Honestly though, with a rating of 500,000 Scoville it’s probably prudent to start off by just dabbing a sewing needle into it, and then stirring the needle in the drink to see how you like it.
There is no “direct” Knights Templar connection because it was mythology made up against them during their trial in France. Centuries later, the occultist Levi popularized the Baphomet image that we all know, drawing from various esoteric Christian sources including popular views of Templars, secret orders, and magical Christianity. From there, it came over to British occultism and was embraced by such figures as Aleister Crowley.
This is all fairly well documented and doesn’t require your speculations that are more outre. You’re making up new reasons where none are necessary.
(This area is a topic of interest to me, all the moreso because my Master’s Thesis is on the beliefs concerning the soul in 19th century British occult orders. You’re trying to tell your grandmother how to suck eggs, son. This is my area of academic work and I was required to spend a lot of time on literature reviews of 19th century occult beliefs.)
Yeah. I’ve had chili with that in it that a coworker brought to a company chili cook off and only after several people choked on it did he bother to mention he considers his chili a “condiment”. I kept mine down but felt it all the way through. It might be satanic but I prefer peppers as they have unique flavor characteristics on top of just plain hot.
Isn’t it strange and… I dunno, I hate to say ironic necessarily, that many of our most useful and tasty plants are only so useful and tasty due to their defense mechanisms?
Like capsaicin. It’s an evolved adaptation to prevent hearty-gutted mammals from eating the seeds, while leaving birds with their mild digestive capabilities unaffected.
I’m just dredging up what I remember from high school biology, and also repeating the pop sci.
I’m not particularly interested in horticulture. Just its products really. Heh, I learned my tetrapod physiology, and that’s when my concentration gave out.
Also based on the assumption that there is only one god and only one religion. You can quite easily end up in a wrong hell, and given that there are at least two mutually contradictory religions that doom every non-adherent to hell, you are actually guaranteed so.
And Marcus Aurelius* drinks Pascal’s milkshake up!
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
*or he may never have said this at all - the jury is out.
Fungus, insects, you fucking name it, it’ll come along and cause bloody havoc. Slugs appear inordinately fond of the ol’ devil’s lettuce (allegedly, natch). Thrips. Fucking thrips. Little bastards.
For what it’s worth, while it’s hard to measure the relative effectiveness of walking under a ladder from the background variation in people’s fortunes, and I’ve never signed this kind of contract, I can confirm that Bloody Mary in front of a mirror does nothing (at least, in the case of an ordinary non-haunted mirror).
You’re a braver person than me. The trick is knowing if you’re in front of a non-haunted mirror or the evil, demon-infested type. They can be very hard to distinguish between. (Though most dressing room mirrors seem to be the latter type in my experience.)