Tuesday, November 27, 2012

More Khoi Starlore...and Theology: The Pleiades

One of the most beautiful Spring star clusters rising in the east at Advent time are the Pleiades. The Pleiades captured human imagination from the earliest times. They are plaited and weaved with myth and belief. Some extraterrestrial researchers refer to Nordic type celestial beings as Pleiadeans.


"The eyes of the ancient Khoikhoi," says Khoi scholar, Theophilus Hahn, "were early directed towards the sky."  The Pleiades held a particular fascination for them heralding the coming rains. The Pleiades were the daughters of the Supreme God, Tsui-||goa.  The Greeks, strangely, called them the "Seven Sisters", the daughters of Atlas. Alcyone is the most beautiful one and the brightest. The other sisters are Celeno, Maja, Merope, Taygete, Asterope and Electra.

The 18th Century Moravian missionary at Genadendal, George Schmidt, related:

"At the return of the Pleiades these natives celebrate an anniversary ; as soon as these stars appear above the eastern horizon mothers will lift their little ones on their arms, and running up to elevated spots, will show to them those friendly stars, and teach them to stretch their little hands towards them. The people of a kraal will assemble to dance and to sing according to the old custom of their ancestors." (Quoted by Hahn, p.43)


They then dance and sing and pray to their Heavenly Father, Tsui-||goa, "Wounded Knee":
Thou, oh Tsui-||goa!
Thou Father of the Fathers! All Father!
Thou our Father!
Let stream, let rain, the thunder cloud!
Let please live our flocks!
Let us also live please!
I am so very weak indeed!
From thirst!
From hunger!
That I may eat field fruits!
Art thou then not our Father!
The father of the fathers!
Thou Tsui-||goa!
That we may praise thee!
That we may give thee in return and bless thee.
Thou father of the fathers!
Thou our Lord!
Thou, oh, Tsui-||goa!
(Hahn, p.58)
Appreciating these traditions of my early early African forebears, I cannot agree more with Theophilus Hahn when he concludes:
I hope that these pages may be an impulse to missionaries to look deeper into the eyes of a Hottentot. Perhaps they may discover some more sparks of the primæval revelation. Missionaries, I regret to say, are so apt to treat the heathen gods as demons or evil spirits. It is also very wrong to teach the heathen so eagerly, as is done by certain missionaries, our dogmas, and to tell them of the differences of Calvinism and Lutheranism. There is something like fanaticism in this -- a zealotism which can never bear fruit. To them, also, the poet gives the warning : 
Grau, Freund, ist alle Theorie
Und ewig grün des Lebens goldener Baum.
 
(Grey, friend, is all theory,
And green the golden tree of life.) 
The abode of true religion -- I mean of the true yearning and craving  after the infinite -- is our heart, which becomes deaf and dumb as soon as it is surrounded by the mist and clouds of dogmatism. The key-note of true religion is love -- a key-note which is never touched in the fanatical controversies of our modern dogmatists.
-Hahn, p.150
Sources and Credits:
Theophilus Hahn, Tsuni-||Goam, The Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi, 1881, Trubner, London.
African Starlore, http://sirius-c.ncat.edu/EthiopianEnochSociety/Africa-Star/index.html
South African Star Myths, Royal Museums Greenwich
http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/astronomy-and-time/astronomy-facts/stars/south-african-star-myths/*/viewPage/1


©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Adam Clarke: Astrologer, Alchemist, and Methodist Maverick? An Appreciation.


"... my Text commends GOD's Works, not only for being great, but also approves of those curious and ingenious Enquirers, that seek them out, or pry into them..  And the more we pry into, and discover of them, the greater and more glorious we find them to be, the more worthy of, and the more expressly to proclaim their great Creator.
-Derham, Physico-Theology, 1786, p.427

Being a Methodist and a lover of antiquities, I am very much attracted to the writings of the early Methodists....the Wesleys, Whitfield, Fletcher, and others. Not that the 18th and 19th centuries are antiquated in any way but it is that these remarkable individuals channel for us something that goes far back to the dawn of civilisation that is quaint in a way. In technical terms I think of them as "Crossover Individuals". They "bridge" the past, present, and future for us.  I was drawn especially to the renowned Methodist Bible commentator and scholar, Adam Clarke (c1762–1832). Though as a boy he was slow in learning he quickly asserted himself as one of the foremost scholars of the 19th century. His Commentary is still widely appreciated and consulted today.

I had long been inquisitive concerning some entries in Clarke's Commentary. He has numerous references to ancient Rabbinic and Arabic writings that fascinated me. It appealed to my sense for what was ancient, esoteric and, sometimes, beyond ordinary modern understanding and consciousness. Equally interesting is his inclusion of The Gitagovinda, a beautiful Hindu "mystical poem" in his commentary of the Song of Songs but that is a subject for another time.

A while ago I came across a paper by Ron Heisler titled "John Dee and the Secret Societies" that linked John Dee with Adam Clarke. John Dee was a noted mathematician, librarian, occultist, and alchemist of the 16th Century.   Heisler made the surprising statement...
Dr Adam Clarke, Hebraist, alchemist, astrologer and kabbalist, was arguably the leading Methodist intellectual of the early 19th century. Tragically, his manuscript "Mysterium Liber" seems to have utterly vanished from the face of the earth. But at least we have Clarke's note describing this fascinating effort: "N.B. As it is assembd that the six books of Mysteries transcribed from the papers of Dr. John Dee by Elias Ashmole, Esq., preserved in the Sloan Library,.... are a collection of papers relating to State Transactions between Elizabeth, her Ministers and different Foreign Powers, in which Dr. Dee was employed sometimes as an official agent openly, and at other times as a spy, I purpose to make an extract from the whole work, and endeavour, if possible, to get a key to open the Mysteries. A.C." (List of MS formerly in possession of the late Dr. Adam Clarke. Baynes & Son Sale Catalogue (1837), copy in British Library.)
(Ron Heisler - John Dee and the Secret Societies, article originally published in The Hermetic Journal, 1992.)
Clarke also alludes to these references in his comment on 1 Cor 13.1 speaking of "the tongues of angels" where he writes...
...the apostle refers to a notion that was common among the Jews, that there was a language by which angels might be invoked, adjured, collected, and dispersed; and by the means of which many secrets might be found out, and curious arts and sciences known. 
There is much of this kind to be found in their cabalistical books, and in the books of many called Christians. Cornelius Agrippa’s occult philosophy abounds in this; and it was the main object of Dr. Dee’s actions with spirits to get a complete vocabulary of this language. See what has been published of his work by Dr. Casaubon; and the remaining manuscript parts in the Sloane library, in the British museum.
Hebraist, alchemist, astrologer and kabbalist? Really? Certainly a Hebraist but I had never heard Clarke being described as an occultist before. It was not the portrait of the Methodist I had read about  at university and seminary.  What became of Adam Clarke's Mysterium Liber, if it ever existed? And did he ever succeed in finding the key to unlock the "six books of Mysteries"? One is naturally curious but I rather think of Clarke as a man of science.

As theologian he was not without controversy. He was a President of the Methodist Conference. What fascinated Adam Clarke so, even as a young boy? Did he encrypt some of his own esoteric interests into his commentary? A sort of "Da Clarke Code"? Perhaps we will never know unless the Mysterium Liber comes to light one day. But we do know that his interest in arcane and esoteric subjects developed from a very early age.

Adam Clarke was very much a child of his time and conditioned, as John Wesley was, by the prevailing world views of the time. It was the dawn of the "Scientific Age". Philosophers and Theologians were still profoundly influenced by Hermetic ideas. Isaac Newton had pursued an interest in alchemy and astrology despite being one of the greatest mathematicians ever. The Occult Sciences enjoyed a status no longer popular today. Another commentator makes the point, "Just as chemistry sprung from alchemy, and even war gave rise to the Law of Nations, so ancient pagan astrology was the parent of our modern science of astronomy. But the tendency of all true science is to point the way to faith. A perception of the harmonious order of the firmament, and especially a knowledge of astronomy, would direct devout minds to Him who is the Centre of the spiritual solar system, to the creative Word, the Source of all order." (Lange, Matthew 2.1-12) Clarke says much the same where he comments on Exodus 28.3...
Who taught Newton to ascertain the laws by which God governs the universe, through which discovery a new source of profit and pleasure has been opened to mankind through every part of the civilized world? No reading, no study, no example, formed his genius. God, who made him, gave him that compass and bent of mind by which he made those discoveries, and for which his name is celebrated in the earth. When I see Napier inventing the logarithms; Copernicus, Des Cartes, and Kepler contributing to pull down the false systems of the universe, and Newton demonstrating the true one; and when I see the long list of Patentees of useful inventions, by whose industry and skill long and tedious processes in the necessary arts of life have been shortened, labor greatly lessened, and much time and expense saved; I then see, with Moses, men who are wise-hearted, whom God has filled with the spirit of wisdom for these very purposes; that he might help man by man, and that, as time rolls on, he might give to his intelligent creatures such proofs of his Being, infinitely varied wisdom, and gracious providence, as should cause them to depend on him, and give him that glory which is due to his name.
From a very young age, says Clarke's biographer, JW Etheridge, the young Adam had an unquenchable curiosity, "with a mind characteristically eager in investigation, he was not content to read such books as expounded the outward phenomena of nature, but longed to penetrate, also, the arcana of the spiritual world."

He was hardly fifteen when, says Etheridge, "He had heard that among the gypsies many vestiges of this precious lore were handed down from father to son; and, learning that a wandering party of that singular people had pitched their little camp at a distance of some miles, he sallied forth in quest of them. After some ingratiating talk, he told them what he had come for. The conversation which followed was highly satisfactory; for he found, to his great joy, that they had at least a great part of a book for a sight of which he had been devoured by desire, — the Occult Philosophy of Cornelius Agrippa. The gypsies were not disposed to part with these precious sibylline leaves, but gave him full permission to read them on the spot, and make whatever extracts he pleased."

Even as a boy he had some misgivings and questioned the expediency of these occult pursuits. "A paper he read in an odd volume of the Athenian Oracle, which he met with about that time," says Etheridge, "made a wholesome impression on his mind, and contributed to set it in a more profitable direction." He tempered his youthful curiosity with a maturing sense of reason and discernment  He lived at a time of transition. It was the Age of Reason.

In the course of his life, Clarke not only met with alchemists but experimented to understand better the nature of matter. He studied "Basil Valentine, George Ripley, Philalethes, Nicholas Flammel, Artephius, Geber, Paracelsus, the Hermetical Triumph, all the writers in Ashmole’s Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, &c.; not with the hope of finding the philosopher’s stone," say his biographer, "but rerum cognoscere causas, to see nature in her own laboratory."   Etheridge gives an intriguing account of meetings between the Methodist scholar and a keen but mysterious alchemist from Dublin. It is a rare glimpse into the mind of the alchemist, of the arcane and magical arts and the perceptive reasoning of a very acute investigator and researcher. Etheridge's conclusion is instructive:
Mr. Clarke, in his correspondence with this honest enthusiast, did not forget to urge upon him the necessity of obtaining the true riches, “than gold and pearls more precious far,” and of seeking that wondrous transmutation of mind and heart which no power can effect but the grace of the Eternal Spirit. He warned him against the inordinate desire of wealth; and exhorted him, in a diligent attendance on the house of God, the reading of His word, and the communion of His people in class-meeting, to work out his salvation. Mr. Hand died in peace, somewhat suddenly. There was good reason to believe that his acquaintance with Mr. Clarke had led him to that “secret of the Lord,” that “knowledge of the Holy,” which is the true elixir of immortal life, the key to treasures incorruptible. These aerial excursions into the cloud-land of alchemy only gave Mr. Clarke a greater value for a standing on the solid ground of true science. (p.258ff)
Derham's Astro-Theology and Physico-Theology had a more positive impact on Clarke's mind than the many occult philosophies he studied. Even as a boy, Etheridge observes, "... the things that are seen became to him a heart-stirring momento of the everpresent Deity. The heavens at night spoke, and told him how great is God; the spheres sang; the deep down on the shore, as he stood on the rocks, was heard lifting up a voice in the great chorus. “His praise the winds, that from four quarters blew, breathed soft or loud;” and the pine-woods waved their tops, with every plant, in sign of worship. Already the future commentator was musing on that text, “The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.” (p.30ff)

Adam Clarke explains himself in his autobiography:
He read some treatises on different parts of Chemistry, and having borrowed the use of a friend’s laboratory, he went through the process of refining silver, that he might be the better able to comprehend the meaning of those texts of scripture where this operation is referred to. He read also several Alchemistic authors, the perusal of which was recommended to him by a friend who was much devoted to such studies; and he also went through several of the initiatory operations recommended by professed adepts in that science. This study was the means of greatly enlarging his views in the operations of nature, as he saw many wonders performed by chemical agency..... This study served to divert his mind from that intensity of thought on other matters, which before was preying upon itself. (p.199)
He applies this knowledge in his Commentary for example at 1 Peter 1.25 he writes: "As the apostle, on 1Peter 1:7, mentions gold, and gold chemically examined and tried; and as this figure frequently occurs in the sacred writings; I think it necessary to say something here of the nature and properties of that metal," whereupon he proceeds with a lengthy discussion on the properties of gold.

Was Adam Clarke an "alchemist, astrologer and kabbalist"? He certainly was well versed in these matters and admitted to even going "through several of the initiatory operations" associated with such. Whether being well read in  Kabbalism makes one a kabbalist is open to debate. For instance, that he was an astrologer is extremely doubtful. He expresses his view on astrology in his commentary on 1 Samuel 6.21:
After all, I need not say that the system of judicial astrology is vain, unfounded, absurd, and wicked. It in effect presumes to take the government of the world out of the hand of an all-wise God, and to abandon it to the most fortuitous and unconnected occurrences of life; for the stars have their influences according to this pretended science, conformably to the occurrences here below: e.g., if a child be born but one hour sooner or later than a particular configuration of the heavens, his destiny will be widely different from what it otherwise would have been; and as an almost infinite number of casualties may accelerate or retard a birth, consequently the whole destiny of man is influenced and ruled by these casualties: to say nothing of the absurdity, that those omnipotent stars ever can affect the infant while invested with a thin covering of flesh in the womb of its parent. But the whole science is a tissue of absurdities.
Clarke's references to the kabbalists and kabbalism are generally negative and sometimes disparaging. On 1 Corinthians 2:13 he writes...
We dare no more use the language of the Jews and the Gentiles in speaking of those glorious things, than we can indulge their spirit. The Greek orators affected a high and florid language, full of tropes and figures, which dazzled more than it enlightened. The rabbins affected obscurity, and were studious to find out cabalistical meanings, which had no tendency to make the people wise unto salvation. The apostles could not follow any of these; they spoke the things of God in the words of God; every thing was plain and intelligible; every word well placed, clear, and nervous. He who has a spiritual mind will easily comprehend an apostle’s preaching.
This much we can say with certainty: Clarke was first and foremost a Christian and a rational, thinking, enquiring one at that. He was a Christian Alchemist convinced that tarnished souls can change unto glory. As a Methodist he was persuaded that dross can be transmuted into gold. For him Christ was the Philospher's Stone, the Elixir of Life, that they who drink of this water will never thirst again.

We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (1Co 2:7-10)

His alchemy was that of  spiritual metamorphosis,of  sanctification, perfect love, and Christian perfection: "Call it by what name we please, it must imply the pardon of all transgression, and the removal of the whole body of sin and death; for this must take place before we can be like him, and see him as he is, in the effulgence of his own glory. This fitness, then, to appear before God, and thorough preparation for eternal glory, is what I plead for, pray for, and heartily recommend to all true believers..." (Adam Clarke, Christian Theology, 12.Entire Sanctification)

I am left wondering....what did become of the Mysterium Liber? One is drawn to a good mystery and this is a great one. Where there are "gypsies" of this kind, there we will find the secret stuff of magical lore. Are we not all wanderers at heart, enquirers after the meaning and purpose of life exploring the hidden secrets of the Universe? If we find the arcane and the apocryphal so fascinating such as the books of Dan Brown would attest, then why should we not also pry more deeply into that "crowning blessedness" that Adam Clarke commends above all else, even above the veiled teachings of the Hebrew Rabbis and the Egyptian Gnostics?

For further reading:
J.W Etheridge, The Life of the Rev. Adam Clarke, LL.D., 1858
Adam Clarke edited by Joseph Butterworth Bulmer Clarke, An Account of the Infancy, Religious and Literary Life of Adam Clarke, LL.D., F.A.S., etc.
Wikipedia, Christian Perfectionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Perfection


©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

Monday, November 19, 2012

John Wesley and "Unexplained Flying Observations"



 Elijah's Chariots of Fire, Byzantine Museum, Athens, Greece

John Wesley was insatiably curious about natural and supernatural phenomena. He published an expansive work titled "A Compendium of Natural Philosophy". His "Journals" are a tremendous  collection of psychic and spiritual reports. He speculated about the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Recently, I came across this tantalising reference:
Aliens have been sighted all throughout history by millions of people. Most people think that only crazy people have said they have saw "aliens" or "UFO's," but that is not true. Christopher Columbus, who discovered America recorded that he saw a UFO that looked like fireballs going across the sky. John Wesley, the Christian theologian said that he saw a UFO come out of a lake. Three Presidents of the United States, Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter and Dwight Eisenhower, also have said that they saw UFOs. Not to mention over 14,000 American Servicemen in the Air Force and Navy, along with thirteen astronauts have spotted UFOs.
-Cody Waters, Friday, June 1, 2012, Aliens & UFOs
I was familiar with most of these documented reports but the sighting attributed to John Wesley was new to me. Attempts to locate the source reference has failed. I wondered if anyone else had heard of this? I had not. I would be most appreciative if a Wesleyan researcher could point me to the likely incident referred to here. If Wesley actually saw "a UFO [or something like that] come out of a lake" I would be very interested to know. It certainly begs further investigation.

However, John Wesley does relate another, most extraordinary incident he had come across and, as he often would, sought to investigate it for himself...
Last year, a strange letter, written at Penzance, was inserted in the public papers. Today I spoke to the two persons who occasioned that letter. They are of St. Just parish, sensible men, and no Methodists. The name of one is James Tregear; of the other, Thomas Sackerly. I received the account from James, two or three hours before Thomas came: But there was no material difference. In July was twelvemonth, they both said, as they were walking from St. Just church town toward Sancreet, Thomas, happening to look up, cried out, "James, look, look! What is that in the sky?" The first appearance, as James expressed it, was, three large columns of horsemen, swiftly pressing on, as in a fight from southwest to northeast; a broad streak of sky being between each column. Sometimes they seemed to run thick together; then to thin their ranks. Afterward they saw a large fleet of three mast ships, in full sail toward the Lizard Point. This continued above a quarter of an hour: Then, all disappearing, they went on their way. The meaning of this, if it was real, (which I do not affirm,) time only can show. (Journal, 7th September 1755.)
Wesley is not sure about the objective reality of the reported event. He typically, "thinks and lets think" on such matters. For him such occurrences evokes a sense of awe and wonder. Unfortunately he doesn't comment further. Nehemiah Curnock, the editor of Wesley's Journals, refers to the Gentleman's Magazine 1754, p. 482 which is even more curious despite its brevity:

"About three weeks since, two persons of St Juste, six miles westward of Penzance in Cornwall, about 10 at night, saw in the sky, a large fleet of ships, and soon after a cloud came before it, and the scene was changed to an army, or armies, seeming to be smartly engaged in battle. It lasted fifteen minutes, and divers other persons saw this phaenomenon." (Gentleman's Magazine, Octboer 1745, p.482)
What are we to make of this? It was witnessed by "divers other persons". How many? A night-time observation....could it have been fireballs? northern lights? group hallucination? unidentified flying objects? psychological projection? star wars? condensation trails? a fiction? Definitely not Japanese lanterns! "Definitely not a hostile takeover!" The story is most peculiar. reminiscent of numerous, similar experiences reported throughout history since Elijah's chariots of fire and before.

Paul Lambourne Higgins in his, John Wesley Spiritual Witness, says, "At every point Wesley was a careful observer of unusual events and a thorough-going and highly intelligent investigator of psychic and supernatural phenomena." He also observes that the "active power of Providence for Wesley shaped the very forces of nature" which might explain how Wesley might have understood the experience of the two "sensible men" from Penzance. "Those experiences which strangely eluded man's understanding and quite defied the explanation of natural science were to Wesley clear evidence of the Providence of God." We probably need to view this incident in a similar light...an awesome manifestation of God's foresightful protective assurance and care for his creatures.

Whatever startled Tregear and Sackerly and others that July night in 1754, it remains a mystery to us, an "unexplained flying observation". Wesley leaves us to ponder "the meaning of this", to quietly contemplate the strange and mysterious permeation  of worlds unseen and dimensions unknown to us. But time will tell!



Further Reading:
Graham Hancock, Supernatural, 2005, Arrow Books, London.
Paul Lambourne Higgins, John Wesley Spiritual Witness, 1960, Dennison & Co, Minneapolis.
Carl Jung, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky, 2002, Routledge, London and New York.
Jacque Vallee, Passport to Magnolia: On UFOs, Folklore and Parallel Worlds, 1993 Contemporary Books, Chicago.
WY Evan-Wentz, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, 2004, New Page Books, Franklin lakes, NJ.
Walter Scott, Demonology and Witchcraft, 1830


©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Krotoa - Our Mythic Go-Between


There are mythologies that are scattered, broken up, all around us. We stand on what I call the terminal moraine of shattered mythic systems that once structured society. They can be detected all around us. You can select any of these fragments that activate your imagination for your own use. Let it help shape your own relationship to the unconscious system out of which these symbols have come.
Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That, p.86-87

Recently, the South African Post Office, issued a postage stamp portraying a young Khoikhoi woman named Krotoa, also known as Eva to the Dutch. Krotoa became an important figure in South African history. The recognition of Krotoa on one of our postage stamps was of considerable import to me personally as it must have been for many others.

Krotoa was a 9th great grandmother of mine and as such I have a special affinity with her. Indeed she is "mother" of countless South Africans of many races. Through her we are all connected. She embodies and reflects in many ways the "shattered mythic" essence of the South African psyche. Her story is our story.


The stamp, "designed by Lien Botha, features a drawing from the Western Cape Archives portraying Krotoa and a VOC (the Dutch East India Company) ship from a painting by Aernhout Smit (1683). These images are superimposed onto a contemporary photograph taken at Milnerton beach with Table Mountain in the background. The Commemorative folder cover also features the face of Krotoa, this time encircled by a wreath of tulips which alludes to the Company's Garden" (1,2)

Krotoa is probably the most written about woman in South African history. The Post Office Souvenir Folder (3) gives us a tantalising glimpse into the life of this remarkable but enigmatic young woman...
Krotoa was born in about 1642 on Robben Island, a decade before the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck. She was the first Khoikhoi woman to appear in the European records of the early settlement at the Cape as an individual personality who interacted socially and culturally with the Dutch settlers. 
Krotoa's brother-in-law is said to have been Oudasoa, a chief of the Cochoquas. When she was young, she worked in the household of Jan van Riebeeck, the first governor of the Cape Colony. 
As a teenager, Krotoa learned Dutch and Portuguese and like her uncle, Autshumao (known as Harry or Herrie by the Dutch) - a Coringhaicona Khoikhoi leader and trader, she worked as an interpreter for the Dutch who wanted to trade goods for cattle. Krotoa's role as interpreter extended beyond trading, as she was also instrumental in negotiating with the 'Peninsulars', whose foreman was Doman, regarding conflicts around land that erupted into formal war in 1659.

Since Krotoa travelled frequently between the Dutch colony and the Cochoquas, she came to embody the notion of an in-between figure, but found little happiness in either community. On 3 May 1662, she was baptised into the Christian religion by a visiting parson, Petrus Sibelius, in the church inside the Fort de Goede Hoop. 
On 26 April 1664, she married Pieter van Meerhoff, a Danish surgeon. She was the first Khoikhoi to marry according to Christian customs, and this marriage is the first between a European and a Khoi at the Cape. In May 1665, the couple left the Cape for Robben Island where Van Meerhoff became superintendent. He died on 27 February 1668 on an expedition to Madagascar. 
On 30 September 1668 she returned to the mainland with her children. According to VOC reports, she was suffering from alcoholism and left the Castle in the settlement to be with her family. In February 1669, she was imprisoned at the Castle and then banished to Robben Island for disorderly conduct. She returned to the mainland on many occasions just to find herself once more banished to Robben Island. Three of her children survived infancy. She died on 29 July 1674 at the Cape and was buried on 30 September 1674 in the church at the Fort.
Krotoa's eldest daughter, Pieternella, married Daniel Zaaijman, a friend of Van Riebeeck's. 
They lived in Madagascar for a while, but returned to the Cape upon the departure of the VOC from the island. Because of Pieternella's documented descendants, Krotoa is regarded a significant ancestor for many South Africans across various races.
Krotoa is described as an "in-between figure" reminding me of Brighid of the Celts (4).

Like Brighid, Krotoa is the 'Lady of the Shores'. She greets the European settlers as they come ashore. The shore is one of those magical in-between places that so fascinated the Celts and certainly the Strandlopers of the Cape. These in-between places, sometimes called "thin places", such as shorelines, fountains, wells, mountain passes, doorways and so on, are go-betweens, corridors. The shore is neither dry land, nor is it the ocean, yet it is the meeting place of both. In Krotoa, Africa and Europe meets. If we consider that the land represents our solid, material world, while the sea represents the Great Cosmic womb of all life, the intuitive side of our nature, we can see that the shore is a meeting place between one world and another and a young Khoikoi girl the bridge between Black and White South Africans.

oOo


Relationship Chart
Krotoa (Eva vd Kaap) - Colin Garvie

Acknowledgements:
1. Botha's interpretation of Krotoa was derived from; Sketches representing the Native Tribes, Animals and Scenery of Southern Africa, from drawings made by the late Mr Samuel Daniell, engraved by William Daniell, London, 1820, Courtesy of Western Cape Archives and Records Service - M1052 (photograph) and J 741 DAN (publication).
2. William Fehr Collection, Iziko Museums, Cape Town - ship from Aernout Smit painting of Cape Town, 1683. Carine Zaayman, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town.
3. Setempe, South African Stamp News, Vol.17, No.3, September - December 2012.
4. Wendy M. Reynolds, The Goddess Brighid, http://www.millersv.edu/~english/homepage/duncan/medfem/bride.html

Sources:
Karel Schoeman, 2009. Seven Khoi Lives. Cape Biographies of the Seventeenth Century. Pretoria: Protea.
Dan Sleigh, 1938, Eilande, recently translated from Afrikaans by Andre Brink (in Dutch: 'Stemmen uit zee'/in English: 'Islands').
SA Philatelic Services, Customer Services: http://www.postoffice.co.za, http://www.virtualpostoffice.co.za

Internet Resources:
http://v1.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/bios/krotoa.htm
http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/p/69.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krotoa
http://ancestry24.com/eva-krotoa-van-die-kaap/
http://www.geni.com/people/Krotoa-Eva-van-die-Kaap/
http://www.southafrica.to/history/history.html



©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

Friday, October 26, 2012

A Tribute to Binary Notation - And the Old Shall Become New

...there are many algorithms which might be used for combining contingencies, the simplest of these is known as the algebra of logic par excellence, or the Boolean algebra. This algorithm, like the binary arithmetic, is based on the dichotomy, the choice between yes and no, the choice between being in a class and outside it. The reason for its superiority to other systems are of the same nature as the reasons for the superiority of the binary arithmetic over other arithmetics.
-Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics, p.140

I was first introduced to the aesthetic beauty of binary numbering systems in a course in Digital Techniques at Technical College in the mid-1960s. I had not heard of binary arithmetic at school. Most school children today are taught the now familiar base two numbering system that uses only two symbols, 0 and 1, and carry a galaxy of pulsating flip-flops in their Blackberries and iPads around with them in their satchels.

As someone has observed, "For many years, mathematicians saw base two as a primitive system and overlooked the potential of the binary system as a tool for developing computer science and many electrical devices." http://www.bookrags.com/research/binary-number-system-wom/

And yet it has a fascinating history. Many ancient civilisations used a form of binary system but credit must surely go to the Chinese for their sophisticated use of binary notation as illustrated, for instance, in the trigrams of the  I Ching,  which interestingly might also describe the Genetic Code of Life if not also the Essence of Creation itself.



The West was a relatively late starter but took binary notation to new heights. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)  invented his "bilateral code" but used the symbols "A" and "B" to represent the letters of the alphabet much as dots and dashes are used in Morse Code or the 0's and 1's in the ASCII Code  today.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), mathematician, philosopher, theologian, learned of the binary system from Jesuit missionaries who had lived in China. He wrote, "Two Letters on the Binary Number System and Chinese Philosophy" (Norbert Wiener). He also attempted to apply binary thinking to theology. He speculated that the creation of the universe may have been based on a binary system, where "God, represented by the number 1, created the Universe out of nothing, represented by 0."

"The rest is history," as they say. Most electronic devices now are digital and we appreciate the purity, beauty, authenticity, and convenience, from digital music to digital cameras, digital television and even awesome digitized images from Mars and beyond to the very fringes of time.

What was once dismissed as crude and primitive has become the corner stone, the musical yin-yang of our technological age. Therein lies a parable. Today, few would dispute the elegance inherent in binary systems from ancient Chinese bi-cosmologists to yellow polka dot bikinis! Symmetry weaves her thread mysteriously into the fabric of the universe. Unless we appreciate that historically, mathematical systems such as the binary system were regarded as reflections, symbols, and algorithms of spiritual truth, much of the significance and alchemy of number systems will remain incomprehensible and obscure to us. (Davis and Hersh, The Mathematical Experience, p.96f) Binary notation and Boolean Algebra is indeed "the algebra of logic par excellence", the Alpha and Omega of the manifest World!

Photo Credit: NASA Hubble Galaxy Pair

©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Scorn Not His Simplicity...



Scorn not his simplicity
But rather try to love him all the more 
Scorn not his simplicity 
  -Phil Coulter


Arthur
1957-2012
"With God, life and strength within me, how can I be weak?" 
-Selvarajan Yesudian

Recently, my younger, Down's Syndrome  brother, Arthur, passed away leaving me to reflect on the huge impact that his life had on mine.

Of all the experiences and crises that transformed and influenced the course of my life none came near to the profound challenges that Arthur brought to bear on my own life and mind. Arthur affected my life not so much by what he was capable of doing or saying, though often surprising and dramatic as those epiphanies were, but simply by who he was as a lovable human being without rancour or guile.

I saw more looking intently into the eyes of Arthur than I ever discovered standing with astonished amazement beneath NASA's 210-foot Goldstone Dish Antenna in California gazing into the mysterious immensity of Space.

His life had greater impact on me than that once in a lifetime moment in my life when I was ordained into the Christian ministry by the laying on of hands.

All the academic learning of Technical Colleges and Universities, neither Diplomas in Space Communications nor Degrees in Theologies, can ever compare with what Arthur taught me.

Great thinkers moulded my grasp of who I was in the indescribable vastness of the Universe, Plato, Augustine, Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, Wesley, Kierkegaard, Einstein, Jung, Gandhi, Smuts to mention but a few, but outshining all of these was the simple life of a little brother who loved Jesus - ARTHUR! Scorn not his simplicity! Namaste!


©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Cybernetics and Dreams


...build belief in yourself and as you do this, you reactivate the success mechanism -- the servo-mechanism -- within you. This implies that your eyes are open to opportunities that arise because you want to see them and reach them -- without stepping on other people's toes, but also without tripping over your own toes. 
-Maxwell Maltz, Psycho-Cybernetics and Self-Fulfillment, p.8

The term cybernetics stems from the Greek κυβερνήτης (kybernētēs, steersman, governor, pilot, or rudder — the same root as government). In 1 Corinthians 12:28 (cf Prov 1.5; 11.14 Septuagint) κυβέρνησις is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Today the word is generally used in the context of Information Systems.

The significance of cybernetics to anthropology, sociology, physiology, and psychology was appreciated by the father of modern cybernetics, Norbert Wiener  and others. He wrote, "Drs McCulloch and Fremont-Smith have rightly seen the psychological and sociological implications of the subject.... The need of including psychologists had indeed  been obvious from the beginning. He who studies the nervous system cannot forget the mind, and he who studies the mind cannot forget the nervous system. (Wiener, Cybernetics, p.26). Thus the relevance of cybernetics to dreaming and dreams.

Over the years I have come to experience and think of dreams as an inner guidance system, a rudder or steering mechanism to help one navigate through life's difficulties. Dreams can be a useful problem-solving resource.

A little while ago I had been reading John Kehoe (Quantum Warrior, p.120f) explaining how one can consciously dream solutions to problems through a process he calls "dream incubation". Top of my mind at the time was an awful conflict situation I had had at work. It was an accounting environment and the problem was one of financial accountability. I was a programmer and a technician but not an accountant so felt inadequate to deal with it. The problem was a complex legal-forensic one and a very serious one at that. It affected me deeply.  Kehoe led me to think differently about the problem by  reactivating the "servo-system" within myself.

So, on going to bed I kept repeating the question that was running through my mind, "What must I do about this situation at work? Do I continue working at it or do I just resign from it, throw in the towel, and not get involved?" With this concern on my heart I went to sleep.

I woke early the next morning dreaming that I was at a radio observatory of sorts like the one at Hartebeesthoek where I had previously worked. In a mysterious way my dream had latched on to a context I could easily relate to as a technician and programmer. In the dream we weren't getting a clear "picture" of a critical deep space object that we were looking at. I suggested the noise level was anomalously high, distorting the picture, and that we should check the signal to noise ratio (SNR is a standard measurement in radio telecommunication). We needed to take corrective action in order to see the big picture by reducing internally generated dissonance . (See Gestalt and Cybernetics.) And so it happened.

Mariner 6 photo enhancement.
First panel is the original picture. The top-right panel
is the system noise pattern which when digitally
applied to the original clarifies it as in the lower pictures.
Photo Credit: NASA

It was quite some dream! As a direct response to my question, the the dream seemed to be advising me that the problem should not simply be ignored but that it had to be addressed. It also indicated the kind of contribution I could make.

Remarkable as my dream was, dreams of this nature are not unusual. Indeed, one of the most significant instances comes from my own Methodist tradition. John Wesley wrote parts of his Journal in code, intentionally guarding its contents deliberately hiding it by means of a cipher. Sometimes there is good reason for encoding transmissions. In this case, it was not noise that hid the true content but encoding.

John Wesley had left behind a Journal much of it written in an indecipherable code. In 1909, the Rev. Nehemiah Curnock was poking around through a secondhand bookstore when he came across a treasure - John Wesley's personal Bible, with marginal handwritten notes in the same mysterious code. Curnock bought the Bible, studied it, and then forgot about it. One night, shortly thereafter, while deep in sleep, Reverend Curnock had a dream - he saw Wesley's Journal, and on one page the code was deciphered. Waking, he had the key. Remembering his dream, he examined Wesley's code in the Bible, and unlocked the mystery. Curnock alludes to the dream in his introduction to his edition of the Journal of John Wesley. His dream was cybernetic, it had guided and directed him to the key that would help unlock the mysterious cipher John Wesley had used.

Dreams do that for us! They open us to new possibilities helping us to see the underlying issues and get the  "bigger picture".

oOo

Further Reading:
Two interesting articles by George Butler:
"Minister's Remarkable Dream", http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1891&dat=19761010&id=-6QfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OtYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1360,1216912
"Dreams often provide key to many of world's mysteries", http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1891&dat=19750816&id=wKcfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VtYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=811,2666820

Recent Wesleyan research has built on the earlier work of Nehemiah Curnock. Richard Heitzenrater has devoted much of his time decoding the diaries of John Wesley http://divinity.duke.edu/publications/2008.10/features/code/index.htm. Charles Wesley also coded large sections of his Journal which has been cracked by Professor Kenneth Newport http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1049285/Coded-diary-reveals-secret-sex-scandal-haunted-Methodist-founder-Charles-Wesley.html


©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

Monday, June 25, 2012

Would God Answer Our prayers through the Pleiadans?


Sunrise at St Micahaels-on-Sea, 13 June 2012 CGG

Both Scriptural Christianity and Scientific Cosmology informs my spirituality. Frank Laubach believed prayer to be the mightiest force in the World available to man. Indeed, the most awesome power in the Universe! If so, would God not engage Extraterrestrial Sentient Beings to intervene to respond to our human planetary crises? I see no reason why not. God engages human agencies to answer prayer. So why not Galactic and Quantum means? Macracosmic as well as Microcosmic powers? Even Extraterrestrial, Multi-Dimensional Spiritual Beings? I think so. It gives me the sense of unlimited possible action!

There are some who believe such a possibility already exists, already present now in the realm of reality, just waiting in the wings to be fully disclosed to human consciousness. For instance, so-called "channeller" Greg Giles wrote recently on behalf of the "Galactic Federation of Light":

"We have always assured that you would receive the benefits from our assistance, although it has been necessary for us to conceal our helping hand to better allow you to reap the rewards of going it on your own. This has always been a very delicate operation where we needed to conceal our craft from your eyes and needed to camouflage our part in many of your affairs. We feel we have done an adequate job in this sense, and up until very recent times we feel very few of you were even aware of our presence and still more of you were unaware that we took part in so many events and directions that your society has taken." http://www.ascensionearth2012.org/

Is this just "New Age Mumbo Jumbo"? Some of us might be cynical. Billy Graham thought Extraterrestrials could be Angels - God's "Secret Agents" (Angels God's Secret Agents, p.21 See http://ichthyscybernetics.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html). One is reminded of  the story in 2 Kings 6:16-17 where Elisha's servant could not see all the protection that surrounded them, until the Lord opened his eyes at Elisha's request. Then he could see the hills occupied by other-worldly horses and chariots of fire surrounding and protecting them. Or one thinks of Michael and his Angels: Dan 12:1  "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time” (Dan 12:1; Rev 12:7).

However, having said this and whatever our expectations or convictions might be, the primary responsibility for change in our World lies with us, ordinary beings. Einstein once said, "Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act." Henry Burton wrote a hymn, one of my favourites, that for me, says it all:

There's a light upon the mountains,
  and the day is at the spring,
When our eyes shall see the beauty
  and the glory of the King;
Weary was our heart with waiting, and
  the night-watch seemed so long,
But His triumph-day is breaking, and
  we hail it with a song.
....


He is calling for His angels to build
  up the gates of day;
But His angels here are human, not
  the shining hosts above,
For the drum-beats of His army are
  the heart-beats of our love.

(http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/954#ixzz1yUmIyVzf)


©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Something in Lighter Vein - The Fine-Structure Constant

I thought we needed to consider something in a lighter mood...

Recently I came in possession of Arthur I Miller's Deciphering the Cosmic Number, the Strange Friendship of Wofgang Pauli and Carl Jung. The book is in itself enthralling reading but I knew very little about this so-called, "cosmic number".

I discovered it was the mysterious number 137 that obsessed Pauli and Quantum Physicists ever since Sommerfield came upon it in 1916. It is called the "Fine-Structure Constant". Not knowing much about it and how it is derived (it seems not many, if anyone, knows either) I turned to the Wikipedia article where I was sure to find the answer. I was none the wiser but the entry had this wonderful quote from Richard Feynman. He referred to the fine-structure constant in these terms:
“There is a most profound and beautiful question associated with the observed coupling constant, e - the amplitude for a real electron to emit or absorb a real photon. It is a simple number that has been experimentally determined to be close to 0.08542455. (My physicist friends won't recognize this number, because they like to remember it as the inverse of its square: about 137.03597 with about an uncertainty of about 2 in the last decimal place. It has been a mystery ever since it was discovered more than fifty years ago, and all good theoretical physicists put this number up on their wall and worry about it.) Immediately you would like to know where this number for a coupling comes from: is it related to pi or perhaps to the base of natural logarithms? Nobody knows. It's one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics: a magic number that comes to us with no understanding by man. You might say the "hand of God" wrote that number, and "we don't know how He pushed his pencil." We know what kind of a dance to do experimentally to measure this number very accurately, but we don't know what kind of dance to do on the computer to make this number come out, without putting it in secretly!" (Richard P. Feynman (1985). QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter. Princeton University Press. p. 129)
What caught my eye was where Feynman says, "You might say the 'hand of God' wrote that number, and 'we don't know how He pushed his pencil.'" What a tremendous figure of speech!

Perhaps we do know how God “pushed his pencil.” If Yahweh wrote in Hebrew, as we are told by those who claim to be in the know, he did, then probably we need to read his works the way one reads Hebrew....backwards! And from bottom to top! Which, according to Prof. Higgins "is absolutely frightening." (My Fair Lady, Act I, Scene I)

Whatever our speculations, I am reminded of words attributed to Galileo:
"Philosophy is written in the grand book of the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood until one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles and other geometric figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand  a single word of it;  without these one wanders about in a dark labyrinth."
Oh, just by the way, Arthur Miller tells us in the prologue to his book (p.xvii)  that the sum of the Hebrew letters of the word "Kabbalah" equals 137. Now how is that for a scary, frightening synchronicity!



Picture credit and another fine article: "The fine-structure constant and the nature of the universe, Ye cannae change the laws of physics. Or can you?", The Economist, August 31st, 2010. http://www.economist.com/node/16930866

©Colin G Garvie HomePage: http://www.garvies.co.za