Posts by Ravyn

32

Celtic Music

by Snowball in

i have developed a deep love of celtic music.

i listen to clannad, enya, loreena mckennitt, natalie mcmaster, and capercaillie.. i have also discovered 'celtic rock' when i went to the scottish festival in pleasanton ca last year.

seven nations was playing modern rock music with fiddles and bagpipes.

hey! My husband and I are friends with Kirk Macleod and Struby of Seven Nations, and also the Glengarry Bhoys -Graham Wright and Ziggy and Ewain-Canadian cops, and also Hadrian's Wall, Jimmy Kelly, and our good good friend Neil Anderson. you can find all these guys and their links on the website for their management group--Bob and Karen- called East of the Hebrides Entertainment-

www.eohebrides.com

we have known all these guys for about 6 or 7 yrs now and follow them around the east coast. they do a carribean cruise evry yr and go to Scotland every two yrs---one day we want to go with them. Seven Nations started out with Neil Anderson, then he went solo called Full Circle. He is the original Antipiper---and he can play anything you can put in his mouth--I have seen him play highland pipes AND uilean AND tin whistle AND sing at the same time!

welcome to the fold!

Slainte!

Ravyn

26

No Eternal Life---Now What Hope Do You Have?

by minimus in

jw
friends

one thing all witnesses have had in common is the belief that they would someday inherit everlasting life.

as more and more express the thought that they really don't have much hope for the future, has anything replaced the hope of eternal life in paradise earth?

or are we ultimately, hopeless?

Ravyn

revenge.

Ravyn

10

Why do you think......

by copsec in

so many people who come out of the borg are so depressed and angry and freaked out?????

i have been out for 7 years now and i am happier than i have ever been in my life and was from the very first moment i left!

the only reason i even go into ex-jw groups is i like to make fun of them and other exs are the only ones who understand what i am talking about when i make a funny comment??

Ravyn

Dear copsec,

I lost my youth, health, and about $200,000 when I left JWs(I had to hide in a shelter with nothing but the clothes on my back ), not to mention the fact that I have been shunned by all family friends I ever knew(I was raised third generation JW). I had my tubes tied so I could pioneer with out distraction--after all I could always have kids in the new world right? I gave up college, marriage, and career for them. I got nothing back. less than nothing. I got death threats. I was 34 when I left. I am 40 now and I was cheated out of all those yrs that I will never get back and I dont even have the hope of Paradise. I will never get those childhood memories that I didn't have like christmases and birthdays, not even saturday morning cartoons. I wasted my life, they wasted my life.

I am happy now. but it can never make up for what they took from me.

Ravyn

20

Does the president believe he has a divine mandate

by Ravyn in

an evolving faith .

does the president believe he has a divine mandate?

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/121/story_12112.html

Ravyn

ok--well I was misunderstood about why I am scared---my fault that I did not explain.

I am scared becoz there is fundy in charge. politically I don't see that we had a choice back with the elections. however, I don't want anyone in the white house telling me that I am a terrorist if I choose to not be a fundy xtian--which is the next step here. a little hard for me to feel any sympathy or pity for either side in a religious war of whacked out zealots. and I am sure that if I am sitting in the USA thinking what a dangerous moron we have in charge, then I am equally sure there are some Iraqis thinking the same thing. But when this country becomes a 'xtian country' and denies separation of church and state will be the time the whole lot of us nonconformists need to buy tickets on the next shuttle out of here. this is a dangerous situation and I dont know what can be done to stop it.

Ravyn

7

Your religion = Do what feels good?

by happysunshine in

so... what is an acceptable reason to join a religion or live by a certain philosophy?

does it essentialy come down to "if it makes you generaly 'feel good', its ok"?

by 'feel good' i mean satisfy current needs, physical, cognitive, whatever.

Ravyn

humans need to have a spirituality satisfied, but religion(IMO) is merely one response to that need--and (IMO) it is an immature superstitious response. I am not saying religious people are immature or superstitious, I am saying that religion developed as the answer to that need in a time that humans were rather unsophisticated and primitive. I think alot of us who leave organized religion--of whatever flavor-do so out of a sense of outgrowing it. BUT humans still have that need. It is filled by ritual and archetypes and symbolism and all the smells and bells attached to religion. So, if you want religion--go for it! If you can get it satisfied without religion good for you! Me, personally, I need it both ways. I still need religion sometimes, and I will get my fix in a church. But it is not the whole answer to my needs and i get that elsewhere in what is not considered religion per se. I think this is the attraction of the 'new age' stuff. Just like it was the original attraction for religion thousands of yrs ago to us. So I use religion to satisfy my needs. In a way it is to make myself happy. but it is not quite so self-centered as all that, becoz part of that need is the need to give to others and be part of a community.

ravyn

34

SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES IN THE WT

by justhuman in

jw
friends

back in 1990 we found out with some friends(most of us left the borg) that the wt uses demonic pictures in their publicactions, specially the live for ever book... .

when the elders found out that we had this discussion they called us and asked questions why did we had this kind of discussion... .

i remember one of them was shouting (i thing he was possesed) and saying to us that this are what apostates are saying in order to harm the organization... .

Ravyn

JWs were definitely part of the Spiritistic movements of the 1800's but they sold out like the Mormons did. After Russell they were just another high control millennial group of fundys. too bad. if they still had spiritistic links I would have never left them. only time they had anything going for them was when they were exploring the occult.

Ravyn

17

JW alternatives to holidays

by YellowLab in

even though you couldn't celebrate holidays growing up as a jw, did your parents ever have alternatives instead?

in my case, we never celebrated christmas, we had "surprise day" usually a week before.

instead of celebrating thanksgiving, we would have a turkey dinner a few weeks later.

Ravyn

my family were 'real' Jws too, my father was anointed and an elder. but he explained to us, the rules are for the weak ones. this was the general attitude of the Brooklyn crowd in the 1960's-70's. so as far as being good little witnesses--there were always double and triple standards with in the Borg. don't feel bad about anything you might have done or not done. the insider's always had a different set of rules---we used to joke about it and call it the California rule book for the R&F who happened to be far enough away from Brooklyn to know what was going on.(and when I say 'we' I mean my father's crowd---Jaracsz, Henschel, Franz, among others.)

Ravyn

20

Does the president believe he has a divine mandate

by Ravyn in

an evolving faith .

does the president believe he has a divine mandate?

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/121/story_12112.html

Ravyn

An Evolving Faith
Does the president believe he has a divine mandate?

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/121/story_12112.html

NOW I am scared. seriously.

Ravyn

7

Wicked Caress

by Ravyn in

wicked caress.

cold sharp blades tipped her fingers.

double-edged razor her tongue.

Ravyn

I don't consider 'wicked' to be valueless or ugly....

Ravyn

27

Bible QUIZ! DoubleDogDare U!

by Ravyn in

http://www.ffrf.org/bquiz.html

i double dog dare you to take this quiz!.

i got 40 out of 50, but the average score for americans is 15!.

Ravyn

[30] And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, "If thou wilt give the Ammonites into my hand,
[31] then whoever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the LORD's, and I will offer him up for a burnt offering."

and then:

[39] And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had made. She had never known a man. And it became a custom in Israel
[40] that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.

I think when it says : 'She had never known a man.' it is pretty certain that she had been killed.

It shocked me the first time I realized that most of Christianity disagrees with the JW interp of that. I still after all these yrs occasionally run across a scripture that I had all wrong(as a JW) and have an 'AH-HA!' moment.

Ravyn