When it comes to heating and air conditioning repair in alexandria, H and F Service Co. is the place to turn. Our team of certified technicians has the experience and training needed to diagnose any HVAC problem you may have.

 

www.handfhvac.com/about-us.html

Camera used: Canon Snappy 20

Film used: Kodak Ultramax 400

1979 Renault Gordini R1326 ( USA specs), 1647 cc Hemi, engine type 843-13, 109 HP, Bosh- L –Jetronic injection, factory air conditioning and power steering. “Decouverable” sliding fabric electric roof over stainless steel structure.

   

History:

 

The chassis and most of the running gear came from the Renault 12, while the 1647 cc 108 PS (79 kW; 95 hp) 843-Type engine in the more powerful R17 TS and R17 Gordini models was derived from the engine in the Renault 16 X. The R17 Gordini was to be the last model to bear the Amedee Gordini name fitted for USA with the 843-13 Hemi engine with 1647 cc. Though the mechanicals of the cars were derived from other Renaults, the body was completely new.

 

Please check the car and driver test for the R17 gordini at:

   

forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5770450-JD%92s-archive...

   

Motosport:

 

Renault abandoned plans to contest the World Rally Championship which it won in 1973. Instead, the factory developed a high-performance version of the 17 coupé at the Alpine Competition Factory which used many of the A110 bits to compete in "selected" European events. The Gordini-developed engine had two twin-choke Webers, a hot cam, an 11.5 compression ratio, big valves and tuned extractor exhaust system. The body was very light, featured fibreglass doors, boot and bonnet panels, plus plastic windows and a stripped interior. The factory said the car's weight was lowered by more than 25 percent.

 

Its most famous outing was the "Press on Regardless" WRC in the United States, in Michigan, 1974. The Rally was the USA section of the World Rally Championship. The car that won the rally was a Renault 17 Gordini driven byJean-Luc Thérier and Christian Deiferrer, with a similar car coming third.

   

This car:

 

I bought this car in California on April 2012. An extensive restoration took place at my shop located in Miami were my friend Alberto Cordero, a former mechanical engineer from Renault, retired after 42 years working with the company, comes to help me with the restoration of the car. He was the chief mechanic of Juan Manuel Fangio a famous Argentinean race driver who won 5 times the F1 championship and Alberto was at the 84 hs of Nurburgring with the first Renault model derived from the AMC rambler named “Torino 380 W” who gets the third place in that race on 1969.

 

The car was abandoned in a yard and the last registration proving the car was running was back in 1997.

 

The car was straight, with only surface rust and off course a not running car.

 

We start the restoration from the ground up, the car was completely disassembled, body was take it to the bare metal, epoxy primed and painted in its original black color. Gordini stripes and logos were drawn by myself and plotted in 3M vinyl with the original scheme color.

 

All interior of the cabin, floor, panels, back and engine compartment was fitted with anti-rattle-sound/heat auto adhesive insulation with aluminum foil.

 

The carpet is a velour German carpet, Burgundy color with leather sewed trims.

 

I have owned the same model back in Argentina in 1979 so I was completely familiar with the car, and after owning more than 60 high end cars in my life, I always remember the R17 as an outstanding performer, economical yet powerful and beautiful car.

 

The outstanding design of the “petal” seats, the sliding electric roof that leaves the car completely open, the pillar less design makes this car shine out of the crowd not only now 35 years later, but back in his own era. The feeling you will have driving the car with the roof open will be better than in a convertible car, no wind noise at all.

 

All parts replaced in the car are original parts coming from France, Argentina, Israel, Puerto Rico, USA.

 

All suspension, power steering, brakes, hoses,fittings, etc. has been replaced. Engine was with original 45,000 miles, we disassembled the engine, head, valves, gaskets, replaced all necessary parts to meet the original compression specs with 150 PSI on each of the 4 cylinders.

 

All Bosch –L- Jetronic was overhauled, new sensors, valves, vacuums, switches, electric fuel pump, new injectors, etc. were replaced for original parts, most of them from Germany and others locally as the R17 share most of the injection parts with the BMW 2002 TTI.

 

The antipollution system was restored at his original state, overhauled air pump, new vacuums, valves, sensors, brand new catalyzer.

 

New original windshield was fitted to replace the scratched one in the car, new upgraded upholstery in German leather as the original car was fitted with grey cloth. The petal front seat is articulated and adjustable on the sides and behind the knees for firm support as a sport car should be. Is hard to think that 35 years ago this outstanding design on the seats are still bringing one of the most comfortable position that I have had in most top of the line cars.

 

The car runs perfect, as a brand new car!!!, all electric and electronic components are in 100% working order, the Air conditioning was upgraded with a new Sanden compressor, new condenser, new hoses, blows at 10° Celsius (50 Fahrenheit degrees) as per original specs.

 

All around upgraded LED lights fitted in back up, brake light, directional lamps. New 4 halogen YELLOW headlights with 45-70w halogen lamps.

 

Original vintage CIBIE fog lights with covers as the Rally version.

 

Pioneer stereo with hand free Bluetooth phone and 4 stereo speakers.

 

The car is fitted with disc brakes at front wheels and drum at the rear wheels with a servo booster and brake limiter valve with weight sensor.

 

All weather trims were replaced with brand new weather strips.

   

I have published this car at the Amicale R15 R17 website, you will see the comments on the most important website dedicated at Renault 15 and 17 and you could check the comments of my fellow members about the car on

   

amicale-r15-r17.forumpro.fr/t6019-restauration-1326-alberto

   

Also, there is a link I have pusblished with the process of the restoration of this car. You will be amazed of the job we have performed on this car to bring it back to life.Please follow this link with 140 PICTURES:

   

plus.google.com/photos/105876176090498194630/albums/57689...

São Paulo, Brazil. December 2013

B l a c k M a g i c

A look at Conwy Castle, part of a UNESCO World Heritage site with the other North Wales Edward I castles, as well as with the Town Walls.

  

Didn't really come to Conwy for the castle, mainly for the Conwy Suspension Bridge and Aberconwy House. Also have been to two of the other castles in this UNESCO listing months earlier (Beaumaris and Caernarfon). Although did see Beaumaris once more during this second holiday in North Wales in summer 2018.

  

Conwy Castle (Welsh: Castell Conwy, English: Conway Castle) is a medieval fortification in Conwy, on the north coast of Wales. It was built by Edward I, during his conquest of Wales, between 1283 and 1289. Constructed as part of a wider project to create the walled town of Conwy, the combined defences cost around £15,000, a huge sum for the period. Over the next few centuries, the castle played an important part in several wars. It withstood the siege of Madog ap Llywelyn in the winter of 1294–95, acted as a temporary haven for Richard II in 1399 and was held for several months by forces loyal to Owain Glyndŵr in 1401.

 

Following the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, the castle was held by forces loyal to Charles I, holding out until 1646 when it surrendered to the Parliamentary armies. In the aftermath the castle was partially slighted by Parliament to prevent it being used in any further revolt, and was finally completely ruined in 1665 when its remaining iron and lead was stripped and sold off. Conwy Castle became an attractive destination for painters in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Visitor numbers grew and initial restoration work was carried out in the second half of the 19th century. In the 21st century the ruined castle is managed by Cadw as a tourist attraction.

 

UNESCO considers Conwy to be one of "the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe", and it is classed as a World Heritage site. The rectangular castle is built from local and imported stone and occupies a coastal ridge, originally overlooking an important crossing point over the River Conwy. Divided into an Inner and an Outer Ward, it is defended by eight large towers and two barbicans, with a postern gate leading down to the river, allowing the castle to be resupplied from the sea. It retains the earliest surviving stone machicolations in Britain and what historian Jeremy Ashbee has described as the "best preserved suite of medieval private royal chambers in England and Wales". In keeping with other Edwardian castles in North Wales, the architecture of Conwy has close links to that found in the kingdom of Savoy during the same period, an influence probably derived from the Savoy origins of the main architect, James of Saint George.

  

Grade I listed building

 

Conwy Castle

  

History

 

Conwy Castle was begun in 1283 following the successful conquest of Snowdonia by the armies of Edward I of England. It was one of a defensive ring of castles erected around the North Wales coast from Aberystwyth to Flint, and in addition protected a walled town that was the largest of the medieval boroughs of North Wales. Work began with digging the rock-cut ditches, under the direction of Richard of Chester, master engineer. The design of the castle and supervision of building was under the control of James of St George, Master of the King's Works in Wales and the foremost secular architect of his age. Other subordinate master craftsmen included Henry of Oxford and Laurence of Canterbury, both master carpenters, and John Francis who, like James of St George, was from Savoy. The castle and town wall were substantially complete by 1287.

Modifications were made to the buildings in 1346-7 by Henry de Snelleston, mason to Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince). This included replacing original roof trusses and strengthening the roofs by adding masonry arches. By the end of the C15 its military importance was diminishing and the castle slowly decayed. It was described as in poor condition in 1627, and in 1631 it was sold to Charles I's secretary of state, who assumed the title Viscount Conway of Conway Castle. During the Civil War the castle was repaired and fortified for the Royalists under the leadership of John Williams, exiled archbishop of York and a native of Conwy. The castle surrendered in 1646 and in 1655 the castle was 'disabled' by blowing up a portion of the bakehouse tower, making a substantial breach. The castle was restored to the Conway family after the Restoration, when some of the buildings, and the lead roofs, were taken down. Ownership passed to the Seymour family until, in 1865, it was given to the town. During this period there was some restoration and the bakehouse tower was rebuilt by the LNWR, whose railway line passed the foot of the castle. Since 1953, when more substantial conservation work began, the castle has been a guardianship monument in the care of the state.

 

Exterior

 

A castle whose compact design is dictated by the rocky outcrop on which its stands. Roughly rectangular in plan, it has a curtain wall with 8 higher round towers enclosing an outer ward on the W side, and smaller near-square inner ward to the E overlooking the river. Additional defence was provided by barbicans at E and W entrances. Walls are coursed rubble, with freestone dressings of pink sandstone. They are embattled with saddleback copings to the merlons, which also have arrow loops on the towers. The round towers have loops and openings of 2-light mullioned windows, although few of the mullions have survived, and higher round stair turrets. Many features are consistent throughout the building, including freestone fireplaces with raked stone hoods, and window seats.

The main entrance from the town is on the W side. It retains part of a ramp on the N side from the modern Castle Square. The gap over which the drawbridge was lowered has been covered by a timber platform. The entrance arch to the W barbican has a pointed arch with portcullis slots, flanked by round turrets with corbel tables. Inside the gateway are later stone steps to a gate passage, where there is a modern breach in the wall for visitor access, and the springers and draw-bar sockets of another gateway. The W barbican has an almost straight wall with 3 turrets. The town wall is attached to the southernmost turret.

Entrance to the E barbican was from the Water Gate. The outer steps have disappeared, probably lost when Thomas Telford built the suspension bridge in 1822-6, but they are shown on the Buck brothers' 1742 engraving of the castle. Steps inside the barbican have survived, but of the doorway in the barbican wall only the draw-bar sockets have survived. The faceted E barbican wall has 3 turrets similar to the W side.

The castle has 8 towers, of which 6 enclose the outer ward, one at the corners and one half way along each of the N and S walls, and 4 enclose the inner ward, of which 2 (stockhouse and bakehouse towers) are common to both inner and outer wards. In the outer ward the S wall is faceted and the W wall is narrower than the E. Otherwise the whole castle is rectangular in plan. The W wall of the outer ward has a pointed arch, below deep corbels of former machicolations. On the N side of the outer ward, both sections of wall have 2 loops and 2 latrine shafts, including one on the W side contained within a shallow projection and low round turret. Attached to the stockhouse tower, between inner and outer wards, is the town wall. The inner ward N wall has 2 loops and 2 low-level outlets of latrine shafts. On the S side each section of the outer ward has 3 windows, 2 loops to the cellar and latrine shaft at wall-walk level. The bakehouse tower between inner and outer wards is partly rebuilt in snecked stone, with a battered plinth of rock-faced stone, repairs carried out by LNWR in the 1870s of the deliberate breach made in 1655. The inner ward S wall has a doorway at ground-floor level above a battered rubble plinth (the only section not built directly on bedrock). At 1st-floor level are 2 loops, a larger opening centre-R, and a former doorway at the R end. Above 1st-floor level are 3 latrine shafts. The E wall, from the E barbican, has a shoulder-headed doorway, 4 1st-floor windows with stepped lintels, and deep corbelled machicolations, although the embattled parapet has not survived.

In the outer ward, the gate passage has portcullis slots and draw-bar sockets, and a high-level door on the S side, to stone steps up to the wall walk. The inner side of the wall is corbelled out at parapet level. The NW and SW towers form a pair. They each have 2 superimposed newel stairs restored in concrete. Both have fireplaces to 1st and 2nd floors. In addition the SW tower has a domed bread oven at ground floor, and latrine to the 1st floor. The kitchen tower in the centre of the N side of the outer ward has a ruined newel stair. The wall walk is corbelled out around its faceted inner side. The prison tower on the corresponding S side has a dungeon, but otherwise similar details to the other towers, including restored newel stairs and ruined fireplaces, except for a 2nd-floor fireplace with flat stone arch instead of a corbelled lintel.

Remains of buildings can be seen against each of the outer ward walls. Of the guard rooms to the W, flanking the gate passage, and kitchen and stables on the N, only footings have survived. Against the S wall is a long faceted range housing lesser hall and a small chamber in the W facet, great hall in the central facet, passage and chapel in the E facet. At the W end are stone steps leading down to a pointed cellar doorway with continuous chamfer. To its L is a pointed window, its tracery missing but originally 2-light. Further L is a similar former 2-light window to the great hall that retains fragments of bar tracery. In the E facet are the passage doorway, the dressings of which are mostly missing and with modern stone steps, and 2-light chapel window, also with fragments of bar tracery. The chapel has a similar former 3-light E window. Inside, this range has one transverse arch and the springers and haunches of 7 others, all inserted in the mid C14 to support the roof. The lesser hall has a fireplace in its W end wall; the small chamber between halls has a N fireplace; the great hall has a fireplace against the prison tower. Access to the prison tower is from the embrasure of one the S windows of the great hall. The cellar has a dividing wall below the chapel with doorway.

On the E side of the outer ward is a stone-lined well, approximately 91 feet deep. Behind the well was a drawbridge to a small gatehouse at the middle gate between inner and outer wards. The gatehouse is square in plan with narrow loop in the W wall. The middle gate has a doorway with shouldered lintel to each end of its passage, and draw-bar socket.

The other entrance to the inner ward, the E gate, has draw-bar sockets, and a passage giving access to mural stairs to the king's tower and chapel tower. The stockhouse and bakehouse towers are similar to the towers in the outer wards. The bakehouse tower has a domed oven behind the ground-floor fireplace, and restored newel stairs. The stockhouse tower has ruined newel stairs. The NE chapel tower has a restored conical slate roof. From the inner ward is a C19 restored doorway with red sandstone jamb to the ground floor. It also has a passage and doorway above the water gate on the outer (E) side. A mural stair leads to the 1st-floor chapel, where there is also a separate latrine. The rib-vaulted chapel is round with an apsidal sanctuary. The sanctuary has wall shafts and cusped arcading, incorporating sedilia on the S side, below 3 pointed windows with leaded glazing. On the S side is a squint from a small cell. On the N side of the chapel is a deep window seat, which also features a squint to the sanctuary. A restored mural stair leads to the upper chamber. The SW king's tower has a restored newel stair. At 1st-floor level is a small keeled tunnel-vaulted chamber.

Buildings are ranged against the walls of the inner ward, including the king's private apartments. Against the S wall are the 1st-floor king's chamber on the E and king's hall on the W (known as presence chamber and privy chamber respectively in a survey of 1627), with a passage to the bakehouse tower at the W end. This passage has a segmental-pointed arch. Two windows to its L have dressings mostly missing, and further L is a segmental-headed ground-floor doorway and another window. Entrance to the 1st-floor hall is by a doorway above the passage, which has a 2-light cusped square-headed window immediately to its L. Further L are 2 hall windows and a 3rd to the king's chamber, all square-headed with relieving arches, bar-tracery fragments and fragments of sunk spandrels. Next L is the wall over the passage to the E gate (later used as a buttery). From inside the passage the range has a ground-floor doorway with chamfered dressings and springers of a possible cambered arch, and at the L end a 1st-floor doorway with segmental head. The W wall of the hall has 2 1st-floor doorways with segmental heads. Inside, beneath the hall is a ground-floor fireplace to the W wall, and larger former corbelled 1st-floor fireplace in the S wall. One floor-length window reveal in the S wall has a short passage to a latrine. Hall and chamber have one complete and the springers of 3 other C14 stone transverse arches supporting the former roof. In the king's chamber the 1st-floor has floor-length S and E window reveals opening to mural passages to a latrine and the king's tower.

Against the E wall of the inner ward are the passage to the E gate, and what was known in 1627 as the 1st-floor great chamber. The passage on the R has a pointed segmental arch, to the L of which the ground floor has a segmental-headed window and a small window further L. The 1st-floor great chamber was entered by a doorway at the R end over the passage, which has a cambered head. The chamber has one large square-headed W window under a relieving arch. Inside, fireplaces were built into the W walls, with tripartite lintel in the ground floor. The springers and haunches survive of 2 former transverse arches added in the mid C14 to support the roof.

 

Reasons for Listing

 

Listed grade I as one of the oustanding Edwardian medieval castles of Wales.

Scheduled Ancient Monument CN004

  

The view from Vicarage Gardens Car Park

Photo from www.taiabati.com

Text from www.beppegrillo.it

 

In Italia la politica, di centro sinistra o di centro destra, ha sempre un comune denominatore: prende ordini dalle potenze straniere. La prima è il Vaticano, la seconda gli Stati Uniti. La prima detta le nostre leggi, la seconda insedia basi militari in Italia e ci arruola per le guerre, come i mercenari di una volta.

Tra le due la più pericolosa è, senza dubbio, il Vaticano. Ha più esperienza e vince (sempre) le sue battaglie facendole combattere ai devoti partiti italiani che stanno in Parlamento.

Telmo Pievani, che ha documentato tutto nel libro “Sante Ragioni”, mi ha scritto una lettera.

 

“Caro Beppe,

vorrei parlarti dei comportamenti recenti di una delle numerose “caste” che popolano il nostro paese. Sto parlando della casta ecclesiastica e dei suoi sempre più numerosi accoliti presenti nell’arco costituzionale e nei media.

Di mestiere, insegno filosofia della scienza. Insieme ad un’amica giornalista, Carla Castellacci, ho scritto un libro per discutere analiticamente le “Sante Ragioni” addotte dai vertici delle gerarchie vaticane per giustificare il condizionamento religioso sulle scelte fondamentali che riguardano la vita di ogni cittadino, dal nascere al morire, dalla famiglia alla scuola, dalla bioetica alla vita civile. Ci viene ripetuto che si tratta non di articoli di fede, non di convincimenti personali, ma di argomentazioni frutto del “retto ragionare” e del “diritto naturale”, e dunque valide per tutti. Noi le abbiamo prese sul serio e verificato che si tratta di una razionalità inesistente, ideologica, del tutto infondata. Abbiamo esaminato le conseguenze di queste contraddittorie “ragioni” - tradotte in leggi dello Stato da politici sempre più solerti, ben distribuiti in entrambi gli schieramenti - sulle scelte di vita di noi tutti.

Ci siamo accorti che il clima culturale in questo Paese sta rapidamente cambiando e che in materie importanti come la libertà della ricerca scientifica, la libertà di insegnamento, la libertà di scelta in campo biomedico, è in atto un’autentica, e documentabile, regressione. Si sta diffondendo, nelle scuole e sui media, una letteratura creazionista che pensavamo confinata ai fondamentalisti evangelici americani. Libri di violento discredito contro la teoria dell’evoluzione, ricolmi di falsità, di insulti e di strafalcioni scientifici, vengono recensiti dal Corriere della Sera e dai canali RAI. L’ultima “opera” di Rosa Alberoni, “Il Dio di Michelangelo e la barba di Darwin”, viene presentata a Roma, in sede prestigiosa, da ex Ministri come Rocco Buttiglione, da direttori di telegiornali RAI, da eminenze quali Monsignor Rino Fisichella.

Proviamo ad analizzare alcuni fatti recenti, i documenti, le decisioni parlamentari, i finanziamenti stanziati, le dichiarazioni pubbliche. Qualche esempio:

- le nuove linee guida ministeriali sulla Legge 40 tardano ad uscire, nonostante il profluvio di dati che mostrano gli effetti, controproducenti in termini di nuove nascite e discriminatori verso le donne, di quella sventurata legge

- riguardo alle proposte di legge sulle coppie di fatto (Pacs, Dico, Cus, ...), nel comitato ristretto del Senato che avrebbe dovuto preparare il progetto di legge nella sua versione definitiva sono stati presentati circa duemila emendamenti, abbastanza per bloccare l’attività del comitato per i prossimi mesi

- legge sul testamento biologico: dallo scorso giugno il tentativo di unificare in un unico progetto gli undici disegni di legge presentati non ha dato frutti

- la legge sulla libertà religiosa ha smesso di dare notizie di sé

- finanziamenti per le ricerche su cellule staminali esclusivamente adulte, un caso unico di indirizzo etico di Stato sulla ricerca: il Ministro Turco respinge duramente l’appello degli scienziati che lavorano su linee di staminali embrionali già ricavate e parla addirittura di una “guerra fra bande” rivali di ricercatori

- il Comitato Nazionale di Bioetica è ormai in uno stallo permanente a causa dei conflitti fra la minoranza laica e la (schiacciante) maggioranza confessionale. Elena Cattaneo e Cinzia Caporale, autorevoli studiose e scienziate laiche, sono state “dimissionate” dalla carica di vicepresidenti

Se queste notizie danno l’impressione che l’attività parlamentare e ministeriale vada a rilento... non è così, infatti:

- nell'ambito della discussione sulla legge finanziaria il Senato ha confermato, con il solo voto contrario di dodici senatori, l'esenzione dal pagamento dell'ICI degli immobili a uso commerciale di proprietà degli enti ecclesiastici

- il ministro Fioroni ha dato il via al pagamento della prima tranche dei contributi statali alle scuole paritarie (private), pari a circa 127 milioni di Euro. Il Ministero ha precisato che “questi importi da accreditare immediatamente alle singole istituzioni scolastiche, costituiscono solo la prima parte del finanziamento previsto”.

Questi fatti non sono quasi mai raccontati dai media italiani. Viene da chiedersi se non siamo diventati un Paese a laicità condizionata. Un caro saluto.” Telmo Pievani, Università degli studi di Milano Bicocca.

 

In Italy, there is always a common denominator in politics, whether they be centre-left or centre-right: it takes its orders from foreign powers. The first of these is the Vatican and the second is the United States. The former dictates our laws, while the latter sets up military bases in Italy and enrols this country in wars, just like the mercenaries of old.

Of the two, the Vatican is by far the most dangerous, without any doubt. It has much more experience behind it and (always) wins its battles by having them fought by the devoted Italian Parties that are sitting in Parliament.

Telmo Pievani, who has documented the full story in his book entitled “Sante Ragioni” (“Sacred Reasons”) has written me a letter.

  

“Dear Beppe,

I wish to talk to you about the numerous “castes” that we have in our Country. What I am talking about is the ecclesiastical caste and its ever-increasing number of disciples that are active in the constitutional field and in the media.

I am a teacher of scientific philosophy by profession. In collaboration with a journalist friend, I have written a book intended to be an analytical discussion of the “Sacred Reasons” that are adopted by the leading figures of the Vatican hierarchy in order to justify the religious conditioning of the fundamental choices affecting the life of each and every citizen, from birth to death, from school to family and from bioethics to civil society. We are told repeatedly that it is not a matter of faith, nor of personal conviction, but rather a matter hat is the result of “proper reasoning” and “natural law” and, as such, is applicable to everyone. We took this matter seriously and verified that what we are dealing with is, in fact, a kind of non-existent rationality that is ideological and entirely unfounded. We have examined the consequences of these contradictory “reasons” – converted into State laws by increasingly industrious politicians, evenly distributed throughout both formations – regarding all our lifestyles. We have come to realise that the cultural climate in this Country is changing rapidly, and that as regards certain important issues, such as the freedom of scientific research, freedom of teaching and freedom in the biomedical field, there is a very real and documentable regression at play. A kind of creationist literature, which we thought was limited to American evangelical fundamentalists, is instead being spreading throughout our schools and our media. The Corriere della Sera newspaper and the RAI television channels are reviewing certain books that violently discredit the theory of evolution, and are filled to the brim with untruths, insults and scientific howlers. The latest “work” by Rosa Alberoni, “Il Dio di Michelangelo e la barba di Darwin” or “Michelangelo’s God and Darwin’s beard”, is presented in Rome, at a very prestigious venue, by former Ministers like Rocco Buttiglione, by RAI news service directors and other eminent figures such as Monsignor Rino Fisichella.

Let’s try to analyse a number of recent facts, namely certain documents, Parliamentary decisions, fund allocations and public statements. Here are some examples:

- the publication of the new Ministerial guidelines regarding Law No. 40 have been delayed, notwithstanding the overwhelming amount of data indicating its counterproductive effects of that unfortunate piece of legislation in terms of new births and discrimination against women

- as regards the bill relating to “de-facto” couples (Civil Solidarity Pacts, Stable service relationships, Civil relationships, ...), the restricted committee of the Senate, which was supposed to draft the bill in its final form, received approximately two thousand amendments, which will certainly bring all the Committee’s activities to a grinding halt for the next few months

- the law relating to living wills: as at June this year, the attempt being made to consolidate the eleven law proposals submitted into a single proposed bill had not as yet produced any results

- nothing further has been heard about the law relating to religious freedom

- funding for the research into exclusively adult stem cells, a unique case in terms of research ethics guidelines by the State: Minister Turco has firmly rejected an appeal from scientists working on previously gathered embryonic stem cell lines, and is even talking of a “gang war” between rival researchers

- the National Bioethics Committee has gone into what is essentially a permanent stall as a result of disputes between the secular minority and the (overwhelming) denominational majority. Influential secular scholars and scientists, Elena Cattaneo and Cinzia Caporale, have been “removed” from their positions as deputy chairmen

If these snippets create the impression that Parliamentary and Ministerial activities are grinding to a halt……..it is not so, in fact:

- within the scope of is deliberations regarding the Budget, the Senate, with only one of the twelve senators voting against the measure, voted in favour of extend the exemption granted on the payment of Rates and Taxes on properties belonging to Religious Bodies and used for business purposes

- Minister Fioroni gave the go-ahead for the payment of the initial instalment of the State funding for equivalent schools (private), t the tune of around 127 million Euro. The Minister pointed out that “these amounts, to be credited immediately to the individual educational institutions, only constitute an initial instalment in terms of the envisaged funding”.

These facts are seldom if ever mentioned in the Italian media. It begs the question as to whether we have become a Country that practices conditional secularism. Kindest regards.” Telmo Pievani, Bicocca Academic University of Milan

  

CanonA-1

FD50mmF1.4

DNPCenturia400

More from my trip to N.J. last week.

Masonic Tracing Board Decoded & Explained: youtu.be/9exPJ6LAjA8

 

A Masonic Moment- The Tracing Board

 

We are told in the Junior Wardens lecture the Tracing Board is one of the three Immovable Jewels for the Worshipful Master to “lay lines and draw designs on”. From time immemorial, man has recorded his experiences and relationships to the world through various images of the human condition. As we advanced, man learned the value of tracing out for himself pictures of ideas and then communicating them in elaborate pictorial language to his companions. These visuals were eventually applied to practical projects like the planning of battles, laying out of settlements and drafting of buildings.

In our Craft, Hiram Abiff’s Tracing Board was traditionally believed to been made of wood, coated with wax. Each day he would draw his measurements and symbols into the wax to instruct his Master Masons of the work that was to be accomplished. At the end of the day he would simply scrape off the wax and pour a new layer onto the board to ready it for the next day’s work. Much closer to the recent past, when Lodges were held in secret locations, the Tyler would draw an oblong square into the dirt that represented the form of the lodge. The Masters plan was then drawn along with the working tools that were to be used in the degree. Through the years the Masonic Tracing Board progressed to using charcoal or chalk on the floor of taverns where lodges were usually held. At this time several exposures of Freemasonry were published, one appearing in 1762 stating the images they drew on the floor were not to be seen by the profane.

 

Freemasonry has always been about the use of images and symbols which regular words are too simple to explain, allowing us to use our individual insight to de-code the messages. During the closing of our Lodges the meaning of the words “...nothing remains but, according to ancient custom, to lock up our secrets ...” is a reference to the now antiquated use of these Tracing Boards that were erased from the floor to leave no trace of the form of the lodge or the instructive drawings. After the lecture the lodge Stewards or the Entered Apprentices would get a broom or mop and remove all evidence of these drawings. This was a tedious and messy procedure so cloths or rugs were eventually created which could be laid on the floor and simply folded up when the lecture was completed.

 

The Tracing Boards used in the Emulation Lodge of Improvement in London were designed and painted by John Harris in 1845 and measured approximately 6 feet x 3 feet. These Tracing Board images created for each of the three degrees are the ones we commonly see on the walls of our lodges still today. The First Degree Tracing Board represents the Universe, both the inner one and the one stretching to infinity. It pictures life emerging from the eternal centre and radiating outwards. The Second Degree Tracing Board may be described as an intermediate stage of life’s journey and the beginning of ascension from a lower to a higher plane. The Third degree Tracing Board is simpler, there are fewer objects but their import is deeper than the other two, with different symbols and a coded Masonic cypher. Tracing Boards are designed with the objective of directing candidates along a path where their interpretations will vary from brother to brother and many books have been written amplifying their various meanings.

 

Tracing Boards should not be confused with Trestle Boards, the two are entirely different. The Trestle Board is a framework from which the Master inscribes ideas to direct the workman in their labours. It is usually in written form containing words, diagrams and figures, allowing the Tracing Board to be created as a picture formally drawn, containing a delineation of the symbols of the degree to which it belongs. It is through the Tracing Boards we introduce the brethren to their next step, a step that they must decipherer on their own to continue their personal journey through the mysteries of Freemasonry. The Tracing Board teaches us clearly that the path to realization of brotherly love is through the study of spiritual teachings and the development and strengthening of those myriad of virtues we hold dear including the ultimate trio of Faith, Hope and Mercy.

 

W Bro Garry Perkins FCF

 

A Masonic Jacob's Ladder.

 

An important symbol of the Entered Apprentice Degree. A ladder of several staves or rounds of which three are illustrated tot he candidate as Faith, Hope and Chairty; the three theological virtues.

 

Source: Masonicdictionary.com

 

Articles On Jacob's Ladder:

 

Mackey's Encyclopedia Article

1897 Canadian Craftsman Article

1935 MSA Short Talk Bulletin

 

JACOB'S LADDER:

 

The introduction of Jacob's ladder into the symbolism of Speculative Freemasonry is to be traced to the vision of Jacob, which is thus substantially recorded in the twenty-eighth chapter of the Book of Genesis: When Jacob, by the command of his father Isaac, was journeying toward Padanaram, while sleeping one night with the bare earth for his couch and a stone for his pillow, he beheld the vision of a ladder, whose foot rested on the earth and whose top reached to heaven. Angels were continually ascending and descending upon it, and promised him the blessing of a numerous and happy posterity. When Jacob awoke, he was filled with pious gratitude, and consecrated the spot as the house of God.

 

This ladder, so remarkable in the history of the Jewish people, finds its analogue in all the ancient initiations. Whether this is to be attributed simply to a coincidence-a theory which but few scholars would be willing to accept-or to the fact that these analogues were all derived from a common fountain of symbolism, or whether, as such by Brother Oliver, the origin of the symbol was lost among the practices of the Pagan rites, while the symbol itself was retained, it is, perhaps, impossible authoritatively to determine. It is, however, certain that the ladder as a symbol of moral and intellectual progress existed almost universally in antiquity, presenting itself either as a succession of steps, of gates, of Degrees, or in some other modified form. The number of the steps varied; although the favorite one appears to have been seven, in reference, apparently, to the mystical character almost everywhere given to that number.

 

Thus, in the Persian Mysteries of Mithras, there was a ladder of seven rounds, the passage through them being symbolical of the soul's approach to perfection. These rounds were called gates, and, in allusion to them, the candidate was made to pass through seven dark and winding caverns, which process was called the ascent of the ladder of perfection Each of these caverns was the representative of a world, or w state of existence through which the soul was supposed to pass in its progress from the first world to the last, or the world of truth. Each round of the ladder was said to be of metal of measuring purity, and was dignified also with the name of its protecting planet. Some idea of the construction of this symbolic ladder may be obtained from the accompanying table.

 

7. Gold ............... Sun ............. Truth

6. Silver ............. Moon ......... Mansion of the Blessed

5. Iron ............... Mars ............ World of Births

4. Tin ................ Jupiter ......... Middle World

3. Copper ........ Venus .......... Heaven

2. Quicksilver . Mercury ....... World of Pre-existence

1. Lead .............. Saturn .......... First World

 

Source: Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry

 

Jacob's Ladder: Author Unknown

 

When this symbol, which is taken from Jacob's Vision (Genesis xxviii), was introduced into English Speculative Freemasonry is not exactly known. But we find allusions to it a little after the middle of the last [18th] century. It apparently was not originally a symbol of Speculative Masonry, but was probably introduced from Hermetic Masonry, about 1776. But we fancy that it came from Hermeticism, of which it was a favorite symbol. Certain it is that we do not find it in any of our far oldest known rituals if indeed they can be depended upon. Gadicke says of it, "Either resting upon the floor cloth or on the Bible, the compasses, and the square, it should lead the thoughts of the brethren to heaven. If we find that it has many staves or rounds, they represent as many moral and religious duties. If it has only three, they should represent Faith, Hope and Charity. Draw Faith, Hope, and Charity from the Bible with these three encircle the whole earth, and order all thy actions by the square of truth, so shall the heavens be opened upon thee."

 

Curiously enough, in Germany, the `Handbuch' tells us this symbolism is not used, nor on the continent generally. It has been pointed out by Oliver, by the `Handbuch,' and by others, that this is a mystical ladder to be found in the teaching of most other occult systems. Thus in the Mithraic mysteries the seven-runged ladder is said to have been a symbol of the ascent of the soul to perfection. Each of the rungs was termed a gate, and the `Handbuch' declares that the aspirants had to pass through a dark and winding cavern. The last, or Adytum, was full of light, and also assures us that in the old Hebraic Cabala the number of steps (for they had a cabalistic ladder also), was unlimited, until the Essenes reduce the number to seven. The latter Cabalists are said to have made ten Sephriroth - the Kingdom, the Foundation, Splendor, Firmness, Beauty, Justice, Mercy, Intelligence, Wisdom, and the Crown, by which we arrive at the Infinite, as Mackey and others put it.

 

It is alleged that in the mysteries of Brahma and in the Egyptian mysteries this ladder is also to be found. But this fact seems a little doubtful especially as the Egyptian mysteries little is known. The ladder is, however, to be seen among the hieroglyphics. In the Brahmic mysteries there is, we are told a ladder of seven steps, emblematic of seven worlds. The first and lowest was the Earth; the second, the World of Pre-Existence; the third, Heaven; the fourth, the Middle World, or intermediate region; the fifth, the World of Births; the sixth, the Mansions of the Blest; and the seventh, the Sphere of Truth. Some little difference of opinion exists as to the representation of the Brahmic teaching. It has been stated that in Hermetic or higher Masonry, so-called, the seven steps represent Justice, Equality, Kindness, Good Faith, Labor, Patience and intelligence. They are also represented as Justice, Charity, Innocence, Sweetness, Faith, Firmness and Truth, the Greater Work, Responsibility. But this is quite a modern arrangement in all probability. In Freemasonry it has been said that the ladder with its seven rungs or steps represents the four cardinal and three theological virtues which in symbolism seems to answer to the seven grades of Hermetic symbolism. It must be remembered that we have no actual old operative ritual before us, and on the other hand we must not lay too much store by the negative evidence of later rituals - that is, because we do not find until then actual mention of certain words and symbolisms therefore conclude they did not exist earlier. On the whole, Jacob's ladder in Freemasonry seems to point to the connection between Faith and Heaven, man and God, and to represent Faith, Hope and Charity; or, as it is declared, Faith in God, Charity to all men, and Hope in Immortality.

 

Source: The Craftsman - December 1897

 

THREE PRINCIPAL ROUNDS:

 

“And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and beheld a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and beheld the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac.” These words (Genesis XXVIII, 10-13 inclusive)v are the foundation of that beautiful symbol of the Entered Apprentice’s Degree in which the initiate first hears”. . . the greatest of these is charity, for our faith may be lost in sight, hope ends in fruition, but charity extends beyond the grave, through the boundless realms of eternity.” At least two prophets besides the describer of Jacob’s vision have spoken aptly reinforcing words Job said (XXXIII, 14-16):

 

“For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed: Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instructions.”

 

And St. John (I,51):

 

“And he said unto him, Verily, verily I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

 

Since the dawn of thought the ladder has been a symbol of progress, of ascent, of reaching upward, in many mysteries, faiths and religions. Sometimes the ladder becomes steps, sometimes a stairway, sometimes a succession of gates or, more modernly, of degrees; but he idea of ascent from darkness to light, from ignorance to knowledge and from materially to spiritually is the same whatever the form of the symbol.

 

In the Persian Mysteries of Mithras, the candidate ascended a ladder of seven rounds, and also passed through seven caverns, symbolized by seven metals, and by the sun, moon and five planets. The early religion of Brahma had also a seven stepped ladder. In the Scandinavian Mysteries the initiate climbed a tree; the Cabalists made progress upward by ten steps. In the Scottish Rite the initiate encounters the Ladder of Kadosh, also of seven steps, and most of the early tracing boards of the Craft Degrees show a ladder of seven rounds, representing the four cardinal and three theological virtues. At one time, apparently, the Masonic ladder had but three steps. The Prestonian lecture, which Mackey thought was an elaboration of Dunkerly’s system, rests the end of the ladder on the Holy Bible; it reads:

 

“By the doctrines contained in the Holy Bible, we are taught to believe in the Divine dispensation of Providence, which belief strengthens our “Faith,” and enables us to ascend the first step. That Faith naturally creates in a “Hope” of becoming partakers of some of the blessed promises therein recorded, which “Hope” enables us to ascend the second step. But the third and last being “Charity” comprehends the whole, and he who is possessed of this virtue in its ample sense, is said to have arrived at the summit of his profession, or more metaphorically, into an etherial mansion veiled from mortal eye by the starry firmament.”

 

The theological ladder is not very old in Masonic symbolism, as far as evidence shows. Some historians have credited it to Matin Clare, in 1732, but on very slender evidence. It seems to appear first is a tracing board approximately dated 1776, and has there but three rounds. As the tracing board is small, the contraction from seven to three may have been a matter of convenience. If it is true that Dunkerly introduced Jacob’s ladder into the degrees, he my have reduced the steps from seven to three merely to emphasize the number three, so important Masonically; possibly it was to achieve a certain measure of simplicity. Preston, however, restored the idea of seven steps, emphasizing the theological virtues by denominating them “principal rounds.

 

The similarity of Jacob’s Ladder of seven steps to the Winding Stairs, with three, five and seven steps has caused many to believe each but a different form of the same symbol; Haywood says (“The Builder, Vol.5, No.11):

 

“Other scholars have opined that the steps were originally the same as the Theological Ladder, and had the same historical origin. Inasmuch as this Theo-logical Ladder symbolized progress, just as does the Winding Stair, some argue that the latter symbol must have come from the same sources as the former. This interpretation of the matter my be plausible enough, and it may help towards an interpretation of both symbols, but it suffers from an almost utter lack of tangible evidence.”

 

Three steps or seven, symbol similar to the Winding Stairs or different in meaning and implications, the theological virtues are intimately interwoven in the Masonic system. Our many rituals alter the phraseology here and there, but the sense is the same and the concepts identical.

 

According to the dictionary (Standard) Faith is “a firm conviction of the truth of what is declared by another . . .without other evidence: The assent of the mind or understanding to the truth of what God has revealed.”

 

The whole concept of civilization rests upon that form of faith covered in the first definition. Without faith in promises, credit and the written word society as we know it could not exist. Nor could Freemasonry have been born, much less lived through many centuries without secular, as distinguished from religious, faith; faith in the integrity of those who declared that Freemasonry had value to give to those who sought; faith in its genuineness and reality; faith in its principles and practices.

 

Yet our ritual declares that the third, not the first, round of the ladder is “the greatest of these” because “faith may be lost in sight.” Faith is not needed where evidence is presented, and in the far day when the human soul may see for itself the truths we now except without demonstrations, faith may disappear without any con- sciousness of loss. But on earth faith in the divine revelation is of the utmost importance to all, especially from the Masonic standpoint. No atheist can be made a Mason. Any man who misstates his belief in Deity in order to become a Mason will have a very unhappy experience in taking the degrees. Young wrote:

 

“Faith builds a bridge across the gulf of death To break the shock blind nature cannot shun And lands though smoothly on the further shore.”

 

The candidate that has no “bridge across the gulf” will find in the degrees only words which mean nothing. To the soul on its journey after death, the third round may indeed be of more import than the first; to Masons in their doctrine and their Lodges, the first round is a foundation; lacking it no brother may climb the heights. Hope is intimately tied to faith: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

 

The dictionary declares hope to be “desire with expectations of obtaining: to trust confidently that good will come.” But the dictionary definition fails to express the mental and spiritual importance of hope. Philosophers and poets have done much better. “Where there is no hope, there can be no endeavor,” says Samuel Johnson, phrasing a truism everyone feels though few express. All ambitions, all human actions, all labors are founded on hope. It may be crystallized into a firm faith, but in a world in which nothing is certain, the future inevitably is hidden. We live, love, labor, pray, marry and become Masons. bury our dead with hope in breasts of something beyond. Pope wrote:

 

“Hope spring eternal in the human breast; Many never is, but always to be, blest,” blending a cynicism with the truth.

 

Shakespeare came closer to everyday humanity when he said: “True hope is swift, and flies with swallow’s wings; Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures, kings.”

 

Dante could find no more cruel words to write above the entrance to hell than:

 

“Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here.”

 

Nor can we be argued out of hope; doctors say of a loved one, “she must die,” but we hope; atheists attempt to prove there is no God - we hope. Facts demonstrate that our dearest ambition can never be realized - yet we hope. To quote Young again, we are all:

 

“Confiding, though confounded; hope coming on, Untaught by trial, unconvinced by proof, And ever looking for the never seen.” And yet, vital though hope is to man, to Masons, and thrice vital to faith. our ritual says that charity is greater than either faith or hope.

 

To those whom charity means only handing a quarter to a beggar, paying a subscription to the community chest, or sending old clothes to the Salvation army, the declaration that charity is greater than faith or hope is difficult to accept. Only when the word “charity” is read to mean “love,” as many scholars say it should be translated in Paul’s magnificent passage in Corinthians, does our ritual become logically intelligible. Charity of alms can hardly “extend through the boundless realms of eternity.” To give money to the poor is a beautiful act, but hardly as important, either to the giver or the recipient, as faith or hope. But to give love, unstinted, without hope of or faith in reward - that, indeed, may well extend to the very foot of the Great White Throne.

 

It is worth while to read St. Paul with this meaning of the word in mind; here is the quotation from the King James version, but with the word “love” substituted for the word “charity:”

 

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; Love enveith not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.”

 

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”

 

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love; these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

 

It is of such charity that a Mason’s faith is made. He is, indeed, taught the beauty of giving that which is material; the Rite of Destitution shows forth the tender lesson in the first degree; Masonic Homes, Schools, Foundation, Orphanages and Hospitals are the living exponents of the charity which means to give from a plenty to those who have but a paucity.

 

The first of the principal tenets of our profession and the third round of Jacob’s Ladder are really one; brotherly love is “the greatest of these” and only when a Mason takes to his heart the reading of charity to be more than alms, does he see the glory of that moral structure the door to which Freemasonry so gently, but so widely, opens.

 

Charity of thought for an erring brother; charity which lays a brotherly hand on a troubled shoulder in comfort; charity which exults with the happy and finds joy in his success; charity which sorrows with the grieving and drops a tear in sympathy; charity which opens the heart as well as the pocket book; charity which stretches forth a hand of hope to the hopeless, which aids the helpless, which brings new faith to the crushed . . .aye, these, indeed, may “extend through the boundless realms of eternity.”

 

Man is never so close to the divine as when he loves; it is because of that fact that charity, (meaning love,) rather than faith or hope, is truly, “the greatest of these.”

 

Source: Short Talk Bulletin - Apr. 1935

Masonic Service Association of North America

 

Jacob’s Ladder:

 

Jacob’s Ladder is the only reference from the volume of the Sacred Law which is mentioned twice in the Craft Ritual; it must therefore, be considered to be of great importance. In our Masonic ritual, the first mention of Jacob’s ladder describes how Masons are enabled to ascend to the summit of masonry, i.e. Charity. This ascent is made possible from it’s beginning in the doctrines of the Holy Book followed by ascending the steps of Faith and Hope which in turn lead to the summit - CHARITY.

The second mention of Jacob’s Ladder in the ritual is in the explanation of the first Tracing Board which refers to the Volume of the Sacred Law supporting Jacob’s Ladder, but this time it brings us directly to God in Heaven, provided that we are conversant with the Holy Book and are adherent to it’s doctrines.

 

The Introduction of Jacob’s Ladder into speculative Masonry is to be traced to the vision of Jacob, which is recorded in the book of Genesis. “When Jacob, while sleeping one night , with the bare earth for his couch and a stone for his pillow, beheld the vision of a ladder, whose foot rested on the earth and whose top reached to heaven. Angels were continually ascending and descending upon it, and promised him the blessing of a numerous and happy prosperity. When Jacob awoke, he was filled with pious gratitude, and consecrated the spot as the house of God.”

 

This ladder, so remarkable in the history of the Jewish people, is to be found in all the ancient initiations. Whether by coincidence, or that they were all derived from a common fountain of symbolism is unknown. However, it is certain that the ladder as a symbol of moral and intellectual progress existed almost universally in antiquity, as a succession of steps, of gates, of degrees or in some other modified form. The number of steps varied; but most commonly was seven in allusion to the mystical importance given to that number. Thus in the Persian mysteries of Mithras, there was a ladder of seven rounds, the passage through them being symbolical of the soul’s approach to perfection. These rounds were called Gates, and, in allusion to them, the candidate was made to pass through seven dark and winding caverns, which process was called the ‘Ascent of the Ladder of Perfection’.

 

Each round of the ladder was said to be of metal and of increasing purity, and was dignified also with the name of it’s protecting planet. The highest being Gold . &. . . The Sun, next Silver and the Moon . . . through to Lead and Saturn. In the mysteries of Brahma we find the same reference to a ladder of seven steps, with similar names. In Scandinavian mysteries the tree Yggrasil was the representative of the mystical ladder. The ascent of the tree, like the ascent of the ladder, was a change from a lower to a higher sphere - from time to eternity, and from death to life.

 

In Masonry we find the ladder of Kadosh, which consists of seven steps, commencing from the bottom : Justice - Equity - Kindness - Good Faith - Labour - Patience and Intelligence. The idea of Intellectual progress to perfection is carried out by making the top round represent Wisdom or Understanding.

 

The ladder in Craft Masonry ought also to consist of seven steps, ascending as follows : Temperance - Fortitude - Prudence - Justice - Faith - Hope - and Charity. But the earliest examples of the ladder present it only with three, referring to the three theological virtues, whence it is sometimes called the Theological Ladder. It seems, therefore, to have been determined by general usage to have only three steps. In the 16th. century it was stated that Jacob’s ladder was a symbol of the progressive scale of intellectual communication between earth and heaven; and upon this ladder, as it were, step by step, man is permitted - with the angels - to ascend and to descend until the mind finds blissful and complete repose in the bosom of divinity.

 

Jewish writers differ very much in their exposition of the ladder. Abben Ezra thought that it was a symbol of the human mind, and that the Angels represented the sublime meditations of man. Maimonides supposed the ladder to symbolise Nature in it’s operations, giving it four steps, to represent the four elements - the two heavier earth and water - and the two lighter - fire and air. And Raphael interprets the ladder, and the ascent and descent of the Angels, as the prayers of man and the answering inspiration of God. Nicolai says that the ladder with three steps was, among the Rosicrucian Freemasons in the seventeenth century, a symbol of the knowledge of nature. Finally Krause says that Brother Keher of Edinburgh, whom he described as a truthful Mason, had in 1802 assured the members of a Lodge in Altenberg that originally only one Scottish degree existed, whose object was the restoration of James III (1460 ) to the throne of England and that Jacob’s ladder had been adopted by them as a symbol. An authentic narrative is purported to be contained in the archives of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

 

In the Ancient Craft degrees Jacob’s ladder was not an original symbol. The first appearance of a ladder is in a Tracing Board, on which is inscribed the date 1776, which agrees with the date of Dunkerley’s revised lectures. In this Tracing Board the ladder has only three rounds, a change from the seven-stepped ladder of the old mysteries, and was later described as having many rounds, but three principal ones.

 

The modern Masonic ladder, is, as I have already said, a symbol of progress, as it was in the ancient initiations. It’s three principal rounds, representing Faith, Hope and Charity, present us with the means of advancing from earth to heaven, from death to life, from the mortal to immortality. Hence it’s foot is placed on the floor of the Lodge, which is typical of the world, and it’s top rests on the covering of the Lodge, which is symbolic of heaven. Which explains the statement given in the lecture on the Tracing Board of the First Degree in Craft Masonry, that the ladder rests on the Holy Bible and reaches to the heavens.

 

The Stone:

 

Before I close I would like to take you back to those words from the Book of Genesis, namely, “. . . . with the bare earth for his couch and a stone for a pillow. . . . “

 

Almost 4,000 years ago fate brought Jacob’s caravan to a place called Bethel near Jerusalem, then as even now it was the custom for a traveller to bolster his pillow and bedding with stones for a more comfortable position.

 

With his head resting on a particular stone, Jacob is said to have had his famous dream, which we have heard earlier.

 

Jacob prospered in wealth and knowledge and was directed by God to return to Bethel. On his return, the Lord again appeared to him saying “I am the God of Bethel”, thus the Lord associated himself not only with the place of the vision but with the Bethel Stone. Jacob took the Stone with him and, from that time on it was always set up as a pillar marking the altar to the God of Israel.

 

The Bethel Stone, finally, was returned to Jerusalem where it served as the Coronation Stone for the Jewish Kings, ending with the infamous Zedekiah in 581 B.C. According to Irish historians, a few years later (578 B.C. ) a small but distinguished group of strangers, who had fled from Palestine, arrived in Ulster. They had brought with them the Bethel Stone, or Stone of Destiny, together with a Royal harp and an Ark. It is significant to note that a Harp has been the royal arms of Ireland for the last 2,500 years.

 

The Stone remained in Ireland for over 1,000 years where every king of Ireland was crowned upon it. Till Fearghus Mor ( The Great )took it to the Scottish island of Iona. Here 48 kings of Scotland were crowned upon it until the ninth century, when it was transferred to the town of Scone near Perth for safe keeping by Coinneach Cruadalach (the Hardy) who became King of Scotland. There it remained for 400 years as that nations coronation stone.

 

In the reign of England’s Edward I it was removed from Scotland (1292 ), either by force or by mutual agreement (the Authorities disagree), and there it remained located under the Coronation Chair in the Westminster Abbey until 1996, when it was returned to Scotland by a special Act of Parliament.

 

Early Rose Croix:

 

It would appear from reliable documentation that was still in existence, in Austria, prior to the Second World War, that a form of Rose Croix Masonry was first known in 1747, which had formerly been known as “Knights of the Pelican”. There are a number of references, under a variety of different titles, which all purport to relate to Rose Croix Masonry. These variously date back as far as the Knights Templars of Palestine in 1188 A.D. However, the earliest reference to Rose Croix without any additional appendage, and which seems most likely to be to be in accord with the Order as we know it today, first appeared in 1747.

 

In the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, from which the Rose Croix Masons of America first received the degree, it was placed 18th. on the list - thus the degree became known ( by common usage ) as the Eighteenth Degree. The degree was conferred in a body known as a chapter, which derived it’s authority directly from a Supreme Council of the Thirty Third degree, and which conferred with it only one other and inferior degree, that of “Knight of the East and West”. A chapters principal officers being a Most Wise Sovereign and two Wardens. Interestingly, the order had two ‘Obligatory’ days of meeting, Maundy Thursday and Easter Sunday. Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter, observed by Christians in commemoration of Christ’s Last Supper. The name ‘Maundy is derived from MANDATUM ( Latin: “commandment” ).

 

The Jewel of the Rose Croix is a Golden Compasses, extended on an arc to the sixteenth part of a circle - or twenty two and a half degrees. The head of the compasses is surmounted by a triple crown, consisting of three series of points arranged by three, five and seven. Between the legs of the compasses is a cross resting on the arc; it’s centre is occupied by a full blown rose, whose stem entwines around the lower limb of the cross; at the foot of the cross, on the same side, on which the rose is exhibited, is the figure of a Pelican wounding it’s breast to feed it’s young, which are in the nest surrounding it.

 

An interesting article:

 

www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/masonic_ladder.htm

1955 Austin-Healey 100M British sports car - Brampton, Ontario

 

*windscreen lowered

 

P7193215 Anx2 1600h Q90 Ap Q11

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The Ajanta Caves (Ajiṇṭhā leni; Marathi: अजिंठा लेणी) in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 or 650 CE. The caves include paintings and sculptures described by the government Archaeological Survey of India as "the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting", which are masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, with figures of the Buddha and depictions of the Jataka tales. The caves were built in two phases starting around the 2nd century BCE, with the second group of caves built around 400–650 CE according to older accounts, or all in a brief period of 460 to 480 according to the recent proposals of Walter M. Spink. The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, and since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

The caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, near Jalgaon and just outside the village of Ajinṭhā 20°31′56″N 75°44′44″E), about 59 kilometres from Jalgaon railway station on the Delhi – Mumbai line and Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line of the Central Railway zone, and 104 kilometres from the city of Aurangabad. They are 100 kilometres from the Ellora Caves, which contain Hindu and Jain temples as well as Buddhist caves, the last dating from a period similar to Ajanta. The Ajanta caves are cut into the side of a cliff that is on the south side of a U-shaped gorge on the small river Waghur, and although they are now along and above a modern pathway running across the cliff they were originally reached by individual stairs or ladders from the side of the river 35 to 110 feet below.

 

The area was previously heavily forested, and after the site ceased to be used the caves were covered by jungle until accidentally rediscovered in 1819 by a British officer on a hunting party. They are Buddhist monastic buildings, apparently representing a number of distinct "monasteries" or colleges. The caves are numbered 1 to 28 according to their place along the path, beginning at the entrance. Several are unfinished and some barely begun and others are small shrines, included in the traditional numbering as e.g. "9A"; "Cave 15A" was still hidden under rubble when the numbering was done. Further round the gorge are a number of waterfalls, which when the river is high are audible from outside the caves.

 

The caves form the largest corpus of early Indian wall-painting; other survivals from the area of modern India are very few, though they are related to 5th-century paintings at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. The elaborate architectural carving in many caves is also very rare, and the style of the many figure sculptures is highly local, found only at a few nearby contemporary sites, although the Ajanta tradition can be related to the later Hindu Ellora Caves and other sites.

 

HISTORY

Like the other ancient Buddhist monasteries, Ajanta had a large emphasis on teaching, and was divided into several different caves for living, education and worship, under a central direction. Monks were probably assigned to specific caves for living. The layout reflects this organizational structure, with most of the caves only connected through the exterior. The 7th-century travelling Chinese scholar Xuanzang informs us that Dignaga, a celebrated Buddhist philosopher and controversialist, author of well-known books on logic, lived at Ajanta in the 5th century. In its prime the settlement would have accommodated several hundred teachers and pupils. Many monks who had finished their first training may have returned to Ajanta during the monsoon season from an itinerant lifestyle.

 

The caves are generally agreed to have been made in two distinct periods, separated by several centuries.

 

CAVES OF THE FIRST (SATAVAHANA) PERIOD

The earliest group of caves consists of caves 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15A. According to Walter Spink, they were made during the period 100 BCE to 100 CE, probably under the patronage of the Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE – c. 220 CE) who ruled the region. Other datings prefer the period 300 BCE to 100 BCE, though the grouping of the earlier caves is generally agreed. More early caves may have vanished through later excavations. Of these, caves 9 and 10 are stupa halls of chaitya-griha form, and caves 12, 13, and 15A are vihāras (see the architecture section below for descriptions of these types). The first phase is still often called the Hinayāna phase, as it originated when, using traditional terminology, the Hinayāna or Lesser Vehicle tradition of Buddhism was dominant, when the Buddha was revered symbolically. However the use of the term Hinayana for this period of Buddhism is now deprecated by historians; equally the caves of the second period are now mostly dated too early to be properly called Mahayana, and do not yet show the full expanded cast of supernatural beings characteristic of that phase of Buddhist art. The first Satavahana period caves lacked figurative sculpture, emphasizing the stupa instead, and in the caves of the second period the overwhelming majority of images represent the Buddha alone, or narrative scenes of his lives.

 

Spink believes that some time after the Satavahana period caves were made the site was abandoned for a considerable period until the mid-5th century, probably because the region had turned mainly Hindu

 

CAVES OF THE LATER OR VAKATAKA PERIOD

The second phase began in the 5th century. For a long time it was thought that the later caves were made over a long period from the 4th to the 7th centuries CE, but in recent decades a series of studies by the leading expert on the caves, Walter M. Spink, have argued that most of the work took place over the very brief period from 460 to 480 CE, during the reign of Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka dynasty. This view has been criticized by some scholars, but is now broadly accepted by most authors of general books on Indian art, for example Huntington and Harle.

 

The second phase is still often called the Mahāyāna or Greater Vehicle phase, but scholars now tend to avoid this nomenclature because of the problems that have surfaced regarding our understanding of Mahāyāna.

 

Some 20 cave temples were simultaneously created, for the most part viharas with a sanctuary at the back. The most elaborate caves were produced in this period, which included some "modernization" of earlier caves. Spink claims that it is possible to establish dating for this period with a very high level of precision; a fuller account of his chronology is given below. Although debate continues, Spink's ideas are increasingly widely accepted, at least in their broad conclusions. The Archaeological Survey of India website still presents the traditional dating: "The second phase of paintings started around 5th – 6th centuries A.D. and continued for the next two centuries". Caves of the second period are 1–8, 11, 14–29, some possibly extensions of earlier caves. Caves 19, 26, and 29 are chaitya-grihas, the rest viharas.

 

According to Spink, the Ajanta Caves appear to have been abandoned by wealthy patrons shortly after the fall of Harishena, in about 480 CE. They were then gradually abandoned and forgotten. During the intervening centuries, the jungle grew back and the caves were hidden, unvisited and undisturbed, although the local population were aware of at least some of them.

 

REDISCOVERY

On 28 April 1819, a British officer for the Madras Presidency, John Smith, of the 28th Cavalry, while hunting tiger, accidentally discovered the entrance to Cave No. 10 deep within the tangled undergrowth. There were local people already using the caves for prayers with a small fire, when he arrived. Exploring that first cave, long since a home to nothing more than birds and bats and a lair for other larger animals, Captain Smith vandalized the wall by scratching his name and the date, April 1819. Since he stood on a five-foot high pile of rubble collected over the years, the inscription is well above the eye-level gaze of an adult today. A paper on the caves by William Erskine was read to the Bombay Literary Society in 1822. Within a few decades, the caves became famous for their exotic setting, impressive architecture, and above all their exceptional, all but unique paintings. A number of large projects to copy the paintings were made in the century after rediscovery, covered below. In 1848 the Royal Asiatic Society established the "Bombay Cave Temple Commission" to clear, tidy and record the most important rock-cut sites in the Bombay Presidency, with John Wilson, as president. In 1861 this became the nucleus of the new Archaeological Survey of India. Until the Nizam of Hyderabad built the modern path between the caves, among other efforts to make the site easy to visit, a trip to Ajanta was a considerable adventure, and contemporary accounts dwell with relish on the dangers from falls off narrow ledges, animals and the Bhil people, who were armed with bows and arrows and had a fearsome reputation.

 

Today, fairly easily combined with Ellora in a single trip, the caves are the most popular tourist destination in Mahrashtra, and are often crowded at holiday times, increasing the threat to the caves, especially the paintings. In 2012, the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation announced plans to add to the ASI visitor centre at the entrance complete replicas of caves 1, 2, 16 & 17 to reduce crowding in the originals, and enable visitors to receive a better visual idea of the paintings, which are dimly-lit and hard to read in the caves. Figures for the year to March 2010 showed a total of 390,000 visitors to the site, divided into 362,000 domestic and 27,000 foreign. The trends over the previous few years show a considerable growth in domestic visitors, but a decline in foreign ones; the year to 2010 was the first in which foreign visitors to Ellora exceeded those to Ajanta.

 

PAINTINGS

Mural paintings survive from both the earlier and later groups of caves. Several fragments of murals preserved from the earlier caves (Caves 9 and 11) are effectively unique survivals of court-led painting in India from this period, and "show that by Sātavāhana times, if not earlier, the Indian painter had mastered an easy and fluent naturalistic style, dealing with large groups of people in a manner comparable to the reliefs of the Sāñcī toraņa crossbars".

 

Four of the later caves have large and relatively well-preserved mural paintings which "have come to represent Indian mural painting to the non-specialist", and fall into two stylistic groups, with the most famous in Caves 16 and 17, and apparently later paintings in Caves 1 and 2. The latter group were thought to be a century or more later than the others, but the revised chronology proposed by Spink would place them much closer to the earlier group, perhaps contemporary with it in a more progressive style, or one reflecting a team from a different region. The paintings are in "dry fresco", painted on top of a dry plaster surface rather than into wet plaster.

 

All the paintings appear to be the work of painters at least as used to decorating palaces as temples, and show a familiarity with and interest in details of the life of a wealthy court. We know from literary sources that painting was widely practised and appreciated in the courts of the Gupta period. Unlike much Indian painting, compositions are not laid out in horizontal compartments like a frieze, but show large scenes spreading in all directions from a single figure or group at the centre. The ceilings are also painted with sophisticated and elaborate decorative motifs, many derived from sculpture. The paintings in cave 1, which according to Spink was commissioned by Harisena himself, concentrate on those Jataka tales which show previous lives of the Buddha as a king, rather than as an animal or human commoner, and so show settings from contemporary palace life.

 

In general the later caves seem to have been painted on finished areas as excavating work continued elsewhere in the cave, as shown in caves 2 and 16 in particular. According to Spink's account of the chronology of the caves, the abandonment of work in 478 after a brief busy period accounts for the absence of painting in caves such as 4 and 17, the later being plastered in preparation for paintings that were never done.

 

COPIES

The paintings have deteriorated significantly since they were rediscovered, and a number of 19th-century copies and drawings are important for a complete understanding of the works. However, the earliest projects to copy the paintings were plagued by bad fortune. In 1846, Major Robert Gill, an Army officer from Madras presidency and a painter, was appointed by the Royal Asiatic Society to replicate the frescoes on the cave walls to exhibit these paintings in England. Gill worked on his painting at the site from 1844 to 1863 (though he continued to be based there until his death in 1875, writing books and photographing) and made 27 copies of large sections of murals, but all but four were destroyed in a fire at the Crystal Palace in London in 1866, where they were on display.

 

Another attempt was made in 1872 when the Bombay Presidency commissioned John Griffiths, then principal of the Bombay School of Art, to work with his students to make new copies, again for shipping to England. They worked on this for thirteen years and some 300 canvases were produced, many of which were displayed at the Imperial Institute on Exhibition Road in London, one of the forerunners of the Victoria and Albert Museum. But in 1885 another fire destroyed over a hundred paintings that were in storage. The V&A still has 166 paintings surviving from both sets, though none have been on permanent display since 1955. The largest are some 3 × 6 metres. A conservation project was undertaken on about half of them in 2006, also involving the University of Northumbria. Griffith and his students had unfortunately painted many of the paintings with "cheap varnish" in order to make them easier to see, which has added to the deterioration of the originals, as has, according to Spink and others, recent cleaning by the ASI.

 

A further set of copies were made between 1909 and 1911 by Christiana Herringham (Lady Herringham) and a group of students from the Calcutta School of Art that included the future Indian Modernist painter Nandalal Bose. The copies were published in full colour as the first publication of London's fledgling India Society. More than the earlier copies, these aimed to fill in holes and damage to recreate the original condition rather than record the state of the paintings as she was seeing them. According to one writer, unlike the paintings created by her predecessors Griffiths and Gill, whose copies were influenced by British Victorian styles of painting, those of the Herringham expedition preferred an 'Indian Renascence' aesthetic of the type pioneered by Abanindranath Tagore.

 

Early photographic surveys were made by Robert Gill, who learnt to use a camera from about 1856, and whose photos, including some using stereoscopy, were used in books by him and Fergusson (many are available online from the British Library), then Victor Goloubew in 1911 and E.L. Vassey, who took the photos in the four volume study of the caves by Ghulam Yazdani (published 1930–1955).

 

ARCHITECTURE

The monasteries mostly consist of vihara halls for prayer and living, which are typically rectangular with small square dormitory cells cut into the walls, and by the second period a shrine or sanctuary at the rear centred on a large statue of the Buddha, also carved from the living rock. This change reflects the movement from Hinayana to Mahāyāna Buddhism. The other type of main hall is the narrower and higher chaitya hall with a stupa as the focus at the far end, and a narrow aisle around the walls, behind a range of pillars placed close together. Other plainer rooms were for sleeping and other activities. Some of the caves have elaborate carved entrances, some with large windows over the door to admit light. There is often a colonnaded porch or verandah, with another space inside the doors running the width of the cave.

 

The central square space of the interior of the viharas is defined by square columns forming a more or less square open area. Outside this are long rectangular aisles on each side, forming a kind of cloister. Along the side and rear walls are a number of small cells entered by a narrow doorway; these are roughly square, and have small niches on their back walls. Originally they had wooden doors. The centre of the rear wall has a larger shrine-room behind, containing a large Buddha statue. The viharas of the earlier period are much simpler, and lack shrines. Spink in fact places the change to a design with a shrine to the middle of the second period, with many caves being adapted to add a shrine in mid-excavation, or after the original phase.

 

The plan of Cave 1 shows one of the largest viharas, but is fairly typical of the later group. Many others, such as Cave 16, lack the vestibule to the shrine, which leads straight off the main hall. Cave 6 is two viharas, one above the other, connected by internal stairs, with sanctuaries on both levels.

 

The four completed chaitya halls are caves 9 and 10 from the early period, and caves 19 and 26 from the later period of construction. All follow the typical form found elsewhere, with high ceilings and a central "nave" leading to the stupa, which is near the back, but allows walking behind it, as walking around stupas was (and remains) a common element of Buddhist worship (pradakshina). The later two have high ribbed roofs, which reflect timber forms, and the earlier two are thought to have used actual timber ribs, which have now perished. The two later halls have a rather unusual arrangement (also found in Cave 10 at Ellora) where the stupa is fronted by a large relief sculpture of the Buddha, standing in Cave 19 and seated in Cave 26. Cave 29 is a late and very incomplete chaitya hall.

 

The form of columns in the work of the first period is very plain and un-embellished, with both chaitya halls using simple octagonal columns, which were painted with figures. In the second period columns were far more varied and inventive, often changing profile over their height, and with elaborate carved capitals, often spreading wide. Many columns are carved over all their surface, some fluted and others carved with decoration all over, as in cave 1.

 

The flood basalt rock of the cliff, part of the Deccan Traps formed by successive volcanic eruptions at the end of the Cretaceous, is layered horizontally, and somewhat variable in quality, so the excavators had to amend their plans in places, and in places there have been collapses in the intervening centuries, as with the lost portico to cave 1. Excavation began by cutting a narrow tunnel at roof level, which was expanded downwards and outwards; the half-built vihara cave 24 shows the method. Spink believes that for the first caves of the second period the excavators had to relearn skills and techniques that had been lost in the centuries since the first period, which were then transmitted to be used at later rock-cut sites in the region, such as Ellora, and the Elephanta, Bagh, Badami and Aurangabad Caves.

 

The caves from the first period seem to have been paid for by a number of different patrons, with several inscriptions recording the donation of particular portions of a single cave, but according to Spink the later caves were each commissioned as a complete unit by a single patron from the local rulers or their court elites. After the death of Harisena smaller donors got their chance to add small "shrinelets" between the caves or add statues to existing caves, and some two hundred of these "intrusive" additions were made in sculpture, with a further number of intrusive paintings, up to three hundred in cave 10 alone.

 

A grand gateway to the site, at the apex of the gorge's horsehoe between caves 15 and 16, was approached from the river, and is decorated with elephants on either side and a nāga, or protective snake deity.

 

ICONOGRAPHY OF THE CAVES

In the pre-Christian era, the Buddha was represented symbolically, in the form of the stupa. Thus, halls were made with stupas to venerate the Buddha. In later periods the images of the Buddha started to be made in coins, relic caskets, relief or loose sculptural forms, etc. However, it took a while for the human representation of the Buddha to appear in Buddhist art. One of the earliest evidences of the Buddha's human representations are found at Buddhist archaeological sites, such as Goli, Nagarjunakonda, and Amaravati. The monasteries of those sites were built in less durable media, such as wood, brick, and stone. As far as the genre of rock-cut architecture is concerned it took many centuries for the Buddha image to be depicted. Nobody knows for sure at which rock-cut cave site the first image of the Buddha was depicted. Current research indicates that Buddha images in a portable form, made of wood or stone, were introduced, for the first time, at Kanheri, to be followed soon at Ajanta Cave 8 (Dhavalikar, Jadhav, Spink, Singh). While the Kanheri example dates to 4th or 5th century CE, the Ajanta example has been dated to c. 462–478 CE (Spink). None of the rock-cut monasteries prior to these dates, and other than these examples, show any Buddha image although hundreds of rock-cut caves were made throughout India during the first few centuries CE. And, in those caves, it is the stupa that is the object of veneration, not the image. Images of the Buddha are not found in Buddhist sailagrhas (rock-cut complexes) until the times of the Kanheri (4th–5th century CE) and Ajanta examples (c. 462–478 CE).

 

The caves of the second period, now all dated to the 5th century, were typically described as "Mahayana", but do not show the features associated with later Mahayana Buddhism. Although the beginnings of Mahāyāna teachings go back to the 1st century there is little art and archaeological evidence to suggest that it became a mainstream cult for several centuries. In Mahayana it is not Gautama Buddha but the Bodhisattva who is important, including "deity" Bodhisattva like Manjushri and Tara, as well as aspects of the Buddha such as Aksobhya, and Amitabha. Except for a few Bodhisattva, these are not depicted at Ajanta, where the Buddha remains the dominant figure. Even the Bodhisattva images of Ajanta are never central objects of worship, but are always shown as attendants of the Buddha in the shrine. If a Bodhisattva is shown in isolation, as in the Astabhaya scenes, these were done in the very last years of activities at Ajanta, and are mostly 'intrusive' in nature, meaning that they were not planned by the original patrons, and were added by new donors after the original patrons had suddenly abandoned the region in the wake of Emperor Harisena's death.

 

The contrast between iconic and aniconic representations, that is, the stupa on one hand and the image of the Buddha on the other, is now being seen as a construct of the modern scholar rather than a reality of the past. The second phase of Ajanta shows that the stupa and image coincided together. If the entire corpus of the art of Ajanta including sculpture, iconography, architecture, epigraphy, and painting are analysed afresh it will become clear that there was no duality between the symbolic and human forms of the Buddha, as far as the 5th-century phase of Ajanta is concerned. That is why most current scholars tend to avoid the terms 'Hinayana' and 'Mahayana' in the context of Ajanta. They now prefer to call the second phase by the ruling dynasty, as the Vākāţaka phase.

 

CAVES

CAVE 1

Cave 1 was built on the eastern end of the horse-shoe shaped scarp, and is now the first cave the visitor encounters. This would when first made have been a less prominent position, right at the end of the row. According to Spink, it is one of the latest caves to have been excavated, when the best sites had been taken, and was never fully inaugurated for worship by the dedication of the Buddha image in the central shrine. This is shown by the absence of sooty deposits from butter lamps on the base of the shrine image, and the lack of damage to the paintings that would have been happened if the garland-hooks around the shrine had been in use for any period of time. Although there is no epigraphic evidence, Spink believes that the Vākāţaka Emperor Harishena was the benefactor of the work, and this is reflected in the emphasis on imagery of royalty in the cave, with those Jakata tales being selected that tell of those previous lives of the Buddha in which he was royal.

 

The cliff has a more steep slope here than at other caves, so to achieve a tall grand facade it was necessary to cut far back into the slope, giving a large courtyard in front of the facade. There was originally a columned portico in front of the present facade, which can be seen "half-intact in the 1880s" in pictures of the site, but this fell down completely and the remains, despite containing fine carving, were carelessly thrown down the slope into the river, from where they have been lost, presumably carried away in monsoon torrents.

 

This cave has one of the most elaborate carved façades, with relief sculptures on entablature and ridges, and most surfaces embellished with decorative carving. There are scenes carved from the life of the Buddha as well as a number of decorative motifs. A two pillared portico, visible in the 19th-century photographs, has since perished. The cave has a front-court with cells fronted by pillared vestibules on either side. These have a high plinth level. The cave has a porch with simple cells on both ends. The absence of pillared vestibules on the ends suggest that the porch was not excavated in the latest phase of Ajanta when pillared vestibules had become a necessity and norm. Most areas of the porch were once covered with murals, of which many fragments remain, especially on the ceiling. There are three doorways: a central doorway and two side doorways. Two square windows were carved between the doorways to brighten the interiors.

 

Each wall of the hall inside is nearly 12 m long and 6.1 m high. Twelve pillars make a square colonnade inside supporting the ceiling, and creating spacious aisles along the walls. There is a shrine carved on the rear wall to house an impressive seated image of the Buddha, his hands being in the dharmachakrapravartana mudra. There are four cells on each of the left, rear, and the right walls, though due to rock fault there are none at the ends of the rear aisle. The walls are covered with paintings in a fair state of preservation, though the full scheme was never completed. The scenes depicted are mostly didactic, devotional, and ornamental, with scenes from the Jataka stories of the Buddha's former existences as a bodhisattva), the life of the Gautama Buddha, and those of his veneration. The two most famous individual painted images at Ajanta are the two over-life size figures of the protective bodhisattvas Padmapani and Vajrapani on either side of the entrance to the Buddha shrine on the wall of the rear aisle (see illustrations above). According to Spink, the original dating of the paintings to about 625 arose largely or entirely because James Fegusson, a 19th-century architectural historian, had decided that a scene showing an ambassador being received, with figures in Persian dress, represented a recorded embassy to Persia (from a Hindu monarch at that) around that date.

 

CAVE 2

Cave 2, adjacent to Cave 1, is known for the paintings that have been preserved on its walls, ceilings, and pillars. It looks similar to Cave 1 and is in a better state of preservation.

 

Cave 2 has a porch quite different from Cave one. Even the façade carvings seem to be different. The cave is supported by robust pillars, ornamented with designs. The front porch consists of cells supported by pillared vestibules on both ends. The cells on the previously "wasted areas" were needed to meet the greater housing requirements in later years. Porch-end cells became a trend in all later Vakataka excavations. The simple single cells on porch-ends were converted into CPVs or were planned to provide more room, symmetry, and beauty.

 

The paintings on the ceilings and walls of this porch have been widely published. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha's life in former existences as Bodhisattva. Just as the stories illustrated in cave 1 emphasize kingship, those in cave 2 show many "noble and powerful" women in prominent roles, leading to suggestions that the patron was an unknown woman. The porch's rear wall has a doorway in the center, which allows entrance to the hall. On either side of the door is a square-shaped window to brighten the interior.

 

The hall has four colonnades which are supporting the ceiling and surrounding a square in the center of the hall. Each arm or colonnade of the square is parallel to the respective walls of the hall, making an aisle in between. The colonnades have rock-beams above and below them. The capitals are carved and painted with various decorative themes that include ornamental, human, animal, vegetative, and semi-divine forms.

 

Paintings appear on almost every surface of the cave except for the floor. At various places the art work has become eroded due to decay and human interference. Therefore, many areas of the painted walls, ceilings, and pillars are fragmentary. The painted narratives of the Jataka tales are depicted only on the walls, which demanded the special attention of the devotee. They are didactic in nature, meant to inform the community about the Buddha's teachings and life through successive rebirths. Their placement on the walls required the devotee to walk through the aisles and 'read' the narratives depicted in various episodes. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research since the site's rediscovery in 1819. Dieter Schlingloff's identifications have updated our knowledge on the subject.

 

CAVE 4

The Archeological Survey of India board outside the caves gives the following detail about cave 4: "This is the largest monastery planned on a grandiose scale but was never finished. An inscription on the pedestal of the buddha's image mentions that it was a gift from a person named Mathura and paleographically belongs to 6th century A.D. It consists of a verandah, a hypostylar hall, sanctum with an antechamber and a series of unfinished cells. The rear wall of the verandah contains the panel of Litany of Avalokiteśvara".

 

The sanctuary houses a colossal image of the Buddha in preaching pose flanked by bodhisattvas and celestial nymphs hovering above.

 

CAVES 9-10

Caves 9 and 10 are the two chaitya halls from the first period of construction, though both were also undergoing an uncompleted reworking at the end of the second period. Cave 10 was perhaps originally of the 1st century BCE, and cave 9 about a hundred years later. The small "shrinelets" called caves 9A to 9D and 10A also date from the second period, and were commissioned by individuals.

 

The paintings in cave 10 include some surviving from the early period, many from an incomplete programme of modernization in the second period, and a very large number of smaller late intrusive images, nearly all Buddhas and many with donor inscriptions from individuals. These mostly avoided over-painting the "official" programme and after the best positions were used up are tucked away in less prominent positions not yet painted; the total of these (including those now lost) was probably over 300, and the hands of many different artists are visible.

 

OTHER CAVES

Cave 3 is merely a start of an excavation; according to Spink it was begun right at the end of the final period of work and soon abandoned. Caves 5 and 6 are viharas, the latter on two floors, that were late works of which only the lower floor of cave 6 was ever finished. The upper floor of cave 6 has many private votive sculptures, and a shrine Buddha, but is otherwise unfinished. Cave 7 has a grand facade with two porticos but, perhaps because of faults in the rock, which posed problems in many caves, was never taken very deep into the cliff, and consists only of the two porticos and a shrine room with antechamber, with no central hall. Some cells were fitted in.

 

Cave 8 was long thought to date to the first period of construction, but Spink sees it as perhaps the earliest cave from the second period, its shrine an "afterthought". The statue may have been loose rather than carved from the living rock, as it has now vanished. The cave was painted, but only traces remain.

 

SPINK´S DETAILED CHRONOLOGY

Walter M. Spink has over recent decades developed a very precise and circumstantial chronology for the second period of work on the site, which unlike earlier scholars, he places entirely in the 5th century. This is based on evidence such as the inscriptions and artistic style, combined with the many uncompleted elements of the caves. He believes the earlier group of caves, which like other scholars he dates only approximately, to the period "between 100 BCE – 100 CE", were at some later point completely abandoned and remained so "for over three centuries", as the local population had turned mainly Hindu. This changed with the accession of the Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka Dynasty, who reigned from 460 to his death in 477. Harisena extended the Central Indian Vakataka Empire to include a stretch of the east coast of India; the Gupta Empire ruled northern India at the same period, and the Pallava dynasty much of the south.

 

According to Spink, Harisena encouraged a group of associates, including his prime minister Varahadeva and Upendragupta, the sub-king in whose territory Ajanta was, to dig out new caves, which were individually commissioned, some containing inscriptions recording the donation. This activity began in 462 but was mostly suspended in 468 because of threats from the neighbouring Asmaka kings. Work continued on only caves 1, Harisena's own commission, and 17–20, commissioned by Upendragupta. In 472 the situation was such that work was suspended completely, in a period that Spink calls "the Hiatus", which lasted until about 475, by which time the Asmakas had replaced Upendragupta as the local rulers.

 

Work was then resumed, but again disrupted by Harisena's death in 477, soon after which major excavation ceased, except at cave 26, which the Asmakas were sponsoring themselves. The Asmakas launched a revolt against Harisena's son, which brought about the end of the Vakataka Dynasty. In the years 478–480 major excavation by important patrons was replaced by a rash of "intrusions" – statues added to existing caves, and small shrines dotted about where there was space between them. These were commissioned by less powerful individuals, some monks, who had not previously been able to make additions to the large excavations of the rulers and courtiers. They were added to the facades, the return sides of the entrances, and to walls inside the caves. According to Spink, "After 480, not a single image was ever made again at the site", and as Hinduism again dominated the region, the site was again abandoned, this time for over a millennium.

 

Spink does not use "circa" in his dates, but says that "one should allow a margin of error of one year or perhaps even two in all cases".

 

IMPACT ON MODERN INDIAN PAINTINGS

The Ajanta paintings, or more likely the general style they come from, influenced painting in Tibet and Sri Lanka.

 

The rediscovery of ancient Indian paintings at Ajanta provided Indian artists examples from ancient India to follow. Nandlal Bose experimented with techniques to follow the ancient style which allowed him to develop his unique style. Abanindranath Tagore also used the Ajanta paintings for inspiration.

 

WIKIPEDIA

original condition - Grand Tourisme Haut Luxe

Los Angeles, CA

It's very hot and humid these days here. She found the coolest place in the room. lol

一番涼しい場所。

Praktica TL 5B

Cine still 800

Perth, Western Australia

The number of air conditioning units used in China is beyond belief!

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okay, so by a crazy crazy coincidence, both of the mystery air conditioners I posted a few days back are both the same brand in which I never heard of before. furthermore, the are both in OREGON, different parts, but same state none the less. this tells me that the were probably only distributed on the west coast. also note that they appear to be made by Gibson. the brown one represents the medium sized ones, and the white one looks like the smaller ones. is all of this coincidence? I think not... id like some input on this one if anyone has any for me. that brown one may be the nicest unit with the Gibson outside case ever made. wouldn't mind owning this unit if it were close by.

It had long been our ambition to convert the basement of the Rotunda back to its condition in 1910. Ickworth Lives, a project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and your donations, is doing just that. Opened on 2nd March 2012, we invite you to discover the real lives of those who lived and worked in this party house in the 1930s.

 

The exterior of the Earl-Bishop’s Rotunda was virtually finished when he died in 1803, but the interior was still an empty shell, and the curving corridors and wings only a few feet above ground. It was left to the Earl-Bishop’s son, the future 1st Marquess of Bristol, to make what use he could of his father’s extraordinary plan. Having no need for massive galleries, in 1821 he instructed his architect, John Field, to redesign the East Wing as family living-quarters.

 

Field fitted out the ground floor of the Rotunda as state rooms in an austere Regency style. The West Wing was added purely for symmetry and so was left empty. The Trust is pleased to announce the go-ahead of a package for a project to develop the West Wing to provide new facilities for visitor reception, information, education, shop, restaurant, functions, conferences and events.

 

As the family lived mostly in the East Wing, the rooms that visitors see in the Rotunda spent much of the year under dust sheets, coming into their own mainly for parties and other special occasions. But as a result, their superb furnishings and decoration have survived in excellent condition and little changed since the heyday of the house in the Edwardian era.

 

The house, with much of its collections of family portraits, Huguenot silver, Regency furniture and china, and part of the ancient deer-park, passed to the National Trust in 1956.

 

The East Wing has been transformed into a four star hotel by the hotel company Luxury Family Hotels who lease the East Wing. Until 1997 the East Wing was home to the late 7th Marquis of Bristol who had leased the property from the National Trust.

 

The hotel has 35 luxury rooms - 11 in the Dower House a separate property situated on the north-west of the estate (opened in autumn 2002) - the hotel complex has three restaurants, a 50ft indoor pool, horse riding facilities and a tennis court.

 

Ickworth’s 18th-century parkland and gardens include some of the most stunning countryside to be found in East Anglia.

 

The Park

The extensive 1,800 acres of wooded parkland, created in part by 'Capability' Brown, is a living landscape rich in plant, animal, and bird life. Some parts cultivated and grazed yet much can be explored and enjoyed. Some waymarked field margins may also be walked. Access has been made possible through funding by the Forestry Commission’s Countryside Access scheme.

 

The Gardens

The gardens surrounding the house were created in the first half of the 19th century by the First Marquess of Bristol. Those in the formal Italian style to the south of the house feature the Gold and Silver Gardens, a Victorian Stumpery and the Temple Rose Garden. A raised terrace walk separates the south garden from the park.

 

Beyond the restorated church are the remnants of an 18th-century garden created by the First Earl. His summerhouse (circa.1703) and ornamental canal still survive.

This small theatre looks like a converted old chapel . See other photo of front. Note the blocked window.

Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission.

© rogerperriss@aol.com All rights reserved.

Las Vegas Air Conditioning Inc.

6220 Kimberly Ave #13,

Las Vegas, NV 89122,‎

702-437-1888

 

lasvegasair.net

 

A historic bar in Detroit’s North End neighborhood that was built around 1910. Info says the bar specialized in live blues bands. Acts across the Midwest took the stage, like John Lee Hooker.

Detroit, MIchigan

Got this 10,000 BTU A/C for the main living area of our apartment, which joins the 5,500 BTU unit we have in the bedroom.

Size9.5 9.8 condition

P1040418.JPG

 

P1040622.JPG

  

God NEEDS Air Conditioning...

In Romania historical monuments like these churches are disfigured by the introduction of unsightly air-conditioning devices which is monstrous...

For over 1000 years the Romanian orthodox churches had hardly any heating or no heating at all, and certainly no air conditioning in the 20th century and so far nobody died either of frost or cold while attending the orthodox mass.

the Ministry of Culture sits idle doing nothing to stop tyhe introduction of air conditioning which destroys the masonry, the frescos and in the long run wuill have adverse effect on the iconostatsis, icons, furniture as well as being a firte hazard and an insightly thing.

In the meantime the Orthodox priests seem to have so little understanding of the cultural treasures they are entrusted with that they are busy installing modern double glazing (with plastic frames, of course) as well as these ugly metal boxes which look like disused truck engines.... shame really, but this is expecting too much of the custodians of our identity!

STOP THE OUTRAGE!