Спаси Христос!
Save Christ!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The Holy Cross - Святой Крест
Here is an Old Believer wooden carving about the “Life-giving Cross” <<Животворящего Креста>>.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Who are the Runners?
A metaphor for the modern traveler. The name ‘Bieguni’ comes from a sect of Russian Orthodox Old Believers, who treated movement as a sacred state. Permanently moving and crossing borders meant for them not belonging to anything, as an escape from evil. Evil tries to take away their freedom.
Are you a Runner?
A Runner is a nomad. Maybe it’s the case that we all have within us, the memory of our ancestors who were nomadic. It is the settled civilization, within which people build their nests, that oppresses people.
Are you a Runner?
A Runner is a nomad. Maybe it’s the case that we all have within us, the memory of our ancestors who were nomadic. It is the settled civilization, within which people build their nests, that oppresses people.
Monday, September 28, 2009
25% of the World Lives Without Electricity
For world leaders it is a real problem that 1.6 billion people worldwide now live without electricity. I saw it as good news that so many people do not use electricity. They say up to 3 billion people (almost half the worlds population) use electricity in a primitive way that is very damaging to health.
In actuality all electronics are harmful in many various ways. Let’s all work to reverse the trend before it is too late. Make it so nobody uses man-made electricity, and therefore nobody will be hurt by such things. Even though world leaders do not know what is good for them, we should be bold enough to stand up against them and say it straight for once. Do not let them electrify everyone.
Here is a link to a report that quotes Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate physicist based at the University of California, Berkeley, saying, “It’s sad that 1.6 billion people live without electricity and 2-3 billion use energy in a primitive way very damaging to health.”
In actuality all electronics are harmful in many various ways. Let’s all work to reverse the trend before it is too late. Make it so nobody uses man-made electricity, and therefore nobody will be hurt by such things. Even though world leaders do not know what is good for them, we should be bold enough to stand up against them and say it straight for once. Do not let them electrify everyone.
Here is a link to a report that quotes Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate physicist based at the University of California, Berkeley, saying, “It’s sad that 1.6 billion people live without electricity and 2-3 billion use energy in a primitive way very damaging to health.”
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Birth Certificates & Social Security Data
As can be seen in the photo of an old Social Security Card above, they were not to be used for identification. Now that the birth certificates are inextricably tied to the Social Security Card System we are all deeper into the Antichrist than ever before.
All legal birth certificates are a bond, a piece of paper that represents the value of something. Your Birth Certificate Bond represents the value of your life’s labor. You can easily earn $1,000,000.00 during your lifetime. The bankers who control the world invest that Birth Certificate bond into the Financial Markets, and its value increases everyday. Follow these instructions to follow exactly what your account is up to.
1. Take the tracking (routing) numbers from the back of your Social Security Card, they start with a letter and end with numbers, example - F12345678 (these are either red or blue in color).
3. Select the green tab called Research.
4. Select the sub-tab called Quotes.
5. Where it says “Enter your Ticker (Stock) Symbol,” enter yours. Do you know yours? … Neither do I. So you need to select the link Find Symbol to look up your personal Stock Symbol on the International Market.
6. To do this you need to search for a “Mutual Fund,” so in the “Search For” box make that selection.
7. In the “by” box, to the right of the “Search For” box, select “Fund Number.”
8. The Fund Number is the year you were born, forward slash, and the tracking numbers on the back of your Social Security Card. So, in the Search Value box type in your Fund Number, example - 1960/F12345678 (the letter is case sensitive, so it is critical you enter it just as seen on the back of your Social Security Card).
9. When the Fund Number is entered select the “Search” button and your personal Stock Symbol will appear below the search. It should be FTIX = FIDELITY TOTAL INT’LEQUITY FUND. This is a pooled account so everyone will have the same symbol, but where it will differ is in the CUSIP, Fund Number and Tracking Numbers. That is what separates all the individual Bonds in the account.
10. Now click on your Stock Symbol, it should be in blue as a link. This will take you to your Bond’s information, they even show a YTD (Year To Date) which could be in the tens of millions of dollars that the world bank rulers have earned on your individual personal Bond. You can track the whole thing. Anyone can invest in you, even you, not that we should want to. To break it down even more click on the blue links called Chart and Research.
On a legally valid birth certificate, which is issued with the specially colored “Securities Paper,” it will have the Fund Number (which corresponds to a SSN) on the right hand corner. Please pass this information on to anyone and everyone. There is much more to all this than some might think, let’s stick together and hold on tight.
We should be keeping on always seeking what is true and telling those around us what is right, we need also to be doers of what God wants us all to do. Everything is in the balance, we can make it right. Each of us needs to live as Stranniki who renounced all government papers. There are still 2 or 3 Christians left or this world would not be here.
Forgive
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Wine-Bibbers
There is an article about the Old Believer Settlements and it mentions that they discouraged the use of alcohol [the more strict ones forbid hard liquor entirely].
On Page 15 of Alcohol and Temperance it mentions that Old Believers were either abstainers or very temperate drinkers.
Fast days (which take up more than half the year) require complete abstention from alcohol.
There is a word with a negative connotation in the Old Slavonic Language, “Vinopiica” which means “wine-bibber” and we see it twice in the holy writings at Mt. 11.19 and Proverbs 23:20. This unique word would apply to beer as well.
In the book Old Believers in Modern Russia we find on page 111 these words.
‘some Old Believer concords banned the use of spirits’
The book goes on to say that in the Belokrinitsy publication, Zlatostrui, there was an article in issue no. 4 from 1910 on page 65 titled, “Vino” which offers this:
“Liquor is the cause of enormous evil to the Russian person. There is no stronger evil than wine. War, plague, and cholera could not affect a person without wine’s pernicious strength. Wine does not only kill a person’s physical health, but ruinously destroys the strength of the spirit in him, undermining development and economic prosperity as well as agriculture. Crime, poverty and sickness are all from wine and through wine...”
The book continues to say that Zlatostrui, ‘was supported by Old Believer conferences from all those concords that either banned vodka and heavy drinking outright or had at least begun to study ways to eradicate the evil from among the Old Believers themselves.’
Again, ‘Bishops Inokentii of Nizhni and Meletii of Saratov led the Belokrinitsa episcopal fight against alcohol use by comparing Russians to the dead Lazarus, killed by the “demon of drunkenness” yet waiting to be resurrected through faith. “Religion,” explained the bishop, “is the most important factor in the question of counteracting the expansion of heavy drinking. A pious Russian person would most likely yield to the influence of religion [rather than alcohol].” Not content to stop drinking just among Old Believers, the bishops hoped to eradicate it from all Russia...’
On page 112 of this book is an almost full page image of Znamenny Chant Hook Notation verse which censures drunkenness, it is found in a referenced document of ritual prohibitions titled, Russkaia kniga. Below is a photo of the manuscript. The image is not that clear in the book either, but I think the fullsize photo is mostly readable, if you know Znammeny Hook Notation.
Forgive
On Page 15 of Alcohol and Temperance it mentions that Old Believers were either abstainers or very temperate drinkers.
Fast days (which take up more than half the year) require complete abstention from alcohol.
There is a word with a negative connotation in the Old Slavonic Language, “Vinopiica” which means “wine-bibber” and we see it twice in the holy writings at Mt. 11.19 and Proverbs 23:20. This unique word would apply to beer as well.
In the book Old Believers in Modern Russia we find on page 111 these words.
‘some Old Believer concords banned the use of spirits’
The book goes on to say that in the Belokrinitsy publication, Zlatostrui, there was an article in issue no. 4 from 1910 on page 65 titled, “Vino” which offers this:
“Liquor is the cause of enormous evil to the Russian person. There is no stronger evil than wine. War, plague, and cholera could not affect a person without wine’s pernicious strength. Wine does not only kill a person’s physical health, but ruinously destroys the strength of the spirit in him, undermining development and economic prosperity as well as agriculture. Crime, poverty and sickness are all from wine and through wine...”
The book continues to say that Zlatostrui, ‘was supported by Old Believer conferences from all those concords that either banned vodka and heavy drinking outright or had at least begun to study ways to eradicate the evil from among the Old Believers themselves.’
Again, ‘Bishops Inokentii of Nizhni and Meletii of Saratov led the Belokrinitsa episcopal fight against alcohol use by comparing Russians to the dead Lazarus, killed by the “demon of drunkenness” yet waiting to be resurrected through faith. “Religion,” explained the bishop, “is the most important factor in the question of counteracting the expansion of heavy drinking. A pious Russian person would most likely yield to the influence of religion [rather than alcohol].” Not content to stop drinking just among Old Believers, the bishops hoped to eradicate it from all Russia...’
On page 112 of this book is an almost full page image of Znamenny Chant Hook Notation verse which censures drunkenness, it is found in a referenced document of ritual prohibitions titled, Russkaia kniga. Below is a photo of the manuscript. The image is not that clear in the book either, but I think the fullsize photo is mostly readable, if you know Znammeny Hook Notation.
Forgive
Friday, September 25, 2009
Being Weighed Down With Material Fetters
Why do we attach such value to material things, seeing that we have been taught to despise them? Why do we cling to money and possessions, and disperse our intellect among a host of useless cares? Our preoccupation with such things diverts us from what is more important and makes us neglect the well-being of the soul, leading us to perdition...
For the true philosopher possessions are superfluous, since he detaches himself from bodily concerns for the sake of the souls purity... Indeed, is it ever right to engage in disputes in order to protect our property?
...Why do we try to make other people’s property our own, weighing ourselves down with material fetters, and paying no attention to the prophet’s imprecation: ‘Woe to him who gathers what is not his own, and heavily loads his yoke’ (cf. Hab. 2:6. LXX). Those who pursue us are, as Jeremiah says, ‘swifter than the eagles of heaven’ (Lam. 4:19); but we weigh ourselves down with worldly things, move slowly along the road and so are easily overtaken by our pursuer, covetousness, which Paul taught us to flee (cf. Col. 3:5)...
Attachment to worldly things is a great obstacle to those who are striving after holiness, and often brings ruin to both soul and body...
So possessions arouse feelings of jealousy against their owners, cut off their owners from men better than themselves, divide families, and make friends hate one another. Possessions, moreover, have no place in the life to come, and even in this present life have no great use... Human efforts inevitably fail unless God helps us; while God in His providence bestows every blessing without man’s assistance.
Philokalia, Vol. 1 - pages 206-7
For the true philosopher possessions are superfluous, since he detaches himself from bodily concerns for the sake of the souls purity... Indeed, is it ever right to engage in disputes in order to protect our property?
...Why do we try to make other people’s property our own, weighing ourselves down with material fetters, and paying no attention to the prophet’s imprecation: ‘Woe to him who gathers what is not his own, and heavily loads his yoke’ (cf. Hab. 2:6. LXX). Those who pursue us are, as Jeremiah says, ‘swifter than the eagles of heaven’ (Lam. 4:19); but we weigh ourselves down with worldly things, move slowly along the road and so are easily overtaken by our pursuer, covetousness, which Paul taught us to flee (cf. Col. 3:5)...
Attachment to worldly things is a great obstacle to those who are striving after holiness, and often brings ruin to both soul and body...
So possessions arouse feelings of jealousy against their owners, cut off their owners from men better than themselves, divide families, and make friends hate one another. Possessions, moreover, have no place in the life to come, and even in this present life have no great use... Human efforts inevitably fail unless God helps us; while God in His providence bestows every blessing without man’s assistance.
Philokalia, Vol. 1 - pages 206-7
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Ambitious Militarist/Industrial Expectations
The Pied Piper of the Earth
Industrialism is really just a prideful invention of the Military. Before the U.S. Civil War everything that could be made out of wood was. Then the need for cannons caused manufacturing to be brought to a new level. When the war was over these engineering feats were made into the great iron works which transformed society into what we see today.
It is true that practically all modern conveniences are the results of mans greedy desire to control and rule, if need be murder, the rest of the world by military force. It really does not matter what it is, whether it is the wheel or deadly electronics. They are all a catch 22 which will be our undoing if we do not find a way to escape from the clutch of the primary force behind it all.
It is all truly devilish; these concepts which man has no business being involved with in the first place. It is nothing less than intentional murder. Even the mixture and concoction of glass is something best left alone, or discarded. The many unnecessary hazards are innumerable. The sooner we all let go of these traps the better off we shall all be.
Petroleum use, gunpowder to plastics and pesticides, has always been deadly. May we separate from such practices immediately, before it is too late. Mankind will not be content until they destroy themselves. More soldiers die from suicide than in combat. Police commit suicide three times more often than the general public.
Look at what we have done and are doing to ourselves. We need to erase ourselves and break away ASAP. The more witchcraft and scientific involvement we do, like all the pharmacia, cloning and genetics,’ the more difficult it will be to stop. As it is we are all bent on mass suicide. Don’t follow the masses to their graves.
The term “Iron Triangle” more than easily applies to this topic. What we are facing is truly bigger than this if we consider it all, not only is it a Military-Industrial Complex, but also an Engery, Congressional, Media and Medical Complex infiltrating every aspect of our existence.
The only answer I know of is to find an inaccessible mountainous area and hide out from the insane society around us. Bad company corrupts good morals, and being anywhere near worldly-minded people is a snare which we ought to avoid at all costs. Learn to get along without the hallucination of money, it is an idol. Time is more than short now.
Forgive
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
They Refuse Electricity and Pensions
On page 234, ff., the book linked below says that the Fugitives (Stranniki) refuse electricity, and it says that these stern Old Believers also refuse pensions.
Excerpts below are from this linked online preview:
Siberia, Siberia - 1997
Chapter 5 - The Gorno-Altay Region
Nikolay Karamzin, one of Russia’s most remarkable penetrators, demanded, “Give us feelings, not theory.”
Speaking of the Altay Mountains Aleksandr Novosyolov wrote, “I feel like praying to this grandeur, to this genuine beauty... The very best description would be nothing but lifeless words.”
...we can either add fire to our language or close our eyes.
...hydroelectric plants should not be built...they would do irreparable harm to the river and the region. Not that this required any special proof: wherever dams are put up and reservoirs swell, a river ceases to be a river and becomes a disfigured beast of burden with the life squeezed out of it. After that, the river contains no fish, no water, no beauty. Energy will begin to draw industry, industry will demand new energy, then more industry will move in, and so on until... its banks, and the land far around will simply vanish into thin air.
In 1791 the Fugitives were granted exemption from military service by Catherine.
Altaian Old Believers stood by their rules like rocks... They do not acknowledge radio or television, and with respect to television they certainly aren’t far from the truth in believing that the devil is the guiding force behind it... There are homes that refuse electricity and old folks who refuse pensions... Everything that exists in the common people, even in a portion of them, exists in us, too; we are the repositories of all their synods and schisms...
...One legend has it that a shepherd found a nugget of gold during a lean and difficult year and tried to trade it for food. But he couldn’t; such poverty prevailed that gold was viewed as an ordinary stone incapable of satisfying hunger...
Excerpts below are from this linked online preview:
Siberia, Siberia - 1997
Chapter 5 - The Gorno-Altay Region
Nikolay Karamzin, one of Russia’s most remarkable penetrators, demanded, “Give us feelings, not theory.”
Speaking of the Altay Mountains Aleksandr Novosyolov wrote, “I feel like praying to this grandeur, to this genuine beauty... The very best description would be nothing but lifeless words.”
...we can either add fire to our language or close our eyes.
...hydroelectric plants should not be built...they would do irreparable harm to the river and the region. Not that this required any special proof: wherever dams are put up and reservoirs swell, a river ceases to be a river and becomes a disfigured beast of burden with the life squeezed out of it. After that, the river contains no fish, no water, no beauty. Energy will begin to draw industry, industry will demand new energy, then more industry will move in, and so on until... its banks, and the land far around will simply vanish into thin air.
In 1791 the Fugitives were granted exemption from military service by Catherine.
Altaian Old Believers stood by their rules like rocks... They do not acknowledge radio or television, and with respect to television they certainly aren’t far from the truth in believing that the devil is the guiding force behind it... There are homes that refuse electricity and old folks who refuse pensions... Everything that exists in the common people, even in a portion of them, exists in us, too; we are the repositories of all their synods and schisms...
...One legend has it that a shepherd found a nugget of gold during a lean and difficult year and tried to trade it for food. But he couldn’t; such poverty prevailed that gold was viewed as an ordinary stone incapable of satisfying hunger...
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Old Believers Characterized by their Severity
The Old Believers of the Ukraine Danube Delta, near the town of Vilkovo, “Venice of the Ukraine,” moved to this place where the streets are water channels. The Turks who occupied this region in the 18th century allowed the Old Believers to live there tax free. The Old Believers are characterized by their severity, by their manners, work and devotion to community. Idleness and drunkenness have always been considered great sins. Living conditions are spartan: no electricity, or running water, nor gas.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Estonian Old Believers Don’t Use Electricity
There are Old Believers in the Lake Peipsi area of Estonia that “do not believe in shaving, electricity, smoking or drinking coffee.” There are about 15,000 members located there around the Lake Peipsi area.
from: http://www.visitestonia.com/en/destinations/cultural-treasures
Old Faith Chapel near Lake Peipsi
a series of Redstone caves along the Peipsi shore
Forgive
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Road Christians Refuse Birth Certificates
In Chapter 22 of The Russians’ Secret we read about the “road” Christians (STRANNIKI). Here are some excerpts:
...with easier travel, more telephones and amateur radios, FAX machines, email, the net . . . we Christians around the world find it easier than ever to know about and learn from one another.
But do we?
My feeling is that we have all been eager to teach but slow to learn...
We must flee from the world, not from sorrow and pain.
...the more I learn about Russia’s believers, the more I have come to see that they did not flee to save their bodies. They fled to save their souls. Many times that flight did not involve geography at all...
“Things” are traps...
Give up owning a car—You must be crazy! Give up a television set, a computer, a trip to Yellowstone, electricity in the house . . . If I would go on like this someone might throw this book away.
...the “road Christians,” and others like them even gave up their lives for Christ, and the church survived!
The way of the world, not the way of Christ, is crazy.
…What is crazy, Old Believers sitting to fish through the ice near the Arctic Circle for refusing to get a birth certificate, or two hundred million Americans sitting—with the end of time and creation upon them—watching Donald Duck on TV?
Nil Sorsky already knew that we become detached from the world’s things to the degree that we attach ourselves to Christ...
http://www.gw.org/Trs/Trs22.htm
...with easier travel, more telephones and amateur radios, FAX machines, email, the net . . . we Christians around the world find it easier than ever to know about and learn from one another.
But do we?
My feeling is that we have all been eager to teach but slow to learn...
We must flee from the world, not from sorrow and pain.
...the more I learn about Russia’s believers, the more I have come to see that they did not flee to save their bodies. They fled to save their souls. Many times that flight did not involve geography at all...
“Things” are traps...
Give up owning a car—You must be crazy! Give up a television set, a computer, a trip to Yellowstone, electricity in the house . . . If I would go on like this someone might throw this book away.
...the “road Christians,” and others like them even gave up their lives for Christ, and the church survived!
The way of the world, not the way of Christ, is crazy.
…What is crazy, Old Believers sitting to fish through the ice near the Arctic Circle for refusing to get a birth certificate, or two hundred million Americans sitting—with the end of time and creation upon them—watching Donald Duck on TV?
Nil Sorsky already knew that we become detached from the world’s things to the degree that we attach ourselves to Christ...
http://www.gw.org/Trs/Trs22.htm
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Paradise Is Without Man-Made Electricity
Writer Neil McGowan mentions his travels stopping on the Trans-Siberian Railway at Ulan-Ude, Buryatiya (Buryat Republic), near Baikal (Swan) Lake, the ‘longest’, ‘deepest’, ‘most voluminous’ lake in the world, located in southern Siberia bordering Mongolia. On the eastern side of the lake is the Selenga River. Neil says that in this paradise without man-made electricity there are Old Believers who refuse to use modern machinery. They live in clinker-built wooden houses of villages along the road from Ulan-Ude to Tarbagatay. The Tarbagatay church was build by Father Andrei with his own hands. The idea that organic produce in Western Europe can’t keep pace with demand is clearly some kind of private victory for him. Simple food rules, his lunches consist of soups, stews, boiled meats and mashed potatoes – not a single thing comes out of a packet. Neil tried to offer Father Andrei a donation for his Old Believer ‘museum’, but he politely folded the money back into his hand saying, “Do me this favor instead. Tell people in your country WE ARE HERE, we are alive, and we welcome you.”
There are 9 Old Believer groups in the area.
Beyond Baikal
http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/article.php?page_id=2382
There are 9 Old Believer groups in the area.
Beyond Baikal
http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/article.php?page_id=2382
Friday, September 18, 2009
What About Food?
Good health to everyone!
I would reiterate what I try to say all the time, that this life is not about survival, that we are not to follow animal instincts. The Gospel message is about giving your life away so that you can find it. Honestly, everything is poisoned and spiritually defiled since long before we were born. All the air, all the water and all the edible things are in fact ruined. Now we have genetically altered or cloned foods that are not labeled, the only way to tell is to look at them on the molecular level.
These abominations are spread by such things as birds and are now practically everywhere and almost untraceable. Everything is most likely corripted in multiple ways, or at least in one way or another. Starvation for the sake of Christ is looking more and more reasonable all the time. I want to stay away from all uncleanness, so there appears to be little alternative.
But there are plenty of works about what can be eaten in the wild, if we choose to simply try and keep our distance from corrupt society as much as possible. I am not able to list all the pros and cons here in this post, but I wanted to offer something.
My childhood memories recall that Euell Gibbons (I have all of his books) was a spokesperson for Grape Nuts Cereal and did a commercial saying that “every bit of a pine tree is edible.” The pine nuts are good, the needles can be soaked so that the vitamin C seeps out and then simply drink the water. Soak any part of the tree and it should eventually become soft to chew. Yew was used as a poison on arrows and might be thought of as a pine because of its evergreen needles.
Cedar, Arborvitae or Juniper is good right off the tree — it freshens the breath (almost like mint, or probably more like a menthol taste). A word of caution, it has the same chemical as Sage, Mistletoe, Rosemary and Wormwood, so to much can be bad. Just nibble on it. The bluish grey berries are medicinal and are good for the urinary tract. Basically, there are no poisonous conifers, but too much of anything might kill you.
National Geographic did an article in 1920 about which mushrooms were edible or not. Here is a 2.2MB zip file which has some color plates for identification.
Edible leaves are always a nice alternative. There are Pot Herbs; as well as perennial leaf crops; a list of edible leaves and this informative page from The Sustainability Wiki.
Here in there desert many cactus are edible, I have ate every part of the Prickly Pear Cactus before, minus the pricks (thorns).
The plant known as ‘Cattail’ is one of the best wild edible plants.
It is amazing how long the body can really live without food, some people say they have gone 45 days without food and remained in good health. Fasting is actually very healthy. The strict Old Believers fast for over half the year anyway.
The area known as the Adirondacks in the state of New York is named after the American Indians who lived off of eating bark from the trees in that area. The name means ‘bark eaters.’
The less we put into our body the less defiled things will come out, so there can be benefits to consuming less.
It is said that before the Great Flood, at the time of Noah, mankind was entirely vegetarian. We should take note of that.
If we must eat, raw foods are best. Fish is acceptable to eat raw, except on prescribed fast days when fish is allowed to be eaten dried for a holy day. There is the problem of more and more mercury being found in fish, so perhaps one serving a week is all we should take. Even farm raised fish are more than a little bit questionable, if you ask me. Mercury is spewed out of all the concrete manufacturing plants like a bunch of volcanoes.
God commanded that bread be made from certain mixed grains, whole grains was the idea, which is to be cooked (baked). This is how the Fathers ate. It is very simple to make a clay stove like the old Russians did.
King Nebuchadnezzar went into the wilderness a mad man, ate only grass for seven years, and returned sane.
Almost everything is edible, but things may not be very palatable. Just because we can eat something does not mean it wont kill us. Non-poisonous berries are good for various uses, even to make wine or beer. Even things which would normally be edible can become corrupted by something getting into it from outside, that is why keeping food (and water) covered is important. Oleanders contain a toxin, so be mindful of that. The poison is in the sticky sap and will cause harm, even death. Fumes from burning Olenanders’ are likewise poisonous. All parts of Azaleas, Rhododendrons, and Mountain Laurel (Kalmia) are toxic, as well as honey made from the flowers.
If you ask me it is not such a good time to be keeping animals, especially for food.
We can even eat clean dirt, there are many Christian references to ascetics doing so. A Russian named Mishechka was famous for his habit of eating clay.
Our body can absorb nutrients (or poisons) through the skin, or even through the lungs, so that is something to think about.
Something else to realize is that it is a fact that food can be mind control, or how certain foods can control your brain:
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE58E0W320090915
This is one reason to abstain from meat, that meat tends to make us more aggressive, so it is far better to be humble and eat veggies.
Remember, the Lord had food that His disciples did not know of, so can we.
Forgive
I would reiterate what I try to say all the time, that this life is not about survival, that we are not to follow animal instincts. The Gospel message is about giving your life away so that you can find it. Honestly, everything is poisoned and spiritually defiled since long before we were born. All the air, all the water and all the edible things are in fact ruined. Now we have genetically altered or cloned foods that are not labeled, the only way to tell is to look at them on the molecular level.
These abominations are spread by such things as birds and are now practically everywhere and almost untraceable. Everything is most likely corripted in multiple ways, or at least in one way or another. Starvation for the sake of Christ is looking more and more reasonable all the time. I want to stay away from all uncleanness, so there appears to be little alternative.
But there are plenty of works about what can be eaten in the wild, if we choose to simply try and keep our distance from corrupt society as much as possible. I am not able to list all the pros and cons here in this post, but I wanted to offer something.
My childhood memories recall that Euell Gibbons (I have all of his books) was a spokesperson for Grape Nuts Cereal and did a commercial saying that “every bit of a pine tree is edible.” The pine nuts are good, the needles can be soaked so that the vitamin C seeps out and then simply drink the water. Soak any part of the tree and it should eventually become soft to chew. Yew was used as a poison on arrows and might be thought of as a pine because of its evergreen needles.
Cedar, Arborvitae or Juniper is good right off the tree — it freshens the breath (almost like mint, or probably more like a menthol taste). A word of caution, it has the same chemical as Sage, Mistletoe, Rosemary and Wormwood, so to much can be bad. Just nibble on it. The bluish grey berries are medicinal and are good for the urinary tract. Basically, there are no poisonous conifers, but too much of anything might kill you.
National Geographic did an article in 1920 about which mushrooms were edible or not. Here is a 2.2MB zip file which has some color plates for identification.
Edible leaves are always a nice alternative. There are Pot Herbs; as well as perennial leaf crops; a list of edible leaves and this informative page from The Sustainability Wiki.
Here in there desert many cactus are edible, I have ate every part of the Prickly Pear Cactus before, minus the pricks (thorns).
The plant known as ‘Cattail’ is one of the best wild edible plants.
It is amazing how long the body can really live without food, some people say they have gone 45 days without food and remained in good health. Fasting is actually very healthy. The strict Old Believers fast for over half the year anyway.
The area known as the Adirondacks in the state of New York is named after the American Indians who lived off of eating bark from the trees in that area. The name means ‘bark eaters.’
The less we put into our body the less defiled things will come out, so there can be benefits to consuming less.
It is said that before the Great Flood, at the time of Noah, mankind was entirely vegetarian. We should take note of that.
If we must eat, raw foods are best. Fish is acceptable to eat raw, except on prescribed fast days when fish is allowed to be eaten dried for a holy day. There is the problem of more and more mercury being found in fish, so perhaps one serving a week is all we should take. Even farm raised fish are more than a little bit questionable, if you ask me. Mercury is spewed out of all the concrete manufacturing plants like a bunch of volcanoes.
God commanded that bread be made from certain mixed grains, whole grains was the idea, which is to be cooked (baked). This is how the Fathers ate. It is very simple to make a clay stove like the old Russians did.
King Nebuchadnezzar went into the wilderness a mad man, ate only grass for seven years, and returned sane.
Almost everything is edible, but things may not be very palatable. Just because we can eat something does not mean it wont kill us. Non-poisonous berries are good for various uses, even to make wine or beer. Even things which would normally be edible can become corrupted by something getting into it from outside, that is why keeping food (and water) covered is important. Oleanders contain a toxin, so be mindful of that. The poison is in the sticky sap and will cause harm, even death. Fumes from burning Olenanders’ are likewise poisonous. All parts of Azaleas, Rhododendrons, and Mountain Laurel (Kalmia) are toxic, as well as honey made from the flowers.
If you ask me it is not such a good time to be keeping animals, especially for food.
We can even eat clean dirt, there are many Christian references to ascetics doing so. A Russian named Mishechka was famous for his habit of eating clay.
Our body can absorb nutrients (or poisons) through the skin, or even through the lungs, so that is something to think about.
Something else to realize is that it is a fact that food can be mind control, or how certain foods can control your brain:
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE58E0W320090915
This is one reason to abstain from meat, that meat tends to make us more aggressive, so it is far better to be humble and eat veggies.
Remember, the Lord had food that His disciples did not know of, so can we.
Forgive
Thursday, September 17, 2009
St. Mark the Ascetic
Philokalia, Vol. 1, pp. 140-1
He who chooses maltreatment and dishonor for the sake of truth is walking on the apostolic path; he has taken up the cross and is bound in chains (cf. Matt. 16:24; Acts 28:20). But when he tries to concentrate his attention on the heart without accepting these two, his intellect wanders from the path and he falls into the temptations and snares of the devil.
In our ascetic warfare we can neither rid ourselves of evil thoughts apart from their causes, nor of their causes without ridding ourselves of the thoughts. For if we reject the one without the other, before long the other will involve us in both at once.
…He who wishes to be spared all misfortunes should associate God with everything through prayer; with his intellect he should set his hope in Him, putting aside, as far as possible, all concern about things of the senses.
…Knowledge of created things helps a man at a time of temptations and listlessness; but at a time of pure prayer it is usually harmful.
…What is said without explicit reference to individuals is helpful to all, for each applies it to himself according to his own conscience.
…If you give way when someone who is under obedience to you wrongly contradicts you, you lead him astray over the point at issue and also encourage him to repudiate his promise of obedience.
He who with fear of God admonishes or corrects a man who has sinned, gains the virtue that is opposite to that sin. But he who reproaches him out of rancor and ill will becomes subject to a similar passion, according to the spiritual law.
He who has learned the law properly fears the Lawgiver and, fearing Him, he turns away from every evil.
…One man speaks the truth and is hated for it by the foolish; another speaks hypocritically and for this reason is loved. But in both cases their reward is not long delayed, for at the appropriate moment the Lord renders to each his due.
He who wishes to avoid future troubles should endure his present troubles gladly. For in this way, balancing the one against the other, through small sufferings he will avoid those which are great.
(From the Section Subtitled: No Righteousness By Works)
He who chooses maltreatment and dishonor for the sake of truth is walking on the apostolic path; he has taken up the cross and is bound in chains (cf. Matt. 16:24; Acts 28:20). But when he tries to concentrate his attention on the heart without accepting these two, his intellect wanders from the path and he falls into the temptations and snares of the devil.
In our ascetic warfare we can neither rid ourselves of evil thoughts apart from their causes, nor of their causes without ridding ourselves of the thoughts. For if we reject the one without the other, before long the other will involve us in both at once.
…He who wishes to be spared all misfortunes should associate God with everything through prayer; with his intellect he should set his hope in Him, putting aside, as far as possible, all concern about things of the senses.
…Knowledge of created things helps a man at a time of temptations and listlessness; but at a time of pure prayer it is usually harmful.
…What is said without explicit reference to individuals is helpful to all, for each applies it to himself according to his own conscience.
…If you give way when someone who is under obedience to you wrongly contradicts you, you lead him astray over the point at issue and also encourage him to repudiate his promise of obedience.
He who with fear of God admonishes or corrects a man who has sinned, gains the virtue that is opposite to that sin. But he who reproaches him out of rancor and ill will becomes subject to a similar passion, according to the spiritual law.
He who has learned the law properly fears the Lawgiver and, fearing Him, he turns away from every evil.
…One man speaks the truth and is hated for it by the foolish; another speaks hypocritically and for this reason is loved. But in both cases their reward is not long delayed, for at the appropriate moment the Lord renders to each his due.
He who wishes to avoid future troubles should endure his present troubles gladly. For in this way, balancing the one against the other, through small sufferings he will avoid those which are great.
(From the Section Subtitled: No Righteousness By Works)
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
World Renouncers Reject Technology
[There are] “...estimates of Old Believer membership at...20 million in 1922, ...Bespopvotsy...far outnumbered Popovotsy...”
“The Pomortsy are the most worldly and accommodative to political power among the Bespopovtsy.”
“There is disagreement among Soviet writers as to whether the Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers [Bieguni, Beguny] are just two different names for the one group, or whether they are two distinctly different groups.”
“Stranniki divided into ‘worldly’ and ‘true’ Wanderers. While the ‘true’ Stranniki completely broke with the world and led an ascetic and devout wandering life, the ‘worldly’ group stayed in society providing sustenance, shelter and permanent organization for their wandering brethren and vowing to become ‘true’ Wanderers at a later stage in their lives. Naturally only the ‘true’ Stranniki were a spiritual elite, keeping themselves ‘clean’ from the corrupting influence of the world in which Antichrist ruled. Some Stranniki perceived Antichrist in concrete terms, seeing the Tsars, especially Peter the Great, as impersonation of him. Others thought of Antichrist as a spiritual force, an unclean power, permeating all aspects of worldly society. In the years after the Revolution, they were only called Stranniki and were mainly of the ‘worldly’ kind. They maintained their traditional dogma, equating Antichrist now with Soviet power. In the 1920s, the ‘true’ Stranniki became prominent by gaining recruits from among those opposing the new political regime, especially during the collectivization period... They have cut themselves off completely from economic, social and cultural life of Soviet society. Their settlements are connected with the outside world only by narrow footpaths through the taiga. They maintain themselves by a combination of gathering and cottage industry and gardening. In the old communities of the ‘worldly’ Stranniki, minorities withdrew into hermitage and became known as Mirootrechniki (Engl. World Renouncers).
In the postwar years groups with the same characteristics appeared under the name True Orthodox Christian Wanderers. The differences between the two branches of Old Belief, if the one available description of a group of True Orthodox Christian Wanders is, as its author implies, typical of the other, are of the following kind. While the ‘true’ Stranniki cut themselves off from civilized society, both physically and spiritually, by withdrawing into the natural wilderness, the True Orthodox Chhristians Wanderers stayed in the inhabited world but withdrew from spiritual contact with it into artificially constructed hideouts...”
“The political disloyalty of the Stranniki today appears to be a frozen gesture and does not manifest itself in any spontaneous expressions of political hostility. The continuation of their isolation is more the maintenance of an old tradition than a gesture based on strong political sentiment. As most of them have had no contact with Soviet society since the early twenties they no longer know the enemy they are continuing to fight. The suggestion by one author, that their intransigent stance no longer expresses a social protest, therefore carries conviction.
The True Orthodox Christian Wanderers, however, are a different case. Unlike the Stranniki they know the society and political order they are fighting, and their equation of Soviet power with Antichrist is based on strong sentiments which periodically find expression in anti-Soviet actions. The schools for young sectarians not only foster a nostalgia for Tsarist Russia and a hate of Soviet society but also acquaint students with practical details about the present social order so that they are better equipped to fight it. Thus the syllabus of the Yani-Yul school contained lessons of Marxism and the Communist Party. A search of the hideout of one group of True Orthodox Christian Wanderers produced much anti-Soviet material...”
“There is an uncanny similarity between the political hostility of the sect of True Orthodox Christians and the Old Believer branches of Stranniki and, even more so, of the True Orthodox Christian Wanderers...
[There isn’t] “any significant difference in socieal characteristics between Bespopovtsy of the larger branches and Popovtsy... It is also true to say, as many Soviet writers do, that Old Believers do not differ much socially from the Orthodox. Like Orthodox, Old Believers are predominantly elderly and old, female and poorly educated, but the proportion of members over 50 years of age and of women is consistently a little lower among Old Believers, particularly among the Baltic Old Believers. This difference also comes out in the representation of the sexes on the church council: a far higher percentage of male Old believers than Orthodox men are involved in church administration. As among Orthodox, younger people (under 40 years of age) are said to be extremely rare in Old Believer congregations...”
“...Old Belief is now based on family life and Old Believer families are very patriarchal and strict...
Among Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers a different picture prevails. Unfortunately no systematic data have been collected on members of either branch but the qualitative information on their communities are based on family units and that members are totally insulated from the secularizing effect of Soviet society must mean that the social composition of these groups roughly corresponds to that of society at large in terms of sex and age. All we can say about social characteristics of True Orthodox Christian Wanderers is what we know about members of one group which has been studied. Of the eight people mentioned, all, except the regional leader who was middle-aged, were very young people. The group consisted of a young student from a technical college, a young woman with technical education, three schoolgirls, and two you skilled workers, one of them being the ‘benefactor.’ Thus the group differs entirely from other Old Believers groups, but whether it is typical is difficult to know. The fact that the sect has organized several schools expressly to equip young people for proselytizing work indicates that there must be a fair number of young people in the sect...”
“Individual beliefs [of Old Believers] correspond more to the official religious system than is common among Orthodox, and they are less vague and uncertain. Old Believers are more likely to adhere to literal interpretation of the Bible and primitively concrete ideological notions...
...It is generally implied in the Soviet sociological literature that saliency of belief is stronger among Old Believers than among Orthodox [Church members]...
...The lack of dependence on professional spiritual leaders and fixed houses of worship among the Bespopovtsy has rendered them flexible and less vulnerable to the impact of anti-religious ideas than has been possible in the ‘church’-type organizations [Popovotsy]...
...belief has both more width and more depth among Bespopovtsy than Popovtsy... Among the Bespopovtsy there is a distinct continuum in these two respects from the large Pomortsy branch upward to the small branches of the Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers. Among the latter, the old eschatological notions have been maintained with almost undiminished force, and interpretations of dogma have, in increasingly losing authority among believers. It is also indicative of truly ‘religious’ motivations for these acts rather than of a yielding to pressure from religious leaders or to a desire for a ‘beautiful occasion’.”
“...an unbaptised child is at the mercy of Antichrist...”
“...Among the Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers there is no strict division between public and private worship and the hours devoted to worship in general are high among both. Thus, among the Siberian Stranniki discovered in the taiga in 1965, the peasant log hut was both a homestead and a church and every hermit both a priest and a worshipper. On ordinary days these sectarians would spend up to ten out of twenty-four hours on prayer services and on holidays, even more. The members of the Alma-Ata group of True Orthodox Christian Wanderers spent virtually all their time on religious matters leaving even the housework mainly to their ‘benefactor’.”
“...Old Believers have always considered fast a necessary means for the attainment of salvation, and fast has been understood widely as a time ‘during which the soul renews itself, is raised or even prepared for its heavenly domicile’. It thus means a lot more than the mere abstinence from food and refers to a total spiritual state. Prayer is an integral part of fasting. Prayer among Old Believers is carried out according to set rules and occupies a great deal of their time. Those who pray regularly spend up to five out of every twenty-four hours in prayer. The World Renouncers prayed up to eight hours per day.
...[Fasting] among the True Orthodox Christian Wanderers in the Alma-Ata group was consistently observed, or probably carried even further than Old Believer faith prescribes. Members lived extremely ascetically, eating fast-type food regularly or often going without any food at all. Extra fasting was also imposed as punishment for transgressions. Information about Old Believers’ attitude toward icons is rarely offered in the literature, and it is not even clear whether all branches venerate icons. One study of the ‘Family’ Old Believers in two villages of the Zabaikal area showed that nearly all houses had icons and eight-ended crosses.”
“The religious practice of Old Believers is most clearly distinguished from that of adherents of other Christian faiths by the inclusion of ‘avoidance’ ritual. The great courage, spiritual steadfastness and close community of Old Believers developed during the centuries of fierce persecution by state and church fostered in them a sense of being a spiritual elite which must set itself apart from the world where Antichrist rules. To safeguard their exclusivity and to avoid any contamination from contact with the world which would prejudice their chances of salvation they established avoidance ritual. This permeates the everyday life of believers and regulates their relation with heretics and their world. Avoidance ritual flows from the complex of anti-Christological beliefs prominent in Old Believer ideology, especially that of Bespopovtsy.
According to these notions, all those who have not adopted Old belief live in a world ruled by the spirit o Antichrist. The rule of Antichrist began, of course, with the Nikonian reforms in 1666. Not only people are considered spiritually unclean but, by association, all material good, practices and institutions adopted since the rule of Antichrist are also thought to be polluted in this way. Like adherents of many primitive religions, Old Believers therefore have traditionally distinguished between people and life-style which are spiritually pure and those which are unclean, and they have to avoid ritual pollution...
Traditional Old Believer avoidance ritual may be separated into those practices regulating contact with heretics themselves and those taboos forbidding contact with various aspects of the material and intellectual culture. Avoidance of contact with heretics and their world has been developed to varying degrees in different branches. At one extreme the really ‘pure’ Old Believers in the small branches have avoided all contact whatsoever with the outside world, while members of other branches have only regulated the degree and manner of that contact. Marriage out of he community therefore has been taboo in all branches. Medical care by heretics has also been rejected. When social contact could not be avoided, Old Believer practices have been aimed at minimizing physical contact, such as upholding a strict separation of eating and drinking utensils. Visitors from outside their community have been given ‘the worldly dish’, and on visits to heretics Old Believers have brought their own spoon and cup. Post-Nikonian introductions to Russian material and intellectual culture, which are rejected as spiritually polluted, are various foodstuffs and provisions (such as tea, sugar, potatoes, sweets, matches, soap), technological inventions (e.g. electricity, piped water and modern transport), social customs (e.g. smoking, shaving and modern clothing) and even new expressions or words. All such avoidance practices are extremely difficult to maintain in any advanced industrial society with a socialist ethos where collective endeavor is being continually counterpoised to aspiration for exclusivity. Seen in this societal context, Old Believer avoidance practices, although rapidly declining, have been remarkably persistent.
Complete separation from ‘the world’, as we have shown above, was still current in the sixties among some Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers. In some Stranniki communities in the Siberian taiga and northern Urals separation from the world is said to be enforced occasionally by devious means. If it is noted that a member is weakening in his religious commitment other members will dare him to prove himself by some illegal exploit which is then later used for preventing his departure into the world.
In recent years there has been left little of the hostility to outsiders that Old Believers were once known for, but they have still been keeping themselves aloof from the surrounding population. Religious endogamy has remanded the norm among Old Believers from which departures have caused severe conflict between the generations. But in recent years this norm has been increasingly disregarded by the younger generation of some branches.
...Practices which were considered terrible sins not so long ago, such as potatoes and sugar or smoking, shaving and listening to the radio or using the medical service, have become widely accepted [among compromised communities]... Avoidance rituals and various taboos were still being preserved by a relatively large section of believers in the smaller branches in the Siberian areas, or in areas where compact groups of one Bespopovtsy branch from a village or figure prominently in the population. Thus some Pomortsy in compact communities of Ryazan region still kept ‘worldly’ eating utensils, and in the village exclusively settled by Pomortsy the middle-age and elderly men neither smoked nor shaved... In the Udmurt ASSR some Bespopotsy still abstained from the use of electricity, piped water and modern transport. In two settlements of he Tuvin ASSR, too, the more committed believers still declined the use of electricity, and children were not given sweets or toys.
An especially good picture of adherence to these avoidance rituals is given for the compact Bespopovtsy communities in the Komi ASSR. Although here, too, many believers have given up these practices, a very sizable minority continued to observe some or all of them...”
Copied entirely from this book preview online pp. 114, 117, 118, 121-32
“The Pomortsy are the most worldly and accommodative to political power among the Bespopovtsy.”
“There is disagreement among Soviet writers as to whether the Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers [Bieguni, Beguny] are just two different names for the one group, or whether they are two distinctly different groups.”
“Stranniki divided into ‘worldly’ and ‘true’ Wanderers. While the ‘true’ Stranniki completely broke with the world and led an ascetic and devout wandering life, the ‘worldly’ group stayed in society providing sustenance, shelter and permanent organization for their wandering brethren and vowing to become ‘true’ Wanderers at a later stage in their lives. Naturally only the ‘true’ Stranniki were a spiritual elite, keeping themselves ‘clean’ from the corrupting influence of the world in which Antichrist ruled. Some Stranniki perceived Antichrist in concrete terms, seeing the Tsars, especially Peter the Great, as impersonation of him. Others thought of Antichrist as a spiritual force, an unclean power, permeating all aspects of worldly society. In the years after the Revolution, they were only called Stranniki and were mainly of the ‘worldly’ kind. They maintained their traditional dogma, equating Antichrist now with Soviet power. In the 1920s, the ‘true’ Stranniki became prominent by gaining recruits from among those opposing the new political regime, especially during the collectivization period... They have cut themselves off completely from economic, social and cultural life of Soviet society. Their settlements are connected with the outside world only by narrow footpaths through the taiga. They maintain themselves by a combination of gathering and cottage industry and gardening. In the old communities of the ‘worldly’ Stranniki, minorities withdrew into hermitage and became known as Mirootrechniki (Engl. World Renouncers).
In the postwar years groups with the same characteristics appeared under the name True Orthodox Christian Wanderers. The differences between the two branches of Old Belief, if the one available description of a group of True Orthodox Christian Wanders is, as its author implies, typical of the other, are of the following kind. While the ‘true’ Stranniki cut themselves off from civilized society, both physically and spiritually, by withdrawing into the natural wilderness, the True Orthodox Chhristians Wanderers stayed in the inhabited world but withdrew from spiritual contact with it into artificially constructed hideouts...”
“The political disloyalty of the Stranniki today appears to be a frozen gesture and does not manifest itself in any spontaneous expressions of political hostility. The continuation of their isolation is more the maintenance of an old tradition than a gesture based on strong political sentiment. As most of them have had no contact with Soviet society since the early twenties they no longer know the enemy they are continuing to fight. The suggestion by one author, that their intransigent stance no longer expresses a social protest, therefore carries conviction.
The True Orthodox Christian Wanderers, however, are a different case. Unlike the Stranniki they know the society and political order they are fighting, and their equation of Soviet power with Antichrist is based on strong sentiments which periodically find expression in anti-Soviet actions. The schools for young sectarians not only foster a nostalgia for Tsarist Russia and a hate of Soviet society but also acquaint students with practical details about the present social order so that they are better equipped to fight it. Thus the syllabus of the Yani-Yul school contained lessons of Marxism and the Communist Party. A search of the hideout of one group of True Orthodox Christian Wanderers produced much anti-Soviet material...”
“There is an uncanny similarity between the political hostility of the sect of True Orthodox Christians and the Old Believer branches of Stranniki and, even more so, of the True Orthodox Christian Wanderers...
[There isn’t] “any significant difference in socieal characteristics between Bespopovtsy of the larger branches and Popovtsy... It is also true to say, as many Soviet writers do, that Old Believers do not differ much socially from the Orthodox. Like Orthodox, Old Believers are predominantly elderly and old, female and poorly educated, but the proportion of members over 50 years of age and of women is consistently a little lower among Old Believers, particularly among the Baltic Old Believers. This difference also comes out in the representation of the sexes on the church council: a far higher percentage of male Old believers than Orthodox men are involved in church administration. As among Orthodox, younger people (under 40 years of age) are said to be extremely rare in Old Believer congregations...”
“...Old Belief is now based on family life and Old Believer families are very patriarchal and strict...
Among Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers a different picture prevails. Unfortunately no systematic data have been collected on members of either branch but the qualitative information on their communities are based on family units and that members are totally insulated from the secularizing effect of Soviet society must mean that the social composition of these groups roughly corresponds to that of society at large in terms of sex and age. All we can say about social characteristics of True Orthodox Christian Wanderers is what we know about members of one group which has been studied. Of the eight people mentioned, all, except the regional leader who was middle-aged, were very young people. The group consisted of a young student from a technical college, a young woman with technical education, three schoolgirls, and two you skilled workers, one of them being the ‘benefactor.’ Thus the group differs entirely from other Old Believers groups, but whether it is typical is difficult to know. The fact that the sect has organized several schools expressly to equip young people for proselytizing work indicates that there must be a fair number of young people in the sect...”
“Individual beliefs [of Old Believers] correspond more to the official religious system than is common among Orthodox, and they are less vague and uncertain. Old Believers are more likely to adhere to literal interpretation of the Bible and primitively concrete ideological notions...
...It is generally implied in the Soviet sociological literature that saliency of belief is stronger among Old Believers than among Orthodox [Church members]...
...The lack of dependence on professional spiritual leaders and fixed houses of worship among the Bespopovtsy has rendered them flexible and less vulnerable to the impact of anti-religious ideas than has been possible in the ‘church’-type organizations [Popovotsy]...
...belief has both more width and more depth among Bespopovtsy than Popovtsy... Among the Bespopovtsy there is a distinct continuum in these two respects from the large Pomortsy branch upward to the small branches of the Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers. Among the latter, the old eschatological notions have been maintained with almost undiminished force, and interpretations of dogma have, in increasingly losing authority among believers. It is also indicative of truly ‘religious’ motivations for these acts rather than of a yielding to pressure from religious leaders or to a desire for a ‘beautiful occasion’.”
“...an unbaptised child is at the mercy of Antichrist...”
“...Among the Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers there is no strict division between public and private worship and the hours devoted to worship in general are high among both. Thus, among the Siberian Stranniki discovered in the taiga in 1965, the peasant log hut was both a homestead and a church and every hermit both a priest and a worshipper. On ordinary days these sectarians would spend up to ten out of twenty-four hours on prayer services and on holidays, even more. The members of the Alma-Ata group of True Orthodox Christian Wanderers spent virtually all their time on religious matters leaving even the housework mainly to their ‘benefactor’.”
“...Old Believers have always considered fast a necessary means for the attainment of salvation, and fast has been understood widely as a time ‘during which the soul renews itself, is raised or even prepared for its heavenly domicile’. It thus means a lot more than the mere abstinence from food and refers to a total spiritual state. Prayer is an integral part of fasting. Prayer among Old Believers is carried out according to set rules and occupies a great deal of their time. Those who pray regularly spend up to five out of every twenty-four hours in prayer. The World Renouncers prayed up to eight hours per day.
...[Fasting] among the True Orthodox Christian Wanderers in the Alma-Ata group was consistently observed, or probably carried even further than Old Believer faith prescribes. Members lived extremely ascetically, eating fast-type food regularly or often going without any food at all. Extra fasting was also imposed as punishment for transgressions. Information about Old Believers’ attitude toward icons is rarely offered in the literature, and it is not even clear whether all branches venerate icons. One study of the ‘Family’ Old Believers in two villages of the Zabaikal area showed that nearly all houses had icons and eight-ended crosses.”
“The religious practice of Old Believers is most clearly distinguished from that of adherents of other Christian faiths by the inclusion of ‘avoidance’ ritual. The great courage, spiritual steadfastness and close community of Old Believers developed during the centuries of fierce persecution by state and church fostered in them a sense of being a spiritual elite which must set itself apart from the world where Antichrist rules. To safeguard their exclusivity and to avoid any contamination from contact with the world which would prejudice their chances of salvation they established avoidance ritual. This permeates the everyday life of believers and regulates their relation with heretics and their world. Avoidance ritual flows from the complex of anti-Christological beliefs prominent in Old Believer ideology, especially that of Bespopovtsy.
According to these notions, all those who have not adopted Old belief live in a world ruled by the spirit o Antichrist. The rule of Antichrist began, of course, with the Nikonian reforms in 1666. Not only people are considered spiritually unclean but, by association, all material good, practices and institutions adopted since the rule of Antichrist are also thought to be polluted in this way. Like adherents of many primitive religions, Old Believers therefore have traditionally distinguished between people and life-style which are spiritually pure and those which are unclean, and they have to avoid ritual pollution...
Traditional Old Believer avoidance ritual may be separated into those practices regulating contact with heretics themselves and those taboos forbidding contact with various aspects of the material and intellectual culture. Avoidance of contact with heretics and their world has been developed to varying degrees in different branches. At one extreme the really ‘pure’ Old Believers in the small branches have avoided all contact whatsoever with the outside world, while members of other branches have only regulated the degree and manner of that contact. Marriage out of he community therefore has been taboo in all branches. Medical care by heretics has also been rejected. When social contact could not be avoided, Old Believer practices have been aimed at minimizing physical contact, such as upholding a strict separation of eating and drinking utensils. Visitors from outside their community have been given ‘the worldly dish’, and on visits to heretics Old Believers have brought their own spoon and cup. Post-Nikonian introductions to Russian material and intellectual culture, which are rejected as spiritually polluted, are various foodstuffs and provisions (such as tea, sugar, potatoes, sweets, matches, soap), technological inventions (e.g. electricity, piped water and modern transport), social customs (e.g. smoking, shaving and modern clothing) and even new expressions or words. All such avoidance practices are extremely difficult to maintain in any advanced industrial society with a socialist ethos where collective endeavor is being continually counterpoised to aspiration for exclusivity. Seen in this societal context, Old Believer avoidance practices, although rapidly declining, have been remarkably persistent.
Complete separation from ‘the world’, as we have shown above, was still current in the sixties among some Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers. In some Stranniki communities in the Siberian taiga and northern Urals separation from the world is said to be enforced occasionally by devious means. If it is noted that a member is weakening in his religious commitment other members will dare him to prove himself by some illegal exploit which is then later used for preventing his departure into the world.
In recent years there has been left little of the hostility to outsiders that Old Believers were once known for, but they have still been keeping themselves aloof from the surrounding population. Religious endogamy has remanded the norm among Old Believers from which departures have caused severe conflict between the generations. But in recent years this norm has been increasingly disregarded by the younger generation of some branches.
...Practices which were considered terrible sins not so long ago, such as potatoes and sugar or smoking, shaving and listening to the radio or using the medical service, have become widely accepted [among compromised communities]... Avoidance rituals and various taboos were still being preserved by a relatively large section of believers in the smaller branches in the Siberian areas, or in areas where compact groups of one Bespopovtsy branch from a village or figure prominently in the population. Thus some Pomortsy in compact communities of Ryazan region still kept ‘worldly’ eating utensils, and in the village exclusively settled by Pomortsy the middle-age and elderly men neither smoked nor shaved... In the Udmurt ASSR some Bespopotsy still abstained from the use of electricity, piped water and modern transport. In two settlements of he Tuvin ASSR, too, the more committed believers still declined the use of electricity, and children were not given sweets or toys.
An especially good picture of adherence to these avoidance rituals is given for the compact Bespopovtsy communities in the Komi ASSR. Although here, too, many believers have given up these practices, a very sizable minority continued to observe some or all of them...”
Copied entirely from this book preview online pp. 114, 117, 118, 121-32
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Mammas, Patron Saint of Tax Evaders
Remembering this day a young martyr.
.
.
.
Mamas parents lived in the late third century. They were arrested for being Christian. While in prison his mother gave birth to Mamas who was soon orphaned. Mamas followed the teachings of Christianity and was raised by a widow-lady named Ammia, who later died. Then an angel told him to live as a monk in a Cappadocian cave and gave him a staff with which he preached to animals.
He was then torturously arrested for not paying taxes. As they walked to court St. Mamas saw a lion chasing after a sheep. He called to the lion which came to him and St. Mamas rode on its back with the sheep in his arm. St. Mamas gave the sheep as a gift to the judge, but due to the unusual event with the lion the governor ordered his release and granted him exclusion from taxation.
Afterward he was arrested again and Emperor Alexander had Saint Mammes thrown to the lions which naturally became docile with him. This infuriated Alexander who commanded him killed by a trident (like a pitchfork). Holy Mamas died in the theater from wounds to his side at the age of 15, not unlike his parents.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Old or New Calendar?
Good health to everyone!
For all those who believe they use the Old (Julian) Calendar please consider the reference work quoted below. This explanation shows how the Old Calendar was actually changed by Tsar Peter I several centuries ago.
------------------
Russia on the eve of modernity, p.71
The Sredniki (Wednesdayers) illustrate the disorientation evoked by Peter’s calendar reforms. The Old Belief as a whole thought that Peter had “stolen eight years from God” when he subtracted 5508, and not 5500, from the year since the creation to derive the Anno Domini. Numbering was connected with several grave issues, including the Easter cycle, and, more important, predictions of the end of the world. If Peter were the Antichrist and could obscure the real date, he could delude the faithful and lower their guard. The Sredniki took this suspicion even further, and concluded that Peter (or, in another variant, Nikon) had shifted the days of the week, and that which the majority considered to be Wednesday was in fact Sunday. Therefore everyone’s cycle of fasts, holidays, and above all Sunday services was hopelessly and fatally off.
------------------
Didn’t the Holy Prophet Daniel condemn the changing of signs and seasons (7:25)? This tells me, in simple and no uncertain terms, that it is very wrong and evil to change the calendar.
Due to many things like this it would appear that the changing of the calendar in the Orthodoxy Church goes back further than a lot of us might have previously heard. There is a devilish saying that says time heals all wounds and that some things are best forgotten. But these type of referenced are available. So it can be said that many who pridefully claim they are on the Old Calendar are actually New Calendar after all. It is best not to bury our head in the sand these facts.
As for me, I long for real and pure Old Orthodox Christianity and see no hope without it.
It is encouraging to learn that there was an outcry so long ago when things began going downhill so much and so quickly. I see no good reason to change the calendar.
Forgive
For all those who believe they use the Old (Julian) Calendar please consider the reference work quoted below. This explanation shows how the Old Calendar was actually changed by Tsar Peter I several centuries ago.
------------------
Russia on the eve of modernity, p.71
The Sredniki (Wednesdayers) illustrate the disorientation evoked by Peter’s calendar reforms. The Old Belief as a whole thought that Peter had “stolen eight years from God” when he subtracted 5508, and not 5500, from the year since the creation to derive the Anno Domini. Numbering was connected with several grave issues, including the Easter cycle, and, more important, predictions of the end of the world. If Peter were the Antichrist and could obscure the real date, he could delude the faithful and lower their guard. The Sredniki took this suspicion even further, and concluded that Peter (or, in another variant, Nikon) had shifted the days of the week, and that which the majority considered to be Wednesday was in fact Sunday. Therefore everyone’s cycle of fasts, holidays, and above all Sunday services was hopelessly and fatally off.
------------------
Didn’t the Holy Prophet Daniel condemn the changing of signs and seasons (7:25)? This tells me, in simple and no uncertain terms, that it is very wrong and evil to change the calendar.
Due to many things like this it would appear that the changing of the calendar in the Orthodoxy Church goes back further than a lot of us might have previously heard. There is a devilish saying that says time heals all wounds and that some things are best forgotten. But these type of referenced are available. So it can be said that many who pridefully claim they are on the Old Calendar are actually New Calendar after all. It is best not to bury our head in the sand these facts.
As for me, I long for real and pure Old Orthodox Christianity and see no hope without it.
It is encouraging to learn that there was an outcry so long ago when things began going downhill so much and so quickly. I see no good reason to change the calendar.
Forgive
Monday, September 7, 2009
No Longer Numbered Among the Nations
Resistance to the Census
...behold, the people shall dwell alone, and shall
not be reckoned among the nations. Numbers 23:9
We should no longer be numbered among the nations of this world.
My understanding is that the liberal group ACORN (in trouble over voter registration) now is given Census authority. If I recall correctly it was suggested that there was some mishandling from the side of President Obama with regard to ACORN. It all sounds like a big mess, truly antichrist. This photo below has been passed around in a disapproving manner of ACORN.
The U.S. Census Bureau has now abandoned ACORN
2 Sam 24:1 says God was the inspiration, 1 Chr 21:1 says Satan was.
There is no contradiction in the Septuagint (the version Jesus read from in the Temple), as both its references say that Satan instigated it. So I side with the Septuagint reading, because of its agreement.
Note that after David was deceived by Satan to take the census a plague was sent by God.
According to census figures the world population hit 6,666,666,666 in May, 2008.
There are other types of censuses too, like the Federal-State Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, which all tell their own sad stories.
Here are some responses that can be offered to Census Agents questions:
“No such Persons at this location.”
(They are looking for State and Federal Residents and we should not be counted among such people.)
[Being called a Resident is an Office we do not want to fall into.]
Tell them you renounce being a U.S. Citizen.
(We should often be renouncing even any implied earthly national citizenship’s.)
Tell any ‘would be’ census takers that no person’s here take part in their worldly census.
(The word “person” has been brought down to use from the idea of an actors persona, and we ought not to be going around acting, that is, being a hypocrite.)
Should a Census form find its way through the mail to you, don’t open it. If you opened it, reseal it. On the front, write, “No residents at this address.” Then send it back.
If the Census Bureau telephones you, simply say, “Nobody is here to answer your questions.” If questions persist just repeat the idea over, “I’m sorry, there is no one here to answer your questions.”
The government considers us all criminals until we accept their contract (papers and/or plastic), because without such things they have no justification for abusing/persecuting us. If we accept the governments requirements then we are abusing ourselves. So if it makes the government feel better let them Try us for our Faith to see if our Faith is True, for it is better to be abused for Righteousness sake than as Sinners.
If we are to take a stand for what is right we must renounce the desire to be a Subject Citizen of worldly nations, we ought to seek the protection that comes from Above.
May we practice good things so that we are ready the next time we are faced with such a situation.
I did find this Diary of a Census Resister.
Lying is inherently evil, but Rahab the Arab protected the men of God from capture by deception for a good cause. This noble act saved her and her family, nobody would fault her for it. She repented and never needed to be deceptive ever again, once they all were able to join and live with God’s people. So there are indeed exceptions. It is just like how Israel spoiled Egypt before fleeing, it is wrong to steal, but not from the enemies of God. There are numerous other good examples of this illustrated for us throughout all time, if we take a look at it.
The government is greatly lying with money, taxes and other fictions of law and are worse than any white lie to save our lives. Sometimes even a limited lie cannot be used to save our own skin. Being led of God is what I am talking about.
So it is best not to go along with wickedness, we are guilty by participation if we assist and agree to be and rest with such things. It is better to ruin the whole show than to be a part of it.
Pro 23:1-3 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.
There is such a thing as pious fraud or moral lying. The Lord Jesus Christ told a parable in Lk 16:1-9 that advocates shrewd and deceptive business practices for the sake of the Kingdom.
Luke 16
1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.
2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.
3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.
4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
5 So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?
6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.
7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.
8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
There was a Wall Street Journal article from August 8, 1989 by James Bouvard that headlined,
“HONESTY MAY NOT BE YOUR BEST CENSUS POLICY”
Here is the U.S. Census Law, if anyone is interested, it looks like there are fines of $100 to $500 for violating this law:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode13/usc_sec_13_00000221----000-.html.
Man’s laws are arbitrary and are becoming more oppressive, so be mindful of that.
In 1960 two people were prosecuted for resisting the census, one person in 1970, I am not certain about the other censuses. In 1980 it was 83% of households that voluntarily mailed back their census forms, in 1990 only 78%. The more intrusive government becomes, the less information it will get. It is said that if you do not fill out the form the officials will fill it out themselves by asking your neighbors.
I know of some Old Believers who live in a rather distant location and were visited by a Census worker doing work in advance. The worker said there was this mail box out at the highway and that they needed information about it. The response the Old Believer gave was that they do not do the Census, saying further that they did not believe in it. The worker walked away saying they would be back. So now the Old Believer has decided to simply remove the mail box so as not to attract anything further. There are other ways to get postal items. I believe it was the Post Office who had been given charge to keep track of people and where they go. In my many talks with the Old Believers at this location with the mail box I mentioned how the Postal System was not good , and they completely agree. Be encouraged by these things, knowing that there are some Old Believers who do in fact reject the idea of the Census. For centuries governments have had difficult times counting the Old Believers, now is no different. I would refer to the this chapter of The Russians’ Secret, Nonconformity.
There are Old Believers in the USA that do not have running water, all the water I use here is carried by hand and I do not use much. The chemicals so often used with flush toilets are contaminating and destroying this world. The Fifth Amendment is supposed to assure that those in the USA can be secure in their homes, they do not have to answer the door if they do not want to.
Here is the latest edition of the Census form from the official government web site, this replaces previous questionnaires. One of the questions asks if you have a flush toilet.
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/SQuest09.pdf
Here is a letter from the government that we might get if we chose not to answer the above questionnaire which is required by law.
http://mymartyrdom.com/censusletter.pdf
The Doomsday Book
William the Conqueror ordered a great survey which spared no one and there was no appeal from it. William wanted to insure that he was getting all his taxes from everyone. It was completed in 1086. It was called The Doomsday Book (or Domesday Book) and recorded how much land everyone owned and how many people worked there. The numbering of animals, pastures, mills and fish ponds were also included.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Holy Foolishness - page 64
Flight from Justice
The Beguny (those who flee) believe that tsardom became the devil’s rule, they were closely associated with the Stranniki (wanderers) who believe the Antichrist has already appeared and “visibly rules on earth.” Therefore, obedience to any form of earthly power, be it secular or clerical, is stamped with his seal. Since struggle against the earthly powers is impossible, the only remaining opportunity for salvation is flight (begstvo) and wandering (stranstvovanie) - from which the Beguny and Stranniki get their names.
Flight from all forms of official culture is one response to the Antichrist; other responses include lying and deception. Lawrence Trefalev, in a study of the Stranniki (Published in the journal The Russian Archive in 1866), wrote that lying and deception during periods of official investigation were considered obligatory... “someone spoke the truth and perished, another lied and was made a saint.” ...among the Stranniki lying is especially important because it is a way of abusing the “Antichrist and his servants.”
[Speaking of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment the above words apply to an innocent man who admitted to murder.]
It is a way of taking on suffering and also as a judgment against those who judge him. This is a kind of holy foolishness in which self-abasement and deliberate provocation are both part of the performance. The historical holy fool abused those who mocked him.
There is the idea of “suffering,” not for the sake of gain, or even on behalf of someone else, but simply because “it is necessary.”
[for many Russians to think, feel, suffer and understand are one and the same thing]
-------------------------
It is also mentioned that a microbe (a “new trichina”) previously unknown to modern medicine, would be responsible for a new epidemic. The trichinae infect the world with insanity that masquerades as wisdom. Those infected went mad but believed themselves to be sane, and became even more convinced as to the rightness of their moral convictions and their “scientific conclusions.” No one could agree, and a period of war, famine, and fire ensued. Those chosen to save the world could not deliver their message; “no one heard their voices.”
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Types of Stranniki
Men, Women and Children. All Types of People.
Page 257, Russia in Europe and Asia, 1912
.
(Russia is so big that it is in two continents)
Friday, September 4, 2009
Is There Any Safe Water?
Federal data says 20% of water treatment systems violate the Safe Drinking Water Act. About 5% of violators were punished and the violations are in every state. More than 25% of violators are never even contacted by regulators. The responsible party, the EPA, does little to enforce regulations. About 20 million people a year become ill from contaminated water. Radioactive drinking water has been 2,000% higher than the limit. Even with Federal assistance many drinking water systems did not comply. Even when water is within legal limits there is still risk of cancer and perhaps other problems. No improvement can be seen for the near future.
All the poisonous and toxic methods used today to handle and “purify” water are truly barbaric. All the man engineered processes that deliver water use products of toxic petroleum, like man-made electricity. All of these are known to cause cancer and unthinkable harm, like birth defects, etc. The chlorine and other hazardous materials which are put into city water to make it “drinkable” and are likewise a contamination. All the water is polluted these days simply by being exposed to the poisoned air. There is nowhere we can go to get away from the acid rain. It is really a catch 22 if we think that we can find pure water any more. With all the constant defilement everywhere in the world safe water may not be plausible. If we are willing to suffer, we should do the best we can.
Even if you want to use the wicked machines of men to filter or distill the water it still is not pure, even with double distilled water. Every type of treated water I have tasted does not taste right. There are old Christian rules against using distilled products.
Then we have to think about what we store water in. Cans and plastic are out of the question as they are made by industrial enterprise. Only the Lord knows what is involved with all that wickedness. We could keep things in something like approved wine skins, or non-toxic pottery (though most of the glazes used on pottery today are toxic). There are a great number of things which are problematical, it is up to each one of us to be on guard against it all. This blog is not able to cover entirely all the antichrist issues pertaining to this topic (or any topic for that matter). I just want to offer some general considerations. Basically, anything that has association with modern man is unacceptable. The best thing to hold water would be a wooden bucket (with a cover), if you can make it from birch. They can be made by hand. Other woods that are not poisonous are usable as well. Of course some people are unaffected by poisons. Distilled liquids should be avoided at all costs as they are forbidden.
The best water might be glacier water, so living up in the mountains along a stream that is fed by a glacier just might be the ideal place. There are some glaciers here in California. Try not bring anything worldly with you, if you go. The outside world will try to encroach on us, but that is not our fault. God only expects from us what we can do. If we go above the 2,000 foot level the smog concentration, which is so heavy and settles in lower areas, will have less of an affect. Smog does go around the world though.
I was told as a child that a roaring river or stream (what might be called ‘living water’) purifies itself every 300 feet. So it is possible to drink right out of such a source. I have done so before. A waterfall also creates a purifying effect in the water. An added benefit to waterfalls is that they often create a cave behind them, it is an excellent hiding place and the air is cleaned by it as well. If a person is thirsty it is possible to relieve the thirst by simply submersing ourselves in water. The water can be absorbed through the skin and before too long the mouth no longer will be dry. This might offer some filtration, though not from all toxins. Soaking in water might be an alternative to going through the gastro-intestinal upset of drinking bad water.
Starting on page 152 of the book, “in the shadow of Antichrist” is an interesting account of the Old Believer position on water. These are some of the particulars. All the water in the world is blessed on Epiphany (or Theophany), the day Christ was baptized and began His ministry. In the morning water that is taken from a river becomes great (velikaya) holy water (sviatynia) when it is mixed with the small (malaya) waters already taken in the evening. Part of the smaller holy water is kept for cleansing external objects, while the greater holy water is kept for cleansing us internally at times like the beginning and end of the great fast, or in times of serious illness. Water previously sanctified by clergy in ages past might be added, connecting it with the more powerful type of long ago.
I have heard of some Old Believers, who live near lakes. They paddle out to the center of the lake to draw the water from that cleaner point. Most Old Believers prefer to live along rivers. God sends two angels every morning to rivers where Christians are to rid the water of any poison. Only river water can be brought directly into the home or worship without the need for spiritual and ritual cleansing.
The water from wells and springs is in slightly lower position than water from rivers. They are understood as being from underground rivers. Even though they are not entirely stagnant they must be prayed over and incensed before being used for people. That kind is not for use in ritual.
Stagnant water in lakes, ponds, etc. are impure. Water that does not move keeps dirty things to itself. This kind of water is the favorite squatters place of demons (biesy) and their stench emanates from such places. This water is one of the ways demons try to gain entrance to a person. Demon possession is a poisoning, a kind of mental illness. We can fast and pray to rid them, but not everyone is willing.
Animals can use pond water, but not the people of God. People can wash animals with it, but sacred objects like icons cannot be nearby or they will need to be specially cleansed. Blood is the most unclean liquid, but blood which is bled from the right side of a clean animal may be used to treat anemia. All other types of blood is a contaminate.
Animal meat today is improperly bled which is a contaminate and great sin if eaten, it contains the soul of animals. Consuming blood brings a Christian down to the position of an animal, a pagan. River water is an example of purity and raises a person towards heaven, it is both a natural and ritual purity.
I would say that thinking too much about survival is an animal instinct, we are not animals. We should be mindful of the Gospel which teaches that if we give our live away we will find it. I presently bide my time as long as possible. Perhaps there is someplace to hide and escape to. Give me a forest with a stream or river, and maybe an axe. I can take care of the rest. Remember, rivers are protected by angels. We must first gain Faith and Practice though. Proverbs 21:31 - Safety is of the LORD. If we eat the right kinds of food we do not need to drink any water. Christians are noted for eating poison and not being affected, this can also be mimicked by anti-Christians.
This link is to a video on my YouTube channel about The Last Christians are the Old Believers.
All the poisonous and toxic methods used today to handle and “purify” water are truly barbaric. All the man engineered processes that deliver water use products of toxic petroleum, like man-made electricity. All of these are known to cause cancer and unthinkable harm, like birth defects, etc. The chlorine and other hazardous materials which are put into city water to make it “drinkable” and are likewise a contamination. All the water is polluted these days simply by being exposed to the poisoned air. There is nowhere we can go to get away from the acid rain. It is really a catch 22 if we think that we can find pure water any more. With all the constant defilement everywhere in the world safe water may not be plausible. If we are willing to suffer, we should do the best we can.
Even if you want to use the wicked machines of men to filter or distill the water it still is not pure, even with double distilled water. Every type of treated water I have tasted does not taste right. There are old Christian rules against using distilled products.
Then we have to think about what we store water in. Cans and plastic are out of the question as they are made by industrial enterprise. Only the Lord knows what is involved with all that wickedness. We could keep things in something like approved wine skins, or non-toxic pottery (though most of the glazes used on pottery today are toxic). There are a great number of things which are problematical, it is up to each one of us to be on guard against it all. This blog is not able to cover entirely all the antichrist issues pertaining to this topic (or any topic for that matter). I just want to offer some general considerations. Basically, anything that has association with modern man is unacceptable. The best thing to hold water would be a wooden bucket (with a cover), if you can make it from birch. They can be made by hand. Other woods that are not poisonous are usable as well. Of course some people are unaffected by poisons. Distilled liquids should be avoided at all costs as they are forbidden.
The best water might be glacier water, so living up in the mountains along a stream that is fed by a glacier just might be the ideal place. There are some glaciers here in California. Try not bring anything worldly with you, if you go. The outside world will try to encroach on us, but that is not our fault. God only expects from us what we can do. If we go above the 2,000 foot level the smog concentration, which is so heavy and settles in lower areas, will have less of an affect. Smog does go around the world though.
I was told as a child that a roaring river or stream (what might be called ‘living water’) purifies itself every 300 feet. So it is possible to drink right out of such a source. I have done so before. A waterfall also creates a purifying effect in the water. An added benefit to waterfalls is that they often create a cave behind them, it is an excellent hiding place and the air is cleaned by it as well. If a person is thirsty it is possible to relieve the thirst by simply submersing ourselves in water. The water can be absorbed through the skin and before too long the mouth no longer will be dry. This might offer some filtration, though not from all toxins. Soaking in water might be an alternative to going through the gastro-intestinal upset of drinking bad water.
Starting on page 152 of the book, “in the shadow of Antichrist” is an interesting account of the Old Believer position on water. These are some of the particulars. All the water in the world is blessed on Epiphany (or Theophany), the day Christ was baptized and began His ministry. In the morning water that is taken from a river becomes great (velikaya) holy water (sviatynia) when it is mixed with the small (malaya) waters already taken in the evening. Part of the smaller holy water is kept for cleansing external objects, while the greater holy water is kept for cleansing us internally at times like the beginning and end of the great fast, or in times of serious illness. Water previously sanctified by clergy in ages past might be added, connecting it with the more powerful type of long ago.
I have heard of some Old Believers, who live near lakes. They paddle out to the center of the lake to draw the water from that cleaner point. Most Old Believers prefer to live along rivers. God sends two angels every morning to rivers where Christians are to rid the water of any poison. Only river water can be brought directly into the home or worship without the need for spiritual and ritual cleansing.
The water from wells and springs is in slightly lower position than water from rivers. They are understood as being from underground rivers. Even though they are not entirely stagnant they must be prayed over and incensed before being used for people. That kind is not for use in ritual.
Stagnant water in lakes, ponds, etc. are impure. Water that does not move keeps dirty things to itself. This kind of water is the favorite squatters place of demons (biesy) and their stench emanates from such places. This water is one of the ways demons try to gain entrance to a person. Demon possession is a poisoning, a kind of mental illness. We can fast and pray to rid them, but not everyone is willing.
Animals can use pond water, but not the people of God. People can wash animals with it, but sacred objects like icons cannot be nearby or they will need to be specially cleansed. Blood is the most unclean liquid, but blood which is bled from the right side of a clean animal may be used to treat anemia. All other types of blood is a contaminate.
Animal meat today is improperly bled which is a contaminate and great sin if eaten, it contains the soul of animals. Consuming blood brings a Christian down to the position of an animal, a pagan. River water is an example of purity and raises a person towards heaven, it is both a natural and ritual purity.
I would say that thinking too much about survival is an animal instinct, we are not animals. We should be mindful of the Gospel which teaches that if we give our live away we will find it. I presently bide my time as long as possible. Perhaps there is someplace to hide and escape to. Give me a forest with a stream or river, and maybe an axe. I can take care of the rest. Remember, rivers are protected by angels. We must first gain Faith and Practice though. Proverbs 21:31 - Safety is of the LORD. If we eat the right kinds of food we do not need to drink any water. Christians are noted for eating poison and not being affected, this can also be mimicked by anti-Christians.
This link is to a video on my YouTube channel about The Last Christians are the Old Believers.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Do Not Stay In A Town At All
Philokalia Vol. 1
Evangrios the Solitary
On Asceticism and Stillness (p. 34-35)
Indeed, I urge you to welcome exile. It frees you from all the entanglements of your own locality, and allows you to enjoy the blessings of stillness undistracted. Do not stay in a town, but persevere in the wilderness. ‘Lo,’ says the Psalm, ‘then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness’ (Ps. 55:7). If possible do not visit a town at all. For you will find there nothing of benefit, nothing useful, nothing profitable for your way of life. To quote the Psalm again, ‘I have seen violence and strife in the city’ (Ps. 55:9). So seek out places that are free from distraction, and solitary. Do not be afraid of the noises you may hear. Even if you should see some demonic fantasy, do not be terrified or flee from the training ground so apt for your progress. Endure fearlessly, and you will see the great things of God, His help, His care, and all the other assurances of salvation. For the Psalm says, ‘I waited for Him who delivers me from distress of spirit and the tempest’ (Ps. 55:8 LXX).
Do not let restless desire overcome your resolution, for ‘restlessness of desire perverts the guileless intellect’ (Wisd. 4:12)...
Avoid association with crafty or aggressive people, and do not live with anyone of that kind but shun their evil purposes; for they do not dwell close to God or abide with Him… Do not pass your time with people engaged in worldly affairs or share their table, in case they involve you in their illusions and draw you away from the silence of stillness... Let the labor and longing of your heart be for the faithful of the earth, to become like them in mourning...
Do not hanker after fine foods and deceitful pleasures… Do not have relationships with too many people, lest your intellect become distracted and so disturb the way of stillness...
When buying or selling you can hardly avoid sin. So, in either case, be sure you lose a little in the transaction. Do not haggle about the price from love of gain, and so indulge in actions harmful to the soul - quarreling, lying, shifting your ground and so on - thus bringing our way of life to disrepute... If possible it is best to place such business in the hands of someone you trust, so that, being thus relieved of the worry, you can pursue your calling with joy and hope.
Evangrios the Solitary
On Asceticism and Stillness (p. 34-35)
Indeed, I urge you to welcome exile. It frees you from all the entanglements of your own locality, and allows you to enjoy the blessings of stillness undistracted. Do not stay in a town, but persevere in the wilderness. ‘Lo,’ says the Psalm, ‘then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness’ (Ps. 55:7). If possible do not visit a town at all. For you will find there nothing of benefit, nothing useful, nothing profitable for your way of life. To quote the Psalm again, ‘I have seen violence and strife in the city’ (Ps. 55:9). So seek out places that are free from distraction, and solitary. Do not be afraid of the noises you may hear. Even if you should see some demonic fantasy, do not be terrified or flee from the training ground so apt for your progress. Endure fearlessly, and you will see the great things of God, His help, His care, and all the other assurances of salvation. For the Psalm says, ‘I waited for Him who delivers me from distress of spirit and the tempest’ (Ps. 55:8 LXX).
Do not let restless desire overcome your resolution, for ‘restlessness of desire perverts the guileless intellect’ (Wisd. 4:12)...
Avoid association with crafty or aggressive people, and do not live with anyone of that kind but shun their evil purposes; for they do not dwell close to God or abide with Him… Do not pass your time with people engaged in worldly affairs or share their table, in case they involve you in their illusions and draw you away from the silence of stillness... Let the labor and longing of your heart be for the faithful of the earth, to become like them in mourning...
Do not hanker after fine foods and deceitful pleasures… Do not have relationships with too many people, lest your intellect become distracted and so disturb the way of stillness...
When buying or selling you can hardly avoid sin. So, in either case, be sure you lose a little in the transaction. Do not haggle about the price from love of gain, and so indulge in actions harmful to the soul - quarreling, lying, shifting your ground and so on - thus bringing our way of life to disrepute... If possible it is best to place such business in the hands of someone you trust, so that, being thus relieved of the worry, you can pursue your calling with joy and hope.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Modernization As Apocalypse
“...the Beguny (escapers, fleers) or Stranniki (wanderers) determined that flight from Antichrist’s authorities and constant movement (to prevent being bogged down in the corruption of the present world) as the only possibility for salvation. The Beguny, or, to use their twentieth-century self-designation ‘Istinnio-pravoslavnye Khristiane-Stranstvuiusshchie’ (IPKhS - Truly-Orthodox Christians - Wanderers) were (and are) composed of a monastic core of wanderers supported by a network of settled supporters, who, in theory, will themselves take up the spiritual heroism of wandering when they are ready. The Stranniki avoid any contact with the personnel or accoutrements (passports, etc.) of the state power (whether Imperial or Soviet), which they identify as being that of Antichrist, and the most principled of them refuse to even touch money, since it bears the “mark of the beast” (double-eagle or sickle-and-hammer). However, it is important to note that the Beguny never made the ideological leap into true anarchism - although they denied the legitimacy of the present state power, they never reject the past ideal of the Orthodox Tsardom. The fact that this group extreme de facto anti-state thrust never took this theoretical step reveals, yet again the great vitality of the Tsarist idea in Russia.
Although small in number, the Beguny are worthy of note for several reasons. First, they were disseminators of apocalyptic ideas and interpretations, mobile missionaries of such views. They took their message not only to the settlements which they visited but also injected it into the pilgrim culture which was such a major part of Russian folk piety, thereby spreading these ideas among the most devout elements of the majority population. Also, they serve as an extreme and dramatic illustration of the alienation caused in traditional Russian society by the modernizing program of the Empire.
Another group, despairing of finding any reliable spiritual authority amidst the competing and mutually exclusive claims of various factions, took up the practice of auto-baptism (hence their name - the Samokreshchentsy, self-baptizers). One eighteenth-century Self-Baptizer gave an especially eloquent expression of the radical Old Believer theme on the defilement of the present world when he explained why he gathered rain water to carry out the sacrament on himself:
In the time of Antichrist there will be nothing clean on the earth; and therefore today not only all people, livestock and wild animals, but even the elements themselves are infected by the arrival of Antichrist. Therefore, there are no rivers, springs, or wells that have not been defiled by contact with the servants of Antichrist; the seas and lakes are full of the ships and other vessels of Antichrist; in a word, there is no water in which one could baptize oneself.
The mention of ships might be a reflection of Peter’s role in building the navy.”
Russia on the eve of modernity, p.70-1
Although small in number, the Beguny are worthy of note for several reasons. First, they were disseminators of apocalyptic ideas and interpretations, mobile missionaries of such views. They took their message not only to the settlements which they visited but also injected it into the pilgrim culture which was such a major part of Russian folk piety, thereby spreading these ideas among the most devout elements of the majority population. Also, they serve as an extreme and dramatic illustration of the alienation caused in traditional Russian society by the modernizing program of the Empire.
Another group, despairing of finding any reliable spiritual authority amidst the competing and mutually exclusive claims of various factions, took up the practice of auto-baptism (hence their name - the Samokreshchentsy, self-baptizers). One eighteenth-century Self-Baptizer gave an especially eloquent expression of the radical Old Believer theme on the defilement of the present world when he explained why he gathered rain water to carry out the sacrament on himself:
In the time of Antichrist there will be nothing clean on the earth; and therefore today not only all people, livestock and wild animals, but even the elements themselves are infected by the arrival of Antichrist. Therefore, there are no rivers, springs, or wells that have not been defiled by contact with the servants of Antichrist; the seas and lakes are full of the ships and other vessels of Antichrist; in a word, there is no water in which one could baptize oneself.
The mention of ships might be a reflection of Peter’s role in building the navy.”
Russia on the eve of modernity, p.70-1
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