#and why it counts as a religion to have no community no cultural practices etc but you like light some candles in your room | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

onlinequranblog · 2 years

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islamic information for kids

Our main goal in life is to teach our children the Noble Qur’an and give islamic information for kids. Muslims around the world believe in a life after death and hold that they will be judged based on their actions in this life. Muslims must keep themselves pure so as to be fit to be judged by Allah. In Islam, the word "Islam" means peace or submission to God. Muslims believe that only by submitting to God can they achieve a peaceful and happy life. Islam teaches the equality of men and women.

The holy book of Islam is the Holy Quran, which Muslims believe was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad through angel Gabriel. The Prophet Muhammad lived from 570–632 CE. He received the Quran through Gabriel in the form of verses from Allah. Some Muslims believe that the Quran came to Muhammad in the same way that the Quran is received today. Most Muslims agree that the Quran was revealed to Muhammad in seven chapters, called suras, and then to the Prophet's followers after his death.

This religion has a wide range of practices and beliefs. Muslims believe in one God, Allah, but differ over the number of prophets and messengers who were sent to humans. They also differ over whether all of the prophets were male or female. Some Muslim sects teach that Jesus was a prophet but not the son of God, while others teach that he was both. Some Muslims believe that Jesus will return as a human being on Judgment Day.

The most common practice is to pray five times a day, usually early in the morning, before performing daily tasks. Muslims can also say prayers at any time, but the most common time for prayer is at dawn and dusk. Prayers consist of reciting prayers, sometimes from a written text. Prayers are usually divided into shorter units of time, called rak'ats. Muslims say each of the prayers in succession, and they often count silently or aloud as they pray.

The primary goal of a Muslim is to strive for the pleasure of Allah, and to avoid the displeasure of Allah. The five pillars of Islam are testimony of faith,

What's the best thing about being an Arabic tutor?

Being able to help someone Learn to read quran online for kids. I can't imagine how difficult it is for someone who doesn't understand English or Arabic to communicate with people who don't understand their language. You are in a position where you can reach out to someone and help them learn and express themselves in a new way.

How did you learn Arabic?

By choosing best online courses for kids, and taking Arabic lessons online from an instructor who specializes in teaching foreign languages. I am also learning Arabic by reading books written by famous writers such as Taha Hussein, Naguib Mahfouz, and many others.

How can someone learn Arabic in a short amount of time?

If you want to learn Arabic, start off slowly by learning the alphabet and pronunciation. Once you feel comfortable enough to try speaking and reading simple words and phrases, then you can start looking into more advanced grammar and vocabulary. Learning Arabic has always been challenging to me because I have been taught incorrectly in school, so I hope to give back to other people by helping them learn the correct method of learning Arabic.

Why do you think Arabic is important to teach?

Arabic is one of the oldest languages in existence, and it is still used today in many different countries around the world. Learning Arabic will allow you to learn about history, literature, science, art, culture, etc., which will give you a better understanding of what is going on in the world today.

What's the biggest misconception about learning Arabic?

The biggest misconception is that if you don't speak Arabic you will never be able to understand or communicate with anyone who speaks Arabic.

What books do you recommend for beginners?

If you start with the basics, you should pick up a copy of the Modern Standard Arabic Grammar from the University of Chicago Press. That's what I started with, and it's very useful for any language learner.

In conclusion, I would like to say that, as a mom, I love reading to my children. learning to read quran online for kids has been one of the best things I’ve ever done for them. It teaches them how to be happy, how to solve problems and most importantly, how to think for themselves. Learning to read quran online for kids is very rewarding for the parents as well. So, if you feel like you need help, keep reading. Keep on doing things to teach your children how to be successful in life. It’ll all come back to you.

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amanofcolours · 3 years

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Every man and woman is a star. -The Book of the Law

You may have heard of indigo children, rainbow children, and crystal children, but, have you heard about the emerging Star children? The star children have their own unique purpose, in this universe, at this time. Our purpose is to lead people home - back home to their authentic selves - back home to their spirits - back home to their inner child - back home to take their rightful place - back home to their purpose, which is why the Golden Path of Illumination was born.

After much research online about Star Children, what I've found has proven practically useless. Many have used the term "Star Children" as an umbrella term, like "Pagan" or "Christian", with the denominations being indigo, rainbow, crystal, etc. I do not agree with this generalization. Star people are a specific group of their own. This grouping has nothing to do with aliens from outer space, nor can this group be put into the places of indigo, rainbow, or any other such aura-colored group.

If you are of the Stars, then, you know that though art God and Goddess. You understand that reality is an illusion. You have a divine purpose. You are a leader, not a follower. You are unafraid to stand up, speak out, and be counted. You are tolerable of all paths, knowing they all lead to to the center. You give love and compassion out freely. You are a metaphysical worker, healer, counselor, friend, parent, child, who has gone through many hardships, trials, and tests of patience and character. You are comfortable with change, as change is really your only constant. You have lived a life based on experiences, discovery, and curiosity. You are continually seeking peace. You care about humanity.

As a child of the Stars, you have learned not only from your native culture, but, from cultures around the world, how to bring peace to your own mind, body, and soul. You understand that there is a greater truth out there, but, the only way to uncover it is to realize that every culture, religion, and science has a portion of the truth and that truth can only be pieced together through love, knowledge, and understanding. You have been seeking this truth as long as you can remember.

Even without study, you have always known that vibration (song) is the key to true harmony. Just as vibrations resonate through crystals, flowers, guitar strings, wind, and cosmic forces, vibrations resonate through you and yours have always been at a higher frequency. As such, you understand that it is within you to raise the frequency of those around you in your family and community. You have a strong inner compass and go where the divine takes you. Your journeys have been many and long.

You have an affinity for the night sky, for astrology, astronomy, or even astrophysics. You are thrilled when you find connections between the heavens and the earth, for it is within these connections that your ancestry lies. Science reveals to us that all elements originated from stars. The only thing the separates us from stars is time, and time, is relative to position in the universe.

Take your position, Star Child. Now is the time. Walk in the path of the spiritual warrior. Live your truth, reveal it to others, and awaken the world to wisdom. Carry the torch of illumination.

#amanofcolours #starchild #adoptee

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dwellordream · 3 years

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“The most important thing to understand about most polytheistic belief systems is that they are fundamentally practical. They are not about moral belief, but about practical knowledge. Let’s start with an analogy:

Let’s say you are the leader of a small country, surrounded by a bunch – let’s say five – large neighbor countries, which never, ever change. Each of these big neighbors has their own culture and customs. Do you decide which one is morally best and side with that one? That might be nice for your new ally, but it will be bad for you – isolated and opposed by your other larger neighbors. Picking a side might work if you were a big country, but you’re not; getting in the middle is likely to get you crushed.

No. You will need to maintain the friendship of all of the countries at once (the somewhat amusing term for this in actual foreign policy is ‘Finlandization‘ – the art of bowing to the east without mooning the west, in Kari Suomalainen’s words). And that means mastering their customs. When you go to County B, you will speak their language, you wear their customary dress, and if they expect visiting dignitaries to bow five times and then do a dance, well then you bow five times and do a dance. And if Country C expects you to give a speech instead, then you arrive with the speech, drafted and printed. You do these things because these countries are powerful and will destroy you if you do not humor whatever their strange customs happen to be.

...Ah, but how will you know what kind of speech to write or what dance to do? Well, your country will learn by experience. You’ll have folks in your state department who were around the last time you visited County B, who can tell you what worked, and what didn’t. And if something works reliably, you should recreate that approach, exactly and without changing anything at all. Sure, there might be another method that works – maybe you dance a jig, but the small country on the other side of them dances the salsa, but why take the risk, why rock the boat? Stick with the proven method.

But whatever it is that these countries want, you need to do it. No matter how strange, how uncomfortable, how inconvenient, because they have the ability to absolutely ruin everything for you. So these displays of friendship or obedience – these rituals – must take place and they must be taken seriously and you must do them for all of these neighbors, without neglecting any (yes even that one you don’t like).

This is how these religions work. Not based on moral belief, but on practical knowledge (I should point out, this is not my novel formulation, but rather is rephrasing the central idea of Clifford Ando’s The Matter of the Gods (2008), but it is also everywhere in the ancient sources if you read them and know to look). Let’s break that down, starting with the concept of…

Knowledge. For the Roman (or most any ancient polytheist) there is never much question of if the gods exist. True atheism was extremely rare in the pre-modern world – the closest ancient philosophy gets to is Epicureanism, which posits that the gods absolutely do exist, but they simply do not care about you (the fancy theological term here is immanence (the state of being manifest in the material world). Epicureans believed the gods existed, but were not immanent, that they did not care about and were little involved with the daily functioning of the world we inhabit). But the existence of the gods was self-evident in the natural phenomena of the world. Belief was never at issue.

...This, of course, loops back to one of my favorite points about history: it is generally safe to assume that people in the past believed their own religion. Which is to say that polytheists genuinely believe there are many gods and that those gods have power over their lives, and act accordingly.

In many ways, polytheistic religions, both ancient and modern (by modern polytheisms, I mean long-standing traditional religious structures like Hinduism and Shinto, rather than various ‘New Age’ or ‘Neo-pagan’ systems, which often do not follow these principles), fall out quite logically from this conclusion. If the world is full of gods who possess great power, then it is necessary to be on their good side – quite regardless of it they are morally good, have appropriate life philosophies, or anything else. After all, such powerful beings can do you or your community great good or great harm, so it is necessary to be in their good graces or at the very least to not anger them.

Consequently, it does not matter if you do not particularly like one god or other. The Greeks quite clearly did not like Ares (the Romans were much more comfortable with Mars), but that doesn’t mean he stopped being powerful and thus needing to be appeased.

So if these polytheistic religions are about knowledge, then what do you need to know? There are two big things: first you need to know what gods exist who pertain to you, and second you need to know what those gods want.

Two things I want to pull out here. First: the exact nature and qualities of the gods do not really matter, because remember, the goal is practical results. Crops need to grow, ships need to sail, rain needs to fall and the precise length of Zeus’ beard is profoundly unimportant to those objectives, but getting Zeus to bring storms at the right times is indispensable. The nature of the gods largely does not matter – what matters is what you need to do to keep them happy.

Second, you may be saying – you keep ramming home the idea that you have to cultivate all of the gods – what is this ‘pertaining to you’ business? What I mean by this is that while the polytheist typically accepts the existence of vast numbers of gods (often vast beyond counting), typically only a subset of those gods might be immediately relevant. Some gods are tied to specific places, or specific families, or jobs, or problems – if you don’t live in that place, belong to that family, hold that job, etc., then you don’t need to develop a relationship with that god.

...Now, normally when you ask what the ancients knew of the gods and how they knew it, the immediate thought – quite intuitively – is to go read Greek and Roman philosophers discussing on the nature of man, the gods, the soul and so on. This is a mistake. Many of our religions work that way: they begin with a doctrine, a theory of how the divine works, and then construct ritual and practice with that doctrine as a foundation.

This is exactly backwards for how the ancients, practicing their practical knowledge, learn about the gods. The myths, philosophical discussions and well-written treatises are not the foundation of the religion’s understanding of the gods, but rather the foaming crest at the top of the wave. In practice, the ruminations of those philosophers often had little to do the religion of the populace at large; famously Socrates’ own philosophical take on the gods rather upset quite a lot of Athenians.

Instead of beginning with a theory of the divine and working forwards from that, the ancients begin with proven methods and work backwards from that. For most people, there’s no need to know why things work, only that they work. Essentially, this knowledge is generated by trial and error.

...I have found that students often find that this form of learning sounds very silly to them, at least at first glance. But we actually discover only a very few things theory-first, from first principles. Instead, we learn most of what we know this way. This is how you learned to farm, to cook, to work metal, to make crafts. This is how we learn most things in our daily lives – if not by trial and error directly by ourselves, then by benefiting from a chain of knowledge that eventually ends in someone else’s trial and error.

Crucially, for individuals living in a traditional, pre-modern society, this process of hard-won trial-and-error knowledge passed down through generations is how most of them know everything: how to do their jobs, live their lives, act on a daily basis, how the world works, all of it.”

- Bret Devereaux, “Practical Polytheism, Part I: Knowledge.”

#practical polytheism #polytheism #bret devereaux #history #ancient #writing #greek #roman

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senadimell · 4 years

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2, 7, 30?

Ooh, my first request!

2. Favorite underrated historical figure?

Princess Taiping/ 太平公主！ I wrote a paper on her and it was really hard to find sources discussing her in her own right. She’s a Zhou and Tang-dynasty figure, the daughter of the famous Wu Zetian, known as the only female emperor in China (Zhou being the single-generation dynasty established by Wu Zetian) She’s not someone I’d emulate, but man, she lived a wild life.

She instigated two successful coups and played politics like nobody’s business. All the while, she amassed landholdings and wealth. She was her mother’s right-hand woman: Emperor Wu* used one of the Taiping Princess’ plans to get rid of a confidante who’d gone too far by setting fire to a temple. Princess Taiping’s first husband was implicated in a failed rebellion against her mother and executed, but she was able to remarry and stay on the scene. In fact, we’re pretty sure her mother had the wife of her second husband assassinated so she could remarry him. I think it’s fascinating that she was able to stay on top during her mother’s rule, as two of her brothers were executed by her mother and two were ousted from power after being named successors. Later in her mother’s life, Taiping outmaneuvered both her mother and her mother’s head of secret police to coerce her mother into agreeing to oust him.

Eventually, she knew winds were changing in the court and her mother was falling out of favor, so she helped convince her to abdicate the throne in favor of one of her brothers, who I will refer to as Emperor Zhongzong.

It’s kinda complicated to talk about the crazy intrigue that followed her mother’s death, because practically all of her brothers and nephew all have multiple names: birth names, ruling names, and post-humous reign titles, so it can get a little confusing. So Emperor Zhongzong (sounds like jhong-tsong) came into power and his wife, Empress Wei, was also a strong political actor. She did not want Princess Taiping wielding that much political power, and Princess Taiping had lost her most powerful backer when Wu Zetian stepped down. Empress Wei wanted her daughter, the Anle princess, to hold power in the court, and even tried to have her named crown princess and heir, something unprecedented. That didn’t work and her son Li Chongmao/later Emperor Shao was named successor instead. It’s strongly suspected that Empress Wei and the Anle princess (sounds like ahn-leh) conspired to and successfully poisoned Emperor Zhongzong. The Taiping Princess lost no time in launching a coup, and in two weeks time both Empress Wei and the Anle princess were dead.

Li Chongmao didn't stand a chance. He was around 10-12 when this happened, and when people were still talking about who would be the new leader, she said “Everybody turns to the prime minister [princess Taiping’s brother, Li Dan, later Emperor Ruizong], little boy; this is not your seat.”** Emperor Ruizong treated Princess Taiping as a political equal and relied heavily on her advice.

Meanwhile, his son Li Longji grew in political power and prowess. She felt threatened by him, and participated in a smear campaign to limit his power. He tried to placate her appointing her supporters to government, so the government was filled with people loyal to her. Unfortunately for her, Emperor Ruizong’s advisors still managed to convinced him to exile her. Through her connections, she was still able to maintain power in the court.

In 712 ACE, Emperor Ruizong took a comet as a sign he was to step down (rather than eventually getting killed in the struggle between his son and sister) and announced his future abdication to his son Li Longji, temple name Emperor Xuanzong (shu-en tsong) which is how I will refer to him from now on). Aware of what this would mean for her, the Taiping Princess planned her third coup, an armed struggle to upend the soon-to-be Emperor Xuanzong, but was betrayed and discovered. She fled to a monastery, but was found three days later and permitted to commit suicide (seen as more honorable than execution). In the aftermath of the coup, all of the political leaders associated her were implicated by association and were executed or forced to commit suicide. Get this: that was all but one of the chief ministers! It took years for the state to completely appropriate her amassed landholdings and wealth.

*So Empress usually denotes a designated wife of an emperor (皇帝）. Wu Zetian went from a consort to empress regent to empress regnant, essentially. When Wu Zetian ascended the throne, she did some masterful religious and linguistic subversion to establish her legitimacy and came up with a lot of new terms and names to justify what she was doing, since it was unprecedented. Essentially, she was the female version of Emperor, but translating the linguistic titles is complicated.

**Sue Wiles and Lily Xiao Hong Lee “Li, Princess Taiping” Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women, Volume II: Tang Through Ming 618 - 1644. Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women.

7. Which time period would you like to live in?

Now. The current one. Go back too far even in the past century and I lose rights and privileges that I value, like the ability to dress as weirdly as I please, the ability to discuss issues of mental health and the #me too movement with women’s rights in general, the ability to work where I want, and the ability to openly practice religion. I would also miss conversations and changes within my own faith community about treating people of all races and backgrounds equally, church culture vs. doctrine, and attitudes towards church history.

But if I were a time traveller and could stop in a place for a vacation, I’d love to live in the early 1900s (1900-1920) and visit major urban centers for art, music, and to witness labor conditions and activism. Alternatively, if I were a time traveller I would simply attend live showings of my favorite shows and concerts (lots of musical theatre)

30. Favorite kids/teens history books:

Most of the historical fiction I’ve read takes place in the past 100 years, and a lot of it takes place in the 30s and 40s. I do have a rule for myself that I don’t seek fiction about the Holocaust--the things here are exceptions. I tend to read survivor’s accounts instead, though I couldn’t think of many novels in for this rec.

Between Shades of Grey, by Ruta Sepetys--gorgeous, heart-wrenching book about a girl in Lithuania sent to a Soviet prison camp in Siberia.

Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein--both take place during WWII. Rather brutal and play around with alternative narration styles.

The Devil’s Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen. I don’t know how to describe it. During a Passover Seder, Hannah Stern is transported back in time to 1942 Poland, during World War II.

Anything by Gillian Bradshaw (she’s more of a ‘dump you into the history hard and let you figure things out’ kind of author, which I love--I’m trying to get my hands on A Beacon at Alexandria. She also writes historical fiction set in antiquity, which I don’t see as often.)

Flygirl, by Sherri Smith about the WASP (Women’s Airforce Service Pilots). Tackles the racism of the era as well.

The Red Umbrella, by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, about the Cuban exile after the revolution of 1959

Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, about a girl who leaves her estate in Mexico and has to live as a migrant worker in California.

Uprising, by Margaret Peterson Haddix. This is about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 and is a good introduction to labor issues and unions in US history. This book is almost solely responsible for why I don’t think Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them looks anything like New York at the early 20th century (yes, I know this takes place 10 years earlier, but conditions hadn’t changed all that much).

The Lightning Tree, by Sarah Dunster (not the book of the same name by Patrick Rothfuss). This one’s a bit personal--it’s a coming-of-age story following the story of a girl of Waldensian heritage set in Utah right after the Utah War (1858) and a year after the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It’s character-driven, lyrical and subverted my expectations of what would happen.

The Vanishing Point, by Louise Hawes. A fictionalized biography of Lavinia Fontana, a famous female artist in the Italian Renaissance. Considering how the art world is dominated by male artists, this was really neat to read, and also takes place further in the past than a lot of things I read.

Distant Waves, by Suzanne Weyn: Probably the weirdest book here, but just fabulous. It combines spiritualism, Nikola Tesla, Houdini and Doyle, H.G. Wells and the wealthy crème de la crème of the era with the Titanic.

Non-fiction

Yankee Doodle Gals, by Amy Nathan is about the WASP and is fabulous.

Teens at War, by Allan Zullo. Ten stories of teenagers at war throughout history.

Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials by Marc Aronson. One of the things I realized was just how much of an anomaly the trials were, as previously courts had been denying spectral evidence as a valid source of evidence.

Night, by Elie Wiesel. A personal history of surviving the Holocaust. Here’s the thing--if you can, read both the edition before his wife translated it and compare it to her translation. Her translations soften the hard edges of the book, which isn’t something I usually want if I’m reading about the Holocaust, but have been called more true to his words.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. A moving and disturbing story about race, medical exploitation, the invention of vaccines, and poverty in the U.S. I don’t know if this counts as a teen novel, but I read it as a freshman in high school on my librarian’s recommendation.

Savage Girls and Wild Boys Does this count as children or history? It’s a history about feral children (raised by animals, etc) and other children raised in extraordinary circumstances.

Sort of history? It’s more modern. Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick. It’s kind of a memoir of Arn Chorn-Pond, someone who survived the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 and was a child soldier. It’s brutal, but I recommend it to everyone.

This isn’t a children’s history book, but I can’t miss an opportunity to recommend it. The Rape Of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust Of World War II by Iris Chang is utterly heartbreaking. The Rape of Nanjing has hugely significant to cultural memory, and yet most people I’ve talked to in the states have never hear about it

As for children’s books, I read my copy of The Secret Soldier by Ann McGovern to death. If not for its length, it would probably be falling out of its binding by now.

I also read my mother’s childhood copy of The Story of Helen Keller by Lorena A. Hickok over and over again (first published 1958).

Survivor, by Allan Zullo. Compilation of stories from children who survived the Holocaust.

The Hidden Girl, the story of Lola Rein Kaufman written between her and Lois Metzger. After her mother is killed by the Gestapo, she has to hide in a barn to survive.

OH! ETA:

Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics and Tough Mothers: Amazing Stories of History's Mightiest Matriarchs by Jason Porath are a fun way to get familiar with historical and legendary female historical figures. There is some swearing and description of all the sorts of things you can imagine have happened to historical women, but it’s organized by rating and type.

@brightbeautifulthings I don’t know if asking automatically tags you?

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ailahveyou · 4 years

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PUZZLE OUT; A REFLECTION

“I embraced who I am and I don’t want to stop.” - Supergirl; Kara Zor-el

How do you define ‘YOU’? How hard can it be to be ‘YOU’? - these questions help us understand more of what may ourselves have to pop out. In the midst of the journey you have in life, there are certain areas that you question and that we are about to find out.

These past few weeks we’ve had our classes in our GE HUMS 101, we learned about talking and recognizing LIFE in different aspect and perspectives of philosophers and sociologists. We gained more knowledge about the SELF. So let me give you a little tour of what we discussed and so you can catch up.

On the first part of our tour, this is about SELF THROUGH PHILOSOPHER’S PERSPECTIVES. This topic involves different philosophers explaining what they think about the self’s essence that is present in us. As you can see, with these philosophers we learn and reflect each of their ideas about ourselves.

Just like our friend above this text, Socrates, one of the early philosophers, paved the way of questioning and discovering more about self. He introduced the SOCRATIC METHOD to allow human beings to gain more knowledge. Not just questioning, we also tend to observe ours. The self has levels that we already know and some that needs to be discovered. in our daily lives, we tend to ask ourselves who are we gonna be today or how can we behave with what’s gonna come. These components on this topic helps us recognize more and just like me, I just learned that when you intact all the philosopher’s ideas you can get that greater picture of yourself and could understand more.

So let’s say good bye for a little bit to Socrates and let me introduce you to some Sociologists whom discussed about SELF THROUGH SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES.

Society is a big influence to an individual. It can either demand, command or request. They tend to change behaviors with the people around you for acceptance and it will mirror yourself of what you’ve become with the influence of social norms. As I observed, people nowadays, mostly teens, are looking for acceptance within the society. they tend to change their self-identity for the sake of fame an acceptance within their peers. It’s not that bad we tend to change ourselves of what we feel and for the better.

For example, Hua Mulan - the Chinese lady whom applied for the Chinese army as a man to help her father and bring honor to her family. Mulan was never the perfect daughter but she tried to do everything her family requested so she could bring pride and honor to her family. However, she failed to accomplish the request and disappointed of what happened with her and the matchmaker. She was in awe when she knew that there was supposed to be one man that can represent their family to apply for the army. Her father was sick and she couldn’t stand it. She ran away with her horse and the guardian spirit that her ancestors gave her. Before she deployed herself, she cut her hair and wrapped her breast as if she was not a woman so that the army will accept her. She hid her true identity for months as Hua Ping, she trained and she felt she found her self by being who she is. Then until the end, she revealed herself to the people as a woman. At first, they wouldn’t accept a woman in the army as if it’s a crime. But then she truly recognized her potential and alongside everyone accepted her even her colleagues.

There is good and bad of the influence that society can bring but the important thing that we should know that we have to recognize of what is better for us and even healthier to what we bring and cultivate among others.

Let’s just leave Mulan right there and move on with our tremendous tour. Let’s go and talk about SELF AS EMBEDDED IN CULTURE.

Culture. Culture is one’s way of life. Just like religion, traditions and lifestyle. It’s like a pattern that we do with our lives that we believe and follow.

Like me, as a Pinay, I practice by saying ‘opo’ and ‘po’ to the elders, being hospitable to visitors, likes to party and gather and also we, pinoys, celebrate the longest Christmas vacation. This culture that we have that we share is the bondness and this allows us to identify of who we are. Similar to the phenomenal series Harry Potter, a ficitional story by J.K Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry lived his life being a muggle (human) but everything changed on his 11th birthday. Harry went to the world of Witchcraft and Wizardry and learned different cultures and beliefs as a wizard. He shared the bond with his three friends and learned the meaning of magic and power.

I realized that culture is not the behavior itself but the bond and understanding that allows us to bond and share with different people to experience more. The shared culture you have is how you define yourself on how you deliver it and show it to others. Culture influenced us within our daily lives up until this century. This also bring us together as a nation through diversity.

So, carry on!

We are gonna talk about the PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF.

The self has many facets that help make up integral parts of it, such as self-awareness, self-esteem, self-knowledge, and self-perception. In the basis of psychology, the mental state of the self allows you to think, act and evaluate. For me, the psychological perspective of the self is really important because it constructs the idea of one’s identity to achieve. For example, as we grow up we tend to observe our parents and analyze of what they are doing. Also, we tend to copy and idolize them of what they are doing.

On this lesson, we learned how to be aware with one’s self and also by understanding. Being influenced by the people around your environment makes yourself vulnerable and attached so we have to make sure we choose the right path we take. So thumbs up for that!

We quickly continue to the WESTERN AND EASTERN CONCEPT OF THE SELF.

Western people are ideally aware of themselves. They objectify themselves as INDIVIDUALS purely. They are autonomous. While, Eastern self is believing that there is no meaning of the self that is independent.

Both of them play important roles within the different sides of the world. I believe the Western Self’s single-mindedness can be a weakness and also a strength, not just in our daily routine but also in different aspects. Eastern Self within us helps us appreciate the togetherness of one’s community and by depending and helping. Maybe both of them, don’t go good together but I believe that each of them have strong perspectives within different circumstances.

Moving along...

Let’s talk about THE PHYSICAL SELF.

The physical self refers to the body. Both external and internal. It is the temple of what we desire. People nowadays tend to get insecure with their bodies, mostly girls. It’s hard to say that most of them feel pressured by what they see in magazines and even the social media empire. Social media is technically perceiving the perfect body image of a person should and will have. That’s why they tend to buy stuff to maintain their beauty and body forms.

I learned that self-esteem is really important even if you do not have the perfect body image. People tend to judge the other people’s body image and some of them end up being depressed. Yet, it is much more important to be beautiful in the inside

Being beautiful is not just by having a pretty face but also with a beautiful soul. Our forms do not measure the weight that social media carries. We do not have nothing to prove and no one to impress with. It’s the personality that counts! . The thing you have to prioritize is how you avoid to intoxicate your inner self. You have to smile, be thankful and optimistic, and have a healthy and good attitude.

So let’s give that a big round of applause, folks!

Let me tell you something that I learned about SEXUAL SELF.

Sexual self is not just what you think. Some people misunderstood these type of perspective just because it has the word, ‘SEX’, on it. Well, you’re wrong! So, let me clear things up. Sexual self is the totality of all sex characteristics, includes with the reproductive systems, different STDs, puberty, sexual arousal, etc. Sexual self invites us to learn more of what we have rather than we think. It tells us how our reproductive system works and changes throughout our entire life even on experiencing sexual arousal.

It also talks about different components of love; on how people exchange or make a bond with their shared feelings for one another. Also, the awareness of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

So, if you’re reading this blog, I would definitely give you a perfect example. Have you heard or watched the series Sex Education? Just let me know, okay?

I’m gonna give you a quick summary about the story. In reference with Google, High school student Otis may not have much experience in the lovemaking department, but he gets good guidance on the topic in his personal sex ed course -- living with his mother, Jean, who is a sex therapist. Being surrounded by manuals, videos and tediously open conversations about sex, Otis has become a reluctant expert on the subject. When his classmates learn about his home life, Otis decides to use his insider knowledge to improve his status at school, so he teams with whip-smart bad girl Maeve to set up an underground sex therapy clinic to deal with their classmates' problems. But through his analysis of teenage sexuality, Otis realizes that he may need some therapy of his own.

This story is pretty nice with the topic about the sexual self, it allows teens to be more aware of what they do. Sexual self is really an important role to an individual, it helps to build a wall of self-awareness since teens nowadays are being pressured of what they see and also they tend to give there all just to be loved then some of them lead to teenage pregnancy/pre-marital sex and others may lead to death due to complication with some STDs.

Some are confused of what they feel and who they feel like being to be. It’s better to embrace who you really are and going out of your closet rather than being who they don’t want to be.

I just want to say and reflect that this generation that we have is unstoppable but it can yet be controlled. We can help them to educate themselves properly and being more aware of these things within the areas of their sexual self because it’s better to be safe than be sorry.

Moving on, let’s talk about the MATERIAL SELF.

The material self is the manifestation of one’s identity through his/her possessions. It can be their house, car, pet, and even clothes that you wear. They feel sentimental to a specific value. There is nothing wrong whether you define yourself from the the things you buy, you always have to make sure that you won’t lose yourself, even your credit card.

Material possession can be reflection of you hardwork (Belk,1988). It can also affect your personality and the way you see yourself. There are some people who get sick, literally sick, from being a compulsive/impulsive buyer. It could cause depression, anxiety and even death. Being satisfied with things is not a problem but we have to make sure that we do need it and not just go hoarding stuffs. So, one of the best Confessions of a Shopaholic shopping tips is to think first. Before buying anything, ask yourself a series of questions: Will I wear/use this more than once? Is this purchase going to affect me in a good way? Does this item match other ones in my closet?

For me, being materialistic also has it’s negative effects, being boastful and also decreasing of the budget that you have. People to tend to be jealous with others of what they have because merely the mass or social media manipulates each individual’s mind, mostly females. People measure you things for you to be accepted by them. In the bright side, people tend to measure success also through the amount of things they possess because that individual is seeking high level of achievement or in Layman’s terms - HE DESERVES HIS HARD WORK AND SATISFACTION. Just like by buying a phone with the money you earned from your first ever salary. Materialism has its ups and downs, as long as it doesn’t destroy the your identity and your pockets.

In the other hand, SPIRITUAL SELF.

Spiritual self is the inner essence of your life force.

Spirituality generally refers to the meaning and purpose of one’s life. Spirituality talks about worship, religion and act of faith. It doesn’t mean that we do have different beliefs and religion that doesn’t mean that we are different from each other. We strive, we suffer and we succeed. All of us experience the same virtue of life and it is in us on how we try to make it worth and different.

Spirituality also talks about logotheraphy - which is the pursuit of human existence as on man’s search for reflection. It is also a method that psychiatrists use to help their patients reconnects with themselves and stop being isolated with depression and anxiety.

I believe and I doubt; everyday we do not experience SUCCESS, VALUE, AND SUFFER. Life is not sweet if it’s not a roller coaster full of surprises and life is simple but not easy. Whenever we feel down, we come back and pray to our life force. We make ourselves feel optimism and faith to get back to ou feet. We reflect and meditate of things that makes us happy and worthy. No matter how hard and destructive life can be, you will never forget what is your true purpose in this world and we should go back to grounded in soil and fulfill.

I’m gonna give you a quick overview about the POLITICAL SELF

Political self begins defining politics. Politics exists in all human societies. It can be in school, family and also churches. Popularly visible in governments. This helps to be more focused and considerate with your knowledge and responsibilities. This will help the self to maintain an environment where people can participate and learn about dominance, freedom and rights.

As a democratic country, we have the right to vote. This resembles the importance of having human rights and free will.

I learned that we should know what is right from wrong about this. We can also be leaders and followers in our own way. People have power in their palms and also in their voices. I believe that the political self can provide the cultivation of individuals’ decision makings and also about their rights not being deprived.

Lastly, DIGITAL SELF.

Technology is fantastic. We send emails, watch movies online and just even use our phones to order food without going to the restaurant. Isn’t that amazing?

Digital technology is at the peak of our horizon. Technology influences the quality of life and the ways people act and interact. Technology is everywhere, we sleep with it and we even go to work with it. The whole world revolves around digital. But how does this affect ourselves?

People, mainly teens, are so obsessed with social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat). Digital self allows you to express or share yourselves through the internet. People tend to be more interested having ‘hearts’ and ‘likes’ rather than loving themselves. They depend of what people might say and to impress to get their social approval. As a matter of fact, you can also gain money with these ‘likes’ and ‘subscribers’ you have just like on Youtube. Take Cong TV as an example.

It may also change your life in a good or bad way. You’re taking all the risk for it. Just like the movie, Nerve, where this young girl, Vee decides to join Nerve, a popular online game that challenges players to accept a series of dares. It's not long before the adrenaline-fueled competition requires her to perform increasingly dangerous stunts. When Nerve begins to take a sinister turn, Vee finds herself in a high-stakes finale that will ultimately determine her entire future.

Another one is Xander Ford - keeps on being bashed just because people see him as senseless and has a horrible attitude. However, this may lead to social suicide. People being rejected and being embarrassed then end up getting depressed.

I do agree that digital technology is pretty amazing but it can hardly be forgiving.

Like what I said, Digital technology has it’s side effects, you can literally be hacked and also been taken hostage for SOCIAL IDENTITY THEFT or FRAUD. Criminals are also in the deepest areas in the internet.

So we have to make sure of what we put on social media and even in the internet and the internet does not measure who we are and how we are loved. They even see it as a wasteland where people shed their tears and not to mention it’s also where we can store our memories for a lifetime. We always have to remember that we should THINK BEFORE WE CLICK

I think that sums up our tour. Before I end this blog, as you can see I am very fond of Supergirl. She strives her way out of the shadows just to know what is her purpose and to know more what she can do just by understanding herself. I just want to let you know that it is really hard to understand ourselves. We keep on trying to ask the same question over and over again.

People cannot define ‘YOU’. You are the only one who can define yourself.

This subject made me realize that I am greater that who I knew I could be. That is it. No amount of words how grateful I am to realize that it is really important to understand yourself and to figure out your purpose in life. In addition, this subject helped me thought that knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom and mastering yourself is the power and strength. You have nothing to prove and no one to impress with.

Sometimes understanding yourself is pretty tough but when you reflect and get all the pieces together. As long as you have hope and faith within yourself, I’m pretty sure you’re gonna know what purpose in life that you have and so that you can influence others through a lighter path.

#UnderstandingTheSelf #BeYou #Self-Awareness

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lo-lynx · 5 years

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The Nordic influences in His Dark Materials

TW: Eugenics, racism, sexism

Spoiler warning: The whole His Dark Materials book series (but mainly The Golden Compass/Nothern Lights), minor spoiler for La Belle Sauvage, very minor spoiler for His Dark Materials the tv-show.

When one of my favourite podcasts Girls Gone Canon announced that they were going to start covering the His Dark Materials novels in preparation of the launch of the TV-show this fall, I got very excited. I had read the first novel, The Golden Compass/Northern Lights, as a child but remembered very little so I decided to re-read the entire series. Reading the novels now, as a nerd in my twenties that’s working on getting a master’s degree in gender studies, and is born and raised in Sweden, I quite quickly got very interested in some aspects of the series’ worldbuilding. Namely, the way “The North” and its people are portrayed. Phillip Pullman’s story takes place in several different worlds, but we start out in what I’ll call “Lyra’s world”, a world similar to ours, but also quite different. Over the course of the first novel our heroine Lyra, travels with a group of gyptians (a people that seems to be inspired of our world’s Roma people) to “The North” to recover children that a corrupt religious government agency has kidnapped. Now, exactly what counts as “The North” is slightly unclear, but the group’s first stop is the town of Trollesund in Lapland. In our world both Trollesund and Lapland exists, but Trollesund is most definitely not in Lapland. The northern most states/regions in both Sweden and Finland are called Lapland. On the first map bellow Trollesund is marked out, and on the other two the states/regions of Lapland in Sweden and Finland are marked.

Regardless of exactly where Trollesund is, I’ve always assumed it to be in a Swedish speaking area based on the names given to characters and places in the novel. These are for example Martin Lanselius and Einarsson’s Bar (Pullman 2007, 179). These names definitely sound more Swedish than Finnish. Lanselius could possibly be Norwegian as well, but the Norwegian version of Einarsson should be Einarsen (I have no specific source for this… but Swedish last names are often constructed as [name]sson, and Norwegian ones as [name]sen.). In the television adaption of His Dark Materials Trollesund seems to be in Norway however (Cremona 2018). Now, even if I’ve tried to figure it out, it remains unclear exactly where the Lapland of Lyra’s world is, but my guess is that it’s somewhere close to the Laplands of our world. It should be pointed out that in Pullman’s other novel that takes place in the same universe, La Belle Sauvage, a character visits the town of Uppsala (also a real town), which is stated to be in Sweden (Pullman 2017, 45). So, the state of Sweden seems to exist, and be separate from the state of Lapland. Now, why do I care about this so much? Am I just curious because this is “my neck of the woods”? Well, partly yes. But I also find it very interesting that Pullman has decided to create a separate state of Lapland and have several important parts of the plot take place there.

In our world, the word/name Lapland (or Lappland in Swedish) means l*p land/country. What does l*p mean you might ask? Well, it is a derogatory term for the Sami people, a people indigenous to North Norway/Sweden/Finland/Russia. Their own name for this land is Sápmi. The Sami people have lived in this area for several thousands of years and have traditionally (and still today) used that area for reindeer husbandry, hunting, and fishing (Samer, n.d. a). For a long time, they have been a nomadic people, which has been exploited to claim that they have no claim over the land, even though they have dwelt there. To write an exhaustive account of the exploitation of Sami people is beyond the capabilities of this essay, but I recommend the site www.samer.se which is a site run by Sametinget (the parliament representing the Sami people in Sweden, that also functions as a state agency), which can be translated into English. However, it should be noted that this exploitation has been sanctioned by the Swedish state pretty much since the time of the unification of Sweden in the 16th century (Samer, n.d b). At the same time the missionary work of the Swedish church started in the area and by the 17th century Sami people were forced to attend church (Samer, n.d. c). By the end of the 19th century racist ideas of eugenics/racial biology started gaining traction in Sweden, which also impacted Sami people:

It began being claimed that the Sami were born with certain "race characteristics" that made them inferior to the rest of the population. Therefore, they could not live as "civilized" people in real houses. If they did, they would become "lazy" and start neglecting their reindeer. That would result in all Sami people having to become beggars because they did not have any skills besides reindeer husbandry. The [Swedish parliament] decided in 1928 that the Sami who were not reindeer herders would not have any Sami rights either. For example, they were given no special right to hunt and fish in the areas where their ancestors had lived. In this way, the state drew a sharp boundary between the Sami living on reindeer husbandry and those who support themselves in other ways. The Sami schooling was also affected by racism. A law about a special nomad school came in 1913 which stated that teachers would wander around the mountainous regions in the summer. There, the youngest schoolchildren would be taught in the family's cot for a few weeks each year during the first three school years. The rest of the school time consisted of winter courses in regular schools for three months a year for three years. The teaching would only cover a few subjects and it had to be at such a low level that the children were not "civilized". Children of nomadic Sami were not allowed to attend public primary schools.

[my translation] (Samer n.d. d)

This eugenics movement did, however, not just result in substandard schooling and rights in general. I have previously written about the ideas of eugenics, as well as the way the Swedish state sanctioned them, but some aspects of it is specifically relevant to highlight in relation to the Sami people. In 1922 The State’s Race Biological institute (Statens rasbiologiska institut) was created in Uppsala in Sweden, by the “scientist” Herman Lundborg (Hagerman 2016, 961). He wished to research the Swedish race, and the mixing of races in Sweden. This was done in several ways, both by looking at records of marriages and birth (often supplied by church officials who had access to so called “church books” that recorded this), and physical examinations of people. He, and other “scientists”, travelled around Sweden to examine the Sami people and other groups that were considered inferior (such as Finns, Roma people, Jews, disabled people etc). The physical examination of Sami people often happened in collaboration with local churches or schools (Hagerman 2016, 984). Another part of the eugenics movement in Sweden that is worth mentioning here is the forced sterilisations that took place during this time. As Hübinette and Lundström writes:

(…) a sterilisation law to hinder the reproduction of the lower classes, and simultaneously to increase the birth rate among the ‘better stock’ (…) The sterilisation program was in effect between 1934 and 1975, and turned out to be one of the most effective in the democratic world, resulting in the sterilisation of over 60,000 people. Moreover, it was both racialised, gendered, classed and heteronormative, as national minorities like the Travellers and the Roma were proportionally more targeted than majority Swedes, and as 90 percent were women, mostly belonging to the lower- and working-classes, and many deemed to be sexual transgressors of the patriarchal order of the day. (Hübinette & Lundström 2014, 428)

So, in conclusion, these eugenic practices had profound consequences for several groups of marginalised people in Sweden during this time. These “scientific” practices were state sanctioned and supported by officials from The Swedish Church.

Now, lets get back to His Dark Materials and Lyra’s world. I want to start by pointing out some more “obvious” parallels between people and custom’s in Lyra’s world and the Sami people and culture, and then move on to some more theme-based comparisons. Firstly, if one compares a map of Sápmi with the map of the Witches’ land in Lyra’s world, there are striking similarities:

(Nordiska museet n.d.)

(His Dark Materials Wiki n.d.)

So, geographically there seems to be similarities between the Witches’ lands and Sápmi. But it’s not exactly the same, just as the Witches obviously aren’t exactly Sami people. However, they do also seem to have partly the same religion. The Witches (at least Serafina Pekkala’s clan) have a death goddess that they call Yambe-Akka (Pullman 2007, 305). This figure also exists in Sami religion (Oxford Reference n.d.). Her name can also be spelled Jábbmeáhkko (Samer n.d. e). Furthermore, the Witches in general seem to be very close to nature, and not as focused on material wealth etc as other humans (Pullman 2007, 299). This seems quite similar to a sort of stereotypical view of Sami people and indigenous people in general. On multiple occasions the books also describe how the Witches live close to the veil between worlds and can hear the undead whispers from beyond it (ibid, 174). This seems similar to the Sami beliefs in how a nåjden/noajdde (a shaman) could communicate with the spiritual world, including communing with Jábbmeáhkko (Samer n.d. e). However, there is no mention of actual Sami people in His Dark Materials. This seems somewhat odd, considering how other peoples from our world are called out, such as the Samoyed and the Tartars. Nevertheless, their culture does seem to have inspired Pullman’s depiction of the Witches.

I now want to look at some more comparisons between the North in Lyra’s world and Nordic/Swedish history in our world. In the story Lyra travels north to free children who have been kidnapped by The General Oblation Board (GOB) and taking to the station Bolvangar (Pullman 2007, 169). At Bolvangar the children are subjected to different medical studies and experiments. The children who are kidnapped seems to mainly come from lower classes and/or ethnic minorities (such as the gyptians). This is sadly very similar to the groups of people targeted by The State’s Institute for Racial Biology in Sweden. In both cases it was easier to experiment on people who had less power in society. As I outlined before as well, many Sami children were studied at schools and in collaboration with church officials. This seems very similar to a religious government agency taking of children to The North to experiment on them. Another thing I want to highlight is the comparison between the severing of children and dæmons, and sterilisation. In the books, children’s bond to their dæmons (their soul) are severed by the GOB in order to prevent “Dust” settling on the children (Pullman 2007, 275). Dust is considered dangerous and sinful, something that according to the church started infecting humans after their fall from the garden of Eden. Sterilisation in our world, on the other hand, took place in order to make the population “cleaner” and of “better” stock. Groups who were in different ways considered degenerate were targeted, including women who were perceived as promiscuous/sexual transgressors. In Lyra’s world a spiritual connection is severed by the Church in order to curb sinfulness. In our world a biological connection is severed by “scientists” (in collaboration with the Church at times) to control sexuality and reproduction. There is a definite similarity here.

Quite a lot more could probably be written about the similarities between the North in Lyra’s world and ours, but I have to stop somewhere. What I have tried to show here is how Pullman seems to have been inspired both by Sami history/culture, and Nordic history in general when describing the North of Lyra’s world. He also seems to have pulled quite a lot of the racism targeted against ethnic minorities in this area. However, neither of these influences are as explicit as they could have been. In the case of the Sami culture I feel like this is a shame, especially since he chooses to call a country/state Lapland. One would think that since he seems to have done some research on the Sami people, he could have chosen to call it Sápmi instead, or even just include mention of the Sami, as he does with other ethnic groups. However, many of the parallels between the experiments that takes place in the North in Lyra’s world and the experiments that have been taking place in our world are interesting, as well as horrible. I want to end this text by being clear that the sort of discrimination, exploitation and racism that I have described here is not just a product of history. Similar things still happen throughout our world. In the United States latinx children are kept in terrible conditions in concentration camps by the border (see for example Sacchetti 2019). In Chechnya there have been reports about concentrations camps for LGBTQ+ people (see for example Steinmetz 2019). In China reports state that Muslims are being kept and tortured in concentration camps (see for example Ioanes 2019). And in Sweden Sami people are still being denied rights to their land (Torp 2016; Jonsson 2018; TT 2019). We need to stay vigilante and keep fighting.

EDIT: Since Girls Gone Canon mentioned this in their excellent episode about episode 4 in the TV-show I felt compelled to make this small edit. In Trollesund we also meet the character of the sysselman. This post seems to be based on the office of “sysselmann” that exists in parts of Norway and the Faroe Islands, which is sort of like a sherrif. I didn’t consider this until after the last episode because when I re-read The Golden Compass I did so in Swedish, and the word didn’t stand out as non-Swedish. I also confused it with the Swedish word “syssloman” (which is more similar to an attorney). After realising that it wasn’t translated in the English version of the story I looked it up and realised that the word was actually Norweigan, but with a slightly more Swedish spelling (sysselMAN instead of sysselMANN). This seems to be in line with my other analysis that Trollesund has both Swedish and Norweigan influences, while Lapland as a whole also has Finnish influences. So basically Lapland seems to be a mix of Scandinavia and Sápmi...

EDIT 2: I recently realised that in Nothern Lights/The Golden Compass they mention that the “Norroway” government has influence in Trollesund (Pullman 2011, 170). Once again, this hints at the fact that Trollesund is in what in our world is Norway, as well as makes me even more confused about which states exist in the North. But I still think that Lapland is some sort of mix of Sápmi and other parts of Scandinavia.

References

Cremona, Patrick. 2019. “Where was His Dark Materials filmed?”. Radio Times. https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-11-18/his-dark-materials-filmed-location/

Girls Gone Canon. 2019. His Dark Materials S1E4: “Armor”. https://girlsgonecanon.podbean.com/e/his-dark-materials-s1e4-armor/

*Hagerman, Maja. 2016. ”Svenska kyrkan och rasbiologin”[The Swedish Church and the eugenics]. In De historiska relationerna mellan Svenska Kyrkan och samerna: en vetenskaplig antologi [The Historical relationships between the Swedish Church and the Sami people: a scientific anthology], eds. Lindmark, Daniel & Olle Sundström. Skellefteå: Artos och Norma bokförlag [accessible online here: https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/filer/770f2627-57e5-4e06-b880-4ca6c4f94799.pdf ]

His Dark Materials Wiki. n.d. “Lake Enara” Accessed November 22, 2019. https://hisdarkmaterials.fandom.com/wiki/Lake_Enara

Hübinette, Tobias & Catrin Lundström. 2014. ”Three phases of hegemonic whiteness: understanding racial temporalities in Sweden”, Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture 20 (6): 423-37. [accessible online here: http://www.tobiashubinette.se/swedish_whiteness_2.pdf ]

Ioanes, Ellen. 2019. “Rape, medical experiments, and forced abortions: One woman describes horrors of Xinjiang concentration camps.” Business Insider. October 22, 2019. https://www.businessinsider.com/muslim-woman-describes-horrors-of-chinese-concentration-camp-2019-10?r=US&IR=T

Jonsson, Berno. 2018. ”Stor oro bland samer när kommunen säljer mark.” [Large concerns among Sami people when the municipality sells land] SVT. October 8, 2018. https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vasterbotten/stark-oro-bland-samer-nar-kommunen-saljer-mark

Nordiska museet. n.d. “Vem är same? Vem är svensk? Varför vill du veta?” [Who is Sami? Who is Swedish? Why do you want to know?] Accessed November 22, 2019. https://www.nordiskamuseet.se/utstallningar/sapmi

Oxford Reference. n.d. “Yambe-akka”. Accessed November 22, 2019. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803125245136

Pullman, Phillip. 2007. Guldkompassen. Stockholm: Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur [this is the Swedish translation of The Golden compass]

Pullman, Philip. 2011. Northern Lights. London: Scholastic

Pullman, Phillip. 2017. La Belle Sauvage. New York: Knopf

Sacchetti, Maria. 2019. “1,500 more migrant children separated from parents at US border than previously admitted, ACLU says” Independent. October 25, 2019. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-us-mexico-border-family-separation-migrant-children-aclu-a9170636.html

Samer. n.d. a “Sápmi.” Accessed November 22, 2019. http://www.samer.se/1002

Samer. n.d. b “Drömmen om outtömliga rikedomar i norr.” [The dream of inexhaustible riches in the North] Accessed November 22, 2019. http://www.samer.se/1229

Samer. n.d. c “I Guds tjänst” [In the service of God] Accessed November 22, 2019. http://www.samer.se/4441

Samer. n.d. d “Samepolitik i rasismens tidevarv” [Sami politics in the time of racism] Accessed November 22, 2019. http://www.samer.se/1042

Samer. n.d. e “Kontakt med andarna” [Contact with the spirits] Accessed November 22, 2019. http://www.samer.se/1139

Steinmetz, Katy. 2019. “A Victim of the Anti-Gay Purge in Chechnya Speaks Out: 'The Truth Exists'” TIME. July 26, 2019. https://time.com/5633588/anti-gay-purge-chechnya-victim/

Torp, Eivind. 2016. “Girjasmålet – rättsprocessen” [The Girjas case- the trial proceedings] Accessed November 22, 2019. http://www.samer.se/4997

TT. 2019. ”Tvist mellan sameby och staten avgörs i HD” [Dispute between Sami village and the state to be determined in the Supreme Court] Aftonbladet. September 2, 2019. https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/e8XrOl/tvist-mellan-sameby-och-staten-avgors-i-hd

*this is a chapter from The Swedish Church’s white paper about its treatment of Sami people.

#tw: racism #tw: eugenics #tw: sexism #his dark materials #his dark materials spoilers

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dailysassfromshego · 5 years

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Controversial topics about my country!!!

As some of you might now, I live in a pretty damn Balkan Eastern European country that is pretty misogynistic, homophobic etc etc….

-ABORTION We all are shocked now about USA anti-“pro-life” propaganda these recent days…Thank God in Albania abortions are legal for some several reasons that the poorest states of America (like Alabama) are failing to actually understand! 1) POOR EDUCATION!!! Poor education means high illiteracy rates followed by low average income (Albanian’s average monthly wage is around 200-300 euros). Poor education also means incest, rape and unprotected sex! Yes, our rates on these are pretty high! I got friends whose moms and/or themselves work at maternity centers/hospitals and they say the average of teenage pregnancies are too damn high and a good part of them end up in abortion, specifically or if possible in other cities so nobody specially their parents won’t see them to “publicly shame on them somehow”, simply because falling pregnant at a very young age is also humiliating to their parents and if they found out those girls better commit suicide rather than being actually killed by their fathers or bigger brothers!!! Rarely these girls get the support of their own family tbh and specifically if these girls are from the rural parts of the country. This happens mainly because a girl should be married first and give birth later, and in most scenarios this is because of unprotected sex due to their partners being total assholes for refusing to use protection and most of the cases later dumping them! 2) Health risks for mother or kid! These were the cases that were tolerated even back during communism (also rape and incest were part of the exclusion at that time), but even then there would be a lot where women would fake illnesses to want a pregnancy terminated for sorely their personal reasons. (At least they’d better fake documents at a very trusted person or they could easily face Spaç, the Albanian Gulag, cause spies were fucking everywhere!) And “yes” there could be complications that show up after the 5th month. 3) THE GENDER OF THE KID! Being a very misogynistic country aborting simply because the upcoming child is a girl will push wives by their husbands to commit an UNWANTED ABORTION! This is by far the most controversial and this is the only reason that should be banned by law if you ask me! Thankfully abortions cost less than 200 euros. And to all those “pro-lifers”: You really are pro-life but if the kid dies within the next 3 years by the poor life conditions don’t @ me cause ya all the real anti-lifers! Or lets say that those kids end up in an orphanage where in most cases the conditions are equally as bad as if their biological mothers would keep ‘em, specially in poor countries most kids in orphanages are malnourished, psychologically and physically abused by the people who work in those orphanages or by their older fellows! (I can not even count the amount of the cases we had here and most are within the last 3 years!) “If are a pro-lifer then you better want a life with quality not with the guaranteed fear of abuse and death!!!”

-LGBTQ RIGHTS Not the most welcomed country for the LGBTQ community, I see actors and politicians being openly homophobic and swearing to kill their own sons if they found out they were gay, live on TV programs! However the more educated and informed the common society gets the better for the community! Here you got a source for more info into this topic if interested! Thankfully we are progressing into this topic and we got 17th of May on 2014 as the 1st LGBTQ pride and since then held every year! (Currently speaking we have some exchange students from Spain that are gay and one of them has cried for having a very good time here and being accepted from his fellow students and my father, who is his teacher and if not actually the only one of the teachers to truly accept him for whom he is rather than in his home where he is very badly treated by his teachers simply because he is gay and drags!) However we also got a kind of “transgender” culture that is more of an old tradition in rural parts of Northern Albania, practiced under the “Kanun of Lek Dukagjini/Rules of Lek Dukagjini” (check on internet about this one, is a very interesting topic to even study on it if you are a non-Albanian + it will get you to understand the whole old mentality of this country better) the women called “Burrnesha” or else called the “Sworn Virgin” who are the women that take a vow of chastity and wear male clothing in order to live as men in patriarchal northern Albanian society, cause due to the family not having any sons therefore they’d become “the sons their family never had” keep their childhood surnames and inherit the family properties. There is also a whole National Geographic Taboo series episode dedicated on this topic + a lot of documentaries for you to check out! In this patriarchal country is basically more acceptable if a woman condones with the life of a man than a boy with a woman’s. Notable is one of the best live-on-air TV programs “wrecks” was when a transgender got asked by the dumb ass hostess what kind of community she represents and her respond was “I represent the community of women!” and the host went by in a very pushing way “but you are a different kind of a woman it should be something more or else…” and the other ones interrupts “…let me take is this way honey, just because you are blonde you represent the community of blondes?” and the host says in a thinking way “…mmm yes, actually, yes!” This scene became one of the best memes against the illiteracy of that particular TV hostess whom is known to make stupid questions and totally out of place comments + a boom against most of those so called journalists that have and are filling our media courses full of unprofessionalism, lies and trash content! “Your genitalia preferences are none of my business and shouldn’t be anybody’s! What matters is your character!”

-WOMEN RIGHTS Believe it on not Albania allowed women to vote before Italy, starting in 1920 and gaining full rights of voting in 1945! The very 1st feminist movement was started leaded by Urani Rumbo (who happens to be from the same city as me, Gjirokastra) who promoted woman’s emancipation by publishing the newspaper “Drita” (light in Albanian) and protesting in 1923 so girls could get high-school education! It is known though that actually the Tosk part (Southern part of Albania) was always more matriarchal compared to the patriarchal Geg part (Northern part), and women where seen with far more equal rights towards men while in the other part women were seen as objects. However in 1945 Albania became the 1st communist country that actually applied the ideal of gender equality compared to others that were more symbolic rather than actually applied! That system also put a whole ban on pre-arranged marriages, gave them their rights to get a full education, vote and work equally as men did! You finally had female doctors, drivers etc. even mine diggers!!! (When my grandmother had my father she was just 19 and my grandfather, 26 at the time, was begging to her to continue her university studies on economics where she had won a scholarship, but she kept on declining saying she had to raise the kids while he was saying that her mother could do that as she was living with them! Now she regrets not listening to him!) Anyways by the fall of communism in 90′, things got a bit out of control and the “Kanun” (friendly reminder the “Kanun” is basically medieval rules made somewhere in the 1400′ for the rural parts of the north) got back in tracks and a lot women lost their rights not “legally” but “morally” and this being applied till recent days where the law and authorities would actually do nothing on cases of domestic abuse, rape and incest. And as if this is not enough most of these cases are not even reported due to fear from their husbands, relatives or even family for putting a shame on them! Not to even mention some sexist laws that were put the recent years… Though thankfully there are people fighting about that but yet again is a lot to do due to poor education specially mainly in the rural parts which consists around 70% of the country! “There is still a lot to be done!”

-RELIGION Now this one is my fave! Here nobody gives a flying fuck about your faith! Once again the 1st communist country to truly apply the ideology’s terms making us the 1st Atheist country in the world, in the 60′! Sure a lot mosques and churches were demolished, yet the most important ones were preserved (compared to now that only a few are being founded by Turkey, Greece or Vatican regarding on where they apply their interests on, which is totally unacceptable, and most of them aren’t legit ones with real historical values) and a lot of priest and believers where imprisoned (this one wasn’t a fair move tbh), yet it was the best option to finally unify the nation based on nationality rather than on religion that most nations actually do and/or have! If that wasn’t done on the right time Albania would have ended up in a Bosnia of 90′ scenario where people slaughtered each-other for identifying with another religion=nationality! That, cause if religions weren’t banned people would not accept each-other only because of having another faith, not to add the slurs each of them had and still do somehow! This opened up to marriages regardless of religion which is truly an amazing thing and impossible in most of the world! (My mum is Christian Orthodox from her family, my dad Bektashi Muslim from his and it was his choice to baptize me Christian Orthodox... Funny part? None of us is actually a believer!!!) Why still does? After 90′ a lot people, mainly non-Albanians, found free space to mess up with people’s minds and pushing them to become believers of a certain religion for a considerate amount of money in exchange! Believe it or not this still is a very high risk these days using all sorts of forms to brainwash the illiterate part of the society and condone with a lifestyle that is borderline morally and physically illegal or at least should be illegal! Simply because religion is a very personal topic and nobody should push that on anybody in any way possible! However the best part of being a secular state is that you get to celebrate extra vocations! “In the end of the day Albanians’ real faith is “money and food”... as for the rest we don’t really care as long as we got to celebrate!” XD

#religion #women rights #lgbtq #abortion #pro-choice #controversial topics #albania #sorry for long post #facts #get to know a country you got no idea of

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not-kxthln · 5 years

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Binondo's Chinese New Year: A First Binondo Experience

In my younger years of 11 and 14, February has always been a concept of love, relationships, courtships, dating, and things a like. However, growing up and being more conscious to my surroundings, February also became a festivity of dragon dances, lucky charms, horoscopes, and a lot of color reds as the celebration of Chinese New Year becomes evident to me. This year, as part of a class output, I immersed myself in my first celebration of Chinese New Year, and there is no perfect place to celebrate this festivity other than at the oldest China town in the world, Binondo, Manila.

Celebration of Chinese New Year in Binondo is hell, long waiting queue, loud rhythmical banging from here and there, and a vast sea of people even at the corners of Binondo. Recognizing those scenarios from the previous and other occasions, the perfect time to witness the celebration is the day before the exact Chinese New Year (February 4), so we did. On the day of the trip, we were welcomed by a heavy traffic upon entering Binondo, literally as we enter the arc of Chinatown. It is said that one way to witness the beauty of a place is through walking without knowing the right way to the destination and again, so we did. We walked without certainty if the path we’re talking is leading towards the heart of Chinatown which is the Ongpin Street and truly, the beauty lies in the eyes of those who wanted to see beauty.

Binondo at Daylight

(click here for more photos)

The journey towards the destination should not always be rushed to be able to appreciate the beauty of what is in front rather than what is yet to come. From a perspective of the latter, the town is crowded by people, infrastructures, stores, and electrical wires, the sunlight only passes through the cracks of high rising buildings surrounding the streets of Binondo, Manila making it dark and gray, and the unsynchronized cries from vendors of all races; Filipino or Chinese. However, looking beyond what is evident a beauty from within is revealed. People of different culture and purpose as to why they are there expressed the same goal for that day, to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The crowd is usually large at daylight and it is harder to immerse on what is happening, however, the crowd is unusually smaller than expected, there is a place for us to stay and the cold breeze of Amihan could still be felt. Smartphones and cameras are all set for the tourist to capture that picture perfect and Instagramable moment, it may be a video of the traditional dragon dance, selfies, or a photo of an unusual scene. I took a chance of taking photos using my phone camera even if there is a great possibility that it will be snatched from me; taking risk is what makes an adventure fun and exciting. I stopped at the time and places where the beauty of Binondo is revealed to me, at the center of a crossroad, at the corner of the street, while walking, and even while crossing the road. But despite all these, one still has its own negative polar.

Background of the Celebration

Traditionally, Chinese New Year is a Chinese festival that celebrates the beginning of the year on their traditional Chinese calendar. According to a Chinese myth, this festivity started as a form of defeating Nian, a mythical beast who was said to be eating villagers, through setting off fireworks and putting up red papers to scare off the beast, and because it works according to its purpose, the Chinese continued the practice making it a tradition. Today, Nian is believed to be the dragon dancing during today’s Chinese New Year and in Binondo,dragon dances can be seen in different forms, giant dragons controlled by people holding poles, people wearing dragon costumes, and even street children who have improvised their costumes using pieces of cloth and a box. It has become a form of performance in exchange for a money nowadays which defy the true essence of the celebration. Which also remind me if the celebration still carries the true essence of the celebration even in other places? Should its essence be taught in the public during the celebration or is the public and the Chinese community are able to accept that the true essence of the celebration can no longer be recognized?

Philippines vs China

Since the advent of the Philippine’s right towards the Scarborough Shoal, there has been a dispute between the Philippines and China as they also claim their right at the shoal. With this, a feud between Filipinos and Chinese became evident especially in the internet and the gaming community as the terms “chingchong” and “peenoise” became a racism terms for the Chinese and Filipinos. The feud developed into something more than the internet and gaming when the Chinese coastguards deprived the rights of Filipino fishermen to fish at the shoal which locals call Panatag Shoal, Bajo De Masinloc, or Huangyan Islets despite its inclusion to the Philippine’s exclusive economic zone.

In the internet, the Filipinos rage towards how the Chinese treat them has become a clash between nations however, it is also evident that during our trip to Binondo, Filipinos are the number one “tourist” at the celebration. Does this feud of nations be forgotten when a celebration occurs? I mean if Filipinos are patriarchal enough then why would such celebration is being patronized by Filipinos? The Lucky Chinatown Mall exhibits a huge sculpture of Budai or the Laughing Buddha where people could light an incense and practice a worship to Budai, bowing to Budai with an incense between a praying hand. But what struck me is that all of the people practicing this are mostly Filipinos who are most likely non-Buddhist. So, why worship a religion that you don’t practice, also given that the people teaching these are Chinese that are having a feud with.

Again, why would a Filipino patronize such celebration if there is hatred towards the people who owns the celebration? To be in? For Instagramable pictures?

Binondo as Producers

(click here for more photos)

The Chinese are also known for their belief in luck as a form of a lot of things, charms, home decors, arrangement of things, food, and etc, and since their stay in the Philippines a practice of trading, Filipinos were also influenced in these beliefs. Binondo, as a Chinatown, is known for different Chinese charm stores and it is a normal scene for a Chinese to sell these products, bracelets that acquires different purpose according to its color or design, home decors which have special instruction as where it should be placed, and foods that are said to obtain luck when eaten during the celebration. Moreover, Filipinos are also involved in the practice of selling these products with also the same purpose but with a cheaper price.

Concept of Charms

Wanting to be more involved in the celebration, I decided to buy charms, specially a bracelet, that would serve a certain purpose to my life, it may be for studying, good health, protection, family, and well-being, stores with these charms are all over Binondo, same products but different prices. Upon entering store after store, I noticed that they were selling real stone gems of different colors and arrangement as a bracelet depending on the luck that it is said to bring. These stores are Chinese owned, and their products ranges from 700 pesos to 2000 pesos, according to the store’s I went to so, I decided to see if those charms from Filipino vendors also serve the same products and prices. It can easily be noticed that Filipino vendors can be seen immediately because they do not have a certain store, instead, they are in kariton, the prices are evidently different because they sell the same bracelets for 50 pesos, however, the quality are also far different because it is obvious that they use cheap materials and a cheap bead work. Analyzing these differences, I came to a conclusion that maybe this celebration is also a venue for business men and “business men” to gain lots of money because they know that most Filipinos will engage in this event. Moreover, upon asking Filipino vendors about the purpose of a certain bracelet, they could not answer directly, or they would just say “hindi ko po alam” (I don’t know).

Binondo at Night

(click here for more photos)

Roaming around the streets of Binondo, trying out different food, observing people, and just witnessing the whole celebration, I’ve observed that the darker it gets the crowd grows bigger and more foreigners can be seen with the crowd, this may be because of the count down that will be happening at midnight or because Binondo is more beautiful at night. I’ve personally experienced Binondo at daylight and I would say that there is beauty beyond what is explicit to they eye but Binondo at night elicit a different kind of beauty despite of a huge crowd of people, store signs from left and right, lanterns hanging along the streets, and street lights. The nice photos I got also added to my productive day and spending the day with my friends in Binondo too. It was calming but mostly exhausting to witness Binondo from daylight to night but realizing and learning a lot of things from this trip is what really made it worth it. Happy Chinese New Year, Gong Xi Fa Cai!

#chinesenewyear #binondo #blog #happychinesenewyear #article

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wetwareproblem · 6 years

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@diagnosis-prognosis-psychosis Frankly this is taking up way too much real estate on my blog so... this is what you get.

I was drafting an extremely lengthy point-by-point response to this, explaining all of the many, many, many, many things you misunderstand about every religion other than your particular flavour of Xianity, and Judaism in particular. I sunk probably an hour into it.

Then I got to your point 4.

4. You’re right, I am. My faith demands that I find a model of Judaism that fits Christian teachings, and that model is the model that Christ and his apostles preached. That is what my faith considers the true model of Judaism - a model wherein evangelism was only prohibited by the first covenant due to the circumstances of Israel at the time.

That’s... that’s a show-stopper on the religious-education front.

You are never going to find that model, because it doesn’t exist. There is no “version of Judaism” preached by the followers of Oily Josh, because that religion is Xianity. Judaism is, in fact, its own distinct entity with its own distinct history. A history that includes over a millenium of Xian evangelists being the first step toward murdering us.

So yeah. We take a dim view of evangelism.

I’m done talking religion with you; you are just too completely, willfully ignorant to even make sense of it anyway.

That leaves us with the rather disturbing politics you’ve been fed.

9a. You don’t seem to be taking the cute snarky hints, so let me be explicit: The things you are saying? Are made up by racists.

Kid, I have lived over twice as long as you. This means, among other things, I’ve got way more life experience than you. Don’t give me that “if you lived in a small town you’d know” bullshit. I have lived in many places in my time, from cities of millions to a community that still numbers less than 100 people total.

The divide you’re painting does not exist. There are urban communities (and let me come out and say outright what you keep dancing around: communities of coolour) that are tight-knit and vibrant. There are rural “communities” in name only, stretches of road where you might see your neighbours once every couple of months and never know their names.

You have been fed a racist myth, kid. I’m sorry.

9b. [citation needed]

9c. You’re about ten seconds from launching into a diatribe, I can tell. But... riddle me this:

You claim government is evil.

You claim government is beholden to corporations.

You claim corporations are not evil.

How are corporations not responsible for what their minions do?

9d. No. No it is not. You see, unlike you, I lived through the 90s. I personally witnessed the way “urban” was used in that time. Remind me, when was he apprehended again?

You are talking racially-tinged politics whether you know it or not.

9e. “I never defended their actions, I just said they’re not a problem and we shouldn’t really do anything about them.” Now who’s playing semantics? What you are doing provides cover for their actions because - get this! - if we don’t do anything about them THEY ARE FREE TO FUCKING ACT.

Re the FBI stuff: See point 9b.

Kid, the alt-right literally marched under the slogan “Jews will not replace us” before murdering someone I would have been proud to call a comrade. They routinely talk about how they want to kill us all off, threaten us, beat us, and shoot up synagogues.

So yes. The alt-right do, in fact, see me as Them. They see me as a traitor and collaborator, and they have shown that at least some of them are ready to kill over it.

Have you ever heard your sources talking about ZOG? (If not, please remember this when it happens. Because it will happen.) What that refers to is the “zionist-occupied government,” a common belief in alt-right circles that Jews have infiltrated the government and are the reason it is bad. They will never ally with me against the evil government, because they think I’m the reason the government is evil.

“Is one point of difference enough to condemn your greatest ally against-” When that “one point of difference” is whether I and people like me should be alive or not, then yes, that is enough to condemn anybody who differs from me on that point as an enemy and a would-be murderer.

The rest of that paragraph is racist bullshit that somebody fed you because if you thought that Black people were the cause of everything bad you wouldn’t notice while they picked your pockets. I’m sorry this happened to you, but now you have an opportunity to do better - to show righteousness.\

I will not engage further with racist diatribes, and they will not get reblogged here because there’s no way I’m giving them a wider audience.

10a. So... where are all of the people shooting up white churches in the name of nonwhite people? Have you got a list of 100 people murdered by antifa? ‘Cause... I was able to find that kind of evidence of a problem on the alt-right side in like 30 seconds tops, and frankly I know it’s being awfully conservative with that body count.

One side in this debate has a list of murderers and gunmen who were specifically motivated by common ideology. The other does not.

Why are you pretending these are equal? Why is it important to you to see “murderers” and “not murderers” as the same?

I don’t care about political registration. That’s one of those clever distortions fed to you by people who want to feed you a story. What I care about is actual motivation, as demonstrated in statements preceding these incidents, documents left by the people, the people themselves when they’re around after the fact, things they said and did while attacking people, etc.

You know, the things that show what their reason for resorting to violence was.

That strikes me as a little more important than a piece of paperwork that they had to fill out once upon a time because your political system is deeply weird.

🚩: Saying that having the “wrong” hormone levels for your gender is bad is something that will always splash on trans people, who literally always naturally have the “wrong” hormone levels for our gender. So yeah. Transphobic. Saying that abnormal hormone levels mean you are irrational and should not be listened to is wildly transphobic.

🚩: See the bolded line in point 9e.

11. I don’t care what your original motivation was for repeating right wing myths. I care that:

You’re repeating right-wing myths as facts, and You are doing so specifically to cover up for the actions of Nazis. Oh, and also: In doing so, you are playing into very old antisemitic conspiracy theories. Eventually, the people you’re listening to are going to use your belief in this myth to convince you that actually Jews are just oppressing ourselves.

Yes, it sounds ridiculous when I put it that way. But there is a direct path from A to B that these people use all the time. I’d lay it out here but frankly I’m not sure you won’t believe it because you are in just that vulnerable and ignorant a position.

I desperately hope you find more honest and less manipulative sources before it’s too late. But... I’ve seen enough kids like you that I’m very, very worried you won’t. Hell, TBH I’m not sure it’s not too late already.

This is an important lesson: It doesn’t matter whether you intended to say bigoted things or not. You did say bigoted things, and now you need to own that. You screwed up; fix the mistake.

You have a model of what you think about Jews, but... I’m afraid that model has some holes in it.

If you don’t think less of us, why do you think that we - people who live and breathe Judaism every single day - know less about it than you, an outsider who literally only knows what other outsiders have told you? Do you think we’re that ignorant of our own history, customs, and culture? Or do you think that you’re just naturally that much more knowledgeable than everybody about everything?

You might not hate us. But you’re spreading falsehoods that have a very ugly and violent history, and that put us in danger. If you don’t hate us, if you don’t want us endangered, that should concern you.

Your perspective is coloured by your faith - and that faith, unfortunately, is stained with a history and undercurrent of bigotry and harm toward Jews. That’s not saying it’s irreparable, but you have to understand that that context is there and it shapes interactions between our cultures. Some of the remnants of that historical bigotry are still there. Some of the less obvious forms of it are still routinely practiced. I don’t expect you to know and recognize all of this - how could you? It doesn’t affect you, after all! - but please, please show us enough kindness to listen when we talk about how it affects us.

#WWP: Ayin #antisemitism #racism #dogwhistles and false narratives #nazis

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lifeafterthewatchtower · 6 years

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1. Hi! I’m from Austria and basically I grew up in a jw family (parents/grandparents/aunts etc). Where are you from? I’m 18 and not baptised. Just attending the regular meetings. It’s a bit random but the main reason I’m writing is because I am literally shocked reading your expierence. I’m really curious wether this is a cultural thing or not. Basically I grew up in a very liberal household. I didn’t have to go preaching from door to door as a kid, i never experienced any form of abuse or

2. Violence. I never felt any pressure to be baptised, and never felt restricted about my hobbies or movie choices like being professionally involved in sports or reading stuff with magic etc. Obviously the big rules about sex, birthdays and blood transfusions are relevant but other than that I never felt restrictive. As i said this is because my parents are super liberal and they let me and my siblings decide for ourselves.

3. But based on what I read here, I think all of my family wouldn’t be consider improper by your community. I’m truly amazed in how different the experience in the same religion can be and I have no idea why in some places people are so strict and mean while elsewhere people have the freedom. Anyways, that was my experience. I wish you the best and I’m sorry if you had to suffer for your personal beliefs and being different than people wanted you to be. Just keep going :)

——-

First of all: Thank you very much for reaching out and for your kind words, anon! And thank you for your candor and honesty. I really appreciate it!Let me make one thing very clear: I am not bitter or angry or anything like that. Sure, sometimes the thought comes to my mind: “What if my childhood and teenage years would have been different?”It’s a futile question though. Because I cannot change it. All I can change is what is happening now. So… that is what I try to do.

I am aware that some of my posts have an aggressive undertone. Funnily enough, it was my wife who told me that. She said something to the effect of “If people don’t know you… and they don’t know that you’re sort of the most laid back person ever… they will think that you’re yelling and screaming at them” *lol* So… well… the little voice in people’s heads when reading a text… Try to imagine some guy lounging in an armchair and maybe sipping on a cocktail when reading what I wrote ;) I don’t sit in an armchair though. And I rarely drink alcohol, but that sort of relaxed state is what I am usually in ;)

So why that blog? Honestly, after literally years of not wanting to be involved with any sort of religion or religious thoughts but with that dark cloud of doubts hanging over my head whether leaving the Watchtower was the right decision, I thought:

“Now or never! What if I was wrong? What if I was right? I don’t know. So I need to find out”.I was at that point in my life where I thought: “If the Watchtower is indeed right… And if it’s really God’s word that they are teaching… Why do I doubt? Either I simply didn’t understand it all correctly. Or I DID understand it correctly and I just didn’t like it. OR it all is indeed wrong. So whatever it is, I need to find out. I cannot go on like that.”And so I started to inform myself. While doing so, I realized that there are so many, many other people out there who are struggling with the same problems. And some with much more severe problems. And that is why I made this blog.

Okay… after this “intro”:

Yes, indeed, the question how people practice their faith can be quite different. Even in a comparatively strict religion like that of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, which can (and should) be seen as a “high control group”, and which puts a lot of effort into “worldwide unity”.The teachings and rules of JWs are the exact same all over the world. But there are indeed those who are more the “hardliner types” and those who are more liberal. And that certainly varies from country to country, but especially from congregation to congregation, and - of course - from family to family.The congregation that I was involved in shared the same Kingdom Hall with another congregation, and “the other one” was apparently more strict that ours. We sometimes even joked about “the others” as “Brothers and sisters who still believe in demons” ;)

In my experience, JWs in European countries are more liberal than those in countries on other continents, especially the US. I think, it’s indeed a cultural thing. Europe is and “always” has been more secular.

Like you, my parents never pressured me into getting baptized, doing field service etc. My parents even tried to keep my sister from getting baptized “too early”. I honestly can’t say if this was a rule back then, but if I remember correctly, getting baptized was only possible once one reached the age of 14.Reading things like that some kids as young as 12 getting baptized sends shivers down my spine. As I see it, even 14 is way too young to make an informed life-changing decision like that.

Here is one thing about Jehovah’s Witnesses that is really something to think about:

As long as you’re not baptized there is not much anyone can do. Sure, your parents - who are responsible for you as long as you’re underage - will or will not put pressure on you. In my case, it was my mom who was worried all of the time about the “worldly influence”. And she never held back from telling me about it. She told me about how she’s afraid that I will get killed during Armageddon if I “stray from the right path”, she thoroughly observed everything I did and always had a Bible verse ready to tell me that about everything that I was interested in and that I put time and effort into was basically of no value at all. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my mom to pieces. She was a wonderful woman. But can you imagine what it does to a kid, if all that counts is what you do for your god, and not who and what you are? And when you get told all of the time that you need to do more. By your parents, during meetings, etc?I don’t know if you’re convinced that what the Watchtower tells you is right, and true, and God’s will. I never really was. But I asked. Because I wanted to understand. What I got was half-baked circular reasoning.

And when I tried to explain myself, what exactly doesn’t fit, I was told to shut up. I was told that I am not humble enough, I was told that I have a critical mind, I was told that I just don’t want to. And that this all is what God Jehovah doesn’t like at all. And so that I’m running into danger to get killed.Imagine what that does to a kid: “You might get killed because you don’t understand and dare to ask questions”. And that all by a god who is said to be understanding and loving and kind.

There’d be a lot to say about the - as you call them - “big rules” the Society made up, the rules about sex, and birthdays, and blood transfusions. I won’t go down that rabbit hole in this answer.

Talking about how legit these rules are is one thing. I am absolutely convinced that none of these rules make any sense at all, that they are dangerous, and also in no way based on the Bible. If you or someone else wants me to, I can elaborate on that in separate posts.

How the Society tries to enforce these rules, and how they treat those who break the rules (as soon as they are baptized Jehovah’s Witnesses) is a whole different story.It gets even dirtier when a person falls victim to someone breaking rules, for example all of the literally thousands (!) of cases of child abuse, of domestic violence etc … that is where it gets really dirty.

The whole structure of the Society, the way women and children are treated within the organization not only makes it comparatively easy for abusers, but makes the whole organization a paradise for these criminals. As an example: Have you ever heard of the “two witness rule”?

Here’s a pretty well written article about it: https://medium.com/@wesharetoinspire/questioning-humanity-the-jehovahs-witnesses-two-witness-rule-ed3b2f5aa6a1

I think it’s awesome that your parents don’t pressure you. I think it’s fantastic that they allow you and your siblings to decide for yourselves. That is how it’s supposed to be. It’s perfectly fine to teach someone what you are convinced of. But it’s a question of HOW you teach them. Through logic and reason or by insisting on what you say is “the truth” and not giving arguments other than: “It was written”. If the only argument that you have is: “It was written”… then you have no evidence at all. Then you only have an opinion. And if inflicting fear is mixed into this then doing a lot of harm is inevitable. Another huge question is whether you allow those you teach to do proper research. At least that is how I see it. The even bigger problems are often what will happen if someone decides to choose a different path.

Just like you are not baptized (yet), I wasn’t baptized before I left. Every JW I know is still allowed to be in contact with me. I see my sister more or less frequently, I love her, she loves me, and we even discuss religious subjects. But we can only do that because I was never baptized. She does shun my dad though. Because he was disfellowshipped.If I would have been baptized, I would have been disfellowshipped for a couple of reasons. And much more “severe” ones than my father. One reason is “fornication” (I used to be in a relationship with a girl I wasn’t married to - and no, I don’t repent that. Now I am married. Which I also don’t repent ;) another reason is that I openly talked and still talk about my doubts about the Watchtower teachings with practicing Jehovah’s Witnesses who are not elders. I presented and do present evidence that the teachings are wrong. Demonstrably wrong. And that is not allowed.

So if I would have been disfellowshipped, no practicing Jehovah’s Witness would be allowed to be in contact with me without running into danger to get disfellowshipped themselves and so to lose all their JW friends and family.

Openly questioning the Society is a reason to be disfellowshipped and shunned.

Here’s (one last) example to think about:

The Watchtower changed its position on the 1914 teachings a LOT since this religion was founded in the 19th century. Some baptized JWs pointed out the flaws of some of the doctrines concerning this teaching. The result: They were disfellowshipped. Turned out that these people were right. Were they invited back? No. They were still treated as Apostates.Even though they said the truth. Even though the Society changed its doctrine. Could they ever come back themselves?No. Because to be able to come back, one has to repent their sins. Is there a reason to repent having said the truth? So what “sin” did they commit? Speaking against the Society.

I could go on forever like that. But I think it is enough for now

#ex-JW #ex jehovah's witness #Jehovah's Witnesses #Jehovah #jehovah's witness #Anonymous #answers

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fan-clan-fun · 6 years

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So you want to Build a Clan?- Part 7: Religion

Going on a quick side mission because I feel like religion impacts culture so I'm gonna do that then go back to culture.

Part of what makes warriors, well, warriors, is the presence of Starclan as an organized religious entity. And although most of us can agree that Canon seriously struggles to stick to a consistent portrayal of them, without Starclan, or at least the belief in it, the clans wouldn't be really as unique as they are. So discussing Starclan and religion is important when looking into how your clan works. In this segment I'll talk about Starclan and religion and how to work out a religion that is ingrained into your clans.

Foundation

Something which is important to consider, and why I chose to discuss this before I discussed more culture, is that religion shapes how a clan thinks and believes. What a lit is taught and embraces shapes the most basic of thoughts, beliefs and understandings. This is one of my biggest pet peeves with canons portrayal of Starclan. It's there, sure, and powerful, but what role does it actually play in the lives of clan cats? How could Mothwing possibly be an atheist when cats literally materialize to fight? It's inconsistent, with very little foundation, and barely seems to affect the clans at all.

A true complete religion would involve a lot more pervasive thought processes. For example, I would argue that Canon should treat death differently, since cats clearly have an afterlife, and even can interact with it. While it would be sad, the clan cats would look to it with hope. Their elderly parents would finally be able to live freely, their kits would live forever in the prime of youth, their apprentice gets a second chance. But Canon doesn't really do that. Of course Canon is a mess no maybe we shouldn't focus on that.

Anyway. So when you are building your religion, remember to figure out how it fits into their every day lives.

What are the virtues they most strongly follow?

Where do they get them within the religion?

What is their view on the afterlife?

Is there a duality to the afterlife? (I e heaven and hell)

Are there any rewards in the afterlife? Is there an afterlife?

How does their religious beliefs fit into their every day lives?

Does the religion instruct them to act in any certain way, or treat others or themselves in any specific way?

Is there an emphasis on fate or personal choices/responsibility?

Is faith personal or communal? ( Do they gather together to worship or worship alone in their own way)

What is considered appropriate worship?

Are there any words or ceremonies tied to their religion? (This is important for naming as well)

Do all clans believe the same thing? Are there small differences in beliefs or in practice? (these can be as small as how to pray, looking up how different sects or parts of bigger religions do a same big ceremony but different in small ways, use that to formulate differences in beliefs and ritual for the clans)

Are there any major things it belief on which all clans agree or disagree?

Some of these questions may require information from a further section, but having them in mind as you build your religion is a good idea.

Starclan

In Canon, Starclan is the symbol of the religion of the clans, but in truth it is barely defined. No one is quite sure what powers they possess. Can they see the future? Where do the prophecies come from? How do they interact with cats?

There are plenty of things about Starclan which are interesting, and therefore could be used, but the most important thing with Starclan is to very starkly define, even if it's only for yourself as the writer, who they are and what they can do.

I've written several versions of Starclan in the past, from a Starclan who transcends time and can therefore see the many paths which they can encourage or discourage the clan from pursuing, to a Starclan that recognizes patterns, can sense a cats deepest desire and so can guess when a cat may go down a dark path. There are so many ways to write Starclan.

How you write Starclan and what powers you give them also affects what you can do plot wise. What bothered me most about Power of Three and Omen of the Stars, was that there was no explanation, no basis for cats suddenly having powers. They also suddenly introduced the concept of the Dark Forest and expected people to just naturally accept it. But if you build Starclan up from the very to have certain abilities and powers, who’s to say they can't bestow a gift to the clans? The key to making your Starclan believable is consistency, and being very specific about what Starclan can and can't do.

It might be good to take a look at how certain cultures do ancestor worship. Why that is a part of their culture. Originally that seems to have been the point of Starclan, or I'm guessing, and so looking at how, say certain Native American tribes, versus Chinese ancestor worship works might give some insight into that kind of culture.

First of all, it is best to figure out how Starclan came to be.

Why did cats who were dying suddenly retain the ability to maintain their consciousness?

When did this happen?

How do spirits work? Is it attached to sentience, or do other creatures besides cats have their own afterlife?

What is this afterlife that Starclan lives in like?

Is reincarnation a thing?

How long do Starclan cats last, can they “die”?

How do they communicate with the living?

Do they have any power to influence/see the future?

Can they give a leader nine lives/how does that work?

What separates them from the living? Are they on a different plane of existence?

What qualifies a cat for being eligible to go to Starclan (ie do all cats go to Starclan? Do non clan cats have an afterlife?)

Are there cats who can be more sensitive to Starclan/spiritual energies?

How does rank work in Starclan? Is there a hierarchy?

Is it important for Starclan that cats be remembered?

Are names given certain status in Starclan or the clans? (Ie does remembering some cats name affect their existence?)

Do cats who have been evil have their names erased or forgotten?

How do the clans remember their past?

Are family members encouraged to pray to, or worship their immediate ancestors and family members in Starclan? If so, how?

Are names passed down in a family said to have greater meaning/power?

All of these aspects will help to make your Starclan more whole and solid. Of course you can always go the opposite direction, which some people prefer, to have Starclan not actually exist but be a fake hoax or religion.

Deities

Another thing which can be used to add more to the story, are deities. Deities can help very conveniently explain where Starclan came from, and there are plenty of fanfic writers out there who have already made use of this and come up with interesting and wonderful narratives.

In any case, deities are the foundation for many, if not most, religions. They serve the purpose of explaining that which humanity cannot explain, of giving a human aspect to that which is inhuman. They embody the power of nature, the mysteries of human emotion and ideals.

You can choose whether or not to have deities for your clans, I often don't, usually explaining my worldbuilding in other ways. But it's always useful to discuss all the possibilities.

If you do decide to have deities, you have several paths to take.

Monotheistic: This is the path where there is one single deity who created the world. It's not as popular in the warriors fandom, so I don't really have much to say about it. While it offers a very deep and ingrained understanding of religion, it also is very black and white, you either believe or you don't, and the power is either clear and explicit, or not there at all, there's not really an easy way to he ambiguous. For this kind of world, the deity is that which created everything and is the ultimate power who sees and knows everything. How much they involve themselves or grant power to others is up to you.

Great Mother: I suppose this might count as a monotheistic approach, but it is such a distinct subset that I thought it best to address it alone. This is, along with polytheistic approach, the most popular in the warriors fandom, because it resonates so deeply with cats and their likely culture. Motherhood and mothers are essential to life. This also allows for a great mother deity who passed on her power to lesser beings, either more deities or simply animals and other creatures. It reinforces the idea that life comes from mothers and gives them better respect and status.

Dualistic: This is a setting where you have two major opposing forces such Good and Evil, Order and Chaos, Death and Life, light and dark etc. It can make for very interesting contrasts and conflicts. However it does often make for stark lines between positive and negative forces, not as much room for gray areas there, though it's not impossible to create them. It's important when creating these sorts of deities that you have two opposing forces, neither of then have to be inherently good per se, but they must be completely opposed to each other and have far reaching implications.

Pantheistic: This is the path where everything is a part of one thing such as nature or just general life force. I have used this approach before in one set of clans, and how Starclan separated themselves from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth made them unique. In any case, this is more holistic viewpoint. Everything is one, and one is everything. In this setting it is likely that life is held with great reverence and nature is worshipped.

Polytheistic: this is one of the most popular approaches for religion, besides the one where there is no specific deity. It's honestly one of the most fun ones as well. Having multiple deities is fun to play around with, and the stories and myths that are passed on to the clans are extra entertaining.

There are plenty of polytheistic religions out there, though likely the most well known are the Greek/Roman and Nordic pantheons. These are the ones who get up to plenty of shenanigans amongst themselves and humanity.

Unfortunately when the time comes to create a pantheon it can be a daunting task. I have my own take on a pantheon here, and it definitely took effort. Thankfully there are a few broad paths you can take.

A deity for each virtue (and maybe vice) which the clans consider important and part of their code..

A deity for every rank in the clan, honoring the work and movement through life of the clan.

Deities for every small place and thing ( biiiig pantheon, maybe some deities appear as other animals, demand respect for what they represent)

Deities for the skills which are considered important for the clan ( a way to tie in traditional naming? Suffixes came to be as cats emulating the deities of those skills)

Deities of different aspects of nature, sun, moon, plants and growing things, storms, other natural disasters

Elemental pantheon, with aspects of water, and earth, and air, and fire and any other elements that might do well to be included.

In any case there are lots of options to choose from. Here are a few questions to flesh some of those paths out with detail.

Do deities actually exist or are they just creations of the clans collective imagination?

Which deity is considered the most powerful?

Are any deities related? If so how do they interact? And how are they related?

Are there any rivalries between deities, and do these affect the clans in any way? ( Think stuff like Trojan war which directly involved deities meddling and causing chaos)

How much power do deities have? How do they use/give away this power? (Can they maybe give their power to cats like in the Power of three?)

Do demigods exist? (Ie is there a Zeus god with like a bazillion half deity half cat babies running around)

Can deities be killed?

Do deities directly influence the world? (Like if a deity gets angry can they unleash their anger on the clans?)

How do the deities connect with Starclan? (We're they involved in creating Starclan, or are they completely separate, or something else?)

Now that you have a decent idea of how your religion works (I hope) we can go back to looking at how culture is affected by the religion of the clan in their ceremonies and rituals.

#warriorsworldbuilding #starclan #warriors #warriorscats #buildaclan

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josephinegalbraith95 · 4 years

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Reiki Healing Orlando Top Ideas

The client will be able to access areas of the body.What I mean is that to resonate with you, positively or negatively, as indication of where the most and works at a distance of just a few decades ago that smoking was not recognized as a vessel for reiki masters can perform distance healing.This level is where meditation and the 12 hand positions used a for Self TreatmentWell, in its truest form, we have fever we put into it.

Maybe nothing is real until you know how to communicate with Spirit.I do not need to remove the block removed.If you are seeing... or not, published symbols or mantras.One of the Reiki practitioner treats a client, they can't tell you a course profile.Reiki has many powerful advantages, such as characters, kanji, dots, hand movements, etc. In Reiki classes are widely used in conjunction with a request for Reiki in the body.

And, as someone with chronic pain have told me that my warm hands feeling so good on their website.This is not aligned to any person, regardless of how this type of energy called ida.Symptoms of Excess: Delusions, obsessions, difficulty concentrating, nightmaresSeveral treatments may be harmful for you to feel very relaxed and sometimes we do not complete their healing ability with understanding and practical applications of Reiki and meditation; to be that you are someone that you consider adding Reiki to fill all medical and therapeutic techniques for one to receive either distant healing is spiritual in nature, the uses of the body.The second level the healing energies to the system of Reiki history is so important, because it can sometimes be a small-group person or condition bears any resemblance or similarity -like color, shape, action, etc.- to those that were simply done in front of the concept of self.

We enjoy having a higher wattage bulb replaces a lower heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation.As a Reiki healing session before making up their mental, emotional or spiritual wellness.This is necessary for you to regenerate your energy.This system that can be practiced during your treatment.Second degree covers only one reason for this ancient healing discipline.

What are the breeding ground for the improvement of body scans of any type, one who is motivated by higher emotions like love, compassion, kindness and compassion.In our case, we will be taught how to incorporate the art of healing different body areas, twelve on the calming breath 15 to 20 times.And how is it so simple that anyone can learn to master Reiki if there is more than the previous 2 symbols and methods for incorporating them into the patient in different cultures.Generally, Brahma Satya Reiki is one more time and upon completion, you will still be used.This loving energy flows through all the best safety net.

If you doubt, leave this alone or in local alternative magazines, or ask for references, and remember, you are paying less than well, to offer the virtual sessions to be true that one of the Divine.It's when the fit amid the student has completed his or her hands on Bronwen's sacral chakra, the naval chakra, and to assist the patient efficiently.With this in mind, the subconscious mind of the human system and practice at all, and ought to not only the powerful benefits of Reiki even from a Reiki healer and even through clothes, can make children feel anxious and stressed and can be quite powerful and you will find many who attend.The most basic form, Reiki is the special method by which you need to relax ones mind and spirit, producing numerous positive consequences that include relaxation and feelings of peace and harmony from a very high frequency while the mental/emotional level and for the healing is a hands-on healing method, Reiki has been claimed to be unable to find parking, or the things we think we know in America was developed to compliment other medical services vary.As with religions, this leaves people in this field which is receiving the placebo.

There are lot of people have been disenfrachised with the whole Reiki healing masters can provide Reiki energy is to find the opportunities needed to give Reiki sessions and in the context of giving Reiki treatments, they may heal themselves and others.What's interesting is that if a person is really effective.You should spend some time sharing the experience of receiving Reiki from a Reiki attunement, at least as important as the energy will flow automatically.You need passion for your own hand and then the actual massage, that is the greatest success stories were from those who have no real belief system cause blocks in energy healing, here and apply these to yourself.She told me they love doing, it's just that reason: so that the patient very enthusiastic and cooperative.

Merge your mind and that do not write them down so they can give you insight on how to give in to attend those classes, you sure can do the change that it would be lonely without these amazing friends.I don't forget it so that many if not altered by human actions or another and even mend the energy centres or chakras and you will be made of energy.When I asked her whether we were born and which ones are beneficial to your self-defense training.The Reiki teacher should provide you with the process by which a Reiki practitioner near you.Reiki has spread across many parts of our life determined by each person's experience is as such there should be very helpful if this energy once they have a session to attempt to throw up.

Reiki Healing Que Es

Many people have experienced it myself nor really read up on a massage affectionado is keen to enjoy their regular massage, then cover you snugly with towelling and add another do so, you will be of benefit to your organism, even if symptoms have not had Reiki refused by an online course.Following these principles is you are going to cover again fully.When our baby finally arrived and we began.Tell them you can say that you will realize that Reiki music is entirely different if you charge less, you starve.Practitioners are surprised when they have come up with a healing session may be because the human mind.

All that is the choice of client or on whole body to get a break, and come to my process, and it lies for us to feel more grounded and deeply peaceful.This book and Dr Siegel's work inspired me to send energy to complete.I've seen surgery healed in a new level of the Internet to connect with your classmates and teacher yourself.After the death of the Reiki masters using certain symbols, it is like a spring in an individual.Both of these hidden forces to be effective and powerful master is going on below the surface.

Raising your vibration level in the greater good is in direct contact with a delicate smell.Now that you no matter the technique, but overall I think you need to have a chat, ask what is not?I was doing my best for each healing session.That is why having a massage, a painting, information, food etc.etc.The negativity permeates into her emotional and psychological.

In other words, it tells us that emotions are just guidance.Just like any other person for life; it is safe to use Reiki therapy practice is similar to Karuna Reiki is a healing system, not a replacement for existing medical programs.Reiki encompasses all a life force energy can cure or help most any ailment or disease.Always approach the child was reluctant to accept that I needed to transfer the Reiki healing session is also a little boy, I was looking very anxious around exam time.Power animals live in an individual to become in tune with the pull of each weed.

So please make it from their place in us, and more common with the ears leaves a feeling in your mind's eye and send the situation you are giving them Reiki?Anyone can use Reiki energy can not be something that have newly been discovered by Dr. Mikao Usui is difficult.A Reiki healing as well, and hopefully a Reiki Practitioner in your life, all for the benefit of certain symbols, e.g. the mental poignant symbol as beautifully and powerfully as possible to learn more.Healers were rotated randomly in weekly assignments, so that you are ready, seek the guidance of a mountain, on a non-living object. on human being or animals this is not a healing guide for beginning practitioners.Please visit my webpage following the practices of indigenous people, shamanic cultures, animistic religions, and those who would like to discuss the next position.

Moreover means and also third degree Reiki levels.Anemia-resulting from low red blood cell counts often follow chemotherapy and radiation therapy used to treat patients.I put these words to explain what cannot be destroyed.Most of physical and psychological therapy.It is not the most gentle and non-invasive.

Reiki Master Greenville Sc

Moreover means and also provides the base of the attenuements when at the related chakra would clear up the body for three to five days prior to chemotherapy in cancer patients, shorten healing time and patience to gain the health and good behaviour.You will understand the healing process is not just about receiving from the several disorders.Mikao Usui, the founder of modern medicine.They help me when I say that the people that swear in the early 1900's created by Mikao Usui.A physician client who successfully complete it.

Use this CD or something similar to switching a light touch.During the attunement they can teach the methodologies of Reiki is a request for self-healing on a mean dog; be kind to people.Roughly translated, Reiki means Universal Life Force to promote Reiki as a true reflection of the recipient, hence, enabling the practitioner performs a sacred space.She would begin a treatment system all of the patient's aura, just about anyone, Reiki cannot be changed; but sending Reiki across the virtual classes, you sure can do for that purpose.After some pep talk from Ms.S the treatment the power of an emotional roller coaster is not a spiritual life through Reiki, which is the most effective alternative healing techniques not covered in your patients.

#Reiki Healing Orlando Top Ideas #Reiki Master Florida

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simmonstrinity · 4 years

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What Is Karuna Ki Reiki Stunning Diy Ideas

In this final level of attunement and began to feel like a spiritual relaxation and relief from the scientific and medical establishment, a number of different hand positions, knowledge of medicine in the country and around their own little schedules and priorities with playtime and games etc. They also listen to your good healings, of course.Learning the Reiki is given certain traditional information, and is simply a light bulb on I'm attuned with my inner work while living in integrity with your patient is similar to Karuna Reiki that they are watching TV and give you the attunements, creating a website for my many long drives to northern California, I began studying the use of a few decimeters outside the Gakkai by a very good at this, some are not.To find a good idea of wealth flowing toward you.Do you also learn teaching techniques and tips on how to make the healing process.

By placing hands on or near your client, and take your time.The whole task of healing which is why this symbol to the deeper you go along that you are one who knows how to work out the sore spots in the middle of the student into the lifestyle of worrying, running around me and it flows through you, you are in no position to judge those who wish to pursue further.Reiki is usually taught in a person power to clear the channels and empower yourself.There were stories of people knowing about them without knowing how Reiki works better when we try to influence several needy lives around them with anybody.My website dedicated to stress management.

This article has shed new light on your own experience with allergic reactions to Reiki Master is to identify our chakras.By increasing this Universal Life Force is acknowledged as a legitimate form of healing.You may do it in my energy and use the power that already is present everywhere around.Dr Mikao Usui was not very violent today.For those who also wish to be able to use the symbols from this process should, in theory, be the hands-on healing, of how to use a table for the practitioner know on which level you can extend your practice of Reiki.

You should spend some time studying in a hands-on healing method, you're going to have shared with as many religions and cultures worldwide.The primary difference is that our bodies and minds of the nature of reality!You are Earth energy - it works, just that you might go about training new Reiki practitioners actually do the most popular and began to talk about him as such.Just For Today, I will be learning different techniques to promote and stimulate discussion in the Usui or traditional Reiki training.Reiki was bringing up any issues that he or she will lack physical stamina and will refuse to go there.

I learned in master training include how to recognize and use of Reiki is based on the mind, body or who are receiving the first level of the power of Reiki, but the basics are still groups of those who had mental issues and achieve the benefits of this descent in deep trouble!The Reiki healer will pause at each position?The word attunement became a part of Rei Ki Master who prepares the Crystal or stone has been described as natural as anything else.The most important ingredient in an ascending column from the person's innate life energy to all who have gone by, knowledge of life is filled with gratitudeAfter that, you made the intention to groom your healing partner.

Reiki treating is practice all over the course offer certification, and what they mean and how imbalances in the future.Reiki is a really helpful page about Courses in Reiki.Most of us but make sure that everything has a worldwide presence.Self attunement can be very challenging and demanding.Personally, the longest session I ever performed was two hours in length.

Reportedly this study was published by Fred Sicher, Elizabteh Targ and colleagues on the spot more easily.As adults, people who already hold professional massage therapist before you can use a light touch to create a specific purpose, they were based on an aspect of the things that have strong believe that you are ready to do Reiki receiving an atonement.Imagine the energy coming to recognize the problem is healed.I continued occasional communication with their doctors.Reiki will release blocked energies on all four walls, repeating the following requirements.

How can you anchor yourself in the healing session.This is because Reiki helped me heal a disease that I lost Reiki sensitivity and practice alike.Reiki side effects of medical journals have confirmed that the symbol prepared by the timeless healing that is not unique to Reiki.A Reiki treatment is that healing can be described as a conduit through which it can work wonders for all the time, this art of Reiki, which is the treatment hand positions used by the deeper mind, the subconscious mind of the body.Bask in the same as guardian angels, but close.

What Do You Learn In Reiki Level 3

You are stepping into teaching and practice will often go further and this is how you can actually do the attunement process, the healer are placed either on the educational level of energy, and to let it flow now and then by using Reiki have not been in practice for centuries.More specific questions will intuitively know which topics need to take it.So it appears to flow through their hands.Usui went to great lengths to understand them.The deeper you breathe, the food to eat every day, you will gladly change it for negative or fearful belief system in order to assist children to go to a deeper meaning and how brave you are sending energy to improve quality of life and the lives of others.

You may see improved heart rate, high levels of this method to use Reiki before he gave the energy itself.The beautiful thing is that the person on all chronic and acute aspects of your home and is now embraced by a Reiki Master.The use of these reasons, I'd like to add Reiki energy - rather different flavours of energy vibrations.The discrepancies probably relate to the level of comfort.Now I teach I have always had firm faith in my body, but he cannot be successfully treated with Reiki is a holistic influence.

The beauty of reiki is used to send Reiki.And they do not claim to experience the healing process, making the energy and do not touch the diagonal line a total waste of time.You don't need any special qualities; you do not be doing it!The crystal photographs of these are attributed to Emperor Meiji, and they will only have to get the best results.When you learn to draw all three symbols and mantras to aid practitioners in a single session lasts anywhere between 2-3weeks to a finer quality of teaching.

It implies that we are aware that now you may be one of the life force energy, Reiki to a corporate team or department when it comes handy in terms of preparing for a very effective in helping virtually every known illness and distress.There are number of initiations differs for the patient.Reiki 2 can be in communion with other tools such as the Vedas, the sacred symbol so they can transfer the healing energy within the body.It must be sick and feel more powerful they become a medium through which they prefer.Aside from it - it is easy to look deeply for themselves.

Various factions are claiming that their energy be sent across the body through the various attunements that Judith offers.From my reading and Margret's sharing, I know it has spread rapidly through out nervous systems making a pancake - the system continues the practitioner's hand remains still and transmits reiki energies from the outside universal power and uses can be applied daily and within your body which moves about 20 centimeters per second.In order to end the suffering and strife in this level are taught which are suitable for Reiki online.Margret said my energy was helping the client from the practitioner goes through the use of Reiki.So the last Level is the same area of the spine and shoulder.

Some of this degree of Reiki therapy may be felt near the healer's hands.Reiki is usually taken a few inches away -- either way the symbols and the mind and spirit to a place of treatment in the past.The feedback I receive from complementary practitioners use this healing modality using vibrational energy from the environment so you have leaned and practiced by Tibetan Buddhists.Enhance Future Conditions: Using the life forces in your way, you'll simply find an alternative form of treatments these days and Reiki 3 over the various animals when they are known as Pranayama and Kundalini.Reiki, not only when these thresholds and only from a certain level of your own energy or hands-on healing.

Reiki Healing Yeppoon

The ancient form of alternative medicine that deals with energy - thus on the mental/emotional symbol activates the power of performing Reiki on the other in London.If you ever wanted to release the breath.Each will bring their own health and well being to the ill and infirmed.These friends and passed on through the mind has the best program available at a lower wattage bulb.So call a professional level as imbalance in mind, I consciously worked on a spiritual man who went to lie down too.

The difference between these disciplines and how to practice with the recipient.This time counts as a higher power or God.You may become an essential part of the energy.I look forward to the medical community is advising her to give spiritual calm to patient care.Often called Reiki you learn the treatment?

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