It appears the famous Poe Toaster has given up his yearly visit to the original grave marker of Edgar Allen Poe. Every January 19 for six decades the Poe Toaster visited the grave in the dark of night to leave three roses and half a bottle of cognac. Below is one of many new stories concerning this:
After the holidays of December I always looked forward to January 19, the birthday of Poe, and reports of the Toaster’s annual pilgrimage to Poe’s grave. It seemed like an unofficial holiday for fans of the macabre. It added a bit of mystery and intrigue to the cheerless month of January. Who was the Poe Toaster?
Nobody knows. We can only make a few guesses about the Toaster’s motivations. The Toaster visited the grave of Poe from at least 1949 if not earlier. That was a lifetime of paying respects to Poe, a steadfast accomplishment. This was not done to gain attention, but a unique way to honor an author who at did not get the recognition he deserved in his lifetime. Did the Toaster realize this simple act of appreciation would eventually remind the world to remember Poe every year on his birthday? It did exactly that.
It is suggested the three roses left at the grave are for Poe, his wife and mother-in-law who were also buried there. As for the half bottle of cognac, what does that mean? Poe died from drinking at 40. Cognac is an ironic but strangely meaningful gift for Poe.
I had a good friend pass away from cancer a decade ago. My friend had his own problems with drinking, which he usually (not always) had under control, thanks to his wife who would give him endless grief if he veered off the rails. Yet he and I shared good times over some Goldschlager.
When my friend died he was cremated and his ashes scattered. I don’t have a place to visit to offer my respects; I wish I did. If I did, I could see myself leaving a miniature bottle of Goldschlager at his grave along with flowers as a personal gesture. I know he would have appreciated it. Perhaps the Poe Toaster was thinking the same thing, that Poe’s downfall was also his passion.
Why has the Toaster stopped this tradition? Eventually the Poe Toaster’s act of respect gradually turned into a media circus. A note said that the original Poe Toaster had passed away in 1998 and handed the task to his son. In the era of reality TV and celebrity wannabes doing anything to get on television, I really respect that father and son wanted to maintain their privacy. It seems the 200th anniversary of Poe may be the last visit by the Toaster. I don’t blame the son for not wanting the hassle anymore.
The Poe Toaster is now part of the story of Edgar Allen Poe. Will we ever see the Toaster again? I think others will take his place who have no relationship to the original. Wannabe toasters, pretend toasters. Maybe next year we’ll see three of four new Poe toasters trying to leave flowers and cognac. Is that a bad thing? Others can be inspired by the Toaster’s example.
I want to thank the Poe Toaster for bringing some light into the world every January 19. I raise a class of cognac and toast the Toaster. If I knew where he was buried, I would visit to leave a rose and perhaps a bottle of cognac as well. Salute!
On January 12 we had one of the most horrendous earthquakes of our time, the earthquake in Haiti. Watching the new coverage, I felt helpless as the poor people of Haiti were struggling for survival.
Then on January 15 there was news about an annular eclipse that passed through Africa and Asia, appearing as a ring of fire in the sky.
Nostradamus often used celestial omens like comets as guideposts to identify his predictions. Since this widely visible eclipse immediately followed the Haiti earthquake disaster, I revisited Nostradamus’ quatrains. Did he have any predictions concerning an eclipse and an earthquake?
He did have a prediction concerning an eclipse below:
Century 3, Quatrain 34
When the eclipse of the Sun will then be,
The monster (omen) will be seen in full day:
Quite otherwise will one interpret it,
High price unguarded: none will have foreseen it.
Could this prediction have anything to do with foretelling the Haiti earthquake? The first line of Century 3, quatrain 34 mentions an eclipse.
The second line mentions a monster that will be seen in full day. The term “monster” was usually a term representing an omen of disaster. In Nostradamus’ day, if an animal was born with two heads, or a child was born with unusual abnormalities, these were considered bad omens, monsters. Yes, superstition, but that was what people back then thought. Comets were also considered to be fearful monsters, omens of fate. Perhaps the eclipse, which looked like a great fiery ring in the sky, was the monster/omen.
The third line, “Quite otherwise will one interpret it” is vague. Perhaps because the eclipse came after the earthquake and not right before it, nobody viewed the eclipse as an omen. Imagine what people would’ve said if the eclipse came first followed by the earthquake a few days later. Then people might widely view it as a bad omen.
Also, this eclipse was visible through the center of Africa. The eclipse began in Africa, passing through Chad, Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Somalia before crossing the Indian Ocean and reaching Asia. A curious coincidence was that the African region where the eclipse was visible was long ago also victimized by the colonial slave trade. Watching the eclipse in the sky January 15 were relatives of those taken into slavery to the New World, including Haiti, centuries ago.
2010 eclipse path and the slave trade paths
The last line “High price unguarded: none will have foreseen it” may refer to the earthquake. There is a terribly tragic, high price being paid by Haiti. Haiti was ill prepared (unguarded) for an earthquake. Their economic and political resources were ill equipped to handle this disaster. Because of Haiti’s poverty they did not have the building standards or emergency equipment to mitigate the effects of the earthquake.
I don’t know if this prediction of Nostradamus concerns the tragedy in Haiti. We can read too much into these, but it does make me wonder. I hope the world can help Haiti in this time of need.
Televangelist Pat Robertson suggested that the horrendous earthquake in Haiti is God’s punishment on Haiti due to a pact with the devil.
Here is what Robertson said:
“You know … something happened a long time ago in Haiti. They got together and swore a pact to the Devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the Devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti; on the other side is the Dominican Republican. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island.”
Supposedly this has something do to with Voodoo in Haiti and legends about Voodoo’s involvement in their revolution against the French. Did thousands of children die in a God willed earthquake because of Voodoo??
Voodoo was introduced to the New World from African slaves. When Haiti was discovered, colonists built sugar and coffee plantations. To work these plantations the colonists used many slaves. Voodoo was a slave’s religion, brought from Africa and practiced in secret after they were forced to convert to Christianity. God-fearing, Bible-believing Christian slave owners were responsible for bringing Voodoo to Haiti with their slave trade, not the Haitians.
Is a Christian legacy of slavery not as serious in God’s eyes as a legacy of Voodoo? Who really deserved that earthquake?
If we look at the behavior of some televangelists, it sure looks like they are practicing the occult to me. Is there much difference between a Vodou hougan and a Holy Spirit preacher? They both have Words Of Knowledge predicting the future. They channel God directly, speaking with Him and revealing His word. They claim to heal the sick. Is that really far removed from Voodoo? Is there a difference between channeling Voodoo’s Loa or the Holy Spirit to perform “miracles”?
Predicting the future is a fool’s game. Who predicted the great events of the past decade? Nobody. But why should that stop me? Dusting off my crystal ball, I walk where fools fear to tread to make some daring predictions for 2010.
Gazing into my crystal ball…I foresee…
1. Iran I predict Iran will be the big story for 2010. The people of Iran are trying to win back their government from dictatorship. Will it work? Is the dictatorial regime at the end of its rope? Unlike what happened with the downfall of communism in Eastern Europe, I don’t foresee Iran reforming itself. I wish it would be different. Instead, I foresee Iran on the cusp of creating a nuclear weapon. And Israel will attack Iran to prevent it from acquiring that nuclear weapon. This will be the big event of 2010. I foresee war late in 2010, perhaps November. Hope I am wrong, and the people of Iran win self determination.
My Crystal Ball
2. America
Better days are ahead…in a small way. We will recover from our economic meltdown. However, America’s long-term decline will slowly continue, a trend that has been going on for over a decade. Asia will continue to prosper. America has reached the point of no return, having outsourced its manufacturing around the world. The world’s glory days (and jobs) have moved East. Even so, the Dow Jones Industrial Average will get close to 12,000 by 2010’s end, until prediction number 1 kicks in. Hold stocks until October, then sell and wait for a buying opportunity afterwards.
3. President Obama With President Obama we have an intelligent, moderate, levelheaded leader. What is not widely recognized is he is also bringing good karma back to America. This will result in many unrecognized benefits. Life is a state of mind and if we can change our national mindset, we can change our lives. The decade ahead will be better then the decade behind us. This shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish!
4. The reincarnation of Michael Jackson
Celebrity predictions are a must. Michael Jackson will be reincarnated in 2010. He will be reborn in Tennessee, a web-footed infant girl, to a young Hispanic woman. Michael Jackson had many unresolved issues in life and will feel the need to return for another lifetime to resolve these issues. Now as a woman, he will still retain his talent and grow up to become an opera singer. Yet as a young woman she will feel she is wearing a mask. One day while using past life regression therapy, she will discover she is the reincarnation of Michael Jackson and choose to leave the opera and become a famed pop singer instead.
The past decade of 2000 to 2009 was truly dreadful for America. We had the 911 attacks, a war in Iraq, hurricane Katrina, a stock market crash and a financial/economic collapse unlike anything since the Great Depression.
However, this perception of an awful decade is from an American perspective. In China the decade was different. China experienced unparalleled economic growth during the past decade. Hundreds of millions of Chinese saw their standard of living rise dramatically while at the same time the American standard of living declined.
This was not supposed to happen to America. During the past decade we had a conservative, evangelical Christian in President Bush and conservatives in firm control of Congress and the Supreme Court. Ideally, God should have blessed our nation because our leadership reflected God’s will. As the Bible says:
Psalm 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
It is believed by many Christians that God will judge a nation for its sins, and disasters are God’s retribution. An example evangelists often use is the view that AIDS is God’s punishment on homosexuality.
So what went wrong? Why all these terrible events during the decade of the Bush presidency, one of the most conservative and godly presidents we ever had? Why did a non-Christian nation like China prosper at the same time? Has God withdrawn His protection and abandoned America?
Here is a thought. Perhaps conservative values are not automatically God’s values. Yes, this is a startling concept. But how else to explain the worst of times coinciding with the most conservative of times?
Invading Iraq seemed mostly like a political stunt to increase politicians’ popularity after 911. The Bible talks about good stewards but nobody bothered to do much when Katrina hit New Orleans. Our economic collapse was founded on conservative laissez-faire principles. Conservatism seemed to relish venomous partisanship dividing Americans into “us” and “them”, happy to rule with 50.1% of the vote. Much of what has happened this past decade was the path we chose.
The law of attraction suggests what we think is what we’ll attract into our lives. Positive thoughts attract positive results and a negative attitude will attract negative consequences. And so it does.
I’d suggest it is possible to have the law of attraction work on a national scale too. When a society embraces negativity, rancor, acrimony and disharmony, what are we to expect of the results? The consequences won’t appear immediately, but in time all the collective bad karma will result in blowback. Like an economic collapse.
I saw Avatar in wonderful 3-D. To see the movie on the big screen is something that won’t be duplicated on a TV; it is quite an experience. Avatar was very entertaining and a real crowd pleaser. I also liked how it was thoughtful at the same time.
Afterwards I pondered how spirituality and the paranormal are portrayed in science fiction films. Avatar is a spiritual movie in its own way; even it explains away it’s spiritually in physical terms. Ideally, the spiritual or supernatural shouldn’t be included in science fiction. Yet, even hard-science fiction movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Contact are metaphysical.
In some ways Avatar reminded me of Star Wars in combining science fiction with the spiritual. With the Stars Wars movies, it was all hardware combined with an elusive paranormal energy called the Force…clairvoyance, telepathy and telekinesis. For the times Star Wars’mixture of technology and mysticism was appropriate, trying to insert some mystery into the absolute rule of hardcore materialism. It was as if Star Wars was trying to rediscover a popular Zen-like transcendence along with its science opera.
Avatar reminded me of Return of the Jedi, except instead of Ewoks, we have Pandora’s thundercats…the Na’vi who are bigger, bolder versions of Ewoks. However, the spirituality is different then Star Wars. With Avatar, it is about the interconnection of all life in balance with nature. The times have changed since the 1970s and 80s when cold war fears of an evil empire occupied our imagination. Now we have new fears.
The real-life consequences of technology’s triumph are environmental degradation, global warming and the near-future depletion of our natural resources. We are facing a dire future if profit is the only thing that matters. Is self-destruction worth the price of making money? Unlike the Star Wars or Star Trek worlds, in Avatar technology is literally the enemy.
The movie directly faces this question, along with domination of one culture over another. This is a movie for our times, a green movie. Unlike Star War’s Force, there is no dark side. Predator and prey are equal. This movie’s dark side is simply ignorance, profit seeking and carelessness.
A common complaint about Nostradamus and his predictions are they haven’t been used to predict an event before it actually happened. They are always interpreted after the fact. This is essentially true, but there are times when people get close to figuring out an event beforehand. Let us consider this quatrain below, Century 4, quatrain 67.
Century IV, Quatrain 67
The year that Saturn and Mars are equal fiery,
The air is very dry, a long meteor:
Through secret fires a great place blazing from heat,
Little rain, hot wind, wars, incursions.
Erika Cheetham, a noted Nostradamus author, had this to say about this quatrain in her book from the early 1970s, The Prophecies of Nostradamus:
“The configuration of Saturn and Mars is a common one, so further information is needed to understand this quatrain. The dating of the comet or meteor is probably the key.”
Erika Cheetham was very close with this; she had the dating right before her. Saturn and Mars were in conjunction on Feb. 18, 1986. Halley’s Comet was at its closest point to Earth on April 11 for the 1986 visit. Both of these dates were predictable, if only someone connected those dots beforehand. The quatrain said something dramatic with fire would happen in 1986. What happened?
On April 26, 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear accident happened. “From secret fires a great place blazing from heat” could easily represent the “secret fires” of the Chernobyl explosion. The line “little rain, hot wind, wars, incursions” could mean the Soviet’s desert war in Afghanistan that was going on at the time (the Soviet Union withdrew its troops in 1988). Russian and the Soviet Union seem be a prime topic for Nostradamus.
There are a number of significant predictions for the future where Nostradamus mentions comets. Whenever I hear about a new comet in the news, I pull out my old worn copy of the quatrains and revisit them. I would like to think for once someone could use these quatrains to actually predict something before it happens. Maybe one day.
I heard a report on National Public Radio about how Saudi Arabia is executing “sorcerers”. Here is the link to their report; they have an audio version as well.
The article discusses a Lebanese man who had a television show seen around the Middle East, where he would offer advice and pretty much acted like the typical psychic (real or fake) we see in the West. He went to Saudi Arabia on his pilgrimage to Mecca, a duty for all Muslims. Someone recognized him from his television show and he was arrested and charged with sorcery, and was sentenced to death.
I like this quote from the article: “You will never know on any given day whether the book you are reading or the words you are saying are going to be interpreted or used against you deliberately as a form of witchcraft,” Whitson says.
WOAH! HOLY MACKEREL! I sure the heck won’t visit Saudi Arabia anytime soon! What a dumbass backward law. Over there someone could get executed for simply owning a deck of tarot cards. Now, whomever their society wants to execute is their own holy business. Thank goodness I don’t live there. Yet, even someone living outside of Saudi Arabia and just visiting can get arrested and executed for having performed “sorcery” outside their nation. That is downright inhospitable. I have to wonder how any society can prosper when they adhere to such nonsense.
It makes me very happy to live in America, a nation where the separation between Church and State is written into our constitution. We don’t have live in fear of religious differences. God bless America!
Then again, America executes sorcerers too. Or at least they do in the great state of Texas. Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted and executed for the deaths of his three children by using arson against them. However, arson experts agree there was no evidence for arson, just an unintentional fire. Mr. Willingham was an innocent man executed for a crime that didn’t even exist. So if there was no evidence of a crime or real motive, why was Todd Willingham murdered by the state of Texas?
Because Mr. Willingham had an Iron Maiden and a Led Zeppelin poster on his wall, and had a skull and serpent tattoo on his arm. He obviously liked heavy metal, so therefore he must have been a child-abusing sociopathic Satanist. Any and all appeals were casually disregarded, and he was executed Feb. 17 2004.
Cameron Todd Willingham was executed because the state of Texas believed Cameron Todd Willingham was a Satanist, a cultist, a “sorcerer”. Check out this shocking video below:
Hmm. Perhaps America, or at least Texas, and Saudi Arabia are not quite so far apart. Right around the corner the howling madness of fundamentalism lurks, waiting for its chance to strike. Hide your tarot cards!
What is the connection between Santa Claus and UFOs’ aliens? Certainly Santa is a holiday fabrication, and most people would consider UFOs to be equally fictional. Yet I see a connection!
First, are UFOs and aliens a reality? With so many sightings and encounters it suggests something is “out there”. For anyone curious about sightings, check out the National UFO Reporting Center. http://www.nuforc.org/ Most sightings have a natural explanation. Yet enough reports hint at something else going on up in the skies…something unnatural.
The behavior of UFOs and what occurs in cases of alien abduction seems almost supernatural. Yet almost everyday real people are having these encounters.
Are these beings extraterrestrial visitors, extra-dimensional beings or something else? These aliens are so mysterious and elusive I think the only way to accurately describe them is by calling them entities. “Entity” can cover a lot of concepts, which is useful when we don’t know what we are dealing with.
What does any of this have to do with Santa Claus?
The Wild Hunt
Encounters with entities has taken place throughout human history and prehistory. Religion likely started as shaman contacting entities through attaining altered states of consciousness, often with the help of shrooms. This contact may have been in the imagination, but may have also included genuine contact too.
Nordic shamanism and the pagan god named named Odin, Woden and Woten are connected with Santa. Odin inspired the concept of Father Christmas, who in turn inspired the concept of Santa Claus.
And what is up with Santa’s elves? Elves are pagan spirits mentioned in Germanic folklore like the Elder Edda. Odin had a mythic Wild Hunt where he was accompanied by his fairies. Santa, as a watered down version of Odin, has his retinue of toy-making elves. There is not much concerning Christianity involved with Santa.
Aliens are entities who may have been responsible for the fairy folklore in the past, because of encounters like we still have today. The Santa Claus character, a jolly old elf, is an entity used for children’s stories. Essentially, they are both symbolic representations of the same thing under a different guise.
Why does Santa Claus go down chimneys? Granted Santa is a fictional creation, but even a legendary character should have some logic behind his behavior. Why doesn’t Santa just go through a window or door? I feel there is a potential insight here.
Perhaps Santa’s jaunts down the smokestack are for the same reason witches had a reputation for flying up chimneys on their broomsticks. Since the “historical” witch is also a fictional character, the legendary witch shares something in common with Santa besides their non-existence…their fondness for chimneys.
In the past there were wise men and women, the cunning folk, who might be accused of being the witch of folklore. But the Devil loving, Sabbath attending, broom flying, storm raising, animal hexing witch was a fabrication of the Church. An awful fabrication since the Church burned people at the stake for such imaginary offenses.
The fictional witch was said to fly up a chimney on her broom on her way to join the Sabbath. It was said witches couldn’t fly out a window or door. It could only happen using the chimney. Quoting Emile Grillot De Givry, “A witch could not leave by the door or even the window: the dark, mysterious hole of the chimney, where only the sweep’s boy could venture without quaking, was her customary channel to communicate with Heaven.”
Curious.
Since both Santa and witches are creatures of the imagination, their behavior could be considered a reflection of our own subconscious and therefore symbolic.
Flying Santa And Witch
As a metaphor we could look at our home as representing our physical body. Inside our home we dwell, sentience kicking around like the mind inside our brain. The windows of the house are like eyes and ears through which we can see outside and hear what is happening around us. A home’s door is like the mouth, through which we bring in sustenance and communicate with those outside.
What does the chimney represent? It is a dark corridor between our self and the heavens. It cannot be easily traveled thru, and it exits out to a place where we are not meant to stand: above us. The chimney symbolizes the secret connection between earth and sky, our selves and the Universe.
If the chimney is a metaphor for the passageway between the physical world and the spiritual, then the behavior of Santa and the Witch makes sense. Santa symbolizes the Powers Outside seeking to enter our home, enter our imagination, and give blessings in many forms. Santa sneaks in and does not knock leaving behind spiritual gifts.
The Witch represents our own personal imagination. The Witch lives inside the house but seeks to enter into another realm. This world cannot be entered through the physical senses (the body’s doors and windows). It has to be entered through our quiet inner core…the tunnel, the chimney within us. Spiritually or creatively the witch wants to escape the four walls.
Tarot's Lightening Struck Tower
All of this may not be only symbolism. People who had out-of-body experiences reported seeing their body below them as they hovered around the ceiling. Some also reported passing above the ceiling, thru the structure until they were high above the building where they could literally see the roof. Like a witch up a chimney!
The idea of a building representing the human body is nothing new. The Tarot card the “Lightning Struck Tower” displays such symbolism. The flesh colored tower suggests the body with a crown at the top symbolizing the human intellect. Lightning from above splits the crown from the building, separating mind and body. The falling men are incapable of flight.
Notice how much the tower resembles a chimney. The lightning could represent the severing of our higher consciousness from our everyday consciousness. We’d lose our compass, our sense of direction. We are falling and not flying like jolly Santa dropping by with gifts, or the flying Witch seeking enlightenment. This card suggests a divorce between our higher consciousness and us.
Predicting the future is a fool’s game. Who predicted the great events of the past decade? Nobody. But why should that stop me? Dusting off my crystal ball, I walk where fools fear to tread to make some daring predictions for 2010.
I saw Avatar in wonderful 3-D. To see the movie on the big screen is something that won’t be duplicated on a TV; it is quite an experience. Avatar was very entertaining and a real crowd pleaser. I also liked how it was thoughtful at the same time.
In some ways Avatar reminded me of Star Wars in combining science fiction with the spiritual. With the Stars Wars movies, it was all hardware combined with an elusive paranormal energy called the Force…clairvoyance, telepathy and telekinesis. For the times Star Wars’ mixture of technology and mysticism was appropriate, trying to insert some mystery into the absolute rule of hardcore materialism. It was as if Star Wars was trying to rediscover a popular Zen-like transcendence along with its science opera.
The real-life consequences of technology’s triumph are environmental degradation, global warming and the near-future depletion of our natural resources. We are facing a dire future if profit is the only thing that matters. Is self-destruction worth the price of making money? Unlike the Star Wars or Star Trek worlds, in Avatar technology is literally the enemy.
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