Deiseal vs Widdershins

Deiseal - circumambulation with the object at your male right hand (aka "clockwise" and "deosil") as e-ample - http://www.deiseal.net/

Widdershins - circumambulation with the object (God forbid!) at your female left hand (aka "counter-clockwise") as e-ample - http://www.widdershins.org/

Eucharistic Musings for Christmas Day

From the 25th Chapter of the Gospel of Saint Matthew in plain King James' English - so that the "Current Occupant" (cf: Garrison Keillor) and his prosperity "Christians" ("our riches are proof of our goodness, your poverty is proof of your evil") can read between their bites of goose and ham on today's ancient "holy day" - let those with ears, hear:

"[31] When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:[32] And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:[33] And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

"[34] Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:[35] For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:[36] Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

"[37] Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?[38] When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?[39] Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?[40] And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

"[41] Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:[42] For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:[43] I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

"[44] Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?[45] Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

"[46] And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."

Sorry, GWB - but some light Christmas reading for your new Year might be useful.

Solstice Greenman

If studying maypoles, one should build and site maypoles. If studying the greenman, it follows that one should become a greenman. Happy Solstice! Greenmen everywhere - and Greenwomen as well.

"Boldness has genius...and magic in it."

Oft credited in its entirety to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - the good Frater's favorite quote. Thank you, William Hutchinson Murray (b:18 March 1913 - d:19 March 1996)

"This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth - the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans - that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!'"

-W. H. Murray in The Scottish Himalaya Expedition, 1951.
- quoted "couplets" from J. W. von Goethe in Faust, 214-30 based on John Anster's "very free translation".

Wreathed Pine Trees in Rome - 204 BC to 420 AD

Tis the Season for the daring who are able to leap into the second layer of mythic onion in a single bound - an earlier "Christmas tree" - notice any interesting parallels? - the decorated pine tree with celibate celebrants (sorry!) in "woman's clothing" waiting to be "saved by the Blood" on Vatican's (pre-Christian) Hill?? Hmmm!? OK, it's not a "Christmas" tree, it's an "Easter" tree - no rabbit; yes bull.

From Sir James George Frazer's (1854–1941), The Golden Bough published in 1922 - Chapter 34 The Myth and Ritual of Attis cf: the newer and more scholarly "Cybele and Attis" by Maarten J. Vermaseren, London: Thames & Hudson, 1977, isbn 0500250545

"ANOTHER of those gods whose supposed death and resurrection struck such deep roots into the faith and ritual of Western Asia is Attis. He was to Phrygia what Adonis was to Syria. Like Adonis, he appears to have been a god of vegetation, and his death and resurrection were annually mourned and rejoiced over at a festival in spring. The legends and rites of the two gods were so much alike that the ancients themselves sometimes identified them. Attis was said to have been a fair young shepherd or herdsman beloved by Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, a great Asiatic goddess of fertility, who had her chief home in Phrygia. Some held that Attis was her son. His birth, like that of many other heroes, is said to have been miraculous. His mother, Nana, was a virgin, who conceived by putting a ripe almond or a pomegranate in her bosom. Indeed in the Phrygian cosmogony an almond figured as the father of all things, perhaps because its delicate lilac blossom is one of the first heralds of the spring, appearing on the bare boughs before the leaves have opened. Such tales of virgin mothers are relics of an age of childish ignorance when men had not yet recognized the intercourse of the sexes as the true cause of offspring. Two different accounts of the death of Attis were current. According to the one he was killed by a boar, like Adonis. According to the other he unmanned himself under a pine-tree, and bled to death on the spot. The latter is said to have been the local story told by the people of Pessinus, a great seat of the worship of Cybele, and the whole legend of which the story forms a part is stamped with a character of rudeness and savagery that speaks strongly for its antiquity. Both tales might claim the support of custom, or rather both were probably invented to explain certain customs observed by the worshippers. The story of the self-mutilation of Attis is clearly an attempt to account for the self-mutilation of his priests, who regularly castrated themselves on entering the service of the goddess. The story of his death by the boar may have been told to explain why his worshippers, especially the people of Pessinus, abstained from eating swine. In like manner the worshippers of Adonis abstained from pork, because a boar had killed their god. After his death Attis is said to have been changed into a pine-tree.

"The worship of the Phrygian Mother of the Gods was adopted by the Romans in 204 B.C. towards the close of their long struggle with Hannibal. For their drooping spirits had been opportunely cheered by a prophecy, alleged to be drawn from that convenient farrago of nonsense, the Sibylline Books, that the foreign invader would be driven from Italy if the great Oriental goddess were brought to Rome. Accordingly ambassadors were despatched to her sacred city Pessinus in Phrygia. The small black stone which embodied the mighty divinity was entrusted to them and conveyed to Rome, where it was received with great respect and installed in the temple of Victory on the Palatine Hill. It was the middle of April when the goddess arrived, and she went to work at once. For the harvest that year was such as had not been seen for many a long day, and in the very next year Hannibal and his veterans embarked for Africa. As he looked his last on the coast of Italy, fading behind him in the distance, he could not foresee that Europe, which had repelled the arms, would yet yield to the gods, of the Orient. The vanguard of the conquerors had already encamped in the heart of Italy before the rearguard of the beaten army fell sullenly back from its shores.

"We may conjecture, though we are not told, that the Mother of the Gods brought with her the worship of her youthful lover or son to her new home in the West. Certainly the Romans were familiar with the Galli, the emasculated priests of Attis, before the close of the Republic. These unsexed beings, in their Oriental costume, with little images suspended on their breasts, appear to have been a familiar sight in the streets of Rome, which they traversed in procession, carrying the image of the goddess and chanting their hymns to the music of cymbals and tambourines, flutes and horns, while the people, impressed by the fantastic show and moved by the wild strains, flung alms to them in abundance, and buried the image and its bearers under showers of roses. A further step was taken by the Emperor Claudius when he incorporated the Phrygian worship of the sacred tree, and with it probably the orgiastic rites of Attis, in the established religion of Rome. The great spring festival of Cybele and Attis is best known to us in the form in which it was celebrated at Rome; but as we are informed that the Roman ceremonies were also Phrygian, we may assume that they differed hardly, if at all, from their Asiatic original. The order of the festival seems to have been as follows.

"On the twenty-second day of March, a pine-tree was cut in the woods and brought into the sanctuary of Cybele, where it was treated as a great divinity. The duty of carrying the sacred tree was entrusted to a guild of Tree-bearers. The trunk was swathed like a corpse with woollen bands and decked with wreaths of violets, for violets were said to have sprung from the blood of Attis, as roses and anemones from the blood of Adonis; and the effigy of a young man, doubtless Attis himself, was tied to the middle of the stem. On the second day of the festival, the twenty-third of March, the chief ceremony seems to have been a blowing of trumpets. The third day, the twenty-fourth of March, was known as the Day of Blood: the Archigallus or highpriest drew blood from his arms and presented it as an offering. Nor was he alone in making this bloody sacrifice. Stirred by the wild barbaric music of clashing cymbals, rumbling drums, droning horns, and screaming flutes, the inferior clergy whirled about in the dance with waggling heads and streaming hair, until, rapt into a frenzy of excitement and insensible to pain, they gashed their bodies with potsherds or slashed them with knives in order to bespatter the altar and the sacred tree with their flowing blood. The ghastly rite probably formed part of the mourning for Attis and may have been intended to strengthen him for the resurrection. The Australian aborigines cut themselves in like manner over the graves of their friends for the purpose, perhaps, of enabling them to be born again. Further, we may conjecture, though we are not expressly told, that it was on the same Day of Blood and for the same purpose that the novices sacrificed their virility. Wrought up to the highest pitch of religious excitement they dashed the severed portions of themselves against the image of the cruel goddess. These broken instruments of fertility were afterwards reverently wrapt up and buried in the earth or in subterranean chambers sacred to Cybele, where, like the offering of blood, they may have been deemed instrumental in recalling Attis to life and hastening the general resurrection of nature, which was then bursting into leaf and blossom in the vernal sunshine. Some confirmation of this conjecture is furnished by the savage story that the mother of Attis conceived by putting in her bosom a pomegranate sprung from the severed genitals of a man-monster named Agdestis, a sort of double of Attis.

"If there is any truth in this conjectural explanation of the custom, we can readily understand why other Asiatic goddesses of fertility were served in like manner by eunuch priests. These feminine deities required to receive from their male ministers, who personated the divine lovers, the means of discharging their beneficent functions: they had themselves to be impregnated by the life-giving energy before they could transmit it to the world. Goddesses thus ministered to by eunuch priests were the great Artemis of Ephesus and the great Syrian Astarte of Hierapolis, whose sanctuary, frequented by swarms of pilgrims and enriched by the offerings of Assyria and Babylonia, of Arabia and Phoenicia, was perhaps in the days of its glory the most popular in the East. Now the unsexed priests of this Syrian goddess resembled those of Cybele so closely that some people took them to be the same. And the mode in which they dedicated themselves to the religious life was similar. The greatest festival of the year at Hierapolis fell at the beginning of spring, when multitudes thronged to the sanctuary from Syria and the regions round about. While the flutes played, the drums beat, and the eunuch priests slashed themselves with knives, the religious excitement gradually spread like a wave among the crowd of onlookers, and many a one did that which he little thought to do when he came as a holiday spectator to the festival. For man after man, his veins throbbing with the music, his eyes fascinated by the sight of the streaming blood, flung his garments from him, leaped forth with a shout, and seizing one of the swords which stood ready for the purpose, castrated himself on the spot. Then he ran through the city, holding the bloody pieces in his hand, till he threw them into one of the houses which he passed in his mad career. The household thus honoured had to furnish him with a suit of female attire and female ornaments, which he wore for the rest of his life. When the tumult of emotion had subsided, and the man had come to himself again, the irrevocable sacrifice must often have been followed by passionate sorrow and lifelong regret. This revulsion of natural human feeling after the frenzies of a fanatical religion is powerfully depicted by Catullus in a celebrated poem.

"The parallel of these Syrian devotees confirms the view that in the similar worship of Cybele the sacrifice of virility took place on the Day of Blood at the vernal rites of the goddess, when the violets, supposed to spring from the red drops of her wounded lover, were in bloom among the pines. Indeed the story that Attis unmanned himself under a pine-tree was clearly devised to explain why his priests did the same beside the sacred violet-wreathed tree at his festival. At all events, we can hardly doubt that the Day of Blood witnessed the mourning for Attis over an effigy of him which was afterwards buried. The image thus laid in the sepulchre was probably the same which had hung upon the tree. Throughout the period of mourning the worshippers fasted from bread, nominally because Cybele had done so in her grief for the death of Attis, but really perhaps for the same reason which induced the women of Harran to abstain from eating anything ground in a mill while they wept for Tammuz. To partake of bread or flour at such a season might have been deemed a wanton profanation of the bruised and broken body of the god. Or the fast may possibly have been a preparation for a sacramental meal.

"But when night had fallen, the sorrow of the worshippers was turned to joy. For suddenly a light shone in the darkness: the tomb was opened: the god had risen from the dead; and as the priest touched the lips of the weeping mourners with balm, he softly whispered in their ears the glad tidings of salvation. The resurrection of the god was hailed by his disciples as a promise that they too would issue triumphant from the corruption of the grave. On the morrow, the twenty-fifth day of March, which was reckoned the vernal equinox, the divine resurrection was celebrated with a wild outburst of glee. At Rome, and probably elsewhere, the celebration took the form of a carnival. It was the Festival of Joy (Hilaria). A universal licence prevailed. Every man might say and do what he pleased. People went about the streets in disguise. No dignity was too high or too sacred for the humblest citizen to assume with impunity. In the reign of Commodus a band of conspirators thought to take advantage of the masquerade by dressing in the uniform of the Imperial Guard, and so, mingling with the crowd of merrymakers, to get within stabbing distance of the emperor. But the plot miscarried. Even the stern Alexander Severus used to relax so far on the joyous day as to admit a pheasant to his frugal board. The next day, the twenty-sixth of March, was given to repose, which must have been much needed after the varied excitements and fatigues of the preceding days. Finally, the Roman festival closed on the twenty-seventh of March with a procession to the brook Almo. The silver image of the goddess, with its face of jagged black stone, sat in a waggon drawn by oxen. Preceded by the nobles walking barefoot, it moved slowly, to the loud music of pipes and tambourines, out by the Porta Capena, and so down to the banks of the Almo, which flows into the Tiber just below the walls of Rome. There the high-priest, robed in purple, washed the waggon, the image, and the other sacred objects in the water of the stream. On returning from their bath, the wain and the oxen were strewn with fresh spring flowers. All was mirth and gaiety. No one thought of the blood that had flowed so lately. Even the eunuch priests forgot their wounds.

"Such, then, appears to have been the annual solemnisation of the death and resurrection of Attis in spring. But besides these public rites, his worship is known to have comprised certain secret or mystic ceremonies, which probably aimed at bringing the worshipper, and especially the novice, into closer communication with his god. Our information as to the nature of these mysteries and the date of their celebration is unfortunately very scanty, but they seem to have included a sacramental meal and a baptism of blood. In the sacrament the novice became a partaker of the mysteries by eating out of a drum and drinking out of a cymbal, two instruments of music which figured prominently in the thrilling orchestra of Attis. The fast which accompanied the mourning for the dead god may perhaps have been designed to prepare the body of the communicant for the reception of the blessed sacrament by purging it of all that could defile by contact the sacred elements. In the baptism the devotee, crowned with gold and wreathed with fillets, descended into a pit, the mouth of which was covered with a wooden grating. A bull, adorned with garlands of flowers, its forehead glittering with gold leaf, was then driven on to the grating and there stabbed to death with a consecrated spear. Its hot reeking blood poured in torrents through the apertures, and was received with devout eagerness by the worshipper on every part of his person and garments, till he emerged from the pit, drenched, dripping, and scarlet from head to foot, to receive the homage, nay the adoration, of his fellows as one who had been born again to eternal life and had washed away his sins in the blood of the bull. For some time afterwards the fiction of a new birth was kept up by dieting him on milk like a new-born babe. The regeneration of the worshipper took place at the same time as the regeneration of his god, namely at the vernal equinox. At Rome the new birth and the remission of sins by the shedding of bull’s blood appear to have been carried out above all at the sanctuary of the Phrygian goddess on the Vatican Hill, at or near the spot where the great basilica of St. Peter’s now stands; for many inscriptions relating to the rites were found when the church was being enlarged in 1608 or 1609. From the Vatican as a centre this barbarous system of superstition seems to have spread to other parts of the Roman empire. Inscriptions found in Gaul and Germany prove that provincial sanctuaries modelled their ritual on that of the Vatican. From the same source we learn that the testicles as well as the blood of the bull played an important part in the ceremonies. Probably they were regarded as a powerful charm to promote fertility and hasten the new birth."

Crown of Thorns, Page Two

Crown of thorns in Arvada, Colorado. (We are only the messenger.)

Crown of Thorns, Page One

Barbara Walker, 1983, page 962 - "Svayamvara was the ceremony of bridegroom-choosing by the queens of pre-Vedic (2700 -1500 BC) India where the queen embodied the Virgin Kali who chose Shiva, the Condemned One, as her consort, casting over his head a wreath of flowers representing her yoni enveloping his lingam. [The wreath was her own genital symbol; the god's "head" was his. (pg.311)] In the role of sacred king he would die in his mating, like a penis, and his bridal wreath would become the funeral wreath laid on his grave." Barbara Walker, "Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets", Harper Collins, 1983

Boots/posts to Crowns/thorns

So, our farmer hangs rubber tires on metal posts - why? - does it feel like the "right" thing to do? Commercial offerings of "wreath stands" - the "right thing to sell"? Christmas Wreath on a municipal lamp post on a bridge - the "right city thing". Colorful wreath hung on a stake over a California grave - staves off sadness?!

I am told that the mental exercise of bringing "water to a fish" or "ice to an Eskimo" (or spirituality to a Christian) is a logical impossibility - ie, becasue no one can step outside of ourselves to make that examination. But when we insist on a dogma - whose ancient origins we have never thought to question - such dogma by which its believing causes, no REQUIRES, the present and future death and destruction of fellow humans - then, at least, we in the fringe, can attempt to discuss "water with the fishes".

Tis the season for transition - our second motif - "crown of thorns" - "rings of stones" - "vagina dentata" - vulvas made up with phalli - see next posts.

The Knee - To 'KNOW' or not to 'know'

From a friend: "To quote my son, 'I'm a militant agnostic': 'I don't know and YOU DON'T KNOW EITHER!!'" So, to KNOW or not to know, is this the Question?

Last night's reading- art historian Carl Schuster's amazing "Patterns That Connect", isbn 0810963264, page 190-3, "Legitimation: Return to the Male Womb"-

"The word for 'knee' is used in kinship terminology thoughout many languages, including all or most Indo-European languages. . .for ideas like 'degree of kinship' or 'generation'. . .and can be traced back to the homonymy of two Indo-European roots: the nominal root *g'en for the 'knee' and the verbal root *g'en-, which seems to mean 'beget'."

"The homonymy of these roots leads to such correspondences as that between the Latin 'genu' for 'knee' and 'genus' for 'decent'. [The Greek writer] Euripideas refers to knees as 'generative members' and the knee was commonly refered to as the seat of paternity."

This last quote of Schuster's is as close in this essay as he gets to suggesting that the 'knee', 'thigh' and 'foot' are phallic euphemisms. - see my earlier blog:

(Though Schuster does later quote Hebrews 7.10 "He was yet in the loins of his FATHER when Melchisedek met him" and also mentions that "the Hebrew word for 'blessing' derives from the Hebrew word for 'knee', as in Jeremiah 1.5".)

But Schuster does continues to a very interesting observation: "The Indo-European verbal root *g'en-, meaning 'to beget' (Latin 'gigno') is used to designate exclusively the parental role of the father, not that of the mother. This has been explained in terms of what appears to be a THIRD homonymous root of *g'en-, meaning 'to know' (Latin 'gnosco')."

Then - could it be argued by 'linguisical' relationships - that the desire 'to know' and let others know you know, is 'rooted' in the phallic 'knee' - rooted in that compensation desire/construct where the need to "know" is akin to the need to run out and buy that Corvette or pickup truck or big gun.  That is, deciding 'to KNOW' something will make one feel more like a 'REAL' man - a real fundamental MAN!  A fearless and secure MAN. And conversely, those "agnostics" (even if this is a one word oxymoron) - are the "no knowing" and "weak-kneed" (anti-penis) sissy men loose on the deck - so can we have "militant agnostics"? not "hardly"!  (Sorry, too many puns!).

Did we mention "genuflect"? - "to bend the 'knee' in worship of the Divine" - Ouch!!  Unless ofcourse, it turns out that Divine is Feminine, then 'bend' the 'knee' might mean. . .hmmm?

"May the Lord add His 'Blessing' (ie His 'Knee') to the reading of His Word."

"Sacred vessels" ATOP Posts, Page 13

Related cartoon from the future (March 2007) by Mark Stivers.

Sacred, profane or mundane? The good Frater Holme's raison d’être is to demonstrate that "sacred" symbols percolate into [and out of] mundane and profane everyday objects.

So, top photo, yet another visual simile for your consideration - India's ancient sacred "Post/Vessel" Yonilingam with androgynous serpent, left, and on the right, a Supermarket version? For an explaination of this coital iconograph of Shiva's phallus and Pavarti's vulva, see Yonilingam basics with other reference images here.

Here, a recently discovered commercial iteration  in the middle bars of our visual harmonic- to demonstrate that, indeed, popular culture continually extrudes the mythic!

Other visual affinities within this project: The Bucranium (Sacred Ox Head) and the Crucifix below, and the even more frightening Madonna Code.

"Sacred vessels" ATOP Posts, Page 12

From Carl Schuster, 1996 - left to right: "Y-posts" from Hawaiian Islands; Mangarena; New Guinea; New Hebrides; Borneo; and Sumatra.

My thanks to Ami Ronnberg, Curator of the New York C.G. Jung Center's Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS) who two weeks ago introduced me to Carl Schuster's twelve volume, 3500 page, 7000 illustration, Social Symbolism in Ancient & Tribal Art produced by Edmund Carpenter and generously "deposited. . .in 600 academic libraries" including the collections at ARAS. Fortunately for poor students, I have been able to find in Denver's Public (read: Plebeian) Library, Carpenter's abbreviated version of Schuster's huge efforts Patterns That Connect, 1996, Abrams, isbn 0810963264. Though Carl Schuster accepted research grants from Jung's Bollingen Foundation, Schuster's prolific "literary executor" (and defender?), Edmund Carpenter, considers Carl Jung as a lightweight "popularizer" (ibid. pg 8) responsible for "past foolishness" and spouting "jungian nonsense" (see bio by Carpenter and bio by Chicago's Field Museum.) But again, thank you, Ami!

While this novice observer sees the "Y-post" (illustration above) as a coital construct with vulvic "V" atop phallic post - the same as our prosaic wine glass - Carl Schuster equates the Y-post as (ibid. pg 14)- "the image of a tree with the branching of the human race. This correspondence between Tree & Genealogy lies beneath a wide range of cultures, in fact, Culture. Ultimately it rests on the analogy of plant propagation and the notion of human birth from budding."

"By its branching, the Tree symbolizes the Tribe, and thereby especially its ancestors to whom sacrifice must be brought. To me, the forked post is the symbolic reduction of the Tree (its use in connection with sacrifice, though important, merely extends its basic meaning as Tree)."

"This association of Tree & Genealogy dates from a least Upper Paleolithic times. What began, I assume, as a 'natural' metaphor, became- quickly, perhaps - an elaborate symbolic system that included limb-sharing ancestors, two-headed, joint-marked figures; and much more. There is nothing 'natural' about these systems: they are inventions, transmitted by word & practice." from Schuster / Carpenter's Patterns That Connect, 1996, Abrams, isbn 0810963264.

In his defense of Schuster, Carpenter points out that (paraphasing) "nothing about Carl Schuster's work evoked greater skepticism than his approach" which "excluded no relevant category of traditional culture," nor "data from diverse cultures, periods and continents". While their book, Patterns That Connect, does extend the Y-post motif to patterns on clothing, to "rebirth" gaming boards and ancient labyrinths, nowhere does Schuster's vast collections include obviously related (and I suppose, even less defensible) "everyday" Y-post motifs such as the Maypole, crucifix, wineglass or our cowboy boots atop posts. Perhaps the larger 3500 page version "deposited in academic libraries" includes the populist mundane - we will see on our next visit to academialand.

Who is Asher'ah? Part Three: The Weavings

From Book of 2 Kings 23.7, NRSV, 3rd Ed., 2001 "[King Josiah] broke down the houses of the temple prostitues that were in the House of the Lord, where the women did weaving for Asherah." From the Jewish Publication Society's TANAKH, 1999, a transliteration of the Hebrew masoretic text "where the women wove coverings [Hb. batim] for Asherah." Raphael Patai, 1990, page 299 comments "The Septuagint [the early Hebrew Scripture translation to Greek, 300-100BC] [uses the Greek word]'stolas', that is, 'garments' for batim which may be based on an original badim, ie, 'linens'. The expression badim '(a person) clothed in linens' appears as a standing epithet for a mystical figure in Ezekiel 9 and Daniel 12." -from The Hebrew Goddess, isbn 0814322719

Recall that the general Deuteronomist's usage of an "Asherah" is a "sacred wooden post or pole", not the Goddess. Then the reference to women weaving linens within the precincts of Solomon's Temple for the sacred pole. Sounds a bit like Betsy Ross to me. So, is today's cover illustration of the American edition of "Newsweek", the weekly news magazine, a modern iteration of an ancient ritual? - the symbolic fabric wrapped around the symbolic pole - the ersatz female wrapped around the ersatz male - the image is too perfect. Keep it in mind for future blogs here. Please re-read the two earlier blogs - "Who is Asher'ah?" Part One in June 06 and Part Two in July 06. Newsweek cover illustration credit: photographer,Craig Cutler, 2006.

American voters, please do so tomorrow - for the world's sake.

"Sacred vessels" ATOP Posts, Page 11

From Leonard Shlain, 1999- "The starched shirt collar with a tie hanging down between its two pointed tabs-an abstract representation of male genitalia-has long been a symbol of patriarchal dominance."

OK, a business mans' necktie as phallus - a fairly "straight forward" idea. I agree initially with Dr. Shlain, author of "Art and Physics", isbn 0688123058, and more importantly, "The Alphabet Versus the Goddess - Word vs Image", isbn: 0140196013, quote above from page 426.

However, take a second look at the dangling phallus from between the two pointed tabs - what we CANNOT see hidden behind the white starched shirt collar is the yonic "loop" around the neck - if we could see the loop, then the necktie closely resembles our coital (or androgynous) "ankh", our "vessel atop a post". Or taken as a whole - "starched shirt collar WITH a tie" - our modern version of the priestly "alb and stole" - we definitely have our "ankh". Then, if we were to add Norman O. Brown's comments from Love's Body,1966, that the "head is phallus", then our neck-tie wearing corporate raiders above began to resemble three side-by-side ancient "phi" "power-on" symbols. (Don't yet "see" this - review earlier "posts" with boots.)

What then does the woman's purse signify? Sidewalk sex workers seem always (USA) accessorized with stilettos heels (vessel w/post) and purse (signifying?) - sacred to mundane - why?

Am looking for the photo credit of the corporate raiders pictured above from the New York Times - one moment please.

"Sacred vessels" ATOP Posts, Page Ten

Female reindeer head [c. 12,000 bce], first from left above: from S. Giedion -"Rites associated with the [interment of the] skull [Ed: 30,000 to 10,000 bce - Mousterian to Magdalenian periods]. . .need to be distinguished from rites involving sacred poles or posts, sometime, but not always, surmounted by an animal's head. Such post were made of wood or of stone and became, in some sense, centers of power.

"From the bird on a pole in the cavern of Lascaux, which is being clutched at by a bird-headed man, the tradition of the bird-crowned staff or pole extends until the time of the Lombards in sixth-century Italy and until quite recently anong some primitive peoples [Ed: and well beyond! - to the scepters of modern royalty - ie, doves - and USA/other flag poles - ie, eagles, double eagles].

"An example [drawing, left above] from the northern Magdalenian period (around 8000 bce) was discovered by Alfred Rust in a pond (now meadowland) from the end of the last glaciation at Ahrensburg-Stellmoor, not far from Hamburg. He found there an undisturbed wooden post (2.12 m) still topped with the skull of an aged female reindeer (Ur-Schweiz (Basel), XII, 1948, pp. 68-71).

"Survivals of the cult of the sacred pole persisited until recent years among the Ainus in northern Japan, where the shaman continued to play an important role. Posts with animal skulls, called inao, sometimes clustered almost like a hedge, crossroads--in short, in all places associated with divine beings" (Murdock, 1952, pp. 187-88). Murdock considered that 'that inao are neither gods nor offerings.'

"The final development of the sacred post appears in Egypt, in the obelisk, whose peak was thought to be the resting place of the sun-god Ra. [Ed: ie, golden orb; as, tops of most American flag poles]

"The cult of the sacred post makes it even clearer that both the cult of the skull AND the ritualistic animal intermints [in caves] were closely related to the procreation of the [human] species."

citation above: page 291, S. Giedion, The Beginnings of Art, Bollingen Series, Pantheon, 1962.

Sheep head on post [c. 2002 ce], second from left:
From: Dimitri Subject: [scribblings of unknowing]
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 17:07:35 -0600

Dear Sir,

As an individual who has traveled far and wide, what does it say to you that such Boots Atop Posts seem to be prevalent in the US of A only? In the country where I live, we have beer cans atop posts, Cola bottles on posts, and sheep skulls atop posts? Is there - in your opinion - a difference in the symbology of the whole concept - depending on using a boot or a skull - or does it all signify the same?

Greetings, Dimitri [source of photo, second from left above]

the good Frater answers...

All signifies the same, but as to sheep skulls vs Cola bottles? have you photos of sheep's heads? Compare Freud's Boots with Gimbutas' Skulls - was denken du?

Bulls' Heads on Post [c. 1995 ce], India, third from left above: from Vidya Dehejia, DEVI - "A sacrificial pole erected for a buffalo sacrifice in a Maliah Kondh village. After the sacrifice the Maliah Kondh place the buffalo head on top of the pole like a trophy. India, state of Orissa, Phulbani district, Balliguda area, spring 1995." Note: "like a trophy"; compare with earlier "trophy" posts.

citation above: Vidya Dehejia, DEVI The Great Goddess, Smithsonian Institution, Prestel Verlag, Munich 1999

"heads on pikes", right above - Cartoon or poster of the French Revolution [c. 1789–1799 ce]: "Aristocratic Heads on Pikes"

Cowboot boots, sheep heads, tires, Coke bottles and other "skulls" placed atop posts; national flags, golden orbs and Christs'/Adonis' hung on poles and trees - all the same symbol? What is being symbolized?

Be afraid! ?? Notes from Antarctica

"Christianity, a second-class superstition"?

Quoting from today's New York Times, 08 October, 2006-

"Society 'treats Christianity like a second-class superstition,' Tom DeLay, then a Republican representative from Texas, told the crowd. 'Seen from that perspective, of course there is a war on religion.'" -from the first of a four part series in the Times entitled "IN GOD'S NAME - Favors for the Faithful" which examines "how American religious organizations benefit from an increasingly accommodating government."

"Second-class superstition"? (Hmmm?, a "first-class superstition" would be?) Mr. DeLay, you honor your Christians by several "classes" up from reality. Mr. DeLay should take five minutes out of his busy schedule, find a history book and learn about Adonis, Attis, Osiris - their virgin births and deaths on/as trees and nearly 32 other "super hero" stories that came BEFORE DeLay's annointed Christ mythos. But aside from his concerns about a "second-class superstition"-

by reading and living his own Book, Mr. DeLay could improve the situation of Christian believers and the "war" against them. Without mentioning the obvious for Mr. DeLay - "thou shalt not steal" or "thou shalt not bear false witness" - here is my esoteric choice of six passages from the Christians' Bible which Christians should probably take a second look or, truth told, a first look.

1) for the door knockers, the helpers of the Almighty - Romans 1.19-20: "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world, His eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things He has made. So they (we, the ungodly) are without excuse." Again, for emphasis- Who shows we, the godless, about God? not our fellow worm bait - but it was, for your short moment, so reassuring to be the happy little helper of the great Eternal One.

2) for the Lord's Day folk and Blue Laws - again, Romans - 14.5: "Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds." Oh, and, by the way, no judging of each others' judgements - entire chapter, Romans 14 - takes all the fun out it.

3) two creation stories- the one you know Genesis 1.1-2.3 and one you do not know, Genesis 2.4-24. Compare. OK, you know the mysogynic rib part, but compare the rest - days of week, etc. - dont forget the Lilith story.

4) two (three) sets of "Ten" Commandments- the one you know, Exodus 20.2-17, with condensed version, Deut.5.6-21 and then the second set you do not know, after Moses broke up the first set, Exodus 34.1-27. Compare all three. Note on Ex. 34: firstborn humans are to be "redeemed" just the same as the first "womb openers" from sheep and cows - "Father, where is my brother?"  Some scholars refer to this second writing as the "Ritual Decalogue. Wiki discussion here.

5) from an earlier post on the "Ten" or however many Commandments that the right winging USA so-called "christians" want posted in every courthouse and government building (who exactly are the Taliban?!) - The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 31.31ff, cf: Heb. 8.6-13) stated that "the days will come that (the Lord) will make a NEW COVENANT, not according to the covenant...made with their Fathers...out of Egypt [that would the be TEN stone ones], but a covenant (He) will...write in their hearts." Well, this has not happened yet - in 2900 years.

This echoed by the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 3.6,2 NRSV) that "God has made us competent to be ministers of a NEW COVENANT - written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on tablets of human hearts - for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." Still, no action yet - 1960 years later - folks are still "stone" bound.

6) my great favorite - "God with Breasts" - El Shaddai - I promised some esoterica - “By the Almighty [El Shaddai] who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts [shadayim] and of the womb [racham] ” -Genesis. 49:25, see also Genesis 28:3; 35:11.

(re-edit 08/10)

"Sacred vessels" BENEATH/ATOP Posts, Page 9

From Joseph Winthuis, 1928- pg. 12 "To the primitive, all straight lines signify the membrum virile - the phallus; whatever is circular or sickle-shaped is the membrum muliebre- the vagina. However unlikely this statement may appear, it is our only way of gaining insight into primitive thought."

This aint pretty - it's becoming an ancient/modern möbius strip of 0's and 1's - this rabbit hole will stay "under construction" - please come back for continuing details of the "boot atop post" icons above and in the previous post.

credit above: Joseph Winthuis, "Das Zweigeschlechterwesen bei den Zentralaustraliern und anderen Volkern" Hirschfeld, Leipzig, 1928 - " a fieldwork in Central Australia; an attempt to prove that the theory of the dual sex being is the main spring of life & expression of physical relationship between male & female; sex relationship & its significance expressed in art; objects (sacred & secular); sagas, cults, songs and ceremonies."

(How polite! - how nice the language of our Australian and German cousins. But in light of the Colorado "cowboy boot on the upright G-d d-mn f-cking fence posts" - no quaint "primitive thought" BS need apply! These f-cking so-called "primitive" symbols extrude today - everywhere - 1011101010101011100!! - did we also mention the popularity of the Base "10" system?)

Regarding the petroglyphs "i", "j", "k" and "l" above - following from their intermediate source (page 234), in S. Giedion's Eternal Present, the Beginnings of Art, 1962, page 230 : "It is astonishing that the innumerable ideograms of eastern Spanish art - those last notes of prehistory from the iron and bronze ages - are still deprived of any precise interpretation, as are also those similar northern symbols, related to them in type and time, from [Clonfinlough,] Ireland [previous post] and the high western Alps. But the expression of male and female qualities has been definitely brought out in a number of different figurations. What, for instance, is the meaning of the strongly definely circular form crossed by a vertical line which comes so close to the form of the Greek letter phi? Is it really only an abstract human figure? Can it not just as well be an androgynous symbol (read: "coitial" here, ye boots/posts folks]? Other signs point to the possibility of this as the highest fertility symbol: generator of life, with life endowed." citation: S. Giedion, Eternal Present, Pantheon Books, Random House, NYC, 1962

Whatever you do, pay no attention to anything like the 1/0 symbol named the "exclaimation" "point", i.e., "!" [we are only the messenger] or its new bigger brother- the so-called, wait-for-it, "Power On" symbol!!! - where to draw the "line" or, is it, inscribe the "oval"? - as you recall, this blog is an attempt to examine symbol where it leads - sacred archetypal (deep 30,000 year old ancient) to the mundane "everyday" (as in even "today's" edit - 10/10 - oh my!).

"Sacred vessels" BENEATH/ATOP Posts, Page 8

This post has proven to be a bottomless rabbit hole - turning our post/boot over one last time - your patience please. In our last post, from Wikipaedia- "The Globus Cruciger (Latin) is an orb (globus) topped with a cross (cruciger), a Christian symbol of authority used throughout the Middle Ages on coins, iconography and royal regalia. It symbolises Christ's (the cross) dominion over the world (the orb), literally held in the dominion of an earthly ruler (or sometimes celestial being such as an angel)." And from the Encyclopædia Britannica, 2006, entry "orb"- "Christians adapted the [Roman orb] by setting a cross above the ball to signify the world dominated by Christianity. Rulers were often depicted with the orb, but the first to hold it in hand at his coronation was the Holy Roman emperor Henry II in 1014; thereafter the “imperial apple” became an important emblem of the royal power invested in the monarch." Italic emphasis mine.

Once again, "history is written by the victors" and powerful ancient archetypal symbols are brazenly stolen (No. VIII: "Thou shalt not steal". Yea, right!) pirated for profit and manipulation by the present ruling religions. The Globus Cruciger no more "belong" to "Christians" than does the famous bleeding man hung on a tree - that post "soon coming". As an example of such unthinking "divine" attribution of "Christian" symbols, did you hear the one about the Christian honeymoon couple who checks into the motel happily assuming that no other humans have ever before "used" "their" sanctified Christian Bed. Perhaps the Christian toilet? We digress!

Quickly, the ages of the "Christian" "Globus Crucigers" above top, followed by depth references below - A: Cyprus, a young 500 BC (Before Christ); B: Egypt, 2500 BC; C: Spain, 3000 BC; D, E: Italy, 3000-2500 BC; F: Ireland, 3000-2500 BC.

A: From Symbols.com "This is our planet's ideogram, the sign for the earth, or the planet called Tellus. It has been found on a Cyprian coin from around 500 B.C. It is similar to the so-called orb, used by rulers during the Middle Ages to symbolize their control over a part of the earth's surface." From the Encyclopædia Britannica, 2006, "Tellus, also called TERRA MATER, ancient Roman earth goddess. Probably of great antiquity, she was concerned with the productivity of the earth and was later identified with the mother-goddess Cybele. Her temple on the Esquiline Hill dated from about 268 BC. Though she had no special priest, she was honoured in the Fordicidia and Sementivae festivals, both of which centred on fertility and good crops."

B: Three "nefer" - see previous post - drawing of the three "nefers" from the neck of a "nefer" shaped vase, tomb of Kha, Deir el-Medina, 18th Dynasty (1550-1307 bce), page 78, "Reading Egyptian Art" by Richard Wilkinson, 1992, Thames & Hudson, isbn 0500277516

C: From Symbols.com, entry "41b:22" - "A sign engraved in a rock face in Galicia in northern Spain about 3000 B.C." More on this petroglyph and "J", "K", "L" (next post) of the so-called Spanish Art Groups, II and III, in the books: "Prehistory", M.C. Burkitt, 1925, Cambridge Press; "Rock Paintings of Southern Andalusia" by M.C. Burkitt and H. Breuil, 1929, Oxford Press; "Eternal Present" by S. Giedion, 1962, Pantheon Books.

D: "An ideogram engraved in neolithic times in a rock wall in Val Camonica near Brescia in Italy." from Symbol.com. The Valley Camonica has unnumbered tens of thousands of petroglyphs from 5000 bce down to medieval times - see rupestre.net

E: "This ideogram was found carved into a rock wall in Galicia in northern Spain. It was engraved about 5,000 years ago." from Symbol.com - see notes following "C".

F: Clonfinlough, Ireland: Neolithic rock engravings. Drawing after Burkitt from page 234,"Eternal Present" by S. Giedion, 1962, Pantheon Books. This glyph seems to be tied to a large number of mythic ideas from the runic "split year god" to the Christogram of Constantine.  It features in the works of Hermann Felix Wirth ""Die Heilige Urschrift der Menschheit" by Herman Wirth, 1936, Leipzig. The Nazi SS leader Himmler sponsored Wirth at this point of his studies (1935-38).  Locals recall that Abbe Breuil deciphered (c. 1929) the image and concluded that it represented a fight to a finish between the Old Irish and the Milesians in pre-Christian times, 1300BC. The cross-men were charging at the loop-men who in return were retreating from the attack.

"Sacred vessels" BENEATH Posts, Page 7

Now we enclose the bell/stupa shape to "move" on to the onion-domed Eastern Rite churches, the Roman/Medieval spear/scepter and orb, and the handy all-in-one Globus Cruciger (our upside down "boot atop post") of Queen and Christ.

from left to right, top: 24-domed Intercession Church on the Vytegra River, built 1708 and burnt to the ground in 1963. Colour photograph by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, 1911; Antoniniano of Marcus Aurelius Carinus (Roman Emperor, 283 – July, 285 ad) holding pilum and globe; Albrecht Dürer, "Emperor Charlemagne", 1511/1513, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg, Germany; Unknown, "The Coronation of Elizabeth I", 1558, National Portrait Gallery, London, a copy attrib. to Nicholas Hilliard of the lost original

left to right, bottom: Queen Elizabeth II holds the Globus Cruciger, the "Sovereign's Orb", for her coronation portrait in 1953 © Cecil Beaton / Camera Press; Andrea Previtali , "Salvator Mundi", 1480 - 1528, National Gallery, London; Pedro Berruguete, "Salvator Mundi", 1501, Palencia; Anonymous, "The Virgin Hodigitria", 1677, Museum of Architecture, Kiev

Barbara Walker, 1983, page 188: "The cross [is]..a male symbol of the phallic Tree of Life. .often appeared in conjunction with the female-genital circle or oval, to signify the sacred marriage. The male cross and female orb composed the Egyptian 'Nefer' amulet of blessedness, a charm of sexual harmony [c. 2400 bce]; page 534: It is still customary for rulers to hold the "phallic" scepter in the right [male] hand [and] the "yonic" orb in the [female] left hand. This usage descends from the king's [/Queen's] symbolic display of the 'hieros gamos' [sacred marriage] between himself [/herself?] and the Goddess. The original meaning was that the ruler united male and female principles; but the meaning was lost, and only the symbols remain."

citation: Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets", HarperCollins, 1983, isbn 006250925X

from Wikipaedia- "The Globus Cruciger (Latin) is an orb (globus) topped with a cross (cruciger), a Christian symbol of authority used throughout the Middle Ages on coins, iconography and royal regalia. It symbolises Christ's (the cross) dominion over the world (the orb), literally held in the dominion of an earthly ruler (or sometimes celestial being such as an angel)."

Dear Sister - Mark Twain's Thoughts

Dear Sister,

Mark Twain holds that one woman requires 35 to fifty men to assist her satisfaction - here is that exerpt - his daughter - may she obtain her reward! - refused to allow publication of "Letters from Earth" until fifty years after Twain's death - here the last half of Letter Eight - Samuel speaks:

"It is as I have said: every statute in the Bible and in the law-books is an attempt to defeat a law of God -- in other words an unalterable and indestructible law of nature. These people's God has shown them by a million acts that he respects none of the Bible's statutes. He breaks every one of the himself, adultery and all.

"The law of God, as quite plainly expressed in woman's construction is this: There shall be no limit put upon your intercourse with the other sex sexually, at any time of life.

"The law of God, as quite plainly expressed in man's construction is this: During your entire life you shall be under inflexible limits and restrictions, sexually.

"During twenty-three days in every month (in absence of pregnancy) from the time a woman is seven years old till she dies of old age, she is ready for action, and competent. As competent as the candlestick is to receive the candle. Competent every day, competent every night. Also she wants that candle -- yearns for it, longs for it, hankers after it, as commanded by the law of God in her heart.

"But man is only briefly competent; and only then in the moderate measure applicable to the word in his sex's case. He is competent from the age of sixteen or seventeen thence-forward for thirty-five years. After fifty his performance is of poor quality, the intervals between are wide, and its satisfactions of no great value to either party; whereas his great-grandmother is as good as new. There is nothing the matter with her plant. Her candlestick is as firm as ever, whereas his candle is increasingly softened and weakened by the weather of age, as the years go by, until at last it can no longer stand, and is mournfully laid to rest in the hope of a blessed resurrection which is never to come.

"By the woman's make, her plant has to be out of service three days in the month, and during a part of her pregnancy. These are times of discomfort, often of suffering. For fair and just compensation she has the high privilege of unlimited adultery all the other days of her life.

"That is the law of God, as revealed in her make. What becomes of this high privilege? Does she live in free enjoyment of it? No. Nowhere in the whole world. She is robbed of it everywhere. Who does this? Man. Man's statutes -- if the Bible is the Word of God.

"Now there you have a sample of man's "reasoning powers," as he calls them. He observes certain facts. For instance, that in all his life he never sees the day that he can satisfy one woman; also, that no woman ever sees the day that she can't overwork, and defeat, and put out of commission any ten masculine plants that can be put to bed to her.[**] He puts those strikingly suggestive and luminous facts together, and from them draws this astonishing conclusion: The Creator intended the woman to be restricted to one man.

"So he concretes that singular conclusion into law, for good and all.

"And he does it without consulting the woman, although she has a thousand times more at stake in the matter than he has. His procreative competency is limited to an average of a hundred exercises per year for fifty years, hers is good for three thousand a year for that whole time -- and as many years longer as she may live. Thus his life interest in the matter is five thousand refreshments, while hers is a hundred and fifty thousand; yet instead of fairly and honorably leaving the making of the law to the person who has an overwhelming interest at stake in it, this immeasurable hog, who has nothing at stake in it worth considering, makes it himself!

"You have heretofore found out, by my teachings, that man is a fool; you are now aware that woman is a damned fool.

"Now if you or any other really intelligent person were arranging the fairness and justices between man and woman, you would give the man one-fiftieth interest in one woman, and the woman a harem. Now wouldn't you? Necessarily. I give you my word, this creature with the decrepit candle has arranged it exactly the other way. Solomon, who was one of the Deity's favorites, had a copulation cabinet composed of seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. To save his life he could not have kept two of these young creatures satisfactorily refreshed, even if he had had fifteen experts to help him. Necessarily almost the entire thousand had to go hungry years and years on a stretch. Conceive of a man hardhearted enough to look daily upon all that suffering and not be moved to mitigate it. He even wantonly added a sharp pang to that pathetic misery; for he kept within those women's sight, always, stalwart watchmen whose splendid masculine forms made the poor lassies' mouths water but who hadn't anything to solace a candlestick with, these gentry being eunuchs. A eunuch is a person whose candle has been put out. By art.[**]

"From time to time, as I go along, I will take up a Biblical statute and show you that it always violates a law of God, and then is imported into the lawbooks of the nations, where it continues its violations. But those things will keep; there is no hurry."

END of Letter Eight- Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, isbn: 0060518650

[I had told my sister that my panic and obsession was - even if we get 125 years here - that we cannot live long enough to set aside the religious baggage acquired by the age of ten. To which she replied, "Eight".]

Your unfaithful brother, Grayholme

More Boots ATOP Posts

Left above: Back from a two week holiday in Dick Cheney's State of Wyoming with two more cowboy boots atop gateposts (double entendre!) found south of the town of Douglas, the "Jackalope" (antlered bunnys) Capital of the World. The "jackalope" is the American cousin of the "raurackl", the German stag-hare. Certainly, we could begin to add to this blog other "coital oxymorons" - already "gatepost", "cowboy"; consider "belltower", "penrose" or the ancient intended boy/girl word construct - "rosicrucian".

Then right above: photos of two boots on a fence outside of Kerrville, Texas received from Ted Parker of Mason, Texas. If you too have driven by these extemporaneous coital sculptures, please submit any of your photos of "boots atop posts" or related subjects to my email address fraterholme@comcast.net and they will be "posted" here.

Photo below: "Shoe Gate" in New Orleans, January 26, 2001



Now, to review -as blogging is "newest first, oldest last" format - a reminder to take a look first of the older entries - the present thread (perhaps, thin) of this blog is "coital motifs" woven in and out of the sacred and the mundane. To wit - from June 13th's post:

a] "trophy cup" - more or less equal parts male and female "attributes", ie "shoe-atop-post"; "the Holy Grail"; "bell/ghanta";

b] "holly wreath" - the vulvic circle made up of phallic parts, ie "crown of thorns"; "ring of keys", "stone circles";

c] "flowered rod" - the phallic wrapped with various female "attributes", probably our anathemic "asher'ah" object.

d] "axis mundi" - more a virtual male "pole" around which dynamically turns the "feminine" aspect, ie a female earth turning on a male axis as - the ziggurat or "Tower of Babel" winding up vertically to the heavens.

The next three entries will conclude the "trophy" motif and we must let our "boots atop posts" ride off into the sunset.

Does God need Housing? Beth-El

above, l-r: crystal quartz, natural Asherim, verdant springs, grantite pillars - at our 3800 meter elevation in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, it is too easy to question why other human beings continue to believe that God needs affordable Housing - more Temples, Churches, Qubbas - (more male womb/room envies??). But for the curious, Beth-El (House of "God") of Jacob/Israel fame, may not be exactly what you thought--

from Genesis 28, v.18 "So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19 He called that place Beth-El: 22 And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house." Note to Gen 28.18 in the New Oxford Annotated RSV, 3rd Ed. 2001; states "Ancient Israelite local sanctuaries featured sacred pillars, perhaps signifying male powers of fertility (see v. 22; 31.13, 45-54; 35.14, 20)." [Ed: "perhaps"?!]

Who is "El"? From Encyclopædia Britannica, 2001- El (Semitic: "God"), the chief deity of the West Semites. In the ancient texts from Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in Syria, El (El the Bull) was described as the titular head of the pantheon, husband of Asherah, and father of all the other gods (except for Baal). Although a venerable deity, he was not active in the myths, which primarily concerned his daughters and sons. He was usually visually portrayed as an old man with a long beard and, often, two wings. He was the equivalent of the Hurrian god Kumarbi and the Greek god Cronus. Writers of the [Hebrew Scriptures] used the word El both as a general term for "deity" and as a synonym for Yahweh.
© 1994-2001 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Answering Dimitris - Why Phallos, no Vulva?

Dear Dimitris-

Last July, you asked me, "How come you've suddenly shifted from vulva to phallus?" And two weeks ago, you asked "I can't help but note that you've taken a much greater interest lately (as far as I get to see things) in the Linga and his various manifestations in and from around the world ... whereas I've met you - originally - you were much more a "yoni man". Or was I deceived into thinking so by my own One-Pointed Attention? Seriously. There seems to be shift there. I'd like to know if my perception is right or wrong - or gray."

Dimitris, let me suggest four answers. This serves as a useful cathartic exercise and your recent question comes at an expected moment - I have reached the classic 55 year old point of the householder who can now answer such questions "without care". One point of correction, I have indeed moved, but only from Yoni to Yoni w/Penis and THEIR manifestations - I have yet not moved quite so far as the "Linga and His various manifestations" - nor do I expect to - see Answer 3 below.

ANSWER 1] SPECTACLE! In response to your invitation to write an "short" essay regarding veneration of the Vulva for Demetra's book, one must immediately ask "why does anyone need explaination to venerate the Yoni/vulva which is everyone's arrival terminal?" then, restated "what blocks/blinds everyone from seeing the obvious?" And when we slowly scratch our way back through time to humankind's first images - why, indeed, it was the Vulva (see S. Giedion's Eternal Present, Vol 1, pg 173ff as an example).

[Now to answer your questions, it is useful to be living in the United States at the time of George W. Bush - same question "what prohibits everyone from seeing the obvious?"]

Why?? SPIN vs SILENCE The yX male (in his confused attempts against the obvious yoni double X chroma superiority) SPINS huge spectacle and false promise- sufficent to satisfy his fears some of the time, maybe most of the time. Women in general quietly dismiss men's spectacle out of hand, but say nothing very loudly (not always from any fear, as women have all the actual power and wisdom, but) because the one thing that having actual power and wisdom does (non-attachment) is begat SILENCE, or if not silence, at least not Spectacle. This, as example, is why it is impossible to write an essay on Yoni veneration without revealing one's maleness and male limits - only a man would use words to create a devotional to a bleeding baby hole.

Next, Woman may very likely also be silent regarding the male spectacle because women reasonably lack any first hand knowledge or appreciation of the two principal entangled fears and envies of the yX male from whence "arise" the motivation for his Spectacle and attempts at compensation-

a) envy of woman's blood magic (moon, menses, making babies)- hence male motifs, myth and mentality requiring blood "sacrifice" including war - a part of a male immortality construct. No woman I have met can believe Menses are a point of male envy, but history and the present male blood letting prove otherwise.

b) phallic magic or lack thereof (aka re-erection, resurrection, "who is controlling whom" and/or, more precisely, "is this erection, my very last erection?") A woman, might have a headache, but she is still physically always able to engage in sex and more importantly, to continue her arousal and have repeated orgasms. Men can neither quickly re-engage nor readily have multiple orgasms. (On this point, see Mark Twain's Letters from Earth, Letter 8.)

The "blood envy" construct, I have begun to understand and have been attempting for some time to discuss in my essay, however the latter - "limited phallic magic", I am only now "wrestling" with (55 years old!) - which would no doubt gave "rise" to your observation of my appearance of phallic fixation.


ANSWER 2] THE TEACHER Remember the ancient saying?? "When the student is ready, the Teacher will appear."?? Perhaps true. The discovery that the first icon was the Vulva and that every present day religion, if you but scratch off about 3000 years of history, was controlled by women, not by men - was, for me - shattering. Yes, a "yoni man"! But at the moment, I am coming, Teacher, upon the motif named "phallos wrapped". Certainly my wanderings since my fortunate trip to Patmos have turned up keyhole after keyhole, motif after motif - each which has expanded into a universe after universe of both knowledge and has revealed earlier misinformation. Perhaps this "rabbit holes" of a Path is itself the expected Teacher? (You have certainly been the Bodhisattva to me - calling from the far shore.) But I carry heavy right-wing fundamentalist baggage, acquired before the age of ten (my sister says "before eight years old") which I cannot exhaust in the remainder of this natural life. You, Dimitris, I think, do not have such baggage - that is, your lightness is your advantage. As I identify each item of baggage, I must ask "what is it?", "where did it come aboard?", "where did/does it fit in the mix?, why should I mend it or toss it?" - BEFORE I can move on. This is an exercise of the FISH attempting to unlearn/describe WATER. A short list of the larger pieces of misguided fundamentalist baggage would be:

One Way - Univocation (ie, My Way or the Highway)
Servants of God (ie, the Almighty needs Your help)
Chosen People (ie, you are the OTHER, so I now I can kill you)
Holy Writ "People of the Book" (ie, Holy Words save you for all Eternity, words are NOT proscibed "images" Ex. 20.4ff)
No history, nor human culture (ie, we be leav'ng fo' heaven any day now!)
Linear time and progressive knowing (ie, Christians know more about God than Jews, Protestants more than Catholics, and I know more than you)
God gives Money to the Holy Ones (ie, the poor are sinners)
AND MORE - stay tune in this space - but said much better than I - Chris Floyd's recent article.

ANSWER 3] ÉGALITÉ! The very very few women who have be kind enough to wade into my tirade - "Cantos Cunnus" - have commented that woman give men/phallos much more credit than do I. And that a truely oppressive Matriachy/Yoni could never exist (except among the leather ladies of your homeland), because if men were to relax their Patriarchy / Phallos, things would only come up to EQUAL - ie, women are not so stupid as to create the opposite of a Patriarchy. This is an opinion expressed by the authors in a number of books by women as well as Leonard Schlain' several tomes. This being the case, one could only move from Yoni to Yoni Around Phallos as a move towards balance - "Penis only" would be a step too far.

ANSWER 4] NO LOCAL YONI You may be correct that I have edged towards the Phallos even if wrapped in virtual vulva - but this past year or more your Yoni acolyte has not had the stablising influence of a willing point of devotion. Again, when the Teacher appears and when She disappears - this too is the Path.

Amen, Amen!

Who is Asher'ah? Part Two: The Object

Fanciful woodcut above shows Hebrews worshipping the Sun, Moon and stars atop four aniconic Asherim. This blog will sooner or later get to a more probable iteration.

Citation compiled from Encyclopædia Britannica-

The word Asherah (Ashera, Asherim [plural]) in the [Hebrew Scripture] was used not only in reference to the goddess herself but also to indicate a wooden cult object associated with her worship. Prior to the conquest of Canaan (Palestine) by the Israelites in the 12th-11th century BC, the high places (Hebrew BAMAH, OR BAMA, Israelite or Canaanite open-air shrine usually erected on an elevated site) served as shrines of the Canaanite fertility deities, the Baals (Lords) and the Asherot (Semitic goddesses). In addition to an altar, matztzevot (stone pillars representing the presence of the divine) and asherim (upright wooden poles symbolizing the female deities) often were erected on the high places, which sometimes were located under a tree or grove of trees.

Because the Israelites had associated the divine presence with elevated places (e.g., Mount Sinai), they used Canaanite high places to worship their own God, Yahweh. Canaanite agricultural fertility rites and practices were adopted by the previously nomadic Israelites, often in a syncretic fashion with Yahweh replacing Baal. A strong reaction to the adoption of such rites led to protests by Israelite judges and prophets from the 12th to the late 7th century BC, when the Deuteronomic Reform of 621 bce led to the extirpation of the many local high places which included stone pillars, wooden Asherim and altars as sites of worship.
© 1994-2001 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

from Edward Carpenter, 1914: As to the Asherah, or sometimes plural Asherim, translated "grove,"--for which the women wove hangings--the most generally accepted opinion is that it was a wooden post or tree stripped of its branches and planted in the ground beside an altar, whether of Jehovah or other gods. Several biblical passages, like Jeremiah ii. 27, suggest that it was an emblem of Baal or of the male organ, and others (e.g., Judges ii. 13, and iii. 7) connect it with Ashtoreth, the female partner of Baal; while the weaving of hangings or garments for the "grove" suggests the combination of female with male in one effigy. At any rate we may conclude pretty safely that the thing or things had a strongly sexual signification.

Intermediate Types among Primitive Folk by Edward Carpenter, pg 34 [1914] LONDON GEORGE ALLEN & Co. LTD

And BEST article in the internet on Asher'ah and Her connections is Asphodel Long's "Asherah, the Tree of Life and the Menorah : Continuity of a Goddess symbol in Judaism?" presented in 1996 at the College of St. Mark & St. John, Plymouth, UK [w/ excellent bibliography!) I would only add to Ms. Long's connections the Priestly redactor's concerns re: Aaron's blooming Rod and other "power" staffs which populate the Hebrew Scripture.

Two excellent books on this question are:
Patai, Raphael The Hebrew Goddess. Wayne Univ. Press Detroit 1990 isbn: 0814322719
Hadley, J. M. The Cult of Asherah in Ancient Israel and Judah- Evidence for a Hebrew Goddess. Cambridge Univ. Press 1997 isbn: 0521662354

"Sacred Vessels" BENEATH Posts, Page Six

Above, l-r: Buddhist hand-bell; Schoolmarm's Bell c. 1930; bottle of Courvoisier; Capital Building, Denver, Colorado; Bodnath Stupa, Kathmandu

Now we turn our rancher's boot atop the fence post on its head, tip the wine glass upside down-

From Robert Beer, 1999 “The ritual hand-bell or vajra ghanta (Tib. rdo rje drilbu) ... [incorporate] the two main ritual [Buddhist] implements that symbolise the perfections of method or skilful means (vajra), and wisdom or emptiness (ghanta). As a sexual symbol, the hollow 'lotus' of the bell represents emptiness as the vagina, and the prongs of the vajra - symbolising the four nadi which emanate from the 'jewel-wheel chakra' at the tip of the male sexual organ- represent form or appearance. When paired [ed: separated], the vajra is held in the right hand, and the bell in the left, representing the inseparable union of method and wisdom. Their union is the coincidence of great bliss and compassion as pure emptiness and form.”

citation: Robert Beer, The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs, Shambhala (1999) ISBN: 157062416X, page 243

Symbolism for the stupa