Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Werewolves - A Month In Review

Wow - March is coming to a close.  I can't even believe it.  It's been a wild ride.  The weather has been insane and the time has flown by.  We had a wonderful time at Just Another Paranormal Monday sharing some of our favorite Werewolves and discuss alot of interesting facts and features.  There was a ton of information that shared and learned.  If you missed it here is a quick catch-up:

Lychanthropy:

Lycanthropy is the professed ability or power of a human being to transform into a wolf, or to gain wolf-like characteristics. The term comes from Greek Lykànthropos, lykos ("wolf"), ànthrōpos ("human"). The word lycanthropy is sometimes used generically for any transformation of a human into animal form, though the precise term for that is technically "therianthropy". Sometimes, "zoanthropy" is used instead of "therianthropy".




The word has also been linked to Lycaon, a king of Arcadia who, according to Ovid's Metamorphoses, was turned into a ravenous wolf in retribution for attempting to serve human flesh (his own son) to visiting Zeus in an attempt to disprove the god's divinity.

A more modern use of the word is in reference to a mental illness called lycanthropy in which a patient believes he or she is, or has transformed into, an animal and behaves accordingly. This is sometimes referred to as clinical lycanthropy to distinguish it from its use in legends.


Monday, March 5, 2012

Angels & Demons - a month in review

Angels & Demons - a month in review


We featured Angels & Demons for the month of February over at Just Another Paranormal Monday so if you missed all of the amazing author features, posts and research -- here's a recap:

The Seven Archangels:
The word archangel derives from the Greek archángelos, (or arkhangelos), meaning chief angel. So we can conclude that archangels are in charge of other angels and/or cosmic activities. Archangels are, in a way, celestial captains - high-ranking divine officials so to speak.
In medieval Christian angelology, archangels belonged to one of the nine orders of angels. Interestingly, according to this angel hierarchy archangels are one of the lower orders, just slightly above the angels.
How many archangels are there? The answer depends on who you ask. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, only recognizes three archangels: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. The Coptic Church recognizes Uriel as the fourth archangel. The Coptic tradition also venerates Aniel, Sarathiel and Zadakiel as archangels.
Because Michael is the only archangel mentioned by name in the Bible (in fact, he’s the only angel addressed as "the archangel"), Protestant Christians believe he is the only archangel.
The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates seven archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Barachiel, Jegudiel, and Selaphiel.
The Seven Archangels
The 7 archangels are first mentioned as a group in the Book of Enoch. Here they were listed as Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Raguel, Remiel and Saraqael.
In medieval times, Pseudo-Dionysius would give a new list of the archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Chamuel, Jophiel, and Zadkiel. Metaphysical teachers and New Age mystics also recognize these as being the seven archangels who work on the seven rays.