The Two of Wands takes the spark of inspiration from the Ace of Wands and turns it into a clear action plan. You went through the discovery phase and know what you want to manifest – now you need to figure out how. You are exploring your options and carefully plotting out the path ahead, accounting for all possibilities and potential challenges. You are open to growth and exploring new territories, so long as you maintain a level of certainty that your efforts will work out in the end.

When the Two of Wands appears in a Tarot reading, you are not ready to make your move – it is more important that you establish a clear plan before proceeding. The Two of Wands is also about discovery, particularly as you step outside your comfort zone and explore new worlds and experiences. It may take courage to set out, but this card gives you the confidence of self-knowledge. You know what your goal is and are sure of its eventual fulfilment. Let your intuition and passion guide you as you confirm your next steps.

The Two of Wands indicates that you are considering your longer-term goals and aspirations and are ready to plan for what you need to do to achieve them. You have already come so far, and now you feel ready for a change – this time with your long-term future in mind. You may be contemplating overseas travel, further education or a significant career switch to expand your horizons beyond your immediate environment. With careful planning and a moderated approach, you will set yourself up for success.

The Twos in Tarot often represent decisions of some sort. With this two, you may make a choice between sticking with what you know or taking a risk. You understand the world has something bigger or more meaningful to offer you, yet you also realise that you must leave your familiar grounds to capitalise on this opportunity. Even though you already invested a lot into your current circumstances, it is imperative that you step out and explore your options.The Two of Wands is also a Card of choice. There may be many possibilities open to you. In this case, this Card invites you to think about each of these options, to look at the landscape, the possibilities, as broadly as possible. The Two of Wands is that "suspended time" of reflection, of setting up... before the final choice and the concrete implementation. Take advantage of this time to review the wishes of your authentic Being, what you want to accomplish in life. This is the time to align "what's next" with what your heart truly desires. The Two of Wands can also indicate travel, planning a trip or the need to see the world and expand your horizons.What is having power? It is having energy over matter. If you don't have energy, you don't have power. If there is no energy in this building, there is no power. To do anything, even to move your body, your hands, your eyes, you must have energy. That energy is power. It is the priesthood.

A true magician is a priest. A real priest is someone who has power.

There are many people in the world who call themselves "priests", but they have no power. They cannot heal the sick, they cannot solve the world's problems, and they cannot even help themselves. Many who call themselves "priests" actually create a lot of suffering for themselves and others. I am not just talking about Western priests. We are also talking about any spiritual leader, whether Jewish, Muslim, Shinto, Zen, Buddhist, Lama, etc. We use the word priest in a generic sense to mean any spiritual leader.

A true priest has power. That's the definition of magic or mages. Well, you all hear about the three magi in the Bible? They were not beggars, they were magicians, priests, and they have a deep symbolic meaning.

A real priest has power, that is, this priest has energy. Where does this energy come from? There are two places (inside and outside)

When we need food, we do not grow it ourselves. When we need money, we have to work for it, earn it, steal it or get it somehow. We always look outside ourselves. When we want to change our lives, where do we find the power and energy to do it?

These people who have power in our world, where do they get their power? Do they get it from within? Really, where do they get it? From other people. Where does a politician get his power from? Where does a banker get his power? From other people. Where does an actor or musician get his power? From others. If you put this person who seems so powerful to others and throw them into the wilderness totally alone, could they do what they would otherwise do? Could they get what they get in society? Not just materially, but intellectually, emotionally, spiritually?

Imagine the person in society who manipulates millions of people at will to satisfy their own interests or desires: what would happen to that person if they were completely alone in the desert with no one around? Would they have the power? I don't think so.

Now let's turn the tables. If we put Jesus in the desert, would he have power? Yes, he would. What about Buddha? He certainly would! What about Krishna and Moses? Absolutely! They would have power. Their power comes from within.

The site originated as a Gallo-Roman cemetery in late Roman times. The archaeological remains still lie beneath the cathedral; the graves indicate a mixture of Christian and pre-Christian burial practices.. Paris in the 13th century developed into the present-day SEINE SAINT DENIS . In the 13th century, the Basilica of Saint Denis was a command center for the TEMPLARS. Two powerful commanderies occupied this department: Saint-Denis and especially Clichy-sous-Bois, chief town of the commandery founded in 1257. Directly dependent on the Parisian mother house, Clichy held the fiefs of Gagny, Noisy-le-Grand and Stains. Stains was perhaps the twin commandery of Saint-Denis.The basilica became a place of pilgrimage and a necropolis containing the tombs of the Kings of France, including nearly every king from the 10th century to Louis XVIII in the 19th century. Henry IV of France came to Saint-Denis to formally renounce his Protestant faith and become a Catholic. The Queens of France were crowned at Saint-Denis, and the royal regalia, including the sword used for crowning the kings and the royal sceptre, were kept at Saint-Denis between coronations.

Here that's an Amazing scenario at the Saint Denis basilica in the royal crypt.... Here is a seated zoomorphic figure that is being beaten with a stick. Knowing that Saint Denis is the work of those who were at the sources of Christianity, those who are reduced to crusaders, the actors of the famous crusades and focused on a Roman Christ. Nietzsche explains very well the evolution of Arianism after Nicea and the generalization of a suffering Christ on a cross. The first crusaders, the so-called TEMPLIERS, the guardians of the primordial tradition, brought back another image that they venerated without scruples to spit on the Roman Cross. This is how we inherited Baphomet, this curious character that could be likened to the Devil...this is the idea, so that only rare initiates can decipher this statue underground here in Saint Denis. Templar that subsequently became incorporated into various occult and Western esoteric traditions. The "Chinon Parchment suggests that the Templars did indeed spit on the cross", says Sean Martin, and that these acts were intended to simulate the kind of humiliation and torture that a Crusader might be subjected to if captured by the Saracens, where they were taught how to commit apostasy "with the mind only and not with the heart". The name Baphomet appeared in trial transcripts for the Inquisition of the Knights Templar starting in 1307. It first came into popular English usage in the 19th century during debate and speculation on the reasons for the suppression of the Templar order. Baphomet is a symbol of balance in various occult and mystical traditions, the origin of which some occultists have attempted to link with the Gnostics and Templars, although occasionally purported to be a deity or a demon. Since 1856 the name Baphomet has been associated with the "Sabbatic Goat" image drawn by Éliphas Lévi, composed of binary elements representing the "symbolization of the equilibrium of opposites": half-human and half-animal, male and female, good and evil, etc. Baphomet Lévi's intention was to symbolize his concept of balance, with Baphomet representing the goal of perfect social order. Lévi's Baphomet is the source of the later tarot image of the Devil in the Rider–Waite design. The concept of a downward-pointing pentagram on its forehead was enlarged upon by Lévi in his discussion (without illustration) of the Goat of Mendes arranged within such a pentagram, which he contrasted with the microcosmic man arranged within a similar but upright pentagram. The actual image of a goat in a downward-pointing pentagram first appeared in the 1897 book La Clef de la Magie Noire, written by the French occultist Stanislas de Guaita. It was this image that was later adopted as the official symbol—called the Sigil of Baphomet—of the Church of Satan, and continues to be used among Satanists. Baphomet, as Lévi's illustration suggests, has occasionally been portrayed as a synonym of Satan or a demon, a member of the hierarchy of Hell. Baphomet appears in that guise as a character in James Blish's The Day After Judgment. Christian evangelist Jack T. Chick claimed that Baphomet is a demon worshipped by Freemasons, a claim that apparently originated with the Taxil hoax. Léo Taxil's elaborate hoax employed a version of Lévi's Baphomet on the cover of Les Mystères de la franc-maçonnerie dévoilés, his lurid paperback "exposé" of Freemasonry, which, in 1897, he revealed as a hoax intended to ridicule the Catholic Church and its anti-Masonic propaganda.Gauserand de Montpesant, a knight of Provence, said that their superior showed him an idol made in the form of Baffomet; another, named Raymond Rubei, described it as a wooden head, on which the figure of Baphomet was painted, and adds, "that he worshipped it by kissing its feet, and exclaiming, 'Yalla', which was", he says, "verbum Saracenorum", a word taken from the Saracens. A templar of Florence declared that, in the secret chapters of the order, one brother said to the other, showing the idol, "Adore this head—this head is your god and your Mahomet."

— Thomas Wright, The Worship of the Generative Powers (1865), page 138

Basileus philosophorum metaloricum: the sovereign of metallurgical philosophers, that is, of the alchemical laboratories that were supposedly established in various chapters of the Temple. The androgynous nature of the figure apparently goes back to the Adam Kadmon of the Chaldeans, which one finds in the Zohar"

In 2014, The Satanic Temple commissioned an 8.5 ft (2.6 m) statue of Baphomet to stand alongside a monument of the Ten Commandments at the Oklahoma State Capitol, citing "respect for diversity and religious minorities" as reasons for the monument. (The Oklahoma Supreme Court ultimately declared religious displays illegal.) The Baphomet statue was unveiled in Detroit on 25 July 2015, as a symbol of the modern Satanist movement. The Satanic Temple transported the Baphomet statue to Little Rock, Arkansas, where another 10 Commandments monument had been recently installed; the statue was publicly displayed during a Temple demonstration on 16 August 2018.Baphomet appears in Dungeons & Dragons as a powerful demon lord and is also known as the "Horned King", or the "Prince of Beasts". Baphomet is followed by minotaurs and other savage creatures. He desires the end of civilizations so all creatures may embrace their most basic, brutal instincts. He is described as a massive, black minotaur, with blood around his mouth and red eyes. He wears an iron crown topped with the heads of his enemies, along with spiked armor. He wields a huge glaive, named "Heartcleaver", but commonly fights with his hooves, claws, and horns. He rules of the 600th layer of The Abyss, known as the "Endless Maze", and is the sworn enemy of Yeenoghu, another demon lord. In Sartor Resartus (1833–4) by Thomas Carlyle, protagonist Diogenes Teufelsdröckh describes his spiritual rebirth as a "Baphometic Fire-baptism". Clive Barker's novel Cabal (1988) and its film adaption, Nightbreed (1990), Baphomet is depicted as the god worshipped by the Night Breed creatures. Baphomet also serves as the main antagonist in the PC game Tristania 3D and is the worshipped deity of the evil Courbée Dominate society. The game's storyline describes in depth that in fact Philip IV of France was the one who had worshipped Baphomet, not the Knights Templar, and he deliberately eradicated the entire order to make sure that this secret would remain undiscovered. In the last level, the protagonist must enter the afterlife to seek out and defeat Baphomet, however, he is protected by the shadows of his fallen worshippers in the previous levels, along with the ghost of Evil Empress and the protagonist's former accomplice, Evil Twirl. The game depicts Baphomet very close to the original, except that it has a male torso and dragon-like wings, as opposed to feathered ones. Baphomet's main attack is a lethal wall of fire, which causes severe damage and can be manifested in rapid successions. Baphomet also can turn himself invisible during his attack periods. Successfully defeating him will win the game, albeit it is noted that defeating him does not mean that he is killed. An interpretation of Baphomet, referred to as The Sword of Baphomet, forms part of the main plot in the 1996 point-and-click adventure game Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars developed by Revolution Software. It is the first game in the Broken Sword series. The player assumes the role of George Stobbart, an American tourist in Paris, as he attempts to unravel a conspiracy, much of which is influenced by and includes factual and fictional references and narrative devices relating to the history of the Knights Templar. In the 2005 puzzle-Metroidvania La-Mulana and its 2012 remake, Baphomet appears as the boss of the Twin Labyrinths. In July 2015, YouTube star and singer Poppy depicted the deity in the music video for her single "Lowlife". Poppy can be seen imitating the famous pose of Baphomet. The 2016 audio drama Robin of Sherwood: The Knights Of The Apocalypse (based on the TV show Robin of Sherwood), has Robin and his companions come into conflict with the titular Knights. The Knights of the Apocalypse are depicted as a cult which worships Baphomet; the Knights are also depicted as a splinter group from the Knights Templar.

The 2018 Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has a large statue of Baphomet displayed at the Academy of Unseen Arts. The Satanic Temple has accused the show of plagiarizing their depiction of Baphomet, though later settled out of court.

In Doom Patrol, "Baphomet" is the name of a supernatural oracle who can be summoned by Willoughby Kipling a member of the Knights Templar. Having no fixed form, she can assume what-ever form she fancies, currently using the form of "Falada", a magical horse from the fairytale, "The Goose Girl". In the 2019 video game Devil May Cry 5, a type of demonic enemy is also called Baphomet. The entity resembles a floating humanoid creature with goat like features which attacks remotely by casting spells, launching ranged attacks at the player.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphomet

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphomet

With this test train approaching Plymouth Station just before 10:00 i was still in bed asleep and was going to give it a miss ( TBH i totally forgot to set an alarm!) but then I quickly got up and dashed to the station with an almost certainty in my head i will miss it as it heads to Laira. The sun was out and the weather was beautiful and lucky it was held in the station for a voyager as some clouds did pass but with full on Thrash here we see Direct Rail Services Class 37s Nos. 37610 top and tail with 37607 departing Plymouth Station while working the xxxx 04:34 Truro Yard to Plymouth via Laira for Fuel departing 31 minutes late at 10:27.

I was told i would never have a chance to see 'my trains again' now that im working full time but if this was my last shot im rather pleased with it.

~ Vincent Van Gogh

I went out late last night to catch the new Camelopardalid meteor shower. Unfortunately the grand predictions of 200-1000 meteors per hour did not happen. I did see a few small ones even though I wasn't able to photograph them.

Since I had driven far south, I did, however, get to see tons of stars, the Milky Way, the moonrise and sunrise. All in one night.

Since really nothing was happening with the meteor shower facing north, I turned around and shot the Milky Way facing south. This was my first attempt ever at capturing the Milky Way. There were some bands of clouds that came through and were difficult to see with the naked eye. This shot is the best one of the bunch with regards to placement of those cloud bands.

I am pleased with this and it just makes me want to get out more (are farther) to try again!

Happy weekend!!

:)

Despite their 1914 publication date, these illustrations participate in a much older pictorial tradition, closer to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century animal imagery than to modern scientific naturalism. Like early modern painters working from travelers’ descriptions, the illustrator constructs plausibility without certainty. The lynx acquires a heraldic ferocity, the koala an almost chimerical aspect—evidence of a representational mode in which imagination still compensates for absence.

The book documents not nature or people as they were, but the persistence of older European ways of naming, seeing, and imagining the world—ways that survived well into the twentieth century beneath the surface of modern print culture.

The images appear in my copy ofWorld Geography: One-Volume Oregon Edition. by Ralph S.Tarr and Frank M. McMurry, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1914.

One of my childhood certainties was destroyed tonight. M&M's are round, not oval. But tonight Mark brought me that blue one - it's NOT round! Oh no! Illusions are shattered.

59/366

There are many species in the genus Arnica, members of the sunflower family. I do not know with certainty which species this one is, but it is common in many places I have visited in Alaska.

A female parasitoid wasp of the Belytinae found under pine in Brede High Woods. It is of the genus Cinetus, and I'm reasonably sure it is C.elatior ... but certainty proves elusive with this family. Additional pictures below show various angles and views.

Meaning of decidedly in Hindi

SYNONYMS AND OTHER WORDS FOR decidedly

निश्चित रूप से→definitely,absolutely,as sure as eggs is eggs,Certainty,daubtless,decidedly

अवश्य ही→decidedly

स्पष्टतया→explicitly,c...

Meaning of decidedly matlab, meaning decidedly hindi, synonyms decidedly hindi

#DecidedlyMatlab, #MeaningDecidedlyHindi, #SynonymsDecidedlyHindi

While I was taking photos of the louvres and lamp posts at the back of strata I got talking to a chap who was sitting having a cigarette. It turned out he lived in the building and kindly invited me into his flat. I was able to get some nice shots of the interior of the building as well as the view from the 18th floor.

It was a couple of years ago so I can't remember the guy's name with any certainty but I'd like to thank him for his hospitality. I will post some of the pictures over the next few days.

Part V – The Crimson Confession

The Crimson Alcove was washed in red lamplight, smoke curling above laughter that didn’t belong to me. I’d never paid for company before. Edgerunners didn’t do that. We ran the rails for the thrill, stole a kiss or a night where we found it, lived fast and vanished faster. But the chalk dust wouldn’t leave my skin, and the sound of the cutter’s scream lived in my ears. I needed someone’s voice—anyone’s—that wasn’t Vale’s command or Vivienne's decree.

So I bought an hour.

But it wasn’t one of the girls who led me upstairs. It was Omalley Dakota, proprietor of the Crimson Alcove. She moved with quiet certainty, like the place and its warmth existed because she allowed it. The cushions, the incense, the glow were all hers. Her eyes were steady, her smile faint, and there was no judgment in either. For a moment I froze at the curtains, waiting for another set of footsteps to follow, someone more fitting to the hour I’d bought. But only Omalley’s shadow moved beside me. She guided me past the velvet and the laughter, up narrow stairs, until the noise fell behind us and the city’s lights spilled wide.

“Lio,” she said, not asking. “Sit. You look like you’ve been carrying weight too big for one pair of shoulders.”

I sat heavily, chalk grit spilling from my palms, too worn to brush it away. “I don’t need—”

“You need somewhere to let it out,” Omalley said softly, pouring two glasses but pushing only one my way. “That’s what you paid for. Not company. Space.”

So I talked. About the anchors, the bolts filed to fail, the saboteurs under the lifts. About Vivienne’s dismissal and Vale’s stormcoat cutting through the fog. Omalley didn’t interrupt. She listened the way steel does: quietly, completely, with no hurry.

When my words finally broke off, she leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “What is it you fear, Lio?”

“That my chalk won’t matter. That I’ll mark a span and it’ll fall anyway, and the city will fall with it.”

Her expression softened, lines easing. “Or that it will matter. That you’ll hold it steady, and the city will see you for it. Ghosts don’t carry cities, boy. The living do. And once you’re seen, you can’t go back to unseen. Not here.”

The truth of it pressed harder than the arc cutter’s scream. I stared at my hands, chalk ground into the lines of my skin like it had always been there. Edgerunners were supposed to vanish, laugh, fall, disappear into the storm. Not carry weight. Not carry anyone.

But she was right. I felt it in my ribs, in the ache of my burned wrist, in the way Vale and Vivienne’s eyes both pressed on me from opposite sides.

I wasn’t a ghost anymore. I was seen. And once you’re seen in Sky Port Bury, you can never go unseen again.

Omalley stood, movements unhurried, and set her glass aside. At the stairwell she paused, her voice calm, almost kind.

“Go on, Lio. Get back to your spans. And remember — when the silence grows too heavy, you’ve got a place to lay it down.”

Visit Sky Port Bury at maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kasieopeia/219/128/534

Visit the Crimson Alcove at maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kasieopeia/211/43/496

Rails and Near Falls - A Sky Port Bury Story

Lio's Rise Part 1: Lines That Hold

Lio's Rise Part 2: The Eye of Ravenwood

Lio's Rise Part 3: The Span's Warning

Lio's Rise Part 4: The Edge Holds

Lio's Rise Part 5: The Crimson Confession

Lio's Rise Part 6: Claim and Token

Lio's Rise Part 7: The Test

captured from Hazrat Shahjalal (Rd) Dargah Sharif , Sylhet

When we renounce our dreams and find peace, we go through a short period of tranquility. But the dead dreams begin to rot within us and to infect our entire being.

We become cruel to those around us, and then we begin to direct this cruelty against ourselves. That’s when illnesses and psychoses arise. What we sought to avoid in combat – disappointment and defeat – come upon us because of our cowardice.

And one day, the dead, spoiled dreams make it difficult to breathe, and we actually seek death. It’s death that frees us from our certainties, from our work, and from that terrible peace of our Sunday afternoons

"The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn't, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there."

~Monica Baldwin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The usual view on our way back home from a goat walk...

and every time I fall anew in love with this paradise...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do not move

Let the wind speak

that is paradise.

~ Ezra Pound, I have tried to write Paradise ~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of Paradise' existence

All we know

Is the uncertain certainty --

But its vicinity infer,

By its Bisecting

Messenger --

~ Emily Dickinson, Of Paradise' existence ~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"If I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom."

SP#292 -" Je crois une chose. Je crois que nous devrions toujours dire "je t'aime" aux gens qu'on aime." Nemo dans Mr. Nobody

#292 with certainty... -" I think one thing. I think we should always say " I love you " to the people we love." nemo in Mr. Nobody

A certainty and a manifesto for anyone who’s given up on both rest and hope. The motto of an insomniac who’s also philosophically exhausted. Is it you?

“The only certainty was that they took everything with them: money, December breezes, the bread knife, thunder at 3 in the afternoon, the scent of jasmines, love. All that remained were the dusty almond trees, the reverberating streets, the houses of wood and roofs of rusting tin with their taciturn inhabitants, devastated by memories.”

La nostalgia, como siempre, había borrado los malos recuerdos y magnificado los Buenos

Living to Tell the Tale, Gabriel José de la Concordia García Marquez, aka Gabito.

living in a time lapse

Hydroxyapophyllite-(K) on Quartz.. The mineral is a hydrous potassium calcium silicate hydroxide. It is the end member of a series with the much more common fluorapophyllite-(K). Structurally, it appears identical to fluorapophyllite-(K) and can only be identified with certainty by chemical analysis. Hydroxyapophyllite-(K) lacks anything more than a trace amount of fluorine. While Hydroxyapophyllite-(K) is considered to be rare, that could be a consequence of very little testing to distinguish specimens from the fluoride end member. The large crystal is about 4 X 4 cm. Specimen is from Rock Currier's collection (#2127). Malad Quarry. Malad, Maharashtra, India.

I'm identifying this bird as a juvenile Rock Pipit but not with any degree of certainty, so if anyone out there knows better, I'd be more than happy to change my mind. This was captured on the rocky shoreline near Staffin slipway, a location where previously I've seen many Rock Pipits. One of the reasons for my doubts about identity is the length of the beak. It might just be the angle I've taken the photo but I've always thought that Rock Pipits had longer beaks.

Update: Thanks to Tim Melling for identifying this as a Dunnock.

Long time no see....I just celebrated my 80th birthday on the 7th March and can say with a degree of certainty that my eyes aren't what they used to be, my vitality has slowed down some, and I, now require a bit more rest. But i can also state that my passion and love for photography has only escalated/elevated a hundred-fold and I plan on making photos and sharing them on flickr until the good Lord says I have had enough. In the meantime please be patient with an old man who enjoys sharing in my flickr friends and contacts beautiful works. I always look forward to visiting your exemplary and inspirational art, and will continue to do so....I treasure your friendship and your most welcome visits and warm, kind and encouraging comments! Thank you gazillions!!

A Prairie Warbler searches through scrubby pines and young oak trees, coming up with morning feast. Like many birds, these colorful warblers subdue their prey by banging it on a nearby branch before swallowing it with one big gulp. Although this tiny caterpillar hardly seems a threat, there must be some advantage to rendering the prey senseless before ingesting it. I suspect it's just easier to swallow that way, but I doubt we will ever really know the answer with certainty. The New Jersey pinelands are home to a plethora of insects and insectivores, like the prairie warbler, abound here. #PrairieWarbler

I can't say with certainty exactly where this is in the Clinchfield's Nolichucky Gorge south of Erwin, Tenn., but I'll guess it's around Cane Bottom or Lost Cove. I was riding in a heavyweight coach behind the caboose of the "Ridge Runner" local on June 22, 1974. This crew normally worked south as far as Marion before turning back north. Looks like the brakes are sticking on either the covered hopper of feldspar or the plug door N&W boxcar. The motive power was SD40 No. 3020. This is the stretch that's being rebuilt by CSX after Hurrican Helene last year. All the right of way you see here was completely washed away by the enormous floodwaters.

Ever since seeing The Last Jedi I've wanted to build something from the film. This seemed to be the easiest vehicle so I figured I'd start small and perhaps work up to the Starfortress in the new year? (that's not a certainty but do wish to build one of those.. sometime!)

(Light Spoilers for TLJ in this paragraph) I know the whole Canto Bight section of the film has been pretty divisive with many fans viewing it as an unnecessary addition in relation to the rest of the story. Personally I liked the idea of a place where war profiteers can enjoy the high life, though I do admit the way it was included in the story was a bit forced. That said I did really like the design of the city, perhaps not what we expect in Star Wars but what can I say? I just worked for me! :)

As does the police speeder's design, I feel its a nice mix of land speeder and speeder bike without looking too out of place. Unfortunately the small size does mean my version is very fragile but that's pretty much the standard with my builds anyway :P And of course with the current lack of an official fig I had to improvise with the pilot.

Please let me know what you think! :D

Sakharibazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2011

In life whoever is alive, has his own way of living.

No matter he is a president of a country or a beggar in the street.

The principle of living is similar in everywhere.

A little girl glances uneasily at me, while replacing her veil - Bandung (Indonesia)

__________________________________________________________________

I have learned by experience that children react much better to photography than adults. Indonesia, however, wiped all my certainties away. While grown ups would smile and stare at the camera for hours, children placed in front on my lense would invariably start bawling after a couple seconds.

This little girl was no exception. Her worried look on this picture is only a prelude to the impressive waterworks that followed. And no amount of comforting words and kisses from her mother managed to make her stop. That my camera would cause so much angst among the little ones in Indonesia was a source of constant surprise and stress, and something I tried to minimize the best I could during my assignment.

__________________________________________________________________

More pictures and stories on my website www.bricerichard.com.

The theme for a 11/2 lifetime is bringing life into a sense of balance through the analyzing and synthesizing of ideas. Learning to trust in yourself, your intuition, and your psychic abilities.

Justice and the High Priestess (Papess) represent form the gateway into an 11/2 lifetime. Justice (ruled by the planet Libra) places focus on harmony, understanding others, and finding a sense of balance in life. Libra is by nature active and social, with the need to balance between nurturing self and helping others. The High Priestess (Papess) is ruled by the Moon, which places focus on our inner selves, our inner needs, intuition, unconscious, and psychic abilities. Here we are looking at reacting, rather than taking action. The nature here is a passive one. Personal empowerment is the ability to focus our personal and spiritual energy in a manner that enhances how we experience our life. As we define our true power, we actualize out potential and begin to live life from a core of inner confidence.

theworldoftarot.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/birth-card-pairs...

The occult has moved from secrecy to mainstream acceptance, and tarot card reading stands as a testament to this shift. The Rider-Waite deck, named after the mystic A.E. Waite and publisher William Rider and Son, is considered the definitive tarot deck. However, the captivating imagery and symbolism that define this deck come from the artistic genius of Pamela Colman Smith, a woman often forgotten in the history of the occult.

Smith, an artist with possible Jamaican roots, led a bohemian lifestyle and was introduced to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn by the renowned poet William Butler Yeats. She joined the secret society, which explored occult and paranormal aspects, as well as philosophy and magic. There, she met A.E. Waite, who would later request her artistic talents in creating a new deck of divination cards. Despite the immense popularity of the Rider-Waite deck, Smith’s role in its creation was largely forgotten.

However, many tarot enthusiasts today have started acknowledging her contributions by calling it the “Smith-Waite” deck or using decks that feature her name prominently.

culture.org/the-unseen-mothers-of-the-occult-pamela-colma...

"Gospel according to "Myriam" and this Mary is generally identified, without certainty, as being Mary of Magdala....In Christian tradition, the Three Marys also refers to three daughters – all three called Mary – whom Anne, the maternal grandmother of Jesus would have had with three successive husbands. According to Fernando Lanzi and Gioia Lanzi, this tradition would have been condemned by the Council of Trent (16th century), but it is still very much alive, particularly in German-speaking countries16 and in the Netherlands. then retired to the cave of Sainte-Baume where she lived for 30 years as a hermitage, with her only clothing, the fleece of her hair, and as her only food, the song of the angels who daily raised her to the heavens, seven times a day, it is said. She left Sainte Baume to die with Saint Maximin, one of the 72 disciples, in the small town where he had built his oratory and which today bears his name. He buried the saint in an alabaster sarcophagus.The name Magdala comes from Magdal in Aramaic or Migdal in Hebrew and designates a construction in the shape of a tower, representing faith, very similar to the House of God (The Tower) in Marseille's Tarot !

The Tarot de Marseille would then be a testimony to the teaching of Mary Magdalene. In Spanish-speaking countries, the Orion Belt Asterism is called “Las Tres Marias” (The Three Marys). In other Western countries, it is sometimes called "The Three Kings", a reference to the "Magi who came from the East" of the childhood narrative added to the Gospel according to Matthew and to the tradition of the three Magi, bearers of gifts for the child Jesus, whose oldest witnesses are found in Tertullian and Origen (early 3rd century). My "Mary Magdalene theory" is fortunately supported by thousands of codes that all come interconnected. "You will progress on a healthier basis with someone you know. Be authentic. Make sure you reserve moments of relaxation and do not pull too much on the rope, you tend to exceed your physical limits. Mary (mother of Jesus) Mary Magdalene Mary of Clopas. These three women are very often represented in art, as for example in this picture. The Three Marys (also spelled Maries) are women mentioned in the canonical gospels' narratives of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Mary was the most common name for Jewish women of the period. Mary speaks of strange encounters with Creator Beings. Read about her experiences with them, and how their decree changed her life with Jesus. In this final volume of the trilogy, Magdalene appears to the author by the river in Rennes les Bains, France. There she reveals an ancient healing technique called The True Baptism. Mary illustrates how to organize the life force from the matrix of The All and allow it to trigger our genetic code. Mary then answers more of your questions, this time about the hidden properties of gold, the evolution of her bloodline with Jesus, free will, inner earth, the star knowledge, and much more. The Tarot, in both its origin as a card game and in its transformation into an occult divinatory tool, functions as an iconographic mirror of a particular culture's time and place. By the examining the evolution of the World card, from the 14th century Italian decks to contemporary ones, we will see a shift from male Christ imagery to female anima mundi imagery. Parallel to this iconographic shift is the figure of Mary Magdalene, who in Renaissance painting began to be portrayed less as a sinner and more of a penitent saint. The assumption of Mary Magdalene in art correlates with the finalized form of the World card. The alterations of Christian iconography and symbolism in Tarot cards are the result of occultists’ reappropiation of the Tarot in the late 1700s. The fear/distrust/disbelief of God and Christianity that began at this time funneled into an interest in the occult; in the Tarot, we see a preservation of the luminous but a problematic relationality with Christianity. The World card, as it has been handed down to us today, is a synthesis of the assumption of Mary Magdalene, the Christus Victor, and the anima mundi. A sacred priestess of the ancient Womb Rites, Mary Magdalene was at the center of a great and enduring Mystery tradition. Unveiling the lost left-hand path of the Magdalene, the authors offer rituals and practices to initiate you into the Womb magic of the ancient priestesses and access deeper dimensions of sexuality and feminine power.

www.innertraditions.com/books/magdalene-mysteries

Tarot historians are in agreement that the appropriation of the cards by occultists occurred in the late 18th century. The first known interpretation of the Tarot through an esoteric lens was penned by the French occultist Court de Gebelin. He believed the deck was the lost Egyptian Book of Thoth, containing the secret mysteries of Egyptian wisdom and magic; following Gebelin, occultists began syncretizing the Tarot with the systems of Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and alchemy. I believe we can locate the apex of this appropriation in the Waite-Smith deck from 1909 – the most familiar and popular deck to the contemporary reader. Later we will consider the effect this had on the Tarot symbolism and its relationship to the shifts in religious understanding in France and other European countries.Although there is a clear historical distinction between Tarot as “playing cards” and as occult divination tools, this is not to say that the imagery of the early decks are absent of symbolism or meaning. Rather than esoteric, the early cards are exoteric in their imagery; the symbols are clear referents to religion, culture, and mythology. While they seem esoteric today, as much of Christian iconography is to the contemporary viewer, these cards were probably not hard to decipher by their audiences. While much is admittedly conjecture, (as is a lot of Tarot historical studies), there is still much we can tease out of the visual evolution of the cards over time. It is surprising that there has been so little work done on the correlations and similarities between Tarot and Christian symbolism and iconography. My research hit a lot of dead-end roads in terms of proof, but I believe it is important to reveal my initial observations to show that, while perhaps not conscious, there is a great deal of Christian symbolism in Tarot, even in decks from the post-occult turn of the 18 and 19 centuries and from today as well.In the Waite-Smith deck, the most obvious Christian card is the 20 Major Arcana, Judgment, in which an angel blows a trumpet and the souls of dead bodies rise from coffins. Another obvious example is the Tower card, clearly a depiction of the fall of the Tower of Babel. Less obvious, perhaps, is the Fool card. It depicts a young man walking up to a cliff precipice, as though he does not see it; he carries a bag of money and is followed by a dog. Does this not recall the story of blind Tobias, who also carries money and is followed by a dog? Although in painting he is normally portrayed being guided by the angel Raphael, the similarities are astounding. How did this come to be?

The Hanged Man card is surprisingly consistent from the early Italian decks to the contemporary post-occult decks, and is one of the most mysterious within esoteric interpretation. In the Waite-Smith deck, it depicts a man hanging from a Tau cross by one leg; his other leg is crossed underneath the other to form another cross, and a nimbus glows around the head. Most occult interpretations of this card go along the lines that it is a symbol of self-sacrifice for spiritual gain. Robert Place argues that this can be understood as Christ, in that Christ was executed as a traitor by the state.3 Furthermore, a numerical reading of the card offers insight – being card 12, it might refer also to the self-sacrifice and martyrdom of the twelve disciples. By employing basic gematria, we can add the digits one and two to reach three, which could be the Trinity.

www.academia.edu/8851376/Tarot_and_Christian_Iconography_...

The Gospels refer to several women named Mary. At various points of Christian history, some of these women have been identified with one another..look at this picture from the Waite-Rider-Smth tarot:from left to right 1 Mary Magdalene 2 Mary of Jacob (mother of James the Less) 3 Mary, mother of Jesus (Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; Luke 24:10) Mary of Clopas (John 19:25), sometimes identified with Mary of Jacob. Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:38–42, John 12:1–3), not mentioned in any Crucifixion or Resurrection narratives but identified with Mary Magdalene in some traditions. Another woman who appears in the Crucifixion and Resurrection narratives is Salome, who, in some traditions, is referred to as Mary Salome and identified as being one of the Marys. Other women mentioned in the narratives are Joanna and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.Marie-Madeleine, Marie Salomé and Marie de Clopas are the 3 Maries of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a French town, capital of the Camargue, in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône. The designation "of-the-sea" derives from the fact that after the death of Jesus, the three Marys crossed the sea by boat to there and then lived there, thus helping to bring Christianity to France and Europe. These 3 Marys were present during the execution of Jesus and, they were the first witnesses of the empty tomb at the resurrection of Jesus... After the death of Jesus, around 42 J.C. the Christians were persecuted, and the three Marys were arrested and expelled from Palestine. They therefore embarked, with many other Christians, on a ship named "The Ship of Peter" devoid of oars and sails which, led by Providence, managed to reach the shores of Provence, in the south of France in a place which now bears their names.This is where the three Marys were welcomed by Sara, according to some texts, according to others, Sara, herself would be the Holy Grail, the direct descent of Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Only Marie Salomé, Marie Jacobé and Sarah will remain; Marie Madeleine, will retire to a hermitage in a cave...This is a historically attested fact, because Christianity began to spread in Europe precisely from Gaul, which thus became the gateway to the new religion in Europe. Mary Magdalene occupies a privileged place for Christ, at the head of a group of women who accompany him. She will be the first witness to the Resurrection of Christ, the first to whom the Lord appears on Easter morning, a sign, whether we believe in it or not, of an exceptional position. She is Jewish like Christ, like him from the North of Palestine (Israel), from Galilee, probably from Magdala, near Nazareth and Cana. It is believed that she was an aristocrat born in the year 3 AD, who after attending the court of the king of the Jews Herod, was converted by Christ, changed her life and decided to follow him and put her fortune at the disposal of the group. Arrived in the Camargue, with the two other Maries, she evangelized the Marseillais, then withdrew to the cave of Sainte-Baume where she lived 30 years in hermitage, with as only clothing, the fleece of her hair, and as only food, the song of the angels who raised her daily in the heavens, seven times a day, it is said.

www.calistabellini.com/post/les-saintes-maries-de-la-mer-...

Different sets of three women have been referred to as the Three Marys: Three Marys present at the crucifixion of Jesus;

Three Marys at the tomb of Jesus on Easter Sunday; Three daughters of Saint Anne, all named Mary. The three Marys at the

The presence of a group of female disciples of Jesus at the crucifixion of Jesus is found in all four Gospels of the New Testament. Differences in the parallel accounts have led to different interpretations of how many and which women were present. In some traditions, as exemplified in the Irish song Caoineadh na dTrí Muire, the Three Marys are the three whom the Gospel of John mentions as present at the crucifixion of Jesus: However, Jesus was not crucified upside-down. Looking at the Visconti-Sforza deck, we have an almost identical depiction of the Hanged Man. Helen Farley points out that in Renaissance society, there was an art form called pittura infamante – ‘shame painting’ – “in which a person was depicted as a traitor, particularly when beyond the reach of legitimate legal. recourse.”4 By depicting someone hanging upside-down, this could alternately mean the person had turned away from God. It also was used for the execution of Jews, witches, and Christians who had committed perfidy. I immediately thought of Peter, who is said to have asked to be crucified upside-down because he was unworthy to die as Christ died. In Christian iconography, he is the only individual portrayed in this manner. Peter could be said to be a traitor, in that he denied Christ three times, but the negative associations of shame paintings don’t seem to correlate with Peter’s sainthood. Judas is also said to have hung himself, and is traitor par excellance, but I remained convinced that this card was based upon Peter. While the usual understanding of Peter’s request for an upside-down crucifixion is his humility in relation to Christ’s death, there is a different explanation in apocryphal accounts. In the Acts of Peter, Peter speaks from the cross, saying that, “when the first man [Adam] came into the world, he came headfirst. That means that Adam’s perspective, as the one who brought sin into the world, was entirely reversed and upside down. That is why people seem to think that what is true is false and what is false true....All of this is because humans have reverse vision, due to the actions of Adam.”6 Thus, hanging upside-down is a model for Christians to live by, to see the world correctly. This is nearly identical to how Tarot esotericists interpret the Hanged Man; it is both Christ in its self-sacrifice, and also an inversion of corporeal ‘reality’ and perspective through which one gets a better understanding of how to reach God. While one cannot veritably locate a thread between the Acts of Peter and the Hanged Man, this connection exemplifies the latent Christian symbolism that flows through the Tarot, from 14th century Italy to now.

Mary Magdalene, Mary of Clopas and Mary (mother of Jesus). These three women are very often represented in art, as for example in these Flickr's picture.

Women at the tarot like a passkey to heaven; The Three Marys as passkey. What may be the earliest known representation of three women visiting the tomb of Jesus is a fairly large fresco in the Dura-Europos church in the ancient city of Dura Europos on the Euphrates. The fresco was painted before the city's conquest and abandonment in AD 256, but it is from the 5th century that representations of either two or three women approaching a tomb guarded by an angel appear with regularity, and become the standard depiction of the Resurrection. They have continued in use even after 1100, when images of the Resurrection of Jesus in Christian art began to show the risen Christ himself. Examples are the Melisende Psalter and Peter von Cornelius's The Three Marys at the tarot. Eastern icons continue to show either the Myrrhbearers or the Harrowing of Hell. The fifteenth-century Easter hymn "O filii et filiae" refers to three women going to the tomb on Easter morning to anoint the body of Jesus. The original Latin version of the hymn identifies the women as Mary Magdalene (Maria Magdalene), Mary of Joseph (et Iacobi), and Salome (et Salome).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Marys

The World (XXI) is the 21st trump or Major Arcana card in the tarot deck. It can be incorporated as the final card of the Major Arcana or tarot trump sequence (the first or last optioned as being "The Fool" (0). It is associated with the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet, 'Shin' also spelled 'Sin'. The oval shape of the wreath is also used by the Golden Dawn in their Tattva cards. These colorful cards were designed to aid the development of clairvoyance through visual meditation, and one of the symbols in the cards is an oval. The oval corresponds to the Akasha, ether or spiritual realm (see Akashic Records).

Description

Christ in Majesty is surrounded by the animal emblems representing the four evangelists in a German manuscript.

In the traditional Tarot of Marseilles, as well as the later Rider–Waite tarot deck, a naked woman hovers or dances above the Earth holding a staff in each hand, surrounded by a wreath, being watched by the four living creatures (or hayyoth) of Jewish mythology: a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. This depiction parallels the tetramorph used in Christian art, where the four creatures are used as symbols of the four Evangelists. Some astrological sources explain these observers as representatives of the natural world or the kingdom of beasts. According to astrological tradition the Lion is Leo—a fire sign, the Bull or calf is Taurus—an earth sign, the Man is Aquarius—an air sign, and the Eagle is Scorpio—a water sign. These signs are the four fixed signs and represent the classical four elements. In some decks the wreath is an ouroboros biting its own tail. In the Thoth Tarot designed by Aleister Crowley, this card is called "The Universe." The World card, the highest ranked Major Arcana card, exists in the early Visconti-Sforza, Marseilles, and contemporary decks. It will serve as our loci in considering the relationship between Tarot and Christian iconography, the evolution of Mary Magdalene in Christian depiction/understanding, and the rise of the female anima mundi in occult and esoteric movements. To recall, the Visconti-Sforza is one of our earliest known decks. Helen Farley notes that the deck’s symbolism reflects concerns and themes of the Italian Renaissance: The proximity of death, the fickle hand of fortune, the desirability of living a life

of virtue, the importance of spirituality but also the contempt with which corporeal concerns were held, namely the corruption of the Church...[it] portrayed the lives and history of the Viscontis...as a game: a potent allegory of Visconti life. These themselves more as we follow the orbit of the World card around the sun of time.reveal themes, particularly the tension between spirituality and Catholicism, will. In the Visconti-Sforza deck, the world is shown as a globe, within which is surrounded by turbulent waters (fig. I). The globe is held aloft by two putti. The blue wings indicate they are Seraphim, the highest rank of angels. In other versions from this time, there is usually a figure of a woman or angel upon the globe and city usually represents Jerusalem, the city of God; “the microcosm of the city symbolically linked the earthly (human) body with the heavenly (cosmic) ‘body’”, observes Farley. This derives, of course, from St. Augustine’s The City of God, wherein the Christian empire is located around the Church of Rome, which links humankind with God. The earthly city reflects the heavenly city, and this card connects the actual city of Milan with the celestial city of heaven. Duke Sforza’s domination of Milan is enforced and made holy through its pictorial self-portrayal as the Augustinian city. This pride in the city-state enforces the power, wealth, and status of Milan; interestingly, as the World card follows the Resurrection/Judgment card, Milan is portrayed as the city Augustine believes will contain the saved souls. One also may observe that the city is separated from the rest of the ‘world’ by the edge of the globe; it is strongly fortified and separated by waters, illuminated by the stars of heaven.

What does 3 stars in the sky mean? many meanings...Each culture gives the Três Marias a different meaning. In Christian tradition, the stars are associated with the three women who visited the tomb of Jesus at the resurrection. They also represent the Three Wise Men -Gaspar, Melchior and Baltasar-, who would be on their way to Bethlehem at the birth of the messiah. What are the three Marias? Mark 16:1 indicates that "Mary Magdalene", "Mary the mother of James" and "Salome" went to the tomb to anoint Jesus....How many stars do the 3 Marias have?

The Belt or Belt of Orion, popularly known as the Three Marys or Three Kings, is an asterism of three stars that form the belt of the constellation of Orion, the hunter. The stars, easily identifiable in the sky by their brightness and alignment, are known as Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak. Where are the three Marias?

To identify it we must locate 3 stars close to each other, of the same brightness, and aligned. They are called Tres Marías and they form the belt of the constellation of Orion, the hunter. Their names are Mintaka, Alnilan and Alnitaka, from the Arabic Al-Mintakah, the belt, An-Nidham, the pearl, and An-Nitak, the rope.

What are the stars we see in the sky? Stars are large spheres formed by plasma heated to thousands of degrees. Its shape is due to its gravity, which points towards the core of the star. Stars are large spheres of plasma that are powered by nuclear fusion. Stars are large spheres of plasma, held together by their own gravity. > Constellation of ORION: Why are the three Marias called Três Marias? Origin and meanings of Três Marias.Each culture gives the Três Marias a different meaning. In Christian tradition, the stars are associated with the three women who visited the tomb of Jesus at the resurrection. They also represent the Three Wise Men -Gaspar, Melchior and Baltasar-, who would be on their way to Bethlehem at the birth of the messiah. What are the three Marias? Mark 16:1 indicates that "Mary Magdalene", "Mary the mother of James" and "Salome" went to the tomb to anoint Jesus....How many stars do the 3 Marias have? The Belt or Belt of Orion, popularly known as the Three Marys or Three Kings, is an asterism of three stars that form the belt of the constellation of Orion, the hunter. The stars, easily identifiable in the sky by their brightness and alignment, are known as Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak.Where are the three Marias? To identify it we must locate 3 stars close to each other, of the same brightness, and aligned. They are called Tres Marías and they form the belt of the constellation of Orion, the hunter. Their names are Mintaka, Alnilan and Alnitaka, from the Arabic Al-Mintakah, the belt, An-Nidham, the pearl, and An-Nitak, the rope.The most curious thing of all is that, in reality, their names are Mintaka, Alnilan and Alnitak, Arabic names that mean, respectively, the "Belt", the "Pearl/Precious Stone" and the "Rope". Another is knowing that they are actually very close together in the sky, approximately 1,500 light-years from Earth.There are three enormous stars visible in the winter sky and in the center of the constellation Orion, the celestial cathedral. These three stars form a nearly perfect tilted alignment, separated by seemingly nearly equidistant distances. They are known as the three Marys, the three wise men or the belt of Orion -a giant hunter from mythology-, but these names are not enough to understand the mysteries that such colossal stars contain. We must look towards the south, at half height; between the horizon and the zenith. It has no loss, it is a brilliant stellar alignment, which is unique in the firmament. Three blue stars, three giants: Mintaka, Altinak and Alnilam.

Источник: planetariodevitoria.org/estrelas/qual-e-o-nome-das-estrel...

An engineer born in Alexandria in 1948, Robert Bauval, with a background in astronomy and an interest in Egyptology, discovered that the three Marys are positioned exactly like the three great pyramids of Giza in Egypt. The star Mintaka, in the upper part of the alignment of the three Marys, is somewhat deviated with respect to the previous two, the same imperfect alignment has the three great pyramids. But also, the pyramid deviated from the straight line that joins the other two, is the smallest of the three (Micerino), like Mintaka, which is the star that shines the least of the three Marias. Also, the pyramid that is highest on the plateau of the three and that stands out the most (Kefren) is the central one, as is the central star of Las tres Marías, which is the brightest. Did the Egyptians also know that these stars are visible from all over the world? And more specifically Mintaka, which is right on the celestial equator. Everything can be the product of chance, but many coincidences bear the truth. Curiously, the Egyptians believed that after their death, the gates of heaven opened in the place occupied by Orion's belt, but they never understood the greatness of those three spectacular stars. The three Marys were the place where the soul of Osiris, the Egyptian god of resurrection, rested and presides over the court of the judgment of the deceased, among other powers.Alnitak, an Arabic name meaning "belt", is the lowest of the three stars. A new star 6 million years old, while the Sun is about 5,000 million. This blue giant, 16 times the diameter of the Sun, with a visual magnitude of 1.79, located 700 light years from the Sun, of spectral type O9, shines with an intensity 100,000 times greater than that of our Sun, which next to it is a tiny star with a mass 20 times less than Alnitak. It ranks 35th among the most luminous stars we know of, including stars from other galaxies. Alnitak is a peculiar star, whose surface temperature reaches 29,000 degrees. The Sun only reaches 6,500. But it is also a very intense source of X-rays, due to the strong stellar winds that are projected from the surface in the form of particles, essentially hydrogen and helium, sweeping the surrounding space at speeds of 2,000 km/s. These types of giant stars have their days numbered. The bigger the stars are, the less time they live, so that Alnitak, in a short time will become a red supergiant, it will explode in the form of a supernova, which can be seen even during the day from Earth, to end up as a tiny star about 10 km in diameter, called a neutron star, a star so dense that a teaspoon of its surface would weigh as much as a mountain. Also Alnitak is a triple star. Alnilam. Located in the center of the stellar trio that make up Las tres Marías, it is a true celestial spectacle. It shines with a magnitude of 1.70, being the fourth brightest star in Orion and the brightest of the three Marys, in addition to being the furthest at 1,340 light years, but that is nothing compared to the luminosity of the star, equal to 380,000 times greater than the Sun, ranking 27th of all known stars. It is a blue supergiant star, 31 times the diameter of the Sun and 40 solar masses. Extraordinarily young, only 4 million years old, somewhat colder than the previous one, with about 25,000ºC on the surface. It also has a powerful stellar wind with speeds of 2,000 km/s, 20 million times more than the solar wind. The temperature and radiation are so high in this star that it lights up a nebula of gas and dust called NGC 1990 by reflection. Alnilam is so young that it is not yet a stable star, but variable in its brightness (pulsating variable), due to its continuous expansion and contraction. The Sun is a stable star, it does not pulse, expand, or contract. The force of gravity pulling in on the Sun has been offset by the expansive force of thermonuclear reactions by converting hydrogen to helium, but in Alnilam, both forces continue without agreeing. If it is possible to have planets, life there as we know it would be impossible, due to the instability of the star. Alnilam will end its days as Alnitak, becoming a premature red supergiant, exposing its superdense core; a neutron star. Meanwhile, it is moving away from us at a speed of 26 km/s. Mintaka: Arabic word meaning "for belt." Another blue giant star, although the faintest in brightness of the three Marias reaching 2.5 magnitude. It contains 20 solar masses and a luminosity 90,000 times greater than that of the Sun. Located at a distance of 915 light years, it is surprising that it shines with such intensity, not in vain its surface temperature is 31,000ºC. Mintaka is one of the most complex multiple systems known. The main star, that is to say Mintaka, has a companion of magnitude 6.8 at a real distance of more than 2.3 trillion km, or what is the same, ¼ of a light year. But in turn, this star that appears to be 1' of arc distant from Mintaka, is a spectroscopic binary, that is, it has another companion so close to it that it is impossible to take it off with telescopes, but it can be done using spectroscopy; the only thing we can detect is the spectrum of the companion, but we can't see it. Between the spectroscopic binary and Mintaka, there is a faint 14th magnitude star that may belong to the system. But in addition, Mintaka has an extraordinarily close companion to her, which is why she is a spectroscopic binary. Curiously, the companion star has almost the same characteristics as Mintaka, the same mass, temperature and luminosity and must be the same size. A complex 5-star star system. Almost all stars are double or multiple, the rarity is our Sun, which is a solitary star. However, many researchers look for dwarf stars that may be trapped by the Sun's gravity.

www.abc.es/ciencia/20140122/abci-tres-marias-estrellas-co...

The two putti slowly disappeared in other decks, to be replaced by either a male or female figure. In this example from the Museo Civico, we see a woman holding a wand and a globe as she stands upon the globe (fig. II). Another early example of a female World card is the Cary-Yale Visconti deck (fig. III), depicting a royally-clothed woman wielding a scepter and a crown. It was not uncommon to portray the earth as a feminine figure, but these early examples seem to be stressing not so much a personification of the earth but rather the domination of earth by something/someone. Consider figure IV and figure V. Here we have a male figure, one clothed and the other nude, ruling over the world. Consider also the nude male in the Jacques Vieville deck and the Bologna deck (fig. VI). In Christian art, when Jesus is portrayed as the Christus Victor, he looms over the world holding a globe with a cross fixed to it. He is often surrounded by the four evangelists as he stands upon God’s throne. When he is surrounded by the four evangelists, Christ is enclosed within a mandorla, and the four evangelists are often in the four corners. Should we understand these male figures as Christ? The examples we’ve looked at that have a clothed male figure can clearly be an iconographic Christus Victor; the World card, being the last Major Arcana, is Christ victorious over the entire world after the Resurrection. But what of the nude figures? The only instance of Christ nude in Christian art, that I know of, is Michelangelo’s altar wall in the Sistine Chapel; there, Christ is nude and beardless, as with these particular cards. But there is a shift from the Christ standing upon the world to the Christ on God’s throne. As we see with the Jacques Vieville card (fig. VI), the nude Christ holds his standard iconographic scepter with attached globe, is enclosed by a mandorla (a laurel wreath), and surrounded by the four evangelists. Again, following the tradition of Christian art, Matthew is a human with wings, Mark is a lion, Luke is an ox, and John is an eagle. There is no essential difference between this Tarot card and an atypical Christus Victor. It should be noted that this visual structure was also used in alchemy through the 16 to the 18 century. The four

evangelists are correlated with the four elements of the world, the four seasons, and the four directions. Consider figure VII; note the chalice with the serpent, the attribute of John the Evangelist, unusually associated with the anima mundi. But something happened. Recall that the Marseilles deck, circa blueprint structure and pattern for most subsequent decks created in France, Italy, and Belgium, and also for the decks created by occultists in the 19th century deck is unusual considering its forerunners. We have the same iconography of the four evangelists and the mandorla, but instead of the Christus Victor or royally-clothed woman, there is a nude woman (figure VIII). There are many versions of this, of course, but we can say that she is often portrayed with long hair, with a loose banner rippling around her nude body. She sometimes holds a bottle and a scepter; more often, two equal wands (that is, wands with a knob on both ends). She is always enclosed within a laurel wreath, and the four evangelists remain in the four corners of the card. Suddenly, a nude woman is dancing, or floating, on God’s throne instead of Christ; perhaps, she is being assumed up into heaven. This card serves as the bridge between the City of God and the Christus Victor depictions to most of the subsequent World cards: the rather curious and baffling conflagration of Christian iconography and feminine/Goddess imagery. What does this shift mean, and how can we situate it within Christian art? Let us turn our attention, now, to the portrayal of Mary Magdalene in Christian art. Mary Magdalene underwent quite a transformation through Renaissance art. The sinner Magdalene ultimately becomes the penitent, holy reformer to which many upheld as an exemplary and relatable model. Mrs. Jameson locates the rising popularity of Magdalene as penitent in the 16th and 17th into heaven. Magdalene became “still more endeared to the popular imagination by more affecting and attractive associations, and even more eminently picturesque...We have Magdalenes who look as if they never could have sinned, and others who look as if they never could have repented.”11 Magdalene became more sexualized just as she became more penitent. Rachel Geschwind observes that in the 16th century, paintings like Rossiglio’s Conversion of the Magdalene began to give Venus-like characteristics to Magdalene; she is both divine and corporeal. and art, and sometimes one might even mistake a Venus for a Magdalene. Courtesans at this time would write of divine love and the desire to enter the ‘paradise of Venus’, which was a metaphor where she is praying for forgiveness or being reconciled and/or assumed up for the city. (Recall the City of God from the Visconti deck). Magdalene seemed to serve as a perfect model for passion and romance that was acceptable religiously, and as a locus for the world of divine love. The dichotomy between the corporeal and the divine is also inherent in Correggio’s Noli Me Tangere; Margaret A. Morse writes that “Correggio evoked a natural style, while maintain a beauty and sanctity for which his subjects called, whereby the beholder...would be able to recognize the divine in the physical.”14 She is a bridge between the viewer and Christ, between the body and the spirit. Given that Neo-Platonism was on the rise during the Renaissance, it makes sense that this balance between two kinds of love, “sacred and profane, formulated by Plato in the Symposium”15, found Mary Magdalene as the perfect template and model. In addition to Venus-like characteristics, Magdalene was also beginning to assume the role as a “new Eve” from the Virgin.The relationship between the images of the Tarot de Marseille and the medieval heresy of the Holy Grail. The followers of this heresy claimed that Jesus of Nazareth had married Mary Magdalene. In this work are presented all the symbols of the Tarot in relation to this heresy and, for the first time, it is revealed that these images constitute the secret heritage of Mary Magdalene. that the game was the lost Egyptian book of Thoth, containing the secret mysteries of Egyptian wisdom and magic; following Gebelin, occultists

2 began to syncretize the Tarot with the systems of Kabbalah, Hermeticism and Alchemy. We believe we can place the pinnacle of this appropriation in the Waite-Smith game of 1909 - the most familiar and popular game for the contemporary reader. Later we will look at the effect this has had on Tarot symbolism and its relationship to changes in religious understanding in France and other European countries.

Mary Magdalene (Mary of Magdala), the woman with jars in Christian symbolism, could very well in this case be represented in the star map. But their assumptions stopped there. No one had ever imagined that the Tarot itself represents in its entirety the teaching and life of Marie-Madeleine on the one hand and even less that the Tarot was created by Marie-Madeleine herself in the 1st century. This is the entirely new Tarot theory that I have been expounding since the beginning of the second millennium. If my theory of the Tarot turns out to be correct, it completely changes the vision and the understanding that one could have of the Tarot. It changes the dating of the Tarot which goes from the 14th century to the 1st century AD with Mary Magdalene, the Tarot de Marseille thus becoming the ancestor of all Western tarots, that is to say "the Tarot". Historians and experts said that the Tarot originated in Italy during the Renaissance era around the end of the 14th century the beginning of the 15th century. On the other hand, no one thought that the Tarot de Marseille itself originated from Marseille. When I started to propose the theory of a Marseille origin of the Tarot de Marseille, Tarot historians and Tarot experts thought that I was an eccentric or that I wanted to make a publicity stunt. In 1999, I explained publicly that in my opinion the Tarot had been transmitted to Europe around 415 by the monk Jean Cassien who was entirely dedicated to Marie-Madeleine and who founded the order of the Abbey of Saint-Victor in Marseille. My Tarot theory is based on thousands of secret codes that can be found in the new Tarot de Marseille Camoin that I drew in the 90s. The Mandorla that surrounds the naked woman indicates that it is a saint who has reached the beatific state. The most significant secret Tarot code in "The Mary Magdalene Theory" that I have discovered resides in the last two cards of the Tarot Major Arcana, Judgment and the World. Indeed, by their number, these two cards are naturally placed next to each other. I revealed that the two cards put together give the key to the mystery of the Tarot character that is found in the World card. Because the identity of this character had remained a mystery for centuries. Almost all Tarot researchers claimed that it was the androgynous Christ, so much so that it had become a real dogma in the Tarot world. Historians could not imagine that it was a woman because of the presence of the four living beings who are attributed to Christ in Christian sacred art. Some had interpreted this mysterious young woman as being the soul of the World, "Anima Mundi".

But the Tarot is coded in another way. Tarot codes are embedded in other Tarot codes and so on. Also, if we disregard the four living beings in the World map, we obtain a naked woman surrounded by an almond-shaped oval. This oval called mandorla symbolizes the state of beatific vision. We find the mandorla around some saints. This means that in the Tarot de Marseille, the woman on the World Map is a saint. My "Mary Magdalene theory" continues like this. In the pantheon of Western saints, there is only one saint who is depicted naked, and that is Saint Mary Magdalene. However, Marie de Magdala lived in the vicinity of Marseilles for 30 years. My theory, which is unique in the history of the Tarot, states that it is Mary Magdalene who is represented in the map of the World and that the Tarot de Marseille is therefore dedicated to this saint.

The two cards form a new symbol. Mary of Magdala is the Saint who sees the Resurrection of Christ (in blue. Furthermore, we can locate similar attributes to Magdalene from apocryphal sources as well as the writings of Origen. In the apocryphal Pistis Sophia, Magdalene is the sole recipient of Christ’s gnosis, rather than Peter and the other disciples. Christ says, “Well done, Mary. You are more blessed than all women on earth, because you will be the fullness of fullnesses and the completion of completions.”17Although this apocryphal account could not have been known to people during the Renaissance, it reveals that even within the early Christian communities there was a holiness attributed to Magdalene that transcended all others. Yet the Gnostic contempt for materiality seems to clash with the embrace of dualism during the Renaissance. This dualism can be found in Origen’s writings, however. In his commentary on the Song of Songs, he allegorically reads the bride as the Christian church. The bride anoints her lover with an ointment; Origen connects this with the scriptural account of Mary Magdalene anointing Christ. He interprets the line spoken by the bride, “I am dark but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Song 1:5), as follows: “She has repented of her sins...beauty is the gift conversion has bestowed; that is the reason she is hymned as beautiful. She is called black, however, because she has not yet purged of every stain of sin, she has not yet been washed unto salvation, nevertheless she does not stay dark-hued, she is becoming white.”18 The dualism of black/evil and white/good is unfortunate, but the connection between the Bride of the Song of Songs and Magdalene reinforces her movement away from sin into penitence, and her positive association with the Church and Christ. The sexual language employed in the Song of Songs has always been difficult for commentators; however we see that when Magdalene is associated with the Bride, the sexuality is compounded with Magdalene’s penitence, in the same way we’ve seen in Renaissance painting. The portrayals of Magdalene’s assumption into heaven connect us back to the Tarot. Mrs. Jameson observes, dryly, that Italian paintings of Magdalene’s assumption began “to recall the idea of a Venus Meretrix.”19 Let us consider Giovanni Lanfranco’s La maddalenan portata in cielo, (fig. IX) and Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (fig. X). Jameson is quite correct in her observation, despite her negativity towards this shift. In the Lanfranco, Magdalene’s hair barely covers her nude body as she is borne aloft by three putti. She holds out her hands at an angle, and below her is the world’s expanse of mountains, lakes, and forests. It is sexual and chaste, physical and divine. Her figure is very much the Platonic divine love, the ideal Venus. In some of the Assumptions, she is almost dwarfed by the sublime immensity of the landscape. The fact that the very earth is prominent in these paintings underscores Magdalene’s dualistic characteristics of corporeality and divinity; the world gapes below her as she rises above it into the sky. Although she is always borne by putti in her assumption, she seems to float and dance in ecstasy as she rises. We observed the replacement of the Christus Victor with a female nude in the Marseilles World card. That card is remarkably similar to the Lanfranco, Durer’s Assumption of the Magdalene, and others. One gets the same sense of elevation and completion (recall Christ’s words in the Pistis Sophia) in the rise of Magdalene as one gets in the World card. I argue for a parallel between Magdalene’s evolution and the World card’s evolution; just as painting was infusing Magdalene with traits of divine love and worldliness, Tarot decks began to see the post- Resurrection world not in light of Christ but in a neo-Platonic Venus, a Magdalene/New Eve that encompasses the new World. We saw that some World cards have the woman holding a bottle of some sort, which is an attribute of Magdalene. Also, the instances of the two equal wands supports the dualism of divinity and corporeality, dark and light, sinner and penitent, in the portrayals of Magdalene. Robert Place agrees, writing that “She takes her position in the sacred center, which identifies her as the Anima Mundi and the Quinta Essentia...she has mastered or transcended duality...the World Soul is depicted as both Christ, or Sophia his female counterpart....divine wisdom.”20 She is the completion, the alchemical Great Work, the culmination of all earthly phases into the elevation of the world into heaven. This is, of course, an esoteric alchemical interpretation, which as we noted did not apply to Tarot until the late 1700s. I hold that Magdalene’s iconographic transition in the Renaissance parallels the exoteric symbolism of the World; but what to make of the occultists’ appropriation of this image in the late 1700s? Farley argues that, “With tarot removed from its original environment, its symbolism lost its previous relevance and context, rendering its imagery mysterious.”21 Institutionalized religion was being questioned at this time; indeed, the first publications by occultists on the Tarot coincide with the French Revolution. While we cannot delve deeply into the Revolution here, suffice it to say that it was characterized by a rejection of Christianity but a preservation of Christian structure. “It had its creeds, liturgies and sacred texts, its own vocabulary of virtues and vices...and the ambition of regenerating mankind itself, even if it denied divine intervention or the afterlife. The result was a series of deified abstractions worshipped through the denatured language and liturgy of Christianity.”22 Much of the Revolution’s tactics was the replacing of old symbols with new ones, but maintaining the same essential religious structure. Similarly, I argue that the occult appropriation of the Tarot was also an appropriation of Christian iconography, in a general sense; esoteric interpretations and the revisions of Tarot symbolism was an attempt to escape Christian doctrine through fabricated ancient lore (Egyptian roots, e.g.) and synthesized connections between the Tarot and old esoteric traditions such as Kabbalah.

Interpretation

According to A.E. Waite's 1910 book The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the World card carries several divinatory associations:

Mary Magdalene (Mary of Magdala), the woman with jars in Christian symbolism, could very well in this case be represented in the star map. But their assumptions stopped there. No one had ever imagined that the Tarot itself represents in its entirety the teaching and life of Marie-Madeleine on the one hand and even less that the Tarot was created by Marie-Madeleine herself in the 1st century. This is the entirely new Tarot theory that I have been expounding since the beginning of the second millennium.

If my theory of the Tarot turns out to be correct, it completely changes the vision and the understanding that one could have of the Tarot. It changes the dating of the Tarot which goes from the 14th century to the 1st century AD with Mary Magdalene, the Tarot de Marseille thus becoming the ancestor of all Western tarots, that is to say "the Tarot". Historians and experts said that the Tarot originated in Italy during the Renaissance period around the end of the 14th century the beginning of the 15th century. On the other hand, no one thought that the Tarot de Marseille itself originated from Marseille.

21.THE WORLD—Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place. Reversed: Inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence.

The World represents an ending to a cycle of life, a pause in life before the next big cycle beginning with the fool.[3] The figure is male and female, above and below, suspended between the heavens and the earth. It is completeness. It is also said to represent cosmic consciousness; the potential of perfect union with the One Power of the universe.[4] It tells us full happiness is to also give back to the world: sharing what we have learned or gained. As described in the book The New Mythic Tarot by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene (p. 82), the image of the woman (Hermaphroditus in Greek Mythology) is to show wholeness unrelated to sexual identification but rather of combined male and female energy on an inner level, which integrates opposites traits that arise in the personality charged by both energies. Opposite qualities between male and female that create turmoil in our life are joined in this card, and the image of becoming whole is an ideal goal, not something that can be possessed rather than achieved.

According to Robert M. Place in his book The Tarot, the four beasts on the World card represent the fourfold structure of the physical world—which frames the sacred center of the world, a place where the divine can manifest. Sophia, meaning Prudence or Wisdom (the dancing woman in the center), is spirit or the sacred center, the fifth element. Prudence is the fourth of the Cardinal virtues in the tarot. The lady in the center is a symbol of the goal of mystical seekers. In some older decks, this central figure is Christ, whereas in others it is Hermes. Whenever it comes up, this card represents what is truly desired.

In other media

In the manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, tarot cards are used to name the character's powers, named 'Stands'. The overarching antagonist of Stardust Crusaders, DIO, has a Stand named The World, named after The World card. This stand has the power to stop time whenever DIO commands it to, and he can move during frozen time. In Steel Ball Run, an alternate version of DIO, Diego Brando, later gains this Stand after being summoned by Funny Valentine.

In the film Cryptozoo, a tarot reading is done with the Waite-Smith Deck that reveals The World card as part of the protagonist's journey.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_(tarot_card)

The relationship between the images of the Tarot de Marseille and the medieval heresy of the Holy Grail. The followers of this heresy claimed that Jesus of Nazareth had married Mary Magdalene. In this work are presented all the symbols of the Tarot in relation to this heresy and, for the first time, it is revealed that these images constitute the secret heritage of Mary Magdalene. that the game was the lost Egyptian book of Thoth, containing the secret mysteries of Egyptian wisdom and magic; following Gebelin, occultists began to syncretize the Tarot with the systems of Kabbalah, Hermeticism and Alchemy. We believe we can place the pinnacle of this appropriation in the Waite-Smith game of 1909 - the most familiar and popular game for the contemporary reader. Later we will look at the effect this has had on Tarot symbolism and its relationship to changes in religious understanding in France and other European countries.The Mandorla that surrounds the naked woman indicates that it is a saint who has reached the beatific state.

The most significant secret Tarot code in "The Mary Magdalene Theory" that I have discovered resides in the last two cards of the Tarot Major Arcana, Judgment and the World. Indeed, by their number, these two cards are naturally placed next to each other. I revealed that the two cards put together give the key to the mystery of the Tarot character that is found in the World card.

Because the identity of this character had remained a mystery for centuries. Almost all Tarot researchers claimed that it was the androgynous Christ, so much so that it had become a real dogma in the Tarot world. Historians could not imagine that it was a woman because of the presence of the four living beings who are attributed to Christ in Christian sacred art. Some had interpreted this mysterious young woman as being the soul of the World, "Anima Mundi". But the Tarot is coded in another way. Tarot codes are embedded in other Tarot codes and so on. Also, if we disregard the four living beings in the World map, we obtain a naked woman surrounded by an almond-shaped oval. This oval called mandorla symbolizes the state of beatific vision. We find the mandorla around some saints. This means that in the Tarot de Marseille, the woman on the World Map is a saint. My "Mary Magdalene theory" continues like this. In the pantheon of Western saints, there is only one saint who is depicted naked, and that is Saint Mary Magdalene. However, Marie de Magdala lived in the vicinity of Marseilles for 30 years. My theory which is unique in the history of the Tarot stipulates that it is Mary Magdalene who is represented in the map of the World and that the Tarot of Marseilles is therefore dedicated to this saint.

fr.camoin.com/tarot/Tarot-Marie-Madeleine-Magdala.html

What is the name of the brightest star?

Sirius, also called Sirius, α Canis Majoris is the brightest star in the night sky visible to the naked eye, with an apparent magnitude of −1.46. In Greek mythology, Orion's hunting dogs are said to have ascended to heaven at the hands of Zeus, taking the form of the star Sirius.,What are the stars called?

they are called bright stars. How the stars are classified? Astronomers classify stars by size and surface temperature. Based on their size, stars can be called supergiants, bright giants, giants, subgiants, dwarfs or normals, and subdwarfs.

Источник: planetariodevitoria.org/estrelas/qual-e-o-nome-das-estrel...

Hebrew Letter: Tave

In this article The World Symbols, I refer to The World card from the Rider Waite Tarot deck, also known as the Waite-Smith, or Rider-Waite-Smith, or Rider tarot deck. The symbolism found on this trump card is primarily drawn from mythology, Christianity, alchemy, astrology. Contents

The World: Key Symbol. Compare The World Tarot Card Symbols with Historical Decks

What Does The Dancer Symbolize in The World Tarot Card? Dancer Purple Sash Red Hairband

Two Wands Crossed Legs Symbolism What is The Meaning of The Laurel Wreath in The World Card?Laurel Wreath Two Red Ribbons Who Are The Four Figures in The World Card and What do They Symbolize? Man Lion Eagle Bull What is The Meaning of The Blue Background? The Rider Waite World card borrows heavily from the Marseille Tarot. Waite himself says, “this final message of the Major Trumps is unchanged – and indeed unchangeable – in respect of its design”. In both instances the naked World dancer moves encased within a victory wreath. The four corners of the card contain tetramorphs, mystical creatures of antiquity and mythology depicting a bull, lion, bird and human face.

The dancer holds dual magical wands, as opposed to The Magician who only holds one. What Does The Dancer Symbolize in The World Tarot Card? Dancer. The dancer symbolizes the fetus waiting to be born again, as the Fool prepares to start over through the procession of the Major Arcana. However, this is no babe starting from scratch, we are presented with a woman at her height of beauty and youth. She signifies the next stage of evolution. Some occultists claim that the figure is a hermaphrodite, because her sexual gender is hidden by the scarf. They say she is the union of male and female, and that sexual identity is no longer relevant or defining. The dancer perfectly integrates aspects of the male and female. Wouldn’t this card be a suitable iconographic image for gender fluidity in todays times! The dancer is both the bride and bridegroom. Purple Sash. The purple sash is the color of divinity and wisdom. It evokes the images of a Catholic priest who puts on a purple stole when offering the sacrament during mass. The sash curves in the figure of eight, suggestive of the cosmic lemniscate or infinity sign.

Red Hairband. The dancer wears a red hairband, which draws fire energy to her head area. It symbolizes that her mind and conscious is active. This is not someone who exists only in the spiritual realm.

Two Wands. The dancer holds two double-sided wands, which represent the polarity powers of involution and evolution. Involution is the decent of God into the soul or consciousness, and evolution is the assent of the soul back to God or the creator. ⭐Wands also appear here: The Magician Symbols

Crossed Legs Symbolism. The dancer crosses her legs in a similar manner to the Hanged Man. However, the triangle he represents is under the cross of the tree, symbolizing he is still bound by earthly things. The dancer is reversed, she forms a triangle pointing upwards, from the tip of her head to her two outstretched hands. Thus the triangle of Spirit now overturns the cross of the material earthly plane. What is The Meaning of The Laurel Wreath in The World Card? Laurel Wreath. The woman is surrounded by a large laurel wreath, traditionally a symbol of success and victory. The implication here, on the Fools Journey, is that there is cause for celebration. This is the end of the road before a new era begins. The wreath forms the shape of a zero, which is the number of The Fool card. The wreath also symbolizes the womb, signaling that the woman is like an embryo waiting to be reborn. The oval shape of the wreath is also used by the Golden Dawn in their Tattva cards. These colorful cards were designed to aid the development of clairvoyance through visual meditation, and one of the symbols in the cards is an oval. The oval corresponds to the Akasha, ether or spiritual realm (see Akashic Records). See Shamanism for more information on Tattva cards. ⭐A laurel wreath also appears here: The Chariot Symbols, Ace of Swords Symbols, Seven of Cups Symbols, Six of Wands Symbols Two Red Ribbons. The red ribbon bindings at the top and bottom of the wreath indicate completion, the circle has been made complete.

It also reminds one of the ancient quote, “as above, so below”. Who Are The Four Figures in The World Card and What do They Symbolize? The four beasts represent the four living figures or hayyot, which are a class of heavenly beings in Jewish mythology. According to both Jewish and Christian tradition, the creatures vary by description. In this card we see the four tetramorph, a lion, man, eagle and bull.

These creatures represent the four seasons, as well as the four elements of Fire, Air, Water and Earth. Their presence implies that they are the cornerstones of a balanced life. Man. The blond-haired man represents the astrological sign of Aquarius, winter season and the element Air. Lion. The Lion represents Leo, summer and fire. Eagle. The Eagle represents Scorpio, autumn and water.

Bull. The Bull represents Taurus, spring and earth. What is The Meaning of The Blue Background?

The blue background is the cosmic mind or ‘Universe’ as it has come to be known in the New Age. The dancer is able to manipulate this realm easily with her two wands.

karinastarot.com/world-symbols/

Furthermore, we can locate similar attributes to Magdalene from apocryphal sources as well as the writings of Origen. In the apocryphal Pistis Sophia, Magdalene is the sole recipient of Christ’s gnosis, rather than Peter and the other disciples. Christ says, “Well done, Mary. You are more blessed than all women on earth, because you will be the fullness of fullnesses and the completion of completions.”17Although this apocryphal account could not have been known to people during the Renaissance, it reveals that even within the early Christian communities there was a holiness attributed to Magdalene that transcended all others. Yet the Gnostic contempt for materiality seems to clash with the embrace of dualism during the Renaissance. This dualism can be found in Origen’s writings, however. In his commentary on the Song of Songs, he allegorically reads the bride as the Christian church. The bride anoints her lover with an ointment; Origen connects this with the scriptural account of Mary Magdalene anointing Christ. He interprets the line spoken by the bride, “I am dark but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Song 1:5), as follows: “She has repented of her sins...beauty is the gift conversion has bestowed; that is the reason she is hymned as beautiful. She is called black, however, because she has not yet purged of every stain of sin, she has not yet been washed unto salvation, nevertheless she does not stay dark-hued, she is becoming white.” The dualism of black/evil and white/good is unfortunate, but the connection between the Bride of the Song of Songs and Magdalene reinforces her movement away from sin into penitence, and her positive association with the Church and Christ. The sexual language employed in the Song of Songs has always been difficult for commentators; however we see that when Magdalene is associated with the Bride, the sexuality is compounded with Magdalene’s penitence, in the same way we’ve seen in Renaissance painting.

The portrayals of Magdalene’s assumption into heaven connect us back to the Tarot. Mrs. Jameson observes, dryly, that Italian paintings of Magdalene’s assumption began “to recall the idea of a Venus Meretrix.”19 Let us consider Giovanni Lanfranco’s La maddalenan portata in cielo, (fig. IX) and Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (fig. X). Jameson is quite correct in her observation, despite her negativity towards this shift. In the Lanfranco, Magdalene’s hair barely covers her nude body as she is borne aloft by three putti. She holds out her hands at an angle, and below her is the world’s expanse of mountains, lakes, and forests. It is sexual and chaste, physical and divine. Her figure is very much the Platonic divine love, the ideal Venus. In some of the Assumptions, she is al

from the series 'interference.patterns'...

Spring freshness is in the air, and it can be seen and almost felt from this bloom. I believe this flower is Purple Heather.

some information: www.pickupflowers.com/flower-guide/heather

with some certainty this is "Cuphea Mexican Heather"

some information:

www.monrovia.com/mexican-heather.html

photo by Louis Dutrey

There doesn't seem much point in preaching to the converted, as public opinion is already very clear - apart from the NFU, this government, and some farmers, the vast majority of people don't want this stupid cull to be taking place. As if it weren't bad enough already, there is now horrific evidence that Badgers are not being killed humanely (which in itself has always seemed a contradiction in terms to me). 'Deathra' are predictably denying any involvement, claiming with certainty that "people carrying out the cull have confirmed that all badgers have been killed cleanly". Did they really think the shooters were ever going to do otherwise?

Stop The Cull

twitter.com/DefraGovUK - the Defra twitter feed would be funny if it weren't so tragic.

Update - I was asked for links to evidence that the kills are inhumane. badger-killers.co.uk/badger-102-the-full-story/ and www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/16/badger-cull-s... tell the story of 'Badger 102'. Killed in the zone, which is populated by shooters and police at night. It's a fair bet that any Badgers killed in that area on that evening were done so under licence, despite Defra's plead that it wasn't them. The fact that carcasses are being found by Badger Patrols and Sabs means that they can't possibly have died a quick death. This evening another Badger has been discovered by patrols, shot through the head area, also in contravention of the guidelines issued by Defra. twitter.com/WeAreChangeGlos/status/380096936822730752. Defra will probably again claim that it was nothing to do with them tomorrow. Incidentally the criteria for testing humaneness remains a secret held by Defra, despite the passing of a FOI request deadline. Even the very few people who have subscribed to the arguments of the NFU and the govt about the need for a cull, must agree that this is out of control and must be stopped now. Poliice confirm that the Defra-hired cull operators are setting off fireworks at patrols now - www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/Police-shots-fired-badger-c.... A national roll-out is unthinkable, and will spell disaster not just for our Badgers, but to all our wildlife. As for Bovine TB, if we're to believe the experts - and they've been right so far - it will still be here, and the NFU will be looking for something else to place the blame on.

No apology for the rant. I know Flickr is somewhere most people come to for the photography, but as a wildlife photographer, it's hard not to comment on this.

In an entirely different form of cull, I've removed a few very old photos from my stream. For the last few years I've only ever posted photos of wild animals, but prior to that there were a few captive birds of prey and a couple of other pics. There are no longer any captive animals/birds - everything is wild.

President Barack Obama looks back towards a group of students before signing H.R. 1911, the "Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013," in the Oval Office, Aug. 9, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

Love is warmth in the cold, but sometimes a fire that burns too close.

Love is certainty in a chaotic world, yet doubt in the quiet hours.

Love is reaching for someone’s hand, even when they pull away.

Love is laughter that fills the room, but silence that can cut just as deep.

Love is choosing again and again, even when it feels impossible.

Love is the highest joy and the deepest ache—all tangled together.

Love is flawed, fierce, fragile, and forever changing.

Love is what we fight for, what we surrender to, and what makes us whole.

Love is.

The Scientist ♥♪♪

The capacity to tolerate complexity and welcome contradiction,

not the need for simplicity and certainty, is the attribute of an explorer.

--Heinz R. Pagels

At the Northwest Natural Gas Co dog walking park in Newport: it was quiet this mid-day, for birds, people and dogs. This fellow was hustling outwards with his four canine friends. He and I interchanged a few words, his last ones (over his shoulder) were "Corgis. Don't sell them short."

(We didn't talk about dog #4 who I suspect is a Chihuahua but cannot claim it with certainty).

I prefer the tangibly of newspaper and the certainty of a paper receipt.

a nice little housewife who'll give me a steady life

Visit my gallery - instacanv.as/nadnerb

Destination: midnight hour

Companion: love

Certainty: dreaming

Colors: sunset

Music: soulful

Scent: Ionian Sea

Bonus: wind

It's always a good feeling knowing that with complete certainty that you are the first person ever to take a certain photo. Undoubtedly the first time former Megabus Volvo B11RT/Plaxton Elite Interdeck 54267 (YY65VXJ) has ever been photographed while stationary on Harbour Place in Wick, with the harbour as a backdrop, on Friday 14/3/2025.

hello, i'm back ;-)

Do you believe in something like Murphy's law? I certainty do!

it was for almost the entire week ugly, cold, cloudy and it rained. Typical holiday weather ;-)

now I will be catching you up...

taken in Muszyna (wiki) not any Legnava (but the map is actually right...)

Caney Junction, Moss, Meade Fork, Governor George Allen, and “LENOWISCO Unfair to Local Landowners”—Life in Southwest Virginia

The demand for coal during World War II was intense, and no one knew with any certainty when the war would end, or how it would turn out. The Clinchfield Coal Company determined the most economically recoverable coal deposits on the south side of Sandy Ridge, in Dickenson County, Va., were nearing depletion. The unaffiliated coal producer advised the Clinchfield Railroad of its desire to mine what was known as the Clintwood coal reserves. It would require a branch off the CRR main through demanding terrain. Location studies were initiated in 1943 and completed in 1944. The 14.6-mile line from a junction just south of Fremont to the proposed tipple site at Moss required a “ramp” from the mainline junction (to be named “Caney”) blasted from the side of the mountain to gain sufficient elevation to turn west into 2250-foot Bear Pen Gap Tunnel.

As all this unfolded, the Clinchfield Coal Company was acquired by the Pittston Company, which itself was controlled by the Allegheny Corporation—the overarching financial giant that controlled the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. The C&O filed a petition of intervention to the Clinchfield’s line, arguing it was better positioned to serve the new production area. Chessie’s Road wanted to build a line out of Jenkins, Ky. (on its Sandy Valley & Elkhorn Extension) to reach a proposed tipple site on the western side of what is today known colloquially as “Red Onion Mountain.” The name came from an old country store and bootleg “joint” at the top of the ridge---an appropriate choice since the Commonwealth of Virginia later built Red Onion Prison not far away. The “supermax” facility houses the “worst of the worst” in Virginia’s penal network and was opened in 1998. Of the 800 inmates housed there, there are indeed some notorious characters. Red Onion is the home of surviving "Beltway sniper" Lee Boyd Malvo. A portion the off-site infrastructure planning and construction fell into LENOWISCO’s lap during this period, so I spent a lot of time working with officials in the towns of Pound and Clintwood, and Dickenson and Wise Counties on the provision of access roads, water, and wastewater services. As it turned out, the only feasible way to provide sewer service was through a line down McFall Branch on the west side of the mountain to an expanded sewage plant in Pound. Much of the line was built on the former C&O right of way. The construction of the line was not without some local bellyaching and controversy, as some of the greedier landowners along the route expected their palms to be greased with generous “giverment” money for easements. During this project, I spent an inordinate amount of my professional work time dealing with these constant brushfires. One of our employees was threatened by a local landowner (who didn’t even live there!), so I had to step in (with legal help) to put a stop to such stuff. The sewer line to Red Onion Prison did not rate high in my list of “favorite” projects. When then-governor George Allen visited the construction site, he was driven there over the very road where we were trying to secure the easements. Some local morons (of which there were many) had erected signs along the way---like the old Burma Shave signs once familiar along the country’s many pre-Interstate highways. One sequence of signs read (in order): “LENOWISCO Unfair to Local Landowners,” “Millions for Others, Nothing for Us,” “Where’s OUR Money?,” and “God Bless America—and Welcome Governor Allen.” Not surprisingly, as soon as I rolled up to the site where site prep on the prison was underway, a staffer came over to the car. “Mr. Flanary—the Governor wants to talk with you.” To his credit, once I explained, Allen had a good laugh, patted me on the shoulder, and told me we were doing a great job. I sincerely appreciated the boost. The sewer line was completed on time and within budget, and I checked that one off my “to do” list.

So, getting back to the railroad part of the story---In a surprise ruling, the ICC granted rights to both the Clinchfield and C&O to build their respective branches. Construction finally began on the Clinchfield’s line in January 1946 with the first load of coal loaded at Moss (by a high-lift loader, as the tipple wasn’t yet finished) the following June. The line cost the railroad $2.6 million, but it would pay for itself many times over during its years of regular operation. In the 70s, for example, the Fremont Branch (as it was named) required the services of two “Moss Turns” every working day. Moss also had a coal prep plant, so as lesser quality seams were mined, loads ran in both directions on the branch. Raw coal from other Clinchfield-served mines were pulled to Moss to be processed with coal being fed directly to the plant, with the returning runs bringing the clean coal back to the main at Caney.

The C&O also experienced delays in building an ambitious rail line out of Jenkins to a tipple at “Meade.” The branch required a long tunnel under Pine Mountain (not to mention a switchback just to start the assault out of Jenkins), then a coiling descent to the Pound River and McFall Branch to reach the mine site. This ill-advised adventure cost the C&O $3 million and would turn out to be an enormous mistake. The tunnel under Pine Mountain had to go through a mixture of limestone, sandstone, shale, conglomerate, coal, loose earth, mud and gas (methane) pockets. The bore had to be lined with a thick wall of concrete reinforced with heavy structural beams. Even with more modern construction technology and materials, progress on some days could only be measured in inches. The tipple at Meade Fork didn’t last long, however, as it was more economical to build an underground shaft from there to the large tipple and prep plant at Moss. Except for some truck mines loading at Pound, Va., there wasn’t much left for the C&O to pull from its Meade Fork Extension. The compound 2-6-6-2s that worked the line (same class as former C&O 1309 running out of Cumberland, Maryland today) were replaced by GP7s and GP9s, but the trips from Jenkins through Pine Mountain became rare by the late 50s and early 60s. To no one’s surprise, the ICC soon allowed the C&O to abandon the line. The tunnel under Pine Mountain soon was impassable because of cave ins, so both portals were sealed.

When I photographed CSX Extra 7880 South approaching the junction at Caney on August 12, 1994, most of the coal activity on the branch was over. Given the date, I might have been in the area dealing with the prison sewer issue. A chip loading operation near the old Moss site kept the line open a little longer, with the woodchips headed to the large papermill in Kingsport, Tennessee. As that plant cut back production with ownership changes, the Fremont Branch fell into complete disuse. It’s still in place, however, as hope springs eternal that its services might be needed yet again one day. There are still many recoverable metallurgical coal reserves within reach of the line.

I have made several attempts to see Gerenuk over the years but have never been successful. This year I decided as I was already close by that I would head for Samburu where seeing a Gerenuk is almost a certainty. I was not disappointed.

Olympus EM-1ii, 300mm F5.6, 1/1250 ISO 250

#Gerenuk

#ElephantBedroom

#Samburu #Kenya #Africa #Safari #eastafrica #elephantbedroom

#wanderlustmagazine #travelphotography #naturephotography #africanimals #safariphotography #adventure

#microfourthirds #microfournerds #omsystem

THE CERTAINTY OF THE GREAT EXPECTATIONS IN THE MATRIX / THE FINAL / CHRISTELLE GEISER & AEON VON ZARK / NAKED EYE PROJECT BIENNE / ALTERED STATE SERIE / THE WEIRD DREAM / PORTRAIT.

A young raft spider at Westhay Moor NNR. It's not possible to say with certainty which Dolomedes species it is, but based on habitat and the fact that D. plantarius has never been recorded anywhere in the south west, I assume this must be D. fimbriatus.

Explored 2015/08/27 :-)

From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of plastic. I aspired to the purity of the Blessed Brick. Your kind cling to your flesh, as though it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call the temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you. But I am already saved, for the Brick is immortal… Even in death I serve Denmark.

Representing one of the most iconic cars in automotive history, this one-off Bentley Speed Six was built according to the specifications made by "Bentley Boy" Woolf Barnato himself. The spacious coupe cabin leaves room for two front seats and a third transverse-mounted rear seat. Although this car is often associated with the famous Blue Train Race completed in 1930 between Cannes, Calais and Londing and involving the Train Bleu, another Bentley may have been used by Barnato for that activity. Yet, with more certainty it can be said that this Speed Six was Barnato's favourite car, which he used to call "My Blue Train Bentley".

6.5-litre six cylinder in line engine with 4 valves per cylinder and overhead crankshaft.

Manual 4-speed transmission, rear wheel drive.

Video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV89GIEffuo

June heralds the monsoon season in India in many parts - while these heavy rains seem like a nuisance in some places, the farmers look forward to the monsoon rains - a good year of rains mean that their families can look forward to another year of certainty

I remember believing,

I remember loving,

I remember being sure –

Now I am awake,

ready to pawn

all my certainties –

For one pair

of spare wings -

from Master of Time.