Blog on the Lillypad
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Hey-Ho! Up at 3:30 this morning in my quest to get a peep at Mars. First cup of coffee in 48 hours. Man is it good! I broke the fast yesterday at 1:00 in the afternoon but drink coffee only first thing in the morning, so this is the first since before I started the latest fast. A very welcome cup!
I was able to postpone yesterday's appointment with the chiropractor until Friday. This afternoon I have an appointment with the trigger point massage specialist. I have abandoned all previous-held notions that massage is pleasant. It hurts so much that one day I cussed because there was nothing else I could do. But I always have better range of motion after going. I have a rib that's been cracked twice in the front and dislocated twice in the back, and most of the muscular pain is focused around the ribhead where the dislocations occurred. Then there's radiatng pain out to the side of the rib cage. The chiropractor told me there's deformation in the rib cage on the right side. I expect that now that I am undergoing all this treatment and using an inversion table for traction, that the muscles have to readjust to the correction. Yet last night, after the fast, I had less pain and slept easily.
This correspondence with Frawley again reminds me of how insulated the evangelical/fundamentalist church has made itself. The fundies talk about soul winning, and they extract decisions from people who obliviously pass on their way. Yet to stop and listen to a persn's account of his own grappling with who Christ is, to respect that person's struggle, to evaluate where that person is, and to care about what happens to that person---it doesn't happen in the hearts of these stone-cold soulwinners. I have often seen on the FFF how they berate the lost and scold them---these, the people to whom we are sent as ministers of grace. In Fundy culture, nice people who tend to agree with you are the ones most likely to be saved and therefore the ones you ought to reach. And it's okay to mock those who hate the Gospel and don't comprehend it. As though there are degrees in the depravity of man. But I forget, the Hyles-ite fundies will congratulate themselves on their soulwinning and honestly think they are of greater account for their efforts.
Anyway, Frawley has been far more cordial with me than most fundies would be with him. He's brilliant, articulate, and courteous when you contact him one on one. But his book is delightfully sarcastic in the first two chapters. He does not spare New Age astrology. It was a joy to read. I reproached him via e-mail because he does not have a long white beard as any self respecting Rennaisance astrologer should have. He wrote back good naturedly to say he is working on it.
I was able to postpone yesterday's appointment with the chiropractor until Friday. This afternoon I have an appointment with the trigger point massage specialist. I have abandoned all previous-held notions that massage is pleasant. It hurts so much that one day I cussed because there was nothing else I could do. But I always have better range of motion after going. I have a rib that's been cracked twice in the front and dislocated twice in the back, and most of the muscular pain is focused around the ribhead where the dislocations occurred. Then there's radiatng pain out to the side of the rib cage. The chiropractor told me there's deformation in the rib cage on the right side. I expect that now that I am undergoing all this treatment and using an inversion table for traction, that the muscles have to readjust to the correction. Yet last night, after the fast, I had less pain and slept easily.
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I have been occassionally e-mailing John Frawley, author of THE REAL ASTROLOGY. Two days ago I sent him VALKYRIES. I don't know what he'll make of it, if he should read it at all. He cautioned me that he does not read novels very often, ad I told him it's okay. They make great coasters as well. But Frawley himself, with no prompting from me on the topic of Fomalhaut, commented that the full moon in my birth chart falls right on Fomalhaut, indicating my concern for making grace manifest on earth. So perhaps (as he recognizes that I have something to say about grace) he will be motivated to read the novel. He's interesting in that astrology prompted him to alter his views from a secular view to one of recognizing---not only that God has authored the heavens---but that Christ is the Son of God. The account of the Magi speaks volumes to him. Regrettably, Frawley came to the conclusion based ONLY on the precepts of astrology, which strongly support the idea that the material thing in front of us (ie, the physical stars) stand for the truth that is not material. This precept led him into Roman Catholicism. (Where the Eucharist indicates Christ and the statues indicate the saints and the hierarchy of the chuch indicates an order of heaven, etc., etc.) I want to point out to him that even this concept of the material vs. the real can be exaggerated and misconstrued, but as yet I have no real platform to address him so. So I hope that VALKYRIES, which depicts the Valkyry itself as the recurring symbol for the complete work of grace, will intrigue him. |
This correspondence with Frawley again reminds me of how insulated the evangelical/fundamentalist church has made itself. The fundies talk about soul winning, and they extract decisions from people who obliviously pass on their way. Yet to stop and listen to a persn's account of his own grappling with who Christ is, to respect that person's struggle, to evaluate where that person is, and to care about what happens to that person---it doesn't happen in the hearts of these stone-cold soulwinners. I have often seen on the FFF how they berate the lost and scold them---these, the people to whom we are sent as ministers of grace. In Fundy culture, nice people who tend to agree with you are the ones most likely to be saved and therefore the ones you ought to reach. And it's okay to mock those who hate the Gospel and don't comprehend it. As though there are degrees in the depravity of man. But I forget, the Hyles-ite fundies will congratulate themselves on their soulwinning and honestly think they are of greater account for their efforts.
Anyway, Frawley has been far more cordial with me than most fundies would be with him. He's brilliant, articulate, and courteous when you contact him one on one. But his book is delightfully sarcastic in the first two chapters. He does not spare New Age astrology. It was a joy to read. I reproached him via e-mail because he does not have a long white beard as any self respecting Rennaisance astrologer should have. He wrote back good naturedly to say he is working on it.
