Oh, God!

Posted on July 5, 2018 by cdsmiller17

07

As King on a Throne

This is the classical view of God. He is King over us all. He sits on a throne and dispenses justice for his Chosen People.

I like this image, because you cannot actually ‘see’ God: it is just the central Light of the Throne Room that catches our awareness. A bit like the flash of an atomic explosion: horrifying in its destruction, but awesome in its power.

As Architect of the Universe

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William Blake saw God as the Archetype of Creation. But he would have been considered blasphemous if people had understood that Blake was suggesting that God was actually the Demiurge, the Lord of this world only. That’s why laws and rules were created: to keep us under control.

As George Burns

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We really prefer to think of God as a harmless, but funny, old man, shuffling about the Earth as a wise-cracking recruiter of messengers. George Burns made a nice change: he made God human.

Morgan Freeman

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Morgan Freeman’s portrayal of God in “Bruce Almighty” was a complete surprise. The year was 2003, a full five years before Barrack Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America. Do you think it had a subliminal effect on the vote?

Now we realize that even ‘God’ has feet of clay: who could have seen that coming?

Conclusion

When the Bible says that God made mankind in his image, I suspect it was the other way around. And as we develop a better understanding of ourselves, we will better understand God, too.

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The Bully vs. the Boxer

Posted on June 30, 2018 by cdsmiller17

On the Eve of Canada’s Response to US Tariffs

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to get along and others don’t? Allies are supposed to stick together through thick and thin, but sometimes they don’t. Here’s why:

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Trump and Trudeau have very closely aligned birth charts. Their Ascendants are within 4°, but in different signs. Trump’s is in the final minutes of Leo (conjunct to his Mars – the Bully), Trudeau’s is in the early degrees of Virgo (the Fighter). Trudeau gets under Trump’s skin, probably because of these match-ups:

Trump’s Neptune conjunct Trudeau’s Pluto;

Trump’s Jupiter conjunct Trudeau’s Uranus;

Trump’s Moon conjunct Trudeau’s Jupiter;

Trump’s Midheaven conjunct Trudeau’s Midheaven and Saturn;

and the one thing that makes Trump think he can push Trudeau around – Trump’s Pluto opposite Trudeau’s Venus (that’s why Trump thinks Trudeau is ‘weak’).

Their Compatibility

(From my Kepler 7.0 computer program)

Donald’s Sun in Gemini and Justin’s Sun in Capricorn

You two are quite different and not always compatible. Justin is a realist, rather ambitious, pragmatic, and serious about goals (or life in general), whereas Donald takes very little seriously, is light, changeable, and sometimes unreliable or frivolous. Donald likes to play, especially with words or ideas, and Justin may have little use for that unless there is some tangible, “bottom line” use for the idea.

Donald’s Moon in Sagittarius and Justin’s Moon in Aries

Both of you are somewhat uncomfortable with emotional neediness, dependency, and feelings in general. Donald often intellectualizes feelings rather than experiencing them fully and directly, and may filter personal experiences through a philosophical system that regards certain feelings to be “positive” and acceptable, and other feelings to be “negative”, unacceptable, and to be avoided. Justin may become annoyed with being told how one “should feel” in a given circumstance. In particular, Donald may try to humour or talk Justin out of Justin’s anger. Neither of you wants to be completely “owned” by another person.

Who Will Win This Battle?

You can guess, can’t you? Tariffs between neighbours is counter-intuitive: Canada and the USA are each other’s best trading partner, and raising tariffs for imports from each other means that the populations of each country will be pay more for what essentially were tariff-free under NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement). People will lose their jobs, companies will disappear and taxes will be less. In other words, NO ONE WINS.

But Trump will take whatever positive happens as proof that he made the right choice, and anything not-so-wonderful will be Trudeau’s fault.

But, Trump should watch his step because Trudeau will not hesitate to use a one-two punch combination to make his point. Trump will go down for the count, and may have to surrender the fight.

You read it here first.

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Cathartic: Purified by Fire?

Posted on June 30, 2018 by cdsmiller17

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Cathars

They never called themselves Cathars: they were Good Men (and women). They had lived their normal lives, raising children and being human, and then they chose a higher calling in their later years.

The name Cathar probably came from the Catholic Church which saw their beliefs as “The Great Heresy” and decided to eradicate them from the Earth by giving them a choice: relinquish their faith or die on a flaming pyre. They chose the fire.

These days, the choices aren’t so stark, but the implication is that what you believe in can cause the ‘powers that be’ to try to convert you to their way of thinking. Every day we are being tested to see what we’re made of.

The Refiner’s Fire

The Refiner's Fire

In 1991, I took a series of quotations and strung them together using the Tarot as the link to demonstrate what mystics and poets had tried to explain over the centuries about God. Years later, I created a booklet that was available through Fountain International and can now be accessed here.

The simplest answer as to what the Refiner’s Fire is? Love. And God is Love itself.

When our lives are going along ‘tickedy-boo’ we have no ‘need’ of God. God knows that. That is why Satan is allowed to ‘test’ us with adversity: to see if we are for ‘turning’. Funny, isn’t it?

In the story of Job, God gives Satan the freedom to do what he wants with Job, to prove how God-fearing he is. In the end, Job questions God directly about what is going on.

The story may have been an allegory, but the implication is clear: God needs us as much as we need God.

Rosicrucians

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My own experience of reaching the end of my tether in this life brought me in line with a truth about a past life. I belonged to the Rosicrucians. I needed to reach my lowest point to appreciate this truth.

We really don’t appreciate what we’ve got until it’s gone.

Forest Fires

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Need I say anything more?

 

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Justice: Does It Exist Anymore?

Posted on June 28, 2018 by cdsmiller17

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Lady Justice without a blindfold

I was reading a novel this week which raised some very serious questions about the legal system in Canada. The premise of the story was that some senior members of the judicial system in Ontario decided to dispense justice by having a trained killer take out some criminals who got away with their individual crimes.

We all know that ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’, but the idea that these individuals could turn vigilante seemed deliciously wicked.

And the fact that most of these individuals were also ‘good’ Catholics gives the story a moralistic edge.

Do you want to read this book? Here’s a link…

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My Mother (Redux)

Posted on June 26, 2018 by cdsmiller17

I travelled to Montreal last week to view a collection of “Billy” Stewart memorabilia in the Concordia University Vanier Library. One of the files was labelled “E.V. Stewart Photographs [1940s]”. My hope was that there might be a photo of my mother as a young woman in that file. (For those that are interested, the box number is HA3156 – P195/1B)

Turns out that specific file had two photos, just of my step-father, both marked on the back as Major E.V. Stewart. The other file of interest was one which featured photos of Anne Stewart’s marriage to Bertrand Potvin, dated 29 Aug 1949. My mother was not included in that wedding party, probably because she was three month’s pregnant with me, and she didn’t want to embarrass herself or her husband, since I wasn’t his child.

Anyway, here’s one of the photos which I had previously discovered on ancestry.ca:

The Stewarts in 1949

I got a photocopy of the other picture of the expanded wedding party including guests, but I’m not allowed to publish it. Vaughan is the second from the left in the back row.

via My Mother

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Canada’s Infrastructure: ^ Construction

Posted on June 25, 2018 by cdsmiller17

 

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Last Wednesday, we set out from our home in Ontario and travelled all the way to Fredericton, New Brunswick to attend the funeral of Susan’s Aunt Freda.

I knew there were roadworks on Highway 400, and probably that there would also be some on Highway 401 East. What I wasn’t expecting was how much there would be on Route 20 Est through Quebec, and Highway 2 through New Brunswick. It seemed as if you couldn’t go more than 10-20 kilometers without having to slow down for safety reasons.

As I noted previously, most Canadians don’t think speed limits have anything to do with them. For them, slowing down 20 kph means going the regular speed limit of 100 kph through the construction work. (And in New Brunswick, the maximum is actually 110 kph.)

As you can imagine there were a small number of traffic accidents, but overall an interesting drive down East.

And because we drove back over the weekend, all construction workers were off the job, so no one paid any mind to the signs, unless two lanes were still narrowed to one lane.

Even the 407 ETR had pockets of roadworks. And we just missed a car spinning wildly out of control when it water-planed during a heavy downpour through the outskirts of Toronto.

We had a guardian angel, yet again, keeping us safe: a series of different Jeeps followed us from the Quebec boarder to home. Susan’s father used to drive Jeeps in the Canadian Armed Forces…

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Sky Weave photo courtesy of Susan Miller

 

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Canadian Wilderness

Posted on June 18, 2018 by cdsmiller17
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Whip-poor-will courtesy of Wikipedia

 

 

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Two Mesmerizing Videos

Posted on June 5, 2018 by cdsmiller17

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Time: Now and Again

Posted on June 4, 2018 by cdsmiller17

Now

Now

At the junction between yesterday and tomorrow is an ever-present moment: NOW.

We tend to ignore this fact, spending most of our time regretting the events of the past and hoping for a better future. But where is it that we live? Here, and now.

Just think of it like this: a friend lives five time zones away. This friend is getting up for her day while you’re still in bed, dreaming your dreams. She sends you a text message, just saying ‘Hi’, but you don’t get it until you get up at the start of your day. To you, it is as if she has just sent you that message. It may have been waiting for you for five hours, but the moment you see it is when it becomes real for you.

Life is like that, too. The seeds of events were sown in the past, but the event itself happens in the present time. We forget that they are connected.

Again

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The other thing that we tend to forget is that life is cyclical. Astrologers see this effect all the time. That’s why there’s a saying: what goes round, comes around again.

Anyone who has observed the seasons knows that the weather will definitely change, but this too shall pass, whatever is happening outside. I often catch myself wishing for the opposite of whatever season it is, forgetting that I thought the very same thing six months ago, but the other way.

And time seems to repeat itself in our day-to-day patterns. We wake, get up, clean up, eat, dress, go to work, slog our guts out, pack up our jobs, return home, eat, clean up, go to bed and sleep. Even people in prison have similar routines. That’s why we feel trapped.

What we seem to forget is that every day is a chance to get better, to get it right, to succeed at life. When we go to bed at night, we think, tomorrow is another day.

And then we die. Is that really all there is? No… we get to come back and do it all again, perhaps with a different type of body, a different set of goals, and a different new attitude. We are reborn, much like the leaves of a tree come again in spring.

Conclusion

Nothing in life is wasted. We have all the time in the world to get it right. So relax, sit back and enjoy the ride. The view from the train is beautiful. Don’t miss this moment.

https://binged.it/2HkxYJ9

 

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Buddha’s in the Eye of the Beholder

Posted on June 3, 2018 by cdsmiller17

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