Podcasts about nereids

Move Over Winter Weather, Let's Get Ready for Spring in Coastal Mississippi with this inaugural episode of Big Blend Radio's new travel podcast "Journey Jukebox with Lisa." From Mardi Gras to St Patricks Day, and from where to stay and play, there's so much to experience. COASTAL MISSISSIPPI TRAVEL PLANNING LINKS - Coastal Mississippi: https://www.coastalmississippi.com/  - Krewe of Nereids: https://www.kreweofnereids.com/  - Bay St Louis Historic L&N Depot: https://visitmississippi.org/things-to-do/architecture/bay-st-louis-historic-ln-train-depot/  - Mardi Gras & Depot Museums: https://mississippifun.org/members/mardi-gras-depot-museums/  - Coastal Mississippi Mardi Gras Museum: https://www.coastalmardigras.com/home  - Coraline's: https://beaurivage.mgmresorts.com/en/restaurants/coralines.html  - Tavi's Salumeria: https://www.tavisllc.com/  - Siren Social Club: https://www.sirensocial.com/  JOURNEY JUKEBOX MUSIC PLAYLIST on SPOTIFY:  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7humUf03LIW04t8LiJSSN9?si=adcbe4ff3bec4b17  Lisa Evans is a travel writer and photographer, travel advisor, and author of "100 Things to Do in Coastal Mississippi Before You Die."  More at https://writerlisa.com/  New episodes of Big Blend Radio's ”Journey Jukebox with Lisa” Podcast air every 3rd Tuesday at 12pm CST. Follow the podcast from your favorite platform here:  https://journeyjukebox.podbean.com/  Featured photos by Lisa Evans and CoastalMississippi.com. 

Simon has just published a book on European fairies, trolls, and other supernatural creatures, who like humans live in societies: going to war, dancing, seducing, holding weddings and funerals, burying the elderly alive....Looking at beliefs from Ireland to Ukraine and from Iceland to the Balkans, Simon and Chris debate the merits of trying to classify supernatural beings, find chilling parallels for the ‘fairy blast' in Croatia and Greece, and shudder at the vengeful Nixen of Germany's rivers. They also clash about vampires and werewolves in Ohio, but that is another story...Sometimes these social folklore beings look human, but are given away by their hollow back or a wet hem dragging in the road. They may be helpful to humans, or they may be vampiric, luring young men and women to their doom. 

Oceanids, Nereids, and Naiads, oh my! We're back to talking about nymphs, but this time it's all about water nymphs - rivers, the sea, the springs and lakes. Grab your towels and let's dive in!   Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of cannibalism, death, murder, blood, castration, warfare, drowning, and sex.    Housekeeping - Recommendation: This week, Amanda recommends The Dresden Files. - Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests' books, and more at https://spiritspodcast.com/books - Call to Action: Join the Multitude Discord!   Sponsors - Shaker & Spoon is a subscription cocktail service that helps you learn how to make hand-crafted cocktails right at home. Get $20 off your first box at shakerandspoon.com/cool   Find Us Online - Website & Transcripts: https://spiritspodcast.com - Patreon: https://patreon.com/spiritspodcast - Merch: https://spiritspodcast.com/merch - Instagram: https://instagram.com/spiritspodcast - Twitter: https://twitter.com/spiritspodcast - Tumblr: https://spiritspodcast.tumblr.com - Goodreads: https://goodreads.com/group/show/205387   Cast & Crew - Co-Hosts: Julia Schifini and Amanda McLoughlin - Editor: Bren Frederick - Music: Brandon Grugle, based on "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod - Artwork: Allyson Wakeman - Multitude: https://multitude.productions   About Us Spirits is a boozy podcast about mythology, legends, and folklore. Every episode, co-hosts Julia and Amanda mix a drink and discuss a new story or character from a wide range of places, eras, and cultures. Learn brand-new stories and enjoy retellings of your favorite myths, served over ice every week, on Spirits.

Ariadne has been abandoned on the island of Naxos by Theseus. As she battles with heartache and homesickness she remembers her grandmother Europa. Written and narrated by Bibi Jacob. Sound and production by Geoff Chong. Sources for this re-telling include Moschus' poem ‘Europa'; Roberto Calasso's ‘The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony,' and Ariadne's letter to Theseus from Ovid's ‘Heroides' which you can hear me read on Late Night Classics: S1 E4: Heroides – Ariadne to Theseus

One of the larger moons of the planet Neptune has been through a lot. It might have started as an asteroid, and was captured by Neptune's gravity. Or it might have started as a moon, but was hurled into a wild orbit when Neptune grabbed its largest moon. And since then, it's been battered by impacts with other space rocks. Nereid was discovered 75 years ago today, by Gerard Kuiper. It was only the second moon seen around the giant planet, and it's the third-largest of Neptune's 16 known moons. Kuiper was observing Neptune with the 82-inch telescope at McDonald Observatory. In a pair of 40-minute exposures, the moon showed up as a tiny star near the planet. Kuiper suggested the name Nereid because, in mythology, the Nereids were daughters of Neptune. We don't know a lot more about the moon today than when it was discovered. It's more than 200 miles in diameter, its gray surface probably is coated with ice and rock, and the surface is rough — perhaps the result of billions of years of impacts. Nereid follows the most lopsided orbit of any good-sized moon in the solar system. It ranges from less than a million miles from Neptune to about six million miles. That suggests that Nereid could be the last of Neptune's original moons. When Neptune captured its biggest moon, Triton, Triton's gravity could have kicked out all the others, leaving only Nereid — in a wild orbit around a giant planet. Script by Damond Benningfield

► Messed Up Origins™ Socials! » TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@messeduporigins » Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/messeduporigins/ » Facebook Fan Page: https://facebook.com/TheRealJonSolo » Twitter: https://twitter.com/MessedUpOrigins ▼ Podcast Links! ▼ » Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jon-solos-messed-up-origins-podcast/id1631064271 » Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0zC1NxCX576HHQUoYCuGDo » Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbWVzc2VkdXBvcmlnaW5z » Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e2ab5016-5166-4670-b0a3-7c6ade06947d/jon-solos-messed-up-origins-podcast » Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/jon-solos-messed-up-origins-podcast » iHeartRadio: https://iheart.com/podcast/99117988/ ► SOLOFAM MERCH: » https://bit.ly/SoloFamMerch ► Support the series on Patreon! » https://www.patreon.com/JonSolo ▼ Timestamps ▼ » 0:00 - Percy Found His Footing » 0:45 - Pan: God of Nature » 3:30 - The Mother of Monsters » 5:49 - The Chimera » 8:08 - The Nereids ► Want more? » ALL Messed Up Origins: https://bit.ly/MessedUpOrigins » Featured Folklore (the animated series!): https://bit.ly/featuredfolklore » Disney Explained: https://bit.ly/DisneyExplained » ALL Mythology Explained: https://bit.ly/MythologyExplained » Norse Mythology: http://bit.ly/NorseMythologyExplained » Folklore Explained: https://bit.ly/FablesExplained » Astrology: http://bit.ly/AstrologyExplained » Messed Up Murders: https://bit.ly/MurderPlaylist ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ► Social Media: » Twitter: https://twitter.com/JonSolo » Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/JonSolo » Official Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/jonsolo ► Join the Official Channel Discord: » https://www.patreon.com/JonSolo ► Send Fan Mail to: » SoloFamMail@gmail.com ► Business: » biz@MessedUpOrigins.com (Business Inquiries ONLY) ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ▼ Credits ▼ » Edited by: Jon Solo & Lu Solo » Written & Directed by: Jon Solo ▼ Resources ▼ » my favorites: https://messeduporigins.com/books » Pan: https://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Pan.html » Echidna: https://www.theoi.com/Ther/DrakainaEkhidna1.html » The Chimera: https://www.theoi.com/Ther/Khimaira.html » Nereids: https://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Nereides.html #percyjackson #percyjacksondisney #greekmythology

Characters in Greek mythology never seemed to learn that it was a bad idea to disrespect the gods. Consider Cassiopeia, the queen of Ethiopia. Her vanity led to all kinds of trouble with the gods — and eventually got her placed in the stars. Cassiopeia was a great beauty. But her trouble started when she boasted that she was more beautiful than a group of sea goddesses known as the Nereids. They didn't like the put-down at all, and they plotted revenge. One of them was married to the sea god, Poseidon. As a punishment, he sent the monster Cetus to ravage the coast of Ethiopia. To appease him, Cassiopeia and her husband, King Cepheus, chained their young daughter Andromeda at the shore as a sacrifice. Before Cetus could get her, though, she was rescued by Perseus, who killed the monster. Perseus and Andromeda were married and, according to most versions of the tale, lived a long and happy life together. Cassiopeia's punishment wasn't over, though. In fact, it's still going on. The gods placed her in the stars, where she wheels around the North Star. Part of the time she sits upright, but part of the time she hangs upside down — one last indignity for disrespecting the gods. Look for Cassiopeia well up in the northeast at nightfall. She's easy to find because her brightest stars form a letter M or W. The constellation wheels high across the north after midnight. Tomorrow: remnants of a disappearing comet.  Script by Damond Benningfield Support McDonald Observatory

Wax Wings Brewing Nereids is an American IPA by style. New single IPA recipe designed around Nectaron hops. This craft beer is 7.2% ABV. In this craft beer review, we will take a look at the color, smell, and taste.

Join us to explore the stories of Nymphs and Gorgons in Greek mythology.  Music is by Alexander Nakarada.Support the show

On this episode Dr Scarlett Smash and Dr Craken MacCraic talk about the history of mermaid legends and the links between some of these legends and actual marine biology. This episode is made possible by the support of Shore Buddies: https://shore-buddies.com/. Shore buddies are cute stuffed animals made from 6 recycled, cleaned and shredded plastic bottles. When pressed, each animals plays their authentic animal sound. Give the ocean a hug ! If you liked this show please support us so we can keep providing more content,  $1 helps : www.patreon.com/marineconservation  Contact info@absolutelysmashingllc.com for more information about sponsoring MCHH episodes or having advertisments on the show. MCHH Twitter MCHH Fb Live Dr Scarlett Smash YouTube Dr Scarlett Smash Twitter  Dr Scarlett Smash Instagram Dr Scarlett Smash TikTok  Dr Craken MacCraic Twitter Dr Craken MacCraic Instagram MCHH Instagram

Did you know that the ancient Greeks and Romans didn't have a word for sharks--despite the fact that they must have seen them eating sailors during sea battles all the time? For that matter, they didn't have a word for "whale" either. But they did describe the most fantastical sea creatures, including Nereids, Ketos, and "sea dogs." Whatever those were. Just what were the ancients seeing in the sea, anyway? In this episode, ancient sea monster expert Ryan Denson helps us unpack it all. Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The central Mediterranean is home to a bounty of creatures - fish, dolphins, and... mermaids? In today's episode Dr Amelia Brown returns to the podcast to talk marine mammals and Merpeople. From iconic characters such as Thetis, mother to one of the most famous heroes in the ancient world (anyone heard of a man called Achilles?) to the role Nereids played throughout Greek Mythology - just what can we learn from these mythical creatures and do we really want to be part of their world?For more Ancients content, subscribe to our Ancients newsletter here. If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download, go to Android or Apple store. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Listen to "fishy tales" about mermaids and how you'll drown if you're not pretty enough. Plus, crytpids! The Ningen and Mud Mermaids. Then, we'll tell you about the conspiracy theory behind the Moon Landing. Judge for yourself if it was faked or not. I mean, Buzz Aldrin punched a guy who though it was fake, so you might want to believe just in case.

What lies ahead if you're the seafaring type? Mermaids, Sirens, Nereids, the mighty Kraken and more, as we celebrate MerMAY. Special Guest for Shitty Cryptid: Mike of the Adding Context Podcast, find his show at the following link: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/adding-context-1435388 Correction: *Maori are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand, not connected at all with Aboriginal Australians. CONTENT WARNING: Para-Nerds Podcast is a spooky, gross, fun, but also extremely graphic podcast for adults. CURRENT EVENT ALERT! Come visit us in Raleigh, NC this weekend, at Carolina FearFest! We'll be repping FleshBabies, selling the goods- t-shirts, ceramics, photo prints & grotesqueries. If you come see us and mention our podcast, you'll get 5% off your purchase! https://www.carolinafearfest.com/ Here at Para-Nerds, we care about the look and health of our listeners' genitalia. Never nip your naughty bits again with a trimmer from Smooth My Balls. Use the code PARANERDS to get 15% off your purchase! Go to smoothmyballs.com/paranerds Follow us on Instagram @paranerdspodcast, on Twitter @paranerdspod and like us on Facebook- www.facebook.com/paranerdspodcast Thank you for following us on Instagram! We hit 500 followers this month! Keep em' coming, tell your friends! Any questions, thoughts, sponsorship inquiries or stories of your own? Send em' to paranerdspodcast@gmail.com because we're all out of love and we're so lost without you. Para-Nerds Theme by Dustin Wyrick We are a proud member of the Podmoth Podcasting Network! Check out our sister pods at podmoth.network This weeks Ad: Twisted Listers https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/twisted-listers/id1529947596 Sources: https://www.cnn.com/videos/media/2021/05/19/barack-obama-talks-ufos-late-late-show-int-orig-bdk.cnn https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/75471/9-mermaid-legends-around-world https://andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheLittleMermaid_e.html https://www.wired.com/2014/10/fantastically-wrong-strange-murderous-sometimes-sexy-history-mermaid/ https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/the-nereids.html https://www.icysedgwick.com/mermaids-folklore/ https://www.livescience.com/39882-mermaid.html https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/mermaids.html https://www.gods-and-monsters.com/sirens-mythology.html https://theconversation.com/the-real-life-origins-of-the-legendary-kraken-52058 https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/67371/15-kraken-facts-and-myths-unleash-conversation

There's a god or nymph for everything! The many Titans, gods, nymphs, and creatures of the waters of Greek mythology... Oceanus, Nereus, Oceanids, and Nereids.CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing.Sources: Theoi.com.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I was going to come up with a witty description but FLOATING MCDONALD'S Send us an Iris message at oftheeldestgodspod@gmail.com with your thoughts and theories going forward! We would love to hear from you. Make sure to subscribe so you know when our next episode drops and rate and review if you like what we are doing. IG: https://www.instagram.com/oftheeldestgodspod/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/oftheeldestgods    Follow Taylor: IG: https://www.instagram.com/taylorfromcabin6/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/HistoricalFemme  Plugs: The Last Jedi and Rogue One  Follow Charlie: IG: https://www.instagram.com/greenpixie12/ and https://www.instagram.com/greenpixiedraws/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/greenpixie123  Fandoms Gone Wrong: https://www.instagram.com/fandomsgonewrongpod/ and https://twitter.com/fandomgonewrong  Plug: W.I.T.C.H.    Check out the other shows on the Movie Night Crew Network! --> Our newest show is My Cabbages! An Avatar Podcast  Mentioned in the Show: Mississippi River, Nereids, Naiads, THE MCBARGE

El guitarrista estadounidense John Pizzarelli toca en solitario obras de Pat Metheny como 'Better days ahead' -que da título a su nuevo disco-, 'Spring ain´t here', 'April wind/Phase dance' y 'Last train home'. Del disco del guitarrista brasileño, afincado en Los Angeles, Ricardo Peixoto, 'Scary beautiful', los temas 'Circles', 'Nereids' y 'Morro da paixão'. Y, del recopilatorio sin título del violinista austriaco con el guitarrista brasileño Toninho Horta, 'Waltz for Jeremy', 'When eagles fly on Sunday', 'Pilar' y 'Beautiful love'. Despiden Airto Moreira y Flora Purim con 'White and black' en un concierto de 1988. Escuchar audio

Nereids, mer-people, water folk, mermaids, whatever you want to call them, all cultures around the world have within their histories some version of half-human half-fish creatures. From the German Lorelei, the Icelandic Marmenill, the Matsyanaris in India to the Babylonian fish god, the Polynesian god Vatea, or the African Yemaya, the oceans and rivers of our planet are swimming with mysterious creatures. So the next time you’re swimming in the ocean, take care! You never know who – or what – you’ll meet.

Join us down where it's wetter to learn all about the history of mermaids and the science of land-fish!Recorded by Sarah-Jayne Robinson and Tim Newport at CPAS Podcast Studio.Edited by Tim Newport, transcribed by Sarah-Jayne Robinson.Intro music sampled from "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/---Transcript:SJ: Far out in the ocean where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflour and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep, so deep indeed that no cable could fathom it. Many Church steeples piled one upon another would not reach from the ground beneath to the surface of the water above. There dwell the Sea King and his subjects.[intro music]SJ: Hi everyone, my name is SJ.Tee: And my name is Tee.SJ: And we’re Crumbs of Science and this week if you couldn't tell by the introduction we are talking about The Little Mermaid. But, not your Disney Little Mermaid, gosh no, that's a way too pleasant. Instead we want to talk about the original Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, published in 1837.Tee: Yeh, we’re real hipsters like that we're going for the, uh, the OG Little Mermaid.SJ: Now often when we’ve mentioned fairy-tales on here there's been heaps of previous versions and it's come through. But Hans Christian Andersen was, I think a little bit more original than the Brothers Grimm because they just collected the fairytales, whereas Hans wrote it himself. So there are some previous versions of this fairytale such as Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, very fancy name, published in 1811 where a watersprite marries a knight named Huldebrand in order to gain a soul. Very popular German folktale. There’s also a French folktale, Melusine where a watersprite marries a knight, on the condition that he shall never see her on Saturdays, when she becomes a mermaid again. Casual Saturday, as you do. And there’s also a theory that he was perhaps inspired by the occultist Paracelsus whose full name, get ready for this one, was Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, who was around til 1541 and he was pretty big in the medical industry and he believed that sickness and health in the body relied upon the harmony of humans and nature. So if plants looked like part of the body they could cure that part of the body, for example one that I found was that orchid roots look like testicles so they can cure any testicle-associated illness of course and he thought that the four elements of a body had to be in-line with each other and the four elements corresponded to four elemental beings. Salamanders for fire, gnomes for earth, sylphs for air and undines or mermaids for water. So these might have been some of the inspirations for Hans Christian Andersen. But also at this time, it was relatively well-believed that mermaids were actually real and we'll discuss that a little bit later. There was lots of evidence out there that mermaids existed. Many well-renowned thinkers believed in mermaids and there were even exhibitions of mermaids that would tour around England and around Europe at the time displaying mermaids or mermaid bones or artifacts from mermaids.Tee: So Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid opens in a similar way to the Disney version. There is the Sea King at the bottom of the ocean who lives in a beautiful, beautiful castle. The Sea King is a widower and in this story, the Sea King’s mother is also around the home. She, the Sea King and the six daughters of the Sea King, uh, all live in this huge castle at the bottom of the ocean. Each of the daughters is told by their grandmother that ‘When you've reached your 15th year, you'll have permission to rise up out of the sea to sit on the rocks in the moonlight, while the great ships are sailing by and then you'll see both forests and towns.’ Each of the sisters is one year older than the other. The first sister goes up and she sees beautiful stars, beautiful towns… Second sister goes up and she sees a bunch of things and so on and so forth until it's time for Ariel.SJ: She’s actually never named in this one. I think they came up with the name Ariel for The Little Mermaid, which actually used to be a male name before they used it in Disney.Tee: Mmm interesting.SJ: Fun fact, I’m pretty sure.Tee: So the littlest mermaid floats up to the surface and as she gets to the surface, she sees a beautiful ship. The ship so brightly illuminated that all the people and even the smallest rope could be distinctly and plainly seen, and how handsome the young Prince looked as he pressed the hands of all present and smiled at them while the music resounded through the clear night air. But then a storm rolls in and picks the ship up and dashes it against the rocks. And during the storm, she finds the young Prince who's floating through the water. Uh, who's fast losing the power of swimming in that stormy sea. His limbs were failing him, his beautiful eyes were closed and he would have died, had not the little mermaid come to his assistance. She held his head above the water and let the waves drift them where they would. As soon as they wake up she makes sure he's ok and then she dives back into the water. He wakes up and he, but he has no knowledge of who rescued him.SJ: We said before that Hans might have been influenced by some stories at the time and mermaids have actually been around in culture for centuries and centuries. The first merperson really that was imagined was around 4000 years ago and it was Ea, a merman who was the Babylonian god of the sea, with the lower body of a fish and the upper body of a human. Helped people, brings them arts and sciences and battled evil, all the good stuff. And weirdly, he was the patron god of cleaners. You may be more familiar with his name when he was later co-opted by the Greeks and the Romans as Poseidon and Neptune. But the earliest mermaid they suspect was the ancient Syrian goddess Atargatis, Atar-gatis?, Atar-gateus?, Atargatis, who watched over the fertility of her people and their general well-being and of course, fish below human above. Now people really actually believed in mermaids before the 18th century. So there was the Great Roman naturalist, Pliny the Elder, who wrote Natural History which is pretty much the scientific gospel for the following centuries and that was published around 77ish AD. And he wrote of Nereids and nymphs, which are half-human, half-fish mermaids, and just wrote of them as being actually real. So the princess watches this happening and then she goes back home but she is depressed. She is so lovesick and she pretty much just hangs out being lovesick. She eventually tells some of her sisters why she’s so sad and they tell her where his palace is, which conveniently is right next to the water. Then there's a big party one night and she has a wonderful time at this underwater party that she's attending until she realises, I can never be truly happy until I am with my one true love, the prince who has never met me and has no idea who I am. So she goes to see the Sea Witch. In this version, there is a very important distinction between mermaids and humans, not just the whole tail thing.Tee: In this story humans have an immortal soul and that immortal soul means that they, once they die, get to live forever in theSJ: The unknownTee: Yeh, yeh, the heavens. But mermaids don't have an immortal soul, and so even though they live for over 300 years once they die they just turn into sea foam.SJ: They gone.Tee: They become the foam on the surface of the water and ‘have not even a grave down here of those we love and we shall never leave again like the green seaweed once it has been cut off, we can never flourish more’.SJ: As her grandmother tells her ever so sweetly. The Little Mermaid heads over to the Sea Witch and she makes the deal to get legs. Now, the Sea Witch demands payment of course for it, which is her voice, as it was in the Disney one. But in this one she actually cuts of her tongue so she can no longer speak. The other side of it is, the Little Mermaid must marry this prince in order to get an immortal soul and live forever, which is really her goal. She's a bit sad about the whole living and then just turning into seafoam. She wants the immortal soul that people have. So if the prince marries her and loves her wholeheartedly, she will get this immortal soul. However, if the prince marries someone else, the day after, she will die immediately. Become that seafoam she's so scared of. But she is given more time in it, she's got more than 3 days so maybe this Sea Witch was slightly more generous.Tee: And also more motivation.SJ: Little bit.Tee: Eternal deathSJ: Yeh, yeh, however she did just cut her tongue out, so you know, swings and roundabouts. So she’s given this potion by the witch, swims up to the surface, on the way, saying goodbye to her family forever, takes the potion and then, with a ginormous amount of pain transforms into a human with legs.Tee: So life moved from the ocean, with predators and lots of competition for food, onto land which at the time was covered in entirely plants and had zero predators. That evolutionary jump was made about 400 million years ago, but it's something that still going on today. Uh, there’s an article in New Scientist by Alice Klein about fish that are evolving to become land-dwellers because of predators. These fish which are called Blenny fish or Blennies live in Rarotonga in the largest of the Cook Islands, and at low tide, these Blennies are found at swimming around in rock pools at the edge of the island, but when high tide moves in, instead of going into the ocean like most fish do at high tide, they instead move-climb up onto dryland and shuffle around the rocks. And what these researchers found is that, this is because there’s predators that swim in with rising tide like flounders and lion fish, the fish have decided to instead of risking that in the ocean, they've evolved to instead spend time on-land to avoid these predators. These Blenny fish have gills but they also have strong tail fins that allow them to jump from rock to rock. So by avoiding predators that, uh, obviously increases their survival and this is exactly how evolutionary pressure works. If you can, if the species survives better in a different place, then things that allow it to get to that place will be selected for, in natural selection.SJ: Now also because Hans didn’t do things lightly, every time she walks, uh, it feels like blades are running through her feet. So at the moment she doesn't have a voice, to seduce the Prince but the Sea Witch said that you will be able to do it because you'll be so graceful in your dancing, never mind that it’s blades through your feet, and you have very expressive eyes and you’ve got a nice face. So Prince, he’ll just fall for you.Tee: You can get a long way on a nice face.SJ: That is true.Tee: It’s worked for me.SJ: [laughs] No comment. She’s hanging about, meets the Prince. He thinks, uh, this is some cute little chick, but he thinks of her as a little sister, which was not the goal and he treats her like a foundling. So sometimes she gets to lay just outside his door cause she's so lucky and he pats her on the head sometimes. She sees a party where people sing and she gets very sad and thinks I could sing way better than that, but then she dances and everyone goes, oh, your dancing is the most amazing dancing ever, so the Prince thinks she’s pretty cool but sadly not interested in her as a love interest. So he’s said that the only person that he could love is the girl who rescued him when he had that shipwreck which he thinks is some random and the Little Mermaid knows that it’s actually her but she hasn't figured out the whole writing thing to tell him and of course she can’t speak. His parents have said, time for you to marry, you’re a Prince that’s what you do. So they head out to meet this other princess and the Little Mermaid’s going, ‘no way he’s going to love her, the only person he can love is that chick in the temple, and me, also she thinks’. Gets to the land, has a whole bunch of cool parties and then he finally sees the Princess that he’s supposed to marry. Turns out, she was the chick who rescued him. OH MY GOODNESS, oh NO for the Little Mermaid, her life is over. So throughout history, lots and lots of people have said that they’ve sighted mermaids. So Pliny had the Nereids, or Nereides, um, Christopher Columbus has claimed that he spotted mermaids off the coast of Haiti in January of 1493. However, he did say that they were pretty ugly and had some masculine traits. Then we had sailors who found little tiny mermaids that were Jenny Hanivers in the 1500s and they used to actually get them and they would dry them out and then sell them in Antwerp for tourists and people believe that they were visible proof that mermaid-like creatures lived in the ocean. John Smith who you might recognise from another Disney story of Pocahontas, fell in love with a mermaid in 1614, um, he says that he sighted one and he was very attracted to her, musing that her long green hair imparted to her an original character that was by no means unattractive. She also had large eyes, a finely-shaped nose and well-formed ears. He began to fall in love with her until he realised that she was a fish and then decided, no, can't love a fish. So there have been lots and lots of sightings about mermaids, but you could really put it down to a bit of hearsay because there wasn't a lot of scientific evidence behind people. Whenever they’d sighted them people would say, I saw a mermaid, look at me go! But then there were a couple of articles that came out in the 18th century, so in the 1700s that were published where people had scientifically examined these mermaids. So there was an article which appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine, it was the 1700s, you were allowed to call things stuff like that then, in December, which Jacques-Fabien Gautier, who was a really prestigious member of the Dijon Academy and recognised for his skill in printing images of scientific subjects. He had looked at this mermaid, examined it, recorded everything about it, and then illustrated it in detail. To a lot of people, this would have then been considered almost incontrovertible proof that mermaids exist. There was a couple of other articles that then, such as in the Mercure de France, in April 1762 there was a story of two girls discovering an animal of a human-form leaning on its hands. Not that pleasant, the girls then stabbed the creature and cut off its hands but these hands were then examined by a surgeon so, and they saw the web between the hands and the fact that it had a tail and this once again, because a surgeon was able to back the story, helped prove that mermaids existed. And in May of 1775, The Gentleman's Magazine again, published an investigation into mermaids, by a merchant man who was trading to Anatolia and then it’s, he had some interesting ideas about these mermaids. Let's just say he was a bit racist, um and he encountered mermaids that had some broader features and then was saying that they were more like African, uh, mermaids and then there were the more daintily-featured white mermaids and then had some ideas about race and how mermaids related to race and this also reflected quite well with the idea that everything in the sea had a counterpart on land. So you had sea-horses to horses, sea dogs and so on to dogs, and then people had their own counterpart being mermaids. But they also had some really, they managed to find the equivalent of the clergy in the ocean, um, where they found a clergy-fish because it looked like a cowl, looked like it was having a cowl so this was discovered in mid-16th century by Guillaume Rondelet, he found monks and bishops, so we'll make sure we put a photo up on the website but they found, I don't know if he realised that they’re just clothing so you can take them off, so perhaps the mermaid just reflected these other ones and it was a profession choice rather than a choice made for them but he found mermaids that were, that looked like monks and mermaids that looked like bishops. So around this time lots of people believed mermaids, they were real. There were some people who held out on it, but many, many highly respected thinkers did believe that mermaids were real.Tee: So having met this princess and fallen in love at first sight, they plan a wedding on a boat and they bring the boat out into the harbour and are going to do a beautiful, beautiful wedding and the little mermaid is despondent. She's crying over the edge of the ship and then she looks down at the ocean and she sees her sisters all show up. The sisters have also paid a price to the witch they've given her, given their hair to the witch.SJ: I feel that’s a little bit unfair. I feel like the Little Mermaid should have been given that option, that she could have just had a crop cut and kept her tongue. But this Sea Witch works in mysterious ways.Tee: I think the Little Mermaid just needs to get better at bartering. So her sisters have sold their hair to the Witch for a knife. If that knife is plunged into the heart of the Prince, when the warm blood falls upon the Little Mermaids feet, her feet will grow together again and form into a fish's tail and then she can return to the sisters to live out her 300 years before she dies and is dead forever. So they say, ‘Kill The Prince and come back. In a few minutes, the sun will rise and then you'll die’. The Little Mermaid goes into the Prince’s tent on the ship and she has the knife in hand and she's ready to stab the prince as he lays there with his new bride. Then she can't go through with it and she instead throws the knife into the ocean and then throws herself into the sea, just as the sun rises which is when she was fated to die, but she says it doesn't feel like dying and instead of sinking through the ocean, she floats out of the ocean and she floats above the waves because she hasn't died, she's turned into a Spirit of the Air. So mermaids, they live for 300 years and then they die forever. Humans live their lives and then when they die, they have an immortal soul, so they head off into the great hereafter. The Daughters of the Air have a different deal which is that they have to spend 300 years doing good deeds around the world just as the Little Mermaid tried to do a good deed at some point in this story.SJ: By, by not murdering the prince I think?Tee: Ok, I suppose that's a good deed. So she gets a deal where she has to spend 300 years with them, doing good deeds and after that she gets an immortal soul and gets to go to heaven.SJ: ‘After 300 years thus we shall float into the kingdom of heaven and we may even get there sooner’ whispered one of her companions. ‘Unseen we can enter the houses of men, where there are children and for every day on which we find a good child who is the joy of his parents, and deserves their love, our time of probation is shortened. The child does not know when we fly through the room, that we smile with joy at his good conduct for we can count one year less of our 300 years. But when we see a naughty or a wicked child, we shed tears of sorrow and for every tear, a day is added to our time of trial. So if Santa doesn't work, to get your kids to be good, this one really hammers home not only can bad children get coal and kill fairies. Also, Little Mermaid, you’re making her trial longer and cry.Tee: That's a rough deal, for air spirits, for the kid, for everyone involved.SJ: Mmmm.Tee: I think this is sketchy contracts here, I think.SJ: We’ve already worked this out, she's not a good negotiator. So, we've only explored about 5% of the ocean so maybe mermaids are just super-duper crafty and are hiding out there but most of the reports so far, and investigations have determined that despite the centuries of belief and the fact that they decorate boats, they decorate temples, churches the world over it is very unlikely that mermaids exist. But you can see them a lot in popular culture including of course Disney’s The Little Mermaid and the upcoming live-action Disney’s Little Mermaid so it shows that even though they’ve pretty much been disproven, people still love the idea of mermaids, though perhaps the Disney version a little bit more than the Hans Christian Andersen one. Thank you very much for listening.Tee: And join us next time on Crumbs of Science where we’ll be talking about Rumpelstiltskin and the science behind alchemy.[Fairytale music starts]SJ: Until then, we hope you have a happily-ever-after.[Fairy tale music continues]

Welcome to Tails from the Deep, I am Mermaid Tia, Storyteller and keeper of Legends. A warning, our stories may be myths and legends, but they are not for the faint of heart and so are not intended for young ears or the easily disturbed. Our first episode today begins with the stories of the relatively unknown Greek water God Nereus and his Daughters the Nereids and how they represent the modern ideas of the western mermaid. You can find our show notes and resources on our website. https://darkwatermermaids.wixsite.com/tailsfromthedeep Also follow and like us ! Feed- https://anchor.fm/tailsfromthedeep Instagram- @darkwatermermaids Email- darkwatermermaids@gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tailsfromthedeep/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tailsfromthedeep/support

Hey HB's! We're coming in hot after 2 weeks of being away from each other while Erin was traveling. And we've got 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne! It's her second novel and it's just as quirky, funny, beautiful, and romantic, plus it's packing some extra depth with a heroine on the road to healing and a hero who's trying not to buckle under the pressure the world puts on him. Childhood friends! Tiny dogs! Sugar addiction! Fortune telling Grandma! Contemporary WERVE! It's got everything. Bonus Content:  Erin's EPIC first meeting with Sally Thorne.  Lady Loves:  Melody: Get yourself a big change if you're feeling like you're in a rut. This haircut was everything I needed and more.  Erin: Read the Behind the Book Essay in this novel. Sally Thorne had to start over from scratch in the face of The Hating Game's huge, unexpected success and she wrote this book with her sweat and tears and worry and above all, her insane talent and voice. She uses this essay to inspire readers to finish whatever impossible thing they've started because "whether it's a success or a failure, no one can take your The End prize away from you."    Brittany B, you are a Nereid, a sea nymph who represents all of the best parts of the ocean. Your personality is kind as a helpful current, your intellect as bountiful as an untouched coral reef, your heart as deep and wide as the Mariana Trench, and your wit as quick as a darting fish. People should know not to mess with you, though, because you've got riptides and crashing waves enough to protect you and everyone you love. Nereids are represented by beautiful maidens and girl, you got that going on, too.

At the behest of Patreon backer Andy, this special episode covers Nereids and other sea-nymphs. Well, I say other sea-nymphs, but honestly, there was a lot to say about Nereids!   Also, I think I got the mythological and the Monster Manual hippocampus mixed up, which is weird because the confusion between the two different names is like the only thing the hippocampus episode is about. If you're enjoying the show, why not consider supporting it on Patreon? You'll get access to lots of new bonus content, including my other podcast, Patron Deities! Thanks to Ray Otus for our thumbnail image. The intro music is a clip from "Solve the Damn Mystery" by Jesse Spillane, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

Last January, @Kobarey released an EP of three ambient cuts on his Bandcamp: Nereids. In greek mythology, the Nereids are the goddesses of the sea, and Orithyia is the goddess of the Raging sea. The label invited four artist to give their own interpretation of her, and Monument picked Sæbius' remix: a deep, dark dub techno version of the original track. @saebiusmusic

Yahweh — God of the Hebrews (1052.1) 96:0.1 IN CONCEIVING of Deity, man first includes all gods, then subordinates all foreign gods to his tribal deity, and finally excludes all but the one God of final and supreme value. The Jews synthesized all gods into their more sublime concept of the Lord God of Israel. The Hindus likewise combined their multifarious deities into the “one spirituality of the gods” portrayed in the Rig-Veda, while the Mesopotamians reduced their gods to the more centralized concept of Bel-Marduk. These ideas of monotheism matured all over the world not long after the appearance of Machiventa Melchizedek at Salem in Palestine. But the Melchizedek concept of Deity was unlike that of the evolutionary philosophy of inclusion, subordination, and exclusion; it was based exclusively on creative power and very soon influenced the highest deity concepts of Mesopotamia, India, and Egypt. (1052.2) 96:0.2 The Salem religion was revered as a tradition by the Kenites and several other Canaanite tribes. And this was one of the purposes of Melchizedek’s incarnation: That a religion of one God should be so fostered as to prepare the way for the earth bestowal of a Son of that one God. Michael could hardly come to Urantia until there existed a people believing in the Universal Father among whom he could appear. (1052.3) 96:0.3 The Salem religion persisted among the Kenites in Palestine as their creed, and this religion as it was later adopted by the Hebrews was influenced, first, by Egyptian moral teachings; later, by Babylonian theologic thought; and lastly, by Iranian conceptions of good and evil. Factually the Hebrew religion is predicated upon the covenant between Abraham and Machiventa Melchizedek, evolutionally it is the outgrowth of many unique situational circumstances, but culturally it has borrowed freely from the religion, morality, and philosophy of the entire Levant. It is through the Hebrew religion that much of the morality and religious thought of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Iran was transmitted to the Occidental peoples. 1. Deity Concepts Among the Semites (1052.4) 96:1.1 The early Semites regarded everything as being indwelt by a spirit. There were spirits of the animal and vegetable worlds; annual spirits, the lord of progeny; spirits of fire, water, and air; a veritable pantheon of spirits to be feared and worshiped. And the teaching of Melchizedek regarding a Universal Creator never fully destroyed the belief in these subordinate spirits or nature gods. (1052.5) 96:1.2 The progress of the Hebrews from polytheism through henotheism to monotheism was not an unbroken and continuous conceptual development. They experienced many retrogressions in the evolution of their Deity concepts, while during any one epoch there existed varying ideas of God among different groups of Semite believers. From time to time numerous terms were applied to their concepts of God, and in order to prevent confusion these various Deity titles will be defined as they pertain to the evolution of Jewish theology: (1053.1) 96:1.3 1. Yahweh was the god of the southern Palestinian tribes, who associated this concept of deity with Mount Horeb, the Sinai volcano. Yahweh was merely one of the hundreds and thousands of nature gods which held the attention and claimed the worship of the Semitic tribes and peoples. (1053.2) 96:1.4 2. El Elyon. For centuries after Melchizedek’s sojourn at Salem his doctrine of Deity persisted in various versions but was generally connoted by the term El Elyon, the Most High God of heaven. Many Semites, including the immediate descendants of Abraham, at various times worshiped both Yahweh and El Elyon. (1053.3) 96:1.5 3. El Shaddai. It is difficult to explain what El Shaddai stood for. This idea of God was a composite derived from the teachings of Amenemope’s Book of Wisdom modified by Ikhnaton’s doctrine of Aton and further influenced by Melchizedek’s teachings embodied in the concept of El Elyon. But as the concept of El Shaddai permeated the Hebrew mind, it became thoroughly colored with the Yahweh beliefs of the desert. (1053.4) 96:1.6 One of the dominant ideas of the religion of this era was the Egyptian concept of divine Providence, the teaching that material prosperity was a reward for serving El Shaddai. (1053.5) 96:1.7 4. El. Amid all this confusion of terminology and haziness of concept, many devout believers sincerely endeavored to worship all of these evolving ideas of divinity, and there grew up the practice of referring to this composite Deity as El. And this term included still other of the Bedouin nature gods. (1053.6) 96:1.8 5. Elohim. In Kish and Ur there long persisted Sumerian-Chaldean groups who taught a three-in-one God concept founded on the traditions of the days of Adam and Melchizedek. This doctrine was carried to Egypt, where this Trinity was worshiped under the name of Elohim, or in the singular as Eloah. The philosophic circles of Egypt and later Alexandrian teachers of Hebraic extraction taught this unity of pluralistic Gods, and many of Moses’ advisers at the time of the exodus believed in this Trinity. But the concept of the trinitarian Elohim never became a real part of Hebrew theology until after they had come under the political influence of the Babylonians. (1053.7) 96:1.9 6. Sundry names. The Semites disliked to speak the name of their Deity, and they therefore resorted to numerous appellations from time to time, such as: The Spirit of God, The Lord, The Angel of the Lord, The Almighty, The Holy One, The Most High, Adonai, The Ancient of Days, The Lord God of Israel, The Creator of Heaven and Earth, Kyrios, Jah, The Lord of Hosts, and The Father in Heaven. (1053.8) 96:1.10 Jehovah is a term which in recent times has been employed to designate the completed concept of Yahweh which finally evolved in the long Hebrew experience. But the name Jehovah did not come into use until fifteen hundred years after the times of Jesus. (1054.1) 96:1.11 Up to about 2000 B.C., Mount Sinai was intermittently active as a volcano, occasional eruptions occurring as late as the time of the sojourn of the Israelites in this region. The fire and smoke, together with the thunderous detonations associated with the eruptions of this volcanic mountain, all impressed and awed the Bedouins of the surrounding regions and caused them greatly to fear Yahweh. This spirit of Mount Horeb later became the god of the Hebrew Semites, and they eventually believed him to be supreme over all other gods. (1054.2) 96:1.12 The Canaanites had long revered Yahweh, and although many of the Kenites believed more or less in El Elyon, the supergod of the Salem religion, a majority of the Canaanites held loosely to the worship of the old tribal deities. They were hardly willing to abandon their national deities in favor of an international, not to say an interplanetary, God. They were not universal-deity minded, and therefore these tribes continued to worship their tribal deities, including Yahweh and the silver and golden calves which symbolized the Bedouin herders’ concept of the spirit of the Sinai volcano. (1054.3) 96:1.13 The Syrians, while worshiping their gods, also believed in Yahweh of the Hebrews, for their prophets said to the Syrian king: “Their gods are gods of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them on the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.” (1054.4) 96:1.14 As man advances in culture, the lesser gods are subordinated to a supreme deity; the great Jove persists only as an exclamation. The monotheists keep their subordinate gods as spirits, demons, fates, Nereids, fairies, brownies, dwarfs, banshees, and the evil eye. The Hebrews passed through henotheism and long believed in the existence of gods other than Yahweh, but they increasingly held that these foreign deities were subordinate to Yahweh. They conceded the actuality of Chemosh, god of the Amorites, but maintained that he was subordinate to Yahweh. (1054.5) 96:1.15 The idea of Yahweh has undergone the most extensive development of all the mortal theories of God. Its progressive evolution can only be compared with the metamorphosis of the Buddha concept in Asia, which in the end led to the concept of the Universal Absolute even as the Yahweh concept finally led to the idea of the Universal Father. But as a matter of historic fact, it should be understood that, while the Jews thus changed their views of Deity from the tribal god of Mount Horeb to the loving and merciful Creator Father of later times, they did not change his name; they continued all the way along to call this evolving concept of Deity, Yahweh. 2. The Semitic Peoples (1054.6) 96:2.1 The Semites of the East were well-organized and well-led horsemen who invaded the eastern regions of the fertile crescent and there united with the Babylonians. The Chaldeans near Ur were among the most advanced of the eastern Semites. The Phoenicians were a superior and well-organized group of mixed Semites who held the western section of Palestine, along the Mediterranean coast. Racially the Semites were among the most blended of Urantia peoples, containing hereditary factors from almost all of the nine world races. (1054.7) 96:2.2 Again and again the Arabian Semites fought their way into the northern Promised Land, the land that “flowed with milk and honey,” but just as often were they ejected by the better-organized and more highly civilized northern Semites and Hittites. Later, during an unusually severe famine, these roving Bedouins entered Egypt in large numbers as contract laborers on the Egyptian public works, only to find themselves undergoing the bitter experience of enslavement at the hard daily toil of the common and downtrodden laborers of the Nile valley. (1055.1) 96:2.3 It was only after the days of Machiventa Melchizedek and Abraham that certain tribes of Semites, because of their peculiar religious beliefs, were called the children of Israel and later on Hebrews, Jews, and the “chosen people.” Abraham was not the racial father of all the Hebrews; he was not even the progenitor of all the Bedouin Semites who were held captive in Egypt. True, his offspring, coming up out of Egypt, did form the nucleus of the later Jewish people, but the vast majority of the men and women who became incorporated into the clans of Israel had never sojourned in Egypt. They were merely fellow nomads who chose to follow the leadership of Moses as the children of Abraham and their Semite associates from Egypt journeyed through northern Arabia. (1055.2) 96:2.4 The Melchizedek teaching concerning El Elyon, the Most High, and the covenant of divine favor through faith, had been largely forgotten by the time of the Egyptian enslavement of the Semite peoples who were shortly to form the Hebrew nation. But throughout this period of captivity these Arabian nomads maintained a lingering traditional belief in Yahweh as their racial deity. (1055.3) 96:2.5 Yahweh was worshiped by more than one hundred separate Arabian tribes, and except for the tinge of the El Elyon concept of Melchizedek which persisted among the more educated classes of Egypt, including the mixed Hebrew and Egyptian stocks, the religion of the rank and file of the Hebrew captive slaves was a modified version of the old Yahweh ritual of magic and sacrifice. 3. The Matchless Moses (1055.4) 96:3.1 The beginning of the evolution of the Hebraic concepts and ideals of a Supreme Creator dates from the departure of the Semites from Egypt under that great leader, teacher, and organizer, Moses. His mother was of the royal family of Egypt; his father was a Semitic liaison officer between the government and the Bedouin captives. Moses thus possessed qualities derived from superior racial sources; his ancestry was so highly blended that it is impossible to classify him in any one racial group. Had he not been of this mixed type, he would never have displayed that unusual versatility and adaptability which enabled him to manage the diversified horde which eventually became associated with those Bedouin Semites who fled from Egypt to the Arabian Desert under his leadership.* (1055.5) 96:3.2 Despite the enticements of the culture of the Nile kingdom, Moses elected to cast his lot with the people of his father. At the time this great organizer was formulating his plans for the eventual freeing of his father’s people, the Bedouin captives hardly had a religion worthy of the name; they were virtually without a true concept of God and without hope in the world. (1055.6) 96:3.3 No leader ever undertook to reform and uplift a more forlorn, downcast, dejected, and ignorant group of human beings. But these slaves carried latent possibilities of development in their hereditary strains, and there were a sufficient number of educated leaders who had been coached by Moses in preparation for the day of revolt and the strike for liberty to constitute a corps of efficient organizers. These superior men had been employed as native overseers of their people; they had received some education because of Moses’ influence with the Egyptian rulers. (1056.1) 96:3.4 Moses endeavored to negotiate diplomatically for the freedom of his fellow Semites. He and his brother entered into a compact with the king of Egypt whereby they were granted permission peaceably to leave the valley of the Nile for the Arabian Desert. They were to receive a modest payment of money and goods in token of their long service in Egypt. The Hebrews for their part entered into an agreement to maintain friendly relations with the Pharaohs and not to join in any alliance against Egypt. But the king later saw fit to repudiate this treaty, giving as his reason the excuse that his spies had discovered disloyalty among the Bedouin slaves. He claimed they sought freedom for the purpose of going into the desert to organize the nomads against Egypt. (1056.2) 96:3.5 But Moses was not discouraged; he bided his time, and in less than a year, when the Egyptian military forces were fully occupied in resisting the simultaneous onslaughts of a strong Libyan thrust from the south and a Greek naval invasion from the north, this intrepid organizer led his compatriots out of Egypt in a spectacular night flight. This dash for liberty was carefully planned and skillfully executed. And they were successful, notwithstanding that they were hotly pursued by Pharaoh and a small body of Egyptians, who all fell before the fugitives’ defense, yielding much booty, all of which was augmented by the loot of the advancing host of escaping slaves as they marched on toward their ancestral desert home. 4. The Proclamation of Yahweh (1056.3) 96:4.1 The evolution and elevation of the Mosaic teaching has influenced almost one half of all the world, and still does even in the twentieth century. While Moses comprehended the more advanced Egyptian religious philosophy, the Bedouin slaves knew little about such teachings, but they had never entirely forgotten the god of Mount Horeb, whom their ancestors had called Yahweh. (1056.4) 96:4.2 Moses had heard of the teachings of Machiventa Melchizedek from both his father and his mother, their commonness of religious belief being the explanation for the unusual union between a woman of royal blood and a man from a captive race. Moses’ father-in-law was a Kenite worshiper of El Elyon, but the emancipator’s parents were believers in El Shaddai. Moses thus was educated an El Shaddaist; through the influence of his father-in-law he became an El Elyonist; and by the time of the Hebrew encampment about Mount Sinai after the flight from Egypt, he had formulated a new and enlarged concept of Deity (derived from all his former beliefs), which he wisely decided to proclaim to his people as an expanded concept of their olden tribal god, Yahweh. (1056.5) 96:4.3 Moses had endeavored to teach these Bedouins the idea of El Elyon, but before leaving Egypt, he had become convinced they would never fully comprehend this doctrine. Therefore he deliberately determined upon the compromise adoption of their tribal god of the desert as the one and only god of his followers. Moses did not specifically teach that other peoples and nations might not have other gods, but he did resolutely maintain that Yahweh was over and above all, especially to the Hebrews. But always was he plagued by the awkward predicament of trying to present his new and higher idea of Deity to these ignorant slaves under the guise of the ancient term Yahweh, which had always been symbolized by the golden calf of the Bedouin tribes. (1056.6) 96:4.4 The fact that Yahweh was the god of the fleeing Hebrews explains why they tarried so long before the holy mountain of Sinai, and why they there received the ten commandments which Moses promulgated in the name of Yahweh, the god of Horeb. During this lengthy sojourn before Sinai the religious ceremonials of the newly evolving Hebrew worship were further perfected. (1057.1) 96:4.5 It does not appear that Moses would ever have succeeded in the establishment of his somewhat advanced ceremonial worship and in keeping his followers intact for a quarter of a century had it not been for the violent eruption of Horeb during the third week of their worshipful sojourn at its base. “The mountain of Yahweh was consumed in fire, and the smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.” In view of this cataclysm it is not surprising that Moses could impress upon his brethren the teaching that their God was “mighty, terrible, a devouring fire, fearful, and all-powerful.” (1057.2) 96:4.6 Moses proclaimed that Yahweh was the Lord God of Israel, who had singled out the Hebrews as his chosen people; he was building a new nation, and he wisely nationalized his religious teachings, telling his followers that Yahweh was a hard taskmaster, a “jealous God.” But nonetheless he sought to enlarge their concept of divinity when he taught them that Yahweh was the “God of the spirits of all flesh,” and when he said, “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Moses taught that Yahweh was a covenant-keeping God; that he “will not forsake you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers because the Lord loves you and will not forget the oath by which he swore to your fathers.”* (1057.3) 96:4.7 Moses made a heroic effort to uplift Yahweh to the dignity of a supreme Deity when he presented him as the “God of truth and without iniquity, just and right in all his ways.” And yet, despite this exalted teaching, the limited understanding of his followers made it necessary to speak of God as being in man’s image, as being subject to fits of anger, wrath, and severity, even that he was vengeful and easily influenced by man’s conduct. (1057.4) 96:4.8 Under the teachings of Moses this tribal nature god, Yahweh, became the Lord God of Israel, who followed them through the wilderness and even into exile, where he presently was conceived of as the God of all peoples. The later captivity that enslaved the Jews in Babylon finally liberated the evolving concept of Yahweh to assume the monotheistic role of the God of all nations. (1057.5) 96:4.9 The most unique and amazing feature of the religious history of the Hebrews concerns this continuous evolution of the concept of Deity from the primitive god of Mount Horeb up through the teachings of their successive spiritual leaders to the high level of development depicted in the Deity doctrines of the Isaiahs, who proclaimed that magnificent concept of the loving and merciful Creator Father. 5. The Teachings of Moses (1057.6) 96:5.1 Moses was an extraordinary combination of military leader, social organizer, and religious teacher. He was the most important individual world teacher and leader between the times of Machiventa and Jesus. Moses attempted to introduce many reforms in Israel of which there is no record. In the space of one man’s life he led the polyglot horde of so-called Hebrews out of slavery and uncivilized roaming while he laid the foundation for the subsequent birth of a nation and the perpetuation of a race. (1057.7) 96:5.2 There is so little on record of the great work of Moses because the Hebrews had no written language at the time of the exodus. The record of the times and doings of Moses was derived from the traditions extant more than one thousand years after the death of the great leader. (1058.1) 96:5.3 Many of the advances which Moses made over and above the religion of the Egyptians and the surrounding Levantine tribes were due to the Kenite traditions of the time of Melchizedek. Without the teaching of Machiventa to Abraham and his contemporaries, the Hebrews would have come out of Egypt in hopeless darkness. Moses and his father-in-law, Jethro, gathered up the residue of the traditions of the days of Melchizedek, and these teachings, joined to the learning of the Egyptians, guided Moses in the creation of the improved religion and ritual of the Israelites. Moses was an organizer; he selected the best in the religion and mores of Egypt and Palestine and, associating these practices with the traditions of the Melchizedek teachings, organized the Hebrew ceremonial system of worship. (1058.2) 96:5.4 Moses was a believer in Providence; he had become thoroughly tainted with the doctrines of Egypt concerning the supernatural control of the Nile and the other elements of nature. He had a great vision of God, but he was thoroughly sincere when he taught the Hebrews that, if they would obey God, “He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will multiply the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land — the corn, wine, oil, and your flocks. You shall be prospered above all people, and the Lord your God will take away from you all sickness and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt upon you.” He even said: “Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth.” “You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. You shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.” (1058.3) 96:5.5 But it was truly pitiful to watch this great mind of Moses trying to adapt his sublime concept of El Elyon, the Most High, to the comprehension of the ignorant and illiterate Hebrews. To his assembled leaders he thundered, “The Lord your God is one God; there is none beside him”; while to the mixed multitude he declared, “Who is like your God among all the gods?” Moses made a brave and partly successful stand against fetishes and idolatry, declaring, “You saw no similitude on the day that your God spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire.” He also forbade the making of images of any sort. (1058.4) 96:5.6 Moses feared to proclaim the mercy of Yahweh, preferring to awe his people with the fear of the justice of God, saying: “The Lord your God is God of Gods, and Lord of Lords, a great God, a mighty and terrible God, who regards not man.” Again he sought to control the turbulent clans when he declared that “your God kills when you disobey him; he heals and gives life when you obey him.” But Moses taught these tribes that they would become the chosen people of God only on condition that they “kept all his commandments and obeyed all his statutes.” (1058.5) 96:5.7 Little of the mercy of God was taught the Hebrews during these early times. They learned of God as “the Almighty; the Lord is a man of war, God of battles, glorious in power, who dashes in pieces his enemies.” “The Lord your God walks in the midst of the camp to deliver you.” The Israelites thought of their God as one who loved them, but who also “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” and “cursed their enemies.” (1058.6) 96:5.8 While Moses presented fleeting glimpses of a universal and beneficent Deity to the children of Israel, on the whole, their day-by-day concept of Yahweh was that of a God but little better than the tribal gods of the surrounding peoples. Their concept of God was primitive, crude, and anthropomorphic; when Moses passed on, these Bedouin tribes quickly reverted to the semibarbaric ideas of their olden gods of Horeb and the desert. The enlarged and more sublime vision of God which Moses every now and then presented to his leaders was soon lost to view, while most of the people turned to the worship of their fetish golden calves, the Palestinian herdsman’s symbol of Yahweh. (1059.1) 96:5.9 When Moses turned over the command of the Hebrews to Joshua, he had already gathered up thousands of the collateral descendants of Abraham, Nahor, Lot, and other of the related tribes and had whipped them into a self-sustaining and partially self-regulating nation of pastoral warriors. 6. The God Concept After Moses’ Death (1059.2) 96:6.1 Upon the death of Moses his lofty concept of Yahweh rapidly deteriorated. Joshua and the leaders of Israel continued to harbor the Mosaic traditions of the all-wise, beneficent, and almighty God, but the common people rapidly reverted to the older desert idea of Yahweh. And this backward drift of the concept of Deity continued increasingly under the successive rule of the various tribal sheiks, the so-called Judges. (1059.3) 96:6.2 The spell of the extraordinary personality of Moses had kept alive in the hearts of his followers the inspiration of an increasingly enlarged concept of God; but when they once reached the fertile lands of Palestine, they quickly evolved from nomadic herders into settled and somewhat sedate farmers. And this evolution of life practices and change of religious viewpoint demanded a more or less complete change in the character of their conception of the nature of their God, Yahweh. During the times of the beginning of the transmutation of the austere, crude, exacting, and thunderous desert god of Sinai into the later appearing concept of a God of love, justice, and mercy, the Hebrews almost lost sight of Moses’ lofty teachings. They came near losing all concept of monotheism; they nearly lost their opportunity of becoming the people who would serve as a vital link in the spiritual evolution of Urantia, the group who would conserve the Melchizedek teaching of one God until the times of the incarnation of a bestowal Son of that Father of all. (1059.4) 96:6.3 Desperately Joshua sought to hold the concept of a supreme Yahweh in the minds of the tribesmen, causing it to be proclaimed: “As I was with Moses, so will I be with you; I will not fail you nor forsake you.” Joshua found it necessary to preach a stern gospel to his disbelieving people, people all too willing to believe their old and native religion but unwilling to go forward in the religion of faith and righteousness. The burden of Joshua’s teaching became: “Yahweh is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.” The highest concept of this age pictured Yahweh as a “God of power, judgment, and justice.” (1059.5) 96:6.4 But even in this dark age, every now and then a solitary teacher would arise proclaiming the Mosaic concept of divinity: “You children of wickedness cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God.” “Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker?” “Can you by searching find out God? Can you find out the Almighty to perfection? Behold, God is great and we know him not. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out.” 7. Psalms and the Book of Job (1060.1) 96:7.1 Under the leadership of their sheiks and priests the Hebrews became loosely established in Palestine. But they soon drifted back into the benighted beliefs of the desert and became contaminated with the less advanced Canaanite religious practices. They became idolatrous and licentious, and their idea of Deity fell far below the Egyptian and Mesopotamian concepts of God that were maintained by certain surviving Salem groups, and which are recorded in some of the Psalms and in the so-called Book of Job. (1060.2) 96:7.2 The Psalms are the work of a score or more of authors; many were written by Egyptian and Mesopotamian teachers. During these times when the Levant worshiped nature gods, there were still a goodly number who believed in the supremacy of El Elyon, the Most High. (1060.3) 96:7.3 No collection of religious writings gives expression to such a wealth of devotion and inspirational ideas of God as the Book of Psalms. And it would be very helpful if, in the perusal of this wonderful collection of worshipful literature, consideration could be given to the source and chronology of each separate hymn of praise and adoration, bearing in mind that no other single collection covers such a great range of time. This Book of Psalms is the record of the varying concepts of God entertained by the believers of the Salem religion throughout the Levant and embraces the entire period from Amenemope to Isaiah. In the Psalms God is depicted in all phases of conception, from the crude idea of a tribal deity to the vastly expanded ideal of the later Hebrews, wherein Yahweh is pictured as a loving ruler and merciful Father. (1060.4) 96:7.4 And when thus regarded, this group of Psalms constitutes the most valuable and helpful assortment of devotional sentiments ever assembled by man up to the times of the twentieth century. The worshipful spirit of this collection of hymns transcends that of all other sacred books of the world. (1060.5) 96:7.5 The variegated picture of Deity presented in the Book of Job was the product of more than a score of Mesopotamian religious teachers extending over a period of almost three hundred years. And when you read the lofty concept of divinity found in this compilation of Mesopotamian beliefs, you will recognize that it was in the neighborhood of Ur of Chaldea that the idea of a real God was best preserved during the dark days in Palestine. (1060.6) 96:7.6 In Palestine the wisdom and all-pervasiveness of God was often grasped but seldom his love and mercy. The Yahweh of these times “sends evil spirits to dominate the souls of his enemies”; he prospers his own and obedient children, while he curses and visits dire judgments upon all others. “He disappoints the devices of the crafty; he takes the wise in their own deceit.” (1060.7) 96:7.7 Only at Ur did a voice arise to cry out the mercy of God, saying: “He shall pray to God and shall find favor with him and shall see his face with joy, for God will give to man divine righteousness.” Thus from Ur there is preached salvation, divine favor, by faith: “He is gracious to the repentant and says, ‘Deliver him from going down in the pit, for I have found a ransom.’ If any say, ‘I have sinned and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not,’ God will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and he shall see the light.” Not since the times of Melchizedek had the Levantine world heard such a ringing and cheering message of human salvation as this extraordinary teaching of Elihu, the prophet of Ur and priest of the Salem believers, that is, the remnant of the onetime Melchizedek colony in Mesopotamia. (1061.1) 96:7.8 And thus did the remnants of the Salem missionaries in Mesopotamia maintain the light of truth during the period of the disorganization of the Hebrew peoples until the appearance of the first of that long line of the teachers of Israel who never stopped as they built, concept upon concept, until they had achieved the realization of the ideal of the Universal and Creator Father of all, the acme of the evolution of the Yahweh concept. (1061.2) 96:7.9 [Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.]