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Alter egos? Alter egos!



I have a confession to make to you, visitors of this website. Stíofán UaÉirinn and Al Debaran are "alter egos" of mine. What does that mean? It means that the Editor-in-chief, Stíofán UaÉirinn and Al Debaran are all the same person, whose full name is IJpe Wiechert van Dijken. A bit of research on the term “alter ego” gave the following result:

This Latin term, which literally means “other self”, does not come up very often in clinical psychology or psychiatry. While some mental health conditions do involve the manifestation of alternate personalities, clinical terms like “dissociative identity disorder” are usually preferred, as psychologists like to draw a clear line between psychology and disciplines like fiction and philosophy. And that is precisely what my alter-egos are: fiction, a kind of literary device. Examples of alter egos are, a character in a novel who works as a spy and has a cover job as an auto mechanic, or the super hero, as in many comics and movies, who creates an alter ego to protect friends and family from his or her real life. In my case, I have created these alter egos, to give expression to certain aspects of my personality that would otherwise be hard to present to you separately, the visitors of this website.


In Stíofán UaÉirinn I give expression to my love for my country of residence, Ireland, which I use to call "my island", just as Stíofán - pronounced as Steven - in the famous movie Braveheart, about the Scottish hero William Wallace, did. I call it not just "my island", but sometimes also "my emerald island".


In Al Debaran I give expression to my spiritual side, as this name is taken from the name of the star Aldebaran, which is the Arabic for “the follower,” which was given to it as it was presumably as a hunter following prey, which here likely was the star cluster we call the Pleiades. The latter was often viewed as a flock of birds, perhaps doves.

In my case, I am a follower of Yahusha HaMashiach, Who is generally referred to as Jesus Christ. I am in constant pursuit of the One Who pursuits me: my King, and my Saviour, Yahusha HaMashiach. He is my first love. He is the One for Who I am willing to offer up my life, because He was willing to give His life as a ransom for me. And for you!


In this way, in presenting myself in three ways, I wish to express all different sides of my personality. I hope you, the visitors of this website, can understand what I mean and why I do this. So, this confession is not meant to enable me to ask your forgiveness, but to clear up a situation that might be causing confusion.

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