The undisputed leader of the tightly vetted pack is soft hardliner Ebrahim Raeisi, the Islamic Republic’s Chief Justice
by Pepe Escobar, posted with permission and first posted at Asia Times
When Iran’s Interior Ministry released on Tuesday the final list of candidates approved by the 12-member Guardian Council to run for President in the upcoming June 18 election, all hell was breaking loose in Tehran for at least 24 hours.
An “unofficial” list of the 7 candidates for the presidential election was already circulating and causing quite a stir, but not confirmed yet to be final.
The talk of the town was that the list barred a lot of important people. Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was out. So was Ali Larijani – a former Parliament speaker, and even the current Iranian Vice President, Es’haq Jahangiri, who should be the top reformist running.
The Fars news agency had broken the story on Monday, announcing the final 7. They got everything right – from the elimination of Ahmadinejad, Larijani and Jahangiri to the fact that no women candidates were approved.
Fars is very close to the IRGC. So what happened makes perfect sense. Including the rumors swirling around Tehran that outgoing President Rouhani went into panic mode, calling Ayatollah Khamenei for a revision of the list.
As it stands, the Magnificent Seven who will be running are Ebrahim Raeisi, Saeed Jalili, Mohsen Rezaei, Alireza Zakani, Seyyed Amir-Hossein, Ghazizadeh-Hashemi, Albdolnasser Hemmati and Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh.
The undisputed leader of the pack is Raeisi, the head of the Judiciary since 2019. He is technically a Principlist – an Islamic Revolution conservative, in Iranian terms – but says he will run as an independent. Call him a soft hardliner.
Among the others, the only one relatively known outside of Iran is Jalili, also a Principlist, and former top nuclear negotiator as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 2007 to 2013.
At least in thesis, two reformists are left: Mehr-Alizadeh and Hemmati, the current governor of the Central Bank. But they have no national appeal.
So Raeisi now seems to be nearly a done deal: a relatively faceless bureaucrat without the profile of an IRGC hardliner, well known for his anti-corruption fight and care about the poor and downtrodden. On foreign policy, the crucial fact is that he will arguably follow crucial IRGC dictates.
Raeisi is already spinning that he “negotiated quietly” to secure the qualification of more candidates, “to make the election scene more competitive and participatory”. The problem is no candidate has the power to sway the opaque decisions of the 12-member Guardian Council, composed exclusively by clerics: only Ayatollah Khamenei.
The Guardian Council cryptically stated that only 40 out of 592 candidates had submitted “all the required documents” to the Interior Ministry’s election HQ. There was no explanation about the content of these “documents”.
Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaee, the Council’s spokesman, dismissed any politicking: decisions were made based on “election law”. So no one can contest them – except Khamenei. He stressed that the Council “had not been informed” of any action by the Leader.
The end of the reformist era
Vice President Jahangiri, who would have been the reformist standard bearer, did not take it lightly: in a forceful statement, he said, “the Council naturally bears the responsibility for the decision and its legal basis and for the political and social consequences arising from it.”
More crucially for the Tehran establishment, he highlighted a “serious threat” to the system: “I hope that the republican aspect of the establishment, the effective participation of the people in determining their own fate, the national interests, and the future of Iran will not be sacrificed to immediate political expediencies.”
Advisers to former President Ahmadinejad – still extremely popular nationally – told me they are still weighing their options: “It is a very big disappointment, but expected. A big mistake, that will lead to anger and distrust among common people, and eventually backlash.”
Professor Mohammad Marandi of the University of Tehran remarked, “there’s still some uncertainty about the candidates.” He’s not making a full assessment yet because he’s not sure the vetoing of Larijani, especially, “will be the final say”.
Even as the Magnificent Seven are now free to start campaigning, the overall sentiment is that the Rouhani-Zarif era seems to be over, not with a bang but a whimper.
At the JCPOA negotiations in Vienna, Iranian deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi continues to sound as a realist, stressing, “I am not confident that it would be possible to conclude the negotiations but there is a possibility.” That would require “political decisions to be made”, a direct reference to Washington.
Everyone in Vienna knows that what was agreed to far on the JCPOA revival was the easy part. The real problem are the remaining hundreds of sanctions that must be canceled by the US Congress – and that’s not gonna happen.
Besides, the Americans continue to insist that Tehran should first resume the nuclear commitments it has suspended – following its legal retaliation rights as defined by Article 26 of the JCPOA. Tehran’s red line is clear: it was Washington which ditched the JCPOA, so it’s up to the US to first remove all sanctions, “practically and verifiably”.
Tehran has reiterated over and over again it will walk out of Vienna by the end of May if there’s no deal. The IRGC couldn’t care less: they are already in post-JCPOA mode. Focused on the Iran-China strategic deal. Focused on wider Eurasia integration alongside Russia and China. And relying on the perfect candidate placed to become the next Iranian president.
It would be nice to have Ramin’s view on this matter.
The bit of clarity I have been waiting for is not who the presidential candidates will be in Iran, but Pepe’s conclusion that the negotiations to restore the JCPOA will fail, and fail in the next two weeks. Iran will find its way with whatever president it elects. The bad news is that a failure to restore – well actually, failure to implement the JCPOA when the sanctions were never dropped in fact, makes war more likely. It’s my guess, but not a prediction, that July through October is the most dangerous time. German elections on Sept 26 may affect the timing, and even the probability of war. The Empire has never stopped escalating, and the failure of the JCPOA is the biggest rock in the road to peace.
So the main question is, “What comes after the JCPOA is shown to be DOA ?” There is a hardening of positions on both sides, the Empire and the Sovereign nations. Belarus gave the finger to the EU by arresting an authentic and important Nazi, while the EU is only hurting themselves by putting a spotlight on their hypocrisy over “air piracy”. I believe Iran could have continued with extraordinary cooperation minus most of the humiliating special conditions, but I fully understand the anger in Iran because the IAEA is serving as Israel’s pawn, and has handing over data on Iran’s scientists so Israel and the US can kill them – as has been done and admitted by Israeli media. But if The Jewish State is determined to fight Iran right down to the last American soldier and airman, then less cooperation with the IAEA would make it easier for the Zionists to keep control of Washington. I don’t see how any good can come out of Biden meeting Putin in Geneva. I’m surprised Biden’s controllers are willing to put the senile goofball in a situation where he can be exposed. Is Putin expected to play along like Biden isn’t senile ? On another front, the leader of Mossad admitted at the annual Herzliya conference that Israel backs ISIS and doesn’t want to see them defeated. So the fig leaves have dropped and the Zios just don’t care, which means they may be spoiling for a fight.
It all smells like the end-game is closer than we think. I can see why the May 9 Victory parades in Russia had a somber tone.
Krav Maga principles applied here suggest that the the US is ptetending to turn over its wallet to an attacker just before punching his throat with a same-time groin kick.
Be very careful. This lull is pregnant with possibility.
It seems you have over looked another imponderable or possibility as raised by David Hearst article dated 30 April 2021 titled, “Jerusalem Is Ready to Explode – The World Can’t say It wasn’t Warned”. There is a constant Israel attack on people on the Al Quds compound.
Therefore, the American Gov’t may be constrained to adapt the JCPOA as Hamas does not accept the Two State solutions as the American Israeli have a choke hold on the American Gov’t.
The potential for was may be addressed by Biden and Putin when they meet and it also anticipated there will be no agreement. The Russians are also placing their Nuke Bombers in Syria signaling preparation for War.
There is more.
Pepe overestimates the US’ hand. The US government will adopt the JCPOA, and it will be another great signal of the demise of American hegemony.
“On another front, the leader of Mossad admitted at the annual Herzliya conference that Israel backs ISIS and doesn’t want to see them defeated. So the fig leaves have dropped and the Zios just don’t care, which means they may be spoiling for a fight.”
The true relation between Israel and Daesh/ISIS must be like “mongoose circling a cobra”.—As per article
in The Atlantic Daily by writer Graeme Wood, the Daesh movement is “a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse.” It appears to be a very bloodthirsty variant of the movement “al salaf al salih,” the “pious forefathers” otherwise dubbed sometimes as “salafists”. They appear to be very scrupulously disciplinarian Muslims where every adult man is to live like “almost a monk” and every adult woman is to live like “almost a nun”—very microregulated in personal lifestyle, like some sort of “Brave New World”—and anyone not adhering perfectly to that micromanagement and microregulation is deemed as some undisciplined vermin, to be either converted or preferably exterminated.—Apparently, it is about priorities. The priority for the Daesh/ISIS is to exterminate all those practicing Islam less than perfectly, before trying to do same to Israel. But of course everyone knows that eventually these fanatics will try to obliterate Israel and exterminate all Isrealis and Jews, as well as eventually all Christians, whether Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant. This is supposed to be a “millenarian” apocalyptic group who believe literally that a crusading army from the West is supposed to be annihilated and then
the Mahdi commander will appear from the clouds, some such thing.—Humans really are like stupid gladiators in an arena and like zombie animals killing each other to entertain demons. So inasmuch as Daesh targets other Muslims first, they are a monstrosity which I suppose serves Israel interests, but always ready to turn and wipe out its “handler”.—The situation speaks of what great desperation the “AngloZionists” must feel
to support such an “ally”—yet the even more fundamental issue arises, to what ultimate end all this regimentation of humans, like in the quasi-monastic “salafist” lifestyle? Whose agenda is really being served? Not the interests of Israel and Israelis, not really. The whole human species is being socially engineered
for total regimentation and militarization,—for what actual purpose.
“Whose agenda is really being served? Not the interests of Israel and Israelis, not really.”
The agenda of Global Zionism, which is not necessarily in the best interest of Israel and Israelis, or any particular nation. If anything, their agenda is quite anti-human altogether.
Global Zionism is authentic, genuine Satanism, in the sense that it is the rule of Satan over the world. Look at how they seethe at Islam and Christianity, foaming at the mouth like rabid dogs, consumed by hate for God and for humanity, despising and terrified of all human unity.
You are in many ways correct.—“Satan” and “satanism” are about as good a concept to describe the ultimate phenomenon as any other term. I tend to view “satan” as an emotional organism or emotional superorganism with a creepy sort of intelligence of its own, which infests humans and prompts them like certain other predators in nature, generally among invertebrate animals,—to behave in ways destructive to own survival but benefiting the predator.—Lord Jesus defined the characteristics of the real Satan in John 8:44 very succinctly: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it.”—So the character of the real Satan is that this thing is a murderer, great mass murderer, and a liar, deceiver. And that’s it. I say “real Satan” because there is also a cartoon-fantasy notion of Satan out there, the horned man with pitchfork and dancing naked women and the like, with orgies and goats, etc. But this is rubbish. The real Satan is a murderer of humans and a deceiver of humans often tricking them to do great murders and atrocities while believing that they are doing the work of God. This is where Satan aspires to become like God in the minds and imagination of the humans. So look around in the world today and in the past,—you find many examples of this! In fact this phenomenon seems to dominate the political and social and economic landscape. The ultimate objective is simply to generate the maximal amount or rage energies and fear energies as the end in itself, like some sort of nourishment for the predatory satanic entity.
Now, by the way, as the Graeme Wood article points out, “most Salafis are not jihadists, and most adhere to sects that reject the Islamic State. They are, as Haykel notes, committed to expanding Dar al-Islam, the land of Islam, even, perhaps, with the implementation of monstrous practices such as slavery and amputation—but at some future point. Their first priority is personal purification and religious observance, and they believe anything that thwarts those goals—such as causing war or unrest that would disrupt lives and prayer and scholarship—is forbidden.”—“Quietist Salafis are strictly forbidden from dividing Muslims from one another—for example, by mass excommunication.”—“Quietist Salafis believe that Muslims should direct their energies toward perfecting their personal life, including prayer, ritual, and hygiene….they spend an inordinate amount of time ensuring that their trousers are not too long, that their beards are trimmed in some areas and shaggy in others. Through this fastidious observance, they believe, God will favor them with strength and numbers, and perhaps a caliphate will arise. At that moment, Muslims will take vengeance and, yes, achieve glorious victory at Dabiq. [the place of that bloody final-days event] But…a slew of modern Salafi theologians…argue that a caliphate cannot come into being in a righteous way except through the unmistakable will of God.” [brackets added]. So at least there are Salafists who simply want to avoid bloodshed and simply live their regimented microregulated lives as “almost monks” and “almost nuns”.—That is a bit comforting though in my personal opinion it is a spiritually worthless lifestyle and endeavor, a truly misdirected waste of time and effort, concentrating more on form and not on important substance.
“The ultimate objective is simply to generate the maximal amount or rage energies and fear energies as the end in itself, like some sort of nourishment for the predatory satanic entity.”
What a fascinating thing to say. I am sure I have read something similar somewhere.
“So look around in the world today and in the past,—you find many examples of this!”
So, based on what you’re telling me, global terrorism in the modern age is simply a means of feeding human fear energy to demonic entities?
And all those people raging and screaming their guts out at football stadiums? I suppose sports stadiums must be crawling with predators. The Romans had stadiums too, like the blood soaked sands of the Arena in Rome. Were the Romans in cahoots with the predators then? Was the ancient Roman Imperialist War Machine the pinnacle of Satanic power at the time, like the modern USA is today? Is that why they call the USA, Great Satan?
And what about religious fervor, like in the ancient temples of Rome, and like all those Evangelical Churches in the US? Are you telling me that when those American preachers rile their congregations up into a frenzy, like we see on TV, what’s actually happening is a predator harvesting human emotional energy? Do the preachers know what they are doing, I wonder, or are they just fools?
Could it be that there is such things really happening in the world? But why doesn’t the media talk about it all and warn us? Could it be that Satan also controls the media? Does Satan want us all to be stupid and ignorant then?
“He said, ‘Assuredly I will take unto myself a portion
appointed of Thy servants,
and I will lead them astray, and fill them with
fancies and I will command them and they will cut
off the cattle’s ears; I will command them and they
will alter God’s creation.’ Whoso takes Satan to him
for a friend, instead of God, has surely suffered a
manifest loss.
He promises them and fills them with fancies, but there is nothing Satan promises them except
delusion.
Such men — their refuge shall be the Inferno, and they
shall find no asylum from it.”
– An-Nisa, 118-121
I always liked the Stoics. I have been attracted to them since I was a very young child. Marcus Aurelius, Julian, Epictetus, truly remarkable fellows. If I could go back in time, I think I’d choose to go and join the Emperor Julian’s legions in his Germanic campaigns. The Stoic philosophers believed it was of vital importance to control one’s emotions. I guess all of this explains why.
Every human emotional outburst is a massive ejection of energy, resembling a gas explosion, or a coronal mass ejection from the Sun. This loss of energy is why people feel tired after an emotional outburst. It is of crucial importance for creatures as fragile as us to conserve the little energy we have, and not go pointlessly throwing it around in fear and anger and hate, etc., and certainly we ought not to go around feeding any predators.
You should be very carefully talking about such things openly. The predators tend to really go after people who become aware of them. The insane-asylums are packed with people rambling on about demons using mind-control to harvest their energy, lost in schizophrenic states from which they rarely emerge. They are trapped in a kind of nightmare, and cannot return to our world, because the predators have singled them out for whatever reason. The predators are the true black magicians. I believe they are referred to as the Nephilim in the Book of Genesis, and some of them have been named and enumerated in the book of Enoch.
Enoch was the great grandfather of Noah, and he was a rare case of a mortal man who walked with the Lord. His book was excluded from the canon…for what I think are obvious reasons.
Book of Enoch, Chapters 6-8:
“1 And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto 2 them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men 3 and beget us children.’ And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear ye will not 4 indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’ And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations 5 not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’ Then sware they all together and bound themselves 6 by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn 7 and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And these are the names of their leaders: Samlazaz, their leader, Araklba, Rameel, Kokablel, Tamlel, Ramlel, Danel, Ezeqeel, Baraqijal, 8 Asael, Armaros, Batarel, Ananel, Zaqiel, Samsapeel, Satarel, Turel, Jomjael, Sariel. These are their chiefs of tens.
1 And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms 2 and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And they 3 became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed 4 all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against 5 them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and 6 fish, and to devour one another’s flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.
1 And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all 2 colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they 3 were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, ‘Armaros the resolving of enchantments, Baraqijal (taught) astrology, Kokabel the constellations, Ezeqeel the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiel the signs of the earth, Shamsiel the signs of the sun, and Sariel the course of the moon. And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven . . .”
…and then the Great Flood ensued.
Regarding the Salafists, if they truly live like monks and nuns, they will accumulate great energy, and become capable of great feats of understanding, and they will evolve. But then again, the Salafists can fast and pray until kingdom come, if they don’t have the inner knowledge of the spirit, or in other words, if they are not “filled with the spirit”, they may as well stick to trimming their beards and fixing their pant length,
either way, they will still miss the kingdom. As you say, they will just continue to be trapped in the ego, wasting time on attending to their appearance, with no heed to their essence and substance, the spirit within.
“Regarding the Salafists, if they truly live like monks and nuns, they will accumulate great energy, and become capable of great feats of understanding, and they will evolve.”
The accumulation of “great energy” does not guarantee which sort of energy.—The Daesh/ISIS Salafists burst out with great energy to do great mass murder and utter demoniacal craziness totally serving the real Satan and against the kingdom of heaven as taught and exemplified by Lord Jesus.
The Book of Enoch indeed was by Holy Ghost inspiration kept out of the authorized list, canon, comprising the authoritative Bible, for several good reasons it seems. One, that this book reflects a cosmology that the Earth is flat, there is no outer space but rather a solid firmament over us, and that overall we dwell in some sort of “God’s terrarium”. This cosmology very clearly goes against modern astronomical evidence and science. Granted, the good Lord did not download into the minds of those authors of possible holy books the knowledge of modern quantum physics or modern astronomy, that in fact we are hurtling through space at some 67,000 miles per hour as the sun pulls the Earth in orbit around the sun, and the sun itself pulls the Earth and the whole solar system in orbits as it hurtles through space at some 517,000 miles per hour, and is pulled by the center of the galaxy in an orbit which would take the sun some 230,000,000 Earth planetary years to complete, and solar winds blast the way for our solar system through space. All of that the Book of Enoch would directly contradict. Another reason to reject authority of the Book of Enoch is this whole anti-sexual stance, that the hallmark of angels who are fallen is sexual activity [whereas the good godly angels are depicted as sexless, or asexual, or anti=sexual]. This is a whole different problem, where some
of the early church fathers and apostles seemed to teach that sexual activity actually made people evil and led to violation of all ten commandments, led to the whole devil’s brew of murder, theft, robbery, lying, cheating, adultery, greed, strife, heresies, idolatry, witchcraft, and so on. So then Lord Jesus is raised as some sort of paragon of anti-sexual virtue, and all the bodily organs and functions pertaining to human reproduction come under the cloud of obscenity and defilement, as if God put some curse over all that.
And it is taught by personal statements of such as the apostle Paul that the human body is a major source
of sin and evil, something to be ashamed of and disgusted with, never decorated, never shown off, rather disliked and punished and nothing pleasant ever to be done involving the current disgusting unholy human body, the “flesh”. But I challenge anyone to really prove that sexually active people are overall bad due to their sexual activities, while sexually abstaining people are overall good due to their rejection of sexual activities. While I have not read all of the Book of Enoch nor studied it extensively, but from what I have read,
I take it to be one of those fancies and delusions mentioned in the An-Nisa surah, so just read it as the fantasy it is, but not any authority.
The Book of Enoch is an esoteric treatise, like the Egyptian Book of the Dead. It stands or falls based on its own merits, and does not need my advocacy here. It is a fascinating read, if nothing else.
Regarding sex, you are way off the mark, I’m afraid.
Amazonian shamans do not remain celibate their whole lives because sex is ‘sinful’, nor do they ever reprimand their tribespeople for their overall very liberal sexual behavior.
A shaman needs energy to be able to heal, or to be able to travel to other worlds like Enoch. He gets this energy by conserving his life force.
May I remind you that sex is a means of reproduction, and your Lord considers sex for pleasure a sin, eg. fornication.
I suggest you look into the cult of ‘sacred’ prostitution which rose in Uruk with the witch-goddess Ishtar. It was considered religious duty for all men in Uruk to go to the temple of Ishtar regularly and engage in fornication with the temple prostitutes. Simply another form of systematic energy harvesting.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1355835806065383 — “This paper considers sexual macrobiotic techniques of ancient China in their cultural and religious milieu, focusing on the text known as Secret Instructions of the Jade Bedchamber, which explains how the Spirit Mother of the West, originally an ordinary human being like anyone else, devoured the life force of numerous young boys by copulating with them, and thereby transformed herself into a famed goddess.”
The Spirit Mother of the West is in this context, none other than Ishtar herself, the original sexual vampire, which your Lord refers to as the Whore of Babylon.
Excerpt from the book “Sacred Sexuality” by A T Mann and Jane Lyle:
Ishtar’s sacred harlots belonged to an organized hierarchy, painstakingly recorded by the Babylonians. Her top-ranking priestesses were called entu, and wore special clothing to distinguish them from the others. Their caps, jewelry and ceremonial staff were the same as those of the ruler, and their status equal to those of the male priests.
The Babylonian naditu, ranking next in importance to the entu, were drawn from the highest families in the land. In dedicating their lives to the goddess they were supposed to remain single and childless. However, the naditu cheerfully ignored this stricture, and led full and active lives. They were bright and canny, with considerable business acumen: ‘They bought, sold and hired out; lent money and grain; invested, imported, exported, dealt in slaves, managed land and people, played fom the cloisters an essential part in the economy of the country. Beneath these women came the qadishtu (sacred women) and the ishtaritu, many of whom specialized in the arts of dancing, music and singing.
From snippets of information in classical literature, and certain artefacts, it is possible to surmise that these women demonstrated their sexuality by dancing a version of the sensuous, undulating belly dance which is still extremely popular all over the Middle East today. As Wendy Buonaventura writes of the dance: ‘… everything indicates a connection between birth mime, early creation dance and that which was part of goddess rites in the prehistoric world’. The dance is characterized by ‘snake-like and vigorous hip and pelvic movements, the manipulation of veils, a descent to the floor and the ritual wearing of a hip- belt or sash, which we can link with the girdle, Ishtar’s symbolic emblem’. In the Middle East this alluring dance is still performed by women, at all-female gatherings from which men are banned.In addition to the activities of the sacred temple whores, there were sacramental sexual initiations of a slightly different character. The Greek historian Herodotus (3 BC) tells us: ‘Babylonian custom… compels every woman of the land once in her life to sit in the temple of love and have intercourse with some stranger… the men pass and make their choice. It matters not what be the sum of money; the woman will never refuse, for that were a sin, the money being by this act made sacred. After their intercourse she has made herself holy in the sight of the goddess and goes away to her home; and thereafter there is no bribe however great that will get her. So then the women that are tall and fair are soon free to depart, but the uncomely have long to wait because they cannot fulfil the law; for some of them remain for three years or four. There is a custom like this in some parts of Cyprus.
Many of these women returned home to marry and have children. Later Sumerian texts, however, advised against marrying a fully-fledged temple prostitute since she would be too independent, ‘besides being accustomed to sccepting other men, she would make sn unsympathetic and intractable wife’.
Overall, the sacred whores were credited with transformative powers, as the myth of the wild, hairy Enkidu makes plain. The Epic of Gilgamesh tells how the semi-divine hero became so overweeningly arrogant that the other gods created Enkidu to steal some of his power. A hunter discovered this primitive being at a watering hole, drinking with the animals, and informed Gilgamesh of the trap. On hearing the news, Gilgamesh sent a ‘child of pleasure’ from the temple of love to lure Enkidu away. The woman disrobed ‘laying bare her ripeness’. This had the desired effect and the animal man was ensnared:
. . . and [Enkidu] possessed her ripeness. She was not bashful as she welcomed his ardour. She laid aside her cloth and he rested upon her. She treated him, the savage, to a woman’s task, And his love was drawn into her.
After six days and seven nights instructive lovemaking, Enkidu became an initiate – possessed of both ‘wisdom’ and ‘broader understanding’. The harlot then led him to the gates of the city, where he took up a new, more civilized, existence – his animal nature having been transformed by his intensely passionate encounter and his new-found knowledge of the arts of love.
The semi-divine hero Gilgamesh with a lion from an Assyrian stone relief (8th century BC)
I assure you, the arts of Ishtar and the Babylonian harlots was taught to them directly by those who have been named in the Book of Enoch, who are credited with teaching the first women how to use make-up to look more provocative
I quote again:
“And Azazel taught…and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all 2 colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication.”
Well, this whole narrative about the “sacred prostitution” with hints that it is something fundamentally evil
and demonic,—it is another devilish delusion, that somehow sexual activity of a man,—specifically with women, will drain and ruin his lifeforce and him, rather than stimulate his lifeforce and enhance his life.—This also becomes part of the justification that women should be kept quiet, ignorant and submissive,—as per personal teachings of the apostle Paul,—or kept under basic house arrest,—as in some current strict Muslim societies.
The Book of Genesis clearly raises the concept that the presence of this shame, disgust, antagonism between the man and the woman was the first consequence of the original sin,—and prior to this fall there was no shame between man and woman even as husband and wife being naked before each other.—Or, an imaginary story that an attractive sexy woman, a “harlot” helps change a man from being savage to being cultured and accomplished is itself opposite to a story about a “female vampire”—yet even that somehow
gets interpreted as something dreadful, that the regular man is naturally “savage” and requires the supposedly superior female influence to become “civilized”,—says who?
So let’s put something succinctly in perspective.—In ancient times, yes, there was prostitution which was considered “holy” in the Middle East. In modern times, it is warfare which is considered “holy” in the same
regions of the Middle East.—That’s great moral and spiritual betterment and progress indeed, isn’t it?
Regarding why Enoch was excluded from the canon.
Stories of heavenly beings mating with humans is not restricted to just the book of Enoch. In Greek mythology, we have Hercules, Achilles, etc, ie. Giants. In Persian mythology we have Keres Aspa (Garshasp) and his lineage including the “giant” Rautas Taxma (Rostam).
How does this reflect on Lord Jesus, who was also born from a human mother and divine father?
By the reckoning of the ancients, Zeus was equivalent to our conception of God. So, how is Heracles son of Zeus different than Jesus of Nazareth then?
Or is Heracles “satanic delusion” whereas Jesus is truth?
—
And regarding the Salafists, you missed the mark again. The energy we are talking about is not the calories required to lift a gun or chop a man’s heads off. The energy we are discussing is perhaps akin to what the ancient Chinese called Qi (Chi).
I tell you, what you are capable of perceiving and understanding is directly proportional to how much energy you have saved.
The way to save energy is by living an impeccable life, by following the commandments of your Lord.
The biggest drain on human energy is the ego and its outbursts.
Regarding sexual energy, some people have enough energy to have sex, some don’t. If you were conceived as a result of passionate lovemaking, you will have enough energy to have sex. If you were the result of just a quick bored fuck, then you won’t have the necessary energy to have sex, and having sex will make you feel very weak and tired afterwards, even depressed.
Having sex does not make you a bad person, and remaining celibate does not make you good. But if you want to have enough energy to perceive other worlds, like the visions of Enoch and others, you have to keep it in your pants, I’m afraid.
Now where did you get authority for those pronouncements, about who has or has not enough energy
for sex and under what circumstances.
They surely do not come from any of the Lord’s commandments that I recall, reflected in the Bible.—In fact,
in the Old Testament, technically, while adultery, sex outside of the married partners, is forbidden, there is actually no prohibition I know of “fornication” when no one involved is married.
That denunciation of “fornication” came from the personal feelings mostly of the apostle Paul who came from
the then current Pharisaic Jewish background and who followed an overall anti-sexual approach, like, sexual arousal led to demonic and evil inclinations, or he was concerned about sexual impulses going out of control.
And in fact emotions of anger out of control are even far worse than sexual feelings out of control.
Abstain or indulge with equal ease is the best way. And if you have a phobia about something even if the phobia gives the appearance of commonly accepted “virtue” like do not go to nightclubs, do not dance,
do not smoke, do not drink any alcohol, do not go for sports, do not participate in “secular” activities, but phobia against them makes you as much a slave to them as addiction to them.—In either instance, they control you and your life, instead of you being in charge.—People who are anti-sexual tend to be that way
based on anger, even murderous rages like in “honor killings”, which according to the morality of wisdom is worse than sexual feelings.
of wisdom.
———————
This subject is off-topic. Please, all involved, take this subject to the MFC. Thanx – Mod
As a US’er, I find it comical to watch the non-stop criticism/demonetization of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The 2020 election in the US gave American voters the ‘choice’ to vote for a fascistic conman from NYC, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, who throughout his circa 5 decades of ‘public service’, has been a dependable representative of the State, carrying water for the Pentagon, military contractors, large banks, insurance companies and Wall St. Biden’s fealty to the lords of corporate capital was readily apparent; the Biden campaign has received the majority of Wall St. donations, including Michael Bloomberg’s $100 million pledge to his campaign. Indeed, the financial elite have been not been disappointed as their wealth has increased >$1 trillion during the coronavirus pandemic. A similar appreciation of wealth has occurred in other Western capitalist countries. Enough said.
thus far iran has navigated its way through the zionist sanctions & aggressive desire to overthrow iran’s govt & gain access to its riches & location. with palestine, lebanon, syria, iraq, yemen all working toward the same end it seems logical the elite & clergy in iran would want to ensure it wasn’t diverted from the axis of resistance shared goal. we have witnessed the deranged empire’s many attempts in all of members of the axis as well as china, russia & belarus to foment & return ‘rules based’ regime.
So the election is arranged by the top powers.
The winner is already known.
The people then have to wait for ‘results’. For the masses of people they are waiting for an economy that creates prosperity and provides a satisfying life and a stable society.
This has gone on since 1979.
I have never thought that the Iranian model will succeed. The series of Presidents and the limits on civil development have proven too much of a yoke on the talents, genius and enterprise of Iranians.
2021—here we go again.
How is the Iranian economy doing? What sources are available?
https://newsmedia.tasnimnews.com/Tasnim/Uploaded/Image/1400/03/04/1400030414202611922850414.jpg — The ‘Magnificent’ Seven
Some random thoughts.
Larchmonter is right. The average Iranian person just wants the economy to improve. They could hardly care less about the election and the candidates. But I don’t know about any imposed limits on civil development.
Larchmonter is right again, that this election has been set up for Raisi to win. The Persian-language Western ziomedia set the last one up for Rouhani to win, so it’s only fair, I guess. If there was a single viable reformist (ie. neo-liberal) candidate in the mix, the ziomedia would get him elected again.
Iran is not in the habit of hijacking its own elections, I assure you. Khamenei genuinely believes in democracy, in its true Athenian sense, as the rule of the people over themselves.
https://newsmedia.tasnimnews.com/Tasnim/Uploaded/Image/1397/07/15/1397071513391431515594334.jpg — Personally, I wanted to see Saed Mohamad of the IRGC become President, but he was disqualified.
Ahmadinejad was disqualified last term as well. He seems to have a few bats in the belfry nowadays.
There is a message here for the JCPOA negotiators in Vienna: come June 18th, the negotiations are over, for good.
As an Iranian, and a human being, I am finding that I don’t care so much about the “Republic” or Democracy. I want a good guy running the country. If Khamenei thinks Raisi is the right man for the job, that’s good enough for me. Khamenei knows so much more than I do.
Personally, I don’t like Raisi at all. In fact, I don’t like any of the candidates. I think all of them are clearly imbeciles. But I must admit that none of the seven are bad people. They all have good hearts, which is more important than spectacular intelligence, I think. Too often, those with great intelligence become evil.
I just want to clarify again, that I believe the Iranian presidential election which brought Rouhani to power was blatantly hijacked by the Western media. I remember the propaganda campaign clearly today, eight years later. It was massive. Everyone in Iran was convinced that Rouhani was the Savior, even though Khamenei was endorsing other guys.
I think it is important for the Iranian establishment to demonstrate their power here by ‘hijacking’ this election. They ought to put their chosen man in the President’s seat now, first to show the people of Iran that the Establishment’s choice and Khamenei’s choice is better for them than the ziomedia’s choice, and second as a message to the West.
In all honesty, Rouhani’s administration of Iran makes him look like a Western fifth column element in Iran’s system, which he probably has been all along. He has done much damage to Iran internally, through absurd mismanagement.
I think it goes without saying that we are going to witness Raisi now begin to right all of Rouhani’s wrongs, vindicating Khamenei and the Iranian Establishment. The Iranian stock market has seen nothing but red days for over 6 months now. The stock market will be an indicator of Raisi’s success.
As long as Raisi takes the advice of the IRGC regarding foreign policy, I believe Iran will continue on its current trajectory in the region. And regarding domestic affairs, Rouhani has brought Iran down to rock bottom. There is really nowhere to go now but up.
Rouhani has created a bit of a minefield of banana peels everywhere to make sure the next government slips on them and cannot properly manage the affairs country. Just one example, Rouhani has recently stopped the import of many necessary items, and as soon as the next government takes office, Iran will be faced with a massive acute shortage of some daily necessities. He has created many hurdles for the next President. But the IRGC is aware of Rouhani’s efforts overall, and all the wrongs that he has done shall be undone soon.
iran has already made her choice by creating a credible drone and missile force to repel would be aggressors and she has signed a multi decade economic deal with china. the west no longer matters for the iranian economic future and is unable to attack for fear of suffering unacceptable losses.
at this point the jcpoa deal no longer matters to iran only to the west and since iran has turned east and north all they are doing is being polite in vienna while they run out the clock until mid june.
it is becoming apparent the world is bifurcating into 2 camps. one side has economic power, military power, innovation, motivation, education and a rapidly rising standard of living behind it while the other side has few of these attributes but does have for now anyway the dominant storytelling monopoly.
soon reality is going require storytelling to put up or shut up and then things get interesting. for the moment the world in the west still mostly believes in super heroes, super dooper tech, make a wish upon a star while the infrastructure around those inhabitants slowly erodes and crumbles.
since iran appears to have chosen the side which actually does stuff in the real world for all the people not just those at the top ….whoever becomes president as you say is now immaterial as long as he does not interfere with the course of history being set by eurasia where iran has thrown in its lot
The grinning clown. I always had a bad feeling about these weird liberals with triple passports in Iran’s government.
For the United States, a “free” and ”fair” election is where the US fields and funds its own candidate, like in Venezuela with Guaido.
there are a couple of very interesting comments on moa’s post on the iranian elections by a poster, Kirk Russell. kirk russell dissects iranian the political scene in an informed way with many insights rarely voiced in western media. i think most will find his comments worthwhile.
Russel Kirk commenting on MoA states in his third paragraph, “Additionally, there was another massive social unrest, again relating to the increase in the price of basic goods that occurred under Larijani’s watch in Dec. 2017, approved by Ra’isi and executed by Rouhani. Same formula, same disastrous outcome.”
Raisi was Custodian and Chairman of Astan e Qods e Razavi, from 2016 until 2019. Hardly a position from which to approve or disapprove decisions by the Parliament.
I stopped reading after I spotted the blatant propagandized lie.
Maybe in government all we can ever hope for is that the powermen behind the curtain have the peoples’ interest uppermost, or as close to uppermost as circumstances allow. Those men in Iran know first-hand what the Iranian people can do when they’re ready to act against an unrepresentative government. The Iranian people beat Savak and the cia combined.
This Iranian system would be a vast improvement over current western at-large voter democratic processes. Again, assuming the powermen care about the peoples welfare. We have powermen running that system and our own. Looks to me like the Iranian powers have the peoples’ interest more in mind than do ours, based on the menu of approved candidates.
If popular vote here in the west was about selecting one of eight, qualified candidates with different platforms, and if the powermen show that they will enable anyone that the free, popular vote endorsed, its likely that politics would have more popular support than it does now. It would be more legitimate. That system would lessen such grotesque carnivals as a Trump-Clinton race ot a Trump-Biden race.
So what if that system doesnt produce billionaires? All the better.
Go Iran go.
Tear up the IAEA agreement and liberate yourself. Throw the bas***ds out. Eight years of “yes sir Maser” is enough. No longer a signatory and have no obligation to criminal foreigners. You have nothing to lose. Nothing. Work based on nuclear ambiguity.
You will see how they will come crawling and give you your sovereign funds back. Otherwise you will not see a single copper penny.
Yes -totally agree ! The quicker Iran gets a nuclear weapon the best hope for peace. Israel will have to pull it’s rotten head in & change quickly to survive.
I have always counted on IRGC. Soleimani’s shadow will be TPTB big time nemesis.
“The IRGC are already in post-JCPOA mode, focused on the Iran-China strategic deal and wider Eurasia integration alongside Russia and China based on a perfect candidate to become the next Iranian president.”
Iran should focus on the EU members who are signatory to the JCPOA and give the US a miss. Not allowing the US to get back in would be in Iran’s best interest then the EU members have to comply with the JCPOA or they pull out; either way it is no loss to Iran. US with the EU have violated an agreement under the UN umbrella so why flog a dead horse; keep the EU/US at arms’ length.
I hope Iran would focus on Eurasia, not EU….nothing can come out from the old continent! Russia, China and Eurasia are the future economically, technologically, and politically.
The article is very insightful about the current government in Iran. The whole presidential elections are nothing
but rubbish window dressing,—like perhaps elections are in other countries as well.
Khameini is the undisputed “leader”—he is really the caliph. Iran is not an “Islamic Republic” It is a caliphate.
Pure and simple.
This type of Islamic society is a proud warrior culture which regards the total warfare of annihilation as glorious and heroic,—and peaceful existence as decadent. Values like these prevailed in Europe back in the 19th century and led to European self-annihilation for practical purposes, during the two world wars.
There has always been something remarkably strange about human behavior, that humans largely, dominantly behave like stupid gladiators inside an arena, just fighting endlessly to generate maximum amounts of rage energies and fear energies, and for the benefit of who or what.—In nature, sometimes, you have a predator which does not necessarily attack, kill and eat the prey immediately but rather does something to the prey to make it behave contrary to its own interests and survival but rather in a way beneficial to the predator. Such things do not happen overtly among vertebrate animals but do happen quite overtly among some invertebrates. You might google “zombie animals” to get an idea.
So among humans, since recorded history, we have endless warfare and various forms of violence and strife. The only constant is the generation of rage and fear as emotional energies, superabundant, perhaps some form of “nourishment” for “something” which sets up the whole scenario.
@ Anonymous
You start with useless bits of agreement to ingratiate yourself with the readers, (Please do not insult fellow posters.It violates the blog rules,MOD) You wrote:
This type of Islamic society is a proud warrior culture which regards the total warfare of annihilation as glorious and heroic,—and peaceful existence as decadent. The real power of Iran is not its military, but in civilizing and assimilating the many peoples who found themselves at this crossroad in Asia, and this has been going on for several thousand years. As it has also, BTW, been the case in Syria.
You are projecting your own “warrior culture” onto others.
Of course, Iran or Persia has a very long history and its original culture and religion were Zoroastrian not at all Islamic. Furthermore, the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus or more correctly Kurush, did not seek to “assimilate” the many peoples
in the Middle East of that time but declared his intent to respect all of the local languages, cultures and religions.
Unfortunately, his successors, later on, moved toward a slave empire model, as exemplified by the recorded statement by Artemisia to Great King Xerxes correctly Khashayarsha, that everyone, even his highest general Mardonius, counted as merely chattel-property-slave of the great king.
“The IRGC couldn’t care less: they are already in post-JCPOA mode. Focused on the Iran-China strategic deal”.
This is another sign that the US and its sanctions are becoming less relevant if not outright irrelevant in the new multi-polar political-economic world.
The reality will hit when the US economy crashes.
But in the meantime, the world must figure out how to tame its rogue military.
A simple return to the status quo ante has always seemed unlikely.
–To begin with, Iran and its economy has taken a hit of hundreds of billions ($). Are they supposed to shrug their shoulders? Will there be reparations?
–The US is never going to stop their kvetching about missile technology and undetectable nuclear technology. It’s not about a deal but about imposing obeisance.
–How could there ever be enough trust after what has happened to enter an agreement?
On the orders of the Zionist crime syndicate (Adelson, Netanyahu et al.) which brought Trump into the WH, the USA exited the JCPOA and thereby – in the absence of a victorious military air campaign against Iran – cornered themselves. Meanwhile Iran’s military and political potential have increased considerably. The sanctions don’t bite much any more because there is the treaty with China. These stupid sanctions are only to the detriment of the European lap dogs. I believe it would be of no benefit to Iran to have the JCPOA reinstalled. Nevertheless Iran uses the opportunity of the Vienna negotiations to expose the duplicity and unreliability of the “West”.
If Israel has the nukes, Iran must have them too, that’s a given for the Ayatollahs. Realpolitik!
realistically… to be expected…
The times they are a’changing and I don’t rule out Ahmadinejad.
People power is getting stronger, whether one likes it or not.
“The #JCPOA Participating States (without #Iran) met today with the #US delegation. We exchanged views on the current states of affairs at the Vienna talks with special emphasis on implementation aspects of a future agreement which is at an advanced stage of elaboration.” — tweet from Mikhail Ulyanov yesterday
Apparently, the current state of the negotiations is that the US has agreed to lift all sanctions on Iranian oil, petrochemical, central bank, etc., but does not wish to remove sanctions which have been placed on particular individuals, such as IRGC officers and affiliates.
If Raisi becomes President now, there is a very real possibility that Iran will ask IAEA inspectors to leave. From the levels of enrichment and the amounts stockpiled, which the IAEA is currently reporting, one can draw the straightforward conclusion that Iran is very close to what it would need to build a bomb. Iran could have its first bomb within a matter of a few short months (even sooner?) after the IAEA cameras go dark. How would the US and Israel then know whether Iran has actually built one? Perhaps Iran will build many bombs and then deny it. Or perhaps they won’t build even a single bomb, but adopt an ambiguous position.
Either way, it doesn’t change Iranian military deterrence power. A war with Iran will automatically spill over into Israel now, from Gaza. This is the most powerful deterrent.
In other news, Iran is experiencing a historic drought this year, coupled with substantially higher than normal temperatures. 38° C already in May, we are expecting summer temperatures above 50° C this year, above 60° in Khuzestan.. This kind of heat means people will be running ACs at unprecedented levels, which they already are, which puts a lot of pressure on the power grid. The dams are all empty because of drought, so hydroelectricity can’t be relied on this year.
Already, there are planned power outages to mitigate the load every day. And a populace asking why Rouhani stopped Iran from getting nuclear power for eight years, and for whose benefit?
The next government of Iran will be called upon to get a nuclear power plant running immediately, out of dire necessity.
@Anonymous (the one who wrote): “The next government of Iran will be called upon to get a nuclear power plant running immediately, out of dire necessity.”
I have nothing against modern nuclear power technology, a physicist friend of mine says thorium is reasonably safe. But since you are in Iran, can you tell us why Iran does not buy cheap solar panels from China. From what you say about temperatures of 50-60C, Iran has plenty of sunshine.
Mastering nuclear fission is the first step towards mastering fusion.
Fusion is the ultimate source of energy in the universe, in the sun and the stars, and it is the ultimate energy source for a civilization.
Fusion is clean, and mastering it will mean practically free and endless energy and electricity for the human race. To begin a fusion chain-reaction cycle, the massive energy from fission is necessary to ignite the reaction.
I do not know why the Iranian government does the things it does, Dr. There is wind and solar power in Iran. A simple Google could have revealed that. A quick glance reveals that they are not nearly as effective as nuclear fission, let alone fusion.
There is some powerful lobby in the world today, working against the achievement of a nuclear fusion reactor. I remember the first time I learned about the concept in grade seven, I thought it was strange that nobody was making it happen. Decades have gone by, and the situation on that front remains the same.
Iran has zero transnational corporate presence, not even a single McDonald’s. I want to see Iran, free from the nuisance of these nameless corporate lobbies, build a nuclear fusion power plant.
Achieving a stable fusion reactor, and using it to power human civilization, will be a great milestone, like the discovery of Iron. It will mark the beginning of a new age.
“Iran has not even a single McDonald’s.”
And they used to call Australia the Lucky Country!
I’d like to take a poll because it may highlight just how far the world has fallen in such a short space of time!!
Approximately 3 or more years ago I commented essentially along the lines of Islamic Eschatology, that the most likely outcome of geopolitics in the world would be a large (960,000 troops under 80 banners) US or “Roman” lead coalition invasion landing in Southern Turkey/Northern Syria. I speculate the thinking at least at some level maybe to topple Iran, Syria and Lebanon in one go and undermine the axis of resistance plus perhaps undermine the emerging China/Russia economic block . The reply I got was that the US wouldn’t be that crazy.
Who still thinks America/Zio/Neocon aren’t that crazy??
There are several different Sunni hadith narrations on this matter. Also when they refer to Rome they’re talking about Byzantine Rome. This’s one narration.
“Count six signs that indicate the approach of the Hour: my death, the conquest of Jerusalem, a plague that will afflict you (and kill you in great numbers) as the plague that afflicts sheep, the increase of wealth to such an extent that even if one is given one hundred Dinars, he will not be satisfied; then an affliction which no Arab house will escape, and then a truce between you and Bani Al-Asfar (Offspring of yellow i.e. the Romans/Byzantines) who will betray you and attack you under eighty flags. Under each flag will be twelve thousand soldiers. [Sahih al-Bukhari 3176]
https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3176
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to the IAEA, has stated that this current round of JCPOA restoration negotiations, which is the fifth round so far, will be the last round.
Whatever is going to be decided will be decided in the next few days, it seems.
Araghchi, while upbeat about the negotiations, has stated that there are still a few important points on which no agreement has been reached. Araghchi, who is Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, says he believes all parties at the negotiations genuinely seek an agreement.
Will the US fold?
A new reality on the ground will become apparent once the dust settles in Jizan. How much will this affect the negotiations, I wonder.