Archive for the ‘Beliefs’ Category

Posted on February 14, 2010 - by Andrew

Banned: Valentine’s Day leads to hand holding and free sex

In Indonesia some Muslim leaders have commanded the faithful not to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

The Western / Christian day has become increasingly popular among the young and liberal population of the nation’s larger cities.

Abdullah Cholil, leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Islamic organisation in Indonesia said;

“We forbid Muslims to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The day is often celebrated by young, unmarried people. They celebrate Valentine’s Day by holding hands or having free sex, which they are not supposed to be doing,”

Lalilurrahman, the East Java branch chief of the country’s highest Islamic body, the Indonesian Ulema Council, noted that the day had nothing to do with Islamic tradition and should not interest Muslims. He said;

“Valentine’s Day originated from Western culture. It’s not in accordance with Islamic and Eastern culture.”

In Indonesia’s largest cities many shops are selling both Valentine’s Day gifts and Chinese New Year memorabilia.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Are these religious leaders worried that Valentine’s Day is corrupting their traditional beliefs or do they simply dislike what it is supposed to stand for?

If you’re Muslim and have done something romantic on Valentine’s Day for your partner then it would great to have your thoughts in the comments below.

Posted on February 13, 2010 - by Andrew

Alignment: Valentine’s Day is also the Chinese New Year

When is the Chinese New Year this year? It’s February the 14th. That’s right; the Chinese New Year will happen on the same date as Valentine’s Day.

This alignment is pretty rare; it will happen again in 38 years time.

This year is the year of the Tiger.

Here’s wishing you all a happy tiger style Valentine’s Day

In Pure Spirit

Do you think this alignment has any special meaning at all? Or is it just two different calendars overlapping as they’re bound to do now and then.

Posted on January 14, 2010 - by Andrew

Real silver dice

Actual silver dice are a rarity. They’re used by seers with enough ability to actually channel and afford them. They’re used by households with a touch of class.

In Pure Spirit

How much faith do you put in cleromancy? It’s one of the most trusted, widely practiced but poorly understood of the divination arts.

Posted on January 14, 2010 - by Andrew

Police on pagan watch after horse mane weaving incidents

Police in the UK are suggesting that white witches are responsible for a number of incidents which have resulted in horse’s manes been woven together. At first police suspected the practise was being used by organised crime to mark the horses prior to stealing them but none of the marked horses were then stolen.

It is now believed that witches may be engaging in knot magick and are using the closeness of horses to certain Pagan deities to boost the strength of their spells. None of the horses have been harmed by any of the weaving incidents but stables and farmers are becoming bemused and a little unsettled.

The Taunton Vale Harriers Hunt have set up a local horse watch scheme to keep an eye on the animals. The Hunt had used social networking sites to discover that a small group of people had been talking about the use of horses in pagan rituals.

The Telegraph published a story on knot magic yesterday and the Guardian covered it at the start of December in 2009.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Are white witches likely to be responsible for this? Should they be doing it – even if neither horse nor person is being harmed?

Posted on January 13, 2010 - by Andrew

Calls in South Africa to make witchcraft illegal

In response to the horrible murder of an 81-woman believed by her neighbour to be a witch the South African authorities are being urged to ban witchcraft.

To be clear; the non-witch murdered the suspect-witch and now papers like The Richmark Sentinel are calling on witchcraft to be made illegal. The claim is that this is the ban will make life safer for the witches.

The murderer escaped before the police arrived.

The South African province of Mpumalanga has already to introduce the “Witchcraft Suppression Bill,” but met resistance. The bill attempted to define witchcraft as;

“The secret use of muti, zombies, spells, spirits, magic powders, water, mixtures, etc, by any person with the purpose of causing harm, damage, sickness to others or their property.”

This would technically mean the secret use of a water pistol to soak some curtains could have been classified as witchcraft.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think about this news? Fairly shocking that people still think like this. How would you address the problem of violence against people who are believed to be witches?

Posted on November 23, 2009 - by Andrew

The Pishtacos of Huallaga

Police have arrested a gang believed to be responsible for more than 60 deaths.

Bizarrely; the gang is said to have murdered people, hung their body on S hooks and drained them of fat. This fat was then sold to European laboratories for up to $15,000.

One of the gang member is said to have  been in possession of 17 litres of human fat when he was arrested.

Authorities in Peru are calling the arrested “witches” and “pishtacos.” From Andean myth the pishtacos are ghouls.

It is said that the fat collecting gang gave themselves the name the  Pishtacos of Huallaga.

Police admit the reason for the murders is strange but insist the arrests are real. Prosecutores told press; “We are not making this up. They have confessed to this. That’s what’s coming out now.”

Despite these comments from the police there is some doubt to the arrests. A dean of a Peruvian medical college has gone on the record to say that hundreds of litres of human fat are obtained every day at cosmetic clinics. The price of US$15,000 seems unrealistic.

In Pure Spirit

Do you think the police have managed to arrest members of a mass murdering gang or is something else going on here?

Posted on October 30, 2009 - by Andrew

Using a Tibetan Singing Bowl in a seance?

Singing bowls are actually a type of bell. They’re used by buddhists as part of their meditation and prayers. Little, however, is known about Himalayan singing bowls and these may have been used in a more ritualistic way.

Should a singing bowl be used in a seance?

The opening night of Most Haunted Live 2009 showed Yvette Fielding using a singing bowl at the start of a seance. Skip to about 7:40 to see the bowl in action.

 

Writing on Tarot Elements, Catherine notes that she finds the singing bowl useful for fine tuning clairvoyance and psychic frequencies so that spirit communication is clearer but stresses that the bowl isn’t a means of communication like a Ouija board or seance.

An article “How to summon spirits” on eHow has an average rating of three out of five stars and suggests the use of a singing bowl. It suggests the bowl was meant to summon positive spirits and energy but this is not entirely correct. Singing bowls, with their buddhist orign, have no direct link to the spirits. However the author of this article clearly finds singing bowls to be useful.

Ghost Watchers Inc, founded by Phil Jones, and medium Liz Maguire often mention the use of a singing bowl in their ghost hunts.

There is no restriction on the buying and selling of singing bowls in the UK. 10-13cm fair trade bowls can be bought for less than £25*.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Should a singing bowl be used in a seance? Is it a clash of cultures? Is this just an example of desperate ghost seekers trying to use whatever they can lend a hand on or being seduced by the singing bowl’s song?

Caveat: Links marked with a star(*) are revenue links.

Posted on October 23, 2009 - by Andrew

The Beast, To Mega Therion and 666

The Beast is not one figure from the Bible – but two.  In the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, the First Beast comes from the sea, has seven heads and ten horns. The Second Beast comes the earth, looks like a lamb but talks like a dragon.

The Second Beast acts as an ambassador for the first. It has people make an image of the First Beast and pray to it. The Second Beast is able to make the image come to life and strike down anyone who refuses to worship the First Beast.

Revelation 16, 19 and 20 refers to the Second Beast as the False Prophet. It forms one third of the unholy trinity along with the Dragon/Satan and the First Beast/the Antichrist.

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), the British occultist, adopted the name To Mega Therion for himself.  This phrase, Greek for “The Great Beast” comes from the Book of Revelation

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast [θηρίον, therion] rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

Crowley used isopsephy, the art and science of adding up the numeric values of letters, to point out that the name translates to 666.

The Roman emperor Domitian is said to have been secretly called “The Beast” by Romans, Greeks, Christians and Jews according to theologian Ethelbert Stauffer.  Domitian’s office title was Imperator Caesar Domitianus Augustus Germanicus or, in Greek, Autokrator Kaisar Dometianos Sebastos Germanikos. This meant the coins of his empire, in Greek, would carry the abbreviation A.KAI.DOMET.SEB.GE. Once again, using isopsephy, the letters tally up to 666.

In the Bible itself, in the Book of Revelation, 666 is described as “the number of a man” associated with The Beast.

In Pure Spirit

Are you afraid of the number 666? Do you think there’s now too much hype around it and too many possible interpretations?

Posted on October 19, 2009 - by Andrew

Ali Yakubov the Russian boy with the Koran on his skin

Ali Yakubov is a medical mystery. Doctors and family deny any person is responsible for it and that there is no one writing on the boy’s skin – nevertheless, words from the holy Koran mysteriously appear on his skin.

The word Allah appeared first, on Ali’s chin soon after his birth. Ali was born prematurely with a coronary heart disease and transparent skin which revealed his intestines. At the time doctors warned that he may only live 2 or 3 days.

In another twist, his mother, Madiana, complained to doctors that she could ear him crying before his was born. Doctors dismissed this out of hand but Mr. Ahmedpasha Amiralaev, a chairman of the Sagida Murtuzalieva Charity admitted that by the late term even the doctors themselves admitted that it seemed to be the unborn baby that was crying.

Ali has become a religious sensation in Russia. It has been reported that new Koran Arabic script appears on the back of his legs and hands (sometimes his stomach and head) before fading after a few days. Madiana says the boy reaches upwards of 40 degrees centigrade during these appearances.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think of this report? There are certainly photographs of the poor boy with writing on his skin… but how is it getting there?

Posted on September 21, 2009 - by Andrew

Noel Edmonds’ Cosmic Ordering iPhone App

British TV presenter Noel Edmonds has launched an iPhone application for Cosmic Ordering. Cosmic Ordering is the faith technique in which individuals can focus their desires to connect with the cosmos and make those desires real.

Noel Edmonds talked about Cosmic Ordering in public first in 2005. He had not worked in TV since 1999 when “Noel’s House Party” closed. After being introduced to Cosmic Ordering by his reflexologist he found a new prominent position as the host of Deal or No Deal.

The iPhone application allows users to place orders with the Cosmos – such as “improved finances” or “fresh romance” – and for the Cosmos to respond via the application.

He told press, “However, the Cosmos won’t, indeed it can’t, assist you unless you adhere to the three basic rules of Cosmic Ordering, the most important of which is belief in yourself and your right to be successful.”

In Pure Spirit

Do you believe in Cosmic Ordering? Has it worked for you?

What do you think about someone as well known as Noel Edmonds being associated with this?