The High Priestess: This is a time to rely on your intuition and your inner knowledge, rather than your conscious mind or intellect. Pay attention to your dreams. Synchronicities are likely now. When the High Priestess appears in a man's reading, she also often represents a woman that he will want badly; but whom he may not be able to get. This can be a magical, mystical time for love. If you date women, you could well be interested in a woman who is distant and unapproachable. Trust your instincts. If you are a woman, you may well find people basically literally throwing themselves at you. Use this power wisely- it's potent! Messages can come to you from all sorts of places. Make a point to look at spirituality in ways that you have not done before. Talk to people whose experiences and beliefs are different than your own. Move out of your comfort zone. You'll be all the richer for it.

Just saying # lol

Fuchsia ..hanging around

Snowdrop ...an early bird

Cyclamen.. snug as a bug in a rug

 

Found the little snowdrop this morning and had to take its picture as November is a bit early bless it :0))

 

The symbolism of flowers is often determined both by colour and type. When sending flowers based on symbolism, it is often easiest to choose them by colour, since the list of symbolic meanings for each different type of flower can be somewhat lengthy. Generally, white is symbolic of purity and innocence. Red represents passion and love. Pink also symbolizes love as well as happiness, beauty and friendship. Yellow is associated with purity, truth and intellect whereas orange is symbolic of warmth, creativity and growth. Green also represents growth as well as hope, renewal and fertility. Blue is a symbol of peace, tranquility and healing while purple represents devotion, faith, nobility and spirituality.

  

Good day to you !

 

The Muggeridge has returned from Beneath and seeks to engage Trolls in debate, with his Intellect Of The Titans, which he has got.

 

"You, there, Troll !" he demands "Explain to me about Sir Picanuper's buttocks, vis a vis their claimed perfection."

 

"But Sir Picanuper's buttocks do not claim perfection !" defends the Troll, applying logic.

"Well, somebody does !"

"Ah, I see..." says the Troll, and taps his nose, also winks.

 

"Defend the proposition that each of Sir Picanuper's buttocks are more prefect than the other !"

 

"Well, they just are...it stands to reason !" says the Troll, now applying perfect calm and reasonableness, alongside strict logic.

 

"Er, er..." says the Muggeridge. "I'm smarter than Donald Trump, you know..."

 

The Muggeridge looks around for turnips to throw, but none are to be found. He mouths dirty words under his breath.

 

"I'll be back..."

  

Walk Tall !

A mobile-photograph from our running bus.

  

My experience

 

We entered Yellowstone NP through the eastern entrance using U.S. Route 14. It had been a moderate snow fall in the end of the first week of October, 2017. From few kilometers before reaching Yellowstone Lake, remnants of devastating wild fire were being evident. It was a shocking sight for me at the beginning and could not perceive how fire had devastated hundreds of acres of alpine forests in the valleys and atop the hills. But when I had a closer look to the floor of the forests, I was amazed by the facts how nature maintains its ecological balance! Numerous tiny siblings are growing besides the burnt and decaying logs. The future forests of the park are coming alive.

   

The park seemed to me the world’s finest natural laboratory and archive to study and understand all the faculties of human intellect.

   

The qualities of the photographs are not satisfactory, because they were taken so fast through the glass windows of our running bus. But I didn’t want to miss such life time opportunities. The overall beauties were essentially more important than technicalities, as I always believe.

 

Our luck didn’t favor anyway in this park trip, when our tour guide had declared a forecast for heavy snowfall next day since morning. He therefore decided to visit as many spots as possible in a single day, and not to wait for day-2. I hurried through the trails taking as many snaps as possible.

 

The next day heavy snowfall started since 9 am, and our guide cancelled the day-2 trip. Thanks God…we covered somehow all the spots on the first day.

 

I hope, you may like my Yellowstone series…

     

Description

 

Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Approximately 96 percent of the land area of Yellowstone National Park is located within the state of Wyoming. The Park spans an area of 8,983 km2 comprising lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is the most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests eco-region.

   

It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world. Native Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for at least 11,000 years. Aside from visits by mountain -men during the early to mid-19th century, organized exploration did not begin until the late 1860s.

 

The park contains the headwaters of the Yellowstone River, from which it takes its historical name. Although it is commonly believed that the river was named for the yellow rocks seen in the ‘Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone’, the Native American name source is unclear.

     

Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-elevation lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. The caldera is considered as an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million year. The Yellowstone Caldera is the largest volcanic system in North America. It has been termed a "supervolcano" because the caldera was formed by exceptionally large explosive eruptions. The magma chamber that lies under Yellowstone is estimated to be a single connected chamber, about 60 km long, 29 km wide, and 5 to 12 km deep. Yellowstone Lake is up to 400 feet deep and has 180 km of shoreline.The lake is at an elevation of 7,733 feet above sea levels. Half of the world's geysers and hydrothermal features are there in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining nearly-intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone. In 1978, Yellowstone was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

In May 2001, the U.S. Geological Survey, Yellowstone National Park, and the University of Utah created the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), a partnership for long-term monitoring of the geological processes of the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field, for disseminating information concerning the potential hazards of this geologically active region.

   

Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened. The vast forests and grasslands also include unique species of plants.Yellowstone Park is the largest and most famous megafauna location in the contiguous United States. Grizzly bears, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in this park. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States.

   

Forest fires occur in the park each year. In the largest forest fires of 1988, nearly one third of the park was burnt.

   

Yellowstone has numerous recreational opportunities, including hiking, camping, boating, fishing and sightseeing. Paved roads provide close access to the major geothermal areas as well as some of the lakes and waterfalls. During the winter, visitors often access the park by way of guided tours that use either snow coaches or snowmobiles.

     

Fire in Yellowstone NP

 

Causes of wildfire in Yellowstone NP

 

Wildfire has had a role in the dynamics of Yellowstone’s ecosystems for thousands of years. Although many fires were caused by human activities, most ignitions were natural. The term "natural ignition" usually refers to a lightning strike. Afternoon thunderstorms occur frequently in the northern Rocky Mountains but release little precipitation, a condition known as ‘dry lightning’. In a typical season there are thousands of lightning strikes in Yellowstone. Lightning strikes are powerful enough to rip strips of bark off of a tree in a shower of sparks and blow the pieces up to 100 feet away. However, most lightning strikes do not result in a wildfire because fuels are not in a combustible state.

   

The great fire incidence of 1988

 

The Yellowstone fires of 1988 collectively formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames quickly spread out of control due to drought conditions and increasing winds, combining into one large conflagration which burned for several months. The fires almost destroyed two major visitor destinations and, on September 8, 1988, the entire park closed to all non-emergency personnel for the first time in its history. Only the arrival of cool and moist weather in the late autumn brought the fires to an end. A total of 793,880 acres, or 36 percent of the park was affected by the wildfires.

   

Fire incidence, 2016

 

As of September 21, 2016, 22 fires (human and lightning-caused) have burned more than 62,000 acres in Yellowstone National Park, making it the highest number of acres burned since the historic 1988 fire.

   

Heritage and Research Center

 

The Heritage and Research Center is located at Gardiner, Montana, near the north entrance to the park. The center is home to the Yellowstone National Park's museum collection, archives, research library, historian, archeology lab, and herbarium. The Yellowstone National Park Archives maintain collections of historical records of Yellowstone and the National Park Service. The collection includes the administrative records of Yellowstone, as well as resource management records, records from major projects, and donated manuscripts and personal papers. The archives are affiliated with the National Archives and Records Administration.

   

A Quick Overview Map of Yellowstone

 

(www.yellowstonepark.com/park/overview-map-yellowstone)

 

Free Yellowstone Trip Planner:

 

( www.yellowstonepark.com/travel-guides/yellowstone-trip-pl...)

 

8 Best Yellowstone Geyser Basins and Map

 

( www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/yellowstone-geyser-b... )

 

National Park Maps

 

( www.yellowstonepark.com/park/national-park-maps )

 

Interactive map of ALL Yellowstone thermal features at the Yellowstone Research Coordination Network

 

( www.rcn.montana.edu )

  

Diplomats who fought for the country's freedom and after retirement turned into formidable scholars are rare. A.K. Damodaran, who died in Delhi on Tuesday was one of them, and in all his endeavours his lifelong attachment to Nehruvian principles left an indelible stamp.

 

Imprisoned during the Quit India movement after having been on the colonial police's radar for his fiery speeches, Mr. Damodaran spent a decade in the immediate post-Nehru era finessing India's policy towards its two great neighbours — China and Russia — with his being among the decisive hands on the rudder when the Treaty of 1971 was crafted. “He was perhaps the last person alive who was involved with the Treaty,” recalled former diplomat G. Parthasarathy.

 

Post-retirement, he encouraged Rajiv Gandhi's rapprochement with China, despite spending the distrustful years immediately after the 1962 war as a diplomat in Beijing. Though he was one of the architects of the Indo-Soviet Treaty, Mr. Damodaran understood the need for a change in equations with the United States. “He was principled but never rigid,” recalls veteran diplomat Ronen Sen.

 

After retirement, ‘Damu Sir,' as he was known in the Indian Foreign Service, turned his formidable intellect towards scholarship, penning and editing books on India's foreign policy. “An excellent writer and exceptional individual. He was brilliant, erudite, wise and understanding,” recalled his Foreign Office colleague and former Minister, Natwar Singh.

 

His early years were anything but placid and gave no inkling of the path he would carve out as part of independent India's policy formulation think tank in the years ahead. He thought of his years in the Madras Christian College as that of “a happy wastrel who thoroughly enjoyed myself.”

 

This was characteristic A.K. Damodaran modesty. For this was the period he trode the precarious path of being a pro-Independence student-activist during which he achieved “dazzling success as the Speaker but total failure as student.” With Ravindra Varma, later head of the Gandhi Peace Foundation in Delhi, he went to jail during the 1942 Quit India movement.

 

By then he had absorbed Nehru's Autobiography and felt it provided “a whole generation of boys and girls in their teens and the new apprentices in political activity in both the Congress and the Leftist groups, a new and contemporary near-ideology... As an introduction to a more activist view of Indian politics, it could not have been bettered in the Indian situation… It gave the reader an insight into one man's picture of India's future and a living relationship with similarly situated movements across the world, ideas which had become associated with Jawaharlal. The emphasis on socialism was pronounced, impatience with compromise equally clear.”

 

Strategic analyst Nandan Unnikrishnan said Mr. Damodaran was representative of the Nehruvian vision of foreign policy, which recognised that pragmatism had to be combined with values that were nationalist.

 

But above all, as Mr. Ronen Sen put it, “He was one of the finest diplomats I ever came across in terms of professional excellence. More important was his integrity. He would be scrupulous in setting out policy options regardless of his personal inclinations or what was acceptable to a particular dispensation. In a sense, he was a formidable scholar but also a lifelong student till the end.”

 

www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2848432.ece

The Hindu : 201/02/2012

In other words: get off of facebook, quit causing drama & do something meaningful with your life!

For more information on our trip to Xian check out my blog, Postcard Intellect

Guatemala City - el Monumento a Justo Rufino Barrios.

 

From Wikipedia -

Justo Rufino Barrios (July 19, 1835 – April 2, 1885) was a President of Guatemala known for his liberal reforms and his attempts to reunite Central America.

 

Barrios was born in the village of San Lorenzo, in the department of San Marcos. He was known from his youth for his intellect and energy, went to Guatemala City to study law, and became a lawyer in 1862. In 1867, revolt broke out in western Guatemala, which many residents wished to return to its former status of an independent state as Los Altos. Barrios joined with the rebels in Quetzaltenango, and soon proved himself a capable military leader, and in time gained the rank of general in the rebel army. In July 1871, Barrios, together with other generals and dissidents, issued the "Plan for the Fatherland" proposing to overthrow Guatemala's long entrenched Conservadora administration; soon after, they succeeded in doing so, and General García Granados was declared president and Barrios commander of the armed forces. While Barrios was back in Quetzaltenago, García Granados was overthrown by a revolt. Barrios again marched on the capital and became the new president. The Conservative government in Honduras gave military backing to a group of Guatemalan Conservatives wishing to take back the government, so Barrios declared war on the Honduran government. At the same time, Barrios, together with the President Luis Bogran of El Salvador, declared an intention to reunify the old United Provinces of Central America.

 

Barrios instituted a number of reforms, including freedom of the press and religion. He was elected President in May 1873.

 

Barrios oversaw substantial cleaning and rebuilding of Guatemala City, and set up a new and accountable police force. He brought the first telegraph lines and railroads to the Republic. He established a system of public schools in the country.

 

In 1879, a constitution was ratified for Guatemala (the Republic's first as an independent nation, as the old Conservador regime had ruled by decree). In 1880, Barrios was reelected President for a six-year term. Barrios unsuccessfully attempted to get the United States of America to mediate the disputed boundary between Guatemala and Mexico.

 

Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras agreed to reform the Central American Union, but then Salvadoran President Zaldivar decided to withdraw from the Union, and sent envoys to Mexico to join in an alliance to overthrow Barrios. Mexican President Porfirio Díaz feared Barrios' liberal reforms and the potential of a strong Central America as a neighbor if Barrios' plans bore fruit. Díaz sent Mexican troops to seize the disputed land of Soconusco. Meanwhile, Barrios was personally leading the army into El Salvador, where he was killed at Chalchuapa, El Salvador. Much of the hope for a reunited Central America died with him.

 

Today, his portrait is on the five Quetzal bill in Guatemala.

Celastraceae (staff vine or bittersweet family) » Celastrus paniculatus

 

see-LAS-trus -- from the ancient Greek kelastros, the name of another tree

pan-ick-yoo-LAY-tus or pan-ick-yoo-LAH-tus -- referring to the flower clusters (panicles)

 

commonly known as: black-oil plant, celastrus, oriental bittersweet, intellect tree, staff tree • Bengali: kijri, malkangani • Gujarati: માલકંગના malkangana • Hindi: मालकंगनी malkangani • Kannada: ಭವಮ್ಗ bhavamga, ಜೊತಿಷ್ಮತಿ jotishmati, ಕರಿಗನ್ನೇ kariganne, ಕೊಉಗಿಲು kougilu • Konkani: माळकांगोणी malkangoni • Marathi: कांगुणी kanguni, माळकांगोणी malkangoni • Oriya: korsana, pengu • Sanskrit: अलवण alavan, ज्योतिषमति jyotishmati, कन्गु kangu • Tamil: குவரிகுண்டல் kuvarikuntal, மண்ணைக்கட்டி mannai-k-katti, வாலுளுவை valuluvai • Telugu: కాసరతీగె kasara-tige, మానెరు maneru • Urdu: کنگني مال malkanguni

 

Native to: India, China, Sri Lanka, south-east Asia

  

References: Flowers of India • Sahyadri Database • ENVIS - FRLHT • eFlora

The structure of thought, the convoluted geography of our personalities, the world of ideas is far more complex and subtle than the articulation of limbs. If we put ourselves in the position of thinking about the way we think, we have a tricky situation on our hands, to say the least. We are obviously limited in our thinking, by our style or manner of thinking. So; something apart from thinking needs to look at thinking. But what could this be? Buddhism describes this "something" as the open dimension of our being. It is the discovery of space.

 

The discovery of space begins with shi-ne. (shi-ne, Skt. shamatha - Remaining uninvolved with the thought process. Usually translated as "calm abiding" or "peacefully remaining". The practice of silent sitting.)

Shi-ne is the practice of letting go of our addiction to the thought process. We will need to look at the practice of shi-ne in order to get some sense of what is meant by "the discovery of space". But before we explore the idea of shi-ne, we will need to make some further exploration of the evolution of our perceptual "skills". We will need to ask some questions about the familiar yet somehow unfamiliar landscape of distracted being.

In a relative sense you could say that our being is distracted from be-ing. Our sense of what and how we are wanders interminably in a miasma of cross-referencing fictions. This faculty of cross-referencing includes every function of the intellect. It builds itself out of the compartmentalising, labelling and judging department of our conceptual bureaucracy. This conceptual bureaucracy sets itself up in order to maintain the illusion of duality, and it does this through continually seeking assurances from the world -- assurances that we really exist. Somehow we seem to be in doubt about our existence -- we have a sense of unease about it. This sense of unease would be very disturbing -- unless we simply remained unconscious of it. The fact that this doubt exists is actually evidenced by most of the philosophies that have arisen in the world. It would seem that no sooner have Maslow's hierarchy of needs --- hunger/thirst, shelter, sleep, sex, safety/security, love and belonging, self-esteem, and finally self-actualisation --- started to be met, then people start to question their own existence.

 

Many people would say that they have no doubt of their existence at all. They would say that they felt as real as the next person, or perhaps even more real. Some people would state quite categorically that they are certain of their existence. They know they exist; and what is more, they are annoyed and insulted by the apparent stupidity of this kind of question. But from the Buddhist perspective, this is not a completely honest response -- it is a response based on fear. If people are so convinced of their existence, why do they continually seek assurances and proofs of it? Philosophers have been doing this for a long time. Various pronouncements have been made, such as: "I think therefore I am". People may of course wish to disassociate themselves from the ruminations of philosophers.

They may deny that they seek reassurances of their existence. This is not really surprising -- no one in this society is brought up to recognise their fundamental perspectives described in this way.It is not easy to see the manner in which we live out lives as a process of doubt -- as a context of unease. We are geared into the machinery of our distraction. We imagine our acts and motivations to be "natural". But this doubt of existence is chameleoid -- it takes on the hue and tone of every aspect of our mutable emotional colouring.

 

But from where does this doubt stem? Is it an aspect of our realisation, or an aspect of our confusion? The answer to this question may be trifle bewildering: the doubt of our existence is both an echo of our enlightenment and an echo of our fear of space of our own being, which could also be called our unenlightenment. We continually seek assurances from life that confirm the unconfirmable. We seek security, and that is a problem. It is not that security does not exist, but that the security that is available is not the kind of security that we want.

 

For example: we can be secure in the knowledge that we are going to die. We can be secure in the knowledge that we are going to get older hour by hour, day by day, month by month, year by year. We can be secure in the knowledge that we are going to get ill from time to time; and that one day the illness will be our final illness. We can be secure in the knowledge that we are going to lose our entire material context at the moment of death.

 

It could be said that insecurity is the only real security. This might seem a singularly unappealing concept until we consider that pain and misery also cannot be established as unchanging. The phenomenal world is unreliable, if reliability requires stasis. We cannot rely on the phenomenal world to provide either continous pleasure or continuous pain. We can be surprised: good friends can turn against us, and generous support can be comming from unlikely quarters. The "security of insecurity" and the insecurity of security", is a theme that will run through this book; and any other book that deals with Buddhist psychology. This is a crucial idea to understand if you seek to experience a happy life, let alone to seek liberation from duality. It is not even that existence of certain seeming securities is being brought into question -- it is more that the process of seeking security itself needs to be viewed as inherently problematic. Whether we seek security or not, what we get is a combination of "security" and "insecurity" --- and from the perspective of personal history it can, hopefully, become difficult to distinguish which is which.

 

There is something suspect about inability to enjoy anything unless we can define it as lasting forever. In actuality nothing lasts forever, and yet we act as if some things do -- in order that we can enjoy them. The fact that nothing lasts forever is very interesting --- it is true in two entirely different senses. We can say that "nothing" lasts forever, and that no "thing" lasts forever. Nothing is emptiness, which has no beginning or end. Things or phenomena are form, and therefore have beginnings and ends. Interesting paradoxes are wrapped up in this: we own emptiness because it cannot be owned; we cannot establish ownership of that which is already ours, without distorting it into something that we cannot own. We can only own forms on a temporary basis, and as long as we relate to these forms through ownership -- we cannot own them. If we understand that ownership of form only exists in the moment of appreciation, then we automatically own the entire universe of form. But we cannot own anything as long as try to own ourselves.

 

Paradox is the heart of Tantric understanding, and once we begin to get a taste for what it means at an experiential level --- the amazing world of what we actually are starts to open to us. When we begin to accept our emotions as the path, we can also begin to understand something fundamental: that as long as we continually attempt to establish ground --- we can never really experience ground. Our dualistic method of establishing ground, is to validate ourselves as being solid, permanent, separate, continuous, and defined. These form-criteria for evaluating ourselves arise out of the nature of the dualistic elements:

 

Solidity is the form quality of the earth element.

Permanence is the form quality of the water element.

Separateness is the form quality of the fire element.

Continuity is the form quality of the air element.

Definition is the form quality of the space element.

 

And all form is inherently impermanent. Paradoxically, we reject the criteria that actually validate our existence -- because they are exactly the emptiness-criteria which we fear as undermining our existence:

 

Insubstantiality is the emptiness quality of the earth element.

Impermanence is the emptiness quality of the water element.

Inseparability is the emptiness quality of the fire element.

Discontinuity is the emptiness quality of the air element.

Undefinability is the emptiness quality of the space element.

 

Nothing that comes into existence, has form qualities as permanently reliable characteristics. Because our experience does not conform permanently to these form-criteria, we cannot succeed in establishing our existence through attaching to them. Our attempts to define ourselves in this way are bound to be self-defeating. When we engage in this strategy, we subvert the brillant immediacy of our experience with our endless attempts to establish reference points. This is the major problem we face as human beings.

In struggling to maintain the illusion of duality, we are fighting a losing battle. Nothing will serve us as a permanently reliable reference point, because everything within the world of form is inherently impermanent. Phenomena will only ever afford us temporary proofs of existence according to their qualities of: solidity, permanence, separateness, continuity and definition. These are the form qualities of emptiness and their major characteristic is that they are ephemeral. Phenomena are solid, permanent, separate, continuous, and defined on a strictly temporary basis. So these existential criteria cannot possibly afford us proof that we could be any different. Everything we encounter in our lives is impermanent by nature, and will have limited duration over the course of time.

 

Impermanence is not only a quality of phenomena in terms of duration -- there is also the question of ownership and proximity. Our possessions may have many more years in them, but maybe not in our keeping. Whatever we have may be stolen, or sold because of a sudden shortage of money. More subtly, there is the extent of our own interest. Our prized possessions may remain with us as long as we live, but they may not always be prized so highly. Fashions come and go. Jumble sales are full of the clothes that people once wore with delight. Fashion is a great teacher of impermanence.

 

Making ourselves feel solid, permanent, separate continuous and defined -- by constantly scanning the phenomenal horizon for reference points which substantiate these criteria -- is a convoluted process. The phenomena of our perception will only serve us temporarily in this capacity. So if we take this course, we sentence ourselves to the continuous activity of establishinf referece points. When we engage in this process, we convert our perceptual circumstances into a prison In fact, our perceptual circumstances not only become an incarceration, but a very subtle personal torture chamber. We need to be continually on the look-out for new reference points. We need to reassess old reference points. We need to imbue ourselves with certain pervasive nervousness. We need to foster a sense of unease about the whole process of experiencing existence. It could become unrelenting hard work in our own personal forced labour camp.

 

In our attempts to establish reference points we react to the phenomena of our perception in three ways. We are either attracted, we are averse or we are indifferent. Attraction, aversion and indifference are usually reffered to, in the translations of Buddhist texts, as lust (desire or attachment); hatred (anger or aggression); and ignorance. Although these words have a distinct application to the three distorted tendencies (usually reffered to as "the Three Poisons"), they have connotations in English that lend them the tone of "the Seven Deadly Sins". Buddhism does not really deal with the concept of "sin" -- it simply deals with the mechanisms of confusion, and the means of liberation. There is no guilt attached to being confused, and no sense of deliberate "wickedness". The terms "attraction", "aversion" and "indifference" have been chosen because they are mechanistic rather than emotive -- they describe the machinery of dualistic perception.

 

If we encounter anything that seems to substantiate our fictions of solidity, permanence, separateness, continuity, and definition -- we are attracted, we reach out for it. If we encounter anything that threatens these fictions -- we are averse, we push it away. If we encounter anything that neither substantiates nor threatens these fictions -- we are indifferent. What we cannot manipulate, we ignore. But what is left of our responses if these fictions dissolve? The question of what our experience would be like without attraction, aversion, and indifference poses an interesting challenge to our rationale. In fact, we cannot approach this question at all, if we approach it through conventional reasoning. Fundamentally this question deals with the nature of experience itself. If attraction, aversion, and indifference dissolve, what remains is not any "kind of experience"; it is simply experience -- experience as such. In terms of experience as such; we are completely present, open and free in the experience of whatever arises as a perception.

 

In this totally spacious condition there is neither attachment, manipulation nor insensitivity. We are discussing straight experience here, in more or less the same way that we might discuss a straight drink. We are describing an undiluted shot of single malt, rather than some fancy cocktail, overloaded with tinned fruit, and decorated with a paper parasol. We are concerning ourselves with the essence -- the undiluted experience of our own intrinsic condition.

 

We rarely have a straigth experience. This is because we are almost invariably bound up in the convolutions of compartmentalisation. We have a vested interest in establishing reference points -- attempting to prove that we are solid permanent, separate, continuous and defined. We are either nervous about our situation, or we throw caution to the wind. Both are methods of attempting to manipulate the world referentially. Caution is calculated manipulation. Throwing caution to the wind is desperate manipulation. It may seem difficult to imagine recklessness as a form of manipulation, but we are only ever reckless as a last-ditch stand -- the "make-or-break" method of securing reference points. We stipulate the exact ingredients of our joys and sorrows and react in accordance with how closely circumstances conform to our pre-determined specifications.

 

NGAKPA CHOGYAM with KHANDRO DECHEN / Spectrum of Ecstasy / Shambhala Publications

 

Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, and also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka, is a widely worshipped deity in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains, Buddhists, and beyond India.

 

Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify. Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions. Several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.

 

Ganesha emerged as a distinct deity in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, during the Gupta Period, although he inherited traits from Vedic and pre-Vedic precursors. He was formally included among the five primary deities of Smartism (a Hindu denomination) in the 9th century. A sect of devotees called the Ganapatya arose, who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity. The principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa.

 

ETYMOLOGY AND OTHER NAMES

Ganesha has been ascribed many other titles and epithets, including Ganapati and Vighneshvara. The Hindu title of respect Shri is often added before his name. One popular way Ganesha is worshipped is by chanting a Ganesha Sahasranama, a litany of "a thousand names of Ganesha". Each name in the sahasranama conveys a different meaning and symbolises a different aspect of Ganesha. At least two different versions of the Ganesha Sahasranama exist; one version is drawn from the Ganesha Purana, a Hindu scripture venerating Ganesha.

 

The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana, meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha, meaning lord or master. The word gaņa when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to the gaņas, a troop of semi-divine beings that form part of the retinue of Shiva. The term more generally means a category, class, community, association, or corporation. Some commentators interpret the name "Lord of the Gaņas" to mean "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord of created categories", such as the elements. Ganapati, a synonym for Ganesha, is a compound composed of gaṇa, meaning "group", and pati, meaning "ruler" or "lord". The Amarakosha, an early Sanskrit lexicon, lists eight synonyms of Ganesha : Vinayaka, Vighnarāja (equivalent to Vighnesha), Dvaimātura (one who has two mothers), Gaṇādhipa (equivalent to Ganapati and Ganesha), Ekadanta (one who has one tusk), Heramba, Lambodara (one who has a pot belly, or, literally, one who has a hanging belly), and Gajanana; having the face of an elephant).

 

Vinayaka is a common name for Ganesha that appears in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. This name is reflected in the naming of the eight famous Ganesha temples in Maharashtra known as the Ashtavinayak (aṣṭavināyaka). The names Vighnesha and Vighneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) refers to his primary function in Hindu theology as the master and remover of obstacles (vighna).

 

A prominent name for Ganesha in the Tamil language is Pillai. A. K. Narain differentiates these terms by saying that pillai means a "child" while pillaiyar means a "noble child". He adds that the words pallu, pella, and pell in the Dravidian family of languages signify "tooth or tusk", also "elephant tooth or tusk". Anita Raina Thapan notes that the root word pille in the name Pillaiyar might have originally meant "the young of the elephant", because the Pali word pillaka means "a young elephant".

 

In the Burmese language, Ganesha is known as Maha Peinne, derived from Pali Mahā Wināyaka. The widespread name of Ganesha in Thailand is Phra Phikhanet or Phra Phikhanesuan, both of which are derived from Vara Vighnesha and Vara Vighneshvara respectively, whereas the name Khanet (from Ganesha) is rather rare.

 

In Sri Lanka, in the North-Central and North Western areas with predominantly Buddhist population, Ganesha is known as Aiyanayaka Deviyo, while in other Singhala Buddhist areas he is known as Gana deviyo.

 

ICONOGRAPHY

Ganesha is a popular figure in Indian art. Unlike those of some deities, representations of Ganesha show wide variations and distinct patterns changing over time. He may be portrayed standing, dancing, heroically taking action against demons, playing with his family as a boy, sitting down or on an elevated seat, or engaging in a range of contemporary situations.

 

Ganesha images were prevalent in many parts of India by the 6th century. The 13th century statue pictured is typical of Ganesha statuary from 900–1200, after Ganesha had been well-established as an independent deity with his own sect. This example features some of Ganesha's common iconographic elements. A virtually identical statue has been dated between 973–1200 by Paul Martin-Dubost, and another similar statue is dated c. 12th century by Pratapaditya Pal. Ganesha has the head of an elephant and a big belly. This statue has four arms, which is common in depictions of Ganesha. He holds his own broken tusk in his lower-right hand and holds a delicacy, which he samples with his trunk, in his lower-left hand. The motif of Ganesha turning his trunk sharply to his left to taste a sweet in his lower-left hand is a particularly archaic feature. A more primitive statue in one of the Ellora Caves with this general form has been dated to the 7th century. Details of the other hands are difficult to make out on the statue shown. In the standard configuration, Ganesha typically holds an axe or a goad in one upper arm and a pasha (noose) in the other upper arm.

 

The influence of this old constellation of iconographic elements can still be seen in contemporary representations of Ganesha. In one modern form, the only variation from these old elements is that the lower-right hand does not hold the broken tusk but is turned towards the viewer in a gesture of protection or fearlessness (abhaya mudra). The same combination of four arms and attributes occurs in statues of Ganesha dancing, which is a very popular theme.

 

COMMON ATTRIBUTES

Ganesha has been represented with the head of an elephant since the early stages of his appearance in Indian art. Puranic myths provide many explanations for how he got his elephant head. One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five elephant heads, and other less-common variations in the number of heads are known. While some texts say that Ganesha was born with an elephant head, he acquires the head later in most stories. The most recurrent motif in these stories is that Ganesha was created by Parvati using clay to protect her and Shiva beheaded him when Ganesha came between Shiva and Parvati. Shiva then replaced Ganesha's original head with that of an elephant. Details of the battle and where the replacement head came from vary from source to source. Another story says that Ganesha was created directly by Shiva's laughter. Because Shiva considered Ganesha too alluring, he gave him the head of an elephant and a protruding belly.

 

Ganesha's earliest name was Ekadanta (One Tusked), referring to his single whole tusk, the other being broken. Some of the earliest images of Ganesha show him holding his broken tusk. The importance of this distinctive feature is reflected in the Mudgala Purana, which states that the name of Ganesha's second incarnation is Ekadanta. Ganesha's protruding belly appears as a distinctive attribute in his earliest statuary, which dates to the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries). This feature is so important that, according to the Mudgala Purana, two different incarnations of Ganesha use names based on it: Lambodara (Pot Belly, or, literally, Hanging Belly) and Mahodara (Great Belly). Both names are Sanskrit compounds describing his belly. The Brahmanda Purana says that Ganesha has the name Lambodara because all the universes (i.e., cosmic eggs) of the past, present, and future are present in him. The number of Ganesha's arms varies; his best-known forms have between two and sixteen arms. Many depictions of Ganesha feature four arms, which is mentioned in Puranic sources and codified as a standard form in some iconographic texts. His earliest images had two arms. Forms with 14 and 20 arms appeared in Central India during the 9th and the 10th centuries. The serpent is a common feature in Ganesha iconography and appears in many forms. According to the Ganesha Purana, Ganesha wrapped the serpent Vasuki around his neck. Other depictions of snakes include use as a sacred thread wrapped around the stomach as a belt, held in a hand, coiled at the ankles, or as a throne. Upon Ganesha's forehead may be a third eye or the Shaivite sectarian mark , which consists of three horizontal lines. The Ganesha Purana prescribes a tilaka mark as well as a crescent moon on the forehead. A distinct form of Ganesha called Bhalachandra includes that iconographic element. Ganesha is often described as red in color. Specific colors are associated with certain forms. Many examples of color associations with specific meditation forms are prescribed in the Sritattvanidhi, a treatise on Hindu iconography. For example, white is associated with his representations as Heramba-Ganapati and Rina-Mochana-Ganapati (Ganapati Who Releases from Bondage). Ekadanta-Ganapati is visualized as blue during meditation in that form.

 

VAHANAS

The earliest Ganesha images are without a vahana (mount/vehicle). Of the eight incarnations of Ganesha described in the Mudgala Purana, Ganesha uses a mouse (shrew) in five of them, a lion in his incarnation as Vakratunda, a peacock in his incarnation as Vikata, and Shesha, the divine serpent, in his incarnation as Vighnaraja. Mohotkata uses a lion, Mayūreśvara uses a peacock, Dhumraketu uses a horse, and Gajanana uses a mouse, in the four incarnations of Ganesha listed in the Ganesha Purana. Jain depictions of Ganesha show his vahana variously as a mouse, elephant, tortoise, ram, or peacock.

 

Ganesha is often shown riding on or attended by a mouse, shrew or rat. Martin-Dubost says that the rat began to appear as the principal vehicle in sculptures of Ganesha in central and western India during the 7th century; the rat was always placed close to his feet. The mouse as a mount first appears in written sources in the Matsya Purana and later in the Brahmananda Purana and Ganesha Purana, where Ganesha uses it as his vehicle in his last incarnation. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa includes a meditation verse on Ganesha that describes the mouse appearing on his flag. The names Mūṣakavāhana (mouse-mount) and Ākhuketana (rat-banner) appear in the Ganesha Sahasranama.

 

The mouse is interpreted in several ways. According to Grimes, "Many, if not most of those who interpret Gaṇapati's mouse, do so negatively; it symbolizes tamoguṇa as well as desire". Along these lines, Michael Wilcockson says it symbolizes those who wish to overcome desires and be less selfish. Krishan notes that the rat is destructive and a menace to crops. The Sanskrit word mūṣaka (mouse) is derived from the root mūṣ (stealing, robbing). It was essential to subdue the rat as a destructive pest, a type of vighna (impediment) that needed to be overcome. According to this theory, showing Ganesha as master of the rat demonstrates his function as Vigneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) and gives evidence of his possible role as a folk grāma-devatā (village deity) who later rose to greater prominence. Martin-Dubost notes a view that the rat is a symbol suggesting that Ganesha, like the rat, penetrates even the most secret places.

 

ASSOCIATIONS

 

OBSTACLES

Ganesha is Vighneshvara or Vighnaraja or Vighnaharta (Marathi), the Lord of Obstacles, both of a material and spiritual order. He is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked. Paul Courtright says that "his task in the divine scheme of things, his dharma, is to place and remove obstacles. It is his particular territory, the reason for his creation."

 

Krishan notes that some of Ganesha's names reflect shadings of multiple roles that have evolved over time. Dhavalikar ascribes the quick ascension of Ganesha in the Hindu pantheon, and the emergence of the Ganapatyas, to this shift in emphasis from vighnakartā (obstacle-creator) to vighnahartā (obstacle-averter). However, both functions continue to be vital to his character.

 

BUDDHI (KNOWLEDGE)

Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and learning. In Sanskrit, the word buddhi is a feminine noun that is variously translated as intelligence, wisdom, or intellect. The concept of buddhi is closely associated with the personality of Ganesha, especially in the Puranic period, when many stories stress his cleverness and love of intelligence. One of Ganesha's names in the Ganesha Purana and the Ganesha Sahasranama is Buddhipriya. This name also appears in a list of 21 names at the end of the Ganesha Sahasranama that Ganesha says are especially important. The word priya can mean "fond of", and in a marital context it can mean "lover" or "husband", so the name may mean either "Fond of Intelligence" or "Buddhi's Husband".

 

AUM

Ganesha is identified with the Hindu mantra Aum, also spelled Om. The term oṃkārasvarūpa (Aum is his form), when identified with Ganesha, refers to the notion that he personifies the primal sound. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa attests to this association. Chinmayananda translates the relevant passage as follows:

 

(O Lord Ganapati!) You are (the Trinity) Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa. You are Indra. You are fire [Agni] and air [Vāyu]. You are the sun [Sūrya] and the moon [Chandrama]. You are Brahman. You are (the three worlds) Bhuloka [earth], Antariksha-loka [space], and Swargaloka [heaven]. You are Om. (That is to say, You are all this).

 

Some devotees see similarities between the shape of Ganesha's body in iconography and the shape of Aum in the Devanāgarī and Tamil scripts.

 

FIRST CHAKRA

According to Kundalini yoga, Ganesha resides in the first chakra, called Muladhara (mūlādhāra). Mula means "original, main"; adhara means "base, foundation". The muladhara chakra is the principle on which the manifestation or outward expansion of primordial Divine Force rests. This association is also attested to in the Ganapati Atharvashirsa. Courtright translates this passage as follows: "[O Ganesha,] You continually dwell in the sacral plexus at the base of the spine [mūlādhāra cakra]." Thus, Ganesha has a permanent abode in every being at the Muladhara. Ganesha holds, supports and guides all other chakras, thereby "governing the forces that propel the wheel of life".

 

FAMILY AND CONSORTS

Though Ganesha is popularly held to be the son of Shiva and Parvati, the Puranic myths give different versions about his birth. In some he was created by Parvati, in another he was created by Shiva and Parvati, in another he appeared mysteriously and was discovered by Shiva and Parvati or he was born from the elephant headed goddess Malini after she drank Parvati's bath water that had been thrown in the river.

 

The family includes his brother the war god Kartikeya, who is also called Subramanya, Skanda, Murugan and other names. Regional differences dictate the order of their births. In northern India, Skanda is generally said to be the elder, while in the south, Ganesha is considered the first born. In northern India, Skanda was an important martial deity from about 500 BCE to about 600 CE, when worship of him declined significantly in northern India. As Skanda fell, Ganesha rose. Several stories tell of sibling rivalry between the brothers and may reflect sectarian tensions.

 

Ganesha's marital status, the subject of considerable scholarly review, varies widely in mythological stories. One pattern of myths identifies Ganesha as an unmarried brahmacari. This view is common in southern India and parts of northern India. Another pattern associates him with the concepts of Buddhi (intellect), Siddhi (spiritual power), and Riddhi (prosperity); these qualities are sometimes personified as goddesses, said to be Ganesha's wives. He also may be shown with a single consort or a nameless servant (Sanskrit: daşi). Another pattern connects Ganesha with the goddess of culture and the arts, Sarasvati or Śarda (particularly in Maharashtra). He is also associated with the goddess of luck and prosperity, Lakshmi. Another pattern, mainly prevalent in the Bengal region, links Ganesha with the banana tree, Kala Bo.

 

The Shiva Purana says that Ganesha had begotten two sons: Kşema (prosperity) and Lābha (profit). In northern Indian variants of this story, the sons are often said to be Śubha (auspiciouness) and Lābha. The 1975 Hindi film Jai Santoshi Maa shows Ganesha married to Riddhi and Siddhi and having a daughter named Santoshi Ma, the goddess of satisfaction. This story has no Puranic basis, but Anita Raina Thapan and Lawrence Cohen cite Santoshi Ma's cult as evidence of Ganesha's continuing evolution as a popular deity.

 

WOSHIP AND FESTIVALS

Ganesha is worshipped on many religious and secular occasions; especially at the beginning of ventures such as buying a vehicle or starting a business. K.N. Somayaji says, "there can hardly be a [Hindu] home [in India] which does not house an idol of Ganapati. [..] Ganapati, being the most popular deity in India, is worshipped by almost all castes and in all parts of the country". Devotees believe that if Ganesha is propitiated, he grants success, prosperity and protection against adversity.

 

Ganesha is a non-sectarian deity, and Hindus of all denominations invoke him at the beginning of prayers, important undertakings, and religious ceremonies. Dancers and musicians, particularly in southern India, begin performances of arts such as the Bharatnatyam dance with a prayer to Ganesha. Mantras such as Om Shri Gaṇeshāya Namah (Om, salutation to the Illustrious Ganesha) are often used. One of the most famous mantras associated with Ganesha is Om Gaṃ Ganapataye Namah (Om, Gaṃ, Salutation to the Lord of Hosts).

 

Devotees offer Ganesha sweets such as modaka and small sweet balls (laddus). He is often shown carrying a bowl of sweets, called a modakapātra. Because of his identification with the color red, he is often worshipped with red sandalwood paste (raktacandana) or red flowers. Dūrvā grass (Cynodon dactylon) and other materials are also used in his worship.

 

Festivals associated with Ganesh are Ganesh Chaturthi or Vināyaka chaturthī in the śuklapakṣa (the fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of bhādrapada (August/September) and the Gaṇeśa jayanti (Gaṇeśa's birthday) celebrated on the cathurthī of the śuklapakṣa (fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of māgha (January/February)."

 

GANESH CHATURTI

An annual festival honours Ganesha for ten days, starting on Ganesha Chaturthi, which typically falls in late August or early September. The festival begins with people bringing in clay idols of Ganesha, symbolising Ganesha's visit. The festival culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi, when idols (murtis) of Ganesha are immersed in the most convenient body of water. Some families have a tradition of immersion on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, or 7th day. In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed this annual Ganesha festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. He did so "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. Because of Ganesha's wide appeal as "the god for Everyman", Tilak chose him as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule. Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day. Today, Hindus across India celebrate the Ganapati festival with great fervour, though it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra. The festival also assumes huge proportions in Mumbai, Pune, and in the surrounding belt of Ashtavinayaka temples.

 

TEMPLES

In Hindu temples, Ganesha is depicted in various ways: as an acolyte or subordinate deity (pãrśva-devatã); as a deity related to the principal deity (parivāra-devatã); or as the principal deity of the temple (pradhāna), treated similarly as the highest gods of the Hindu pantheon. As the god of transitions, he is placed at the doorway of many Hindu temples to keep out the unworthy, which is analogous to his role as Parvati’s doorkeeper. In addition, several shrines are dedicated to Ganesha himself, of which the Ashtavinayak (lit. "eight Ganesha (shrines)") in Maharashtra are particularly well known. Located within a 100-kilometer radius of the city of Pune, each of these eight shrines celebrates a particular form of Ganapati, complete with its own lore and legend. The eight shrines are: Morgaon, Siddhatek, Pali, Mahad, Theur, Lenyadri, Ozar and Ranjangaon.

 

There are many other important Ganesha temples at the following locations: Wai in Maharashtra; Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh; Jodhpur, Nagaur and Raipur (Pali) in Rajasthan; Baidyanath in Bihar; Baroda, Dholaka, and Valsad in Gujarat and Dhundiraj Temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Prominent Ganesha temples in southern India include the following: Kanipakam in Chittoor; the Jambukeśvara Temple at Tiruchirapalli; at Rameshvaram and Suchindram in Tamil Nadu; at Malliyur, Kottarakara, Pazhavangadi, Kasargod in Kerala, Hampi, and Idagunji in Karnataka; and Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh.

 

T. A. Gopinatha notes, "Every village however small has its own image of Vighneśvara (Vigneshvara) with or without a temple to house it in. At entrances of villages and forts, below pīpaḹa (Sacred fig) trees [...], in a niche [...] in temples of Viṣṇu (Vishnu) as well as Śiva (Shiva) and also in separate shrines specially constructed in Śiva temples [...]; the figure of Vighneśvara is invariably seen." Ganesha temples have also been built outside of India, including southeast Asia, Nepal (including the four Vinayaka shrines in the Kathmandu valley), and in several western countries.

 

RISE TO PROMINENCE

 

FIRST APEARANCE

Ganesha appeared in his classic form as a clearly recognizable deity with well-defined iconographic attributes in the early 4th to 5th centuries. Shanti Lal Nagar says that the earliest known iconic image of Ganesha is in the niche of the Shiva temple at Bhumra, which has been dated to the Gupta period. His independent cult appeared by about the 10th century. Narain summarizes the controversy between devotees and academics regarding the development of Ganesha as follows:

 

What is inscrutable is the somewhat dramatic appearance of Gaņeśa on the historical scene. His antecedents are not clear. His wide acceptance and popularity, which transcend sectarian and territorial limits, are indeed amazing. On the one hand there is the pious belief of the orthodox devotees in Gaņeśa's Vedic origins and in the Purāṇic explanations contained in the confusing, but nonetheless interesting, mythology. On the other hand there are doubts about the existence of the idea and the icon of this deity" before the fourth to fifth century A.D. ... [I]n my opinion, indeed there is no convincing evidence of the existence of this divinity prior to the fifth century.

 

POSSIBLE INFLUENCES

Courtright reviews various speculative theories about the early history of Ganesha, including supposed tribal traditions and animal cults, and dismisses all of them in this way:

 

In the post 600 BC period there is evidence of people and places named after the animal. The motif appears on coins and sculptures.

 

Thapan's book on the development of Ganesha devotes a chapter to speculations about the role elephants had in early India but concludes that, "although by the second century CE the elephant-headed yakṣa form exists it cannot be presumed to represent Gaṇapati-Vināyaka. There is no evidence of a deity by this name having an elephant or elephant-headed form at this early stage. Gaṇapati-Vināyaka had yet to make his debut."

 

One theory of the origin of Ganesha is that he gradually came to prominence in connection with the four Vinayakas (Vināyakas). In Hindu mythology, the Vināyakas were a group of four troublesome demons who created obstacles and difficulties but who were easily propitiated. The name Vināyaka is a common name for Ganesha both in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. Krishan is one of the academics who accepts this view, stating flatly of Ganesha, "He is a non-vedic god. His origin is to be traced to the four Vināyakas, evil spirits, of the Mānavagŗhyasūtra (7th–4th century BCE) who cause various types of evil and suffering". Depictions of elephant-headed human figures, which some identify with Ganesha, appear in Indian art and coinage as early as the 2nd century. According to Ellawala, the elephant-headed Ganesha as lord of the Ganas was known to the people of Sri Lanka in the early pre-Christian era.

 

A metal plate depiction of Ganesha had been discovered in 1993, in Iran, it dated back to 1,200 BCE. Another one was discovered much before, in Lorestan Province of Iran.

 

First Ganesha's terracotta images are from 1st century CE found in Ter, Pal, Verrapuram and Chandraketugarh. These figures are small, with elephant head, two arms, and chubby physique. The earliest Ganesha icons in stone were carved in Mathura during Kushan times (2nd-3rd centuries CE).

 

VEDIC AND EPIC LITERATURE

The title "Leader of the group" (Sanskrit: gaṇapati) occurs twice in the Rig Veda, but in neither case does it refer to the modern Ganesha. The term appears in RV 2.23.1 as a title for Brahmanaspati, according to commentators. While this verse doubtless refers to Brahmanaspati, it was later adopted for worship of Ganesha and is still used today. In rejecting any claim that this passage is evidence of Ganesha in the Rig Veda, Ludo Rocher says that it "clearly refers to Bṛhaspati—who is the deity of the hymn—and Bṛhaspati only". Equally clearly, the second passage (RV 10.112.9) refers to Indra, who is given the epithet 'gaṇapati', translated "Lord of the companies (of the Maruts)." However, Rocher notes that the more recent Ganapatya literature often quotes the Rigvedic verses to give Vedic respectability to Ganesha .

 

Two verses in texts belonging to Black Yajurveda, Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā (2.9.1) and Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (10.1), appeal to a deity as "the tusked one" (Dantiḥ), "elephant-faced" (Hastimukha), and "with a curved trunk" (Vakratuņḍa). These names are suggestive of Ganesha, and the 14th century commentator Sayana explicitly establishes this identification. The description of Dantin, possessing a twisted trunk (vakratuṇḍa) and holding a corn-sheaf, a sugar cane, and a club, is so characteristic of the Puranic Ganapati that Heras says "we cannot resist to accept his full identification with this Vedic Dantin". However, Krishan considers these hymns to be post-Vedic additions. Thapan reports that these passages are "generally considered to have been interpolated". Dhavalikar says, "the references to the elephant-headed deity in the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā have been proven to be very late interpolations, and thus are not very helpful for determining the early formation of the deity".

 

Ganesha does not appear in Indian epic literature that is dated to the Vedic period. A late interpolation to the epic poem Mahabharata says that the sage Vyasa (Vyāsa) asked Ganesha to serve as his scribe to transcribe the poem as he dictated it to him. Ganesha agreed but only on condition that Vyasa recite the poem uninterrupted, that is, without pausing. The sage agreed, but found that to get any rest he needed to recite very complex passages so Ganesha would have to ask for clarifications. The story is not accepted as part of the original text by the editors of the critical edition of the Mahabharata, in which the twenty-line story is relegated to a footnote in an appendix. The story of Ganesha acting as the scribe occurs in 37 of the 59 manuscripts consulted during preparation of the critical edition.[174] Ganesha's association with mental agility and learning is one reason he is shown as scribe for Vyāsa's dictation of the Mahabharata in this interpolation. Richard L. Brown dates the story to the 8th century, and Moriz Winternitz concludes that it was known as early as c. 900, but it was not added to the Mahabharata some 150 years later. Winternitz also notes that a distinctive feature in South Indian manuscripts of the Mahabharata is their omission of this Ganesha legend. The term vināyaka is found in some recensions of the Śāntiparva and Anuśāsanaparva that are regarded as interpolations. A reference to Vighnakartṛīṇām ("Creator of Obstacles") in Vanaparva is also believed to be an interpolation and does not appear in the critical edition.

 

PURANIC PERIOD

Stories about Ganesha often occur in the Puranic corpus. Brown notes while the Puranas "defy precise chronological ordering", the more detailed narratives of Ganesha's life are in the late texts, c. 600–1300. Yuvraj Krishan says that the Puranic myths about the birth of Ganesha and how he acquired an elephant's head are in the later Puranas, which were composed from c. 600 onwards. He elaborates on the matter to say that references to Ganesha in the earlier Puranas, such as the Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas, are later interpolations made during the 7th to 10th centuries.

 

In his survey of Ganesha's rise to prominence in Sanskrit literature, Ludo Rocher notes that:

 

Above all, one cannot help being struck by the fact that the numerous stories surrounding Gaṇeśa concentrate on an unexpectedly limited number of incidents. These incidents are mainly three: his birth and parenthood, his elephant head, and his single tusk. Other incidents are touched on in the texts, but to a far lesser extent.

 

Ganesha's rise to prominence was codified in the 9th century, when he was formally included as one of the five primary deities of Smartism. The 9th-century philosopher Adi Shankara popularized the "worship of the five forms" (Panchayatana puja) system among orthodox Brahmins of the Smarta tradition. This worship practice invokes the five deities Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, and Surya. Adi Shankara instituted the tradition primarily to unite the principal deities of these five major sects on an equal status. This formalized the role of Ganesha as a complementary deity.

 

SCRIPTURES

Once Ganesha was accepted as one of the five principal deities of Brahmanism, some Brahmins (brāhmaṇas) chose to worship Ganesha as their principal deity. They developed the Ganapatya tradition, as seen in the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana.

 

The date of composition for the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana - and their dating relative to one another - has sparked academic debate. Both works were developed over time and contain age-layered strata. Anita Thapan reviews comments about dating and provides her own judgement. "It seems likely that the core of the Ganesha Purana appeared around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries", she says, "but was later interpolated." Lawrence W. Preston considers the most reasonable date for the Ganesha Purana to be between 1100 and 1400, which coincides with the apparent age of the sacred sites mentioned by the text.

 

R.C. Hazra suggests that the Mudgala Purana is older than the Ganesha Purana, which he dates between 1100 and 1400. However, Phyllis Granoff finds problems with this relative dating and concludes that the Mudgala Purana was the last of the philosophical texts concerned with Ganesha. She bases her reasoning on the fact that, among other internal evidence, the Mudgala Purana specifically mentions the Ganesha Purana as one of the four Puranas (the Brahma, the Brahmanda, the Ganesha, and the Mudgala Puranas) which deal at length with Ganesha. While the kernel of the text must be old, it was interpolated until the 17th and 18th centuries as the worship of Ganapati became more important in certain regions. Another highly regarded scripture, the Ganapati Atharvashirsa, was probably composed during the 16th or 17th centuries.

 

BEYOND INDIA AND HINDUISM

Commercial and cultural contacts extended India's influence in western and southeast Asia. Ganesha is one of a number of Hindu deities who reached foreign lands as a result.

 

Ganesha was particularly worshipped by traders and merchants, who went out of India for commercial ventures. From approximately the 10th century onwards, new networks of exchange developed including the formation of trade guilds and a resurgence of money circulation. During this time, Ganesha became the principal deity associated with traders. The earliest inscription invoking Ganesha before any other deity is associated with the merchant community.

 

Hindus migrated to Maritime Southeast Asia and took their culture, including Ganesha, with them. Statues of Ganesha are found throughout the region, often beside Shiva sanctuaries. The forms of Ganesha found in Hindu art of Java, Bali, and Borneo show specific regional influences. The spread of Hindu culture to southeast Asia established Ganesha in modified forms in Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand. In Indochina, Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced side by side, and mutual influences can be seen in the iconography of Ganesha in the region. In Thailand, Cambodia, and among the Hindu classes of the Chams in Vietnam, Ganesha was mainly thought of as a remover of obstacles. Today in Buddhist Thailand, Ganesha is regarded as a remover of obstacles, the god of success.

 

Before the arrival of Islam, Afghanistan had close cultural ties with India, and the adoration of both Hindu and Buddhist deities was practiced. Examples of sculptures from the 5th to the 7th centuries have survived, suggesting that the worship of Ganesha was then in vogue in the region.

 

Ganesha appears in Mahayana Buddhism, not only in the form of the Buddhist god Vināyaka, but also as a Hindu demon form with the same name. His image appears in Buddhist sculptures during the late Gupta period. As the Buddhist god Vināyaka, he is often shown dancing. This form, called Nṛtta Ganapati, was popular in northern India, later adopted in Nepal, and then in Tibet. In Nepal, the Hindu form of Ganesha, known as Heramba, is popular; he has five heads and rides a lion. Tibetan representations of Ganesha show ambivalent views of him. A Tibetan rendering of Ganapati is tshogs bdag. In one Tibetan form, he is shown being trodden under foot by Mahākāla, (Shiva) a popular Tibetan deity. Other depictions show him as the Destroyer of Obstacles, and sometimes dancing. Ganesha appears in China and Japan in forms that show distinct regional character. In northern China, the earliest known stone statue of Ganesha carries an inscription dated to 531. In Japan, where Ganesha is known as Kangiten, the Ganesha cult was first mentioned in 806.

 

The canonical literature of Jainism does not mention the worship of Ganesha. However, Ganesha is worshipped by most Jains, for whom he appears to have taken over certain functions of Kubera. Jain connections with the trading community support the idea that Jainism took up Ganesha worship as a result of commercial connections. The earliest known Jain Ganesha statue dates to about the 9th century. A 15th-century Jain text lists procedures for the installation of Ganapati images. Images of Ganesha appear in the Jain temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

 

WIKIPEDIA

 

As you can tell from my rather crude drawing, all of this is in extremely bad taste, so if you think you might be offended, please don't read on. And please don't think I'm being homophobic in the skit about the Abbot; heterosexuals get short shrift later on too! Misanthropic is probably the word :o)

 

Note my personification of death is female when the victim is male: an idea which I thought was reasonably original until I saw Cocteau's 'Orphee'...

 

For Hans Holbein's wonderful engravings of the Dance of Death, which inspired these skits, see:

www.godecookery.com/macabre/holdod/holdod.htm

 

... and follow the links.

 

THE DANCE OF DEATH

a bawdy masque

  

Giles Watson

 

based on the engravings of

Hans Holbein

 

2001

 

THE CEMETERY

 

Death 1:

Beat the drum with knucklebones,

Let your kneecaps rattle.

All are dead, no god atones,

Dead, like bloated cattle.

Beat the drum, the skin stretched tight,

With jawbone castanet:

These fools, who hoped for love and light -

Darkness rules them yet.

Throbbing as their hearts once throbbed,

Robbed of breath, as once they robbed.

Beat the drum, the bodhran flay;

Consign their corpses to decay.

 

Death 2:

Blow the pipe through fleshless lips,

Blow, as squalid humour drips

Between the slats of coffins cold,

And spent blood nourishes the mould.

Pucker up and blow the pipe

For bodies black, flyblown and ripe,

Green with phosphorescent glow:

Putrid piper, pout and blow.

 

Chorus:

Every king and every pope

Shall die by cancer, blade or rope,

Every merchant, pauper, slave

Shall lie grinning in the grave.

All the wise, the Reaper culls:

All shall soon have empty skulls.

Every fool shall bend the knee

And Death shall have the victory.

  

THE ABBOT

 

Death (aside):

 

I’m going to enjoy this one:

He’s portly, and he’s plump!

I’ll warrant that he got that way

By sitting on his rump!

His rump! It cannot come with him

He must leave it behind!

I’d let him keep it for a while,

But I feel disinclined…

 

(Death stealthily approaches the Abbot, who sits beneath a tree, gloating over a mitre and crozier.)

 

Abbot:

 

(The abbot is fat and imperturbable. Death creeps behind and listens to his pederastic musings, occasionally reaching out for his shoulder, and then thinking the better of it. At last, she can bear the temptation no longer, and she begins to interrupt.)

 

Ah! My pert and pretty monks!

I have made it my mission

To confess each one of you

In a new position.

 

Ah! My pert and pretty monks,

You each took my dictation,

Or else I had your bottoms stripped

All pink, for flagellation!

 

Ah! My pert and pretty monks,

And now I’m getting old,

I’ve left our abbey half in ruins

And purloined all the gold.

 

Ah! My pert and pretty monks!

Your tonsures shaven neatly –

If I’d had my way you’d have shed

Your habits quite completely.

 

Ah! My pert and pretty monks!

I’ll tuck each in his bed –

 

Death:

 

And Abbot, you will pay the price

Now that you are dead.

 

Abbot:

 

Who said that? My pretty monks?

They wouldn’t be so cheeky!

Perhaps it is the Bishop? No!

He wouldn’t dare be sneaky.

 

Someone spoke – or else I’m mad

I heard it – someone said –

 

Death:

 

Abbot you will pay the price

Now that you are dead.

 

(The Abbot starts, turns, and sees Death. He is terrified.)

 

Abbot:

 

Oh! My pert and pretty monks!

My strong monks, white and brawny!

Hurry now to rescue me,

For this one’s far too scrawny!

 

(Death snatches the mitre and crozier, and leers at him.)

 

Oh! My pert and pretty monks!

She’s vile! She stinks! She’s slobbery!

My mitre and my crozier!

Why! This is daylight robbery!

 

Death:

 

Robbery? You did it well –

But stole no maidenhead!

You’ll make a pretty whipping boy

For all the living dead!

You’ve spent your flesh on novices –

Confessed them of their sin,

But now, my dear, that you are mine

You soon shall wear my grin.

 

(Death plucks him from his seat and drags him away screaming.)

  

THE ASTROLOGER

 

(The Astrologer sits and contemplates the heavens, surrounded by paraphernalia. )

 

Astrologer:

 

Our ancestors were dumb, and blind,

For man is nothing without mind –

‘Tis intellect makes humankind.

 

Mind will conquer natural forces,

Mind will plot the stellar courses,

And trace all creatures to their sources.

 

The astrolabe maps out the sky

To show us where our fortunes lie –

Foretell the future, past defy.

 

The quadrant gives us time, and place

To benefit the human race

More soundly than the Church’s grace.

 

And other planets shall we find,

The influence of each opined,

For intellect makes humankind.

 

(Death enters, holding forth a skull. As she speaks, the Astrologer tries to ignore her, but at last is compelled to listen. He cries out and dies, and Death’s last words are chanted triumphantly over his body.)

 

Death:

 

And yet your intellect deserts

The cavern in your head.

There shall be no more need for brains

When humankind is dead.

Your eyes opaque like Mercury;

You’ll say goodbye to Venus –

No floozy in a cockle shell

Shall ever come between us.

‘Twill be too dark to contemplate

Conundrums from the stars –

There’ll be nought but rats, with twinkling

Eyes as red as Mars.

Forget the moons of Jupiter;

They’ll only prove it’s time

To leave the firmament behind,

Your quadrants caked with grime.

You’ll not discover Saturn’s rings;

Neptune’s beyond your scope;

Appeals to Copernicus

Will not appease the Pope,

Besides, my minions own him too,

No prayer can contain us;

Enlightenment will fail you when

My worms crawl up Uranus.

The planets all are in their place

With every constellation –

So what? This bleached and fleshless skull

Demands your contemplation.

Your auguries have blinded you;

You’re starstruck with deceit.

A man is but a skeleton

Hung with bits of meat.

 

(Death takes hold of the astrologer by the hair, lifting up his head. She holds the skull alongside it, laughs, and drags him away.)

  

THE BLIND OLD MAN

 

(The Blind Old Man stands on a street corner, hoping to cross the road.)

 

Old Man:

 

Oh, who will help a blind old man

To cross the busy street?

For all I hear is clattering hooves

And sounds of tramping feet.

Will someone take me to a tavern

For a pint of best?

And sit me down before the hearth

That I might take my rest?

 

(Death comes up and takes him by the hand.)

 

Death:

 

I am well known for courtesy

And helping men to rest –

No other has, for ageing souls

Less grudging interest.

Take my hand, good gentleman,

For I have heard your pleading,

And no one ever went astray

Surrendered to my leading.

 

(Death leads him forward.)

 

Old Man:

 

‘Tis kind of you, dear lady,

This debt I shall repay –

I could not wish for firmer hand

To lead me on my way.

And yet, your hand is cold, my dear,

Like icicles, and bony –

And since I last went to the inn

The way has grown more stony.

 

(Death says nothing, but leads him on.)

 

Old Man (reaching out and grasping something):

 

What? Is this the tavern door?

It is of iron wrought!

Where are all the babbling voices,

The company I sought?

 

Death:

 

Your senses are deceiving you –

For herein sits a host

A-drinking ale beside the hearth,

And all as warm as toast.

 

Old Man (reaching out again):

 

Why does the bar feel like a slab

Of lichen-covered stone?

And why do all the pewter mugs

Feel like chalky bone?

 

(Death says nothing, but begins to play.)

 

Old Man:

 

Ah – at least there’s music here,

And yet, the carpet’s rank,

And never did a fireside

Smell so dull and dank.

Lead me now, I’ll take a seat,

This night I’ll pass away…

 

(He takes another step forward, and plunges straight into an open grave.)

 

Death:

 

Well chosen words! You will indeed!

And there’s no bill to pay.

A lych-gate was the tavern door;

A gravestone was the bar –

Your resting place a yawning grave

Left carelessly ajar.

 

(She throws soil into the grave.)

 

Good night, old gentleman, goodnight!

My wriggling worms, sup well –

Thus rings the bell to summon him

To heaven or to hell.

  

THE IDIOT FOOL

 

Fool:

 

(The fool has a bladder bauble and a bulging codpiece.)

 

Bedlam’s reject; I’m a Fool,

This bladder bauble is my tool.

I have another ‘twixt my legs –

Give it a pat – see how it begs!

I’ve tangled hair,

My feet are bare,

I caper on without a care,

And I have no need to be fed

For poverty’s all in the head.

 

Death:

 

(Death spits at the bauble, and blows on the Fool’s codpiece. The Fool groans a lot.)

 

Heaven’s reject, I am Death;

I blow my pipes to steal your breath.

My grimy jaw will spit forth acid

To make your bauble limp and flaccid.

Hear how he sighs

When blown by flies,

For no mortal Death defies:

Think me not some vain phantasm;

I’ll clutch you ‘til your final spasm!

 

Fool:

 

(The Fool knocks Death to the ground with his bauble, but then proceeds to put Death back together again.)

 

Be brave now bauble: fight the foe

Though the plump bluebottles blow!

Wrap your blubber round his jaw;

Bring him clattering to the floor!

Death’s too late!

He’s foiled by fate!

Death shall disarticulate!

See! To prove that I am clever

I’ll now put Death back together.

 

Death:

 

(Death arises once more, and dances away with the Fool.)

 

O! Fated Fool! Inflated Fool!

To prick your pride would be too cruel!

Methinks that I shall take you whole

And have you mounted on a pole!

For ne’er did I

Compel to die

A finer fool! Fum foe and fie!

Bedlam’s reject, Death’s elect,

Though you’re dead, you’re still erect!

  

THE KING

 

(The King sits at his table, eating and drinking. His Food Taster hovers obsequiously nearby.)

 

King:

 

The Queen is dead

(Or so I’m told) –

She’ll not inherit

All my gold.

Besides, she criticised

Of late

My interest in

Affairs of State –

Though she knew nought

Of my success

With that comely

French princess,

Or how I filled

All Italy

With my bastard

Progeny.

 

These women!

How they prate and prattle

Of faithfulness!

Fat chance that’ll

Ever win

A king his fame.

These preaching prelates

Are to blame;

They think that

Chastity’s the thing

That makes a strong,

Successful king.

Fiddlesticks!

Though they be vexed,

A good king’s always

Highly sexed:

He likes a bare

And ample bust,

A horn of wine,

Good food, and lust.

 

Food Taster:

 

Alas! Alack! Though ‘tis no matter,

I cannot offer you the latter,

But ‘ere you caper off to bed,

A man’s libido must be fed.

Pray, wrap your gullet round some food –

I swear, ‘twill much improve your mood.

 

(The Food Taster pours gruel into a dish. A sideways glance reveals her to the audience as Death. She grimaces, and tips in a phial of poison, then makes a show of tasting the gruel. The King takes the food and gulps it noisily.)

 

Death:

 

Delightful, ‘tis! To watch you feed – O!

Stimulant to your libido!

I’ll sit and watch your tongue turn black,

Choked on aphrodisiac.

 

(The King looks up at Death, now fully revealed, in horror. He spits out the remaining food, and claws desperately at his throat. He reaches for a jug of water, but Death snatches it away from him, and pours it out before him. The King dies, and Death leads him away, singing.)

 

Death:

 

Spilt, like water, is your life –

‘Twas I who took your Queen and wife,

And now you’re mine, as all must be!

Nought satisfies like royalty.

  

THE KNIGHT

 

Death’s Chorus:

 

(Recited after every second verse sung by the Knight..)

 

Tarsus flanged with metatarsus,

O! What fun arranging ‘em!

Click! Clack! All my vertebrae

Are flanging with my cranium!

Chop me up! Dismember me!

Mortus est! But then,

A little orthopaedic skill

Brings Death to life again!

 

Knight:

 

(As he sings the first verse, Death enters, visored, and they fight.)

 

I am a bold, courageous knight;

I’m fierce against the foe!

I chop off heads, and arms and legs

And balls, with every blow!

 

I shall hew you limb from limb,

And I’ll show no remorse-o!

I’ll leave you wriggling on the ground,

A bloody, legless torso!

 

(He cuts Death’s legs off. Death falls, and sings her Chorus, putting herself back together.

She stands up again. They fight.)

 

Knight:

 

I am a bold, courageous knight;

My foe gives me the shits!

That is why I swing my sword

And chop the chap to bits!

 

Chop, plop! Chop, plop! You horrid foe!

I’ll have your brains embalmed!

Chop, plop! Chop, plop! Surrender, fool!

For thou hast been disarmed!

 

(He chops Death’s arms off. Death sings her Chorus, and puts herself to rights. They fight.)

 

Knight:

 

I am a bold, courageous knight;

I chop the enemy,

And watch his limbs fall left and right

Like branches from a tree.

 

Aha! You bounder! Strike your blow!

I fear it is belated!

I struck first, you craven foe,

And you’re decapitated!

 

(He chops off Death’s head. Death sings her Chorus, and puts herself to rights. They fight.

Death aims a blow between his legs.)

 

Knight:

 

I am a bold, courageous knight!

Take that! Foe beware!

Ouch! That hurt! Below the belt!

Foul play! That isn’t fair!

 

Ouch again! You bloody bounder!

My balls, O! How they bleed!

Death has thwarted me, O woe!

And I shall die knock-kneed!

 

(The Knight dies dramatically and bloodily. Death exults over him, and sings her final Chorus:)

 

Sinews severed, gametes gashed!

Death always wins the fight!

All armour has a chink somewhere,

You poor, unmanly knight!

Can-opened, tin-snipped and castrated!

All your joints are dislocated!

Unflanged thou art, thou luckless knave

Fit for nothing but the grave!

  

THE MISER

 

(The Miser sits at his table, counting money.)

 

Miser:

 

Ten gold pieces – I despise

Those wastrels in the street,

Frittering their wealth away;

I hear them from my seat.

 

Twenty pieces – how I loathe

Those spendthrifts, reckless, rash!

None of them is worth a penny

From my petty cash!

 

Thirty pieces – hear them laugh

As though their lives were funny!

But will they make such idle sport

When they run out of money?

 

Forty pieces – all their children

Rot their teeth on candy;

Men waste their cash on prostitutes

When they are feeling randy.

 

Fifty pieces – they build fires –

The very thought’s offensive –

Enlightened men prefer the cold,

For it is less expensive.

 

Sixty pieces – they have lanterns –

What a heinous scandal!

For gold will glitter just as well

When held up to a candle.

 

Seventy pieces – they drink ale

And work it off in dances,

But ale and dancing will do nought

To rescue their finances.

 

Eighty pieces – they think themselves

Unfettered, fancy-free,

But every last one is my slave

By dint of usury.

 

Ninety pieces – when they’re sick,

They need not look to me –

Let each one dig his own grave;

I’m done with charity.

 

(Death appears, and sweeps all the money off the table and into a basket. The Miser looks on in horror.)

 

Death:

 

A hundred pieces! You’ll admit

With your last dying groans

That once you had a hundred gold;

Now you’re a hundred bones.

 

Hear them revelling outside –

Who cares if they owe rent?

A thousand grains of sand per coin,

But all of yours are spent!

 

(Death takes up her hour-glass, grabs him viciously by the wrist, and hauls him away. The table tips over, and the few remaining coins clatter to the floor.)

  

THE NUN

 

(The Nun and her Lover sit side by side on a chair, looking nervous. The lover plays aimlessly with a lute.)

 

Lover:

 

Your habit’s very fetching, dear;

I like the way your wimple

Reveals a wisp of comely hair.

You have a sexy dimple –

I’d rather like to kiss it, dear,

With your kind permission…

 

(He makes as if to kiss her cheek, but she turns away, and then kneels on the floor.)

 

Nun:

 

But I must pray, my love, before

You lead me to perdition.

 

(She lights a candle, and places it on the altar before her.)

 

Oh, I am such a naughty nun

But perhaps it’s not too late

To say a penitential psalm

Before we fornicate.

Oh, life is far too difficult

Stuck inside a cloister;

That’s why, when bed-time comes around

My sheets are often moister

And more disordered than you might

Expect a nun’s to be…

 

Lover (getting up):

 

Ahem. Excuse me. Won’t be long.

I think I need to pee.

 

Nun (ignoring him and fiddling with rosaries):

 

Oh, I am such a naughty nun;

I really should be spanked

The way they do with naughty monks

When they’re found to have wanked.

 

(As her speech continues, Death comes in and sits on the chair, in the space vacated by her lover. He waits patiently for his chance.)

 

Trying to cover up the stains –

It’s such a cause for stress,

And trying to stop the springs from creaking’s

Hard, I must confess,

But I must not confess too loud –

That would cause a to-do…

 

Death:

 

Not half the confab it’ll cause

When I’ve had my way with you!

 

Nun:

 

Oh, don’t talk dirty, dear, not now!

I’m trying to be prayerful –

And sorely must I now repent

Of all the ways we’re careful:

The rhythm method’s not for me;

A sheath’s far more protective…

 

Death:

 

Fear not, dear! I know a method

Infinitely more effective.

 

(She stops praying, and turns to look at Death. He grins, holding up the hourglass. She screams horribly, and dies. Death idly gets up from the seat, snuffs the candle with his fingers, and animates her corpse. He takes up the lover’s lute, and begins to play. They dance away together.)

 

Death (departing):

 

Priests and bishops, clerks and canons:

All of these are fun,

But if a good time’s what you want,

There’s nothing like a nun!

  

THE OLD WOMAN

 

(An old woman totters along, stooped over her rosary. Her lips tremble, but make no noise. Every step is clearly a trial. Death dances up to her, garlanded with laurels.)

 

Death:

 

Your fingers are gnarled, like the roots of an oak,

And stained like old parchment, sullied with smoke,

And yet you persist with your rosary prayer,

Though no angel listens and no god will care.

The coffin your cradle, your shroud will enfold,

And I shall release you, through mildew and mould.

 

I’ll crawl in your ear and bite through to the brain,

And your brittle old bones will feed the gold grain,

I’ll snap every tendon, like mandolin strings,

And tune you anew at the coming of spring,

For once you were sprightly, but now you are old,

So I shall release you, through mildew and mould.

 

No hero can help you; none succour nor save,

But the cold wind will sprinkle the seeds on your grave,

The orbs of your eyes will be plied with white roots,

The blood in your veins grows verdant green shoots.

My arms may be fleshless, but still, they can hold

While I release you, through mildew and mould.

 

(Death holds her tenderly, and she collapses in his arms. He gently lays her out on the ground, and covers her with his garlands. The masque ends.)

  

THE PARSON

 

(A Parson walks solemnly towards the bed of a dying man. He holds the monstrance before him, ready to give the sufferer his last rites. Unrecognised by the Parson, Death capers ahead of him, making obscene gestures.)

 

Death (aside to audience):

 

When I’m on earth, ‘tis normally right

To give a mortal man a fright

By appearing in my glory,

Announcing grim ends to the story.

Today, however, I’ve a mind

To keep this poor old parson blind –

Indeed! Delightful possibility!

I shall maintain invisibility,

While, with monstrance held aloft,

My parson, with his brains gone soft,

Goes, the last rites to administer.

He’ll find that I’ve done something sinister

When he gets there, for his sheep

Is dead already. Ahead I’ll creep…

 

Parson:

 

Griswald was not good, ‘tis true –

He beat his mistress black and blue –

He always was a naughty one.

Kyrie elaison.

 

Death:

 

‘Tis true, dear parson! You should know,

For when his mistress came to blow

You, she told all Griswald did.

Then you paid her fifty quid.

 

Parson:

 

Griswald was a drunk, I fear,

Always revelling in beer.

But now his drinking days are gone.

Kyrie elaison.

 

Death:

 

‘Tis true that beer was his drink –

You kept the whisky, though, I think!

That’s why your visit’s so belated –

Because you were inebriated.

 

Parson:

 

Griswald often stole, they say,

At times when all good Christians pray.

He liked to purloin, pinch and con.

Kyrie elaison.

 

Death:

 

‘Tis true that Griswald was a thief –

To pious souls, ‘tis such a grief.

Maggots make his dead limbs writhe

While you pilfer half the tithe.

 

Parson:

 

Here I come, from heaven sent

With the holy Sacrament.

May he repent before I’m gone.

Kyrie elaison.

 

(The Parson arrives at the dead man’s bedside, perceives that he is too late, and crosses himself. He is about to bless the corpse with the monstrance when Death reveals herself. At Death’s last words, the Parson trembles with fear, drops the monstrance, and runs away. Death takes up the corpse and dances off with it.)

 

Death:

 

Corpus Christi – holy smoke-us!

Done with all this hocus-pocus!

“This is my body” – very true:

White as fish-flesh, eyelids blue!

I’ve deprived you of your function:

He’s too extreme for any unction.

Go home, and hold your monstrance steady –

I’ve done the sinner in already.

  

THE PHYSICIAN

 

Physician:

 

The humours of the body;

The mysteries of the mind –

These I research, I wrestle Death:

I nurse the deaf, the sick, the blind.

Bring me urine, steamy still –

I’ll analyse, concoct a pill;

Stool samples too – o’er them I pore,

Suppositories made to salve the sore,

Balms for binding wounds of war –

 

One war I fight, ‘ere I have breath –

I fight to conquer grisly Death.

 

(Death enters, grinning widely, and offers the physician a flask of urine. The physician takes it, and examines it, as if he is looking into a crystal ball.)

 

Ah! Goodness gracious! Let me see!

Indeed! A piping pot of pee!

Colour: yellow; Smell: oh dear!

An ailing specimen, I fear!

This pee augurs dire thrombosis!

Woe is me! A grim prognosis!

 

Death (laughing):

 

Grim indeed! I can affirm

No patient could be more infirm –

He couldn’t hold the flask quite steady;

I have him in my grip already.

 

(The physician puts the flask down hurriedly, and wipes his hands.)

 

Physician:

 

And who are you, to speak so boldly?

Why do your sockets stare so coldly?

I’ve seen your face somewhere before,

On surgeon’s slab, or field of war.

 

Death:

 

I am your foe, you worthless quack,

Thanks to me, you’ve lost the knack!

Oft-times you have assisted me,

With your slapdash surgery!

 

(Death grasps the physician by the throat, then relents.)

 

I have a mind to take you now,

Whilst you are young and tender,

But, alas! You must yet live,

My services to render.

He prospers well, the man who teaches:

Anaemia is cured by leeches,

Put cyanide in every pill,

And arsenic ends every ill.

 

To kill you now? That wouldn’t do –

For Death owes far too much to you!

I’ll guide your knife, but let you be,

If you will serve me faithfully.

 

(Death tips the urine on the physician’s head and departs, leaving the physician staring in bewilderment at the empty flask.)

  

THE POPE

 

I wanted him in his finery, tiara on his head,

Little thinking how my worms were longing to be fed.

 

I wanted him upon his throne, when emperors bowed the knee

To kiss his foot - now gentle Death has come to set him free.

 

I’ll send my demons on ahead, one with warrant sealed;

The other one will taste his blood before it has congealed.

 

I’ll lean upon my crutch and watch him, pompous and obscene

And I shall never let him go until his skin turns green.

 

My fleshless fingers seize his shoulder, shattering his hope:

I wanted him when but a babe; I’ll have him now he’s Pope.

  

THE PREACHER

 

Preacher:

Hear the Word of life and love,

Vouchsafed to all, gift from above.

Press on, flock, your crowns to win,

Turn from darkness and from sin.

My lips anointed by the One…

 

But what is this I look upon?

My gorge is filling up with gall -

He beckons, bids my sermon stall!

My tongue is swallowed, breath is fled,

Come Christ, who quickens all the…

 

Death:

Dead! Dead! Dead! Dead!

And worms shall twist your tongue instead!

For though your words were kindly meant

Death is far more eloquent!

The Word is truth? Why, mine is lies,

But crows shall still pick out your eyes.

You choke, and flail, and thresh about;

The glass inverted, sands run out.

You’ve cast your pearls before the swine:

You once were God’s, but now you’re mine!

  

THE PRINCE BISHOP

 

Fools in Chorus:

 

Hail! Our Prince Bishop! O how you resemble

A lion in his pride, for you never tremble!

Hail! Our Prince Bishop, don’t take us to task

For the rather grim nature of our little masque –

For we foretell the day when Death gives you greeting

And you lay down your crook, leave your little lambs bleating.

When Death comes a-piping, your mitre you’ll doff –

We have hopes, our dear patron, that day is far off.

 

(The Bishop, old and doddering, wanders about, leaning on his crook. Death approaches stealthily, and grasps him by the hand.)

 

Death:

 

Good evening, old codger,

You hoary Death-dodger –

My minions expect you;

I’ve come to collect you,

So shed all your livery

Ripe for delivery

Down in the shivery

Land of the shade.

Your flesh will be stinking,

Hear, Bishop, the clinking

Of the gravedigger’s spade.

 

Sir, are you afraid?

 

Bishop:

 

Welcome, co-traveller,

Life’s kind unraveller,

I fear not to meet you,

Nor seek to defeat you.

You knock at my door!

Should I quake to the core

At one funeral more?

My masque is all played.

All wrongs are amended,

The drama is ended

When I am unmade.

 

I am not afraid.

 

Death:

 

Are you failure or fool

To fear not a ghoul?

My stench will surround you,

My spectres will hound you.

They’ll purloin your gold

At my chilly threshold

All cloying with mould

Where devils deride.

And your gorge, it will rise,

At the buzzing of flies

That no flesh can abide.

 

Aren’t you terrified?

 

Bishop:

 

‘Tis my mission to bless,

Not to seek vain success,

And no demon nor ghoul

Can deride a true fool.

You will grant, it is well:

I have no sense of smell,

So lead me pell-mell

And I’ll dance by your side.

And as for the flies,

Let my flesh be their prize –

‘Tis no use now I’ve died.

 

I am not terrified.

 

Death:

 

You’re no fun! I feel cheated –

But I’ll not be defeated!

See my wolves! How they creep

To devour your sheep,

And you can do nought

My scheming to thwart,

Though your God be besought –

You are far from his ear.

For your crook, it lies broken

And there’s no other token

For those you hold dear.

 

Sir, do you not fear?

 

Bishop:

 

Kindly Death, soft thy sting,

Fun’s a relative thing –

Will wolves worrying my sheep

Disturb my deep sleep?

Nay! Providence rules you

As lifelessness cools you.

Each mourning soul fools you

By shedding a tear.

So, pray, lead the way;

I’ve no business to stay –

You’ve no reason to sneer,

 

For why should I fear?

 

(The Bishop offers Death the crook of his arm. She shrugs her shoulders despairingly, links arms with him, and reluctantly dances away with him.)

 

THE QUEEN

 

Queen:

 

Oh, how I long to be fulfilled, but I am left alone:

My husband’s mind’s on other things, since he took the throne.

Long perished is the amorous sport, which flourished when we wed:

I long for love; my sorry heart is empty as my bed.

Where’s my jester, full of cheer,

Belly full of frothing beer?

His coxcomb is my one delight;

His codpiece gets me through the night.

 

Death (disguised as a Fool):

 

Here I am, my mistress pretty –

Tell me, do you think me witty?

Your heart is empty as your bed?

Nay, ma’am, ‘tis empty as my head!

 

Queen:

 

Empty as your head, my dear?

Tease me not, but sit you here –

No hour with you was ever dull,

Yet you profess an empty skull.

 

Death:

 

My codpiece, ma’am, is empty too,

But much joy has it brought to you:

In airy dreams, behind my shroud,

You kindly call me well endowed.

 

And in my chest, there breathes no lung;

I jest, and yet possess no tongue,

But still my leering brings you cheer;

You giggle when I lick your ear.

 

Queen:

 

Oh, churlish Fool! Your humour’s black –

Be careful, or you’ll get the sack.

 

Death:

 

Your highness – careful what you say!

For I wear sackcloth every day.

 

(Death reveals herself, and grasps the Queen roughly by the wrist.)

 

Sackcloth, wrapping bones and dust:

And nought is left but lifeless lust.

 

Queen:

 

A lifeless lust, and humour vile –

And no lips to frame your smile!

A lustful Death? I heed your call –

‘Tis better than no lust at all.

 

I truly am your mistress now,

And you shall break my wedding vow:

Here, my charmer, take my ring,

For you have cuckolded the King.

  

THE SAILORS

 

Narrator:

 

Waves crash o’er the pitching deck,

The wind the fo’csle batters,

And rats are leaping o’er the side,

The sail’s in shreds and tatters.

The captain stands upon the bridge…

 

Captain:

 

This ship shall not go down

As long as I have breath to breathe

For I would sooner drown!

 

Narrator:

 

The captain, clinging to the helm

Will not desert his crew

Until his lungs are filled with brine;

Until his lips turn blue.

 

Captain:

 

Man the bilge-pumps, gallant crew,

And I shall hold her fast,

For no gale’s too much for her

While she still bears a mast.

 

Narrator (now revealed as Death):

 

On a little stick of Rowan

The captain’s faith is cast,

But I shall soon bring down his hope!

The crew shall watch aghast.

 

(Death clambers towards the mast.)

 

Death:

 

Food for urchins,

Food for eels;

Barnacles on broken keels.

Food for lobsters:

Dainty dish –

The candle is an angler fish.

Food for crabs

With jagged claws;

Food for sharks

With gaping jaws.

No bit of you shall rest in earth

Until your skull rolls in the surf.

 

(Death breaks down the mast; the Captain looks at her in horror and plunges into the sea.)

 

Death:

 

To drown is a poetic thing:

No human hand your lungs can wring.

They soak up water like a sponge.

Through icy depths you writhe, and plunge.

Your limbs will thresh about awhile

Until your lips begin to smile:

A stream of bubbles, then no more:

The darkness of the ocean floor.

 

(Death gloats over the sinking ship, and the masque ends.)

   

Quote by Leonardo da Vinci

 

Fin dall’inizio il castello di Torrechiara fu pensato come struttura difensiva ma anche come dimora isolata. Fu fatto costruire da Pier Maria Rossi, conte di San Secondo, fra il 1448 e il 1460 per il nobile stesso e la sua amante Bianca Pellegrini di Arluno, dama di corte dei Visconti di Milano.

Il locale più importante è la Camera d'Oro, attribuita al famoso pittore Benedetto Bembo per celebrare, ad un tempo, la storia d'amore tra Pier Maria e Bianca Pellegrini e la potenza del casato attraverso la raffigurazione di tutti i castelli del feudo.

Sulle pareti sono dipinte figure storiche e mitologiche con cui Pier Maria si proponeva di condividere i valori: Sansone ed Ercole, allegorie della forza fisica, Virgilio e Terenzio, simboli della cultura e dell'intelletto. Sulla volta a crociera Bianca viene raffigurata nei panni che richiama il cognome, cioè come pellegrina (vedi la fotografia) da una rocca della contea all'altra.

La camera era così chiamata per la decorazione a foglie d'oro che ricopriva le formelle in cotto che la rivestivano interamente. La decorazione non è oggi più presente perché all'inizio del XX secolo l'allora proprietario, Pietro Cacciaguerra, asportò l'oro e disperse tutti gli arredi originali.

Foto panoramica di circa 120° realizzata con l'unione di 6 immagini

 

Torrechiara (Parma) - The gold room

From the beginning the castle of Torrechiara was conceived as a defensive structure but also as a isolated mansion. It was built by Pier Maria Rossi, count of San Secondo, between 1448 and 1460 for himself and his lover, Bianca Pellegrini from Arluno, lady of the court of Visconti in Milan.

The most important room is the “Golden Chamber” attributed to famous painter Benedetto Bembo to celebrate, at the same time, the love story between Pier Maria and Bianca Pellegrini and the power of the family through the representation of all the castles of his feud.

The walls are painted with mythological and historical figures which Pier Maria set out to share the virtues: Samson and Hercules, allegories of physical power, Virgilio and Terenzio, symbols of latin culture and intellect. On the vault Bianca is portrayed in the role that recalls her prename, as a pilgrim (see the photo).

The room was so called because of the decoration in gold leaf that covered the terracotta tiles. The decoration isn’t now more present because in the early twentieth century the last owner, Pietro Cacciaguerra, removed the gold and scattered all its original furnishings.

 

Around 120° panoramic photo made with the combination of 6 images

 

Use without permission is illegal.

Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission.

 

Saraswati Yantra focalizes intellect and helps you to improve knowledge and retain it. Saraswati Yantra also helps you to improve your concentration.

" A woman's life revolves in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man's life progresses."

~ Oscar Wilde,

"An Ideal Husband (1895)," Act IV [6]

 

thanks, mquest!

Swami Vivekananda - A spiritual genius of commanding intellect and power, foremost disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the first religious ambassador from India to the western world.

 

For more info. about him, please check -

 

www.belurmath.org/swamivivekananda.htm

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda

 

Nikon D300s | Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX | Hand held

Celastraceae (staff vine or bittersweet family) » Celastrus paniculatus

 

see-LAS-trus -- from the ancient Greek kelastros, the name of another tree

pan-ick-yoo-LAY-tus or pan-ick-yoo-LAH-tus -- referring to the flower clusters (panicles)

 

commonly known as: black-oil plant, celastrus, oriental bittersweet, intellect tree, staff tree • Bengali: kijri, malkangani • Gujarati: માલકંગના malkangana • Hindi: मालकंगनी malkangani • Kannada: ಭವಮ್ಗ bhavamga, ಜೊತಿಷ್ಮತಿ jotishmati, ಕರಿಗನ್ನೇ kariganne, ಕೊಉಗಿಲು kougilu • Konkani: माळकांगोणी malkangoni • Marathi: कांगुणी kanguni, माळकांगोणी malkangoni • Oriya: korsana, pengu • Sanskrit: अलवण alavan, ज्योतिषमति jyotishmati, कन्गु kangu • Tamil: குவரிகுண்டல் kuvarikuntal, மண்ணைக்கட்டி mannai-k-katti, வாலுளுவை valuluvai • Telugu: కాసరతీగె kasara-tige, మానెరు maneru • Urdu: کنگني مال malkanguni

 

Native to: India, China, Sri Lanka, south-east Asia

  

References: Flowers of India • Sahyadri Database • ENVIS - FRLHT • eFlora

"Men of broader intellect know that there is no sharp distinction betwixt the real and the unreal."

 

R.I.P. HP Lovecraft

intelligence concept

Oh Rama! There is no intellect, no nescience, no mind and no individual soul (Jiva). They are all imagined in the Brahman.

 

[Vasistha Gita]

Year of the Monkey

 

Lunar Lanterns, giant lanterns representing animal signs of the Chinese zodiac in city centre locations from 6–14 February.

 

Tai Chi Rabbits

  

"People born in the Year of the Monkey are fun-loving, energetic and inquisitive. Their intellect allows them to adapt to any situation, they are confident, charismatic, loyal and inventive.

Sometimes, the Monkey can be a little too curious for his or her own good, as well as careless, restless, immature and arrogant."

  

whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/posts/lunar-lanterns

Flickr friends here in AZ for a short visit. Today they are on their way up toward Jerome and Sedona, unless she changed her mind.

For more info on our trip to the Forbidden City, check out

Postcard Intellect

Celastraceae (staff vine or bittersweet family) » Celastrus paniculatus

 

see-LAS-trus -- from the ancient Greek kelastros, the name of another tree

pan-ick-yoo-LAY-tus or pan-ick-yoo-LAH-tus -- referring to the flower clusters (panicles)

 

commonly known as: black-oil plant, celastrus, oriental bittersweet, intellect tree, staff tree • Bengali: kijri, malkangani • Gujarati: માલકંગના malkangana • Hindi: मालकंगनी malkangani • Kannada: ಭವಮ್ಗ bhavamga, ಜೊತಿಷ್ಮತಿ jotishmati, ಕರಿಗನ್ನೇ kariganne, ಕೊಉಗಿಲು kougilu • Konkani: माळकांगोणी malkangoni • Marathi: कांगुणी kanguni, माळकांगोणी malkangoni • Oriya: korsana, pengu • Sanskrit: अलवण alavan, ज्योतिषमति jyotishmati, कन्गु kangu • Tamil: குவரிகுண்டல் kuvarikuntal, மண்ணைக்கட்டி mannai-k-katti, வாலுளுவை valuluvai • Telugu: కాసరతీగె kasara-tige, మానెరు maneru • Urdu: کنگني مال malkanguni

 

Native to: India, China, Sri Lanka, south-east Asia

  

References: Flowers of India • Sahyadri Database • ENVIS - FRLHT • eFlora

“All 7 and we'll watch them fall. They stand in the way of love, and we will smoke them all with an intellect and a savoir-faire…”

7: Prince, Symbol

 

I don’t know how to describe what it is that I like so much about this song… perhaps simply it is that it is so very unlike his other works. I have great memories of listening to this with my roommate in college. I wouldn’t take a stab at the true story behind the lyrics or the meanings intended. This song just always spoke to me on a subconscious level.

 

*** Artist Notes ***

The fallen seven…

 

Lyrics:

All 7 and we'll watch them fall

They stand in the way of love

And we will smoke them all

With an intellect and a savoir-faire

 

No one in the whole universe

Will ever compare

I am yours now and u are mine

And together we'll love through

All space and time, so don't cry

One day all 7 will die

 

All 7 and we'll watch them fall

They stand in the way of love

And we will smoke them all

With an intellect and a savoir-faire

 

No one in the whole universe

Will ever compare

I am yours now and u are mine

And together we'll love through

All space and time, so don't cry

One day all 7 will die

 

And I saw an angel come down unto me

In her hand she holds the very key

Words of compassion, words of peace

And in the distance an army's marching feet (1,2,3,4 - 1,2,3,4)

But behold, we will watch them fall

 

And we lay down on the sand of the sea

And before us animosity will stand and decree

That we speak not of love only blasphemy

And in the distance, 6 others will curse me

But that's alright, (that's alright)

4 I will watch them fall(1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

 

All 7 and we'll watch them fall

They stand in the way of love

And we will smoke them all

With an intellect and a savoir-faire

No one in the whole universe

Will ever compare

I am yours now and u are mine

And together we'll love through

All space and time, so don't cry

One day all 7 will die

 

[(Just how old)]

 

And we will see a plague and a river of blood

And every evil soul will surely die in spite of

Their 7 tears, but do not fear

4 in the distance, 12 souls from now

U and me will still be here - we will still be here

 

There will be a new city with streets of gold

The young so educated they never grow old

And a, there will be no death 4 with every breath

The voice of many colors sings a song

That's so bold

Sing it while we watch them fall

 

All 7 and we'll watch them fall

They stand in the way of love

And we will smoke them all

With an intellect and a savoir-faire

No one in the whole universe

Will ever compare

I am yours now and u are mine

And together we'll love through

All space and time, so don't cry

One day all 7 will die

 

Steve and Dan Case embrace after Dan, investment banker and chairman of JP Morgan H&Q, introduced his brother Steve,CEO of AOL Time Warner, as final keynote speaker at a technology conference. BY ERIC LUSE/THE CHRONICLE

 

Daniel H. Case III, who presided over technology banking boutique Hambrecht & Quist during the explosion of new-economy financing, died early Wednesday morning (June 27, 2002) after a 15-month battle with brain cancer. He was 44.

A Princeton University graduate and Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, Case was reputed to be a towering intellect who loved financial complexity and new ideas. Friends said he embraced the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley and enjoyed combining the business strategies of young startups with financing concepts that would help them grow and succeed.

Under Case's guidance, H&Q was either an investor in, or underwriter of, Genentech, Adobe, Netscape and about 600 other companies. H&Q was one of the original San Francisco investment banks that financed that explosion of new West Coast growth companies.

His achievements drew accolades from the financial press. Business Week named Case one of Silicon Valley's 25 Power Brokers, and Time listed him as one of the Top 50 Innovators in Technology.

Case started with H&Q as an intern in 1979 and returned after his Rhodes scholarship. "From the day he arrived, he was in a class by himself," said William R. Hambrecht, the founder of H&Q . "He was so bright and so fascinated by the subject. I never saw anybody learn quicker. He was a natural."

 

"Dan was a hero and inspiration to us all," Stephen Case, his brother and the chairman of AOL Time Warner, said in a statement.

H&Q was sold to Chase Manhattan in 1999 for $1.35 billion in cash, the last and largest in a wave of local firms sold to outside commercial banks. What remains of the firm is now part of JPMorgan Chase, the result of the 2000 merger between those two financial companies, both based in New York.

Case was diagnosed with brain cancer in March 2001 and underwent surgery within a week. Though he retained the title of chairman and was still available to H&Q staff, he turned over the reins of the operation to his successors while he focused his efforts to finding a cure for brain cancer. Case founded a nonprofit organization, ABC2 (Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure), that is dedicated to speeding up discoveries in brain cancer therapy.

 

He died at home at about 12:25 a.m. Wednesday June 27th, 2002 according to a spokeswoman for JPMorgan.

Among the companies Case embraced early was Quantum Computer Services, a predecessor to America Online, and he brought in his brother Steve Case to run it. Under Dan Case's leadership, H&Q was an early-stage investor in Quantum, but H&Q did not handle any of AOL's public offerings out of a concern for an appearance of a conflict of interest.

Hambrecht brought Case into H&Q as an intern at the recommendation of a friend at Princeton. During dinner at the former Jack's restaurant in San Francisco's Financial District one night, Case offered a detailed, often critical critique of the firm. Afterward, Hambrecht said, he called his wife told her, "I think I just had dinner with a kid who should run H&Q."

The firm hired Case after his return from Oxford, where he had studied management, and he never left. He rose through the ranks, becoming a partner in charge of venture capital investments, the co-head of mergers and acquisitions, and the head of investment banking.

He was named co-chief executive in 1992 and CEO in 1994. At the time of his death, he was the chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan H&Q.

Despite his accomplishments, he remained humble, friends say. "It must've been difficult for him, because he was always the smartest guy in the room, to have such intellect and marry it with such humility," said David Golden, JPMorgan's head of West Coast investment banking. "He was best at seeing around corners, seeing the implications of a particular move. It was like a chess player who could see five or six moves ahead."

Case was born in Hawaii. In addition to his professional and cancer activities, he served on the boards of directors of AMB Property Corp., the Bay Area Council, Electronic Arts, and the National Science and Technology Medal Foundation.

He was on the executive committee of the Technology Network board and the nominating committee for the New York Stock Exchange. He was also a benefactor to the San Francisco Exploratorium, San Francisco Ballet and United Way.

He is survived by his wife, Stacey Black Case, and their two children,

John Daniel and Charlotte; sons Alexander and Winston, from his previous marriage to Marian Hudson; his parents, Dan and Carol Case;

his brothers, Steve and Jeff; and his sister, Carin.

The funeral will be held at Grace Cathedral on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. The family has asked that memorials be made to his foundation, ABC2, at www.abc2.org.

For more information on our visit to Kiev and to learn how to take pictures like these, please visit Postcard Intellect

www.riverhillgardens.co.uk/

History

 

The John Rogers who bought Riverhill in 1840 was an only child, with a modest fortune, and a fine intellect. He became a classics scholar, a scientist and a friend of Charles Darwin. He was one of the first members of the Royal Horticultural Society and a patron of the plant collectors of the day.

 

He chose Riverhill because its sheltered situation offered an ideal lime free hillside where he could hope to establish newly introduced trees and shrubs. From his garden notebook, it can be seen that planting started in 1842. Subsequent generations, continued the planting and in 1910 Colonel John Middleton Rogers created what is now known as ‘The Wood Garden’ a fine collection of Japanese Maples, Rhododendrons and Azaleas. His wife, the infamous Muriel, created many additions including the now hidden Rock Gardens.

 

Until the beginning of the 2nd World War, eight full time gardeners kept Riverhill looking immaculate. Since the war years, however, a shortage of manpower and a lack of money has meant that the garden was allowed to deteriorate, with many parts of the original planting lost to everyday use and visitors.

 

Today, four generations of the Rogers family live at Riverhill,

 

The estate is managed by Edward Rogers (Great-great-great-grandson of the John Rogers who bought Riverhill in 1840) and his wife, Sarah.

  

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Om gam ganapataye namaha!

 

This was taken at Kripalu Yoga Center in Lenox, MA in the Western Mass Berkshires.

 

Although he is known by many other attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify. Ganesha is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles and more generally as Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles (Vighnesha, Vighneshvara), patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom. He is honored at the start of rituals and ceremonies and invoked as Patron of Letters during writing sessions.

 

I am invoking Ganesh as I get back into my (abandoned) yoga practice.

Year of the Monkey

 

Lunar Lanterns, giant lanterns representing animal signs of the Chinese zodiac in city centre locations from 6–14 February.

 

Goat

  

"People born in the Year of the Monkey are fun-loving, energetic and inquisitive. Their intellect allows them to adapt to any situation, they are confident, charismatic, loyal and inventive.

Sometimes, the Monkey can be a little too curious for his or her own good, as well as careless, restless, immature and arrogant."

  

whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/posts/lunar-lanterns

Yesterday I saw a very faint shadow of the lampshade on the wall in the study. It was cast by diffuse sunlight coming through the north facing window. Paradoxical thoughts about perception and representation haunted my mind for the rest of the day.

 

What was I looking at? A lampshade ... a shadow ... the wall with all its scratches and smudge marks ... the join in the paper ... or a representation of a lampshade?

 

Representation

In order to 're-present' something there has to be an intention, in a human mind, to make a representation. For example, a painter would decide to take a brush, oils and a canvas to make the physical, palpable representation that would be referred to as 'the painting'. However, what I saw on the wall was not created through any human intention ... it just occurred by chance. There was no palpable, tangible object on the wall that I could detect with the sense of touch. So no intention had made it and I couldn't touch it ... so what I saw on the wall can't then be a representation.

 

Palpability test

But there was something there ... I could see it ... I photographed it. I had an intention to make a representation of what I saw so that I could share with you my dilemma of paradoxes. I used a device called a digital camera ... it reduced what I had seen to an invisible string of codes stored electronically inside the device. I used another device called a computer to tweak those codes so that what I had originally seen would be somewhat exaggerated and more likely to appeal to the aesthetic sensibilities of other humans living in this generation. As I looked at my digital representation on the computer screen I was underwhelmed ... it had none of the presence of the thing I saw. It was a representation of the thing I saw and displayed remotely on a computer it lacked palpability ... it was 'in my face' but it wasn't really 'there'. So I made a print on exhibition paper and it started to come to life and had some presence. I even put on it pencil marks to represent the label, ‘Graham’, that my late parents had given me all those years ago.

 

Print becomes code

Having made the print and stroked my hands on it and held it I considered its impact under different intensities and qualities of daylight. But now I have diminished its impact again by using a scanner to re-present that palpable thing as a digital image to be shared on Flickr and Facebook.

 

Why do I do this?

I'm still none the wiser about whether to define it as "a lampshade ... a shadow ... the wall with all its scratches and smudge marks ... the join in the paper ... or a representation of a lampshade" but I do now think I know why I went through that rigmarole. One of the intrinsic rewards I get from my photography is the satisfaction of curiosity and the enjoyment of playing of an intellectualised aesthetic game. I also realise now that I'm quite a show-off and so one of the extrinsic rewards for me would be the approbation of others.

 

An alternative hypothesis emerges

Which leaves me thinking what would others be seeing, my representations or "the thing itself"?

 

Is "the thing itself" a lampshade / shadow, a digital image of a lampshade / shadow or a print of a digital image of a lampshade / shadow?

 

Or is "the thing itself" not the thing photographed nor its representation but actually the spectator sport of someone playing an intellectualised aesthetic game?

 

Graham Barnes - 23 May 2017

with a little help from my hand otherwise a perfect fit ^^

"Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think."

 

Camera: Nikon D90

Objective: Nikkor 50mm 1/4

Edited in: Lightroom 4 and CameraBag 2

He uses his keen intellect and advanced blade to disassemble and reconfigure opponent machinery.

“In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad gita, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial; and I doubt if that philosophy is not to be referred to a previous state of existence, so remote is its sublimity from our conceptions.

 

I lay down the book and go to my well for water, and lo! there I meet the servant of the Bramin, priest of Brahma and Vishnu and Indra, who still sits in his temple on the Ganges reading the Vedas, or dwells at the root of a tree with his crust and water jug. I meet his servant come to draw water for his master, and our buckets as it were grate together in the same well. The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges.”

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

"Ipes/ Ayperos is a prince and count of hell, who commands 36 legions. He appears as an angel or lion with the head and feet of a goose and a short hair’s tail. Ipes knows of the past and future, gives men intellect and courage, and can tell of hidden treasures" -Collin de Plancy (translated, paraphrased)

 

THE DUCK OF DOOM

 

Sorry, had to.

 

ANYWAY... Ipos is kind of run-of-the-mill as far as Goetic demons go, at least in terms of what he does. I think there are like five who specifically tell the future and find treasure - but he ALSO makes people witty and valiant! And there's the problem - too much wit and too much blind courage will get you killed.

 

Though I still have a hard time being intimidated by Loosey Goosey's evil cousin. Really. I mean, look at him! Imagine him quacking at you! Eh, Geese are kind of vicious, anyway. Aren't they?

 

Featured on Life In Plastic: nerditis.com/2013/01/23/life-in-plastic-obscure-toys-you-...

Picture of the clocktower at the Guildhall in Winchester. My wife and I took a day trip there yesterday and the brooding skies made for a nice backdrop to this gothic looking image.