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Posted Feb 10, 2003 by Phryne- 'Best Suppurating Actress'
There are 2 biogs. of Crowley which got high ratings (one of which I have read, so can recommend; 'A Magick Life' author's name Martin something, (I believe...) cannot check since it's in the attic at' moment. Both were reviewed simultaneously by Fortean Times some time before last xmas; the other is said to be more in-depth for those already quite familiar with him.)
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Posted Feb 12, 2003 by Artenshiur, the perpetually pseudopresent
*Looks around at all of the titles*
Hedge Witch
Wiccan
Atheist
Weirdo
Pantheist
Romantic
blah
blah
blah
Spoo!
I'm nearly confused.
I s'pose that's why I'm a Nisusist. (I made the word up. so HA!)
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Posted Feb 12, 2003 by Matholwch - Brythonic Tribal Polytheist
Hi Artenshiur  .
Labels are interesting ain't they Artie?
What I find fascinating about them is that they often start off as derogatory statements from those within the political, religious or social establishment. They are used to box or categorise people who don't fit into the establishment's scheme of things.
They are also used to belittle the people concerned so as to deter others from following the non-conformist. Unfortunately for the establishment this often provokes the non-conformist into taking on the label and wearing it with pride, out of spite. Other people then see the label-wearing non-conformist and gather around to see what's going on. Before you know it the establishment has a movement on its hands. Oh dear.... .
People also often invent their own titles or labels to signal that they are different or in some way special. As Robert Heinlein (the SF author) once said:
"I knew a little lizard once who said she was actually a Brontosaurus on her mother's side."
The moral being there is no harm in allowing people to label themselves if it supports their self-esteem, no matter how ridiculous it may appear.
Possibly the only title or label that has real, intrinsic value is one that is applied by the acclamation of one's peers. Where a group of people give you a title in respect for your value to them as a friend, mentor, guardian, inspiration or whatever.
Blessings,
Matholwch /|\.
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Posted Feb 12, 2003 by Gone walkabout
Artenshiur: <I'm a Nisusist. (I made the word up. so HA!)>
Ah, but you never defined what one WAS! 
You Nisusists go round abusing our garden sheds and spray-painting our grandmothers, and you expect us just to sit back and take it? Well we're not gonna take it any more. If you Nisusists haven't provided documentary evidence that you have no WMD (Women, Men or Dogs) by midnight, our armies of highly trained squid and cuttlefish will be ordered to trample your fields and spoil your crosswords by filling them in with random letters. And that's just the beginning....
D'you feel lucky, Arty Baby? 
Matholwch: <Possibly the only title or label that has real, intrinsic value is one that is applied by the acclamation of one's peers. Where a group of people give you a title in respect for your value to them as a friend, mentor, guardian, inspiration or whatever.>
Yes, there is no higher praise than this.
Pattern-chaser
"Who cares, wins"
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Posted Feb 12, 2003 by MaW
Definitely. I can call myself whatever I want - here on h2g2 I have a number of titles, but the one I'm most proud of is being a Guru, as it's the only one you actually have to prove something for. Being awarded something by your peers is definitely the best honour you can have. If people you respect in turn respect you, that's a fantastic feeling.
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Posted Feb 14, 2003 by Artenshiur, the perpetually pseudopresent
So what if i spray painted your grandmothers? They needed some color. And the garden shed started that- he hit me in the shin.
I made up Nisusism because I felt like having an ism for myself, because I'm asked so often what ism I am. My dad's answer is easy, he's a recovering Catholic, Mum's just Quaker, my sister's a Socialite, and I'm now Nisusist.
Nisusism is the state of being like me. That is to say, examining, scrutinizing, sniffing, tasting, chemically analyzing, and storing in one's back pocket every idea one comes across, including the One True ideas and the Evil ideas. It also includes neither embracing or rejecting any non self contradictory idea (as well as this is humanly possible.) Thus the Latin root nisus: idea. So, I'm a Nisusist. And I plan on spray painting a few more grandmothers before you can get me down.
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Posted Feb 14, 2003 by Gone walkabout
<So what if i spray painted your grandmothers? They needed some color.>
<My dad's ... a recovering Catholic>
Nice turn of phrase 
<I'm a Nisusist. And I plan on spray painting a few more grandmothers before you can get me down.>
Well OK, but you realise that we on the UN (Un-Nisusists) Security Council are going to be discussing the best way of constraining or ruining your fun? Sooner or later all the grandmothers are going to be dayglo already; what will you do then? Steal gnomes from the gardens of Women's Institute members? Become Tories and start wearing women's underwear?
Just say "NO"!
Pattern-chaser
"Who cares, wins"
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Posted Feb 14, 2003 by Jose Minge, Chair and Keeper of The Imperial Deafness, don't you know.
<Anyone want to talk about Zaroastrianism?>
Why not?
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Posted Feb 15, 2003 by aGirlCalledBen
*sidles in discretely, and sits at the back, listening attentively*
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Posted Feb 15, 2003 by MaW
So what's that then?
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Posted Feb 15, 2003 by Jack Winterbourne: The Amazing Meeting, London... It was so muff-a-fluffing rock!
It's believed to be the second oldest religeon, it equates righteousness, religeon and race as one and the same... it's the first momotheistastic faith and has had significant influences on the way Christianity and Judaisism have developed...
for more info Google...
I guess tis somewhat obscure and I forget what was bothering about it enough to try and bring it up here...
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Posted Feb 15, 2003 by MaW
Hmm, I'd heard the word before but I never knew what it means. Thanks.
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Posted Feb 15, 2003 by Jack Winterbourne: The Amazing Meeting, London... It was so muff-a-fluffing rock!
The central tennets of it are...
All Scriptures are sacred, including the Gathas, Yashts, and the Vendidad. We pray all of them in our Fire temples, before the Sacred Fire, and they have immense spiritual power, their very utterance in the sacred Avestan language serving to further righteousness and fight evil.
All fire-temples and rituals of the Yasna are sacred and are necessary for the religion, such as the Nirang-din ceremony, which creates the Holy Nirang. The spiritually powerful Nirang forms the foundation of many other sacred rituals, that when performed, increase the power of good in this world and decrease the power of evil.
Dakhma-nashini is the only method of corpse-destruction for a Zarathushtri, as enjoined in the Vendidad: this is the destruction of the dead body in the stone-enclosed Dakhma, by the flesh-eating bird or the rays of the Sun, the most spiritually powerful method as commanded by Ahura Mazda to Zarathushtra. Dakhma-nashini is also very hygienic and ecologically-sound, because it prevents the world from being spiritually or materially polluted by decaying dead matter. For more information on Dakhma-nashini, select The Dakhma-nashini mode of disposal of the dead.
Marrying, Zarathushtri man or woman, to a Zarathushtri only is commanded in our religion in the Vendidad, to preserve the spiritual strength of the Aryan Mazdayasni religion, and the ethnic identity of the Zarathushtri Aryans. For the Zarathushtri, ethnic identity and religion are synonymous, as declared in the Vendidad by Ahura Mazda Himself - the Mazdayasni faith was revealed by Ahura to the Aryans under King Jamshed, thousands of years before Zarathushtra, and was meant only for the Aryans of Iran.
As such, there was no "conversion", because the Aryans of Iran were already Mazdayasnis when Zarathushtra came, and Zarathushtra was RE-REVEALING THE ORIGINAL FAITH, along with the AGUSTO VACHO - previously unheard of words of Ahura Mazda, such as the most powerful Ahunavar (Yatha Ahu Vairyo). The Fravardin Yasht also says that the Righteous of every nation in this world are present in heaven in the form of Glorious Fravarshis. Thus, the Righteous of every religion go to heaven, all religions are equal, and it is folly to convert. Conversion goes against the Master Law of Ereta (righteousness) itself, because God has given us birth in our respective religions, to adore Him in them, and not to mistrust His Judgement and rebel and go over to another faith. For, each faith leads ultimately to God. Thus, the Zarathushtris do not convert other people, but they rely on MARRIAGE WITHIN and INCREASED CHILD BIRTH to increase their numbers.
The observance of the Laws of the Vendidad is an important pillar of the Zarathushtri religion. This includes the concept of menstrual seclusion (the woman is in a state of impurity during menstruation and must stay away from all religious objects including the household fire, and also stay away from her husband during those days) and the dreaded impure state of NASU the corpse is in after death, only touchable by the Nassesalars who may then be purified by ritual means. The Vendidad also carries strong moral injuctions against the acts of homosexuality and prostitution, prohibiting these immoral acts.
Faith, and Hope in the coming of the Saoshyant (Saviour) has sustained our religion through the centuries. We firmly hope, and pray, that Ahura Mazda sends the Saoshyant to the earth to defeat evil and further righteousness (Ashoi). The Zarathushtri religion was the first to proclaim that Ahura Mazda will send the Saoshyant, born of a virgin, and many other religions took on this belief.
We firmly believe that when the Saoshyant comes, the final spiritual battle between the forces of good and evil will commence, resulting in the utter destruction of evil. Ristakhiz, the ressurection of the dead will take place - the dead will rise, by the Will of Ahura Mazda. The world will be purged by molten metal, in which the righteous will wade as if through warm milk, and the evil will be scalded. The Final Judgement of all souls will commence, at the hands of Ahura Mazda the Judge (Davar), and all sinners punished, then forgiven, and humanity made immortal and free from hunger, thirst, poverty, old age, disease and death. The World will be made perfect once again, as it was before the onslaught of the evil one. Such is the Frashogad, the Renovation, brought on by the Will of Ahura Mazda, the Frashogar.
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Posted Feb 15, 2003 by Jose Minge, Chair and Keeper of The Imperial Deafness, don't you know.
I read somewhere that the early Jews nicked the idea of a mono theistic faith from the Persians/Zoroastians when both were enslaved by the Egyptians. Originally the Jews beleived in Baal worship, just like the Canaanites apparently.
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Posted Feb 15, 2003 by Jack Winterbourne: The Amazing Meeting, London... It was so muff-a-fluffing rock!
I'll try and respeond to your previous post when I'm not watching Wales LOOSE to ITALY!
The oldest surviving religeon is Hinduism
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Posted Feb 15, 2003 by Noggin the Nog
That's the Babylonians, Jose, not the Egyptians. And the Persians weren't enslaved - they captured Babylon in 539 BC.
Interestingly, two centuries earlier the Assyrians had deported the people of Israel, and probably resettled them in Persia at about the time Zoroastianism got started - so there was probably a lot of recycling of religious ideas going on at the time.
The biblical names Esther and Mordecai are versions of the Babylonian gods Ishtar and Marduk. Tarsus (as in Saul/Paul of Tarsus) was later a centre of veneration of Mithras (another Persian monotheism similar to Zoroastrianism) which was also the principle religion of Constantine's legions. I could go on, but you get my drift..
Noggin
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Posted Feb 15, 2003 by Gone walkabout
Hi Ben! Did you march today, then? Where? In London, I presume? I couldn't make it, but I felt sort of guilty all day for not taking the trouble.... 
Will you be declaring your chair, and becoming a 'proper' member of the FFFF?
Pattern-chaser
"Who cares, wins"
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