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Incredible: 1b - Hard to believe. "New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary"
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It strikes me that Mormonism is an incredible religion, in the two-sided sense that it both hard to believe and hard "not" to believe!
I realize that to most non-Mormons this is untrue - in the sense that they find Mormonism one-sidedly hard to believe and easy to disbelieve - hard to accept and extremely easy to dismiss.
But, when not due to sheer ignorance, that attitude is often due to them being blinded by negative prejudice; because there are remarkable facts about Mormonism which it is hard to believe are not due to its being true.
There are at least four two-sidedly incredible aspects of Mormonism - that is they are both hard to believe, and hard not to believe.
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1. Joseph Smith.
On the one hand, it is hard to believe that such an ordinary and flawed person as Joseph Smith should have been a prophet of God; on the other hand it is hard to believe that anybody except a prophet of God could have done what he did.
2. The book of Mormon
On the one hand, the convoluted story of how the book of Mormon came to be written is bizarre, unprecedented - in a word incredible; on the other hand, it is very hard to believe that a book of such length, quality, complexity could have been dictated verbatim and unrevised in extremely difficult conditions and in just a few months.
3. The organization of the LDS church
On the one hand, the piecemeal emergence of the Mormon church, the adoption of elements from various traditions, the revisions and corrections of doctrine and so on - all seem like "ad hoc" improvisations and strain credibility; on the other hand, the results were incredible: a church which commanded great strength and devoutness and expanded exponentially for 180 years and successfully scaled up from a few hundreds to many millions.
4. Mormon theology
Contradicts so much of the theology of the historical Christian church, and so profoundly, that it is very hard to believe that almost all Christians could have been so wrong about so many things for such a long time; on the other hand, the Mormon theology is so simple, systematic and also Biblically coherent that it is incredible that Christians could have failed to discover it for so many centuries.
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I could go on - but I hope the point has been made that "if Mormonism is given its due"," then incredibilities abound, and are rather exactly poised!
It is incredible that something as incredible as Mormonism could be true: it is also incredible that something as coherent, as long-term successful, and as good as Mormonism could be false.
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"I'm one with the Goddess
and open to Her Wisdom."
15th Day of the 5th Lunar Cycle
Ruled by Gaia
Lunar Tree Cycle of Saille/Willow
5th Day of the Celtic Tree
Month of Hauth/Hawthorn
15th Day of the Cycle of Mab -
Days of Faeries
Moon Phase: Full - 7:08AM EDST
Moon sets: 5:52AM EDST
Moon rises: 9:13PM EDST
Moon in Scorpio v/c 7:08AM EDST
Moon enters the Mutable Fire
Sign of Sagittarius at 1:23PM EDST
Rhiannon's Cycle of the Moon
Lunar Meditation: Your heart's desire. ]
Sun in Taurus
Sunrise: 6:02AM EDST
Sunset: 8:30PM EDST
Solar Question for the Day: "What
challenges are on the horizon?"
Beltane (Calan Mai) Quarter
of the Year
May 17th, 2011
FULL MOON - The Full Moon rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. Astrologically the Sun and Moon are in
"opposition "(ie., opposite each other in the sky and in opposite signs of the zodiac). She is visible all night long from moonrise to moonset. She opens and blossoms during the Full Moon into the FLOWER, with the desire to share her beauty with others. Keywords for the full moon phase are: fulfillment, illumination, realization and experience. It is the time in a lunar cycle that you given a clear view so that you can make adjustments to put you back on track to manifesting the goals you at the new moon. Go to a public place. Do something with a friend. LISTEN. Receive awareness. Understand others. Those who were born during a Full Moon phase enjoy companionship and partnership and desire to merge deeply. Fulfillment and illumuination are their goals.
MOON IN SAGITTARIUS - The Moon in Sagittarius gets us moving; it brings cheerful impatience and refreshing honesty. We need wide open minds, souls, and attitudes, but can't sit still. This the time to get honest, forgive, dance, hike, explore and connect to the natural world. A Sagittarius transit brings out our inner-Artemis; we need to roam, to explore in body and in soul. Our curiosity intensifies. Check out untraveled territory and connect with the organic world. Have a long talk with the animals in your garden. Work the soil but hold off the planting. The restless, enthusiastic Sagittarius loves adventure, change, and motion. The moon in this sign is a time for philosophy, metaphysics, travelling, studying, and freedom from responsibility. Sagittarius brings the need to feel free, of restrictions, and to be spontaneous. Her restless and independent nature wishes to explore and warm and friendly vibes make it a good time for seeing new places, encountering different people and relating to a changing environment. There is a tendency towards open, honest exchanges. Sagittarius also brings an interest in philosophy, education, ethics, women's culture and seeing things from an idealistic viewpoint. Moon in Sagittarius is the best time to work magick for publications, legal matters, travel, and truth. Healing rituals for ailments of the liver, thighs or hips are also done at this time. Those born under a Sagittarius moon sign are funny, restless, freedom-loving, and direct; they are a natural global citizen but need also to look for answers at home. They accept the wild in all sentient beings.
TIU'S DAY - Mar's Day - the Day of Activity and Physicality, Passion and Desire...there are Major magical energies for seeking Independence.
"Earth, Air, Fire and Water "A Witch thrives as Freedom's daughter. "Esbat Blessings bring to thee "the prize, the grail. Be wild, Be free. From Season of the Witch datebook
Origin: http://masonsofheaven.blogspot.com
Since I joined this church over a decade ago, I have thought of myself as a member. When did I become a member? It was at my first Spring Mysteries seeing the Gods appear at Parade to the Sea. Tears started streaming down my face, and I knew that I had found my Wiccan family. It wasn't about paying a membership or doing a certain service. It was about what happened in my heart when I saw the Great Work to which I could devote myself. It was my own decision that this was the family for whom I had been looking.
In the great struggle that all Wiccan institutions face of keeping the lights on and paying the bills, this church has been through many incarnations of membership and what it means. In this endeavor, I have learned something really important about membership to a church. It's not about how much money you pay, or how often you attend, where you live, or even the people involved. It's about how you feel about the work being done and your desire to be a part of that Great Work. It's a commitment you make in your heart. It's something that can't be given or taken away.
Membership to a church is between you and your Gods.
So, we have reorganized the membership program, where we asked for you to offer 10 a month to the church. By making membership based on a flat 10 a month rate we have discouraged those that would give more from giving more, and caused those that found 10 a month to be a hardship to feel undervalued. It was another great attempt at solving a huge problem. It's just not working.
Instead, what I am asking you now is to donate what you can to the Mother Church and her many affiliates and subsidiaries. There are so many hands doing the work of the Gods, and so few dollars to support this work. Most of our Priests and Priestesses have no other choice but to fund their ministry completely out of their own household budgets. The average Christian family donates 80 monthly to their church. With those kinds of donations we could create budgets that would allow us to host more open circles, and public temples, and in the future provide schools, women's shelters and hospital ministries.
Let me introduce what I hope is a solution: a website that allows you to donate on a level that is comfortable for you. You can give easily online - a dollar now, and a dollar later, or a monthly donation that fits into your own personal budget. If all you can give is a few dollars here and there, then please consider that if everyone who reads this letter gives a few dollars here and there, we will have the funds to operate the church for another month. Give what you can, anything you can.
With a little financial planning you will be able to choose a monthly gift and work it into your budget. 5 or 10 dollars a month goes a long way when there are many people doing it. Larger donations go even further. Many of you support the church's ministry, but don't have time to serve. Instead, support those who do. Let those who do have time know how important their work is to you by giving financially, so that our generation of witches can do more for the Goddess and Her people.
Here's the link: https://aquatabch.infellowship.com. If you're not already signed up as a member, please do so. We need the information should you need the proof in the future (such as for taxes). This software makes it easy to received a tax letter, and allows you to choose to donate your money to several different ATC ministries. If your ATC Ministry isn't listed and you would like it to be, please email me.
Guys, this transition has been difficult on all of us. The bank accounts are showing it. Please help us out. Thank you for your generosity, and thank you so much for being a member of this great family.
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"Did we like it?"
Even though we feel like as though we've feasted to the point of gluttony on the lavish historical regal dramas to the point when they will become hunted to extinction in the grand forests of TV, this was a well-acted, well-paced drama. And while a few gobbets of fleshy dialogue did get stuck in our throats, provoking convulsions of mirth, it did justify the blanket advertising which has clouded the gaps between programmes like debt consolidation ads for the financially illiterate.
"What was good about it?"
o Anne Marie Duff was marvellous as Elizabeth, the 'Virgin Queen'. It would still have been watchable even if she had been acting the role only accompanied by a dumb haunting of ghosts of the figures portrayed.
o Duff played her as a capricious human whirlwind. She could flit between spitting spite at her sister Queen Mary's spy, expressing her disgust at her confinement, faking her faith to Catholicism to ease the ire of Mary, or the exultation at Mary's death that liberated her from her imprisonment and also speeded her ascent to the throne.
o A fine supporting cast including the criminally underused Ian Hart, Kevin McKidd, Tara Fitzgerald and Dexter Fletcher.
o The sets were flawless from the footsteps pounding on the wood, which added urgency, to the grimy interiors of Elizabeth's numerous jails.
"What was bad about it?"
o Queen Mary (Joanne Whalley) was written as though she were Darth Vader. In every scene, unless screaming in agony, she was either instructing her minions to execute, torture or jail someone; indeed at one point she seethed to Lord Chamberlain Gardiner "Do not fail me again" as if was a hapless admiral in the Imperial fleet who would later be choked to death by the Dark Lord of the Sith. And what's more, during their confrontation Mary even offered Elizabeth the chance to strike her down with her own weapon, but she, like 'Young Skywalker', relented.
o The division between Protestants and Catholics was very much portrayed as a chasm between good and evil. Whereas the Catholic Mary was murderously determined to reinstall her faith amongst her subjects following the "heresy" of her father Henry VIII, through such techniques as burning at the stake, while conducing her worship in churches that looked more like Satanists' covens, Elizabeth was seen to be generous and tolerant when allowing Catholics to follow their religion freely after her coronation.
o Some of the most pointed moments of drama relied on a certain ignorance of history on the part of the viewer. When Gardiner raced to Elizabeth after the apparent birth of Mary's child, thus providing an heir and making Elizabeth disposable, as if he was to carry out her execution it was in fact to inform her that her sister had died and she was now queen.
o The stakes the Protestants were burning at seemed suspiciously smooth, it was almost as though they'd been trimmed with the latest Black & Decker tools rather than hewn from the rough trunks of the English countryside.
o The occasionally awkward juxtaposition of Ye Olde English and modern slang. The worst instance was: "'Tis was but another false alarm!"
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