How Flowers Changed the World

In that moment, the golden towers of man, his swarming millions, his turning wheels, the vast learning of his packed libraries, would glimmer dimly there in the ancestor of wheat, a few seeds held in a muddy hand. Without the gift of flowers and the infinate diversity of their fruits, man and bird, if they had continued to exist at all, would be today unrecognizable. Archaeopteryx, the lizard bird, might still be snapping at beetles on a sequoia limb; man might still be a nocturnal insectivore gnawing a roach in the dark. The weight of a petal has changed the face of the world and made it ours.

The Immense Journey Loren Eiseley

Link

Integral Options Cafe

Integral Options Cafe offers a place to discuss all things related to a Buddhist, integral worldview. While theory is important (Buddhism, Ken Wilber, Spiral Dynamics, psychology, and Integral Theory), so is politics, art & poetry, human values, popular culture, and humor. William Harryman invites comments, different points of view, and anything that can add to a civil discussion of living in an integral world.

Link

Pandora

Can you help me discover more music that I'll like?

Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told Pandora their favorite artists and songs, explored the music they suggested, gave them feedback, and they in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that they were now their personal DJs.

They created Pandora so that they can have that same kind of conversation with you.

Link

Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz

The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459) was edited in 1616 in Strasbourg (annexed by France in 1681), and its anonymous authorship is attributed to Johann Valentin Andreae. It is the third of the original manifestos of the mysterious "Fraternity of the Rose Cross" (Rosicrucians).

Link

Secret Wisdom

All the major religious and mystical traditions have had exoteric teachings for the public, and deeper, esoteric teachings for those who have proved themselves worthy to receive them, in accordance with the old saying: ‘Live the life if you would know the doctrine.’

Link

Prisca Theologia

"What is Hermeticism?
"Whether or not Hegel can be understood as "Hermetic" depends on how Hermeticism is defined. ... Its adherents all tend to share certain interests -- often classed as "occult" or "esoteric"-- which are held together merely by family resemblances. In part, my argument for Hegel's Hermeticism depends on demonstrating that Hegel's interest coincide with the curious mixture interests typical of Hermeticists. These include Alchemy, Theosophy, Kabbalah, Mesmerism, extrasensory perception, spiritualism... Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Echartian mysticism, 'correspondences', secret systems of symbolism... and cosmic sympathies [astrology?].
"Hermeticism constitutes a middle position between pantheism and the Judeo-Christian conception of God." 8

Link