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#beauty #cheek #chin #eyebrow #forehead #happiness #lips #nose #skin #smile #бровь #губы #кожа #красота #лоб #нос #подбородок #счастье #улыбка #щека
This Female Annas hummingbird (Calypte anna ) is feeding on the nectar in these wild Chuperosa flowers (Justicia californica). At the same time, we can see that it is collecting a lot of yellow pollen on its forehead and inadvertently fertilizing other Chuperosa plants
Image - Copyright 2022 Alan Vernon.
World Tour 2013 - 2014 - day 188
Another festival took place in Kathmandu just after my trek, the woman festival during which most of women are dressed in red and sing. Since I came back from my trek in the north of the country I just had time to attend the end so could not see so much of the various women performances but could appreciate the remaining ambiance.
Every women attending the festival were wearing the Tika, which is an Hindu symbol showing some God benediction. Some guys were specifically there to place the Tika on women forehead.
House finch male has bright red head, forehead, eyebrow and rump. This colour can vary to orange or occasionally yellow. Crown, rear head and back are brown streaked with darker brown. It has brown wings and square tail. Belly and undertail coverts are white, streaked with broad brown stripes.
Eyes are black. Bill is short and conical. Legs and feet are dark brown.
Adult female and juvenile are entirely brown, streaked dark brown, except chin, throat and breast, uniformly streaked brown on white plumage.
Female lacks red colour. Juvenile male reaches this colour by first fall.
Le roselin familier mâle a la tête, le front, les sourcils et le croupion rouge vif. Cette couleur peut varier de l'orange au jaune. La calotte et l'arrière de la tête, ainsi que le dos sont bruns, rayés de brun plus foncé. Il a les ailes brunes et la queue carrée. L'abdomen et les sous-caudales sont blancs, rayés de larges bandes brunes.
Les yeux sont noirs. Le bec est court et conique. Les pattes et les doigts sont brun foncé.
La femelle adulte et les juvéniles sont entièrement bruns, rayés de brun foncé, excepté le menton, la gorge et la poitrine, uniformément rayés de brun sur fond de plumage blanc. La femelle n'a pas du tout de rouge. Les juvéniles mâles obtiennent cette couleur au premier automne.
Put your hand on my forehead
As if your hand were my hand.
Watch over me, as if someone meant to kill me
As if my life were your life.
Love me as if that were a good thing
As if my heart were your heart
***
Tedd a kezed
put the hand your
homlokomra,
forehead mine on
mintha kezed
as if hand your
kezem volna.
hand mine might be
Úgy őrizz, mint
thus guard (me) as if
ki gyilkolna,
someone meant to kill (me)
mintha éltem
as if life my
élted volna.
life your might be
Úgy szeress, mint
thus love (me) as
ha jó volna,
if good this were
mintha szívem
as if heart mine
szíved volna.
heart your might be
The Electric Sportsrider, a cartoonish electric car from about 1960. It was sitting in a hidden corner on 3 flat tires (it's a 3-wheeler). It took three full grown men to roll it out where we could shoot it. It looks small, but it's powered by about 30 car batteries and weighs a million pounds. Part of my old pal Paul's private collection. Lit with a Protomachine flashlight from about 7 directions, in 74-seconds.
Ashura- Muharram
Muslim youngsters are initiated
with razor cuts to their foreheads.
FYI:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muharram
in honor of my dear friend
FIROZE SHAKIR
who met his maker weeks ago
😢 😢
in
MUMBAI
Photography’s new conscience
*cleans sweat off forehead* I thought I would never sit down to finally upload these photos and play this tag game!
Thank you to all who have tagged me, if you see this and like the idea, please, play along :)
Rules: for this tag game show us some or all of your doll pets with or without their owners!
Although I have other doll pets that are also cats, these eight fellows were my last acquisition at a semi-abandoned toy store a few months ago. I love how playful some of them are and how dignified some pretend to be (but, if you know cats, you know they are all a bit silly inside!)
[Life has gotten a bit hectic around here and it will get even weirder (the good kind) next month, so I'm having trouble finishing my day with an hour spare to cruise along Flickr. Let's see if I can catch up on your photos very soon :) Hugs! ]
The Zeibekiko, as means of expression for the feelings of a real man, has its own unwritten rules. A Greek “man’s honor is written on his forehead”, people used to say. A clear forehead, i.e. name, was everything. In 99% of the cases, the clear forehead was attached to a narrow minded head thought.
In the conservative society being a honorable man is often translated with being extremely possessive towards women and enjoy the absolute respect by other men. Symbolically speaking, every zeibekiko dancer is “a unique warrior and a proud hawk”. And a bird has to follow the unwritten laws both in society and in nature.
I have picked up two characteristic examples of a “man’s insulted honor“, while someone is dancing the Zeibekiko. Both examples have been etched in two outstanding Greek films legendary in the local movie industry. Both films are authentic in performance and in catching dramaturgically the zeibekiko subculture and etiquette, the subtle balance of a male’s code of honor in the conservative working class of the Greek society of the 70′s.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Nikos KOEMTZIS everyday is selling his 'biography-memoirs book' at the Monastiraki plaza opposite of the Mpairaktaris souvlaki-restaurant ( near the Monastiraki metro of Athens station ) signing on the first page .... The profile of the famous greek criminal through the eye of a camera, the lyrics of a song and his autobiography ...
"Nikos, what have you done?"
(lyric from the song "To makry zeibekiko gia ton Niko" by D. Savopoulos)
Outside the “Evelpidon” Criminal and Civil court of Athens, during the week, and at the flea market in Monastiraki on weekends, an old man, dressed always in brown or black, and wearing a Russian hat, sells his biography...
He is Nikos Koemtzis. He has killed three people and stabbed seven more, all because he wanted to dance to a song he had "ordered" from the musicians. He killed for a "Parangelia" (an order for a song).
He transferred the story of his life to a book - "To makry (Long) zeibekiko [1]”. Dionysis Savvopoulos (a famous Greek singer-songwriter) read the book and turned it into a song. Pavlos Tassios (a well known Greek director) heard the song and made a film. Today Nikos Koemtzis, his past behind him, sells his story to make a living.
But let us take start at the beginning…
Nikos was a petty, small-time criminal, born in a poverty-stricken part of Pieriaa and persecuted from a young age for his left-wing political beliefs. His wanderings in a time of poverty and political persecution in Greece lead him to Thessaloniki , where he held various jobs, before moving on to Athens. He flirts with the underworld and illegality and goes to prison for the first time in 1967-68.
The actors Antonis Kafetzopoulos and George Kotanidis in a scene from the film of Pavlos Tassios "Parangelia”
In February 1973, during the dictatorship in Greece- and having just been released – he goes to a live-music nightclub (the bouzouki hall "Neraida"), with his younger brother Demosthenes and some friends. Demosthenes makes an order for a song to the orchestra; he requests a zeibekiko, a dance meant to be performed by one person, and gets up to dance. An "unwritten rule" of the times was that only the patron who made the order could dance. Three police officers, however, who were at the nightclub, and knew very well whose brother was dancing – interfere during his performance by dancing simultaneously. There is an altercation, and the police officers start beating Demosthenes. "It is an order (parangelia)!" shouted an incensed Nikos; who drew his stiletto: 3 policemen killed and 7 others wounded... He was sentenced to death and spent years awaiting execution ( he was on death row for 3 years). Eventually Koemtzis will be sentenced for life and in 1996 he was granted a grace. He remained in prison for 23 years.
"To makry (Long) zeibekiko [1]" - The book
In prison he starts to read and learn to write. Nikos Koemtzis started, using his limited vocabulary to record his life-story in order to give material to his lawyer for his defense in court. His prose has a genuine "popular" flavour - without exaggeration, and his narration brings to mind the famous Greek general Makriyannis [4].
He describes his life as a child. A story of great poverty, possibly the worst that could be experienced in an already damaged post-War provincial economy of Greece at the time. Nikos Koemtzis presents himself as a contemporary ‘Oliver Twist’ – although he almost certainly had never read the book by Charles Dickens! His father was declared a communist because he had taken to the mountains with the (Communist) EAM-ELAS brigades. In 1945 the "gendarmes" savagely beat Nikos’ father in front of the children, as well as their grandfather, a handicap from the war of 1913. Since then, Nikos Koemtzis detested anyone in a uniform, as he says himself. His father enters prison as a political prisoner during the Civil War and after his release the large family lives constantly on the move; persecuted "from village to village”, doing agricultural work to earn their livelihood.
Poverty leads him to Thessaloniki where he spends his adolescence doing various jobs (he writes that because he was "sharp” and a “hustler", he managed to become the best "grocer" in the market). Later, in 1958, he descends to the capital. He is engaged but the engagement is dissolved because of police harassment troubles his fiancée’s respectable family, and because he won’t accept becoming a police ‘snitch’.
His employer does not pay his wages; Koemtzis “sues” him (he probably meant a law suit), yet the court case is constantly deferred. Koemtzis faces a lot of problems; he is forced to rob the man and is sent to prison. There he is subjected to physical and psychological torture (let us not forget this occurred during the period of dictatorship), and just a few years later, his case will serve the most apt confirmation of the motto that "violence breeds violence”.
In the second part of the book Nikos Koemtzis first describes his pre-trial incarceration in the Korydallos Prison Complex in Athens, and his meeting with his brother and a friend, who had also fallen ‘victim’ to the fatal stabbing. Koemtzis’ health is very poor; he has difficulty walking from the bullets shot into his legs by the police during his arrest; it was thought that he would remain disabled for life. He asks his companions to recall the events of that evening, because he himself does not remember anything. In this way he reconstructs the "accident" (as he calls it) of that night:
"... a thousand thoughts were spinning through my mind. I was looking for a solution to restore the wrong thing I had done ... I suffered terribly and tried desperately to pick out a picture of the massacre, and I could not. And even now I cannot, even though I still struggle to... It seems that whilst I was sowing death, mindlessly, like a robot, I was occupied by the demon or the beast that nests inside me...».
And here begins his description of prison and the penal system in general (in a time not so long ago): "In prison you meet all types of characters, the sensitive ones and the numbed ones. Most of the sensitive ones search to find a lifeline. The numbed ones have resigned themselves to a hopeless existence, spending their days engaged with sinister intent. They are like animals, and most of them look to turning any youngster dropped into prison for the first time, like them: immoral and depraved, with no respect for human dignity. In a word, they are pimps, snitches, paedophiles; they carry all the evil of the world upon them.
That is why the Ministry of Justice should not keep recidivist offenders and first-timers together...".
In his book "To makry zeibekiko” (it is the title of autobiography; a zeibekiko he never danced, yet one that lasted for so many years), Nick Koemtzis continues with his account of the trial. The media portray him as a bloodthirsty beast, and thereafter take to baptizing any dangerous criminals as "Koemtzides". We, once again (personal experiences in the courts aside), discern the distance between the real facts and that was claimed during the hearing. His plea, where he assumes full responsibility for the crimes, makes an impression on the court...
Perhaps the most shocking part of the book is his description of life as a condemned man in the "house of pain" (the prison) at Halicarnassus in Crete [5]. Koemtzis is detained in solitary confinement; a filthy, living grave. His only contact is with his jailers and occasional prisoner-snitches, put into adjacent cells by the police to "check his behavior." He waits day after day for his execution (One day an abbot came to visit – as he saw the priests he thought his time had come). In Greece΄s dictatorship at the time, there was no recognition or importance assigned to “death row phenomenon / syndrome”: the intense anxiety and fear experienced by the subject; the laborious, time consuming procedure that comprises (according to the subsequent ruling of the ECHR - see Soering vs UK), inhumane and degrading treatment that contravenes directive 3 of the ECHR. In any case, the political resolve had already been made: whilst the ECHR had been ratified by Greek country under Law 2329 of 1953, during the 1967 - 1974 dictatorship (when the trial and conviction of Nikos Koemtzis took place), the country withdrew from the Council of Europe in order to forestall its impending dismissal, and in doing so ceased to be a member of the ECHR. After the restoration of democracy, Greece re-ratified the ECHR under legislative decree 53/1974 and rejoined the Council of Europe (see St. Matthias, C. Ktistakis, L. Stavritis, K. Stefanakis; The Protection of Human Rights in Europe; Athens Bar Association , Athens; 2006, p.26 – in Greek)
In his cell, he writes poems, the only way to ward off insanity. He tries to imprint on paper his countless thoughts ... The most dramatic is the scene where he removed alone a bullet from his leg that had been left there since his arrest (the prison doctor did not pay him any attention!)
The book closes with a spare epilogue: "... In March 1977 three wardens announced to me that I had been spared death, saying: "The state has been compassionate. Now it is up to you to become better." I replied that I could only become worse, not better. Finally, the Ministry of Justice ordered my transfer from prison in Heraklion, Crete, to a worst prison (a hell prison) in Corfu. I was in hell from July 21, 1976 to 1982. ..
.
... I was released on March 29, 1996”.
The approach for reviewing this work lies somewhere between artistic and criminological criticism. The criminological value of the book is indisputable. The study of a criminal autobiography – a practice adopted by the ecological Chicago School - can lead us to valuable conclusions about the reasoning and importance given in the perpetrator’s own words when describing his actions, and in observing the moral code he follows. The analysis of criminological phenomena through the eyes of the offender may help practitioners to analyze and propose improved prevention policies. In addition, through the study of this autobiography we uncover - page by page - a materializing of the theories of social reaction based on the "self-fulfilling prophecy" of the label or stereotype (see K. D. Spinellis; Criminology, Contemporary and Past Directions; 2nd edition; Sakkoulas Publications, Athens-Komotini; 2005, pp.275-278 – in Greek), and the importance of social responsibility involved in the creation of the offender, through the process of passage à l ΄acte.
Epilogue
Nikos Koemtzis killed and served the sentence imposed on him by the State for those crimes. Any attempt at glorifying the perpetrators of such crimes falls on deaf ears, even if this man’s story has inspired art. Perhaps then, should we come into contact with such works, we should be considering questions of how one is born a criminal and possibly what social responsibility applies in these cases. So whilst the offender is “disciplined” in serving his sentence, so should society be concerned when one of its own rejects it by resorting to crime. And whilst the above works were reviewed as primarily cultural artifacts, there can be no doubt their usefulness to criminological analysis, with much to offer towards the development of a social dialogue, an understanding of the criminal phenomenon and ultimately towards its prevention.
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The grey heron (Ardea cinerea) is the largest heron in Europe. It has a long neck, a strong, dagger-like bill and long yellow legs. In flight, the neck is folded back, and the wings are bowed. In adults, the forehead, sides of the head and the center of the crown are white, whereas in juveniles these are grayish. The sexes are similar in appearance.
The grey heron (Ardea cinerea) is a long-legged predatory wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more northern parts migrate southwards in autumn. A bird of wetland areas, it can be seen around lakes, rivers, ponds, marshes and on the sea coast. It feeds mostly on aquatic creatures which it catches after standing stationary beside or in the water or stalking its prey through the shallows.
Standing up to 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) tall, adults weigh from 1 to 2 kg (2 to 4 lb). They have a white head and neck with a broad black stripe that extends from the eye to the black crest. The body and wings are grey above and the underparts are greyish-white, with some black on the flanks. The long, sharply pointed beak is pinkish-yellow and the legs are brown.
The birds breed colonially in spring in "heronries", usually building their nests high in trees. A clutch of usually three to five bluish-green eggs is laid. Both birds incubate the eggs for around 25 days, and then both feed the chicks, which fledge when 7-8 weeks old. Many juveniles do not survive their first winter, but if they do, they can expect to live for about 5 years.
The grey heron is a large bird, standing up to 100 cm (40 in) tall and measuring 84–102 cm (33–40 in) long with a 155–195 cm (61–77 in) wingspan. The body weight can range from 1.02–2.08 kg (2 lb 4 oz–4 lb 9+1⁄4 oz). The plumage is largely ashy-grey above, and greyish-white below with some black on the flanks. Adults have the head and neck white with a broad black supercilium that terminates in the slender, dangling crest, and bluish-black streaks on the front of the neck. The scapular feathers are elongated and the feathers at the base of the neck are also somewhat elongated. Immature birds lack the dark stripe on the head and are generally duller in appearance than adults, with a grey head and neck, and a small, dark grey crest. The pinkish-yellow beak is long, straight and powerful, and is brighter in colour in breeding adults. The iris is yellow and the legs are brown and very long.
The main call is a loud croaking "fraaank", but a variety of guttural and raucous noises is heard at the breeding colony. The male uses an advertisement call to encourage a female to join him at the nest, and both sexes use various greeting calls after a pair bond has been established. A loud, harsh "schaah" is used by the male in driving other birds from the vicinity of the nest and a soft "gogogo" expresses anxiety, as when a predator is nearby or a human walks past the colony. The chicks utter loud chattering or ticking noises.
The grey heron has an extensive range throughout most of the Palearctic realm. The range of the nominate subspecies A. c. cinerea extends to 70° N in Norway and 66°N in Sweden, but otherwise its northerly limit is around 60°N across the rest of Europe and Asia eastwards as far as the Ural Mountains. To the south, its range extends to northern Spain, France, central Italy, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Iraq, Iran, India, The Maldives and Myanmar (Burma). It is also present in Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the Canary Islands, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and many of the Mediterranean Islands. It is replaced by A. c. jouyi in eastern Siberia, Mongolia, eastern China, Hainan, Japan, and Taiwan. In Madagascar and the Aldabra Islands, the subspecies A. c. firasa is found, while the subspecies A. c. monicae is restricted to Mauritania and offshore islands.
Over much of its range, the grey heron is resident, but birds from the more northerly parts of Europe migrate southwards, some remaining in Central and Southern Europe, others travelling on to Africa south of the Sahara Desert.
The grey heron is also known to be vagrant in the Caribbean, Bermuda, Iceland, Greenland, the Aleutian Islands, and Newfoundland, with a few confirmed sightings in other parts of North America including Nova Scotia and Nantucket.
Within its range, the grey heron can be found anywhere with suitable watery habitat that can supply its food. The water body needs to be either shallow enough, or have a shelving margin in it, which it can wade. Although most common in the lowlands, it also occurs in mountain tarns, lakes, reservoirs, large and small rivers, marshes, ponds, ditches, flooded areas, coastal lagoons, estuaries, and the sea shore. It sometimes forages away from water in pasture, and it has been recorded in desert areas, hunting for beetles and lizards. Breeding colonies are usually near feeding areas, but exceptionally may be up to eight kilometers (five miles) away, and birds sometimes forage as much as 20 km (12 mi) from the nesting site.
For more information, please visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_heron
Tomie has had her share of falls over the years due to her non-steadiness, which is where the mark on her forehead comes from.
"Mr. West?"
"Wha-?" Wally mumbled, shaking his head as he looked up from his notebook. Looking around the room, he could see the grins of his classmates as well as the slight frown his teacher had.
"I know it's the first day back," the teacher spoke, walking towards Wally's desk, "but winter break is over and you are in class. Science class… not art."
Wally looked down at his notebook, cringing at the sketches drawn down. The costume drawn was an electric yellow with red pants and gloves, along with twin red lightning bolts running down the chest. The cowl was the same yellow as the chest, using red eye lenses and lightning bolts running along his forehead.
A small flash from his left made him jerk, watching as Linda Park, his girlfriend, smirked, clicking a few pictures with her digital camera.
"Mr. West?"
"Sorry, sir," he said, returning his gaze to the teacher as he closed his notebook. "Just uh… well, I'm ready for spring break?"
The laughter the class broke out into was quickly silenced by the teacher, Wally watching as the man peered down, staring at the already completed assignment sitting under the notebook. "Aren't we all," he replied, walking back to the front, only after grabbing the paper.
-^-
Wally groaned walking out of the classroom, Linda following closely behind. "You improved your anatomy a lot, sure you're not interested in art school?" she asked, looking at the pictures she had taken.
"God, do you know how embarrassing that is?" he asked her as he spun the dial on his locker. "The whole class had to have seen…"
"Whole city, actually," she said with a smirk, causing Wally to drop his books. "I uploaded the pictures to FlashFan. It already has a couple thousand likes."
"W-why!?" he asked, fumbling to pick up his books. "How did you even have the time to do that!?"
Linda reached down, helping pick up Wally's books. "Well, while you got called up to talk about your perfect paper, I used the computer by the lizard tank," she explained, placing the books she grabbed into his hand, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. "And I think my boyfriend's art should be shared, it's cute."
"I'm sure everyone that's giggling at me thinks the same," he mumbled, pulling his backpack from the locker and slinging it over his shoulder. "How did it even get so many views that fast? Flash has gone against FOUR supervillains in the last week."
Linda chuckled as Wally followed the girl to her own locker, taking hold of her books and camera as she opened it. "What can I tell you, people like good fanart," she said, taking the books from his hand. "You should take it as a compliment, really. Hey, I wonder if Flash checks the site."
Wally cringed harder than he had been before as Linda closed her locker, taking her camera and began walking to the exit. "Oh God, I didn't think it could possibly get worse," he mumbled, covering his red face.
"You'd make a cute sidekick," she said, elbowing his side. "Almost as good looking as Robin."
"Almost?" he asked, hiss eyebrows angling.
"He's got that mysterious air about him," she said, covering her eyes with a strand of her hair, mimicking his mask as they stepped out of the building. "Guess it's why blind dating is so popular."
"Yeah, I'll bet," Wally said, rolling his eyes.
As the two walked along the sidewalk, Wally looked up to the sky, watching the light snow fall down. The wind wasn't too harsh, but it left him full of regret for leaving his scarf back home. The weather was… surreal, like something ripped from a movie. It was magical.
"You think it's impossible?" he asked, staring into the sky.
"Hmm?"
Wally stopped walking, turning to the woman beside him. "Being someone like him… a hero," he said, looking down with a smile. "I know it's a dumb question because duh… but I just… you think there's a chance?"
Linda smiled at him, though Wally could see a hint of sadness in her expression. "There's a man in Gotham who hops rooftops at night with his kid sidekick, an underwater civilization that's run by someone called Aquaman, and someone who, just a city away, can outrun a sports car with ease," she explained, cupping Wally's cheek. "I don't know if you'll ever be Superman… but nothing is impossible, not in this world."
Wally smiled at the girl, placing his hand over her own.
"Touching, touching moment."
Wally quickly turned, instinctively moving Linda behind him as he saw a man in a long coat standing a few feet away from the pair. The man had incredibly pale, wrinkly skin, with a combover of lime-green hair peeking out from his newsboy cap and pitch black glasses over his eyes.
"You two make an adorable little couple, you remind me of my ex-wife and myself… well before I blew her up," he said, sliding the glasses down his nose, revealing crazed blue eyes.
"Who the hell are you, you creep?" Wally said, sliding his backpack off his shoulder, keeping hold of one of the straps.
The man's smile fell, his hand reaching into his coat. "Y'know, I'm getting real tired of hearing that," he mumbled, pulling out what looked like a water gun. "The name's Jesse, James Jesse."
"Is that supposed to sca-?" Linda asked, but was cut off when the man blasted a spray of the gun at Wally's backpack, the green liquid that shot out melting the bag in an instant. Wally quickly dropped the item, pushing Linda further behind him.
"Trickster…" Wally mumbled, watching the lunatic smile.
"So you do know me, that's a relief."
"What do you want…" Wally asked, keeping his eye on Jesse's finger. "My uncle and-"
"I know exactly who your uncle is… your aunt too," Jesse said, a large smile stretching along his face. "Now, you come along with me nice and quietly, or your fling back there gets turned to…" Jesse paused, looking at the melted backpack, "turned to whatever you call that."
Wally felt Linda's shaking body behind him and could tell she was staring at the bag melting in the snow. Taking a deep breath, he raised his arms. "Alright… I'll come," he said, walking forward. "As long as you don't hurt her, you'll have no struggle from me."
"Wally, no!"
"It's fine, everything will be fine," he said, forcing a smile. "I can't go on about being a hero just to let someone die, right?"
"West, you idiot…" Linda said, tears running down her face as she stood, trembling.
"Wow… what a performance!" Jesse said, clapping his free hand against the gun. "You should sell that pitch, girlie, it'll be a box office hit for sure."
"Stay safe Linda," Wally called out as Jesse aimed the gun at the small of his back, moving him along. "I love you."
"See ya, Laura!" Jesse called back with a wave.
-^-
Barry slid along the icy road, narrowly dodging The Top. The villain didn't relent, rocketing after the hero in another attempted strike. It had been two days since the breakout at Iron Heights. A large majority of the escapees were easily caught, but Dillon was the first of the "super villains" that had reappeared.
"Dillon, turn yourself in!" Barry called back, ducking under a sawblade that was launched towards him. "It makes it easier for both of us!"
The man ignored Barry's plea, extending his other arm. "Not a chance I surrender, Flash!" Dillon shouted, firing off a barrage of sawblades.
Barry, using the friction he'd generated, stopped himself on the ice, performing a one-eighty. Taking off like a missile, Barry used the ice to his advantage, dropping to his knees and sliding under the projectiles. As he closed in on Dillon, he launched himself up with a rising fist that caught the villain by the chin.
Dillon soared through the air, crashing into the door of a sedan. Barry heaved, taking a much needed breath. The sound of a police cruiser caught his attention, August stepping out the passenger's seat.
"Got another one for me, huh?" he asked, pulling a pair of handcuffs. "The Flash comes out on top once again."
Barry shook his head, smiling at the man. "Y'know," he started, pulling Dillon from the dented car and stripping the villain's weapons, "I'm glad you went into law enforcement."
"Really?" August asked, taking Dillon from Barry and snapping the cuffs around his wrists. "Why's that, happy to have someone who's got your back?"
"Eh, moreso cause you'd flop hard as a comedian," Barry said, causing the man to chuckle.
"Your words hurt me," August said, taking mock offense as he walked the villain towards the cruiser. "I bet I'd get more days off if I were a comedian. Speaking of which, I'm sure you could take a break. No offense, but you look like shit."
"Ha, funny," Barry said with a light chuckle, raising his arms above his head to stretch. "There's no room for breaks right now, especially not with the prison break."
Closing the car door, August turned back to Barry. "I'm serious. Mardon, Scudder, and Jesse haven't showed themselves, and I'm sure the boys back at the station could use the exercise with some of the two-bit rejects running around."
"Well, i-"
"Attention. Can I please have your attention!"
Both Barry and August turned to the sound, a TV in a shop window. Barry's eyes narrowed, watching as the green-haired man adjusted the video camera.
"So much for a day off," August mumbled.
"Hello, beautiful people of the world! If you don't know me, you must be living under a rock! Recently, I had a run in with that super-ZERO known as Flash. I had him on the ropes until a reporter by the name of Iris West stepped in."
Barry' heart began beating faster, his skin running cold.
"Now, if there's one thing I learned through all my years of being the world's greatest criminal, it's that you don't interrupt a fight! So, as a little bit of revenge…"
Barry watched carefully as the camera began to jostle. August tensed up as the camera regained focus, Barry's eyes widening at the sight.
Strapped to what looked like an electric chair was Wally West.
"Ta-daaaaaa!"
"That sick son of a bitch!" August shouted, his knuckles turning white.
"Wally West, Iris's dear old nephew. See, I'm not like your 'typical criminal.' I don't want money, or power. I don't even have a ransom. He's going to die. Who'll be a washed up joke then?"
As Jesse's words finished, the broadcast cut off, leaving Barry and August out in the snow. August was shaking, his hands balled up and teeth glued together.
"We're gonna find him," Barry said, placing his hand onto August's shoulder. "Wally won't die."
"Right, right," August said, opening the passenger seat of the police cruiser. "I'm gonna go see what zones Joe and Ira are getting covered… Flash… we can't fail."
Barry nodded, speeding off with one goal in his mind.
-^-
Daniel burst inside the West home, eyes meeting his cousin Iris'. Sat next to her, crying on the couch was Linda Park.
"My dad…" Daniel asked, panting and out of breath, "has he called? Has Uncle Ira?"
"Nothing…" Iris said, tears leaking from her eyes as well. Her fingers gently combing through Linda's raven-colored hair. "He'll be okay though, he's strong."
"H-h-he just…" Linda hiccuped, clawing at Iris's shirt, "he ga-gave himself up… for me."
Daniel watched as his cousin's eyes fell, her teeth gnawing into her bottom lip. "That's the West's for you," she mumbled, letting out a stuttering breath. "We don't know when to keep our noses out of things."
"I'm gonna drive around," Daniel said, grabbing the keys to his car from the key-cup. "Patty called and said she's checking the bay area, let me know if dad or Uncle Ira see anything, alright?"
"Yeah," Iris mumbled, continuing to soothe the crying girl who sat beside her.
"Iris," Daniel called, grabbing the woman's attention. "This is no one's fault. Don't forget that."
-^-
August leapt out of the cruiser, smacking the roof of the car to send the driver away. There was an anger in his eyes as he stormed towards the station, spotting a plethora of cruisers parked in the lot.
Wally was like his little brother. The moment he saw the video, every ounce of his being became dedicated to finding him. He wasn't going to let a brother get hurt, or worse… not again.
August rushed into the station, his anger rising further at the multitude of officers sitting at their desks or standing around doing nothing. Looking around the room, he spotted Joe speaking with the DA, Jared Morillo.
"Joe!" he shouted, storming towards the detective. Both Joe and Jared turned, Joe frowning slightly.
"I'll see if I can pull anything," Jared said, Joe nodding in return as the man stepped away.
"August-"
"What the hell?!" he shouted, gaining the attention of multiple officers. "What the hell are these people doing!?"
"August, please," Joe said, attempting to calm the man down. "Let's go to Barry's lab, this-"
"This what? This should be private!?" he asked, motioning to all the officers simply listening. "They need to hear it! There's a boy who's missing, who was kidnapped by the Trickster! A psychopathic murderer!"
"I know that August, Morillo is trying to clear some officers to start searching-"
"Trying to clear officers… there's a child being held hostage!" he shouted. "He's 13!"
"August, it-"
"They're sitting around while Wally is out there… alone!" August shouted, cutting Joe off. "He strapped to that machine, scared, while you're sitting here doing nothing!"
"Dammit, August," Joe snapped back, slamming his hand against the wall. "What do you want me to do!? He was kidnapped in another city! All we have to go on is a goddamn video that wasn't even thirty seconds long! We can't just mobilize the entire force, you know that! There are rules we have to follow!"
"You don't see a problem with that!?" August asked, pointing to the large of their badge hung along the wall. "That badge says you're meant to protect people… who are you protecting sitting around like this?"
"That badge lets me protect people under the law, August… so does yours," Joe said, looking down and gritting his teeth. "You don't think I want to be out there right now? I'd break down every door in this city looking for that boy… I'd search until I couldn't stand anymore... but we can't play god, August. We have to abide by the laws we enforce."
August's eyes narrowed. "Did following the rules stop Captain Cold? Or Weather Wizard… or…" August stopped, shaking his head as he pulled his badge from his jacket pocket. "If having this badge means I can't even help a child in need…" August began, throwing the badge to the ground, "maybe I shouldn't have it."
"August…" Joe mumbled, picking the badge up from the floor.
Walking backwards, August looked Joe in the eyes as he entered the elevator. "This whole precinct… you're lucky the Flash exists," he said pressing the button on the elevator. "If he didn't, who knows how many kids you'd leave out in the cold."
-^-
Barry dashed down the street as fast as he could, covering every inch of the city. Every corner, every alleyway… Wally could be anywhere.
He was tired. His legs felt like jello after 2 days of constant fighting. August was right, he wanted to lay down, take a day for himself… he needed it. As the image of Wally strapped to the chair returned to his mind, he shook his head. He had a duty, he had to find him. He was the only one that could.
-^-
Jay sat at a booth in Vulcan's Veggies, typing away at a laptop. Every lead he had was a dead end. Jesse's old hideouts all had been repurposed at this point, and any former colleagues had been killed by the maniac years ago.
"Anything?" Eddie asked, taking a seat across from him.
"Everything I could think of… it leads to nothing," Jay said, gripping his head in frustration. "He was always a wildcard… but a child? He's gone further than I ever thought he could."
In an instant the building was turned upside down, tables and chairs flying across the room. Jay and Eddie both stood, defensively, but lowered their guard realizing it was Barry, lightning sparking off his body.
"Barry-"
"I can't find him!" he shouted, tearing his mask off. He was panting, sweat dripping down his reddened face. "I've checked over half the city and there hasn't been a trace!"
"Son, calm down," Jay said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, we're gonna find him."
"You don't know that!" Barry snapped back, Jay only just noticing the tears running down the man's face. "What if we don't? What if we can't find him in time!?"
"Thinking like that isn't gonna help you, Barry," Eddie said, walking over to one of the fallen chairs, sitting it up, and taking a seat. "Those thoughts are only gonna hurt you in the end."
"Eddie's right," Jay agreed, looking at Barry. "You've been out there for 2 days straight… I know it can take a toll on you… but those types of irrational thoughts are your greatest enemy."
"Jay… I couldn't save Bivolo…" Barry said, his breath stuttering as he spoke. "He needed a hero… and I failed him. What does… does that make me?"
"You are not a god, Barry," Jay said, wiping away Barry's tears with a napkin. "Being in… this line of work, it will cause you pain. You won't be able to save everyone, that's just not how the world works."
"It chose wrong… the lightning bolt…"
"Barry," Jay said with a slight chuckle, "I don't think it could've chosen someone better than you."
"He's right about that, that's for damn sure," Eddie chimed in.
Barry was quiet, his harsh breathing slowing down. "What if… I can't save him?" he asked, looking at Jay.
Jay smiled at him, picking up the red mask from the floor. "You haven't failed just yet, Flash."
Barry looked down at the mask, as if he was contemplating taking it.
"C'mon, boy," Eddie yelled, tapping his cane against the ground. "You're either gettin' back out there or fixin' this mess you made."
Jay smiled at Barry, nodding to him. The man's hand grabbed onto the mask, pulling it over his head.
"I won't fail him."
-^-
Crimson stained the crisp white snow, a small trail of the discoloration trailing down an alleyway. A harsh crunch could be heard, followed by a guttural scream.
August slammed his first into the man's face a second time, staining his first red. "Where is he!" he shouted, slamming the pinned man against the wall by the collar.
"I… I swear… I have no idea," he pleaded, his nose crooked and lip busted wide open. "I'm not involved with that lunatic."
Another crack could be heard as August's fist slammed into the man's gut. "Lying to me isn't gonna work," he said, his teeth gritting. "I know your record, Johnson! You either tell me what you know, or I show you that Central City can be just as bad as Gotham."
"I just… I haven't helped him in years…" he pleaded, tears running down his face. As August reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a pocket knife, the man cried out. "Okay, okay! He's on 3851, Manapul! He had me make some kind of electric chair. He said it was for revenge!"
"If you're lying," August growled, raising the knife to the man's throat.
"I'm not, I swear!"
August slammed his first into the man's head once more, knocking him unconscious. Breathing heavily, face covered in blood, he reached for his phone and began typing the details to Joe. He paused however, staring at the unsent message. Deleting it, he scrolled through his contacts, finding Barry's.
Barry, I found Trickster. Text Joe this address, tell him to bring as many men as he can.
Closing his phone, he once again looked down at the unconscious man on the ground.
"If having this badge means I can't even help a child in need… maybe I shouldn't have it."
----------------------------
NEXT TIME: Life or Death, a Last Second Decision!
This is a high-resolution, black-and-white photograph of a person with their face partially obscured by a mass of tangled, root-like branches. The branches, which appear to be dry and weathered, cover the person's forehead, nose, and part of the mouth, creating a surreal and haunting effect. The person's lips are slightly parted, and their eyes are not visible due to the branches. The texture of the branches is rough and uneven, contrasting starkly with the smooth, almost porcelain-like skin of the person's face. The person is wearing a high-necked, long-sleeved garment that appears to be made of a thick, ribbed fabric, adding to the overall dramatic and eerie atmosphere of the image. The background is completely dark, making the person and the branches the focal point. The lighting is soft yet directional, highlighting the textures and shadows of the branches and the person's face. The photograph is highly stylized, combining elements of nature and human form in a striking and thought-provoking manner.
"Stay with me!"
ZAP!
"C'mon, get up!"
ZAP!
"Dammit, wake up!"
ZAP!
Wally shoots up from the concrete, oxygen filling his lungs at insane speeds. The world is little more than a blur, smudges of various reds He's soaked, the downpouring rain drenching his clothes and causing his hair to stick to his forehead. Through the battering of the rain, he can hear a voice, one he's familiar with.
Running a finger over his lenses, he gets a clear view of Eddie knelt over him. His face is scrunched, with tears running down his cheeks. It's a face he's never seen made by the man, one he isn't fond of seeing.
"Mr… Jones?" Wally mumbles, attempting to push himself up with his elbows. He doesn't get the chance to, however, as Eddie's arms wrap around him, pulling him into a hug. He winces lightly by the pressure, unable to move in the older man's grip.
"I thought you were gone…" Eddie whimpers, voice shaking.
Wally doesn't know how to respond, he's still trying to recall the events in his own mind. It doesn't matter much at the moment. Right now, he reciprocates the hug, letting the rain wash over him.
-^- 3 years ago -^-
"Mardon continues to wreak havoc on the city. With the CCPD unable to act in the chaos, the area is left open season for the super criminal!"
Wally stares in fear as his aunt Iris reports live from the whirling tornado at Central City Museum. A super villain, one who can control the weather, is attacking. He can see the striking lightning from his own window, a city away, it's no joke or stunt. He knows his aunt, she's brave and will do anything for her work, but he's terrified for her. She's in real danger.
"Ms. West, we need to move!" the pilot of the helicopter calls, the audio barely picking up on her mic. "The storm is getting too thick to fly in!"
Wally watches with pleading as Iris bites her lip, before reluctantly nodding. "Yeah, okay… let's go!" she shouts, Wally relaxing at the words.
That relaxation, however, didn't last.
"Going somewhere?"
The next few seconds pass in slow motion. A large, directed gust of wind slams into the helicopter's side, tipping it forty-five degrees. The cameraman, somehow, manages to grab hold of a support beam, keeping him in place, though losing his camera. Iris isn't so lucky, narrowly missing the beam and falling into the open air.
Tears form in Wally's eyes, watching from the falling camera as Iris plummets. He reaches out, as if he could take her hand and pull her to the safety of his home. As if a miracle would happen.
Then, there was lightning. Golden lightning, shining brilliantly, streaks across the screen, leaving a burst of air in its wake. Wally's eyes go wide as the camera crashes atop a nearby building, damaged, but still broadcasting. Luckily, the lens landed aiming at the street, showcasing the ball of lightning that had saved Iris.
Wally's eyes widen, watching the red suited man place Iris on the ground, microphone still in hand.
"Who…" Iris interjects, before stopping herself.
"Yes, who are you!?" Mardon interjects, lowering himself towards the figure.
"Me? That's simple," he mutters, crackling lightning sparking off his suit once again. A smile spreads across Wally's face, stuffing a vhs in tv, pressing down on the record button. "I'm The Flash."
-^-
"Samu… roid?" Wally asks, sitting on a cot in Vulcan's Veggie's basement eating a granola bar. "It was a robot?"
Eddie nods from his chair, a sullen look on his face. "That… that thing… it's no joke, especially for you."
"You fought it before?"
"Mhm," Eddie answers, hesitant to elaborate. "It… it was an android built by T.O Morrow, the cybernetics and engineering genius, for Japan back after the JSA's formation. Its own peacekeeping unit, modeled after the JSA's own, Wind Dragon. Unfortunately, sometime in the late 60s, The Thinker hacked the unit, turning them into his own army."
"It sounds deeper than that for you," Wally probes, tossing the wrapper aside.
"It… it's my outing," he admits, looking downwards. "There was a resurgence, years after the JSA took Thinker down… I fought it in the subway, the one abandoned now… that was the day my baby girl passed. My last day with her…"
"Eddie… I'm sorry," Wally apologizes, earning a small nod in response.
Seconds later, the police radio attached to the wall sounds off, grabbing the attention of both men. "This is officer Iverson, we've got a meta attack on 3rd and Waid, I repeat a meta attack… suspect is a samurai man with super swords, send backup."
"Well… you got any pointers on how to take it down?" Wally asks, a small smile as he looks away from the radio.
"Pointers?" Eddie asks, astounded. "You can't go back out there!"
"What?" Wally asks, the same astounded expression. "That android is out there right now!"
"You just lost to it yesterday!"
"That doesn't matter… I have to try and beat it! You can't expect me to-"
"I can't lose you too, Wally!" Eddie shouts, tears running past his sunglasses. His breathing is shaky, like it was on the rooftop. "I… I was broken… for so long. Wally, you don't understand what it was like to see you there, lying in a pool of your own blood."
Wally had noticed it earlier, but now understood the burn marks on Eddie's hands. Ever since he began using his powers again, he'd needed his gloves to lower conductivity and avoid burning himself. The fresh burns must've been from using his hands as pseudo defibrillators.
"Mr. J- Eddie…" he begins, stopping himself, trying to think of the words to say to man. "I have these powers, am I supposed to just sit around? Wait for everything around me to be taken before I can finally fight?"
"You're a child, Wally!" Eddie cries, grabbing onto his shoulders. "You could die… lose everything that's waiting for you… leave everyone behind."
"I… I think you're scared," Wally says, reaching up to remove the sunglasses from Eddie's face, revealing eyes full of guilt. "The Samuroid… it's bringing memories back, your regrets, your choices that you see as mistakes. You're scared to lose everything all over again… but that won't happen, Eddie."
"You don't know that, Wally…" Eddie whimpers, trying to wipe the flowing tears from his eyes. "The Speed Force exists to take, take, and take more. It took my baby girl from me, and now it's sending you to your death."
"The Speed Force is also the reason we got to meet," Wally smiles, handing a tissue to the older man. "I understand your fears, and understand that you've been hurt before… but that's why I can't stand around. If someone doesn't go out there, if someone doesn't stop the Samuroid… someone else's child could be taken from them.
"You told me I reminded you of her because both of us could get back up when we were knocked down, right? Well I'm standing again."
"Wally…"
"The Samuroid took your last moments with her… I'll pay it back for you."
-^-
With a slash of its sword, the Samuroid sends a wave of sonic energy down the street. Pavement rips up from the ground, steel tears away from the framework of cars, and the windows of all nearby buildings shatter, raining glass from above. Terrified civilians scream as they run in fear, but the android doesn't seem to care. Its attention is drawn to the sound of rushing wind coming from the other side of the street. Raising its sword once again, another slash emits a wave of sonic energy, this time heading towards the blue lightning rushing towards it.
Wally's eyes narrow, staring down the energy. The sonic attack was enough to send him careening off the rooftop of their last meeting, he needed to dodge, but the subsequent shockwave has already begun ripping the street apart. Behind the slash, the Samuroid stands idle, mechanical eyes watching, waiting for Wally's response to the strike.
Dodging to the left or right would be the safest option to avoid another attack, but it would give Wally little to no time to adjust for the cmterrain's destruction. Sliding beneath it has a similar problem. He has more than enough momentum to leap over the slash, but being wide open in the air is the least optimal situation. His eyes meet the Samuroid once more. He'd need to time this just right, with perfect precision to boot.
Wally pushes forward, headfirst towards the slash. The Samuroid tilts its head to the side, curious with Wally's actions. The phrase "as swift as a coursing river" repeats in Wally's head over and over again, the slash meters away. His mind screams go, twirling his body to the left. The attack slices through his right arm, causing various cuts to form and blood to spray, but he can't slow down. The exact moment the slash fully passes, he jumps as his body begins to vibrate, allowing the ear-splitting shockwave to pass. With the momentum he'd built up, he throws his arm to the sky, flicking his fist to an open palm. The released friction sends him back to the ground, narrowly dodging the volley of throwing stars the Samuroid had launched.
With his feet planted firmly on the shattered pavement, Wally pants harshly, a smirk on his face. "That the best you got?" he taunts, holding his bloodied shoulder as it heals.
"Not in the slightest…"
Wally cracks his neck before dropping to his knees, his smirk widening as the whiffed shurikens retract to the Smauroid's chest. From his knees, he spins to a stand before taking off, leaping from the various chunks of destroyed road. He sees something change in the Samuroid, its former idle position shifting to a combat stance.
The android places both hands on the katana's hilt, an unlocking mechanism resonating through the evening city. The sword splits, the former singular blade now forming two, the second a smaller wakizashi. A barrage of slashes are fired off at Wally, forcing him to detour. He curses under his breath as the Samuroid's arm jets flare up, boosting the speed of its movements and slashes. Though there are more attacks to dodge, Wally sighs in relief at the lack of concussive force behind each slash, the dual wielding trading power for speed.
Dodging the slashes doesn't come easy, but with the lack of shockwaves, Wally is able to quickly formulate a plan of attack. He zips to a large chunk of road, using it as a ramp to leap into the air. As anticipated, the Samuroid's chest opens up once again. This time, rather than the throwing stars, a large, flaming cannonball launches from the cavity. Wally, in a moment of panic, twirls his arms to form twin cyclones. While the funnels are able to disperse the flames, the cannonball still collides with his stomach.
Crashing down onto the pavement, Wally coughs up blood, thanking Barry for teaching him the funnel. If he hadn't slowed it down, he'd have a cannonball sized hole in his stomach. The attack hurt like hell, but he didn't have time to relax before the Samuroid came forward with an 'x' shaped slash. Wally again uses the funnel technique to send him sliding across the ground, out of the direct attack. Hopping to a stand, Wally dodges another set of slashes, leaping to a traffic light and swinging off it like a trapeze bar.
While in the air, he flings both arms in the same direction, a funnel of blue lightning engrossing his body. What he's doing, in his current situation, is risky. After Barry had first taught him to use wind currents, he had a single thought; could the technique be used for more than just propulsion? The opening sound of the chest cavity sends chills down Wally's spine, but he can't stop now. Using continuous momentum, his body begins to generate a large, horizontal cyclone. Dust is lifted into the air and pulled towards the epicenter, Wally himself. Upon hearing the shuriken fire, Wally stops spinning, dropping to the ground without his momentum. The stars pass through the cloud of dust, but fly far over Wally's own body. The smokescreen worked. Unable to celebrate just yet, he reaches for chunks of rubble.
The Samuroid stands on the opposite side of the dust cloud, acknowledging the tactic as one of high battle iq. The android readies its chest for the returning throwing stars, only to be stunned by the chunks of rocks flying towards it. With a few quick slashes, the rubble turns to pebbles, though the Samuroid is again surprised. Diced to pieces, laying among the rocks, are the stars. Tired of playing games, it brings both swords together, reforging the full Katana. With a single slash the dust cloud is completely dispersed, leaving the Samuroid confused.
Wally isn't there.
It takes a mere second before it turns, but that second is too late. Wally is inches from the android, his fist charged with lightning he'd built up from running a lap around the city.
"Wally? I- why? Why do you want to be a hero?"
At that moment, Eddie's question from that night returns to him, the question he couldn't answer before. He'd thought about it, he'd wondered why too. At first, he thought the pipedream of a fanboy made reality, a comic book come to life. He'd thought it was nothing but a lucky coincidence he'd be with his idol. It wasn't though. He'd seen the world, he'd seen people lost, hurt, taken. He'd seen the faces of those who were forced to step up and lose what mattered most.
Why did he want to be a hero?
His fist, charged with lightning slams into the still opening chest cavity. The pulse of blue courses through the Samuroid, its eyes glowing cerulean as sparks fly from its joints. Kicking off the android, his hand is pulled free from the cavity. He lands on the pavement, back turned to the Samuroid as it explodes.
He wants to be a hero so that no one else has to.
----------------------------
NEXT TIME: The Drums of War Rattle in the Heart of the Jungle!
Dane: *presses hand to her forehead* “She’s burning up. I knew she felt warm before…”
Caid: “She’s been tired and droopy most of the day, but I thought it was because she’s had so much goin’ on lately…*trails off, distracted by Molly* Molly says Chuck had a headache when she woke up this morning.”
Dillon: “She was knackered at book club, too. Was dozin’ on me shoulder by the end.”
Candy (impatiently): “Well, don’t just stand there clucking like hens! One of you burly boys pick her up! We need to get her into bed!”
Molly: *eyes wide, close to tears*
Caid: *signs/says* “She’s fine, sweetheart. She probably just has the flu or something, and all the extra stress of the bake sale has tuckered her out.” *enfolds her in his arms, propping his chin atop her head*
Molly: *sniffles into his chest*
Charley: *regains consciousness, stares up at all the faces peering down at her, groggily* “Huh, why am I on the floor and…*frowns, as she digs an apple out from underneath her* why are there apples everywhere? Are we playing Snow White? Are you guys my dwarves? Caid’s definitely Dopey.”
Caid: “Actually, I think I’m better suited for the role of ‘Happy.’ Now, Dillon could be in the running for Dopey.”
Dillon: *side-eyes Caid, ‘give-me-a-break’ expression*
Dane: “Apparently, you’re sick. Something you didn’t bother to mention. Now you’ve overextended yourself, swooned like Dillon the first time he saw the state of the flat’s bathroom—”
Dillon: *shivers at the memory* “There was used floss stuck to the mirror, and Jayzus only knows what growin’ in the tub.”
Dane: “—and given everyone a dreadful scare. Good job!”
Charley (weakly): “Thanks. Do I get a gold star? When my students do a good job, I give them a gold star…or sometimes a sticker of a bear giving a thumbs-up…which is weird because bears don’t have opposable thumbs. Monkeys do, though. They should’ve had one of those giving a thumbs-up. As an educator, I’m ashamed I’ve been giving out biologically inaccurate stickers all this time. Do you think that’s a fire-able offence? Also, being British, shouldn’t you have said ‘well done,’ not ‘good job’? How am I supposed to learn your language, if you keep speaking American?”
Danny (amused): “I believe she’s delirious.”
Dane: *scoops Charley into his arms*
Charley (faintly): “Where are we going?”
Dane: “To bed.”
Charley: *head lolls against his shoulder* “Uh…Horny Dove, I’m in no condition for the sex-sex-underpants dance right now.”
Candy: *delightedly mouths to Danny* “Horny Dove?”
Danny: *grins, mouths back* “Sex-sex-underpants dance?”
Candy: “I’ll ask her about it later.”
Danny: “Tell. Me. Everything.”
Dane: “Shut up, Chuck, or I’ll make you eat a cupcake.”
Charley: *suddenly snaps to attention* “Ugh! The bake sale! Can’t go to bed! Not finished! Put me down. *tries to wiggle out of Dane’s grasp*
Dane: *tosses her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, smacks her smartly on the ass, and keeps walking* “These guys can handle it. More importantly, Yuri can handle it. You’re going to bed…and Horny Dove’s going to make sure you stay there.”
Charley (grumpily): “Bronte was right. This is the bake sale from hell!”
Third, and final, bake sale episode next Tuesday…
Fashion Credits
***Any doll enhancements (i.e. freckles, piercings, eye color changes, haircuts) were done by me unless otherwise stated.***
Charley
Shorts: Sugarbabylovedoll (Etsy.com)
T-shirt: Clear-lan
Sneakers: Sekiguchi – Momoko – Go For Victory
Glasses: Sekiguchi – Momoko Separate
Necklace: Me
Doll is a Morning Dew Giselle transplanted to a Poppy body, re-rooted by the super-duper valmaxi(!!!)
Candy
Jeans: Clear-lan
Top & Belt: Cangaway (Etsy.com)
Sneakers: Sekiguchi – Momoko – After School Dash!
Hair scarf: Mattel – Playline – My Scene Chelsea
Necklace & Bracelets: Me
Doll is a Making a Scene Erin transplanted to a Misaki body.
Molly
Dress: Cangaway (Etsy.com)
Vest: IT – Dynamite Girls – Free Spirit Jett
Boots: Snow’s Shopping Paradise (eBay)
Earrings: IT
Necklace: Me
Doll is a She’s Not There Poppy Parker.
Danny
Jeans: IT – Homme – Style Strategy Lukas
Shirt: Kimberlee of Hazel Street Dezigns
Shoes: Mattel – Playline
Metal Bracelet: IT – 2016 FR Convention – Style Lab
Leather Cuff, Necklace & Belt: Me
Doll is a Style Strategy Lukas.
Dane
Pants: IT – 2016 FR Convention – Style Lab – Come As You Are Fashion
Shirt: Kelsie of Mutant Goldfish Designs; Screenprint added by me
Hoodie: Clear-lan
Sneakers: IT – Homme – Style Strategy Lukas
Necklace: Piecemeal here and there
Doll is a Night Vision Count Adrian.
Caid
Jeans: Kelsie of Mutant Goldfish Designs
Tank: Clear-lan
Sneakers: IT – 2016 FR Convention – Style Lab – Come As You Are Fashion
Belt: Miema (etsy.com)
Bracelets: IT – 2016 FR Convention – Style Lab
Bandana & Necklace: Me
Doll is a Dark Hunter Acheron.
Dillon
Shorts: IT – Homme – In the Mix Takeo
Tank: IT – Dynamite Boys – Summer Daze Kyu
Button-up & Belt: Kimberlee of Hazel Street Dezigns
Shoes: Volks – Who’s That Girl? – Selfish
Necklace: Piecemeal here and there
Doll is a 2013 Color Infusion Declan.
Shiva, meaning "The Auspicious One"), also known as Mahadeva ("Great God"), is a popular Hindu deity. Shiva is regarded as one of the primary forms of God. He is the Supreme God within Shaivism, one of the three most influential denominations in contemporary Hinduism. He is one of the five primary forms of God in the Smarta tradition, and "the Destroyer" or "the Transformer" among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine.
Shiva has many benevolent and fearsome forms. At the highest level Shiva is limitless, transcendent, unchanging and formless. In benevolent aspects, he is depicted as an omniscient Yogi who lives an ascetic life on Mount Kailash, as well as a householder with wife Parvati and his two children, Ganesha and Kartikeya and in fierce aspects, he is often depicted slaying demons. Shiva is also regarded as the patron god of yoga and arts.
The main iconographical attributes of Shiva are the third eye on his forehead, the snake Vasuki around his neck, the crescent moon adorning, the holy river Ganga flowing from his matted hair, the trishula as his weapon and the damaru as his instrument.
Shiva is usually worshiped in the aniconic form of Lingam. Temples of Lord Shiva are called shivalayam.
ETYMOLOGY & OTHER NAMES
The Sanskrit word Shiva (Devanagari: शिव, śiva) comes from Shri Rudram Chamakam of Taittiriya Samhita (TS 4.5, 4.7) of Krishna Yajurveda. The root word śi means auspicious. In simple English transliteration it is written either as Shiva or Siva. The adjective śiva, is used as an attributive epithet not particularly of Rudra, but of several other Vedic deities.
The other popular names associated with Shiva are Mahadev, Mahesh, Maheshwar, Shankar, Shambhu, Rudra, Har, Trilochan, Devendra (meaning Chief of the gods) and Trilokinath (meaning Lord of the three realms).
The Sanskrit word śaiva means "relating to the God Shiva", and this term is the Sanskrit name both for one of the principal sects of Hinduism and for a member of that sect. It is used as an adjective to characterize certain beliefs and practices, such as Shaivism. He is the oldest worshipped Lord of India.
The Tamil word Sivan, Tamil: சிவன் ("Fair Skinned") could have been derived from the word sivappu. The word 'sivappu' means "red" in Tamil language but while addressing a person's skin texture in Tamil the word 'Sivappu' is used for being Fair Skinned.
Adi Sankara, in his interpretation of the name Shiva, the 27th and 600th name of Vishnu sahasranama, the thousand names of Vishnu interprets Shiva to have multiple meanings: "The Pure One", or "the One who is not affected by three Gunas of Prakrti (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas)" or "the One who purifies everyone by the very utterance of His name."Swami Chinmayananda, in his translation of Vishnu sahasranama, further elaborates on that verse: Shiva means "the One who is eternally pure" or "the One who can never have any contamination of the imperfection of Rajas and Tamas".
Shiva's role as the primary deity of Shaivism is reflected in his epithets Mahādeva ("Great God"; mahā "Great" and deva "god"), Maheśvara ("Great Lord"; mahā "great" and īśvara "lord"), and Parameśvara ("Supreme Lord").
There are at least eight different versions of the Shiva Sahasranama, devotional hymns (stotras) listing many names of Shiva. The version appearing in Book 13 (Anuśāsanaparvan) of the Mahabharata is considered the kernel of this tradition. Shiva also has Dasha-Sahasranamas (10,000 names) that are found in the Mahanyasa. The Shri Rudram Chamakam, also known as the Śatarudriya, is a devotional hymn to Shiva hailing him by many names.
The worship of Shiva is a pan-Hindu tradition, practiced widely across all of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
ASSIMILATION OF TRADITIONS
The figure of Shiva as we know him today was built up over time, with the ideas of many regional sects being amalgamated into a single figure. How the persona of Shiva converged as a composite deity is not well documented. According to Vijay Nath:
Visnu and Siva [...] began to absorb countless local cults and deities within their folds. The latter were either taken to represent the multiple facets of the same god or else were supposed to denote different forms and appellations by which the god came to be known and worshipped. [...] Siva became identified with countless local cults by the sheer suffixing of Isa or Isvara to the name of the local deity, e.g., Bhutesvara, Hatakesvara, Chandesvara."
Axel Michaels the Indologist suggests that Shaivism, like Vaishnavism, implies a unity which cannot be clearly found either in religious practice or in philosophical and esoteric doctrine. Furthermore, practice and doctrine must be kept separate.
An example of assimilation took place in Maharashtra, where a regional deity named Khandoba is a patron deity of farming and herding castes. The foremost center of worship of Khandoba in Maharashtra is in Jejuri. Khandoba has been assimilated as a form of Shiva himself, in which case he is worshipped in the form of a lingam. Khandoba's varied associations also include an identification with Surya and Karttikeya.
INDUS VALLEY ORIGINS
Many Indus valley seals show animals but one seal that has attracted attention shows a figure, either horned or wearing a horned headdress and possibly ithyphallic figure seated in a posture reminiscent of the Lotus position and surrounded by animals was named by early excavators of Mohenjo-daro Pashupati (lord of cattle), an epithet of the later Hindu gods Shiva and Rudra. Sir John Marshall and others have claimed that this figure is a prototype of Shiva and have described the figure as having three faces seated in a "yoga posture" with the knees out and feet joined.
This claim has been criticised, with some academics like Gavin Flood and John Keay characterizing them as unfounded. Writing in 1997 Doris Srinivasan said that "Not too many recent studies continue to call the seal's figure a 'Proto-Siva'", rejecting thereby Marshall's package of proto-Siva features, including that of three heads. She interprets what John Marshall interpreted as facial as not human but more bovine, possibly a divine buffalo-man. According to Iravatham Mahadevan symbols 47 and 48 of his Indus script glossary The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables (1977), representing seated human-like figures, could describe Hindu deity Murugan, popularly known as Shiva and Parvati's son.
INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGINS
Shiva's rise to a major position in the pantheon was facilitated by his identification with a host of Vedic deities, including Purusha, Rudra, Agni, Indra, Prajāpati, Vāyu, and others.
RUDRA
Shiva as we know him today shares many features with the Vedic god Rudra, and both Shiva and Rudra are viewed as the same personality in Hindu scriptures. The two names are used synonymously. Rudra, the god of the roaring storm, is usually portrayed in accordance with the element he represents as a fierce, destructive deity.
The oldest surviving text of Hinduism is the Rig Veda, which is dated to between 1700 and 1100 BCE based on linguistic and philological evidence. A god named Rudra is mentioned in the Rig Veda. The name Rudra is still used as a name for Shiva. In RV 2.33, he is described as the "Father of the Rudras", a group of storm gods. Furthermore, the Rudram, one of the most sacred hymns of Hinduism found both in the Rig and the Yajur Vedas and addressed to Rudra, invokes him as Shiva in several instances, but the term Shiva is used as an epithet for the gods Indra, Mitra and Agni many times. Since Shiva means pure, the epithet is possibly used to describe a quality of these gods rather than to identify any of them with the God Shiva.
The identification of Shiva with the older god Rudhra is not universally accepted, as Axel Michaels explains:
Rudra is called "The Archer" (Sanskrit: Śarva), and the arrow is an essential attribute of Rudra. This name appears in the Shiva Sahasranama, and R. K. Sharma notes that it is used as a name of Shiva often in later languages.
The word is derived from the Sanskrit root śarv-, which means "to injure" or "to kill", and Sharma uses that general sense in his interpretive translation of the name Śarva as "One who can kill the forces of darkness". The names Dhanvin ("Bowman") and Bāṇahasta ("Archer", literally "Armed with arrows in his hands") also refer to archery.
AGNI
Rudra and Agni have a close relationship. The identification between Agni and Rudra in the Vedic literature was an important factor in the process of Rudra's gradual development into the later character as Rudra-Shiva. The identification of Agni with Rudra is explicitly noted in the Nirukta, an important early text on etymology, which says, "Agni is also called Rudra." The interconnections between the two deities are complex, and according to Stella Kramrisch:
The fire myth of Rudra-Śiva plays on the whole gamut of fire, valuing all its potentialities and phases, from conflagration to illumination.
In the Śatarudrīya, some epithets of Rudra, such as Sasipañjara ("Of golden red hue as of flame") and Tivaṣīmati ("Flaming bright"), suggest a fusing of the two deities. Agni is said to be a bull, and Lord Shiva possesses a bull as his vehicle, Nandi. The horns of Agni, who is sometimes characterized as a bull, are mentioned. In medieval sculpture, both Agni and the form of Shiva known as Bhairava have flaming hair as a special feature.
INDRA
According to Wendy Doniger, the Puranic Shiva is a continuation of the Vedic Indra. Doniger gives several reasons for his hypothesis. Both are associated with mountains, rivers, male fertility, fierceness, fearlessness, warfare, transgression of established mores, the Aum sound, the Supreme Self. In the Rig Veda the term śiva is used to refer to Indra. (2.20.3, 6.45.17, and 8.93.3.) Indra, like Shiva, is likened to a bull. In the Rig Veda, Rudra is the father of the Maruts, but he is never associated with their warlike exploits as is Indra.
The Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion, and the Indo-Iranian religion. According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the Zeravshan River (present-day Uzbekistan) and (present-day) Iran. It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements", which borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices" from the Bactria–Margiana Culture. At least 383 non-Indo-European words were borrowed from this culture, including the god Indra and the ritual drink Soma. According to Anthony,
Many of the qualities of Indo-Iranian god of might/victory, Verethraghna, were transferred to the adopted god Indra, who became the central deity of the developing Old Indic culture. Indra was the subject of 250 hymns, a quarter of the Rig Veda. He was associated more than any other deity with Soma, a stimulant drug (perhaps derived from Ephedra) probably borrowed from the BMAC religion. His rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers.
LATER VEDIC LITERATURE
Rudra's transformation from an ambiguously characterized deity to a supreme being began in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad (400-200 BCE), which founded the tradition of Rudra-Shiva worship. Here they are identified as the creators of the cosmos and liberators of souls from the birth-rebirth cycle. The period of 200 BCE to 100 CE also marks the beginning of the Shaiva tradition focused on the worship of Shiva, with references to Shaiva ascetics in Patanjali's Mahabhasya and in the Mahabharata.
Early historical paintings at the Bhimbetka rock shelters, depict Shiva dancing, Shiva's trident, and his mount Nandi but no other Vedic gods.
PURANIC LITERATURE
The Shiva Puranas, particularly the Shiva Purana and the Linga Purana, discuss the various forms of Shiva and the cosmology associated with him.
TANTRIC LITERATURE
The Tantras, composed between the 8th and 11th centuries, regard themselves as Sruti. Among these the Shaiva Agamas, are said to have been revealed by Shiva himself and are foundational texts for Shaiva Siddhanta.
POSITION WITHIN HINDUISM
SHAIVISM
Shaivism (Sanskrit: शैव पंथ, śaiva paṁtha) (Kannada: ಶೈವ ಪಂಥ) (Tamil: சைவ சமயம்) is the oldest of the four major sects of Hinduism, the others being Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism. Followers of Shaivism, called "Shaivas", and also "Saivas" or "Saivites", revere Shiva as the Supreme Being. Shaivas believe that Shiva is All and in all, the creator, preserver, destroyer, revealer and concealer of all that is. The tantric Shaiva tradition consists of the Kapalikas, Kashmir Shaivism and Shaiva Siddhanta. The Shiva MahaPurana is one of the purāṇas, a genre of Hindu religious texts, dedicated to Shiva. Shaivism is widespread throughout India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, mostly. Areas notable for the practice of Shaivism include parts of Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
PANCHAYATANA PUJA
Panchayatana puja is the system of worship ('puja') in the Smarta sampradaya of Hinduism. It is said to have been introduced by Adi Shankara, the 8th century CE Hindu philosopher. It consists of the worship of five deities: Shiva, Vishnu, Devi, Surya and Ganesha. Depending on the tradition followed by Smarta households, one of these deities is kept in the center and the other four surround it. Worship is offered to all the deities. The five are represented by small murtis, or by five kinds of stones, or by five marks drawn on the floor.
TRIMURTI
The Trimurti is a concept in Hinduism in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified by the forms of Brahmā the creator, Vishnu the maintainer or preserver and Śhiva the destroyer or transformer. These three deities have been called "the Hindu triad" or the "Great Trinity", often addressed as "Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwara."
ICONOGRAPHY AND PROPERTIES
ATTRIBUTES
Shiva's form: Shiva has a trident in the right lower arm, and a crescent moon on his head. He is said to be fair like camphor or like an ice clad mountain. He wears five serpents and a garland of skulls as ornaments. Shiva is usually depicted facing the south. His trident, like almost all other forms in Hinduism, can be understood as the symbolism of the unity of three worlds that a human faces - his inside world, his immediate world, and the broader overall world. At the base of the trident, all three forks unite.
Third eye: (Trilochana) Shiva is often depicted with a third eye, with which he burned Desire (Kāma) to ashes, called "Tryambakam" (Sanskrit: त्र्यम्बकम् ), which occurs in many scriptural sources. In classical Sanskrit, the word ambaka denotes "an eye", and in the Mahabharata, Shiva is depicted as three-eyed, so this name is sometimes translated as "having three eyes". However, in Vedic Sanskrit, the word ambā or ambikā means "mother", and this early meaning of the word is the basis for the translation "three mothers". These three mother-goddesses who are collectively called the Ambikās. Other related translations have been based on the idea that the name actually refers to the oblations given to Rudra, which according to some traditions were shared with the goddess Ambikā. It has been mentioned that when Shiva loses his temper, his third eye opens which can destroy most things to ashes.
Crescent moon: (The epithets "Chandrasekhara/Chandramouli")- Shiva bears on his head the crescent moon. The epithet Candraśekhara (Sanskrit: चन्द्रशेखर "Having the moon as his crest" - candra = "moon"; śekhara = "crest, crown") refers to this feature. The placement of the moon on his head as a standard iconographic feature dates to the period when Rudra rose to prominence and became the major deity Rudra-Shiva. The origin of this linkage may be due to the identification of the moon with Soma, and there is a hymn in the Rig Veda where Soma and Rudra are jointly implored, and in later literature, Soma and Rudra came to be identified with one another, as were Soma and the moon. The crescent moon is shown on the side of the Lord's head as an ornament. The waxing and waning phenomenon of the moon symbolizes the time cycle through which creation evolves from the beginning to the end.
Ashes: (The epithet "Bhasmaanga Raaga") - Shiva smears his body with ashes (bhasma). The ashes are said to represent the end of all material existence. Some forms of Shiva, such as Bhairava, are associated with a very old Indian tradition of cremation-ground asceticism that was practiced by some groups who were outside the fold of brahmanic orthodoxy. These practices associated with cremation grounds are also mentioned in the Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism. One epithet for Shiva is "inhabitant of the cremation ground" (Sanskrit: śmaśānavāsin, also spelled Shmashanavasin), referring to this connection.
Matted hair: (The epithet "Jataajoota Dhari/Kapardina") - Shiva's distinctive hair style is noted in the epithets Jaṭin, "the one with matted hair", and Kapardin, "endowed with matted hair" or "wearing his hair wound in a braid in a shell-like (kaparda) fashion". A kaparda is a cowrie shell, or a braid of hair in the form of a shell, or, more generally, hair that is shaggy or curly. His hair is said to be like molten gold in color or being yellowish-white.
Blue throat: The epithet Nīlakaṇtha (Sanskrit नीलकण्ठ; nīla = "blue", kaṇtha = "throat"). Since Shiva drank the Halahala poison churned up from the Samudra Manthan to eliminate its destructive capacity. Shocked by his act, Goddess Parvati strangled his neck and hence managed to stop it in his neck itself and prevent it from spreading all over the universe, supposed to be in Shiva's stomach. However the poison was so potent that it changed the color of his neck to blue. (See Maha Shivaratri.)
Sacred Ganges: (The epithet "Gangadhara") Bearer of Ganga. Ganges river flows from the matted hair of Shiva. The Gaṅgā (Ganges), one of the major rivers of the country, is said to have made her abode in Shiva's hair. The flow of the Ganges also represents the nectar of immortality.
Tiger skin: (The epithet "Krittivasana").He is often shown seated upon a tiger skin, an honour reserved for the most accomplished of Hindu ascetics, the Brahmarishis.
Serpents: (The epithet "Nagendra Haara" or 'Vasoki"). Shiva is often shown garlanded with a snake.
Deer: His holding deer on one hand indicates that He has removed the Chanchalata of the mind (i.e., attained maturity and firmness in thought process). A deer jumps from one place to another swiftly, similar to the mind moving from one thought to another.
Trident: (Trishula): Shiva's particular weapon is the trident. His Trisul that is held in His right hand represents the three Gunas— Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. That is the emblem of sovereignty. He rules the world through these three Gunas. The Damaru in His left hand represents the Sabda Brahman. It represents OM from which all languages are formed. It is He who formed the Sanskrit language out of the Damaru sound.
Drum: A small drum shaped like an hourglass is known as a damaru (ḍamaru). This is one of the attributes of Shiva in his famous dancing representation known as Nataraja. A specific hand gesture (mudra) called ḍamaru-hasta (Sanskrit for "ḍamaru-hand") is used to hold the drum. This drum is particularly used as an emblem by members of the Kāpālika sect.
Axe: (Parashu):The parashu is the weapon of Lord Shiva who gave it to Parashurama, sixth Avatar of Vishnu, whose name means "Rama with the axe" and also taught him its mastery.
Nandī: (The epithet "Nandi Vaahana").Nandī, also known as Nandin, is the name of the bull that serves as Shiva's mount (Sanskrit: vāhana). Shiva's association with cattle is reflected in his name Paśupati, or Pashupati (Sanskrit: पशुपति), translated by Sharma as "lord of cattle" and by Kramrisch as "lord of animals", who notes that it is particularly used as an epithet of Rudra. Rishabha or the bull represents Dharma Devata. Lord Siva rides on the bull. Bull is his vehicle. This denotes that Lord Siva is the protector of Dharma, is an embodiment of Dharma or righteousness.
Gaṇa: The Gaṇas (Devanagari: गण) are attendants of Shiva and live in Kailash. They are often referred to as the bhutaganas, or ghostly hosts, on account of their nature. Generally benign, except when their lord is transgressed against, they are often invoked to intercede with the lord on behalf of the devotee. Ganesha was chosen as their leader by Shiva, hence Ganesha's title gaṇa-īśa or gaṇa-pati, "lord of the gaṇas".
Mount Kailāsa: Mount Kailash in the Himalayas is his traditional abode. In Hindu mythology, Mount Kailāsa is conceived as resembling a Linga, representing the center of the universe.
Varanasi: Varanasi (Benares) is considered to be the city specially loved by Shiva, and is one of the holiest places of pilgrimage in India. It is referred to, in religious contexts, as Kashi.
LINGAM
Apart from anthropomorphic images of Shiva, the worship of Shiva in the form of a lingam, or linga, is also important. These are depicted in various forms. One common form is the shape of a vertical rounded column. Shiva means auspiciousness, and linga means a sign or a symbol. Hence, the Shivalinga is regarded as a "symbol of the great God of the universe who is all-auspiciousness". Shiva also means "one in whom the whole creation sleeps after dissolution". Linga also means the same thing—a place where created objects get dissolved during the disintegration of the created universe. Since, according to Hinduism, it is the same god that creates, sustains and withdraws the universe, the Shivalinga represents symbolically God Himself. Some scholars, such as Monier Monier-Williams and Wendy Doniger, also view linga as a phallic symbol, although this interpretation is disputed by others, including Christopher Isherwood, Vivekananda, Swami Sivananda, and S.N. Balagangadhara.
JYOTIRLINGA
The worship of the Shiva-Linga originated from the famous hymn in the Atharva-Veda Samhitâ sung in praise of the Yupa-Stambha, the sacrificial post. In that hymn, a description is found of the beginningless and endless Stambha or Skambha, and it is shown that the said Skambha is put in place of the eternal Brahman. Just as the Yajna (sacrificial) fire, its smoke, ashes, and flames, the Soma plant, and the ox that used to carry on its back the wood for the Vedic sacrifice gave place to the conceptions of the brightness of Shiva's body, his tawny matted hair, his blue throat, and the riding on the bull of the Shiva, the Yupa-Skambha gave place in time to the Shiva-Linga. In the text Linga Purana, the same hymn is expanded in the shape of stories, meant to establish the glory of the great Stambha and the superiority of Shiva as Mahadeva.
The sacred of all Shiva linga is worshipped as Jyotir linga. Jyoti means Radiance, apart from relating Shiva linga as a phallus symbol, there are also arguments that Shiva linga means 'mark' or a 'sign'. Jyotirlinga means "The Radiant sign of The Almighty". The Jyotirlingas are mentioned in Shiva Purana.
SHAKTI
Shiva forms a Tantric couple with Shakti [Tamil : சக்தி ], the embodiment of energy, dynamism, and the motivating force behind all action and existence in the material universe. Shiva is her transcendent masculine aspect, providing the divine ground of all being. Shakti manifests in several female deities. Sati and Parvati are the main consorts of Shiva. She is also referred to as Uma, Durga (Parvata), Kali and Chandika. Kali is the manifestation of Shakti in her dreadful aspect. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Since Shiva is called Kāla, the eternal time, Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" (as in "time has come"). Various Shakta Hindu cosmologies, as well as Shākta Tantric beliefs, worship her as the ultimate reality or Brahman. She is also revered as Bhavatārini (literally "redeemer of the universe"). Kālī is represented as the consort of Lord Shiva, on whose body she is often seen standing or dancing. Shiva is the masculine force, the power of peace, while Shakti translates to power, and is considered as the feminine force. In the Vaishnava tradition, these realities are portrayed as Vishnu and Laxmi, or Radha and Krishna. These are differences in formulation rather than a fundamental difference in the principles. Both Shiva and Shakti have various forms. Shiva has forms like Yogi Raj (the common image of Himself meditating in the Himalayas), Rudra (a wrathful form) and Natarajar (Shiva's dance are the Lasya - the gentle form of dance, associated with the creation of the world, and the Tandava - the violent and dangerous dance, associated with the destruction of weary worldviews – weary perspectives and lifestyles).
THE FIVE MANTRAS
Five is a sacred number for Shiva. One of his most important mantras has five syllables (namaḥ śivāya).
Shiva's body is said to consist of five mantras, called the pañcabrahmans. As forms of God, each of these have their own names and distinct iconography:
Sadyojāta
Vāmadeva
Aghora
Tatpuruṣha
Īsāna
These are represented as the five faces of Shiva and are associated in various texts with the five elements, the five senses, the five organs of perception, and the five organs of action. Doctrinal differences and, possibly, errors in transmission, have resulted in some differences between texts in details of how these five forms are linked with various attributes. The overall meaning of these associations is summarized by Stella Kramrisch:
Through these transcendent categories, Śiva, the ultimate reality, becomes the efficient and material cause of all that exists.
According to the Pañcabrahma Upanishad:
One should know all things of the phenomenal world as of a fivefold character, for the reason that the eternal verity of Śiva is of the character of the fivefold Brahman. (Pañcabrahma Upanishad 31)
FORMES AND ROLES
According to Gavin Flood, "Shiva is a god of ambiguity and paradox," whose attributes include opposing themes.[168] The ambivalent nature of this deity is apparent in some of his names and the stories told about him.
DESTROYER AND BENEFACTOR
In the Yajurveda, two contrary sets of attributes for both malignant or terrific (Sanskrit: rudra) and benign or auspicious (Sanskrit: śiva) forms can be found, leading Chakravarti to conclude that "all the basic elements which created the complex Rudra-Śiva sect of later ages are to be found here". In the Mahabharata, Shiva is depicted as "the standard of invincibility, might, and terror", as well as a figure of honor, delight, and brilliance. The duality of Shiva's fearful and auspicious attributes appears in contrasted names.
The name Rudra (Sanskrit: रुद्र) reflects his fearsome aspects. According to traditional etymologies, the Sanskrit name Rudra is derived from the root rud-, which means "to cry, howl". Stella Kramrisch notes a different etymology connected with the adjectival form raudra, which means "wild, of rudra nature", and translates the name Rudra as "the wild one" or "the fierce god". R. K. Sharma follows this alternate etymology and translates the name as "terrible". Hara (Sanskrit: हर) is an important name that occurs three times in the Anushasanaparvan version of the Shiva sahasranama, where it is translated in different ways each time it occurs, following a commentorial tradition of not repeating an interpretation. Sharma translates the three as "one who captivates", "one who consolidates", and "one who destroys". Kramrisch translates it as "the ravisher". Another of Shiva's fearsome forms is as Kāla (Sanskrit: काल), "time", and as Mahākāla (Sanskrit: महाकाल), "great time", which ultimately destroys all things. Bhairava (Sanskrit: भैरव), "terrible" or "frightful", is a fierce form associated with annihilation.
In contrast, the name Śaṇkara (Sanskrit: शङ्कर), "beneficent" or "conferring happiness" reflects his benign form. This name was adopted by the great Vedanta philosopher Śaṇkara (c. 788 - 820 CE), who is also known as Shankaracharya. The name Śambhu (Sanskrit: शम्भु), "causing happiness", also reflects this benign aspect.
ASCETIC AND HOUSEHOLDER
He is depicted as both an ascetic yogi and as a householder, roles which have been traditionally mutually exclusive in Hindu society.[185] When depicted as a yogi, he may be shown sitting and meditating. His epithet Mahāyogi ("the great Yogi: Mahā = "great", Yogi = "one who practices Yoga") refers to his association with yoga. While Vedic religion was conceived mainly in terms of sacrifice, it was during the Epic period that the concepts of tapas, yoga, and asceticism became more important, and the depiction of Shiva as an ascetic sitting in philosophical isolation reflects these later concepts. Shiva is also depicted as a corpse below Goddess Kali, it represents that Shiva is a corpse without Shakti. He remains inert. While Shiva is the static form, Mahakali or Shakti is the dynamic aspect without whom Shiva is powerless.
As a family man and householder, he has a wife, Parvati and two sons, Ganesha and Kartikeya. His epithet Umāpati ("The husband of Umā") refers to this idea, and Sharma notes that two other variants of this name that mean the same thing, Umākānta and Umādhava, also appear in the sahasranama. Umā in epic literature is known by many names, including the benign Pārvatī. She is identified with Devi, the Divine Mother; Shakti (divine energy) as well as goddesses like Tripura Sundari, Durga, Kamakshi and Meenakshi. The consorts of Shiva are the source of his creative energy. They represent the dynamic extension of Shiva onto this universe. His son Ganesha is worshipped throughout India and Nepal as the Remover of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles. Kartikeya is worshipped in Southern India (especially in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka) by the names Subrahmanya, Subrahmanyan, Shanmughan, Swaminathan and Murugan, and in Northern India by the names Skanda, Kumara, or Karttikeya.
Some regional deities are also identified as Shiva's children. As one story goes, Shiva is enticed by the beauty and charm of Mohini, Vishnu's female avatar, and procreates with her. As a result of this union, Shasta - identified with regional deities Ayyappa and Ayyanar - is born. Shiva is also mentioned in some scriptures or folktales to have had daughters like the serpent-goddess Manasa and Ashokasundari. Even the demon Andhaka is sometimes considered a child of Shiva.
NATARAJA
he depiction of Shiva as Nataraja (Tamil: நடராஜா,Kannada: ನಟರಾಜ, Telugu: నటరాజు, Sanskrit: naṭarāja, "Lord of Dance") is popular. The names Nartaka ("dancer") and Nityanarta ("eternal dancer") appear in the Shiva Sahasranama. His association with dance and also with music is prominent in the Puranic period. In addition to the specific iconographic form known as Nataraja, various other types of dancing forms (Sanskrit: nṛtyamūrti) are found in all parts of India, with many well-defined varieties in Tamil Nadu in particular. The two most common forms of the dance are the Tandava, which later came to denote the powerful and masculine dance as Kala-Mahakala associated with the destruction of the world. When it requires the world or universe to be destroyed, Lord Śiva does it by the tāṇḍavanṛtya. and Lasya, which is graceful and delicate and expresses emotions on a gentle level and is considered the feminine dance attributed to the goddess Parvati. Lasya is regarded as the female counterpart of Tandava. The Tandava-Lasya dances are associated with the destruction-creation of the world.
DAKSHINAMURTHY
Dakshinamurthy, or Dakṣiṇāmūrti (Tamil:தட்சிணாமூர்த்தி, Telugu: దక్షిణామూర్తి, Sanskrit: दक्षिणामूर्ति), literally describes a form (mūrti) of Shiva facing south (dakṣiṇa). This form represents Shiva in his aspect as a teacher of yoga, music, and wisdom and giving exposition on the shastras. This iconographic form for depicting Shiva in Indian art is mostly from Tamil Nadu. Elements of this motif can include Shiva seated upon a deer-throne and surrounded by sages who are receiving his instruction.
ARDANARISHVARA
An iconographic representation of Shiva called (Ardhanārīśvara) shows him with one half of the body as male and the other half as female. According to Ellen Goldberg, the traditional Sanskrit name for this form (Ardhanārīśvara) is best translated as "the lord who is half woman", not as "half-man, half-woman". According to legend, Lord Shiva is pleased by the difficult austerites performed by the goddess Parvati, grants her the left half of his body. This form of Shiva is quite similar to the Yin-Yang philosophy of Eastern Asia, though Ardhanārīśvara appears to be more ancient.
TRIRUPANTAKA
Shiva is often depicted as an archer in the act of destroying the triple fortresses, Tripura, of the Asuras. Shiva's name Tripurantaka (Sanskrit: त्रिपुरान्तक, Tripurāntaka), "ender of Tripura", refers to this important story.[216] In this aspect, Shiva is depicted with four arms wielding a bow and arrow, but different from the Pinakapani murti. He holds an axe and a deer on the upper pair of his arms. In the lower pair of the arms, he holds a bow and an arrow respectively. After destroying Tripura, Tripurantaka Shiva smeared his forehead with three strokes of Ashes. This has become a prominent symbol of Shiva and is practiced even today by Shaivites.
OTHER FORMS, AVATARS IDENTIFICATIONS
Shiva, like some other Hindu deities, is said to have several incarnations, known as Avatars. Although Puranic scriptures contain occasional references to "ansh" avatars of Shiva, the idea is not universally accepted in Saivism. The Linga Purana speaks of twenty-eight forms of Shiva which are sometimes seen as avatars. According to the Svetasvatara Upanishad, he has four avatars.
In the Hanuman Chalisa, Hanuman is identified as the eleventh avatar of Shiva and this belief is universal. Hanuman is popularly known as “Rudraavtaar” “Rudra” being a name of “Shiva”. Rama– the Vishnu avatar is considered by some to be the eleventh avatar of Rudra (Shiva).
Other traditions regard the sage Durvasa, the sage Agastya, the philosopher Adi Shankara, as avatars of Shiva. Other forms of Shiva include Virabhadra and Sharabha.
FESTIVALS
Maha Shivratri is a festival celebrated every year on the 13th night or the 14th day of the new moon in the Shukla Paksha of the month of Maagha or Phalguna in the Hindu calendar. This festival is of utmost importance to the devotees of Lord Shiva. Mahashivaratri marks the night when Lord Shiva performed the 'Tandava' and it is the day that Lord Shiva was married to Parvati. The holiday is often celebrated with special prayers and rituals offered up to Shiva, notably the Abhishek. This ritual, practiced throughout the night, is often performed every three hours with water, milk, yogurt, and honey. Bel (aegle marmelos) leaves are often offered up to the Hindu god, as it is considered necessary for a successful life. The offering of the leaves are considered so important that it is believed that someone who offers them without any intentions will be rewarded greatly.
BEYOND HINDUISM
BUDDHISM
Shiva is mentioned in Buddhist Tantra. Shiva as Upaya and Shakti as Prajna. In cosmologies of buddhist tantra, Shiva is depicted as active, skillful, and more passive.
SIKHISM
The Japuji Sahib of the Guru Granth Sahib says, "The Guru is Shiva, the Guru is Vishnu and Brahma; the Guru is Paarvati and Lakhshmi." In the same chapter, it also says, "Shiva speaks, the Siddhas speak."
In Dasam Granth, Guru Gobind Singh have mentioned two avtars of Rudra: Dattatreya Avtar and Parasnath Avtar.
OTHERS
The worship of Lord Shiva became popular in Central Asia through the Hephthalite (White Hun) Dynasty, and Kushan Empire. Shaivism was also popular in Sogdiana and Eastern Turkestan as found from the wall painting from Penjikent on the river Zervashan. In this depiction, Shiva is portrayed with a sacred halo and a sacred thread ("Yajnopavita"). He is clad in tiger skin while his attendants are wearing Sodgian dress. In Eastern Turkestan in the Taklamakan Desert. There is a depiction of his four-legged seated cross-legged n a cushioned seat supported by two bulls. Another panel form Dandan-Uilip shows Shiva in His Trimurti form with His Shakti kneeling on her right thigh. It is also noted that Zoroastrian wind god Vayu-Vata took on the iconographic appearance of Shiva.
Kirant people, a Mongol tribe from Nepal, worship a form of Shiva as one of their major deity, identifying him as the lord of animals. It is also said that the physical form of Shiva as a yogi is derived from Kirants as it is mentioned in Mundhum that Shiva took human form as a child of Kirant. He is also said to give Kirants visions in form of a male deer.
In Indonesia, Shiva is also worshiped as Batara Guru. His other name is "Sang Hyang Jagadnata" (king of the universe) and "Sang Hyang Girinata" (king of mountains). In the ancient times, all kingdoms were located on top of mountains. When he was young, before receiving his authority of power, his name was Sang Hyang Manikmaya. He is first of the children who hatched from the eggs laid by Manuk Patiaraja, wife of god Mulajadi na Bolon. This avatar is also worshiped in Malaysia. Shiva's other form in Indonesian Hindu worship is "Maharaja Dewa" (Mahadeva). Both the forms are closely identified with the Sun in local forms of Hinduism or Kebatinan, and even in the genie lore of Muslims. Mostly Shiva is worshipped in the form of a lingam or the phallus.
WIKIPEDIA
(1978)
My father kisses me on the forehead.
Thomas - Happy birthday son. I wish your mom could see you today, she'd be so proud.
Arthur - Goodnight dad… dad?
Thomas - Yes buddy?
Arthur - Do you think Mom is ever gonna come back?
Thomas - Well buddy, I don't think she can. She has a whole world to lead in Atlantis. She would love to come back but I just don't think it is gonna happen.
I nod my head. He leaves the room, shutting the door and turning off the light in the process. I begin to close my eyes.
I wake up to a crack on the side of the light house. Before I can fully open my eyes I hear another one, but it's closer to the window in my room. I hop out of bed and walk towards the window. After another thus I move closer, then all of a sudden, a hand grasps the window sill. I see a giant fork like weapon go through the window, then another hand grasp the sill. I begin to backup as a boy climbs through the window. He looks younger than me but is about the same height with long brown hair and purple fishy clothes. I see another pair of hands grab the window, then a girl jumps in. She looks about the same age as me, she is wearing the same fishy clothes.
Orm - Ar… Arthur?
Arthur - How do you know my name?
Orm - I'm from, I'm from Atlantis. My name is Prince Orm… I'm your brother.
My heart stops, I have a brother?
Arthur - But, my dad is here.
Tula - You both have different fathers. Orm's dad was the king of Atlantis. Your dad lives with you here.
Orm - So we are half brothers, but still brothers.
As he finishes his sentence I see the door be kicked down, my dad with his shotgun aimed at the two, but when realizing who they are he lowers the gun.
Thomas - You two are Atlantean… what are you doing out here?
Arthur - Dad! This is Orm, he is my half brother! And this is… who are you?
Tula - My name is Tula, I am Queen Atlanna's messenger, from the kingdom of Xebel.
Thomas - Queen Atlanta? She knows you're here?
Orm - Not exactly, Tula heard talk that I had a half brother so I wished to meet him.
After he finishes, a knock is heard at the door. My dad and I walk down the stairs, Tula and Orm following. My dad answers the door to see a woman with blonde hair and white fishy clothes standing at the door.
Atlanna - Hello Thomas.
Her and my dad begin to hug. I look at her confused until it clicks in my mind.
Arthur - Mom?
A tear runs down my face as I run up to her and hug her.
Atlanna - You've grown so much young Arthur. Now I've come here because it seems some atlanteans have left their sleeping quarters.
Orm and Tula step out from behind the couch looking guilty.
Orm - But mother, I wanted to see if it was true. I do have a brother. I want to be friends with him.
Atlanna - Honey we can't just take Arthur away from his father, his life is here on the surface world.
I see my dad look sad at Orm who sheds a tear down his face. He kneels down in front of Orm.
Thomas - Well, since you came all the way here, and went through all of that trouble, how about we make a plan.
Orm looks up to him.
Orm - A… *sniffle*...plan?
Thomas - How about every Friday after Arthur finishes school, he can come down to Atlantis with you. Then on Sunday morning he can come back up to the surface world.
Me and Orms eyes light up. We both hug my father.
Atlanna - Are you sure you'll be fine with this?
Thomas - Yeah, he normally would just be in the water anyways.
With that the three of them head back to Atlantis, and I head upstairs and fall asleep, dreaming of what's to come.
--------(2003)--------
I burst through the doors of the Royal Palace, nearly knocking down Murk, the Elite guard.
Arthur - I am sorry Murk, but I need to get to the Queen, fast.
He nods and pats my back as I run through the palace to the garden room where Mera is at. I run up to her a hug her.
Mera - Arthur, welcome back! I see you're happy. Did Orm tell you the news?
Arthur - I am very happy, I believe they will accept us this time. What is the news Or has?
Mera - The UN called the palace, they are accepting Atlantis into the UN.
My eyes light up hearing the news, my one goal, from when I was first pronounced King has been fulfilled.
Arthur - Outrageous! Go and gather our friends, tonight we celebrate. I am going to go wake A.J, he needs to celebrate this with us.
Mera kisses me as she walks away, I sit there in the garden for a moment, taking in this victorious moment.
THE STORY OF HOW A CLIENT FELL FOR THE BAIT OF A SCAM PHOTOGRAPHER
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In one of the social networks of my friend wrote💻 a certain girl. Acquainted. She had gained confidence. After much correspondence, this person said that she had a great photographer. Allegedly, she only goes to him. She gave me a number. Unfortunately, because of her friend's naivety, she called the number. And I agreed to go to a photo shoot.
⠀
There was no name, no work, or any information about this "photographer". Just a number. Which turned out to be fake. So she agreed on a certain date and ⌚this time. Shooting in a photo Studio.
The only condition is to send an advance payment for the Studio. To book a watch. And the rest of the money for the work will give personally.
⠀
What do you think? The girl transferred the money, arrived at the right time and place. There is no one ♂ ️. I'll tell you more. There is no booked order for the photo Studio either.
⠀
As it turned out, they were 💸scammers.
⠀
Have app before you take the services of a photographer, learn about the page, site, portfolio, reviews. Set aside time to meet and discuss the details of working together.
⠀
When I'm told these stories, my heart breaks. I'm here!🙋 ♂ ️Waiting for you to sign up for direct! And you go on scams ход
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Everyone knows, for cool pictures to me)
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💬Share in the comments if you have fallen into the hands of scammers?
#Hair #Face #Lip #Hairstyle #Skin #Eyebrow #Beauty #Chin #Nose #Cheek #Forehead #Eyelash #Model #Brown_hair #Neck #Eye #Photo_shoot #Long_hair #Shoulder #Blond #Ear #Black_hair #Photography #Step_cutting #Jaw #Fashion_model #Gesture #Makeover #Fashion_accessory #NikonD800
Callum Windsor has arrived and I have to say that he's nothing like the model doll used for the promo session by Integrity toys. He's cute nonetheless. What I really like about him is that his face is not perfectly symmetrical, which makes him less dolly and more lifelike. What I don't like is his big forehead. I'll have to cover it somehow or have Callum rerooted. Botox lips combined with "schwarzenegger" chin are suprizingly OK with me.
Man in blue shirt, tattoos forehead; Baka (a sub-group of what was previously often called Pygmies) village near Pokola, Ouesso, Sangha Region, Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) 1996
Coppersmith Barbet Juvenile(Megalaima haemacephala)
The coppersmith barbet, crimson-breasted barbet or coppersmith (Megalaima haemacephala), is a bird with crimson forehead and throat which is best known for its metronomic call that has been likened to a coppersmith striking metal with a hammer. It is a resident found in the Indian subcontinent and parts of Southeast Asia. Like other barbets, they chisel out a hole inside a tree to build their nest. They are mainly fruit eating but will take sometimes insects, especially winged termites.
Description
This species of barbet is found to overlap in range with several larger barbets in most of South Asia. In the Western Ghats, it partly overlaps with the Malabar barbet which is of a very similar size but having a more rapid call. The red forehead, yellow eye-ring and throat patch with streaked underside and green upperparts, it is fairly distinctive. Juveniles are duller and lack the red patches. The sexes are alike. The Sri Lankan form has more black on the face, more red on the breast and darker streaks on the underside.
During the nesting season, the wear and tear on the feathers can cause the plumage of the upper back to appear bluish.
Within the Old World Megalaima barbets, they are found to be basal in phylogenetic analyses. Most of the remaining Asian species are more recent in their divergence and speciation.
About nine subspecies are well recognized.
- nominate haemacephala (P. L. S. Müller, 1776) is found in the Islands of the Luzon and Mindoro in the Philippines
- indica (Latham, 1790) is found in the Indian subcontinent form northeastern Pakistan and extends into Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Several former supspecies from India are synonymized into indica.
The remaining are island populations in Southeast Asia
- delica (Parrot, 1907) Sumatra
- rosea (Dumont, 1816) Java
- homochroa Dziadosz & Parkes, 1984 from Tablas
- celestinoi Gilliard, 1949 from Catanduanes, Biliran, Samar, Leyte
- intermedia (Shelley, 1891) from Panay, Guimaras, Negros
- cebuensis Dziadosz & Parkes, 1984 from Cebu
- mindanensis Rand, 1948 from Mindanao
Habitat and distribution
Throughout their wide range they are found in gardens, groves and sparse woodland. Habitats with trees having dead wood suitable for excavation is said to be important. Birds nest and roost in cavities.
In the Palni Hills of southern India it is said to occur below 4000 feet.[6] In the Himalayas it is found mainly in the valleys of the outer Himalayas up to 3000 feet. They are rare in the dry desert zones and the very wet forests.
Behaviour and ecology
Keeps solitary, pairs, or small groups; larger parties occasionally on abundantly fruiting Ficus trees. Fond of sunning themselves in the morning on bare top branches of tall trees, often flitting about to sit next to each other. The flight is straight, with rapid flaps.
They compete with other cavity nesting birds and frugivores. Megalaima asiatica have been noted to evict them from their nest holes, while red-vented bulbuls have been seen to indulge in kleptoparasitism, robbing the male of berries brought to the female at the nest.
The nest holes are also used for roosting and some birds roost alone in cavities and these often roost during part of the day. Immatures will roost with the parents but often return to roost early so as not to be prevented by the parents from entering the roost cavity.
Vocalization
The call is a loud rather metallic tuk…tuk…tuk (or tunk), reminiscent of a copper sheet being beaten, giving the bird its name. Repeated monotonously for long periods, starting with a subdued tuk and building up to an even volume and tempo, the latter varying from 108 to 121 per minute and can continue with as many as 204 notes. They are silent and do not call in winter.
The beak remains shut during each call - a patch of bare skin on both sides of the throat inflates and collapses with each tuk like a rubber bulb and the head is bobbed.
Diet
Prefers Banyan, Peepul, and other wild figs, various drupes and berries, and the occasional insect, caught in aerial sallies. Petals of flowers may also be included in their diet. They eat nearly 1.5 to nearly 3 times their body weight in berries each day.
Breeding
Courtship involves singing, puffing of the throat, bobbing of the head, flicking of the tail, ritual feeding and allopreening.
They breed through much of the year with local variation. The breeding season is mainly February to April in India and December to September in Sri Lanka. Both sexes excavate the nest on the underside of a narrow horizontal branch. They may also roost inside the nest holes. Three or four eggs are laid and like in many hole nesting birds the incubation period is not well known but has been estimated to be about 2 weeks. Both sexes incubate. Often two broods are raised in quick succession.
Mortality factors
Adult birds are sometimes taken by predatory species. In urban areas, there are records of collisions with structures including white walls. Pesticide poisoning has also been noted.
[Credit: en.wikipedia.org]
A kneeling image of Nephthys and her accompanying inscription cover parts of the wig of the anthropoid sarcophagus. Located on the forehead, the text inscribes the goddess spreading her wings over the deceased. The plaited beard attached below the chin is mostly destroyed as is the nose and mouth. A broad falcon collar covers the complete width of the chest and shoulders.
It is more typical for this kind of representation to appear on the breast of anthropoid coffins. In both scenarios, the sense stays the same: the goddess protects the deceased in his form as an Osiris under her wings.
"I am your sister Nephthys. I spread my arms as your mother, my wings are above you (in) the House of Eternity, Osiris of the revered one, the greatest of the five, director of the thrones, scribe of the treasury, Ahmose, justified."
Sarcophagus of Ahmose
Limestone
Provenance: Tuna el-Gebel
26th Dynasty
JE 51945, SR 5 12059
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
==The Gotham Royal Hotel==
Stairwell: Floor 13
A barbed tendril shot out from behind Jenna; pulling Gar off the railing, it caught him just as he reached the thirteenth floor and threw him at Franco's feet. The flamethrower fell out of Gar’s hand and rolled out of his reach. As he hit the ground, his forehead scraped against the concrete floor. Shocked, Jenna's eyes followed the tentacle back to the source, her mouth open, as the red tendril retracted into Ramsay Rosso's arm.
"In answer to your earlier question, Miss Duffy," Rosso spoke, tilting his head towards Franco. "That's how I healed him."
"Didn’t exactly stick the landing, did he?” Franco chuckled, kneeling beside Gar. “What’s the matter, Firefly? Did you leave your jetpack in your other suitcase? How very careless!" he remarked, clamping a hand on Gar’s chin.
In return, Gar headbutted him. Hard. Blood gushed out of Franco’s nose, and the mobster stumbled backwards, taking a moment to steady himself. "You’ve got a meta on the payroll?” Gar growled at him. “Afraid of a fair fight, you coward?"
“Not afraid, no,” Franco stated, wiping the blood off his face with a white handkerchief. “But I am practical. Why exert myself at all?”
Gar readied himself for a second lunge, eying his fallen flamethrower lying between Rosso’s legs.
"Ah-ah-ah. Think it through, Firefly. Whatever slight lover's tiff we're having is irrelevant. You kill me in cold blood and she'll never love you," Franco goaded him. “Oh, not that you could.”
As he rambled, Gar’s eyes locked with Jenna’s.
“Maybe not,” Gar replied, rising to his feet. “But if it frees her from you, then so be it.”
Franco’s smile faltered. “Shame.”
As Gar raised his fist, something peculiar happened. His arm stopped in mid-air, mere inches from Franco’s face. The rest of his body followed suit, as though he had been frozen in place. His thoughts, his feelings, were still his own, but now his body seemed to answer to an outside force.
“How-?” he gasped, struggling to push the word through his lips.
Rosso eyed the fresh wound on Gar’s forehead, smiling. “That’s a nasty cut, Mr Lynns. And one cut is all it takes.”
Franco grinned, as he nudged Gar’s arm out of the way, and struck his face with a right hook; payback for his broken nose. “What, you thought that hentai thing was the only weapon in Ramsay’s arsenal?” he tutted.
"Davey, stop it, don’t hurt him!” Jenna urged him. But try as she might, she found herself unable to intervene. Her eyes widened; her body was frozen in the same manner that Gar’s was. “Why-? Why can't I move?" she struggled.
Franco stepped away from Gar, and sauntered over to Jenna's side, running his hand through her strawberry blonde hair: "Cause, I don't want you to," he whispered, giving Rosso a nod of approval.
Rosso took a step towards Gar, his brown irises replaced with pitch black eyes. A deep sense of unease washed over Gar as the man's form shifted to that of his true self: Bloodwork. First, his slick black hair fell out; next, his clothing tore apart as his size expanded; Red muscle pushed its way through his skin and blue and black veins rose to the surface
"I can feel your blood pumping through your veins, from your head to your toes," Rosso spoke, a sick sense of pleasure taking hold of him. His throat pulsed as he taunted his paralyzed prey: “The possibilities are endless. I could burst an artery, cause a brain haemorrhage. I can create a blood clot. Give you a heart attack. Or, I could simply do this;"
And then, against Gar’s will, he brought his own right fist crashing against his mouth. His knees buckled, but he stayed upright. The next blow came from his left hand. Then his right again. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. With each punch, more blood shot out from Gar’s mouth. With each punch, his body shook but stayed standing. As the pattern repeated, Franco giggled with childlike glee, placing an overly familiar hand across Jenna’s back. And though she tried to close her eyes, save herself from the heartbreak, Rosso wouldn’t let her.
“Davey, stop him! Please, stop him!” Jenna pleaded, tears falling down her face.
But Franco didn’t care. For him, this was merely a lesson in loyalty, a way to punish Jenna for her ‘disobedience.’ "Oh, Firefly, man, why are you hitting yourself?" Franco snickered. "Why are you hitting yourself?"
"Davey, stop it! Stop it Davey! You’ve got me, let him go!” Jenna shrieked.
“I do have you, don’t I?” Franco’s smile became a bitter sneer and his grip on her back tightened.
“But I can hardly invite Ramsay on our honeymoon, can I? This, is the only way you’re gonna learn.”
At this, Rosso raised his fist and Gar involuntarily stepped forward. His movements were unnatural, haunting; his arms hung limp at his side like a ragdoll and his feet dragged along the ground. Gripping the railing, Gar was forced to clamber atop the bannister overlooking the stairwell. Rosso’s hand shook slightly and Gar’s whole body lurched forwards before regaining its precarious footing.
“Davey, for god's sake, I'll go with you, just stop it!" Jenna screamed.
Franco raised a hand, halting Rosso.
"No tricks?" his eyes narrowed.
Jenna swallowed. "No tricks."
Franco clapped his hands together in childlike delight. “Well, that’s alright, then!” he declared.
Disappointed, Rosso tossed Gar aside and relinquished his control over Jenna.
"Just keep him pinned there for now, Ramsay, then come find us at the rendezvous,” Franco ordered, grabbing Jenna by her arm. “I don't want him following us." Unnoticed by either of them, Jenna kicked Gar’s flamethrower over to his side, before departing with Franco. Though badly injured, Gar mustered all the strength he could to unscrew the fuel tank, and with his other hand, retrieved his lighter from inside his pants’ pocket. He had to fight through the control. For Drury’s blessing, for Jenna’s sacrifice to mean anything, he had to fight this. He stuck an old tissue in the bottleneck of the canister, and flicked the lighter.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Rosso chuckled. He could only see Gar’s hands fidgeting, not the weapon he was crafting. “My lifeblood is inside your veins. Your body, your will, is Bloodwork’s, to do with as I please.”
"That's the thing about blood…” Gar grimaced, and with every ounce of strength he had left, he pushed the lit projectile along the ground towards Rosso.
“It boils."
The canister exploded under Rosso’s feet; bathing his body in bright orange flames. Rosso screamed in agony as his red skin burst and popped. Finally, he stumbled over the ledge, falling thirteen stories and as he hit the ground, he popped like a balloon, erupting into a puddle of hot red goop. Gar didn't linger for too long. Whether Rosso reformed or not was unimportant, not when Jenna was still at that maniac’s mercy. Pursuing Franco, Gar swung open the door to the 13th floor corridor, ducking around corner and corner until he reached the passage entrance.
Gar and Franco locked eyes from the opposite ends of the hallway. Franco gave Gar a mocking salute, and then locked the passageway behind himself and Jenna. Gar limped towards the tunnel entrance, pounding his fists against the metal door until his knuckles bled, but it was no use. They were gone.
===The East End: Six Years Ago===
Johnny LaMonica exited the apartment building, blissfully unaware that he was being watched. A huge smile on his face, he clicked his heels and counted his stack of 20 dollar bills. ‘Another successful day out,’ he smirked as he propped up the collar of his leather jacket and ran a comb through his greasy black mane of hair. What happened next was a bit of a blur for LaMonica; a strand of red web bigger than any spider’s latched itself onto his jacket and propelled him upwards into the clutches of a purple and orange figure, dangling him off the fire escape.
“Christ! Look, pal, I got money!” LaMonica panicked, waving his wad of cash in his assailant’s face.
“Drug money.”
“What? Sure, if that’s what you’re into, maybe-”
“No.” The assailant slapped the money out of LaMonica’s hands. “Every week, you hit up this block and sell your skag. It stops tonight.”
“Look, I can’t just up and leave. People… They, uh, depend on me! It’s the False Facers, really, they give me the H! I only sell it, I swear!”
"I don’t care. The East End is off limits. Don't let me catch you dealing again. If I do, I'll drop you from a taller building."
"Taller wh-?"
The Black Spider let go, and LaMonica plummeted two stories, landing on his leg.
"You broke my leg, you psycho!" LaMonica whimpered, tilting his head to his stack of twenties. They had landed in the puddle right beside him.
==Gotham Royal Hotel: Lobby==
Drury sat in the center of the room, surrounded by broken glass and pine needles. Bruce had stripped Carson down to the black undersuit he wore beneath his armour, and handed him over to the GCPD officers stationed outside. He had not yet mentioned Drury’s involvement to them, well aware that Bullock would jump at the opportunity to cuff him personally.
Bruce bent down and offered Drury his hand. Their eyes made contact and a sense of acceptance washed over them both. ‘It was time.’ Drury bit his lip and accepted Bruce’s hand.
"Where's the suit?" Batman asked.
Drury paused. It took him a few seconds to realise that Bruce had meant his Moth costume. "It's in a car around back,” he mumbled. “Was gonna grab it when things got bad, but well, they really got bad."
Batman murmured understandingly, as he escorted him to the awaiting police barricade. A group of men in white hazmat suits were moving the two large cloudburst devices onto a S.T.A.R. Labs flatbed. Drury cast his eyes over to Sharpe and Mayo outside, reluctantly giving their statements to two young officers, and smiled. Sharpe was complaining that Krill’s belt had been confiscated before he had the chance to test it.
“By the way, I won that belt in a trial by combat. I thought you bozos cared about the law!”
Drury turned his head back to Bruce. "I’ll keep my end. Confess to Ra's' murder, to helping Bane, Slabside… And do my time for the GCPD raid. But that means you gotta let Gaige go, understand? You gotta let them all go."
Drury’s lip curled as Sharpe’s echoes of “Police State! Police State!” filled the air.
"Your father in-law is still part of a major criminal conspiracy. There will be an investigation."
"Yeah, and you'll do what you have to. I know. But if Sionis knows he was involved, in any of this-”
"He'll have my protection. And The Wayne Foundation will cover any medical bills."
"Good." Drury turned his head to look at Eric, standing beside Cass at the police convoy. "Go easy on him, alright? He did good. They all did, actually."
Bruce nodded. "The Outcasts will be moved to GCPD, until Jim can arrange for them to be transferred to Blackgate. The Misfits will be kept here for now. Once they can corroborate your story, they’ll be free to go,” he addressed Drury. “Provided, Chancer doesn’t make anyone else cry.”
Drury caught Bruce’s eye and laughed.
Bruce smiled softly in turn. "Are you sure about this?" he asked.
"Well, if it's easier, I suppose I could just fake my death," Drury smirked back.
Bruce's smile vanished instantly.
Drury rolled his eyes playfully. "Yeah, maybe some other time.”
As they approached the police barricade, Drury stopped. “Wait. My kids. Please, let me say goodbye."
Bruce nodded to him, and at Gordon, positioned at the other end of the roadblock. Drury reached into his back pocket and frowned.
"Sorry, do you have your phone on you? I sorta fell on mine."
==Wist Residence: Gotham Outskirts==
David Wist was dressed in a red flannel shirt, an elegant gold watch around his wrist. Sat on the porch swing, he was watching the sun rise on his homestead, sipping a beer. There was something particularly special about a Gotham sunrise. A reassurance that you had survived the night. A promise that things were going to be ok. Silly, Wist realised, but he did used to rob art galleries dressed like an earth wire. His momentary bliss was interrupted by voices inside the house. No stranger to home invaders, he jumped to his feet and ran inside, stopping in his tracks as he caught sight of the bizarre situation. Sighing, Wist put his hand to his forehead. "Margaret, hand it over.”
“Margaret!" he repeated sternly.
"I found it!" his wife snapped at him, holding aloft a silver prosthetic limb. Axel was chasing her around the room, wearing nothing but a white towel draped around his waist.
"You stole it," Wist stated, crossing his arms. Watching from the landing upstairs, Axel’s sister, Kitten, giggled shrilly. His older brother, Simon, covered his mouth with his hands, trying to stifle a laugh of his own, while his younger brother, Cammy, was laughing so heavily that green bubbles were blowing from his nose
"It was shiny, all shiny and chrome and new, it's mine!" Pye spat back.
"Christ sake... Give me the boy's arm!"
The prosthesis, flew through the air into Wist's awaiting hand.
"Not fair! Not fair!" his wife protested.
"You want something shiny? Here;" Wist opened his coat pocket and pulled out a single silver spoon. No sooner had he waved it in front of her face, had she ripped it from his grasp and ran out the room.
"I am... sorry about her," Wist apologised, handing Axel his arm back. "She's a lovely woman, really, and I do love her. But we do have our struggles..."
"S'not worth apologising over," Axel shrugged as he sat at the dining table and screwed his arm back into place. "I get it. Mom, Miranda, used to complain to Dad about her challenges, something about her nymphomania."
"Kleptomania," Wist said sternly, sitting opposite him.
"That," Axel blushed. "Earrings that went missing and so on. Dad, thought it was funny. Used to, I mean. Never was all that self aware, I suppose. He used to say to me, 'Son, there are two types of people in this world; the tricksters, and the ones getting tricked.'"
"Hence the Trickster, I imagine. Still, we don't all get to choose our gimmicks. Mags’ with her compulsions, that poor fella Karlo, Croc… Hell, I wanted to be a Clock Villain: I used to be a watchmaker, you see. But Slugsy and Tockman swooped in first, and well, the novelty wore off."
The landline phone rang, and Kitten thundered down the stairs, snatching the phone before Axel or Wist had a chance to stand up.
"Daddy!" Kitten squealed into the receiver excitedly.
Drury bowed his head. He had hoped it wouldn't be her. He always did struggle giving her bad news. "Carson and his associates are in GCPD custody. It's over, you can come home," he spoke, almost robotically, his mouth dry.
"Home? To Keystone? Or home home?" Kitten inquired. Her brothers had joined her at the phone, craning their necks so that they could overhear their father.
"If you want to go back to Keystone, that's fine, I'm sure Axel's friends can work something out. But I thought... I thought you would maybe like to come back to the manor?"
"I don't get it. They lifted your exile?" Simon stood up.
"They caught him," Axel stated.
Drury paused. "Uncle Chuck and Mr Reardon are gonna help Mr Wist move you back in. Wayne Enterprises is going to handle the finances and your Uncle Norbert is gonna help with any paperwork. But... you'll be living with Grandpa Gaige for a while."
"But I don't understand! Where will you be?" Kitten whined.
"Kitten... I did some bad things. I need to answer for them. Got to keep you safe. Grandpa Gaige-"
"We don't want Grandpa Gaige, we want you!" she protested, her voice becoming shriller still.
“I know, cupcake, I know.”
Drury moved the phone away from his ear and dropped his arm down by his side.
"They'll understand," Bruce stated.
“You don’t get it… Every missed birthday, every cancelled family dinner, the divorce, Miranda…” Drury wiped the tears from his eyes. "They shouldn't have to understand. They've been forced to their whole damn lives."
===Six Years Ago===
Johnny LaMonica finished recounting his story to his superior, a blond mobster dressed in a lilac suit. The mobster smirked, and took in a deep puff of an expensive cigar. "So, the East End has a guardian angel... I'll be damned..." he spoke, blowing white smoke into the dimly lit office. A confederate flag, hung from the rafters like a banner.
"You’ll be damned?” LaMonica hopped forwards, waving his crutches in the mobster’s face. “We’re all damned! He’s gotta go!”
The mobster swivelled his chair around, and turned to the bodyguard stood behind him, a man dressed in a set of purple and gold, high-tech armour. “You believe this shit?” he chuckled.
Lightning Bug crossed his arms, but said nothing.
“Boss-!” LaMonica protested.
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you,” The blond mobster nodded insincerely, rising from the leather chair. He walked over to the other end of the room, and lifted a loose floorboard; beneath it, was several bags of pure heroin. "You come back tonight, and you take these to your guys on the street. Spread the word; From now on, you only peddle this. Least, until our pest problem is dealt with."
He threw a sample at the dealer, who fumbled as he caught it.
"You think this guy's a junkie?"
"What, you think this guy's a good Samaritan, hitting smack dealers out of the goodness of his heart? In this neighbourhood?"
LaMonica shrugged.
"He's a junkie, alright. Just traded his needle for a mask. And if he ain't, he's sure to know someone who is. That's how we nail him."
===Gotham Royal: Floor 12===
Roman Sionis exited the elevator, a scowl on his skull-like face. He did not appreciate the time he’d spent trapped in his own elevator, nor did he appreciate the irony that it had been the Red Hood who had discovered him and Li, and he certainly didn’t appreciate the Hood’s muffled snickering, as he and Li shuffled past him. Sionis held his smartphone to his ear, in mid-conversation with Warren White.
“Nah, I don’t know who this Carlton guy is,” White explained, standing outside the hotel, dressed in a navy-blue overcoat. “Some Firebug wannabe. Had some kind of beef with Walker, I overheard him screaming his name. Oh, they got Walker too, by the way. Guess the cops didn’t take too kindly to him robbing their precinct.”
"And the Bats?" Sionis asked, throwing a cautious glance in Red Hood’s direction.
“C’mon,” White chuckled. "They got nothing on you. If they had, you'd be in that van alongside Day."
"Thanks, Warren. Send the word out to the capos:"
"The Doc? Already on it. He can't hide for long, we’ll get him. Oh, hey, if you hurry, you can catch the perp walk. Hell, give me a sec and I’ll get you a photo. It's like Abbey Road over here." White snapped his fingers excitedly as the quartet of Krill, Day, Drury and Carson were directed towards the police transport by a squad of SWAT officers.
As Carson was carted away, Paul Booker's eyes narrowed. "Who the hell was that?" he rasped as Big Sir draped a comfort blanket over his shoulders.
===Ground Floor: Lobby===
Joey Rigger climbed down the grand staircase. He had woken up in the hallway alone; Gaige had vanished, Drury and Carson had taken their fight elsewhere and Gar was probably with Jenna, sitting in a tree somewhere. His head still thumping, Joey vaguely remembered a black figure shushing him. Flannegan was already there, his elbows resting on the balcony.
"That's Drury!" he gasped. "What's he doing?"
Flannegan’s nose wrinkled, his thin face lined with disgust. "He cut a deal.”
~-~
Jenna and Franco walked down the passageway, their only light source being strips of luminous tape stuck to the floor. After about a mile of walking in absolute silence, Jenna spoke up:
"You were wrong, you know," she said softly.
"What's that, Jelly Bean?" Franco asked with faux-interest.
"I do hope he kills you."
Here is Cutie-Pie again getting ready for autumn! I had these pumpkins on my front steps & he had to investigate, so I took a few shots of him as he looked up at me! I love the way the orange band on his forehead blends so well with the bright orange of the pumpkins!!!
I looked myself in the mirror and noticed them...those lines.... you know....WTF?!?!?!
HOW? When?! I still feel like 18 yrs old, and i act like that...sometimes...if you don't believe me, ask my wife :-))
Let's get back to those lines...
Am i now going to be like George Clooney?! He looks good with that thing...but i am not George... will i then look like Leslie Nielsen?! Well, he looks funny....but i don't have white hair....yet...
So, here they are...what's next?!?!
I don't know, but i feel sudden need to buy myself a porsche...
Backdrop: {The Bearded Guy} Myst Night Backdrop -@Ritual Event - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Starfall/66/99/1413
main store - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Moonwall/169/121/32
Eyeshadow & Forehead Scar: Hexed - Goth Chic Eyeshadow EvoX & Hexed - Pentagram Scar Brand EvoX Unisex -@GothCore - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/CORE/128/241/3501
main store - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hastings%20Manor/210/47/2048
Eyes: BloodEffigy - Sullen Eyes -@GothCore - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/CORE/128/241/3501
main store - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dollettewood/96/145/38
Tear Drops: ~LF~ Jocelyn - main store - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Torres%20del%20Rio/33/86/34
Gauges: .Chase Parker. Web Love Gauges w/HUD -@Ritual Event - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Starfall/66/99/1413
main store - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/yam%20yam/165/138/30
Mouth Stitches: [Cubic Cherry] Stitches the smile - main store - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Oblivion/177/64/2421
Tattoo: { anxious angel } Corruption Tattoo - BoM -@GothCore - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/CORE/128/241/3501
main store - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Seclusion/173/139/3186
Top: Melinoe // Yummy Top -@GothCore - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/CORE/128/241/3501
main store - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nuvoletta/127/11/1102
Fishnets with Marks & Tape: FREYA - Basic Fishnet stockings -@GothCore - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/CORE/128/241/3501
main store - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Daisy/22/45/1103
Heels: : CULT : Vespera -@GothCore - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/CORE/128/241/3501
main store - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Champ/189/200/17
Shiva, meaning "The Auspicious One"), also known as Mahadeva ("Great God"), is a popular Hindu deity. Shiva is regarded as one of the primary forms of God. He is the Supreme God within Shaivism, one of the three most influential denominations in contemporary Hinduism. He is one of the five primary forms of God in the Smarta tradition, and "the Destroyer" or "the Transformer" among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine.
Shiva has many benevolent and fearsome forms. At the highest level Shiva is limitless, transcendent, unchanging and formless. In benevolent aspects, he is depicted as an omniscient Yogi who lives an ascetic life on Mount Kailash, as well as a householder with wife Parvati and his two children, Ganesha and Kartikeya and in fierce aspects, he is often depicted slaying demons. Shiva is also regarded as the patron god of yoga and arts.
The main iconographical attributes of Shiva are the third eye on his forehead, the snake Vasuki around his neck, the crescent moon adorning, the holy river Ganga flowing from his matted hair, the trishula as his weapon and the damaru as his instrument.
Shiva is usually worshiped in the aniconic form of Lingam. Temples of Lord Shiva are called shivalayam.
ETYMOLOGY & OTHER NAMES
The Sanskrit word Shiva (Devanagari: शिव, śiva) comes from Shri Rudram Chamakam of Taittiriya Samhita (TS 4.5, 4.7) of Krishna Yajurveda. The root word śi means auspicious. In simple English transliteration it is written either as Shiva or Siva. The adjective śiva, is used as an attributive epithet not particularly of Rudra, but of several other Vedic deities.
The other popular names associated with Shiva are Mahadev, Mahesh, Maheshwar, Shankar, Shambhu, Rudra, Har, Trilochan, Devendra (meaning Chief of the gods) and Trilokinath (meaning Lord of the three realms).
The Sanskrit word śaiva means "relating to the God Shiva", and this term is the Sanskrit name both for one of the principal sects of Hinduism and for a member of that sect. It is used as an adjective to characterize certain beliefs and practices, such as Shaivism. He is the oldest worshipped Lord of India.
The Tamil word Sivan, Tamil: சிவன் ("Fair Skinned") could have been derived from the word sivappu. The word 'sivappu' means "red" in Tamil language but while addressing a person's skin texture in Tamil the word 'Sivappu' is used for being Fair Skinned.
Adi Sankara, in his interpretation of the name Shiva, the 27th and 600th name of Vishnu sahasranama, the thousand names of Vishnu interprets Shiva to have multiple meanings: "The Pure One", or "the One who is not affected by three Gunas of Prakrti (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas)" or "the One who purifies everyone by the very utterance of His name."Swami Chinmayananda, in his translation of Vishnu sahasranama, further elaborates on that verse: Shiva means "the One who is eternally pure" or "the One who can never have any contamination of the imperfection of Rajas and Tamas".
Shiva's role as the primary deity of Shaivism is reflected in his epithets Mahādeva ("Great God"; mahā "Great" and deva "god"), Maheśvara ("Great Lord"; mahā "great" and īśvara "lord"), and Parameśvara ("Supreme Lord").
There are at least eight different versions of the Shiva Sahasranama, devotional hymns (stotras) listing many names of Shiva. The version appearing in Book 13 (Anuśāsanaparvan) of the Mahabharata is considered the kernel of this tradition. Shiva also has Dasha-Sahasranamas (10,000 names) that are found in the Mahanyasa. The Shri Rudram Chamakam, also known as the Śatarudriya, is a devotional hymn to Shiva hailing him by many names.
The worship of Shiva is a pan-Hindu tradition, practiced widely across all of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
ASSIMILATION OF TRADITIONS
The figure of Shiva as we know him today was built up over time, with the ideas of many regional sects being amalgamated into a single figure. How the persona of Shiva converged as a composite deity is not well documented. According to Vijay Nath:
Visnu and Siva [...] began to absorb countless local cults and deities within their folds. The latter were either taken to represent the multiple facets of the same god or else were supposed to denote different forms and appellations by which the god came to be known and worshipped. [...] Siva became identified with countless local cults by the sheer suffixing of Isa or Isvara to the name of the local deity, e.g., Bhutesvara, Hatakesvara, Chandesvara."
Axel Michaels the Indologist suggests that Shaivism, like Vaishnavism, implies a unity which cannot be clearly found either in religious practice or in philosophical and esoteric doctrine. Furthermore, practice and doctrine must be kept separate.
An example of assimilation took place in Maharashtra, where a regional deity named Khandoba is a patron deity of farming and herding castes. The foremost center of worship of Khandoba in Maharashtra is in Jejuri. Khandoba has been assimilated as a form of Shiva himself, in which case he is worshipped in the form of a lingam. Khandoba's varied associations also include an identification with Surya and Karttikeya.
INDUS VALLEY ORIGINS
Many Indus valley seals show animals but one seal that has attracted attention shows a figure, either horned or wearing a horned headdress and possibly ithyphallic figure seated in a posture reminiscent of the Lotus position and surrounded by animals was named by early excavators of Mohenjo-daro Pashupati (lord of cattle), an epithet of the later Hindu gods Shiva and Rudra. Sir John Marshall and others have claimed that this figure is a prototype of Shiva and have described the figure as having three faces seated in a "yoga posture" with the knees out and feet joined.
This claim has been criticised, with some academics like Gavin Flood and John Keay characterizing them as unfounded. Writing in 1997 Doris Srinivasan said that "Not too many recent studies continue to call the seal's figure a 'Proto-Siva'", rejecting thereby Marshall's package of proto-Siva features, including that of three heads. She interprets what John Marshall interpreted as facial as not human but more bovine, possibly a divine buffalo-man. According to Iravatham Mahadevan symbols 47 and 48 of his Indus script glossary The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables (1977), representing seated human-like figures, could describe Hindu deity Murugan, popularly known as Shiva and Parvati's son.
INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGINS
Shiva's rise to a major position in the pantheon was facilitated by his identification with a host of Vedic deities, including Purusha, Rudra, Agni, Indra, Prajāpati, Vāyu, and others.
RUDRA
Shiva as we know him today shares many features with the Vedic god Rudra, and both Shiva and Rudra are viewed as the same personality in Hindu scriptures. The two names are used synonymously. Rudra, the god of the roaring storm, is usually portrayed in accordance with the element he represents as a fierce, destructive deity.
The oldest surviving text of Hinduism is the Rig Veda, which is dated to between 1700 and 1100 BCE based on linguistic and philological evidence. A god named Rudra is mentioned in the Rig Veda. The name Rudra is still used as a name for Shiva. In RV 2.33, he is described as the "Father of the Rudras", a group of storm gods. Furthermore, the Rudram, one of the most sacred hymns of Hinduism found both in the Rig and the Yajur Vedas and addressed to Rudra, invokes him as Shiva in several instances, but the term Shiva is used as an epithet for the gods Indra, Mitra and Agni many times. Since Shiva means pure, the epithet is possibly used to describe a quality of these gods rather than to identify any of them with the God Shiva.
The identification of Shiva with the older god Rudhra is not universally accepted, as Axel Michaels explains:
Rudra is called "The Archer" (Sanskrit: Śarva), and the arrow is an essential attribute of Rudra. This name appears in the Shiva Sahasranama, and R. K. Sharma notes that it is used as a name of Shiva often in later languages.
The word is derived from the Sanskrit root śarv-, which means "to injure" or "to kill", and Sharma uses that general sense in his interpretive translation of the name Śarva as "One who can kill the forces of darkness". The names Dhanvin ("Bowman") and Bāṇahasta ("Archer", literally "Armed with arrows in his hands") also refer to archery.
AGNI
Rudra and Agni have a close relationship. The identification between Agni and Rudra in the Vedic literature was an important factor in the process of Rudra's gradual development into the later character as Rudra-Shiva. The identification of Agni with Rudra is explicitly noted in the Nirukta, an important early text on etymology, which says, "Agni is also called Rudra." The interconnections between the two deities are complex, and according to Stella Kramrisch:
The fire myth of Rudra-Śiva plays on the whole gamut of fire, valuing all its potentialities and phases, from conflagration to illumination.
In the Śatarudrīya, some epithets of Rudra, such as Sasipañjara ("Of golden red hue as of flame") and Tivaṣīmati ("Flaming bright"), suggest a fusing of the two deities. Agni is said to be a bull, and Lord Shiva possesses a bull as his vehicle, Nandi. The horns of Agni, who is sometimes characterized as a bull, are mentioned. In medieval sculpture, both Agni and the form of Shiva known as Bhairava have flaming hair as a special feature.
INDRA
According to Wendy Doniger, the Puranic Shiva is a continuation of the Vedic Indra. Doniger gives several reasons for his hypothesis. Both are associated with mountains, rivers, male fertility, fierceness, fearlessness, warfare, transgression of established mores, the Aum sound, the Supreme Self. In the Rig Veda the term śiva is used to refer to Indra. (2.20.3, 6.45.17, and 8.93.3.) Indra, like Shiva, is likened to a bull. In the Rig Veda, Rudra is the father of the Maruts, but he is never associated with their warlike exploits as is Indra.
The Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion, and the Indo-Iranian religion. According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the Zeravshan River (present-day Uzbekistan) and (present-day) Iran. It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements", which borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices" from the Bactria–Margiana Culture. At least 383 non-Indo-European words were borrowed from this culture, including the god Indra and the ritual drink Soma. According to Anthony,
Many of the qualities of Indo-Iranian god of might/victory, Verethraghna, were transferred to the adopted god Indra, who became the central deity of the developing Old Indic culture. Indra was the subject of 250 hymns, a quarter of the Rig Veda. He was associated more than any other deity with Soma, a stimulant drug (perhaps derived from Ephedra) probably borrowed from the BMAC religion. His rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers.
LATER VEDIC LITERATURE
Rudra's transformation from an ambiguously characterized deity to a supreme being began in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad (400-200 BCE), which founded the tradition of Rudra-Shiva worship. Here they are identified as the creators of the cosmos and liberators of souls from the birth-rebirth cycle. The period of 200 BCE to 100 CE also marks the beginning of the Shaiva tradition focused on the worship of Shiva, with references to Shaiva ascetics in Patanjali's Mahabhasya and in the Mahabharata.
Early historical paintings at the Bhimbetka rock shelters, depict Shiva dancing, Shiva's trident, and his mount Nandi but no other Vedic gods.
PURANIC LITERATURE
The Shiva Puranas, particularly the Shiva Purana and the Linga Purana, discuss the various forms of Shiva and the cosmology associated with him.
TANTRIC LITERATURE
The Tantras, composed between the 8th and 11th centuries, regard themselves as Sruti. Among these the Shaiva Agamas, are said to have been revealed by Shiva himself and are foundational texts for Shaiva Siddhanta.
POSITION WITHIN HINDUISM
SHAIVISM
Shaivism (Sanskrit: शैव पंथ, śaiva paṁtha) (Kannada: ಶೈವ ಪಂಥ) (Tamil: சைவ சமயம்) is the oldest of the four major sects of Hinduism, the others being Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism. Followers of Shaivism, called "Shaivas", and also "Saivas" or "Saivites", revere Shiva as the Supreme Being. Shaivas believe that Shiva is All and in all, the creator, preserver, destroyer, revealer and concealer of all that is. The tantric Shaiva tradition consists of the Kapalikas, Kashmir Shaivism and Shaiva Siddhanta. The Shiva MahaPurana is one of the purāṇas, a genre of Hindu religious texts, dedicated to Shiva. Shaivism is widespread throughout India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, mostly. Areas notable for the practice of Shaivism include parts of Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
PANCHAYATANA PUJA
Panchayatana puja is the system of worship ('puja') in the Smarta sampradaya of Hinduism. It is said to have been introduced by Adi Shankara, the 8th century CE Hindu philosopher. It consists of the worship of five deities: Shiva, Vishnu, Devi, Surya and Ganesha. Depending on the tradition followed by Smarta households, one of these deities is kept in the center and the other four surround it. Worship is offered to all the deities. The five are represented by small murtis, or by five kinds of stones, or by five marks drawn on the floor.
TRIMURTI
The Trimurti is a concept in Hinduism in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified by the forms of Brahmā the creator, Vishnu the maintainer or preserver and Śhiva the destroyer or transformer. These three deities have been called "the Hindu triad" or the "Great Trinity", often addressed as "Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwara."
ICONOGRAPHY AND PROPERTIES
ATTRIBUTES
Shiva's form: Shiva has a trident in the right lower arm, and a crescent moon on his head. He is said to be fair like camphor or like an ice clad mountain. He wears five serpents and a garland of skulls as ornaments. Shiva is usually depicted facing the south. His trident, like almost all other forms in Hinduism, can be understood as the symbolism of the unity of three worlds that a human faces - his inside world, his immediate world, and the broader overall world. At the base of the trident, all three forks unite.
Third eye: (Trilochana) Shiva is often depicted with a third eye, with which he burned Desire (Kāma) to ashes, called "Tryambakam" (Sanskrit: त्र्यम्बकम् ), which occurs in many scriptural sources. In classical Sanskrit, the word ambaka denotes "an eye", and in the Mahabharata, Shiva is depicted as three-eyed, so this name is sometimes translated as "having three eyes". However, in Vedic Sanskrit, the word ambā or ambikā means "mother", and this early meaning of the word is the basis for the translation "three mothers". These three mother-goddesses who are collectively called the Ambikās. Other related translations have been based on the idea that the name actually refers to the oblations given to Rudra, which according to some traditions were shared with the goddess Ambikā. It has been mentioned that when Shiva loses his temper, his third eye opens which can destroy most things to ashes.
Crescent moon: (The epithets "Chandrasekhara/Chandramouli")- Shiva bears on his head the crescent moon. The epithet Candraśekhara (Sanskrit: चन्द्रशेखर "Having the moon as his crest" - candra = "moon"; śekhara = "crest, crown") refers to this feature. The placement of the moon on his head as a standard iconographic feature dates to the period when Rudra rose to prominence and became the major deity Rudra-Shiva. The origin of this linkage may be due to the identification of the moon with Soma, and there is a hymn in the Rig Veda where Soma and Rudra are jointly implored, and in later literature, Soma and Rudra came to be identified with one another, as were Soma and the moon. The crescent moon is shown on the side of the Lord's head as an ornament. The waxing and waning phenomenon of the moon symbolizes the time cycle through which creation evolves from the beginning to the end.
Ashes: (The epithet "Bhasmaanga Raaga") - Shiva smears his body with ashes (bhasma). The ashes are said to represent the end of all material existence. Some forms of Shiva, such as Bhairava, are associated with a very old Indian tradition of cremation-ground asceticism that was practiced by some groups who were outside the fold of brahmanic orthodoxy. These practices associated with cremation grounds are also mentioned in the Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism. One epithet for Shiva is "inhabitant of the cremation ground" (Sanskrit: śmaśānavāsin, also spelled Shmashanavasin), referring to this connection.
Matted hair: (The epithet "Jataajoota Dhari/Kapardina") - Shiva's distinctive hair style is noted in the epithets Jaṭin, "the one with matted hair", and Kapardin, "endowed with matted hair" or "wearing his hair wound in a braid in a shell-like (kaparda) fashion". A kaparda is a cowrie shell, or a braid of hair in the form of a shell, or, more generally, hair that is shaggy or curly. His hair is said to be like molten gold in color or being yellowish-white.
Blue throat: The epithet Nīlakaṇtha (Sanskrit नीलकण्ठ; nīla = "blue", kaṇtha = "throat"). Since Shiva drank the Halahala poison churned up from the Samudra Manthan to eliminate its destructive capacity. Shocked by his act, Goddess Parvati strangled his neck and hence managed to stop it in his neck itself and prevent it from spreading all over the universe, supposed to be in Shiva's stomach. However the poison was so potent that it changed the color of his neck to blue. (See Maha Shivaratri.)
Sacred Ganges: (The epithet "Gangadhara") Bearer of Ganga. Ganges river flows from the matted hair of Shiva. The Gaṅgā (Ganges), one of the major rivers of the country, is said to have made her abode in Shiva's hair. The flow of the Ganges also represents the nectar of immortality.
Tiger skin: (The epithet "Krittivasana").He is often shown seated upon a tiger skin, an honour reserved for the most accomplished of Hindu ascetics, the Brahmarishis.
Serpents: (The epithet "Nagendra Haara" or 'Vasoki"). Shiva is often shown garlanded with a snake.
Deer: His holding deer on one hand indicates that He has removed the Chanchalata of the mind (i.e., attained maturity and firmness in thought process). A deer jumps from one place to another swiftly, similar to the mind moving from one thought to another.
Trident: (Trishula): Shiva's particular weapon is the trident. His Trisul that is held in His right hand represents the three Gunas— Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. That is the emblem of sovereignty. He rules the world through these three Gunas. The Damaru in His left hand represents the Sabda Brahman. It represents OM from which all languages are formed. It is He who formed the Sanskrit language out of the Damaru sound.
Drum: A small drum shaped like an hourglass is known as a damaru (ḍamaru). This is one of the attributes of Shiva in his famous dancing representation known as Nataraja. A specific hand gesture (mudra) called ḍamaru-hasta (Sanskrit for "ḍamaru-hand") is used to hold the drum. This drum is particularly used as an emblem by members of the Kāpālika sect.
Axe: (Parashu):The parashu is the weapon of Lord Shiva who gave it to Parashurama, sixth Avatar of Vishnu, whose name means "Rama with the axe" and also taught him its mastery.
Nandī: (The epithet "Nandi Vaahana").Nandī, also known as Nandin, is the name of the bull that serves as Shiva's mount (Sanskrit: vāhana). Shiva's association with cattle is reflected in his name Paśupati, or Pashupati (Sanskrit: पशुपति), translated by Sharma as "lord of cattle" and by Kramrisch as "lord of animals", who notes that it is particularly used as an epithet of Rudra. Rishabha or the bull represents Dharma Devata. Lord Siva rides on the bull. Bull is his vehicle. This denotes that Lord Siva is the protector of Dharma, is an embodiment of Dharma or righteousness.
Gaṇa: The Gaṇas (Devanagari: गण) are attendants of Shiva and live in Kailash. They are often referred to as the bhutaganas, or ghostly hosts, on account of their nature. Generally benign, except when their lord is transgressed against, they are often invoked to intercede with the lord on behalf of the devotee. Ganesha was chosen as their leader by Shiva, hence Ganesha's title gaṇa-īśa or gaṇa-pati, "lord of the gaṇas".
Mount Kailāsa: Mount Kailash in the Himalayas is his traditional abode. In Hindu mythology, Mount Kailāsa is conceived as resembling a Linga, representing the center of the universe.
Varanasi: Varanasi (Benares) is considered to be the city specially loved by Shiva, and is one of the holiest places of pilgrimage in India. It is referred to, in religious contexts, as Kashi.
LINGAM
Apart from anthropomorphic images of Shiva, the worship of Shiva in the form of a lingam, or linga, is also important. These are depicted in various forms. One common form is the shape of a vertical rounded column. Shiva means auspiciousness, and linga means a sign or a symbol. Hence, the Shivalinga is regarded as a "symbol of the great God of the universe who is all-auspiciousness". Shiva also means "one in whom the whole creation sleeps after dissolution". Linga also means the same thing—a place where created objects get dissolved during the disintegration of the created universe. Since, according to Hinduism, it is the same god that creates, sustains and withdraws the universe, the Shivalinga represents symbolically God Himself. Some scholars, such as Monier Monier-Williams and Wendy Doniger, also view linga as a phallic symbol, although this interpretation is disputed by others, including Christopher Isherwood, Vivekananda, Swami Sivananda, and S.N. Balagangadhara.
JYOTIRLINGA
The worship of the Shiva-Linga originated from the famous hymn in the Atharva-Veda Samhitâ sung in praise of the Yupa-Stambha, the sacrificial post. In that hymn, a description is found of the beginningless and endless Stambha or Skambha, and it is shown that the said Skambha is put in place of the eternal Brahman. Just as the Yajna (sacrificial) fire, its smoke, ashes, and flames, the Soma plant, and the ox that used to carry on its back the wood for the Vedic sacrifice gave place to the conceptions of the brightness of Shiva's body, his tawny matted hair, his blue throat, and the riding on the bull of the Shiva, the Yupa-Skambha gave place in time to the Shiva-Linga. In the text Linga Purana, the same hymn is expanded in the shape of stories, meant to establish the glory of the great Stambha and the superiority of Shiva as Mahadeva.
The sacred of all Shiva linga is worshipped as Jyotir linga. Jyoti means Radiance, apart from relating Shiva linga as a phallus symbol, there are also arguments that Shiva linga means 'mark' or a 'sign'. Jyotirlinga means "The Radiant sign of The Almighty". The Jyotirlingas are mentioned in Shiva Purana.
SHAKTI
Shiva forms a Tantric couple with Shakti [Tamil : சக்தி ], the embodiment of energy, dynamism, and the motivating force behind all action and existence in the material universe. Shiva is her transcendent masculine aspect, providing the divine ground of all being. Shakti manifests in several female deities. Sati and Parvati are the main consorts of Shiva. She is also referred to as Uma, Durga (Parvata), Kali and Chandika. Kali is the manifestation of Shakti in her dreadful aspect. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Since Shiva is called Kāla, the eternal time, Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" (as in "time has come"). Various Shakta Hindu cosmologies, as well as Shākta Tantric beliefs, worship her as the ultimate reality or Brahman. She is also revered as Bhavatārini (literally "redeemer of the universe"). Kālī is represented as the consort of Lord Shiva, on whose body she is often seen standing or dancing. Shiva is the masculine force, the power of peace, while Shakti translates to power, and is considered as the feminine force. In the Vaishnava tradition, these realities are portrayed as Vishnu and Laxmi, or Radha and Krishna. These are differences in formulation rather than a fundamental difference in the principles. Both Shiva and Shakti have various forms. Shiva has forms like Yogi Raj (the common image of Himself meditating in the Himalayas), Rudra (a wrathful form) and Natarajar (Shiva's dance are the Lasya - the gentle form of dance, associated with the creation of the world, and the Tandava - the violent and dangerous dance, associated with the destruction of weary worldviews – weary perspectives and lifestyles).
THE FIVE MANTRAS
Five is a sacred number for Shiva. One of his most important mantras has five syllables (namaḥ śivāya).
Shiva's body is said to consist of five mantras, called the pañcabrahmans. As forms of God, each of these have their own names and distinct iconography:
Sadyojāta
Vāmadeva
Aghora
Tatpuruṣha
Īsāna
These are represented as the five faces of Shiva and are associated in various texts with the five elements, the five senses, the five organs of perception, and the five organs of action. Doctrinal differences and, possibly, errors in transmission, have resulted in some differences between texts in details of how these five forms are linked with various attributes. The overall meaning of these associations is summarized by Stella Kramrisch:
Through these transcendent categories, Śiva, the ultimate reality, becomes the efficient and material cause of all that exists.
According to the Pañcabrahma Upanishad:
One should know all things of the phenomenal world as of a fivefold character, for the reason that the eternal verity of Śiva is of the character of the fivefold Brahman. (Pañcabrahma Upanishad 31)
FORMES AND ROLES
According to Gavin Flood, "Shiva is a god of ambiguity and paradox," whose attributes include opposing themes.[168] The ambivalent nature of this deity is apparent in some of his names and the stories told about him.
DESTROYER AND BENEFACTOR
In the Yajurveda, two contrary sets of attributes for both malignant or terrific (Sanskrit: rudra) and benign or auspicious (Sanskrit: śiva) forms can be found, leading Chakravarti to conclude that "all the basic elements which created the complex Rudra-Śiva sect of later ages are to be found here". In the Mahabharata, Shiva is depicted as "the standard of invincibility, might, and terror", as well as a figure of honor, delight, and brilliance. The duality of Shiva's fearful and auspicious attributes appears in contrasted names.
The name Rudra (Sanskrit: रुद्र) reflects his fearsome aspects. According to traditional etymologies, the Sanskrit name Rudra is derived from the root rud-, which means "to cry, howl". Stella Kramrisch notes a different etymology connected with the adjectival form raudra, which means "wild, of rudra nature", and translates the name Rudra as "the wild one" or "the fierce god". R. K. Sharma follows this alternate etymology and translates the name as "terrible". Hara (Sanskrit: हर) is an important name that occurs three times in the Anushasanaparvan version of the Shiva sahasranama, where it is translated in different ways each time it occurs, following a commentorial tradition of not repeating an interpretation. Sharma translates the three as "one who captivates", "one who consolidates", and "one who destroys". Kramrisch translates it as "the ravisher". Another of Shiva's fearsome forms is as Kāla (Sanskrit: काल), "time", and as Mahākāla (Sanskrit: महाकाल), "great time", which ultimately destroys all things. Bhairava (Sanskrit: भैरव), "terrible" or "frightful", is a fierce form associated with annihilation.
In contrast, the name Śaṇkara (Sanskrit: शङ्कर), "beneficent" or "conferring happiness" reflects his benign form. This name was adopted by the great Vedanta philosopher Śaṇkara (c. 788 - 820 CE), who is also known as Shankaracharya. The name Śambhu (Sanskrit: शम्भु), "causing happiness", also reflects this benign aspect.
ASCETIC AND HOUSEHOLDER
He is depicted as both an ascetic yogi and as a householder, roles which have been traditionally mutually exclusive in Hindu society.[185] When depicted as a yogi, he may be shown sitting and meditating. His epithet Mahāyogi ("the great Yogi: Mahā = "great", Yogi = "one who practices Yoga") refers to his association with yoga. While Vedic religion was conceived mainly in terms of sacrifice, it was during the Epic period that the concepts of tapas, yoga, and asceticism became more important, and the depiction of Shiva as an ascetic sitting in philosophical isolation reflects these later concepts. Shiva is also depicted as a corpse below Goddess Kali, it represents that Shiva is a corpse without Shakti. He remains inert. While Shiva is the static form, Mahakali or Shakti is the dynamic aspect without whom Shiva is powerless.
As a family man and householder, he has a wife, Parvati and two sons, Ganesha and Kartikeya. His epithet Umāpati ("The husband of Umā") refers to this idea, and Sharma notes that two other variants of this name that mean the same thing, Umākānta and Umādhava, also appear in the sahasranama. Umā in epic literature is known by many names, including the benign Pārvatī. She is identified with Devi, the Divine Mother; Shakti (divine energy) as well as goddesses like Tripura Sundari, Durga, Kamakshi and Meenakshi. The consorts of Shiva are the source of his creative energy. They represent the dynamic extension of Shiva onto this universe. His son Ganesha is worshipped throughout India and Nepal as the Remover of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles. Kartikeya is worshipped in Southern India (especially in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka) by the names Subrahmanya, Subrahmanyan, Shanmughan, Swaminathan and Murugan, and in Northern India by the names Skanda, Kumara, or Karttikeya.
Some regional deities are also identified as Shiva's children. As one story goes, Shiva is enticed by the beauty and charm of Mohini, Vishnu's female avatar, and procreates with her. As a result of this union, Shasta - identified with regional deities Ayyappa and Ayyanar - is born. Shiva is also mentioned in some scriptures or folktales to have had daughters like the serpent-goddess Manasa and Ashokasundari. Even the demon Andhaka is sometimes considered a child of Shiva.
NATARAJA
he depiction of Shiva as Nataraja (Tamil: நடராஜா,Kannada: ನಟರಾಜ, Telugu: నటరాజు, Sanskrit: naṭarāja, "Lord of Dance") is popular. The names Nartaka ("dancer") and Nityanarta ("eternal dancer") appear in the Shiva Sahasranama. His association with dance and also with music is prominent in the Puranic period. In addition to the specific iconographic form known as Nataraja, various other types of dancing forms (Sanskrit: nṛtyamūrti) are found in all parts of India, with many well-defined varieties in Tamil Nadu in particular. The two most common forms of the dance are the Tandava, which later came to denote the powerful and masculine dance as Kala-Mahakala associated with the destruction of the world. When it requires the world or universe to be destroyed, Lord Śiva does it by the tāṇḍavanṛtya. and Lasya, which is graceful and delicate and expresses emotions on a gentle level and is considered the feminine dance attributed to the goddess Parvati. Lasya is regarded as the female counterpart of Tandava. The Tandava-Lasya dances are associated with the destruction-creation of the world.
DAKSHINAMURTHY
Dakshinamurthy, or Dakṣiṇāmūrti (Tamil:தட்சிணாமூர்த்தி, Telugu: దక్షిణామూర్తి, Sanskrit: दक्षिणामूर्ति), literally describes a form (mūrti) of Shiva facing south (dakṣiṇa). This form represents Shiva in his aspect as a teacher of yoga, music, and wisdom and giving exposition on the shastras. This iconographic form for depicting Shiva in Indian art is mostly from Tamil Nadu. Elements of this motif can include Shiva seated upon a deer-throne and surrounded by sages who are receiving his instruction.
ARDANARISHVARA
An iconographic representation of Shiva called (Ardhanārīśvara) shows him with one half of the body as male and the other half as female. According to Ellen Goldberg, the traditional Sanskrit name for this form (Ardhanārīśvara) is best translated as "the lord who is half woman", not as "half-man, half-woman". According to legend, Lord Shiva is pleased by the difficult austerites performed by the goddess Parvati, grants her the left half of his body. This form of Shiva is quite similar to the Yin-Yang philosophy of Eastern Asia, though Ardhanārīśvara appears to be more ancient.
TRIRUPANTAKA
Shiva is often depicted as an archer in the act of destroying the triple fortresses, Tripura, of the Asuras. Shiva's name Tripurantaka (Sanskrit: त्रिपुरान्तक, Tripurāntaka), "ender of Tripura", refers to this important story.[216] In this aspect, Shiva is depicted with four arms wielding a bow and arrow, but different from the Pinakapani murti. He holds an axe and a deer on the upper pair of his arms. In the lower pair of the arms, he holds a bow and an arrow respectively. After destroying Tripura, Tripurantaka Shiva smeared his forehead with three strokes of Ashes. This has become a prominent symbol of Shiva and is practiced even today by Shaivites.
OTHER FORMS, AVATARS IDENTIFICATIONS
Shiva, like some other Hindu deities, is said to have several incarnations, known as Avatars. Although Puranic scriptures contain occasional references to "ansh" avatars of Shiva, the idea is not universally accepted in Saivism. The Linga Purana speaks of twenty-eight forms of Shiva which are sometimes seen as avatars. According to the Svetasvatara Upanishad, he has four avatars.
In the Hanuman Chalisa, Hanuman is identified as the eleventh avatar of Shiva and this belief is universal. Hanuman is popularly known as “Rudraavtaar” “Rudra” being a name of “Shiva”. Rama– the Vishnu avatar is considered by some to be the eleventh avatar of Rudra (Shiva).
Other traditions regard the sage Durvasa, the sage Agastya, the philosopher Adi Shankara, as avatars of Shiva. Other forms of Shiva include Virabhadra and Sharabha.
FESTIVALS
Maha Shivratri is a festival celebrated every year on the 13th night or the 14th day of the new moon in the Shukla Paksha of the month of Maagha or Phalguna in the Hindu calendar. This festival is of utmost importance to the devotees of Lord Shiva. Mahashivaratri marks the night when Lord Shiva performed the 'Tandava' and it is the day that Lord Shiva was married to Parvati. The holiday is often celebrated with special prayers and rituals offered up to Shiva, notably the Abhishek. This ritual, practiced throughout the night, is often performed every three hours with water, milk, yogurt, and honey. Bel (aegle marmelos) leaves are often offered up to the Hindu god, as it is considered necessary for a successful life. The offering of the leaves are considered so important that it is believed that someone who offers them without any intentions will be rewarded greatly.
BEYOND HINDUISM
BUDDHISM
Shiva is mentioned in Buddhist Tantra. Shiva as Upaya and Shakti as Prajna. In cosmologies of buddhist tantra, Shiva is depicted as active, skillful, and more passive.
SIKHISM
The Japuji Sahib of the Guru Granth Sahib says, "The Guru is Shiva, the Guru is Vishnu and Brahma; the Guru is Paarvati and Lakhshmi." In the same chapter, it also says, "Shiva speaks, the Siddhas speak."
In Dasam Granth, Guru Gobind Singh have mentioned two avtars of Rudra: Dattatreya Avtar and Parasnath Avtar.
OTHERS
The worship of Lord Shiva became popular in Central Asia through the Hephthalite (White Hun) Dynasty, and Kushan Empire. Shaivism was also popular in Sogdiana and Eastern Turkestan as found from the wall painting from Penjikent on the river Zervashan. In this depiction, Shiva is portrayed with a sacred halo and a sacred thread ("Yajnopavita"). He is clad in tiger skin while his attendants are wearing Sodgian dress. In Eastern Turkestan in the Taklamakan Desert. There is a depiction of his four-legged seated cross-legged n a cushioned seat supported by two bulls. Another panel form Dandan-Uilip shows Shiva in His Trimurti form with His Shakti kneeling on her right thigh. It is also noted that Zoroastrian wind god Vayu-Vata took on the iconographic appearance of Shiva.
Kirant people, a Mongol tribe from Nepal, worship a form of Shiva as one of their major deity, identifying him as the lord of animals. It is also said that the physical form of Shiva as a yogi is derived from Kirants as it is mentioned in Mundhum that Shiva took human form as a child of Kirant. He is also said to give Kirants visions in form of a male deer.
In Indonesia, Shiva is also worshiped as Batara Guru. His other name is "Sang Hyang Jagadnata" (king of the universe) and "Sang Hyang Girinata" (king of mountains). In the ancient times, all kingdoms were located on top of mountains. When he was young, before receiving his authority of power, his name was Sang Hyang Manikmaya. He is first of the children who hatched from the eggs laid by Manuk Patiaraja, wife of god Mulajadi na Bolon. This avatar is also worshiped in Malaysia. Shiva's other form in Indonesian Hindu worship is "Maharaja Dewa" (Mahadeva). Both the forms are closely identified with the Sun in local forms of Hinduism or Kebatinan, and even in the genie lore of Muslims. Mostly Shiva is worshipped in the form of a lingam or the phallus.
WIKIPEDIA
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Sunny's Back Drop: FOXCITY. Photo Booth - Block Party (Dusk)
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If you are going to use my photo as a group cover, please send me a gyazo/screenshot on discord: GWRuski or a notecard on SL with the Gyazo/Screenshot SL: Nightmare Demonia
Mural by ELMAC aka @macarte, seen at 1055, North Broadway in Denver, Colorado.
Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Tee
The dark bit on the forehead of Mr. Roche Bonhomme (his nose is on the right) is the summit cairn where we got to today, despite the awful heat. (That's why we got up at 3 a.m. to get on the trail at a reasonable time)
Had about 20 minutes to kill before bed last night and decided to try a peeling paint effect on my face.
more portrait practice. Nikon d7100, nikon speedlight in I believe a white shoot thru umbrella using cactus iv triggers. Most likely had a large disc reflector lower around waist height to provide some fill from bellow
The Coppersmith Barbet, crimson-breasted barbet or coppersmith (Psilopogon haemacephalus), is a bird with crimson forehead and throat which is best known for its metronomic call that has been likened to a coppersmith striking metal with a hammer. It is a resident found in the Indian subcontinent and parts of Southeast Asia. Like other barbets, they chisel out a hole inside a tree to build their nest. They are mainly fruit eating but will take sometimes insects, especially winged termites.
Throughout their wide range they are found in gardens, groves and sparse woodland. Habitats with trees having dead wood suitable for excavation is said to be important. Birds nest and roost in cavities. In the Himalayas it is found mainly in the valleys of the outer Himalayas up to 3000 feet. They are rare in the dry desert zones and the very wet forests. Keeps solitary, pairs, or small groups; larger parties occasionally on abundantly fruiting Ficus trees. Fond of sunning themselves in the morning on bare top branches of tall trees, often flitting about to sit next to each other. The flight is straight, with rapid flaps.
They compete with other cavity nesting birds and frugivores. Psilopogon asiatica have been noted to evict them from their nest holes, while red-vented bulbuls have been seen to indulge in kleptoparasitism, robbing the male of berries brought to the female at the nest.
The nest holes are also used for roosting and some birds roost alone in cavities and these often roost during part of the day. Immatures will roost with the parents but often return to roost early so as not to be prevented by the parents from entering the roost cavity. The call is a loud rather metallic tuk…tuk…tuk (or tunk), reminiscent of a copper sheet being beaten, giving the bird its name. Repeated monotonously for long periods, starting with a subdued tuk and building up to an even volume and tempo, the latter varying from 108 to 121 per minute and can continue with as many as 204 notes. They are silent and do not call in winter. The beak remains shut during each call - a patch of bare skin on both sides of the throat inflates and collapses with each tuk like a rubber bulb and the head is bobbed.
Diet - Prefers banyan, peepul, and other wild figs, various drupes and berries, and the occasional insect, caught in aerial sallies. Petals of flowers may also be included in their diet. They eat nearly 1.5 to nearly 3 times their body weight in berries each day.
Breeding - Courtship involves singing, puffing of the throat, bobbing of the head, flicking of the tail, ritual feeding and allopreening. They breed through much of the year with local variation. The breeding season is mainly February to April in India and December to September in Sri Lanka. Both sexes excavate the nest on the underside of a narrow horizontal branch. They may also roost inside the nest holes. Three or four eggs are laid and like in many hole nesting birds the incubation period is not well known but has been estimated to be about 2 weeks. Both sexes incubate. Often two broods are raised in quick succession.
Pilgrim girl with a cross sign on the forehead during kidane mehret orthodox celebration, Amhara region, Lalibela, Ethiopia , Camera: ILCE-7RM2 , f6.3 , 1/640 , 24.0 mm , ISO 100 , © Eric Lafforgue www.ericlafforgue.com