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This was taken at a sculpture garden in a estate called Grande Provence, Franschhoek, Cape Town, South Africa.
Opal is a stone of inspiration which enhances the imagination and creativity as well. It helps one release inhibitions and enhances the memory.
The forms are in place and concrete is poured at the brand-new CCS-agriKomp on-farm reference plant in Millbrook, Ontario.
More info here:
info.octaform.com/blog/bid/38924/Canadians-Bring-German-B...
Exercise in Form and Perception 12 angles (Freestanding and balanced plywood construction, 62cm x 52cm x 28cm, Dirk Marwig 2016)
*This pic shows 12 angles of the object, turning it on the axis. This object stands on any solid and level surface.
Zwei Tonlampen in Form von Gladiatorenhelmen.
Links ein Murmillo oder Thraex Helm des zweiten bis dritten Jahrhunderts.
Das Punktmuster entspricht der Fischschuppenähnlichen Verzinnung des echten Helmes:
www.flickr.com/photos/40060535@N05/galleries/721576229692...
Rechts ein Secutor Helm.
Die Verstärkung um die Augenlöcher ist aufwendig verziert.
Two lamps formed like Gladiator helmets.
The left one is a 2nd-3rd AD Murmillo or Thraex helmet.
The dotet surface resembles the tinned "fishscales" of the real helmet:
www.flickr.com/photos/40060535@N05/galleries/721576229692...
Right a Secutor helmet.
The reinforcement around the eyeholes is elaborately ornamented
Suspended Animation Classic #176
Originally published May 10, 1992 (#19)
(Dates are approximate)
Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics
By Michael Vance
Although the components of comic strips had existed for thousands of years in varying forms and places, it was R. F. Outcault who put dialogue, story, art, and characters together to create the comic strip. His “Yellow Kid” began on Oct. 18, 1896 in the “American Humorist”. Yes, Virginia, America did create comic books and strips.
Oddly enough, readers had to wait until 1977 for the definitive book on strips to be published by the Smithsonian Institution. It is called “Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics” and is big enough – 336 pages – and heavy enough to make your coffee table moan … with pleasure. Its editors, Bill Blackbeard and Martin Williams, have collected over a thousand examples of the world’s most popular artform in this volume, and it’s a delight to read.
What’s inside? The familiar: “Popeye”, “Pogo”, “Peanuts,” “Little Orphan Annie”, “Alley Oop”, “Little Abner”, “Dick Tracy”, “Tarzan”, “Flash Gordon” and hundreds more. Unless you’re a comics strip historian, you’ll also find the unfamiliar: “Little Nemo in Slumberland”, “Bringing Up Father”, “Krazy Kat”, “The Gumps”, “Barnaby”, “The Katzenjammer Kids”, “The Bungle Family”, and “Our Boarding House”. Although most are reprinted in black and white, there are dozens of beautiful color pages as well.
You’ll also find one of the most comprehensive and well written histories on comic strips ever written. You’ll learn that “Mutt and Jeff” was the first daily comic strip, beginning in 1907 in San Francisco. It was also the first nationally syndicated daily strip. You’ll discover that “Buck Rogers” was the first science-fiction strip. You’ll learn that almost all of the first strips featured “naughty” children, and were not written for an audience of children.
And you’ll come away from reading this massive, oversized volume with a new respect for this American artform. At the very least, you’ll leave with a warm feeling of nostalgia for the days you spent having the “Funnies” read to you by mom and dad.
You may order this collection from the Smithsonian or through your local bookstore. So, whatcha waitin’ for? Go. Buy. Enjoy!!
This photo forms part of a project about everyday South Africans and their bicycles.
Support this project and pre-order your copy of the book - Bicycle Portraits by Day One
Gams Hassen
7 Carr str., Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa
2010 / 08 / 06 12:17
'I do it for myself, I've got like a tuck shop. The bicycle, I look for it at a scrap yard. Just the frame and now and then you come across a carrier like this. You see - look you shouldn't make a bicycle beautiful, as long as the heart is right then everything is in condition - haha. You'll make it pretty for another thief - haha. I ride a new motorbike too. It stands there at the home, cause just now it will make me old. It is good to keep oneself loose. I shouldn't sit around. I just go to the scrap yard, even get wheels there. I take it home and pull them straight. You know a back wheel in the shop, a complete wheel is like R400. I've been riding over twenty, thirty years. I'm 55 now. I've got another two three wheel bicycles at home. Those old time ones, I still ride them. Those with the carriers in the front. Look this bicycle has a BMX fork. A BMX yes.The original fork is not that strong, not as strong as a BMX. I can ride down from the pavement nothing happens - see this bike is carrying a load. I've built in its hub there. I ride here on the pavement, I don't ride there in the road. I just say hey! And ring the bell, I'm not going to bump you - just excuse me. These guys in the cars, I don't know them. They might be drunk or pills drunk - look our thoughts aren't running the same, I'm riding my way and he is riding his way. I used to work at the service products, making furniture and school desks, working for the government - the the big tanker. That was my last job, but I'm not working for someone anymore, I'll work for myself - until I die. Look the money the government gives us it only meant for your rent, your insurance and only a little bit of food, not a lot. That beautiful car, bike and clothes you have in your bag - now you want to tell me R1800 is alot of money. If you have a house that is not much. I do things like gather beer bottles. I give them 20 cents then I go get 50 cents. There the money rises a little more - just like a money box. Now where I'm I going to get money that easily?'
"Anything above form, called the Tao.
Anything below form, called things "
"Book of Changes"
Models: Bob & Bertran
Place: My Studio
Date: October 6, 2009
Diálogos de luta Y Arte Cosmopolítica
questão de (des)ordem: será preciso ressignificar a linguagem política das coisas, transmutar os corpos políticos, ultrapassar a polaridade dos poderes, explodir a supremacia da força, dos modos de vida vendidos à forcepis, instaurar pequenos ritos, aos milhares, makumbas, outras formas de cultivar a vida, a terra, a cultura, o afeto.
a lua nova em caranguejo pede: carinho e afeto
IÁ !
Ato ocorrido no TEatro Oficina no dia 06/06/2016
Form 5 Confirmation Mass 2021
English session 1
16 Confirmants
Celebrated by Father Andrew Wong
Universal Prayer
Raymond Jonson's Cloud Forms and Mesas No. 1, an oil paint on canvas, was executed in 1926. When Jonson first visited New Mexico in 1922, he found that the landscape fit his increasingly abstract approach. Although modern styles like cubism were not popularly accepted at the time, Jonson pushed the envelope with painitings like this one, which simplified the lanscape into flat, geometric forms.
The Denver Art Museum, a private, non-profit museum, is known for its collection of American Indian art. Its impressive collection of more than 68,000 works includes pieces from around the world including modern and contemporary art, European and American painting and sculpture, and pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial art. The museum was originally founded in 1893 as the Denver Artists Club. In 1918, it moved into galleries in the Denver City and County Building, and became the Denver Art Museum.
In 1971, the museum opened what is now known as the North Building, designed by Italian architect Gio Ponti and Denver-based James Sudler Associates. The seven-story structure, 210,000-square-foot building allowed the museum to display its collections under one roof for the first time. The Frederic C. Hamilton Building, designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind and Denver firm Davis Partnership Architects, opened on October 7, 2006 to accommodate the Denver Art Museum's growing collections and programs.
Title: Requsition form for the 20th Regiment, South Carolina Volunteers,
signed by States Rights Gist
Date Original: 1862-02-15
Description: Requisition for ordnance (muskets, bayonets,
cartridges, cap pouches, belts) for the use of the 20th Regiment, South Carolina
Volunteers.
Creator: Gist, States Rights, 1831-
Keith, L.M.
Subject: Charleston (S.C.)
Gist, States Rights, 1831-
Keitt, Lawrence M.
Confederate States of America -- Appropriations and expenditures
Confederate States of America -- History -- Sources
Confederate States of America--Armed forces--History--Sources
South Carolina -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Sources
Confederate States of America. Army--Ordnance and ordnance
stores.
Confederate States of America. Army. South Carolina Infantry
Regiment, 20th
Alternative Title: 070425-95
Publisher: Wofford College
Contributor: Keith, L.M.
Date Digital: 2008-09-03
Type: Text
Format [medium]: Manuscript
Format [IMT]: image/jpeg
Digitization Specifications: 800ppi 24-bit depth color; Scanned with
an Epson 15000 Photo scanner with Epson Scan software; Archival master is a
TIFF; Original converted to JPEG with Irfan View software.
Resource Identifier: 070425-95
Source: The original, accession number 070425-95, from which
this digital representation is taken is housed in The
Littlejohn Collection at Wofford College,
located in the Sandor Teszler Library.
Language: En-us English
Relation [is part of]:The
Littlejohn Collection
Rights Management: This digital representation has been
licensed under an Attribution
- Noncommercial- No Derivatives Creative Commons license.
Contributing Institution: Wofford College
Web Site: http://www.wofford.edu/library/littlejohn-home.aspx
Vogrie House forms the centrepiece of Vogrie Country Park in Midlothian. It is the former home of the Dewar family and was built in 1876 by Andrew Heiton, the town Architect for Perth.
The house is an example of Victorian baronial splendour and is said to be one of the best surviving examples of Heiton's work. The house was a typical country house with a library, servants' quarters and many bedrooms.
Transformed in the 1920s into a nursing home for the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, the house was sold on to local government in the 1950s and had a role during the Cold War as a control centre for communications.
Geometric Forms, Alexandra Wejchert. Polished stainless steel and consists of six identical elements connected at the centre. Each of the semi-crescent elements is cut from a 6mm flat plate with the edges stiffened by 200 x 100mm plates welded to it. 7.0m x 4.5m - Located in front of the Robert Schuman Building
Starting form the left ; Brea Tonnika, one of the Tonnika sisters ...Who Hasbro still has not made a figure for ! So hats off to Galoob !
Next is the first version made of this guy .Galoob named Advozsec...And Hasbro's awesome 3 3/4 scale version is named Bom Vimdin, I believe ....
Then Arcona, whom I think this was the first version of ...Then Hasbro made a 3 3/4 scale version as well . I don't know his name off the top of my head ...
Formed on the 19th June 1981 with a mandate to preserve, promote and provide racing for cars with a competition history, the Historic Sports & Racing Car Association has around 900 members.
Since its inception, the Association has promoted around 100 Historic Race meetings, along with providing driver training days, technical days, social events, and all those activities related to being the only motor-sport and heritage based racing car club in the state of New South Wales.
The Tasman Revival meeting is one of the activities promoted by the Club.
Attachment theory describes several behavioural systems, the function of which is to regulate human attachment, fear, exploration, care-giving, peer-affiliation and sex. Attachment is defined as any form of behaviour that results in a person attaining and retaining proximity to a differentiated other. The primary caregiver is the source of the infants stress regulation and, therefore, sense of safety and security. Attachment theory emphasises the role of the parent as mediator, reflector and moderator of the childs mind and the childs reliance on the parent to respond to their affective states in ways that are contingent to their internal experience, a process often referred to as secure base/safe haven functioning. Within the close parent-child relationship neural networks dedicated to feelings of safety and danger, attachment and the core sense of self are sculpted and shaped. These networks are conceptualised as internal working models of attachment.
Characteristic patterns of interaction operating within the familys caregiving-attachment system give rise to secure, insecure and disorganized patterns of attachment. These discrete patterns have been categorized using the Strange Situation research procedure, which observes the young childs behaviour when separated and reunited with his or her primary caregiver. Attachment patterns are represented in the childs internal working models of self-other relationships. Secure attachment is promoted by the interactive regulation of affect, which facilitates the recognition, labelling and evaluation of emotional and intentional states in the self and in others, a capacity known as reflective function or mentalization. The recognition of affects as having dynamic, transactional properties is the key to understanding behaviour in oneself and in another. The child comes to recognize his or her mental states as meaningful self-states via a process of parental affect mirroring and marking. Secure children are able to use sophisticated cognitive strategies to integrate and resolve their fear of separation and loss.
When the parent is unavailable, inconsistent or unpredictable, the infant develops one of two organized insecure patterns of attachment: avoidant or ambivalent-resistant. These defensive strategies involve either the deactivation or hyper-activation of the attachment system. Deactivation is characterized by avoidance of the caregiver and by emotional detachment. In effect, the avoidant child immobilizes the attachment system by excluding thoughts and feelings that normally activate the system. Hyper-activation is manifested by an enmeshed ambivalent preoccupation with the caregiver and with negative emotions, particularly anger. However, in common with the avoidant child, the ambivalent child appears to cognitively disconnect feelings from the situation that elicited the distress. Disorganised-disoriented attachment is discussed below.
Attachment research, then, demonstrates that discrete patterns of secure, insecure, and disorganized attachment have as their precursor a specific pattern of caregiver-infant interaction and their own behavioural sequelae. Repeated patterns of interpersonal experience are encoded in implicit-procedural memory and conceptualized as self-other working models of attachment. These mental models consist of generalized beliefs and expectations about relationships between the self and key attachment figures, not the least of which concerns ones worthiness to receive love and care from others.
In sum, the care-giving environment generally, and the infant-caregiver attachment relationship particularly, initiate the child along one of an array of potential developmental pathways. Disturbance of attachment is the outcome of a series of deviations that take the child increasingly further from adaptive functioning. Child abuse and cumulative developmental trauma violate the childs sense of trust, identity and agency and have pernicious and seminal influences on the developing personality. In essence, internal working models of early attachment relationships provide the templates for psychopathology in later life, which may include violent, destructive and self-destructive forms of behaviour. In attachment theory, the main purpose of defence is the regulation of emotions. The primary mechanisms for achieving this are distance regulation and the defensive exclusion of thoughts and feelings associated with attachment trauma.
Early trauma in the form of abuse, loss, neglect and severe parent-child misattunement compromises brain-mediated functions such as attachment, empathy and affect regulation. From an attachment theory perspective, patterns of attachment are encoded and stored as generalized relational patterns in the systems of implicit memory. These are conceptualized as cognitive-affective internal working models which are seen as mediating how we think and feel about ourselves, others and the relationships we develop. Although open to change and modification in the light of new attachment experiences, whether positive or negative, these non-conscious procedural models, scripts or schemas within which early stress and trauma are retained, tend to persevere and guide, appraise and predict attachment-related thoughts, feelings and behaviours throughout the life cycle via the implicit memory system. Psychopathology is seen as deriving from an accumulation of maladaptive interactional patterns that result in character traits and personality types and disorders.
Disorganised attachment may occur when the childs parent is both the source of fear and the only protective figure to whom to turn to resolve stress and anxiety. In such instances, neither proximity seeking nor proximity avoiding is a solution to the activation of the childs attachment and fear behavioural systems. If the trauma remains unresolved and is carried into adulthood, it leaves the individual vulnerable to affect dysregulation in interpersonal conflict situations that induce fear, hate, shame and rage. In such cases, alcohol and illicit drugs are often resorted to as a maladaptive means of suppressing dreaded psychobiological states and restoring a semblance of affective equilibrium.
Findings show that disorganised attachment developed in infancy shifts to controlling behaviour in the older child and adult, reflecting an internalized mental model of the self as unlovable, unworthy of care and support, and fearful of rejection, betrayal and abandonment. Disorganised attachment is associated with a predisposition to relational violence, to dissociative states and conduct disorders in children and adolescents, and to personality disorders in adults. This state of mind constitutes a primary risk factor for the development of borderline, anti-social and sociopathic personality disorders. The rate of such disorders in forensic settings is particularly high. Clinically, dissociated traumatic experience is unsymbolized by thought and language, being encapsulated within the personality as a separate, non-reflective reality which is cut off from authentic human relatedness. The information contained in implicit memory may be retrieved by state-dependent moods and situations. Dissociated archaic internal working models are then activated, influencing and distorting expectations of current events and relationships outside of conscious awareness, particularly in situations involving intense interpersonal stress. In such situations, the self is felt to be endangered, thereby increasing the risk of an angry and potentially violent reaction.
Parallel Pleat Forms Hyperbolic Paraboloid Shelter
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zhuS6jxJwk
Tutorial 6 Hyperbolic Paraboloid Shelter.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c2n44hW8bg
Hyperbolic-Paraboloid Shelter
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATHlcgRyjNo
Hyperbolic-Paraboloid Doubly-Ruled Shelter
Masonic Rough Ashlar.
The Latin assis was a board or plank; in the diminutive form, assula, it meant a small board, like a shingle, or a chip. In this con-nection it is interesting to note that our "axle" and' "axis" were derived from it. In early English this became asheler and was used to denote a stone in the rough as it came from the quarries. The Operative Masons called such a stone a "rough ashlar," and when it had been shaped and finished for its place in the wall they called it a "perfect ashlar." An Apprentice is a rough ashlar, because unfinished, whereas a Master Mason is a perfect ashlar, because he has been shaped for his place in the organization of the Craft.
The publication of a number of Minute Books of old Lodges since it was written calls for a revision of the paragraph on ASHLAR, on page 107. In one of his memoranda on the building of St. Paul s, Sir Christopher Wren shows by the context that as the word was there and then used an ashlar was a stone, ready-dressed from the quarries (costing about $5.00 in our money), for use in walls ; and that a "perpend asheler" was one with polished ends each of which would lie in a surface of the wall ; in that case a "rough" ashlar was not a formless mass of rock, but was a stone ready for use, no surface of which would appear in the building walls; it was unfinished in the sense of unpolished. In other records, of which only a few have been found, a "perpend" ashlar was of stone cut with a key in it so as to interlock with a second stone cut correspondingly.
It is doubtful if the Symbolic Ashlars were widely used among the earliest Lodges; on the other hand they are mentioned in Lodge inventories often enough to make it certain that at least a few of the old Lodges used them ; and since records were so meagerly kept it is possible that their use may have been more common than has been believed. On April 11, 1754, Old Dundee Lodge in Wapping, London, "Resolved that A New Perpend Ashlar Inlaid with Devices of Masonry Valued at £2 12s. 6d. be purchased. " The word ''new'' proves that the Lodge had used an Ashlar before 1754, perhaps for many years before; the word "devices" duggests long years of symbolic use.
It is obvious that the Ashlars as referred to in the above were not like our own Perfect and Imperfect Ashlars. It is certain that our use of them did not originate in America ; there are no known data to show when or where they originated, but it is reasonable to suppose that Webb received them from Preston, or else from English Brethren in person who knew the Work in Preston's period. Operative Masons doubtless used the word in more than one sense, depending on time and place ; and no rule can be based on their Practice.
The Speculative Masons after 1717, as shown above, must have used "Perfect Ashlar" in the sense of "Perpend Ashlar"; nevertheless the general purpose of the symbolism has been the same throughout - a reminder to the Candidate that he is to think of himself as if he were a building stone and that he will be expected to polish himself in manners and character in order to find a place in the finished Work of Masonry. The contrast between the Rough Ashlar and the Perfect Ashlar is not as between one man and another man, thereby generating a snobbish sense of superiority; but as between what a man is at one stage of his own self-development and what he is at another stage.
In Sir Christopher Wren's use of "ashlar" (he was member of Lodge of Antiquity) the stone had a dimension of 1 x 1 x 2 feet; and many building records, some of them very old, mention similar dimensions; certainly, the "perpend" or "perfect" ashlar almost never was a cube, because there are few places in a wall where a cube will serve. Because in our own symbolism the Perfect Ashlar is a cube, a number of commentators on symbolism have drawn out of it pages of speculation on the properties of the cube, and on esoteric meanings they believe those properties to possess; the weight possessed by those theorizing is proportionate to the knowledge and intelligence of the commentator; but in any event these cubic interpretations do not have the authority of Masonic history behind them.
NOTE: During the many years of building and re-building at Westminster Abbey the clerk of the works kept a detailed account of money expended, money received, wages, etc. These records, still in existence, are called Fabric Rolls. In the Fabric Roll for 1253 the word "asselers" occurs many times, and means dressed stones, or ashlars. A "perpens" or "parpens," or "perpent-stone" was "a through stone," presumably because it was so cut that each end was flush with a face of the wall. It proves that "perpend ashlar" was not a "perfect ashlar" in the present sense of being a cube.
- Source: Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry
This Masonic Perfect Ashlar was presented to the Barton Lodge by W.Bro. C. H. Webster in 5846.
Rough and Perfect Ashlar
A rough and perfect ashlar are stones which symbolize Man's moral and spiritual life.
Cutting stone to uniform shapes and sizes requires the skill and experience of a true craftsman with many years of experience.
This is why, historically, only large edifices (buildings) were made of ashlars (rather than brick or wood), due to the necessity (and difficulty) of assembling the many skilled craftsman needed to complete the many subsets of knowledge such as how to build a stone archway, how to lay foundation stone, and how to lay stone, one atop another to great heights...not to mention the artisans who sculpted the stones into ornamental shapes.
In days of old, apprentice masons cut and raised the Rough Ashlars from the stone quarry under the supervision of more experienced craftsman, called Fellowcrafts.
The work was accomplished under the watchful eye of the Master masons of the craft...those who had proved their ability to make their Master's piece to the satisfaction of their superiors.
In Freemasonry, there are 2 forms of ashlars.
Rough Ashlar
In operative Freemasonry, the rough ashlar represents a rough, unprepared or undressed stone. In speculative Freemasonry, a rough ashlar is an allegory to the uninitiated Freemason prior to his discovering enlightenment.
Perfect Ashlar
Operatively, the Perfect ashlar represents the dressed stone (after it has been made uniform and smoothed) by use of the working tools, the common gavel, (mallet) and chisel. (The chisel may be found in English Freemasonry, but is not used in the United States as a Freemason symbol.)
Only after the stone has been dressed by an experienced stonemason, can it be suitable to be placed into the architectural structure or building.
Speculatively, a Perfect Ashlar is an allegory to a Freemason who, through Masonic education, works to achieve an upstanding life and diligently strives to obtain enlightenment.
Rough and Perfect Ashlars
In the Fellowcraft Degree, we see the use of the Rough and Perfect Ashlars. The lesson to be learned is that by means of education and the acquirement of knowledge, a man improves the state of his spiritual and moral being.
Like man, each Rough Ashlar begins as an imperfect stone. With education, cultivation and brotherly love, man is shaped into a being which has been tried by the square of virtue and encircled by the compasses of his boundaries, given to us by our Creator.
Rough and Perfect Ashlar: Fitted For The Builder's Use
In ancient times, quarried stone which could be easily shaped into desired configurations, was called "freestone". Typical freestones are limestone and sandstone.
Then, as now, only after refining and smoothing these rough stones into their desired shape, were the stonemasons able to "fit them for the builder's use".
In the Fellowcraft degree, the Rough Ashlar represents a man's unrefined state and his need for improvement. He learns that the goal of being a better man includes spirituality of thought and striving for perfection of conduct. Via duties, expectations and obligations, he is charged to work toward these goals of self improvement.
As the Freemason "smoothes" his rough edges, internally and externally; he becomes a better man and, therefore, a better Freemason.
Once a man has perfected his ashlar to the best of his ability,... as Brothers to all mankind, it is his duty to help others become better men and better Freemasons.
Rough and Perfect Ashlar - The Potential For Change
All rough ashlars must have within them the potential to be made into a perfect ashlar.
The stone must be made of sound material and have a minimum of character flaws which may cause it to weaken the edifice (building). It must be capable of being worked into a perfect stone. This is why candidates for the degrees are asked many questions as to their qualifications and character about why they wish to become Freemasons.
The candidate must have the potential to both serve and support the Fraternity. He must be carefully inspected, just as each Rough Ashlar is inspected for quality in order to be able to "fit" him into Freemasonry's tenets and goals, which are compatible to God's laws.
An imperfect stone may be made perfect, however major flaws are difficult to overcome and when assembled into a structure, the entire structure can be weakened from its improper use. This is as true of men as it is of stones.
Rough and Perfect Ashlar - States of Metamorphose
Freemasonry has a glorious history. Flawed ashlars can bring negative feelings and reproach upon the Fraternity from non-Freemasons in the outside world and therefore, can have no place within its walls.
...That said,...let us not forget that perfect ashlars are not found lying about the stone quarry without benefit of their having been hammered, chiseled and polished into such a state of being.
It also holds true that "perfect" men are also such an anomaly without the benefit of brotherly love, guidance and light. There are very few Freemasons who have not been in both the rough and perfect ashlar state-of-being at some point in their lives.
Freemason Duties For the Future of the Craft
1. Freemasons must give serious consideration to our personal responsibility to educate other Brothers toward their self improvement.
Like the Good Samaritan in the Holy Books; it is in the giving and assistance to others in which you will find the true "jewels" of enlightenment. True Master Masons not only exemplify the tenets of the craft, but they teach what they learn.
2. Lodges should carefully judge the potential of each candidate, weighing both their character and their potential for change. For more information as to how to properly perform this duty, see my page Masonic Investigation Committee.
3. Each Freemason is charged to extend the hand of brotherly love and affection to help new Freemasons become better men and strive to live on the square, stand upright with the plumb and take their true place as a man who would make his Creator (the Almighty), proud of him.
The lesson of the Rough and Perfect Ashlar applies to all men who are worthy,...who have a heartfelt wish to go from ignorance to knowledge,...from darkness to light...and from death to life.
The following poem, written by Mary Brooks Picken, entitled, "Thimblefuls of Friendliness" was written in 1924, and, perhaps says it, best.
"Thimblefuls of Friendliness"
"Isn't it strange that Princes and Kings
And clowns that caper in sawdust rings,
And just plain folks like you and me,
Are builders for Eternity?
To each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass and a book of rules,
And each must make ere life is flown,
A stumbling block, or a stepping stone.
So,...it's up to you. What will YOU decide to build with YOUR working tools?
The Ashlars - Author Unknown
We are told that the Ashlars lie open in the lodge for the brethren to moralize on. Did you ever see a brother contemplating the Ashlars and trying to derive some moral benefit from them? For the most part they are quickly referred to and just as quickly forgotten. The Ashlar is the freestone as it comes from the quarry. The Rough Ashlar is the stone in its rude and natural state and is emblematic of man in his natural state – ignorant, uncultivated and vicious. But when education has exerted it’s wholesome influence in expanding his intellect, restraining his passions and purifying his life, he then is represented by the Perfect Ashlar which, under the skillful hands of workman, has been smoothed and squared and fitted for its place in the building.
However, you will observe that the Rough Ashlar in a Masonic Lodge is not in its rude or natural state. It has been squared in a fashion, partially smoothed and has apparent strength and solidarity. It possesses all the qualities that could make it a perfect stone for use in the construction of the Temple, but it needs the hands and skill of the perfect Craftsman to bring about that result. It represents the candidate for membership in a Masonic Lodge. Such an applicant is not in his rude or natural state, neither ignorant, uncultivated nor vicious.
Masonry does not accept men of such qualifications. The applicant by education and perseverance has fitted himself as a respectable man in his community, assuming full responsibility as a citizen, a churchman and a member of his family. There is a vast number of men in every community possessing such qualifications who are not members of a Masonic Lodge, and may never have the desire to associate themselves with the Ancient Craft.
A man judges Masonry by the actions and manner of living of those he knows are members of the Order, but knows little or nothing of its teachings or objectives in the building of character. In that sense, he is in the crude state of the rough Ashlar, possessing all the qualities or perfect material, but lacking the polish that comes from a continued study and practice of the great teachings of Masonry.
Membership in a lodge does not make a man a Mason. He must apply his abilities to improving all in him that falls short of that high standard set by Masonry in character and citizen building. If he is satisfied with being a Master Mason in name only, he loses the benefits of further advancement and improvement offered by membership in the Order. In other words, he falls far short of anything that might be termed the Perfect Ashlar.
The Perfect Ashlar is for the more expert Craftsman to try and adjust his jewels on. In ancient times, with crude tools that would not even be used in this age, workmen of great skill and experience produced material for the construction of the Temple having such perfection that each piece fitted perfectly into its place without adjustment or correction. Time was not one of the essential factors; perfection was the goal.
To keep this state of perfection in absolute balance, a standard must have been set whereby the workmen could constantly test their tools to know that continued wear and use had not changed the measurements; even in the slightest degree. Did they have a Perfect Ashlar on which to make such a test?
We are told that the Perfect Ashlar is for the more expert workmen to “try” and adjust their tools on. In Masonry, we are the workmen, whether we be active or inactive, workers or drones. What are our “jewels”, our most prized possession? If we have absorbed any of the teachings Masonry, the building of character and a Christian way of life are two of the many jewels that should constantly be before us. And in the building of that state of perfection to which we attain, what Perfect Ashlar have we that we might go to and “try” the tools with which we have been working, to know that they are still of fine quality and in perfect condition for the job that lies before us.
In every Masonic Lodge there rests on the Altar in the center of the room the V.O.T.S.L. It is the solid foundation upon which Masonry in our lives is built. It never changes. Civilizations may come and go, but the Book of Books remains the same, adaptable to all conditions and manner of men, in good times and bad, in peace or war, a guide for mankind.
How often do we consult this Guide to try and adjust the jewels which are ours and which may need to be altered to get them back to that state of perfection which we as Masons should endeavor at all times to hold as our standard way of life? I am afraid that in this busy world of today, we neglect this practice. Therefore, as we think of the Ashlars and try to do a little moralizing, let us forget, even for a brief period, the material things in our lives, and direct our thoughts to the more important duty of contemplating our own defects and shortcomings, and adjusting our way of life and bringing it more in harmony with that standard given us by the Great Creator in the V.O.T.S.L.
The Ashlars are not just two pieces of stone. They represent what we have been and what we hope to be. It is up to each individual Mason to pass his own judgment on himself and to adjust his jewels accordingly, so that when the time comes and he lays down his tools and makes the final journey to the Grand Lodge Above, he may leave behind a reputation as a wise counselor, a pillar of strength and stability, a Perfect Ashlar on which younger Masons may test the correctness and value of their own contribution to the Masonic order.
De skydivers van Nationaal Paracentrum Teuge (paracentrumteuge.nl) naderen elkaar voor het vormen van de formatie. Een fotograaf hangt boven de groep. Onderin het beeld zie je de wolken komen waar de groep kort hierna doorheen ging. De parachutisten sprongen van ruim 14.000ft (meer dan 4 kilometer) en zaten ruim 6 kilometer van mij verwijderd. Foto's gemaakt met 714mm telescoop met 2x converter. Als je de cropfactor van 1.6x mee rekent is dit 2285mm.
Zie meer skydiving foto's, waaronder de sprong uit de Skyvan op :
www.flickr.com/photos/wblokzijl/sets/72157645156793786/
The skydivers from Nationaal Paracentrum Teuge (paracentrumteuge.nl) approaching eachother to form a formation. A photographer is hovering above them to capture the action. They jumped out of SC-7 Skyvan OE-FDI.
More skydiving pictures, including their jump out of the Skyvan :
In Hindu system of religion to worship the God in a human form is regarded as the highest form of worship. In old Vedic era it is the Acharya (The Master/Teacher) who was worshipped as the embodiment of the God. Even today all the popular religious beliefs, like Vaishnavism, Bauls and the others, consider a human form as a temple of the God.
Kumari puja is one such ritual where the Goddess durga is being invoked and worshipped within the form of a virgin girl whose age is between 1 to 16 years. This ritual is being observed mostly on the third day, that is "Maha Astami", of Durga puja while in some places the fourth day, that is "Maha Navami", is considered to be the day for it. Kumari puja is actually a Tantrik ritual of Sadhana (worship) which is believed to bring great blessings on the worshipper. Different Tantras have extensive discussions on the methods and procedures to be followed by different categories of Sadhakas (worshipper); however I think the ritual is not being observed in all its rigorous details now-a-days during the puja, at least that is not realistically possible.
The choice of the virgin for Kumari puja is not made based on caste, religion or social backgroung, rather the physical, emotional and mental characteristics are taken into consideration. Swami Vivekananda is said to have worshipped a Muslim girl as a Kumari. The girls at different ages are believed to represent the different manifestations of the Goddess: A girl of 1 year is called Sandhya, of 2 years Saraswati, of 3 years Tridhamurti, of 4 years Kalika, of 5 years Subhaga, of 6 years Uma, of 7 years Malini, of 8 years Kuvjika, of 9 years Kalasandarbha, of 10 years Aparajita, of 11 years Rudrani, of 12 years Bhairavi, of 13 years Mahalaksmi, of 14 years Pithanayika, of 15 years Ksetrajna and of 16 years Annada or Amvika.
While chanting the "Mantras" (text from Holy Scriptures) different postures are assumed and these are strictly guided by the rituals of the puja.
Acknowledgement: I like to give thanks to the family members of Rani Rashmoni's house at Jaanbazar, Kolkata, for allowing me to photograph the rituals at their premises.
Jaanbazar, Kolkata.
October, 2007