Do we determine our own Fate?

We can acknowledge that there are two streams of thought in relation to those laws which guide a man throughout the courses of his starry travels in and out of time.

As he is drawn to and from various experiences of existence, as he knows both the universal days and the universal slumbers between, when he is swept into much causality, yet effects many events upon himself; as he courses the ages depressed and diffused only to always ever be replenished anew - there are two streams of thought, in philosophical uncertainty, where it is suggested that Man is a being, at this stage of his development, more 'driven' than driving, whilst the other suggests that he is so driven that he drives.

In consideration to the Holy Spirit from which all is empowered to be driven and driving, we must firstly attribute all subsequent furtherance and universal motoring to that. In a second consideration as to whether or not men determine their own fates essentially, remarkably or determinedly - we answer thus: yes and no:

• Insofar as Father God gives us the essential life

• Insofar as Christ has characterized us to make this life remarkable

• Insofar as the Holy Spirit has empowered us to live determinedly

Yes! But without these three, no.


-B.Hive

Question from Introducing the Futures- 14th November 1998

Forcibly Bring Another to Morality

It is simply not possible to forcibly bring another to morality. The word morality is not used in the social context or even in the common, but in the principle of inert value that a man may discern through the heart for himself.

A true morality is empathic and giving by nature, open, demonstrative and perhaps even exaggerated in joy. (The true meaning of morale - to keep them high.) Not morality in the depleted sense of restrictive license; rather an internal discernment which corresponds with God.

This form of discernment is acquired by the cooperation of both the ego and soul of the individual (through the means of the Arterial Self) and simply cannot be imposed....
Yet it is with this sense of correctness within, shall the individual come to know whether or not he or she should reclaim their existence and thus begin to heal.

-B.Hive

Protection from Overwhelming Sorrow

How does one temper the reality of grief within the world with merriment, which is inhibited within the soul? (Merriment, not to be confused with false merriment – joviality - but true merriment. Ho Ho Ho.)

Self-consciousness provides for the spectator of the participating consciousness. This spectator: the 'I Am Not', as you would have it, comes to feel separate from the world which it views.....

That 'spectator' within all of us can be removed from criticism, and positioned above the general cares and woes - particularly in times of grief it shall remain there. This is not to say that this self-consciousness is not colored with preference or even emotion, but that there is a protection from overwhelming sorrow in this divorce from personality.

One can achieve this by knowing within, that no matter how gruesome, difficult, perilous or cruel conditions may present in the world, they are not permanently real, and nor do they affect us in higher realms after death. Our loved ones will endure, we shall endure, as we have done so all along. And there will be compensatory joys and much renewal, even though we may be 'open' to a seemingly treacherous existence in the here and now.

It is good for men to hear truth such as this. It is wholesome for the soul within, because truths have a way of resonating health. The soul does and will respond.


There is so little true consideration given today. This is why meditations upon 'simple' but potent truths are so lively and helpful. Contemplating truths which are essential to being, assist men with rhythms, development, order, and most importantly, returning to the awareness of that happy being which in truth is inside him.

-B.Hive

Historical & Scriptural Facts about Fermented Drinks in the Bible

It is often supposed that in Bible times, grape juice inevitably fermented if kept for any length of time and that therefore whenever the Bible mentions “wine,” it is referring to the alcoholic beverage commonly called “wine” today. However, ancient civilizations had several ways of preventing fruit and fruit juices from fermentation, and thus were able to have non-alcoholic wine (grape juice) throughout the year.

One method involved boiling the juice and reducing it to a syrup that could later be diluted with water. Another was to boil the juice with minimum evaporation and then immediately seal it with beeswax in airtight jars. Drying the fruit in the sun and then reconstituting it with water, adding sulfur to the fruit juice, or filtering the juice to extract the gluten were also methods that would prevent the juice from fermenting. These means of preservation were known to the ancients, who also practiced boiling fermented juice to eliminate the alcohol. Referring to reconstituting grape syrup to make grape juice, Aristotle, who was born around 384 b.c., wrote “The wine of Arcadia was so thick that it was necessary to scrape it from the skin bottles in which it was contained and to dissolve the scrapings in water” (quoted in Nott’s Lectures on Biblical Temperance, p. 80). The poet Horace, born in 65 b.c., wrote, “There is no wine sweeter to drink than that of Lesbos; it was like nectar . . . and would not produce intoxication.”

“The Mishna [a collection of oral Jewish traditions] states that the Jews were in the habit of drinking boiled wine” (Kitto’s Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, vol. 2, p. 447). Naturally, this wine would be entirely free of alcohol as a result of the boiling, if not also from the manner of preservation.

In his commentary on the Gospel of John, Albert Barnes wrote, “The wine of Judea was the pure juice of the grape, without any mixture of alcohol. It was the common drink of the people and did not produce intoxication.” And Adam Clarke, commenting on Genesis 40:11, wrote, “From this we find that wine anciently was the mere expressed juice of the grape without fermentation. The saky, or cupbearer, took the bunch [of grapes], pressed the juice into the cup, and instantly delivered it into the hands of his master. This was anciently the yayin [wine] of the Hebrews, the oinos [wine] of the Greeks, and the mustum [wine] of the ancient Latins.” Clarke’s comments agree with the Scripture that declares “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, ‘Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it’ ”

(Isaiah 65:8, NKJV).

Source: http://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/what-are-historical-and-scriptural-facts-about-fermented-drinks-bible

Four Watches of the Night

Goethe knew the secret of the four watches of the night. The second part of Faust opens with Ariel directing the spirits who are to take it in turns to rule them :

Then the chorus of spirits weave together the magical utterances of the four-night watches in the Serenade, Notturno, Mattutino, and Reveil. [Reveille Old French Reviel to again awake]

"Four watches night hath - ere her fading
Pause not-let each with kindly deeds be rife.
And first, lay ye his head on the cool pillow, 
Bathe him in dew from Lethe's water drawn. 
Soon will the cramp-racked limbs be lithe as willow, 
If new refreshed he sleep to meet the dawn.
Fulfil the fairest elfin rite,
Give him again to the holy light."

-Goethe 

Serenade

When soft breezes swell, and vagrant 
Haunt the green-embosomed lawn, 
Twilight sheds its spices fragrant, 
Sinks its mists like curtains drawn, 
Breathes sweet peace, his heart composes 
Like a child's that rests from play, 
On his eyes so weary, closes 
Soft the portals of the day. 

In the Notturno (second watch) the soul of Faust sees in his body the glimmering reflection of the Stars. . . " Glassed within the lake they glimmer Gleam in Night's unclouded round." 

Notturno

Now the Night more deeply darkles, 
Linketh holy star to star. 
Mighty torches, tiny sparkles, 
Glimmer near and gleam afar. 
Glassed within the lake they glimmer, 
Gleam in Night's unclouded round ; 
Throned aloft the moon's full shimmer 
Seals the bliss of peace profound. 

. . . In the Mattutino, the healing of the body is accomplished "Now the hours are spent and over, Weal and woe are swept away. Dream of health ; thou wilt recover Trust the gleam of new-born day!"

Mattutino

Now the hours are spent and over,
Weal and woe are swept away.
Dream of health ! Thou wilt recover !
Trust the gleam of new-born day !
Vales grow green, and swell like pillows
Hills to shady rest that woo,
And in swaying silver billows
Waves the corn the harvest to.

The future is indicated :
"And in swaying silver billows Waves the corn the harvest to."

When the morning comes, sleep, as the Reveil says, is now a shell that has to be cast away. Sleep has enveloped us like a covering. But the real man, the spiritual individuality, now re-enters the heart- "Who is wise and swift to seize" again his opportunity within the heaven-reflecting earthly body, and casts the shell of sleep away.

Reveil

Wish on wish wouldst compass crowded,
Lift thine eyes to yon bright steep.
Only softly art thou shrouded,
Cast away the shell of sleep ! Falter not !
Thine heart embolden
When the throng faint-hearted flees.
Naught is from the brave withholden
Who is wise and swift to seize.

Ariel commands the spirits of the night to disappear; the waking man may not know nor hear them in the watches of the day, lest he should become deaf to the call of his earthly tasks.

"The twenty-four hours were once divided into the so-called Four Watches : four of the night and four of the day, each watch consisting of three hours. The first watch of the night - 6-9, the second 9-12, the third 12-3, and the fourth, 3-6.

"Probably between 12 and 3 (midnight), the Earth's inhalation of the chemical ether is complete and the Sun has quite withdrawn its warmth and light. During this third watch of the night one could say that man's physical body is most deeply asleep, the life-forces contracted into the inner organs ; while the soul is " expanded " into its heavenly consciousness.

"Freed from its entanglement in the senses it becomes aware of the fundamentally spiritual quality of the bodily organs and processes. They are like mirrors, reflecting their spiritual archetypes, - in the words of St. Paul, " as in a glass darkly,"- so that in sleep all the disharmonies that are there as a consequence of human error, are seen in relation to their original purity.

"During the gradual return of consciousness, which may occur in the fourth watch, the future glimmers into the past, - (which has been remembered and re-lived unconsciously in the second watch of the night) - and from this union of the past and future, the present once more asserts its existence.

Consciousness returns at first through the limbs, then rises slowly through the body. One is not completely awake until the whole process is finished, about the third watch of the day. Then the waking man has reached the end of his daily "in-breathing."

"A process is taking place in the Earth's environment in day and night which is similar. It is well known that then atmospheric currents cause a kind of reversal of temperature levels. The work of Dr. Wachsmuth gives calculations, diagrams, etc., showing that these processes are due to the respective suctional. and centrifugal movements of the ether, which constitute the breathing of the Earth's organism, and the interplay of terrestrial and cosmic influences upon one another.

"Although the descending and ascending of the chemical ether and the corresponding ascending and descending of the warmth ether, together constitute the Earth's breathing, and its "circulation," yet the former is carried out by the Earth itself, while the latter is under the direct influence of the Sun. Here the life of the Earth and the life of man correspond, because man can control his breathing, but not his circulation.

"But an apparent difference between man and the Earth is that the normal human being is only capable of being either asleep or awake at the same time; while the Earth can "sleep" or "wake" both together. What is outbreathing on one side of the Earth is in-breathing on the other : when it is day in England for instance, it is night in Australia. For the whole round of the Earth-not one part of it alone-possesses what is called heliotropism the "eternal striving towards the Sun." Man possesses this too, and every creature. But in man it can become a conscious spiritual striving."

Reference: The Year & its Festivals, Eleanor C. Merry

The twelve-hour day was divided into four periods of three hours each. The town bell rang at four intervals during the day to signal the time to all who could hear. The first hour, called Prime, rang at 6:00 a.m.; hour three (Terce) rang at 9:00 a.m.; hour six (Sext) rang at 12:00 p.m.; and hour nine (None) rang at 3:00 p.m.

The early Catholic Church adopted these daily patterns in their rituals, and monks recited prayers at the canonical hours of terce, sext and none, every day.

What does this have to do with “noon”? Well, the word for the ninth hour, specifically the ninth hour of daylight, so 3:00, became “non” in Old English. As church traditions changed, the canonical hours of “non” began to happen earlier, closer to 12:00 p.m.

We still don’t know if the time of the midday meal shifted from 3:00 to 12:00 or whether the time of Church prayers shifted, or both, but by the early 1200s, “noon” came to mean midday. In the 1300s, the earliest mechanical clocks showed a 24-hour dial, but by the 1500s, the 12-hour dial, starting at midnight, became standard. (The word afternoon came into common usage around this time as well.)