Alden Beaman: Astrology and Numerology 10

The Number Eight:

This correlates to the Planet Venus, the color of blue, the sign of Taurus, the bull, the second house, and the letters H, Q& Z. -- MUSICAL

The Number Eight - Power, Authority Values New Money and Possessions.

The number eight is described by keywords of power, authority, values new money and possessions. I connect it to the planet Venus because Venus in traditional Astrology was the second benefic planet. Now no Planet is good or bad. Each has its good and bad side, however the archetype for Venus is easier to take than say the archetype of Pluto. The sign Venus is in corresponds to how and whom we are attracted to. Venus is like sugar it is what makes life sweet.

Venus rules over relationships. As human beings we are social creatures. Some more than others but all people need other people or the sweetness of life will be gone.

As an eight you combine your down to earth practicality and management ability with your people skills. Often this puts you in a position of high leadership such as an executive early in your career and a CEO latter in life. You are the kind of person who can delegate responsibilities to others well. People look up to you, as you are the type of person who can overcome obstacles. You are also highly competitive and once you set yourself in a given direction you can be quite stubborn in the pursuit of your goals. You are the type of person who can plan well and implement those plans. With your talent for delegating you don’t get bogged down in the details. Yours is a life of harvest. Do not become too proud or make fun of others less talented or you may find yourself humbled and loose everything. Eight’s can be very rich or loose fortunes. Whatever they do they do it on a big scale. As an eight you enjoy the rich life. You like to take it easy now and then so a game of golf while discussing the big plans fits right down your alley. You are interested in making a lot of money so that you can retire early and in style. Whether working or retired you tend to be status conscious.

The positive eight - Power, authority, money, dependable, value, management, organized, planner, possessions and people skills.

The negative eight - large losses, haughty, bossy, materialistic, stubborn, temper tantrums.

The Planet Venus - An Earth Planet

Venus is dignified in Taurus, and is detriment in Scorpio; It’s exalted in Pisces and has its fall in Virgo.

The house where Venus is found highlights the area in life where a person can excel (Taurus) as well as the social life of the person (Libra). The sign shows what type of partner a person is attracted to. Venus is a planet whose archetype includes all that is beautiful, arts, fashion and social.

The Color of Blue.

The two largest elements that surround planet earth are the oceans and the sky. (Water and air) Both are blue. Why? Well I feel it is to help calm us down and to relax us. Blue is a cool color. It is the color of peace. It has long been known to calm people down. It is soothing to the nerves. In the spectrum the color of blue is closer to the higher vibration colors of indigo and violet. Red the color of energy and warmth is at the other end. So blue is a cool color. People who are able to keep their emotions under check are cool and composed. I believe the color blue is similar to the color yellow in that it is a thinking color. It cools and sooths the nerves.

The sign of Taurus

In the Mazzaroth I believe that Taurus represents Jehovah. He had advanced to the position of a God. This corresponds to someone who has power and authority. Jehovah was chosen to make an eternal sacrifice for all his brothers and sisters. He accepted this calling before any of us came to live on this earth. The Jewish people would sacrifice bulls as a means of pointing their minds forward to Christ. The early patriarchs in the bible understood the meaning of sacrifice but by the time of the Judges (Book of Judges) this knowledge was lost and sacrifice was more of a ritual than a meaning. By the time Christ came to earth the full meaning had been lost. Even nations such as Egypt had different gods. All these nations sacrificed to these gods. At the time of Moses the Israelites worshiped a golden calf. It was wrong because they were worshiping a symbol and not the true Jehovah. They were doing what they had seen done in Egypt. Jehovah tried to reinstall the correct meaning back to the Jews but most of them never understood the connection or got the message. Jehovah instructed Moses on how to cleanse the priests. To understand the connection it is necessary to understand that Christ was the great high priest of ancient Christianity. The priests symbolically stood for Christ. The bull is used in the ceremony to cleanse the high priest so that he can officiate in his office. Exodus 29:1 "Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. Take one young bull and two rams without blemish. Another scripture shows how the bulls were offered as a burnt offering. Lev 1: 3-5 "If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it at the door of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD; he shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Then he shall kill the bull before the LORD; and Aaron's sons the priests shall present the blood, and throw the blood round about against the altar that is at the door of the tent of meeting. Another scripture that shows the connection between the sin and the bull is found in Lev 4:2-6 Say to the people of Israel, If any one sins unwittingly in any of the things which the LORD has commanded not to be done, and does any one of them, if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then let him offer for the sin which he has committed a young bull without blemish to the LORD for a sin offering. He shall bring the bull to the door of the tent of meeting before the LORD, and lay his hand on the head of the bull, and kill the bull before the LORD. And the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it to the tent of meeting; and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle part of the blood seven times before the LORD in front of the veil of the sanctuary.

The Bull

I find it interesting that Wall Street calls a good market a bull market. Again the bull shows power and new money. It is also interesting to note that Wall Street was started in the month of May and has a sun sign in Taurus. The sign of the bull. The bull is an animal that normally likes to stay calm and not make a fuss. It only becomes enraged if it is threatened or disturbed.

The Second house

The second house corresponds to person’s possessions. This would include how a person feels about his or her self and would include self-esteem. The sign on the cusp of the second house is often a good indication of person’s attitudes about their possessions. A good indication of a person having self-esteem problems is if the planet Saturn is found in the second house. Remember Saturn is the planet of delay. If it is retrograde it is an even greater indication of self-esteem struggles. A retrograde planet indicates a person who uses the energy of the planet, then neglects it and finally goes back to it. If a person does have Saturn in the second house they are not doomed to a bad self-image forever. Like all areas of life the door to improvement is open all the time. The second house has a lot to do with things. It is the spirit becoming physical. A child often says his or her toys are “mine”. The child is learning the concept of ownership and possessions.

The Letters H, Q and Z

The letters H, Q or Z will have a lot of number eight characteristics.

These characteristics are similar to the actual bull symbol as well as the Taurus sun sign or the number 8. If you skipped ahead please read the description of A, J & S in the number 1 to understand how to use the letters in the alphabet.

Alden Beaman: Astrology and Numerology 11

The Number Nine:

This correlates to the Planet Uranus, the color of white, the sign of Aquarius, the water bearer, the eleventh house, and the letters I, & R. -- SPATIAL - Uranus/Saturn

The Number Nine- Uniqueness and Sudden Changes, Freedom, Light, Spirit and Life.

Think about yourself. You are a unique person. No one else is exactly like you. Twins may come close but even twins have unique fingerprints. Each human being is a unique person. Our world tries to unify us and make us all vanilla but each of us has a purpose, a mission and something to commit to for the good or ill of society. We all have special talents and different abilities. (Birthday number and planets making sextiles and trines with each other, the ruler of the second house or planets in that house or any Stellums in sign or house.) Think about how different the world would be if Columbus hadn’t existed or Einstein, Edison, the Wright brothers or in our time Bill Gates. Now these are all unique people and special to the world but each of us is special to someone else. We all have families or belong to a family. We all impact someone. Even if we didn’t have a friend in the world we still are special and unique to God our Father Elohim . He sent his son Jesus Christ to give us all the gift of a resurrection. We will all live again someday. This is not as reincarnated beings but as us. Mediate on these thoughts whenever you get down or in the dumps. We all have our off days or weeks, or months or even years. We don’t need to have an off lifetime.

In Numerology nine represents the ending or completion of something. It is similar to the number 7 and Virgo. In Astrology the planet Uranus has to do with sudden changes and new beginnings. Often those sudden changes force new beginnings on us. Sometimes we loose our jobs by getting fired or we get a divorce. None of these things are good in and of themselves. We would all rather avoid them. In understanding the planet Uranus we need to understand the nature of its co-ruler Saturn. Remember Saturn is the planet of time. It is logical to note that getting fired or getting a divorce doesn’t happen overnight. To be fired one must be non productive over a period of time. To get a divorce two people had to be irritating each other for some time. Uranus does the work if we don’t do something about it first. In the job situation, the person should have recognized the burn out and done something proactive, like get a new job. In the marriage scenario the couple should have gone to counseling and really have taken the steps to work it out and make their marriage better. If people avoid the proactive steps to improvement then they can expect one day to be greeted by Uranus in an unpleasant manor. The number eleven (Pluto) follows on the heals of nine. It is the cycle and final endings number. Often it brings pain. After emerging from the whole process the person is hopefully smarter. This then prepares the person for a new cycle and the number one again. So how can endings be connected to beginnings? I believe that Uranus or the number 9 is both. Endings are usually connected to new beginnings. When something is complete and finished a new start is about to happen. When a person gets a degree and graduates and finishes college and thereby becomes complete, they are ready for a new challenge such entering the work world and getting a job. I believe endings go with new beginnings. That is why I do not see this as a contradiction of terms. I see both definitions working and adding to a larger view. In Astrology Uranus is about the future. Couldn’t it also have something to do with endings? Also in Numerology the number 9 has to do with endings. Doesn’t it also have something to do with the future and new beginnings too. Again I believe the answer is yes to both questions and both Astrology and Numerology can glean correct information from each other.

As a nine you are like Spock on Star Trek. You live for the future. You are logical and love science. You probably own the latest computer and you love the high tech world. You may even be an engineer. (If not you love all the new gadgets that they make). If you are not the scientist then you are the humanitarian and want to be involved in a cause that makes this world a better place for all to live in. You may relate to the statement “ I love humanity it is people I can’t stand.” Uranus is an air planet and as such you are probably more logical than emotional. You keep a distance between yourself and others. This may even be true of your own spouse and children. In your efforts to save the world you may neglect them. Try to keep this in perspective and realize those in your family are the most important people to you in this world. You know this but sometimes you get so caught up in a cause that you can neglect the one’s you love. You have the ability to influence and direct the masses. You are a visionary and can see way ahead of your time. You imagine a world where everyone gets along and there is no hating and killing. The people do not have to always get along. They just need to act civilized and not kill each other. Each life should be valued. You may not like someone but you respect them and understand there right to live. All are unique in your eyes. At least they should have the right to life, liberty and property. You are a lot like the number 1 in some ways. You both agree on the importance of being self-sufficient. You can be a loner if you have to. You have the tendency to judge yourself harshly so when people praise you it gives you the valuation you need to feel ok about yourself. You are happiest when you can be involved in projects that are for the good of society. Because you value all people you may have accumulated some strange friends. It is important that you learn discernment of people. If you do not, you may find yourself taken advantage of by some less evolved types. To be happy you need to be involved in some kind of a social cause. Yours is a life of service. One of your strengths is that you are not prejudiced. You may also be very creative and have a lot of artistic talents. You may enjoy music, art, and literature or be a movie star.

The positive nine - unique, individuality, humanitarian, futuristic, scientific, freedom, knowledge, light and life , service and completion.

The negative nine - bizarre, strange, rebellious, sexually perverted, stubborn, cruel, accident prone, nervous energy, and unfeeling.

The Planet Uranus- An Air Planet

Uranus is dignified in Aquarius and is detriment in Leo. I believe it is exalted in Sagittarius and has its fall in Gemini.

Let’s analyze this information. Aquarius is the sign of the scientist and the future. The sign of Aquarius is a lot like the number nine. Of all the signs Aquarius is a sign of conviction. A person may be so set on their cause that they disregard what others say. The number 9 can stand on its own if need be. Often this is the case, as people in general do not understand the Aquarius or number 9 personalities. Aquarius is the sign of individuality and uniqueness. It has its detriment in Leo because Leo needs an audience. Nothing kills a Leo faster than having the public hate his or her work. Aquarius could manage just as well without the screaming crowds, hence the detriment. It’s exaltation in Sagittarius and its fall in Gemini is my idea.

It should be known that all the outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are relatively new. Astrologers do not all agree on the exaltations and falls of these planets yet. I have my own ideas that I have developed from my own models. I think they are correct but they may not be the exact truth. Let me explain my thoughts. Both the Planet of Uranus and the Planet of Jupiter have freedom in common. Jupiter is the planet of no boundaries and Uranus is like space itself. Both Planets influence large groups. Uranus is exalted in Sagittarius as Sagittarius is the sign of foreign travel and travel over large distances. Jupiter is the natural ruler of Sagittarius and Jupiter is about expansion and growth and success. It makes sense that true Freedom (Uranus) is achieved only after a person has become successful. Uranus has its fall in Gemini. Since Uranus feels comfortable in wide-open spaces (Sagittarius) it is obvious that it would not like a small closed neighborhood. It would need a bigger environment to feel comfortable, hence the fall in Gemini. In addition since Uranus is the ruler of the sign of Aquarius and Aquarius is about inventions, theory etc. It would not feel comfortable trying to learn the truth about details. (Mercury). This is because it has already graduated and knows the truth. It does not want to seek the truth. Mercury rules the number 7, which is the seeking the truth number. Uranus rules the sign Aquarius that has a key phrase “I know”. Mercury may be exalted in Aquarius but Uranus is not exalted in Gemini.

The Color White.

The color of white contains all the colors of the rainbow. White is therefore a color of wholeness or completeness. The color of white is similar to the sign of Aquarius. White is the color of purity. Just like the color white contains all the colors of the rainbow, nine people are highly skilled and have many talents. More often than not, they have a hard time deciding what they want to do, or what they need to focus on. They need to focus and reduce their options to their strongest skills. (By doing so they will become successful). Later they can continue to hone the other talents as well. Of all the numbers nines are best at integration. Combining everything they know into a whole. In Numerology 9 is the endings number. It can act like endings since it contains all the numbers but it is more like the number 1 and new beginnings. In Astrology the number 9 stands for the future and a person’s goals etc. Scorpio is the sign of death and taxes and the hidden. It is connected to things under the earth and all dark places. Aquarius is the color of white or light, and the purpose of light is to help us to see. The territory of death and the hidden is black. In order to make any sense of a dark environment we need a form of light. People who explore caves or work in them always bring a source of light so that they can see their way around while in the dark. The 8th house is a house of darkness. It symbolizes the unseen depths and the area in our lives where we combine our talents with those of others.. A form of light is needed for us to be changed or transformed. The sign of Aquarius has as its archetype the future. To understand the future we need to understand the past. Which of us can predict the events that will occur on any day? We may use Astrology and Numerology to understand these things however no person knows their exact future. We may see bits and pieces of it but we cannot predict every specific event. If we could we could all predict the exact prices of each stock traded on any given day. We could predict all the scores of sports teams. We could write the cover stories of each newspaper in advance for any given day. As mortals we cannot do this. We may get close and be able to predict the big picture, but none of us can predict every minor detail. The color of black is the absence of light. One of the meanings for Aquarius is “I know”. That is why many 9’s have a tendency to know a lot of information like their cousins who have the signs of Gemini and Libra. To know a lot can be good and bad. It is good to have knowledge of things if one remains open-minded.

But that same attribute can hurt us if we think we ”know it all” and do not listen to other viewpoints. As mortals our knowing is never perfect. We should remember that our knowing is darkness to God. He knows a great deal more than any of us do. When we experience a crisis we need to turn to him. When our whole world is shaken up and everything goes black we need to turn to him for the light. If we do this we will find the light. However for any light to shine and to be seen, it has to shine in the dark. Darkness is associated with the unknown and the unknown can be scary. Aquarius can also include the bizarre and the strange. On April 13, 2000 my Mom had a major stroke. It was sudden and took us all by surprise. She had to be operated on immediately. The stroke was so massive that it destroyed half of the right side of her brain. The doctors gave no promises. They proceeded with the operation. They thought it was successful but my mom went into a coma. Everything was bizarre and strange. The numbers 9 and 11 can be confusing as they often act a lot like each other. Since 9 contains all the numbers it can act like darkness and because 11 is a master number it can act like light. In most cases 9 has its truer vibration in light however 11 can go either way. In this way 11 can act just like a 9. A great example in the scriptures is the name of Jesus and Lucifer. The name Jesus added up is an 11. He was the light of the world. Yet to be so he had to die for all of us. Lucifer means light. He was an angel of light that turned evil. Lucifer added up equals 11 as well. After Lucifer fell he became known as Satan. In this way we can see how light can become darkness. In his fallen state Satan has no light. He lost whatever he once had. So if your sun sign is Scorpio you don’t always have to choose darkness. Another equally valid choice is light.

The sign of Aquarius and the water bearer.

In the Mazzaroth the water bearer represents Christ who after completing the atonement and the resurrection (Capricorn) offers living water to all mankind. Prior to Christ’s resurrection the gospel message was declared only to the Jewish people. Christ often mentioned this to his disciples. Latter he opened the way for all people (Aquarius) to be saved. Peter was shown a vision of all types of unclean animals. He was told to kill and eat. This took Peter by surprise but he was obedient. The vision was to show him that God desired all people to have the gospel. Later a man came to him who was a gentile and he was baptized into the church.

The stream of water represents emotional strength. This gift is given to the church members (the fish). Christ spoke of these living waters to a woman at a well in Samaria. In John 4:10 we read Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, `Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The Holy Ghost (fire) will witness to the truth of all things and lead people to the truth. (Aquarius) That is why the sign of Aquarius is before the sign of Pisces. (The church members) The Holy Ghost is also called the comforter and the spirit of God in the scriptures. In the physical world white light will disperse darkness. In the spiritual world the Holy Ghost disperses evil spirits. Christ explains this to the Jews. It is written in Mat 12:28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Another scripture that shows our premortal lives were a reality is found in Mark 3:11 And whenever the unclean spirits beheld him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God.” How else could these spirits say this if they didn’t already recognize Christ as Jehovah from the Pre-earth life? These evil spirits have an advantage over us. They have not forgotten who they are or who we are. They do not have the veil pulled over their memory like we do. Because of this they know our weak spots. They use this knowledge to take advantage of us. They often use this knowledge in tempting us. Good and bad spirits do exist It is important that we do not invite the bad ones into our lives. If we do so we disperse the truth with lies. Just like darkness can dim light, unrepented evil deeds can disperse our light and our power for good. However a small amount of light, such as a candle, is best seen in total darkness. As the world becomes more evil it is important that good people do not give up. Even a small light from a candle gives off a lot of light. Just like a small candle our good deeds will be seen even more as the world grows darker. Christ did say he would come back to earth. He told the parable of the bridegroom coming at midnight. Midnight is pitch black. It will be a time when goodness will be at it’s weakest. Then the light of Christ will be most needed. Mat 25:5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, `Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him. Christ told a parable of letting our light shine. Luke 8:16 "No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, that those who enter may see the light. Brotherhood and peace will come (Aquarius) only after the people become one and consider each other as equals. Once that happens mankind will finally have obtained true light and knowledge and become whole. Also read about the number 11 for further info on the subject of light and darkness.

The Eleventh House

Traditional astrology has the 11th house as the house of goals because Uranus is it’s natural ruler and Aquarist is an air sign and all air signs relate to thinking or ideas. However I also understand the 11th house to stand for love received. The 5th shows love given. I understand the 11th house to represent the type of friends we have or hang around with. Through friendship we receive love as far as non-family is concerned. The type of friends we hang around influxes the type of social organizations we belong to Our different clubs etc .The sign on the 11th house cusp relates to the type of friends we surround our selves with. This is the house that depicts the social power a person receives after he or she has received a position of power in society. This is a fixed house so it often takes a revolution to take people or a group out of power once they obtain power.

The Letters I and R

The letters R or I will have a lot of nine characteristics.

These characteristics are similar to the actual water bearer symbol as well as the sign of Aquarius or the number 9. If you skipped ahead please read the description of A, J & S in the number 1 to understand how to use the letters in the alphabet.

Alden Beaman: Astrology and Numerology 12

The Number Eleven:

This correlates to the Planet Pluto, the color of black, the sign of Scorpio, the Scorpion and Eagle, the eighth house, and the letters K, & V. (V is a 22) 11x2 -- NATURALIST/CHTHONIAN - Pluto/Mars

The Number Eleven - Transforming cycles and Endings.

Dig below the surface, research and intensity.

Eleven is the number of transformation and intensity. It is called a master number. There are two other master numbers 22 & 33. However they are not that different from a four or a six combined with an eleven.

To understand them it is necessary to understand the number eleven first. Just like the number 9 represents the color of white light, eleven represents the color of black or no light. Often enlightenment comes as a result of hardship. Numerologists have said that eleven is the enlightenment number. I believe the Numerologist 11 is more like the Uranus energy of white light. In giving the number 11 the meaning of light numerologists have lost or forgotten what Astrologers have always known. Scorpio has always been connected to darkness. Darkness is the absence of light. So eleven is a master number in that it covers both light and darkness when it is connected to the other numbers.

Eleven walks a fine line between greatness and self-destruction. The environment of Scorpio is a difficult archetype to experience. It is the side of the number eleven that most of us would rather never experience. However life is not like that and it requires us to take our light (Uranus) and enter into the darkness (Pluto). In this way we can know how much light we really have. We are on earth to experience the good and the bad. We are to make lemonade out of the lemons we get in life. This is a lot like the number eleven.

Notice also that an eleven when reduced turns into a two and a two is a humble supportive number. It is not strong and powerful like the one. Yet it is made up of two ones, so the energy of the one is strong also. (Mars is the co-ruler of Pluto.) When a tragedy strikes it often humbles us. That tragedy brings depression sadness and pain. We often grow as a result of this adversity and tragedy. We are to transform and change and go with the ending. We are to use our light as a flashlight in the darkness of our lives. This is easier said than done. I myself have had a lifetime of adversity. I was born on the 11th of April. I can relate to this number well. However I never really loved the number while it’s energy was working on me. It is only after the dust had settled and the black clouds had dispersed that any good could be seen.

This sign in Astrology is the sign of Scorpio. The phoenix that rises from its own ashes is the archetype of this sign. It is death and resurrection. No one likes the dying part. However the resurrection will be blissful. When our bodies are resurrected we will be very happy. These will be bodies that will never get tired or sick. You will be able to eat when you want. That sounds very tempting, however I’m in no hurry to get one of these bodies, as I would need to die first. The description of the number 11 in Numerology books is overdone. When reading these descriptions it makes a person envious to be an eleven. It is the master number you know. We all want to be the master. However the number comes with a price. That price is the descent into hell before one can rise to the heavens. Traditional Numerology gives nine the ending label. I believe it is close to an end, but it is not the end. Pluto is the last of the planets. I believe it is final ending energy and because of this I feel very confident in saying that there will be no more planets found in our Solar system. There may be more planets found in our Galaxy but not in our solar system. The reason for this comes from the knowledge that eleven represents endings. The ancient astrologers often gave some of the archetypes of Pluto to Saturn. Saturn may be sobering but Pluto is final.

The number of eleven is the number of darkness, however because it is a master number it also represents the light. I know this sound confusing as light is light and darkness is darkness. However after deep analyses I have concluded that this number can go either way. Uranus the planet of light can become darkness as well. So if you have a lot of Scorpio in your chart, Sun, moon, mars, or rising sign it is not necessarily all bad or darkness. By the same token not all Aquarius people are saints either.

As an eleven you are you are extremely sensitive and powerful at the same time. Others notice your presence without your even trying, or being aware of it. You have a certain magnetism to you that others notice right away. You like your privacy and some people think you are too secretive. You also make a lot of your decisions based on your gut reaction and feelings. As an eleven you have the gift of healing and regeneration. This you do for both yourself and others. A key word for you is dig; you always get beneath the surface and are good at research and seeking. You would make a good detective. You may also be interested in Psychology or any subject that requires deep thought and getting to the bottom of something.

The positive 11 - dig bellow the surface, understands patterns and cycles, is a trend spotter, good at research, is a healer, is a good manager of resources.

The negative 11 - depressed, destructive, dark, evil, forceful, death, hell, terrorists, elimination. Over sexed and pain.

The Planet Pluto- A Water Planet and the color of black.

The Greeks gave the name of Hades to this god of the underworld. He was the brother of Jupiter and Neptune. I believe that there are bad sides to all the Planets as well. Neptune is often made out to be a pleasant planet but it can have its dark side too, drugs and alcohol are not necessarily pleasant. However no planet has a darker side than Pluto. On the other hand no other planet has the power to transform a person like the planet Pluto either. The road to transformation and change is straight through hell. Saturn may be an earthquake, Uranus may be lightning or a Tornado, Neptune may be a hurricane or a Tidal wave but Pluto is a nuclear explosion!!!

Pluto is dignified in Scorpio and is detriment is Taurus, I believe it is exalted in Virgo and has it’s fall in Pisces. The terrorist acts (Pluto) occurred on Sept 11 (Virgo). Pluto is dignified in Scorpio. No other sign gets as bad a rap as Scorpio. It is a double sign. It is the Scorpion and the Eagle. The Scorpion the darker side and the eagle the higher self. Scorpio walks the tight rope of greatness and destruction. This is the same for the number eleven. The name of Lucifer adds to 11 and so does the name of Jesus. One is a God and the other is a devil. Elevens and Scorpio’s have to be very careful about the decisions they make in life for they tend to be very intense. Pluto is in its detriment in the sign of Taurus. (Power authority and new money)

The 8th house shows how we combine our talents with those of others. Big established companies and powerful institutions and old money, banks etc are represented through the eighth house. New money is related to Taurus. If the business was inherited or has been around for generations it is Scorpio. Pluto is a planet of power and it is easy to see how power is exalted in old money. Old power is opposed to new power, hence the detriment in Taurus. Pluto is exalted in Virgo. It has its fall in Pisces. Virgo is a sign ruled by Mercury, which has to do with the logical mind. Pluto rules Scorpio, which likes to dig and get below the surface on all subjects. When digging and researching it is important to be aware of all the detail that is involved. Scorpio is related to regeneration and healing. Virgo is related to health and service. I believe that Scorpio would feel comfortable in this sign hence the exaltation. Pluto has its fall in Pisces. Pluto is about power and the sign of Pisces is about giving up power. It does not try to influence it goes with the flow. Pluto is about inheritances and Pisces is about not needing any earthly goods. I believe Pluto would feel very uncomfortable in this sign.

Pluto takes about 248 years to travel through all twelve signs. Since its orbit is elliptic rather than circular it travels through the signs unevenly. It speeds up from Leo to Capricorn. It passes the fastest through it’s own sign of Scorpio. (It takes 11 years.) It slows down from Aquarius to Cancer. Its longest time is 33 years or so. That is when it is furthest from the sun. In the sign of Scorpio Pluto is closest to the sun. Pluto is the final time clock of God. Uranus may show trends (seven years) and Neptune may show extended periods of time where things are slowly dissolved (fourteen years), but Pluto shows generations. (11-33 years).

Pluto is represented through the color of black. Since it is the planet furthest from the sun it receives the smallest amount of light of all the planets. It is interesting that it is dignified in Scorpio. This is the time when its orbit is closest to the sun. Black is the absence of color. It is as void as a vacuum. As such it is the color we fear the most. People who act evil or have an evil spirit or aurora around them are often avoided. Lets face it how many people want to be the friend of Hitler or some other evil person? This is why it is important to express the enlightened side of Pluto or the eagle. Black represents our mistakes. In order to grow we must remove ourselves from those errors. That is what repentance is all about. It is a process through which we can become clean or white again. The atonement made it possible to discard the parts of ourselves that we are not proud to own and to replace them with characteristics we are proud to have. In this way we become a new creature and change and progress and our old self dies (Pluto) and we are reborn (Mars).

The sign of Scorpio and the Scorpion (Serpent) and the Eagle.

In the Mazzaroth the sign of Scorpio represents an insect that is ready to strike. It represents sin and the darkness that results when the light (Good side of Uranus ) is ignored. It represents the concept of spiritual and temporal or physical death. It also represents repentance offered through the atonement and the new life through good works and the grace of Christ and his atonement. The transformation then brings one into the light and one is brought up from below the depths to be exalted to the sky.

Saturn is the co ruler of Aquarius. Saturn is the planet of exaltation. The scorpion is an insect with vertebrae that lives mostly in arid dry regions. It buries itself under the sand to protect itself from the heat. It is nocturnal (comes out during the nighttime) in nature. It prefers darkness to light. The eagle is a bird, which lives in the tops of cliffs. It soars high above the earth. It is able to see great distances with much accuracy. Once we come out of the darkness we are more like the eagle. A reptile that is similar to the scorpion is the snake. It lives in arid areas as well and is nocturnal. Both the scorpion and the snake are interchanged as archetypes or symbols of the lower side of Scorpio. It is interesting that the symbols for doctors involve the snake. Remember the good side of the number eleven is the healer. As the dark side it brings death.

In the bible there are two places that I know of where the snake brought death. The first is with Eve. She partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It brought death into the world. After eating the fruit there was a chemical reaction in Adam and Eve’s bodies, which made it possible for them to die. They still got to live about 1000 years but eventually they did die. Now the serpent was subtler than any other wild creature that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, `you shall not eat of any tree of the garden?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, `You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die." [Gen 3:1-3] The serpent allowed Satan’s spirit to enter into it and it was this Lucifer who was cast out of Heaven who tricked Eve. Serpents are also mentioned in the book of Numbers. Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. The people were complaining and Jehovah sent poisonous snakes to bite the people. Later after the people repented of their complaining the Lord had Moses tell the people to look at a brass serpent that was put up on a stick. If the people looked they would be healed. Many would not look because they did not believe it would work and consequently died. Those who did look and exercised some faith were healed.

Jehovah wanted to show the Israelites that he was a God of healing as well. He instructed Moses to have this brass serpent created and for the people to look on it. The serpent was placed on a pole. It represented the cross of Christ and his mission as the Savior of the world. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food." Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses, and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. Num 21:5-9. It is interesting to note that Satan being Christ’s brother (Mormon Doctrine) often copies his older brother in many of the archetypes etc. He uses the serpent for evil not for good. He is often referred to as the Father of lies. Pluto’s power used for evil is unlike the light, which is portrayed through the good side of Uranus or the good side of repentance.

The Eighth house

The eighth house follows the seventh house. It is the second house having to do with relationships. Remember the houses from seven to twelve are relationship houses or areas of life that involve society not just the personal self. It is similar to the second house, which represents personal resources.

In Scorpio these resources are combined and merged. It takes two or more people to create eighth house archetypes. In the seventh houses two people meet and become partners. These partners merge (eighth house) their resources and money. This can be a time of greatness or anger. When used correctly the combined power of the eighth house is greater than the singular power or resources of the second. Used selfishly (Mars is also a secondary ruler of Scorpio.) it brings much hate, greediness and envy. In marriages divorces occur. This is the power of Pluto gone astray. The eighth house is a house of potential tragedy. Remember this is the house of death, taxes and all such unpleasant subjects. A person’s first encounter with death is usually not their own personal death, but someone close to him or her. Often it is a parent or some other close relative, it may even be a child. The point is it is someone close. Only when the ties are close does the pain cause the soul to search for the meaning of life.

The sign of Sagittarius and the ninth house follows the eighth house of death. Jupiter the natural ruler of the ninth, rules religion and the meaning of life. Once a person understands that death is not permanent but only temporal, that person has great hope and a positive attitude. These adjectives describe the positive use of the planet Jupiter or the number five. The eighth house is a house of tragedy. It often takes the combined resources of two or more people to get through the obstacles encountered. This is why it is important that we help and serve each other. For marriages this is the house of counseling, psychology or anything deep and subconscious. On the grand scale of things all of us need Christ to help us overcome the physical and spiritual death this world brings. We cannot do this on our own. It took the power of God to help us overcome death and hell. Remember the man on the horse is shooting the arrow into the heart of the serpent. That hero Jehovah or Christ is, standing over the serpent that is trying to get away, in the fifth house.

The letters K&V

The letter K often has the power of 11, and V has the vibration of the number 22. Sometimes the person emitting this energy is responding to the lesser vibrations of the numbers two and four. In their full power these letters act more like the 11 and 22. The letters K and V will have a lot of the eleven characteristics. These characteristics are similar to the actual serpent or scorpion or eagle, as well as the sign of Scorpio, or the number 11. If you skipped ahead please read the description of A, J & S in the number1 to understand how to use the letters in the alphabet.

Alden Beaman: Astrology and Numerology 13

The Number Zero or Eternity:

This correlates to the Planet Neptune, the color of pink, the sign of Pisces, the double fish and the twelfth house. -- SPIRITUALITY - Neptune/Jupiter

The Number Zero or Eternity- The combined whole of Spirit, Light, Truth and Intuition

Neptune rules Pisces and Pisces means the universe as one. Neptune is like the flavor vanilla. It tries to make everything the same and equal. Venus rules Libra and Libra is the sign of equality. Remember its archetype is the scales and balance. Venus is exalted in Pisces. Therefore Pisces has a need for equality as well. People who have a lot of this energy tend to be very intuitive. It is as if they have a sixth sense. People who know a lot are close to being intuitive but intuition is a feminine trait. (We often hear of women’s intuition not men’s intuition.) Men can have it but they need to have the feminine energy. Uranus is an air planet and the element of air is masculine. It corresponds to the number 9. The 11th house is close to the end but it is not the final end. That is why 9 is the number of knowledge and endings but Pisces is the energy of Eternity or all things being one. Neptune can also represent nothing as in zero. Neptune is a water planet and water is a feminine element. In fact both fire and air are masculine elements or energy and earth and water are feminine. People who are intuitive feel almost everything around them. They do not want to harm any animal or creation because they feel as if it were connected to them some how. This constant bombardment of feeling so deeply often makes these people more tired than normal. Other people who do not have as much of this energy misinterpret this as laziness. The gift of intuition can sometimes feel like a curse in this world. Our modern world prizes logic and reason and scientific proof. These are qualities of Mercury and Uranus. The gift of intuition comes from Neptune and Jupiter. People cannot logically explain why they feel a certain way. They simply know it is truth and they then try to live it through their faith. It is important to separate the concept of Faith and belief. Faith is the concept of believing a true principle. Belief is just having a particular opinion. That opinion may be wrong. Since faith is built on a foundation of truth it is much stronger.

The first step in becoming successful is to learn if a concept or idea or a decision is correct and true. To do this a person needs to learn how to pray. Neptune rules the archetype of prayer. Through prayer a person can learn if something is true or not. The first step is to study the concept out in your mind. Then after doing this make your best decision. This you do after a lot of research and study. The third step is to ask God in prayer if it is true. Simply say I have studied this subject and I believe this and give your reasons why. Then simply ask is this right? If it is right or true, God will give you a calm and a peaceful feeling. You will feel warm inside (near your heart area) and it may be so strong as to feel as if you have goose bumps and you feel a shot of electricity run from the top of your head to your feet and down and up your whole spine. Similar to when you taste something sour like straight lemon juice concentrate. This is a confirmation from God that what you have prayed about is true. After you have experienced a confirmation of the truth you can exercise faith in it. It hasn’t materialized yet or come into being, so it is still faith not knowledge. If it is a false idea you will feel nothing and have a stupor of thought and you will forget what you were asking over time. The question will move to the back burner so to speak. I have learned that that is when you should ask God just the opposite of whatever your original question was. Often you will then feel the spirit. A question is either right or wrong. You have a 50-50 chance. Once you know the answer you then try to live by the knowledge and light that you have. Then you make a promise and a commitment to God that you will do what you were praying about. Then you must endure until you accomplish your goal. It will always be hard to move out of your comfort zone and accomplish your goal.

In this process the energies of the planets Sun, Mercury, Jupiter Neptune and Saturn are at work. Mercury is when you study and learn the subject. Jupiter is coming to an opinion; Neptune is praying to know if it is correct. The Sun is living by what you know and Saturn is committing and working and enduring and never giving up on your commitment or goal despite any obstacles you may encounter. This is the mountain that you climb. You can do this because you have faith and not just belief. You know that God will back you up and this helps you to have courage (Mars) in the mists of adversity. If you skip the Neptune (prayer part) you will never have a confirmation of the truth through the spirit and then your opinion can be swayed as soon as the first major obstacle comes up. If you think success is only dependant on hard work only. you are wrong. An example of this is mining for gold. You can dig and work all you want but if you are digging in a mountain, which has no gold ore, you will find no gold despite all your hard work. Prayer helps you to find the mountain with gold ore inside. If you just use prayer you may find the mountain but without hard work and commitment you will never get to the ore because you do not dig and work hard enough. Both are needed. This formula works because it is based on truth. Truth is knowledge of the present the past and the future. Only God knows the future so it is vital that we involve him. Topics like Astrology can get you in the ballpark but often the nature of man is to forget God once a skill is acquired. This is why Christ often admonished his followers to remain as little children. Little children always rely on their parents. In this same way we should always rely on God. That is why I believe that any form of telling the future can be bad and lead a person into the darkness and away from the light if it is used improperly. Going to a person who does Tarot cards or Astrology or Numerology to find out a question can be very harmful if these steps are not followed. Satan knows this and therefore uses these mediums, to hurt rather than to help people. God does not require us to understand complex subjects such as Astrology to learn the truth. He only requires a willing heart and mind and obedience. Try this formula out and you will experience it working in your life.

The positive Neptune - 0 or eternity. spiritual, whole, intuitive, kind, balanced, charitable

The negative Neptune - depressed, suicidal, death, addiction, drugs, alcohol

The Planet Neptune- A Water Planet and the color of pink.

Neptune is dignified in Pisces and has its detriment in Virgo. I believe it is exalted in Leo and has its fall in Aquarius. Pisces is the sign of no boundaries. Neptune is the planet of the spirit. The spirit has no boundaries. So this seems to fit. Virgo is the sign of reality. Pisces can be non-reality. The bad side of this sign can be craziness or loss of reality. Neptune is exalted in Leo. Another word to describe the planet Neptune is glamour and beauty. Neptune is the higher vibration of the planet Venus. Leo is the sign of the ego or self. It makes sense that Glamour or looking nice feels comfortable with an audience (Leo). Neptune (music) is exalted in performing (Leo).

Neptune (alcohol) exalted in feeling happy and childlike romance etc. (Leo). Neptune has its fall in Aquarius. The sign of Aquarius shows our uniqueness and individuality. Neptune is about sameness or oneness; therefore it does not feel comfortable in trying to be unique, hence the fall.

The color of pink is similar to the sign of Pisces. Pink is often considered a feminine color. It is the color for little girl’s toys and fantasy. Of all the numbers Zero or Eternity (Neptune) is the best at integration. Combining everything they know into a whole. In Astrology the sign Aquarius and the number 9 stands for the future. Scorpio is the sign of death and taxes and the hidden. It is connected to things under the earth and all dark places. Neptune rules Pisces and Pisces is associated with the invisible and dreams and all that is mystical. One of the purposes of light (the number 9) is to help us to see. The territory of death and the hidden is black. In order to make any sense of a dark environment we need a form of light. People who explore caves or work in them always bring a source of light so that they can see their way around while in the dark. The 8th house is a house of darkness. It symbolizes the unseen depths and the area in our lives when we combine our resources with those of others. A form of light is needed for us to be changed or transformed.

The sign of Aquarius has as its archetype the future. To understand the future we need to understand the past. Which of us can predict the events that will occur on any day? We may use Astrology and Numerology to understand these things however no person knows their exact future. We may see bits and pieces of it but we cannot predict every specific event. If we could we could all predict the exact prices of each stock traded on any given day? We could predict all the scores of sports teams. We could write the cover stories of each newspaper in advance for any given day. As mortals we cannot do this. We may get close and be able to predict the big picture, but none of us can predict every minor detail. That is why we need to pray. Only God knows the future and we need to be connected to him. Prayer helps us to stay connected. It is how we become one with the universe. A person I admired a lot once said that spirituality is mastery over self and the ability to commune with the infinite. The color of black is the absence of light. (Scorpio) One of the traditional meanings for Aquarius is “I know”. Many 9’s have a tendency to know a lot of information like their cousins who have the signs of Gemini and Libra. To know a lot can be good and bad. It is good to have knowledge of things if one remains open-minded. But that same attribute can hurt us if we think we ”know it all” and do not listen to other viewpoints. As mortals our knowing is never perfect. We should remember that our knowing is darkness to God. He knows a great deal more than any of us do. When we experience a crisis we need to turn to him. When our whole world is shaken up and everything goes black we need to turn to him for the light. If we do this we will find the light. However for any light to shine and to be seen, it has to shine in the dark. Darkness is associated with the unknown and the unknown can be scary. But we need to be brave as we demonstrate the light that we posses by choosing the right and making the correct choices in our lives. Uranus the planet of white combined with our self or our choice or our agency (Mars) or the color of red equals pink.

As a zero or eternity, you want to explore the spiritual side of your life. You are a leader of all that is spiritual. In addition to this you are very intuitive and you feel how others feel. Empathy is a strong trait of yours. No creature is insignificant. You have a strong desire to take care of the word. Subjects like conservation appeal to you. You may even be involved in groups and causes that protect the environment and various forms of animal life etc. As a zero or eternity you are a very balanced person. Venus is exalted in Pisces. The down side is that it may confuse you and you will need to choose some areas to focus on. Hopefully this web site will be or was of some help to you. You are very emotional and aware of your spiritual surroundings. You sense, feel and see things that others do not sense see or feel. You have a direct line to heaven and are often psychic or clairvoyant. You posses a sixth sense as it were. You have the ability to see the end from the beginning. All things have meaning and connectivity to you. You understand the philosophy of the American Indian and how all things and life are related or connected. You have a direct channel to the infinite. Ideas come to your mind that may not be fulfilled until future years go by. You may even have forgotten the inspiration but then something occurs and you remember that you knew it would happen. Now it has.

As a child I knew my father would die at the age of 65. I knew this at age 12. It did not happen until I was 33 years old. During the interval I forgot about it. But when my father was diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 64. I knew his end was near. My memory had been re awoken. Everyone else was positive and said he would beat it but I knew otherwise. I didn’t want to dampen everyone’s spirits so I kept it to myself. On Nov 2 1989 he passed away at the age of 65. I have the Planet Neptune conjunct my Ascendant. You are a channel for higher vibrations and as such you need to ground yourself in the reality of life. Otherwise it may be hard for you to distinguish the dream world (pink make believe world) from the real world. You are different from most people and even at a young age you felt this way. You were shyer than the other kids your age. You tended to project people and events years into the future. You have an ability to see the future, bits and pieces of it at times. You have to live with this by yourself. It would be hard for you to explain a future event to someone. They wouldn’t believe you anyway. Besides you know ignorance is bliss. Why burden that person with that information now. When the time gets closer you can tell them what you have always known. You are hesitant and are vulnerable even now as an adult and this makes you careful about the type of friends you choose. You like your privacy and some people think you are too much of a loaner. At times you are disorderly and can be in a fantasy future land. (A time that has not taken place yet, but you see it. Then you are transported back in time to the present.) You know something yet you can’t talk about it. People would think that you were crazy if you did. Your reasoning is both logical and practical and intuitive. Your inspiration comes in waves one after another. You make a lot of your decisions based on your gut reaction and feelings also. You want to tell people to trust you but you know you can’t. As a human being you are also logical and so you use this side of you, as well as your feelings, when you deal with others or talk about making decisions or solving problems.

The sign of the double fish.

The sign of Pisces is two fish swimming in opposite directions. The fish are drinking out of the stream of water that the water bearer has poured out. The two fish, shows the need to make a choice. It can also show how finding the truth (Jupiter) can be confusing and hard. The vapors of darkness and temptations of Satan are like mists of darkness and smoke. (Pisces). In order to get through this a person needs to hold on strongly to a rod of some sort. (A power of strength.) This is symbolized as the word of God. (Mercury) which has a lot to do with writing etc. The sign of Pisces has an affinity to sacrifice. A person will gain their greatest growth if they sacrifice and commit to a given cause. The bad side of the sign of Pisces is when a person is two- faced or a hypocrite. Christ was not tolerant of the hypocrites of his day. Christian’s in Christ’s time were often martyred for the truth. If you read ahead please read the number 5 ,9 and 11 for more info on these numbers and colors.

The Twelfth house

This house is named the house of self-undoing. It is interesting to me that the house, which is naturally ruled by Neptune, receives such bad descriptions. The sign on the cusp of the 12th house and its corresponding ruler shows information about person’s weaknesses. If this is not paid attention to it can lead to a person’s undoing. Of course Saturn shows where we get slowed down. See the section on the number 4. I have found that Neptune and the sign of Pisces can show negative characteristics as well. It depends on other parts of the chart. The twelfth house also shows what we take with us from the life before this one. So it can represent strengths too. Often our strengths can turn to weaknesses if we don’t watch ourselves or if we get too proud. To find the area of life that is painful to a person at any given time look for which house transiting Pluto falls into. This will always show up as an area of intensity and almost force a person to have to deal with it.

I do not believe that aspects (degrees of planets from each other) shows any form of strengths or weaknesses other than the stellum or conjunction. All the other main aspects, sextiles and trines and squares and oppositions do not show strengths or weaknesses but rather the ease in the flow of energy. Sextiles and trines show ease of flow and squares and oppositions show difficulty in the flow of the energies. This doesn’t mean a person has a talent or no talent, just that the energy flows easily on the trines. For example it has been found that more people who are in prison have more trine aspects than squares. That makes sense as it shows the energy to be bad, flows easily. The choice to be good or bad is up to each individual, as all numbers have their good and bad sides. A person cannot look at a chart and decide or forecast or predict how a person will use that energy. This I believe is a big error, which is being made in much Astrology today. It may be true for events but it is simply not true for people. The flow of energy or how it is integrated can be seen in a chart. A person with squares or oppositions will have trouble integrating the energies. Squares are like grinding gears; Oppositions often are issues involving other people. Sextiles show opportunities and trines show ease of flow. Conjunctions show energies that are connected or glued or fused or welded together.

I suppose that light or truth is a hard concept to categorize. Unless something is 100 percent true then it is false or darkness in Gods eyes. You or I, may be happy with 85-90 percent accuracy but God is not. The 12th house is also the house of large institutions etc. I suppose government fits this description as well. I don’t get into Karma that much, I believe that the concept of past or former lives where we lived as other people is false. I only believe in a pre-earth life existence where we once lived as spirits. This I cover in other parts of this web site. See the introduction and the number 1 if you have skipped ahead to this page. As far as karma is concerned I do believe that what you give out you also get back sooner or later. So this house contains a lot of that type of Karma as well. Clinton has Libra on his 12th house cusp. Libra rules Venus and relationships. His undoing as a president was his affairs at the White House. Our Present President has his sun in the 12th house so he may like to stay behind the scenes. He has a private side to himself. This works with his sun in cancer. Sun in cancer likes security. He also has an assertive side to his personality with Mars in his first house. I hope this site has helped you in some way with your spiritual quest.

Scot McKnight: The Jesus We'll Never Know

Christianity Today

The Jesus We'll Never Know

Why scholarly attempts to discover the 'real' Jesus have failed. And why that's a good thing.

by Scot McKnight article link

4/09/2010

On the opening day of my class on Jesus of Nazareth, I give a standardized psychological test divided into two parts. The results are nothing short of astounding.

The first part is about Jesus. It asks students to imagine Jesus' personality, with questions such as, "Does he prefer to go his own way rather than act by the rules?" and "Is he a worrier?" The second part asks the same questions of the students, but instead of "Is he a worrier?" it asks, "Are you a worrier?" The test is not about right or wrong answers, nor is it designed to help students understand Jesus. Instead, if given to enough people, the test will reveal that we all think Jesus is like us. Introverts think Jesus is introverted, for example, and, on the basis of the same questions, extroverts think Jesus is extroverted.

Spiritual formation experts would love to hear that students in my Jesus class are becoming like Jesus, but the test actually reveals the reverse: Students are fashioning Jesus to be more like themselves. If the test were given to a random sample of adults, the results would be measurably similar. To one degree or another, we all conform Jesus to our own image.

Since we are pushing this point, let's not forget historical Jesus scholars, whose academic goal is to study the records, set the evidence in historical context, render judgment about the value of the evidence, and compose a portrait of "what Jesus was really like." They, too, have ended up making Jesus in their own image.

Heyday for the Historical Jesus

In the 1980s, the central academic organization for biblical studies, the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), was energized in remarkable ways by a renewed interest in the historical Jesus, a project that had been abandoned for some decades. At that time, the Jesus Seminar, designed by former childhood preacher and fervent critic of all things orthodox Robert Funk, frequently made headlines. Noted scholars sat at tables and voted on what Jesus really said and did based on the historical evidence. Funk and others drew up their conclusions in books that supposedly revealed the real Jesus.

Some of these studies were outlandish, some much closer to orthodoxy and the canonical Gospels. The headline-grabbing names included Ben F. Meyer, E. P. Sanders, John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, Paula Fredriksen, and N. T. (Tom) Wright. I have sat in packed lecture halls to watch Tom and Dom go at it, and I've listened in as two friends, Marc and Tom, bantered back and forth about who was getting it right. Paula, a Catholic convert to Judaism, continued to warn the entire discipline that too many errors were being made about Judaism. Those were heady days, and I remember giving a paper to over 500 scholars about how Jesus understood his own death. The neon-light days for the historical Jesus are now over.

So, what did the loaded expression "the historical Jesus" really refer to?

To begin with, "Jesus" refers to the Jesus who lived and breathed and ate and talked and called disciples. This Jesus is the Jesus who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and, according to the witness of many, was raised again. Through historical studies, this Jesus has been set in his Jewish context. We might call this Jesus the "Jewish Jesus."

Then again, the four evangelists and the other New Testament authors, because they encountered Jesus in the context of how Scripture unfolded, interpreted Jesus by using terms like "Messiah," "Son of God," and "Son of Man," understanding him as the agent of God's redemption. We might call this Jesus the "canonical Jesus."

One more level needs to be observed: the church has amplified its understanding of "Jesus," because it has interpreted Jesus in light of theological concerns. Let us refer to this Jesus as the "orthodox Jesus," the second person of the Trinity, God from God and Light from Light.

But the historical Jesus is someone or something else. The historical Jesus is the Jesus whom scholars have reconstructed on the basis of historical methods over against the canonical portraits of Jesus in the Gospels of our New Testament, and over against the orthodox Jesus of the church. The historical Jesus is more like the Jewish Jesus than the canonical Jesus or the orthodox Jesus. Drawing distinctions between these various Jesuses is important in order to understand what has happened in the contemporary academic scene.

First, the historical Jesus is the Jesus whom scholars reconstruct on the basis of historical methods. Scholars differ, so reconstructions differ. Furthermore, the methods that scholars use differ, so the reconstructions differ all the more. But this must be said: Most historical Jesus scholars assume that the Gospels are historically unreliable; thus, as a matter of discipline, they assess the Gospels to see if the evidence is sound. They do this by using methods common to all historical work but that are uniquely shaped by historical Jesus studies. The essential criterion used in most historical Jesus studies is called "double dissimilarity." Even though it is riddled with holes, this method is still used by many historical Jesus scholars.

According to the criterion of double dissimilarity, the only sayings or actions of Jesus that can be trusted are those that are dissimilar to both Judaism at the time of Jesus and to the beliefs of the earliest Christians immediately after Jesus. One of the most noteworthy examples is Jesus' characteristically calling God Abba, a title for God rarely found in Judaism or in earliest Christianity.

This example, though, is problematic from the get-go: Abba (an affectionate term for "Father," something akin to "Daddy") is in fact not genuinely doubly dissimilar, for it is found in Judaism, if rarely, as well as in Aramaic in the New Testament; moreover, the word Father is found everywhere. But, historical exceptions aside, that Jesus called God Abba won the day as a historically reliable attribute, and therefore won the hearts of all historical Jesus scholars.

Other criteria were developed, criticized, dropped, and modified, but all have this in common: Historical Jesus scholars reconstruct what Jesus was like by using historical methods to determine what in the Gospels can be trusted.

Second, the word reconstruct needs more attention. Most historical Jesus scholars assume that the Gospels have overcooked their portrait of Jesus, and that the church's Trinitarian theology wildly exceeds anything Jesus thought about himself and anything the evangelists believed. These scholars pursue a Jesus who is less than or different from or more primitive than what the Gospels teach and the church believes. There is no reason to do historical Jesus studies—to probe "what Jesus was really like"—if the Gospels are accurate and the church's beliefs are justified. There are only two reasons to engage in historical Jesus studies: first, to see if the church got him right; and second, if the church did not, to find the Jesus who is more authentic than the church's Jesus.

This leads to a fundamental observation about all genuine historical Jesus studies: Historical Jesus scholars construct what is in effect a fifth gospel. The reconstructed Jesus is not identical to the canonical Jesus or the orthodox Jesus. He is the reconstructed Jesus, which means he is a "new" Jesus.

I can establish that the tomb was empty and that resurrection is the best explanation for the empty tomb. But one thing the historical method cannot prove is that Jesus died for our sins and was raised for our justification.

Furthermore, these scholars by and large believe in the Jesus they reconstruct. During what's called the "first quest" for the historical Jesus, in the early 20th century, Albert Schweitzer understood Jesus as an apocalyptic Jesus. In the latest quest, Sanders's Jesus is an eschatological prophet; Crossan's Jesus is a Mediterranean peasant cynic full of wit and critical of the Establishment; Borg's Jesus is a mystical genius; Wright's Jesus is an end-of-the-exile messianic prophet who believed he was God returning to Zion. We could go on, but we have made our point: Historical Jesus scholars reconstruct what Jesus was really like and orient their faith around that reconstruction.

This leads to a third point, one that needs renewed emphasis today: Historical Jesus scholars reconstruct Jesus in conscious contrast with the categories of the evangelists and the beliefs of the church. Wright is the most orthodox of the well-known historical Jesus scholars; I can count on one hand the number of historical Jesus scholars who hold orthodox beliefs. The inspiration for historical Jesus scholarship is that the Gospels overdid it, and that the church more or less absorbed the Galilean prophet into Greek philosophical categories. The quest for the historical Jesus is an attempt to get behind the theology and the established faith to the Jesus who was—I must say it this way—much more like the Jesus we would like him to be.

One has to wonder if the driving force behind much historical Jesus scholarship is more an a priori disbelief in orthodoxy than a historian's genuine (and disinterested) interest in what really happened. The theological conclusions of those who pursue the historical Jesus simply correlate too strongly with their own theological predilections to suggest otherwise.

The question that many of us in the discipline must ask is this: Can theology or Christology or, more importantly, faith itself be connected to the vicissitudes of historical research and results?

Whose Jesus will We Trust?

The last session on the historical Jesus that I attended at the SBL meetings met in a small room, and there were about 20 of us there. The session, during which I gave a short paper, tells the story of the discipline itself.

The scholarly hope that we would discover the original Jesus had crashed against the rugged rocks of reality, and on that day we witnessed the end of a disciplinary era. One by one, most of us had become convinced that no matter how hard we tried, reaching the uninterpreted Jesus was nearly impossible—however fun and rewarding it was and however many insights about the Gospels we discovered along the way. Furthermore, a reconstructed Jesus is just that—one scholar's version of Jesus. It is unlikely to convince anyone other than the scholar, his or her students (who more or less feel obligated to agree), and perhaps a few others.

German theologian Martin Kähler convinced his generation that faith in Jesus could not and should not rest on historians' conclusions about what did and did not happen and the consequent reconstructions that entailed. We must be willing to ask, Whose Jesus will we trust? Will it be that of the evangelists and the apostles? Will it be that of the church—the creedal, orthodox Jesus? Will it be the latest proposal from a brilliant historian? Or will it be our own consensus based on modern-day historical scholarship? There is an irreducible futility to the historical Jesus enterprise.

We have now seen the death of latest historical Jesus studies as we know them. Well, not for all, because some are busy trying to reconstruct Jesus for themselves and for any who will listen. Still, the enthusiasm is gone, and the critical proposals are more often met with a ho-hum "yet one more" than a hope that we may once and for all have found the one who was buried under the interpretation of the earliest Christians.

Sitting on my desk is volume four of J. P. Meier's Rethinking the Historical Jesus. What began as a two-volume venture has doubled, and one or two more volumes are forthcoming. Volume one generated all kinds of conversation; volume four entered the market with barely a notice. Sitting next to Meier on my desk is Martin Hengel's Jesus und das Judentum, over 700 pages and perhaps the last volume from the titan of scholarship. Someone will translate Hengel, doctoral students will read it, professors will use it, reviewers will say that it's brilliant, an occasional pastor will find it useful, but in a decade it will all be forgotten. Why? Historical Jesus scholarship has come to the end of the road.

Two recent scholars have read the obituary for historical Jesus studies. James D. G. Dunn, in both the hefty Jesus Remembered and the slender A New Perspective on Jesus, argues that the furthest we can get behind the Gospels is to the underlying strata of Jesus as his earliest followers remembered him. That is as far as we can go. That is the Jesus who gave rise to the Christian faith, and that is the only Jesus worth pursuing. In Dunn's view, the "remembered" Jesus contains the faith perspective of the earliest followers of Jesus, and behind that faith perspective we cannot go.

Dale Allison, whom I consider the most knowledgeable New Testament scholar in the United States, is less sanguine and more cynical than Dunn in his newest book, The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus, which in my judgment plays Taps for the quest for the historical Jesus. After three decades of work in and around the historical Jesus, Allison sketches the variety of views about the historical Jesus and the supposed modern theory that if we put our heads together we will arrive at firm conclusions. Allison offers this depressing conclusion: "Progress has not touched all subjects equally, and whatever consensus may exist, it remains mostly boring."

We must be willing to ask, Whose Jesus will we trust? Will it be that of the evangelists and the apostles? Will it be the church's orthodox Jesus? Or will it be the latest proposal from a brilliant historian?

Allison admits this about one of his own books on Jesus: "I opened my eyes to the obvious: I had created a Jesus in my own image, after my own likeness." He's not done: "Professional historians are not bloodless templates passively registering the facts: we actively and imaginatively project. Our rationality cannot be extricated from our sentiments and feelings, our hopes and fears, our hunches and ambitions." So, he ponders, "Maybe we have unthinkingly reduced biography [of Jesus] to autobiography."

On top of this genuine problem is the problem of method. Allison: "The fragmentary and imperfect nature of the evidence as well as the limitations of our historical-critical abilities should move us to confess, if we are conscientious, how hard it is to recover the past." With one ringing line, Allison pronounces death: "We wield our criteria to get what we want."

There is, in other words, no value-or theology-free method that will enable us to get back to Jesus. Allison is not a total skeptic; he thinks that we can get behind the Gospels to find some genuine impressions. But his book led me to conclude, "The era is over."

Two scholars, both highly devoted to the discipline of historical Jesus studies, come from two angles to relatively similar conclusions: the historical Jesus game has run its course and it cannot deliver us the original Jesus.

What has been Shown

I now make a confession. For the better part of my academic career, I have participated in studies of the Gospels and the historical Jesus. I am an insider to the conversation, and have been part of the steering committee for the SBL'S Historical Jesus Section. In fact, I was once asked to be the chair. Had that invitation come five years earlier, I would have eagerly accepted the responsibility. But that invitation came at the end of a long project of mine that culminated in my book Jesus and His Death:

Historiography, the Historical Jesus, and Atonement Theory. I declined the position because I could no longer commit myself to historical Jesus studies. The last thing I wrote in that book was the first chapter, which was an essay about method and what historical Jesus studies can accomplish.

Attentive readers will observe that the first chapter relativizes the theological significance of historical Jesus efforts. I had tried my best to see where the methods would lead if I sought to examine if and how the historical Jesus understood his own death. Some of my results disappointed, because I wanted to be able to prove some texts as authentic that I found stubbornly resistant to the methods available to us. Historiography, I concluded, can only do so much. One day, while editing the final draft, I came across these words from Romans 4:25: "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification."

This is what I said to myself: As a historian I think I can prove that Jesus died and that he thought his death was atoning. I think I can establish that the tomb was empty and that resurrection is the best explanation for the empty tomb. But one thing the historical method cannot prove is that Jesus died for our sins and was raised for our justification. At some point, historical methods run out of steam and energy. Historical Jesus studies cannot get us to the point where the Holy Spirit and the church can take us. I know that once I was blind and that I can now see. I know that historical methods did not give me sight. They can't. Faith cannot be completely based on what the historian can prove. The quest for the real Jesus, through long and painful paths, has proven that much.

Scot McKnight is professor of religion at North Park University in Chicago, and the author of many books, including The Jesus Creed.

Copyright © 2010 Christianity Today.

Christianity Today home page

Madeleine Bunting: The Paradox of New Atheism

Are the 'New Atheists' Actually Doing Anything to Stop the Ills of Religion?

By Madeleine Bunting article link

Posted on April 8, 2010, Printed on April 9, 2010

One shelf of my bookcase is now groaning under the weight of its contents. It's the God slot, and in the years since the publication of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion in 2006 and Christopher Hitchens's God Is Not Great in 2007, there has been an addition every few weeks from enraged philosophers, theologians, historians and journalists, all trying to convince readers of the shoddiness of the New Atheists. Peter Hitchens's Rage Against God was the latest arrival last week.

So with Easter done and the Catholic church embroiled in one of the most shaming and tumultuous periods of its history, it seems an appropriate moment to reckon on the progress of New Atheism, and take stock of this curious and – in the early 2000s entirely unpredictable – publishing phenomenon. What have all these books, these tons of paper and felled forests achieved?

Well, the most obvious achievement has been a lot of sore heads. Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens convey the fury of Old Testament prophets, while their opponents struggle in various well-mannered ways to contain theirs. From my rough survey I would suggest those with philosophical training are the most irritated by New Atheism, while the journalists seem to enjoy the opportunities the row provides; Peter Hitchens explicitly does the "in sorrow not in anger" approach. What staggers the "philosophers" (I use the term loosely to indicate writers who use philosophical arguments) is the sheer philosophical illiteracy of Dawkins. As Terry Eagleton puts it in Reason, Faith and Revolution, "Dawkins's rationalist complacency is of just the sort Jonathan Swift so magnificently savaged". Several centuries on, it appears some have not quite grasped Swift's point.

Faced with such ignorance of centuries of philosophical thought, there are two options. Either start from the beginning – Charles Taylor's 800-page A Secular Age or Karen Armstrong's speed history of western thought, The Case for God – or go for clever brevity, elegantly skewering the argument in the style of Eagleton or John Cornwell's Darwin's Angel. The problem with both genres is they don't offer the kind of bestselling strident certainty that brought Dawkins such handsome financial rewards.

But perhaps New Atheism's publishing success is a case of winning a battle and losing the war. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge point out in God is Back that the main religions are currently experiencing massive expansion across most of the world. One of the biggest drivers of growth is China; by 2050 it could be the biggest Muslim nation, and the biggest Christian one. What numerous countries are now demonstrating from the US to Asia, from Africa to the Middle East and Latin America, is that modernisation, far from entailing secularisation, is actually leading to increased and intensified forms of religiosity. According to Micklethwait and Wooldridge, the future across most of the globe is going to be very religious.

To the sceptical European, this is a lonely and unintelligible prospect. So, scanning my stuffed bookshelf, which of these defenses of God are going to help explain this enduring appeal? Start with Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth: "we are meaning-seeking creatures" who "invent stories to place our lives in a larger setting … and give us a sense that, against all the depressing and chaotic evidence to the contrary, life has meaning and value". That helps explain why the bestselling religious book in the US is The Purpose Driven Life (the first chapters of which are published on the net as What on Earth Am I Here For?). The faithful are not mugging up on critiques of reason for an argument with New Atheism, but turning to religion to offer meaning and purpose.

The great mistake the atheists made is to claim that religion started out as a clumsy stab at science – trying to explain how the world worked – and is now clearly redundant. That misses the point entirely: religion is not about explaining how an earthquake or flood happens; rather it offers meanings for such events. When someone is killed in a car accident, western rationality is good at analysing how the brakes failed and the road curved, but has nothing to say about why, on that particular day, the brakes failed when it was you in the car: the sequence of random events that kill. This search for meaning is part of what drives the religious spirit.

Armstrong distinguishes between two capabilities of the human brain: mythos and logos. The latter is rational, logical; the former generates the mythology "which often springs from profound anxiety about essentially practical problems which cannot be assuaged by purely logical arguments". Death is central to all human mythologies.

The second mistake made by the atheists is the assumption that faith and belief are mental processes akin to opinion. Armstrong runs through the etymology to uncover original meanings: belief is a commitment not a proposition; faith, as in "I have faith in you", is an expression of confidence, not an assertion of the existence of something. Dogma is "a truth which cannot easily be put into words and which can only be fully understood through long experience" – rather like the love of a parent for their child growing into adulthood.

The loss of the original meanings of all these words show how religious faith in the west came to be interpreted as a matter of the head and the intellect, and was bound up with the authority of an institution which expected submission: God was regarded as something to think about rather than do in large chunks of western religious practice which, preoccupied with institutional power, ended up in this current cul de sac. (Alastair Campbell's use of the verb in "we don't do God" is actually cutting-edge theology of a practice of love, service of others, search for justice.)

Armstrong offers an important insight into the sheer aggressive intolerance of New Atheism when she argues that "the history of religion shows that, once a myth ceases to give people intimations of transcendence, it becomes abhorrent". The shift to monotheism provoked huge struggle among the Israelites, for example, and a deep contempt for anything that might be idolatry. The New Atheists might demonstrate this, suggests Armstrong; Dawkins is rejecting a particular conception of God, the God of a literal reading of the Bible who made the world in six days. What Dawkins would not be aware of (he is proud of never having read any theology) is that he shares this position with prominent 20th-century theologians such as Paul Tillich, who rejected this kind of belief as tantamount to idolatry. So New Atheism could be read as a violent reaction against a corrupted mythology in need of renewal.

The paradox of New Atheism is that in its bid to make religion unacceptable, it has contributed to making it a subject that is considered worth talking about again. As Micklethwait and Wooldridge point out, in the US there are now hundreds of thinktanks, institutes and courses dedicated to the subject. Any visitor to Comment is Free is aware of how religion attracts a huge number of posts; literary festivals routinely offer several sessions on religion. Books are churned out. Admittedly the debate can be horribly bad tempered and it is in as much danger of spreading intolerance as it is of enlightenment, but God hasn't attracted this quantity or intensity of debate for decades.

© 2010 All rights reserved.

AlterNet home page

Sara Robinson: A Theology of Violence

Are They Crazy Dangerous, or Just Plain Crazy?

by Sara Robinson article link

February 05, 2008

One of the hard parts of dealing with the fringe elements of the extremist right is figuring out whether a given group is just harmless garden-variety crazy -- or harboring the special kind of insanity that will lead to acts of local violence or outright domestic terror.

I was noodling around the web doing some research on this recently, and came across a public document from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (that's the CIA with a maple leaf on its hat) that summarized some of the tell-tale signs they look for in discerning who's gone over the edge and around the bend, and might be regarded as a possible threat to domestic security. The signs are simple and elegant -- and, I thought, useful rules of thumb for anyone who's trying to decide if the local ruffians are just disaffected, or heading for serious trouble.

The article is aimed at "the challenge of contending with religious movements whose defining characteristic is an adherence to non-traditional spiritual belief systems;" but pretty much everything they say applies just as accurately to "non-traditional political belief systems" -- such as neo-Nazism and its fetid cousins -- as well. Here's a wrap-up of what CSIS' agents look for in assessing possible trouble ahead.

Marching Toward the Apocalypse

You can tell a lot about a group's danger quotient by taking a quick look at their preferred future. The CSIS document was written in 1999, so the authors had their eyes wide open looking for millennialist groups looking to bring on some variant of the Second Coming in 2000. That threat, of course, has passed; but the general rule still holds. Any group that's insisting that The End Is Near -- that the world is about to end in fire, ice, Rapture, or a Racial Holy War -- has already taken one giant step back from consensus reality. Interestingly: the report notes that "not all foresee a violent turning of the millennium; in fact, many see it as the catalyst for peaceful and harmonious change." Harmonic convergences and Jesus' Thousand-Year Kingdom also apply here. (Note, however: global warming, which is supported by thousands of studies, does not.)

The core point is: people who think this way have given up hope that they can create any kind of fulfilling future within this society, and have retreated to a fantasy future that they find more emotionally compelling. This is important: as I've discussed before, creating a common future is the fundamental goal that keeps societies together; and the shared vision and collective effort this goal inspires are critical to a functioning democracy. When people check out of the reality-based consensus vision entirely and cling beyond the reach of reason to future-based fairy tales -- especially if they start doing it in large numbers -- it's a serious symptom of a democratic society in trouble.

Authoritarian leaders, in particular, specialize in peddling these fantasies. As we'll see, they use them as an early lever that will pry open their followers' minds, allowing them to hijack their moral systems and ultimately control of their actions as well.

A Theology of Violence

The report lays out the small handful of epistemological beliefs that set the stage and provide justification for groups heading toward ideologically-based violence:

Dualism - The belief that the world is fractured into two opposing camps of Good and Evil, which confers a profound significance on small social and political conflicts as evidence of this great cosmic struggle, and which could precipitate a violent response.

The persecuted chosen - Movements view themselves as prophetic vanguards belonging to a chosen elite but feel persecuted by wicked and tyrannical forces, which push the group to make concrete preparations to defend their sacred status.

Imminence - Because movements believe the apocalypse is unfolding before their very eyes, the "last days" are experienced as psychologically imminent and pressure them to take immediate action to ensure their salvation.

Determinism - Since a group devoutly believes it will be the ultimate winner of the final battle, if it believes a catastrophic scenario is being actualized, the group may feel it has no choice but to try to trigger the apocalypse through violence.

Salvation through conflict/enemy eradication - As salvation depends entirely upon direct participation in the apocalyptic struggle, a group is always on the verge of anticipating confrontation, which justifies action to eliminate evil and eradicate enemies.

Authoritarian groups like to set up strong black-and-white boundaries between "us" and "them'" -- and then enforce those boundaries with stringent behavior codes, persecution myths, demonization of outsiders, and stories about the future that promise them ultimate victory. Note that all tribes do this to some degree -- you can see all of this going on at some level in both Republican and Democratic party politics, for example -- because it's an instinctive part of how humans bond. But when a group embraces in-group/out-group thinking to the point of paranoia -- and to where where it's actively anticipating, preparing for, and perhaps even making plans to precipitate the coming end -- you can safely say it's veered into dangerous territory.

The Chosen One

Sociologists have devised dozens of different scales by which one can assess the relative "cultish" nature of a group. One of the recurring traits that's noted on every such scale I've ever seen is that cults always have a charismatic, messianic leader around whom everything else revolves. In fact, these leaders are so central to the whole enterprise that the group will almost always fold after its leader dies or (as frequently happens) is sentenced to a long jail term.

Whether they're on the left (Jim Jones) or the right (Rev. Moon), these leaders all operate in exactly the same way -- a way that is strikingly familiar to those of us already acquainted with Altemeyer's description of high-SDO leaders. They step into the center of their followers' lives, dictating every detail of their existence and co-opting their moral centers. When the followers become convinced that society's rules no longer apply to them because they follow a "higher code" laid down by their leader, the door to antisocial and perhaps even violent action swings wide open. And the leaders themselves, unanswerable to any other authority, often set the prime example for violence by heaping unchecked and escalating abuse on their own followers over time.

Goin' Up To The Country

Of course, you can only live by your own rules for so long before you start drawing unwanted attention to yourself. So, in trying to stay under the radar, these groups often decide to move out of town to some remote corner of the world, buying up large tracts of country property where they can build a compound and be left to "live in peace" -- though, too often, peace is about the last thing that results from this.

According to CSIS, "goin' up to the country" is a watershed moment in the development of a dangerous group. The decision to withdraw from society is often the first overt act of paranoia -- a clear statement that the group believes that mainstream authority is "out to get us," and is strongly asserting the right to live outside the law. Furthermore, in the isolation of the compound, leaders are free to consolidate their arbitrary control over the group's members, without any social counterbalance at all -- "a situation that facilitates violence," as the report observes.

In this hothouse environment, suspicion and dependency flourish; and the unquestioned conviction that the outside world means them harm -- and they must organize and arm themselves for the coming showdown -- takes deep root. The persistence of this pattern is borne out by the huge numbers of rural cult compounds that turned into armed camps in recent American history. Jonestown. Waco. The Aryan Nations' Hayden Lake camp in Idaho. Elizabeth Clare Prophet's attempt to arm her retreat in Montana. The Hare Krishna compound in West Virginia. Rajneeshpuram in Oregon. (The biggest example of all may be the Mormon exodus to Utah, where Brigham Young's growing paranoia led him to order the Mountain Meadows Massacre.) When a charismatic leader moves his or her group en masse from the city to the country, that group has crossed a Rubicon beyond which the likelihood of violence increases dramatically.

When all four of these factors are in play -- emotional investment in a fantasy future, adoption of an apocalyptic belief system, total dominance by a charismatic leader, and withdrawal and isolation from the world -- the CSIS report indicates that you're looking at group that is actively assembling the means, the motive, and the intent required to commit violent acts against the outside world. From this point, we're not unreasonable to ask: Where is this going? What could set them off? How and when might the shooting begin?

Orcinus blog home