A Wisdom Archive on saint-sans

Saint George Patron saint of England; the universal allegory of the dragonslayer reappears in Christian ecclesiasticism as the archangel Michael who slays the red dragon, and again as St. George.
 
It is a historical mystery both how this apocryphal legend came to be attached to the name of George of Cappadocia, the ecclesiastic put to death by Diocletian for opposing him in the persecution of the Christians; and that the Roman Catholic Church should have canonized so rabid an Arian.
 
His is another form of the story of Bel and the dragon, Apollo and Python, Osiris and Typhon, etc., which denote the fallen angels or kumaras who, by bringing intellectual life to earth, thereby truly conquer death.

 
(See also: Saint George, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary )

SAINT NICHOLAS
Bishop of Myra, died 342 A.D. Patron Saint of Russia and of young people, his day is December 6th. Associated with Teutonic water sprite, Nekker, who saves seamen from drowning and with Old Nick, the forerunner of death. Later corrupted into "Santa Claus."
 
In "Earthly Powers", Anthony Burgess describes the libretto of an opera based on the life of Saint Nicholas, borrowed largely from an account by Anatole France. Since few people now anything about this peculiar person, other than that he is the patron saint of children and shipwrecked sailors, it might be interesting to look more closely. The entire opera is far too long to quote verbatim from the novel, but briefly, this is the plot up to the end of the first act:
 
The story begins, somehow, with the corpses of Bishop Nicholas''s three adopted sons (Mark, Matthew and John) who have been put into a pickel barrel, whereupon, because of the action of the pickel acid, the young men are brought back to life. Once resurrected, the first son turns Nicholas''s house into a brothel wherein Nicholas is tempted by sins of the flesh. Fearing the loss of his soul, he invokes Jesus Christ, who appears to him as the naked god, Pan, whereupon the poor man yields to his weaknesses. Afterwards he flagellates himself and is thereby purified enough so that he can attend the Council of Nicµa in order to denounce the Arian heresy. In case you''ve forgotten, the Arian heresy insists that the Father and Son are of the same substance (homoousia), whereas the true faith insists that they are only of similar substance (homoiousia) -- thus proving the importance of an iota. Meanwhile, the second son has been busy forging documents to denounce Nicholas as an even worse heretic. At the Council, the women of the town appear to ask for prayers for their men who are at sea in a storm. The Council, of course, wants to throw them out for disrupting their holy work, but jolly old St. Nick intercedes for the sailors'' wives, by wrestling with an Arian bishop. At this point Matthew reveals the documents proving that his father has stated that the only true God is Venus. Nicholas is disgraced ecclesiastically and the ships go down at the same time.
 
In the second and final act of the opera, Nicholas, after a period of sack cloth and ashes, has been reinstated by the Pope as a full bishop again. It seems, however, that a number of German tribes have been converted to Christianity by Arians and the heresy is going full blast. John, the third son, is all for going to Germany in order to torture and kill heretic women and children. Nicholas argues, at first, that theirs is a religion of love, but John points out that "these are foul heretics who believe Christ to be co-eternal with the Father!" So Nicholas is persuaded to join in the holy war, though he soon regrets it. He asks Heaven to send down Love and "Venus herself appears as goddess of brothels for soldiers!" Mothers are screaming for a miracle and one of them hands Nicholas the bloody corpse of her child. Nicholas, with the child in his arms, now asks God why He had brought the three wicked sons back to life in the first place and when there is no answer, cries out: "You are a God of hate, a God who murders the innocent!" There is no reply to that either, of course, and the curtain descends.
 
So it is that to this very day, the red suit represents Nicholas''s sins of the flesh, for which he atones with the ashes of chimneys, while the bag upon his back is his burden of shame. Of course, in the 20th Century we no longer honor shame, so the bag simply contains the poisonous fruits of materialistic tyranny.
 

 
(See also: SAINT NICHOLAS , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)
 

SAINT JOHNS EVE: Also see Midsummer Sabbat.

 
(See also: SAINT JOHNS EVE, Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary )

Many people study religious scriptures profusely - which is a good thing. But they feel that the 'scriptural word' is enough. That is a mistake. A scripture is like a map. And a map is not the territory.
 
What may appear as a beautiful mountainous range on paper could well turn out to be a treacherous obstacle in real life. Similarly, a river painted in brilliant hues of blue on a map, might be infested with snakes and crocodiles in reality.

 
(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Life and Death: How to Identify a Modern Saint

Count Antoine Marie Roger de Saint-Exupéry was born in Lyon into an old family of provincial nobility, the third of five children of Count Jean de Saint-Exupéry, an insurance broker who died when his famous son was three, and his wife, Marie de Foscolombe. After failing his final exams at a preparatory school, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts to study architecture. In 1921, he began his military service in the 2nd Regiment of Chasseurs, and was sent to Strasbourg for training as a pilot. The next year, he obtained his license an ...

Read more here: » Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Encyclopedia II - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - Life

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("LDS Church"; see also Mormon), who regard themselves as regathered, formerly lost Israelites, have also used the word "Gentile" to refer to nonmembers. As such, this word is not appropriately applied to Jews, although LDS members often colloquially referred to Jews as "Gentiles" because they were not members of the LDS Church. As with the more general usage, the word "Gentile" has become uncommon (perhaps being regarded as antiquated and unnecessarily pejorative), and the mo ...

Read more here: » Gentile: Encyclopedia II - Gentile - Latter-day Saints Church usage

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has a similar, but unique position. The LDS claims that apostolic succession was broken during the Great Apostasy, or falling away from the teachings of Jesus Christ, and later restored in America. The LDS Church maintains that God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith, Jr. near Palmyra, New York in 1820 and called Joseph as a prophet to restore Christ's church to the earth with correct doctrines and practices. Near the time that Joseph formally organized the chur ...

Read more here: » Apostolic Succession: Encyclopedia II - Apostolic Succession - Latter-day Saints Mormons

Saint-Martin, Louis Claude de.
 
See MARTINISTS

 
(See also: Saint-Martin, Louis Claude de, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary )

In 1998, a fisherman found what was reported to be Saint-Exupéry's silver chain bracelet in the ocean to the east of the island of Riou, south of Marseille. At first it was thought a hoax, but it was later positively identified. It was engraved with the names of his wife and his publishers, Reynal & Hitchcock, and was hooked to a piece of fabric from his pilot's suit. On April 7, 2004, investigators from the French Underwater Archaeological Department confirmed that the twisted wreckage of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, found on the ...

Read more here: » Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Encyclopedia II - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - Discovery of the crash site