text:
"Satan, the Great Deceiver"
6 Μαΐου 2010
"Satan can only deceive he cannot pluck us out of the hand of God"
Deceive – to mislead by a false appearance or statement
By Fr. Timothy Evangelinidis
When I was much younger and attending university in my home-town of Sydney (in those days a much smaller and less busy place), I was allocated a particular lecturer who prided himself on being an atheist. "Religion is something for weak people, those who cannot think or live for themselves". Arriving at his first lecture this man proudly announced that with a few premises, sub-conclusions and a watertight conclusion, he would prove beyond any doubt that God did not exist. It went something like this:
God is assumed to exist.
This God is said to be all-powerful and all loving
However, Evil also would seem to exist
Either God cannot or will not remove evil from this world
If he cannot, he is not the all-powerful one
If he will not, he is not the all loving one
Evil exists in this world
Therefore God does not exist!
This argument is in fact nonsense. However, the fact that it was used at all does reflect something of the confusion of this world and of the people who live in it.
Well, what does this have to do with our topic "Satan the Great Deceiver"? It is at the very heart of this statement. As Christian people, we know that God and evil are far more complex than this little argument can express. We know by faith and experience that God is not only real, but that he is the reason that the universe continues to exist. Sadly we cannot forget the other reality that is so ridiculously dealt with by this argument – Evil does exist, it is not imaginary or simply the result of an 'argument'.
The Macquarie Dictionary defines the word 'deceit' as:
1. "The act of practice of deceiving; concealment or perversion of the truth for the purpose of misleading; fraud; cheating."
2. "An act or device intended to deceive; a trick; stratagem."
The word 'deceive' as:
"To mislead by a false appearance or statement; delude".
This is exactly the starting point for our topic. Satan is the great deceiver because he is the greatest concealer, the mightiest perverter of truth, the ultimate misleader, and the most convincing fraud and liar. Satan's goal is two pronged. He wishes to convince us that God is neither all-powerful nor all loving, and that he, Satan, seems to be something he really is not.
I am not seeking to answer the age-old problem of evil in this world, nor will I even explain (or should I say try and explain) the existence of evil. What I wish to share with you is my feeble attempt at highlighting the work of Satan at work around and within us. This will not really be a lecture. It is an attempt to uncover Satan like we might uncover a serpent hiding beneath a rock or expose a camouflaged insect hiding in the foliage of a tree.
I cannot possibly add to the already vast writings about evil and Satan that we have from so many writers of the Church. I can however take you all through a journey of Scripture and Church texts which show how much a trickster Satan is. Satan is real and he is at work, it is this we need to keep in mind. We must remember to keep our eyes on God, and yet never to leave Satan free to cast deceit in our lives. His ultimate purpose is to keep all of us from the Kingdom of Heaven. To do this, he will use everything in his power. Be warned he is the master of disguise and the master of surprise!
I want all of you to use your imagination. I want you to imagine that you can see the spiritual world with your physical eyes. If you could look around with those now spiritual eyes you would angels and demons walking about us seeking their influence upon us. The old cartoon image of a man in the midst of making an important moral decision with a small angel on his right shoulder and a small demon on his left is not that far from spiritual reality at all.
In the Orthodox Church we are encouraged to pray a prayer to our guardian angel to guide and protect us through our daily life; see, for example, the order for 'Evening Prayers' in the book "Book of Prayers: A Selection for Orthodox Christians" from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia. Likewise we are told of the influence of demons whose purpose is to deceive us – to take our attention away from God who can save us. "And this is the promise that He has promised us – eternal life" (1 John 2:25, RSV).
What of Satan in the Scriptures, what do we know of him – this Satan, the great deceiver? God created spiritual beings called angels. These beings, although having no physical aspect to their being, are nevertheless real and effectual in their work in both the spiritual realm of Heaven and this physical environment of our universe. These angels have different responsibilities and actions. In many places of the Scriptures we read of Cherubim, Seraphim, angels, archangels, Principalities, Powers, Thrones, Dominions etc. Some of the archangels are named – Uriel, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. In the Scriptures, these beings are not some impersonal force simply being the expression of God at work in this world. Angels form a very real part of the history of God's work of salvation in this world. The Archangel Gabriel figures prominently in the account of the Annunciation. The acceptance of her who is to become the Theotokos is to the action of God is to be means through which God brings salvation to the fallen world.
Just as the angels are real and significant in Holy Scripture and the story of God's salvation, so too are the fallen angels, the demons and Satan himself. Evil, it would seem, has appears and takes its place in this world. We need to be careful here concerning the origin of evil. That topic is one beyond the scope of this talk this evening and certainly beyond my capacity as a member of this sinful and fallen race. Lucifer or Satan is not a story invented to explain why this world is not perfect. He is not some figure invented so that we may have a focus for discussion. Satan is a distinct spiritual being with a distinct and evil personality who works in opposition to God. The very real and personal being who is Satan is at the very heart of some important passages of Holy Scripture, and also in the writings of the Fathers of our Holy Church.
It is important for us to look at what the Holy Scriptures tell us about this figure called Satan. I will not tried to give an exhaustive 'concordance' of Biblical references to the words 'Satan' and 'demon'. There are, however some references that are important to understanding the nature of the Devil, and relevant to us this evening. Scripture shows us this deception that Satan tries to use upon those who claim allegiance to God.
In Jude verse 6 and 7 we read of his entry into our world:
"And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him (that is the Lord) in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day; just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire".
There is a hint here of a truth we have learned from the teaching of our Church (see Revelation 12:7ff). Satan was once an Archangel – The bearer of the light before the throne of God (that can be a translation for the name Lucifer). This archangel was not content with his position in the order of the spiritual world. He desired the worship that was due only to God himself. Satan and all the angels that followed him were cast down from heaven to "deceive the whole world".
From this extract from Jude's epistle we can learn:
1. God has chained Satan and his demons. They are restricted by the power of God.
2. God will judge The Prince of evil on the last day – The Day of Judgment.
These are important truths that need to be impressed upon us. Satan and his demons are ultimately to be judged by God. The righteous of God can be deceived, but deception involves the will of he who is being deceived. If the righteous man stands firm in faith, then Satan has no hold over him!
From the Old Testament Book of Job, we read that there was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and very many servants; so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each on his day; and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, "It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, "Whence have you come?" Satan answered the LORD, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" Then Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nought? Hast thou not put a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse thee to thy face." And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only upon himself do not put forth your hand." So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
There are many truths we can glean even from a casual reading of this poetic and beautiful passage of Holy Scripture:
1. Job was an upright man who turned away from evil.
2. Without doubt God is the master here.
3. Though Job is a righteous man, he can still be tempted by the deceits of Satan.
4. Satan, through the evil world can inflict pain and suffering upon Job, but Job is ultimately in the hands of God.
Now we cannot make doctrine from just a couple of passages of Scripture, but these verses do illustrate clearly what God has revealed to us in his Church.
Satan has no control except the power of deceit. He seeks to lead us away from God; he tempts us to lose our focus. Like the experience of Peter, walking on the water in front of our Lord, Satan seeks to have us sink into our own raging sea of doubt and fear (see Matthew 14:25f). We sink, not because Satan defeats God who is with us, nor because of the pain and suffering of this evil world, but because we are led to believe that either God is not with us at all or that God is not what he says he is. This is deception, deception of the greatest of tricksters.
St Peter the Apostle warns, "Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour" (1 Peter 5:8).
Satan is truly prowling around us with his demons. He seeks to influence and deceive us even here within this Holy Church. Remember, he is not a 'roaring lion' he is 'like a roaring lion' he is only pretending to be something he is not. "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).
I would like to share with you an illustration that we have all seen. It is a visual rendering of the passage of Scripture that speaks of the 'two gates' from Matthew's Gospel:
"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Matthew 7:13-14).
There is an illustration you can buy as a small religious picture; it is a famous illustration. It is a comparison of two scenes. In one, we find a demon playing a musical instrument to accompany countless people entering into a wide gate by an equally wide and easy road. The se people walk past all sorts of buildings housing all sorts of pleasures. Sadly, even though the gate is wide and the way easy, the eventual destination is hell itself.
In the other scene there is a high wall broken only by a very narrow and low gate, and into this gate squeeze only a few people carrying their cross on their journey. The road three this gate is very difficult, with rocks and obstacles along the way. The path leads up a steep mountain. The eventual destination here is heaven and a crown of glory being presented by Christ. The relevant Scriptural passage here is "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."
This picture illustrates exactly the words spoken in the Scriptural passage. Life is a journey, it tells us. We must decide which road to take. Each road is entered through a gate. One gate is wide and easy, the other is difficult and requires great effort. Each gate leads to a road, one easy and comfortable, the other hard and steep. One leads to heaven to the very person of God and reward – salvation, the other to hell and the very teeth of the person of the devil.
Look carefully at this illustration it can teach us much. The many that enter into the wide gate do so because the way is easy (requiring no real effort of life). There is music and there is song, laughter, entertainment, comfort and no lacking of physical things. The demon playing the musical instrument does so openly. He does not seek to disguise his presence or his identity.
These people belong to the world and therefore to Satan, because they have allowed themselves to be deceived. Yet this deception is no great miracle or magic. Satan does not have to play a great ruse. He merely has to offer the temptation of comfort and pleasure without God and the world will come and take it from his very hands.
I was rather troubled while doing some research for tonight's presentation. I decided to type the words 'Satan', 'Devil' and 'demon' into the search area of my Internet search engine. Match after match came up. Some of these were useful articles or commentaries on passages from Holy Scripture. Others were lectures and essays about various theories concerning the existence of evil. However, many were the web pages of Satanic Churches (so called) and organisations that sought to spread the influence of Satan. You may be surprised that these organisations practise their evil work so openly. As I said previously, Satan does not have to hide from the world, it is already given over to him. The world has rejected God and embraced Satan as the great redeemer.
The most cunning deception of Satan lies not through the wide and easy gate, but through the narrow gate. Look closely at the man (one of only a few) who is carrying his cross in fulfilment of the command of our Lord (c/f Matthew 16:24). If this man would use his physical eyes, he would see that it is impossible for him to enter this gate even without the cross he is carrying. Common sense, worldly sense would convince him that his intended lifestyle is not achievable.
Satan is at work in our minds and hearts as we contemplate this spiritual scene. He is saying to us that not only is the Christian commitment difficult it is unattainable! Satan's attack upon us as Christians is to try and deceive us into giving up the Christian struggle. As Christians we are encouraged to believe that the improbable walk up the steep path of our Christian journey is not by our own power, but by the presence and power of God (see Matthew 19:26). Satan deceives by telling us that we must rely upon ourselves, and therefore Christianity is futile.
All of us, I am sure, would claim allegiance to the resurrected and ascended Son of God. The closer one is to God and the Kingdom of heaven, the stronger and more deceitful Satan must become. In many of the spiritual writings of the Church we find accounts of Holy men and women who have been confronted with the most horrifying visions of evil.
Satan plays out his deception according to the faith and life of those that he is tempting. To some who are far from God or who do not know him at all, there are no wondrous tricks, miracles or great signs and wonders; there is no need for such things. For others who are close to God, Satan must work hard to deceive – for these he will even attempt to copy the very power and glory of God himself.
Many atheists within this world (like the university lecturer whose silly games we started with tonight) arrogantly proclaim that they are more than happy to believe in God if only someone would prove that God exists. Yet it is often these very same people who are so willing to place their lives into the practice of open evilness, of destruction or hatred.
Have you ever thought about that image of Satan that we see in advertising and in the movies, the one where he is depicted as a troublesome comical figure in a goatee beard, a red suit with horns and a pointing long tail. In his hand he holds a trident with which he pokes people in an almost amusing way. This image is ridiculous, and even we, the Christians, might see it as a harmless parody. However, the truth is that it is a depiction of Satan. He is not shown in a disguise as someone he is not. He might seem humorous and even comical, but he is still openly Satan! Satan does not have to hide from the world; he is already master of it. His deceit is an easy one.
The greatest deceit, the great victory of Satan is not that he is leading a willing world to destruction, it is that he is, sadly, often able to deceive and lead astray the Christian person who is struggling to be transformed more and more into the image of Christ (see in particular Rom 12:2). Satan deceives the Christian by convincing him to take his attention off Christ. To become doubting of the power and promises of God.
How do we resist this deceit? What is the response of the Christian person to the wiles of the Devil? Again the Holy Scriptures are clear. The two Epistles of St Peter the Apostle that are contained in the New Testament are wondrous builders of faith. In the introductory notes that we find at the beginning of the Second Epistle of Peter in the Orthodox Study Bible (New Testament and Psalms' New King James Version; Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee 1993), there is a marvellous summary of the theme of Peter's Epistles:
"Though the world disbelieves, deceives and mocks, Christians are to grow continually in holiness and virtue and pursue an entrance into 'the everlasting kingdom' which is to come".
The answer for the Christian is to continually seek God and His Kingdom; to fight the deceits of the Devil, despite the pain and suffering he can cause, with a faith founded upon the All-powerful and All-loving God.
Be reliant upon God and His holiness; be close to His Church, receive often the Sacraments that he freely offers to us. Resist evil and cling only to God.
From the Epistle of St James:
"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." (James 4:7-8a).
Satan can only deceive he cannot pluck us out of the hand of God, he cannot send us unwillingly from the kingdom of God. If God no longer becomes the focus of our vision and life, it is not He who has moved, it is that we have taken our gaze from him!
There are three short Homilies by St John Chrysostom (the Golden-mouthed). These addresses are not well known. They are entitled collectively as 'Three Homilies Concerning the Power of Demons' (as found in an English translation 'A select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church'; T & T Clarke Edinburgh 1889). The first is referred to as being "Against Those Who Say That Demons Govern Human Affairs" and the second and third "On the Power of Man to Resist the Devil". We find no graphic depiction of the battle of Armageddon (as described in the book of Revelations), no portrayal of the Devil as a figure who has the ability to secretly steal Christians away from God. No, these sermons were written to:
"… deal with errors against which Chrysostom throughout his life most strenuously contended. In an age of great depravity there seem to have been many who tried to excuse the weak resistance which they made to evil, both in themselves, and in others, by maintaining that the world (and by implication the Church) was abandoned to the dominion of devils, or to the irresistible course of fate" (emphasis is added).
St Chrysostom warns his listeners against despairing because of the power of the devil.
"For he (ie Satan) is an enemy and a foe, and it is a great security to know clearly the tactics of your enemies … when he overcomes by deceitfulness, he does not get the better of all men … he does not overcome … by force, yet by deceitfulness" (Homily II-1).
Thankfully, Satan does not deceive all in the Church. The saints, many of whose icons are surrounding us, can be our examples of faith and Christian life because they can be our guides encouraging us to continue with our eyes fixed upon God – the one who brings salvation and life.
"The Devil is wicked; I grant this indeed, but he is wicked for himself not towards us if we are wary" (Homily III-1 of St John Chrysostom).
When we sin, we cannot blame Satan or another for our failing. Our sin is our own because we have committed it by the exercise of our own power and free will, or by our own lack of faith. Likewise, when one in the Church falls away from God, we cannot say that Satan's power has taken him by force away from the presence of God. God forbid that we should allocate to Satan the power that he so desperately seeks. Our sin is our own and, likewise, our falling away is our own. We fall away because Satan has convinced us, through deceit, that our place is not in the Kingdom of God.
St John Chrysostom is careful to show that Satan's deceits are many, but his intention is one. He seeks only to make us leave the presence of our loving God and to prevent us from allowing God to guide us. Satan seeks this by either convincing us that God cannot do what he has promised, by tempting us with the pleasures of this world, or by deceiving us to think that he, Satan, has power which he does not have. The power of Satan can only lead us from God if we allow him the opportunity to do so.
Some of the other great writers of the Church can be cited to give us strength against this deceit of the Devil. In these (St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 12 15) we are exhorted to see that 'in the sacrifice of Christ, the devil has been defeated'. Satan is vanquished already and, only by deceit, can he lead astray those who are in Christ; tempting them through promise of treasure, power or letting them fall into utter despair.
We are instructed elsewhere (St Ignatius' Epistle to the Smyraeans III & IV) to be firm, guarding ourselves from those who seek to influence evil upon us. Not just to turn away but even to flee from them. We must understand that Satan has enticed men and women from the beginning. It is only then that he has him in his power. However Satan is ultimately bound by the power of God. His power over man is only through delusion (see St Irenaus' Adversus Haereses). We are to keep our lives fully in God and not to fall into the temptation that the Devil puts in front of us.
In the Gospels, Christ uses the common things of life to teach the truths of God. These well-known things are weaved by him into a story that conveys God to the hearers. The spiritual writers of our Church followed the example of our Lord. In teaching their hearers many of these writers spoke of everyday things, things like grain, fields, birds, and everyday events from life. Some even used widely known stories to describe the action of Satan, for example the Fables of Aesop (also see Catechetical Sermons 21 – 24 by St Gregory of Nyssa).
Our second picture is an illustration is from one of the fables of Aesop. The fable is called THE DOG AND HIS REFLECTION. It goes something like this:
" A dog was crossing a plank bridge over a stream with a piece of meat in his mouth, when he happened to see his own reflection in the water. He thought it was another dog with a piece of meat, so he let go of his own and flew at the other dog to get his piece, too. But, of course, all that happened was that he got neither, for one was only a reflection and the other was carried away by the stream".
The moral of the story is:
"Envy not your neighbours lot; and be content with what you've got."
We can apply this fable to the Church and to ourselves who see ourselves as part of it. The deceit here is the reflection that the dog saw. What he thought was real was in fact only imaginary. When applying this story to that of the human person we can ask, why do we 'bring ourselves, by own accord, into subjection to the enemy of this life?' (see Catechetical Sermons 21 – 24 by St Gregory of Nyssa). What is it that encourages us to push away eternal life to fall into sin? It is Satan the great deceiver who tempts us with the imaginary security of a life of wealth, comfort, pleasure and power – a life without God.
Satan can be seen in this story of our greedy dog, he is in the stream trying to convince the dog that even though he has all he needs, there is still more. Alas, this desire is based not on what God has given us, but on what we image we can and should have. Satan cannot offer the dog a real piece of meat; he can only reflect the image of the meat that already exists. Satan's promises of peace without God are false. He tries to convince us to take his offer by copying the things of God. However, these copies are not real, there will disappear as easily as ripples do to a reflection in a stream. Satan does not take the meat from the mouth of the dog; he does not have to. He only need convince the dog to grab at more and by doing so lose what he has already been given. He plays on the greed and pride of the dog. Greed and the constant desire to be better than those around us is a common way of the world, it is not the way of a life in Christ. The temptations of the Devil often involve what we think we should have. The grace that God has given us is enough for our needs, we should use what we have been given with thankfulness and not worry about what we do not have.
A third illustration is relevant here. It is another fable from Aesop concerning a reflection in a stream (in The Stag and the Hounds):
"A stag one autumn day came to a pond and stood admiring his reflection in the water.
'Ah' said he, 'what glorious antlers! But my slender legs make me ashamed. How ugly they are! I'd rather have none at all'.
The stag was soon distracted from his vain musings by the noise of huntsmen and their hounds. Away he flew, leaving his pursuers a vast distance behind him. But coming upon a thicket, he became entangled by his antlers. He struggled to free himself as the baying of the hounds sounded nearer and nearer.
'At last' he thought, 'If I am meant to die at the fangs of these beasts, let me face them calmly'.
But when he ceased to tremble, he found his antlers had come free.
Immediately he bounded away, delighting in his legs, which carried him far away from danger. As he ran, he thought to himself,
'Happy creature that I am! I now realise that that on which I prided myself was nearly the cause of my undoing, and that which I disliked was what saved me'.
Satan again lies within the flowing stream in this fable. Previously, we saw how Satan often deceives us into desiring what does not really exist. Here the deceit differs. Here the stag is convinced that what he has is inadequate. Previously it was pride and greed that was the downfall of the dog. Now we are reminded that vanity and extreme self-resourcefulness can be fatal. The stag knew what he wanted. However, his assessment of what was necessary or adequate for him was not right.
It is rather amazing to hear many in the Church say "I would really like to contribute more to the ministry and life of my Church, but I don't have the necessary talents to do anything". It's not a matter of my antlers being just right or my legs being too thin and scrawny, but it is often a matter of "it would be too embarrassing for me to contribute anything in my Church youth group". Perhaps it is "I would really like to say something at my youth group, but everyone would think I am stupid, or pushy".
; they were given to us by God at our Baptism. The Church cannot function properly, especially in times of need and challenge unless all of its members use the gifts God has given them. How can we expect the Church to stand fast against a world that rejects the Kingdom of God when the very members of that Church are not completely relying upon God?
Thankfully, it is not the combined self-reliance of all the members of our Church (or our youth group for that matter) that makes us the 'Body of Christ' (I Cor 12:27). It is the power and grace of God that transforms the individual members of the Church into the functioning 'Body of Christ' in this world.
The stag allowed his own vanity and his self-judgment to cloud his opinion of himself. Satan often deceives the members of the Church into believing that even God's promises will not be fulfilled in them because they in themselves do not 'have what it takes'. It is not up to us, it is up to God!
"But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent?" As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!" But they have not all obeyed the gospel; for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ (c/f Rom 10:14-17).
Satan cannot defeat the Church that is filled with the purpose and Spirit of God. He will, however attempt to deceive those who are part of it. The Church cannot be the vehicle of God's salvation in this world if those who see themselves as belonging to that Church are not going to use what God has given them because of fear of ridicule, vanity, embarrassment or pride.
Perhaps our stag should read the verse above that mentions "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news"! In the end it is the scrawny feet that saved the stag from the fangs of the hounds. So too, it is the feet that carry the preaching and the teaching and those who are living out their faith in this world that will save us from the deception of the snapping Devil – however scrawny and ugly those feet might appear to be!
Enough for the introduction, now for the real heart of this presentation! One of the greatest dangers for those within the Church is what is called 'The New Age Movement'. Well, there is a nice red herring you might say. What has the 'New Age Movement' got to do with the deception of Satan? It certainly has nothing to do with us who are members of the Church! Or does it?
Sadly, the 'New Age Movement' in its variety of forms, has influenced all aspects of life, and even many who see themselves as members of the Church of God are so easily influenced by this great deception of Satan.
Many see the "New Age Movement" as just a way of life; living in respect of all creatures, practising non violence, being sensitive, respecting others right to believe in their particular religion. Nothing could be further from the truth. The "New Age Movement" is in fact one of the greatest attempts at deception by Satan upon Christians today!
The "New Age Movement" is not simply some broad descriptive title for a range of unrelated philosophies or teachings. It is a highly organised and motivated movement that, in its least organised form, seeks to distract Christians from concentrating upon the things of God. At its most dangerous, it seeks to destroy Christian faith and replace the historical and theological Christ with a 'new' and 'more relevant' Messiah figure.
In her book "The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow – The New Age Movement and Our Coming Age of Barbarism", Constance Cumbey seeks to expose 'New Age' for what it is, a well organised movement. It seeks to replace established religion, particularly in the West, with a new belief system that incorporates all beliefs and religions. Although this book is not a Christian Orthodox writing, it is useful because of its well-researched material.
"According to New Age sources, the New Age Movement is a worldwide network. It consists of tens of thousands of cooperating organisations. Their primary goal or the secret behind their 'unity-in-diversity' is the formation of a 'New World Order". The Movement usually operates on the basis of a well-formulated body of underlying esoteric or occult teachings" (Constance Cumbey, 1983, 'The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow' Huntington House Inc, p 54).
The "New Age Movement" can be said to be a conglomeration of various forms and expressions of the above common ideal. On the very basic level is the sort of universalism that has never been far behind the preaching of the Christian Gospel. This is the notion that all religions are really the same and if we can cross-fertilise one to another, then we will have the perfect world of peace and harmony. It is this strand of the Movement that expresses the 'common basis' for all religions and cultures. Each one is seen as being no better or 'no more right' than the other.
The openly more organised level is a collection of very powerful organisations that work to a common ideal of preparing for a 'Messiah' who will come to redeem the world from war, pollution, hunger and every other problem besetting humankind. It is rather telling that the name this particular person is often given is "The Bearer of Light". As we saw much earlier tonight, this can be a translation of the name 'Lucifer'.
Now, I am sure many of us find such information on organised evil groups as fuel for the development of conspiracy theories, the true identity of the Anti-Christ etc. However, for Christians to use all their energy in pinpointing a particular evil work or evil person in this world can be a distraction from one's own salvation journey. That in itself can be a deception of Satan; to take our focus away from the person of God.
A far more subtle and potentially more dangerous Satanic deception lies behind the more basic unorganised expression of the "New Age Movement". It is not the expression of 'New Age' in the world that should concern us, as much as its influence within the Church of God.
Sadly we can find particular 'New Age' practices and beliefs even with many members of the Orthodox Churches. Seemingly simple activities such as reading one's stars, experimenting with the occult, using 'healing crystals', practising eastern forms of meditation and certain 'holistic medicine' practices etc are expressions of what the "New Age Movement" is encouraging. These things are destructive to one's Orthodox Christian faith precisely because they seek to take away from the uniqueness and central importance of Christ and the 'Kingdom of heaven'. Anything that can do this will also slowly but surely chip away at the prime place of importance that Christ and the Gospel has in our lives as Orthodox Christians.
I would like to quote from a recent article from the religious column of a major Australian newspaper:
"There is a recognition that we will all only ever have the chance to know the truth completely when we come together with those who are approaching the truth from completely different and even a contradictory perspective from ourselves.
"Mahatma Gandhi the great Hindu, suggested that Christ could become the Way for non-Christians, as well as Christians, if he could be unchained from the shackles of Christianity."
Now, coming from a non-Christian religion this would be bad enough, but coming from a writer who claims allegiance to the Christian Gospel, this can only be seen as part of a great Satanic deception. Sadly I have found this deluded attitude even among some Orthodox people as well!
Saints of the Holy Church have died for the uniqueness of the message of the Christian Gospel. Men and women have been tortured and led to horrible deaths because they refused to compromise what has been the unchangeable foundation of the Christian faith. The Holy Tradition of our Church is not something that we can mould, like play-do, according to what the world wishes it to be.
Constance Cumbey, in her book, uncovers a vast interconnected movement that seeks a 'New World Order'; this should not surprise us. After all the world has rejected God. What is troubling about this book, is how many Christian people pick up seemingly innocent lifestyles and activities that darken further and further the likeness of Christ within them.
Like so much of the deceptive actions of Satan, individual things or practices in themselves are not necessarily great evils. However, their effect taken together in any one particular person can compound into a serious danger to that person's spiritual life and ultimately to that person's salvation.
Many of us would remember Fr Tychon, a one time Confessor Priest-Monk from Mount Athos. We would remember a warm and wise man who is now the Abbot of Stavronikita Monastery. Fr Tychon wrote a short article entitled "The Antichrist and the Second Coming of Our Lord". This article has been translated into English, and is well worth all of us studying.
I would like to quote some of Fr Tychon's conclusions:
"The activity of the Antichrist and the beast, regardless of how much power they are allowed to have from God, will never acquire any authority over the souls of God's servants. As it was with Job '… but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it' (I Cor 10:13b).
"Only the conscious denial of Christ deprives man of salvation. No hidden action or symbol of the evil one can harm or have an influence on the believer.
Truly, Satan is the great deceiver because he portrays himself as having power and influence that he does not really have. He is the greatest trickster because he casts an image that strikes fear and despair even into the hearts of those touched by the power of God.
Satan deceives because he seems to appear where he really cannot be and he tries to tempt all people (even the saved), in venturing where they should not go.
To my university lecturer of so long ago I say, yes Satan exists and is at work. However, does that mean that God does not exist? On the contrary, the all-powerful and the all-loving God has given us all we need to resist and fight against the deceits of Satan.
"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you. Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you. Be sober, be watchful; because your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you. To him be the dominion for ever and ever" (1 Peter 5:6-11).
Presented to the Youth of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia
at St Eustathios' Church, South Melbourne Victoria
(Second Archdiocesan District of Victoria and Tasmania)
on Tuesday 23rd November 1999


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- City Services
- Engineering
- Asset Management
Asset Management
Asset Management is coordinated activities that help an organization to realize value form its assets. It encompasses all asset types – tangible and intangible, individual components or complex systems, and all activities involved in the asset's life cycle. Asset management translates organizational objectives into asset-related decisions, plans and activities while managing risk. (ISO 55000,2014)
In 2016, the City of Revelstoke was selected as one of 12 municipalities across Canada to take part in the Federation for Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Leadership in Asset Management Program (LAMP). Phase 1 of the program focused on peer learning and collaboration and development of and strengthening of asset management governance. As part of Phase 1 the City revised the Asset Management Policy and developed an Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP).
The Asset Management Policy describes the City's intentions and directions for asset management, as formally expressed by its top management. It confirms the City's commitment to infrastructure asset management in a short and concise document and sets out the principles that will be adopted in applying asset management to achieve the Council's strategic objectives.
The Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) is a high-level document that describes how the asset management policy will be implemented. It documents the City's objectives for asset management and describes the role of the asset management system to achieve those objectives.
The City will begin Phase 2 of LAMP in early 2018. Phase 2 will develop a "levels of service" framework for the City of Revelstoke which details customer (resident, regulatory, environmental) and technical (assets) levels of service for the City's asset classes. The City's asset classes include: roads, parks and trails, buildings, water, sewer and stormwater/drainage. Phase 2 will build on the principles and approach in the Strategy Asset Management Plan developed in Phase 1 of the program.

subset: commoncrawl


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"Shotgun Lovesongs" by Nikolas Butler
c.2014, St. Martin's Press $25.99 320 pages
It all seemed like a good idea. You'd graduate from high school and take three months to bike across country. Or build a house. Or start a business, hitchhike Europe or any other harebrained plan your teenage minds thought up. It would be a bonding experience. Friends forever.
It didn't take long to learn that, sadly, plans and friendships are fragile things – and in the new novel, "Shotgun Lovesongs" by Nickolas Butler, both are riddled with holes.
Leland Sutton never gave anybody a straight answer when asked about the title of his first album. Shotgun Lovesongs was about suicide, a tribute to another band, a nod to heartbreak, a different reason every time. It was what made Lee famous and what took him away from the small town of Little Wing, Wisconsin.
Lee was perhaps Little Wing's most famous son, but Ronny Taylor was the town's first major celebrity. Ronny had been a rodeo rider once, flat-stomached, cool under pressure and on a bull. Ronny's only flaw was that he was an alcoholic, which is how he ended up a little bit not-quite-right. Everybody loved him anyhow, mostly because of his big heart.
Few people knew that Lee paid most of Ronny's bills.
Kip Cunningham wasn't aware of it, in fact, but there weren't a lot of things Kip was privy to anyhow. He'd always kept his boyhood friends at arms' length and, truth was, he didn't really quite fit in. He wasn't good at people things; he was good at making money. So it came as quite a shock when he bought the ancient mill that towered over Little Wing – and it failed, financially and spectacularly.
Solid, dependable Henry Brown watched his friends' worlds widen, but his home was on his western Wisconsin farm. His wife, Beth, was his life. His kids were his life. All he'd ever really wanted was in the town where he'd grown up. Little Wing was where he could go to the VFW and they knew him. It was where his friends came home when they wanted to let their hair down.
It was where his heart was broken.
Totally smitten. That was me within four pages of the beginning of "Shotgun Lovesongs."
If you're "of a certain age," you will be, too, because author Nikolas Butler wraps his story around the universal experiences of nearly every small-town teen: pilfered pilsners drunk by headlight in a cornfield; hanging out somewhere you think is unknown to everybody else; realizing that your neighbors gossip about you; keeping friends you've had since kindergarten.
It's a familiar feeling: we somehow know the businesses Butler writes about. We know his characters – or at least someone very much like them – and that gives readers a comfortable sense of home on every page.
This is one of those books you step into but never want to leave. It's got a great keep-you-guessing plot, a satisfying cast, and an easy touch to it. And if that's what you need, then isn't reading "Shotgun Lovesongs" a good idea?
The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 12,000 books. Her self-syndicated book reviews appear in more than 260 newspapers.


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Some people have considered the recent criticisms of the CEO of the Center for Inquiry to be a wholesale attack on the organization (well, "some people" meaning "freakin' loons"). Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm a supporter; I think many of their causes are essential; I appreciate the work of many of the people there. Let's not forget that the whole of the organization is not the brain of the CEO, whether it's Paul Kurtz or Ron Lindsay, both of whom have also done good work. We have to trust in the quality of the group to overcome the flaws of the individual.
So I thought I might throw out an occasional post to let you know about a few of the commendable efforts of CFI — you know, try a little positive reinforcement in addition to my usual spiked bludgeon of criticism.
CFI has an Office of Public Policy.
The Office of Public Policy (OPP) is the Washington, D.C. political arm of the Center for Inquiry. Our mandate is to advocate for public policy based on reason, science, and secular values. This includes lobbying at all levels of government — Congress, the Administration, and the international community, including the United Nations — to promote and defend separation of church and state, the role of scientific evidence and secular ethics in policymaking, and basic civil and human rights.
This is the unit that lobbies the government directly for secular causes — if there is something that pisses you off about public policy, this is an effective place to ask for assistance. The director of the OPP is Michael De Dora, who has been working his butt off to get things done. He's also their representative to the UN.
He meets with the State Department on issues of international concern for secularists, and as we all know there have been a number of those lately, with atheists being persecuted in several countries. He lobbies to keep religion and politics out of science, and has fought against the corruption of our educational system.
He's also stood up for women's issues, opposing restrictions on emergency contraception and abortion. You can find a good summary of his position in his speech at the Unite Women rally.
If CFI had really felt it necessary to tap a high-ranking man to give an introduction at the Women in Secularism conference, it would have been a good choice to delegate it to De Dora, who has a solid record on women's issues and would definitely have been politic enough to avoid throwing a few rhetorical grenades into the crowd. In the past I've said some rude things about a few remarks he made about creationism, but…he got better. I've met with him a few times, and I'm confident in his abilities in his job — and he's one of a lot of faces at CFI who do great work.
So keep on criticizing where criticizing needs to be done — it's how the organization gets better. But let's not forget that CFI also does invaluable work on our behalf.


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"For I have known them all already, known them all" - Eliot |
Most of the meetings were over a table. Most of the time it was among three people. Three of those meetings pretty well much re-calibrated me and my thoughts about wine. Call it a California cleanse. Call it coming home. Call it the end and the beginning.
Far from Italy, but always with Italy by my side, we had bottles opened up, bottles few of us seldom get to experience, let alone in such bountiful plenitude. That alone is worthy of celebrating life.
Add to that pristine food, sourced from farms by people who husband their land and their animals, their grapes, their wine. The pleasure of eating and drinking in balanced measures.
Along with that came thoughtful and respectful discussion. Much of which centered on "Where are we going?" "Where have we come from?" "How have we arrived to this point?"
Naval gazing? My cynical friends might surmise so. And they might be Johnny-on-the-spot. But what fun is that? Isn't it much more fun to take ourselves seriously? Doesn't that make our life more meaningful? Doesn't that make us feel so much more important? Who, I ask, does it hurt? Not a damn soul.
So, take down the lights, bring up the music. Clear a few tables and chairs and let's tango.
There are two California's in my wine world. There is the Old. And there is the New. And they are remarkably similar. Drinking them together, a 1993 Stony Hill White Riesling with a 2011 Talahalusi Picpoul. About as different as they come. But oddly, they are kindred spirits.
A 1985 Forman Cabernet and a 2011 Larkmead Firebelle Red Blend. Separated by a generation of time but the two winemakers, Ric Forman and Dan Petroski, seemingly threaded together in time by passion for wine, for clarity, and for balance.
Everything we think, drink, eat, talk about and love, all these are held together by the pursuit of joy, of beauty and of balance. From Eric Asimov to Elaine Brown, Paul Mabray to David White, Ric Forman to Dan Petroski, Geralyn to Jack Brostrom, Darrell Corti to Lucio Gomiero, all these souls, landed on this little rock, move from dark to light, cold to warm, hungry to satiated, young to old, seeking the same thing with different names.
Is California different than Italy? In some ways, yes. When on the back roads of Napa Valley, one could forget and think they were in Sicily. It happens to me often. The differences are as great as the similarities are cunningly alike. Yes, there are flavor gradations. Something is brighter here, spicier there. But that is minor, in universal measurements. Balance, though, that is something we all seek, we all question and we all bargain for.
In health, in youth, in reflection, it concentrates to balance. Health is balance. Wealth is balance. Happiness is balance. Deliciousness is balance. Love is balance. If the white wine is orange and it's in balance, who cares? If the mountain red is meaty and oaky and deliciously in balance, so what? If the Carmenere on volcanic soil brings forth a wine that 30 years later is a time capsule of the last 30 million years and it is delicious, that is balance. Balance isn't ONE thing. Balance isn't a sheet of paper, it's a ball. And the dog in us all chases it. Daily.
I'm fortunate in that my path has taken me along to be with folks who think about, make and drink these things called wine. Wine is merely a delicious tasting metaphor for the thing which we cannot give words to. We are bestowed with the gifts from the earth as a sign of faith from the greater good, to show us what we know but which often we forget. Wine is the direct shipment of love from the past to the future. Are we not the luckiest of beings in the universe? If we don't think so, we are fools.
For myself, I wish to be foolish after a glass or two of School House Pinot Noir, or Stony Hill Chardonnay, Vignalta Carmenere or Sullivan Cabernet Sauvignon. There is where I find the answer to this question of balance, sitting at a table under the warm glow of friendship and conviviality.
Links and Inspirers:
- Eric Asimov
- Geralyn & Jack Brostrom
- Elaine Brown
- Darrell Corti
- Ric Forman
- Lucio Gomiero
- Paul Mabray
- Dan Petroski
- David White
- Kelli Audrey White
written by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy
wine blog + Italian wine blog + Italy W


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Meeting agendas and updates are issued from the Town Clerk's Office. To receive these by email or text, sign up for Carrboro Town News at townofcarrboro.org/signup
Civic involvement is a valued tradition in our community. Reach the Town Council with your ideas, views, and questions at firstname.lastname@example.com
Coming Up
The Town Council will meet virtually at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 26, to consider the agenda at https://bit.ly/2Zf8FGZ that also will be posted at carrboro.legistar.com
Past Meeting
The Carrboro Town Council met virtually Tuesday, Oct. 19, and took the following actions on the agenda posted at https://bit.ly/3n6IESR
About the Town Council
The Town Council is the legislative and policy-making body for Carrboro, consisting of seven elected members: Mayor Lydia Lavelle, Mayor Pro Tempore Barbara Foushee, Council Member Jacquelyn Gist, Council Member Randee Haven-O'Donnell, Council Member Susan Romaine, Council Member Damon Seils, and Council Member Sammy Slade. More information is available at http://townofcarrboro.org/248/Town-Council


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New York Times bestseller!
"Sara Holland is a fierce storyteller. Everless gives new and terrifying meaning to the phrase running out of time." —Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of Caraval
In the kingdom of Sempera, time is currency—extracted from blood, bound to iron, and consumed to add time to one's own lifespan. The rich aristocracy, like the Gerlings, tax the poor to the hilt, extending their own lives by centuries.
No one resents the Gerlings more than Jules Ember. A decade ago, she and her father were servants at Everless, the Gerlings' palatial estate, until a fateful accident forced them to flee in the dead of night. When Jules discovers that her father is dying, she knows that she must return to Everless to earn more time for him before she loses him forever.
But going back to Everless brings more danger—and temptation—than Jules could have ever imagined. Soon she's caught in a tangle of violent secrets and finds her heart torn between two people she thought she'd never see again. Her decisions have the power to change her fate—and the fate of time itself.
Fans of Victoria Aveyard, Kendare Blake, and Stephanie Garber will devour this lush novel's breathtaking action, incredible romance, and dangerous secrets. Plus don't miss the thrilling sequel, Evermore!


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Dodge County is located in south-central Georgia. It is named after William E. Dodge (1805– 1883) – a New York capitalist, congressman, abolitionist, carpetbagger, philanthropist and Native American advocate. Its county seat is Eastman.
The existence of Dodge County is the direct result of a group of investors, led by Dodge, accumulating over 300,000 acres in south central Georgia during the early days of Reconstruction. Deeds to the properties were often obtained through illegalities made possible by martial law in a defeated land. After Dodge's death, law suits pertaining to the land acquisitions, continued for over fifty years. Dodge used his influence on the Reconstruction state government in Atlanta to convert his property holdings into a new county in 1870. He also obtained a franchise to construct a railroad from Macon, GA to Brunswick, GA through his fiefdom.
William Dodge played a very important role in the Indian reforms of the 1870s. He was co-founder of the United States Indian Commission and lobbied for many years to create a separate cabinet level Department of Indian Affairs. Ironically, his seizure of properties along the Ocmulgee River with unclear titles or delinquent property taxes, forced many Creek Indian families off lands they had lived on since the early 1700s. Dodge's consortium used a Trail of Tears Era law in Georgia which forbade Indians from owning real estate or testifying in court on their own behalf. The Dodge County sheriff was controlled by the consortium so the Creek families had no options when Sheriff's deputies showed up to evict them.
Much of Dodge County's western boundary is defined by the Ocmulgee River. The county is bordered on the northeast by Laurens County and the east by Wheeler County. Wilcox and Pulaski Counties form its western boundary. Telfair County forms its southeaster boundary while Bleckley County forms its northwestern boundary.
Geology and hydrology
Dodge County is located in the Atlantic Coastal Plain geological region. The Atlantic Coastal Plain is characterized by underlying rock strata that are relatively young sedimentary rock from the Late Cretaceous Period, when the shore of the Atlantic Ocean ran through present day Dodge County. Here the terrain is much more moderate than in the Piedmont, varying from gently rolling hills to flat bottomlands.
Dodge County's largest stream is the Ocmulgee River, which flows along the southwestern side of the county. Other major streams include Bay Creek, Batson Creek, Hogpen Creek, Little Branch, Walton Creek, District Hollow Branch, Granny Branch and Whitewater Creek.
The Ocmulgee River joins the Oconee River in southern Georgia to become the Altamaha River, which eventually reaches the Atlantic Ocean. The Ocmulgee River in the vicinity of Dodge County is deep enough to have been navigable by the largest of Native American canoes. During the 1800s steamboats plied this section of the Ocmulgee.
Ocmulgee is the Anglicization of the Georgia Muskogee-Creek tribal name, Oka-mole-ke, which means "Swirling Water People." Georgia Muskogee was a mixture of the dominant Creek language, Itsate (Hitchiti) with the dialect of Muskogee spoken along the Tallapoosa River in Alabama.
Native American occupation
In the past, Dodge County Native American populations were apparently concentrated along the Ocmulgee, Alapaha and the larger creeks that flow into this river. There is evidence that the complex system of meandering streams, permanent swamps and seasonal wetlands in the Ocmulgee floodplain were the locations of some the earliest experiments in agriculture in the United States.
The region around Dodge County was occupied by ancestors of the Creek Indians, when first visited by English traders in the late 1600s. However, linguistic evidence provided by the chronicles of the Hernando de Soto Expedition, when it passed through the region in spring of 1540, suggests that the occupants of western part of the county were Taino Arawaks at that time. De Soto visited the town of Toa, which was located in the general vicinity of Abbeville in Wilcox County. The Toa were a name of a branch of the Taino near Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Toa also is the Arawak word for a stone griddle used to bake cassava bread. Toa has no meaning in contemporary Creek languages.
The people of the Toa province were called the Toasi by Itsate and Muskogee speakers. This word is seen in some early Spanish archives. Those Toasi who survived the waves of plagues and slave raids that decimated the lower Southeast, joined the Creek Confederacy. English speakers called them the Tawasee.
The Tawasee maintained their distinct ethnic heritage until the middle 1700s.They occupied one or more villages in the vicinity of Birmingham and Montgomery, AL. A Tawasee man lived among British colonists for awhile. Many of the words he spoke were written down. He spoke a hybrid language that was Taino Arawak, with some influence from Muskogee-Creek. After the American Revolution, the Toasi apparently became totally assimilated into Creek culture. Their ethnic identity was completely lost by the 1800s.
The eastern part of Dodge County was probably Muskogean and part of either the Tama or Okute Provinces. The De Soto Chronicles mentioned that the boundary between the Toasi and Tamatli Provinces was about a day's march inland from the Ocmulgee River.
Throughout the 1700s and early 1800s, the Creek Indians were by far the largest tribe north of Mexico. However during the 1800s, they were repeatedly subdivided, assimilated, killed in battle or intentionally starved to death in concentration camps. Although they take a much lower profile than Cherokee descendants, there probably still many more people in the United States carrying at least some Muskogean DNA than any other tribe. However, the federally recognized Muscogee – Creek Nation of Oklahoma is only the fourth largest federally recognized tribe, behind the Navajo, Oklahoma Cherokees and Oklahoma Choctaws.
Native American Cultural Periods
Earliest Inhabitants
Archaeologists believe that humans have lived in Dodge County for at least 12,000 years, perhaps much longer. Clovis and Folsom points, associated with Late Ice age big game hunters have been found in the Ocmulgee River Valley. During the Ice Age, herds of giant mammals roamed the river bottom lands. The mastodons, saber tooth tigers, giant sloths and other massive mammals died out about 8,000 years ago. The ethnic identity of the Clovis Culture hunters is not known. They were long presumed to be American Indians, but recent research by anthropologists have revealed many similarities with the big game hunters of Western Europe. An ice cap on the North Atlantic Ocean may have permitted early humans to move back and forth between continents by paddling, while gaining sustenance from hunting sea mammals and fishing.
Archaic Period (8,000 BC – 1000 BC)
After the climate warmed, animals and plants typical of today soon predominated in this region. Humans adapted to the changes and gradually became more sophisticated. They adopted seasonal migratory patterns that maximized access to food resources. Archaic hunters probably moved to locations along major rivers during the winter, where they could eat fish and fresh water mussels, if game was not plentiful. During the remainder of the year, smaller streams would have been desirable camp sites.
Dodge County was an ideal location for bands of hunters and gatherers. The county's network of creeks and wetlands provided a diverse ecological environment for game animals and edible plants. Native Americans learned to set massive brush fires in the late autumn which cleared the landscape of shrubs and created natural pastures for deer. The landscape that European settlers encountered in the Coastal Plain was not natural. It had been altered for thousands of years by Native Americans to create optimum environments for the natural production of food sources. The inhabitants regularly burned the undergrowth to create meadows for grazing animals.
During the late Archaic Period, several trade routes developed in this region that interconnected the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, Appalachian Mountains and Great Lakes. During this time, Native Americans began traveling long distances to trade and socialize.
The earliest known pottery in the Western Hemisphere has been discovered by archaeologists in the middle Savannah River Valley and in middle Ocmulgee Basin. The makers of this pottery were probably hunters and gatherers, who spent significant portions of the year along the major rivers of eastern Georgia. It is known as Stallings Island pottery after Stallings Island near Augusta, GA. Archaeologists believe that the Stallings Island people first began experimenting with ceramics around 2,500 BC. This is slightly earlier that the first pottery produced in Mexico; in the Pacific Coast State of Guerrero. Most of Mexico would not have ceramics for at least another 800-1000 years.
Woodland Period (1000 BC – 900 AD)
The Etowah, Chattahoochee and Flint River Valleys were locations of some of the earliest permanent villages in North America. It is likely that permanent settlements in the Ocmulgee Basin followed soon afterward –possibly at the same time. A sedentary lifestyle was made possible by abundant natural food sources such as game, freshwater mussels and chestnuts and the cultivation of gardens. Agriculture came very early here. Initially, the cultivated plants were of indigenous origin and included a native squash, native sweet potato, sunflowers, Jerusalem artichoke, amaranth, sumpweed, and chenopodium.
The early villages were relatively small and dispersed. There was probably much socialization among these villages because of the need to find spouses that were not closely related. Houses were round and built out of saplings, river cane and thatch.
The Woodland Period peoples of the region built numerous mounds. Apparently, most mounds were primarily for burials, but may have also supported simple structures that were used for rituals or meetings. They were constructed accretionally. This means that the mounds grew in size over the generations by piling soil and detritus from the village over recent burials. Most had ovoid or circular footprints.
Archaeological evidence in the Chattahoochee and Flint River Valleys suggests that the first Muskogean farmers entered northeast Georgia around 400 BC, after migrating from west-central Mexico. However, the region was probably was already occupied by ancestors of the Yuchi and Southern Siouans with languages similar to the Catawba. There may have been other ethnic groups whose identities have been concealed by time. Agricultural technology, cultural traditions and DNA probably blended between these peoples. Modern "Creek" Indians may represent a genetic mix of several indigenous ethnic groups.
Around 100 AD, the ancestors of the Creek Indians evolved to building permanent towns with horseshoe shaped plazas for playing ball games, near the Chattahoochee, Ocmulgee and Oconee Rivers. This was known as the Swift Creek Culture. Swift Creek Style pottery is considered some of the most beautiful every made in North America. The Swift Creek People were also known for their finely crafted copper tools, weapons and ornaments. They built both ellipsoid shaped accretional mounds and some large pyramidal mounds for temples.
There are several probable village or town sites in Dodge County along the Ocmulgee and Alapaha Rivers. Amateur historians, Native Americans and artifact collectors have reported finding village sites, containing low mounds and extensive deposits of Swift Creek, Macon Plateau and Lamar style pottery shards on several islands within riverine swamps along the Ocmulgee River. These sites have not been studied thoroughly by archaeologists. It is quite plausible that such villages existed, but without professional analysis, they cannot be described as definite Native American settlement locations.
Muskogean town dwellers (900 AD – 1784 AD)
Muskogeans carried with them advanced cultural traditions from Mexico and the Lower Mississippi Valley. The early Muskogeans eventually formed provinces that were governed by large towns. Prior to arrival of Europeans, there were no Indian "tribes." The large towns were usually located in the bottomlands on major rivers such as the Chattahoochee and below the Fall Line along the Ocmulgee River. Smaller villages located near creeks.
One of the earliest "advanced" indigenous towns in the United States was founded around 900 AD along the Ocmulgee River. Its founders were newcomers, who carried with them many Mesoamerican cultural traits. They may have been either Itza Mayas or the hybrid descendants of both Mayas and indigenous peoples. The language that most of the Creek Indians' ancestors spoke in Georgia was Itsate (Hitchiti in English.) The Itza Maya's also called themselves, Itsate. There are many Maya and Totonac words in the various dialects spoken by the Creek Indians that came from Mexico.
The "Mississippian" label came from a conference at Harvard University in 1947 which adopted the inaccurate belief that all advanced Native American culture originated north of the Mason-Dixon Line along the Mississippi River. Villages and towns located in Dodge County would have been highly influenced by the cultural influence of regional centers such as the Ocmulgee mound complex in Macon, GA.
European exploration period (1540 AD – 1717 AD)
There is evidence that European diseases began affecting coastal populations as early as 1500 AD Native American traders carried the microbes northward from Cuba and then into the lowlands near the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf Coast. Shortly after the Hernando de Soto Expedition passed through Georgia in 1540, waves of European diseases began to decimate the Native American population. Hernando de Soto's expedition. probably passed through or near present day Dodge County in March of 1540. Thus, the indigenous people of Dodge County would have been exposed to deadly pathogens immediately. Anthropologists currently believe that the indigenous population of Georgia dropped about 95% between 1500 and 1700 AD.
Agricultural advancements: Almost immediately after Spanish missions were established on the coast of Georgia in the late 1500s, the ancestors of the Creeks were growing European fruits and vegetables in addition to their traditional crops. A Spanish expedition in 1600 observed peaches, pears and melons being grown in a village on the Ocmulgee River. By the 1700s, Creeks were also raising European livestock. Chickens and hogs were the first European animals acquired to supplement their turkey flocks and Mexican meat dogs. By the late 1700s, most Georgia Creek men owned horses and had become skilled herders of cattle, horses and hogs.
Creek Confederacy: The Creek Confederacy of "People of One Fire" was a political alliance formed by the remnants of many advanced indigenous provinces in the Lower Southeast. This alliance probably developed during the late 1600s. In Creek tradition the first capital of this alliance was at Achese (Ichesi~Ochesee) in what is now the Ocmulgee National Monument.
The member towns represented several ethnic groups, but the Muskogees and Itsati's (Hitchitis) dominated the alliance. Muskogee was selected as the parliamentary language of the alliance. When British settlers first settled the coast of Georgia, Itsati was spoken by most Georgia Creeks. By 1800, a composite Muskogee language had became the spoken tongue of Creek citizens.
Dispersed farmsteads: 1780 AD – 1825 AD
After the American Revolution, Creek families dispersed across the vast territory now controlled by the Creek Confederacy. They lived in log cabins on farmsteads that differed little in appearance from Anglo-American farmsteads. Local histories that recall Creek village names from the 1800s are actually records of rural communities, where the farmsteads were closer together, not palisaded towns as in the pre-European days.
Almost immediately after the United States formed a permanent government, the Creeks were pressured to cede more and more land to the State of Georgia. By 1805 all land east of the Ocmulgee River had been ceded except of six square miles around the Ocmulgee Old Fields. Ocmulgee National Monument is now located in part of this reserve. At this point, all of what is now Dodge was opened to settlement by Europeans.
Creek descendants today
Relationships between the Muskogee Creeks and their Anglo-European neighbors along the Ocmulgee River in the late 1700s were generally good. There was much intermarriage. However, there had been some violence along the Upper Oconee River during the late 1780s and early 1790s, between other branches of the Creeks and encroaching settlers. These problems ended with the 1802 and 1805 land cessions. The raids on the Ocmulgee River Basin in 1818 were by Creek Indians who had lost their lands in southwest Georgia at the Treaty of Fort Jackson in 1814.
Creeks who were married to Caucasian or African spouses often remained in the Ocmulgee Basin, after it was ceded to Georgia. Some of their mixed heritage children remained in the region, while others moved to live among the Creeks. Also, some Creeks married African-American slaves then bought their freedom. The families in Dodge County, who proudly remember their Creek ancestry, are descended from the mixed heritage marriages with their European and African neighbors.


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IBM CEO to Employees: Act Faster
IBM Corp's Chief Executive Virginia Rometty told employees the company had become too sluggish and unresponsive, after it posted weak first-quarter results, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing IBM's internal video message addressed to its employees.
The technology services company posted on Thursday a rare quarterly earnings miss as a sliding yen hurt earnings from Japan and it failed to close a number of major deals, especially in Europe and the United States.
Rometty set a new rule. If a client has a request or question, IBM must respond within 24 hours, the newspaper reported she said in that call. She addressed the call to over 434,000 employees worldwide.
"Where we haven't transformed rapidly enough, we struggled," Rometty said in the video published on IBM's internal website, reviewed by the newspaper. "We have to step up with that and deal with that, and that is on all levels."
IBM was not immediately reachable for comment on the report.
IBM blamed a poor performance by its sales force for some of the shortfall for the poor quarterly results. But analysts said it was not just one quarter - the company's sales have been weakening consistently, dragging down results with or without the changes in the yen.
Rometty said IBM needs to speed its shift to new computing models to get back on track, the Journal reported citing the video. (Wall Street Journal article: http://link.reuters.com/dah67t)
IBM also reassigned one of its most senior executives, the head of its computer hardware business, following a sharp drop in first-quarter sales at the unit, the Journal reported citing a person familiar with the matter.
(Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan in Bangalore; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)


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I have been looking for a low cost solution to effectively store and query tick and bar data.
Databases like kdb+ and Streambase are too expensive for me.
Building a custom solution with SSAS (Sql Server Analysis Services) is one of the options that can think off. Has anyone attempted this?
If you did attempt this, how did you organize your data? Any ideas in that direction would be helpful.


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Editor's Note: To read more about spreadsheets, share a tip with other readers, or suggest a topic for Bill Jelen to cover in an upcoming column, click here to visit CFO.com's Spreadsheet Tips Page.
Reader Joe S. wins a copy of Pivot Table Data Crunching for this week's question: "I use pivot tables for data analysis; great tool but I have a problem when my data range includes blank rows. When I select a field for values, the default is to "count" versus "sum". Easy enough to change, but it would be great to not have to repeat this step for each column of the pivot table. Any suggestions?"
It is true that if you have even one blank cell in a numeric column, Excel will default to counting that column instead of using the sum function. I have to ask Joe why he has the blank rows. I've seen a few reasons for this:
• It is the entire row that is blank. The blank rows are there to break sections of the report apart.
• It just happens that there are some blank cells in the data. The person that I get the file from has some blanks in there. It comes from another department. I can't force them to put zeroes in there.
• I expect my data set to grow in the future and I don't want to have to redefine the source range when I add new records later.
Fig. 1
If Joe has the blanks because of the last issue, then there is a nice workaround. Build a pivot table based on the original data without any blank rows.
1.Go to the source data. Select one cell in the data. Press Ctrl+T. Confirm that your data has headers and click OK. This defines your data set using the new Excel 2007 Table functionality. Excel might add some formatting, but the formatting is not the important part! (In Excel 2003, use Ctrl+L instead of Ctrl+T). Before Excel 2003, this feature did not exist.
2.When you paste new data in the blank row below your existing data, the definition of the pivot table range will automatically grow to include the new data.
3.Go to the pivot table, click Refresh. The new records will be included.
If the blanks are there because the source of the data includes blank cells, then I have a quick way to replace all the blanks with zeroes. This will prevent the problem in the pivot table.
Select all of the numeric columns in your data set. Perhaps this is range F2:R50000.
1. Press Ctrl+G to display the Go To dialog.
2.In the lower left corner of Go To, choose Special
3. In the Go To Special dialog, choose Blanks. Click OK. You've now selected only the blank cells in your data. (See Figure 2)
Fig 2
4. Type a zero. Press Ctrl+Enter. All of the blank cells will be filled with a zero. Now, your pivot tables will sum instead of count.
If the cells aren't actually empty, but contain some spaces, then in step 3 above, choose Constants, and uncheck Numbers, Logicals, and Errors. (See Figure 3)
If you are in Excel 2007 or newer, steps 2 and 3 can be replaced by selecting Home, Find & Select, Go To Special.
The above method will work whether there are a few blank cells or entire blank rows. If you have entire blank rows, you could consider sorting the data set to move the blank rows to the bottom of the data set. Those blank rows are likely causing strange "(blank)" entries to appear along the row labels of your pivot table.
CFO contributor Bill Jelen is the author of 32 books about Microsoft Excel. You have the chance to win a copy of one of his books by posting a question to the Community Center on the right. If Bill selects your question as the topic of a future column, we'll send you a book as a thank-you. Bill's next MrExcel Webcast, "Excel for Forecasting & Planning," is Thursday, June 23, at 2:00 Eastern Time. Click here for more details.