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Category Archives: READING MATTER
Books I read & recommend
THE AGE OF REASON
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“I read the most excellent treatise and critique of that superstitious body of mythology written by the American revolutionary, Thomas Paine. Although Mr. Paine is not a popular fellow in Britain, having fathered the uprising against King George which resulted in the loss of the greatest possession ever claimed by the throne of England, he is nonetheless a man of preeminent intellect and prodigious reasoning ability.
His book, The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and *Fabulous Theology, to my own system of logical assessment and evaluation represents the most thorough, factual and incontrovertible dissection of the Bible, which unfortunately serves our civilization as a guideline for survival. After having read his preeminent work of logical vivisection upon the content of the Bible, and by abstraction, a commentary upon the paradigm of Western Civilization, it is no longer a mystery to me that humanity has endured so great an extent of war, misery, chaos, greed, destruction and mayhem inflicted by Western imperialism upon the Earth at the behest of, and with regal and religious blessings.
As for my personal observation and conviction concerning the matter of religion, I concur with the statement most ably stated by Thomas Paine himself:
“I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy. I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”
(Definition of the word “fabulous” — adjective: based on or told of in traditional stories; lacking factual basis or historical validity)
— An excerpt from SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE, by Lawrence R. Spencer
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W/E H/W ESSAY ON NWO
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MY MUSE
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The Muses (Ancient Greek: Μοῦσαι, moũsai: perhaps from the o-grade of the Proto-Indo-European root *men- “think”) in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses of the inspiration of literature, science and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths.
Greek mousa is a common noun as well as a type of goddess: it literally means “art” or “poetry”. In Pindar, to “carry a mousa” is “to excel in the arts”. The word probably derives from the Indo-European root men-, which is also the source of Greek Mnemosyne, English “mind”, “mental” and “memory” and Sanskrit “mantra”.
The Muses, therefore, were both the embodiments and sponsors of performed metrical speech: mousike (whence the English term “music”) was just “one of the arts of the Muses”. Others included Science, Geography, Mathematics, Philosophy, and especially Art, Drama, and inspiration.
( PHOTO: Ancient Greek vase showing a Muse reading a scroll, (Attic red-figure lekythos, Boeotia c. 435–425 BC) —>
Some authors invoke Muses when writing poetry, hymns, or epic history. The invocation typically occurs at or near the beginning, and calls for help or inspiration, or simply invites the Muse to sing through the author. Some prose authors also call on the aid of Muses, who are called as the true speaker for whom an author is merely a mouthpiece.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 38 invokes the Tenth Muse:
“How can my Muse want subject to invent,
While thou dost breathe, that pour’st into my verse
Thine own sweet argument?”
“No Muse-poet grows conscious of the Muse except by experience of a woman in whom the Goddess is to some degree resident; just as no Apollonian poet can perform his proper function unless he lives under a monarchy or a quasi-monarchy. A Muse-poet falls in love, absolutely, and his true love is for him the embodiment of the Muse… But the real, perpetually obsessed Muse-poet distinguishes between the Goddess as manifest in the supreme power, glory, wisdom, and love of woman, and the individual woman whom the Goddess may make her instrument… The Goddess abides.”(comment by the British poet Robert Graves)
FANTASY REALITY
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A Gentle Maiden I do See!
She does not turn to look at Me.
An Enchanting Spirit floats nearby…
She follows with Her Loving Eyes.
All My Kingdom I would trade
For a Single Glance, a Longing Gaze
from this Perfect, Precious Maid!
How can I be a Butterfly?
My Angel, I am Floating Near!
There is nothing You should fear.
Come, and Fly Away with Me!
Yet this cannot be Reality….
Alas, My Dreams are Fantasies.
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Lawrence R. Spencer. 2013.