The Eight Hermetic Principles

I. The Principle of Mentalism.

“The All is Mind; The Universe is Mental.”—The Kybalion. This Principle embodies the truth that “All is Mind.” It explains that The All (which is the Substantial Reality underlying all the outward manifestations and appearances which we know under the terms of “The Material Universe”;

The Eight Hermetic Principles

the “Phenomena of Life”; “Matter”; “Energy”; and, in short, all that is apparent to our material senses) is Spirit, which in itself is Unknowable and Undefinable, but which may be considered and thought of as An Universal, Infinite, Living Mind.

It also explains that all the phenomenal world or universe is simply a Mental Creation of The All, subject to the Laws of Created Things, and that the universe, as a whole, and in its parts or units, has its existence in the Mind of The All, in which Mind we “live and move and have our being.” This Principle, by establishing the Mental Nature of the Universe, easily explains all of the varied mental and psychic phenomena that occupy such a large portion of the public attention, and which, without such explanation, are non-understandable and defy scientific treatment.

An understanding of this great Hermetic Principle of Mentalism enables the individual to readily grasp the laws of the Mental Universe, and to apply the same to his well-being and advancement. The Hermetic Student is enabled to apply intelligently the great Mental Laws, instead of using them in a haphazard manner. With the Master-Key in his possession, the student may unlock the many doors of the mental and psychic temple of knowledge, and enter the same freely and intelligently.

This Principle explains the true nature of “Energy,” “Power,” and “Matter,” and why and how all these are subordinate to the Mastery of Mind. One of the old Hermetic Masters wrote, long ages ago: “He who grasps the truth of the Mental Nature of the Universe is well advanced on The Path to Mastery.” And these words are as true to-day as at the time they were first The Seven Hermetic Principles written. Without this Master-Key, Mastery is impossible, and the student knocks in vain at the many doors of The Temple.

II. The Principle of Correspondence.

“As above, so below; as below, so above.”—The Kybalion.

This Principle embodies the truth that there is always a Correspondence between the laws and phenomena of the various planes of Being and Life. The old Hermetic axiom ran in these words:

“As above, so below; as below, so above.” And the grasping of this Principle gives one the means of solving many a dark paradox, and hidden secret of Nature.

There are planes beyond our knowing, but when we apply the Principle of Correspondence to them we are able to understand much that would otherwise be unknowable to us. This Principle is of universal application and manifestation, on the various planes of the material, mental, and spiritual universe—it is a Universal Law.

The ancient Hermetists considered this Principle as one of the most important mental instruments by which man was able to pry aside the obstacles which hid from view the Unknown. Its use even tore aside the Veil of Isis to the extent that a glimpse of the face of the goddess might be caught. Just as a knowledge of the Principles of Geometry enables man to measure distant suns and their movements, while seated in his observatory, so a knowledge of the Principle of Correspondence enables Man to reason intelligently from the Known to the Unknown. Studying the monad, he understands the archangel.

III. The Principle of Vibration. 

“Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.”—The Kybalion. This Principle embodies the truth that “everything is in motion”; “everything vibrates”; “nothing is at rest”; facts which Modern Science endorses, and which each new scientific discovery tends to verify.

The Principle of Vibration illustration

And yet this Hermetic Principle was enunciated thousands of years ago, by the Masters of Ancient Egypt. This Principle explains that the differences between different manifestations of Matter, Energy, Mind, and even Spirit, result largely from varying rates of Vibration. From The All, which is Pure Spirit, down to the grossest form of Matter, all is in vibration—the higher the vibration, the higher the position in the scale.

The vibration of Spirit is at such an infinite rate of intensity and rapidity that it is practically at rest—just as a rapidly moving wheel seems to be motionless. And at the other end of the scale, there are gross forms of matter whose vibrations are so low as to seem at rest. Between these poles, there are millions upon millions of varying degrees of vibration. From corpuscle and electron, atom and molecule, to worlds and universes, everything is in vibratory motion.

This is also true on the planes of energy and force (which are but varying degrees of vibration); and also on the mental planes (whose states depend upon vibrations); and even on to the spiritual planes. An understanding of this Principle, with the appropriate formulas, enables Hermetic students to control their own mental vibrations as well as those of others. The Masters also apply this Principle to the conquering of Natural phenomena, in various ways. “He who understands the Principle of Vibration, has grasped the sceptre of power,” says one of the old writers.

IV. The Principle of Polarity.

“Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.”—The Kybalion.

The Principle of  Polarity

The Seven Hermetic Principles This Principle embodies the truth that “everything is dual”; “everything has two poles”; “everything has its pair of opposites,” all of which were old Hermetic axioms.

It explains the old paradoxes that have perplexed so many, which have been stated as follows: “Thesis and antithesis are identical in nature, but different in degree”; “opposites are the same, differing only in degree”; “the pairs of opposites may be reconciled”; “extremes meet”; “everything is and isn’t, at the same time”; “all truths are but half-truths”; “every truth is half-false”; “there are two sides to everything,” etc., etc., etc.

It explains that in everything there are two poles, or opposite aspects, and that “opposites” are really only the two extremes of the same thing, with many varying degrees between them. To illustrate:

Heat and Cold, although “opposites,” are really the same thing, the differences consisting merely of degrees of the same thing. Look at your thermometer and see if you can discover where “heat” terminates and “cold” begins! There is no such thing as “absolute heat” or “absolute cold”—the two terms “heat” and “cold” simply indicate varying degrees of the same thing, and that “same thing” which manifests as “heat” and “cold” is merely a form, variety, and rate of Vibration. So “heat” and “cold” are simply the “two poles” of that which we call “Heat”—and the phenomena attendant thereupon are manifestations of the Principle of Polarity.

The same Principle manifests in the case of “Light and Darkness,” which are the same thing, the difference consisting of varying degrees between the two poles of the phenomena. Where does “darkness” leave off, and “light” begin? What is the difference between “Large and Small”? Between “Hard and Soft”? Between “Black and White”? Between “Sharp and Dull”? Between “Noise and Quiet”? Between “High and Low”? Between “Positive and Negative”?

The Principle of Polarity explains these paradoxes, and no other Principle can supersede it. The same Principle operates on the Mental Plane. Let us take a radical and extreme example—that of “Love and Hate,” two mental states apparently totally different. And yet The Kybalion there are degrees of Hate and degrees of Love, and a middle point in which we use the terms “Like or Dislike,” which shade into each other so gradually that sometimes we are at a loss to know whether we “like” or “dislike” or “neither.” And all are simply degrees of the same thing, as you will see if you will but think a moment. And, more than this (and considered of more importance by the Hermetists), it is possible to change the vibrations of Hate to the vibrations of Love, in one’s own mind, and in the minds of others. Many of you, who read these lines, have had personal experiences of the involuntary rapid transition from Love to Hate, and the reverse, in your own case and that of others.

And you will therefore realize the possibility of this being accomplished by the use of the Will, by means of the Hermetic formulas. “Good and Evil” are but the poles of the same thing, and the Hermetist understands the art of transmuting Evil into Good, by means of an application of the Principle of Polarity. In short, the “Art of Polarisation” becomes a phase of “Mental Alchemy” known and practised by the ancient and modern Hermetic Masters. An understanding of the Principle will enable one to change his own Polarity, as well as that of others, if he will devote the time and study necessary to master the art.

V. The Principle of Rhythm.

“Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left;

The Principle of Rhythm, a simple illustration

rhythm compensates.”—The Kybalion. This Principle embodies the truth that in everything there is manifested a measured motion, to and fro; a flow and inflow; a swing backward and forward; a pendulum-like movement; a tide-like ebb and flow; a high-tide and low-tide; between the two poles which exist in accordance with the Principle of The Seven Hermetic Principles Polarity described a moment ago.

There is always an action and a reaction; an advance and a retreat; a rising and a sinking. For example the rise of modern-day USA empire from the fall of the British empire.This is in the affairs of the Universe, suns, worlds, men, animals, mind, energy, and matter. This law is manifest in the creation and destruction of worlds; in the rise and fall of nations; in the life of all things; and finally in the mental states of Man (and it is with this latter that the Hermetists find the understanding of the Principle most important).

The Hermetists have grasped this Principle, finding its universal application, and have also discovered certain means to overcome its effects in themselves by the use of the appropriate formulas and methods. They apply the Mental Law of Neutralisation. They cannot annul the Principle, or cause it to cease its operation, but they have learned how to escape its effects upon themselves to a certain degree depending upon the Mastery of the Principle.

They have learned how to use it, instead of being used by it. In this and similar methods, consist the Art of the Hermetists. The Master of Hermetics polarises himself at the point at which he desires to rest, and then neutralises the Rhythmic swing of the pendulum which would tend to carry him to the other pole. All individuals who have attained any degree of Self-Mastery do this to a certain degree, more or less unconsciously, but the Master does this consciously, and by the use of his Will, and attains a degree of Poise and Mental Firmness almost impossible of belief on the part of the masses who are swung backward and forward like a pendulum. This Principle and that of Polarity have been closely studied by the Hermetists; and the methods of counteracting, neutralising, and using them form an important part of the Hermetic Mental Alchemy.

VI. The Principle of Cause and Effect.

“Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognised; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law.”—The Kybalion. This Principle embodies the fact that there is a Cause for every Effect; an Effect from every Cause.

Example of The Principle of Cause and Effect, simple illustration

It explains that: “Everything Happens according to Law”; that nothing ever “merely happens”; that there is no such thing as Chance; that while there are various planes of Cause and Effect, the higher dominating the lower planes, still nothing ever entirely escapes the Law. The Hermetists understand the art and methods of rising above the ordinary plane of Cause and Effect, to a certain degree, and by mentally rising to a higher plane they become Causers instead of Effects.

The masses of people are carried along, obedient to environment; the wills and desires of others stronger than themselves; heredity; suggestion; and other outward causes moving them about like pawns on the Chessboard of Life.

But the Masters, rising to the plane above, dominate their moods, characters, qualities, and powers, as well as the environment surrounding them, and become Movers instead of pawns. They help to play the game of life, instead of being played and moved about by other wills and environment. They use the Principle instead of being its tools. The Masters obey the Causation of the higher planes, but they help to rule on their own plane. In this statement there is condensed a wealth of Hermetic knowledge—let him read who can.

VII. The Principle of Gender.

“Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles;

The Principle of Gender & polarity

Gender manifests on all planes.”—The Kybalion. This Principle embodies the truth that there is gender manifested in everything—the Masculine and Feminine Principles ever at work.

This is true not only of the Physical Plane, but of the Mental and even the Spiritual Planes. On the Seven Hermetic Principles. For example, the human brain consists of the Masculine and Feminine side. The Yang (Male) and the Yin Female. Another example, if two couples are to have sexual intercourse, one couple madly in love and the other couple just a one night stand. For the couple madly in love, it could be pleasurable or fantastic on the physical plane, ecstatically powerful on the spiritual plane and quite potent on the mental plane.

As for the other couple, it could be pleasurable or fantastic on the physical plane, not so  powerful on the spiritual plane and inconsequential on the mental plane. For the couple madly in love on the mental plane, mental transmutation becomes easily achievable at the point of orgasm, and for the other couple not so, not even a sausage can be transmuted.

VIII. The Principle of CARE.

CARE, with all caps, is the encapsulation of the other 7 principles. Without this principle nothing can be generated, created, regenerated, recreated or manifested. It is what we care about that is generated or manifested in our world.  For example if you care enough about something you will act upon.

The Principle of CARE, simple illustration.

Therefore action is taking after conceiving an idea for it to be manifested in our world.

If it is love, honesty, or well-being, that you are conceiving and generating towards human-kind, our world would mend itself via peace, security, good-health and general pleasantry for all human-kind.

If it is fear and hatred that you are manifesting through the principle of CARE, our world becomes sick and the end result is famine, killing, chaos and wars.

A little tip, prayer, spell or projected manifestation, please repeat: I will have peace, security, good-health, prosperity and general pleasantry, for me, people around me, people I know, people I don't know, people that knows I exist, people that doesn't know I exist, people I have done the wrong things to, people I have done the right things to, people who has done the wrong things to me, people who has done the right things to me, people I like, people I dislike or hate, people who like me, people who dislike or hate me and people who cares about other human-beings or nature without any ulterior motives.
Next blog 15/12/18

Multiculturalism of Occultism, Kybalion, Gnostic Bible

The Kybalion: by the Three Initiates

The Hermetists have never sought to be martyrs, and have, instead, sat silently aside with a pitying smile on their closed lips, while the “heathen raged noisily about them” in their customary amusement of putting to death and torture the honest but misguided enthusiasts who imagined that they could force upon a race of barbarians the truth capable of being understood only by the elect who had advanced along The Path.

And the spirit of persecution has not as yet died out in the land. There are certain Hermetic Teachings, which, if publicly promulgated, would bring down upon the teachers a great cry of scorn and revilement from the multitude, who would again raise the cry of “Crucify! Crucify.”

The Kybalion

In this little work, we have endeavoured to give you an idea of the fundamental teachings of The Kybalion, striving to give you the working Principles, leaving you to apply them yourselves, rather than attempting to work out the teaching in detail.

If you are a true student, you will be able to work out and apply these Principles—if not, then you must develop yourself into one, for otherwise, the Hermetic Teachings will be as “words, words, words” to you.

But among these great Masters of Ancient Egypt, there once dwelt one of whom Masters hailed as “The Master of Masters.”

This man, if “man” indeed he was, dwelt in Egypt in the earliest days. He was known as Hermes Trismegistus. He was the father of the Occult Wisdom; the founder of Astrology; the discoverer of Alchemy.

The details of his life story are lost to history, owing to the lapse of the years, though several of the ancient countries disputed with each other in their claims to the honour of having furnished his birthplace—and this thousands of years ago. The date of his sojourn in Egypt, in that his last incarnation on this planet, is not now known, but it has been fixed at the early days of the oldest dynasties of Egypt—long before the days of Moses.

The best authorities regard him as a contemporary of Abraham, and some of the Jewish traditions go so far as to claim that Abraham acquired a portion of his mystic knowledge from Hermes himself.
As the years rolled by after his passing from this plane of life (tradition recording that he lived three hundred years in the flesh), the Egyptians deified Hermes, and made him one of their gods, under the name of Thoth.

The Emerald Tablets of Thoth, Tehuti AKA Hermes Trismegistus

Years after, the people of Ancient Greece also made him one of their many gods—calling him “Hermes, the god of Wisdom.”

The Egyptians revered his memory for many centuries—yes, tens of centuries—calling him “the Scribe of the Gods,” and bestowing upon him, distinctively, his ancient title, “Trismegistus,” which means “the thrice-great”; “the great-great”; “the greatest-great”; etc. In all the ancient lands, the name of Hermes Trismegistus was revered.

The Hermetic Philosophy: Even to this day, we use the term “hermetic” in the sense of “secret”; “sealed so that nothing can escape”; etc., and this by reason of the fact that the followers of Hermes always observed the principle of secrecy in their teachings. They did not believe in “casting pearls before swine,” but rather held to the teaching “milk for babes; meat for strong men,” both of which maxims are familiar to readers of the Christian scriptures, but both of which had been used by the Egyptians for centuries before the Christian era. And this policy of careful dissemination of the truth has always characterised the Hermetics, even unto the present day.

The Hermetic Teachings are to be found in all lands, among all religions, but never identified with any particular country, nor with any particular religious sect. This because of the warning of the ancient teachers against allowing the Secret Doctrine to become crystallized into a creed. The wisdom of this caution is apparent to all students of history.

The ancient occultism of India and Persia degenerated, and was largely lost, owing to the fact that the teachers became priests, and so mixed theology with the philosophy, the result being that the occultism of India and Persia has been gradually lost amidst the mass of religious superstition, cults, creeds and “gods.” So it was with Ancient Greece and Rome.

So it was with the Hermetic Teachings of the Gnostics and Early Christians, which were lost at the time of Constantine, whose iron hand smothered philosophy with the blanket of theology, losing to the Christian Church that which was its very essence and spirit, and causing it to grope throughout several centuries before it found the way back to its ancient faith, the indications apparent to all careful observers in this Twentieth Century being that the Church is now struggling to get back to its ancient mystic teachings. But there were always a few faithful souls who kept alive the Flame, tending it carefully, and not allowing its light to become extinguished. And thanks to these staunch hearts, and fearless minds, we have the truth still with us. But it is not found in religious dogma of books.

Most truths are half-false and most falsehoods are a half-truth. Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.

The Gnostic Bible

Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed. Gospel of Thomas (5) The Gnostics were religious mystics who proclaimed gnosis, knowledge, as the way of salvation. To know oneself truly allowed gnostic men and women to know god directly, without any need for the mediation of rabbis, priests, bishops, imams, or other religious officials.

Gospel of St Thomas from the Gnostic Bible

Throughout this present article, we have tried to avoid unnecessary capitalization of the word god and the names of personified spiritual powers and eons. We are aware that the word god may be used as a name for the divine, but it frequently functions as a general term for the divine, so that even when "god" appears to be a name, it retains its primary nature as a term signifying the concept of divinity.

For the same reason, other names of divine expressions, such as divine forethought, afterthought, and wisdom, are likewise left un-capitalised. Conversely, for the sake of clarity, when the Greek word "Sophia" is used for wisdom, that is capitalized, as are other names that are transliterated directly from other languages. We also want to avoid the common practice of singling out a particular deity, for example, the Judeo-Christian-Islamic deity, for the exclusive honor of the capitalized name "God," while other deities are relegated to the status of mere "gods" and "goddesses." We do not wish to limit the divine by restricting deity through name or selectivity. Traditionally the name and face of the divine are essentially unknowable, and so it is in this article.

Religious officials, who were not pleased with such freedom and independence, condemned the gnostics as heretical and a threat to the well-being and good order of organized religion.

A sufi's Path in Al-Islam

Heresiologists—heresy hunters of a bygone age who busied themselves exposing people judged dangerous to the Christian masses—fulminated against what they maintained was the falsehood of the Gnostics. Nonetheless, from the challenge of this perceived threat came much of the theological reflection that has characterized the intellectual history of the Christian church. The historical roots of the gnostics reach back into the time of the Greeks, Romans, and Second Temple Jews. Some Gnostics were Jewish, others Greco- Roman, and many were Christian.

There were Mandaean gnostics from Iraq and Iran; Manichaeans from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and all the way to China; Islamic gnostics in the Muslim world; and Cathars in western Europe. The heyday of their influence extends from the second century CE through the next several centuries. Their influence and their presence, some say, continue to the present day. Gnostics sought knowledge and wisdom from many different sources, and they accepted insight wherever it could be found. Like those who came before them, they embraced a personified wisdom, Sophia, understood variously and taken as the manifestation of divine insight. To gain knowledge of the deep things of god, gnostics read and studied diverse religious and philosophical texts.

In addition to Jewish sacred literature, Christian documents, and Greco-Roman religious and philosophical texts, gnostics studied religious works from the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Zoroastrians, Muslims, and Buddhists.

A sufi's Path

All such sacred texts disclosed truths, and all were to be celebrated for their wisdom. Gnostics loved to explore who they were and from where they had come, and hence they read creation stories such as the opening chapters of Genesis with vigor and enthusiasm. Like others, they recognized that creation stories not only claim to describe what was, once upon a time but also suggest what is, now, in our own world.

The gnostics carried to their reading a conviction that the story of creation was not a happy one. There is, they reasoned, something fundamentally wrong with the world, there is too much evil and pain and death in the world, and so there must have been something wrong with creation. Consequently, gnostics provided innovative and oftentimes disturbing interpretations of the creation stories they read. They concluded that a distinction, often a dualistic distinction, must be made between the transcendent.

Edited by Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer. Next Article the 7 Hermetic Principles plus the lost and found principle.

Friedrich Trump Donald Trump's Grandfather

Humpty Dumpty Mr Trumpsy, very flimsy maybe clumsy, met with the hunkies and the junkies, making monkeys of his rookies eating their cookies, all his stooges, hanky pansies at the tower, raunchy monsters spanking ranking, frumpy bumpy with the bankers who are fraudsters looting our lockers, ooh my goodness Donald Dumbo, rhymes with bongo, corporate logo are you loco, drink your cocoa with some Mongols eating their mangoes, what an ego quite an amigo, little Tojo lost his Mojo, hidden by Mingo brother of Mandingo found by Chico. Humpty Dumpty Mr Trumpsy copyright S A Akinyemi November 2016.

Portrait of the Trump family, from left to right: Fred, Frederick, Elizabeth, Elizabeth Christ, and John, 1915 AD

Donald Trump’s grandfather wrote letter begging not to be deported. Here it is by Chloe Farand, The Independent. When Donald Trump's German grandfather was ordered by a royal decree to leave the country and never return, he wrote a letter pleading the prince regent of Bavaria not to deport him. Friedrich Trump wrote the letter in 1905 when he returned to Germany with his wife and daughter after having emigrated to the US. German authorities had given him eight weeks to leave and denied him repatriation because he failed to complete his mandatory military service and to register his initial emigration to the US 20 years earlier.

In the letter, Mr Trump described the moment he received the news from the High Royal State Ministry he had to leave as "a lightning strike from fair skies". 

Mary Trump (Macleod), Donald J Trump and Fred Trump

"We were paralysed with fright, our happy family life was tarnished. My wife has been overcome by anxiety, and my lovely child has become sick," he wrote. "Why should we be deported?" he asked, "This is very, very hard for a family. What will our fellow citizens think if honest subjects are faced with such a decree." The letter, translated from German into English and published in Harper's Magazine, shows how desperate Mr Trump was to remain with his family in Bavaria. Writing to Luitpold, prince regent of Bavaria, he begged for mercy.

He said: "In this urgent situation I have no other recourse than to turn to our adored, noble, wise, and just sovereign lord, our exalted ruler His Royal Highness, highest of all, who has already dried so many tears, who has ruled so beneficially and justly and wisely and softly and is warmly and deeply loved, with the most humble request that the highest of all will himself in mercy deign to allow the applicant to stay in the most gracious Kingdom of Bavaria."

Friedrich Trump

Mr Trump was born in the village of Kallstadt, in the Rhineland region in west Germany in 1869.

He left the country at the age of 16 with little possessions and went to the US in the hope of making fortune. He trained to become a barber and he went on to run a restaurant, bar and allegedly even a brothel and became a wealthy man. Despite his letter, Mr Trump was not allowed to stay in Bavaria and returned to New York, where he settled with his family. More than a 100 years later, his grandson, Donald Trump, imposed new immigration rules that would have kept his grandfather out of the US.

The Trump administration's hard-line immigration stance has also set precedent for the First Lady Melania Trump to be deported. Meanwhile, deportation raids in the US which are part of a crackdown by the Trump administration on all undocumented immigrants have led to a increase in arrests of immigrants who do not have criminal records. In the latest deportation sweep, immigration officers arrested 650 people in communities across the US over a four-day span in July. Among them, 520 had no criminal records. In June, President Trump reversed on his campaign promise to deport immigrants' children, known as "Dreamers", but their parents could still be sent back to their home countries.

Here is Friedrich Trump's letter in full, translated from German by Austen Hinkley: Most Serene, Most Powerful Prince Regent! Most Gracious Regent and Lord! I was born in Kallstadt on March 14, 1869. My parents were honest, plain, pious vineyard workers. They strictly held me to everything good — to diligence and piety, to regular attendance in school and church, to absolute obedience toward the high authority. After my confirmation, in 1882, I apprenticed to become a barber.

Kallstadt Germany Birthplace of the Trump Family

I emigrated in 1885, in my sixteenth year. In America I carried on my business with diligence, discretion, and prudence. God’s blessing was with me, and I became rich.

I obtained American citizenship in 1892. In 1902 I met my current wife. Sadly, she could not tolerate the climate in New York, and I went with my dear family back to Kallstadt. The town was glad to have received a capable and productive citizen. My old mother was happy to see her son, her dear daughter-in-law, and her granddaughter around her; she knows now that I will take care of her in her old age.

But we were confronted all at once, as if by a lightning strike from fair skies, with the news that the High Royal State Ministry had decided that we must leave our residence in the Kingdom of Bavaria. We were paralyzed with fright; our happy family life was tarnished. My wife has been overcome by anxiety, and my lovely child has become sick. Why should we be deported? This is very, very hard for a family. What will our fellow citizens think if honest subjects are faced with such a decree — not to mention the great material losses it would incur. I would like to become a Bavarian citizen again.

In this urgent situation I have no other recourse than to turn to our adored, noble, wise, and just sovereign lord, our exalted ruler His Royal Highness, highest of all, who has already dried so many tears, who has ruled so beneficially and justly and wisely and softly and is warmly and deeply loved, with the most humble request that the highest of all will himself in mercy deign to allow the applicant to stay in the most gracious Kingdom of Bavaria. Your most humble and obedient, Friedrich Trump.

October 19, 1885 AD, the S.S. Eider approached Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and the Narrows, twelve days after it had departed Bremen, Germany. As the four-hundred-and-thirty-foot vessel navigated through New York Harbour, it would have passed Bedloe’s Island, on the port side, where an enormous pedestal was under construction. The Statue of Liberty was nearby, in crates, not yet assembled. Like so much of America, she was a work in progress.

“Model of Block on Lower East Side,” from the Tenement House Exhibition of 1900.  According to the exhibit text that accompanied the model, the thirty-nine tenement houses inside this block—not the worst in the neighbourhood but merely “typical”—contained six hundred and five apartments that housed twenty-seven hundred and eighty-one people. There were only two hundred and sixty-four water closets, and not one bath on the entire block. Only forty apartments had hot water.

In 1885, the same year that Friedrich Trump arrived, another immigrant who had entered New York through Castle Garden, in June, 1870, was wandering the same streets. The son of a Danish schoolteacher, Jacob Riis was on his way to finding his own method of exposing overcrowding. In a couple of years, he would discover a new technique of using magnesium to create flashes of light for photographic purposes, making it possible to give the public a glimpse of the dark basements that slum dwellers crowded into. Prowling the streets just to the west of Forsyth, near the angle where Mulberry changed its course, Riis documented an alley known as the Bandit’s Roost. Next blog 30/11/12

Black-face of Holland, Misinformation or Racism

Most truths are half-false and most falsehoods are a half-truth. Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.

Blackface Enactment in Holland

 In fact, the statements in the five paragraphs below are 20% and 80% false, hence calls for the banning of  Sinterklass (Santa Claus) holiday based on falsehood and fabricated fallacy.

The act of dressing in blackface stems from the Sinterklass holiday which takes place on December 5th each year. At first glance, the celebrations seem identical to that of an Irish Christmas Day. Gifts are exchanged, Sinterklass (Saint Nicolas) delivers presents to the children, and time is spent with family. Yet it is not all a fairy tale; there is a stark difference of opinion on the tradition. Sinterklasses helper is Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete. Black Pete first appeared in a children’s novel by Jan Schenkman, written in the mid-10th century. His duty was to reward the good kids with treats and punish the naughty ones. This was done by either beating them with a chimney sweep or throwing them in a sack and shipping them off to Spain.

Zwarte Piet is seen as a representation of Dutch colonial history and slavery, particularly in his appearance. Ignorance is a disease and a very infectious disease once perpetually asserted by people who knew no difference.

Blackface Enactment in Holland

The fact that he is a Moor, followed by the way he dresses, is a reference to the colonisation that took place. In 2015, a United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged the Netherlands to ditch the tradition of Zwarte Piet, after publishing a report which found that “the character of Black Pete is sometimes portrayed in a manner that reflects negative stereotypes of people of African descent and is experienced by many people of African descent as a vestige of slavery”.

The Dutch government refused to ban the tradition but said it would encourage discussion and debate, even if “uncomfortable”, about racism. In recent years, anti-racism protesters have demonstrated at parades with blackface all around the country, while white extremists are using blackface as a means of protesting against immigration. I met my first young Zwarte Piet at a vintage clothing shop.

St Nicholas AKA Father Christmas

 I was rummaging through the rails attempting to find a winter coat that met my student budget when a young child emerged from the curtain of clothing. He was kitted out in Moorish dress, an afro wig, large creole earrings, big red lips and was smeared with black paint from head to toe.

Later that week my station manager told me about the Zwarte Piet tradition, explaining how it divides the Dutch population between those who associate it with racism and those who see it as a harmless custom. I was intrigued and decided to focus my next podcast on the arguments for the pro and anti-Zwarte Piet sides. Speaking to those who support the tradition, I heard their main argument for defending the custom is that Piet is a fictitious character who is just part of a ‘children’s holiday’. But after interviewing Larice Schuurbiers (lariceschuurbiers.nl), an anti-Zwarte Piet activist and photographer,

St Patrick AKA the Irish Patron Saint

I learned how this tradition is merely a catalyst for a much larger conversation, tackling institutionalised racism which has accompanied the refugee crises, and the Netherlands’ unaddressed colonial hangover.

The Black-faces being enacted over the years in Holland is not racist at all. It is only mimicking the culture and people of Holland in the medieval Netherlands mixed with a lot of misinformation. You see Holland is getting tangled up in its own web of lies. The 3 nations that did the most to write and paint Black people from their history are England, Germany, and Holland. In maintaining every medieval black person in Europe at that time were slaves including their descendants? Absolute lies, poppycock, and balderdash and piffle.

A Description of THE WESTERN ISLANDS of Scotland (CIRCA 1695) By Martin Martin, Gent.
Including A Voyage to St. Kilda By the same author and A Description Of THE WESTERN ISLES Of Scotland By Sir Donald Monro Edited with Introduction by Donald J. Macleod, O.B.E., M.A., D. Litt., Officer d'Académie Foreword

This pre-Celtic recognition of motherhood only, shows its influence in the acceptance by the Picts, a people with some Aryan culture since they spoke a Celtic language, of the principle of matriarchy, and we have an echo of it to this day in common expressions in Gaelic, such as that of which the English equivalent is "I’ll call no man brother except the son of my mother."

Isle of Sykes

Various rivers, such as the Lochy, noted by as early a writer as Adamnan as the abode of the "Black Goddess" ("loch" in old Celtic means "black"), the Ness, etc., mountain tops, fords, valleys, locks and tarns were all looked upon by this earlier race as the abodes of local deities, benevolent or otherwise, and to this day one may listen to tales of water-horses, river kelpies, sprites and such like, from the lips of old people who speak Gaelic only, and who, though living in the midst of a Christian culture, is still thoroughly in touch with the traditional pagan beliefs of their earliest youth. These old people are nowadays extremely reluctant to speak of such things, and it requires much tact and the most careful approach in homely Gaelic to excite their memories and set them a-speaking.

The Complexion of the Islanders of the Isle of Skye:
The inhabitants of this isle are generally well proportioned, and their complexion is for the most part black. They are not obliged to art, in forming their bodies, for nature never fails to act her part bountifully to them; and perhaps there is no part of the habitable globe where so few bodily imperfections are to be seen, nor any children that go more early.

Isle of Arran

I have observed several of them walk alone before they were ten months old; they are bathed all over every morning and evening, some in cold, some in warm water, but the latter is most commonly used and they wear nothing strait about them.

The mother generally suckles the child, failing of which a nurse is provided, for they seldom bring up any by hand; they give new-born infants fresh butter to take away the miconium, and this they do for several days; they taste neither sugar, nor cinnamon, nor have they any daily allowance of sack bestowed on them, as the custom is elsewhere, nor is the nurse allowed to taste ale. On the north-west side of Strath lies that part of Skye called Macleod’s Country, possessed by Macleod. Genealogists say he is lineally descended from Leod, son to the Black Prince of Man. He is head of an ancient tribe.

The Complexion of the Islanders of the Isle of Arran
The inhabitants of this island are composed of several tribes.

The most ancient family among them is by the natives reckoned to be MacLouis, which in the ancient language signifies the son of Lewis. They own themselves to be descended of French parentage. Their surname in English is Fullerton, and their title Kirk-Mitchell, the place of their residence.

If tradition is true, this little family is said to be of 700 years standing. The present possessor obliged me with the sight of his old and new charters, by which he is one of the king’s coroners within this island, and as such he hath a halbert peculiar to his office. He has his right of late from the family of Hamilton, wherein his title and perquisites of the coroner are confirmed to him and his heirs.

He is obliged to have three men to attend him upon all public emergencies, and he is bound by his office to pursue all malefactors and to deliver them to the steward, or in his absence to the next judge. And if any of the inhabitants refuse to pay their rents at the usual term, the coroner is bound to take him personally or to seize his goods. And if it should happen that the coroner with his retinue of three men is not sufficient to put his office in execution, then he summons all the inhabitants to concur with him; and immediately they rendezvous to the place, where he fixes his coroner’s staff. The perquisites due to the coroner are a firelet or bushel of oats and a lamb from every village in the isle, both which are punctually paid him at the ordinary terms.

The inhabitants of this isle are well proportioned, generally brown, and some of a black complexion. They enjoy a good state of health and have a genius for all callings or employments, though they have but few mechanics. They wear the same habit with those of the nearest isles and are very civil. They all speak the Irish language, yet the English tongue prevails on the east side, and ordinarily, the ministers preach in it, and in Irish on the west side. Their ordinary asseveration is by Nale, for I did not hear any oath in the island.

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