Books and cards

Ugh. Had sniffles Monday, they seemed to clear up yesterday, and now they’re back. Yay cold rainy weather. In light of that, please forgive this post being a bit stilted.

Got The Secret Life Of Bees for Christmas, since Kidd’s memoir Dance of the Dissident Daughter is one of my favorite books ever. Finished the book in one day! Stumbled from her website to here and here. Have a sudden urge to go to South Carolina and fangirl at her feet.

Also, bought tarot cards on my day off Monday. I’ve had a mild, increasing interest lately, and little luck finding anything casually. Went here with intent to find Monday, since it’s now a much saner drive than it used to be. Spent more time going in circles to find parking than I did in the store getting the cards. Funny how that goes, huh? Linky, linky, linky, if you’re wondering which deck.

Only done one reading so far, a general one for myself when I got home. It pretty much hit the nail on this journal’s subject matter, actually, with some relevant family stuff thrown in. Interesting, yes. I think I’m going to like this.

The Immaculate Conception

OK people, one last time.

The Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus. It has nothing to do with sex, period. It refers to Mary’s conception without Original Sin in her soul, as proof that God always intended her to be Jesus’ mother.

I’ve heard this from many an ignorant-of-this-point individual. I’ve politely corrected it on a case-by-case basis in the past, both Catholics and non-Catholics, and I expect to do so many times in the future.

However, I don’t expect to read in a book how a phallic-looking rock coming out of the head of the Virgin Mary is supposed to be secretly mocking the group that commissioned the piece, who named themselves after the Immaculate Conception, because the artist didn’t particularly care for the standard Church take on the Holy Family. In the first chapter. You’ve just guaranteed that I’m going to be skeptical about everything else you’re about to present, no matter how sympathetic I might be to the idea in the first place from other sources. Especially when you tell me you presented this idea to a conference, and instead of them laughing you out of the room, you all sat and laughed at the dirty joke together.

Well, now I know where *that* came from…

A quote from The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, published in hardcover in 1991, which I picked up cheap at a book sale not long ago:

War and Peace

“What have you done, Crichton?”

“What did you ask me to do, Sparky? Crichton, please, make the wormhole so we can all have peace. Crichton, you gotta make the wormhole, we all want peace. Crichton, make the damn wormhole, we gotta have peace. How many times did you say that, Sparky? Pip: wormhole, peace, peace, wormhole? How many times, mister, I beg you please with a cherry on top?…

“Wormhole weapons do not make peace. Wormhole weapons don’t even make war. They make total destruction, annihilation, Armageddon. People make peace.”

…”This is insane, Crichton.”

“God! Four years on and you’re finally gettin’ it.”

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Yesterday in church, I was reminded of why we honor Martin Luther King every year: Not simply for being a great civil rights leader, but because he explicitly met violence with peaceful resistance, something I’m ashamed to admit I’d forgotten along the way. And it strikes me all over again, probably much more so now than as a child when I first learned about him, just how radical a notion it was.Earlier yesterday morning, I was continuing my re-read of Dance of the Dissident Daughter. Last week, H and I finally got around to watching Farscape: Peacekeeper Wars together, which is where the above quote comes from. And suddenly the threads converged for me, in the middle of the service.

Today, the U.S. observes the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On Thursday, George W. Bush will be sworn in for his second term as president.

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Divine Lady, Forgotten Partner, Estranged Spouse of the Divine Male: Come into the heart of the man who is to run this country for another four years. So often, God is seen as a male God, concerned with wars, violence, subjugation. Remind him lasting peace does not come from war and dominance. Weapons do not make peace; war does not make peace; people, men and women, make peace. And on a smaller scale, give me the strength to be that example to others.

Magdalen

Picked up my own copy of Holy Blood, Holy Grail a few weeks ago, and slowly making my way through it. After all, most of the books kolys lent me last spring made reference back to this earlier work. (I also picked up The Woman with the Alabaster Jar at the same time.)

Various links with similar content:

• Holy Blood, Holy Tarot — Mostly interested in the background information on the top third of the page, rather than the tarot correlations, as well as the rest of the site.
• Magdalene.org
• Wikipedia has an entry for her
• As it does for Holy Blood, Holy Grail

More as I find it.