As of 5/1/08 several of the works are in new fonts and content. I'm thru cleaning up a translation of Epictetus which is posted. Whoever did it in the early 20th century got paid by the word and added as much as he could. He also tried to copy the tone of scripture, which Epictetus himself wouldda regarded as asinine. Stoics had no use for euphemism NEWOMEN is a post apocalyptic is set in the recent day that from time to time I hadda update it with recent history. The last edition, for instance, was unaware of the economic stress of the credit crunch, mortgage, and foreclosure problems, but this had made the stipulated collapse more credible. Oil prices have shot up since as well. Then too, ANATOLIA andEUXINE have been affected by ongoing archeological work. For instance, the Serbs just found a 7400 year old copper mine with forges, the world's first mining town, and industrial zone. COPPER MINE I've been at this nearly a dozen years when I found The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe left in a house I moved into. I looked at the hundreds of photos and drawings of artifacts for months before it dawned on me. I was a history major in college, and always kept up an interest in archeology. But in this case, it wasnt what I saw, but what I didnt see. There are no weapons or iconography of warriors, wars, or weapons. WTF? Further research shows that Gimbutas was not spinning the record. Nobody found any in the Chalcolithic tels in the Danube basin. Goodison and Morris, on the fly leaf of their Ancient Goddesses, notes the controversy about a mythic golden age of peace, and set out to open up a virgin tel specifically looking for signs of violence. Down thru 4000 years of occupation, they didnt find any.

They thot they had something when they found a layer of burnt rubble, such as is always left when a place is sacked. But in trenching out, discovered it was just a single house fire. Curiously, ritually burnt based on the meaning of artifacts buried in the corners of the house. One advantage that I have in this investigation of early agrarian cultures, is that I was born on a farm in 1939. I was there to see the transition from draft horses to tractors, and there to see crops grown before the use of agribusiness petrochemicals. Like these ancient peoples, I've worked in gardens, still do, have butchered animals, processed the meat, and tanned the hides. And unlike the urban academic archeologist, I've lived in the Ozark boonies for most of the last 30 odd years with wild life just a stone's throw away. There are still remnants of that original agrarian culture in this area of farms and villages. And I would be as isolated as my ancestors but for the satellite data dish. But unlike my rural neighbors, I've also had a good education, with a 1971 minor in comp sci so that I can work with computers more effecitively, but also a psych major which made me aware of the ongoing developments in neurology, biochemistry of the mind, primate field studies, anthropology, and a greater understanding of the economic, sociological, and psyhcological factors shaping both ancient and modern cultures. That last made me pay attention to the herbs and sacred potions used in shamantic practice. So- unlike academics, I've been free to try using the mushrooms I found in the woods much as my own ancestors did. And experienced the same kinds of altered states of consciousness with the same kind of spiritual enlightenment. I recommend it. If you have questions about that surf Amanita Muscaria or drop me a line; my username is day, so it is 'me' at daybrown dot org. daybrown