Many Lives Many Masters
According to most writers, groups of souls tend to reincarnate together again and again, working out their karma (debts owed to others and to the self, lessons to be learned) over the span of many lifetimes.
Our task is to learn, to become God-like through knowledge. We know so little. By knowledge we approach God, and then we can rest. Then we come back to teach and help others.
[Catherine] “I have been to different planes at different times. Each one is a level of higher consciousness. What plane we go to depends on how far we’ve progressed…What have you learned???
That we must share our knowledge with other people. That we all have abilities far beyond what we use. Some of us find this out sooner than others. That you should check your vices before you come to this point. If you do not, you carry them over with you to another life.
Only we can rid ourselves of the bad habits that we accumulate when we are in physical state. The Masters cannot do that for us. If you choose to fight and not rid yourself, then you will carry them over into another life. And only when you decide that you are strong enough to master the external problems, then you will no longer have them in your next life.
We are given intuitive powers we should follow and not try to resist. Those who resist will meet with danger. We are not sent back from each plane with equal powers. Some of us possess powers greater than others, because they have been accrued from other times. Thus people are not all created equal, But eventually we will reach a point where we will all be equal.
Excerpts from Many Lives Many Masters by Brian Weiss M.D.
What is your definition of History???
“May I speak freely Miss?”
“It’s just one fuckin’ thing after another…”
Rudge…
Babette's Feast …
The film, Babette’s Feast was a dichotomy of opposites. Those being, good and evil, rich and the poor, the sacred and the profane, of want and satisfaction what is right and what is wrong, and in the end it speaks of hope and redemption.
Babette, a once famous chef at the Café Englais comes to this seaside village having been sent there with nothing but the clothes on her back, from her riches she ends up poor like those she was sent to serve. The two sisters have a decision to make, they can either take Babette in or send her away, and with that decision, they must ponder that they will have to give from what meagre means they have to support and sustain Babette.
They decide together to take Babette in, and a relationship forms, with three women coming together to make ends meet, Babette moves from being a poor servant to becoming a woman of great richness, and in the beginning I don’t mean material or monetary richness, she cares for the sisters, she learns that her gift of cooking can make its presence known in this simple colony.
There is an expressed tension and trouble amongst the people who live in this religious colony of believers, who have next to nothing, but they have their faith, which at times is the only visible glue that holds this squabbling colony together.
There are more problems than solutions it seems. But through the vehicle of communion, sharing, music and a meal, the issues that seem to separate and confound, seem to fade away when the group is seated together focused on one goal, that of praising God or eating a meal at table.
I think that Babette looks forward to leaving her simple life to return to her rich past and the café where she worked and was famous. Alas, this does not come to pass, yet she receives a letter informing her of a great windfall of money from a lottery win.
Once again, she has a choice to make, she can either take the money and run, or she can make good use of her lottery win, to enhance the lives of the people and community she is now part of. She chooses the latter and sets out to cook a feast of her own choosing with her own money for the good and care of her community. This movie, for me was a vision of “right choices” and the importance of community unity.
This community of meagre means, of fish and gruel becomes a land of plenty with a feast provided by Babette. Babette becomes the teacher, a figure of salvation to those who are seated at her table. She becomes a point of memory and reconnection for some, and a provider for others. There is the speculation by the group that she is a temptress comes to force her sinful ways upon them at this meal, and the group sets out to “not pay attention” to their tongues, to remember the Lord and not be taken in by sinful food or drink.
Course by course Babette has planned out a gastronomic fantasy of food, texture and taste. Brought together are the many members of this colony and the general and his mother. Babette spends every penny she made in the lottery win to bring this feast to her friends.
It is a very selfless act, one of compassion and understanding, and for Babette it is her salvation. For she gives of herself without abandon to the community, who had seen her in bad light and as a temptation? In the beginning we see that she was a burden to her keepers, who had to portion more of what they had to feed another, and now, Babette has the means to repay that kindness ten fold.
She turns a simple kitchen into that of a Master Chef. She lives her past in her present in providing this feast for her guests. She imports food and drink to rival that of a feast fit for a king or queen. It is a remarkable vision to see this dinner set out for her guests, it is fantastic and almost orgasmic. Watching this feast being enjoyed by so many at table, you get caught up in the moments as they pass, and you partake in the amazement of taste and texture.
A transformation occurs through the means of this meal for the people at the table. The mood changes, the people are transformed and for a brief couple of hours, a well decorated general is taken back to another time in his life, when he recounts the story of a Master Chef who was a woman who once cooked the dinner that he was presently eating. Witnessing a spiritual transformation is salvific for the viewer, because it gives us a chance to partake in that saving feast.
In the end the people are grateful and thank their hostess, as the sisters wonder if Babette will return to Paris, and I think we are all surprised when she decides to stay amongst the colony, broke as they are, having spent her every penny on sharing that feast with them and their special guests. Everyone in the movie realize what are really important, life and the living of that life, and those you share that life with.
Not all the great food in the world and truly all the money in the world will not make one happy if one has lost their soul to material things of this world. Babette’s feast was a fantastic movie and has a wonderful moral message and spiritual truth. It speaks of transformation of lives and souls, namely that of Babette and the two sisters. Not to mention the other members of the religious colony.
Just beneath the Surface …
Do you see it?
Can you feel it?
Do you ever think about it?
M O R T A L I T Y !!!!
I started my day in a church. Do you know why I did that? Why it was important for me to receive the sacraments today? To have a minister pray with me and for me, to bless me and absolve me,
Almighty God,
to you all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from you no secrets are hidden,
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The older I get, the more serious is my thought about Mortality. We all will face it one day, but I can’t help but ponder this subject in greater detail, because unlike many of you, life could take a turn very quickly and I could die, the last time this happened was in 2006 when I was testing new medications, and I got severely ill and I remember saying to myself one particular night that “I thought I would die.”
On my birthday I was sitting in the room at the meeting, the church above us I spoke about the fact that none of us know when that appointed day will come, but for me I have been waiting on it for some time. I fancy God sitting up in his heaven, with a sly look on his face, holding strong to one corner of the carpet that I am standing on and he yanks it up and I fall, the end comes crashing down around me.
Nobody wants to say the words, but I know that many of my friends are wary of mentioning the word “death” so they speak in hushed tones using words like “I’m so proud of you”, and “that I am a miracle” and “that God has blessed me with long life,” to date. The best line is this one “He looks so good, that unless you knew or asked – you’d never know he had AIDS!”
I work very hard at avoiding or talking about the obvious strain on my mental health, yet I do not dwell on death, but I have a healthy fear of it for sure. You’d never know I was even gay, from the outside. You’d never know that there was an ember burning quietly and strongly beneath the surface. That person sitting in the same place as you had a date with death several times in his life, and he avoided the reaper.
I remarked to a friend that I was afraid of what was ahead of me after the meeting, and for some they cannot fathom this fact, but my friends did. Some of the men told me that I should go on with my life and not think about it, but how can I Not think about it?
I just wanted to remind you that Mortality is an issue that I deal with every day now. Each day that passes – I thank God for life – which is why I went to mass and I think in retrospect, that is why the Reverend Canon laid hands on me and asked God to bless me and keep me healthy. I heard the urgency in her voice – the necessity that God grant that prayer – right then and there. To guarantee me a place “in community” for as long as God would permit.
I do not know how long my body will continue to take the pills I push upon it daily, or how long these new medications will continue to work – we are only a few months in and things look very good on paper, my body seems to like these mew medications and I haven’t had any great bodily changes. The look of death has not come over me – that gaunt AIDS look that most men get at some point in their journey, those you know are marked for death.
I remember my spirit and I pray daily and I attend mass when I can, and I spend time helping others because as long as I keep the focus off of me and on someone else, I can avoid having to look at the cold hard truth for very long. But I must tell you that I have had that “conversation with God” this week, and I made a deal. I think he agreed on the deal, as long as I served Him – and did my best every day – and I stayed in my day and not expected to die – that I would live a long life.
Religion, what is it? Is it a comfort to help us on the way to our graves? To give us something to focus on in death? A loving God, a forgiving Christ and a Spirit that loves us to fill the soul of man with hope that on that appointed day we would stand with our maker and be granted eternal life!
Is religion a cop out? The easy path?
I don’t know what to think – but I do believe – and for me that simple kernel of faith saves me. I know that nobody wants to think about it, so I write and remind you of the ever present fact that we all will face our mortality, some sooner than others. I’ve studied death and dying in my undergraduate career.
For many years I held on to the visual of Monica, the Angel from “Touched by an Angel” who said those simple words “I’m an angel sent by God, to tell you that God Loves You.”
I have seen every episode and I have a collection of hundreds of episodes here at home. During those years that I was so sick and I needed something to hold onto this little television show was my salvation, a second helping of God every Sunday after returning home from an evening mass. I kind of fancy that Andrew would stand here with me on that final moment to carry me to God in heaven.
It was easy to let go and let God, because of my faith in God and this little show that confirmed to me in visual form that there were angels and that I wasn’t alone, sitting in my apartment, sick as a dog. They even touched on the “aids” stories and the fact that even people with AIDS had angels. I believed that and I still do. Now in syndication, on Vision TV I can watch TBAA at night here in Montreal. And at Christmas I can watch the special shows that were created over the years while the show was running.
I find it funny the lengths I went to to maintain my spiritual beliefs when everyone around me was worrying that I was going to die, I was worried about that and the fact that I had no idea how I was going to survive another year. These memories are found back in 1998 and 1999.
When Christians were condemning us, my family included there, the angels were there to tell us that God loved us and still loves us today. That faith worked, because I lived another ten years and now we start another decade with stronger faith and a few angels here and there…
I’m fully aware of my mortality and that scares me.
My Birthday – What a Day it Was!!!
I got up this morning and My desktop had been changed to say Happy Birthday and that’s how it started. I showered and went to the Cathedral for Shirley’s memorial mass, which I asked to have said today. Louise showed up for mass today which was a treat and the Reverend Canon Joyce said mass. I thought that it would be good to honor God and Shirley, so I started this birthday with Mass and Prayer. To thank God for life and air and family and friends. This is the Cathedral by day!! Beautiful isn’t it!!
When it came time for the Eucharist, I went up to the dais and knelt and Rev. Joyce laid her hand on my head, she blessed me and prayed over me, as well she traced the sign of the cross on my forehead as she was praying. I almost fainted.
After the mass I went to the Diocesan bookstore to find something to honor my spirit. And I found this icon of the “Annunciation.” It is one of the most beautiful Marian Icons I have ever seen. So this was my spiritual gift to myself. I bought a book as well called “Discernment – Acquiring the Heart of God.”
I got home and I got the best gift in the world. Jacob had called me and so I called him back and he wished me happy birthday and he then told me that they were giving me the digital camera that Angela had loaned me to do some photography with Jacob. Now, I was like “Seriously? Seriously?” and he said “Seriously!!” I was totally overjoyed. It is a finepix S5200 Fuji film 5.1 mega pixel digital camera! O M G !!!
I had to call back and make sure I heard them right!
I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am today!
So I set off for coffee with Ms. Nikki and we had fun as usual. We went to set up the room for the meeting and we had a Birthday Party in the space, it was FUN!! Louise brought me the most beautiful Apple and Caramel cake drizzled with caramel, honey and chocolate. YUM!!! I got a book from Louise called “Discover Your Destiny with the Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma.
I got cards and gifts from friends. Ms. Nikki gave me a $100.00 gift certificate to Indigo Booksellers and other sundry items, like chocolate and grocery gift certificates. My friends are too generous. And I am totally grateful for the gifts. I did not expect such an amazing day that today turned out to be.
I came home after the meeting and now I am writing this. I have one more gift to open, so I am gonna go do that and get back to finish this. So Peter got me Dan Millman’s No Ordinary Moments and The Calendar Girls on DVD! Sweet!!
I have more to say – but not in the same post as this one. My head has been all over the place today and there are a hundred thoughts running through my head right now. So I will write more later on tonight.
This is the Ceiling over the Main Altar of the Church
OUTMASS 2007 at Christ Church Cathedral
The 2007
O U T M A S S
Christ Church Cathedral
635 Rue Ste. Catherines
Montreal
Saturday July 28, 2007
at 7:00 p.m.
Bring a friend and celebrate!!!
The Reverend Canon Joyce Sanchez will be Officiating
and the Bishop will be giving the sermon.
If you are in Montreal for Pride, please join us.
OUT MASS 2006 with the V. Rev Bishop Gene Robinson
of New Hampshire…
Daniel Radcliffe's Birthday today !!
LONDON (Reuters) -
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe gains access to a reported 20 million pounds ($40 million) fortune when he turns 18 on Monday, but he insists the money won’t cast a spell on him.
To the disappointment of gossip columnists around the world, the young actor says he has no plans to fritter his cash away on fast cars, drink and celebrity parties.
“I don’t plan to be one of those people who, as soon as they turn 18, suddenly buy themselves a massive sports car collection or something similar,” he told an Australian interviewer earlier this month. “I don’t think I’ll be particularly extravagant.
“The things I like buying are things that cost about 10 pounds — books and CDs and DVDs.”
At 18, Radcliffe will be able to gamble in a casino, buy a drink in a pub or see the horror film “Hostel: Part II,” currently six places below his number one movie on the UK box office chart.
Details of how he’ll mark his landmark birthday are under wraps. His agent and publicist had no comment on his plans.
“I’ll definitely have some sort of party,” he said in an interview. “Hopefully none of you will be reading about it.”
Radcliffe’s earnings from the first five Potter films have been held in a trust fund which he has not been able to touch.
Despite his growing fame and riches, the actor says he is keeping his feet firmly on the ground.
“People are always looking to say ‘kid star goes off the rails,”‘ he told reporters last month. “But I try very hard not to go that way because it would be too easy for them.”
His latest outing as the boy wizard in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” is breaking records on both sides of the Atlantic and he will reprise the role in the last two films.
There is life beyond Potter, however.
The Londoner has filmed a TV movie called “My Boy Jack,” about author Rudyard Kipling and his son, due for release later this year. He will also appear in “December Boys,” an Australian film about four boys who escape an orphanage.
Earlier this year, he made his stage debut playing a tortured teenager in Peter Shaffer’s “Equus.”
Meanwhile, he is braced for even closer media scrutiny now that he’s legally an adult: “I just think I’m going to be more sort of fair game,” he told Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Mike Collett-White)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix…
`The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives … the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies …’
Dolores Umbridge – Nutter, Nag and Hag evil toad!!
Dumbledore’s Army meeting, Harry, Ron and Hermione
“Stupefy!!”
Do we Love Luna Lovejoy!! Yes!! simple and understated, but she had some great lines in the film, and didn’t it seem that she always knew something interesting by observation or her mother’s life! “Things that we have lost, seem to find their ways back to us, in ways we might not have expected them to.”
“Reducto!!”
More on the film tomorrow…
Do You Technorati ???
I have updated Technorati with my read list, which numbers 87 blogs. If you haven’t already logged your favorite reads into Technorati, you might do so in the coming days. It generates traffic and broadens your readership.
Potter fans beg Rowling to "Save Harry!"
By Peter Griffiths – Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) – Thousands of Harry Potter fans have signed a petition urging J.K. Rowling to keep writing novels about the boy wizard after she admitted she could “never say never” to more books.
The “Save Harry!” petition calls on Rowling to reverse her decision to end the bestselling series with the seventh and final installment, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”
“Millions, perhaps billions of us, love reading his adventures and we never want them to end,” says the online petition, launched on Monday at www.saveharrypotter.co.uk.
After spending 17 years writing the books, Rowling said she was both “euphoric” and “devastated” that it’s finally over.
But in a television interview, she left fans with the tantalizing, if remote, possibility that she may one day return to the magical world of Hogwarts.
“I think that Harry’s story comes to quite a clear end in book seven,” she told the BBC at the weekend. “But I have always said that I wouldn’t say never.
“I can’t say I will never write another book about that world, just because I think: ‘What do I know, in 10 years’ time I might want to return to it’. But I think it is unlikely.”
Even if she does write another book, it is unclear whether some of the main characters, including Harry, would play a part.
Rowling said some characters will die in the last book, but wouldn’t say if the boy wizard is among them: “It’s not a bloodbath, but it’s more than two,” she said.
Book retailer Waterstone’s, which set up the petition, said Rowling could still write more Harry Potter books even if the title character is killed.
“Sir Arthur Conan Doyle famously killed off Sherlock Holmes, yet brought him back after years of demand from his fans and publishers,” said Waterstone’s Wayne Winstone. “Couldn’t the same happen for Harry Potter?”
Rowling’s publicist could not be reached for comment.
More than 325 million copies of the first six books have been sold worldwide, helping to make Rowling the first dollar-billionaire author. The final book is out on July 21.
The Wisdom of Star Wars …
1. Episode IV: Star Wars – A New Hope, Were we all that young once, 1977? I was 10 years old when Star Wars opened. I was in New Britian Connecticut and we saw the movie at the Twin City Theatre, across the street from Twin City, a department store that my mother worked at when I was a young person. I have memories of that time, for some strange reason. A lot of them.
I loved movies and I went to the movies every chance that I got. Along with music and reading, I had free access to go anywhere I wanted at a moments notice. Over the last forty years, we see certain movies come and go – we collect them like wisdom manuals for future reference.
Did we think then, that Star Wars would have such an effect on young people as it did then? I know adults who were in my life at that time, who did not take to the archetypal themes and wisdom as the young people did over the years – as the following films made their debut’s.
2. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, came out in (1980) I was 13 years old.
and it had a huge effect on me. I remember sitting in the back of the theatre at “The Falls” in Miami when it came out. I was in junior high school. The Star Wars movies repeated throughout my life. We watched them like time markers at certain life intervals. To see how we had changed and evolved since the first time we watched them.
I was at Movie Land today and I was looking for something to watch on DVD, and I had picked up a couple movies, but then after wandering around, I ended up in the Science Fiction section and I was thumbing through the Star Wars movies. And brought Episodes IV, V and VI home.
I find myself watching them again, and I posted the Yoda sayings and I mused on the fact that for me, I have followed most of that advice over the years. That Star Wars did play a factor at the way I see the world around me and live my life. It may have been slow and coming and sometimes seemed to stop all together, but in the end, we find our selves here, discussing the spiritual teachings of The Archetypal figures from Star Wars and the value of the Star Wars wisdom.
You imagine, or I imagine, what the world would be like, if the adults of that time, took to the figures in the movie, would life have changed much or very little? If the world was in a different ‘place’ spiritually, economically and socially? I think those of us who grew up in the light of Jedi Wisdom benefitted more from it than perhaps our parents.
3. Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, came out in (1983) I was a junior in High School at age 16.
That was a very impressionable time in my life. A lot of personal and emotional upheaval. I lost my grandparents, and my parents were in self destruct mode, and let’s fuck up the children mode. So any escape out of reality was fantastic.
4. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, came out in (1999) I was 32 years old.
I was amid one of the most painful periods of my life. Being far away from anything in the middle of no where did not help me. I was in slip-self destruct mode. I was living with evil incarnate, and I had that battle with the Dark Side that almost cost me my life. But somewhere in the universe there was the force, because it saved me from imminent death.
5. Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones, came out in (2002) I was 35 years old.
Ah, the light at the end of the tunnel had come. I was on my way to a new life in another country, sober and cleaned up. I was going to finally make something of my little life, which up until then had not gotten very far. Gay boys with HIV did not get very far in the united States, some have succeeded, but I did not. It was either a life of substandard poverty or a move to greener pastures. I was in Montreal by Spring 2002, I was on my way.
6. Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith, came out in (2005). I was 38 years old.
The watershed movie of the Summer, the final episode of the Star Wars Saga was coming. We would finally have the last installment of the six films – where we learn how Vader came to be and where Luke and Leia came from and where they grew up. The journey was coming to an end. I had lived 40 years to see the culmination of George Lucas’ dream come to fruition.
How did Star Wars affect you in your life? And what reflections do you have over the last 40 years, in regards to the way you live, and how certain films made an impact on you throughout your life!
We will discuss this topic in Comments:
Make your own kind of music …
Beautiful Thing
Love is a beautiful thing
A Must See – A Beautiful Thing.
Let Pride Begin in Montreal – 29 July 2007
L.G.B.T.A.
To The Rescue
Montreal’s Gay Pride Parade
Is On…
L.G.B.T.A LINK HERE
The Parade will take place on
July 29th 2007 at 1 p.m.
on Rene Levesque – heading West
***********************************************
It seems that LGBTA has come forward to stop the infighting between the Diverscite and local merchants in the Village. On the local news feed, I heard some say that Montreal doesn’t need a gay pride parade any more because gay marriage is acceptable, so why bother any more?
This from CFCF News (CTV News Affiliate in Montreal)
Gay pride parade back on !!!
Montreal’s gay pride parade is back on again. The parade will be held the afternoon of Sunday, July 29. A new organization, LGBTA Montreal, was formed to organize the parade, that will kick off a week of gay pride events in the city.
After years of infighting between various gay groups, it had been announced the parade would be cancelled this year. In the past, it has drawn hundreds of thousands of people, gay and straight alike.
Potter stars look to the future
|
By Caroline Briggs |
The three actors have starred in the films since 2001 |
Dark clouds are gathering over Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The fifth film to be adapted from JK Rowling’s books – released on 11 July – is the grittiest yet, as Harry battles with the angst and growing pains of teenage life.
And while the film echoes the growing age of the young cast, actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint will be wearing school uniforms for at least another two years.
Rowling brings the magical saga to an end in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, published on 21 July.
It will mark the finishing line for the trio, who have played Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley since 2001.
Radcliffe, 17, says he has no idea what to expect from the final book, but has pre-ordered a copy.
“We can sit here and talk about it but Jo is coming to come up with something far more interesting or exciting than anything we can predict and imagine,” he says.
 |
Emma Watson |
I hope Hermione doesn’t die – I really didn’t have that in my plan for what she would achieve 
Rowling has already hinted that two main characters will die in final instalment, but has not revealed who.
Watson is tempted to take a sneaky peek to see if it is Hermione who meets a sticky end.
‘Beautiful babies’
“I hope Hermione doesn’t die – I really didn’t have that in my plan for what she would achieve,” she says.
“I want to see her putting her intellect and her very caring nature to some very worthy cause – going around the country protesting for the rights of house elves, or continuing with SPEW and generally making the world a better place. Being married to Ron and having beautiful babies.”
Grint, 18, is more succinct: “If Ron had to die it wouldn’t be so bad – it’s the last one anyway.”
The latest Harry Potter film is the fifth in the series, and sees the franchise’s fourth director at the helm, with David Yates following in the footsteps of Christopher Columbus, Alfonso Cuaron and Mike Newell.
Daniel said he enjoyed portraying Harry’s troubled teenage years |
Yates, best known for TV dramas such as The Girl in the Cafe and State of Play, has combined aspects of previous films with his own take on Harry’s character, explains Radcliffe.
“I think this is the film I’m most proud of and we had a great time working with David,” he says.
“He has taken the charm of the films that Chris made, the visual flair of what Alfonso did, and the thoroughly British bombastic nature of the fourth film, and added his own sense of grit, and realism to it that perhaps wasn’t there so much before.”
Watson, 16, says it is the most “genuine” of all the films.
“The word I connect the most with David Yates is ‘truth’,” she adds.
“He always wanted to find truth in all the characters. We really relished that and it stopped us getting complacent.”
Reflective
Radcliffe says one of his greatest challenges was tackling the more troubled and complex side of the teenage Harry.
“I talked to Jo (Rowling) about it, and she said if people say they don’t understand why he is angry then they have not understood what he has been through in the last five years,” he explains.
“He has a right to be angry. For me it was just as interesting to play the reflective side of the anger, where it comes from like the loneliness and feeling misunderstood, than the out-and-out shouting that people may have interpreted from the book.”
It was Gary Oldman, who plays Harry’s godfather Sirius Black, who inspired him.
“Me and Gary got to do some really emotional and heartfelt scenes together, which was great,” Radcliffe says.
Hermione and Ron sign up for Dumbledore’s Army |
“I have been a fan of his for a long time, and I think anybody would be hard-pushed to name another actor whose body of work covers so many different areas. I think he is incredible.”
On-screen kiss
The Order of the Phoenix also stars Oscar-nominated Imelda Staunton as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Dolores Umbridge, and Helena Bonham Carter as the demented Bellatrix Lastrange.
It also sees Radcliffe share his first on-screen kiss.
But kissing Katie Leung – who plays fellow Hogwarts pupil Cho Chang – was easy compared to stripping off on stage, as he did in the West End play Equus.
“Once you’ve been on stage naked in front of 1,000 people you really feel you can do almost anything without inhibition,” he laughs.
“Being naked was possibly not as complicated as kissing – although belt buckles can give everybody a bit of trouble at times – but kissing Katie was a very, very comfortable experience, especially when compared to being naked on stage and blinding horses.”
Leung, 19, who won the part of Harry’s girlfriend after an open audition, says he was a “good kisser”.
“I only watched the film yesterday and I thought I’d be cringing, but I’m very pleased with it. It’s a very endearing and sweet scene,” she says.
“I’m not sure how my mum and dad are going to react. Hopefully they will find it really sweet as well.”
Howl's Moving Castle
Today I spent the afternoon with Jacob. We went out for lunch and did a little shopping in the Underground City. We stopped in at Indigo where I picked up a couple of books by Paulo Coelho – The Pilgrimage and The Alchemist. I once read The Alchemist many many years ago, just after my diagnosis. Well, a LONG time ago actually!!
I wanted to read The Pilgrimage since I have decided to set my sights on the Santiago de Compostela.
“The Pilgrimage” holds an important place in Paulo Coelho’s literary canon. His first book, it not only paved the way for his phenomenal novel The Alchemist, but it also fully expresses his humanist philosophy and the depth of his unique search for meaning.”
“Here Paulo Coelho details his journey across Spain along the legendary road of San Tiago, which pilgrims have traveled since the Middle Ages. On this contemporary quest, he encounters a Chaucerian variety of mysterious guides and devilish opponents and learns yo understand the nature of truth through the simplicity of life.”
As you can see above, I’ve listed another Hayao Miyazaki film that I added to my collection today. I’ve been searching for a copy for some time now, so Metro Video had a few on the shelf, So I had to buy it. If you are a movie buff like me, you will appreciate and love the art that is Hayao Miyazaki. Spirited Away is one of his finest films he has created.
If you watch these two films in any order, you will see aspects of both films in each of the films in and of themselves. Little signs and decor find themselves from one film to another. The stories are timeless and the characters are wonderful. Hayao is one of the finest film makers on the planet.
It was a beautiful day had by all.
The Last King of Scotland
I sat down to watch The Last King of Scotland. I don’t have a really good understanding of what Idi Amin’s life or the sadistic ways about him going into this film, but I have to say that Forest Whitaker’s portrayal made me physically ill. His win for best actor at this years Oscars was well earned. His portrayal of an emotionally bipolar man did me in emotionally.
I guess the reason for this reaction was that I rode the film through the character of Doctor Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy). I think that Nicolas carried a great deal of this film. His character had to find his way around the huge Idi Amin. At times even I questioned Idi’s treatment of his “closest adviser” I mean he played with him like a rag doll. He likes him and he doesn’t. He’s angry at him and he is rewarding him with cars and a job unlike the one he went to Africa to do.
I could not imagine the kind of horror this man must have seen in real life, if this film is any indication of it, Jesus F’ing Christ! What an emotional roller coaster this film is. Nicholas was ripped apart in this film, emotionally and mentally, and in the end he was strung up like ‘Fakir’ with meat hooks in his chest, as the man who once idolized his closest adviser was now strung up in an airport liquor store.
Thank God someone took pity on him and saved him. My heart was pounding in my chest as he got on that plane. Holy Jesus Christ… The film was great. The cinematography and the beauty of the film was wonderful. Forest won that award right out. There was no competition in the Best Actor category. In the end, I had a headache and I felt sick, watching him torture Nicholas.
Are you for real (Revisited)
The day that Memere presented me to God in that church in my early childhood, little did I know how much that would make a difference in my life today. Hindsight is our best teacher. I have always been open to anything and everything. I have never put blinders on my brain or my senses. I guess you could say that I am multi-talented.
Early in my childhood I was predisposed to the paranormal. I would become the medium of my family and my parents thought that I was insane and stupid so I will relate to you some stories to illustrate.
I was in Junior High when my Uncle Paul died in Connecticut and a blue jay appeared at my cousin’s house where her father (my uncle) as I had always believed, he was my father’s cousin, but he was uncle John to the rest of us. Uncle John would be the go between for my father and his parents final resting places. anyways, I digress…
The bird… yes, blue jays are not known for interpersonal skills, yet this bird was different. He followed my uncle around the house (outside) he pecked at the windows for months, and answered to the name Paul when shooed away or invoked after his death. This went on for months until my grandfather died in Florida.
Al was a bitter, sick, demented and sad man – my father’s father died unceremoniously and we did not mourn him for the abuse he heaped upon all of us in this family. But he came back to me. I had a bedroom in the back of the house against my favorite climbing trees and a view of the backyard and patio. After grampy died the bird appeared at my window one day and he pecked and he pecked.
He followed me to the bus stop and back home, he knew when I was home and when we all were in which room. The red headed woodpecker answered to the name of Al when we got tired of his pecking we could open the window and say “get lost Al!” and he would come whenever I called him. This went on for about six months. At one point the bird disappeared…
My uncle shared with us his adventures on his end. 1500 miles away. And then one day he called and said a second bird appeared on the back porch – it was a red headed wood pecker with the blue jay. They visited for a while and then they both disappeared. They were never seen again.
When my paternal grandmother died, it crushed my father emotionally, not to mention me as well. She was a great woman, who loved me and protected me from my abusive father over the years. When she died, I was living out of the house at that point. I came home for the funeral and had to take care of the final send off to the crematorium for my father because he couldn’t handle it.
That afternoon I had brought flowers from her funeral home with me – and that is when she appeared to me. She still appears to me today, many years later. Jeannie stands at the foot of my bed, she never says anything, but she brings with her a scent that only she could bring – and I know the scent. She scared the shit out of me the first night she came to stand vigil at my bedside. She has followed me all over the world as I have moved.
After I was diagnosed HIV positive in 1994, I started seeing a “reader” who taught me the art of divination and card reading, because you know, I am gonna die, I wanna know what’s on the other side, right? I had a small apartment in Ft. Lauderdale that was given to me by some friends when my family decided that I was “untouchable.” My bedroom had a wall unit A/C and I would sleep with my door closed each night. I did not make the connection here until certain things happened. The pictures on the wall would be crooked in the morning. Magazines on the coffee table would be tossed about my apartment, which wasn’t very big at all. I had no pets and I lived alone.
Miguel came over one afternoon and drew a circle and confronted the spirit in the room. Jeannie had not appeared as she had in the past. He told me that a red headed woman was in the apartment and that she did not know how to get through the bedroom door. That I should sleep with the door open from now on, which I did. He described Jeannie to a “t” and so I knew she was still watching me.
Many years later – and I had lived, my maternal grandmother, the lifeblood of all that I am and the maker of faith for me as a man, died. She was in Connecticut and I was in Florida. I had pulled all of the cash I had to buy a plane ticket for the funeral and my mother informed me that I was not to attend the funeral for God Forbid her family find out that I had AIDS. You can imagine my horror and revulsion at her insistance that I comply with her wishes. I had…
Soon after the funeral had passed, I started to commune with Camille in my sleep. She would talk to me and I wrote letters to my mother in her pen and in her handwriting, I am sure my mother kept all these letters, but she never admitted to anyone what they were or who they came from.
She once told me that she had saved my rant letters in a safety deposit box to prove that I was insane. I was an unlucky bastard to my family and nothing I did or said to them ever changed the way they saw me. Camille and I still commune to this very day.
My parents – once said that if I had died that I would have no funeral and be buried somewhere off on my own, which led me to do something seriously drastic to keep them from ever having any control, or ability to touch me in life or in death…
Jeremiah came to be…
The prophet is never welcome in his own town or listened to, but Jeremiah Preached his sermon to deaf ears. Years would pass and insanity would rule and the family resentment would carry out to this very day.
Camille once gave me a scapular that I carried in my wallet for decades until I moved to Montreal in 2002, and realized what that key to faith that would play into my life, with the finding of Sister Georgette soon after and the stories she would tell me about my past and of Camille’s life and the room she stayed in AT the Mother House when she lived here in Montreal.
It so happened that one day I was at the Mother House standing in Camille’s cell and she appeared to me and I told sister Georgette that she was in visitation, Sister G never denied that that was possible. Over the last five years Camille has visited us at the Mother House and here at home. She brings with her a scent as well. That I would recognize.
Jeannie still comes in visitation to the house here and she stands at the foot of my bed and watches over us now. Hubby knows of this and he welcomed her into his home when we started living together, because she used to freak him out in the beginning.
So this little innocent Catholic boy practices the Wiccan circle and read his cards for certain people and never for personal gain. My bedroom is a shrine – the bookcase holds all the sacred objects given to me by sister G, and it holds the gifts given to me by the nuns upon her death in August.
I believe that there is an ever after, because when I went across on my NDE the last time I was in the hospital in 1997, I was told so. My family that surrounded me and protected me from my parents and their abuse, surround me today and have been here, because unlike some of you, I have no blood kin that will participate in my life today. Blood is not thicker than water in my family and resentments and anger rules the hearts of the adults in my family.
I study religion and the ever after because when I die, all those folks whom I honor in my life today will be there to welcome me into the kingdom when my card comes up. I am not the same man I was a mere 10 years ago. I am much older and wiser and I grew up and I forgave and I moved on.
I pray that sad prayer every day, God if it is in your power to grant me one miracle – this is the one that I would wish for. God has yet to respond. Sobriety has taught me a lot about prayer and expectations from God. Eesh, I know that all too well…
On the eve of my first wedding anniversary in 2005, my mother came to me here in Montreal. She appeared in my bedroom on the 19th of November. We were married on the 20th, her birthday. She told me that she came to say goodbye and that she was going to die. Then she departed and I never saw her again.
I have only a memory of my mother from that day in 2001. I have no pictures nor has she attempted to maintain contact with me since I moved here, because she is fiercely loyal to my abusive father. I never called to confirm her death, because I have said that if she had died and my father kept it from me, I would no doubt go insane and drink!
Last year, on the eve of my second wedding anniversary she appeared again to me in my bedroom, but she did not speak. I have practiced the art of scrying her in my sleep and that has failed to give me results. I have begged her to join me in dream space because that is where we could find each other – alas, I never dream about my mother or see her like I see others, for some reason. I don’t have that answer.
All I know is that when I had my near death experience and met that man afterwards who spoke to me because I was incensed that I asked all my questions on the other side and came back with no answers, this man looked at me and said…
“Why wait till you are dead to ask your questions, at that point it is too late to do anything about them, ask them now while you are alive and be ready for answers.”
Ghosts, a good thing or a bad thing, for me its a good thing. I am somewhat empathic to a degree which is a gift and a curse, however you look at it, on any given full moon cycle, which I think we are in at the moment. We are at 62% of full tonight, which is why I am feeling the way I do, I am speeding and writing like a mad man about the paranormal!!
I believe – you don’t have to believe one word that I wrote here, but that’s my story and I am sticking to it…
David
I tell the story of David, my best friend. He died in the Spring of 1987. I had spoken to him prior to his death and I knew he loved me. On the night of his wake, at the funeral home, the priest had a seizure and I had to finish the prayer service for the attendees. Upon my arrival back at the seminary, it was stormy outside. I was bereft in my sadness and grief. It was really not pretty. I was kneeling in the front (right) pew in front of the altar. It was late, and dark outside.
I heard one of the confessional doors open and close in the right of the transept. I heard footsteps come around the altar stones, the floor is stone and marble. The foot steps stopped in the center of the main aisle in front of the altar. The Altar Candle exploded and lit up the mural you see behind it, it was a most glorious vision. David was standing there before me, and told me not to weep, that he was ok, and that he would watch over me. To this day, I have his Glorious Mary Medallion which I never leave the house without. It hangs on a chain I wear with my other medallions.
Every time I look at this picture, I am reminded of this story…
So in his memory, I share it with you…
I love you David…
The Other Side…
Many years ago, during the ‘sickest’ era of my AIDS experience, things were really bad for me. I was hospitalized many times from 1995-1998. Tonight on Coast to Coast, they are talking about (O.B.E.’s and N.D.E.’s) This was last nights show, since we are 24 hour tape delay here in Canada.
Below is one of my tether experiences.
The N.D.E. I talk about is the one that happened when I was last in the hospital, I was having severe migraines that were so bad, that I would crawl around on the floor banging my head against the walls of my apartment trying to alleviate the pain. In such cases, I would have to call for help and usually end up in the E.R. for a shot of Toradol I.M. to stop the session from progressing to fruition.
I remember being in the isolation ward, that’s where they always put me – for fear that I would catch something from someone in the E.R. they were very careful with me, because I was a repeat patient. I was laying on the gurney and the doc had been in for triage and he left me to go get the meds I needed.
I was in so much pain, that at one point I separated from my body and rose out of the room, I could see myself and it was up through the tunnel and into a place that was peaceful. I landed on my feet in a garden of immense beauty. I could smell the flowers, I could see hills and green grass as far as the eye could see. I must be sitting in the garden because I was met by a feeling of immense ‘Godliness.’ The garden was beautiful, I can still see it in my minds eye. The closest we come to this is a visual from “What Dreams May Come.”
You know at that point, we have our list of questions to ask the almighty, that’s where I figured I was. I wasn’t at the gate yet, but I thought I should get the questions out before that experienced either ended or I died on the table.
I asked my questions, that was then. And afterwards, they sent me back to my body, telling me that “it wasn’t time yet.” I returned to my body, and in the time that I left my body and returned, they had come back with the shot for me and it was given to me, and I had about an hour to myself to recharge my steam and they would release me to go home.
I returned to the world – minus the answers to my questions. Needless to say I was mift! I went back to my life, and proceeded to live. I guess that experience did not change me in ways that most are changed when they go across and return to talk about it. I made several really bad choices, that I came up a real looser. It took another ‘near death experience’ to get my attention – and that one had nothing to do with heaven, but closer to hell.
It was years later that I was at a workshop with a friend, and I met this man who walked up to me and told me he knew where I had been, and he saw that I was ‘frustrated’ it was like he looked into my soul and saw everything that had happened to me since. And he told me these wise words: “You went across and you asked your questions, and you came back unfulfilled, didn’t you? I told him yes. He then told me that I should take those questions and ask them to the living, and not wait until I was dead to seek the answers. Because once you are dead, there is no need for questions is there?
Since then I have always had those “soul” questions in the front of my brain. And I communicate those questions as they come up to the universe and I wait. I guess there is a reason I am re-printing these stories for you, because life is a journey. The more questions we have, the greater need we have to answer them now, rather than later.
I saw that man once, I never saw him again after that.
I once met a man who knew things about me and spoke to me and told me something wise in a public place once before, when I was much younger. I was working in a grocery store, my first job, to be more exact. I was in junior high school then. I was bagging groceries in a store by my home. The cashier I was bagging for was being stubborn to a woman who did not speak very good English. This elderly man with a black beret and a red and black checked jacket and black pants walked up to me and said “You speak a second language, you should use it because it is a gift for you. Don’t waste the gifts given to you.” Ok, I said, and I translated for the woman standing there.
That elderly man walked into the store and never walked out, he had to pass me to get out of the store because there were no other exits. At the end of the shift I went looking for him, and never found him. He disappeared and I never ever saw him again…
Ok, so now, he’s gone off the deep end…
No not really. These are my experiences. Maybe someone else has had them too…
