Re: VMs: Demons, Daimones, Daemones...

[Pamela Richards <spirlhelix@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dan:

Thank you for sharing your insights.

The Nabateans built Petra, didn't they?  What an
awe-inspiring place.  Some of the Gnostic sects, I
think, reflected a belief in the spirits of ancestors
in the stars.  Most gnostics no doubt believed in
reincarnation as well; when you read some of their
material, you get a sense that there was somehow a
"recycling" of spirits through the medium of the
stars.

I think some of the modern-day "myths", as you aptly
put it, evolve to some extent as a result of the lack
of understanding of the content or subject matter on
which the ancients wrote.

Granted, discussions of this nature as a rule are
quite foreign to modern tastes.

So when reviewing esoteric material on the subject of
magic or astrology, and your apprehension of the
material is boggled beyond repair, while your ability
to apply the material is nil, why not throw in an
extra heaping helping of background information?  We
can perhaps gain some academic standing through
documentation of our theories.  Easier to believe in
political intrigues than to put ourselves in the shoes
of people who thought "stars" equalled "fate" equalled
"it's going to happen no matter what", because we
really don't like to think that way.    While at the
same time, somewhere down deep inside some people
think no one ever could or should believe in the
inevitability of fate, I guess.  But that is one
example of why objectivity in the study of history is
so valuable.   

Oh, and I aplogise to everyone for reposting my
previous post!  I thought it was lost in the eather.

Warmly,

Pam




--- Dan Gibson/CanBooks <dangibson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> Pam:
> 
> I agree heartily with your statements about reading
> what more modern authors 
> think of their predecessors. I think we would have a
> very different view of 
> history if we spent more time reading the older
> source material. Too many 
> "modern myths" have developed about history. Many of
> these have come about 
> due to certain political or social ideologies that
> want to interpret the 
> past for their own purposes. Others just happened,
> like the "flat earth 
> myth." http://nabataea.net/flatearth.html
> 
> I found your comments on star spirits quite
> interesting. It has been stated 
> that the ancient Nabataeans believed that the stars
> were the spirits of 
> their dead ancestors, rather than daemonae. Their
> reverence for the stars 
> and star based navigational skills grew out of
> wanting to be guided by their 
> ancestors who had passed into the heavens. But alas,
> eventually the Persian 
> concepts of star spirits also invaded Arabia.
> 
> Dan
> 
> 
> 
> 
>
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=====
"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing, than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance."


		
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