Sunday, November 16, 2008

COMING SOON! PHOENIXFIRE 9!


THE FOUR COWBOYS OF APOCALYPSE 2.0

Friday, March 28, 2008

PHOENIXFIRE 8



CONSIDER THE KALI YUGA

click here to play show

History is not what we’re taught in our schools – a linear March of Progress, from primitive beginning to our enlightened selves with our hydrogen bombs and our bobblehead dolls. What we are taught is effectively a 19th Century fabrication; a White Supremacist, Eurocentric con job.

History is actually a cycle, a very long cycle. This was understood by Plato, who talked about a Golden Age, a Silver Age, a Bronze Age and an Iron (or Dark) Age. This is paralleled, but in more detail in the Vedic/Hindu and its doctrine of the ‘Yugas’. Other ancient civilizations and the myths and legends of other peoples around the world project a similar understanding. The much-discussed Mayan 2012 prophecy is another expression of history as a cycle.

In PF8 we look long and hard at this concept, demonstrate it’s validity and contrast it point by point with the central dogma of what I like to call our Church of Progress.
The C of P may assure us we are the most evolved beings ever to inhabit the planet, but anyone aware of our actual global state (both inner and outer) might question this conviction. And there is evidence galore to support such a contrary view.
Where are we within the cycle? Which ‘Yuga’ are we actually ‘in’ ? And what (if anything) is there that we can do to act upon our understanding and extricate ourselves from the dilemma we’re in?
I am author of the month on Graham Hancock's website, there you can find an essay relating to the Yugas and the cyclical view of history.

Some useful links: Richard Heinberg Sri Yukteswar

CLICK HERE TO PLAY SHOW

Monday, February 18, 2008

TO ALL WHO ARE PISSED OFF ABOUT THE FREQUENCY OF PHOENIXFIRE SHOWS

'I can appreciate your impatience, and sympathize with your apparent frustration, but in the midst of my chronic personal chaos and no-less-chronic but presently acute financial pickle, my definition of 'soon' must be 'when I somehow find time to get around to it'.

You, in turn will, I hope, appreciate that you're getting my PhoenixFire shows gratis, and when you get for nothing something you (evidently) consider valuable, you're not really in a position to demand a schedule. (That's a Cosmic Law.)

If you want a more satisfactory definition of 'soon' all you and others tuning in and enjoying PhoenixFire have to do is provide me with the necessary Wolf Repellent to make that a priority for me, in which case you can even exact in return a commitment to a deadline.

That said, I don't blame you for being pissed off!

jaw

Thursday, February 7, 2008

COMING SOON! PHOENIXFIRE 8! CONSIDER THE KALI YUGA

A NOTE ABOUT iTUNES

Just to let all Phoenixfire's listeners know, we have had some problems with our iTunes links, and are currently not available on that service. We hope to remedy this situation soon.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

PHOENIXFIRE 7


ATLANTIS HERE, ATLANTIS THERE, ATLANTIS DAMN NEAR EVERYWHERE!

Apologies for the audio on this one, we were seriously let down in terms of bandwidth from Skype on the night of the recording. It's cleaned up as much as we could and we feel it is quite listenable.

In orthodox academic circles, Atlantis is the ‘A’ word. If that terrifying word is uttered, academic ears fill instantly with academic wax and the offending utterer is summarily laughed and/or escorted out of the room.

Nevertheless, Atlantis hunters are legion, and Atlantis believers exponentially legioner.

In PhoenixFire 7 I take a long look at the entire complicated phenomenon. I present an overview of Atlantological history; it’s modern beginnings with Ignatius Donnelly’s ATLANTIS: The Antediluvian World, a vast volume of scholarship first printed in 1888, an instant best-seller, and in print ever since. I then look mainly at the astonishing number of claimants to Atlantis. These, among others, range from the Atlantic Ocean of course, to both the poles, Cypress, Spain, the Altiplano of Peru/Bolivia (believe it or not), and the Caribbean Sea. .

I look closely at Plato’s story, detailed in his Dialogues. For this is the tale that sent Donnelly on his initial search and a scholarly cottage industry was born. With immense advances in all sorts of underwater exploring techniques and excavating equipment besides, it shows no signs of abating.

However, despite the widespread locations trumpeted by adherents as THE Atlantis, all geographical candidates share one premise in common: a strictly literal acceptance of the complex and extraordinarily detailed physical description Plato provides for the huge, rich, aggressive and ultimately decadent civilization that sank to the bottom of the ocean in a single catastrophic day.

At the same time all Atlantologists practice one scholarly dodge in common: when the favored site diverges in some major way (size of site, place of site, age of site, etc) from Plato’s account –and without exception, all do- those divergences are fudged away and/or ignored. Nothing found and loudly proclaimed so far really matches Plato’s tale with anything resembling precision. In other words none of the candidates auditioning for the role actually qualify for it.

So is Plato’s account merely a fabrication? And if so, to what end? Why should he go to all that trouble? Just to confound researchers who will not show up for another two thousand years? It doesn’t make sense. And, along the same lines, are all those avid Atlantologists therefore deluding themselves, and their audiences while they’re at it; not so much barking up the wrong tree, as paddling aimlessly around the wrong ocean?

Definitive answer: yes and no, but it’s complicated. What isn’t?

There is an extraordinary, little-known and erudite book written and published some thirty years ago that, if heeded, without exactly nullifying the Atlantological premise could change the direction of inquiry in radical but fruitful ways.

Musicologist Ernest G. McClain's THE PYTHAGOREAN PLATO decodes the 'A' word as an elaborate musical allegory.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO PHOENIXFIRE 7

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

APOLOGIES

Apologies to all who have been waiting for PhoenixFire 7. I have been extremely busy lately, but we aim to record it next week.
Thanks for your patience.
JAW