Ethereal Insights

Captain William Bainbridge paying tribute to the Dey ( داي ) of Algiers Barbarism | Monday – October 5, 2026 B arbarism is commonly used as a word to describe something barbaric. Yes, forgive my tautology. But yes, barbarism is often invoked when we feel righteous indignation, when we consider a situation intolerable, and perhaps murder comes to mind? At any rate, the word barbaric does not come from the Berbers ( ⵉⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵏⵎⵣⵗⵏ ), a population in modern day Morocco, but often the Barbary Corsairs are thought of as quite barbaric, especially when we consider their slave pracises, because it their slave trade with Europeans is often forgotten about, especially during bouts of hysterical historical sentimentalism . I do not disagree with this: I find the Barbary Corsairs to be quite barbaric, but one should separate their Islam from their slave practices, as they mostly relied on Islam as a poor excuse for their actions, but more on this another time. Now, the word "barbaric" doe...

Creation of Light ( אוֹר ) By Gustave Doré Genesis, Chapter 15 | Sunday – October 4, 2026 N ow we may concern ourselves more with Abram ( אַבְרָם ) and his covenant with Yahweh ( יהוה ), as we are moving further and further into the story of the Book of Genesis ( בְּרֵאשִׁית ). I have attempted in previous parts to build up a certain expectation, but I also do not wish to reveal too much beforehand, and here in Chapter 15 much of what I have written about in the previous parts will make more sense, at least to a certain degree. This is why I regard it as useful and important to read the Bible and any book with a certain prudent expectation for the future, but again prudent and not overt, as being too overt will likely lead you down the wrong path, a hidden valley really, which would not be useful here in particular.     This is the 15th part of this " Bible Study series ", and as usual I must implore you to read each previous part of this series in a chronological order be...

Depiction of  the "Whore of Babylon" From Martin Luther's translation of the Bible To be Ugly | Saturday – October 3, 2026 F or some people it is actually the case that being ugly is a good thing, and I believe that we are prudent in understanding that beauty is not always necessary in people. You see, by being beautiful a woman, for instance, says to herself and to the world that she is good enough, and perhaps this is a good thing, but why is she good enough? Is she good enough in and of herself? Hardly, a beautiful woman is really nothing more than an extension of the social mores of the day, of the moment, which is why it is true that beauty standards tend to vary across time and culture, but this is only true for beauty standards, and perhaps we should also separate beauty standards from true beauty or core beauty.      If a woman is beautiful today because she is naked, or almost naked, she would have been considered hideous not that long ago, and so these so...