old bits of news

I am constantly putting off writing anything on this blog. Last time I checked a whole year had gone by.
2007 was actually a year full of small yet significant events. I got the chance to travel in my own country.
I met new people, I quit the dream of ever becoming a librarian, or at least put it all on hold - I got to enjoy
being a sales clerk for a Book shop nearby.

About the Ecclesia Gnostica Norvegia parish here in Oslo; We have met every fortnight and during the holy season, and held two baptisms during the autumn, thus concluded ten years (plus) of the Capella Santa Sophia.
Late in December 2007 we moved the Chapel out of Brugata 3 to
a temporal home; charming, functional but cramped.


In 2007 I purchased and enjoyed
The Who:Endless Wire - a concept album which show we cannot quite write off The Who just yet (a dozen worn out albums in our vinyl stack says we wont write them off at all).
Porcupine Tree: Fear of a Blank Planet and the EP Nil Recurring ; I discovered PT relatively late, medio 2004 with Signify, which was from 2001, and must admit I grown into a bit of a fan, and so has my wife, May. We both enjoy good Progressive Rock, challenging and atmospheric Pop/Rock and the more melodic variants of contemporary Jazz, and PT turns out to have all of it and some more. I also got the chance to order Radiohead's InRainbows directly on the Internet, both the album and the boxed set (which has a handful tunes on the bonus CD I just wouldn't want to be without after having listened to the album as a whole on a rather heavy rotation schedule),
Thom Yorke&co have my thanks for a fine musical experience, as well as some amusing headlines in the newspapers.

my word processor these days

I am not dead

I am perfectly aware that there has been a long, perhaps loud, silence on my blog the last nine months. It has been an unplanned sabbatical - which gave me a chance to catch up on my studies, work work work, tend to my family, prepare to take over the main responsibilites with the Ecclesia Gnostica ministry
in Oslo, as my good friend, Right Revd.Jan Valentin Saether is going to move to France.
I wish him all the best in that endeavour and hope to be able to visit him and that reciprocally we will meet on an occasional basis here in Oslo. I am deeply grateful for the advice, instruction and friendship I have had with him the last eleven years.It is a really melancholy situation, but put my trust in our dear lady Sophia and the indwelling Logos that I will be able to carry on the work, since thats where my heart is.

I have also had a disillusionment about the phenomenon of "Internet Gnosticism", I am not accusing anyone of being exclusively "online" in their spirituality and orientation, but do feel that the sense of radical intimacy and communion is better tended "in person" than in some kind of "astral" neverland.

I intend to keep this blog going, but will only write occasional posts on topics that inspires me, specifically Gnostic (I'll make another blog eventually for "other" topics). Until I write again, I wish you a merry Incarnation of the Divine Logos in and through us.
Pax Pleromae,
Terje

Welcome to the Blogroll, Jacob and Teresa

Back in the days, when I were a wild eyed fanatic, freshly emerged from a hermit-like situation with regards to orientation, attitude and reading - I knew two special people who shared my passion for all things Gnostic, Mystical and obscure: Jacob and Teresa.

Jacob arrived first.Jacob is a rock musician and composer of some artistic skill and integrity studying comparative religion at the University of Oslo when we first met. He had just finished a study of the mystical philosophy of Plotin which he had prefaced with a quote from British rock band The Police's undying classic Spirits in the Material World, he had also finished the first of by now four albums with his progressive (really, implacable - but thats what Proggrock means to most, after all) rock group White Willow, Ignis Fatuus. Which were followed five years later with a rivetingly beautiful Ex Tenebris, and my favourite Sacrament.
Last year they released Storm Season, I am a bit ashamed to announce I have not been able to get hold of it.
This year White Willow will record their 5th studio album.

I suspect Jacob's approach has been more eclectic and Hermetic oriented than mine all along, in many ways he has more strings, more references than I can dream of acquiring with regards to the in and outs of our Western culture and its always active spiritual undercurrents. It has something to do with the curiousity and intensity of attention and passion which is inalienably connected with the calling of the artist.

Jacob and Teresa married in 1997 and celebrated with a Gnostic Wedding service at Jacob's home in Asker, held by Reverend Father Jan Valentin Saether. I was privileged to both be a guest and assist during the ceremony.
Now they are busy parents expectant of no.2 (a daughter, so they have a matching set soon), with a son of 18 months and some.
Teresa is an artist as well, and like her husband, a poetic soul. Its good to see old friends again, even though its just on the net presently.

Back again ....

I am beginning to suspect I am neglecting this blog. Since last I wrote, I am a married man. We had a short but dignified ceremony at the Civil Court in Oslo, and a trip to Gran Canaria with my parents. Atfter that I have been busy trying to find a job, it looks like I am going to get a position at a Library nearby and work until autumn.
Maths exam didn't go as I hope it would, so I need to get another.

Hope everyone has had a swell holiday season.

A bit slow posting, and some good news

Almost three months since last post. Thought I should tell my friends, and other readers of this blog that I am currently doing final exams, qualifying me for studies in Library and Information Studies at the University College of Oslo, it is going very well - but it takes basically all my time.

On Friday the 9th December we (me and my fiancee May) will celebrate ourselves (5 years together) and marry at the Civil court in Oslo, I hope for good weather and good cheer. The original plan were to do it next summer, but when things are going so well, why wait any more?

From January onwards to August the plan is to get a job in a library, collection or archive somewhere in the vicinity.
Last exam is on Monday the 5th December, the one I have dreaded the most due to complexes I contracted early on in my education - Maths, but I feel I shall do better than I have done ever before with the topic.
Not sure how much posting I will be able to do after this, but will at least try to catch up with some correspondence and reply to comments.

Passing the exam on Recent History

I am not sure if I have told you all, but I am trying to qualify for the University College in Oslo and a bachelorate of Library Science. To reach that end I have to take up all the courses that slipped me by when I took a crafts education for culinary arts.
That means at the end of this semester and the next I will have to pass, with good grades, 11 finishing exams. This semester 6.. I am halfway and got my second, at all, grade A, yesterday..
It was gratifying to feel that the censor and examiner listened attentatively and interested to what I had to say about the reasons and consequences of the First World War (the European war, that is), while feeling quite unprepared and nervy. Being on edge apparently works for me, as I have found that working under pressure is much better than having a loose deadline on everything.

Happy National Day - 17th of May, Birthday of Norway

Everywhere in this country people don their best folk costumes and march to the tune of Souza&c, it is the day for the children, for overconsumption of sausages and icecream, for messy toddlers in their sunday best running around screaming at the top of their lungs, "Hurra Hurra Hurra for syttende Mai!". In front of the King's Palace a great mass of people waving flags, a tricolor of red and blue and white, a huge blue cross upon a white cross upon a red background. This is the 100th Constitution Day celebration in a free, independent scandinavian Country. In 1905 "we" separated from the Union with Sweden, 91 problematic and confusing years since the country was given away by the War comittee after the Napoleon wars, which the country was forced into by the British, on account of them bombarding the Danish-Norwegian merchant fleet and causing the arrogant Danish king to side with Napoleon Bonaparte... In 1814 we got our constitution which explicitly said all official documents and legislation be written in _Norwegian_, a language, at the time, nonexistent. Far away in an unforseeable past, beyond the days of the Black Plague which only left a quarter of the population alive.. people spoke and wrote another language, the language of the sagas and the vikings.. now we don folk costumes designed with a German folk inspiration, for a few centuries we have pretended the "best" of our culture has been unqiue, different from the other Northern European cultures, very different from the Swedish and the Danish... ha!
But we need invention, we need grand fantasies, we need to build up an identity.. apparently. Im having a great allergic reaction to the gloriously bright green Birch trees present everywhere, painting every surface green with pollen.
Happy National Day, indeed.

Springtime Flu

I have been knocked out by influenza and haven't been able to attend the Easter services at the Chapel. I have been able to observe my lent fast, though..despite all other infirmities.
My thoughts have been all over the place, in front of me there is a rather stressfull period of mock exams until the real going from the end of April all the way to July. 6 in all. And that is only the first semester. I have been reading a lot, mostly Recent History, English curriculum and Norwegian (mainly Literary History from medieval times until today..its a hoot, I promise you)..precious little time to sit down in front of the computer and jot down some lines on the Blog.
Oh well, Im sure I'll get a chance a little later. In the meantime, March marches out of view. On the plus side spring is finally catching hold with some sunshine and disappearing ice and snow.
On March 16th we had a service for the Cathar Martyrs at Montsegur and I suppose I will get better so I can attend Low Sunday service next Sunday.

Last Day on the Job

I am now in the progress of packing up and leaving the Zoological Museum in Oslo. Its been a pleasant, interesting stay. A lot of work, a lot of research; a lot of hours in front of a monitor... I am onto better things, I suppose.

Books im reading ...9

Milorad Pavic: The Dictionary of the Khazars. Male edition. (in Norwegian)

I took this book with me on the holidays, in the Southeast of Sweden (Aamaal and Stensvik), on the hunch that I could leisurely withdraw to a few pages now and then, and by that draw some concussed wisdom from it. I have read that book before and got the impression that it was full of beautiful stories which were just a few years of life-experience away from me when I read it (at 19 years of age). Presently I can report that 12 years werent that much of a help. I am not going to slaughter Pavic's obviously masterful and inventive work, rather I feel like apologizing for my inability to concentrate. In the introduction the author proposes a deal where he would finish his writing before his dinner, so as to suppress the obvious tendency for authors to drown his reader in exaggerated detail, circumscribing style and other literary obsessions - while his reader would read each portion after digesting his dinner, so as to be prepared to be patient and prepared for whatever remains of the selfsame in the text. The Dictionary of the Khazars is a honest fabrication, which distinguishes it, along with Umberto Eco's parodical novel Foucault's Pendulum - from tiring and dishonest tripe such as Dan Brown' s DaVinci Code (which I am sure to lambast one of these days, when I feel prepared to do so).

Among the circumstances which recommends the Khazars as a chosen topic of investigation are the fact that although they have been given much attention, especially in regards to Semittic and Slavic studies, and the interrelationship between indigenous East European and Russian tribes and the important Jewish demographic in the same areas - they are indisputeably still an enigma or a mystery to the selfsame scholars and researchers. For those with little or no grasp of the aforesaid areas of the humanities, even more so. In some sense the inhabitants of Khazaria for us is as exotic as the improbable but ponderable citizens of ancient Tløn (Borges) or for that matter, the fascinating but more accessible characters of MiddleEarth(Tolkien). Having read fantastical literature from the age of 10, even such intended for an adult and educated audience, I am by now well acquianted with the methods and techniques used so as to transform a net of exasperating diversity and plurality into a spearpoint; what the dictionary lacks is some kind of concrete climax, but as its form suggests, such a climax where never promised in the first place. I decided after failing Pavic to undergo a literary penance for my boredom and neglect by reading Jorge Luis Borges short prose, I suppose I shall have to report on the progress afterwards.

A high-point in my readership where my appreciation for the discussion of the dream hunters, the sect inspired by the poetess Princess Ateh: the mediatory and partly salvific, partly fatal realm of dreams gave me a glimpse of a literary and contemporary, mythological application of Hurqualya as we find it described by among others the founder of the illuminist or theosophical school of Shi'i Islam Yahya Suhrawardi, or the Terra Lucida described by the Manichaeans, you find them compared in Henry Corbin's masterful books The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism and Spiritual Earth, Celestial Body. The triangulation of the meeting of dreamers and dream-watchers also suggested to me the constellation of the guide and the guided, and the angelic presence which manifests between the two, whose name in our own Judeo-Christian culture, in the interpretation of among others Corbin himself, would be the Holy Spirit: the completion of Adam Ruhania, who by Yehudah HaLevi (an actual literate of the 12th century, who apperently actually devoted an entire work to the Khazars or Kuzari) is compared to Adam Kadmon, which to me suggested the character of esoteric Mazdeism as well as Ismailiya Islam, Salman Pak/ Gabriel of the burnt wing, a Hermetic (if we regard Zosimos of Panopolis epochal work The Book of/on Omega as contributing to the later Hermetic corpus and tradition) as well as a Cabbalistical theme: an internalizing of the Tikkun Olam, which necessarely becomes the quest and greater jehad of the Soul for a restoration, reintegration, or as the renaissance and reformation humanism has given us, regeneration - of greater Man. A similar theme was already making curious formations in my unconsciousness as I have been studying Corbin's Imago Templi in confrontation with the Profane, a paper he delivered at the Eranos Conference in 1972, the year I was born.

Therein he discusses the four phases of the Imago Templi, whose middle distance everyone who is born into the world but fail to apprehend and understand the context and meaning of such births find themselves: namely, my friend Jan Valentin Saether's orientational theme - Exile.

The Temple, the sanctuary and dwelling of the Divine, the extraordinary, supramental, Sacred - that which participates in the degree of perfection, the good, the light, the progressive, revelatory, beautiful in contradistinction to whatever else manifests, arbitrarily or voluntarily, in any given universe: necessarely only is represented in history, in events which is projected from and to human minds, the distance between being filled by Grace, even in calamity, catastrophe and perdition - is represented in like manner in the mythopoetic
dream
in Pavic's work.

I will return to Khazaria, or rather the conjectured Khazaria contained between the binder of Pavic's encyclopedic novel, later. Perhaps I will try to read it in one of the suggested alternative ways rather than from first to last page.
Some impressions remain with me, but I cannot claim to have comprehended or made sense of the work. Perhaps it is intended to be more of an exercise for the reader than what usually passes for fiction. We shall see.


Some sites I have found on the topics of Milorad Pavic`s Dictionary of the Kazhars.
Milorad Pavic: A brief Autobiography, at Khazars.com.

As a Writer, I was born two hundred years ago, Interview w. Milorad Pavic, by
Thanassis Lallas (Dalkey Archive Press)

Official site for Milorad Pavic, maintained by his wife, Jasmina Mihajlovic. www.khazars.com

I'm Engaged to the most wonderful girl in the world

...obviously she is to me, or else there wouldn't be much of a point in it, would it? I think I have broken through another barrier in my life, but now I have got company. Which is strange to me. Intimidating, tiltilating, weird. It was an ordinary Tuesday and I was lost for other words to tell her, so I stumbled in my own thoughts, reached for her, drew her near, and asked her - and she said Yes. The rest is some kind of future, which I can neither predict nor guarantee, except that I'll be there - every step of the way.

May, which is her name - and me, have stuck together for three years now, of which two have been a state of cohabitation and partnership in every day life as well as special moments, of which there are more than I can count.

It's typical of me to attempt to explain some simple thing with too many words, for anyone left to hear them, sort through them, shift them for meaning, a lot of patience is neccessary - May has had patience, for which I am really grateful. But I know she knows how I feel about her.
We haven't any concrete plans about when, how and where - but we have at least come around to sharing the intention and desire to get married.
So presently that is what I have got to say about it. I hope you all have had a wonderful summer, I am sure I have, even though there has been just a few bright hot sunny days in July.

2nd Anniversary of this humble blog

Its been two years since I idly began writing in this blog... its not much
advertised and has a really humble readerships. Sometimes I wonder
if its just me and the web spam spiders ... or something.
I had hoped I would have handled it differently, shared important things and
events, thoughts, discussions, facts and tidbits. Im not sure what this blog
owns up to. But it has engaged me throughout two full years.

Congratulating Teresa + Jacob

In a brief email the other day, my friend Jacob Holm-Lupo told me that he and his wife, Teresa, is expecting a child. I am happy for them, and wonder at what kind of beauty and wisdom can manifest from the fruit of such union as theirs. I am also anticipating the release of Jacob`s band White Willow`s new album sometime in the near future.. just malapropos.

New Year

Congratulations - If you are reading these pages you have survived another year into the 21st century, and are part of a historical movement disproving the dire prophecies of certain misantrophes.

It`s January the 7th 2004 - or could be, after the beginning of the Christian Era, or thereabouts, considering it took a 4th century Roman Emperor to make it that..and a lot of bishops, nevermind.. whatever`s on your calendar for the present day, here is now.. or was..

Christmas greeting

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all...
I`ll be taking a break from blogging during this holiday season,
hopefully I`ll be back online in the new year..

Shirin Ebadi`s Nobel Peace Price Laureate

Last night an elect company of souls, some weighed down in glory, some in an unponderable weight of responsibility - gathered to be entertained, on the occasion of Doctor Shirin Ebadi`s receiving the Nobel Peace Price. On that occasion some words were said that make me feel Mrs.Ebadi has step forward into a role which currently were vacant. There has been a lot of talk about Mrs. Ebadi`s efforts and character the last few months, while the "west" admits
that they had been unconscious of it. That Iran is such an obscure, isolated, backward country that rarely lets news, or persons appear in the "limelight" of the press. I think quite a lot in the audience, as well as in front of the TV screens, shook their heads sadly at the insistence of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas that to "us" she had
been a complete unknown until suddenly out of the blue, someone had "discovered her". Her work has been known and noticed by both political
and voluntary organizations, and reported on, especially as it regards a censure of the deficient legal system in several countries which violate the basic human rights of women, without foundation in the "law" the judges claim to be subject to. Such censure is impossible to direct from outside the tradition and system.. with impossible, I mean this - If I do so myself, it will be completely ineffective.. I could, like the Americans, elect to attack and imprison those who represent such views and approve such verdicts, even kill them - but I would not be able to make them see the error, or make them in any way disposed to correcting it.

We are trying to survive here on Terra firma (not in some unknown comic book galaxy which evidently Bush and a few of his closest confidants appear to have their heads), when this generation, and the generation before it - woke up one day, the world had many religions, many cultures, around the world, on each continent - you would find differences in colour, in language, in customs and in value systems. This was yesterday, and this is today.. nations and people like me, you or our nextdoor neighbour, have some say, it is not much, each to our own, in what tommorrow will be like... While I might not agree with you, I think perhaps that we both should think about whether we really want the Middle Ages to come back, and if it is adviceable to drift into a conflict between whatever civilization we belong to, with any other...
With the advent of industrialization there has been a double agenda going in the international community; at one side, there is an aspiration towards progress, a universal progress which will benefit.. "everyman" - on the other side, we have the stubborn insistance that these things should "pay", that with the universality of security,health,wealth and wellbeing.. and of course, Human Rights, good manners and general amiability.. the last 40 years has been a touchstone to prove some speculations which were totally unfair, and which really belong to the 19th century, not the 20th - utterly wrong - with regard to the "non-christian"/"heathen" nations of this world, with regard to the "impossibility of moral behaviour to generate in people who are not converted to the Gospel"(sic! some insist today that a person who is not religious (Christian, or even Jew), cannot do anything "good" or decide anything which in effect is moral or ethical) - and especially concerning the subjects of Islam.
I am writing this full well knowing that anyone likely to read it has most probably not lived under a rock the last 2 years - and are wise to events leading up to and following September 11th 2001.. in a larger picture, these
things are not representative.. in the smaller picture, the Moslem I am likely to meet if I walk out on the street today, is neither representative.. its exactly the case as with Abortion Clinic Bombers, most Christians are not supportive of or practicing acts of Terrorism .. for precisely the same reason most Moslems are not Suicide Bombers..

There might be a reason why the Douglas`es (sic!) and their compadres
feel that there has arrived a "new star" on the firmament.. but the novelty of this star is a greater "mass media" audience. Nothing wrong with that, Robert Plant, while apparently a bit moved by the event and distracted, paused to report that he was overwhelmed by the "positivity" he had spotted in the mass media, "let`s have more positivity in the media, let us hear of the efforts done by people like Shirin Ebadi in helping right all the wrongs" - paraphrasing him quite crudely here.. at first I thought the sentiment were a bit 70ish, but really we have had a lot of negativity since 9/11/01 have we not? At least in our "media" diet. It`s time to digest things, not repress them, anasthetizing ourselves, forgetting things.. going on as if nothing has ever happened. Quite a lot has happened. I am not a prophet and care exactly zero about divination, but I will say that we have entered something new - if not anything else, a new century and a new millenium. I titulated Shrin Ebadi as "Doctor" - not only on account the weight of a formal title, but because I am quite under the impression that the sum of her effort and her approach is much like that of other "soul repairers", they are not surgeons - there are many more surgeons around than soul repairers, more psychologists whose subject matter is theory and theory verification/research rather than the healing of their patients; Shirin Ebadi is also doctor of divine law, she is not only a practicioner of Islam, she belongs to the unfortunately small number of_conscious_ practicioners of Islam; conscious not only of the existence of boundaries within her own religion and the dynamic in the mediation of prayer,meditation and communion (community) - but conscious of how every nation (such as the ancient Persian, she invoked the name of Cyrus the great, a particular feat that I am sure turned a few heads.. both from her own country and from westeners), every commonwealth is affected by the interior life, also the spiritual and religious life, of each individual. In her conversation with the "hosts" of the Nobel Prize "show" she chose to insist on a comparison between the "greater" and "smaller" picture - the individual and the universal, the single person on its own - and the great commonwealth of nations, countries, states .. and beyond. The work would never really be finished, it appears, but there is such joy in pursuing that. I am sure the translation of her Farsi were of a somehow diminished nature due to the "rush job" they did of it - but quintessentially, what in a general and plain way Shirin Ebadi offered, is essentially a vision/dream and a high ideal of participatory redemption; we struggle even within ourselves, she said - until we can achieve equilibrium and a peace with ourselves, we cannot truelly contribute to the healing of conflict outside.
Wise words.. from a very brave woman, she isn`t an exile-Iranian, you know - and she has now chosen to speak stern words not only to her own countrys goverment and the priesthood there, but to the "western" and international community...


Iranian, Female, Muslim - working for the rights of Women, Children and the unprivileged - in Iran, offering legal defense for dissenting parties in a political minefield, on the ever-painful verge of reform... it sounds perhaps like a short life to some, let`s hope.. no let`s hope and pray, it wont come to that.
Long Life to Shirin Ebadi!
Salaam!

Books im reading...8

Having finished Umberto Eco`s excellent Baudolino, I began reading Paul Auster`s most recent novel, The Book of Illusions....It was a most pleasant surprise, Paul Auster has become established as a storyteller of brilliance..the tabloids have been full of praise..I was becoming suspicious, was this "hype". I have to admit I waited to pick up this book until it had hit the paperback format....

David Zimmer, Professor of Litterature at Vermont College, age 39, enters into the most deciding crisis of his life. His anchor of identity and confidence, belief is unrooted as his family plummets down from the sky in a planecrash. Only memories, too confounding and painful, remains... by a coincidence, he discovers the work of Hector Mann, a struggling late 1920`s silent movie director/actor - and the comic and dramatic universe of his films. As a work of consolation and obsession, Zimmer begins to track down the director`s lost movies and writes a book about them....a decision not without consequences.
The book has style, a well defined personae dramatis and the eloquence and timing that Paul Auster is famous for.. It gave back a lot for the little time and effort I invested in reading it.

ramblings on 11/19

At a significant stage in my life, I quite believe I had the perspective that this life is so arbitrary that it has no interior value. My experiences coincided with what were popularly being interpreted of the Cathar Gospel "Hell is not some other place, some other time ; Hell is the world now! ".

In my poetic ramblings at that time I used to call existence in the world a sickness tiring out the intellect, draining out the last resides
of soul. Today, if I turn on the radio, at some time in the day, Black Eyed Peas "Where is the Love?" will inevitably be playing...not thats a nice song full of hopeful desperation, perhaps more in keeping with our times - when I awoke with these visions of the world, a dark harrowed place, at least Norwegian culture were divided into two camps completely disinterested in eachother and working at cross purpouses - lets say I thought of myself as participant in "the other camp" - listened to Punk Rock, read anarchist classics, joined angry demonstrations against the "establishment" - all the while thinking
no justice could ever grace the "world" and only luck and coincidence would ever secure anything of the kind for myself.

I agreed with the catchphrase at the beginning of "Bullet with Butterfly wings" by Smashing Pumpkins:
The world is a vampire!. The topic, which is insiduous in "post-modern" culture - I only have to say the word "Matrix" and only the most detached and uninterested "initiate", that is to say, viewer of that
cinematic experience, will not get what I mean.
Im wondering if more people, especially the young and impressionable, while keeping it a secret, wakes up with a scream, in a cold sweat, all tangled up in their bedsheets... drawing back the curtains, not to be entirely comforted... I was, but perhaps it was because I had an "overactive imagination", perhaps also, if you are twelve in 1984 you are destined to have your ears propped full of dystopian rants and the screeching moral anxiety of a generation that did not push over the "Status
Quo", but joined it, the 68`ers, now in their late 30`s and with a serious ideological hangover..

Now our culture has elevated shallowness,superficiality,so-called irony and decadence to the position equal to any
other behaviour and expression of our humanity and our civilization


Jim Jones was nothing, if not an idealist. Now youre worried I am going to glorify the man and what he did - or made others do. But, while I suppose you shouldnt care, wouldnt care - the story told by the
tabloids arent exactly true, a lot of generalizations and ignorant banter doubtless is justified when speaking of infamy which is undisputeable. Let`s say that someone as supposedly detached as Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple thought of themselves as, spoke of themselves as - the Pastor,
or rather "father", the Patriarch -would never allow what happened to begin to happen, it was a process and thats what scares all of us well-established,sane,analytical brainboxes looking at the photos circulating
today. I wouldnt have mentioned it in my blog if it hadnt been for the disgraceful way a tragedy is being dragged in front of us because someone thinks it is interesting to give whatever he dislikes a kick. I dislike Media as the animal it is, I despise it - not individual papers, not individual television companies, not the radios, the corporate tabloid mill, the commercial and private Internet.. but what, bunched up like a fist, the Media is, in the experience of one soul. I watched the Gulf War with the infrared, night-goggled
vision of an "innocent assassin", some young man, like the pilots of Enola Gay, just flicking a switch, following orders... 30 years after Stanley Kubrick`s Doctor Strangelove!...If I resented, felt strongly against,
despised,loathed, wished the demise of one Iraqi president, and partied with the ranting lunatic in Washington - I could subsconsciously slip my hand in, and support the killing hand.. so easy, like a computer game, like
pretending -like crashing toy tanks against eachother in the sandbox.
There`s no doubt in my mind that the right temperature for ignition, as far as the massacre at Waco,Texas - were supplied by the national Media,
the Media of course, is innocent by definition - even propganda does not draw the killing blade against people, it puts images in front of the eyes, and voices inside the heads - that does these terrible things.
Im saying these things because these brown eyes saw the world, when the curtains were drawn apart and
daylight could come in - when the demigod in the livingroom, whether radio or television doesnt matter - droned on, when the inkblots of newspaper headlines could be visible.. much in the same manner as Jim Jones did. The world werent significantly different in terms of Zeitgeist, we lived in the same century,
the west were the west, when I think of it, despite a suspiciously communist friendly regime plodded along and created good little socialist citizens in Norway - it was much the same as some suburbian Texas or California or wherever at that time.. I am not sure how it is with everyone else, but I am desperately trying not to become a product of my own envoirment - in my view you have lost everything if you allow that to happen, as a sociologist concession to the fact of criminal behaviour, perhaps its barely workable, but only the most defeated will resort to it on their own behalf. From what I see from the CIA tapes and other materials published in the wake of what ensued, which actually originated either from Jim Jones himself or from Jonestown - there are quite in evidence that he and the whole demographic he associated and which drew his audience, his supporters, his family - were worried about what would happen if a war broke out which no one could stop, which would keep on escalating, he was worrying what would become of humanity, of the children - of our world, if a nuclear war was unleashed between the two superpowers.
Jim Jones was "unamerican", he was not an ordinary patriot, and with regard to fundamentalism, if you bother to read up about what it is, and consider that we are dealing here with Christian theology, you`ll see he was not a fundamentalist - I am saying this because he said he believed that America would drop the bomb on communist China or Soviet because America
could and would profit, probably just briefly, from the carnage; which is a political statement, his symphaties for the prophesied victims of such an action did not make things better. He quit talking about the Bible, God and Jesus
- he went over the top and out of some strange whim began to speak about Principles and Divine Socialism, of how real justice, real freedom and real salvation only could be the product of people`s efforts and hard work...
This is what his moral supporters in the 1960`s heard, this was what he was saying - while not as extreme at the time, and in a proper evangelical christian vocabulary, at the very beginning of the congregation which became
the Peoples Temple. People denigrated and pestered over their early symphathy for Jim Jones included Martin Luther King Jr., none of them would ever agree with the extremist, radicalist, defeatist action done on
the "White day" (they planned a "white" or "dark" - lik Elijah Mohammed, Malcolm X`s former guru, Jones thought that the english language and its definitions attaching to "black" and "white" were racist and furthered
racist thinking, as a measure against this he shared his enthused conviction that God was Black, probably also a Woman, when you think about it - or why just one woman or one man... and so forth) - that day was about how a dream
had died in one person,upon whom "everyone" relied and who the collective would not allow to be questioned, Jim Jones, as we perhaps say it in the vernacular, had gone over the top and become insane, mad, crazy..
as a consequence of the extreme violence, not merely physical - but psychological, unfortunately, the Media has had to make a cartoon character out of him, and by consequence, his victims.. the Media does not allow
these to have choices, invidiuals lives, personalities... and the priorities necessary. Media exaggerates the power of influence of one person to vindicate the "innocent", which is any body laying around dead when the
smoke has settled..

All over the world a very little body of human beings will have remembered the horror, the violation which this "white day" of November 19th 1978 in Jonestown represented. To the immediate family (913 chiefly Americans died) and survivors of this "utopian" "socialist"
"experiment" in the jungles of French Guyana it is still a heavy day, a difficult day, a day unreconciled.

Apropos - you can find A brief CNN interview with Laura Johnston Kohl, Jonestown survivor -
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/West/11/17/cnna.kohl/index.html
On the occasion of the 25 years of attempted healing after "event Jonestown" - when media pissed all over itself as if there hadnt been a World War 1, World War 2, Holocaust, Hiroshima Bomb, Stalag death camps, Vietnam, Cambodia and so forth...

More on Umberto Eco`s Baudolino

This really should be under a miscellaneous header..but it`s okay.

Yesterday I finished reading Umberto Eco`s new novel Baudolino.

I am very satisfied, it was well worth the time and effort - while I suspect quite a few of us will be surprised reading the book through a second time, as certainly were the case with his epic The Name of the Rose - when details, subplots,symbols,characters,coincidences will begin to form new coherent patterns - it read like a "tall tale" , a tradition Eco does homage in his story of young Baudolino`s coincidential entry into capital letter "H" - History...
From a squalid,poor background as the surviving son of his farming parents in rural Fraschetta - his qualities as a fantast, a "liar" with qualities of imagination and fervour unparalleled by your common con-artists, impresses a passing red-haired, red-bearded German Knight, who just happens to be Frederick the IInd, nicknamed "Barbarossa" (red-beard) - thus Baudolino became the adopted son of what would become the first Holy Roman Emperor. Eco has Baudolino following on the campaigns of his "father", and have him studying in Paris, and introducing the idea of intellectual freedom and self-sovereignty in the universities(?).. whiling the time as students would, only a fraction of daylight spent in the intense quest for erudition - Baudolino plots for the advantage of his father, Frederick II. This is where the story speeds up and grows... Byzantine.. in intrigues..

While not desiring to give any more away.. there are some ingredients which perhaps isnt too obvious from the blurbs and reviews, but which are quite interesting to the type of people I associate and correspond with.. these are, in no particular order:

Item A. Prester John, or the Presbyter John - or at least the rumour, myth and legend which follows him - plays a significant role in the story as it progresses..

An article in the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912 informs us that the first reference to one John, Priest and King, of India - appeared in the Chronicle of one Bishop Otto of Freising(1112-1158). Of this particular work, the same source informs us that:

"The "Chronicle", dedicated to the cleric Isingrim (perhaps Abbot of Ottobeuren), is a universal history in eight books based in the main on the great medieval chronicles, especially on Ekkehard, but also on the church histories of Rufinus and Orosius. Otto's work, however, is by no means a chronicle in the sense of its predecessors. He himself did not call it a chronicle, but gave it the title "De duabus civitatibus", since, as he asserted, he did not wish merely to enumerate the different events but to combine, as in a tragedy, a picture of the evil which abounded in his time.For this purpose he adheres closely to St. Augustine's teaching of two states, especially as elaborated in the "De Civitate Dei", though he also used the ideas of Orosius concerning the misery of the world. Although the doctrine of the two states as it appears in Otto's historical work can be variously interpreted, he undoubtedly wished to represent the conflict between the civitas Dei (City of God) and the civitas diaboli (City of the Devil), between the children of God and the cives Babyloniæ mundique amatores (citizens of Babylon and lovers of the world)."

Otto of Freising`s life ended before he could complete his second great work, while having time enough to be applauded and lauded for his accomplishment of the Chronica.. more from the Catholic Encyclopedia:
"Otto began his second historical work, "Gesta Friderici", almost ten years after the completion of his "Chronicle". But he could not finish it, and at his death entrusted the continuation of it to his chaplain Rahewin."

Bishop Otto plays a part in the story of Baudolino, in fact, Baudolino learns significant lessons from Otto`s pious, yet pragmatic approach to truth, especially the Historical. Like the Doctor of Gonzo, Dr.Hunter S.Thompson, Baudolino realises that with History, as for Dr.Thompson for Journalism, there are much less satisfaction from sitting in a deck chair observing and reporting events as they randomly flit by, than intevening and making things happen in a proper and appropriate manner... which is to say, according to his designs and desires. All that being said, no - Baudolino is not a Fear and Loathing in the Second Crusade..if Eco set his wits to it, im sure that he could have tumbled out something like that, but why on earth should he?


Trailing back to the famous Priest-King John. Kerala is known as the "Christian state" - situated in the West of India, facing its coast faces the Arabic sea, small sailing boats with goods make the journey from Oman to the Kerala coast on a weekly basis, even today... Christian communities in India were reported on already in the mid 2nd century, and the tales of the Oriental Christian churches report that St.Thomas the Apostle (see Herbert Christian Merillat`s The Gnostic Apostle Thomas to find out where he fits in with the Gnostic traditions, especially the Syrian) were supposed to have been sold by Jesus to a merchant so that he would make the missionary journey to the heathens of India, of which the Acts of Thomas is a beautiful monument.
The chief Apostolic succession of the modern Gnostic Churches originate from the Malabar autocephalous Catholic community of the 19th century which had roots in the fertile soil of the Thomas Christian,Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) and Nestorian traditions present from ancient times in India, only incidentally informed by the 16th century portuguese Roman Catholic missions to India which tagged along with the East Asian Company and their colonialist military occupation.
The Medieval Sourcebook online, an excellent resource - reproduces an english translation (by James Brundige) of the significant portion on Prester John in his Chronica - were we can find the following:

"We also saw there at that time [Dec 1145] the aforesaid Bishop of Jabala in Syria.... He said, indeed, that not many years since, one John, a king and priest living in the Far East, beyond Persia and Armenia, and who, with his people, is a Christian, but a Nestorian, had warred upon the so­called Samiards, the brother kings of the Medes and Persians. John also attacked Ebactanus . I . the capital of their kingdom. When the aforesaid kings advanced against him with a force of Persians, Medes, and Assyrians, a three­day struggle ensued, since both sides were willing to die rather than to flee. At length, Prester John ­ so he is usually called ­ put the Persians to flight and emerged from the dreadful slaughter as victor. The Bishop said that the aforesaid John moved his army to aid the church of Jerusalem, but that when he came to the Tigris and was unable to take his army across it by any means, be turned aside to the north, where he had been informed that the stream was frozen solid during the winter. There he awaited the ice for several years, but saw none because of the temperate weather. His army lost many men on account of the weather to which they were unaccustomed and he was compelled to return home. He is said to be a descendant of the Magi of old, who are mentioned in the Gospel.He governs the same people as they did and is said to enjoy such glory and such plenty that be uses no scepter save one of emerald. Fired by the example of his forefathers, who came to adore Christ in the manger, he proposed to go to Jerusalem, but he was, they say, turned back for the aforementioned reason. "

In the lieu of these rumours, contributed by the Bishop of Jarbala - at a significant stage of the power struggle between the Byzantine Emperor, Manuel Comnenos, and Frederick Barbarossa, who had become the Roman Emperor at that time - which all revolved around the important pilgrim trail and the city of Jerusalem which still served as a grand symbol for the entire christianity - letters appeared, signed by the famous King, John the Priest.
CE reports: "About a hundred manuscripts of the letter to Manuel of Constantinople are still extant (with many variants), and afford an interesting insight into this exceedingly complicated fiction." Eco has Baudolino write one of those letters, in fact, he lets Baudolino discover and invent the genre.
In his letter, Baudolino makes reference to a certain artefact which would be of great use for Frederick to authenticate his authority over the Papacy....while not mentioning it by name or direct reference, it was construed to be the Gradaal,
the Holy Grail.. which leads us smoothly to


Item B.The Gradaal,also known as The Holy Grail.
In Germany Wolfram von Eschenbach, in "Parsifal" ,was the first to unite the legend of the Holy Grail with this history of Prester John.
Baudolino contributes in this fashion.. choosing original means, which turns miraculous by way of a certain mythosophical psychology necessary, I suppose, for anyone in the middle ages to survive the pressures of its zeitgeist. Prester John and the Gradaal (or Grail) are beacons of light, vehicles or receptacles, according to the person, of a hope which extends beyond the bleak horizon. In fact, in Eco`s story of Baudolino and his merry company`s journey, although irreverent in treatment, holds up - both the story - as form,activity,occupation and reality - and its object - and the objects - as receptacles of such hope, an inventive, restless hope.. a hope like some scamp running circles around the noblemen, who grown up and sane and proper, knows better.. but for knowing, bears the heavy weight of their heavy heart every day, only dreaming the scent of an exotic bloom or the taste of ....green honey.

I now realise that I had better not contribute more about Baudolino... it will be handed around to my friends... "read it", I`ll say... "it`ll do you good.".

Done that...went to see CATS...

Me and my gal got handed two tickets 5pm for a 8pm performance in the city of the (in)famous Musical Cats..."Do you want to go?" my father asked. Me and my girlfriend bandied around a bit, but do you know.. we went, and I suppose I shouldn`t say anything about it, but it was good. What did we expect except a few cheesy, but catchy tunes.. and entertainment all-around and a tiny bit over-the-top? That`s precisely what we got. So I have condescended into accepting an invitation into the glorious world of pop culture once again... usually such endeavours comes out of my own pocket, so those times are remarkably few.. OK: The dancing were breath-taking,the costumes looked good, the songs were ..catchy.. That`s all youre going to get me to admit, OK?

Books im reading..7

I am currently having Umberto Eco`s most recent novel, Baudolino, as company on my bus trips to work... I really loved The Name of the Rose
and The Island from the Day Before, and feel I am getting much the same fare now , and I am not complaining. Baudolino`s exploits as the adopted son of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa have fascinated me and held me in thrall for almost a week now. I read the book when I have my hands free and can spare some time, I am sure I would have read it from start to finish in one go if my life had been as vacant as it was when I discovered Eco through his brilliant novel The Name of the Rose. Being fascinated with the myths,folklore,poetry,legends,religious mysticism,occult and metaphysical speculations,art and architecture of the middle ages..and reading a lot of more or less entertaining scholarly works on the history and nature of that time period - I feel that with Baudolino that world, which has been, and which, phantastically still is - comes even more alive. The style of Baudolino is that of long narrations interjected with banter between the storyteller, Baudolino himself and his Byzantine scribe, Nicetas Choniates..Constantinople is burning, the latin crusaders have entered the holy imperial city with orders to humiliate and devastate the Byzantine empire as much as possible. With this as backdrop, Baudolino begins telling his story, which spans from his childhood in the "hicks" to his assassination of whom he claims is the murderer of emperor Frederick, his fosterfather.
As far as I have come into the book now, about 1/3 - I warmly recommend it.

Goodness Gracious me..someone tagged down my blogsite

So how do you really manage a blog that has a commentary ability when people working in the Sx industry use search engines to find searchwords
(in this case a species of bird) that suits their liking and post their ugly links all over our pages. This is the old tagging business isn`t it, someone sees a piece, it is nice, hell - let me just scribble my ugliest initials around it so good people from now on will think its crap.. Can I choose to audit and manually admit posted commentaries somehow? I`ll have to look up the manual or something.
Sigh! Hate to see this happen, isnt it enough that those bastards rob the bandwidth of the entire internet?

Books im reading...6

I have just finished reading Neil Gaiman`s childrens story Coraline . Since discovering Clive Barker`s The Thief of Always I have grown to expect more from my favourite authors, among which I count Neil Gaiman, than before..I began reading "adult literature" (I do not mean "adult" magazines) at 12 and became, I suspect, more and more preconceived concerning newer childrens literature.
Back to the story: Coraline moves to a new place with her parents,who - while they have chosen to be freelancers, being around all the time, nevertheless seems quite distracted from Coraline..so she gets to explore the flat, the garden and visit the strange neighbours. Readers will find that she will not be disappointed, the place isnt as boring as she suspects...but now she looses her parents, and her "other parents" wants to change her...

I recommend it..

Here`s a flash presentation of the story - Neil Gaiman`s Coraline at Mousecircus.com

More on the Matrix

It`s almost been a year since I put a little post up about Matrix and the conclusions and theories a lot of people put up about its mythology.
Star Wars director and creator George Lucas, as some of us know, were a student under Joseph Campbell, the famous comparative mythologist...he appears to have learnt from Campbell that all the good stories have already been told, all we can do is piece the component parts of these stories into new tapestries and stories. Since the 19th century and the influx of both romanticism, which re-examined and re-invented the golden age of the late antiquity religions,cosmologies and mysteries - and Orientalism, which did much the same with the oriental and asian religions and philosophical systems - our culture has appreciated, again, Mythologies and Legends as having religious significance, in addition to the historical and literary significance which were accorded it prior to this. The Gothic Novel, the Romance Novel and eventually the first movies - borrowed themes from such Mythology and fed these back to us, some of the most beloved of fictions were believed to be true, albeit in a more subtle way, many generations before.

George Lucas sure as hell is no Guru or spiritual advisor, nor should he arrogate to himself the role of an educator...I do not suspect him of this either, but the situation with Lucas is much like the situation with the Wachowski brothers and their prodigy - The Matrix - as has been tirelessly observed by Science Fiction afficinados, the suggestions made in The Matrix reflects a developement within the Genre, informed and increased by writers such as Philip K. Dick whose stories inspired among other cinematic fantasies the cult movie Blade Runner and subsequently a whole genre of movies with an Dystopic (the dark, caustic and apocalyptic counterpart to sunshine Utopia) theme. Fantasy and Science Fiction are genres which freely and sincerely mixes the components of our cultures - be it religion,myth,dreams,gods and technology.. the most mythomanic of these, as have been demonstrated by mythologists production of literary output in this genre, is of course the Fantasy genre, the stories told at the twilight, or while immersed in the dream-like atmosphere of "another world".
There is a lot of Blade Runner in Matrix, a lot of other earlier fantasies of being immersed in an "almost reality", part of the thrill being introduced to riddles about the fabric and constitution of "our world" which have been shared, perhaps candidly, between thinking men and women from the days humanity began walking upright, or even before that.
First and foremost The Matrix is a high-tech Visual and Aesthetic experience - a demonstration of the suggestive and alluring spin technology has for us; recently there was a Mobile Network breakdown in this city and the entire population saw demonstrated how helplessly and pathetically dependent they had become of the little gizmo that enables wireless transfer of data: be it a conversation by voice, by SMS or by computer... if you think a little further you will find how radio communication, the transfer of millions of unobtrusive and invisible signals...has become the infrastructure of our cities "lives"..does not our lifestyles and our homes come to resemble more and more like a Cocoon?
And if we are swaddled up in a cocoon, what will crawl or fall out of it once it bursts? Neo erupts out of a cocoon in the first installment of The Matrix, this theme of humans being batteries for technology, or the providers of necessary things are outline in Jean-Luc Godard`s paranoid noir movie Alphaville already in 1965, and before him in Fritz Lang`s Metropolis, also it features in Dark City.. which even features the chanting of "Go Back to Sleep" from the monstrous chief-computer`s droning voice..and the hero of that movie discovers finally that his world is not real, but a fabricated illusion as well... Could it be our dear Wachowski brothers aren`t that refined.. that they are feeding us bits and pieces of our own mythology, from the dreamworlds of our pulp fiction novels,Sci-Fi magazines, Twilight Zone on TV and a plethora of movies.. that this is the reason we recognize themes from exotically oriental metaphysics to recognizable "Biblical" themes, is that this compartment of our culture has been recycling the ancient myths again and again...?

At the time I write this, my dear friends, I have still not seen the second installment of the series; Matrix:Reloaded, I might go this weekend ..

The Journal of Religion&Film have put online a new article on the phenomenon of the Matrix(es) : Reassessing Matrix/Reloaded by Julien R.Fielding - I think I will leave it for a better study after I have seen the wildly popular sequel.. but thought I`d share it with those of you who have...

Meeting the Great Tit

A Great Tit landed on my hand and began feeding on my lunch...
I hope this makes sense to some of my readers. Or else I will
have to explain (sigh) - The Great Tit is a bird of the Parinae family,
its Latin species name being Parus Major. It is a very common bird in
the garden and everyplace else for that matter. It is black,white,blue
and yellow.. Why am I writing about this? Well, I did expect it at all, I`ve seen birds feeding from peoples hands, but it always appeared to me to be orchestrated and strained. This encounter weren`t like that at all. It appeared to me that the bird was as much sharing my lunch, as investigating this strange fellow sitting on a bench in the park. I have begun to eat my lunch in the outdoors occasionally, having the great fortune to be able to work inside the area of the Botanical Garden in Oslo...something I am beginning to appreciate more and more.

Write Better Emailes, make more moneys

Enterprising Honorable businessmen (from Nigeria) who have somehow gotten their assets tied up in foreign lands due to some totally unforseen (yet predictable) malaise - may now finally get some help in getting their hard-earned (/inherited) moneys back....

At the 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference...

.....I think it must be a lonely life being a Honest and Sincere businessman writing emails to the Entire World on a Weekly Basis....
Misery (not to forget Shameless and Degenerate Greed) loves company..
I think it might be a wonderful idea..

...too bad it is satire... brought to us by J-Walk Blog

Staying on...

It looks like I am staying in my job at the Zoological Museum at Toeyen in Oslo. A bit of a downside is that I earn around 5.50 Dollars (49 Nok) an hour due to the indecently low pay the Work and Administration Ministry has decided people rehabilitated from long-term illness needs.. I think they need twice the amount just to "pay" the tax of 35% of our income to secure social securities for the future.On my freetime I suspect sometime in the future I will hang around our Finance Minister and the Director of the Work and Administration Department homes waving menacingly with a steel-capped baseball bat and demand they dish out some breadcrumbs. Americans, Class War is reality in Norway and your brilliant invention "the Free Market" gains more popularity among politicians (spineless things.. in fact, I suggest we look into the possibility they might have been misrepresented as mammals, perhaps they are invertebrae.. I`ll look into the taxonomy, if I have the time) and voters
and employers..we`ll either have another French Revolution on our hands, or Norway, the second most richest nation will have a majority population consisting of mute and beaten slaves, like 19th century Africa and contemporary Bangladesh.

My job consists in registering the data contained on labels fixed to needles with specimens of Coleoptera - that`s "beetles" ..nice little carapached chitin critters with six legs and antennae.
Some of the specimens are over 2 centuries old, they change color, sometimes turning translucent at times due to some weird exposure. Some of them smells of mothballs.. When I began I thought it was some kind of poison ether or formaldehyde..in terms of the first possibility, our Civil worker friend, Hallvard, reported that poisoning the critters were a popular way of killing them, until Entomologists (thats "bug freaks") began falling over with their legs in the air.. I think he exaggerated, like the rumour he loved spreading about the cleaning maid letting out infamously poisonous Black Widows from their terrariums, forming invisible and lethal lairs around this ancient building... Never trust a kid that cuts off George Bush`s head and places it on Elle MacPherson body and pastes the infamy on his wall..
Anyways... this snippet pleased me somewhat as a Gnostic:

Among the most famous quote about beetles comes from the great population geneticist J.B.S. Haldane, who was asked what might be learned about a Creator by examining the world. His response: "an inordinate fondness for beetles".. Terry Pratchett, in his Discworld novel The Last Continent lets a creator (not The Creator, but among them) begin Genesis anew on an separate and new island in the great Circle sea..somewhere off the coast of EcksEcksEcks ...blooming and sprawling with life, vegetative and animal.. only possessing one rather noticeable and vital flaw.. there are only one of each.. hence the name Mono Island.. anyways, at a significant place in this story about a young creator and his island (sic!) *plot spoiler alert*, the most observant of the Wizards (your academic and traditionalist type of wizard, forget Harry Potter and Gandalf a moment..) who are stranded on this particular island, Ponder Stibbons, decides to stay behind on the Island while the wizards are rescued into a boat and pushed out to brave the sea in a ship grown for that purpouse - gets to discover that the particular creation of this creator appreciates most and above all.... is a Cockroach! Cockroaches and Beetles, incidentally, are not the same species.. a Beetle evolves through several morphic stages and processes.. Cockroaches clutch out their evolved self and only grows bigger.. and nastier... Anyways, Pratchett most probably found that quote of Professor Haldane.. he is quite a multivarious scholar, that Terry..

Beetling along...
And sorry for all the ranting. ;-)

Opera 6.02 comes to Mac

Rumour had it that the Norwegian software entrepeneurs behind the most user friendly and efficient Internet browser application Opera were ceasing support and update the product for the Macintosh platform. This is fortunately not the case, Macminute reported today that Opera has released version 6.02 of Opera (sic!).
Im relieved, but notice they want me to upgrade my OS from 9.1 to 9.2.2 .. which is quaint since Apple`s rather user-unfriendly attitude has made Os 9.2.* incompatible with the older generations of G3 computers.. including my "brand new" Powerbook G3 series laptop...so I`ll just have to wait and see..

Butterflies

Ironically, surrounded by these critters everywhere at my job at the Zoological Museum in Oslo.. they still serve as a metaphor for what I am feeling inside. An expert procastignator who have neglected again to check the balances of future employment.. A lot of stuff has happened here since last time I mentioned my job in this blog.. chiefly, a conflict has arisen between the University in Oslo`s Information Technology department and the three big Museums of Natural History.. the ORACLE-based database into which I register the contents of our diverse collections of bugs,ants and other crawlies, is one of the bones of contention.. I have noticed a series of issues with the database which if it were a commercial product or service would have been ironed out during the test phase.. unfortunately, in the institutional culture of the universities - necessary and continued use of the databases in all their incarnations.. constitute the testing phase.. ladies and gentlemen, I am confined to doing my live`s work on Alpha technology and no user support. But not for long.... I guess it is panic speaking, but I no longer care what my employment shall be, only it does not devour me and spit out a dead shell of some kind. Three weeks from now, optimistically speaking, I could report from any kind of employment that does not demand 20 years education and anything higher than a high-school diploma.. :-) But hasn`t the Master said "Do not be concerned from morning until evening and from evening until morning about what you will wear."
The Gospel of Thomas, Logion 36, Lambdin`s translation.

Towards Easter

I have had a busy two weeks, with job and moving. I guess im finished with the worst. Although to my horror I have discovered the new appartment doesnt have any space for my old Powermac. I`ve decided to make a backup of my ridiculously large document archive and port the whole thing to a projected new hardrive for the PowerBook G3 I inherited last spring. The future of the PowerMac8200/110Mhz and its ridiculous 17" monitor (it looms, I think the depth of the monitor must be twice the screen size or something...a sharp contrast to the modern flat High-Density screens available for the newer Mac`s these days) is undecided, I only know I have no place for it anymore and when I have upgraded the PowerBookG3 (its an pre-USB/Firewire version) to full USB and SCSI compatibility I have no need of a stationary computer.

In the midst of everything the long prophesied crusade into Babylon occurs.. synchronistically to my reading up on the complex subject of Catharism. As far as I can determine the big thrust is done with, we only wait to see the repercussions.

Then there is Easter - last Maundy Thursday (2002) I continued my journey through the Minor Orders of Ecclesia Gnostica to the order of Doorkeeper after almost a years stasis in the function of Cleric by ordination at the hands of Jan Valentin Saether, who has served as Priest for our Parish in Oslo since 1995, which I have participated since its unofficial inception the autumn of that year- come next Thursday I will have been an Exorcist since September 29th last year, which is to say for almost half a year. If my counting is correct we are 2 exorcists, 3 readers and 1 doorkeeper in minor orders in our Church currently, very steady and dedicated all of them. Many of whom I am very proud to be in service of the Altar with. The last year I have been struggling with my priorities with regard to writing, this coming spring and summer I hope to dedicate one afternoon of the week exclusively to studies,writing and a mass of editing which is just waiting for some serious work.

Towards Easter, I wish everyone peace and wellbeing in accord with that peace which resides up on high and from which all harmony and calm emanate towards us in minute particles in time. I also pray for God`s blessing of the entire community of dedicated Christians, whoever they may be - and especially my Gnostic brethren and sistren in the Gnostic Ecclesia as we enter the passage from suffering and death into the glorious resurrection on the third day and the triumphant ascension, and the mystical descent of the Holy Spirit, our holy mother of compassion and the promised comforter of every man who has entered into the world.
Pax Pleromae

Moving In

I have just barely made transition from one appartment to another with my
girlfriend..looking forward to settling in. The place does not look like a home
yet, although we do our best. We have plumbers, electricians and carpenters
wandering in and out of the place - a third of the furniture just stands there looking forlorn and misplaced. The place is full of boxes and I need to be careful in case one of them is full of glass or other breakables. On top of it all I`ve got a cold.. :-) ..

nice one

Someone posted a "Get Rich Quick" ad as a comment to my blog...
This Shartell fellow wants me to send him 6 dollars in stamps and he promises I will receive money in the mail.. I don`t know what to think of this...or rather, I do. The article were about subversive individuals who hack ISP and domain name providers and replace their clients contents with *illegal* material.
Read as a response its amazingly frivolous. But I expect its just another program produced by some kind of clever bastard who think its a good idea to hand it over to the kind of "marketing" industry we have on the Net. But the thing is, this stuff isnt real - theres no money in it for me, and no money in it for the perpretators of the scams...only loss of bandwidth and a nanosecond irritation before we remove or delete it. First comment in months, and what does it say - that I should get quick by getting rid of some extra cash I might be handling.. which I don`t. *sigh*

Gibbonized Oracle

"Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he
deceived in his expectation, that the senate and people would submit to
slavery, provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed
their ancient freedom."
- Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
Chapter 3


randomly generated from that work in Gibbon-o-Matic engine hosted by His.Com

2003

I have been neglectful of this online journal thing.
It appears to be tendential for anyone who has worked with it,
except if they are 24/7/365 dedicated online.. something I sure
don`t aspire or want to do...

A word about 2003 - I entered into the new year with work to do and
more or less an open mind.. I also entered the new year with a distinct
sensation that the world would go "insane" pretty soon, because of the
political insurrectionists up there in Washington, London &c
Its 30.01.2003 ...still the kettle is boiling.. did I hear a whistle...

I`ve been meaning to keep still and know that God is God, possibly even great (I wont enter the koranic inference here, lest some bozo thinks its some kind of coded message) ... In the face of such adversity, and the nature of it, a lot of people would be adviced well and good to pursue the iron discipline of such attitude, which is never passive.. but no, we can hardly expect that, can we?

The Moth does not seek the flame

Just found out that the reason a moth will circle around a lightbulb or a naked flame is that it utilizes the light of the moon when it navigates; thinking it is turning left it actually turns right in a steep curve - edging closer and closer to its point of reference.
Thus dies the romantic notion of Ikarus-proportions, that the moth seeks light, and that it`s attraction to light causes its demise.
In Clive Barker`s epic novel Sacrament one of the characters
feeds live moths to a pyre he has made, telling the hero, then a young impressionable brat - "living or dying we all feed the fire..." - the moth and the fatalistic motto is a constellation which functions well when we do not think of the scientific facts, but fades in glory. The Moth crashes into lightbulbs, windowpanes and some rare times into flames - because its natural envoirment has changed, and it is unable or unwilling to compensate for this.
There is a lesson to be learned there too.

A Buggy day

I´ve only just returned from my first day at work.. with good impressions from my workplace and colleagues.. and a distinct taste of formaldehyde on my tongue.. there had to be setbacks, after all. Probably you´ll find me glorifying one or another breath freshener, chewing gum or other remedies against such.. but It will pass, I was reassured by one of my colleagues that you get used to it, and I guess when I do, It wont bother me anymore..
The formaldehyde is used to preserved the small bugs on pins, whose data, such as place of finding, name of the registering authority, the discoverer of the specimens in question - and so forth...I record and register in the database...Okay, this is as much I have to write at the present moment.

Books im reading..3

Neil Gaiman:
American Gods..

Shadow is stirred from a sleepy and all but resilient stay in jail. On the same day his captivity ends, he is informed his wife has died in an car accident in the arms of his best friend and employer. On the plane homebound he meets a strange one-eyed gentleman that present himself as Wednesday, who offers to employ him as a bodyguard. Reluctantly Shadow accepts and discovers his employer is more than what meets the eye... but so is America.
There is a storm coming, and its name is War.

Gaiman has tapped into the "collective unconscious" of America and particularly the strange fact that the majority of blood that is running through her veins originates, through invisible arteries, from all over the world.. where man is, there you will find his gods, and as man finds himself to be an alien, a stranger in paradise, and also discovers the great struggle it is to survive on new soil, so will his gods...

I recommend the book most warmly and must say it was a fantastic experience to read it.
As I am a Gnostic, I also feel impelled to cite from one of the books from that particular religion:
God made human beings,and in turn,human beings made god. Just so,in the world human beings make gods and bow down to their products, it would be more fitting for the gods to worship human beings- The Gospel according to Philip, tr. Bentley Layton:The Gnostic Scriptures.

Books im reading...2

I have spent the last couple weeks reading Clive Barker´s newest novel for children,
Abarat.
It is the first installment of a sequel of books which deals with a young girl´s journey on the archipelago Abarat, whose apparent proximity appears to be in another dimension superimposed upon the barren wilderness outside of Chickentown,Minnesota…
The story is evocative not only of Clive Barker´s earlier writings, there is a dark sea of dreams, the Sea Izabella, which reminds readers of Everville of the sea of Quiddity - but also somewhat of Roald Dahl´s tales for children, where an atmosphere of everyday and "dull" events and problematics quickly takes a steep turn into the fantastic and often terrible; the secret and hidden dreamland beyond appearances and conventions.

On the outskirts of Chickentown,Minnesota - population 36,793 there is a tall tower made of timber whose function would puzzle the most imaginative of its townfolk, it is a lighthouse, raised for some bizzare function over 1000 miles from the shoreline. Escaping the persecution of her peers and her teacher who do not appreciate her attempts of making her dull and unimaginative town more exciting, she is the first in over a hundred years to discover the haunted tower, but also a strange creature who apparently is waiting for her.
During the ensuing tumults she is presented with a key for which it is fated she should become the custodian of. Unknowing she is maneuvred into a jeopardy she would never have dreamed of. I know little about the deal Barker did with Disney, but am quite sure he has not "prostituted" his gifts and talents to the "Industry", at least this is my impression from reading Abarat.

The artwork is quite characteristic of Barker and much to be preferred for anything the artists at Disney could have produced for the mass market, but its appeal lays as well in its weirdness and grimness, a grimness which is quite appropriate for the kind of tale we are told in Abarat.

I really appreciated his last effort in the genre,The Thief of Always where I strongly believe Barker has proven that he masters more than one genre and are well equipped as an author to enchant more than one kind of audience.
In fact, I am sure adult readers such as myself can find it as enchanting as it most probably will be for a younger audience - and that it has potentional of earning the same enthusiasm from its readers as some of Roald Dahl´s classics.

Having read the book almost from cover to cover, I am again perusing the first great fantasy epics of Barker, Weaveworld, with new appetite.

Books im reading...1

I am not sure how I found my way to reading and "collecting" Clive Barker`s books, but I suppose my bookshelf bears testimony of a certain consistency in my shopping for books - either Gnostic and esoteric subjects (becoming more and more eclectic) or books by such authors as Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (the latter two having co-operated on a peculiar little thing called Good Omens, so I really should have two of it),
In fact, in terms of Barker and Pratchett who are quite odd combinations, I have almost the complete works.. except they are paperbacks, far from mint condition.. and read more times than I can actually account for.

I was planning to read a lot of serious things,but then I got distracted by the arrival of Clive Barker`s Coldheart Canyon in the shelves at some store I would never suspect of peddling such goods (and which I am sure wouldn`t peddle such goods, if they could read the book.. but thankfully, such people as exercise censorship here does not possess the linguistic skills of figuring out anything about the contents of foreign language paperbacks and kindred goods.. except if the covers somehow betray their content.. such as Jamie The Naked Cook or somesuch..).. I am far too distracted a fellow to write a review of the book, and I have only traversed 600 pages of it, so I couldn´t do it justice.
The storyline is far more Gothic than the preceeding books Sacrament and Galilee..Hollywood must be familiar to Barker since he has been at hand as director and creative advisor for many cinematic productions, some of which were produced out of the blueprint of some story or other made by him (if only Philip K. Dick could have had as good creative controll over his legacy..)..but Hollywood is only actually embodied by the unfortunates who trespass into the forbidden..the most central character being Todd Pickett, Hearthrob, who have been talked into plastic surgery that goes terrible wrong...
So goes the journey into the shelter of the wildernesses exterior and interior, in a hidden canyon, in a dream palace..to the discovery of a terrible legacy from the Golden Age of Cinema and beyond..
It is not the best Barker novel I have read, it is the most recent, and the fact that he is so productive is reassuring, since I find I come back to reading his books again and again..

That`s not what I meant....

In Norway it is considered clever to be able to communicate with
foreigners in the English language. It proves, more or less, that
you had an education, is media-savvy and probably didn`t sleep
through your years in school as well. Our grammar is terrible,
but our vocabulary, however small, is usually correct.
I remember passing by a sign at the Oslo docks saying "Fresh Rakes"
, underneath the sign were a perfectly normal selection of freshly
boiled prawns, the small salmon-pink variety of it we have around the
North Sea... and it brought a smile to my face. I didn´t mean to be
smug about it, it just came out that way....
now,many years later.. I found the webspot dedicated to
Japanese Engrish......
I thought it was fun, don`t ask me why.. :-)

relieved...

I am 32% Geek

You probably work in computers, or a history deptartment at a college. You never really fit in with the "normal" crowd. But you have friends, and this is a good thing.

Take the Geek Test at fuali.com

Excursions 1: With Kierkegaard against collective "truth"

It has always caused a particular kind of unease in me whenever the faceless majority
has deigned it righteous and on time to proclaim another universal.
With the advent of a soft and cuddly authoritarianism presenting its credentials as being the necessary controlling agent, for the common good -
thinking men and women may indeed find themselves in a predicament worse than a rodent in a glass cage.
If he or she fail to conform to the norm, and even show signs of resistance to the newfound memetic drug being administered in the spiritual equivalent of Kool Aid; all flavour and no nuitritional value - You may take it for granted it is gloriously broadcast to all the world, and particularly directly to the dull synapses of the Mass-man. Having wasted prose on this nervous reaction to the self-evident truths of the crowd, I have assassinated my own character. Consequence is estimated to be infinitessmally small - yet it has presented greater minds than mine with a bill which is well above their ability to pay. One of the debtors, whose fate you may scrutinize and decide you want to join the barking choir after all, and conform now without regret and circumstance - were Soren Kierkegaard. A Nation may be trusted in doing nothing else, but butchering its own prophets,poets and artists...As predictable a treatment is the post mortem installment of the embalmed ghost into whatever derelict mausoleum serves as the national treasury of culture and learning.
Before being deterred thusly, Soren Kierkegaard exercised his human right to dissect the particular reality construct..the so-called world and everything, the beguiling lie which is whispered into the infants ears before they are equipped to hear anything else...

Soren Kierkegaard wrote on this particular topic the following:

There is a view of life which holds that where the crowd is, the truth is also, that it is a need in truth itself, that it must have the crowd on its side.There is another view of life; which holds that wherever the crowd is, there is untruth, so that, for a moment to carry the matter out to its farthest conclusion, even if every individual possessed the truth in private, yet if they came together into a crowd (so that "the crowd" received
any decisive, voting, noisy, audible importance), untruth would at once be let in.
For "the crowd" is untruth.

Where the crowd is..a decisive importance is attached to the fact that there is a crowd, there no one is working, living, and striving for the highest end, but only for this or that earthly end; since the eternal, the decisive, can only be worked for where there is one; and to become this by oneself, which all can do, is to will to allow God to help you - "the crowd" is untruth.

A crowd - not this or that, one now living or long dead, a crowd of the lowly or of nobles, of rich or poor, etc., but in its very concept - is untruth, since a crowd either renders the single individual wholly unrepentant and irresponsible, or weakens his responsibility by making it a fraction of his decision. Observe, there was not a single soldier who dared lay a hand on Caius Marius; this was the truth. But given three or four women with the
consciousness or idea of being a crowd, with a certain hope in the possibility that no one
could definitely say who it was or who started it: then they had the courage for it; what
untruth! The untruth is first that it is "the crowd," which does either what only the single individual in the crowd does, or in every case what each single individual does.
For a crowd is an abstraction, which does not have hands; each single individual, on the other hand, normally has two hands, and when he, as a single individual, lays his two hands on Caius Marius, then it is the two hands of this single individual, not after all his neighbor's, even less - the crowd's, which has no hands.

(Soren Kierkegaard: The Crowd is Untruth at Christian Classics Ethereal Library )

The same site has a lot of english translations of Kierkegaards works in its archives.

Books Online

Since I got myself "online" , Internet has been my second bookshelf.
There really are thousands of books available in digital format , so-called etexts/eBooks - but it is not always easy to find material - so I thought
I would share some resources I personally use a lot.
First of all, Project Gutenberg has survived 31 years, since it was begun
in 1971 when Michael Hart began scanning manuscripts into electronic
text format.. since then it has pioneered the literary history of the Internet,
enlightening thousands of students with internet access but no fat wallets.
Gutenberg delivers literary classics held to be within the "Public Domain" after international standards of intellectual property law, therefore not every book you are likely to find in a "real life" library. The formats range from plain 8-bit ascii text which all desktop computers can process, to newer formats for diverse mediums, includding Pocket PC`s etc.

The Online Books page
is one such resource, in all my surfing on the Net I haven`t found any site
so comprehensive... The New Listings is interesting for anyone who have already made themselves acquianted with what is available in the main Index.

As you might suspect, I am interested in the diversity of religious
and philosophical ideas, not only in terms of history, but also throughout
geography and culture.. A good place to start in order to find general
and specialized material is The Internet Sacred Text Archive
A specific Christian literature site can be found at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
The more heretically inclined could always surf down to
The Gnostic Society Virtual Library... or to the Alchemy Virtual Library

Star Wars II

Yesterday I went to the movies with my brother, his wife and her daughter.
We saw Star Wars II.. forgot the title.. nevermind.Fortunately I am still
so childish (or gullible) to enjoy a good fable, but the well appears to
be drying out for George Lucas. Apparently there is a covert narrative of
events in the world the last few years..but is no kind of epic drama of
the soul.It was the so-called action bits which were the most rewarding....
But it was good to get out of the house and do something with
my brother and his folk for once...

Work...

The last few months I have skimmed through the papers and the net for
a job. It isn`t easy when you know that first of all you have to make ends
meet not only for yourself, but for an entire family. And everyone asks
for qualifications (such as a Drivings License...) which I haven`t got.
There`s not much to say about this progression from hopelessness towards
some kind of solution, at the moment.

I plan to put up a portofolio of recent Graphic design/artwork and a professional looking CV soon on the net. I will just have to find the time to do so.

Getting Started

I have finally given in to volunteering personal and priveleged
information on the web through the medium of the "blog" -
I am not yet sure what to use it for, even though my brother´s
example shows quite effectively how useful a blog can be.
The networking/interaction etc. aspect of blogging must
come later, I guess I will have to learn a bit about this
standard before anything "looks" and "sounds" right..

The One responsible for the existence of this completely
irrelevant piece of data on the worldwide information highway
is none other than....

Jarle
my brilliant brother who inspired/taunted me into experimenting with this here blog thingy.

He has been, as usual, one step ahead of me in the
endeavour of realizing himself
through Technology.

...To think that
this fellow sat
hours behind my
Amiga1200, a
frustratingly
low bandwidth modem
- and "surfed" the
Bulletin Board
Systems of Southeastern Norway
...only 13 years ago.. We more or less discovered Information Technology together..ah, those were the days..etc.

Flash - most people will associate the word with "unfortunate weather phenomenon" or "indecent expousure" ...or a mix between both..but it is really a standard in Internet "multimedia" (sic! Sound,Image,Text and Interactivity &c)..produced by Macromedia.
Jarle´s weblog is profoundly preoccupied with Flash and related technology/issues..