RHEGED REVEALED! LOST ARTHURIAN KINGDOM FOUND - # 2

RHEGED REVEALED! LOST ARTHURIAN KINGDOM FOUND

#  1  > Home to the legendary slayer of the Black Knight, Rheged has been hard to find, but archaeologists in Scotland have new clues to its location. Camelot, Avalon, Tintagel: These locations feature prominently in the British legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, which were set during the tumultuous sixth century between the collapse of Roman power and the coming of the Saxons. While the tales might be legendary, many of these places were very real. Historians believed that Rheged, a powerful kingdom celebrated in Arthurian legends, existed, but they were never quite sure where it was. Led by Scotland-based GUARD Archaeology, a research team now thinks it might have an answer.

{ 2 }. - A Royal Hub
 Like many archaeological breakthroughs, the researchers were looking for something entirely different when they started digging of Trusty's Hill, a hill fort in Galloway, in southern Scotland. "What drew us to Trusty's Hill were Pictish symbols carved onto bedrock here, which are unique in this region," said Ronan Toolis, who directed the team consisting of some 60 volunteers. Vestiges of the Pictish culture of Scotland, which flourished between the Iron Age and the early medieval period, are usually found much farther north than Trusty's  Hill. On examining the site further, however, Toolis realized they had stumbled on a remarkable find. The Pictish engravings seem to have formed a symbolic entranceway, reminiscent other sites in Scotland associated with royalty. The dig also turned up pottery from France and a work-shop that had produced costly metalwork the fine jewelry, suggesting the site was a significant trade center.  All of these elements demonstrate that the hilltop was once a royal stronghold about A.D. 600 for the local Britons of Galloway, a region whose wealth at this time makes it the strongest contender yet for the kingdom of Rheded.

THE PROPHETS OF RELIGION - PART # 3

THE PROPHETS OF RELIGION !!!!!!!!!

#  1  > Bootstrap-lifting
Bootstrap-lifting? says the reader.
it is a vision I have seen: upon a vast plain, men and women are gathered in dense throngs, crouched in uncomfortable and distressing positions, their fingers hooked in the straps of their boots. They are engaged in lifting themselves; tugging and straining until they grow red in the face,  exhausted. The perspiration streams from their foreheads, they show every symptom of distress; the eyes of all are fixed, not upon each other, nor upon their boot-straps, but upon the sky above. There is a look of rapture upon their faces, and now and then, amid grunts and groans, they cry out with excitement and triumph. I approach one and say to him, "Friend, what is this you are doing?" He answers, without pausing to glance at me, "I am performing spiritual exercises. See how I rise?"  "But," I say, "you are not rising at all!" Where at he becomes instantly angry. "You are one of the scoffers!"  "But, friend, "I protest, "Don't you feel the earth under your feet?"  "You are a materialist"  "But, friend, I can see__"
"You are without spiritual vision!"

#  2 And so I move on among the sweating and groaning hordes. Being of a sympathetic turn of mind, I cannot help being distressed by the prevalence of this singular practice among so large a portion of the of human race. How is it possible that none of them should suspect the futility of their procedure? Or can it really be that I am uncomprehending? That in some way they are actually getting off the ground, or about to get off the ground?  Then I observe a new phenomenon: a man gliding here and there among the bootstrap-lifters, approaching from the rear and slipping his hands into their pockets. The position of the spiritual exercisers greatly facilitate his work; their eyes being cast up to heaven, they do not see him, their thoughts being occupied, they do not heed him; he goes through their pockets at leisure, and transfers the contents to a bag he carries, and then moves on to the next victim.

3 - I watch him for a while, and finally approach and ask, "What are you doing, sir?" He answers, "I am picking pockets."  "Oh," I say, puzzled by his matter-of-course tone. "But__I beg pardon__are you a thief?"  "Oh, no," his answers, smilingly, "I am the agent of the Wholesale Pickpockets Association. This is Prosperity."  "I see," I reply. "And these people let you__"  "It is the law," he says. "It is also the gospel." I turn, following his glance, and observe another person approaching__a stately figure, clad in scarlet and purple robes, moving with slow dignity. He gazes about at the sweating and grunting hordes; now and then he stops and lifts his hands in a gesture of benediction, and proclaims in rolling tones, "Blessed are the Bootstrap-lifters, for their is the kingdom of Heaven." He moves on, and after a bit stops and announces again, "Man doth not live by bread alone, but by  every word that cometh out of the mouth of the prophets and priests of Bootstrap-lifting."

FREDERRICK THE GREAT: THE ENLIGHTENED WARRIOR

FREDERICK THE GREAT: 
THE ENLIGHTENED WARRIOR

#  1  > Survivor of an abusive father, Frederick II blossomed when he took the throne. He attracted the great thinkers of Europe to his court while establishing Prussia as a dominant military power.Throughout history, small states have come out of nowhere, and rapidly become great powers. This was the case of Prussia, a former duchy that in the early 1700s emerged from the shadow of Poland and the Holy Roman Empire. Growing to encompass much of northern and central Europe, Prussia was led to new heights by Frederick II.

#  2  > Ruling from his new capital, Berlin, Frederick's father, Frederick William I, was Prussia's second monarch. During his reign ( 1713-1740 ), Frederick William built up a large, well-trained army from his small population. His acquisition of new lands made Prussia prosperous as well as formidable. Frederick William I was a man of iron discipline, whose military obsession bordered on the fanatical, but his son seemed to be his exact opposite.