Idéias como essa deve ser propagada, com certeza o planeta vai agradecer.

Posted by Audiegrl

“There apparently is a great deal of interest in celestial bodies, and their locations and trajectories at the end of the calendar year 2012. Now, I for one love a good book or movie as much as the next guy. But the stuff flying around through cyberspace, TV and the movies is not based on science. There is even a fake NASA news release out there…”~~Don Yeomans, NASA senior research scientist

NASA—Remember the Y2K scare? It came and went without much of a whimper because of adequate planning and analysis of the situation. Impressive movie special effects aside, Dec. 21, 2012, won’t be the end of the world as we know. It will, however, be another winter solstice.

Much like Y2K, 2012 has been analyzed and the science of the end of the Earth thoroughly studied. Contrary to some of the common beliefs out there, the science behind the end of the world quickly unravels when pinned down to the 2012 timeline. Below, NASA Scientists answer several questions that we’re frequently asked regarding 2012.

Question (Q): Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012.
Answer (A): Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.

Q: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012?
A: The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Then these two fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 — hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.

Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?
A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then — just as your calendar begins again on January 1 — another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.

Q: Could a phenomena occur where planets align in a way that impacts Earth?
A: There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible. Each December the Earth and sun align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence.

Q: Is there a planet or brown dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or Eris that is approaching the Earth and threatening our planet with widespread destruction?
A: Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles.

Q: What is the polar shift theory? Is it true that the earth’s crust does a 180-degree rotation around the core in a matter of days if not hours?
A: A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. There are slow movements of the continents (for example Antarctica was near the equator hundreds of millions of years ago), but that is irrelevant to claims of reversal of the rotational poles. However, many of the disaster websites pull a bait-and-shift to fool people. They claim a relationship between the rotation and the magnetic polarity of Earth, which does change irregularly, with a magnetic reversal taking place every 400,000 years on average. As far as we know, such a magnetic reversal doesn’t cause any harm to life on Earth. A magnetic reversal is very unlikely to happen in the next few millennia, anyway.

Q: Is the Earth in danger of being hit by a meteor in 2012?
A: The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids, although big hits are very rare. The last big impact was 65 million years ago, and that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today NASA astronomers are carrying out a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-Earth asteroids long before they hit. We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs. All this work is done openly with the discoveries posted every day on the NASA NEO Program Office website, so you can see for yourself that nothing is predicted to hit in 2012.

Q: How do NASA scientists feel about claims of pending doomsday?
A: For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012.

Q: Is there a danger from giant solar storms predicted for 2012?
A: Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history.

Addition information concerning 2012

NASA Astrobiology Institute: “Nibiru and Doomsday 2012“

Bad Astronomy: “The Planet X Saga: The Scientific Arguments in a Nutshell“

Sky and Telescope Magazine: “2012: The Great Scare“

Dan Brown’s New Book, 2012 – Are You Ready for the Consciousness Shift?

The 2012 Phenomenon Plus 10 Failed Doomsday Predictions

Why the World Will NOT End in 2012: NASA Scientist Debunks Conspiracy Theories

Até lá !

This is an original ACEO – not a print of any kind.

….Title: “Sun Meets Moon”

….Year: 2009

….Size: 2.5″ x 3.5″

….Signature: on back

*Comes in soft protective polypropylene sleeve and is extra protected by a white wove envelope. The envelope will be plain and unglued so you can see the card and add a name on the front of the envelope if you are giving it as a gift or using it as a stocking stuffer.*

Fits top loaders. Archival safe, no PVC, acid free clear polypropylene.

COPYRIGHT: this artwork by laura barbosa is protected under copyright laws and may not be reproduced in any manner without the artist’s written permission.

SHIPPING: With Ultimate Care from Artist’s Studio. USPS *Ships out NEXT BUSINESS DAY

ACEO: Art card, editions and originals * Frame It or Display it on a mini easel!

**Best Idea: STOCKING STUFFERS!!                             Buy Now

I am taking the process of building my star clusters as an opportunity for a little bit of DiY astronomy without the “aid” of the night sky.  So you could say this is more experimental astrophotography…

Ce faci cand nu te poti bate cu ceilalti giganti ai industriei, Nokia, Sony Ericsson sau LG? Te repozitionezi. Este cazul companiei care a inventat chiar telefonul mobil, Motorola. Se stie ca ultimii ani au fost extrem de tulburi la Motorola iar divizia de telefoane mobile a colosului american a fost la un pas de colaps pentru ca nu a putut sa vina cu o oferta suficient de diversificata si de atractiva pentru cumparatori. A reusit sa supravietuiasca iar viitorul arata bine.

Motorola a reusit o repozitionare a portofoliului si imaginii catre nivelul high-performance dublat de un design de senzatie. Modelul E8 care se transforma vizual la schimbarea modului de utilizare, V8 si V9 cu formele perfecte si AURA – primul mobil din lume cu ecran circular si varful de lance al Motorola, sunt pur si simplu modele state-of-the-art. Daca le vedeti in magazine merita sa le incercati pentru a vedea daca va conving.

V8 a avut parte si de varianta aurita Luxury Edition, iar AURA, inspirat de designul ceasurilor de lux realizate manual, nu s-a multumit cu modelul realizat din otel ci a adus si modelele AURA Diamond Edition cu carcasa suflata cu aur de 18 carate si 34 de diamante si AURA Celestial Edition, ultimul dedicat colaborarii dintre Motorola si NASA in cadrul misiunii Apollo 11 din 1969, acum 40 de ani. In acea misiune, echipamentele Motorola au permis transmiterea catre publicul larg a imaginilor si sunetelor ramase in istorie dintre care cele mai celebre sunt “Vulturul a aterizat” si “Un pas mic pentru om, un pas urias pentru omenire” ale lui Neil Armstrong. Modelul Celestial Edition este disponibil in editie limitata si numai pana la sfarsitul lui 2009 iar imaginea intregii serii AURA este David Beckham. Pentru statisticieni si istorici primul apel de pe varful Everest s-a facut tot cu un Motorola asa incat firma are o istorie bogata in ceea ce priveste premierele.

Inca alte informatii, in filmul de mai jos:

Jesús mismo habló de el “camino amplio que conduce a la destrucción” y el “camino estrecho y angosto que conduce a la vida eterna.” También dijo que la mayoría de la gente sigue el primero y muy pocos encuentran el segundo.

 

Camino Estrecho

La mayoría de los cristianos creen que – por supuesto – que siguen el “recto y estrecho,” pero esto es un punto de vista muy superficial basada en una perversión de las verdaderas enseñanzas de Jesús, una perversión diseñada por la élite del poder para controlar la población aquí en la tierra.

Elite Terrenal

 

Como se describe en este blog, la élite en el poder trata de crear una religión externa que pueda controlar las mentes de la gente y hacer que se sometan a la institución terrenal y su jerarquía de seres humanos. Jesús vino a crear un movimiento espiritual que libere al pueblo de los ciegos al mostrarles que su entrada en el reino de Dios no depende de nada fuera de sí mismos, como una religión terrenal y sus dirigentes.

El punto de vista de la religión presentada por la élite del poder es muy simple. Usted vive por un tiempo muy corto aquí en la tierra, pero usted tiene la posibilidad de utilizar este tiempo para asegurar por sí mismo la eternidad en un paraíso celestial. El problema es que a fin de garantizar su entrada en este reino no terrenal, tiene que cumplir ciertos requisitos  aquí en la tierra. Y los requisitos son que usted siga los sacramentos y doctrinas de una religión externa, una religión controlada por la élite del poder. Para ello, debe renunciar a una parte de su libertad y someterse a la élite del poder. Pero es que no vale la pena que ellos tengan poder sobre usted por un corto tiempo en la tierra, cuando se puede asegurar una eternidad en el cielo?

Otra forma de decirlo es que la élite del poder presenta un camino exterior a la salvación, por el que usted siga las reglas exteriores y viva a la altura de las exigencias externas. Al hacer esto, automáticamente califican para la salvación, en otras palabras, el camino exterior se presenta como un camino garantizado para la salvación.

Escribas y Fariseos

Las Verdaderas enseñanzas de Jesús sobre los requisitos para la salvación están en total oposición a este punto de vista.  Las Verdaderas enseñanzas de Jesús se pueden encontrar incluso en las escrituras oficiales, pero son en gran medida ignoradas o mal interpretadas por los predicadores cristianos. Por ejemplo, tomemos esta declaración sorprendente de Jesús:

“Porque les digo a ustedes que si su justicia no supera la de los escribas y Fariseos, no entrarán en el reino de los cielos.”(Mateo 5:20) ¿Qué esta Jesús diciendo aquí? Los escribas y los fariseos estaban haciendo todo lo correcto de acuerdo a la religión externa y sus normas. Sin embargo, Jesús afirma claramente que esto no es suficiente para llegar al cielo.

¿Cuál es el verdadero requisito para entrar en el reino de Dios, que como dijo Jesús está dentro de ti? Lo que está dentro de ti? Es tu mente, tu estado de conciencia. Así pues, la verdadera clave para entrar al reino es cambiar tu mente, para elevar su conciencia. Usted debe trascender la parte inferior, el estado de la conciencia humana que Jesús llamó “la muerte” y volver a nacer del Espíritu. De ese modo, su sentido de identidad como un ser humano morirá y renacerá a aceptar su potencial de Cristo, su potencial para alcanzar el mismo estado de conciencia que Jesús demostró, su potencial para “ponerse  la mente de Cristo” y nacer en la vida.

 

Lideres Ciegos

Jesús reprendia repetidamente a la gente en el camino externo de los hipócritas, y podría ser posible que fuera a llamar a los más modernos cristianos hipócritas también? ¿Sería posible que Jesús llamara a los líderes de la mayoría de los cristianos líderes ciegos de los ciegos? Después de todo, la mayoría de las iglesias cristianas, de hecho, enseñan un camino externo a una salvación garantizada. Sólo tienes que seguir los requisitos exteriores y no tienen que mirar la viga en el propio ojo y cambiar la conciencia.

Este blog contiene numerosas enseñanzas sobre el camino verdadero, interior de Cristo, así como muchas herramientas para mejorar su progreso en este camino. ¿Por qué has encontrado este blog en este momento? ¿Podría ser porque usted está listo para abandonar el camino exterior, fraudulento de una salvación garantizada o automática y emprender el camino real interino para elevar su conciencia de la muerte a la vida.

 

The following text is my progress report for an installation I am working on.   It will consist of a computer vision system that will be utilized to create a sonically interactive environment.  The structure of the space will be a representation of a map of dark matter that was developed in 2007 by cosmologists at Caltech.

<<<While the beginning of the semester held much promise for the production of my work, the delays in the process of acquiring materials pushed the timeline into a much tighter form.  However, not having EyesWeb and the Framegrabber card set up within the first couple of weeks was only a slight delay.  The holding pattern that I was put into when the PC did not arrive sooner then we had hoped was not completely detrimental.  Using the existing Mac to explore the possibilities that Max/MSP provides I was able to determine what is actually more of a necessity for my final work that I plan to be the outcome of this project.

Experimenting with and tweaking the various patches that were pre-made and distributed by other artists and programmers I was able to determine a system with which to structure the tech side of the piece around.  The first patches I tooled around with were the Centroid and blob tracking patches.  Both can be utilized to process the dynamic qualities of the fiber arrays when they are interacted with.

There are two modes that I hope to continue to develop.  The first of which will treat each bundle of fibers as a separate ‘blob’ or ‘centroid’ and track it’s center in a series of XY coordinate outputs, which can be visually represented using a pict slider in Max/MSP.  That pict slider is one of the tools I used in a previous Max patch to track the movement of a sound through an XY system.  In the case of this project I hope to use that XY data to trigger certain sonic events and not necessarily to locate them.  The triggers can be something like: ‘if x and y<=5, play sound 1, if x and y>= 80, play sound 2, etc’.

Another method for triggers, most likely in conjunction with the first (within the same mode), could track the number of centroids within the camera’s field of view and respond to the number “visible”.  For example, if someone steps directly between the camera and the light clusters then all would effectively be blocked.  If the viewer moves through the center of the piece they would not only activate the triggers bound to the location of the bundles, but also block out sections towards the far end of the field of view, and hence block out a certain number of centroids, triggering other sounds.

This first mode of computer vision will utilize blob and centroid tracking as method for triggering more defined sonic events, such as solar flares, pulsars and singing black holes.  These events will only happen if the viewer so chooses to interact with the piece because this set of triggers, like I mentioned before, is more bound to the movement of the clusters of light, not if they remain still.

The second mode, which I hope I’ve built up enough suspense for, will operate the second level of sonic interactivity, respectively.  The method of computer vision I want to use is the silhouettes patch.  The first component of this patch uses background subtraction and frame differencing.  The camera takes a snapshot of the camera’s view and then inserts a small form, in the case of this early stage a circle, somewhere within that XY grid.  Using the frame differencing component the patch can detect when a form moves specifically into that circle which was set with the background subtraction function.  Once this patch is connected to a sound file, the “finding” of a form, i.e. the viewer, within that circle can trigger a sound from a predetermined library.

It is my goal to be able to run these systems individually off of two computers and get them to speak to each other using OSC in order to utilize the sound library and Reason software located on one computer.  If I have one computer set up as the audio output generator, I can use one single quad set of studio monitors.  So, two computers with one camera each that talk to each other with one of those computers connected to four speakers.  All controlled by the movement of the stars…

Space and Place Solo Installation and Directed Graduate Projects Final

Title: Waking the Invisible

Location: 916 S Wabash, Installation Lab Room 207

Open Dates: December 10^th-17^th

Project Description

I hope that the spectacle and experience of this piece will reawaken the natural philosophical inquisitiveness of humanity’s inner child, to recreate that first aesthetic experience of looking to the stars on a crisp, dark night.

This installation is a sculptural representation of dark matter.  While dark matter itself will not be directly represented, clusters of fiber optic lighting will define the outlined structure of it.  The viewer will be invited to experience the piece as both a sculptural element and the space as a musical instrument of sorts.  General movements of silhouettes will govern the nature of the ambient sound, which is a library of samples taken from radio astronomy.  Direct interaction with the form of the clusters will trigger more defined audio events.

However, while a viewer has the ability to walk through the piece, it will not be permanently disrupted.  No matter what is done to affect the immediate reality of the space (physical, meta, etc) the representation of the vast scale of what dark matter is and does will always revert back to the original or natural form.  The scale of the actions of a single person will be smoothed out by time and gravity as the fibers and sounds fall back into a mode of equilibrium, at least until the next viewer engages the space.

While the technical aspects of this are important, they are to serve as instrumental in getting the viewer to turn onto the idea that the scale of the human condition is being set against a cosmological constant.  This is meant to be an exploration of our relationship to the physical world in both immediate, tactile, empirical and aesthetic ways set against very cosmologically rooted ideas.  The two layers of audio will also help to make the distinction of scales, human vs. cosmological, the unknowable of the soul against the unknowable of the cosmos.  The question is not how to place the viewer into the role of dark matter, but to understand the analogy of the elements within the piece.

As the viewer enters the space, the first form of sonic reaction will be subtle and more ambient.  Those low volume events, in the form of rumbling and static (cosmic background radiation), etc, will be more durational and controllable by the movements around the piece.  If the viewer chooses to interact more directly with the form they will be triggering the more specific sonic events, which would various radio transmission bursts from astronauts, pulsars, planets and other celestial bodies.

Technical Description

The main form of this installation is created using approximately 500’ of fiber optic lighting arranged into approximately 150 bundles of 50 fibers.  Each bundle is attached to a ceiling grid at 1 per 2 ft sq and hung at various lengths between 1’ and 6’ in order to fill the cubic space of the room.  The math works out to close to 8,000 individual points of light within a 26’ x 18’ x 9’ space.  Each bundle will be lit with an array of white LEDs, which are also the only light source in the black-boxed room.

The audio content will be generated by a computer vision system powered by Max/MSP and Reason.  The sound library is stored in Reason and “played” via Max.  The system will detect the movement of viewers’ silhouettes against the stars that lay across the field of view.  Each cluster of star will also act as a reference point for the computer vision system so that both the viewers’ movement and interaction with the clusters will trigger sonic events.  The former will function as a trigger for ambient sound while the latter will initiate more defined sonic events.

The programming and sound output are managed through either one or two Mac Minis out to a four-channel audio interface and then to four studio monitors.

Schedule

October 28^th-November 5^th: Order materials, draft proposal, create PR materials, develop programming (ongoing), and develop digital models

November 5^th: Proposal, Equipment List and PR Materials DUE

November 6^th-December 5^th: Develop programming, models, and components

December 5^th: Move into space and begin installation

December 10^th: Soft opening

December 11^th: Hard opening

December 17^th: Closing and Critiques (Directed Graduate Projects in the afternoon and Space and Place in the evening)

Ancient Astronomy

Modern astronomy, the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole, owes its existence to much more ancient roots than either Kepler or Newton. The word astronomy was derived from the Greek words astron meaning “star” and nomos meaning “law.” But the study of celestial bodies and their movement across the heavens even predates the Greeks. Man has been fascinated by the skies since before written history. Ancient man left his mark and knowledge across the landscape hidden in structures and then later in written records. Traces of careful record keeping of the heavens can be found everywhere, from the royal records of China, the clay tablets of Babylon, the monolithic temples of Egypt, to even the Holy Bible. The study of the heavens in the ancient world was very closely linked with religion. Most ancients sought to establish a reliable calendar to predict seasons and aid in sowing and reaping of crops and even before the invention of the telescope man had devised other methods to measure and track the sun, moon, planets and stars in the sky. In fact they had done it fairly accurately without the use of modern technology. Using only mathematics and their observations ancient man was a master of cataloging the heavens.

Ancient Structures

 Almost every famous structure from the ancient world can be linked to the movement of celestial bodies in the sky. The sun and moon were often a primary focus of these ancient structures. Stonehenge, Machu Pichu, and the Great Pyramids, are just three of the numerous ancient monoliths that can be closely linked to astronomy.

The Great Pyramids of Egypt, although not extensively related to the celestial bodies, through their design imply ancient people’s linkage to the heavens. The stars helped the ancient Egyptians to build the Pyramids. The eastern and western sides of the Pyramids run almost due north, and their southern and northern sides run almost due west. Without their knowledge of astronomy the ancient Egyptians would have been unable to position the pyramids with such accuracy.

Step pyramids created on the completely opposite side of the globe also demonstrate a keen awareness of seasons and the motion of the heavens. An interesting example of this would be the ruins of Chicen Itza in Mexico. The Pyramid was built in such a way that on the spring and autumn equinox the sunlight slowly illuminates the pyramid’s steps from the top of the pyramid to the stone snake head at the base. This gives the illusion of the serpent descending to Earth.

Although it has been intensely debated in the scientific community it is fairly clear that Stonehenge may have held some important astronomical significances. On midsummers morning, the longest day of the year, Stonehenge lines up with the place where the sun rises. This would have been particularly important to farmers as a marker of the seasons. This is but one of the many features which support the concept of Stonehenge as a prehistoric calendar.

Machu Pichu, an important Incan site in Peru, has been linked to intriguing astronomical ideas. The Inithuatana stone can be found at the site of Machu Pichu. The stone was arranged to point directly at the sun during the winter solstice. On midday March 21^st and September 21^st, the equinoxes, the sun casts no shadow when standing almost directly above the pillar. Inithuatana stone, or the “sun-tier,” was believed to be the “hitching point of the sun” because it was believed to actually hold the sun in place throughout its annual journey through the heavens. Archeoastronomers believe that the stone was erected to serve as a type of astronomical calendar or clock.

Celestial Objects and Religion

Man has looked up to the heavens for guidance since the dawn of humanity. Sun worship was one of the first forms of worship since man realized the Sun’s importance in life cycles and the growing of crops. The moon and other visible celestial objects such as the Venus have also played an important role in ancient religions and mythology. Humans have often created myths and stories which coincide with the heavens and ancient man’s observations of them.

The worship of the sun through a solar deity is one of the most ancient forms of worship. The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Aztecs and Hindus all placed importance on the Sun through the embodiment of a deity or God. The role of this deity was often to express and explain the motion of the Sun. In ancient Egypt the rising and setting of the sun was explained by a struggle between the Pharaoh’s soul who walked upon the Earth by day and his avatar, Osiris, who descended into the underworld by night. The Aztec’s believed in multiple Sun’s, which marked the ages, and believed that they lived beneath the fifth sun, known as Tonatiuh. The Aztecs were fascinated by the Sun and carefully observed its movement through the heavens, devising a calendar second only to that of the Mayans.

Moon worship is also common throughout ancient cultures and is often seen as the contrasting and feminine part of the celestial world. While Solar deities are often marked as masculine and pertaining to the annular cycles, the Lunar deities are often viewed as feminine and relating to the monthly cycles. The Greek goddesses Selene and Pheobe and later on Artemis all reined over the feminine world of the lunar cycles. As well as their Roman counterparts Luna and Diana. But there were also male deities that represented the Moon, such as Nanna or Sin of Mesopotamia, Thoth of the Egyptians, and Tecciztecatl of the Aztecs.

The appearance of the planet Venus in ancient myths was often closely followed by strife and disaster. The Summerians referred to Venus as Inanna and had composed this hymn to her:

“To her who appears in the sky, to her who appears in the sky, I want to address my greeting, to the hierodule who appears in the sky, I want to address my greeting, to the great queen of heaven, Inanna, I want to address my greeting, to her who fills the sky with her pure blaze, to the luminous one, to Inanna, as bright as the sun, to the great queen of heaven.”

The Sumerians also refered to Inanna in literature as the bringer of bad things. This piece was composed about her unforgiving nature:

“You make the heavens tremble and the earth quake. Great Priestess, who can soothe your troubled heart? You flash like lightning over the highlands; you throw your firebrands across the earth. Your deafening command … splits apart great mountains.”

To the Aztecs and the Mayans, Venus was also a sign of bad tidings and troubles. Writings from the 16^th century relay the Aztecs’ response to Venus in this way:

“And when it [Venus] newly emerged, much fear came over them; all were frightened. Everywhere the outlets and openings of [houses] were closed up. It was said that perchance [the light] might bring a cause of sickness, something evil when it came to emerge.”

Even within the bible Venus has been a trouble maker. The well known Lucifer, or “light bringer,” refers to a defiance against God. The “light-bringer” also has close ties with the translation for the “morning star” which is considered to be Venus. The name Lucifer has even been seen as having links with the Devil in texts after the bible.

The heavens and mythology have long been closely related. Frequently Priests and Priestesses and other religious leaders, even those from the Bible such as Moses, have been known to turn to Astronomy, or more correctly Astrology, to predict cataclysmic events. Reading in the heavens, the will of the gods.

Calendars

 Many ancient cultures used the stars to keep track of time and seasons. In fact, this was one of the primary reasons that ancient people took such interest in the stars. They meticulously recorded and then using their records, predicted the seasons and phenomenon such as eclipses. Calendars were very important in determining seasons and when to sow and reap crops.

The Babylonians began recording their observations of the skies as early as 1,800 BC. They were particularly interested in the Sun and Moon. They divided the sky into twelve regions and took particular note of when the sun passed through each of the twelve regions, or constellations. These constellations are known today by the Latin names of the Zodiac. The symbol of a circle divided into these twelve sections is one of the most antique symbolic expressions in written history. The Babylonians took records for such an extended period of time and these recordings reveal such precision of the equinoxes and the regularity of eclipses that they amaze present day scientists. These ancient people, although lacking telescopes and modern technology knew a lot about their ancient skies from mere observation, records, and calculations.

The Egyptians were not nearly as concerned about seasons and calendars as their neighboring civilizations were, since they depended upon the flooding of the Nile each year more than the seasons themselves, but they too took particular notice of the heavens. Contrasting to most other civilizations the ancient Egyptians used the night sky to tell time. They knew that each group of stars rose forty minutes later each night. Observing the position of a group of stars in relation to the day of the year could be used to tell what time it was. These groups of stars were called decans and the Egyptians kept very organized records to keep track of and determine the time for each night of the year.

All throughout the Americas there are towering pyramids that stand as testaments to ancient indigenous tribal group’s interest in the heavens. Almost every Mayan, Aztec, and Inca temple (as well as many other ancient groups) had at least one chamber that tracked the Sun’s movement throughout the year and cataloged the equinoxes. Ancient American tribes also held meetings to determine the calendar and these decorative calendars designed by Aztec and Mayas are still used as home decor today.

Conclusion

 Human nature has again and again drawn man to stare at the skies. It has been a point of interest since the dawn of humanity. Religion, monuments, records, calendars and many more artifacts left by ancient peoples, have all left clues of their extensive observations and knowledge of celestial bodies capable at the time. With careful calculations and record keeping they were even capable of predicting important solar and lunar events. Man will never grow tired of its search of the heavens, even though its been proven there is no bearded man in the sky, humans are still endlessly fascinated with the world beyond their own.

Inspired from a night spent on the beach of northern Cali, en route back up to Ptown from theNorthern California Women’s Herbal Symposium.

—

The stars call out to me.  i hear my name like a thumbprint drawn on the insides of my skull.  i am compelled forward silently and i only know that i move.  Outside i can feel their glow cooling my skin and my eyes.  It’s like moon glow is soft and smooth as mother’s milk, soaking me.  Whispers travel between the moon and i as quick as sensation and as cold as harpoons.  i shiver inside.

You are from the stars,
They tell me -
a statement, not a question.
i choose not to tell him everything,
choose not to go there.

Blue light and lightning storms
a silent sea of crashing white
blinding blueness,
calm.
My feet are aglow.

You must stay,
they told me.
Stay here.

We can’t be seen from the woods -
stay here.

i shuffled inside my brain like a schoolgirl
nervous, afraid of this great teacher.

What if…?
My tent…
The hours…

Even while i scoot my butt back to the car,
i think perhaps i won’t listen.
Perhaps i’ll just leave.

Now with the mat and bag in hand,
i realize i’m really doing this,
and my disbelief in the sequence of events
brings me to the moment of entrance.

i slept, head lying against sweaters,
the fullness of Luna sliding over my head
across the sky.
The deep blueness blankets me
white stars glistening,
dancing.

Ocean crashes,
powerful,
huge and yet muted, some aspect of her a sort of
deep silence that you can hear in the noise.

She bellowed softly before me
She was huge and daunting,
kind and ferocious,
peaceful.

They cornered me together, all three
making me radiate from the inside out,
light shining beneath my eyes in my
tearducts, and like soft balls in the palm
of my hands.

You come from the sky,
they told me.
And the stars danced and danced,
changed color,
waved and disappeared,
reappearing to send out one spark of blue light.

i was frightened, then in awe, then honored
for the show.

Maybe things happen that you can not record consciously.  Like something transmitted between the star and i, purely through the experience.
It will come out in my art.

Manchinbele Dam is a dam built on the river arkavati. This place is ideal for a day outing, though not much can be done here except play in the river , however the view of the dam from the top is really mesmerizing. This place is full of birds and is an ideal spot for bird watching along with TG halli reservoir which is a few kms away from manchinbele

While chatting with my friend in office , he suggested we go for a sunset photoshoot in manchinbele on sunday. Since I had nothing to do on sunday I immediately agreed as I wanted to visit this place , after reading so many blogs , however the visit could not materialize due to some reason or the other. Now that the plan was finalized , I was determined to go there.

I left for manchinbele at 3 in the afternoon along with two of my friends. We reached Rajarajeshwari medical college and took the right next to the college. We were crusing along and we reached Big Banyan Tree in an hour or so. After a small break and we proceeded to the dam. After negotiating a bad stretch of road we could see the backwaters of the dam. We had a small photo session from the top, as the view was fabulous.

Manchinbele Dam

The sun had hid itself behind the clouds , and a lonely tree near the banks of the dam , provided an ideal view to experiment with different compositions. We tried various composition techniques and moved on.

Lonely Tree

We could see a lot of people near the bank , while some were playing in the water others were drinking , others were cooking food, and as usual they were littering the place.

Cloud Patterns

The sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds , and the patterns in the clouds along with the cloud cover provided us with a good view of the sunset. We took quite a few snaps in various angles before heading back.

Celestial Sunset

A Fiery Sunset

We found a good view point when coming back , which was utilized well by taking a few shots of the backwaters and the evening sky. We headed back to bangalore after having a cuppa in one of the hotels near Big Banyan Tree.

Twilight at Manchinebele

View of manchinbele just after sunset

Snaps can be found here

“Quem rasteja como um verme não pode se queixar de ser pisoteado.” Rudolf Von Ihering

Apesar de não ter deixado registrado nesse blog algum artigo nas últimas semanas, continuei aprimorando os meus conhecimentos em busca de respostas para projetar novas idéias em uma tentativa esperançosa de impulsionar algumas pessoas para refletirem racionalmente sobre o tipo de sociedade que está sendo imposto por aqueles que possuem o poder de comando de seduzir e que introjetam valores questionáveis para uma sociedade doentia e já parcialmente controlada.

Por este viés, a globalização facilitou o crescimento da corrupção, o aumento desproporcional do crime organizado e da violência pura e gratuita. Para se chegar a esta conclusão não basta assistir os telejornais, ou ler as manchetes dos jornais escritos. Deve-se ir muito além, lendo os depoimentos e alertas de juristas, professores e pesquisadores do social de renome nacional e internacional que ainda não foram cooptados pelos verdadeiros donos do poder.

É bom observar que uma das ferramentas utilizadas pelos donos do poder globalizado em larga escala é aquele aparelhinho que ocupa um lugar de destaque, seja no recôndito do seu lar, seja em qualquer sala de espera pública. Estou falando do aparelho de TV.

Nesse sentido, as emissoras televisivas são utilizadas para convencer, para seduzir, para introduzir novos costumes e dificilmente utilizam a racionalidade para convencer o povo fragilizado e turbado.

Destarte, a televisão é o mais importante veículo de socialização e de pouco controle governamental sobre essas concessões feitas em nome do povo. Essas emissoras de TV podem influenciar conscientemente e inconscientemente na implantação de novas condutas sociais por diversos meios de sedução e entre eles a imitação sem ouvir ar voz da razão.

Caso alguém queira se aprofundar no assunto mídia televisiva procure inicialmente conseguir e ler os livros “Televisão Subliminar” de Joan Férres (obra rara em nosso País), “Mídia, Educação e Cidadania” de Pedrinho Guareschi e “Controle da Mídia” de Noam Chomski. Caso alguém se interessar leia o romance “1984” de George Orwell, publicado em 1948, porém perfeitamente em muitos aspectos sociais semelhantes ao atual sistema predador, cuja principal arma é as telecomunicações.

Aqui faço uma propaganda gratuita para a Estante Virtual (www.estantevirtual.com.br), onde os interessados poderão conseguir esses livros por preços razoáveis.

Voltando ao assunto em pauta, verifica-se nitidamente que há a presença de um domínio sutil perpetuado pelos dirigentes do atual sistema predador, o qual se utiliza das telecomunicações como veículos de controle social e mudanças de comportamento.

As mudanças mais visíveis estão refletidas na deterioração da educação básica familiar dada aos jovens, na deterioração da educação cívica, na deterioração da educação moral, na deterioração da educação da organização social e política, e finalmente na ausência de uma educação que mostre as reais causas dos graves problemas sociais regionais enfrentados pela Republica Federativa do Brasil.

Entre os problemas sociais cujas causas não são analisadas pelas mídias televisivas temos a situação de várias cidades dominadas pelo crime organizado, aumento desenfreado da delinqüência juvenil e da prostituição de crianças.

As mídias televisivas também pouco esclarecem sobre as penas proporcionadas pelo Estado de Direito aos pouquíssimos crimes elucidados no Brasil. Não dizem que são penas patéticas e que em pouco tempo criminosos pobres e miseráveis não recuperados socialmente e sim mais embrutecidos estarão sendo beneficiados pelo ordenamento jurídico em vigor. Obviamente será difícil de encontrar criminosos de colarinho branco nos presídios, pois acabam sendo beneficiados por acordos políticos que vão contra a ética e a moralidade. Afinal de contas são mais de quinhentos anos de corrupção desde que o primeiro invasor oficialmente desembarcou nas futuras terras que seriam da Nação brasileira.

Naturalmente, esse estado de caos proposital irá possibilitar a supressão de direitos fundamentais e em pouco tempo o povo ingênuo seduzido e induzido pelas telecomunicações irá aceitar passivamente as mudanças de controle social e a inevitável transformação do Estado do bem estar social em um Estado Policial, sem que sejam questionados, racionalmente, as mudanças que já estão ocorrendo.

Sendo assim, a situação de domínio por facções de criminosos e por maus políticos está tão caracterizada que, por exemplo, em meu Estado o povo continua elegendo parlamentares que em outras democracias mais perfeitas estariam confinadas a algum presídio com longas penas a serem cumpridas. O pior de tudo é que muitos órgãos judiciais de fiscalização se calam dando a nítida impressão de que estão compactuados com os poderosos da região ou talvez por pouco puderem fazer, já que a legislação criada pelos políticos possui brechas muito bem aproveitadas pelos advogados pagos a peso de ouro e pouco compromissados com outros valores cívicos e morais.

Então qual a saída? Qual o papel que Brasil irá verdadeiramente exercer durante o século XXI? Qual o tipo de sociedade que queremos para os nossos descendentes? O que podemos esperar do futuro com centenas de políticos corruptos instalados nos três poderes, eleitos pelo voto democrático de um povo sem criticidade e que juntamente com outras espécies de colarinho branco dominam as telecomunicações?

Enquanto o povo não fizer o uso da racionalidade, não recuperar a ética e a moral na educação dos seus filhos, continuará mantendo no poder os oportunistas e aproveitadores, os quais por sua vez irão satisfazer o comando dos verdadeiros donos do poder globalizado. Quais as chances de ocorrer à inversão dessa realidade? Poucas.

A decisão caberá, com certeza, a um pequeno grupo que poderá calar-se ou iniciar uma revolução silenciosa e sutil para a recuperação dos valores perdidos e combater o pior de todos os inimigos: aqueles que manobram com a fé das pessoas, que seduzem pela imitação e escravizam por intermédio das emoções, de sonhos e de sentimentos, por meio de imagens, de programas religiosos, filmes, novelas e propagandas tendenciosas subliminares. Tudo isso proporcionado pelas mídias televisivas de caráter altamente socializadora, o que possibilita um novo estilo de vida sem os critérios da racionalidade que poderia indicar novos e bons caminhos.

Só nos resta tomar as vacinas da racionalidade e do verdadeiro conhecimento, o qual, diga-se de passagem, muitas vezes suprimido por interesses diversos, e no final nos prepararmos para um mundo cada vez mais perigoso, onde poucos estarão incluídos e dominados socialmente pela ideologia vigente e a grande maioria será de excluídos, sem expectativas de nada, a não ser das promessas dos religiosos que oferecerão o paraíso celestial após as suas mortes.

October is such a fascinating month. Based on Numerology it is the month that acts as the “window” to show you what is to come in the New Year. September brought the phase of completion as we now begin to wind down and turn inward for the dark, hibernation days of winter.

October holds the wonderful celebration of Hallowe’en, a time of transition and thanks giving as well as apparently a time where the veil that separates the two worlds is at it’s thinnest. This year we look forward to Chiron (the planet of healing) shifting and moving forward all the way until June, 2010 as well as on Saturday where 4 major celestial alignments energize our psychic atmosphere.

For this month, if you would like to aid in this healing time and receive extra guidance from the “other world” you can energize your “helpful people” area in your home or office by placing a symbol of an angel (or symbol of your choice) in this space of course also including an intention that you can either state out loud, write, or visualize. Perhaps intending for a stronger connection between you and your psychic or intuitive mind.

For more tips and articles, please visit my site!

www.andreajewett.com

Not amused: the scribbler.

Candid readers, it seems Ana Castillo, the learned subject of my Oct. 2 post, got wind of it and unwisely elected to counterpost, to the best of her limited abilities.  Below, therefore, I’ve cut and pasted the Oct. 9 blog entry from her website, verbatim, with one exception.  (I here elide the full name of the Berkeley grad student whose spelling/usage boner triggered my original post, a person whom Señorita Cosa gracelessly outs by name in her blog post — as my own post, you’ll recall, did not and still won’t.)

At the outset, let me note that Castillo includes, in her limp tissue of wet complaints, at least one bald-faced lie: that your faithful servant called the First Draqqueen a “gorilla” in a June 18, 2009 post.  Bullshit.  On the contrary, I used it to chastise those who do so call her, on the ground that Miss Hell Obomber doesn’t remotely resemble an ape, only a garden-variety, butt-ugly human being.  So get it straight, mentirosa.  Or did she just misread the post, as would be in keeping with her limited skill-set?  If so, I retract mentirosa and say she’s babosa.

My own reflections on Castillo’s devastating riposte follow.

———————————————————–
Friday, October 09, 2009

http://deanswift.wordpress.com/

This morning the world wakes to our the news that our president has been awarded the Nobel. But no doubt it has further fueled the ignorance the racism that has reared its very ugly head since his election in this country–just like the above link that went out yesterday about my reading last night.

By the way, it was extremely well attended.
And while I am not a size 42 (and nothing wrong with that) and don’t pump out books like the white privileged mystery writer she referred me I personally took no offense.
Anyone who calls Sara Palin ‘divine’ is in some serious need of soul saving.
It is true that people come to listen to my reading but what this hateful ’student’ can’t appreciate (but probably would understand if her hero Sara Palin came to Berkeley) is that my long time readers also come to SEE me.
Reading further on this white reactionary blog–she has referred to the first lady as a ‘gorilla’ and to those who must obviously be objecting to this hateful nonsense as ‘anti-white’? Whatever happened to Berkeley?
I’ll have to say it recalled the last time I was on this campus–as a Regent’s lecturer. As I began my reading at the Latina conference ’somene’ set off the fire alarm. the building was evacuated immediately, fire department called, program over–I went off to have Chinese food with friends. I asked Rosa M——z–the target of the hateful blog entry yesterday to read it beforei introducing me at the program. There are two emotions that motivate the human spirit, I told them afterward. One is love (the reason I have been invited, the students who helped to organized, the professors who teach my books and the community people who came out) and fear–the blog entry.

—————————————————

[October 23, 2009]

My, what a deft close reader Castillo is!  She sloppily infers that your faithful servant is herself a grad student, and at Berkeley, inter alia, because Sweet Thang, my source, is.  (Sorry to embarrass you, baby — I know you’ve gone all monkish on our collective ass the last year or two, but remember, there were times when you used to spoil me ROTTEN.  You know you did.)

As if I’d be caught dead in either the profession or the place.  Baby, when you write you need to get paid for it.  And living anywhere but Silver Lake (with the possible exception of Williamsburg, as I remember it anyway) sounds to me like hideous exile in the sticks.  I won’t even cross the line into Los Feliz, kids — that shit’s bourgeois.

And let’s not even start on Castillo’s syntax and usage boners — I guess your faithful servant was on to something after all, huh, mean old bitch that I am, as you Beaming Betty Crockers out there are forever complaining.  (Can’t a girl be tough and respected?  Spare me your sugary, femmy, nurturing, first-wave feminist kitsch, ladies of the Left.)  And, holy cow, her smug, insecure, posturing screed of a post’s just rotten with typos — if I dared hand my editor a piece in this shape, let alone tried to post it as a finished article, she’d throw it back in my face.  And rightly so.

Poor dumb creature — Castillo earnestly volunteers, with more rhetoric than sense, that “there are two emotions that motivate the human spirit,” love and fear.  Er, I submit she’s forgetting the third, much more interesting one: amusement, which very vitally motivates my blog entry.  My own amusement, that is — I don’t claim it’s objectively witty, just subjectively, and gives me the relief of shouting, or at least bitching, when confronted with yet another instance of fools swindled by knaves, a capsule formula for the university literature departments these days.

And I assure you, I continue to be amused, rather than angered, by this scribbling ideologue: Could Castillo’s wrapping herself in the flag of Obama bin Laden and his dragqueen spouse be ANY more cloying and fatuous?  I almost puked at her servile, abject “our president” — what’s with this hushed tone of reverence?  Lick boots much, chica?  And how about her frantic, fawning haste to point out “Look, look, I’m important, I was a Regent’s Lecturer at Berkeley!” (long since a hollow credential, alas, after literature in the mainline universities was defined down to include the pulp fiction of agitproppers like Castillo).

There, there, don’t cry — have a nice cup of Insecuri-Tea, dear, you’ll feel better.  And maybe just a bit of cheese with your whine?  Gross!  It’s unseemly — she’s like a needy puppy, yapping and whining as it runs back and forth to trip you in the hall, peeing on itself and your shoes in eagerness to be validated.

Above: A portentous littérateur reads, to an adoring claque of spectators, at Berkeley.

And how ’bout that pompous, overblown mandarinism?  (Pretty sad day for the mandarinate, if this mis-speller and sentence-fragmenter’s what they’re reduced to revering.)  Castillo and the quasi-literates who buy her printed effluvia exhibit a suffocating, lifeless deference to social authority and received opinions that would make Alfred Lord Tennyson and Queen Victoria blush for shame.  “My books are taught in the universities!”  (Cut to extreme close-up of celestial mandarin strolling through Hall of Mirrors, making heavy-lidded, purse-lipped faces to the glass, huelepedos nose held skyward in paroxysm of smarm.)  Oh, madam, I do apologize — please, your ladyship, say no more, we’re all terribly impressed out here in the trenches, where literature, if it’s to be made at all, will actually get made.

Actually, if she wants to read what might very well, after a few decades of cool judgment intervene first, be judged literature, by a first-tier intellect and first-tier stylist who happens to be Mexican-American but isn’t, mercifully, far gone in terminal self-adoration, or a bought-and-paid-for political hack, Castillo has much, much to learn from the deft Richard Rodriguez, especially his essay collection Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father (best on style points) and Brown: The Last Discovery of America (best on substance).

Actual talent: Richard Rodriguez.

But, horrors!  To admit the greater merits of another writer like Rodriguez, whose writing, both as form and substance, soars out of the abysm of self-reference in which Castillo’s screeds are sunk, would be to move beyond squalling self-absorption, to grow a pair and quit blaming “society” for the fact that you can’t write, and that nobody but the closed circle of the professionally aggrieved, and the repressed white ladies in the English departments who enjoy missionarying and condescending to them, wants to read your prose.  If it’s only because Castillo’s a “minority” (and she’s sure as shit not a minority here in majority-Mexican L.A.), or if it’s only because “society” is holding her down, that she can’t write her way out of a wet paper sack, then how do we explain Rodriguez?

For Rodriguez’ writing transcends, rather than wallows in, the disadvantages he was born into.  In his marvelously complex life, the past isn’t disavowed, or lost — but neither is it sentimentalized, nourished, fostered, in a perennial bile of resentments, grievances, and unforgiven wrongs (Lucifer, anybody?) in the belly you croon to, day in, day out, that’s long since risen up your gorge and into your head and yellowed even your eyes, so that for decades you haven’t seen anything, anything at all, even the stars or the flowers, except through the jaundiced prism of your hatreds.

No, in Rodriguez that past is instead neutralized, sweetened, absorbed, turned into something rich and strange that no one’s quite sure of yet (but we’re sure that we like it, ’cause it’s stylish).  The narrative arc he began in Hunger of Memory, a mesmerizing account of how Rodriguez, like all of us who manage to write prose people not part of our clique care about, achieved escape velocity from private language and rocketed into public speech and citizenship, is still curving upward (let’s hope there’s a book-length sequel to Brown).  Rodriguez like all Americans worthy of the name is a self-fashioner where Castillo is a self-pitier; he long ago left the dank, close air of Berkeley, in whose English Department he did his grad work — apparently without ever writing an e-mail to colleagues beginning “you might of heard…” — for the bracing air of the city.  Was it inborn talent, or lots and lots of hard work?  Both?

Either way, Castillo’s camp of critical race theorists and moldy Marxists, forever blaming bad character on social and economic conditions — as if poor people were so poor they can’t pick up their yards — will live and die petulantly refusing to accept any explanation for inequalities of outcome that doesn’t always, suspiciously, circle back to mean, old, rich, male whitey.  (What pity I’m none of the above — well, okay, maybe I’m a little mean, just around the edges).  ‘Cause that might require these professional resenters, if only imaginatively, to exit the warm, solipsist womb of the university hall of mirrors, and this, we can infer, the comfortable charity-case scribblers, cozily cocooned in praise from the Lilliputians of the lit departments, will never bestir themselves to do.

Rodriguez, you see, was exposed to, and then eagerly immersed himself in, writers of times, places and situations other than his own — Gawd, he even read Protestant theology at Columbia — those crazy nuns, you see, trusted him to learn and generalize beyond his own parochial experience.  And now it’s paid big dividends in his subtly-toned, allusive, impersonal prose, and in a smart, well-balanced cultural criticism which may before long stand comparison with Carlyle’s and Arnold’s — because Rodriguez long ago disdained and bypassed the horrible self-ghettoization of “ethnic studies,” championed by soft-bigotry-of-low-expecations types like Castillo and her enablers in the lit departments.

Rodriguez’ great master Arnold: they share the long, bony, handsome head.

Speaking of which, shouldn’t having her deathless fictions put on a university lit syllabus be the kiss of death for little Miss Piss-on-the-Canon, in whose dim, dim horizon of expectations the horrid Barbara Cartland probably does loom as some “white privileged mystery writer,” a veritable mass-market Patricia Highsmith?  But don’t expect logical consistency or rhetorical coherence from this shameless self-promoter — Castillo’s blog post is far too busy tripping over itself in her haste to run and hide behind the skirts of (secular) Respectability, Piety and Orthodoxy, rushing to shut down any debate that might unsettle her and her claque’s easy, shallow certainties — and I’m reactionary?  Oh, this is too good!

Who’s the pious old fraud trying to convince, anyway?  I don’t think it’s really me, or you, candid reader — more like herself and the cowed claque of coffee shop radicals, parochial hippies and ugly introvert fat girls who turn out for her “readings.”  How exactly should I fear Castillo when she can’t even close-read another girl’s blog post, let alone a literary text?  Or excise the typos, solecisms and just plain infelicities from her own?  First cast out the beam from your own eye, hocicona, and then you’ll see clearly how to pull the mote outta mine.

Oh, and by the way: It’s not me but you, dear, who need some “soul-saving” — tsk, tsk, sounds rather Christian and reactionary of you, and don’t lefties pretend all human behavior’s caused by material condtions? — about Sarah Palin.  (Note the “h,” dim bulb — I only used the Italian spelling locally to cohere with “la divina.”  And must we hilariously infer that you took the epithet literally?  Oh dear; the dullness is just too painful.)  For as everyone on the right knows, and as all of you on the left dread, Sarah Palin has the body of a goddess (not the blood-drinking pre-Columbian ones you posture to revere, dear), and the raw energy and crowd appeal of a rock star, and she’s going to be the next President of the United States.

But then, you were probably just exercised ’cause you couldn’t construe my Latin about her.  That’s pretty embarrassing, no?  Shouldn’t a Latina be Latinaloquens?

They had been arguing
amongst themselves
as to who was the greatest
Mark 9:30-37

So,
it comes down to this
as the stars revolve in the heavens
must you be one of them
in order to be fulfilled?
Are these arguments about importance
- important? 

You push and shove
grasping at the rungs of the ladder,
stretch for the brass ring. 

If you could be another star in the sky,
so admired, is that so great a thing?
To spend eternity in the dark abyss,
high above
without a friend
lonely
peering down upon us? 

Stars are marveled
only because of their celestial companions,
together in constellation, paint pictures.
Individually each eventually burns out.
If one is lost
it is missed – but by an expert. 

The stars in the sky then -
all for show,
ask the North Star
which stands alone
in the early evening. 

So now as you argue
as to whom shall be first,
I will walk off with the setting sun.
I cannot today bear to see the night sky
even with you shining there.

Ray Brown

“Allegories, when well chosen, are like so many tracks of light in a discourse, that make everything about them clear and beautiful”
(Joseph Addison – English poet and statesman, 1672-1719)

L’Harmonie (Harmony) is the left gilded figural sculpture which is crowning the roof of the Opéra Garnier in Paris.
It was made by Charles Guméry (1827-1871), a French sculptor who was working in an academic realist manner and who must have influenced in many ways the kind of poses I like my models to strike.
I took this picture last winter while I was for a few days in Paris.

“Each has its lesson; for our dreams in sooth, come they in shape of demons, gods, or elves, are allegories with deep hearts of truth that tell us solemn secrets of ourselves.”
(Henry Timrod – American poet, 1828 -1867)

Those ladies were standing at a platfrom which is located near Munsi ghat in Varanasi (Benaras).
They were watching the Ganges and they were making a sculptural group that reminded me Neoclassical statues like those of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

This allegorical representation is taking a different meaning today when India has to face terrible drought in the north of the country while the worst flooding in many decades are in the southern Indian states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh (the top two producers of the grain in the country).
The floods triggered by heavy rains over the last week left 2.5 million people homeless and has killed some 250 people. 
At least five million people are crammed in temporary government shelters, 240 000 houses and crops in 25 000 hectares have been damaged in the rain and over 4,500 head of cattle have also perished…
Who knows when this meteorological madness will stop.
For the moment only donations to the official institutions can help.

“In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.” – Blaise Pascal

Marco Agnoli: Sphere 19 Pendant Lamp

Valenti Luce, imported from Italy.

Sputnik Chandelier

Florence Wetterwald: Catch Me if You Can Mobile
Designed by Florence Wetterwald, hand knitted by Peruvian artistans in small workshops.

Gustave Dore’s Illustration of Canto 31, from Dante’s Paradiso

Canto XXXI, V:

Such is the nature of Celestial Light,

It to the faithful gives angelic sight,

Each dim terrestrial cloud dispersing far ;

These holy Squadrons, at whatever time

They took their station in these Courts sublime,

Of Light and Love an equal bounty share.

1.4 DIOS ORDENA LA TIERRA

 Génesis 1:3 Y dijo Dios: Sea la luz; y fue la luz. Y vio Dios que la luz era buena; y separó Dios la luz de las tinieblas.

Esta no es la luz del sol que es creado después.

Es la luz de la vida del Espíritu.

Los ángeles caídos a los que se les quitó la luz propia que vivían en oscuridad vieron la luz.

Vieron brillar el universo

Y fueron desalojados de la tierra y confinados en el segundo cielo.

Desalojados de la tierra Dios ordenó todo lo creado y vió que todo lo que hacía en la tierra era: Bueno.

 1.5 LA CREACIÓN DEL HOMBRE

Dios no eliminó a Satanás, tenía otro plan. Dios no fracasa.

Dios hizo la luz sobre la tierra y armó un nuevo escenario para una nueva creación.

Los ángeles estaban expectantes.

Toma barro y hace al hombre.

Los ángeles no lo podían entender, eran criaturas majestuosas.

El hombre era un ser chiquito, de barro, sin brillo y pegado a la tierra.

¿Así es como Dios piensa derrotar a Satanás? Se preguntaban.

 Dios tenía un secreto, el hombre creado a su imagen y semejanza.

Tanto deleite tenía Dios en su Hijo que quería tener muchos hijos semejantes a él.

Proverbios 8:27-31 Cuando formaba los cielos, allí estaba yo ordenándolo todo,

Y era su delicia de día en día, teniendo solaz delante de él en todo tiempo.

Romanos 8:29 Porque a los que antes conoció, también los predestinó para que fuesen hechos conformes a la imagen de su Hijo, para que él sea el primogénito entre muchos hermanos.

 1.6 EL SEÑOR DE LA TIERRA SOMETIDO A SU SEÑOR.

Dios le dió autoridad al hombre para señorear sobre la tierra.

Génesis 1:28 Y los bendijo Dios, y les dijo: Fructificad y multiplicaos; llenad la tierra, y sojuzgadla, y señoread en los peces del mar, en las aves de los cielos, y en todas las bestias que se mueven sobre la tierra.

Era una autoridad delegada, la debía ejercer en dependencia de Dios,

Debía reconocer la soberanía de Dios y obedecerle eligiendo la voluntad de Dios.

Esa libertad dada al hombre estaba condicionada por un mandamiento que ponía a prueba la dependencia del hombre, la obediencia del hombre.

Génesis 2:16-17 Y mandó Jehová Dios al hombre, diciendo: De todo árbol del huerto podrás comer; mas del árbol de la ciencia del bien y del mal no comerás; porque el día que de él comieres, ciertamente morirás.

Al comer, el hombre conocería el mal, lo experimentaría en su ser y así experimentaría la muerte.

 2 . EL CONFLICTO DE LAS EDADES

El hombre vivía en paz y armonía con Dios.

Dios se paseaba por el huerto y compartía con ellos en una franca relación de amor fraternal.

Pero hay otra voluntad en el universo empeñada en frustar el plan de Dios.

Por eso Dios le encomendó que labrara el huerto y lo guardara.

Guardar implica la presencia de un enemigo.

Entonces Satanás comienza a urdir su plan.

Tenía que acercarse al hombre para hacerle desobedecer a Dios.

La cración animal estaba en plena obediencia a Dios.

Satanás tomó el cuerpo de la serpiente (podía comunicarse con el hombre, algunos dicen que caminaba y que era hermosa).

Esta serpiente era astuta porque tenía la sabiduría de Satanás.

Apocalipsis 12:9 el gran dragón, la serpiente antigua, que se llama diablo (griego: acusador, difamador) y Satanás (hebreo: adversario).

Y esa serpiente sigilosamente sin despertar sospecha se acercó a la mujer.

 2.1 LA CAIDA DEL HOMBRE

La primera responsabilidad fue de Adán no supo cuidar el huerto.

Esa también es nuestra primer responsabilidad.

Cuidar las puertas de nuestro hogar y de nuestras vidas por los que puede entrar sigilosamente Satanás en nuevas formas de astucia sin despertar sospechas.

El segundo fracaso en la responsabilidad también fue de Adán.

No le enseñó adecuadamente como discernir y resistir al enemigo de Dios conforme a lo que Dios le había enseñado a él,

 2.1.1 LA SEDUCCION DE EVA

Génesis 3:1-5

1 – ¿Es verdad que Dios les dijo que no comieran de ningún árbol del jardín?

Esta pregunta es sumamente importante.

Satanás quiere saber cuanto creés de la palabra de Dios.

De acuerdo a lo que él ve que tenés incorporado de la Palabra de Dios en tu corazón desde allí va a comenzar su trabajo.

Eva complicó más lo que Dios dijo: ni siquiera lo toquen.

2 – ¡No es cierto, no van a morir!

Le hace dudar de lo que Dios dijo, trata a Dios de mentiroso. Queda el conflicto en la mente de Eva uno de los dos no dice la verdad.

Satanás usa muy astutamente la media verdad, nunca nos miente de frente siempre son medias verdades, confunde, están hablando de dos muertes diferentes.

Satanás habla de la muerte física y Dios de la muerte espiritual.

3 – Dios sabe muy bien que si comen legarán a ser como El.

Le hace dudar de las buenas intenciones de Dios.

Le trata de egoísta, no quiere compartir su gloria por eso te niega lo único que te puede hacer semejante a él.

Es uno de los ataque más efectivos, hacernos dudar de la justicia y de la bondad de Dios.

Por eso a Dios le agrada tanto que exaltemos su bondad.

4 – Cuando coman de ese árbol, se les abrirán los ojos y llegarán a ser como Dios, conocedores del bien y del mal.

Trata de sembrar el mismo germen que le hizo caer a él: llegarán a ser como Dios.

Despierta la codicia: se les abrirá los ojos y tendrán el mismo poder y conocimiento que Dios.

Siembra hambre de poder y de conocimiento.

 2.1.2 EL PROCESO DE TENTACIÓN

La tentación de Eva nos permite entender el proceso que Satanás usa para tentarnos.

1 Juan 2:16

malos deseos de la carne: era bueno para comer

malos deseos de los ojos: agradable a los ojos

soberbia de la vida: codiciable para alcanzar sabiduría.

Una vez que la carne está seducida, la voluntad está rendida y sólo falta la ocasión, las circunstancias adecuadas.

Tomó del fruto y comió.

 2.1.3 LA CAIDA DE ADAN

Y le dió del fruto a Adán y él también comió.

Esta trasgresión trajo fruto de muerte.

Entró el pecado y entró la muerte, en el hombre, en la mujer y en toda la creación.

 Produjo una terrible conmoción en el mundo espiritual

Adán tenía el cetro terrestre.

Al trasgredir le entregó el cetro terrestre a Satanás.

Toda la creación sufrió las consecuencias.

La tierra produjo cardos y espinas y gime esperando la liberación.

Satanás ocupó

- Una posición de dominio terrenal: dios de este siglo. 2 Corintios 4:4

- Una posición de dominio angelical: príncipe de la postestad del aire. Efesios 2:2

Adquirió las llaves de la muerte.

De manera que todos nacemos en el reino de las tinieblas.

LUCIFER

Lucifer es el portador de luz, el ser brillante, el que resplandece.

Era un querubín la más alta jerarquía de ángeles dedicados a la adoración.

Lucifer era el más grande de los querubines.

Ezequiel 28:11-15

- era el sello de la perfección

- era el ser más hermoso

- era el más sabio

- su vestidura eran de piedras preciosas (reflejan la luz de otro)

- era un instrumento de mùsica

- vivía en el monte santo de Dios

- era perfecto en todos sus caminos

LUCIFER SE TRANSFORMA EN SATANÁS

Satanás es el adversario, oponente, enemigo.

Ezequiel 28:15-18.  

Nos relata la caída en el interior del ser de lucifer.

Era perfecto y se halló en el maldad.

Todo un tema, las grandes caídas ocurrieron en tiempos de bendición: Lucifer, Adán, Judas, hasta David y Salomón.

- Se enalteció

- Se volvió hacia sí mismo, egocentrismo.

- Se contempló a sí mismo aparte de la gracia de Dios.

- El don se transformó en instrumento de muerte: tu esplendor corrompió tu sabiduría

- El oficio lo corrompió: por la multitud de tus contrataciones fuistes lleno de iniquidad y pecastes.

- Satanás representaba a la cración en el trono de Dios, llevaba la adoración y hacía ejecutar la voluntad de Dios.

- Por la multitud de tus maldades: profanastes tu santuario.

Dios actúa frente a la rebelión de Lucifer.

- Te eché del monte de Dios.

- Te arrojé de las piedras de fuego

- Saqué el fuego en medio de tí el cual te consumió

- Te puse en cenizas sobre la tierra a la vista de todos los que te conocieron.

Nos relata el proceso como es desalojado del cielo: cortado fuistes por tierra, te debilistastes como nosotros tú que debilitas a las naciones.

Isaías 14:12-14 Nos muestra el proceso de su autoexaltación:

- Subiré al cielo.

Lucifer moraba en el segundo cielo, el lugar donde habitan las huestes celestiales tenía acceso a los lugares celestiales (epiuraneos) pero quería morar donde moraba Dios.

- Levantaré mi trono junto a los ángeles de Dios

La autoridad sobre los ángeles ya la tenía quería gobernar independiente de Dios.

- Me sentaré en el monte del testimonio

- Sobre las alturas subiré

- Seré semejante al Altìsmo

Isaías 14:15-17 Nos muestra el proceso como es desalojado del cielo.

- Mas tú derribado eres hasta el Seol, a los lados del abismo.

- Se inclinarán hacia ti los que te vean, te contemplarán, diciendo: ¿Es éste aquel varón que hacía temblar la tierra, que trastornaba los reinos; que puso el mundo como un desierto, que asoló sus ciudades, que a sus presos nunca abrió la cárcel?

1.3.1 UNA PARTE DE LOS ÁNGELES SE REBELAN

Al igual que la humanidad, los ángeles son criaturas con libre albedrío, es decir, con la facultad de hacer una elección personal entre lo correcto y lo incorrecto.

Génesis 6:2,4; 2 Pedro 2:4

El registro bíblico muestra que hordas de ángeles escogieron voluntariamente unirse a Satanás en su rebelión. Apocalipsis 12:7-9; Mateo 25:41

Una conmoción celestial

Judas 1:6 Y a los ángeles que no guardaron su dignidad, sino que abandonaron su propia morada, los ha guardado bajo oscuridad, en prisiones eternas, para el juicio del gran día.

2 Pedro 2:4 Porque si Dios no perdonó a los ángeles que pecaron, sino que arrojándolos al infierno los entregó a prisiones de oscuridad, para ser reservados al juicio.

Estos demonios están en prisiones eternas de oscuridad pero se mueven en la oscuridad espiritual de la tierra porque es el dominio geográfico del infierno.

1.3.2 DOS VOLUNTADES EN EL UNIVERSO

Estableción un sistema de gobierno paralaelo que es copia del sistema de Dios

Como no es omnipresente actúa por medio de los demonios

Su función es frustrar la voluntad de Dios y se empeña en hacer su voluntad.

La tierra quedó desordenada y vacía.