WOW, when I first came across the news articles stating that the Pangolin was to blame for the virus, I was curious. Never had I heard of a Pangolin.
Little did I know where this path of research would lead me. I am certain that you will be as surprised, intrigued and angered by this adventure as I am. Read on dear friends and stay to the end. It will be well worth it!
Chinese researchers investigating the animal origin of the deadly coronavirus outbreak in China said Friday the endangered pangolin may be the “missing link” between bats and humans, but other scientists said the search may not be over.
Missing link: a pangolin?
Many animals are capable of transmitting viruses to other species, and nearly all strains of the coronavirus contagious to humans originated in wildlife.
Bats are known carriers of the latest strain of the disease, which has infected at least 31,000 people and killed more than 630 worldwide, mostly in China where the outbreak originated.
A recent genetic analysis showed that the strain of the virus currently spreading among humans was 96 percent identical to that found in bats.
But according to Arnaud Fontanet, from France’s Pasteur Institute, the disease likely didn’t jump straight from bats to humans.
“We think there’s another animal that’s an intermediary,” he told AFP.
Several studies have shown that the bat-bourne virus lacks the necessary hardware to latch on to human cell receptors. But it’s still not clear which animal is the missing link.
Did a Senior Chinese Military Officer Call the Coronavirus a Hoax or Did Dean Koontz Write A Sequel?
CENSORED BY YOUTBUBE
REPOSTED ON BITCHUTE SEE BELOW
(Lupercalia & The ides of February)
The NINTH annual World Pangolin Day will be celebrated on 15 February 2020!
World Pangolin Day is an opportunity for pangolin enthusiasts to join together in raising awareness about these unique mammals — and their plight. Pangolin numbers are rapidly declining in Asia and Africa.
The demand for pangolins comes mostly from China, where pangolin scales are unfortunately believed to be a cure-all of sorts and pangolin flesh is considered a delicacy. In Vietnam, pangolins are frequently offered at restaurants catering to wealthy patrons who want to eat rare and endangered wildlife. There is no evidence to support claims regarding medicinal properties of pangolin scales or any other part of the pangolin.
Connect, get updates and share ideas for #worldpangolinday at facebook.com/WorldPangolinDay
Watch an adorable baby Cape pangolin named “Champ” stick out his tongue:
Cape Pangolin Tongue – Pangolin.com
Pangolins reach sexual maturity at about two years old. (A Totem for Pedophiles??)
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Can the power of cultural mythology help give pangolins more than the ghost of a chance? EXCERPT – Read the full article by clicking the link
In the struggle against the extermination of species at the hands of illegal trade and human exploitation, no potential weapon or tactic should be beneath initial consideration..
In some areas of Zimbabwe, pangolins are regarded as both very rare and a symbol of good luck, while killing one invites bad luck and is regarded as a taboo act.
Even the pangolin’s scientific categorisation suggests its strangeness in human eyes – the genus name Manis is derived from the Latin ‘manes’, meaning ‘ghost’ or ‘spirit of the dead’ in acknowledgement of both their secretive, nocturnal habits and unusual scaled appearance (they’re the only scaled mammal on the planet).
The pangolin’s mythical associations in Africa extend beyond Zimbabwe. Social anthropologist Martin Walsh has written of how pangolins in Tanzania hold a special place in Sangu cosmology, or at least in the beliefs of some Sangu.
He records that it was believed pangolins fell to Earth from the sky, sent by the spirits of the Sangus’ ancestors. Further, it was believed each newly arrived pangolin latches on to an individual human and follows them home, at which the point the individual is required to report the event to their chief’s ritual specialist.
The person ‘chosen’ by the pangolin is then treated as though he or she were the parent of new-born twins, itself an event regarded as abnormal and requiring special ritual treatment. As parents of twins are secluded at home to undergo a series of rites, so too must the person and the pangolin be confined at home and participate in rituals, reportedly involving singing and dancing with other community members.
Walsh adds that the songs sung are said to be the same as used for twin-birth rituals and that the pangolin joins in the dancing; some pangolins are reported to shed tears profusely while dancing and this is interpreted as an omen of good rains in the coming year. Dry eyes signify drought.
Perhaps the pangolin’s oddity among creatures reflects back at us our own singularity in the animal kingdom and stirs us to look for commonality. In their publication A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics, Paul Waldau and Kimberley Patton cite Allen Roberts as writing: “… it is strangely ‘human’. The pangolin has a single baby, walks upright and shows ‘dignity’ when attacked, almost as though it were turning the other cheek.
“Some Africans make the pangolin the central emblem of healing people who have been unable to bear children. The pangolin is so odd that its existence seems almost impossible. But it does exist. If a pangolin can really exist, perhaps anything is possible!
“The pangolin serves as a symbol of hope that even the unhappiness of not being able to have children may be overcome.”
But we shouldn’t need to retreat into the magical thinking of bygone ages in order to find cause to revere the humble, bizarre and wonderful pangolin – there’s nothing else like it, anywhere, and for that reason alone we should redouble our efforts to eradicate the illegal trade that leaves its future so perilous.
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ANIMALS IN LELE RELIGIOUS SYMBOLISM
MARY DOUGLAS
THE PANGOLIN
The pangolin is described by the Lele in terms in which there is no mistaking its anomalous character. They say: ‘ In our forest there is an animal with the body and tail of a fish, covered in scales. It has four little legs and it climbs in the trees.’ If I had not by chance identified it at once as the scaly ant-eater, but had thought of it always as a scaly fish-like monster that ought to abide in the waters, but creeps on the land, its symbolic role would not have eluded me for so long. Anomalous characteristics, like the scaly tail, would set the pangolin apart but would not explain its association with fertility. The fertility of humans is thought to be controlled by the spirits inhabiting the deepest, dampest parts of the forest. The symbolic connexion of water with fertility and with the spirits who control human fertility, is fairly explicit for the Lele. All aquatic things-fishes, water-animals, and water-plants, as well as amphibians-are associated with the spirits and with fertility. Creatures which have the same outward characteristics as aquatics, but live on the land (the ), or which are essentially land animals but frequent the water (the water chevrotain), are also associated with the spirits. In this context the
association with fertility becomes clear. According to the Lele, the pangolin is anomalous in other ways. Unlike other animals, it does not shun men but offers itself patiently to the hunter. If you see a pangolin in the forest, you come up quietly behind it and smack it sharply on the back. It falls off the branch and, instead of scuttling away as other animals would do, it curls into a tightly armoured ball.You wait quietly until it eventually uncurls and pokes its head out, then you strike it dead. Furthermore, the pangolin reproduces itself after the human rather than the fish or lizard pattern, as one might expect from its appearance. Lele say that, like humans, it gives birth to one child at a time. This in itself is sufficiently unusual to mark the pangolin out from the rest of the animal creation and cause it to be treated as a special kind of link between humans and animals. In this respect the pangolin would seem to stand towards humans as parents of twins stand towards animals. Parents of twins and triplets are, of course, regarded as anomalous humans who produce their young in the manner of animals. For a human to be classed with animals in any other connexion-because, for instance, of unmannerly behaviour-is reprehensible. But to vie with animals in fertility is good. Men do not beget by their own efforts alone, but because the spirits in the forest consent.The parents of twins are considered to have been specially honoured (Deut. xiv. 7; Lev. xi. 4-5. 50 I.) by the spirits. They are treated as diviners and are exempt from the initiation which ordinary men must undergo if they wish to acquire magic powers. Twin children are spoken of as spirits and their parents as Twin Diviners(Bangang bamaayeh). (If I went down the “Twin” rabbit hole we would need many more pages, so that is for another day) They pay an entrance fee into their own cult group, and learn ‘ twin-magic ‘ for fertility and good hunting; The most striking proof of the high ritual status enjoyed by parents of twins is that the usual ritual disabilities of women are disregarded in the case of a woman who has borne twins. She attends the conferences on twin-magic on exactly the same footing as the men, performs the rites with them, and at her death is supposed to be buried with all the other diviners. This is quite out of character with the normally subordinate position of women in Lele ritual. Parents of twins are regarded as having been selected by the spirits for a special role, mediating between humans and animals and spirits. Pangolins perform a corresponding role in the animal sphere. Lele religion is based on certain assumptions about the interrelation of humans, animals, and spirits. Each has a defined sphere, but there is interaction between them. The whole is regarded as a single system. A major disorder in the human sphere is presumed to disturb the relations which ought to exist between all the parts. Major disorders in the other spheres are not expected to occur. Animals live their lives, each behaving according to its kind. Their sphere does not impinge on the human sphere. No animal will molest a human, enter a human habitation, or steal chickens and goats, unless made to do so by sorcery. Nor will an animal become a victim to a hunter unless the spirits are willing. For their part, humans cannot expect to intervene in animal affairs, even to sight or pursue, still less to kill an animal, unless their relations with the spirits are harmonious. The approval of the spirits is assured if human relations with each other are peaceful and if ritual is correctly performed. The goodwill of the spirits notwithstanding, the hunter’s success may be spoilt by sorcery.
The hunt is the point at which the three spheres touch. Its significance far surpasses its primary object-the supply of meat. The whole range of human aspirations-for food, fertility, health, and longevity-is controlled by the spirits and may be thwarted by sorcery. If the hunt fails, the Lele fear that their other enterprises also are in danger. Not only do they feel angry at a wasted day and meatless fare, but they feel anxious for the recovery of the sick, for the efficacy of their medicines, for their whole future prosperity.
In the delicate balance between humans, animals, and spirits, certain humans and certain animals occupy key positions of influence. Among humans, the Begetters’ Group honours those who have been blessed with a child. At their initiation rites ribald songs mock the sterile. The Pangolin cult honours those who have been blessed with children of both sexes; the Twin cult honours those who have been blessed with multiple births. The qualification for membership of any of these cults is not something which a man can achieve by his own efforts. He must have been chosen by the spirits for his role as mediator between the human and the supernatural.
In theory, the candidates for the Diviners’ Group are also believed to have been made aware of their vocation in a dream or by spirit-possession, though in practice men are known to fake this qualification. Once initiated these men have access to magical powers which can be used on behalf of their fellows. In the animal world certain creatures mediate between animals and humans. Among these the pangolin is pre-eminent. It has the character of a denatured fish: a fish-like creature which lives on dry land, which bears its young after the manner of humans, and which does not run away from humans. In order to see the full significance of its fish-like scales, one should know more of the symbolic role of fish for the Lele. Fishes belong so completely to the watery element that they cannot survive out of it. Bringing fish out of the water and the forest into the village is an act surrounded with precautionary ritual. Women abstain from sexual intercourse before going fishing. Fish and fishing gear, and certain water-plants, cannot be brought into the village on the day they are taken from the water unless ritual is performed. The woman who is carrying the fish sends a child ahead to fetch a live firebrand with which she touches the fish. The other things are left for one night in the grass-land before being taken into the village (see fig. 2). I might interpret this behaviour by saying that they wish to avoid any confusion of the dry and the watery elements, but this would not be a translation of any Lele explanation. If asked why they do it, they reply: ‘ To prevent an outbreak of coughing and illness ‘, or, ‘ Otherwise the furry animals (hutapok) will get in and steal our chickens, and coughing will break out among our children.’ But these are merely elliptical references to the communion between spirit, animal, and human spheres. The furry animals which steal chickens and cause illness are not ordinary carnivorous animals, but sorcerers’ familiars, whose access to the sphere of living humans is made more difficult if the proper distinctions between human and animal, day and night, water and land, I are correctly observed. In accordance with the symbolism relating fishes with fertility and with spirits, pregnant women and novices for initiation must totally avoid eating fish. Certain fishes are more specially associated with spirits than others, and diviners are supposed to avoid eating them. Fishes do nothing to bridge the gap between human society and the creatures of the forest. Unprepared contact with them is potentially dangerous and is hedged with ritual. People in a marginal ritual condition avoid them altogether. But pangolins, part fish, part animal, friendly to humans, are apt for a mediatory role. This, I suggest, is the context of the underlying assumptions by means of which the Lele cult of pangolins is intelligible to themselves. This is why killing and eating pangolins, with proper ritual observances, are believed to bring animals in droves to the hunter’s arrows and babies to women.
The Royal Hunt – The Symbolical Meaning of an Ancient Topos
Free access to this document is no longer available. You can search it out and ask for permission to view it online. I found it while it was still freely available and I am sharing it here for education purposes only.
A-HUNTING WE WILL GO: THE HISTORIC HERALDRY AND SPIRITUAL SYMBOLISM OF THE HUNT
THE HOUNDS TO THE VILLAGE WILL COME
What a fine hunting day and balmy as May
And the hounds to the village will come
Every friend will be there and all trouble and care
Will be left far behind us at home.
See servants and steeds on their way
And sportsmen their scarlet display
Let’s join the glad throng and go laughing along
And we’ll all go a-hunting today.
(Anon. English folk-song)
Although falling out of fashion in today’s society, hunting has had a long and prestigious history of pageantry and spiritual significance. Indeed, in days of yore, it was deemed a matter of necessity. It should be remembered that world of our ancestors was not the safe place we think of today. Let us go back in memory to Europe in the time of the Merovingian Kings for a bird’s eye view of the lay of the land.
The barbarian invasions had settled down, and whatever traces of paganry remained were slowly being worked upon. The small towns, villages, and forts linked by dirt tracks across the face of Christendom were islands of light in a sea of wooded darkness, and a squirrel leaping from bough to branch could travel from Brittany to the Urals. Nor were these the woods we think of today, with their smaller green trees creating a pleasant shade over maintained forest paths; no, these were veritable temperate jungles. Perhaps only one tract of this sort remains today: the Bialowiecza Forest straddling the border of Poland and Belarus. One modern writer has recorded his impressions thereof:
My eyes had to adjust to the gloom under the dense canopy of the trees. My skin registered the drop in temperature and the increase in humidity. (In summer, humidity inside the forest may reach 100 per cent.) My nose picked up the rank, dank vegetable odour of leaf mould, humus, bog water and decaying wood. In that silent place my ears registered every sound, so that even the minutest noise seemed magnified: a pine cone fell on the soft forest floor with a thud like a hammer blow, a maple leaf fluttered down among the branches with a clatter like broken crockery, the mad cackle of a jay and the rattle of a woodpecker echoed and re-echoed between the myriad noise-reflecting surfaces of the tree-trunks like the uproar of a blasphemous congregation in a cathedral.
But it was on my innermost sense that the forest made the strongest impression. It seemed to me that in the Bialowiecza Forest one was confronted with a kind of mirror image of the inner recesses of the human mind; and in the continuous cycle of growth, death, decay and regeneration that I saw all around, I was painfully reminded of our own mortality, and of the biochemical function we would each have to perform sooner or later when we give back to the common pool the cells of which we, like all other living things, are composed.
(Douglas Botting, Wilderness Europe, p. 85).
In days of old, there were fearful inhabitants in forests of this kind. Most fearsome of all, perhaps, was the aurochs, or wild bull. Ancestor of our modern cattle, it was a large black animal standing six feet at the shoulder with spreading, forwardly curved horns. Just as fearsome was the European bison, forest-dwelling cousin of our own American buffalo. Somewhat resembling our version, it too could be found throughout the European forest. Much smaller but nastier in disposition was the wild boar; hunted with spear, it had a cunning lacking in the large bovines. The great hulking brown bear was smarter yet. There were the moose, which Europeans call elk; the red deer, the roe deer, and the fallow deer. Lesser game were present also; the genet, the marten, the fox, the otter, the badger, hare rabbit, and squirrel. Nor were beasts of prey absent either—the lynx and wild cat prowled. But perhaps dominant in our ancestor’s minds was the wolf. As Fr. Montague Summers writes:
For long centuries throughout all Europe there was no wilder brute, no more dreaded enemy of man than the savage wolf, whose ferocity was a quick and lively menace to the countryside such as perhaps we cannot in these latter days by any stretch of the imagination even faintly realize and apprehend. Whilst yet large tracts of every country, steppes and moorland, sierra and wold, upland, fell and plain, were utterly deserted and only trodden by man with peril and mortal danger to himself, the wolf proved a fearful foe.
He dwelt in those formidable forests which long continued his veritable strongholds, fortresses from which he could not be dislodged, Riddlesdale and Bowland, Sherwood and Bere and Irwell in England; Ettrick, Braemar, Rothiemurchus, Invercauld in Scotland; in Ireland Kilmallock, the wilds of Kerry, the Wicklow mountains, Shillela [from which latter place originated the famous Irish walking-stick]; in France, Fontainebleau, Vincennes, the thick-hedged slopes of the Jura and Vosges; in Germany and central Europe the Schwarzwald, the Ahmerwald, the Wald-Viertel, and many more. Monarchs hunted him, and legislated and offered rich rewards for his destruction. But for many a hundred years and a hundred years again did the wolf defy all attempts at extirpation
(The Werewolf, p. 22).
But other, less easily dealt with animals dwelt also in the forest, as our ancestors believed; the unicorn, for one, and the dragon. Moreover the fairies and rather more unpleasant characters in the way of goblins and demons could be found there also. While holy hermits might take up their residence in the forest’s depths, so too might robbers—and not always benevolent ones like Robin Hood and his Merry Men, all under the merry greenwood tree, either. There too was the mysterious Green Man, a half-human, half supernatural figure analogous in European folklore to the North American Indian Sasquatch or Bigfoot, and the Tibetan Yeti. So it is not too surprizing that in the days of Clovis, everyone was allowed to hunt and to clear what forest he could, regardless of station.
The Kings and nobility, however, had a special responsibility to defend the peasants not only from invaders, but also whatever evil lurked in the woods. Still, the forest and its denizens were not merely fearsome, they were also valuable resources. Hunting was as good a practice for warfare as was tourneying; moreover, the opponent was not human. As they shrank, forests were set aside for Royal and noble use. Bialowiecza Forest, eventually the last refuge of the European bison, and Jaktozowka Forest, which similarly served for the aurochs (less successfully; the last one died in 1627, although German geneticists have “bred back” animals at least similar in appearance and habits—if one could derive modern cattle from the old animal, could not the reverse be done?) were so reserved to the Polish Kings.
The French Monarchs created a whole administration, the Eaux et Forts (waters and forests) to cover the network of forests around the Kingdom: such forests as Fontainebleau, Vincennes, Villers-Cotterêts, Retz, and St. Germain were monitored by a large team of foresters. The Louvre was built originally as a hunting box for the pursuit of wolves. In England, even more rigid forest and game laws were passed. As in France, a full civil service of foresters in varying ranks was appointed. Such well known English Forests as the New Forest, Epping Forest, the Forest of Dean, Sherwood Forest (home of Robin Hood) and Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden were all so set aside. The Holy Roman Emperor himself had a rather similar setup; among his domains was the grand and spacious Forest of the Ardennes. In all countries, small or dangerous game was permitted to commoners to hunt: fox, wildcat, badger, squirrel, hare, and sometimes rabbit or wolf. Landowners could (and were) granted hunting rights on their own land.
This hunting was generally conducted on horseback with hounds—in a manner similar to that of fox-hunting as it developed later. Together the hunters would ride after their quarry, signalling to each other by means of horns—when the quarry was first sighted, and so on. Kings and nobles grew to love the sport; Elector John George II of Saxony (reigned 1656-80) was hereditary Lord High Master of the Chase for the Holy Roman Empire, and so loved hunting that he refused the crown of Bohemia because their stags were inferior in size to his own Saxon breed. He established the magnificent Hunt Museum remaining today in Dresden. In this he only emulated Bl. Charlemagne, first of the Holy Roman Emperors.
In between fighting at the frontiers of Christendom, the great Emperor would gallop through the forests in pursuit of game. His city of Aix-la-Chappelle (Aachen) owes its origin to one of his hunting trips. Once while pursuing a stag across a stream, his horse immediately pulled his hoof out of the water and retreated. Examining the leg, Charlemagne found it scalded and the water hot; he built a chapel in the shape of a horseshoe on the spot. After he built his palace there, the city grew up around it. To this day the rotonda around the hot spring is in the shape of a horse shoe, reminding us of its origins.
At another time, the Emperor was summoned one time to the Vosges mountains, where a bear was terrorizing the neighborhood. With his huntsmen and hounds, Charles pursued him, and the bear disabled many of the hunters and dogs. At last, Charles alone stood up to him, face to face on a hill-top, where the bear took the monarch in a crushing bear-hug. At last, Charles struck him with his dagger and flung the animal off the precipice. The witnesses cried out, “long live Charles the Great!,” which is one of the reasons why he was thereafter called Charlemagne. Although he was jealous indeed of his hunting rights, he allowed the monks of the Abbey of St. Denis to chase the stags who were overgrazing their woods, on the proviso that the venison would be fed to the postulants and novices, and the hides used to bind missals.
His successor on the throne of France, many centuries later, St. Louis IX was just as great a huntsman. In Palestine during the crusades he hunted lions; while at home he allowed commoners to hunt, provided always that they give a haunch of any animal they killed to the lord of the place. From this comes the custom in Europe of giving the foot of the slain quarry to whomever leads the hunting party. Louis XV stopped on his way back from his Coronation in Rheims to chase the stag in Villers-Cotterêts before returning to Paris. The martyred Louis XVI was also particularly fond of hunting. Even such Popes as Pius II, Julius II, and Leo X were avid huntsmen, and it was permitted even to religious, so long as the animals pursued presented a threat either to people or crops.
The chase helped develop the code of honor chivalry had bestowed on the high-born. If hunting for pleasure and not for food, the means at the hunter’s disposal must be limited so that the quarry might have a chance to escape; further, wounded animals ought not to be pained more than strictly necessary. Thus even today, it is considered against the code to shoot a sitting duck or wait for a game-animal to drink at a water hole. The hunting code yet demands that one track down and shoot a wounded animal, rather than leaving it to die in pain if pursuit should be inconvenient.
Alongside this code grew up a hierarchy of each “hunt,” as a group of hunters, horses, and hounds were and are called. Master of Hounds, beaters-in, and so forth all developed particular roles; similarly,the hunt itself became ceremonial to a great degree, the coup de grace (stroke of grace) being given to the quarry with a ceremonial knife or short sword—designed to be swift and as painless as possible. From hunting has developed much of what we call gentlemanly behavior.
It ought to be remembered, though, that for our ancestors in Catholic times, all aspects of life were symbolic of higher things; of these the chase was full. The horse and rider represented Christ; the horse corresponding to His humanity and the rider to His Divinity. The hounds were emblems of loyalty, and so a dog is often depicted at the feet of loyal wives’ and vassals’ effigies on their tombs. The white stag symbolized Christ, after Whom all must hunt in this life; moreover He protects the Catholic family, His spouse the Church and His children the faithful, even as the stag defends his does and fawns.
Wolves, believed to derive strength from the light of Moon, stars, and lightening, might be seen again as a token of Christ, Who also is strengthened by light. (More reminiscent of the AntiChrist/Lucifer and his version of light) But more often the wolf symbolized the forces of evil. So too was the wild boar called the symbol of Anti-Christ and evil.In those places where its chase was restricted to the King or the Princes of the Blood Royal, their victory over their prey was seen to symbolize the conquest of Satan by Christ the King. For this reason also, a boar’s head would be brought in with great solemnity and song to the high tables of universities, palaces, guilds, and manors at Christmas; Christ’s birth having vanquished sin, the boar’s head was as much a trophy as a Christmas dinner. The custom yet remains among certain English guilds, and Queen’s College, Oxford.
What of the more marvelous if seldom seen quarry, unicorn and dragon? The unicorn was seen as symbolic of Christ in His calling to virginity (for it was said that he who would hunt one must have a virgin attract the beast). The horn too brought Christ to mind, symbolizing Our Lord’ s divine power: “But my horn [force] shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn” (Psalm 92:10). Just as the huntsmen who would pursue the unicorn must use a virgin as lure, those who would gain Christ must do so with the help of the Virgin with Whom He was pleased to dwell. Such a forest as legend-haunted Broceliande in Brittany, where a fairy maid had lured Merlin into captivity and a magic fountain gave powers unearthly to those who drank of its pure water, was often considered to the haunt of the unicorn.
The dragon too was an emblem—of evil. Numerous saints had battled them, starting with St. George, peerless flower of Knighthood. But so too had less exalted knights; the last dragon killed in England, it was said, met its fate in St. Leonard’s Forest in 1416 (a couple of friends and I went on a dragon hunt of our own in that pleasant wood in 1992; none of the reptiles turned up, but a deer rushed out of a culvert, which for us was just as exciting!).
In the realm of legend, hunting was as important a pursuit as anywhere else. The fairies were held, like humans, to have Kings and courts, which went in their turn on hunts and processions. These were often confused and confounded with the “Wild Hunt,” a phenomenon known to all of Christendom. The rush of fierce wind was seen as this particular eerie band’s passage, chasing some strange spirit animal. If any scoffer halloed them, he might be forced to join the others forever, or else be thrown some grisly trophy; in one tale, it was the man’s own infant.
The chief huntsman’s identity varied considerably, and with it the activities of the pack. Some said it was Satan, others Death or Odin. But in many places an actual historical character was given the credit. In Germany’s Odenwald, it was a certain Count von Rodenstein; in the northern Black Forest a Countess von Eberstein did duty. Le Grand Veneur, the Great Huntsman, haunted the Forest of Fontainebleau; he once sighted by France’s King Henry II in an extremely frightening encounter. Gwyn ap Nudd coursed through the skies of Wales and the West of England; King Herla did the same in most of the rest of England, save around Windsor where Herne the Hunter held sway.
There is a story told of a saintly Scottish Capuchin, one Fr. Lesly, that after he was buried on a hill much haunted by such a chase, it was heard never more—the folk around attributing this to the holy relics. But a Christian explanation of the wild hunt phenomena is given in the Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis. Describing an incident in 1091 (he was writing in the 1130s), Orderic wrote of how a priest in Normandy had encountered a line of horsemen and women undergoing varying tortures administered by demons. Many were dead folk whom he recognized, some of good repute, others less so. Orderic concluded that riding with this hunt was a means of serving out one’s Purgatory.
International Order of St. Hubertus
The International Order of Saint Hubertus is a worldwide organization and knightly order of huntersand wildlife conservationists under Grand Master Istvan von Habsburg-Lothringenthat promotes traditional hunting ethics and practices. The Order was founded in 1695 by Count Franz Anton von Sporck, who brought together noble hunters from Austria, Bohemia, and other countries throughout the Habsburg Empire. The Order was named in honor of Saint Hubertus, the patron saint of hunters and fishermen. The Order’s motto is Deum Diligite Animalia Diligentes, “Honoring God by Honoring His Creatures”. As of 2011, the male-only Order has 250 members in the United States and 600 members worldwide. In 1966, the United States chapter was launched at the Bohemian Club in San Francisco. The Venerable Order of Saint Hubertus was founded in 1695,and included among its original members Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and other noble families of the Holy Roman Empire.[2](You know, they guys that like to sacrifice people in the Colosseum) |
There are numerous articles and testimonies of people who suspect or accuse these people and other elites of hunting humans for sport. You may have a hard time finding them because the elite do their best to keep their cover, but diligent research will uncover enough to at least consider this to be true.
The American chapter of the Order was inaugurated at the elite and mysterious Bohemian Grove. Conspiracy theorists like David Icke and Alex Jones have attempted to connect the Bohemian Grove to the Illuminati, and Scalia’s death in the company of a group with such ties has only invited speculation into what dark secrets the Order may hold. Source Washington Post: Justice Scalia Spent His Last Hours With Member of a Secretive Society of Elite Hunters Very good article that includes a lot of interesting information as well as a video “What is St. Hubertus?” spacer
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venat-, vener- (Latin: to hunt; hunting) venatic (adjective), more venatic, most venatic
1. Pertaining to being employed in or devoted to stalking certain animals as a source of food: Kevin has venatic interests and often engages in hunting for sport and for nutritional reasons.
2. Descriptive of or pertaining to hunting in ancient Roman times: The drawings on the wall in the temple depicted the venatic activities of Romans who were carrying spears and chasing wild animals. venatical (adjective)
Relating to or a reference to being involved with hunting.
venatically (adverb)
Regarding hunting or descriptive of the actions of hunting.
venationes (pl) (noun)
Hunts involving the slaughter of animals, especially fierce ones, by other animals or by human bestiarii or fighters of wild beasts and, sometimes of criminals by animals which were a major spectacle in Rome from 186 B.C.: “The venationes supposedly displayed the ingenuity and generosity of a sponsoring politician, and the reach of Rome and its power over nature, in procuring exotic species (lions, panthers, bears, bulls, crocodiles, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, and elephants).”
venatious (adjective)
Inclined to hunting: “Take a rabbit, deer, or fox, etc. and let them be kept among the hounds in their kennel so that the venatious appetite of them is not excited, and they will not meddle with them.”
venator (s) (noun), venators (pl)
1. A hunter or a huntsman.
2. An ancient Roman soldier who specialized in hunting wild animals. venatorial (adjective)
1. Connected with hunting.
2. Given to hunting; addicted to the chase. venatorious (adjective)
Related to or involved in hunting.
venatory (adjective)
A reference to hunting: “Men are venatory creatures and there are venatory skills when stalking animals.”
venereal (adjective)
1. Terms of the hunt and groups referred to as: “nouns of multitude”, “group terms”, and “terms of venery”.
2. Etymology: from venery, “practice or sport of hunting, the chase” from early 14th century; from Old French venerie, which came from Latin venari, “to hunt”.There are many group names from traditional terms of the hunt and some current creations that attempt to describe group characteristics.Such historical nomenclature, or terminology, called Venereal Terms [listed at this page] or Terms of Venery, were said to refer to a gathering of “group names” or collective nouns from the hunt and social functions.For more information about this segment, see Historical background for terms of Venery.Venereal terms, or the language of the chase (hunt), were in general use as well-established hunting terms. The names were considered to be the proper terms for groups of beasts, fish, fowls, insects, or whatever was designated and they were “codified in the fifteenth century”. venery (s) (noun), veneries (pl)
1. The act or sport of hunting; the chase; the practice of hunting, or the animals hunted.
2. Etymology: from venery, “hunting” [archaic], “to hunt”; from Latin venari, “to hunt, to pursue”; the act, art, or sport of hunting; “love for the pursuit [hunt]”.Don’t confuse this word with another venery which refers to “the pursuit of or indulgence in sexual pleasure”. (oh..no confusion at all; they are related! The root is where the truth lies!) venison (s) (noun)
1. Deer flesh used for food.
2. The flesh of any edible game. 3. Etymology: from French venaison which came from Latin venatio, venationis, “hunting”, from venatus, venari, “hunt, to hunt”. Here is an attempt to clarify the different “hunt, hunting” and the “love, fondness” terms: vener-, “love, sexual references”; Names for Groups or “Venery names”; Introduction to Venereal and Other Group Terms or “Venery names”; Venereal Terms or “names for a variety of groups”.
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vener-, venari- (Latin: love, loveliness, beauty, attractiveness, charm; by extension, “reverence; to worship“) venerable
1. Commanding respect by virtue of age, dignity, character, or position; worthy of veneration or reverence, as because of high office or noble character: a venerable member of Congress.
2. Worthy of reverence, especially by religious or historical association: venerable relics. 3. With reference to places, buildings, etc.; hallowed by religious, historic, or other lofty associations: the venerable halls of the abbey. 4. Venerable; abbreviated, Ven. or V.; Roman Catholic Church. Used as a form of address for a person who has reached the first stage of canonization. 5. Used as a form of address for an archdeacon in the Anglican Church or the Episcopal Church. 6. Impressive or interesting because of age, antique appearance, etc.: a venerable oak tree. 7. Extremely old or obsolete; ancient; such as, a venerable house. venerate
1. To regard or treat with reverence and devotion; to revere; to regard with respect, to worship
2. To revere suggests awe coupled with profound honor. 3. Etymology: from Latin veneratus, venerari, “to reverence, worship, venerate”, from venus, veneris, “love, sexual desire, loveliness, attractiveness, beauty, charm”; whence Venus, Veneris, “the goddess of love”. veneration
1. Feelings of deep respect or awe.
2. The expression of profound respect or reverence for someone or something. 3. A condition of being respected or revered. venereal (adjective) (not comparable)
1. A description of an infection or disease that is caught or transmitted through sexual intercourse.
2. Etymology: from Latin venereus, from Latin Venus, in ancient Roman mythology, the goddess of beauty and love; especially, sensual love, from venus, “love, sexual desire, loveliness, beauty, charm”. venerealization
1. The act of venerating or reverence, which is profound respect combined with awe, evoked by the high character or wisdom of a person.
2. The act of worshiping, to worship. venerealize (verb), veneralizes; veneralized; venerealizing
1. To look upon or to regard someone or something with respect and adoration: When Julie was in first grade she venerealized, loved, and worshiped her teacher, enjoyed all of the lessons, and always did her homework with beautiful penmenship!
2 To hold in exalted honor without fear: In Christianity, believers venerealize Jesus with total reference and obedience. venereologist
1. Someone who is concerned with the study and treatment of venereal disease.
2. A person who studies diseases or who is a specialist the diagnosis and treatment of such illnesses that are communicated by sexual intercourse. venereology
The study of, medical science of, and treatment of venereal diseases.
venereophobia (s) (noun), venereophobias (pl)
A fear of venereal diseases propagated directly, or indirectly, by sexual intercourse: A venereophobia includes a dread of getting syphilis, and gonorrhea, or any other sexually transmitted disease.
venery
1. The pursuit of or indulgence in sexual pleasure.
2. From Medieval Latin veneria, from Latin venus, vener-, “desire, love”. 3. The term venery, is also considered to be an archaic term from Middle English venerie from Old French venerie; which came from Latin venari, “to hunt, to pursue”.venial (adjective), more venial, most venial 1. Referring to that which may be pardoned or overlooked; excusable; forgivable: Elaine’s sister suddenly had to go to hospital and Elaine went with her causing her to be late for classes, but the teacher made an allowance for this venial, or justifiable, violation of the school rules.
2. Etymology: from Old French venial, which came from Latin venialis, “pardonable”, from venia, “forgiveness, indulgence, pardon”.Related to venus, “sexual love, desire”. |
I find it EXTREMELY INTERESTING THAT THESE WORDS ALL COME FROM THE SAME ROOT! God once told me, that if you want to know whether or not you should be involved in a certain thing…find the ROOT! THE ROOT is the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS. EVERYTHING ELSE IS A LIE, A COVER UP! A DECEPTION!
In 1938, after nearly 250 years of existence, the Order was banned by Adolf Hitler for refusing to accept Nazis as members after the Anschluss joined Austria to Germany.[2]At the end of World War II, surviving members of the Order were authorized by Halvor O. Ekern, chief political adviser of the United States Armed Forces in Austria, to use their guns to provide food to the rural population in the winter.[2]
The Order was re-instituted on May 1, 1950 by Albert Franz Messany, at the request of Chancellor Figl of Austria. Messany renamed the organization the International Order of St. Hubertus to better reflect the multi-national character of the Order.[2]
The Order gained media attention in February 2016, when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died while staying at Cibolo Creek Ranch in Presidio County in West Texas. The owner of the ranch, John B. Poindexter, as well as C. Allen Foster, a Washington attorney who traveled with Scalia to the ranch by private plane, hold leadership positions within the Order; at least two other private aircraft traveling to the ranch were connected to known members of St. Hubertus.[3] Poindexter indicated that he knew of “no connection” between Scalia and the Order, and that Scalia had traveled to the ranch to go hunting.[3]
In parts of France and the Black Forest,however, the Wild Ride was called St. Hubert’s Hounds.During harvest season, and on his feast day (November 3),the Saint’s four horses, each without bit or bridle, and mounted by four knights in black armor with visors down might be heard as they galloped over the trees. Whatever the identity of his hounds, horses, and their dark riders, the Saint himself is well known as the patron of hunting. Devoted to the chase, he was pursuing a stag on Good Friday in the Ardennes, when between the animal’s horns appeared a crucifix from which spoke Our Lord, commanding him to give up the world and devote himself to God’s service:
After the mysterious stag had revealed Christ to him, he became, from a hunter of wild animals, a hunter of souls;and merited to be called the apostle of Ardenne, whose forests had often echoed to the baying of his hounds. He became the disciple and successor of St. Lambert; and transferring from Maestricht both the relics of the holy martyr-bishop and the Episcopal See, he raised Liege from an obscure village to a great town. His blessed death took place on May 30, 727; and on November 3, 743, his precious remains were taken up for the first time,which led to the celebration of his feast on this day. In the following century, the Abbey of Andain was put in possession of the sacred deposit, and took from him the name of St. Hubert, as did likewise the town which sprang up around and soon became a centre for pilgrimages.
Two orders of knighthood were established in honour of St. Hubert; the first perished with the fall of the Bourbons, its last chiefs; the other still exists, and the Kings of Bavaria are its Grand Masters[since their deposition in 1918, the head of the Bavarian Royal House continued to preside over the order] (The Liturgical Year, vol. XV, “Time After Pentecost,”bk. VI, pp. 164-5). These two last were the most famous of a large number of knightly orders and brotherhoods of St. Hubert, who were popularly supposed to have the power to cure rabies. Although now long since a basilica, its abbey having been abolished, the splendid church of St. Hubert in the Belgian Ardennes remains the center of devotion to this patron of hunters, who does continue to guard against rabies through his intercession.
St. Hubert’s day was long considered the formal commencement of the hunting seasonin Catholic Europe. All the hunting hounds of the neighborhood were brought to church for his Mass, at the elevation of which the hunters, resplendent in their green or red hunting jackets, sounded their horns. At the end of the Mass, the priest would go down the aisle, and another note would be played, after which the dogs would rush out of the church into the yard. There the priest, having blessed special St. Hubert’s Bread, Water, and Salt, against rabies (with a formula found in the rituale) administered the same to the dogs. The huntsmen, parishioners, and hounds were then all blessed. It was traditional to offer to St. Hubert the first fruits of the hunt.In the Middle Ages, not only this feast but the Saint’s conversion, death, and translation of his relics were similarly marked by the various brotherhoods and orders, who maintained, as did the guilds of the day, their own special devotions and rites, emblematic colors, and so on.
These Masses are still offered, most notably at the basilica. But in Brussels, the old church of Notre Dame de Sablon plays host to it, for all that this parish is in the middle of the capital. In France they are widespread—Gary Potter witnessed one at the Chateau d’Arthies in the Ile de France, and saw in its wonderful combination of the Faith and civilization a major reason for his eventual conversion; the Abbey of Chaalis near Chantilly plays host to a similar Mass. The Hubertus Messe’s continuation in Germany was attested to me by my friend Axel Mullers who attended once in his hometown of Duisburg. Here we have then a rite which unites all the diverse cultures of Christendom. (Pagan cultures and a unity that is not of GOD)
The saint is still resorted to for cures of rabies. Bestowed upon him was a miraculous stole, woven by Our Lady herself. The cure is accomplished by inserting under the patients skin a thread of the same stole, preserved at the basilica of St. Hubert. No less an authority than Louis Pasteur prescribed this treatment in addition to less spiritual measures. At the basilica itself, the Brotherhood of St. Hubert maintains its headquarters.Its aim is to honor St. Hubert, and “to obtain, through his intercession, the removal of all scourges (particularly of rabies), the eradication of all sacrilege, and the conversion of sinners.” (So they honor Hubert in place of CHIRST – as an ANTI-Christ)
Admission to the Brotherhood is done by being inscribed in the register at the basilica; the rituale has a formula for this. Members are to pray often to St. Hubert and wear his medal; celebrate his feast by attending Mass, confessing, and receiving Communion; and make at least once in their lives the pilgrimage to St. Hubert.In return they receive the Saint’s special protection, participate in the merits of all the members of the Brotherhood, and may avail themselves of the Masses for all dead members said during the Octave of All Saints, the monthly Requiem said for all who have died in the month, and the many indulgences bestowed by the Pope. These include plenary indulgences on the day of entrance, at death, and on St. Hubert’s Day, and partial indulgences for other pious acts.
Although the Catholic rituals surrounding the hunt managed to survive for a longer period of time on the continent, assisted by such notables as the Duke de Brissac (Master of the Fontainebleau hunt), the Reformation took away most of these in the British Isles. While much of the secular show of the chase lived on, with horns, red coats, and all, the religious element was gone. They forgot the fact that the stirrup-cup served as a reminder of the blessed wine once used as a sacramental at the hunt’s commencement. This change is particularly ironic in Ireland, which, while the vast majority remained Catholic, the tradition of the chase was maintained by the Protestant Anglo-Irish. This is the case also here in America, where formal hunting in such places as New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina slavishly follows the post-Reformation English style. Less formal hunting has even less connection with its roots in Christendom. (None of this ritualistic practice has anything to do with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ)
Nevertheless, the spiritual symbolism behind the act of hunting remains poignant. In effect, the hunt is a thing Our Lord Jesus Christ practiced very well spiritually. (I DO STRONGLY AND VEHEMENTLY PROTEST! JESUS CHRIST IS NOT A HUNTER!) He was required to carry the title of “hunter.” (THIS IS A MOST INCOMPREHENSIBLY VILE AND ABHORRENT LIE!) David, in the 18th Psalm, calls the Son of God hunter (This is a blatant LIE, no such passage exists in Scripture!). St. Jerome said, in speaking of Him, “You illustrious and noble in the mountains, catching and hunting.” The chase makes men strong in resisting vices produced by idleness. Anything a man wishes to do, he must emulate the hunt in so doing. Besides which, the concept of the hunt carries with it a little bit of war. It is training for the moment when we ought to pass from “tallyho” to “Montjoi Saint-Denis” [war-cry of French soldiers under the King] (Wallerand de Saint Just, Chants de France et de Chrétienté, p. 48).
If you create a bible search for the word HUNTER in the bible, these are the only scriptures you will find.
7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. (who broke the snare? Jesus Christ) fowler – Definition of fowler – noun GOD IS NOT A HUNTER, HE KNOWS EXACTLY WHERE EVERYONE IS AT ALL TIMES. In this scripture GOD says he will send fishers and hunters to bring HIS people back to the land of their inheritance.
The only other scripture (which has been totally misconstrued) that may even remotely connect JESUS CHRIST with hunting/fishing is the following:
Matthew 4:19 Analysis The phrase “fishers of men,” also at Mark 1:17, is one of the most well known lines in the entire New Testament, and the most important metaphor for evangelism. The image probably had an important role in the adoption of the Ichthys as a symbol of early Christianity. The reference has also often been moved from the disciples to Jesus, with him being called the “fisher of men,” and the image of Jesus as a fisherman is second only to that of Jesus as a shepherd. The translation “fishers of men” is well known and used by most authors, but not wholly accurate in a modern context inasmuch as the original Greek is gender neutral. Translators also prefer to avoid the word fisher, since fisherman has replaced it as the standard term in English, though in recent years fisher has gained some currency as a gender neutral term for fishermen. A similar reference to fishing occurs at Jeremiah 16:16, upon which this passage might be based. In Jeremiah the reference is to hunting down sinners, in the Gospels it seems to be a milder metaphor of saving souls. The basic interpretation of the metaphor as referring to the disciples working to catch souls for Jesus as they had previously caught fish is universally agreed upon, there are, however, a number of views of the exact meaning of the metaphor. The metaphor has a somewhat different meaning depending on one’s view of the type of fishing the disciples participated in. Wallace argues that the common view of fishing with a line and hook and bringing each fish in individually is misplaced, Simon and Andrew would have used nets to fish and would have brought in large numbers of fish at once through grand acts.[1] Wuellner presents an alternate view arguing that the disciples may have caught fish individually, and even by hand.[2] Manek believes that to fully appreciate the metaphor one must understand how the sea was viewed at the time. He argues that throughout the Old Testament the sea is presented as unholy, to create life God first needed to push away the seas, and in stories, such as that of Jonah, the depths of the sea are portrayed as being synonymous with the underworld. Thus the act of fishing brings the fish from the domain of sin and death to that of God. Similarly the disciples are tasked with bringing souls from sin and evil into the domain of God. The water reference might also be linked to the idea of baptism, which in Matthew 28:19 is explicitly linked to the disciples’ mission.[3] Manek also notes that some question whether the metaphor has the universal meaning that is usually understood. Some scholars believe that Jesus only called Simon and Andrew to be fishers because they already had these skills, that is Jesus had met a teacher he would have asked them to teach for him and if he had met a soldier he would have asked him to do battle for him.[4] The term “follow me” refers to following as a disciple would a Rabbi. Any good Rabbi or teacher would have a group of disciples around him learning and doing tasks for their master. France notes that Jesus’ statement is unusual as it invites the disciples to take an active part in his ministry.[5] While both Greek and Jewish religious leaders were traditionally surrounded by a group of disciples it was more common for the disciples to search out a teacher, and for a teacher to express indifference to their followers. This verse clearly depicts Jesus’ actively recruiting his followers.[6] As such a famous verse it has appeared a number of times in art and culture. Among literary works that reference the verse are Chaucer‘s “Summoner’s Tale“, Byron‘s Don Juan, Tennyson‘s Harold, Joyce‘s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and G.K. Chesterton‘s “The Innocence of Father Brown.”[7]
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Ortega y Gasset states that, “Like the hunter in the absolute outside of the countryside, the philosopher is the alert man in the absolute inside of ideas, which are also an unconquerable and dangerous jungle” (op. cit., p. 152). This is true in all else, whether it be a father who hunts for a living, or an artist who hunts for inspiration, or a writer who hunts for ideas, or a priest who hunts for souls.
This element of the hunter in the masculine ethos can also been seen in the Divine. Traditionally, all humanity is to a degree feminine in the face of God, explaining the use of “she” indiscriminately by the old spiritual writers to refer to the soul. The soul is depicted here as His spouse, just as He is shown to be the font of all masculinity: Father, Son, King, Priest, Warrior, and Hunter.Whatever our minor quarries in this life, we are all His; and as Francis Thompson showed so well in “The Hound of Heaven”, He will take us if He can; if we will only let Him:
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.In that hunt let us hope we are all run to earth.
THERE IS NO REFERENCE IN SCRIPTURE TO A “HOUND OF HEAVEN”!
There is NO SUCH THING as the “HOUND OF HEAVEN”! This was totally fabricated by the human Francis Thompson. Thompson certainly is not a reliable source regarding spiritual things, especially not the nature of OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST!” Take a look:
The “HOUND” referenced in Thompson’s poem seems to me to be the HOUND OF HELL! What do you think??:
NOW we are getting to the real bottom line. DEATH and DESTRUCTION is the GOAL for the ELITE are ruled by the Fallen Angels and they are here to STEAL, KILL and DESTROY! They WILL NOT be satisfied with simply killing! OH HO! They desire to kill in the most prolonged and torturous manner possible. WHY? Well for two reasons. 1) Because they hate humans because humans have an opportunity to be saved and they have lost theirs. 2) Because they are energy vampires. They feed off the life blood of humans and the spiritual energy released when a human has intense emotional and/or physical experiences. Preferably trauma and pain. |
The Dark Future of Tourism: Hunting Humans
Orge Castellano
Journalist and multilingual researcher at your service | itsorge.com
Dec 10, 2018 · 6 min read
March 13, 2202: It is snowing and bitterly cold outside. A biting wind whips across Paul’s face as he begins to escape — once again — from a horde of wild hunters in a frozen field outside Utah. Covered in blood, sweat, and tears, he successfully manages to lose them by slipping into a gutter. After all, he is nothing but skin and bones. After a long wander, Paul finds a shelter. An abandoned ranch with a built-in charcoal burner. Suddenly, all his sorrows disappear. For the past year, hungry and desperate, the young man had been trying to avoid “the chosen” ones: a group of oppressive mega rich people partaking in the hunting season, a perverse new kind of evil sport intended to reduce earth’s overpopulation. Inside the ranch, Paul pulls out a lighter and bends over to light the burner. As the room starts to light up, he notices a large mirror placed over the fireplace in front of him. He feels a sudden spine-tingling fear invading his entire body. He knows what is going to happen next. His world suddenly crumbles away beneath him as he sees 20 or so people loaded with electromagnetic assault shotguns. He is on the ground long before he can even gasp in terror. Paul was just another target of a new government plan aimed to reduce population size through hunting licenses outsourced to contractors. The contractor’s sole business is to slaughter humans and so was created the death entertainment industry.
The dystopian scenario depicted above — worthy of an episode of Black Mirror — might seem distant, unrealistic and very provocative, yet hunting humans inside terror parks could become a big touristic business for the mega-wealthy in less than 150 years according to University of Central Lancashire’s researcher Daniel Wright. In a series of papers published in the scientific journal Futures, the academic points out several chilling scenarios in which our worst nightmares rise to the surface.
This form of entertainment is not necessarily new in human history. In fact, there are several well-documented examples throughout history where people have gathered either to kill or to witness murder. Roman gladiatorial games and religious pilgrimages or travel to witness medieval public executions are just a couple examples. The last public execution in France was in Versailles in 1939, when the German criminal Eugène Weidmann was executed in front of an eager audience. The staged event drew several hundred spectators.
“Death as a spectacle is not a new phenomenon in social spaces,” says Wright. Since the dawn of time, humans have been obsessed and morbidly fascinated with death and all that surrounds it.
“Death, just as much as life, is a defining characteristic of human existence.” — Jacobsen
Pointing to the past provides us with enough historical evidence that in the future there will certainly exist a market for suffering and death as entertainment. When it comes to dystopian visions, it is impossible not to think of the movie The Running Man. In the 1982 Sci-Fi classic — starring Arnold Schwarzenegger — criminals are made to compete in televised deathmatches for entertainment.
Although, perhaps the recently released trilogy The Hunger Games fits better with Wright’s futuristic society. In the film, young people are psychologically and ritualistically tortured in twisted reality TV sports event. The story revolves around an elite controlling and slaughtering civilians for their own pleasure and profit, something that might become a tangible grim reality in the next century according to Wright.
In the wake of two mass shootings comes a movie which depicts a luxury hunting vacation. It isn’t what you think it is. Elite society is hunting people.
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In the future: Humans will gradually become more accustomed to death as a form of spectacle
It is important to emphasize the role the media and the entertainment industry will have playedif in the future hunting humans becomes a touristic activity. As Wright writes, “our present-day relationship with death through the movie industry, media and with the growth of technology is actively shaping the future of our affiliation to death as a form of entertainment.”
Technology will undoubtedly play the biggest role as it could enable detachment between the hunters and their victimsand remove the emotional impact of killing someone by presenting it as similar to a computer-generated experience, which Wright’s paper suggests will ultimately make killing a common pastime by 2100.
The romantic display of mass violence and death in the media and the videogames industry will continue to normalize death as entertainment,making it easier for people to progressively engage in commercial death activities for purposes of pleasure and enjoyment.
Considerable changes in the environment will also lead to future social challenges, depleted food resources, lack of water and disparity between the wealthy and impoverished. Each of these factors will play a significant role in how we perceive ourselves and could widen the gap between the rich and the poor. Author Gössling Hall suggests in “Tourism and water use” that water shortage has the potential to ignite increased conflicts, which will be further aggravated by population growth and climate change. (I am amused that they can get away with pretending that the shortages and disasters are naturally occurring. We have plenty of evidence that they are creating this environment.)
If today there are still rich individuals paying huge amounts to hunt down and murder exotic animals in Africa — in a world where humanity has already managed to decimate large populations of mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles since 1970 (again, there is evidence that they are creating the weather phenomenon that is killing off billions of animals) — then it is not irrational to believe that in the year 2200 there will be a large and diverse audience ready to consume a new type of entertainment. Unlike our ancestors, humans could gradually become more accustomed to death as a form of spectacle. In fact, the global travel trend of dark tourism might be the first indication that we are moving in this direction.
Dark Tourism – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Field of studyWhile there is a long tradition of people visiting recent and ancient settings of death, such as travel to gladiator games in the Roman colosseum, attending public executions by decapitation, and visiting the catacombs, this practice has been studied academically only relatively recently. Travel writers were the first to describe their tourism to deadly places. P. J. O’Rourke called his travel to Warsaw, Managua, and Belfast in 1988 ‘holidays in hell’,[4] or Chris Rojek talking about ‘black-spot’ tourism in 1993[5] or the ‘milking the macabre‘.[6] Academic attention to the subject originated in Glasgow, Scotland: The term ‘dark tourism’ was coined in 1996 by Lennon and Foley, two faculty members of the Department of Hospitality, Tourism & Leisure Management at Glasgow Caledonian University,[1] and the term ‘thanatourism’ was first mentioned by A. V. Seaton in 1996, then Professor of Tourism Marketing at the University of Strathclyde.[7] As of 2014, there have been many studies on definitions, labels, and subcategorizations, such as Holocaust tourism and slavery-heritage tourism, and the term continues to be molded outside academia by authors of travel literature.[8] There is very little empirical research on the perspective of the dark tourist.[2] Dark tourism has been formally studied from three main perspectives by a variety of different disciplines: Hospitality and tourismScholars in this interdisciplinary field have examined many different aspects. Lennon and Foley expanded their original idea [1] in their first book, deploring that “tact and taste do not prevail over economic considerations” and that the “blame for transgressions cannot lie solely on the shoulders of the proprietors, but also upon those of the tourists, for without their demand there would be no need to supply.”[9] Example destinationsDestinations of dark tourism include: castles and battlefields such as Culloden in Scotland and Bran Castle and Poienari Castle in Romania; former prisons such as Beaumaris Prison in Anglesey, Wales and the Jack the Ripper exhibition in the London Dungeon; sites of natural disasters or man made disasters, such as Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan,[14] Chernobyl in Ukraine[15][16][17] and the commercial activity at Ground Zero in New York one year after September 11, 2001.[18] It also includes sites of human atrocities and genocide, such as the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland,[19] the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall in China, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia; the sites of the Jeju Uprising in South Korea[10] and the Spirit Lake Internment Camp Centre near La Ferme, Quebec as an example of Canada’s internment operations of 1914–1920.[20 In Bali “death and funeral rites have become commodified for tourism …, where enterprising businesses begin arranging tourist vans and sell tickets as soon as they hear someone is dying.”[21] In the US, visitors can tour the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. “with an identity card which matches their age and gender with that of a name and photo of a real holocaust victim. Against a backdrop of video interpretation portraying killing squads in action, the pseudo holocaust victim enters a personal ID into monitors as they wander around the attraction to discover how their real-life counterpart is faring.”[22] |
But, what is dark tourism? According to Philip Stone and Richard Sharpley authors of “Consuming Dark Tourism” is the “act of travel to sites associated with death, suffering and the seemingly macabre”. In a world with less war, crime and violence, the dark tourism industry is currently booming both in demand and supply.
Visitors usually go to places where terrible things happened over the course of the century. The Holocaust and the Nazi death camps — like Auschwitz — The Dealey Plaza in Dallas, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields in Cambodia are just some of the creepy sites people are willing to go to in order to experience and witness the traces of atrocity, torture, and death.
Authors John Lennon and Malcom Foley wrote in their book, “Dark tourism: the attraction of death and disaster”, that destinations commonly associated with war most likely constitute the largest single category of tourist attractions in the world.
The growing travel trend of dark tourism is just one indicator of how the continued portrayal of pain, death, and suffering will arguably influence the normalization of future dystopian scenarios and the desire to indulge in experiences that allow an individual to engage, with varying degrees of intensity, with representations of death, in diverse manifestations. Arguably, more elaborated forms of business and entertainment related to death could potentially develop in the next centuries.
The depiction of dystopian worlds is nothing new. Our fascination with death has been widespread across both time and space. Wright’s controversial premise might raise some skeptical eyebrows and criticism, yet his ideas and futuristic scenarios allow us to think profoundly about the future. A world beset by a collapsing environment, ravaged by economic and ecological disaster, and filled with enormous technological progress might drive us to seek such new forms of entertainment.
Fortunately, for now, those wanting to take pleasure in hunting humans activities will have to limit themselves to literature or movies where the portrayal of such unpleasant dystopian societies is a ghastly reality located in a long-distance dark future. (Unless you are filthy rich, and they you can participate in these horrendous activities at any number of locations around the world.)
TRUST ME WHEN I TELL YOU THIS IS NOTHING NEW! This has been a reality in the world since the Angels FELL! From the beginning to now the world has been playing out the same scenario over and over again. The demons have gotten really great at it. They know exactly how to manipulate the masses.
Once again humanity has come to the point of ultimate depravity. Just how do you suppose we got here?AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF NOAHMy son, as it was in the beginning, so it will be in the end. Violence will be continually in the heart of man, and only by My grace and mercy will I save My own. My son, darkness is here, prepare for great darkness. Stay in My word, stay in prayer, seek only Me, and keep Me first in all things. Shalom, Father.” Matthew 24:37-3937 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. They were doing a lot more than partying! Listen to the Word of GOD!Genesis 6
If you are not familiar with the 2nd Book of Esdras in the Apocrypha, I suggest you read it! It is packed full of very important information and insight. The following section addresses the reason for the cyclical pattern that has existed since time began. 2 ESDRAS 5:34-56 – Some Great Answers from GOD
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