Cassiopaea Forum Reading Workshops - Public

(CRW Am-EU) What temporary schedule is best for you?

  • Sunday 17:00-19:00 UTC (18:00-20:00 French time)

    Votes: 28 65.1%
  • Saturdays 17:00-19:00 UTC (18:00-20:00 French time)

    Votes: 15 34.9%

  • Total voters
    43
Hello everyone,

Below are the links for the May 21st Am-Eu Reading workshop.

Video and Audio and link to the folder.

And a brief synopsis of what was talked about in this workshop.

Ch. 8: The Olivet Discourse:

In Mark 13, what comes after Jesus' death is the destruction of Israel and this is seen as a prophetic critic announcing religious judgement over the temple. Portents like these usually refer to cosmic changes and is seen in the book of Isaiah. These are most likely metaphorical in nature but can also be literal in terms of earth changes during critical times in history, as we see happening today. These prophecies all come after the event has occurred, and therefore are not what would normally be considered prophetic, and are alluded to in Joel and Ezekiel.

The coming of the 'Son of Man' in Daniel directly refers to the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem or at least some physical event to mark a time of transition and what comes next is a gathering in obedience and persevering through times of turmoil. It's ironic that the Jerusalem Christians thought their Messiah would come with legions of angels to destroy Rome, yet Vespasian appeared and destroyed Jerusalem with his Roman Legions.

A discussion on the distinction between 'Son of Man' representing earthly/political changes and 'Son of God' reaffirming the connection to the higher realms/prime creator that was forgotten during the times of Paul.

Marks Passion Narrative:

The opponents of Jesus in Mark's Gospel change throughout the text to represent more and an increasing number of authority figures to highlight the dangers in spreading his message and that Jesus' predicting his own betrayal and death is a sign of his greatness, not weakness because he knowingly gave his life for humanity.

Psalm 22 represents the glory and vindication of Jesus with glory on the other side. He was robed in purple, a color that was rare and only to have been worn by those in positions of prestige and not likely to have been put on a criminal before his death. Also a crown of thorns, along with purple robes would only have been worn in a Roman Triumphal procession, marking some great military victory – all interesting symbols.

Mark has created a mock Roman triumph, but has Jesus taste the wine which is normally not done, and after, the triumphator would be elevated above the ground and situated between two people, in this case, two bandits on the cross. In the confession of the Roman centurion, we see Jesus' Roman triumph – a hint at the true identity of Paul's Christ, because if he was a true threat, Pilate could have had him killed without all the fanfare, which goes to show it was not a literary account but a symbolic allegory.
 
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Hi everyone,

Below are the links for the recent Aus-Asia-Am group workshop for The Master and his Emissary by Iain McGilchrist.

Here's the video of the last meeting

The audio

And the folder

And the slideshow
(starts at slide 43 & page numbers have been corrected)


We will continue with Chapter 2: What do the two Hemispheres do? I suggest we read up to up to the bottom of page 58 (just up to but not including Emotional Asymmetry) for our next meeting this Saturday at 7 pm Sydney time (+10 GMT).

See you all then!

Edit (Added): Here are the links for the Culture Critic sculptors/water well threads we looked at

And Putin's speech:
 
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So for next Sunday's EU/AM workshop, we will continue on page 498 of the book from:

'To those who were in authority this measure was especially displeasing: ...'

read Chapter 9, and finish this amazing book on page 516. (Unfortunately, I will not be able to join, so i wish you all a very memorable last FPTM session!)


We discussed what book to read next and decided on Harrison Koehli's translation into English of Lobaczewski’s previously unpublished Logocracy: A concept of the State System. Here you can find all Chapters so far:

 
So for next Sunday's EU/AM workshop, we will continue on page 498 of the book from:

'To those who were in authority this measure was especially displeasing: ...'

read Chapter 9, and finish this amazing book on page 516. (Unfortunately, I will not be able to join, so i wish you all a very memorable last FPTM session!)


We discussed what book to read next and decided on Harrison Koehli's translation into English of Lobaczewski’s previously unpublished Logocracy: A concept of the State System. Here you can find all Chapters so far:

Obrigado
 
Hello everyone,

Below are the links for the May 28th Am-Eu Reading workshop.

Video and Audio and link to the folder.

And a brief synopsis of what was talked about in this workshop.

Ch. 8: Dio Chrysostom and Mark:

Vespasian expelled agitators from Rome, as there was strife between those that wanted the oligarchy back and those that thought they could be Emperor themselves. Dio was born in the Roman province of Bithynia and was banished from Rome for criticizing Emperor Domitian, Vespasian's son. Musonius Rufus was a Stoic who was banished by Vespasian himself, but returned to Rome after Titus became Emperor. His most famous student being Epictetus.

Dio and Rufus met and there are many connections between Titus, Vespasian and different Stoic branches of philosophy. Dio seemed to have a strong connection to the Flavian Dynasty and was known for attacking Socrates, Zeno and the Cynics. Musonius Rufus preached that Kings/Emperor's should be philosophers, and Dio had issue with philosophers who caused civil unrest.

Savior of the World: Jesus' True Identity?

Whoever's Paul's Christ was, he was well enough known by his congregations to not be mentioned all that much and the only reference Paul makes about a historical person at all is about the theme of betrayal. Now, Caesar was known for his mercy, compassion and intelligence, was accused of being a king and was betrayed by his friends/Brutus. Why had no one ever thought the Tropaeum might have influenced the story of Jesus. There's no actual smoking gun proof, but Virgil compared Christ to Caesar. Then there's Francesco Carotta's work.

Fulvia was deeply connected to Caesar, as all three of her husbands were populares – friends of Caesar. She was married to Mark Antony during Caesar's assassination and she travelled constantly to the settlements of all his former soldiers to remind them of their debt to Antony, but seeing as Caesar had died there was probably more to it than that. On January 1, 42 BC, he was appointed Divus Iulius aka Divine Julius and a comet appeared in the sky during the games honoring him after his death.

This set up a cult/religion based on Caesar that Octavian established and which Antony became the head priest of. Such a cult could have been supported by Caesar's legions and noblewomen such as Fulvia, across the Empire. There has to have been emotion, tragedy and a truly great event to spread the message of Christianity, as Christianity is a great religion without a great founding event, whereas Caesar's death was a great founding event with a religion that's been forgotten.

The comet was seen as a sign that he was lifted into heaven, or a resurrected in spiritual terms. It was Paul's understanding of Caesar's idea of clementia – forgiveness and reconciliation – that was the way to heaven and despite heavy editing, Paul's letters still contain hints of this. Laura wonders if Fulvia played a role in an earlier passion narrative after Caesar's death as the story of Mark is so complex that it's unlikely one person wrote it, but rather a committee of people, which comes back to Dio, Rufus, Epictetus and the Stoics and that they may have assisted with writing Mark's Gospel.

Caesar disregarded all portents and warnings against attending the Senate and went to his death – almost knowingly – which would connect greatly to Paul's conception of a Messiah.
 
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Sorry folks, I forgot to mention I had a meetup arranged for this weekend, so was unable to attend the workshop. Look forward to watching the video of the discussion and will see y'all next weekend.
 
I had the same issue until I signed up for a free account. Once I opened a free account, I double-clicked on the file in my download folder and re-signed in with my email and password.
 

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