Sothis Lodge One Year Anniversary/Fet Ghede
Saturday, October 27
Beginning at 7:00 pm
Wear your best Halloween costume - Bring a friend and something to share
A celebration of one year of work and fellowship in Sothis Lodge and a night to honor the ancestors, the Ghede, and two of our favorite Lwas, Bawon Samdi and Maman Brigitte. Wear your best Halloween costume, bring a friend, and something to share. If you know someone who is interested in the Points Chauds work, this is an excellent opportunity to introduce them to the Lodge and the work.
At the core of this tradition is the honor and respect paid to one's ancestors, so the night's celebrations will kick off with a ritual for our ancestors, those who have gone before us. Bring photos or other reminders of your ancestors (which will be returned to you, of course), as well as offerings. Traditional Ancestor offerings include coffee (with and without sugar), bread, milk, coconuts, candy, white rice, chicken, and other white foods, but you should also bring foods or other items that you known your particular ancestors liked. Please note that "ancestors" includes not only your genetic family, but others who have played a role in your uprbringing and well-being, such as close family friends, teachers, spiritual guides, etc.
Following the service to our ancestors, we will honor the Ghede and call upon Bawon Samdi and Maman Brigitte.
About Baron Samedi:
Baron Samedi is the very powerful head of the family of ancestral lwa, the Guédé. Lwa of the cemeteries, protector of children and healer, he is considered one of the patron lwas of New Orleans Voodoo, where he is associated with St. Expedite. He is known to be a crude but hilarious lwa who engages in scandalous activities such as sending the nearly dead to do his work while he plays cards, dice, parties and dances. He is known to give winning lottery numbers when he feels like it. Baron Samedi loves to eat and he loves money, but most of all, he loves children and watches over them.
Baron Samedi is the ultimate suave and sophisticated spirit of Death, typically depicted as if ready to be buried Haitian style with a top hat, black tuxedo, dark glasses, and cotton plugs in the nostrils. He has a white, mostly skull-like face and speaks with a nasal tone of voice, and tells crude but funny jokes.
Baron Samedi stands at the crossroads, where the souls of dead humans pass on their way to Guinee. As well as being the all-knowing loa of death, he is a sexual loa, frequently represented by phallic symbols. He is noted for disruption, obscenity, debauchery, and for having a particular fondness for tobacco, especially Pall Mall cigarettes, money, and white rum. The Baron's ceremonial foods included grilled peanuts, black coffee, and bread. One of his favorite drinks is rum in which hot peppers has been steeped. Baron Samedi is also the loa of sex and resurrection.
We'll also be collecting a donation fo Zanmi Lasante, an organization that provides grassroots medical assistance in Haiti.
For more information or directions, contact us or RSVP on Facebook.
Next Meeting: Sunday, March 11
Our next regular meeting will be Sunday, March 11 at 4:00 pm.
We will be working with the 47th point / 47º Knight of the Seven Stars.
Our special guest will be T Allen Greenfield.
We will be working with the 47th point / 47º Knight of the Seven Stars.
Our special guest will be T Allen Greenfield.
My Experience With the 3rd Point
by Father Anthony
I wanted to share my experience doing the work of the third point. When we scried the point as a group I was struck by the similarity of the visions we received. It really reinforced what we were doing, I thought. We all saw mountains and pyramids and other monumental objects, caves, and other similar images.
I saw a tunnel carved into a mountain. At the very pinnacle of the mountain there grew a single red rose. Inside was a man who showed me a heart, which was the word. HEART is 66. The following is a list of words from the King James Bible that also have a value of 66. I've made some notes about a few of them, but I think you can see how appropriate they are.
A brief note about this whole process; You see a lot of contemporary video games that use procedural math to generate content that is unique in each iteration of the game. An example can be found in the popular indie game Minecraft, which I enjoy quite a bit. It works by starting with a random seed number and then applying that number to an algorithm in order to generate terrain that is different every time a new game is started. I think the Points system is essentially the same. We have an algorithm, the New Aeon English Kabbalah and the King James Bible, and our random seed is the word we receive while scrying. The terrain that is generated is the field of words to walk through and discover the available gems of wisdom contained therein. It's really quite beautiful.
But back to the third point. I then sent my report on to T Allen Greenfield so that he could check my work and verify that I had indeed done the work for that degree. He made the observation that the number 66 = 3, the number of the degree, by "Theosophical Reduction," which is pretty neat as well (6+6=12 1+2=3).
So there you have my journey for the third degree. We are pleased now to have the ability to verify all three of the principle degrees within Sothis Lodge, and we're looking forward to expanding our offering of available degrees as we go forward. Please comment if you have any thoughts about this degree or questions about how I interpreted the words, and feel free to share your own experiences with the degrees/points as you go through them.
I wanted to share my experience doing the work of the third point. When we scried the point as a group I was struck by the similarity of the visions we received. It really reinforced what we were doing, I thought. We all saw mountains and pyramids and other monumental objects, caves, and other similar images.
I saw a tunnel carved into a mountain. At the very pinnacle of the mountain there grew a single red rose. Inside was a man who showed me a heart, which was the word. HEART is 66. The following is a list of words from the King James Bible that also have a value of 66. I've made some notes about a few of them, but I think you can see how appropriate they are.
- laying (in the tomb, 3rd degree Blue Lodge imagery)
- calling
- earth (buried in)
- bone
- raise (to the sublime [3rd] degree)
- waketh
- twigs (of acacia)
- dagger
- maim
- lofty
- gates (three gates in Solomon's temple)
- rest
- pearl
- Hirams (two of them!)
- rouse
- pillar (the middle pillar of wisdom)
- arise
- charge
- landmark
- lump (to which we shall return)
- Lamech (father of Noah, the first Mason)
A brief note about this whole process; You see a lot of contemporary video games that use procedural math to generate content that is unique in each iteration of the game. An example can be found in the popular indie game Minecraft, which I enjoy quite a bit. It works by starting with a random seed number and then applying that number to an algorithm in order to generate terrain that is different every time a new game is started. I think the Points system is essentially the same. We have an algorithm, the New Aeon English Kabbalah and the King James Bible, and our random seed is the word we receive while scrying. The terrain that is generated is the field of words to walk through and discover the available gems of wisdom contained therein. It's really quite beautiful.
But back to the third point. I then sent my report on to T Allen Greenfield so that he could check my work and verify that I had indeed done the work for that degree. He made the observation that the number 66 = 3, the number of the degree, by "Theosophical Reduction," which is pretty neat as well (6+6=12 1+2=3).
So there you have my journey for the third degree. We are pleased now to have the ability to verify all three of the principle degrees within Sothis Lodge, and we're looking forward to expanding our offering of available degrees as we go forward. Please comment if you have any thoughts about this degree or questions about how I interpreted the words, and feel free to share your own experiences with the degrees/points as you go through them.
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