John Burgess had the best idea for the unbroken circle . I have
used that before as that kind of symbol - long story I won’t bore you
with. But perhaps we could consider that, religion aside, the old
Golden Rule - Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You,
would serve. A twisted circle in silver, intersected by a golden
rule. Simple, no way to shortchange any religion or belief, and
certainly a message of universality and brotherly love. No
possibility at scaring anyone with insects either : ) .
The one question I do have in mind is - why would anyone
want to buy such a symbol? <Snip> why would we wish to display a
symbol saying that we are just members of humankind?
Thank you Kay and Ian! I have wondered from the start of this
thread about why a person would want a group to design a symbol for
them to use – for what? For sale?
If it is indeed merely a commercial venture, wouldn’t it be more
appropriate for that person who started the thread to design an
image and ask for feedback? I’m sure people would offer-up new
designs to be considered, but that somehow seems a more genuine and
altruistic way to approach it.
I do not wish to be associated in any way with any religion or
faith. My decision to identify as a Skeptic means that I am always
highly suspicious of any supernatural reference - including
"spirituality."
Spirituality seems to be a good excuse for calling a three dollar
collection of beads on an elastic thread a “healing bracelet” and
selling it at $30. Or inflating the price of a cheap crystal by
claiming it can bring about some sort of therapeutic result.
I think that most of the brutalities and horrors of the world are
visited, person by person, child by child, blow by blow, by religious
people trying to get others to follow their faiths.
I know that evil men (and women) extract money from the poor,
support from the innocent and obedience from the frightened - all in
the names of faith, religion, belief. And they use this acquired
power to perpetrate horrors.
I don’t want to belong to any club that has them as a member, thank
you!
I do not wish to be associated in any way with any religion or
faith. My decision to identify as a Skeptic means that I am always
highly suspicious of any supernatural reference - including
"spirituality."
Tony; Don’t confuse “Spirituality” with things that have been
noticed and documented form the dawn of mans civilization, I believe
what we now call Medicine was originally called by some rather
unsavory terms, which also caused the demise of approximately 2.5
million people in the past, Odd if you’ve ever been in a show room
with filled 1000 pound plus Quartz Cluster’s with Huge crystals
Several were over 6 ft tall, and not felt a bit of disorientation
then I too would be skeptical of “spirituality” I used to scoff at
things like a piece of rock could have any influence on me! I’ve been
cutting rocks and for 30 years and about 20 years I got shown what
kind of power can be emitted from a stupid chunk of silicon-dioxide!
I mean we are talking the most abundant mineral on this planet right.
Remember that some people are looking at LCD monitors Liquid Quartz
Display OK! Now all this stuff happening on that screen is set in
motion by very minute electrical impulses working on the Liquid
Quartz(there is that word again) sandwiched in some thermoplastic
cover with little wires in a bunch of different places. The reason
being that quartz is an excellent modifier of electrical impulses and
or current, Even something as unidentifiable as a radio wave to our
bodies, can be discerned using just a plain old piece of quartz, like
with a quartz radio (popular with Boy Scouts in the dark ages). So at
this point realizing that our entire Skeletal Muscle system is
actually controlled by wee tiny itsy bitsy electrical signals, Oh Man
Now we are kind of breaking down some disbeliefs at least it made a
believer out of me, It’s a known fact that certain sonic wave levels
can produce certain effects in people, even one’s that aren’t audible
, these types of sound therapy has been used in institutions to
control attitudes of the residents, some times these sounds are
called white noise they are hardly audible but keep do keep things
calm. So let’s see given that all light vibrates at a different rates
Imagine how many different directions that energy is being dispersed
through a 1200 pound quartz crystal, Darned sure there is enough to
disrupt your equilibrium. It took about 10 minutes for me to adapt.
As for joining any clubs, a very wize man once said “Personally I
wouldn’t belong to any club that would have me as a member” (Groucho
Marks) and beside we all need to put a bit more faith in ourselves.
So why not all of us carry a picture of our self’s and we would be
able to instantly identify our self’s. Seem to me like way to many
people don’t know who they are, they seem to have forgotten that Most
religions have Pagan DNA.
Tony, You are absolutely right. I would like to add one thought God
is not religion. It is man that bends the character of God for self.
It is the inherent bent nature of the human spirit to seek self
fulfillment that in its most advanced form manifests itself as pure
evil that creates the perversion of faith, religion and belief. God
is separate from these acts just as a jeweler that creates a ring is
not the ring but the maker of the ring. The jeweler is part of the
ring in the essence that the jeweler designed, crafted and put the
ring out into reality but the jeweler is not THE ring. If the ring is
used on the hand of someone who uses the ring to beat someone to
death the jeweler is not in part or parcel responsible for the
hideous act. Similarly I believe that God is not responsible for the
acts of Popes and politicians, dictators and evil people bent on
power and manipulation. Just as in a free society you have to take
the good with the bad to have free will and not be a mindless bee in
a hive of thousands of bees you have to take the good with the bad.
These are just my personal thoughts not meant to convert anyone or
insight upheaval. Regards J Morley/Goldsmith/Laser welder
April Your suggestion of a "okay, how about a circle with a
spot(on a smudge) in the middle?" is already in use in astrology
as the symbol/glyph for the earth."
Hi Karen – no, actually the circle with the spot in the middle the
glyph for the Sun – the glyph for Earth, when used, is a circle
with a cross in it (like crosshairs). But I’m sure many very old
religions and philosophies would be quite happy with a sun symbol!
: )
Even something as unidentifiable as a radio wave to our bodies,
can be discerned using just a plain old piece of quartz, like with
a quartz radio (popular with Boy Scouts in the dark ages). Kenneth
Ferrell
g’day. sorry, i just couldn’t let this go. long before i joined
scouts ‘in the dark ages’ i made a little radio [it was called
wireless then] with a small coil of varnished copper wire wound
round a pencil, a small shiny crystal of galena [lead sulphide] an
aerial and an earth, plus a pair of headphones, and listened to the
b.b.c broadcast; no quartz. quartz is used in radio but not as
a rectifier, and not in primitive radios. the crystal is precisely
ground to a thin slice and has electrodes attached, when it will
modify the frequency of an electrical signal according to the exact
thickness. in fact, there is much more to it than that, but a whole
quartz crystal has never been shown to do anything of that sort, no
matter how big. i too am highly sceptical of crystal ‘therapy’ - and
a good many other therapies too. or , like tony konrath, the
‘supernatural’ the only spirituality i know is what i feel for my
wife of 57 years [and don’t ever confuse love with sex!]
thus spracht john zarathrustra burgess, ta da!!! –
Cheers for now,
John Burgess; @John_Burgess2 of Mapua, Nelson NZ
I wasn’t interested in this thread until Ken stepped in. Frozen spit
aside… I believe that shortly, very shortly, maybe in a hundred
years or so or maybe, a thousand years if I allow myself to be
generous…we will be extinct. Thank the Spirits… And the world will
be devoid of human life for another several million years thus
allowing the once-depleted stocks of minerals and energy abundant
carbon deposits to reform. And in another million years, another
lifeform, preferably not bipedal or bilaterally symmetrical will
crawl out of the miasma and we’ll start all over again. Only this
time I hope we have the sophistication and strength to not have to
invent a convoluted mechanism for controlling behaviour and
sexuality and whatever else comes down the pike, this thing called
Religion.
“I remember your eyes were bluer than robins’ eggs. My poetry was
lousy you said. Where are you calling from? A booth in the midwest”
Although I have cut many stones, and do feel drawn to some stones,
I have never made metaphysical claims for any of them. To make
therapeutic, medicinal or spiritual claims for stones in the absence
of objective evidence supporting same is, in my opinion,
irresponsible and misleading, and gives the impression that one’s
stated beliefs are informed by the desire to move inventory.
There is only one, subjective, metaphysical, spiritual claim
regarding stones which I make unreservedly; when I cut and polish a
really pretty rock, I am immediately elated. This joy in the beauty
of stone is what I try to capture in my work, and communicate to the
wearer.
Remember that some people are looking at LCD monitors Liquid
Quartz Display...
Hi Ken,
In the interest of accuracy, LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display,
not Liquid Quartz Display. The substance used can be any of a
number of substances called “nematic” and frequently a mixture of
them are used. They are actually liquid and quartz is not one of
them. One example is pentylcyanoblphenyl. A number of good
explanations of how LCD displays work can be found by doing a google
search on “liquid crystal display”.
I am not making any kind of statement about the rest of your posting
one way or the other. I just wanted to clarify this one point.
This is the technology upon which quartz timekeeping is based. If
you pass 1.5 volts of electricity thru a sliver of quartz , it will
vibrate at a consistent rate, regardless of temperature(to an extent)
or position, and then the microchip on the circuit board counts the
vibrations ,or oscillations. Every so many oscillations, depending on
which calibre(or make) of watch movement, the chip tells the
stepping motor to advance the hands. The accuracy of quartz is based
on the fact that the rate of vibration is so consistent,regardless of
most enviromental factors. Ed in Kokomo
this is a reply to the target & the astrology comments: well, as far
as i remember there are 13 basic symbols that are pretty much
universal. all others are an expansion on the basics. further, even
if a given symbol is similar to one in use, wouldn’t it really
depend on the exact execution as to whether it is the “same?”
today is the last day before vacation! (means: more time for my work)
best regards, april k. de-tech studio (the last letter contains a
dot)
Hi Gerry – Don’t get me wrong – I love hugs. But hugs are
commonplace in all primate species in times of stress. Hugs are
also common in other non-erect mammals, but since the fact of a lack
of upright bearing makes “arms” unavailable, they basically stand on
all fours with necks overlapped. (Cows, horses, and dogs are only
some of the mammals you may have noticed this behavior in.)
But hugs are commonplace in all primate species in times of
stress
And then we’d get into the problem of just which two humans were
hugging. Adult male and female? Uh-uh. Abstinence! Adult male
and immature other? Oh, dear, pedophilia. Adult female and
immature male? Whoops! Another school scandal! Two children?
Precocious sexuality - suggests abuse. Two men? Got to have a
constitutional amendment against that one. Two women? Well, some
might like it, but that’s amendment country too. Two indeterminate
humans? That would set off a crusade to determine. No matter who
hugs, it would offend some group with an agenda.
I really like the one with the circle for the earth, enclosing a
drop of water. Very much down to the basics. But if you read much
psychobiology (biopsychology?), you find that by nature we, and most
other species, make it a point to differentiate between Us and Them,
frequently at many levels. Unity is a lovely idea that biology
usually slaughters.
Be careful there, Gerry. Many primates hug. Raccoons hug. Ever
heard of a Bear hug ? They all do it for the same reasons we do.
Closeness and affection. Polar bears hug their babies close to keep
warm. Mother cats do the same with their kittens. I’m sure many of
us have seen other examples of the animal world expressing
closeness. WE only prefer to think we’re special and /or superior.
All, My reaction is a big Sigh. I would make the hugging image a
silhouette drawing without sex or racial features. Just a depiction
of humans hugging. Or after the post others have made, a silhouette
of a human with hands thrown up walking away. A figure of surrender
to the fact that humans can never compromise or come to agreement on
anything. Humans, a group destined to thier own distruction because
of thier inability to compromise. Or a hug. Myself I give a cyber
hug to all. Humans that I agree with, humans that I disagree with,
and humans who do unimagineable deeds. A hug to all humans.
Gerry Galarneau, in sunny, cool Phoenix Arizona, USA Busy with show
preparations, Laughlin, Nevada USA and Tucson, Arizona USA.