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"Orient Mountain Goddess" by Rinse Binh Ly - Vietnam

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Editor's Page Security Clearances, Intelligence Analysts and Moral Intelligence - or - Why Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden are American Heroes by Frank Thomas Smith Let's start with MY security clearance. I was drafted into the US. Army during the Korean War and was sent to Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky for basic infantry training. If you think that sending a Brooklyn kid to Kentucky isn't a culture shock, think again. Suddenly I was flung together with kids my own age from all over the country. Well, so what? you may ask. And you'd be right. The army, as all military organizations, has an open-secret psychological weapon which works: Group Integration. Continue Current Events Surveillance Blowback - The Making of the U.S. Surveillance State, 1898-2020 by Alfred W. McCoy The American surveillance state is now an omnipresent reality, but its deep history is little known and its future little grasped.  Edward Snowden’s leaked documents reveal that, in a post-9/11 state of war, the National Security Agency (NSA) was able to create a surveillance system that could secretly monitor the private communications of almost every American in the name of fighting foreign terrorists. The technology used is state of the art; the impulse, it turns out, is nothing new. For well over a century, what might be called “surveillance blowback” from America’s wars has ensured the creation of an ever more massive and omnipresent internal security and surveillance apparatus.  Its future (though not ours) looks bright indeed. On Having One's Healthy Organs Removed by Gerald Brennan Our faults are not in our stars, but it’s the latest craze among intellectualoids to assert that our faults are, in fact, in our genes. The time is at hand, they claim, that the fully deciphered human genome will reveal our fate. And for those of us who place our faith and personal power in the hands of the geneticist, they will be right. In a recent op-ed explaining her decision to have both of her breasts surgically removed, even though she doesn't have breast cancer, Angelina Jolie cited the fact that doctors told her she had an “87% risk of breast cancer.” Her solution? Have her breasts cut off. Continue Fiction It's All in the (UFO) Book by Frank Thomas Smith Dear Editor, I met Dr. Hableben during a working vacation in the Traslasierra, which means, literally, Beyond-the-mountains. The mountain range in question is just east of the Andes and about five hundred miles west of Buenos Aires. So much for geography. I include it in order to indicate that my encounter with him took place in a relatively remote part of the planet. Continue The Engagement by Rudy Ravindra Mrs. Kaul asked her son, “Are you going to be in town next week?” Satish looked up from his iPad. “Yes, Mom. Why? Are you planning something? Well, Parvathi is very keen on an alliance with our family. She wants you to meet her daughter.” You mean her daughter and me getting married? I think I vaguely remember her. Isn’t she tall and lanky? I forgot her name.” Mrs. Kaul smiled. “ Her name is Padma, and she is still tall but no longer lanky. She blossomed into a real beauty. You must see her, beta. She is really drop-dead-gorgeous. And brains too. She is doing her Masters in electrical engineering at The Institute.” Continue Children's Corner The Red-headed Pizza by Frank Thomas Smith Romano, the red-headed pizza-parlor man, has already made at least a hundred pizzas this afternoon. Customers love his pizzas because of the technique he learned in Italy and his artistic touches. In Romano's opinion, a well-made pizza is a work of art. But today he has so much work that he makes one pizza after another almost automatically: cheese, napolitana, onion, salami etc., large, small and medium. "One large cheese!" the waiter calls. "Always the same," Romano sighs... Continue Anthroposophy Esoteric Lessons for the First Class of the School for Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum - Volume Two, Lesson Twelve by Rudolf Steiner Self-knowledge, my dear sisters and brothers, is what, in a spiritual sense, can lead to cosmic knowledge. And it has often been said that understanding must exist for true spiritual cosmic knowledge to stream out of the spiritual world itself; that we must understand that the person who is able to transmit such knowledge from the spiritual world must approach the threshold; that the Guardian of the Threshold stands at the threshold, the Guardian who protects the person in normal consciousness from entering the spiritual world unprepared... Continue The Fifth Gospel - Lecture 1, Berlin by Rudolf Steiner Basically, everything in present day spiritual life indicates how the humanity of our times unconsciously thirsts for what a truly spiritual worldview can give it. And not only those people who today express their need for such a worldview in a somewhat positive way strive for such a worldview, but also many who know nothing about such a worldview. Yes, even those who perhaps pronounce hostile concepts and ideas, unconsciously yearn, from the needs of their hearts, for what they consciously are unaware of: what our worldview can give them. Continue Karmic Relations, Volume II, Lecture Eleven by Rudolf Steiner If we are to understand the real nature of karma, it is of paramount importance to turn our attention to the extent to which the cosmos participates in the evolution of mankind. In order, therefore, to be able to envisage those Beings of the spiritual cosmos who play a part in man's evolution, let us consider, to begin with, man's connection with the beings belonging to the earthly realm. Man on earth is surrounded by beings of the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms, and must be regarded as having all these three kingdoms of nature within him — in a higher form. In a certain respect man is related to the mineral kingdom through his physical organism but he elaborates what is otherwise to be found in the external mineral kingdom into a higher form of existence. Continue History of the Anthroposophical Movement - Lecture 7 - The Decline of the Theosophical Society by Rudolf Steiner   Eurythmy  Having talked about various outer circumstances as well as the more intimate aspects of modern spiritual movements, I will attempt today and tomorrow to provide an interpretation of the conditions which govern the existence of the Anthroposophical Society in particular. And I will do so by means of various events which have occurred during the third phase of the movement.Having talked about various outer circumstances as well as the more intimate aspects of modern spiritual movements, I will attempt today and tomorrow to provide an interpretation of the conditions which govern the existence of the Anthroposophical Society in particular. And I will do so by means of various events which have occurred during the third phase of the movement. We have to understand clearly our position at the time when the second phase of the anthroposophical movement was coming to an end, around 1913 and 1914, and our position today... Continue Poetry Ciencia Oculta - el poema by Frank Thomas Smith En el principio fue Saturno,      Luego vino el Sol, Calor invisible,                          Calor y brillo, Cuerpos de voluntad:                Cuerpos vivos Llegó a su fin.                            Llegó a su fin. Continue My Honey is Dancing by RZ Balchowsky Our kitchen is filled with the scent of gardenias; my honey is dancing and eating his pie.. Our senses are filled and I know how he feels yes, my honey is dancing; he knows I know why... The scent of sweet honey flows up from the cup wells, the scents of sweet honey and coffee and pie.. Continue Letters to the Editor I first discovered this short story in an actual copy of the original SATURDAY EVENING POST on a shelf in the PALM BEACH JUNIOR COLLEGE library in the fall of 1965. As I held it in my hands reading it, it changed my life and perceptions as a would-be novelist. As a long-time reader of J. D. Salinger's, I was astonished to find out that writers often make allusions to other works and other characters in their earlier writing.  Here was proof that a full six years before the publication of The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger had invented the character, even possible eventual demise, of Holden Caulfield. ...continue You can find us under the Southern Cross constellation in the Traslasierra Valley, Province of Córdoba, Argentina. Visitors always welcome. Just follow the sign that reads: La Cruz del Sur. Frank Thomas Smith, Editor JoAnn Schwarz, Associate Editor Contact us Authors' Guidelines Archives so we can advise you when the next issue is ready. Many people are switching to Gmail. If you do, please advise us so we can change your subscription address. For back issues, use the issue number, For example: http://southerncrossreview.org/79/index79.html will deliver SCR number 79. WWW Southern Cross Review Tell a friend: