The Book Meme

[foofighter]

This product, allegorically expressed by an angel or by a man - the attribute of the evangelist St. Matthew - is none other than the Mercury of the Philosophers, double in nature and quality, partly fixed and material, partly volatile and spiritual, which suffices to begin, achieve and multiply the work. It is the unique and only matter that we need, without having to worry about finding any other; but we must know, so as not to err, that authors generally begin their treatises with this mercury and how to acquire it. This Mercury definitely is the matrix and the root of gold, and not the precious metal which is absolutely useless and without function in the way we are studying.

The Dwellings of the Philosophers, Fulcanelli

Fun sidenote: this happened to be precisely the page I was on as I paused to read this "Book Meme" thread. Immensely amusing! The quote itself is pretty interesting as well, I think. I might add that yesterday I bought my first underlining pen ever in my life, and I had made good use of it by already underlining the quote above in the book. Funny.

 

[sHiZo963]

Only, you must understand that it is there every moment, not only at exceptional moments. Identification is an almost permanent state in us. You must be able to see this state apart from yourself, separate it from yourself, and that can only be done by trying to become more conscious, trying to remember yourself, to be aware of yourself.

The Fourth Way by P.D. Ouspensky

 

[Alana]

His parents kvelled (Yiddish for burst with pride) and displayed his work. Alan now knows that his narcissistic father needed him to replace the father's dead brother, a man whose paintings covered the walls of Alan's childhood home. It was only later in the interview that i heard Alan's resentment at being used to replace a dead family member.

Trapped in the Mirror, by Elan Golomb.

 

[Mr. Premise]

"They had ample warning. You know you don't send a ship out on test-days."

"Assbackwards as usual. You don't test when there's ships out, not even if it's one defenseless little cutter--"

"Defenseless! She was fully rigged up as an assault ship, sir."

Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day.

 

[anart]

The Essential Kropotkin, an excerpt from his book Memoirs of a Revolutionist:

They also taught me how little man really knows as soon as he comes out of the enchanted circle of conventional civilization. With a few pounds of bread and a few onces of tea in a leather bag, a kettle and a hatchet hanging at the side of the saddle, and under the saddle a blanket, to be spread at the campfire upon a bed of freshly cut spruce twigs, a man feels wonderfully independent, even amidst unknown mountains thickly clothed with woods, or capped with snow. A book might be written about this part of my life, but I must rapidly glide over it here, there being so much more to say about the later periods.

Hmmm, now I have to tag three people... Atreides, Anne, and Joe... Or is that only two people?

Hmmm - there are only six sentences on page 123 of my copy of Fulcanelli - Le Mystere des Cathedrales, so I cannot go to the fifth and post the next three - here are the last three ...

There are the same symbols on the two buildings, the same attributes. Actions and costumes are similar. There can be no doubt that Guillaume of Paris exercized a considerable influence on the decoration of the great porch at Amiens.

 

[Beau]

So that one of the fundamental propositions of our physics is the continuity of vibrations, although this has never been precisely formulated because it has never been opposed. In certain of the newest theories this proposition is beginning to be shaken. Nevertheless physics is still very far from a correct view on the nature of vibrations, or what corresponds to our conception of vibrations, in the real world.

From In Search of the Miraculous by Ouspensky

 

[brainwave]

"Contrablocking: Same as augmentation"

"Counter conditioning: A conditioning procedure that reverses the organism's previous response to a stimulus. For example, an animal may be conditioned to approach a stimulus that initially elicited withdrawal reactions."

"CS-preexposure effect : Interference with conditioning produced by repeated exposures to the conditioned stimulus before the conditioning trials. Also called the latent-inhibition effect."

Principles of learning and behavior by Micheal Domjan.

BTW, augmentation is the facilitation of the conditioning of a novel stimulus because of the presence of a previously conditioned stimulus also called the contra-blocking effect.

 

[Johnno]

In a nearby bar, later that night, Pete Townshend impressed me with the firm way he dealt with a drunk who approached us to discuss loud music and pansy clothes. When he started being aggresive, Pete, rather than continue the discussion, calmly asked the barman to throw him out. This, Pete pointed out proved two matters.

Inside Out: A personal history of Pink Floyd: Nick Mason.

I tag you, You and YOU!

 

[doormouse]

In Athens, the primary moral community is no longer the household or kinship group, but the Athenian democracy. Household and kinship groups still exist, and the values stemming from them, but they are now parts of larger units. The Homeric values compete with others for acceptance.

Moral Relativity, David B. Wong

 

[herondancer]

Although The Key was the book physically closest to me at the first reading of this thread. this is the book I am currently engaged in:

"The alchoholic, for example. does not suffer the pain of disillusion and shattered dreams because he does not begin by projecting idealistic notions of 'love' onto the liquor store owner. Nor does the drug addict believe that his drug dealer is his 'soul mate' simply because he supplies the drug. Of course, we are not suggesting that the solution to the problem is to simply understand that standard love is a chemically induced sensation; the goal is to divest ourselves of addiction and the need which gives rise to it and thereby open the door to the potential for true Love."

Essays on Life on Planet Earth

Scott Ogrin
Joe Quinn
Henry Sy

 

[mamadrama]

The spider symbol is an ancient one and relates to the moon, sacred to the Goddess. The ancient Celtic calendar had 13 lunar months, and there is thought to have been a zodiac with 13 signs as well. The spider crouches at the center of creation, for the Goddess as Spider is linked with the formation of the physical world.

Refuge of the Apocalypse
Elizabeth Van Buren

 

[Mike]

"Dear Folks, We're having a big time. I'm not tired at all now. We were surely dead the first of the week, though..." -- from postcard depicting the Lord Baltimore hotel, dated April 3, 1941

from 'Baltimore Harbor Haunts: True Ghost Stories' by Melissa Rowell and Amy Lynwander

 

[Rich]

Escape is impossible for the victims of sexual slavery. Brothel owners have paid for the new recruits and they are unlikely to let their investment simply walk away. The girls will only be free once their purchase price has been recouped and a substantial profit has been been made. Until then they are watched and guarded.

Sex slaves
the trafficking of women in Asia
Louise Brown

 

[Pierre]

Don Juan had mentioned that non-organic beings always have a tendency to teach. But he hadn't told me that dreaming is what they use to teach. He had said that the emissary of dreaming, since it's a voice, is a perfect bridge between their world and ours. I discovered that the emissary of dreaming was not only the voice of a master but also the one of the most subtle salesman

Translated from the French version of "L'art de rever" (the art of dreaming) - Carlos Castaneda.

 

[Renaissance]

The ritual stopped as quickly as it had started. The padre turned and gave a conventional blessing, making the sign of the cross with his right hand. "May God be ever here in this house," he said.

this quote was from Paulo Coelho's "By the River Piedra, I Sat Down and Wept" (also the author of "The Alchemist") If the title sounds remotely familar, it may be either from bible study or reading the CofZ. Reed writes:

When Judah fell Jeremiah gave his most famous message of all, the one to which the Jewish masses today often instinctively turn, and the one which the ruling sect ever and again forbids them to heed: "Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace". The Levites gave their angry answer in the 137th Psalm:

"By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept….. Our tormentors asked of us mirth: Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. . . O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed, happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones".

In Jeremiah's admonition and the Levites' reply lies the whole story of the controversy of Zion, and of its effects for others, down to our day.

After reading the above passage from the CofZ last night, I took Coelho's book down from the shelf to skim through it; a friend gave it to me some months ago and I hadn't looked through it until last night... didn't find anything while skimming, but when and if I do read it, I'll certainly keep Reed's passage in mind.