"The Prometheans" :- and 'The Prometheus Foundation.'
Accept your destiny... >:-}
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"To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wriongs darker than Death or Night;
To defy power which seems omnipotent...
Neither to change, not falter, nor repent.
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyouys, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire and Victory."
-- Perch Bysshe Shelley, "Pprometheus Unbound."
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From "The Dictionary of Symbols: by J.E. Cirlot; RKP [1971]:
ALCHEMIC: ... Sublimation, the sixth stage, symbolized the suffering
resulting from the mystic detachment from the world, and the dedication to
spiritual striving. In emblematic designs, this stage is depicted by a
wingless creature borne away by a winged being; or sometimes by the
Prometheus myth.
FIRE: Paracelsus demonstrated the parallel between fire and life, pointing
out that both must feed upon other lives to keep alive. To steal fire
like Prometheus, or to give oneself up to fire, like Empedocles, are two
concepts which point to the basic dualism of the human predicament. The
middle way lies in the comforthable solution of simply making material use
of the benefits of fire. But fire is ultra-life. It embraces both good
(vital heat) and bad (destruction and conflagration). It implies the
desire to annihilate time and to bring all things to their end. Fire is
the archetypical image of phenomena in themselves. To pass through fire
is symbolic of transcending the human condition, in 'Myths, Dreams and
Mysteries' (London, 1960).
ZODIACAL: Piobb has linked the Trials of Hercules with the Zodiac ... The
eagle is linked with Prometheus to Aquarius.
RING: Like every closed circle, the Ring is a symbol of continuity and
wholeness. Thus, it is told that when Jupiter allowed Hercules to rescue
Prometheus, it was on condition that the latter should wear an iron ring,
set with a piece of rock from the Caucasus, as a symbol of submission to
his punishment ... T the same time, the light radiated by the ring of
flames symbolizes eternal wisdom and transendental illumination.
VULCAN: Vulcan, as a symbol, is related to the smith who has his forge in
the mountain-cave, and hence to the demiurge. Indeed, the Ancients
explained volvanoes by reference to underground forges and spernatural
smiths... Diel siggests that Vulcan, Icarus and Prometheus are symbolic
of the intellect -- understood almost in its techical and 'merely human'
sense -- in open rebellion against the spirit.
MYTHOLOGY: "In the person of Prometheus in the 'Works and Days', if
anywhere in Greek mythology, appears a figure beloved by anthropologists
and others, the 'culture hero' wo, at the dawn of time won for man certain
essential advantages of his civilized existence. The Tiatan Prometheus
angered Zeus with men by cheating him of his portion of animal-meat when
sacrifice was instituted. This provides the validating charter for the
Greek sacrificial ritual, in which the bones and fat were offered to the
Gods and the meat was kept for human consumption. In retaliation, Zeus
took fire from men. Prometheus stole it back again.
Zeus took his revenge by instructing Hephaistos, Craftsman of the
Olympians, to fashion woman from clay. Athena [Tony bows respectfully...]
decked her out with fine clothes and flowers, but she was given a
deceitful nature ... These stories account for fire, sacrifice, human
toil and sickness by providing an imaginatively and emotionally satisfying
explanation for them, based upon the known world-order. Explanation
alleviates the hardship by making it comprehensible. The story of woman
as both a delight and a curse even hints at the kind of 'mediation of
opposites' which, it it has been argued, is the universal function of
mythopoeic activity. Again, the stories are old -- much older than
Hesiod." -- J.P. Kane.
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PRACTICAL GREEK MAGIC: "The Titan Iapetus had four sons: Menoetius; Atlas;
Prometheus; and Epimentheus... Prometheus, whose main weapon seems to
have been cunning, had a different fate, and played an important role in
the legendary history an origins of humanity.; during the revolt of the
Titans he kept a prudent neutrality and was actually admitted into the
circle of the Immortals, but he entertained a silent grudge against the
destryers of his race and constantly favoured men against the Gods.
Robert Graves postulates that tht Talmudic archangel Michael was the
counterpart of Prometheus, no doubt on account of the similarity between
the story of Prometheus' involvent in clay and water being used to fashion
the first men in the likeness of gods into whome Athene breathed life; and
the story of Jehovah acting in a similar fashion to create Adam and Eve.
The occult significance of the Promethean story is obvious; it
concerns the ever recurring theme of a group of people who possessed
advanced knowledge of both science and magic which they gave to a race who
were not spiritually or somatically evolved enough to make good use of it.
The Tree of Knowledge inevitably carries its sacrificed saviour,
Prometheus joining the ranks of those wisdom gods who suffered for the
redemption of mankind but also gained knowledge and furthered their own
spiritual evolution as a result." -- Murry Hope [1985].
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Arjen Kamphuis wrote:
> LS!
>
> We need your help in finding a good name.
> Something in Latin (or Ancient Greek perhaps).
> Something that will be clear to the public.
> Something that will be easy to remember.
> Something great like Extropy or Excedo (but different).
> Something that will stand the test of time! (at least until the Singularity)
>
Here's Nobel prize-winning physicist Max Born's glorious
grand-daughter Olivia Newton-John, singing 'Magic!" (words and music
by John Farrar) from the film "XANADU", in which Livvy plays a Greek
Muse come from Olympus to the West Coast of America in search of
someone to inspire. Livvy on roller-skates... <dreams> >:-}
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M A G I C
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"Come take my hand, you should know me:
I've always been in your mind.
You know I will be kind
I'll be guiding you.
To live, your dream has to start now;
There's no other road to take.
You won't make a mistake.
I'll be guiding you.
CHORUS:
You _have_ to believe we are *magic*;
_Nothing_ cand stand in our way.
You _have_ to believe we are *magic*;
Don't let your aim ever stray.
And if all your hopes survive,
Destiny will arrive,
And bring _all your dreams alive_
For you.
......
From where I stand, you are home free,
Planets aligned -- so rare...
There's promise in the air,
I'll be guiding you.
Through every turn, I'll be near you,
Come any time you call,
I'll catch you when you fall,
I'll be guiding you.
CHORUS:
CHORUS:
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Never settle for less than your highest aspirations:
"Character is Destiny."
Eleutheria! (That's 'Freedom!' in Greek).
/ /\ \
--*--<Tony>--*--
Tony Hollick, LightSmith
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/la-agora (LA-Agora Conference)
http://www.agora.demon.co.uk (Agora Home Page, Rainbow Bridge Foundation)
http://www.nwb.net/nwc (NorthWest Coalition Against Malicious Harrassment)
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| Anduril@CIX.compulink.co.uk * http://www.agora.demon.co.uk |
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