Apech

Them's were the spooky times alright. They've done up the Ashmolean to make it make sense ... so its worse ... just some curators trying to justify their existence. Nothing compares to the glass cabinets of Pitt Rivers ...

Ah! Alex Sanders ... I was initiated by a student of his way back when ... I also knew a friend of Gardener ... who helped him write his Book of Shadows ... called him 'Bunny' Gardener for some reason I never understood ... (just name dropping by the way lol) ... if you want a treat go to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford they've got all the old witchy stuff there and shrunken heads too! Witchcraft appealed to me because it seemed practical and not just pie in the sky wishful thinking. This guy who initiated me told me that everything you want to know is in the Egyptian Book of Dead which started me on many decades of study ... getting slowly closer to some truth there Er what! Are sure? Looky here http://users.iafrica.com/b/bs/bscases/refugetree/refugetree.htm Of course here is some serious lineage if you want some:

... saw something like this outside at back maybe 2/3 times a week. Dictator! would have loved one.

Thanks for this interesting discussion. Perhaps I make a few points from my perspective. The Western Tradition has its roots in ancient Egypt and Sumer. But these ancient cultures themselves represent particular cultural formulations of knowledge going back to our earliest roots as nomadic hunter gatherers and pastoral cattle herders in East Africa maybe 200,000 years ago. But of course there is no written traditions going back further than 5000 years or so. So any attempt to document a lineage of that sort of age is not possible. So any lineages we might encounter today are in this perspective quite modern. Whilst it is true that the western tradition has been persecuted and driven underground for periods of time during recorded history ... and so explicit records of transmission are not available it does not mean that it was destroyed. Rather it evolved, hid itself, and pops up from time to time explicitly in historical records ... mixed with some dubious claimants it is true ... but nevertheless still there ... it pops up in the form of individuals expressing themselves in the context of the time and culture which they are born. Does this constitute a lineage to compare with eastern traditions? Possibly not. But it does not mean that it is artificial or invented as some have tried to say. I think you have to ask yourself want exactly comprises a lineage. And i don't think it is enough just to produce a historical family tree. X was taught by Y, who was taught by Z and so on. This is what you often find. I understand the reason for this ... since it reassures people that the current teacher is teaching the same (or a version of the same) form as the older teachers. But of course it supposes that X has understood what Y was teaching and so on. Rather like a royal bloodline a bastard teacher might be better than a blue blood if he'she has truly grasped the teachings. So I think a real lineage, if I might use that expression is saying a little more than this. If I can take the example of a Tibetan Buddhist lineage with which I am familiar, the Karma Kagyu, the origin of the lineage is not said to be a historical person, but a Sambhoga Kaya deity Vajradhara. The first teachers of the lineage received their transmission directly from Vajradhara (Dorje Change) and not from a historical person. Each member of the lineage, and in particular the current root guru is seen as an embodiment of Vajradhara ... and so the lineage comprises both/and a historical line of actual persons who received and transmitted the teachings and realisations of the traditions AND what you might term a linking in-break of an eternal and timeless self-realised consciousness. The particular way in which the Tibetans did this was to seek out a child who reflected the mind stream of the dead teacher and train them up to the level of realisation thus ensuring an unbroken transmission. Think what you may of the validity of this process. So you might compare this with what has happened in the west by saying that in each generation individuals have revealed to themselves the timeless truths inherent in themselves as human beings and in embodied in their culture ... and this is the lineage. This is better than a piece of paper or certificate signed or stamped. And, provided the realisations are true, is entirely valid.

http://www.upworthy.com/how-the-media-coverage-of-mass-shootings-makes-everything-worse

You say wrong interpretation ... but I think my interpretation fits better with the wording of your constitution. Switzerland does not exist because people have guns ... it exists because its banks are/were a safe haven for the gold and treasures robbed by the Nazis and others over the years. It bought its neutrality. You want armed guards in Primary schools? Really? Is that better than taking the gun out the hands of the madman who shoots children?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNpUnUBhURY Love the cello ...

I have to say from this side of the Atlantic this whole discussion seems to verge on lunacy. 28 people are dead, some of them primary school children. That is the issue. Your 2nd amendment says: So the right to bear arms is clearly within the context of a 'well regulated militia. So you should have the right to bear arms if you are a member of a well regulated militia, or a policeman, or in the army or need a gun for hunting or other specified activity. These sorts of killings have been going on for decades and no one has come up with a solution. If you prefer delusions of security in owning some kind of lethal firearm on the basis of paranoid fear of government ... government of a kind which happens in every civilised country on earth ... then good luck ... but expect more shootings. If perhaps you think the correct response is to arm primary school teachers then think for a moment what the classrooms will be like. Perhaps you should arm the children as well?

Great song I thought.

It makes me feel strangely restless watching this video ... but I have to say it doesn't get much better than this ...

No kinky legs here Marbles ... just the music of the people ...

Good example.

We all feel for those Sodomites.

Ah! Now I know what this thread is about.

Not as long as we all keep chatting

Just an excuse for a party I think

What so you can throw it into the river ... ?!?

I'll have a word with her majesty for you.

... and still time to iron your vest ... very impressive.

Well cheerio chaps! I missed most of this discussion but I read some slagging off of Olde England ... so we burned down your capitol ... hmm talk about bearing a grudge.

What is this thread about again?

makes everyone wait, first, counting seconds, three times, it's now, now, and now.

It's about time the meek got something ... if only they would assert themselves more.

You have some balls .... I imagine, to hang from your erection ... may they shine gloriously nigh unto 12th night.

I would like an erection ... by which I mean to build on to my house an extra room ... it doesn't have to be a large one ... just adequate.