Univocalics

Here is part of a recent email I sent to my erudite French correspondent GH :

Before Christmas, I treated myself in an Oxfam shop to a second-hand copy of a book on words by Tony Augarde and published by the Oxford University Press in 1984.

One new challenge I discovered therein is the ''Univocalic,'' which, as you may have guessed, is a piece of written text using only one vowel throughout.

Here's an example in French:

Je cherche en même temps l'éternel et l'éphémère.

And another in English, a real gem dating from 1967. The virtuoso word-smith has also contrived to make it a palindrome.

It seems to be a conversation between two owls (or is it three?)

'Too hot to hoot!'
'Too hot to woo!'
'Too wot?'
'Too hot to hoot!'
'To woo!'
'Too wot?'
'To hoot! Too hot to hoot!'

I decided somewhat rashly to take up the challenge and found it more difficult than I had imagined. Too much turkey and Christmas cake, perhaps. Anyway, here it is, in the style of a 'lonely hearts' advert placed by a disconsolate Westminster lady :

Peerless peeress seeks perfect peer.
He'll be her ever-present seer,
Emerge whene'er her eye beseeches,
Excel her effervescent speeches.

A New Year's resolution for 2020: I must never again take for granted our humble little vowel friends : )

**************************************************************************

I tried my luck yesterday with a univocalic teetering close to a tongue-twister. It's a dialogue between Anna and  her Nan or Nana (short a's as in cat) who is a hard of hearing, nonagenarian grandma and good at grammar.

Anna's an anagrammer and Nana's a grammar Nana

Anna: Nana's an anagram-
Nana: A Nana gran?
Anna: An anagram, Nan!
Nana: A grammar Nan, Anna?
Anna: Nana's anagram's an-
Nana: Anna!  Nana's anagram's Anana!
Anna: Anana's a bananas anagram, Nana!

To be or not to be an apple: Wolfgang Smith's new article

Dr Wolfgang Smith has written a brief but powerful response to a critique of his work by Dr Alec McAndrew in ''When is an apple not an apple?''

You may find his article here: Philos-Sophia Initiative.

He demonstrates succinctly and irresistibly that the critique of what Dr. MacAndrew terms “the Cartesian assumption” (bi-furcation) is not in fact “uncalled for and misdirected.”

He also deals with the related question of perception of external realities by praying in aid the empirical work of James J. Gibson, a cognitive psychologist who began his career in the 1940’s at Cornell University on a government grant, tasked with discovering how one can visually perceive a so-called “aiming point” (e.g., the deck of a distant aircraft carrier as viewed from an approaching plane).

The conclusion from Gibson's ground-breaking research and analysis was:

...we do in truth perceive the “external world”  as just about everyone — from simple folk to the great philosophers — had thought all along! And that is why Gibson refers to it as “the ecological  theory of visual perception,” the point being that what we actually perceive is not “inside the head,” but outside:  it pertains in fact to what he terms “the environment,” which proves thus to be inherently what I term the corporeal  world.

Please be sure to visit the Philos-Sophia Initiative website. Smith's new film, The End of Quantum Reality, is due to be released in the USA on January 11, 2020.

Unto us

Unto Us[1]

by Spike Milligan (1918-2002)

Here is a poem I discovered today, to which I have added some notes.

Somewhere at some time

They committed themselves to me [2]

And so, I was!

Small, but I WAS! [3]

Tiny, in shape

Lusting to live

I hung in my pulsing cave.[4]

Soon they knew of me

My mother —my father.

I had no say in my being

I lived on trust

And love

Tho' I couldn't think,

Each part of me was saying

A silent 'Wait for me

I will bring you love!' [5]

I was taken

Blind, naked, defenceless [6]

By the hand of one

Whose good name

Was graven on a brass plate

in Wimpole Street,

and dropped on the sterile floor

of a foot operated plastic waste

bucket.

There was no Queens Counsel

To take my brief.

The cot I might have warmed

Stood in Harrod's shop window.

When my passing was told

My father smiled.

No grief filled my empty space.

My death was celebrated

With tickets to see Danny la Rue [7]

Who was pretending to be a woman

Like my mother was. 

Notes
[1] Unto Us: This may recall the chorus from Handel's Messiah:

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, 
and the government shall be upon His shoulder; 
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, 
the Mighty God, 
the Everlasting Father, 
the Prince of Peace.

Or the words from the hymn, Unto us is born a son (Words: "Puer Nobis Nascitur," Authorship Unknown, Trier MS, 15th Century; Translator: George Ratcliffe Woodward, 1859-1934). Note the words in the third verse. 

1. Unto us is born a son,
King of choirs supernal:
See on earth his life begun,
Of lords the Lord eternal.

2. Christ, from heav'n descending low,
Comes on earth a stranger;
Ox and ass their Owner know
Now cradled in a manger.

3. This did Herod sore affray,
And did him bewilder,
So he gave the word to slay,
And slew the little childer.

4. Of his love and mercy mild
Hear the Christmas story:
O that Mary's gentle Child
Might lead us up to glory!

5. O and A and A and O,
Cantemus in choro,
Voice and organ, sing we so,
Benedicamus Domino.

Both Handel and the hymn refer to Chapter 9, verse 6 in the Book of Isaiah:

[6] Parvulus enim natus est nobis, et filius datus est nobis, et factus est principatus super humerum ejus : et vocabitur nomen ejus, Admirabilis, Consiliarius, Deus, Fortis, Pater futuri saeculi, Princeps pacis.[Vulgate]For a child is  to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.[Douay Rheims]For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.[King James][Isaiah 9]

[2] They: His parents, in the matrimonial act.

[4] Who answering, said to them: Have ye not read, that he who made man from the beginning, Made them male and female? And he said:Qui respondens, ait eis : Non legistis, quia qui fecit hominem ab initio, masculum et feminam fecit eos? Et dixit :[5] For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh.Propter hoc dimittet homo patrem, et matrem, et adhaerebit uxori suae, et erunt duo in carne una.[Matt 19]

[3] At the time, he would have cried ''I am!'' A new being has been created out of nothing and he now is. Recalling the words spoken to Moses:

[14] God said to Moses: I AM WHO AM. He said: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: HE WHO IS, hath sent me to you.Dixit Deus ad Moysen : Ego sum qui sum. Ait : Sic dices filiis Israel : Qui est, misit me ad vos.[Gen 3]

[4] cave: Consider the cave where Jesus was born;

But when the Child was born in Bethlehem, since Joseph could not find a lodging in that village, he took up his quarters in a certain cave near the village; and while they were there Mary brought forth the Christ and placed Him in a manger, and here the Magi who came from Arabia found Him. (St Justin Martyr: Chapter LXXVIII, Dialogue with Trypho).

And the cave-sepulchre mentioned in connection with his death 

Jesus therefore again groaning in himself, cometh to the sepulchre. Now it was a cave; and a stone was laid over it."[John 11:38]

[5] Consider the words of the beloved disciple, St John, for example: 

[9] As the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love.Sicut dilexit me Pater, et ego dilexi vos. Manete in dilectione mea.[John 15][19] Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us.Nos ergo diligamus Deum, quoniam Deus prior dilexit nos.[1 John 4]

The baby born at Bethlehem came to bring us love.
[6] Blind, naked, defenceless:

[64] And they blindfolded him... [Luke 22][28] And stripping him, they put a scarlet cloak about him.et exeuntes eum, chlamydem coccineam circumdederunt ei,[Matt 27][7] He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth.Oblatus est quia ipse voluit, et non aperuit os suum; sicut ovis ad occisionem ducetur, et quasi agnus coram tondente se obmutescet, et non aperiet os suum.[Isaiah 53]

[7] Danny la Rue: Daniel Patrick Carroll, 1927 – 2009):Irish-English singer and entertainer known for his singing and drag act performances.

Christus Vincit: Conclusion of review

This is the final post in the series reviewing Bishop Schneiders 2019 book, Christus Vincit.

We have seen how the opening chapters provide a moving insight into the author's family background and his life-story up until his consecration as a bishop in 2006.

<<<<<<  Here is a snapshot of the table of contents showing the chapters following the autobiographical introduction.

These are summarised on the Angelico website as follows:

''Bishop Athanasius Schneider offers a candid, incisive examination of controversies raging in the Church and the most pressing issues of our times, providing clarity and hope for beleaguered Catholics. He addresses such topics as widespread doctrinal confusion, the limits of papal authority, the documents of Vatican II, the Society of St. Pius X, anti-Christian ideologies and political threats, the third secret of Fatima, the traditional Roman rite, and the Amazon Synod, among many others. 

Like his fourth-century patron, St. Athanasius the Great, Bishop Schneider says things that others won’t, fearlessly following St. Paul’s advice: “Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching” (2 Tim 4:2). His insights into the challenges facing Christ’s flock today are essential reading for those who are, or wish to be, alert to the signs of the times.'' [From the Angelico Press website]

Christus Vincit is available from Angelico Press or for Kindle from Amazon.

The End of Quantum Reality: Must watch interview

For those of our readers who have been following the amazing work of Dr Wolfgang Smith, do not miss the opportunity to watch his latest interview with Rick Delano.


The interview premiered on November 14, 2019, some 18 months after the last interview.

Here is a link to the interview: The End of Quantum Reality.

We reviewed his 2019 book earlier this year:

Physics & Vertical Causation, the End of Quantum Reality.

For those new to the subject, please have a look at the Philo Sophia Initiative website.

There you will discover his ground-breaking work on huge, cosmological issues such as evolution, geocentrism,  Galileo, Newton, Mach, Michelson & Morley, Einstein, quantum theory, scientism, real metaphysics, Aristotle, Aquinas and oriental philosophy.

Oh, and vertical causality and the Godhead...

Christus Vincit: Athanasius

This is the third in our series of posts reviewing Christus Vincit (2019) by Bishop Athanasius Schneider. The future bishop began his novitiate with the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross (Austria). He was ordained on the 25th of March 1990 and he notes that his first Holy Mass was in Latin. At the time of his profession, he was given the name Athanasius and he was sent to Brazil. His order gave material help to the poor but also taught them the catechism and the Rosary, which they loved. Sometimes he had to take the Blessed Sacrament to the sick on horseback, because of the difficult terrain. He later completed his studies with Patrology and a dissertation on the Shepherd of Hermas (Ecclesiology and Penance). He met Pope John Paul II twice and was sent to Karaganda.. In 2006, he was consecrated a bishop in Rome, taking as his motto: Kyrie Eleison. At this moment he recalled a prayer his parents wrote as a memorial for his priestly ordination in 1990:

“Lord Jesus, give me love, a strong and ardent love for you and, for your sake, for all men and for all that is good. Give me fortitude, so that I may consider the whole world insignificant, if it will seek to separate me from you. Give me joy in my priesthood, for which you have chosen me. May I faithfully observe your commandments and give me the grace to do great things in my priesthood with deep humility and a pure intention.”

Mother of All Nations, Karaganda. Gugigug. CC BY-SA 3.0 

As auxiliary bishop in Karaganda, he played a key role in building Our Lady of Fatima, the largest Catholic Church in central Asia. Its second title is ''Mother of All Nations.'' He tells a charming story about this Cathedral:

''Two local ladies from Muslim families passed by the cathedral, and the one woman asked her companion, 'What is this building here?' Her friend answered, “This is a Catholic mosque.” Our Lady of Fatima has already attracted many people through this beautiful church, including non-Christians. And that is one of the main goals of a Catholic church building, to bring people to Christ.'' 

He has written about the Holy Eucharist in Dominus Est, a copy of which was sent to all the bishops in North America.

He prepared a decree which applies to the whole of Kazakhstan:

''The decree contained norms stipulating that in the entire territory of Kazakhstan in all Catholic churches, chapels, and religious communities, Holy Communion has to be received by the faithful while kneeling (except of course for health reasons) and on the tongue; that receiving Communion in the hand is prohibited even for Catholics from abroad.''

The last question in this chapter concerned his reaction to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. His response is quitre striking:

''I could not have imagined that the breakdown of this atheistic system would usher in a worse situation in Europe, which is now before us: the dictatorship of gender ideology. This is really a dictatorship. It is actually the same method as in Communist times.''

His sobering reflection concludes this third post. In the next post, we shall conclude the review by giving you a flavour of what is covered in the remaining chapters of this remarkable book.

Christus Vincit is available from Angelico Press or for Kindle from Amazon.

Christus Vincit: God calls

This is our second post on Bishop Athanasius Schneider's 2019 book, Christus Vincit. In his second chapter, the author gives us a glimpse of life for a devout Catholic family under a ferociously anti-Christian tyranny in the Soviet Union. The author reveals how pious his grandparents were and how devoted his parents were to the Eucharist. One of his fondest memories concerns family prayers on the Lord's day:

''On Sundays, we closed all the doors, drew the curtains, and knelt down—my parents with the four children—and we sanctified the day of the Lord because there was no priest, no Mass. We had to sanctify the day of the Lord, so in the morning we prayed the Rosary, a litany, prayers, and then we made our Spiritual Communion...''

It is a salutary reminder to many Catholics in the West to be deeply grateful for their opportunity to assist at Mass, even if in many places the old Mass may be difficult to find.  It is a warning but also an inspirational example of what to do if (or when) the current liberal and secular war in the west against Christ and His Church becomes more extensive and intrusive.

Bishop Schneider explains that in his boyhood, a priest might come every six months, sometimes once a year. There were even some years when his family had to go without Mass and Communion. Their faith burned brightly despite the enemy's attempts to snuff it out. He illustrates the determination of the faithful and the joy he felt with a reference to Christmas:

''On Christmas Eve all the Germans came to our house. I remember as a child, our house was full—some were even standing outside—and we were singing all the beautiful Christmas songs, all in German. The one which I most loved as a seven or eight-year-old child, and sang the next day, was Adeste fideles in German—'Kommt, lasset uns anbeten' ('O Come, All Ye Faithful').''

A significant milestone in his life-story came when in 1969 the family moved to Valga in Estonia when he was eight years old. This was to facilitate their hope of emigrating to Germany. They established that the nearest Catholic church was 100 kilometers away in Tartu. Going to Mass involved a train journey starting at six o'clock in the morning, returning that evening. His parents were delighted with this opportunity:

'' 'Oh, children, we are so happy! We have a church so close to us. Only 100 kilometers!' I remember this. 'So close to us. Only 100 kilometers!' We were all so happy.''

Bishop Schneider writes that this is one of the most beautiful memories of his life, these Sunday Mass trips.

At this point in the interview, his interlocutor referred to Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago and asked about the Karaganda gulag. Here is a summary of Bishop Schneider's response. The Karaganda gulag was known as the “Karlag”. The word “Gulag,” is an abbreviation for “Glávnoye Upravléniye Ispravítelno-trudovykh Lageréy” which is Russian for: “Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Camps”). The system reached its peak during Stalin’s rule from the 1930s to the 1950s. The Karlagcovered an area roughly equivalent to today’s France. Over one million people passed through the Karlag. The first were priests, religious ministers, intellectuals, nobility, officers, and peasants, labelled “enemies of the people” or “public enemies”. They were transported in cattle trucks from all over the Soviet Union to Kazakhstan.

Silver-thread embroidered antimensium 1540-60. Benaki Museum [Public domain]

Several hundred priests and religious died in the Karlag. Today, in the village of Dolinka, near the city of Karaganda, stands the Museum of the Memory of Victims of Political Repression.
The older people who experienced and still remember the terrible times of repression say that the soil around Karaganda is soaked with the tears and blood of countless innocent persons. Once the late Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow, Alexij, when visiting Karaganda, said that the area of Karaganda can symbolically be described as an “antimension”—a kind of “corporal” in the Byzantine Rite, in which are sewn the relics of martyrs.

Celebrating Traditional Latin Mass in Tallinn, Estonia. 2010

Bishop Schneider concludes this second chapter with a story. He had recently made his First Holy Communion and he was making his way with his mother after Mass one day towards the priest's house. Out of curiosity, he asked his mother how one could become a priest. He was ten years old.  His mother stopped and sad to him: ''In order to become a priest, it is necessary that God calls.''

Two years later, the family emigrated to Germany. Before their departure, their priest blessed them and explained there were some churches where Communion was given in the hand. He asked them not to go to those churches. They did indeed find this practice was widespread:

''It was horrible for us: almost all of the people received Communion in the hand. And it was given quickly, with people standing in a line, like in a cafeteria.''

Marko Tervaportti [CC BY 3.0] 

Bishop Schneider completed his education in Germany, gaining fluency in literary German (he speaks six languages fluently). He attended Mass daily and frequently went to exposition of the Blessed Sacrament for silent adoration. He recalls that as a child he simply loved Our Lady.

At the end of his studies in the Gymnasium, he entered the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross in Austria. It was in 1982 that he began his novitiate, a step on the road to answering God's call. He was to be ordained on the feast of the Annunciation in 1990, in Brazil.


Christus Vincit is available from Angelico Press or for Kindle from Amazon.

Christus Vincit: ''The Tribulation of those Days - Good Soil''

Our two sister blog-sites are still busy on a daily basis with ongoing projects: Deo Gratias.

You may wish to have a brief look. Here are their links:


The Life of Christ Our Lord will incorporate J-J Tissot's incredible art-work to illustrate the Gospel accounts.

Detailed notes make extensive use of the Great Commentary by Cornelius A Lapide. Maps, diagrams and other notes are also included.

Here is the home-page of the site.

New posts are published daily on the blog.

A second, older site was developed as a showcase for a remarkable Rosary dating back to pre-Reformation, Catholic England, celebrated throughout Christendom as Mary's Dowry. Apart from the superb  verse and art-work, materials are posted to the blog on a daily basis.

Here is a link to the home-page where you can access the blog.





As time permits, I aim to include a series of posts here by way of reviewing an outstanding book I finished reading a couple of weeks ago and which is supremely suited for the calamitous times in which we find ourselves.

Angelico Press, 2019 

''In this absorbing interview, Bishop Athanasius Schneider offers a candid, incisive examination of controversies raging in the Church and the most pressing issues of our times, providing clarity and hope for beleaguered Catholics. He addresses such topics as widespread doctrinal confusion, the limits of papal authority, the documents of Vatican II, the Society of St. Pius X, anti-Christian ideologies and political threats, the third secret of Fatima, the traditional Roman rite, and the Amazon Synod, among many others. Like his fourth-century patron, St. Athanasius the Great, Bishop Schneider says things that others won’t, fearlessly following St. Paul’s advice: “Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching” (2 Tim 4:2). His insights into the challenges facing Christ’s flock today are essential reading for those who are, or wish to be, alert to the signs of the times.'' [From the Angelico Press website]



Christus Vincit is a book-length interview based upon a series of question and answer sessions conducted by Diana Montagna, a journalist who is currently Rome correspondent for Lifesite News. She provides a summary of Bishop Schneider's life in her Introduction:

 Black Sea, R. Volga,  Astana & Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan. [Wikicommons, Public Domain]

''Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of St. Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan: Born Antonius Schneider on April 7, 1961, in Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan (USSR), Bishop Schneider’s early years were spent in the Soviet underground church, before emigrating with his family to Germany. 

In 1982, he entered in Austria the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, originally founded in Coimbra. He was ordained to the priesthood on March 25, 1990. 


Appointed to the episcopate by Pope Benedict XVI, in June 2006, at the age of 45, he was consecrated a bishop in St. Peter’s Basilica.''

Divided into twenty chapters, with an Appendix, the book immediately seizes the reader's attention in the opening pages with an account of his family ancestry amongst the Black Sea Germans from Alsace-Lorraine. They were devout Catholics and suffered dreadful tribulations under the Communist tyranny which spread like a dreadful plague across Holy Mother Russia. In the diocese created for Germans in South Ukraine:

''there were over two hundred German priests from this diocese. What’s beautiful is that no one apostatized. Not one. Almost all of the two hundred priests from the diocese, with the exception of a few priests, were killed or imprisoned.''

As the Second World War drew nearer, the atrocities increased:

''The horrible years were in Stalin’s time from 1936 to 1938, which are called the Dark Years, the terror years, though Stalin cynically called these years the time of purification. It was a purgation, a 'cleansing,' Stalin said. The Communists killed primarily priests, wealthy people, and intellectuals, all of whom were seen as potential enemies. There was a genocide, and what’s incredible is that history is almost silent about this. In these two years, Stalin killed millions upon millions of innocent people—his own people, not foreigners. It is a proven historical fact.''

Bishop Schneider's paternal grandfather was taken away and murdered, leaving his grandmother as a widow aged twenty-five with two sons aged seven and two. His grandmother lived seventy-four years as a widow, dying aged ninety-nine. Her prayer life was altogether remarkable:

''She would pray at least three hours in the morning. Then she did her work, and then she stopped and prayed an hour. Then in the afternoon, and in the evening, she prayed three hours.''

His grandfather on his mother's side was also killed, by a stray Luftwaffe bomb,  leaving his grandmother as a widow with seven children. The Germans occupied this part of Ukraine and evacuated the Russian Germans to East Germany as they retreated before the Red Army. There were around 300,000 of them and they were all later rounded up by the Communists and taken back to Soviet territory in cattle trucks. His mother and father, yet to meet, were exiled to a work camp in the Ural Mountains. Thousands died in the sub-zero temperatures. Even girls had to do a full day's work once they turned sixteen.

How did these Catholics retain their faith?

''Unfortunately, they had to go ten years, more or less, with no priests. But the families transmitted the faith, and every day they prayed. For example, in Lent, on Fridays in the evening after this hard work, neighboring families came together and prayed the Stations of the Cross in a room. Even after an exhausting day, they prayed the Stations of the Cross in Lent.''

Bishop Schneider describes a concentration camp in the Kazakhstan gulag, reputed to be one of the very worst. A holy priest, Fr Oleksiy, made quite superhuman efforts to bring the sacraments to poor souls scattered in this and other camps.

''At night he heard confessions, because they were ten years without a priest. He would celebrate Mass and give Holy Communion and so on. Sometimes he would go two days without eating, because people came continuously—thousands of Germans who were Catholics. They came secretly to confess.''

Even in the 1960s, the anti-Christian oppression was still in force. When Fr Oleksiy came to Kyrgystan to say Mass for Bishop Schneider's parents, he had to do so in total secrecy. Little Antonius was only one year old when he made this, his début as an altar-boy!

In the next post, we shall be looking at Bishop Schneider's boyhood and God's call to him.


Christus Vincit is available from Angelico Press or for Kindle from Amazon.

Quick update

Most of our energy is currently taken by two big projects under way on our sister blogs. Pop over to check on our progress:

The Life of Christ Our Lord will incorporate J-J Tissot's incredible art-work to illustrate the Gospel accounts.

Detailed notes make extensive use of the Great Commentary by Cornelius A Lapide. Maps, diagrams and other notes are also included.

Here is the home-page of the site.

New posts are published daily on the blog.

A second, older site was developed as a showcase for a remarkable Rosary dating back to pre-Reformation, Catholic England, celebrated throughout Christendom as Mary's Dowry. Apart from the superb  verse and art-work, materials are posted to the blog on a daily basis.

Here is a link to the home-page where you can access the blog.










Finally, here are some screen-shots of books I have read in recent weeks. I recommend all of them but I don't currently have time to write reviews.

First published in 2011, this has been a massive best-seller in Russia. I have now read it twice, including some of the stories to my family. Highly recommended for its powerful insights and its humour. The stories are narrated in a highly engaging manner.

First published in 2019, this book approaches history free from the usual constraints that seek to censor certain lines of enquiry.

Living Machines & Desperate Moderns. E Michael Jones reveals the impact on art and living of those big names who decided to shape truth to their desires instead of subordinating their desires to the truth.

I started reading this in an attempt to discover if Campion could conceivably have been the real author of ''Shakespeare''.  It turned out to be a superbly written, concise life of the scholar, missionary and martyr; impossible to put down.

Waugh's grandson turns out to be a world-authority on the ''Shakespeare Authorship Question,'' his preferred candidate being the 17th Earl of Oxford. He has a delightful style with both the written and the spoken word. You can discover the latter on the De Vere Society website, where he has uploaded a wealth of video- and pod-casts displaying a bewildering mastery of detail and a finely tuned sense of humour.

The End of Quantum Reality: Premiere on Jan 10 2020

Readers may be interested to learn that the film based on Dr Wolfgang Smith's life and work is due to be premiered on the 10th of January 2O20.

For further information see: Philos-Sophia Initiative.

For a discussion about the film with Christian Meoli of Arena Cinelounge, plus the premiere of the official theatrical trailer, see "The End Of Quantum Reality" Vlog.

A cosmic theophany

Concluding our series of posts on Dr Wolfgang Smith's 2019 monumental monograph: Physics & Vertical Causation, the End of Quantum Reality. (Angelico Press, 2019, also available on Amazon Kindle). 
For further reading on this and related material, see the Philos-Sophia Initiative website.

According to Smith and the authorities he cites, the cosmos constitutes a theophany: a manifestation or appearance of God to man [from Greek θεοϕάνεια and θεοϕάνια (neuter plural), < θεός god + ϕαίνειν to show].

He recalls the parable of the three measures of meal (see previous post) and its relevance to the conception of a cosmic trichotomy, as signified by the cosmic icon (left). Here are the correspondences, tabulated:



Measure                        Macrocosm                                          Microcosm
1st measure                   Cosmic centre point ''O''                      Spirit         
2nd measure                  Intermediary realm                              Soul (psyche, anima)
3rd measure                   Corporeal realm, moving ''P'' >           Body & blood

Apart from the trichotomous correlation, there is also the use of the word ''measure'' itself, pointing to the very act of measurement by which the three cosmic domains were brought into being. The cosmic icon itself is produced by just such an act of measurement.

Mandukya Upanisad (part).  Ms Sarah Welch. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Smith brings to a close his reflections on the trichotomy by introducing his readers to the sapiential literature known as the ''Upanishads''[1].One of these ancient Sanskrit texts presents the tribhuvana, a theory of three states of consciousness or modes of knowing:

• the state of dreamless sleep               [cosmic/spiritual]
• the dream state                                   [intermediary]
• the waking state                                 [corporeal]

Readers may detect a correspondence to the three elements in the table of the three measures above. If the correspondence is valid, the dream state stands midway between the corporeal and the spiritual worlds in that it transcends the bound of space but not of time. It is true that in dreams we experience entities more or less like the things we perceive in the waking state, including their spatial boundaries, but they do not exist in space.

The state of ''dreamless sleep'' poses a conundrum because it implies we do not access anything at all. Smith argues that, from a Christian point of vantage, this is explained by the effect of Original Sin. He cites St Paul's words:

[14] Animalis autem homo non percipit ea quae sunt Spiritus Dei : stultitia enim est illi, et non potest intelligere : quia spiritualiter examinatur.But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined.[1 Cor 2]

Some people are able to make such progress in their spiritual life that they do gain access to the spiritual realm: to ''things that are of the Spirit of God.''

Intriguingly, the upanishad makes a tantalisingly brief reference to a fourth state of consciousness: the turiya, which word simply means ''the Fourth''. It appears that the dream state transcends the waking state and the dreamless or spiritual state transcends the dream state. The dreamless or spiritual state partakes of what Smith earlier terms ''æviternity'' and is to be contrasted with the trans- or ultra-cosmic eternity of the ''leaven''.  Now, because the turiya transcends even the dreamless/spiritual state,  Smith concludes that it is both immanent and transcendent in respect to the integral cosmos. Accordingly, the turiya corresponds to the ''leaven'', to Christ and the Triune God!

Postscript

Dr Smith concludes his monograph with a Postscript that is hard-hitting and yet moving. It seems wise to let his words speak for themselves. I have added subheadings.

Vertical causality: a dimension rediscovered

It remains to point out that having thus initiated what might broadly be termed a rediscovery of the vertical dimension, we may have prepared the ground for a shift in the Weltanschauung of Western civilization.
...a scientific metanoia, based on a rediscovery of vertical causation, is apt to inaugurate a cultural metanoia as well, which may “open doors” bolted shut centuries ago.

Galileo and Einstein unmasked

...the decentralization of the Earth goes hand in hand with a corresponding decentralization of man.
What has in effect been lost are both the macro– and microcosmic manifestation of that central point in the cosmic icon: that “pivot around which the primordial wheel revolves.” There are in truth two centers: the macrocosmic and its counterpart in the microcosm, the anthropos; and the two centers are in fact inseparable. How, then, are they connected? And by now the answer cannot but stare us in the face: that universal and transcendent Center of the cosmos is connected to its counterpart in man by an act of vertical causality, which is none other than the cosmogenetic Act itself. Neither spatial distance nor temporal duration, thus, separates our Center from that “pivot” around which “the primordial wheel revolves.” And this, I surmise, constitutes the Mystery wise men have pondered ever since the world began: their Quest has ever been for that “punto dello stelo” hidden deep within the heart, which is “the eye of the needle” through which “the rich man” cannot pass, the “narrow gate” the “pure in heart” alone can enter.

Galileo. British Museum. 1624.

How then did the Galilean intervention impact this Quest, this longing, however dimmed? It did so, ontologically, through the subjectivation of the qualities, and cosmographically, by the denial of geocentric cosmology. What remains, following these twin reductions, is on the one hand the phantasm of a clockwork universe driven by a horizontal causality, and on the other a decentered humanity: for when the cosmos loses its center, so does the microcosm, so as a rule does man.


Ottavio Leoni [Public domain]

The overall impact of the Galilean intervention proves thus to be twofold: on the one hand what René Guénon[2] refers to as “the reign of quantity” engendered by Cartesian bifurcation, and on the other what might well be termed “the reign of relativity” symptomatic of a decentralized humanity in a decentralized universe. The congruity of God, man, and cosmos became thus newly compromised, and in consequence of this breach the anthropos himself has begun to disintegrate at an unprecedented rate: the Galilean impact upon humanity could thus be viewed as a second Fall.
In light of these reflections it is evident that the impact of the Galilean revolution upon Christianity and Christian culture at large was in fact bound to be fatal. Christian civilization has need of the pre-Galilean worldview—and this fact was recognized from the start by those who had “eyes to see”: think of the impassioned words of John Donne,[3] penned in the year 1611, when the Galilean revolution had barely begun: “And new philosophy calls all in doubt,” he laments; “’Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone,” he cries! Yet no one has made the point more sharply than Herman Wouk[4] when he proclaimed that Christianity has been dying “ever since Galileo cut its throat.” I find it tragic that our contemporary theologians and churchmen seem, almost without exception, to have not so much as the faintest idea what Herman Wouk was talking about—which only goes to show, however, how profoundly right he was.

Einstein. [Kadumago, CC BY 4.0]

And this brings us finally to the crucial point: in light of the facts delineated in this monograph, it appears that the Galilean arc of history is presently drawing to its close: the rediscovery of vertical causation alone—along with the resultant unmasking of Einsteinian relativity—implies as much.

For as we have come to see, the recognition of vertical causation opens the door to a rediscovery of the integral cosmos—the actual world in which we “live, and move, and have our being”—which not only exonerates geocentrism,but brings to light the existence and the ubiquity of the veritable Center.

The cosmos as theophany

Let Christians—and all who bow before God—rejoice: the scourge of relativism and irreligion has now been dealt a mortal blow! Following four centuries of intellectual chaos and de facto incarceration within his own distraught psyche, homo religiosus is now at liberty, once again, to step out into the God-given world, which proves to be—not a mechanism, nor some spooky quantum realm—but its very opposite: a theophany ultimately, in which:

[20] ....the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable.
Invisibilia enim ipsius, a creatura mundi, per ea quae facta sunt, intellecta, conspiciuntur : sempiterna quoque ejus virtus, et divinitas : ita ut sint inexcusabiles.[Rom 1]

[1] upanishad: Sanskrit upa-nishád, < upa near to + ni-shad to sit or lie down. As when a student sits at the feet of his magister. In Sanskrit literature, one or other of various speculative treatises chiefly dealing with the Deity, creation, and existence, and forming a division of the Vedic literature.
[2] René Guénon: (1886-1951), also known as ʿAbd al-Wāḥid Yaḥyá, was a French author and intellectual,an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from sacred science to traditional studies.
[3] John Donne: (1572-1631): English poet and cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. 
[4] Herman Wouk: (1915 – 2019) American author best known for historical fiction such as The Caine Mutiny (1951), The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, historical novels about World War II; and non-fiction such as This Is My God, an explanation of Judaism from a Modern Orthodox perspective.As Sloan said to Natalie in Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War, “Don’t you know, Natalie, that Christianity is dead and rotting since Galileo cut its throat” (p. 600). 

Leaven from Heaven

Continuing our series of posts on Dr Wolfgang Smith's 2019 monumental monograph: Physics & Vertical Causation, the End of Quantum Reality. (Angelico Press, 2019, also available on Amazon Kindle). 
For further reading on this and related material, see the Philos-Sophia Initiative website.

We are now approaching the end of  Dr Smith's final chapter, entitled ''Pondering the Cosmic Icon''.  His final reflections crown his earlier achievements by examining whether the sacred literature of mankind supports or even sanctions the notion of a trichotomous cosmos.

He cites, for example, the following verse from the Bible, attributed to Sophia (Wisdom):

[27] Quando praeparabat caelos, aderam; quando certa lege et gyro[1] vallabat abyssos; [Vulgate]
When he prepared the heavens, I was present: when with a certain law and compass he enclosed the depths:[Douay-Rheims]
When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:[King James] [Prov 8]

[1] gȳrus, i, m., = γῦρος, a circle, esp. that which is described by a horse in its movements (mostly poet.; cf.: circus, circulus, orbis, orbita).

The next reference is to a parable in the Gospel of St Matthew. Here is the relevant verse:

[33] Aliam parabolam locutus est eis : Similis est regnum caelorum fermento, quod acceptum mulier abscondit in farinae satis tribus, donec fermentatum est totum.[Vulgate]
Another parable he spoke to them: The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened.[Douay-Rheims]
Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.[King James] [Matt 13]

Latin vocab: It is worth noting the derivation of fermentum (via fervimentum) from ferveo which also gives rise to fervour and comparing it with the ''tongues of fire'' of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.
fermentum, i, n. contr. for fervimentum, from fervo, ferveo, that which causes fermentation, leaven, yeast, ferment.
ferveō, ferbuī, 2, n., and fervō, fervī, 3, n.: to boil; (fig.), to blaze, be bright; flash; glow; stir, be alive, teeming; move, speed on; rage.
abs-condo, condi and condĭdi, condĭtum and consum, 3, v. a. to put away, conceal carefully, hide,to make invisible, to cover;
fărīna, ae, f. far, ground corn, meal, flour.
satum, i, n., = σάτον, Hebrew measure of corn, etc., containing about a modius and a half (eccl. Lat.), Vulg. Gen. 18, 6; id. Matt. 13, 33; id. Luc. 13, 21.
fermento, āvi, ātum, 1, v. a. id., to cause to rise or ferment; in pass., to rise, ferment.

Smith proposes a striking interpretation of this parable and its language.

In answer to the question: Who is the ''woman''? he answers: none other than Sophia (Wisdom), see the verse from Proverbs above.

The three measures of meal correspond to the three macrocosmic realms:

• the spiritual or aeviternal
• the intermediary and
• the corporeal;

And to the three elements of our microcosmic being:

• the spiritual
• the psychic (pertaining to the psyche, anima or soul) and
• the corporeal.

He then asserts that the ''leaven,'' which Christ himself identifies with ''the kingdom of heaven,'' proves thus to be something inherently transcendent and ultimately divine, which gives reality—gives being—to the cosmos in its tripartite manifestation.

Christ before Pilate. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

When Pilate asked Christ whether He was king of the Jews, His reply included the following:

[36] Respondit Jesus : Regnum meum non est de hoc mundo. Si ex hoc mundo esset regnum meum, ministri mei utique decertarent ut non traderer Judaeis : nunc autem regnum meum non est hinc.

Jesus answered: My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now my kingdom is not from hence.[John 18]

But Christ was also to explain that this Kingdom is within each of us:

[20] Interrogatus autem a pharisaeis : Quando venit regnum Dei? respondens eis, dixit : Non venit regnum Dei cum observatione :
And being asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come? he answered them, and said: The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
[21] neque dicent : Ecce hic, aut ecce illic. Ecce enim regnum Dei intra vos est.
Neither shall they say: Behold here, or behold there. For lo, the kingdom of God is within you.[Luke 17]

It is within us in the fullest conceivable sense, within each of the elements of our tripartite being: the spiritual, the psychic (pertaining to the psyche, anima or soul) and the corporeal. The leaven, however, is added to the three measures of meal; in fact, it is hidden and thus invisible. This is in keeping with the notion that the Kingdom of Heaven is transcendent, superseding the corporeal, the intermediary and the cosmic centre point ''O'' of the cosmic icon.

Smith develops his reflections upon the ''leaven'' or Kingdom of Heaven by citing the parable in which Christ compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a wedding feast (see Matthew, 22 : 1-14). We are invited to His Wedding Feast to enjoy eternal life. When Christ arrived in Bethany, after the death of Lazarus, He explained to Martha:

[25] Dixit ei Jesus : Ego sum resurrectio et vita : qui credit in me, etiam si mortuus fuerit, vivet : Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live:[John 11]

His conclusion follows unerringly from his reasoning:

The “leaven,” in the final count, proves thus to be Christ Himself: it is He that resides at the core of all being as the font of all that is good. Like the actual leaven in the meal, it is He that renders the cosmos hospitable and ''flavoursome.'' In all that is good, He is the Goodness; and in all that is beautiful or sublime we catch a glimpse of His presence.

[The reviewer noted briefly at this point certain harmonies and parallels adding further force to this understanding: the Israelites pass through the waters of the Red Sea from the land of bondage into a wilderness where Manna (the Hebrew word is written as ''Man'' in Latin) is miraculously provided to keep them alive, enabling them to continue to the Promised Land. This Manna is honoured by being placed in the tabernacle and later in the Holy of Holies in the Temple. 

In the New Testament, John describes the feeding of the multitudes and then records the following words of Christ, particularly pertinent to the present discussion:

[31] Patres nostri manducaverunt manna in deserto, sicut scriptum est : Panem de caelo dedit eis manducare.
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
[32] Dixit ergo eis Jesus : Amen, amen dico vobis : non Moyses dedit vobis panem de caelo, sed Pater meus dat vobis panem de caelo verum.
Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you; Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
[33] Panis enim Dei est, qui de caelo descendit, et dat vitam mundo. 
For the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world.
[34] Dixerunt ergo ad eum : Domine, semper da nobis panem hunc.
They said therefore unto him: Lord, give us always this bread.
[35] Dixit autem eis Jesus : Ego sum panis vitae : qui venit ad me, non esuriet, et qui credit in me, non sitiet umquam.
And Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger: and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.[John 6]

First Holy Communion. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

At the Last Supper, Our Lord said the First Mass and gave Himself (body, blood, soul and divinity)  to His apostles under the form of bread in Holy Communion.]










Tomorrow, Deo volente, we shall conclude our review of Dr Smith's monograph. This will be in time to offer our faltering words as a present to the Sancta Dei Genitrix, in honour of her feastday on Friday, the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Further reflections on the cosmic icon

Continuing our series of posts on Dr Wolfgang Smith's 2019 monumental monograph: Physics & Vertical Causation, the End of Quantum Reality. (Angelico Press, 2019, also available on Amazon Kindle). 
For further reading on this and related material, see the Philos-Sophia Initiative website.

We are working our way through Dr Smith's final chapter,entitled ''Pondering the Cosmic Icon''. He added it after the publication of the first edition of his monograph and it is rich in insights drawn from numerous sources, Eastern and Western.

A striking feature of the cosmic icon is that the interior, representing the intermediary domain, visibly dwarfs the circumference (representing the corporeal world). The corporeal is the one-dimensional boundary of the intermediary.

Look at point P on the circumference and note that it represents both a moment of time AND the corporeal world at that moment of time. This dual identity disqualifies relativistic physics in its entirety at a single stroke. There can be no such thing as ''space-time''.

Smith then makes a remarkable assertion:

Einsteinian physics may well prove to be the most profoundly erroneous theory ever seriously entertained, and doubtless the example par excellence of ''mixing apples and oranges.''

Returning to the cyclicity of time, the author invites us to keep our eye upon the moving point P in the construction and observes that the ''now'' of time is inseparable from the ''now'' of the corporeal world. Time and the corporeal cosmos prove to be inseparable. Furthermore, it s possible to assert that , just as the compass ''sweeps out'' time, the cosmos at large ''sweeps out'' time as it rotates diurnally about the earth, the fixed centre.

The Baptism of Christ. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

[Reviewer's note: The cosmic icon as explained by Smith caused me to make a few notes in my Kindle edition at this point: 
A compass has three components: 1) the point in the centre ''O''; 2) the moving point  ''P''; 3) the vertex ''V'' proceeding from 1) & 2). Similarly, we have ''O'' and ''P'', with the radius ''R'' proceeding from both.  This recalls the Blessed Trinity: Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus. Note that 2) descends to the corporeal domain (the circumference).
In our corporeal world of time and space, we cannot live and move and have our being unless ''P'' continues to move; ''P'' cannot move without ''V''; neither ''P'' nor ''V'' can operate without ''O''; so each of the three participate equally but in different ways; ''O'' is the point of origin or initiator; God the Son descends from His Eternal Father to our world; He and the Father are inseparably linked in love so powerful as to attain a vertex in the Person of the Holy Ghost. Consider the Trinity at the Baptism of Christ: the Father is the nunc stans beyond space and time at ''O'', His beloved Son is in the Jordan at ''P'' and the Holy Ghost links the Two. I am left wondering whether the notorious ''Filioque'' debate between the Eastern and Roman Christians is not after all a merely semantic problem.The provenance of the Holy Ghost is in truth from God the Father as His originator but is in another sense from the fire of love between the Father and the Son.]

The revolving cosmos and the movement of the ''wanderers'' (the planets) suggests to Smith the very ''music of the spheres''.  He notes quantitative and qualitative properties of this cosmic movement, seeing in the latter a foundation of truth for the ancient ''superstition'' of astrology. Readers interested in Smith's argument regarding astrology should study the details in this chapter, including his references to Genesis 1:4 and Matt 2:2.

In the next post, we shall look at the evidence in sacred literature for the conception of a trichotomous universe.

To be continued.