"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."

HIS IS HOW FA DISCIPLINARY HEARINGS WORK (CONT)

5pm, Friday December 19
Ferdinand is forced to stay at the Reebok to await his fate.

7.55pm, Friday December 19
To audible gasps, a grown man is banned from football for eight months because nobody led him by the hand, stuffed his tail into a cup, and shouted "tinkle time, Rio, tinkle time".

7.56pm, Friday December 19
To audible yawns, Mr Suit from Manchester United harps on about how unfair it is and why does everyone pick on poor little us and if you don't let us do as we like we'll scweam and be sick.

7.57pm, Friday December 19
Gordon Taylor of the PFA embarks on sponsored two-day non-stop yap.

Saturday December 20
Incessant chatter.

12midnight, Sunday December 21
Sunday newspapers publish extra sections to deliver verdict on "seismic rift" between powerbrokers at Manchester United and FA.

12.01am, Sunday December 21
World keeps turning.

12.02am, Sunday December 21
Manchester United threaten to take FA to court; FA digs heels in.

12.03am, Sunday December 21
World keeps turning.

12.04am, Sunday December 21
Alex Ferguson asks FA: "Do you know who I am?"

12.05am, Sunday December 21
World keeps turning.

4.05pm, Sunday December 21
Football match gets in way of main event; Rio manages to keep concentrating during whole 90 minutes for first time in over three years.

12.01am, Monday December 22
An upset Rio tells Sun newspaper he was "shocked and devastated" by ban. Top lip starts to quiver at fold.

12.02am, Monday December 22
Rio, who plans to appeal, says ban hit him "like a thunderbolt". Violently oscillating top lip caves in completely, causing concertina effect.

12.03am - 12.24am, Monday December 22
Top lip plays pleasant medley of sea shanties.

11.54am
Gordon Taylor demands an overhaul of something or other by the FA.
"Yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap," he says. "Yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap."

1.32pm, Monday December 22
Nike vow to honour Rio's GBP270,000 deal despite ban, possibly scenting free publicity. "He has been banned for a long time but we feel the decision is very harsh," says Mr Suit. "We are sticking by him and our thoughts are with him."

1.33pm, Monday December 22
Mr Suit block-books advertising time for campaign code-named 'Nike Manchester United Martyr Complex XXXVIII'.

Runecraft operates on an ancient form of psychology. Even back in Viking times, there was a remarkable understanding of the human psyche. They recognized cause and effect, and the interconnectedness of all things. The word to describe this interconnectedness was "wyrd", which was eventually perverted into the modern meaning of "weird". It did not originally mean something unusual or strange. Rather, it referred to the far-reaching effects of that which one does. The concept of "fate" was also not as we know it now. Instead of a helpless predestination, "fate" meant a destiny created by one's earlier actions. Wyrd was pictured as a web, like that of a spider. The symbology is excellent. When the spider steps onto a thread (a path) the vibrations affect the entire web and that which is contained within the web, just as our actions affect our immediate world and those around us, and the actions of others affect our lives.

When one does a runic reading, one usually addresses a particular issue, and examines the past, the present and the "future", or rather "what will be if one follows the path one appears to be on". The future is always perceived as mutable, changeable. The runic reading is done as an evaluation process, not as fortunetelling. One has an opportunity to look at what has occurred in the past (regarding the issue being questioned), what is occurring right now, and what direction one is headed.

A runecaster does not see the future. He/she examines cause and effect and points out a likely outcome.

Not exactly occult, is it? It's not supernatural and it's not very mysterious--although the uninitiated considered it a delving into mystery, much like a patient of a psychiatrist might. It's certainly not magical or demonic. Instead it is a methodology for examining the path one is on and what the effects might be, by making use of one's subconscious (i.e. an "intuitive perception"), unfettered by limited conscious belief systems.

Dowsing, or "divination" by bent stick or pendulum is similar. It is not supernatural. It is, again, a manifestation of one's subconscious. All "intuitive perception" is such. Nothing magical about it, merely a means of awakening one's right-brain.