The Elements of Life

In the Goddess tradition, as in many other earth-based traditions, the elements that sustain life are sacred. The four elements of life - air, fire, water, and earth form a circle, with the fifthe element, spirit, as its center. Each of the first four elements of life represents one of the four directions. For us, air is the east, fire is the south, water is the west, and earth is the north. In your circles, you must work with the correspondences that feel right to you. The elements teach us about ourselves. Air, fire, water and earth represent our minds, our energy, our emotions, and our bodies. When we face a problem or a challenge, we can ask ourselves whether we've looked at it from the point of view of each element. What do we think? What energies do we notice? What feelings do we have? How are our bodies affected? What does our inner spirit tell us? The circle of the elements of life helps us to remember to consider the whole, not merely one part, of any question or decision.


When these four elements of life are present and in harmony, the fifthe element, spirit, or center, is created. Spirit is what we call conscience, character, intuition, or the small voice inside. In Goddess tradition, this is the place where aquired knowledge and our innate wisdom meet and are touched by the Goddess to form an inner spirit, a sense of direction that steers us away from harm and toward our life's purpose.


In the task of raising children in Goddess tradition, we find that just as the four eleemnts earth, air, fire, and water connect to make the sacred circle, these elements, when translated into human attributes, make the child a whole vibrant person. Our goal, as people who are rooted in the world view of the Goddess traditions, is to rais echildren who are empowered. Empowerment is that combination of self confidence, independent thought, intuition, and egagement with the world that enables us to live by our princicples and stand up for what we believe in. By creating an environment that empowers our children and ourselves, we strive to create a culture based on concern and compassion, rather than apathy and indifference.


In the following sections we discuss each of the five elements and their primary associated qualities as they relate to child rearing and self-development. We focus on realistic goals and common sense strategies that we can all draw from, regardless of our personal preferences on a number of issues.


Fire


All life on earth depends on the energy of the sun. Plants use that energy directly to live and grow. Animals must eat plants or other animals. But directly or indirectly, we are all sustained by the sun.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the sun is brightest and hottest when it shines at high noon from the south. Therefore south is the direction we associate with fire.


Fire is also the element that warms our houses and cooks out food. the hearth fire is sacred in every earth-based tradtion, for fire is the living heart of the home. Before, television, people would gather before a fire to tell tales and sing songs during the long nights of winter, We still love to sing around a campfire or chant over a ritual fire in the center of our circles.


Fire is also dangerous. Like all thing of power, fire demands respect. A curtain wafting across a candle can burn down a home. The summers are dry where we live, and a careless match or stray spark can ignite a wildfire that may burn thousands of acres and hundreds of homes. Learning to knowfire means learning how to use fire safely and how to put a fire out. Fire reminds us that we are all responsible for each other's safety.
Fire is the symbol of human energy as well as the sun's energy. Health, strength, enthusiasm, and passion are qualities of fire. When we direct our energies, when we focus on a goal, we use our will, one of the powers we find in this eleement. Fire is connected to all forms of magic that direct energy, especially healing and protection.


The time of day connected to fire is, of course, high noon, just as the season is high summer. The colors of fire are red, orange, and bright golden yellow. The lion, because of its bright golden color and wild, dangerous power is often seen as a symbol of fire. So is the dragon, with its fiery breath. Legends tell us that salamanders could live in fire - but don't test the myth with any of the ones you may find!


Brigit, of course, is the Goddess of the sacred flame of poetry, healing and the forge. Pele is the Hawaiian Goddess of the volcano. Hestia is the Greek Goddess of the hearth. Lugh is the Celtic sun God. Wayland Smith is the ancient God of the forge. Set is the anceint Egyptian God of the hot desert sun. There are many more Gods and Goddesses of fire. On our altars, a candle flame brings the presence of fire to our rituals. The tool of fire in our tradition is the wand, which is used to direct energy, and wands are oftenmade of wood, which burns. You can make a wand of your own by cutting (with adult help if working with a wee one) a small branch from you favorite tree. Be sure to ask the tree's permission, and leave an offering.


Water


Life began in water, in the currents of the primeval ocean, and living things need water to survive. Our bodies are mostly water, and our blood is similar to seawater in its chemistry. Water carries nutrients to all the cells of our bodies and cleanses our wastes. Clean, sweet water is sacred to all people who honor life.


Water moves in a great cycle around the globe. Rain falls on the earth, bringing life to plants, soaking the soil or collecting in streams and rivers that flow to the sea. The great tides and currents of the ocean sustain sea life from the tiny plankton tot he great whales, influencing the weather, wearing away the shore. Water evaporates from the surface of the waves, forming clouds that bring the rain, and so the cycle begins again.


The summers are very dry where I live, so the first rains of winter are especially sacred. Suddenly new life appears. Seeds sprout, and grasses begin to grow. Our winters are often very wet, and rain comes down for days and days. Dry streams spring to life and rivers widen their flow. In flood years, we see the imense power of water to break through obstacles and carry away anything that blocks its flow. In drought years, water becomes extremely precious to us, and we learn to guard every drop carefully.


Water also represents our feelings and emotions. After all, our feelings flow and change like wtaer. We can bathe eah other in love and appreciation, but we can also rage and storm like the ocean waves crashing against the shore. When we honor all our feelings, the ones we think of as positive and those we think of as negative, we can choose how to act so that our emotions feed life. When we know our anger, we can choose to act peacefully. When we admit our fear, we can choose to act with courage.
For us, water is in the west, the direction of the ocean and the rain. Its time of day os the gray twilight, and its season is autumn, when the rains return. The colors of water are blue, blue- green, and gray. All water animals ~ all fish and sea creatures, including dolphins, whales, and the wise salmon ~ are symbols of water.


Tiamat, the ancient Babylonian sea seropent goddess, was mother of all the Gods. Aphrodite, Greek Goddess of love, is also Goddess of the sea. Brigit carries the power of the holy well along with the sacred flame. Oshun is the Yoruba Goddess of the river and of love, art, and culture. Yemaya is the Mother Goddess of the ocean. Ba'al is the Canaanite God of storms and the returning rains of winter. Tlaloc is the Toltec God of rain. Mananan mac Lir is the Welsh God of the sea, while Poseidon is the Greek ocean God, whose horses are the wild waves.


On the altar, the symbol of water and traditional tool is the cup or chalice. Seashells, water-smoothed stones, and images of water creatures can also be used.


Spirit


We have gone around the wheel of the elements and visited all four directions. Now we come to the center, the place of that mysterious fifth element we call "spirit," although we could just as well call it "mystery." The center is the place of change and transformation, and this element is not so much of a physical presence but the sense of connection that puts us in touch with the great powers of life and death. Spirit might also be called "relationship," as the center is the place where we connect with the Goddess and God, with our traditions, and with prayer, blessing, meditations, and personal practice. Another name for this section might be "core values," for here we contemplate ethics, right and wrong, and our responsibility to be healers, peacemakers, and protectors of the earth and her peoples.


Spirit is timeless. It corresponds to the whole cycle of the day and night, the whole wheel of the year, and the realm beyond time. Its color is clear ~ or the rainbow, which contains all colors. All the Goddesses and Gods can be considered as aspects of the center.


The traditional tool of the center is the cauldron, the magic soup pot that combines the earth/metal of the container, the fire below and the air to feed it, and the water within to bring about transformation. The drum, which holds the heartbeat of a circle and keeps a large group unified, is also a tool of center. Many symbols can be used on the alter to represent spirit. One of our favorites is a mirror, for our connection to the sacred must be found inside each one of us.


Earth


The Earth ~ Rocks, minerals, and the living soil beneath our feet. Plants draw energy from the sun, but they are nourished by the earth. Seeds are planted beneath the ground to begin their lives. The dead bodies of animals and plants are taken back to the soil to feed new life.


We think of earth as a solid thing, but soil is amazingly complex. A square foot of good garden soil is like an underground city full of space, caverns, crystalline arches, and mineral bridges, all teeming with life. Soil contains air, so that life within can breathe, and carries water to sustain billions of soil creatures and feed the roots of plants. When we truly understand the marvelous world below us, we can protect the soil from erosion by wind and water, and learn to help build new, rich soil where plants can grow. Gardening, tending trees and plants, and caring for animals are all ways to honor and protect the sacred earth.


The earth is the element that stands for our bodies. Our physical bodies are sacred, and we must take care of ourselves as we take care of the earth. All the food we eat, all the things we make and do and use, are part of this element. Because good soil is often dark, the color of the earth is black and its time is midnight. The green of living plants and growing things is also a good earth color. Its direction is north, the one quarter of the sky where in the Northern Hemisphere the sun never travels, and its season is winter, the time of darkness when seeds sleep beneath the ground. Plants, trees, and all land animals, especially big ones such as bulls and bears, are symbols of earth.


Gaia (GUY-yuh) is the ancient Greek Goddess whose name means "earth." Demeter was the Goddess of grain and agriculture. Eriu was the Irish Goddess who gave her name to the land itself. In many Native American stories, Corn Mother is the sacred being whose body feeds the people. Cernunnos is the Celtic Horned God, the God of animals. The Green Man in all his aspects is the God of plants and trees. Ogun is the Yoruba Lord of the forest. Robin Hood is an old English forest God. There are many, many more Goddesses and Gods of earth, of particular plants and animals, and of sacred places.


Symbols of earth for the altar can be stones, crystals, rocks, or living plants. Leaves, grain, fruits, flowers, and vegetables can also be used. The traditional tool of earth is the pentacle, a five- pointed star in a circle, often inscribed on a plate or made of metal. Its five points stand for the four elements, plus the fifth, spirit. They also stand for the five senses, for our five fingers and toes, and for the human body with legs apart and arms uplifted to invoke the Goddess. The circle around it stands for the wheel of life. For us, the pentacle is a symbol of wholeness and balance, and of the ancient mysteries of our tradition.


Air


Every Moment of our lives, we must breathe in order to survive. Air carries sounds and scents, and its clarity allows light to pass through so that we can see. Air is invisible, except when other things move in response to its motion, when the wind makes branches dance and leaves fly, or bends the grasses down as it passes.


We share breath with all life. Like other re-blooded creatures, we breathe in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide,which is used by plants and trees to transform the pure energy of the sun into food for all living things. Plants and trees give off oxygen, which we breathe in, and so a balance is sustained. We honor air as the breath of the Goddess and the gift of our most ancient fellow living creatures.


In our tradition, we associate air with the east, the direction of dawn or sunrise. Because air is invisible, we identify it with the parts of ourselves that are important but cannot be seen: our mind, our vision, our thoughts, and our dreams. Air represents knowledge and understanding, which we gain by looking closely at what is around us. Air is connected with springtime, the dawn of the year. The animals of air are, of course, birds and all flying insects,such as dragonflies and butterflies. Air's colors are pale pinks, yellows, and whites.


Some of the Goddesses of air are Iris, the Greek Goddess of sunrise and the rainbow, and Oya, Yoruba Goddess of the whirlwind and sudden changes. Boreas is the Greek God of the wind; Hermes is the power of thought and communication. Elegba, th Yoruba trickster, translates human language into that of the Orishas, the great powers of the universe. All could be invoked for the gifts connected with air.


Symbols of air to place on your altar might be feathers, incense or other good-smelling things, fans, pinwheels, or kites. In our tradition the tool of air is the athame, the Witch's knife. It stands for thepower of the mind to seperate things, to say: "I am me and you are you and we are not the same." Clearly, a knife is an inappropriate tool for young children. Substitutes might be a pair of scissors or a pen (the pen is mightier than the sword).

Strategy and Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher came to power as an outsider: a middle-class woman, a right-wing radical. The first instinct of most outsiders who attain power is to become insiders – life on the outside is hard – but in doing so they lose their identity, their difference, the thing that makes them stand out in the public eye. If Thacther had become like the men around her, she would simply have been replaced by yet another man. Her instinct was to stay an outsider. In fact, she pushed being an outsider as far as it could go: she set herself up as one woman against an army of men. At every step of the way, to give her the contrast she needed, Thatcher marked out an opponent: the socialists, the wets, the Argentineans. These enemies helped to define her image as determined, powerful, self-sacrificing. Thatcher was not seduced by popularity, which is ephermeral and superficial.

- Oculus

She was the catalyst who set in motion a series of interconnected events that gave a revolutionary twist to the century's last two decades and helped mankind end the millennium on a note of hope and confidence. The triumph of capitalism, the almost universal acceptance of the market as indispensable to prosperity, the collapse of Soviet imperialism, the downsizing of the state on nearly every continent and in almost every country in the world — Margaret Thatcher played a part in all those transformations, and it is not easy to see how any would have occurred without her.

Born in 1925, Margaret Hilda Roberts was an enormously industrious girl. The daughter of a Grantham shopkeeper, she studied on scholarship, worked her way to Oxford and took two degrees, in chemistry and law. Her fascination with politics led her into Parliament at age 34, when she argued her way into one of the best Tory seats in the country, Finchley in north London. Her quick mind (and faster mouth) led her up through the Tory ranks, and by age 44 she got settled into the "statutory woman's" place in the Cabinet as Education Minister, and that looked like the summit of her career. But Thatcher was, and is, notoriously lucky. Her case is awesome testimony to the importance of sheer chance in history. In 1975 she challenged Edward Heath for the Tory leadership simply because the candidate of the party's right wing abandoned the contest at the last minute. Thatcher stepped into the breach. When she went into Heath's office to tell him her decision, he did not even bother to look up. "You'll lose," he said. "Good day to you."

But as Victor Hugo put it, nothing is so powerful as "an idea whose time has come." And by the mid-'70s enough Tories were fed up with Heath and "the Ratchet Effect" — the way in which each statist advance was accepted by the Conservatives and then became a platform for a further statist advance.

She chose her issues carefully — and, it emerged, luckily. The legal duels she took on early in her tenure as Prime Minister sounded the themes that made her an enduring leader: open markets, vigorous debate and loyal alliances. Among her first fights: a struggle against Britain's out-of-control trade unions, which had destroyed three governments in succession. Thatcher turned the nation's anti-union feeling into a handsome parliamentary majority and a mandate to restrict union privileges by a series of laws that effectively ended Britain's trade-union problem once and for all. "Who governs Britain?" she famously asked as unions struggled for power. By 1980, everyone knew the answer: Thatcher governs.

Once the union citadel had been stormed, Thatcher quickly discovered that every area of the economy was open to judicious reform. Even as the rest of Europe toyed with socialism and state ownership, she set about privatizing the nationalized industries, which had been hitherto sacrosanct, no matter how inefficient. It worked. British Airways, an embarrassingly slovenly national carrier that very seldom showed a profit, was privatized and transformed into one of the world's best and most profitable airlines. British Steel, which lost more than a billion pounds in its final years as a state concern, became the largest steel company in Europe.

By the mid-1980s, privatization was a new term in world government, and by the end of the decade more than 50 countries, on almost every continent, had set in motion privatization programs, floating loss-making public companies on the stock markets and in most cases transforming them into successful private-enterprise firms. Even left-oriented countries, which scorned the notion of privatization, began to reduce their public sector on the sly. Governments sent administrative and legal teams to Britain to study how it was done. It was perhaps Britain's biggest contribution to practical economics in the world since J.M. Keynes invented "Keynesianism," or even Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations.

But Thatcher became a world figure for more than just her politics. She combined a flamboyant willpower with evident femininity. It attracted universal attention, especially after she led Britain to a spectacular military victory over Argentina in 1982. She understood that politicians had to give military people clear orders about ends, then leave them to get on with the means. Still, she could not bear to lose men, ships or planes. "That's why we have extra ships and planes," the admirals had to tell her, "to make good the losses." Fidelity, like courage, loyalty and perseverance, were cardinal virtues to her, which she possessed in the highest degree. People from all over the world began to look at her methods and achievements closely, and to seek to imitate them.

One of her earliest admirers was Ronald Reagan, who achieved power 18 months after she did. He too began to reverse the Ratchet Effect in the U.S. by effective deregulation, tax cutting and opening up wider market opportunities for free enterprise. Reagan liked to listen to Thatcher's various lectures on the virtues of the market or the minimal state. "I'll remember that, Margaret," he said. She listened carefully to his jokes, tried to get the point and laughed in the right places.

They turned their mutual affection into a potent foreign policy partnership. With Reagan and Thatcher in power, the application of judicious pressure on the Soviet state to encourage it to reform or abolish itself, or to implode, became an admissible policy. Thatcher warmly encouraged Reagan to rearm and thereby bring Russia to the negotiating table. She shared his view that Moscow ruled an "evil empire," and the sooner it was dismantled the better. Together with Reagan she pushed Mikhail Gorbachev to pursue his perestroika policy to its limits and so fatally to undermine the self-confidence of the Soviet elite.

Historians will argue hotly about the precise role played by the various actors who brought about the end of Soviet communism. But it is already clear that Thatcher has an important place in this huge event.

It was the beginning of a new historical epoch. All the forces that had made the 20th century such a violent disappointment to idealists--totalitarianism, the gigantic state, the crushing of individual choice and initiative--were publicly and spectacularly defeated. Ascendant instead were the values that Thatcher had supported in the face of sometimes spectacular opposition: free markets and free minds. The world enters the 21st century and the 3rd millennium a wiser place, owing in no small part to the daughter of a small shopkeeper, who proved that nothing is more effective than willpower allied to a few clear, simple and workable ideas.
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The 5 Worst Military Blunders of the 20th Century

Tsushima, 1905


By the end of the 19th century, Japan, awakened from a centuries-long slumber, was expanding into Manchuria and Korea. Inevitably, she encountered Tsarist Russia, pushing southward from Vladivostok. Equipped by the British, Japan's navy was probably the best trained and most efficient in the world -- moreso, even, than the Royal Navy of that time. In February 1904, the Japanese -- in a mini-Pearl Harbor -- inflicted a stinging defeat on the Russian fleet, at her key base of Port Arthur, knocking out seven battleships at a cost of two of her own.

Outraged at this humiliation by a tiny country of paper parasols and Madame Butterfly, the Tsar decided to send a fleet round the world to reinforce Vladivostok and avenge Port Arthur. Its commander, an irritable 53-year-old aristocrat, Admiral Zinovy Petrovich Rozhdestvensky, seemed to have reckoned that it was doomed from the start. His ships were "untested or badly built" and he had "not the slightest prospect of success."

It began badly. In the North Sea, the Russians ran into some British fishing trawlers, taking them to be Japanese and sinking one at 100-yard range, killing two British fishermen. Public opinion clamored for war with Russia; in consequence, all British coaling stations along the 5,000 mile route were denied to the Russians. After nearly eight months at sea, his 42 ships had reached 50-mile wide Straits of Tsushima (meaning "Island of the Donkey's Ears" in Japanese) between Japan and Korea. Neither ships nor crews were in any condition to fight.

Early in the afternoon of May 27th, 1905, Admiral Togo was waiting, and in a classic naval maneuver, he twice "crossed the T" of Rozhdestvensky's column. Within minutes, the leading three of Russia's battleships were wrecks; Rozhdestvensky was so wounded that he had to hand over command. At 1130 hours on the following day, the Russians ran up the white flag, to the surprise of the Japanese, steeped in the samurai traditions of no-surrender. Only two Russian destroyers and a light-cruiser limped into Vladivostok. There were 4,830 Russians killed, at a cost of 700 Japanese.

It was the most complete naval victory in history. In Russia, news of the defeat provoked the 1905 Revolution, opening the door to Lenin 12 years later. Japan, filled with a sense of invincible Imperial destiny, became a major power, with dire consequences down the line.

Verdun, 1916


After the Battle of the Marne in 1914, when the Kaiser's armies failed to defeat France, the Germans stood on the defensive in the West while they attacked in the East. Only once, until 1918, did they deviate from this strategy -- at the beginning of 1916. The Chief of the German General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, a withdrawn, unpopular figure with a curious mix of ruthlessness and indecision, came up with a novel concept in the history of warfare.

Instead of trying to defeat the French outright, he would bait it into defending a point in the line it could not afford to abandon. There he would "bleed it white", the very terminology of a war which, more than any other, treated soldiers' lives as little more than corpuscles.

He selected Verdun, rated the world's strongest fortress, with a centuries-long tradition in la défense de France, and only 150 miles east of Paris. The 1914 campaign had left it in a narrow salient, vulnerable on three sides to overwhelming German superiority in heavy artillery.

On the 21st of February, 1,220 German guns opened up on a frontage of barely 8 miles, launching the most savage artillery barrage in history. The French lines sagged but held, at tremendous cost. The immortal slogan "They shall not pass" was coined. In what became an affair of national honor, France rose to the bait. For ten hideous months history's longest battle raged.

The tragic irony was that Verdun also bled the attacking Germans almost equally. What began as a small affair resulted in combined casualties of over 800,000 men -- most of them inflicted in an area not much bigger than New York's Central Park.

Verdun cost Germany her last chance at defeating the Allies in the West, but the impact on France, elevating the defeatist Marshal Pétain as its hero, went far deeper. French losses led to the demoralization that defeated her in 1940. The Pyrrhic victory par excellence, Verdun was a murderous blunder for both sides.

Hitler declares war on the United States, 1941


Most historians rate Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union, to have been his worst military blunder (from five possible candidates) of the entire war. I, however, disagree. I think that his almost casual declaration of war against the United States on December 11, 1941, proved to be even more decisively disastrous.

It wasn't necessary. Four days after Pearl Harbor, the US had made no moves against Hitler. Consider the state of the war from the German point of view: it clearly made sense to keep America out of the war. Despite the huge support ("all short of war") that the US had been providing Britain since 1940, the U-Boat campaign was going extremely well. By 1941, sinkings had reached a peak, at which rate Britain would have lost fully one-fourth of her merchant fleet within the coming year.

In the US, the "America First" movement still had considerable support. A Gallup Poll of October 22, 1941, reported that only 17% of Americans actually favored war with Germany, and as late as the summer of 1942, polls showed that nearly one-third favored a compromise peace with Germany. "I can see why we're fighting the Japs," commented one respondent, "but I can't see why we're fighting the Krauts."

After Pearl Harbor, it was only natural that the powerful "Pacific First" lobby, headed by the redoubtable Admiral Ernest J. King, then CinC US Atlantic Fleet and subsequently Chief of Naval Operations, would urge Roosevelt to attack Japan, then Germany.

If Admiral King and the "Pacific Firsters" had had their way, Britain and an almost mortally wounded Russia would have been left to fight Hitler alone. Had Russia been smashed in '42, as was all too likely, a subsequent Anglo-American victory in Europe using conventional weapons would have been inconceivable.

Why, then, did Hitler take this fateful decision? Like Saddam Hussein half-a-century later, he fell prey to his own propaganda, accepting poor intelligence, coupled with his own parochial ignorance, into grossly underestimating US military potential. Secondly, he was convinced that the war in Russia was as good as won. Information available in Moscow since glasnost now confirms that as of December, 1941, Hitler had good reason to judge Stalin to be in the market for a separate peace.

His miscalculation was the West's salvation.

Singapore, 1942


On Sunday, February 15, 1942, British Lieutenant General A.E. Percival, with moustache and rabbit teeth, surrendered Singapore, reputedly the world's most impregnable bastion, and over 100,000 troops to a motley force of Japanese of little more than half that number (62,200) under General Yamashita. A heavy share of responsibility fell on Churchill, who wrote years later that it was "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history."

Churchill's eyes were riveted on Hitler -- on Europe and North Africa. His policy on the Far East was to rely on the Americans and "hope for the best." But America had her hands more than full after Pearl Harbor. The legendary 15-inch guns of Singapore faced out to sea, not towards the narrow strip of water called the Johore Strait, only a few hundred yards separating Singapore Island from the supposedly impenetrable jungle of Malaya to the north. No effort had been made to form a Malaya defense force.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese landed at Khota Bharu in the north of Malaya, and began working their way down through the jungle. The following day, two of the most powerful ships in Southeast Asia, the Repulse and the almost new Prince of Wales (which had taken part in sinking the mighty Bismarck the previous year), headed north to intercept the landings. But as his escorting aircraft carrier, Indomitable had run aground off of Jamaica, the commander, Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, was dependent on local airfields for air cover.

So Phillips decided to head back to Singapore, but not wanting to break radio cover, he failed to request air cover. He was spotted by Japanese planes on December 10, and within minutes, the two great ships were sunk. Phillips and 700 men went down with them.

Abruptly, the balance of the whole campaign shifted. Malaya lay virtually unprotected from the sea. The back door to Singapore was now open, its British, Australian, and Indian defenders demoralized by the loss of its two capital ships. A month later, Yamashita captured Kuala Lumpur, with vast military stores. By the end of January, Percival had withdrawn to Singapore Island, but he still had a force far superior to the attackers, who were exhausted and nearly out of ammunition.

On February 8, Yamashita's men crossed the Straits. A week later, the "impregnable" fortress surrendered, without much fight, and despite Churchill's order for "every inch of ground to be defended." One of Yamashita's senior officers wrote later, "If the British had held out a few more days, they would have defeated us."

At a cost of 3,500 killed, the Japanese had smashed forever the British Empire in the East, and with it the myth of White Superiority. Had the defenders foreseen that three-and-a-half years of captivity in the most atrocious conditions lay ahead -- many of them were among the 12,000 POW's who died on the Burma Railway -- they might well have fought on.

Advance on the Yalu River, 1950


On September 15, 1950, the troops under the command of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, CinC of the UN Command since July 10, landed at Inchon. The landing followed a surprise attack by Kim Il Sung's Communist North on June 25, which had all but defeated the South Koreans, and the handful of Americans rushed from Japan to support them.

One of warfare's most inspired amphibious operations, Inchon caught the North Koreans completely off-balance and changed the course of the Korean War. By the beginning of October, MacArthur's victorious forces were pursuing a broken enemy across the 38th parallel. Brimming over with hubris and determined to smash the Communist forces once and for all, MacArthur convinced President Harry S Truman to allow him to proceed to the Yalu River, the sensitive border with both the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. This despite intelligence from Delhi that China would intervene.

Undetected by Western Intelligence, hundreds of thousands of Chinese "volunteers" began infiltrating by night, with great skill, across the Yalu. As the UN forces moved north from Pyongyang, MacArthur's commander, General Walker, found himself heading with a mixed force of 100,000 men into rugged, wintry country, and covering a front several times wider than the much more defensible 38th parallel.

Inevitably, the force became divided. On November 25, as Walker was preparing his final blow, the Chinese struck with devastating force along the Chongchon Valley, with eight armies of thirty divisions, totalling more than 300,000 men, several times the available strength of the UN forces. It was a great ambush.

Walker's right wing crumpled. Swiftly, the line buckled, and MacArthur's troops, in an unparalleled reversal of fortune, reeled back to the 38th parallel. For the US forces caught up in the "bug-out" in appalling winter conditions, it was one of the worst defeats in American history.

Thirteen thousand casualties were suffered in withdrawal, and the legendary, untouchable, invincible MacArthur was sacked a few months later. But the longer-term consequences were far greater. The Korean War could no longer be won, by either side, and would drag on for another two-and-a-half bitter years, costing 54,000 American lives and many more Koreans and Chinese. The PRC became a major power.

As a decisive defeat of the West by the East, it stood in line with Tsushima and Singapore, and led to Vietnam.

How To Easily Tap Into Your Subconscious Mind Power

The subconscious mind is the source of emotion as well as the depository of memories. The conscious mind is the command center of the will as well as the facility of receptiveness. The subconscious mind is utterly submissive to the conscious mind. The conscious mind is the leads, loves and protects while the subconscious follows, respects and trusts. Therefore, the subconscious mind is the assistant of the conscious mind.

When the conscious and subconscious minds are in harmony, the entire mind is whole in its functioning. A fully functioning whole mind is productive, creative and healthy in its endeavors. However, when the harmony is unbalanced within the two minds it dysfunctions and consequently there is a destructive collapse.

Personal reality is created by the beliefs of the subconscious mind. While the conscious mind transmits, a thought into the subconscious mind to create a belief that is then manifested into reality.

When you consciously assume that something is true, your subconscious mind accepts it as truth. When the subconscious mind believes something to be true it goes about drawing the conditions needed to indeed make it truth.

The power of the subconscious mind is stimulated or tarnished in accord to the thoughts of the conscious mind. If the conscious mind distinguishes prosperity, the subconscious mind produces prosperity. The reverse can also be stated concerning the aspects of the conscious and subconscious mind.

How and what you think about yourself dominates your outcome of events. That is to say, the energy you put into thought returns to you in a like way, if the energy that you project to the universe is positive, by nature positive is returned to you.

Recognize the essential value of consciously choosing the thoughts you maintain each day. Keep your thoughts and actions focused on what you really want to create in your life reality, for thoughts as well as actions are indeed living energy.

You can tap into power of your subconscious mind by acknowledging quanta energy. Quanta are a plural form of Quantum. Quantum physics is a study of the universe's building blocks, or the frame of its structure. In the world of quantum physics, every single particle, which are considered quanta, is a form of concentrated energy. All the particles of energy are basically the same type of associated particles.

The difference is found in the way which particles are together grouped into even larger frame structures. Learning how they operate is key in understanding how to create yourself and the world around you. The secret is that your recurring emotions and thoughts can and will revise your life's path. The process of creating your reality by the use of both the conscious and subconscious mind is called manifestation.

So basically, you own thoughts manifest themselves into your own reality. How you make use of this information of bringing about a change of reality determines the results, whether they are positive or negative.

When you take time out to create the life or reality you want to draw to you, you are in fact influencing the Quantum Field. As energy is attracted to its own like energy, and the associated energy produces a physical effect.

Your emotional state is a central influence of your physical state. Your reality is fundamental to your choice of thoughts and intentions. You must take charge of your thoughts to take charge of your reality, as the outside and inside are reflections of each other.

Changing the negative things you think by replacing them with positive thoughts gives you the power to tap into your subconscious mind power. Once you have taken positive charge of your circumstances, everything positive will follow suit. Remember like attracts like.

Once you have taken charge of your subconscious thoughts and beliefs, you are able to draw to you the things you seek by putting the law of attraction to work.

When you choose what you wish to perceive, that which you choose to perceive should be chosen with conviction and single-mindedness, this will cause the quantum field of energy to manifest over time the reality that you seek, and it all depends upon your clarity of focus and confidence that your reality will be manifested.

It takes an intense desire to cause reality to change, all that is needed is knowing the possibility of manifestation can be accomplished with a change of attitude and intentions, putting effort into creating your day, your reality causes quanta energy to arrange the things you truly wish for to come to you.

Magickal Arts :)

Lost Civilizations

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

Going school in North Carolina for a few years, I remember the story of Sir Walter Raleigh well.

In 1585, after receiving a patent from Queen Elizabeth I to colonize America, the inexorable Sir Walter Raleigh sent a group of men to an island called Roanoke, Virginia. These colonists didn’t fare very well, had run-ins with Native Americans and quickly ran out of supplies. When none other than Sir Francis Drake landed at Roanoke, they returned to Britain, but not before the ship left 15 of its own men behind at the colony. These men were never heard from again. In 1587, Raleigh sent another group to Roanoke, including 17 women and 9 children. The governor of the colony, John White left immediately for England to get food and other supplies for the colony. Not until 1590 was White able to return to Roanoke Island. When he arrived, no sign of the colonists could be found; all the settlements were dismantled. The only trace of life was the word "Croatoan" carved on a post. The fate of the colonists still remains unknown to this day.


The Anasazi

The Anasazi tribe of the southwestern United States emerged around 1200 B.C., developing an amazing modern culture which included agriculture and the unique multi-story stone structures they built into the sides of canyon walls and lived in. However, late in the 13th century these communities were abandoned, for reasons unknown. Theories include drought, enemy attack, poor sanitation, and environmental collapse, as well as the always popular alien abduction.


The Khmer Empire

The largest continuous empire of South East Asia, the Khmer Empire of Cambodia reached its zenith in the early 14th century, centered around the temple complex of Angkor Wat. The city of Angkor itself contained an area bigger than that of New York City. The entire empire was abandoned for unknown reasons in about 1432. Adventurers from Europe began to hear tales of a “mystic city of the gods” and sought out the site of the former empire. Archaeologists continue to uncover the vast ruins from their jungle camouflage.


The Easter Islands

Also known as Rapa Nui, Easter Island has forever been capturing the imagination with its plethora of moai, or stone carved statues. But the story of the island’s inhabitants is a bit less known – evidence suggests the island was populated around 1200, probably by Polynesians. It was first discovered by Europeans in 1722, who witnessed a devastated landscape supporting a few thousand emaciated islanders, and were dumbstuck by the gigantic statues and how they could possibly have been made and transported by the islanders. The most likely explanation for the population’s decline was the devastation of the island’s resources. The extinction of the Easter Island palm meant no more canoes, which spelled disaster for the 63 square mile island.

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