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Liberty issue 11
The Medicine of Mankind The Fifth Part
As the last Roman legions withdrew from Britain in A.D. 407, they left behind a frontier town imitation of Roman culture. Cities connected by linear roads, villas, forums, libraries, and more than a few native healers who had learnt of Hippocrates and Dioscorides. Eventually, as towns were abandoned and roads broke up, the last remains of Roman culture fell away with them.
It has been widely assumed that the Romans brought nettles, wheat, opium poppies and grapes to Britain. Not true. Some of these foodstuffs had been around for thousands of years in Britain. Nettle pudding is, officially, Britain's oldest recipe, eaten in Britain around 6000BC. Here is a modern-day interpretation.
Nettle pudding Ingredients
1 bunch of sorrel
1 bunch of watercress
1 bunch of dandelion leaves
2 bunches of young nettle leaves
Some chives
1 cup of barley flour
1 teaspoon salt
Method
Chop the herbs finely and mix in the barley flour and salt. Add enough water to bind it together and place in the centre of a linen or muslin cloth. Tie the cloth securely and add to a pot of simmering venison or wild boar (a pork joint will do just as well). Leave in the pot until the meat is cooked and serve with chunks of bread.
However, although the Romans introduced such plants as Ground Elder (the scourge of gardeners) into Britain as foodstuff, and grew Calendula Officinales as a powerful antiseptic/anti-fungal, any lasting contribution was small, as Britain already had a very long tradition of plant medicine.
In Wales, medicine was highly regarded, ranking as highly as commerce and navigation. The Welsh may have learned something of Greek and Alexandrian medicine from the Phoenician merchants who landed at Welsh ports, and combined this with the medicines of their own Priest-Healers, the Druids, who already had well over a thousand years of experience under their belts. The Druids studied astrology, divination and theology, having a deep reverence for the moon which they believed had a powerful influence on both man and plants. By the 6th Century A.D. a school of physicians had, independently, developed at Myddfai. The Hippocratic works were well known to them.
Welsh influence is evident in Anglo-Saxon medicine. Some of the herbs of the Druids and the Myddfai physicians, such as Betony and Mistletoe (which still grows extensively throughout Herefordshire and Shropshire), became valued over the border in England,.
In A.D. 597, Christianity arrived in England, bringing the tradition of monastic medicine. In the sixth century, Benedict had said that it was the duty of monks to care for the sick, as diligently and intelligently as possible. As well as their own sick, they looked after those who could not afford a physician, and would take in passing strangers. Every monastery had its own physic garden in which the most needed medicinal herbs were grown. Many became extremely skilled physicians, and took to a teaching role, training others from outside the monasteries. Until the first universities were established in the 11th and 12th centuries, these were the only places where physicians could receive training.
This was true medicine. The reward for these monks was not pecuniary. Their reward was to see the healing of minds, bodies and spirits. This was probably the finest example of truly holistic healing ever enacted in our nation's long history, and, indeed, contrasts widely with the "Poison, Cut and Burn" practice of today's medical establishment.
Past Issues
Liberty issue 10
The Sun
OUR TROUBLED COUNTRY:
WE LACK A STRATEGIC ENERGY POLICY
As I dig my first potatoes from the garden, enjoying their clean, earthy smell, and load ripe redcurrants into a bowl, along with sweet red gooseberries, I harken back to the "real" world.
Every day we hear that Britain is facing a 'fuel crisis'. The world oil price breaks records every week. The cost of petrol and gas soars. Foreign suppliers of gas and oil are holding Britain to ransom and charging exorbitant prices. EDF is buying British Energy (nuclear power generation) as French nuclear accidents are exposed.
The average family, we are told, this year faces fuel bills of £1,700 a year.
Yet all this pales into insignificance compared with the real energy crisis roaring down on Britain with the speed of a bullet train as, within six or seven years, we stand to lose 40 per cent of all our existing electricity-generating capacity.
Thanks to decades of neglect and wishful thinking by successive governments - and now the devastating impact of a directive from Brussels - we are about to see 17 of our major power stations forced to close, leaving us with a massive shortfall.
Even after 2010, the experts say our power stations cannot be guaranteed to provide us with a continuous supply, meaning that we face the possibility of power cuts far worse than those which recently - largely unreported - blacked out half-a-million homes."
The British Parliament stumbles and bumbles into the future without a clue or a concept of a "National Strategic Energy Policy."
That's why we suffer £1.25 a litre for petrol. That's why diesel in my local garage hit £1.32 last week! That's the reason for natural gas and electricity prices shooting through the roof!
This Labour government stands as one of the worst of all time. Gordon Brown couldn't lead his way out of a paper bag! Michael Martin acts like a bag lady as he sits with gavel in hand but exhibits no leadership qualities. Cameron is singing off exactly the same hymn-sheet as Gordon Brown and the Labour Party. His duplicity knows no bounds.
How, pray tell, did we devolve our nation into the clutches of this energy crisis?
Our prime minister and the British Parliament remain obscenely irresponsible towards Britain They knew about this crisis decades ago. Car manufacturers knew oil reserves were being depleted as humanity sucked and burned 85 million barrels of oil daily for decades. Yet investment in electric cars was hardly ever there. Gas-guzzling motors and the massive expansion of air travel have brought on an energy crisis even faster.
Now, Brown and Cameron continue with their political charade promising they work for renewable energy, wind energy and bio-fuel. What does that mean? Answer: diddily squat nothing!
Brown and Cameron's short-term, half-baked band-aid solutions pretend answers. Our nation stands nostril-deep in an energy crisis that needs a whole new paradigm shift to save our civilization-but instead; we discover both parties offer 20th century solutions in the 21st century. Result: certain failure!
Why? Because solutions based on more drilling to find more oil won't work.
As Walter Youngquist said:
"As we go from this happy hydrocarbon bubble we have reached now to a renewable energy resource economy, which we do this century, will the "civil" part of civilization survive? As we both know there is no way that alternative energy sources can supply the amount of per capita energy we enjoy now, much less for the 9 billion expected by 2050. And energy is what keeps this game going. We are involved in a Faustian bargain-selling our economic souls for the luxurious life of the moment, but sooner or later the price has to be paid."
What idea might work? What new energy sources could work? Why won't our leaders move out of old paradigms into new ones? Answer: money, power and the arrogant privilege of the power brokers!
Instead of bombing Iraq and Afghanistan into the Stone Age while we spend many billions of pounds, we need to spend that money on photovoltaic technology to create infra-red and regular sunlight power grids, perhaps two square meters, to set on top of cars to power their electric engines. How about super battery-powered cars that charge overnight?
Solar grids need to power our engines of industry. Or hydrogen power, or something besides ridiculous 'bio-fuels' that cannot give us the per capita energy we obtain from oil. As it is, we fail ourselves by burning oil, coal and natural gas until nothing remains.
Sunlight shines for another five billion years! Yes, it might take several technology breakthroughs to accomplish our intentions, but we cannot succeed as we continue our war activities in third world countries. Why not bring our troops home and use that money saved for research and development?
How about massive wind, wave and river energy going to waste daily while we idle in traffic? Underwater turbines in tidal waters, both in inshore and offshore locations, should have been harnessed by now, to provide electricity.
Instead of chopping down trees for paper bags and using massive quantities of oil for plastic containers, why hasn't the whole nation engaged in a total recycling policy, and a deposit/return system for all containers? Why do we keep using up over 80 billion paper and plastic bags every year, many of which hit landfill sites, along with a few billion plastic and aluminum cans? We have gotten better at this, but, crazily, instead of at-home recycling, a vast volume of recycleable waste heads off to the third world.
How short-sighted and inept can Brown, Cameron and the British Parliament be? Because of our leaders' non-action, our recycling rate is amongst the lowest in Europe. Economic incentives, rather than the increasingly common system of punishment, could achieve much. What about a financial reward, every month, to the household in each area that recycles the most waste per occupant?
Finally, what topic does the media ignore like the plague? What is the nature of the elephant that is being ignored, that stands in the rooms where energy-related topics are under discussion in Whitehall?
Answer: we cannot become a viable or sustainable nation if we continue adding immigrants, month in and month out, year in and year out. We cannot keep growing if we hope to maintain our civilization. We must come to terms with a stable, balanced and sustainable population.
Our 'window' to change to a balanced population and non-polluting energy sources diminishes every day that we ignore the symptoms manifesting across this planet.
We need a 10 year moratorium on all immigration, both legal and illegal into this country. Let's allow a stable and sustainable population to re-manifest in our nation.
It's time for a change and your voices must be the change-agent. The most ignored and greatest issue facing Britain and the world in the 21st century will only accelerate if you fail to speak up.
What can you do to help prepare for the future? Read Strider's column this week for a gentle nudge in the right direction. Think self-sufficient and think local!
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Liberty issue 9
The Medicine of Mankind The Fourth Part
Over thousands of years, growing civilisations built their herbal materia medica based on the local trees, shrubs and flowering plants. This experimental plant therapy would have had its victims. Maybe the diagnosis was wrong, or the wrong plant was given, or the dose was excessive. Such failures would have been remembered for the future, but these "failures" also contributed to the development of a "System of Medicine".
So often those plants that are fatal to man, such as the tall, feathery-leaved Hemlock, Conium maculatum, or the yellow-flowered Henbane, Hyoscyamus niger, have an unpleasant, fetid smell. Sometimes the taste is so bitter and unpleasant that animals will not touch them, such as Thorn Apple, Datura stramonium.
All varieties of Spurge are poisonous. One of them, Euphorbia resinifera, grows wild in Britain, and oozes a white, milky sap that is so acrid that it will burn the skin. It has been used to burn off warts in folk medicine. The attractive black berries of Deadly Nightshade, Atropa Belladonna, would have killed many chilren over the millennia, but once seen, it is never forgotten, skulking in dark corners with its dull, deep green leaves, and dingy purple flowers.
The toxic ingredient in this plant is Atropine. "Belladonna", which means beautiful lady, is believed to relate to the fact that Italian women favored eye-drops made from the herb, as a tiny amount would cause the pupils to dilate, making them darker and more seductive to men. Injected atropine is still used as a pre-medication in surgery, and also as an emergency treatment in soldiers affected by nerve gas.
Toxic plants would have been useful in their own right. They were smeared on to the tips of arrows, spears and fishing hooks as hunting aids. They would have been important in religious rituals, as many toxic plants cause hallucinations and seizures, but they would have been handled only by those who knew and understood their power and potency.
The foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, is still cultivated today for its digoxin. This plant is potentially very toxic and can kill, as it affects the heart. Digoxin is given to "slow and regulate" the heart in cases of heart failure. The closeness of the toxic and therapeutic doses means that its use has to be very closely monitored with regular blood tests.
Much important information about medicinal plants was learned by observation. Tribesmen carefully noted which part of the plant was most active - the leaf, root, flower, fruit or bark - and in which form it was most effectively administered, such as an infusion, a salve, or as a compress. They would have found that some plants are better used fresh, whilst others must be dried.
The season, the time of day, and even the phases of the moon, would all have had their effect on the potency of these plants. It has been confirmed by modern science that alkaloid activity in many medicinal plants is influenced by lunar phases, and can vary from sunrise to sunset. Much of this information found its way into the very first written records, and was certainly recorded by the medieval herbalists such as Galen.
Now as I move steadily towards today's world of Big Pharma over the next three or four chapters, I will continue to focus on seasonal favorites of mine. Our food should be our medicine, and one of my favorites right now is Ground Ivy, Glechoma hederacea. This creeping evergreen, a member of the mint family with its purple flowers and downy, heart-shaped, serrated leaves, can be found along paths and hedges in gardens, woods and fields.
An old name is "Alehoof" because it was used as an inexpensive flavouring for ales by mediaeval country folk. All parts of the plant can be used. It is a wonderful spring tonic, with anti-bacterial and anti-allergic properties for all those hayfever sufferers out there. I add a handful of fresh herb to a regular pot of tea, but let it steep a little longer before pouring it and adding milk or lemon. It works well, too, with peppermint. It is an especially safe herb for children. Ground Ivy is now being studied for use in treating Leukemia, Bronchitis, Hepatitis, many kinds of cancer, and HIV.
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Liberty issue 8
The Medicine of Mankind The Third Part
It seems that stress and the effects of stress are epidemic in today's modern world. When we are told to relax by a hypnotherapist or a teacher of yoga, we are not told to visualise traffic jams, riots or scenes of war. Instead, we in "The West" are told to think of golden beaches, sunshine, green fields, or our loved ones. Today's doctors in Britain order more than 30 million prescriptions for anti-depressants a year, and the numbers are soaring. Ancient Britons would have suffered from the effects of many different stressors. They faced crop failures, or a plague of anthrax on their animals. They faced the stresses of extreme cold or drought. They no doubt would have suffered from parasitic and infectious diseases for which they knew no cure. They lost loved ones just as we do. The medicine of these people would have been focussed around herbs to heal, nourish, and relax. They would have used hypnotic chants and incantations to lower stress and stimulate healing from within. Family members would have offered respite, support and security to the ill, the depressed, the elderly, and the bereaved. These days, we are as likely to listen to beautiful music, or seek natural sounds such as birdsong and falling water to help ease our daily stresses. MIND, the mental health charity, reported in 2005 that the effects of long walks in the country on depression were "startling." Now, let me further address a great cause of stress in our British communities. That stressor is known as "Multiculturalism". I wish to explain to you why this is so.
It is normal to fear or distrust anyone who looks different (colour), or behaves differently (customs/cultures/religion), because this is part and parcel of one of the basic instincts of human survival-fear of strangers. Let us go back 100,000 years. A small tribe of hunter-gatherer humans, on sighting "strangers" who could threaten them (or their resources) would immediately get into a state of preparedness which we know as "Fight or Flight." This "Stress Response" entailed producing lots of adrenaline and corticosteroids to enhance this ability. Driven by adrenaline, they may have whooped, jumped up and down, and shaken their weapons, sending a message that the strangers were not welcome. They would have been looking at how well-armed the opposition was, and would have looked at the state of their own defences. They may have eventually met, e.g., for trading, but it is unlikely that there would be any permanent co-joining and integration. Fast forward 100,000 years, and we wonder why multiculturalism is not working when we are possessed of exactly the same instincts as our ancient ancestors!
It is natural and not racist to feel comfortable with "your own." Why do you think that Britain has a high level of "white flight" from areas that sustain the highest influxes of immigrants? People are running from perceived conflict and stress. They, unlike their ancestors, are not equipped to fight it. Shouting at people and waving dangerous weapons around whilst surrounded with like-minded members of your tribe, although being a perfectly natural, instinctive reposne, will get you arrested and probably imprisoned! We must not lose sight of the fact that multiculturalism breeds stress, anger, isolation, depression and division. And fight it we must and will. We will not run, we will not be cowed by "strangers in our lands." We will not be made strangers in a strange land, in our own land!
To help support us in coping with any form of stress, turn your back on Prozac and Temazepam. Allow yourselves some "me-time." Lay back, breathe deeply, and think of the things that make you smile. See that blackness of tension and stress fall away from every part of your body. Fill your mind's eye with healing light and feel it burn away all that is bad. The essential oil of Lavendula Officinalis (Lavender) and Melissa Officianalis (Lemon Balm) can be added to a bath or can be used in an oil burner. Place several drops of each underneath your pillow at night, and keep a phial of lavender oil in the car or in your pocket, as it can be used neat on the temples and wrists to relax and help you focus during the day. At night, Valerian (Valeriana Officinalis) 1000mg, can be taken as a proprietary herbal supplement to help with insomnia. It is extremely effective at helping the anxious mind to "switch off." This herb is non-addictive and, as it also gently relaxes muscles, can reduce any pain and spasm that may be present.
Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile), Hops (Humulus lupus) and Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) are other useful herbs. One plant, Hypericum Perforatum, or St John's Wort, has been proven to be as effective as some anti-depressants, but with none of the unpleasant side-effects. It is also effective for any type of nerve pain, from sciatica to shingles, and is widely available online or from pharmacies and health food shops.
Nature will help us when we choose to help ourselves.
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Liberty issue 7
The Medicine of Mankind The Second Part
Herbal medicine is the oldest form of therapy practised by mankind, and much of this medicinal use of plants seems to have been based on a highly-developed "dowsing instinct", which led the healer of the tribe to the right plant and taught him or her its use. This may seem a bizarre idea to the modern mind, but wild animals certainly possess such an instinct, unerringly seeking out plants that will supply the nutrients they need, and avoiding those which will poison them. This ability would explain the astonishing continuity of medicinal plant usage in the days before there were written records, since the chain of oral tradition must have been broken again and again by death, or by the obliteration or scattering of a tribe, over the millennia.
If you do not accept this idea, how are we to account for the astonishing degree to which the same plant is used for the same purpose in cultures that are so widely separated by place and time that there can have been no communication between them? As an example, how else can you explain the use of a tisane of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis for menstrual problems, and for the regulation of fertility, among primitive peoples in places that are thousands of miles apart such as Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, East New Britain, Trinidad and Vietnam? Incidentally, modern science has shown that this plant has marked anti-estrogenic activity.
This is still the only therapy known to countless, remote tribes living in the jungle, forest, marshland, prairie or desert. Certain traits are found to be common to all. For example, every tribe has its priest or priestess, its medicine man or woman, who is the living repository of their medical knowledge. This knowledge is jealously guarded, often only handed on to a successor under the strictest oaths of secrecy when death is felt to be near. Although certain plants which give remedies for everyday ills are common knowledge throughout a tribe, other plants are so highly valued, or so potent, that their use is restricted to the priest or healer alone.
So let us all, as members of the British Tribe, consider a plant that most of us who garden will recognise. A "common weed" that, with thanks to nature, sets itself into a sprawling mass of green during late winter and spring, helping to consolidate bare ground that might otherwise be washed away in heavy rain. Chickweed, or Stellaria Media, is a useful herb. The aerial parts can be added to vegetables and steamed, or included in soups, much as you would do with parsley or watercress.
Chickweed is not only mild and pleasant in flavour, it has medicinal qualities. It is a very rich source of vitamin C, which is so often lacking in the diet at this time of year. If you harvest it around midday, the sap will be rising, and the nutritional value will be highest. The Ancient Ones also knew WHEN to harvest a plant!
In Celtic lore it is a herb of the summer solstice, or mean samhraidh, and is considered a herb of love, drunk as a tisane to attract, and to improve relationships. Chickweed can be used externally as an ointment to soothe irritated or inflamed skin, as an ointment or as a compress. Make a tea from it and add to a bath for a child with chickenpox. It can be combined effectively with Calendual Officinalis, the English Marigold, to soothe the skin and to provide effective antiseptic and anti-viral activity where the skin has become infected.
Chickweed can be taken as an infusion or as a tincture internally, to help rheumatic conditions, laryngitis, conjunctivitis and cystitis. A strong infusion can ease constipation. Make sure that you correctly identify any plant before gathering it. Do not collect it from an area that may have been sprayed or fouled in any way. And remember, a weed can be a very useful friend. It is, after all, simply a plant growing in the "wrong" place!
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Liberty issue 6
The Medicine of Mankind
To begin this subject, let's start at the end, shall we? Death. It is common in the modern Western world to mark death with wreaths at a graveside. And in recent years mourners have left flowers at the sites of tragic accidents, especially road crashes. But the need to lay flowers may be an inherent part of human nature and not a modern innovation.
In the ancient grave of a Neanderthal man in Iraq, grains of flower pollens were found thickly scattered in the soil surrounding his bones. The family and friends of the dead man had surrounded his body with clusters of flowers and branches at his summertime funeral.
Some 60,000 years after his death, the pollens were identified as coming from eight different genera of flowering plants. All flourish in the surrounding woods and fields at Shanidar to this day. Of the eight species found, seven are still used locally in traditional herbal medicine.
Tens of thousands of years later, in Wales, a Bronze Age burial revealed the same ritual to archaeologists. The pollen of meadowsweet, with its' sweet-smelling foamy flowers that line ditches and fill wet meadows during late summer, was found in huge quantities in the grave of a 12 year old child. Children were as precious to our ancestors as they are to the indigenous British today.
No-one knows what this child died of, but maybe the medicinal peroperties of meadowsweet can give us a clue. Meadowsweet was one of the most sacred herbs of the Druids. In my 17th Century "Culpeper's Herbal", he states "it helpeth speedily those that are troubled with the cholic being boiled in wine; and stayeth the flux on the belly". This translates into being a treatment for sickness and diaorrhea.
Modern herbalists use it as an extremely safe remedy for diarrhoea, even in young children, and as part of a treatment for irritable bowel syndrome. Meadowsweet contains salicylates, from which aspirin is derived. Therefore, it can help with rheumatism, artritis and gout However, unlike aspirin, it soothes, and does not irritate the gastric tract due. Its additional tannins and mucilage protect the gastric lining. Nature certainly knows best! Meadowsweet grows easily in damp places, preferring ditches and the banks of streams and rivers.
For anyone interested in growing it, Meadowsweet seeds itself freely, but can also be propagated by root division in autumn or spring. Leaves and flowering tops are harvested in summer when the flowers open.
So, ponder on what might have taken this child. Think about that child's people, and about the medicine that they used to heal and comfort. That magnificent array of natural medicine is still out there, ready to be used by us if we are ready to re-learn those ancient skills. We really aren't that far removed from these ancient ancestors, are we?
To conclude, flowers have long been used for healing the senses, and soothing the spirit. Sympathy flowers seem to bring one back to nature and closer to one's creator at a time when a spiritual connection has extreme value to the bereaved and the dying.
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Liberty issue 5
The Sun
Truly, the Sun is the most important influence on all our lives. It ensures the continuance of life on this earth. There has been no greater influence on our survival throughout the millennia. We complain when we don't see it for weeks (or for months if you live within the Antarctic and Arctic Circles). Many of us also complain when we get too much of it, but we can never ignore its influence on our existence at all levels!
It is the sun's energy that is locked into coal, wood and oil, and which is released back as heat when they are burnt. Every day, 174 Petawatts of energy from the sun strike the earth's surface. 1 Petawatt is enough energy to keep the electricity going in New York City alone for around 10.5 years.
Across the world, the human race has worshipped and celebrated the sun. Sun worship was practiced by the Iroquois, Plains, and Tsimshian peoples of North America and reached a high state of development among the Native Americans of Mexico and Peru. The sun was also a Hindu deity, regarded as maleficent by the Dravidians of southern India and as benevolent by the Munda of the central parts. The Babylonians were sun worshippers, and in ancient Persia worship of the sun was an integral part of the elaborate cult of Mithras. The ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun god Ra. In ancient Greece the deities of the sun were Helios and Apollo. Sun worship persisted in Europe even after the introduction of Christianity, as is evidenced by its disguised survival in such traditional Christian practices as the Easter bonfire and the Yule log at Christmas.
Throughout these islands, from Northern Ireland to the highest moors of The West, stone circles bear witness to the importance of the sun to our ancestors. The further north we travel in Europe, the more likely we are to find these ancient megalithic structures. The further from the equator our ancestors lived, the greater the difference between day and night, and winter and summer, so the sun and its movements would have been very important to these peoples, and would have been, quite literally, "set in stone".
Observing the position of the sun on the horizon allows a basic calendar-type system, without the need for written records or a calendar as we know it. Though such practices are long gone from Europe, the use of the sun's position on the horizon as a calendar marker is known from modern studies of non-literate cultures. One example is from the southwestern USA, where the Hopi used such a system to regulate planting, harvesting and ceremonies; one individual, called the Sun Watcher, was responsible for observing every sunrise and telling the people of the arrival of the important days.
As I look from my window to watch the daffodils turn their faces to follow the rising Spring sun, I am reminded of the recent vernal equinox which was so important to the ancient peoples and, like them, look forward to the literal fruits of my gardening labours over the coming months.
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Liberty issue 4
The Origins of Easter
Today is Good Friday, the day when Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as part of the Easter Festival celebrating Christ's death and resurrection. It also happens to be the spring equinox, the day on which the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator, making night and day of approximately equal length everywhere. In the Pagan celebration, "Eostre" is a time to celebrate the arrival of Spring, the renewal and rebirth of Nature herself, and the coming lushness of Summer. It is at this time when light and darkness are in balance, yet the light is growing stronger daily. The masculine and feminine forces, yin and yang, are also in balance at this time.
Have you ever wondered about a connection between these events?
The answer lies in the ingenious way that the Christian church absorbed Pagan practices. After discovering that people were more reluctant to give up their holidays and festivals than their gods, they incorporated Pagan practices into Christian festivals. As recounted by the Venerable Bede, an early Christian writer, clever clerics copied Pagan practices and by doing so, made Christianity more palatable to pagan folk reluctant to give up their festivals for sombre Christian practices.
Easter had pre-Christian origins, namely a festival in honor of Eostre, the Teutonic dawn-goddess, and as Usha, the Hindu dawn-goddess. This Eostre was also known to be the spring goddess and the goddess of fertility. Thus, another form of Sun-worship, in the form of a dawn-deity-Eostre or Ostara-was adopted by, or merged with, Christianity. This same dawn-goddess was also well known in the Greek classics as Eos, and the Assyrian Ishtar, goddess of the morning. In classical mythology, Eos was an amorous deity, and the idea of fertility with its fertility-symbols of eggs and rabbits was to be expected.
Most likely, this Eostre is the same as Astarte, which is recorded in the Hebrew of the Old Testament as Ashtaroth and Ashtoreth. The name of Astarte was Ishtar in Nineve. She was also known as the 'queen of heaven'.
Other spring festivals were celebrated with the rites of Adonis. The dead and risen Messiah was assimilated into the pagan celebration of the dead and risen Adonis.
Easter Symbols
The Rabbit
The symbol of the Easter Bunny originated with the pagan festival of Eostre. This goddess was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the hare.
The Easter Egg
The Easter Egg predates the Christian holiday of Easter. From the earliest times and in most cultures, the egg signified birth and resurrection. The exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Christians first celebrated Easter. A symbol of rebirth in most cultures, eggs were often wrapped in gold leaf or coloured brightly by boiling them with the leaves or petals of certain flowers. Today, children hunt for coloured eggs as part of the Easter celebrations.
Hot Cross Buns
At the feast to Eostre, an ox was sacrificed and the image of his horns carved into ritual bread-which evolved into the twice-scored Easter treats we call hot cross buns. In fact, the word "bun" derives from "boun", the Saxon for "sacred ox."
The Cross is the symbol of the Crucifixion. The Council of Nicaea, in A.D. 325, decreed that the Cross was the official symbol of Christianity. The Cross is not only a symbol of Easter, but also a symbol of Christian Faith.
Conclusion
The transformation of the Saxon festival of Eastre into a Christian service is another example of the supreme authority of the Church early in its history.
To convert the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and by a complicated but skillful adjustment of the calendar, the church found it no difficult matter to get Paganism and Christianity to shake hands.
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Liberty issue 3
From the Earth and Of the Earth
Yes, we can all get a piece of this, my friends, with just a little effort! As I look out of my window across a cool, grey sky, I can already see the stirring of nature from her winter slumber. The delicate white blossoms that cluster the branches of our golden-drop plum have, miraculously, survived the recent storms, and there are enough insects around to ensure a reasonable pollination for a honeyed crop of fruit in September. I walk down past the blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes, noting that I can see the first of the leaf clusters along the stems, yet we're still only 2/3 of the way through last year's (frozen) harvest.. I feel more fruit smoothies calling! I retrieve a fork from the shed, and lever up a muddied bunch of huge carrots, slugs and all, the fruit of last summer's efforts. I bundle multi-coloured chard into my trug. A quick wash and trim, and into the steamer they will go.
A five minute walk from here, there is a shady stream with a steep bank that is a mass of wild garlic. Maybe I will pluck a handful of these delicious, mild-flavored leaves and steam them with the chard…
With rocketing food, energy and commodity prices, (each household is paying around £1000.00 per year more to feed itself than this time last year), now is the time for us all to look at one of the simplest ways of working with nature, whilst at the same time, reducing overall dependence on the multi-national supermarkets that help, so much, to destroy our small, town-centre businesses and agriculture. We owe it to our children to give them as much fresh, locally-produced food as we can, and nothing is fresher than that which you grow yourself. I have learnt that it is better to start children young when it comes to gardening, but it is never too late. Remember, children love any excuse to get their hands dirty!
It is so easy to grow a few vegetables for your family. Your children will watch with fascination as the seeds germinate and grow, and the flowers appear. They will see tiny fruits form, and pods swell with the seeds of runner beans and peas. The first time they join you in digging up those early potatoes, they will marvel at the smooth, cool tubers that the earth gives up. They will be first out there with the garden fork when mum wants a few carrots or parsnips. The health-giving qualities of the insipid, lifeless supermarket offerings can never compare with home-grown. You--and your children--will reap countless health benefits from this activity. Oh, and did I mention that growing your own can be really cheap? A small garden can easily yield three to four hundred pounds' worth of food in a year. You can then start to free yourselves from the robber agro-barons who subvert our natural world. We can all, quite literally, re-discover our roots. Remember that we come from, and are made of, this earth, and we will eventually return to it.
Now is the time, while winter still has us in its grip, to pick up a few books from the library or charity shop, on growing fruit and vegetables. It is cold and dark outside, so put your feet up, get nice and comfy, and start planning some simple projects for your first growing season. Over the coming months, I hope to inspire you all with a little gardening wisdom.
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Liberty issue 2
Feminism and Control of Women in the New World Order
Reported 24th January, 2008:
"..The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has begun secret talks with other world leaders on far-reaching reform of the United Nations Security Council as part of a drive to create a 'New World Order' and 'Global Society'. The economic crises that the world is plunging into are being, and will be used as the pretext to forge the new global order long sought after by the global elite. More centralized control will emerge. "New" solutions will be presented in slick packages to a despairing population begging for order.."
The feminist movement was crafted by the One-World political initiative, and invented to create and sustain global depopulation goals. That is and remains the primary mission of the feminist movement.
Women's oppression is a lie. Sex roles were never as rigid as feminists would have us believe. Women of my parent's generation were free to pursue careers if they wanted to. The difference was that their role as wife and mother was understood and celebrated, as it should be.
Feminism is a grotesque fraud perpetrated on society by its governing elite. It is designed to weaken the social and cultural fabric in order to introduce the friendly fascist New World Order. Its advocates are self-righteous swindlers who have grown rich and powerful from it. They include a whole class of liars and moral delinquents who work for the elite in many capacities: government, education and the media.
In today's world, we have no choices as women, except to agree to the think tank morality written and coded by this global movement.
Feminism has done huge damage to the relationship between men and women. There is no more fundamental yet delicate relationship in society than male and female. On it depends the family, the heart of society. Nobody with the interests of society at heart would try to divide men and women. Yet the lie that men have exploited women has become the official orthodoxy.
Feminists relentlessly advance the idea that our inherent male and female characteristics, crucial to our development as human beings, are mere "stereotypes." This is a vile lie, a betrayal to the 95% heterosexual population. Yet this "truth" is taught to children in elementary schools! It is echoed in the media where lesbians are advanced as role models. Homosexuality features daily.. many times daily.. in popular media.
Feminism is one of the social re-engineering tactics used to forward the take-over of all world governments, economies, and cultures, and to force all commoners into the custom-made livelihoods and service of corporate-based governors.
These "governors" are the world's wealthiest industrialists and bankers. Their one-world government is handing all power and control of people, land, water, food, human health, children and education, employment, militaries, and economic potential directly to themselves and their personal fortunes. Over and over and over again, when you tie corporate wealth and power to governing agencies, you have Fascism. However, the long-term goal of a One-World government has always been to bring Communism to fruition on a global scale. So, today, we see a hybrid Fascist-Communist system developing by design.
All of this is calculated to create confusion and chaos amongst heterosexuals. As a result, millions of British males are emasculated and divorced from their relationship to family, which, of course, means the future of indigenous Britain. The woman has been brainwashed into investing herself in a "career" instead of the timeless love of her husband and children. Many women have become temperamentally unfit to be wives and mothers due to their own inability to cope with enforced roles. People who are removed from the traditional human family, who are isolated and alone, stunted and love-starved, are easy to fool and manipulate. And without the healthy influence of two loving parents, so are their children.
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Liberty issue 1
The traditional family
The traditional family is one of the most enduring and resilient realities of human history. At one time, children were nurtured within the "village" community. Later, they were brought up within the extended family. Then the nuclear family became the chosen environment in which to bring up children. Later, child-rearing was "outsourced" by parents to nurseries and child-care organisations. Now we have single parents commonly bringing up children. It has also becoming increasingly the case that homosexual male and lesbian couples are able to adopt and raise children. Something has gone wrong--very wrong. We ignore nature at our peril because nature has a vested interest in the traditional or monogamous family.
The intimate bond between men and women, the primacy of reproduction, and the lifelong commitment to wedlock are going the way of the dinosaur. Increasingly isolated, we are opting for freedom over permanence and marrying later, if we marry at all. We are living alone or living together without formal ties, and becoming single parents in record-breaking numbers.
Men's ancient and defining roles as resource provider and defender of the family have been down-sized and outsourced. Declared obsolete and cast adrift, the modern hunter now hunts for a new job description.
Women have been propelled into unfamiliar territory, encouraged or forced to support themselves and build careers in today's long stretch between puberty, marriage, and beyond. The contemporary woman has become a hunter as well as a gatherer. Barely one in three British women held a paying job in 1950; almost three-quarters do now.
It's clear, to anyone who has the courage to see, that if humans are to survive the 21st century we have to change our relationship to the natural world. Peak Oil, expanding populations, economic and social upheaval-- these remind us that we are out of balance with nature. Our disconnection from the natural world reflects itself in dislocation between males and females. If we are going to survive we need to reconnect with the roots of what it truly means to be a man and a woman.
Liberty and the Fruits of her Labour