FULL MOON & ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

I know you're thinking of all those movies where under the light of a full moon, a man would transform into the Werewolf: a ferocious monster who would prowl the area searching for victims, ofcourse..
But thats not it.There are several other myths associated with LUNAR CYCLES.
The full moon has been linked to crime, suicide, mental illness, disasters, accidents, birthrates, fertility, and werewolves, among other things. Some people even buy and sell stocks according to phases of the moon..
The new study suggests that pets get into more mischief and are injured more often during certain phases of the lunar cycle, particularly when the moon is fullest.It revealed a link between an increase in emergency room visits for dogs and cats during days when the moon is at or near its fullest.

The data, compiled from case histories of 11,940 dogs and cats treated at the university's Veterinary Medical Center, indicates that the risk of emergencies on fuller moon days was 23 percent greater in cats and 28 percent greater in dogs when compared with other days. The types of emergencies ranged from cardiac arrest to epileptic seizures and trauma, and the increase was most pronounced during the moon's three fullest stages—waxing gibbous, full and waning gibbous.
Modern studies have associated the full Moon with insanity, traffic accidents, increased aggression, unintentional poisonings and absenteeism, and the female menstrual cycle, but many of the connections are thin and vary widely from study to study.

Historically there has been a widespread belief that a full moon can effect people and animals causing them to act strangely. In fact, the word ‘Lunatic’ came about due to the belief that the Moon can make one mad.
But just what is behind the pet emergency and full moon correlation, however, is not at all clear. One theory is that since there’s more light out, people and their pets may be more likely to be out getting into mischief. So, what does all this mean for pet owners?
Regarding HUMANS, Ivan Kelly, James Rotton and Roger Culver (1996) examined over 100 studies on lunar effects and concluded that the studies have failed to show a reliable and significant correlation between the full moon, or any other phase of the moon, and each of the following phases :

-the homicide rate
-traffic accidents
-crisis calls to police or fire stations
-domestic violence
-births of babies
-suicide
-major disasters
-casino payout rates
-assassinations
-kidnappings
-aggression by professional hockey players
-violence in prisons
-psychiatric admissions
-agitated behavior by nursing home residents
-assaults
-gunshot wounds
-stabbings
-emergency room admissions
-behavioral outbursts of psychologically challenged rural adults
-lycanthropy
-vampirism
-alcoholism
-sleep walking
-epilepsy
Why do so many people believe in these lunar myths these? Kelly, Rotton, and Culver suspect four factors: media effects, folklore and tradition, misconceptions, and cognitive biases. A fifth factor should be considered, as well: communal reinforcement.

ALCHEMY

Alchemy is generally defined as an art which aims to change impure metals into silver or gold. The goal of the Great Work of alchemy, called also the Art, is the "Philosopher's Stone".

The Stone was viewed as a magical touchstone that could immediately perfect any substance or situation. The Philosopher's Stone has been associated with the Salt of the World, the Astral Body, the Elixir, and even Jesus Christ.

The Elixir of the alchemists has essentially the same ability to perfect any substance. When applied to the human body, the Elixir cures diseases and restores youth. The alchemists' dream is to attain knowledge of the mysterious Philosopher's Stone, or "that Elixir by which such wonders are performed".

The basis of all the alchemical transformations required to obtain the Stone (called the Great Work) is seven-stepped formula described by the Emerald Tablet of Hermes.

The Emerald Tablet of Hermes The Tablet probably first appeared in the West in editions of the psuedo-Aristotlean Secretum Secretorum which was actually a translation of the Kitab Sirr al-Asar, a book of advice to kings which was translated into latin by Johannes Hispalensis c. 1140 and by Philip of Tripoli c.1243. Other translations of the Tablet may have been made during the same period by Plato of Tivoli and Hugh of Santalla, perhaps from different sources.

• The Emerald Tablet of Hermes - Translation

1. This true without lying, certain & most true. That which is below is like that which is above & that wch is above is like yet which is below to do ye miracles of one only thing.

2. And as all things have been & arose from one by ye mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.

3. The Sun is its father, the moon its mother, the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth its nourse.
4. The father of all perfection in ye whole world is here.

5. Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth. Seperate thou ye earth from ye fire, ye subtile from the gross sweetly wth great indoustry.

6. It ascends from ye earth to ye heaven & again it desends to ye earth and receives ye force of things superior & inferior.

7. By this means you shall have ye glory of ye whole world & thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.

8. Its force is above all force. for it vanquishes every subtile thing & penetrates every solid thing. So was ye world created.

9. From this are & do come admirable adaptaions whereof ye means (Or process) is here in this.
10. Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of ye philosophy of ye whole world.
11. That which I have said of ye operation of ye Sun is accomplished & ended.

• Translation of Issac Newton c. 1680

Seven Steps of the Philosopher's Stone Formula Although the alchemists went to great pains to conceal the true order of the steps of the formula for making the Stone, the correct order according to the Emerald Tablet is: Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation, Distillation, Coagulation. The first four steps take place Below, in the realm of matter. The last three steps take place Above, in the realm of mind and creative imagination.

BLACK WORK
Saturn / black crow perching on top of a skull / Visita = Putrefaction Jupiter / black crow watching itself dissolving / Interiora = Dissolution

WHITE WORK
Mars / two white soul birds retrieving the remains / Terra = Separation Sun / ascending soul & spirit birds leave Earth and lift the five-spiked crown / Rectificanto = Conjunction
RED WORK
Venus / soul & spirit birds nest in a tree and brood over their egg / Inveniens = Fermentation Mercury / unicorn lying in front of a rose bush / Occultum = Distillation Moon / androgynous youth emerging from an open grave / Lapidem = Coagulation.

The Stone of the Philosophers

There are two primary ways of knowing reality:
1. The rational, deductive, argumentative, intellectual thinking that is accepted by the science and our patriarchal Western culture. The alchemists called this Solar Consciousness and assigned it many code words, such as the Sun, Sulfur, the King, the Father, Spirit, and ultimately, the One Mind of the universe. This involves left-brain activity like linear thought, schematics, formulae, arguments and logic.
2. The intuitive way of thinking, also called intelligence of the heart, a non-linear, image-driven way of thinking that is an accepted tool of the arts and religion. The alchemists called the other way of knowing Lunar Consciousness. Among its many symbols are the Moon, Mercury, the Queen, the Holy Ghost, Soul, and ultimately, the One Thing of the universe. This involves right-brain activity dealing with drawings, paintings, mandalas, symbols, music, and meditation.The alchemists believed that perfection could only be achieved by working with both Solar and Lunar ways of knowing and ultimately uniting them in a third state of Stellar Consciousness. Stellar Consciousness is a state of incorruptible wisdom symbolized by the heroic Child that resulted from the marriage of the King and Queen, as well as by Salt, Gold, the Philosopher's Stone, the Astral Body, and of course, the Stars themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS [UFOs]

For the last sixty years stories of UFOs, Flying Saucers, Aliens and Cover-ups have intrigued the World.
UFO, is any flying object that cannot be identified by the observer and have been spotted in many different places around the world.

Reports of unusual aerial phenomena date back to ancient times, but modern reports and first official investigations began during World War II with sightings of so-called foo fighters by Allied airplane crews and in 1946 with widespread sightings of European "ghost rockets." UFO reports became even more common after the first widely publicized United States UFO sighting, by private pilot Kenneth Arnold in the summer of 1947. Many tens of thousands of UFO reports have since been made worldwide.

The notion that unidentified objects or lights in the sky might be craft from other worlds appears to have been first suggested following the earliest wave of such sightings.

In the post 1947 era however, explanations for the saucers, or "flying disks" as they were also known at the time, included natural phenomena, such as Venus or unusual clouds, illusions, hoaxes, balloons, prototype aircraft and secret weapons (friendly or hostile), and the extraterrestrial hypothesis. The last possibility was not initially given much credence but rapidly gained favor as a result of intense media speculation.

From the outset, the systematic investigation of UFOs was made problematic by the fact that the alleged phenomenon was both transient and unpredictable. Although data were plentiful, these largely took the form of individual and uncorroborated eyewitness reports – a notoriously unreliable source of information. Yet enough sightings were made by what appeared to be reliable, experienced observers, including military personnel and police officers, for the phenomenon to be taken seriously (see Roswell Incident; Mantell, Captain Thomas F.). The United States military, concerned about a possible threat to national security and following the recommendations of General Twining, launched the first of its investigations, Project Sign. This was followed by Project Grudge and, finally, beginning in 1952, Project Blue Book.

Besides visual sightings, cases sometimes have an indirect physical evidence like :
#Radar contact and tracking, sometimes from multiple sites.
#Photographic evidence, including still photos, movie film, and video, including some in the infrared spectrum .
# Recorded visual spectrograms # Recorded gravimetric and magnetic disturbances
#Biological effects on plants such as increased or decreased growth, germination effects on seeds, and blown-out stem nodes (usually associated with physical trace cases or crop circles) #Electromagnetic interference (EM) effects, including stalled cars, power black-outs, radio/TV interference, magnetic compass deflections, and aircraft navigation, communication, and engine disruption,etc.

There are different opinions about the UFO phenomenon. Among proponents, some of the more common explanations for UFOs are:

* The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) : that UFOs are best explained as being creatures from other planets occupying physical spacecraft visiting Earth.
* The interdimensional hypothesis : advanced by astrophysicist Jacques Vallee, holds that these phenomena are visitations from other universes (or dimensions) that coexist separately alongside our own. It further proposes that they are a modern manifestation of entities or phenomena which have appeared throughout and possibly before recorded history, and which were previously explained as mythological or supernatural creatures.

It is an alternative to the extraterrestrial hypothesis, which proposes that UFOs are from distant worlds in our own universe, as well as to the hypothesis that UFOs are merely terrestrial phenomena. This hypothesis is generally considered to be a fringe view, even among UFO researchers.

According to this theory, the phenomenon manifests itself as a control mechanism, whose function appears to be to challenge the observer's accepted notions of reality, by appearing to be things that common sense would disregard as being impossible, and in our modern age, as technological objects which always seem to appear to be one step ahead of our own technological horizon.
*The Paranormal/Occult Hypothesis
* The hypothesis that they are time machines or vehicles built in a future time.

Skeptics usually propose one of the following explanations:

* The man-made craft hypothesis
* The unknown natural phenomena hypothesis, e.g. ball lightning, sprites * The Psychological-Social Hypothesis * The Earthquake lights/Tectonic Strain hypothesis.

What appears interesting is that UFO sightings depend on the technological environment of their times. In the late 1800s, UFOs were described as airships larger, sturdier and more maneuverable than those commonly used. As planes were developed UFO descriptions involved those of planes with speed and maneuverability greater than in any known design. Nowadays UFOs are described as having many shapes, but are still described as performing maneuvers that no known contemporary aircraft is capable of doing; these include complete or near-complete silence when spotted, hovering, flight at very great speeds with very small turn radii, as well as the ability to make unusually rapid changes in altitude.

It should also be noted that UFOs are usually observed by untrained sky watchers and almost never by professional or amateur astronomers, people who spend inordinate amounts of time observing the heavens above. These untrained observers have been aided by the availability of inexpensive video cameras, yet despite the enormous increase in volume of such cameras, there has been a drop in the number of UFO observations. Anyway, one would think that astronomers would have spotted some of these alien craft by now. [Perhaps the crafty aliens know that good scientists are skeptical and inquisitive !]

KNIGHTS OF TEMPLAR

When the Knights Templar or the Order of the Temple were founded in 1118-1119 in Jerusalem, it was a 'poor order' whose primary function was the protection of pilgrims along the main roads between the coast at Jaffa and the inland city of Jerusalem. But an important transformation took place when this nascent Order came under the patronage of St Bernard of Clairvaux, nephew of André de Montbard, one of the founding group of the Templars. Until his conversion at the age of twenty, St Bernard himself had been destined for a knightly career, and when he came to patronize the Knights Templar that Order was imbued with the ideals and convictions of the knightly class of Burgundy. ..

..and YES.. the Templars did possess the Holy Grail!!

It has been generally accepted that, for the first nine years of their existence, the Templars consisted of nine members.

Although it has been widely speculated that the Templars wished to keep it this way to cover their secret mission of digging for buried treasure on the Temple Mount, the simple fact remains that the lifestyle adopted by the Order was not to everyone's taste. As such, the Templars had difficulty in recruiting members to their cause in the early years.

Later owing to the Cistercian abbot, Bernard of Clairvaux's letter that swept through the entire Chritendom, nobles were drawn to the order.Those who were unable to join often gifted the Templars with land and other valuables.

While it is true that the Templars were not permitted, by their rule, to own much of anything personally, there was no such restriction on the Order as a whole.

Over the years the Templars rose from their humble beginnings to become the wealthiest of the Crusading Orders - eventually garnering the favour of the Church and the collective European monarchs.

However, after two centuries of defending the Christian faith, the Order met its demise when Philip IV - motivated by greed - sought to destroy the Templars.

On March 18th, 1314 the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake.Legends hold that De Molay cursed King Philip and Pope Clement to join him in death within a year - and so they did!

Grand Masters

Within the Templar hierarchy, the Grand Master was absolute ruler of the Order and answerable only to the pope. Although his position was a powerful one, he was still obliged to live by the same Rule of Order that those under him swore to obey. However, the Rule did grant him a fairly extensive entourage:

• 4 horses
• 1 Chaplain Brother
• 1 clerk with 3 horses
• 1 Sergeant Brother with 2 horses
• 1 gentleman valet with 1 horse
• 1 farrier
• 1 Saracen scribe
• 1 turcopole
• 1 cook
• 2 foot soldiers
• 1 turcoman
• 2 knight brothers as companions

They were -

Hugues de Payens
Robert de Craon
Everard des Barres
Bernard de Tremeley
Andrew de Montbard

Bertrand de Blancfort
Philip de Milly (Nablus)
Odo de St Amand
Arnold de Torroja
Gerard de Ridefort

Robert de Sablé
Gilbert Erail
Philip de Plessis
William de Chartres
Peter de Montaigu
Armand de Périgord
Richard de Bures

William de Sonnac
Reginald de Vichiers
Thomas Bérard
William de Beaujeu
Theobald Gaudin

Jacques de Molay

Legends and relics

  The Knights Templar have become associated with legends concerning secrets and mysteries handed down to the select from ancient times. Rumors circulated even during the time of the Templars themselves. Freemasonic writers added their own speculations in the 19th century, and further fictional embellishments have been added in modern movies such as National Treasure and Kingdom of Heaven, best-selling novels such as Ivanhoe and The Da Vinci Code, and video games such as Assassin's Creed, Hellgate: London and Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars.
Many of the Templar legends are connected with the Order's early occupation of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and speculation about what relics the Templars may have found there, such as the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant.That the Templars were in possession of some relics is certain. Many churches still display relics such as the bones of a saint, a scrap of cloth once worn by a holy man, or the skull of a martyr: the Templars did the same. They were documented as having a piece of the True Cross, which the Bishop of Acre carried into battle at the disastrous Horns of Hattin. When the battle was lost, Saladin captured the relic, which was then ransomed back to the Crusaders when the Muslims surrendered the city of Acre in 1191 They also possessed the head of Saint Euphemia of Chalcedon.The subject of relics also came up during the Inquisition of the Templars, as several trial documents refer to the worship of an idol of some type, referred to in some cases as a cat, a bearded head, or in some cases as Baphomet, according to one theory a French misspelling of the name Mahomet (Muhammad).

The supposed idol worship was included in the charges brought against the Templars leading to their arrest in the early fourteenth century.This accusation of idol worship levied against the Templars has also led to the modern belief by some that the Templars practiced witchcraft.

There was particular interest during the Crusader era in the Holy Grail myth, which was quickly associated with the Templars, even in the 12th century. The first Grail romance, the fantasy story Le Conte du Graal, was written in 1180 by Chrétien de Troyes, who came from the same area where the Council of Troyes had officially sanctioned the Templars' Order. In Arthurian legend, the hero of the Grail quest, Sir Galahad (a 13th-century literary invention of monks from St. Bernard's Cistercian Order), was depicted bearing a shield with the cross of Saint George, similar to the Templars' insignia. In a chivalric epic of the period, Parzival, Wolfram von Eschenbach refers to Templars guarding the Grail Kingdom.A legend developed that, since the Templars had their headquarters at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, they must have excavated in search of relics, found the Grail, and then proceeded to keep it in secret and guard it with their lives. However, in the extensive documents of the Templar inquisition there was never a single mention of anything like a Grail relic,let alone its possession by the Templars. In reality, most scholars agree that the story of the Grail was just that, a fiction that began circulating in medieval times.

One legendary artifact that does have some connection with the Templars is the Shroud of Turin. In 1357, the shroud was first publicly displayed by the family of the grandson of Geoffrey de Charney, the Templar who had been burned at the stake with Jacques de Molay in 1314. The artifact's origins are still a matter of controversy. In 1988, a carbon dating analysis concluded that the shroud was made between 1260 and 1390, a span that includes the last half-century of the Templars.Disagreement over the proper dating continues.