Program Focus:

This program will examine the crisis between modern political ideologies and the sacred vision of traditional cultures with a special accent on the Middle Ages.

The Vertical Axis

"When humans began to walk erect they transcendended  the typical condition of primates. It is because of our vertical posture that we organize space into four horizontal directions radiating from an"up/down" central axis.  We automatically organize the space around our bodies as extending forward, backward, to right, left, upward and downward." Iona Miller, from "A Re-Visioning of the Geometric Matrix of Reality"

"The cosmic axis defines and reiterates the divine energy flow between Sky (Kether) and Earth (Malkuth). It reiterates our ancestral vertical posture on the cosmic level, drawing a polarized line between the celestial and terrestrial.  When we are in sacred space, we become that cosmic axis, incarnate.  It is a cross-cultural, universal model." Iona Miller, from "A Re-Visioning of the Geometric Matrix of Reality"

"The mainstream tradition has stressed the transcendence of God and the church as a divinely commissioned institution (the "vertical church"). This authoritarian, centralizing tradition has been variously labeled, mainly by its critics as "medievalism," "Romanism," "Vaticanism," "papalism," "Ultramontanism," "Jesuitism," "Integralism," and "neoscholasticism." from "Roman Catholic Church  General Information"

"Theosophy and Jesuitism are the two opposite poles, one far above, the other far below even that stagnant marsh. Both offer power –  one to the spiritual, the other to the psychic and intellectual Ego in man. The former is "the wisdom that is from above . . . pure, peaceable, gentle . . . full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without  hypocrisy," while the latter is "the wisdom that descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, DEVILISH."3 One is the power of Light, the other that of Darkness. . . ." Helena Blavatsky, from: "Theosophy Or Jesuitism?"

"Besides this "horizontal" structure... a corresponding vertical structure exemplified by Dante's journey up the mountain and his own participation in the purgatorial process. Both structures are found to reflect the major theme of the purgatorial process: the soul's conversion to the virtues of love and humility." Anthony L. Pellegrini, from  "American Dante Bibliography for 1958"

"Some find the origins of modern humanism in Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's contention that human beings have been given the wonderfully unique ability to choose for themselves. But Pico still limited the options for humankind to provisions of the traditional hierarchical ontology of the Middle Ages. Thus, for him, the journey of humankind to itself was not a historical one, but rather the choice between a vertical descent into vegetative or brute state of being, or a mystical ascent along the hierarchy to the angelic or even divine level. But Modern thought relinquished this hierarchy in favour of a human centred teleology, framing the ontology in between nature (individuality, non-rationality) as the origin and culture (reason, the social) as its outcome. Thus the ontology became historicised from Defoe, Lessing, Rousseau, through Kant down to Marx.  In irrationalism this became a mythical movement remaining within the non-rational, as in Nietzsche, and Mussolini, and finally story, as in Virginia Woolff, and films such as Dead Poets Society and A River Runs Through It, or New Age neo-romanticism." Johannes J. Venter, from "Reality as History: The Historic Turn in Western Thought"

Cross

“The Middle Ages erected the cross above the nations, societies, aspirations and thought of Europe. This was the epoch of obedience and faith – accompanied by every imaginable human abuse.” Anonymous, from: Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism

“The fact is that people too often tend to think that if a symbolical meaning is admitted, the literal or historical sense must be rejected; such a view can only result from unawareness of the law of correspondence that is the very foundation of all symbolism. By virtue of this law, each thing, proceeding as it does from a metaphysical principle from which it derives all its reality, translates of expresses that principle in its own fashion and in accordance with its own order of existence, so that from one to another all things are linked together and correspond in such a way as to contribute to the universal and total harmony, which, in the multiplicity of manifestation, can be likened to a reflection of the principial unity itself.” René Guénon, from: The Symbolism of the Cross

"The traditional outlook of our culture, indeed, was vertical: God the Father in Heaven, the Holy Father in Rome, the King as the Father of the Fatherland, and the Father as the King in the Family. (In the lands of the Reformation, the monarch, not the Pope, was the head of the Church.) Connected with the Fathers were the Mothers, from the Regina Coeli down to the Queens and the various matriarchs. Following the Revolution, the new order was increasingly flattened until it became horizontal. Of course, the people as such could not rule; rather, majorities could rule over minorities, so numbers assumed immense importance. Even truth became a matter for majorities, so the bigger the majority, the “truer” the right answer. The ideal was the consent, the affirmation by the majority, which in its ultimate form achieves a totality... Hence, we see the totalitarian root of democracy, which stands for the “politization” of the entire people. Even the children, although not allowed to vote, are now educated in that direction." Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, from "Monarchy and War"

"The classical aesthetic is distinguished by an agon between superhuman heroes whose significance was unquestioned. Christianity, however, reveals the humanity of the sacred center, that is, the essential equivalence of center and periphery. Christianity involves a leveling of the vertical hierarchy implied by classical art." Peter Goldman, from "Hamlet's Ghost: A Review Article"

"In this sense the insistence upon circularity, symmetry, carefully observed vertical gradations stems from an emotional sense of the cosmic order, the divinely shaped and purposeful structure of things, both of individual human beings and of the entire cosmos itself." Ian Johnson, from "Lecture on Hildegard of Bingen"

The Sacred Vision

"The First Intelligence contemplates its Principle ([the Necessary Being]); it contemplates its own Principle which makes its being necessary; it contemplates the pure possibility of its own being in itself, considered fictively as outside its Principle. From its first contemplation proceeds the Second Intelligence; from the second contemplation proceeds the moving soul of the First Heaven ([falak al-aflak, the Sphere of Spheres]); from the third contemplation proceeds the etheric, supra-elemental body of this first Heaven - a body which proceeds, therefore, from the inferior dimension, the dimension of shadow or non-being, of the First Intelligence. This triple contemplation, which is the origination of being, is repeated from Intelligence to Intelligence, until the double hierarchy of the Ten Cherubic Intelligences (karubiyun, angeli intellectuales), and the hierarchy of the celestial souls (angeli caelestes). These Souls do not posses any faculties of sense, but they do possess Imagination in its pure state, that is to say liberated from the senses; and their aspiring desire for the Intelligence from which they proceed communicates to each Heaven its own motion. The cosmic revolutions in which all motion originates are thus the result of an aspiration of love which forever remains assuaged." Henri Corbin, from The History of Islámic Philosophy

"The Perfect Man is the spirit in which all things have their origins; the created spirit of Muhammad is, thus, a mode of the uncreated divine spirit...One can say in this context that the whole world is created from the Light of Muhammad: Israfil, the angel of Doomsday, is created from his heart; Gabriel becomes equivalent to the First Intelligence; Muhammads Intelligence corresponds to the heavenly pen; and his soul to the Well-Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfuz)." Annemarie Schimmel, from The Mystical Dimensions of Islám

"Islam has remained faithful to its roots. It began as a religion which made no distinction, or division, between the sacred and the secular - all was as one. Therefore Islam has always been a political and reforming religion. Muhammad wished to reform and purify the society in which he lived and this is a concept which is still at the centre of Islam today."  Bill Turnbull W.F Islam Through the Years - part 2

 "The sacred vision of the traditional civilizations concerning nature and its scientific study has been lost in modern science whose philosophical foundations go back to the historical rupture of the Western thought with its traditional teachings. The rise of modern science... was not simply due to some ground-breaking advancements in scientific methods of measurement and calculation.... On the contrary, it was the result of a fundamental change in man's outlook concerning the universe.... This outlook is predicated upon a number of premises, among which the following five are of particular significance. The first is the secular view of the universe, which allows no space for the Divine in the order of nature. The second is the mechanistic world-picture presented by modern science, which construes the cosmos as a self-subsistent machine and/or pre-ordained clock. The third is the epistemological hegemony of rationalism and empiricism over the current conceptions of nature. The fourth is the Cartesian bifurcation, based on Descartes' categorical distinction between res cogitans and res extensa, which can also be read as the ontological alienation of the knowing subject from his/her object of knowledge. The fifth and the final premise of modern scientific worldview, which can be seen as the end-result of the preceding points, is the exploitation of the natural environment as a source of global power and domination... This is coupled with the hubris of modern science which does not accept any notion of truth and knowledge other than what is verifiable within the context of its highly specialized, technical, and hence restricted means of verification." Ibrahim Kalin, from "Three Views of Science in the Islamic World"

"The ancient thinkers saw the world as a spiritual-material, multi-layered continuum where forces of Good and Evil, Virtues and Sins, Nations and Ideas  have their own semi-independent existence. Sometimes, these forces were described as gods, or angels, or demons. The New Testament speaks of the Prince of the World and other forces that confront Man. St Paul was aware of troubles to come, as ‘our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms’...   It is easier to explain calamities and salvation, catastrophes and prosperity by interaction of different Higher forces, than by purely material factors or by God’s changes of mood." Israel Shamir, from:  "Apocalypse Now"

"Here again we get the combination of the all inclusive sphere of the cosmos, emphasizing the unity of nature (here depicted in the form of flowers) and the vertical, leading us up from the human faces at the bottom, up to the pyramid at the top.  The egg, the source of all life, is at the centre, almost as a organizing nucleus out of which things radiate and from which the structure of the whole takes its shape. Another implication in picturing our universe as an egg is the idea of its being organic, alive, incipient.  An egg is the beginning of something wonderful, a new being, a new creation.  Hildegard is celebrating the potential of our cosmos--its hidden mysteries of delight and grandeur, of beauty and healing, as yet unrevealed." Ian Johnson, from "Lecture on Hildegard of Bingen"

"How are we to account for this widespread decay of the religious impulse? It appears that the principal cause of the loss of the idea of the holy is the attitude called "scientism"-that is, the popular notion that the revelations of natural science, over the past century and a half or two centuries, somehow have proved that men and women are naked apes merely, that the ends of existence are production and consumption merely; that happiness is the gratification of sensual impulses; and that concepts of the resurrection of the flesh and the life everlasting are mere exploded superstitions."  Russell Kirk, from: "Civilization Without Religion?"

"Mystical ideas as these involving Kabala, Tarot and so on have been practiced by Muslim mystics for centuries. Indeed they probably invented them. As for Knights Templarism/Scottish Rite mystic, this is said to have also originated in the Middle East and passed into Europe by the Knights Templar through their close contacts with Muslim sages during the Crusades. To put it in another way, for any self-respecting Muslim sage, this ‘stuff’ is kids stuff. Indeed, we may only be gleaning at the outer layer of their veiled ‘message’. Robert Bauval, from "Masonic attacks unwarranted"

Obedience

“The vow of obedience is the practice of silencing personal desires, emotions and imagination in the face of reason and conscience; it is the primacy of the ideal as opposed to the apparent, the nation as opposed to the personal, humanity as opposed to nation, and God as opposed to humanity. It is the life of cosmic and human hierarchical ordering; it is the meaning and justification of the fact that there are Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones; Dominions, Virtues, Powers; Principalities, Archangels, Angels; Priests, Knights and Commoners. Obedience is order: it is international law; it is the state; it is the Church; it is universal peace. True obedience is the very opposite of tyranny and slavery, since its root is the love which issues from faith and confidence. That which is above serves that which is below and that which is below obeys that which is above. Obedience is the practical conclusion to that which one recognizes as the existence of something higher than oneself. Whosoever recognizes God, obeys.” Anonymous, from Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism

"To oversimplify grossly, medieval Christianity in its monastic and ecclesiastical modes tended to look with suspicion at everyday pursuits, civic and political attachments and ambition, and worldly pleasures as sinful and corrupt. The monastic tradition emphasized retreat from cities (and the larger human world) into the sanctity of monasteries and convents. These were self-enclosed building complexes which were originally built in isolated places to flee the sinful world." Robert Baldwin, from "Shifts in Late Medieval Culture"

"It looks, at once, once medieval and modern. It looms before you like a castle, yet is also stark and spare. It feels isolated despite a parking lot packed with cars. It beguiles the imagination, drawing you closer, even as it intimidates and unsettles you. It is clearly as contemplative as contemporary life gets. Yet, it takes no time at all to discover that this is a place where not just the spirit moves, but the body and mind as well." Dianne Aprile, from Making a Heart for God: a Week Inside a Catholic Monastery

"Mary's power in the Pieta stemmed from her personal relationship to the more powerful man on her lap. Even seen as a grand figure of Ecclesia, her power depended on a subordinate position within a patriarchal ecclesiastical hierarchy descending from God the Father to God the Son (who crowns her) to the male church officials who used Marian spirituality to represent official Church doctrines and to sanctify prevailing gender ideologies. . .  Finally, there was also a darker side to Mary as a figure for the orthodox, triumphal church. The Madonna played a role in most important military victories and was frequently thanked with votive altarpieces.... Mary Ecclesia also presided over the destruction of heretics, Jews, "witches," Muslims, and other enemies of the faith.... Once she became synonymous with the Church, Mary nurtured the faithful and destroyed the godless." Robert Baldwin, from "Shifts in Late Medieval Culture"

"...the Knights Templar became a forerunner of the French Foreign Legion. While the officers were solely men of noble birth, the order accepted as recruits criminals-on-the-run, who would renounce all and swear complete and utter submission and loyalty to the order and, through the order, to the pope." The Templars were legionnaires worth a difference, however, because they were a forerunner of the Rothschilds. The Templars' probity, landed wealth, and international organization - necessary for recruiting and fund-raising - made them, over time, the bankers of Europe and royal financial consultants." H.W. Crocker III, from Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church

"And so absolutely is the rule of submissive obedience enforced, that the Jesuit, in order to obey his General, must not scruple to disobey God." G.B. Nicolini, from History of the Jesuits: Their Origin, Progress, Doctrines, and Designs

"Man is brought into this world to affirm Allah as the Absolute, the One whom man is, in fact, brought into this world to obey." Seyyed Hossein Nasr, from A Young Muslim's Guide to the Modern World

"Obedience to the law is good in itself because it keeps the believer out of trouble. The rules remind believers of their basic obligations to God and their neighbors. The contentment of inner peace is found through submission. A Muslim is one who sumbits." John W. Kiser, from: The Monks of Tibhirine

"In Pakistan, anyone convicted of defiling the prophet  Mohammed's name "by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly" must die.... The blasphemy laws date back to when Great Britain ruled India and what is now Pakistan. The laws were designed to keep Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs from using inflammatory religious slurs that could trigger communal violence. But in 1986, Pakistan's military strongman, Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, in a bid to win support from fundamentalists, changed the laws to protect Islam alone. In a country that is 97% Muslim, Christians and other minorities say the laws are used against them. "It's like a  sword hanging over their heads," says Cecil Chaudhry, a Christian human rights activist." Paul Wiseman, from "Words can bring death sentence in Pakistan"

"The demand for universal law is also emanating from the worldwide Lubavitch movement, the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon (which has close ties to the Council for National Policy), and the many groups represented within the CNP, such as Christian Reconstructionists, Moral Re-Armament, Knights of Malta, Opus Dei, etc." from "Under the Law"

The Greater and the Lesser Jihad

"The greater jihad as explained by the Prophet Muhammad is first inward-seeking; it involves the effort of each Muslim to become a better human being, to struggle to improve him- or herself." Ahmed Rashid, from Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia

"Jihad is the inner struggle of moral discipline and commitment to Islam and political action." Barbara Metcalf, from Islamic Revival in British India, 1860-1900

"In Western thought, heavily influenced by medieval Christian Crusaders - with their own ideas about "holy war" - jihad has always been portrayed as an Islamic war against unbelievers." Ahmed Rashid, from Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia

"It is also true that Islam sanctions rebellion against an unjust ruler, whether Muslim or not, and jihad can become the means to mobilize that political and social struggle. This is the lesser jihad." Ahmed Rashid, from Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia

Sex and the Clergy

"Concubinage and fornication persisted among the clergy throughout the fourteenth century, and not all authorities (i.e. bishops) made a concerted effort to discover and punish offenders, as they themselves were often engaging in similar behavior (Brundage, 474). According to Jacques Rossiaud, the clergy made up about twenty percent of the clientele of private brothels and bath-houses in Dijon, France during this period, and it seems the situation was similar all throughout Europe (Richards, 35). As a result of such behavior, the "lecherous cleric" was developed as a popular humorous figure by many medieval authors (Richards, 118)." from: "Sex and the Clergy"

"Offending priests were in fact a considerable problem for the church in the later Middle Ages. With the church reform movement, which began during the eleventh century, clerical celibacy (formerly optional) became a requirement. Needless to say, this change inspired a great deal of resistance among married clerics and others who simply found the policy unacceptable (Brundage, "Sex and Canon Law," 36). Not surprisingly, even once the law was firmly established, the actual behavior of the clergy did not necessarily conform to this rule." "Sex and the Clergy"

"However, for every priest that visited the brothels or preyed on "decent" women, there seems to have been another living (albeit in sin) with one partner in a relatively stable and long-term relationship, essentially as man and wife (Brundage, 475). In addition, although canon law decreed that all clergy members live in perpetual chastity, much of the general public was relieved to see them easing their sexual desires with the aid of prostitutes or concubines, instead of seducing their own "respectable" sisters, daughters and wives. "Sex and the Clergy"

Emperor and King

“The post of the Emperor is nevertheless not only that of the last (or, rather, the first) instance of sole legitimacy. It was also magical, if we understand by magic the action of correspondences between that which is below and that which is above. It was the principle itself of authority from which all the lesser authorities derived not only their legitimacy but also their hold over the consciousness of the people. This is why royal crowns one after another lost their luster and were eclipsed after the imperial crown was eclipsed. Monarchies are unable to exist for long without the Monarchy; kings cannot apportion the crown and scepter of the Emperor among themselves and pose as emperors in their particular countries, because the shadow of the Emperor is always present…Without an Emperor, there will be, sooner or later, no more kings. When there are no kings, there will be, sooner or later, no more mobility. When there is no more mobility, there will be sooner or later, no more bourgeoisie or peasants. This is how one arrives at the dictatorship of the proletariat, the class hostile to the hierarchical principle, which latter, however, is the reflection of divine order. This is why the proletariat professes atheism."  Anonymous, from: Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism

“A King of France, yes, a King would have taken pity on our poor people, bled white, attenuated, at the end of their strength. But democracy is without heart, without bowels. A slave of the powers of money, it is pitiless and inhumane.” Anatole France, quoted in Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, from "Monarchy and War"

"The government of the Company of Jesus is purely monarchial, and the General is its absolute and uncontrollable king..." G.B. Nicolini, from History of the Jesuits: Their Origin, Progress, Doctrines, and Designs

"There are still outstanding thinkers who have a deep respect for the monarchical order, for rational as well as sentimental motives. Yet, even the rationalist has to take the psychological factor into account, or he would cease to be a realistic rationalist. As a matter of fact, the increasing democratization of Western civiliza-tion has fostered monarchophile thinking, although only on a high level. Thus, it is not surprising that Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, declared monarchy the best form of government, but, since no descendants of David survived, the aristocratic constitution of Venice should be studied in the planning of a Jewish State, whereas democracy, as the worst type of rule, was to be strictly avoided." Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, from "Monarchy and War"

"The concept of the divine Emperors was another belief that was twisted to fit the later goals of the ultranationalists. It was an integral part of the Japanese religious structure that the Emperor was divine, descended directly from the line of Ama-Terasu (or Amaterasu, the Sun Kami or Goddess)...  In more modern times, even with the resurgence of Imperial power in the wake of the Meiji Restoration, this "Emperor Worship" would continue and be exploited by those in Japan seeking military ventures."  Dave K, from" JAPAN'S DARK BACKGROUND 1881-1945"

"The reason Iran is trying to politically subvert Afghanistan is because it is very wary of the return of the former Afghan King, Mohammed Zahir Shah, who is scheduled to arrive next month. They fear that a return of a monarchy in Afghanistan would destabilize the Islamic fundamentalist in power in Tehran by inspiring pro-monarchy sentiments inside Iran."Peter B. Martin from, "The Intricate Web of Terror" (PART I)"

Hierarchy Old and New

"In the ancient Western world, and particularly the civilisation of medieval Europe, it seemed natural that reality should be organised according to an ascending hierarchy of levels—a hierarchy that has been referred to as the Great Chain of Being. According to this argument, all of creation extends in a gradient fashion from the simplest organisms through more complex forms up to the human race. Theologists have divided angels into different ranks or classes, which they term Hierarchies, a word signifying to rule in holy things." Dolf Leendert Boek, from "Is God Particular" (Updated page: Is Israel True To It's [sic] Jewishness? A Parable On The Lost Password As The Name Of God")

"One of the earliest schemas was that of the early 6th century theologian Dionysius the Areopagite (Pseudo-Dionysius). His Celestial Hierarchy was the most influential treatise in Christian angelology and received added authority when adopted many centuries later by Thomas Aquinas, which he articulates in his Summa Theologica. Generally ancient authors define nine orders as the Ennead of these celestial spirits, of which, only the last two 'Archangels and Angels' were regarded as having human contact: 1 - Seraphim {Metatron/Uriel - Fire of God, Regent of the Sun}; 2 - Cherubim {Jophiel - Creative Power which teaches our consciousness to discover the Light within}; 3 - Thrones {Zaphkiel/Perhaps Zakkiel - The angel governing storms}; 4 - Dominions {Zadkiel - Righteousness of God}; 5 -Virtues {Haniel (Simiel, Onoel, Hamiel, Anael) - Glory or Grace of God/He who sees God; Reputed to have transported Enoch to heaven}; 6 - Powers {Raphael - God has healed, Angel of healing, science and knowledge};7 - Principalities {Camael/Kemuel - Personification of Divine Justice}; 8 - Archangels {Michael - Who is as God?, Tutelary Prince of Israel, Angel of repentance}; 9 - Angels." Dolf Leendert Boek, from "Is God Particular" (Updated page: Is Israel True To It's [sic] Jewishness? A Parable On The Lost Password As The Name Of God")

"As much as the hierarchy of knowledge in Islam, as it has existed historically, has been united by a metaphysical bond much as a vertical axis unites horizontal planes of reference the integration of these diverse views "from above" has been possible. Historically, of course, there have been many conflicts, sometimes disputes leading to violence and occasionally to the death of a writer. Such conflicts are not, however, as elsewhere, between incompatible orthodoxies. They are regarded by most Islamic commentators as due to the lack of a more universal point of view on the part of those who have only embraced a less universal one. Only the gnostic, who sees all things "as they really are," is able to integrate all these views into their principial unity." Seyyed Hossein Nasr, from, Science and Civilization in Islam

"In our Islam, there are no hierarchies…”  Qari Mushtaq Ahmed

"The creed of the Mohammedans would be the most dangerous religious movement to afflict Christianity until the time of Luther. Like later Reformation Prostestants, the Prophet Mohammed preached a simple, rational religion. It was a religion of the book - of the Koran, It was a religion of direct communication with God in set daily prayer. It dismissed the saceredotal hierarchy of Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity." H.W. Crocker III, from Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church

"Considering the illuminated works of  Hildegard of Bingen, Ian Johnson notes: "The major design features of this illumination, which we see again and again the Hildegard's work, is the combination of the circle with a vertical, so that we get a combined sense of inclusiveness in the perfection of the circle, combined with a sense of a vertical hierarchy linking all creation up to God.  These two shapes are basic to Dante's vision as well, and they serve to emphasize the interrelatedness of all things on different levels, so that there is a clear sense of belonging in a group in a ranked hierarchy which brings us to God."

"With modern humanism the traditional, normative, hierarchical ontology was replaced by a human centered ontology. This ontology was teleologically human centered — it focused in humankind and its (progressive) cultural mastery of nature. Thus the culture-nature dialectic became the new historical ontology. The transformation of a hierarchical ontology (focused in the supreme good) into a human-centered teleological one, can be characterized as the historic turn.  Modern humanism substituted the Medieval supratemporal focus on the divine with a focus in human rationality itself. Knowing full well that humans beings are factually not in rational control of the world, this focus was constructed in terms of a historical teleology. History was supposedly unavoidably taking humankind towards this destiny — a destiny of full control over nature." Johannes J. Venter, from "Reality as History: The Historic Turn in Western Thought"

"In the ant world an isolated ant wanders purposeless and lost. Direction comes with numbers. The queen knows what she's about -- producing eggs -- but the collective ant 'mind' awakens in the colony only when it grows large enough. The ant intelligence is collaborative and cooperative. There are no leaders, or hierarchies, or management structures. It appears as though ant consciousness is born in something like Sheldrake's morphic fields and resides within a multitude of ants. They seem to work for the good of the colony when the numbers are sufficient. Whereas the individual ant without the colony is almost chaotic, the ant within the colony knows what to do and can engage in useful ant behaviour. Their allness seems to know exactly what is needed for the group, what is right and what is appropriate." Natasha Todorovic, from:  "Spirals in Seattle"

"Even the largest and most tradition-bound businesses are increasingly seeing the benefits of decentralized, team-based, networked management structures rather than vertical hierarchies and enormous functional units connected only at the very top. A corporate headquarters is now called a "campus." Peter Childers and Paul Delany, from  "Wired World, Virtual Campus: Universities and the Political Economy of Cyberspace"

"Where disciplinary work is signified by the metaphor of vertical depth and characterized by words such as mastery and rigor, where interdisciplinary work is designated as horizontal or broad and described as boundary work between disciplinary establishments, we face the challenge of legitimization and theoretical framing..." Kenneth Fields, from "The Interdisciplining of Computer Music"

"On the horizontal plane, most cities were often as confusing and snarled as Venice, but they always offered strong vertical elements as signals of hierarchy: the cathedral and its bell towers and steeples, the towers of fortified castles, the towers of important citizen's compounds, and the bellfry of the municipality,
once that institution took hold. The shape of the city became pyramidal and soaring...: The spire or tower were the points of orientation of the soft armature of medieval cities." Richard Ingersoll, from "Lecture 9: Medieval Cities, Bruges and Florence"

"The growth of urban centers after 1100 and the gradual cultural shift away from medieval monasticism continued through the Renaissance when humanism extolled "terrestrial" knowledge, experience, and the ethical piety of everyday life. With important qualifications, this trend continued gradually and sporadically all the way into the 18th century Enlightenment. With the American and French Revolutions, church and state were separated for the first time and "secular" values granted a new autonomy and status."  Robert Baldwin, from "Shifts in Late Medieval Culture"

"German companies usually have a board of directors which runs the company. Below this ruling board, the company is organized in a strict vertical hierarchy... Hierarchy is extremely important in German business and is a measure of power that is often more visible than in the U.S... when working or doing business in Germany it is best to respect the hierarchy." University of Pittsburg Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, from "International Business Ethics: Germany Culture, Religion, and Tradition"

Time and History

"Ideas of cyclicity in relation to the historical process have a long history, as the infamous confusions of the Great Year make clear, and themselves wax and wane, to become confused with theories of time that inevitably subject them to discredit, for they always attempt too much, and like Icarus in the sun, burn their wings of wax at the scale of cosmological generalization." John Landon, from "World History And The Eonic Effect: Civilization, Darwinism, and Theories of Evolution"

"The model of lineal time is best illustrated in the teachings of ancient Israel, Christianity and Islam. Each posits a beginning in time and suggests a cataclysm of some form or another at the climax of that period. However, this model is not ‘horizontal’, so to speak, but degenerative. If we take the Christian model, man had some sort of ‘fall’, the world is destroyed by water for its wickedness, and at the climax of time, the world again becomes so decadent it must be purified by fire. This lineal approach is the basis of much of Western religion and is essentially entropic. Mankind is not evolving but degenerating. While elements of this lineal model can lead to fundamentalism of all forms, it is the essential core of much ‘Biblical’ and ‘Koranic’ thinking. Even if we give some credence to such things as Christian reconstructionism (the world must be converted so Jesus can return), the pragmatic realism is otherwise. Mankind will not convert, awaken or work together -- mankind is heading for destruction. This is the core message of the various forms of Christian prophecy and is also found in other prophetic systems such as those of Nostradamus." Jean Parvulesco, from "The Gnostic Vision of Aquarianism"

"To the Muslim, history is a series of accidents that in no way affect the nontemporal principles of Islam. He is more interested in knowing and "realizing" these principles than in cultivating originality and change as intrinsic virtues. The symbol of Islamic civilization is not a flowing river, but the cube of the Kaaba, the stability of which symbolizes the permanent and immutable character of Islam." Seyyed Hossein Nasr, from Science and Civilization in Islam

"The traditional models of Time as found in the teachings of Israel, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are profoundly degenerative. There are many variations, such as the Mayan system, which suggests multiple cataclysms throughout a long and tortured cycle of ages. And, once again, there is a momentous end that triggers a final consummation of the cycle and a return to the golden age. The age of Aquarius must be seen in this context; it is not the dawning of a new epoch, nor a time of universal reconciliation. It is the climax of the darkest age when mankind will utterly self-destruct. The light of Aquarius only touches the  souls of a small number of initiates who will sustain the ‘Mysteries’ during this period of pseudo esotericism and counter initiation. Jean Parvulesco, from "The Gnostic Vision of Aquarianism"

"The Hindu doctrine teaches that a human cycle… is divided into four periods marking so many stages during which the primordial spirituality becomes gradually more and more obscured; these are the same periods that the ancient traditions of the West called the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages. We are now in the fourth age, the Kali-Yuga or ‘dark age’… Since that time, the truths which were formerly within reach of all have become more and more hidden and inaccessible….” René Guénon, from Crisis in the Modern World

"The Bible has captured all the collective errors and corrections of these descendents of Abraham as they stumbled their way up  the evolutionary spiral from race consciousness, through tribal group consciousness, all the way to the individual 'I AM' as offered to mankind through the dispensation of Christ. The Koran on the other hand, has no linear continuity to take it from the past into the future. It is the non living, hardened LAW set down once and for all by Mohammed from one narrow point in time. This is why so many Moslems have such a hard time adjusting to modernity. Their scripture has no mechanism to evolve and adjust  to the flow of time. It literally has no provision for embracing a past or a future outside of the visitations of Gabriel in that cave in 600 AD." Br. Ron, from:  Koran or the Bible?

"Aristotle put history as inferior to philosophy. The God of the Greek philosophers was timeless and did not take part in human history. The deity of Aristotle and Plotinus was different from the God of Revelation. Seeing history in stages was apparently inspired by the vision of God in the monotheism. History was his theophany, his visible manifestation." Milton J. Fisher, from "Myths of Power and Millennialism"

"Mohammed put no mechanism empowering the passage of linear time in his inflexible Suras. That's why it Islam is still stuck in the 6th century with no past to learn from.... nor future to look forward to.  This has created Islam to be a closed system frozen in a 'ring pass not' of non-time. Nor is there a way for a new prophet to come and collectively liberate them from it.  Why? Because those who question the Koran are killed. It seems the only escape from this bleak scenario is martyrdom. This is the reality of what the non Muslim world is urgently up against today, with Islam." Br. Ron, from: Koran or the Bible?

"The Eastern model of time is cyclic, best illustrated in the Vedic Yugas. In this model we move through the ages of Gold, Silver, Copper and Iron, and then  back to Gold again. A few things must be clearly noted in this model. Unlike Theosophy and other systems, the Yuga model does not posit a cosmos of slow evolutionary and involutionary cycles. We do not move back from Iron to Copper etc, but swing right back to the Gold age after a climatic end. Therefore, while the Vedic Yuga system is cyclic, it is also primarily degenerative!"  Jean Parvulesco, from "The Gnostic Vision of Aquarianism"

"Hierarchy, form, virility, transcendence, authority, sovereignty: these are some of the components of the solar world-image... to keep intact through the steady devolution that is part of the cosmic cycle." Martin Schwarz, from: Julius Evola: A Philosopher in the Age of the Wolf"

"Possibly Joachim of Fiore propounded the first three stage version of history. Sometime between 1190 and 1195 this Calabrian abbot got an inspiration. The book of Revelation was his key. One part of the Trinity presided was over each stage. The first was the age of the Father or the Law, the second was the age of the Son or the Gospel, and the third would be the age of the Spirit. The age of the Spirit would be the millennium in which all men would be contemplative monks undergoing mystical ecstasy and singing the praises of God continuing until the last judgment. No mention was made of women." Milton J. Fisher, from "Myths of Power and Millennialism"

"The prophecies regarding the Age of the Wolf (Iron age) in the Vedas are frightening and intense, equal to anything found in the Book of Revelations or Nostradamus. While there may be some debate on the nature of cycles in the Vedas (dualism vs non-dualism), it is quite clear than mankind has been on a downward spiral since the very beginning. There is no upward spiral. We hit the climax in the ‘Kali Yuga’ (the current period of time) and spirituality becomes so superficial that even the heights of mystical practice cannot reach base level Golden age esotericism. Mankind will destroy itself in an orgy of violence and destruction and only those who have battled to achieve awareness will survive.  Jean Parvulesco, from "The Gnostic Vision of Aquarianism"

"All traditional religious and metaphysical doctrines describe the End of Times, the end of the cycle as the Last Battle, as the Final battle. The various traditions differently treat this conflict, and sometimes what in one tradition is represented as “the party of Evil”, becomes in other tradition “the party of Good ” and vice-versa. For example, for the orthodox christians at the end of Times judaism is considered as the religion of the Anti-Christ, and for jews “ the goi-christians from the northern country of king Gog ” act as a concentration of escatological Evil. Hinduists consider that the Tenth Avatar, the one who should come at the end of the cycle, will erase “Buddhists”, and Buddhists believe that the Buddha of Forthcoming Times, the Savior Maytreya will appear among  a buddhist community etc. All this does not testify about the relativity of the division of roles in the Last Battle, but about the impossibility to early choose a self-evident Good, to secure oneself and obviously to take part in the escatological battle on the “right” side. Therefore it is said about the Last Times “even the chosen ones will be tempted”. Aleksandr Dugin, from: THE GREAT WAR OF CONTINENTS - II

"Modern civilization, like all things, has of necessity its reason for existing, and if indeed its represents the state of affairs that terminates a cycle, one can say that it is what it should be and that it comes in its appointed time and place; but it should nonetheless be judged according to the words of the Gospel, so often misunderstood: 'Offense must needs come, but woe unto him through whom offense cometh.'"  René Guénon, from Crisis in the Modern World

"With the emergence of modernity, science collapsed the Great Nest, replacing it with a flatland perspective --one dimension fits all (Abbott 1984). Here only one dimension existed --matter --resulting in a material understanding of the universe dominated by scientism: "the belief that there is no reality save that revealed by science, and no truth save that which science delivers" (Wilber 1998:10,56). Matters of theology and the spirit were relegated to "illusion" (Freud, the father of psychology), "fictitiousness" (Comte, the father of sociology), and "ideology" (Marx, the father of ill-fated communism)." Caleb Rosado, from "What is Spirituality"

Scientific discovery, political freedoms, economic enterprise, and imperial aggression combined to make much of the non-Western world feel peripheral to the European metropole. To match the Western powers, others had no choice but to take up Western ways. Even those who did so with success, such as the Japanese, felt a sense of humiliation. The break with the past was too abrupt. The foreign graft did not always take. Nerves are still raw even now. Those who did not succeed feel as if they live, as Maalouf puts it, "in a world which belongs to others and obeys rules made by others, a world where they are orphans, strangers, intruders or pariahs.... What can be done to prevent some of them feeling they have been bereft of everything and have nothing more to lose, so that they come, like Samson, to pray to God for the temple to collapse on top of them and their enemies alike?"  Ian Buruma, from: "The Blood Lust of Identity"

"Tomorrow is hidden from our eyes for a good reason. We have reached now the great bifurcation of history...a historic crossroads, one of those that happens once in a millennium. By definition, forking is the time of instability. That is the time when even a puny effort of a lone man can change things. In the periods of stability, even huge efforts do not change much. For a few hundred years, people believed in the predestined and unavoidable outcome of history: the Marxist dream or Welfare state or Second Coming. This time of certainty is over. We could fall into the New Dark Ages, into one of the bleak anti-Utopias, and our children will not forgive us for our passivity. We still could pull and push, and hope for the best."  Israel Shamir, from: "Apocalypse Now"

The Middle Ages

"In 732 Abd-er-Rahman, Governor of Spain, crossed the Pyrenees at the head of an immense army, overcame Duke Eudes, and advanced as far as the Loire, pillaging and burning as he went. In October 732, Charles met Abd-er-Rahman outside of Tours and defeated and slew him in a battle (the Battle of Poitiers) which must ever remain one of the great events in the history of the world, as upon its issue depended whether Christian Civilization should continue or Islam prevail throughout Europe. It was this battle, it is said, that gave Charles his name, Martel (Tudites) 'The Hammer,' because of the merciless way in which he smote the enemy." From, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume III Copyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton Company Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight

"The Khazar people were an unusual phenomenon for Medieval times. Surrounded by savage and nomadic tribes, they had all the advantages of the developed countries: structured government, vast and prosperous trading, and a permanent army. At the time, when great fanatism and deep ignorance contested their dominion over Western Europe, the Khazar state was famous for its justice and tolerance. People persecuted for their faiths flocked into Khazaria from everywhere. As a glistening star it shone brightly on the gloomy horizon of Europe, and faded away without leaving any traces of existence." - V. V. Grigoriev (1835; from the 1876 book Rossii i Aziya, in the essay "O dvoystvennosti verkhovnoy vlasti u khazarov", on page 66)

 "Though the Jews were everywhere a subject people, and in much of the world persecuted as well, Khazaria was the one place in the medieval world where the Jews actually were their own masters.... To the oppressed Jews of the world, the Khazars were a source of pride and hope, for their existence seemed to prove that God had not completely abandoned His people." Raymond Scheindlin, in The Chronicles of the Jewish People (1996)

"The history of Khazaria presents us with a fascinating example of how Jewish life flourished in the Middle Ages. In a time when Jews were persecuted thruout Christian Europe, the kingdom of Khazaria was a beacon of hope. Jews were able to flourish in Khazaria because of the tolerance of the Khazar rulers, who invited Byzantine and Persian Jewish refugees to settle in their country. Due to the influence of these refugees, the Khazars found the Jewish religion to be appealing and adopted Judaism in large numbers." Kevin Alan Brook, from: "An Introduction to the History of Khazaria

"In your blood, live!" Passover and blood. From the Middle Ages and down through modern times, Passover has been a time for the renewal of the age-old, horrific blood libel. According to Encyclopedia Judaica, the blood libel is "the allegation that Jews murder non-Jews, in order to obtain blood for the Passover or other rituals; a complex of deliberate lies, trumped-up accusations, and popular beliefs about the murder-lust of the Jews and their bloodthirstiness, based on the conception that Jews hate Christianity and mankind in general. It is combined with the delusion that Jews are in some way not human and must have recourse to special remedies and subterfuges in order to appear, at least outwardly, like other men. The blood libel led to trials and massacres of Jews in the Middle Ages and early modern times; it was revived by the Nazis. Blood sacrifices were practiced by many pagan religions. They are expressly forbidden by the Torah. The kosher preparation of meat is designed to prevent the least drop of avoidable blood remaining in food. Yet pagan incomprehension of the Jewish monotheist cult, lacking the customary images and statues, led to charges of ritual killing." Encyclopedia Judaica continues: "Jewish scholars in the Middle Ages bitterly rejected this inhuman accusation. They quoted the Law and instanced the Jewish way of life in order to refute it. The scholars position was summed up thus: "You are libeling us for you want to find a reason to permit the shedding of our blood."  Rabbi Chaim Richman, from: "In Your Blood, Live!"

"The historiography of the crusades as seen from the west... can be divided into three periods,of which the first,and longest, went from 1095 until the end of the sixteenth century; the second covered the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries;and the third began in the early nineteenth century and comes down to the present. There was some overlap between the periods,but broadly speaking, during the first, the Muslims were a continuing threat to Western Europe and the defense of Christendom was seen as a pressing concern. In the second period,the crusades moved increasingly into the past,but a past that was colored b confessional or rationalist values,which changed in the third period,when the crusades were subjected to serious, though not always impartial,scholarly investigation.This third period breaks down into the nineteenth century, when the crusades were generally well regarded,and the twentieth century,when there has been a rising tide of criticism and, more recently,a growing division between scholarly and popular views of the crusades."  Giles Constable, from "The Historiography of the Crusades"

"In the early thirteenth century, new, urban, preaching orders rose, above all the Franciscans and Dominicans. Building their monasteries in the middle of cities, these orders redefined the good monk as someone who lived "in" the world, preaching, tending to the human sinner (pastoral care), and, in the case of the Dominicans, rooting out heresy through administering the new Roman Inquisition, established 1233." Robert Baldwin, from "Shifts in Late Medieval Culture"

“The Black Death halfway between 1300 and 1400 (1348-50) tore through the living structure of Christendom like some horrible weapon tearing through the living flesh and organism of a man. It killed perhaps one half, certainly more than a third, of Western Europe in two. It ruined the old hearty structure of feudalism.” Hilaire Belloc, from How the Reformation Happened

"About 1384 AD... the word "story" meaning narrative was transferred to naming the level of a large medieval building because each level coincided with a different narrative. Possibly, Joachim even noted a three story medieval building that depicted Father, Son and Holy Ghost on each story, and his theory of history is a metaphor for the building. The word "history" was not derived from narratives of male activities. Both "history" and "story" come from the Greek "historia" which means knowledge from inquiry, a record or an account. "His story" is not the origin of "history." His is the genitive of "he" and comes from Old English which ends a few years after the Norman Conquest. "Herstory" emphasizes the female role in history, but "history" does not deny it." Milton J. Fisher, from "Myths of Power and Millennialism"

"For us, the real Middle Ages extend from the reign of Charlemagne to the opening of the fourteenth century, at which date a new decadence set in that has continued, through various phases and with gathering impetus, up to the present time. This state is the real starting-point of the modern crisis; it is the beginning of the disruption of Christendom, with which the Western civilization of the Middle Ages was essentially identified: at the same time, it marks the origin of the formation of ‘nations’ and the end of the feudal system, which was very closely linked with the existence of Christendom.” René Guénon, from Crisis in the Modern World

“Massive Jewish conversions to Christianity – largely forced and on an unprecedented scale – occurred in late Medieval Spain. Ostensibly this event should have reinforced the much repeated notion of the Spanish nation as the heir of the children of Israel in receiving the “grace of election.” Thus, the visible triumph of Christianity over Judaism, a crucial event in the culmination of human history, had occurred under the aegis of the Spanish crown. Simultaneously, imperial Spain was visibly disseminating Christianity to the ends of the earth, and the gathering in of the Gentile nations was an event of no less significance to the prophesied latter days than the calling of the Jews.” Arthur H. Williamson, from “The Cultural Foundations of Racial Religion and Anti-Semitism” in Lingering Shadows: Jungians, Freudians and Anti-Semitism

"Under the feudal structures social mobility was restricted. Jewish merchants and entrepreneurs didn’t exist because laws restricted their ability to trade. But with the rise of  Liberal capitalism such laws were disregarded. And those non-Jewish businessman who didn’t succeed resented the success of Jews. Professor Peter Pulzer wrote: “Dissatisfaction with the practical consequences of Liberalism was even stronger in economic than in political matters; anti-capitalism was, after all, one of the oldest and most natural forms of anti-Semitism. Liberal society was characterized by a high degree of social mobility with a premium on individual worth and ability. Perhaps this pill  was the hardest to swallow. All those who had an assured place in an ordered hierarchy, even if it was a comparatively low one, looked with distaste on an order which allowed others to rise to positions of eminence and influence...” (p.42)  He also said that “anti-Semitism is anti-capitalist since capitalism is one of the causes of social mobility.” (p. 43)" Jim Peron, from: "The Marxist Origins of Hitlerian Hate Part 1: Marxist Naziism"

In the Stars

"The predictive crafts are based on studies in correlation of observed phenomena (such as planetary positions in Astrology or the date of birth in the case of numerology), to the outcome of events due to such influences, in studies of a large number of cases. Evidently these crafts cannot be used to predict events with a hundred percent certainity because human affairs or terrestrial events are probalistic (ie. stochastic) and not deterministic in behaviour."  Lakshman Ranatunga, from  "Psychic and Mystic Crafts"

"The chart for the commencement of the Crusades is, without question, eerily resonate with 9/11/01 and Operation Enduring Freedom [the USA's first strike upon Al Qadea/Taliban]. The chart for November 27, 1095, Clermont, France [set for noon] has Sun at 11 Sagittarius; Saturn at 11 Virgo; Venus at 14 Capricorn and a Moon at 14 Scorpio. The number 11 takes on more weight when taking into consideration that New York was the 11th of the original 13 colonies to become a state [July 26, 1788]. Degrees critical in September and October's transit sequences correspond with the following planet degrees in the November 27, 1095 chart:

1. Sun at 11 Sagittarius is in the warring Aries decanate and conjoins the USA's Ascendant. It is just past the U.S. Constitution's Moon at 9 Sagittarius.
2. Chiron at 10 Aries retrograde bespeaks a warring Centaur's wound: Crusading Knights rode and fought on horseback. Mars at 23 Leo, in the Aries decanate, disposits both Chiron and Pluto, and is in mutual reception by sign with the Sun. Hence, Western Europe's Christian Kings under pressure of a "holy" authoritarian papal order (Jupiter in Capricorn) saddled up to avenge the "true God." Jupiter in the 1095 chart is in the Virgo Decanate and resonates with the chart's Saturn at, you guessed it, 11 degrees of Virgo in the Capricorn Decanate. And yes, 11 x 2 = 22.
3. The Scorpio Moon (14 degrees at noon, Pisces Decanate), disposited by retrograde Pluto in Aries, is the harbinger of The Black Plague, first introduced to Europe during the Crusades. Retrograde Pluto may indicate that the Plague, which wiped out 1/4 or more of Europe's population, surfaced over three times. In 1544, for example, the outbreak of Plague in Marseille and again in 1546 in Aisen-Provence, roused a young physician by the name of Nostradamus.
4. Uranus at 21 Aries (Sagittarius decanate) is in trine to 9/11/01's retrograde Aquarian Uranus (Libra decanate). This trine has a Jupiter-Venus flavor by decanate rulership. Transiting Mars will conjoin 1095's Jupiter on October 16, 2001. October 13, 2001, with Moon in square to transiting Pluto and Saturn may be an explosive day as this lunar T-square repeats its aspects noted at the 9/2/01 Full Moon -- the initiating Lunar sequence for Disaster 9/11/01. The FBI has the USA and her allies on high alert commencing Friday, October 11. This "window" is fraught with treachery. Keep in mind that 1095's Jupiter at 22 Capricorn is the degree of December 14, 2001's Solar Eclipse (22 Sagittarius).
5. Neptune retrograde at 29 Cancer sextiles Venus at 29 Taurus (Alcyone, the fixed star of great grief) in the USA's Solar Return chart. It also quincunxes 11/27/1095's North Node in Pisces. That, and the location of Ceres at 16 Pisces, reflects that the Plague and the Crusades were a scourge upon the land. Famine and the Dark Ages followed. Oddly enough, it was in large part due to the devotion of Islamic scholars that a vast amount of the world's knowledge was preserved. In later years, while Aquinas, et al., were debating how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, Arabs had already invented algebra and geometry. Starcats, from: "The Crusades & Jihad"

"I am afraid that, with Pluto in Sagittarius, we are seeing the tip of an iceberg of a religious holy war between the radical Islamic fundamentalist terrorists and the Judeo-Christian coalition of Western Democracies and Israel, including the USA and most of Europe. Saturn stations at 14 Gemini 58, and geodetically (measuring eastward along the ecliptic from Greenwich) this is the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. It appears we will go after the terrorists through Pakistani territory. This station of Saturn is trine to  the USA Saturn, from Gemini (logistics) to Libra (military strategy), implying that our military attacks, with transit Mars exalted in Capricorn, should be highly effective."  Robert P. Blaschke, from "Attack on America  an Astrological Analysis"

"Pluto moved from Scorpio to Sagittarius on November 11th, 1995 and will stay in this sign until January 26, 2008.  Constrained to face the horrible consequences of his own destructive power, and pay the heavy consequences of mass destruction, man turns to religion for comfort. In Sagittarius (religion) Pluto (regeneration) will promote a disturbing wave of religious fanaticism that will plague the world.  In the US, the impact of Pluto in Sagittarius has already spoken with some religious fanatics, committing serious crimes, and many will have to pay the ultimate price for their destructive behavior.  Some Middle Eastern residents have also shocked the world, and will keep spawning suicidal bomb attacks, on major European and US cities.  The "contract" they sign with their manipulators, before blowing themselves up, surrounded by the highest possible number of innocent victims, promises "the martyrs" twenty or more virgins after an immediate entrance to paradise!  After the painful passage of Pluto (expiration) in Sagittarius (codification of thoughts), the world will be ready for wiser, new age and religious leaders. Those well-adjusted souls will teach all the higher expressions of all the religions of the past. They will introduce a new image of a God free of fear, full of love and attention. Those futuristic religious leaders will combine their teachings with a more comprehensive scientific understanding of the manifestation of the Creator throughout the Universe. " Louis Turi, from: "Pluto Tail in Sagittarius"

Reformation and Revolution

"The most fundamental contribution of the Protestant is a transformation of the attitude toward the physical universe or, more accurately, toward this world of time and space that is simultaneously the basic stuff of economic activity and the arena in which it occurs. Whatever importance this life and this world had borne in the medieval Christian world view- Protestantism viewed the world's significance as an arena of God's continuing activity for the salvation of the race, and therefore of human's possible activity to glorify God. The Protestant view tended to legitimize capitalism. Protestantism, therefore,  basically conflicts with Communism, evidences in the difficulties faced with the unification of East and West Germany. In West Germany, Protestant's philosophy is applied to business, while in East Germany, people are disillusioned by the rapid changes of social, economic and political environment.  East Germans may need more time to adjust their business ethics and business patterns to their religious and political belief." Univerisity of Pittsburg Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, from "International Business Ethics: Germany Culture, Religion, and Tradition"

"The French Revolution (1789), with its trilogy of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, shook the Church from its medieval complacency. Ecclesiastical privilege was suspended, Church property removed, and the unproblematic partnership of Church and State irrevocably severed. The Church was radically divided between those who supported the new order, and those who were nostaligic for the idealised Ancient Regime." Keyan G Tomaselli, from "Unmasking Tradition, Family, Property's media maneuver"

"With regard to the time before the French Revolution of 1789, we can speak of three main frames for identification. The first were the local horizons, defined geographically by being anchored in small local societies; these dominated totally. Second, there was the class-based frame for identification connected with a certain limited social space. This horizon was restricted to the nobility, only a few per cent of the total population. That class - or social layer - developed a set of strict norms, which regulated behavior inside the group. While the standard of behavior with regard to these peers became more and more refined, the class´s attitude towards the majority of the population remained condescending and arrogant, and the standard of behavior here was marked by barbarity. For example, there are several instances of noblemen mobilizing military power against peasants and poor people in the cities without feeling threatened, for no more pressing reasons than a need for entertainment. Finally, a third frame for identification was offered by the Catholic Church. Its priesthood moved within an international frame for identification, which encompassed the greater part of Europe and later South America as well.  The great change...came with the French Revolution. Due to the new view of all individuals as citizens, not subjects, the frames of identification gained nation-wide relevance, centered now on universal ideas like freedom, equality and brotherhood which because of their abstract nature could be regarded as equally binding for everyone within the borders of the state. The declaration of human rights also introduced a universal rather than particular horizon of identification by insisting that all humans shared certain basic rights, regardless of their belonging to different states, races, religions or sexes. It is important here to remember that we are, of course, speaking of ideals which opened possibilities for long-term developments —  which are far from finished — rather than of results achieved once and for all." Odd-Bjørn Fure, from "Barbarity and civilization"

"The perfect and finished leftist is defined in terms of the French Revolution as one who advocates total liberty, total equality, and total fraternity. In this conception, the final goal is an "anarchic" society in which all inequalities would be abolished."  Plinio Correa de Oliverira, from TFP Newsletter 1:5, 1980

According to anarchist Troy Southgate, "from an organisational perspective Catholicism is a centralising bureaucracy which fails to take into account both regional and national identity. Throughout history, Catholicism’s Roman nerve centre has sought to control and manipulate world events by  forging alliances with various monarchical and Capitalistic powers. from " Synthesis Interviews TROY SOUTHGATE"

"But we should have no misgivings about our ability to destroy tyrannies. It is what we do best. It  comes naturally to us, for we are the one truly revolutionary country in the world, as we have been for more than 200 years. Creative destruction is our middle name. We do it automatically, and that is precisely why the tyrants hate us, and are driven to attack us."  Michael Ledeen, from "Creative Destruction: How to wage a revolutionary war"

"This really is crucial — humankind as the goal of nature; humankind as himself the goal; humankind as the equal of all rational beings; therefore to be used by nobody as a means for an end. Pregnant discourse: the Aristotelian and medieval God as the summum bonum, and the final goal (causa finalis), here find its equal in humankind as the goal of nature. The desiderium naturale has lost its transcendent focus. On the one hand Kant proclaimed nature to be the voice of God and the supreme planner; on the other hand he set rational man as equal to God in rationality. Given the position of reason in history, surely this is historicizing a complete vision of reality (or ontologizing history). This really is crucial — humankind as the goal of nature; humankind as himself." Johannes J. Venter, from "Reality as History: The Historic Turn in Western Thought"

"Mazzini in his "Program" of 1871 wrote "This unity all pray for can come, Italians, whatever men may do, from your country alone, and you can only write it on the flag, which is destined to shine on high above those two military columns that mark the course of thirty centuries and more in the world's life-the Capitol and the Vatican. Rome of the Caesars gave the Unity of civilization that force imposed on Europe. Rome of the Popes gave a Unity of civilization that authority imposed on a great part of the human race. Rome of the people will give, when you Italians are nobler than you are now, a Unity of civilization accepted by the free consent of the nations for Humanity."  Milton J. Fisher, from "Myths of Power and Millennialism"

".... European identity often was associated with modernity, freedom, Christianity, promiscuity etc.— a number of signifiers that first of all had the function of contrasting the conditions and traditions in the home-country or sub-continent with those in Europe. Most probably, at least when it comes to refugees and labour immigrants from the developing countries, there was also an image of Europe as the centre of imperialism, wealth and ethnocentrism vis-a-vis the third world." "From the perspective of the internal Other - Immigrant perspectives on European identity"

"It is curious to observe, how persistently the Order has assailed everything like Occultism from the earliest times, and Theosophy since the foundation of its last Society, which is ours. The Moors and the Jews of Spain felt the weight of the oppressive hand of Obscurantism no less than did the Kabalists and Alchemists of the Middle Ages. One would think Esoteric philosophy and especially the Occult Arts, or Magic, were an abomination to these good holy fathers? And so indeed they would have the world believe. But when one studies history and the works of their own authors published with the imprimatur of the Order, what does one find? That the Jesuits have practised not only Occultism, but BLACK MAGIC in its worst form,4 more than any other body of men; and that to it they owe in large measure their power and influence!" Helena Blavatsky, from: "Theosophy Or Jesuitism?"  

Civilizations

"The term ‘civilization’ remains tremendously important as the music of cultural organization, but its normal usage fails completely to describe the instrument, that is the mechanics of evolutionary development. The same could be said of the term ‘culture’. Civilizations are more congeries of disparate elements than organized systems. The system, if any, must fend for itself at a greater level of abstraction. Why should there be such a system? This difficulty with the term ‘civilization ’ could be corrected by redefinition, but then this would collide with prior usage. In general, the idea of ‘civilization’ works well only as a term for the meaningful content of culture..." John Landon, from "World History And The Eonic Effect Civilization, Darwinism, and Theories of Evolution

"Civilizations may involve a large number of people... or a very small number of people... A civilization may include several nation states, as is the case with Western, Latin American and Arab civilizations, or only one, as is the case with Japanese civilization. Civilizations obviously blend and overlap, and may include subcivilizations. Western civilization has two major variants, European and North American, and Islam has its Arab, Turkic and Malay subdivisions. Civilizations are nonetheless meaningful entities, and while the lines between them are seldom sharp, they are real. Civilizations are dynamic; they rise and fall; they divide and merge. And, as any student of history knows, civilizations disappear and are buried in the sands of time." Samuel P. Huntington, from: "The Clash of Civilizations?"

"Analyses and narratives based on the concept of separate, clearly identifiable civilizations are no longer adequate, if they ever were. In fact, the "civilizational narrative" may now be an integral part of the problem rather than a part of the explanation." John Obert Voll, from "The End of Civilization is Not So Bad"

"What ails modern civilization? Fundamentally, our society's affliction is the decay of religious belief If a culture is to survive and flourish, it must not be severed from the religious vision out of which it arose. The high necessity of reflective men and women, then, is to labor for the restoration of religious teachings as a credible body of doctrine." Russell Kirk, from: "Civilization Without Religion?"

"In the West, three factors gave strength to the making of Europe. One was the simple acceptance of the universal, apostolic Church based in Rome. Another was the Roman tradition of liberty under law for Roman citizens and of civic virtue of patrician landowners. The third was the Germanic ideal of liberty - an equality of warriors, respectful of tribe, with loyalty based on the personal authority of the warrior-king. These strands came together in the creation of feudalism. Feudalism dispersed political power yet kept Christendom united under the Church. It created a society based on reciprocal obligation to one's fellows, even between classes, as in the tradition of noblesse oblige. Because authority was based on personal allegience, it encouraged the ideal - if not always the reality - that a king, prince, nobleman, any man in authority, should be characterized by virtue." H.W. Crocker III, from Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church

"The two great traditions that have contributed most to the development of Western civilization — the inheritance of classical culture and the Christian religion — have always produced an internal tension in the spirit of our culture which shows itself in the conflict between the extreme ideals of other-worldly asceticism and secular humanism. Yet the coexistence of both of these elements has been an essential condition of the Western development, one which has inspired all the great achievements of our culture. But there is also a third element, which was ignored or taken for granted in the past and which has only attained full consciousness and intellectual expression during the last two centuries. This third element is the autochthonous tradition of the Western peoples themselves, as distinct from what they have received from their teachers and school-masters: the original endowment of Western man, which he derives from a remote prehistoric past, which is rooted in the soil of Europe and which finds expression in his languages if not in his literature. This is the factor which has been stressed, often in very one-sided and exaggerated forms, by the modern cult of nationalism, a movement which has resurrected forgotten languages and re-created submerged peoples. It has not only changed the map of Europe, but has had a revolutionary effect on European education and on European literature." Christopher Dawson, from: "The Study of Western Culture"

“The impulse of freedom – of hope in emancipated man – has built up and demolished a great deal. It has created a materialistic civilization without parallel, but at the same time it has destroyed the hierarchical order – the order of spiritual obedience. A series of religious, political and social revolutions has ensued.” Anonymous, from Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism

"European civilization, which the Catholic Church has made and makes, is by that influence still one. Its unity now (as for three hundred years past) is suffering from the grievous and ugly wound of the Reformation. The earlier wounds wounds have been healed; that modern wound we hope may still be healed —  we hope so because the alternative is death. At any rate unity, wounded or unwounded, is still the mark of Christendom." Hilaire Belloc, from Europe and the Faith

"Islam cannot be called a civilization... It is a multi-civilizational unit that has significant elements and participation in more than one civilization. In premodern times, Islam was an important part of societies which could not be identified as “civilized” as well as citied societies. In both modern and premodern times, there were people who were legitimately “Chinese Muslims,” “Malay Muslims,” “Fulani Muslims,” “Bengali Muslims” and many other such combinations of societal identities with Islam. In modern times, one must also mention “American Muslims.” All of these people show that it is possible to be both authentically Muslim and authentically local. It would take a significant redefinition of categories to state that Malcolm X was not authentically American and also, by the time of his death, authentically Muslim. If it is possible to be legitimately Western and Islamic, then at least one of those terms cannot refer to an exclusive civilizational identification." John Obert Voll, from "The End of Civilization is Not So Bad"

"In a properly run Islamic state, there is also democracy, but it is constrained by God's law, not man's. An Islamist democracy is not about the expression of individual will or rights, but of trust and acceptance by the people of the authority being exercised over them in the name of God. Like the former divine right of kings, exercised by sovereigns whose moral authority was derived from the Church, the Islamic state is based on the responsibility of its governing councils, the majlis ash shoura, to act as stewards of God's word as revealed in the Koran and practiced by the Prophet." John W. Kiser, from: The Monks of Tibhirine

 "In the 1960s, the elite media invented second-wave feminism as part of the elite agenda to dismantle civilization and create a "New World Order." The ultimate aim is to concentrate the world’s wealth/power in a relatively few hands through a global “socialist” dictatorship, administered by the UN, and paid for by you. As former President George Bush told the UN General Assembly in 1992, “It is the sacred principles enshrined in the UN Charter to which the American people will henceforth pledge their allegiance.” This is the long-term agenda of the dynastic Anglo-American international banking and oil monopolies (Rothschild, Rockefeller, Morgan) and British aristocratic families that have used foreign services and intelligence agencies to manipulate world affairs and cause havoc since the end of the 19th century. Some people call this a “conspiracy.” Conspiracy is the history that isn't written.  Feminism was promoted for the purpose of de stabilizing society, and creating dysfunctional people. Stunted people can be brainwashed and manipulated. Rockefeller’s new war (a.k.a. The War on Terror) is an extension of this elite agenda of world monopoly. Feminism masquerades as a movement for women’s rights. This kind of deception is typical of subversive movements of Communist origin. In reality, feminism is ruthlessly opposed to femininity, masculinity, heterosexuality, the nuclear family and children.  It deliberately promotes homosexuality which, according to experts, is a form of arrested development. Feminism neuters women, rendering them less fit to become wives and mothers. Men are emasculated, unable to create families, or make sacrifices for the sake for their children.   If feminism were genuine, it would have disappeared when discrimination against women ended. It continues as a tool of the elite agenda: depopulation, destabilizing society, and dismantling Western Civilization."  Henry Makow, from " Feminism, New World Order and Rockefeller’s New War"

"The Palestinians are so blinded by their narcissistic rage that they have lost sight of the basic truth civilization is built on: the sacredness of every human life, starting with your own. If America, the only reality check left, doesn't use every ounce of energy to halt this madness and call it by its real name, then it will spread. The Devil is dancing in the Middle East, and he's dancing our way." Thomas Friedman, on Suicide Bombers

Empires

"First, there are the empires whose foreign politics are especially driven by geopolitical aspirations and images, often leading to expansionist and  hegemonic missions. China is a classical example, but in our context,  Russia naturally represents this imperialist tradition. Russian geopolitics have traditionally been divided up into three groups that partly overlap: the Zapadniks, the Slavophiles and the Eurasianists. Russian view over  Eurasia has, however, traditionally been based on the ideas of centre (power) and periphery (that is explicitly or implicitly claimed as a dominion to be conquered). Russian hegemonic drives against West (Zwischeneuropean countries) and South (Caucasus, Central Asia and Middle East) have traditionally formed the strongest concern of the small intermediate countries. Modern Russian geopoliticians like Dugin and Karaganov continue to emphasise this highly imperialistic, centralist and hegemonic quest in Russian geopolitical thought. Rhetorics is dominated by mythical elements and constructing the "evil" out of Islam and the West." Anssi Kullberg, from  "Regional Constructions and Geopolitical Aspirations in Interwar and  Post-Cold-War Europe"

"On the other hand we have the distant West, whose view has often repeated the very pragmatic and rational interests of classical geopolitics, concerned of natural resources and strategic facts. Anglo-Saxon geopolitics has traditionally paid attention on the objective facts, even so that "geopolitically important" countries like Poland and Ukraine ("the heartland") have been favoured in disproportionate proportions over let’s say Baltic countries, Hungary, Romania and Moldavia. Poland got all its foreign debt excused, while for instance Hungary did not. Ukraine has been gaining much American attention, although its independence on Russia is both materially and culturally on a much weaker basis than for example Romania’s, which would however possess much of that geopolitical strategic importance that interests the U.S. in Ukraine (location, size and potential strength, natural resources, shield between Central Europe and Black Sea, and between Russian and Serbian troops). On the other hand, Anglo-American geopolitics has also traditionally appeared as much more "nationally unselfish" than the openly nationalistic geopolitics of Russia and other empires. Anglo-Saxon geopolitics, since the times of Mackinder and Spykman, has appeared as "searching for the good of the whole world". Anglo-Saxon geopolitical rhetoric is dominated by speak about democracy, liberty and human rights." Anssi Kullberg, from  "Regional Constructions and Geopolitical Aspirations in Interwar and  Post-Cold-War Europe"

"The Islamic era was likewise marked by an empire-building culture. Its chronography is said to have been  instituted in 642 C.E. by the caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Khattab. Ten years earlier, during the Farewell Pilgrimage and shortly before he died, the Prophet had abolished the lunisolar calender of pre-Islamic Arabia and decreed the new lunar  year. No revelation had instructed him to do so, but Qur'an 9:36-37, revealed the year before, had entailed censorship of the pagan method of intercalation that periodically wedged an additional month between the two sacred months of Dhu l-Hijja and Muharram, interrupted the sequence of the three sacred spring months of the lunisolar year, and thereby played havoc with the trucial laws of Arabian tradition. In this revelation, the believers are called to “fight the pagans altogether, as they are fighting you altogether,” and intercalation is pronounced “an excess of unbelief... By 642, under Umar, the Islamic institution of jihad was fully in place, the great multi-front wars of expansion were in full swing, Islam was becoming a world power, and the new chronology affirmed the self-identity of the Islamic commonwealth and obliterated access to the old tribal past. In its global an universalist thrust, the new Islamic calendar was a fitting symbol for the culture and the age that produced it.  Barbara Freyer Stowasser, from "A Time to Reap"

"There were numerous early Islamic historians, many of whom were candid and remarkably critical, but few saw history as really existing before the era of the Prophet (thus the maxim "Islam cancels all that was before it"). And the parameters of inquiry were limited by the Koran, whose literary and historical primacy tolerated no competition from mere mortals. Contrary to classical historiography - there seems to be little evidence of any early Arabic translation of the major Greek historians - lapses in morality, not tactical blunders or structural flaws, were cited as reasons for Islamic defeat."  Victor Davis Hanson, from Carnage and Culture

"The most common attitude towards science in the Islamic world is to see it as an objective study of the world of nature, namely as a way of deciphering the signs of God in the cosmic book of the universe. Natural sciences discover the Divine codes built into the cosmos by its Creator, and in doing so, help the believer marvel at the wonders of God's creation. Seen under this light, science functions within a religious, albeit overtly simplistic, framework. The image of science as the decoder of the sacred language of the cosmos is certainly an old one, going back to the traditional Islamic sciences whose purpose was not just to find the direction of the qiblah or the times of the prayers but also to understand the reality of things as they are. Construed as such, science is surely a noble enterprise, and it was within this framework that the Muslim intellectuals, when they encountered the edifice of modern science in the 18th and 19th centuries, did not hesitate to translate the word 'ilm (and its plural 'ulum) for science in the sense of modern physical sciences."  Ibrahim Kalin, from "Three Views of Science in the Islamic World"

"Muslims in the West – and, for that matter, everywhere – will have to decide whether the holy obligation to reclaim Islamic land applies to Andalusia (al-Andaluz) and much else of Spain, France up to Tours, large chunks of Sicily and the Balkans to the gates of Vienna. And they must ask themselves, is the decision not to do so (if they so decide) arrived at because it is impracticable or immoral?"  Jack Schwartz, from "Islamophobia"

"The "World Islamic Movement" is none other than the Muslim Brotherhood, whose aim is to to establish an "Islamic State". One of their web sites lays out their purpose. Under the "Main Objectives" section, the following aims are listed:

1. Building the Muslim individual: brother or sister with a strong body, high manners, cultured thought, ability to earn, strong faith, correct worship, conscious of time, of benefit to others, organized, and self-struggling character ...
2. Building the Muslim family: choosing a good wife (husband), educating children Islamicaly, and inviting other families.
3. Building the Muslim society (thru building individuals and families) and addressing the problems of the society realistically.
4. Building the Muslim state.
5. Building the Khilafa (basically a shape of unity between the Islamic states).
6. Mastering the world with Islam." from Muslimpundit

The Clash

"The clash of empires is already becoming secondary to the clash of civilizations. Everywhere the colonial peoples are demanding that their voices be heard. Perhaps in ten years, perhaps in fifty, the pre-eminence of Western civilization will be in question. We might as well recognize this now and admit these civilizations into the world parliament, so that its laws will be truly universal and a universal order will be established." Albert Camus, from: "The World Goes Fast," November 27, 1946

"A clash between civilizations is thus a struggle not between princes and plenipotentiaries but between religions. The stakes are fundamental. The conflict itself is likely to prove intractable." A. J. Bacevich, on "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order"

"Here I would like to stress right away, that I consider it unacceptable to talk about a 'clash of civilizations.'"  Russian President Vladimir, in Berlin before the Bundestag on September 25th, 2001

"Conflict along the fault line between Western and Islamic civilizations has been going on for 1,300 years. After the founding of Islam, the Arab and Moorish surge west and north only ended at Tours in 732. From the eleventh to the thirteenth century the Crusaders attempted with temporary success to bring Christianity and Christian rule to the Holy Land. From the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, the Ottoman Turks reversed the balance, extended their swayover the Middle East and the Balkans, captured Constantinople, and twice laid siege to Vienna. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries at Ottoman power declined Britain, France, and Italy established Western control over most of North Africa and the Middle East."  Samuel P. Huntington, from: The Clash of Civilizations

"One elemental feature of geopolitical thinking has traditionally been division of the world into regions. This tradition has been emphasised in newer geopolitics. Constructions to divide up the world into blocs has been given for example by Saul Cohen and latest by Samuel Huntington. The empires like to add their ideas of interest spheres into such models, and because of that, especially Huntington’s civilization model has greatly contributed to Russian and Chinese demands of multipolarism (world divided between "great powers"), although more traditional realist school of  geopolitics, Zbigniew Brzezinski being an eminent representative of it, has continued in the Anglo-Saxon strategic geopolitics emphasising the chance to exploit American supremacy for the best of liberty and democracy in the world. Another trend of new geopolitics is constituted by the historical-structuralist theories (Immanuel Wallerstein, George Modelski) and critical geopolitics (especially Gearóid Ó Tuathail). Anssi Kullberg, from  "Regional Constructions and Geopolitical Aspirations in Interwar and  Post-Cold-War Europe"

"North Korea, Iran and Iraq could not be a true axis in any sense given the disparities among them, both secular and sectarian, as well as objectives and lack of fundamental collaboration on goals." Vince Cannistraro

"As civilizations, Islam and the West—the one with its jihads, the other given to crusades—seem peculiarly well-suited to be at each other’s throat." A. J. Bacevich, on "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order"

"Islamic civilization as a whole is, like other traditional civilizations, based upon a point of view: the revelation brought by the Prophet Muhammad is the "pure" and simple religion of Adam and Abraham, the restoration of a primordial and fundamental unity.  Seyyed Hossein Nasr, from,  Science and Civilization in Islam

"One of the principle pathologies is its absolutism, a problem it shares with its Abraham siblings. Islam holds that Mohammed is the final prophet and that there can be no further revelation. Islam does recognise and acknowledge Judaism and Christianity, but even this recognition is problematic given the absolutist tendencies explicit in those religions. According to Islam both Abraham and Jesus (Isa) are prophets, but Mohammed is accorded primacy as the end of the line, as the end of history. Islam does not recognise the Christian absolutist claim that Jesus was the only Son of God, nor does it recognise the Jewish absolutist claim that God chose them above all other people.  Ray Harris, from "What Is The Integral Response?"

 "Peoples and countries with similar cultures are coming together.... Peoples and countries with different cultures are coming apart."  Samuel P. Huntington, from  "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order"

"This centuries-old military interaction between the West and Islam is unlikely to decline. It could become more virulent. The Gulf War left some Arabs feeling proud that Saddam Hussein had attacked Israel and stood up to the West. It also left many feeling humiliated and resentful of the West's militarypresence in the Persian Gulf, the West's overwhelming military dominance, and their apparent inability to shape their own destiny. Many Arab countries, in addition to the oil exporters, are reaching levels of economic and social development where autocratic forms of government become inappropriate and efforts to introduce democracy become stronger. Some openings in Arab politicalsystems have already occurred. The principal beneficiaries of these openings have been Islamist movements. In the Arab world, in short, Western democracy strengthens anti-Western political forces. This may be a passing phenomenon, but it surely complicates relations between Islamic countries and the West." Samuel P. Huntington, from: The Clash of Civilizations

"Former French film star Brigitte Bardot has failed to overturn a conviction for inciting racial hatred against Muslims. The actress-turned-animal rights campaigner was prosecuted over her article called Open Letter to My Lost France.  Bardot wrote: "...my country, France, my homeland, my land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims."  A French court fined her 30,000 francs (£3,000) in June 2000 for the comments, which were published in 1999 in her book Le Carre de Pluton (Pluto's Square).  Her article also strongly criticised the Islamic ritual of slaughtering sheep at festival time. Bardot, who became an international sex symbol in 1956 after starring in the film And God Created Woman, has been convicted three times for inciting racial hatred. The same text was first published in Le Figaro newspaper in 1997 for which she was fined. Her next conviction came in 1998 for comments about the growing number of mosques "while our church-bells fall silent for want of priests". BBC News, from: "Bardot racism conviction upheld"

"Adapting the Big Bang theory to Freemasonry, we discover how the French Revolution and subsequent Napoleonic Wars accounted for the dissemination of the 'Society' outside its known borders. Which is why by the late 19th century, Masonic lodges were scattered across the Ottoman Empire, from Constantinople where Young Turks were beguiled by the secretive brotherhood, to Greater Syria and Egypt where emerging nationalists aped their European assailant in their inherent opposition to autocratic authority."   Samir Raafat, from: "Freemasonry in Egypt: Is it still around?

"The secret Atlantic Order has a most ancient history. Some traditonalist authors trace it back to the initiatic societies of ancient Egypt and specially to a sect worshipping the god Seth, whose symbols were the Crocodile and Behemoth (i.e. aquatic animals), and also the Red Ass (see J.Robin Secret societies in apocalyptical rendez-vous, J.M.Allemand René Guénon and Seven towers of the devil etc.). Later the sect of Seth merged with various phoenician cults, specially with the bloody cult of Moloch. According to the French conspirologist of the XIXth century Claude Grace d'Ors, this secret organization still existed many centuries after after the ruin of the phoenician civilization. In Middle Age Europe it existed under the name of “Minstrels of Morgana”, whose emblem was the “Dancing Death”, or Dance Macabre. Grace d'Ors affirmed that Luther's Reformation was conducted under the instruction of this sect and that Protestants (especially Anglo-Saxon and French) still remain under its influence. Jan Parvulesco believes that Giuseppe Balsamo, the famous Cagliostro, was one of the major agents of this secret Order which emerged at the surface at the end of the XVIII century under the mask of the irregular “Egyptian” Masonry of Memphis rite, later of Memphis-Mithra. Such symbolical prehistory of the atlantists characterizes the substance of their geopolitical and cultural-economic strategy. Its sense is reduced to emphasizing “horizontal” values, to bring on the foreground the lowest aspects of the human being and society as a whole." Aleksandr Dugin, from: THE GREAT WAR OF CONTINENTS

"CFR people, whether "right" of center or "left" of [the Rockefeller family's oil business] "center", whether "neo-conservative" or "liberal", DON'T LIKE Torah-true Jews, Qur'an-true Sunni Muslims and Bible-believing Christians.  They cannot CONTROL them so easily, because their faith may have more power than Rockefeller's money [and the money of his fellow Anglo-American multinational business magnates'] generously doled out to his servants' bank accounts."  Barry Chamish, from:  Why the PLO is Tunneling Under Temple Mount

"Geopolitics is a chess game. Rockefeller´s protégé Zbigniew Brzezinski, has a book entitled The Grand Chessboard. As in chess, a drastic “sacrifice” (such as Sept.11) always has a more far-reaching purpose. The Anglo American elite´s game-plan is to use control of oil to  blackmail Europe, Russia and China to accept its hegemony in the upcoming New World Order. No wonder the rest of the world is not crazy about attacking Iraq. Henry Makow, Ph.D.from "The Elite Endgame: Oil = Extortion = New World Order

"It seems that American geopolitical thought of the post-Cold-War world can be divided into two influential schools of thought - the multipolarist and the realist school. The third could be isolationism, which would hardly bring about anything good for those European and Asian countries that wish protection for their liberties from the U.S... The multipolarist thought is based on the idea of division of the world into the hegemonic blocs of few "great powers", granting them with interest  spheres that are somehow supposed to be legitimate. This line of thought is rooted in imperialist tradition, but also in the theories dividing world between continents...The legitimisation of the constructions, however, appears most obscure. Huntington’s model is entirely based on religious division of the world - in a way that alarmingly resembles the race theories of those geopoliticians who inspired the Nazis: now "cultures", or religions, have just replaced the "races". Huntington divides the world into "civilisations", which are all supposed to have a legitimate "central state". Huntington’s anti-Islamism is very clear, while for Russia and China he would grant interest spheres much larger than the claimed Orthodox and "Sinic" civilizations."  Anssi Kullberg, from  "Regional Constructions and Geopolitical Aspirations in Interwar and  Post-Cold-War Europe"

"The Israeli government of Ariel Sharon and the present Israeli Defense Force command is the most significant asset of the  Anglo-American faction pressing the "Clash of Civilizations" war-plan, as evidenced by Sharon's persistent efforts to provoke a new religious war in the Middle East against the Palestinian Authority and a range of other Arab targets." Jeffrey Steinberg and Edward Spannaus, from  "EIR Blows Israeli Spies' Cover In September 11 Case"

"Huntington’s civilization theory, in my opinion, is not actually scientific in nature, but it rather belongs to the same category with the many  interwar constructions with aesthetic basis. Besides, there are too many embarrassing factual errors in Huntington’s book - let alone purposeful ignorance of the fact that the pattern of amity and enmity in the world’s conflict zones is far from being "clash of civilizations", i.e. religious in nature, but quite the contrary, forms a complicated web of unholy alliances. The very examples of Balkans and Caucasus that Huntington finds supporting his theory on the vague basis that religions are involved, are actually witnessing against his theory: For example, Shi’ite Islamist Iran is supporting the interests of Russia in Chechnya and of Christian Armenians against Shi’ite Muslim Azerbaijan; Sunnite Turkey, Christian Georgia and Shi’ite Azerbaijan are co-operating against Orthodox Russia,  Monophysite Armenia, Shi’ite Iran and Sunnite Syria, and so on. Religious division into Uniate and Orthodox Ukraine has not brought about a real conflict while the linguistic conflict between Slavic Transnistria and  Latin Moldova - both of same Orthodox religion - has generated a bloody war. Anssi Kullberg, from  "Regional Constructions and Geopolitical Aspirations in Interwar and  Post-Cold-War Europe"

"Russia and China can be expected to be enthusiastic on Huntington’s views - and multipolarism in general - since they want to get a share of the world hegemony along the U.S... . However, we must study also Huntington’s theory, its motivations  and its implications, most seriously, as it has gained very large influence in Western geopolitical thought." Anssi Kullberg, from  "Regional Constructions and Geopolitical Aspirations in Interwar and  Post-Cold-War Europe"

"The multipolarist school is challenged by the other line of thought: that  the U.S. supremacy as the leading hegemon of the post-Cold-War world is a fact and that this fact should be used for the benefit of Western values - democracy, market economy and peace. Zbigniew Brzezinski, himself born in Poland and an expert of Eurasian affairs with extensive and detailled knowledge, has a much more realist view on geostrategy than Huntington  does. However, he also repeats the traditional moral bias of Anglo-Saxon geopolitical thought. While Huntington’s model is based on mythical cultural "civilizations" and  religious prejudices, Brzezinski’s geostrategy is based on objective facts influencing the "grand game" being played in Eurasia by grand powers. While Huntington’s model is simplistic and however based on generally plausible ideas, collapses on the level of details and single examples, Brzezinski’s  model is based on pedantic and almost encyclopaedic information on the countries, including the minor ones, and knowledge on the strategic realities and natural resources such as Caspian oil. The politically and  thus perhaps "culturally" most advanced post-communist countries, Slovenia and Estonia, might get extra favour from Huntington, while Brzezinski pays attention on the "strategically important pivot countries" like Poland, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan. This, however, does not mean that Huntington’s  model would be more favourable for Estonians. Quite the contrary. Huntington’s world political moral is relativistic and basically gives the right to the hegemons of each "civilization" to do whatever they like within their bloc, if only they do not mess with other "civilizations" - an exception Huntington makes with the Islamic civilization, from which he gives a greater part into a dominion of Russia for apparently subjective reasons. Brzezinski’s world political moral is based on clear defence of Western values with any objective means available. The idea of the moral basis of Western hegemony continues the tradition of Mackinder and Spykman.  The realist school of geostrategy has traditionally been favoured by the Republican thinkers of American geopolitics. To mention recent examples, this line of thought has appeared for example in the views of John McCain and Paul Wolfowitz, and in John Shalikashvili’s defence of NATO’s east enlargement. Anssi Kullberg, from  "Regional Constructions and Geopolitical Aspirations in Interwar and  Post-Cold-War Europe"

"To proclaim the Hellenic heritage, the Roman civilisation...  in Europe and the West as a vertical axis to build a project of a new supranationality means  necessarily to ignore or hide many of its controversial and ethnocentric dangers."  Alvaro Ramirez,  from "Umbilicus mundi": On the concept of identity and its consequences in the "reference grid"

"The film has it that 1968 was Indonesia's Year of Living Dangerously. But in fact, it was 1999, the year the dismemberment of the largest Muslim country in the world started. East Timor is the beginning, not the end -- there are separatist movements in Aceh, etc, where the West is supporting Christian secessionists. India should make common cause with the Indonesians -- who, after all, are the mild side of Islam as compared to the wild-eyed fundamentalists of West Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In this clash of civilizations, India and Indonesia are both likely victims of Western propaganda. The Americans, in particular, have no respect for national sovereignty (except their own) -- as they have demonstrated in Yugoslavia, and now as they pressurise the Russians over Chechnya. With the Pope's visit, and increased funding for conversions in Asia in general and in India in particular -- the details of this effort on a war-footing are of course on the net -- we surely need to worry about a future secessionist movement in the northeast which will be positioned globally by the Western media as the result of 'Hindu oppression of Christians'. I can well imagine Australian 'peace-keepers' in Nagaland conducting a  'UN-sponsored referendum' on 'independence'."  Rajeev Srinivasan, from "Annus Horribilis"

"A small, vocal, but influential minority, multiculturalists deny that the United States is part of Western civilization or  that Americans possess a common culture. Propagating the notion that American society consists of various indigestible racial, ethnic, and other subgroups, multiculturalists effectively deny even the possibility of revitalizing a unified culture." A. J. Bacevich, on "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order"