View allAll Photos Tagged Transmuting
Art?... Art! Sculpture?... Sculpture! Two questions and two
exclamatory and emphatic statements. Both having a resplendent
and fortuitous confirmation in Louise Manzon’s artistic practice. If
technology has given rise to a production and consumption of
images marked by automation—and thus, by indifference—art,
through the recovery of manual adeptness, has restored the values
of discontinuity and difference. Technology advances a visual world
that is two-dimensional. Sculpture re-establishes resonance and
gives duration to the images.
Whether fired clay ceramic or terracotta, the use of the material, in
its viscous sedimentary quality, responds to Manzon’s need to bring
back to art the ancient dream of images that continue and endure,
and which, in terms of expectations, means reasserting the hope of
possible immortality.
So, this could well be the reaffirmed value for making art today, a nomadic
and eclectic approach that draws from art history and from myth,
recasting it in the present and remodelling it in the unhurried material of
sculpture. Duration set against obsolescence, matter in opposition to
surface, all within a frame constructed to go beyond boundaries.
In this instance, reinstituting sculpture means to re-establish the inten-
sity of art, the possibility to charge the image with the power of seduc-
tion, capable of transmitting messages that even involve ecology.
Manzon’s sculpture enfolds itself in the narrative iconography of
myths, of both human and animalistic nature. Sculpture is what causes
the artist’s phantasms to become real, transmuting the illusions into a
concrete vision of works of art asking to be let into the world.
The sculptural language, however, is not utilized as an antiquarian
means to fetishistically bring back the art of times past, but as a tool
capable of giving substance to images that exist on three levels: below
the earth, on the earth, in the air. Images that develop in both ascending
and descending movement, each time corresponding with the motiva-
tions underlying the inspiration and the resulting composition.
The level below the earth is expressed through fish images that
evoke water, moisture and plants. The undersea fauna, formed using
terracotta, seem to gulp for air in a search for a survival that is
clearly threatened by man. The level of the earth is conjured up
through the presence and configuration of a feminine essence that
seemingly lives on the surface of the earth, arranged through
complexly posed characters. This female figure is Tethys, with the
self-evident narcissism of a body depicted with extreme resonance.
The third level, the air, is alluded to by a sort of fan adorning the
mythical sea goddess’ head. A baroque structure supports the
sculptural framework, the volumes of the body and the garments
articulated within the enveloping shape. The curved line hints at an
upward movement, climbing towards aerial settings and wondrous
vertical ascents that liberate Tethys from the laws of gravity.
神壇前的三支巨香, "請神"儀式後會由當屆總理及長老燃點作為頭注香。
Located in front of the main altar, these giant joss incense will be lighted as the "First Joss Incense" after the Gods are brought to the event.
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The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, or Yu Lan is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in southern China).
In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.
Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.
On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths.
Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors
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Follow my rediscovery of the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
For my past visits to the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival
More Chinese Temples images here:
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面燃大士，為佛教、道教的著名神祇，俗謂“大士爺”、“大士王”、“普渡公”或“普渡爺”。
相傳是觀音化身，負責監督盂蘭勝會，震懾前來接受分衣施食的小鬼，使其不敢在陽間作怪。
所以說，盂蘭勝會現場可是最安全的地方 :)
The Lord of All Spirits is said to be a second self of the All Merciful Kwan Yin, despite his chilling looks, he is actually the "good guy" who keeps the wandering spirits in line, and to oversee the smooth transition of events at the Hungry Ghosts Festival venue.
This paper crafted statue can reach up to 20 feet tall, it will be burnt at the end of the festival, symbolizing his return to the heavenly realm.
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The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, or Yu Lan is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in southern China).
In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.
Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.
On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths.
Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors
=====
Follow my rediscovery of the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
For my past visits to the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival
More Chinese Temples images here:
=====
Shadow Work in the Gospels
Father Richard describes Jung’s concept of the shadow and how it is present in Jesus’ teachings.
The ego wants to eliminate all humiliating or negative information in order to “look good” at all costs. Jesus calls this self an “actor,” a word he uses fifteen times in Matthew’s Gospel, though it is usually translated from the Greek as “hypocrite.” The ego wants to keep us tied to easy and acceptable levels of knowledge. It does not want us going down into the “personal unconscious” or, in Jung’s term, our “shadow self.” The shadow includes all those things about ourselves that we don’t want to see, are not yet ready to see, and don’t want others to see. We try to hide or deny this shadow, most especially from ourselves.
Jung asks: “How can I be substantial if I fail to cast a shadow?” [1] He makes clear that the unconscious is not bad or evil; it is just hidden from us. Jung describes shadow also as “the source of the highest good: not only dark, but also light; not only bestial, semi-human and demonic, but superhuman, spiritual” [2] and, in Jung’s word, “divine.” That is why we dare not avoid the deep self. Wild beasts and angels reside in the same wilderness, and it takes the Spirit to “drive” us there (see Mark 1:12–13).
The more we are attached to any persona, bad or good, any chosen and preferred self-image, the more shadow self we will have. We absolutely need conflicts, moral failures, defeats to our grandiosity, even seeming enemies. These are necessary mirrors, or we will have no way to ever spot our shadow self. Even if we only catch a glimpse of such shadows, that may offer graced insight and a moment of inner freedom.
Jesus seems to precede Jung and modern depth psychology by two thousand years when he says, “Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How dare you say to your sister or brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye’ when all the time there is a log in your own? Take the log out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother or sister’s eye” (Matthew 7:4–5).
Note that Jesus does not just praise good moral behavior and criticize immoral behavior, as a lesser teacher might. Instead, he talks about something caught in the eye. He knows that if we see rightly, our actions and behaviors will eventually take care of themselves. God wastes nothing and includes everything. The God of the Bible is best known for transmuting and transforming our shadow selves into our own more perfect good. God brings us—often through failure—from unconsciousness to ever-deeper consciousness and conscience. I doubt if there is any other way. All the rest is mere self-validation.
-[1] C. G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul (Harcourt, Brace and Company: 1933), 40.
[2] C. G. Jung, The Practice of Psychotherapy: Essays on the Psychology of the Transference, and Other Subjects, trans. by R. F. C. Hull, 2nd ed. (Princeton University Press: 1976), 192.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality (St. Anthony Messenger Press: 2008), 75–76; and
Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps (Franciscan Media: 2001, 2021), 31–33.
My first entry for RogueTitan's contest.
The mysterious Vapourlock was a successful thief who was saved from the police by Captain Cold, who recognized her potential. Ever since, she has felt a deep loyalty to Cold, and has joined the Rogues to show her gratitude.
Her powers allow her to transmute gases, turning the air toxic, or purifying it. She can also use this to create pockets of denser gases under herself and others, mimicking flight.
Let me know what you think of her in the comments!
Winter ineffably attunes the senses. Cold culls bright colors of previous seasons, leaving the hungry eye to find pleasure in sublimely nuanced red and green complements. All the while 11 bald eagles chatter to one another as they disperse this year's salmon nutrients back to the soil, transmuting red to green.
léasung æt þæs ceorlfolc.
Per cognitionem rerum gestarum rationalizing,
Synthese dramatisch speziell Scharlatanerie Gleichgültigkeit Unmoral Lügen,
vêtements abusent flottant leçons révélées,
επιστημονικών συνεργατών παράλογη αισθήσεις επιφάνεια,
deacrachtaí gaolmhara cialla seicheamhú amhrasach cinn,
爽快な知性臨時イデオロギーレポート,
cyfnodau cymhlethdod hanfodol cyfeirio labeli wedi'u plicio,
logiske henvendelser veltalende formuleringer fullført,
măsuri discutabile Instituționalizarea sistematic de renume,
culturele principes vegen principes rottend,
miltiplikasyon déployer sosyete enkyetid endefinisabl rasin gwo twou san fon,
στοχαστές ανησυχίες εκδηλώνεται υπέστη ισχυρισμούς λείπει,
analoog taalkundige absoluten dualistische vorsten verklaren,
nedbrutte forestillinger moderne impresjonistiske irreducible detaljer flyttet,
sensibilmente meccanica determinismo sostenuto enumerazioni cambiato,
formulations collectives perpétuant immenses contes offerts,
transmuted consciousness modern leaders enchained all.
Steve.D.Hammond.
Instead of statues, these temporary event that lasts for about 3 - 5 days, carried the copper incense burners from the temples as a symbolic representation of the Gods respectively:
- 天地父母 Gods of Heaven and Earth
- 南辰北斗 Gods of Spiritual Realm
- 諸位福神 Gods of Blessings
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The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, or Yu Lan is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in southern China).
In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.
Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.
On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths.
Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors
=====
Follow my rediscovery of the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
For my past visits to the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival
More Chinese Temples images here:
=====
On the occasion of the 56th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, one of Venice’s most celebrated landmarks, the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore, will host Together, a major exhibition of new works by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.
Plensa (Spain, b.1955) is one of the world’s foremost artists working in the public art space, with permanent works spanning the globe including the Crown Fountain (Chicago), Echo (Seattle), Breathing (London) and Roots (Tokyo). The exhibition is curated by Clare Lilley, Director of Programmes at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The works in the exhibition all make their debut in San Giorgio and reflect the artist’s continued interest in a bodily relationship to space, scale, material and place.
For four hundred years the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore has been a place of worship, communication and meditation, where Palladio’s profound architecture creates a stilling and contemplative environment. Plensa’s response to this powerful space is Together; a conversation between two sculptures - hand, suspended beneath the cupola in the foreground of the altar, and head, sited in the nave. Placed on the dominant west-east axis of the building, the works set up a line of spiritual and intellectual discourse which evokes emotion and seeks to connect with his viewers on an intuitive level.
As a speaker of five languages alongside a nomadic life that takes him around the globe, Plensa’s work reflects a desire to break down barriers. Merging difference is a cornerstone of his work, and here it is further emphasized by the installation of meticulous drawings and a group of five alabaster portraits in the contiguous Officina dell’Arte Spirituale, located 300 meters from the entrance to the Basilica on the island’s northern edge. Plunged in darkness and lit to reveal their luminous opacity, the sculptures were carved using reformed scans of real girls; chosen because, like nomads, they have traveled, settled and traveled again. Chosen, too, because they are teenage girls on the cusp of leaving and arriving, whose potential – like that of all humanity – so deeply glows.
Plensa’s sculptures reference a Judeo-Christian tradition while connecting with a much longer human history, where the making of art has social purpose and which we see played out across histories and geographies – in heads from the Croatian Upper Paleolithic, carved some 26,000 years ago; in exquisite, elongated hands incised in stone from 1300 BCE Egypt. For these and other reasons, Plensa’s forms will connect people and welcome them into the Basilica. Made from stainless steel which distills and diffuses light, Plensa’s hand and head are at times transmutable hazes that pull and root the gaze. The opening, gestural hand formed from characters of eight languages, speaks of a coming together of peoples and traditions. Similarly, Nuria’s face speaks of diversity; indeed the subject is the daughter of a Chinese friend in Barcelona, who in her young life has already crossed many borders.
Clare Lilley, Curator, commented: “Plensa’s installations for the Isola di San Georgio Maggiore are testament to his acute understanding of space and scale. His sculptures do not impose themselves on these historic spaces; rather they capture and reflect the actual light and shadows within to communicate a metaphorical language. Both visually stunning and intimate, they draw our attention to a world where migration and difference challenge civilized behavior; in this place, which for centuries has welcomed world travelers, Plensa’s work will connect people of many faiths and of no faith.
In collaboration with the monks of the Abbazia di San Giorgio, as part of the cultural activities of the Benedicti Claustra Onlus, Together hopes to advance the Benedictine community’s efforts to develop a number of restoration projects of the monumental Palladian complex on San Giorgio Maggiore. Inspired by textual elements in the body of Plensa’s work, the project has contributed a significant donation to restore the Abbazia’s 15th and 16th Century illuminated manuscripts; prayer books previously too delicate for public view. (Press release)
Mercury was known to the ancient Chinese and Hindus, and was found in Egyptian tombs that date from 1500 BC.[citation needed] In China, India and Tibet, mercury use was thought to prolong life, heal fractures, and maintain generally good health. China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di — said to have been buried in a tomb that contained rivers of flowing mercury, representative of the rivers of China — was driven insane and killed by mercury pills intended to give him eternal life. The ancient Greeks used mercury in ointments and the Romans used it in cosmetics. By 500 BC mercury was used to make amalgams with other metals. The Indian word for alchemy is Rasavātam which means ‘the way of mercury’. Alchemists often thought of mercury as the First Matter from which all metals were formed. Different metals could be produced by varying the quality and quantity of sulfur contained within the mercury. An ability to transform mercury into any metal resulted from the essentially mercurial quality of all metals. The purest of these was gold, and mercury was required for the transmutation of base (or impure) metals into gold as was the goal of many alchemists.
Hg is the modern chemical symbol for mercury. It comes from hydrargyrum, a Latinized form of the Greek word `Υδραργυρος (hydrargyros), which is a compound word meaning 'water' and 'silver' — since it is liquid, like water, and yet has a silvery metallic sheen. The element was named after the Roman god Mercury, known for speed and mobility. It is associated with the planet Mercury. The astrological symbol for the planet is also one of the alchemical symbols for the metal (above left). Mercury is the only metal for which the alchemical planetary name became the common name.
Source : Wikipedia
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What happened three days ago is a very bad story, a 63-year-old man shot two women in the face, one 48 years old, the other 49 years old, and then took his own life, all of which happened in a town in the province of Catania, one of them allegedly had an extramarital affair with the killer: in 2022 120 women were killed, 97 of them were killed in the family or emotional sphere, of these 57 died for hand of the partner or former partner. This tragic and sad incipit linked to the ever-present drama of feminicides, to introduce the photographic story that I made in the town of Savoca (Messina - Sicily) on 08/13/2022, of a very particular representation that was held last time in August 2018; is a narration that pits Evil (a devil armed with a long grappling hook) against Good (Saint Lucia, who holds a silver palm leaf in her hands), the Evil-Devil tries to seduce-distract Saint Lucia with own grappling hook, instead Saint Lucia remains impassive in front of her flattery: violence against women in this very suggestive representation finds distant and deep roots, Saint Lucia actually represents those women who in medieval times had to suffer the abuses perpetrated by the Baron of Savoca nicknamed "Barone Altadonna", which making use of the law "ius primae noctis" (from the Latin "right of the first night"), referred to the "right" according to which a feudal lord could rape a newly married woman on her wedding night. Therefore, this is a photographic narration that speaks of the eternal struggle that takes place between good and evil, which speaks of a dark period of history, speaks of the violence suffered by women but also by those who belonged to the poorest social classes, historical facts that have been handed down to us in the form of a story and associated-transmuted in the martyrdom of Saint Lucia, this is what happens in the town of Savoca (Sicily). This is a report of the living representation of the martyrdom of Saint Lucia (patron saint of the city of Savoca); the cult of the young Saint of Syracuse seems to date back to the fifteenth century, under the influence of Spanish traditions. The living re-enactment of the history of St. Lucia takes place on two consecutive days, Saturday and Sunday: here I try to tell some moments of Saturday, the day during which the celebration does not take place in its full beauty, it is the day during which "the silver palm" is delivered "from the Lucia of the previous edition" to the "Lucia of the current edition", it is the day during which the last details are tested, above all the "impassivity of the little girl who impersonates Saint Lucia", lovingly called "the Lucia".. And 'This is a historical event which speaks of Demons and Angels: Saint Lucy refused to marry a rich and powerful suitor (Lucy declared She was married in Christ), which reported the Christian faith of Lucia to prefect Pascasio that ordered his Praetorian Guard to drag Lucia with a rope to a place of prostitution; legend has it that the Holy became heavy, they then tried to drag it with the help of oxen, but it was impossible to move it from where he stood; failing in this, it was then given the order to cavarle eyes, but the young martyr (native of Syracuse) her eyes reappeared.
In the village of Savoca a young girl, affectionately called the "Lucy" is carried on the shoulder of a porter along the streets of the country (sitting on a pillow tied on the shoulder of a man, but in fact men are two); the young Saint remains impassive in the face of demonic temptations: the Devil, called in Sicilian dialect "u Diavulazzu, shake, shakes, turns his pitchfork in an attempt to "distract" the Saint.
The first day of this representation, on Saturday, in an old church in Savoca, the two girls who impersonate the Lucia, of the current year and the previous year, meet with the delivery of palm; the traditional event which we witness on Saturday, has all the appearance of an important rehearsal for the next day, on Sunday when the traditional festival will take place in all its beauty.
Sunday: on top of the procession there are the "Jews" (the emissaries of the prefect Pascasio) along with some Angels, is located immediately after the wagon drawn by two cows from which branches off a rope that will arrive to Saint Lucia (a girl of six years); between her and the cows there are Roman soldiers, who make their way through the crowd squirming like crazy; to hold the rope there are also male figures; the job of Devil (his mask is made of wood, whose invoice is dated, it seems, of the 400') is to distract the little Saint with the help of a long stick equipped of curved points, called "u 'croccu": Lucia hardly is deceived by the promises of the evil one, she will not abandon the state of her property concentration, aided in this by staring, almost in a trance, a small palm branch in silver , she brings devoutly in her hands.It's very important to mention the Baron Baldassarre (nicknamed Baron Altadonna), who applied without any hesitation the practice of Jus de seigneur: using this law the Baron obliged the young brides to spend the wedding night in his alcove. It 'very possible that in the representation of Saint Lucia of Savoca the character of the Devil tempting young Santa with his pitchfork, in reality is nothing but himself, Baron Altadonna, so allegorically described in this traditional Sicilian feast: the figure of the Devil if one takes into account what historians relate, does not belong more to the legend, but sadly to actual event happened.
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E' una bruttissima storia quanto accaduto tre giorni fa, un uomo di 63 anni, ha ucciso a colpi di pistola in pieno volto due donne, una di 48 anni, l'altra di 49 anni, per poi togliersi la vita, il tutto accaduto in una cittadina in provincia di Catania, una di loro avrebbe avuto una relazione extraconiugale con l'assassino: nel 2022 sono state 120 le donne uccise, 97 di loro sono state uccise in ambito familiare o affettivo, di queste 57 hanno trovato la morte per mano del partner o ex partner. Questo tragico e triste incipit legato al sempre attuale dramma dei femminicidi, per introdurre il racconto fotografico che ho realizzato nella cittadina di Savoca (Messina - Sicilia) il 13/08/2022, di una particolarissima rappresentazione che si era tenuta l'ultima volta nell'agosto del 2018; è una narrazione che vede contrapposto il Male (un diavolo armato di un lungo rampino), al Bene (Santa Lucia, che stringe tra le mani una foglia di palma d'argento), il Male-Diavolo tenta di sedurre-distrarre Santa Lucia col proprio rampino, invece Santa Lucia resta impassibile davanti le sue lusinghe: la violenza sulle donne in questa rappresentazione molto suggestiva, trova radici lontane e profonde, Santa Lucia in realtà rappresenta quelle donne che in epoca medioevale dovevano subire gli abusi perpetrati dal Barone di Savoca soprannominato "Barone Altadonna", che avvalendosi della legge "ius primae noctis" (dal latino "diritto della prima notte"), si riferiva al “diritto” secondo cui un signore feudale poteva violentare una donna appena sposata durante la sua prima notte di nozze. Quindi questa è una narrazione fotografica che parla dell'eterna lotta che avviene tra il bene ed il male, che parla di un periodo buio della storia, che parla delle violenze subite dalle donne ma anche da tutti coloro che appartenevano alle classi sociali più povere, fatti storici che sono stati tramandati fino a noi in forma di racconto ed associati-trasmutati nel martirio di Santa Lucia, questo è quanto accade nel paese di Savoca (Sicilia). Questo è un report della rappresentazione vivente del martirio di Santa Lucia (Santa patrona della città di Savoca); il culto della giovane Santa di Siracusa sembra risalire al XV secolo, sotto l'influenza delle tradizioni spagnole. La rievocazione vivente della storia di Santa Lucia avviene in due giornate consecutive, il sabato e la domenica: qui tento di raccontare alcuni momenti della giornata del sabato, giorno durante il quale la festa non si svolge nel pieno della sua bellezza, è il giorno durante il quale “la palma d’argento” viene consegnata “dalla Lucia della edizione precedente” alla “Lucia dell’attuale edizione”, è il giorno durante il quale si testano gli ultimi dettagli, soprattutto si mette alla prova “l’impassibilità della bambina che impersona Santa Lucia”, chiamata amorevolmente “la Lucia”. E' questa una rievocazione storica che parla di Demoni ed Angeli: la storia rievoca di quando la Santa, si rifiutò di andare in sposa ad un suo ricco e potente pretendente (essendosi dichiarata Cristiana e sposa in Cristo), il quale per vendetta riferì della fede Cristiana di Lucia al prefetto Pascasio; costui diede ordine ai suoi pretoriani di trascinare Lucia con una corda fino ad un lupanare, un luogo di prostituzione; la leggenda narra che la Santa divenne pesantissima, si tentò allora di trascinarla con l'ausilio dei buoi, ma fu impossibile smuoverla da dove si trovava; non riuscendo in ciò, fu allora dato l'ordine di cavarle gli occhi, ma alla giovane martire (nativa di Siracusa) gli occhi le rispuntarono. Nel paese di Savoca una giovane ragazza, chiamata con affetto "la Lucia" viene portata in spalla lungo le vie del paese (seduta su di un cuscino legato sulla spalla di un uomo; in realtà gli uomini portatori sono due, dandosi il cambio l'un l'altro); la giovane Santa rimane impassibile di fronte alle tentazioni demoniache: il Diavolo, chiamato in dialetto siciliano "u Diavulazzu, agita, scuote, fa ruotare il suo forcone nel tentativo di "distrarre" la Santa ma, vani saranno i suoi tentativi. Il primo giorno di questa rappresentazione, il sabato, in una vecchia chiesa di Savoca, le due bambine che impersonano la Lucia, dell'anno in corso e dell'anno precedente, si incontrano con la consegna della palma da una bimba all'altra; l'evento tradizionale al quale si assiste il sabato, ha tutto l'aspetto di una importante prova generale per il giorno dopo, quando la domenica la festa tradizionale avverrà in tutta la sua bellezza. La domenica: in cima alla processione ci sono i "Giudei" (gli emissari del prefetto Pascasio) insieme ad alcuni Angeli, subito dopo si trova il carro tirato da due giumente dalle quali si diparte una corda che giungerà fino a cingere il fianco della bimba che impersona Santa Lucia (una bambina di sei anni); tra lei e le giumente ci sono i soldati Romani, che si fanno largo tra la folla dimenandosi a più non posso; a tenere la corda ci sono anche delle figure maschili che evitano che gli strattonamenti dei soldati romani possano giungere fino alla Santa (ricordiamolo, che è legata a quella corda); davanti alla Santa piroetta il diavolo tentatore, u' Diavulazzu (la maschera è in legno, la cui fattura è datata, sembra, del 400'), il cui compito è quello di distrarre la piccola Santa con l'aiuto di un lungo bastone dotato di punte ricurve, chiamato dialettalmente "u' croccu": Lucia difficilmente si lascerà ingannare dalle promesse del Maligno, non abbandonerà quel suo stato di immobile concentrazione, aiutata in ciò dal fissare, quasi in stato di trance, un piccolo ramo di palma in argento, che lei stringe devotamente tra le sue mani. E’ fondamentale menzionare tra i vari personaggi storici della tradizione, il barone Baldassarre, vissuto in Savoca in epoca medioevale, soprannominato barone Altadonna, che applicava senza remora alcuna la pratica della Jus primae noctis: avvalendosi di questa legge il barone obbligava le giovani spose a trascorrere la prima notte di nozze nella sua alcova. E’ fortemente ipotizzabile che nella rappresentazione di Santa Lucia di Savoca il personaggio del Diavolo che tenta la giovane Santa col suo forcone, in realtà non sia altro che egli stesso, il barone Altadonna, così allegoricamente descritto nella festa tradizionale siciliana: la figura del Diavolo, se si tiene conto di quanto narrano gli storici, non apparterrebbe più alla leggenda, ma a questo tristo personaggio realmente vissuto, che usava quotidianamente la moneta della prepotenza.
經師棚相對大士台，掛滿佛、菩薩和護法的潮州刺繡，中央是釋迦牟尼佛、東方藥師佛及阿彌陀佛。經師誦經念佛，消除眾生孽障。勝會最後一日，經師舉行「放焰口」法事，讓孤魂「聞經享食」。
盂蘭勝會的經棚是其中重要的部份。經棚是面對著附薦棚，大師們在經棚裡日夜誦經，超度幽靈，以脫離苦困。
One of the five pavilions at the Hungry Ghosts Festival event, the Praying Pavilion is where priests will chant prayers day and night, to relieve the spirits from sufferings.
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The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, or Yu Lan is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in southern China).
In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.
Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.
On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths.
Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors
=====
Follow my rediscovery of the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
For my past visits to the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival
More Chinese Temples images here:
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白米被喻為五穀之首， 賦有天地靈氣之物。所以在盂蘭祭典中扮演重要腳色。
這頭紅色的馬可以在很多祭典中見得到， 牠肩負著向天庭報告的責任。當儀式圓滿結束後” 神馬” 會被火化，帶這經文與願望報告上天。
White rice is deemed as a "spiritual element" and is widely used in the Yu Lan Festival.
This red horse is often seen at many Chinese prayer ceremony, it carries the duty of a messenger, to report to the Heavenly Gods regarding the ceremony, including the prayers and well wishers from the worshipers.
The grass by the legs of this paper horse will be brought back by the committee members, it is believed to bring upon good luck.
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The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, or Yu Lan is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in southern China).
In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.
Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.
On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths.
Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors
=====
Follow my rediscovery of the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
For my past visits to the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival
More Chinese Temples images here:
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慈航普度，佛教用語，指的是佛祖慈愛，普度眾生。
盂蘭節的本意，就是普渡眾生，行善者通過誦經，行善施食。
The fundamental purpose of the Hungry Ghost Festival is to provide salvation to those who has passed, relieving them from suffer through prayers.
Seen here, the words "慈航普度" means providing salvation through acts of kindness.
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The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, or Yu Lan is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in southern China).
In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.
Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.
On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths.
Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors
=====
Follow my rediscovery of the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
七月盂蘭 Mid Summer Ghost Story
For my past visits to the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival
More Chinese Temples images here:
Caves & Temples
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The Guild (only name it has been addressed) is a cabal originating from Japan. It has existed since the Edo period, consisting of assassins who have served the group for more than a thousand years.
About two hundred years before the rise of superhumans in the 23rd century, the decision by the cabal’s sole leader abolished the council table, seeking to rule as one, as well as to spread the Guild throughout the rest of Asia exclusively, which was a success.
40 years prior to the events of today, Igarashi, a high ranking member, was elected to take the Guild. Unbeknownst and unfortunately to most, he sought power greedily, trying to take over the Guild and reshape it in his own image, with the belief of a red katana, a legendary weapon that would unite the group as a whole. He enforced his rules that was akin to dictatorship, which gained him a lot of followers. He managed to recruit top lieutenants throughout his career, including Dusksmoke, whom he raised as a young protege.
But when the battle between Paladin and the Spectres broke out, the Guild got indirectly involved in the fight. Due to their independent status, Igarashi forbid contact with any agency, which could result in permanent exile as punishment. After creating a ploy to wipe out those who opposed him and his endless search for the red katana, those actions would lead to his downfall, and eventually gain the re-election of one of Igarashi’s former right hand men, Oddcrow.
As of concurrently, Oddcrow leads the Guild, also keeping allied ties with Paladin, much due to him and Dusksmoke’s relationship after his defection from the former. Despite this, the Guild still keeps a neutral stance and is rebuilding the lost guild. The red katana is kept in safe storage, protected by the likes of many.
Members:
Igarashi (former leader, currently exiled to an island.) Japanese. In his 70s. No powers, but gained brief energy generation and absorption after attempting to draw the red katana’s powers. Known to be cold and cruel, manipulative.
Oddcrow (current leader.) Mexican-American, in his early to mid 40s. Powers include levitation, allowing him to float but unable to fly. Able to control wood, but rarely uses that power. Also a master engineer and talented mentor. He is known to be a guiding leader, hardworking, supportive and sometimes strict.
White Ninja/Nakamura (former agent and enforcer, removed from ranks due to misconduct and reckless behaviour.) Japanese. Age unknown, but is an adept fighter in swords and has cybernetic implants. Deadly killer. Has a calm demeanour, studies his surroundings well.
Rattlesnake (high ranking assassin, close right hand man of Igarashi.) American. Age unknown, presumably 30s, brutal killer. Possesses hooks and guns, along with a toxic gas that can poison or corrode things. Known to be very aggressive, arrogant under the mask. Tendency to insult others/being insulted and easily provoked.
Jumpdeath (high ranking assassin, left hand woman and protector of the guild leader.) Korean. Age unknown. Has a bow and arrow and three pairs of handguns. Can transmute into a solid, silver form which grants her super strength and can stretch into weapons. Loyal, eccentric.
Diremorph (top tier sniper and gang manager.) Native American. In her 20s, known for teleporting in and out, along with her preferred choice of UZIs. Very sarcastic, demanding, deceitful in negotiations or tricking others to her own demands.
Bronze Butcher (former enforcer and squad general). Belgian. In his 40s, possesses high cybernetic weapons, including armed blades, shoulder cannons and taser sticks. Fearless, dashing, somewhat scornful.
Spinebreaker (former brute, executioner.) Nationality and age unknown, possesses deadly claws, strong armour and a scary presence, also a pilot. Quiet killer without many words, beastly.
The story of Zircon Crystals and Earth's age in a Nutshell.
How tiny Zircon Crystals - Zirconium silicate (ZrSiO4) helped determine the age of the Earth (at approximately 4.5 Billion years old since the crust cooled), with Radiometric U-Pb (Uranium-Lead) dating.
Zircon Crystals trap Uranium Atoms in its crystal structure and naturally repel Lead Atoms when the crystal forms. Once the crystal structure is formed, nothing is able to escape. Over time the isotopes of Uranium start to transmutate into other elements in a process that is referred to as a decay chain.
An Uranium Atom first transmutates into a Thorium Atom (which takes a few billion years). Thorium is far more unstable, and in less than a month it turns into Protactinium. Within a minute Protactinium Atoms transmute again, and so the transmutation continues down the decay chain. At the end of the radioactive decay chain, the initial trapped Uranium Atoms finally decays into stable Lead (Pb) Atoms, which will remain Lead forever. The decay rate and time associated with each transmutation is constant in the Universe, which makes it possible to calculate the age of the crystal with Radiometric dating.
As Zircon Crystals are tough, it is the oldest geological time-capsules that survived in Earth's dynamic and ever-changing crust since it cooled. As nothing can get in or out of the Zircon Crystal structure, it is the most accurate way of geological dating.
By comparing the Uranium to Lead ratio in Zirconium silicate crystals on Earth, from Moon samples and from visiting Meteorites, Scientists were able to calculate that the Earth is 4.54 billion years old. The error margin is 50 million years, which is small considering the time-scale.
The background history of Radiometric dating:
In 1896 Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie discovered that certain isotopes undergo spontaneous radioactive decay, transforming into new isotopes. Atoms of a parent radioactive isotope randomly decay into a daughter isotope. Marie Curie won a Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry for her work.
About Lead:
The spin-off from trying to date the Earth by finding the Uranium to Lead ratio in Zircon crystals, was that the Scientist Clair Patterson discovered the unusually high amount of toxic Lead in the environment when he tried to analyse the Zircon in a Mass Spectrometer. This was due to the widespread use of Lead-based fuel, Lead-based paint, etc.
Our bodies require metals like Iron in the blood to transfer Oxygen through the body. The body is fooled and assumes that Lead is a good metal, but Lead not only destroys cells, but also blocks the signals of Neuroreceptors in the Brain.
After a lifetime of persistence and mounting evidence, Clair Patterson eventually won the case against the large Oil Companies that tried to discredit his findings. Since then the widespread use of Lead in everyday products were banned (which is why we now use unleaded fuel to power our vehicles).
Interesting reading:
More about isotopes and the Radiometric dating process.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_lead_dating
earthsky.org/earth/this-zircon-crystal-is-the-oldest-piec...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_transmutation
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiometric_dating
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decay_chain
Thank you to Sumarie for letting photograph her beautiful Zircon Crystal specimen.
Photo usage and Copyright:
Medium-resolution photograph licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Terms (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). For High-resolution Royalty Free (RF) licensing, contact me via my site: Contact.
Martin
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Still working on her as part of my Fleetwood Mac Inspired angels.
Love and Peace are a state of mind.
This one is based on "Rhiannon". This outlet of art (well, maybe it's just the paint fumes he he) and music heal me.
💟
18x24 Oil on Panel Board
"Love's a State of Mind"
Inspired by:
Fleetwood Mac's Rhiannon
Rock-n-Soul Angel
￦A￦
My recent lesson involving my own soul's journey and cancer crisis obverted, in part, over the past year:
Numbing toxins of any sort halts the soul's progression. Soul progression can be excruciating. Feel it to get past it instead of repeats of the lesson crashing harder--speed progression if the soul wants the inevitable--the liberation of fears that will transmute to heaven (not everyone's journey, but if it is yours--you know it). None the less--May love always find it's way to your heart, mind, body, and soul in any capacity that is for the greater good of you. This I will pray, and hold in my heart.
Today marks 57 days without Prince. 💟
Love's a State of Mind.
I watch you suffer a dull aching pain. No swift exits could make me feel bitter--at least after I calm down my ego and put it in check.
A woman taken by the wind
Without a doubt, we’re returning to the fort after a lengthy battle. It actually took me less than half an hour to get the bombs disabled, phew. And I guess the city went on lockdown for it, thanks to Jesse and Gary helping citizens to evacuate. It's just Tokyo thankfully, and just parts of the suburbs. Must be tough as well to do something like that.
I can’t tell if I’m a crazy old man or not, but a guy literally chasing after a sword like that seems too much. It's like a weird story that was so nonsensical yet it also made sense. After we get our duties done, we quickly assemble as a united team, with each other at the fort the old bastard has made, and some of the cops already started to shoot the guild ninjas. I decide to provide assistance by manipulating the metal, causing their swords to extrude, wrapping them up.
Kurt: “So Avalon Squad, you ready to break in?”
Harry: “Yeah, sure. I’ll get everyone invisible. Erin, you do your thing.”
Erin: “Alright. Let me use the execute program to take down the sentries first. Here goes nothing, shadowgirl...”
Thanks to some of our tech geniuses, we manage to take down the shields and the defences. It was actually pretty quick. Then a couple more stairs up. (no elevators, that’s interesting for a high tech dojo). By the time we reach the main office, I see Igarashi fighting Oddcrow, who are locked with swords with each other.
Connor: “No!”
Oddcrow: “I told you not to come....I realised I had to finish this beast of a man....he will be executed.”
Connor: “But this isn’t your fight.”
Oddcrow: “It might be....I’m sorry.”
Connor: “I can’t afford to lose another friend.”
As Dusksmoke whips his staff, a surge of energy blows everyone back. It is seemingly Igarashi, his eyes now a flare of dark black, even worse than Erin’s shadow powers. He looks corrupted.
Igarashi: “You are too late, Connor Arden. You cannot save your friends. Say sayonara while it lasts....”
Connor: “What do you mean?”
Igarashi: “You think I still need the katana? No. It is useless now. I now have the highest form of power, and all of you are unmatched for my power.”
Rattlesnake: “Not until I get my rematch first, sensei.”
Jumpdeath: “I’ll end these scum for you as well.”
More assassins surround us, because it’s obviously a trap this son of a gun laid on us. Rattlesnake is the first to try spraying toxic gas with his powers, while Jumpdeath transmutes into a solid silver form. All for sure with these enemies, we’ll likely die from poisoning in a matter of minutes.
Harry attempts to go invisible, but he is caught by Jumpdeath’s fists, punching him out. Sam and Riley start clashing with a now mad Igarashi, so he’s on a 1v3 mode. Ty, Jesse and Gary create a field together, trying to block the gas out. It’s starting to work, but I didn’t know that slithery bastard had acid powers, goddamnit. Erin launches her axe as a tomahawk, chopping off the heads of two incoming ninjas who’s coming at my back.
Kurt: “Thanks. I love your new powerset, very cool indeed. This old man's gotta learn the younger ones."
Erin: “Naw, don’t thank me yet. Still gotta diffuse the gas, remember? We’re living bombs.”
Kurt: “Oh right. Earthnerve, absorb the floor! We need you going up against that crazy lady!”
Lyra: “Oui! Here we go!”
Lyra absorbs the wall, causing her increased resistance. She punches headfirst into Jumpdeath, who tries to launch her arrows at us. They start engaging in CQC, both locked in.
With everyone occupied, I use the dropped katana and hook it to my back. I shout to Jesse for an electric boost, which he does so while at bay. I concentrate, trying to morph the sword into a liquid form, but it doesn’t work. Nevertheless, they still try....guess it’s all heated up now.
Kurt: “Gentlemen, what if we charged up the sword? It can’t lose power like that!”
Ty: “Yeah sure, not when I’m busy!”
Gary: “My chi’s too focused against Rattlesnake. He’s gonna breach our shield!”
Kurt: “I have two absorption bombs. Exosage, I need a bigger hole than that!”
Erin: “Sure....on a count of three, follow my lead....”( she struggles to open a bigger one, given the mass proportion and short distance, I shoot the blast through the portal, while it comes on the other side, hitting Rattlesnake.)
He is enraged from the sudden attack, having his eyes focused on me now. I give a quick smirk, then throwing my absorption bomb through the portal. It consumes the gas that Rattlesnake generated, causing him to weaken. Gary finally gets his foot steady, knocking him out with a Chi punch.
Meanwhile, Lyra is still busy fighting, but I’m not sure if she can take it further. Her suit is already damaged from the prolonged attacks. I decide to get a serum, extracted from the unconscious Rattlesnake, and load it into my pistol. Firing quickly, the acid needle hits Jumpdeath in back of her left shoulder, as her “skin” starts corroding. She screams in agony and pain, now trying to blindly attack Lyra, but she fails to do so—-eventually jumping out the building due to the corrosion. Phew, I guess that’s two left....huh?
Igarashi: “You maybe done with my army, but I alone—-am more powerful than any of you here! Now, taste this, filths!”
And the sounds of metal clanking goes into a quick flash of white light.
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The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, or Yu Lan is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in southern China).
In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.
Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.
On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths.
Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors
=====
Follow my rediscovery of the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
For my past visits to the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival
More Chinese Temples images here:
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What happened three days ago is a very bad story, a 63-year-old man shot two women in the face, one 48 years old, the other 49 years old, and then took his own life, all of which happened in a town in the province of Catania, one of them allegedly had an extramarital affair with the killer: in 2022 120 women were killed, 97 of them were killed in the family or emotional sphere, of these 57 died for hand of the partner or former partner. This tragic and sad incipit linked to the ever-present drama of feminicides, to introduce the photographic story that I made in the town of Savoca (Messina - Sicily) on 08/13/2022, of a very particular representation that was held last time in August 2018; is a narration that pits Evil (a devil armed with a long grappling hook) against Good (Saint Lucia, who holds a silver palm leaf in her hands), the Evil-Devil tries to seduce-distract Saint Lucia with own grappling hook, instead Saint Lucia remains impassive in front of her flattery: violence against women in this very suggestive representation finds distant and deep roots, Saint Lucia actually represents those women who in medieval times had to suffer the abuses perpetrated by the Baron of Savoca nicknamed "Barone Altadonna", which making use of the law "ius primae noctis" (from the Latin "right of the first night"), referred to the "right" according to which a feudal lord could rape a newly married woman on her wedding night. Therefore, this is a photographic narration that speaks of the eternal struggle that takes place between good and evil, which speaks of a dark period of history, speaks of the violence suffered by women but also by those who belonged to the poorest social classes, historical facts that have been handed down to us in the form of a story and associated-transmuted in the martyrdom of Saint Lucia, this is what happens in the town of Savoca (Sicily). This is a report of the living representation of the martyrdom of Saint Lucia (patron saint of the city of Savoca); the cult of the young Saint of Syracuse seems to date back to the fifteenth century, under the influence of Spanish traditions. The living re-enactment of the history of St. Lucia takes place on two consecutive days, Saturday and Sunday: here I try to tell some moments of Saturday, the day during which the celebration does not take place in its full beauty, it is the day during which "the silver palm" is delivered "from the Lucia of the previous edition" to the "Lucia of the current edition", it is the day during which the last details are tested, above all the "impassivity of the little girl who impersonates Saint Lucia", lovingly called "the Lucia".. And 'This is a historical event which speaks of Demons and Angels: Saint Lucy refused to marry a rich and powerful suitor (Lucy declared She was married in Christ), which reported the Christian faith of Lucia to prefect Pascasio that ordered his Praetorian Guard to drag Lucia with a rope to a place of prostitution; legend has it that the Holy became heavy, they then tried to drag it with the help of oxen, but it was impossible to move it from where he stood; failing in this, it was then given the order to cavarle eyes, but the young martyr (native of Syracuse) her eyes reappeared.
In the village of Savoca a young girl, affectionately called the "Lucy" is carried on the shoulder of a porter along the streets of the country (sitting on a pillow tied on the shoulder of a man, but in fact men are two); the young Saint remains impassive in the face of demonic temptations: the Devil, called in Sicilian dialect "u Diavulazzu, shake, shakes, turns his pitchfork in an attempt to "distract" the Saint.
The first day of this representation, on Saturday, in an old church in Savoca, the two girls who impersonate the Lucia, of the current year and the previous year, meet with the delivery of palm; the traditional event which we witness on Saturday, has all the appearance of an important rehearsal for the next day, on Sunday when the traditional festival will take place in all its beauty.
Sunday: on top of the procession there are the "Jews" (the emissaries of the prefect Pascasio) along with some Angels, is located immediately after the wagon drawn by two cows from which branches off a rope that will arrive to Saint Lucia (a girl of six years); between her and the cows there are Roman soldiers, who make their way through the crowd squirming like crazy; to hold the rope there are also male figures; the job of Devil (his mask is made of wood, whose invoice is dated, it seems, of the 400') is to distract the little Saint with the help of a long stick equipped of curved points, called "u 'croccu": Lucia hardly is deceived by the promises of the evil one, she will not abandon the state of her property concentration, aided in this by staring, almost in a trance, a small palm branch in silver , she brings devoutly in her hands.It's very important to mention the Baron Baldassarre (nicknamed Baron Altadonna), who applied without any hesitation the practice of Jus de seigneur: using this law the Baron obliged the young brides to spend the wedding night in his alcove. It 'very possible that in the representation of Saint Lucia of Savoca the character of the Devil tempting young Santa with his pitchfork, in reality is nothing but himself, Baron Altadonna, so allegorically described in this traditional Sicilian feast: the figure of the Devil if one takes into account what historians relate, does not belong more to the legend, but sadly to actual event happened.
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E' una bruttissima storia quanto accaduto tre giorni fa, un uomo di 63 anni, ha ucciso a colpi di pistola in pieno volto due donne, una di 48 anni, l'altra di 49 anni, per poi togliersi la vita, il tutto accaduto in una cittadina in provincia di Catania, una di loro avrebbe avuto una relazione extraconiugale con l'assassino: nel 2022 sono state 120 le donne uccise, 97 di loro sono state uccise in ambito familiare o affettivo, di queste 57 hanno trovato la morte per mano del partner o ex partner. Questo tragico e triste incipit legato al sempre attuale dramma dei femminicidi, per introdurre il racconto fotografico che ho realizzato nella cittadina di Savoca (Messina - Sicilia) il 13/08/2022, di una particolarissima rappresentazione che si era tenuta l'ultima volta nell'agosto del 2018; è una narrazione che vede contrapposto il Male (un diavolo armato di un lungo rampino), al Bene (Santa Lucia, che stringe tra le mani una foglia di palma d'argento), il Male-Diavolo tenta di sedurre-distrarre Santa Lucia col proprio rampino, invece Santa Lucia resta impassibile davanti le sue lusinghe: la violenza sulle donne in questa rappresentazione molto suggestiva, trova radici lontane e profonde, Santa Lucia in realtà rappresenta quelle donne che in epoca medioevale dovevano subire gli abusi perpetrati dal Barone di Savoca soprannominato "Barone Altadonna", che avvalendosi della legge "ius primae noctis" (dal latino "diritto della prima notte"), si riferiva al “diritto” secondo cui un signore feudale poteva violentare una donna appena sposata durante la sua prima notte di nozze. Quindi questa è una narrazione fotografica che parla dell'eterna lotta che avviene tra il bene ed il male, che parla di un periodo buio della storia, che parla delle violenze subite dalle donne ma anche da tutti coloro che appartenevano alle classi sociali più povere, fatti storici che sono stati tramandati fino a noi in forma di racconto ed associati-trasmutati nel martirio di Santa Lucia, questo è quanto accade nel paese di Savoca (Sicilia). Questo è un report della rappresentazione vivente del martirio di Santa Lucia (Santa patrona della città di Savoca); il culto della giovane Santa di Siracusa sembra risalire al XV secolo, sotto l'influenza delle tradizioni spagnole. La rievocazione vivente della storia di Santa Lucia avviene in due giornate consecutive, il sabato e la domenica: qui tento di raccontare alcuni momenti della giornata del sabato, giorno durante il quale la festa non si svolge nel pieno della sua bellezza, è il giorno durante il quale “la palma d’argento” viene consegnata “dalla Lucia della edizione precedente” alla “Lucia dell’attuale edizione”, è il giorno durante il quale si testano gli ultimi dettagli, soprattutto si mette alla prova “l’impassibilità della bambina che impersona Santa Lucia”, chiamata amorevolmente “la Lucia”. E' questa una rievocazione storica che parla di Demoni ed Angeli: la storia rievoca di quando la Santa, si rifiutò di andare in sposa ad un suo ricco e potente pretendente (essendosi dichiarata Cristiana e sposa in Cristo), il quale per vendetta riferì della fede Cristiana di Lucia al prefetto Pascasio; costui diede ordine ai suoi pretoriani di trascinare Lucia con una corda fino ad un lupanare, un luogo di prostituzione; la leggenda narra che la Santa divenne pesantissima, si tentò allora di trascinarla con l'ausilio dei buoi, ma fu impossibile smuoverla da dove si trovava; non riuscendo in ciò, fu allora dato l'ordine di cavarle gli occhi, ma alla giovane martire (nativa di Siracusa) gli occhi le rispuntarono. Nel paese di Savoca una giovane ragazza, chiamata con affetto "la Lucia" viene portata in spalla lungo le vie del paese (seduta su di un cuscino legato sulla spalla di un uomo; in realtà gli uomini portatori sono due, dandosi il cambio l'un l'altro); la giovane Santa rimane impassibile di fronte alle tentazioni demoniache: il Diavolo, chiamato in dialetto siciliano "u Diavulazzu, agita, scuote, fa ruotare il suo forcone nel tentativo di "distrarre" la Santa ma, vani saranno i suoi tentativi. Il primo giorno di questa rappresentazione, il sabato, in una vecchia chiesa di Savoca, le due bambine che impersonano la Lucia, dell'anno in corso e dell'anno precedente, si incontrano con la consegna della palma da una bimba all'altra; l'evento tradizionale al quale si assiste il sabato, ha tutto l'aspetto di una importante prova generale per il giorno dopo, quando la domenica la festa tradizionale avverrà in tutta la sua bellezza. La domenica: in cima alla processione ci sono i "Giudei" (gli emissari del prefetto Pascasio) insieme ad alcuni Angeli, subito dopo si trova il carro tirato da due giumente dalle quali si diparte una corda che giungerà fino a cingere il fianco della bimba che impersona Santa Lucia (una bambina di sei anni); tra lei e le giumente ci sono i soldati Romani, che si fanno largo tra la folla dimenandosi a più non posso; a tenere la corda ci sono anche delle figure maschili che evitano che gli strattonamenti dei soldati romani possano giungere fino alla Santa (ricordiamolo, che è legata a quella corda); davanti alla Santa piroetta il diavolo tentatore, u' Diavulazzu (la maschera è in legno, la cui fattura è datata, sembra, del 400'), il cui compito è quello di distrarre la piccola Santa con l'aiuto di un lungo bastone dotato di punte ricurve, chiamato dialettalmente "u' croccu": Lucia difficilmente si lascerà ingannare dalle promesse del Maligno, non abbandonerà quel suo stato di immobile concentrazione, aiutata in ciò dal fissare, quasi in stato di trance, un piccolo ramo di palma in argento, che lei stringe devotamente tra le sue mani. E’ fondamentale menzionare tra i vari personaggi storici della tradizione, il barone Baldassarre, vissuto in Savoca in epoca medioevale, soprannominato barone Altadonna, che applicava senza remora alcuna la pratica della Jus primae noctis: avvalendosi di questa legge il barone obbligava le giovani spose a trascorrere la prima notte di nozze nella sua alcova. E’ fortemente ipotizzabile che nella rappresentazione di Santa Lucia di Savoca il personaggio del Diavolo che tenta la giovane Santa col suo forcone, in realtà non sia altro che egli stesso, il barone Altadonna, così allegoricamente descritto nella festa tradizionale siciliana: la figura del Diavolo, se si tiene conto di quanto narrano gli storici, non apparterrebbe più alla leggenda, ma a questo tristo personaggio realmente vissuto, che usava quotidianamente la moneta della prepotenza.
Name: Nina Stetson
Alias: Graffiti Girl
Abilities: Can control paint and create constructs out of paint, as well as bring graffiti to life
Origin: Nina was a somewhat well known graffiti artist called “No-Man” who would constantly paint anti-hero propaganda, as she believed that these so called heroes were merely people who thought they were above the law and above normal citizens. Nina’s life would change one night when she was almost caught by the law, and she ran into the hero Isotope. Isotope used her abilities to explode Nina’s spray paint cans, but due to Isotope’s transmutation, the paint affected by the explosion was melded with Nina’s genealogy. While in prison, she used graffiti within the prison to escape, painting an explosion on the wall which she brought to life, blowing the wall apart, releasing Graffiti Girl onto the city.
猶如燈塔，這燈籠可以說是普渡燈，用意在於指引好兄弟方向，讓鬼魂能夠靠著燈篙找到方位，來到祭典會場。據說法會規模越大，供品越多，燈籠就掛得越高。
This lantern is called the Light of Summon, day and night, sending invitation to the spiritual "good brothers" from far to join this salvation ceremony, the higher it hangs on the bamboo, the further it will summon and relatively, more oblation materials are to be prepared.
Therefore, the scale of the ceremony can be seen through the height of this lantern.
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The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, or Yu Lan is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in southern China).
In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.
Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.
On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths.
Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors
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Follow my rediscovery of the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
For my past visits to the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival
More Chinese Temples images here:
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I dated a woman (who was several years into a PhD in philosophy) recently who was adamant in her belief that photography, the very art itself, was a mortifying act.
I was adamant in my disagreement...but it's taken me months to fully realize Why.
Lauren and I hung out yesterday for the first time in years, took pictures of each other, reminisced, caught each other up on the goings-on of old internet friends...and it hit me.
Photography doesn't freeze a moment "to death". It transmutes a moment into art.
It makes of a moment in time a trigger for memory, for emotion. A photograph is a catalyst for experience.
I look at the pictures I took of Lauren ten years ago, when we first met, and a flood of memories follow. The excitement I felt when I first met her, the feeling of comfort after hanging out with her for a few weeks, that sense I'd bumped into someone who saw photography's relationship with the internet the same way I did.
Those moments are no more mortified by the photos than they are by the fact that those moments no longer exist, have been swept away by the relentless motion of time itself.
A photograph is also a visual dialogue. This image is in conversation with those pictures from ten years ago. What has changed about Lauren? In her face, in her bearing, in what she shows a camera.
(There is, of course, the challenge of capturing those changes, that growth, but that's really a topic better left for another photo)
Looking at photos from back then next to the ones I took yesterday, volumes are spoken.
All that aside, the most important thing I can impart: never get into a disagreement with someone getting a PhD in philosophy. Like wrestling a bag of snakes...from inside the bag.
A Turaga of Plantlife, as twisted in spirit as in body. After a mishap with a Mask of Elemental Transmutation that resulted in much of Kensigh's body becoming wood and bark, he was forced to retire as a Toa and take up residence in a small Bo-Matoran trading settlement as their Turaga. Time has only added to his bitterness. He now wears a noble Mask of Paralysis that has been mostly fused with his plant-like body.
Turaga Onewa was cool and all (he actually passed Onuku as the third most popular MOC in my gallery), but I wanted to do something a bit more original with Rey's cloth, and I just really, really like Umarak's mask. I'm just having so much fun with all these new 2016 parts.
Prompt
A surreal scene with a vibrant, ultra-detailed style. The foreground features a human figure with long, flowing silver hair, rendered in a hyper-realistic manner. The skin is transmuted to reveal an intricate anatomical study with colorful musculature and bones, adorned with vivid, tribal-like tattoos. Running behind her, a majestic tiger with its mouth wide open in a roar, showing sharp fangs. The tiger's fur is a striking mix of orange, black, and white, with realistic texture. The background is a deep, rich purple, contrasting sharply with the bright elements in the foreground. Shadows are precisely defined, highlighting the contours of both the human figure and the tiger. The scene is full of dynamic motion, with a sense of energy and power emanating from the composition. The meticulous detail in both the tiger's fur and the anatomical features of the human figure create a visually striking and dramatic piece.
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click to activate the icon of slideshow: the small triangle inscribed in the small rectangle, at the top right, in the photostream;
or…. Press the “L” button to zoom in the image;
clicca sulla piccola icona per attivare lo slideshow: sulla facciata principale del photostream, in alto a destra c'è un piccolo rettangolo (rappresenta il monitor) con dentro un piccolo triangolo nero;
oppure…. premi il tasto “L” per ingrandire l'immagine;
www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-...
www.fotografidigitali.it/gallery/2726/opere-italiane-segn...
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What happened three days ago is a very bad story, a 63-year-old man shot two women in the face, one 48 years old, the other 49 years old, and then took his own life, all of which happened in a town in the province of Catania, one of them allegedly had an extramarital affair with the killer: in 2022 120 women were killed, 97 of them were killed in the family or emotional sphere, of these 57 died for hand of the partner or former partner. This tragic and sad incipit linked to the ever-present drama of feminicides, to introduce the photographic story that I made in the town of Savoca (Messina - Sicily) on 08/13/2022, of a very particular representation that was held last time in August 2018; is a narration that pits Evil (a devil armed with a long grappling hook) against Good (Saint Lucia, who holds a silver palm leaf in her hands), the Evil-Devil tries to seduce-distract Saint Lucia with own grappling hook, instead Saint Lucia remains impassive in front of her flattery: violence against women in this very suggestive representation finds distant and deep roots, Saint Lucia actually represents those women who in medieval times had to suffer the abuses perpetrated by the Baron of Savoca nicknamed "Barone Altadonna", which making use of the law "ius primae noctis" (from the Latin "right of the first night"), referred to the "right" according to which a feudal lord could rape a newly married woman on her wedding night. Therefore, this is a photographic narration that speaks of the eternal struggle that takes place between good and evil, which speaks of a dark period of history, speaks of the violence suffered by women but also by those who belonged to the poorest social classes, historical facts that have been handed down to us in the form of a story and associated-transmuted in the martyrdom of Saint Lucia, this is what happens in the town of Savoca (Sicily). This is a report of the living representation of the martyrdom of Saint Lucia (patron saint of the city of Savoca); the cult of the young Saint of Syracuse seems to date back to the fifteenth century, under the influence of Spanish traditions. The living re-enactment of the history of St. Lucia takes place on two consecutive days, Saturday and Sunday: here I try to tell some moments of Saturday, the day during which the celebration does not take place in its full beauty, it is the day during which "the silver palm" is delivered "from the Lucia of the previous edition" to the "Lucia of the current edition", it is the day during which the last details are tested, above all the "impassivity of the little girl who impersonates Saint Lucia", lovingly called "the Lucia".. And 'This is a historical event which speaks of Demons and Angels: Saint Lucy refused to marry a rich and powerful suitor (Lucy declared She was married in Christ), which reported the Christian faith of Lucia to prefect Pascasio that ordered his Praetorian Guard to drag Lucia with a rope to a place of prostitution; legend has it that the Holy became heavy, they then tried to drag it with the help of oxen, but it was impossible to move it from where he stood; failing in this, it was then given the order to cavarle eyes, but the young martyr (native of Syracuse) her eyes reappeared.
In the village of Savoca a young girl, affectionately called the "Lucy" is carried on the shoulder of a porter along the streets of the country (sitting on a pillow tied on the shoulder of a man, but in fact men are two); the young Saint remains impassive in the face of demonic temptations: the Devil, called in Sicilian dialect "u Diavulazzu, shake, shakes, turns his pitchfork in an attempt to "distract" the Saint.
The first day of this representation, on Saturday, in an old church in Savoca, the two girls who impersonate the Lucia, of the current year and the previous year, meet with the delivery of palm; the traditional event which we witness on Saturday, has all the appearance of an important rehearsal for the next day, on Sunday when the traditional festival will take place in all its beauty.
Sunday: on top of the procession there are the "Jews" (the emissaries of the prefect Pascasio) along with some Angels, is located immediately after the wagon drawn by two cows from which branches off a rope that will arrive to Saint Lucia (a girl of six years); between her and the cows there are Roman soldiers, who make their way through the crowd squirming like crazy; to hold the rope there are also male figures; the job of Devil (his mask is made of wood, whose invoice is dated, it seems, of the 400') is to distract the little Saint with the help of a long stick equipped of curved points, called "u 'croccu": Lucia hardly is deceived by the promises of the evil one, she will not abandon the state of her property concentration, aided in this by staring, almost in a trance, a small palm branch in silver , she brings devoutly in her hands.It's very important to mention the Baron Baldassarre (nicknamed Baron Altadonna), who applied without any hesitation the practice of Jus de seigneur: using this law the Baron obliged the young brides to spend the wedding night in his alcove. It 'very possible that in the representation of Saint Lucia of Savoca the character of the Devil tempting young Santa with his pitchfork, in reality is nothing but himself, Baron Altadonna, so allegorically described in this traditional Sicilian feast: the figure of the Devil if one takes into account what historians relate, does not belong more to the legend, but sadly to actual event happened.
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E' una bruttissima storia quanto accaduto tre giorni fa, un uomo di 63 anni, ha ucciso a colpi di pistola in pieno volto due donne, una di 48 anni, l'altra di 49 anni, per poi togliersi la vita, il tutto accaduto in una cittadina in provincia di Catania, una di loro avrebbe avuto una relazione extraconiugale con l'assassino: nel 2022 sono state 120 le donne uccise, 97 di loro sono state uccise in ambito familiare o affettivo, di queste 57 hanno trovato la morte per mano del partner o ex partner. Questo tragico e triste incipit legato al sempre attuale dramma dei femminicidi, per introdurre il racconto fotografico che ho realizzato nella cittadina di Savoca (Messina - Sicilia) il 13/08/2022, di una particolarissima rappresentazione che si era tenuta l'ultima volta nell'agosto del 2018; è una narrazione che vede contrapposto il Male (un diavolo armato di un lungo rampino), al Bene (Santa Lucia, che stringe tra le mani una foglia di palma d'argento), il Male-Diavolo tenta di sedurre-distrarre Santa Lucia col proprio rampino, invece Santa Lucia resta impassibile davanti le sue lusinghe: la violenza sulle donne in questa rappresentazione molto suggestiva, trova radici lontane e profonde, Santa Lucia in realtà rappresenta quelle donne che in epoca medioevale dovevano subire gli abusi perpetrati dal Barone di Savoca soprannominato "Barone Altadonna", che avvalendosi della legge "ius primae noctis" (dal latino "diritto della prima notte"), si riferiva al “diritto” secondo cui un signore feudale poteva violentare una donna appena sposata durante la sua prima notte di nozze. Quindi questa è una narrazione fotografica che parla dell'eterna lotta che avviene tra il bene ed il male, che parla di un periodo buio della storia, che parla delle violenze subite dalle donne ma anche da tutti coloro che appartenevano alle classi sociali più povere, fatti storici che sono stati tramandati fino a noi in forma di racconto ed associati-trasmutati nel martirio di Santa Lucia, questo è quanto accade nel paese di Savoca (Sicilia). Questo è un report della rappresentazione vivente del martirio di Santa Lucia (Santa patrona della città di Savoca); il culto della giovane Santa di Siracusa sembra risalire al XV secolo, sotto l'influenza delle tradizioni spagnole. La rievocazione vivente della storia di Santa Lucia avviene in due giornate consecutive, il sabato e la domenica: qui tento di raccontare alcuni momenti della giornata del sabato, giorno durante il quale la festa non si svolge nel pieno della sua bellezza, è il giorno durante il quale “la palma d’argento” viene consegnata “dalla Lucia della edizione precedente” alla “Lucia dell’attuale edizione”, è il giorno durante il quale si testano gli ultimi dettagli, soprattutto si mette alla prova “l’impassibilità della bambina che impersona Santa Lucia”, chiamata amorevolmente “la Lucia”. E' questa una rievocazione storica che parla di Demoni ed Angeli: la storia rievoca di quando la Santa, si rifiutò di andare in sposa ad un suo ricco e potente pretendente (essendosi dichiarata Cristiana e sposa in Cristo), il quale per vendetta riferì della fede Cristiana di Lucia al prefetto Pascasio; costui diede ordine ai suoi pretoriani di trascinare Lucia con una corda fino ad un lupanare, un luogo di prostituzione; la leggenda narra che la Santa divenne pesantissima, si tentò allora di trascinarla con l'ausilio dei buoi, ma fu impossibile smuoverla da dove si trovava; non riuscendo in ciò, fu allora dato l'ordine di cavarle gli occhi, ma alla giovane martire (nativa di Siracusa) gli occhi le rispuntarono. Nel paese di Savoca una giovane ragazza, chiamata con affetto "la Lucia" viene portata in spalla lungo le vie del paese (seduta su di un cuscino legato sulla spalla di un uomo; in realtà gli uomini portatori sono due, dandosi il cambio l'un l'altro); la giovane Santa rimane impassibile di fronte alle tentazioni demoniache: il Diavolo, chiamato in dialetto siciliano "u Diavulazzu, agita, scuote, fa ruotare il suo forcone nel tentativo di "distrarre" la Santa ma, vani saranno i suoi tentativi. Il primo giorno di questa rappresentazione, il sabato, in una vecchia chiesa di Savoca, le due bambine che impersonano la Lucia, dell'anno in corso e dell'anno precedente, si incontrano con la consegna della palma da una bimba all'altra; l'evento tradizionale al quale si assiste il sabato, ha tutto l'aspetto di una importante prova generale per il giorno dopo, quando la domenica la festa tradizionale avverrà in tutta la sua bellezza. La domenica: in cima alla processione ci sono i "Giudei" (gli emissari del prefetto Pascasio) insieme ad alcuni Angeli, subito dopo si trova il carro tirato da due giumente dalle quali si diparte una corda che giungerà fino a cingere il fianco della bimba che impersona Santa Lucia (una bambina di sei anni); tra lei e le giumente ci sono i soldati Romani, che si fanno largo tra la folla dimenandosi a più non posso; a tenere la corda ci sono anche delle figure maschili che evitano che gli strattonamenti dei soldati romani possano giungere fino alla Santa (ricordiamolo, che è legata a quella corda); davanti alla Santa piroetta il diavolo tentatore, u' Diavulazzu (la maschera è in legno, la cui fattura è datata, sembra, del 400'), il cui compito è quello di distrarre la piccola Santa con l'aiuto di un lungo bastone dotato di punte ricurve, chiamato dialettalmente "u' croccu": Lucia difficilmente si lascerà ingannare dalle promesse del Maligno, non abbandonerà quel suo stato di immobile concentrazione, aiutata in ciò dal fissare, quasi in stato di trance, un piccolo ramo di palma in argento, che lei stringe devotamente tra le sue mani. E’ fondamentale menzionare tra i vari personaggi storici della tradizione, il barone Baldassarre, vissuto in Savoca in epoca medioevale, soprannominato barone Altadonna, che applicava senza remora alcuna la pratica della Jus primae noctis: avvalendosi di questa legge il barone obbligava le giovani spose a trascorrere la prima notte di nozze nella sua alcova. E’ fortemente ipotizzabile che nella rappresentazione di Santa Lucia di Savoca il personaggio del Diavolo che tenta la giovane Santa col suo forcone, in realtà non sia altro che egli stesso, il barone Altadonna, così allegoricamente descritto nella festa tradizionale siciliana: la figura del Diavolo, se si tiene conto di quanto narrano gli storici, non apparterrebbe più alla leggenda, ma a questo tristo personaggio realmente vissuto, che usava quotidianamente la moneta della prepotenza.
Seen on our afternoon walk.
Rebirth, wisdom, fluidity, wholeness, transmutations, sexuality, look for transitions, changes and new opportunities. Creative forces are awakening with heightened intuition. Snake can teach about shedding what is not needed; perceptions, attitudes, ideals. Snake shows how to access vitality, ambitions and dreams along with intellect and personal power. What things are surfacing that you need to strike out and take advantage of? Perhaps a time to rest and reflect? Listen to your intuition and visions at this time. Contemplate the colors, striking ability and activity of the snake type to further understand what snake is saying.
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The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, or Yu Lan is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in southern China).
In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.
Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.
On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths.
Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors
=====
Follow my rediscovery of the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
For my past visits to the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival
More Chinese Temples images here:
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This is the first photo in *yet another* series I have just started based on 'The Seven Wonders' from American Horror Story - Coven.
The Seven Wonders are the 7 abilities a witch must have in order to become The Supreme witch of a coven.
This one here is transmutation, which is basically being able to teleport from one place to another.
Ja Rimpochevski (The Magister of Transmutation)
at Zuiderkerk, Amsterdam
The International exhibition “Art and Dolls” 8-9 april 2017
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The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival, or Yu Lan is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th in southern China).
In Chinese tradition, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.
Distinct from both the Qingming Festival (in spring) and Chung Yeung Festival (in autumn) in which living descendants pay homage to their deceased ancestors, on Ghost Day, the deceased are believed to visit the living.
On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is ancestor worship, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths.
Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors
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Follow my rediscovery of the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
For my past visits to the Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival here:
Hungry Ghosts "Yu Lan" Festival
More Chinese Temples images here:
"Am I still tough enough?
Feels like I'm wearing down.
Is my viciousness losing ground?
I see you left a mark
Up and down my skin
I don't know where I end
And where you begin"
(Discipline - NIN)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kazemeer's tattoo
"Indem ich mich vom Tod erhebe, töte ich den Tod, der mich tötet.
[...]
Wenn ich das Gift in meinem Kopfe trage, ist das Heilmittel in meinem Schwanz, den ich wütend beiße."
(Della tramutatione metallica - Giovanni Battista Nazari)
Translation:
"I revive myself from death, and kill the death that killed me. [...]
I carry poison in my head, but the remedy is in my tail, which I bite in my fury. "
(Excerpt from: Three Dreams on the Transmutation of Metals by Giovanni Battista Nazari)
Rebirth, wisdom, fluidity, wholeness, transmutations, sexuality, look for transitions, changes and new opportunities. Creative forces are awakening with heightened intuition. Snake can teach about shedding what is not needed; perceptions, attitudes, ideals. Snake shows how to access vitality, ambitions and dreams along with intellect and personal power. What things are surfacing that you need to strike out and take advantage of? Perhaps a time to rest and reflect? Listen to your intuition and visions at this time. Contemplate the colors, striking ability and activity of the snake type to further understand what snake is saying.
En 1609, date de la construction de la Maison des Têtes, les frontières telles que nous les connaissons aujourd’hui n’existaient pas encore.
Le Rhin supérieur formait alors un espace culturel commun, où les habitants du Saint-Empire, des cités helvétiques et de France partageaient et comprenaient les mêmes symboles, images et récits.
Dans ce contexte, on peut également interpréter le fou en camisole et le Typhon aux jambes serpentines.
Ils représentent des figures de transition, comparables à une larve de libellule, encore lourde et informe dans l’eau, mais qui porte déjà en elle la possibilité de l’envol.
Le fou symbolise l’homme encore prisonnier de ses passions, de ses illusions et de son aveuglement.
Le Typhon, mi-serpent, mi-ailé, semble s’extraire d’une double enveloppe reptilienne – signe que même le monstrueux contient en germe la possibilité de la transformation.
La métamorphose de la libellule rend ce processus lisible : de la larve obscure et entravée naît un être léger, transparent et libéré.
Ainsi, le fou est délivré de sa folie et le Typhon transfiguré, en déployant ses ailes.La larve de libellule, encore accrochée à sa carapace, ressemble à une créature ambiguë : moitié aquatique, moitié terrestre, maladroite, presque grotesque. Comme le fou (le bouffon ailé que tu évoques), elle porte des formes hybrides : masque comique, ailes trop petites, corps encore pesant. C’est une image de l’entre-deux, du chaos primordial, où rien n’est encore accompli.
Puis vient la métamorphose : la larve s’ouvre, se déchire, et une libellule ailée, transparente et légère, surgit de la gangue. C’est l’image de l’élévation, du passage du terrestre à l’aérien, de l’instinct à la lumière.
De la même façon, les typhons sculptés au balcon semblent pris dans cette tension : jambes serpentines, queues reptiliennes qui les retiennent encore au monde chtonien, mais torses humains et parfois ailes qui suggèrent l’ascension. Comme si ces figures représentaient des êtres en lutte avec leur gangue reptilienne, prêts à s’extirper de l’obscurité pour atteindre l’air et la clarté – à la manière de la libellule quittant son exuvie.
👉 Autrement dit : le fou/larve et le typhon/reptile sont des images de l’inachevé, du chaotique. La libellule ailée, comme l’homme ailé, incarne l’accomplissement spirituel.
Les sculpteurs ont peut-être voulu figurer cette dialectique : l’âme humaine, d’abord prisonnière de ses instincts et passions, qui cherche à se libérer, à muer, pour devenir transparente et ailée.
Ce langage d’images appartient au vocabulaire symbolique humaniste de la Renaissance, qui, à l’époque, était compris dans tout l’espace rhénan, au-delà des frontières politiques.
Le « Typhon rhénan » que nous observons sur la balustrade de la Maison des Têtes n’existe dans aucun livre officiel. Il n’a pas de nom enregistré. Et pourtant, il parle — à qui sait écouter.
Jambes serpentines, buste humain, ailes naissantes : il ressemble au dieu Typhon des anciens Égyptiens, adversaire d’Osiris, identifié par les gnostiques au principe du chaos, voire à Seth, le frère meurtrier.
Mais ici, à Colmar, sa violence est comme retenue, pétrifiée dans la pierre, au moment précis de sa métamorphose. Ni totalement démon, ni totalement libéré — il est encore larve, comme ces nymphes de libellules qui rampent dans la vase avant d’éclore dans la lumière.
Et juste en dessous, le Narr, le Fou en camisole, attend lui aussi son heure. Il est encore prisonnier de sa propre folie, mais déjà ses jambes deviennent des pattes de taureau — comme dans les rites du mithraïsme, ancêtre spirituel de certaines fraternités européennes.
C’est peut-être là le secret murmuré à travers les siècles — celui que les chevaliers de Saint Jean, héritiers tardifs des Templiers, ont emporté dans leur silence. Ceux-là qui se disaient serviteurs de Soeur Isis — Sue-Isis, Su-Isse — dont le nom, par contraction, aurait pu devenir Suisse, ce pays neutre mais gardien de tant de symboles.
Ainsi, le Typhon rhénan n’est peut-être pas seulement un monstre grotesque.
Il est le chaos intérieur dompté, la passion transmutée, le gardien du passage.
Comme dans la Gnose, comme chez Goethe, comme dans l’alchimie : ce qui terrifie à l’extérieur n’est que l’ombre de ce qui doit naître à l’intérieur.Le concept de Typhon dans le christianisme
Dans la tradition gnostique, Typhon apparaît comme une divinité liée au mal. Il est décrit avec une tête crinière et des pieds fourchus, souvent rapproché d’Abraxas, figure hybride qui représente une déformation des croyances traditionnelles. Typhon est considéré comme le fils de la Terre-Mère et l’adversaire d’Osiris, identifié au Logos. Dans certaines doctrines, il est assimilé à Seth, ce qui influence directement les mystères dits « de Seth ».
Dans les premiers siècles du christianisme, des parallèles sont établis avec les récits égyptiens. Ainsi, Typhon est mentionné comme le frère d’Osiris, celui qui finit par le tuer. Dans cette lecture, il symbolise les forces destructrices opposées au Verbe (Logos) et à l’harmonie cosmique.
Cette double tradition – égyptienne et gnostique – nourrit la réflexion des premiers Pères de l’Église. Pour eux, Typhon devient une image du chaos, de la tempête, de l’ennemi intérieur de l’âme humaine, tandis qu’Osiris/Logos renvoie au principe de vie et de rédemption.
Le terme « Typhon » lui-même évoque, dans les langues modernes, l’ouragan, le cyclone, le tourbillon : autant de métaphores qui expriment la démesure des forces naturelles et spirituelles que l’homme doit apprendre à dompter.
Ainsi, dans le christianisme ancien comme dans la gnose, Typhon représente le principe du désordre, toujours en tension avec le principe divin d’ordre et de lumière. Cette figure rappelle combien les mythes, de l’Égypte à la Méditerranée, se sont entrecroisés pour nourrir l’imaginaire chrétien des premiers siècles.
Le transfert du mythe de Typhon dans la pensée chrétienne est un phénomène subtil, qui passe par plusieurs étapes symboliques et théologiques.
Je vais te proposer une lecture structurée en trois temps : (1) l’héritage antique, (2) la réinterprétation chrétienne, puis (3) le sens symbolique dans l’art et la mystique.
1. L’héritage antique : Typhon, le chaos primordial
Dans la mythologie grecque, Typhon est l’enfant de Gaïa (la Terre) et de Tartare (les profondeurs).
Il incarne la force brute de la nature, la désorganisation cosmique.
Dans le mythe hésiodique, il affronte Zeus, perd la bataille et se voit enseveli sous l’Etna, symbole de la maîtrise du chaos par l’ordre divin.
🔹 Typhon = principe du désordre, de la confusion, de la révolte contre le divin.
Dans le monde hellénistique, cette figure devient aussi une allégorie du vent destructeur, de la tempête (typhon vient de τύφω, “fumer, tourbillonner”).
Son iconographie le montre souvent avec des jambes serpentines, parfois des ailes, et un visage à la fois humain et monstrueux.
2. La réinterprétation chrétienne : du chaos au démon
Lorsque les premiers théologiens chrétiens se confrontent à la culture gréco-romaine, ils vont transférer les grands archétypes mythologiques dans leur propre cosmologie.
Ainsi, Typhon va être assimilé progressivement à Satan, ou du moins à l’un des archétypes démoniaques qui s’opposent à Dieu.
Dans la tradition patristique (Origène, Clément d’Alexandrie, Augustin), le chaos cosmique antique devient une métaphore du désordre moral.
Typhon incarne la chute de l’esprit, la corruption du créé.
Dans certaines gloses médiévales, Typhon est rapproché du dragon de l’Apocalypse :
« Le grand dragon, le serpent antique, celui qu’on appelle le diable ou Satan » (Ap 12,9).
Cette figure, qui tombe du ciel et agite la terre, évoque l’énergie titanesque et la révolte du Typhon antique.
Au XIIe–XIIIe siècle, dans les bestiaires et iconographies gothiques, Typhon devient une forme du Diable terrestre : mi-homme, mi-serpent, doté d’ailes de chauve-souris, souvent dans des scènes de damnation ou de chaos infernal.
Le monstre devient donc l’image de l’homme déchu, prisonnier de sa nature terrestre, en lutte contre l’esprit.
3. Sens symbolique : de la chute à la métamorphose
Mais dans la perspective humaniste et renaissante, on voit réapparaître une lecture alchimique et spirituelle de Typhon.
Il n’est plus seulement un démon, mais un symbole de transformation.
Dans l’iconographie hermétique, Typhon représente la matière première (prima materia), informe, chaotique, mais contenant le germe de la lumière.
Son combat avec Zeus (ou plus tard avec Dieu) figure la lutte intérieure entre l’instinct et la raison, le bas et le haut.
L’enfouissement de Typhon sous la montagne devient un processus d’incubation — comme la graine dans la terre, ou la larve dans sa chrysalide.
C’est l’ombre qui doit être traversée pour qu’advienne la lumière.
Ainsi, dans la lecture chrétienne tardive ou mystique :
Typhon, tombé et enchaîné, devient l’image de l’âme encore liée à la chair — mais appelée à ressusciter dans la lumière du Christ.
Cette rédemption est analogue à la libération de la folie que tu évoquais :
le fou (l’homme enfermé dans sa matière) et Typhon (le démon du chaos) deviennent des figures de la métamorphose, de la renaissance spirituelle.
🐍 Le coq, Seth-Typhon et les Templiers
1. Typhon-Seth dans l’Antiquité
Dans la mythologie égyptienne, Seth est le frère d’Osiris, celui qui le tue et le découpe. Il représente la force chaotique, les tempêtes, le désert, et l’instinct de rupture nécessaire à la transformation.
Dans le monde grec, il devient Typhon, un être monstrueux, mi-homme mi-serpent, qui défie Zeus.
Chez les Gnostiques, Typhon-Seth incarne le principe matériel et l’ignorance spirituelle, opposé au Logos (la parole divine, Osiris-Christ).
2. Le coq dans ce symbolisme
Le coq est associé à Seth-Typhon dans certains cultes gnostiques, notamment à travers la figure d’Abraxas, divinité syncrétique à tête de coq et corps serpentiforme.
Le coq symbolise ici :
la veille spirituelle (car il annonce l’aube) ;
la victoire de la lumière sur les ténèbres (comme le soleil renaissant) ;
mais aussi l’orgueil et la vanité du monde matériel.
C’est donc une image ambivalente : le coq est à la fois le gardien de la lumière et le témoin de la chute.
3. Les Templiers et la symbolique du coq
Les Templiers, dans leur ésotérisme médiéval, auraient repris ces symboles gnostiques hérités d’Orient (via Alexandrie, Antioche, et Jérusalem).
Le coq apparaît dans certains de leurs motifs comme un symbole de résurrection :
il annonce la lumière du Christ intérieur (la gnose) ;
il évoque aussi la trahison de Pierre avant la renaissance de sa foi (« avant que le coq chante, tu me renieras trois fois »).
Avant le Concile de Nicée (325), le christianisme était traversé de courants gnostiques, judéo-égyptiens et initiatiques, où Typhon-Seth n’était pas vu seulement comme le mal, mais comme une force nécessaire à la rédemption.
🔥 En résumé
Le coq de Typhon-Seth exprime la tension entre chute et illumination.
Il incarne la folie qui devient sagesse, la matière qui s’élève en esprit — comme ce monstre ailé de ta sculpture : une créature lourde et folle, qui retrouve la lumière en déployant ses ailes.
Governs the generation of beings and phenomena of nature. Protects those who wish to progress spiritually. Distinguished by genius; one of the great lights of philosophy.
Correspondence to Astrology
15° to 20° Pisces - Alchemy/Transformation
Info below from: UNIVERSE/CITY MIKAEL www.ucm.ca/en/info/the-72-angels
Qualities
Alchemy
Transforms evil into good
Healing
Regenerates, revitalizes, re-establishes harmony
Transforms, transmutes into spiritual gold
Masters instincts
Guides the first steps of the deceased into the other world
Transforms society with enlightened ideas
Helps accompany the dying
Distortions
Blockage, retention Tendency to get bogged down Problems of obesity Incomprehension of good and evil Atheism, disbelief Conflict, confrontation Incurable disease Fear of change and death Outbursts, excessive reactions Heaviness, overflow Incapable of setting objectives
Situations
Accompanying the dying Cancer Death Digestion Intestines Kidney stones Liver Mother Stomach
Transformation, transformation of evil into good
www.karmicangelclearings.com/page/491335722
Lucifer Angel Genius Bartholdi is the result of the passage of the forbidden and decision Freedom of Man, results DEATH. This death is the beginning of transmutation cycle of creation of man and of God himself, not under guardianship and without freedom.Bartholdi itself carried the sculpture of the winged female genius that dominates the red porphyry obelisk on which is written "Author / Lion of Belfort / and the Statue of Liberty / Enlightening the World." I'll have .....
From the Analogy ("The Matrix") page you learned that certain alchemist's authors praise Lucifer. And it doesn't stop there. It extends to their symbolism as well. It is important to STRESS that not all Masons worship Lucifer, only the top 5% do. Most of these writings were kept secret. Biblical admonition has been taken carefully, comparing alchemics teachings to the Holy Bible. In I John 4:1, we read: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try (test) the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." We see that any religious teaching that does not conform to Scripture is from a "false prophet." Many people still do not understand the importance of studying this subject to its logical conclusion. Their spiritual freedom is at stake. Remember two things about alchemy: "Cut through the outer shell and find a meaning; cut through that meaning and find another; under it, if you dig deep enough, you may find a third, a fourth -- who shall say how many teachings?" Many who are in alchemy are not aware that they are lied to. Finally, remember Albert Pike's bold assertion in Morals & Dogma, that "Masonry is identical to the ancient Mysteries," which means that all their teachings in all their books are precisely the same as the Ancient, Pagan, Satanic Mysteries. [p. 624, teachings of the 28th Degree] Of course these top 5% call Jesus Christ an "inferior god," they never, ever mention Him in their teachings or their rituals. This shouldn't surprise you since the Pope carries a bent Satanic cross as seen on another page which shames Christ on the cross.
Alchemits used Luciferic symbols within the layout of government center Washington D.C. worship Lucifer, the Light-Bearer. Lucifer and Satan are biblically the same individual, alchemy is really the worship of Satan. By quoting their own sources and depicting the symbols in which they use, this claim is proven. Alchemy gives itself away more through its symbols than it does in its writings. You saw in the analogy page of "The Matrix" that high level. Alchemists praise Lucifer. It is within these writings the "smoking gun" will be found, proof that Masons worship Satan. Once this is comprehended, you will understand why "they" have been trying to keep this all secret. If people really understood that Alchemy is the worship of Satan, no one in their right mind would join. Not only that but people would demand that this organization be outlawed. You have a continuous public relations campaign promoting the lie that Alchemy is not a religion, and is just a "good works social organization." As quoted above, you have secrets within secrets. LUCIFER PRAISED AS THE LIGHT-BEARER OF FREEMASONRY "Lucifer, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable, blinds feeble, sensual, or selfish souls? Doubt it not!" [Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, p. 321, 19th Degree of Grand Pontiff; Red Emphasis added] Alchemists from the first initiation which is the first degree are urged to mightily "seek the Light!" The average Mason is continually saying that he is "seeking the Light," and will spend his entire life "moving toward the Light." People who haven't studied this subject would assume that this "Light" is the revelation of the God of the Bible. This statement is continuously held up to try to convince us that Masonry is Christian. In the above quote, Albert Pike is saying that Lucifer is the One who bears the Light of Alchemy. The sentence immediately preceding confirms not only that Lucifer is the Light-bearer, but that alchemys of previous degrees have been led to believe that the opposite was true. The wording of this sentence is difficut to understand unless you have special knowledge. Doc Marquis was asked for his explanation, lets look at what he had to say:, "The Apocalypse is, to those who receive the nineteenth Degree, the Apotheosis of that Sublime Faith which aspires to God Alone, and despises all the pomps and works of Lucifer." [Ibid.] It seems to contradict the sentence first quoted above, It appears to contradict the quote above where Pike identifies Lucifer as the Masonic Light-bearer. However when you understand the esoteric explanation from Doc Marquis, your understanding clears up completely.
The Apocalypse is identified first by Pike as being the Book of Revelation written by the Apostle John. Pike then states that similar books from other religions are just as 'inspired' as Revelation, mentioning Plato, Philo, the Sephar Yezirah, and the Sohar. Pike says all three of these books -- Apocalypse [Revelation], the Sephar Yezirah, and the Sohar, are all identically "inspired." And since the last two books are of non-Christian faiths, Albert Pike is saying that the contents of Revelation are no big deal. Therefore, it is no big deal that the Book of Revelation denigrates the "pomp and works" of Satan, since the God of that book is known to hate Satan.
Pike then says that these three books "are the completest embodiment of Occultism." [Ibid.] Now, we understand that Pike views the God of the Apocalypse as being the opposite but equal to Satan just as typical Occultists believe and teach!
Secondly, Doc Marquis provides the esoteric, occultic, explanation. Pike is also saying in this sentence that, in the previous 18 degrees, alchemists believed that God was the Light-bearer, but now, in this 19th Degree, Pike is giving them new revelation. This insight completely squares with stated Masonic policy of deliberately misleading alchemists in the lower degrees until they were really ready for the "truth." This is the truth -- MasonLucifer: A must to Knowledge.ry worships Lucifer. PIKE'S TYPICAL SATANIC PHRASE -- OUT WHERE EVERYONE CAN SEE Concrete evidence is then given by Pike of alchemist's worship of Satan/Lucifer on the very front of the cover of Morals and Dogma. Pike writes a Latin phrase just below the round seal of "God," this is a phrase proven to be Satanic. Any "Satanic brother" looking at this phrase would know that the contents of this book are Satanic. They would also understand that the entire religion of alchemy is Satanic. "DEUS MEUMQUE JUS" is this phrase. The literal meaning is "God and My Right" Doc Marquis says this statement is a typical one within Satanism. There is one meaning within another with this statement. The first meaning is that the Freemason can depend upon their God to determine their Right and Justice. The second meaning is, since the God of Freemasonry is Lucifer, Achemitss are saying that they are "using occult methods," through Lucifer, to achieve their Rights and Justice. This phrase is very powerful and dangerous within Saanism says Marquis. A Satanist knows the content within Pike's book is Satanism just by reading, "DEUS MEUMQUE JUS." They don't even have to read the book, just the phrase to know.
"SEETHING ENERGIES OF LUCIFER WITHIN YOUR HANDS!"
"The day has come when Fellow Craftsman must know and apply their knowledge. The lost key to their grade is the mastery of emotion , which places the energy of the universe at their disposal. Man can only expect to be entrusted with great power by proving his ability to use it constructively and selflessly. When the Alchemists learns that the key to the warrior on the block is the proper application of the dynamo of living power, he has learned the mystery of his Craft. The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands, and before he may step onward and upward, he must prove his ability to properly apply energy. He must follow in the footsteps of his forefather, Tubal-Cain, who with the mighty strength of the war god hammered his sword into a plowshare."
Once the Alchemists learns to control his emotion and to apply the "dynamo of living power," the Mason can be assured of being able to control the "seething energies of Lucifer" in his hands. He makes the admission that Alchemy is the Craft, which is an old name for Witchcraft. Satanists are assured that, if they will join the coven and learn the Craft, he will control the supernatural power of Satan, just as Manly P. Hall promises here. As you can see, they have exposed themselves. Powerful proof that Alchemy is Satanism. The language is direct and clear. It is not cluttered with deliberately confusing arcane language that only an insider can understand.
REVELATIONS OF TUBAL-CAIN Please take note that Hall makes reference to Tubal-Cain, above. We need to review this sentence because it too reveals Satanism. The Alchemist must "follow in the footsteps of his forefather, Tubal-Cain, who with the mighty strength of the war god hammered his sword into a plowshare." In the Alchemic Quiz Book, the candidate is asked this question: "Who was Tubal Cain?" Answer: "He is the Vulcan of the pagans." William P. Peterson. The Arcane Schools: A Review of their Origin and Antiquity: With a General History of Alchemy and Its Relation to the Theosophic Scientific and Philosophic Mysteries, Belfast, Ireland, William Tait, 1909, p. 30; also found in A. R. Chambers, Editor, Questions and Tubal-Cain is the password given in the Third Degree of Master Alchemist . You can identify Alchemy with paganism within this sentence. But what is the meaning of the Vulcan of the pagans? A very important question because Manly P. Hall advises the Mason that, once he has the seething energies of Lucifer in his hands, he is to walk in Tubal-Cain's footsteps.
Hall makes it sound like Tubal-Cain is one of the Greek gods, does he not? And, we know conclusively that Tubal-Cain is Vulcan of the Pagans. Let us review who Vulcan of the pagans is, by looking within occult sources. "Vulcan was a sun deity who was associated with fire, thunderbolts and light. The festival in honor of him was called the Vulcania in which human sacrifices were offered." [Percival George Woodcock, Short Dictionary of Mythology, New York, Philosophical Library, p. 152]. "According to Diel, he bears a family relationship to the Christian devil." [J.E. Cirlot, translated by Jack Sage, A Dictionary of Symbols , New York, Dorset Press, 1991, p. 362]. "It is fascinating to know that he married Venus, another name for Lucifer or the devil ." [Woodcock, op. cit., p. 150-151; Emphasis added] Manly P. Hall tells the Mason that he can have the seething energies of Lucifer in his hands, and then tells him to follow in the footsteps of the "Christian devil," to whom "human sacrifices" are offered. THE INFERNAL NAMES There may be some people who have read up to this point and still might be skeptical. Masonry cleverly masks its references to Satan. There are 77 names which pagans have used to refer to Satan over the centuries and they are in the Satanic Bible. We'll review some of these "Infernal Names" of Satanism found within Alchemy [Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey, p. 144-46]
We shall list the Freemason teaching on each of these names, and then the explanation. Baphomet -- "The Gnostics held that it [universal agent] composed the igneous [pertaining to fire] body of the Holy Spirit, and it was adored in the secret rites of the Sabbat or the Temple under the hieroglyphic figure of Baphomet or the hermaphroditic goat of Mendes ." [Pike, op. cit., p. 734, teaching of the 28th Degree; Emphasis added] It find absolutely incredible that the Freemasons should portray the Holy Spirit with the Satanic symbol, Baphomet.
Eliphas Levi created this symbol, one of the foremost Satanists and Alchemists of all time. The Baphomet is one of the most evil of all symbols. Looking closely at the Baphomet(left) you will see that the emphasis is on sex. This Being is androgynous -- both male and female -- you can see it has the breasts of a woman, and an erect phallus. You'll notice that the erect phallus has two serpents coiled around it. The Baphomet has the head of a "Horned Goat," another title for Satan.Alchemic and Occult Symbols Illustrated is a book in which Dr. Burns says, "In a book on witchcraft, The Complete Book of Witchcraft and Demonology ... the caption states that he is 'the horned god of the witches, symbol of sex incarnate'." [p. 51] And if you look at his right hand you will see Baphomet making the sign of the Devil's triad. "Baphomet is also known as the Sabbatic goat, in whose form Satan is to be worshipped at the Witches' Sabbath." [Frank Gaynor, Dictionary of Mysticism, New York, Philosophical Library, 1953, p. 24]. Then, we discovered that Baphomet is officially approved as a symbol of the Church of Satan [The Occult Emporium, Winter , 1993-1994, p. 54] and that it is worn by the Priest of Satan [Ibid., 1990-1991, p. 26]. Since Albert Pike linked Baphomet with the Goat of Mendes , we will show this obviously Satanic symbol, as well. It should also be noted that from the way a pentagram is normally seen(one point up, two down), rotating the pentagram 33 degrees you get a Satanic Pentagram. 33 is the highest degree there is in Alchemy.
www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/symbology/1o5.htm
Lucifer :Passage obligé vers la Connaissance
« Comment es-tu tombé des Cieux
Astre du Matin, fils de l’Aurore
Comment as-tu été jeté par terre
Toi qui vassalisais toutes les Nations
Toi qui disais en ton cœur :
J’escaladerai les Cieux par-dessus les étoiles de Dieu
J’érigerai mon trône, je siégerai sur la montagne de l’assemblée, dans les profondeurs du Nord,
Je monterai au sommet des nuages noirs
Je ressemblerai au Très Haut
Comment ! Te voila tombé au Schéol, dans les profondeurs de l’abîme »
ISAÏE XIV : 12-15
Dieu a prévu que l’Homme est appelé à jouir de la Connaissance, à l’acquérir et à accéder à la toute puissance sur la création que lui confère la Connaissance (ce qu’il n’a pas oublié de faire depuis). Mais le résultat du passage de l’interdit et de la prise de Liberté de l’Homme, a pour conséquence la MORT. Cette mort qui est le début du cycle de transmutation de la création de l’Homme et de Dieu lui-même, impossible sous tutelle et sans liberté. Cette mort acquise par transgression, devient un élément de la mise en marche du cycle cosmique, VIE-MORT, et donc de la possibilité de changement. L’Homme doit passer d’un état passif, jouir de la Connaissance, à un état actif, Connaître, en passant par la prise de possession de la Connaissance. Le but à atteindre est la divinité de l’Homme, qui ayant cueilli les fruits de la Connaissance, doit en transmuter la substance afin de s’en approprier les principes avant que d’accéder à l’Immortalité que lui confèrera l’état de Connaissant. En fait, le Serpent « LUCIFER » l’Homme et la Femme, participent à l’Unité en nous ramenant à l’UN. L’acte de rébellion consenti par Dieu, permet à l’Homme une amélioration sous forme de réintégration de sa propre divinité. Les égrégores Dieu et Lucifer, sont les inconscients de l’Homme. La Connaissance a offert la liberté de choisir entre le Bien et le Mal et donc d’évoluer sur l’arbre de Vie. LUCIFER libère l’homme de la tutelle de Dieu parce que Dieu l’a voulu. Il est un Dionysos judéo chrétien, génie de l’incarnation humaine, de l’individualité libre, expression visible de la vérité. Il est l’autre Verbe de Dieu, Archange déchu qui remonte et entraîne avec lui toute l’évolution humaine. Dans sa chute il aurait perdu une émeraude fixée à son front et dans laquelle aurait été taillé un vase qui ne serait autre que le GRAAL lequel aurait servi à récupérer « le sang du Christ » dont le symbole représente la Connaissance suprême qui procure l’illumination spirituelle, la montée des Ténèbres de la foi vers la Lumière de la GNOSE. Le terme est lâché : GNOSE
Cette Connaissance mystique des anciens Initiés (Isis, Eleusis, Dionysos, Pythagore) qui évoque la conception de la présence, en l’Homme, d’une étincelle divine dans le Monde soumis au destin, à la naissance et à la mort, et qui doit être réveillée par la contrepartie du Soi pour être finalement réintégrée dans le Tout Universel.
L’Homme se doit d’évoluer selon un schéma sur lequel se base quasiment l’intégralité des Ordres Initiatiques :
Niveau de la Matière : les Hyliques , esclaves prisonniers de la grotte de Platon, retenus par les chaînes de l’ignorance, incapables d’aller au delà de l’apparence et dont la pensée reste au niveau du geste et du rite confondant le mot et l’esprit.
Niveau de l’Esprit : les Psychiques, qui ont fait évoluer leur intellect et leur affectif, mais leurs mots n’aboutissent pas à l’idée claire et juste car l’intolérance, les passions et la peur, les aveuglent.
Niveau de l’Ame ou du Spirituel : les Pneumatiques qui sont les mystiques éclairés et initiés, ayant abandonné les préjugés, les fausses certitudes et valeurs, libres de la pesanteur de la matière. Ils sont capables de retrouver le sens perdu de la Parole et ont accès à la Gnose en s’élevant au niveau du spirituel.
Cette Gnose permet d’opérer la métamorphose de l’Homme et sa mutation interne.
Lorsque le profane se trouve dans le cabinet de réflexion, il lit ce mot : VITRIOL mais il ne sait pas encore qu’en inversant deux de ces lettres, le I et le R, il pourra écrire plus tard « L’OR I VIT « L’or, ce métal pur et précieux , qui pour les Alchimistes représente bien plus que cela, il est cette étincelle de Divinité que l’homme doit rechercher par la transmutation de ce métal vil et impur, le Mercure qui n’est autre que le symbole alchimique de LUCIFER.
Il s’avère que l’Alchimie assimile LUCIFER à l’œuvre au noir, la Putréfaction, sous une forme non démoniaque mais rédemptrice. Il représente la Pierre Brute, matière initiale de l’œuvre, qui sous son aspect vil et repoussant, n’en demeure pas moins le pilier de toute l’œuvre, car recelant en son sein, la lumière à suivre, l’étoile que suivirent les mages pour parvenir à l’Enfant philosophal.
LUCIFER représente des forces immenses qui travaillent en nous obscurément, à la réalisation du parangon humain. Les deux natures chez l’Homme sont Mortelle, être de chair, et Originelle Immortelle, être de lumière.
Deux voies différentes s’ouvrent à la prise de conscience :
L’Involution (VITRIOL) qui est la matérialisation progressive de l’esprit
L’Evolution qui est la réapparition de l’Esprit émergeant au sein de la Matière qu’il a fécondée, animée, évertuée.
Comme l’Alchimiste, l’Homme peut engager la transformation, la transmutation de sa propre nature existentielle.
« Lumière et vie, voilà ce qu’est le Dieu et Père de qui est né l’Homme. Si donc tu apprends à te connaître comme étant fait de vie et de lumière et que ce sont là les éléments qui te constituent, tu retourneras à la Vie. » (Hermès Trismégiste)
La poursuite du grand Œuvre est le symbole du chemin nécessaire à la réalisation de la transfiguration de l’âme, prélude à la résurrection de la figure divine originelle : l’Homme véritable, l’Adam Kadmon.
Créé par Dieu, l’ange devenu Homme par la chair doit de son vivant et dans ses actes opérer une mue pour ressusciter en toute conscience et librement sa grandeur angélique.
LUCIFER : PASSAGE OBLIGE VERS LA CONNAISSANCE
La quête Luciférienne est la quête du Graal, nous sommes tous des enfants de LUCIFER, ceux qui font des efforts vers la Connaissance et la Sagesse. En loge, nous venons chercher la lumière que nous dispense « notre Lucifer », notre très Vénérable Maître car c’est par lui que se transmet la Lumière qui ouvre nos travaux, qui nous fait passer des Ténèbres à la Lumière, du monde profane au Macrocosme, de Lucifer au GADLU.
Dieu et LUCIFER, lumière et obscurité sont les deux facettes de cette réalité suprême qui n’est qu’un.LUCIFER est la réflexion de Dieu à l’intérieur de nous même, l’ombre de notre Etre Divin en nous même. L’influx Luciférien est une force sans laquelle la Terre n’aurait pu poursuivre son évolution. La chute du grain de blé et son implantation en cette Terre, lui donnent une particulière chance d’éclosion : celle de devenir Dieu. Celui qui veut monter doit d’abord descendre, la chute hors du Monde de Lumière, l’exil et le combat dans le Monde de l’Aveuglement et de l’Ignorance, permet la triomphale rédemption finale.
LUCIFER et CHRIST sont complémentaires, ils sont les Ténèbres et la Lumière, le Pentagramme pointe en bas évoquant la Connaissance transcendante qui renvoie à la quête d’immortalité et d’absolu pour LUCIFER et pointe en haut pour CHRIST dont la rédemption lui permet l’accès au Divin.
Mais alors, lorsque le Compagnon voit pour la première fois l’Etoile Flamboyante, celle-ci ne devrait elle pas être pointe vers le bas et ne se redresser que lorsqu’il passe des Ténèbres à la Lumière, qu’il renaît HIRAM ?
Le sceau de Salomon est explicite, un Triangle vers le haut et un Triangle vers le bas ce qui permet à l’Homme Luciférien de se positionner au centre, pas encore pneumatique mais plus du tout Hylique. Un peu comme le positionnement du Maître maçon qui, une fois la transmutation opérée, est passé de l’Equerre au compas mais revient se positionner au centre pour parfaire son évolution spirituelle.
Albert Pike Maître alchimiste du XIX ème Siècle avait déjà largement compris la nécessité du passage obligé par l’instruction Luciférienne et avait dit à ce propos, je cite : « Pour les F :. M :. Gnostiques, le G.A.D.L.U est Lucifer, »le porteur de Lumière ». L'Alchimie devrait être maintenue dans la pureté de la doctrine luciférienne « (sic).
Mais le Connaissant n’en est pas pour autant un Sage. Le savoir pouvant donner le pouvoir, l’évolution spirituelle de l’Homme se fera en fonction de la bonne ou mauvaise utilisation qu’il en fera. Il se doit de dompter son savoir et de le faire évoluer de la Matière vers l’Esprit, de l’Equerre vers le Compas en faisant que le Compas reste ouvert sur l’Equerre, de LUCIFER vers le DIVIN.
« Il est de la nature de la Lumière de ne pouvoir paraître à nos yeux sans être revêtue de quelque corps et il faut que ce corps soit propre aussi à recevoir la Lumière.
Là où donc est la Lumière, là doit être aussi nécessairement le véhicule de cette lumière. Voila le moyen le plus facile pour ne point errer. Cherche donc la Lumière de ton Esprit, la Lumière qui est enveloppée dans les Ténèbres et apprends de là que le sujet le plus vil de tous les ignorants est le plus noble selon les Sages » (BOUDDHA)
Gnôthi Seauton (Connais toi toi-même)
J’ai dit Très Vénérable Maître.
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What happened three days ago is a very bad story, a 63-year-old man shot two women in the face, one 48 years old, the other 49 years old, and then took his own life, all of which happened in a town in the province of Catania, one of them allegedly had an extramarital affair with the killer: in 2022 120 women were killed, 97 of them were killed in the family or emotional sphere, of these 57 died for hand of the partner or former partner. This tragic and sad incipit linked to the ever-present drama of feminicides, to introduce the photographic story that I made in the town of Savoca (Messina - Sicily) on 08/13/2022, of a very particular representation that was held last time in August 2018; is a narration that pits Evil (a devil armed with a long grappling hook) against Good (Saint Lucia, who holds a silver palm leaf in her hands), the Evil-Devil tries to seduce-distract Saint Lucia with own grappling hook, instead Saint Lucia remains impassive in front of her flattery: violence against women in this very suggestive representation finds distant and deep roots, Saint Lucia actually represents those women who in medieval times had to suffer the abuses perpetrated by the Baron of Savoca nicknamed "Barone Altadonna", which making use of the law "ius primae noctis" (from the Latin "right of the first night"), referred to the "right" according to which a feudal lord could rape a newly married woman on her wedding night. Therefore, this is a photographic narration that speaks of the eternal struggle that takes place between good and evil, which speaks of a dark period of history, speaks of the violence suffered by women but also by those who belonged to the poorest social classes, historical facts that have been handed down to us in the form of a story and associated-transmuted in the martyrdom of Saint Lucia, this is what happens in the town of Savoca (Sicily). This is a report of the living representation of the martyrdom of Saint Lucia (patron saint of the city of Savoca); the cult of the young Saint of Syracuse seems to date back to the fifteenth century, under the influence of Spanish traditions. The living re-enactment of the history of St. Lucia takes place on two consecutive days, Saturday and Sunday: here I try to tell some moments of Saturday, the day during which the celebration does not take place in its full beauty, it is the day during which "the silver palm" is delivered "from the Lucia of the previous edition" to the "Lucia of the current edition", it is the day during which the last details are tested, above all the "impassivity of the little girl who impersonates Saint Lucia", lovingly called "the Lucia".. And 'This is a historical event which speaks of Demons and Angels: Saint Lucy refused to marry a rich and powerful suitor (Lucy declared She was married in Christ), which reported the Christian faith of Lucia to prefect Pascasio that ordered his Praetorian Guard to drag Lucia with a rope to a place of prostitution; legend has it that the Holy became heavy, they then tried to drag it with the help of oxen, but it was impossible to move it from where he stood; failing in this, it was then given the order to cavarle eyes, but the young martyr (native of Syracuse) her eyes reappeared.
In the village of Savoca a young girl, affectionately called the "Lucy" is carried on the shoulder of a porter along the streets of the country (sitting on a pillow tied on the shoulder of a man, but in fact men are two); the young Saint remains impassive in the face of demonic temptations: the Devil, called in Sicilian dialect "u Diavulazzu, shake, shakes, turns his pitchfork in an attempt to "distract" the Saint.
The first day of this representation, on Saturday, in an old church in Savoca, the two girls who impersonate the Lucia, of the current year and the previous year, meet with the delivery of palm; the traditional event which we witness on Saturday, has all the appearance of an important rehearsal for the next day, on Sunday when the traditional festival will take place in all its beauty.
Sunday: on top of the procession there are the "Jews" (the emissaries of the prefect Pascasio) along with some Angels, is located immediately after the wagon drawn by two cows from which branches off a rope that will arrive to Saint Lucia (a girl of six years); between her and the cows there are Roman soldiers, who make their way through the crowd squirming like crazy; to hold the rope there are also male figures; the job of Devil (his mask is made of wood, whose invoice is dated, it seems, of the 400') is to distract the little Saint with the help of a long stick equipped of curved points, called "u 'croccu": Lucia hardly is deceived by the promises of the evil one, she will not abandon the state of her property concentration, aided in this by staring, almost in a trance, a small palm branch in silver , she brings devoutly in her hands.It's very important to mention the Baron Baldassarre (nicknamed Baron Altadonna), who applied without any hesitation the practice of Jus de seigneur: using this law the Baron obliged the young brides to spend the wedding night in his alcove. It 'very possible that in the representation of Saint Lucia of Savoca the character of the Devil tempting young Santa with his pitchfork, in reality is nothing but himself, Baron Altadonna, so allegorically described in this traditional Sicilian feast: the figure of the Devil if one takes into account what historians relate, does not belong more to the legend, but sadly to actual event happened.
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E' una bruttissima storia quanto accaduto tre giorni fa, un uomo di 63 anni, ha ucciso a colpi di pistola in pieno volto due donne, una di 48 anni, l'altra di 49 anni, per poi togliersi la vita, il tutto accaduto in una cittadina in provincia di Catania, una di loro avrebbe avuto una relazione extraconiugale con l'assassino: nel 2022 sono state 120 le donne uccise, 97 di loro sono state uccise in ambito familiare o affettivo, di queste 57 hanno trovato la morte per mano del partner o ex partner. Questo tragico e triste incipit legato al sempre attuale dramma dei femminicidi, per introdurre il racconto fotografico che ho realizzato nella cittadina di Savoca (Messina - Sicilia) il 13/08/2022, di una particolarissima rappresentazione che si era tenuta l'ultima volta nell'agosto del 2018; è una narrazione che vede contrapposto il Male (un diavolo armato di un lungo rampino), al Bene (Santa Lucia, che stringe tra le mani una foglia di palma d'argento), il Male-Diavolo tenta di sedurre-distrarre Santa Lucia col proprio rampino, invece Santa Lucia resta impassibile davanti le sue lusinghe: la violenza sulle donne in questa rappresentazione molto suggestiva, trova radici lontane e profonde, Santa Lucia in realtà rappresenta quelle donne che in epoca medioevale dovevano subire gli abusi perpetrati dal Barone di Savoca soprannominato "Barone Altadonna", che avvalendosi della legge "ius primae noctis" (dal latino "diritto della prima notte"), si riferiva al “diritto” secondo cui un signore feudale poteva violentare una donna appena sposata durante la sua prima notte di nozze. Quindi questa è una narrazione fotografica che parla dell'eterna lotta che avviene tra il bene ed il male, che parla di un periodo buio della storia, che parla delle violenze subite dalle donne ma anche da tutti coloro che appartenevano alle classi sociali più povere, fatti storici che sono stati tramandati fino a noi in forma di racconto ed associati-trasmutati nel martirio di Santa Lucia, questo è quanto accade nel paese di Savoca (Sicilia). Questo è un report della rappresentazione vivente del martirio di Santa Lucia (Santa patrona della città di Savoca); il culto della giovane Santa di Siracusa sembra risalire al XV secolo, sotto l'influenza delle tradizioni spagnole. La rievocazione vivente della storia di Santa Lucia avviene in due giornate consecutive, il sabato e la domenica: qui tento di raccontare alcuni momenti della giornata del sabato, giorno durante il quale la festa non si svolge nel pieno della sua bellezza, è il giorno durante il quale “la palma d’argento” viene consegnata “dalla Lucia della edizione precedente” alla “Lucia dell’attuale edizione”, è il giorno durante il quale si testano gli ultimi dettagli, soprattutto si mette alla prova “l’impassibilità della bambina che impersona Santa Lucia”, chiamata amorevolmente “la Lucia”. E' questa una rievocazione storica che parla di Demoni ed Angeli: la storia rievoca di quando la Santa, si rifiutò di andare in sposa ad un suo ricco e potente pretendente (essendosi dichiarata Cristiana e sposa in Cristo), il quale per vendetta riferì della fede Cristiana di Lucia al prefetto Pascasio; costui diede ordine ai suoi pretoriani di trascinare Lucia con una corda fino ad un lupanare, un luogo di prostituzione; la leggenda narra che la Santa divenne pesantissima, si tentò allora di trascinarla con l'ausilio dei buoi, ma fu impossibile smuoverla da dove si trovava; non riuscendo in ciò, fu allora dato l'ordine di cavarle gli occhi, ma alla giovane martire (nativa di Siracusa) gli occhi le rispuntarono. Nel paese di Savoca una giovane ragazza, chiamata con affetto "la Lucia" viene portata in spalla lungo le vie del paese (seduta su di un cuscino legato sulla spalla di un uomo; in realtà gli uomini portatori sono due, dandosi il cambio l'un l'altro); la giovane Santa rimane impassibile di fronte alle tentazioni demoniache: il Diavolo, chiamato in dialetto siciliano "u Diavulazzu, agita, scuote, fa ruotare il suo forcone nel tentativo di "distrarre" la Santa ma, vani saranno i suoi tentativi. Il primo giorno di questa rappresentazione, il sabato, in una vecchia chiesa di Savoca, le due bambine che impersonano la Lucia, dell'anno in corso e dell'anno precedente, si incontrano con la consegna della palma da una bimba all'altra; l'evento tradizionale al quale si assiste il sabato, ha tutto l'aspetto di una importante prova generale per il giorno dopo, quando la domenica la festa tradizionale avverrà in tutta la sua bellezza. La domenica: in cima alla processione ci sono i "Giudei" (gli emissari del prefetto Pascasio) insieme ad alcuni Angeli, subito dopo si trova il carro tirato da due giumente dalle quali si diparte una corda che giungerà fino a cingere il fianco della bimba che impersona Santa Lucia (una bambina di sei anni); tra lei e le giumente ci sono i soldati Romani, che si fanno largo tra la folla dimenandosi a più non posso; a tenere la corda ci sono anche delle figure maschili che evitano che gli strattonamenti dei soldati romani possano giungere fino alla Santa (ricordiamolo, che è legata a quella corda); davanti alla Santa piroetta il diavolo tentatore, u' Diavulazzu (la maschera è in legno, la cui fattura è datata, sembra, del 400'), il cui compito è quello di distrarre la piccola Santa con l'aiuto di un lungo bastone dotato di punte ricurve, chiamato dialettalmente "u' croccu": Lucia difficilmente si lascerà ingannare dalle promesse del Maligno, non abbandonerà quel suo stato di immobile concentrazione, aiutata in ciò dal fissare, quasi in stato di trance, un piccolo ramo di palma in argento, che lei stringe devotamente tra le sue mani. E’ fondamentale menzionare tra i vari personaggi storici della tradizione, il barone Baldassarre, vissuto in Savoca in epoca medioevale, soprannominato barone Altadonna, che applicava senza remora alcuna la pratica della Jus primae noctis: avvalendosi di questa legge il barone obbligava le giovani spose a trascorrere la prima notte di nozze nella sua alcova. E’ fortemente ipotizzabile che nella rappresentazione di Santa Lucia di Savoca il personaggio del Diavolo che tenta la giovane Santa col suo forcone, in realtà non sia altro che egli stesso, il barone Altadonna, così allegoricamente descritto nella festa tradizionale siciliana: la figura del Diavolo, se si tiene conto di quanto narrano gli storici, non apparterrebbe più alla leggenda, ma a questo tristo personaggio realmente vissuto, che usava quotidianamente la moneta della prepotenza.
So this is Princess, one of the five fearless young orphans of G-Force "DEDICATED! INSEPARABLE! INVINCIBLE!" who are vigilantly "PROTECTING EARTH'S ENTIRE GALAXY!"...Welcome to 1978 and BATTLE OF THE PLANETS. Imagine if you will that her awesome motorcycle is upgraded now to a speeder bike which like G-Force's ship, the Fiery Phoenix ("TRANSMUTE!") has the ability to become a super-powered vehicle of flaming energy in times of dire trouble.
Damn those trans oranges are tough to build with and photograph. My entry for the CMF category for this year's LSB contest. About 14x7x8 studs.
Battle Of The Planets intro sequence: www.youtube.com/watch?v=acOnskcyrtA