The Eighth Sermon to the Dead

With the current chaos seemingly enveloping the US, I thought I'd draw everyone's attention back to the supposed time traveler who was posting on message boards back in 2000, John Titor. http://www.johntitor.com/ He lists 10 things you can do to help yourself survive a disaster of huge proportions, and Hurricane Katrina made me think of it again. Whether or not he was actually a time traveller, his ideas are a common sense approach to surviving when things get tougher than $4 a gallon gasoline. His advice is in black, my comments in blue. Here are the 10 things: 1. Do not eat or use products from any animal that is fed and eats parts of its own dead. We now know that CJD and Mad Cow are problems. 2. Do not kiss or have intimate relations with anyone you do not know. This only makes sense in the age of AIDS. 3. Learn basic sanitation and water purification. Humanure Handbook , OA Guide to Water Purification 4. Be comfortable around firearms. Learn to shoot and cl...

"that only those fully indoctrinated into their mind-cult can judge it." That is what John Horgan says in his comment section about Freudian Psychologists and String Theorists. The whole article is an interesting read, and I encourage you to read it and the rebuttal. However, I'm thinking of Gnosticism. Lots of folks 'don't get it', thinking it's all about dualistic material/spritual divides and pretty much useless. Until they learn about it, and see the complexities and questions it raises. But they can't do that, until they learn about it. So, is it true that "learning about it" is necessary for understanding, or is it simply switching our premises, so that the outlandish theory makes sense from a given premise? Or, in true Gnostic fashion, is it both?

http://the-philosophers-stone.com/articles/charlatn/magus.htm Wow. It blows one's mind. The idea that spiritual purity is not necessarily in step with spiritual purity. Or rather, that spiritual progress is not always made by remaining among the pure. I need to digest this one a bit.

Found a Neat site detailing how the bible/gospel relates to astrology and the zodiac. Haven't had a chance to dig into it, but I will. Thought I'd share.

Gnostic Desktop! And another one, also cool.

Sorry I haven't posted more about my formation progress. Course, there hasn't been much. I've gotten a new assignment (The Law and Ministry), and I'll be reading all kinds of books about those topics in the next few weeks (One called Ministry and the Law, another the Canon Law for the Johannite Church). After I've read the law, I'll be curious to know how this was all agreed upon by the church. Was it just an episcopal committee, or was their input from the laity and lower clergy as well. The question comes to mind, as I read about how the Catholic Church developed much of it's canon law, in "The Catholic Church: A short history" by Hans Küng. However, the archons have been tossing lots of wonderful little distractions my way. The mortgage check got all screwed up, and now I think it'll hit a NSF charge, and I can't talk to the bank because they're closed. I've got a work project that I should be doing right now, and we just had...

So, my next assignment deals with these areas: 1) Ethical standards in conducting ministry 2) Conduct of life as Ministry (the life of the priest taken as a real-world application of spiritual values, ie: leading by example as a type of ministry) 3) The Counseling policy of the Apostolic Johannite Church 4) Rights and responsibilities of Clergy in Church life 5) Rights and responsibilities of Laity in Church life 6) The Tentmaker: The 'Dichotomy' of Religious life and Secular employment as considered in the context of the above. Soo.... Any resources to help discuss these topics would be of use. I have the AJC code of law, but am looking for more general resources. Thanks.

I've been reading the Catechism of the AJC, and I've learned a lot with just the first couple pages. The hierarchy and doctrinal statements of the AJC have kind of puzzled me in a Gnostic setting, as Gnosticism is not so much about statements but about experience. The emphasis of the curriculum on studying Christian theology also puzzled me. However, experience without a reference point is meaningless. The Doctrines, as spelled out by the AJC, are there to guide the experiences of the initiates and parishioners. Think of them as signposts. You can go on a journey, but without knowing where you are, having a point of reference, you're not just wandering: you're lost. Christian Theology has been dealing with these problems for centuries, and so those doctrines and statements also form a valuable signpost from which to proceed. It's kind of like "Ok, I know my friend is over here, but I want to go THIS way..."

For those who are interested in the course of study I'll be following, the curriculum is attached. It's freely available on the AJC website.