posted March 31, 2009 01:36 PM            

If I should fail,
the greater share of fault will go
to the greater company of men I kept,
and if I succeed, then the greatest credit
shall be their's to claim.

valus

posted March 31, 2009 07:09 PM            

"Power comes to its full strength in weakness."
~ 2 Corinthians 12:9

"See how what is forbidden kings to enjoy is wholly denied to priests, and is known to be more dangerous than any food. And yet, so spiritual a man as St Benedict himself is compelled to allow it to monks as a sort of concession to the times in which he lived. 'Although', he says, 'we read that wine is no drink for monks, yet because nowadays monks cannot be persuaded of this, etc.' He had read, if I am not mistaken, these passages in Lives of The Saints."
~ Peter Abelard
The Letters of Direction

"There was once a celebration of the Mass on the Mount abba Antony, and a jar of wine was found there. One of the elders took a small vessel, carried a cupful to abba Sisoi and gave it to him. He drank once, and a second time he took it and drank, but when it was offered a third time he refused, saying, 'Peace, brother, do you not know that it is Satan?'"
~ Vitae Patrum

"On the question of meat: where, I ask you, has this ever been condemned by God or forbidden to monks? Look, pray, and mark how of necessity St Benedict modifies the Rule on this point too (though it is more dangerous for monks and he knew it was not for them), because in his day it was impossible to persuade monks to abstain from meat. I would like to see the same dispensation granted in our own times, with a similar modification regarding matters which fall between good and evil and are called indifferent, so that vows would not compel what cannot now be gained by persuation. If concession were made without scandal on neutral points, it would be enough to forbid only what is sinful... For things which do not prepare us for the Kingdom of God or commend us least to God call for no special attention. These are all outward works which are common to the damned and elect alike, as much to hypocrites as to the religious. For nothing so divides Jew from Christian as the distinction between outward and inner works, especially since between the children of God and those of the devil love alone distinguishes: what the Apostle calls the sum of the law and the object of what is commanded. And so he also disparages pride in works in order to set above it the righteousness of faith."
~ Peter Abelard
The Letters of Direction

"What room then is left for human pride?
It is excluded. And on what principle?
Of works? No, but through the principle of faith.
For our argument is that a man is justified by faith
without observances of the law."
~ Romans 3:27-8

posted May 04, 2009 08:09 PM            

------------------
*´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·´ *SilverStone.·:*¨¨*:·..·:*¨¨*:·..·:*

Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year....
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

posted May 09, 2009 01:20 AM              

if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.”

posted May 19, 2009 03:14 AM              

However, this fecundation, just because it is spontaneous and nearly automatic, may make of him a "sacrifice" to humanity. He pours of himself unceasingly into his community; and he has, therefore, very little left for his own personal growth and spiritual transformation. In that sense, this South Node activity is actually a form of "self-undoing." Wagner remained until his death a rather unregenerated personality. I have known, in my early youth, the great French sculptor, August Rodin (I was for a brief period his secretary); and he was indeed in daily contacts a cantankerous old man who treated his son very badly. Many a genius is so enthralled by his creative activity that it becomes truly a spiritually self-defeating process — just as are all automatic processes and all activities and capacities which one takes for granted. In another sense, the "Don Juan" figure of the legend is a South Lunar Node polarized person.

Nevertheless, one has to be very careful not to give a necessarily negative meaning to the South Lunar Node in a birth-chart, especially in terms of events. It may refer in any case to a sort of "bondage" — but it is often a very special type of bondage; it may mean the fulfillment of a racial karma, a kind of sacrificial offering of self to humanity. At this point of the birth-chart, the past compels; but the outcome may be magnificent in terms of social or cultural results. If one believes in reincarnation, one can say that a capacity developed under stress through past incarnations now produces automatically splendid results; and this may apply to a statesman or inventor, as well as to a creative artist — in all cases, to what we call, often without discrimination, "genius."