Essential Nostradamus Release, Obama’s War on ISIS and Hogue’s Scottish Referendum Prediction

    DATELINE 14 September 2014 Obama’s IS-steria:
An Excuse to Wage War In Syria

By now many of you have seen the gruesome scene on YouTube. One by one, men kneel before a man brandishing a long knife. A proclamation of crimes against Islam is declared and the public beheading with cameras rolling commences. An evil Islamic State has shown us videos of up to 40 victims losing their heads this month, but most of you reading this are presuming I’m talking about the two US journalists and one UK aid worker being decapitated by the tall, black cloaked and headsman mask-hooded executioner of IS (Islamic State), right? No, I’m talking about that other extreme Islamic State that’s America’s most important ally in the region. I’m talking about the most religiously severe regime with an extended royal family, many of whom have been the chief contributor of money and arms to that other Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria. Who knows, some of that money might have gone into fabricating those orange prison jumpsuits that that “other” wannabe Islamic State dressed those abducted Western journalists and aid workers in, in US Guantanamo Cuba Concentration camp fashion.  American people (and you Europeans of the EU too) your good friends in Saudi Arabia on average film in public squares the barbaric beheading by sword their criminals and blasphemers. They can be robbers, women committing adultery… Heck, last month one woman was tried and beheaded on the accusation of being a witch. People accused of criticizing Islam are usually tried and decapitated for such “sorcery” in Saudi Arabia. Yet you do not get aroused to go to war with them, because your US and EU press and your governments hope to herd your limited attention span to black hearted IS executioners and not your black hearted “ally” and tyrant, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.  President Obama last week stood before the American people to declare a kind of war against ISIS forces detailing vaguely a sort of strategy that might entail further arming of Free Syrian factions that maybe might not pass those weapons over the ISIS forces that in Syria are our allies, but in Iraq are not. Oh, one thing the President said with some forceful words but I detected a kind of gun shy twitching and flicker in his eyelids, almost like a very subtle palsy coming on. Blinking rapidly he reserved America’s right to bomb ISIS targets in Syria from the air. What he didn’t tell you is

that unilaterally bombing a sovereign nation is an international crime. The days that followed as Obama sent his Mummy, the Secretary of State to wrap up—Bush like—a new coalition of the willing, there were allies far less willing to bomb anything in Syria than Iraq because of the breach of international law. Even, (surprise) the Saudis were a little coy about that, even though our “ally” finances as fighters on both sides as Obama would like to bomb and arm jihadists on both sides, simultaneously in this new “war” meant to degrade ISIS as successfully as we degraded terrorists “for decades and counting” in Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan to no clear end. Syria and Iraq will return to this war strategy of Neverland fantasy that will never end, only widen. The war market value requires it.

 We call this “savage” but look the other way when an ally beheads people, like the Saudis. The Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad made it categorically clear that any invasion of Syrian airspace by the US or its EU/NATO allies would be deemed an act of war with the threat of full retaliatory response hanging in the silence following his declaration.  Keep reading: http://www.hogueprophecy.com/2014/09/essential-nostradamus-release-obamas-war-on-isis-and-hogues-scottish-referendum-prediction/

Don Francisco De Sandoval

Brevi cenni sulla vita di Don Francisco De Sandoval, chiedendo anticipatamente venia per i numerosi errori che certamente troverete.

 

Era un po' di tempo che stavo cercando di rintracciare i genitori di una mia misteriosa antenata; Donna Francesca Maria De Sandoval, avevo di lei trovato traccia grazie all'aiuto di alcuni amici tra i quali vorrei pubblicamente ringraziare, il ricercatore Raimondo Lentini, il genealogista Marcello D'Aleo, lo scrittore Mariolino Papalia ed altri che senza togliere nulla al loro contributo renderebbero troppo farraginoso questo breve articolo.

 

Il primo matrimonio avvenne a Ciminna (PA) il 6 Giugno 1745 con tale Don Epifanio Noto dei signori della Montagna di Monterosso; baroni e Duchi di Petraro.

Il secondo matrimonio avvenuto sempre a Ciminna il 13 Gennaio 1756 tra la Francesca e il mio avo Don Carlo Gaetano Mariano Filippo Romano e Colonna figlio del notaio Giuseppe. Da questi ed altri documenti, ho potuto rilevare i nomi dei suoi genitori ed altri dati che successivamente mi sono stati utili per il proseguimento della mia piccola ricerca.

 

La trascrizione verbatim del certificato del primo matrimonio recita:

 

“Ciminna, 6 giugno 1745, nona indizione Premesse le pubblicazioni eseguite nei giorni 29 e 30 maggio e 5 giugno, il sacerdote Don Vincenzo Pagliara, con licenza dell'Arciprete di Ciminna, ha congiunto in matrimonio Don Epifanio Di Noto, figlio dei furono Don Marco Antonio e Donna Antonina, della terra di Monterosso e al presente abitante a Palermo, scapolo, e Donna Francesca Sandoval e Milon, figlia del fu Don Francesco Sandoval e della vivente Donna Maria Maddalena Milon, nata a Milano e abitante a Ciminna dalla fanciullezza. I testimoni furono il Sac. Don Guglielmo Anselmo, il Chierico Don Vincenzo Gigante e il Chierico Don Michelangelo Bellamauro. In seguito sono stati benedetti dal Sac. Don Portuesi, secondo il Rituale della Santa Romana Chiesa.”

 

Mentre questa e' la trascrizione dell'atto del secondo matrimonio tra i miei due avi:

 

“Die Trigesimo Primo Januarij 4ª indictionis 1756 Denunciationibus premissis tribus continuis diebus festivis, quarum prima 14, 2ª 21, et 3ª 25 decembris, inter missarum sollemnia proxima passate habita est, nulloque legiptimo impedimento detecto. Ego Sacrae Theologiae Doctor don Antonio Grattiano Archipresbitero, Don Carolum Romano et Colonna filius Notari Don Joseph et Rosa Romano et Colonna jugalium (o jugalibus) Terrae Lercharia frigidorum schettum, et Donna Franciscam Sandoval, Melon, et de Noto filiam quondam Don Francisci, et Donna Maria Magdalena Sandoval, et Melon, viventis, olim jugalium hoc Terrae Ciminnae vidua relictama quondam Don Epiphanij de Noto in hac Matricis Ecclesia interrogavi, euromque mutuo consensu habito, per verba de presenti sollemniter matrimonio conjunxi, presentibua Testibua notis Sacerdos Don Joanne Guarneri, et Sacerdos Don Michaele Angelo Cirincione.”

 

Quindi avendo scoperto i nomi dei miei due avi Francesco e Maria Maddalena sono pervenuto ai certificati di morte dove possiamo leggere:

 

“Don Franciscus Sandoval filius quondam don francisci natione hispanus ex oppido dicto del Popo Provinciae Castella veteris annorum 75 sepolto nella chiesa dei minori conventuale di s. Francesco”

e:

“Die Decimo Nono Donna Maria Magdalena Sandoval et Milun uxor quondam Don Francisci annn. 73”

 

Con queste nuove informazioni, ed avendo trovato due suoi figli nati a Palermo nel 1721 e nel 1723 sono riuscito a risalire al certificato di matrimonio redatto in Barcellona il 26 Maggio 1713. Qui sotto potete leggere la trascrizione del certificato:

 

“Matrimoni celebrat entre les parts de Don Francisco de Sant Dobal, ajudant real, fill de Don Francisco de Sant Dobal i Doña Catharina Ximenes conjuges difunts d'una part i de Doña Maria Magdalena Melun viuda del Sgto Don Ignasi Tiebo filla de Don Francisco Melun, capità de cavalls i de Doña Teresa, conjuges difunts de passat altre habitants del contrahents en la sobredita parroquia, lo que faran encara que no sien amonestats perquè lo Sant Vicari Pare dispensa en lo ingrés i monicions In Barcelona als 26 de maig de 1713 Rifòs, Vicari General i officiant”

 

Da quest'ultimo ho ricavato i nomi dei genitori di Francesco e Maria Maddalena Milun, qui ho deciso di fermarmi e in attesa di rintracciare l'esatto ramo dei De Sandoval da dove provieniamo ho deciso di analizzare più attentamente la storia del mio avo Don Francisco De Sandoval.

 

Al tempo in cui ebbe i due figli Palermitani era un Tenente Colonnello del reggimento Lusitana, esattamente lo stesso del suocero, il periodo interessato risulta quello di Filippo V di Spagna, successivamente non é stato molto difficile trovarne riscontri certi nei vari libri concernente la guerra di successione spagnola.

Le prime traccie lo vedono Capitano dell'Esercito nel 1704 intento a difendere la conquista di Gibilterra da parte della quadruplice alleanza che supportava Carlo III (poi diventato Carlo VI) di Asburgo, al tempo apparteneva al Reggimento di fanteria Ahumuda. Nella guerra di successione Spagnola quindi era schierato con la grande alleanza contro i Borboni, QUESTO spiega il perché lo troviamo nella lista degli esiliati del 1714.

 

Dagli Annali della Catalogna:

 

“Falesia la noce por causa de la Lluvia para lograr su intento, siendo al amanecer descubiertos de la Plaça, que prompramente se puso en arma, y solicito el Principe jorge Lansgrave de Hassia la defensa que fue muy gloriosa; pues quedandose en la Plaça dando las devidas providencias corriendo a los Baluartes , y Brechas por li los Enemigos intentavan el avanze , mandò que su hermano el Principe Henrique subiesse a la montaña con dos Compañias de lngleses; y con la unica de Españoles , cuyo Capitan era Don Francisco de Sandoval , siguiendo los Catalanes voluntaríos que se hallavan en la Plaça, y la Compañia de Migueletes Catalanes con su Capitan Iayme Burguy; y siendo mayor el numero de los Enemigos, pues los nuestros no liegavau a trescientos , y mas ventajoso el puesto que ocupavan apenas liegaron al liano de los Corrales en la mitad de la montaña , se resolvieron a embestirlés.” pag 526.

 

Anche nella wikipedia troviamo lo stesso fatto riportato con qualche discordanza:

 

“Hesse had anticipated some kind of attack from the rear and had kept a mobile force in reserve to guard against such an eventuality. It was formed by an English company, and two Spanish companies: a regular company under captain Francisco de Sandoval and a Catalan company of miquelets under Jaume Burguy, numbering 300 men, all of them led by Hesse's brother Heinrich. This reserve immediately responded and engaged the Spanish Bourbons at Middle Hill. Although the Bourbons had the advantage of height, they were effectively trapped against the precipice of the Rock and only had three rounds of ammunition each, as a result of travelling light; they had not come prepared for a pitched battle. The Spanish Habsburg force led by Captain Burguy, made up of miquelets and regulars, marched ahead and dislodged the Spanish Bourbon grenadiers from the top of the hill.At the same time, Sandoval, with his remaining regulars and miquelets, charged upon the bulk of the assaulting force from one flank, while Heinrich von Hesse attacked from the other side. Around a hundred of the Bourbon force, including their colonel, were captured. Hundreds more were killed, either by defending fire or by falling off the Rock while attempting to flee. Only a few, including Simón Susarte, made it back to the Bourbon lines. The English subsequently ensured that there would be no repeat of this episode by blasting away the path used by the Spanish.”

 

Sempre negli annali della Catalogna a pag 529 lo troviamo nella lista di alcuni dei partecipanti alla conquista di Gibilterra:

 

“(B) Relacion de la Compania de Españoles en Gibraltar año 1704 y de los Catalanes voluntarias, con la nota de los que quedaron heridos, muertos, ò prisioneros en el discurso del assedio. El Cãpitan Don Francisco de Sandoval, natural de Molina, el Padre Francisco Felix Rovira Agustino, natural de Barcelona, el Alferez Don Pedro del Castillo, natural de Malaga, el Sargento Ignacio Trebo Catalan.” (Primo marito di Maria Magdalena de Melun moglie di Francisco de Sandoval).

 

In questa pagina ed in molte altre pagine si trovano i due padrini che battezzarono i figli a Palermo:

 

Don Francisco Armenter:

 

“18 settembre 1723, seconda indizione. Il reverendo Don Giovanni Terasana, coadiutore sacramentale, ha battezzato una bambina nata giorno 11 dall'Illustre Don Francesco de Sandoval, Tenente Colonnello del Reggimento dei Lusini, e dalla moglie Donna Maria Maddalena de Milon e Sandoval, a cui venne imposto il nome di Anna Agostina Maria Francesca Lorenza Giovanna. I padrini furono l'Illustre Don Francesco Armenter e Donna Agostina de Torres”

 

Marchese Don Martin Valera.

 

“2 Dicembre 1721, quindicesima indizione. Il Reverendo Dottore in Teologia Don Vincenzo Lo Iacono ha battezzato un bambino nato il giorno 28 novembre dai coniugi Don Francesco e Donna Maria Sandoval, a cui venne imposto il nome di Francesco Michele Giuseppe Antonio Paolo. I padrini furono il Marchese Don Martino Valera e Donna Mariana Del Castillo”

 

Certamente questo mostra la stretta relazione del Sandoval con gli Austriacisti.

 

Sempre negli annali della Catalogna a pag 548 lo troviamo protagonista nella conquista di Fraga del 1706.

 

“Don Francisco de Sandoval del Regimento de Ahumada, assistido de Don Antonio, y Don Manuel Desvalls , y de Francisco Barnoya con ducientos hombres de su Regimiento , trecientos vezinos de Lerida, siguiendo despues alguno mas, algunos Fusileros, y cavallos, saliò de Lerida para dominar dicha Villa, donde tenia el Enemigo cerca de dos mil hombres, con muchas provisiones de Guerra , y boca. Entrò Sandoval con Don Antonio Desvalls en la Villa con cinquenta hombres , y con la circustancia de la niebla, que impedía ã los Enemigos el ver à nuestros Paysanos, les pusieron en grande confusion, iuzgando mayor el numero: En esta ocasion Don Antonio fuè herido, atropellado de los Enemigos , y hecho Prisionero; pero continuando la Empresa su hermano Don Manuel, y Barnoya con la gente , instaron los Enemigas la Capitulacion, que se les concediò, quedando libre Don Antonio ; y hechos los Canges,para al Rey los Cavallos del Regimiento de Don Miguel Pons de Mendoza , y ciento y doze Prisioneros , conducidos a Barcelona , y las provisiones á Lerida.”

 

Viene inoltre menzionato in altri tomi concernenti la successione Spagnola:

Nel 1709 nella relazione dei militari che furono al servizio del Duca di Anjou per difendere la giustizia del nostro Re Carlo III.

“oy Teniente Coronel D.Francisco Sandoval” pag 622

 

Lista de oficiales de Guerra españoles que se hallan sin ocuparen los dominios de Su Magestad Cesárea y Cathólica: (da EXILI AUSTRIACISTA II - Esiliati del 1714)

“Don Francisco Sandoval, ayudante real” pag. 34

 

Dal Castellvi “Narrazione Históricas Volume I”:

p. 445: “El rey Carlos confirió amplia autoridad al príncipe Jorge de Darmstadt con el título de vicario general de la Corona de Aragón, cuyo ostentoso carácter no había otro obtenido desde el tiempo de don Juan de Austria. Concedió el rey Carlos al príncipe Jorge para su guardia una compañía de españoles y por capitán a don Francisco Sandoval, que después se aumentó en Gibraltar. La mayor parte de ellos eran de la Corona de Argón con diferentes grados y después, a los que se hallaron en el sitio de Gibraltar, concedió el rey Carlos 12 pesos al año de sobresueldo.” [Abril de 1704. Preparativos de la flota aliada en Lisboa para el primer ataque a Barcelona y posterior toma de Gibraltar.]

 

p. 586: “El capitán don Francisco Sandoval con 100 hombres de Ahumada, sin ser sentido, se introdujo entre las ruinas del castillo, rindió y degolló [a] la guarnición antes del amanecer, sin darles tiempo a tomar las armas.” [Ataque sobre Fraga. Madrugada del 1 de noviembre de 1705.]

 

pp. 616-617: “Nombres de los regimientos de desembarco que había sobre la gran flota. Españoles: el regimiento que había levantado el almirante de Portugal tenía 470 hombres, coronel, don Juan de Ahumada; una compañía suelta de infantería que se embarcó en Gibraltar, cuyo capitán era don Francisco Sandoval; una compañía scelta de fusileros, los más catalanes, cuyo capitán era Pedro Goy. Ingleses: regimiento de la reina Charlemont, del coronel Rhé, del coronel Soutevel, del coronel Allen, del Coronel Hamilton, del brigadier Wills, del vizconde Shannon, de Breton, de Ricart Gorgés, el regimiento de Cunningham, dragones. Holandeses: el regimiento de Sataman, de Frisen y de Palm.” [Flota de 1704]

 

Appurato la sua appartenenza allo schieramento Asburgico, contro Filippo V, ora si può capire meglio i suoi spostamenti, dopo la caduta di Barcellona del 11 Settembre 1714 (ricordiamo che si sposo' solo un anno prima nella stessa città), non conosciamo se avesse già lasciato la città nel momento della caduta (cosa possibile), ma sappiamo sicuramente che con molte centinaia di altri esiliati soggiorno' successivamente nel nord Italia prima di trasferirsi in Sicilia dopo la perdita della stessa da parte di Filippo V nel 1720.

In attesa del prossimo articolo sulla vita del mio avo spero proprio di non avervi troppo annoiato.

Don Mario Gregorio



ISIS Jihad Insurgents take Mosul. Hogue Prediction of New Civil War in Iraq and Libya for 2014 fulfilled. What is next?

  Click on the cover and discover many more political, social, economic and climate axis shifting events to come as 2014 looks more like 1914 when history’s water broke. DATELINE 13 June 2014 ISIS Jihadists Take Mosul
The Second Iraqi Civil War
Goes Full-scale as Predicted for 2014 Today is Friday the 13th and it’s the horror movie Friday the Thirteenth in Iraq. Jason Voorhees wears the black hood of ISIS (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant—in other words “Greater Syria”) rather than his signature hockey goalie mask. In a sudden and breathtaking move, this mobile insurgent jihadist army raced across the Iraqi border and rapidly conquered Mosul, Iraqi’s second largest city this week on Wednesday. Over 30,000 Iraqi soldiers fled, abandoning armored vehicles and vast armament stockpiles to the insurgents. One can see government army uniforms discarded like trash on the road to Baghdad. Quickly following their ignominious retreat was a multitude of refugees choking the roads to the Iraqi capital and especially north to the frontiers of Iraqi Kurdistan in an estimated horde of 500,000 civilians. They are fleeing the terror of this extreme movement of Wahhabist militants that even leaders of al-Qaeda reject for their ruthlessness and draconian application of holy Sharia Islamic law on those they occupy.   The thousands of cars snarling the desert, trying to put many miles between themselves and the columns of black smoke rising over Mosul denote the spread of fearful rumors that ISIS holy warriors are committing mass executions and beheadings back there. They may have taken thousands of hostages, including a confirmed report that the Turkish Consulate in Mosul was stormed and all the Turkish nationals on staff were taken away. Ankara declares it will intervene militarily if Turkish hostages are harmed.   Iraqi Army uniforms cast off. Vehicles abandoned. Tikrit also feel on Wednesday, the tribal home turf of Sunni strongman Saddam Hussein. Videos on RT display three thousand soldiers of the Iraqi Army, hands over their heads, led away as prisoners in a long column walking down a desert road in civilian clothes. Were they less lucky deserters who shed their guns and armored personnel carriers and uniforms rather than fight? One thing is certain, huge stockpiles of US made weapons, munitions dumps and a fleets of hundreds of armored Humvees, artillery and tons of military equipment is now slung over the shoulders of jihadists who are more mobile, armored and empowered than ever before.
The belly blow reports kept coming in of a spreading disaster in Iraq. Losing Mosul, a city of two million citizens, cuts off the main hub for the transport of goods and Iraqi oil. ISIS forces are also now controlling Iraq’s largest oil refineries. By Thursday’s close it was clear that ISIS insurgents had occupied the rest of the northern province of Nineveh and most of Anbar Province where it already holds parts of Fallujah alongside nationalist Sunni militias whom it sometimes battles. By Thursday, reports of the number of refugees and the displaced shot up to an estimated two million. In an unprecedented move, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki requested military assistance from the United States. Talk of sending in the US Air Force’s robot planes or actually jet bomber attacks is rife in Washington. President Obama says he’s leaving all options open. Comments made on Friday the 13th indicate bad luck for Maliki if he thought one US Army boot would touch Iraqi ground. US support will be “appropriate” but “limited”. I guess only Jason’s lumberjack saw is coming, perhaps.
Obama’s speech at war’s end made after the withdrawal of the last US solider in Iraq at the end of December 2011 sounds disturbingly glib. How similar the brazen wishful thinking it betrayers, echoing his predecessor George Bush’s notorious “mission accomplished” speech made at the war’s beginning.
“Now, Iraq is not a perfect place,” Obama said. “It has many challenges ahead. But we’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people. We’re building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home. This is an extraordinary achievement, nearly nine years in the making.”
(Things that make you go, hmmm…) http://www.hogueprophecy.com/2014/06/isis-jihad-insurgents-take-mosul-hogue-prediction-of-new-civil-war-in-iraq-and-libya-for-2014-fulfilled-what-is-next/

Hogue on Coast to Coast Am, the Grand Cross Crisis Coming, Ukraine, Crimea, Nostradamus and New Cold War Predictions, plus, Malaysian Airliner Flight 370, the Syrian Civil War, Year Three

DATELINE 23 March 2014: John Hogue on Coast to Coast AM
26 March 2014 at 10pm Pacific
Sounds a Prophetic Alarm! Before the last Cold War ended, I began warning my readers about a “Second” Cold War. The second could very rapidly end in a full-scale nuclear war between Russia and America. These are two of several prophecies of Nostradamus, who alerted me over 450 years ago and for 27 years and counting, I have been trying to warn you in time about these dangers in TV and radio interviews and in books like Nostradamus and the Antichrist.  The four main candidates for Nostradamus’ Third and Final Antichrist. Click on the picture and read more. The following extract is from my first published book. On page 146 of Nostradamus and the Millennium: *** 2 Q89
One day the great powers will become friends,
Their great power will be seen to increase.
The new land (America) will be at the height of its power.
To the man of blood (the anti-christ) the number is reported. 5 Q78
The two will not remain allied for long,
Within thirteen years they surrender to barbare and Iranian leaders.
There will be such a loss on both sides,
That one will bless Petrus Romanus (the end of millennium Pope.) There are already indications that both the US and USSR see a future when alliance between their countries would be beneficial in the light of Middle Eastern disturbances. According to Nostradamus this may happen close to the end of this decade and the way matters are progressing, the new and seemingly intelligent leader of the Soviets, Mikhail Gorbachev, may lead the way to this alliance—something certainly that could not have been predicted by this generation of Communist haters in the United States, let along by a man over four centuries before. But the alliance does not last long.  *** I wrote that in 1986 when few could even imagine an end of the Cold War, which had dragged on since 1948, would come soon to an end. Four years later, the war officially ended in 1989. Gorbachev would bring the Soviet Union out of the arms race. Note the indexing of the prophecy, (Century) 2 (Quatrain) 89. In the “second” month of (19)89, Gorbachev pulled Soviet forces out of Afghanistan. Later that same year, in December, he and US president George H. W. Bush officially declared the Cold War over. The US “was” the sole superpower, then. America “was” at the height of its power! The man of blood is Gorbachev, who had a bloody birthmark on his forehead. The numbers reported are the nuclear missiles both the US and USSR began dismantling. An attempt of friendship between America and the new Russian Federation that arose out of the ruin of the Soviet Union, but it has so far failed and a new Cold War is upon us, at the exact time that the final pope of St. Malachy’s prophecies, Petrus Romanus, is sitting in Rome, last of the line foreseen before Armageddon!  Click on the cover to read more. Barbare is a code name for either the Barbary Coast (either a direct allusion to modern Libya, or “Barbary pirates”, a 16th-century metaphor for Islamic terrorists Nostradamus used to describe future Islamist terrorists). Barbare can also be a double entendre, an anagram for the French d’Arabe (from the Arab). This might indicate the Syrian Civil war spreading sectarian violence across the Middle East. The Syrian conflict is drawing in Russia and America in a Sunni (Arab and Saudi Arabian) conflict with minority Shia Muslims who dominate Iran and the Syrian regime. Russia is allied to Syria and Iran. On the other side American leaders under the growing influence of neoconservative thinking—a philosophy that’s been trying to restart the Cold War for 20 years—uses its proxies, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Sunni Arab Gulf States to contain and destroy the Iranian regime and kick Russia out of the Middle East entirely. The Saudis would like to pipe their oil directly to Europe. Syrian-Iranian forces are in the way. This too was foreseen with surprising clarity by Nostradamus and the war is dated for 2015-2016! (Click on Nostradamus Iranian predictions.) When the producers at Coast to Coast AM asked me to write a few sentences about what my interview was about, I noticed that what was posted at the page linked above was quite understandably cut down in size and toned down. I completely respect that. The alarm I am ringing is very scary and the harsh tocsin of my original sentences is more appropriately “rung” loud as the first entry of this article stream. This is what I originally wrote and what I will be speaking about with George Noory on Wednesday night:  Hogue on Coast to Coast AM, 26 March 2014. Click on the logo and learn more. Why is John Hogue back so soon? Because he’s sounding a rare prophecy alarm about Ukraine. The prophecies of Nostradamus, Stormberger, Edgar Cayce and many other great seers describe the current Ukraine crisis possibly launching a “second” Cold War, quickly becoming a thermonuclear war, that no one anticipated, happening perhaps as soon as three years and seven months from now! Again, I want to thank the Coast to Coast AM staff for allowing me two hours to discourse on this extremely important and dangerous turn of destiny, that, if not awakening an alarmed awareness, could lead to the end of civilization in only a few year’s time. You can read me expand on this subject and give links to the source prophecies by scrolling down to Hogue on Coast to Coast AM Sounds the Prophetic Alarm. Look for the “devilish” atomic bomb blast.  The picture you won’t see the US or EU media show. Ukrainian nationalists proudly displaying pictures of the “George Washington” of Ukrainian National Socialists, Stephan Bandera. This Ukrainian fascist leader fought side-by-side with SS forces of Adolf Hitler during World War II. http://www.hogueprophecy.com/2014/03/hogue-on-coast-to-coast-am-the-grand-cross-crisis-coming-ukraine-crimea-nostradamus-and-new-cold-war-predictions-plus-malaysian-airliner-flight-370-the-syrian-civil-war-year-three/

persecution of aramaic christians

 

Syrian Islamists Defecate in Church, Light Christian Man on Fire

By Raheem Kassam on Brietbart http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/02/10/VIDEO-Syrian-Islamists-defecate-in-Church-light-Christian-man-on-fire

A new documentary short by the Journeyman.TV company operating out of the United Kingdom shows evidence of the targeting of Christians in Syria, and apparent fighting back in the north of the country.

The video sheds light on recent incidents in the war-torn country, which include Islamists defecating in a Church, tearing Bibles to shreds, and pouring gasoline over a Christian man and lighting him on fire.

The video (below) is just eight minutes long, but goes some way to explaining how "Christians, who make up one tenth of the population, are being driven out." The documentary claims that "in the Northeast, hand-in-hand with the Kurds, one group [is] beating back the Islamists' advance."

The news comes on the heels of recent news that over 450,000 Christians have been displaced since the start of the country's civil war in 2011.

Mahjoub Abdulahad, an elderly Christian, said, "The extremists said the Christians and the Kurds were infidels and had to be killed!"

Abdulahad explained how he was trying to repair a church damaged by extremists: "The windows were broken, too. They made a mess of the church, even defecated on the floor... There were books on the floor, they ripped them apart, even the Bible."

However, he also explained how a few towns are developing Christian militias to fight back against the Islamist terror.

"We have checkpoints around the town to protect it from strangers," he said.

When asked about leaving the country, Abdulahad replied, "No, we must stay. We must stay and defend our land and, God willing, this crisis will be resolved."

Early on in the video, Mohammed Jelloud, a local Arab man, told the filmmakers, "They said they'd chop our heads off if we stayed. They said we were supporting the regime and they burnt one of my cousins. They poured gasoline over him. But he is alive, and with the help of the Kurds we managed to get him to a hospital".

Fadi, a young Christian, echoed Jelloud's statements, telling the film crew, "I have came to work with [the Kurds] because they are working to secure, to keep my way and my style of life, not to let people from outside like Jabhat al Nusra [jihadis] to come and force me to change my style of life, force me to change the way I live."

"Don't wear pants, don't do this, don't do that, be a Muslim. I just wanna be like I was before and better, and have freedom."

The film ends on a pessimistic note, explaining that the situation is not likely to improve at any point soon. "The Syrian civil war", the narrator claims, "may be just another step in [Christianity's] slow decline in the Middle East."

Is Religion the Cause of Most Wars?

Posted: 04/10/2012 3:52 pm by Rabbi Alan Lurie

" In their recently published book, "Encyclopedia of Wars," authors Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod document the history of recorded warfare, and from their list of 1763 wars only 123 have been classified to involve a religious cause, accounting for less than 7 percent of all wars and less than 2 percent of all people killed in warfare. "

There are many common misconceptions about religion that are often taken as unquestioned facts, such as the idea that religious people are inherently anti-science, that a literal reading of holy texts is the "true" religious stance, that faith is incompatible with reason, and that all religions claim to posses sole and absolute truth.

While all these ideas are true for a minority of the population, they do not describe normative religious beliefs and practices for the majority of believers. It is understandable that these misconceptions persist, though, because they come from the loudest voices on the extremes, and like other polarizing positions in politics and culture are simplistic ideas that promote easy "us vs. them" thinking. But there is one common misconception about religion that is voiced often and consistently as an obvious truth -- often by educated, thoughtful people --that is just not factually true: The idea that religion has been the cause of most wars.

In his hilarious analysis of The 10 Commandments, George Carlin said to loud applause, "More people have been killed in the name of God than for any other reason," and many take this idea as an historical fact. When I hear someone state that religion has caused most wars, though, I will often and ask the person to name these wars. The response is typically, "Come on! The Crusades, The Inquisition, Northern Ireland, the Middle East, 9/11. Need I name more?"

Well, yes, we do need to name more, because while clearly there were wars that had religion as the prime cause, an objective look at history reveals that those killed in the name of religion have, in fact, been a tiny fraction in the bloody history of human conflict. In their recently published book, "Encyclopedia of Wars," authors Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod document the history of recorded warfare, and from their list of 1763 wars only 123 have been classified to involve a religious cause, accounting for less than 7 percent of all wars and less than 2 percent of all people killed in warfare. While, for example, it is estimated that approximately one to three million people were tragically killed in the Crusades, and perhaps 3,000 in the Inquisition, nearly 35 million soldiers and civilians died in the senseless, and secular, slaughter of World War 1 alone.

History simply does not support the hypothesis that religion is the major cause of conflict. The wars of the ancient world were rarely, if ever, based on religion. These wars were for territorial conquest, to control borders, secure trade routes, or respond to an internal challenge to political authority. In fact, the ancient conquerors, whether Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, or Roman, openly welcomed the religious beliefs of those they conquered, and often added the new gods to their own pantheon.

Medieval and Renaissance wars were also typically about control and wealth as city-states vied for power, often with the support, but rarely instigation, of the Church. And the Mongol Asian rampage, which is thought to have killed nearly 30 million people, had no religious component whatsoever.

Most modern wars, including the Napoleonic Campaign, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the American Civil War, World War I, the Russia Revolution, World War II, and the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, were not religious in nature or cause. While religious groups have been specifically targeted (most notably in World War II), to claim that religion was the cause is to blame the victim and to misunderstand the perpetrators' motives, which were nationalistic and ethnic, not religious.

Similarly, the vast numbers of genocides (those killed in ethic cleanses, purges, etc. that are not connected to a declared war) are not based on religion. It's estimated that over 160 million civilians were killed in genocides in the 20th century alone, with nearly 100 million killed by the Communist states of USSR and China. While some claim that Communism itself is a "state religion" -- because it has an absolute dictator whose word is law and a "holy book" of unchallenged rules -- such a claim simply equates "religion" with the human desire for power, conformance, and control, making any distinctions with other human institutions meaningless.

Of course the Hebrew Bible chronicles many wars -- most notably Moses' conflicts in the desert and Joshua's conquest of the nations of Canaan -- and we may see these as examples of religiously sanctioned violence. Here, though, we must recognize that archeological evidence points to the conclusion that these conquests never occurred, or at least not as dramatically as described in the Bible. As one who reads the Bible for spiritual truths, not historical facts, I am, of course, quite happy that no such slaughters occurred. The ancient Rabbis also understood these stories not as celebrated victories, but as warnings about the dangers of warfare.

Judaism has always taught that war may only be considered when there is a clear threat, and only after every other option has been exhausted. Avoiding war must be the goal. Deuteronomy states, "When you approach a city to do battle with it you should call to it in peace." In other words, even when threatened, seeking peace must be the first course of action. The ancient Rabbis took this teaching so far as to flatly state, "In God's eyes the man stands high who makes peace between men. But he stands highest who establishes peace among the nations."

To be clear, this is not to say that religion is not a cause of conflict. Obviously it is, has been, and no doubt will continue to be. Clearly there are those who have committed horrendous acts based on religious zeal, and we must be alert to these threats and respond forcefully. But in a world with billions of people who are self-defined as religious, those who believe that violence is the will of God and that the murder of innocents is a holy act are a small, insane minority.

Peace is the highest religious aspiration for which we must work. As he envisioned a future where the world is perfected by the conscious acts of human beings, the ancient Hebrew prophet Isaiah wrote, "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." While religions have often fallen well short of this utopian vision, we must recognize that greed, unbalanced power, and causeless hatred - not religion - are the causes of most wars, and eliminating these should be our focus.

James the Just and the Ebionites

Early Jewish Christians placed James, the brother of Jesus, in a place of high honor. Paul describes James as one of the “pillars” of the church and went to report to him when he arrived in Jerusalem (Galatians 2: 9-10, Acts 21:18) . According to ancient sources, including the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, Jesus placed James in a position of authority, and stated that he was to lead the church after the ascension (Thomas 12). In the New Testament, James is depicting as making decisions for the whole church, such as his decision to admit Gentiles into the church at the Counsel of Jerusalem (Acts 15). We see in the New Testament that James, not Peter, was the “head” of the church.

Stories of the “Acts” of James were preserved in ancient sources. Josephus wrote of the martyrdom of James. An early Jewish Christian named Hegissipus also wrote a more expanded account of the martyrdom of James. James was stoned to death by the High Priest. Eusebius preserved Hegissipus’s account in his “Antiquity of the Jews.” Hegisipus describes James in the following manner, “After the apostles, James the brother of the Lord surnamed the Just was made head of the Church at Jerusalem. Many indeed are called James. This one was holy from his mother's womb. He drank neither wine nor strong drink, ate no flesh, never shaved or anointed himself with ointment or bathed. He alone had the privilege of entering the Holy of Holies, since indeed he did not use woolen vestments but linen and went alone into the temple and prayed in behalf of the people, insomuch that his knees were reputed to have acquired the hardness of camels' knees.

An early group of Jewish Christians were called the Ebionites. This name is derived from the Hebrew word for “the Poor.”

We have fragments of “Hebrew Gospels.” In one verse quoted by Jerome, the resurrected Jesus appears to James, his brother. This seems to be a more complete account of the appearance of the resurrected Jesus than we find in 1 Corinthians 15.And when the Lord had given the linen cloth to the servant of the priest, he went to James and appeared to him. For James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour in which he had drunk the cup of the Lord until he should see him risen from among them that sleep. And shortly thereafter the Lord said: Bring a table and bread! And immediately it added: he took the bread, blessed it and brake it and gave it to James the Just and said to him: My brother, eat thy bread, for the Son of man is risen from among them that sleep. (Jerome, Vir. ill. 2) Several fragments of Hebrew Gospels and other Jewish Gospels such as the Gospel of the Ebionites have survived.

The Ebionites were very diverse. It seems that they were vegetarian and rejected the temple sacrificial system. Some rejected Paul and the deity of Jesus. All kept the Sabbath although some did also worship on Sunday. The “Ascents of James” an Ebionite “Acts of the Apostles” (which is mostly a collection of abridged sermons attributed to the apostles) was been preserved in what is called “Clementine” literature.

It is important to consult the Church Fathers when exploring the “Jewish Roots of Christianity.”

The Problem with Camels in the Bible

However, most scholars believe that Camel were domesticated sometime around 3000-1500 BC. As beasts of burden and transport, camels occupy an important place alongside horses and donkeys. Two small members of the camel family, the llama and the alpaca of south America, are domesticated first - probably before 3000 BC. At that time both species appear to have been on the verge of extinction. Domestication by the American Indians saves them. Neither the llama nor the alpaca exists now in the wild. The larger of the two, the llama, is primarily a beast of burden, while the shaggy alpaca is valuable for its wool. Neither animal is strong enough to pull a plough or drag a cart - two important steps in the story of civilization which are denied to the early Americans. In the parched regions of north Africa and Asia two different species of camel become the most important beasts of burden - the single-humped Arabian camel (in north Africa, the Middle East, India) and the double-humped Bactrian camel (central Asia, Mongolia). Both are well adapted to desert conditions. They can derive water, when none is available elsewhere, from the fat stored in their humps. It is probable that they are first domesticated in Arabia some time after 1500 BC. By about 1000 BC caravans of camels are bringing precious goods up the west coast of Arabia, linking India with the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia.

The domestication of camels does have important consequences for the Bible. This problem has existed for some time-but has recently gotten media attention. (See Will camel discovery break the Bible's back? Opinion by Joel Baden, special to CNN and Camels Had No Business in Genesis By JOHN NOBLE WILFORDFEB. 10, 2014 in the New York Times.) Camels do not seem to have been known in Ancient Egypt or North Africa until after the dawn of Islam. This seems incredible, because desert Arabs did domesticate camels earlier. While there are pictures of exotic animals in ancient Egypt-no depictions of camels or references to camels have yet to be found (but I would not be surprised if such evidence eventually is discovered). The problem is the dating of Abraham. If camels were domesticated in the year 1500 BC, then camels were not used by people in the year 2000 BC, the time period to which Abraham is usually dated. However, what if Abraham lived 1500-1400 BC and the Exodus occurred around the year 1200, as many Bible scholars believe? Another issue is that we do not know exactly when camels were domesticated. The year 1500 is an educated guess, it may have been earlier. They may have been domesticated several decades, at least, perhaps even centuries before people started drawing them or leaving records of them. This would especially be true if the camels were domesticated by people who lived outside the cities of “civilization.” With These new discoveries these “experts” try to prove that camels were unknown in Israel until well after the rule of King David. This means what they were saying is that, yes, Abraham may have lived in 1500 when camels were domesticated-however, even as late as the time of King David, who died around 970 BC, there were no domesticated camels in Israel. (It is hard to precisely date anything in the Bible that is before the time of David, Saul and Samuel.) If you read the research by these new “experts” you will notice how much of it is mere speculation motivated by a desire to “disprove” the Bible. They found camel bones that were early but they say they don't think they were domesticated-but they don't know. They looked at the leg bones and said they thought that they weren’t used as a beast of burden. What if the camel bones they found were used for riding and not for carrying burdens? These so-called scholars had an agenda. We know that camels were domesticated much earlier than what they are saying-but their caveat is "in Israel." I think these so-called scholars set out with an agenda to try to "disprove" the Bible and make news. Another fact of the matter is that we don't know for sure exactly when Abraham lived. It may be later than many suppose-and remember-Joseph's brothers went to Egypt several times-on donkeys-not camels. I think it is very interesting that in this story it is stated that the patriarchs most often rode donkeys. New discoveries could soon refute these new proposals by these so-called archeologists who are trying to get in the news. Personally, to me Jesus is Lord and the eternal Word of God. I think the Patriarchs had a limited understanding of God. I feel very uncomfortable with the efforts of people to elevate Abraham over Jesus Christ in order to find common ground with Muslims and Jews. Abraham was the friend of God but Jesus is God Incarnate. Abraham did not die for our sins or rise again. Abraham wasn’t sinless the way Jesus is. Also, Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Muslim. (Jews will concede that Abraham was not Jewish, but Muslims do view Abraham as a Muslim. To Muslims, Jesus was a Muslim too, and is inferior to Muhammad-the so-called “seal” of the prophets. Of course, Abraham wasn’t a Christian either.) As I have stated, Abraham’s understanding of God was partial and limited. God chose to give a more fuller revelation of himself to Moses than he had the Patriarchs. And then, in Jesus the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. Jesus Himself said, “For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” (Matthew 13:17). The Book of Hebrews says, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by hisSon, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1-2). My faith is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. It isn’t built on camels bones! (as important as they may be).

There are two species of quadruped animal of the deserts of the world known as camel, both of which have implications for archaeology. The Bactrian (Camelus bactrianus) (two humps) resides in central Asia, while the dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) (one hump) is found in North Africa and the Near East. Camels were (and are) used for transportation, but also for their milk, dung, hair and blood, all of which were used for various purposes by nomadic pastoralists of the deserts. Dromedaries were probably domesticated in coastal settlements along the southern Arabian peninsula somewhere between 3000 and 2500 BC. The earliest reference to camels in Arabia is the Sihi mandible, a camelid bone direct dated to ca 7100-7200 cal BC, or about 8200 RCYBP. Sihi is a Neolithic coastal site in Yemen, and the bone is probably a wild dromedary. The earliest camels in Africa are from Qasr Ibrim, Nubia, 9th century BC. Evidence for the domestication of Bactrian camels has been found as early as 2600 BC at Shar-i Sokhta (also known as the Burnt City), Iran.

Sources

This article is part of the Guide to Animal Domestication.
Compagnoni, B. and M. Tosi, 1978. The camel: Its distribution and state of domestication in the Middle East during the third millennium B.C. in light of the finds from Shahr-i Sokhta. Pp. 119–128 in Approaches to Faunal Analysis in the Middle East, edited by R.H. Meadow and M.A. Zeder. Peabody Museum Bulletin no 2, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, New Haven, CT.
Grigson, C., J.A.J. Gowlett, and J. Zarins 1989 The Camel in Arabia: A Direct Radiocarbon Date, Calibrated to about 7000 BC. Journal of Archaeological Science16:355-362.

Zeder, M.A., E. Emshwiller, B.D. Smith, and D.G. Bradley 2006 Documenting domestication: the intersection of genetics and archaeology.

Read more: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=bor#ixzz2tUopAdZn
Trends in Genetics 22(3):139-155.

Syria's Christians face new threat -- "convert, submit to Islam or face sword"

By Lela GilbertPublished February 28, 2014 FoxNews.com

“Convert. Submit to Islam. Or face the sword.” In recent days, the besieged Christian community in Raqqa - a city in northern Syria – has faced those three stark alternatives. The terrorist group known as ISIS – the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – made their demands after seizing control of the region. They required the local Christians to renounce their faith and embrace Islam, assent to extreme subjugation, or face death. On February 27, ISIS published a statement that an agreement had been signed by 20 of Raqqa’s Christian leaders. Faced with losing their lives or denying their Christian faith, the community opted for dhimmi status – suppression as a “protected” minority – which requires them to submit to an array of demands, including the notorious jizya tax, which can be compared to Mafiosi protection money: purchasing their safety, but under strictly enforced regulations. Raqqa’s Christians are now subject to an extreme version of Islamic Shariah law, which among other things forbids them to repair their war-torn churches, worship or pray in public, ring church bells, or wear crosses or other symbols of their faith. Bearing arms is, of course, forbidden, as are alcoholic beverages. Even before the agreement was signed, on February 22 Lebanon’s Daily Star reported, “ISIS has imposed a strict form of Islam in Raqqa, enforcing the veil and banning cigarettes. They have doled out harsh punishments under Shariah courts for religious crimes, including beatings and executions. In Al-Bab, Aleppo, pictures showing ISIS fighters burning tons of cigarettes were recently published.” The Christians of Raqqa chose “to sign the dhimma treaty over war,” the ISIS statement explained, and in return received a commitment by local ISIS commander Ibrahim Al-Badri – also known as Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi – that they would not be subjected to physical harm or religious targeting once the treaty was approved. ISIS made the case for signing the treaty clear: "If they reject, they are subject to being legitimate targets, and nothing will remain between them and ISIS other than the sword." This subjection of Christians and Jews to dhimmitudehas a long history in the Middle East and throughout the greater Muslim world. Although it officially ended after the demise of the Ottoman Empire, its humiliating and unequivocal demands have never been erased from the behavior patterns of communities that suffered under it. And in various ways it is still enforced de facto in some modern Muslim states. But in today’s Syria, where warlike militias compete to wield power, enhance prestige and impose piety, the command to convert or die is a familiar threat. And although dhimmi status may save lives temporarily, it is null and void if protection money isn’t paid or if the local authorities are somehow offended. And although Syria’s Christians face exceptional dangers, they aren’t alone in their misery. In recent days, other Christians have also been violently attacked in the Middle East.

On February 16, three Korean pilgrims and an Egyptian Christian bus driver were killed, and more than a dozen injured in a suicide bombing as they drove across the Sinai Peninsula. Korea’s New Straits Timesreported, “The bus was carrying 31 parishioners from Jincheon Jungang Presbyterian Church, which is south of Seoul, and was attempting to travel from Egypt into Israel…the church had long saved money to commemorate the 60th anniversary of its founding with a trip to Biblical sites.” Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, an organization affiliated with al-Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for the attack. In Libya, on February 24, terrorists went door to door in a Benghazi apartment building, asking residents whether they were Muslim or Christian. Seven Egyptian Coptic Christians were seized, taken to a beach and summarily executed – each one shot in the head. An eighth Christian escaped and reported the crime. The outraged Coptic Church in Egypt has demanded further information, and the arrest of the terrorists.
In Syria and in Egypt, in Libya and beyond, Islamist attacks on Christians happen every day: rapes and kidnappings, maiming and murders, houses burned down; churches blown up. Recently in Nigeria, Christians have been massacred by the hundreds.
It’s so pervasive and so constant that our minds struggle to believe it.
Can you imagine a gang of hateful, heavily armed terrorists showing up at your door? Your terrified family is with you, and maybe a few friends. An angry spokesman orders all of you to choose – at gunpoint, then and there – to convert to Islam, surrender, or die.
Believe it or not, it’s an ever-increasing scenario.
In fact, in some form or other, it’s probably going on somewhere right now.
Lela Gilbert is author of "Saturday People, Sunday People: Israel through the Eyes of a Christian Sojourner" and co-author, with Nina Shea and Paul Marshall, of "Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians." She is an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute and lives in Jerusalem. For more, visit her website: www.lelagilbert.com. Follow her on Twitter@lelagilbert.

http://aramaicherald.blogspot.com/2014/03/persecution-of-aramaic-christians.html

The World on the Turtle’s Back

 

An Iroquois myth that I have chosen to embellish!

In the beginning there was no world, no land, no creatures of the kind that are around us now, and there were no men. But there was a great ocean which occupied space as far as anyone could see. Above the ocean was a great void of air. And in the air there lived birds of the sea: in the ocean lived the fish and the creatures of the deep. Far above this unpeopled world, there was a Sky World. Here lived gods who were like people- like Iroquois.

In the Sky World there was a man who had a wife, and the wife was expecting a child.  The woman became hungry for all kinds of strange delicacies, as women do when they are with child.  She kept her husband busy almost to distraction finding delicious things for her to eat.  In the middle of the Sky World there grew a Great Tree which was not like any of the trees that we know.  It was tremendous; it had grown there forever. It had enormous roots that spread out from the floor of the Sky World. And on its branches there were many different kinds of leaves and different kinds of fruits and flowers. The tree was not supposed to be marked or mutilated by any beings who dwelt in the Sky World. It was a sacred tree that stood at the center of the universe.

The woman decided that she wanted some bark from one of the roots of the Great Tree- perhaps as food or as a medicine, we don’t know. She told her husband this. He did not like the idea. He knew it was wrong. But she insisted, and he gave in. So he dug a hole among roots of this great sky tree, and he bared some of its roots. But the floor of the Sky World wasn’t very thick, and he broke a hole though it. He was terrified, for he had never expected to find empty space underneath the world.

by Marcia Baldwin

But his wife was filled with curiosity. He wouldn’t get any of the roots for her, so she set out to do it herself. She bent over and she looked down, and she saw the ocean far below. She leaned down and struck her head though the hole and looked all around. No one knows just what happened next. Some say she slipped. Some say that her husband, fed up with all the demands she had made on him, pushed her.

So she fell through the hole. As she fell, she frantically grabbed at its edges, but her hands slipped. However, between her fingers there clung bits of things that were growing on the floor of the Sky World and bits of the root tips of the Great Tree. And so she began to fall toward the great ocean far below.

The birds of the sea saw the woman falling, and they immediately consulted with each other as to what they could do to help her. Flying wingtip to wingtip, they made a great feathery raft in the sky to support her, and thus they broke her fall. But of course it was not possible for them to carry the woman very long. Some of the other birds of the sky flew down to the surface of the ocean and called up to the ocean creatures to see what they could do to help. The great sea turtle agreed to receive her on his back. The birds placed her gently on the shell of the turtle, and now the turtle floated about on the huge ocean with the woman safely on his back.

The beings in the Sky World paid no attention to this. They knew what was happening, but they chose to ignore it.

When the woman recovered from her shock and terror, she looked around her. All that she could see were the birds and the sea creatures and the sky and the ocean.

And the woman said to herself that she would die. But the creatures of the sea came to her and said they would try to help her and asked her what they could do. She told them that if they could find some soil, she could plant the roots stuck between her fingers, and from them plants would grow. The sea animals said perhaps there was dirt at the bottom of the ocean, but no one had ever been down there so they could not be sure.

If there was dirt at the bottom of the ocean, it was far, far below the surface in the cold deeps. But the animals said they would try to get some. One by one the diving bird and animals tried and failed. They went to their limits of endurance, but they could not get to the bottom of the ocean. Finally, the muskrat said he would try. He dived and disappeared. all the creatures waited, holding their breath, but he did not return. After a long time, his little body floated to the surface of the ocean, a tiny crumb of earth clutched in his paw. He seemed to be dead. They pulled him up on the turtle’s back and they sang and prayed over him and breathed air into his mouth, and finally, he stirred. Thus it was the muskrat, Earth-Diver, who brought from the bottom of the ocean the soil from which the earth was to grow.

The woman took the tiny clod of dirt and laced it in the middle of the great sea turtle’s back. Then the woman began to walk in a circle around it, moving in the direction that the sun goes. The earth began to grow. When the earth was big enough, she planted roots she had clutched between her fingers when she fell from the Sky World. Thus the plants grew on the earth.

To keep the earth growing, the woman walked as the sun goes, moving in the direction that the people still move in dance rituals. She gathered roots and plants to eat and built herself a little hut. After a while, the woman’s time came, and she was delivered a daughter. The woman and her daughter kept walking in a circle around the earth, so that the earth and plants would continue to grow. They lived on the plants and roots they gathered. The girl grew up with her mother, forever cut off from the Sky World above, knowing only the birds and the creatures of the sea, seeing no other beings like herself. One day, when the girl had grown to womanhood, a man appeared. No one knows for sure who this man was. He had something to do with the gods above. Perhaps he was the West Wind. As the girl looked at him, she was filled with terror, and amazement, and warmth, and she fainted dead away. As she lay on the ground, the man reached into his quiver, and he took out two arrows, one sharp and one blunt, and he laid them across the body of the girl, and quietly went away.

When the girl awoke from her faint, she and her mother continued to walk around the earth. After a while, they knew that the girl was to bear a child. They did not know it, but she was to bear twins.

Within the girl’s body, the twins began to argue and quarrel with one another. There could be no peace between them. As the time approached for them to be born, the twins fougt about their birth. The right-handed twin wanted to be born in the normal way, as all children are born. But the left-handed twin said no. He said he saw light in another direction, and said he would be born that way. The right-handed twin beseeched him not to, saying that he would kill their dear mother. But the left-handed twin was stubborn. He went in the direction where he saw the light. But he could not be born through his mother’s mouth or her nose. He was born through her armpit, and killed her. And meanwhile, the right-handed twin was born in the normal way, as all children are born.

The twins met in the world outside, and the right-handed twin accused his brother of murdering their mother. But the grandmother told them to stop their quarrelling. They buried their mother. And from her grave grew the plants which the people still use. From her head grew the corn, the beans, and the squash “our supporters, the three sisters”. And from her heart grew the tobacco, which the people still use in ceremonies and by whose upward floating smoke they send thanks. The women call her “our mother”, and they dance and sing in the rituals so that the corn, the beans, the squash may grow to feed the people.

But the conflict of the twins did not end at the grave of their mother. And, strangely enough, the grandmother favored the left-handed twin.

The right-handed twin was angry, and he grew more angry as he thought how his brother had killed their mother. The right-handed twin was the one who did everything just as he should. He said what he meant, and he meant what he said. He always told the truth, and he always tried to accomplish what seemed to be right and reasonable. The left-handed twin never said what he meant or meant what he said. He always lied, and he always did everything backward. You could never tell what he was trying to do because he always made it look as if he were doing the opposite. He was the devious one.

These two brothers, as they grew up, represented two ways of the world which are in all the people. The Indians did not call these right and wrong. They called them the straight mind and the crooked mind, the upright man and the devious man, the right and the left.

The twins had creative powers. They took clay and modeled it into animals, and they gave these animals life. And in this they contended one another. The right-handed twin made the deer and the left-handed twin made the mountain lion which kills the deer. But the right-handed twin knew there were more deer than mountian lions. And he made more animals. He made the ground squirrel. The left-handed twin saw that the mountain lion could not get to the ground squirrel, who digs a hole so he made the weasel. And although the weasel can go straight into the ground squirrel’s hole and kill him, there are lots of ground squirrels and not so many weasels. Next the right-handed twin decided he would make an animal that the weasel could kill, so he made the porcupine. But the left-handed twin made the bear, who flips the porcupine over on his back and tears out his belly.

And the right-handed twin made berries and fruits of other kinds for his creatures to live on. The left-handed twin made briars and poison ivy, and the poisonous plants like baneberry and the dogberry, and the suicide root with which people kill themselves when they go out of their minds. And the left-handed twin made medicines, for good and evil, for doctoring and for witchcraft.

And finally, the right-handed twin made man. The people do not know just how much the left-handed twin had to do with making man. Man was made of clay, like pottery, and baked in the fire…

The world the twins made was a balanced and orderly world, and this was good. The plant-eating animals created by the right-handed twin would eat up all the vegetation if their number was not kept down by the meat-eating animals which the left-handed twin created. But if these carnivorous animals ate too many other animals, then they would starve, for they would run out of meat. So the right-handed and the left-handed twins built balance into the world.

As the twins became full-grown men, they still contested with one another. No one had won, and no one had lost. And they knew the conflict was becoming sharper and sharper and one of them would have to vanquish the other.

And so they came to the duel. They started with gambling. They took a wooden bowl, and in it they put wild plum pits. One side of the pits was burned black, and by tossing the pits in the bowl, and betting on how these would fall, they gambled against one another, as the people still do in the New Year’s rites. All through the morning they gambled at this game, and all through the afternoon, and the sun went down. And when the sun went down, the game was done, and neither one had own.

So they went onto battle one another at lacrosse game. And they contested all day, and the sun went down, and the game was done. And neither had won.

And now they battled with clubs, and they fought all day, and the sun went down, and the fight was done. But neither had won.

And they went from one duel to another to see which one would succumb. Each one knew in his deepest mind that there was something, somewhere, that would vanquish the other. But what was it? Where to find it?

Each knew somewhere in his mind what it was that was his own weak point. They talked about this as they contested in these duels, day after day, and somehow the deep mind of each entered into the other. And the deep mind of the right-handed twin lied to his brother, and the deep mind of the left-handed twin told the truth.
On the last day of the dual, as they stood, they at last knew how the right-handed twin was to kill his brother. Each selected his weapon. The left-handed twin chose a mere stick that would do him no good. But the right-handed twin picked out a deer antler, and with one touch he destroyed his brother. And the left-handed twin died, but he died and he didn’t die. The right-handed twin picked up his body and cast it off the edge of the earth. And some place below the world, in the land of the eternal abyss, the left-handed twin remained for some time.

Having killed his brother, the right-handed twin returned to his grandmother. And she met him in anger. She threw food out of the cabin onto the ground, and she said theat he was a murderer, for he had killed his brother. He grew angry, and told her she had always helped his brother, who had killed their mother. In anger, he grabbed her by the throat and cut her head off. Her body he threw into the ocean, and her head into the sky. There “Our Grandmother, the Moon” still keeps watch at night over the realm of her favourite grandson.

The right-handed twin has many names. One of them is Sapling. It means smooth, young, green, fresh and innocent, straightforward, straight-growing, soft and pliable, teachable and trainable. These are the ways of describing him.

Our young Sapling was quite sorry at the state of affairs and he wept. He wept so long and so hard that his tears began to flood the earth and all the wonderful creatures, animals and fruits that his grandmother, his mother, his twin brother and himself had brought to creative fruition. The West Wind saw this from the Sky World and took pity on him, his son.

In the world up above, it was a very special time, a sacred time that can only be counted every 5,125 turns of the earth around the sun. And when this time occurred, the Tree of Life bore an ambrosia fruit that everyone in the Sky World craved, therefore, it was permitted during these holy periods to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life. The merrymaking and general mayhem of creative power during these heightened occasions is what creates new worlds, new life forms and eternal galaxies. Thus the West Wind ate of the fruit, and created the portal that opened from the Sky World to the Earth below and he blew into the portal such a forceful breath that a spinning rainbow vortex swirled from one world to the other and picked up the right-handed twin and lifted him right up into the Sky World.

The right-handed twin was in shock, confusion and a coma-like state for many days until the smoke of the tobacco reached him from the humans who were grieving his abscence. And then he wept again to realize his Fate. Although he was quite happy to be back in the Land of All Origins, he was worried and fretful about his greatest creation, the humans. He knew that without his guidance and protection they could easily be lost to the folly of his left-handed twins’ ways. So he beseeched the Sky Walkers to allow him to send the humans on the Earth below some helping aid.

The right-handed twin, who became known as He Who Holds up the Skies, Master of Life, and Great Creator, ate of the fruit of the Tree of Life and spit the seeds down to the Earth so that in this way the earth dwellers could also come to know of this sacred tree and its magical creative powers. Everywhere these seeds landed were considered power places which offered higher vibrations akin to the Sky World and those sensitive to the energies could receive guidance and knowledge from dwelling in such spaces.

The Master of Life, our right-handed twin, also sang a song which travelled from his world to the Earth by way of the West Wind and those who had ears to hear this melody became the shamans, the healers, the medicine men and women who through their own power songs could open up the portals between the worlds ensuring otherworld communication.

The West Wind reminded the right-handed twin: as above, so below. Thus when the West Wind opened the portal from the Sky World to the earth so was a portal opened from the Earth to the Underworld so that the left-handed twin could travel from the abyss to his long awaited home as well. He lives in a place that knows the world of men well, and he finds contentment in it. He hears the sound of warfare, torture and injustices and he finds them good.

The left-handed twin also has many names. One of them is Flint. He is called the devious one, the one covered in boils. Old Warty. He is stubborn. He is thought of as being dark in color. His realm is the night, the shadow-lands, despair and the full moon of his grandmother.

The Tree of Life is in full bloom with her ambrosia fruit. It is a 5,125 year moment. The shamans are singing. The portals are open. You may ascend or you may descend depending on your chosen path.

Our world, the Earth swings back and forth from one twins’ stronghold to the next… but always, always a balance is found… and in all ways, it is in good order. The shadow may not live without the light. The right may not exist with the left. The healthy, straight mind cannot manuever without the crooked minds plots. And in each of us, the other lives. So it was. So it is. Forever and ever. In the spiral of life, all is well on the Tree of Life. The END xo

-Navajo 10-10-13

(ADVICE: Digest your journey, no matter where you may find yourself, as the universe makes no mistakes!)

 

http://mayasoma.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/the-world-on-the-turtles-back/