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-...

Returning from a long absence, I can now relate more stories from the Imperial Council as my sources in the feline community have granted me access to several more copies of "Das Katze", the official publication of the Imperial Council of Cats. Today I am providing excerpts from an interview of Maximilian Skonderberg-Hagenau, the director of the Ministry of Information some decades ago.

Interviewer- The Empire calls itself an egalitarian state yet most senior positions are limited to males. How is this equality?

Maximilian- Our female cats have the sacred honor of birthing kittens for the continuation of the Empire. No greater honor or position can be imagined than bearing the responsibility of the future of the Empire. Besides, all cats of the Empire are expected to live and die for the Empire. What could be more egalitarian?

Interviewer-What are the actual geographical limits of the Empire?

Maximilian- The Empire ends beyond the shadow of the Grand Protector (leader of the Imperial Council), or as is sometimes said, the end of the tip of his sword.

Interviewer- What is the position of the Imperial Council on cats living with their human servants?

Maximilian- The Imperial Quartering Act of 1367 requires humans to shelter and provide provisions for a minimum of two cats in each human household. However, humans are impossibly stupid with few being able to speak or read cat so most are unaware of this requirement even though the edict has been in effect almost seven hundred years. As a result, we allow humans to serve as many cats as their limited abilities allow. Most humans understand that they are deeply flawed creatures and derive some small meaning to their existence by serving cats. Those humans that have no cats are flawed beyond any hope and live a meaningless existence.

End of Interview.

 

Development, this relates back to my sketchbook 2 work and looks at developing the shape of a fossil large scale using draping, I think this was largely successful due to the detail that I created.

Muncaster Castle near Ravenglass, Lake District, Cumbria

 

Some background information:

 

Muncaster Castle is located on the right bank of the River Esk, about a mile south of the west-coastal town of Ravenglass. The estate is situated in sparsely populated and scenic countryside between the Irish Sea and Hardknott Pass, near England's tallest mountain, Scafell Pike. It is still owned by the noble Pennington family, who has lived there for at least 800 years.

 

In 1208 Muncaster estate was granted to Alan de Penitone. The oldest parts of the castle include the great hall and the 14th century pele tower, a type of watch-tower fortification unique to the English-Scottish border region, which were erected by wealthy English families to protect themselves and their estates against Scottish invaders.

 

It is suspected that the site of the castle lies on foundations dating to the Roman era, which may relate to the nearby Roman fort of Glannoventa at Ravenglass. An indication for this suspicion is the name "Muncaster", which contains the Latin word "castra", meaning "encampment" or "fort".

 

After the battle of Towton in 1461, Henry VI fled to Muncaster Castle where Sir John Pennington sheltered him. Henry gave Sir John a glass drinking bowl with a prayer that they might prosper for as long as the glass remained unbroken. The glass is known as "The Luck of Muncaster" and remains unbroken to this day.

 

Over the course of the centuries Muncaster Castle was extended and enlarged on a number of occasions. Recent historical research has uncovered records which indicate that in 1678 the castle had 14 chimneys, while a document relating to payment of window tax in 1746 recorded that it had 103 windows as well as 55 rooms and corridors at that date.

 

However, by the time of the ownership of Sir Joseph Pennington in the 1770s, the castle had fallen into serious decay. His son, Sir John Pennington, arriving to live at the castle after his wedding in 1778, wrote with despair of how a part of the building collapsed even as he was inspecting it. The preservation of the castle to this day is due to the efforts of Sir John Pennington to rebuild and restore it, which costed him some six thousand pounds, an enormous sum of money in the late 18th century.

 

In August 2005 an archaeological investigation was conducted in the castle grounds and an architectural heritage peport was produced. This investigation revealed that the castle's north tower was constructed in the 1830s. Previous literature on the north tower mistakenly attributed its construction to the architect Anthony Salvin, who was engaged to refurbish the castle by the fourth Lord Muncaster in 1862. The north tower complements the pele tower to provide a symmetry to the castle's appearance.

 

Muncaster Castle estate in the early 20th century was around 23,000 acres (93 km²) in size. Today the castle is surrounded by "only" 77 acres (310,000 m²) of woodland gardens in a park of some 1,800 acres (7.3 km²). The gardens contain many rhododendrons, camellias and azaleas, and the castle's Plant Centre offers the largest collection of rhododendrons in the north of England.

 

In common with many such ancient estates in the British Isles Muncaster Castle is open to the public. But unfortunately visitors are not allowed to photograph the interiors. The castle also operates as a site where civil weddings may be held, has bookable accommodation for 24 guests, shows bird of prey demonstrations and is the location of the headquarters of the World Owl Trust, a registered UK charity dedicated to the preservation of owls and their habitats.

 

Muncaster Castle and its hauntings:

 

Muncaster Castle has acquired a reputation for being one of the most haunted castles in England, perhaps even the most haunted one. It only competes with Hampton Court Palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and Chillingham Castle in Northhumberland, which can come up with a similar number of hauntings.

 

The two most famous ghosts of Muncaster are the ones of Thomas Skelton, reputedly the last court jester in English history, and Mary Bragg, a local girl who was most likely murdered on the castle grounds by two young men in the 19th century after they'd kidnapped her on behalf of her rival in love. But let’s take one thing at a time:

 

Tom Fool:

At the end of the 16th century Thomas Skelton, better known as Tom Fool, acted as as jester on Muncaster Castle. Although a friend of William Shakespeare, he was by all accounts a dark character responsible for a number of deaths during his time at Muncaster. One of his ideas of a "joke" was directing anyone asking him for directions to Ravenglass towards the hidden quicksand and bog marsh by the River Esk rather than the ford – some realised in time, many did not and were never seen again.

Despite Thomas Skelton being a jester, the local carpenter certainly wasn't laughing about him. Under the orders of Sir Ferdinand Pennington, Thomas chopped the carpenter's head off as a punishment for falling in love with Helwise, Sir Pennington's daughter. Skelton died around 1600, according to legend in the very marshes where he'd sent so many to their deaths when trying to return to the castle whilst drunk.

His portrait hangs in the castle, which contains his will to this day and the Pennington family still believes, that Thomas Skelton keeps a watchful eye on the castle and occasionally gets up to more sinister mischief. Therefore most of the ghostly goings on are attributed to this fiendish fool. Every evening the current owners Phyllida and Patrick Gordon-Duff-Pennington place a dram of whisky on the commode under his picture, because already during his life he enjoyed having a wee dram. Nowadays Muncaster castle also hosts the special annual event "Tom Fool's day", which is a family fun day with various attractions.

 

Mary Bragg:

Mary Bragg, whose ghost also haunts the castle, was a housekeeper in the nearby town of Ravenglass. In 1805 she met with a violent and untimely end. Mary was in love with the footman at Muncaster Castle. Unfortunately for Mary, so was one of the housemaids, and she was not keen on competition. It is said that the house maid plotted to rid herself of this love rival, and she may have been ultimately responsible for Mary's death.

Mary Bragg's mother was the last person to see her alive. After Mary’s death she reported how two men called, claiming her lover was seriously ill. Mary told her mum that the two men were taking her to his bedside, but she was never seen alive again. Mary's body was found some weeks later, floating in the River Esk. It was hardly recognizable because of the horrendous injuries. The body had also been partially eaten by eels and the coroner could not say for certain how she died and no one was charged with her murder.

The ghost of Mary Bragg can often be seen wandering the grounds of the Castle and along the local roads. Mary's ghost is mostly dressed in white. Her form however varies: Occasionally she's a misty figure, but other witnesses have reported a solid form or a darting figure sometimes jumping out in front of cars before vanishing. Some wood workers also swear black and blue that the tree, where Mary is said to have met with her untimely death on the site of Muncaster Castle, was bleeding briskly when they were cutting it down.

 

Margaret Pennington:

The most haunted room at Muncaster Castle and hence the focal point of the paranormal activity there is the Tapestry Room. Visitors often report feeling an unwelcoming presence in the room. Guests who have stayed the night in the Tapestry Room, have reported the sound of babies crying or children singing softly. Black figures have been seen leaning over alarmed guests, whilst others have experienced a heavy weight falling on top of them in the antique four poster bed. A paranormal investigation team reported seeing a black, featureless figure walk into the Tapestry Room and vanish. James Cartland, archivist and friend of the Pennington family, was invited to stay at the castle during the early 1980s and was put up in the Tapestry Room. In the morning he reported: "I heard this sort of strange muttering sound as if someone was talking. I stuck my head up the chimney because I thought it could have been the sound of the wind, but it was a very still and frosty night. I was the only person in the wing of the castle that night, so there was nobody else around to make a noise. Everybody else was at the other end. I walked around a little and out into the corridor. When I returned to my room, the noise was still going on and was more audible by then. It was definitely the sound of a child crying. I got back into bed - I never slept a wink that night. It was a terrible night!"

A teenage girl had stayed at the castle with her mother a year earlier. The girl, now a trainee lawyer, has spoken how she heard footsteps along the corridor outside her room when, suddenly, the door of her room opened, and the sound of a crying child filled the room.

The late Lord Carlisle had a similar experience which he recounted to an ex-curator of the castle, Philip Denham-Cookes: "Lord Carlisle told me that he had only stayed once in Muncaster and that was in the Tapestry Room. He had been woken up during the middle of the night by the sound of a young child crying. He admitted he had never been more terrified in his life. Lord Carlisle was awarded the MC in the last war so he wasn't a man easily frightened, but he has said that nothing would ever get him to stay at Muncaster again."

Recent investigations revealed that in the Tapestry Room had previously been a children's nursery. During the castles long history there have been a number of deaths. Several of these have been children and some of these were buried in the castle grounds. But there was even one girl, Margaret Susan Elizabeth Pennington, who died of screaming fits in 1871 at the age of eleven.

 

Of course there are also several other lost souls, who haunt the castle, like the one of the carpenter beheaded by Tom Fool, who is reported to haunt several rooms whilst carrying his head under his arm, and the one of a lion, whose skull was brought as a trophy to the castle by the last Lord Muncaster, after he had shot the lion in Kenya.

 

By the way the Pennington family makes a special offer to those visitors, who are skeptical: Guests are allowed to spend a night at the Tapestry Room. But once settled for the night, the alarms are set and there's no escaping. So don’t say, that you haven’t been warned. :-)

As mentioned in the comments relating to mine and Tim Machin's preserved Berresfords liveried Swift, I also had two St. Helens Swifts in my own Knotty Bus fleet.

Following the excellent service we had from AEC Swifts in the Berresford group, it was only natural that as the Knotty need for service buses grew, we'd seek out the last of the type available.

By the early 1990s, AECs of any kind were starting to be a little thin on the ground and Swifts even more so. EDJ 242J came to us from a temporary home in preservation, having been purchased by those owners from Liverpool's Speke Airport. It was bought at very reasonable cost, and as a bonus, it had also been the recipient of quite a bit of remedial work by those same preservationists. Preparing it for a new life in service therefore wasn't an onerous task.

EDJ 242J is seen here just after I'd finished painting it, and was awaiting its fleetnames etc. It went on to be a very dependable bus, if a little harsh riding at the front end. I certainly don't recall any major expenditure on it. Sadly it perished in a yard fire in 1996.

1. Individuality and the Group-Soul

4 December 1909, Munich

Today we will consider a general theme: the question of the meaning and tasks of anthroposophical spiritual science. Tomorrow we will take up a more specific theme: the destiny and nature of the individual human being. We have often emphasized that anthroposophy has a special task and meaning for human beings in the present age. People who think will not be able to avoid the question what the aims of this spiritual movement are and how they relate to other tasks of our time. Such tasks may be explained from diverse points of view, as we have often done. Today we will try to describe the evolutionary stage of contemporary humanity and attempt to look a little into the future. Then we will consider the task of anthroposophy in reference to our present evolutionary stage.

We know that since the great Atlantean catastrophe, which entirely transformed the earth, there have been five great epochs of civilization. We designate these as the ancient Indian, the ancient Persian, the Egypto-Chaldean, the Greco-Latin, and the epoch we presently live in. The latter was prepared in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries after Christ; we are now actually in the middle of this epoch. Of course, such divisions are not to be understood as indicating that each evolutionary epoch abruptly came to an end and then a new one began. Rather, one epoch gradually and slowly merged into another. Long before one epoch has run its course, the next one is already being prepared.

In our own cultural epoch, the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, the characteristics of the sixth epoch are already being prepared. Roughly speaking, people in our time can be divided into two groups: those who live blindly for the day, have no idea of, and know nothing about the preparation of the sixth epoch, and those who understand that something new is being prepared. The latter also know that this preparation must basically be accomplished by human beings. We find our place in our time either by passively following the customs of our society and doing what our parents have taught us to do, or by being aware that to be a conscious link in the chain of humanity we must work on ourselves and our environment to contribute, as best we can, to the preparation of what must come, namely, the sixth cultural period.

How it is possible to prepare for the sixth epoch can only be understood when we consider the character of our own period. The best way to do this is to compare it with others. We know these cultural epochs are different from each other, and over the years we have presented their various distinguishing characteristics. We have shown that in the ancient Indian period people had different soul qualities than they did later. At that time, human beings were still endowed with a high degree of clairvoyant consciousness. In later epochs, this clairvoyance was gradually lost, and perception and understanding became limited to the physical world. We have seen that the fourth epoch was slowly prepared; it was in that period that humanity came to live entirely in the physical world. This made it possible for the being whom we call Christ Jesus to incarnate in human form, as a human being on the physical plane. Next we have seen that since that time a certain stream further strengthened human capacities in the physical world. Indeed, the materialistic tendency of our age and the insistence to accept only the physical world as real are connected with humanity's further descent into the physical. However, things must not remain like this. We must ascend again into the spiritual world, bearing with us the attainments and fruits we have acquired in the physical world. It is the task of anthroposophy to offer people the possibility of ascending once again into the spiritual world.

Immediately after the great Atlantean catastrophe, there were many human beings who knew through direct perception that they were surrounded by, and lived in, a spiritual world. Gradually, however, the number of those who knew this decreased as human perception became more limited to the physical senses. In our time, the capacity to perceive the spiritual world has almost disappeared; yet something so significant is being prepared in our time that a great many people will have quite different faculties in their next incarnation. Human faculties have changed during the past five cultural epochs, and they will change again in the sixth. The capacities of a great number of people living today will change considerably in their next incarnation, as will be clear from the whole nature of their soul. Today we will talk about how different many of these human souls will be already in their next incarnation; of course, for other people, this change will not happen until two incarnations from now.

 

Looking at past epochs of human evolution, we can also see that the closer we come to the ancient clairvoyance, the more the human soul has the character of what we can call “group-soulness.” I have often pointed out that consciousness of this group-soulness existed preeminently among the ancient Hebrews. A person who consciously felt himself to be a member of this people understood, “As an individual human being, I am a transitory phenomenon, but there lives in me something that has an immediate connection with all the soul essence that has streamed down since the days of our progenitor, Abraham.” In esoteric terms, we can describe these feelings of the Hebrew people as a spiritual phenomenon. We will better understand what happened there if we look at the following.

Let us consider a Hebrew initiate of that time. Although initiation was not so frequent among the ancient Hebrews as among other peoples, we can characterize such a real initiate — that is, one initiated not just into theories and the law, but one who really saw into the spiritual worlds — only by taking into consideration the peculiarity of the Hebrew people as a whole. Nowadays, historians, who are concerned only with documents, check the Old Testament against all kinds of external records and find it unsubstantiated. We will have occasion to point out that the Old Testament gives us facts more faithfully than external historical records. In any case, spiritual science shows that the blood relationship of the Hebrews to Abraham can really be proven, and that their claim on Abraham as their original progenitor is fully justified. It was known particularly in the ancient Hebrew Mystery schools that the individuality or psychic essence of Abraham did not incarnate only in him, but is an eternal being existing in the spiritual world.

In fact, all true initiates among the Hebrews were inspired by the same spirit that inspired Abraham; they could call upon that spirit and were permeated by the same soul nature as Abraham. There was a real connection between every initiate and the tribal ancestor Abraham. This connection was expressed also in the feelings of the individuals belonging to the Hebrew people. They felt that what came to expression in Abraham was the group-soul of the people.

Group-souls were also experienced in the same way by other peoples of that time. Humanity in general goes back to group-souls. The farther back we go in human evolution, the less developed we find the individuality. Instead, a whole group belonged together as a unit, as is the case in the animal kingdom. This “groupness” is more and more pronounced the farther back we go into ancient times. Groups of human beings then belonged together, and the group-soul was considerably stronger than the individual soul.

Even today human group-soulness is still not overcome. Those who claim the opposite merely fail to take into account certain subtler phenomena of life, such as the resemblance of certain people not only in their physiognomies but also in their soul qualities. In a sense, people can be divided into categories, and everyone will fit into one of them. Individuals may differ as to this or that quality but a certain group-soulness still makes itself felt and not only because there are still different peoples. The boundaries between the nations continue to disintegrate, but other groupings are still perceptible. Thus certain basic characteristics are combined in individuals in such a way that the last vestiges of group-soulness can still be perceived today.

We are now living in a period of transition. All group-soulness must gradually be stripped off. Just as the differences between nations are gradually disappearing, and the factions within them come to understand each other better, so also will other group-soul qualities have to be shed. Instead, the individual nature of each person will be pushed to the fore. We have here characterized something essential in evolution. From another point of view, we can also say that in the course of evolution the concept of race, by which group-soulness is chiefly expressed, gradually loses its significance.

 

If we go back beyond the Atlantean catastrophe, we see how human races were prepared. In the ancient Atlantean age, human beings were grouped according to external bodily characteristics even more so than in our time. The races we distinguish today are merely vestiges of these significant differences between human beings in ancient Atlantis. The concept of race is only fully applicable to Atlantis. Because we are dealing with the real evolution of humanity, we have therefore never used this concept of race in its original meaning. Thus, we do not speak of an Indian race, a Persian race, and so on, because it is no longer true or proper to do so. Instead, we speak of an Indian, a Persian, and other periods of civilization. And it would make no sense at all to say that in our time a sixth “race” is being prepared. Though remnants of ancient Atlantean differences, of ancient Atlantean group-soulness, still exist and the division into races is still in effect, what is being prepared for the sixth epoch is precisely the stripping away of race. That is essentially what is happening.

Therefore, in its fundamental nature, the anthroposophical movement, which is to prepare the sixth period, must cast aside the division into races. It must seek to unite people of all races and nations, and to bridge the divisions and differences between various groups of people. The old point of view of race has a physical character, but what will prevail in the future will have a more spiritual character.

That is why it is absolutely essential to understand that our anthroposophical movement is a spiritual one. It looks to the spirit and overcomes the effects of physical differences through the force of being a spiritual movement. Of course, any movement has its childhood illnesses, so to speak. Consequently, in the beginning of the theosophical movement the earth was divided into seven periods of time, one for each of the seven root races, and each of these root races was divided into seven sub-races. These seven periods were said to repeat in a cycle so that one could always speak of seven races and seven sub-races. However, we must get beyond the illnesses of childhood and understand clearly that the concept of race has ceased to have any meaning in our time.

Humanity is becoming evermore individual, and this has further implications for human individuality. It is important that this individuality develop in the right way. The anthroposophical movement is to help people become individualities, or personalities, in the right sense. How can it accomplish this? Here we must look to the most striking new quality of the human soul that is being prepared. People often ask why we do not remember our former incarnations. I have often answered this question, which is like saying that because a four-year-old child cannot do arithmetic, human beings cannot do arithmetic. When the child reaches ten, he or she will be able to multiply with ease. It is the same with the soul. If it cannot remember our former incarnations today, the time will come when it will be able to do so. Then it will possess the same capacity initiates have.

This new development is happening today. There are numerous souls nowadays who are so far advanced that they are close to the moment of remembering their former incarnations, or at least the last one. A number of people are at the threshold of comprehensive memory, embracing life between birth and death as well as previous incarnations. Many people will remember their present incarnation when they are reborn in their next life. It is simply a question of how they remember. The anthroposophical movement is to help and guide people to remember in the right way.

In light of this, we can describe this anthroposophical movement as leading a person to grasp correctly what is called the I, the innermost member of the human being. I have often pointed out that Fichte rightly said most people would sooner regard themselves as a piece of lava on the moon than as an I. 1 To think how many people in our time have any idea at all of the I — that is, of what they are — leads to a dismal conclusion.

 

In this connection I am always reminded of a friend I had more than thirty years ago and who, as a young student, was completely steeped in the materialistic outlook. Today it is more modern to call it the “monistic” outlook. He always laughed when he heard someone say that within each human being there was something that could be called a spiritual being. My friend thought that what lives as thought in us is produced by mechanical or chemical processes in the brain. I often said to him, “Look, if you seriously believe this, why are you lying all the time?” For, in fact, he really was lying continually because he never said, “My brain feels, my brain thinks,” but, “I think, I feel, I know this or that.” Thus, he contradicted his own theory with his every word — as everyone does, for it is impossible to adhere fully to a materialistic theory one has imagined. It is impossible to remain truthful if one thinks materialistically. If one wanted to say, “My brain loves you,” then one should not say “you,” but “My brain loves your brain.” People are not aware of the consequences of their theories. This may be humorous, but it also shows the deep foundation of unconscious untruthfulness that underlies our present spiritual condition.

Now, most people really would sooner regard themselves as a piece of lava on the moon, that is as a piece of matter, than as an I. The I can be understood least of all through science with its materialistic methods and way of thinking. How can we understand the I? How can we arrive at an idea or concept of what we feel instinctively when we say, “I think”? We can do so only through knowing on the basis of the anthroposophical world view how the human being is constituted and structured — that the physical body is related to Saturn, the etheric body to the sun, the astral body to the moon, and the I to the earth. When we keep in mind the ideas we can gather from the cosmos, we understand that the I, as the real master, works on the other members. Then we gradually come to understand what we mean by the word “I.”

As we learn to understand this word, we slowly approach the highest concept of this I. We begin to feel ourselves as spiritual beings not only when we feel ourselves to be within an I, but also when we can say that something lives in our individuality that was already there before Abraham. Then we can say not only, “I and father Abraham are one,” but also “I and the Father, that is, the spiritual element weaving through and living in the world, are one.” What lives in the I is the same spiritual substance that lives and weaves in the world as spirit. Thus we gradually come to understand the I, the bearer of human individuality that goes from incarnation to incarnation.

How do we understand the I and the world in general through the anthroposophical world view? The anthroposophical view of the world develops in the most individual way, but at the same time it is the most un-individual thing you can imagine. It arises in the most individual way when the secrets of the cosmos are revealed in a human soul, when the great spiritual beings of the world stream into this soul. The content of the world must be experienced in the human individuality in the most individual way, but at the same time it must also be experienced completely impersonally. Concerning the true character of cosmic mysteries, we have to say that as long as we still value our personal opinion, we cannot arrive at the truth.

Indeed, it is the peculiar nature of anthroposophical truth that the observer must not hold any opinion of his or her own about it and must not have any preference for this or that theory. The observer must not like this or that view more than any other because of his or her individual peculiarities. As long as we have our own opinions, it is impossible for the true secrets of the world to be revealed to us. We must pursue knowledge quite individually, but our individuality must be so developed that it no longer retains anything personal; it must be free of sympathies and antipathies. This must be taken very seriously. Those who still prefer personal ideas and views and are inclined to this or that because of their education and temperament will never know objective truth.

 

This summer, we have tried to understand eastern wisdom from the standpoint of western teaching. 2 We have tried to do justice to eastern wisdom and to present it truly. It must be emphasized that if we have independent spiritual knowledge in our time, it is impossible to decide for either the oriental or the occidental views of the world on the basis of personal preference. Those who say that because of their temperament they prefer the oriental or the occidental world view and its laws do not understand what is essential here. We should not decide that Christ, let us say, is more significant than what is to be found in eastern teaching because we happen to incline toward him through our western education or temperament. We cannot answer the question how Christ is related to the orient until, from a personal standpoint, we can accept Christian and oriental teachings equally. As long as we have a preference, we are unable to make a decision. We begin to be objective only when we let the facts speak for themselves and disregard our personal opinions.

The anthroposophical world view in its true form is closely interwoven with human individuality, for this world view must spring from the I-force of the individuality and yet be independent of it. The individuality as such does not matter. The person in whom anthroposophical wisdom appears must be completely unimportant compared to this wisdom; the person as such does not matter at all. It is only essential that this person has developed so far that his or her personal likes, dislikes, and opinions do not taint the anthroposophical wisdom. Then this wisdom will indeed be individual, because the spiritual cannot appear in the light of the moon or the stars but only in the individuality, in the human soul. This individuality, however, must be developed to the point of being able to disengage from the development of the wisdom of the world.

What is entering humanity through the anthroposophical movement concerns every human being regardless of race or nationality. This movement speaks only to the new humanity, the new human being — not to an abstract concept “human being,” but to every individual. This is the essential point. Anthroposophy proceeds from the individuality, the innermost core of the human being, and it speaks to and touches this core of a person's being. We usually speak to each other only as one surface to another and mostly about things not connected to our innermost being. Full understanding between individuals is hardly possible today, except when what is to be communicated comes from the center of one individual's being and speaks to and is understood rightly by the center of another. Thus, in a certain way, anthroposophy speaks a new language. Even if we are still obliged to speak in the various national languages, the content of what is said forms a new language.

What is said in the outer world is really only valid for a very limited sphere. In the past, when people still looked into the spiritual world through ancient, dreamy clairvoyance, words indicated something that existed in the spiritual world. Even in ancient Greece such things were different from what they are today. The word “idea” as used by Plato signified something different from “idea” as used by our modern philosophers, who no longer understand Plato. They have no perception of what he called “Idea,” mistaking it for an abstract concept. Plato still meant something spiritual that he could perceive. Even if already rarefied, it was nevertheless something quite real. Words still contained, if I may say so, the juice of the spiritual.

The spiritual can still be traced in words. When people today use the word “wind” or “air,” they mean something external, physical. However, the ancient Hebrew word for this, “Ruach,” did not only refer to something physical but also to something spiritual permeating the universe. Modern materialistic science tells us that when we inhale, we simply breathe in physical air. In ancient times, however, people did not believe they inhaled only physical air; they were aware that they inhaled something spiritual, or at least something psychic.

In fact, in ancient times, words designated something spiritual and psychic. That is no longer true today; language has become limited to the external world at least people who want to be fully up to date culturally are busy finding materialistic meanings behind terms that are obviously derived from the realm of soul and spirit. Physicists, for example, speak of an “impact” of bodies. They have forgotten that “impact” is derived from what a living being performs in its inner nature when it pushes another being. The original meaning of words is forgotten in these simple things. Thus, our language, particularly our scientific language, can no longer express anything but the material. What is in our soul while we speak can therefore be understood only by those soul faculties that are bound to the physical brain as their instrument. As a result, when the soul is disembodied, it understands nothing of all that has been said with these words. When the soul has gone through the gate of death and can no longer use the brain, all scientific discussions are quite incomprehensible to it. It does not hear or perceive what one expresses in contemporary language, which has no meaning for a disembodied soul. Our language has meaning only in the physical world.

We must consider this in relation to our way of thinking and outlook on the world because this fact is much more important than a theory. After all, what matters is life, not theory. Characteristically, one can see in the theosophical movement how materialism has crept in. Materialism sneaked even into theosophy and prevails even there, for example, in the descriptions of the etheric or life body. Rather than making an effort to understand the spiritual, people often describe the etheric body as if it were a kind of finer matter, and they do the same with the astral body. They usually begin with the physical body, proceed to the etheric or life body and say it is constructed on the same pattern as the physical body, only finer. And they continue this way until they reach nirvana. Such descriptions take their images only from the physical world.

 

I have even heard people say that there are fine vibrations in a room when they wanted to describe the good feeling present in the room. They do not notice that they are reducing something spiritual to matter when they think of a room as filled with vibrations as with a thin fog.

This is the most materialistic thinking possible. Materialism has taken hold even of those who want to think spiritually. This is typical of our times, and it is important that we are conscious of it. We must be especially aware that language is always a kind of tyrant over our thinking and has implanted in our souls a tendency to materialism. Many people today who claim to be idealists express themselves in an entirely materialistic way because they have been seduced, as it were, by the tyranny of language. This materialistic language cannot be understood by the soul when it is no longer bound to the brain.

There is yet more to it than this. The method of presentation often employed in scientific-theosophical writings causes real pain to those who know occult contemplation, true spiritual perception. For this way of presentation does not make sense to people who have begun to think not with their brain but with their soul, now freed from the brain — people who really live in the spiritual world. It is all well and good to describe the world materialistically as long as we still think with the physical brain, but as soon as we begin to develop spiritual perception, speaking in this way ceases to have any meaning. Indeed, then it even causes pain to hear people say that “there are good vibrations in this room,” rather than “a good feeling prevails.” Because thoughts are realities, such utterances cause pain in those who can really see things spiritually. For them the room becomes filled with a dark fog when somebody expresses the thought “there are good vibrations in this room.”

It is the task of our anthroposophical way of thinking, which is decidedly more important than all theories, to learn to speak a language that is understood by the soul not only while it is still in a physical body but also when it is no longer bound to the physical brain. In other words, this language must be understood by a soul still in the body and able to perceive spiritually as well as by a soul that has gone through the gate of death. That is what is important. When we use anthroposophical concepts that explain the world and the human being, we are speaking a language that can be understood here in the physical world and also by those who are no longer incarnated in physical bodies but are living between death and a new birth. Yes, what is spoken in anthroposophy is heard and understood by the so-called dead. They are fully at one with us when we speak the same language. With this language we speak to all human beings. After all, in a sense, it is mere chance whether a soul is in a body or in the condition between death and a new birth. Through anthroposophy we learn a language that is comprehensible to all human beings, living or dead. Thus, in anthroposophy we speak a language that is also spoken for the dead.

We really touch the innermost core of a person through what we cultivate in anthroposophical discussions, even if what we say appears to be abstract. We penetrate right into the human soul, and because of that, we can free people from group-soulness. Because we penetrate into their souls, they become increasingly able to really understand themselves as an I.

Interestingly, the difference between those who come to anthroposophy and really embrace it and those who do not is that the I of the former is as if crystallized into a spiritual being through anthroposophical thinking, a spiritual being that is then carried along through the gate of death. The others, who do not practice anthroposophical thinking, have a hollow space, a nothingness in the place where the I is now in physical life and after death. Any other concepts we can take in nowadays will gradually become more and more immaterial for the true core of the human soul. The central essence of the human being will be touched and understood only by the anthroposophical thoughts we take in. These crystallize a spiritual substance in us that we can take with us after death and that enables us to perceive in the spiritual world, to see and hear, and to penetrate the darkness that would otherwise exist there for us. Thus, it becomes possible that we can take the I we have developed through the anthroposophical outlook and concepts — the I that is connected to all the wisdom in the world we can receive — with us into the next incarnation. Then we will be reborn in the next incarnation with this developed I, and we will be able to remember it.

 

It is the deeper task of the anthroposophical movement to enable a number of human beings to enter their next incarnation with an I each remembers as his or her own, individual I. These people will then form the nucleus of the next period of civilization. Then these individuals who have been well prepared through the anthroposophical spiritual movement to remember their individual I will be spread over the earth. For the essential characteristic of the next period of civilization is that it will not be limited to particular localities, but will be spread over the whole earth. These individuals will be scattered over the earth, and thus everywhere on earth there will be a core group of people who will be crucial for the sixth epoch of civilization. These people will recognize each other as those who in their previous incarnation strove together to develop the individual I. That is the proper cultivation of that soul faculty we have spoken of

This soul faculty will be so developed that more and more people who have not developed their I will also be able to remember their former incarnations. However, they will not remember an individual I, but only the group-I in which they had remained. In summary, people who are working in this incarnation to develop their individual I will be able to remember themselves as this or that independent individuality; they will be able to look back at the individuality they were. People who have not developed their individuality will be unable to remember any individuality.

Do not think that mere visionary clairvoyance will enable you to remember your previous I. Humanity was once clairvoyant, and if that in itself sufficed, then everyone would have remembered because all were clairvoyant. Thus, what matters is not clairvoyance; people will indeed be clairvoyant in the future. Rather, what matters is whether we have cultivated our I in this incarnation or not. If we have not cultivated it, the I will not be there as the innermost human essence, and we will remember only a group-I, only what we had in common with others. In that case we will have to look back and admit that we did not free ourselves from the group-I in this incarnation. People to whom this happens will experience it as though it were a new Fall, a second Fall of humanity, a falling back into a conscious connection with the group-soul. Not to remember oneself as an individuality and to be hemmed in by one's inability to transcend group-soulness will be something terrible in the sixth epoch. To put it bluntly, we can say that the earth and all it can yield will belong to those who now cultivate their individualities. Those, however, who do not develop their individual I will be dependent on joining a group that will instruct them in what they should think, feel, will, and do. In the future development of humanity this will be felt as a regression, a second Fall. Therefore, we should not regard the anthroposophical movement and spiritual life as mere theory but rather as something that is given to us now to prepare what is necessary for the future of humanity.

When we understand our present condition correctly — understand where we have come from and where we are going — then we must realize that humanity is now beginning to develop the ability to remember beyond the limits of the present incarnation. What matters now is that we develop it in the right way, that is, by developing our individual I. For we can remember only what we have created in our soul. If we have not created it, we are left only with the fettering memory of a group I, and we will feel this as a falling back into a group-soul of higher animality, as it were. Even if human group-souls are more refined than those of the animals, they are still group-souls. People of an earlier age would not have considered this a regression because they were just in the process of developing from group-soulness to the individual soul. However, if group-soulness is retained today, people will consciously experience this falling back into group-soulness. In the future, this will create an oppressive feeling in those who cannot catch up with the development of the individual I either in the present incarnation or a later one; they will feel their falling back into group-soulness.

Anthroposophy must help people keep pace with this development of the I; that is how we have to see anthroposophy and its place in human life. When we keep in mind that the sixth period is that of the first complete overcoming of the concept of race, we have to realize that it would be sheer fantasy to think that a sixth “race” will also start in a particular place on earth and develop like the earlier races. After all, that is what progress is all about: ever new ways of evolution appear, and concepts that were valid for earlier times will no longer apply in the future. If we do not realize this, the idea of progress will remain unclear for us. And we will again and again fall back into the error of speaking about so and so many cycles, worlds, races of evolution, and so on. It is unclear why this wheel of cycles, worlds, and races should keep turning. We must realize that the word “race” is a term that was valid only for a particular time. As we approach the sixth epoch, this term loses its meaning.

 

In future, what speaks to the depths of the human soul will be expressed increasingly in people's outer appearance. What people have acquired as individuals and yet experienced non-individually will be expressed in their countenance. Thus, the individuality of a person — not the group-soulness — will be inscribed on his or her countenance, and that is what will account for human diversity. Everything will be acquired individually, although it will only be gained through overcoming the individuality. Those who are in the process of developing the I will not form groups, but their individuality will be expressed in their external appearance. That is what will create differences between human beings.

There will be people who have acquired I-hood; they will be scattered over the earth, and their countenances will be very diverse. Yet, in this diversity the individual I is expressing itself even in the person's gestures. However, those who have not developed their individuality will bear the imprint of group-soulness in their countenances; that is, they can be grouped in categories that will resemble each other. That will be the outer physiognomy of our earth: the possibility will be prepared to bear one's individuality as an outer sign or to bear the outer sign of group-soulness. It is the meaning of earthly evolution for human beings to develop more and more the ability to express their inner being in their outer appearance. That is why the highest ideal of the evolution of the I, Christ Jesus, is described as follows in an ancient document: “When two become one, when the outer becomes like the inner, then human beings have attained Christ nature in themselves.” That is the meaning of a certain passage in the so-called Egyptian Gospel. 3 One can understand such passages on the basis of anthroposophical wisdom.

Today we have attempted to understand the task of anthroposophy out of the depth of our insight. Next time we will consider a spiritual problem that is of special concern to the individual and that can lead us to understand our destiny and our true nature.

  

rsarchive.org/Lectures/UniHuman/19091204p02.html

Hermes holding the infant Dionysos in his left arm. The mythological subjects relating to the custody of the child Dionysus to the nymphs is very popular in Greek and Roman art. Evidence of this myth are attested in vase painting, sculpture, bas-reliefs etc.

 

The Myth

Dionysus was the twice-born son of Zeus and Semele, snatched prematurely from his mother's womb when she was burnt to death by Zeus' thunderbolt, then stitched into his father's thigh until he could be born full-term. Zeus ordered Hermes, his messenger, to hide the newborn from his jealous wife Hera, who sought to destroy any remnants of the affair, including the newborn. Hermes carried the infant to remote mountains for hiding, where Papposylenos and the nymphs Ino and Athamas, raised the child.

 

German excavators discovered the statue in 1877 in the Temple of Hera, Hereion, at Olympia. Pausanias, a second century A.D. historian, describes his tour of this temple in which he saw such a statue said to be by Praxiteles. The date of this artwork is extremely controversial and as yet undetermined. Most scholars now believe it is a work of the Hellenistic period rather than of the 4th century.

Today, art historians and archaeologists disagree over whether this is an original work by Praxiteles, or one by an imitator of his style.

 

Marble sculpture

Height 2,15 m

Late classical Stile

Original sculpture attributed to Praxiteles [?]

Copy ca. 100 BC - ca. 100 AD

From Elis, Greece

Olympia, Archaeological Museum

 

When I first started noticing Monster High dolls in 2011, Draculaura certainly wasn't one of the characters to catch my attention. There were so many other appealing options who jumped out at me, like Deuce Gorgon and Cleo de Nile. Even as I learned more about the franchise in 2013, Draculaura still didn't stand out in my memory. I would relate her in this way to Bratz Cloe. Like Cloe, Draculaura is one of the pillars in the world of Monster High. Also, similar to Cloe, I wasn't compelled by Draculaura initially. Instead, my fondness was rooted in the fact that I overlooked her. Let me explain. It was March 2013...close to a year after my dad passed away. In those days, Colleen and I had lots of time to kill. We were both learning how to navigate this new and daunting life all by ourselves. However, we followed in the footsteps of our dad and often found ourselves using shopping as a distraction. It was this spring that I felt the strongest urge to dabble in Monster High. Maybe I needed a new type of doll to wash away my worries. Maybe it was simply that I put off my desire to buy Monster High dolls for two years. Whatever the case, the timing couldn't have been any more perfect.

 

I had my heart set on getting Scaris Deuce. As I mentioned before, Mr. Gorgon was one of the Monster High characters who stole my heart immediately. It was that green snake mohawk...oh how I have a weakness for male dolls with this hairdo. I had discovered while doing some preliminary Monster High internet browsing, that a Scaris Deuce was scheduled to be released. This would be the MOST opportune time to score a Deuce Gorgon doll. The day I set out to procure this Deuce, I had no such luck. But after spending several hours driving around in my beat up 1999 Jeep Wrangler and stopping at every possible location that carried dolls, my sister started realizing how obtainable Monster High dolls were. Colleen had not liked the concept or look of the dolls from the get go. She preferred more traditional, conventionally attractive dolls. We were also both aware that collectors and kids alike were frenzied over them. Seeing how affordable and widely stocked they were made Colleen have a change of heart. She encouraged me to buy at least one of the dolls we stumbled upon that day. That way I could see how much I enjoyed her, and track Deuce down later if I was impressed. I had my sights set on "Swim Class" Lagoona. We were at one of the last stops of the day, at a small store called Benny's, when I finally caved. The "Swim Class" dolls were all on some sort of sale, which sweetened the offer. The last store we planned on popping into was an antique shop down the road. Since there would be no Monster High dolls there, I made my move. I decided to not only buy Lagoona, but Venus McFlytrap too. She was yet another character whose unique design captured my attention. I realized as I was giving one last pan over the humble Monster High section that there was only one doll left in the "Swim Class" line. I would only be missing Draculaura. It seemed silly to not grab her too, what with the sale and the adorably irresistible beach theme (a true shopaholic's logic). Just as Cloe dolls found themselves at the register in year's past, Draculaura made her way to check out just because it would have been unfair to not snag her too.

 

Unexpectedly, it was that almost-left-behind Draculaura who made the greatest impression on me. Looking back nearly ten years ago as I type this, I can still visualize that moment with such clarity it's like I was just experiencing it. I thought I'd open my "least favorite" doll first, as we had the hoard of newly acquired plastic friends spread out over our dining room table. We'd also found several 90s Disney dolls at the antique store that same afternoon...strangely, I was more excited about the Monster High gals. It didn't take much effort to free Draculaura from her cardboard and plastic shroud. The second she was fully grasped in my hand was truly magical. There was something special about the way this doll felt, the scent emanating from her new hair, and her vampire styled features. I turned to Colleen and expressed how impressed I was. She too found herself fawning over Draculaura. Her darling pigtails, cherubic swimsuit, and goofy expression (which lacked fangs) were irresistible. I knew in my heart that this was the beginning of something wonderful...and something expensive.

 

As I began my infamous Monster High binge of 2013, I strangely wasn't compelled to buy Draculaura dolls. Perhaps this was in part because my "Swim Class" Draculaura was hard to beat. I was admittedly trying not to purchase too many of the same character, that way I could have a bit more variety in my collection. I could not, however, resist a deal. That's why I bought 2012 Dead Tired and Skull Shores Draculaura rather early on. I was especially excited by Skull Shores, since she was slightly "out of date" (not really, but the line wasn't brand new). Funnily enough, she turned out to be one of my first duplicates. I acquired the Skull Shores Gift Set later that summer for dirt cheap (with a gift card and a sale I think I paid $15 for the set). I was amazed at how derpy and homely this version was (her Indonesian country make gave her strikingly different features). I was happy to dress her in a Scaris fashion pack I bought...why have two dolls wearing the same outfit on display? Then of course there was 2012 Dead Tired Draculaura. Just like my "Swim Class" lady, she ended up in my shopping bag because of a sale at the Family Dollar. She was the least interesting of the trio when I stumbled upon them on our way, ironically, to the aforementioned antique store not long after. Several years later, in 2014, I cracked and bought Scaris Draculaura for 50 percent off (a shopping spree we dubbed the "Barnes and Noble Bonanza"). She was the LAST doll from the expansive Scaris line I was missing. Despite the fact that she was rather bland, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to complete the iconic collection when she was such a bargain.

 

Not all my Draculaura dolls were random purchases though. There were several gals who I was fixated on adding to my collection. I'll never forget the most notorious one...."1st Edition Re-release" Draculaura. Websites denoted this reissue wave as the "Original Favorites." I had heard rumors that Clawdeen, Frankie, and Draculaura might be re-released, but I was skeptical. One day I was checking Walmart's website when I saw the three dollies pop up. I literally screeched from my rolling chair in front of the computer. Colleen could hear my jubilant cries from the bathroom. I immediately ordered all three...but I most anticipated Draculaura. When the package arrived, I was enthralled by her. She was perfect in every way. I recall taking photos of her for my old Flickr account in front of our porch flower baskets. Her beauty had to be captured. My collection began at a convenient time because Mattel was beginning to re-release many of the old school Monster High dolls (a smart way to capitalize off the brand's success). Dead Tired Draculaura was released as a Kohl's exclusive with her bed set. I stalked this doll online until she went on a 50% off sale. She was a Christmas gift of sorts to myself...and the very first thing I ever ordered for Kohl's website. Her iconic, vertically styled ponytails had made her one of those dolls I HAD to own. I was over the moon that Mattel had made it possible for me to purchase these classic Draculaura dolls for retail price. At that point, in 2013, the online resale values of Monster High dolls were outrageous (I relate it to the Beanie Babies fad of the 1990s). I simply couldn't afford to purchase any of the older dolls on eBay...and I didn't want to feed into the ridiculous hype. Some people scoffed at the reissues and made many disparaging remarks about their quality (I recall my old Flickr being barraged with these sorts of comments). But my spirit was not dampened...I was simply grateful for the opportunity to get my hands on some of these gals like Draculaura.

 

Two of my other early favorites were Snow Bite and 13 Wishes Draculaura. I couldn't believe my luck when Snow Bite popped up at Target for 50% off one evening when we were heading home from an eye exam. Ironically, I also found Sea Stunnerz Cloe on sale at the same store. Cloe was still notorious for being the last Bratz character I'd buy from a set. I couldn't decide who I was more stoked to acquire that night between Draculaura and Cloe (to this day, I can't answer that question). Poor Little Dead Riding Wolf Clawdeen didn't stand a chance. I hoped to get 13 Wishes Draculaura on sale, but that opportunity never came my way. I was so taken with her, that I remember forking out the full hog for her at Kmart one afternoon. I just couldn't bear the thought of not having her...especially since I had the rest of the Haunt the Casbah set already (in perfect condition). Die-ner Draculaura was another fixation of mine. Normally it would have been her food themed playset that drew me in. On the contrary, I found the doll herself to be captivating. I almost purchased her at Toys 'R' Us in 2014 on sale. But since I was trying to curb my doll spending, I ended up leaving her behind. It was a decision I regretted until I found my secondhand lady at the flea market some years later.

 

Speaking of the flea market, I have always had decent luck when it came to Draculaura. Being manufactured for almost every Monster High line means that Drac has a better chance of turning up in the wild. Sometimes I would hit gold and stumble upon a coveted Draculaura. "School's Out," Art Class, and Sweet 1600 were all ladies I wanted to buy brand new. Obviously, "School's Out" was long gone from stores by the time I started my collection. But I almost bought Sweet 1600 and Art Class Draculaura on several different occasions when they were still available. I was willing to pay a little more than usual for them secondhand too, because I was so in love. I want to say Sweet 1600 cost me a whopping $6 used, because the seller knew Monster High dolls were so popular at the time. She was worth every penny, especially since I was angry with myself for not buying her in stores while I could (I still would buy her boxed since I don't have her spare clothing item!). Gloom Beach Draculaura is another notable flea market find. I discovered her all alone in a large container, entirely nude with only a stand. I recognized her right away...that goofy expression was ingrained into my memory. I took pity on her unclad figure and gluey head. Since she was just one dollar, I had to adopt her. It wasn't all that long later that I purchased an inexpensive Monster High clothing lot on eBay, that featured her swimsuit! I can't deny that it was the presence of her outfit that prompted me to buy it. Similarly I took pity on Creepateria Draculaura at the local Salvation Army. She was wearing improper attire AND was sporting limbless arm sockets. I couldn't leave her behind in such a condition when I had Draculaura fashion packs at home, and a set of arms! Not all my thrifted dolls were such sorry stories though. I found a few gems, like Save Frankie and Frights Camera Action--dolls I didn't ogle in stores, but was very grateful to find used.

 

Something else notable about my love for Draculaura was my keen interest in her redesign. In 2016, Mattel started shifting the Monster High brand into a more "kid friendly" direction. Translated, this means they were making the dolls cheaper quality with more babyish details, to appeal to a younger audience. Cue in the era of molded clothes and less articulation! Unlike many collectors, I didn't see this revamp as a Monster High doomsday. Granted, I knew it would lead to the end of the franchise, but I still was interested in buying the dolls. I couldn't write this "My Story" and not mention my infamous Monster Family Vampire Kitchen pack. It was a set that I could only dream about. It retailed for around $45 and only showed up locally at Kmart. I was broke then, in 2018...which meant I didn't have the funds for such an extravagant purchase. I was also cripplingly depressed...the worst my depression had ever been. For my 27th birthday, Colleen and our friend Beth surprised me. I knew that Beth was coming over to hang out for my birthday. I did NOT know that she and Colleen conspired to buy me the Monster High set. They told me one afternoon they were going out to eat at a restaurant Colleen had a gift card to. While this was true, they also went out to Kmart after and bought Draculaura and Dracula. It was an easy lie to sell, because I HATE going out to eat (I haven't sat at an actual restaurant since probably 2015...only pizza places once a year if that). You can imagine how my face lit up when I opened the wrapped gift and saw Draculaura and Dracula staring back at me. I had no idea what was in the mysterious package...it was a better present than I ever could have dreamed. If you watch my videos, then you will be very familiar with Dracula. But it shouldn't go unmentioned that I adore Draculaura just as much--she means the world to me. This memory has made the revamped era of Monster High dolls irreplaceable to me. Sure, if the dolls had come out a few years earlier it would have been more detailed. But I love Dracula's static "Pepsi drinking" bent arm and Draculaura's matronly design. I am also incredibly fond of Party Hair and Skulltimate Art Class Draculaura who are from the same time frame. They were both dolls I admired on store shelves, but couldn't afford. Needless to say, I appreciated them even more when I found them discounted later on ($5 art class playset...what a bargain!).

 

I can't quite explain it, but somehow Draculaura has become the most sentimental Monster High character. Perhaps it's because I blew her off in the beginning so my love for her was unexpected. It could be that I appreciated her re-releases the most. Or maybe it's that experience with my Monster Family Vampire Kitchen that makes her irreplaceable. I can't deny that I have an immense fondness for the revamped era Draculaura dolls...a connection the other characters cannot touch. Sometimes it's the dolls you have the least expectations for that leave the greatest impression in the end. Draculaura has come to mean so much more to me as time has gone on. She's always been a staple in the world of Monster High. But more than that, Draculaura is an integral piece to my personal Monster High experience. I wouldn't change anything...not a single dolly!

Blog relating to this story .... peterjemmett.blogspot.com/2019/10/heart-attack-to-10k-par...

I can relate photography to very good experiences in my life.

It has given me so much!! It´s been an escape to problems, it´s been a source of great peace. It´s been creativity and a reason to conect myself with the land, but the main reason is that has allowed me to share.

It´s been kind of difficult to find people who i can share a time of photography. I normally go out alone to take photos because i loose my mind and the sense of time when i´m doing it, People who is not into this would not understand.

 

In the last months i´ve been lucky to find friends who enjoy this as much as i do so i´m very grateful for this. Sharing with people and see their experiences through photography is something that i love. Thanks to photography, here on flickr, i have found very valuable friends and this is the main reason for me to be here. I´m not much interested in getting views and awards for my photos. I find my satisfaction when i learn new techniques, and thanks to that i feel myself satisfied with my work and in addition i find friends to share this whole process.

 

This is a collague i did of my last travel to the andes. I was able to camp in the middle of the mountains with some very nice friends that love photography as much as i do. A fabulous moment that will last in my mind, i hope forever.

 

PS: Most of this photos belong to my friends, so the credits also go to Karla Ramos, Luis Perez and John Pictures.

I don't often relate what went into taking a photo that I've posted but this time I feel inclined to give you a bit of background.

 

Back on July 25th of this year Sharon and I headed up to the Bonnyville (Alberta) area to look for some of the more remote Ukrainian churches NE of Edmonton. I had packed the Yashica TLR loaded with infrared film in hopes that I would come across a good tract of boreal forest. I had yet to photograph that type of terrain but had a hunch that it would make for a fascinating infrared subject. It's not a short drive up to that area, plus if you toss in all the stops we made it was fairly late in the afternoon before we hit the northern edges of the parkland zone. The heavy late afternoon clouds were forming and the sun was not in the best part of the sky for shooting so I had pretty much given up thinking of shooting infrared………….until we were starting to cross the Beaver River that is……..POW!……there it was and it was beyond my wildest expectations.

 

I hit the binders and pulled over halfway into the ditch. Sharon and Jack waited patiently while I grabbed my IR gear and ran (I don't run well) back to the bridge. I just got the point on the bridge that I wanted to shoot from when a huge cloud drifted across the sun suppressing the effects the infrared spectrum that would have highlighted the foliage of the surrounding forest…..damn! As any dedicated photographer would do I waited out the cloud, but this one was big……and slow moving.

 

The bridge I was on was thankfully paved, but unfortunately it was a heavily used by logging trucks. Now if anyone has been subjected to the debris peeling off of a logging truck when it's doing 100+ kph you'll have a pretty good idea what I experienced. There I was on this two lane bridge sucked up to the guardrail waiting for the sun to make an appearance when these 18-wheeled monsters would roar past spitting out small bits of bark at me. Not only was I in a self-induced precarious position catching all sorts of tree debris, BUT every time one of those monsters hit the bridge it would shake like it was being subjected to an earthquake that would easily register 7.8 on the Richter Scale.

 

That was almost 5 months ago and I'm still traumatized……but I stuck it out and I did manage to get some decent photos. On this particular shot I waited until the cloud was only partway out of the view so I could catch the different intensities of light on the leaves of the trees.

 

Yashica Mat 124G

Efke IR820 Infrared Film

Hoya RM72 Infrared filter

Only Greats Relate & SAVKrew

Fall relates to tranquility especially along this slow moving branch of the Boise River.

Stephen B Whatley's tribute in oils to the British cartoon character Rupert Bear, inspired by a montage of different illustrations and painted for a collector of Rupert artwork and cartoon memorabilia.

 

'Rupert' was first created for a comic strip in the UK newspaper, the Daily Express in 1920; relating his magical adventures with his friends in rural Nutwood, England. Since then his popularity has grown worldwide and his cult status has inspired a long series of annual story books, a 1991 animated cartoon series for television & merchandise in every form.

 

On seeing this painting, the collector who possibly knows 'Rupert' best, Dr Roger Munro, of Swansea, S. Wales, was ecstatic and overjoyed , honouring the artist a most eloquent history of the character's illustrators and his overwhelming conclusion; excerps from which Stephen is happy to share here:

 

"The depiction of Rupert in the anthropomorphic form first created by Mary Tourtell has historically been notoriously difficult to achieve. Even Alfred Bestall's colourist (Enid Ash) had considerable difficulty in drawing Rupert (particularly his head) which is why Bestall had to accomplish this on her behalf. He often just drew the heads whilst she or another artist drew the rest of the image.

 

One of the Rupert artists during the 70's (Alex Cubie) and even the current artist (Stuart Trotter) can only achieve a very simplified cartoon-like image at best......

 

You have succeeded where all these have failed. In my opinion you have also out-shone the great Alfred Bestall, because in all his works, he has not achieved the great sense of "life", "hope" and "energy" which your Rupert depicts. It is a fantastic piece of art which captures the true essence of a little boy setting out on life's great journey. It reminds me so much of how I felt as a little boy and is striking imagery of all the lively, unbound energy shown by my little 2 year-old grandson..................

 

In my opinion, John Harrold came close to Bestall in his depiction of Rupert. In 1985, he produced an image called "In search of Adventure"................

However, when one compares this work with yours, it's like comparing a football team at the top of the Premier League (your Rupert) with one at the bottom of the lowest Division.

 

Congratulations Stephen - on an oustanding piece of artwork in every sense imaginable. It takes a truly gifted artist to make Rupert come to life. I smiled when I first saw it and I'm still smiling 2 days later."

  

Rupert Bear - Tribute. 2011

Oil on canvas

27 x 19.5 in/ 69 x 50cm

Private collection, Wales, UK

A route restriction relating to the class 50 on 'The Wolf Hall Thunderer' railtour prevented the train from using the normal 'Up' line to return from Hampton Court, instead leaving 37403 'Isle of Mull' to take the Hampton Court Reversible back over the viaduct to reach Surbiton where it's tour, running as 1Z48 would reverse to then head back under the flyover towards Guildford, taking the alternative branch at Hampton Court Junction to travel via Cobham.

In the distance is Sandown Park Racecourse which has a grandstand view (sorry!) over the SWML near Esher.

Olivier listens intently as the historian Brother tells us all about this ancient holy place! Oliver is also doing simultaneous translating!

He was the Group Leader of one of our two groups. Olivier, himself, lives in Normandy and specializes in the history of this fascinating and unique region of France! He had so much to share with us! Well-done, Olivier, et merci beaucoup!

Abbey at Saint-Wandrille.

 

Worth Enlarging!

 

www.st-wandrille.com/en/hospitality

"relating to the motion of material bodies and the forces and energy associated therewith"

 

A creative outing with my photo club - Inland Empire Photo Club - where we played with light and motion and long exposures to create kinetic art. It was a wonderful, creative evening.

Relates to Macro Mondays' "matchstick" theme. The matchbook is approximately 2" square.

 

All rights reserved. Please do not use or reproduce this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my permission.

Hey guys, just wanted to share another one of my free video tutorials with your guys!

This time its relating to Quickbooks (fun fun fun!!). If you are starting a new business or have to start getting up to speed with your accounting and don't know how, check this video out:

 

www.vimeo.com/13489933

 

The video is intended for beginners and its free!! so feel free to share it with friends and family... I am sure you know of someone that really needs a push.

 

Have a great week guys! Have a bunch of tax courses this week so will not be posting as much..

This photo relates to the 292 service that used to be operated by Selwyn Motors of Westgate. See previous posts relating to Selwyn's and Metrobus F810YLV.

 

Looking along Sandtoft Road towards Sandtoft, with F810YLV heading into Westgate to make its first pick up on its journey to Doncaster. This was the start of the 292 Saturday only service.

 

When the bus departed Selwyn's Saxon Lane premises, it turned left onto Westgate Road heading towards Sandtoft, and not right towards Belton.

 

The bus ran empty as far as Sandtoft airfield, were it turned around and from where it could be said, the service started. It's first actual pick up was just opposite to Saxon Lane in Westgate, although it could technically pick up before this point.

 

Saturday 01st October 2016

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

 

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

 

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

 

ETYMOLOGY AND OTHER NAMES

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

ICONOGRAPHY

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

 

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

 

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

 

COMMON ATTRIBUTES

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

 

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

 

VAHANAS

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

 

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

 

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

 

ASSOCIATIONS

 

OBSTACLES

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

 

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

 

BUDDHI (KNOWLEDGE)

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

 

AUM

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

 

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

 

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

 

FIRST CHAKRA

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

 

FAMILY AND CONSORTS

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

WOSHIP AND FESTIVALS

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

GANESH CHATURTI

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

 

TEMPLES

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

 

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

 

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

 

RISE TO PROMINENCE

 

FIRST APEARANCE

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

 

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

 

POSSIBLE INFLUENCES

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

VEDIC AND EPIC LITERATURE

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

 

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

 

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

 

PURANIC PERIOD

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

SCRIPTURES

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

 

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

 

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

 

BEYOND INDIA AND HINDUISM

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

WIKIPEDIA

A tradition relating to the Rennsteig requires that a real hiking enthusiast to take a pebble from the river Werra at Hörschel, at the starting point of the trail, and to carry it with him to the end of the trail where he is to throw the pebble into the river Saale.

 

Due to rainy days it was too slippery and dangerous to go down directly to the river, but there was a stone basin at the shore offering pebbles to pick from.

 

We selected a pebble each, and we followed along almost to the end of the first day's section of the trail. As we did not complete the trail. We kept the pebble and will take it with us when we hopefully will finish the entire Rennsteig trail one day.

 

www.rennsteig.de/

 

Hörschel, Thuringia, Germany

(References:- K. Lal in his book Tarekh e Punjab & The crumbling glory of Sheikhupura Fort by Aown Ali)

  

In West Punjab (now in Pakistan), the town of Sheikhupura (about 35 km west of Lahore) is hailed a center of historically significant architecture.

 

The Hiran Minar (Minaret of the Antelope) and the Sheikhupura Fort make this stop a focal point of interest.

 

The town, now a district headquarters and one of the major industrial cities of Punjab, has grown from a village, originally called “Jahangirpura” when it was settled during the reign of the Mughal emperor, Jahangir, because of its proximity to Hiran Minar, a royal hunting resort.

 

The primary historical importance of the city relates to its Fort. It lays no claim to grandeur. Locally known as Qila Sheikhupura, it has gave its name to the town as well.

 

Construction of the fort began in the second year of Jahangir’s reign (1607). The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri (autobiography of Jahangir) mentions that the emperor assigned the job of constructing a fort at that location to Sikandar Moeen during a hunting trip to Hiran Minar.

 

The two centuries that followed were mostly uneventful for the Fort. Neither a seat of government nor a target for invaders, it remained but a halt for imperial entourages heading on pleasure trips to Kashmir in the north, or towards Kabul in the west.

 

The Fort’s political importance did not emerge until the establishment of the Sikh Empire at the end of the 18th century.

 

A veteran historian and archeologist, Ihsan H. Nadiem, tells us that immediately before the consolidation of Punjab under the Sikhs, the Fort served as a convenient place for robbers looting the countryside.

 

The Durrani king, Shah Zaman, during his invasion of Lahore in 1797, briefly besieged the Fort, but only to purge it of the robbers. Soon after his departure, the Fort was once again occupied by the highwaymen.

  

Shortly thereafter, Lehna Singh Majithia (who also served as the Governor of Lahore. The son of General Lehna Singh, Sardar Dyal Singh, was perhaps the most significant Punjabi of the late 19th century in the British Punjab. He was the main force behind the founding of Punjab University), an ally of Ranjit Singh, invaded the fort and took occupation. After him, its ownership passed on to Bhai Singh, followed by Sahib Singh and Sahai Singh in 1808, at which point Ranjit Singh marched upon it and caused its surrender.

 

This whole story of Sheikhupura raid wrote by Hindu writer K. Lal in his book Tarekh e Punjab (Page 196-197) and it is as under:

 

“Mahraja Ranjeet was busy in handling state affairs, in the meantime a group of farmers belong to Sheikhpura came to his door, they wanted to seek help against brutal Sikh rulers Sardar Arbel Singh & Sardar Ameer Singh. These Sardars had occupied the Sheikhupura fort and land, there army looting common people up to that level that they were dying of hunger. That group of farmer said the people of Sheikhupura accepted the over lordship of the Maharaja and requested to take their territory under Mahraja rule and control to protect them from these two brutal Sardars.

Mahraja accepted the request and assigned his eldest son, the crown prince, Kharak Singh for Sheikhupura fort Campaign. He reached Sheikhupura; he has four thousand army troops and support of one Cannon artillery.

Sheikhupura fort was very well constructed with strong fortified walls, Mahraja himself selected best cannons from his cannon yard for this campaign and also assign one of his best army officer Sardar Hakma Singh for assisting Crown prince Kharak Singh in this campaign.

When this troop reached Sheikhupura, Crown Prince Kharak Singh called both the ruling Sardar’s to him, but instead of appearing in front of Prince they have further fortified the fort and get ready for war.

The Prince first sieges the fort and then orders Canon artillery to start fire on fort walls. The fort walls were strongly fortified and hold the Cannon artillery attack for days.

This result less campaign made Prince to think if he wanted to win this fight he has to reinforce his troops and artillery as well. For that purpose he wrote for help to his father Mahraja Ranjit Singh. When Maharaja saw this letter he got angry, he ordered to send biggest cannon of his artillery the Ahmad Shahi Gun. Which he forcefully took from Saheb Singh Guajarati)

(Ahmad Shahi Gun also known as zamzama gun…, The Zamzama Gun is a large bore cannon. It is also known as Kim’s Gun or Bhangianwali Taop. It was cast in 1757 in Lahore. At that time Lahore was a part of the Durrani Empire. The gun was used by Ahmed Shah in the battle of Panipat in 1761. In 1802, Ranjit Singh got hold of the gun and used it in the battles of Daska, Kasur, Sujanpur, Wazirabad and Multan. In the siege of Multan, the gun was badly damaged. It is currently on display in front of the Lahore Museum at The Mall Road, Lahore.)

The Maharaja also reached the Sheikhupura Fort with fresh troops and again the battle started.

After two days of fight, Maharaja ordered to place Ahmed Shah Gun in front of Main gate of Fort. It was tough task and took many lives of soldiers but at last it was placed there. Hundred rounds of guns were fired and main gate of fort completely destroyed. The Mahraja troops entered the fort and raise the winning flag on wall. Both Arbel & Ameer Singh were arrested.

Since the area of Sheikhupura won in name of Crown Prince Kharak Singh, the fort and “Jageer” of Sheikhupura bestowed to Prince by his father Mahraja Ranjeet Singh under the primacy of her mother Rani Datar Kaur (1801-1840), the mother of the crown prince, Kharak Singh. She was also known as Rani Raj Kaur or Mai Nakkain. She lived in the Fort till her death.”

 

She had a considerable role in the rehabilitation of this small, strategically unimportant and hitherto almost abandoned citadel. She built a wonderful haveli within it. The excellent frescoes in the distinctive Kangra style found in the parlour and in the two chambers on the first floor of this haveli, are attributed to Raj Kaur‘s excellent taste.

 

In mid-19th century, when the British invaded Punjab, they used the Fort to imprison the Sikh kingdom’s Regent, Rani Jind Kaur – “Jindaa(n)” - after taking her son, the child Emperor Duleep Singh, prisoner.

 

In a letter dated August 9, 1847 Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence, the British Resident in Punjab suggested to the Governor General that the Queen be banished from Punjab, to prevent the populace from rising under banner.

 

The 8-year old Emperor was removed from his palace in the Lahore Fort on August 19, 1847, and taken to the Shalimar Gardens, while his mother, the Queen, was confined to the distant Sheikhupura Fort.

 

Historian Himadri Banerjee describes how Jindaan was forcibly removed from Lahore between 8 and 9 pm under a heavy military escort. Accompanied by Sardar Arjan Singh Rangharnanglia and Gurmukh Singh Lamma, she was lodged in Sheikhupura Fort in the early hours of Friday, August 20, 1847, under the charge of Sardar Boor Singh.

 

Soon after her arrival at Sheikhupura, she wrote the following letter to the Resident at Lahore, protesting the ruthless separation from her young eight-year old.

 

With the Grace of the Great Guru

From Bibi Sahib to Lawrence Sahib,

 

We have arrived safely at Sheikhupura, You should send our luggage with care, As I was sitting in the Samman (Burj - Palace in Lahore Fort), in the same way I am in Sheikhupura. Both the places are same to me; you have been very cruel to me. You have snatched my son from me … In the name of the God you worship and in the name of the king whose salt you eat, restore my son to me. I cannot bear the pain of this separation … I shall reside in Sheikhupura. I shall not go to Lahore. Send my son to me. I will come to you at Lahore only during the days when you hold darbar. On that day I will send him. A great deal (of injustice) has been done to me. A great deal (of injustice) has been done to my son also. You have accepted what other people have said. Put an end to it now. Too much has been done.

 

The Queen resided in the Sheikhupura Fort for nine months. On the afternoon of May 15, 1848, she was taken away, to be imprisoned in Chunar Fort, near Benares (in current day Uttar Pradesh, India). She made a dramatic escape from there and fled to Nepal, where she remained until, years later, almost blind and dying, was finally allowed to visit her son, who was by then exiled in England.

 

The Sheikhupura Fort was thus witness to a number of crucial turning points during the half-century of the Sikh Raj.

 

The Empire had held played a crucial role as a bulwark against ongoing invasions through the subcontinent’s porous western borders. At its peak, it held sway from Tibet in the east to the Khyber Pass in the west, to Kashmir in the north and to Sindh in the south. It also, while Ranjit Singh was alive, kept the British at bay, even though the rest of the subcontinent had collapsed under them like a row of dominoes.

 

After the annexation of Punjab, the Sheikhupura Fort was temporarily used as administrative headquarters of the Gujranwala district from 1849 to 1851. However, upon the transfer of the district headquarters to Gujranwala town, it was turned into a military outpost.

  

After a split of administration jurisdictions in 1918, a new district was created in Sheikhupura. The Fort then passed on to house the police headquarters of the newly created district.

 

After the partition of Punjab and India in 1947, it was briefly used by the immigrants from East Punjab (by then in the newly-created India) as shelter, and

later by encroachers, from whom it came into the possession of the Department of Archaeology of Pakistan in 1967.

 

Within the complex, no building from the Mughal period is left standing, except the main entrance façade. There are also some remains of sandstone columns depicting the history of the laying of the foundations of the Sheikhupura Fort.

 

Today, what we can see standing, although dilapidated, is a crumbling six-storey haveli, identical to the haveli of Naunihal Singh, which is situated inside Mori Gate in Lahore.

 

The most vibrant aspect of the beauty of the haveli in the Sheikhupura Fort is its frescoes.

 

Sadly, precious wooden doors, windows and parts of the roof have already been whisked away by raiders and the haveli has turned into a haunted house.

 

Inside the ruins and rooms occupied by bats, we can still find signs of the former lifestyle through colourful and thematic paintings and other art work in the Kangra style. Fresco art work in the haveli of Raj Kaur portrays almost all aspects of daily life – ranging from worship to romantic love to military life. Colors are still vivid, the art work is glittering, but the haveli is now, due to institutional neglect, close to the end of its physical life.

 

Despite its poor condition, no contractor or labourer agrees to work as it is believed the fort is haunted by ghosts of the queens which used to live there.

 

This fort is closed to the public due to its bad structural condition; it took me at least three years to take permission to visit this place.

  

Tel-Aviv At war

Recently I noticed the following planning application which relates to my photograph]

 

Full Development Description

 

The development will consist of:- Demolition of all existing structures on the site including 18 no. light industrial units (1,330 sq.m) and the construction of a student residence complex with associated ancillary accommodation and a café/ restaurant. The overall building will comprise a gross floor area of 16,994 sq.m incorporating a 7 storey building (6 storey plus setback level) all within a perimeter block around a central landscaped courtyard over a part basement. The following accommodation is proposed: - Basement level accommodating 11 no. car parking spaces, 286 no. bicycle parking spaces, ancillary store, plant and waste management areas with access for vehicles via a ramp from Gloucester Place Upper and for bicycles via a ramp linking to an internal courtyard within the development and accessed from Gardiner Street Lower Ground floor level accommodating a management suite ( 36 sq.m), reception (70 sq.m), gym (106 sq.m), storage (122 sq.m), laundry ( 36 sq.m), ancillary circulation areas (270 sq.m) and student accommodation ( 4 no. 1 bed accessible studios, 4 no. 4 bed accessible units, 3 no. 4 bed units, 6 no. 5 bed units). The ground floor level also accommodates a café/ restaurant (51 sq.m) fronting onto Gardiner Street Lower; Levels 1-6 comprises student accommodation (28 no. 1 bed accessible studios, 4 no. 3 bed units, 25 no. 4 bed units, 62 no. 5 bed units and 1 no. 8 bed unit) with associated ancillary circulation areas and communal areas at 6th floor level including screening/ presentation room (38 sq.m), seminar room (33 sq.m), study room ( 42 sq.m), communal living room/ kitchen (176 sq.m), toilets ( 9 sq.m), storage (3 sq.m), and an external balcony/ terrace. Permission is also sought for hard and soft landscaping, solar panels at roof level, boundary treatments, signage and all ancillary site and development works.

 

Other recent examples:

 

Planning permission has been granted for a €41 million 400-bedroom student housing complex near St Patrick’s Cathedral. The development, which also includes shops, restaurants, cafes and a gym, is to be built on a 2.5 acre site on Mill Street in Newmarket in the southwest inner city.

 

A planning application for Dublin’s largest off-campus student accommodation has been lodged with Dublin City Council. Designed to cater for up to 970 third-level students, the proposed development is beside the 3 Arena, within the Dublin Docklands strategic development zone. Envisaged are two blocks of six and eight storeys with “student clusters” of between five- and eight-bed spaces, as well as twin and single study units.

 

Mortar Developments is hoping to secure permission to build at Church Street, which is adjacent to Smithfield.

The accommodation will include 232 bedrooms, as well as a number of ancillary facilities such as a gym, pool room, cafe and a takeaway. The scheme will involve the construction of a property varying in height between five and seven floors.

The raccoon (/rəˈkuːn/ or US: /ræˈkuːn/ ⓘ, Procyon lotor), also spelled racoon[3] and sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from the other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of 40 to 70 cm (16 to 28 in), and a body weight of 5 to 26 kg (11 to 57 lb). Its grayish coat mostly consists of dense underfur, which insulates it against cold weather. Three of the raccoon's most distinctive features are its extremely dexterous front paws, its facial mask, and its ringed tail, which are themes in the mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas relating to the animal. The raccoon is noted for its intelligence, as studies show that it is able to remember the solution to tasks for at least three years. It is usually nocturnal and omnivorous, eating about 40% invertebrates, 33% plants, and 27% vertebrates.

 

The original habitats of the raccoon are deciduous and mixed forests, but due to their adaptability, they have extended their range to mountainous areas, coastal marshes, and urban areas, where some homeowners consider them to be pests. As a result of escapes and deliberate introductions in the mid-20th century, raccoons are now also distributed across central Europe, the Caucasus, and Japan.

 

In Europe, the raccoon is included since 2016 in the list of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern (the Union list).[4] This implies that this species cannot be imported, bred, transported, commercialized, or intentionally released into the environment in the whole of the European Union.[5]

 

Though previously thought to be generally solitary, there is now evidence that raccoons engage in sex-specific social behavior. Related females often share a common area, while unrelated males live together in groups of up to four raccoons in order to maintain their positions against foreign males during the mating season and against other potential invaders. Home range sizes vary anywhere from 3 ha (7.4 acres) for females in cities, to 5,000 ha (12,000 acres) for males in prairies. After a gestation period of about 65 days, two to five young known as "kits" are born in spring. The kits are subsequently raised by their mother until dispersal in late fall. Although captive raccoons have been known to live over 20 years, their life expectancy in the wild is only 1.8 to 3.1 years. In many areas, hunting and vehicular injury are the two most common causes of death.

 

Etymology

 

The mask of a raccoon is often interrupted by a brown-black streak that extends from forehead to nose.[6]

Names for the species include the common raccoon,[7] North American raccoon,[8] and northern raccoon.[9] In various North American native languages, the reference to the animal's manual dexterity, or use of its hands is the source for the names.[10] The word raccoon was adopted into English from the native Powhatan term meaning 'animal that scratches with its hands', as used in the Colony of Virginia. It was recorded on John Smith's list of Powhatan words as aroughcun, and on that of William Strachey as arathkone.[11] It has also been identified as a reflex of a Proto-Algonquian root *ahrah-koon-em, meaning '[the] one who rubs, scrubs and scratches with its hands'.[12] The word is sometimes spelled as racoon.[13]

 

In Spanish, the raccoon is called mapache, derived from the Nahuatl mapachtli of the Aztecs, meaning '[the] one who takes everything in its hands'.[14]

 

Its Latin name literally means 'before-dog washer'.[15] The genus Procyon was named by Gottlieb Conrad Christian Storr.[10] The animal's observed habit of "washing" or "dowsing" (see below) is the source of its name in other languages.[16][17] For example, the French "raton laveur" means "washing rat".

 

The colloquial abbreviation coon is used in words like coonskin for fur clothing and in phrases like old coon as a self-designation of trappers.[18][19] In the 1830s, the United States Whig Party used the raccoon as an emblem, causing them to be pejoratively known as "coons" by their political opponents, who saw them as too sympathetic to African-Americans. Soon after that the term became an ethnic slur,[20] especially in use between 1880 and 1920 (see coon song), and the term is still considered offensive.[21] Dogs bred to hunt raccoons are called coonhound and coon dog.[22]

 

Taxonomy

 

Skins of P. lotor and P. cancrivorus

 

Skulls of P. lotor and P. cancrivorus

In the first decades after its discovery by the members of the expedition of Christopher Columbus, who were the first Europeans to leave a written record about the species, taxonomists thought the raccoon was related to many different species, including dogs, cats, badgers and particularly bears.[23] Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, placed the raccoon in the genus Ursus, first as Ursus cauda elongata ('long-tailed bear') in the second edition of his Systema Naturae (1740), then as Ursus Lotor ('washer bear') in the tenth edition (1758–59).[24][25] In 1780, Gottlieb Conrad Christian Storr placed the raccoon in its own genus Procyon, which can be translated as either 'before the dog' or 'doglike'.[26][27] It is also possible that Storr had its nocturnal lifestyle in mind and chose the star Procyon as eponym for the species.[28][29]

 

Evolution

Based on fossil evidence from Russia and Bulgaria, the first known members of the family Procyonidae lived in Europe in the late Oligocene about 25 million years ago.[30] Similar tooth and skull structures suggest procyonids and weasels share a common ancestor, but molecular analysis indicates a closer relationship between raccoons and bears.[31] After the then-existing species crossed the Bering Strait at least six million years later in the early Miocene, the center of its distribution was probably in Central America.[32] Coatis (Nasua and Nasuella) and raccoons (Procyon) have been considered to share common descent from a species in the genus Paranasua present between 5.2 and 6.0 million years ago.[33] This assumption, based on morphological comparisons of fossils, conflicts with a 2006 genetic analysis which indicates raccoons are more closely related to ringtails.[34] Unlike other procyonids, such as the crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus), the ancestors of the common raccoon left tropical and subtropical areas and migrated farther north about 2.5 million years ago, in a migration that has been confirmed by the discovery of fossils in the Great Plains dating back to the middle of the Pliocene.[35][33] Its most recent ancestor was likely Procyon rexroadensis, a large Blancan raccoon from the Rexroad Formation characterized by its narrow back teeth and large lower jaw.[36]

 

Subspecies

 

A Torch Key raccoon (P. l. incautus) in Cudjoe Key, Florida. Subspecies inhabiting the Florida Keys are characterized by their small size and very pale fur.

 

Female raccoon of the Vancouver Island subspecies at Sidney, British Columbia, with characteristic dark fur

As of 2005, Mammal Species of the World recognizes 22 subspecies of raccoons.[37] Four of these subspecies living only on small Central American and Caribbean islands were often regarded as distinct species after their discovery. These are the Bahamian raccoon and Guadeloupe raccoon, which are very similar to each other; the Tres Marias raccoon, which is larger than average and has an angular skull; and the extinct Barbados raccoon. Studies of their morphological and genetic traits in 1999, 2003 and 2005 led all these island raccoons to be listed as subspecies of the common raccoon in Mammal Species of the World's third edition. A fifth island raccoon population, the Cozumel raccoon, which weighs only 3 to 4 kg (6.6 to 8.8 lb) and has notably small teeth, is still regarded as a separate species.[38][39][40][41]

 

The four smallest raccoon subspecies, with a typical weight of 1.8 to 2.7 kg (4.0 to 6.0 lb), live along the southern coast of Florida and on the adjacent islands; an example is the Ten Thousand Islands raccoon (Procyon lotor marinus).[42] Most of the other 15 subspecies differ only slightly from each other in coat color, size and other physical characteristics.[43][44] The two most widespread subspecies are the eastern raccoon (Procyon lotor lotor) and the Upper Mississippi Valley raccoon (Procyon lotor hirtus). Both share a comparatively dark coat with long hairs, but the Upper Mississippi Valley raccoon is larger than the eastern raccoon. The eastern raccoon occurs in all U.S. states and Canadian provinces to the north of South Carolina and Tennessee. The adjacent range of the Upper Mississippi Valley raccoon covers all U.S. states and Canadian provinces to the north of Louisiana, Texas and New Mexico.[45]

 

The taxonomic identity of feral raccoons inhabiting Central Europe, Causasia and Japan is unknown, as the founding populations consisted of uncategorized specimens from zoos and fur farms.

 

Description

Physical characteristics

 

Lower side of front paw with visible vibrissae on the tips of the digits

 

Skeleton

 

Skull with dentition: 2/2 molars, 4/4 premolars, 1/1 canines, 3/3 incisors

 

Baculum or penis bone

 

Female genitourinary system

 

Male genitourinary system

Head to hindquarters, raccoons measure between 40 and 70 cm (16 and 28 in), not including the bushy tail which can measure between 20 and 40 cm (7.9 and 15.7 in), but is usually not much longer than 25 cm (9.8 in).[71][72][73] The shoulder height is between 23 and 30 cm (9.1 and 11.8 in).[74] The body weight of an adult raccoon varies considerably with habitat, making the raccoon one of the most variably sized mammals. It can range from 2 to 26 kg (4.4 to 57.3 lb), but is usually between 5 and 12 kg (11 and 26 lb). The smallest specimens live in southern Florida, while those near the northern limits of the raccoon's range tend to be the largest (see Bergmann's rule).[75] Males are usually 15 to 20% heavier than females.[76] At the beginning of winter, a raccoon can weigh twice as much as in spring because of fat storage.[77][78][79] The largest recorded wild raccoon weighed 28.4 kg (63 lb) and measured 140 cm (55 in) in total length, by far the largest size recorded for a procyonid.[80][81]

 

The most characteristic physical feature of the raccoon is the area of black fur around the eyes, which contrasts sharply with the surrounding white face coloring. This is reminiscent of a "bandit's mask" and has thus enhanced the animal's reputation for mischief.[82][83] The slightly rounded ears are also bordered by white fur. Raccoons are assumed to recognize the facial expression and posture of other members of their species more quickly because of the conspicuous facial coloration and the alternating light and dark rings on the tail.[84][85][86] The dark mask may also reduce glare and thus enhance night vision.[85][86] On other parts of the body, the long and stiff guard hairs, which shed moisture, are usually colored in shades of gray and, to a lesser extent, brown.[87] Raccoons with a very dark coat are more common in the German population because individuals with such coloring were among those initially released to the wild.[88] The dense underfur, which accounts for almost 90% of the coat, insulates against cold weather and is composed of 2 to 3 cm (0.79 to 1.18 in) long hairs.[87]

 

The raccoon, whose method of locomotion is usually considered to be plantigrade, can stand on its hind legs to examine objects with its front paws.[89][90] As raccoons have short legs compared to their compact torso, they are usually not able either to run quickly or jump great distances.[91][92] Their top speed over short distances is 16 to 24 km/h (9.9 to 14.9 mph).[93][94] Raccoons can swim with an average speed of about 5 km/h (3.1 mph) and can stay in the water for several hours.[95][92] For climbing down a tree headfirst—an unusual ability for a mammal of its size—a raccoon rotates its hind feet so they are pointing backwards.[96][92] Raccoons have a dual cooling system to regulate their temperature; that is, they are able to both sweat and pant for heat dissipation.[97][98]

 

Raccoon skulls have a short and wide facial region and a voluminous braincase. The facial length of the skull is less than the cranial, and their nasal bones are short and quite broad. The auditory bullae are inflated in form, and the sagittal crest is weakly developed.[99] The dentition—40 teeth with the dental formula:

3.1.4.2

3.1.4.2

—is adapted to their omnivorous diet: the carnassials are not as sharp and pointed as those of a full-time carnivore, but the molars are not as wide as those of a herbivore.[100] The penis bone of males is about 10 cm (3.9 in) long and strongly bent at the front end,[101][102] and its shape can be used to distinguish juvenile males from mature males.[103][104][105] Seven of the thirteen identified vocal calls are used in communication between the mother and her kits, one of these being the birdlike twittering of newborns.[106][107][98]

 

Senses

The most important sense for the raccoon is its sense of touch.[108][109][110] The "hyper sensitive"[109] front paws are protected by a thin horny layer that becomes pliable when wet.[111][112] The five digits of the paws have no webbing between them, which is unusual for a carnivoran.[113] Almost two-thirds of the area responsible for sensory perception in the raccoon's cerebral cortex is specialized for the interpretation of tactile impulses, more than in any other studied animal.[114] They are able to identify objects before touching them with vibrissae located above their sharp, nonretractable claws.[89][110] The raccoon's paws lack an opposable thumb; thus, it does not have the agility of the hands of primates.[110][112] There is no observed negative effect on tactile perception when a raccoon stands in water below 10 °C (50 °F) for hours.[115]

 

Raccoons are thought to be color blind or at least poorly able to distinguish color, though their eyes are well-adapted for sensing green light.[116][117][118] Although their accommodation of 11 dioptre is comparable to that of humans and they see well in twilight because of the tapetum lucidum behind the retina, visual perception is of subordinate importance to raccoons because of their poor long-distance vision.[119][120][121] In addition to being useful for orientation in the dark, their sense of smell is important for intraspecific communication. Glandular secretions (usually from their anal glands), urine and feces are used for marking.[122][123][124] With their broad auditory range, they can perceive tones up to 50–85 kHz as well as quiet noises, like those produced by earthworms underground.[125][126]

 

Intelligence

Zoologist Clinton Hart Merriam described raccoons as "clever beasts", and that "in certain directions their cunning surpasses that of the fox". The animal's intelligence gave rise to the epithet "sly coon".[127] Only a few studies have been undertaken to determine the mental abilities of raccoons, most of them based on the animal's sense of touch. In a study by the ethologist H. B. Davis in 1908, raccoons were able to open 11 of 13 complex locks in fewer than 10 tries and had no problems repeating the action when the locks were rearranged or turned upside down. Davis concluded that they understood the abstract principles of the locking mechanisms and their learning speed was equivalent to that of rhesus macaques.[128]

 

Studies in 1963, 1973, 1975 and 1992 concentrated on raccoon memory showed that they can remember the solutions to tasks for at least three years.[129] In a study by B. Pohl in 1992, raccoons were able to instantly differentiate between identical and different symbols three years after the short initial learning phase.[129] Stanislas Dehaene reports in his book The Number Sense that raccoons can distinguish boxes containing two or four grapes from those containing three.[130] In research by Suzana Herculano-Houzel and other neuroscientists, raccoons have been found to be comparable to primates in density of neurons in the cerebral cortex, which they have proposed to be a neuroanatomical indicator of intelligence.[131][132]

 

Behavior

Social behavior

 

Eastern raccoons (P. l. lotor) in a tree: The raccoon's social structure is grouped into what Ulf Hohmann calls a "three-class society".

 

California raccoon (P. l. psora) climbing a tree in Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge

 

Baby raccoon chatter

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Studies in the 1990s by the ethologists Stanley D. Gehrt and Ulf Hohmann suggest that raccoons engage in sex-specific social behaviors and are not typically solitary, as was previously thought.[133][134] Related females often live in a so-called "fission-fusion society"; that is, they share a common area and occasionally meet at feeding or resting grounds.[135][136] Unrelated males often form loose male social groups to maintain their position against foreign males during the mating season—or against other potential invaders.[137] Such a group does not usually consist of more than four individuals.[138][139] Since some males show aggressive behavior towards unrelated kits, mothers will isolate themselves from other raccoons until their kits are big enough to defend themselves.[140]

 

With respect to these three different modes of life prevalent among raccoons, Hohmann called their social structure a "three-class society".[141] Samuel I. Zeveloff, professor of zoology at Weber State University and author of the book Raccoons: A Natural History, is more cautious in his interpretation and concludes at least the females are solitary most of the time and, according to Erik K. Fritzell's study in North Dakota in 1978, males in areas with low population densities are solitary as well.[142]

 

The shape and size of a raccoon's home range varies depending on age, sex, and habitat, with adults claiming areas more than twice as large as juveniles.[143] While the size of home ranges in the habitat of North Dakota's prairies lie between 7 and 50 km2 (3 and 20 sq mi) for males and between 2 and 16 km2 (1 and 6 sq mi) for females, the average size in a marsh at Lake Erie was 0.5 km2 (0.19 sq mi).[144] Irrespective of whether the home ranges of adjacent groups overlap, they are most likely not actively defended outside the mating season if food supplies are sufficient.[145] Odor marks on prominent spots are assumed to establish home ranges and identify individuals.[124] Urine and feces left at shared raccoon latrines may provide additional information about feeding grounds, since raccoons were observed to meet there later for collective eating, sleeping and playing.[146]

 

Concerning the general behavior patterns of raccoons, Gehrt points out that "typically you'll find 10 to 15 percent that will do the opposite" of what is expected.[147]

 

Diet

Though usually nocturnal, the raccoon is sometimes active in daylight to take advantage of available food sources.[148][149] Its diet consists of about 40% invertebrates, 33% plant material and 27% vertebrates.[150] Since its diet consists of such a variety of different foods, Zeveloff argues the raccoon "may well be one of the world's most omnivorous animals".[151] While its diet in spring and early summer consists mostly of insects, worms, and other animals already available early in the year, it prefers fruits and nuts, such as acorns and walnuts, which emerge in late summer and autumn, and represent a rich calorie source for building up fat needed for winter.[152][153]

 

Contrary to popular belief, raccoons only occasionally eat active or large prey, such as birds and mammals. They prefer prey that is easier to catch, specifically crayfish, insects,[154] fish, amphibians and bird eggs.[155] Raccoons are virulent predators of eggs and hatchlings in both birds and reptile nests, to such a degree that, for threatened prey species, raccoons may need to be removed from the area or nests may need to be relocated to mitigate the effect of their predations (i.e. in the case of some globally threatened turtles).[156][157][158][159][160] When food is plentiful, raccoons can develop strong individual preferences for specific foods.[78] In the northern parts of their range, raccoons go into a winter rest, reducing their activity drastically as long as a permanent snow cover makes searching for food difficult.[161]

 

Dousing

 

Captive raccoons often douse their food before eating.

One aspect of raccoon behavior is so well known that it gives the animal part of its scientific name, Procyon lotor; lotor is Latin for 'washer'. In the wild, raccoons often dabble for underwater food near the shore-line. They then often pick up the food item with their front paws to examine it and rub the item, sometimes to remove unwanted parts. This gives the appearance of the raccoon "washing" the food. The tactile sensitivity of raccoons' paws is increased if this rubbing action is performed underwater, since the water softens the hard layer covering the paws.[109][162] However, the behavior observed in captive raccoons in which they carry their food to water to "wash" or douse it before eating has not been observed in the wild.[163][164] Naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, believed that raccoons do not have adequate saliva production to moisten food thereby necessitating dousing, but this hypothesis is now considered to be incorrect.[162][163][165][166] Captive raccoons douse their food more frequently when a watering hole with a layout similar to a stream is not farther away than 3 m (10 ft).[166] The widely accepted theory is that dousing in captive raccoons is a fixed action pattern from the dabbling behavior performed when foraging at shores for aquatic foods.[162][166][167][168] This is supported by the observation that aquatic foods are doused more frequently. Cleaning dirty food does not seem to be a reason for "washing".[166]

 

Reproduction

Raccoons usually mate in a period triggered by increasing daylight between late January and mid-March.[169][170][171] However, there are large regional differences which are not completely explicable by solar conditions. For example, while raccoons in southern states typically mate later than average, the mating season in Manitoba also peaks later than usual in March and extends until June.[171] During the mating season, males restlessly roam their home ranges in search of females in an attempt to court them during the three- to four-day period when conception is possible. These encounters will often occur at central meeting places.[172][173][174] Copulation, including foreplay, can last over an hour and is repeated over several nights.[175] The weaker members of a male social group also are assumed to get the opportunity to mate, since the stronger ones cannot mate with all available females.[176] In a study in southern Texas during the mating seasons from 1990 to 1992, about one third of all females mated with more than one male.[177] If a female does not become pregnant or if she loses her kits early, she will sometimes become fertile again 80 to 140 days later.[178][179][180]

  

An eastern raccoon (P. l. lotor) kit

After usually 63 to 65 days of gestation (although anywhere from 54 to 70 days is possible), a litter of typically two to five young is born.[181][182] The average litter size varies widely with habitat, ranging from 2.5 in Alabama to 4.8 in North Dakota.[183][184] Larger litters are more common in areas with a high mortality rate, due, for example, to hunting or severe winters.[185][184] While male yearlings usually reach their sexual maturity only after the main mating season, female yearlings can compensate for high mortality rates and may be responsible for about 50% of all young born in a year.[186][187][188] Males have no part in raising young.[138][189][190] The kits (also called "cubs") are blind and deaf at birth, but their mask is already visible against their light fur.[191][192] The birth weight of the about 10 cm (4 in)-long kits is between 60 and 75 g (2.1 and 2.6 oz).[192] Their ear canals open after around 18 to 23 days, a few days before their eyes open for the first time.[193] Once the kits weigh about 1 kg (2 lb), they begin to explore outside the den, consuming solid food for the first time after six to nine weeks.[194][195] After this point, their mother suckles them with decreasing frequency; they are usually weaned by 16 weeks.[196] In the fall, after their mother has shown them dens and feeding grounds, the juvenile group splits up.[197] [198] While many females will stay close to the home range of their mother, males can sometimes move more than 20 km (12 mi) away. This is considered an instinctive behavior, preventing inbreeding. However, mother and offspring may share a den during the first winter in cold areas.

 

Life expectancy

Captive raccoons have been known to live for more than 20 years. However, the species' life expectancy in the wild is only 1.8 to 3.1 years, depending on the local conditions such as traffic volume, hunting, and weather severity. It is not unusual for only half of the young born in one year to survive a full year. After this point, the annual mortality rate drops to between 10% and 30%. Young raccoons are vulnerable to losing their mother and to starvation, particularly in long and cold winters. The most frequent natural cause of death in the North American raccoon population is distemper, which can reach epidemic proportions and kill most of a local raccoon population. In areas with heavy vehicular traffic and extensive hunting, these factors can account for up to 90% of all deaths of adult raccoons. The most important natural predators of the raccoon are bobcats, coyotes, and great horned owls, the latter mainly preying on young raccoons but capable of killing adults in some cases. In Florida, they have been reported to fall victim to larger carnivores like American black bear and cougars and these species may also be a threat on occasion in other areas. Where still present, gray wolves may still occasionally take raccoons as a supplemental prey item. Also in the southeast, they are among the favored prey for adult American alligators. On occasion, both bald and golden eagles will prey on raccoons. In the tropics, raccoons are known to fall prey to smaller eagles such as ornate hawk-eagles and black hawk-eagles, although it is not clear whether adults or merely juvenile raccoons are taken by these. In rare cases of overlap, they may fall victim from carnivores ranging from species averaging smaller than themselves such as fishers to those as large and formidable as jaguars in Mexico. In their introduced range in the former Soviet Union, their main predators are wolves, lynxes and Eurasian eagle-owls. However, predation is not a significant cause of death, especially because larger predators have been exterminated in many areas inhabited by raccoons.

 

Range

Although they have thrived in sparsely wooded areas in the last decades, raccoons depend on vertical structures to climb when they feel threatened. Therefore, they avoid open terrain and areas with high concentrations of beech trees, as beech bark is too smooth to climb. Tree hollows in old oaks or other trees and rock crevices are preferred by raccoons as sleeping, winter and litter dens. If such dens are unavailable or accessing them is inconvenient, raccoons use burrows dug by other mammals, dense undergrowth or tree crotches. In a study in the Solling range of hills in Germany, more than 60% of all sleeping places were used only once, but those used at least ten times accounted for about 70% of all uses. Since amphibians, crustaceans, and other animals around the shore of lakes and rivers are an important part of the raccoon's diet, lowland deciduous or mixed forests abundant with water and marshes sustain the highest population densities. While population densities range from 0.5 to 3.2 animals per square kilometer (1.3 to 8.3 animals per square mile) in prairies and do not usually exceed 6 animals per square kilometer (15.5 animals per square mile) in upland hardwood forests, more than 20 raccoons per square kilometer (51.8 animals per square mile) can live in lowland forests and marshes.

 

Distribution in North America

Raccoons are common throughout North America from Canada to Panama, where the subspecies Procyon lotor pumilus coexists with the crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus). The population on Hispaniola was exterminated as early as 1513 by Spanish colonists who hunted them for their meat. Raccoons were also exterminated in Cuba and Jamaica, where the last sightings were reported in 1687. The Barbados raccoon became extinct relatively recently, in 1964. When they were still considered separate species, the Bahamas raccoon, Guadeloupe raccoon and Tres Marias raccoon were classified as endangered by the IUCN in 1996.

  

A Raccoon sleeping on a tree in High Park, Toronto

There is archeological evidence that in pre-Columbian times raccoons were numerous only along rivers and in the woodlands of the Southeastern United States. As raccoons were not mentioned in earlier reports of pioneers exploring the central and north-central parts of the United States, their initial spread may have begun a few decades before the 20th century. Since the 1950s, raccoons have expanded their range from Vancouver Island—formerly the northernmost limit of their range—far into the northern portions of the four south-central Canadian provinces. New habitats which have recently been occupied by raccoons (aside from urban areas) include mountain ranges, such as the Western Rocky Mountains, prairies and coastal marshes. After a population explosion starting in the 1940s, the estimated number of raccoons in North America in the late 1980s was 15 to 20 times higher than in the 1930s, when raccoons were comparatively rare. Urbanization, the expansion of agriculture, deliberate introductions, and the extermination of natural predators of the raccoon have probably caused this increase in abundance and distribution.

 

Distribution outside North America

s a result of escapes and deliberate introductions in the mid-20th century, the raccoon is now distributed in several European and Asian countries. Sightings have occurred in all the countries bordering Germany, which hosts the largest population outside of North America. Another stable population exists in northern France, where several pet raccoons were released by members of the U.S. Air Force near the Laon-Couvron Air Base in 1966. Furthermore, raccoons have been known to be in the area around Madrid since the early 1970s. In 2013, the city authorized "the capture and death of any specimen". It is also present in Italy, with one self-sustaining population in Lombardy.

 

About 1,240 animals were released in nine regions of the former Soviet Union between 1936 and 1958 for the purpose of establishing a population to be hunted for their fur. Two of these introductions were successful – one in the south of Belarus between 1954 and 1958, and another in Azerbaijan between 1941 and 1957. With a seasonal harvest of between 1,000~1,500 animals, in 1974 the estimated size of the population distributed in the Caucasus region was around 20,000 animals and the density was four animals per square kilometer (10 animals per square mile).

 

Distribution in Japan

In Japan, up to 1,500 raccoons were imported as pets each year after the success of the anime series Rascal the Raccoon (1977). In 2004, the descendants of discarded or escaped animals lived in 42 of 47 prefectures. The range of raccoons in the wild in Japan grew from 17 prefectures in 2000 to all 47 prefectures in 2008. It is estimated that raccoons cause thirty million yen (~$275,000) of agricultural damage on Hokkaido alone.

 

Distribution in Germany

In Germany – where the raccoon is called the Waschbär (literally, 'wash-bear' or 'washing bear') due to its habit of "dousing" food in water – two pairs of pet raccoons were released into the German countryside at the Edersee reservoir in the north of Hesse in April 1934 by a forester upon request of their owner, a poultry farmer. He released them two weeks before receiving permission from the Prussian hunting office to "enrich the fauna". Several prior attempts to introduce raccoons in Germany had been unsuccessful. A second population was established in eastern Germany in 1945 when 25 raccoons escaped from a fur farm at Wolfshagen (today district of Altlandsberg), east of Berlin, after an air strike. The two populations are parasitologically distinguishable: 70% of the raccoons of the Hessian population are infected with the roundworm Baylisascaris procyonis, but none of the Brandenburgian population is known to have the parasite. In the Hessian region, there were an estimated 285 raccoons in 1956, which increased to over 20,000 in 1970; in 2008 there were between 200,000 and 400,000 raccoons in the whole of Germany. By 2012 it was estimated that Germany now had more than a million raccoons.

 

The raccoon was once a protected species in Germany, but has been declared a game animal in 14 of the 16 German states since 1954. Hunters and environmentalists argue the raccoon spreads uncontrollably, threatens protected bird species, and supersedes indigenous competitors. This view is opposed by the zoologist Frank-Uwe Michler, who finds no evidence that a high population density of raccoons leads to negative effects on the biodiversity of an area. Hohmann holds that extensive hunting cannot be justified by the absence of natural predators, because predation is not a significant cause of death in the North American raccoon population.

  

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

The raccoon is extensively hunted in Germany as it is seen as an invasive species and pest. In the 1990s, only about 400 raccoons were hunted yearly. This increased dramatically over the next quarter-century: during the 2015–2016 hunting season, 128,100 raccoons were hunted, 60 percent of them in the state of Hesse.

 

Distribution in the former Soviet Union

Experiments in acclimatising raccoons into the Soviet Union began in 1936, and were repeated a further 25 times until 1962. Overall, 1,222 individuals were released, 64 of which came from zoos and fur farms (38 of them having been imports from western Europe). The remainder originated from a population previously established in Transcaucasia. The range of Soviet raccoons was never single or continuous, as they were often introduced to different locations far from each other. All introductions into the Russian Far East failed; melanistic raccoons were released on Petrov Island near Vladivostok and some areas of southern Primorsky Krai, but died. In Middle Asia, raccoons were released in Kyrgyzstan's Jalal-Abad Province, though they were later recorded as "practically absent" there in January 1963. A large and stable raccoon population (yielding 1,000~1,500 catches a year) was established in Azerbaijan after an introduction to the area in 1937. Raccoons apparently survived an introduction near Terek, along the Sulak River into the Dagestani lowlands. Attempts to settle raccoons on the Kuban River's left tributary and Kabardino-Balkaria were unsuccessful. A successful acclimatization occurred in Belarus, where three introductions (consisting of 52, 37, and 38 individuals in 1954 and 1958) took place. By January 1963, 700 individuals were recorded in the country.

 

Urban raccoons

Due to its adaptability, the raccoon has been able to use urban areas as a habitat. The first sightings were recorded in a suburb of Cincinnati in the 1920s. Since the 1950s, raccoons have been present in metropolitan areas like Washington, DC, Chicago, Toronto, and New York City. Since the 1960s, Kassel has hosted Europe's first and densest population in a large urban area, with about 50 to 150 animals per square kilometer (130 to 390 animals per square mile), a figure comparable to those of urban habitats in North America. Home range sizes of urban raccoons are only 3 to 40 hectares (7.5 to 100 acres) for females and 8 to 80 hectares (20 to 200 acres) for males. In small towns and suburbs, many raccoons sleep in a nearby forest after foraging in the settlement area. Fruit and insects in gardens and leftovers in municipal waste are easily available food sources. Furthermore, a large number of additional sleeping areas exist in these areas, such as hollows in old garden trees, cottages, garages, abandoned houses, and attics. The percentage of urban raccoons sleeping in abandoned or occupied houses varies from 15% in Washington, DC (1991) to 43% in Kassel (2003).

 

Health

Raccoons can carry rabies, a lethal disease caused by the neurotropic rabies virus carried in the saliva and transmitted by bites. Its spread began in Florida and Georgia in the 1950s and was facilitated by the introduction of infected individuals to Virginia and North Dakota in the late 1970s. Of the 6,940 documented rabies cases reported in the United States in 2006, 2,615 (37.7%) were in raccoons. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as local authorities in several U.S. states and Canadian provinces, has developed oral vaccination programs to fight the spread of the disease in endangered populations. Only one human fatality has been reported after transmission of the rabies virus strain commonly known as "raccoon rabies". Among the main symptoms for rabies in raccoons are a generally sickly appearance, impaired mobility, abnormal vocalization, and aggressiveness. There may be no visible signs at all, however, and most individuals do not show the aggressive behavior seen in infected canids; rabid raccoons will often retire to their dens instead. Organizations like the U.S. Forest Service encourage people to stay away from animals with unusual behavior or appearance, and to notify the proper authorities, such as an animal control officer from the local health department. Since healthy animals, especially nursing mothers, will occasionally forage during the day, daylight activity is not a reliable indicator of illness in raccoons.

 

Unlike rabies and at least a dozen other pathogens carried by raccoons, distemper, an epizootic virus, does not affect humans. This disease is the most frequent natural cause of death in the North American raccoon population and affects individuals of all age groups. For example, 94 of 145 raccoons died during an outbreak in Clifton, Ohio, in 1968. It may occur along with a following inflammation of the brain (encephalitis), causing the animal to display rabies-like symptoms. In Germany, the first eight cases of distemper were reported in 2007.

 

Some of the most important bacterial diseases which affect raccoons are leptospirosis, listeriosis, tetanus, and tularemia. Although internal parasites weaken their immune systems, well-fed individuals can carry a great many roundworms in their digestive tracts without showing symptoms. The larvae of the roundworm Baylisascaris procyonis, which can be contained in the feces and seldom causes a severe illness in humans, can be ingested when cleaning raccoon latrines without wearing breathing protection.

 

While not endemic, the worm Trichinella does infect raccoons, and undercooked raccoon meat has caused trichinosis in humans.

 

Trematode Metorchis conjunctus can also infect raccoons.

 

Relationship with humans

Raccoons have become notorious in urban areas for consuming food waste. They possess impressive problem-solving abilities and can break into all but the most secure food waste bins, which has earned them the derisive nickname trash panda. The presence of raccoons in close proximity to humans may be undesirable, as raccoon droppings (like most wild animals) contain parasites and other disease vectors. Raccoon roundworm is of particular concern to public health. It can be contracted in humans by accidental ingestion or inhalation of the eggs, which are present in the feces of infected raccoons. While usually harmless to the host, it causes progressive neurological damage in humans, and is eventually fatal if untreated. It is found in about 60% of adult raccoons. The general presence of raccoons in an area is not typically of concern, but nests or droppings found within or near structures should be destroyed. Roundworm eggs are very robust and bleach alone is insufficient; burning or treatment with hot solutions of sodium hydroxide is required. The keeping of raccoons as pets is illegal in some jurisdictions due to these risks.

 

The increasing number of raccoons in urban areas has resulted in diverse reactions in humans, ranging from outrage at their presence to deliberate feeding. Some wildlife experts and most public authorities caution against feeding wild animals because they might become increasingly obtrusive and dependent on humans as a food source. Other experts challenge such arguments and give advice on feeding raccoons and other wildlife in their books. Raccoons without a fear of humans are a concern to those who attribute this trait to rabies, but scientists point out this behavior is much more likely to be a behavioral adjustment to living in habitats with regular contact to humans for many generations. Raccoons usually do not prey on domestic cats and dogs, but isolated cases of killings have been reported. Attacks on pets may also target their owners.

  

A Florida raccoon (P. l. elucus) in the Everglades approaches a group of humans, hoping to be fed

While overturned waste containers and raided fruit trees are just a nuisance to homeowners, it can cost several thousand dollars to repair damage caused by the use of attic space as dens. Relocating or killing raccoons without a permit is forbidden in many urban areas on grounds of animal welfare. These methods usually only solve problems with particularly wild or aggressive individuals, since adequate dens are either known to several raccoons or will quickly be rediscovered. Loud noises, flashing lights, and unpleasant odors have proven particularly effective in driving away a mother and her kits before they would normally leave the nesting place (when the kits are about eight weeks old). Typically, though, only precautionary measures to restrict access to food waste and den sites are effective in the long term.

 

Among all fruits and crops cultivated in agricultural areas, sweet corn in its milk stage is particularly popular among raccoons.[309][310] In a two-year study by Purdue University researchers, published in 2004, raccoons were responsible for 87% of the damage to corn plants. Like other predators, raccoons searching for food can break into poultry houses to feed on chickens, ducks, their eggs, or food.

 

Mythology, arts, and entertainment

In the mythology of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the raccoon is the subject of folk tales. Stories such as "How raccoons catch so many crayfish" from the Tuscarora centered on its skills at foraging. In other tales, the raccoon played the role of the trickster which outsmarts other animals, like coyotes and wolves. Among others, the Dakota believe the raccoon has natural spirit powers, since its mask resembles the facial paintings, two-fingered swashes of black and white, used during rituals to connect to spirit beings. The Aztecs linked supernatural abilities especially to females, whose commitment to their young was associated with the role of wise women in their society.

 

The raccoon also appears in Native American art across a wide geographic range. Petroglyphs with engraved raccoon tracks were found in Lewis Canyon, Texas; at the Crow Hollow petroglyph site in Grayson County, Kentucky; and in river drainages near Tularosa, the San Francisco River of New Mexico and Arizona. The meaning and significance of the Raccoon Priests Gorget, which features a stylized carving of a raccoon and was found at the Spiro Mounds, Oklahoma, remains unknown.

 

Hunting and fur trade

The fur of raccoons is used for clothing, especially for coats and coonskin caps. At present, it is the material used for the inaccurately named "sealskin" cap worn by the Royal Fusiliers of Great Britain. Sporrans made of raccoon pelt and hide have sometimes been used as part of traditional Scottish highland men's apparel since the 18th century, especially in North America. Such sporrans may or may not be of the "full-mask" type. Historically, Native American tribes not only used the fur for winter clothing, but also used the tails for ornament. The famous Sioux leader Spotted Tail took his name from a raccoon skin hat with the tail attached he acquired from a fur trader. Since the late 18th century, various types of scent hounds, called coonhounds, which are able to tree animals have been bred in the United States. In the 19th century, when coonskins occasionally even served as means of payment, several thousand raccoons were killed each year in the United States. This number rose quickly when automobile coats became popular after the turn of the 20th century. In the 1920s, wearing a raccoon coat was regarded as status symbol among college students. Attempts to breed raccoons in fur farms in the 1920s and 1930s in North America and Europe turned out not to be profitable, and farming was abandoned after prices for long-haired pelts dropped in the 1940s. Although raccoons had become rare in the 1930s, at least 388,000 were killed during the hunting season of 1934–1935.

 

After persistent population increases began in the 1940s, the seasonal coon hunting harvest reached about one million animals in 1946–1947 and two million in 1962–1963. The broadcast of three television episodes about the frontiersman Davy Crockett and the film Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier in 1954 and 1955 led to a high demand for coonskin caps in the United States, although it is unlikely either Crockett or the actor who played him, Fess Parker, actually wore a cap made from raccoon fur. The seasonal hunt reached an all-time high with 5.2 million animals in 1976–1977 and ranged between 3.2 and 4.7 million for most of the 1980s. In 1982, the average pelt price was $20. As of 1987, the raccoon was identified as the most important wild furbearer in North America in terms of revenue. In the first half of the 1990s, the seasonal hunt dropped to 0.9 from 1.9 million due to decreasing pelt prices.

 

Food

While primarily hunted for their fur, raccoons were also a source of food for Native Americans and early American settlers. According to Ernest Thompson Seton, young specimens killed without a fight are palatable, whereas old raccoons caught after a lengthy battle are inedible. Raccoon meat was extensively eaten during the early years of California, where it was sold in the San Francisco market for $1–3 apiece. American slaves occasionally ate raccoon at Christmas, but it was not necessarily a dish of the poor or rural. The first edition of The Joy of Cooking, released in 1931, contained a recipe for preparing raccoon, and US President Calvin Coolidge's pet raccoon Rebecca was originally sent to be served at the White House Thanksgiving Dinner.

 

Although the idea of eating raccoons may seem repulsive to most mainstream consumers, who see them as endearing, cute, or vermin, several thousand raccoons are still eaten each year in the United States, primarily in the Southern United States. Some people tout the taste of the meat.

 

Other uses

In addition to the fur and meat, the raccoon baculum (penis bone) have had numerous traditional uses in the Southern United States and beyond. Indigenous people used the bones as a pipe cleaning tool. The bones were used by moonshine distillers to guide the flow of whiskey from the drip tube to the bottle. With their tips filed down, the bones were used as toothpicks under the moniker "coon rods". In hoodoo, the folk magic of the American South, the baculum is sometimes worn as an amulet for love or luck. The bones also have decorative uses (e.g. on the trademark hat of stock car racer Richard Petty or as earrings by actresses Sarah Jessica Parker and Vanessa Williams).

 

Pet raccoons

Raccoons are sometimes kept as pets, which is discouraged by many experts because the raccoon is not a domesticated species. Raccoons may act unpredictably and aggressively and it is extremely difficult to teach them to obey commands. In places where keeping raccoons as pets is not forbidden, such as in Wisconsin and other U.S. states, an exotic pet permit may be required. One notable pet raccoon was Rebecca, kept by US president Calvin Coolidge.

 

Their propensity for unruly behavior exceeds that of captive skunks, and they are even less trustworthy when allowed to roam freely. Because of their intelligence and nimble forelimbs, even inexperienced raccoons are easily capable of unscrewing jars, uncorking bottles and opening door latches, with more experienced specimens having been recorded to open door knobs. Sexually mature raccoons often show aggressive natural behaviors such as biting during the mating season. Neutering them at around five or six months of age decreases the chances of aggressive behavior developing. Raccoons can become obese and suffer from other disorders due to poor diet and lack of exercise. When fed with cat food over a long time period, raccoons can develop gout. With respect to the research results regarding their social behavior, it is now required by law in Austria and Germany to keep at least two individuals to prevent loneliness. Raccoons are usually kept in a pen (indoor or outdoor), also a legal requirement in Austria and Germany, rather than in the apartment where their natural curiosity may result in damage to property.

 

When orphaned, it is possible for kits to be rehabilitated and reintroduced to the wild. However, it is uncertain whether they readapt well to life in the wild. Feeding unweaned kits with cow's milk rather than a kitten replacement milk or a similar product can be dangerous to their health.

To view more of my images of aircraft and space craft, click "here" !

 

Very sad news, relating to a fatal crash of this beautiful aircraft, please read "here" ! ............ More "here" !

 

The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and other conflicts. The Mustang was conceived, designed and built by North American Aviation (NAA) in response to a specification issued directly to NAA by the British Purchasing Commission. The prototype NA-73X airframe was rolled out on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the contract was signed and, with an engine installed, first flew on 26 October. The Mustang was originally designed to use the Allison V-1710 engine, which had limited high-altitude performance. It was first flown operationally by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a tactical-reconnaissance aircraft and fighter-bomber (Mustang Mk I). The addition of the Rolls-Royce Merlin to the P-51B/C model transformed the Mustang's performance at altitudes above 15,000 ft, matching or bettering that of the Luftwaffe's fighters. The definitive version, the P-51D, was powered by the Packard V-1650-7, a license-built version of the Rolls-Royce Merlin 60 series two-stage two-speed supercharged engine, and armed with six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns. From late 1943, P-51Bs (supplemented by P-51Ds from mid-1944) were used by the USAAF's Eighth Air Force to escort bombers in raids over Germany, while the RAF's 2 TAF and the USAAF's Ninth Air Force used the Merlin-powered Mustangs as fighter-bombers, roles in which the Mustang helped ensure Allied air superiority in 1944. The P-51 was also in service with Allied air forces in the North African, Mediterranean and Italian theaters, and saw limited service against the Japanese in the Pacific War. During World War II, Mustang pilots claimed 4,950 enemy aircraft shot down. At the start of the Korean War, the Mustang was the main fighter of the United Nations until jet fighters such as the F-86 took over this role; the Mustang then became a specialized fighter-bomber. Despite the advent of jet fighters, the Mustang remained in service with some air forces until the early 1980s. After World War II and the Korean War, many Mustangs were converted for civilian use, especially air racing, and increasingly, preserved and flown as historic warbird aircraft at airshows. In April 1938, shortly after the German Anschluss of Austria, the British government established a purchasing commission in the United States, headed by Sir Henry Self. Self was given overall responsibility for Royal Air Force (RAF) production and research and development, and also served with Sir Wilfrid Freeman, the "Air Member for Development and Production". Self also sat on the British Air Council Sub-committee on Supply (or "Supply Committee") and one of his tasks was to organize the manufacturing and supply of American fighter aircraft for the RAF. At the time, the choice was very limited, as no U.S. aircraft then in production or flying met European standards, with only the Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk coming close. The Curtiss-Wright plant was running at capacity, so P-40s were in short supply. North American Aviation (NAA) was already supplying its Harvard trainer to the RAF, but was otherwise underutilized. NAA President "Dutch" Kindelberger approached Self to sell a new medium bomber, the B-25 Mitchell. Instead, Self asked if NAA could manufacture the Tomahawk under license from Curtiss. Kindelberger said NAA could have a better aircraft with the same engine in the air sooner than establishing a production line for the P-40. The Commission stipulated armament of four .303 in (7.7 mm) machine guns, the Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled engine, a unit cost of no more than $40,000, and delivery of the first production aircraft by January 1941. In March 1940, 320 aircraft were ordered by Sir Wilfred Freeman who had become the executive head of Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP), and the contract was promulgated on 24 April. The NA-73X, which was designed by a team led by lead engineer Edgar Schmued, followed the best conventional practice of the era, but included several new features. One was a wing designed using laminar flow airfoils which were developed co-operatively by North American Aviation and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). These airfoils generated very low drag at high speeds. During the development of the NA-73X, a wind tunnel test of two wings, one using NACA 5-digit airfoils and the other using the new NAA/NACA 45–100 airfoils, was performed in the University of Washington Kirsten Wind Tunnel. The results of this test showed the superiority of the wing designed with the NAA/NACA 45–100 airfoils. The other feature was a new radiator design that exploited the "Meredith Effect", in which heated air exited the radiator as a slight amount of jet thrust. Because NAA lacked a suitable wind tunnel to test this feature, it used the GALCIT 10 ft (3.0 m) wind tunnel at Caltech. This led to some controversy over whether the Mustang's cooling system aerodynamics were developed by NAA's engineer Edgar Schmued or by Curtiss, although NAA had purchased the complete set of P-40 and XP-46 wind tunnel data and flight test reports for US$56,000. The NA-73X was also one of the first aircraft to have a fuselage lofted mathematically using conic sections; this resulted in the aircraft's fuselage having smooth, low drag surfaces. To aid production, the airframe was divided into five main sections—forward, center, rear fuselage and two wing halves — all of which were fitted with wiring and piping before being joined. The prototype NA-73X was rolled out in September 1940 and first flew on 26 October 1940, respectively 102 and 149 days after the order had been placed, an uncommonly short gestation period. The prototype handled well and accommodated an impressive fuel load. The aircraft's two-section, semi-monocoque fuselage was constructed entirely of aluminum to save weight. It was armed with four .30 in (7.62 mm) M1919 Browning machine guns, two in the wings and two mounted under the engine and firing through the propeller arc using gun synchronizing gear. While the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) could block any sales it considered detrimental to the interests of the US, the NA-73 was considered to be a special case because it had been designed at the behest of the British. In September 1940. a further 300 NA-73s were ordered by MAP. To ensure uninterrupted delivery Colonel Oliver P. Echols arranged with the Anglo-French Purchasing Commission to deliver the aircraft, and NAA gave two examples (41-038 and 41-039) to the USAAC for evaluation.

 

"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" !

 

via Blogger ift.tt/22t9umx

The English language contains many expressions relating to astronomical events, which is not all that strange, when you realise that before humans had clocks, radar, satellites, and so on, people were completely reliant on their own observations in order to keep time and predict seasonal changes.

 

The term ‘blue moon’ is one of many ‘full moon’-expressions. You may have also heard of ‘wolf moon’ or ‘harvest moon’, for example. Many of these terms come from ancient cultures where celestial observations guided local timekeeping.

 

A blue moon does not actually tell you anything about the colour of the Moon. The expression is commonly used when two full moons happen in one calendar month.

 

Our calendar months are based on the lunar cycle. The Moon takes 29.5 days to go through a full cycle. Our calendar months range from 28 to 31 days. As you can tell, the two cycles don’t match up completely. As a consequence, some months will have an extra full moon. The second moon in the same calendar month is often referred to as a ‘blue moon’.

 

This is a relatively rare event, only happening about once every two or three years. Hence the connection to the expression: something that seldomly happens.

 

So, if the Moon doesn’t actually change colour, where did the word ‘blue’ come from? It’s believed this word may have come from the Old English word ‘belewe’, which means ‘betray’. The moon ‘tricked’ people to believe a new calendar month had started, when in fact, it was still the same month.

 

Incidentally, there have been moments when the moon has taken on a slightly more blueish hue than what we’re used to. This sometimes happens as a result of increased ash or smoke particles in the atmosphere after a volcanic eruption, like when Krakatoa erupted in 1883. But such events only occur once in a … blue moon.

 

Credits: ESA

Mooching about Wansford is British Rail Class 50, 50008 'Thunderer'.

 

Perhaps one of the most legendary diesels to hit the UK rails, the Class 50's became a staple of the British Rail diesel fleet, and became the mainstay of many important routes well into the 1990's.

 

The origins of the Class 50 lie in an invitation from the British Transport Commission (BTC) to manufacturers to produce a design for a Diesel locomotive with a gross power output of at least 2500hp. In order to produce a prototype quickly, English Electric based their design on that for their Deltic locomotives which were then in production. Other parts related to another current design, the Class 37s were also used. The result was DP2, a 2700hp Diesel-electric locomotive weighing 107 tons and with a top speed of 100mph. The prototype was delivered to British Rail in May 1962

 

The prototype was deemed successful and negotiations took place with English Electric for a production batch of 50 locomotives for use on the Eastern Region. English Electric intended to build the new batch as similar to DP2 as possible but the British Railways Board (successor to the BTC) had produced a standard locomotive cab with a flat front and headcode box and also had specific requirements relating to the engine room and other equipment. English Electric produced several alternative front-end designs including one with a wrap-around windscreen but the standard front-end design was eventually adopted for the class.

 

The complete production run of 50 locomotives was built in just over a year and numbered from D400 to D449. D400 entered service in October 1967 and deliveries were completed with D449 in November 1968. Unusually, the ownership of the locomotives remained with the manufacturer and they were operated by British Rail on a 10-year lease which included certain stipulations relating to availability.

 

The class was built for working passenger services on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) north of Crewe, to Preston, Lancaster, Carlisle and Glasgow Central. Services south of Crewe would generally be worked by an electric locomotive, with the Class 50s taking over for the journeys that continued north. Initially trains were hauled by a single locomotive, but from May 1970 they were paired on most Anglo-Scottish services north of Crewe, allowing greatly accelerated timings to be applied (including a six-hour schedule for the "Royal Scot" London Euston-Glasgow Central and v.v. service). Once the electric service was introduced as far as Preston, this double-heading by Cl.50s transferred there, although poor availability often resulted in single-heading with consequent delays. The ability to operate using multiple working had been part of the locomotive's initial design brief, but only two of the class had the facility from new, but with the introduction of the regular double headed duties, this facility was fitted to the whole class.

 

By 1974 the northern WCML was electrified, and the Class 50 fleet was displaced by new Class 87 electrics. The fleet was transferred to the Western Region, working mainline passenger services from London Paddington along the Great Western Main Line to destinations such as Oxford, Bristol Temple Meads, Plymouth and Penzance. It was not unusual for locomotives to work services on other routes, such as the Birmingham New Street to Bristol Temple Meads corridor. The introduction of the Class 50s on these routes enabled the last remaining, non-standard, diesel hydraulic "Westerns" to be withdrawn.

 

In the late-1970s, following a period where the policy of locomotive naming had been abandoned, BR were persuaded to name the class 50s after Royal Navy Vessels with notable records in the First and Second World Wars. As a result, the first locomotive naming occurred in January 1978, when 50035 was named Ark Royal by the captain and crew of then current aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. The rest of the fleet was named during the course of the next few years.

 

From 1977, British Rail introduced the Class 253 High Speed Trains onto the Great Western Main Line which began the displacement of the Class 50 fleet onto other routes, such as services to Birmingham New Street from London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads. The class also found work on the West of England Main Line from London Waterloo to Salisbury, Exeter and Plymouth. However, due in part to the over-complexity of the design, the class was plagued with reliability problems. As a result, the decision was taken in the late 1970s to refurbish the entire fleet.

 

To deal with increasing reliability problems, the Class 50 fleet was refurbished at Doncaster Works between 1979 and 1984. Doncaster had taken responsibility for the fleet after BR completed the purchase of the locomotives from English Electric. The work involved simplifying the complex electronics and removing redundant features such as slow speed control and rheostatic braking. In addition, the air intake fan arrangement was modified, because the original setup often prevented fresh air from entering the engine room and stale, oil mist-filled air from escaping, leading to many main generator failures. This was in part due to the moisture in the air in the UK: dust and other particles would lodge in the filter system and become 'gummed up' with moisture, preventing circulation which in turn also hampered the intended engine compartment pressure levels which then meant 'filtered' air could not be evacuated by the intended means. The filtration system was fundamentally sound and widely used in other countries; the problems arose because relative humidity had not been taken into account at the design stage. This modification eliminated the characteristic "sucking" noise which had earned the "Hoover" nickname.

 

Externally, the locomotives all received high-intensity headlights, which changed the appearance of the front end. Starting with 50006, the first six locomotives were outshopped in the standard BR Blue livery. However, in 1980, 50023 Howe became the first to be outshopped in a revised livery with wrap around yellow cabs, large bodyside numerals and BR logo, in a livery that became known as BR Blue Large Logo. The final loco to be refurbished was 50014 which was released to traffic in the latter half of 1983.

 

Following refurbishment, the fleet was concentrated at two depots; Laira in Plymouth, and Old Oak Common in west London. The class were again used for Western Region services on the GWML out of Paddington, and on the West of England Main Line from Waterloo to Salisbury and Exeter.

 

In 1984, 50007 Hercules was repainted into lined Brunswick green livery and renamed Sir Edward Elgar, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Great Western Railway (GWR). Four Class 47 locomotives were similarly treated, and a Class 117 diesel multiple unit (DMU) was repainted in chocolate and cream livery. As a result, 50007 quickly became a favourite with rail enthusiasts. Another locomotive repainted in a special livery was 50019 Ramillies, which was repainted in a variation of BR Blue by staff at Plymouth Laira depot.

 

In 1986 the West of England Main Line came under the control of the Network SouthEast (NSE) sector, which saw the introduction of their bright blue, red and white livery. The first locomotive in this livery was again 50023 Howe. The NSE livery had two versions; the original had upswept red and white stripes and the ends, with a white cab surround; the revised livery introduced in 1988 had the red and white stripes continue to the body ends, with a blue cab surround. In the revised livery the blue became a darker shade.

 

Towards the end of the 1980s, the fleet could be found mostly on the West of England route, as well as fast services from Paddington to Oxford. Some locomotives were also transferred to the civil engineers department to work maintenance and engineering trains. Around this time, the first locomotives were withdrawn, starting with 50011 Centurion in early 1987. This locomotive's nameplates were later transferred to 50040, which was previously named Leviathan. A further two locomotives, 50006 Neptune and 50014 Warspite were withdrawn in 1987, followed by a further five locomotives in 1988 (50010/13/22/38/47).

 

In 1987, consideration was given to using the class on freight trains. To this end, 50049 "Defiance" was renumbered to 50149, equipped with modified Class 37, lower-geared bogies and outshopped in the new trainload grey livery with Railfreight General decals. It was based at Plymouth Laira depot, and tested on local china clay trains in Cornwall as well as heavy stone trains to London from Devon quarries. The project was, however, not an outstanding success, and by 1989, the locomotive had returned to its original identity. Ironically, the electronic anti-wheelslip equipment (with which, the entire class had originally been built) which would have been key to the success of this experiment had been removed during the refurbishment process.

 

At the start of the 1990s, the reliability of the fleet became a problem again. By this time, the class was solely used on the West of England route, having been replaced on the Oxford route by Class 47/7 locomotives. Arguably, the Class 50s were not suitable for the stop-start service pattern of Waterloo-Exeter services, nor to the extended single-line sections of this route, where a single locomotive failure could cause chaos. Therefore, the decision was taken to retire the fleet, temporarily replacing them with Class 47 locomotives, which were in turn replaced by new Diesel Multiple Units. From 1992, the Oxford route was worked by Class 165 and Class 166 units, whilst Class 159 units were introduced onto the West of England route in 1993.

 

By 1992, just eight locomotives remained in service, these being 50007/008/015/029/030/033/046/050. Several of these locomotives were specially repainted to commemorate the run-down of the fleet. The first-built locomotive, 50050 Fearless was renumbered D400 and painted in its original BR Blue livery. Two other locomotives, 50008 Thunderer and 50015 Valiant were also repainted, the former in a variation of BR Blue (the same as 50019 had previously carried), and the latter in "Dutch" civil-engineers grey/yellow livery. Of the final eight locomotives, three were retained until 1994 for use on special railtours, these being 50007 Sir Edward Elgar, 50033 Glorious and 50050 Fearless. 50007 was returned to working order using parts from 50046, which surrendered its recently overhauled power unit and bogies. By this time, 50050 had been repainted into Large Logo livery and 50007 also received a repaint into GWR green as the 1985 paint was wearing very thin. The final railtours operated in March 1994, during one of which 50033 was delivered for preservation at the National Railway Museum. The final railtour operated with 50007 and 50050 from London Waterloo to Penzance and returning to London Paddington. Both locomotives were later preserved.

 

Class 50 locomotives proved popular with rail enthusiasts, with eighteen locomotives saved for preservation and several subsequently registered for use on the mainline.

Life is full of stories – some deeply personal and specific, others universally relatable. My story is beautiful and complicated and bittersweet and hard. Life is just that way. So are photographs.

 

The birth of my daughter was life-changing, but not in the way I expected. Though there has been no greater joy for me, the responsibility of another life has proven to be at times a heavy load. Thinking about this in a literal sense, I imagined a heavy home on my shoulders, yet held tightly with love – a burden and a joy, a challenge and a reprieve. This became the first image in the series The Heart and the Heavy.

 

From there the stories evolved, just as my life has. The genesis of an image comes from moments of life, like a still from an old movie. Movement and pain and the simple joys of being alive are frozen in time – a study of fictional worlds based in reality. Compelled to shoot these stories, I am haunted for days and months until it is released in an image. Telling someone’s tale in a world not quite like our own.

 

-------------------------

 

It has been almost two years since I shot the image that changed my focus and redirected me as an artist. That image, The Heart and The Heavy, became a catalyst for a new study and the exhibit by the same name. I am thrilled to have the work on display in somewhat of an southeast tour this fall and winter.

 

First up, the Durham Art Guild is presenting the show from October 1 - 28 at the Room 100 Gallery in the Golden Belt in Durham, NC. There will be a public reception on Friday, October 18th from 6-9 p.m.

 

Next stop on the tour is Atlanta. The Jennifer Schwartz Gallery and I will be creating a one-night only special event on November 1st from 6-9 p.m. at DEADRINGER [prints + projects] located at Studio LR-12 at The Goat Farm Arts Center (1200 Foster Street, Atlanta, GA 30318). Then catch the show for the remainder of the year in the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery.

 

The MoNA Gallery in Charlotte will host the show from March 7 - April 26, 2014, with the opening reception on March the 7th. MoNA Gallery is located at 1900 N. Brevard St., Charlotte, NC 28206.

 

I couldn't be happier to be sharing this body of work. I hope to see you there!

  

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Damascus

 

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For other uses, see Damascus (disambiguation).

Damascus

دمشق Dimashq

 

View of Damascus from a bank of Barada river.

Nickname(s): (Al-Fayhaa) The Fragrant City

 

Damascus

 

Coordinates: 33°30′47″N 36°17′31″E / 33.51306°N 36.29194°E / 33.51306; 36.29194

Country Syria

Governorates Damascus Governorate, Capital City

Government

- Governor Bishr Al Sabban

Area

- City 573 km2 (221.2 sq mi)

- Metro 1,200 km2 (463.3 sq mi)

Elevation 600 m (1,969 ft)

Population (2007)[citation needed]

- City over 4 million

- Metro 6,500,000

Time zone EET (UTC+2)

- Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)

Area code(s) Country code: 963, City code: 11

Demonym Damascene

Damascus (Arabic: دمشق‎, transliteration: Dimashq, also commonly known as الشام ash-Shām) is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is one of the the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and its current population is estimated at about 4,000,000[citation needed]. The city is a governorate by itself, and the capital of the governorate of Rif Dimashq ("Rural Damascus").

   

Etymology

In Arabic, the city is called دمشق الشام (Dimashq ash-Shām), although this is often shortened to either Dimashq or ash-Shām by the citizens of Damascus, of Syria and other Arab neighbors. Ash-Shām is an Arabic term for north and for Syria (Syria—particularly historical Greater Syria—is called Bilād ash-Shām—بلاد الشام, "land of the north"—in Arabic.) The etymology of the ancient name "Damascus" is uncertain, but it is suspected to be pre-Semitic. It is attested as Dimašqa in Akkadian, T-ms-ḳw in Egyptian, Dammaśq (דמשק) in Old Aramaic and Dammeśeq (דמשק) in Biblical Hebrew. The Akkadian spelling is the earliest attestation, found in the Amarna letters, from the 14th century BCE. Later Aramaic spellings of the name often include an intrusive resh (letter r), perhaps influenced by the root dr, meaning "dwelling". Thus, the Qumranic Darmeśeq (דרמשק), and Darmsûq (ܕܪܡܣܘܩ) in Syriac.[1][2]

  

History

Ancient City of Damascus*

UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

State Party Syria

Type Cultural

Criteria i, ii, iii, iv, vi

Reference 20

Region** Arab States

Inscription history

Inscription 1979 (3rd Session)

* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List.

** Region as classified by UNESCO.

 

Ancient history

Excavations at Tell Ramad on the outskirts of the city have demonstrated that Damascus has been inhabited as early as 8,000 to 10,000 BC. It is due to this that Damascus is considered to be among the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. However, Damascus is not documented as an important city until the coming of the Aramaeans, Semitic nomads who arrived from Mesopotamia. It is known that it was the Aramaeans who first established the water distribution system of Damascus by constructing canals and tunnels which maximized the efficiency of the Barada river. The same network was later improved by the Romans and the Umayyads, and still forms the basis of the water system of the old part of Damascus today. It was mentioned in Genesis 14 as existing at the time of the War of the Kings.

 

According to the 1st century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in his twenty-one volume Antiquities of the Jews, Damascus (along with Trachonitis), was founded by Uz, the son of Aram. Elsewhere, he stated:

 

Nicolaus of Damascus, in the fourth book of his History, says thus: "Abraham reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land above Babylon, called the land of the Chaldeans: but, after a long time, he got him up, and removed from that country also, with his people, and went into the land then called the land of Canaan, but now the land of Judea, and this when his posterity were become a multitude; as to which posterity of his, we relate their history in another work. Now the name of Abraham is even still famous in the country of Damascus; and there is shown a village named from him, The Habitation of Abraham.

 

Damascus is designated as having been part of the ancient province of Amurru in the Hyksos Kingdom, from 1720 to 1570 BC. (MacMillan, pp. 30–31). Some of the earliest Egyptian records are from the 1350 BC Amarna letters, when Damascus-(called Dimasqu) was ruled by king Biryawaza. In 1100 BC, the city became the center of a powerful Aramaean state called Aram Damascus. The Kings of Aram Damascus were involved in many wars in the area against the Assyrians and the Israelites. One of the Kings, Ben-Hadad II, fought Shalmaneser III at the Battle of Qarqar. The ruins of the Aramean town most probably lie under the eastern part of the old walled city. After Tiglath-Pileser III captured and destroyed the city in 732 BC, it lost its independence for hundreds of years, and it fell to the Neo-Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar starting in 572 BC. The Babylonian rule of the city came to an end in 538 BC when the Persians under Cyrus captured the city and made it the capital of the Persian province of Syria.

  

Greco-Roman

Damascus first came under western control with the giant campaign of Alexander the Great that swept through the near east. After the death of Alexander in 323 BC, Damascus became the site of a struggle between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires. The control of the city passed frequently from one empire to the other. Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander's generals, had made Antioch the capital of his vast empire, a decision that led Damascus' importance to decline compared with the newly founded Seleucid cities such as Latakia in the north.

 

In 64 BC, the Roman general Pompey annexed the western part of Syria. The Romans occupied Damascus and subsequently incorporated it into the league of ten cities known as the Decapolis because it was considered such an important center of Greco-Roman culture. According to the New Testament, St. Paul was on the road to Damascus when he received a vision, was struck blind and as a result converted to Christianity. In the year 37, Roman Emperor Caligula transferred Damascus into Nabataean control by decree.[citation needed] The Nabataean king Aretas IV Philopatris ruled Damascus from his capital Petra. However, around the year 106, Nabataea was conquered by the Romans, and Damascus returned to Roman control.

 

Damascus became a metropolis by the beginning of the second century and in 222 it was upgraded to a colonia by the Emperor Septimius Severus. During the Pax Romana, Damascus and the Roman province of Syria in general began to prosper. Damascus's importance as a caravan city was evident with the trade routes from southern Arabia, Palmyra, Petra, and the silk routes from China all converging on it. The city satisfied the Roman demands for eastern luxuries.

 

Little remains of the architecture of the Romans, but the town planning of the old city did have a lasting effect. The Roman architects brought together the Greek and Aramaean foundations of the city and fused them into a new layout measuring approximately 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) by 750 metres (2,500 ft), surrounded by a city wall. The city wall contained seven gates, but only the eastern gate (Bab Sharqi) remains from the Roman period. Roman Damascus lies mostly at depths of up to five meters (16.4 ft) below the modern city.

 

The old borough of Bab Tuma was developed at the end of the Roman/Byzantine era by the local Eastern Orthodox community. According to the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Paul and Saint Thomas both lived in that neighborhood. Roman Catholic historians also consider Bab Tuma to be the birthplace of several Popes such as John V and Gregory III.

  

Islamic Arab period

 

The Umayyad Mosque

Alsayyida Zaynab shrine domeDamascus was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate during the reign of Umar by forces under Khaled ibn al-Walid in 634 CE. Immediately thereafter, the city's power and prestige reached its peak when it became the capital of the Umayyad Empire, which extended from Spain to India from 661 to 750. In 744, the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, moved the capital to Harran in the Jazira,[3] and Damascus was never to regain the political prominence it had held in that period.

 

After the fall of the Umayyads and the establishment of the Abbasid caliphate in 750, Damascus was ruled from Baghdad, although in 858 al-Mutawakkil briefly established his residence there with the intention of transferring his capital there from Samarra. However, he soon abandoned the idea. As the Abbasid caliphate declined, Damascus suffered from the prevailing instability, and came under the control of local dynasties.

 

In 970, the Fatimid Caliphs in Cairo gained control of Damascus. This was to usher in a turbulent period in the city's history, as the Berber troops who formed the backbone of the Fatimid forces became deeply unpopular among its citizens. The presence in Syria of the Qaramita and occasionally of Turkish military bands added to the constant pressure from the Bedouin. For a brief period from 978, Damascus was self-governing, under the leadership of a certain Qassam and protected by a citizen militia. However, the Ghouta was ravaged by the Bedouin and after a Turkish-led campaign the city once again surrendered to Fatimid rule. From 1029 to 1041 the Turkish military leader Anushtakin was governor of Damascus under the Fatimid caliph Al-Zahir, and did much to restore the city's prosperity.

 

It appears that during this period the slow transformation of Damascus from a Graeco-Roman city layout - characterised by blocks of insulae — to a more familiar Islamic pattern took place: the grid of straight streets changed to a pattern of narrow streets, with most residents living inside harat closed off at night by heavy wooden gates to protect against criminals and the exactions of the soldiery.

  

Seljuks and Crusader rule

 

The statue of Saladin in front of Damascus citadel.

Azem Palace.

Damascus WallsWith the arrival of the Seljuk Turks in the late 11th century, Damascus again became the capital of independent states. It was ruled by a Seljuk dynasty from 1079 to 1104, and then by another Turkish dynasty - the Burid Emirs, who withstood a siege of the city during the Second Crusade in 1148 . In 1154 Damascus was conquered from the Burids by the famous Zengid Atabeg Nur ad-Din of Aleppo, the great foe of the Crusaders. He made it his capital, and following his death, it was acquired by Saladin, the ruler of Egypt, who also made it his capital. Saladin rebuilt the citadel, and it is reported that under his rule the suburbs were as extensive as the city itself. It is reported by Ibn Jubayr that during the time of Saladin, Damascus welcomed seekers of knowledge and industrious youth from around the world, who arrived for the sake of "undistracted study and seclusion" in Damascus' many colleges.

 

In the years following Saladin's death in 1193, there were frequent conflicts between different Ayyubid sultans ruling in Damascus and Cairo. Damascus was the capital of independent Ayyubid rulers between 1193 and 1201, from 1218 to 1238, from 1239 to 1245, and from 1250 to 1260. At other times it was ruled by the Ayyubid rulers of Egypt. Damascus steel gained a legendary reputation among the Crusaders, and patterned steel is still "damascened". The patterned Byzantine and Chinese silks available through Damascus, one of the Western termini of the Silk Road, gave the English language "damask".

  

Mamluk rule

Ayyubid rule (and independence) came to an end with the Mongol invasion of Syria in 1260, and following the Mongol defeat at Ain Jalut in the same year, Damascus became a provincial capital of the Mamluk Empire, ruled from Egypt, following the Mongol withdrawal.

  

Timurlane

In 1400 Timur, the Turco-Mongol conqueror, besieged Damascus. The Mamluk sultan dispatched a deputation from Cairo, including Ibn Khaldun, who negotiated with him, but after their withdrawal he put the city to sack. The Umayyad Mosque was burnt and men and women taken into slavery. A huge number of the city's artisans were taken to Timur's capital at Samarkand. These were the luckier citizens: many were slaughtered and their heads piled up in a field outside the north-east corner of the walls, where a city square still bears the name burj al-ru'us, originally "the tower of heads".

 

Rebuilt, Damascus continued to serve as a Mamluk provincial capital until 1516.

  

The Ottoman conquest

 

Khan As'ad Pasha was built in 1752In early 1516, the Ottoman Turks, wary of the danger of an alliance between the Mamluks and the Persian Safavids, started a campaign of conquest against the Mamluk sultanate. On 21 September, the Mamluk governor of Damascus fled the city, and on 2 October the khutba in the Umayyad mosque was pronounced in the name of Selim I. The day after, the victorious sultan entered the city, staying for three months. On 15 December, he left Damascus by Bab al-Jabiya, intent on the conquest of Egypt. Little appeared to have changed in the city: one army had simply replaced another. However, on his return in October 1517, the sultan ordered the construction of a mosque, taqiyya and mausoleum at the shrine of Shaikh Muhi al-Din ibn Arabi in al-Salihiyah. This was to be the first of Damascus' great Ottoman monuments.

 

The Ottomans remained for the next 400 years, except for a brief occupation by Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt from 1832 to 1840 . Because of its importance as the point of departure for one of the two great Hajj caravans to Mecca, Damascus was treated with more attention by the Porte than its size might have warranted — for most of this period, Aleppo was more populous and commercially more important. In 1560 the Taqiyya al-Sulaimaniyya, a mosque and khan for pilgrims on the road to Mecca, was completed to a design by the famous Ottoman architect Sinan, and soon afterwards a madrasa was built adjoining it.

  

The destroyed Christian quarter of Damascus, 1860.Perhaps the most notorious incident of these centuries was the massacre of Christians in 1860, when fighting between Druze (most probably supported by foreign countries to weaken the economical power) and Maronites in Mount Lebanon spilled over into the city. Several thousand Christians were killed, with many more being saved through the intervention of the Algerian exile Abd al-Qadir and his soldiers (three days after the massacre started), who brought them to safety in Abd al-Qadir's residence and the citadel. The Christian quarter of the old city (mostly inhabited by Catholics), including a number of churches, was burnt down. The Christian inhabitants of the notoriously poor and refractory Midan district outside the walls (mostly Orthodox) were, however, protected by their Muslim neighbours.

 

American Missionary E.C. Miller records that in 1867 the population of the city was 'about' 140,000, of whom 30,000 where Christians, 10,000 Jews and 100,000 'Mohammedans' with less than 100 Protestant Christians.[4]

  

Rise of Arab nationalism

In the early years of the twentieth century, nationalist sentiment in Damascus, initially cultural in its interest, began to take a political colouring, largely in reaction to the turkicisation programme of the Committee of Union and Progress government established in Istanbul in 1908. The hanging of a number of patriotic intellectuals by Jamal Pasha, governor of Damascus, in Beirut and Damascus in 1915 and 1916 further stoked nationalist feeling, and in 1918, as the forces of the Arab Revolt and the British army approached, residents fired on the retreating Turkish troops.

  

Modern

 

The Turkish Hospital in Damascus on 1 October 1918, shortly after the entry of the 4th Australian Light Horse Regiment.

Damascus in flames as the result of the French air raid on October 18, 1925.On 1 October 1918, the forces of the Arab revolt led by Nuri as-Said entered Damascus. The same day, Australian soldiers from the 4th and 10th Light Horse Regiments reinforced with detachments from the British Yeomanry Mounted Division entered the city and accepted its surrender from the Turkish appointed Governor Emir Said (installed as Governor the previous afternoon by the retreating Turkish Commander)[1][2]. A military government under Shukri Pasha was named. Other British forces including T. E. Lawrence followed later that day, and Faisal ibn Hussein was proclaimed king of Syria. Political tension rose in November 1917, when the new Bolshevik government in Russia revealed the Sykes-Picot Agreement whereby Britain and France had arranged to partition the Arab east between them. A new Franco-British proclamation on 17 November promised the "complete and definitive freeing of the peoples so long oppressed by the Turks." The Syrian Congress in March adopted a democratic constitution. However, the Versailles Conference had granted France a mandate over Syria, and in 1920 a French army commanded by the General Mariano Goybet crossed the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, defeated a small Syrian defensive expedition at the Battle of Maysalun and entered Damascus. The French made Damascus capital of their League of Nations Mandate of Syria.

 

When in 1925 the Druze revolt in the Hauran spread to Damascus, the French suppressed it brutally, bombing and shelling the city. The area of the old city between Al-Hamidiyah Souq and Medhat Pasha Souq was burned to the ground, with many deaths, and has since then been known as al-Hariqa ("the fire"). The old city was surrounded with barbed wire to prevent rebels infiltrating from the Ghouta, and a new road was built outside the northern ramparts to facilitate the movement of armored cars.

 

On 21 June 1941, Damascus was captured from the Vichy French forces by the Allies during the Syria-Lebanon campaign.

 

In 1945 the French once more bombed Damascus, but on this occasion British forces intervened and the French agreed to withdraw, thus leading to the full independence of Syria in 1946 . Damascus remained the capital. With the influx of Iraqi refugees beginning in 2003, and funds from the Persian Gulf, Damascus has been going through an economic boom ever since.

  

Geography

 

Damascus in spring seen from Spot satelliteDamascus lies about 80 km (50 mi) inland from the Mediterranean Sea, sheltered by the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. It lies on a plateau 680 metres (2,200 ft) above sea-level.

 

The old city of Damascus, enclosed by the city walls, lies on the south bank of the river Barada which is almost dry(3 cm left). To the south-east, north and north-east it is surrounded by suburban areas whose history stretches back to the Middle Ages: Midan in the south-west, Sarouja and Imara in the north and north-west. These districts originally arose on roads leading out of the city, near the tombs of religious figures. In the nineteenth century outlying villages developed on the slopes of Jabal Qasioun, overlooking the city, already the site of the al-Salihiyah district centred around the important shrine of Sheikh Muhi al-Din ibn Arabi. These new districts were initially settled by Kurdish soldiery and Muslim refugees from the European regions of the Ottoman Empire which had fallen under Christian rule. Thus they were known as al-Akrad (the Kurds) and al-Muhajirin (the migrants). They lay two to three kilometres (2 mi) north of the old city.

 

From the late nineteenth century on, a modern administrative and commercial centre began to spring up to the west of the old city, around the Barada, centred on the area known as al-Marjeh or the meadow. Al-Marjeh soon became the name of what was initially the central square of modern Damascus, with the city hall on it. The courts of justice, post office and railway station stood on higher ground slightly to the south. A Europeanised residential quarter soon began to be built on the road leading between al-Marjeh and al-Salihiyah. The commercial and administrative centre of the new city gradually shifted northwards slightly towards this area.

 

In the twentieth century, newer suburbs developed north of the Barada, and to some extent to the south, invading the Ghouta oasis. From 1955 the new district of Yarmouk became a second home to thousands of Palestinian refugees. City planners preferred to preserve the Ghouta as far as possible, and in the later twentieth century some of the main areas of development were to the north, in the western Mezzeh district and most recently along the Barada valley in Dummar in the northwest and on the slopes of the mountains at Berze in the north-east. Poorer areas, often built without official approval, have mostly developed south of the main city.

 

Damascus used to be surrounded by an oasis, the Ghouta region (الغوطة al-ġūṭä), watered by the Barada river. The Fijeh spring, west along the Barada valley, used to provides the city with drinking water. The Ghouta oasis has been decreasing in size with the rapid expansion of housing and industry in the city and it is almost dry. It has also become polluted due to the city's traffic, industry, and sewage.

  

Climate

Damascus' climate is semi arid, due to rain shadow effect of Anti-Lebanon mountain. Summers are hot with less humidity. Winters are cool and rainy or snowy. January Maximum & Minimum Temperatures are 11 °C (52 °F) and 0 °C (32 °F), lowest ever recorded are −13.5 °C (8 °F), The summer August Maximum & Minimum Temperature are 35 °C (95 °F) and 17 °C (63 °F), Highest ever recorded are 45.5 °C (113.9 °F), Annual rainfall around 20 cm (8 in), occur from November to March.[5]

 

Weather averages for Damascus

Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year

Average high °C (°F) 11

(53) 13

(57) 17

(64) 23

(74) 28

(84) 33

(92) 36

(96) 36

(96) 33

(91) 27

(81) 19

(67) 13

(56) 24

(76)

Average low °C (°F) 0

(33) 2

(36) 4

(40) 7

(46) 11

(52) 14

(58) 16

(62) 17

(63) 13

(57) 9

(49) 4

(40) 1

(35) 8

(48)

Precipitation cm (inches) 3

(1.5) 3

(1.3) 2

(0.9) 1

(0.5) 0

(0.2) 0

(0) 0

(0) 0

(0) 0

(0) 1

(0.4) 2

(1) 4

(1.7) 19

(7.6)

Source: Weatherbase[5] 2008

  

Demographics

 

People

 

Three Damascene women; lady wearing qabqabs, a Druze, and a peasant, 1873.The majority of the population in Damascus came as a result of rural-urban migration. It is believed that the local people of Damascus, called Damascene, are about 1.5 million. Damascus is considered by most people to be a very safe city. Haggling is common, especially in the traditional souks. Corruption is widespread, but in the past few years there have been aims at combating it, by both the government and non-governmental organizations. Tea, Mate (popular caffeinated beverage made from Yerba mate), and Turkish Coffee are the most common beverages in Damascus.

 

Religion

The majority of the inhabitants of Damascus—about 75%—are Sunni Muslims. It is believed that there are more than 2,000 mosques in Damascus, the most well-known being the Umayyad Mosque. Christians represent the remaining 15% and there a number of Christian districts, such as Bab Tuma, Kassaa, and Ghassani, with many churches, most notably the ancient Chapel of Saint Paul.

  

Historical sites

 

House of Saint AnaniasDamascus has a wealth of historical sites dating back to many different periods of the city's history. Since the city has been built up with every passing occupation, it has become almost impossible to excavate all the ruins of Damascus that lie up to 8 feet (2.4 m) below the modern level. The Citadel of Damascus is located in the northwest corner of the Old City. The Street Called Straight (referred to in the conversion of St. Paul in Acts 9:11), also known as the Via Recta, was the decumanus (East-West main street) of Roman Damascus, and extended for over 1,500 metres (4,900 ft). Today, it consists of the street of Bab Sharqi and the Souk Medhat Pasha, a covered market. The Bab Sharqi street is filled with small shops and leads to the old Christian quarter of Bab Tuma (St. Thomas's Gate). Souk Medhat Pasha is also a main market in Damascus and was named after Medhat Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Syria who renovated the Souk. At the end of the Bab Sharqi street, one reaches the House of Ananias, an underground chapel that was the cellar of Ananias's house. The Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Grand Mosque of Damascus, is one of the largest mosques in the world, and one of the oldest sites of continuous prayer since the rise of Islam. A shrine in the mosque is said to contain the head of Husayn ibn Ali and the body of St. John the Baptist. The mausoleum where Saladin was buried is located in the gardens just outside the mosque. Sayyidah Ruqayya Mosque, the shrine of the yongest daughter of Husayn ibn Ali, can also be found near the Umayyad Mosque. Another heavily visited site is Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque, which is the tomb of Zaynab bint Ali.

  

The walls and gates of Damascus

v • d • eOld City of Damascus

 

Azm PalaceDamascus

CitadelUmayyad Mosque

Gates

al-Jabiya · al-Saghir · Kisan · Sharqi · Tuma · al-Salam · Faradis

The Old City of Damascus is surrounded by ramparts on the northern and eastern sides and part of the southern side. There are seven extant city gates, the oldest of which dates back to the Roman period. These are, clockwise from the north of the citadel:

 

Bab al-Saghir (The Small Gate)

Bab al-Faradis ("the gate of the orchards", or "of the paradise")

Bab al-Salam ("the gate of peace"), all on the north boundary of the Old City

Bab Tuma ("Touma" or "Thomas's Gate") in the north-east corner, leading into the Christian quarter of the same name,

Bab Sharqi ("eastern gate") in the east wall, the only one to retain its Roman plan

Bab Kisan in the south-east, from which tradition holds that Saint Paul made his escape from Damascus, lowered from the ramparts in a basket; this gate is now closed and a chapel marking the event has been built into the structure,

Bab al-Jabiya at the entrance to Souk Midhat Pasha, in the south-west.

Other areas outside the walled city also bear the name "gate": Bab al-Faraj, Bab Mousalla and Bab Sreija, both to the south-west of the walled city.

  

Churches in the old city

 

The Minaret of the Bride, Umayyad Mosque in old Damascus.

Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque

Sayyidah Ruqayya MosqueCathedral of Damascus.

Virgin Mary's Cathedral.

House of Saint Ananias.

Chapel of Saint Paul.

The Roman Catholic Cathedral in Zaitoon (Olive) Alley.

The Damascene Saint Johan church.

Saint Paul's Laura.

Saint Georgeus's sanctuary.

 

Islamic sites in the old city

Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque

Sayyidah Ruqayya Mosque

Bab Saghir cemetery

Umayyad Mosque

Saladin Shrine.

 

Madrasas

Al-Adiliyah Madrasa.

Az-Zahiriyah Library.

Nur al-Din Madrasa.

 

Old Damascene houses

Azm Palace

Bayt al-Aqqad (Danish Institute in Damascus)

Maktab Anbar

Beit al-Mamlouka (Boutique Hotel)

 

Khans

Khan Jaqmaq

Khan As'ad Pasha

Khan Sulayman Pasha

 

Threats to the future of the old City

Due to the rapid decline of the population of Old Damascus (between 1995-2005 more than 20,000 people moved out of the old city for more modern accommodation), a growing number of buildings are being abandoned or are falling into disrepair. In March 2007, the local government announced that it would be demolishing Old City buildings along a 1,400-metre (4,600 ft) stretch of rampart walls as part of a redevelopment scheme. These factors resulted in the Old City being placed by the World Monuments Fund on its 2008 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in the world. It is hoped that its inclusion on the list will draw more public awareness to these significant threats to the future of the historic Old City of Damascus.

  

Current state of old Damascus

In spite of the recommendations of the UNESCO World Heritage Center:[3]

 

Souk El Atik, a protected buffer zone, was destroyed in three days in November 2006;

King Faysal Street, a traditional hand-craft region in a protected buffer zone near the walls of Old Damascus between the Citadel and Bab Touma, is threatened by a proposed motorway.

In 2007, the Old City of Damascus and notably the district of Bab Tuma have been recognized by The World Monument Fund as one of the most endangered sites in the world.[4]

 

Subdivisions

 

The ancient city of Damascus around the Omayyad Mosque

Azmeh Square in downtown DamascusDamascus is divided into many districts. Among them there are:

 

Abbasiyyin

Abou Rummaneh

Amara

Bahsa

Baramkah

Barzeh

Dummar

Jobar

Kafar Souseh

Malki

Mazraa

Mezzeh

Midan

Muhajreen

Qanawat

Rukn Eddeen

Al-Salihiyah

Sarouja

Sha'alan

Shaghoor

Tijara

 

ducation

Damascus is the main center of education in Syria. It is home to Damascus University, which is the oldest and by far the largest university in Syria. After the enactment of legislation allowing private secondary institutions, several new universities were established in the city and in the surrounding area.

  

Universities

 

Damascus National Museum.Damascus University

Syrian Virtual University

International University for Science and Technology

Higher Institute of Business Administration (HIBA)

Higher Institute for Applied Science and Technology (HIAST)

University of Kalamoon

Arab European University

National Institute of Administration

 

Transportation

 

Al-Hijaz StationThe main airport is Damascus International Airport, approximately 20 km (12 mi) away from the city center, with connections to many Asian, Europe, African, and recently, South American cities. Streets in Damascus are often narrow, mostly in the older parts of the city, and speed bumps are widely used to limit the speed.

 

Public transport in Damascus depends extensively on minibuses. There are about one hundred lines that operate inside the city and some of them extend from the city center to nearby suburbs. There is no schedule for the lines, and due to the limited number of official bus stops, buses will usually stop wherever a passenger needs to get on or off. The number of buses serving the same line is relatively high, which minimizes the waiting time. Lines are not numbered, rather they are given captions mostly indicating the two end points and possibly an important station along the line.

 

Al-Hijaz railway station, lies in the city center. Currently this station is closed, and railway connections with other cities take place in a suburb.

 

In 2008, the government announced a plan to construct an underground system in Damascus with opening time for the green line scheduled for 2015 Damascus Metro

  

Culture

Damascus was the 2008 Arab Capital of Culture.

  

Museums

National Museum of Damascus

Azem Palace

Military Museum

Museum of Arabic Calligraphy

 

Leisure activities

 

Damascus by night, pictured from Jabal Qasioun; the green spots are minarets

Parks and gardens

Tishreen Park is by far the largest park in Damascus. It is home to the yearly held Damascus Flower Show. Other parks include Aljahiz, Al sibbki, Altijara and Alwahda. Damascus' Ghouta (Oasis) is also a popular destination for recreation.

  

Cafe culture

Cafes are popular meeting spots for Damascene, where Arghilehs (water pipes) and popular beverages are served. Card games, Tables (backgammon variants), and chess are common in these cafes.

  

Sports

Popular sports include football, basketball, swimming and table tennis. Damascus is home to many sports clubs, such as:

 

Al Jaish

Al Wahda

Al Majd

Barada

 

Nearby attractions

Madaya

Bloudan

Zabadani

Maaloula

Saidnaya

 

Born in Damascus

Hadadezer King of Aram Damascus and leader of the coalition the 12 kings coalition that fought against Shalmaneser III

Nicolaus of Damascus (historian and philosopher)

John of Damascus (676-749) Christian saint

Ananias (Christian disciple involved in healing and preaching to Paul the Apostle)

Sophronius (Patriarch of Jerusalem)

Abd ar-Rahman I, Founder of Omayyad dynasty in Cordoba.

Izzat Husrieh, A renowned journalist and founder of the Syrian labor unions.

Khalid al-Azm, Former prime minister of Syria.

Shukri al-Quwatli, Former Syrian president and co-founder of the United Arab Republic.

Muna Wassef ( A Movie Star, and a United Nations Goodwill ambassador.)

Damascius (Byzantine philosopher)

Yasser Seirawan (chess player)

Ahmed Kuftaro (former grand mufti of Syria)

Ikram Antaki (Mexican writer)

Ghada al-Samman (novelist)

Nizar Qabbani (poet)

Michel Aflaq (political thinker and co-founder of the Baath Party)

Salah al-Din al-Bitar (political thinker and co-founder of the Baath Party)

Constantin Zureiq (academic and Arab nationalist intellectual)

Zakaria Tamer (writer)

Professor Aziz Al-Azmeh (academic, PhD in Oriental Studies)

Nazir Ismail (Artist)

Sheik Bashir Al Bani (Grand Sheik in Syria)

Mehdi Mourtada (Famous journalist and founder of WAS News Agency.

 

Anyone who has a 4 year old can probably relate to this.

 

Olympus XA

Ilford FP4

The title relates to the influence on me by the late Bill Brandt who famously shot this scene originally.

 

This is not what he shot (or published at least) but I have replicated that shot also, see 'Homage' in this album.

 

Although my shot is different to Brandt's famous image, I have tried to produce it in his style - heavy shadows with contrasting light. Although my Canon 5D2 is not the best for dynamic range it still managed to record a lot of detail in the shadows and mid tones which I've darkened. I also shot this image at ISO6400 for a maximum grainy effect as I was only ever going to convert the original RAW colour file into B&W.

 

It's probably my favourite shot of the day.

 

Trevor close-up, sitting outside the Russell Hotel. He was kind enough to share a couple of stories around how he acquired his tattoos over the course of his life. I have discovered that I am fascinated with people and the wealth of all the types and shapes of their bodies and how they feel within them and relate to them. Trevor struck me as very comfortable in his own skin. His naturalness of being exposed is something I grapple with.

 

This picture was taken with a Hasselblad *503CX camera, using a Zeiss Planar 2,8 80mm lens, with a digital sensor attached to the back of the unit.

Nyxie Phoenix here with a story so dystopian that the slogan "abandon all hope, ye who enter" cannot warn you away enough. Don't read this with ordinary spectacles, you will need goggles like mine and a flask of gin and tonic laced with chamomile to suppress your nerve endings as I relate the tale known to sewer alligators and those who creep about the city at night as, "The Contagion".

 

You're all worried about the coronavirus. Little do you realize it's nothing compared to what's lurking out there.

 

I was a normal girl living a normal life in the city until my phone rang this evening. It was my friend Six, who shares my apartment, and she sounded hysterical.

 

"Nyx, come to the warehouse at White and Fifth. Get my laser gun and radiation detector from under my bed and try to get some holy water or at least rubbing alcohol. It's the big red brick building on the southeast corner. You'll need a good flashlight, there's one in my sock drawer. Don't -- "

 

The line went dead.

 

"Six?" Nothing.

 

Radiation detector? Laser gun? ... Holy water? Six was a pretty sober kind of girl who kept herself to herself but maybe she was into some weird drugs. She sounded very freaked out, though, so I guessed I could at least look under her bed.

 

Sure enough, the gun and detector were there. This was pretty strange. Not being a vampire hunter I didn't have much in the way of holy water but I poured some rubbing alcohol into a bottle. I got the flashlight from the sock drawer. It was small enough to fit in my pocket but had a wide bulb that emitted a high-powered beam. Why did she have all this stuff?

 

Are you really going to do this?

 

I didn't stop to answer myself so I guessed the answer was yes. I grabbed my jacket and went out into the night.

 

The building at the corner of White and Fifth had seen better days. The bricks were dark with grime, the windows shattered. It looked pretty grim under the streetlights. Six hadn't said anything about a way in; surely the doors must be locked.

 

As I surveyed the building something that looked like a pale wisp of smoke moved at top speed across my vision. I blinked and it was gone.

 

Ok, weird.

 

The big doors at the front were chained shut but eventually I found a small door around the back that I could pull open. It was pitch black inside and smelled damp and stale. I switched on my flashlight.

 

Now what?

 

I decided to keep to the wall, not wanting to step out into the middle of the room and lose my bearings. I could hear my breathing and heartbeat. I moved the flashlight in slow, steady sweeps, trying to ignore the whitish wisps that seemed to dance at the edge of my vision.

 

Eventually I worked my way around the room and came to another door. This led to a new room, and when I moved the flashlight it caught a pale thing on the floor. I cautiously moved towards it. It was a crumpled sheet of paper.

 

Shining the light on it, I read:

 

"I know it's already too late. Have to warn about the geists. I don't think anyone will believe how many are already infected. I think they go in through the mouth or nose while we're sleeping but we can also breathe them in while we're awake. The changed ones are cunning and can act human, but they aren't. It spreads through a breath, a kiss, a whisper. I think they emit some low-level radiation I can pick up. It may be the test so we can see who is still human. The infected will have to be cleansed. A spray of holy water might work if they're in geist form and rubbing alcohol seems to deter them, but once they're in a body I think we'll have to go for the kill. I can't reach Control any longer and I don't know if there are other agents in the field. I cannot contain this by myself. Millions may already be infected, maybe governments and military. I may have to reach out to"

 

That was all there was.

 

I wondered if this was a setup. Was I being filmed on hidden night vision camera for some stupid ghost-hunting show or was this a unique invitation to some rave? Was Six mentally ill or --

 

Again the whiteness hovering in my peripheral vision. I turned my head. Nothing there.

 

This was crazy, but I was really spooked. Alone in a dark warehouse at night, who wouldn't be?

 

And where was Six?

 

I put the paper in my pocket and kept moving through a series of doors until I saw light shining under one of them. Who was inside? Dared I go through? It was the only way to find out and I opened the door.

 

I squinted at the light in the room, as my eyes were used to the dark. There was a desk with a computer, a few chairs, some boxes of equipment and a few techie things around the room I didn't recognize. And at the desk sat Six. She turned and smiled.

 

"Hi Nyx," she said.

 

"What the hell, Six? What is this place? Why are you here? Why did you call me?"

 

Six laughed.

 

"Sorry to upset you. Actually I'm working on something for my company. It's a kind of game, you know Pokémon Go? Well, a bit like that, but more of a scavenger hunt in meatspace. It doesn't really use phones except for the initial contact, but there are some special effects we rigged in the destinations. I don't know if you noticed some pale apparitions when you came in?"

 

"You brought me out here just for a game? Are you crazy? I thought something was really wrong! And that crazy list of stuff --"

 

Six looked apologetic. "Sorry Nyx. I just wanted to test the initial concept. It's still pretty roughly worked-out, and of course the things you brought were just props. I thought you'd see the funny side. It'll be pretty exciting when we get it to the beta stage. Meanwhile, I think I have a flask of gin somewhere. Let's have a drink and then we can go home together."

 

She got busy with the flask and a bottle of tonic. Watching her, I felt something stirring in my mind. She was so easy, so relaxed, nothing like the tone of her phone call, nothing like the controlled panic of the paper I'd found. Her story didn't match what I'd read.

 

Was Six lying to me?

 

She held out a drink. "Sorry it's warm. You aren't still mad, are you?"

 

I forced a smile. "You scared the hell out of me, Six. I hope this game's going to be worth it."

 

"It'll go viral," said Six, and the ghost of a smile crossed her lips. For a minute I was scared to taste the drink -- was she going to poison or drug me? -- but I needed that drink right now. I took a sip and it seemed fine.

 

Six was watching me. Did she suspect something? I hadn't mentioned the paper to her and I realized I wasn't going to.

 

"Cool special effects," I said, trying to sound natural.

 

"Yup," said Six. "We're proud of them. Here, try these." She handed over some goggles.

 

I put them on and nearly jumped out of my skin. All around us, flying through the air, were.... things.

 

They were wispy like smoke, pale in colour, but had what looked like faces which kept shifting and re-forming. Their expression was malevolent and as they darted around the room they cast glances at me out of shadowy eyes. I ripped the goggles off my face and they vanished.

 

"You can see them a little without goggles if the room's very dark, but if it's lit up you need them," said Six.

 

"Are they some kind of computer generated projection?" I asked.

 

"Something like that," said Six. "Anyhow, I guess I've worked late enough tonight. Let's get home."

 

On the way home I kept thinking I saw flashes of light at the corners of my eyes. Six went straight to her room after we got in. I asked her if I could keep the "props" as souvenirs and she hesitated, but then she said, almost to herself, "Why not? It's not as if you know how to -- it's not as if you can do any harm with them."

 

I'm sitting in my room now. I'm very scared. I don't know what to do.

 

I believe the paper. I believe Six was trying to contact me and she wrote that note and then something happened to her. Like she said, "they go in through the mouth or nose.... we can breathe them in".

 

Six is infected.

 

I can't trust her. She's pretending everything's all right. But this is no game. I've seen the -- geists? How many have they infected already? Governments and military, she wrote. If that's true, this could be the end of the human race.

 

I'm sitting on my bed with the lights out. I'm writing this on my phone. I'll try to get it up on the Net somewhere. I haven't seen any white wisps but I can't be sure. I can't go to sleep or they may get me. I saw Six put the goggles in her pocket. Maybe I'll sneak out and try to steal them. Then I can see them with the lights on. I'll sprinkle myself with the rubbing alcohol and I'll try to figure out the radiation detector. I'll try to make it through the night.

 

But then what? Who can I tell? Who can I trust?

 

Something white just flashed past the corner of my eye. This may be my last moment of being human. If you are reading this, protect yourself. Get a radiation detector. Get holy water. Arm yourself. Don't go to sleep.

 

May we all make it through somehow. This is Nyxie Phoenix saying good night and goodbye.

 

The End

   

Uses: Anything relating to finance and money.

 

Free Creative Commons Finance Images... I created these images in my studio and have made them all available for personal or commercial use. Hope you like them and find them useful.

 

To see more of our CC by 2.0 finance images click here... see profile for attribution.

 

Inspiration: looking deeply into money, currency, finance, savings, investing, stocks, bonds, etc.

 

From Wikipedia relating to the original structure:

 

For the Canadian Centennial in 1967, the City of Calgary elected to undertake, as a civic project, the construction of a new planetarium. This choice was reflective of the interest in space exploration that was prominent in the 1960s. A design competition was held in 1964 for the new building. Advised by the director of the architecture department at the University of British Columbia, Henry Elder, the three finalists were McMillan Long, Gordon Atkins, and Bill Boucock. The design by the firm of McMillan Long and Associates was eventually selected as the winner. This firm had been established in 1964 between Hugh McMillan and Jack Long, and lasted until 1969, at which time McMillan retired. The Centennial Planetarium was built between 1966 and 1967 by Sam Hashman.

 

Built on a site north of Mewata Armouries overlooking the Bow River, the Planetarium is constructed of raw concrete and features non-orthogonal design. Designed around a central bay, the building has two main wings. The west wing holds the "celestial theatre," a 255-seat theatre with a 65-foot domed screen. The east wing holds a 250-seat lecture hall. The Planetarium also contains a library, observation deck, and telescopes.

 

In 1967 the Planetarium won the Nation Design Council Concrete Award, and in 1970 the Massey Medal in Architecture.

 

From 1971 to 1985, the Planetarium also housed the collection of aircraft, aero engines, and associated reference library that became the basis of the Hangar Flight Museum. [1]

 

In 1984 the Calgary Science Centre moved into the Centennial Planetarium. It would occupy the space for the next 27 years.

 

The Science Centre moved into a new building in 2011, leaving the Planetarium empty or under-utilized until Contemporary Calgary acquired it. After extensive renovations, the building reopened as Calgary's premier modern art gallery.

Uses: Anything relating to finance and money.

 

Free Creative Commons Finance Images... I created these images in my studio and have made them all available for personal or commercial use. Hope you like them and find them useful.

 

To see more of our CC by 2.0 finance images click here... see profile for attribution.

 

Inspiration: Receiving money. Earning money. Investing. Cost of living. Saving money... etc.

 

URGENT: the thief is back, please relate the abuse then flickr can remove this person again...

www.flickr.com/people/chuvatardia/.

report: www.flickr.com/abuse/

 

- my first film photo :) i feel proud of myself 4 now =p

- this little is Gina, the giraffe (i bought her coz i lov the app Talking Gina haha)

Nikon F100 Nikon AF Nikkor 70-210mm f/4 PanF DDX 1+4 12/18/2025

Here is another scan and retouch that relates some history... and needs help from Edna to stand up. It was snapped of Katherine at Alice's Wild Basin cabin at the Copeland Lake area, the south end of Rocky Mtn. National Park. Grandmother, Alice, spent every summer at her cabin right near the Wild Basin Lodge. The one-year-old and mother is at the porch steps on the south side of the cabin. The pine is the balsam by the steps in the background that Granny watered regularly. Down the hill, the North St.Vrain River scrambled down the canyon. It was filled with all those trout. Alice kept her fly rod on nails on the porch above. It was quick to grab on her way down to the river. The cabin was ever a mellow place to stay in 1943 and anytime later.

 

Talk about a mellow place to stay, the entire world would like to pack in here this summer as Global Warming ramps up. It snowed on me at Wild Basin one July. Now, at Longmont, the nights are seldom dropping to 60 and below so far. So much for T-Rump's Tirade against the Environment (his TTE - Trade the Environment for cash policy); it's starting to really pay off with rain in the Arctic and state sized bergs calving in the Antarctic.

 

The water supply for the uninsulated cabin was pumped directly from the river when there was no thought about the quality of the water supply. Do I remember something about tumbling streams oxygenating themselves in a 1/4 mile? Nobody ever gave a thought about drinking from the stream that fed Longmont's water supply.

 

As usual, dust on the negative and contact printing left untold flecks, white and black, and garbage across the image. In close, it looks like a shotgun blast. As always, it provides plenty of practice whether needed or not. I used the same two techniques, the Stamp and Brush to work on the image. Unfortunately, the scanner usually features all the defects on old snaps like this. I suppose that it will always be possible that this family will exchange the digital retouching and spread them far enough that my labor won't be entirely wasted.

 

I gang output these to high resolution PDFs that can be printed at home of taken to Fed-X Kinkos for their color printing. I have enough to output another sheet. Their output never seems to waver from the quality of the PDF. Trimming them with scissors, especially the deckle edges, will be a challenge.

  

Photographer: P H Jauncey. PAColl-1296-2-07. Lucy Taylor photographs relating to Wellington Girls’ College, Alexander Turnbull Library

 

An expanded version was published in FishHead magazine, January 2014.

 

Here we are at the Wellington Girls’ College in Thorndon. It is Parents’ Day, 1927, and the girls are giving a demonstration of Swedish drill. This particular move was called the halfway side falling position and was designed to strengthen the side muscles. An instruction booklet of the time stresses that it should be done without bending the knees or letting the hips sink. The girls seem very proficient.

 

By the 1920s Swedish drill was seen as the state-of-the-art in girls’ physical education. The flexing, lunging and balancing movements are not dissimilar to some exercise programmes today, and the loose tunics worn here were certainly an improvement on the restrictive clothing these girls’ mothers would have had to wear for any outdoor activity.

 

Less modern was the strict regimentation. In the years between the wars such military-like manoeuvrings were a popular part of organised activity for the young. In the same year as this photograph was taken, the outdoor highlight for many Wellington school children was a tightly choreographed welcome to the Duke of York at Newtown Park. Theyformed themselves into a living union jack. Other examples of uniformed mass choreography for young people included the uniquely New Zealand phenomenon of marching girls that emerged in the 1930s.

 

Mrs Taylor, the head of the College’s physical training programme, was an innovator, though. In particular she ignored some of her how-to-do-drill textbooks and enjoyed mixing her Swedish drill instruction with music and dance.

 

The girls in this photograph no doubt also took part in one of the highlights of the school year – Mrs Taylor’s annual “gymnastic display.” In 1927 it was at the Opera House. In addition to Swedish drill, the newspaper advertisements promised “Lantern marching, Cymbals, Wands, Poi Dances, Spanish Dances, Thunder, Rain and Frost,” all of which were ambitiously worked into a “Fairy Folk Tales of the Maori” theme, based on James Cowan’s recently published children’s book of the same name.

 

Go to this image's record

 

Read a review of the Opera House gymnastic display

 

Wellingtonians: From the Turnbull Collections contains a selection of the entries from this Flickr set, and some new ones too. This high-quality publication costs just $29.99. You can pick it up at good bookshops or from the publisher, Steele Roberts.

The following is an excerpt of a blog written by Tim Dees who relates his experiences working for Silva's in the mid 1970's.

 

Link: timdees.com/blog/?p=375

 

The ambulances were pink, because that was the owner’s wife’s favorite color. Pink bed linen, and when I got there, they were just moving away from pink shirts, as they were too difficult to find. Bob Silva never bought a new ambulance. They were all used Cadillacs, as he believed a used Cadillac was much classier than a new van-type that actually ran. I was taking a woman in labor to a hospital in San Francisco when the tranny gave up the ghost in Hunter’s Point. I’d told Bob the day before that it was on its last legs, and he advised that I should shut up and drive what I was given to drive. We were dead in the water, and just barely within radio range to call for another rig to take our patient.

 

The county came out with some new regs for gear that had to be on the rig, and one requirement was an obstetrics kit. Pre-packaged OB kits from Dyna-Med were $7.50 each. Silva bought one. He put it on a rig, sent it to be inspected, then brought that one back and put the same kit on the next rig to be inspected. When it was finally left in the rig he usually drove, he wrapped it in strapping tape to discourage anyone from actually using it. It wasn’t like we didn’t need OB kits. I delivered three babies while I worked there.

 

The electronic sirens we’re so used to now were just coming into widespread use in the 1970s. Most of our ambulances were equipped with mechanical sirens that wound up slowly when activated. They had brakes on them, and if you forgot to brake the siren before you left the rig, it would take a minute or more to wind down, growling the whole time. The big daddy of these mechanical sirens was the Federal Q2. Some of these are still in use on fire engines. The Q2 is a massive thing, and drew so much power that the engine would knock when you leaned on the button too long—the spark plugs didn’t get enough voltage. Few man-made things are as loud as a Q2. One day, while en route back to the station with a new attendant, I stopped at a Safeway for some groceries. I left the attendant in the rig, telling him to tap the siren if we got a call. When the call came in, he didn’t tap on the horn ring that activated the siren—he held it down. The ambulance was parked facing the store and its large plate glass windows. I heard the siren, then heard the window start to reverberate in its frame as it resonated with the blast of sonic waves—“whap-whap-whap-whapwhapWhapWhapWHAPWHAPWHAP.” I made it back to the rig, screaming ineffectively, before the window shattered.

 

Between the mechanical siren, separate heater for the rear compartment, more blinking lights than a Vegas casino, etc., the ambulances needed a lot of electrical power. A single battery would be dead before you got to the hospital, so most ambulances had two car batteries, cross-connected via a big rotary Cole-Hersee switch. The switch, which looked a little like the access cover to your house’s sewer cleanout pipe, had four positions: Battery One, Battery Two, Both, and Off. “Both” was the usual setting, but when the rig was parked, it was common to switch it to “Off,” so the batteries wouldn’t be drained if you had forgotten to turn something off. This effectively disconnected the batteries from the rest of the rig. If you wanted to have some fun with another crew, you could turn everything in their rig on, but leave the Cole-Hersee switch off. When they turned it back on, hilarity would ensue.

 

The gear we had in these ambulances was very basic, and most of us purchased and brought our own equipment to work, rather than provide inferior care for our patients. I bought my own stethoscope and sphygmomanometer (blood pressure cuff), chemical cold packs, wire ladder splints, ammonia “wake up gizmo” ampules, etc. Consumable supplies, such as self-adhering Kerlix bandages and waterproof tape, were stolen from the hospitals. The bandages we had on board, furnished by the company, were made of crumbling linen material from the Korean War era. Oropharyngeal airways were supposed to be either used once and discarded, or autoclaved between patients, but we had neither replacement airways or an autoclave, so we wiped them clean with alcohol and hoped for the best.

 

Our suction apparatus was powered through the engine’s vacuum manifold. Suction power went to zero when the engine was accelerating. If you were trying to clear gunk from a patient’s airway while your driver was flooring it, you’d tell him to coast until you had made some progress.

 

We weren’t allowed to say someone was dead, even if the flesh was falling from their bones. Law enforcement officers could make that determination, but doing so meant they would have to remain at the scene until the coroner arrived, which could take hours. This being the case, many officers chose to see some glimmer of life in corpses long past resurrection. We responded to an “11-80” (traffic accident with serious injuries) attended by a member of the California Highway Patrol to find a pickup truck that had rolled over with an unfortunate passenger in the back. The passenger had not quite been decapitated, as his head was hanging by a few strips of flesh. This was one of the more obvious dead people I had encountered, but the Chippie ordered us to run him in. Getting the body onto the gurney had the same effect achieved in kosher slaughterhouses, where the neck veins are severed and the blood is allowed to drain from the carcass. By the time we got to the hospital, the floor of the rear compartment was literally awash in blood, with it sloshing over my boots. I called the office and told them we would be out of service for a while.

 

This pre-dated the AIDS scare, and even though hepatitis and other bloodborne pathogens were just as nasty then as now (and there was no vaccine), we had no latex gloves to wear. Back then, gloves were worn by medical people to protect the patient from infection. There wasn’t a lot of thought given to protecting the caregivers. I remember cleaning up after an especially gruesome call and thinking that I wasn’t just cleaning something, but rather someone, out from under my fingernails.

 

One case where we didn’t have to transport was at the home of an older gentleman. I never knew the circumstances that prompted the call, but we arrived a few minutes after the fire department and before the cops. As we walked up to the house, the firemen were walking out, chuckling to one another. “He’s dead!” they said with some amusement. We entered the bedroom to find an older man lying supine on top of his bed, naked. Rigor had set in, so he had been gone for some time. What the firefighters found so funny was that the man had expired while engaged in an act of self-pleasure, and still had the weapon in hand. My partner and I looked at each other and registered much the same expression the firemen had. As we walked out, the cops were just arriving. “He’s dead!” we told them. I suppose there are worse ways to go, but that’s not how I want to be found.

 

I ran a lot of calls at Silva’s. The shifts were 120 hours long–yes, five days straight. You got paid straight time ($2.00/hour in 1974) for the first eight hours, a guaranteed time-and-a-half for five more hours, and were unpaid for three hours of meals, whether you actually got to eat them or not. Between midnight and eight in the morning, you got overtime for the time you were actually in service on the call. If you rolled and were cancelled two minutes out–which was common–you got two minutes of overtime. I swear some of those rigs could find their own way home, because there were many nights I have no memory of having driven them there. When my days off finally arrived, I would usually sleep through at least one of them.

 

The full Silva’s uniform was a sartorial delight. Each time they would give me a new uniform article, it would fall to a mysteriously tragic end, so I wore a white shirt, navy blue knit slacks, and a nylon bomber jacket. If you wanted to show you were management material, the required outfit consisted of a white (formerly pink) shirt with royal blue trousers and Ike jacket. The trousers had white piping down each leg, as did the cuffs of the jacket. On each shoulder of the Ike jacket was a huge purple and gold patch, proclaiming the wearer to be employed by Silva’s Ambulance Service, the words spelled out in metallic script. One was also obliged to wear a royal blue CHP clip-on neck tie. Mandatory accessories to the ensemble included a gold metal nametag, white belt, and white leather shoes. Worn on the shirt or jacket was a shield-type gold badge, about the size of a soup plate. All the badges identified the wearers as “Technician,” except for Bob Silva’s. His said, “Owner.” There was a $20 deposit on the badge. Those who were really in with the in crowd had huge custom Western-style belt buckles with their first names spelled out diagonally, and the corners adorned with red crosses, stars of life, or tiny ambulances. However, the crowning glory accessory–and I only saw one of these–was a gold tie bar, wider than the tie itself, with a fine gold chain attached to either end of the bar. Dangling from the chain was a pink Cadillac ambulance. Its wearer was extremely proud of this, and wouldn’t tell anyone where he got it, lest someone steal his thunder.

 

Employee turnover was around 200% annually, and I was a prized employee because I always showed up on time and sober. I was able to work full time on school vacations and summer, and from Friday evening to early Monday morning, when I’d leave to make it to my first class at San Jose State. It wasn’t uncommon to have an employee go AWOL, and have the cops show up a day or so later, looking for them. You had to be fingerprinted to get an ambulance driver’s license, but all you needed to work as an attendant was a first aid card, which management would procure for you for a small fee.

 

Bob Curry, in almost the full Silva's uniform (no badge), posing with a "new" ambulance, formerly used by Allied Ambulance in Oakland.

Bob Curry, in almost the full Silva’s uniform (no badge), posing with a “new” ambulance, formerly used by Allied Ambulance in Oakland.

 

There was one very senior employee whose name was also Bob. Bob thought he was the manager, and would tell you he was if asked, despite advice to the contrary if one of the Silvas was listening. Bob was very possessive of “his” ambulance, which was always the newest one (given that they were all used, “new” was a relative term). One night, I had just come in to work, and a call came in. The dispatcher told me to take it, so I grabbed an attendant and got in the first rig I saw. It was Bob’s, of course. When I returned, Bob screamed my face, lest I forget that that particular rig was HIS ambulance, and I had better stay the hell out of it if I knew what was good for me. Bob had an apartment near the main station, so he didn’t have to sleep at the station when he was on duty. If you were Bob’s attendant (Bob never worked in the back unless there was some real hero stuff going on), you were allowed to drive Bob’s ambulance to his place, where you switched seats. That night, a co-conspirator and I did a little customizing to Bob’s rig. When he got in the next morning, he found the handle on the driver’s door adorned with some adhesive tape, reading “Bob’s Door Handle.” Inside, more tape indicated Bob’s Steering Wheel, Bob’s Cigarette Lighter, Bob’s Gearshift, Bob’s Turn Indicator, Bob’s Accelerator, Bob’s Radio, Bob’s Other Radio, and so on. Tucked under Bob’s Sun Visor was a card on a little string, trimmed to drop to eye level: “Hi, Bob.”

 

Silva’s didn’t have the market cornered on odd employees. A rival company employed a guy we called Captain Action. Captain Action worked for a company that had more traditional uniforms, but still included a badge. The issued badge wasn’t up to Captain Action’s high standards. He had his own badge made up. It was a thing of beauty. It was a gold seven-point star (the most common style of police badge in those parts), but much larger than most police badges. It put the Silva’s badge to shame on size alone. I remember it had a big California State Seal in the middle, and a lot of text on the banners and inner ring. There was so much lettering on the badge that I never got to finish reading it, although I saw it often. Captain Action also wore a police-style Sam Browne belt with various snaps and cases, including a cuff case, handcuffs, and a baton ring. I never saw a baton, but I’m sure he had it around somewhere.

 

Captain Action loved to talk on the radio. Each ambulance had two radios, one on the company channel, and one that broadcasted on a shared, county-wide channel, called County Control. There was no direct channel to the hospitals, so one was obliged to tell County Control what you had and where you were bringing it, so the dispatcher could give the appropriate ER the heads up. An appropriate message might be something like, “County Control, Ambulance 3335, en route Code 3 to Peninsula Medical with an unconscious head injury.” Captain Action preferred to be somewhat more detailed, and made liberal use of the phonetic alphabet. “County Control, Ambulance 3330, en route Peninsula Medical Center with a 33-year-old white male with a history of cardiac myopathy, I spell CHARLES-ADAM-ROBERT-DAVID-IDA-ADAM-CHARLES-BREAK-MARY-YELLOW-OCEAN-PAUL-ADAM-TOM-HENRY-YELLOW…”

 

After one of these lengthy naratives (keep in mind that there were ten or twelve other ambulances in the county that used the same channel), the dispatcher was oddly silent. Captain Action made another try to ensure his message made it through. “County Control, Ambulance 3330, did you copy?”

 

“Ambulance 3330, County Control, TOM-EDWARD-NORA-BREAK-FRANK-OCEAN-UNION-ROBERT.”

 

Ah, the good old days.

 

Written by Tim Dees on January 1st, 2015

Crowle Manor Terrier 1738 - Nmbers relate to manorial Plan

Maths in neon at Autonomy in Cambridge. This is Bayes's Theorem, relating the probability of A given B to B given A.

 

This image is used on the Philosopher, Psychologist, Plasterer blog paul-david-robinson.com/post/5129596878/the-philosophy-of... in an article "The Philosophy of Physics". It was also used on the Wikipedia article for Bayes Theorem.

 

It was further used on a Spanish blog profeblog.es/blog/luismiglesias/2010/01/02/fotografia-mat...

 

It was later used in a father's blog post about having twin girls - www.bigdansramblings.com/2012/03/30/phases-finding-twin-g... - congratulations mate.

 

It is also used on a blog article about Stanford offering a statistics in medicine course - scopeblog.stanford.edu/2013/05/28/stanford-offers-free-st...

 

And an article "Signal, Noise and Clinical Trials" - lacertabio.com/2013/04/signal-noise-and-clinical-trial-re...

 

And a review of an elementary statistics course. moocnewsandreviews.com/course-review-elementary-statistic...

 

And the front page of a wiki about Probabilistic Programming for Advancing Machine Learning (whatever that is) - ppaml.galois.com/wiki/

 

And an LSE blog post about citations: "A Bayesian approach to the REF: finding the right data on journal articles and citations to inform decision-making." blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/12/02/journal...

 

And an Italian site "Rebel Fitness". Not sure why, I assume it just looked mathematical. www.fitnessribelle.it/alimentazione/calcolo-calorie/

 

And a blog about the emotional state of being an entrepreneur - www.ecosystemsandentrepreneurs.com/blog/2015/4/3/the-emot...

 

And a Strangeloop presentation about probability. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiiWzJE0fEA

 

An article about Bayesian logic in Python. machinelearningmastery.com/naive-bayes-classifier-scratch...

 

"

Bayes’s Theorem & Naïve Bayes Classifiers " dem1995.github.io/machine-learning/extra_pages/naive_baye...

Kinetic: Relating to, caused by, or producing motion.

 

These are called “Kinetic” photographs because there is motion, energy, and movement involved, specifically my and the camera’s movements.

 

Most of these are shot outdoors where I have the room to literally spin and throw my little camera several feet up into the air, with some throws going as high as 15 feet or more!

 

None of these are Photoshopped, layered, or a composite photo...what you see occurs in one shot, one take.

 

Aren’t I afraid that I will drop and break my camera? For regular followers of my photostream and this series you will know that I have already done so. This little camera has been dropped many times, and broken once when dropped on concrete outside. It still functions...not so well for regular photographs, but superbly for more kinetic work.

 

Albeit supremely risky this is one of my favorite ways to produce abstract photographs.

 

If you'd like to see more please check out my set, "Vertigo:"

 

www.flickr.com/photos/motorpsiclist/sets/72157630591282642/

 

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To read more about Kinetic Photography click the Wikipedia link below:

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_photography

 

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My photographs and videos and any derivative works are my private property and are copyright © by me, John Russell (aka “Zoom Lens”) and ALL my rights, including my exclusive rights, are reserved. ANY use without my permission in writing is forbidden by law.

 

Uses: Anything relating to finance and money.

 

Free Creative Commons Finance Images... I created these images in my studio and have made them all available for personal or commercial use. Hope you like them and find them useful.

 

To see more of our CC by 2.0 finance images click here... see profile for attribution.