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A Baal is a local deity that some people of the Middle East, in antiquity, would worship.
By one of the Ten Commandments, Baal worship is forbidden:
You shall have no other gods besides Me. (Exodus 20.3)
Source:
Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.1. the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
2. all the books of the Old Testament (from a Christian point of view); likewise, the entire Jewish Bible.
3. the Jewish Bible plus traditional writings that study it.
Source:
Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.Earlier this summer, I transplanted a rose bush from a shady spot to one in full sun. In the shade it had done okay, but had gone overlooked for years. I decided to give it a place all its own. We’ve had that rose bush for ten years or more, but it’s been transplanted a couple of times for one reason or another.
I know transplanting can be hard on plants. The bush had a few blooms when it was moved, and promptly lost them. A couple weeks later it started losing leaves, eventually losing every single one.
That bush has endured tough times before. Each day I checked it, hoping for a good sign. For weeks, though, all I got was bad news. Finally I had to leave for a week on business.
When I got back Friday evening, I visited the rose bush again, fearing the worst. What I saw I hardly believed: it had grown a bunch of fresh leaves! I was so excited.
I’ve heard so many times that repeating the same action, hoping for a different result, is the definition of insanity. Was I insane to keep checking that rose bush day after day, hoping for improvement, when for weeks all I saw was decline?
I guess the rose bush – and God – might have a different definition for insanity:)
Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.representation, on Earth, of a god or goddess, in human or animal form.
Source:
Gilmour, Lorna. Collins Essential Canadian English Dictionary & Thesaurus. Glasgow: HarperCollins, 2006.
Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.
At this festive time, people are striving to keep their relationships strong. During the year’s darkest days, doing so makes sense: humans survive by relationships, and they love the light.
I think we live in a wise era: virtually everyone I hear wants something immaterial, be it relationship to God or to other people.
Whether you are surrounded by people in bright festivity, or alone in a room lighted only by the computer screen, does the following observation intrigue you?
-Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Happy holidays:)
Source:
Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.
I recall seeing, along the Inland Island Highway, trees hung with Christmas ornaments. The trees seemed “in the middle of nowhere”, yet someone had adorned them for Christmas.
To me, making the effort to decorate a wild tree shows a higher level of Christmas spirit. The decorators may never see the adorned tree again, but share their festivity with whoever happens to behold it.
Seeing decorated trees out in nature, far away from settlement, reinforces another idea as well – that God is everywhere. Moreover, people who appreciate God seek and celebrate Her/Him in places you might not imagine.
Last Friday I saw this outdoor tree decorated for Christmas; I’m happy to share it, and its meaning.
Whichever faith you may be, Happy Holidays. I’ll repeat it:)
Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.
(1) The world view that identifies God as the laws of nature.
(2) The belief that God is, in fact, the Cosmos.
Most nature-centred religions can be described as pantheistic: Their members believe that nature is benevolent and that one cannot live outside it or in conflict with it.
Source:
Mish, Frederick C. (editor). The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Springfield: Merriam-Webster, 2004.
Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.
Over the past year I’ve been party to several discussions about belief in God. More than one person has indicated that belief in God is distinct from religion.
What, then is the definition of religion? Is it the one above?
I stumbled upon a video on YouTube in which Abhay Charanavarinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada defines religion:
Source:
1Gilmour, Lorna (editor). Collins Essential Canadian English Dictionary and Thesaurus. Glasgow: HarperCollins, 2006.
Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.
Browsing through my field guide in early summer, I chanced upon the page about the black hawthorn. Years earlier I’d heard about the hawthorn tree and its potential religious significance, but hadn’t known they grow here.
Reading the description of the hawthorn, I became interested. Nothing specific on the page could I point to that drew my attention. Yet, during the following days, I became preoccupied with that tree; I had to find one.
Driving past a high school one morning, I noticed a tree with grey, scaly bark. At once I knew it to be a hawthorn. I’d seen that tree hundreds of times; suddenly it was important.
That evening I took my wife for a walk to visit that tree. Indeed it is a hawthorn – specifically, a black hawthorn, the native kind.
You probably wouldn’t notice its thorns without approaching closely. However, they’re up to an inch long and command respect. The tree itself resembles an old fruit tree, with a robust trunk.
Visiting that tree, I got a very special feeling that I’d call religious. Given where it stands, hundreds of people pass close by it every day. I wonder how many have stopped to “meet” it.
Source:
Pojar, Jim and Andy MacKinnon. Plants of Coastal British Columbia. Vancouver:
BC Ministry of Forests and Lone Pine Publishing, 1994.
Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.