Apech

Bloody hell! Excited now! Hope the clouds go away from here.

There was a super moon last year. (there's a thread on it somewhere) It is closer during these events and thus the visible disc is larger ... but the main subjective difference is the luminosity. Last year it appeared striking bright almost like car headlights as it appeared over the horizon. It was very noticable and (to me anyway) impressive. The whole night sky has been impressive this winter with Jupiter, Venus and Mars all appearing very bright. There was a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus on 14 March. Found the other thread it was March 19 2011 Super moon thread

I understood that ringing in ears is related to kidney function in TCM ... looked it up and found this: TCM world

So I take it that you want us to step in each time a thread gets off topic ... interesting I will discuss with other mods your suggestion.

*** Moderator Message *** This is an open forum and the free flow of discussion is allowed. What is not allowed are personal attacks, insults and the deliberate hijacking or derailing of threads. When you guys descend to bickering and trying to have the last word ... well I just think you should consider how that looks to an outside audience (i.e. 100s of guest viewers) who are interested in what Taoism or other forms of spirituality can do for their lives. Just in case you were wondering calling someone an i***t instead of just saying idiot is not ok. Whether you are mortal or immortal please do not do this kind of thing ... if it happens again I will be forced to take some kind of action. I am impressed that people actually want 'spring cleaning' but do you really want the moderation team to start restructuring threads? I think we will only do this when it gets ridiculously confused. The original subject has been lost. But how many threads could you say that of??? Please stop the bickering eh? Thank you. *** Apech for Mod Team ***

my sky is falling... and the lines are repeating read the last post, please! :lol:

I prefer moist Thank goodness he's gone to the hospital ... any news???

on a cool spring night you should keep your phone handy our teeth can chatter.

Omniversal Unity. with a slender extra sound ... a thin crescent moon (just to keep the chain )

Have you been to a doctor yet? Cos you should right away. The experienced healer should have told you this.

*** Moderator Message *** Could you please ease up on the bickering. Be nice. Stay calm. Love is all around. Many people read these threads (guests and so on) with genuine interest but they don't give a damn who wins an argument. Thank you ... carry on. *** Mod Message ends ***

Rebirth not reincarnation ... different ....

These are from a 12 Century text called The Book of the Twenty Four Philosophers which probably has its origin in a 3rd Century book from Alexandria. It is included in the corpus of Hermetic Literature. From the book : The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus by Florian Ebeling trans. David Lorton Pub. Cornell University Press. amazon link ... a brilliant book if you are interested in in the Western Mystery Tradition. the definitions themselves are worthy of some contemplation (even if you are Buddhist or atheist) ... I find some of them quite powerful.

CT, I love you. I love anyone who gives me a chance to talk about the Pyramid Texts!!!!! Having got my joy out of the way here's the answer. The 'subject' of the Pyramid Texts is the 'dead' king. The texts can be loosely be divided into those texts which describe things done for the king (like providing him with food and so on) and those in which the king speaks for himself. This is one of the latter ... so the person speaking as 'I' is the king. HOWEVER .... in the Pyramid Texts and in later times in the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead the deceased who is termed the Osiris N (where N is his name) identifies themselves with major deities who take part in cosmic events such as creation ... so the voice is both the individual (you or me) and the god. I am not at home so I cannot check which Pyramid this utterance is from and its context but I imagine that the one born in Nun is Atum. Nun is the great void or abyss (pralaya) (said to be watery, dark, infinite, hidden) and Atum (whose name comes from the root 'tm' meaning 'complete') is called Neb-er-djer which means literally 'Lord to the limit' or often translated as Lord of All. Atum was sometimes seen as a great serpent which moved in the waters of Nun and created the world by circling in on himself (cf. Ouroborus) ... Atum generates the air and moisture (Shu and Tefnut) who are male and female polarities (cp. yin and yang) who in turn generate Nut (the sky) and Geb (the earth) ... thus bringing about the basic structure of the world. What essentially is happening with the "I" is that the king is recognizing his own nature to be not different to the absolute. He is assuming his own place among the gods ... or in fact as 'greater' than the gods. In another text he says "Atum is my father and I am greater than he!" Hope this makes sense.

Obliquity ... spiffo, well done!

Thank you for saying this. Best wishes to you.

Something good i.e. firm and comfortable to sit on! Only half joking.

*** Moderator Message *** We are getting a lot of reports from this thread. Just a couple of observations for now. 1. Because the title of the thread refers to "red Pheonix" we are not going to take mod action simply because something is not strictly answering that question. This is not derailing the thread it is just the free flow of conversation just as in a normal spoken conversation. If people prefer other practices and want to say so then that's ok. 2. Some teachers are controversial and attract criticism ... if you are going to do this then it is better to state the technical or factual reasons behind your observations or objections to their teachings. This is better than saying so-and-so is a **** or whatever and gives the reader a chance to make their own assessment based on fact and not opinion. 3. Please could you avoid this thread breaking down into bickering. Don't take things personally as it gets messy and we will have to step in, which nobody likes. **** Mod Message ***** Apech for Mod Team

broccoli

Bloody hell, that's brilliant where's it from?

Yes Gold I should have explained this. Here is what the prologue says: So, yes the 24 definitions were the kicking off point for debate ....or further contemplation ...

Well I assumed it as some kind of primary energy interaction and that's what I meant by high level but of course you may be right.

Except that if God=the Absolute, then any mental image (or any other predicate) is not different to the source. The Egyptians practice Henotheism through which any single god can stand for the Absolute at any time and the god may change with time/person doing the 'worshiping'. Read Hornung 'The One and the Many - Concepts of God in Ancient Egypt' if you are interested. Amazon

Yes the current thinking (among scholars of this stuff) is that Hermeticism arose from a fusion of Ancient Egyptian/Mesoptamian/Persian religion, Greek Philosophy and Jewish mysticism ... but since the author (or pseudo-author) is Hermes Trismegistus and is an Egyptian then the 'main' inspiration is pagan polytheism so many gods is ok. The Medieval people who studied this suggested that the writings predict the trinity and the Early Christian Fathers absorbed this stuff but its not really Christian or even monotheist.