Rugby faces

"Explain your actions!...My actions? - For ordering your troops against one another!"

--Captain Rex to Krell

This little act is something that I have been dreaming of for at least 30 years. something so simple as a walk along a beach as a woman has been the driving force behind my gender issues. This dream has at long last come true and it was blooming fantastic. further along the prom I found a nice bar that overlooked the see and clacton's pier . Yep I spent an hour or so on the sun terrace surrounded my people watching the world go by. I really cannot explain how amazing today was and what it means to me

Ok I will shut now :-)

This best explains it... Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. It's simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all (www.nobleharbor.com/tea/chado/WhatIsWabi-Sabi.htm)

 

Not sure if i 'got it' or not, but i tried.

 

The tea cup is from Japan, a gift over 25 years ago from my Japanese sister (our exchange student in High school for about 14 months), and was broken about 13 or 14 years ago when a young 'un of mine threw a bouncing ball in the house.... :(

Ivanovo, Serbia

It's been a quiet year for me so far. I've only been out a couple of times. I've written a new blog post explaining what I've been up to recently and my predictions for the year ahead.

 

The post also includes thirteen new photographs from a misty morning in Epping Forest. If you like this image and want to see the rest, then please click here.

 

PLEASE DO NOT REUSE, DOWNLOAD, REPRODUCE, COPY, STEAL, REPOST, OR REBLOG THIS, OR ANY OTHER OF MY IMAGES.

 

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just to explain this photo a little.

I have spent the day with two T girls who look great and are more than passable both girls are having or had laser hair removal. I haven't undergone any treatments of any kind mother nature did her work on me as can be seen in this photo.

I was wondering how far you would go as a part time T girl to achieve a look and how you would hide the results of the more invasive procedures?

I have had/have friends who take hormones and start to develop noticeably they also have very feminine eyebrows one has even started to have his hair in a very feminine style. Both of these girls are in relationships. If I have noticed others must have including the partners who apparently don't know about these girls dressing.

For me it doesn't matter everyone has grown up with my attributes although at times they do cause a fuss when a new face appears in my life.

after trying to explain the story to my mom, i realized i was crying, and then after, i thought it'd make for a decent picture. or at least something i could type a description to

 

yesterday (now that it's past midnight), one of my old friend's mom passed. she had gotten shot on a regular trip to the grocery store. i know maybe i shouldn't be blabbing about it on here, but it's not like you know him or anything. and it made me really, really sad. he's so young, and to have one of his parents gone is devastating. i don't know what i would do if that ever happened to me. i'm not going to pray for him, because i don't pray, but he is definitely in my thoughts. because i guess i seem to think a lot. he's such a strong person, and i admire him for it. i wish he still went to my school so we can talk, he really is a sweet guy. i miss him

 

my friend and i were watching the local news channel, and they happened to do a report on it, and again, it made me really sad and uncomfortable. the things you see on the news just get a lot more sad when you actually know the people. but really, the news is so depressing. i hate watching it. i only watch it for the weather - which is also very depressing also where i live.

 

there are so many horrible people out there. and it makes me angry. maybe a little beyond angry. but there's nothing i can do to about it. there will be horrible people no matter what. and since this incident happened, i have been thinking. just about things in general. all the news stories i've heard throughout my life about people getting killed, murdered, abducted.. it's just all very disturbing. because those people are parents to someone, they are children to someone, or they are everything to someone. it really is a sad thing to have their lives taken away by someone who just wants money. how fucking selfish.

 

this is a cold, cruel world.

 

goodnight, i'm tired as hell

 

edit

and eye for an eye makes the whole world blind? well, i'd rather be blind than dead.

A couple of months ago, i had this idea about how to help women to feel a little bit safer when the are out on the street at night.

 

all this ideas that i had back then have finally come to a project.

im working on this in all of my free time since the last 3 months, doing all the research, doing all the talks to women.

 

this is my project its called homeward, im so proud to be able to show you alittle bit of it today.

 

it will always be free, for every human to use.

 

Lets take you home safe!

 

thank you for your attention.

 

www.homeward-app.com

 

www.facebook.com/homewardapp

 

==Butchinsky's==

 

"You know why they called me the Eraser?" a voice rasped.

 

Jumbo shook his head nervously. He was tied to a wooden chair, thick rope binding his arms and legs.

 

"It's quite simple really," Fiasco explained, as he ran his hand along his tool rack, before settling on a red crowbar. "I fix mistakes, dispose of problems. I can clean a crime scene in minutes, kill a moron in seconds, and you best believe me when I say I know all the best spots to hide a body."

 

The crowbar cracked against Jumbo's ribs. He let out a high pitched, muffled shriek of pain. "So, Ned Carson. Tall guy, bit dim. You're what, his brother?"

 

Jumbo nodded frantically.

 

"Figures then, that you know where he is," Fiasco grumbled, as he struck him across the face. "Yes?"

 

Jumbo nodded again, blood dribbling from his chin.

 

As Fiasco raised the crowbar again, a gloved hand caught it, and kicked it to the ground. "That's enough, Len."

 

Sharpe jumped to his feet, wiping a smile from off his face.

"You following me now, Chuck?" Len spat.

 

"You're not hard to find. It was either here, or Gar's place," Chuck said, kneeling beside Jumbo, and removing the tape from his mouth. "He's one of the Outcasts, huh?" he asked. "Is this how we treat people, now?"

 

"It's ok," Fiasco grumbled, striking Jumbo again. "He's a racist."

 

"Oh, come on, he's not a racist, you just made that up!" Chuck snapped back defiantly.

 

"No, it's true, I am a racist," Jumbo whimpered.

 

"Shut up Ant Man, you have brain damage," Chuck muttered.

 

"- I hate the NBA, they're all so much taller than me."

 

Len turned his head, satisfied.

 

"Len, stop he doesn't know anything," Chuck said firmly.

 

"Oh, Bullshit. He's sat in my bar, day after day, drinking, listening, talking. Bet he's been supplying Ned info from the start."

 

'Ted,' Chuck said under his breath.

 

"He made me, I swea-"

 

"Shut it," Fiasco snarled. "The way I see it, this is a public service. They hurt one of us, we hurt them back, it's the way things have always been. You think Lynns hasn't torched someone who didn't talk? Or are we gonna ignore what Walker did to Ra's or Blaze?"

 

"That's different and you know it."

 

"It's not that different," Sharpe shrugged passively.

 

"Drury has a plan," Chuck said desperately.

 

"Walker's plan, is a cross country jaunt of self discovery. Forgive me if I'm not wholly confident," Fiasco said irritably, kicking Jumbo's chair. "If you don't want to help, fine. But don't come down here with some self righteous bull."

 

"He can't say shit with his skull caved in," a deep voice called out. The Misfits spun around: Walking down the stairs, was Eric Needham. Seeing his chance, Sharpe slinked out the basement, taking a wary glance at the trio.

 

"A confession under duress ain't no confession," Spider began. "People will say anything to make the torture stop," he said softly, resting a hand on Chuck's shoulder. "Go."

 

==Gotham International Airport==

 

November 4th. 16:56

 

Henry "Iron-Hat" Ferris walked through the airport briskly, a large box tucked under his arm. Mounted around his head was a rusted iron mask, welded to him as a form of atonement. As he walked, he could hear them; the common people whispering, giggling at his attire. 'Inferiors,' he thought. 'Screw them all.'

 

"What you got there, sir?" a voice called out.

 

Ferris swore under his breath. The guard, a large, Arabic man in a turban, approached him and placed a cautious hand around his bag.

 

Iron-Hat shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, that's just a bomb."

 

The guard scowled, and spoke into his radio, another hand rested on his gun.

 

Unperturbed, Ferris rolled his eyes nonchalantly. "Right, I forgot explosives are a touchy subject with you people. TSAs, I mean," he added unconvincingly.

 

"Now, can you give me a hand? The metal detector's a bitch."

 

=Sionis' Penthouse. Diamond District=

 

November 6th. 13:32

 

"Mr Ferris, thank you for coming. Please, sit," Li instructed. Ferris glanced at him suspiciously, and walked over to Sionis, a grimace hidden under his iron mask.

 

"Roman," he said, adjusting his collar.

 

"Henry," Roman grinned back, shaking his hand. "How was Sarajevo?"

 

Ferris looked around the room, grimacing at a collection of shrunken heads posed along the wall. "Dirty," he said firmly.

 

"This is David Li, my assistant. David, this is Henry Ferris. Had him stationed in the East End a few years back... One of our biggest markets, you know."

 

"A pleasure," Li smiled, offering his hand. Ferris looked at it, then turned back to Sionis. "Yes... no surprise there. Those people knew exactly what they wanted... 'Course then, an itsy bitsy spider started to cause all sorts of trouble. Buyers remorse, I reckon."

 

Li glanced at him warily. "This, is why we called you, he said, placing a dosier onto the desk. Iron-Hat wiped the edges, and slid out a photograph of a young man. "Our esteemed Mr Franco, I presume?" he asked Roman, taking no notice of Li.

 

"That, was taken in 2004. Kid was something of a street urchin, friend of Ms Kyle's- Catwoman, if memory serves. He broke into our estate, quite by chance actually. Normally, Dad'd take intruders out back- bang, but not him..." Sionis reminisced. "No, Dad took a real shine to Franco: had him shine his shoes, cook him breakfast- even took him on jobs, once or twice, which is more than I can say for me. Course, I just assumed he was bent," Sionis added unenthusiastically. "What do you suggest?"

 

"Blonde," Ferris noted, an air of approval in his tone, as he examined a later photo. "The white mask is a nice touch also... We got lucky," he concluded.

 

"Lucky?" Sionis asked indignantly.

 

"Well, one can only imagine the kind of filth your father lay with... Who knows what sort of creatures he might've spawned." Ferris said.

"You should meet with him. Keep communication channels open at the very least... It'll send a clear message to the gangs; that you respect family, regardless of its... origins."

 

"He raises a valid point, sir," Li said. "We'd fare far better with Franco as an ally, than as an adversary."

 

Sionis scoffed. "Franco's unreliable, boyish, irritating... And if he has anything to do with those packages, then he could be equally dangerous."

 

"You'll have to forgive Mr Sionis, he's been a little shaken since-"

 

"Packages?" Ferris interrupted.

 

"Packages," Sionis said, gritting his teeth. "See, the British, have a tradition. Bonfire Night. Five, six hundred years ago, this guy- Guy Fawkes actually, tried to blow up the houses of parliament, but failed. So, now, each year, the Brits put together all the wood they can find, make a straw dummy, modelled off the bastard, and set it alight.

Yesterday, someone threw one of my bodyguards into a furnace, and mailed me their charred hand. The week before, they posted my lawyer's severed head with a candle in his gob."

 

"If I may sir, if Franco has any connection to our calendar killer, then a sit down might be the best way of determining his intentions. If he is, we can quietly, and more importantly, justifiably, dispose of him. And if he isn't, who knows, perhaps this Calendar Man will deal with him for us," Li suggested.

 

"Yeah..." Sionis nodded slowly, a sort of sadistic excitement sweeping over him. "Yeah, we'll make a show of it: The lost Sionis Sibling- Only at The Gotham Royal. That'll draw the Calendar Man and his accomplices out of hiding... And if tragedy strikes, and my dear younger brother happens to get caught in the crossfire, well, that'll just be the icing on the cake."

 

Li reached into his pocket and took out a small notepad. "Shall I set a date?"

 

November 6th. 14:55

 

"I must say, I appreciate you coming in on short notice," Sionis chuckled. "Can't have been easy getting past the TSAs with that Praying Mantis on your shoulders."

 

Ferris pulled his gloves on. "Wolf," he said, lip curled. "And no, no trouble at all," he added, as he placed his hand on the door knob. "Oh, by the way, I love your assistant, very witty."

 

"Yeah, he's great," Sionis nodded.

 

"Absolutely, just goes to show his kind is great at that sorta stuff."

 

Roman's back stiffened. "Huh?"

 

"Oh, you know, book shit. Math and all that," Ferris explained.

 

Sionis stared at him. "Right. Right, yeah."

 

"Franco's good for us, Roman," Ferris elaborated. "He'll bring us back to our roots, to what the mob ought to be. I mean, look at the state of things, look at the midgets and pirates running things- they've let all kinds of freaks in. Falcone, Falcone would be ashamed."

 

Sionis and Ferris locked eyes for a moment, each trying to figure out the other's allegiance, when the door slid open, and an young intern entered the room. Ferris raised an eyebrow.

 

"Your lunch, sir," the kid said, sliding a brown paper bag over to Roman.

 

"Lovely," Sionis replied, handing the boy a small tip. "Burrito?" he offered Ferris.

 

"I don't much care for ethnic food, Roman," Ferris said coldly, as he moved past the boy, and walked down the hall.

 

It was only later readers of Milton, says Appelbaum, who thought of "apple" as "apple" and not any seed-bearing fruit. For them, the forbidden fruit became synonymous with the malus pumila. As a widely read canonical work, Paradise Lost was influential in cementing the role of apple in the Fall story.

 

This month marks 350 years since John Milton sold his publisher the copyright of Paradise Lost for the sum of five pounds.

 

His great work dramatizes the oldest story in the Bible, whose principal characters we know only too well: God, Adam, Eve, Satan in the form of a talking snake — and an apple.

 

Except, of course, that Genesis never names the apple but simply refers to "the fruit." To quote from the King James Bible:

 

And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"

"Fruit" is also the word Milton employs in the poem's sonorous opening lines:

 

Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit

Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste

Brought Death into the World, and all our woe

But in the course of his over-10,000-line poem, Milton names the fruit twice, explicitly calling it an apple. So how did the apple become the guilty fruit that brought death into this world and all our woe?

 

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The short and unexpected answer is: a Latin pun.

 

In order to explain, we have to go all the way back to the fourth century A.D., when Pope Damasus ordered his leading scholar of scripture, Jerome, to translate the Hebrew Bible into Latin. Jerome's path-breaking, 15-year project, which resulted in the canonical Vulgate, used the Latin spoken by the common man. As it turned out, the Latin words for evil and apple are the same: malus.

 

In the Hebrew Bible, a generic term, peri, is used for the fruit hanging from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, explains Robert Appelbaum, who discusses the biblical provenance of the apple in his book Aguecheek's Beef, Belch's Hiccup, and Other Gastronomic Interjections.

 

"Peri could be absolutely any fruit," he says. "Rabbinic commentators variously characterized it as a fig, a pomegranate, a grape, an apricot, a citron, or even wheat. Some commentators even thought of the forbidden fruit as a kind of wine, intoxicating to drink."

  

A detail of Michelangelo's fresco in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel depicting the Fall of Man and expulsion from the Garden of Eden

Wikipedia

When Jerome was translating the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil," the word malus snaked in. A brilliant but controversial theologian, Jerome was known for his hot temper, but he obviously also had a rather cool sense of humor.

 

"Jerome had several options," says Appelbaum, a professor of English literature at Sweden's Uppsala University. "But he hit upon the idea of translating peri as malus, which in Latin has two very different meanings. As an adjective, malus means bad or evil. As a noun it seems to mean an apple, in our own sense of the word, coming from the very common tree now known officially as the Malus pumila. So Jerome came up with a very good pun."

 

The story doesn't end there. "To complicate things even more," says Appelbaum, "the word malus in Jerome's time, and for a long time after, could refer to any fleshy seed-bearing fruit. A pear was a kind of malus. So was the fig, the peach, and so forth."

 

Which explains why Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel fresco features a serpent coiled around a fig tree. But the apple began to dominate Fall artworks in Europe after the German artist Albrecht Dürer's famous 1504 engraving depicted the First Couple counterpoised beside an apple tree. It became a template for future artists such as Lucas Cranach the Elder, whose luminous Adam and Eve painting is hung with apples that glow like rubies.

  

Enlarge this image

Eve giving Adam the forbidden fruit, by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Wikipedia

Milton, then, was only following cultural tradition. But he was a renowned Cambridge intellectual fluent in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, who served as secretary for foreign tongues to Oliver Cromwell during the Commonwealth. If anyone was aware of the malus pun, it would be him. And yet he chose to run it with it. Why?

 

Appelbaum says that Milton's use of the term "apple" was ambiguous. "Even in Milton's time the word had two meanings: either what was our common apple, or, again, any fleshy seed-bearing fruit. Milton probably had in mind an ambiguously named object with a variety of connotations as well as denotations, most but not all of them associating the idea of the apple with a kind of innocence, though also with a kind of intoxication, since hard apple cider was a common English drink."

 

It was only later readers of Milton, says Appelbaum, who thought of "apple" as "apple" and not any seed-bearing fruit. For them, the forbidden fruit became synonymous with the malus pumila. As a widely read canonical work, Paradise Lost was influential in cementing the role of apple in the Fall story.

 

But whether the forbidden fruit was an apple, fig, peach, pomegranate or something completely different, it is worth revisiting the temptation scene in Book 9 of Paradise Lost, both as an homage to Milton (who composed his masterpiece when he was blind, impoverished and in the doghouse for his regicidal politics) and simply to savor the sublime beauty of the language. Thomas Jefferson loved this poem. With its superfood dietary advice, celebration of the 'self-help is the best help' ideal, and presence of a snake-oil salesman, Paradise Lost is a quintessentially American story, although composed more than a century before the United States was founded.

 

What makes the temptation scene so absorbing and enjoyable is that, although written in archaic English, it is speckled with mundane details that make the reader stop in surprise.

 

Take, for instance, the serpent's impeccably timed gustatory seduction. It takes place not at any old time of the day but at lunchtime:

 

"Mean while the hour of Noon drew on, and wak'd/ An eager appetite."

What a canny and charmingly human detail. Milton builds on it by lingeringly conjuring the aroma of apples, knowing full well that an "ambrosial smell" can madden an empty stomach to action. The fruit's "savorie odour," rhapsodizes the snake, is more pleasing to the senses than the scent of the teats of an ewe or goat dropping with unsuckled milk at evening. Today's Food Network impresarios, with their overblown praise and frantic similes, couldn't dream up anything close to that peculiarly sensuous comparison.

 

It is easy to imagine the scene. Eve, curious, credulous and peckish, gazes longingly at the contraband "Ruddie and Gold" fruit while the unctuous snake-oil salesman murmurs his encouragement. Initially, she hangs back, suspicious of his "overpraising." But soon she begins to cave: How can a fruit so "Fair to the Eye, inviting to the Taste," be evil? Surely it is the opposite, its "sciental sap" must be the source of divine knowledge. The serpent must speak true.

 

So saying, her rash hand in evil hour

Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck'd, she eat:

Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat

Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe,

That all was lost.

But Eve is insensible to the cosmic disappointment her lunch has caused. Sated and intoxicated as if with wine, she bows low before "O Sovran, vertuous, precious of all Trees," and hurries forth with "a bough of fairest fruit" to her beloved Adam, that he too might eat and aspire to godhead. Their shared meal, foreshadowed as it is by expulsion and doom, is a moving and poignant tableau of marital bliss.

 

Meanwhile, the serpent, its mission accomplished, slinks into the gloom. Satan heads eagerly toward a gathering of fellow devils, where he boasts that the Fall of Man has been wrought by something as ridiculous as "an apple."

 

Except that it was a fig or a peach or a pear. An ancient Roman punned – and the apple myth was born.

 

The first tale in the Bible tells of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. This was in consequence for having tasted the “forbidden fruit” of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Christian iconography and popular culture represent the fruit as an apple. But a careful reading of the passage leads one to the conclusion that, in fact, the actual fruit is never mentioned in the book. How, then, did the apple become this symbol of temptation and sin?

 

A standard version of Genesis 3:3-5 says:

 

But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

 

According to Robert Appelbaum’s book Aguecheek’s Beef, Belch’s Hiccup, and Other Gastronomic Interjections, the confusion may be due to a sort of joke of St. Jerome, who first translated the Bible into the vulgar Latin. (This version is still known as “The Vulgate” even today.) It turns out that the Latin words for apple, and for evil, are the same: malus. According to Appelbaum, the Hebrew word, peri, which was used to refer to the fruit in the Bible, can refer to any type of fruit, a fig, a pomegranate, a grape, or even a peach or a lemon. Some Bible commentators even believe that the forbidden fruit may have been a drink that produced an intoxication in those who drank it. Hence they gained “knowledge of good and evil.”

 

St. Jerome translated “peri” with the word “malus.” It’s an adjective meaning “evil,” though as a noun, it means “apple,” from trees known even today as Malus pumila. However, as Appelbaum points out, malus may refer not only to the apple, but to any fruit with seeds: pears are a species of malus, as are figs, peaches, and others.In religious iconography, there was no clear consensus for several centuries on exactly what type of fruit it was from this tree of which humanity’s first parents couldn’t eat. Michelangelo painted a fig tree in the Sistine Chapel. Durer depicted an apple tree, as did Lucas Cranach, the Elder. But another Appelbaum hypothesis in explaining the apple’s preeminence over other seeded fruits comes from the English poet, John Milton. His Paradise Lost was published in 1667. For Milton, the semantic ambiguity of the malus should not have been a mystery, versed as he was in ancient languages like Latin and Hebrew. Appelbaum notes that it’s possible Milton appreciated St. Jerome’s joke as a reference to intoxication or drunkenness from apple cider, popular in his own time. Paradise Lost refers on a couple of occasions to the fruit of this problematic tree and refers to it as an apple.

Another possible explanation may come from the Golden Apple of Discord. In Greek mythology, this was the work of the goddess Eris, (a temptress, as Satan had been for the Hebrews). According to the myth, Eris was angry at having not been invited to the wedding of Peleus and Tetis (parents of the great warrior Achilles). She presented the wedding guests with a golden apple which would reveal who among them was “the most beautiful of all.” Three goddesses fought amongst themselves: Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty; Hera, the guardian of the home and childbearing and wife of the great Zeus; and Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom. To settle the dispute, Zeus consulted a Trojan shepherd and mortal, Paris, to choose from among the three goddesses which was the most beautiful. The three goddesses tried to bribe him in turn with new gifts. Finally, Paris decided for Aphrodite, who had promised him the love of the most beautiful woman of all. This was none other than Helena. Helena’s abduction by Paris is the mythical origin of the Trojan War. And thus the apple is also at the center of the most epic dispute in Greek civilization.

  

The Apple and the Heart

 

16

Romanesque iconography more frequently used the apple as the forbidden fruit. The lengthy list of images in the three studied countries represents a significant part of our corpus. Among them, one can cite in Spain, Amandi, Añes, Avilés, the Bible of Burgos, the Bible of San Isidoro, Covet, Estany, Estibaliz, Frómista, Loarre, Mahamud, Peralada (figure 6), Porqueras, Rebolledo de la Torre, San Pablo del Campo, Sangüesa, Santillana del Mar, and Uncastillo. In France, Airvault, Andlau, Arles, Aulnay, the Bible of Corbie, the Bible of Marchiennes, the Bible of Souvigny, Cahors, Chalon-sur-Saône, Chauvigny (Figure 3), Cluny, Courpiac, Esclottes, Guarbecque, Hastingues-Arthous, the Hortus Deliciarum, Lescure, Mauriac (in the Auvergne), Melay, Moirax, Montpezat, Neuilly-en-Donjon, Nîmes, Poitiers (Sainte-Radegonde Church), Provins, Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire, Saint-Gaudens, the Sauve-Majeure, Targon, Tavant, Thuret, Toirac, Varax, Verdun, and Vézelay. In Italy, Galliano, Modena (figure 4), Parma, Pisa, Sant’Angelo in Formis, and Sovana.

17

Over subsequent centuries, the apple was continually present in the iconography of the original sin. [45] For illustrative purposes, note that in the Gothic...[45] It was frequently used as the forbidden fruit in literature, particularly in the twelfth century by Marie de France, [46] Marie de France, Yonec, v. 152, in Les Lais de Marie...[46] in the thirteenth century by Robert de Boron, [47] Le Roman du Graal: manuscrit de Modène, ed. Bernard...[47] and in the fifteenth century by Sebastian Brandt. [48] Sebastian Brandt, La Nef des fous [Das Narrenschiff],...[48] In paroemiology, this seems to be the meaning of a proverb from the beginning of the thirteenth century: “mieux vaut pomme donnée que mangée” (better an apple given than eaten). [49] Joseph Morawski, ed., Proverbes français antérieurs...[49] In hagiography, the apple is the forbidden fruit in, for example, the Cantigas de Santa María. [50] Alfonso X of Castile, Cantigas de Santa María, 353,...[50] An interesting case also appears in the breviary: the Hail Mary—appearing in the twelfth century from a passage in the New Testament [51] Luke, I, 28, 42. Henri Leclercq, “Marie, mère de Dieu,”...[51]—refers only to a “fruit,” but an anonymous commentator from Northern France specifies at the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century that it concerns the “fruit of the apple tree.” [52] Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. Gall. 34,...[52] Anchored in Western imaginations ever since, the apple has even replaced the fig among modern scholars, in parallel to the cultural process that saw the heart where previously there had been the liver. [53] See Hasenohr, Prier au Moyen Âge: n. 38. Regarding...[53]

Figure 3. - Capital at the entranceway to the choir of the church

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The reasons behind this almost unanimous choice are unclear, however. We may allude to the more or less widespread presence of the apple throughout all of Western Europe. We may observe the old Celtic symbolism of the apple as the fruit of knowledge. We may recall its symbolic capital as a sign of power, wealth, lies, lust, discord, and transgression. [54] Michel Pastoureau, “Bonum, malum, pomum. Une histoire...[54] We may suppose that just as the garden of Hesperides recalls the Garden of Eden (both sheltering a snake that defends the sacred tree), the apple tree “with fruits of gold” in the Greek myth influenced the medieval interpretation of the biblical account. We may thus argue the ancient association between this tree and Eden, which led to naming the carob the “apple of Paradise” in Hebrew. [55] L. Ginzberg, Les Légendes des juifs, 219, n. 70.[55] We may also consider the authority of Saint Augustine, who hesitantly accepted the possibility of the apple being the fruit of sin, perhaps influenced by the existence of thirty different varieties of apples in the Roman world at the time. [56] Augustine, La Genèse au sens littéral en douze livres...[56] We may wonder especially whether in popular medieval etymology there was not certain confusion between the words malum “badly” and malum “apple” as well as between malus “malicious” and malus “apple tree;” these phonetic identities may have had semantic implications indicating the evil character of the fruit. [57] Among the transformations affecting the Roman world...[57]

19

The increasing popularity of the apple in this role was perhaps also related to its round shape and red color, which drew it closer to the heart, being the organ that was linked to the blood of Christ and that Christianity and its doctrine perceived as the center of the human being. In this sense, the precedents were strong; the doubt surrounding the identity of the forbidden fruit reflected another, more ancient doubt regarding the central organ of the body in the diverse cultures that, in a more or less direct way, provided the foundations for medieval Christian culture. Whereas the Egyptians perceived the heart as the center of the human being, [58] The Book of the Dead, ed. and trans. E. A. Wallis Budge,...[58] the Hebrews attributed sacred powers to the liver, while regarding the heart as the seat of feelings and wisdom, and the source of life. [59] See, for example, Genesis, 20:5; Job, 9:4; Proverbs,...[59] The two organs fought for the role of the principle of life among the Babylonians [60] Alexandre Piankoff, Le “Cœur” dans les textes égyptiens...[60] and Greeks. [61] In mythology, the liver is the central element in the...[61]

20

In the third century BC, the medical school in Alexandria established the physiological model that went on to prevail throughout the following two millennia: the brain was attributed with neurological sensitivity, movement, and functions, the heart with enthusiasm and the vital spirit. [62] Mary J. Carruthers, The Book of Memory: A Study of...[62]

21

Isidore of Seville affirmed that in the heart “lies all concern and the source of knowledge, [as] with the heart we understand, and with the liver we love.” [63] Isidore of Seville, Seville’s Etymologies: The complete...[63] Sharing his opinion, more than five centuries later, Hildegard of Bingen considered the attribute of the heart to be knowledge and that of the liver to be sensitivity. [64] Hildegard of Bingen, Causae et curae, II, 1–12, ed....[64] For her, the heart was the point of contact between the body and the soul, the terrestrial and the divine; it was “almost the essence of the body [since it] governs it,” being the residence of the soul. [65] Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias, I, 4, 16, ed. A. Führkötten...[65] It is thus not by chance that she imagined the forbidden fruit to be an apple. [66] Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias, III, 2, 21, ed. Führkötten...[66] For Saint Bernard, the heart was the seat of faith. [67] Bernard of Clairvaux, In Nativitate Beatae Mariae,...[67] For his adversary, Pierre Abélard, when God wants to examine the feelings of men, he probes their hearts. [68] Pierre Abélard, Ethics, ed. and trans. D. E. Luscombe...[68] Chrétien de Troyes considered the heart to be the place where mystical union occurs with our purest self, [69] Chrétien de Troyes, Cligès, vv. 708–716, trans. Micha,...[69] since this organ is the seat of love, [70] Chrétien de Troyes, vv. 4302–4306, trans. Micha, 1...[70] memory, [71] Chrétien de Troyes, Le Conte du Graal ou le Roman de...[71] and life. [72] Chrétien de Troyes, Cligès, vv. 3668–3673, trans. Micha,...[72] Vincent of Beauvais regarded the heart as the principal “spiritual organ.” [73] Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale, I, 32 (Graz:...[73] The evolution in the hierarchy of meanings did not affect the importance attributed to the heart: while troubadours and courtly love previously spoke of “the hearing of the heart,” the eye and the heart were later associated. [74] Guy Paoli, “La relation œil-cœur. Recherches sur la...[74] At the start of the thirteenth century, a poem established the relationship between the heart and the phallus, between feeling and sexuality, by telling the story of a character killed by the husbands of his mistresses, who tore off these two organs and gave them to their adulterous wives to eat. [75] Lai d’Ignauré, trans. Danielle Régnier-Bohler, in Le...[75]

22

The new collective feeling in relation to the heart was present in the idioms that were forming. From the Classical Latin cor, synonymous with “memory” (also with “thought,” “intelligence,” and “heart” [76] This is still the meaning of the word for Saint Augustine...[76]) were derived “recorder” in French, ricordari in Italian, and recordar in Castilian and Portuguese. Although the heart as the center of memory appears in the root of the Castilian and Portuguese words decorar, this link is even more explicit in the phrases par cœur in French (appearing in around 1200), de cor in Portuguese (dating to the thirteenth century), and by heart in English (attested around 1374 and based on the acceptance of herte as “memory,” which existed from the start of the twelfth century [77] Rey, Dictionnaire historique, 1:442; José Pedro Machado,...[77]). However, the heart was not only regarded as the seat of memory. In English, it was associated with courage (towards 825), emotions (1050), love (about 1175), and character (1225). [78] The Oxford English Dictionary, 5:159.[78] In medieval Italian, the heart (core prior to 1250, then cuore) was reputed as being the center of feelings, emotions, and thoughts. [79] Manlio Cortelazzo and Paolo Zolli, Dizionario etimologico...[79]

23

Most often, the association occurred between the organ and a feeling, thought to derive from it directly, as attested in various Western languages: curage in French (appearing in 1080, then written as courage and used as a synonym of cœur “heart” until the seventeenth century), coraggio (prior to 1257) in Italian, coraje in Castilian and coragem in Portuguese (both from the fourteenth century), herzhaftigleit in German (from the fifteenth century derived from herz “heart,” written herza in the eighth century), and courage in English (around 1500, written as corage in around 1300). English presents an interesting case, showing the psychocultural hesitation between the liver and heart as the seat of positive feelings: the compound liver-heartedness, literally “without liver or heart,” designates the idea of “cowardly.” Further evidence of the moral importance attached to this organ is found in the word cordial, which initially carried the neutral meaning of “relative to the heart” and later acquired the positive sense of “nice” and “pleasant,” not only in French, English, Castilian, and Portuguese, but also in Italian (cordial) and in German (herzlich).

24

The symbolic value of the heart in the twelfth century was also seen in Jewish culture. Whereas the Pirkei Rabbi Nathan, a text predating the tenth century, establishes several comparisons between the parts of the universe and parts of the human body without even citing the heart, in the second half of the twelfth century, Maimonides considered it the center of the human body. [80] Samuel S. Kottek, “Microcosm and Macrocosm According...[80] He was probably influenced by Aristotle, for whom the human body developed from the heart, which was a very influential idea after the Christian rediscovery of the Stagirite. Thus, some Romanesque representations of the creation of Adam depict him coming to life not by a “breath on the face” (in faciem eius spiraculum vitae) as the Bible states, [81] Genesis, 2:7.[81] but by the hand of God touching his heart. This is the case, for example, in a manuscript from the abbey of Saint-Martial de Limoges, [82] Breviarium ad usum S. Martialis Lemovicensis (Paris:...[82] which was illuminated in around the year 1100, as well as in a relief carved a few years later on the northern facade of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

25

The importance of the heart in Romanesque culture also transpires in its growing metaphorical use. On the political level, it became the “king” of the human body in the same way as the king is the “heart” of the social body. [83] Jacques Le Goff, “Head or Heart? The Political Use...[83] On the literary level, the rhetorical figure of the heart spread like a book in which an ordinary individual, saint, or even Christ could write their amorous (including erotic) and spiritual emotions. [84] On the evolution of this metaphor, see Ernst Robert...[84] On the architectural level, the cruciform design of churches situated the altar—the place where the mystery of the incarnation was reproduced—in the position occupied by the heart. [85] It is no coincidence that in Medieval French, the same...[85] On the liturgical level, the Christianization of the Holy Grail rendered it the receptacle holding the blood of Christ, symbolically transforming it into a heart. [86] Begoña Aguiriano, “Le cœur dans Chrétien,” Senefiance...[86] On the geographical level, in the same way as the heart was the center of the human body, the sepulcher of the Lord was the heart of the world, according to a sermon by Peter the Venerable. [87] Peter the Venerable, In laudem sepulcri Domini, PL,...[87] On the linguistic level, from the thirteenth century, the word designated the center of something in French and Italian, as it did later in English (beginning of the fourteenth century) and Castilian (sixteenth century). [88] This meaning was applied to the city by Aristotle in...[88] In this cultural context, when the Abbess of Bingen declared that Adam made of clay was merely an empty body before being filled with a heart, liver, lungs, stomach, and internal organs by God, [89] Hildegard of Bingen, Causae et curae, II, 20, ed. Kaiser,...[89] she seemingly established a hierarchy of organs. Thus, the growing importance of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in spirituality from the twelfth century seems to have been the conclusion of a long process in which this organ gained in medical and symbolic value. [90] Jean-Vincent Bainvel, “Cœur sacré de Jésus (dévotion...[90]

Exegetical Doubt

 

26

An interesting example of the rivalry between the fig and the apple in terms of the symbolic function of forbidden fruit is seen in the sculptures on the western facade of the small rural Castilian church of San Quirce, close to Burgos, which was completed in 1147. Here, eleven modillions illustrate several episodes of the myth of Adam, from the creation of protoplasm to the judgment of Cain, while in between them, ten metopes depict scenes that are sometimes difficult to relate to those of the modillions, although each stage of the cycle is identified by inscriptions. [91] These inscriptions are now almost illegible, but they...[91] The ensemble forms an iconographic discourse with two aspects: the subject is evil, as much at its origin (original sin) as in some of its manifestations (sex, death, and bodily impurity).

27

This latter topic is visible on the two metopes at each end, where the artist depicts a man defecating. This was not a simple curiosity or obscenity, as the placement of these scenes is significant: the first being compared with the sin of Adam and the second with that of Cain. In fact, an inscription close to the representation of the original sin illuminates the link between the events depicted on the metope and modillion: MALA CAGO. No doubt, the man who speaks and acts in this way is both the paradisiacal Adam who has just eaten the forbidden fruits as well as the symbol of all human beings, his “posthumous sons,” as defined in a contemporaneous sermon. [92] Julien of Vézelay, Sermons, XV, ed. and trans. Damien...[92] However, the exact interpretation of the inscription poses an important problem.

28

A few decades ago, historiography considered this a pun, as the individual excretes both “apples” and “evils.” [93] Pérez de Urbel and Whitehill, “La iglesia románica...[93] This interpretation is based on three elements: the facade’s inscription, a capital inside the church on the same subject that undoubtedly depicts an apple, and finally, the ancient roots of the tradition perceiving the forbidden food of Paradise in this fruit. However, on the modillion’s scene, the forbidden fruits rather resemble figs, an impression reinforced by a nonformalistic reasoning. Indeed, the fig traditionally had an explicitly sexual character, while the apple, though related to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, had a more sensual, rather than explicitly sexual connotation. This is shown, for example, in an Icelandic saga from the thirteenth century in which the love philter is an apple, or even in some mythologies, where the rejuvenating and beautifying virtues attributed to the fruit remain in the etymology of “pomade,” a scented, cosmetic, and curative substance with apple. [94] See Pastoureau, “Bonum, malum, pomum;” Rey, Dictionnaire...[94]

29

The fig’s association with sexuality is seemingly expressed during the third quarter of the twelfth century in the iconographic design of the doorway of Barret Church in Poitou. Here, the three capitals on each side establish a spatial and symbolic relationship, which was very common in the Romanesque imagination. Looking at them, starting with the capital closest to the entry on the left-hand side, the first represents the original sin with the fig as the fruit, the second depicts a character in a very obscene pose, and the third, which is double, shows an eagle on one side and a monster devouring a sheep on the other. Symmetrically, on the right-hand side, the first capital depicts lions leaning against each other, the second, two doves embracing, and the final one, a centaur and a dove. The message seems rather evident: sin (that is to say, the fig and sex) leads to unnatural and erotic acts, thus to the death of the soul, which is devoured by the demon (eagle and monster); on the other hand, those who join Christ (the lion) will be innocent (doves), embracing peace and purity, thus calming the animal that exists in every human being (centaurs).

30

Indeed, the sexual meaning of the fig was accepted within traditional culture and did not disappear with its Christianization. Throughout the centuries, the fig tree was associated with Dionysus, and, at least in its Roman version, Bacchus. The image of the god was always carved in the wood of the fig tree, with a basket of figs being the most sacred object at the festivals that celebrated him, the Bacchanalia. As the protector of orchards, particularly of the fig tree, Dionysus was confused with his son, Priapus, born of Aphrodite. In the processions paying homage to this god of fertility, who was endowed with a disproportionately large penis, there was a large phallus carved in the wood of the fig tree, the leaves of which were also seen as an ithyphallic symbol. [95] Brosse, Mythologie des arbres, 290–291. The fig’s sexual...[95] This notion of sexual exuberance is also found in a version of an episode of the Dionysus myth by the Christian apologist Clement of Alexandria (around 150–250). [96] Clement of Alexandria, Protreptique, II, 34, 3–4, ed....[96] In a similar manner, although he calls the liver iecur and not ficatum, Isidore of Seville implicitly makes this link by affirming that in this organ “lies pleasure and concupiscence. [97] Isidore of Seville, Seville’s Etymologies, XI, I, 125,...[97]

31

The popular gesture of “making the fig” should also be mentioned here, associated with the fruit through its name and shape. This association is observed in Castilian, in which two words (higo/higa) appeared at the same time, in around 1140. [98] Joan Corominas, Diccionario critico etimológico de...[98] This gesture assumed “an obvious sexual connotation” [99] Jean-Claude Schmitt, La Raison des gestes dans l’Occident...[99] in the popular tradition of several societies, and even in the medieval West, where it can either denote the female sex organ (predominant meaning), its state of excitation (in this case, the tip of the thumb between the index and middle fingers imitates a swollen clitoris), copulation (the thumb is the penis between the vaginal lips), or a phallus (rarer meaning). [100] Desmond Morris et al., Os gestos: suas origens e significado...[100] It is probably with this latter meaning that formerly, in Bavaria, a young man confirmed his intention to marry by sending a silver or gold fig to his lover, who could refuse the demand by returning the gift or accept it by returning a silver heart. [101] José Leite de Vasconcelos, A figa (Porto: Araújo e...[101] The far la fica was an aggressive and derogatory gesture frequently used by Italians in the Middle Ages, not only on a daily basis, but also in emotionally charged situations. In 1162, angry with the Milanese who had forced his wife to mount a mule backwards, thus facing the tail of the animal—a very ancient position signifying contempt—Frederick I Barbarossa seized the city and, on penalty of death, forced the prisoners to remove a fig from the anus of a mule with their teeth. [102] Quoted by Leite de Vasconcelos, A figa, 80; by Jerome...[102] The inhabitants of Pistoia had carved into their castle of Carmignano two large arms with hands making the sign of the fig towards the enemy city of Florence—which, humiliated, went on to conquer the place in 1228. [103] Giovanni Villani, Cronica, VI, 5, ed. Ignazio Moutier...[103] In Dante, a robber condemned to Hell makes the sign of the fig against God Himself. [104] Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, Inferno, XXV, 1–3,...[104] The gesture and expression ficha facere are found, with the same derisory meaning, in all Romanesque cultures, and even outside of them. [105] Leite de Vasconcelos, A figa, 42–56, 72, 76–81, and...[105] Although this gesture has a talismanic function, that of casting off the evil eye and other dangers, this seems to be precisely due to its sexual connotation, that of warding off sterility in life. [106] Leite de Vasconcelos, A figa, 27–41, 57–59, and 91...[106]

32

In this sense, the scene of the paramount sin depicted on the third modillion at San Quirce, in addition to adopting the ancient interpretation of the original sin as a sexual sin, [107] See Martin Elze, Tatian und seine Theologie (Göttingen:...[107] prepared the observer to encounter, three metopes along and just after the expulsion from Paradise, a representation of the carnal relationship of protoplasm. [108] Pérez de Urbel and Whitehill (“La iglesia románica...[108] Thus, according to our hypothesis, the word malum would not have been used here with its specific meaning of “apple,” but rather in the broader sense of “fruit with pulp” (as opposed to nux, “fruit with hard skin”), [109] Although the former meaning was eventually enforced...[109] so that the pun of the inscription would signify “to expel evils and fruits.” Whether conscious or not of the inscription’s ambiguity, the sculptor at San Quirce thus revealed the interesting coexistence of two exegetical traditions, that of the apple, present in the representation of the original sin inside the church, and that of the fig, visible on its facade. An even more meaningful coexistence if it is accepted that a single artist carved both the capital and the modillion. [110] A situation that de Lojendio (Castilla 1) regards as...[110]

33

This exegetical doubt is not an isolated case appearing in a monastic community in the center of Castile. The formation of the French word “pomme” provides an interesting indication in this context. Although, from the beginning of the fifth century, the Latin word pomum (“fruit” in a generic sense) gained the specific meaning of “fruit of the apple tree” in Northern Italy and the majority of the Ibero-Romance area—a meaning preserved in the Provençal and Catalan poma—Italian, Castilian, Portuguese, and Galician eventually favored the traditional form malum, from which they derived mela, manzana, maçã and mazá, respectively. [111] Both the Spanish word manzana (attested in 1112 as...[111] Pomum preserved its broad sense in these four languages in the form pomo (poma in the case of Galician). By the same evolution, the collective forms pomario in Italian and pomar in Castilian, Portuguese, Provençal, and Galician derived from the Classical Latin pomarium.

34

In contrast, the medieval Latin of Gaul had used, from the end of the eighth century, the word pomarius to denote the apple tree, from which derived the vernacular name of this specific fruit (pume) from the generic term (pomum) in 1080. [112] The word appeared in the Chanson de Roland as pume;...[112] At the same date appeared the French word verger (orchard), denoting land planted with various fruit trees, taken from the Latin viridiarum (from viridis, “green”). Faced with these facts, it is not absurd to assume that the French linguistic evolution unconsciously avoided the supposedly negative character of this fruit, as expressed through the word malum. Furthermore, the apple is a positive symbol in Celtic culture, [113] Françoise Le Roux and Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc’h,...[113] which was heavily present in the territory of the future France, particularly in the context of the “folkloric reaction” of the twelfth century. [114] Jacques Le Goff, “Culture cléricale et traditions folkloriques...[114]

35

In accordance with its archetypical character as the fruit par excellence, the word was used in the formation of many syntagms, and even, around 1256, in the curious expression “pomme de paradis” (apple of paradise) denoting the banana. [115] Rey, Dictionnaire historique. It is interesting to...[115] Although in terms of vocabulary, we note a French resistance to the association of the apple with the fruit of sin, in terms of iconography, as seen above, such identification was established without problem. This was also the case in popular literary works, such as the first French theatrical text from the middle of the twelfth century or a sermon from the same time. [116] Respectively Le Mystère Adam: Ordo representationis...[116] Similarly, in this and the subsequent century, there were various love stories generally beginning with a betrayal (hearts metaphorically devoured) and ending with the death of the two protagonists (one of them literally devouring the other’s heart without realizing it [117] Accounts collected in Régnier-Bohler, ed., Le Cœur...[117]). To a certain extent, these stories consciously or unconsciously rewrote the drama of the original demise: betraying the confidence of the Creator (“from the tree . . . you will not eat”) by eating the apple/heart (“the knowledge of good and evil”), the human being was the cause of his own perdition (“the day you eat of it, you will surely die”), as Adam and Eve had hearts full of arrogance (“you will be like gods” [118] Genesis, 2:17; 3:5. On the close relationship between...[118]).

The Tree and Androgyny

 

36

This search for the identity of the Romanesque forbidden fruit must still consider the tree in relation to the primordial couple. The position of these three elements provides some important information. One of the symbolic and physical solutions used was to portray the primi parentes on the same side of the tree, with Eve always being closer to it (figure 4). The most common composition placed the tree between Adam and Eve, as already found on the sarcophagus of San Justo de la Vega in Leon, dated to the end of third century or the beginning of the fourth century and currently held in the archaeological museum of Madrid. It would be simplistic to think that this position on both sides of the tree simply responded to the desire for symmetry in Romanesque art, [119] As considered Guerra, Simbología románica, 107.[119] because the form is almost always a fragment of the contents that emerged. [120] Gerardus Van Der Leeuw, La Religion dans son essence...[120] In the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, this scheme probably referred to two very pressing questions related to the contemporary phenomenon of the sacralization of marriage.

Figure 4. - Relief on the western façade of Modena Cathedral (Emilia-Romagna), circa 1100.

37

On the one hand, by placing Adam and Eve at an equal distance from the tree, the iconography referred to a certain social egalitarianism and moral leveling between man and woman, even if the snake is almost always turned towards the woman. The side occupied by each character varied. We have already considered the position of Eve on the right-hand side of the tree as an “iconographic tradition,” a scheme with only three exceptions, in Saint-Antonin, Bruniquel, and Lescure. [121] Jean-Claude Fau, “Découverte à Saint-Antonin (Tarn-et-Garonne)...[121] In fact, the woman appears on the left in several other cases: for example on the sculptures in Anzy-le-Duc, Airvault, Butrera, Cergy, Cervatos, Covet, Embrun, Gémil, Girona, Lavaudieu, Lescar, Loarre, Luc-de-Béarn, Mahamud, Manresa, Moirax, Montcaret, Peralada (figure 6), Saint-Étienne-de-Grès, Saint-Gaudens, Sangüesa, San Juan de la Peña, Toirac, Verona, and Vézelay. Similarly, on the frescos in Aimé, Fossa, and San Justo in Segovia, on the illuminations of the Bible of Burgos, the Exultet 3 of Troia, and the Hortus Deliciarum, on a metal medallion from the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, and on the mosaics in Monreale and Trani.

38

In addition, the central position of the tree, separating Adam and Eve, insinuated a rupture of the initial unity, at least on the psychological level. The tree, that is to say knowledge, revealed the existence of contradictory traits in human beings, made in the image and resemblance of God, the androgyne par excellence. “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female created he them:” [122] Genesis, 1:27.[122] this is why the human being was initially double, and thus, inherently complete and microcosmic. [123] There were several types of microcosmic man in the...[123] Removing Eve from the rib of Adam was a surgery of separation, because they were formed from the same bones, they were “one flesh.” [124] Genesis, 2:23–24.[124] In this manner, the sacred text was interpreted from first half of the first century, initially by the Jew, Philo of Alexandria, and subsequently by Ambroise, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Isidore, the pseudo-Remigius of Auxerre, Guibert of Nogent, Pierre Lombard, Bernard, and others, who all regarded Eve as the image of the woman from within man. [125] Michel Planque, “Ève,” in Dictionnaire de spiritualité...[125]

39

Augustine, in particular, implicitly recognized the androgyny of the first man when he said that the devil “cannot tempt us only by the means of this animal part, which appears in a single man as an image or a model of woman.” [126] Augustine, Del Genesis contra los maniqueos [De Genesi...[126] Following a reasoning based on that of Saint Paul, he saw Adam-Eve as the complementarity of spirit and flesh, a comparison that was adopted by many thinkers in the Romanesque period. Since in the Bible, “Adam” was originally the generic name denoting a human being (Genesis, 1:19) and only later became the name of a person (Genesis, 3:17), Augustine interpreted the word “man” (Genesis, 1:26) as “human nature.” [127] Augustine, De Trinitate, I, 7, PL, vol. 42, col. 8...[127] Saint Anselme, who was very influential in the twelfth century, agreed that “Adam” should initially include Adam and Eve. [128] Anselm of Canterbury, La Conception virginale et le...[128] While trying to explain how Adam’s prohibition of the fruit also implied Eve, Petrus Comestor stated that it was transmitted to the woman through man; [129] Petrus Comestor, Historia scholastica, 15, PL, vol....[129] thus implicitly suggesting the unity of the two individuals, and the androgyny of the being to whom it was forbidden to eat the fruit.

40

While the medieval Church did not formally accept the divine and the androgyny of Adam, it was still familiar with it. It is thus found in a text from the New Testament: “There is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Jesus Christ.” [130] Galatians, 3:28.[130] This appeared in an apocryphal text: “When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor female . . . then will you enter the kingdom [of God].” [131] Il Vangelo di Tommaso, 22, trans. Mario Erbetta (Casale...[131] This was a noncontemptible part of the thought of Clement of Alexandria [132] In a piece of literature that is today lost, Hypotyposes,...[132] (around 150–215), Origen [133] According to him, based on Luke, 20:36, there will...[133] (185–254), Gregory of Nyssa [134] Gregory of Nyssa, La Création de l’homme [De opificio...[134] (around 330–390) and, through them, of Johannes Scotus Eriugena [135] Johannes Scotus Eriugena, Periphyseon, IV, PL, vol....[135] (around 810–870). It undoubtedly belonged to the cultural and psychological milieu of the first Christian centuries. [136] Wayne A. Meeks, “The Image of the Androgyne: Some Uses...[136]

41

While the androgyne of Eden had disappeared, it was because of sin. For some thinkers, the human being henceforth became aware of its duplicity, since that time it was broken and characterized by the genitals, which was visible proof of the original sin: sexus comes from sectio (“cut,” “separation”), a term derived from secare “to cross,” which only assumed a specifically sexual meaning in the Middle Ages. [137] Du Cange, Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis,...[137] It is thus not by chance that Adam said “me” for the first time after the sin. [138] “Mulier, quam dedisti mihi sociam, dedit mihi de ligno,...[138] Although, undeniably, the original sin and sex were closely linked, the way in which events had transpired was the subject of debate. [139] Emmanuele Testa, Il peccato di Adamo nella Patristica...[139] One stream of thought interpreted the sin as a sexual offence: for example, the Jew Philon and some Church fathers, including Clement of Alexandria and Saint Ambrose. [140] Philo of Alexandria, De opificio mundi, 151–152, trans....[140] In the Romance period, the majority of theologists from the school of William of Champeaux (1070–1121) also considered that this sin involved concupiscence, although Guillaume himself saw it as an act of disobedience in which sensualitas managed to dominate ratio. [141] Odon Lottin, “Les théories du péché originel au XIIe...[141]

42

Another group reversed the question, seeing sex rather as a consequence of the sin. The Physiologus, an influential allegorical, zoological treatise translated into Latin in the fifth century, stated that the elephant and its partner, which “personified” Adam and Eve, were unaware of intercourse until the female had eaten the fruit of the Mandragora officinarum and given it to the male: “because of that, they had to leave Paradise.” [142] El Fisiólogo: bestiário medieval, 20, ed. Francis J....[142] The main proponent of this train of thought was Saint Augustine, according to whom the human being before the sin practiced sex without concupiscence. [143] Augustine, La Genèse au sens littéral [De Genesi ad...[143] The error of the first couple would then have been one of pride, which led to the error of disobedience and then to carnal error. [144] In the first part of his interpretation, Augustine...[144] Another proponent of this idea was Johannes Scotus Eriugena in the eighth century, who considered that before the sin, the human being was only one, and that the resulting division of the sexes would cease in the eternal life. [145] Johannes Scotus Eriugena, Periphyseon, V, 20, PL, vol....[145] His thought continued to exert a certain influence; in the fourteenth century, it led Meister Eckhart to regard “any division” to be “bad as such,” thus perceiving the number two as the sign of the fall. [146] Meister Eckhart, Commentaire de la Genèse, 88 and 90,...[146] The Romanesque representations of the initial sin hesitated in choosing between these theological positions. Showing a preference for the second, several images accorded sexual attributes to Adam and Eve just after the ingestion of the fruit: for Adam, generally a beard [147] For Hildegard of Bingen, Causae et curae, II, 5–7,...[147] (figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), seldom a penis (figure 5), and for Eve, usually breasts (figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6). A minority of images seem to attribute the initial sin to a sexual act, an iconographic and theological concept that was perhaps expressed for the first time on the bronze door of Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany between 1011 and 1015. [148] William Tronzo, “The Hildesheim Doors: An Iconographic...[148] Here, Adam appears to the left of the tree and behind him is another tree on which a small dragon is standing. Eve is to the right, close to another tree with the snake. The fruit is the apple, one in right hand of Adam and the other in the right hand of Eve, being stretched out towards Adam. There is another apple in the left hand of Eve, whose folded arm merges with her vagina. A similar illustration was used in Rebolledo de la Torre in 1186. In the Alardus Bible, the snake that gives the fruit to Eve is at the height of her vagina, recalling a male sexual organ about to penetrate her. The southernmost façade of the Church of Santa María in Sangüesa in Navarre, which dates from the second half of the twelfth century, seems to portray the same design. Here, the scene of sin is situated immediately below the personification of Lust, showing a woman whose naked breasts are attacked by toads and snakes. [149] Despite the great diversity of iconographical material...[149] This association between lust and the original sin was not uncommon; as Sangüesa was on St. James’s Way, the most travelled road by Occitans and Italians, we may hypothesize that its iconographic message expressed the opinion of many pilgrims on the subject. In this sense, this image from Navarre ratified at least two other images known to these pilgrims.

43

The first image from Provence, dated to the second quarter of the twelfth century, is located a few kilometers from Tarascon in Saint-Etienne-du-Grès, on the tympanum of Saint-Gabriel’s chapel, where Daniel appears next to the original sin (prefiguration of Christ, the new Adam) with lions (a common symbol of lust): an opposition of scenes suggesting the sexual signification of the sin. As already mentioned, it is true that the contrast between the two scenes did not necessarily mean that the artist interpreted the sin “as a vulgar sin of lust, but its consequence was to introduce turmoil and even shame into a domain that had emerged wholly pure from the hands of the Creator.” [150] Gérard de Champeaux and Sébastien Sterckx, Introduction...[150] However, the authors of this comment—a longstanding phenomenon in medieval art studies—seem inclined towards adapting the intentions of the Romanesque artist to the theologically correct reading, rather than considering other interpretative possibilities beyond the domain of ecclesiastical culture. It is significant, for example, that on the same area of the tympanum, the two scenes are chronologically inversed, first portraying Daniel and then the sin.

44

The second image from Italy figures on the mosaic of Otranto (1163–1165). The branches of the forbidden tree pass between the legs of the characters, insinuating the sexual nature of the sin. This seems all the more evident given that Adam and Eve are each situated in a circle, rendering the characters isolated, separated, and autonomous entities in their respective domains, domains most certainly resulting from the primordial androgyne being cut in two. This assumption is reinforced by the fact that the forbidden fruit is represented as the fig (with its strong sexual connotation, as already seen) and illustrated in a suggestive way by the mosaic artist, the priest Pantaleon: the thinner part of the fig held by Eve is facing downwards and placed between her breasts, as though forming a third breast; the fig in Adam’s hand is in the inverse position, reminding us of the male genitals. [151] The same sexual presentation appeared towards the end...[151]

Figure 5. - Illumination from the in Troia (Puglia), Archivio Capitulario, middle of the eleventh century.

 

Figure 6. - Capital in the western gallery of the monastery cloister

45

Taking the geographical distribution of the Romanesque images into account, we see that the function attributed to the fig as the forbidden fruit was mainly expressed in the cultural milieu related to the Greco-Judaic world, while the apple appeared in association with the Romano-Christian world. This is perhaps due the specific links established in these cultural areas between each fruit and a bodily organ. In the images where the fig is used, Eve is often portrayed with the fruit on the right-hand side of the tree, like the liver in the human body. [152] In this regard, I evidently mean a statistical trend,...[152] In the images with the apple, the tendency is for Eve and the fruit to appear on the left-hand side, just like the heart in the body (figures 3 and 6). In both instances, the forbidden fruit was the symbol of the rupture of the unity of Eden and the birth of the disjointed humanity that characterizes history.

Notes

 

[1]

On the methodological issues affecting the construction and analysis of an iconographic corpus, some good comments have been made by Jérôme Baschet in “Inventivité et sérialité des images médiévales. Pour une approche iconographique élargie,” Annales HSS 51 (1996): 93–133.

 

[2]

Genesis, 2:16–17; 3:1–12.

 

[3]

Jeremiah, 1:14. Jerome, Expositio quattuor Evangeliorum, Patrologia Latina (PL), vol. 30, col. 549d–550a.

 

[4]

Midrash Rabbah, Genesis, XV, 7, trans. Bernard Maruani and Albert Cohen-Arazi (Paris: Verdier, 1987), 1:183 [Midrash Rabbah, Genesis trans. Harry Freedman and Maurice Simon, 2 vols. (London: Soncino Press, 1939)]; Genesis Rabbah I (Genesis 1–11), trans. Luis Vegas Montaner (Estella: Verbo Divino, 1994), 188–189 [Genesis Rabbah I, trans. Samuel Rapaport (London: Routledge, 1907)].

 

[5]

Following the interpretation of Marcel Durliat, Pyrénées romanes (La-Pierre-Qui-Vire: Zodiaque, 1978), 42.

 

[6]

Vita Adae, 36–42: “The ‘Vita Adae’,” ed. J. H. Mozley, The Journal of Theological Studies (1929): 121–149 (English manuscripts); “La Vie latine d’Adam et Ève,” ed. Jean-Pierre Pettorelli, Archivum latinitatis Medii Aevi (1998): 5–104 (German manuscripts); 2 Henoc 22:8: Slavonic Apocalypse of Enoch, trans. Francis I. Andersen, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth, 2 vols. (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1983–1985), 1:92–221; L’Évangile de Nicodème, 19, ed. André Vaillant (Geneva, Paris: Droz, 1968), 59–61.

 

[7]

In this instance, the capital over the door of Miègeville, dated to around 1100–1118, does not depict the scene of the sin, but rather that of the expulsion from Paradise, where the fruit behind Adam and Eve (the couple being situated between God on one side and an angel on the other) is the grapevine.

 

[8]

Midrash Rabbah, Genesis, XV, 7 and XIX, 5, trans. Maruani and Cohen-Arazi, [trans. Freedman and Simon], 184 and 217; Genesis Rabbah I, trans. Vegas Montaner, 190–225. Ethiopic Apocalypse of Enoch, XXXII, 3–6, trans. Ephraim Isaac, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:28. Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, 4–8, trans. Harry E. Gaylord, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:667; Apocalypse of Abraham, XXXIII, 7, trans. Ryszard Rubinkiewicz and Horace G. Lunt, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:700. In the first century AD, Eliezer ben Hurcanus’s Chapters only specifies that “Noah found a grapevine coming from the Garden of Eden:” Los Capítulos de Rabbí Eliezer, XXIII, 4, trans. Miguel Pérez Fernandez, (Valencia: Institución San Jerónimo, 1984), 174. Louis Ginzberg nevertheless believes that this text probably alludes to a fragment from the tree of knowledge: Les Légendes des juifs [1909], trans. Gabrielle Sed-Rajna (Paris: Éd. du Cerf, 1997), 1:302, n. 59. According to the same author (Les Légendes des juifs, 219, n. 70), “the oldest and widespread opinion identifies the forbidden fruit with the grape, which traces back to an ancient mythological idea considering wine to be the beverage of the gods.”

 

[9]

David Romano, “Jueus a la Catalunya carolingia i dels primers comtes (876–1100),” in Exposiciò dins la formació de l’Europa medieval (Girona: Ajuntament de Girona, 1985), 113–119. Hilário Franco Júnior, “Le pouvoir de la parole: Adam et les animaux dans la tapisserie de Gérone,” Médiévales 25 (1993): 113–128.

 

[10]

Arturo Graf, Il Mito del Paradiso terrestre (1892; reprint, Rome: Edizioni del Graal, 1982), 65; Gioacchino Volpe, Movimenti religiosi e sette ereticali nella società medievale italiana: secoli XI–XIV fourth ed. (Florence: Sansoni, 1972), 17–40; Cinzio Violante, La Società milanese nell’età precomunale (Bari: Laterza, 1974), 220–231. Priests in Spain in the seventh century offered a bunch of grapes to believers during the Eucharist, which could also be a reaction against the idea of the grapevine as the forbidden fruit (third Council of Braga [675], prologue and canon 1: Concílios visigóticos e hispano-romanos, ed. and trans. José Vives (Barcelona and Madrid: CSIC, Instituto Enrique Florez, 1963), 371–373).

 

[11]

Michel Tardieu, Trois Mythes gnostiques: Adam, Éros et les animaux d’Égypte dans un écrit de Nag Hammadi (II, 5) (Paris: Études augustiniennes, 1974), particularly 88–89, 142–144, and 166–169.

 

[12]

Paul Deschamps, “Notes sur la sculpture romane en Bourgogne,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1922): 61–80.

 

[13]

Deschamps, “Notes sur la sculpture.”

 

[14]

Joseph de Ghellinck, “L’eucharistie au XIIe siècle en Occident,” in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1913), vol. 5, col. 1233–1302. Iconography was also influenced by the phenomenon in which the Crucified was depicted as a bunch of grapes, as seen on the thirteenth-century metal relief on the door of the Church of Sion in Switzerland. This was reproduced by Erich Neumann, The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype, trans. Ralph Mannheim (1955; reprint, Princeton (N. J.): Princeton University Press, 1972), pl. 114.

 

[15]

Roger Dion, Histoire de la vigne et du vin en France des origines au XIXe siècle (Paris: author publication, 1959), 245–247.

 

[16]

Auguste Gaudel, “Péché originel,” in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, vol. XII-1, col. 441 [quotation back-translated from the French].

 

[17]

Jacques Brosse, Mythologie des arbres (Paris: Plon, 1989), 299–300. The purity attributed to the olive rendered the olive tree the tree of life par excellence, as seen above, n.5.

 

[18]

Robert Saint-Jean and Jean Nougaret, Vivarais-Gévaudan romans (La Pierre-Qui-Vire: Zodiaque, 1991), 157–158. La Nuit des temps, 75.

 

[19]

Genesis, 3:7.

 

[20]

John, 1:48. This relationship between the fig and knowledge can be traced back to classical paganism: Plato, for example, called this fruit “the friend of philosophers,” according to Éloïse Mozzani, Le Livre des superstitions: mythes, croyances et légendes (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1995), 746.

 

[21]

Matthew, 21:19. Paul Sébillot, Le Folklore de France, vol. 6, La Flore (1906; reprint, Paris: Imago, 1985), 21; Mozzani, Le Livre des superstitions, 746.

 

[22]

Stuttgart Psalter, around 810 (Stuttgart: Württembergische Landes-bibliothek, Cod. Bibl. 172o 23, fol. 8).

 

[23]

Midrash Rabbah, Genesis XV, 7, trans. Maruani and Cohen-Arazi, 185; Génesis Rabbah I, trans. Vegas Montaner, 190–191.

 

[24]

Life of Adam and Eve (Apocalypse), xx, 4–5, trans. M. D. Johnson, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 2:281; Apocalisse di Mosè, trans. Liliana Rosso Ubigli, in Apocrifi dell’Antico Testa-mento, ed. Paolo Sacchi (Turin: UTET, 1989), 2:429; Vida de Adán y Eva (Apocalipsis de Moises), trans. Natalio Fernández Marcos, in Apocrifos del Antiguo Testamento, ed. Alejandro Diez Macho (Madrid: Cristiandad, 1982), 2:330.

 

[25]

Testament of Adam 3c, trans. Stephen E. Robinson, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:994; Testamento de Adán III, 4 (R II), trans. F. J. Martínez Fernández, in Apocrifos del Antiguo Testamento, 5:433.

 

[26]

Il Combattimento di Adamo, 40, ed. and trans. A. Battista and B. Bagatti (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1982), 110.

 

[27]

Theodoret of Cyrus, Quaestiones in Genesim, II, 28, Patrologia Graeca (PG), vol. LXXX, col. 125 c.

 

[28]

Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem, I, 2, 2, ed. Ernst Kroymann (Turnhout: Brepols, 1954), 443. Corpus christianorum. Series latina, 1; Hugh of Saint Victor, Adnotationes elucidatoriae in Pentateuchon, Patrologia Latina (PL), vol. CLXXV, col. 42 a-b; Pierre Comestor, Historia scholastica, 23, PL, vol. CXCVIII, col. 1073 b-c. Even at the end of the Middles Ages, several authors still thought in this manner: Meister Eckhart, Commentaire de la Genèse, 97 and 205, ed. and trans. Fernand Brunner et al. (Paris: Éd. du Cerf, 1984), 360 and 518. L’Œuvre latine de Maître Eckhart, 1.

 

[29]

Das Tristan-Epos Gottfrieds von Strassburg, v. 17944, ed. Wolfgang Spiewok (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1989), 251. Deutsche Texte des Mittelalters, 75.

 

[30]

Beryl Smalley, “Andrew of Saint-Victor, Abbot of Wigmore: A Twelfth-Century Hebraist,” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 10 (1938): 358–373; Beryl Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983), 149–172 and 179–180; Esra Shereshevsky, “Hebrew Traditions in Peter Comestor’s Historia Scholastica,” The Jewish Quarterly Review 59 (1968–1969): 268–289.

 

[31]

Brosse, Mythologie des arbres, 285–286.

 

[32]

Jean Beleth, Summa de ecclesiasticis officiis, 125, ed. Herbert Douteil (Turnhout: Brepols, 1976), 239–241; Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia: Recreation for an Emperor, trans. S. E. Banks and J. W. Binns (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). In the thirteenth century, the theme appeared in several well-known texts, such as La Queste del Saint Graal, ed. Albert Pauphilet (Paris: Honoré Champion, 1980), 210ff. and Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend: Legenda aurea, vulgo Historia Lombardica dicta, LXVIII, ed. Theodor Graesse (1846; reprint, Osnabrück: Otto Zeller, 1969), 303–304.

 

[33]

Exodus, 29:13, 22; Leviticus, 3:4, 10, 15; 4:9; 7:4; 8:16, 25; 9:10, 19.

 

[34]

Tobit, VI, 7.

 

[35]

Hesiod, Théogonie, v. 524, ed. and trans. Paul Mazon, thirteenth reprint (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1996), 51. Coll. des Universités de France [Theogony, trans Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Cambridge, MA: Loeb Classics, 1914)].

 

[36]

Anacreon, “Fragment 33,” vv. 28, 32, in Carmina Anacreontea, ed. Martin L. West (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1984), 25.

 

[37]

Horace, Odes, IV, 1, 12, ed. and trans. François Villeneuve (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1927), 152 [The Complete Odes and Satires of Horace, trans. Sidney Alexander (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999)].

 

[38]

Plato, Timée, 71 a, d, ed. and trans. Albert Rivaud (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1985), 198 [Timaeus and Critias, ed. Thomas K. Johansen, trans. Desmond Lee (London: Penguin, 1977)].

 

[39]

In the Romanesque period, there was at least one allusion to the Latin Cupid (called only Amores) sending an arrow to the heart: Chrétien de Troyes, Cligès, v. 455, trans. Alexandre Micha (Paris: Honoré Champion, 1982) [Cliges, trans. W. W. Comfort (London: Everyman’s Library, 1914)]. A medieval collection of classical mythology, written between 875 and 1075, says that the gods sent an eagle to punish Prometheus by attacking his heart (not the liver, as Hesiod declared): Premier Mythographe du Vatican, I, 1, 3, ed. Nevio Zorzetti, trans. Jacques Berlioz (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1995), 2. The transposition of the symbolic role of the liver to the heart became so ingrained that modern scholars have more than once taken one for the other, as, for example, the translator of Horace, Odes, ed. and trans. Villeneuve, n.36 or that of Anacreon, Odes, trans. Frédéric Matthews (Paris: Presses Universitaires, 1927), 91.

 

[40]

Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea, XXV, ed. Graesse, 120. Eve

Explained in my blog post for the day. dennissylvesterhurd.blogspot.com/2022/05/fine-weather-for...

OM-D E-M1; OLYMPUS 300mm F2,8; EC-20; F5,7; 1/3200s; ISO-640

361/365 Jun 11, 2011

 

I've had this shot in my mind for some time now but I wanted to make sure that Brandon watched The Matrix before we tried it. The other night Brandon watched about thirty minutes before falling asleep. He still didn't finish the movie by the time we went to shoot today so I just had to explain what I wanted him to do. When we got home I put the movie back on and after another thirty minutes he fell asleep again. Eliz was still recovering from being sick the past two days, otherwise she would have been in the shot as Trinity.

 

Only 4 more left.

 

Strobist

Dynalight Uni400jr. in beauty dish high camera left

580EXII in Gamilight Square 43 camera right for fill

Lumopro LP160 side left and right

Explained.

A Quandamooka man explaining the festival.

   

As I've explained to Jane to show a balanced reflection of all the days activities it was essential that I captured - lots of times - the beautiful promotion staff. I don't think she's buying it :-)

Reflecting in those puddle after the rain we should examined in the light of the Ageless Wisdom teachings, we are reminded of the great occult maxim "As Above So Below" The mural shows the right eye, the left eye and the middle eye. This tower is the symbol for not only all three schools, but also the meaning and purpose of life itself. Vertical rods/constructs are considered archetypal symbols of the phallus. As the dual serpents address the concept of gender, the staff serves as an emissary of transference between body and mind, physically and spiritually. The rod could also be viewed as a conduit between the mundane and ethereal.. The puddle is male, the tower is female and the horizontal line is the child, the source of both the other building, for we all begin life as a child. The upper side, the feminine pathway, explores the human nature of emotions and feeling, both positive and negative, sexual energy and birthing, death, certain psychic energy, and everything that is not logical.As guided from within, outwards. “As above, so below” and vice versa, Solar Systems are born, die and come to birth anew in cycles of activity and rest, as does wo-man. There is a constant flaming out and dying down of activity in every department of nature, corresponding to the alternations of ebb and flow, day and night, summer and winter, life and death. In the beginning of a Day of Manifestation it is taught that a certain Great Being (designated in the Western World by the name of God, but by other names in other parts of the earth) limits Himself to a certain portion of space, in which He elects to create a Solar System for the evolution of added self-consciousness. He includes in His own Being hosts of glorious Hierarchies of, to us, immeasurable spiritual power and splendor. They are the fruitage of past manifestations of this same Being and also other Intelligences, in descending degrees of development down to such as have not reached a stage of consciousness as high as our present humanity, and therefore these latter will not be able to finish their evolution in this System. In God — this great collective Being — there are contained lesser beings of every grade of intelligence and stage of consciousness, from omniscience to an unconsciousness deeper than that of the deepest trance condition. During the period of manifestation with which we are concerned, these various grades of beings are working to acquire more experience than they possessed at the beginning of this period of existence. Those who, in previous manifestations, have attained to the highest degree of development, work on those who have not yet evolved any consciousness. They induce in them a stage of self-consciousness from which they can take up further work themselves. Those who had started their evolution in a former Day of Manifestation, but had not progressed far at the close, now take up their task again, just as we take up our daily work in the morning where we left off the previous night. All the different Beings, however, do not take up their evolution at the early stages of a new manifestation. Some must wait until those who precede them have made the conditions which are necessary for their further development. There are no instantaneous processes in nature. All is an exceedingly slow unfolding, a development which, though so exceedingly slow, is yet absolutely certain to attain ultimate perfection. Just as there are progressive stages in the human life — childhood, youth, manhood or womanhood, and old age — so in the macrocosm there are different stages corresponding to these various periods of the microcosmic life. A child cannot take up the duties of fatherhood or motherhood. Its undeveloped mental and physical condition render it incapable of doing such work. The same is true of the less evolved beings in the beginning of manifestation. They must wait until the higher evolved have made the proper conditions for them. The lower the grade of the intelligence of the evolving being, the more it is dependent upon outside help. At the Beginning, then, the highest Beings — those who are the farthest evolved — work upon those who have the greatest degree of unconsciousness. Later, they turn them over to some of the less evolved entities, who are then able to carry the work a little further. At last self-consciousness is awakened. The evolving life has become Woman-Man. The right eye is controlled by the left brain; it’s male knowledge. Although the right eye “sees” directly to the right brain, this is not what the Egyptians were communicating. It is not the “seeing” but rather the interrupting of the “seeing” information that was important here. It is the left brain that makes this interruption of what is seen; it controls the right side of the body, and vice versa. In the same manner, the Left Eye of Horus, controlled by the right brain, is female knowledge.What happens on one level of reality also happens on every other level; the microcosm and macrocosm behave alike. A revolution occurred during the 20th century in our understanding of the nature of the physical universe. This change is extremely important to religion, for it eliminates a basic conflict between science and religious belief. Prior to this change, our scientific beliefs were based on an approach that was initiated in the 17th century: "We live in a mechanical universe, and we are simply complex machines." This scientific notion that man was purely a mechanical system contradicts what is probably the core of religious belief, namely the idea that mind-like or spirit-like factors can make a difference in human behavior. The religious outlook assumes that a human being, acting on basis of conscious choices, is NOT equivalent to a mechanical system, whose every action is completely determined by direct interaction between tiny neighboring bits of matter. 20th century science, however, has shown that the earlier mechanical concept of reality to be incompatible with empirical facts. To cope with this failure of earlier ideas, physicist made a breakthrough change. Physical theory was converted from a theory about the physical world itself into a theory of WHAT ONE COULD KNOW about the physical world. Human experience was introduced into the theory and made fundamental. This was to be later known as the Copenhagen interpretation. It had drawbacks.For example, while it brought human knowledge into physical theory, it also renounced the possibility of understanding the underlying physical reality. It set our limits of understanding. It was the eminent mathematician John von Neumann and Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner to reincorporate physical reality. They did this by casting the new physics into a theory of the interaction between our conscious thoughts and our physical brains. This was known as von Neumann-Wigner formation of quantum theory, and rationally incorporated conscious thoughts into the basic dynamics. Physics was not yet ready to tackle the problem of interaction between our thoughts and our brain. It was some time before this was scientifically feasible for this kind of proof. Now however, there is a huge and rapidly growing field of experimental data on this question of the connection between minds and brains.

This shift in science is important significance to religion. It removes the basic contradiction between the older scientific claim that human beings are essentially mechanical robots, while religion maintains than man is not ruled by matter alone. The new physics now dynamically entangles our conscious thoughts with the quantum representation of the physical world. There is a plethora of competing theories arising from many disciplines to account for the psychophysical expressions of consciousness in function and structure. The only comprehensive theory must be one that is based in nondualism, and accounts for such self-organizing mindbody manifestations as spontaneous healing or self-recovery, or even the placebo effect. The mind-matter connection is intimately linked to any speculations we can make about alleged mind-over-matter phenomena. In fact all psi phenomena, including such nonlocality demonstrations as the “simple connections” of telepathy, ESP, or synchronicity in general are related to this problem of an underlying or connecting field through which information exchange is instantaneous and unimpeded.The leading contender for such a field, vacuum fluctuation or quantum foam, was proposed by David Bohm. Turbulent motion in this highly excited, subquantal field leads to the emergence from virtuality into actuality of quantum entities which just as quickly dissolve back into the subquantal sea. This same ocean of virtual or metaphysical “stuff” has the property of containing, storing, and transmitting information about the nature of matter and even thought. The observables of nonlocality and psi cry out for some form of interconnection between phenomenon separated in space and/or time. The concept most generally used in physics to account for spatial and temporal interconnection is that of a field. Fields themselves cannot be observed, and so can be considered meta- or beyond physical. Yet the influences propagating through them are observable, eventually. Mind, memory, and consciousness may be such phenomena. Is there one massive holographic field that actually exists in nature in the sense of Bohm’s holomovement? And if so, how does this relate to our consciousness and our relationship to the cosmos. And what is the mechanism by which this universal force interfaces within our organism? When we recognize that we really are that, that nature lies within our deepest structure and function, we come to understand that we are not separate from the whole of creation. We recognize that “I AM THAT I AM.” Everything including ourselves, is deeply connected in one holy movement. The quantum vacuum, the energy-field that characterizes the ground state of the universe, possibly furnishes the indicated ‘fifth field,’ the hidden variables of chaotic yet deterministic micromotion that bootstraps all energy/matter into existence. This plenum could transmit as-yet-unknown effects. This quantum foam, which Wheeler called superspace, consists of a pure massless charge-flux.

We argue, along with Laszlo that, “The conclusion to be derived from the considerations presented here is that the four-demnsional manifold Einstein described as spacetime is likely to be more than a geometrical abstraction. As the energetically superdense quantum vacuum, it may be a physically real field, limiting the velocity of light and other matter-particles and transmittingg a variety of effects, including, but not limited to, gravitation and electromangetism. We may well ask, then, whether the field would also transmit the kind of effects associated with psi.”

Waves of this purely informational (scalar) force could create a potential gradient where quantal motion triggers scalar waves in the vacuum, and these propagate by alternately compressing and rarefying its virtual-particle gas. Scalars are neither ‘light’ nor ‘matter’, but longitudinally propoagating fluctuations below the energy-threshold of particle pair-creation.This produces a self-generating cosmological feedback cycle which translates into interference patterns created by the motion of charged particles modifying the local topology of the vacuum. The modified vacuum field modifies in turn the motion of the particles, (Laszlo, 1993, 1994).Fourier show that any three-dimensional pattern can be analyzed into a set of regular, periodic oscillations that differ only in frequency, amplitude, and phase. Specific waveforms can be exact representations of spatiotemporal objects--thus we have a “Holographic Universe.” Analysis shows that the signals transmitted through the vacuum field are precisely of the psi variety, because information in that field is holographic, and because the propagation of the holographic interference patterns is quasi-instantaneous. Therefore, this virttual field might provide a metaphysical foundation for a broad range of psi phenomena and psychophysical interaction, including self-organization and healing. The quantum vaccum is a highly anomlous universal energy realm of pure potential. It is both the source and destination of all matter in the universe, and thus of any form of consciousness which may emerge through its autopoeitic process. The human brain, with its pronounced and constant state of chaos, could receive and amplify such signals, expressed both consciously and unconsciously in our biophsyical self and our ephemeral thoughts and intuitions.The von-Neumann-Wigner formulation provides the basic logical principles that govern the interaction between thoughts and the brain. It provides prima facie evidence that human thoughts are linked to nature by nonlocal connections. What a person chooses to do in one region seems immediately to effect what is true elsewhere in the universe. This nonlocal aspect can be understood by conceiving the universe to be not a collection of tiny bits of matter, but rather a growing compendium of "bits of information." This profound shift about the nature of reality has not yet sunk in culturally. It will happen by the promotion of understanding of the radical shifts wrought by quantum theory. Most quantum physicists are interested more in applications of quantum theory than in its deep implications. Most now agree that a conception of physical reality is informational in character, not material. Our conscious thoughts ought eventually to be understood within science and that when properly understood, our thoughts will be seen to DO something; they will be efficacious. From what most quantum physicists now understand, certain ontological claims can now be made. 1. The "physical world," as understood in quantum theory, is a store of information, and this information is NOT imbedded in hordes of tiny particles (as they were in classical theory). The information is stored in a mathematically described structure that specifies propensities for certain events to occur. This events (paradigms) include the acquision of information by human agents.2. Conscious events should eventually be understood in science, and these events should be efficacious. They should have a real effect on our actions. The von Neumann-Wigner formulation of quantum theory achieves these ends. It has never been seriously broached in science, not because it was considered unimportant, but because it was deemed too difficult. Pertinent data seemed insufficient and restrictive. This has changed because science has changed.The six sided star in the structural support of the tower incorporates the Duality, Male and Female (Unity), the Blade (upward pointing triangle) and Chalice. The blade represents the Physical, and the Chalice represents the Spiritual realm. It is sometimes referenced as the fire and water triangle as well. Moloch, Chiun and Remphan are all names for the star god, Saturn, whose symbol is a six pointed star formed by two triangles. Saturn was the supreme god of the Chaldeans. The hexagram is referred to the talisman of Saturn. The hexagram was brought to the Jewish people by Solomon when he turned to witchcraft and idolatry after his marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter. It became known as the Seal of Solomon in Egyptian magic and witchcraft. The six pointed star was adopted as the family crest or shield by the Rothschild family during the 19th century,he helped to finance Eiffel. Heavily associated with alchemy, Leo, the Lion, the Double Lion, Routi, refers directly to the Sun as being a source of knowledge. Leo, is one of the constellations of the Zodiac. The Zodiac, is a direct reference to the Sun. The Sun’s position at midday during the time of the Egyptians coincided with the midsummer solstice. Leo was a constellation of the summer.

The theme of Illumination, Knowledge, or Secrets being kept “under the Lion’s Paw” is a recurring motif.There are lions on the first floor belly. The spiral effect the descending forces of the tower, that indicates an expansion of knowledge, and the undulating dance of cosmic forces. Such dualities include:

Asleep/Awake Illness/Health Separation/Unity Male/Female

Left/Right Binding/Loosing Wax/Wane Water/Fire Sun/Moon

Yin/Yang Light/Dark Good/Evil Upper/Lower. If you take it a step further, you notice the dual intertwined snakes form a double helix DNA strand; Serpent DNA specifically. If the serpent is a biological anthropomorphism of DNA, then we can attribute the Ouroboros to cycles of DNA change.Let us examine this slide which I feel holds many secrets. First you have the sun and moon in opposite positions which proves the world has been put on a purposeful pole shift done at the hands of man.

 

In the East where the sun is supposed to rise you now have the moon or crescent where there is a Brother with a sword with an eagle or falcon upon it where he is shielding his eyes from the light because it is either too bright or he cannot see because he is blinded by the darkness.

 

In the West where the sun is supposed to set, you now have the sun with a brother who can see clearly what is going on as he holds the staff and serpent.

 

In the middle is the LORD OR LORDS and KING OF KINGS who represent the union of both and has risen above the Abyss on the wings of destiny. The Phoenix or Rex Mundi who represents not only the union of East and West, but also AS ABOVE SO BELOW.

So what does it mean?

 

The microcosm is oneself, and the macrocosm is the universe. The macrocosm is as the microcosm, and vice versa; within each lies the other, and through understanding one you can understand the other. The primary idea behind this is that the “above” refers to what is visible in the sky. The below, refers to Earth. This creates an equality as it explains how the Earth is a microcosm of the configuration of the planets in the solar system. It draws the connection that the Earth is affected by planetary orbits. This concept also affects various levels of reality: physical, emotional, and mental What happens on any level happens on every other.

 

The concept has not only been a practice, but an attempt to replicate and do a better job then YHWH himself. This is why alchemy and astrology play such an important role in the Illuminati.

 

In Alchemy, there is a process which Mercury and Lead can supposedly turned to Gold. The Gold isn’t the main goal. It’s to understand the process of how mercury or lead changes into gold. Man wants to replicate and modify what is on the Earth into their standards.

 

The same goes for Astrology. The elite not only observe all of the astrological signs, but use them to construct the architecture of this tower.

 

There will come a time when it will have been in vain that Egyptians have honored the Godhead with heartfelt piety and service; and all our holy worship will be fruitless and ineffectual. The Elohim will return from earth to heaven; Egypt will be forsaken, and the land which was once the home of religion will be left desolate, bereft of the presence of its deities.

 

They will no longer love this world around us, this incomparable work of YHWH, this glorious structure which HE has built, this sum of good made up of many diverse forms, this instrument whereby the will of YHWH operates in that which he has made, ungrudgingly favoring man’s welfare.

 

Darkness will be preferred to light, and death will be thought more profitable than life; no one will raise his eyes to heaven; the pious will be deemed insane, the impious wise; the madman will be thought a brave man, and the wicked will be esteemed as good.

 

As for the soul, and the belief that it is immortal by nature, or may hope to attain to immortality, as I have taught you; all this they will mock, and even persuade themselves that it is false. No word of reverence or piety, no utterance worthy of heaven, will be heard or believed.

 

And so the Elohiym will depart from mankind – a grievous thing and only evil angels will remain, who will mingle with men, and drive the poor wretches into all manner of reckless crime, into wars, and robberies, and frauds, and all things hostile to the nature of the soul.

 

Then will the earth tremble, and the sea bear no ships; heaven will not support the stars in their orbits, all voices of the Elohiym will be forced into silence; the fruits of the Earth will rot; the soil will turn barren, and the very air will sicken with sullen stagnation; all things will be disordered and awry, all good will disappear.

 

But when all this has befallen, then YHWH the Creator of all things will look on that which has come to pass, and will stop the disorder by the counterforce of his will, which is the good. HE will call back to the right path those who have gone astray; he will cleanse the world of evil, washing it away with floods, burning it out with the fiercest fire, and expelling it with war and pestilence.The double tetrahedron visible in the structural's forms of the tower can be referred to as the interdimensional vehicle for travel, the Merkaba. It also incorporates the Duality, Male and Female, the Blade (upward pointing triangle) and Chalice. The blade represents the Physical, and the Chalice represents the Spiritual realm. The Star of Solomon can also represent Jerusalem.The Square and Compass is the Blade and Chalice, God and Goddess in the act of Creation, and within the Star we find the Heavenly Luminaries or the Eyes or Spirits of God (the Planets). The symbols on the star represent the astrological portion of the symbol, Jupiter, Venus, the Moon, Mercury, Mars and Saturn, with the Sun being at the center. Zoroaster’ teachings mentioned earlier in the thread as Thoth or Hermes, would be responsible for the seven petal flower depicted at the center.

 

in5d.com/all-about-as-above-so-below-illustrated/

©Jane Brown2015 All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without explicit written permission.

  

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Elsie is explaining to me why it is I am not a good pupil in her school (never mind that I'm the only one who is not either an animal or doll). This was taken not long before my camera was confiscated!

I mentioned in my photograph "Disappearing Darts" that Stagecoach in South Wales has recently shuffled some of its fleet following new deliveries, and that Aberdare depot has lost its eight Transbus Pointer-bodied Darts in favour of a similar number of Alexander Dennis E20Ds from Porth depot.

 

36843 therefore represents the new allocation on Services 60 & 60A (Aberdare-Mountain Ash-Abercynon-Pontypridd) in this mid January 2018 shot as she passes beneath the low railway bridge in Abercynon which carries the Cynon Valley line.

 

I except it was a tight squeeze for National Welsh's Leyland Nationals, and no doubt explains why so few Bristol VRs were allocated to Aberdare depot.

  

  

Burning down our own green lung - on purpose. How would we explain that to an interplanetary visitor?

 

Brandrodungen unserer grünen Lunge. Wie würden wir das wohl einem außerirdischen Besucher erklären?

 

Credits: ESA/NASA

 

892_7644

I've posted this photo mostly to explain why I've gone on an 'adding contact' spree this morning. And here's why:

 

I get a lot of people adding me as a contact, mostly because of tumblr and weheartit and bookmarking sites like that. I know that most of those people are just bookmarking my profile, not actually adding me as a contact who they hope to talk to and interact with, so most of the time, I don't add people back. Today, however, I felt like I should change that.

 

I went through my list and added the people I see that usually comment, or that I've talked to or interacted with in some sort of way. I am open to add more people, but only if I know your name, you know what I mean?

 

I'm also planning a testimonial exchange, but that's business for another day. :)

 

So, if you have added me as a contact and actually want to have some sort of contact, but I haven't added you back, let me know through flickrmail! If you're a new friend, you can mail me as well! I'm in the mood to make friends, so let's all be happy, shall we? :D

This reenactor explains to the small crowd in words close to what the city website says about the skirmish. This is what the website says:

 

"On September 27, 1862, Colonel Basil Duke led seven companies of Confederate soldiers to Cemetery Hill, above the small town of Augusta. With two pieces of artillery and 350 of [Confederate general John Hunt Morgan] Morgan's finest Raiders, Duke hoped to disperse the Union militia of 125 men stationed there (led by Colonel Joshua T. Bradford and known as the "Home Guard") before crossing the Ohio River and moving on Cincinnati.

 

…Duke's horsemen rode into town, expecting a quick surrender. Instead, the residents of Augusta met the Rebs with a hail of gunfire, mounting a stiff defense that ultimately resulted in hand-to-hand fighting. Duke later reported, 'The hand-to-hand fighting in the houses...was the fiercest and hottest I ever saw. I witnessed in some of them the floors piled with corpses and blood trickling down the stairways.'

​

About fifteen Union soldiers were killed or wounded in the battle. Duke's losses were considerably more severe, with seventy-five to one hundred of his soldiers wounded or killed. Although the Confederates eventually forced the militia to surrender, the battle caused Duke to abandon his plans of taking the war onto Northern soil."

Description: A new study of the Perseus galaxy cluster, shown in this image, and others using Chandra and XMM-Newton has revealed a mysterious X-ray signal in the data. The signal is also seen in over 70 other galaxy clusters using XMM-Newton. This unidentified X-ray emission line - a spike of intensity centered on about 3.56 kiloelectron volts - requires further investigation to confirm both the signal's existence and nature. One possibility is this signal is from the decay of sterile neutrinos, one proposed candidate to explain dark matter.

 

Creator: Chandra X-ray Observatory Center

 

Record URL: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2014/perseus/

I’d love someone to explain the circumstances surrounding the pile of paper and cardboard all over the ground in front of the bin which is not actually full. Maybe those chicks over at Blacktown Girls High are just total rebels and were so bad one day that they threw the recycling on the ground instead of in the bin? Fucking hectic if they did. I actually looked at all this and told myself I should probably clean it up, but then the little devil version of me got on my right shoulder and advised me otherwise, so I just drove over all the shit, emptied the bin and got out of there. Too bad for whoever had to clean all this up!

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres -

Œdipe explique l'énigme du sphinx [1806-27]

French Neoclassicism

Louvre Peintures RF 218

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C5%92dipe_explique_l%27%...

*********************************************************************************

Description of the Painting (Visual Analysis)

 

The painting Œdipe explique l'énigme du sphinx (Oedipus Explains the Riddle of the Sphinx) by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, originally painted in 1808 (the version held in the Louvre was reworked between 1806 and 1827), is a key example of French Neoclassicism. It depicts a pivotal moment from Greek mythology and masterfully combines dramatic narrative with idealised form.

 

In the scene:

•Oedipus stands confidently at the centre, his bare torso muscular and idealised, with a poised and intelligent expression.

•The Sphinx, part woman, part lion, with wings, crouches before him like a predator, her gaze wary and challenging.

•In the background lies a dead man, a victim of the Sphinx (who would kill all who failed to answer her riddle).

•A second male figure, possibly a witness or companion, stands to the left, visibly alarmed or in awe.

________________________________________

Interpretation

1. The Symbolism of the Riddle and Its Solution

•The riddle itself represents the journey from ignorance to understanding – a central theme in classical drama.

•Oedipus’ answer (“Man”, who crawls on four legs in the morning of life, walks on two at midday, and uses a cane – three legs – in the evening) symbolises self-knowledge and human awareness.

•Ingres underscores this through the hero’s idealised physique: Oedipus embodies not only strength but also reason – the archetype of a classical hero.

2. The Conflict Between Man and Myth

•The Sphinx represents the irrational, animalistic, and enigmatic feminine – a relic of the mythic past.

•Oedipus, by contrast, stands for rational thought overcoming darkness and superstition – a view that echoes Enlightenment ideals, which Neoclassicism often supported.

3. Tension Between Life and Death

•The lifeless figure behind the Sphinx heightens the drama: Oedipus' success is far from assured; it is hard-won.

•The painting captures the moment just before resolution – a scene charged with tension, intellect, and imminent triumph.

________________________________________

🎨 Stylistic Aspects

•Neoclassicism: Ingres, a pupil of David, draws heavily from the antique. This is evident in:

othe clarity of line,

othe balanced composition,

othe heroic nudity of the male figure.

•Antique inspiration: The sharply outlined forms recall classical reliefs and sculpture.

•The colour palette is restrained; drama arises not from colour, but from gesture and form.

________________________________________

Significance Within Ingres’ Oeuvre

•This work belongs to Ingres’ early career and was reworked several times until 1827. It reflects his striving for technical perfection and his deep engagement with antiquity.

•It also anticipates a lifelong tension in his art: between classical idealism and romantic expressiveness.

________________________________________

📌 Conclusion

Œdipe explique l'énigme du sphinx is a painting about reason, humanity, and the triumph of intellect over the unknown. Ingres portrays Oedipus as an idealised hero – mentally and physically superior – who defeats the monstrous through insight. The work stands as a quintessential expression of Neoclassical aesthetics and the intellectual spirit of its time: a return to antique clarity in an age marked by upheaval (Revolution, Napoleon).

________________________________________

 

chatgpt and I

   

Regional Athletics Championships 2019, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland

Barcelona

his story was like so many others: death, betrayal, depression, alcohol. all the elements that left him homeless.

 

kenny was standing on the sidewalk near the first congregational church looking lost.

 

he was cowed and hunched as if he was trying to sink into himself, become smaller, easier to overlook. don’t make eye contact. stay out of the way.

 

as i came near i smiled. he looked frightened.

 

i said, “come on, you have to smile back when someone smiles at you. it’s ok.”

 

so smile he did, revealing a mouth full of rotten or broken teeth — or spaces where teeth should be.

 

being on the street must be incredibly scary. when i met james a while back, he too looked afraid, as did bobby. fear and depression, a common denominator. street people are intimidated, too frightened to smile at the nice lady with the camera.

 

i explained my project, as i do to everyone i photograph and asked if he would talk with me; would he mind if i took his picture.

 

we sat on the wall in front of the church. in a quiet voice he explained how he ended up where he was — it all started with the death of his wife.

 

many of the men i talk to seemed to have lost their way when they lost their wives. women are more resilient. men break easier.

 

he reached for a cigarette but looked at me and put it away. i told him please, go ahead.

 

he smoked and we talked. he wasn’t sleeping rough he said, he went to desert manna, the homeless shelter, at night. during the day, he just sat somewhere or wandered around downtown.

 

“we have a close community down here [north of main street.] most of them [the homeless] don’t want to be bad people. lots of street people volunteer at local charities,” he said proudly.

 

“i’m not a normal street person.”

 

you see, he has hopes and plans of getting a job, living in a house; each plan dependent on the success of the other. if one fails, the rest topple like dominoes and kenny remains homeless.

 

although he may talk of hope, the catch in his voice says there is no cause for optimism. he put on a tough face when i photographed him.

 

music from the church whispered in the air.

 

“praise-the-lord kind of music,” kenny said.

High potential? Parents want to know

Psychological examinations are increasingly common to identify gifted children. It’s a trend that hides a complex reality, as gifted children can also be prone to failure.

  

Enéa gets good marks. But she disturbs the class, talks a lot and complains often. This situation surprises her mother, Stéphanie Laurent. At home, this seven-year old schoolgirl from Lausanne is quiet, responsible and not the type to bother others. What’s wrong? School. Enéa is bored. A teacher friend advised Stéphanie Laurent to enter her daughter for tests to determine whether she was “high potential”. And the result came back positive.

 

High potential (HP) children are referred to as gifted or precocious. They are sometimes compared with child prodigies, which is one reason for the increase in requests for psychological examinations. “Interest in these tests is growing,” states Pierre Fumeaux, a child psychiatrist at Lausanne University Hospital who is currently conducting a study on the subject. “A few years ago when parents or teachers had to deal with a difficult student, they would ask the doctor if the child was hyperactive. Now the term ‘high potential’ has taken centre stage in the media.” Contrary to popular belief, gifted is not always synonymous with success. High potential children can also be prone to failure.

 

A different brain

 

To be diagnosed as “HP”, an individual has to obtain a score of at least 130 on IQ tests. “But the score isn’t enough,” explains Claudia Jankech, a psychotherapist in Lausanne specialised in child and teenager psychology. “We also need to understand their family and social context and their personality.”

 

Surprisingly, a high number of HP children have trouble in school. “When it’s too easy for them, they get used to being on autopilot,” says the psychologist. “They’ve never learnt how to learn.” These difficulties are partly due to what specialists call arborescent thinking. “Normal people develop logical reasoning through linear, sequential thinking. However, the thought process in HP children is like fireworks exploding with ideas and impressive intuition. They can solve complex equations but will have difficulty explaining how they came up with the answer,” explains Pierre Fumeaux.

 

Surprisingly, a high number of HP children have trouble in school. “When it’s too easy for them, they get used to being on autopilot,” says the psychologist. “They’ve never learnt how to learn.”

 

Studies suggest that HP children’s brains function differently. Information moves better between the two cerebral hemispheres. “We assume that they use both their left and right brains easily and have excellent abilities in both logic and creativity,” says the child psychiatrist. “Other work has shown that HP children can more easily juggle with concepts and think in the abstract, such as performing mental calculations. “In a functional MRI, a dye is injected to highlight the areas of the brain with the highest blood flow.

 

Using a scanner, we can then see which areas are activated,” Pierre Fumeaux explains. “A stimulus or given task will activate certain areas of the brain in normal individuals. In HP children, sometimes several larger areas are activated at the same time,” he adds. These indicators help doctors understand how an HP mind works. “But our knowledge in neuroscience remains limited,” the researcher admits. “Being high potential is not an illness, but a special cognitive ability. And that’s not a priority for researchers.”

 

INTERVIEW: “The methods of diagnosis are debatable”

 

In a survey conducted on gifted children, the French sociologist Wilfried Lignier noted that specialists do not agree about the tests designed to diagnose giftedness.

 

In Vivo You observe that most gifted children don’t have difficulty in school or psychological problems. Why then do parents have them take tests?

Wilfried Lignier These parents are very concerned that their children will face difficulties, whereas they actually have every chance of success. They think that the school’s assessment is not enough. Psychology offers greater legitimacy for their concerns.

  

IV You approach giftedness as a “debated and debatable” issue. Why?

WL Many psychologists don’t recognise giftedness mainly because they doubt the credibility of IQ tests. These tests are meant to assess something other than academic skills, but in form they are quite similar to the exercises performed in school. Furthermore, children also have this impression. After the test is over, some say that they did well in the “maths” section, referring to the logical reasoning, or the “language” section, referring to the vocabulary. Being so similar to exercises done in school, these tests contradict the idea that intelligence isn’t the same as academic performance. Yet most of the social repercussions expected from test results are based on the idea that they tell a truth that school does not.

 

IV You show that the diagnosis swings in favour of one gender. How do you explain that high potential is more often diagnosed in boys?

WL Parents tend to express greater concern about their future, as it more readily carries their hopes of upward social mobility. The fact that boys have greater chances of having “symptoms”, such as openly expressing their boredom or not being able to stay still, also plays a role.

 

Hyper-sensitivity

 

HP children also typically have emotional characteristics featuring high sensitivity or a high level of empathy. Stéphanie Laurent’s two other children, boys, have also been diagnosed as high potential. “Nathael, age six, cries at Christmas because poor people are cold and have nothing to eat.” His hyper-sensitivity distresses him. “It can take on huge proportions. At one point, Mathys, age eight, felt unreasonable fear because he knew that there was a core on fire at the centre of the earth.” Myriam Bickle Graz, a developmental paediatrician at Lausanne University Hospital who wrote a thesis on the subject, says, “The children seen at consultations were often overwhelmed by their emotions. For some, it was incredibly difficult; they have no filter,” she explains. “The fear of death, for example, comes very early.” They develop symptoms such as anxiety, sleep disorders, strained relationships with other children and aggression.

 

THE HAPPIEST HP CHILDREN ARE THOSE WHO ARE NOT IDENTIFIED AS SUCH AND MANAGE TO ADAPT.

As in the Laurent family, there are often several gifted siblings. “Not all siblings are necessarily going to be HP, but there is a certain degree of genetic heritage. However, that hasn’t been proven scientifically,” explains Myriam Bickle Graz. “It remains a clinical observation.”

 

Although some high potential children suffer, the majority of them lead normal lives. As summed up by Pierre Fumeaux, “the happiest HP children are those who are not identified as such and manage to adapt.”

 

Arborescent thinking deploying in several directions, simultaneously, extremely fast and without boundaries. While it is a important source of creativity, it also implies: Difficulties to identify relevant information; all these thoughts in all directions may be confusing when the child is faced with a question, a problem or a task at school, An absolute need to organise these thoughts within a sturdy frame so that the child feels affectively, emotionally and socially secure. A “global” information processing system, with analogic and intuitive thinking. While it enables a very rich and deep understanding, with photographic memory, it also implies: Serious difficulties to adapt to the traditional schooling systems which treat information in details and sequentially (one thing after the other), An inability to develop arguments or justify their reasoning. Gifted children usually can’t explain their results, they consider the answers obvious, they know intuitively. The necessity to use in parallel the traditional school learning methods and their own knowledge aquisition systems; they do not want to feel useless, rejected or stupid. A thinking mode that needs meaning to function and complexity to develop and bloom. While it is an endless source of information data stored in an exceptional memory, it also implies: Difficulties or even refusal to acquire skills or information which they consider useless, too simple or not exciting enough to justify their attention and efforts, Constant challenges of established rules and norms, to satisfy their needs for meaning, To “learn how to learn” while taming their impatience through inventive and stimulating methodologies, with deep enrichment on all subjects. A way of thinking constantly integrating affective aspects of its environment. While it is a rich incentive to learning, it also implies: Frustration, even rejection of some teachers whom they see as incompetent in their teaching methods or behaviours, Excessive, even pathological reactions if these children, who try to master their environment and their variations, cannot find reassurance. They are scared by what they do not understand and they know, from a very young age, many things that they cannot put in perspective due to their short life experience. A need for constant reassurance on their learning progress, with a learning methodology adapted to their needs and offering a long-term continuity and homogeneity, thus reducing affective disruptions as much as possible.

 

anhugar.wifeo.com/arborescent-way-of-thinking.php A difficulty encountered by many gifed children is the fact that they think in an arborescent way instead of a linear one. The usual teaching methods are linear - when forced to learn in that mode, gifted children need to make a lot of efforts to voluntarily slow-down their “processing” thinking pace.

 

Arborescent thinking is very adequate for gifted people; it allows them to use all their mental capacities and their knowledge simultaneously. However, it needs to be guided and framed otherwise their thinking takes them far away from the subject of that day.

 

Here is an example from Jeanne Siaud-Fachin: The teacher gives a spelling test. He dictates “the boat sails on the sea”. The gifted child will initially visualize an image of a boat on the sea before seeing the sentence made of 6 words. Following the image, her thoughts will go in all directions: well, it is not a good idea to sail today because there is a lot of wind are there any people on that boat? my friend Frank owns a boat, he’s lucky but his parents are divorced, that is not fun I hope my parents will never get divorced yet, Frank has twice as many presents for Christmas now that he has 2 homes which reminds me, I have not yet prepared a wish-list for Christmas etc. While the other children have finished writing the initial sentance, the gifted child does not remember it at all and if she’s pressed, she may write the last sentence that went through her head “ I have not yet prepared a wish-list for Christmas ”.

 

Also

 

www.talentdifferent.com/la-pensee-en-arborescence-901.htm...

 

www.asep-suisse.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_docman&am... (pdf) How to help such children overcome their ‘handicap’

 

From the main link in the title (translated from the French by Google Chrome, I think): Surprisingly, a high number of high potential children have trouble in school. “When it’s too easy for them, they get used to being on autopilot,” says the psychologist. “They’ve never learnt how to learn.” These difficulties are partly due to what specialists call arborescent thinking. “Normal people develop logical reasoning through linear, sequential thinking. However, the thought process in HP children is like fireworks exploding with ideas and impressive intuition. They can solve complex equations but will have difficulty explaining how they came up with the answer,” explains Pierre Fumeaux.

 

Surprisingly, a high number of HP children have trouble in school. “When it’s too easy for them, they get used to being on autopilot,” says the psychologist. “They’ve never learnt how to learn.”

 

Studies suggest that HP children’s brains function differently. Information moves better between the two cerebral hemispheres. “We assume that they use both their left and right brains easily and have excellent abilities in both logic and creativity,” says the child psychiatrist. “Other work has shown that HP children can more easily juggle with concepts and think in the abstract, such as performing mental calculations. “In a functional MRI, a dye is injected to highlight the areas of the brain with the highest blood flow.

The telescoping conveyor works as a system of pulleys.

Each boom section has a pulley at the front and the back, so as the front is brought further out, the rear is brought closer by the same amount.

This means that no matter how far the boom is extended, the chain always remains the same length.

This also allows it to be extended or retracted while the chain is being driven by the motor.

~ Feel free to follow Lars & Leopolds Blog ~

 

Captured with a manual Nikkor 50 mm ƒ1:1.2 on my Nikon Df, post processed in Lightroom using the new VSCO Film Pack 05.

"I missed the last bus

I'll take the next train

I'll try but you'll see

It's hard to explain

I say the right thing

But act the wrong way

I like it right here

But I cannot stay ..."

 

Julian Casablancas

 

How can I explain

The sorrow and my pain

I believe that you and I should be

Together once again

 

Every night I pray

That you'll come back to me

But the tears keep falling down my face

When you're not around

 

But now you're gone

Gone away

All I do is wait for you

Each and every day

 

I'm waiting for your love

I'm wondering where you are

Are you with another guy

Are you showing him your world

 

I'm waiting for your love

I want to see your smile

Brighten up my day

Yes I'm waiting for your love

Yes I'm waiting for your love

 

Many sleepless nights

I've waited by the phone

I'm wondering where you are tonight

If you're all alone

 

If I had another chance

I'd never let you go

My heart's been broken in two

And it's all because of you

  

.

Abandoned Abused Street Dogs.

Nikon D300 DX Camera.

Nikkor 17-55 2.8 Lens.

.

Mama taking a moment to explain

the rules to a young monkey boy.

 

Rule No# 1 -

Don't mess with me &

don't mess with the photo

guy.........................................;-)~

 

Rule No# 2 -

Same Same.

 

Jon&Crew.

  

Please help with your temple dog donations here.

www.gofundme.com/f/help-for-abandoned-thai-temple-dogs

  

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Invites Large Logos or Copy/Pastes.

© All rights reserved.

  

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The Battle of Bowmanville is said to be the closest Canada ever came to the fighting in WWII but it is probably one of the strangest war battles you will ever hear about. This battle was not fought with guns and bombs it was fought with baseball bats, hockey sticks and anything else they could find. This battle occurred between Saturday, October 10th, 1942 and Monday, October 12th, 1942.

 

What caused this battle? Well the shortest, easiest way to explain it is that Hitler gave the order to have Canadian PoWs shackled. So Britain said that they would do the same and sent the order to the Canadian government that German P.O.W.s would be shackled as well and the shackles would not be taken off until the Germans removed the shackles from the Canadian P.O.W.s. So when the word came down to Camp 30 that it was to shackle 100 German prisoners the head of the camp met with the highest ranking soldiers within the camp and asked for volunteers to be shackled. I'm sure you can imagine the response this request received. There were no volunteers and the next time the guards went into the camp to for a roll call they found that the P.O.W.s had barricaded themselves into the buildings and refused to come out.

 

The Camp 30 guards then called in reinforcements, commandos in training from Kingston and Barriefield. These young trainees were eager to fight the Germans.It took two attempts to regain control of the Mess hall, this is where a few Canadian soldiers were injured, one was struck in the head with a jar of jam. During the second and successful attempt to regain control of the Mess hall soldiers also chose to retake House 4 at the same time. Their approach for this building was much different than the one used for the Mess hall. For House 4 soldiers set up a fire house and poured water into the basement of the house (where the prisoners were hiding). The German soldiers eventually gave up and came up the stairs 2 by 2 with their hands in the air. After this the remaining Houses were taken back without much incident.

 

After the battle of Bowmanville the soldiers remained shackled until December 11, 1942. Although, it is said that much earlier as a guard was leaving he dropped his keys so that P.O.W.'s would be able remove their shackles during the day and put them back on for roll calls.

 

History of Buildings

 

Camp 30 is located at 2020 Lambs Rd. in Bowmanville, ON. From October 1941 to April 1945 this was known as Camp 30 but what was this area used for before that or after the P.O.W.'s left? That is what this article is about, how camp 30 became camp 30.

 

In 1922 Mr. John H. H. Jury donated his 300 acre farm (also known as the Darch Farm) to the government for them to build a school for "unadjusted boys who were not inherently delinquent". In 1927 the buildings we know as camp 30 were complete. School continued here until April 1941 when the government gave word that the school had to find a new home for the boys because the site would be turned into a prisoner of war camp right away. It is said many of the boys went to their respective homes while some others were relocated within Bowmanville to the "Rathskamoray" (the present day Lion's Centre) and some other locations.

 

Canadian officials had barely seven months to transform 2020 Lambs Road from school for boys to prisoner of war camp. Luckily the school was designed to hold lots of people but there were many tasks to covert this school to a P.O.W. camp: build wire fences (15ft apart), guard towers (9), gates and barracks for the Canadian guards. This was completed in October of 1941 as the first P.O.W.s began to arrive.

 

After the war concluded the prisoners were shipped back to Europe and the students from the boys school returned to their classes as usual.

 

"Word of Honour"

 

Ehrenwort is a german meaning Word of Honour. This was a very important phrase within camp 30 for the following reason: if german prisoners gave their word that they would not try to escape they were permitted to leave the camp. They always returned so the prisoners of war were permitted to go swimming down at the lake in the summer or in the winter go cross country skiing. To my understanding this was extremely umcommon in P.O.W. camps and probably not what the Canadian soldiers had in mind when these men were taken prisoner but in camp 30 Bowmanville it worked, the guards were happy and generally so were the prisoners.

 

Escape Attempts

 

During the years that 2020 Lambs Rd. was the home to several hundres prisoners of war there were many escape attempts, none of which were successful.

 

The first escape attempt occurred November 25, 1941 as a prisoner attempted to crawl underneath the barbed wire. He was caught immediately and given 28 days detention.

 

On December 30, 1941 one prisoner attempted to escape by hiding in a laundry truck that was leaving the camp. He was consequently caught and held in Oshawa Jail until he was returned to the camp later that same day.

 

During a routine inspection of a P.O.W. enclosure a tin can with a map and escape tools was found on July 29th, 1943.

 

There were many escape attempts as the prisoners felt it was their duty to try to escape in spite of the above average conditions in camp (it is say they lived better than most families in Bowmanville and in Germany). Perhaps the most notorious escape attempts were the tunnels. Several tunnels were attempted, some were found more quickly then others but all were eventually found, stopped and closed off. The most famous tunnel was started in Victoria Hall (prisoners referred to it as Haus IV) in the northeast corner of the floor which was closest to the fence. The tunnel was 50cm by 50cm square, it had been wired for lighting and ventilation had been installed using tin cans. Supports were positioned approximately every 1 -2 meters, the wood for these supports were taken from the attics of other buildings within the camp. The dirt removed to create the tunnel was deposited in the attic of Victoria Hall via a trolley system and men passing a bucket up to the attic via a hole cut in ceiling. Finally in September, 1943 after months of work the attic of Victoria Hall collapsed due to the weight of the dirt. This alerted the guards and consequently they found the tunnel and collapsed it.

 

Inside Camp 30

 

Inside the camp there was daily head counts at 9am and 5pm and some housing searches throughout the week. The camp having been a boys school previously had many amenities that the other P.O.W. camps were without such as the indoor pool and athletic complex as well as soccer and football fields. The prisoners played many sports including Canadian football and hockey in the winter. The P.O.W.s also took it upon themselves to build a tennis court and a mini zoo. Prisoners also received regular mail from family and sent mail as well. They received new uniforms from Germany as many were captured in adequate uniforms for daily life. They also received their regular pay which allowed them to purchase items from their canteen. The canteen offered many items for sale such as cigarettes, cigars, tobacco, pipes, matches, writing tables, pens, pencils, ink, toothpaste, toothbrush, mouthwash, razor blades, combs, soap, hair brushes, scissors, shirts, socks, mitts, shoes, sausages, eggs, cheese bacon, milk and much more! Medical and dental services were available from German doctors in Victoria Hall (Haus IV). There was also an orchestra and a theatre group that put on various shakespeare plays.

 

Due to the prisoners working at the Darch Farm their meals were far above the prisoner of war camp standards. Breakfasts consisted of coffee, jam and butter. Lunch could include roast beef, gravy potatoes and carrots. Dinner was made up of macaroni, ham, soup, cheese bacon, and/or tea.

 

There were very few complaints from the prisoners about the conditions within the camp. At one point there was a slight problem of over crowding but that quickly rectified by shipping some prisoners to another camp. The most common complaint was about the bathroom facilities as they had been built for small boys (being that they builders were built originally as a delinquent boys school) but it is said the prisoners made due.

 

ME flickr challenge card! :)

 

blogged here: fridayfinally.blogspot.it/2015/04/dear-i-can-explain.html

like here: www.facebook.com/Fridayfinally

 

Apparently- this woman’s famous-too!

 

www.berriblue.com/azulejos

 

Azuela Tile Street Art

PORTO

  

não parece bom

.. hands close to the heart, looking for words..

Dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder (MPD), is an extremely rare mental disorder characterized by at least two distinct and relatively enduring identities or dissociated personality states that alternately control a person's behavior, and is accompanied by memory impairment for important information not explained by ordinary forgetfulness. These symptoms are not accounted for by substance abuse, seizures, other medical conditions, nor by imaginative play in children. Diagnosis is often difficult as there is considerable comorbidity with other mental disorders. Malingering should be considered if there is possible financial or forensic gain, as well as factitious disorder if help-seeking behavior is prominent.

DID is one of the most controversial psychiatric disorders with no clear consensus regarding its diagnosis or treatment. Research on treatment effectiveness still focuses mainly on clinical approaches and case studies. Dissociative symptoms range from common lapses in attention, becoming distracted by something else, and daydreaming, to pathological dissociative disorders.[6] No systematic, empirically-supported definition of "dissociation" exists.

Although neither epidemiological surveys nor longitudinal studies have been done, it is thought DID rarely resolves spontaneously. Symptoms are said to vary over time.In general, the prognosis is poor, especially for those with co-morbid disorders. There are few systematic data on the prevalence of DID. The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation states that the prevalence is between 1 and 3% in the general population, and between 1 and 5% in inpatient groups in Europe and North America.[5] DID is diagnosed more frequently in North America than in the rest of the world, and is diagnosed three to nine times more often in females than in males. The prevalence of DID increased greatly in the latter half of the 20th century, along with the number of identities (often referred to as "alters") claimed by patients (increasing from an average of two or three to approximately.DID is also controversial within the legal system[3] where it has been used as a rarely-successful form of the insanity defense.The 1990s showed a parallel increase in the number of court cases involving the diagnosis.

Dissociative disorders including DID have been attributed to disruptions in memory caused by trauma and other forms of stress, but research on this hypothesis has been characterized by poor methodology. So far, scientific studies, usually focusing on memory, have been few and the results have been inconclusive. An alternative hypothesis for the etiology of DID is as a product of techniques employed by some therapists, especially those using hypnosis, and disagreement between the two positions is characterized by intense debate.DID became a popular diagnosis in the 1970s, 80s and 90s but it is unclear if the actual incidence of the disorder increased, if it was more recognized by clinicians, or if sociocultural factors caused an increase in iatrogenic presentations. The unusual number of diagnoses after 1980, clustered around a small number of clinicians and the suggestibility characteristic of those with DID, support the hypothesis that DID is therapist-induced.[15] The unusual clustering of diagnoses has also been explained as due to a lack of awareness and training among clinicians to recognize cases of DID

  

Signs and symptoms]

 

According to the fifth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), DID includes "the presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states" that alternate control of the individual's behavior, accompanied by the inability to recall personal information beyond what is expected through normal forgetfulness. In each individual, the clinical presentation varies and the level of functioning can change from severely impaired to adequate. The symptoms of dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue and depersonalization disorder are subsumed under the DID diagnosis and are not diagnosed separately. Individuals with DID may experience distress from both the symptoms of DID (intrusive thoughts or emotions) as well as the consequences of the accompanying symptoms (dissociation rendering them unable to remember specific information). The majority of patients with DID report childhood sexual and/or physical abuse, though the accuracy of these reports is controversial. Identities may be unaware of each other and compartmentalize knowledge and memories, resulting in chaotic personal lives.Individuals with DID may be reluctant to discuss symptoms due to associations with abuse, shame and fear. DID patients may also frequently and intensely experience time disturbances.

The number of alters varies widely, with most patients identifying fewer than ten, though as many as 4,500 have been reported. The average number of alters has increased over the past few decades, from two or three to now an average of approximately 16. However it is unclear whether this is due to an actual increase in alters, or simply that the psychiatric community has become more accepting of a high number of alters.The primary identity, which often has the patient's given name, tends to be "passive, dependent, guilty and depressed" with other personalities or "alters" being more active, aggressive or hostile, and often containing more complete memories. Most identities are of ordinary people, though fictional, mythical, celebrity and animal alters have also been reported.

Developmental trauma]

 

People diagnosed with DID often report that they have experienced severe physical and sexual abuse, especially during early to mid-childhood, (although the accuracy of these reports has been disputed and others report an early loss, serious medical illness or other traumatic event. They also report more historical psychological trauma than those diagnosed with any other mental illness.[not in citation given]Severe sexual, physical, or psychological trauma in childhood has been proposed as an explanation for its development; awareness, memories and emotions of harmful actions or events caused by the trauma are removed from consciousness, and alternate personalities or subpersonalities form with differing memories, emotions and behavior. DID is attributed to extremes of stress or disorders of attachment. What may be expressed as post-traumatic stress disorder in adults may become DID when occurring in children, possibly due to their greater use of imagination as a form of coping. Possibly due to developmental changes and a more coherent sense of self past the age of six, the experience of extreme trauma may result in different, though also complex, dissociative symptoms and identity disturbances. A specific relationship between childhood abuse, disorganized attachment, and lack of social support are thought to be a necessary component of DID. Other suggested explanations include insufficient childhood nurturing combined with the innate ability of children in general to dissociate memories or experiences from consciousness.

Delinking early trauma from the etiology of dissociation has been explicitly rejected by those supporting the early trauma model. However, a 2012 review article supports the hypothesis that current or recent trauma may affect an individual's assessment of the more distant past, changing the experience of the past and resulting in dissociative states. Giesbrecht et al. have suggested there is no actual empirical evidence linking early trauma to dissociation, and instead suggest that problems with neuropsychological functioning, such as increased distractibility in response to certain emotions and contexts, account for dissociative features. A middle position hypothesizes that trauma, in some situations, alters neuronal mechanisms related to memory. Evidence is increasing that dissociative disorders are related both to a trauma history and to "specific neural mechanisms". It has also been suggested that there may be a genuine but more modest link between trauma and DID, with early trauma causing increased fantasy-proneness, which may in turn render individuals more vulnerable to socio-cognitive influences surrounding the development of DID.

dédoublement de personnalité

Il est important de différencier deux termes : le dédoublement de la personnalité et la personnalité multiple.

En effet, la définition donnée est celle de la , qui fait qu'une personne possède deux (voire plus) personnalités complètement différentes, chacune ayant une vie sociale et professionelle distinctes, parfois un nom propre à chacune d'entre elles et étant parfaitement adaptées à leur(s) milieu(x). Ce n'est pas vraiment un trouble, mais une surconstruction personnelle donnant naissance à plusieurs personnalités au lieu d'une seule.

Le dédoublement de personnalité, en revanche, est un trouble de la personnalité provoqué par le subconscient, qui impose occasionnellement à la personnalité "normale" un comportement incohérent, parfois violent, incontrôlé. Il arrive que la personnalité première ne se rende plus compte de ce qu'elle fait (elle est "déconnectée") ce qui donne l'impression d'une autre personnalité, inadaptée socialement , sentimentalement et intellectuelement.

 

Ce sujet prète à polémique, car certains se contentent du terme troubles dissociatifs de l'identité (Dissociative Identity Disorder) pour englober les deux cas. La différence est de taille : avec cette notion, il n'y aurait pas plusieurs personnalités égales, mais une majeure à laquelle on doit redonner pleine maîtrise de son corps. Comme expliqué plus haut, ce serait dans un cas de dédoublement que l'on peut envisager cette façon de voir les personnalités, et non dans un cas de multiples personnalités. En effet, comment décider qu'une personnalité a plus de droit qu'une autre sur un corps, lorsqu'il n'y en a pas d'originelle ?

Je pense que le sens donné est le sens courant, non ? On peut rajouter des précisions ou mises en garde sur le sens technique du point de vue médical. Lmaltier 18 décembre 2007 à 17:05 (UTC)

En fait, les deux sont liées pour la plupart des gens, c'est pour cela qu'il faut les différencier : on a tendance à croire que les personnes ayant des personnalités multiples sont dangeureuses, peuvent avoir des accès de violence incontrolée dirigés par une personnalité instable. Ce n'est souvent pas le cas (même si c'est possible, comme pour n'importe quelle personnalité dite "normale"). Ce n'est donc pas sur un plan médical qu'il est important de les différencier, mais sur un plan humain : les personnalité multiples sont des personnalités tout ce qu'il y a de plus banales, mais sont persécutées à cause de la mauvaise image que l'on a d'elles, dûe aux dédoublement de personnalités qui, eux, sont des cas de dissociation de personnalités potentiellement dangereux car instables. S Vidal 20 décembre 2007 à 13:20 (UTC)

Peut-être, mais on étudie le mot, pas la maladie (faut voir Wikipédia pour ça). On peut mettre en garde sur les différents sens utilisés, mais c'est tout. Lmaltier 20 décembre 2007 à 17:21 (UTC)

mais justement, le problème est là ! on utilise un même mot pour deux choses différentes... si la définition du mot est faussée, l'étude de ce mot n'a pas lieu d'être, pas sans précisions...

PRECISION:

Il n'y a pas de différence entre ces deux troubles, ils n'en forment en vérité qu'un seul. Le trouble de la personnalité multiple était le nom donné auparavent à cet état, et maintenant il s'appelle Trouble dissociatif de l'identité. Dans les deux cas (puisque ça n'est en fait qu'une maladie) des traumas subits de façon répétitifs ont poussé la personnalité de l'enfant à se dissocier, pour pouvoir supporter les chocs traumatiques, le manque d'attention, etc. Les personnalités apparaissent à différents moments, et peuvent même restées complètement cachées jusqu'assez tard dans la vie d'un individu, avant les premières vraies crises, souvent dues à un stress ou un choc émotionnel important. Elles ont différent degrés de constructions émotionnelles, intellectuelles et sociales, ce qui peut penser à une structure de multiples personnalités toutes égales. Il n'en est en fait rien. même quand on parle de personnalité hote qui doit rester alors que les autres doivent disparaitre, ce n'est pas encore tout à fait juste. Toutes les peronnalités doivent, petit à petit à petit et au long d'une thérapie qui apprendra au patient multiple à se construire et trouver le moyen d'affronter autrement ses traumas passés et à venir, fusionner et ne redevenir qu'une seule et même entité, plus stable, et capable de vivre pleinement sa vie.

dédoublement de la personnalité[modifier]

 

Ma soeur jumelle souffre de ce trouble depuis l'âge de 16 ans mais ne le reconnait que depuis peu,depuis sa première grosse crise. Elle peut changer de comportement d'une minute à l'autre,laissant place à une femme extravertie et sans limites..alcool,hommes,jeux.. Souvent il lui arrive de se réveiller sans souvenirs de la veille et découvre que son compte en banque a fondu p.ex. Elle devient également plus brusque,plus mauvaise.quand l'alcool s'en mêle elle n'a plus de limites et se bagarre violement(en général avec des hommes)et fini parfois à l'hôpital après avoir brutalisé le personnel infirmier.La plupart du temps perd connaissance. Mais reste persuadée que rien de tout ça ne s'est produit.. Qu'y a-t-il à faire pour atténuer cette maladie?Existe-t-il un moyens de guérison?

Ma plus grande question,pouvons-nous faire confiance aux personnes atteintes de ce trouble?

  

Il existe un moyen. Il faut emmener la personne a l'hopital, et les medecins vous donnerons un planing a respecter. (ex: ce coucher a une heure exacte et ne pas manger n'importe quoi). mais attention il faut emmener la personne au plus vite a l'hopital car elle peut passer a l'acte.

   

credits:http://poorintentions.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/hard-to-explain-2/

Ever wonder about the orange triangle on the subway walls? It's a marker for how far the rear guard should keep watching the platform with his head out the window as the train exits the station

This little girl explains the Nightwatch to her disbelieving companion.

Ara Pacis