Have you ever seen a golden rosary? They are not things you see every day, but they are very beautiful and they can be found if you look around. A rosary is a symbol of your faith, a method of doing penance and even a way of remembering who gave you your faith.

Because of the symbolic character of a rosary, it does not matter at all what it is made from. However, if you like beautiful things, a golden rosary could be a luxury item for you, even though there is more risk of it being stolen.

You certainly would not want to have it stolen of course, but a valuable rosary is a beautiful thing to own, like a golden business card case or an luxurious fountain pen. It is not so much that it demonstrates that you can afford one, it is more that it shows that it is an important item to you. Something of significance. If you like writing, you want a good pen, if you want to give a good impression, you can have a good business card case and if you love God, you can have a good-looking rosary.

However, you do not have to take it to church with you, if you are worried about being flash. You could only use it at home, if that made you feel easier. After all, you are not buying a golden rosary to show off to the world’s populace, just to illustrate your loyalty to yourself. The weight of a golden rosary seems to add gravity to the proceedings, but that might be a private thing.

However, you do not necessarily have to buy a gold rosary for yourself. You might buy one for a child or godchild in order to demonstrate how much you want that they will discover or uphold the faith.

You will have to go to a professional trader who knows about gold rosaries. This is because if the beads are too heavy for the chain, the chain might not last long. The constant moving of the beads could either wear the gold chain thin too swiftly or just break it.

That would be a crying shame, because you might lose one or more of your beads too and the beads on a gold rosary would of necessity be quite classy too. Replacing one or more beads might be difficult or even impossible years down the line.

A gold rosary would almost certainly become a family heirloom and be passed down for generations or even hundreds of years. It would be a great inducement for a young person to consider the important things in life.

Your church could give you pointers about where to buy a gold rosary from someone that really knows what the proportions of the beads to the chain should be. They will also offer you different purities of gold, usually 9, 14 or 18 carat gold and the beads could be anything from glass to pearls.

If you do go in for a gold rosary, get the retailer to attest to the materials used in its manufacture and the various weights so that if you have a problem, you have proof to show the insurance company.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with Clogau Welsh gold. If you have an interest in gold rings, please go to our website now at White Gold Claddagh Ring

Although certain folklorists have found the beginnings of Halloween in the Roman banquet of Pomona, the goddess of fruit and seeds, or else within the festival of the dead referred to as Parentalia, it is more typically related to the Celtic festival of Samhain (original transliteration was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in). The actual name Halloween is extracted from Old Irish and signifies “summer’s end”. A very similar celebration was held by the ancient Britons and is identified as Calan Gaeaf. (Best have a shot at saying it just after a couple beers!).

The festival of Samhain celebrates the ending of the “lighter half” of the year and also the commencement of the “darker half”, and is oftentimes viewed as the “Celtic New Year”.

The ancient Celts considered that the boundary between this world and the Otherworld turned thinner on Samhain, allowing for spirits (both benign and harmful) to go as a result. The family’s ancestors were honoured and invited home while destructive spirits used to be warded off. It truly is understood that the desire to ward away nasty spirits led to the donning of fancy dress outfits not to mention masks.

Their purpose was to help disguise one self as a bad spirit and for that reason stay clear of harm.

In Scotland the spirits used to be impersonated by vibrant males outfitted in white garments with masked, veiled or possibly blackened faces. Samhain was also an era to take account of food provisions as well as slaughter of livestock intended for wintertime reserves.

Bonfires played out a substantial element through the festive times. All other fires used to be doused and every dwelling lit their own hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered animals were tossed directly into its flames. Sometimes a couple of bonfires may be built up beside each other, and men or women and their animals normally would go in between these as a purifying ritual.

Another typical procedure was divination, which often-times involved the use of food and drink.

The label ‘Halloween’ and a number of its present-day practices come via the Old English period.

Celtic Pagans think of the season as being a holy season. Celtic Reconstructionists, and many others that sustain ancestral customs, come up with offerings to the gods in addition to the ancestors. Quite a few Wiccans feel that the custom is actually offensive to Wiccan practitioners in that it is endorsing clichd caricatures connected with “evil witches.

Now you can go ahead and learn more about vampires. Learn more about the Twilight Series now!

Since at least 5,000 B.C., people have used “spiritual mushrooms” in their religious rituals. The San Peoples of Tassili in southeast Algeria left behind cave paintings illustrating dancing, masked medicine men with mushrooms in their hands. It’s believed the mushrooms were of the consciousness-altering variety.

The area of Tassili is today an arid and desolate mountainous region of the Sahara desert but in the day of the cave painters, it had a habitable savannah-like climate with cattle, crocodiles and other large animals. Cultural ties of the San Peoples are evidenced across the Sahara region from Chad to Egypt, and perhaps in extension all the way to Greece.

Jumping forward 3,400 years in time to Greece, 1,600 B.C., we find the Eleusinian Mysteries. Continuous for an astounding two millennia, the Eleusinian Mystery initiation was the most important spiritual ceremony of ancient Europe. Scholars believe the Mysteries involved use of consciousness-altering mushrooms. With well-known participants like Plato and Aristotle, its influence on western civilization cannot be denied.

Later Vikings are known to have consumed limited amounts of the today much feared poisonous species Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria). Ironically, they appear to have used it to overcome fear through religious rituals in which they danced and ate mushrooms before fearlessly going into battle.

It may not have been an admirable type of spirituality practiced by this warrior culture but it was none-the-less part of their religious practices whatever we may think of them. Siberian shamans are also said to have used Fly agaric in their spiritual practices to help them talk to their gods.

Fly agaric is even put forth as the source of “soma,” a juice described in ancient Vedic texts as bestowing divine qualities on the consumer, including immortality. Convincing arguments linking Fly agaric to Soma are presented by R. Gordon Wasser in his book Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality. His theory, although not proven, hasnt been disproven either.

(Please note: Fly agaric is poisonous. It can also be easily confused with other more deadly species. Consumption is strongly discouraged.)

On the other side of the ocean from Europe, the Mixtec culture likewise employed mind-altering mushrooms in their spiritual ceremonies, as recorded in the Mixtec Codex (13th-15th century). Their Gods were frequently engraved with mushrooms in hand.

Although Mixtecs themselves told white anthropologists they used spiritual mushrooms in their religious rituals, western scientists still doubted them in characteristic condescending manner.

William Safford, an American botanist, believed the supposed mushrooms were actually nothing but peyote buttons. Other western scholars, meanwhile, insisted that the “spiritual mushrooms” of the Mixtec people really were mind-altering mushrooms.

This debate carried on until amateur anthropologist Robert Weitlaner was invited to observe a Mixtec religious ceremony in the early 1930’s and witnessed the use of mushrooms firsthand.

Then in 1953, mycologist R. Gordon Wasson and his wife Valentina Povlovna as the first westerners became honored participants in a mushroom ceremony – Velada – performed by shaman Don Aurelio. Wasson published his account of the Velada in Life Magazine, 1957. His article initiated the broader public awareness of spiritual mushrooms.

Out of 60 Psilocybe species, 25 are known to contain the mind-altering compounds psilocin (unstable) and psilocybin (stable). The two species Psilocybin caerulescens and Psilocybin mexicana are believed to be the ones used by the Mixtec. Although Psilocybin cubensis is now more common even in America, it is believed to have arrived with the Europeans.

Spiritual mushrooms have been illegal in most of the world since the 1970’s because of their potential misuse as recreational drugs. Only in The Netherlands were fresh Psilocybe allowed to be sold until less than a year ago.

But after a 17-year old French tourist killed herself by jumping off a bridge after consuming Psilocybe mushrooms, the Dutch parliament voted to ban all sale of so called “magic mushrooms.” The ban took effect on December 1, 2008. The use of consciousness-altering mushrooms in spiritual practices is now officially history.

Dr. Markho Rafael has worked with natural health products since 1996, today specializing in medicinal mushrooms. He does not support the use of consciousness-altering mushrooms. The article on this page is for entertainment only. Click reishi to visit site for more free mushroom articles, or reishi cordyceps for medicinal mushroom products. Note: Absolutely no magic mushroom products, please do not inquire.

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