Good News! I have another new little baby to spoil. Welcome Finn Leicht Davies, born at 2:03am, weighing 7lbs 12 oz. He was 2 1/2 weeks early, but a very welcome surprise. He is the first child of my good friends Peter and Niki. They are both doing well. I hear Niki is tired but happy. I am so excited to meet little Finn, I just can't wait.

 

Here is a photo of the newborn, with his mommy.

 

 

Doesn't he look just precious?

 

Well, my congratulations to both Pete and Niki and their newest little addition.

 

Also, I want to take a moment to wish another friend a very happy birthday. Little Sophia Belle is 1 year old today. Happy, happy to her. It is very sweet of her to share her special day with our new friend Finn.

 

What a good day this is!

 

 

Happy 4th of July!

 

Normally, this is the place where I would give you a bit of history or something about the holiday, but I kind of think that this is one that everybody knows. If you don't, well shame on you (unless you're not American, in which case....).

 

So instead I stopped by just to give out good wishes to all and to mention a couple things.

 

A) You may have noticed the look of the blog. Yep, I changed it right after the 100th post. I thought it was time for a facelift. Mostly, the hot pink was starting to wear on me, so I switched it up. Hope you like it.

 

B) I recieved an email from my friend Katie, featuring her daughter Sophia. I thought the picture was completely appropriate for the day and so Sophia makes her visual debut here tonight:

 

 

Isn't she just about the cutest little mascot ever?

 

And finally, because I couldn't resist, check out this fun fact sheet compiled by the Census Bureau.

 

That's it! Hope you all had a safe and fun holiday!

 

Sophia and her 3 Daughters, Faith, Hope & Charity/Love
- from a Russian Icon

The Female Aspect of God:

Supporting Scriptures

Whatever is hidden
Is meant to be disclosed.
And whatever is concealed
Is meant to be brought into the open.
(Mark 4:22)

Most of the information of any Female Deity or feminine affiliation with the Godhead is absent from the Holy Bible, but only on the surface. That is one possibility as to why the Bible contradicts itself and if you read in your own Bible's Concordance, most have information about the contradictions and various opinions on the subject. The first nine chapters of Proverbs are dedicated to Sophia, however the English translation notes Her only as the Spirit Wisdom, or Lady Wisdom. Wisdom is referred to as “She” throughout the book Proverbs, found in both the Catholic and Protestant Bible. The Apocrypha, which contains 14 books of the sacred literature of the Alexandrian Jews, also includes The Wisdom of Solomon. This book also gives great account of Sophia. In addition, Chapter 24 of Ecclesiasticus or Sirach speaks warmly of Lady Wisdom or Sophia; verse 9 tells of Her creation: “He created me from the beginning before the world, and I shall never fail.”

Verse 18 states Her position as the helpmate of the Creator:

"I am the Mother of fair love, of fear, and knowledge,
and holy hope: I therefore, being eternal, am given
to all my children, which are named by Him."

Proverbs 3:13-19 reveals Lady Wisdom's :

"Happy is the man that findeth Wisdom, and the man
that getteth understanding: for the merchandise of
it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain
thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies; and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared Of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand, riches
and honor. Her ways are pleasantness and all her paths
are peace. She is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon
her; and happy is everyone that retaineth her. The lord by
Wisdom has founded the earth; by understanding hath he
established the heavens.”


Aside from verses such as these, the Dead Sea Scrolls uncovered most of the information of The Feminine Divine in the upper portions of the Nile River. While other tidbits of information have been random lines of text in the Apocrypha and the Pseudopigrapha. Some of the most revealing books regarding the Christian Goddess, Great Mother, or female aspect of the Divine Creator are found among the various writings found at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. We can attribute the discovery of the first manuscripts in 1945 to two Egyptian farmers. They discovered these long lost writings in a cave at Khirbat Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in Jordan. They were searching for natural fertilizer when these farmers found the sealed jars. By the farmers' own admission, at first they were afraid to open the jars because of the local superstitions that a frightening or harmful entity might be dwelling within. Later were overcome with greed after realizing their proximity to the gold treasures located not far from them in the Valley of the Kings, and they proceeded to open the sealed jars. Ironically, while it was not gold that these farmers found within the clay pots, a treasure surprised, shocked, and overwhelmed the Christian world of the twentieth century. These clay pots contained additional Gospels, Apocalypses, and additional Books of Acts written by the other disciples but not included due to their acknowledgement of the Goddesses, expressly Sophia and the Holy Spirit. Some of these texts are collectively part of the Gnostic Gospels, while others are ancient writings obviously spiritual in nature but have not necessarily fallen into any singular ethnic category. Many of the codices fell to ruin due to natural decay and fragmentation. Others may have been stolen, lost, or inadvertently destroyed. There is confusion over the blending of times, writing styles and indigenous regional characteristics often found within the same collective writing. The languages of these books include ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. By 1947, approximately 400 manuscripts had been discovered with writings that date from 100 BC to 68 AD. Some of the manuscripts discovered exhibit the writing characteristics of the ancient Jewish sects, the Essenes, and the Ebionites. The books having the most impact on Modern day Christianity come from the Gnostic Christians, who flourished about 2,000 years ago. These were some of the first Christians put to death, perhaps not for their acknowledgement of Jesus, but for their belief in both a Mother & Father Deity as the Heavenly parents of Christ. The concept of the Mother God was too close to Paganism for the New Christian Church and the Emperor Constantine. The loss of the Alexandrian Library is one of the greatest tragedies of history. It was the largest and most famous of all the ancient collections of written knowledge. The Egyptian Ruler, Ptolemy I, began this library in 200 B.C.E.; other rulers contributed to the Library until it contained over 500,000 books. Part of the Library was lost during the siege of Julius Caesar in 47 B.C.E. and the many sieges that followed; one of the hardest attacks came from the Muslims. Most of these texts were thought to be destroyed within the auxiliary Library of Alexandria in Egypt in AD 391 by the Orthodox Christians. The Orthodox Christians were determined to wipe out what they considered “pagan learning.” Arabs completed the destruction in 640 ADE.Constantine was calling for religious uniformity throughout the empire. This uniformity was for the good of Constantine and his Empire and definitely not necessarily for the common good of overall Christianity. This assault on the contents of the canonized Bible put stress on the translators and the councils responsible for the chosen books. Through out the seizes, Nero, Constantine and the other emperors continued to destroy any texts that did not work to the benefit of the newly forming Orthodox Church in Rome. Unfortunately in their haste to destroy documents that did not support the decisions of the Roman councils, many scrolls were destroyed that were not Biblical in nature, such as the works of Aristotle and Plato were destroyed. Marc Anthony alone took 200,000 scrolls from Pergamum in 41 B.C.E. and gave them to Cleopatra at Alexandria. The goal of the Alexandrian library staff was to collect the best of the world's literature that passed through Egypt. All persons visiting Egypt at this time possessing literary and artistic works, inventions, and blueprints would have their works temporarily obtained by the workers of the Alexandrian Library, have their work copied with utmost care and accuracy, and then returned before leaving the country. In modern terms, the Library of Alexandria worked much like the United States patent office. The original manuscripts of the Gnostic Gospels were written in the colloquial dialects of Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek. Attacks on early Christian worship sites appear to be the places in which the manuscripts were obliterated. The urgent closure of the canonization of the scriptures was called for of demands made by the newly converted Roman Emperor Constantine. Dedicated Egyptian Christian Monks, or the Coptic Christians, worked secretly and urgently in poorly lit cells and caves to save these sacred writings. They never realized the fruits of their labor would lay dormant for two thousand years, only to be discovered and declared heresy. The Nag Hammadi scrolls were either buried on purpose, or buried by massive sandstorms. Additional copies of these scrolls or codices have also been scattered through out the world for safekeeping. They have been found in hidden auxiliary rooms in places such as the St. Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai, in the 500's A.C.E. and at St. Gall in the 600's A.C.E. in Switzerland, and in the 800's A.C.E. at the Holy Mount Atos in Atos, Greece.

Email Nancy Chandler Pittman or write:
Shadows and Light Shoppe, Re: Christian Wicca, 401 8th Avenue S.E., Decatur, AL 35601 ph: 256.466.2374 ~ Blessed Be!!

Here are the facts. The writer (Jean-Claude Carrière) also wrote one of Louis Malle's worst films: May Fools (if you've never heard of it, it's because it's not great. I walked out of this film). He also wrote Birth, the Nicole Kidman movie which intrigued me with the plot, but once I got into the theater... realized that this was bad news. I should have walked out of this one.

The good news is he wrote/co-wrote "Diary of a Chambermaid" which is one of the most spectacular Luis Bunuel movies.  He also took part in the writing of "Viva Maria" which had a fabulous beginning and fizzled at the end. I was also disappointed by "Diary's" end, but the rest of the movie was so splendid I didn't bat an eye.  However his good movies were filmed in the sixties and I don't know if he can save "Marie Antoinette".  Especially if the endings are terrible and "Marie Antoinette"'s ending is probably the most important part...

Now I'm reading he also wrote: Hussard sur le toit, Le (Horseman on the Roof) which is the only film by that director (Jean-Paul Rappeneau) that I do not like.  The same director was responsible for creating my favorite French film: Bon voyage!

Sophia Coppola is not getting my money this summer/fall. Sorry!