“However, with respect to everything by which profit may be acquired, nothing is better, nothing ampler, nothing sweeter, nothing worthier of a free human being, than agriculture.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties – Book 1.151 Here resides a summary of the principles that enable a commonwealth to thrive. Such virtues — if applied appropriately — keep our courts honourable and our government free from corruption. They keep our protectors loyal and our businesses transparent. They solidify and irrigate the human heart, restoring desolation and trimming the fat whenever we get too top heavy fo ..read more

“The only happiness lies in reason; all the rest of the world is dismal. The highest reason, however, I see in the work of the artist … Happiness lies in the swiftness of feeling and thinking: all the rest of the world is slow, gradual, and stupid.” – Friedrich Nietzsche Reading Nietzsche – My feelings are twisted into a braid of hair drawn too tightly from both ends. Will these knots ever come undone should one paw at them or are we left with no option but to tediously untangle it one hair at a time. My reason/s for inquiring into one of the greatest minds of all time has different masks and ..read more

“Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child, he shall not enter therein.” – Jesus ben Joseph Part 3 of 3. Click here for part 1. Long past the illusion of a dazzling flame, under that starry sky of night, and an eerie moonlit fright, shadowy scales fall fast away, that we might become one with beatific light. Oh what joy permeating from one’s inner core, to no longer sleepwalk through fantasies lore. Still in the world but without its cloak, eyes without sleepy crust now fully awoke. Our inner child awakens with unbiased eyes. We are released fr ..read more

“As long as any one desires life as a pleasure in itself, he has not raised his eyes above the horizon of the beast; he only desires more consciously what the beast seeks by a blind impulse.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche As it is written in the 16th chapter of the Book of Revelation, so do we see its completion in the 16th major arcana. The Seventh and final Bowl of Wrath depicts ‘flashes of lightning and sounds of thunder with bodies falling from the sky.’ For a cinematic demonstration of this ordeal be sure to watch the final section of the associated video; click here or on the image above to acc ..read more

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” – Yeshua This has nothing to do with little old ladies from around the bay who delight in putting the fear of Jesus into the locals through fortune telling or the embellishment of religiosity through old wives’ tales. In order to better understand the tarot sequence in question we need a general understanding of the author’s primary influences; i.e., a working ..read more

“The thought that my life could end at any moment frees me to fully appreciate the beauty and art and horror of everything this world has to offer.” – Hannibal Lecter This may come as a surprise for some of you but before Nietzsche got caught up with Schopenhauer he used to read the Stoics a lot. In fact, much of his formal education focused on Stoicism. Scholarly findings reveal that ‘the works of Seneca and Epictetus are among the most heavily read and annotated in his library.’ My reason for bringing this up here is because Hannibal’s above quote feels somewhat reminiscent of the Stoics. C ..read more

“Stop, stop, stop… I wanna go home, take off this uniform and leave the show, I’m waiting in this cell because I have to know, have I been guilty all this time.” – Pink Floyd, Waiting for the Worms The faceless man brought me dead white philosophers. One after another he threw them into the giant hole that served as my abode. Eventually the bodies piled up one upon another allowing for my great escape. You might think it would have been much easier if the guy could have thrown me a rope instead. Perhaps he was afraid that he would have been yanked into my isolation or he needed me to see firs ..read more

“Nietzsche’s underlying view that if we don’t make a drastically new start we are doomed, since we are living in the wreckage of two thousand and more years of fundamentally mistaken ideas about almost everything that matters.” – Michael Tanner We can all recall a time in our lives when our paradigm of the world changed in the twinkling of an eye. For me this was as a student in elementary school while watching theatre in the gymnasium. A number of my teachers appeared in a stage play that enabled me to see them in a completely different light. Instead of a painfully tedious lecture while imp ..read more

Apollo and Dionysus by Leonid Ilyukhin “Like wildfire, the madness of the wine god brought with it a glimpse of the world that lies outside the Apollonian and a new solution that promised to reconcile man with nature in a mystical primordial unity.” – Antonis Chaliakopoulos Good Morning Canadian Sherry, I spent last night putting back vodka mixers and even drank a bit more than usual on purpose as an experiment. You see, one of the health stores I frequent has been selling anti-hangover pills for several years and customers can’t get enough of them, so I decided to try it and see for myself ..read more

“Christianity was from the beginning, essentially and fundamentally, life’s nausea and disgust with life, merely concealed behind, masked by, dressed up as, faith in ‘another’ or ‘better’ life.” – Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy Why do we call a RC Sister a Nun? Because she isn’t getting none. If that one went over your head then you’re not missing out son. How so? For it’s a cross between being rude and crude. But Aristotle said that virtue exists between two vices yeah. By Charles you’re right, but there’s a night & day difference between cleverness and the art of life. — Thos ..read more