Taken at Tuggerah Lakes, a wetland system of three interconnected coastal lagoons, are located on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia

Stone ornaments representing Yin and Yang, the Chinese concept that describes opposite forces which are interconnected. Yin is the black side, and yang is the white side.

American Museum of Natural History. New York. Jan/2017

 

The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH), located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, is one of the largest museums in the world. Located in park-like grounds across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 28 interconnected buildings housing 45 permanent exhibition halls, in addition to a planetarium and a library. The museum collections contain over 33 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artifacts, of which only a small fraction can be displayed at any given time, and occupies more than 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m2). The museum has a full-time scientific staff of 225, sponsors over 120 special field expeditions each year, and averages about five million visits annually.

The one mission statement of the American Museum of Natural History is: "To discover, interpret, and disseminate—through scientific research and education—knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.

 

Source: Wikipedia

 

O Museu Americano de História Natural (American Museum of Natural History, em inglês) é um museu dos Estados Unidos da América, localizado em Nova Iorque e fundado em 1869. É especialmente reconhecido pela sua vasta coleção de fósseis, incluindo de espécies de Dinossauros. Uma das grandes atrações do museu é uma coleção de esqueletos de dinossauro, com mais de 30 milhões de fósseis e artefatos espalhados por 42 salas de exibição.Um T-Rex de aproximadamente 15 metros e dá as boas vindas aos visitantes na entrada.

Theodore Roosevelt está ligado à sua fundação e é lembrado no actual museu por um memorial. O primeiro edifício do museu acabou de ser construído em 1877, a partir do projecto de Calvert Vaux e Jacob Wrey Mould, a partir de uma ideia de Albert Smith Bickmore, discípulo de Louis Agassiz no Museu de Zoologia Comparativa de Harvard, em 1860. O museu serviu como cenário para o filme "Uma Noite no Museu" (2006).

Fonte: Wikipedia

The World Clock (Weltzeituhr) in Berlin is a prominent landmark located in Alexanderplatz, unveiled in 1969 as part of the square’s redesign during the GDR era. Designed by Erich John, the clock features a cylindrical structure with a rotating display of 24 time zones, representing cities from around the world, and a solar system model atop it. Today, it serves as a popular meeting spot and a symbol of Berlin’s dynamic, interconnected history.

With some adjustments, 3 modules are interwoven in the same method as the Nonagram www.flickr.com/photos/61236172@N08/5883780622/in/set-7215...

Each module is from strips of paper 49.5cm x 4cm. Triangular nodes are shown in place of the points of the star. Perhaps more modules can be added...I need to experiment on this.

www.anitaerdmann.com

 

The Vermilion Lakes are a series of three shallow interconnected lakes situated near the Banff townsite in Alberta. As the Bow Valley's largest wetland area, the lakes and surrounding sedge and willow flats are a rich haven for wildlife, including elk, beaver, muskrat, waterfowl, ospreys and bald eagles.

The site of the Vermilion Lakes is also of historical importance, with archaeological digs revealing Aboriginal presence here dating back some 11,000 years.

 

In addition to walking and hiking, other activities suited to the Vermilion Lakes include wildlife photography, birdwatching and canoeing.

 

The third Vermilion Lake is fed by a hot spring, the evidence of which can be seen in the brightly coloured algae in the above photo.

 

With some adjustments of the previous model to make the centre square larger, 2 modules are interwoven in the same manner as the Star of Lakshmi www.flickr.com/photos/61236172@N08/5883140210/in/set-7215...

Each of the 2 paper strips used are of 68cm x 4cm. No glue and the front and back is the same.

New research using a decade of data from ESA’s Mars Express has found clear signs of the complex martian atmosphere acting as a single, interconnected system, with processes occurring at low and mid levels significantly affecting those seen higher up.

 

Full story: Martian atmosphere behaves as one

 

Credits: ESA/Mars Express/MARSIS/B. Sánchez-Cano et al 2018

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Ocean

   

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106,400,000 square kilometres (41,100,000 sq mi),[1] it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to Atlas of Greek mythology, making the Atlantic the "Sea of Atlas".

The oldest known mention of "Atlantic" is in The Histories of Herodotus around 450 BC (Hdt. 1.202.4): Atlantis thalassa (Greek: Ἀτλαντὶς θάλασσα; English: Sea of Atlas); see also: Atlas Mountains. The term Ethiopic Ocean, derived from Ethiopia, was applied to the southern Atlantic ocean as late as the mid-19th century.[2] Before Europeans discovered other oceans, the term "ocean" itself was synonymous with the waters beyond the Strait of Gibraltar that we now know as the Atlantic. The early Greeks believed this ocean to be a gigantic river encircling the world.

The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. As one component of the interconnected global ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean (which is sometimes considered a sea of the Atlantic), to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the south. (Other definitions describe the Atlantic as extending southward to Antarctica.) The equator subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean.

   

Geography

 

The Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea. To the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe; the Strait of Gibraltar (where it connects with the Mediterranean Sea–one of its marginal seas–and, in turn, the Black Sea, both of which also touch upon Asia) and Africa.

In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean. The 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. Some authorities show it extending south to Antarctica, while others show it bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean.[3]

In the southwest, the Drake Passage connects it to the Pacific Ocean. The man-made Panama Canal links the Atlantic and Pacific. Besides those mentioned, other large bodies of water adjacent to the Atlantic are the Caribbean Sea; the Gulf of Mexico; Hudson Bay; the Arctic Ocean; the Mediterranean Sea; the North Sea; the Baltic Sea and the Celtic Sea.

Covering approximately 22% of Earth's surface, the Atlantic is second in size to the Pacific. With its adjacent seas, it occupies an area of about 106,400,000 square kilometres (41,100,000 sq mi);[1] without them, it has an area of 82,400,000 square kilometres (31,800,000 sq mi). The land that drains into the Atlantic covers four times that of either the Pacific or Indian oceans. The volume of the Atlantic with its adjacent seas is 354,700,000 cubic kilometers (85,100,000 cu mi) and without them 323,600,000 cubic kilometres (77,640,000 cu mi).

The average depth of the Atlantic, with its adjacent seas, is 3,339 metres (1,826 fathoms; 10,950 ft); without them it is 3,926 metres (2,147 fathoms; 12,880 ft). The greatest depth, Milwaukee Deep with 8,380 metres (4,580 fathoms; 27,500 ft), is in the Puerto Rico Trench. The Atlantic's width varies from 1,538 nautical miles (2,848 km; 1,770 mi) between Brazil and Sierra Leone to over 3,450 nautical miles (6,400 km; 4,000 mi) in the south

  

Cultural significance

 

Transatlantic travel played a major role in the expansion of Western civilization into the Americas. It is the Atlantic that separates the "Old World" from the "New World". In modern times, some idioms refer to the ocean in a humorously diminutive way as the Pond, describing both the geographical and cultural divide between North America and Europe, in particular between the English-speaking nations of both continents. Many British people refer to the United States and Canada as "across the pond", and vice versa

   

Ocean bottom

 

The principal feature of the bathymetry (bottom topography) is a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.[5] It extends from Iceland in the north to approximately 58° South latitude, reaching a maximum width of about 860 nautical miles (1,590 km; 990 mi). A great rift valley also extends along the ridge over most of its length. The depth of water at the apex of the ridge is less than 2,700 metres (1,500 fathoms; 8,900 ft) in most places, while the bottom of the ridge is three times as deep. Several peaks rise above the water and form islands.[6] The South Atlantic Ocean has an additional submarine ridge, the Walvis Ridge.[7]

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge separates the Atlantic Ocean into two large troughs with depths from 3,700–5,500 metres (2,000–3,000 fathoms; 12,000–18,000 ft). Transverse ridges running between the continents and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge divide the ocean floor into numerous basins. Some of the larger basins are the Blake, Guiana, North American, Cape Verde, and Canaries basins in the North Atlantic. The largest South Atlantic basins are the Angola, Cape, Argentina, and Brazil basins.

The deep ocean floor is thought to be fairly flat with occasional deeps, abyssal plains, trenches, seamounts, basins, plateaus, canyons, and some guyots. Various shelves along the margins of the continents constitute about 11% of the bottom topography with few deep channels cut across the continental rise.

 

Ocean floor trenches and seamounts:

•Puerto Rico Trench, in the North Atlantic, is the deepest trench at 8,605 metres (4,705 fathoms; 28,230 ft)[8]

•Laurentian Abyss is found off the eastern coast of Canada

•South Sandwich Trench reaches a depth of 8,428 metres (4,608 fathoms; 27,650 ft)

•Romanche Trench is located near the equator and reaches a depth of about 7,454 metres (4,076 fathoms; 24,460 ft).

 

Ocean sediments are composed of:

•Terrigenous deposits with land origins, consisting of sand, mud, and rock particles formed by erosion, weathering, and volcanic activity on land washed to sea. These materials are found mostly on the continental shelves and are thickest near large river mouths or off desert coasts.

•Pelagic deposits, which contain the remains of organisms that sink to the ocean floor, include red clays and Globigerina, pteropod, and siliceous oozes. Covering most of the ocean floor and ranging in thickness from 60–3,300 metres (33–1,800 fathoms; 200–11,000 ft) they are thickest in the convergence belts, notably at the Hamilton Ridge and in upwelling zones.

•Authigenic deposits consist of such materials as manganese nodules. They occur where sedimentation proceeds slowly or where currents sort the deposits, such as in the Hewett Curve.

  

Water characteristics

 

On average, the Atlantic is the saltiest major ocean; surface water salinity in the open ocean ranges from 33 to 37 parts per thousand (3.3 – 3.7%) by mass and varies with latitude and season. Evaporation, precipitation, river inflow and sea ice melting influence surface salinity values. Although the lowest salinity values are just north of the equator (because of heavy tropical rainfall), in general the lowest values are in the high latitudes and along coasts where large rivers enter. Maximum salinity values occur at about 25° north and south, in subtropical regions with low rainfall and high evaporation.

Surface water temperatures, which vary with latitude, current systems, and season and reflect the latitudinal distribution of solar energy, range from below −2 °C (28 °F). Maximum temperatures occur north of the equator, and minimum values are found in the polar regions. In the middle latitudes, the area of maximum temperature variations, values may vary by 7–8 °C (12–15 °F).

The Atlantic Ocean consists of four major water masses. The North and South Atlantic central waters make up the surface. The sub-Antarctic intermediate water extends to depths of 1,000 metres (550 fathoms; 3,300 ft). The North Atlantic Deep Water reaches depths of as much as 4,000 metres (2,200 fathoms; 13,000 ft). The Antarctic Bottom Water occupies ocean basins at depths greater than 4,000 metres.

Within the North Atlantic, ocean currents isolate the Sargasso Sea, a large elongated body of water, with above average salinity. The Sargasso Sea contains large amounts of seaweed and is also the spawning ground for both the European eel and the American eel.

The Coriolis effect circulates North Atlantic water in a clockwise direction, whereas South Atlantic water circulates counter-clockwise. The south tides in the Atlantic Ocean are semi-diurnal; that is, two high tides occur during each 24 lunar hours. In latitudes above 40° North some east-west oscillation occurs.

   

Climate

 

Climate is influenced by the temperatures of the surface waters and water currents as well as winds. Because of the ocean's great capacity to store and release heat, maritime climates are more moderate and have less extreme seasonal variations than inland climates. Precipitation can be approximated from coastal weather data and air temperature from water temperatures.

The oceans are the major source of the atmospheric moisture that is obtained through evaporation. Climatic zones vary with latitude; the warmest zones stretch across the Atlantic north of the equator. The coldest zones are in high latitudes, with the coldest regions corresponding to the areas covered by sea ice. Ocean currents influence climate by transporting warm and cold waters to other regions. The winds that are cooled or warmed when blowing over these currents influence adjacent land areas.

The Gulf Stream and its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, for example, warms the atmosphere of the British Isles and north-western Europe and influences weather and climate as far south as the northern Mediterranean. The cold water currents contribute to heavy fog off the coast of eastern Canada (the Grand Banks of Newfoundland area) and Africa's north-western coast. In general, winds transport moisture and air over land areas. Hurricanes develop in the southern part of the North Atlantic Ocean. More local particular weather examples could be found in examples such as the; Azores High, Benguela Current, Nor'easter.

  

History

 

The Atlantic Ocean appears to be the second youngest of the five oceans. It did not exist prior to 130 million years ago, when the continents that formed from the breakup of the ancestral super continent Pangaea were drifting apart from seafloor spreading. The Atlantic has been extensively explored since the earliest settlements along its shores.

The Vikings, the Portuguese, and the Spaniards were the most famous among early explorers. After Columbus, European exploration rapidly accelerated, and many new trade routes were established.

As a result, the Atlantic became and remains the major artery between Europe and the Americas (known as transatlantic trade). Scientific explorations include the Challenger expedition, the German Meteor expedition, Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the United States Navy Hydrographic Office.

  

Notable crossings

  

Ra II, a ship built from papyrus, was successfully sailed across the Atlantic by Thor Heyerdahl proving that it was possible to cross the Atlantic from Africa using such boats in early epochs of history.

•Around 980 – 982, Eric the Red discovered Greenland, geographically and geologically a part of the Americas.

•In 985 or 986, Bjarni Herjólfsson was the first European to sight the Americas. He did not go ashore, though.

•In the year 1000, the Icelander Leif Ericson was the first European to set foot on North American soil, corresponding to today's Eastern coast of Canada, i. e. the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, including the area of land named "Vinland" by Ericson. The Norse discovery was documented in the 13th century Icelandic Sagas and was corroborated by recent L'Anse aux Meadows archeological evidence.

•Around 1010, Thorfinnr Karlsefni led an attempted Viking settlement in North America with 160 settlers, but was later driven off by the natives. His son Snorri Thorfinnsson was the first American born (somewhere between 1010 and 1013) to European (Icelandic) immigrant parents.

•In 1419 and 1427, Portuguese navigators reached Madeira and Azores, respectively.

•From 1415 to 1488, Portuguese navigators sailed along the Western African coast, reaching the Cape of Good Hope.

•In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador in The Bahamas.

•In 1497, John Cabot landed at Bonavista Newfoundland and Labrador.

•In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral reached Brazil.

•In 1524, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered the United States of America's east coast.

•In 1534, Jacques Cartier entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence and reached the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.

•In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for the English Crown.

•In 1764 William Harrison (the son of John Harrison) sailed aboard the HMS Tartar, with the H-4 time piece. The voyage became the basis for the invention of the global system of Longitude.

•In 1858, Cyrus West Field laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable (it quickly failed).

•In 1865 Brunel's ship the SS Great Eastern laid the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable .

•In 1870 the small City of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) became the first small Lifeboat to cross the Atlantic from Cork to Boston with two men crew, John Charles Buckley and Nikola Primorac (di Costa), only.[9]

•In 1896 Frank Samuelsen and George Harbo from Norway became the first people to ever row across the Atlantic Ocean.

•On April 15, 1912 the RMS Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg with a loss of more than 1,500 lives.[10]

•1914–1918, the First Battle of the Atlantic took place.

•In 1919, the American NC-4 became the first seaplane to cross the Atlantic (though it made a couple of landings on islands and the sea along the way, and taxied several hundred miles).

•Later in 1919, a British aeroplane piloted by Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop transatlantic flight, from Newfoundland to Ireland.

•In 1921, the British were the first to cross the North Atlantic in an airship.

•In 1922, Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho were the first to cross the South Atlantic in an airship.

•In 1927, Charles Lindbergh made the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight in an aircraft (between New York City and Paris).

•In 1931, Bert Hinkler made the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight across the South Atlantic in an aircraft.

•In 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first female to make a solo flight across the Atlantic

•1939–1945, the Second Battle of the Atlantic. Nearly 3,700 Allied ships were sunk at a cost of 783 German U-boats.[11]

•In 1952, Ann Davison was the first woman to single-handedly sail the Atlantic Ocean.

•In 1965, Robert Manry crossed the Atlantic from the U.S. to England non-stop in a 13.5 foot (4.05 meters) sailboat named "Tinkerbell".[12] Several others also crossed the Atlantic in very small sailboats in the 1960s, none of them non-stop, though.

•In 1969 and 1970 Thor Heyerdahl launched expeditions to cross the Atlantic in boats built from papyrus. He succeeded in crossing the Atlantic from Morocco to Barbados after a two-month voyage of 6,100 km with Ra II in 1970, thus conclusively proving that boats such as the Ra could have sailed with the Canary Current across the Atlantic in prehistoric times.[13]

•In 1975, Fons Oerlemans crossed the Atlantic in 82 days, starting from Safi (Morocco) to Trinidad and Tobago, on a selfmade raft.

•In 1980, Gérard d'Aboville was the first man to cross the Atlantic Ocean rowing solo.

•In 1984, Five Argentines sail in a 10-meter-long raft made from tree trunks named Atlantis from Canary Islands and after 52 days 3,000 miles (4,800 km) journey arrived to Venezuela in an attempt to prove travelers from Africa may have crossed the Atlantic before Christopher Columbus.[14][15]

•In 1994, Guy Delage was the first man to allegedly swim across the Atlantic Ocean (with the help of a kick board, from Cape Verde to Barbados).

•In 1998, Benoît Lecomte was the first man to swim across the northern Atlantic Ocean without a kick board, stopping for only one week in the Azores.

•In 1999, after rowing for 81 days and 4,767 kilometres (2,962 mi), Tori Murden became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone when she reached Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.

   

Ethiopic Ocean

 

The Aethiopian Sea, Ethiopic Ocean or Ethiopian Ocean (Okeanos Aithiopos), is an old name for what is now called the South Atlantic Ocean, which is separated from the North Atlantic Ocean by a narrow region between Natal, Brazil and Monrovia, Liberia. The use of this term illustrates a past trend towards referring to the whole continent of Africa by the name Aethiopia. The modern nation of Ethiopia, in northeast Africa, is nowhere near the Ethiopic Ocean, which would be said to lie off the west coast of Africa. The term Ethiopian Ocean sometimes appeared until the mid-19th century.[

  

Economy

 

The Atlantic has contributed significantly to the development and economy of surrounding countries. Besides major transatlantic transportation and communication routes, the Atlantic offers abundant petroleum deposits in the sedimentary rocks of the continental shelves. The Atlantic hosts the world's richest fishing resources, especially in the waters covering the shelves. The major fish are cod, haddock, hake, herring, and mackerel.

The most productive areas include Newfoundland's Grand Banks, the Nova Scotia shelf, Georges Bank off Cape Cod, the Bahama Banks, the waters around Iceland, the Irish Sea, the Dogger Bank of the North Sea, and the Falkland Banks. Eel, lobster, and whales appear in great quantities. Various international treaties attempt to reduce pollution caused by environmental threats such as oil spills, marine debris, and the incineration of toxic wastes at sea.

   

Terrain

 

From October to June the surface is usually covered with sea ice in the Labrador Sea, Denmark Strait, and Baltic Sea. A clockwise warm-water gyre occupies the northern Atlantic, and a counter-clockwise warm-water gyre appears in the southern Atlantic. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a rugged north-south centerline for the entire Atlantic basin, first discovered by the Challenger Expedition dominates the ocean floor. This was formed by the vulcanism that also formed the ocean floor and the islands rising from it.

The Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. These include the Norwegian Sea, Baltic Sea, North Sea, Labrador Sea, Black Sea, Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Maine, Mediterranean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea.

Islands include Newfoundland (including hundreds of surrounding islands), Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Great Britain (including numerous surrounding islands), Ireland, Rockall, Sable Island, Azores, St. Pierre and Miquelon, Madeira, Bermuda, Canary Islands, Caribbean, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Annobón Province, Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Ascension Island, Saint Helena, Trindade and Martim Vaz, Tristan da Cunha, Gough Island (Also known as Diego Alvarez), Falkland Islands, Tierra del Fuego, South Georgia Island, South Sandwich Islands, and Bouvet Island.

   

Natural resources

The Atlantic harbors petroleum and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales), sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, and precious stones.

  

Natural hazards

 

Icebergs are common from February to August in the Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, and the northwestern Atlantic and have been spotted as far south as Bermuda and Madeira. Ships are subject to superstructure icing in the extreme north from October to May. Persistent fog can be a maritime hazard from May to September, as can hurricanes north of the equator (May to December).

The United States' southeast coast has a long history of shipwrecks due to its many shoals and reefs. The Virginia and North Carolina coasts were particularly dangerous.

The Bermuda Triangle is popularly believed to be the site of numerous aviation and shipping incidents because of unexplained and supposedly mysterious causes, but Coast Guard records do not support this belief.

Hurricanes are also a natural hazard in the Atlantic, but mainly in the northern part of the ocean, rarely tropical cyclones form in the southern parts. Hurricanes usually form between June 1 and November 30 of every year. The most notable hurricane in the Atlantic would be Hurricane Katrina in the 2005 season

 

Current environmental issues

 

Endangered marine species include the manatee, seals, sea lions, turtles, and whales. Drift net fishing can kill dolphins, albatrosses and other seabirds (petrels, auks), hastening the fish stock decline and contributing to international disputes.[16] Municipal pollution comes from the eastern United States, southern Brazil, and eastern Argentina; oil pollution in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Lake Maracaibo, Mediterranean Sea, and North Sea; and industrial waste and municipal sewage pollution in the Baltic Sea, North Sea, and Mediterranean Sea.

In 2005, there was some concern that warm northern European currents were slowing down, but no scientific consensus formed from that evidence.[17]

On June 7, 2006, Florida's wildlife commission voted to take the manatee off the state's endangered species list. Some environmentalists worry that this could erode safeguards for the popular sea creature.

 

Marine pollution

 

Marine pollution is a generic term for the entry into the ocean of potentially hazardous chemicals or particles. The biggest culprits are rivers and with them many agriculture fertilizer chemicals as well as livestock and human waste. The excess of oxygen-depleting chemicals leads to hypoxia and the creation of a dead zone.[18]

Marine debris, which is also known as marine litter, describes human-created waste floating in a body of water. Oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the center of gyres and coastlines, frequently washing aground where it is known as beach litter

  

Bordering countries and territories

The states (territories in italics) with a coastline on the Atlantic Ocean (excluding the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas) are:

 

Europe

• Belgium

• Denmark

• Germany

• Spain

• France

• Faroe Islands

• Guernsey

• Isle of Man

• Ireland

• Iceland

• Jersey

• Netherlands

• Norway

• Portugal

• Sweden

• United Kingdom

  

Africa

• Morocco

• Angola

• Benin

• Bouvet Island

• Côte d'Ivoire

• Cameroon

• Democratic Republic of the Congo

• Republic of the Congo

• Cape Verde

• Western Sahara (claimed by Morocco)

• Spain (Canary Islands)

• Gabon

• Ghana

• Guinea

• Gambia

• Guinea-Bissau

• Equatorial Guinea

• Liberia

• Mauritania

• Namibia

• Nigeria

• Senegal

• Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

• Sierra Leone

• São Tomé and Príncipe

•

 

South America

• Argentina

• Brazil

• Chile

• Colombia

• Falkland Islands

• France (French Guiana)

• Guyana

• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

• Suriname

• Uruguay

• Venezuela

  

Caribbean

• Aruba

• Anguilla

• Antigua and Barbuda

• Bahamas

• Saint Barthélemy

• Barbados

• Cuba

• Curaçao

• Cayman Islands

• Dominica

• Dominican Republic

• France (Martinique and Guadeloupe)

• Grenada

• Haiti

• Jamaica

• Saint Lucia

• Saint Martin

• Montserrat

• Netherlands (Caribbean Netherlands)

• Puerto Rico

• Saint Kitts and Nevis

• Sint Maarten

• Turks and Caicos Islands

• Trinidad and Tobago

• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

• British Virgin Islands

• United States Virgin Islands

 

Central and North America

• Belize

• Bermuda

• Canada

• Costa Rica

• Greenland

• Guatemala

• Honduras

• Mexico

• Nicaragua

• Panama

• Saint Pierre and Miquelon

• United States

 

So we dropped on the federation capital planet, the Emperor himself was with us, or was in one of his hundred clones?

 

Sometimes I think we have more emperors than actual troopers, still they are all interconnected by the warpnet in a feudal kind of system...

 

Why are we fighting the federation? I guess no one knows, perhaps it is just because they are the other big bully in our hood, anyhow, we are both manly human armies,,,

 

The emperor in this attack was Grafted to a six-footer Gun-transportation-walker also called an ant, that makes it quite likely that is it our top-feudal emperor, they say that is often how the original wants to fight...

 

That is by trampling across the federation scum...

 

I have heard that there is peace somewhere out in the galaxy, I don´t think peace is a great thing, that just means that some kingpin is making a lot of dough in the clandestine shadows, war is more pure, like the strong one survives or the one with the biggest robot or the biggest canon...

 

I don´t Understand why they outlawed super-nukes... I mean imagine if we could just press a button and the whole capital planet of the federation would go kaboom, sure their auto-systems would retaliate so our capital-word and a few others would blow up too..

 

I wound´t Mind since I see having a capital is a weakness a lot of civilians working, only a few warriors in the cities...

 

They are pansies, I mean the city-dwellers, eternal war that is what we real men like, not crappy civil society, who needs chefs, shopkeepers, actors or artists...

 

It is a so sad that they waste their life on arts and farts, learning crafts, they deserve to die...

 

all honor to the war and it´s soldiers...

 

(bzzz-xxx.-crr-zzppip)

 

That was the last thoughts recorded by the helmet-mind-recorded before this soldier Cadet soldier Nr. 23223o4332p3004 Perished by getting his head blown of by a force-grenade shot by a federation auto-cannon!

 

I guess his last thoughts won´t make the memory-archive of the Cadet-capital planets honorary "great thinkers" plaque

  

The theme for a 11/2 lifetime is bringing life into a sense of balance through the analyzing and synthesizing of ideas. Learning to trust in yourself, your intuition, and your psychic abilities.

Justice and the High Priestess (Papess) represent form the gateway into an 11/2 lifetime. Justice (ruled by the planet Libra) places focus on harmony, understanding others, and finding a sense of balance in life. Libra is by nature active and social, with the need to balance between nurturing self and helping others. The High Priestess (Papess) is ruled by the Moon, which places focus on our inner selves, our inner needs, intuition, unconscious, and psychic abilities. Here we are looking at reacting, rather than taking action. The nature here is a passive one. Personal empowerment is the ability to focus our personal and spiritual energy in a manner that enhances how we experience our life. As we define our true power, we actualize out potential and begin to live life from a core of inner confidence.

 

theworldoftarot.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/birth-card-pairs...

 

The occult has moved from secrecy to mainstream acceptance, and tarot card reading stands as a testament to this shift. The Rider-Waite deck, named after the mystic A.E. Waite and publisher William Rider and Son, is considered the definitive tarot deck. However, the captivating imagery and symbolism that define this deck come from the artistic genius of Pamela Colman Smith, a woman often forgotten in the history of the occult.

Smith, an artist with possible Jamaican roots, led a bohemian lifestyle and was introduced to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn by the renowned poet William Butler Yeats. She joined the secret society, which explored occult and paranormal aspects, as well as philosophy and magic. There, she met A.E. Waite, who would later request her artistic talents in creating a new deck of divination cards. Despite the immense popularity of the Rider-Waite deck, Smith’s role in its creation was largely forgotten.

However, many tarot enthusiasts today have started acknowledging her contributions by calling it the “Smith-Waite” deck or using decks that feature her name prominently.

 

culture.org/the-unseen-mothers-of-the-occult-pamela-colma...

 

"Gospel according to "Myriam" and this Mary is generally identified, without certainty, as being Mary of Magdala....In Christian tradition, the Three Marys also refers to three daughters – all three called Mary – whom Anne, the maternal grandmother of Jesus would have had with three successive husbands. According to Fernando Lanzi and Gioia Lanzi, this tradition would have been condemned by the Council of Trent (16th century), but it is still very much alive, particularly in German-speaking countries16 and in the Netherlands. then retired to the cave of Sainte-Baume where she lived for 30 years as a hermitage, with her only clothing, the fleece of her hair, and as her only food, the song of the angels who daily raised her to the heavens, seven times a day, it is said. She left Sainte Baume to die with Saint Maximin, one of the 72 disciples, in the small town where he had built his oratory and which today bears his name. He buried the saint in an alabaster sarcophagus.The name Magdala comes from Magdal in Aramaic or Migdal in Hebrew and designates a construction in the shape of a tower, representing faith, very similar to the House of God (The Tower) in Marseille's Tarot !

 

The Tarot de Marseille would then be a testimony to the teaching of Mary Magdalene. In Spanish-speaking countries, the Orion Belt Asterism is called “Las Tres Marias” (The Three Marys). In other Western countries, it is sometimes called "The Three Kings", a reference to the "Magi who came from the East" of the childhood narrative added to the Gospel according to Matthew and to the tradition of the three Magi, bearers of gifts for the child Jesus, whose oldest witnesses are found in Tertullian and Origen (early 3rd century). My "Mary Magdalene theory" is fortunately supported by thousands of codes that all come interconnected. "You will progress on a healthier basis with someone you know. Be authentic. Make sure you reserve moments of relaxation and do not pull too much on the rope, you tend to exceed your physical limits. Mary (mother of Jesus) Mary Magdalene Mary of Clopas. These three women are very often represented in art, as for example in this picture. The Three Marys (also spelled Maries) are women mentioned in the canonical gospels' narratives of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Mary was the most common name for Jewish women of the period. Mary speaks of strange encounters with Creator Beings. Read about her experiences with them, and how their decree changed her life with Jesus. In this final volume of the trilogy, Magdalene appears to the author by the river in Rennes les Bains, France. There she reveals an ancient healing technique called The True Baptism. Mary illustrates how to organize the life force from the matrix of The All and allow it to trigger our genetic code. Mary then answers more of your questions, this time about the hidden properties of gold, the evolution of her bloodline with Jesus, free will, inner earth, the star knowledge, and much more. The Tarot, in both its origin as a card game and in its transformation into an occult divinatory tool, functions as an iconographic mirror of a particular culture's time and place. By the examining the evolution of the World card, from the 14th century Italian decks to contemporary ones, we will see a shift from male Christ imagery to female anima mundi imagery. Parallel to this iconographic shift is the figure of Mary Magdalene, who in Renaissance painting began to be portrayed less as a sinner and more of a penitent saint. The assumption of Mary Magdalene in art correlates with the finalized form of the World card. The alterations of Christian iconography and symbolism in Tarot cards are the result of occultists’ reappropiation of the Tarot in the late 1700s. The fear/distrust/disbelief of God and Christianity that began at this time funneled into an interest in the occult; in the Tarot, we see a preservation of the luminous but a problematic relationality with Christianity. The World card, as it has been handed down to us today, is a synthesis of the assumption of Mary Magdalene, the Christus Victor, and the anima mundi. A sacred priestess of the ancient Womb Rites, Mary Magdalene was at the center of a great and enduring Mystery tradition. Unveiling the lost left-hand path of the Magdalene, the authors offer rituals and practices to initiate you into the Womb magic of the ancient priestesses and access deeper dimensions of sexuality and feminine power.

 

www.innertraditions.com/books/magdalene-mysteries

 

Tarot historians are in agreement that the appropriation of the cards by occultists occurred in the late 18th century. The first known interpretation of the Tarot through an esoteric lens was penned by the French occultist Court de Gebelin. He believed the deck was the lost Egyptian Book of Thoth, containing the secret mysteries of Egyptian wisdom and magic; following Gebelin, occultists began syncretizing the Tarot with the systems of Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and alchemy. I believe we can locate the apex of this appropriation in the Waite-Smith deck from 1909 – the most familiar and popular deck to the contemporary reader. Later we will consider the effect this had on the Tarot symbolism and its relationship to the shifts in religious understanding in France and other European countries.Although there is a clear historical distinction between Tarot as “playing cards” and as occult divination tools, this is not to say that the imagery of the early decks are absent of symbolism or meaning. Rather than esoteric, the early cards are exoteric in their imagery; the symbols are clear referents to religion, culture, and mythology. While they seem esoteric today, as much of Christian iconography is to the contemporary viewer, these cards were probably not hard to decipher by their audiences. While much is admittedly conjecture, (as is a lot of Tarot historical studies), there is still much we can tease out of the visual evolution of the cards over time. It is surprising that there has been so little work done on the correlations and similarities between Tarot and Christian symbolism and iconography. My research hit a lot of dead-end roads in terms of proof, but I believe it is important to reveal my initial observations to show that, while perhaps not conscious, there is a great deal of Christian symbolism in Tarot, even in decks from the post-occult turn of the 18 and 19 centuries and from today as well.In the Waite-Smith deck, the most obvious Christian card is the 20 Major Arcana, Judgment, in which an angel blows a trumpet and the souls of dead bodies rise from coffins. Another obvious example is the Tower card, clearly a depiction of the fall of the Tower of Babel. Less obvious, perhaps, is the Fool card. It depicts a young man walking up to a cliff precipice, as though he does not see it; he carries a bag of money and is followed by a dog. Does this not recall the story of blind Tobias, who also carries money and is followed by a dog? Although in painting he is normally portrayed being guided by the angel Raphael, the similarities are astounding. How did this come to be?

  

The Hanged Man card is surprisingly consistent from the early Italian decks to the contemporary post-occult decks, and is one of the most mysterious within esoteric interpretation. In the Waite-Smith deck, it depicts a man hanging from a Tau cross by one leg; his other leg is crossed underneath the other to form another cross, and a nimbus glows around the head. Most occult interpretations of this card go along the lines that it is a symbol of self-sacrifice for spiritual gain. Robert Place argues that this can be understood as Christ, in that Christ was executed as a traitor by the state.3 Furthermore, a numerical reading of the card offers insight – being card 12, it might refer also to the self-sacrifice and martyrdom of the twelve disciples. By employing basic gematria, we can add the digits one and two to reach three, which could be the Trinity.

 

www.academia.edu/8851376/Tarot_and_Christian_Iconography_...

  

The Gospels refer to several women named Mary. At various points of Christian history, some of these women have been identified with one another..look at this picture from the Waite-Rider-Smth tarot:from left to right 1 Mary Magdalene 2 Mary of Jacob (mother of James the Less) 3 Mary, mother of Jesus (Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; Luke 24:10) Mary of Clopas (John 19:25), sometimes identified with Mary of Jacob. Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:38–42, John 12:1–3), not mentioned in any Crucifixion or Resurrection narratives but identified with Mary Magdalene in some traditions. Another woman who appears in the Crucifixion and Resurrection narratives is Salome, who, in some traditions, is referred to as Mary Salome and identified as being one of the Marys. Other women mentioned in the narratives are Joanna and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.Marie-Madeleine, Marie Salomé and Marie de Clopas are the 3 Maries of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a French town, capital of the Camargue, in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône. The designation "of-the-sea" derives from the fact that after the death of Jesus, the three Marys crossed the sea by boat to there and then lived there, thus helping to bring Christianity to France and Europe. These 3 Marys were present during the execution of Jesus and, they were the first witnesses of the empty tomb at the resurrection of Jesus... After the death of Jesus, around 42 J.C. the Christians were persecuted, and the three Marys were arrested and expelled from Palestine. They therefore embarked, with many other Christians, on a ship named "The Ship of Peter" devoid of oars and sails which, led by Providence, managed to reach the shores of Provence, in the south of France in a place which now bears their names.This is where the three Marys were welcomed by Sara, according to some texts, according to others, Sara, herself would be the Holy Grail, the direct descent of Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Only Marie Salomé, Marie Jacobé and Sarah will remain; Marie Madeleine, will retire to a hermitage in a cave...This is a historically attested fact, because Christianity began to spread in Europe precisely from Gaul, which thus became the gateway to the new religion in Europe. Mary Magdalene occupies a privileged place for Christ, at the head of a group of women who accompany him. She will be the first witness to the Resurrection of Christ, the first to whom the Lord appears on Easter morning, a sign, whether we believe in it or not, of an exceptional position. She is Jewish like Christ, like him from the North of Palestine (Israel), from Galilee, probably from Magdala, near Nazareth and Cana. It is believed that she was an aristocrat born in the year 3 AD, who after attending the court of the king of the Jews Herod, was converted by Christ, changed her life and decided to follow him and put her fortune at the disposal of the group. Arrived in the Camargue, with the two other Maries, she evangelized the Marseillais, then withdrew to the cave of Sainte-Baume where she lived 30 years in hermitage, with as only clothing, the fleece of her hair, and as only food, the song of the angels who raised her daily in the heavens, seven times a day, it is said.

 

www.calistabellini.com/post/les-saintes-maries-de-la-mer-...

 

Different sets of three women have been referred to as the Three Marys: Three Marys present at the crucifixion of Jesus;

Three Marys at the tomb of Jesus on Easter Sunday; Three daughters of Saint Anne, all named Mary. The three Marys at the

 

The presence of a group of female disciples of Jesus at the crucifixion of Jesus is found in all four Gospels of the New Testament. Differences in the parallel accounts have led to different interpretations of how many and which women were present. In some traditions, as exemplified in the Irish song Caoineadh na dTrí Muire, the Three Marys are the three whom the Gospel of John mentions as present at the crucifixion of Jesus: However, Jesus was not crucified upside-down. Looking at the Visconti-Sforza deck, we have an almost identical depiction of the Hanged Man. Helen Farley points out that in Renaissance society, there was an art form called pittura infamante – ‘shame painting’ – “in which a person was depicted as a traitor, particularly when beyond the reach of legitimate legal. recourse.”4 By depicting someone hanging upside-down, this could alternately mean the person had turned away from God. It also was used for the execution of Jews, witches, and Christians who had committed perfidy. I immediately thought of Peter, who is said to have asked to be crucified upside-down because he was unworthy to die as Christ died. In Christian iconography, he is the only individual portrayed in this manner. Peter could be said to be a traitor, in that he denied Christ three times, but the negative associations of shame paintings don’t seem to correlate with Peter’s sainthood. Judas is also said to have hung himself, and is traitor par excellance, but I remained convinced that this card was based upon Peter. While the usual understanding of Peter’s request for an upside-down crucifixion is his humility in relation to Christ’s death, there is a different explanation in apocryphal accounts. In the Acts of Peter, Peter speaks from the cross, saying that, “when the first man [Adam] came into the world, he came headfirst. That means that Adam’s perspective, as the one who brought sin into the world, was entirely reversed and upside down. That is why people seem to think that what is true is false and what is false true....All of this is because humans have reverse vision, due to the actions of Adam.”6 Thus, hanging upside-down is a model for Christians to live by, to see the world correctly. This is nearly identical to how Tarot esotericists interpret the Hanged Man; it is both Christ in its self-sacrifice, and also an inversion of corporeal ‘reality’ and perspective through which one gets a better understanding of how to reach God. While one cannot veritably locate a thread between the Acts of Peter and the Hanged Man, this connection exemplifies the latent Christian symbolism that flows through the Tarot, from 14th century Italy to now.

 

Mary Magdalene, Mary of Clopas and Mary (mother of Jesus). These three women are very often represented in art, as for example in these Flickr's picture.

 

Women at the tarot like a passkey to heaven; The Three Marys as passkey. What may be the earliest known representation of three women visiting the tomb of Jesus is a fairly large fresco in the Dura-Europos church in the ancient city of Dura Europos on the Euphrates. The fresco was painted before the city's conquest and abandonment in AD 256, but it is from the 5th century that representations of either two or three women approaching a tomb guarded by an angel appear with regularity, and become the standard depiction of the Resurrection. They have continued in use even after 1100, when images of the Resurrection of Jesus in Christian art began to show the risen Christ himself. Examples are the Melisende Psalter and Peter von Cornelius's The Three Marys at the tarot. Eastern icons continue to show either the Myrrhbearers or the Harrowing of Hell. The fifteenth-century Easter hymn "O filii et filiae" refers to three women going to the tomb on Easter morning to anoint the body of Jesus. The original Latin version of the hymn identifies the women as Mary Magdalene (Maria Magdalene), Mary of Joseph (et Iacobi), and Salome (et Salome).

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Marys

 

The World (XXI) is the 21st trump or Major Arcana card in the tarot deck. It can be incorporated as the final card of the Major Arcana or tarot trump sequence (the first or last optioned as being "The Fool" (0). It is associated with the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet, 'Shin' also spelled 'Sin'. The oval shape of the wreath is also used by the Golden Dawn in their Tattva cards. These colorful cards were designed to aid the development of clairvoyance through visual meditation, and one of the symbols in the cards is an oval. The oval corresponds to the Akasha, ether or spiritual realm (see Akashic Records).

 

Description

 

Christ in Majesty is surrounded by the animal emblems representing the four evangelists in a German manuscript.

In the traditional Tarot of Marseilles, as well as the later Rider–Waite tarot deck, a naked woman hovers or dances above the Earth holding a staff in each hand, surrounded by a wreath, being watched by the four living creatures (or hayyoth) of Jewish mythology: a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. This depiction parallels the tetramorph used in Christian art, where the four creatures are used as symbols of the four Evangelists. Some astrological sources explain these observers as representatives of the natural world or the kingdom of beasts. According to astrological tradition the Lion is Leo—a fire sign, the Bull or calf is Taurus—an earth sign, the Man is Aquarius—an air sign, and the Eagle is Scorpio—a water sign. These signs are the four fixed signs and represent the classical four elements. In some decks the wreath is an ouroboros biting its own tail. In the Thoth Tarot designed by Aleister Crowley, this card is called "The Universe." The World card, the highest ranked Major Arcana card, exists in the early Visconti-Sforza, Marseilles, and contemporary decks. It will serve as our loci in considering the relationship between Tarot and Christian iconography, the evolution of Mary Magdalene in Christian depiction/understanding, and the rise of the female anima mundi in occult and esoteric movements. To recall, the Visconti-Sforza is one of our earliest known decks. Helen Farley notes that the deck’s symbolism reflects concerns and themes of the Italian Renaissance: The proximity of death, the fickle hand of fortune, the desirability of living a life

of virtue, the importance of spirituality but also the contempt with which corporeal concerns were held, namely the corruption of the Church...[it] portrayed the lives and history of the Viscontis...as a game: a potent allegory of Visconti life. These themselves more as we follow the orbit of the World card around the sun of time.reveal themes, particularly the tension between spirituality and Catholicism, will. In the Visconti-Sforza deck, the world is shown as a globe, within which is surrounded by turbulent waters (fig. I). The globe is held aloft by two putti. The blue wings indicate they are Seraphim, the highest rank of angels. In other versions from this time, there is usually a figure of a woman or angel upon the globe and city usually represents Jerusalem, the city of God; “the microcosm of the city symbolically linked the earthly (human) body with the heavenly (cosmic) ‘body’”, observes Farley. This derives, of course, from St. Augustine’s The City of God, wherein the Christian empire is located around the Church of Rome, which links humankind with God. The earthly city reflects the heavenly city, and this card connects the actual city of Milan with the celestial city of heaven. Duke Sforza’s domination of Milan is enforced and made holy through its pictorial self-portrayal as the Augustinian city. This pride in the city-state enforces the power, wealth, and status of Milan; interestingly, as the World card follows the Resurrection/Judgment card, Milan is portrayed as the city Augustine believes will contain the saved souls. One also may observe that the city is separated from the rest of the ‘world’ by the edge of the globe; it is strongly fortified and separated by waters, illuminated by the stars of heaven.

 

What does 3 stars in the sky mean? many meanings...Each culture gives the Três Marias a different meaning. In Christian tradition, the stars are associated with the three women who visited the tomb of Jesus at the resurrection. They also represent the Three Wise Men -Gaspar, Melchior and Baltasar-, who would be on their way to Bethlehem at the birth of the messiah. What are the three Marias? Mark 16:1 indicates that "Mary Magdalene", "Mary the mother of James" and "Salome" went to the tomb to anoint Jesus....How many stars do the 3 Marias have?

The Belt or Belt of Orion, popularly known as the Three Marys or Three Kings, is an asterism of three stars that form the belt of the constellation of Orion, the hunter. The stars, easily identifiable in the sky by their brightness and alignment, are known as Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak. Where are the three Marias?

To identify it we must locate 3 stars close to each other, of the same brightness, and aligned. They are called Tres Marías and they form the belt of the constellation of Orion, the hunter. Their names are Mintaka, Alnilan and Alnitaka, from the Arabic Al-Mintakah, the belt, An-Nidham, the pearl, and An-Nitak, the rope.

What are the stars we see in the sky? Stars are large spheres formed by plasma heated to thousands of degrees. Its shape is due to its gravity, which points towards the core of the star. Stars are large spheres of plasma that are powered by nuclear fusion. Stars are large spheres of plasma, held together by their own gravity. > Constellation of ORION: Why are the three Marias called Três Marias? Origin and meanings of Três Marias.Each culture gives the Três Marias a different meaning. In Christian tradition, the stars are associated with the three women who visited the tomb of Jesus at the resurrection. They also represent the Three Wise Men -Gaspar, Melchior and Baltasar-, who would be on their way to Bethlehem at the birth of the messiah. What are the three Marias? Mark 16:1 indicates that "Mary Magdalene", "Mary the mother of James" and "Salome" went to the tomb to anoint Jesus....How many stars do the 3 Marias have? The Belt or Belt of Orion, popularly known as the Three Marys or Three Kings, is an asterism of three stars that form the belt of the constellation of Orion, the hunter. The stars, easily identifiable in the sky by their brightness and alignment, are known as Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak.Where are the three Marias? To identify it we must locate 3 stars close to each other, of the same brightness, and aligned. They are called Tres Marías and they form the belt of the constellation of Orion, the hunter. Their names are Mintaka, Alnilan and Alnitaka, from the Arabic Al-Mintakah, the belt, An-Nidham, the pearl, and An-Nitak, the rope.The most curious thing of all is that, in reality, their names are Mintaka, Alnilan and Alnitak, Arabic names that mean, respectively, the "Belt", the "Pearl/Precious Stone" and the "Rope". Another is knowing that they are actually very close together in the sky, approximately 1,500 light-years from Earth.There are three enormous stars visible in the winter sky and in the center of the constellation Orion, the celestial cathedral. These three stars form a nearly perfect tilted alignment, separated by seemingly nearly equidistant distances. They are known as the three Marys, the three wise men or the belt of Orion -a giant hunter from mythology-, but these names are not enough to understand the mysteries that such colossal stars contain. We must look towards the south, at half height; between the horizon and the zenith. It has no loss, it is a brilliant stellar alignment, which is unique in the firmament. Three blue stars, three giants: Mintaka, Altinak and Alnilam.

 

Источник: planetariodevitoria.org/estrelas/qual-e-o-nome-das-estrel...

 

An engineer born in Alexandria in 1948, Robert Bauval, with a background in astronomy and an interest in Egyptology, discovered that the three Marys are positioned exactly like the three great pyramids of Giza in Egypt. The star Mintaka, in the upper part of the alignment of the three Marys, is somewhat deviated with respect to the previous two, the same imperfect alignment has the three great pyramids. But also, the pyramid deviated from the straight line that joins the other two, is the smallest of the three (Micerino), like Mintaka, which is the star that shines the least of the three Marias. Also, the pyramid that is highest on the plateau of the three and that stands out the most (Kefren) is the central one, as is the central star of Las tres Marías, which is the brightest. Did the Egyptians also know that these stars are visible from all over the world? And more specifically Mintaka, which is right on the celestial equator. Everything can be the product of chance, but many coincidences bear the truth. Curiously, the Egyptians believed that after their death, the gates of heaven opened in the place occupied by Orion's belt, but they never understood the greatness of those three spectacular stars. The three Marys were the place where the soul of Osiris, the Egyptian god of resurrection, rested and presides over the court of the judgment of the deceased, among other powers.Alnitak, an Arabic name meaning "belt", is the lowest of the three stars. A new star 6 million years old, while the Sun is about 5,000 million. This blue giant, 16 times the diameter of the Sun, with a visual magnitude of 1.79, located 700 light years from the Sun, of spectral type O9, shines with an intensity 100,000 times greater than that of our Sun, which next to it is a tiny star with a mass 20 times less than Alnitak. It ranks 35th among the most luminous stars we know of, including stars from other galaxies. Alnitak is a peculiar star, whose surface temperature reaches 29,000 degrees. The Sun only reaches 6,500. But it is also a very intense source of X-rays, due to the strong stellar winds that are projected from the surface in the form of particles, essentially hydrogen and helium, sweeping the surrounding space at speeds of 2,000 km/s. These types of giant stars have their days numbered. The bigger the stars are, the less time they live, so that Alnitak, in a short time will become a red supergiant, it will explode in the form of a supernova, which can be seen even during the day from Earth, to end up as a tiny star about 10 km in diameter, called a neutron star, a star so dense that a teaspoon of its surface would weigh as much as a mountain. Also Alnitak is a triple star. Alnilam. Located in the center of the stellar trio that make up Las tres Marías, it is a true celestial spectacle. It shines with a magnitude of 1.70, being the fourth brightest star in Orion and the brightest of the three Marys, in addition to being the furthest at 1,340 light years, but that is nothing compared to the luminosity of the star, equal to 380,000 times greater than the Sun, ranking 27th of all known stars. It is a blue supergiant star, 31 times the diameter of the Sun and 40 solar masses. Extraordinarily young, only 4 million years old, somewhat colder than the previous one, with about 25,000ºC on the surface. It also has a powerful stellar wind with speeds of 2,000 km/s, 20 million times more than the solar wind. The temperature and radiation are so high in this star that it lights up a nebula of gas and dust called NGC 1990 by reflection. Alnilam is so young that it is not yet a stable star, but variable in its brightness (pulsating variable), due to its continuous expansion and contraction. The Sun is a stable star, it does not pulse, expand, or contract. The force of gravity pulling in on the Sun has been offset by the expansive force of thermonuclear reactions by converting hydrogen to helium, but in Alnilam, both forces continue without agreeing. If it is possible to have planets, life there as we know it would be impossible, due to the instability of the star. Alnilam will end its days as Alnitak, becoming a premature red supergiant, exposing its superdense core; a neutron star. Meanwhile, it is moving away from us at a speed of 26 km/s. Mintaka: Arabic word meaning "for belt." Another blue giant star, although the faintest in brightness of the three Marias reaching 2.5 magnitude. It contains 20 solar masses and a luminosity 90,000 times greater than that of the Sun. Located at a distance of 915 light years, it is surprising that it shines with such intensity, not in vain its surface temperature is 31,000ºC. Mintaka is one of the most complex multiple systems known. The main star, that is to say Mintaka, has a companion of magnitude 6.8 at a real distance of more than 2.3 trillion km, or what is the same, ¼ of a light year. But in turn, this star that appears to be 1' of arc distant from Mintaka, is a spectroscopic binary, that is, it has another companion so close to it that it is impossible to take it off with telescopes, but it can be done using spectroscopy; the only thing we can detect is the spectrum of the companion, but we can't see it. Between the spectroscopic binary and Mintaka, there is a faint 14th magnitude star that may belong to the system. But in addition, Mintaka has an extraordinarily close companion to her, which is why she is a spectroscopic binary. Curiously, the companion star has almost the same characteristics as Mintaka, the same mass, temperature and luminosity and must be the same size. A complex 5-star star system. Almost all stars are double or multiple, the rarity is our Sun, which is a solitary star. However, many researchers look for dwarf stars that may be trapped by the Sun's gravity.

 

www.abc.es/ciencia/20140122/abci-tres-marias-estrellas-co...

  

The two putti slowly disappeared in other decks, to be replaced by either a male or female figure. In this example from the Museo Civico, we see a woman holding a wand and a globe as she stands upon the globe (fig. II). Another early example of a female World card is the Cary-Yale Visconti deck (fig. III), depicting a royally-clothed woman wielding a scepter and a crown. It was not uncommon to portray the earth as a feminine figure, but these early examples seem to be stressing not so much a personification of the earth but rather the domination of earth by something/someone. Consider figure IV and figure V. Here we have a male figure, one clothed and the other nude, ruling over the world. Consider also the nude male in the Jacques Vieville deck and the Bologna deck (fig. VI). In Christian art, when Jesus is portrayed as the Christus Victor, he looms over the world holding a globe with a cross fixed to it. He is often surrounded by the four evangelists as he stands upon God’s throne. When he is surrounded by the four evangelists, Christ is enclosed within a mandorla, and the four evangelists are often in the four corners. Should we understand these male figures as Christ? The examples we’ve looked at that have a clothed male figure can clearly be an iconographic Christus Victor; the World card, being the last Major Arcana, is Christ victorious over the entire world after the Resurrection. But what of the nude figures? The only instance of Christ nude in Christian art, that I know of, is Michelangelo’s altar wall in the Sistine Chapel; there, Christ is nude and beardless, as with these particular cards. But there is a shift from the Christ standing upon the world to the Christ on God’s throne. As we see with the Jacques Vieville card (fig. VI), the nude Christ holds his standard iconographic scepter with attached globe, is enclosed by a mandorla (a laurel wreath), and surrounded by the four evangelists. Again, following the tradition of Christian art, Matthew is a human with wings, Mark is a lion, Luke is an ox, and John is an eagle. There is no essential difference between this Tarot card and an atypical Christus Victor. It should be noted that this visual structure was also used in alchemy through the 16 to the 18 century. The four

evangelists are correlated with the four elements of the world, the four seasons, and the four directions. Consider figure VII; note the chalice with the serpent, the attribute of John the Evangelist, unusually associated with the anima mundi. But something happened. Recall that the Marseilles deck, circa blueprint structure and pattern for most subsequent decks created in France, Italy, and Belgium, and also for the decks created by occultists in the 19th century deck is unusual considering its forerunners. We have the same iconography of the four evangelists and the mandorla, but instead of the Christus Victor or royally-clothed woman, there is a nude woman (figure VIII). There are many versions of this, of course, but we can say that she is often portrayed with long hair, with a loose banner rippling around her nude body. She sometimes holds a bottle and a scepter; more often, two equal wands (that is, wands with a knob on both ends). She is always enclosed within a laurel wreath, and the four evangelists remain in the four corners of the card. Suddenly, a nude woman is dancing, or floating, on God’s throne instead of Christ; perhaps, she is being assumed up into heaven. This card serves as the bridge between the City of God and the Christus Victor depictions to most of the subsequent World cards: the rather curious and baffling conflagration of Christian iconography and feminine/Goddess imagery. What does this shift mean, and how can we situate it within Christian art? Let us turn our attention, now, to the portrayal of Mary Magdalene in Christian art. Mary Magdalene underwent quite a transformation through Renaissance art. The sinner Magdalene ultimately becomes the penitent, holy reformer to which many upheld as an exemplary and relatable model. Mrs. Jameson locates the rising popularity of Magdalene as penitent in the 16th and 17th into heaven. Magdalene became “still more endeared to the popular imagination by more affecting and attractive associations, and even more eminently picturesque...We have Magdalenes who look as if they never could have sinned, and others who look as if they never could have repented.”11 Magdalene became more sexualized just as she became more penitent. Rachel Geschwind observes that in the 16th century, paintings like Rossiglio’s Conversion of the Magdalene began to give Venus-like characteristics to Magdalene; she is both divine and corporeal. and art, and sometimes one might even mistake a Venus for a Magdalene. Courtesans at this time would write of divine love and the desire to enter the ‘paradise of Venus’, which was a metaphor where she is praying for forgiveness or being reconciled and/or assumed up for the city. (Recall the City of God from the Visconti deck). Magdalene seemed to serve as a perfect model for passion and romance that was acceptable religiously, and as a locus for the world of divine love. The dichotomy between the corporeal and the divine is also inherent in Correggio’s Noli Me Tangere; Margaret A. Morse writes that “Correggio evoked a natural style, while maintain a beauty and sanctity for which his subjects called, whereby the beholder...would be able to recognize the divine in the physical.”14 She is a bridge between the viewer and Christ, between the body and the spirit. Given that Neo-Platonism was on the rise during the Renaissance, it makes sense that this balance between two kinds of love, “sacred and profane, formulated by Plato in the Symposium”15, found Mary Magdalene as the perfect template and model. In addition to Venus-like characteristics, Magdalene was also beginning to assume the role as a “new Eve” from the Virgin.The relationship between the images of the Tarot de Marseille and the medieval heresy of the Holy Grail. The followers of this heresy claimed that Jesus of Nazareth had married Mary Magdalene. In this work are presented all the symbols of the Tarot in relation to this heresy and, for the first time, it is revealed that these images constitute the secret heritage of Mary Magdalene. that the game was the lost Egyptian book of Thoth, containing the secret mysteries of Egyptian wisdom and magic; following Gebelin, occultists

2 began to syncretize the Tarot with the systems of Kabbalah, Hermeticism and Alchemy. We believe we can place the pinnacle of this appropriation in the Waite-Smith game of 1909 - the most familiar and popular game for the contemporary reader. Later we will look at the effect this has had on Tarot symbolism and its relationship to changes in religious understanding in France and other European countries.

 

Mary Magdalene (Mary of Magdala), the woman with jars in Christian symbolism, could very well in this case be represented in the star map. But their assumptions stopped there. No one had ever imagined that the Tarot itself represents in its entirety the teaching and life of Marie-Madeleine on the one hand and even less that the Tarot was created by Marie-Madeleine herself in the 1st century. This is the entirely new Tarot theory that I have been expounding since the beginning of the second millennium. If my theory of the Tarot turns out to be correct, it completely changes the vision and the understanding that one could have of the Tarot. It changes the dating of the Tarot which goes from the 14th century to the 1st century AD with Mary Magdalene, the Tarot de Marseille thus becoming the ancestor of all Western tarots, that is to say "the Tarot". Historians and experts said that the Tarot originated in Italy during the Renaissance era around the end of the 14th century the beginning of the 15th century. On the other hand, no one thought that the Tarot de Marseille itself originated from Marseille. When I started to propose the theory of a Marseille origin of the Tarot de Marseille, Tarot historians and Tarot experts thought that I was an eccentric or that I wanted to make a publicity stunt. In 1999, I explained publicly that in my opinion the Tarot had been transmitted to Europe around 415 by the monk Jean Cassien who was entirely dedicated to Marie-Madeleine and who founded the order of the Abbey of Saint-Victor in Marseille. My Tarot theory is based on thousands of secret codes that can be found in the new Tarot de Marseille Camoin that I drew in the 90s. The Mandorla that surrounds the naked woman indicates that it is a saint who has reached the beatific state. The most significant secret Tarot code in "The Mary Magdalene Theory" that I have discovered resides in the last two cards of the Tarot Major Arcana, Judgment and the World. Indeed, by their number, these two cards are naturally placed next to each other. I revealed that the two cards put together give the key to the mystery of the Tarot character that is found in the World card. Because the identity of this character had remained a mystery for centuries. Almost all Tarot researchers claimed that it was the androgynous Christ, so much so that it had become a real dogma in the Tarot world. Historians could not imagine that it was a woman because of the presence of the four living beings who are attributed to Christ in Christian sacred art. Some had interpreted this mysterious young woman as being the soul of the World, "Anima Mundi".

But the Tarot is coded in another way. Tarot codes are embedded in other Tarot codes and so on. Also, if we disregard the four living beings in the World map, we obtain a naked woman surrounded by an almond-shaped oval. This oval called mandorla symbolizes the state of beatific vision. We find the mandorla around some saints. This means that in the Tarot de Marseille, the woman on the World Map is a saint. My "Mary Magdalene theory" continues like this. In the pantheon of Western saints, there is only one saint who is depicted naked, and that is Saint Mary Magdalene. However, Marie de Magdala lived in the vicinity of Marseilles for 30 years. My theory, which is unique in the history of the Tarot, states that it is Mary Magdalene who is represented in the map of the World and that the Tarot de Marseille is therefore dedicated to this saint.

 

The two cards form a new symbol. Mary of Magdala is the Saint who sees the Resurrection of Christ (in blue. Furthermore, we can locate similar attributes to Magdalene from apocryphal sources as well as the writings of Origen. In the apocryphal Pistis Sophia, Magdalene is the sole recipient of Christ’s gnosis, rather than Peter and the other disciples. Christ says, “Well done, Mary. You are more blessed than all women on earth, because you will be the fullness of fullnesses and the completion of completions.”17Although this apocryphal account could not have been known to people during the Renaissance, it reveals that even within the early Christian communities there was a holiness attributed to Magdalene that transcended all others. Yet the Gnostic contempt for materiality seems to clash with the embrace of dualism during the Renaissance. This dualism can be found in Origen’s writings, however. In his commentary on the Song of Songs, he allegorically reads the bride as the Christian church. The bride anoints her lover with an ointment; Origen connects this with the scriptural account of Mary Magdalene anointing Christ. He interprets the line spoken by the bride, “I am dark but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Song 1:5), as follows: “She has repented of her sins...beauty is the gift conversion has bestowed; that is the reason she is hymned as beautiful. She is called black, however, because she has not yet purged of every stain of sin, she has not yet been washed unto salvation, nevertheless she does not stay dark-hued, she is becoming white.”18 The dualism of black/evil and white/good is unfortunate, but the connection between the Bride of the Song of Songs and Magdalene reinforces her movement away from sin into penitence, and her positive association with the Church and Christ. The sexual language employed in the Song of Songs has always been difficult for commentators; however we see that when Magdalene is associated with the Bride, the sexuality is compounded with Magdalene’s penitence, in the same way we’ve seen in Renaissance painting. The portrayals of Magdalene’s assumption into heaven connect us back to the Tarot. Mrs. Jameson observes, dryly, that Italian paintings of Magdalene’s assumption began “to recall the idea of a Venus Meretrix.”19 Let us consider Giovanni Lanfranco’s La maddalenan portata in cielo, (fig. IX) and Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (fig. X). Jameson is quite correct in her observation, despite her negativity towards this shift. In the Lanfranco, Magdalene’s hair barely covers her nude body as she is borne aloft by three putti. She holds out her hands at an angle, and below her is the world’s expanse of mountains, lakes, and forests. It is sexual and chaste, physical and divine. Her figure is very much the Platonic divine love, the ideal Venus. In some of the Assumptions, she is almost dwarfed by the sublime immensity of the landscape. The fact that the very earth is prominent in these paintings underscores Magdalene’s dualistic characteristics of corporeality and divinity; the world gapes below her as she rises above it into the sky. Although she is always borne by putti in her assumption, she seems to float and dance in ecstasy as she rises. We observed the replacement of the Christus Victor with a female nude in the Marseilles World card. That card is remarkably similar to the Lanfranco, Durer’s Assumption of the Magdalene, and others. One gets the same sense of elevation and completion (recall Christ’s words in the Pistis Sophia) in the rise of Magdalene as one gets in the World card. I argue for a parallel between Magdalene’s evolution and the World card’s evolution; just as painting was infusing Magdalene with traits of divine love and worldliness, Tarot decks began to see the post- Resurrection world not in light of Christ but in a neo-Platonic Venus, a Magdalene/New Eve that encompasses the new World. We saw that some World cards have the woman holding a bottle of some sort, which is an attribute of Magdalene. Also, the instances of the two equal wands supports the dualism of divinity and corporeality, dark and light, sinner and penitent, in the portrayals of Magdalene. Robert Place agrees, writing that “She takes her position in the sacred center, which identifies her as the Anima Mundi and the Quinta Essentia...she has mastered or transcended duality...the World Soul is depicted as both Christ, or Sophia his female counterpart....divine wisdom.”20 She is the completion, the alchemical Great Work, the culmination of all earthly phases into the elevation of the world into heaven. This is, of course, an esoteric alchemical interpretation, which as we noted did not apply to Tarot until the late 1700s. I hold that Magdalene’s iconographic transition in the Renaissance parallels the exoteric symbolism of the World; but what to make of the occultists’ appropriation of this image in the late 1700s? Farley argues that, “With tarot removed from its original environment, its symbolism lost its previous relevance and context, rendering its imagery mysterious.”21 Institutionalized religion was being questioned at this time; indeed, the first publications by occultists on the Tarot coincide with the French Revolution. While we cannot delve deeply into the Revolution here, suffice it to say that it was characterized by a rejection of Christianity but a preservation of Christian structure. “It had its creeds, liturgies and sacred texts, its own vocabulary of virtues and vices...and the ambition of regenerating mankind itself, even if it denied divine intervention or the afterlife. The result was a series of deified abstractions worshipped through the denatured language and liturgy of Christianity.”22 Much of the Revolution’s tactics was the replacing of old symbols with new ones, but maintaining the same essential religious structure. Similarly, I argue that the occult appropriation of the Tarot was also an appropriation of Christian iconography, in a general sense; esoteric interpretations and the revisions of Tarot symbolism was an attempt to escape Christian doctrine through fabricated ancient lore (Egyptian roots, e.g.) and synthesized connections between the Tarot and old esoteric traditions such as Kabbalah.

 

Interpretation

According to A.E. Waite's 1910 book The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the World card carries several divinatory associations:

 

Mary Magdalene (Mary of Magdala), the woman with jars in Christian symbolism, could very well in this case be represented in the star map. But their assumptions stopped there. No one had ever imagined that the Tarot itself represents in its entirety the teaching and life of Marie-Madeleine on the one hand and even less that the Tarot was created by Marie-Madeleine herself in the 1st century. This is the entirely new Tarot theory that I have been expounding since the beginning of the second millennium.

If my theory of the Tarot turns out to be correct, it completely changes the vision and the understanding that one could have of the Tarot. It changes the dating of the Tarot which goes from the 14th century to the 1st century AD with Mary Magdalene, the Tarot de Marseille thus becoming the ancestor of all Western tarots, that is to say "the Tarot". Historians and experts said that the Tarot originated in Italy during the Renaissance period around the end of the 14th century the beginning of the 15th century. On the other hand, no one thought that the Tarot de Marseille itself originated from Marseille.

 

21.THE WORLD—Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place. Reversed: Inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence.

The World represents an ending to a cycle of life, a pause in life before the next big cycle beginning with the fool.[3] The figure is male and female, above and below, suspended between the heavens and the earth. It is completeness. It is also said to represent cosmic consciousness; the potential of perfect union with the One Power of the universe.[4] It tells us full happiness is to also give back to the world: sharing what we have learned or gained. As described in the book The New Mythic Tarot by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene (p. 82), the image of the woman (Hermaphroditus in Greek Mythology) is to show wholeness unrelated to sexual identification but rather of combined male and female energy on an inner level, which integrates opposites traits that arise in the personality charged by both energies. Opposite qualities between male and female that create turmoil in our life are joined in this card, and the image of becoming whole is an ideal goal, not something that can be possessed rather than achieved.

 

According to Robert M. Place in his book The Tarot, the four beasts on the World card represent the fourfold structure of the physical world—which frames the sacred center of the world, a place where the divine can manifest. Sophia, meaning Prudence or Wisdom (the dancing woman in the center), is spirit or the sacred center, the fifth element. Prudence is the fourth of the Cardinal virtues in the tarot. The lady in the center is a symbol of the goal of mystical seekers. In some older decks, this central figure is Christ, whereas in others it is Hermes. Whenever it comes up, this card represents what is truly desired.

 

In other media

In the manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, tarot cards are used to name the character's powers, named 'Stands'. The overarching antagonist of Stardust Crusaders, DIO, has a Stand named The World, named after The World card. This stand has the power to stop time whenever DIO commands it to, and he can move during frozen time. In Steel Ball Run, an alternate version of DIO, Diego Brando, later gains this Stand after being summoned by Funny Valentine.

 

In the film Cryptozoo, a tarot reading is done with the Waite-Smith Deck that reveals The World card as part of the protagonist's journey.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_(tarot_card)

 

The relationship between the images of the Tarot de Marseille and the medieval heresy of the Holy Grail. The followers of this heresy claimed that Jesus of Nazareth had married Mary Magdalene. In this work are presented all the symbols of the Tarot in relation to this heresy and, for the first time, it is revealed that these images constitute the secret heritage of Mary Magdalene. that the game was the lost Egyptian book of Thoth, containing the secret mysteries of Egyptian wisdom and magic; following Gebelin, occultists began to syncretize the Tarot with the systems of Kabbalah, Hermeticism and Alchemy. We believe we can place the pinnacle of this appropriation in the Waite-Smith game of 1909 - the most familiar and popular game for the contemporary reader. Later we will look at the effect this has had on Tarot symbolism and its relationship to changes in religious understanding in France and other European countries.The Mandorla that surrounds the naked woman indicates that it is a saint who has reached the beatific state.

The most significant secret Tarot code in "The Mary Magdalene Theory" that I have discovered resides in the last two cards of the Tarot Major Arcana, Judgment and the World. Indeed, by their number, these two cards are naturally placed next to each other. I revealed that the two cards put together give the key to the mystery of the Tarot character that is found in the World card.

Because the identity of this character had remained a mystery for centuries. Almost all Tarot researchers claimed that it was the androgynous Christ, so much so that it had become a real dogma in the Tarot world. Historians could not imagine that it was a woman because of the presence of the four living beings who are attributed to Christ in Christian sacred art. Some had interpreted this mysterious young woman as being the soul of the World, "Anima Mundi". But the Tarot is coded in another way. Tarot codes are embedded in other Tarot codes and so on. Also, if we disregard the four living beings in the World map, we obtain a naked woman surrounded by an almond-shaped oval. This oval called mandorla symbolizes the state of beatific vision. We find the mandorla around some saints. This means that in the Tarot de Marseille, the woman on the World Map is a saint. My "Mary Magdalene theory" continues like this. In the pantheon of Western saints, there is only one saint who is depicted naked, and that is Saint Mary Magdalene. However, Marie de Magdala lived in the vicinity of Marseilles for 30 years. My theory which is unique in the history of the Tarot stipulates that it is Mary Magdalene who is represented in the map of the World and that the Tarot of Marseilles is therefore dedicated to this saint.

 

fr.camoin.com/tarot/Tarot-Marie-Madeleine-Magdala.html

  

What is the name of the brightest star?

Sirius, also called Sirius, α Canis Majoris is the brightest star in the night sky visible to the naked eye, with an apparent magnitude of −1.46. In Greek mythology, Orion's hunting dogs are said to have ascended to heaven at the hands of Zeus, taking the form of the star Sirius.,What are the stars called?

they are called bright stars. How the stars are classified? Astronomers classify stars by size and surface temperature. Based on their size, stars can be called supergiants, bright giants, giants, subgiants, dwarfs or normals, and subdwarfs.

 

Источник: planetariodevitoria.org/estrelas/qual-e-o-nome-das-estrel...

 

Hebrew Letter: Tave

In this article The World Symbols, I refer to The World card from the Rider Waite Tarot deck, also known as the Waite-Smith, or Rider-Waite-Smith, or Rider tarot deck. The symbolism found on this trump card is primarily drawn from mythology, Christianity, alchemy, astrology. Contents

The World: Key Symbol. Compare The World Tarot Card Symbols with Historical Decks

What Does The Dancer Symbolize in The World Tarot Card? Dancer Purple Sash Red Hairband

Two Wands Crossed Legs Symbolism What is The Meaning of The Laurel Wreath in The World Card?Laurel Wreath Two Red Ribbons Who Are The Four Figures in The World Card and What do They Symbolize? Man Lion Eagle Bull What is The Meaning of The Blue Background? The Rider Waite World card borrows heavily from the Marseille Tarot. Waite himself says, “this final message of the Major Trumps is unchanged – and indeed unchangeable – in respect of its design”. In both instances the naked World dancer moves encased within a victory wreath. The four corners of the card contain tetramorphs, mystical creatures of antiquity and mythology depicting a bull, lion, bird and human face.

The dancer holds dual magical wands, as opposed to The Magician who only holds one. What Does The Dancer Symbolize in The World Tarot Card? Dancer. The dancer symbolizes the fetus waiting to be born again, as the Fool prepares to start over through the procession of the Major Arcana. However, this is no babe starting from scratch, we are presented with a woman at her height of beauty and youth. She signifies the next stage of evolution. Some occultists claim that the figure is a hermaphrodite, because her sexual gender is hidden by the scarf. They say she is the union of male and female, and that sexual identity is no longer relevant or defining. The dancer perfectly integrates aspects of the male and female. Wouldn’t this card be a suitable iconographic image for gender fluidity in todays times! The dancer is both the bride and bridegroom. Purple Sash. The purple sash is the color of divinity and wisdom. It evokes the images of a Catholic priest who puts on a purple stole when offering the sacrament during mass. The sash curves in the figure of eight, suggestive of the cosmic lemniscate or infinity sign.

Red Hairband. The dancer wears a red hairband, which draws fire energy to her head area. It symbolizes that her mind and conscious is active. This is not someone who exists only in the spiritual realm.

Two Wands. The dancer holds two double-sided wands, which represent the polarity powers of involution and evolution. Involution is the decent of God into the soul or consciousness, and evolution is the assent of the soul back to God or the creator. ⭐Wands also appear here: The Magician Symbols

Crossed Legs Symbolism. The dancer crosses her legs in a similar manner to the Hanged Man. However, the triangle he represents is under the cross of the tree, symbolizing he is still bound by earthly things. The dancer is reversed, she forms a triangle pointing upwards, from the tip of her head to her two outstretched hands. Thus the triangle of Spirit now overturns the cross of the material earthly plane. What is The Meaning of The Laurel Wreath in The World Card? Laurel Wreath. The woman is surrounded by a large laurel wreath, traditionally a symbol of success and victory. The implication here, on the Fools Journey, is that there is cause for celebration. This is the end of the road before a new era begins. The wreath forms the shape of a zero, which is the number of The Fool card. The wreath also symbolizes the womb, signaling that the woman is like an embryo waiting to be reborn. The oval shape of the wreath is also used by the Golden Dawn in their Tattva cards. These colorful cards were designed to aid the development of clairvoyance through visual meditation, and one of the symbols in the cards is an oval. The oval corresponds to the Akasha, ether or spiritual realm (see Akashic Records). See Shamanism for more information on Tattva cards. ⭐A laurel wreath also appears here: The Chariot Symbols, Ace of Swords Symbols, Seven of Cups Symbols, Six of Wands Symbols Two Red Ribbons. The red ribbon bindings at the top and bottom of the wreath indicate completion, the circle has been made complete.

It also reminds one of the ancient quote, “as above, so below”. Who Are The Four Figures in The World Card and What do They Symbolize? The four beasts represent the four living figures or hayyot, which are a class of heavenly beings in Jewish mythology. According to both Jewish and Christian tradition, the creatures vary by description. In this card we see the four tetramorph, a lion, man, eagle and bull.

These creatures represent the four seasons, as well as the four elements of Fire, Air, Water and Earth. Their presence implies that they are the cornerstones of a balanced life. Man. The blond-haired man represents the astrological sign of Aquarius, winter season and the element Air. Lion. The Lion represents Leo, summer and fire. Eagle. The Eagle represents Scorpio, autumn and water.

Bull. The Bull represents Taurus, spring and earth. What is The Meaning of The Blue Background?

The blue background is the cosmic mind or ‘Universe’ as it has come to be known in the New Age. The dancer is able to manipulate this realm easily with her two wands.

 

karinastarot.com/world-symbols/

 

Furthermore, we can locate similar attributes to Magdalene from apocryphal sources as well as the writings of Origen. In the apocryphal Pistis Sophia, Magdalene is the sole recipient of Christ’s gnosis, rather than Peter and the other disciples. Christ says, “Well done, Mary. You are more blessed than all women on earth, because you will be the fullness of fullnesses and the completion of completions.”17Although this apocryphal account could not have been known to people during the Renaissance, it reveals that even within the early Christian communities there was a holiness attributed to Magdalene that transcended all others. Yet the Gnostic contempt for materiality seems to clash with the embrace of dualism during the Renaissance. This dualism can be found in Origen’s writings, however. In his commentary on the Song of Songs, he allegorically reads the bride as the Christian church. The bride anoints her lover with an ointment; Origen connects this with the scriptural account of Mary Magdalene anointing Christ. He interprets the line spoken by the bride, “I am dark but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Song 1:5), as follows: “She has repented of her sins...beauty is the gift conversion has bestowed; that is the reason she is hymned as beautiful. She is called black, however, because she has not yet purged of every stain of sin, she has not yet been washed unto salvation, nevertheless she does not stay dark-hued, she is becoming white.” The dualism of black/evil and white/good is unfortunate, but the connection between the Bride of the Song of Songs and Magdalene reinforces her movement away from sin into penitence, and her positive association with the Church and Christ. The sexual language employed in the Song of Songs has always been difficult for commentators; however we see that when Magdalene is associated with the Bride, the sexuality is compounded with Magdalene’s penitence, in the same way we’ve seen in Renaissance painting.

The portrayals of Magdalene’s assumption into heaven connect us back to the Tarot. Mrs. Jameson observes, dryly, that Italian paintings of Magdalene’s assumption began “to recall the idea of a Venus Meretrix.”19 Let us consider Giovanni Lanfranco’s La maddalenan portata in cielo, (fig. IX) and Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (fig. X). Jameson is quite correct in her observation, despite her negativity towards this shift. In the Lanfranco, Magdalene’s hair barely covers her nude body as she is borne aloft by three putti. She holds out her hands at an angle, and below her is the world’s expanse of mountains, lakes, and forests. It is sexual and chaste, physical and divine. Her figure is very much the Platonic divine love, the ideal Venus. In some of the Assumptions, she is al

Abel Tasman National Park, on the northernmost coast of New Zealand's south island, incorporates a series of interconnected coastal beach and forest trails that lead to eco-lodges within the park, making it possible to do hiking or kayaking multi-day trips. There is no motor vehicle access inside Abel Tasman. You have to take a boat to start the excursion.

Spiral staircase at the Lighthouse Building in Glasgow

 

From Wikipedia -

 

The Lighthouse in Glasgow is Scotland's Centre for Design and Architecture. It was opened as part of Glasgow's status as UK City of Architecture and Design in 1999.

 

The Lighthouse is the renamed conversion of the former offices of the Glasgow Herald newspaper. Completed in 1895, it was designed by the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh.[1] The centre's vision is to develop the links between design, architecture, and the creative industries, seeing these as interconnected social, educational, economic and cultural issues of concern to everyone.

2016 Vivid Sydney: Songlines - Lighting The Sails #8

  

World Premiere

 

Lighting the Sails for the eighth year of Vivid Sydney, Sydney Opera House will transform into an animated canvas of Australian indigenous art featuring iconic contemporary works from Karla Dickens, Djon Mundine, Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi, Reko Rennie, Donny Woolagoodja, and the late Gulumbu Yunupingu.

  

Directed by the Head of Indigenous Programming at Sydney Opera House Rhoda Roberts

 

Co-curated by Sydney Opera House and Destination NSW

 

Visual content and animation created by Artists in Motion

  

Celebrating First Nations' spirituality and culture through the songlines of our land and sky, this year’s Lighting the Sails is about painting and celebrating country through a pattern of sharing systems, interconnected history lines and trade routes.

Lighting the Sails Director and Head of Indigenous Programming at Sydney Opera House Rhoda Roberts has selected six artists of different clans, national estates and territories for an immersive projected artwork that weaves through time and distance.

 

As the first indigenous work commissioned exclusively for the sails of the Sydney Opera House, this visual tapestry will weave through personal journeys, while celebrating the timeless themes and enduring art of Australia's most influential contemporary First Nations artists, exclusive to Vivid Sydney.

  

www.vividsydney.com/event/light/lighting-sails-songlines

Izunuma-Uchinuma, two interconnected freshwater lakes supporting fringing peat swamps, reedbeds, and submerged vegetation. One of the few Japanese localities for wild rice, an important food source for wintering Anatidae (ducks, geese, swans, etc.). The 559 ha National Wildlife Protection & Nature Conservation Area was designated as Ramsar Site in 1985.

The Renaissance Center (aka GM Renaissance Center) is a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers in downtown Detroit, on the shore of the Detroit River. The complex is owned by General Motors, which uses it as its world headquarters. The central tower, the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center with its curved glass-clad facade, is the second tallest all-hotel skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere. It has been the tallest building in Michigan since it was erected in 1977. The principal architect was John Portman.

Abel Tasman National Park, on the northernmost coast of New Zealand's south island, incorporates a series of interconnected coastal beach and forest trails that lead to eco-lodges within the park, making it possible to do hiking or kayaking multi-day trips. There is no motor vehicle access inside Abel Tasman. You have to take a boat to start the excursion.

View of Scarboro Pond with another arched stone bridge, located in Franklin Park, one of a series of interconnected urban parks designed and landscaped by Fredrick Law Olmsted in the later 19th century.

 

Fuji GW690III 6x9, 90mm lens

Ilford Delta 100 film, ISO 100

1/125 second, f/11

Ilford DD-X developer +4

Negative scanned on Canon 8800f

Photoshop Elements & NIK Silver Efex Pro software

Groundbreaking for Miami-Dade College's Wolfson Building 1 occurred in 1971, and the building was completed in 1973. The campus itself first opened in 1970, with classes initially held in downtown storefronts while its permanent facility was being constructed.

 

Hilario Candela was the architect of Miami-Dade College's Wolfson Building 1. As a Cuban-born American architect, he designed key Brutalist-style buildings for several of the college's campuses, including Wolfson.

 

Candela was a key member of the architectural firm Pancoast, Ferendino, Grafton & Skeels, which designed the initial buildings for the North and Kendall campuses in the 1960s.

His signature "tropical Brutalist" style, with its use of raw concrete, is a defining feature of the Wolfson Campus architecture.

 

In addition to his work for Miami-Dade College, Candela is also known for designing the iconic Miami Marine Stadium.

 

Miami-Dade College's Wolfson Building 1 was designed in the Brutalist style, specifically a regional variant referred to as "tropical Brutalism".

 

Elements of this architectural style as seen in the Wolfson Campus include:

Raw concrete: The buildings prominently feature exposed concrete, emphasizing the material's raw, unadorned nature.

Massive, geometric forms: Brutalist buildings are known for their blocky and monolithic appearance. Architect Hilario Candela, who designed the Wolfson Campus, referred to his vision as "a small city of interconnected geometric masses".

 

Function over form: In keeping with Brutalist ethos, the building's design emphasizes its function as a modern educational institution.

 

Adaptation to the Miami climate: In this "tropical Brutalist" interpretation, the buildings use covered walkways and strategically placed open spaces to provide constant shade and cover from the rain.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:

apps.miamidadepa.gov/PropertySearch/#/?address=300%20ne%2...

www.google.com/search?q=who+was+the+architect+of+the+miam...

www.google.com/search?q=who+was+the+architect+of+the+miam...

www.google.com/search?q=who+was+the+architect+of+the+miam...

 

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

  

Taken at Tuggerah Lakes, a wetland system of three interconnected coastal lagoons, are located on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia

Taken at Tuggerah Lakes, a wetland system of three interconnected coastal lagoons, are located on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia

The Kerala backwaters are a network of brackish lagoons and lakes lying parallel to the Arabian Sea coast (known as the Malabar Coast) of Kerala state in southern India, as well as interconnected canals, rivers, and inlets, a labyrinthine system formed by more than 900 kilometres of waterways, and sometimes compared to American bayous.

Directly overlooking Piazza Cordusio, Palazzo Broggi is currently used as both offices and retail facilities. It is constructed out of three interconnected buildings dating back to different periods. The main building, called Palazzo del Credito Italiano and designed by the architects Luigi Broggi and Cesare Nava, is connected to the Magazzini Contratti building, designed again by Luigi Broggi. The block is thus completed by the building along via Santa Margherita, designed by the architect Giovanni Muzio and completed in 1960. Piuarch’s project to redevelop this large complex is based on a study of the theme of lightness: lightness as a design approach in contrast to the monumentality of the old buildings; lightness as a way of opening up to the cityscape; lightness as a means of integrating into the greenery of the hanging gardens placed inside a very densely built-up block. Enhanced by rooftop terraces and green courtyards, the renovation project will finally host different functions in approximately 48,000 sqm.

 

Palazzo Broggi с видом на Piazza Cordusio в настоящее время используется в качестве офисов и торговых объектов. Он построен из трех взаимосвязанных зданий, относящихся к разным периодам. Главное здание, которое называется Palazzo del Credito Italiano и спроектировано архитекторами Луиджи Броджи и Чезаре Нава, соединено со зданием Magazzini Contratti, спроектированным так же Луиджи Броджи.

A view of Sattal an interconnected group of seven freshwater lakes.

Took this on the start of a multi-day hike through the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park on the northern coast of New Zealand's south island. Although the hike was dogged by rainstorms, there were wonderful moments when the sun broke through and revealed sensational seascapes and forested landscapes. Abel Tasman incorporates a series of interconnected coastal beach and forest trails that lead to eco-lodges within the park, making it possible to do hiking or kayaking multi-day trips. There is no motor vehicle access inside Abel Tasman. You have to take a boat to start the excursion.

The Renaissance Center (aka GM Renaissance Center) is a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers in downtown Detroit, on the shore of the Detroit River. The complex is owned by General Motors, which uses it as its world headquarters. The central tower, the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center with its curved glass-clad facade, is the second tallest all-hotel skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere. It has been the tallest building in Michigan since it was erected in 1977. The principal architect was John Portman.

Groundbreaking for Miami-Dade College's Wolfson Building 1 occurred in 1971, and the building was completed in 1973. The campus itself first opened in 1970, with classes initially held in downtown storefronts while its permanent facility was being constructed.

 

Hilario Candela was the architect of Miami-Dade College's Wolfson Building 1. As a Cuban-born American architect, he designed key Brutalist-style buildings for several of the college's campuses, including Wolfson.

 

Candela was a key member of the architectural firm Pancoast, Ferendino, Grafton & Skeels, which designed the initial buildings for the North and Kendall campuses in the 1960s.

His signature "tropical Brutalist" style, with its use of raw concrete, is a defining feature of the Wolfson Campus architecture.

 

In addition to his work for Miami-Dade College, Candela is also known for designing the iconic Miami Marine Stadium.

 

Miami-Dade College's Wolfson Building 1 was designed in the Brutalist style, specifically a regional variant referred to as "tropical Brutalism".

 

Elements of this architectural style as seen in the Wolfson Campus include:

Raw concrete: The buildings prominently feature exposed concrete, emphasizing the material's raw, unadorned nature.

Massive, geometric forms: Brutalist buildings are known for their blocky and monolithic appearance. Architect Hilario Candela, who designed the Wolfson Campus, referred to his vision as "a small city of interconnected geometric masses".

 

Function over form: In keeping with Brutalist ethos, the building's design emphasizes its function as a modern educational institution.

 

Adaptation to the Miami climate: In this "tropical Brutalist" interpretation, the buildings use covered walkways and strategically placed open spaces to provide constant shade and cover from the rain.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:

apps.miamidadepa.gov/PropertySearch/#/?address=300%20ne%2...

www.google.com/search?q=who+was+the+architect+of+the+miam...

www.google.com/search?q=who+was+the+architect+of+the+miam...

www.google.com/search?q=who+was+the+architect+of+the+miam...

 

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

  

The Jeita Grotto (Arabic: مغارة جعيتا‎) is a system of two separate, but interconnected limestone caves spanning 5.6 miles. Visitors can walk through the upper cave, but the lower cave contains an underwater river and lake. It is only accessible in summer and then only by boat.

These pictures were all taken in water filled lower cave. The water flows through at 1–2 m3/s, providing drinking water for 1.5 million people in Beirut. Cameras are normally taken and secured from visitors while in the caverns. These photos were taken with special permission.

Another sculpture in the 2014-2016 Vancouver Biennale. This one located in the Olympic Village on the southeast shore of False reek in Vancouver BC.

 

Drawn to Olympic Village, where Vancouverites worked together to forge one of Canada’s greenest communities from an industrial lot, American sculpture Jonathan Borofsky personally selected the site for the latest sculpture in his celebrated Human Structure series. In keeping with this location, and with the 2014 – 2016 Vancouver Biennale theme “Open Borders/Crossroads Vancouver”, Human Structures Vancouver focuses on the notion of humanity working together to build our world.

This sculpture, comprised of a series of brightly-coloured interconnected figures, conveys a sense of universal connectivity. The distinctive shape of the galvanized steel plates refers to pixels, the base unit of computer imagery, and comments on the structural connections in our digital world.

For Borofsky, the organic, modular structure of Human Structures Vancouver suggests an ongoing process of building and learning. In the artist’s own words, “we are all constantly in a process of connecting together to build our world…Humans use structures to build our world, not only architectural, but psychological and philosophical structures.”

While previous works in the series have consisted of a single tower of figures, Human Structures Vancouver marks the artist’s first realization of multiple groupings. As the central structure stretches up to the sky, two smaller configurations form preliminary foundations, alluding to a continuous cycle of growth. Through this sculpture, Borofsky seeks to nurture a sense of public positivity.

Medium: Painted and molded galvanized steel

Size: 287 x 201 x 201 in/ 730 x 510 x 510

Weight: 5,644 lb/ 2560 kg

 

The Vancouver Biennale Organization:

 

Vancouver Biennale Public Art Exhibition 2014-2016,Open Borders/Crossroads

 

“Starting later this month, about 20 public art sculptures will be installed throughout parks and open spaces in Vancouver and another 10 in New Westminster, North Vancouver and Squamish. The biennale will feature works by other big name artists that include Vic Muniz from Brazil, Jonathan Borofsky from the U.S., and Andy Goldsworthy from the United Kingdom.”

 

Byline: Kevin C. Griffin, Vancouver Sun

Images: uncredited Click here for the full story

 

The next Vancouver Biennale exhibition begins Spring 2014. We’re expanding to new cities, broadening our program to include a wider range of artistic disciplines, and inviting an unprecedented mix of famous and emerging artists from around the world to participate in a two-year celebration of great Contemporary art, freely accessible to people where they live, work, play and transit.

 

The curatorial theme of the exhibition is Open Borders / Crossroads Vancouver. Unique in the world for its natural beauty, Vancouver becomes the international hub where artists from all nations, cultural backgrounds, political histories and artistic disciplines gather to celebrate art in public space. Together we inspire creativity, transform thinking and find our interconnectedness as global citizens through art.

 

The Organization

 

The Vancouver Biennale is a non-profit charitable organization that celebrates art in public space. The exhibitions are unique in the world in that feature sculpture, new media, film, music and dance. They transform the urban landscape into an Open Air Museum, creating unexpected and globally inspired cultural experiences where people live, play, work and transit.

 

Each exhibition demonstrates that great public art is an economic driver by creating magnetic cultural attractions for visitors, and foundational to creating livable, creatively inspired communities where installations become a social bridge for people of all ages, cultural backgrounds, educational levels and financial wherewithal to come together as neighbours to explore, learn, dialogue and imagine.

 

The Vancouver Biennale (Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale/Biennale Internationale de la Sculpture de Vancouver) is funded through grants, corporate sponsorship, gifts in-kind, philanthropic donations and supplemented by the sale of art after each exhibition. 100% of the net profits from the sale of Biennale artworks are used to fund the exhibitions and programmes.

Macro Mondays: Games People Play

Please don't use this image anywhere without my explicit permission.

© All rights reserved by Meer Sadi

Took this on the start of a multi-day hike through the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park on the northern coast of New Zealand's south island. Although the hike was dogged by rainstorms, there were wonderful moments when the sun broke through and revealed sensational seascapes and forested landscapes. Abel Tasman incorporates a series of interconnected coastal beach and forest trails that lead to eco-lodges within the park, making it possible to do hiking or kayaking multi-day trips. There is no motor vehicle access inside Abel Tasman. You have to take a boat to start the excursion.

Disneyland

Tomorrowland

Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage & Disneyland Monorail

 

The intertwined transportation systems of Tomorrowland and Fantasyland are really spectacular. You have Autopia, the Subs, and the Monorail (but not the Peoplemover...) in Tomorrowland that all have tracks weaving through one another, with Fantasyland having its own set of similarly interconnected attractions. This gives a real kinetic energy to the park, and even though some of these attractions may not have the greatest set-pieces, that's really not the point as you just relax and enjoy being part of the Disneyland transportation network.

 

On the evening that I shot this, we had just spotted Tony Baxter wandering around Tomorrowland with (what we presumed to be) two foreign dignitaries. Neither of them looked foreign, nor did they look particularly dignified, but if Tony Baxter is taking you around Disneyland, you know you're someone special. We debated stopping Mr. Baxter to say hello. After all, we and Baxtizzle go way back! Ultimately, we decided against it as we figure he likes to enjoy the park like a regular person, and he's probably approached all the time by rabid fans.

 

As for the technical side, this photo is a two-shot HDR photo, but it's not a composite. Well, at least to the extent that the monorail and the sub both appeared at the same time. I suppose every multi-exposure HDR photo is a composite, but you know what I mean.

  

Getting in shape for a Disney trip today on DisneyTouristBlog

 

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The interconnected buildings at this historic farm, now a folk museum, date from different periods of the 19th century and all were built in the turf construction style, which was universal in rural Iceland until around the turn of the 19th century.

The Hackesche Höfe is a notable courtyard complex situated adjacent to the Hackescher Markt in the centre of Berlin. The complex consists of eight interconnected courtyards, accessed through a main arched entrance at number 40 Rosenthaler Straße.

Time Warner Center is a pair of interconnected mixed-use skyscrapers developed by AREA Property Partners (formerly known as Apollo Real Estate Advisors) and The Related Companies in New York City. Its design, by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, consists of two 750 ft (229 m) twin towers bridged by a multi-story atrium containing upscale retail shops. Construction began in November 2000, following the demolition of the New York Coliseum, and a topping-out ceremony was held on February 27, 2003. The property had the highest-listed market value in New York City, $1.1 billion, in 2006

Five of the six axles on the trail can steer and on my model, they are interconnected such that they each steer at a slightly different angle. I very much enjoyed building the mechanism for this.

All human beings are interconnected, one with all other elements in creation.

Mitchell Island, Richmond

Macro shot of a Dandelion flower in seed.

© all rights reserved by B℮n

 

Please take your time... to View it large on black

 

The Netherlands is a small country of 16 million people, but it boasts a quarter of a million competitive speedskaters, and millions more who skate for fun. What's the story? Natural ice in the Netherlands is a rare occurrence. In fact, some winters there's no natural ice at all. Maybe that explains why the Dutch love to skate outdoors. They hardly ever get the chance! But when a cold wave hits, and the interconnected maze of canals, rivers and lakes freeze over, it's a spontaneous celebration, a national holiday. Today same as last year we could ice skating on the Gouwsea. Ice skating can be done from Monnickendam to Marken and from Marken to Volendam. Infinite sea of ice is perfect for ice skating journeys. Besides ice skating Dutch also love Ice yachting. This is the sport of sailing and racing iceboats and is very popular in the Netherlands. Ice boats are racing at a speed of 100 km an hour over the ice of the Gouwsea.

 

Photo taken of Ice yachting on the Gouwsea at Monnickendam. A get together of two ice sailors at Monnickendam. A historical moment since crossing the Gouwsea by skates is such a rare occurrence. Today I skate from Monnickendam - Nes - Marken - Nes and back to Monnickendam a trip of 16km, such a beautiful sea of ice to enjoy. For the ice-yacht sailors it's always a race who will cross the Gouwsea first to Marken. When the first Ice-boats tested and crossed the Gouwsea the skaters will follow soon.

 

Op 25 januari 2013 een schaatstocht gemaakt rond de Gouwzee van Monnickendam - Nes - Marken - Monnickendam. Bij Volendam lag dit keer te veel sneeuw en onbegaanbaar. Een prachtige tocht van zo'n 16km met top ijs. Tot mijn verbazing was de Gouwzee helemaal dichtbevroren. Dus alweer een historische ijstocht gemaakt. Een groot ijsoppervlakte tussen Monnickendam en Marken met prima ijs. Een oneindig mooi gezicht op deze ijszee anno 2013. Het was genieten. Jong en oud staan op het ijs, zelfs koek en zopie is present in de haven van Monnickendam. Ook zijn er weer ijszeilers te zien. Met spectaculaire snelheden van wel 80 tot 100 kilometer per uur razen ze over bevroren meren en plassen: ijszeilers hebben deze dagen de tijd van hun leven. In elke ijszeiler schuilt een pionier die nieuw terrein wil ontginnen. Wie steekt er als eerste over naar Marken? Wakduikers heten de onfortuinlijken die in een overmoedige bui te ver gingen en met behulp van collega's uit het wak gehaald moesten worden. Het mag de pret niet drukken. IJszeilen is een gezamenlijke gekte, een collectieve spanning die vanwege de natuurlijke elementen zo bijzonder is. Op pure windkracht zeilen over de eindeloze ijsvlakte, geruisloos en snoeihard. De ijszeilers steken altijd het eerst de Gouwzee over. Is het veilig dan kunnen de schaatsers makkelijk volgen.

  

The snowy plover is an important part of the interconnected web of life on the shore. Plovers have lived on California beaches for thousands of years, but today human use of their remaining beach habitat seriously threatens their survival. Once numbered in the thousands, fewer than 1500 breeding plovers remain.

2016 Vivid Sydney: Songlines - Lighting The Sails #8

  

World Premiere

 

Lighting the Sails for the eighth year of Vivid Sydney, Sydney Opera House will transform into an animated canvas of Australian indigenous art featuring iconic contemporary works from Karla Dickens, Djon Mundine, Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi, Reko Rennie, Donny Woolagoodja, and the late Gulumbu Yunupingu.

  

Directed by the Head of Indigenous Programming at Sydney Opera House Rhoda Roberts

 

Co-curated by Sydney Opera House and Destination NSW

 

Visual content and animation created by Artists in Motion

  

Celebrating First Nations' spirituality and culture through the songlines of our land and sky, this year’s Lighting the Sails is about painting and celebrating country through a pattern of sharing systems, interconnected history lines and trade routes.

Lighting the Sails Director and Head of Indigenous Programming at Sydney Opera House Rhoda Roberts has selected six artists of different clans, national estates and territories for an immersive projected artwork that weaves through time and distance.

 

As the first indigenous work commissioned exclusively for the sails of the Sydney Opera House, this visual tapestry will weave through personal journeys, while celebrating the timeless themes and enduring art of Australia's most influential contemporary First Nations artists, exclusive to Vivid Sydney.

  

www.vividsydney.com/event/light/lighting-sails-songlines

The Jeita Grotto (Arabic: مغارة جعيتا‎) is a system of two separate, but interconnected limestone caves spanning 5.6 miles. Visitors can walk through the upper cave, but the lower cave contains an underwater river and lake. It is only accessible in summer and then only by boat.

These pictures were all taken in water filled lower cave. The water flows through at 1–2 m3/s, providing drinking water for 1.5 million people in Beirut. Cameras are normally taken and secured from visitors while in the caverns. These photos were taken with special permission.

Life is always inspiring, the scenery around us, the situations we find ourselves in and the people we meet can all contribute to some great moments of inspiration.

 

Our entire environment is interconnected with its life forms, which are interconnected and inter-reliant on each other. The complexity is enormous, perhaps beyond the scope of the limited human intellect. Within this fabric of life there is a perfect consistency and response to influences, until man steps in and begins breaking apart the individual elements thread by thread without understanding the fabric which is the whole.

 

If you look at a piece of fabric or knitting, there is always one side that looks beautiful. Then, when you turn it over, there is the messy side. The side that contains all of the loose yarns and threads. You can't have one side without the other. Both are necessary for creating the finished piece. And, the same can be said about life. It's not about perfection but opening to the life that you are living and working with what life presents you.

 

Problems are the texture in the fabric of life, nothing more. Without them, our lives would be flat, lacking excitement and fulfillment.

 

Our basic emotions like Joy, Acceptance, Fear, Surprise, Sadness, Disgust, Anger & Anticiaption forms a base of the fabric with the interwoven complex emotions like Love, Disappointment, Contempt, Aggressiveness, Optimism and Submission creating the design pattern of life.

 

So at the end it again boils down to the singular most important thing, Our Attitude is creating the fabric of our life... We are all provided with the same base of fibers, what fabric we create is always different.

 

Have a nice Fabric...

 

Taken: Tana Bana (Weaving) Festival at Lok Virsa Museum, Islamabad, Pakistan

 

View Large

2016 Vivid Sydney: Songlines - Lighting The Sails #8

  

World Premiere

 

Lighting the Sails for the eighth year of Vivid Sydney, Sydney Opera House will transform into an animated canvas of Australian indigenous art featuring iconic contemporary works from Karla Dickens, Djon Mundine, Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi, Reko Rennie, Donny Woolagoodja, and the late Gulumbu Yunupingu.

  

Directed by the Head of Indigenous Programming at Sydney Opera House Rhoda Roberts

 

Co-curated by Sydney Opera House and Destination NSW

 

Visual content and animation created by Artists in Motion

  

Celebrating First Nations' spirituality and culture through the songlines of our land and sky, this year’s Lighting the Sails is about painting and celebrating country through a pattern of sharing systems, interconnected history lines and trade routes.

Lighting the Sails Director and Head of Indigenous Programming at Sydney Opera House Rhoda Roberts has selected six artists of different clans, national estates and territories for an immersive projected artwork that weaves through time and distance.

 

As the first indigenous work commissioned exclusively for the sails of the Sydney Opera House, this visual tapestry will weave through personal journeys, while celebrating the timeless themes and enduring art of Australia's most influential contemporary First Nations artists, exclusive to Vivid Sydney.

  

www.vividsydney.com/event/light/lighting-sails-songlines

All buildings are interconnected by staircases with steps carved into the rock. Almost every single buildings of the monastery complex has a balcony with a breathtaking view of the surrounding area.