What is Yule?

Yule or Yutilde is the celebration of the winter solstice, it was made by the Germanic people, between them the Vikings. In old Norse it was called Jul or Jol. It was a pre-Christian festival, in those days when the gods ran among the mortals. Yule festival had like duration 12 days. It was dedicated to the family,  absent friends, as to fertility, coincided with the winter solstice around December 21.

We don’t know exactly the dates between which it oscillates; for the Vikings this festival, with a duration of almost two weeks, it would have been probably within the final 2 months of the year.

It’s a celebration that is lost on the dawn of time, as the oldest references around this word, we can find it in the primitive German names that designate months of the year: Jeola meas “before Yule” and Aeftera Jeola “after Yule”

In Nordic ”ylir” would have referred to this period of time and Jol would have the event in concrete accorded for what we can find in Skáldskaparmal.

The celebration of the solstice isn’t exclusively Viking, with their variants many ancestral societies have celebrated the change of seasons, honoring the cycles of nature. Nature and the human being form a unbreakable join. The humanity imitated what they saw, loved it and feared it. They repeated it and honored it. And inside of this change Yule is the darkness.

It seemed that the sun took a break before starting the cycle again and for that reason the days of Yule were a moment of rest, an imitation of the sun, once the autumnal works finished and before Benning with those of the following year, it is for this reason that the festival was especially dedicated to fertility because good harvests and property were requested for the year that was about to begin and drank “til aar og fred” for peace and good harvests, a maxim in the Viking idiosyncrasy.

Celebration:

What was this celebration? As in almost all the celebrations that surrounded the life – and death of the Vikings. Yule was celebrated with a great sacrifice or blót to the gods, related to fertility, harvests and protection . Later a great banquet was celebrated where animals that had been sacrificed and the julskinka (the Christmas ham)

The Vikings also had a characteristic of their own for all kinds of celebrations, just as they could not miss the banquet nor could they miss the beer. These made special beers for different events (an example of this are weddings)
And in Yule/Jól, they drank the jólaö (where öl is beer) .

It seems that games and fun wouldn’t have been lacking, as well as another of the maxims of the Vikings idiosyncrasy, the hospitality. We have said that mainly Yule was a family party where they family met and where relatives and absent friends were remembered. In fact, before their graves and in their memory is whether banquet table was placed . For this reason, for this reason they stayed with maximum comfort and affection for those who came, always with the hands full of gifts, an action that would be compensated with hands loaded with gifts back, another Viking characteristic, giving and receiving, they were prepared steam baths to alleviate the cold of the boat trips, dru clothes with which to dress , fluffy beds, fire and , of course, food and lots of drink

Rituals :

It was the tradition of lightning the log of Yule, a large trunk from the previous year, which had to burn all night, it is an “indoor” of litha’s bonfire (the summer solstice, the San Juan bonfire) . It scared the evil spirits, it illuminated the whole evening of the reunion and the ashes scattered through the fields under the belief that they would become fertile and give good harvests for the following year. This tradition is of absolute pagan origin and can be found in many European cultures, not only in the Nordic. Today it is a sweet with a trunk shape, very similar aesthetically to a gypsy chocolate arm.

Yule goat:

The Yule goat. It is one of the Scandinavian Christmas symbols par excellence that today consists of decorating the houses with goat  made of braided straw but that probably goes back pagan times, even before the Vikings. the goat used to be the animal that carried the offering for the sacrifices and that in many occasions it was replaced by two dressed with the skins of the animal and and an antlers . It seems that eventually disguised as well become a tradition that was to walk around the town to make people laugh and scare. However, in its most primitive origins,this tradition must have been linked to the god Thor, a god that many only association with war or battles, but who was also the protector god of men, with influence on this climate, harvests, protection or justice. Thor was traveling in a car pulled by two magical goats called Tanngrisnir and Tanngjóstr , they had the peculiarity that Thor could cook them to feed and then revive Nordic-german  covering with skin and using the regenerative power of his hammer. In the nineteenth century the goat became the carrier of gifts in Scandinavia, probably as reminiscent of that goat that would have carried of offering,and eventually ended up deriving in the figures of Saint Nicholas or  Santa Claus, who in the Nordic countries are called Jultomten, Julenisse or Joulupukki.

 

Yule Boar:

Or the Christmas ham. It was an ancestral tradition of the Nordic-germanic peoples, as we have seen, to offer a blót (a sacrifice) to Frey, this has come to this day as the typical Christmas ham.A really curious thing in hoe the church adapted it and turned it into a test of authentic conversion and faith for the Jewish converts or the crypto- Jews, as the Jews who had converted but continued to practice their rituals were called , it would have rejected it, conversely, the converts or new Christians would have eaten it.

Wassailing/Wasselling :

It consisted of going from wassai to the town, derived from the Anglo-Saxon “waes hael” which means “be healthy” they went through the town toasting and singing with wassailing bowl, a wooden vessel with the threes and elements of nature in that celebration that asked for fertility and prosperous new year. With time it became the practice to go singing typical songs door, the Christmas carols, or to go singing to the orchards to ask for good harvests.

Yule tree :

A perennial tree was placed in the house, possibly a fir, which represented the Yggdrasil, the tree of life or the universe in norse mythology, which they decorated. More than likely here comes the tradition of the Christmas tree.

Others:

Carry our a night vigil, together with family and friends, in a large banquet and feast waiting for the new sun to leave,leave a candle lit next to the window or decorate the houses with mistletoe, which from the oak, a very appreciated and used by the Nordics.

Mabon: autumn equinox.

Mabon: it is also called harvest festival, banquet day, also known as vintage party, avalon party. Equinozio di autunno (strega). Alben Elfed (caledonios). The Teutons called it “winter search” The month of September was known in Celtic culture as: Haleng-Monath, literally, the holy month. Where they were offered libelations to the trees of the forest.  Also it is known as “chung chiu” in China., marks the end of the rice harvest. The Jewish harvest festival coincides with mabon; it was called Dionysiac festivals, in Rome, to celebrated the harvest of the grape and was celebrated drinking wine of the previous year, much as they could withstand before falling drunk.

It is believed that the name mabon derives from the mabon ap modron, a god-consort Wales (equivalent to cernunnos : wild god of the forest) . Others say that being a bearer of autumn,he could be could be a male version of persephone.

Mabon is the autumnal equinox, when day and night have the same duration, but all has a greater inclination towards darkness. Mabon is the time when the ancestral cultures are reunited to observe the nature, save their crops and prepare … because the darkness of the winter is coming . It’s  a holiday to thank for the crops, and honor the gods.

In mabon is celebrated the balance and the abundance. It is time to celebrate and thank the generosity and abundance of the land.  The godness (the female principle) and the light and energy of the sun (male principle) thanks to this principle and this universal union, we receive all the goods to creation of life-.Day and  night are equal, but the balance is tilted toward darkness, inactivity and decay. It’s the second harvest festival. The collection and storage of corn … The termination of harvests initiated in Lughnasasadth . Nature prepares for winter, and leaves begin to fall , it is time to rest. we are approaching the stage of death to be reborn.

 

Celebrate the resources  mother nature gives us  is crucial for all religions and all cultures, One of those astral coincidences that come from the root of the times. A good harvest was crucial in ancient times because in that depended the life of a people.

The legend of the pope Joan (855-857)

Have you ever heard about the legend of a pope woman?… It may not be new, you may have heard it many times. Myth or not, It is part of the enigmatic essence of the past mysteries that live even eternally.

 

Was real the pope Joan?

In the British Museum of London there is a famous engraving of the fourteenth century that decorated an edition of the work of Bocaccio “De Claris Mulieribus” and in which appears a pope, dressed in all its attributes, giving birth to a child.

This image corresponds to a story that first appeared in a chronicle of Jean de Mailly about the diocese of Metz called “Chronica universalis Mettensis”, although later it was reproduced and augmented during the later centuries, being the most famous version of the history the one reported by Martín de Opova (known as Martín “the polish man”) in his “Chronicon Pontificum et Imperatorum”

The story of Joan, The woman who deceived the vatican and  sat in the chair of Saint Peter.

The story tells in the 9th century, a woman was born in Maguncia (what today corresponds to German territory) who received the name Joan.  When she was still only a girl, Joan falls in love with a man whose future lies in studies and, therefore, in the Church.

It is said that she fell madly in love with him, and to follow him She disguises herself as a man, and in this way she begins in ecclesiastical studies. 

Joan soon surpassed her lover in intelligence, oratorical ability, and culture, and began to become an increasingly important character, coming to be regarded as the person who knew most of the liberal arts and sciences of her time and came to teach in Athens and Rome.

She was chosen cardinal and so much was the fame that had in Rome by her piety and her good customs that was chosen Pope. (according to the most extended version, after the death of Leo IV) unanimously with the name of John VIII. 

other versions tells: Joan was a very intelligent girl, and with longings to learn, nevertheless the instruction was only destined and exclusively for the men. In a misogynist society as it was and still is the Catholic church, it was absolutely forbidden that even a woman showed an interest in learning to read. Then she decides to hide  herself behind masculine clothes such as Jeanne d’arc.  In order to fulfill her goals, in a society that dreamed and played a role in politics, the weapon, the ecclesiastical world was exclusively for men.

Pregnancy … an unexpected ecclesiastical baby.

The legend says that throughout her ecclesiastical career maintained her lover (something extremely common in the history of the medieval popes, but of course they were “men”) during her second year of pontificate she became pregnant. She manages to hide her pregnancy under her clothes, until she unexpectedly gives birth.  Joan amid the procession walked from St. Peter’s Basilica to the church of St. John Lateran. All Rome’s eyes were on her, the men of faith furious. They had been deceived all this time by a woman!… And there Joan reached death … Punished for being a woman doing things  of men, the medieval popes had children, lovers, were normal things for those days. It didn’t stand out from the natural however Joan was a woman, the worst punishment for medieval minds … to have been born a woman. Some versions say that she was stoned all around Rome, another version says that she was tied to the tail of a horse and dragged to her by all the city. And finally she was buried in the same place where she had her son.

There is other version what saids the father of the baby was an ambassador …
versions there are thousands and each one more enimagic than another. But.  Could have really existed Joan? Can the church really have erased her from history?. The fact is that the popes no longer use this path during the processions.

 

Bucephalus: the horse that conquered the world, whit his most faithful friend Alexander Magnus.

Bucephalus (in ancient Greek Βουκέφαλος Bouképhalos, in Latin Bucephalus) was the horse of Alexander the Great. 
Its name comes from ancient Greek βοῦς (bous), ox, and κεφαλή (kephalê), head and would thus mean “ox head“.

Physical characteristics

Bucephalus was the best race Thessaly, some hypotheses have said that an example of today’s Akhal-Teke race, descending from the Turkomen horse. According to the head of Bucephalus was an allusion to his enormous size (much larger than the other horses of the period) . Bucephalus was an imposing horse
black as coal, and as indomitable as majestic, he suffered the same condition as Alexander  heterochromia, a blue eye like the sky and the black as night, his mystical characteristics made him one of the most famous horses in the world. warrior conqueror and emperor of the ancient world.  His  head as round, stronglike an ox, and  on his brow he wore a star-shaped white spot (Pliny the Elder and Pseudo Callisthenes say, however, that this spot represented a bull’s head and was on his back). 

“Taming Bucephalus” 

(Story according to Plutarch)

Plutarch tells, in 344 bc at twelve or thirteen years of age, Alexander won the horse by making a wager with his father.  Bucephalus was bought by thirteen talents by the king Filipo II of Macedon to a thesalo called Filonico. It was then that, according to legend, the horse began to appear rough and wild, neighing and kicking everywhere, without anyone being able to appease him. Only the young Alexander managed to mount the horse, and he realized that the horse was suspicious of his own shadow. Alexander turned the horse’s head toward the sun, blinding him and jumping up and down the horse at a moment when he would make his father say the famous phrase: “Son, find yourself a kingdom that matches your greatness, because Macedon is small for you . ” It is said that since then Bucephalus was only allowed to mount by Alexander

“Taming Bucephalus”

(Story of Pseudo Callisthenes)

In contrast to the narrative of Plutarch’s text, Pseudo Callisthenes has a more extraordinary narrative, in the mythic sense. Maybe a little bit more irreal. He said Bucephalus was a horse of a beautiful figure, but dominated by a wild furor that took him to the extreme of the anthropophagy motivated perhaps by the belief that he was descended from one of the Mares of Diomedes, reason why Philip decided to construct him an iron cage to which he would cast all those who disobeyed his laws. The Oracle of Delphi told Philip that it would be king of the whole inhabited world that could mount Bucephalus and cross the city of Pela. When, at age 15, Alexander discovered the stable of the animal and approached the horse, he extended its front legs and neighed softly, as if he recognized him as his master, and the young prince was able to remove him without help from the servants and ride with him through the city, dominated by complete docility. This narration belongs to Roman d’Alexandre  or Alexander Romance is any of several collections  of mythical legends that describe the exploits of Alexander the Great .

 

Alexander and bucephalus.

As his faithful friend Bucephalus served Alexander in multiple battles, as a comrade of war and consquist. Alexander riding bucephalus knew new lands, under the protection and company of Alexander undertook the conquest, one of the most extraordinary conquests of the world.  Arrian states, with Onesicritus as its source, that Bucephalus died at the age of thirty. Other sources, however, give as cause of death not old age or weariness, but fatal injuries in the battle of the Hydaspes (June 326 BC), in which Alexander’s army defeated King Porus. Alexander quickly founded a city, Bucephala, in honor of his horse. It was on the west bank of the Hydaspes River (modern Jhelum in Pakistan). The modern city of Jalalpur Sharif, outside Jhelum, is said to be where Bucephalus is buried.

Leave your Diego Rivera, dear Frida Kahlo: Prostitution of frida kahlo by the over-consumption industry.

Today, a brilliant painter, who has been manipulated and converted into a feminist icon without reflection, is now 110 years old. She has exploited her physical signs and has obviated her relationship of submission and dependence to Diego Rivera.

It is simple to love Frida. It is natural to feel her sister and orphan at the same time, because we all recognize ourselves in pain, and she knew that with stoic science. One is amazed to think of that thin and thin woman enduring that early polio, surviving the bus accident that snatched her virginity, resisting paralysis in bed, swallowing surgery and misfortune. One after another, one after another. The painting had never interested him-he had played football and boxing to strengthen his lifeless right leg, then he dreamed of being a doctor-but when he was nailed to the mattress, he looked at him inward and turned on him. Canvas in the form of color, flowers, dream, skull, heart and simian

She had thorns in her heart, Frida. She was a talented and wounded woman, resilient in misery. Picasso, Kandinski, Breton, and Duchamp applauded her life, but she had to die for unanimous recognition, as always. She could leave and he did not.

The skilful machine of capitalism has mutated the meaning of Frida and no one listens to her pain anymore. The window is fogged. Few remember who she was.

 

“At the end of the day, we can put up with a lot more than we think we can.” The painter told me that there are people with a star, but she was one of the” stars, I assure you. Capitalism has mutated the meaning of Frida and no one listens to her pain. She has become that T-shirt of Los Ramones that so many wear without ever having heard them. She woke up one morning and was a pin of Che Guevara, a motivational phrase, a grateful cup of coelho. But there is something else: apart from the manipulation, Frida Kahlo has been augmented – thanks to the god of marketing, who can everything – as a feminist symbol, as a powerful icon of equality.

But it is not the same to be a pop emblem that a feminine referent, perhaps because the marks identify the public only superficially and the feminist movement prospers with ideas and convictions, not with goddesses: the fight by the real equality part of an intimate conviction and of A personal trajectory. Effigies are tricky, and more so when they have a clear monetary rationale. Is it not that we are inculcated by feminist superior mothers so that we end up needing handbags with their faces?

But it is not the same to be a pop emblem that a feminine referent, perhaps because the marks identify the public only superficially and the feminist movement prospers with ideas and convictions, not with goddesses: the fight by the real equality part of an intimate conviction and of A personal trajectory. Effigies are tricky, and more so when they have a clear monetary rationale. Is it not that we are inculcated by feminist superior mothers so that we end up needing handbags with their faces? It is amusing to observe how many celebrate their aesthetic ambiguity as a key argument for erecting it as a “feminist icon” – and the term “sorrow”. It is a very stale topic – and patriarchal, in the end – that of celebrating that a woman breaks the feminine canon to look more like the man. At what point has androgyny gone from being a characteristic – as valid as another – to becoming a value?

The stormy relationship of frida with Diego.

“I suffered two serious accidents in my life, one on the bus that threw me to the ground … the other accident is Diego” – frida kahlo  

Frida met Diego when he was painting the high school auditorium in which she studied. They were married in 1929, but he already had a long love affair with Russian painters Angelina Petrovna and Marevna Vorobe-Stebelska. He was the husband of the first and had a daughter with the second.

The Mexican painter became obsessed with having a child, despite the aftermath of the accident she suffered in her youth, wanted to be a mother. She tried on more than one occasion putting her life at risk and leaving aside the problems she had with the painter following this decision

In one of the letters that relates Diego’s reaction to seeing his paintings, you can read: “Diego of the soul remembers that I will always love you even if you are not by my side. I in my loneliness I say, loving is not sin God, I still tell you if you want to come back, that I will always be waiting for you, Your absence kills me, you make of your memory a virtue, you are the nonexistent God every time your image reveals itself to me. Not somebody else’s.

Diego deceived Frida Kahlo with her sister Cristina, situation that collapsed to the painter and ended up deteriorating the relation that maintained. Once divorced, she wrote: “Now that I had given my life to help you, it turns out that there are other ‘saviors’ … I will repay what I owe with painting, and then even if I swallow poop, I will do exactly what the Win and whenever you want … All I ask is that you do not fool me into anything, there is no reason, write me whenever you can, try not to work too much now that you start the fresco, take care of your eyes very much, do not live Only for someone to take care of you, and whatever you do, no matter what happens, your Frida will always adore you. ”

I don’t judge frida by her decisions, a woman in love can blind herself and invalidate herself. But frida is not a feminist icon, it is not an example to be followed by girls, nor to dream about the dresser with closed eyes hoping to be “saved” by a love, by a diego, waiting for a love, That kills us more than  gives us life.

Diego Rivera-Frida Kahlo are the great exponent of the impairment and dependence that romantic love causes, because even the pact they created was misleading. She only accepted his infidelities so as not to lose him, not because she believed in an open love. Kahlo renounced her desires and his values so that Diego did not leave her side.

Today, July 6, 110 years ago, a great woman was born who, unfortunately, did not know how to say “enough”, who grew up in Stockholm syndrome and who wallowed in pain. In a world massacred by gender-based violence – and in a country where 885 women have been murdered in the last 15 years – it may be a good time to review the referents that capitalism has put in our hands. Perhaps it is a good moment not to eternalize them, to overcome them, to look at them with a critical and not only a commercial conscience; To stay with her artistic talent but not with his emotional education; To not accept the complete pack. Maybe it’s a good time to leave our Diego Rivera.

WE TRIPANTU: Mapuche new year

We tripantu or wiñoy Tripantu is the sacred celebration, it commemorate a new  year that takes place at the austral winter solstice (the shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere) between June 21 and 24.

 

 

Etymology

We tripantu, We xipantu or We tripantu means in mapudungún: “new sunrise”.

Mapuche new year or the return of the sunrise.

There are several Nations of the Indigenous Peoples that have their own way of ordering the passage of time. For them, a cycle of time is not an arbitrary consensual situation,but is based on shared knowledge of nature. This set of knowledge includes the study and deep observation of outer space, especially the movement of the moon. One of those native peoples is the Mapuche.

WE TRIPANTU or “annual rite of renewal of the balance of nature” is the moment in which the force of life, nature, raises the level of molecular vibration in the sap of trees and living beings regulate their pulsation with The lunar rhythm. The mapuche thinks and feels that the waters pierced by the magnetic energy of the moon on that date have a different energy so that the whole family must be harmonized with nature by means of the bath of immersion under any climatic condition. It is the time of family harmony and friendship. The quimün  (knowledge) Mapuche in a practical model of social and spiritual inter-relation, it’s not a folkloric event. The wetripantu model is inserted in the culture, from an epistemological, social and spiritual perspective, as dynamic column unifying the society and that maintains the cohesion and filiation of the Mapuche with its culture and Identity.

Mapuche knowledge is a socialized product is not that of the anchorite that hides in the depth of the mountain, but is the result of the permanent observation of the changes it feels and perceives of the elements of nature. By unifying its raquiduam (its thought) with what Wünfucha (God, creator) has given him to care for and maintain, taking from creation only what is necessary.

The Mapuche, like the Aymara, Quechua and Atacameños, possessed and possess a great knowledge in science, astronomy and spirituality. Their cultural legacy allows us to know that they managed to interpret the movement of the sun, moon and stars, especially the planet Venus. The Mapuche people knew that the land was round about 3000 years before Columbus.

The spiritual social feast Wetripantü is a scenario in which the same spiritual force called newen, shudders energy to all living beings and makes men and women, sisters and brothers with all the elements of their environment.

There is a cosmic point from which a state of physical and psychic renewal is determined, determined by the return of the sun to certain spatial coordinates, that gives way to another period of time that from its beginning is energized by the lunar movement.

In the psychological memory of the Mapuche people today the latent idea exists that before the Wetripantu exists the longest night of the year. When it reaches its peak it is said that the night walks back. Wiñol Trekatuy Pun, this is the moment of a total .

change of nature, both in the cosmos and in the earth, consequently, the day lengthens or recedes, comparing this fact with the passage of a rooster, and Mapuche says Wiñotui Antü Kiñé trekan alka.

It is maintained that the moment of the return of the sun occurs at the end of the night of June 23, the moment the sun appears in the east or puel mapu, this fact of the new sunrise gives way to the new life cycle .

Another of the fundamental ideas of the Wetripantu is that next to the beginning of the new year, the waters of different sources enter in a process of change of temperature, appropriate time to bathe at dawn. By means of water, man and woman are reunited together by the same force, called newen.

how is it celebrated?

Arriving the night of June 23 after 22 hours, the families meet in a house that is comfortable in space and has heating, gas, wood stove, or stove. Food is accumulating: poultry, pork, beef or horse; Muday, mültrün, mürke, sopaipillas, tortillas, which will be consumed by all attendees. The person who is not able to consume the foods served, has to take them to his house: the food is not saved, it is distributed among the attendants.

What is done during the night?

Adults report unknown facts of the family to the assembled members, Stories about the origin of families or their descendants, Participation in knowledge in general, stories are told (epeu), choike purrun is danced, trutruka and trompe are played.

In the epewun period, which is before dawn, men, women and children and guests attend the river, stream or estuary closest to bathing and waiting for the new sunrise with the body and the spirit renewed and clean and feeling the Strength of God. Gnechen, Elchen, Huenu Mapu Chaw, Wun Fücha, Wun Kuce, etc. are all names that are assigned to a unique creator, the Mapuche is a monotheistic spiritual being and always was. He returns to the house playing some instrument, then by means of a very specific ritual he purifies the atmosphere of the house. Turning in a circle, starting from the east and turning to the right to close the circle facing east, which is called puel. In this place the most knowledgeable person invokes the known benefactor forces, giving thanks and recognizing the presence of the creative force in all the elements and with the heart and the mind in deep gratitude the sunrise is expected by the PUEL MAPU ( The spiritual and physical east).

When the sun and light cover the visible space it is said Akui We Tripantu (the new year has arrived) or also Wiñoi Tripantu (returns the sunrise) Thus at the dawn of June 24 another cycle begins life in The Mapuche world and Mother Earth. During the day different activities continue, according to the region. It is usually a day of reunion, harmonization and balance of family relationships

586 years ago the English burned alive to Joan of Arc.

One day like today but 586 years ago Joan of Arc was condemned as heresy for  the english church.  A may 30, 1431 for the morning Joan was dressed in a white tunic, led to the old market of Ruán (Northeastern France) while france shouted against her. She was tied to a stake burned like a piece of wood until she lost her conscience she ended up surrendering to the wings of death. She died   poisoned by carbon dioxide being still a young woman, at the age of 19 years.

From peasant to warrior

Joan of Arc born in a small town of  lorraine, Domremý on January 6, 1412  She was born during  war conflict that involved France and England, (The war of a hundred years,1337–1453) .  However she had a happy childhood whit her parents Jacques Darc and Isabelle and her four  siblings . When she was 14 years began to have visions and hear strange voices “Mystical experiences” And ended up identifying those voices with two saints: Saint Catherine of Alexandria , Saint Margaret of Antioch and And the archangel Gabriel and eventually those confusing messages were becoming more clear, the voices told her, ordered her to mount an army to oraise the site of Orleans The young peasant went to Vaucouleurs, a town near Domremý, where Robert of Baudricourt, commander of the royal forces, was present. After several failed attempts in which Baudricourt scoffed at the little girl, a successful prediction of a defeat changed the skeptical commander who took her to court in Chinon

 

In 1429 Joan finally got an interview with the Dauphin, the future Charles VII. It seems that the dolphin tested the young woman hiding in the crowd and placing a member of the court in place. Out of the previous descriptions of the future monarch or because Juana had extraordinary gifts, the truth was that the maid was able to recognize the true dolphin. This fact and the words they had in a private interview convinced Charles that Joan was not a fraud.

 

Joan left for Orleans, marching a French army that would be victorious. The young maiden had become a warrior under God and France.

 

 

 

Disloyalty

• On 17 July 1429 the dolphin was crowned in the Cathedral of Reims as Charles VII. Joan had managed to defeat the English and give Charles the crown of France.

 

• But from that moment the interests of both began to diverge. To a king’s pactic position, who sought to end the conflict by reaching peace agreements even at the expense of losing rights or territories was opposed by Joan, who, according to her voices, she should continue fighting to expel the enemy armies and her allies the Burgundians Of the French territory

 

• Although the king continued sending troops to Joan, these were scarce and the victories were giving way to the defeats. The capture of Joan was the end of his life as a warrior. Once in English hands, Charles VII could not or would not do anything to rescue who had helped him to ascend the throne of France. The anointed king thanks to Joan ignored the voices of the court, among them that of his lover Agnes Sorel, who asked him to mediate in the release of the young maid.

 

 

 

Condemned to the bonfire

Joan had been captured in 1430 at Compiègne, a town which the French troops tried to keep in their possession. In spite of the efforts of his companions, there was nothing he could do for her. After staying in several castles in captivity, Joan was delivered by the Burgundians to the English, who wanted to condemn the maiden who one day defeated their armies.

 

The trial was long. Joan was accused of heresy and dressing as a man, something totally forbidden for a woman.  The defenders of Joan got that retracted of all the accusations and that she returned to dress like woman. But it seems to be that when they were in custody, they took off their clothes and changed it again by men’s dresses. Joam then reasserted herself in her beliefs, thus signing her death sentence.

 

23 years after Joan’s death, her family asked for a review of the case. Pope Calixto III created a commission that fully rehabilitated the young maiden. More than four centuries later, another pope, Benedict XV elevated Joan to the altars being canonized. On May 30, the date of her death, her feast day is celebrated.

 

Ancient Celtic Simbols.

Celtic symbols were used as a protection tool, to infuse courage to warriors, to defeat their enemies, to gain love or to mark the way forward.

The Celts transmitted their knowledge through engravings, some of which have come down to us thanks to which they were carved from hard materials like stones, iron or bronze. Their geometric drawings hide centuries of beliefs, rituals and magical powers that few know.

Celtic symbols have been linked to the Druids and with them to nature. Here you will find the meaning of the most famous Celtic symbols:

The triquetra:

-The triquetra or later also called triquel, is a symbol of Indo-European origin that alludes to the triple dimension of the female divinity. It also symbolizes life, death and rebirth (life, death and reincarnation for the Celts).

Also known as the Trinity Knot resembles the Ouroboros, an ancient infinity symbol. The triquetra is constructed of one continuous line interweaving around itself symbolizing no beginning or end, an eternal spiritual life.

The Celts believed that everything important in the world came in threes; three stages of life, three elements, three domains; earth, sea and sky, past, present and future. The triquetra is sometimes drawn weaving around a circle, symbolizing the unity of the three parts.

The Awen: Symbol Of Divine Illumination.

 

• Awen is Inspiration, is represented by three parallel lines or rays crowned by three circles and may or may not be surrounded by a global circle. … The Celtic symbol Awen is the one that allows us to be in harmony with the universe and the earth
• .The Awen is a Neo-Druid symbol of balance. The sign appears in Charlotte Guest’s Mabinogion, a translation of old Welsh tales and folklore relating to legendary King Arthur.

Triskele: Symbol Of The Flow Of Nature

-The Triskele is an ancient Irish symbol, over 5,000 years old that stands for unity of the three. In the case of Celts, this is the physical, mental and spiritual. It also symbolizes the eternal life, the flow of nature, and spiritual growth.

The Celts believed that everything happen in threes.  The symbol can be found kerbstones of Newgrange which date back to Neolithic times around 3200 BC. They also appear on coins and pottery from Ancient Greece. The triskele is the symbol of Sicily, which in ancient times, used to be a Greek colony.

The triskele is pre-Celtic in design, dating back to before the Celts settled in Ireland, but it was incorporated into Celtic culture and frequently appears in Celtic artwork. The symbol is thought to represent continuous movement or continuously moving forward.

The triskele es the most famous symbol of Celtic culture.

Spiral: eternal life

-For the Celts, the spiral has no beginning or end but represents eternal life, like the sun that is born every morning, dies every night and reborn the next morning.

Claddagh.

-A symbol used even today consists of three parts, each with its own meaning. The crown symbolizes loyalty, the heart represents love and the hands that hold it symbolize friendship. This symbol can be found in the rings that, according to legend, the ancient Celtic lovers carried as a symbol of commitment.

The Crann Bethadh or Tree of Life

-It was a sacred symbol, representing the world of spirits, well-being and integrity of the villages. It reflects the connection of its branches, which touched the sky, with its roots, descending into the world of the dead. Each tree had a different meaning, from the protection of the birch to the imagination of the willow or the wisdom of the ash.

Wuivre.

It is a Celtic symbol represented by two serpents intertwined with each other, symbolizing the strength of the earth. As they say, it gives love and power to whoever possesses it, provided it is not touched by seawater.

Lauburu

-Channels the energies that make up the universe and the struggle of light in the face of darkness. It provided protection against strangers or devils who invaded stables or crops by spoiling them.

Perennial Knot.

-Represents eternal love.

The Celtic knots mean in general the eternal union.

The secret alphabet of the templars

The Templars were great masters in the art of cryptography, a secret alphabet they were supposed to use in their mercantile transactions and secret documents. Although of course the use of the alphabet was restricted to high Templar positions and most Templars never knew of its existence.

According to some historians, when the Templars went beyond their primary function of providing the routes to the Holy Land, they became creditors to the princes of France, codification was crucial.

It was made approximately towards the XII century. It was known by the uninitiated Europeans already in the XIX century, and appears in works carried out mainly by the Masons, this could lead to suspicions of the lack of authenticity of this alphabet in the Templar field, however there are 3 documents using the alphabet dating from the XII century. The researcher Charles Maillart de Chambare proved the existence of three manuscripts that employ the alphabet; All three date from the nineteenth century. The same Probst-Biraben saw one of them, that is in the National Library of Paris.

The letters of credit in circulation on almost 10,000 parcels had to be encrypted. Thus was born the code of the Templars.
The alphabet was created from the cross that the Templars carried. Here’s a diagram:

Each symbol is a piece of the Cross of the Order of the Temple.

The alphabet was created from the cross carried by the Templars hanging from a ribbon. This cross is the Cross of eight beatitudes (Cross of eight points).

Particularly striking is the presence of W that did not exist in the Latin alphabet, another reason to question the authenticity of the alphabet, it is labeled an Anglo-Saxon and post Order creation, but in one of the manuscripts of the twelfth century, the National Library in Paris is present this W. However it seems that there are documents from the twelfth century that use it and that the w can be a kind of password or a supplementary symbol. But the reason for the presence of the W for the Templars may be due to 2 causes Confusing a possible spy. – More probably: To be a password related to the commercial documents written in this Templar Alphabet The letters of this particular alphabet were represented in accordance with angles and points determined by the cross. The reading of this alphabet was done by means of a medallion in the form of a secret code, which the chosen knights had hung around their necks. If the cross of the eight beatitudes is placed within a square, gives rise to different shapes, angles and points. Each one is represented by a letter. In this secret alphabet, each letter had a different meaning, depending on the position it occupied. Inscribed the cross in a polygon, forms an octagon, base of many chapels and templar hermitages with octagonal plants.

templar alphabet  

Litha: (Summer Solstice)

It’s abundance , the beauty of the earth and the power of light .

 

Litha is known as the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, is celebrated during the summer solstice night,On the night of June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere, and on the night of december 21 in the southern hemisphere.

 

Solstice derives from latin “solstitium”: “sun”(astrum), “stitium” (detention) And mark the day when the power of the sun begins to decrease . And the days become shorter until reaching the lowest point of its annual race on December 22, winter solstice: yule.

Litha means fire and represents the apogee of energy, the end of darkness, of  sterility, , the beginning of the most fertile time, where everything is renewed. It’s the abundance, the beauty of the earth  and  the power of light.

The celebration of the summer solstice is as old as the essence of mankind. Traditionally it was a moment of purification, where ancestral cultures  used to jump over the bonfire or the cauldron to achieve a goal; protection, fertility, health, a good harvest,etc… Or symbols were burned from which it was desired to purify

History

The celebration of the summer solstice as such dates from 5000 years before  Christ. The ancient Greeks defined this event concerning the sun as gateway  to another dimension. The sun diminished day by day because it penetrated in the dimension of the spirits of the men,first looked on the outside to later look inside. The spirit collects itself   The spirit collects itself to assimilate the living experiences that the inner sun illuminates. This imaginary door called The door of men . The winter solstice was called The door of the gods.

This belief is part of Greek mythology that expresses in a metaphorical language the relationship of man with the creator gods who live in the Olympus, in the home of light, which is what the luminous olympus means , man can only reach the light, To connect with the gods of Olympus through introspection, crossing the door of the unconscious. The Greeks also worshiped Apollo ,god of the sun, father of medicine, of the soul, they invoked it by lighting bonnets of purifying character. Through rituals the kouros or therapists subjected the patients to sleep analysis sessions through induction to an altered state of consciousness. In these sections the patient’s ailments were revealed. The Kouros were undoubtedly the first psychoanalysts in history. Later the Roman mythology referred  to the solar doors as the two faces of Jan, the guard of the doors, the god who simbolizes the transition from the past to the future, From life to death and rebirth .  Jan has the influence on the crops, on the light and the darkness.

Many other cultures have celebrated and continue to celebrate this cosmic phenomenon Because the sun is for all a party without a doubt, a principle of life, the continuity of existence, The first logo or divinity with which mankind was identified. Numerous legends also record the existence of invisible doors,Which are with the naked eye, for  physical eyes, But not for the most transcendent perception of the human being during this magical moment. They say that the purest spirits, the guides of the light also manage to light up our dimension during the celebration of the solstice to communicate with us.

In Celtic culture the druids celebrated the ritual Alban Heruin, consisted of lighting bonfires seeking the blessing for the lands and their fruits, so ass well as good omens for lovers, And fertility for women. The magic of the druids invoking the elementals, That is to say to the spirits of the elements of nature, The fire salamanders, The undines of water,  The sylphs, air elves and earth gnomes, they are part of the tradition that have left many legends and  many musical folklore.

In Mexico, The Aztec warriors devote many rituals to the solar cult for  “the renewal of the fires” help the earth and the human being respect the cycles and  to obtain good and abundant crops, so health also.

The Incas of Peru celebrate Inti-Raymi, the sun party. It is a spectacle see on the esplanade Sacsahuamán, very close to the cuzco, the blazing bonfires that invoke the star king before sunrise.

In the Hindu tradition the summer solstice is the way of the ancestors, lapitri-yana in the same way as for the Greeks a door that leads to the interior, Indras worship the primordial fire and  thet ensure that some shamans during the fire ritual can read the future in the flames. The ashes of the hgueras during the solstice are conserved all the year.

 

Happy Litha Southern hemisphere !!

Within the different forms of Neopaganism can be quite different and have different origins, despite sharing a same definition. Some Neopagan traditions celebrate it approaching the way in which they believe that the old pagan Germanic celebrated it, whereas other traditions prefer to celebrate said solstice with rituals selected from different sources, being the Germanic culture one of the many used. In Neodruidism, the term ALBAN HERUIN “is used as a synonym for the summer solstice. This name was invented at the end of the 18th century by the romantic author of Welsh origin called Iolo Morganwg.

Rosa Parks and the bus seat that changed history

A first of December 61 years ago, (1955) Rosa Parks was returning from her work by bus in the city of Montgomery. She sat just behind the area of the ten seats reserved for the whites, towards the middle of the bus. But before long the front area was completely filled; The driver asked the four African Americans who were sitting just behind the reserved area to give up their seats to a new white passenger . Although the three other passengers followed the indications of the driver (racial segregation and this type of practices were collected by known laws “Jim Craw laws)  Rosa Parks, though she had obeyed many other times, refused to give up her seat. Tired by an arduous day of work, tired of being classified as a second class citizen, without rights. Tired of the segregation, of the exclusion, of the abusive looks aimed at her skin tone. Rose park, decided to stay there, immutable,   A spark of tiredness  appears by her spirit, spontaneously without perceiving it initiated an act of protest.

The small act of a 42-year-old seamstress who started the civil rights movement in the United States. Her determination was so strong that detention could not make her change her mind either. She would be convicted of violating segregation laws, although two of her friends, also activists, paid bail and was released the following afternoon.

“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free … so other people would be free.” Rosa Parks

 

Rosa Parks arrested.

Remembering Bram stoker in his birthday

A day like today came to the world famous writer Bram Stoker best known for being the foreunner  of vampiric literature, he wrote his more famous work ,a classic book Dracula  inspired on Vlad Tepes, Prince of Wallachia. 

Born in Dublin, Ireland, on November 8, 1847, Bram Stoker published his first literary work, The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, a handbook in legal administration, in 1879. Turning to fiction later in life, Stoker published his masterpiece, Dracula, in 1897. Deemed a classic horror novel not long after its release, Dracula has continued to garner acclaim for more than a century, inspiring the creation of hundreds of film, theatrical and literary adaptations. In addition to Dracula, Stoker published more than a dozen novels before his death in 1912.

 

Early Life

Bram Stoker was born Abraham Stoker on November 8, 1847, in Dublin, Ireland, to father Abraham Stoker and mother Charlotte Matilda Blake Thornley Stoker. He was one of seven children.

In 1864, Stoker enrolled at the University of Dublin—founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592—where he attended the university’s sole constituency, Trinity College. He graduated with honors from Trinity College in 1870, earning a mathematics degree. Not long after, he was hired as a civil servant at Dublin Castle, home to British royals in Ireland from the early 1800s to the early 1920s. (Stoker’s father had also worked as a civil servant at the castle, and helped his son land a position there.)

While working at the castle, Stoker began juggling another role: In the evenings, he worked as an unpaid writer for a local newspaper, the Dublin Evening Mail (later the Evening Mail), penning reviews of various theatrical productions in the City of Dublin.

 

Lyceum Theatre

After nearly 10 years in civil service, Stoker left his position at Dublin Castle. Around that same time, Stoker established a friendship and working relationship that would soon prove to be an pivotal step for his career, inspiring his literary prowess and, ultimately, his most acclaimed work. Stoker was introduced to famed English actor Sir Henry Irving after reviewing a production of the Shakespearean play Hamlet, in which Irving was cast. The two quickly became friends, and in the late 1870s, Irving offered Stoker a management position at his production company/venue in England, the still-famous Lyceum Theatre in London’s West End. His duties as manager included writing letters—sometimes up to 50 per day—for Irving, as well as traveling worldwide on Irving’s tours.

 

 

Bram Stoker Books

Newly inspired by his travels and exposure to the arts, in 1875, Stoker published his first horror story, The Primrose Path. He continued to publish writings while managing the successful Lyceum Theatre, including the story Under the Sunset (1882) and the novel The Snake’s Pass (1890), earning modest acclaim. More notably, he garnered public praise for his many roles dedicated to the arts.

In 1897, Stoker published his masterpiece, Dracula. While the book garnered success after its release, its popularity has continued to grow for more than a century. Deemed a classic horror novel today, Dracula has inspired the creation of numerous theatrical, literary and film adaptations. Among them are the 1931 film Dracula, starring actor Bela Lugosi, and F.W. Murnau’s 1922 film Nosferatu, starring Max Schreck.

Following the release of Dracula, Stoker quickly began work on new writings. He would publish 19 novels before the end of his life. Among Stoker’s later works are Miss Betty (1898), The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland1879, The Mystery of the Sea (1902), The Jewel of Seven Stars (1904) and The Lair of the White Worm (1911), which was later published under the title The Garden of Evil..

Final Years

Stoker served as Lyceum’s manager for nearly 30 years, until Irving’s death in 1905. Seven years later, on April 20, 1912, Stoker died in London, England.

 

Bram stoker with that mind full of darkness and mystery … that only the night could give us.
We remember him as the immortal genius of vampire prose as prevalent as the twilight of each day,

 

 

Stations

And then there are people hugging in the stations.

They are giants, giants are how much?

A lot.
They are monumental.
And every time I see them my heart to the mysterious beauty that take over surrenders,

you see them and you can not do anything but hear the shock wave.
Hugs are inscrutable, like the universe and seabed, you’ll never know what
There are in but you know that something there.
Goodbye, see you soon, hello, one you were lost me a us not lose sight of an “always will, a retained tear, a smile beyond his shoulder, a feeling that is born or something breaks.
People who embrace in the seasons are like watching fireworks from afar.

You can see but can not be felt, if power is perceived but can be exploited only if it really is, that fireworks.

Only if it is or if it is already prey,

That pair of arms.

They are proof that an explosion can guess that even without hearing, and so are sacred. Because beyond the senses of us humans