159th anniversary Tagore vs Einstein: One of the most important historical discussion about religion and science

Credit: wikipedia

Updated 11/05/2020

Rabindranath Tagore's 159th anniversary: Why Bengal prays to a poet

For Bengalis, Tagore's birth date in the Western calendar shifts every year, just like it does for holy festivals—the poet is celebrated like a god

Rabindra Jayanti 2020: Know Interesting Facts From Rabindranath 

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On July 14, 1930, Albert Einstein welcomed into his home on the outskirts of Berlin the Indian philosopher, musician, and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. The two proceeded to have one of the most stimulating, intellectually riveting conversations in history, exploring the age-old friction between science and religion. Science and the Indian Tradition: When Einstein Met Tagore (public library) recounts the historic encounter, amidst a broader discussion of the intellectual renaissance that swept India in the early twentieth century, germinating a curious osmosis of Indian traditions and secular Western scientific doctrine.

The following excerpt from one of Einstein and Tagore’s conversations dances between previously examined definitions of science, beauty, consciousness, and philosophy in a masterful meditation on the most fundamental questions of human existence.

EINSTEIN: Do you believe in the Divine as isolated from the world?

Rabindranath Tagore Biography & Facts Britannica

TAGORE: Not isolated. The infinite personality of Man comprehends the Universe. There cannot be anything that cannot be subsumed by the human personality, and this proves that the Truth of the Universe is human Truth.

I have taken a scientific fact to explain this — Matter is composed of protons and electrons, with gaps between them; but matter may seem to be solid. Similarly humanity is composed of individuals, yet they have their interconnection of human relationship, which gives living unity to man’s world. The entire universe is linked up with us in a similar manner, it is a human universe. I have pursued this thought through art, literature and the religious consciousness of man.

Rabindranath Tagore: Friendship and love The Economic Times

EINSTEIN: There are two different conceptions about the nature of the universe: (1) The world as a unity dependent on humanity. (2) The world as a reality independent of the human factor.

Albert Einstein walking on down the street Pinterest

TAGORE: When our universe is in harmony with Man, the eternal, we know it as Truth, we feel it as beauty.

Tagore Translation Deemed Racy Is Pulled From Stores in China The New York Times

EINSTEIN: This is the purely human conception of the universe.



TAGORE: There can be no other conception. This world is a human world — the scientific view of it is also that of the scientific man. There is some standard of reason and enjoyment which gives it Truth, the standard of the Eternal Man whose experiences are through our experiences.

EINSTEIN: This is a realization of the human entity.

TAGORE: Yes, one eternal entity. We have to realize it through our emotions and activities. We realized the Supreme Man who has no individual limitations through our limitations. Science is concerned with that which is not confined to individuals; it is the impersonal human world of Truths. Religion realizes these Truths and links them up with our deeper needs; our individual consciousness of Truth gains universal significance. Religion applies values to Truth, and we know this Truth as good through our own harmony with it.

Rabindranath with Einstein in 1930 Credit: wikipedia

EINSTEIN: Truth, then, or Beauty is not independent of Man?

TAGORE: No.

EINSTEIN: If there would be no human beings any more, the Apollo of Belvedere would no longer be beautiful.

TAGORE: No.

EINSTEIN: I agree with regard to this conception of Beauty, but not with regard to Truth.

TAGORE: Why not? Truth is realized through man.

EINSTEIN: I cannot prove that my conception is right, but that is my religion.consciousness, and philosophy

TAGORE: Beauty is in the ideal of perfect harmony which is in the Universal Being; Truth the perfect comprehension of the Universal Mind. We individuals approach it through our own mistakes and blunders, through our accumulated experiences, through our illumined consciousness — how, otherwise, can we know Truth?

EINSTEIN: I cannot prove scientifically that Truth must be conceived as a Truth that is valid independent of humanity; but I believe it firmly. I believe, for instance, that the Pythagorean theorem in geometry states something that is approximately true, independent of the existence of man. Anyway, if there is a reality independent of man, there is also a Truth relative to this reality; and in the same way the negation of the first engenders a negation of the existence of the latter.

TAGORE: Truth, which is one with the Universal Being, must essentially be human, otherwise whatever we individuals realize as true can never be called truth – at least the Truth which is described as scientific and which only can be reached through the process of logic, in other words, by an organ of thoughts which is human. According to Indian Philosophy there is Brahman, the absolute Truth, which cannot be conceived by the isolation of the individual mind or described by words but can only be realized by completely merging the individual in its infinity. But such a Truth cannot belong to Science. The nature of Truth which we are discussing is an appearance – that is to say, what appears to be true to the human mind and therefore is human, and may be called maya or illusion.

EINSTEIN: So according to your conception, which may be the Indian conception, it is not the illusion of the individual, but of humanity as a whole.

TAGORE: The species also belongs to a unity, to humanity. Therefore the entire human mind realizes Truth; the Indian or the European mind meet in a common realization.

EINSTEIN: The word species is used in German for all human beings, as a matter of fact, even the apes and the frogs would belong to it.

TAGORE: In science we go through the discipline of eliminating the personal limitations of our individual minds and thus reach that comprehension of Truth which is in the mind of the Universal Man.

EINSTEIN: The problem begins whether Truth is independent of our consciousness.

TAGORE: What we call truth lies in the rational harmony between the subjective and objective aspects of reality, both of which belong to the super-personal man.

EINSTEIN: Even in our everyday life we feel compelled to ascribe a reality independent of man to the objects we use. We do this to connect the experiences of our senses in a reasonable way. For instance, if nobody is in this house, yet that table remains where it is.

TAGORE: Yes, it remains outside the individual mind, but not the universal mind. The table which I perceive is perceptible by the same kind of consciousness which I possess.

EINSTEIN: If nobody would be in the house the table would exist all the same — but this is already illegitimate from your point of view — because we cannot explain what it means that the table is there, independently of us.

Our natural point of view in regard to the existence of truth apart from humanity cannot be explained or proved, but it is a belief which nobody can lack — no primitive beings even. We attribute to Truth a super-human objectivity; it is indispensable for us, this reality which is independent of our existence and our experience and our mind — though we cannot say what it means.

TAGORE: Science has proved that the table as a solid object is an appearance and therefore that which the human mind perceives as a table would not exist if that mind were naught. At the same time it must be admitted that the fact, that the ultimate physical reality is nothing but a multitude of separate revolving centres of electric force, also belongs to the human mind.

In the apprehension of Truth there is an eternal conflict between the universal human mind and the same mind confined in the individual. The perpetual process of reconciliation is being carried on in our science, philosophy, in our ethics. In any case, if there be any Truth absolutely unrelated to humanity then for us it is absolutely non-existing.

It is not difficult to imagine a mind to which the sequence of things happens not in space but only in time like the sequence of notes in music. For such a mind such conception of reality is akin to the musical reality in which Pythagorean geometry can have no meaning. There is the reality of paper, infinitely different from the reality of literature. For the kind of mind possessed by the moth which eats that paper literature is absolutely non-existent, yet for Man’s mind literature has a greater value of Truth than the paper itself. In a similar manner if there be some Truth which has no sensuous or rational relation to the human mind, it will ever remain as nothing so long as we remain human beings.

EINSTEIN: Then I am more religious than you are!

TAGORE: My religion is in the reconciliation of the Super-personal Man, the universal human spirit, in my own individual being.


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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Brainpickings . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

10 Ancient Religions That Are Still Followed Today including: The Church Of Thor And Odin,Zoroastrianism,Tu’er Shen,Pagans Of Russia,followers Of The Greek Gods,Nahua Aztec religion and more.

"Atlantean figures" from the Nahua culture of the Toltecs at Tula. photo: wikipedia.org

Updated 23/04/2020

10 Ancient Religions That Are Still Followed Today

10 Asatruarfelagid . The Church Of Thor And Odin. 

9 Zoroastrianism. The Oldest Monotheistic Religion.

8 Tu'er Shen. The Chinese God Of Homosexuality.

7 Mari. The Pagans Of Russia.

6 The Return Of The Hellenes. Follower Of The Greek Gods.

5 Nahua. The Last Aztecs.

4 Romuva. The Religion Hidden For 1,000 Years.

The old beliefs have changed. Ancient religions have had to adapt to a new world and, in many cases, barely resemble the faiths that once covered the world. To their followers, though, they still have meaning, and connect them to a part of the world that’s been left behind.


10 Asatruarfelagid
The Church Of Thor And Odin

Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and other members of Ásatrúarfélagið walk to a blót at Þingvellir in the summer of 2009. photo: wikipedia.org

A church called Asatruarfelagid has been building up followers to bring back the worship of Thor and Odin. It’s bigger than you might imagine—currently, they had 2,400 followers. They even opened their own shrine, a circular temple overlooking Reykjavik. There, ordained priests of Nordic religion host weddings, funerals, and ancient rituals.

The Ásatrú graveyard in Reykjavík photo: wikipedia.org

Their rituals are a bit different from how the Vikings did it. For one thing, they don’t sacrifice children anymore. They do, however, hold craft nights and social get-togethers that are a great way to make new friends. Oh, and they give out a lot of free coffee and snacks. 

Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson at a blót in 1991 photo: wikipedia.org

The new religion has little in common with the vicious pagan beliefs that inspired it. To the followers, though, it’s more about connecting to their culture than about believing in ancient myths. They see the myths as “poetic metaphors,” not as something to be taken literally, and their worship as a celebration of the culture they came from.


9 Zoroastrianism
The Oldest Monotheistic Religion

Sadeh in Tehran, 2011) photo: wikipedia.org

Zoroastrianism has been traced back to the sixth century BC, and it’s been called the first monotheistic religion on earth. The faith has never been completely wiped out, but it’s certainly not as strong as it once was. 

Parsi Navjote ceremony (rites of admission into the Zoroastrian faith) photo: wikipedia.org

They don’t believe in evangelizing or converting others over to their faith, and so its followers have whittled down. Today, there only 190,000 left, most of them in India and Iran.

Faravahar (or Ferohar), one of the primary symbols of Zoroastrianism, believed to be the depiction of a Fravashi (guardian spirit) photo: wikipedia.org

They still keep their faith alive by holding religious classes and celebrations and by sharing ancient poetry. They also do their best to keep a fascinating burial ritual intact: sky burials. Dead Zoroastrians are not supposed to contaminate the earth with their bodies. 

A scene from the Hamzanama where Hamza ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib Burns Zarthust’s Chest and Shatters the Urn with his Ashesphoto: wikipedia.org

Instead, they are to be left in funerary towers where vultures are free to eat their remains.Today, though, there is only one funerary tower left in the world, located in Yazd, Iran. And so the body of a Zoroastrian who wants to be buried according to his faith has to make a long trek from wherever they may live to Iran.


8 Tu’er Shen
The Chinese God Of Homosexuality

According to legends, Tu’Er Shen started life as a mortal man named Hu Tianbao, who fell in love with a man above his station. Hu Tianbao was too afraid to speak to the object of his affections and instead secretly spied on him in the bath. He was caught. The man he loved, enraged, beat Hu Tianbao to death.

According to Zi Bu Yu (子不語), a book written by Yuan Mei (袁枚, a Qing dynasty writer), Tu Er Shen (兔兒神 or 兔神) was a mortal man called Hu Tianbao photo: antinousgaygod.blogspot.com

A month later, Hu Tianbao came to another man in his dreams, now in the form of a rabbit. He had become the god of same-sex lovers, he announced, and needed mortal men to build his shrine. Soon, it evolved into a whole religion dedicated to Tu’Er Shen—until the government stamped it out on charges of being a “licentious cult.”Today, a Taoist priest is trying to bring Tu’Er Shen back. 

photo: antinousgaygod.blogspot.com

He believes that homosexual Taoists need a god for their prayers, and so he has built a shrine to the rabbit god of homosexuality. There, he officiates gay weddings and encourages people to pray for help in love.


7 Mari
The Pagans Of Russia

Mari orthodox monks and novices. 1894 photo: wikipedia.org

The Mari are a Russian ethnic group who, long ago, followed a pagan religion based on the worship of nature. Nature, they believed, was a powerful source of good that worked to help humanity—as long as humanity did not harm it.

When Christianity took over, the Mari were all but stamped out. Following their old faith became forbidden, but a few kept up the rituals in the cover of night. After midnight, they would go out to the glades and pray, risking detention and death if they were caught.Since the fall of the Soviet Union, they’ve been free to follow their faith in the open. 

Proportion of Mari in the population of Bashkortostan as of the 2002 census. photo: wikipedia.org

There are some, mostly in rural areas, who still practice the old rituals. It has been changed over time, though, working in several Christian traditions. Some of the worshipers still have pictures of saints up in their homes, and a few have been spotted unconsciously making the sign of the cross as they leave the grove


6 The Return Of The Hellenes
Follower Of The Greek Gods

Prometheus depicted in a sculpture by Nicolas-Sébastien Adam, 1762 (Louvre) photo: wikipedia.org

Since 1996, a group of people called The Return of the Hellenes have been trying to bring the Geek gods back. The movement started with a philosophy professor named Tryphon Olympios. Today, though, he’s gathered a whole number of followers and holds full Greek festivals. One is the Prometheia Festival, dedicated to the celebration of Prometheus bring fire to humanity. Whole groups of people, some dressed in modern clothes and some in togas, come out to celebrate. 

Prometheus Brings Fire by Heinrich Friedrich Füger. Prometheus brings fire to mankind as told by Hesiod, with its having been hidden as revenge for the trick at Mecone. photo: wikipedia.org

It’s not exactly the most historically accurate religion. For one thing, their key festival—the Prometheia Festival—didn’t exist in ancient Greece. 

Prometheus (1909) by Otto Greiner photo: wikipedia.org

And when the ancient Greeks made sacrifices to the gods, they usually didn’t place a few flowers and fruits on the ground—they butchered live animals.Still, to the people who follow it, it’s a way to connect to their past. “It’s going back to the roots,” one follower said. “It makes me feel the continuation through the millennia.”


5 Nahua
The Last Aztecs

The Aztec sun calendar is a circular stone with pictures representing how the Aztecs measured days, months, and cosmic cycles. photo: wikipedia.org

One of the surviving Aztecs groups, called the Nahua, are a blend of a lot of different indigenous tribes and believes, all mixed together to make something new. 

"Atlantean figures" from the Nahua culture of the Toltecs at Tula.. photo: wikipedia.org

Some of these people still use traditional healers, who treat their illnesses with herbs, incense, and sometimes even the blood of sacrificed chickens.They keep some of the rituals alive, too—although they tend to stick with ones that involve dancing and skip over the ones that involve human sacrifice. 

Number of Nahuatl speakers per state (Mexico only) photo: wikipedia.org

One ritual, the Dance of the Aerialists, has five men attached to ropes climb a very tall pole. One stays at the top, playing a drum and a reed flute, while the others leap down and let the ropes spin them around the pole. They make 52 turns around it, representing the 52-year cycle of the ancient Aztec calendar.


4 Romuva
The Religion Hidden For 1,000 Years

Romuvan ceremony photo: wikipedia.or

A thousand years ago, the Balts lived in modern Lithuania, worshiping fire as something sacred and eternal. Their tribes built sanctuaries upon the highest hills, where their priests protected an eternally burning fire.

The late Romuvan krivis (high priest), Jonas Trinkūnas, at 2009 feast of ancient martial arts Apuolė-854 photo: wikipedia.org

Each home had an eternal fire of its own, lit inside of a sacred hearth.The religion came back in 1967, while Lithuania was under Soviet rule. It was called the Romuva movement, a call to connect Lithuanians back to their roots. The Soviets didn’t like it—they tried to smother and extinguish it.

Žemaičių Alka photo: wikipedia.org

When the Union fell, though, they were once again free to practice their religion in the open.Today, Romuva has grown big enough that it’s now recognized as a “non-traditional religion” in Lithuania. It’s spread to other countries, as well. 

The official symbol of the Romuvan Church of Lithuania on a flag. photo: wikipedia.org

Congregations have opened around the world, some as far as Chicago, Boston, and Toronto.


3 Tengriism
The Religion Of Genghis Khan

Ai-Churek, a Tuvan shaman, during a ceremony at the fire in Kyzyl, Tuva, Russiaphoto: wikipedia.org

The most famous Tengriist is probably Genghis Khan, who stayed true to his Tengriist principles and granted freedom of religion across the land. 

Kurşun dökme (Turkey) photo: wikipedia.org

Today, followers use the religion to connect themselves to their nation’s past. It’s been revived as a way to create a national identity that resists the influences of globalization. But it’s still inclusive, and the followers often practice other faiths at the same time.One Tengriist, Dastan Sarygulov, says that his faith is technically not a religion at all. “It’s a worldview,” he says, “which has become a lifestyle.

Ötüken yïš is regarded as the residence of Tengri and capital city of Turks in Irk Bitig. photo: wikipedia.org

Followers of Tengriism don’t have a holy religious book, but they follow all the spiritual and moral commandments accumulated in major religions.”Another explains that he is “half-Muslim” as well as a Tengriist, saying, “I don’t fully follow Islam, I just partially follow some Muslim rituals.”


2 Nova Roman
The Modern Roman Pantheon

The flag of Nova Roma, based on the colours and symbols of the Roman Empire. photo: wikipedia.org

In the 1960s, a movement calling itself the “Roman Traditionalist Movement” sparked in Italy, fighting to bring back the traditions of their Roman ancestors—including the worship of Jupiter. The effort to bring back an ancient faith has taken a lot of different forms. 

Nova Romans performing a Roman religious ceremony in Aquincum (Budapest), 2008. photo: wikipedia.org

There are organizations all around the world with distinct ideologies, all starting their own movements to bring back the Roman gods. In the United States, the group’s called Nova Roma. They celebrate ancient Roman holidays and boast that they “try to be as historically accurate of a recreation of the religion as possible.”


1 Kemetism
The Pharaohs Of Harlem

Private altar of a practitioner in the Czech Republic, with a statue representing Thoth featured prominently. photo: wikipedia.org

The Egyptian gods are making a comeback in the last place you’d expect: Harlem. The religion is called Kemetism, taking its name from an ancient name for Egypt, and it already has thousands of followers.These people show up to ceremonies dressed in traditional Egyptian clothes. 

Eye of Horus photo: wikipedia.org

They have rules dictating what clothes they can wear on each day of the week. They even have their own school that teaches their ideology.To the Kemetists, this is a chance to celebrate their African ancestry. “The people who need it the most were taken away from Africa, taken away from who they are,” one Kemetist priestess says. “We aren’t meant to be in the projects. We are meant to be in the pyramids.”


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• Babylonian Mythology Gods

• Top 10 - atrocities committed in the name of religion including Forced Conversion to Islam, Aztec sacrifices, Inquisition or Roman persecutions

• 5 Myths About Christianity

Story source:


The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Listverse . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Six characters who have signed The Contract and sold their soul to the devil

Updated 11/05/2020

Urbain  Pact Deal Signed by Devil Wikimedia Commons

There had always been rumors about people who have sold their soul to the devil, and that especially Christian period, although pact with evil forces existed in all myths and cultures of the world. 

Financial success, beauty or ability to do special things have been labeled as supernatural powers obtained through a secret pact with an entity, how else than malicious In return, obviously the soul. Musicians, writers, artists of all kinds have often been accused of having signed a pact with the devil in exchange for their virtuosity, wealth or fame. In the following we present the stories of six such people, maybe the most famous in the business of souls sold and their disturbing experiences.

Urbain Grandier (1590 - 1634)

Portrait of Urbain Grandier photo: wikipedia.org

Urbain Grandier (born in 1590 in Bouère, died in Mayenne – 18 August 1634 in Loudun) was a French Catholic priest who was burned at the stake after being convicted of witchcraft, following the events of the so-called "Loudun Possessions". 

The circumstances of Father Grandier's trial and execution have attracted the attention of writers Alexandre Dumas, père, Aldous Huxley and the playwright John Whiting, composers like Krzysztof Penderecki and Peter Maxwell Davies, as well as historian Jules Michelet and various scholars of European witchcraft. Most modern commentators have concluded that Grandier was the victim of a politically motivated persecution led by the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.

Urbain Grandier is the name of that bind, perhaps the most notorious case of accusation and condemnation to death with the devil and witchcraft acts. Grandier was, as few would expect a priest. A Catholic priest in the church of Sainte Croix in Loudon, Catholic diocese of Poitiers, France. 

Diabolical pact

Pact in Backwards Latin photo: wikipedia.org

One of the documents introduced as evidence during Grandier's second trial is a diabolical pact written in Latin and apparently signed by Grandier. Another, which looks illegible, is written backwards, in Latin with scribal abbreviation, and has since been published and translated in a number of books on witchcraft. 

This document also carries many strange symbols, and was "signed" by several demons with their seals, as well as by Satan himself. Deciphered and translated to English, it reads:

We, the influential Lucifer, the young Satan, Beelzebub, Leviathan, Elimi, and Astaroth, together with others, have today accepted the covenant pact of Urbain Grandier, who is ours. And him do we promise the love of women, the flower of virgins, the respect of monarchs, honors, lusts and powers.
He will go whoring three days long; the carousal will be dear to him. He offers us once in the year a seal of blood, under the feet he will trample the holy things of the church and he will ask us many questions; with this pact he will live twenty years happy
on the earth of men, and will later join us to sin against God.
Bound in hell, in the council of demons.
Lucifer Beelzebub Satan
Astaroth Leviathan Elimi

The seals placed the Devil, the master, and the demons, princes of the lord.


Baalberith, writer.

Before, however, of his reputation as a man who dressed the monastic robe, Grandier was made known by his amorous adventures and frequent sexual scandals involving women from every social class, a veritable Rasputin of France. In addition, restive priest was also an ardent foe of the famous Cardinal Richelieu, the one against whom he wrote several pamphlets acidic whom he addressed public criticism repeatedly.

Dr. Johann Georg Faust (1480 -1540)

Ritratto del Dottor Faust photo: wikipedia.org

Because of its association with the legendary literary characters or influenced you, today is difficult to establish the real life character that existed in reality as the Faust.

 Most likely, Faust was born in Germany in Helmstadt, around the years 1480/1481. By the age of 30 years, Faust completes its studies in his native country and in Krakow, where obtained a doctorate in theology. 

Besides this mysterious character is distinguished by his abilities as a physician, alchemist, philosopher, magician, astrologer and filmmaker horoscopes.

In Cracow he met Martin Luther and Philip Melachton, Dr. Faust characters that links a strong friendship. Legend has it that the two have even witnessed him Faust pact that ended with the Devil himself. Rumors have been launched since the time of his life, so that the individual was fired from the University of Ehrfut where ancient philosophy teaches. It is said that it was time to recognize shadowy understanding that he had done. In a conversation with a Franciscan priest, Dr. Klinge, Faust would have confessed to have more trust in God than demons. 

After such a reputation, Faust is driven from academics and church and get to make a living selling horoscopes and trying to transform simple metals into gold by alchemical processes. Following an experiment unfortunate doctor is torn by an explosion. The medical report says the time his body was "mutilated awful" action interpreted as a sign of the devil who had come to take their reward. What followed you strictly literary talent of a Frank Baron, Marlowe, Ghoete or Thomas Mann.

Herman the Hermit and Codex Gigas (sec. XIII AD)

Codex Gigas photo: wikipedia.org

Herman The Hermit is a character as controversial as it is mysterious. The name is linked to the appearance on the cultural scene of the world's largest medieval document known until now - famous Bible of the Devil, Codex Gigas, and yet nothing, apart from a brief legend, does not speak of life who created the (improperly said) gigantic work.


Legend has it that somewhere in the XIII century, the Benedictine monastery of Podlazice (Czech Republic today), a certain priest Herman had committed a sin so hard that not even be uttered. 

Codex Gigas: The Devil's Bible photo: ancients-bg.com 

The colleague shocked that their rulers Benedictine monastery decided, by mutual agreement, the only penalty that Herman would have deserved it was edifying alive. Horrified by the prospect that I had booked an other monks, Herman would have begged in tears to spare her life. 

Instead, he would have followed to write a book one evening which will include all the teachings of the world's largest and most comprehensive book ever written. Astonished, the priests would have agreed to offer him the sinner still a night to prove what may. It was evening when Herman the hermit did, from what they say, a pact with the devil. In exchange for his soul, the devil would have written what remained in history as the Codex Gigas - Devil's Bible, and he would be saved from an agonizing death Herman.

Illustration of the devil, Folio 290 recto. Legend has it the codex was created by a monk who sold his soul to the devil. photo: wikipedia.org

Mysteries manuscript begin, however, until now. Weighing 75 kilograms and a length of about one meter, leathery skin codex required 160 donkeys to be made entirely. It takes at least two strong men to him could carry. Besides a version of the Bible in vulgar Latin, Bible filled with demonic images with a giant portrait of the devil, Codex Gigas also includes Etymologie Isidore of Seville, History of the Jewish historian Flavius ​​Joseph, Chronicle of Bohemia by Cosmas of Prague, many treated by history, medicine and etymology list of Podlazice monastery monks, a calendar with an obituary, a lot of hexes, spells and local notes. 

The entire document is written in Vulgar Latin and the last stop in the year 1229. notes in handwriting experts argue that by Codex was one more character and not, as was customary in the Middle Ages. It is curious that to achieve such a monumental document, it would have taken at least 30 years (meaning that Herman had written a row every 20 seconds and that would have spent a few hours each illustration). 

And yet, handwriting indicates that there is even the slightest change in writing or any sign of fatigue, changes inevitable for a man during so many years.

Codex Gigas: The Devil's Bible photo: photo: wikipedia.org

Another mystery surrounding the disappearance of Codex is the 7th pages of the original 320. No one knows where and when they disappeared pages, but rumors say that their absence is due just content that could seriously affect the Benedictine order. 

In addition, Devil's Bible has earned a reputation Plaza real bad, it bringing disaster on the majority of its owners, from mental illnesses, fires and destruction apparently without explanation. Currently, Codex Gigas is kept in the Royal Library in Stockholm, Sweden.

Niccolo Paganini (1782 - 1840)

Certainly few of you reading this material might think of the great Italian composer and violinist as an individual who has got talent following a pact with the devil. But a closer look shows that sources Paganini weather was not bad away from rumors and, moreover, he chose not to rebut ever. In fact, right from his birth in a poor family of a merchant lacks luck, his mother had a dream premonition in which i was told that her son will get the greatest violinist in the world it has ever known.

Following this dream, his parents did everything to fulfill the prophecy. By the age of 7 years, Paganini perfectly learned the secrets of mandolin and violin, which played the first tools. Up to age 11 she was beginning to show itself, because up to 13 years to be already known as a violin virtuoso. Up to 19 years began to compose his own music, and at age 23 already create works of tremendous value. At 27 and already had a huge audience wildly successful ... and rumors of collusion to assure such a fame already circulating on everyone's lips. Curiously, when asked whether such a rumor is true, Paganini replied nonchalantly: "How else do you think I could sing the way I do?"

Niccolò Paganini (1819), by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres photo: wikipedia.org 

Paganini's decline began at age 40 when he was diagnosed with syphilis. Weather empirical treatments, treatments that included mercury and opium, they practically destroyed health. Dressed always in black, pale, almost without any tooth, Paganini was only a shadow of the beautiful and talented young man who astounded Europe. People were convinced that Paganini now paying the price of which had given talent unnatural.


Robert Johnson (1911 - 1938)

Except for blues enthusiasts, few are those who know the legend of the singer colored with a meteoric ascent on the American music scene. Robert Johnson was born on a plantation in rural Mississippi in 1911. 

His desire most, since childhood has been to play the guitar and become a famous blues-man but apparently talent or leave seriously desirable in this regard. Then, in the teenage years, Johnson was advised to take their old guitar and disagreement of unsuccessful attempts to compose blues, and seek their fortune at midnight at a crossroads.

Robert Johnson photo: wikipedia.org

Even Robert says he did so at the crossroads near Dockery Plantation, where at midnight, he met a man solid color (Devil). It would have taken a few seconds the young guitar, would have granted it and would be linked to several agreements blues after that would be stretched guitar back. 

Covenant had been made. Robert Johnson sold his soul in exchange for his talent. And soon, Johnson became famous, one of the greatest blues singers in the history of the United States. His plays have come to influence musicians and famous bands, from Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Johnny Winter. 

Moreover, Eric Clapton said in a televised interview that Robert Johnson was "the most important blues singer that ever lived". The sign of the devil? Pure coincidence? Nobody will ever know. The fact is that Johnson died only at 27 years, poisoned, apparently, the jealous husband of a woman who had invited her to dance.

Robert Johnson - Hellhound On My Trail

Following his remaining six (figure predestined?) Albums of genius. In most there are songs that make reference to the encounter with the devil in the dead of night or canteratelui fears that he would be in hell.


The exact location of his grave is officially unknown; three different markers have been erected at possible sites in church cemeteries burial outside Greenwood.

Alleged gravesite with one of Johnson's three tombstones photo: wikipedia.org

Research in the 1980s and 1990s strongly suggests Johnson was buried in the graveyard of the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church near Morgan City, Mississippi, not far from Greenwood, in an unmarked grave. A one-ton cenotaph in the shape of an obelisk, listing all of Johnson's song titles, with a central inscription by Peter Guralnick, was placed at this location in 1990, paid for by Columbia Records and numerous smaller contributions made through the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund.

Jonathan Moulton (1726 - 1787)

Faust nicknamed Yank, Jonathan Moulton was, in fact, an individual that gave rise to many legends smack supernatural, that his influence beyond the actual historical events in New Hampshire, USA. 

Faced with material deprivation in childhood, Jonathan worked as an apprentice to a carpenter until age 19, at which time he left his job to join the militia of New Hampshire.

 In a short time he is appointed captain of a regiment of mountain hunters and, as such, carries numerous battles with Ossippe Indians, allies of France in Anglo-French war, known as the King George's War (1744-1748). This was noted by his acts of bravery and, as a reward, received a land stretched from the former territory of Indians Ossippe.


At war's end, Jonathan Moulton was married Abigail Smith, who was going to provide no less than 11 children. At that time, Moulton opened a small store and tried to put up a business and to import goods from Europe to North America.

Jonathan Moulton tomb photo: pinterest

His business, however, proved unprofitable one and material deprivation started to make their mark on the large families.

 It was when they started to appear Moulton legends pact would be concluded with the devil. The fact is that, for unknown reasons, spouses Moulton began to behave as if it never knew what poverty means. Money is no longer a problem and everything seemed to go smoothly.

Legend says that Jonathan would have sold his soul to the devil to get rid of extreme poverty that you press. In exchange for his soul, every day of the month, the devil should have them fill boots with gold coins. That is until Moulton, money-hungry laziness, he would come up with a clever idea. 

He cut a hole in the floor, over which he placed some huge boots without soles. Thus, no matter how gold could be poured devil coins would be drained directly into the basement leaving the impression that the boots have never made it. Devil understood, however, craftiness captain and, as a reward, her house burned to the ground and made it all the gold tight while the Moulton family disappear without a trace. 

Jonathan quenched in 1787. It is said that when his relatives wanted to open her casket, inside it has not found a bag with gold than with the sign of the devil himself. But skeptics argue that Moulton was buried in a grave with no name and no one knew where this place ever.


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