Phoebe Anna Traquair, Irish Seer

From Mela Muter's lovely "Art Incunnu" efforts- "Phoebe Anna Traquair was an Irish artist who rose to prominence in Edinburgh and went on to produce a staggering volume of work. She was part of the Arts and Crafts movements in Scotland and worked in a number of disciplines including embroidery, jewellery making and metal work, painting, illustration and book design. She painted vast murals in several buildings including the Catholic Apostolic Church and the chapel of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, both in Edinburgh. Notably, she illuminated the book "Sonnets from the Portuguese" by the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, but she is probably best known today for her exquisite embroidered panels and drapes, one of the most spectacular of which "Salvation of Mankind" (left) in City Centre Gallery, Edinburgh. Traquair is a unique figure in both British Art and the Arts and Crafts movement, and she has been identified as the first significant professional woman artist in modern Scotland." Read and see more. . .
Click on images to enlarge.

From Elizabeth Cumming's 2005 book on Traquair, page 47 "This keenness for perfection also reflected in [Phoebe Traquair's] reading of Walter Pater. . .that 'not the fruit of experience, but experience itself, is the end'."

Jane Ellen Harrison's Epilegomena

Tucked in time between the works of the social anthropologist Sir James George Frazer and the psychiatrist Carl Jung, indeed a bridge, are the writings of the classicist, Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928), especially her opus - Themis (1912, 1927) - her study of the earliest forms of Greek religion.  

Themis not only had great influence on the continued studies of the origins of religion, even to present, but also on contemporary arts and artists including the American abstract expressionist, Clyfford Still.  (See review of Still's current exhibition including Harrison's book, Themis - FD: I am collection photographer at CSM, Denver, where I learned of Harrison's work.) 

Nine years after writing Themis, and at the age of seventy-one, Jane Harrison set down the essence of her thoughts in the short sequel to Themis, entitled Epilegomena (1921), an excerpt from the conclusion of the first of its three chapters follows below.  Just her Epilegomena answers great (yes, huge!) questions.  Download both Epilegomena and Themis at archive.org  Harrison portrait (portion) above by Augustus John.

"Still more strange is it to find the ritual mould surviving even in the plays of Shakespeare. The Hamlet-saga like the Orestes- saga has behind it the ancient and world-wide battle of Summer and Winter, of the Old King and the New, of Life and Death, of Fertility and Barrenness; behind the tragic fooling, as behind the Old King Oedipus is the figure of the Scapegoat, the whole tragic katharsis rests on the expulsion of evil in the ritual of the spring - Renouveau. The examination of the elder Eddic poems shows that the theory of their origin in primitive ritual drama correlates a number of facts which else appear meaningless and unrelated. Finally, and perhaps most strangely of all, it has recently been shown that the legend of the Holy Grail has a like ritual foundation. In the Grail literature "we possess a unique example of the restatement of an ancient and august Ritual in terms of imperishable Romance."

"The question of the influence of folk-plays and fertility dramas on various forms of literature has now long passed beyond the region of conjecture. It is firmly based on fact and widely accepted. It would be a delight to follow it into further fields, but the task before us now is quite other. We have to note not the evolution of literature but the primitive beginnings of theology, to mark how the god rose out of the rite.

"The ritual dance then is dead, but its ghost still lives on in Seville Cathedral and wakes to a feeble fluttering life three times a year. At the Festival of Corpus Christi, during the Octave of the Immaculate Conception and during the three days of Carnival (when I had the good fortune to see it) the ritual dance is danced in the Holy of Holies behind the great gold grille immediately in front of the High Altar. It is danced by the so-called Seises or groups of choristers. Their number has now dwindled to two groups of five.

"This dance of the Seises [ed: the Six or Sixteen] has been to the Church the cause of no small embarrassment and she has frequently but so far vainly sought to abolish it. She admits that its origin is "perdu dans la nuit des temps." It is frankly pagan and we can scarcely avoid the conjecture that it took its origin in the dances of the Kouretes in Crete in honour of the Mother and the Son. At Carnival, when I saw it, the dance took place after, Vespers. The song with which the dance was accompanied was a prayer to the Sun, but it was to the setting, not as with the Kouretes, the rising Sun. It was a prayer for light and healing. The dance is now attenuated to a single formal step. It is decorous, even prim in character. But the fading light, the wondrous setting, above all, the harsh plangent Spanish voices of the boy singers are strangely moving. It is a sight once seen never forgotten. Great Pan is dead, but his ghost still dances."

Reprint Cambridge Press 1927

Reprint University Books 1962

Sentient Beings. . .All

Illustration: Katie Scott/NYTimes

A teaspoon of soil may have billions of microbes divided among 5,000 different types, thousands of species of fungi and protozoa, nematodes, mites and a couple of termite species. How these and other pieces all fit together is still largely a mystery. Read more. . .

It turns out that we [human beings] are only 10 percent human: for every human cell that is intrinsic to our body, there are about 10 resident microbes — including commensals (generally harmless freeloaders) and mutualists (favor traders) and, in only a tiny number of cases, pathogens. To the extent that we are bearers of genetic information, more than 99 percent of it is microbial. Read on. . .

Besides the charismatic fauna commonly observed in North American homes — dogs, cats, the occasional freshwater fish — ants and roaches, crickets and carpet bugs, mites and millions upon millions of microbes, including hundreds of multicellular species and thousands of unicellular species, also thrive in them. The “built environment” doubles as a complex ecosystem that evolves under the selective pressure of its inhabitants, their behavior and the building materials. Read further. . .

In a world of hand sanitizer and wet wipes, we can scarcely imagine the preindustrial lifestyle that resulted in the daily intake of trillions of helpful organisms. Nature’s dirt floor has been replaced by tile; our once soiled and sooted bodies and clothes are cleaned almost daily; our muddy water is filtered and treated; our rotting and fermenting food has been chilled; and the cowshed has been neatly tucked out of sight. While these improvements in hygiene and sanitation deserve applause, they have inadvertently given rise to a set of truly human-made diseases. Continues. . .

An enlightened drill by the New York Times, these pieces and more.

 

The Canon of Desiderius Lenz

Beuronese image, left, may sum up this entire blogged effort - boy meets girl with trusty serpent in tow, coital Asherah/May pole inclusive - all resplendent in 3D Fibonacci sequences.
        Notes: Best and maybe only (english) book on Desiderius Lenz and the Beuron art movement (wikilinks) is The Aesthetics of Beuron directly from publisher, Francis Boutle for $20ish. (Amazon is down to $146.)  David Clayton's Way of Beauty pages about the Beuronese School are linked here. Links also to works located at the Abbey of St. Hildegard and in our own Conception Abbey in Conception, Missouri. (The former's website features very, VERY low res images and the latter's images are curiously hidden down below a long bit of scrolling/strolling past an ascii image lists before discovering the image - ah, those contemplative arts.)

Pater Desiderius Lenz's chalice at right, again a sexual nexus as the earlier Tantric Yantra and the more recent Star of Solomon is self realised only now-ish (2010).

Kreider on 'Marketable Truth' and 'I Dont Know'

Illustration: Jim Stoten/NYTimes

This is another reason so many writers feel the need to impersonate someone wise or in possession of some marketable truth: it’s a function of insecurity, of fear. If we don’t assume some sort of expertise, why, exactly, should anyone bother reading us, let alone buy our books or invite us to appear on “Fresh Air”?  To admit to ignorance, uncertainty or ambivalence is to cede your place on the masthead, your slot on the program, and allow all the coveted eyeballs to turn instead to the next hack who’s more than happy to sell them all the answers.

My least favorite parts of my own writing, the ones that make me cringe to reread, are the parts where I catch myself trying to smush the unwieldy mess of real life into some neatly-shaped conclusion, the sort of thesis statement you were obliged to tack on to essays in high school or the Joycean epiphanies that are de rigueur in apprentice fiction — whenever, in other words, I try to sound like I know what I’m talking about. Real life, in my experience, is not rife with epiphanies, let alone lessons; what little we learn tends to come exactly too late, gets contradicted by the next blunder, or is immediately forgotten and has to be learned all over again. More and more, the only things that seem to me worth writing about are the ones I don’t understand. Sometimes the most honest and helpful thing a writer can do is to acknowledge that some problems are insoluble, that life is hard and there aren’t going to be any answers, that he’s just as screwed-up and clueless as the rest of us. Or I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. Read the entire The Power of ‘I Don’t Know’ By TIM KREIDER, "Draft" NY Times, April 29, 2013  Illustration: Jim Stoten

Soup Kitchen Eucharist

Easter Sunday was our annual and ancient discussion of how to kill and eat the Divine God - with its associated and copyrighted nuances by various parties, as example, the punishments regarding the belief, or lack thereof, in the johnny-come-lately miracle of transubstantiation - wiki it - much better than the miracle of refrigeration.

Here follows a rarely actioned suggestion from the gospel of Matthew about how to remember and honor the Divine God. We should add that no human has yet to be punished, killed or roasted because of his/her belief or non-belief in this pericope - not yet anyway, read on.

And, if what Matthew writes just proves to be the case, then the soup kitchen might be at the cutting edge of the true 'do unto Me' Eucharist. And our own Dorothy Day will be the great soup kitchen Saint- wiki again.  Her optimistically named organisation - Catholic Workers - follows in her dedication. However, note below, if you do not care to slave over a hot stove in a soup kitchen (or similar tasks) on this side of the veil, you still get to go to a very hot place as part of the 'deal' later on. (Illustration of Dorothy Day, above, by Julie Lonneman, used with permission of the artist.)
 
That Mt 25 pericope: 31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (-English NIV, others here.)

Fraenkel's Good Bits from Culture Clash

Illustration: Leif Parsons for NYTimes.

"We humans are deeply divided on fundamental moral, religious and philosophical questions. But that can be a good thing." In Praise of the Clash of Cultures By CARLOS FRAENKEL, September 2, 2012 New York Times. A much more positive spin on believers and tolerence than I am able to muster. Enjoy.

"Men, Who Needs Them" by Greg Hampikian

from NY Times - August 24, 2012

Men, Who Needs Them?

By GREG HAMPIKIAN, Boise, Idaho  

Illustration: Kelsey Dake

MAMMALS are named after their defining characteristic, the glands capable of sustaining a life for years after birth — glands that are functional only in the female. And yet while the term “mammal” is based on an objective analysis of shared traits, the genus name for human beings, Homo, reflects an 18th-century masculine bias in science.

   That bias, however, is becoming harder to sustain, as men become less relevant to both reproduction and parenting. Women aren’t just becoming men’s equals. It’s increasingly clear that “mankind” itself is a gross misnomer: an uninterrupted, intimate and essential maternal connection defines our species.

   The central behaviors of mammals revolve around how we bear and raise our young, and humans are the parenting champions of the class. In the United States, for nearly 20 percent of our life span we are considered the legal responsibility of our parents.

   With expanding reproductive choices, we can expect to see more women choose to reproduce without men entirely. Fortunately, the data for children raised by only females is encouraging. As the Princeton sociologist Sara S. McLanahan has shown, poverty is what hurts children, not the number or gender of parents.

   That’s good, since women are both necessary and sufficient for reproduction, and men are neither. From the production of the first cell (egg) to the development of the fetus and the birth and breast-feeding of the child, fathers can be absent. They can be at work, at home, in prison or at war, living or dead.

    Think about your own history. Your life as an egg actually started in your mother’s developing ovary, before she was born; you were wrapped in your mother’s fetal body as it developed within your grandmother.

   After the two of you left Grandma’s womb, you enjoyed the protection of your mother’s prepubescent ovary. Then, sometime between 12 and 50 years after the two of you left your grandmother, you burst forth and were sucked by her fimbriae into the fallopian tube. You glided along the oviduct, surviving happily on the stored nutrients and genetic messages that Mom packed for you.

   Then, at some point, your father spent a few minutes close by, but then left. A little while later, you encountered some very odd tiny cells that he had shed. They did not merge with you, or give you any cell membranes or nutrients — just an infinitesimally small packet of DNA, less than one-millionth of your mass.

   Over the next nine months, you stole minerals from your mother’s bones and oxygen from her blood, and you received all your nutrition, energy and immune protection from her. By the time you were born your mother had contributed six to eight pounds of your weight. Then as a parting gift, she swathed you in billions of bacteria from her birth canal and groin that continue to protect your skin, digestive system and general health. In contrast, your father’s 3.3 picograms of DNA comes out to less than one pound of male contribution since the beginning of Homo sapiens 107 billion babies ago.

   And while birth seems like a separation, for us mammals it’s just a new form of attachment to our female parent. If your mother breast-fed you, as our species has done for nearly our entire existence, then you suckled from her all your water, protein, sugar, fats and even immune protection. She sampled your diseases by holding you close and kissing you, just as your father might have done; but unlike your father, she responded to your infections by making antibodies that she passed to you in breast milk.

I don’t dismiss the years I put in as a doting father, or my year at home as a house husband with two young kids. And I credit my own father as the more influential parent in my life. Fathers are of great benefit. But that is a far cry from “necessary and sufficient” for reproduction.

   If a woman wants to have a baby without a man, she just needs to secure sperm (fresh or frozen) from a donor (living or dead). The only technology the self-impregnating woman needs is a straw or turkey baster, and the basic technique hasn’t changed much since Talmudic scholars debated the religious implications of insemination without sex in the fifth century. If all the men on earth died tonight, the species could continue on frozen sperm. If the women disappear, it’s extinction.

   Ultimately the question is, does “mankind” really need men? With human cloning technology just around the corner and enough frozen sperm in the world to already populate many generations, perhaps we should perform a cost-benefit analysis.

It’s true that men have traditionally been the breadwinners. But women have been a majority of college graduates since the 1980s, and their numbers are growing. It’s also true that men have, on average, a bit more muscle mass than women. But in the age of ubiquitous weapons, the one with the better firepower (and knowledge of the law) triumphs.

   Meanwhile women live longer, are healthier and are far less likely to commit a violent offense. If men were cars, who would buy the model that doesn’t last as long, is given to lethal incidents and ends up impounded more often?

   Recently, the geneticist J. Craig Venter showed that the entire genetic material of an organism can be synthesized by a machine and then put into what he called an “artificial cell.” This was actually a bit of press-release hyperbole: Mr. Venter started with a fully functional cell, then swapped out its DNA. In doing so, he unwittingly demonstrated that the female component of sexual reproduction, the egg cell, cannot be manufactured, but the male can.

   When I explained this to a female colleague and asked her if she thought that there was yet anything irreplaceable about men, she answered, “They’re entertaining.”

   Gentlemen, let’s hope that’s enough.

Greg Hampikian is a professor of biology and criminal justice at Boise State University and the director of the Idaho Innocence Project.

R&R - Catholic Ryan, Mormon Romney - End days of the RRich - Let us pray.

Cartoon left: David Horsey/Los Angeles Times

Ryan/Romney- each believing in his own version of the sugar plum fairy - yes - but neither one reads their sacred Book:

Matthew 25. 31-46 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these. . .(hungry, thirsty, naked, prisoner), you did it to Me'.

"Do it to Me"? - virtual Eucharist? - without the crackers and Cheeses?

Or Mosiah 4.16-26 " [Y]e should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.  (thank you, Jon Adams!)

Ref: Dana Milbank, Washington Post, USA Catholic Bishops and Georgetown Catholic professors.

In their defense, both men argue that feeding the poor is not the responsibility of governments-at-large, but that of the members of the plum fairies' clubs.  Does the "Son of Man" narrow his stipulation?  Cf: Catholic bishops letter.  (Parsing ἔθνος, vs 32, to English seems to be "all Nations. . .gathered before Him".)

OMG, what of the "no feeding" downside, Matt. 25.41. . ."depart (to the) eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" - hope these folks find time from their time a' fool'n with us to read their Book(s). . .just in time!  Photo credit above: 'Reuters/Jason Reed'

Irminsul, Yggdrasil and Wikipedia

Irminsul, the Externsteine Relief (above) and Wikipedia's list of early 'sacred' poles- Asherah, Yggdrasil, Maypole, Palmette, Celtic Cross, Roland, Sacred Groves, Sacred tree at Uppsala and the Thor's Oak.
A pattern emerges. The Externsteine Relief is said to show the defeated Irminsul palmette on the lower right corner being replaced by the victorious Christian version of  a nearly identical symbol - rebranding and re-rebranding - usually without acknowledgement of the copyright infringment.  But here is an actual snapshot of the branding switch - with Christ just being removed. The victors must assume (this assumes assuming victors) that the gap between the two versions will be bridged by the sheer dumbness on the part of the vanquished or some psychic "persistence of vision" of Jung's Archtypes across the brains of the trampled populace. Compare earlier post - Swiss Pissing Contest - your steeple is bad and my steeple, good, better, best.  Click to enlarge images below.

Assumed Irmisul from Relief above, lower right

From etching by Elias van Lennep, 1663

Maypole-le-Stand, London 1661

 Cited from the Olympic 2012 Opening Ceremony Blog.  History taken from BRITISH HISTORY ONLINE

"The Maypole, to which we have already referred as formerly standing on the site of the church of St. Mary-le-Strand, was called by the Puritans one of the "last remnants of vile heathenism, round which people in holiday times used to dance, quite ignorant of its original intent and meaning." Each May morning, as our readers are doubtless aware, it was customary to deck these poles with wreaths of flowers, round which the people danced pretty nearly the whole day. A severe blow was given to these merry-makings by the Puritans, and in 1644 a Parliamentary ordinance swept them all away, including this very famous one, which, according to old Stow, stood 100 feet high. On the Restoration, however, a new and loftier one was set up amid much ceremony and rejoicing. From a tract printed at the time, entitled "The Citie's Loyaltie Displayed," we learn that this Maypole was 134 feet high, and was erected upon the cost of the parishioners there adjacent, and the gracious consent of his sacred Majesty, with the illustrious Prince the Duke of York. "This tree was a most choice and remarkable piece; 'twas made below bridge and brought in two parts up to Scotland Yard, near the king's palace, and from thence it was conveyed, April 14, 1661, to the Strand, to be erected. It was brought with a streamer flourishing before it, drums beating all the way, and other sorts of musick. It was supposed to be so long that landsmen could not possibly raise it. Prince James, Duke of York, Lord High Admiral of England, commanded twelve seamen off aboard ship to come and officiate the business; whereupon they came, and brought their cables, pullies, and other tackling, and six great anchors. After these were brought three crowns, borne by three men bareheaded, and a streamer displaying all the way before them, drums beating and other musick playing, numerous multitudes of people thronging the streets, with great shouts and acclamations, all day long. The Maypole then being joined together and looped about with bands of iron, the crown and cane, with the king's arms richly gilded, was placed on the head of it; a large hoop, like a balcony, was about the middle of it. Then, amid sounds of trumpets and drums, and loud cheerings, and the shouts of the people, the Maypole, 'far more glorious, bigger, and higher than ever any one that stood before it,' was raised upright, which highly did please the Merrie Monarch and the illustrious Prince, Duke of York; and the little children did much rejoice, and ancient people did clap their hands, saying golden days began to appear." A party of morris-dancers now came forward, "finely decked with purple scarfs, in their half-shirts, with a tabor and a pipe, the ancient music, and danced round about the Maypole."

Actors stand during a scene showing two of four Maypoles representing the four nations of Great Britain during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games Olympic Stadium July 27, 2012.

Herman Wirth and Questenburg

In a quick synopsis from the following german text by Hermann Würth (1936), "the name of the village, Questenberg, seems to arise  from this midsummer tradition of this pole and its "queste", that is, its wreath and the tassels. Würth talks about it as a symbol for an old midsummer festivity, which is a pagan festival, but he also talks of the tree as the 'year tree of the God' (?!) The oak-stem is about 8 to 10 meters high and had earlier been mentioned by Jacob Grimm in his German Mythology (1844). The ritual happened every year around Whitsun (late May).  Würth describes the ritual as still having been practiced in 1924." Quoting from Jacob Grimm's "German Mythology" (Actually quoting the Stallybrass 1883 English translation re-titled "Teutonic Mythology" which is free from Google Books) "From later times and surviving folk-tales I can bring forward a few things. At the village of Questenberg. in the Harz, on the third day in Whitsuntide, the lads carry an oak up the castle-hill which overlooks the whole district, and, when they have set it upright, fasten to it a large garland of branches of trees plaited together, and as big as a cartwheel. They all shout 'the queste (i.e. garland) hangs,' and then they dance round the tree on the hill top; both tree and garland are renewed every year." 2008 photo (above) from German Wiki Similar Wiki in English. Other Maypoles on this blog.  Jacob Grimm's four volume opus on CD, Grimm's Teutonic Mythology and Folklore, part of the ongoing english translation process of Northverg's Northern European Studies Project.

Why does the commentary of Jacob Grimm or, years later, that of Hermann Würth, inventor of the Nazi swastika, with regard to this tiny south Harz mountain village's maypole ritual have import now? 

There appears a vast amount of forgotten, deeply DNA embedded source of human comfort - a calm and solace - in watching or taking part in ritualized "stems and tassels".  Not in the actual sex act itself - too messy and frightening - but a comfort from a ersatz participation in one of the immeasureble multiplications of  ritualized iterations of  the act which have been curiously and clinically tidied and buoyed up over countless millennia. Why?  This seems the obsession of this inquiry, apologies to Jung.

Examples: the Catholic Church uses "red wine" for the tassel and a white "wafer" for the stem. Same ritual. Same comforts against angst. And the Church cleverly get endless monies by providing the actual body and blood of their god to their customers - really! - and the symbols are not terribly different from the "stem and tassels" of Questenburg.  Speaking of money. . . what else can explain paying multimillions of USD to two competing groups of men to go out into a large bowl filled with watchers and attempt to move a seed-like object through / over / under a hoop / gate / net. Please! Unfortunately, some of the "stem/tassel" games seem to involve the pain and death requirement by the "victor" on whatever passing lamb, goat, chicken or (see earlier posts ) Mexican, if handy.

Passage from Wirth regarding Questenburg (below) is from pages 429-431 of the first of the two volume opus, "Die Heilige Urschrift der Menschheit (rough trans: "Sacred Original Writings of Mankind"), published in Leipzig, 1936. Tis in Deutsche, tis not your eyes.

Bucranium and Christ

Dear ARAS (aras.org), Subject: “Only Women Bleed”

I have visited your NYC office/library in the C.G.Jung Center several times. I wondered if you have personnel who might comment on the following idea? Gary Regester

Diagram, top left: From page 244, Marija Gimbutas, The Civilization of the Goddess, Harper, ©1991 -- “An even more esoteric symbol of the womb of regeneration is the bull’s head or skull (bucranium). The similarity of the bucranium with the shape of the woman’s uterus and fallopian tubes was noticed by the artist Dorothy Cameron while working with James Mellaart (in 1960-65) at Catal Huyuk (town in Anatolia [Turkey], c. 7000 BC) . A great deal of information on the symbolic role of the bull’s head is revealed by the wall paintings from Catal Huyuk. In many, the bucranium is shown in place of the uterus in the body of the Goddess. This is a plausible if esoteric explanation for the importance of this motif in the symbolism of Old Europe, Anatolia, and the Near East.”

Photo, top center: from Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. © 1994-2001 - “Bucranium - decorative motif representing an ox killed in religious sacrifice. The motif originated in a ceremony wherein an ox’s head was hung from the wooden beams supporting the temple roof (italics ed.-see next); this scene was later represented, in stone, on the frieze, or stone lintels, above the columns in Doric temples. The motif has been found on painted pottery in Iraq dating from 5000 BC. (Italics - Ed) It was later imported into Bronze Age Crete as part of the bull and double-ax cult, where the bull’s head was decorated with a garland of bay leaves. In Roman examples, the garland of bay leaves was omitted.”

Photo top right: from New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV, Oxford Press, © 1994 -John 19.16,34 “So they took Jesus: and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull (Greek: craniou topos), which in Hebrew (Aramaic) is called Golgotha. There they crucified him...one of the soldiers pierced (Jesus’s) side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out."

ARAS reply- Dear Gary Regester Thank you for your letter and evocative images! I am afraid we don’t have the time to do research of this kind, however intriguing it might be. I hope you can come in and do this yourself. These are just some things I remember from our files - there is a connection in Egyptian imagery between uterus and cow horns - not bull horns, as far as I know. There is a connection between Christ’s wound and a bleeding (or at least red-colored) vulva suggesting the womb from which the Church was born. We have several images like that. All best wishes, Ami Ronnberg, Curator ARAS (Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism) NYC, NY

From image provided by ARAS (left) from the Bible Moralisee(c. 1250): and the caption provided by ARAS (ARAS 5Ek.010) “The sleep of Adam is the death of Christ. The side of the first man constitutes the woman, as the wound in the side of Christ on the cross signifies the Church (Ecclesia), the wife of Christ, the blood and the water of baptism. The comparison between Adam’s sleep and the death of Christ on the cross, the creation of Eve from the rib taken from Adam’s side and the birth or creation of the Church (the Lord’s Bride) from the wound in Christ’s side while He was on the cross is an old typological comparison first made by the earliest Christian theologian: Tertullian, Augustine, Jerome and Avitus. (from 5Ek.573) In Christian iconography, the wound becomes the spiritual vulva-womb from which Christ is shown literally giving birth to His Church, thereby strengthening the concept of the androgynous mature of Christ, which was suppressed by the church authorities.”

Click on photo, left, to enlarge.

All Symbols are Phallus

Originally posted one year ago today (and removed from the project about three weeks later). With this diatribe, there has slowly arrived the realization that Jung's archetypes are not all happy insightful symbols that bubble up in fluffy dreams and churchy icons. Rather, from the same boiling cauldron, arise a much larger dark host of death, destruction and mayhem.  Even now, there may be no return from were this path must lead.

From 5 August 2010-- In discussion yesterday with one of my house mates- topic: that the entire USA immigration issue ("give AriXona to China!") boils down to a white guy's artificial "line in the sand" aka "national border"; that all lines on the ground and the surveyors behind them are always white guy (not girl) issues and. . .and. . .lines are always phallic!; thus this is merely yet another pissing contest with endowment challenged gun and missile totting pickup truck owners. (Dont get me started on the psychic/phallic/coital implications of a 390 "horse power" "RAM" "King XL Cab" chariot.  Nor let us remember the peoples who sit just outside of memory from whom the line choppers stole the precious sand/land from in the "first" place, and "the peoples", no doubt took it from others well beyond memory.)

Then, given the long long (XL) list of symbolic phallic poles/ lines/ rulers wrapped in much less well defined (the female "point"! ofcourse) not-so ersatz vulvic banners/ earth/ crowns - starting with the supremely holy local fabric&pole combo to which my children must pledge allegiance to "under God" in Unistasia; note that the long scroll of the Torah is wrapped around two of said pole thingies; Muslim minarets in Switzerland are completely different than Christian steeples, not!; capitalized corporate acronyms and initial letters with the balance of the Name waving out behind - you see where I am going? No? So then, not to mention paying largely male players millions of u$d or equivalent to move a seed-like object down a field/ court/ campo santo through a net/ gate/ hoop/ Goal! - against another rapier thrusting team of similar persuasion, praying the same victory prayer at the other end of the campo. Nor plugging away with a long metal Scottish stick to knock a small white sphere into a hole/cup that . . .yes, true. . .already has a flag/pole/stick in it. Best of all, we can distract the great multitude absolutely "all the time" by these inane Spectacles validated solely by our genetics and genitalia - genuflection indeed.

So, question my Jungian friend - may Carl rest well - are ALL symbols themselves phallic and the wrapper is the ineffable understanding tailing out behind for which we seek and fail? Or should I ask Emma? I am tired of "pussy footing" around while idiot Rome burns.
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Notes on photo above: 2009 David NcNew/Getty Images - A recently constructed section of the controversial US-Mexico border fence expansion project crosses previously pristine desert sands at sunrise on March 14, 2009 between Yuma, Arizona and Calexico, California. A top Homeland Security official told a House panel that the department could ultimately respond to escalating violence of warring Mexican drug cartels by deploying military personnel and equipment to the region. 6,290 people were killed in the violence in Mexico in 2008, according to Mexican officials, and more than 1,000 in the first eight weeks of this year. Hundreds of kidnappings in Phoenix during the same time period were blamed on the drug trade. The new barrier between the US and Mexico stands 15 feet tall and sits on top of the sand so it can lifted by a machine and repositioned whenever the migrating desert dunes begin to bury it. The almost seven miles of floating fence cost about $6 million per mile to build. Zimbio March 14, 2009
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Dr. Fabio replies-  Thanks for writing, sorry to take a minute getting back.  Hope you are well.

All conditions can be interpreted for their phallic as well as yonic content. Once you are in the realm or symbols you are hitting into the ouroborus: the whole system: everything is everything.

So there is room for interpreting everything through the phallus.  Though I would have to say that the mother supports the phallus, and that the phallus is a more recent phenomenon in the dreaming: the phallus is civilizing: it's primary role is to demarcate: even the ritual incision/circumcision: is intended to set the phallus off from the literal world of genitalia: it becomes a metaphor: this is what the father does: he turns basic instinctual drive into metaphor.  The phallus in its essence moves away from incest...

So that's a start! Be well, and let's get together to speak soon

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Frater Holme replies-  First, may I append your comment to my blog?  Then, Googling "phallus demarcation" your genius synonym -  I find among many others - this one, spot on to my question:

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~hwaa/hermes.html "It seems that Hermes is an ancient god of the countryside, whose name derived from the Greek word έρμα (herma) or ερμαίον (hermaion), meaning 'a heap of stones'. The function of these stone-heaps was to demarcate the land. Another form of territorial demarcation is phallic display, which is then symbolically replaced by erected stones or stakes.  To this extent, stone-heap and apotropaic phallos have always gone together."

So, my question/problem - it is one thing that, per Jung, the archetypal symbols arise and re-arise in harmless dreams and semi-harmless religious iconography. But my concern is where the arising old DNA wrap into everyday symbol creates, maybe forces, human chaos, death, murder - where we, by revealing the "obvious" symbolic blackmail, just might reduce the suffering of the blind -

examples - OK, my diatribe on the USA's demarcation "Wall"; or, so much greater, the argument re: medieval Eucharist apparently sent 100,000s to their death at the "stake". Does shouting that those symbols are not the eternity saving blood/body of nonexisting Jesus Christ, but rather the ancient ancient menstrual envy (blood sacrifices on phallic heap of stones) and certain semen/wheat symbols -  just might have made difference between life and death - fatwa where are you?

Or the differences between the Byzantium Blues' and Greens' and their chariot races in the U-shaped Hippodrome that end in the deaths of 30,000 in an afternoon - racing your pickup trucks/horses around the
"rose bowl"  - I think no one pays attention to the obvious looming symbols - as a fish is to water - this are not dream, not holy icons - just normal everyday stuff - that kills and maims.

Even worst, that the knowledgable (seem to) control/distract the populace by encouraging such DNA level phallic/yoni Spectacle / controversy - lemmings at the ready. Sorry this comes off as a raving lunatic - for it is the moon that causes the problem. (Certainly you found this related raving:http://www.fraterholme.com/2009/04/cantos-cunnus-2005.html).

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Dr Fabio replies-

Here are some mad responses for you, taken in good cheer:

Phallus taken literally kills: incests.

The phallus grows in power through successful iterations of abstinence, deferral and metaphor.

But that metaphor either dies out, bone dry dessicate, or it becomes the wound is re-opened, the circumcision wounding-grounding-humbling.

The quality of the mark-- from the stone tumulus to the incision-- demarcates savage nature from: Kei-wa: literally "Shiva" -- which is understood as "civilization," "that which is held tender, dear,"-- that demarcation is at times vulnerable: though we defend it with the weight of the American military-industrial complex.  The task remains the opening of the wound: becoming vulnerable again: it's the best we can do.

Dreams are dreams: neither harmless nor harmful: they are the pharmakon to life's banality much as they seem to produce it: what matters is the degree to which we can shape the nature of dreams: not merely that dreams exist: and that we do this "shaping" with conscience.

Thus: not only the dream-- but, "I spoke the dream, and saved my soul."

Maybe no one needs saving, but, my friend, I do believe these are endangered times.  We have ideals of freedom, liberation, and liberation-lived-as-democracy; and because they are ideals they are constantly endangered.                     -here endth the dialogue with Dr. Fabio on 19 September 2010 

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"Imagine a world without borders.  No visas or passport checks. Without the fear of the 'immigrant'. A world where we really embrace cultural diversity.  How rich our lives would be." - posted on 15th March 2012 by warmpoison           Good idea or better idea?

Lightly, Christopher Hitchens. . .

Real Time Maher May 13, 2011

Jennifer Knust's "Unprotected Texts"

Fellow traveller Jennifer Knust and her book, "Unprotected Texts" are featured in today's Terry Gross's Fresh Air on NPR. She "suggests that the Bible shouldn't be used as a guidebook for marriage or sexuality because passages related to sex — on topics related to monogamy, polygamy, sexual practices, homosexuality and gender roles — are more complex and nuanced than popular culture has led us to believe."  We agree. The "literalists" should first read their own book before pronouncing a defense of "Christian marriage" for all their neighbors - see our 2006 post.

On celibacy- "There's a fantastic passage in Matthew where Jesus says to his disciples that some people should be eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. So the way this gets received by early Christians is that Jesus is recommending celibacy which would make sense, given that he says elsewhere that we shouldn't get married, that we should be focusing our attention on spreading the gospel. So the idea [of] 'be a eunich' for the kingdom of heaven makes sense. However, interestingly enough, some Christians took this literally and there were some cases of early Christians castrating themselves for the purpose of celibacy. So that's a pretty radical statement that the best kind of Christian is one who is celibate to the point of castration. We don't talk about that much in our own culture and that was a really important message and many, many Christians were celibate."

On polygamy- "In Genesis, for example, polygamy was considered normal and it's what men did. You may remember some of the patriarchs had multiple wives and slave wives. The 12 sons of Jacob are fathered by multiple wives and concubines. In a subsistence economy, where people are subsistence farmers, the more wives and children one has, the more prosperous one is. And that seems to be how Genesis approaches the issue. So Jacob is a very wealthy man. He has many wives and children."

On the Song of Solomon- "It's an erotic love poem that was written some time during the monarchy in Israel and it imitates some of the other Egyptian and Mesopotamian love poetry from the time. It's quite erotic in its content. The way it gets read today is usually as an erotic poem. So it's often read quite literally as a description of sexual desire and sexual consummation. Interestingly, it wasn't read that way by rabbis and by the early Christians. They read it instead as an allegory or metaphor of the relationship of the soul to God — or the synagogue to God. So then, the description, for example, of the woman longing after her love becomes a description of the soul longing after God. The description of the man seeking out his lover in gardens becomes God seeking out the church in gardens and longing to be with the church and in a partnership in the church."  Complete article.

Hong Kong "Maypole"

HS- Thank you for your help.  I walked to Central this morning from my hotel in Waichai to the Hong Kong Book Center on Des Voeux Rd (apparently related to Swindon Books, Kowloon, which I know from earlier visits) and there purchased a book on bronze age Rock Carvings in Hong Kong by Wm. Meacham.  His book mentioned this "Lover's Stone" located in Waichai, about midway on Bowens Road and, conveniently, above my hotel. I walked there by showing the picture in the book and asking people "where is this?" - five highway workers, two policeman and one jogger later, I found it.

The author says that this rock is a folk shrine popular with "women seeking a husband, childless couples and old women desirous of grand children".  I think it is fairly obvious what this "Lover's Stone" reminds Grandmother about.  I think many of the amazing Hong Kong office buildings in the background pretty much tell the same story. In any case, it was a perfect Hong Kong day for me.  Thanks for the encouragement.   -Gary

Sins of Omission

from the Wiki Teacher-
"For I do not do the good I want ..." -Romans 7:19
"Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." -James 4:17
"He who has the ability to act on an injustice, but who stands idly by, is just as guilty as he who holds the knife." -Dracano Sapien
"In the end we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends" -Martin Luther King

Garden of Buddhas, Montana

Mike Albans for The New York Times
Gochen Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche, left, and Khenpo Namchak checking on the quality of the completed castings of Buddhas.

October 31, 2010 New York Times
On an Indian Reservation, a Garden of Buddhas
By JIM ROBBINS
ARLEE, Mont. — On a rural American Indian reservation here, amid grazing horses and cattle, a Buddhist lama from the other side of the world is nearing completion of a $1.6 million meditative garden that he hopes will draw spiritual pilgrims.

“There is something pure and powerful about this landscape,” said Gochen Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche, the 56-year-old Tibetan lama, as he walked down a gravel road on a sunny fall day. “The shape of the hills is like a lotus petal blossoming.”

Richard Gere has not been seen house shopping here — yet. But on the land of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes, a 24-foot statue of Yum Chenmo, the Great Wisdom Mother, has risen in Mr. Sang-ngag’s farm field. Nearby, in his old sheep barn, amid rubber molds and plaster, some 650 statues of Buddha sit in neat rows, illuminated by shafts of light pouring in through broken boards.

It seemed the perfect setup for a clash of two cultures when Mr. Sang-ngag, a high-ranking Buddhist lama, came to this remote part of Montana a decade ago, liked the landscape feng shui and bought a 60-acre sheep ranch. At the foot of the towering, glacier-etched Mission Mountains — not unlike his native Tibet — he and a band of volunteers began building a Garden of 1,000 Buddhas to promote world peace.

The arrival of the exotic culture here in cowboy country, with multicolored prayer flags flapping in the breeze, made some from the Salish and Kootenai tribes uneasy, to say the least.

An unusual land ownership pattern was partly to blame. While most Indian reservations are majority-owned by the tribes, a 1904 law allowed nonmembers of the tribes to homestead land. And as a result, there are four to five times as many non-Indians on the reservation as there are Indians.

Mr. Sang-ngag called his place Ewam Sang-ngag Ling, or the Land of Secret Mantra, Wisdom and Compassion. It turns out that it was sacred to the tribes as well, a place where, oral traditions hold, a coyote vanquished a monster and drove out many bad spirits so the people could live here.

Julie Cajune, the executive director for American Indian Policy at Salish Kootenai College and other Indians began working to build bridges between the tribes and the Buddhists. They suggested that the Buddhists bring traditional gifts, prayer scarves and tobacco, to the tribal council, which they did.

“Many people move here without recognition they are a guest,” Ms. Cajune said. “None of the mainstream churches or the Amish have done that.”

Buddhists in Japan, Taiwan and China have sent money for Buddha statues. The Dalai Lama has agreed to come and consecrate the Garden of 1,000 Buddhas after the project it is finished, perhaps in 2012.

But the patchwork of Indian and non-Indian land holdings within the reservation remains contentious. Some tribal members are worried that groups drawn to the Buddhist garden will buy up nontribal land, driving prices further out of the reach of Indians, and ignore tribal rules and customs.

They point to the case of Amish families who have bought farmland within the reservation, said Ms. Cajune, who is Salish.

“It’s ironic, but many Indian people can’t afford to buy land on their own reservation,” she said. A typical acre for building a home here might cost $30,000 — an enormous amount in rural and tribal Montana.

But Ms. Cajune said there was also an uncanny kinship between the tribal and Buddhist cultures, based on understandings of sacred landscapes, and even notions of honor and respect.

The biggest driver of rapprochement here is a shared history of subjugation and displacement — for the Tibetans, at the hands of the Chinese (Mr. Sang-ngag spent nine years in a Chinese labor camp) and for the tribes, by the American government.

“There is a shared vision of cultures being under pressure and surviving,” Mr. Sang-ngag said through a translator.

The heart of the 60-acre development is the 10-acre Garden of 1,000 Buddhas. When tribal elders came and blessed it, the two groups found they both used juniper and sage as purifying incense for ceremonies, for example, as well as similar prayer cloths and ritual drumming.

After much outreach by the Buddhists, including asking permission from the tribe to have the Dalai Lama consecrate the ground, Ms. Cajune said, “I think local people are feeling more comfortable.”

The sheep are gone from the green hills here now. “They achieved Buddhahood,” joked Mr. Sang-ngag, as he walked through the garden, designed in the shape of the dharma wheel, which symbolizes the core teachings of Buddhism. The Great Wisdom Mother statue contains sacred vases and holy texts. Swords, guns and other symbols of war are buried underneath, to symbolize a triumph over violence.

In the Buddha barn, meanwhile, is a Norton motorcycle, which members here jokingly refer to as the sacred chopper. It will be raffled to raise money to finish the garden. About half the money has been raised.

Last week the Buddhists began planning with the tribal officials about managing pilgrimages to the site, a possible headache for the tribe. “Some people want to keep the reservation a good, quiet secret,” Ms. Cajune said.

But Mr. Sang-ngag says good karma, or spiritual energy, is ebbing from the earth, and the garden will help enhance it. “It’s designed to awaken the Buddha nature” of wisdom and compassion in anyone who gazes upon it, said Lama Tsomo, a student who lives nearby.

A potential cultural clash has become cultural reconciliation. “It’s two cultures honoring each other in peace,” Ms. Cajune said. “That’s a powerful story people need to hear.”

Lost in Translation

I am not extraordinarily optimistic that any of 'dem fundamentalist types might stumble on this blog, but...could happen - if so, ye literalistic wordmongers, read on.

I am in the middle of reading Bart Ehrman's "Misquoting Jesus", an armchair guide to New Testament textual criticism and the problems of translation. But in the recent 'Lord's Day' New York Times (aka  yesterday's) comes a lovely Op-Ed piece by a flesh and blood living Pulitzer Prize winning writer, Michael Cunningham ("The Hours" and "By Nightfall"). Read this wonderful exerpt and pretend St. Michael is a candid and honest author of one of the 'sacred' books of the New Covenant writing about its writing and hopeful translation. Italics are mine.  Mr. Cunningham's entire Times piece is a delight. Illustration left: Ji Lee/NYTimes

"Here’s a secret. Many novelists, if they are pressed and if they are being honest, will admit that the finished book is a rather rough translation of the book they’d intended to write. It’s one of the heartbreaks of writing fiction. You have, for months or years, been walking around with the idea of a novel in your mind, and in your mind it’s transcendent, it’s brilliantly comic and howlingly tragic, it contains everything you know, and everything you can imagine, about human life on the planet earth. It is vast and mysterious and awe-inspiring. It is a cathedral made of fire.   "But even if the book in question turns out fairly well, it’s never the book that you’d hoped to write. It’s smaller than the book you’d hoped to write. It is an object, a collection of sentences, and it does not remotely resemble a cathedral made of fire.   "It feels, in short, like a rather inept translation of a mythical great work.   "The translator, then, is simply moving the book another step along the translation continuum. The translator is translating a translation."

Religious Knowledge Test by Pew Research

Take the 15 question Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life's Religious Knowledge Test , learn who in the US knows what about religion and check out the actual test here.

The Sphinx

An early defender (c. 1850) of 'pop archetypes'- sorry, CG Jung but 'tis our project raison d'être-

"A favorite topic with me was the popular belief in omens - a belief which, at this one epoch of my life, I was almost seriously disposed to defend. On this subject we had long and animated discussions - [my relative] maintaining the utter groundlessness of faith in such matters, - I contending that a popular sentiment arising with absolute spontaneity- that is to say, without apparent traces of suggestion - had in itself the unmistakable elements of truth, and was entitled to as much respect as that intuition which is the idiosyncrasy of the individual man of genius." --Edgar Allan Poe "The Sphinx" 1850 - click on link for entire spidery piece.

At left: Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1864, Gustave Moreau (French), Oil on canvas (21.134.1), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jeff Colson, "Shrine, 2008"

Jeff Colson's "Shrine" fiberglass, steel, and acrylic 12 ft (H) x 62" (W) x 12" (D) Ace Gallery, Los Angeles from October 23 through December 2010.  Is Jeff's "Shrine" the Zen form/nonform of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe?  Ref: earlier Nuestra Señora post.  From Jeff's gallery's press release-
"At the core of Colson􀀁s work is a witty sense of humor and an awareness that artistic inspiration can be found in many unlikely places. For example, a large sculpture that the artist refers to as a 'hot dog boat,' was in fact based on a vision of the Virgin Mary that he had while driving. The sculpture resembles that of a halo outline, yet does not reflect the artist􀀁s thoughts on religion, but rather it implies, according to Colson, 'a yearning quality that is earthbound and in reality will not fly.' Constructions of yearning, anticipation and the foreshadowing of impending demise dominate Colson􀀁s artworks making the viewer aware that although the pieces appear to be blank slates, they do in fact carry many potential messages."

Hmmm, "hot dog boat" - interesting turn of de lingua, not my words. 

Christian Nation, Not!

One of the most fallacious presuppositions of the not-so Christian "Christian Right" is that they want the United States to RETURN to the Christian principles on which it was founded. As our Fox News host Glen Beck said this past weekend, “Something that is beyond man is happening. . . America today begins to turn back to God.” Beck exhorted the crowd to "recognize your place to the creator. Realize that he is our king. He is the one who guides and directs our life and protects us." However, a moment of research (thanks to Google "founding fathers deist") into US history will show that this loaded statement is based on false assumptions. The men responsible for building the foundation of the United States had little use for Christianity, and many were strongly opposed to it. They were men of Europe's so-called Age of Enlightenment. Most were Deists, which is to say they thought the Cosmos had a Creator, but that s/he does not concern itself with the daily lives of humans, and does not directly communicate with humans, either by revelation or by sacred books. They spoke often of God but not the vengeful personal savior God(s) of the the Judeo-Christian Bible. In short, they were the same Humanists, the "holy right" now decry. They did not deny that there was a person called Jesus, and praised him for his benevolent teachings, but they flatly denied his divinity. When the "framers" wrote the US Constitution, they specified that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."(Article 6, section 3) This provision was radical in its day-- giving equal citizenship to believers and non-believers alike.  They wanted to ensure that no single religion could make the claim of being the official national religion, such as their former ruler, the British Empire. Nowhere in the Constitution does it mention religion, except in exclusionary terms. The words "Jesus Christ, Christianity, Bible, and God" are never mentioned in the Constitution-- not once. (Not to mention the First Amendment's no establishment clause, ratified in 1791.) Much of the paraphrase above from blogs "Founders Were Not Christians" which continues with a multitude of supporting quotations of the signers of the US Constitution and "The Christian Nation Myth".

Illustration above: Article 11, of the The Treaty of Tripoli reads "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." This Treaty written by Joel Barlow under the presidency of "founding father" George Washington, was then read aloud and unanimously approved by the Senate on June 10, 1797 under the presidency of "founding father" John Adams. The entire question is summed up by yet another "founding father" Thomas Jefferson who stated, as timely now as it was then, "There is not one redeeming feature in our superstition of Christianity. It has made one half the world, fools, and the other half, hypocrites" from Notes on the State of Virginia For more on John Barlow and Article 11, follow the link above   (at bottom of page) to further links to yet more articles/links.