I suck For Not Posting More, But These Make Up For It

Yeah Yonder Mountain String Band!







Yeah original Jimmy Cliff!

A post after too wide of a gap and my continued reading and commentary on Quran.

So my absences have been long on here, even though I am still using blogspot a lot to read other people's blogs. I have been doing a lot of creative writing, so it is not as if I have been neglecting my writing goals.

I would love to use this site more for my journal and non-fiction reading. I shall try harder, as we proceed into the future.

Here is my continued reading of the Quran.

Section A: Over View 


Section 20.

164, seems to be an exaltation of the natural world, with observations on how the rain brings life out of a dead earth, the shifting of night of day, and the sailing of ships. Importantly it tells us that there signs from the sky, that wise people are able to discern.

165 talks about men who take other things beside God, for worship and make them equal to God. The unfaithful person, it states, doesn't recognize the Penalty which God will exact.  The foot-note suggests that the lesson here is that there is a unity of design present everywhere and that certain menn deliberately ignore this evidence.

166 explains that those worshipers of false idols, having seen the penalty, will find that their relations with the false idol quickly dissolve,

167 explains that these worshipers of false ideas, will beg for one more chance, after losing their interactions to the false idol, and will basically come crawling back to the one true God, and it explains that there will be no way for them back from the "fire".

The Commentary after basically states that to avoid all this there must be laws, that extend from external principles. All these laws ethical prescriptions sounds great and if followed would create a better world.


Section 21.

168 instructs us not to follow in the footsteps of the Evil One, who is our avowed enemy.

169 says that the Evil One commands us to do evil, and to speak things about God which we have no knowledge

170 states that many want to hold to the beliefs of their Fathers, but the Quran states that the Fathers were without wisdom and guidance.

171 says that those who reject the Faith are like a deaf, dumb, and blind herds of goats that do not respond to shouted commands.

172 demands that believers eat of the good things of the world, and give worship to God

173 gets into some dietary prohibitions against carrion and the rite of Takbir

174 condemns those who conceal and profit from prohibited items revealed in God's book, and says they will not receive mercy on Judgment Day.

175 further elaborates upon the level of wrong doing when one sins, within and fully aware of the divine command, and how it would be a suffering like swallowing fire.

176 explains that God sent the book not to confuse and provide a tool for schemers, but to lay out a simple code, and so those that complicate the matter for profit are in big trouble!

Section B: My Response

I am interested in section 21.170, concerning the criticisms of the Father's old belief systems. I have been watching this documentary below, by Michael Tsarion "Irish Origins of Civilization",



and one idea he elaborates upon is that there is an active program in the Abraham religious tradition to destroy and eradicate people's ancient religious traditions. These lines in the Quran support this hypothesis. We see that Islam is competing with other belief systems, which pre-date it. We also see in this passage that the rejection of the ancient beliefs isn't from a rational perspective. We are not given a solid concrete argument as to what is unwise about these old beliefs, but rather told they basically that they lack wisdom, because they aren't the new monotheistic belief system. This type of circular logic is especially self-serving.

As always I enjoy and support the ethical prescriptions, but it sort of seems that the ethics are obvious and easy to accept, while this battle for ideas is a much more complicated affair.

I still hope to see more of the narrative, story, elements of the Quran as I move forward. I am always more interested in a story then abstract ethical considerations. Ethics in the abstract seem obvious, but it is the real life employment of an ethic where things become interesting. It is this exercise of the ethic that I think a lot of narrative is concerned with.

Cont. Reading of Qur'an Section 18 & 19

So I lied, I didn’t post the next day. It is hard to make yourself post every day. Anyways, I want to continue with my reading of the Qur’an. In this post I am going to explore Section 18 & 19.


I am noticing in these initial sections is that they seem to be attempting to smooth and reconilethe disparities, between Judaic and Christian traditions and Islam. Chapter 148 explains that all people as individuals have a certain goal, and that as societies we also have these goals. After this, it restates the message of the Qiblah.

After this the Qur’an states that the Apostle had been sent to led the people. One interesting thing of note is the fact that this is apostle is sent by the royal “We”. This plural form is also found in the Judaic texts, as well. Reconciling monotheism, within this language seems peculiar.

Section 19 has a lot more in it. Chapter 154 explains that those believers, who die for the tradition, are not really dead, “though ye perceive (it) not”.

Chapter 155 declares that the royal “We” shall being testing people, through the various things which bring trouble into our life, like hunger, loss, toil. The advice in dealing with these things is to “patiently preserve”. There seems to be some sort of relief laid out in chapter 157. There it is acknowledged that some will receive blessings, mercy, and guidance from God. One can assume that this person will be searching the Qur’an.


I thought chapter 158 was interesting. It goes:

Behold! Safa and Marwa

Are among the Symbols

of God. So if those who visit

the House in the Season

or at other times,

should compass them round,

it is no sin in them.

A foot note explains that Ishmael’s mother Hajar, praying for water, wandered around the two hills, and to her surprise, she discovered some water. This was somewhat of a confusing issue for Muslims, as the hills were the place of worship of some local Arab pagans. The footnote explains that much like the Ka’ba “the most sacred things may be turned to the basest uses”. I see this as another example of the attempt to reconcile question followers of Islam may have, about how their beliefs fit within a bigger picture.

Chapter 159 explains that things of been made clear to the People of the Book, and that their disbelief has brought a curse on them.

Chapter 160 explains the only answer is for those people to repent and turn towards the Truth.

Section twenty ends in this way…

New post concerning current readings, thoughts, and events AND one dose of the Koran every day

So I haven't blogged for about a month now. I wanted to write regularly here, but then school arrive and I didn't have the time. Even while I am in school I still liked to read a lot on my own. So between school reading, extra-curricular reading, and then “real” life I just couldn’t find the time. I am now done with school, for the immediate foreseeable future, so I will have much more time and this is what brings me back here.

I basically just want to blog my opinions, mainly focused on what I am reading and current events. I also want a place where I can link videos and websites and find other like blogs, with similar interest. I just want to regularly journal, and this is a good way to get it out.

Now that I am out of school, I am focused on three projects I would like to complete. One is inspired by a reference by Russell of “The Atheist Experience”, who mentioned on the show following a different blog, named Kifar or something, where the person was positing their daily reading response to the Qur'an. I thought this sounded like fun, and a good idea. I too have just started reading the Qur'an, and I think I would like to do a similar thing. This is the first time I'm reading the Koran as a whole. I have read detached portions, relevant to different classes on Islam that I have taken. From these classes I have a very basic understanding of Islam.

I respect Islam and the Qur'an, so I don’t seek to emphasize any particular agenda based reading. In other words, I don’t feel the need to emphasize what doesn’t make sense, or more generally I don’t feel the need to emphasize what I find different about the text. There is a sort of Islam phobia which exists in my society, which I would like to see done away with. I say this in response, sort of, to the recent “Draw Muhammad Day”, which was some sort of cultural statement. I would argue though that the majority of Americans heard nothing about the day and wouldn’t have wasted their time doing something so mean and pointless. Sure, you have the freedom to draw whatever you want, but this is different than the “Draw Muhammad Day”, that is just a day for bullying.


It is like sure, you can draw whatever you want, but drawing a picture of your grandma who has a giant goiter on her throat and then waving it in front of her face to upset her is being a bully, not an example of artistic expression. People that support that day are doing it to deliberately upset a group of people. All of this is a long way of saying I just want to read the Koran, out of a genuine interest and hope to learn something more about life, people, and the power of narrative.

So this was project one, which I will actually be starting at the bottom of this blog. So briefly, project two is going to be a serious of expeditions to the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Masonic Library. I want to report back what I find interesting here on this blog. I am doing preliminary research currently and beginning sometime next week, hopefully, I will make my first trip.


The third thing I want to start doing is attending more religious services in my local community. I hold more of an agnostic belief system, with a deep belief in spirituality, and I just want to witness and explore modern religious rituals. And obviously one way to do this would be to attend more religious services.

I am beginning with mainly Christian denominations, at first. This is not done out of any preference, but rather a choice from proximity. I live in so called Christian nation, and so that is what is around me. Much like my reading of the Qur'an, I am not initiating any of these projects out of some ulterior motive, but more because I just want to do some real research get more involved in actual experiences as opposed to getting my information largely through other people, in things like documentaries, books, etc. So that is what I hope to use this blog for…



To more relevant and specific comments, I just finished Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”. I have taken a couple classes which touched on this philosopher, and I found his philosophy ringing true. I found his style funny, sharp, and ultimately damning to the issues he addressed. I believe in the classes we covered “The Genealogy of Moral”, “Ecce Homo”, and “Beyond Good and Evil”, all of which I enjoyed. When I say thoroughly enjoy I don’t mean to say his writing has brought me a lot of pleasure. He certainly doesn’t engender much hope or peace. I actually find reading him discomforting, but it is the discomfort of growth or exercise, which is ultimately enjoyable.

“Thus Spoke Zarathustra” is an all together different kind of piece. I am a well-trained and energetic reader and plowing through this text was at times a challenge. There is a dream-like narrative told, which can create great moments but also sometimes it wandered to the point of incomprehensibility. And I like incomprehensibility, but still even in my most well intentioned heart, I was plagued with a growing apathy towards the text. All this said, it is a wholly relevant text for our current time and all should take up the challenge.

The book seems the fictional embodiment of the philosophers’ ideas, much like Voltaire’s “Candide” or Plato’s “Euthyphro”. This is actually a reoccurring technique in the history of philosophical texts, which produces an interesting circularity, with the philosophical ideas in which the philosophy is taken, deduced from the experience, but then through the narrative the philosopher attempts to reintegrate the philosophy in a new world. One question I had from “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, was Zarathustra himself, supposed to be the ideal representation of a philosopher? Or the supposed ideal of a life itself? Nietzsche himself is aware of the tension between critiquing the operating systems of value and attempting to assert your own theory of evaluation, so it makes me wonder.


Beyond these more meta-textual considerations, the book does provide a good source for critiques of the operating values systems. In other words, the social critique, or anyone else with right motivations, will find a solid source of motivation in this text. Nietzsche is at his most poetical and metaphorical. In other works Nietzsche employed the tool of aphorisms, but there is a poetic quality, unique to this text as well. As described, this is the narrative, figurative, metaphorical, poetical quality.


I watched a really interesting BBC documentary entitled “All Too Human”,




, and in it researchers discuss how by the end of his life Nietzsche was a sickly, mad man. I say this with all due respect, but from studying his work it does seem to imbue the reader with a similar dread. I think this dread is worthwhile to explore and become comfortable with. It is interesting that this life, which can to seem to have so much value and worth and one moment, can quickly become perverted and deconstructed to an unrecognizable and incompatible degree the next.


I think there is a challenge in Nietzsche, akin to the modern day troll of the internet, where Nietzsche as a  challenger stands as prophet of doom and deconstruction. This negative force of deconstruction is paradoxically a force of positive change. It seems, perhaps to intellectual discourses’ detriment, that people are only motivated by things which they can hate and attack. Benign things in discourse become ineffectual. In this sense then Nietzsche is appropriating the necessary tools for the job.

The job of course is multi-facetted. I hesitate to layout an ideology and call it Nietzsche’s, or even to label and describe the philosophy of the text itself. The truth is to be discovered in the journey itself. I will say, with some confidence, that the most basic point is that our current moral systems represent agendas, not truths. This is easy to recognize on an individual level. It is easy to see that what I find good is connected to what I desire and that what is bad is connected to what I don’t desire. Therefore morality is matter of desire, but Nietzsche is not offering some hedonistic ethic. Our desires are not obviously connected to pleasure and pain. Some find pain desirable, others find pleasurable things undesirable.

Nietzsche demonstrates how this moral understanding functions on a macro, societal level as well. This means that group desires function to create societal normative standards, meaning there will most likely be a battle of normative standards, based on the variety of perspective, from the variety of groups you find.

Nietzsche sees a larger historical story here. Now we have to ask a question is there over-simplification at a point in Nietzsche’s story, maybe not even over-simplification, but a specificity which can appear harsh or even racist. Readers of Nietzsche will understand my tip-toeing.

Plainly speaking, Nietzsche can come across as anti-Semitic and anti-Christian. Nietzsche can be read as an aristocratic, elitist, who is hateful towards the vulgar masses. Nietzsche undoubtedly does believe a vulgar morality has emerged victor in this battle for the moral value system, manifested in a Judaic, Christian ethic.

I can hear the crickets chirping, as my Nietzsche rants continues, so I will end it. Final words, read “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, you will probably be pissed and have a lot to think about.


Last thing Reading Response to Qur’an Section 17


       I am starting at section 17 because that was the section I was at when I decided to blog my reading. This was an interesting section, it discussed the Islamic tradition decision to face towards the East. For reference I am reading “The Qur’an: Text, Translation and Commentary” by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. I am not sure about the history of translation when it comes to the Koran, so hopefully this is an appropriate translation.

So the issue in section 17 is the Qiblah, which is the direction Muslims faced in prayer. I also read in this section in footnote 140, that Nas is a word that means people, I thought of this in light of rap artist Nas and the connection between the meaning of the word and his own ideals.

What is interesting in this section, is how this turning of orientation from west to east, is a significant religious declaration. It was a visual and actual symbol for Islam’s new orientation. Section 143 of the Qur’an states:

…We appointed the the Qiblah

to which thou was used,

only to test those who followed

the Apostle from those

who would turn on their heels

(from the Faith).

Not only does the Qiblah operate as a symbol of the unity of the Muslim brotherhood but it is also a test of sorts of the Apostle, presumably to see if he will "get it" or not. On the first point, it is obvious to see the power and effect of a people assuming the same modes of behavior in  prayers and rituals. This mass acceptance of the ritual surely validates, and emboldens an individual’s beliefs.

The second point is a little harder to understand. The idea that this decision of orientation reflects an ability of the individual to decipher the truth seems like a tough standard. One could argue the original Judaic orientation towards the West, is the default position, and so one would ask by what standard do we make the determination to orient ourselves in a different manner.

One answer provided by chapter 144 is that one reason is to face the Sacred Mosque, which is where the Ka’ba and the sacred city of Mecca or located. I am very interested in the Ka’ba and will have to learn more about it. I understand that the Ka’ba was said have been visited by Adam, and that is how it becomes thee important sight.
    
The final chapters of this section make a strong statement about “The People of the Book”. The gist of it is that these people remain willfully ignorant of the true signs of Islam. Chapter 145 states:

Even if thou wert to bring

To the People of the Book

All the Signs (together)

They woud not follow

Thy Qiblah; nor art thou

Going to follow their Qiblah;

Nor indeed will they follow

Each other’s Qiblah.

This is a hard declaration of separatism. The message is that there is a sort of predestined discrepancy of opinion. What is scary is how true the passage rings in this sense, when we check the claim against the real world. It is impossible to imagine the victory of any one of the monotheistic traditions over the other. This would be an obvious problem for most of these different groups.

The religious ideas are not just religious but also cultural. It is our cultural identities which we would not be able to abandon. One has to wonder, the value of a spiritual text which supports such an ultimate separation. As an outsider looking in it seems to suggest an inability to cross the cultural abyss.

I read about this idea of spiritual orientation in another book recently written by Patrick Dunn titled “Postmodern Magic”. In Appendix A of the book, he explains the proper way to create a magical circle. In doing that he addresses which direction the mage should face, he writes:


Stand facing east. You may prefer to stand behind an altar or some other specific place of working. Create an aesthetically pleasing environment.

Important note: You may, for a multitude of reasons, prefer a different direction for your starting point. This is fine. Remember, my example makes most sense to me, but your practice may be entirely different to resonate with your own personal intuition and experiences. Being in tune with your personal connections is most important: it is only you, the mage, who must be aesthetically empowered in a way that will be conducive to altering your reality and achieving your magical goals.

Although I use the system of directional correspondences I learned first, the one used by the Golden Dawn and other ceremonial magic groups founded on the same principles, I have met people who use other systems that work just as well for them. The important thing is to have a reason behind your direction correspondences. The Golden Dawn faces east because it is the direction the sun’s rising, therefore symbolizing light. Others face north because of its magnetic associations. I know several people who, when working indoors, just name the nearest wall with a window “east” and treat it as such! (218-219)


Now of course, this interpretation of the process is not in agreement, necessarily with the Qur’an’s explanation of the decision. I do find Dunn’s explanation and beliefs interesting. In one way it is just restating the first two idea of this discussion. That was that the way a group faces, strengthens the groups beliefs and that appropriate orientations strengthens belief more generally.

But, Dunn stand’s in opposition to the Qur’an’s other belief that our orientation is a test, which establishes if we hold the proper beliefs. Here the issue seems to be the power of the individual versus the power of the group. Dunn seems to think our magical power comes from us internally, while monotheists see a prescribed power which must be discovered and then obeyed.

There is plenty more to say, but I am sure many will not get this far. If you did, thanks for reading and I would love to hear any responses or ideas. Check back for Section 18 of the Qur’an tomorrow.

New Post!

Gezz it has been months since I have written anything here. I was finishing a semester of school and so I didn't have to much time to write. I want to start writing a lot more. Anyways, one more week of finals, then I will be blogging a lot more. In the meantime check out this great talk!

Random Accounting

So I haven’t posted in a while, which makes me sad. I need to post more, but between school, family life, and other writing, my blog get’s the proverbial “short-stick”. As always, I am reading a ton. I finished a crazy book by Michael Meiers, titled “Was Jonestown a CIA medical experiment?” I bet you can guess what the answer is. I have always found the Jonestown incident very interesting. First, it is something that seems to have played a major part in American’s psyche. In Meiers’ book he does a wonderful job of establishing the deeper threads of connection between the CIA and Jones. Once again, we find a conspiratorial connection to Nazi scientist, in another form of brain-drain.


Much like 9/11 there are questions which surface, which have no logical answer outside of government involvement. Truly, by the end of the book I was just frightened. I almost didn’t want to post about it here. There is something soul shaking when one realizes the extremes to which certain actors of our government will go to complete their missions.

Jones was a Master brain-washer. He used people insecurities and egos to gain total control over them. A question that rises is my mind is that in some way people are especially perceptual to these sorts of problems. I think this is because people are looking for a place to belong, some answer to their existential questions. This is one thing I often feel when talking to atheists. They seem to want to minimize this urge, even when their own organizations are in the same game. What is really crazy and something I learned through Meiers’ book is that the Peoples Temple was not as much a religious organization, but a political one. He explained that Christianity was not heavily preached, and that Jones often referred to the “impotent sky-God”. What is interesting is that all one has to do is feign a Christian belief, to get Christian support, makes one think of past Presidents.

So if you want to lose a little sleep…go pick up this one.

Reading this book had prompted me to go back and explore periodicals from the 1960’s like “Esquire” and “New York Time Magazine”. It is interesting to track the societal perspective and shifts. For example, the amount of information in a magazine, in 1960 a magazine would have 10-12 main articles today this number is doubled, even tripled. Another thing I have noticed is that one thing that has remained the same is the psychology behind advertising. Ads remain tools which promote inadequacy, and speak to our deepest fears and urges.

I found two really great articles on the eve of the moon landing. One was by one of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut, titled “Excelsior! We’re Going to the Moon! Excelsior”, in classic Vonnegut style he exposes how the moon-landing is really just a new technology of conquest, which is basically the historical narrative which is spoon fed to Americans, namely that we the “Space-Race” was an extension of the cold-war, and our success was necessary to defeat the Ruskis.

The other article on the same subject from another of my ideals, Issac Asimov, titled “The Moon Could Answer the Riddles of Life”. This was more a science based article, which outlined some of the theories about the Moon’s origins and what scientist could expect to find in the Moon-rock which they were bringing back. He explains that basically there is no real stable explanation for the Moon’s origins, something which interests me very much, having recently read Richard Hoagland’s book “Dark Mission”. I am going to explore current theories on the Moon’s origins and see what I find. I have been reading another Asimov book, actually two of Asimov’s book “Golden” and “Pebble in the Sky”. Love it.

Well this is just a smidgen of what’s going on in my world, hope yours is as interesting….

Here’s a video I just watched more evidence of the conspiracy of 9/11….another great sleep reducer, for sure…

Some old stuff

I was looking through some of my old writing. This is one thing I found, which got my heart going. It is always nice to find little treats you wrote for yourself, that you had forgotten. It is like somone else wrote it. Forgive the Amateur.


"A Rant On the Verge of Breathing"

When I do a push up do I push myself up,
or the world down?
Is there a snowflake with the face a of a leprechaun,
or a rain drop in the shape of a fetus?
Image worlds within kernels
Fractal pattern mastery
I thought you said this conversation was over.
Are these words fragments or vibrations?
Words don’t matter
Syntax doesn’t pattern
be blinded
Word picture.

How can you say that you know
When you still think in three dimensions
There is an infinite regress
And your vomit wouldn’t matter
Transformed into a bouquet
Of white roses
I wonder where the red went
Master meandering to reaches
Onward necessarily
Stealing the substance of pixilation
Mutt seeing black and white
An owl sees in Technicolor
A Blind man sees through his nose
A deaf man through the pores
How does a dead man sense?
Sensing absolutely
Existing in a continuum
Creatio ex nil
-2 times -2
Equals an opportunity.


I stand on a plane
Of rippling green grass
Surrounded by the tenebris
In principium Deus Creavit

I stand on the wave of the firmament
Dog with his head out the window
Tongue massaging the air
Dad said Dog
Should get off the Fucking
Master’s lap.
I found worlds
Within this embrace
Oxygen
Sustenance
Love
Radiance
That darkness in my eyes
Never seemed so light
My arms never held so tight
With less might
I pull away as does the tear
Deadly
From the gap of fears
I wonder why I came to this place
Realizing that it is my own face
Which provides the container for this path
Which was, what walked
by more feet than mine
Littered with the debris of journey
Half hearted
And misguided attempts
On the celestial high-way
I remain seated
While this thing fucking moves

The grooves of near-by asteroids
Creating new hair styles
And soothing vibrations
Which titillate my biggest organ
Find the end to this maze
Of finger tips
Have to find the start of the pattern

A child wakes up
Groggy
Remnants of dream consciousness
What is your expectation
Dining car of the caboose
Scrap from a U.N. envoy
I can’t tell my Pepsi from my Piss
Pepsid, Lucem, Bilal
Cursed by draught
And no one’s rain dancing
I saw the trees dance
The sway and embraced
Playing Petrachan love games
I laughed
While you masturbated
With images glorified in your Pineal gland
Like your liver
Ki-box
And your snot
Does your soul need a tissue?
Your hair grows faster when you’re thinking
A dead person’s hair grows slowly
Judgement day
Would there be lines
get boring
And where would the lawyers be
Would the public defenders be any good?
I was held down by Demons and raped
I know Satan’s real
I was anointed
Meam lingaum audere audet.

Flight 253 Staged Event!

Here's a video by the always interesting Alex Jones...something the main-stream isn't touching!