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Se viene el segundo partido de la selección argentina en el mundial de Sudáfrica 2010. La cábala entra en acción.
"Coronados de gloria vivamos, o juremos con gloria morir" reza la inscripción en la espalda de la camiseta oficial.
¡Vamos Argentina!
--
It is the second game of Argentina in the World Cup 2010. Kabbalah comes into play.
"Crowned with glory we'll live, Oh we swear to die gloriously," reads the inscription on the back of the jersey.
Go Argentina go!
Strobist info: SB-900 1/128 power 85mm zoom camera left. Triggered by PW.
e-rara- Bibliothèque Électronique Suisse -Alchemy, Magic and Kabbalah (Foundation of the Works of C.G.Jung)
Referencia post:
English:
Hello everyone
On this scheme, I'm opening the most controversial thing among my memories from the Sistine Ceiling.
By all historical accounts, the first maps describing India done by the british reached Europe on the late 1500's. When I was studying that information, in the late 1980's, I used to react rationally when trying to understand my memories, saying to myself: "Well, maybe I'm seeing things… maybe there's no India map there…"
But deep inside I still had that feeling screaming loud: "Hey, that painting was created by myself and I remember something clearly related to a map describing India!"
The concrete historical information denying my memories had a huge influence to keep me hiding my spiritual world. But I had another feeling. Something about secrets on the Sistine Ceiling designed to be unveiled just by myself, the reincarnated author.
The years passed and no new information showed up to confirm my memories.
Since 2012 that I'm posting everything on the web for free just because I know that nobody will never believe on me.
By the way, the only detail that can give some credibility to my memories is the positioning of the goat head on the left: the back of it is exactly the city of Mylapore, where Saint Thomas was murdered by the King Mahadevan.
The bull head, or the cow head, has the main meaning of stating the origin of reincarnation because it's the form that gave birth to hebrew letter Alef. But… it can also indicate India for sure.
With this post you can understand the previous one.
The goat skull is the mystical synthesis of reincarnation and resurrection, which is the idea of salvation expressed on Sistine Ceiling.
For a better organization of what it's being revealed:
1) Look Backwards (previous post)
2) The Fusion of Kabbalah and Kundalini (this post)
3) The Martyrdom of Saint Thomas (next post)
Português:
Olá a todos
Neste esquema, estou abrindo o ponto mais controverso das minhas memórias do Teto da Capela Sistina.
Todos os relatos históricos afirmam que os primeiros mapas descrevendo a India feitos pelos britânicos chegaram à Europa no final do século XVI. Quando encontrei essa informação, no final dos anos 1980, eu costumava reagir racionalmente ao tentar entender as minhas memórias e repetia para mim: "Bem, talvez eu esteja vendo coisas ... talvez não haja nenhum mapa da India lá ..."
Mas, no fundo, aquela sensação gritava bem alto: "Ei, essa pintura foi criada por mim mesmo e me lembro de algo claramente relacionado com um mapa que descreve a Índia"
A informação histórica concreta negando as minhas memórias teve uma influência enorme para manter-me escondendo meus segredos. Mas eu sentia que haviam segredos no Teto da Capela Sistina que foram pensados para serem revelados apenas por mim mesmo, o autor reencarnado.
Os anos se passaram e nenhuma informação nova apareceu para confirmar as minhas memórias.
Desde 2012 que estou postando tudo na web de graça, só porque sei que ninguém nunca vai acreditar em mim.
O único detalhe que pode dar alguma credibilidade às minhas memórias é o posicionamento da cabeça da cabra da esquerda: a parte de trás dela é exatamente onde fica a cidade de Mylapore, onde São Thomas foi assassinado pelo Rei Mahadevan.
A cabeça de touro, ou a cabeça de vaca, tem como função principal afirmar a origem da ideia de reencarnação, porque é a forma que deu origem à letra hebraica Alef. Mas... também pode indicar a Índia, com certeza.
Com este post, você pode entender melhor o post anterior.
O crânio do bode é uma síntese mística da reencarnação e ressurreição, que é a idéia de salvação expressa no Teto da Capela Sistina.
Para uma melhor organização do que está sendo revelado:
1) Olhe para trás (post anterior)
2) A Fusão de Cabala e Kundalini (este post)
3) O Martírio de São Tomás (próximo post)
English:
This is another shocking proof of my memories about the Sistine Ceiling scheme. Although this identification requires someone with mystical culture, there's no room for misunderstandings. In fact, I was very reluctant about revealing the Tantric chakras definitions and illustrations, and its Sanskrit writings as the most important visual references in my work for the Ceiling just because of this Ajna chakra.
Last year, after the release of the first schemes related to the Kabbalah, I knew I would have to start working fast after the first post about a Tantric chakra called Anahata (www.flickr.com/photos/poggi00/8042056719/). After that, it would be very, very easy for anyone to see Ajna displayed on the painting known as Creation Of The Sun and The Moon. But then, I remembered that we live in a scientific society that do not consider any info without academical references and physical proofs. Since I didn't leave any notations about the Sistine Ceiling meaning and I don't have any credibility today, I understood that there would be some kind of "protection" for the originality of my revelations. Well, I finally reached the painting inspired on the an Ajna illustration and posted it! What a relief! Hurray!!!
The other protection for my authenticity is the simbolic complexity of my drawings for the Sistine Ceiling. It would be a trap for any idiot who try to steal the infos revealed on my posted schemes.
truesistineceiling.blogspot.com.br/
Português:
Esta é mais uma prova chocante das minhas memórias sobre o esquema de teto da Capela Sistina. Esta identificação exige alguém com cultura mística, mas não há espaço para mal-entendidos. Na verdade, eu estava muito relutante em revelar o sistema tântrico de chakras, suas ilustrações e a escrita em sânscrito como as referências visuais mais importantes em meu trabalho para o teto apenas por causa deste chakra Ajna.
No ano passado, após a divulgação dos primeiros esquemas relacionados com a Kabbalah, eu sabia que teria que começar a trabalhar rápido após o primeiro post sobre um chakra tântrico chamado Anahata (www.flickr.com/photos/poggi00/8042056719 /). Depois deste post, seria muito, muito fácil para qualquer um de ver Ajna exibido na pintura conhecida como "Criação do Sol e da Lua". Mas, logo, lembrei-me de que vivemos em uma sociedade científica que não considera as informações sem referências acadêmicas e provas físicas. O simples fato de eu não ter deixado quaisquer anotações sobre o significado do Teto da Sistina e por eu não ter nenhuma credibilidade hoje, percebi que haveria um tipo de "proteção" para a originalidade das minhas revelações. Bem, finalmente cheguei no esquema da pintura inspirada no Ajna chakra e postei! Que alívio! Ufa!
A outra proteção para a minha autenticidade é a complexidade simbólica dos meus desenhos para Teto da Capela Sistina. Seria uma armadilha para qualquer idiota que tentar roubar as informações reveladas nos esquemas explicativos que já postei.
A member of Messiah Foundation International puts leaflets with the image of the Awaited Messiah into P.O boxes Leaflets bearing the images of the Awaited Messiah Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi in P.O boxes (Tel Aviv, Israel).
A leaflet bearing the image of the Awaited Messiah Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi on a noticeboard (Tel Aviv, Israel).
by Pseudobruitismus Africamus
pseudobruitismusafricamus.blogspot.com.es
+ Iglesia del surf del cristo risueño de la costa LTD. 2015
e-rara- Bibliothèque Électronique Suisse -Alchemy, Magic and Kabbalah (Foundation of the Works of C.G.Jung)
Referencia post:
A few miles from the Sea of Galilee, just north of the ancient city of Safed, stands Mount Meron. Many important sages are buried there, but Meron is most well-known for the burial site of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Rabbi Shimon, who lived in the 2nd century CE, was the first to publicly teach the mystical dimension of the Torah known as the Kabbalah, and is the author of the basic work of Kabbalah, the Zohar.
I'm more than moderately interested in magic, both from a fantasy "hey watch me throw this Fireball" point of view, and from the perspective of the historical curiosity of the Hermetic movement from the late 1500s up into the early part of the 20th century and even today.
One of the more common features of this movement is, of course, the Qabalistic Tree of Life, composed of ten Sephirah (sing. Sephiroth) and the pathways that join them. It is simultaneously a map of the cosmos, a map of the human being, and a map of the relationships between them.
So. All very high-falutin' stuff, and there's a copy of the Tree of Life diagram in almost every historical book on magic ever published; there's frequently a similar diagram in almost every gaming supplement on magic ever published, too. The diagram is always the same, so frequently the same size and with the same geometrical relationships present that one has to assume that the book editors plagiarized the diagram from each other, eventually even ripping off the ur-creator of the Tree of Life, who was probably just dicking around with the 14th century equivalent of Adobe PageMaker. "Ooooh! Look at me! I drew a 'magical' symbol! Hey... I wonder how many other charlatans I can get to copy my drawing as legitimate magic? Hmmmm?"
So as I was reading a book on geometry and sacred forms (among other things), it came as a great surprise to me to discover that this form is in fact based on a set of precise mathematical and geometric relationships. The reason this diagram always looks like this is that it's based on an underlying set of geometric principles, which are themselves derived from Islamic and Jewish tiling patterns (such as I've already drawn and posted here).
So, if you want to draw your own Tree of Life, here's how:
1) Draw a straight line.
2) Start at one end, and draw a circle with the centerpoint at one end of the line.
3) Draw a new circle, using the intersection point of the previous circle's circumference with the straight line as the center of the new circle.
4) Repeat step (3), three more times.
You should now have a straight line bisecting four circles, each of whose circumference touches the circumference of the next circle. the places where the circle circumferences intersect each other are the center points of the sephiroth. Only one point doesn't have a sephirah, but if you've seen this image enough, you'll be able to figure out where it should be absent.
e-rara- Bibliothèque Électronique Suisse -Alchemy, Magic and Kabbalah (Foundation of the Works of C.G.Jung)
Referencia post:
Death Cult is part of Neapolitan culture. Traditionally, elderly people are fervidly convinced, the departed souls of their beloved ones keep on living in their homes as spirits. They can visit their living relatives during the night, when the latter ones are asleep and dream.
In Naples things get quite pragmatic. So, those family spirits don't waste their time visiting their former relatives for engaging any philosophical matter or metaphysical dilemma. Not at all. They appear during the REM phase and give an advice in Neapolitan dialect about hard boiled urgencies: "Do not trust that old neighbour on the fifth floor. She is just an old pawnbroker" "You have to find another hiding place for your cash. Your nephew has found it and keep on stealing your bucks every now and then" "your wife is charting you with the mailman" and so on…But first of all, spirits appear during the REM phase and reveal the winning LOTTO numbers. They do not exactly say "you have to play number 3, 17 or 22". They tell little stories with symbols (the horse, the chariot, the old lady at the window, the talking dead, the Carabinier's, etc…), which will be then "decoded" at daytime through the "Smorfia" handbook.
"La smorfia" is a book that details the Neapolitan tradition of interpreting dreams by associating them with numbers and then betting those numbers in the state lottery, Lotto. Whether your dreams run to the songs of Stephen Foster, or the Book of Genesis, la smorfia may be the way to finally pan some true nuggets from your nightly rivers of surrealism. Traditional dream themes in la smorfia cover everything from water to death to dawn to money, sex, trips, birds, blood, accidents, family, food and any change, twist or perversion of the human condition you could possibly—well, dream up. Most Neapolitans on the street know at least a few numbers of la smorfia. If you dream of God or Italy, then play number 1; an insane person is 22; if you are frightened by a dream, bet 90.
The word smorfia, itself, probably derives from Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. If that is so, then the presence of the smorfia tradition in Naples can be plausibly linked to the ancient Greek origins of the city of Naples. In other words, it is very old and possibly even an extension of the ancient Greek tradition of oneirocriticism—interpreting dreams. Although the smorfia is generally associated with Naples, other towns in southern Italy have their own local versions, which are different from the Neapolitan one. Indeed, there really is no single Neapolitan version although most of the important themes generally carry the same number from version to version. It is certainly not possible to pin down the “first” smorfia since the dream-number associations were handed down orally. The first printed versions in the Middle Ages simply recorded established folk tradition. There is also a plausible link to the number-word mysticism of the Jewish Kabbalah, according to which every Hebrew letter, word, number, even the accent on words of the Hebrew Bible contains a hidden sense; the Kabbalah teaches the methods of interpretation to determine these meanings.
How Precious is Thy LovingKindness, O God.
Ma Jakar Chasdecha Elohim, from The Psalms of David.
I wrote these words on a found beach pebble, from the Mediterranean shore. Protected with a triple layer of sealer. The pebble hangs from a wirewrapped bail, made of 925 oxidized sterling silver wire.
The delicate 1mm oxidized 925 sterling silver Italian chain is 18inch long.
The pebble is 1-3/4inch x 1-3/8inch large.
The Kabbalah of Sefirat HaOmer - Counting The Omer
This year i succeeded in counting each day from the second day of Passover, marking the Exodus from Egypt, until the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.
The process is known as Counting The Omer. It is an essential element of Kabbalah, and enables us to lift ourselves from the depths of the degradations of slavery to the highest levels of freedom and union with the Angels and Ha Shem. Each day corrected and cleansed one defect I caused in the purity of the celestial spheres.
I used three apps on my iPhone to help me to remember the day and the count. I really did count the evening of each day. However, there were four days where I did not register the count in this particular app. After the fourteenth day, I kept this chart updated and I saved each one. I found this colorful chart a source of delight
IMG_3652 - Version 2
The amulet integrates Psalm 121 and the various Kabbalistic formulas seeking the assistance of G-d and his respective angels to protect both a pregnant woman and infant child from physical danger or spiritual harm. It includes the sacred formulas to combat Lillith and lists the names of the specific protective angels.
[Original work is 30x30cm but could be enlarged, integrated into other paintings, or produced with alternative colour on customer's request.]
English:
Hello everyone
This body crucified on a trunk is by far the most important 2D image in my life. This painting made me say: "Okay, I'm Michelangelo. So what do I do now?"
But my self discovering was very complicated. The conclusion following the first impression was terrifying: "Okay, that thing is inside myself. What is going to happen with me?"
This body and variations of it kept showing up among my drawings for years. I could even say that my Resurrection Project was entirely created from it.
It's almost impossible to prove what I'm saying about this painting. But there's some issues that could possibly prove that my memories are for real and this painting is really The Martyrdom of Saint Thomas. Here are two points that can be very clarifying:
1# According to the traditions, Haman was hanged or impaled. So what could be the explanation for a crucified body? After many years of thinking/reading about that, I didn't find any hint that could assure Haman as the crucified body.
2# On the other hand, the traditions state that Thomas was killed with spears. But there's a detail about Thomas that can decide the quest in his direction. Some gnostic traditions called Thomas the Twin Brother of Jesus, as a spiritual metaphor. What could be a better way to make that connection with Jesus than a crucified body?
More memories from my past life:
- I remember that the man at the right pointing his finger was intended to be saying: "If you want to understand that the crucified one is Saint Thomas, so you have to look backwards!" In the 1980s, I used to rave to myself: "The one who knows that this crucified body is Thomas shall be claimed as Michelangelo's reincarnation…"
- The India's seal on the right is probably very similar to something I used as reference to the entire Sistine Ceiling design.
- The only way to understand this painting as the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas is through a close comparison with the The Fusion of Kabbalah and Kundalini (traditionally known as The Sacrifice of Noah).
- The whole meaning of the painting is very clear to me due to the symbolic connections. Maybe you can feel that visual connections as well. But that's all.
- In opposition to other disclosed secrets, this one seems intended to be a certainty restrained to myself.
For a better organization of what it's being revealed:
1) Look Backwards (www.flickr.com/photos/poggi00/16900221845/)
2) The Fusion of Kabbalah and Kundalini (previous post)
3) The Martyrdom of Saint Thomas (this post)
Português:
Olá a todos
O corpo crucificado no tronco é, de longe, a imagem em 2D mais importante na minha vida. Esta pintura me fez dizer: "Ok, eu sou Michelangelo. O que faço agora?"
Mas a auto descoberta foi bem complicada. Logo em seguida, conclui: "Ok, essa coisa está dentro de mim. O que vai acontecer comigo?"
Este corpo e variações dele apareceu nos meus desenhos durante anos. Posso até dizer que o meu Projeto Ressurreição saiu dele.
É quase impossível provar o que estou dizendo sobre esta pintura. Mas há detalhes que poderiam apontar que minhas memórias são reais e esta pintura é realmente O Martírio de São Tomás. Eis dois pontos esclarecedores:
1# Segundo tradições, Haman foi enforcado ou empalado. Então, qual explicação para um corpo crucificado? Nunca encontrei qualquer indício de que seria Haman o corpo crucificado.
2# Por outro lado, tradições afirmam que Tomás foi morto com lanças. Mas há um detalhe sobre Tomás que pode decidir a favor dele. Tradições gnósticas definem Tomás como o irmão gêmeo de Jesus, em um sentido metafórico espiritual. Um corpo crucificado seria uma boa maneira de fazer essa conexão com Jesus.
Mais memórias de minha vida passada:
- Lembro-me que o homem à direita apontando o dedo tinha a intenção de dizer: "Se você quiser entender que o crucificado é São Tomás, você tem que olhar para trás!" Na década de 1980, eu costumava falar para mim mesmo: "Aquele que sabe que este corpo crucificado é Tomás deve ser apontado como a reencarnação de Michelangelo."
- O selo da Índia na direita é provavelmente muito semelhante a algo que utilizei como referência no projeto do teto da Capela Sistina.
- A única maneira de entender esta pintura como O Martírio de São Tomás é através de uma comparação direta com A Fusão da Cabala e Kundalini (tradicionalmente conhecida como o Sacrifício de Noé).
- Em oposição a outros segredos revelados, este parece ter o objetivo de ficar restrito à minha pessoa.
CALLED: (08/16)
She's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaackkkkkk...
Full name: Darcy Milton
Age: 20
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Occupation: Being Famous
Hair Color: Reddish-Auburn
Eye Color: Lavender/Blue
Personal Style: I am DARCY!
Why I should make it Into TMI:
After clawing my way up to the top 5 season 1, I am back to inspire a whole new generation! I am America's sweetheart who lost her way but never gave up and came back better than ever! I am a role model for young girls, teaching them never to let anyone dull your sparkle! I have been enlightened through my newly adopted practices of kabbalah and went on a pilgrimage across the world as a journey of self discovery in order to find a new meaning of life and the beautiful world we live in! I am strong, I am beautiful, I am Darcy Milton! Thank You!
Who's team I would like to be on:
I need not choose, which ever way the wind chooses to blow, that is the place that is truly meant for me to succeed and prosper in this competition!
2 John 1:9-11 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Aryeh Moshe Eliyahu Kaplan[1] (Hebrew: אריה משה אליהו קפלן; 23 October 1934-28 January 1983)[2] was a noted American Orthodox rabbi and author known for his "intimate knowledge of both physics and kabbalah."[3] He was lauded as an original thinker and prolific writer, from studies of the Torah, Talmud and mysticism to introductory pamphlets on Jewish beliefs and philosophy aimed at non-religious and newly religious Jews.[4] His works are often regarded as a significant factor in the growth of the baal teshuva movement.[5]
Rabbi Kaplan was born in the Bronx, New York City, to the Sefardi Recanati family of Salonika, Greece. He studied at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas and the Mir yeshiva in Brooklyn. Kaplan received semicha from some of Israel's foremost rabbinic authorities, including Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel. He also earned a master's degree in physics and was listed in a "Who's Who in Physics" in the United States.[6]
His major influence was Rabbi Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld (1922–1978), who single-handedly introduced the teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov to American shores beginning in the 1950s, inspiring many students at Brooklyn yeshivas, especially Torah Vodaas. Working together, Kaplan and Rosenfeld translated and annotated Rabbi Nachman's Tikkun (based on the Tikkun HaKlali). At Rosenfeld's suggestion, Kaplan also produced the first-ever English translation of Sichot HaRan ("Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom"), which Rosenfeld edited. He also translated and annotated Until the Mashiach: The Life of Rabbi Nachman, a day-to-day account of Rebbe Nachman's life, for the newly established Breslov Research Institute founded by Rosenfeld's son-in-law, Chaim Kramer.
Kaplan's later writings further explored Hasidut, Kabbalah and Jewish meditation. (Kaplan himself utilized the meditative form of Kabbalah on a daily basis.[7])
From 1976 onward, Kaplan's major activity was the translation into English of the recently translated (Ladino into Hebrew, 1967) anthology, Me'am Lo'ez. He also completed The Living Torah, a new translation of the Five Books of Moses and the Haftarot, shortly before his death. Kaplan was described by Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, his original sponsor, as never fearing to speak his mind. "He saw harmony between science and Judaism, where many others saw otherwise. He put forward creative and original ideas and hypotheses, all the time anchoring them in classical works of rabbinic literature." His works reflect his physicist training—concise, systematic, and detail-oriented.[4] His works continue to attract a wide readership, and are studied by both novices and the newly religious, as well as by scholars where the extensive footnotes provide a unique resource.
He died suddenly of a heart attack on January 28, 1983, at the age of 48.[8] He was buried on the Mount of Olives, off Aweiss street, in the part known as "Agudas Achim Anshei America" "Chelek Alef" (Portion 1).
Kaplan produced works on topics as varied as prayer, Jewish marriage and meditation; his writing was also remarkable in that it seamlessly incorporated ideas from across the spectrum of Rabbinic literature, including Kabbalah and Hasidut. His introductory and background material contain much scholarly and original research. In researching his books, Kaplan once remarked: "I use my physics background to analyze and systematize data, very much as a physicist would deal with physical reality."[6] This ability enabled him to undertake monumental projects, producing over 60 books.[4] His works have been translated into Czech, French, Hungarian, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
"The Living Torah", Rabbi Kaplan's best-known work, is a widely used, scholarly (and user friendly) translation into English of the Torah. It is noteworthy for its detailed index, thorough cross-references, extensive footnotes with maps and diagrams, and research on realia, flora, fauna, and geography. The footnotes also indicate differences in interpretation between the classic commentators. It was one of the first translations structured around the parshiyot, the traditional division of the Torah text. (Moznaim, 1981, ISBN 0-940118-35-1)
"Handbook of Jewish Thought," produced early in his career, is an encyclopedic and systematic treatment of Judaism's fundamental beliefs.[9] Because of the work's structure and detail, the references, with the index, can serve as a research resource across almost all of rabbinic literature. (Moznaim, Vol. 1, 1979, ISBN 0-940118-49-1; Vol. 2, 1992, ISBN 0-940118-79-3)
"Torah Anthology," a 45-volume translation of Me'am Lo'ez from Ladino (Judæo-Spanish) into English. Rabbi Kaplan was the primary translator.
"Tefillin: God, Man and Tefillin"; "Love Means Reaching Out"; "Maimonides' Principles"; "The Fundamentals of Jewish Faith"; "The Waters of Eden: The Mystery of the Mikvah"; "Jerusalem: Eye of the Universe" — a series of highly popular and influential booklets on aspects of Jewish philosophy which span the entire spectrum of Jewish thought, as well as various religious practices. Published by the Orthodox Union/NCSY.[6] or as an anthology by Artscroll, 1991, ISBN 1-57819-468-7.
Five booklets of the Young Israel Intercollegiate Hashkafa Series — "Belief in God"; "Free Will and the Purpose of Creation"; "The Jew"; "Love and the Commandments"; and "The Structure of Jewish Law" launched his writing career. He was also a frequent contributor to The Jewish Observer. (These articles have been published as a collection: Artscroll, 1986, ISBN 0-89906-173-7)
"The Real Messiah? A Jewish Response to Missionaries"(PDF).
Kaplan translated and annotated classic works on Jewish mysticism — "Sefer Yetzirah", "Bahir", and "Derekh Hashem" — as well as produced much original work on the subject in English. His Moreh Ohr, a Hebrew-language work, discusses the purpose of Creation, tzimtzum and free will from a kabbalistic point of view.
He wrote three well-known books on Jewish meditation. These works revive and reconstruct ancient Jewish practices and vocabulary relating to meditation.
He wrote and translated several works related to Hasidic Judaism in general and to the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in particular.
"Pinchas A. Stolper (born October 22, 1931) is an Orthodox rabbi, writer, and has been a spokesman for Orthodoxy through his writings and books popularizing Orthodox Judaism.
"Rabbi Stolper is a disciple of Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner and studied at the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and at its Kollel Gur Aryeh in Brooklyn. He holds degrees from Brooklyn College and the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research.
"He was the founder and National Director of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) of the Orthodox Union. He subsequently served for close to twenty years as the head of the Orthodox Union as its executive vice-president.
"During more than forty years of working with Jewish youth, much of this at NCSY, he met and counseled thousands of young people, and is regarded as having played a major role in the Baal teshuva ("returnees [to Judaism]") movement.
"Stolper currently lives in Lakewood, New Jersey and prays in Ateres Yeshaya or ``Rabbi Cohen's schul``."
From John Noe, 'Dead In Their Tracks, Stopping the Liberal/Skeptic[antiChristian] Attack on the Bible' (Published August 2001),1-8,:
"In America over the past 50 to 100 years, seminary after seminary, church after church, and believer after believer have fallen victim to the liberal/skeptic[antiChristian] attack on the Bible. They have departed from the conservative faith. It's called the "battle for the Bible." How or why has this happened? Critics have hit Christianity at its weeakest point. Read it for yourself:
"Jewish skeptics contend that Jesus didn't complete the whole mission of the Messiah within the time frame their prophets had predicted. They allege that Christians invented the idea of a "second coming" off in the future to cover up Jesus' failure to return as promised. This is the Jews' primary excuse for rejecting Jesus and belittling Christianity. Prominent orthodox rabbis and Jewish scholars have written:
"The main task of the Messiah was to bring the world back to G-d, and to abolish all war, suffering and injustice from the world. Clearly, Jesus did not accomplish this. In order to get around this failure on the part of Jesus, Christians invented the doctrine of the "Second Coming."... All the prophecies that Jesus did not fulfill the first time are supposed to be taken care of the second time around. However, the Jewish Bible offers absolutely no evidence to support the Christian doctrine of a "Second Coming."*... Aryeh Kaplan (orthodox rabbi), "Jesus and the Bible," in 'The Real Messiah' 9reprinted from 'Jewish Youth', June 1973, Tammuz 5733, No. 40), 57.
"The idea of a second coming is a pure rationalization of Jesus' failure to function in any way as a messiah, or to fulfill any of the prophecies of the Torah or the Prophets. The idea is purely a Christian invention, with no foundation in the Bible."*... Pinchas Stolper (orthodox rabbi), "Was Jesus the Messiah Let's Examine the Facts," in 'The Real Messiah (reprinted from 'Jewish Youth', June 1973, Tammuz 5733, No. 40), 46-47.
"Do you [as a Christian] hear what [these and other Jewish critics, including even Christian
C.S. Lewis] are saying? They are saying Jesus was literally wrong when He made numerous time-restrictive predictions and statements regarding his coming, his return [in judgment- not on the entire "world" that conditioned-to-believe Christians believe, but on the twelve tribes of Israel Mt 19:28)]. As we shall see, the embarrassment [that Lewis referred to regarding Mt 24:34 being "the most embarrassing verse in the Bible"] belongs to [Bertrand Russell], C.S. Lewis, et al [including Albert Schweitzer, Jewish skeptics Aryeh Kaplan, Pinchas Stolper, Joseph Klausner, and Samuel Levine, Muslim skeptics Badru D. Kateregga, Wendy Murry Zoba and Arabiane Barzaar]. But this perceived weakness was, and still is, the crack that led the liberals in the door to begin their systematic criticism and dismanteling of Scripture with its inevitable bankrupting of the faith."
I may add that "Rabbi" Kaplan's, along with "Rabbi" Stolper's, description of Jesus' purpose as Messiah is wrong. Jesus claimed "... I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Mt 15:24) and that His return in the clouds was going to be in judgment of the twelve tribes of Israel and not on the entire globe: "And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Mat 19:28).
One must also consider the words of Athanasius, ca AD350, regarding the Jews' rejection of the Messiah and their denial "with impunity" the events of AD70:
"For when He that was signified was come, what need was there any longer of any to signify Him? When the truth was there, what need any more of the shadow? For this was the reason of their prophesying at all – namely, till the true Righteousness should come, and He that was to ransom the sins of all. And this was why Jerusalem stood till then – namely, that there they might be exercised in the types as a preparation for the reality. ...the Saviour also Himself cried aloud and said: ‘The law and the prophets prophesied until John.’ If then there is now among the Jews king or prophet or vision, they do well to deny the Christ that is come. But if there is neither king nor vision, but from that time forth all prophecy is sealed and the city and temple taken, why are they so irreligious and so perverse as to see what has happened, and yet to deny Christ, Who has brought it all to pass? ...What then has not come to pass, that the Christ must do? What is left unfulfilled, that the Jews should now disbelieve with impunity?” (Athanasius’ On the Incarnation of the Word, Section 40 Verses 1-8)
More on the above-mentioned antiChrists to follow...
(English)
– It's Tifereth!!!
How about being one of the first people on earth to know what's truly represented on the so famous central scene of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling? The scene where God extends His arm to reach Adam's hand it is NOT the biblical "Creation Of Adam". This painting is a representation of Tifereth, the central Sephirah from the Kabbalah's Tree of Life with all elements to link it to the others Sephirot. There are many secrets among each painting of Sistine Ceiling but the main idea is now public: the Sistine Chapel Ceiling was created to be my personal kabbalistic Tree Of Life!
I'm revealing the original scheme of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling to celebrate the 4th year from the release of my doc film Icarus, Contemplation & Dream. Part of this explanation about the Sistine Ceiling is already written on my book from 2011, but the book is in portuguese and it's a very limited edition.
The opening of this secret is a special gift for those who are believing on me and has the heart to feel what's happening to me.
A tip for my internet followers (anonymous included): next time when you be with your family and friends, tell them about this simple curiosity revealing a bit from the art of the past:
– Do you know that the famous Michelangelo's Creation Of Adam is not a biblical representation of Creation Of Adam? It's a representation of Tifereth, the central Sephirah from the Kabbalah's Tree of Life.
It dosen't matter if no one knows what is the Kabbalah's Tree of Life. Time will bring this knowledge to them. If someone ask you about how could you have such understanding of the Sistine Ceiling, be proud about our web friendship and tell them:
– Michelangelo has just revealed the original scheme of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling on the internet!
One day this moment will be written on History books. Don't miss the chance to take part on it.
The meaning of the Sephiroth is completed through the visual details that link each Sephirah to another. The scenes belong to more than one Sephirah.
Kether :
-Jonah
Da'ath (the invisible sephirah):
- Separation of Land from Water
- Creation of Sun, Moon, Plants (an idealized selfportrait)
- Separation of Light from Darkness
Chochma:
- The Death of Haman (in fact: The Sacrifice of God the Son)
- Jeremiah (a selfportrait)
Binah:
- Moses and the Serpent of Brass (in fact: the two originals versions of the Hymn of the Pearl)
- Libyan Sibyl
Chesed:
- Persian Sibyl
- Ezechiel
Gevurah:
- Daniel
- Cumean Sibyl
Tifereth:
- Creation of Adam
- Creation of Eve
- Temptation and Expulsion
Netzach:
- Joel
- Erythraea
Hod:
- Isaiah
- Delphica
Yesod:
- Sacrifice of Noah
- The Flood
- Drunkenness of Noah
Malkuth:
- Zechariah
- David and Goliath
- Judith and Holofernes
(Português)
– É Tifereth!!!
Que tal ser uma das primeiras pessoas do mundo a saber exatamente o que está representado na famosa cena central do Teto da Capela Sistina?
A cena onde Deus estende o braço para alcançar a mão de Adão NÃO é a "Criação de Adão" bíblica. Esta pintura é uma representação de Tifereth, a Sefira (emanação divina) central da Árvore da Vida da Cabala com todos os elementos para fazer a ligação desta com outras Sefirot (plural de Sefira). Existem muitos segredos entre aquelas pinturas do Teto da Sistina, mas agora a ideia fundamental é pública: os afrescos do Teto da Capela Sistina foram criados para compor a minha versão da Árvore da Vida da Cabala.
Estou revelando o esquema original do Teto da Capela Sistina para celebrar o 4º aniversário de lançamento do meu filme documentário "Ícaro, Contemplação & Sonho".
A abertura deste segredo é um presente especial para aqueles que estão acreditando em mim e são capazes de sentir o que está acontecendo comigo.
Uma dica para aqueles que estão me acompanhando pela internet: na próxima vez em que estiver com a família e os amigos, fale a eles sobre esta simples curiosidade que revela um pouco da arte do passado. Diga-lhes:
– Lembram a "Criação de Adão", aquela pintura do Michelangelo na Capela Sistina? Pois é… Aquela imagem não é uma representação bíblica da "Criação de Adão". É uma representação de Tifereth, a Sefira central da Árvore da Vida, na Cabala.
E não importa que ninguém saiba o que é a Árvore da Vida da Cabala. O tempo levará este conhecimento até eles. Mas se alguém te perguntar sobre como você possui tal informação sobre o Teto da Capela Sistina, tire onda e fale a eles sobre mim:
– O Michelangelo acabou de revelar o esquema original do Teto da Capela Sistina na internet!
Um dia este momento estará escrito em livros de História. Não perca a chance de fazer parte dele.
Os significados das Sefirot se completam através do detalhes visuais que ligam uma Sefira a outra. As cenas pertencem a mais de uma Sefira.
Kether :
-Jonas
Da'ath (a sefira invisível):
- Separação da Terra da Água
- Criação do Sol, Lua, Plantas (meu autorretrato idealizado)
- Separação da Luz e das Trevas
Chochma:
- A morte de Aman (na verdade: O sacrifício de Deus, o Filho)
- Jeremias (meu autorretrato)
Binah:
- Moisés e a Serpente de Bronze (na verdade: as duas versões originais do Hino da Pérola)
- Síbila Líbica
Chesed:
- Síbila Persica
- Ezequiel
Gevurah:
- Daniel
- Síbila Cumana
Tifereth:
- Criação de Adão
- Criação de Eva
- Tentação e Expulsão
Netzach:
- Joel
- Síbila Eritréia
Hod:
- Isaias
- Síbila Délfica (na verdade: Cassandra)
Yesod:
- Sacrifício de Noé
- O Dilúvio
- Bebedeira de Noé
Malkuth:
- Zacarias
- Davi e Golias
- Judite e Holofernes
'Spirituality isn't an easy project. It is for those who aim high and do not easily give in to any form of calamity.' - His Divine Eminence RA Gohar Shahi
CALLED: (08/16)
Sorry this is late, I fell asleep while I was editing it last night x)
She's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaackkkkkk...
Full name: Darcy Milton
Age: 20
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Occupation: Being Famous
Hair Color: Reddish-Auburn
Eye Color: Lavender/Blue
Personal Style: I am DARCY!
Why I should make it Into TMI:
After clawing my way up to the top 5 season 1, I am back to inspire a whole new generation! I am America's sweetheart who lost her way but never gave up and came back better than ever! I am a role model for young girls, teaching them never to let anyone dull your sparkle! I have been enlightened through my newly adopted practices of kabbalah and went on a pilgrimage across the world as a journey of self discovery in order to find a new meaning of life and the beautiful world we live in! I am strong, I am beautiful, I am Darcy Milton! Thank You!
Who's team I would like to be on:
I need not choose, which ever way the wind chooses to blow, that is the place that is truly meant for me to succeed and prosper in this competition!
This drawing is inspired on a chapter in a book. Chapter: "The internal States". Book: "Silo's Message". Where to find it: silo.net/en/message/index
It is in high resolution. You can download it, print it an share as you like. If you include the link, much better. If you want to use it in any other form, please contact me: rafael.edwards@gmail.com
---------------------
Este dibujo está inspirado en un capítulo de un libro. El capítulo: Los Estados Internos. El libro: "El Mensaje de Silo". Donde encontrarlo: silo.net/es/message/index
Esta en alta resolución. Puedes bajarlo, imprimirlo, compartirlo. Para cualquier otro uso, por favor contactate conmigo: rafael.edwards@gmail.com
Leonard Nimoy, best known for playing the character Spock in the Star Trek television shows and films, died at 83.
www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/arts/television/leonard-nimoy-...
Leonard Nimoy, the sonorous, gaunt-faced actor who won a worshipful global following as Mr. Spock, the resolutely logical human-alien first officer of the Starship Enterprise in the television and movie juggernaut “Star Trek,” died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was 83.
His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed his death, saying the cause was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Mr. Nimoy announced that he had the disease last year, attributing it to years of smoking, a habit he had given up three decades earlier. He had been hospitalized earlier in the week.
For Leonard Nimoy, Spock’s Hold Made Reaching Escape Velocity FutileFEB. 27, 2015
Leonard Nimoy at his 2010 one-person photography exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Mass.
His artistic pursuits — poetry, photography and music in addition to acting — ranged far beyond the United Federation of Planets, but it was as Mr. Spock that Mr. Nimoy became a folk hero, bringing to life one of the most indelible characters of the last half century: a cerebral, unflappable, pointy-eared Vulcan with a signature salute and blessing: “Live long and prosper” (from the Vulcan “Dif-tor heh smusma”).
As part of the Yiddish Book Center Wexler Oral History Project, Leonard Nimoy explains the origin of the Vulcan hand signal used by Spock, his character in the “Star Trek” series.
Video by Yiddish Book Center on Publish Date February 27, 2015. Photo by Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project.
Mr. Nimoy, who was teaching Method acting at his own studio when he was cast in the original “Star Trek” television series in the mid-1960s, relished playing outsiders, and he developed what he later admitted was a mystical identification with Spock, the lone alien on the starship’s bridge.
Yet he also acknowledged ambivalence about being tethered to the character, expressing it most plainly in the titles of two autobiographies: “I Am Not Spock,” published in 1977, and “I Am Spock,” published in 1995.
In the first, he wrote, “In Spock, I finally found the best of both worlds: to be widely accepted in public approval and yet be able to continue to play the insulated alien through the Vulcan character.”
“Star Trek,” which had its premiere on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966, made Mr. Nimoy a star. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the franchise, called him “the conscience of ‘Star Trek’ ” — an often earnest, sometimes campy show that employed the distant future (as well as some primitive special effects by today’s standards) to take on social issues of the 1960s.
His stardom would endure. Though the series was canceled after three seasons because of low ratings, a cultlike following — the conference-holding, costume-wearing Trekkies, or Trekkers (the designation Mr. Nimoy preferred) — coalesced soon after “Star Trek” went into syndication.
The fans’ devotion only deepened when “Star Trek” was spun off into an animated show, various new series and an uneven parade of movies starring much of the original television cast, including — besides Mr. Nimoy — William Shatner (as Capt. James T. Kirk), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), George Takei (the helmsman, Sulu), James Doohan (the chief engineer, Scott), Nichelle Nichols (the chief communications officer, Uhura) and Walter Koenig (the navigator, Chekov).
When the director J. J. Abrams revived the “Star Trek” film franchise in 2009, with an all-new cast — including Zachary Quinto as Spock — he included a cameo part for Mr. Nimoy, as an older version of the same character. Mr. Nimoy also appeared in the 2013 follow-up, “Star Trek Into Darkness.”
His zeal to entertain and enlighten reached beyond “Star Trek” and crossed genres. He had a starring role in the dramatic television series “Mission: Impossible” and frequently performed onstage, notably as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.” His poetry was voluminous, and he published books of his photography.
He also directed movies, including two from the “Star Trek” franchise, and television shows. And he made records, singing pop songs as well as original songs about “Star Trek,” and gave spoken-word performances — to the delight of his fans and the bewilderment of critics.
Thank you, Leonard Nimoy, and to all the crew of Star Trek who helped me grow up in the 1970s, giving me a vision of lives organized around the thirst for knowledge.
But all that was subsidiary to Mr. Spock, the most complex member of the Enterprise crew, who was both one of the gang and a creature apart engaged at times in a lonely struggle with his warring racial halves.
In one of his most memorable “Star Trek” performances, Mr. Nimoy tried to follow in the tradition of two actors he admired, Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff, who each played a monstrous character — Quasimodo and the Frankenstein monster — who is transformed by love.
In Episode 24, which was first shown on March 2, 1967, Mr. Spock is indeed transformed. Under the influence of aphrodisiacal spores he discovers on the planet Omicron Ceti III, he lets free his human side and announces his love for Leila Kalomi (Jill Ireland), a woman he had once known on Earth. In this episode, Mr. Nimoy brought to Spock’s metamorphosis not only warmth, compassion and playfulness, but also a rarefied concept of alienation.
“I am what I am, Leila,” Mr. Spock declares after the spores’ effect has worn off and his emotions are again in check. “And if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else’s.”
Born in Boston on March 26, 1931, Leonard Simon Nimoy was the second son of Max and Dora Nimoy, Ukrainian immigrants and Orthodox Jews. His father worked as a barber.
From the age of 8, Leonard acted in local productions, winning parts at a community college, where he performed through his high school years. In 1949, after taking a summer course at Boston College, he traveled to Hollywood, though it wasn’t until 1951 that he landed small parts in two movies, “Queen for a Day” and “Rhubarb.”
He continued to be cast in little-known movies, although he did presciently play an alien invader in a cult serial called “Zombies of the Stratosphere,” and in 1961 he had a minor role on an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” His first starring movie role came in 1952 with “Kid Monk Baroni,” in which he played a disfigured Italian street-gang leader who becomes a boxer.
Mr. Nimoy served in the Army for two years, rising to sergeant and spending 18 months at Fort McPherson in Georgia, where he presided over shows for the Army’s Special Services branch. He also directed and starred as Stanley in the Atlanta Theater Guild’s production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” before receiving his final discharge in November 1955.
Continue reading the main story
He then returned to California, where he worked as a soda jerk, movie usher and cabdriver while studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. He achieved wide visibility in the late 1950s and early 1960s on television shows like “Wagon Train,” “Rawhide” and “Perry Mason.” Then came “Star Trek.”
Mr. Nimoy returned to college in his 40s and earned a master’s degree in Spanish from Antioch University Austin, an affiliate of Antioch College in Ohio, in 1978. Antioch University later awarded Mr. Nimoy an honorary doctorate.
Mr. Nimoy directed two of the Star Trek movies, “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” (1984) and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986), which he helped write. In 1991, the same year that he resurrected Mr. Spock on two episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Mr. Nimoy was also the executive producer and a writer of the movie “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.”
He then directed the hugely successful comedy “Three Men and a Baby” (1987), a far cry from his science-fiction work, and appeared in made-for-television movies. He received an Emmy nomination for the 1982 movie “A Woman Called Golda,” in which he portrayed the husband of Golda Meir, the prime minister of Israel, who was played by Ingrid Bergman. It was the fourth Emmy nomination of his career — the other three were for his “Star Trek” work — although he never won.
Mr. Nimoy’s marriage to the actress Sandi Zober ended in divorce. Besides his wife, he is survived by his children, Adam and Julie Nimoy; a stepson, Aaron Bay Schuck; and six grandchildren; one great-grandchild, and an older brother, Melvin.
Though his speaking voice was among his chief assets as an actor, the critical consensus was that his music was mortifying. Mr. Nimoy, however, was undaunted, and his fans seemed to enjoy the camp of his covers of songs like “If I Had a Hammer.” (His first album was called “Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock’s Music From Outer Space.”)
From 1977 to 1982, Mr. Nimoy hosted the syndicated series “In Search Of...,” which explored mysteries like the Loch Ness Monster and UFOs. He also narrated “Ancient Mysteries” on the History Channel from 1995 to 2003 and appeared in commercials, including two with Mr. Shatner for Priceline.com. He provided the voice for animated characters in “Transformers: The Movie,” in 1986, and “The Pagemaster,” in 1994.
In 2001 he voiced the king of Atlantis in the Disney animated movie “Atlantis: The Lost Empire,” and in 2005 he furnished voice-overs for the computer game Civilization IV. More recently, he had a recurring role on the science-fiction series “Fringe” and was heard, as the voice of Spock, in an episode of the hit sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.”
Mr. Nimoy was an active supporter of the arts as well. The Thalia, a venerable movie theater on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, now a multi-use hall that is part of Symphony Space, was renamed the Leonard Nimoy Thalia in 2002.
He also found his voice as a writer. Besides his autobiographies, he published “A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life” in 2002. Typical of Mr. Nimoy’s simple free verse are these lines: “In my heart/Is the seed of the tree/Which will be me.”
In later years, he rediscovered his Jewish heritage, and in 1991 he produced and starred in “Never Forget,” a television movie based on the story of a Holocaust survivor who sued a neo-Nazi organization of Holocaust deniers.
In 2002, having illustrated his books of poetry with his photographs, Mr. Nimoy published “Shekhina,” a book devoted to photography with a Jewish theme, that of the feminine aspect of God. His black-and-white photographs of nude and seminude women struck some Orthodox Jewish leaders as heretical, but Mr. Nimoy asserted that his work was consistent with the teaching of the kabbalah.
His religious upbringing also influenced the characterization of Spock. The character’s split-fingered salute, he often explained, had been his idea: He based it on the kohanic blessing, a manual approximation of the Hebrew letter shin, which is the first letter in Shaddai, one of the Hebrew names for God.
“To this day, I sense Vulcan speech patterns, Vulcan social attitudes and even Vulcan patterns of logic and emotional suppression in my behavior,” Mr. Nimoy wrote years after the original series ended.
But that wasn’t such a bad thing, he discovered. “Given the choice,” he wrote, “if I had to be someone else, I would be Spock.”
Correction: February 27, 2015
An earlier version of this obituary, using information from Antioch College, misstated the name of an institution that award Mr. Nimoy an honorary doctorate. It was Antioch University, not Antioch College.
29055, NEW YORK, NEW YORK - Monday 9th March 2009. Madonna dresses up as a schoolgirl for the Jewish celebration of "Purim" at the Kabbalah center in New York. Her rumuored boyfriend Jesus Luz wore a Joker costume and held Jerry Seinfeld's wife Jessica's hand as they pretended to be a couple on arrival at the party. Madonna's short skirt revealed what appeared to be bruise above her left knee. Photograph: Edward Opinaldo/PacificCoastNews.com ***FEE MUST BE AGREED PRIOR TO USAGE*** UK OFFICE: +44 131 557 7760/7761/7762 US OFFICE: + 1 310 261 9676
well what it says on the tin really...this is the freshly produced 'advert' for anyone who might want to join us in our explorations down here in brighton in the kabbalistic meditation group we're running (more about that here)
e-rara- Bibliothèque Électronique Suisse -Alchemy, Magic and Kabbalah (Foundation of the Works of C.G.Jung)
Referencia post:
Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics.[1] Androgyny may be expressed with regard to gender expression.
When androgyny refers to mixed biological sex characteristics in humans, it often refers to conditions in which characteristics of both sexes are expressed in a single individual. These are known as intersex people, or those who are born with congenital variations that complicate assigning their sex at birth, as they do not correspond entirely to the male or female sexes.
Etymology
The term derives from Ancient Greek: ἀνδρόγυνος, from ἀνήρ, stem ἀνδρ- (anér, andro-, meaning man) and γυνή (gunē, gyné, meaning woman) through the Latin: androgynus.[2]
History
See also: Sexuality in ancient Rome § Hermaphroditism and androgyny
Androgyny is attested from earliest history and across world cultures. In ancient Sumer, androgynous men were heavily involved in the cult of Inanna.[3]: 157–158 A set of priests known as gala worked in Inanna's temples, where they performed elegies and lamentations.[3]: 285 Gala took female names, spoke in the eme-sal dialect, which was traditionally reserved for women, and appear to have engaged in sexual acts with men.[4]
In later Mesopotamian cultures, kurgarrū and assinnu were servants of the goddess Ishtar, Inanna's East Semitic equivalent, who dressed in female clothing and performed war dances in Ishtar's temples.[4] Several Akkadian proverbs seem to suggest that they may have also engaged in sexual activity with men.[4] Gwendolyn Leick, an anthropologist known for her writings on Mesopotamia, has compared these individuals to the contemporary Indian hijra.[3]: 158–163 In one Akkadian hymn, Ishtar is described as transforming men into women.[4]
The ancient Greek myth of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis, two divinities who fused into a single immortal, provided a frame of reference used in Western culture for centuries. Androgyny and homosexuality are also seen in Plato's Symposium, in a myth where, according to Aristophanes, humanity started as three sexes: male-male people that descended from the sun, female-female people who descended from Earth, and male-female people who came from the Moon.[5] The androgynous humans were spherical and had four legs, four hands and two heads. They were also extremely powerful and dared rebel against the Greek pantheon. "Plato cites the ancient tale of Otus and Ephialtes who rebelled against the gods and drove them from Mount Olympus. Not satisfied with this, they tried to set Mount Ossa atop Mount Olympus, and Mount Pelion atop of Ossa, that they might attack the gods in heaven itself."[6]
The gods, angered, divided the primordial humans in two and scattered them across the Earth. The divided searched for their other halves. The women who sought another woman and the men who sought another men were homosexuals.[7]
The Mishnah, a foundational text of Rabbinic Judaism from 2nd century Syria Palaestina, uses the term androgynos 32 times. It also recounts the creation of humanity in the Genesis creation narrative in Platonic terms. Genesis Rabbah, a midrashic text written some time after the Mishnah, explains, "Adam, who was created alone and thus embodies all of mankind, was androgynous, i.e. a bi-sexual being, male and female bound together in a single male-female body: 'He created him androgynous . . . He created him double-faced.'"[6] It is one of four additional legal categories of transgressively sexed individuals in the text, alongside the ayelonit, tumtum, and saris. In one mention, Rabbi Meir describes the androgynos as "a creation of its own type, which the sages could not decide whether is male or female".[8]
Philosophers such as Philo of Alexandria, and early Christian leaders such as Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, continued to promote the idea of androgyny as humans' original and perfect state during late antiquity."[9] In medieval Europe, the concept of androgyny played an essential role in both Christian theological debate and alchemical theory. Influential theologians such as John of Damascus and John Scotus Eriugena continued to promote the pre-fall androgyny proposed by the early Church Fathers, Other clergy expounded and debated the proper view and treatment of contemporary hermaphrodites.[9]
Aristophanes' and Plato's conception are found in theosophy of Neoplatonism and Neo-Pythagoreanism, and Gnosticism. In particular, it was important to Islamic and Jewish philosophy, Kabbalah, and alchemy through the Renaissance and Romanticism.
The figure of the Androgyne as an archaic formulation of the coexistence of all attributes, thus including sexual attributes, in the divine unity and perfect man of origins[10] according to Mircea Eliade depicts the coincidentia oppositorum or unity of opposites: in a variety of creation myths, the unique androgynous being appears before the separation of things.[11]
Modern history
Western esotericism's embrace of androgyny continued into the modern era. A 1550 anthology of alchemical thought, De Alchemia, included the influential Rosary of the Philosophers, which depicts the sacred marriage of the masculine principle (Sol) with the feminine principle (Luna), producing the "Divine Androgyne," a representation of alchemical Hermetic beliefs in dualism, transformation, and the transcendental perfection of the union of opposites.[12]
The symbolism and meaning of androgyny was a central preoccupation of the German mystic Jakob Böhme and the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg. The philosophical concept of the "Universal Androgyne" (or "Universal Hermaphrodite") – a perfect merging of the sexes that predated the current corrupted world or was the utopia of the next – is also important in some strains of Rosicrucianism[13][14] and in philosophical traditions such as Swedenborgianism and Theosophy.[citation needed] Twentieth century architect Claude Fayette Bragdon expressed the concept mathematically as a magic square, using it as building block in many of his most noted buildings.[15]
In the mid-18th century, the macaronis of the Georgian era of England were a wealthy subculture of young men, known for androgynous gender expression.[16] Their unusually large wigs, lavish fashion, and sentimental behavior prompted backlash from conservative generations of the time. In 1770, the Oxford Dictionary declared, "There is indeed a kind of animal, neither male nor female, a thing of the neuter gender, lately started up among us. It is called a macaroni."[17] An example is portrait artist Richard Cosway, referred to as "the Macaroni artist."[18]
Psychological
This section needs attention from an expert in psychology. The specific problem is: This article describes personality attributes, but not underlying principles. WikiProject Psychology may be able to help recruit an expert. (December 2018)
In psychological study, various measures have been used to characterize gender, such as the Bem Sex Role Inventory and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire.[19]
Masculine traits are categorized as agentic and instrumental, dealing with assertiveness and analytical skill. Feminine traits are categorized as communal and expressive, dealing with empathy and subjectivity.[20] Androgynous individuals exhibit behavior that extends beyond what is normally associated with their given sex.[21] Due to the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics, androgynous individuals have access to a wider array of psychological competencies in regards to emotional regulation, communication styles, and situational adaptability. Androgynous individuals have also been associated with higher levels of creativity and mental health.[22][23]
Bem Sex-Role Inventory
The Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) was constructed by the early leading proponent of androgyny, Sandra Bem (1977).[24][25] The BSRI is one of the most widely used gender measures. Based on an individual's responses to the items in the BSRI, they are classified as having one of four gender role orientations: masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated. Bem understood that both masculine and feminine characteristics could be expressed by anyone and it would determine those gender role orientations.[26]
An androgynous person is an individual who has a high degree of both feminine (expressive) and masculine (instrumental) traits. A feminine individual is ranked high on feminine (expressive) traits and ranked low on masculine (instrumental) traits. A masculine individual is ranked high on instrumental traits and ranked low on expressive traits. An undifferentiated person is low on both feminine and masculine traits.[24]
According to Sandra Bem, androgynous individuals are more flexible and more mentally healthy than either masculine or feminine individuals; undifferentiated individuals are less competent.[24] More recent research has debunked this idea, at least to some extent, and Bem herself has found weaknesses in her original pioneering work.[citation needed] She preferred to work with gender schema theory.
One study found that masculine and androgynous individuals had higher expectations for being able to control the outcomes of their academic efforts than feminine or undifferentiated individuals.[27]
Personal Attributes Questionnaire
The Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) was developed in the 70s by Janet Spence, Robert Helmreich, and Joy Stapp. This test asked subjects to complete a survey consisting of three sets of scales relating to masculinity, femininity, and masculinity-femininity. These scales had sets of adjectives commonly associated with males, females, and both. These descriptors were chosen based on typical characteristics as rated by a population of undergrad students. Similar to the BSRI, the PAQ labeled androgynous individuals as people who ranked highly in both the areas of masculinity and femininity. However, Spence and Helmreich considered androgyny to be a descriptor of high levels of masculinity and femininity as opposed to a category in and of itself.[19]
Biological sex
See also: Sex differences in humans
Historically, the word androgynous was applied to humans with a mixture of male and female sex characteristics, and was sometimes used synonymously with the term hermaphrodite[28], though the term is now considered highly offensive [29]. In some disciplines, such as botany, androgynous and hermaphroditic are still used interchangeably.
When androgyny is used to refer to physical traits, it often refers to a person whose biological sex is difficult to discern at a glance because of their mixture of male and female characteristics. Because androgyny encompasses additional meanings related to gender identity and gender expression that are distinct from biological sex, today the word androgynous is rarely used to formally describe mixed biological sex characteristics in humans.[30] In modern English, the word intersex is used to more precisely describe individuals with mixed or ambiguous sex characteristics. However, both intersex and non-intersex people can exhibit a mixture of male and female sex traits such as hormone levels, type of internal and external genitalia, and the appearance of secondary sex characteristics.
Gender identity
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An individual's gender identity, a personal sense of one's own gender, may be described as androgynous if they feel that they have both masculine and feminine aspects. The word androgyne can refer to a person who does not fit neatly into one of the typical masculine or feminine gender roles of their society, or to a person whose gender is a mixture of male and female, not necessarily half-and-half. Many androgynous individuals identify as being mentally or emotionally both masculine and feminine. They may also identify as "gender-neutral", "genderqueer", or "non-binary".[citation needed][31] A person who is androgynous may engage freely in what is seen as masculine or feminine behaviors as well as tasks. They may have a balanced identity that includes the virtues of both men and women and may disassociate the task with what gender they may be socially or physically assigned to.[32] People who identify as androgynous typically disregard which traits are culturally constructed specifically for males and females within a society, and rather focus on what behavior is most effective within the situational circumstance.[32]
Some non-Western cultures recognize additional androgynous gender identities, called third genders.
Gender expression
Louise Brooks exemplified the flapper. Flappers challenged traditional gender roles and had boyish hair cuts and androgynous figures.[33]
Gender expression that includes a mixture of masculine and feminine characteristics can be described as androgynous. The categories of masculine and feminine in gender expression are socially constructed, and rely on shared conceptions of clothing, behavior, communication style, and other aspects of presentation. In some cultures, androgynous gender expression has been celebrated, while in others, androgynous expression has been limited or suppressed. To say that a culture or relationship is androgynous is to say that it lacks rigid gender roles, or has blurred lines between gender roles.
The word genderqueer is often used by androgynous individuals to refer to themselves, but the terms genderqueer and androgynous are neither equivalent nor interchangeable.[34] Genderqueer, by virtue of its ties with queer culture, carries sociopolitical connotations that androgyny does not carry. For the association with homosexuality, some androgynes may find the label genderqueer inaccurate, inapplicable, or offensive. Androgyneity is considered by some to be a viable alternative to androgyn for differentiating internal (psychological) factors from external (visual) factors.[35][unreliable source?]
An alternative to androgyny is gender-role transcendence: the view that individual competence should be conceptualized on a personal basis rather than on the basis of masculinity, femininity, or androgyny.[36]
In agenderism, the division of people into women and men (in the physical sense), is considered erroneous and artificial.[37] Agendered individuals are those who reject gender labeling in conception of self-identity and other matters.[38][39][40][41] They see their subjectivity through the term person instead of woman or man.[38]: p.16 According to E. O. Wright, genderless people can have traits, behaviors and dispositions that correspond to what is currently viewed as feminine and masculine, and the mix of these would vary across persons. Nevertheless, it does not suggest that everyone would be androgynous in their identities and practices in the absence of gendered relations. What disappears in the idea of genderlessness is any expectation that some characteristics and dispositions are strictly attributed to a person of any biological sex.[42]
Contemporary trends
Main article: Androgyny in fashion
Labor leader Luisa Capetillo wearing men's clothing
Throughout most of twentieth century Western history, social rules have restricted people's dress according to gender. Trousers were traditionally a male form of dress, frowned upon for women.[43] However, during the 19th century, female spies were introduced and Vivandières wore a certain uniform with a dress over trousers. Women activists during that time would also decide to wear trousers, for example Luisa Capetillo, a women's rights activist and the first woman in Puerto Rico to wear trousers in public.[44]
Yves Saint Laurent, the tuxedo suit "Le Smoking", created in 1966
In the 20th century, starting around World War I traditional gender roles blurred and fashion pioneers such as Paul Poiret and Coco Chanel introduced trousers to women's fashion. The "flapper style" for women of this era included trousers and a chic bob, which gave women an androgynous look.[45] Coco Chanel, who had a love for wearing trousers herself, created trouser designs for women such as beach pajamas and horse-riding attire.[43] During the 1930s, glamorous actresses such as Marlene Dietrich fascinated and shocked many with their strong desire to wear trousers and adopt the androgynous style. Dietrich is remembered as one of the first actresses to wear trousers in a premiere.[46]
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the women's liberation movement is likely to have contributed to ideas and influenced fashion designers, such as Yves Saint Laurent.[47] Yves Saint Laurent designed the Le Smoking suit and introduced it in 1966, while Helmut Newton's erotized androgynous photographs of the suit made it iconic and a classic.[48]
Elvis Presley introduced an androgynous style in rock'n'roll.[49] His pretty face and use of eye makeup often made people think he was a rather "effeminate guy",[50] When the Rolling Stones played London's Hyde Park in 1969, Mick Jagger wore a white "man's dress" designed by Michael Fish.[51] Fish was the most fashionable shirt-maker in London, the inventor of the Kipper tie, and a principal taste-maker of the peacock revolution in men's fashion.[52] His creation for Mick Jagger was considered to be the epitome of the swinging 60s.[53]
Pop stars Boy George (pictured) and Annie Lennox appeared on the front cover of Smash Hits magazine in December 1983 in identical makeup, followed by the cover of Newsweek in January 1984 to mark a second British Invasion.[54] Music journalist Sue Steward wrote that the Smash Hits cover "begged the question, 'Which one is the boy?'"[55]
In 1972, David Bowie presented his alter ego Ziggy Stardust, a character that was a symbol of sexual ambiguity when he launched the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Spiders from Mars.[56] Marc Bolan, the other pioneer of glam rock, performed on the BBC's Top of the Pops in 1971 wearing glitter and satins, with The Independent stating his appearance "permitted a generation of teeny-boppers to begin playing with the idea of androgyny".[57] The 1973 West End musical The Rocky Horror Show also depicted sexual fluidity.[58]
Continuing into the 1980s, the rise of avant-garde fashion designers like Yohji Yamamoto,[59] challenged the social constructs around gender. They reinvigorated androgyny in fashion, addressing gender issues. This was also reflected within pop culture icons during the 1980s, such as Grace Jones, Prince, Annie Lennox and Boy George.[54][60]
X Japan founder Yoshiki is often labelled androgynous, known for having worn lace dresses and acting effeminate during performances.[61]
Power dressing for women became even more prominent within the 1980s which was previously only something done by men in order to look structured and powerful. However, during the 1980s this began to take a turn as women were entering jobs with equal roles to the men. In the article "The Menswear Phenomenon" by Kathleen Beckett written for Vogue in 1984 the concept of power dressing is explored as women entered these jobs they had no choice but to tailor their wardrobes accordingly, eventually leading the ascension of power dressing as a popular style for women.[62] Women begin to find through fashion they can incite men to pay more attention to the seduction of their mental prowess rather, than the physical attraction of their appearance. This influence in the fashion world quickly makes its way to the world of film, with movies like "Working Girl" using power dressing women as their main subject matter.
Japanese designers began popularizing androgynous fashion in the 1980s, as seen in the work of Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo, who brought in a distinct Japanese style that adopted a distinctively gender ambiguous theme. These two designers consider themselves a part of the avant-garde, reinvigorating Japanism.[63] Yamamoto has expressed the lack of necessity behind gender distinctions, stating "I always wonder who decided that there should be a difference in the clothes of men and women" [64]
Also during the 1980s, Grace Jones, a singer and fashion model, gender-thwarted appearance in the 1980s, which startled the public. Her androgynous style inspired many and she became an androgynous style icon for modern celebrities.[65]
Marilyn Manson as Mechanical Animals' androgynous character "Omega"
Androgyny has been gaining more prominence in popular culture in the early 21st century.[66] Both the fashion industry[67] and pop culture have accepted and even popularized the "androgynous" look, with several current celebrities being hailed as creative trendsetters.
The rise of the metrosexual in the first decade of the 2000s has also been described as a related phenomenon associated with this trend. Traditional gender stereotypes have been challenged and changed since the 1960s, which included the hippie movement and flower power. Artists in film such as Leonardo DiCaprio sported the "skinny" look in the 1990s, a departure from traditional masculinity, which resulted in the fad "Leo Mania".[68] Musical stars such as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Andre 3000, and the band Placebo have used clothing and makeup to popularize androgynous and genderqueer aesthetics throughout the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s.[69]
While the 1990s unrolled and fashion developed an affinity for unisex clothes, there was a rise of designers who favored that look, including Helmut Lang, Giorgio Armani, and Pierre Cardin. Men in catalogues started wearing jewellery, make up, visual kei, and designer stubble. These styles have become a significant mainstream trend of the 21st century, both in the Western world and in Asia.[70] Japanese and Korean cultures have featured the androgynous look as a positive attribute in society, as depicted in both K-pop, J-pop,[71] in anime and manga,[72] as well as the fashion industry.[73]
Data source: Google Trends (trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&...)
The 21st century additionally saw global conversations around gender identity which helped further the presence of androgyny in fashion. In the mid-2010s, online searches for the word "nonbinary" skyrocketed, and young people began to see themselves as nonbinary or gender nonconforming.[74] Actor Lachlan Watson, who uses they/them pronouns, posted a photo on Instagram wearing a t-shirt saying "Gender is Over," a riff on the John Lennon and Yoko Ono "War is Over" poster.[75]
Singer Billie Eilish has also openly called gender roles "ancient."[76] Since her musical debut in 2016, Eilish has worn both traditionally masculine and feminine silhouettes, wearing a Marilyn Monroe inspired Oscar de la Renta gown to the Met Gala in 2021 to being referred to as a "hey mamas" lesbian after an appearance on Chicken Shop Date in 2024 where she wore an oversized tee, bandana, and backwards cap.[77][78]
Symbols and iconography
In the ancient and medieval worlds, androgynous people and hermaphrodites were represented in art by the caduceus, a wand of transformative power in ancient Greco-Roman mythology. The caduceus was created by Tiresias and represents his transformation into a woman by Juno in punishment for striking at mating snakes. The caduceus was later carried by Hermes/Mercury and was the basis for the astronomical symbol for the planet Mercury and the botanical sign for hermaphrodite. That sign is now sometimes used for transgender people.
Another common androgyny icon in the medieval and early modern period was the Rebis, a conjoined male and female figure, often with solar and lunar motifs. Still another symbol was what is today called sun cross, which united the cross (or saltire) symbol for male with the circle for female.[79] This sign is now the astronomical symbol for the planet Earth.[80]
The caduceus
The caduceus
A rebis from 1617
A rebis from 1617
Mercury symbol derived from the caduceus
Mercury symbol derived from the caduceus
"Rose and Cross" androgyne symbol
"Rose and Cross" androgyne symbol
Alternate "rose and cross" version
Alternate "rose and cross" version
See also
List of androgynous people
List of transgender-related topics
Epicenity
Futanari
Gender bender
Gender dysphoria
Gender neutrality
Gonochorism
Gynandromorphism
Gynomorph
Postgenderism
Sexual orientation hypothesis
Soft butch
Third gender
True hermaphroditism
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External links
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Arthur Edward Waite (October 2, 1857 - May 19, 1942) was an American-British occultist. A.E. Waite joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1891 and the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1902. Waite joined the Outer Order of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in January 1891 after being introduced by E.W. Berridge.[5] In 1893 he withdrew from the Golden Dawn. In 1896 he rejoined the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn. In 1899 he entered the Second order of the Golden Dawn. He became a Freemason in 1901,and entered the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1902. Waite was interested in the higher grades of Freemasonry and saw initiation into Craft Masonry as a way to gain access to these rites. After joining the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and the Knights Templar, Waite traveled to Switzerland in 1903 to receive the Régime Ecossais Rectifié or the Rectified Scottish Rite and its grade of Chevalier Bienfaisant de la Cité Sainte (C.B.C.S.). Waite believed that the Rectified Scottish Rite, more than any other Masonic Rite, represented the "Secret Tradition" of mystical spiritual illumination.
In 1903 Waite founded the Independent and Rectified Order R. R. et A. C. This Order was disbanded in 1914. The Golden Dawn was torn by internal feuding until Waite's departure in 1914; in July 1915 he formed the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross,[7] not to be confused with the Societas Rosicruciana. By that time there existed some half-dozen offshoots from the original Golden Dawn, and as a whole it never recoveredWhen he became Grand Master of the Order in 1903, changing its name to the "Holy Order of the Golden Dawn", many members rejected his ideas on the primacy of mysticism over magic, and a rival group, the "Morning Star", seceded under the leadership of William Butler Yeats. The Golden Dawn was torn apart by numerous internal conflicts until Waite's departure in 1914. Arthur Edward Waite was a British poet and scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider–Waite tarot deck (also called the Rider–Waite–Smith or Waite–Smith deck). As his biographer R. A. Gilbert described him, "Waite's name has survived because he was the first to attempt a systematic study of the history of Western occultism—viewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of protoscience or as the pathology of religion."
He was a Freemason, as well as being a member of the SRIA and Golden Dawn.
He spent most of his life in or near London, connected to various publishing houses and editing a magazine, The Unknown World.
Waite was a prolific author of occult texts on divination, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, black and ceremonial magic (goétie and théurgie), Kabbalah and alchemy; he also translated and republished several mystical and alchemical works. His work on the Holy Grail, influenced by his friendship with Arthur Machen, is remarkable. Some of these books, such as the "Book of Ceremonial Magic", "The Holy Kabbalah", and the "New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry", have recently gone out of print.
René Guénon dissociates himself from this somewhat arranged Grail: "Mr. Arthur Edward Waite has published a work on the legends of the Holy Grail which is impressive in its scope and in the amount of research it represents, and in which all those interested in this question will find a very complete and methodical exposition of the content of the many texts that refer to it, as well as of the various theories that have been proposed to explain the origin and the meaning of these highly complex legends, which are sometimes even contradictory in some of their elements. It should be added that Mr. Waite did not intend his work to be purely scholarly, and he is to be commended for this, for we fully agree with him that any work that does not go beyond this point of view is of little value and can only be of "documentary" interest; his aim was to bring out the real, "inner" meaning of the symbolism of the Holy Grail and the "quest". Unfortunately, we have to say that this side of his work is the least satisfactory; in fact, the conclusions he reaches are rather disappointing, especially when we consider all the hard work that went into reaching them; and it is on this point that we'd like to make a few observations, which will naturally relate to questions we've already dealt with on other occasions". ...
"It's no insult to Mr. Waite, we believe, to say that his work is somewhat one-sighted. to say that his work is somewhat one-sighted. "partial"? That might not be strictly accurate, and in any case, we don't we don't mean that it's intentionally one-sided; rather, it's something of that...There would rather be something of the fault so common among those who, having "specialized" in a certain order of study, are inclined to reduce everything to it, or to neglect that which cannot be reduced to it. That the Grail legend is Christian is certainly not in dispute, and Mr. Waite is right to affirm it; but does this necessarily prevent it from being something else at the same time? Those who are aware of the fundamental unity of all traditions will see no incompatibility here; but Mr. Waite, for his part, only wants to see what is specifically Christian, thus locking himself into a particular traditional form whose relationship with the others, precisely because of its "inner" side, seems to escape him.It's not that he denies the existence of elements of another origin, probably pre-dating Christianity, for that would be to go against the evidence; but he accords them very little importance, and seems to regard them as "accidental", as having been added to the legend "from outside", and simply as a result of the environment in which it developed. These elements are therefore regarded by him as belonging to what is commonly called folk-lore, not always out of disdain as the word itself might suggest, but rather to satisfy a kind of contemporary "fashion", and without always realizing the intentions involved; and it's perhaps worth stressing this point a little."..."The very concept of folklore, as it is usually understood, is based on a radically false idea, the idea that there are "popular creations", spontaneous products of the mass of the people; and we can immediately see the close relationship of this way of seeing things with "democratic" prejudices. As has been rightly said, "the profound interest of all so-called popular traditions lies above all in the fact that they are not popular in origin"; and we would add that, if they are, as is almost always the case, traditional elements in the true sense of the word, however distorted, diminished or fragmentary they may sometimes be, and things of real symbolic value, all this, far from being of popular origin, is not even of human origin. What can be popular is only the fact of "survival and, in this respect, the term folk-lore takes on a meaning quite similar to that of "paganism", taking into account only the etymology of the latter, and with less "polemical" and insulting intent. The people thus retain, without understanding them, the remnants of ancient traditions, even
Sometimes, these traditions go back so far as to be impossible to determine, and for this reason, they are often considered to belong to the obscure realm of "prehistory"; in this way, they fulfil the function of a kind of more or less "subconscious" collective memory, the content of which has clearly come from elsewhere. What may seem the most astonishing is that, when we get to the bottom of things, we find that what is preserved in this way contains above all, in a more or less veiled form, a considerable amount of esoteric data, i.e. precisely everything that is inherently less popular; and this fact suggests an explanation that we will limit ourselves to indicating in a few words. When a traditional form is on the verge of extinction, its last representatives may well voluntarily entrust to this collective memory what would otherwise be lost without return; in short, this is the only way to save what can be saved to a certain extent; and, at the same time, the natural incomprehension of the mass is a sufficient guarantee that what once possessed an esoteric character will not be stripped of it for that reason, but will remain only, as a kind of testimony of the past, for those who, in other times, will be able to understand it. Having said this, we see no reason to attribute to folk-lore, without further examination, everything that belongs to traditions other than Christianity, the latter alone being an exception; such seems to be Mr. Waite's intention, when he accepts this denomination for the "pre-Christian", and particularly Celtic, elements found in the Grail legends. In this respect, there are no privileged traditional forms; the only distinction to be made is between those that have disappeared and those that are currently alive; and, consequently, the whole question would come down to knowing whether the Celtic tradition had really ceased to live when the legends in question were formed. This is at least questionable: on the one hand, this tradition may have been maintained for longer than is generally believed, with a more or less hidden organization, and, on the other hand, these legends themselves may be older than the "critics" think, not because there were necessarily texts now lost, in which we have little more faith than M. Waite, but because they may first have been the object of oral transmission, which may have lasted several centuries. Waite, but because they may first have been the subject of oral transmission, which may have lasted for several centuries, which is far from exceptional. For our part, we see here the mark of a "junction" between two traditional forms two traditional forms, one ancient and the other new at the time, the Celtic
and the Christian tradition, a junction by which what had to be preserved from the of the former was incorporated into the latter, albeit modified to some extent to a certain extent, in outward form, by adaptation and assimilation, but not by being transposed onto another plane, as Mr. Waite would have us believe, for there are equivalences between all regular traditions.
than a simple question of "sources" in the scholarly sense. It
It may be difficult to pinpoint exactly where and when this junction took place, but this is of secondary interest and almost exclusively historical; it's easy to see, moreover, that these are the sort of things that leave no trace in written "documents". Perhaps the "Celtic" or "Culdean" Church deserves more attention in this respect than Mr. Waite seems inclined to give it; its very name might suggest as much; and there's nothing implausible in the fact that behind it there was something of another order, no longer religious, but initiatory, for, like everything that relates to the links existing between different traditions, what we're dealing with here necessarily belongs to the initiatory or esoteric domain. Exotericism, religious or otherwise, never goes beyond the limits of the traditional form to which it properly belongs; what goes beyond these limits cannot belong to a "Church" as such, but the latter can only be its external "support"; and this is a remark to which we shall have occasion to return later. We should therefore do here exactly the opposite of what Mr. Waite does, who, stopping at external and superficial explanations, which he accepts with confidence as long as it is not a question of Christianity, sees meanings radically different and unrelated to each other where there are only more or less multiple aspects of the same symbol or its
various applications; no doubt it would have been different if he had not been hampered by his preconceived idea of a sort of heterogeneity of Christianity in relation to other traditions. Likewise, Mr. Waite rightly rejects, with regard to the legend of the Grail, theories which appeal to so-called “gods of vegetation”; but it is regrettable that it is much less clear with regard to ancient mysteries, which never had anything in common with this “naturalism” of completely modern invention; the “gods of vegetation” and other stories of the same kind only ever existed in the imagination of Frazer and his ilk, whose anti-traditional intentions are not in doubt."...? "There is no doubt that Arthur Edward Waite was a master at symbolic interpretation of ancient symbolism, both pre christian and christian. The book of "The Holy Grail: History, Legend And Symbolism" is to accent the research that Waite has compiled on the search for the Holy Grail. An excellent work, well worth the effort for study and like Indiana Jones father, you can undertake the pursuit from this point." :) It is at the core of all Western culture: the story of the Holy Grail, the secret history of Christianity and the grand quest to find it that informs everything from tales steeped in centuries, such as the legend of King Arthur, to the most modern popular fiction, like The Da Vinci Code. In this highly readable but densely informative work, Waite, a preeminent 19th-century expert in esoterica, explores all the literature dedicated to this "legend of the soul" from both an intellectual and a spiritual perspective, seeking out the elemental through-lines of this most fundamental of stories as well as a mystical essence of Christianity itself. Students of folklore, readers of fantasy-quest fiction, and seekers after religious truth will all find this a vital resource. American-born British occultist and author ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE.
"The true legitimacies are for the most part in exile, or otherwise with their rights in abeyance. The real canons of literature can be uttered only behind doors or in the secrecy of taverns. The secrets of the great orthodoxies are very seldom communicated, even to epopts on their advancement. The highest claims of all are not so much wanting in warrant as wanting those spokesmen who are willing to utter them. We shall not be surprised, therefore, to find that the custodians of the Holy Graal, which was a mystery of all secrecy, "there where no sinner can be," despite the kingly titles ascribed to them, sometimes abode in the utmost seclusion. Let us seek in the first instance to realise the nature and the place of that Castle or Temple which, according to the legend, was for a period of centuries the sanctuary of the Sacred Vessel and of the other hallowed objects connected therewith. It is in the several locations of the Hallows that we shall come at a later time into a fuller understanding of their offices and of the meanings which may lie behind them. They are not to be regarded exactly as part of the mystery of the Castle; but at least this is more than a casket, and between the container and the things contained, distinct though their significance may be, there are points of correlation, so that the one throws light on the other. We have seen that the Vessel itself was brought from Salem to Britain, and it follows from the historical texts that the transit had a special purpose, one explanation of which will be found ready to our hands when the time comes for its consideration. The Castle is described after several manners, the later romances being naturally the more specific, and we get in fine a geographical settlement and boundary. In the Chrétien portion of the
p. 129 [paragraph continues] Conte del Graal, Perceval discovers the Castle in a valley, wherein it is well and beautifully situated, having a four-square tower, with a principal hall and a bridge leading up to the chief entrance. In some of the other legends the asylum is so withdrawn that it is neither named nor described. The Early History of Merlin speaks of it not less simply as the place where they had the Holy Vessel in keeping. According to the Didot Perceval, it is the house of the Rich King Fisherman; it is situated in a valley; it has a tower, and is approached by a bridge. It might be a tower merely, for the description is not less vague than many accounts of the Cup. One of the late Merlin texts says merely that the Holy Vessel is in the West--that is, in the Land of Vortigern, or that it abides in Northumbria. Another says that the Castle is Corbenic; but though we hear a good deal concerning it, there is no description whatever. The section of the Conte del Graal which is referable to Gautier de Doulens says that it is situated on a causeway tormented by the sea. The building is of vast extent and is inhabited by a great folk. We hear of its ceiling, emblazoned with gold and embroidered with silver stars, of its tables of precious metal, its images and the rich gems which enlighten it. In a word, we are already in the region of imaginative development and adornment, but it is all mere decoration which carries with it no meaning beyond the heavy tokens of splendour. Manessier furnishes no special account, and Gerbert, who has other affairs at heart than solicitude about a material building or desire to exalt it into allegory, leaves it unsketched entirely. The Book of the Holy Graal is the only French text which contains in a methodical account the building of the Holy House. The first wardens have passed from the land of the living, and Alain le Gros is the keeper of the Blessed Vessel. The actual builder is a certain converted king of Terre Foraine, and there is a covenant between him and Alain, one condition of which p. 130
is that the Graal shall remain in his kingdom. The Castle on its completion is given the mystic name of Corbenic, in obedience to an inscription which is found blazoned on one of the entrance gates. The name is said to signify the Treasury of the Holy Vessel. The Graal is placed in a fair chamber of the Castle, as if on an altar of repose, but, all his munificence notwithstanding and all the sacramental visions which he sees in the Holy Place, beating of birds' wings and chanting of innumerable voices, the king is visited speedily for his mere presence and receives his death-wound at the very altar: it is the judgment of the sanctuary on those who desecrate the sanctuary by carrying, however unwittingly, an unhallowed past therein, and it recalls the traditional conclusion of the Cabiric Mysteries, wherein the candidate was destroyed by the gods. Setting aside an analogy on which I am by no means insisting, the event was the beginning of those wonders which earned for Castle Corbenic the name of the Palace Adventurous, because no one could enter therein, and no one could sleep, its lawful people excepted, without death overtaking them, or some other grievous penalty. The prose Lancelot is in near correspondence with Chrétien, representing the Castle as situated at the far end of a great valley, with water encircling it. On another occasion it is named rather than described, and visited but not expounded, but we learn that it is situated in a town which has many dwellers therein. In the Quest of Galahad it is a rich and fair building, with a postern opening towards the sea, and this was guarded by lions, between which a man might pass only if he carried the arms of faith, since the sword availed nothing and there was no protection in harness. For the visitor who was expected or tolerated, it would seem that all doors stood open, except the door of the sanctuary. But this would unclose of itself; the light would issue from within; the silver table would be seen; and thereon the Holy Vessel, covered with drapery of samite. There also on a day p. 131 might be celebrated, with becoming solemnity, the Great Mass of the Supersanctified, and this even in the presence of those who were not clean in their past, so only that they had put away their sin when they entered on the Quest. It was thus beheld by Lancelot, though he lay as one dead afterwards, because of his intrusion. So also the welcome guest had reason to know that the court of King Pelles held a great fellowship in the town of Corbenic. But there were other visitors at times and seasons who saw little of all this royalty, like Hector de Marys, who--brother as he was to my lord Sir Lancelot--found the doors all barred against him and no warden to open, long as he hailed thereat. The most decorative of all the accounts is, however, in the Longer Prose Perceval, where the Castle is reached by means of three bridges, which are horrible to cross. Three great waters run below them, the first bridge being a bow-shot in length and not more than a foot in width. This is the Bridge of the Eel; but it proves wide and a fair thorough-way in the act of crossing. The second bridge is of ice, feeble and thin, and it is arched high above the water. This is transformed on passing into the richest and strangest ever seen, and its abutments are full of images. The third and last bridge stands on columns of marble. Beyond it there is a sculptured gate, giving upon a flight of steps, which leads to a spacious hall painted with figures in gold. When Perceval visited the Castle a second time he found it encompassed by a river, which came from the Earthly Paradise and proceeded through the forest beyond as far as the hold of a hermit, where it found peace in the earth. To the Castle itself there were three names attributed: the Castle of Eden, the Castle of Joy and the Castle of Souls. In conclusion as to this matter, the location, in fine, is Corbenic--not as the unvaried name, but as that which may be called the accepted, representing the Temple at its highest, and corresponding in French romance to Montsalvatch, in p. 132
[paragraph continues] German--which our late redaction of the Book of the Holy Graal mentions specifically, and which, all doubtful clouds of mystic adventure notwithstanding, looms almost as a landmark in the Lancelot and the Quest of Galahad.
must speak very lightly of the German cycle, because, through all these branches, it is understood that I shall deal with it again. In the Parsifal and Titurel the Temple is completely spiritualised, so that it has ceased almost to be a house made with hands, though the descriptions on the external side are here and there almost severe in their simplicity. On that side it has the strength of a feudal fortress, turret by turret rising. In the master-hall of the palace there is something of Oriental splendour--carpets and couches and cushions, marble hearths burning strange fragrant woods, and a great blazing of lights. So far the Parsifal of Wolfram, but we must turn to other texts for the building of the Temple--which is after another manner than anything told of Corbenic in the Northern French cycle. The building was the work of Titurel, the first King of the Graal, and in answer to his prayers the High Powers of Heaven prepared the ground-plan of the Holy Place and furnished the raw material. Over the construction itself the powers of earth toiled by day and the Powers of Heaven by night. The floor was of pure onyx; at the summit of the tower there was a ruby surmounted by a cross of crystal, and carbuncles shone at the meeting-points of the great arches within. The roof was of sapphire, and a pictured starry heaven moved therein in true order. We are on a different level when we have recourse to the poem of Heinrich, which presents several anomalies in respect of the literature as a whole. The road leading to the Graal Castle was one of harsh and hazardous enterprise--world without end; but it brought the questing hero at some far point into a plenteous and gracious land, where rose the Palace of Desire, looking p. 133 beautiful exceedingly, with a meadow before it which was set apart for joust and tournament. A great concourse of knights and gentlewomen abode in the burg, and for the Castle itself we are told that there was none so fair. Though it will be seen that there is nothing distinctive in this account, as it is here reduced into summary, the design is among many things strange, for if it is not the Castle of Souls it is that of a Living Tomb, as the story concerning it will show at the proper time. So did the place of the mysteries, from a dim and vague allusion, become "A wilderness of building, sinking far
And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth
Far sinking into splendour." [paragraph continues] We can scarcely say whether that which had begun on earth was assumed into the spiritual place, or whether the powers and virtues from above descended to brood thereon. I have left over from this consideration all reference to another spiritual place, in Sarras on the confines of Egypt, where the Graal, upon its outward journey, dwelt for a period, and whither, after generations and centuries, it also returned for a period. As this was not the point of its origin, so it was not that of its rest; it was a stage in the passage from Salem and a stage in the transit to heaven. What was meant by this infidel city, which was yet so strangely consecrated, is hard to determine, but its consideration belongs to a later stage. It is too early again to ask what are the implicits of the great prose Perceval when it identifies the Castle of the Graal with the Earthly Paradise and the Place of Souls; but we may note it as a sign of intention, and we shall meet with it in another connection where no one has thought to look for it.
THE INSTITUTION OF THE HALLOWS, AND, SECONDLY, THE VARIATIONS OF THE CUP LEGEND
We have seen that the secret of the Graal, signifying the super-substantial nourishment of man, was communicated by Christ to His chosen disciple Joseph of Arimathæa, who, by preserving the body of his Master after the Crucifixion, became an instrument of the Resurrection. He laid it in the sepulchre, and thus sowed the seed whence issued the arch-natural body. On Ascension Day this was removed from the world, but there remained the Holy Vessel, into which the blood of the natural body had been received by Joseph. Strangely endued with the virtues of the risen Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost, it sustained him spiritually, and by a kind of reflection physically, during forty years of imprisonment, through which period he was in that condition of ecstasy which is said by the Christian masters of contemplation to last for half-an-hour--being that time when there is silence in heaven. We find accordingly that Joseph had no sense of duration in respect of the years; he was already in that mystery of God into which the ages pass. After his release the Holy Vessel became a sign of saving grace, instruction and all wonder to that great company which he was elected to take westward. He committed it in fine to another keeper, by whom it was brought into Britain, and there, or otherwhere, certain lesser Hallows were added to the Hallow-in-chief, and were held with it in the places of concealment. Those which are met with most frequently, as we have p. 90 seen, are four in number, but the mystery is really one, since it is all assumed into that vessel which is known for the most part as the Cup of legend. It is understood that for us at least this Cup is a symbol, seeing that the most precious of all vessels are not made with hands. It is in such sense that the true soul of philosophy is a cup which contains the universe. We shall understand also the ministry of material sustenance, frequently attributed to the Holy Graal, after another manner than that which can be presumed within the offices of folk-lore. It is in this sense that the old fable concerning the Bowl of Plenty, when incorporated by the Graal Mystery, may prove to have a profound meaning. Some things are taken externally; some are received within; but the food of the body has analogies with that of the soul. So much may be said at the moment concerning certain aspects which encompass the literature of the Graal, as the hills stand round Jerusalem. The four Hallows are therefore the Cup, the Lance, the Sword and the Dish, Paten or Patella--these four, and the greatest of these is the Cup. As regards this Hallow-in-chief, of two things one: either the Graal Vessel contained the most sacred of all relics in Christendom, or it contained the Secret Mystery of the Eucharist. Now, the first question which arises is whether the general description which obtains concerning it--as I was almost about to say, in the popular mind--reposes on the authority of the texts. Here also will be found our first difficulty. I may not be pardoned such flippancy, but the Psalmist said: Calix meus quam inebrians est, and this has rather a bearing on the Graal chalice; for the variety of the accounts concerning it may produce in the mind a sense of having visited some inn of strange description where those who come to ask questions are served with strong measures, and full at that. There are three available sources of information concerning the Sacred Vessel, including those which are purely of the Eucharistic office. (1) The apocryphal p. 91 legends concerning Joseph of Arimathæa which are distinct from those that have been incorporated with the romances of chivalry and with the histories leading up to these. (2) The romances themselves and their prolegomena, which are the chief bases of our knowledge, but on the understanding that there is no criterion for the distinction between that which is traditional and that which is pure invention. (3) Some archæological aspects of sacramental practice. The apocryphal legends which connect Joseph with the cultus of the Precious Blood are late, and they lie under the suspicion of having been devised in the interests of Glastonbury, or through Glastonbury of ecclesiastical pretensions on the part of the British Church at or about the period of Henry II. Above these as a substratum of solid fact--I refer to the fact of the inventions--there has been of late years superposed an alleged dream of a pan-Britannic Church, which belongs, however, more particularly to the romance of history. The chivalrous romances themselves have so overlaid the Graal object with decorations and wonder-elements that the object itself has been obscured and its nature can, in some cases, be extricated scarcely. Eucharistic archæology remains as a source of information on which it is possible to rely implicitly, but while this can satisfy us as to the variations in the form and matter of the Sacred Vessel used in the Sacrifice of the Mass, it does not offer us, except indirectly, much or perhaps any assistance to determine the relic of legend.
The Evangelium Nicodemi, Acta [vel Gesta] Pilati, and some other oriental apocryphal documents are the authorities for the imprisonment of Joseph by the Jews because he had laid the body of Christ in the sepulchre. William of Malmesbury, John of Glastonbury and similar makers of chronicles are responsible for referring the first evangelisation of Britain to Joseph of Arimathæa. From these, however, we must except Geoffrey of Monmouth, and William of Malmesbury has nothing p. 92 to tell us of the Graal, though he has the story of two phials containing the Precious Blood. The reference to relics of any kind is also late in the chronicles. An English metrical life of Joseph, belonging to the first years of the sixteenth century, but drawing from previous sources, shows how the precious blood was collected by that saint and received into two cruets, which we find figuring at a later period in the arms of Glastonbury Abbey. One of these sources, though perhaps at a far distance, may have been the lost book attributed to Melkin or Mewyn, which gives an account of these cruets. The tradition supposes (1) that they were buried at Glastonbury, (2) that they will be discovered concurrently with the coffin of Joseph, and (3) that thereafter there will be no more drought in Britain. John of Glastonbury is one of the authorities for the existence of a book of Melkin--sometimes identified with the Chronicle of Nennius. The more immediate antecedent of the metrical story is, however, the Nova Legenda Angliæ of Capgrave, and it represents Joseph as living with twelve hermits at Glastonbury, where he also died and was buried. The Oxford Vernon MS., written in verse about 1350, shows that there was a sacred vessel containing blood. The Chronicle of Helinandus describes the Graal as a wide and shallow vessel, wherein meats in their juice are served to wealthy persons. The Historia Aurea, written by John of Tynemouth, connects Joseph with the Holy Vessel, which it describes as that large dish or platter in which the Lord supped with His disciples, with which concurs one entire cycle of the legend. It may be added, for what it is worth, that the Armorican Gauls seem to have had a sacred vessel used in certain rites from a very early period. An object of this kind is thought to be depicted on Armorican coins, being semicircular in shape, held by means of thongs and devoid of stem or base. Under Roman domination the vessel was figured with a pedestal.
We come now to the putative historical romances and p. 93 the poems and tales of chivalry which contain the developed legend of the Graal. The Conte del Graal, which is the first text for our consideration, has many decorative descriptions of the Sacred Vessel, but they present certain difficulties, as will be exhibited by their simple recitation in summary. (1) It was covered with the most precious stones that are found in the world, and it gave forth so great a light that the candles at the table were eclipsed, even as are the stars of heaven in the glory of the sun and moon (Chrétien de Troyes). (2) It passed to and fro quickly amidst the lights, but no hand appeared to hold it (Gautier de Doulens, or, as he is now termed, Wauchier de Denain). (3) It was borne uplifted by a beautiful maiden, who was discounselled and weeping (Montpellier MS.). (4) It was carried to and fro before the table by a maiden more beautiful than flowers in April (second account of Gautier, with which compare the similar recital of Gerbert). (5) It was carried amidst a great light by an angel, to heal Perceval (Manessier). (6) It was carried in the pageant by a maiden through the castle chamber (ibid.). (7) It was carried openly at the coronation of Perceval, also by a maiden (ibid.). (8) It was, in fine, ravished with the soul of Perceval, and has never since been seen so openly:-- "Ne jà mais nus hommes qui soit nés" Nel vera si apiertement." [paragraph continues] What follows from these citations will have occurred to the reader--that in all these several sections of the Conte del Graal there is no intelligible description of the sacred object; that the writers knew of it at a far distance only; that some of their references seem to indicate a brilliant lamp rather than a chalice; and, when they allocated it to Christian symbolism, that they may have wavered in their meaning between the idea of the Paschal Dish and the Cup in which Christ consecrated the wine of the first Eucharist; but we cannot tell. I should p. 94 add that the prologue, which is certainly the work of a later or at least of another hand, and embodies some curious material, mentions, but very briefly, the pageant of the Graal procession, saying that the Vessel appears at the Castle without sergeant or seneschal, but again there is no description of the Vessel. In conclusion of this account, the alternative ending of Gerbert retells with variations part of the story of Joseph, and although there is once again no intimation as to the form of the Graal, an account of the service performed at an altar over "the holy, spiritual thing"--the Vessel more beautiful than eye of man has seen--is there recounted, while it leaves no doubt in the mind that this service was a Mass of the Graal. It is the only suggestion of the kind which is afforded by the vast poem, though the origin and early history of the sacred object is in accordance with the received tradition. The fuller memorials of this tradition are embodied, as we have seen, in two cycles of literature, but the text which is first in time and chief in importance is the metrical Romance of the Graal, or Joseph of Arimathæa, by Robert de Borron. A French and a German critic have said that this is the earliest text of the Graal literature proper, and an English writer has concluded, on the contrary, that it is not: mais que m’importe? I will not even ask for the benefit of the doubt, so far as enumeration is concerned. The metrical Joseph says that the Graal was a passing fair vessel, wherein did Christ make His sacrament. This is vague admittedly, and assuming a certain confusion in the mind of the writer, it might have been that Dish mentioned by John of Tynemouth in which the Paschal Lamb was eaten by Christ and His disciples. In place of the words mout gent, which are given by the original French editor of the only text, Paulin Paris, following I know not what authority, or imagining a variant reading, substituted the words mout grant, which might well apply to the Paschal Dish. But Robert de Borron certifies to his own meaning when he
p. 95 recites an utterance of Christ in His discourse to Joseph, for it is there said that the vessel which has served as the reliquary shall be called henceforth a chalice:--
"Cist vaisseau où men sanc méis,
Quant de men cors le requeillis,
Calices apelez sera."
[paragraph continues] It is impossible to read the later verses in which the Eucharistic chalice is compared with the sepulchre of Christ, the mass corporal with the grave-clothes, and the paten with the stone at the mouth of the tomb, without concluding that by the Graal was intended the first Eucharistic chalice, and the presence of this symbolism in the mind of Robert de Borron suggests a symbolical intention on his part in the whole legend which he presented. If it is said that his idea of a chalice does not correspond to a vessel the content of which is sacramental wine, it should be remembered that the ciborium which contains consecrated Hosts is still at this day replaced on occasion by a chalice of the ordinary form. The idea of the devotional poet, supposing it to have been as purely mystical as he was himself deeply religious, might have embodied an attempt to shadow forth in the perpetuation of the most precious of all reliquaries the sacramental mystery of the Real Presence. It seems certain, in any case, that when Robert de Borron speaks of the Graal as that vessel in which Christ made his sacrament, this must not be understood as referring to the Paschal Dish, though one probable derivation of the word Graal would support the latter view. In the dialect of Languedoc, Grazal signified a large vessel, usually of clay; in the dialect of Provence, Grasal was a bowl or platter; in Anglo-Norman, or its connections, Graal was a dish made of some costly material for the purpose of great feasts, which, as we have seen, is the description of Helinandus. With all this some of the later romancers were dissatisfied, and, following Robert de Borron, they exalted the vessel into a chalice, so p. 96 that they might bring it into line with the Eucharistic side of the legend, with which side a paschal dish--whether that of Christ or another--offered little analogy. The material of such a chalice would have been probably glass. It follows from Tertullian that in Rome at the beginning of the third century they used glass chalices; so did the Bishop of Toulouse at the end of the fourth century; and about A.D. 550 the same custom prevailed, as appears by the life of Cesarius, Bishop of Arles. A council of Rheims in the days of Charlemagne is said to have forbidden glass chalices because they were brittle. The Lesser Holy Graal does not depart from the rendering which I have here given in respect of the metrical romance, but it seems to make the assurance of the poet more certain by elucidating further the application of the secret words to the consecration and administering of the Eucharist. Where the poem says that there is a great book in which has been written the great secret called the Graal, the Lesser Holy Graal says: This is the secret uttered at the great sacrament performed over the Graal--that is to say, over the chalice. The vessel is otherwise described as the one in which Christ sacrificed, as if He actually celebrated the first Mass, and from the Eucharistic standpoint this seems much stronger than the corresponding feisoit son sacrement, which are the words of Robert de Borron. The repetition of the experience of the sacred table which is enjoined by Joseph in both texts is in both termed the service of the Graal, but in the prose version alone is it adjudged to the hour of tierce, as if the Mass of the day were celebrated, and as if certain persons, evidently in a state of grace, were sustained in the body by the sacramental nutriment of the soul. The Early Merlin and the Didot Perceval neither reduce nor increase the evidence; but it may be hazarded, for what it is worth, that the original disclosure of the secret words may have had some office in preserving the content of the great relic. In the Early Merlin there is no allusion to the office p. 97 of secret words, and no Graal Hallows are mentioned excepting the Cup, as it is obvious that we cannot include the sword of Merlin, through which Arthur was chosen to be king. It does not appear that this weapon had any antecedent history. In the Didot Perceval the rumour and the wonder of the Graal moves pageant-like through all the pages, but it is more shorn of descriptive allusions than anything that has preceded it in the quests. When the predestined Knight visits the castle, tower, or hold in which the Hallow has been preserved through so many centuries, he sees it plainly enough at the supper-table, along which it passes, carried with no ostentation by a mere page of the chamber; but he is said only to hold a vessel wherein the blood of our Saviour reposed. This is at the first visit, and at the second, when Perceval is initiated into the whole mystery and becomes the Lord of the Graal, the description is repeated merely, as if it were a counsel of perfection to maintain and even to increase in the third text of the trilogy whatsoever could be called vague and dubious in the first.
The Book of the Holy Graal, even when it reproduces with several variations the prose version of Robert de Borron's poem, gives, in some of its codices, an explanation of the Sacred Vessel which is the antithesis of his own. It is described as that Dish in which the Son of God partook of the Last Supper before He gave to the disciples His own flesh and blood. It was, therefore, the Paschal Dish. Certain manuscripts, however, differ so widely that it is difficult to determine the original state of the text. Another codex follows the account of the Lesser Holy Graal. According to a third codex, it was the content and not the Vessel which was called the Holy Graal; but, speaking generally, most versions concur in describing it as the Holy Dish. The connection with the Eucharist is, however, sufficiently close, for he who is elected to say the first Mass and to consecrate the unspotted elements is he also to whom by Divine instruction p. 98 [paragraph continues] Joseph surrenders the vessel. But the Blessed Reliquary would seem to have been rather the outward witness to the presence within those elements. For example, in the first unveiled vision of the Holy Graal which is granted to any one outside Joseph himself, we hear of an altar, on one side of which were the nails used for the Crucifixion, together with the hallowed Lance; on the other side was the Dish; and in the centre there was an exceeding rich vessel of gold in the semblance of a goblet--obviously the chalice of consecration: it had a lid after the manner of a ciborium. More astonishing still, the cup of the Eucharist is placed within the Graal during a ceremony which corresponds to the Mass. In a romance so overcharged with decoration and so lavish in episodes of wonder, we should expect, and shall not be disappointed, that many pageants and ornaments would collect about the Holy Vessel, and that it should work many marvels. The Sacrament consecrated within it reveals the mysteries of Christ openly to chosen eyes, but thereon can no man look until he is cleansed from sin. It gives also on occasion the vision of an Eternal Eucharist and a great company sitting at the high table in the Paradise which is above. So far as concerns the authority of the text itself, it would appear that the Mass of the Graal is not like that of the Church without--an office which recurs daily; it is rather an arch-natural sacrifice, at which the incarnate Christ figures as the sensible oblation and subsequently as the Melchisedech of the rite, communicating Himself to the witnesses, while a thousand voices about him give thanks to God amidst a great beating of birds' wings, and
"Young men whom no one knew went in and out
With a far look in their eternal eyes."
The texts of the later Merlin have several references to the Graal, and it is the chief purpose which moves through the dual romance, leading up, as it does obviously, to a Quest of the Sacred Vessel; but what is p. 99 understood thereby must be gathered chiefly from its reflections of the Joseph legend. We shall see that in certain codices the account differs from that of Robert de Borron. The Vulgate Merlin has one very remarkable passage, which tells how the tidings of the Holy Graal spread through the realm of King Arthur, and how the Graal was that Vessel in which Joseph of Arimathæa received the blood from the side of Jesus Christ when He hung upon the Cross. It represents, therefore, a tradition which is familiar enough not only in the literature of romance, but in that of religious legend, though it is the antithesis of the account given in the Lesser Chronicles, wherein we are told that the blood was drawn into the Vessel after Joseph and Nicodemus had taken down the Body of the Lord. Secondly, the Graal was that Holy Vessel which came from Heaven above into the city of Sarras. We have here a reflection only, and that at a far distance, of the Book of the Holy Graal in the form which is now extant. Thirdly, and to us most important, the Graal was that Vessel in which Christ first sacrificed His Blessed Body and His Flesh by the mediation of His bishop, the Second Joseph, whom He ordained with His own hands. According to the Huth Merlin the Graal was that Vessel in which Jesus and His Apostles ate the Last Supper. It was again, therefore, the Paschal Dish. The Longer Prose Perceval has many descriptions of the vessel, all of which are designed to connect it with the chalice, but they are highly mystical in their nature. As one of the most express attempts to relate the Graal with the Eucharist, it must be regarded as important for the subject of the Hallow-in-chief. This romance and the great Quest of Galahad are both texts of transubstantiation, and they must rank also among the latest documents of the literature. The Lesser Chronicles, even in the prose version of De Borron's poem, offer no suggestion concerning this doctrine, the Graal Vessel being simply a Hallow containing a precious relic. About p. 100 the period of the Quest and the High History, the tide of ecclesiastical feeling, which long previously had set towards the definition of the dogma, must have permeated the mind of the laity, prepared as it also was by the desire of things sensible and tangible in matters of religion. It was, this notwithstanding, still long to the establishment of the high, symbolical festival of Corpus Christi, which provided an external epilogue to the closed canon of the Graal, as if by a final substitution that which was taken away, or at least ex hypothesi, was to be in perpetuity memorialised about the precincts of the gate by the wardens thereof. In connection with transubstantiation, it may be remarked that the religious office of Knighthood was above all things to hear mass, and, next, to confess sins. There are few records in the Graal romances that the chivalry of Logres communicated, except in the Quest of Galahad, and then only in the case of the elect knights. All high festivals were observed, all penances fulfilled; but to participate in the Eucharistic mystery seemed apart from the life of the world and withdrawn into the sphere of sanctity. However this may be, the Longer Prose Perceval has two cryptic descriptions of the Graal Vessel, which, on account of their complexity, but for the moment only, I must present as they stand actually in the story. (1) It is said concerning Gawain, when he looked at the Graal in his wonder, that it seemed to him a chalice was therein, "albeit there was none at this time." It was, therefore, an ark or a tabernacle which was designed to contain a cup, but when the latter was removed it still held the shadow or semblance thereof. (2) In the course of the same episode a change was performed in the aspect of the external object, and it appeared to be "all in flesh," meaning that it was transformed into a vision of Christ crucified. Towards the close of the story, when a certain Queen Jandree relates her visions to Perceval, she sees, in one of these, an image of the crucifixion from which people collect the Blood into a most Holy Vessel, elevated p. 101 for that object by one of them. There are no names mentioned, but for purposes of simplicity we may assume that they were Joseph and Nicodemus. In the castle of King Fisherman the office of the Cup was to receive the Blood which fell from the point of the Sacred Lance. The priest who officiated at the Graal service is said to begin his sacrament, with which expression we may compare the words feisoit son sacrement, which are those of Robert de Borron. There is indubitably reference to the Eucharist in both cases, and perhaps the Graal Mass Book was a traditional version of the Mass, supposed, ex hypothesi, to follow the Last Supper. Speaking generally, the historical account of the Cup follows the Book of the Holy Graal rather than De Borron's poem, for the blood which flowed from the wounds of Christ when He was set upon the Cross is said to have been received into the Sacred Vessel. There is no ministry in respect of material sustenance attributed to the Graal in this spiritual romance. It is, therefore, in one sense the antithesis of the Quest of Galahad, which dwells with equal fulness on the food giving properties of the Vessel and on its connection with the mystery of such a mass and such an office of the Eucharist as never before or after was said in the wide world, apart from this sacred object. When the Holy Graal enters the court of King Arthur and into the banqueting-hall it is clothed in white samite, but neither the Vessel nor the bearer are visible to human eyes. On a later occasion it manifests as a Holy Vessel on a table of silver in an old chapel. Elsewhere it is observed that the Flesh and Blood of God are present in the Graal. When it appears to Lancelot in the Castle of Corbenic, it is still upon a table of silver, but this time the object is covered with red in place of white samite, and it is surrounded by angels. In the course of the ceremony Lancelot sees three men, who represent the Trinity, exalted above the head of the officiating priest. Two of them place the youngest between the hands of p. 102 the priest, who again exalts him. On another occasion a child enters visibly into the substance of the Mass-bread. A man is also elevated, bearing the signs of the Passion of Christ, and this Personage issues out of the Vessel, coming subsequently among the knights present, and causing them to communicate sacramentally. It is after this episode that the Graal is removed to the spiritual city of Sarras. There Christ appears to Galahad and his companions, and this is the last manifestation in connection with the Sacred Vessel. It is the viaticum of the haut prince, who thereafter exercises the high option which has been granted previously and demands that he should be taken away. As the chief Hallow in the Parsifal of Wolfram differs from all the other romances, it will be left for more full consideration in dealing with the German cycle; but seeing that in this cycle there are correspondences outside this great poem with the Northern French accounts, one of these may be placed here so as to illustrate the Germanic allusions to the Sacred Vessel in the general understanding thereof. Diu Crône, the poem of Heinrich, says that it was borne on a cloth of samite and had a base of red gold, on which a reliquary of gold and gems was superposed. It was carried by a crowned maiden. There is here, however, a fresh departure from the Graal in Christian symbolism, for as, on the one hand, it is the quest of a feigned and impossible hero, so, on the other, the content ascribed to the reliquary is not the true content. It holds the semblance of bread, as if that of the Divine Body, but the wine or royal blood, which corresponds to the second element of the Eucharist, is distilled from the Lance of the legend. We are now approaching the term of the inquiry allocated to this section, and it will be seen on reflection that we have three possible hypotheses regarding the precious vessel: (1) that it was a cruet or phial, wherein the blood of Christ was reserved permanently--in which case we can understand the legend on the score of comparative p. 103 possibility; (2) that it was an open platter or bowl, which, it is obvious, could have had no permanent content, much less the precious or indeed any other blood; (3) that it corresponded to the notion of a chalice, but probably with a cover, after the manner of a ciborium. It is in late texts that the vessel appears most indubitably in connection with the sacrifice of the Mass; it was and could be only that which was recognised by Diu Crône of Heinrich and by John of Tynemouth--namely, a reliquary; but the mystic side of the legend, reflecting in the minds of the romancers many conflicting issues, took it over to the Eucharist, influenced by the irresistible connection between the sacramental blood and the sang réal poured out at the Crucifixion. There is evidence that this view is almost coincident with the marriage of the legend to romance. The mind of romance connected the vessel and its office with secret words of consecration and a wonderful grade of priesthood, the root-matter of which must have been drawn from some source wherein relics could have counted for little in the presence of the higher secrets of sanctity. In conclusion as to this matter, the Holy Graal, according to the Greater Chronicles, was not the only Hallow which was brought into Britain by those whose mission was to preach first the gospel therein, but it was more especially the exotic of the legend, as this was developed in Northern France. In several cases the other Hallows, as we shall see, were either present in Britain or arrived some centuries later. As regards the Lesser Chronicles, it is warrantable to decide that, in the mind of Robert de Borron, the Sacred Vessel was a ciborium or covered chalice, and that in some manner which is not clearly declared it was connected with a sacramental service performed in great seclusion. As regards the Greater Chronicles, it was originally a Dish, and that Dish in which the Paschal Lamb was eaten at the Last Supper; but from the very beginning of this ascription the notion of a cup was essential to the Eucharistic office p. 104 which also resided in the Vessel; in the Book of the Holy Graal a cup is inserted therein, but in later texts of the cycle the Dish sometimes undergoes transmutation and reappears as a chalice.
Waite is best known as the co-creator of the Rider-Waite-Smith, Waite-Smith or Rider-Waite (en) tarot deck, widely used in the English-speaking world mainly for divinatory purposes, and as the author of the accompanying manual, Pictorial Key to the Tarot. To design the deck, he collaborated with symbolist artist Pamela Colman-Smith, also a member of Golden Dawn. The Waite-Smith is known as one of the first tarot decks to have all 78 cards fully illustrated, unlike almost all traditional decks1 where only the 22 major arcana are illustrated. The Rider-Waite tarot was first offered for sale in 1910. This Tarot is renowned for being one of the first to have all 78 cards fully illustrated, unlike almost all traditional decks where only the 22 major arcana are illustrated. It is certainly a Tarot that allows you to decode the divinatory meaning of the arcana with great acuity, especially the Minor Arcana. As far as the Minor Arcana are concerned, these are personalized interpretations, which do not necessarily translate the meaning found in the Marseilles Tarot. Waite has fixed the meaning of the arcana, and the illustrations with which he has endowed them, eloquent though they may be, leave little room for imagination, for pure inspiration... And... There's another snag... Waite has inverted the arcana "8" and "11", and in this Tarot we find JUSTICE to be arcana "11" and FORCE to be "8".
Golden Dawn Or Or aurore
Waite joined the Outer Order of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in January 1891 after being introduced by E.W. Berridge. In 1893, he withdrew from the Golden Dawn. In 1896, he rejoined the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn. In 1899, he joined the Second Order of the Golden Dawn. He became a Freemason in 1901,[6][2] and joined the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1902. In 1903, Waite founded the Independent Rectified Order R. R. and A. C. This order was dissolved in 1914. The Golden Dawn was torn apart by internal quarrels until Waite left in 1914; in July 1915, he formed the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, not to be confused with the Societas Rosicruciana. By this time, there were half a dozen offshoots of the original Golden Dawn, which never re-established itself in its entirety self-destroyed.