View allAll Photos Tagged copulating
Getting ready to go to the museum.
In many places when the flowers start flowering, female THYNNIDAE wasps climb onto small shrubs or wander over open ground, waiting for a male to come and copulate. During copulation, the males take the females to flowers where they collect nectar and pass it to the female. She curls her body around the drop of nectar and drinks while the male collects more nectar on many different flowers.
Females usually live on the ground or in the leaves of trees looking for and devouring small insects.
Male: 10-12mm Female 5-6mm
Photos: Jean
This is the male of the wingless female posted.
Photos Jean
Some very tiny flies enjoying some doggy-styled action XD XD
For more photos and guides on Macro Photography, please check out my blog: pixelsdimension.com/
Attempting macro photography with a Canon 100-400mm lens because my Sigma 105mm Macro is still away having a firmware upgrade to make it compatible with a 7D MKII.
Common Darter Dragonflies (Sympetrum striolatum) in copulation wheel Mating on a fence rail in Clare Castle Park, Clare, Suffolk
D’Auguste Rodin à Duane Hanson, de Georg Baselitz à Ana Mendieta, de David Hammons à Marlene Dumas, d’Arthur Jafa à Ali Cherri, une quarantaine d’artistes explore, à travers la peinture, la sculpture, la photographie, la vidéo et le dessin, les liens entre le corps et l’esprit.
« Dans les courbes matricielles de la Bourse de Commerce, en un écho à la ronde des corps habitant le vaste panorama peint ceinturant le dôme de verre du bâtiment, l’exposition “Corps et âmes“ sonde, à travers les œuvres d’une quarantaine d’artistes de la Collection Pinault, la prégnance du corps dans la pensée contemporaine. Libéré de tout carcan mimétique, le corps qu’il soit photographié, dessiné, sculpté, filmé ou peint ne cesse de se réinventer, conférant à l’art une organicité essentielle lui permettant, tel un cordon ombilical, de prendre le pouls du corps et de l’âme humaine.
L’art se saisit des énergies, des flux vitaux de la pensée et de la vie intérieure, pour inviter à une expérience engagée et humaniste de l’altérité. Les formes se métamorphosent, renouent avec la figuration ou s’en affranchissent pour se saisir, retenir et laisser affleurer l’âme et la conscience. Il s’agit non plus d’incarner des formes mais de capturer des forces et de rendre visible ce qui est enfoui, invisible, d’éclairer les ombres. Dans la Rotonde, l’œuvre d’Arthur Jafa Love is the Message, the Message is Death transforme l’espace en une caisse de résonance de la musique et de l’engagement des icônes africaines-américaines, Martin Luther King Jr, Jimi Hendrix, Barack Obama, Beyoncé, leur conférant une portée universelle.
En résonance avec l’exposition, une riche programmation musicale fait de “Corps et âmes“ un événement polyphonique. » Emma Lavigne, directrice générale de la Collection, conservatrice générale.
Avec : Georges Adéagbo / Terry Adkins / Gideon Appah / Diane & Allan Arbus / Michael Armitage / Richard Avedon / Georg Baselitz / Cecilia Bengolea / Constantin Brancusi / Miriam Cahn / Claude Cahun / Ali Cherri / Peter Doig / Marlene Dumas / Robert Frank / Latoya Ruby Frazier / Philip Guston / Anna Halprin & Seth Hill / David Hammons / Duane Hanson / Kudzanai‑Violet Hwami / Anne Imhof / Arthur Jafa / William Kentridge / Deana Lawson / Sherrie Levine / Kerry James Marshall / Ana Mendieta / Zanele Muholi / Senga Nengudi / Antonio Obá / Irving Penn / Man Ray / Robin Rhode / Auguste Rodin / Niki De Saint Phalle / Mira Schor / Lorna Simpson / Wolfgang Tillmans / Kara Walker / Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Commissariat général : Emma Lavigne, directrice générale de la Collection, conservatrice générale
www.pinaultcollection.com/fr/boursedecommerce/corps-et-ames
“Therefore [in the sexual alchemical copulation] shall the Ish איש [the י Iod, the tithe, the shakti potential, of the fire אש] leave [ יה Jah] his father and his mother [sperm and ovum, their physical receptacles], and [up along the spine] shall [the י Iod, the tithe, open the womb, the spine and] cleave to [the head as Hei or אשה Isha, the Kundalini, the Serpent of Brass] his wife: and they [Ish and Isha, איש ו אשה , the fire of יה Jah, Abba and Aima Elohim] shall be one [fire in the ו Vav of husband and wife, that is, in the spinal medulla of their Hei, their] flesh [their physicality]. - Genesis 2: 24
The twelfth precept is to first by means of sexual alchemy bring up your spine the shakti potential of the fruits of Daath (tree of knowledge) and thereafter radiate the Light — that is, the fruits of Chaim, the tree of life — in all the areas of our life, as a true blessing for all humanity. Thus, in the evening, we perform the positive sexual connection of יה Jah with our חוה Chavah, for such an alchemical transmutation will be the seed given force for the rest of the day, given that the evening and the morning are one day; therefore:
יום ליום יביע אמר ולילה ללילה יחוה דעת
"Day after day utter a speech, and night after night experience knowledge.” - Psalm 19: 2
What the former psalm states is our alchemical duty. Since this is what we alchemists do, day after day we utter the doctrine, and when we go and practice sexual alchemy night after night, we experience knowledge (daath, gnosis).
“What, in fact, does man know? Nothing, and at the same time he is allowed to ignore nothing. Devoid of knowledge, he is called upon to know all. Now, knowledge supposes the duad – a being who knows and an object known. The duad is the generator of society and of law: it is also the number of Gnosis. The duad is unity multiplying itself in order to create, and hence in sacred symbolism Eve issues from the inmost bosom of Adam. Adam is the human tetragram, summed up in the mysterious IOD, type of the kabbalistic phallus. By adding to this IOD the triadic name of Eve, the name of Jehovah is formed, the Divine Tetragram, which is eminently the kabbalistic and magical word, יהוה, being that which the high-priest in the temple pronounced IODCHAVAH.” - Eliphas Levi
glorian.org/learn/courses-and-lectures/precepts-of-alchem...
THE MAJOR THREE: SALT-SULPHUR-MERCURY
Sun and moon engender mercury via sulphur and salt.
(Paracelsus)
INTRODUCTION
I will start this chapter with an expansion on the core of this study, namely: exposing the opera's alchemical structure. The previous chapters have already provided several alchemical preludes and overtures, especially chapter 2, but until now there has been no systematic analysis. As I have argued before, Die Zauberfliite in its entirety is anembodiment and representation of the magnum opus: impure substances are treated in a process of transmutation with the sole purpose of creating the philosophers' stone, among other names also known as the stone if the sages. The focus of this chapter and the next is on these substances. Next I will scrutinize the individual phases of the process itself. But first I will stage the dramatis personae themselves,
followed by their mutual drama. This approach incidentally closely resembles the actual work of the alchemist. First he works to prepare the individual substances into as pure a state as possible. Only after he has achieved this will he start their further treatment, processing and transmutation into a new and noble product. The main substances are salt, sulphur and mercury. In the chapter on the Rosicrucians I have already drawn attention to the alchemy of the three principles. Before discussing the tria principia, I would like to say the following. From this point on we are going to be fully immersed in the conceptual and philosophical world of the alchemists at the end of the 18th century. Their concepts will at first glance seem odd, and from a modern day empirical scientific perspective they have either partially and in other cases been completely
superseded. In this study I am attempting to reflect and render their particular world view and conception of the human condition. I have emphasized "reflect and render" because I am not interested in providing a contemporary interpretation of that world view and conception. The brilliant contemporary interpretation of alchemy Jung has given us, with the help of depth-psychological categories, would probably have sounded just as strange to the alchemists as their theories do to us today. What I do want to retrieve is what the makers of Die Zaubeifliite themselves had in mind when using these images, in such
a way that they could easily identify with my representation. What in my opinion does belong to this representation is their interpretation of alchemical terms, which is, as I have mentioned before, highly Paracelsean. And it was exactly this spiritual interpretation that the makers of the opera were after. They have a specific intention when representing mercury for example. And it is this intention that I reflect and render, even though I myself may sometimes think that Jung's vision on mercury is a far more balanced one. It is however not at all my intention to suggest in any way that Mozart and Schikaneder would have been depth psychologists avant la date. II will now turn to the subject of this chapter. The conviction that "all good things come in threes" can already be found in Plato. He states that two terms by themselves can never form a composition without the aid of a third. If there is to be a connection between two elements then one way or another that requires a linking factor. 2 It is astounding to see just how the number 3 claims a central
position time and again in all cultures, but decidedly so in our
Western culture. After one ... two ... three ... things happen!
The singular divine mystery is experienced as a threefold deity (in Christianity as father, son and spirit), man himself consists of three dimensions (body, soul and spirit), nature knows three realms (mineral, vegetable and animal) and the mineral world in its turn is made up of three fundamental principles: salt, sulphur and mercury. From an alchemical perspective, that which exists below also exists above, and vice versa. Celestial and terrestrial forces....
brill.com/display/book/9789004496545/B9789004496545_s009.xml
Paracelsus was one of the greatest minds of the Renaissance due to his contribution to the field of science and medicine. However, what is often overlooked in the historical narrative is his theology and how this is manifested in his scientific works. Born in Einsiedeln, Switzerland as Phillipus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim in the early 1490s, Paracelsus was exposed to the practice of medicine through his father, a physician. In addition, local monks bolstered his education by teaching him Catholic theology, as well as ideas common in medieval magic and mysticism. With this mish-mosh of various, and at times, opposing ideas Paracelsus developed and pioneered the use of chemical medicine, focusing on the use of salts and minerals to cure diseases of the body. Taken at face value, his medical framework reads much like an extension of medieval alchemy. However, theological ideas are firmly ground in them. Upon close inspection of Paracelsus’ beliefs on the creation of man and universe, one finds that the tripartite view of creation has massive repercussions on his own scientific developments. Paracelsus’ chemical basis of matter, called tria prima (salt, sulfur, and mercury), reflects this tripartite view as well, grounded on Paracelsus’ own understanding of the Holy Trinity. Broadly, it is Paracelsus’ theology that is the main influence on his writings and scientific frameworks.
Paracelsus’ conception of creation of man deviates slightly from Old Testament views, and most importantly, implicates a unique microcosm-macrocosm relationship between man and the universe. The Catholic Church’s teachings of the time enforced that God created the world and mankind ex nihilo, or out of nothing.[1] Paracelsus offered up a similar explanation but he deviated from tradition in that he believed that though God created the universe out of nothing, God created man out of a pre-existing substance.
Man was not born out of nothingness, but was made from a substance . . . God took the limus terrae, the primordial stuff of the earth, and formed man out of this mass . . . limus terrae is also the Great World, and thus man was created from heaven and earth. Limus terrae is an extract of the firmament, of the universe of stars, and at the same time of all the elements.[2]It is explicit here that Paracelsus believes that mankind was created from limus terrae, a deviation from established Catholic teaching. This only hints at Paracelsus’ negative view of Catholic teachings and the Catholic Church as an institution at the time, which will be explained later. What is more interesting, however, is how the limus terrae effectively positions mankind in the context of the greater universe. By stating that man was created from the same substance as the elements, heaven, and earth, man was thus a reflection of the universe itself. Paracelsus describes man as being a microcosm of the greater universe, compacted into the body and covered in skin, due to man being of the same substance as the greater world.[3] The idea of man as a microcosm, and how it interrelates with the macrocosm is prevalent in most of Paracelsus’ writings, and provides the basis for much of his medical framework. This microcosm-macrocosm belief is not unique to Paracelsus since it was a commonly held belief of most alchemists, and other Renaissance thinkers. For one, Marisilio Ficino was one of the forerunners in the practice of medical astrology, and he highly emphasized the interaction of the body and universe and the effect of the stars on health, which highlights the microcosm-macrocosm concept.[4] How then does Paracelsus’ microcosm-macrocosm concept differ from the other minds of his time? The answer lies in God’s conception of man. As said before, Paracelsus believed that God fashioned man out of limus terrae, but more importantly, God fashioned man in His image. This is an age-old idea in Christian theology, but Paracelsus utilized the concept of images as an imprint of the maker’s likeness to expand his ideas on the nature of mankind.
German Renaissance historian, Andrew Weeks suggests that the idea of images is a unifying theological concept in Paracelsian works. Weeks explain that since man was made in the image of God, man also possesses a kind of tripartite nature like that of God’s (Father, Son, Holy Sprit). “The human creature is also heaven and earth, visible and invisible, and a threefold being of body, sidereal spirit, and soul of the eternal spirit and breath of life.”[5] Here, Weeks validates the idea of the microcosm-macrocosm in Paracelsus’ works since humans reflect the “heaven and earth.” He also suggests the tripartite nature of man in that he is composed of the body, which represents that which is solid and visible, the spirit, which represents the intangible and invisible, and the soul, which represents the principle that galvanizes the two together into a cohesive being. It is in Paracelsus’ own theology about creation as images that one receives a clear picture of how he viewed the nature of man. This idea is especially present in the following excerpt from Astronomia Magna in Weeks’ Paracelsus.
… neither I nor anyone else, can or may know of the image of God, as it is, except for what we understand and abstract from Christ and Scripture . . . it is no less the case that God is the person. In as much as the person is, there is also an image, for a person cannot be without image and image is a form and figure.[6]
Here, the reader is exposed to Paracelsus’ explanation of how Scripture and Christ are used as tools to gain some understanding of who God is. This is particularly interesting since in Christian theology, Christ was the physical manifestation of God and the Scripture is said to contain the Holy Spirit and can be accessed by careful reading. These two represent the “body” and the “spirit,” and God is left as the third and final part of the Holy Trinity. Furthermore, the latter part of the passage affirms the idea that man is an image of God. Thus, these ideas can be applied to each other and it can be gleaned that mankind is tripartite in nature for he is made from God’s image. Here, it is clear how important of a role that theology, specifically Paracelsus’ own theology, plays in his conception of the world around him.
It is important to consider how the tripartite view of human nature effectively developed Paracelsus’ views on the natural world, and ultimately, the chemical principles that facilitate the natural world’s processes. The intellectual historian, Charles Webster extends the tripartite principle into nature, suggesting that Paracelsus also viewed that everything that existed in the natural world was also comprised of three entities.[7] In Paracelsus’ mind, the tripartite view of nature was acceptable not out of convenience, but with the logical deduction that since God was the maker of the natural world, surely the maker would also impart a Trinitarian principle in it, just like with the creation of man.[8] Thus, if the microcosm-macrocosm principle still holds and the entirety of creation was comprised of three entities, it is no surprise that Paracelsus developed a tripartite view of the chemical basis of matter. Called the tria prima, Paracelsus utilized the salt, mercury and sulfur as the three key substances. Heaven and earth have been created out of nothingness, but they are composed of three things – mercurius [mercury], sulphur [sulfur], and sal [salt] . . . Of these same three things the planets and all the stars consist; and not only the stars but all bodies that grow and are born from them. And just as the Great World [macrocosm] is thus built upon the three primordial substances, so man – the Little World [microcosm] – was composed of the same substances. Thus man, too, is nothing but mercury, sulphur and salt.[9]
As Paracelsus outlined in a passage above from Astronomia Magna, he utilized the idea of the microcosm-macrocosm to suggest that man is composed of the tria prima since the stars and everything else in the macrocosm is composed of these three substances as well. These three substances were not completely radical. Medieval alchemists have long since recognized their importance, mercury in particular for its transformative ability to not only exist as a shiny metal in coloring, but it also has the viscosity and movement of a liquid.[10] In this regard, Paracelsus’ incorporation of mercury and sulfur into his chemical theory was not particularly groundbreaking. However, what is innovative about the tria prima is the fact that salt is given equal importance as the other two. Biblically, salt is given great importance in the Old Testament in that it was one of the vital components in performing ritual sacrifices to God.[11] Thus, Paracelsus incorporated salt in his tria prima due to its inherent biblical authority. Furthermore, Paracelsus discredited the hierarchy that medieval alchemists placed on these elements. By doing this, each component is given equal importance, which emphasized the Trinitarian nature of the tria prima in that each substance was equally vital in unity.[12] His reliance on theological canon to give credibility to his principles is evident. It is in this regard that Paracelsus truly differed from his medieval predecessors.
The tria prima not only explained the physical composition of the natural world, but it also explained it in terms of qualities, and it is these qualities that also facilitated the understanding of how diseases worked within the human body. In addition, the tria prima’s qualities also reflect an understanding of the Holy Trinity. Physically, the tria prima’s physical attributes did not differ from the established alchemical knowledge. However, Paracelsus ascribed the three substances with specific characteristics. Mercury had the quality of mystery, spirituosity, and power; salt had the quality of coagulation and preservation, and sulfur had the quality of substance and solidity.[13] With these qualities in mind, Paracelsus argued in On the Miners’ Sickness and Other Miners’ Diseases (1538) that diseases came to be (in particular, a lung disease specific to miners) as a result of manifesting these qualities.
Know then also concerning the lung-sickness that it comes through the power of the stars in that their peculiar characters are boiled out, settling on the lungs in three different ways: in a mercurial manner like a sublimated smoke that coagulates, like a salt spirit what passes from resolution to coagulation, and thirdly, like a sulphur which is precipitated on the walls by roasting.[14]
The tria prima served as the basis for understanding the way diseases manifested in the body. The nature of the disease was separated into its three components, and then settled in the lungs based on their individual qualities. The sickness then arises as the “precipitation” on the walls of the lungs. Furthermore, Paracelsus noted the effect of the stars in this passage. It is evident here that the microcosm-macrocosm idea is at play in that the sickness comes from the stars, and since the body is a mirror of the universe, the same sickness can manifest itself within the body. Consequently, one can also interpret these qualities as reflective of the Holy Trinity. Sulfur’s quality of precipitation into a solid material is analogous to Christ (God’s physical manifestation on earth); salt’s quality of coagulation is akin to the Holy Spirit, and mercury’s quality of sublimation and invisibility is representative of God. This interpretation is not surprising since Paracelsus, as established, truly relied on the theology to develop and hone his scientific framework.It is interesting to note that much of Paracelsus’ theology falls in line with Catholic dogma: his ideas on Creation and the Trinitarian view of God does not differ that much from doctrine. However, it is his application of this theology to the view of mankind and the chemical basis of matter that does set him apart from medieval alchemists and other thinkers of his time. At its core, Paracelsian theological beliefs are not radical, but it is how these beliefs are translated onto scientific writing (and often, propagandistic in tone due to his personality) that is quite radical and represents a break from the Renaissance norm. Set in the religiopolitically tumultuous milieu of 1530s Germany, a time that marked the high period of Protestant Reformation, Paracelsus’ reforming attitudes were directed towards the exclusivity of medical academia. As Andrew Wear, a member of the Academic Unit of Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London, explains in, Paracelsus attacked the established learned tradition with his tria prima in that it completely disregarded the Galenic tradition of the time.[15] He viewed humoral theory as an archaic institution, false and insufficient in explaining the ways in which the world worked. Further, Paracelsus believed in the spiritual nature of the world, as evident in his tripartite view, and humoral theory does not adequately take this into account. Most importantly, Paracelsus wanted to break down the learned medical tradition since it relied on outdated texts and observations from ancients who knew nothing of his world and time. Paracelsus worked to effectively shift the focus on relying on the old authors of medicine to one’s own experiences of the nature around mankind.[16] This shift from reliance on texts to pure observation is in itself in line with Renaissance trends. For one, Andreas Vesalius’ new anatomy was representative of the advances in dissections and knowledge of the human body, and Vesalius relied on experience as the primary teacher in exploring the wonders of the human body.[17] However, Vesalius still operated under Galenic thought, and respected the ancients unlike Paracelsus. In the end, it is clear that it is Paracelsus’ tria prima and tripartite views, and not the theology behind them that placed Paracelsus in a precarious position within Renaissance trends: on one hand, he advocated the dissolution of learned medical tradition completely, which few of his contemporaries agreed with, and on the other hand, his way of doing so – the shift to observation as the only way of learning – is not revolutionary for people like Vesalius agreed and advocated this as well.
It is evident that Paracelsus’ works were greatly influenced by established Christian doctrine. His belief on the creation of man from the image of God imbued mankind with a tripartite nature. This tripartite nature thus became omnipresent in all of creation, and from this idea came Paracelsus’ tria prima. The tria prima on its surface explained the chemical basis of matter and even how diseases came to be. Digging more deeply, the tria prima actually reflects the nature of the Holy Trinity, which further bolsters the idea that Paracelsus relied heavily on theology as his main guide to establishing his scientific and medical framework. With that said, Paracelsus’ science also effectively undermined the authority of ancient authors as valid sources in the study of medicine, made especially visible in his writings in the context of the Reformation in 1530s Germany. The intersectional nature of religion and medicine is something that the modern audience does not see often since the two are often seen as conflicting forces. It is evident from this analysis of Paracelsus’ theology that science and religious beliefs freely interact, building each other up to new heights. It is Paracelsus’ theological discourse that allowed him to not only develop the ideas behind the nature of man, but it also allowed him to extend theology in the development of his chemical beliefs, grounded on the tria prima. As stated before, he fits right in with the other great minds of his time like Ficino and Vesalius due to his reliance on the microcosm-macrocosm idea and observation as teacher, respectively. This warrants the question: to what extent was Paracelsus an innovator or a rebel? In the end, however innovative and rebellious Paracelsus might have been, he was a product of his time. His scientific developments grounded on theology were indeed radical set in the context of traditional academic institutions that pervaded Renaissance Europe. However, this radicalism is what was expected of an intellectual character such as Paracelsus due to the rise of the Reformation, and the swiftly changing sociopolitical and religious currents of his time.
[1] Charles Webster, Paracelsus: Medicine, Magic and Mission at the End of Time, 133
[2] Paracelsus, and Jolande Jacobi. Selected Writings. Astronomia Magna (1537/38), translated excerpt, 16.
[3] Paracelsus, and Jolande Jacobi. Selected Writings. Schriften über Kometen, Erdbeben, Friedbogen, Himmelszeichen (1531/34), translated excerpt, 17.
[4] Alisha Rankin. “Astrological and Alchemical Medicine.” Lecture.
[5] Andrew Weeks. Paracelsus: Speculative Theory and the Crisis of the Early Reformation, 113.
[6] Andrew Weeks. Paracelsus: Speculative Theory and the Crisis of the Early Reformation.111. Excerpt from Astronomia Magna.
[7] Charles Webster, Paracelsus: Medicine, Magic and Mission at the End of Time, 135.
[8] Charles Webster, Paracelsus: Medicine, Magic and Mission at the End of Time, 136
[9] Paracelsus, and Jolande Jacobi. Selected Writings. Astronomia Magna (1537/38), translated excerpt, 19.
[10] Charles Webster, Paracelsus: Medicine, Magic and Mission at the End of Time,137
[11] Leviticus 2:13
[12] Charles Webster, Paracelsus: Medicine, Magic and Mission at the End of Time, 137
[13] Charles Webster, Paracelsus: Medicine, Magic and Mission at the End of Time, 138
[14] Paracelsus. Four Treatises of Theophrastus Von Hohenheim, Called Paracelsus, 59
[15] Andrew Wear. The Western Medical Tradition: 800 B.C. to A.D. 1800, 313
[16] Andrew Wear. The Western Medical Tradition: 800 B.C. to A.D. 1800, 315.
[17] Andrew Wear. The Western Medical Tradition: 800 B.C. to A.D. 1800, 273-280
markjoshuabernardo.wordpress.com/2015/08/09/theological-b...
The Bourse de Commerce is drawing some one hundred works from the Pinault Collection to present the exhibition "Corps et âmes", an exploration of the representation of the body in contemporary art. The Bourse de Commerce is drawing some one hundred works from the Pinault Collection to present the exhibition “Corps et âmes”, an exploration of representations of the body in contemporary art. From Auguste Rodin to Duane Hanson, Georg Baselitz to Ana Mendieta, David Hammons to Marlene Dumas, and Arthur Jafa to Ali Cherri, some forty artists have used painting, sculpture, photography, video, and drawing to explore the connections between body and soul.
“In the generative curves of the Bourse de Commerce, as an echo of the rondo of bodies that populate the vast, painted panorama encircling the building’s glass dome, the exhibition ‘Corps et âmes’ explores the significance of the body in contemporary thought through the works of some forty artists in the Pinault Collection. Freed from all mimetic constraints, the body — whether photographed, sculpted, drawn, filmed, or painted — does not cease to reinvent itself, thereby granting art an essential organic quality that allows it, like an umbilical cord, to take the pulse of the human body and soul.
Art seizes the energies and vital flows of our thoughts and inner lives to create a socially committed, humanist experience of otherness. Forms metamorphose, returning to figuration or freeing themselves from it, to grasp, hold on to, and allow the soul and consciousness to reveal themselves. It is no longer a matter of merely painting bodies, instead capturing the forces that run through them, to bring to light what is buried and invisible, and to open up the shadows. Arthur Jafa’s work in the Rotunda, Love is the Message, the Message is Death, transforms the space into a sounding board for the music and social commitment of African American icons such as Martin Luther King Jr, Jimi Hendrix, Barack Obama, and Beyoncé, thus granting them a universal scope.
His films, which oscillate between life and death, violence and transcendence, play out as a visual melody inspired by gospel, jazz, and black music. They form a flow of images and sounds that lend their beat to the entire exhibition, in a choreography in which the depicted bodies bear witness to the links between art and life. A rich musical programming in resonance with the exhibition makes ‘Corps et âmes’ a polyphonic event”.
Emma Lavigne, General Curator, General Director in charge of the Pinault Collection
Are babies born with inverted vision?
Not exactly. While it's true that the image projected onto the retina is flipped, just like in adults, a baby's brain is still developing the ability to interpret and make sense of what they see. But by the time they're a few months old, they're seeing the world much like we do—right-side up and full of new wonders.
Two clicks to zoom...
'Blissful moment'. a breeding pair of Canada Geese, mating crescendo pictured here together at the end of successful copulation ...both male and female submerged and rolling blissfully in the water.
Photo number 6 in a series of 10
Many thanks for visiting my Flickr pages ...Your visits, interest, comments and kindness to 'fave' my photos is very much appreciated, Steve.
Notes.
Unlike the testes of mammals, those of birds vary greatly in size with the seasons. During the breeding season they may be several hundred times larger than they are during the rest of the year and can account for as much as a tenth of the male's body weight. The massive enlargement of the testes is triggered in temperate-zone birds by day length (curiously enough not timed by the amount of light received by the eyes, but by light passing through the skull and stimulating photoreceptors on the brain). As the days lengthen in the spring, increases in hormones produced by the brain initiate the enlargement of the testes. This stimulus occurs weeks in advance of the actual breeding season, so that the male arrives on the breeding grounds with the testes fully developed. A similar sequence results in the enlargement of the female reproductive organs, development of eggs in the ovaries, formation of the brood patch, and so on.
Enlarged testes secrete greater amounts of male hormones that may brighten skin (not feather) colours and stimulate singing and courtship behaviour. During copulation, the male mounts the female from behind. Both sexes hold their tails to the side and turn back the feathers around the cloaca (the common opening of the bird's alimentary canal and excretory and reproductive systems), so that the swollen lips of the male's and female's cloacae can come into contact. In some birds, such as GEESE, ducks, and game birds, there is a grooved, erectile penis inside the male's cloaca. The penis guides the sperm, which have been stored in a nearby sac, into the female. In passerines, there is no penis, and copulation amounts to a brief "cloacal kiss" during which the sperm are transferred.
Once transferred, the sperm remain for a while in storage at the lower end of the oviduct, and then swim to the upper end of that duct to fertilise the egg. A single copulation is usually sufficient to fertilise the eggs laid over a period of about a week. In some birds the sperm remain viable for much longer -- turkeys have been reported to lay fertile eggs more than two months after copulation. Consequently, there is considerable variation among species in the frequency of copulations. If copulation is observed in the field, the habitat, time of day, position used, duration, and any associated behaviour should be recorded.
In most terrestrial species, copulation takes place either on the ground, on a tree limb, or on some other perch. Some aquatic birds (phalaropes, ducks) copulate primarily in the water. Among the most spectacular sights North American bird enthusiasts can see is a mating flight of White-throated Swifts. A group may come swooping down a canyon at high speed, shortly after dawn, with pairs tumbling together as they copulate in midair.
Goshawks may copulate as many as 500 to 600 times per clutch of eggs, while the Eurasian Skylark (which has been introduced onto Vancouver Island) copulates but once. The reason for the difference appears to be related to the chances that other males will manage to copulate with the female in a "monogamous" pair. In birds of prey and many colonial species, males must spend long periods away from females and therefore cannot guard their mates from other males. It is in those species that multiple matings seem to occur, as the male attempts to dilute any other male's semen that the female may have acquired in his absence. (Credit: Web.Stanford.education)
Many thanks for visiting my Flickr pages ...Your visits, interest, comments and kindness to 'fave' my photos is very much appreciated, Steve.
Most lionesses will have reproduced by the time they are four years of age. Lions do not mate at any specific time of year, and the females are polyestrous. As with other cats, the male lion's penis has spines which point backwards. Upon withdrawal of the penis, the spines rake the walls of the female's vagina, which may cause ovulation. A lioness may mate with more than one male when she is in heat; during a mating bout, which could last several days, the couple copulates twenty to forty times a day and are likely to forgo eating. Lions reproduce very well in captivity.
During a mating bout, a couple may copulate 20 to 40 times a day for several daysThe average gestation period is around 110 days, the female giving birth to a litter of one to four cubs in a secluded den (which may be a thicket, a reed-bed, a cave or some other sheltered area) usually away from the rest of the pride. She will often hunt by herself whilst the cubs are still helpless, staying relatively close to the thicket or den where the cubs are kept. The cubs themselves are born blind—their eyes do not open until roughly a week after birth. They weigh 1.2–2.1 kg (2.6–4.6 lb) at birth and are almost helpless, beginning to crawl a day or two after birth and walking around three weeks of age. The lioness moves her cubs to a new den site several times a month, carrying them one by one by the nape of the neck, to prevent scent from building up at a single den site and thus avoiding the attention of predators that may harm the cubs.
Usually, the mother does not integrate herself and her cubs back into the pride until the cubs are six to eight weeks old. However, sometimes this introduction to pride life occurs earlier, particularly if other lionesses have given birth at about the same time. For instance, lionesses in a pride often synchronize their reproductive cycles so that they cooperate in the raising and suckling of the young (once the cubs are past the initial stage of isolation with their mother), who suckle indiscriminately from any or all of the nursing females in the pride. In addition to greater protection, the synchronization of births also has an advantage in that the cubs end up being roughly the same size, and thus have an equal chance of survival. If one lioness gives birth to a litter of cubs a couple of months after another lioness, for instance, then the younger cubs, being much smaller than their older brethren, are usually dominated by larger cubs at mealtimes—consequently, death by starvation is more common amongst the younger cubs.
In addition to starvation, cubs also face many other dangers, such as predation by jackals, hyenas, leopards, martial eagles and snakes. Even buffaloes, should they catch the scent of lion cubs, often stampede towards the thicket or den where they are being kept, doing their best to trample the cubs to death whilst warding off the lioness. Furthermore, when one or more new males oust the previous male(s) associated with a pride, the conqueror(s) often kill any existing young cubs, perhaps because females do not become fertile and receptive until their cubs mature or die. All in all, as many as 80 percent of the cubs will die before the age of two.
When first introduced to the rest of the pride, the cubs initially lack confidence when confronted with adult lions other than their mother. However, they soon begin to immerse themselves in the pride life, playing amongst themselves or attempting to initiate play with the adults. Lionesses with cubs of their own are more likely to be tolerant of another lioness's cubs than lionesses without cubs. The tolerance of the male lions towards the cubs varies—sometimes, a male will patiently let the cubs play with his tail or his mane, whereas another may snarl and bat the cubs away.
The tolerance of male lions towards the cubs varies. They are, however, generally more likely to share food with the cubs than with the lionesses.Weaning occurs after six to seven months. Male lions reach maturity at about 3 years of age and, at 4–5 years of age, are capable of challenging and displacing the adult male(s) associated with another pride. They begin to age and weaken between 10 and 15 years of age at the latest, if they have not already been critically injured whilst defending the pride (once ousted from a pride by rival males, male lions rarely manage a second take-over). This leaves a short window for their own offspring to be born and mature. If they are able to procreate as soon as they take over a pride, potentially, they may have more offspring reaching maturity before they also are displaced. A lioness often will attempt to defend her cubs fiercely from a usurping male, but such actions are rarely successful. He usually kills all of the existing cubs who are less than two years old. A lioness is weaker and much lighter than a male; success is more likely when a group of three or four mothers within a pride join forces against one male.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not only males that are ousted from their pride to become nomads, although the majority of females certainly do remain with their birth pride. However, when the pride becomes too large, the next generation of female cubs may be forced to leave to eke out their own territory. Furthermore, when a new male lion takes over the pride, subadult lions, both male and female, may be evicted. Life is harsh for a female nomad. Nomadic lionesses rarely manage to raise their cubs to maturity, without the protection of other pride members.
One scientific study reports that both males and females may interact homosexually. Male lions pair-bond for a number of days and initiate homosexual activity with affectionate nuzzling and caressing, leading to mounting and thrusting. A study found that about 8 percent of mountings have been observed to occur with other males. Female pairings are held to be fairly common in captivity, but have not been observed in the wild.
Wild Animal Park Escondido Ca
Last view of the female - she had a distinctive "freckle" on one side of her face only. By the time we left, the pair had been mating for half an hour. From our first sighting of the males competing, to leaving, with the pair still tied was an hour and a quarter.
View large.
Prehistoric copulation, Accouplement préhistorique, Musée Félicien Rops, Namur.
June 19, 2012, Canon 7D.
Copulating. Before doing so the male spends a little time preening and moving closely round the female whilst she holds this posture.
Many thanks to all who visit, view and comment upon my efforts
Pearly white substance that are surrounding, is their reproductive organs that run off near the head, reaching a significant size. They serve to fertilize each other, because slugs are hermaphrodites.
ESPAÑOL:
Babosas copulando. La sustancia blanca nacarada a la que rodean, son sus órganos reproductores que salen cerca de la cabeza alcanzando un importante tamaño. Sirven para fecundarse mutuamente dado que las babosas son hermafroditas.
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Banded Hairstreak - Hodges#4282 (Satyrium calanus) mating
United States: Alabama: Tuscaloosa Co.
Tulip Tree Springs off Echola Rd.; Elrod
28-May-2016
J.C. Abbott #2822 & K.K. Abbott
Copulation in public. These animals have no sense of shame ... or maybe this photographer is the one with no sense of shame? LOL.
Summer is insect season. Here are a baker's dozen pairs of insects making other insects! (Some pairs are mate guarding, not copulating. In some insects, the male stays with the female until she lays her eggs to keep other males away.) Links to individual photos follow:
1. center photo: damselfly heart, 2. mating monarchs, 3. mating ambush bugs, 4. pair of candy-striped leafhoppers, 5. mating pearl crescent butterflies, 6. mating snipe flies, 7. Japanese beetles, 8. “dancing” narrow-waisted wasps: bees and wasps of late summer, 9. mating longhorn beetles, 10. Ailanthus webworm moths mating, 11. mating ladybugs, 12. mating orange assassin bugs, 13. mating spicebush swallowtails
All of these shots and some additional ones in following album: www.flickr.com/photos/cherylmolin/albums/72157719833706864 (Some shots couldn't be made to fit in a square format.)
For more animals and stories see www.wildcreartureshongkong.org
Dragonfly copulation, which can last for hours, is an aggressive, elaborate and acrobatic affair.
Male dragonflies make the first move to initiate sex, usually whilst in flight, getting a firm hold on the females body. He then uses a pair of clamps on his abdomen to grab her by the neck, and when flying together this is called "tandem linkage" - amazing how some biologist came up with all these sex position names for insects eh?
They then consumate their sex, forming a wheel as the female bends the end of her body up to join the end of her abdomen with the male's thorax, where he actually has his penis. This position is unique to dragonflies (and maybe some gymnasts).
As females may mate with many partners, the last sexual partner will probably be the one to fertilise her eggs....so some males decide to "hang-on" and continue to clasp the female, even if they are not mating, often continuing to do this until she lays her eggs. This will deter other males, before or after mating and it gives a nice perch for a view around, as in the picture on the left below
All this seems very strange, but something even weirder "sexual death feigning" was discovered just in May last year ago by a Swiss scientist: to avoid sex some females fake their own deaths. Female moorland hawker dragonflies freeze mid-air, crash to the ground, and lie motionless when faced with aggressive males. Not sure that would help with aggressive Hollywood moguls tho.
This is part II of a IV part series.
Wedgie Tuesday, yay! (well every day is a Wedgie Day, they don't care about such trivial things!)
On 20 June a couple of days ago I put up a movie audiovisual of the copulation between The Magnificent Orange Female Wedge-tailed Eagle and Her (slightly lame much older) Mate six years ago 20 June 2015. Their youngest sibling at the time, The Orange Youngster, was on the ground beneath them.
I had been encountering this family since 31 March 2014 ... so here is the story of The Orange Youngster as I observed it from 31 March 2014 till she was chased off by her father to a dead tree near the Alice Springs South Welcome sign six days after the copulation I witnessed between her parents.
Was really lucky to see the chase off and found her in time to be there for her fly to independence from there 26 June 2015 a magnificent orange bird just like her Mum. She had been tetchy perched in the tree from the chase off and the last straw for her was a low flying Qantas jet plane coming in to land at Alice Springs Airport. (If you've ever been under a landing jet plane you will know how frightening and noisy it is.)
I hope you enjoy this Wedge-tailed Eagle story from The Alice, hey!
Audio: "Cooperation Road" Unicorn Heads (free to use YouTube Audio Library)
Visuals and production: What a huge privilege and pleasure this particular story has been 🙏
(Some things I found very interesting: She was still with her parents in September 2014 and obviously they hadn't bred that year making her a nearly two year old bird when she was chased off. And her Mum was still a magnificent orange bird! From their 2015 breeding her parents fledged clutch twins I was privileged to see and photograph beside Santa Theresa Road in March 2016. The Orange Youngster had an amazing start to her life growing up around Alice Springs. Not a bad view to have had of this family and other Wedge-tailed Eagles for the simple act of going out looking after their safety around Alice Springs District roads 😊)
This mated position is called the "wheel" or heart." While it looks like the female (is grabbing on to the male above, it's likely the other way aroung. He has her by the throat... literally! She is probably protecting herself from harm by hanging on... they stay coupled like this for long periods. They often fly coupled together in tandem.
IMG_1662; Western Pondhawk
Flea beetles copulating on Prostanthera campbellii plant at Lake Deborah.
Donna Tomkinson
I'm going to suggest the flea beetle Arsipoda. Looks similar to Arsipoda holomelaena, but there isn't any observations for that species on iNat in WA, & only one old one on AoLA, and some of the other species have no photo's in the gallery so I don't know what they look like. Example from iNat by the bunyip. inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/68049558
www.facebook.com/groups/1180404322409639/posts/2211421322...
21-06-2025
This is the story of The Orange Youngster 31 March 2014 - 26 June 2015. She was the youngest sibling of The Magnificent Orange Female and Her (slightly lame much older) Mate at the time. I might well have photographed her earlier, but from this encounter beside Brewer Road near Alice Springs Prison I knew for sure I was photographing the same family and the same majestic Eagle youngster, hey!
Six days after the parents' copulation beside the road to Alice Springs Airport on 20 June 2015 I witnessed her father chase off the Orange Youngster like the clappers across Stuart Highway near the AS Welcome sign and saw him fly back alone. Time for her to make room for the new breeding. She flew to her independence from the big old dead tree near the Old Ghan Heritage Railway Line, Stuart Highway diagonally across the paddock from the Alice Springs South Welcome Sign.
The parents did not breed in 2014 and The Orange Youngster must have been nearly two years old by the time she was evicted.
She was a magnificent orange bird like her mum when she flew to her independence, hey.
The other thing was the parents successfully fledged two from their 2015 breeding and I got to photograph them alongside Santa Theresa Road in March 2016.
Another interesting thing was the Pale-golden Youngster's story (posted recently) and The Orange Youngster's story commenced the same day, same encounter, at Brewer Road. Both families were there part of a gathering of 11-15 WTEs photographed over two days. Hope you enjoy 😊
Audio: "Bright Idea" Geographer (free to use YouTube Audio Library fiddled with in Audacity) Visuals and Production: As always, my pleasure entirely 🙏