The Harmony of Being | Geometry in Man, Nature, and Cosmos

Proportional roots: (a) the √2 proportion, (b) the √3 proportion,
and (c) the golden mean (Phi) proportion.

Loai M. Dabbour (2012) - Geometry describes the assertions of a mathematical order of the intrinsic nature of the universe. Geometry is the very basis of our reality, and we live in a coherent world governed by underlying laws. Johannes Kepler stated that geometry is underpinning the cosmos, which was based on Plato’s ideas that God created the universe according to a geometric plan. The structure of the universe is determined by and revealed as certain mathematical and geometric constants which represent a confirmation that proportions are the underlying fabric of nature. This can be seen in man, nature, and cosmos.

Root proportions based on the square.

By contemplating geometric proportions, an understanding towards the sacred truth can be obtained since geometric proportions are one of the definitive geometric qualities of life itself. The Holy Quran tells us that man has within himself all what is reflected in the universe - the best proportions. Man is the core of God’s creatures; he possesses the most harmonious proportions, reflecting of the Divine harmony of being. "We have indeed created man in best of forms" – proportions (Surah At-Tin, 95:4). Leonardo da Vinci illustrated the mathematical proportions of the human body, showing that human being exhibits clearly golden mean proportions in his body based on ratios of 1.618.The Vitruvian Man drawn by Leonardo Da Vinci is based on Vitruvius, who believed that if human proportions could be incorporated into buildings, they would become perfect in their geometry. According to Vitruvius, the distance from fingertip to fingertip should be the same as that from head to toe. The sacred mean rules can be seen in the ratios of body parts throughout the human body. The human body contains in its proportions all the important geometric geodesic measures and functions. The proportions of ideal man are at the center of a circle of invariant cosmic relationships.

Proportions of Venus’ and Earth’s mean orbits.

The mathematical harmony of the universe can be seen from the proportions of the planets in our solar system. For example, the ratio of the sacred mean can be seen in the rotations of Venus and Earth around the Sun in that for each five years that the Earth rotates around the Sun, Venus rotates around it eight times. The connection between 5 and 8, both of which are Fibonacci numbers, is the golden mean proportion (8/5 = 1.6). The result of this motion is that Venus draws a pentagon around the Sun every eight years (Figure A). Figure B shows that a circle is drawn, which represents Venus’ mean orbit. A pentagon is constructed inside it and a small circle placed through the arm-crossing points. The radius of this small circle divides the radius of the large one into golden sections and can be used to space Venus’ orbit from Earth’s orbit. It can be seen from the agreement between eightfold and fivefold geometries that eight touching circles are drawn from Venus’ mean orbit. In turn, the circumference circle is enclosing these eight circles, defining Earth’s mean orbit. The ratio of the mean orbits of Venus’s to Earth is the √2 proportion. The geometric representation of these orbits creates the golden mean proportion.

Ancient Alphabets | The History of Writing

Wilhelm Gesenius (1851) - Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures. Enlarge

The history of the alphabet started in ancient Egypt. By 2700 BCE Egyptian writing had a set of some 22 hieroglyphs to represent syllables that begin with a single consonant of their language, plus a vowel (or no vowel) to be supplied by the native speaker. These glyphs were used as pronunciation guides for logograms, to write grammatical inflections, and, later, to transcribe loan words and foreign names. However, although seemingly alphabetic in nature, the original Egyptian uniliterals were not a system and were never used by themselves to encode Egyptian speech. In the Middle Bronze Age an apparently "alphabetic" system known as the Proto-Sinaitic script is thought by some to have been developed in central Egypt around 1700 BCE for or by Semitic workers, but only one of these early writings has been deciphered and their exact nature remains open to interpretation. Based on letter appearances and names, it is believed to be based on Egyptian hieroglyphs. This script eventually developed into the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, which in turn was refined into the Phoenician alphabet. It also developed into the South Arabian alphabet, from which the Ge'ez alphabet (an abugida) is descended. Note that the scripts mentioned above are not considered proper alphabets, as they all lack characters representing vowels. These early vowelless alphabets are called abjads, and still exist in scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac.

Phoenician was the first major phonemic script. In contrast to two other widely used writing systems at the time, Cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, it contained only about two dozen distinct letters, making it a script simple enough for common traders to learn. Another advantage of Phoenician was that it could be used to write down many different languages, since it recorded words phonemically. The script was spread by the Phoenicians, whose Thalassocracy allowed the script to be spread across the Mediterranean. In Greece, the script was modified to add the vowels, giving rise to the first true alphabet. The Greeks took letters which did not represent sounds that existed in Greek, and changed them to represent the vowels. This marks the creation of a "true" alphabet, with both vowels and consonants as explicit symbols in a single script. In its early years, there were many variants of the Greek alphabet, a situation which caused many different alphabets to evolve from it. The Cumae form of the Greek alphabet was carried over by Greek colonists from Euboea to the Italian peninsula, where it gave rise to a variety of alphabets used to inscribe the Italic languages. One of these became the Latin alphabet, which was spread across Europe as the Romans expanded their empire. Even after the fall of the Roman state, the alphabet survived in intellectual and religious works. It eventually became used for the descendant languages of Latin (the Romance languages) and then for the other languages of Europe (more HERE)

Government Debt per Capita | The Global Picture

HowMuch.net (23 November 2016) - National debt is one of the most debated issues in politics. After the global recession, people began questioning debt and the implications of too much debt. While some country’s have high debt and some have low, a better measure is the amount of debt dividend by population. Take a look at the map below to see how much people in each country owe towards their country’s debt.

In the map above, you can see each country with a number representing the amount of money each person owes towards the country’s debt. In the legend, countries are designated a color based on public debt as a percentage of GDP. The more each citizen of a country owes, the closer to the center of the map the country is. All figures are in US dollars.

Countries where people owe the most:
    Japan: $85,694.87 per person
    Ireland: $67,147.59 per person
    Singapore: $56,112.75 per person
    Belgium: $44,202.75 per person
    United States: $42,503.98 per person
    Canada: $42,142.61 per person
    Italy: $40,461.11 per person
    Iceland: $39,731.65 per person
    Austria:  $38,769.98 per person
    United Kingdom: $36,206.11 per person

Countries where people owe the least:
    Liberia: $27.44 per person
    Tajikistan: $50.67 per person
    Democratic Republic of Congo: $90.70 per person
    Burundi: $97.62 per person
    Kiribati: $126.98 per person
    Malawi: $172.34 per person
    Uzbekistan: $177.13 per person
    Uganda: $194.23 per person
    Haiti: $204.33 per person
    Mali: $207.54 per person

Right in the center of the map lies Japan, the country with the highest amount of debt owed by each person. Japan has been piling up debt since its “economic miracle” wore off in the 1990s. Each Japanese person owes $85,694.87 towards Japan’s national debt, far more than any other country. Ireland also stands out from the crowd, with each Irish person owing $67,147.59 towards Ireland’s national debt. All of the other countries with a high amount of debt owed per person are developed nations like the United States, Belgium, Austria, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and others. Developed nations are able to borrow more money because investors generally trust wealthier nations will pay back debt in full. Still, many wealth nations have a staggering amount of debt owed.

The countries with the lowest amount of debt owed per person are relatively poor nations. Liberians owe the least amount of money towards their country’s national debt at $27.44 per person. Other poor nations with low debt include Democratic Republic of Congo, at $90.70 per person, and Haiti, at $204.33 per person. Poor nations usually do not have the opportunity to take on national debt because investors are unwilling to offer loans to these nations. There are a few exceptions to the trend of poorer nations owing the least amount towards debt per person. Taiwan is a relatively wealthy nation with a large economy compared to the size of its population, but each Taiwanese citizen only owes $7,223.90 towards Taiwan’s national debt.

The trend in the chart is pretty clear: wealthier nations have more debt. Japan, Ireland and Singapore are above the trend, with Japanese people in particular owing a lot towards their country’s debt. People living in developed countries owe quite a bit towards their country’s national debt, while people living in undeveloped nations owe very little.

Fibonacci-Relation between Lunar Cycle and Rainfall in the U.S. | 1900 - 1963

A Theory of Astrology | L. Edward Johndro

In the 1930s electrical engineer and astrologer L. Edward Johndro (1882-1951) and astrologer Charles Jayne (1911-1985) simultaneously contributed to the development of the GEM Theory (Gravity, Electrical, Magnetism). In 1929 Johndro presented his Theory of Astrology as follows:

“Tesla demonstrated years ago that the earth is at a relatively constant electrical potential or charge of some seven million volts. It may now be accepted that all material bodies are in a state of relative charge, negative or positive, with respect to each other - man, atoms, earth, planets and stars, and that this manifests as love, cohesion, magnetism or gravitation, or their wholly illusionary opposite (repulse), according as the law manifests in a magnitude series ranging from the microcosm to the macrocosm.

[...] We cannot escape the fact that the earth is a charged body at a potential of millions or volts, nor can we easily escape the conclusion that the other planets are in a state of high charge. While that man is a charged body, with an accompanying electromagnetic field, is easily demonstrated by countless experiments [...] Suns and stars (not planets) are radioactive [...] they emit electromagnetic waves which, because of their exceedingly high frequency, we term light [...] The sun and stars, the planets, the earth, and man upon the earth are charged bodies, and that all their accompanying electromagnetic fields intersect and interact.

[...] The planets reflect light waves and they each, have a different natural frequency of oscillatory response to the solar and stellar light waves which constantly bombard them (consequently their reflected light is variously tinted) and that the phase angles of their field couplings, as their relative movements in space change them, changes the power factor at these frequencies; accept also the fact that these planetary frequencies, being of a far lower order than those of the sun and stars-a mere octave of lower harmonics, since they emit no light of their own, are within the range of man's sensibilities to subconsciously detect and respond to. 

[...] The solar waves continually directly bombard half the earth [...] they are also reflected to the earth by the Moon and planets [...] These waves constantly interact with the earth's electromagnetic field [...] as the inductive couplings of the earth, sun and planets change their mutual angular relations in space.

 

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Earth each have a surrounding interactive sphere. These spheres have magnetic poles. At the magnetic poles there can be auroral ovals. One auroral oval sits above the attracting magnetically negative pole and the other above the discharging magnetically positive pole. The discharge travels through open space. It follows the path of least resistance and greatest attraction to cover vast distances while creating continuous waves in the yielding dark and cold medium of interplanetary space. The discharge energy from a planet is drawn in by Earth’s magnetic field and enters Earth’s environmental sphere. Some energy is visible light. Some become quarks and hadrons and neutrons and protons, and hydrogen atoms a universal building block that interacts with the nitrogen rich atoms of Earth’s atmospheric environment. Electron beams from interplanetary space hit Earth along a ring shaped oval where cathode rays interact with high speed electrons. This creates an electrical discharge powered by the solar wind that interacts with the magnetosphere. Solar wind and the effects of solar discharges upon the solar wind create a pressurizing mechanism for the continuous auroral flow at the negative (incoming) pole that will contain travelling matter and unique signatures from all of the planets in our solar system. On Earth, the planetary discharges arrive channelled by the magnetic field and are drawn through the negative auroral oval and through electromagnetic commonality and through biophysical processes are acted upon by human beings.

The Fading American Dream | Trends in Absolute Income Mobility since 1940

Raj Chetty et al. (NBER Working Paper No. 22910 | Dec 2016) - One of the defining features of the “American Dream” is the ideal that children have a higher standard of living than their parents. When children are asked to assess their economic progress, they frequently compare their own standard of living to that of their parents. 

Such measures of absolute income mobility – the fraction of children earning or consuming more than their parents – are also often the focus of policy makers when judging the degree of economic opportunity in the U.S. 

Around 90% of children born in 1940 across the entire income distribution earned more than their parents did at age 30. That percentage dropped each decade, with only about 50% of children born in 1980 earning more than their parents. The likelihood that children at age 30 had a higher inflation-adjusted income than their parents did when they were the same age has been dropping over the last several decades.

An Aging World | Population Age 65+ in 2015 and 2050

Source: US Census

The social and economic implications of an aging population are becoming increasingly apparent in many industrialized nations around the globe. With populations in places such as North America, Western Europe and Japan aging more rapidly than ever before, policymakers are confronted with several interrelated issues, including a decline in the working-age population, increased health care costs, unsustainable pension commitments and changing demand drivers within the economy. These issues could significantly undermine the high living standard enjoyed in many advanced economies. 

As of December 2015, people 65 or older account for more than 20% of the total population in only three countries: Germany, Italy and Japan. This figure is expected to rise to 13 countries by 2020. A rapidly aging population means there are fewer working-age people in the economy. This leads to a supply shortage of qualified workers, making it more difficult for businesses to fill in-demand roles. An economy that cannot fill in-demand occupations faces adverse consequences, including declining productivity, higher labor costs, delayed business expansion and reduced international competitiveness. In some instances, a supply shortage may push up wages, thereby causing wage inflation and creating a vicious cycle of price/wage spiral.

Japan is home to the oldest citizenry in the world, with 26.3%
of its population being 65 years of age or older. The population
aged 15 to 64 fell by 4% between 2000 and 2010 (World Bank).

To compensate, many countries look to immigration to keep their labor forces well supplied. While countries such as Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom are attracting more highly skilled immigrants, integrating them into the workforce can be a challenge because domestic employers may not recognize immigrant credentials and work experience, especially if they were obtained in countries outside of North America, Western Europe and Australia.

Given that demand for health care rises with age, countries with rapidly aging populations must allocate more money and resources to their health care systems. With health care spending as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) already high in most advanced economies, it is difficult to increase spending while ensuring care improves and other social needs do not deteriorate in the case of publicly funded or government-administered health care systems. Additionally, the health care sector in many advanced economies faces similar issues, including labor and skills shortages, increased demand for home care and the need to invest in new technologies. All of these cost escalators make it more difficult for existing systems to handle the increased prevalence of chronic diseases, let alone sufficiently address the needs of large and growing senior populations. 

Countries with large elderly populations depend on smaller pools of workers in which to collect taxes to pay for higher health costs, pension benefits and other publicly funded programs. This is becoming more common in advanced economies where retirees live on fixed incomes with much smaller tax brackets than workers. The combination of lower tax revenue and higher spending commitments on health care, pension and other benefits is a major concern for advanced industrialized nations. Source: Investopedia. See also HERE

The Measure of the Circle | Math for Mystics

Pi (π) is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. 
As a fraction, its closest approximations are 22/7, 333/106 and 355/113.

Projection on the plane of the ecliptic of the parabolic
orbits of 72 comets, 1802. Engraving by Wilson Lowry after
Johann Elert Bode.

Circle of Fifths, and relationship of relative
minor keys to major key signatures.

 

"The circle is one of the noblest representations of Deity, in his noble works of human nature. It bounds, determines, governs, and dictates space, bounds latitude and longitude, refers to the Sun, Moon, and all the planets, in direction, brings to the mind thoughts of eternity, and concentrates the mind to imagine for itself the distance and space it comprehends. It rectifies all boundaries; it is the key to information of the knowledge of God; it points to each and every part of God's noble work."

John Davis (1845): The Measure of the Circle [p. 12].

Mithra | The Pagan Christ

Double-faced Mithraic relief.
Rome, 2nd to 3rd century CE (Louvre Museum)

In ancient Indo-Iranian and Zoroastrian mythology Mithra is the angelic Divinity (yazata) of Covenant and Oath, and the god of light. In addition to being the Divinity of Contracts, Mithra is also a judicial figure, an all-seeing Protector of Truth, and the Guardian of Cattle, the Harvest and of The Waters. According to myth, he was born, bearing a torch and armed with a knife, beside a sacred stream and under a sacred tree, a child of the earth itself. He soon rode, and later killed, the life-giving cosmic bull, whose blood fertilizes all vegetation. Mithra’s slaying of the bull was a popular subject of Hellenic art and became the prototype for a bull-slaying ritual of fertility in the Mithraic cult. As god of light, Mithra was associated with the Greek sun god, Helios, and the Roman Sol Invictus. His cult spread from India in the east to as far west as Spain, Great Britain, and Germany. 

The first written mention of the Vedic Mitra dates to 1400 bc. His worship spread to Persia and, after the defeat of the Persians by Alexander the Great, throughout the Hellenic world. In the 3rd and 4th centuries ad, the cult of Mithra, carried and supported by the soldiers of the Roman Empire, was the chief rival to the newly developing religion of Christianity. The Roman emperors Commodus and Julian were initiates of Mithraism, and in 307 Diocletian consecrated a temple on the Danube River to Mithra, “Protector of the Empire.”

Over the centuries—in fact, from the earliest Christian times — Mithraism has been compared to Christianity, revealing numerous similarities between the two faiths' doctrines and traditions, including as concerns stories of their respective godmen. In developing this analysis, it should be kept in mind that elements from Roman, Armenian and Persian Mithraism are utilized, not as a whole ideology but as separate items that may have affected the creation of Christianity, whether directly through the mechanism of Mithraism or through another Pagan source within the Roman Empire and beyond. The evidence points to these motifs and elements being adopted into Christianity not as a whole from one source but singularly from many sources, including Mithraism. Thus, D.M. Murdock points out, the following list represents not a solidified mythos or narrative of one particular Mithra or form of the god as developed in one particular culture and era but, rather, a combination of them all for ease of reference as to any possible influences upon Christianity under the name of Mitra/Mithra/Mithras. Mithra has the following in common with the Jesus character:

    Mithra was born on December 25th of the virgin Anahita.
    The babe was wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed in a manger and attended by shepherds.
    He was considered a great traveling teacher and master.
    He had 12 companions or "disciples."
    He performed miracles.
    As the "great bull of the Sun," Mithra sacrificed himself for world peace.
    Mithra ascending to heaven in his solar cart, with sun symbolHe ascended to heaven.
    Mithra was viewed as the Good Shepherd, the "Way, the Truth and the Light," the   
    Redeemer, the Savior, the Messiah.
    Mithra is omniscient, as he "hears all, sees all, knows all: none can deceive him."
    He was identified with both the Lion and the Lamb.
    His sacred day was Sunday, "the Lord's Day," hundreds of years before the appearance 
    of Christ.
    His religion had a eucharist or "Lord's Supper."
    Mithra "sets his marks on the foreheads of his soldiers."
    Mithraism emphasized baptism.
 
The similarities between Mithraism and Christianity have included their chapels, the term "father" for priest, celibacy and, it is notoriously claimed, the December 25th birthdate. Over the centuries, apologists contending that Mithraism copied Christianity nevertheless have asserted that the December 25th birthdate was taken from Mithraism. As Sir Arthur Weigall says: "December 25th was really the date, not of the birth of Jesus, but of the sun-god Mithra. Horus, son of Isis, however, was in very early times identified with Ra, the Egyptian sun-god, and hence with Mithra."

"Both Mithras and Christ were described variously as 'the Way,' 'the Truth,' 'the Light,' 'the Life,' 'the Word,' 'the Son of God,' 'the Good Shepherd.' The Christian litany to Jesus could easily be an allegorical litany to the sun-god. Mithras is often represented as carrying a lamb on his shoulders, just as Jesus is. Midnight services were found in both religions. The virgin mother [...] was easily merged with the virgin mother Mary. Petra, the sacred rock of Mithraism, became Peter, the foundation of the Christian Church."
Gerald Berry: Religions of the World

"Mithra or Mitra is [...] worshipped as Itu (Mitra-Mitu-Itu) in every house of the Hindus in India. Itu (derivative of Mitu or Mitra) is considered as the Vegetation-deity. This Mithra or Mitra (Sun-God) is believed to be a Mediator between God and man, between the Sky and the Earth. It is said that Mithra or [the] Sun took birth in the Cave on December 25th. It is also the belief of the Christian world that Mithra or the Sun-God was born of [a] Virgin. He travelled far and wide. He has twelve satellites, which are taken as the Sun's disciples [...] [The Sun's] great festivals are observed in the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox—Christmas and Easter. His symbol is the Lamb [...] "
Swami Prajnanananda: Christ the Saviour and Christ Myth. 

D.M. Murdock concludes, that ""Christmas" is the birth not of the "son of God" but of the sun. Indeed, there is much evidence—including many ancient monumental alignments — to demonstrate that this highly noticeable and cherished event of the winter solstice was celebrated beginning hundreds to thousands of years before the common era in numerous parts of the world. The observation was thus provably taken over by Christianity, not as biblical doctrine but as a later tradition in order to compete with the Pagan cults, a move we contend occurred with numerous other "Christian" motifs, including many that are in the New Testament."
 

 

For three days, on December 22nd , 23rd, and 24th, the Sun rises on the exact same declinational degree. This is the only time in the year that the Sun actually stops its movement in the sky. On the morning of December 25th the Sun moves northward again, beginning its annual journey back into the Northern Hemisphere, ultimately bringing the spring. By the ancients, anything steadily moving all year long that suddenly stops moving for three days was considered to have died. Therefore, God’s Sun who was dead for three days, moves one angular minute northward on December 25th and is symbolically born again (see also HERE + HERE).

Even the darkest night will end,
And the sun will rise again.
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207-1273)