Podcasts about pythagoreans

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans' arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.   For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher's garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.   Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

Do you know the mystical meaning of the natural numbers according to the Pythagoreans?In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. We live in strange times, where mythology is actually history, where instead of teaching history, we obfuscate it, history is written by the victors as they say. If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed. Join me around the digital campfire as we explore the cosmos, and uncover hidden gnosis. LINKSJoin this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoCGItGjnTXKeRk4PHcQ8AQ/joinPatreon:https://www.patreon.com/LibraryofgnosisPaypal:https://paypal.me/LibraryofGnosis?country.x=SE&locale.x=sv_SEYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/c/LibraryofGnosis/ Odyssey:https://odysee.com/@Library_of_Gnosis:eFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/Library-of-Gnosis-102241851413980/Bitchute:https://www.bitchute.com/channel/mvPf2ntAUShO/Rumble:https://rumble.com/c/c-1387156 Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/5Nr8DYq9PhhcIzEaMQcquB?si=FsNuxvo9TsqxXwu-Ge32fgApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/library-of-gnosis/id1608143632

Continuing on Aristotle's Metaphysics, book 1, ch. 9. Why does Aristotle insist that Forms have to be in objects, contra Plato? What would it mean for the Forms to be mathematical objects per the Pythagoreans' view? Read along with us starting on p. 23. At some point we'll return to Aristotle's take on Plato's forms via his treatment later in the look, but this is enough of Chapter 9! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans' arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.   For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher's garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.   Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans' arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.   For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher's garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.   Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

The makers of Seaspiracy and Cowspiracy are back. Christspiracy is another profoundly disturbing film detailing the industrial abuse of our animal kin. Expect more horrific carelessness and exploitation on a mass scale. Only this time, Kip Andersen and Kameron Waters not only go global but look back in time. “This is plausibly the most significant new discovery about Jesus Christ, in the last 2,000 years,” says the blurb.But can that be right? Has justified outrage at the treatment of our fellow creatures got the better of them? Initially, I wasn't convinced. But then Kameron Waters reached out to me and we had this long conversation.See what you think. [Spoiler alert - we thoroughly discuss the Christian details in the film.]For more on Christspiracy see https://www.christspiracy.comFor more on Mark, and his work on early Christianity and Jesus via the ideas of Owen Barfield, friend of CS Lewis, see http://www.markvernon.com/consciousness00:00 Introduction02:20 Where to see the documentary and how04:33 The treatment of animals as a religious concern12:26 The prehistory of hunting, sacrifice and temples21:15 What did Jesus do when cleansing of the temple?34:10 What was the cause of Jesus's death?44:38 Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus the vegetarian Nazarene?58:37 Kameron's own Christian journey01:05:42 But did Jesus really not eat fish?01:13:40 Ichthus, Pythagoreans and the 153 fish01:24:00 What did Paul mean by vegetarians are weak?01:31:05 Engaging with the film, engaging with the tradition

We discuss Hierocles of Alexandria, strudent of Plutarch of Athens made good. He wrote an esoteric commentary on the poem known as the Golden Verses of the Pythagoreans. The poem is full of good advice and the Commentary tells us a lot about the nature and purification of the luminous subtle body.

Delve into the enigmatic practices, sacred rituals, and esoteric beliefs that shaped the spiritual & philosophical landscape of the ancient Hellenic world. From the Eleusinian Mysteries to the Oracle at Delphi, Pythagoreans and the writings of Plato, join us as we unravel the mysticism that infused every aspect of ancient Greek life, exploring the aspects that continues to captivate our imaginations today.Sources/Recomended Reading: Bowden, Hugh (2010). "Mystery cults in the Ancient World". Thames and Hudson Ltd. Burkert, William (1982). "Greek Religion". Harvard University Press. Burkert, William (1988). "Ancient Mystery Cults". Harvard University Press. Cooper, John M. et. al (translated by) (1997). "Plato: Complete Works". Hackett Publishing. Dodds, E.R. (2004). "The Greeks & The Irrational". University of California Press. Evans, Nancy A. “Sanctuaries, Sacrifices, and the Eleusinian Mysteries.” Numen, Vol. 49, No. 3 (2002): 227-254. Mylonas, George E. “Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries.” The Classical Journal, Vol. 43, No. 3 (1947): 130-146. Ustinova, Yulia (2017). "Divine Mania: Alterations of Consciousness in Ancient Greece". Routledge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When we read “In the beginning…” we must stop right there to contemplate the first inversion. The bible begins with these three words and tips over an apple-cart of worldviews. This idea of time having a beginning upsets various ancient and modern philosophies by saying, “I respectfully disagree: time had a beginning.” Many people then and now will claim that time has always existed, that there was no beginning. The bible inverts this idea. Why is this radical? It depends on where you live and what worldview you have been taught. Many in the ancient world believed that time was a flat circle, or that time always existed, or that time is an illusion. Many people today also believe those same ideas, and have added more variations, such as that time is a social construct. Most people today accept the Big Bang theory, which mostly aligns with the opening phrase of the bible, but not everyone accepts it.None of the ideas of “circular” or “cyclic” time fit with the Jewish and Christian view of time. The circular time models are kind of like the Ouroboros of a snake-eating its own tail. This image is a good metaphor for the view of time that many hold, such as believers in karma or reincarnation or Stoicism or The Matrix or Groundhog Day. “In the beginning” swings an axe to the root of these beliefs and philosophies. For instance, Hindus and Buddhists are on the outside looking in just from these three little words. Beliefs about “eternal return” and reincarnation suggest an infinite loop. Stoics, too, did not believe in “a beginning” but rather the idea of eternal return. Genesis may have been written down before the Stoics or the Pythagoreans wrote down their ideas, but the idea of circular time was around long before the Greeks or Moses spilled ink on the topic. But the message of scripture is that Genesis clearly disagrees with the “eternal return” time loop. “In the beginning” takes this declaration even further when we get to the creation story, because time itself was created. Another way of saying this is that time is a creature. Time was created just like planets and people. The same goes for energy or gravity. There is a beginning, and that beginning was created by God. What the bible does not say is that there are multiple beginnings. Genesis does not start with “In this beginning…” or “In the current beginning…” or “In the 999th beginning…” There are not multiple beginnings, there is one beginning. This time and space that we are living in had one beginning. Now if the Creator wanted to have more than one version of the universe, he could do that. Moreover, there may have been other beginnings, but we don't know - nor do we need to know for our salvation. And here is a critical point of this inversion and all that follow: The books of the bible tell us exactly what we need to know for our salvation - and no more. What sacred scripture gives us is all that we will ever need to do good works and seek the highest good, which is God. Worth noting here as well is that the word “salvation” is based on the word “salve,” as in healing medicine. The sacred books administer to us all that we need for our healing. This is hard to accept for modern people. We want more data, more information. We want certainty. But the bible opens with one of the greatest mysteries of all, which is time. These mysteries, if you come to understand the inversions, are wonderful things to ponder without ever knowing the answer. This is what St. Paul meant when he spoke of seeing through a glass darkly: “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” So it goes with our understanding of time. What the bible says (without saying so) is what we partially know by instinct: if there are other time-space continuums, we cannot fully know it - not yet - because we can only know the time and space we live within now. Multiple universes? Yes, there could be, but it doesn't really matter for our salvation. Could there have been a million beginnings before this one? Yes, but it doesn't matter for our salvation. Once we know this, we can call our mothers or invite a neighbor over for a pop. Once time is accepted as having one beginning, we can move on and live happily without worrying about all of the possible other beginnings and endings. This universe is the only time and space where we eat, sleep, marry, raise children, and die. This is simple to understand and allows us to go ahead and get started doing just those things. Time is a gift to us - it is not a curse, but a cure. In the time we have, God gives us all sufficient grace to understand our purpose and place in time. All of creation is something like a book that has a first page, or a movie with its opening scene. Consider a play like Macbeth, where the opening line is the First Witch in a deserted place saying: “When shall we three meet again / In thunder, lightning, or in rain?” Surely, within Shakespeare's pile of manuscripts, there could have been an alternative opening line. Perhaps in alternate manuscripts the witches would have decided to meet at the mall or in a nightclub. But in the book we have, they intend to meet again “In thunder, lightning, or in rain.” There could have been infinite other manuscripts, with infinite other opening lines, with wild versions like one where Macbeth makes balloon animals for Duncan, or where Lady MacBeth starts a food drive - but we will never know, and none of those other manuscripts are relevant for our understanding of the play Macbeth. In the play that exists, the one that we read, Macbeth is forever going to slay Duncan and Lady Macbeth always will be power-hungry. Whether or not Shakespeare wrote other versions, the version we have is what is. It has a beginning and an ending. As for the ending, Jesus mentions a cliffhanger about the “age to come” without great detail, telling people that it is only for the Father to know when the world will end, and not for him to reveal it. He came to tell us what we need to know, not what we want to know. This confirms that sacred scripture gives us only what we need, and no more. Our curiosity is the cause of so much of our trouble and Jesus, who is fully human and fully divine, is all too aware of our catlike ways. Rather than give away the ending, Jesus is that good friend who already saw the movie but doesn't spill the spoiler. The end is not to be announced, otherwise it wouldn't be much of a climax. A natural question for our intellect is: “What is the nature of time?” Who does not look into the night sky and ponder time? Who does not look at a fading photograph of past memories and consider the march of hours? Who has not been at a funeral of a loved one and wondered where did all the time go? But in this question, “What is the nature of time?” we can get lost. This question alone is enough to take us into a wilderness of intellectual drift. To simplify it, consider the two basic answers: Time is circular, or time is linear. The inversion states that the answer is a both/and. Time is linear, with cycles of events within time that appear to repeat but are unique. As a whole, what is needed for our understanding there is a beginning and an ending. Physicists speak of “the arrow of time,” which actually matches the idea of biblical time and salvation history. It is linear, not an endless loop. Yet there are loops within the arrow. We have lives that begin and end, like circles moving along the arrow. If you look at the shape of a nautilus shell or a galaxy or a hurricane, you may get a sense of this arrow of time and the patterns within it. There are loops within time of beginnings and endings. We cannot think of anything without time and space invading our ideas, but God can because he created space and time. God is eternal. Eternal means “outside of time.” We, on the other hand, are not outside of time - we are temporal. God does not experience time like we do. Thus, he already knows the beginning and the ending. But we do not. Now, this can spin us round and round until we fall down over the concepts of fate and free-will, but rest assured, both are true. God knows our fate, yet we have free-will. This is a wonderful paradox to embrace, not something to despair over. In fact, this makes reading a play like Macbeth, where fate and free-will are a heavy theme, much more enjoyable. Thus, this first inversion of the bible about time prunes away many alternative worldviews. Socrates and Greek mythology are some of the last ideas standing after a mere three words. Reincarnation is out. Karma is out. Stoicism is out. The Matrix is out. Groundhog Day is out. Before we even reach the fourth word of the bible, every circular and illusory view of time is set aside as error. The worldview of Abraham, Moses, Ruth, David, Elijah, Mary, and Jesus declares a beginning, which means there will also be an end. To say that “time began” is a declaration. It is a rudder for living in troubled waters and windy seas, for the journey's destination has a purpose beyond power, money, wealth, or pleasure. Moreover, it assures one in difficulty that “This too shall pass.” Atheists ask, “If time was created, what was God doing before that?” But the answer is simple: the question makes no sense to the Christian view of time. They don't understand what they are asking, because before creation, time did not exist. “In the beginning…” is before time. Only God was, because God is. He is Being Itself. This is why when Moses asks for God's name, the answer is “I am.” This is mind-bending but worth pondering, for there is nothing without the Being of God's Being. (More on this in upcoming inversions.) When we misunderstand time and who created it, we can get in trouble as to who will conclude time and how it will happen. What we need to know is only this:Time began. Time was created. Time will end. As for “the end,” it is coming. The end will arrive when God's will is done, not ours. When the end comes, there will be no time to modify our behavior or turn back, “for as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Thus, there is no need to be concerned with when time as we know it will end, just as we need not worry about exactly when time began. Sufficient for our salvation and sanity is to know: time began; time will end. The best answer to this mystery of time is exactly as Job concluded about other gifts of creation: “the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” To experiment in the belief of eternal return, or circular time, is to go dancing on slippery rocks that may lead to a concussion and mental instability. The only answers on the circular loop of those slippery rocks is nihilism or the will-to-power. Why? Because when time is just a loop, God is not the one that gives life. If all will fade away and return over and over, self-destruction or self-salvation is the only means to get off the spinning wheel. Oblivion or victory: choose your escape. For physicists and philosophers, it is an enjoyable task to argue over the nature of time, or string theory, or the multiverse, or other speculations, but for those who have to get kids to school and laundry to fold, “In the beginning…” is enough. Truly, a lifetime can be spent pondering the nature of time and its many theories. This is wonderful for those who can afford such a lifestyle, but not practical for most. And here's the funny thing: this idea of “In the beginning…” is where the greatest philosophers and scientists have ended up anyway, such as Plato, Aquinas, and most recently Stephen Hawking. The conclusion that came to both St. Augustine and Albert Einstein, after spending years pondering time, was Genesis 1:1. They both said, yes, it's true: “In the beginning” is correct. But we do not need to be Stephen Hawking or St. Augustine to understand this, as the Word of God has the answer you need in the first three words. A child or adult can sleep peacefully knowing that “In the beginning” is the correct understanding of the nature of time. Time began. Time will end. For those who have to live in the world, the declaration of “In the beginning” fits with reality, where we see beginnings and endings everywhere: of days, of meals, of classes, of jobs, of friendships, of automobiles, of diets, of seasons, of wars, of affections, of plants, of pets. Within the arrow of time we observe little beginnings and endings, and they are not purely circular and going nowhere or repeating without meaning; they are the same, yet unique, like every human life or nautilus shell. They may look the same, but they are all going somewhere and they cannot be repeated in the same way again, ever. Thus our time in creation is our one chance. This is not just a read-through or simulation or a scrimmage: this is the real thing. The next inversion we will look at is the very next word that follows “In the beginning…” That word is God.Further reading: Horn, Trent. “Thinking Deeply About the Nature of Time.” Catholic Answers. 23 July. 2020. https://www.catholic.com/audio/cot/thinking-deeply-about-the-nature-of-timeBarr, Stephen. “St. Augustine's Relativistic Theory of Time.” Church Life Journal, 7 Feb. 2020, https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/augustines-push-against-the-limits-of-time/.Augustine of Hippo. Confessions. Penguin, 2008. Book 11. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whydidpetersink.substack.com

Philolaus was a unique figure in the era of Greek metaphysics who bridged the gap between the Milesians, the Presocratics and the Pythagoreans to form a theory of universal origins that included the first suggestion that Earth was not at its center. Although his theory was not widely accepted in his day, he would influence astronomers and philosophers from Aristarchus to Copernicus. For more information on the episodes in this series, visit my website: https://www.ronvoller.com/Support the show

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts Let's face it the New Testament probably calls Jesus God (or god) a couple of times and so do early Christian authors in the second century. However, no one offers much of an explanation for what they mean by the title. Did early Christians think Jesus was God because he represented Yahweh? Did they think he was God because he shared the same eternal being as the Father? Did they think he was a god because that's just what they would call any immortalized human who lived in heaven? In this presentation I focus on the question from the perspective of Greco-Roman theology. Drawing on the work of David Litwa, Andrew Perriman, Barry Blackburn, and tons of ancient sources I seek to show how Mediterranean converts to Christianity would have perceived Jesus based on their cultural and religious assumptions. This presentation is from the 3rd Unitarian Christian Alliance Conference on October 20, 2023 in Springfield, OH. Here is the original pdf of this paper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Z3QbQ7dHc —— Links —— See more scholarly articles by Sean Finnegan Get the transcript of this episode Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Introduction When early Christian authors called Jesus “god” (or “God”) what did they mean?[1] Modern apologists routinely point to pre-Nicene quotations in order to prove that early Christians always believed in the deity of Christ, by which they mean that he is of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father. However, most historians agree that Christians before the fourth century simply didn't have the cognitive categories available yet to think of Christ in Nicene or Chalcedonian ways. If this consensus is correct, it behooves us to consider other options for defining what early Christian authors meant. The obvious place to go to get an answer to our initial question is the New Testament. However, as is well known, the handful of instances in which authors unambiguously applied god (θεός) to Christ are fraught with textual uncertainty, grammatical ambiguity, and hermeneutical elasticity.[2]  What's more, granting that these contested texts[3] all call Jesus “god” provides little insight into what they might mean by that phrase. Turning to the second century, the earliest handful of texts that say Jesus is god are likewise textually uncertain or terse.[4] We must wait until the second half of the second century and beyond to have more helpful material to examine. We know that in the meanwhile some Christians were saying Jesus was god. What did they mean? One promising approach is to analyze biblical texts that call others gods. We find helpful parallels with the word god (אֱלֹהִים) applied to Moses (Exod 7.1; 4.16), judges (Exod 21.6; 22.8-9), kings (Is 9.6; Ps 45.6), the divine council (Ps 82.1, 6), and angels (Ps 8.6). These are texts in which God imbues his agents with his authority to represent him in some way. This rare though significant way of calling a representative “god,” continues in the NT with Jesus' clever defense to his accusers in John 10.34-36. Lexicons[5] have long recognized this “Hebraistic” usage and recent study tools such as the New English Translation (NET)[6] and the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary[7] also note this phenomenon. But, even if this agency perspective is the most natural reading of texts like Heb 1.8, later Christians, apart from one or two exceptions appear to be ignorant of this usage.[8] This interpretation was likely a casualty of the so-called parting of the ways whereby Christianity transitioned from a second-temple-Jewish movement to a Gentile-majority religion. As such, to grasp what early postapostolic Christians believed, we must turn our attention elsewhere. Michael Bird is right when he says, “Christian discourses about deity belong incontrovertibly in the Greco-Roman context because it provided the cultural encyclopedia that, in diverse ways, shaped the early church's Christological conceptuality and vocabulary.”[9] Learning Greco-Roman theology is not only important because that was the context in which early Christians wrote, but also because from the late first century onward, most of our Christian authors converted from that worldview. Rather than talking about the Hellenization of Christianity, we should begin by asking how Hellenists experienced Christianization. In other words, Greco-Roman beliefs about the gods were the default lens through which converts first saw Christ. In order to explore how Greco-Roman theology shaped what people believed about Jesus as god, we do well to begin by asking how they defined a god. Andrew Perriman offers a helpful starting point. “The gods,” he writes, “are mostly understood as corporeal beings, blessed with immortality, larger, more beautiful, and more powerful than their mortal analogues.”[10] Furthermore, there were lots of them! The sublunar realm was, in the words of Paula Fredriksen, “a god-congested place.”[11] What's more, “[S]harp lines and clearly demarcated boundaries between divinity and humanity were lacking."[12] Gods could appear as people and people could ascend to become gods. Comprehending what Greco-Roman people believed about gods coming down and humans going up will occupy the first part of this paper. Only once we've adjusted our thinking to their culture, will we walk through key moments in the life of Jesus of Nazareth to hear the story with ancient Mediterranean ears. Lastly, we'll consider the evidence from sources that think of Jesus in Greco-Roman categories. Bringing this all together we'll enumerate the primary ways to interpret the phrase “Jesus is god” available to Christians in the pre-Nicene period. Gods Coming Down and Humans Going Up The idea that a god would visit someone is not as unusual as it first sounds. We find plenty of examples of Yahweh himself or non-human representatives visiting people in the Hebrew Bible.[13] One psalmist even referred to angels or “heavenly beings” (ESV) as אֱלֹהִים (gods).[14] The Greco-Roman world too told stories about divine entities coming down to interact with people. Euripides tells about the time Zeus forced the god Apollo to become a human servant in the house of Admetus, performing menial labor as punishment for killing the Cyclopes (Alcestis 1). Baucis and Philemon offered hospitality to Jupiter and Mercury when they appeared in human form (Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.26-34). In Homer's Odyssey onlookers warn Antinous for flinging a stool against a stranger since “the gods do take on the look of strangers dropping in from abroad”[15] (17.534-9). Because they believed the boundary between the divine realm and the Earth was so permeable, Mediterranean people were always on guard for an encounter with a god in disguise. In addition to gods coming down, in special circumstances, humans could ascend and become gods too. Diodorus of Sicily demarcated two types of gods: those who are “eternal and imperishable, such as the sun and the moon” and “the other gods…terrestrial beings who attained to immortal honour”[16] (The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian 6.1). By some accounts, even the Olympian gods, including Kronos and Uranus were once mortal men.[17] Among humans who could become divine, we find several distinguishable categories, including heroes, miracle workers, and rulers. We'll look at each briefly before considering how the story of Jesus would resonate with those holding a Greco-Roman worldview. Deified Heroes Cornutus the Stoic said, “[T]he ancients called heroes those who were so strong in body and soul that they seemed to be part of a divine race.” (Greek Theology 31)[18] At first this statement appears to be a mere simile, but he goes on to say of Heracles (Hercules), the Greek hero par excellence, “his services had earned him apotheosis” (ibid.). Apotheosis (or deification) is the process by which a human ascends into the divine realm. Beyond Heracles and his feats of strength, other exceptional individuals became deified for various reasons. Amphiarus was a seer who died in the battle at Thebes. After opening a chasm in the earth to swallow him in battle, “Zeus made him immortal”[19] (Apollodorus, Library of Greek Mythology 3.6). Pausanias says the custom of the inhabitants of Oropos was to drop coins into Amphiarus' spring “because this is where they say Amphiarus rose up as a god”[20] (Guide to Greece 1.34). Likewise, Strabo speaks about a shrine for Calchas, a deceased diviner from the Trojan war (Homer, Illiad 1.79-84), “where those consulting the oracle sacrifice a black ram to the dead and sleep in its hide”[21] (Strabo, Geography 6.3.9). Though the great majority of the dead were locked away in the lower world of Hades, leading a shadowy pitiful existence, the exceptional few could visit or speak from beyond the grave. Lastly, there was Zoroaster the Persian prophet who, according to Dio Chrysostom, was enveloped by fire while he meditated upon a mountain. He was unharmed and gave advice on how to properly make offerings to the gods (Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 36.40). The Psuedo-Clementine Homilies include a story about a lightning bolt striking and killing Zoroaster. After his devotees buried his body, they built a temple on the site, thinking that “his soul had been sent for by lightning” and they “worshipped him as a god”[22] (Homily 9.5.2). Thus, a hero could have extraordinary strength, foresight, or closeness to the gods resulting in apotheosis and ongoing worship and communication. Deified Miracle Workers Beyond heroes, Greco-Roman people loved to tell stories about deified miracle workers. Twice Orpheus rescued a ship from a storm by praying to the gods (Diodorus of Sicily 4.43.1f; 48.5f). After his death, surviving inscriptions indicate that he both received worship and was regarded as a god in several cities.[23] Epimenides “fell asleep in a cave for fifty-seven years”[24] (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 1.109). He also predicted a ten-year period of reprieve from Persian attack in Athens (Plato Laws 1.642D-E). Plato called him a divine man (θεῖος ἀνήρ) (ibid.) and Diogenes talked of Cretans sacrificing to him as a god (Diogenes, Lives 1.114). Iamblichus said Pythagoras was the son of Apollo and a mortal woman (Life of Pythagoras 2). Nonetheless, the soul of Pythagoras enjoyed multiple lives, having originally been “sent to mankind from the empire of Apollo”[25] (Life 2). Diogenes and Lucian enumerate the lives the pre-existent Pythagoras led, including Aethalides, Euphorbus, Hermotimus, and Pyrrhus (Diogenes, Life of Pythagoras 4; Lucian, The Cock 16-20). Hermes had granted Pythagoras the gift of “perpetual transmigration of his soul”[26] so he could remember his lives while living or dead (Diogenes, Life 4). Ancient sources are replete with Pythagorean miracle stories.[27] Porphyry mentions several, including taming a bear, persuading an ox to stop eating beans, and accurately predicting a catch of fish (Life of Pythagoras 23-25). Porphyry said Pythagoras accurately predicted earthquakes and “chased away a pestilence, suppressed violent winds and hail, [and] calmed storms on rivers and on seas” (Life 29).[28] Such miracles, argued the Pythagoreans made Pythagoras “a being superior to man, and not to a mere man” (Iamblichus, Life 28).[29] Iamblichus lays out the views of Pythagoras' followers, including that he was a god, a philanthropic daemon, the Pythian, the Hyperborean Apollo, a Paeon, a daemon inhabiting the moon, or an Olympian god (Life 6). Another pre-Socratic philosopher was Empedocles who studied under Pythagoras. To him sources attribute several miracles, including stopping a damaging wind, restoring the wind, bringing dry weather, causing it to rain, and even bringing someone back from Hades (Diogenes, Lives 8.59).[30] Diogenes records an incident in which Empedocles put a woman into a trance for thirty days before sending her away alive (8.61). He also includes a poem in which Empedocles says, “I am a deathless god, no longer mortal, I go among you honored by all, as is right”[31] (8.62). Asclepius was a son of the god Apollo and a human woman (Cornutus, Greek Theology 33). He was known for healing people from diseases and injuries (Pindar, Pythian 3.47-50). “[H]e invented any medicine he wished for the sick, and raised up the dead”[32] (Pausanias, Guide to Greece 2.26.4). However, as Diodorus relates, Hades complained to Zeus on account of Asclepius' diminishing his realm, which resulted in Zeus zapping Asclepius with a thunderbolt, killing him (4.71.2-3). Nevertheless, Asclepius later ascended into heaven to become a god (Hyginus, Fables 224; Cicero, Nature of the Gods 2.62).[33] Apollonius of Tyana was a famous first century miracle worker. According to Philostratus' account, the locals of Tyana regard Apollonius to be the son of Zeus (Life 1.6). Apollonius predicted many events, interpreted dreams, and knew private facts about people. He rebuked and ridiculed a demon, causing it to flee, shrieking as it went (Life 2.4).[34] He even once stopped a funeral procession and raised the deceased to life (Life 4.45). What's more he knew every human language (Life 1.19) and could understand what sparrows chirped to each other (Life 4.3). Once he instantaneously transported himself from Smyrna to Ephesus (Life 4.10). He claimed knowledge of his previous incarnation as the captain of an Egyptian ship (Life 3.23) and, in the end, Apollonius entered the temple of Athena and vanished, ascending from earth into heaven to the sound of a choir singing (Life 8.30). We have plenty of literary evidence that contemporaries and those who lived later regarded him as a divine man (Letters 48.3)[35] or godlike (ἰσόθεος) (Letters 44.1) or even just a god (θεός) (Life 5.24). Deified Rulers Our last category of deified humans to consider before seeing how this all relates to Jesus is rulers. Egyptians, as indicated from the hieroglyphs left in the pyramids, believed their deceased kings to enjoy afterlives as gods. They could become star gods or even hunt and consume other gods to absorb their powers.[36] The famous Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great, carried himself as a god towards the Persians though Plutarch opines, “[he] was not at all vain or deluded but rather used belief in his divinity to enslave others”[37] (Life of Alexander 28). This worship continued after his death, especially in Alexandria where Ptolemy built a tomb and established a priesthood to conduct religious honors to the deified ruler. Even the emperor Trajan offered a sacrifice to the spirit of Alexander (Cassius Dio, Roman History 68.30). Another interesting example is Antiochus I of Comagene who called himself “Antiochus the just [and] manifest god, friend of the Romans [and] friend of the Greeks.”[38] His tomb boasted four colossal figures seated on thrones: Zeus, Heracles, Apollo, and himself. The message was clear: Antiochus I wanted his subjects to recognize his place among the gods after death. Of course, the most relevant rulers for the Christian era were the Roman emperors. The first official Roman emperor Augustus deified his predecessor, Julius Caesar, celebrating his apotheosis with games (Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar 88). Only five years after Augustus died, eastern inhabitants of the Roman Empire at Priene happily declared “the birthday of the god Augustus” (ἡ γενέθλιος ἡμέρα τοῦ θεοῦ)[39] to be the start of their provincial year. By the time of Tacitus, a century after Augustus died, the wealthy in Rome had statues of the first emperor in their gardens for worship (Annals 1.73). The Roman historian Appian explained that the Romans regularly deify emperors at death “provided he has not been a despot or a disgrace”[40] (The Civil Wars 2.148).  In other words, deification was the default setting for deceased emperors. Pliny the Younger lays it on pretty thick when he describes the process. He says Nero deified Claudius to expose him; Titus deified Vespasian and Domitian so he could be the son and brother of gods. However, Trajan deified Nerva because he genuinely believed him to be more than a human (Panegyric 11). In our little survey, we've seen three main categories of deified humans: heroes, miracle workers, and good rulers. These “conceptions of deity,” writes David Litwa, “were part of the “preunderstanding” of Hellenistic culture.”[41] He continues: If actual cases of deification were rare, traditions of deification were not. They were the stuff of heroic epic, lyric song, ancient mythology, cultic hymns, Hellenistic novels, and popular plays all over the first-century Mediterranean world. Such discourses were part of mainstream, urban culture to which most early Christians belonged. If Christians were socialized in predominantly Greco-Roman environments, it is no surprise that they employed and adapted common traits of deities and deified men to exalt their lord to divine status.[42] Now that we've attuned our thinking to Mediterranean sensibilities about gods coming down in the shape of humans and humans experiencing apotheosis to permanently dwell as gods in the divine realm, our ears are attuned to hear the story of Jesus with Greco-Roman ears. Hearing the Story of Jesus with Greco-Roman Ears How would second or third century inhabitants of the Roman empire have categorized Jesus? Taking my cue from Litwa's treatment in Iesus Deus, I'll briefly work through Jesus' conception, transfiguration, miracles, resurrection, and ascension. Miraculous Conception Although set within the context of Jewish messianism, Christ's miraculous birth would have resonated differently with Greco-Roman people. Stories of gods coming down and having intercourse with women are common in classical literature. That these stories made sense of why certain individuals were so exceptional is obvious. For example, Origen related a story about Apollo impregnating Amphictione who then gave birth to Plato (Against Celsus 1.37). Though Mary's conception did not come about through intercourse with a divine visitor, the fact that Jesus had no human father would call to mind divine sonship like Pythagoras or Asclepius. Celsus pointed out that the ancients “attributed a divine origin to Perseus, and Amphion, and Aeacus, and Minos” (Origen, Against Celsus 1.67). Philostratus records a story of the Egyptian god Proteus saying to Apollonius' mother that she would give birth to himself (Life of Apollonius of Tyana 1.4). Since people were primed to connect miraculous origins with divinity, typical hearers of the birth narratives of Matthew or Luke would likely think that this baby might be either be a descended god or a man destined to ascend to become a god. Miracles and Healing As we've seen, Jesus' miracles would not have sounded unbelievable or even unprecedent to Mediterranean people. Like Jesus, Orpheus and Empedocles calmed storms, rescuing ships. Though Jesus provided miraculous guidance on how to catch fish, Pythagoras foretold the number of fish in a great catch. After the fishermen painstakingly counted them all, they were astounded that when they threw them back in, they were still alive (Porphyry, Life 23-25). Jesus' ability to foretell the future, know people's thoughts, and cast out demons all find parallels in Apollonius of Tyana. As for resurrecting the dead, we have the stories of Empedocles, Asclepius, and Apollonius. The last of which even stopped a funeral procession to raise the dead, calling to mind Jesus' deeds in Luke 7.11-17. When Lycaonians witnessed Paul's healing of a man crippled from birth, they cried out, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men” (Acts 14.11). Another time when no harm befell Paul after a poisonous snake bit him on Malta, Gentile onlookers concluded “he was a god” (Acts 28.6). Barry Blackburn makes the following observation: [I]n view of the tendency, most clearly seen in the Epimenidean, Pythagorean, and Apollonian traditions, to correlate impressive miracle-working with divine status, one may justifiably conclude that the evangelical miracle traditions would have helped numerous gentile Christians to arrive at and maintain belief in Jesus' divine status.[43] Transfiguration Ancient Mediterranean inhabitants believed that the gods occasionally came down disguised as people. Only when gods revealed their inner brilliant natures could people know that they weren't mere humans. After his ship grounded on the sands of Krisa, Apollo leaped from the ship emitting flashes of fire “like a star in the middle of day…his radiance shot to heaven”[44] (Homeric Hymns, Hymn to Apollo 440). Likewise, Aphrodite appeared in shining garments, brighter than a fire and shimmering like the moon (Hymn to Aphrodite 85-89). When Demeter appeared to Metaneira, she initially looked like an old woman, but she transformed herself before her. “Casting old age away…a delightful perfume spread…a radiance shone out far from the goddess' immortal flesh…and the solid-made house was filled with a light like the lightning-flash”[45] (Hymn to Demeter 275-280). Homer wrote about Odysseus' transformation at the golden wand of Athena in which his clothes became clean, he became taller, and his skin looked younger. His son, Telemachus cried out, “Surely you are some god who rules the vaulting skies”[46] (Odyssey 16.206). Each time the observers conclude the transfigured person is a god. Resurrection & Ascension In defending the resurrection of Jesus, Theophilus of Antioch said, “[Y]ou believe that Hercules, who burned himself, lives; and that Aesculapius [Asclepius], who was struck with lightning, was raised”[47] (Autolycus 1.13). Although Hercules' physical body burnt, his transformed pneumatic body continued on as the poet Callimachus said, “under a Phrygian oak his limbs had been deified”[48] (Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis 159). Others thought Hercules ascended to heaven in his burnt body, which Asclepius subsequently healed (Lucian, Dialogue of the Gods 13). After his ascent, Diodorus relates how the people first sacrificed to him “as to a hero” then in Athens they began to honor him “with sacrifices like as to a god”[49] (The Historical Library 4.39). As for Asclepius, his ascension resulted in his deification as Cyprian said, “Aesculapius is struck by lightning, that he may rise into a god”[50] (On the Vanity of Idols 2). Romulus too “was torn to pieces by the hands of a hundred senators”[51] and after death ascended into heaven and received worship (Arnobius, Against the Heathen 1.41). Livy tells of how Romulus was “carried up on high by a whirlwind” and that immediately afterward “every man present hailed him as a god and son of a god”[52] (The Early History of Rome 1.16). As we can see from these three cases—Hercules, Asclepius, and Romulus—ascent into heaven was a common way of talking about deification. For Cicero, this was an obvious fact. People “who conferred outstanding benefits were translated to heaven through their fame and our gratitude”[53] (Nature 2.62). Consequently, Jesus' own resurrection and ascension would have triggered Gentiles to intuit his divinity. Commenting on the appearance of the immortalized Christ to the eleven in Galilee, Wendy Cotter said, “It is fair to say that the scene found in [Mat] 28:16-20 would be understood by a Greco-Roman audience, Jew or Gentile, as an apotheosis of Jesus.”[54] Although I beg to differ with Cotter's whole cloth inclusion of Jews here, it's hard to see how else non-Jews would have regarded the risen Christ. Litwa adds Rev 1.13-16 “[W]here he [Jesus] appears with all the accoutrements of the divine: a shining face, an overwhelming voice, luminescent clothing, and so on.”[55] In this brief survey we've seen that several key events in the story of Jesus told in the Gospels would have caused Greco-Roman hearers to intuit deity, including his divine conception, miracles, healing ministry, transfiguration, resurrection, and ascension. In their original context of second temple Judaism, these very same incidents would have resonated quite differently. His divine conception authenticated Jesus as the second Adam (Luke 3.38; Rom 5.14; 1 Cor 15.45) and God's Davidic son (2 Sam 7.14; Ps 2.7; Lk 1.32, 35). If Matthew or Luke wanted readers to understand that Jesus was divine based on his conception and birth, they failed to make such intentions explicit in the text. Rather, the birth narratives appear to have a much more modest aim—to persuade readers that Jesus had a credible claim to be Israel's messiah. His miracles show that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power…for God was with him” (Acts 10.38; cf. Jn 3.2; 10.32, 38). Rather than concluding Jesus to be a god, Jewish witnesses to his healing of a paralyzed man “glorified God, who had given such authority to men” (Mat 9.8). Over and over, especially in the Gospel of John, Jesus directs people's attention to his Father who was doing the works in and through him (Jn 5.19, 30; 8.28; 12.49; 14.10). Seeing Jesus raise someone from the dead suggested to his original Jewish audience that “a great prophet has arisen among us” (Lk 7.16). The transfiguration, in its original setting, is an eschatological vision not a divine epiphany. Placement in the synoptic Gospels just after Jesus' promise that some there would not die before seeing the kingdom come sets the hermeneutical frame. “The transfiguration,” says William Lane, “was a momentary, but real (and witnessed) manifestation of Jesus' sovereign power which pointed beyond itself to the Parousia, when he will come ‘with power and glory.'”[56] If eschatology is the foreground, the background for the transfiguration was Moses' ascent of Sinai when he also encountered God and became radiant.[57] Viewed from the lenses of Moses' ascent and the eschaton, the transfiguration of Jesus is about his identity as God's definitive chosen ruler, not about any kind of innate divinity. Lastly, the resurrection and ascension validated Jesus' messianic claims to be the ruler of the age to come (Acts 17.31; Rom 1.4). Rather than concluding Jesus was deity, early Jewish Christians concluded these events showed that “God has made him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2.36). The interpretative backgrounds for Jesus' ascension were not stories about Heracles, Asclepius, or Romulus. No, the key oracle that framed the Israelite understanding was the messianic psalm in which Yahweh told David's Lord to “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool” (Psalm 110.1). The idea is of a temporary sojourn in heaven until exercising the authority of his scepter to rule over earth from Zion. Once again, the biblical texts remain completely silent about deification. But even if the original meanings of Jesus' birth, ministry, transfiguration, resurrection, and ascension have messianic overtones when interpreted within the Jewish milieu, these same stories began to communicate various ideas of deity to Gentile converts in the generations that followed. We find little snippets from historical sources beginning in the second century and growing with time. Evidence of Belief in Jesus' as a Greco-Roman Deity To begin with, we have two non-Christian instances where Romans regarded Jesus as a deity within typical Greco-Roman categories. The first comes to us from Tertullian and Eusebius who mention an intriguing story about Tiberius' request to the Roman senate to deify Christ. Convinced by “intelligence from Palestine of events which had clearly shown the truth of Christ's divinity”[58] Tiberius proposed the matter to the senate (Apology 5). Eusebius adds that Tiberius learned that “many believed him to be a god in rising from the dead”[59] (Church History 2.2). As expected, the senate rejected the proposal. I mention this story, not because I can establish its historicity, but because it portrays how Tiberius would have thought about Jesus if he had heard about his miracles and resurrection. Another important incident is from one of the governor Pliny the Younger's letters to the emperor Trajan. Having investigated some people accused of Christianity, he found “they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honour of Christ as if to a god”[60] (Letter 96). To an outside imperial observer like Pliny, the Christians believed in a man who had performed miracles, defeated death, and now lived in heaven. Calling him a god was just the natural way of talking about such a person. Pliny would not have thought Jesus was superior to the deified Roman emperors much less Zeus or the Olympic gods. If he believed in Jesus at all, he would have regarded him as another Mediterranean prophet who escaped Hades to enjoy apotheosis. Another interesting text to consider is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. This apocryphal text tells the story of Jesus' childhood between the ages of five and twelve. Jesus is impetuous, powerful, and brilliant. Unsure to conclude that Jesus was “either god or angel,”[61] his teacher remands him to Joseph's custody (7). Later, a crowd of onlookers ponders whether the child is a god or a heavenly messenger after he raises an infant from the dead (17). A year later Jesus raised a construction man who had fallen to his death back to life (18). Once again, the crowd asked if the child was from heaven. Although some historians are quick to assume the lofty conceptions of Justin and his successors about the logos were commonplace in the early Christianity, Litwa points out, “The spell of the Logos could only bewitch a very small circle of Christian elites… In IGT, we find a Jesus who is divine according to different canons, the canons of popular Mediterranean theology.”[62] Another important though often overlooked scholarly group of Christians in the second century was led by a certain Theodotus of Byzantium.[63] Typically referred to by their heresiological label “Theodotians,” these dynamic monarchians lived in Rome and claimed that they held to the original Christology before it had been corrupted under Bishop Zephyrinus (Eusebius, Church History 5.28). Theodotus believed in the virgin birth, but not in his pre-existence or that he was god/God (Pseudo-Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 7.35.1-2; 10.23.1-2). He thought that Jesus was not able to perform any miracles until his baptism when he received the Christ/Spirit. Pseudo-Hippolytus goes on to say, “But they do not want him to have become a god when the Spirit descended. Others say that he became a god after he rose from the dead.”[64] This last tantalizing remark implies that the Theodotians could affirm Jesus as a god after his resurrection though they denied his pre-existence. Although strict unitarians, they could regard Jesus as a god in that he was an ascended immortalized being who lived in heaven—not equal to the Father, but far superior to all humans on earth. Justin Martyr presents another interesting case to consider. Thoroughly acquainted with Greco-Roman literature and especially the philosophy of Plato, Justin sees Christ as a god whom the Father begot before all other creatures. He calls him “son, or wisdom, or angel, or god, or lord, or word”[65] (Dialogue with Trypho 61).  For Justin Christ is “at the same time angel and god and lord and man”[66] (59). Jesus was “of old the Word, appearing at one time in the form of fire, at another under the guise of incorporeal beings, but now, at the will of God, after becoming man for mankind”[67] (First Apology 63). In fact, Justin is quite comfortable to compare Christ to deified heroes and emperors. He says, “[W]e propose nothing new or different from that which you say about the so-called sons of Jupiter [Zeus] by your respected writers… And what about the emperors who die among you, whom you think worthy to be deified?”[68] (21). He readily accepts the parallels with Mercury, Perseus, Asclepius, Bacchus, and Hercules, but argues that Jesus is superior to them (22).[69] Nevertheless, he considered Jesus to be in “a place second to the unchanging and eternal God”[70] (13). The Father is “the Most True God” whereas the Son is he “who came forth from Him”[71] (6). Even as lates as Origen, Greco-Roman concepts of deity persist. In responding to Celsus' claim that no god or son of God has ever come down, Origen responds by stating such a statement would overthrow the stories of Pythian Apollo, Asclepius, and the other gods who descended (Against Celsus 5.2). My point here is not to say Origen believed in all the old myths, but to show how Origen reached for these stories as analogies to explain the incarnation of the logos. When Celsus argued that he would rather believe in the deity of Asclepius, Dionysus, and Hercules than Christ, Origen responded with a moral rather than ontological argument (3.42). He asks how these gods have improved the characters of anyone. Origen admits Celsus' argument “which places the forenamed individuals upon an equality with Jesus” might have force, however in light of the disreputable behavior of these gods, “how could you any longer say, with any show of reason, that these men, on putting aside their mortal body, became gods rather than Jesus?”[72] (3.42). Origen's Christology is far too broad and complicated to cover here. Undoubtedly, his work on eternal generation laid the foundation on which fourth century Christians could build homoousion Christology. Nevertheless, he retained some of the earlier subordinationist impulses of his forebearers. In his book On Prayer, he rebukes praying to Jesus as a crude error, instead advocating prayer to God alone (10). In his Commentary on John he repeatedly asserts that the Father is greater than his logos (1.40; 2.6; 6.23). Thus, Origen is a theologian on the seam of the times. He's both a subordinationist and a believer in the Son's eternal and divine ontology. Now, I want to be careful here. I'm not saying that all early Christians believed Jesus was a deified man like Asclepius or a descended god like Apollo or a reincarnated soul like Pythagoras. More often than not, thinking Christians whose works survive until today tended to eschew the parallels, simultaneously elevating Christ as high as possible while demoting the gods to mere demons. Still, Litwa is inciteful when he writes: It seems likely that early Christians shared the widespread cultural assumption that a resurrected, immortalized being was worthy of worship and thus divine. …Nonetheless there is a difference…Jesus, it appears, was never honored as an independent deity. Rather, he was always worshiped as Yahweh's subordinate. Naturally Heracles and Asclepius were Zeus' subordinates, but they were also members of a larger divine family. Jesus does not enter a pantheon but assumes a distinctive status as God's chief agent and plenipotentiary. It is this status that, to Christian insiders, placed Jesus in a category far above the likes of Heracles, Romulus, and Asclepius who were in turn demoted to the rank of δαίμονες [daimons].[73] Conclusion I began by asking the question, "What did early Christians mean by saying Jesus is god?" We noted that the ancient idea of agency (Jesus is God/god because he represents Yahweh), though present in Hebrew and Christian scripture, didn't play much of a role in how Gentile Christians thought about Jesus. Or if it did, those texts did not survive. By the time we enter the postapostolic era, a majority of Christianity was Gentile and little communication occurred with the Jewish Christians that survived in the East. As such, we turned our attention to Greco-Roman theology to tune our ears to hear the story of Jesus the way they would have. We learned about their multifaceted array of divinities. We saw that gods can come down and take the form of humans and humans can go up and take the form of gods. We found evidence for this kind of thinking in both non-Christian and Christian sources in the second and third centuries. Now it is time to return to the question I began with: “When early Christian authors called Jesus “god” what did they mean?” We saw that the idea of a deified man was present in the non-Christian witnesses of Tiberius and Pliny but made scant appearance in our Christian literature except for the Theodotians. As for the idea that a god came down to become a man, we found evidence in The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Justin, and Origen.[74] Of course, we find a spectrum within this view, from Justin's designation of Jesus as a second god to Origen's more philosophically nuanced understanding. Still, it's worth noting as R. P. C. Hanson observed that, “With the exception of Athanasius virtually every theologian, East and West, accepted some form of subordinationism at least up to the year 355.”[75] Whether any Christians before Alexander and Athanasius of Alexandria held to the sophisticated idea of consubstantiality depends on showing evidence of the belief that the Son was coequal, coeternal, and coessential with the Father prior to Nicea. (Readers interested in the case for this view should consult Michael Bird's Jesus among the Gods in which he attempted the extraordinary feat of finding proto-Nicene Christology in the first two centuries, a task typically associated with maverick apologists not peer-reviewed historians.) In conclusion, the answer to our driving question about the meaning of “Jesus as god” is that the answer depends on whom we ask. If we ask the Theodotians, Jesus is a god because that's just what one calls an immortalized man who lives in heaven.[76] If we ask those holding a docetic Christology, the answer is that a god came down in appearance as a man. If we ask a logos subordinationist, they'll tell us that Jesus existed as the god through whom the supreme God created the universe before he became a human being. If we ask Tertullian, Jesus is god because he derives his substance from the Father, though he has a lesser portion of divinity.[77] If we ask Athanasius, he'll wax eloquent about how Jesus is of the same substance as the Father equal in status and eternality. The bottom line is that there was not one answer to this question prior to the fourth century. Answers depend on whom we ask and when they lived. Still, we can't help but wonder about the more tantalizing question of development. Which Christology was first and which ones evolved under social, intellectual, and political pressures? In the quest to specify the various stages of development in the Christologies of the ante-Nicene period, this Greco-Roman perspective may just provide the missing link between the reserved and limited way that the NT applies theos to Jesus in the first century and the homoousian view that eventually garnered imperial support in the fourth century. How easy would it have been for fresh converts from the Greco-Roman world to unintentionally mishear the story of Jesus? How easy would it have been for them to fit Jesus into their own categories of descended gods and ascended humans? With the unmooring of Gentile Christianity from its Jewish heritage, is it any wonder that Christologies began to drift out to sea? Now I'm not suggesting that all Christians went through a steady development from a human Jesus to a pre-existent Christ, to an eternal God the Son, to the Chalcedonian hypostatic union. As I mentioned above, plenty of other options were around and every church had its conservatives in addition to its innovators. The story is messy and uneven with competing views spread across huge geographic distances. Furthermore, many Christians probably were content to leave such theological nuances fuzzy, rather than seeking doctrinal precision on Christ's relation to his God and Father. Whatever the case may be, we dare not ignore the influence of Greco-Roman theology in our accounts of Christological development in the Mediterranean world of the first three centuries.    Bibliography The Homeric Hymns. Translated by Michael Crudden. New York, NY: Oxford, 2008. Antioch, Theophilus of. To Autolycus. Translated by Marcus Dods. Vol. 2. Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001. Aphrahat. The Demonstrations. Translated by Ellen Muehlberger. Vol. 3. The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings. Edited by Mark DelCogliano. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2022. Apollodorus. The Library of Greek Mythology. Translated by Robin Hard. Oxford, UK: Oxford, 1998. Appian. The Civil Wars. Translated by John Carter. London, UK: Penguin, 1996. Arnobius. Against the Heathen. Translated by Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell. Vol. 6. Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995. Arrian. The Campaigns of Alexander. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. London, UK: Penguin, 1971. Bird, Michael F. Jesus among the Gods. Waco, TX: Baylor, 2022. Blackburn, Barry. Theios Aner and the Markan Miracle Traditions. Tübingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1991. Callimachus. Hymn to Artemis. Translated by Susan A. Stephens. Callimachus: The Hymns. New York, NY: Oxford, 2015. Cicero. The Nature of the Gods. Translated by Patrick Gerard Walsh. Oxford, UK: Oxford, 2008. Cornutus, Lucius Annaeus. Greek Theology. Translated by George Boys-Stones. Greek Theology, Fragments, and Testimonia. Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2018. Cotter, Wendy. "Greco-Roman Apotheosis Traditions and the Resurrection Appearances in Matthew." In The Gospel of Matthew in Current Study. Edited by David E. Aune. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001. Cyprian. Treatise 6: On the Vanity of Idols. Translated by Ernest Wallis. Vol. 5. Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995. Dittenberger, W. Orientis Graecae Inscriptiones Selectae. Vol. 2. Hildesheim: Olms, 1960. Eusebius. The Church History. Translated by Paul L. Maier. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007. Fredriksen, Paula. "How High Can Early High Christology Be?" In Monotheism and Christology in Greco-Roman Antiquity. Edited by Matthew V. Novenson. Vol. 180.vol. Supplements to Novum Testamentum. Leiden: Brill, 2020. Hanson, R. P. C. Search for a Christian Doctrine of God. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007. Hart, George. The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. 2nd ed. Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2005. Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fagles. New York, NY: Penguin, 1997. Iamblichus. Life of Pythagoras. Translated by Thomas Taylor. Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras. Delhi, IN: Zinc Read, 2023. Justin Martyr. Dialogue with Trypho. Translated by Thomas B. Falls. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2003. Laertius, Diogenes. Life of Pythagoras. Translated by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie. The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library. Edited by David R. Fideler. Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988. Laertius, Diogenes. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Translated by Pamela Mensch. Edited by James Miller. New York, NY: Oxford, 2020. Lane, William L. The Gospel of Mark. Nicnt, edited by F. F. Bruce Ned B. Stonehouse, and Gordon D. Fee. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974. Litwa, M. David. Iesus Deus. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014. Livy. The Early History of Rome. Translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt. London, UK: Penguin, 2002. Origen. Against Celsus. Translated by Frederick Crombie. Vol. 4. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003. Pausanias. Guide to Greece. Translated by Peter Levi. London, UK: Penguin, 1979. Perriman, Andrew. In the Form of a God. Studies in Early Christology, edited by David Capes Michael Bird, and Scott Harrower. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022. Philostratus. Letters of Apollonius. Vol. 458. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 2006. Plutarch. Life of Alexander. Translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert and Timothy E. Duff. The Age of Alexander. London, UK: Penguin, 2011. Porphyry. Life of Pythagoras. Translated by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie. The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library. Edited by David Fideler. Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988. Pseudo-Clement. Recognitions. Translated by Thomas Smith. Vol. 8. Ante Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003. Pseudo-Hippolytus. Refutation of All Heresies. Translated by David Litwa. Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2016. Pseudo-Thomas. Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Translated by James Orr. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1903. Psuedo-Clement. Homilies. Translated by Peter Peterson. Vol. 8. Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1897. Siculus, Diodorus. The Historical Library. Translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Vol. 1. Edited by Giles Laurén: Sophron Editor, 2017. Strabo. The Geography. Translated by Duane W. Roller. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2020. Tertullian. Against Praxeas. Translated by Holmes. Vol. 3. Ante Nice Fathers. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003. Tertullian. Apology. Translated by S. Thelwall. Vol. 3. Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003. Younger, Pliny the. The Letters of the Younger Pliny. Translated by Betty Radice. London: Penguin, 1969. End Notes [1] For the remainder of this paper, I will use the lower case “god” for all references to deity outside of Yahweh, the Father of Christ. I do this because all our ancient texts lack capitalization and our modern capitalization rules imply a theology that is anachronistic and unhelpful for the present inquiry. [2] Christopher Kaiser wrote, “Explicit references to Jesus as ‘God' in the New Testament are very few, and even those few are generally plagued with uncertainties of either text or interpretation.” Christopher B. Kaiser, The Doctrine of God: A Historical Survey (London: Marshall Morgan & Scott, 1982), 29. Other scholars such as Raymond Brown (Jesus: God and Man), Jason David BeDuhn (Truth in Translation), and Brian Wright (“Jesus as θεός: A Textual Examination” in Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament) have expressed similar sentiments. [3] John 20.28; Hebrews 1.8; Titus 2.13; 2 Peter 1.1; Romans 9.5; and 1 John 5.20. [4] See Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians 12.2 where a manuscript difference determines whether or not Polycarp called Jesus god or lord. Textual corruption is most acute in Igantius' corpus. Although it's been common to dismiss the long recension as an “Arian” corruption, claiming the middle recension to be as pure and uncontaminated as freshly fallen snow upon which a foot has never trodden, such an uncritical view is beginning to give way to more honest analysis. See Paul Gilliam III's Ignatius of Antioch and the Arian Controversy (Leiden: Brill, 2017) for a recent treatment of Christological corruption in the middle recension. [5] See the entries for  אֱלֹהִיםand θεός in the Hebrew Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), the Brown Driver Briggs Lexicon (BDB), Eerdmans Dictionary, Kohlenberger/Mounce Concise Hebrew-Aramaic Dictionary of the Old Testament, the Bauer Danker Arndt Gingrich Lexicon (BDAG), Friberg Greek Lexicon, and Thayer's Greek Lexicon. [6] See notes on Is 9.6 and Ps 45.6. [7] ZIBBC: “In what sense can the king be called “god”? By virtue of his divine appointment, the king in the ancient Near East stood before his subjects as a representative of the divine realm. …In fact, the term “gods“ (ʾelōhı̂m) is used of priests who functioned as judges in the Israelite temple judicial system (Ex. 21:6; 22:8-9; see comments on 58:1; 82:6-7).” John W. Hilber, “Psalms,” in The Minor Prophets, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, vol. 5 of Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament. ed. John H. Walton (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 358. [8] Around a.d. 340, Aphrahat of Persia advised his fellow Christians to reply to Jewish critics who questioned why “You call a human being ‘God'” (Demonstrations 17.1). He said, “For the honored name of the divinity is granted event ot rightoues human beings, when they are worthy of being called by it…[W]hen he chose Moses, his friend and his beloved…he called him “god.” …We call him God, just as he named Moses with his own name…The name of the divinity was granted for great honor in the world. To whom he wishes, God appoints it” (17.3, 4, 5). Aphrahat, The Demonstrations, trans., Ellen Muehlberger, vol. 3, The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2022), 213-15. In the Clementine Recognitions we find a brief mention of the concept:  “Therefore the name God is applied in three ways: either because he to whom it is given is truly God, or because he is the servant of him who is truly; and for the honour of the sender, that his authority may be full, he that is sent is called by the name of him who sends, as is often done in respect of angels: for when they appear to a man, if he is a wise and intelligent man, he asks the name of him who appears to him, that he may acknowledge at once the honour of the sent, and the authority of the sender” (2.42). Pseudo-Clement, Recognitions, trans., Thomas Smith, vol. 8, Ante Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003). [9] Michael F. Bird, Jesus among the Gods (Waco, TX: Baylor, 2022), 13. [10] Andrew Perriman, In the Form of a God, Studies in Early Christology, ed. David Capes Michael Bird, and Scott Harrower (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022), 130. [11] Paula Fredriksen, "How High Can Early High Christology Be?," in Monotheism and Christology in Greco-Roman Antiquity, ed. Matthew V. Novenson, vol. 180 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 296, 99. [12] ibid. [13] See Gen 18.1; Ex 3.2; 24.11; Is 6.1; Ezk 1.28. [14] Compare the Masoretic Text of Psalm 8.6 to the Septuagint and Hebrews 2.7. [15] Homer, The Odyssey, trans., Robert Fagles (New York, NY: Penguin, 1997), 370. [16] Diodorus Siculus, The Historical Library, trans., Charles Henry Oldfather, vol. 1 (Sophron Editor, 2017), 340. [17] Uranus met death at the brutal hands of his own son, Kronos who emasculated him and let bleed out, resulting in his deification (Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 1.10). Later on, after suffering a fatal disease, Kronos himself experienced deification, becoming the planet Saturn (ibid.). Zeus married Hera and they produced Osiris (Dionysus), Isis (Demeter), Typhon, Apollo, and Aphrodite (ibid. 2.1). [18] Lucius Annaeus Cornutus, Greek Theology, trans., George Boys-Stones, Greek Theology, Fragments, and Testimonia (Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2018), 123. [19] Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology, trans., Robin Hard (Oxford, UK: Oxford, 1998), 111. [20] Pausanias, Guide to Greece, trans., Peter Levi (London, UK: Penguin, 1979), 98. [21] Strabo, The Geography, trans., Duane W. Roller (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2020), 281. [22] Psuedo-Clement, Homilies, trans., Peter Peterson, vol. 8, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1897). Greek: “αὐτὸν δὲ ὡς θεὸν ἐθρήσκευσαν” from Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologia Graeca, taken from Accordance (PSCLEMH-T), OakTree Software, Inc., 2018, Version 1.1. [23] See Barry Blackburn, Theios Aner and the Markan Miracle Traditions (Tübingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1991), 32. [24] Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, trans., Pamela Mensch (New York, NY: Oxford, 2020), 39. [25] Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras, trans., Thomas Taylor, Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras (Delhi, IN: Zinc Read, 2023), 2. [26] Diogenes Laertius, Life of Pythagoras, trans., Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988), 142. [27] See the list in Blackburn, 39. He corroborates miracle stories from Diogenus Laertius, Iamblichus, Apollonius, Nicomachus, and Philostratus. [28] Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras, trans., Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988), 128-9. [29] Iamblichus,  68. [30] What I call “resurrection” refers to the phrase, “Thou shalt bring back from Hades a dead man's strength.” Diogenes Laertius 8.2.59, trans. R. D. Hicks. [31] Laertius, "Lives of the Eminent Philosophers," 306. Two stories of his deification survive: in one Empedocles disappears in the middle of the night after hearing an extremely loud voice calling his name. After this the people concluded that they should sacrifice to him since he had become a god (8.68). In the other account, Empedocles climbs Etna and leaps into the fiery volcanic crater “to strengthen the rumor that he had become a god” (8.69). [32] Pausanias,  192. Sextus Empiricus says Asclepius raised up people who had died at Thebes as well as raising up the dead body of Tyndaros (Against the Professors 1.261). [33] Cicero adds that the Arcadians worship Asclepius (Nature 3.57). [34] In another instance, he confronted and cast out a demon from a licentious young man (Life 4.20). [35] The phrase is “περὶ ἐμοῦ καὶ θεοῖς εἴρηται ὡς περὶ θείου ἀνδρὸς.” Philostratus, Letters of Apollonius, vol. 458, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 2006). [36] See George Hart, The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, 2nd ed. (Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2005), 3. [37] Plutarch, Life of Alexander, trans., Ian Scott-Kilvert and Timothy E. Duff, The Age of Alexander (London, UK: Penguin, 2011), 311. Arrian includes a story about Anaxarchus advocating paying divine honors to Alexander through prostration. The Macedonians refused but the Persian members of his entourage “rose from their seats and one by one grovelled on the floor before the King.” Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, trans., Aubrey De Sélincourt (London, UK: Penguin, 1971), 222. [38] Translation my own from “Ἀντίοχος ὁ Θεὸς Δίκαιος Ἐπιφανὴς Φιλορωμαῖος Φιλέλλην.” Inscription at Nemrut Dağ, accessible at https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithras/display.php?page=cimrm32. See also https://zeugma.packhum.org/pdfs/v1ch09.pdf. [39] Greek taken from W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graecae Inscriptiones Selectae, vol. 2 (Hildesheim: Olms, 1960), 48-60. Of particular note is the definite article before θεός. They didn't celebrate the birthday of a god, but the birthday of the god. [40] Appian, The Civil Wars, trans., John Carter (London, UK: Penguin, 1996), 149. [41] M. David Litwa, Iesus Deus (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014), 20. [42] ibid. [43] Blackburn, 92-3. [44] The Homeric Hymns, trans., Michael Crudden (New York, NY: Oxford, 2008), 38. [45] "The Homeric Hymns," 14. [46] Homer,  344. [47] Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus, trans., Marcus Dods, vol. 2, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001). [48] Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis, trans., Susan A. Stephens, Callimachus: The Hymns (New York, NY: Oxford, 2015), 119. [49] Siculus,  234. [50] Cyprian, Treatise 6: On the Vanity of Idols, trans., Ernest Wallis, vol. 5, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995). [51] Arnobius, Against the Heathen, trans., Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell, vol. 6, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995). [52] Livy, The Early History of Rome, trans., Aubrey De Sélincourt (London, UK: Penguin, 2002), 49. [53] Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, trans., Patrick Gerard Walsh (Oxford, UK: Oxford, 2008), 69. [54] Wendy Cotter, "Greco-Roman Apotheosis Traditions and the Resurrection Appearances in Matthew," in The Gospel of Matthew in Current Study, ed. David E. Aune (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 149. [55] Litwa, 170. [56] William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark, Nicnt, ed. F. F. Bruce Ned B. Stonehouse, and Gordon D. Fee (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974). [57] “Recent commentators have stressed that the best background for understanding the Markan transfiguration is the story of Moses' ascent up Mount Sinai (Exod. 24 and 34).” Litwa, 123. [58] Tertullian, Apology, trans. S. Thelwall, vol. 3, Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003). [59] Eusebius, The Church History, trans. Paul L. Maier (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), 54. [60] Pliny the Younger, The Letters of the Younger Pliny, trans., Betty Radice (London: Penguin, 1969), 294. [61] Pseudo-Thomas, Infancy Gospel of Thomas, trans., James Orr (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1903), 25. [62] Litwa, 83. [63] For sources on Theodotus, see Pseduo-Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 7.35.1-2; 10.23.1-2; Pseudo-Tertullian, Against All Heresies 8.2; Eusebius, Church History 5.28. [64] Pseudo-Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, trans., David Litwa (Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2016), 571. [65] I took the liberty to decapitalize these appellatives. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, trans. Thomas B. Falls (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 244. [66] Justin Martyr, 241. (Altered, see previous footnote.) [67] Justin Martyr, 102. [68] Justin Martyr, 56-7. [69] Arnobius makes a similar argument in Against the Heathen 1.38-39 “Is he not worthy to be called a god by us and felt to be a god on account of the favor or such great benefits? For if you have enrolled Liber among the gods because he discovered the use of wine, and Ceres the use of bread, Aesculapius the use of medicines, Minerva the use of oil, Triptolemus plowing, and Hercules because he conquered and restrained beasts, thieves, and the many-headed hydra…So then, ought we not to consider Christ a god, and to bestow upon him all the worship due to his divinity?” Translation from Litwa, 105. [70] Justin Martyr, 46. [71] Justin Martyr, 39. [72] Origen, Against Celsus, trans. Frederick Crombie, vol. 4, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003). [73] Litwa, 173. [74] I could easily multiply examples of this by looking at Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and many others. [75] The obvious exception to Hanson's statement were thinkers like Sabellius and Praxeas who believed that the Father himself came down as a human being. R. P. C. Hanson, Search for a Christian Doctrine of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), xix. [76] Interestingly, even some of the biblical unitarians of the period were comfortable with calling Jesus god, though they limited his divinity to his post-resurrection life. [77] Tertullian writes, “[T]he Father is not the same as the Son, since they differ one from the other in the mode of their being. For the Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole, as He Himself acknowledges: “My Father is greater than I.” In the Psalm His inferiority is described as being “a little lower than the angels.” Thus the Father is distinct from the Son, being greater than the Son” (Against Praxeas 9). Tertullian, Against Praxeas, trans., Holmes, vol. 3, Ante Nice Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003).

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans' arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.   For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher's garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.   Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans' arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.   For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher's garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.   Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

Tonight, I'm thrilled to read a poem that I began working on three years ago on the life, teachings, and mysticism of the Greek philosopher, Pythagoras (c. 570- c.495 BCE). I am also thrilled that the poem is being simultaneously published at The Basilisk Tree. Many thanks to its editor, Bryan Helton, for coordinating all of this with me. For anyone who wants to look closer at the earliest Classical accounts of Pythagoras, his life, and his teachings, check out: The History of Greek Philosophy Volume 1: The Earlier Presocractics and the Pythagoreans, by W. K. C. Guthrie, and The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library, ed. Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie. Don't forget to support Human Voices Wake Us on Substack, where you can also get our newsletter and other extras. You can also support the podcast by ordering any of my books: Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone. Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/humanvoiceswakeus/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/humanvoiceswakeus/support

In this episode, we explore the life and movement of Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, and discover that the common image of him as an ancient mathematician isn't entirely supported by the evidence.Sources/Suggested Reading:Huffman, Carl A. (2008). "Philolaus of Croton: A Commentary on the Fragments and Testimonia with Interprative Essays". Cambridge University Press.Huffman, Carl A. (ed.) (2017). "A History of Pythagoreanism". Cambridge University Press.Kirk, G.S., J.E. Raven & M. Schofield (1983). "The Presocratic Philosophers". Second Edition. Cambridge University Press.Zhmud, Leonid (2012). "Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans". Translated by Kevin Windle & Rosh Ireland. OUP Oxford.#Pythagoras #Pythagoreanism #Philosophy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, we are continuing our series on the philosophy of meditation and its use of mandalas by investigating, as a case study, a mandala sacred to the Pythagoreans: the Tetractys. As we will be covering, in the simple ten dot pyramidal design of the Tetractys is concealed many of the most important teachings of esoteric philosophy. I hope you'll tune in to find out more.See my website for links to all the sections in this chapter and to all the other chapters in my ongoing book "Philosophy: Its Origins, Purpose, and Destiny".website: www.alexsachon.comwritten articles: thewisdomtradition.substack.comestore: thewisdomtradition.bigcartel.comThank you,Alex Sachon

All is Number. Chris helps Kayla square her understanding of a well known but little understood historical character.   --- *Search Categories* New Religious Movement; Science/Pseudoscience; Anthropological --- *Topic Spoiler* Pythagoreanism --- *Further Reading* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoreanism https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pythagoras/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaximander https://classicalwisdom.com/philosophy/cult-of-pythagoras/ https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/path/v02n11p340_the-beans-of-pythagoras.htm https://medium.com/swlh/pythagoreanism-the-story-of-pythagoras-and-his-irrational-cult-4111ece047ea https://www.ranker.com/list/inside-cult-of-pythagoras/nicky-benson https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Ancient-Greek-Philosopher-Pythagoras-and-the-Cult-of-the-Pythagoreans https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/1996/03/13/pythagoras-the-cult-of-personality-and-the-mystical-power-of-numbers/92ef23a9-fad2-4c12-8089-ddd0aaf8c4a7/ http://www.massline.org/PhilosDog/P/Pythagoras.htm https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/fart-gods-farting-out-one-s-soul-historic-ritualization-farts-009699 https://theapeiron.co.uk/the-philosophy-of-farting-fcd15dd8f3ed https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2015/08/31/be-smart-dont-fart-the-pythagorean-prohibition-of-beans/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/fava-the-magic-bean/   --- *Patreon Credits* Michaela Evans, Heather Aunspach, Alyssa Ottum, David Whiteside, Jade A, amy sarah marshall, Martina Dobson, Eillie Anzilotti, Patrick St-Onge, Lewis Brown Jenny Lamb, Matthew Walden, Rebecca Kirsch, Pam Westergard, Ryan Quinn, Paul Sweeney, Erin Bratu, Liz T, Lianne Cole, Samantha Bayliff, Katie Larimer, Fio H, Jessica Senk, Proper Gander, Kelly Smith Upton, Nancy Carlson, Carly Westergard-Dobson, banana, Megan Blackburn, Instantly Joy, Athena of CaveSystem, John Grelish, Rose Kerchinske, Annika Ramen, Alicia Smith

--{ "Century upon Century in the Making, The Prize----The World for the Taking"}-- Original Broadcast Aug. 25, 2008, Government Declarations - Services become Authorities - Education - Communist Books, Lenin - Parallel Government, Lazy Worker Bees. Perfecting of "Imperfect" - Art, Religion - Catholic Church - Protestant Sects - Islam - Rosicrucians, Lodge Colors, Blue Lodge, Side Lodges - RIIA, CFR. United Nations Agenda 21 - Local Organizations and Implementation - Dalai Lama - Maurice Strong, Earth Summit, Rockefellers - New Age Religion. Heavenly Plan, Zodiac, Timetable - Luciferianism - Essenes, Pythagoreans, Eternal Revolution - Goddess with a Thousand Names - Psychological Warfare. CIA, Patriot Radio Business, Ex-Military. Global Elite, Freemasonry, Ranks - Knights Templars, Quartermasters, Lay People, Noble Orders. Counterintelligence - Fascination for Recruits.

On our second excursion into Nietzschean science, we're studying Nietzsche's two most celebrated figures in science: one from Ancient Greece and another from Enlightenment Europe. In Democritus, Nietzsche sees the zenith of the materialist project in Greek philosophy, opening the way for a mathematical atomist description of the world, carried on by the Pythagoreans. In Boscovich, he finds a continuation of this project, centuries later - to describe the world by one force or law, and account for the problem of motion in a way that rejects Kantian or Newtonian appeals to God, or Spinozistic teleology. What comes out of this inquiry is an understanding that Nietzsche may have construed the will to power as a physical reality from the very beginning. From this perspective, will to power is the answer to the problem of motion; it is the inner, “intelligible character” of matter; it is the qualitative expression of what Boscovich's unified field theory offers us in quantitative terms. This episode culminates in a look at some of Nietzsche's more extreme or puzzling statements in his notes where will to power is discussed as a very real physical principle. Pictured in the episode art are Democritus and Boscovich.

It's back to Ovid this week and you'd best hold on to your hypotenuse. Join us for a deep dive into Book 15 of the Metamorphoses where, after a quick “Hello, Numa”, it's on to a lengthy lecture by Pythagoras (of triangle fame) regarding the dos and (mainly) don'ts of what humans should glut their gobs with. In a word—put down that cheeseburger, because it just might be your uncle Jimmy! What was Numa, the 2nd king of Rome, supposed to learn from this? Is there wisdom here or was Pythagoras just some kind of metempsycho? Would a modern vegan or vegetarian agree with his take? In the meantime, tune in, go easy on the beans and if you encounter a bar on your way to this episode, consider walking around it. Also, Guacaroni and Cheese.

Today it is a huge pleasure to have someone back on air who already featured an earlier episode in 2019. Chris Guidice is a well-known scholar - but by no means an ‘armchair magician' - having earned an MA in Western Esoteric Tradition at the University of Exeter and a PhD at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Chris has Italian and English ancestry and grew up in Italy until age 18 when he decided to study classics at the University of Oxford developing a special interest in Greek literature. After finishing his studies, however instead of pursuing a purely academic carreer, he embarked on a 10-year-journey working for MTV in Italy as a video editor and a scriptwriter. As a practitioner he spent 20 years with the OTO and the A.:A.: During a visit in London in 2009/2010 Chris stumbled across a small ad for an MA in Western Esoteric Tradition at the University of Exeter where soon no one else than renowned historian and professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke became his teacher. Chris' succeeded and followed up with his PhD at the University of Gothenburg where ultimately it was his graduation thesis that would turn into the soon to be published book that is the focus of this week's episode, ‘Occult Imperium: Arturo Reghini, Roman Traditionalism, and the Anti-Modern Reaction in Fascist Italy' (Oxford University Press). In our conversation, we'll explore the life of main protagonist, Arturo Reghini, who was born in Florence in 1878 and was not only a genius mathematician but also a pagan in a Pythagorean tradition. In this context we'll try to shed some light on the practices of the Pythagoreans in South Italy back then and how their ideas ran parallel with certain political aspirations of the time culminating into the prospect of (re)-establishing a ‘Sacred Imperium of Italy' in the tradition of ‘True Roman' Imperial concepts. Of course, the question of the relationship between Italian occultism and Italian Fascism can't be neglected and so we will have a honest and open discussion about the role and rise of Mussolini, how the occult imperialist ideas came into pretty handy serving a purpose for a limited amount of time and how the relationship finally played out especially for Reghini himself. We'll close our episode with a glimpse at Chris' upcoming projects which include publishing rare occult classics of the fin de siècle period such as Florence Farr's plays and a special project right in time for the Magickal Women Conference in October 2022. Oxford University Press - Page for Chris' book Oxford University Press' highly interesting series on Western Esotericsm Kamuret Press - Chris Giudice's own publishing company Music played in this episode Italian baroque music will accompany us this week! You know I like classical music. And from what I often hear from you listeners, there are quite a few who like especially classical music from the baroque time, 16th and especially 17th century. Well, this is for you then! Music from Italy, the country our subject is about in the interview today, from the 17th century! Alessandro Scarlatti's (1660-1725) music forms an important link between the early Baroque Italian vocal styles of the 17th century, with their centers in Florence, Venice and Rome, and the classical school of the 18th century. Scarlatti's style, however, is more than a transitional element in Western music; like most of his Naples colleagues he shows an almost modern understanding of the psychology of modulation and also frequently makes use of the ever-changing phrase lengths so typical of the Napoli school. His son, Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically,

In this episode we continue our exploration of the Liberal Arts. To gain a better grasp of the Quadrivium, we must being with the study of number. We want to take a look at the qualitative side of number, the why, not so much the protocol side. To address this we must go back to the origins of the study of number by the Pythagoreans. What do numbers represent? What are the hidden qualities of number? And how does it relate to the other subjects of geometry, music and cosmology?These simple universal languages are as relevant today as that have always been, and may be found in all known sciences and cultures, without disagreement. This is because they are based in universal truth. Enjoy!Any questions, comments or simply would like to get in touch, reach out to us at esotericether@protonmail.com

Number 3 is the number of good fortune. The Pythagoreans taught that the number three was the first true number. Three is the first number that forms a geometrical figure – the triangle! Three was considered the number of harmony, wisdom and understanding. What's that have to do with Diner Discussions? Well it's Season 3 baybee! As we kick off another amazing season we thank you for joining us along the way. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dinerdiscussions/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dinerdiscussions/support

We turn to the enigmatic, charismatic philosopher Pythagoras and the following that he inspired. Though Pythagoras is today associated with the Pythagorean theorem, he developed a school whose secrets were jealously guarded. The Pythagoreans studied astronomy, mathematics, and music, but also developed a unique philosophy centering around numbers that heavily influenced Plato.

Chapter 37 - The Pythagoreans and the Freemasons --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sslodge357/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/sslodge357/support

Welcome to the third episode of Speaking to the Dead. Where Doug Rooney and Will Stafford read historic texts and put them in conversation with the modern-day. The only rule: the author must be dead! In this episode, we are joined by Theano, an early disciple of Pythagoras, to hear what the Greeks have got wrong about her cult.

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans' arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.   For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher's garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.   Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans' arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.   For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher's garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.   Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another; A wise man named Plato once said. Mary Stewart Adams has been on a journey of star communication and celestial wonder for what seems like her entire life. A star lore historian, leading dark sky advocate, author, and astrologist who weaves the esoteric knowledge of spiritual science, literature, ancient mythologies, and fairy tales into contemporary astronomy and astrosophy star wisdom. Mary's relationship with the stars is more than a personal journey; It's a quest to inspire others to know and understand the stars in a way that strengthens what it means to be a human living in the 21st Century. In what feels like an other-worldly conversation, Tahnee and Mary weave their way through Egyptian/Greek mythology, Rudolf Steiner's philosophy of anthroposophy, astronomy, and fairytales, all of which are threads in man's eternal relationship with the stars. It's not every day you get to listen to someone like Mary speak; her words will leave you longing for a deeper awareness of the constellations above. Her understanding as a star lore historian and unique expression of this ancient knowledge is truly something divine. Enjoy ~ We can describe our environment as everything that we can see, and we can see as far as the Andromeda galaxy without the use of the telescope. And so all of it is our environment, and it belongs to us, then we belong to it. So even though we can see it's far away from us, finding the stars reveals something deeply intimate to being human. - Mary Stewart Adams   Tahnee and Mary discuss: Astrology and astronomy. The theory of seven year cycles. Egyptian and Greek star Mythology. Constellation mythology and fairytales. Building a relationship with the night sky. Rudolf Steiner's work on the platonic year. Tropical, sidereal, and Heliocentric astrology. Gregorian, Julian and Egyptian solar calendars. International dark sky movement; protecting natural darkness. Rudolf Steiner's philosophy of anthroposophy and star wisdom. Ancient architecture and ceremonial practises connected to star knowledge.    Who is Mary Stewart Adams? Mary Stewart Adams is a Star Lore Historian, and host of the weekly public radio program and podcast “The Storyteller’s Night Sky."  Through her research in spiritual science and her education in literary arts, Mary has developed a unique, humanities-based approach to understanding our relationship with the stars.  Her work is further augmented by an extensive knowledge of ancient mythologies and fairy tales, which she relates to the research and ideas of contemporary astronomy in order to understand the new star wisdom of astrosophy. Mary has traveled extensively in fulfillment of her mission to safeguard the human imagination by protecting our access to the night sky and its stories, and has received numerous honors for her work. As a global advocate for starry skies, Mary led the team that established the 9th International Dark Sky Park in the world in 2011, which later led to her home state of Michigan protecting 35,000 acres of state land for its natural darkness. Mary’s research in human biography and the stars began in 1981, when, at the propitious destiny moment in the life of the young adult, she opened her first book of mystery wisdom.  Mary’s book The Star Tales of Mother Goose~For Those Who Seek the Secret Language of the Stars, richly illustrated by her sister, artist Patricia Delisa, published in April 2021. Mary is available for private readings, star parties, and public lectures, both online and in conscientiously-planned environments. As a dark-sky advocate and member of the International Dark Sky Association, Mary is keen on assisting communities that seek protection for natural darkness and starry skies.   Resources: Mary's Facebook Mary's Instagram Star Lore Website Storytellersnightsky.com Mary's weekly radio reading The Star Tales Of Mother Goose International Dark Sky Association Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast? A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher, CastBox, iHeart RADIO:)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Tahnee: (00:00) Technology. Okay. I think we're recording now. Hi everybody, and welcome to the SuperFeast podcast. Today, I'm talking to Mary Adams, she's a star law historian, and I'm really excited to be talking to her. I feel like her work has come into my life at a really important time. For over 20 years, Mary has been working with this kind of extensive knowledge of spiritual science, of literature, of ancient mythology and fairytales.   Tahnee: (00:31) And she relates these concepts to contemporary astronomy in order to help us understand the new star wisdom of anthroposophy, which is based on the work of Rudolf Steiner. So I'm excited to hear more about that. And Mary has also worked with Dark Sky Programmes. I've been to two Dark Sky parks, and I was really excited to hear your connection to this Mary, because there's such incredible places to just be with the stars.   Tahnee: (00:54) And she's also worked a lot with fairytale, Moon Calendars. She has an ongoing weekly radio series. She works one-on-one with people, and she has a new book coming out, which I've ordered for my daughter and myself. And her work is really to help us understand and reconnect with the stars. And that's something that's become really resonant for me in the last five years or so. So I'm really grateful and excited to have you here today Mary.   Mary Stewart Adams: (01:17) Thank you. It's such a pleasure. Thank you.   Tahnee: (01:18) Yeah. Really excited. And sorry, I did miss your Stewart, you're Mary Stewart Adams? I heard you describe on another podcast, how you were the Stewart before the French got to you. [crosstalk 00:01:29] And I remembered it, E-W-A-R-T, Stewart. Yeah. So I wonder, your background, how did you connect to the stars? What was your story to bring you to [inaudible 00:01:47] today.   Mary Stewart Adams: (01:47) I'm the seventh of eight children and I was always longing for more relationship with my mom, I would say. When you're the number seven, there's a lot going on in the life of the mother and I don't fault to her with that, but I was always looking for ways to connect. And one of the things that really intrigued me as a child was big words.   Mary Stewart Adams: (02:10) I liked big words and I couldn't wait to use big words to have real conversations with my mom. And then it was just a gradual step. She read to me a lot of nursery rhymes, a lot of fairy tales. And then one of the first things I remember is standing next to a horse fence with her looking up at the sky. And she had this bowl in her hands that had a... It was created so that you could have an imaginary horizon and move the bowl to see what time of night it was and which stars would be over the horizon.   Mary Stewart Adams: (02:44) And I wasn't so much trying to learn that as I was just wanting to be with my mom. So it was really about relationship. And I think that's one of the beautiful things about learning to know the night sky, is that the easiest way to find stars and constellations is knowing them according to whom they're next to. How does that relate to the environment that it's in? And I think that's one of the gifts that the stars give us, is that ability to relate to one another as human beings. So that's really where it began.   Tahnee: (03:18) Yeah. Your little neighbourhood of star friends.   Mary Stewart Adams: (03:22) Yeah. And really climbing up on my mom's shoulders to have a look, but it was really about being with her. Because I think the very young don't need to be pulled out into the stars. I mean, they just can appreciate the natural world and it isn't until teenagers, young adults, then it starts to become important I think to know, all right. Now I should be able to identify things in my environment.   Tahnee: (03:47) Yeah. And make that, because that was what really landed for me. One day I looked up and I was like, I mean, I know a couple of the really obvious constellations. My dad was pretty big on teaching us the basics, but I really, I was like, "Well, I don't really, I couldn't look at this as a map and really know my way through," and I couldn't identify some of the really major constellations in the astrological kind of sign constellations and stuff. And yeah, it's just something that landed for me that, I was like, "I want to know this. I want to know this language." Did that come later for you that brew longing or...   Mary Stewart Adams: (04:23) Yeah. I mean, it's a significant moment I think, when you start to realise that you want to know that. I was introduced to astrology at the same time that I first heard the name Rudolf Steiner. So it was meeting his anthroposophy and astrology at the same time when I was 18. So it was pretty young and really astrology was a lot easier to get a hold of than the anthroposophy was.   Mary Stewart Adams: (04:48) But again, it was, my mom having conversations about these things with my older sister and I'm still lusting after this relationship. And so I thought, I need to figure this stuff out so I can, I need to be part of what's going on. I don't know, have the sense that when you're one of the younger children in a large family, you always feel like you're trying to catch up.   Tahnee: (05:09) I can't imagine. I mean, I'm the eldest too. So it's not any relationship [crosstalk 00:05:14]   Mary Stewart Adams: (05:14) But I have no fear of missing out.   Tahnee: (05:16) I know, but I can imagine that you're, yeah. You're like this little being kind of seeing these conversations going on and really longing to be a part of that. And I can imagine the drive and the fire that, that puts in you.   Mary Stewart Adams: (05:29) Yeah. And longing is really important as even though longing can be difficult. It really drives a lot of what we do as human beings. We long for things, and that can be an inspiration or a motivation. So I started to really study astrology. It just immediately made sense, was like, "I get it." There's this definition of the planet, Saturn and it has a particular mood.   Mary Stewart Adams: (05:55) And if you put it here, that mood is coloured a certain way, you move it over here, it's coloured a different way. And I thought, okay, this is just like a living jigsaw puzzle, was really what I felt. And so it was like, "I get it." I really can. Now, I can figure everything else out that way. And I really just wanted to study my own chart and just see that it did occur to me pretty early on that this was coming out of ancient cultures and that something we were just talking about, but they weren't wrong.   Mary Stewart Adams: (06:27) And we might think that this was some wild idea that ancients had that we each come from a star, but I really felt like if this was true, then it must be knowable. And if it's knowable, then I'm going to know it, I want to find that. So it graduated from wanting to be in relationship with my mom and my older siblings and be in the conversation to now wanting to be related to ancient cultures in this kind of wisdom that comes to us out of what are called the mystery schools.   Mary Stewart Adams: (06:53) It's like, "All that unknowable stuff. I want to know all of that." Yeah. And then it was actually when I then became a parent, I was at that point started to read charts just for friends. And my daughter came into the room and she said, "What are you doing?" And I said, well, "I'm reading the story of somebody's life, the way it's written in the stars." She was pretty young. So I thought just really creative answer.   Mary Stewart Adams: (07:17) And she said, well, "You're cheating." And I said, "What do you mean I'm cheating?" And she said, "Well, you need to be out reading the stars." And this was a really remarkable moment for me because at that moment I realised, "Wow, I don't know what the constellations look like." I had had this experience in my childhood with my mom, but it wasn't about being able to identify constellations. It was just sharing something.   Mary Stewart Adams: (07:45) And so then I started to teach myself about the constellations, and my experience of that journey is that, I've said this before, but just that when we start on this path of seeking to know the stars, what we find out is they are also seeking to know us. And the only way to explain that is, you can't really explain it. You have to experience it. And so this quest to know the names of the stars and the shape of the constellations, and then the next level of that for me is, "Well, who named them? Where does this conflict?"   Mary Stewart Adams: (08:23) Yeah. Right. [crosstalk 00:08:25] And then I think why, and then it's fascinating to look at least in Western culture, what happens in the age of exploration? Like the 16 hundreds, when now explorers are going out to different parts of the world and seeing stars over regions of the sky that were not available to Claudius Ptolemy and those that are coming out of the Greek, the way it moved toward the West.   Mary Stewart Adams: (08:50) And so now the race is on, and the 16 hundreds to start creating new constellations. But at that point in human history, it was no longer understood that we come from a star. So there weren't these deep mythologies and deep cultural influences connected to why you would name a region of sky a certain way. And I think this gets lost in the conversation about constellations, because there are these ancient constellations. And then there are these kinds of newfangled ones that are just based on what they might look like. And, that has consequences.   Tahnee: (09:25) Yeah. Well, that's so interesting. You bring that up because one of the things I've found interesting and I don't have a strong reaction to it, but I'm just curious that our indigenous people here in Australia, had certain constellations and I've my partner had quite a close relationship with a leader from a tribe. And he was saying that they believed they were from the Pleiades.   Tahnee: (09:48) And there's this kind of real sense of, yeah. For them, the stars aren't just this kind of concept or an abstract like mental conception, but they're literally a part of their living. And I think it's something that we've come over late, our own versions of things. And the way of the world, but yeah, it's what is there to learn from these traditions that helps us make some sense of the land that we live on and the environment that we live on and...   Mary Stewart Adams: (10:19) Right. Yeah. And it's also, Pleiades is the most storied about group of stars in the sky...   Tahnee: (10:26) The sisters.   Mary Stewart Adams: (10:28) Yeah the sisters. And it's oftentimes related to creation myths and stories of becoming. And in fact Rudolf Steiner makes a reference to Pleiades, that this is the point through which we enter our universe. So really, really takes it back to a deep place of creation and the brightest star in Pleiades, at least according to the Greek and then moving through the Arabic culture. It has the name Alcyone, which means foundation stone. So it's like, this is the foundation on which we stand to become in our realm of being. Yeah. So it's really lovely that way.   Tahnee: (11:10) Goosebumps, again. Yeah. Because I think that's something that I... Yeah, when you hear those kinds of things and then you look, one of the things I'm really drawn to is looking across time and different myths, kind of misbearing cultures and where the similarities are. And like she was saying I can't remember this was, before we were talking just now, but you were saying about the knowing it's about, yeah. You sort of, okay, multiple people have seen this and experienced it over time. Can I have a direct experience of this? And then that makes it true for me. And and as a young child, Pleiades you're always so drawn to it and I've heard you speak about this. My cat is now visiting.   Mary Stewart Adams: (11:54) Okay.   Tahnee: (11:57) I've heard you speak about when you want to learn to connect to a star that you sort of find the one you're drawn to and then learn about it. So I'm curious just to jump into that, if you're a new stargazer, and even if you're in a city where you don't have a lot of access to stars, how do you recommend people in the modern world, who maybe don't have access to these myths and these stories, how do they find the star?   Mary Stewart Adams: (12:20) What I think, well, what I did was to get a map. And of course this was the day before apps. And I still will say maps, not apps because I like to have a map in my hands. And what I like to do is to orient a guy, I have to get into my environment and say, "All right, which direction is North, South, East, West?" Get the Cardinal points. And then looking at the map, figure out where is the thing that I want to see? Is it in the Southwest? Is it in the Northeast?   Mary Stewart Adams: (12:54) And what time of day can it be seen or night? Rather, can it be seen and where do I need to go to see it? And what starts to happen is you're building a relationship with the environment, because now you're thinking very specifically in the geography where you find yourself. And this has a consequence, it's like you're building a container, so that you can think about something that seems to be really, really far away from us.   Mary Stewart Adams: (13:18) So far away from us, that scientists will say that the light that's coming from certain stars has taken so long to get here, that the star isn't even there anymore. Which is to me a really crushing thought because there's something about being affirmed when the light finally reaches us. And I feel like that moment is really sacred and it gets lost in this idea for me. And I'm not saying that it's necessarily so, but I feel lost in that thought like, "No, it's not that old because I'm present, I'm in the now moment."   Mary Stewart Adams: (13:50) But just to really build a container in the environment for knowing, whereas Pleiades is going to be relative to my horizon tonight. Will I see it? And then out of that, you start to develop a relationship seasonally to what things are visible in which season. And then how does this inform when we look back into cultures prior to our own time, really prior to the use of electricity, how did this inform seasonal celebrations? Is it connected to what stars are overhead?   Mary Stewart Adams: (14:26) And I'm also fond of saying that when we think about our environment, I would like to say, okay. So our environment can be described by everything that we can see, and we can see as far as the Andromeda galaxy, about the use of the telescope. And so all of it is our environment. So it belongs to us, we belong to it. So really even though we can see it's really far away from us finding the stars, it reveals something that's deeply intimate to being human.   Tahnee: (15:00) Yeah. I've read or heard. I'm trying to remember where I got this from but I seem to recall one of Rudolf Steiner's big teachings was that it's our job to reconnect to the stars in this time of humanity. I might, I'm on the money obviously. So could you explain?   Mary Stewart Adams: (15:17) Yeah. So this really wonderful verse that he gave to his wife in 1922, pretty popular in the anthroposophical community called the Stars Spoke Once to Man. So it's the stars, I'll see humanity, the stars spoke once to humanity, but it is world destiny that they are silent now. So this is, looking back at, at least as far back as the time of ancient Egyptian culture. When you can see that there was a great deal of architecture and at least as far as we can discern ceremonial practise, that was connected to a knowledge of the stars.   Mary Stewart Adams: (15:55) And that there is the idea in this verse, at least that this was the time when the human beings could still understand the speaking of the stars. And that to look at the gestures made between the planets relative to the stars was like a speaking of the divine. As we become more aware of ourselves, physically in the physical world and less aware of our roots in the celestial spiritual world, that kind of knowledge goes silent, takes thousands of years, but then we become more conscious in the physical world and less aware of ourselves as spiritual beings.   Mary Stewart Adams: (16:30) And this is world destiny. We have to become aware here in the physical, but the threat is that we will fall asleep and forget our connection. Forget that we have an origin that is, of course we get this physical body, the physical stuff from the physical earth. But the soul spirit nature is coming from beyond this and that in the human being, we have this kind of threefold nature that unites, but the risk is that we'll forget and sink just into the physical and not know that we come from a star or that we have a soul. And that it's the mediator between the physical and the spiritual.   Mary Stewart Adams: (17:06) And so the continuation of the verse is that this experience of the silencing of the stars can be pain for earthly humanity. There's pain in remembering, or at least knowing that once there was this great connection, but then out of the silence and out of this pain, their grows and their ripens, what the human being is speaking to the stars. And to be aware of this speaking can bring strength for the future human being.   Mary Stewart Adams: (17:35) And so really the quest now, is not so much, how do I get back to know the stars, the way the ancient Egyptians did. But how do I know the stars as a person living in the 21st century with all of this technology that's available to us and all of everything that's happening in our environment? How can I have a direct encounter in a way that is strengthening my ability to be human in the world right now?   Mary Stewart Adams: (18:01) And I think that this is really important because so many of us live where we're cut off from the natural world and from being able to see the stars. And that's really, what's behind the international dark sky movement, is to protect natural darkness, wherever it is, and to look at how it's affecting habitat and the habitats that we share with all of the creatures of the earth and how we use our energy resources, how we're affecting our own health and wellbeing.   Mary Stewart Adams: (18:29) And then for me, it was not only that, but we need to have a kind of thinking to meet the challenges of our day that is really rich in imagination. I think it was Albert Einstein said you can't solve the problem with the same thinking that got you into the problem. So these pointing at the fact that we need a new thinking, and this is where the imagination starts to work and imagination as the kind of thinking that's about the world that we don't know, maybe we used to know it, but we no longer know that.   Mary Stewart Adams: (19:05) And we just have to begin to develop an imagination so that it can start to speak again. And so what I... This is where I go with that. It's like, "Okay, when I'm in the dark, if I'm in a dark space, I can either be inside or outside, but just truly dark. What's the first thing that starts to happen? Your mind starts to, you start to imagine."   Mary Stewart Adams: (19:27) So imagination has its roots in the unknown, which we usually equate with being dark. That it's not unhealthy, it's really healthy to be in the dark and to let the imagination begin to move so we can know it, and then start to develop it to meet the world and to meet what faces us.Yeah.   Tahnee: (19:48) Because I mean, you think about myth and every coach has these stories with, the hero goes into the darkness or the heroine and the great learning of the great experience happens. And then they bring this back to the world above and become these really powerful important figures in a community. And I mean, a lot of the traditions, I've studied Taoism and in yoga. They use dark rooms and dark... One of my teachers runs a three-week dark retreat, when you live in a dark house for three weeks and do all these wacky practises.   Tahnee: (20:27) But what that also does the dreaming on a chemical level that stimulates a little turned into converting to DMT. And we open up into this kind of Chemonics space, I suppose. And I think that's something that we've sort of lost in our culture is that, a lot of these great scientists, they didn't think their way into these insights that they had. They had tracks of intuition.   Mary Stewart Adams: (20:56) Of inspiration. Right.   Tahnee: (20:56) Yeah. And I think that's, when you think about what's going to get us out of some of the messes that we're in. It's probably not going to come from sitting down and thinking about it. I know for me, in my experience, like any of those strong pivotal moments of change in my life have come through, either a lot of suffering, and pain, death and those kinds of big events that really change you or through, yeah. Things that have...   Mary Stewart Adams: (21:21) That throw you even emotionally or psychologically into the dark?   Tahnee: (21:26) Yeah. And then...   Mary Stewart Adams: (21:26) And I think that we can prepare for being in the dark the same way we might meditate in order to create inner space of tranquillity and calm so that when things are really hectic, you can meet it with that, what you've already cultivated in yourself. I have this experience at night sometimes when it's really dark and you're awake, but the activity of perception is engaged, but you can't see physically and it's like you can see inwardly.   Tahnee: (21:59) I've had that experience.   Mary Stewart Adams: (21:59) Yeah. And I think that that's something that we can really cultivate and be conscious of. I can take advantage of that and have a practise that's connected to that. And it's not to say that intellect is bad, but that, because we need to use intellectual cognition in order to then kind of articulate what we're being inspired with, and make it meet the physical world that we're in, but we need access to something that's greater than this. And I feel like the natural darkness does that.   Mary Stewart Adams: (22:27) And then the stars, I mean, you think about a star, it's shining through the dark, but it's not diminishing the dark. It doesn't take darkness away. And it's, I think about this like, "Okay, how do I do that?" How do I do like a star? where you shine. But you let something be so free that you don't diminish where it is even though you're shining toward it. Beautiful, I think it's a beautiful thought.   Tahnee: (22:56) It is a beautiful thought and a beautiful way to live really because yeah, I think it, I mean, I think that sense of the lessons that are held in the stars and the personalities, and I mean, I've been delving a little bit into planetary relationships with herbs and just with us as well. And I think that, obviously planets are big stars.   Tahnee: (23:25) But yeah, I mean, I think that's something that even our astrology, that we're probably in this really powerful relationship with everything we can be observing within that, I just think about the movement of the sky and our place on this earth and how everything's affecting us. And we've sort of really lost touch with that. And [crosstalk 00:23:46]   Mary Stewart Adams: (23:46) And I mean, yeah, we're having. Yeah, go ahead.   Tahnee: (23:49) Well, I was just going to say, does that come in when you're thinking about people's charts and your own astrology? But yeah.   Mary Stewart Adams: (23:55) Yeah, it does. And I also in a much it's just this beautiful harmony that happens between the human being and the earth where, and this is something that I learned through a study of Rudolf Steiner's work about something that's called the great year or the platonic year. And it has to do with the wobble of the earth on its axis. All right. So this took centuries for human beings to figure this out. To be able to measure the rotation of the earth on its axis, which gives us a cycle of night and day.   Mary Stewart Adams: (24:26) And then to really concretely say, "Yes, the earth is in motion around the sun. So we have this orbital rhythm of about 365 days, but then also that earth is wobbling." So as it's rotating or it's wobbling along, and the wobble takes 25,920 years. So it's a really long time, but it's also, you could say it's like 172nd of a degree each year.   Mary Stewart Adams: (24:50) It's hard to measure in the space of one life, but after 72 years, earth has wobbled one full degree. That's the thing to hold on to like, "Okay, I can manage that." Then you look at the human being in the respiratory system, we breathe on average about 18 times a minute. And there's 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day. So we breathe 25,920 times in every 24 hour cycle, which is in this microcosmic complete harmony with this wobbling.   Mary Stewart Adams: (25:27) But you can say it is like the breathing of the earth. It's a living breathing being. And we are living and breathing with this being, really microcosmically. But then also this 70 seconds and the degree, shows up in the mythology of Osiris that when his mother, who was told that she was pregnant with him, I can never remember their names exactly.   Mary Stewart Adams: (25:53) So I think it's Geb is the God who knows that if he has an offspring, he'll be overtaken. So of course he doesn't want to have any children because he wants to remain top dog. So when she gets pregnant, he curses her and says, you shall give birth to this child in no month and in no year in the Egyptian calendar. But then Thoth, he is gambling with the moon and he wins the 72nd part of every day from the moon.   Mary Stewart Adams: (26:18) And after he has five full days together, he puts it at the end of the Egyptian calendar because it belongs to the no month and no year, then she can give birth. So she gives birth to Osiris, Seth, Typhon, Nephthys, and Isis. So these five great gods and goddesses of the Egyptian Pantheon. And it's this 72nd part of the day that Thoth is winning away from the moon. It's like, "Okay, they had this idea. They were already able to measure this wobble, which causes procession. It's just fascinating."   Mary Stewart Adams: (26:52) And then, when you look astrologically, one of the things that I've learned through a study of ancient astrological tradition is that the idea that we each come from a star is rooted in this rhythm. And so that when we descend from the star toward the physical incarnation, you could imagine it this way. It's as though there's 72 years of life force. And of course not, everybody's going to live for 72 years. Some will die before that time. Some will live much longer than that.   Mary Stewart Adams: (27:25) But that, in the normal course of human evolution, we'll say it that way, that there is this imparting of forces from the celestial spiritual world that's connected to this breathing of the earth and the breaths that we take and the heartbeat and that you can then look at the life in these really interesting cycles that fit into that 72 year rhythm. And after 72 years, it's like you come back into relationship with your star, because the earth has wobbled enough, but now you have a direct relationship with God. Again, it's like the sun moves on and says, "Okay, handing you back."   Tahnee: (28:03) Back to the stars. I was just wondering if that correlates to this idea of the sidereal astrology and the tropical Zodiac and how we as, I'm always curious about that, I guess, because it's something that I wonder if where, even reading accurately, if we're using it. So... yeah [crosstalk 00:28:22]   Mary Stewart Adams: (28:22) It can be confusing. Yes. And it is directly related to that. So the reason the tropical and sidereal do not agree is because of this wobble, because if you imagine [inaudible 00:28:31] so the point of Equinox, when the sun seems to cross the celestial equator, is that, well, let me step back, one step further. The celestial equator is just the equator of the earth projected out into space.   Mary Stewart Adams: (28:48) And so I'm going to make a motion that you can see because we're on a screen, those who are listening, won't see this, but if you have this projection out and you slightly wobble, you can see that that point is moving. So the sun is crossing over that celestial equator slightly earlier, every year. And after 72 years, it's a whole degree earlier after 2000 years, it's a long way earlier. And so the point of beginning processes, and when we get to the time of the beginning, the way they Gregorian calendar is marked, it starts with the birth of the Christ child.   Mary Stewart Adams: (29:26) And at that point, actually the tropical and sidereal Zodiacs agreed at zero degrees of Aries. Since that time it's been processing. If you go back further than that, before you get to the Gregorian calendar and you have the Julian calendar system, and before that you have the Egyptian solar calendars. The Equinox is during... The Egyptian era it's the point of the Equinox when the sun is in front of Taurus. And so the bull is sacred and then this procession begins.   Mary Stewart Adams: (29:55) It doesn't begin, it continues on, and then you get to, for instance, the story of Jason and the Argonauts, and they have to go off to win the golden fleece. So this is related to Aries and part of what he has to do to win the golden fleece is he has to tame the fire-breathing bull. So he's got to overcome this kind of influence out of this ancient culture.   Mary Stewart Adams: (30:16) So the culture prior to their own, like the Egyptians had the bull. Now we're going to the fleece. So this is the procession from Taurus into Aries. And then you see the Christian symbolism that is oftentimes described by the symbol of a fish. So that's Pisces, who are into the Piscean age. And so the procession of the Equinox is something that's followed in sidereal and accounted for.   Mary Stewart Adams: (30:40) And sidereal means relative to the stars. Whereas with the tropical, it's fixed to the zero point as being at the beginning of Aries and that the sun is there on March 20th or 21st, which is no longer true. And so it's not, I want to qualify this though immediately and say, I don't think it's an error to use the tropical Zodiac. It's just to recognise that it has to do more with the physical, more with the day wake, more kind of with the egoic personality.   Mary Stewart Adams: (31:15) But then when we want to do the work of the soul and the spirit, then we move into the sidereal, at least with the soul nature. And then with the heliocentric. So looking toward the planetary system from the sun, then you get more with the spiritual nature. So it's kind of this three-fold way of looking, but first you have to grapple with, "Okay, am I dealing with my day wake personality, self? How aware am I of my soul? Can I actually touch the spirit?" And so all of it can be read.   Mary Stewart Adams: (31:49) I have a dear friend that does this wonderful work, he calls Foundational Flows, where he takes a few planets, he takes mercury, Venus and Mars. And I'm not going to be able to explain exactly how he's arrived at this relationship between these three planets, but looking at them in the tropical Zodiac, the sidereal Zodiac and the heliocentric Zodiac, and doing an exercise to align them within yourself, it's a really wonderful work. And it helps us to harmonise in that relationship to myself and who I am when I'm awake in the world and then in my soul nature and my spiritual nature.   Tahnee: (32:31) I think that's such a beautiful because I think, I mean, I haven't looked a whole lot into it, I've definitely never looked into the heliocentric Zodiac. But sidereal, thinking of that soul personality being slightly different to that egoic personality, that just makes a lot of sense to me in terms of my lived experience.   Mary Stewart Adams: (32:53) Yes. And it's also it's, I mean, this gets pretty esoteric, but one of the experiences that would result from initiation into higher spiritual knowledge is that the flow of time is different in the different realms. So in our day, wake world with the sun rising in the East, going overhead, setting in the West, we live in a linear fashion. Beginning, middle, end, it goes kind of in a straight line.   Mary Stewart Adams: (33:22) But then when we sleep, when we dream, when we die, we are beyond this realm and things move from their end to their beginning. And when I think about this and try to imagine, is that something that I can become aware of while I'm embodied in life and the closest I've come so far. Because I really feel like I'm a neophyte at this. It's just, all right. So the sun rising in the East, setting in the West, but then when I go to sleep, I'm laying horizontally on my bed, on the earth and the earth is turning from the West back to the East.   Mary Stewart Adams: (33:56) So in the day, like my day wake personality, my ego is illuminated for me by the light of the sun, and it's going in a particular direction. But then when I go to sleep, something else is a different level of consciousness that's operating and it's moving in the exact opposite direction, and they don't cancel each other out. So for me, it's not necessary to say it's got to be either tropical or Sidereal.   Mary Stewart Adams: (34:26) It's like they're both operating. And we fix things in place so that we can come to awareness. For centuries, there was a teaching that the earth was fixed at the centre, even though the Pythagoreans taught that the earth was in motion, but that was mystery wisdom. You didn't just go talking about it with your neighbour because it was, it would be unsettling because first there has to become this conscious awareness of, I'm incarnate on the earth and the earth is stable and it can hold me.   Mary Stewart Adams: (34:58) And once I become mature enough in my relationship to being embodied and being on the earth, then I can set it in motion. And we got the scientific revolution now it's okay. Now everybody, "Hey, the earth is moving." Now you can talk about it on the corner with your neighbour.   Mary Stewart Adams: (35:13) This is common knowledge, but then the threat is that we'll forget that, "We came from something, something that emotion that stilled itself so we could become aware." And then, yeah, so this is, I think the challenge right now, I'm trying to take hold of star knowledge again, in a way that doesn't separate from the awareness, we can develop the scientific thinking, but also doesn't lose an awareness of our spiritual nature.   Tahnee: (35:47) Just is for me sounding so much like just the individual human journey, it's like we come in and we need that security of family and community to make us feel safe and land here in this body in this time. And then we have to push back against that and develop through those kinds of years of our twenties and thirties and things. And then it's almost we come back full circle to remembering.   Mary Stewart Adams: (36:14) And we're growing through it. So in the first years of our life, where we are held very closely, and this would be described in esoteric astrology, and maybe in just general astrology as living through the moon sphere. So we live on the earth, we're below the moon. So the first seven years of the life are kind of contained with that. The moon has us at its centre, no matter what is going on with whether the planets are orbiting us, orbiting the sun or not it's, the moon is orbiting the earth, and we are right in the centre. We're at the core of that.   Mary Stewart Adams: (36:48) And then we begin to breathe out and grow beyond that. And our relationships move from those that are defined by the bloodline, into which we are born, into those that come out of the comic encounter, shared spiritual striving, other things that define our relationships, that then allow us to become more cosmopolitan, more worldly, more earth conscious, aware of ourselves as having this origin beyond something other than just this family that held us ideally, very securely and beautifully in the beginning.   Tahnee: (37:24) I heard you speak of Saturn and the moon, being related in terms of time. And also, because I was actually speaking to a friend who's in her fifties about her next Saturn return. Okay. Well, I am right now.   Tahnee: (37:39) It's sort of a running joke in our office, I'm like, [inaudible 00:37:43]   Mary Stewart Adams: (37:43) Yeah, I do. Well, there's a... I read a quote [inaudible 00:37:47] not too long ago, "You must own your Saturn."   Tahnee: (37:51) Look, And I mean, it's such a powerful and important transition as well. A lot of grace and gratitude for that time. But when you're in it, it's pretty wild. Yeah. Could you re remind me of that relationship-   Mary Stewart Adams: (38:07) Yeah. I can talk about it. [crosstalk 00:38:09]   Tahnee: (38:09) Yeah, that was really interesting.   Mary Stewart Adams: (38:10) It's good to know. I think because when we look at astrology, now we are oftentimes including in the interpretation, the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, asteroids, other things, the galactic centres and points in space. We talk about the nodes. And actually I think in an ancient astrology, the nodal, well, I'm not going to go there. Let me just stay there.   Mary Stewart Adams: (38:33) So before the introduction of a telescope, the farthest of the wandering stars, the planets that could be seen, it was Saturn. So the fixed stars are much further away from us than the planets are. And if you look into the sky, even if you don't know the sky, if you watch night, after night, after night, you'll see that the stars stay in place relative to one another. But the rest of them, there's a few that seem to move. Those are planets.   Mary Stewart Adams: (38:59) And the one that's moving the slowest always connected to father time that's Saturn. And so Saturn was used to describe the boundaries of time. And when you look at the rhythm of Saturn, it takes it about 29.5 years for it to come exactly back to the place where it started, if you were measuring it, you marked the point. So we will say that the Saturn return starts to begin in the 28th year.   Mary Stewart Adams: (39:26) And depending on apparent retrograde and our own wobbling, sometime between 28 and 30 Saturn is coming back to the place where it was when you were born. And so you can divide that 28 year cycle of Saturn into seasons, so we have four seasons of the year. You can divide the first 28 years of the Saturn cycle into four quarters. So you have birth to, birth and early childhood, then you have childhood proper then adolescents, then young adulthood. And then you've got Saturn.   Tahnee: (40:02) [crosstalk 00:40:02] the seven year?   Mary Stewart Adams: (40:03) Yeah. So this is the seven year cycle. So it's four, seven year cycles. Four times seven is 28. So birth to seven, that's the first leg. And then seven is when you get the change of teeth and sometimes it's happening earlier, but you can see there's bodily things that are going on. And the physiology of the human being, there's these significant shifts that happen.   Mary Stewart Adams: (40:23) So first we're physically born. And then the change of teeth happens. Then we come into puberty. Then we come into adulthood proper, and then seven years later, you're back at Saturn returning to the position it was when you were born. And now what can happen is it's reviewing, all right. These were the circumstances I was born into that it seems to me like I didn't have anything to do with, except if I take the perspective of being a soul spiritual, being with incarnational intentions, I had a lot to do with what circumstances I came into.   Mary Stewart Adams: (40:58) But then now, I'm conscious of myself in a way where I can make a decision that separates from or further develops those circumstances I was born into. But when we're coming, so we were coming from our star, I'm giving you a really long answer. But the idea is that the midnight of the soul is something we actually experience when we're in the vicinity of our star. So it's not just a moment of sadness or heaviness or depression on the earth, but the midnight of the soul is an actual stage of becoming when we're between the time, between death and rebirth and a decision is made.   Mary Stewart Adams: (41:35) That's the only way to say it. I'm reaching up like, "Okay, you're up there with your star. You're making a decision to come toward earthly incarnation." And a process begins whereby you would get the forces for the physical body, from the stars. So Aries the head, Taurus the larynx, Gemini the limbs all the way through to Pisces the feet, and then moving through the wandering stars, the planets. We get the rhythms of the inner organism. So Saturn is connected to the spleen, Jupiter to liver, Venus to kidneys.   Mary Stewart Adams: (42:04) So this whole body is articulated out of our, the staring system. And Saturn as the one marking the boundary of like, "Okay, you're coming out of space and into time." These are two elements that are not synonymous. So we move out of space into time at the planetary spheres. And then the time that Saturn marks as the boundary is in perfect harmony with the moons with them of 28. So Saturn has a 29.5 year rhythm as does the moon. And so that's kind of give a long roundabout answer to what you were asking, but there's this-   Tahnee: (42:41) Is a beautiful one.   Mary Stewart Adams: (42:43) So when we get to the moon sphere. So you imagine now you've come from your star, you're gathering together these forces that will build this body that is related to I mean, I've used the word karma, but what I mean by that is that there are things that we must meet of necessity out of our soul's intentions.And it's not predestination. It's just that these things will be in my path and how I meet those things it's up to my free will.   Mary Stewart Adams: (43:10) I can turn away from it, I can dive in, but nonetheless there are certain things that are going to happen along the way. And that, but as this body is being formed out of these forces, then I feel like I'm way out on the limb here.   Tahnee: (43:28) I love this.   Mary Stewart Adams: (43:28) I can complete the picture. So the last place that the soul spirit germ is resting before incarnating is in the moon sphere, because the moon is like the guardian around the earth. It has the earth at its centre, it's orbiting the earth. And there's just this lovely imagination, that new souls that are coming to birth, they come on the moon beans [inaudible 00:43:48] fairytale, but these fairytales are rooted in these ancient ideas.   Mary Stewart Adams: (43:53) And so when they... The kind of this seed of our becoming drops into the womb of the mother after the conception, then this weaving process begins where the moon will then go through 10 lunations or 10 x 29.5 day cycles, that matches with Saturn that completes this formation of the body, and here in the physical, until we can really support the breathing and the heartbeat, we still can't stand, we don't, aren't born fully complete.   Mary Stewart Adams: (44:29) We still need this really strong, we have a strong relationship and out of necessity with other human beings. And so it's all kind of built in, but that, so you look at this relationship between Saturn and moon as kind of holding the rhythm of what life are you going to build into this structure that you've been gifted from the stars?   Tahnee: (44:54) And I mean, that I'm feeling like into that Saturn return thing, as well about that almost coming back to rebirth and this approach [inaudible 00:45:04] to like, which is certainly my experiences [inaudible 00:45:07] to recreate yourself again. And that the seasonal thing of like, I'm really feeling a lot of the Daoist stuff, even though it's different.   Tahnee: (45:16) I don't know about the Western astrology, but in Taoism, the liver, all the organs have a spirit and the liver holds the hun, which is the one that holds our visioning and our dreaming. And it said that when we lay down horizontally at night, it goes out into the stars and dances amongst the stars.   Mary Stewart Adams: (45:33) That's Beautiful.   Tahnee: (45:34) Keeps us to that higher realm, I suppose. And that made me laugh when you were saying that, because it's also this sense that we do move back from the West to the East, through the underworld. And so there's this kind of, and that would also be correlated to winter time and these darkness and descent.   Tahnee: (45:55) And yeah, I can really feel like that in that sort of flow with Saturn and with the moon and that feminine essence as well of coming back. I always think of Saturn as a masculine archetype, but in that it's in a relationship with the moon that feels like a really beautiful kind of dance.   Mary Stewart Adams: (46:11) Yeah. I think traditionally the moon is regarded as feminine and Saturn as masculine, but it is that it has that sense of being embraced or in wound. And I think when we do come back to when Saturn returns to the place where it was when we were born or when the moon comes back to that place, which it does every 19 years or so that we can have this sense of, "This is who I am. I'm walking in my own shoes."   Mary Stewart Adams: (46:40) And for those moments, it's an opportunity to assess where have I been? And to really sense in the feeling of life that I did have an intention and where am I in relationship to that? So I think that looking at these rhythms in our lives can be really healthy, because it allows us to say, there are these markers that happen naturally and rhythmically in every human life.   Mary Stewart Adams: (47:04) Whether we accept that we have a relationship with the planets and the stars or not, it's a matter of fact that each one of the planets will return rhythmically to the place where they were when we were born. They won't all be in the same place when that happens, but each time they return, there's just this encounter we have with ourselves. And in the anthroposophical worldview about the planets, it's that moon, and mercury, and Venus are destiny determining.   Mary Stewart Adams: (47:39) So this is where we can look for the forces of destiny. And then that Mars, and Jupiter, and Saturn are liberating. And there's just this really wonderful way that they are woven together through the days of the week. So I hope it's not hard to conceive of this without seeing, but we go from Monday, which is moon day to Mars day.   Mary Stewart Adams: (48:02) So the moon is between earth and sun. Mars is beyond the sun from the earth. And then, so we go from moon day to Mars day for Tuesday, then to Wednesday, which is mercury. So we're going from a destiny determining planet out, to a liberating planet, back to a destiny, determining planet, back to a liberating planet back and forth weaving in the cycle of the week. And then the sun is there mediating.   Mary Stewart Adams: (48:33) So the sun being the sun hero in Christianity, this is the Christ being in Egyptian mythology. It's RA, there's always, it's her own Mazda. There's always this sun being, that is mediating between these forces of karmic, necessity and liberation. And the reason I think that they weave together through the week is because we are incarnate on the earth and we do have to deal with being human in the world and sorting out our relationships to one another, to our environment, to the other creatures that live in this space.   Mary Stewart Adams: (49:06) And then we get this opportunity also to lift that up, weaving back and forth. It's really beautiful, but when you think about like, "Why is it ordered that way? Who did that?" Do you know who did that? Because, I mean, I've shipped from the... Yeah. I mean, I know calendars are so different all over the world, but the shift to a Gregorian calendar's has a big impact on outlook.[crosstalk 00:49:36]   Mary Stewart Adams: (49:36) Yeah. So that, yeah, Gregorian calendar reform happened in the 15 hundreds, but then of course there was Napoleon in France during the French revolution. They got it... It wasn't Napoleon or maybe it was in the French revolution and he re-instituted it, they got rid of the Gregorian calendar and tried to go to a 10 day week and change things up. But I think really it was the Babylonians, the ancient Babylonians that divided the sky or at least the Zodiac into 12 parts.   Mary Stewart Adams: (50:08) It doesn't get fixed right away. And I can't, I wish I could answer that question. I'm not really sure who gets credited with saying, "Okay, seven days of the week and how it's related to the planets," but in many different languages, you hear the planets in the name of the days of the week.   Tahnee: (50:26) Yeah. Well, that's, I know that with some, the Vedic culture as well. [inaudible 00:50:29]   Mary Stewart Adams: (50:29) Yeah. So it seems that it's pretty universal? But all right. Here's these planets were related to that and it's right into the days of the week for us. Yeah.   Tahnee: (50:38) Have you ever seen this huddle shell that has the 13?   Mary Stewart Adams: (50:42) Yes.   Tahnee: (50:42) Yeah. That's always been really interesting to me, because we do have 13 moons in a year.   Mary Stewart Adams: (50:47) Right. Yes.   Tahnee: (50:50) [crosstalk 00:50:50] often, so there's this sort of little bit of a normal-   Mary Stewart Adams: (50:52) Yeah. And then making that shift from a lunar based calendar to a solar based calendar. So for instance, in the Islamic culture, the new year is connected with the moon and the moon doesn't occur on the same day, from one year to the next... That's the same date, rather it's always processing through the year.   Mary Stewart Adams: (51:14) And so this is a very interesting dynamic culturally, that's a lot different from a culture that is rooted in the rhythm of the sun. And I think that it's, I just really think it's really important to pay attention to that, the calendar system, when trying to understand different cultures. That if you're basing your high ceremony and sacred observance on the moon, it's quite different than if you're basing that on the sun, your rhythms are going to be different and the culture will be different. And that's okay. Because the sun and moon are different.   Tahnee: (51:53) Yeah. Well that makes me think, because we were off the camera, when we were talking earlier, we were talking about anthrosophia   Mary Stewart Adams: (51:58) anthroposophy.   Tahnee: (52:02) anthroposophy. Yes. Happy now, you've explained that to me. But that feminine, that this is a feminine age and it's sort of almost if you feel that strong, like masculine, again, I relate to the sun is very masculine, strong energy, a very young energy from that Daoist sort of perspective. And then, you've got this Gin kind of moon energy. Yeah, you can feel that it's a challenge to be in a feminine space in this culture. It's a very linear forward moving coach, which I think has its benefits in some ways, but it's also, it does take away a lot from that soft.   Tahnee: (52:41) And that's always been what attracted me to those sort of Daoist wisdom traditions is that they're very fluid, they're very water like, they're very feminine in a way, almost soft and yeah, I think it's, can be difficult to embody that feminine essence in this time. And can you speak a little bit to that? What is that calling for humans at this time?   Mary Stewart Adams: (53:03) Yeah. [crosstalk 00:53:04] So if I went back to this verse that said from Rudolf Steiner, about becoming aware of our speaking to the stars, there's also in this idea that, again, I feel like I keep talking about the ancient Egyptians, but they had this wonderful art about the sky goddess, not who at the end of every day, she swallowed the sun and then it would move through her body. And the Starlight that we see was actually the light of the sun radiating through her body.   Mary Stewart Adams: (53:33) And then every morning she would give birth to the sun. And so this being is a celestial goddess and she bears the stars toward us. And then one of the things that Rudolf Steiner describes is that in the Egyptian myth of Osiris, he slain and then it's Isis, his concert and queen that has to remember him. She gathers together the parts of his body and puts it in a common grave.   Mary Stewart Adams: (54:02) But she also goes throughout Egypt to gather the parts of his body, and everywhere she goes, she teaches ceremony, according to what part of the body does the community have. So to be crude, but like, okay, if you have the left foot, you do a certain ceremony different than the right arm. But in this way, all of the culture is engaged in re embodying this great God.   Mary Stewart Adams: (54:26) And then what Rudolf Steiner brings to this mythology is that it goes on and Isis, herself is slain. And that she's slain in the thought about the cosmos that only looks at it according to the laws of gravitational force and celestial mechanics. And only looking at how to measure distances, and speeds, and chemical composition, and things like that, that this is the grave of Isis.   Mary Stewart Adams: (54:53) It's the grave of this celestial goddess that bears the star wisdom toward us, and that we are living in a time now where we have to like the ancient Egyptians remembering Osiris, we would now be called upon to remember this being of the divine feminine. That is really intimately connected with the way we know the stars. So we see this celestial goddess described in Dante's Divine Comedy.   Mary Stewart Adams: (55:22) It's in this manuscript called the Chemical Wedding of Christian Roseanne Crites. It shows up that there's this being that descends. It was the philosophia of the ancient Greeks, but how Rudolf Steiner describes the being of anthroposophia is that the anthropo, means the human being and the Sophia, is this universal wisdom that is inherent in being human.   Mary Stewart Adams: (55:46) But that if we bring to this an imagination, not just a make belief, but using the cognition about the unseen world, that there's actually something embodied in this, that this sophianic wisdom has descended toward the human being from ancient ages, stars were speaking, they've grown silent, come all the way.   Mary Stewart Adams: (56:12) And to us rests on our shoulders, the way Atlas gives Hercules the pillars of the heavens. Now it's up to us to speak this wisdom back to the stars. So Sophia, the wisdom becomes the anthroposophia emerged from the human being. And so this having kind of disappeared into humanity now, would emerge from us and lead us on and lift us up. And it's very much described in the feminine.   Tahnee: (56:41) Yeah. And I think if you look at, I mean, we live in a community that's a little bit probably ahead of some of the rest of the world in terms of that-[crosstalk 00:56:52]   Mary Stewart Adams: (56:52) Those ideas.   Tahnee: (56:54) Yeah. But I do notice that this rising of that consciousness, I suppose, in this time, which is, yeah, it's really interesting to observe. And I guess it's a lot of what your work is. Is that very feminine art of, I know a lot of men carry stories too, but reading to children and caring for children and telling stories and teaching through fable. And like you were saying with your daughter, when she was very young, giving her creative and poetic, you don't want to be really linear with little kids-   Mary Stewart Adams: (57:25) And you don't want to cut them off from their imagination.   Tahnee: (57:28) Yeah. And I think that's, when I heard about your book, I was so excited because I really want to introduce my daughter to the stars, but I was like, "I don't really want to be like those, the constellation."   Mary Stewart Adams: (57:40) Right.   Tahnee: (57:40) And we're just at the moment, we look at them and we look at bright and which ones are together and just make up stories and see if we can see any animals. And, but yeah, I love this idea that we can tell stories and fables and bring in that kind of yeah, I guess more sort of subtle aspect of learning, and less scientific, and rational, and more in the dreaming. And so I know your book is really for the Northern hemisphere, but could you tell us a little bit, I bought it anyway because I'm like- [crosstalk 00:58:11]   Mary Stewart Adams: (58:12) Which I love, thank you very much.   Tahnee: (58:13) Well, and I bought a couple, I bought one for a friend as well, and I bought one to give away for this podcast. Because I thought some people out there would be interested as well but...   Mary Stewart Adams: (58:21) That's fine. Yeah.   Tahnee: (58:22) Yeah. But I really, I just think that my experience with myths is that it's sort of opened me up in a way that reminds me of when I was a child and I was reading fairy tales and my parents were very big on me reading all the classics and-   Mary Stewart Adams: (58:39) Wonderful.   Tahnee: (58:40) Yeah. I mean, even the hobbit, it was given to me very, very young. My dad was really into fantasy and so I think that's a really good introduction for children into these, like the hero's journey. And all these kinds of things.   Mary Stewart Adams: (58:51) And really developing healthy imaginations. Yeah.   Tahnee: (58:55) Yeah. So I'm really excited for my daughter to experience that too.   Mary Stewart Adams: (58:58) That's wonderful.   Tahnee: (59:00) But yeah. Could you tell us a bit about how you came to write it and what it's?   Mary Stewart Adams: (59:02) Yeah. It's called the Star Tales of Mother Goose. And mother goose comes at least as far as I can tell really out of French culture in the gosh, eighth or ninth century is when the first references are being made. And then it doesn't get written down until the 16 hundreds. And then it makes its way over to England. And then these tales, which were originally fairytales become associated with nursery rhymes or mother goose rather becomes associated with nursery rhymes.   Mary Stewart Adams: (59:33) And then that's how it comes to America as these little children's ditties. And so I have this idea that as we go through history and the star knowledge begins to go to sleep in us, that it doesn't disappear entirely. It playfully lives in fairytales and in nursery rhymes and these little ditties that just move very freely and enthusiastically, enjoy fully around the world.   Mary Stewart Adams: (01:00:04) In every culture, there's just these little sing-songy things that happen in culture that are the places where it's just like the Starlight, is just sparkling in that. And you don't have to have any intellectual grasp of what it means. It can just be nonsense and whimsy and fun and joy. That's just all we need, until we're ready to remember again.   Mary Stewart Adams: (01:00:26) And so at this period of time, as we're coming toward the scientific revolution historically, and the star knowledge is changing in that there's no longer this idea that we come from a star or that we're connected to stars in any kind of a way that they might bear an influence on us. But now it's, again, its weight, its measure, its number. And at that time that the scientific revolution is really taking off. Also, you have fairy tales and nursery rhymes showing up.   Mary Stewart Adams: (01:00:55) So I think that there's, it's really interesting that that seems to coincide. But so what happened for me was that my niece was reciting a mother goose nursery environment. I thought it was really cute, I had never heard it before. I was like, "Where did you get that?" She said, "What's mother goose?" And I said, "No, it's not. I know every mother goose nursery rhyme, that's not one."   Mary Stewart Adams: (01:01:17) And my sister pulled out her original mother goose and flipped to the page and showed it to me. And I got really mad, I was like, "Another goose is mine, I know all the mother goose rhymes." And so I went to bed really angry then, and I was in my forties. So it's not like I was a little kid I was [inaudible 01:01:36] And when I woke up. Yeah. I woke up and I got a message out of my dream.   Mary Stewart Adams: (01:01:42) All right. So I'm going to qualify this by saying that, throughout my life, I've had a really interesting experience of this kind of thing. I take it seriously because I love it. I love to try to investigate these kinds of things when they happen. Where does that come from? And what does it lead to? If anything in my life that I could say that this has value. And so I got this message as I was waking up and the messag

Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!Welcome back to another episode of our archaogastronomical adventures!I hope you're all well and healthy and had a lovely Easter.Today's episode is all about ancient vegetarianism. And the philosopher Pythagoras is the central figure on all these talk today.Pythagoras, the father of mathematics, was born and raised in Samos. around 580BCE. He is one of the most acclaimed pre-Socratic philosophers and the Pythagorean Theorem bears his name. Samos is a green island known for its mixed flora, full of mountains and plains. Olive groves are covering most of these plains, since the age of Pythagoras and even before, while the main varieties are the local Ntopia Elia, Koronéiki and Kalamòn. Even though Pythagoras spent more than forty years in his birthplace, he eventually decided to set sail for new seas; his thirst for knowledge led him to travel throughout most of the then known world, most notably Egypt and Babylon, centres of wisdom knowledge and secret mystical rites, before settling down to Croton, a town in Magna Graecia, modern Southern Italy. He may have found pupils to follow him, and welcoming ears to listen to his preaching....More on the audio if you press play!Notes for this episode:Theophrastus (c. 371–287 BCE) was a Peripatetic philosopher who was Aristotle's close colleague and successor at the Lyceum. He wrote many treatises in all areas of philosophy, in order to support, improve, expand, and develop the Aristotelian system. Of his few surviving works, the most important are Peri phytōn historia (“Inquiry into Plants”) and Peri phytōn aitiōn (“Growth of Plants”), comprising nine and six books, respectively.Aulus Gellius (c. 125 – after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome.Diogenes Laërtius was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek philosophy Porphyry of Tyre (c. 234 – c. 305 AD) was a Phoenician Neoplatonic philosopher born in Tyre, Roman Syria during Roman rule. He edited and published The Enneads, the only collection of the work of Plotinus, his teacher. His commentary on Euclid's Elements was used as a source by Pappus of Alexandria.He wrote original works on a wide variety of topics, ranging from music to Homer to vegetarianism. His Isagoge, or Introduction, an introduction to logic and philosophy, was the standard textbook on logic throughout the Middle Ages in its Latin and Arabic translations. Through works such as Philosophy from Oracles and Against the Christians (which was banned by Constantine the Great), he was involved in a controversy with early Christians.His parents named him Malchus ("king" in the Semitic languages) but his teacher in Athens, Cassius Longinus, gave him the name Porphyrius ("clad in purple"), possibly a reference to his Phoenician heritage, or a punning allusion to his name and the color of royal robes. Under Longinus he studied grammar and rhetoric. Epicurus is one of the major philosophers in the Hellenistic period, the three centuries following the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.E. (and of Aristotle in 322 B.C.E.). Epicurus developed an unsparingly materialistic metaphysics, empiricist epistemology, and hedonistic ethics.Plotinus (204/5 – 270 C.E.), is generally regarded as the founder of Neoplatonism. He is one of the most influential philosophers in antiquity after Plato and Aristotle.Plutarch (ca. 45–120 CE) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo. He is known primarily for his Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, and Moralia, a collection of essays and speeches.Croton was an ancient Greek colony in Magna Graecia (southern Italy) that was established circa 710 BC. In Greek society, Croton led in Olympic titles, physics, and sobriety, and Pythagoras founded his school in Croton in 530 BC. Crotone, Latin Croton, port town, Calabria regione, southern Italy. It lies along the Gulf of Taranto, northwest of the Cape of Colonne, and east-northeast of Catanzaro. It was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages until the Italian form of its early name was restored in 1928. Cylon of Croton was a leading citizen of Croton, who led a revolt against the Pythagoreans, probably around 509 BC. ... After the success of the rebellion, all debts owed were eliminated and property was seized for redistribution; this arguably resulted in Pythagoras being expelled from Croton. Pedanius Dioscorides was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of De materia medica —a 5-volume Greek encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances, that was widely read for more than 1,500 years. He was employed as a physician in the Roman army. Alexis, (born c. 375 bc, Thurii, Lucania [Italy]—died c. 275), one of the foremost writers of Middle and New Comedy at Athens, a low form of comedy that succeeded the Old Comedy of Aristophanes.Vetch: A member of the pea family, Fabaceae, which forms the third largest plant family in the world with over thirteen thousand species. Of these species, the bitter vetch, was one of the first domesticated crops grown by neolithic people. There are many different vetch species, the purple flowered varieties are all safe to eat. Credits:All Music by Pavlos Kapraloshttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzgAonk4-uVhXXjKSF-Nz1Aexcept under Maltby and Greek promo; Song "Waltz Detuné" by Cloudcubhttps://cloudcub.bandcamp.com/album/memories-i-cant-readand under Ancient History Hound ad; Song by Aris Lanaridishttps://www.arislanaridis.co.uk/You can help with the costs of the podcast by becoming a patron on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/thedeliciouslegacySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy. If you love to time-travel through food and history why not join us at https://plus.acast.com/s/the-delicious-legacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, i welcome author DeAnne Loper. She's written a humdinger of a book exposing the secrets of Kabbalah, and she stops by to give us the lowdown. Join us as she explains hidden symbolism, and the roots of this occult belief system we go, and be sure to check out the links in the show notes. Here we go again on another dive down the rabbit hole, far beyond the mainstream! Thank you   Cheers, and Blessings   Kabbalah Secrets Christians Need To Know-DeAnne Loper https://www.amazon.com/Kabbalah-Secrets-Christians-Need-Know-ebook/dp/B07QYXRXTW DeAnne Loper Website https://www.kabbalahsecretschristiansneedtoknow.com/?m=1 DeAnne Loper FACEBOOK  https://mobile.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1424052419 What Is The Chamber Of Hewn Stone? https://youtu.be/8y5NYKtBr7A Beware Of Noahide Laws http://www.bewareofthenoahidelaws.followersofyah.com/ DeAnne Loper On “Now You See TV” (The Midnight Ride) https://youtu.be/LWfI0hcyWmg Kabbalah (Hebrew: קַבָּלָה‎, also spelled Qabbalah, Kabalah, Kabala, or Cabala) literally means "receiving". It is a body of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an unchanging, eternal and mysterious Ain Soph and the mortal and finite universe. Chabad is an inter¬pretation of reality based on the Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. Tarot, Astrology, Reincarnation, & Humans Becoming Their Own Gods, Are Tenants of Kabbalistic Teachings. The Terms, Illumination, & Enlightenment Are Directly Related.  Kabbalah And The New Age Movement https://grandmageri422.me/2019/03/01/kabbalah-and-the-new-age-movement-setting-the-stage-for-antichrist-and-the-deception-of-israel/ Hegel, Theosophy, & Kabbalah  https://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/occult/boehme.htm Kabbalah and Theosophy, in reality, represent two interpretations or representations of the same inner, mystical teachings of the universal, ancient wisdom religion, even though Theosophy is generally being referred to as having an Eastern source, whereas Kabbalah is being considered the Western equivalent, based on the mystical “mouth to ear” teachings of the Hebrews, dating back to 13th century Spain (Moses de Leon), but more likely derived from the ancient “Chaldean Book of Numbers” (626 BC) or earlier Eastern scriptures. http://www.theosophycanada.com/kabbalah-and-theosophy.php Freemasonry Is Kabbalah  https://ehpg.wordpress.com/2008/08/08/freemasonry-is-kabbalah/ “Kabbalah teaches that we will return to this world in many incarnations until we achieve complete transformation. Work left uncompleted in this life is undertaken again in a future life until the task of transformation is done. Reincarnation is a fundamental tenet of Kabbalah. The world and our place in it cannot be understood without this key principle. As always, what is true for a single human soul is also true for all humanity. As long as any one of us falls short of transformation, we will continue to participate in the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth - as will humanity as a whole - until the critical mass of truly enlightened people comes into being to eradicate pain and death forever.” kabbalah.com/en Helena Blavatsky On The Kabbalah  https://theosophyproject.blogspot.com/2015/01/blavatsky-and-kabbalah-1-sefer-yetzireh.html Kushner Foundation Gives $342K to Chabad https://forward.com/news/359482/kushner-foundation-gives-342k-to-chabad-still-surprised-about-jared-and-iva/ Trump's daughter, son-in-law visit Lubavitcher Rebbe https://www.timesofisrael.com/trumps-daughter-son-in-law-visit-lubavitcher- rebbe/ Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Visit Rabbi's Grave for Pre-Election Blessing https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/78078/new-idf-video-use-krav-maga-not-guns-female-terrorists-watch/ Jared Kushner and the White-Haired Mystic Whose Dad ‘Got a Ride' From a Dead Sage https://forward.com/news/361035/jared-kushner-and-the-white-haired-mystic-whose-dad-got-a-ride-from-a-dead/ Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's choice of neighborhood narrows the focus on Chabad https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/01/05/ivanka-trump-and-jared-kushners-choice-of-neighborhood-narrows-the-focus-on-chabad/ Jared Kushner' at Tisha B'Av Services in Washington DC's Chabad Synagogue http://jewishbreakingnews.com/2017/07/31/photo-jared-kushner-tisha-bav-services-washington-dc-chabad-synagogue/ Presidential daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump on Friday participated in Lulav Benching (shaking the four species) at the White House, along with some 30 White House officials and staff, in an event organized by Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Executive Vice President of American Friend of Lubavitch (Chabad) https://www.jewishpress.com/tag/jared-kushner/ Categories of Kabbalah The practical Kabbalah was a kind of white magic, dealing with the use of techniques that could evoke supernatural powers. It involved the use of divine names and incantations, amulets and talismans, as well as chiromancy, physiognomy and astrology. https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380405/jewish/Three-Categories-of-Kabbalah.htm Qabalah and Thelema (Alleister Crowley)Put simply, Qabalah is a sine qua non in the practice of Thelemic magick. Aleister Crowley summarized the importance of Qabalah in "The Temple of Solomon" http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/Qabalah Chabad Center Kabbalah Month https://www.chabader.com/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/356582/jewish/Kabbalah-Month.htm Chabad Center Kabbalah, & Mysticism https://www.chabadwi.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/462469/jewish/Kabbalah-and-Mysticism.htm Chabad Teaches Kabbalah https://www.sunnychabad.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/453858/jewish/Kabbalah.htm Kabbalah (Cabala, Kabala, Qabalah) The mysticism of classical Judaism, and part of the foundation of the Western magical tradition. Kabbalah is derived from the Hebrew word QBL (Qibel), meaning "to receive" or "that which is received." It refers especially to a secret oral tradition handed down from teacher to pupil. http://occult-world.com/magic/kabbalah/ The Platonists and Pythagoreans were also strongly attracted to a form of divination which is similar to certain aspects of the Jewish Kabbalah. https://witchesofthecraft.com/tag/kabbalah/     Odd Man Out Patreon https://www.patreon.com/theoddmanout       Patreon-Welcome to The Society Of Cryptic Savants https://www.bitchute.com/video/C4PQuq0udPvJ/     All Odd Man Out Links https://linktr.ee/Theoddmanout
   

“Their Order Is Not Our Order!



“Roe v. Wade has no foundation in either law or logic; it is on a collision course with itself.”  Edward Lazarus, a former law clerk to Roe's author, Justice Harry Blackmun, who writes: As a matter of constitutional interpretation and judicial method, Roe borders on the indefensible. I say this as someone utterly committed to the right to choose, as someone who believes such a right has grounding elsewhere in the Constitution instead of where Roe placed it, and as someone who loved Roe's author like a grandfather. . . . . What, exactly, is the problem with Roe? The problem, I believe, is that it has little connection to the Constitutional right it purportedly interpreted. A constitutional right to privacy broad enough to include abortion has no meaningful foundation in constitutional text, history, or precedent. ... The proof of Roe's failings comes not from the writings of those unsympathetic to women's rights, but from the decision itself and the friends who have tried to sustain it. Justice Blackmun's opinion provides essentially no reasoning in support of its holding. And in the almost 30 years since Roe's announcement, no one has produced a convincing defense of Roe on its own terms.7 Ten Legal Reasons to Condemn Roe v. Wade 1.    The umpires are there to call balls and strikes. In real baseball they cannot be players as well.   The Roe Court far exceeded its constitutionally designated legal purpose and authority.  Under the U.S. Constitution, the power to make laws is vested in Congress and retained by state legislatures. Elected representatives are the proper ‘makers of law.’ These elected officials then answer to the voters. The role of the judiciary in constitutional review is to determine if the law being challenged infringes on a constitutionally protected right. It is not the role to then somehow come up with new laws of their own tastes and inclination. Justice O'Connor, quoting Chief Justice Warren Burger: Irrespective of what we may believe is wise or prudent policy in this difficult area, "the Constitution does not constitute us as 'Platonic Guardians' nor does it vest in this Court the authority to strike down laws because they do not meet our standards of desirable social policy, 'wisdom,' or 'common sense.'"8 In Roe v. Wade and its companion, conjoined case, Doe v. Bolton, the Court struck down criminal laws of Texas and Georgia which outlawed certain abortions by finding that these laws (and those of the other 48 states) violated a "right of privacy" that "is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." But such a right is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution nor even derivable from values embodied in it. It was a preference to have such a right and Justice Blackmun’s writings actually set themselves to devise the ‘rules’ that would then ‘emanate’ from such a preferred right. He simply made up new, substitutionary laws and imposed them on all the states!  In his dissenting opinion in Doe v. Bolton, Justice Byron White, joined by Justice William Rehnquist, wrote: I find nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the Court's judgment. The Court simply fashions and announces a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers ... and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its action, invests that right with sufficient substance to override most existing state abortion statutes. The upshot is that the people and the legislatures of the 50 states are constitutionally disentitled to weigh the relative importance of the continued existence and development of the fetus, on the one hand, against a spectrum of possible impacts on the mother, on the other hand. As an exercise of raw judicial power, the Court perhaps has authority to do what it does today; but, in my view, its judgment is an improvident and extravagant exercise of the power of judicial review that the Constitution extends to this Court. 2. The Roe Decision seriously misrepresents the history of medicine and society’s view of abortion. Justice Blackmun admitted to a serious fascination with the medical profession. Later in Doe v. Bolton we will see an almost passionate commitment to ‘protect the physician from the cloud of possible prosecution.’ The Mayo Clinic, for whom he served as legal counsel, admits to Blackmun’s unique obsession with the medical profession.  Proceedings of the Mayo Clinic Francis Helminski, J.D. Volume 69, Issue 7, p 698-699, July 01, 1994 Although three previous justices of the United States Supreme Court have had formal medical training, none has had more influence on medicine than Justice Harry A. Blackmun. Blackmun, a mathematics major at Harvard College, considered medical school but instead chose legal training. After becoming familiar with the legal work of the Mayo Clinic while practicing with a Minneapolis firm, he was internal legal counsel for the clinic from 1950 to 1959. Blackmun's work contributed to the development of the clinic, especially in the establishment of Rochester Methodist Hospital. As a Supreme Court Justice, Blackmun's concern for medicine was evident in many of his judicial opinions, including Roe v Wade and Regents of the University of California v Bakke. In Roe, he rested much of the constitutional foundation for legalized access to abortion on the integrity of the physician-patient relationship. The apparent purpose of the Roe opinion's long historical excursion is to create the impression that abortion had been widely practiced and unpunished until the appearance of restrictive laws in the prudishly-Victorian 19th Century. One example is adequate to show the distortion of Justice Harry Blackmun's version of history. He must overcome a huge hurdle in the person of Hippocrates, the "Father of Medicine," and his famous Oath which has guided medical ethics for over 2,000 years. The Oath provides in part: "I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion."9 This enduring standard was followed until the Roe era and is reflected in Declarations of the World Medical Association through 1968: "I will maintain the utmost respect for human life, from the time of conception. ..."10 But Justice Blackmun dismisses this universal, unbroken ethical tradition as nothing more than the manifesto of a fringe Greek sect, the Pythagoreans, to which Hippocrates is alleged to have belonged! 3. Roe wrongly characterizes the common law of England regarding the status of abortion. The Court's language in Roe offers a plastic analysis and conclusion – "it now appears doubtful that abortion was ever firmly established as a common-law crime even with respect to the destruction of a quick fetus" – is patently false on its face. The Common Law drew its principles from Natural Law. Until quickening there were no objective signs that a human life was present. Quickening, the moment that movement can be detected, was considered objective scientific fact that the fetus was indeed definitively alive.11 William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-1769), an exhaustive and definitive discussion of English common law as it was adopted by the United States shows that the lives of unborn children were valued and protected, even if their beginning point was still thought to be "quickening" rather than conception: Life is the immediate gift of God, a right inherent by nature in every individual; and it begins in contemplation of law as soon as the infant is able to stir in the mother's womb.    For if a woman is quick with child, and by a potion, or otherwise, killeth it in her womb ... this, though not murder, was by the ancient law homicide or manslaughter. But at present it is not looked upon in quite so atrocious a light, though it remains a very heinous misdemeanor.12 Until well into the 19th century, it was assumed that a child's life may not begin – and certainly could not be proven to have begun to satisfy criminal evidentiary standards – prior to the time the child’s movements were felt by the mother ("quickening"), at approximately 16-18 weeks' gestation. The science of the time was being applied to the enforcement of the law. After the invention of the modern microscope (1836) and the widespread, objective scientific revelation that mammalian life begins at conception, English law then increased the penalties for killing a child before quickening. Consistent with the principle that the law needs to follow objective, observable facts, in 1861 Parliament passed the Offences Against the Person Act. This law extended protection of the life of the child throughout pregnancy. This law was gradually whittled-away starting in the 1980’s. But the Act continued to protect pre-born life in Northern Ireland until 2019.20 The Roe Court looks at the distinction in early common law concerning abortions attempted before or after "quickening," wrongly. It falsely assumes that the law allowed women great latitude to abort their children in the early months of pregnancy. This is like saying people had an unspecified right to hack websites before such acts were criminally prosecuted. The law is designed to enforce known and demonstrable crimes. A law could not protect a human being it did not know to be alive. But as demonstrated by the Offences Against the Person Act, when the facts are known, then the law can be enforced. 4. In Roe, the Court downplays and distorts the purpose and legal weight of state criminal abortion statutes that had been deliberated and passed by the several states In the 19th Century, in virtually every state and territory, laws were enacted to define abortion as a crime throughout pregnancy. They contained only narrow exceptions, generally permitting abortion only if necessary to preserve the mother's life. The primary reason for stricter abortion laws, according to their legislative history, was to afford greater protection to unborn children. This reflected a heightened appreciation of prenatal life based on new medical knowledge. (See the Offenses Against the Person Act in the U.K.) Dr. Horatio R. Storer… etc is significant that the medical profession spearheaded efforts to afford greater protection to unborn lives than had been recognized under the common law's archaic "quickening" distinction. The existence of such laws, and their clear purpose of protecting the unborn, rebuts the Court's claim that abortion has always been considered a liberty enjoyed by women. These laws show broad acceptance of the view that the life of an unborn child is valuable and should be protected unless the mother's life is at risk. In that case, of course, both mother and child were likely to perish, given the primitive care then available for infants born prematurely. How does the Court get around the impressive body of laws giving clear effect to the state's interest in protecting unborn lives? It attempts to devalue them by ascribing a completely different purpose: the desire to protect the mother's life and health from a risky surgical procedure. Applying the maxim "if the reason for a law has ceased to exist, the law no longer serves any purpose," the Court declares that abortion is now "safer than childbirth." Therefore, laws banning abortion have outlived their purpose.   5. A privacy right to decide to have an abortion has no foundation in the text or history of the Constitution. Roe v. Wade locates a pregnant woman's "constitutional" right of privacy to decide whether or not to abort her child either "in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty ..., as we feel it is, or ... in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people." The Court does not even make a pretense of examining the intent of the drafters of the Fourteenth Amendment, to determine if it was meant to protect a privacy interest in abortion. Clearly it was not. The Fourteenth Amendment was not intended to create any new rights, but to secure to all persons, notably including freed slaves and their descendants, the rights and liberties already guaranteed by the Constitution. Several rhetorical devices are used to mask this absence of constitutional grounding. The Court mentions several specifically enumerated rights which concern an aspect of privacy, for example, the Fourth Amendment's "right of the people to be secure in their houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." However, the Court fails to connect these to the newly found "right" to abortion, because no logical connection exists. Justice Blackmun attempts to graft abortion onto the line of decisions recognizing privacy/liberty rights in the following spheres: marriage (Loving v. Virginia, striking down a ban on interracial marriage); childrearing (Meyer v. Nebraska and Pierce v. Society of Sisters, upholding parental decision-making regarding their children's education); procreation (Skinner v. Oklahoma, finding unconstitutional a state law mandating sterilization of inmates found guilty of certain crimes); and contraceptive use by a married couple (Griswold v. Connecticut). Certainly marriage, and building and raising a family are fundamental aspects of human life that predate human laws and nations. They are implicit in the concept of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, though even these rights are subject to state limitation, such as laws against bigamy, incest, and child abuse and neglect. But abortion does not fit neatly among these spheres of privacy. It negates them. Abortion is not akin to childrearing; it is child destruction. A pregnant woman's right to abort nullifies the right to procreate upheld in "Skinner." He no longer has a right to bring children into the world, but only a right to fertilize an ovum, which his mate can then destroy without his knowledge or consent. The fear of government intruding into the marital bedroom by searching for evidence of contraceptive use drove the Griswold Court to find a privacy right for couples to use contraception in the "penumbras, formed by emanations from" various guarantees in the Bill of Rights. But, however closely abortion and contraception may be linked in purpose and effect, they are worlds apart in terms of privacy. Abortions do not take place in the sacred precincts of marital bedrooms, preventing them does not require investigation of private sexual behavior, and they involve personnel other than the spouses. A "privacy right" large enough to encompass abortion could also be applied to virtually any conduct performed outside the public view, including child abuse, possession of pornography or using illicit drugs. The liberty interest to be protected from state regulation is never really defined in Roe. Instead the Court describes at some length the hardships some women face, not from pregnancy, but from raising children: Maternity, or additional offspring, may force upon the woman a distressful life and future. Psychological harm may be imminent. Mental and physical health may be taxed by childcare. There is also the distress, for all concerned, associated with the unwanted child, and there is the problem of bringing a child into a family already unable, psychologically and otherwise, to care for it. By this reasoning, one might argue that Roe's liberty encompasses ridding oneself of unwanted toddlers! Ordinarily, the defense of rights requires us to forgo lethal methods and use means likely to create the least harm to others. We may not, for example, surround our house and yard with a high voltage fence to deter trespassers. This principle is upended in the abortion context. Adoption, for example, would effectively eliminate all the "hardships" of raising "unwanted" children by non-lethal means. 6. Although it reads the 14th Amendment extremely expansively to include a right of privacy to decide whether to abort a child, the Court in Roe adopts a very narrow construction of the meaning of "persons" to exclude unborn children. Much is made of the fact that "person" as used elsewhere in the Constitution does not refer to unborn children when, for example, discussing qualifications for public office or census-taking. That point proves nothing. The Supreme Court has held that corporations are "persons" within the meaning of the 14th Amendment and they are not counted in the census, nor can a corporation grow up to be president. The Roe Court also ignored the clear and uncontested biological evidence before them that individual human lives begin at conception: "We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins." This is question determined by science, not philosophers or theologians or politicians. But while seeming to sidestep the question, the Court in fact resolved the question at birth, by allowing abortion to be legal throughout pregnancy. In the same vein, the Court refers to the unborn child as only a "potential life" (indeed, an actual life) from the moment of his or her conception. The Roe opinion states that a contrary finding on "personhood" would produce the opposite result (presumably foreclosing the mother's privacy right to an abortion). One does not have to be a "person" in the full constitutional sense, however, for a state to validly protect one's life. Dogs can be protected from killing although they are not "persons."13 And under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), people are prosecuted, fined and jailed for acts that may harm creatures, such as sea turtles, that are not "persons" in the full constitutional sense. Sea turtles are protected not only after they are hatched, but even while in the egg. In fact, each sea turtle egg removed from its nest constitutes a separate violation under the ESA, regardless of whether the sea turtle egg contained an embryo that was alive or "quick" or "viable" or even already deceased at the time of the taking.   7. The Roe Court assumed the role of a legislature in establishing the trimester framework. Roe holds that in the first trimester of pregnancy, the mother's "privacy interest" in an abortion trumps state regulation. From the end of the first trimester to the child's "viability" – which the Court presumed to be no earlier than 26 weeks – the state can regulate abortion practice only in ways reasonably related to advancing the mother's health. In the final trimester, the state – in the interest of protecting the "potential life" of the child – can regulate and even proscribe abortion, except where necessary to preserve the mother's "life or health." Health (see point 8 below) is the exception that swallows the rule. Pre-decision memoranda among members of the Roe Court acknowledged the serious flaw in establishing arbitrary, rigid time frames. Justice Blackmun himself admitted it was arbitrary.14 A reply memorandum from Justice Potter Stewart stated: One of my concerns with your opinion as presently written is ... in its fixing of the end of the first trimester as the critical point for valid state action. ... I wonder about the desirability of the dicta being quite so inflexibly "legislative." My present inclination would be to allow the States more latitude to make policy judgments. ..."15 Geoffrey R. Stone, a law clerk to Justice Brennan when Roe was decided, was recently quoted as saying: "Everyone in the Supreme Court, all the justices, all the law clerks knew it was 'legislative' or 'arbitrary.'"16 Justices O'Connor, White and Rehnquist denounced the arbitrary trimester framework in O'Connor's dissenting opinion in Akron: [There] is no justification in law or logic for the trimester framework adopted in Roe and employed by the Court today. ... [That] framework is clearly an unworkable means of balancing the fundamental right and the compelling state interests that are indisputably implicated. The majority opinion of Justice Rehnquist in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services states: The key elements of the Roe framework – trimesters and viability – are not found in the text of the Constitution or in any place else one would expect to find a constitutional principle. ... the result has been a web of legal rules that have become increasingly intricate, resembling a code of regulations rather than a body of constitutional doctrine. As Justice White has put it, the trimester framework has left this Court to serve as the country's "ex officio medical board with powers to approve or disapprove medical and operative practices and standards throughout the United States."   8. What Roe gives, Doe takes away. Many Americans believe that abortion is legal only in the first trimester (or first and second trimester). Many pollsters and media outlets continue to characterize Roe v. Wade as the case which "legalized abortions in the first three months after conception."17 In a recent television appearance, NOW's former president Patricia Ireland falsely claimed that "thirty-six states outlaw abortion in the third trimester." As noted above, under Roe state laws banning late-term abortions must contain a "health" exception. Health is defined in Roe's companion case, Doe v. Bolton, as including "all factors — physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age — relevant to the wellbeing of the patient. All these factors may relate to health." This definition negates the state's interest in protecting the child, and results in abortion on request throughout all nine months of pregnancy. The fact that the Court buries its improbably broad definition of health in the largely unread opinion in Doe v. Bolton makes it no less devastating.   9. The Court describes the right to abortion as "fundamental." The Supreme Court has found certain rights fundamental. Expressed or implied in the Constitution, they are considered "deeply rooted in the history and traditions" of the American people or "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty," such as the free exercise of religion, the right to marry, the right to a fair trial and equal protection. A state law infringing on a fundamental right is reviewed under a rigorous "strict scrutiny" standard. In effect, there is a presumption against constitutionality. The Roe Court claims abortion is fundamental on the ground that it is lurking in the penumbras and emanations of the Bill of Rights or the 14th Amendment, along with privacy rights like contraceptive use. It's ludicrous to claim abortion is deeply rooted in American history or traditions or that our governmental system of "ordered liberty" implicitly demands the rights to destroy one's child, but it was an effective way to foreclose state regulations of abortion. The strict scrutiny test was later abandoned in Casey.   10. Despite the rigid specificity of the trimester framework, the opinion gives little guidance to states concerning the permissible scope of abortion regulation Abortion decisions that followed Roe chronologically have not followed Roe jurisprudentially. Many decisions have five separate opinions filed, often with no more than three justices concurring on most points. Eight separate opinions were filed in Stenberg v. Carhart (which effectively nullified laws in over two dozen states banning partial-birth abortion). The 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey could have resulted in Roe's reversal. The Casey Joint Opinion (there being no majority opinion) comes close to conceding that Roe was wrongly decided: We do not need to say whether each of us, had we been Members of the Court when the valuation of the state interest came before it as an original matter, would have concluded, as the Roe Court did, that its weight is insufficient to justify a ban on abortions prior to viability even when it is subject to certain exceptions. The matter is not before us in the first instance, and, coming as it does after nearly 20 years of litigation in Roe's wake we are satisfied that the immediate question is not the soundness of Roe's resolution of the issue, but the precedential force that must be accorded to its holding. Instead they jettisoned Roe's trimester framework and standard of legislative review, but kept Roe alive: Chief Justice Rehnquist's dissent in Casey, in which he is joined in part by Justices White, Scalia and Thomas states: Roe decided that a woman had a fundamental right to an abortion. The joint opinion rejects that view. Roe decided that abortion regulations were to be subjected to "strict scrutiny," and could be justified only in the light of "compelling state interests." The joint opinion rejects that view. ... Roe analyzed abortion regulation under a rigid trimester framework, a framework that has guided this Court's decision-making for 19 years. The joint opinion rejects that framework. ... Whatever the "central holding" of Roe that is left after the joint opinion finishe[d] ... Roe continues to exist, but only in the way a storefront on a western movie set exists: a mere facade to give the illusion of reality. And later in that dissent: Roe v. Wade stands as a sort of judicial Potemkin village, which may be pointed out to passers-by as a monument to the importance of adhering to precedent. But behind the façade, an entirely new method of analysis, without any roots in constitutional law, is imported to decide the constitutionality of state laws regulating abortion. Neither stare decisis nor "legitimacy" are truly served by such an effort. Roe makes no legal sense whatsoever. It is Doe v. Bolton, handed down the same day, and 'interlocked' by Justice Blackmun, it is Doe that explicitly authorizes medical killing, "without the shadow of possible prosecution."

The Pythagoreans believed that the number 10 was sacred and perfect; that it symbolized God or Unity or Completeness. It turns out that the number ten, also roughly corresponds to the number of seconds it takes to breathe the "perfect" breath. What is the perfect breath? It is the breath that is universally arrived at by any careful student of spiritual or physical health. For example, people reciting a Buddhist mantra, the Latin version of the rosary, and the Catholic prayer cycle of the Ave Maria all breathe between five and six breaths per minute during their prayer or mantra or meditation. And the body loves this length: researchers in one of these experiments connected sensors to measure the subject’s blood flow, heart rate, and nervous system activity. Whenever the chanters followed this slow breathing pattern and were in this zone of about 5.5 breaths per minute, blood flow to the brain increased and the functions of heart, circulation, and nervous system reached a state of peak efficiency and harmony. In other words, the systems in the body entered a state of coherence right around this number of about five and half second inhales and five and a half second exhales, which also works out to be about five and a half breaths per minute. This same phenomenon has been observed across cultures and time periods. Whether it is Buddhist monks chanting their popular mantra, "Om Mani Padme Hum", Jainist chants, the Kundalini chant of "Sa ta na ma", each of these takes five or six seconds to vocalize, followed by a five to six second inhale. In the Hindu tradition, "khechari" hand and tongue mudras which are purported to help bolster physical health and promote spiritual development, the practitioner places their tongue and hands in specified positions and take deep, you guessed it, slow and even breaths which each take between 5.5 and 6 seconds. This phenomenon has been observed as well in Hawaiian, Native American, Japanese, African, and Taoist cultures. They all arrived at the roughly the same techniques, each requiring the same breathing patterns. So let's practice it together!Pro tips: 1) Breathe in and out through your nose the whole time; 2) Move your belly and grow your torso in three dimensions with each breath. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Pythagoreans believed that the number 10 was sacred and perfect; that it symbolized God or Unity or Completeness. It turns out that the number ten, also roughly corresponds to the number of seconds it takes to breathe the "perfect" breath. What is the perfect breath? It is the breath that is universally arrived at by any careful student of spiritual or physical health. For example, people reciting a Buddhist mantra, the Latin version of the rosary, and the Catholic prayer cycle of the Ave Maria all breathe between five and six breaths per minute during their prayer or mantra or meditation. And the body loves this length: researchers in one of these experiments connected sensors to measure the subject’s blood flow, heart rate, and nervous system activity. Whenever the chanters followed this slow breathing pattern and were in this zone of about 5.5 breaths per minute, blood flow to the brain increased and the functions of heart, circulation, and nervous system reached a state of peak efficiency and harmony. In other words, the systems in the body entered a state of coherence right around this number of about five and half second inhales and five and a half second exhales, which also works out to be about five and a half breaths per minute. This same phenomenon has been observed across cultures and time periods. Whether it is Buddhist monks chanting their popular mantra, "Om Mani Padme Hum", Jainist chants, the Kundalini chant of "Sa ta na ma", each of these takes five or six seconds to vocalize, followed by a five to six second inhale. In the Hindu tradition, "khechari" hand and tongue mudras which are purported to help bolster physical health and promote spiritual development, the practitioner places their tongue and hands in specified positions and take deep, you guessed it, slow and even breaths which each take between 5.5 and 6 seconds. This phenomenon has been observed as well in Hawaiian, Native American, Japanese, African, and Taoist cultures. They all arrived at the roughly the same techniques, each requiring the same breathing patterns. So let's practice it together!Pro tips: 1) Breathe in and out through your nose the whole time; 2) Move your belly and grow your torso in three dimensions with each breath. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Pythagoreans believed that the number 10 was sacred and perfect; that it symbolized God or Unity or Completeness. It turns out that the number ten, also roughly corresponds to the number of seconds it takes to breathe the "perfect" breath. What is the perfect breath? It is the breath that is universally arrived at by any careful student of spiritual or physical health. For example, people reciting a Buddhist mantra, the Latin version of the rosary, and the Catholic prayer cycle of the Ave Maria all breathe between five and six breaths per minute during their prayer or mantra or meditation. And the body loves this length: researchers in one of these experiments connected sensors to measure the subject’s blood flow, heart rate, and nervous system activity. Whenever the chanters followed this slow breathing pattern and were in this zone of about 5.5 breaths per minute, blood flow to the brain increased and the functions of heart, circulation, and nervous system reached a state of peak efficiency and harmony. In other words, the systems in the body entered a state of coherence right around this number of about five and half second inhales and five and a half second exhales, which also works out to be about five and a half breaths per minute. This same phenomenon has been observed across cultures and time periods. Whether it is Buddhist monks chanting their popular mantra, "Om Mani Padme Hum", Jainist chants, the Kundalini chant of "Sa ta na ma", each of these takes five or six seconds to vocalize, followed by a five to six second inhale. In the Hindu tradition, "khechari" hand and tongue mudras which are purported to help bolster physical health and promote spiritual development, the practitioner places their tongue and hands in specified positions and take deep, you guessed it, slow and even breaths which each take between 5.5 and six seconds. This phenomenon has been observed as well in Hawaiian, Native American, Japanese, African, and Taoist cultures. They all arrived at the roughly the same techniques, each requiring the same breathing patterns. So let's practice it together!Pro tips: 1) Breathe in and out through your nose the whole time; 2) Move your belly and grow your torso in three dimensions with each breath. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Pythagoreans believed that the number 10 was sacred and perfect; that it symbolized God or Unity or Completeness. It turns out that the number ten, also roughly corresponds to the number of seconds it takes to breathe the "perfect" breath. What is the perfect breath? It is the breath that is universally arrived at by any careful student of spiritual or physical health. For example, people reciting a Buddhist mantra, the Latin version of the rosary, and the Catholic prayer cycle of the Ave Maria all breathe between five and six breaths per minute during their prayer or mantra or meditation. And the body loves this length: researchers in one of these experiments connected sensors to measure the subject’s blood flow, heart rate, and nervous system activity. Whenever the chanters followed this slow breathing pattern and were in this zone of about 5.5 breaths per minute, blood flow to the brain increased and the functions of heart, circulation, and nervous system reached a state of peak efficiency and harmony. In other words, the systems in the body entered a state of coherence right around this number of about five and half second inhales and five and a half second exhales, which also works out to be about five and a half breaths per minute. This same phenomenon has been observed across cultures and time periods. Whether it is Buddhist monks chanting their popular mantra, "Om Mani Padme Hum", Jainist chants, the Kundalini chant of "Sa ta na ma", each of these takes five or six seconds to vocalize, followed by a five to six second inhale. In the Hindu tradition, "khechari" hand and tongue mudras which are purported to help bolster physical health and promote spiritual development, the practitioner places their tongue and hands in specified positions and take deep, you guessed it, slow and even breaths which each take between 5.5 and six seconds. This phenomenon has been observed as well in Hawaiian, Native American, Japanese, African, and Taoist cultures. They all arrived at the roughly the same techniques, each requiring the same breathing patterns. So let's practice it together!Pro tips: 1) Breathe in and out through your nose the whole time; 2) Move your belly and grow your torso in three dimensions with each breath. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Pythagoreans believed that the number 10 was sacred and perfect; that it symbolized God or Unity or Completeness. It turns out that the number ten, also roughly corresponds to the number of seconds it takes to breathe the "perfect" breath. What is the perfect breath? It is the breath that is universally arrived at by any careful student of spiritual or physical health. For example, people reciting a Buddhist mantra, the Latin version of the rosary, and the Catholic prayer cycle of the Ave Maria all breathe between five and six breaths per minute during their prayer or mantra or meditation. And the body loves this length: researchers in one of these experiments connected sensors to measure the subject’s blood flow, heart rate, and nervous system activity. Whenever the chanters followed this slow breathing pattern and were in this zone of about 5.5 breaths per minute, blood flow to the brain increased and the functions of heart, circulation, and nervous system reached a state of peak efficiency and harmony. In other words, the systems in the body entered a state of coherence right around this number of about five and half second inhales and five and a half second exhales, which also works out to be about five and a half breaths per minute. This same phenomenon has been observed across cultures and time periods. Whether it is Buddhist monks chanting their popular mantra, "Om Mani Padme Hum", Jainist chants, the Kundalini chant of "Sa ta na ma", each of these takes five or six seconds to vocalize, followed by a five to six second inhale. In the Hindu tradition, "khechari" hand and tongue mudras which are purported to help bolster physical health and promote spiritual development, the practitioner places their tongue and hands in specified positions and take deep, you guessed it, slow and even breaths which each take between 5.5 and six seconds. This phenomenon has been observed as well in Hawaiian, Native American, Japanese, African, and Taoist cultures. They all arrived at the roughly the same techniques, each requiring the same breathing patterns. So let's practice it together!Pro tips: 1) Breathe in and out through your nose the whole time; 2) Move your belly and grow your torso in three dimensions with each breath. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hello, and welcome to Lechem Panim. We're glad you are here today. In our study of the second chapter of the book of Acts, we have been taking a look at some of the fundamental practices of the early Church that began to take place in the wake of the Holy Spirit's coming. Devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship were the first two. And the temple was still very much the central place they would go together to to receive that teaching. But then we come to the next one: the breaking of bread together. Breaking Bread— And this third fundament practice of the early Church continues to show the depth of their unity. And there is actually a lot of debate about whether this was a common meal they shared together or actually the Lord's Supper. In Luke's Gospel, [The {Greek} word…κλαω is used of breaking bread at the ordinary meal (Lu 24:30 ) or the Lord's Supper (Lu 22:19 ). {But} It is generally supposed that the early disciples attached so much significance to the breaking of bread at the ordinary meals, more than our saying grace, that they followed the meal with the Lord's Supper at first, a combination called αγαπα or love-feasts.] And I just think what a great concept, by the way; love-feasts. The fellowship of Jesus Christ is characterized by feasting together on a shared receiving of the love of Christ pictured by the body and blood of Christ! I LOVE THAT!!!! But it's more than just the Lord's Supper. To say it is just about taking communion together [is to…mar the picture of family life, which the text places before us as the ideal of the early believers”.] These early believers really saw themselves as family. They were regularly eating and fellowshipping together. Forgiveness— Now there is something else I would like to add to this. In Jewish culture, to break bread with somebody was a very intimate thing. Keep in mind that you always laid down at table, with your head at the chest of whoever was sitting next to you. So you are very close, intimate and personal. And so you would only eat with people that you were one good terms with. Now keep in mind that Jesus intentionally ate with tax collectors and sinners; something that no self-respecting Jew (and especially a Rabbi) would do. Because to do that was a way of saying that they are part of your crowd; they are your friends; there is a special relationship you have with them, which is why the Jewish leaders reacted so strongly to Jesus' eating and associating with people like that. But they were the very people that Jesus most wanted to reach; and so He breaks bread and eats with them. Now there is something else you need to know about Jewish custom in that time. If you had a fallout with someone and the relationship was broken and needed to be mended, you could verbally try to fix the situation. But in Jewish culture the forgiveness process was never considered complete until you actually shared a meal with that person. That was the outward sign that forgiveness had taken place. Zacchaeus' Reconciliation— This is part of what makes the story of Zacchaeus such a radical thing. Because remember that Zacchaeus was a wicked, cheating tax collector; and yet Jesus invited Himself to Zacchaeus' home, which meant that he was going to break bread with Zacchaeus? Do you begin to see now what Jesus was visually communicating to everybody and why Zacchaeus was probably bawling his eyes out in joy. Because Jesus was saying (with a picture) that forgiveness had taken place. Now how did the people react? They went crazy! ARE YOU KIDDING US JESUS?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? And yet Jesus says in… Luke 19:9-10 (NIV)— 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house {which by the way implied that God had forgiven Zacchaeus his sin}, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Zacchaeus Excited— Can you begin to understand why Zacchaeus reacted to this meal the way that he did? He knew what it meant for him personally and spiritually. Now I say all of this because here (and throughout the book of Acts) you have people from all over the empire (from different walks of life; different social statuses; different races; different political alignments; democrats; republicans; men, women, boys, and girls; barbarians, scythians, slaves, and free) who are all breaking bread together. What does that tell you? Forgiveness and healing has been made between them all at the deepest possible level. And where does this take place? AT THE VERY TABLE OF CHRIST JESUS. Coming To The Table— Now I don't know how much that impacts you. But let me tell you, THAT is the key to healing culture. Social reform? We need it. Fighting for a good government? That is our responsibility (especially in the United States where we have a say in who comes into office). But let me tell you, our differences are never going to be reconciled and true healing is never going to happen until we are willing to come together to the very table of Jesus Christ. Christ and Christ alone is the starting point of true forgiveness and healing; because He offers reconciliation with God Himself out of which comes the overflow of healing in all our earthly relationships as well.  Prayer— Now the fourth practice is one of the biggest things that brings us into unity with one another. And sadly it is something that we often neglect. And that is [Prayer. Prayer was a constant practice in the early church (1:14; 3:1; 4:23-31; 6:4; 10:4, 31; 12:5; 16:13,16). The apostles prayed for those they ministered to.… But prayer was not only in response to crises and needs. Because of the references to worship, we can assume that prayers of praise were a significant part of the community life of the early church.] The air of prayer was the lifeblood of the Church. And these [prayers {were made both} in house meetings and likely also in the temple (vv. 42, 46).] So all these Christians are eating together, worshiping together, and praying together. And it's interesting; anywhere in life you find lack of prayer, you will always find tension. From Hate to Love through Prayer— A number of years ago my wife and I went to Dublin, GA for our former denomination's annual conference. And after one of the evening services we headed for the fellowship hall. And there we had the privilege of talking with a couple (the Pastor and his wife of a local Church there in Dublin). And they were obviously deeply in love with one another. And during our conversation with them they told us that they were celebrating their anniversary. They had been married for over 30 years. And I asked them what their secret was; because it seemed to me that they had the perfect relationship. But then his face grew very serious. And he confessed that during their first years of marriage; there was actually a lot of tension. And it actually led them to hate one another. That's the word he used. But then he said everything changed when his wife was led by God to begin praying for him more. And she said that as she did, not only did God bring about change in his life, but God began revealing her own faults as well. And then he began praying fervently for her. And their marriage grew to becoming totally and completely healed. And now they experience true unity and true love in their marriage. The Secret To Unity— What is the secret to unity in the Body of Christ? Prayer with one another and for one another. And that ought to lead us to ask ourselves, “Are we lifting one another up before the throne of grace on a regular basis? Are we interceding before God on behalf of one another?” If we want to be a Spirit-filled Church, we have to pray. Prayer always precedes healing and transformation. Just look at what it produced in… Acts 2:43-45 (ESV)— 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. “I Have A Dollar— Once there was a Junior Sunday School Teacher who was teaching her kids. And [The Junior Sunday School Teacher asked her eight eager 10 year-olds if they would give a $1,000,000 to the missionaries. “Yes!” they all screamed! “Would you give $1,000?” Again, they shouted “YES!” How about $100?” “Oh, yes we would!” they all agreed! “Would you just give a dollar to the missionaries?” she asked. The boys exclaimed, “Yes!” just as before, except for Johnny. “Johnny,” the teacher said as she noticed the boy clutching his pocket, “Why didn't you say ‘yes' this time?” “Well,” the boy stammered, “I have a dollar!”] How great is our attachment to those things we have? Generosity and Service— The fifth practice of the Early Church that we see here is: [Generosity and Service. The sharing of personal belongings and financial resources among members of the early church was impressive. {And} This generosity was not dictated. There was no obligation to pool their resources, as in modern Communism, or to unselfishly serve each other or reach out to strangers. Rather, it was voluntarily done for the sake of those in need (see the example of Barnabas in 4:36, 37, and later the Macedonians in 2 Cor. 8:1-4).] By the way, you can tell a lot about the level of someone's salvation by observing their relationship with their stuff. What comes first? People and the fulfilling of the ministry and mission of Jesus? Or their stuff? A Release of Possessions— You know, some ancient groups (like the Pythagoreans) rejected having private property altogether. But Christianity (interestingly) never went there. It was okay to have your personal property and possessions. Rather [the early Christians {(when it was necessary)} sold property whenever anyone had need (4:34–35 ); they valued people more than property without rejecting private property altogether.] This was incredibly rare during that time; and what made it even more rare was that it wasn't something done just by a small group of radicals, but was something that was characteristic of all the followers of Christ. And what this shows us is that when we walk in the Spirit, we cease to see our possessions and our money as our own; it's God's. And when we see our possessions like that, we allow God access to them in order to do with them what He wills. The question is, “Is all that we have accessible to God to meet the needs of another person?” If not, they need to be. Joy Overflowing as Evangelism— Now the sixth practice we see is [Joy Overflowing as Evangelism. Whether corporately in the temple or within each other's homes, the believers lived “with one accord” and “with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (2:46, 47). {And what I want you to note here is that} Evangelism wasn't a program in the Jerusalem church; it was a way of life. The believers' lives and behaviors created such favor with the population of Jerusalem that people were drawn to the Lord.] And that is why [In our churches today, we should examine our mission {and practice in order} to ensure these basic tenets are being fully lived out before {anything else}. Whenever a group of believers return to their foundation {(as lived out in these foundational, life-giving practices)}, they find the strongest connection to the heart of Christ. And seeing His heart on display will draw others to Him.] “Day By Day”— Now I want you to notice three final words given to us here that ought to re-shape how you and I think about Church. It says in verse 46 that they were doing these things together day by day. Not once a week, but daily. The Secret Service— Once there was a church service that took place; and [At the end of the service the minister was standing at the door of the church shaking hands. He grabbed a man by the hand and pulled him aside and asked him, “Are you a soldier in the Army of the Lord?” The man replied, “Why, yes I am.” The minister then asked, “Then why do we only see you at Christmas and Easter?” The man quickly whispered, “I'm in the Secret Service.”] Now we laugh at that, but what we need to ask ourselves is “Are we true Koinonia Christians or are we Secret Service Christians?” Are we fighting to make our faith, our Church, and our abiding in fellowship with one another a DAILY reality? Because what we see here in this [daily sharing…is {so} unusual in antiquity and most resembles how people treated members of their own family.] But you know that is exactly how we are supposed to think of the Body of Christ; we ARE TRULY the FAMILY OF GOD! And so Christ's challenge to us today is for us to live our faith together in community in a real and powerful way. Let us be a Church made of people who have allowed themselves to be filled with the presence of God; a Church that shares together; a Church that prays for one another; a Church that seeks to be united towards that single purpose of embracing the God who loves us; and let us be a Church that is reaching out to the lost so that they might also experience His presence. Let's do so. Amen.

As we continue our deep dive into Gnosticism, I take a look at The Secret Book Of John. This is part one of a multipart series on this important Sethian text, as we look at the intricate Gnostic cosmology. The Secret Book Of John is key to understanding how the Gnostics view the idea of god (hint: it's very non-dual), what man's place in the universe is, and how the world was created by an evil, ignorant god known as Yaldaboath, Saklas, or simply as the demiurge, which leads into a discussion of the similarities between Gnostic ideas and those that we see among the Hermeticists, Platonist, Pythagoreans, and more. If you'd like to check in touch, follow the podcast on Twitter, @MindAlchemical, or just leave a voicemail directly on Anchor.fm. If you haven't subscribed yet, be sure to do so on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a review, and share with a friend. Music provided by Kabbalistic Village. Huge thanks! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-alchemical-mind/support

This is a bonus episode on Pythagoreanism, AKA the Most Epic Math Club Ever. A religious cult and school of mathematics combined, Pythagoreanism has had a lasting impact on science and philosophy. I'll discuss the religious influences on Pythagoreanism, early Pythagorean beliefs, some of the most famous early Pythagoreans, its link to medieval European education, and its influence on some key thinkers during the Renaissance period. Join me this episode and learn how mathematics can purify your immortal soul!

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans' arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.   For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher's garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.   Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans' arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.   For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher's garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.   Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

More great books at LoyalBooks.com

This episode of The Grindstone features the lecture given by Carl Huffman (DePauw University) at Purdue University on Saturday, 27 April 2019. The lecture was given at a conference honoring the career of Dr. Patricia Curd, Professor Emerita of the Department of Philosophy at Purdue.The title of the lecture is: "Pythagorean Ethics in the Time of Plato".Dr. Huffman's abstract of the talk is below:In this talk I first argue that the Pythagoreans whose way of life Plato notes in Book Ten of the Republic are the Pythagoreans whose ethical system Aristoxenus described in his Pythagorean Precepts. The rest of the talk is devoted to an overview of the ethical system found in the fragments of the Pythagorean Precepts and a brief discussion of that system's place in the history of Greek ethics. The ethical system of the Pythagorean Precepts is based on a peculiarly Pythagorean understanding of human beings as by nature insolent and excessive. In the natural state human beings live shameless and incoherent lives from which they must be saved by supervision, which imposes restraint upon them. I examine the Pythagorean treatment of the following topics in light of these general principles: the proper goals for human action, desire, diet, sex, procreation, friendship and luck. Study of these topics shows that the Precepts are best understood as a parallel development to the ethics of Democritus and Socrates. The Precepts emphasize expertise and appeal to authority figures rather than just to the best argument, which is not surprising in Pythagoreanism, which is ultimately based on the authority of the master, Pythagoras.NOTE TO LISTENER: Due to technical difficulties with the wireless mic during this talk, portions of the audio drop out for a few seconds here and there. In an effort to keep the flow of the talk in tact, we did not edit these portions out. The longest drop lasts for about 15-20 seconds, but in total less than 2 minutes of the 50 minute talk have been lost. We apologize to Dr. Huffman and our listeners for this. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James Bean returned to the Virtual Alexandria to discuss ancient vegetarianism: Gnostics, Christians, Jews & even Pagans. This included the Essenes, Pythagoreans, Therapeutae, Ebionites, and more. Was Jesus a vegetarian? Was Paul or John the Baptist against vegetarians? We also covered medieval Gnostics like the Manichaeans & Cathars. This is a partial show for nonmembers. For the second half of the interview, please become a member or patron at Patreon

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans' arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.   For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher's garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.   Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

Surprise! You thought we abandoned this podcast didn't you? Well guess what?! We are NOT quitters! We are however lazy and unorganized so that's why the long gap between episodes. We also clearly hate those damn Pythagoreans so we refuse to put out Episode 10. Instead we give you a lovely decimal fraction of an episode to coincide with the fraction of the effort we put into it. Despite our incompetence, many new exciting topics are covered: Agriculture, the insect kingdom, the patriarchy, and of course the endless debate over unicorns, mermicorns and alicorns.... you know... the shit that really kept Carl Sagan up at night. Kevin really comes out of his shell in this one and sets the tone with some inspiring topics. We're not sure what happened, but this is like a new and improved Kevin that won't just take a fisting quietly. Speaking of quiet, wouldn't it be much less noisy without those damn screaming kids asking for your attention and to be fed. Kick them out and save them from the vulgarity we are spewing and enjoy all the rambling. Afterwards, Yell back at us on Twitter: @OldMenYell, @CynicalSkippy, @JerryYells @KevinYells Or email us at: oldmenyellatpodcast@gmail.com

Surprise! You thought we abandoned this podcast didn't you? Well guess what?! We are NOT quitters! We are however lazy and unorganized so that's why the long gap between episodes. We also clearly hate those damn Pythagoreans so we refuse to put out Episode 10. Instead we give you a lovely decimal fraction of an episode to coincide with the fraction of the effort we put into it. Despite our incompetence, many new exciting topics are covered: Agriculture, the insect kingdom, the patriarchy, and of course the endless debate over unicorns, mermicorns and alicorns.... you know... the shit that really kept Carl Sagan up at night. Kevin really comes out of his shell in this one and sets the tone with some inspiring topics. We're not sure what happened, but this is like a new and improved Kevin that won't just take a fisting quietly. Speaking of quiet, wouldn't it be much less noisy without those damn screaming kids asking for your attention and to be fed. Kick them out and save them from the vulgarity we are spewing and enjoy all the rambling. Afterwards, Yell back at us on Twitter: @OldMenYell, @CynicalSkippy, @JerryYells @KevinYells Or email us at: oldmenyellatpodcast@gmail.com

Driving with the Headlights On--Julian Johnson, FRC Julian Johnson, FRC serves as the Grand Treasurer of the English Grand Lodge for the Americas. Frater Julian Johnson tells us the story of his Path to the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. 2019 World Convention and Mystical Italy: Join Imperator Christian Bernard and all of the Grand Masters from throughout the world for the 2019 AMORC World Convention taking place in the spectacular city of Rome August 14-18, 2019: Following the World Convention in Rome, join Grand Master Julie Scott, other Rosicrucians, and friends on this journey of a lifetime through Sacred Italy. As pilgrims in this mystical land, we will immerse ourselves in the world of the Sacred Feminine, of Francis of Assisi, the Pythagoreans, and the Neoplatonists, and will learn about many other traditions that have flourished here, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. Together we will explore Assisi, Venice, Florence, Ostia, Cumae, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, and then on to Sicily (with cultures dating back to pre-history), to visit Palermo, Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Calanissetta, and Agrigento. In addition to its exceptional history and mysticism, we will also experience some of the most inspiring art and architecture in the world, its sacred symbolism, and the breathtaking beauty of this land. Running Time: 8:28 | 20.3 MB Podcast Copyright © 2019 Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. All Rights Reserved. Posted by Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum @ 8/1/2019

How I Became a Rosicrucian--Lonnie C. Edwards Sr., MD, FRC Lonnie Edwards, FRC serves as the Vice President of the English Grand Lodge for the Americas. Dr. Edwards tells us the story of his Path to the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. 2019 World Convention and Mystical Italy: Join Imperator Christian Bernard and all of the Grand Masters from throughout the world for the 2019 AMORC World Convention taking place in the spectacular city of Rome August 14-18, 2019. Following the World Convention in Rome, join Grand Master Julie Scott, other Rosicrucians, and friends on this journey of a lifetime through Sacred Italy. As pilgrims in this mystical land, we will immerse ourselves in the world of the Sacred Feminine, of Francis of Assisi, the Pythagoreans, and the Neoplatonists, and will learn about many other traditions that have flourished here, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. Together we will explore Assisi, Venice, Florence, Ostia, Cumae, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, and then on to Sicily (with cultures dating back to pre-history), to visit Palermo, Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Calanissetta, and Agrigento. In addition to its exceptional history and mysticism, we will also experience some of the most inspiring art and architecture in the world, its sacred symbolism, and the breathtaking beauty of this land. Running Time: 13:01 | 38.1 MB Podcast Copyright © 2019 Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. All Rights Reserved. Posted by Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum @ 7/1/2019

Discovering the Rosicrucian Path--Grand Master Julie Scott, SRC Julie Scott. SRC serves as the Grand Master for the English Grand Lodge for the Americas, and as the Supreme Secretary of the Order. Grand Master Scott introduces us to the many ways that Members have found their way to the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. 2019 World Convention and Mystical Italy: Join Imperator Christian Bernard and all of the Grand Masters from throughout the world for the 2019 AMORC World Convention taking place in the spectacular city of Rome August 14-18, 2019. Following the World Convention in Rome, join Grand Master Julie Scott, other Rosicrucians, and friends on this journey of a lifetime through Sacred Italy. As pilgrims in this mystical land, we will immerse ourselves in the world of the Sacred Feminine, of Francis of Assisi, the Pythagoreans, and the Neoplatonists, and will learn about many other traditions that have flourished here, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. Together we will explore Assisi, Venice, Florence, Ostia, Cumae, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, and then on to Sicily (with cultures dating back to pre-history), to visit Palermo, Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Calanissetta, and Agrigento. In addition to its exceptional history and mysticism, we will also experience some of the most inspiring art and architecture in the world, its sacred symbolism, and the breathtaking beauty of this land. Running Time: 14:40 | 35.3 MB Podcast Copyright © 2019 Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. All Rights Reserved. Posted by Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum @ 6/1/2019

Born in 103, he was a philosopher from the Samaritan town of Shechem in Palestine, who had devoted his life to the search for truth, trying many philosophical schools and sources of human wisdom: the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans and finally the Platonists. One day an old man (whose name and origin are unknown) appeared to him and spoke to him of the Prophets and Apostles who had learned of God not by their own wisdom, but by revelation of God Himself. He read the scriptures and was convinced of the truth of the Faith, but he would not be baptised or call himself a Christian until he had tested all the pagans' arguments against Christianity. To this end he traveled to Rome, where he engaged in debate at philosophical gatherings, impressing all with his wisdom. In Rome he also witnessed the martyrdom of Sts Ptolemy and Lucian; this moved him to write an Apologia for the Christian faith and the Christian people, which he gave to the Emperor Antoninus and the Senate. They were so moved by this document that the Emperor ordered that persecution of Christians should cease.   For the remainder of his life, Justin devoted all his skills to the proclamation of the Gospel and the defense of Christians. To the end of his life, wherever he preached Christ, he always wore his philosopher's garb. In addition to his Apologia, he wrote a number of other learned defenses of the faith.   Eventually he was imprisoned following the false accusations of Crescens, a jealous Cynic philosopher. He died (one source says by beheading, another by poison) in Rome in 167 under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, successor to Antoninus.

"Just Beneath the Surface: A Report on the Transdisciplinary Fume Research at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi" by Elisa Cuttjonn, SRC In addition to all of the ancient traditions surrounding the Oracle at Delphi, modern science has recently verified the geological and chemical bases of this revered site. This reading of Soror Cuttjonn's study leads us through the modern developments that have astounded scientists and historians alike. 2019 World Convention and Mystical Italy: Join Imperator Christian Bernard and all of the Grand Masters from throughout the world for the 2019 AMORC World Convention taking place in the spectacular city of Rome August 14-18, 2019. Following the World Convention in Rome, join Grand Master Julie Scott, other Rosicrucians, and friends on this journey of a lifetime through Sacred Italy. As pilgrims in this mystical land, we will immerse ourselves in the world of the Sacred Feminine, of Francis of Assisi, the Pythagoreans, and the Neoplatonists, and will learn about many other traditions that have flourished here, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. Together we will explore Assisi, Venice, Florence, Ostia, Cumae, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, and then on to Sicily (with cultures dating back to pre-history), to visit Palermo, Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Calanissetta, and Agrigento. In addition to its exceptional history and mysticism, we will also experience some of the most inspiring art and architecture in the world, its sacred symbolism, and the breathtaking beauty of this land. Running Time: 13:46 | 20.4 MB Podcast Copyright © 2019 Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. All Rights Reserved. Posted by Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum @ 5/1/2019

"The Golden Verses of Pythagoras: A New Translation" by Steven Armstrong, FRC, MA, MDiv, from the "Mystical Italy" issue of the Rosicrucian Digest (Online Supplementals) In this podcast, following the latest scholarship, Frater Armstrong of the Grand Lodge staff presents a fresh translation of the venerable "Golden Verses of Pythagoras" which emphasizes the textual continuity of the verses. In addition, he provides insight into the translation process itself, as this ancient wisdom is as fresh and useful today as it was millennia ago. Included in the Golden Verses is the well-known Pythagorean "Review of the Day," still practiced by Rosicrucians and others today. Mystical Italy: Join Imperator Christian Bernard and all of the Grand Masters from throughout the world for the 2019 AMORC World Convention taking place in the spectacular city of Rome August 14-18, 2019. Following the World Convention in Rome, join Grand Master Julie Scott, other Rosicrucians, and friends on this journey of a lifetime through Sacred Italy. As pilgrims in this mystical land, we will immerse ourselves in the world of the Sacred Feminine, of Francis of Assisi, the Pythagoreans, and the Neoplatonists, and will learn about many other traditions that have flourished here, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. Together we will explore Assisi, Venice, Florence, Ostia, Cumae, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, and then on to Sicily (with cultures dating back to pre-history), to visit Palermo, Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Calanissetta, and Agrigento. In addition to its exceptional history and mysticism, we will also experience some of the most inspiring art and architecture in the world, its sacred symbolism, and the breathtaking beauty of this land. Running Time: 12:56 | 25.2 MB Podcast Copyright © 2019 Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. All Rights Reserved. Posted by Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum @ 4/1/2019

"Michelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio" David M. Aguilera, FRC, PhD, ABPP, from the "Mystical Italy" issue of the Rosicrucian Digest Michelangelo's magnificent design for the Piazza del Campidoglio on Rome's Capitoline Hill was only completed in the 1940s. Its stately curvilinear lines with twelve points suggest the astrological influence of Marsilio Ficino, among other references. In this podcast, Dr. Aguilera introduces us to how this Pizza functions in the life of the Eternal City, and what it reflects of its designer, Michelangelo. Mystical Italy: Join Imperator Christian Bernard and all of the Grand Masters from throughout the world for the 2019 AMORC World Convention taking place in the spectacular city of Rome August 14-18, 2019. Following the World Convention in Rome, join Grand Master Julie Scott, other Rosicrucians, and friends on this journey of a lifetime through Sacred Italy. As pilgrims in this mystical land, we will immerse ourselves in the world of the Sacred Feminine, of Francis of Assisi, the Pythagoreans, and the Neoplatonists, and will learn about many other traditions that have flourished here, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. Together we will explore Assisi, Venice, Florence, Ostia, Cumae, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, and then on to Sicily (with cultures dating back to pre-history), to visit Palermo, Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Calanissetta, and Agrigento. In addition to its exceptional history and mysticism, we will also experience some of the most inspiring art and architecture in the world, its sacred symbolism, and the breathtaking beauty of this land. Running Time: 9:42 | 24.3 MB Podcast Copyright © 2019 Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. All Rights Reserved. Posted by Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum @ 3/1/2019

"Domina Rectina's Library: Herculaneum's Villa of the Papyri" -- by Benefactor Taciturnus, FRC, from the "Mystical Italy" issue of the Rosicrucian Digest The Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, buried on 79 CE like Pompeii by the explosive eruption of Mount Vesuvius, contains the only intact ancient Library from the ancient Greco-Roman world. The fascinating story of how the Villa's Library was lost, found, lost again, and rediscovered, continues with the ongoing scientific work to recover and decipher the more than 1800 ancient scrolls in the Library. Mystical Italy: Join Imperator Christian Bernard and all of the Grand Masters from throughout the world for the 2019 AMORC World Convention taking place in the spectacular city of Rome August 14-18, 2019. Following the World Convention in Rome, join Grand Master Julie Scott, other Rosicrucians, and friends on this journey of a lifetime through Sacred Italy. As pilgrims in this mystical land, we will immerse ourselves in the world of the Sacred Feminine, of Francis of Assisi, the Pythagoreans, and the Neoplatonists, and will learn about many other traditions that have flourished here, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. Together we will explore Assisi, Venice, Florence, Ostia, Cumae, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, and then on to Sicily (with cultures dating back to pre-history), to visit Palermo, Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Calanissetta, and Agrigento. In addition to its exceptional history and mysticism, we will also experience some of the most inspiring art and architecture in the world, its sacred symbolism, and the breathtaking beauty of this land. Running Time: 15:03 | 36.1 MB Podcast Copyright © 2019 Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. All Rights Reserved. Posted by Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum @ 2/1/2019

"Francis of Assisi" -- by Elisa Cuttjohn SRC, from the "Mystical Italy" issue of the Rosicrucian Digest Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) is one of the best known Mystics in the world, from the Christian Tradition. Soror Cuttjohn gives us a moving portrait of this Italian mystic who revolutionized his own Church, and inspired the world with his praise of Divine Love shown through Nature. In a time of strife, Francis is a bold reminder of the power of forgiveness and welcoming acceptance. Mystical Italy: Join Imperator Christian Bernard and all of the Grand Masters from throughout the world for the 2019 AMORC World Convention taking place in the spectacular city of Rome August 14-18, 2019: Following the World Convention in Rome, join Grand Master Julie Scott, other Rosicrucians, and friends on this journey of a lifetime through Sacred Italy. As pilgrims in this mystical land, we will immerse ourselves in the world of the Sacred Feminine, of Francis of Assisi, the Pythagoreans, and the Neoplatonists, and will learn about many other traditions that have flourished here, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. Together we will explore Assisi, Venice, Florence, Ostia, Cumae, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, and then on to Sicily (with cultures dating back to pre-history), to visit Palermo, Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Calanissetta, and Agrigento. In addition to its exceptional history and mysticism, we will also experience some of the most inspiring art and architecture in the world, its sacred symbolism, and the breathtaking beauty of this land. Running Time: 22:22 | 54.1 MB Podcast Copyright © 2019 Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. All Rights Reserved. Posted by Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum @ 1/1/2019

In this episode, part three of four on a series on Greek philosophy, mathematics, and science in the 5th century BC, we describe the lives, influences, and various theories and discoveries made by Greece's earliest mathematicians, including Thales, Pythagoras, Hippasus and the early Pythagoreans, Oenopides, Hippocrates, Antiphon, Bryson, Democritus, and Theodoros Show Notes: http://www.thehistoryofancientgreece.com/2018/12/085-mathematics-and-early-pythagoreans.html   Intro by Derek of The Hellenistic Age Podcast Website: https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/hellenisticpod   The History of Ancient Greece is sponsored by the CLNS Media Network and Today’s episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. And right now, my listeners can try ZipRecruiter FOR FREE at this exclusive web address: www.ZipRecruiter.com/greece. Today’s episode is also brought to you by our new October 2018 Patreon supporters Juan Camilo Rodriguez, Andrew, Ine Jordens, and James Welch, as well as PayPal donors Ricardo Carvalho and Robin Allday. If you too would like to support The History of Ancient Greece, you can become a monthly Patreon supporter at (https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofancientgreecepodcast) or a one time donor at (https://www.paypal.me/RyanStitt).

"Leonardo da Vinci: Artist, Scientist, Mystic" -- by the Staff of the Rosicrucian Research Library, from the "Mystical Italy" issue of the Rosicrucian Digest Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 - May 2, 1519) typifies the art, science, and spiritual yearnings of the Italian Renaissance. During this vibrant transitional period, medieval Western Europe was reawakening to the knowledge and wisdom of the ancient world. This was transmitted to them through reexamining what had been preserved in the West, but even more dynamically, from Constantinople and the Byzantine Roman East, as well as through Islamic science, art, and literature. The result of this fusion was the Renaissance of the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries, which ushered in the modern Western world. This podcast is a reading of selections from the instructional booklet prepared for the da Vinci exhibit at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose and at the Rosicrucian Cultural Center at the Toronto Lodge during 2006. Mystical Italy: Join Imperator Christian Bernard and all of the Grand Masters from throughout the world for the 2019 AMORC World Convention taking place in the spectacular city of Rome August 14-18, 2019: Following the World Convention in Rome, join Grand Master Julie Scott, other Rosicrucians, and friends on this journey of a lifetime through Sacred Italy. As pilgrims in this mystical land, we will immerse ourselves in the world of the Sacred Feminine, of Francis of Assisi, the Pythagoreans, and the Neoplatonists, and will learn about many other traditions that have flourished here, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. Together we will explore Assisi, Venice, Florence, Ostia, Cumae, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, and then on to Sicily (with cultures dating back to pre-history), to visit Palermo, Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Calanissetta, and Agrigento. In addition to its exceptional history and mysticism, we will also experience some of the most inspiring art and architecture in the world, its sacred symbolism, and the breathtaking beauty of this land. Running Time: 23:41 | 57.7 MB Podcast Copyright © 2018 Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. All Rights Reserved. Posted by Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum @ 12/1/2018

“Is anything in the Universe truly infinite, or is infinity something that only exists in mathematics?” This momentous question came from father and son duo from Edinburgh Sorley aged 10 and Tom, aged adult. It's a subject so big, that we've devoted two episodes to our never-ending quest to investigate infinity. The first installment is a story of mathematics, music and murder. We'll find out why the ancient Pythagoreans decided that infinity was evil, and why some infinities are bigger than others. Featuring the marvellous mathematical minds of Steven Strogatz from the Cornell University and Eugenia Cheng, author of 'Beyond Infinity'. Presenters: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry Presenter: Michelle Martin

After the final Pythagorean died, all was quiet. And then, suddenly, people started going around calling themselves Pythagoreans. Growing long beards. Hailing Pythagoras as an ancient magus-sage. Positing a monad as the ultimate source of reality. Welcome to Neopythagoreanism.

"Piercing Truths: Pythagoras, Western Civilization, and Hope"--Steven Armstrong, FRC, from the "Mystical Italy" issue of the Rosicrucian Digest. Civilizations do not just happen; they are created by those whose place it is to grow them, and when a civilization comes to an impasse, to pierce through to a new path. In this podcast, RCUI Instructor Steven Armstrong discusses the work of lifelong mystic and author Peter Kingsley, as it relates to Pythagoras, the origins of Western Civilization, and the impasse of our times. Mystical Italy: Join Imperator Christian Bernard and all of the Grand Masters from throughout the world for the 2019 AMORC World Convention taking place in the spectacular city of Rome August 14-18, 2019: Following the World Convention in Rome, join Grand Master Julie Scott, other Rosicrucians, and friends on this journey of a lifetime through Sacred Italy. As pilgrims in this mystical land, we will immerse ourselves in the world of the Sacred Feminine, of Francis of Assisi, the Pythagoreans, and the Neoplatonists, and will learn about many other traditions that have flourished here, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. Together we will explore Assisi, Venice, Florence, Ostia, Cumae, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, and then on to Sicily (with cultures dating back to pre-history), to visit Palermo, Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Calanissetta, and Agrigento. In addition to its exceptional history and mysticism, we will also experience some of the most inspiring art and architecture in the world, its sacred symbolism, and the breathtaking beauty of this land. Running Time: 21:20 | 52 MB Podcast Copyright © 2018 Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. All Rights Reserved. Posted by Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum @ 11/1/2018 https://8495a1956192636d8848-a7fe55a74ab3d265931954e3ab189c6f.ssl.cf5.rackcdn.com/Piercing%20Truths_%20Pythagoras,%20Western%20Civilization,%20and%20Hope.mp3

Rosicrucianism and Stoicism--Grand Master Julie Scott, SRC, from the "Sacred Italy" issue of the Rosicrucian Digest. Julie Scott. SRC serves as the Grand Master for the English Grand Lodge for the Americas, and as the Supreme Secretary of the Order. In the year 300 BCE, following a shipwreck in which he lost his fortune, Zeno, a merchant from modern-day Cyprus, founded Stoicism in Athens, Greece. Initially Stoicism included metaphysics, logic, and ethics, however, the Romans, who embraced Stoicism centuries later, focused primarily on ethics and how to live a good and tranquil life. In this Podcast, Grand Master Julie Scott will discuss how Stoicism and Rosicrucianism have a lot in common. Join Imperator Christian Bernard and all of the Grand Masters from throughout the world for the 2019 AMORC World Convention taking place in the spectacular city of Rome August 14-18, 2019: Following the World Convention in Rome, join Grand Master Julie Scott, other Rosicrucians, and friends on this journey of a lifetime through Sacred Italy. As pilgrims in this mystical land, we will immerse ourselves in the world of the Sacred Feminine, of Francis of Assisi, the Pythagoreans, and the Neoplatonists, and will learn about many other traditions that have flourished here, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. Together we will explore Assisi, Venice, Florence, Ostia, Cumae, Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, and then on to Sicily (with cultures dating back to pre-history), to visit Palermo, Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Calanissetta, and Agrigento. In addition to its exceptional history and mysticism, we will also experience some of the most inspiring art and architecture in the world, its sacred symbolism, and the breathtaking beauty of this land. Running Time: 28:19 | 84.5 MB Podcast Copyright © 2018 Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. All Rights Reserved. Posted by Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum @ 10/1/2018 https://b940c1cc29efa1b8025a-259f0efc8767905ebe54e2114d3d979d.ssl.cf5.rackcdn.com/Rosicrucianism%20and%20Stoicism.mp3

When we last visited the Pythagoreans, they were going through some difficult times. In this episode we discuss what happened next. Pythagoreanism is dead, long live Pythagoreanism!

In this podcast, I consider the mysticism of numbers of the Pythagoreans and its influence down the ages on Plato, Aristotle, Kepler, Newton and on to the scientism of the modern age. I contrast this with a mysticism of endless, unfathomable mystery and tease out the ramifications for the Socratic question of how life is to be lived. [Free. 38 minutes.]

Adrian Moore starts his journey through philosophical thought on infinity over the last two and a half thousand years. In the first episode, he finds out why the idea made the Greeks so uncomfortable and introduces us to some of the first great thinkers on infinity. We meet Pythagoras and his followers who divided the world into two fundamental cosmic principles. On one side was everything they thought of as limited or finite, and therefore good, and on the other everything they considered unlimited or infinite, and therefore bad. The Pythagoreans thought they could explain the world around them in terms of the numbers - 1, 2, 3, 4, etc - which we use to count finite collections of things, and they were utterly dismayed when they discovered that not every calculation produced the neat answer they expected. According to legend, one of their number was shipwrecked at sea for revealing this discovery to their enemies! And we meet Zeno of Elea who, after wrestling with the notion of infinity, came to the conclusion that movement itself was impossible. A Juniper production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2016.

The Pythagoreans were a cult of Greek mathematicians that believed that all things were composed of large enough integers. Their leader, Pythagoras, is best known for the proof that the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the two sides. Unfortunately, this theorem leads to the conclusion that some numbers cannot be expressed as the ratio of large enough integers, and so proof destroyed their beliefs. Monads are an extremely useful category of type. Whereas Applicatives let us build pipelines of single values, Monads support forking within that pipeline. They provide a "bind" method that joins a function returning another Monad to the end of the pipeline, and then flattens out the result. We can use this to build queries, to eliminate null reference exceptions, and even to execute asynchronous code without nested callbacks. Event Sourcing, popularized by Greg Young, is the practice of storing the events that have occurred in a system, instead of the current state of the system. The benefits are auditability, replayability, and reconciliation. Mathematically speaking, an event sourced system looks like a left fold operation. Starting with the initial state of the system, we apply a function that computes the next state of the system after an event has occurred. This left fold operation computes the current state from the sequence of events.

In Ancient Greece, vegetarianism belongs to a secretive subculture – amongst the mystery religions of Orpheus and the musical mathematical cult of Pythagoras. Episode 3: Pythagoreans The Greek philosophers knew about vegetarians. But they were part of cults associated with the mythical figure of Orpheus, and the guru of harmony and number – Pythagoras. The people […] The post VegHist Ep 3: Pythagoreans. On the Cults of Orpheus and Pythagoras in Ancient Greece; with Hugh Bowden, Michael Beer, John Wilkins, and Armand D'Angour first appeared on THE VEGAN OPTION radio show and blog.

A look at Greek astronomy from the time of Hesiod and Homer to the spherical model of Aristotle.  The writings of Thales, Empedocles, the Pythagoreans and Plato are considered before moving to the sphere's of Eudoxus and Callipus and the synthesis of physics and astronomy by the tutor of Alexander the Great.

Join us this week with special guest, Frater O as we talk about one of the coolest cartoons ever, Donald Duck goes to Mathmagic Land. In this amazing cartoon from 1959, amazing and deep concepts of mathematics are explained in an easily digestible manner. Pentagrams, the Pythagoreans, Golden Ratios and a whole lot more are explained. App extras include a Masonic Wallpaper for your mobile device. Thanks for listening and have an awesome week!Links Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land The Symbolic Dictionary Masonic Con 2016 Brothers Blend Coffee Email Frater O Support the Show! Alpha Brain

Pythagoras believed numbers had souls, as well as magical powers. The Pythagoreans divided the numbers into two groups: odd and even, male and female, light and dark etc. Their most sacred number was number 10.  

In this episode of Views & Brews, KUT’s Rebecca McInroy talks with Nobel Laureate Dr. Steven Weinberg about his new book, To Explain The World: The Discovery of Modern Science. In a packed house at the Cactus Cafe, McInroy asked Weinberg about everything from the what ideas remain from the cult of the Pythagoreans, to […]

In this episode of Views & Brews, KUT’s Rebecca McInroy talks with Nobel Laureate Dr. Steven Weinberg about his new book, To Explain The World: The Discovery of Modern Science. In a packed house at the Cactus Cafe, McInroy asked Weinberg about everything from the what ideas remain from the cult of the Pythagoreans, to...