The first career path that caught my fancy was being a missionary. I spent third through sixth grade attending a small school that was ran by the church my family were members of, namely, the Seventh Day Adventist Church.For those of you who don’t know much about this church, it does have a very active missionary program all over the world. Every thirteenth Sabbath, during the church service, we were shown a slide show from one of the missionary fields. I was always fascinated by the places they would highlight and thought it would be a great thing to do with my life. You could say I was pulled to this idea by the adventure aspect of going to other lands and living amongst the native population. A few years after moving to a new state, transferring into public schools, and the death of my father showed me that this was not the path I wanted to take. So, I totally forgot about it.

Concurrent with my thoughts of becoming a missionary was the idea that I would like to be a doctor. I knew they made a lot of money and helped people when they were ill. My father’s illness played a little in this line of thinking, if I could become a doctor I could help my father get better. The thing that threw me off this path was the first time I had to dissect a creature for school. Again, I was still attending the small, church ran school and the teacher knew we had crawdads in a stream less than a mile from the school. We caught some and cut them open to see what made them tick. I don’t clearly remember the whole experience, but I do know I lost my lunch during the procedure. If a little creature like that made me sick, then I assumed human insides would be worse.

After giving up dreams of being a doctor, I began thinking I wanted to be a rancher like my grandfather. Sure it was hard work, but from my point of view there really wasn’t any work to it. You got up way early in the morning, took care of the cattle near the homestead, then you went out checked the herd roaming the pastures. You checked fences and harvested the feed each fall for the rest of the year. When you were done checking the cattle and didn’t have any planting or harvesting to do, you had a lot of free time to do what you wanted to do. When we moved away from the ranch and settled in a small town, all thoughts of being a rancher vanished. This was probably a good thing, as ranching is much more difficult than I imagined and it is getting harder for family ranchers to make ends meet every year.

After taking up town life, I was exposed to a whole new culture and we had something we never had before. Cable. I soon was sucked into all sorts of television shows and got this wild idea that I might want to be an actor. Back in the small school I attended, I was in several plays, even having a leading roll in one. It was fun and I loved being in front of people and entertaining them. Then I started public school. So many people and others who wanted to be in plays that I shrunk away from the whole business of wanting to perform in front of large groups of people. I’m lucky I passed the required Speech Classes.

Today, I’m in a career that is not what I want to do with the rest of my life. I still don’t know what I want to do IF I grow up, but I’m having fun figuring it out. Thinking back on things, there is one career that I aspired to when I was around eight years old, that of being a writer. I still would love to be a writer and make money at it, but for now I’m happy to be an unpaid hack, trying to break my way into the big time. Some day. If I grow up.

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Sure, there are books available on the market today by prominent writers such as Orson Scott Card and Stephen King that provide good advice to writers. A search of your favorite book portal will reveal hundreds of books on the subject, but why pay for something that you could otherwise get for free.

Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases by Grenville Kleiser
Here is a good source of inspiration for your writing. All you need to do is look through the quotes and very soon you will find something that will kick your Muse in the butt and get you chiseling on that writer’s block. What makes this a great book to use is that fact that it was originally published in 1917 and some of the modes of speech used before then are no longer in use today. They really make you think sometimes.

Short Story Writing by Charles Raymond Barrett

This is an excellent work for those interested in writing short stories. Full of great advice, I cannot recommend this book enough. What you learn here can be used in all your fictional writing.

Five Hundred Mistakes of Daily Occurrence in Speaking, Pronouncing, and Writing by Anonymous

English and grammar are two things that can vex even the most experienced word-smith, that is where this book comes in handy.  For example:

“John and Henry both read well, but John is the best reader:” say, the better reader, as best can be properly used only when three or more persons, or objects, are compared.

Sure, it seems like small stuff, but it does really make a difference.

The Technique of Fiction Writing by Robert Saunders Dowst

After reading Barrett’s book above, move on to this one. This book goes into more detail and helps those who are interested in writing a full novel rather than a short story. The tenth chapter, on the portrayal of character, has really helped me in developing a better narrative surrounding my Main Characters and Supporting Cast.

The Century Handbook of Writing by Garland Greever and Easley S. Jones

The copyright for this work in 1928. Some things have changed a little over the years, but for the most part this book is still relevant today. Those who have had the misfortune of reading my non-edited works know I need to read this book from cover to cover.

The Writing of the Short Story by Lewis Worthington Smith

This work appears to be a textbook, which makes it easier to follow the progression in developing a short story more logical. I haven’t read this one yet, but will in the near future. If anyone has read it, I would be interested in you views on it.

The following are useful for both fiction and non-fiction writers. They are more suited for those interested in writing articles for news blogs or magazines. They do also have some great ideas for how to organize research and how to go about finding leads for stories. I have not even looked at these works, so will not attempt to write a synopsis for each. Check them out, let me know if they should be included in the list.

News Writing by M. Lyle Spencer

Newspaper Reporting and Correspondence by Grant Milnor Hyde

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The story is centered on a hidden city called Leviathan that lies deep within the dark trenches of the Pacific Ocean. The city is home to a community of immortals that sought to create a utopia over 1,000 years ago. For a millennia, they lived in peace and secrecy, gently influencing world events to aid the advancement of mankind. But a terrible secret has been kept deep within the catacombs of Leviathan that threatens the existence of the immortals, and quite possibly the entire world.

Leviathan City

One woman named Macallan Orsel, a young genetic scientist in New York, discovers she is descended from a group of immortals that rebelled against Leviathan and are now waging a civil war around the globe. As the immortal war spills into the realm of mortal man, Macallan realizes that she holds the key to stopping the battle and bringing peace to Leviathan. But a clandestine government agency called The Blackdoor Group is trying to exterminate the immortal population and has identified Macallan as their critical target.

As a huge fan of Old Time Radio drama, I was hooked from the beginning on this podcast. Christof Laputka shows us how Orsin Wells would of done things if he had access today’s technology. I can’t begin to tell you how much this show rocks. And along with most of the episodes, there is a behind the scenes show that gives you a chance to listen to thoughts and comentary by the director, author, and some of the cast. If you really like the new Battle Star Galactica or are a fan of William C. Dietz, you will love this podcast! Be sure to listen carefully for surprise special guests towards the end of the first season.

What makes this show stand out for me is the quality of the production and the enormous cast of characters. It really comes to life and The author’s real life experience help you get the feeling you are there.  Listen to the trailer below, then go check it out, you won’t be sorry.

The Leviathan Chronicles ★★★★★

Written and Created by Chistof Laputka.
Directed by Nobi Nakanishi

The Leviathan Chronicles Trailer

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Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

—-Chaosmatrix

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Rocky Mountain or Prarie Oysters

the cattle and the ranch, had a deal with a local restaurant where we would bring them the bucket to be processed and cooked for the family and those who helped with the branding. So, at the age of six, I had my first taste of Rocky Mountain Oysters.

After the testicles are washed and peeled they’re usually coated in flour and deep fried whole, or sliced and cooked in a frying pan. The idea of ever cooking these up was invented by your old-time  cowboys who used to throw them whole on a stove and cook them until they popped.

Yes, they were probably the most disgusting food I’ve ever had, but on the whole they weren’t too bad. But, then again, with enough horseradish and ketchup, you can make anything taste good.

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fresco at the Karlskirche in vienna (by Johann Michael Rottmayr)

So Elohim created man in his own image,
in the image of Elohim he created him;
male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

It is my intention in this article to uncover and expose the semantic, historical, and theological truth behind this third divine person of the Christian Trinity. I am aided in this by scriptural and semantic evidence, as well as sound theology. I will first refute Mary’s conception ‘by the spirit’ and my arguments behind this stance; I will then present a more accurate (meaning, gendered) depiction of the Holy Ghost than the traditional one based on the historical Jesus‘ teachings and scriptural, historical and mythological evidence.

Get it Right! Ruach is not a Boy’s Name! (Good News according to Phillip)

The idea that the Holy Ghost intervened in Jesus’ virgin birth is met with open hostility in the gospels of the Nag Hammadi collection, where Phillip the Apostle even says: “when did a woman ever conceive of another woman?”, which is a clear reference to the Ruach, or Holy Spirit. This is the one time in the Christian scriptures where the Holy Ghost is refered to clearly and directly as a ‘woman’. It is no wonder that Phillip’s gospel is excluded from the patriarchal canon, which was organized by the Pauline School.

The term ‘Ruach’, which is the word used by Jesus to refer to the Spirit, is a feminine Aramaic term translated as the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost in English, which came through Latin as the Spiritus Sanctus. The (Pauline influenced) Romanization of Christianity brought about the masculinization of the Ruach, whose feminine gender is CENTRAL to the Christian mystery, and I will explain why later in my article.

In Romance languages, words have gender, that is, they are gramatically considered either masculine (as in EL hombre: the man, or EL carro: the car) or feminine (as in LA mujer: the woman, or LA casa: the house). The same applies to the Latin language. The Latin word spiritus is a masculine word. But the original, semitic word that was used by Yeshua, the rabbi we know as Jesus, was Ruach, and this is a feminine gendered word. Ruach is the (female) Spirit, the Soul, the accurately gendered Latin translation of which should have probably been Anima. This is the term that Jungians are now using to refer to the inner feminine, or the Divine Feminine. In translating Ruach as spiritus, the association remained between soul and breath, but the original gender of the divine being that Jesus refered to as Ruach was changed.

Phillip, who walked with the historical Jesus, was in fact adamantly rejecting the view of the Pauline School and other Christians on the Holy Ghost and the fathering of Jesus by this agent, because Ruach is a female.

Keep in mind that Paul never met Jesus or heard his teachings in person. For this reason, Paul’s teachings, particularly where they entirely divorce themselves from Jewish tradition, may have been an affront to many traditional Jewish followers who were more familiar than him with the teachings of the historical Jesus and knew Paul’s theology to be contradictory to that of their Messiah.

Paul’s view reflects a strong gentile influence, particularly where he constructed a Christian theology almost identical to Orpheic Dionysian religion, which is a Greek Mystery Tradition. Anyone who knows about the Orpheic tradition will agree with me that the Christian theology that the Pauline School produced was a new form of Orpheism: a mortal is born of a virgin, performs superhuman feats, dies and is miraculously reborn, and becomes a Man-God. He is the new Dionysus, the Son of God (Theos, or Zeus), the God of wine who initiates mortals in the mysteries of wine, and the one who brings, with his mysteries, a promise of a better lot in the afterlife. Jesus himself said: I am the Vine. Jesus himself established his identity within the context of a Dionysian mystery.

The religions of Dionysus and the Christ are even observed similarly, via mysteries known as sacraments. In the Old Testament, and in Jewish tradition, the idea of ‘mysteries’ apparently does not exist. Mysteries were central to Greek paganism, and they’re defined as sacraments, or ritual events, often of an initiatory nature, that produce an ineffable experience. It’s only when belief in Jesus’ salvific religion is proclaimed that we read of mysteries in the Bible. Before the idea of salvation, there were no mysteries in the Essenean form of Judaism that Jesus and John the Baptist practiced.

The Christian sacraments clearly derive from the Greek Mysteries, and share some similarities with the Dionysian and even the Eleusinian mysteries. We need only look at the Dionysian and Orpheic consumption of goat meat or bread and wine in order to attain communion with the Son of God (Dionysus) to see a clear pattern which all salvific religions share: the consumption of the sacrificial victim implies one’s participation in his salvation and grace, and this is how one benefits from the man-god’s sacrificial merit.

Having lived among gentiles his whole life, Paul must have been familiar with their theologies and beliefs, and was quite brilliant in his retelling of the Jesus myth in line with the more familiar tradition of Greek heroes and men-gods, which was an appealing theme to Greeks and other gentiles. In fact, mystery religions were in the process of replacing traditional, classical paganism throughout the Mediterranean.

The Pauline salvific faith is, therefore, not entirely contradictory to the Essene Jewish teachings of Jesus, but Paul’s mysteries or sacraments erase the memory of an important early Christian person: the Holy Ghost. And it is here that Phillip takes a stand against Christians who don’t understand the true, original Christian teachings, and are perpetuating false doctrines.

Keeping in mind that Phillip (unlike Paul) walked with the historical Jesus and heard the teachings directly from his mouth, we have to interpret Phillip’s remark in his gospel as meaning that the Pauline School was teaching a false doctrine that contradicted what Jesus taught while alive. This means that there is a Goddess, which is hidden or silenced in the Christian tradition, and that the Holy Ghost is a woman. It also means that there is another explanation, other than our familiar inmaculate conception, for Mary’s virgin birth. The theological implications of this for Christians are many. Let’s look within the Bible for references of the Holy Ghost.

The Waters of Life

Jesus hints at the Holy Ghost’s gender when he refers to his ‘mother’ in heaven, and compares her in the Nag Hammadi gospels to his earthly mother, saying his earthly mother gave him death but his heavenly mother gave him life. He also mentions that his followers are to be born again of the Ruach or Anima, and he speaks of baptism as a ritual of rebirthing, where we are BORN again of the water. Everyone knows there is no birth without a womb, without a mother. Jesus explains this so that the gender of the Ruach is not only incidental, but central and crucial to the mystery of baptism, and the one being baptised is reborn as a child of the Holy Ghost, he or she is born again of the Holy Ghost, a son of the Goddess. I have presented all these facts to conclude that Jesus, and his rabbi John the Baptist, both of whom were Essenes, were beyond a shadow of a doubt teaching a form of Goddess spirituality and a Goddess mystery tradition WITHIN Judaism, and that the Ruach’s status as a Divine WOMAN was central to the true mystery and meaning of baptism (3).

Like all initiations, in the baptism performed by John the Baptist and the Essenes, the old self must die and one is reborn again. The Gospel of Phillip sheds light on this mystery when it teaches us that ‘a horse can only beget a horse, a man can only beget a human, and a god can only beget a god’. This further illuminates what it means to be ‘born of the Ruach’. If the Ruach is spirit, then one reborn from Her becomes spirit and shares her divine, immortal nature, and receives the Holy Ghost as his mother. This new relationship between humans and the Ruach is one of the things that identifies the new Christian community and Christian mysticism.

The mystery of baptism is clearly a Goddess mystery, where the sacred waters grant us new life just as they did in Genesis. In fact, the creation myth that we find in Genesis is based on an earlier, Sumerian myth where the Sumerian Father God (El) and Mother Goddess (Asherah) (1) copulate at the beginning of creation. We know of the identity between the God of Abraham and the Heavenly King in Sumerian myth from the name: El. Most prophets and angels in Jewish traditions have names that end in -el, such as Daniel, Gabriel, Mikael, etc. This is a reference to El, the Sumerian God, with whom Abraham believed to have made a pact or covenant that extended to all his descendants. Abraham came from Ur, where El was the main God, even if one among many.

We also know of the identity between the Holy Ghost and the Asherah because both are the waters of life. Lady Wisdom, in the Bible, says that She existed before creation and witnessed it, which means that She is non-created, and therefore her nature is divine. In the Sumerian myth, the spirit of El is hovering over the Asherah, and they are copulating. In the Genesis myth, the waters of life are no longer personified, and we see a plain sea where the Sumerians saw a watery primal Goddess. But the myth, otherwise, is almost identical. Asherah is the consort of the God of Abraham, the co-Creator, and this must have been the reason why Jewish women used to commit transgresions against the prophets’ warnings and pray to Her during early Judaism, because they saw their pagan cousins and neighbors praying to her alongside their more familiar God, and they knew that they had a spiritual Mother who had been stolen from them by patriarchal Jewish religious authorities. Lynn Gottlieb makes the point that had Jewish women -as opposed to Jewish men- written the Bible, the story of the evolution of their religious thinking would have been told very differently.

In the African Yoruba tradition, known as Santeria in the diaspora, there is a type of once in a lifetime initiation where a mortal becomes a priest of an Orisha, which resonates with the Christian baptismal Goddess mystery. One of the many rituals that has to take place before initiation is, as in Eleusis, a ritual bath. This takes place in the river, as Oshun is the Goddess of the sweet waters of life, of fertility, and of the rivers. Oshun’s name means ‘source’, and like Asherah She is a water Goddess. She is therefore identical to the pre-Biblical the Sea Goddess hinted in Genesis only as a de-personified metaphor in her role as the initiator in a new spiritual dispensation. Once the initiate has bathed in Oshun’s waters and once he has been cleansed of his past crimes, he is fit for rebirth. In Eleusis, the ritual bath and sacrifices also took place before the initiates entered the Telesterion and underwent the more important secret rites. I won’t get into any more details as it’s not within the scope of this article, but Yoruba religion is the only pagan mystery religion which has existed consistently and without interruption since pagan times.

Then have them make a sanctuary for me, that my Shekinah may dwell among them.
Exodus 25:8

The Jewish Holy Ghost is known as Shekinah. Her name means ‘presence’, and according to Lynn Gottlieb (2), her descent among the Jews seems to have been the fulfilment of the terms of the alliance between the God of Abraham and the Jewish people. Hence, the Ark of the Alliance was built so that She may dwell among them.

In the Christian tradition, some of the boons of the Holy Ghost include creativity, inspiration, counsel, and the transformation of both the individual and the culture by its grace. These are all attributes of Divinity that are associated with the Shekinah, and these have become evident in the modern Goddess movement which accentuates the importance of intuition and creativity. They also are in line with the Jungian concept of Anima as the Inspirer, and with scriptural references to Sophia, or Divine Wisdom in Proverbs, Wisdom, and other books of the Bible. In her attributes and roles, the Ruach, the Shekinah, Sophia and the modern pagan Goddess seem to be one and the same.

I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
Proverbs 8:23

In the scriptures, Wisdom (Sophia, in Greek) is the Lady that inspires men to be good, righteous, and wise, and to perform virtuous deeds. She is the Goddess of philosophers (literally, ‘lovers of Wisdom’), King Salomon seems to have been inebriated with Her beauty and power, and the eigth chapter of Proverbs is the one chapter in all of the Bible where She speaks for herself, in the first person.

In our day, the Ecclesia Gnostica and Essene reconstructionist groups are celebrating Christian tradition in a way that is truer to the original form than the orthodox, more familiar forms of Christianity. Other, more mainstream churches have also stepped in and, mainly with insights from the Nag Hammadi library and the Dead Sea scrolls, are revisioning Christianity in a way that will help it stay true to the original spirit in which these mysteries were taught. They also are coming to terms with the fact that there were various original forms of Christianity and that there was a struggle for power between these different schools, which is only normal in all human institutions. This may indicate a need for research beyond the politics and the egoes involved in the process of distilling a Bible and a Christian tradition that was acceptable to all. I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide these efforts to retell Her story and revitalize the culture. Peace,

Saadaya

Notes:
1. The descent of the Holy Ghost upon Jesus is described in Matthew 3:16, where the ‘signal’ that is given is a dove. Anyone familiar with Sumerian, Phoenician, and Canaanite religions will be reminded -and surely Jews in those days were – of Asherah, the Mother Goddess, whose sacred symbol is a dove, and who was worshipped alongside the Father God El as his consort by the neighbors of the Jews. Unfortunately whenever a (usually feminist) theologian dares look beyong the Judeo Christian tradition in her work, she’s usually considered an anthropologist instead of a theologian, but in the case of the Asherah the evidence linking her and the Divine Feminine in the Jewish and Christian traditions is strong enough that it’s almost impossible to miss.
2. Lynn Gottlieb is a brilliant feminist theologian who wrote ‘She Who Dwells Within’.
3. The Catholic and other churches that perform baptism shortly after birth have forgotten the true nature of the baptismal mystery. The person being baptised must be mature in order to experience transformation. There is another, also important, ritual which has replaced the true baptismal mystery in the Christian tradition: that of naming a newborn and welcoming him into the community. It is important that a newborn be presented to the elders in a community in order to ensure that they will take an interest in him and protect and guide him. Freya Aswynn, in fact, mentions that there seemed to be a form of ‘baptism’ in Northern Europe * before * Christianity was officialized. The Havamal contains the instructions for this ritual, where water is sprinkled on the child and the rune EIHWAZ is chanted. This is a protective rune. The ritual of welcoming a child into the community by sprinkling of water also exists among the Yoruba, so that it seems to exist in several cultures that engage in ancestor reverence. While this is an important ceremony, it serves quite a different purpose from the baptism that we see in the Bible. Jesus himself was not baptised until he was 30, and baptism was only performed if the person made a decision to enter the New Covenant.

Saadya’s works have vanished from the World Wide Web, it is not my intent to claim any of this work as my own.

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“When late morning rolls around and you're feeling a bit out of sorts, don't worry; you're probably just a little eleven o'clockish.”

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The early shows were limited to the hosts, Rish Outfield and Big Anklevich, reading the stories and trying desperately to come up with the voices and accents for the characters in the stories. Now, they have a pool of readers they can call upon to help them out. The other cool thing, that is lacking in a lot of this type of podcasting, is the use of sound effects. This, too, has improved from overpowering to being supportive. They have a lot of first time authors, which makes the flavor their stories all the more enjoyable. At the end of each story, the hosts will discuss what they liked about it and what impressions they got from it.

Aside from the hosts, there are two others who appear in every show, these are “Annoucer Man” and their ficticious editor droid, R80T R08ot. These two soundboard member of the crew appear mostly in the second part of each show, which have Big and Rish bantering over topics including writing, movies, tv shows, and other geeky topics. Not putting this part of the show down. In fact, its the part of the show I look forward to the most in each episode. Poor Rish is usually ganged up on by Big and R80T, but it is all part of the package and done in good taste, most of the time. However, be warned, this part of the show is often longer than the story.

The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine ★★★★

The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Podcast

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1. High Volume of Traffic: Every fledgling blogger thinks that they can start a blog and, like in that Kevin Costner film, the people will come flocking to read whatever the blogger feels like throwing out into the World Wide Web. If only that were true. This blog has a rather low readership, averaging around four hits per day since migrating to it’s current server. That does not mean there are never more than that, on occasion traffic will spike to as many as 60 hits. Realistically, the chances that a blog will go viral are about as good as hitting the lottery. Blogging for fame should not be goal of any blogger.
2. Earning Money from Blogging: We’ve seen all sorts of claims that there are ways of making money from your blog; the problem again is hitting that magical state where you have a popular blog that people will actually visit and feel like clicking on an advertisement banner or two are about as likely as hitting the lottery. Blogging purely to make money is a fiasco from the get go.Some experts suggest not monitizing you blog until you have a large following, others will tell you to begin using ads from the beginning. This blog does not make much from the advertisements it displays. In fact, most of the ads you see are displayed gratis and mostly just links to things that the authors find interesting. Can you make money blogging?, yes. Will you make money blogging?, most likely no. You might want to read a previous post on this topic.
3. Repeat Visitors: Chances are that your blogging attempts will only garner a low audience, hardly ever will you have repeat visitors (if you disregard your friends and family coming by to see your blog). Until you gain more traffic, your blog will most likely fly well below the radar of most of the Blogosphere’s trending sites such as digg, Technorati, etc. There are, however, exceptions to this, see next point.
4. Real Comments: About the only repeat visitors you will receive, this goes for popular and under the radar blogs, are a horde of spam cementers. Finding comments to your blog posts that contain any real meat will be hard for quite some time. Unless you have a few points that no one has written before on a subject or have something to add to those ideas already out there, you will most likely get no comments at all on your blog. Unless your brother or best friend cruise by and want to add their three cents worth, that is. Just don’t sweat it, even the mightiest blogger has posts that barely get a whisper.
5. Referrals: Wouldn’t it be great to have links to your blog all over the Internet? Of course it would, that is why there are services that make it so you can generate links on other blogs and web sites to hopefully enhance your Search Engine Rank. A lot of these referral sites are either too complicated to work or do not provide an ethical way of generating traffic. If the referrals come, let them. Just don’t try and force them.

When it comes to blogging, just one word of advice. Blog for the pure enjoyment of blogging, don’t worry how popular your blog is. If you enjoy blogging, then keep at it. If you don’t, then bale out while you can.

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