the planet. Only the 144,000 Lightworkers can save the planet. But ALL 144,000 Lightworkers MUST assume their post, and assume itNOW! The time for confusion, hesitation, and procrastination are over! There is a planet to save. And We are the One’s who signed-up to save it! ONE member who fails to find and assume his post can jeopardize the entire Mission. If that sounds galactically serious, it is. If you think We are on just another “routine mission,” think again. This is the biggest Mission The Great White Lodge has undertaken in the last 200,000 years. The eyes of the entire Galaxy are upon Us. Watching to see if We succeed or fail. Watching to see if Earth is saved or blown to bits, when the Warriors of Darkness meet the Warriors of Light.

The Hippies

Chemtrails

New World Order

The New World Order has been in the works for many years. The New World Order is the ultimate plan of The Dark Lodge, The Illuminati, and The Secret Government for complete global control. Under the false guise of “Peace” and “Global Unification,” The New World Order is really designed and meant to be an invisible prison where the citizens of Earth are slaves, pawns, and puppets of the evil New World Order hierarchy. Only God’s Army will be able to put a stop to the malevolent plans of The New World Order—and that God’s Army will do in the great battle of Armageddon!

Area 51

Money

None of the Christed planets have a monetary system. You will only find a monetary system on a fallen Luciferian planet such as Earth. The monetary system of Earth was jointly designed and created by The Dark Lodge and The Illuminati to better control and enslave the people of Earth. And as you can see their evil plan has worked quite well. Nearly all of humanity is a slave to money and nearly all of humanity puts money first above all other things—including our beloved God. Everything about the monetary system of Earth is completely evil and unfair. The system itself is designed to keep the rich rich, the poor poor, and the middle class middle class. However, the reign of The Dark Lodge and The Illuminati is rapidly coming to a close, and as The Dark Lodge and The Illuminati disappear from this Earth forever, the evil monetary system they created will disappear from Earth as well.