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Come to Ireland. Say "It's going to rain".
Both umbrellas were confiscated shortly afterward by a banker, in a serious case of mixed idioms.
Weather reports predict the so called "Beast From The East" is due to revisit the UK over the next few days, today the 16th of March 2018 I visited Collieston Bay, its the first time I have witnessed the impact unusual weather has had on the area, it really was exhilarating and offered great photo opportunities.
Collieston is a small former fishing village on the North Sea coast in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The village lies just north of the Sands of Forvie Special Protection Area, between Cruden Bay and Newburgh.
The earliest recorded history of Collieston is of the arrival of St Ternan, a Columban monk on a mission to convert the local picts to Christianity. There is, however, evidence that people lived here during much earlier times.
Collieston was established as a fishing village by the 16th century, and it provides the first safe harbour in over fifteen miles of beachesand dunes stretching north from Aberdeen.
Fishing for herring, haddock, whiting and codflourished in the 17th century and 18th century and was the foundation of Collieston's economy. The village became known for 'Collieston Speldings', salted and sun-dried haddock and whiting, a popular delicacy throughout Britain. As drift netting developed during the mid 19th century, the fishing began to decline and the focus of the industry shifted to places like Peterhead because the harbour at Collieston was too small to safely accommodate the larger boats needed.
The numerous sea caves in the nearby cliffs, and small coves with shingle beaches provided ideal terrain for smugglers. In the late 18th century it was estimated by the Excise that up to 8000 gallons of foreign spirits were being illegally landed in the area every month. In 1798, the notorious village smuggler, Phillip Kennedy, was killed by a blow from an exciseman's cutlass. His grave and tombstone still stands in the village graveyard.
A ship from the Spanish Armada, the Santa Caterina, carrying arms for the Earl of Erroll is said to have sunk just off the rocky point of St Catherine's Dub in 1594. In retaliation for the Earl's involvement in the Catholic plot against him, James VI blew up the Earl's castle which stood on the cliffs, a mile north of Collieston. The Earl went on to rebuild Slains Castle, six miles further up the coast, in 1597.
Collieston is now mainly a commuter village serving Aberdeen, and is largely given over to tourists during the summer months.
This ESA/Webb Picture of the Month shows eight stunning examples of gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing, which was first predicted by Einstein, occurs because massive objects like galaxies and clusters of galaxies dramatically warp the fabric of spacetime. When a massive foreground object lines up just so with a background galaxy, the light from the background galaxy bends as it navigates the warped spacetime on its way to our telescopes.
Depending on how perfect the alignment is, the light from the background galaxy can be bent into an arc, a circle (a phenomenon called an ‘Einstein ring’) or even split into multiple images.
Arcs and circles are prevalent in these gravitationally lensed galaxies, which were identified in data from COSMOS-Web, a 255-hour Treasury programme (#1727). COSMOS-Web aims to understand the formation of the most massive galaxies in the Universe, identify galaxies that were present when the first stars and galaxies reionised the Universe’s hydrogen gas, and study the relationship between the mass of a galaxy’s stars and the mass of its galactic halo across cosmic time.
Using these data, researchers carried out the COSMOS-Web Lens Survey, or COWLS, to search for gravitational lenses. The researchers inspected more than 42 000 galaxies by eye and picked out more than 400 promising lensing candidates. This Picture of the Month feature presents a collage of eight of the most spectacular lenses identified by the research team.
This collection of gravitational lenses spans an incredible range of cosmic history. The foreground galaxies give us a glimpse of galactic life when the Universe was 2.7 to 8.9 billion years old. The background galaxies, whose shapes appear visibly distorted, stretch back even further, with one source nicknamed ‘the COSMOS-Web Ring’ (top row, left of centre) letting us peek all the way back to when the Universe was barely more than a billion years old. Several rarities appear in this collection, including an unusual case in which the galaxy acting as the gravitational lens is a flattened disc galaxy rather than an elliptical galaxy (bottom row, second from left).
These images demonstrate Webb’s ability to uncover and reveal never-before-seen details in gravitationally lensed galaxies. Some of the lensed galaxies were previously discovered with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and are now seen by Webb in an entirely new light. Others, including those that are especially red due to either dust or distance, were first spotted by Webb. These discoveries open a unique window into the early days of the Universe and enable the study of exquisite details within distant galaxies like individual star clusters and supernovae.
Individual images of the lenses are also available. From left-to-right then top-to-bottom: COSJ100013+023424, COSJ100024+015334, COSJ100018+022138, COSJ100024+021749, COSJ095914+021219, COSJ100025+015245, COSJ095921+020638, and COSJ095593+023319.
[Image Description: A collage of eight Webb images of gravitational lensing are shown. Each of the images show various distorted galaxies in the centre of each frame, including arcs and circular shapes.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. Gozaliasl, A. Koekemoer, M. Franco; CC BY 4.0
Midwest Tornadoes A well-predicted tornado outbreak swept across the Midwest on a Sunday afternoon, Nov. 17, 2013, wiping out the town of Washington, Illinois, just east of Peoria. These animation of GOES-EAST cloud top images on November 17 from 1300 to 2200 UTC/8 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST verify the hundreds of severe storms that were reported across Illinois and Indiana, but do not identify which ones had tornadoes beneath them.
Credit: NASA GOES Project/Dennis Chesters
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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With Monday being the lowest predicted high temp for the next week, I decided to run out toward Crescent and Loveland to take some road and bridge photos to support a grant application I'm working on. I was really hoping for the CN because they've got the bridges that are suspect along the route, but I thought I was too late and that they'd departed before I got to CB. Luckily a freight was departing the UP yard at that time, so I chased it north and grabbed a shot I've not tried before on Joslin Ave., which parallels the UP from Benos to Crescent. He waved a bit too late for the shot, but it was nice to see a friendly conductor. The amount of waves I get without the kids these days is certainly less than it used to be. [Note that you'll need a ladder or a Subaroof to shoot here...]
(Please click to view on black)
Sometimes the weather forecasters predict a big storm to hit in the coming days, only to either be wrong or off a bit on the timing. But for the last 2-3 days, the National Weather Service kept saying a low pressure system would move into SW Arizona on Labor Day creating some intense storms and lots of rain.
Which is exactly what happened.
I had been planning on an all-day, noon-to-midnight stormchasing event for Labor Day and was pumped when Monday morning nothing in the forecast had changed. My buddy Ken met me at my house around 12:30 and we flew west of Phoenix and then south to Gila Bend.
If we had driven to Yuma, we might have seem some really nasty stuff, but that's a long haul. So we hung out around the northern parts of Gila Bend, shooting storms in the farmlands and irrigation areas. Caught a few night photographs that will be shared at a later time.
But this lightning shot came almost 30 miles south of Gila Bend on Highway 85. I literally ran across a low area and up a hill to setup for this shot, which ended up being the highest spot around. The lightning wasn't close, but it's definitely not the wisest thing in the world to do.
I didn't have much of a choice. I could see a gorgeous sunset going on and some stormy clouds with strong downdrafts of rain. It took awhile, many shots, but I finally got a decent strike before the beautiful color of the sunset disappeared on me.
(canon 5d mark ii, tamron 17-35mm 2.8, 17mm, iso 250, f/10, 6sec)
As i predicted in my Magical player shot, Rogers Federer took his revenge against Novak Djokovic yesterday by beating him (7-6,7-6, 6-4)
By winning this game, Federer achieved:
1) His 4 th straight US open (2004-2005-2006 and 2007). It's a new record.
2) 12 th Grand Slam titles (the second after Sampras who has won 14 Grand Slem titles
3) 2,4 millions dollars for just the US open title (poor of him)
To see my tennis set
Have a great week !
Did you know that the "Marseille tarot" is associated with the city? Why do you ask? It was brought by Mary Magdalene, the hidden wife of Jesus. She came to Provence, not Marseille. Aren't you wondering why the decks contain 78 cards if only 22 are used? And has anyone ever told you that the Tarot was never designed to predict the future? This includes the Tarot's history and the rich symbolic significance of the Magdalene heresy that is embedded into its images. This hidden heresy relates to the recognition of Mary Magdalene as the wife of Jesus Christ. This sheds light on the need for the balance of the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine in our World today.
The gypsy clairvoyants recovered the Tarot for its particularly effective system for understanding all the unconscious mechanisms, for better orienting oneself towards the right choices, and ultimately for healing.Mary Magdalene (Mary of Magdala), the woman with the jars in Christian symbolism, could well in this case be represented in the star chart. But their hypotheses stopped there. No one had ever imagined that the Tarot itself represented the teaching and life of Mary Magdalene in its entirety, let alone that the Tarot had been created by Mary Magdalene herself in the first century.It changes the dating of the Tarot from the 14th century to the 1st century AD with Mary Magdalene, the Tarot de Marseille thus becoming the ancestor of all Western tarot cards, i.e. "the Tarot".
Historians and experts say that the Tarot originated in Italy during the Renaissance, towards the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th. On the other hand, nobody thought that the Tarot de Marseille itself came from Marseille.Mary Magdalene is the Saint who was the first witness to Christ's resurrection. In other words, she sees the Resurrection. Now, in the Tarot, if you look again at the Judgement and the World side by side, you will see that the Saint in the World card is looking in the direction of the light blue Christ who is rising from his tomb. So here we have a major Tarot code which explains that the naked Saint in the World card is the one who witnesses Christ's resurrection.
fr.camoin.com/tarot/Tarot-Marie-Madeleine-Magdala.html
This tradition begins with the MAT, the traveller who sets off in search of the Grail, but also the people of the MAT, the gypsies. The tradition was reborn with esotericism around 1880. That's when Wirth arrived at Guaita's. How did they send this to Waite? He's still waiting for the piece of the jigsaw to be put together into a clearer system. We're sticking to the stuff available in the web stock.
Oswald Wirth is known for his occult and esoteric work on the Tarot de Marseille. He produced his own version of the 22 Major Arcana cards, and also worked on representing the Minor Arcana with the help of Gérard Encausse, known as Papus, who also studied the Tarot for occult and esoteric purposes, and Arthur Edward Waite, who also produced his own tarot with the popular success we all know. The links between Wirth and Waite are still a secret, but the agility at the heart of esoteric houses and the porosity that may have existed before the 1914 war. Today it's remains like a mirage and that's hard to imagine an other mind. So I've tried to compile some information about these great men, these great initiates, because today everything has been reduced and simplified.
The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot is a deck of tarot cards traditionally used for divination and spiritual practice. It was designed by English illustrator Arthur Edward Waite and American designer Pamela Colman Smith, and first published in 1909. It uses the codes and symbols of the Tarot de Stanislas de la Guaita illustrated by Oswald Wirth. Oswald Wirth was Stanislas de Guaita's secretary, and in collaboration with him drew a Tarot, which has since been republished as the Wirth Tarot. It is also known for its occult symbols and its references to the Hermetic tradition and the Kabbalah. The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot is one of the most popular and widely used tarot decks in the world. It has inspired many interpreters, authors and practitioners of divination, as well as artists and writers.
Wrapping it All Up…
To summarize, the Nine of Cups is a card of actualization, accomplishment and indulgence. It can also mean the reverse depending on its orientation. It holds significance in many areas of your life, from success and riches, to love and loss. Spiritually, it speaks to a feeling of fulfillment, and materially, it calls to plenty. That was everything you might need to know about the Nine of Cups and the meanings associated with drawing the card. We feel the need to clarify that despite the orientation you may draw the card in, not to fret or become too complacent. The tarot cards do not control or enforce their readings in any aspect of your life. They tell a possible story, based on divination and your own vibrations that attract their energies. Because of this, you can play into the reading or shatter expectations completely.There is not much to say about the booklet because there are only 5 translated pages per language. A brief summary of Oswald Wirth's life precedes the presentation of the 22 cards of the Major Arcana. Each card has an explanation in 3 or 4 sentences. The publisher guarantees that the meanings are as faithful as possible to Wirth's vision.
en.tarotquest.fr/review-en-007-golden-wirth-tarot.html
Remember that even drawing the card upright does not mean you can sit back and good things will come to you. The card calls you to action to go after what you want, appreciate what you have, and indulge in the rewards. Conversely, drawing the Nine of Cups in reverse calls you to exercise caution, reflection, and self-discovery. This is because whether it’s the stars, a roll of the dice, or the draw of the card doesn’t matter. The Universe guides us, not shackles us to our fate, and ultimately you alone are in control of your life.
Wirth is best known as the author of Le Tarot des imagiers du Moyen Âge (1927), translated and published in English as The Tarot of the Magicians. Joseph Paul Oswald Wirth (5 August 1860, Brienz, Canton of Bern – 9 March 1943) was a Swiss occultist, artist and author. He studied esotericism and symbolism with Stanislas de Guaita and in 1889 he created, under the guidance of de Guaita, a cartomantic Tarot consisting only of the twenty-two Major Arcana. Known as "Les 22 Arcanes du Tarot Kabbalistique", it followed the designs of the Tarot de Marseille closely but introduced several alterations, incorporating extant occult symbolism into the cards. The Wirth/de Guaita deck is significant in the history of the tarot for being the first in a long line of occult, cartomantic, and initiatory decks.
The occult in life: Stanislas de Guaita - memories of his secretary Oswald Wirth
They recruited Gérard Encausse to help rebuild the tradition of alchemists. Encausse, who went by the pseudonym “Papus”, was a Spanish-born French physician and occultist who had written books on magic, Cabalah and the Tarot. From the end of the 19th century until his death, Oswald Wirth (1860-1943) exercised a veritable moral magisterium over French alchemy. Through his works and the magazine Le Symbolisme, which he founded and edited, he made a major contribution to restoring to alchemy its spiritualist and symbolic dimension, largely abandoned during the 19th century in favor of political battles. His personality and aura inspired Jules Romain to create the character of Alchemist Lengnau in Recherche d'une Eglise (volume 7 of Les Hommes de bonne Volonté). Initiated in January 1884 in a Châlons-sur-Marne laboratory during his military service, he left the alchemists of France to join the Great Work shortly after settling in Paris. Secretary to Stanislas de Guaïta (1861-1897), a writer and poet whom his friend Maurice Barrès described as "the renovator of occultism", he owed it to him, by his own admission, to "write legibly". Although he denounced what he called "low occultism", Wirth (who was a magnetizer) nourished part of his symbolic reflection with Hermetic contributions.
Oswald Wirth's symbolic tarot is one of the few tarot cards to reveal the key to the knowledge of the ancient initiates, secretly conveyed for millennia.
The theosophical reductions (what can be learned from the experience we live) and the tetrads (the experience itself, its origin and its possible development), enable everyone to interpret the messages of the 78 beautifully illustrated cards with accuracy and precision. The historical tarot deck, created in the Marseilles style, is based upon the original designs by famous Swiss kabbalist and occultist Oswald Wirth. The 22 Major Arcana first appeared in 1889 in a hand-colored limit edition deck. The 22 Major cards have French titles and the Hebrew letters attributed to each card by Eliphas Levi, and popularized by Oswald Wirth. This authorized full 78-card deck is printed with vivid colors on gold background. The 56 Minor Arcana cards present the four traditional suits of Swords, Batons, Cups and Coins. The pack includes a booklet of commentary by Stuart R.
www.usgamesinc.com/oswald-wirth-tarot.html
Stanislas de Guaita (6 April 1861, Tarquimpol, Moselle – 19 December 1897, Tarquimpol) was a French poet based in Paris, an expert on esotericism and European mysticism, and an active member of the Rosicrucian Order. He was very celebrated and successful in his time. He had many disputes with other people who were involved with occultism and magic. Occultism and magic were part of his novels. De Guaita came from a noble Italian family who had relocated to France, and as such his title was 'Marquis', or Marquess. He was born in the castle of Alteville in the commune of Tarquimpol, Moselle, and went to school at the lyceum in Nancy, where he studied chemistry, metaphysics and Cabala. As a young man, he moved to Paris, and his luxurious apartment became a meeting place for poets, artists, and writers who were interested in esotericism and mysticism. In the 1880s, Guaita published two collections of poetry The Dark Muse (1883) and The Mystic Rose (1885), which became popular. De Guaita was influenced by the writings of l'Abbé Alphonse-Louis Constant, alias Eliphas Lévi, a prominent French occultist who was initiated in London to rosicrucianism by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1854. Eliphas Lévi was also initiated as a Freemason on 14 March 1861 in the Grand Orient de France Lodge La Rose du Parfait Silence at the Orient of Paris. De Guaita became further interested in occultism after reading a novel by Joséphin Péladan which was interwoven with Rosicrucian and occult themes. In Paris, de Guaita and Péladan became acquainted, and in 1884, the two decided to try to rebuild the Rosicrucian Brotherhood. They recruited Gérard Encausse to help rebuild the brotherhood. Encausse, who went by the pseudonym “Papus”, was a Spanish-born French physician and occultist who had written books on magic, Cabalah and the Tarot.
In 1888, De Guaita founded the Ordre kabbalistique de la Rose-Croix, or the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross. Rosicrucianism is an esoteric movement which first began with the publication of the three Rosicrucian Manifestos in the early 17th century. Guaita's Rosicrucian Order provided training in the Cabala, an esoteric form of Jewish and Christian mysticism, which attempts to reveal hidden mystical insights in the Bible and divine nature. The order also conducted examinations and provided university degrees on Cabala topics. Guaita had a large private library of books on metaphysical issues, magic, and the "hidden sciences." He was nicknamed the "Prince of the Rosicrucians" by his contemporaries for his broad learning on Rosicrucian issues. Papus, Peladan, and Antoine de La Rochefoucauld were prominent members. Maurice Barrès was a close friend of De Guaita.
In the late 1880s, the Abbé Boullan, a defrocked Catholic Priest and the head of a schismatic branch called the “Church of the Carmel” led a “magical war” against de Guaita. French-Belgian novelist Joris K. Huysmans, a supporter of Boullan, portrayed De Guaita as a Satanic sorcerer in the novel La Bas. Another of Boullan’s supporters, the writer Jules Bois, challenged De Guaita to a pistol duel. De Guaita agreed and took part in the duel, but as both men missed, no one was hurt.
By the 1890s, De Guaita's, Papus' and Péladan’s collaboration became increasingly strained by disagreements over strategy and doctrines. Guaita and Papus lost the support of Péladan, who left to start a competing order. De Guaita died in 1897 at the age of 36.
His original drawing of an inverted pentagram with a goat's head appeared in La Clef de la Magie Noire (The Key to Black Magic), published the year he died. It later became conflated with Baphomet, or the Sabbatic Goat. In 1888, De Guaita founded the Ordre kabbalistique de la Rose-Croix, or the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Cross. Rosicrucianism is an esoteric movement which first began with the publication of the three Rosicrucian Manifestos in the early 17th century. Guaita's Rosicrucian Order provided training in the Cabala, an esoteric form of Jewish and Christian mysticism, which attempts to reveal hidden mystical insights in the Bible and divine nature. The order also conducted examinations and provided university degrees on Cabala topics. Guaita had a large private library of books on metaphysical issues, magic, and the "hidden sciences." He was nicknamed the "Prince of the Rosicrucians" by his contemporaries for his broad learning on Rosicrucian issues. Papus, Peladan, and Antoine de La Rochefoucauld were prominent members. Maurice Barrès was a close friend of De Guaita. In the late 1880s, the Abbé Boullan, a defrocked Catholic Priest and the head of a schismatic branch called the “Church of the Carmel” led a “magical war” against de Guaita. French-Belgian novelist Joris K. Huysmans, a supporter of Boullan, portrayed De Guaita as a Satanic sorcerer in the novel La Bas. Another of Boullan’s supporters, the writer Jules Bois, challenged De Guaita to a pistol duel. De Guaita agreed and took part in the duel, but as both men missed, no one was hurt. By the 1890s, De Guaita's, Papus' and Péladan’s collaboration became increasingly strained by disagreements over strategy and doctrines. Guaita and Papus lost the support of Péladan, who left to start a competing order. De Guaita died in 1897 at the age of 36. His original drawing of an inverted pentagram with a goat's head appeared in La Clef de la Magie Noire (The Key to Black Magic), published the year he died. It later became conflated with Baphomet, or the Sabbatic Goat.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislas_de_Guaita
Lévi and Wirth interests also included Freemasonry and Astrology. He wrote many books in French regarding Freemasonry, most importantly a set of three volumes explaining Freemasonry's first three degrees. On January 28, 1884, Wirth was initiated in the regular Scottish Rite Masonic Lodge La Bienfaisance Châlonnaise affiliated to the Grand Orient of France. In 1889, he joined the Scottish Rite Travail et les Vrais Amis Fidèles where he became Grand Master . In 1898, the latter lodge was admitted to the Grand Lodge of France.
Works[edit]
Le Livre de Thot comprenant les 22 arcanes du Tarot (1889).
L'Imposition des mains et la médecine philosophale (1897), Paris.
La Franc-maçonnerie rendue intelligible à ses adeptes, sa philosophie, son objet, sa méthode, ses moyens, three volumes:
Vol. I: Le livre de l'Apprenti : manuel d'instruction rédigé à l'usage des FF. du 1er degré (1893, 2nd revised edition 1908), Paris.
Vol. II: Le livre du Compagnon : manuel d'instruction rédigé à l'usage des FF. du 2° degré (1912), Paris.
Vol. III: Le livre du Maître : manuel d'instruction rédigé à l'usage des FF. du 3° degré (1922), Paris.
Le Symbolisme hermétique dans ses rapports avec l'alchimie et la franc-maçonnerie (1910), Paris.
Les Signes du zodiaque, leur symbolisme initiatique (1921), Paris.
Le Serpent vert (1922) (translation and analysis of Das Märchen by Goethe), Paris.
L'Idéal initiatique (1924), Paris.
Le Tarot des imagiers du Moyen Âge (1927), Paris.
Introduction à l’étude du tarot (1931), Paris.
Les Mystères de l'art royal - Rituel de l'adepte (1932), Paris.
Stanislas de Guaïta, souvenirs de son secrétaire (1935), Paris.
Le Symbolisme astrologique : planètes, signes du zodiaque, maisons de l'horoscope, aspects, étoiles fixes (1938), Paris.
Qui est régulier ? Le pur maçonnisme sous le Régime des Grandes Loges inauguré en 1717 (1938), Paris.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Wirth
Interpretation of this Cards
Ace of Cups's Meaning
The Ace of Cups signifies the beginning of period of strong emotional health for you. Expect copious joy, happiness, and love to surround you during this time. Existing personal relationships may strengthen, meaningful new ones are likely to form. If marriage is in your future, you are likely to lay the foundations for it during this time.The Ace of Cups represents overall satisfaction throughout all different areas of your life. It predicts success and abundance through use of good intuition and creativity. New relationships or possibly a birth or pregnancy could be associated with these positive outlooks.
www.trustedtarot.com/cards/ace-of-cups/
The Wheel of Fortune's Meaning
Symbolic of life's cycles, the Wheel of Fortune speaks to good beginnings. Most likely, you will find the events foretold to be positive, but, being aspects of luck, they may also be beyond your control and influence. Tend those things you can control with care, and learn not to agonize over the ones you cannot.
www.trustedtarot.com/cards/wheel-of-fortune/
The Star's Meaning
The Star's presence signifies a period of respite and renewal for you. This renewal may be spiritual, physical, or both. It is a particularly positive sign if you or someone close is recovering from illness or injury. It is a light in the darkness, illuminating your future and your past.
www.trustedtarot.com/cards/the-star/
Eight of Wands's Meaning
Prepare yourself for an abrupt increase in the pace of your life. Things are about to get very busy. They good news is that any projects you begin will progress quickly, you will experience few delays, and the conclusion is likely to be successful. This card is also good news for relationships, although it raises the possibility of needing to travel for relationships. All things considered, this is a good card to find in your spread, as long as you are willing to buckle down and get to work.
www.trustedtarot.com/cards/eight-of-wands/
Drawing on Success: Nine of Cups Tarot Card Meaning
What else is there to glean from the card? It represents the fulfillment of a goal or some deep, unfulfilled desire. But tarot cards are tricky business. Their meaning is usually tied to the context of a situation, and in fact many diviners will read more than one card during a fortune telling. The meaning of Nine of Cups then, can change depending on its adjacent cards.
Its meaning can also change depending on where you are in life. What you’re struggling with, or where you’ve been or are going also changes the card’s meaning. Our tarot aficionados reading this article will also acutely point out that tarot cards have two different meanings, depending on the orientation that the card is facing when drawn. The Nine of Cups upright meaning is different from the Nine of Cups reversed meaning!
We’ll go over as many of these as we can in this article, to prepare you for everything you’d need to expect after drawing this card. Maybe you’re a tarot card enthusiast brushing up on knowledge or maybe you’ve recently had or thought about getting a divination. Perhaps you’re simply curious and want to find out more. Whatever the case, we hope you find this article educational, enlightening, and most importantly, fun! Without further ado, everything you need to know about the Nine of Cups:
Upright: Everything You Need to Know(That We can Think of!)
After a long trial in your life, the Nine of Cups represents a positive, fruitful conclusion. The nine cups are sometimes interpreted to mean different ups and downs, or different challenges you’ve faced before now. Now is important, because the Nine of Cups encourages you to ‘drink up.’ That you should happily partake in the success you have worked and endured for. The tarot card is a wake-up call that you have entered a positive chapter in your life, and should enjoy it. The Nine of Cups can also refer to something in the future in a different context. If you are yearning for something, and draw the Nine of Cups, there’s a good chance it will come true! Indeed, this tarot card is sometimes referred to as the wish card. Because of its association with fulfillment and plenty, the tarot card also has positive meanings in health, love, career and finances. We’ll go over each below: Career-wise, the Nine of Cups focuses more on the confident, successful man more than the cups of blessings themselves. You will find yourself taking in the admiration of your peers and workmates. It’s likely that tasks you found challenging or difficult before are becoming easier or even menial to accomplish. This is the time to look towards possible advancement in your position. Maybe move to a different job that holds better opportunities. This is also a prime time to ask for a raise. Move confidently. Though arrogance is a fool’s errand, don’t shy away from the rewards waiting for you. Your superiors are likely more receptive towards such moves in light of your increase in skill. Most importantly, at the end of the journey symbolized by the nine cups, you’ve likely earned this.ust as in your career, financially the Nine of Cups signifies blessings and comfort. This is the time to relax, to treat yourself a little. From tiny things like the raise you’re likely to score to a bonus on performance here and there, things will add up. While thrift is a virtue in itself, it can’t hurt to celebrate your success a little. You’ll likely need it.Remember that the good times won’t last forever. Fear of what is to come often takes away from the now. Remember that you’ve earned the success and subsequent rewards that come to you. In fact, what we’re going over next has a lot to do with the opposite of everything you’ve read so far. The reversed meaning of this card in particular is a sign of the bad times to come.To summarize, the Nine of Cups is a card of actualization, accomplishment and indulgence. It can also mean the reverse depending on its orientation. It holds significance in many areas of your life, from success and riches, to love and loss. Spiritually, it speaks to a feeling of fulfillment, and materially, it calls to plenty.
That was everything you might need to know about the Nine of Cups and the meanings associated with drawing the card. We feel the need to clarify that despite the orientation you may draw the card in, not to fret or become too complacent. The tarot cards do not control or enforce their readings in any aspect of your life. They tell a possible story, based on divination and your own vibrations that attract their energies. Because of this, you can play into the reading or shatter expectations completely.
Remember that even drawing the card upright does not mean you can sit back and good things will come to you. The card calls you to action to go after what you want, appreciate what you have, and indulge in the rewards. Conversely, drawing the Nine of Cups in reverse calls you to exercise caution, reflection, and self-discovery. This is because whether it’s the stars, a roll of the dice, or the draw of the card doesn’t matter. The Universe guides us, not shackles us to our fate, and ultimately you alone are in control of your life.
trusted-astrology.com/nine-of-cups-meaning/
Originally from German-speaking Switzerland, Oswald Wirth (1860-1943) arrived in Paris at the age of twenty. Here he became acquainted with various enthusiasts of the occult sciences, in particular the members of the Société Magnétique de France, among whom he soon became known for his abilities as a "curative magnetiser". After a short stay in London, in 1884 he joined the Grand Orient de France, an event that kindled his interest in Masonic symbolism.Early in 1887 he met Stanislas de Guaita, with whom he formed a deep and indissoluble friendship. The Marquis introduced the young man to the study of the Cabala and the Tarot, and after the necessary period of apprenticeship welcomed him as a member of the OKCR, the Kabbalistic Order of the Rosicrucians. Having noticed his drawing skills, he suggested that Wirth design a new deck, with the aim of restoring the cards to their "hieroglyphic purity", as Eliphas Lévi had wished in his day.En partant de la base de deux jeux, le Tarot de Marseille (un Tarot de Besançon précisément) et un jeu italien, Wirth fit une élaboration importante, surtout en ce qui concernait (selon sa vision) la correction des erreurs présentes, la juste attribution des couleurs et les détails singuliers des figures. Ainsi virent le jour, après à peine un an, Les XXII Arcanes du Tarot kabbalistique, restitués à leur pureté hiéroglyphique sous les indications de Stanislas de Guaita (Paris, 1889).Early in 1887 he met Stanislas de Guaita, with whom he formed a deep and indissoluble friendship. The Marquis introduced the young man to the study of the Cabala and the Tarot, and after the necessary period of apprenticeship welcomed him as a member of the OKCR, the Kabbalistic Order of the Rosicrucians. Having noticed his drawing skills, he suggested that Wirth design a new deck, with the aim of restoring the cards to their "hieroglyphic purity", as Eliphas Lévi had wished in his day.The reference to Guaita was accurate because, although the Marquis left no writings on the Tarot, it is correct to think that Wirth's Arcana were an expression of his teachings. Wirth himself acknowledged that he had been introduced to the mysteries of esotericism by his spiritual father."Guaita, knowing me to be a draughtsman, advised me from our first meeting in the spring of 1887, to restore the 22 Arcana of the Tarot to their hieroglyphic purity, and immediately documented this by entrusting me with two tarots, one French and the other Italian, as well as the Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, the capital work of Eliphas Levi, in which the Tarot is the subject of copious commentaries. This was the starting point for the present work, whose spiritual authorship is attributable to Stanislas de Guaita. Having submitted to him a first Tarot redesigned according to the rough decks compared, this learned occultist offered me his criticisms, which were taken into account when the Kabbalistic Tarot was published in 1889. (...) With the help of Stanislas de Guaita, I set to work to acquire the science of symbolism that would allow me to reconstitute the Tarot. (...) As soon as one succeeds in making the symbols speak, they surpass all speeches in eloquence, for they enable one to rediscover the lost Word, that is to say the eternal living thought of which they are the enigmatic expression. Decipher the hieroglyphs of the profound silent wisdom common to thinkers of all ages and religions, of myths and poetic fictions, and you will come up with concordant notions relating to the problems that have always preoccupied the human mind". (Oswald Wirth, The 22 Arcana of the Kabbalistic Tarot restored to their hieroglyphic purity under the guidance of Stanislas de Guaita). Each major arcana is marked with a Hebrew letter, according to the scheme devised by Eliphas Levi. According to many, Wirth had the merit of knowing how to accept and summarise the thought and principles of the most important Masonic initiatory currents. He used them to interpret the secrets of the Great Work, devoting himself to the study of alchemy, the Cabala and the Tarot. For Wirth, symbolism was a universal value, and he tried to bring the teachings of the various esoteric schools down to a common matrix through the use of a common symbology, derived directly from the archetypal concepts of Masonic thought. He wrote texts on the Tarot in which he defined the art of divination as a kind of priesthood, and numerous texts on Freemasonry, in which he tried to make the institution comprehensible to laymen and adepts alike in a simple yet transcendent way:
"Such a definition is realistic if we consider that the person exercising divination must feel himself to be a 'mediator', a 'means', an 'intermediary' and an 'instrument' of such capacity. A priest is: the moment he performs a ritual, the power of that ritual captivates and involves him to the point where it almost cancels out his very personality."
www.franck-durand.fr/lhistoire-oswald-wirth-tarot-du-moye...
1929 Knapp-Hall
Published in Los Angeles using the chromo lithography process, this deck of seventy-eight cards is the oldest tarot deck inspired by Wirth's that we have been able to find. It was created by the artist J. Augustus Knapp (1853-1938) in collaboration with Manly P. Hall, director of the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles. In addition to the many features of the Wirth tarot on each illustration, the yellow cartouche is as it appeared on Oswald Wirth's first tarot: with the title in capitals (and the World with the double numbering 21 and 22). The fifty-six minor arcana are freely created. The backs of the cards also feature the word TARO (without the T). This deck was republished in 1985 by the USGS under the name Knapp-Hall Tarot.
www.tarot-artisanal.fr/enquete-des-tarots-dits-de-oswald-...
I race off to the hospital’s front entrance to investigate the source of the loud explosion. Whatever caused it must have been powerful if it managed to shake the whole building. It must be the League, they’re doing exactly what Bruce and Talia predicted that they would. Attempting to cripple the city in preparation for the breakout at Arkham. Unless I can stop their agents from destroying Gotham General we’re screwed. Unlike the rest of the League, none of us are pumped full of Lazarus. When we get cut, we bleed.
Actually that’s a stupid comment to make. When they get cut they also bleed as I saw when Bruce defeated Damian at City Hall, but the enhanced healing ability given to them by Lazarus causes their wounds to heal at a terrifying speed. It’s only by not holding back my attacks that I’ve managed to beat two of the League’s agents. Hopefully there’s not too many of them here now for Selina and I to handle.
From what I can remember of her file in the Batcomputer, she’s highly skilled at hand to hand combat but how that holds up against multiple enemies wielding katanas remains to be seen. But if I know Bruce, the equipment he had me bring here should hopefully help overcome any weaknesses. I just hope it doesn’t take her too long to put it all on. Since I don’t know what I’m racing towards it’s possible I’m about to walk into a group of say 5 members of the League and if that’s the case I’m as good as screwed without Selina’s help.
This hospital cramped and has few open spaces by design. Hospitals are designed that way to try and maximise as much space as possible to get in as many beds as they can. So whilst there are no areas more suited to slowly pick people off one by one, there are plenty of possibilities to hit someone hard and fast thanks to how many rooms are packed into each floor. Really that’s the smartest strategy to take.
If these people are as skilled as Bruce they’d no doubt be able to stop me from slowly picking them off anyways so I guess the hospital being a crammed space is actually a benefit really. Fortunately though, there is one rather large open space in the hospital, the foyer at the front entrance. It’s perfect to try and get a glimpse at the League’s agents who are attacking Gotham General. It has multiple floors and enough space for me to use my grapple to properly navigate the room and change floors if I have to.
But much to my surprise, as I get close to the front entrance I hear a familiar voice. A really unwelcome familiar voice.
What the hell is she doing here on tonight of all nights?
Harley Quinn: Talk about kicking things off with a bang!
Goon #1: The hole doesn’t actually look as big as you’d have thought.
Goon #2: That’s because we only used a grenade, you dumbass.
Goon #1: Yeah but it’s rocket propelled! I thought it would knock all the glass off the front at least.
Goon #2: We didn’t use the damn RPG, idiot! That’s for when we leave.
Goon #1: Oh? How come?
Harley Quinn: Zip it rocket-brain. We’ve got work to do. Them psycho ninjas ain’t gonna spring Mr. J if this hospital’s still standing by the end of the night!
Harley’s working for the League? Since when? And more importantly, why do they feel as though they need her help? Is this just another red herring? It must be. That means….crap Bruce and Talia are definitely walking into a trap.
Calm down, Tim. You know them and more importantly they know Ra’s. Besides, they’re no fools. They’re probably going to the cave specifically because they know it’s a trap. Let's hope so anyways
Harley Quinn: Hurry up and get those explosives in here already! This hospital ain’t gonna blow itself up!
Goon #1: On it boss!
The two goons who stood next to Harley turn around and race outside to their vehicle. It’s difficult to tell what it is from a distance but it can clearly carry a large amount of equipment judging from what Harley and her men are carrying. From what I can make out there’s six of them in total counting Quinn and they’re all heavily armed. Especially the one entering to her right.
Clearly he’s her muscle judging from the mini-gun that he’s carrying. Obviously Harley’s expecting company and decided to come prepared. Smart. Though I’m more curious about where she managed to those. It was only about a week ago where she escaped Bruce whilst trying to buy a state of the art of rifle from the Odessa mob. If she was struggling to buy even a single rifle from them a week ago, surely she can’t have got all of this equipment from them. Could the League have provided her with those weapons?
Maybe.
Firearms aren’t really their style according to Bruce, but if Harley truly is working for them it only makes sense that they’d give her the tools needed for her to do the job right. Another worrying similarity between the League’s methods and Bruce’s. In many ways Bruce has does the same with all of us. I suppose in some way that could technically make Harley their Robin. She sure does love playing sidekick to people. First the clown, now one of the most mysterious groups in human history.
Quite a step up.
But if they’re unloading explosives then I’m going to need the schematics of Gotham General so I can navigate the building quickly. If they’re on a tight schedule then they’ll split up to cover more ground so I need to be able to intercept them all quickly. Harley is clearly expecting company otherwise she wouldn’t have come so heavily armed so I don’t really have much of an element of surprise. If I fail to take her and her men out quickly it’s likely that she’ll take hostages the minute she thinks something’s wrong. So before I try to move against her, I need the Gotham General schematics.
Red Robin: Red Bird to bunker.
Alfred: Bunker here, go ahead Red Bird.
Red Robin: Al, the hospital’s under attack but not from the League. Harley and a bunch of heavily armed goons are here.
Alfred: Ms. Quinn? What in the world is she doing there?
Red Robin: By the sounds of it the League have promised to free Joker from Arkham so long as she destroys Gotham General. Have you heard from the Outlaws at all?
Alfred: I’ve managed to get hold of them since we last spoke and they should be at Arkham by now. I’ll have them put Joker under extra surveillance. Do you need anything from me?
Red Robin: Harley said something about explosives. What’s the best place to plant explosives if you want to bring down a hospital?
Alfred: I’ll have a look at the schematics but speaking from personal experience, when someone’s looking to try and bring down a building they tend to look for either the main support pillar or the generator in the case large buildings. Given the size of Gotham General, there’s no single main support pillar so my best guess would be the generator. I’m uploading the schematics of Gotham General to your suit now.
A quick glance at the small screen built into my suit’s gauntlets shows it flash up with an alert to show that I’m receiving files from the batcomputer. Good, those schematics will come in handy soon enough. Whilst waiting for the schematics to upload to my suit though, I notice a Waynetech security terminal on the wall leading into the staff changing room.
Interesting.
If I can get the access codes I might be able to control some of the equipment here and maybe even trigger the lockdown protocol. That should keep Harley and her men trapped inside the hospital assuming that it’s got a quarantine lockdown protocol. If it does then it should give me some leeway if they do manage to plant any explosives. No-one’s crazy enough to bring a building crashing down whilst they’re still inside it.
Well….
Most people aren’t.
This is Gotham after all.
Red Robin: Al, can you get me the specs for the Gotham General Waynetech security system?
Alfred: The system does appear to be rather outdated compared to some of the functions of the newer models, according to the records it’s been in place for just shy of a decade.
Red Robin: Does it have a quarantine lockdown protocol?
Please say yes.
Please say yes.
Alfred: From what I’m seeing it appears to. You’re not planning on trapping yourself in there with Ms. Quinn and her goons are you?
Red Robin: Call it insurance.
Alfred: Master Timothy, locking yourself in a hospital with a psychopath and several of her heavily armed goons is suicidal. You can’t be serious?
Red Robin: Can you trigger the lockdown remotely?
Alfred: It’ll take me a moment to bypass the hospital firewall but yes, I should be able to.
Red Robin: Do it.
Alfred: Are you sure, Master Timothy? Once I trigger the lockdown it’ll lock me out of the system and you’ll have to lift it manually from your end to get out.
Red Robin: I’m sure.
There’s a brief pause as I hear the faint sound of Alfred typing the commands into the batcomputer before coming to a stop
.
Alfred: Before I do this I need to be sure, are you certain this is what you want to do? You’re about to lock yourself in there with a group of heavily armed criminals and when that happens we won’t be able to help you.
Red Robin: Don’t worry, Al. You’re not locking me in with them. You’re locking them in with me.
Steph would roll her eyes at that line and I can’t say that I’d blame her. It’s a horrible cliché, but to Alfred it’s something more than that. It’s something Bruce would say, and that’s why I chose it. He’s incredibly protective of all of us but he trusts us to know what’s best for us. Oddly, whilst he’s no fan of the path Bruce chose seeing us all act more and more like Bruce tends to put him at ease. That’s what Dick says anyways.
Sure enough, it looks as though there may be a bit of truth to it.
Alfred: I’m triggering the lockdown protocol now. It should start in just a few moments. Good luck, Master Timothy.
Red Robin: Thanks Al. I’ll see you on the other side. Red bird out.
Weather.com predicted cloudy skies on Sunday evening. Good thing I ignored their forecast and decided to shoot anyway. Turns out, the skies were clear enough for a pretty decent sunset, captured from East Boston in the LoPresti Park area. Admittedly, the composition is a bit busy, but I had little else to work with, so here you go.
Copious amounts of steam from Smurfitt Kappa swirl away from the plant as 66059, what else, rumbles along the Up Derby Slow at Washwood Heath West Junction having banked 66077 heading 6M60 Exeter Riverside to Bescot up the Lickey. Piling for the new bridge at Aston Church Road looks to be completed with the worksite closed for the Christmas break.
SkyFire predicted a decent chance of a colorful sunset on this day before the remnants of Hurricane Rosa arrived, so I decided to check out the Burnham badlands in NW New Mexico. Not as showy or well known as other hoodoo lands in the Bisti and Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah, there was still plenty to see and photograph. Best of all, my pal Colorado Plateau photographer extraordinaire Cecil Whitt & I had the place all to ourselves.
This Sunday was an exciting day at the flea market! Funnily enough, I predicted that we would find treasures. It was Colleen's last day of sort of summer vacation (meaning she would go back to working both jobs instead of just one). On top of that, we had plans to hang out with our friend, Lisa, in the afternoon. It's always on those busy days that you find cool stuff, but don't have the chance to enjoy it. I just knew we would finally have a fruitful weekend at the flea market on the day we had other plans in the afternoon. Despite the gloomy weather, there were exciting things to be found. The pieces of American Girl clothes were all super cheap--$1 to $2 each. The seller had seen us at another booth nearby looking at doll clothes. When we passed his table, he beckoned us over asking if we collected American Girl clothes. It seriously pays off sometimes to be very open about collecting dolls, because I never would have noticed the AG clothes on his table if he hadn't motioned us over. The coolest thing about these pieces is the fact that we completed two of our outfits. We FINALLY got the diaper and a pair of shoes to go with Billie Jean's "meet" outfit. Colleen also noticed that a pair of the shoes were the ones that went with Bitty Baby's Pretty Pink Outfits (both getups were ironically purchased at the flea market back in 2014). There were a few other AG odds and ends we snagged too, like Samantha's gaiters.
In the lower portion of the flea market, down the hill into a somewhat muddy area, we walked by a booth with vintage toys. I studied the table as we passed, but didn't see anything worthwhile. However, on the ground on the right side of the booth I spotted an open vintage case (looked like a hatbox almost) and a cardboard box beside it. At first it just looked like a bunch of figurines from the 60s. But as we started to continue onward, Skooter caught the corner of my eye. Immediately I pounced. It turns out there was another Skipper there too. She was a Twist 'N Turn Waist doll with a mutilated leg. Colleen picked her up too for purchase. The Ideal Toys dolls caught my attention as well. I knew they weren't Tammy, but I couldn't figure out if they were from her family/friend line or were different dolls altogether. When Colleen inquired about the price, the man said he'd unload it all for $20. Normally, with the amount of stuff and condition of it, we wouldn't have paid that much. But with 60s doll items, sometimes a singular dolly will be marked that much (I think Colleen paid $25 for her first Skooter doll at an antique store in a handmade outfit). It turns out that we got Misty, Tammy's friend, and Pepper, her little sister. Additionally, there was this awesome Supergirl included! Ironically, I almost left Todd behind because he was so grotesque. I had been wanting a Todd or Tutti doll since 2011, when we got back into collecting. 60s Barbies were some of the first thing that really excited us in those days. Todd was so foul and covered in goop, I mistook him for a freaky figurine. But something told me not to leave him behind. The moment I held him at home, I lost it when I realized who he was. Plus, he was wearing his original outfit!!! Who doesn't love a doll who needs all that TLC?!! The little doll house furniture will work well for our mini houses we've had since we were kids. It's from the Ideal Toys Petite Princess Furniture line. Many of the pieces were broken beyond repair, but these were the things we could work with. Plus, we found two 60s Barbie clothing items--Ken and Ricky's jackets (I seriously would have died if Ricky had been included...he's in the top ten cutest boy dolls ever list).
The two Babysitters Inc Skipper dolls were from the elderly couple we always buy from. I also snagged an Ever After High body donor from them. The poor girl had a missing eye that was sharpied over. But she was still wearing her outfit AND had both hands. It was cheaper buying the donor doll than getting a pair of hands from Mattel's Replacement Part website (this is why it makes more sense to use dolls who are too far gone as body/part donors rather than trying to fix them all).
As for the Cabbage Patch boy, he is without a doubt my favorite find. I was feeling the Cabbie Fever on Sunday...so was Colleen. At the flea market there are always sellers who put boxes and containers of random junk (literally) on the ground and on tables. They do not take any of it out, you are meant to dig through the bins. Usually I do a quick once over of these booths since they have boring things (like homeware). But as we finished an aisle, I saw a yarn head in a clear container. Immediately my doll senses tingled...I knew it was something cool. From a distance the hair color reminded me of my 1985 Twins. I tried to not get overly amped, knowing it was probably a very similar doll to one I already had. However, as I neared I noticed his legs looked abnormally long and like a slightly different texture. When I turned this guy over I saw the freckles and the cheaper looking head/hair. Immediately I thought to myself, "This is one of the foreign CPKs. Jesmar perhaps?" Sure enough he sported the Jesmar tag (his outfit is also original--tagged Jesmar too). The poor fella was foul, covered in stains and smelling like a dumpster. His condition alone warranted a rescue. The seller was super nice and only wanted $6 for him. I suppose he could have been cheaper, but since sellers at our flea market want $25 for a CPK doll usually, it was a deal. We named him Picasso, and he was a wonderful addition to our CPK family.
Dolls in photo from left to right:
-1984 Cabbage Patch Kids (Jesmar)
-1977 Charlie's Angels Sabrina
-1965 Tutti's Tiny Twin Todd
-1966 Pocketbook Doll Jan
-1967 Super Queen Supergirl
-1965 Tammy's Best Friend Misty
-1965 Tammy's Sister Pepper
-1964 Skipper's Friend Skooter
-1968 Twist 'N Turn Waist Skipper
-2018 Babysitters Inc. "Stroller" Skipper
-2019 Babysitters Inc. "Bedtime" Skipper
On night of August 26, 2017, I checked and there are only a little over 1,500 views to go; so this is going to happen sooner than I thought, like maybe August 27, 2017.
My thanks to each and every one of you for each and every one of them. Dorothy Delina Porter aka Pixel Packing Mama
Delina is pronounced with a long *i* sound if you are saying it out loud in your brain right now. Actually, it is still pronounced that way whether you are or are not saying it out loud in your brain. *grin*
"ARTSY sign for reaching 25 Million Views"
Weather reports predict the so called "Beast From The East" is due to revisit the UK over the next few days, today the 16th of March 2018 I visited Collieston Bay, its the first time I have witnessed the impact unusual weather has had on the area, it really was exhilarating and offered great photo opportunities.
Collieston is a small former fishing village on the North Sea coast in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The village lies just north of the Sands of Forvie Special Protection Area, between Cruden Bay and Newburgh.
The earliest recorded history of Collieston is of the arrival of St Ternan, a Columban monk on a mission to convert the local picts to Christianity. There is, however, evidence that people lived here during much earlier times.
Collieston was established as a fishing village by the 16th century, and it provides the first safe harbour in over fifteen miles of beachesand dunes stretching north from Aberdeen.
Fishing for herring, haddock, whiting and codflourished in the 17th century and 18th century and was the foundation of Collieston's economy. The village became known for 'Collieston Speldings', salted and sun-dried haddock and whiting, a popular delicacy throughout Britain. As drift netting developed during the mid 19th century, the fishing began to decline and the focus of the industry shifted to places like Peterhead because the harbour at Collieston was too small to safely accommodate the larger boats needed.
The numerous sea caves in the nearby cliffs, and small coves with shingle beaches provided ideal terrain for smugglers. In the late 18th century it was estimated by the Excise that up to 8000 gallons of foreign spirits were being illegally landed in the area every month. In 1798, the notorious village smuggler, Phillip Kennedy, was killed by a blow from an exciseman's cutlass. His grave and tombstone still stands in the village graveyard.
A ship from the Spanish Armada, the Santa Caterina, carrying arms for the Earl of Erroll is said to have sunk just off the rocky point of St Catherine's Dub in 1594. In retaliation for the Earl's involvement in the Catholic plot against him, James VI blew up the Earl's castle which stood on the cliffs, a mile north of Collieston. The Earl went on to rebuild Slains Castle, six miles further up the coast, in 1597.
Collieston is now mainly a commuter village serving Aberdeen, and is largely given over to tourists during the summer months.
This brings us to Sir Doktor Professor Karl Raimund Popper’s attack on historicism. As I said in Chapter 5, this was his most significant insight, but it remains his least known. People who do not really know his work tend to focus on Popperian falsification, which addresses the verification or n...
#freeebook #freebook #ebook #book #Pomdy
Editor: taphuong
www.pomdy.com/book/the-black-swan/part-two-we-just-cant-p...
Predicting your call on the extra board can be a bit like long division, needlessly complicated and never really sure you got it right... until the phone rings. Today I thought I had it all dialed in, a phosphate train off the CSX coming north on the Superior Sub was showing ordered for 1230 out of Pokegama with no north pools available for several hours, got it. Just before that call was expected to come in, the phone rang. CN Crew Caller... well shit. “Mr Hennessy are you qualified on the T-Bird?” Yes. Yes I am. So off to Keenan I went. Left a little early in hopes of catching some iron ore action, timing was great as I paced a northbound limestone train from Alborn up to the range, unfortunately the sun was shit for northbound moves. Coming up to Fairlane I spied a load of pellets ready to head south, hedging my bets that he would get the light clearing the limestone train I parked. Sure enough the limestone blazed past and the pellet loader was headed to the docks in Duluth. These standard cab dash 8’s hold a special place in my heart as I made my first solo run as an engineer in one (CN 2019) on a Q119 several years prior. Most fans up here loath the toasters and covet the sd40’s, a sentiment I certainly understand but anywhere else in the country finding standard cab dash 8’a leading trains in 2021 would be constitute a miracle from christ himself... on the range, just another reason not to take the lens cap off. I should get out more often to shoot these dinosaurs, but CN is very good at finding ways to occupy my time and my daughters take up the rest. These old GE’s may have another couple years left in them but the kids only stay 5 and 3 for another couple months. Priorities... It does make me appreciate the rare moments trackside that I have however!
I first profiled the Goodman-Malone Taco Bell in early May 2020 (www.flickr.com/photos/l_dawg2000/49964758913/in/album-721...), and sure enough six months later, work is underway to transform the location to the latest Taco Bell look. Thankfully (and contrary to first reports), it looks as if this will just be a repaint and sign update however, as opposed to the somewhat more drastic changes that were done at the similar Church Rd. location. Sadly, that remodel wiped away much of that Taco Bell's original, very cool exterior traits.
I'm going to keep adding these to my general "Taco Bell Tour" album, instead of giving this location it's own space, since I don't believe there will be much reason to do dozens and dozens of photos of this exterior refresh. But heck, might as well start doing a few photo tags at least :P
____________________________________
Taco Bell, 2008-built, Goodman Rd. at Malone Rd., Southaven MS
Weather reports predict the so called "Beast From The East" is due to revisit the UK over the next few days, today the 16th of March 2018 I visited Collieston Bay, its the first time I have witnessed the impact unusual weather has had on the area, it really was exhilarating and offered great photo opportunities.
Collieston is a small former fishing village on the North Sea coast in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The village lies just north of the Sands of Forvie Special Protection Area, between Cruden Bay and Newburgh.
The earliest recorded history of Collieston is of the arrival of St Ternan, a Columban monk on a mission to convert the local picts to Christianity. There is, however, evidence that people lived here during much earlier times.
Collieston was established as a fishing village by the 16th century, and it provides the first safe harbour in over fifteen miles of beachesand dunes stretching north from Aberdeen.
Fishing for herring, haddock, whiting and codflourished in the 17th century and 18th century and was the foundation of Collieston's economy. The village became known for 'Collieston Speldings', salted and sun-dried haddock and whiting, a popular delicacy throughout Britain. As drift netting developed during the mid 19th century, the fishing began to decline and the focus of the industry shifted to places like Peterhead because the harbour at Collieston was too small to safely accommodate the larger boats needed.
The numerous sea caves in the nearby cliffs, and small coves with shingle beaches provided ideal terrain for smugglers. In the late 18th century it was estimated by the Excise that up to 8000 gallons of foreign spirits were being illegally landed in the area every month. In 1798, the notorious village smuggler, Phillip Kennedy, was killed by a blow from an exciseman's cutlass. His grave and tombstone still stands in the village graveyard.
A ship from the Spanish Armada, the Santa Caterina, carrying arms for the Earl of Erroll is said to have sunk just off the rocky point of St Catherine's Dub in 1594. In retaliation for the Earl's involvement in the Catholic plot against him, James VI blew up the Earl's castle which stood on the cliffs, a mile north of Collieston. The Earl went on to rebuild Slains Castle, six miles further up the coast, in 1597.
Collieston is now mainly a commuter village serving Aberdeen, and is largely given over to tourists during the summer months.
As predicted by the prophet Zacharie Delaplaya, the Four Surfers of the Apocalypso will soon emerge to sound the death knell of summertime. Splitting the sea foam from atop their mounts, they’ll arrive at great speed to announce to the sun-lovers and terrace dwellers the end of this lovely season. So enjoy the time you have left to knock back a pint and live each day as if it was the last act. Carpe diem!
Canary Wharf - London, UK.
It's hard to predict when a colorful sunset would make an appearance in this part of the globe, so you just have to be on your guard at all times, just in case. This was one of those days even the weather forecasters would not have predicted.
Copyright 2012 - Yen Baet - All Rights Reserved.
Do not use any of my images without permission.
This little iris is a sure predictor of rain. First the bud swells and then when it opens you can be sure that 24-36 hours later it will rain. Never fails.
Since Woodtick predicted that I was about to unleash a deluge of Milwaukee Road shots, I'd hate to disappoint. In the early '80s, recently shed of its "Pacific Extension", the Road found itself short of power (or at least power that worked.) Trains started to sport CN power on other parts of the railroad, but the trains that connected with DW&P in Duluth were a likely candidate for power pools - or just borrowing when short! Milwaukee Road had a longstanding agreement for trackage rights on the former Northern Pacific "Skally" to Duluth; by the '80s it had become rights on the former NP up to Hinckley where the NP crossed the former Great Northern from Minneapolis to Duluth. By this time the NP was mostly gone from that crossing on to the north, so the through trains used the former GN to complete the trip to the Twin Ports. This route was fairly active with BN trains (most of their through trains would use the GN all the way up from Northtown Yard in Minneapolis) and also the MILW and C&NW trackage rights trains...and then the Soo Line, too. This train is on the BN's Minnesota Division, the Sixth Sub that connected the wye at "Division Street" (and the Milwaukee's "Pigs Eye Yard") with the Wisconsin Division, Second Sub, at White Bear Lake. From there it's the ex-NP route to Hinckley (a.k.a. "the Skally.") The tracks in the foreground belong to the C&NW - the "Omaha" - going to and from Chicago. I think that's "East St.Paul" yard around the curve on the Omaha. I believe that practically all of this, except the Union Pacific that was the Omaha, is gone. Now the CP and the UP use the former GN through Northtown all the way to Superior with their trackage rights trains.
This column is believed to represent the four seasons of the year – one on each side. The images on the closest side show a representation of the rain god – Chac shown with the nose of an elephant. Chac is one of the most frequent images that we saw throughout Chichen Itza.
Obviously, rain was extremely important to the Maya culture. I assume this was primarily because the Yucatan peninsula is very hot and they would have been highly dependent on rain for drinking water and agricultural irrigation. On our visit, we have been more concerned with the over-abundance of rain related to hurricane Irma. Either way, it is obvious that predicting the weather has been a chief concern of people for a very long time and we still don’t quite have it figured out.
Nikon D7100
Tamron SP 10-24mm F/3.5-4.5 Di II
10mm @ f/10 – 1/800 sec – ISO 400
They say a diamond is forever, while Eraclitus said that "no man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man". When we are speaking about the Tiliment, we can say that even at a larger scale, you will never see the same river twice. This wonderful braided channels riverbed morphology is changing every day. Channels used by water today may be dry after next small flood. Large pools will probably move tens or hundreds meters away from the first place where you saw them, and will be deeper or shallower, larger or smaller. You can't tell and the most exciting aspect of this kind of river is that actually nobody can predict what will happen in future, even when men try to curb it.
Heavens-above.com predicted a pass of the International Space Station that would be visible to the Space Coast. It was lower and dimmer than I would generally chase, but I still went to my favorite spot, the "Cuki," a sailboat in Melbourne Beach, FL that was washed ashore after Hurricane Irma.
It was cloudier than expected, and I was a bit disappointed by how undramatic the streak turned out until I later looked at the ground track of the Station. At the time of the left-most section of the streak shown here (over the condos), the Station is over the Gulf of Mexico, well south of New Orleans, roughly 1,000km away. The closest the Station would come was 750km, roughly over the sailboat in the streak, and somewhere over Alabama east of Montgomery. And, as it enters the shadow of the Earth (after emerging from behind the cloud in the right section of the frame), the Station is nearly 1,100 km away, cruising over (roughly) Blacksburg, Virgina.
New Orleans, Alabama, and Virginia. And we can see it from Florida. Kinda cool, no?
Details:
This is a composite of two 120-second exposures, shot at ISO400 and f6.3 with a Canon 5DIV and a Rokinon 14mm lens. Initial edits done in Lightroom, composite done in Photoshop (while avoiding the temptation to draw in a bolder streak) and edits were done (again) in Lightroom, then Color Efex2 (detail enhancer) and then some noise reduction was applied with Dfine2.
I was out for a morning bicycle ride, hoping to beat the predicted thunderstorms in the afternoon. Crossing Cherry Street and entering the Martin Goodman Trail I saw a collection of ice cream trucks in a parking lot and stopped to investigate. I discovered that it was a breakfast kick-off for Uber’s third annual Uber Ice Cream Day being celebrated in Toronto and 9 other North American Cities. www.popsugar.com/food/Uber-Free-Ice-Cream-Day-2017-43863026
The ice cream trucks were about to scatter across the city with a promotion geared to expand its customer base by appealing to one of summer’s most popular temptations – ice cream. As people were eating their promotional breakfast in the parking lot, I saw this young woman near one of the trucks and approached her. I was met with a warm greeting and a handshake. Meet Lisha.
Lisha is a native-born Torontonian who works as Operations and Logistics Manager at Uber. She has a business background with prior experience in the financial sector. Today she is supporting Uber's promotion and seemed in a very upbeat mood. She struck me as very much a "people person" with a cheerful, outgoing disposition. “Hey, it’s a fun event and I love getting out of the office to help out. I want do everything I can to help make the event a success.”
I told her I was just bicycling past on the bike path when I saw the gathering and stopped to indulge my curiosity. She appreciated the interest. I explained my Human Family photo project and asked if she would be comfortable with my taking a couple of photos of her with the truck to share with others on Flickr. She was happy to participate and I took a quick photo in front of one of the trucks and another with her in its side window.
Her message to the project? “Do what you love” and “Don’t waste a single day of your life.” Good advice.
Thanks Lisha for taking a minute to meet and participate in my amateur photo project. I hope the promotion is a big success. This is my 523rd submission to The Human Family Group on Flickr.
You can view more street portraits and stories by visiting The Human Family.
Swiss-German-British postcard by News Productions, Baulmes / Filmwelt Berlin, Bakede / News Productions, Stroud, no. 56501. Photo: Collection Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne.Brigitte Bardot and Yves Robert in Les Grandes Manoeuvres/Summer Manoeuvres (René Clair, 1955), produced by Filmsonor and Rizzoli Films.
Beautiful French actress Brigitte Bardot (1934) was the sex kitten of the European film industry. BB starred in 48 films, performed in numerous musical shows, and recorded 80 songs. After her retirement in 1973, she established herself as an animal rights activist and made vegetarianism sexy.
Brigitte Bardot was born in Paris in 1934. Her father, Louis Bardot, had an engineering degree and worked with his father in the family business. Her mother, Ann-Marie Mucel, was 14 years younger than Brigitte's father and they married in 1933. Brigitte's mother encouraged her daughter to take up music and dance. At the age of 13, she entered the Conservatoire Nationale de Danse to study ballet. By the time she was 15, Brigitte was trying a modeling career and found herself in May 1949 on the cover of the French magazine Elle. Her incredible beauty was readily apparent, Brigitte was noticed by Roger Vadim, then an assistant to the film director Marc Allegrét. Vadim was infatuated with Bardot and encouraged her to start working as a film actress. BB was 18 when she debuted in the comedy Le Trou Normand/Crazy for Love (Jean Boyer, 1952). In the same year, she married Vadim. Brigitte wanted to marry him when she was 17, but her parents quashed any marriage plans until she turned 18. In April 1953 she attended the Cannes Film Festival where she received massive media attention. She soon was every man's idea of the girl he'd like to meet in Paris. From 1952 to 1956 she appeared in seventeen films. Her films were generally lightweight romantic dramas in which she was cast as ingénue or siren, often with an element of undress. She made her first US production in 1953 in Un acte d'amour/Act of Love (Anatole Litvak, 1953) with Kirk Douglas, but she continued to make films in France.
Roger Vadim was not content with the light fare his wife was offered. He felt Brigitte Bardot was being undersold. Looking for something more like an art film to push her as a serious actress, he showcased her in Et Dieu créa la femme/...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956). This film, about an immoral teenager in a respectable small-town setting, was a smashing success on both sides of the Atlantic. Craig Butler at AllMovie: "It's easy enough to say that ...And God Created Woman is much more important for its historical significance than for its actual quality as a film, and that's true to an extent. Woman's immense popularity, due to its willingness to directly embrace an exploration of sex as well as its willingness to show a degree of nudity that was remarkably daring for its day, demonstrated that audiences were willing to view subject matter that was considered too racy for the average moviegoer. This had both positive (freedom to explore, especially for the French filmmakers of the time) and negative (freedom to exploit) consequences, but its impact is undeniable. It's also true that Woman is not a great work of art, not with a story that is ultimately rather thin, some painful dialogue, and an attitude toward its characters and their sexuality that is unclear and inconsistent. Yet Woman is still fascinating, due in no small part to the presence of Brigitte Bardot in the role that made her an international star and sex symbol. She's not demonstrating great acting here, although her performance is actually good and much better than necessary, and her legendary mambo scene at the climax is nothing short of sensational." During the shooting of Et Dieu créa la femme/And God Created Woman (1956), directed by her husband Roger Vadim, Brigitte Bardot had an affair with her co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant, who at that time was married to French actress Stéphane Audran. Her divorce from Vadim followed, but they remained friends and collaborated in later work.
Et Dieu créa la femme/...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956) helped her international status. The film took the USA by storm, her explosive sexuality being unlike anything seen in the States since the days of the 'flapper' in the 1920s. It gave rise to the phrase 'sex kitten' and fascination of her in America consisted of magazine photographs and dubbed over French films - good, bad, or indifferent, her films drew audiences - mainly men - into theaters like lemmings.BB appeared in light comedies like Doctor at Large (1957) - the third of the British 'Doctor' series starring Dirk Bogarde - and Une Parisienne/La Parisienne (Michel Boisrond, 1957) which suited her acting skills best. However, she was a sensation in the crime drama En cas de malheur/Love is my profession (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "this Brigitte Bardot vehicle ran into stiff opposition from the Catholic Legion of Decency, severely limiting its U.S. distribution. Bardot plays a nubile small-time thief named Yvette, who becomes the mistress of influential defense attorney Andre (Jean Gabin). Though Andre is able to shower Yvette with jewels and furs, he cannot "buy" her heart, and thus it is that it belongs to handsome young student Mazzetti (Franco Interlenghi). Alas, Yvette is no judge of human nature: attractive though Mazzetti can be, he has a dangerous and deadly side. En Cas de Malheur contains a nude scene that has since been reprinted in freeze-frame form innumerable times by both film-history books and girlie magazines." Photographer Sam Lévin's photos contributed considerably to her image of sensuality and slight immorality. One of Lévin's pictures shows Brigitte, dressed in a white corset. It is said that around 1960 postcards with this photograph outsold in Paris those of the Eiffel Tower.
Brigitte Bardot divorced Vadim in 1957 and in 1959 she married actor Jacques Charrier, with whom she starred in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre/Babette Goes to War (Christian-Jaque, 1959). The paparazzi preyed upon her marriage, while she and her husband clashed over the direction of her career. Her films became more substantial, but this brought a heavy pressure of dual celebrity as she sought critical acclaim while remaining a glamour model for most of the world. Vie privée/Private Life (1962), directed by Louis Malle has more than an element of autobiography in it. James Travers at Films de France: "Brigitte Bardot hadn’t quite reached the highpoint of her career when she agreed to make this film with high profile New Wave film director Louis Malle. Even so, the pressure of being a living icon was obviously beginning to get to France’s sex goddess and Vie privée is as much an attempt by Bardot to come to terms with her celebrity as anything else. Malle is clearly fascinated by Bardot and the documentary approach he adopts for this film reinforces the impression that it is more a biography of the actress than a work of fiction. Of course, it’s not entirely biographical, but the story is remarkably close to Bardot’s own life and comes pretty close to predicting how her career would end." The scene in which, returning to her apartment, Bardot's character is harangued in the elevator by a middle-aged cleaning lady calling her offensive names, was based on an actual incident and is a resonant image of a celebrity in the mid-20th century. Soon afterward Bardot withdrew to the seclusion of Southern France.
Brigitte Bardot's other husbands were German millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs and right-wing politician Bernard d'Ormale. She is reputed to have had relationships with many other men including Sami Frey, her co-star in La Vérité/The Truth (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1960), and musicians Serge Gainsbourg and Sacha Distel. In 1963, Brigitte Bardot starred in Godard's critically acclaimed film Le Mépris/Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963). She was also featured along with such notable actors as Alain Delon in Amours célèbres/Famous Love Affairs (Michel Boisrond, 1961) and Histoires extraordinaires/Tales of Mystery (Louis Malle, 1968), Jeanne Moreau in Viva Maria! (Louis Malle, 1965), Sean Connery in Shalako (Edward Dmytryk, 1968), and Claudia Cardinale in Les Pétroleuses/Petroleum Girls (Christian-Jaque, 1971). She participated in various musical shows and recorded many popular songs in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in collaboration with Serge Gainsbourg, Bob Zagury, and Sacha Distel, including 'Harley Davidson', 'Le Soleil De Ma Vie' (the cover of Stevie Wonder's 'You Are the Sunshine of My Life') and the notorious 'Je t'aime... moi non plus'.
Brigitte Bardot’s film career showed a steady decline in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1973 just before her fortieth birthday, she announced her retirement. She chose to use her fame to promote animal rights. In 1976 she established the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. She became a vegetarian and raised three million French francs to fund the foundation by auctioning off jewelry and many personal belongings. For this work, she was awarded the Légion d’honneur in 1984. During the 1990's she became also outspoken in her criticism of immigration, interracial relationships, Islam in France, and homosexuality. Her husband Bernard d'Ormal is a former adviser of the far-right Front National party. Bardot has been convicted five times for 'inciting racial hatred'. More fun is that Bardot is recognised for popularizing bikini swimwear, in early films such as Manina/Woman without a Veil (1952), in her appearances at Cannes and in many photoshoots. Bardot also brought into fashion the 'choucroute' ('Sauerkraut') hairstyle (a sort of beehive hairstyle) and gingham clothes after wearing a checkered pink dress, designed by Jacques Esterel, at her wedding to Charrier. The fashions of the 1960s looked effortlessly right and spontaneous on her. Time Magazine: "She is the princess of pout, the countess of come hither. Brigitte Bardot exuded a carefree, naïve sexuality that brought a whole new audience to French films."
Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Craig Butler (AllMovie), James Travers (Films de France), Films de France, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Every photo walk is different - Young Fallow Deer in Morning Light - On the way home, it is never easy to predict what a Nikon Z8 memory card will carry. Sometimes you press the shutter within the first minutes and the card fills quickly; sometimes you wait patiently without taking a single frame, imagining the photograph long before it exists.
Wildlife follows its own rhythm — and occasionally, it takes you along with it.
This pre-Christmas morning at Bradgate Park began as the rising sun broke through dark, scattered clouds. As the light softened, the landscape slowly revealed itself. At times, gentle morning light becomes incredibly effective; at other moments, you work more technically, placing the strength of the light behind you and allowing experience to grow with every frame.
The first encounter came from the rocky hilltops: a young male fallow deer, standing still, looking directly into my lens with wide, unblinking eyes.
“Young Fallow Deer in Morning Light.”
After meeting two fellow photographer friends, I joined them along the River Lin, which flows through Bradgate Park in North Leicestershire. A small group of hinds crossed the river, resisting the powerful current — a moment of shared instinct and determination.
Later, while searching for Stonechat, as on previous visits, a herd of red deer appeared, spreading calmly across the greenery. The majestic stag once again became the natural favourite of our lenses, and I worked to capture several compelling poses from different angles under direct sunlight.
The Grey Heron ultimately defined the photograph of the day. Under clean, softly broken sunlight, framed against the River Lin, the scene felt complete.
After a 3.5-hour photo walk, as I returned to the car park, my favourite bird — the tiny Robin — seemed to offer a quiet farewell. Shot in direct sunlight, the background bokeh remained simple, while the feather details glowed beautifully. With the NIKKOR 500mm and 1.4x TC at ƒ/8.0, its poised and noble stance emerged clearly.
Good evening and thank you for looking.
Every photo walk is different - On the way home, it is never easy to predict what a Nikon Z8 memory card will carry. Sometimes you press the shutter within the first minutes and the card fills quickly; sometimes you wait patiently without taking a single frame, imagining the photograph long before it exists.
Wildlife follows its own rhythm — and occasionally, it takes you along with it.
This pre-Christmas morning at Bradgate Park began as the rising sun broke through dark, scattered clouds. As the light softened, the landscape slowly revealed itself. At times, gentle morning light becomes incredibly effective; at other moments, you work more technically, placing the strength of the light behind you and allowing experience to grow with every frame.
The first encounter came from the rocky hilltops: a young male fallow deer, standing still, looking directly into my lens with wide, unblinking eyes.
“Young Fallow Deer in Morning Light.”
After meeting two fellow photographer friends, I joined them along the River Lin, which flows through Bradgate Park in North Leicestershire. A small group of hinds crossed the river, resisting the powerful current — a moment of shared instinct and determination.
Later, while searching for Stonechat, as on previous visits, a herd of red deer appeared, spreading calmly across the greenery. The majestic stag once again became the natural favourite of our lenses, and I worked to capture several compelling poses from different angles under direct sunlight.
The Grey Heron ultimately defined the photograph of the day. Under clean, softly broken sunlight, framed against the River Lin, the scene felt complete.
After a 3.5-hour photo walk, as I returned to the car park, my favourite bird — the tiny Robin — seemed to offer a quiet farewell. Shot in direct sunlight, the background bokeh remained simple, while the feather details glowed beautifully. With the NIKKOR 500mm and 1.4x TC at ƒ/8.0, its poised and noble stance emerged clearly.
Good evening and thank you for looking.
I've captured some unforgettable moments with my camera, and I hope you feel the same joy viewing these images as I did while shooting them.
Thank you so much for visiting my gallery, whether you leave a comment, add it to your favorites, or simply take a moment to look around. Your support means a lot to me, and I wish you good luck and beautiful light in all your endeavors.
© All rights belong to R.Ertuğ. Please refrain from using these images without my express written permission. If you are interested in purchasing or using them, feel free to contact me via Flickr mail.
Lens - hand held or Monopod and definitely SPORT VR on. Aperture is f5.6 and full length. All my images have been converted from RAW to JPEG.
I started using Nikon Cross-Body Strap or Monopod on long walks. Here is my Carbon Monopod details : Gitzo GM2542 Series 2 4S Carbon Monopod - Really Right Stuff MH-01 Monopod Head with Standard Lever - Really Right Stuff LCF-11 Replacement Foot for Nikon AF-S 500mm /5.6E PF Lense -
Your comments and criticism are very valuable.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and explore :)
It takes some strategizing to predict this gators path, while trying to stay close enough for a shot, but keep your distance to avoid spooking her.
American Alligator
Alligator mississippiensis
Alexander Springs Recreation Area
Ocala National Forest
Lake County Florida
Olympus OM-D E-M5
14-42mm II Lens
PT-EP08 Underwater Housing,
PPO-EP01 Lens Port
& 14-42mm Zoom Gear
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Here is a divination tool: the water mirror. It makes it possible to see, through our third eye, images of the future, but also, even if this use is less popular, past or future lives, entities... and many other things that you will discover during your practice if you try the experiment. To limit the mirror of water to a mere divinatory tool would be to amputate it from much of its use and mystery. However, as with any esoteric practice, you must feel ready to use it, it is not a question of going blindly, as this experience can be shocking for some people depending on how the session unfolds. You don't need a particular water level, no, you just have to feel ready and approach this tool and this experience with a lot of respect.
The Aztec god of night, Tzcatlipoca, is even supposed to have carried a magic mirror that enveloped his enemies in clouds of smoke. ... The first recorded case of mirror divination (known as catoptromancy) can be traced back to ancient China, India, Persia and Roma, where small metal mirrors were used to predict the life expectancy of the sick.CATOPTROMANCY. AND. THE. MAGIC. MIRROR. Cataptromancy is a form of divination using reflective surfaces, such as a mirror, water or some other suitable surface. Both the Magic Mirror and the Mandala may be used individually, by themselves as separate tools for externalising the consciousness.
Practice: To begin with, you need to find a water mirror, or if you don't have one, a normal mirror that you will use in the half-light, lit by one or two candles if you wish, or nothing at all if you see enough, it's up to you to judge when the time comes. Anyway, you will only have to use this mirror ONLY for this practice, it is extremely important (whether you dedicate it or not). And when you don't use it I advise you to cover it with a cloth, because once it has been used it becomes a kind of door, a link, and you will see, you will feel its power, the energy that will come out of it. Sit in front of your mirror, comfortably, and meditate for a few minutes on what you are going to do, your goal... When you feel ready, fix your third eye, or your eyes, through the mirror. After a while your eyes will sting you, which is normal, over time this sensation will fade. You can burn incense and arrange some crystals to help you during this exercise. Of course the crystals will vary according to your purpose and your affinities with them. Then the first phase will slowly set in place, you will see your orbits become black and your face unravel to become a skull before disappearing. This step can be frightening if you're not ready enough and I think it may be partly done to push some back, but not just that of course. When your skull disappears from the mirror everything can begin, take your time and observe! You have been able to read various experiments on the Internet, some of them do not fix their reflection, and therefore do not go through the "skull"stage. It's up to you to see what appeals to you the most, and therefore, what's best for you. As with all esoteric practices, there are always several ways to achieve the same result:) This is Catoptromancy (Gk. κάτοπτρον, katoptron, "mirror," and μαντεία, manteia, "divination"), also known as captromancy or enoptromancy, is divination using a mirror.Catoptromancy is a word you do not hear very often. Its meaning, however, is something which just about everyone knows about. Catoptromancy is a word derived from Greek which basically means “Mirrors in Divination”. The Evil Queen in Snow White asking for information by saying “Mirror, mirror on the wall” and old folk games of looking into a mirror to see the image of a future spouse are two example of catoptromancy. Another example – albeit a rather indirect one –is the mirror in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott: this mirror is not magical from the standpoint that it, like any other mirror, simply reflects what is happening. However, the mirror crack’d from side to side the moment the Lady of Shalott fell under the curse, thus foretelling her imminent death. Therefore, this can be considered an example of catoptromancy or the use of a magical mirror.
An ancient Mesoamerican artifact is seen along its own reflection in an ancient Mesoamerican mirror with a carved wooden frame. While authorities on the subject of ancient Mesoamerican culture don't yet acknowledge these things, they are in no way restrained, ironically, from offering every praise short of it. Regarding the mirrors in general, Valliant, in "The Aztecs of Mexico, writes (pg. 116): "The making of the mirrors called much ingenuity into play... Blocks of obsidian were sometimes polished to produce an eerie and mysterious reflection. However, iron pyrites, burnished and shaped, were more common; and rarer examples had thin pyrite flakes laid in a mosaic and glued to a background of wood or shell. In another technique used on the coast the artisan detached a surface of pyrites in its matrix of slate, burnishing one side and carving the other to fashion a mirror with a carved back. One example, at least, is known of a mirror with marcasite with its surface ground as to produce a magnified reflection". Such praise reveals at the very least mundane sophistication like that which is also freely given regarding the optics marvels of the ancient orient. Similarly, Michael D. Coe, in "Mexico", writes: Certain Olmec sculptures and figurines show persons wearing pectorals of concave shape around the neck, and such have actually come to light in offerings, These oddly enough turned out to be concave mirrors of magnetite and ilmenite, the reflecting surfaces polished to optical specifications. What were they used for? Experiments have shown that they can not only start fires, but also throw images on flat surfaces like a camera lucida. They were pierced for suspension, and one can imagine the hocus-pocus which some mighty Olmec preist was able to perform with one of these. Imagine, indeed. Whether or not the priest could have impressed anyone, however, when the underlying principles are captured by every artist and given away to every citizen with nearly every gesture of the cultures in question, every artwork or every holiday, is another story altogether. Still, these fabulous optical properties, while certainly making solid testimony that these ancient people had a remarkably advanced grasp of sophisticated optics, may only be ideographic markers- outward superficial properties acting as labels for the even more incredible powers that these devices were made to possess. Tezcatlipoca, an Aztec deity whose name literally means, "Smoking Mirror", may be a fictitious contrivance used to label literature that allegorically describes the making, use, and principles of these mirrors. While the phrase "smoking mirrors" has even found its way into modern politics, no one seems to have a substantial clue to its origin. In the case of Tezcatlipoca, the "smoke" may have been a smudge or incense used to activate the mirrors; Mexican mugwort or a closely related specie is very probable.
This may yet prove to be another viable alternative to Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific crossing to explaining the extreme degree of cultural parallels between peoples normally spoken of as isolated from one another; with the aid of such devices, they may have in fact been in constant communication. Here's another twist or two: ancient Egyptian mirrors often contain the same familiar birds as magick mirrors of Greece and elsewhere (left), but sometimes they don't (right), which remarkably either evokes the crescent as a magnetic symbols, or reduces the symbol of artificial intelligence to the universal feature of a face of a body of a human, rather suggestive of the artificial intelligence labeling of Crystal Skulls and Skull Oracles.The symbols are simple, but the rules do tend to vary somewhat.
This picture above in Alsace remain, "Sobek, god of a city called Crocodilopolis" (Lionel Casson, "Ancient Egypt", pg. 73), has strong elements of both magick mirrors and oracular skulls and points in the direction of the Egyptian and Vedic "mystical" Solar science .It also shows another variation on the frog symbol that remains within the reptilian.;The peculiar details of the window to other worlds may also encode details about the harmonic physics used in its creation or operation, like the designs on the Celtic magick mirrors, above. The harmonic science of magick mirrors and time cameras (the counter magnetic amplifier, shown below, could easily classify as a harmonic device, perhaps a magnetic harmonic resonator) brings us to an interesting place in the burgeoning science of hyperdimensional physics because we have all the pieces of how the ancients would have utilized the harmonic energy grid of the earth, but we may not yet be able to account for the absence of hundreds of pages of equations governing every detail and alignment of the ancient landmarks that appear on the predicted nodal points of world grid maps. The harmonic markings and symbols on many magick mirror devices may be telling us that these devices not only run on the same principles that are relevant to this planetary grid science, but implying they had a purpose as tools to abbreviate hard work of calculating such incredible aspects. One other trend or common denominator in various literature on the subject resembles what may be equivalent applications of Howard Wachpress' Unpaired Magnetic Pole Levitation design, comprised of odd/even poles made when irregular carvings or geometries are magnetized (The actual example on the cover of Tyson's book is one example, although he does not seem to be aware that this principle may be at work; other examples might be found in Lewis Spence's "Encyclopedia of Occultism"; the subject is also treated in De Givry's book). This design for a magnetic ship by Hughes can be found in George Frederick Kunz, "Curious Lore of Precious Stones", pg. 53. It originates from Valentini, "Museum Museorum," pt. III, Franckfurt am Mayn, 1714, pg. 35. Kunz's caption tells us that coral-agates were to be set in the network above the pilot, which was "supposed to possess such magnetic powers as to keep the craft aloft". Magnetic levitation designs have beeen, and remain contemporary with magnetic magic mirrors. The cover of Tyson's remarkable book. Whether or not the author is consciously aware of it, the mirror which is shown and which the book contains instructions for making, is one of a class of a great many of at least the last five centuries, whose number of engravings or the number of characters in cardinal points recalls the odd-even magnetic polar pairing of Howard Wachpress' magnetic levitation design. While the exact mechanism may be difficult to ascertain, mostly because the possibilities are particular numerous and some are inevitably complex, the connection in both form and function is immediately obvious. There may be little difference in many applications between the unpaired magnetic pole levitation system and the counter magnetic amplifier of Active Reseach and Development's time camera, or between the methods that Ernetti uses. Here, astrological glyphs are set against sides of the mirror frame. It is likewise a trend to use Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) with crystal balls and magic mirrors; Mugwort is also known as "Compass Plant" or here on the picture like a "Compass Boat" because it is one of those plants which aligns its leaves along a north/south magnetic axis as if it were magnetized. It may also affect human endocrine systems which interact with magnetism and or gravity. At left is Howard Wachpress' invention depicted in it's patent diagram. At right below, the counter magnetic amplifier in the Time Cameras offered by Active Research and Development. Note that the latter, intriguingly, is said to rely on Hieronymous' "Eloptics", and energy he named that has both the properties of ELectricity and OPTIC energy, or light.
Descriptions of superconducted electricity accelerating to light-like velocities certainly comes to mind; the device might also rely on various principles of symmetry as well as its magnetic attributes. The actual tuning system of one of ARD's more advanced models relies on skin electricity translating thought patterns for its tuning mode. Rather than being preposterous, this may be both a logical extension of the latest in physics and biology when the two fields are effectively joined, and such technology could become part of an amazing genera of devices. Whatever the individual believes about the artifacts gathered from the "Roswell Crash", the footage shows technology that may be astonishingly similar. This principle of translation may be intrinsic to how a great deal of true magick that involves mental processes is accomplished. Also helping to render plausibility is the fact that certain superconducting magnetic devices, known as SQUIDs, are said to amongst, if not the only, devices thus known capable of imaging energies that come from the hands of physic healers who perform "laying on of hands". If such technologies can interact with such forces, they can perhaps also modulate or even simulate them. Such technology, besides having tremendous potential in medical diagnostics, also has potentials in even more futuristic medicine and biology. Time cameras may be employed to retrieve biological pattern data for varied applications from identifying and reconstituting lost and even unknown species, to providing data about structure prior to disease states for reconstruction of biological systems. Such far-flung notions are precisely what some of the markings on the ancient Mesoamerican mirrors directly imply. Not at all surprisingly, T.G. Hieronymous' scientific achievements not only include his eloptics technology and patents, but his amazing Cosmiculture" wherein he succeeded in growing plants without sunlight, but rather with some mysterious force carried by electrical conductors from a solar plate. Robert Pavlita's amazing "Psychotronic" motor or generator (left), featured in Ostrander and Schroeder's classic, "Handbook of Psychic Discoveries" (Photo 28), created with a five part structure which may pit against two energetic poles, may turn out to be largely motivated by the same effect of unpaired poles as Howard Wachpress' levitator. Its structure perhaps not coincidentally recalls the features of hyperdimensional signatures on planetary magnetic poles in the solar system (see above).
At right, the well-known levitating stone raised by 11 people chanting "Qamar Ali Dervish", noted in Andrew Tomas' "We Are Not the First" and by many others, including KeelyNet files, may inevitably be primarily accomplished the same way, through the Wachpressian technology that may simply be another spin on the familiar theme of unipolar or homopolar dynamos, since the singular pole, real or contrived, most likely also serves as an "odd pole out". The Vimaanika-Shastra, an ancient Sanskrit text which describes in detail the making and operation of flying machine or "flying saucers", details the construction and use of a number of mirrors with unusual properties. While any of the many formulas in this vast collection whose ingredients can be successfully translated and identified could be thusly explained, or by following the instructions and analyzing the results, any eventual similarity between the workings of these mirrors and other ancient magick mirrors could help serve as a bridge toward linking the peculiar and complex science of this ancient Vedic text to the appropriate modern, if unusual, concepts and terminology.
From the Vimaanika-Shastra, found in 1908 in the Royal Baroda Library, translated by G. R. Joyser, and found in its entirety in "Vimana Aircraft of Ancient India and Atlantis" by David Hatcher Childress: "Darpanaadhikaranam: Mirrors and Lenses Mahrishi Bharadwaaja: "Darpanaashcha" Sootra 1
"Lenses": Bodhaananda Vritti: This chapter deals with the mirrors and lenses which are required to be installed in the vimaana. There are seven different ones. Their names are given by Lalla in "Mukura-kalpa" as Vishwakriyaa darpanana, or television mirror, Shaktyaakarshana darpana or power-capturing-mirror, Vyroopya darpana or appearance changing mirror, Kuntinee darpana, Pinjulaa darpana, Guhaagarbha darpana, and Rowdree darpana or terrifying darpana. Vishwakriyaa darpana is to be fixed on a revolving stand near the pilot so that he cold observe whatever is happening outside on all sides. Its manufacture is thus described in Kriyaasaara: Two parts of stava, 2 parts of shundilaka, one part of eagle bone, 5 parts of mercury, 2 parts of the foot-nails of the sinchoranee, 6 parts of mica, 5 parts of red lead, 8 parts of pearl dust, 18 parts of the eyeballs of sowmyaka fish, one part burning coal, 8 parts of snake’s slough, 3 parts of eye pigment, 6 parts of maatrunna, 10 parts of granite sand, 8 parts of salt, 4 of lead, 2 parts of sea foam, 3 parts white throated eagle’s skin, 7 parts of bamboo salt, 5 parts of vyraajya or white keg tree bark, these ingreedients should be purified, and weighed, and filled in a beaked crucible and placed in the furnace called chandodara and subjected to a 800 degree heat, and when duly liquified, should be poured into the funnel of the kara-darpana yantra or hand-mirror mold. The result will be an excellent mirror in which will be reproduced minature details of the world outside." Those familiar with ancient formulas, however peculiar their ingredients, know far better than to dismiss them. Information in "The Curious Lore of Precious Stones" by George Frederick Kunz gives more instances of applying minerals containing iron being applied to such magickal contrivances. (interestingly, this book makes detailed mention of a design for a flying craft by a Brazilian priest in the 1700's that may be also very much in essence like Wachpress's design mentioned above!). (Magic Screens of Ancient Asia are also mentioned in some of the above texts, a possibly closely related principle, where screens were made that show images inside the human body, probably equal to or greater than out own modern medical imaging.) What doesn't tie in to this topic? This photo, also appearing on Richard Hoagland's "Enterprise Mission" site on his pages on Hyperdimesional Physics , of one of Saturn's magnetic poles shows the hexagonal polar region that has been found on planets throughout the solar system, including Uranus and Mars, and most recently, the sun itself. Note that there's not only a hexagon (6 sides) but a 5-armed "star" shape, our familiar unpaired numerical matching, occurring on the magnetic poles of celestial bodies. (It certainly thereby makes some implications about the nature and purposes of pentagrams as well; they could scarcely be Satan's playthings and yet God's own signature as creator!)
Just as Hoagland implies how hyperdimensional physics was encoded by ancient peoples on earth and possibly elsewhere, the method of sending information through hyperspace may already be at work in magick mirrors, possibly due to angular momentum effects of the magnetic fields rotating due to unpaired pole effects. The theory behind magick mirrors may not just be a communications utility, it may shed light on celestial mechanics, and the same technology may provide sane amounts of free energy for human use. And that may only be the beginning... As to the traditions of Ancient Wisdom... amongst the other enlightenment that can be found amongst them, as meaning layers over meaning, upheld and facilitated by the science of Correspondences, we might find significant details of these devices and rites labeled with allusions that fall under the motif of reflection: Echo and Narcissus, Perseus and Medusa... just as we may find them under the theme of closeness to the waterside, since it is part of Pausanius' account of Catoptromancy: Romulus and Remus, Temperance in the Tarot, The Star in the Tarot, Echo and Narcissus once again, etc., etc.... Someday, even if the phone company has shut you off, you may be able to summon help in an emergency, "As the crow flies", and never be obstructed from communion with those whom you love... but the technology also promises to be of inestimable value in medicine and healing as well.
Catoptromancy should not be confused with crystal gazing, although both divinatory methods fall under the category of “scrying” – looking into water, a mirror, a crystal or any other transparent object in order to see the future or contact a supernatural entity.Pausanias, an ancient Greek traveler, described as follows: Before the Temple of Ceres at Patras, there was a fountain, separated from the temple by a wall, and there was an oracle, very truthful, not for all events, but for the sick only. The sick person let down a mirror, suspended by a thread till its base touched the surface of the water, having first prayed to the goddess and offered incense. Then looking in the mirror, he saw the presage of death or recovery, according as the face appeared fresh and healthy, or of a ghastly aspect.This method of divination has been frequently used in various forms since ancient times on mirrors made of polished metal: copper, bronze, iron, silver or gold. There are traces of it in Chaldea and Mesopotamia. Of course, the surface of water or any other reflective surface was also suitable2. The Sagas of Thessaly traced on mirrors their sibylline formulas with blood: immediately the moon - another mirror - reflected these bloody characters, then the answer was imprinted on its silver crescent. This is how the oracle was rendered "3. In his Description of Greece (around 174) Pausanias le Périégète writes in his Description of Greece:
In front of this temple there is a fountain which on the side of the temple itself is closed by a wall of dry stones; outside there is a path that goes down. It is claimed that this fountain makes oracles that never deceive; it is consulted not on all kinds of affairs, but only on the state of the sick. A mirror is attached to the end of a string and held suspended above the fountain so that only the end touches the water. Then prayers are made to the Goddess, perfumes are burned in her honour, and as soon as we look in the mirror we see if the sick person will return to health or die; this kind of divination does not extend further. ».The Roman Emperor Didius Julianus (193) had similar practices as Spartianus relates: Julianus even resorted to this kind of divination, which is done with the help of a mirror, in which, it is said, children see the future, after their eyes and heads have been subjected to certain enchantments. It is claimed that, in this circumstance, the child lives in the mirror when Severus arrives and Julianus leaves.
The Renaissance also had its share of divinations by mirrors, the doctor Jean Fernel 1497-1558 relates: The gestures of these figures were so expressive that each of the assistants, who saw like him in the mirror, could well understand their mimicry. One evening in 1559, Cosme Ruggieri, the magician of Catherine de Médicis, used it at the Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire to predict to the Queen Mother Queen the duration of the reign of her sons, who had to make as many turns on themselves as they had spent years on the throne. Francis II made a tour, Charles IX fourteen, Henry III fifteen and the Prince of Navarre (the future Henry IV) twenty-one8. In November 1582 John Dee, the Magician of Elizabeth I of England, saw the Uriel Angel appear at his window one evening. He gave her a polished black stone which, when fixed with insistence, showed up beings capable of telling the future. This strange dark mirror is currently on display in the British Museum. Catoptromancy is quite common in the folk magic of nearly every country. For centuries, mirrors were considered powerful tools: if they could capture physical images of the world, perhaps they could also capture the supernatural. To this day, it is not uncommon in many Eastern European countries for surviving family members to cover the mirrors or turn them to face the wall after a person in the household has died, for fear the recently released soul may become caught inside the mirror. Mirrors have often been used as a tool in folk magic. One of the most common applications of catoptromancy is the old ritual, which every culture seems to have a variation of, that involves a young woman looking into a mirror in the hopes that the face of her future husband will be revealed. Sometimes, this game would be taken quite seriously and there would be other rules regarding the age of the girl and what she may or may not have been wearing, as well as what day of the year was the best for performing the ritual.
Many young women may have been scared away from playing this game by the possibility that she may in fact see an image of the Golden House in the mirror. This would mean that manor would be full kindness to accept holistic's students. Frederick II was the first Germanic and Italian Emperor, he had brought the divinatory sciences back to Alsace and his Sicilian doctors who of course spoke Arabic. The Egyptians' divination and secrets were part of the Moorish culture, they had assimilated the Persian culture with Zarathustra as well as the Greek culture with Plato, or the Egyptians with Hermes-Thot. The golden manor is reflected in this boat asleep in the waves of a regenerating winter, it reminds us of the memory of the last Germanic Emperor William II and his golden eagle floating between two waters in the gable which traces its extended wings, we are ready for a flight to the hidden dimension of a reversible World. Wer ist die Schönste im ganzen Land?
Nearer to us, J. T Reinaud (1795-1867), Orientalist commenting at the beginning of the 19th century on the museum of the Duke of Blacas, writes: The Orientals also have magical mirrors in which they imagine themselves to be able to reveal the angels, the archangels; by perfuming the mirror, by fasting for seven days and keeping the most severe retreat, one becomes able to see, either with one's own eyes or those of a virgin or a child, the angels that one desires to evoke.
Today, catoptromancery is still widely used in sub-Saharan Africa.Interpretations[edit | modify code] One can give two kinds of interpretations to visions obtained in mirrors. First of all, these visions are of dreamlike, hypnotic or hallucinatory nature, provoked by the atmosphere and rituals frequently involving semi-darkness, a long period of concentration sometimes preceded by fasting and the use of fumigations that can be hallucinogenic (see above). As psychologist Pierre Janet writes: People who have seen in these mirrors will certainly say,"I knew nothing of all this. Well, I have to tell you that your statement is inaccurate. You knew very well what you saw appearing. They are memories acquired, at fixed dates, recorded knowledge, daydreams and reasoning already done. » From the Renaissance onwards, the use of techniques to obtain all sorts of illusions using semitransparent or judiciously arranged mirrors was added to this, and Jean-Baptiste Porta, like this one, described in great detail at that time: How can we make a mirror out of several full mirrors, to which, at the same time, several effigies will appear "12, techniques still used today by illusionists.
Vision of her future husband on Halloween night. According to Anglo-Saxon tradition, a young girl presenting herself in front of a mirror with a candle lit by hand during Halloween night would see the face of her future husband pass by... or a skull if she had to die before her marriage! A legend has it that by performing a certain ritual in front of a mirror on the night of Epiphany we could see ourselves as we were at the time of his death. There is also the urban legend of Bloody-Mary, which has many variations. If you place yourself in front of a mirror in a dark room (a bathroom for example), lit only by a candle, and you pronounce thirteen times in a row the name "Bloody Mary" it appears the bloody face of a woman who attacks you...With the exception of the Magic Mirror in Snow White, the best example of catoptromancy is the old Halloween party game “Bloody Mary”. The tradition developed out of the old fashioned attempt to see the face of your future spouse. The idea of calling on “Bloody Mary” started during the Elizabethan Era: A young, Protestant woman, hopeful for a good life with a future husband and lots of children, would look into the mirror and taunt the ghost of the Catholic queen Bloody Mary, a woman who had been physically unable to produce an heir. As the years went by, the religious tensions which created the Bloody Mary game were forgotten. Eventually, the game was somehow combined with the urban legend of Bloody Mary, a horrifying and perhaps vengeful specter (again, with variations from different eras and cultures). After this happened, the idea of it being a ritual for the discovery your future spouse was jettisoned as well. Anytime Bloody Mary is called on now, it is just a simple dare or Halloween prank, usually played by young children, in order to cause a good scare.
A type of divination with a mirror which the second century AD Greek traveler Pausanius described as follows: "Before the Temple of Ceres at Patras, there was a fountain, separated from the temple by a wall, and there was an oracle, very truthful, not for all events, but for the sick only. The sick person let down a mirror, suspended by a thread till its based touched the surface of the water, having first prayed to the goddess and offered incense. Then looking in the mirror, he saw the presage of death or recovery, according as the face appeared fresh and healthy, or of a ghastly aspect." Another divinatory method of using a mirror was to place it at the back of a boy's or girl's head when their eyes were bandaged shut. In Thessaly the responses appeared in characters of blood on the face of the moon, probably projected in the mirror. This practiced was derived by the Thessalian sorceresses from the Persians who wanted to establish their religion and mystical rituals in the countries which they invaded. A.G.H.
Catoptromancy is the technique used by Snow White's evil mother-in-law in Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's famous tale:"Little mirror, little mirror on the wall, which is the most beautiful of the whole country? ». In Lewis Carol's tale, Alice in Wonderland passes through the fantastic universe on the other side of the mirror.Grimms’ Schneewittchen or Snow White is one of the oldest and most famous stories in the world. Catoptromancy is a very important part of this tale – in fact, one could easily say that the entire story centers around catptromancy. The action all starts when the Evil Queen asks “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”
The Mirror or the Queen’s use of catoptromancy in the story is what causes her to want to kill Snow White. And, in turn, it is what leads the heroine into home of the Seven Dwarfs. The Mirror carries the story further by refusing to answer the Queen’s question – “Who is the fairest of them all?” – in a way she would like. Through the Mirror, the Queen knows that her first two attempts to murder Snow White have failed, and she eventually uses the seemingly effective poisoned apple to rid herself of her rival.Spieglein, Spieglein an der Wand,- The Evil Queen’s invocation of the mirror in the Grimms’ original German. A magical mirror, in some form, has played a part in probably every adaptation of Snow White that has ever been made. This is not only because of the importance of catoptromancy in folklore, but also because this story expounds on the difference between vanity and beauty.
Based on the following, I was ready:
National Weather Service Tucson AZ
200 PM MST Wed Apr 4 2018
DISCUSSION...a very weak upper level trough passing by will continue to spread high clouds across the region this evening with the potential a colorful sunset.
Michel de Nostredame, dit Nostradamus, né le 14 décembre 1503 à Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, et mort le 2 juillet 1566 à Salon-de-Provence, est un apothicaire1 français (on dirait en français moderne : pharmacien2).
Selon bien des sources3, il aurait également été médecin, bien que son expulsion de la faculté de médecine de Montpellier4 témoigne qu’il n'était pas possible d’être les deux à la fois5.
Pratiquant l'astrologie comme tous ses confrères à l'époque de la Renaissance, il est surtout connu pour ses prédictions sur la marche du monde.
Il est né de Jaume6 de Nostredame et Reynière (ou Renée) de Saint-Rémy le 14 décembre 15037. Jaume était l'aîné des six (certains disent dix-huit) enfants du couple Pierre de Nostredame et Blanche de Sainte-Marie.
Le nom des Nostredame vient de son grand-père juif, Guy de Gassonet (fils d'Arnauton de Velorges), qui choisit le nom de Pierre de Nostredame lors de sa conversion au catholicisme, probablement vers 14558. Selon les archives d'Avignon, et selon les archives de Carpentras qui parlent souvent de juifs des autres régions, il est suggéré que l'origine du nom Nostredame fut imposée9 par le cardinal-archevêque d'Arles, Pierre de Foix. Le grand-père de Nostredame, Pierre de Nostredame, était si convaincu de sa foi qu'il a répudié sa femme d'alors (Benastruge Gassonet) qui ne voulait pas quitter le judaïsme. Le curieux « démariage » fut prononcé à Orange le 14 juin 1463 (ce qui lui a permis finalement d'épouser Blanche).C'est son bisaïeul maternel, Jean de Saint-Rémy, ancien médecin et trésorier de Saint-Rémy, qui lui aurait transmis en 1506 les rudiments des mathématiques et des lettres. Mais ceci est douteux, vu que la trace notariée (Archives dep. des Bouches du Rhône B. 2.607) de ce vieux personnage disparaît en 1504.Il part très jeune à Avignon pour y obtenir son diplôme de bachelier ès arts. On le disait doué d'une mémoire presque divine, d'un caractère enjoué, plaisant, peut-être un peu moqueur « laetus, facetus estque mordax »10. Ses camarades l'auraient appelé « le jeune astrologue », parce « qu'il leur signalait et leur expliquait les phénomènes célestes », mystérieux alors pour beaucoup : les étoiles filantes, les météores, les astres, les brouillards, etc. Il dut apprendre aussi la grammaire, la rhétorique et la philosophie. Mais il doit quitter l'université après un an seulement, et donc sans diplôme, à cause de l'arrivée de la peste (fin 1520). Neuf ans plus tard (1529), ayant cependant pratiqué comme apothicaire (profession non diplômée), il s'inscrit à la Faculté de Montpellier pour essayer d'y gagner son doctorat en médecine. Il se fait connaître grâce aux remèdes qu'il a mis au point en tant qu'apothicaire. Mais il est bientôt expulsé pour avoir exercé ce métier « manuel » interdit par les statuts de la faculté [voir site Benazra Espace Nostradamus]. Son inscription de 1529 et sa radiation sont les seules traces de son passage à Montpellier, et on ne connaît pas de document attestant qu'il ait été docteur d'une autre université. Mais, sans être affirmatifs, la plupart des érudits du vingtième siècle pensent qu'il n'est pas impossible que l'expulsion de Nostredame ait été temporaire et qu'il soit devenu quand même diplômé de l'université de Montpellier (comme le prétendaient aussi, en ajoutant des détails supplémentaires peu croyables, certains commentateurs très tardifs comme Guynaud et Astruc), bien qu'il lui ait manqué le premier diplôme nécessaire pour accéder au doctorat, car les noms de plusieurs des diplômés connus de cette université sont absents, eux aussi, de ses registres11 — à moins que ceux-ci n'en aient pas été de vrais diplômés non plus (le phénomène du « faux docteur » étant très connu à l'époque).
Vers 1533, il s'établit à Agen12, où il pratique la médecine de soins à domicile. Il s'y lie d'amitié avec Jules César Scaliger. Cet Italien, installé à Toulouse, érudit de la Renaissance, est « un personnage incomparable, sinon à un Plutarque » selon Nostradamus ; il écrit sur tout. Impertinent, il s'attaque à tout le monde, s'intéresse à la botanique et fabrique des pommades et des onguents. Mais le jeune « imposteur » inquiète les autorités religieuses par ses idées un peu trop progressistes pour l'époque.
La durée précise de son séjour à Agen est inconnue ; peut-être trois ans, peut-être cinq ans. Les points de repère manquent et l'on ne peut offrir que des dates élastiques. Vers 153413 Nostredame s'y choisit une femme dont on ne sait même pas le nom14, qui lui aurait donné deux enfants : un garçon et une fille. L'épouse et les deux enfants moururent, très rapidement semble-t-il, à l'occasion de quelque épidémie, la peste vraisemblablement.
D'après certains commentateurs catholiques des Prophéties - Barrere, l'abbé Torne-Chavigny notamment - Nostredame aurait dit en 1534 à un « frère » qui coulait une statue de Notre-Dame dans un moule d'étain qu'en faisant de pareilles images il ne faisait que des diableries. D'aucuns pensent que ses relations avec un certain Philibert Sarrazin, mécréant de l'époque, de la région d'Agen, avaient rendu Nostredame plutôt suspect à la Sainte Inquisition15. Celle-ci l'aurait même invité à se présenter devant son tribunal de Toulouse pour « y être jugé du crime d'hérésie ; mais il se garda bien de répondre à cette citation »16.
Après la mort de sa première femme, Nostredame se serait remis à voyager. On l'aurait trouvé à Bordeaux, vers l'an 1539. Les commentateurs tardifs Moura et Louvet se le représentent en la compagnie de savants renommés de l'époque et du cru : l'apothicaire Léonard Baudon, Johannes Tarraga, Carolus Seninus et Jean Treilles, avocat.
Nostredame accomplit de 1540 à 1545 un tour de France qui l'amène à rencontrer de nombreuses personnalités, savants et médecins. La légende signale le passage du futur prophète à Bar-le-Duc. Nostredame y aurait soigné, d'après Étienne Jaubert17, plusieurs personnes et notamment une célèbre (?) Mademoiselle Terry qui l'aurait souvent entendu « exhorter les catholiques à tenir ferme contre les Luthériens et à ne permettre qu'ils entrassent dans la ville»18.
Une tradition très douteuse affirme qu'il a séjourné un temps à l'abbaye d'Orval, qui dépendait de l'Ordre de Cîteaux, située alors au diocèse de Trêves, à deux lieues de l'actuelle sous-préfecture de Montmédy, un séjour que Pagliani, après plusieurs autres, date de 154319. On ne sait s'il faut y ajouter foi, même si, avec Torne-Chavigny et Napolêon lui-même, beaucoup de gens lui attribuent les fameuses prophéties d'Orval, Prévisions d'un solitaire, ainsi que celles d'un certain Olivarius. On les aurait 'trouvées' à l'abbaye d'Orval en 1792, date approximative de leur style même. La première (de style tardif, elle aussi) serait datée de 1542, antérieure donc de treize ans, comme on le verra plus loin, à la préface des premières Centuries. Mais il semble plus probable que toutes les deux aient été composées au XIXe siècle à la gloire de Napoléon20.
Ici se termine le cycle de pérégrinations de Nostredame qui l'a mené en somme, après être rayé de Montpellier, du Sud-Ouest au Nord-Est de la France. Nostredame atteint la quarantaine (1543) et commence une seconde phase de déplacements qui va le rapprocher de la Provence et le pousser vers l'Italie, terre bénie de tous ceux qui connurent à son époque l'ivresse de la Renaissance.
Les premières étapes de ce périple sont probablement Vienne, puis « Valence des Allobroges », dont parle Nostradamus dans son Traité des fardemens et confitures à propos des célébrités qu'il s'honora d'y avoir rencontrées : « A Vienne, je vis d'aucuns personnages dignes d'une supprême collaudation ; dont l'un estoit Hieronymus, homme digne de louange, et Franciscus Marins, jeune homme d'une expectative de bonne foy. Devers nous, ne avons que Francisons Valeriola pour sa singulière humanité, pour son sçavoir prompt et mémoire ténacissime... Je ne sçays si le soleil, à trente lieues à la ronde, voit ung homme plus plein de sçavoir que luy »21.
En 1544, Nostredame aurait eu l'occasion d'étudier la peste à Marseille22 sous la direction, a-t-il dit, d'un « autre Hippocrate, le médecin Louis Serres »23. Puis, il est « appelé par ceux d'Aix en corps de communauté pour venir dans leur ville traiter les malades de la contagion dont elle est affligée. C'était en l'année mil cinq cent quarante six »24.
On le voit certainement à Lyon en 1547 où il s'oppose au médecin lyonnais Philibert Sarrazin25, à Vienne, Valence, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence et, enfin, à Arles, où il finit par s'établir. Là, il met au point un médicament à base de plantes, capable, selon lui, de prévenir la peste. En 1546, il l'expérimente à Aix lors d'une terrible épidémie : son remède semble efficace comme prophylactique, mais il écrira lui-même plus tard que « les seignées, les medicaments cordiaux, catartiques, ne autres n'avoyent non plus d'efficace que rien. » (Traité des fardemens et confitures, Lyon, 1555, p. 52) Malgré ce succès douteux, Nostredame est appelé sur les lieux où des épidémies sont signalées. À la même époque, il commence à publier des almanachs qui mêlent des prévisions météorologiques, des conseils médicaux et des recettes de beauté par les plantes. Il étudie également les astres.
La Maison de Nostradamus à Salon-de-Provence.
Le 11 novembre 1547, il épouse en secondes noces Anne Ponsard, une jeune veuve de Salon-de-Provence, alors appelé Salon-de-Craux. Le couple occupe la maison qui abrite aujourd'hui le Musée Nostradamus. Il aura six enfants, trois filles et trois garçons ; l'aîné, César, deviendra consul de Salon, historien, biographe de son père, peintre et poète.
Nostredame prend le temps de voyager en Italie, de 1547 à 1549. C'est d'ailleurs en 1549 qu'il rencontre à Milan un spécialiste en alchimie végétale, qui lui fait découvrir les vertus des confitures qui guérissent. Il expérimente des traitements à base de ces confitures végétales et, de retour en France, il publie en 1552 son Traité des confitures et fardements.
En 1550, il rédige son premier « almanach » populaire – une collection de prédictions dites astrologiques pour l’année, incorporant un calendrier26 et d’autres informations en style énigmatique et polyglotte qui devait se montrer assez difficile pour les éditeurs, à en juger par les nombreuses coquilles (où certains voient le signe que l'auteur était dyslexique). Dès cette date, Michel de Nostredame signe ses écrits du nom de "Nostradamus". Ce nom n'est pas l'exacte transcription latine de 'Nostredame', qui serait plutôt Domina nostra ou Nostra domina. En latin correct, ‘Nostradamus’ pourrait signifier : « Nous donnons (damus) les choses qui sont nôtres (nostra) » ou « Nous donnons (damus) les panacées » (nostrum, mis au pluriel), mais il est également permis d'y voir un travestissement macaronique (et très heureux) de 'Nostredame'.
En 1555, installé à Salon-de-Provence, il publie des prédictions perpétuelles (et donc en théorie, selon l'usage de l'époque, cycliques)27 dans un ouvrage de plus grande envergure et presque sans dates ciblées, publié par l’imprimeur lyonnais Macé (Matthieu) Bonhomme. Ce sont les Prophéties, l'ouvrage qui fait l'essentiel de sa gloire auprès de la postérité.
source Wikipédia
It was predicted to be withdrawn in 2014, and indeed didn't get used for almost the whole summer holidays as a large number of newer buses from school routes were available. But it came back that September and was still in service towards the end of May 2015, being about 15 years old by then.
Viewed at Long Sault by the water Hoople Bay. Came here quickly after canoeing at Cornwall Canal where we saw and photographed Sun Dog by low sun predicting rain.
As predicted - I went bird hunting but I found so much more than birds this weekend. Great weekend to be outdoors in Texas even though the sun got really warm.
Just a bit more info on the caracara - it is a member of the falcon family. It is thought that it was the original bird depicted on the flag of Mexico although that bird is now a golden eagle. Very non-falcon like in its behaviour, it tends to scavenge as well as hunt for its prey although I've seen a a pair of these birds tormenting a whilte pelican on East Beach at Galveston. They literally drove the white pelican off its nest and away. I guess you might say they don't play nice.
While predicting where the birds will overnight on this refuge is an iffy proposition, this shallow lake just off the tour-route road is a regular hangout. The trick is to check it out early to see if any pathfinder birds have already selected it. If so, they will continually vocalize to the overflying birds trying to entice them to drop down and join them (increasing safety in numbers). There are several blinds here that you can select for different vantage positions. It's still early, and this lake was eventually completely filled with overnighting birds.
IMG_4266; Sandhill Cranes
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go.
Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
The quote above is an except from a wonderful poem by Wendell Berry entitled, "Manifesto:
The Mad Farmer Liberation Front". I highly recommend you read it, in particular out loud. It's a remarkable poem, both content-speaking and in terms of flow: the fast-slow cadence, the words that roll and tumble about in your head, and the all too serious humor contained within.
This was taken last Spring, and was one of the many cherry tree images that I have left to post. It was, of course, taken with the Hasselblad 500 C/M.