"The Yule Goat", John Bauer (4 June 1882 – 20 November 1918), Swedish

The Julbock is a gift bringer in Scandinavian folklore & is also a common Christmas decoration in Scandinavia . The goat is associated with the Sun's transit into the astrological sign of Capricorn (the birth of the Sun), symbolised by the goat. It is also connected to the goats Tanngrisnir & Tanngnjóstr who pull the Thor's chariot.

Attendees of the funeral of Edward VII, King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India.

Standing from left to right:
- Haakon VII, King of Norway
- Ferdinand I, Tsar of Bulgaria
- Manuel II, King of Portugal
- Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia
- George I, King of Greece
- Albert I, King of Belgium

Seated from left to right:
- Alfonso XIII, King of Spain
- George V, King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India
- Frederick VIII, King of Denmark

Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England, British Empire. 20 May 1910.

Merry Christmas. I hope you left some breakfast out for the gnomes.

"For the Mind being God, Male and Female, Life and Light, brought forth by his Word another Mind or Workman; which being God of the Fire, and the Spirit, fashioned and formed seven other Governors, which in their circles contain the Sensible World, whose Government or disposition is called Fate or Destiny.

Straightway leaped out, or exalted itself from the downward Elements of God, The Word of God, into the clean and pure Workmanship of Nature, and was united to the Workman, Mind, for it was Consubstantial; and so the downward born elements of Nature were left without Reason, that they might be the only Matter."

— Corpus Hermeticum Book I

"Time, then, came into existence along with the Heaven, to the end that having been generated together they might also be dissolved together, if ever a dissolution of them should take place; and it was made after the pattern of the Eternal Nature, to the end that it might be as like thereto as possible; for whereas the pattern is existent through all eternity, the copy, on the other hand, is through all time, continually having existed, existing, and being about to exist. Wherefore, as a consequence of this reasoning and design on the part of God, with a view to the generation of Time, the sun and moon and five other stars, which bear the appellation of 'planets,' came into existence for the determining and preserving of the numbers of Time. And when God had made the bodies of each of them He placed them in the orbits along which the revolution of the Other was moving, seven orbits for the seven bodies. ...
In this wise and for these reasons were generated all those stars which turn themselves about as they travel through Heaven, to the end that this Universe might be as similar as possible to the perfect and intelligible Living Creature in respect of its imitation of the Eternal Nature thereof."

— Plato, Timaeus (38b-39e)

Awareness of sin is not innocence of sin, but the beginning. To be aware that one is doing wrong and do nothing to change it is infinitely worse than to do wrong in the darkness of ignorance. To know what one must do and not do it is properly evil. Thus to simply speak of what is right is of no good whatsoever in itself, but in fact the opposite; the idle talk of the vast majority of modern 'philosphers' is less than worthless but defiles worthiness itself.

"I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with harlots, and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin." -Hosea 4:14

For those who wish to understand:
https://wiki.chadnet.org/discourse-on-misogyny

“The only initiation which I preach and seek with all the ardour of my soul, is that by which we may enter into the heart of God, and make God’s heart enter into us, there to form an indissoluble marriage, which will make us the friend, brother, and spouse of our divine Redeemer.

"There is no other mystery, to arrive at this holy initiation, than to go more and more down into the depths of our being, and not let go till we can bring forth the living vivifying root, because then all the fruit which we ought to bear, according to our kind, will be produced within us and without us, naturally; as we see is the case with our earthly trees, because they are adherent to their own roots, and incessantly draw in their sap.”

~ Louis Claude de Saint-Martin

"God is that pure Revelation that reveals nothing other than itself. God reveals Himself. The Revelation of God is his self-revelation. ...
If by chance 'the Revelation of God' were addressed to people, this would not consist in the unveiling of a content foreign to its own essence and somehow transmitted to a few initiates. To reveal Himself to people could only signify for God that He gives to them a share of his eternal self-revelation. Christianity is nothing other, truly, than the awe-inspiring and meticulous theory of this givenness of God’s self-revelation shared with man. ...
Access to God, understood as his self-revelation according to a phenomenality proper to Him, is not susceptible of being produced except where this self-revelation is produced and in the way self-revelation does so."

— Michel Henry, I Am the Truth. To a Positive Philosophy of Christianity

Ironic, but one of the most intimate acts of our body is death.

So beautiful appeared my death - knowing who then I would kiss,
I died a thousand times before I died.

"Die before you die," said the Prophet Muhammad.

Have wings that feared ever
touched the Sun?

I was born when all I once feared - I could love.

~ Rabia al Basri

"For silence is not God, nor speaking;
fasting is not God, nor eating;
solitude is not God, nor company;
nor any other pair of opposites.
He is hidden between them,
and cannot be found by anything your soul does,
but only by the love of your heart.
He cannot be known by reason,
he cannot be thought, caught,
or sought by understanding."

~ The Cloud of unknowing

🔸

"The Cloud of Unknowing (Middle English: The Cloude of Unknowyng) is an anonymous work of Christian mysticismwritten in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer. The underlying message of this work suggests that the way to know God is to abandon consideration of God's particular activities and attributes, and be courageous enough to surrender one's mind and ego to the realm of "unknowing", at which point one may begin to glimpse the nature of God."

(From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloud_of_Unknowing)

Image: The first page of the manunoscript..

This mixing up of the holy with the sensuous is anything but pleasing to my taste; I cannot like men to set apart certain especial places, consecrate them, and deck them out, that by so doing they may nourish in themselves a temper of piety. No ornaments, not even the very simplest, should disturb in us that sense of the Divine Being which accompanies us wherever we are, and can consecrate every spot into a temple. What pleases me is to see a home-service of God held in the saloon where people come together to eat, where they have their parties, and amuse themselves with games and dances. The highest, the most excellent in men, has no form; and one should be cautious how one gives it any form except noble action.

[Goethe, Elective Affinities, Chapter VII.]

"Saturnus:
No man knows, no hero under heaven,
how my heart has sunk, busy after its books.
Sometimes a burning mounts in me,
my mind seething anxiously near my heart.
 
Solomon:
Golden is that pronouncement of God, adorned with gemstones,
and it has silver leaves. As one anyone can,
through the grace of the spirit, speak the good news.
It shall be wisdom of understanding, and honey of the soul,
and milk of the mind, most blessed of glory-deeds. ...
The devil inscribes upon his weapon
a horde of deadly runes, baleful book-staves,
ensorceling his sword, his glorious blade.
Therefore let no man draw forth the weapon’s edge
too often, without due regard, although its form
pleases him well—yet he must always sing,
when he should sweep out his sword,
'Pater Noster' and pray for that palm-tree
with bliss, so that he may give them both
his soul and hands, when his foe steps forth."

—Solomon and Saturn
https://oldenglishpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/solomon-saturn/

"Stand fast oh, man! to thy God: then consider thy own nobleness; how all created things, both present and to come, were for thy sake created; nay, for thy sake God became man: thou art that creature, who, being conversant with Christ, livest and reignest above the heavens, and sits above all power and authority. How many pre-eminences, privileges, advantages, hath God bestowed on thee? thou rangest above the heavens by contemplation, conceivest the motion and magnitude of the stars: thou talkest with angels, yea, with God himself: thou hast all creatures within thy dominion, and keepest the devils in subjection."
— William Lilly, To the Student in Astrology

I proclaim Total Sensitive Young Man Death.

O Piscean man, hark! for your Age is nigh gone.
You have mistaken meekness for weakness and so
Prescribed yourself to drink of unearned wine 'til dawn,
O Spirit afraid to reap and body to sow.

Pandora's cup yet ran dry, proved to be no Grail.
Pouring out dashing and doting in love's sweet craft—
Proof what Prometheus gave burned to no avail,
Quenched by prose and petty tears, your heart's great graft.


(Pandora, Thomas Benjamin Kennington, 1908)