Imagination! pavilion in Future World at Epcot

 

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Photo taken by Joachim and processed by me, the black border is for flickr presentation as didn't want to crop but didn't like photo looking uneven and too one side. (please view in future, large)

 

processing this has pushed me to desperately want too shoot out side, one of reasons all ways use back drop is i get very paranoid, but need to get over my fear and shoot in different places.

 

Thank you Joachim for great shot to process !!!!

Thank you all for such amazing comments on last upload will try respond tonight and i'm behind with messages so sorry and will try catch later.

 

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website

My collection of Disney Store and Disney Parks Tinker Bell dolls that I have deboxed. I have not deboxed the early 2012 mini doll sets (both US and UK versions), nor the 2012 UK 10'' Flutter Wing Tinker Bell. Also not included is the Disney Parks Littler Tinker Bell 15'' toddler doll. Also not included are Disney Fairies besides Tink. I have many Tinker Bell plush, figurines, ornaments and other merchandise which I will show in future group photos. Coming soon to the US is the 2014 Tinker Bell Flutter Wing doll, redesigned to promote The Pirate Fairy movie.

 

Back Row (10-11'' Dolls)

Disney Parks Princess Collection 11'' Tinker Bell Doll (2011)

Disney Store Classic 10'' Tinker Bell Flutter Wing Doll (2011)

Disney Store Secret of the Wings 10'' Tinker Bell Flutter Wing Doll (2012)

Disney Store Classic 10'' Tinker Bell Flutter Wing Doll (2012)

 

Front Row

Disney Store Secret of the Wings 5'' Tinker Bell Mini Doll (2012)

Disney Animators' Collection 16'' Tinker Bell Doll (2014)

Disney Store The Pirate Fairy 5'' Tinker Bell Mini Doll (2014)

View inside the front door. More of inside will be shown in future posts.

I would like to invite participation in this project. If you wish to take part, anonymously if you prefer, please send your `confession' to the following address:

 

Dr John Perivolaris

Grouse Lodge

Dippen

Isle of Arran

KA27 8RW

Scotland

United Kingdom

 

You are free to interpret the term `confession' as freely as you wish. Your `confession' may be textual, photographic, artistic, or object-based, or even a combination thereof.

 

Participation implies that you are willing to have your `confession' included, credited or anonymously, in future online/physical publication and/or exhibition.

Model : Bosco

Photography : ayashokphotography

Costume and Prop : Seba and Ayashok

Makeup and Tattoo : Photoshop

Artdirection and Lights : ayashok photoshop :)

 

This is the trail and a demonstration of photshopping, any

pro-quality work would always have a small, fine-tuning Post

Production phase before released to the clients. At my job,

I get photographs from Pros in the Ad industry and I never

have received a SOOC until now. Iam thinking of taking up

Pro photography assignments myself and I plan to release my

photos with some PP though here I have demonstrated a full

workflow and end-to-end of Post production.

 

Please feel free to critique this and put in your feed

back. Also, please let me know if you need any other details

in the work flow. I would be more than happy to take your

requests. In future, I am thinking of taking a video capture

of my works and post it in youtube which would help us all

as a photography/digital cummunity...:)

 

A friend of mine was lucky to meet this girl. Seems she's shoeless in tights quite often and really doesn't care about it! There's another shot when she returned later that day, still without shoes - such a cool girl she must be! Hope he will be lucky in future to get some more shots of her...!

Oh hai girls and ghouls and welcome to your second judging!

Before we get started on judging your “crazy close-up” pictures lets re-fresh our memories on the judging criteria:

 

-Must be photographed from the waist up or closer (but not further away)

-Show lots of creativity in your background choices, styling and hair!

-This is a simple theme as I want to see creativity from you all

-Be prepared to take risks!

-Prove to me that I made the right decisions!

So let’s get started with Team Barbie and other fashion dolls and in no particular order we shall start with Verucca!

 

Sailorb1959 with Verucca; flic.kr/p/cENqZh

I really like this Verucca, I feel that your interpretation of the theme was very unique which was exactly what I was looking for! The use of the crown was certainly a big risk (mainly in the choice of word written on it which did make me chuckle) and I think it paid off!

 

P.K.L with Kenzie: flic.kr/p/cES5HC

I love how you took this outside (I believe you were the only contestant to do this) and you styling is so sophisticated and elegant and the bow and arrow give it a slight “warrior” feel to it. I love your hair it’s just so amazing and overall I find the more fantasy take on the theme really makes you stand out!

 

bratzjaderox with Aria: flic.kr/p/cFe3W3

Now this is really good and I like the kinda glam styling. I like the way you have such an attitude like you did in your audition but I just wanted this picture to be a little more exciting. I think you have a lot more to give and after having such a good audition I expected a little more from you. Step it up next time – I know you can do so much better!

 

Fabulousdolls with Gwen; flic.kr/p/cFiTfh

Gwen, your just oh so adorable! I love all the purple, love the fur, love the lighting, love the pose….basically I love this …just wow! I really like the direct eye contact; it gives it a real mood to the picture! Plus you really stepped it up from your audition picture! Very impressed!

 

Obsegebitz with Blake: flic.kr/p/cFb9Hy

I like this, your dress is really cute and the touch of glam with the belt is nice! I like the simplicity of it and I see that’s what you were going for, I just feel it needed something more, I can’t quite put my finger on it but there’s something missing!

And onto Team Monster High

 

BarbieCollectionXD2 with Juliet: flic.kr/p/cF3Ugf

This is seriously good! I love the bright prints and colours as well as your clothes and choice of hair style! The pose is nice as well and I like all the detail you’ve put into it. The vibrancy really makes you stand out, next time just try and have a little more eye contact!:)

 

NinaaunddiebarbiesXD1 with Ashley: flic.kr/p/cFbybG

I love the choice of outfit here and the amount of belts your wearing is just awesome! The background and your pose are also nice. I did ask for the shot to be from the waist up and this is shot from below the waist, not meeting a main requirement.

 

lena8137lena with Kate: flic.kr/p/cFUNF5

Hmm, now I like the background and the cute cat ears but that’s about it. The styling isn’t great at all and you haven’t taken your picture form the waist up. Step it up if you wish to progress in this competition!

 

Sabrina Saturn with Sabrina: flic.kr/p/cHdQtA

I love the futuristic take on the theme! I love the combination of the blue lighting and the blue hair. I love the metal bar thingy over your face and the clash between that and the rough background. Next time try and improve the photo quality as it’s a little grainy compared to your audition!

 

Dollywood with Celeste: flic.kr/p/cJABGs

I’m actually shocked! Honestly, this is awful. The scruffy hair, the bad outfit and un-interesting background just make it fail. Sorry but after your impressive audition this is huge step back. I understand you have been busy but you have to step it up.

 

Next up - Team Bratz

 

lola.a.you with Mia: flic.kr/p/cF8Ka5

This is a very impressive picture! I love how creative you have been with make-up choices and clothes (or lack of them) and then contrasting that with the bright white background. I like how you almost did the theme twice as you feature twice in this picture. However, the picture of you on the right isn’t as close-up and I would have liked but you’ve done a great job here!

 

S.U.N with Jenna: flic.kr/p/cJVo3h

Hmm now this shows potential. Your background and styling is nice and the profile view really works! The weirdness that’s going on around you head is a bit strange and it looks like you tried to edit the tape holding your mask type accessory on away. It’s a little messy but overall good job!

 

Anima with Scarlett: flic.kr/p/cK3Mdh

This is good! The way you have kept everything quite plain and let your beauty shine through is really nice and refreshing. The angling is nice and the dark background makes you hair stand out! It is a little grainy but I can appreciate that you couldn’t find your camera but I hope you can find it for future themes!

 

KitKat255 with Ava: flic.kr/p/cJS3UJ

I really like the background and your clothes as well as your glasses! However, I’m not so sure on your eye make-up editing it kinda looks like you have a black eye. Overall this is very good but I think your capable of a lot more!

Andifismoke and Cheryl did not do their photo and did not give me a reason as to why. Therefore Cheryl you are eliminated and no longer have a chance of becoming Flickr’s Next Top Model.

As SonyphotographyX3 with Jade initially auditioned for Team Bratz but made into the underdog team she shall be promoted into Team Bratz and her audition shall now be judged!

SonyphotographyX3 with Jade: flic.kr/p/cELDAS

I really like the use of the mirror as well as the use of lighting to create a mood within the picture. There is some huge grey splodge on the left side of the picture which is somewhat off putting. This shows a lot of potential if you step it up next theme!

Now for the second to last Team, Team Pullip

 

KawaiiBirdaii with Prue: flic.kr/p/cG7F2C

This is good and I like the glam approach to the theme but I just wanted a lot more glam! Your dress is nice and I love the little braclets and the picture is good I just think you could have made it a lot more glam and exciting!

 

~a*w~ with Brayleigh: flic.kr/p/cFaSzw

This really good! First of all I must say I love your new wig! Your background is nice and matches your outfit well and I love the little hair bows! Your pose is really cute but there is a weird fuzzy mark in your hair which appears to be editing – try and avoid this is future!

 

Candizx3 with Suki: flic.kr/p/cGeK63

I like how you are sleeping and this makes yours very different to everyone else’s photos! I like your styling and pose and the way this matches your personality. The lighting is a little dark, try and improve this for future shoots!

 

Allie~Chan with Kiyomi: flic.kr/p/cJwCF9

I love the gothic take on this theme! The spider web background and your black and white clothes look really great and I love the way you are touching chin as this makes you look very thoughtful and intriguing! Like your audition this is really good!

 

Myookat with Wren: flic.kr/p/cJFWJW

This is good but I felt your audition had a lot more impact! Personally I prefer your blonde curls instead of the straight blue/purple hair and I hope to see them back again next week. Your jacket is nice and the background texture is good but next week you need to get back to the standard of your audition at least!

And finally Team Underdog

 

MermaydProductions with Angelica: flic.kr/p/cGnDbh

This is really and truly great Angelica! Absolutely flawless! I just love every aspect of this and you seriously stepped it up from your audition! Great job!

 

Gagaluv! with Alice: flic.kr/p/cHodEN

I like how you background matches your eyes and your top/dress thingy is super pretty and your pose is nice! Truthfully, I preferred your old hair, its suited you better but other than that great job!

 

RagDollKitty with Imogen Ghoul: flic.kr/p/cFxxFf

This is really great, I love all the flowers in your hair and the bright lighting! Your clothes are really nice and altogether this is rather impressive! Great improvement from your audition!

 

Lillycat with Anna: flic.kr/p/cFxcQo

Honestly, I didn’t really like this. You are photographed from too far away and I don’t like your dress or bow! The bright background however does work very nicely but please improve for future themes!

 

Miss America 2011 with Meow-leory: flic.kr/p/cHGBPS

I like the way there is a lot going on in this picture! Your styling is nice, but you did wear that jacket for your audition (Try and avoid this in future) and I’m not sure on the scarf thing. I would have liked more of a pose but this really does show potential!

 

Now you have seen my thoughts on your “crazy close-ups” its time for your placings 1 being the best in your team and 5 being the worst!

  

Team Barbie and other fashion dolls

1. Fabulousdolls with Gwen

2. P.K.L with Kenzie and Sailorb1959 with Verucca

4. Obsegebitz with Blake

5. bratzjaderox with Aria

    

Team Monster High

1. BarbieCollectionXD2 with Juliet

2. Sabrina Saturn with Sabrina

3. NinaaunddiebarbiesXD1 with Ashley

4. lena8137lena with Kate

5. Dollywood with Celeste

    

Team Bratz

1. lola.a.you with Mia

2. Anima with Scarlett McCloud

3. KitKat255 with Ava

4. S.U.N with Jenna Smith

5. SonyphotographyX3 with Jade

 

Team Pullip

1. ~a*w~ with Brayleigh

2. Allie~Chan with Kiyomi

3. Candizx3 with Suki

4. Myookat with Wren

5. KawaiiBirdaii with Prue

 

Team Underdog

1. MermaydProductions with Angelica

2. RagDollKitty with Imogen Ghoul

3. Gagaluv! with Alice

4. Miss America 2011 with Meow-leory

5. Lillyycat with Anna

 

Overall my favourite picture from this theme was….. ……………………………………………………………… Fabulousdolls with Gwen and MermaydProductions with Angelica! Congratulations! I couldn’t choose just one of you, you both did such a great job!

Now next week’s theme is: Water

The requirements are

-Include water in your picture (obviously XD)

-Be creative – most of all that’s what I want from you all!

-Think carefully about your styling and hair!

-Be inventive in the way you use water, try and be different to other contestants!

Next week I will be eliminating two members from each team! Make sure you makes these pictures your best! Please can you post your pictures in the comments on this picture, tags can get rather confusing!

Deadline: Wednesday 15th August

Love DisneyKid96 xoxoxo

 

Entries!

Team Barbie and other fashion dolls

Gwen: flic.kr/p/cPjzUA

Aria: flic.kr/p/cNR637

Kenzie: flic.kr/p/cRHYbQ

Verucca: flic.kr/p/cS4T9b

 

Team Monster High

Ashley: flic.kr/p/cPkCxS

Juliet: flic.kr/p/cPzdME

Katie: flic.kr/p/cQ89mA

Julie: flic.kr/p/cQBMdL

Sabrina: flic.kr/p/cRDSvL

 

Team Bratz

Jade: flic.kr/p/cMGnd1

Ava: flic.kr/p/cNdN25

Jenna: flic.kr/p/cRf9fG

Mia: flic.kr/p/cSzWvC

 

Team Pullip

Brayleigh: flic.kr/p/cPKJ9y

Wren: flic.kr/p/cRsJR1

Kiyomi: flic.kr/p/cRURWf

Suki: flic.kr/p/cSAn19

Alice: flic.kr/p/cQSdvq

 

Team Underdog

Imogen: flic.kr/p/cNzskW

Angelica: flic.kr/p/cMzyqL

Anna: flic.kr/p/cPS1mh

Meow-leory: flic.kr/p/cRN2Uh

Rowan: flic.kr/p/cSxLWf

This is the first image which I have recorded a speed edit on! Go check it out at youtu.be/Cr1yh5FhK9E if you're interested in my process :D Subscribe for more speed edits in future!

 

Model: Mia D Love

My first jab at Miniland! :D

My first attempt at a snowflake macro, far far from perfect but I hope to improve it in future.

 

I reversed my 18-70mm lens and brought loose snow inside my house. Took about 150 shots to realize that no matter how fast I work to focus on my primitive setup, the snowflakes always melt before I get any decent shot. That meant I have to go outside into the freezing temperature, with my tripod, light source, tweezers for collecting them and so on. You would think that among the millions of snowflakes at least one would be occasionally focused. Not so simple. I saw lots of hexagonal symmetry but nothing undamaged and focused. The best I got is this and now I am waiting for a day when the weather cooperates with bigger snowflakes that are easier to catch and position:

My first proper LEGO Train related event, really happy with it and how many people I seemed to make happy! Thanks to everyone who organised and exhibited at the event.

 

Hope to get more involved in future!

 

- Wylie Q

Few days ago I saw PleaseYesPlease's fantastic VW T1 Single Cab and loved it. I always wanted to build one, but this last weekend got me really motivated when I saw this Volkswide by Robert Design.

 

I tried to capture the overall shape and with my limited teal parts I like how it turned out. Will definitely modify it more in future, once I got the right parts. Usually all my car build attempts fail, but this one I'll keep :)

It's Friday evening and she is going to a party to celebrate one of her husbands friends birthdays. She had spent the whole day at work as a secretary in a law firm and her feet were killing her from the 120mm So Kate's that were her "work shoe". As such she decided she would wear flats to the party tonight, knowing she would likely spend the whole time on her feet. She knew she should be wearing her heels but also new her feet desperately needed a break.

 

Her husband, however, had other ideas. He took one look at her as she came down stairs in her flat shoes and declared that they would not do at all and he would pick some out for her.

 

To her dismay he picks out her highest gold sandals. Not only that, he also says she needs to be taught a lesson so that she always remembers to wear her heels in future.

 

He locks her up in her heels for an hour before they leave for the party. It's very tiring for her already burning feet but secretly she is pleased to be held to a high standard and knows she looks great in them.

 

She is less pleased when he announces to her that he has decided to cancel the taxi to the party and they'll be walking the 1.5 miles to the venue instead. Not to worry he is says. You can lean on me if you need to.

 

She asks if she is allowed a 10 minute break off her feet before they start walking... He is undecided...

Inchagoill Island is said to be where St.. Patrick converted the Druids to Christianity. These ruins, including the cemetary are from the 5th Century (400's) A.D., although in future years many high members of the clergy and royalty were buried there.

Plaza Centro

 

A small central plaza inspired by my trip to southerern Europe this summer. The plaza is adjacent to a park entrance.

 

I've attempted to make a curved corner and for the best part its reasonably stable. Hopefully I can perfect it in future builds as the architecture there is excellent and totally different to what I see at home.

 

Cheers!

Letter reads:

 

J. H. TODD & SON,

IMPORTERS

GENERAL MERCHANDISE.

P. O. Drawer 21.

 

Victoria, B.C., Nov 12th 1888

 

Mr. Eddy McKenzie / Clover Valley

 

We were sorry not to have seen both yourself & brother before you left Richm???? - as we had intended making you a small present in consideration of you being not only a very good worker - but a good BOY and we here with enclose our cheque for $10 as a present hoping that if we have further ??????? they may be as agreeable in future as the past.

 

We are yours truly

 

J.H. Todd & Son

 

P.S. - We shall hope to have both you & Harry again next season. Please advice soonest by return mail & oblige J.H.T. & S

 

JACOB HUNTER TODD, businessman and politician; b. 17 March 1827 near Brampton, Upper Canada, son of John Todd and Isabella Hunter; m. first 25 Jan. 1854, in Brampton, Anne Fox (d. 1866), and they had two sons and two daughters, of whom a son and a daughter survived childhood; m. there secondly 24 March 1873 Rosanna Wigley, and they had five sons, of whom three died young, and two daughters; d. 10 Aug. 1899 in Victoria, B.C.

 

According to descendants of Jacob Hunter Todd, his father, an Irish farmer who spent more time fox hunting than farming, immigrated to the United States in 1816 and was joined by his wife two years later. He worked in New York City at several trades before moving in 1820 to a farm in Trafalgar Township, Upper Canada, preferring, in the words of the Canada Christian Advocate, “life under British rule.” Little is known of the first three decades of Jacob’s life; he received some basic education and then worked on the family farm. Later he and a brother sold sewing-machines from house to house, travelling by horse and buckboard. It was a modest enterprise with modest returns.

 

Todd and his wife Anne moved to Victoria, Vancouver Island, in 1862, the year the town was incorporated. Jacob went first, arriving in May after a five-week journey by train across the United States and by steamer from San Francisco to Esquimalt, Vancouver Island. It is possible that he returned to Upper Canada later that year to accompany his wife and children to the west; their two-year-old daughter apparently died on the ship from San Francisco.

 

With characteristic energy, Todd adopted advances in the fishing industry. He owned scores of small fishing boats, which he leased to fishermen in return for a percentage of the catch. Tugs were purchased to tow the boats from the canneries or villages to the fishing grounds. Steam vessels were constructed to take the catch to more distant canneries. Markets were developed in Great Britain and Europe, and his “Horseshoe” brand won prizes at London’s Crystal Palace exhibition and at other world fairs. Through the efforts of the Todds as well as others in the industry, canned salmon became a popular food, particularly in Great Britain, where it was known as “the working man’s feast.”

 

During the 1880s and 1890s Todd invested in real estate much of the profits yielded by his business; he owned commercial and residential land in most of the cities of the province, especially in Vancouver, and he had substantial holdings of farm land in the Fraser valley. After his death in 1899 it was reported in the press that his estate was the largest ever probated in British Columbia. LINK to his complete biography - www.biographi.ca/en/bio/todd_jacob_hunter_12E.html

ATH 10/12/21 Built 2016 Ex F-WWBB In Future Peace Partnership colours

We need to put something on a hill (in future Lugpol train diorama). Well here it is.

Special thanks for Sariel for photos (sariel.pl/) and Zgredek (www.flickr.com/photos/38463026@N04/sets/) for bricks.

 

Full gallery will be here:

www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=527216

Super excited that I was not only able to get a retro style bathing suit, but guessed my size online and it actually fit perfect! I have a few others in future sessions down the road (it is summer after all!).

I would like to invite participation in this project. If you wish to take part, anonymously if you prefer, please send your `confession' to the following address:

 

Dr John Perivolaris

Grouse Lodge

Dippen

Isle of Arran

KA27 8RW

Scotland

United Kingdom

 

You are free to interpret the term `confession' as freely as you wish. Your `confession' may be textual, photographic, artistic, or object-based, or even a combination thereof.

 

Participation implies that you are willing to have your `confession' included, credited or anonymously, in future online/physical publication and/or exhibition.

175113 arrives into Hereford, bang on time, working 1W60, the 11:03 Carmarthen - Manchester Piccadilly service.

 

Been experimenting with a copyright mark, and it may be quite a bit smaller in future.. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Super excited that I was not only able to get a retro style bathing suit, but guessed my size online and it actually fit perfect! I have a few others in future sessions down the road (it is summer after all!).

The neon glow of the Innoventions Plazza in Future World at EPCOT Center. Please view original (full size).

BOX DATE: 2015

MANUFACTURER: Hasbro

DOLLS IN PACK: Maleficent, Mal

BODY TYPE: 2014; B5143; molded diamond panties; articulated elbows, wrists, & knees

HEAD MOLD: No date Disney "Maleficent"

 

PERSONAL FUN FACT: Maleficent was always one of my favorite Descendants dolls. The traditional version of Maleficent was one of the most intimidating Disney villains...at least to my younger self. I recall that my Auntie Kim had Sleeping Beauty on VHS at her house. Whenever we'd go with our parents to visit Auntie Kim and Uncle Ray, I'd almost always talk Colleen into watching Sleeping Beauty. Admittedly, I found Aurora herself to be very dull. I mostly was obsessed with the film because I liked watching the fairies fail at domestic work, and because of Maleficent. have had a fascination with Maleficent dolls of any kind, since I started collecting my plastic friends again in 2011. The Descendants line was on my radar before it was even officially released. I had seen photos from a toy fair of the dolls several months in advance. I fell in love with the dolls' ultra cartoon like faces, large heads, and modern styling. Later on when this Maleficent doll was available, I was even more excited. I decided against purchasing any of the Descendants dolls when they were in stores, since they were somewhat pricey. Back then, I was focusing my attention on Bratz, Moxie Girlz, and Monster High. So my wallet was already spread pretty thin. I figured these dolls would pop up secondhand in future years, and that's when I'd start buying them. Presently, I've had wonderful luck finding these dollies in the wild. They are often still sporting their original attire, with shoes included, and for just a few dollars each. This Maleficent turned up at the local flea market in October of 2022. She was at a regular booth--the couple we frequently buy Monster High dolls from. Most of the season they hadn't brought many things of interest, other than the three Sunshine Family dolls I'd stalked. I spotted Maleficent on top of the usual pile of dressed dollies. I couldn't believe that I had found this lady!! We checked to make sure both her hands were intact. I did have spare hands at home, but it's still a good practice to keep. Other than a slight tear on her dress, Maleficent was practically brand new. Of course she was treated to a day at the spa, alongside Royal England Barbie (who I found a few minutes later). I can't decide what my favorite feature of this doll is. She has striking horns which are molded to her head...but she also has glittery makeup (my personal weakness). For a villain, this doll sure doesn't look remotely evil. I'd invite her over for tea!

Recycling the Mack Granite model from before but this time with a set back axle. The truck has a push bar at the front so it can lock into other loads I'm building. I've put a lowbed trailer behind it with a Mack RD800. I haven't built a trailer that I'm happy with for the RD800 yet so thought it could be the load for this model! Maybe in future it will have a modular trailer and a ballast body with a generator on.

Not the best photo in the world but at least I got one of these quick little fellows in flight. I will have to crank the SS up a bit in future!!

We spent our Xmas vacation in Hawaii Oahu for two weeks. One week we stayed in Waikiki and one week we stayed in Koolina because Raymond told me this is the best place to see sunset. Raymond absolutely right, we all fell in love with this place, especially the two natural lagoons.

 

Raymond, thank you for the hospitality you gave me, and I hope that I may be able to return your kindness in future.

 

Happy Year 2014!

On this planet we are not alone, spiecies have proceeded us and might in future...and now that we are the masters of this planet, our decisions is affecting any other living being on this sphere...

 

It is sad to know that, despite our techonological advances, which might preserve lif on this planet, we are getting apart from nature -at least how the trend of life is making each and every individual to be more or less self-centered rather than sharing and enjoying what is surrounding us from living beings....you are not alone!

 

Visiting the Cemetery this evening a sliver of sun shone through the clouds and lit up this fine strong dominating tree that towers the external back wall of the graveyard, like a super trooper.

 

It caught my eye and provoked some thoughts of life after death, hence this capture, posting to Flickr to archive the moment and enjoy time and again.

 

Resurrection

 

Resurrection is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of ancient religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and resurrects. The death and resurrection of Jesus, an example of resurrection, is the central focus of Christianity.

 

As a religious concept, it is used in two distinct respects: a belief in the resurrection of individual souls that is current and ongoing (Christian idealism, realized eschatology), or else a belief in a singular resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The resurrection of the dead is a standard eschatological belief in the Abrahamic religions.

 

Some believe the soul is the actual vehicle by which people are resurrected.

Christian theological debate ensues with regard to what kind of resurrection is factual – either a spiritual resurrection with a spirit body into Heaven, or a material resurrection with a restored human body. While most Christians believe Jesus' resurrection from the dead and ascension to Heaven was in a material body, a very small minority believe it was spiritual.

 

There are documented rare cases of the return to life of the clinically dead which are classified scientifically as examples of the Lazarus syndrome, a term originating from the Biblical story of the Resurrection of Lazarus.

 

Etymology

Resurrection, from the Latin noun resurrectio -onis, from the verb rego, "to make straight, rule" + preposition sub, "under", altered to subrigo and contracted to surgo, surrexi, surrectum + preposition re-, "again", thus literally "a straightening from under again".

 

Religion

 

Ancient religions in the Near East

 

See also: Dying-and-rising god

The concept of resurrection is found in the writings of some ancient non-Abrahamic religions in the Middle East. A few extant Egyptian and Canaanite writings allude to dying and rising gods such as Osiris and Baal. Sir James Frazer in his book The Golden Bough relates to these dying and rising gods, but many of his examples, according to various scholars, distort the sources. Taking a more positive position, Tryggve Mettinger argues in his recent book that the category of rise and return to life is significant for the following deities: Ugaritic Baal, Melqart, Adonis, Eshmun, Osiris and Dumuzi.

 

Ancient Greek religion

 

In ancient Greek religion a number of men and women were made physically immortal as they were resurrected from the dead. Asclepius was killed by Zeus, only to be resurrected and transformed into a major deity. Achilles, after being killed, was snatched from his funeral pyre by his divine mother Thetis and resurrected, brought to an immortal existence in either Leuce, Elysian plains or the Islands of the Blessed. Memnon, who was killed by Achilles, seems to have received a similar fate. Alcmene, Castor, Heracles, and Melicertes, were also among the figures sometimes considered to have been resurrected to physical immortality. According to Herodotus's Histories, the seventh century BC sage Aristeas of Proconnesus was first found dead, after which his body disappeared from a locked room. Later he found not only to have been resurrected but to have gained immortality.

 

Many other figures, like a great part of those who fought in the Trojan and Theban wars, Menelaus, and the historical pugilist Cleomedes of Astupalaea, were also believed to have been made physically immortal, but without having died in the first place. Indeed, in Greek religion, immortality originally always included an eternal union of body and soul. The philosophical idea of an immortal soul was a later invention, which, although influential, never had a breakthrough in the Greek world. As may be witnessed even into the Christian era, not least by the complaints of various philosophers over popular beliefs, traditional Greek believers maintained the conviction that certain individuals were resurrected from the dead and made physically immortal and that for the rest of us, we could only look forward to an existence as disembodied and dead souls.

 

This traditional religious belief in physical immortality was generally denied by the Greek philosophers. Writing his Lives of Illustrious Men (Parallel Lives) in the first century CE, the Middle Platonic philosopher Plutarch's chapter on Romulus gave an account of the mysterious disappearance and subsequent deification of this first king of Rome, comparing it to traditional Greek beliefs such as the resurrection and physical immortalization of Alcmene and Aristeas the Proconnesian, "for they say Aristeas died in a fuller's work-shop, and his friends coming to look for him, found his body vanished; and that some presently after, coming from abroad, said they met him traveling towards Croton." Plutarch openly scorned such beliefs held in traditional ancient Greek religion, writing, "many such improbabilities do your fabulous writers relate, deifying creatures naturally mortal."

 

The parallel between these traditional beliefs and the later resurrection of Jesus was not lost on the early Christians, as Justin Martyr argued: "when we say ... Jesus Christ, our teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propose nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you consider sons of Zeus." (1 Apol. 21). There is, however, no belief in a general resurrection in ancient Greek religion, as the Greeks held that not even the gods were able to recreate flesh that had been lost to decay, fire or consumption.

 

The notion of a general resurrection of the dead was therefore apparently quite preposterous to the Greeks. This is made clear in Paul's Areopagus discourse. After having first told about the resurrection of Jesus, which makes the Athenians interested to hear more, Paul goes on, relating how this event relates to a general resurrection of the dead:

 

"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, `We shall hear you again concerning this."

 

Christianity

 

Resurrection of Jesus

 

In Christianity, resurrection most critically concerns the Resurrection of Jesus, but also includes the resurrection of Judgment Day known as the Resurrection of the Dead by those Christians who subscribe to the Nicene Creed (which is the majority or Mainstream Christianity), as well as the resurrection miracles done by Jesus and the prophets of the Old Testament. Some churches distinguish between raising the dead (a resumption of mortal life) and a resurrection (the beginning of an immortal life).

 

Resurrection of Jesus

Christians regard the resurrection of Jesus as the central doctrine in Christianity. Others take the Incarnation of Jesus to be more central; however, it is the miracles – and particularly his Resurrection – which provide validation of his incarnation. According to Paul, the entire Christian faith hinges upon the centrality of the resurrection of Jesus and the hope for a life after death. The Apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians: If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

 

Resurrection

Miracles of Jesus § Resurrection of the dead

During the Ministry of Jesus on earth, before his death, Jesus commissioned his Twelve Apostles to, among other things, raise the dead. In the New Testament, Jesus is said to have raised several persons from death. These resurrections included the daughter of Jairus shortly after death, a young man in the midst of his own funeral procession, and Lazarus, who had been buried for four days. According to the Gospel of Matthew, after Jesus's resurrection, many of those previously dead came out of their tombs and entered Jerusalem, where they appeared to many.

 

Similar resurrections are credited to Christian apostles and saints. Peter allegedly raised a woman named Dorcas (called Tabitha), and Paul the Apostle revived a man named Eutychus who had fallen asleep and fell from a window to his death, according to the book of Acts. Proceeding the apostolic era, many saints were said to resurrect the dead, as recorded in Orthodox Christian hagiographies.[citation needed] St Columba supposedly raised a boy from the dead in the land of Picts .

 

Most Christians understand these miraculous resurrections to be of a different nature than the resurrection of Jesus and the future resurrection of the dead. The raising of Lazarus and others from the dead could also be called "resuscitations" or "reanimations", since the life given to them is presumably temporary in nature—there is no suggestion in the Bible or hagiographic traditions that these people became truly immortal. In contrast, the resurrection of Jesus and the future resurrection of the dead will abolish death once and for all (see Isaiah 25:8, 1 Corinthians 15:26, 2 Timothy 1:10, Revelation 21:4).

 

Resurrection of the Dead

 

Christianity started as a religious movement within 1st-century Judaism (late Second Temple Judaism), and it retains what the New Testament itself claims was the Pharisaic belief in the afterlife and Resurrection of the Dead. Whereas this belief was only one of many beliefs held about the World to Come in Second Temple Judaism, and was notably rejected by both the Sadducees and, according to Josephus, the Pharisees, this belief became dominant within Early Christianity and already in the Gospels of Luke and John included an insistence on the resurrection of the flesh. This was later rejected by gnostic teachings, which instead continued the Pauline insistence that flesh and bones had no place in heaven.

 

Most modern Christian churches continue to uphold the belief that there will be a final Resurrection of the Dead and World to Come, perhaps as prophesied by the Apostle Paul when he said: "...he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world..." (Acts 17:31 KJV) and "...there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." (Acts 24:15 KJV).

 

Belief in the Resurrection of the Dead, and Jesus's role as judge, is codified in the Apostles' Creed, which is the fundamental creed of Christian baptismal faith. The Book of Revelation also makes many references about the Day of Judgment when the dead will be raised up.

 

Difference From Platonic philosophy

In Platonic philosophy and other Greek philosophical thought, at death the soul was said to leave the inferior body behind. The idea that Jesus was resurrected spiritually rather than physically even gained popularity among some Christian teachers, whom the author of 1 John declared to be antichrists. Similar beliefs appeared in the early church as Gnosticism. However, in Luke 24:39, the resurrected Jesus expressly states "behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have."

 

Islam

Belief in the "Day of Resurrection", Yawm al-Qiyāmah (Arabic: ‫يوم القيامة‬‎‎) is also crucial for Muslims. They believe the time of Qiyāmah is preordained by God but unknown to man. The trials and tribulations preceding and during the Qiyāmah are described in the Qur'an and the hadith, and also in the commentaries of scholars. The Qur'an emphasizes bodily resurrection, a break from the pre-Islamic Arabian understanding of death.

 

Judaism and Samaritanism

There are three explicit examples in the Hebrew Bible of people being resurrected from the dead:

* The prophet Elijah prays and God raises a young boy from death (1 Kings 17:17-24)

* Elisha raises the son of the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:32-37); this was the very same child whose birth he previously foretold (2 Kings 4:8-16)

* A dead man's body that was thrown into the dead Elisha's tomb is resurrected when the body touches Elisha's bones (2 Kings 13:21)

 

During the period of the Second Temple, there developed a diversity of beliefs concerning the resurrection. The concept of resurrection of the physical body is found in 2 Maccabees, according to which it will happen through recreation of the flesh.[17] Resurrection of the dead also appears in detail in the extra-canonical books of Enoch,[18] in Apocalypse of Baruch, and 2 Esdras. According to the British scholar in ancient Judaism Philip R. Davies, there is “little or no clear reference … either to immortality or to resurrection from the dead” in the Dead Sea scrolls texts.

 

Both Josephus and the New Testament record that the Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife, but the sources vary on the beliefs of the Pharisees. The New Testament claims that the Pharisees believed in the resurrection, but does not specify whether this included the flesh or not. According to Josephus, who himself was a Pharisee, the Pharisees held that only the soul was immortal and the souls of good people will be reincarnated and “pass into other bodies,” while “the souls of the wicked will suffer eternal punishment.” Paul, who also was a Pharisee, said that at the resurrection what is "sown as a natural body is raised a spiritual body." Jubilees seems to refer to the resurrection of the soul only, or to a more general idea of an immortal soul.

 

According to Herbert C. Brichto, writing in Reform Judaism's Hebrew Union College Annual, the family tomb is the central concept in understanding biblical views of the afterlife. Brichto states that it is "not mere sentimental respect for the physical remains that is...the motivation for the practice, but rather an assumed connection between proper sepulture and the condition of happiness of the deceased in the afterlife".

 

According to Brichto, the early Israelites apparently believed that the graves of family, or tribe, united into one, and that this unified collectivity is to what the Biblical Hebrew term Sheol refers, the common Grave of humans. Although not well defined in the Tanakh, Sheol in this view was a subterranean underworld where the souls of the dead went after the body died. The Babylonians had a similar underworld called Aralu, and the Greeks had one known as Hades. For biblical references to Sheol see Genesis 42:38, Isaiah 14:11, Psalm 141:7, Daniel 12:2, Proverbs 7:27 and Job 10:21,22, and 17:16, among others. According to Brichto, other Biblical names for Sheol were: Abaddon (ruin), found in Psalm 88:11, Job 28:22 and Proverbs 15:11; Bor (the pit), found in Isaiah 14:15, 24:22, Ezekiel 26:20; and Shakhat (corruption), found in Isaiah 38:17, Ezekiel 28:8.

 

Zen Buddhism

There are stories in Buddhism where the power of resurrection was allegedly demonstrated in Chan or Zen tradition. One is the legend of Bodhidharma, the Indian master who brought the Ekayana school of India to China that subsequently became Chan Buddhism.

The other is the passing of Chinese Chan master Puhua (J., Fuke) and is recounted in the Record of Linji (J., Rinzai). Puhua was known for his unusual behavior and teaching style so it is no wonder that he is associated with an event that breaks the usual prohibition on displaying such powers. Here is the account from Irmgard Schloegl's "The Zen Teaching of Rinzai".

 

"One day at the street market Fuke was begging all and sundry to give him a robe. Everybody offered him one, but he did not want any of them. The master [Linji] made the superior buy a coffin, and when Fuke returned, said to him: "There, I had this robe made for you." Fuke shouldered the coffin, and went back to the street market, calling loudly: "Rinzai had this robe made for me! I am off to the East Gate to enter transformation" (to die)." The people of the market crowded after him, eager to look. Fuke said: "No, not today. Tomorrow, I shall go to the South Gate to enter transformation." And so for three days. Nobody believed it any longer. On the fourth day, and now without any spectators, Fuke went alone outside the city walls, and laid himself into the coffin. He asked a traveler who chanced by to nail down the lid.

 

The news spread at once, and the people of the market rushed there. On opening the coffin, they found that the body had vanished, but from high up in the sky they heard the ring of his hand bell."

 

Technological resurrection

Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans who cannot be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Cryonics procedures ideally begin within minutes of cardiac arrest, and use cryoprotectants to prevent ice formation during cryopreservation.

 

However, the idea of cryonics also includes preservation of people long after death because of the possibility that brain encoding memory structure and personality may still persist or be inferable in the future. Whether sufficient brain information still exists for cryonics to successfully preserve may be intrinsically unprovable by present knowledge. Therefore, most proponents of cryonics see it as an intervention with prospects for success that vary widely depending on circumstances.

 

Russian Cosmist Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov advocated resurrection of the dead using scientific methods. Fedorov tried to plan specific actions for scientific research of the possibility of restoring life and making it infinite. His first project is connected with collecting and synthesizing decayed remains of dead based on "knowledge and control over all atoms and molecules of the world".

 

The second method described by Fedorov is genetic-hereditary. The revival could be done successively in the ancestral line: sons and daughters restore their fathers and mothers, they in turn restore their parents and so on. This means restoring the ancestors using the hereditary information that they passed on to their children. Using this genetic method it is only possible to create a genetic twin of the dead person. It is necessary to give back the revived person his old mind, his personality. Fedorov speculates about the idea of "radial images" that may contain the personalities of the people and survive after death. Nevertheless, Fedorov noted that even if a soul is destroyed after death, Man will learn to restore it whole by mastering the forces of decay and fragmentation.

 

In his 1994 book The Physics of Immortality, American physicist Frank J. Tipler, an expert on the general theory of relativity, presented his Omega Point Theory which outlines how a resurrection of the dead could take place at the end of the cosmos. He posits that humans will evolve into robots which will turn the entire cosmos into a supercomputer which will, shortly before the big crunch, perform the resurrection within its cyberspace, reconstructing formerly dead humans (from information captured by the supercomputer from the past light cone of the cosmos) as avatars within its metaverse.

 

David Deutsch, British physicist and pioneer in the field of quantum computing, agrees with Tipler's Omega Point cosmology and the idea of resurrecting deceased people with the help of quantum computer but he is critical of Tipler's theological views.

 

Italian physicist and computer scientist Giulio Prisco presents the idea of "quantum archaeology", "reconstructing the life, thoughts, memories, and feelings of any person in the past, up to any desired level of detail, and thus resurrecting the original person via 'copying to the future'".

 

In his book Mind Children, roboticist Hans Moravec proposed that a future supercomputer might be able to resurrect long-dead minds from the information that still survived. For example, this information can be in the form of memories, filmstrips, medical records, and DNA.

 

Ray Kurzweil, American inventor and futurist, believes that when his concept of singularity comes to pass, it will be possible to resurrect the dead by digital recreation.

 

In their science fiction novel The Light of Other Days, Sir Arthur Clarke and Stephen Baxter imagine a future civilization resurrecting the dead of past ages by reaching into the past, through micro wormholes and with nanorobots, to download full snapshots of brain states and memories.

 

Both the Church of Perpetual Life and the Terasem Movement consider themselves transreligions and advocate for the use of technology to indefinitely extend the human lifespan.

 

Zombies

A zombie (Haitian Creole: zonbi; North Mbundu: nzumbe) can be either a fictional undead monster or a person in an entranced state believed to be controlled by a bokor or wizard. These latter are the original zombies, occurring in the West African Vodun religion and its American offshoots Haitian Vodou and New Orleans Voodoo.

 

Zombies became a popular device in modern horror fiction, largely because of the success of George A. Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead and they have appeared as plot devices in various books, films and in television shows. Zombie fiction is now a sizable subgenre of horror, usually describing a breakdown of civilization occurring when most of the population become flesh-eating zombies – a zombie apocalypse. The monsters are usually hungry for human flesh, often specifically brains. Sometimes they are victims of a fictional pandemic illness causing the dead to reanimate or the living to behave this way, but often no cause is given in the story.

 

Disappearances (as distinct from resurrection)

As knowledge of different religions has grown, so have claims of bodily disappearance of some religious and mythological figures. In ancient Greek religion, this was a way the gods made some physically immortal, including such figures as Cleitus, Ganymede, Menelaus, and Tithonus. After his death, Cycnus was changed into a swan and vanished. In his chapter on Romulus from Parallel Lives, Plutarch criticises the continuous belief in such disappearances, referring to the allegedly miraculous disappearance of the historical figures Romulus, Cleomedes of Astypalaea, and Croesus. In ancient times, Greek and Roman pagan similarities were explained by the early Christian writers, such as Justin Martyr, as the work of demons, with the intention of leading Christians astray.

 

In somewhat recent years it has been learned that Gesar, the Savior of Tibet, at the end, chants on a mountain top and his clothes fall empty to the ground. The body of the first Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Nanak Dev, is said to have disappeared and flowers were left in place of his dead body.

 

Lord Raglan's Hero Pattern lists many religious figures whose bodies disappear, or have more than one sepulchre. B. Traven, author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, wrote that the Inca Virococha arrived at Cusco (in modern-day Peru) and the Pacific seacoast where he walked across the water and vanished.[46] It has been thought that teachings regarding the purity and incorruptibility of the hero's human body are linked to this phenomenon. Perhaps, this is also to deter the practice of disturbing and collecting the hero's remains. They are safely protected if they have disappeared.

 

The first such case mentioned in the Bible is that of Enoch (son of Jared, great-grandfather of Noah, and father of Methuselah). Enoch is said to have lived a life where he "walked with God", after which "he was not, for God took him" (Genesis 5:1–18).

 

In Deuteronomy (34:6) Moses is secretly buried. Elijah vanishes in a whirlwind 2 Kings (2:11). After hundreds of years these two earlier Biblical heroes suddenly reappear, and are seen walking with Jesus, then again vanish. Mark (9:2–8), Matthew (17:1–8) and Luke (9:28–33). The last time he is seen, Luke (24:51) alone tells of Jesus leaving his disciples by ascending into the sky.

  

St Machar's Cathedral (or, more formally, the Cathedral Church of St Machar) is a Church of Scotland church in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is located to the north of the city centre, in the former burgh of Old Aberdeen. Technically, St Machar's is no longer a cathedral but rather a high kirk, as it has not been the seat of a bishopsince 1690.

 

St Machar is said to have been a companion of St Columba on his journey to Iona. A fourteenth-century legend tells how God (or St Columba) told Machar to establish a church where a river bends into the shape of a bishop's crosier before flowing into the sea.

 

The River Don bends in this way just below where the Cathedral now stands. According to legend, St Machar founded a site of worship in Old Aberdeen in about 580. Machar's church was superseded by a Norman cathedral in 1131, shortly after David I transferred the See from Mortlach to Aberdeen.

 

Almost nothing of that original cathedral survives; a lozenge-decorated base for a capital supporting one of the architraves can be seen in the Charter Room in the present church.

 

After the execution of William Wallace in 1305, his body was cut up and sent to different corners of the country to warn other dissenters. His left quarter ended up in Aberdeen and is buried in the walls of the cathedral.

 

At the end of the thirteenth century Bishop Henry Cheyne decided to extend the church, but the work was interrupted by the Scottish Wars of Independence. Cheyne's progress included piers for an extended choir at the transept crossing. These pillars, with decorated capitals of red sandstone, are still visible at the east end of the present church.

 

Though worn by exposure to the elements after the collapse of the cathedral's central tower, these capitals are among the finest stone carvings of their date to survive in Scotland.

 

Bishop Alexander Kininmund II demolished the Norman cathedral in the late 14th century, and began the nave, including the granite columns and the towers at the western end. Bishop Henry Lichtoun completed the nave, the west front and the northern transept, and made a start on the central tower.

 

Bishop Ingram Lindsay completed the roof and the paving stones in the later part of the fifteenth century. Further work was done over the next fifty years by Thomas Spens, William Elphinstone and Gavin Dunbar; Dunbar is responsible for the heraldic ceiling and the two western spires.

 

The chancel was demolished in 1560 during the Scottish Reformation. The bells and lead from the roof were sent to be sold in Holland, but the ship sank near Girdle Ness.

 

The central tower and spire collapsed in 1688, in a storm, and this destroyed the choir and transepts. The west arch of the crossing was then filled in, and worship carried on in the nave only; the current church consists only of the nave and aisles of the earlier building.

 

The ruined transepts and crossing are under the care of Historic Scotland, and contain an important group of late medieval bishops' tombs, protected from the weather by modern canopies. The Cathedral is chiefly built of outlayer granite. On the unique flat panelled ceiling of the nave (first half of the 16th Century) are the heraldic shields of the contemporary kings of Europe, and the chief earls and bishops of Scotland.

 

The Cathedral is a fine example of a fortified kirk, with twin towers built in the fashion of fourteenth-century tower houses. Their walls have the strength to hold spiral staircases to the upper floors and battlements. The spires which presently crown the

 

Though worn by exposure to the elements after the collapse of the cathedral's central tower, these capitals are among the finest stone carvings of their date to survive in Scotland.

 

Bishop Alexander Kininmund II demolished the Norman cathedral in the late 14th century, and began the nave, including the granite columns and the towers at the western end. Bishop Henry Lichtoun completed the nave, the west front and the northern transept, and made a start on the central tower.

 

Bishop Ingram Lindsay completed the roof and the paving stones in the later part of the fifteenth century. Further work was done over the next fifty years by Thomas Spens, William Elphinstone and Gavin Dunbar; Dunbar is responsible for the heraldic ceiling and the two western spires.

 

The chancel was demolished in 1560 during the Scottish Reformation. The bells and lead from the roof were sent to be sold in Holland, but the ship sank near Girdle Ness.

 

The central tower and spire collapsed in 1688, in a storm, and this destroyed the choir and transepts. The west arch of the crossing was then filled in, and worship carried on in the nave only; the current church consists only of the nave and aisles of the earlier building.

 

The ruined transepts and crossing are under the care of Historic Scotland, and contain an important group of late medieval bishops' tombs, protected from the weather by modern canopies. The Cathedral is chiefly built of outlayer granite. On the unique flat panelled ceiling of the nave (first half of the 16th Century) are the heraldic shields of the contemporary kings of Europe, and the chief earls and bishops of Scotland.

 

Bishops Gavin Dunbar and Alexander Galloway built the western towers and installed the heraldic ceiling, featuring 48 coats of arms in three rows of sixteen. Among those shown are:

* Pope Leo X's coat of arms in the centre, followed in order of importance by those of the Scottish archbishops and bishops.

* the Prior of St Andrews, representing other Church orders.

* King's College, the westernmost shield.

* Henry VIII of England, James V of Scotland and multiple instances for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was also King of Spain, Aragon, Navarre and Sicily at the time the ceiling was created.

* St Margaret of Scotland, possibly as a stand-in for Margaret Tudor, James V's mother, whose own arms would have been the marshalled arms of England and Scotland.

* the arms of Aberdeen and of the families Gordon, Lindsay, Hay and Keith.

 

The ceiling is set off by a frieze which starts at the north-west corner of the nave and lists the bishops of the see from Nechtan in 1131 to William Gordon at the Reformation in 1560. This is followed by the Scottish monarchs from Máel Coluim II to Mary, Queen of Scots.

 

Notable figures buried in the cathedral cemetery include the author J.J. Bell, Robert Brough, Gavin Dunbar, Robert Laws, a missionary to Malawi and William Ogilvie of Pittensear—the ‘rebel professor’.

 

There has been considerable investment in recent years in restoration work and the improvement of the display of historic artefacts at the Cathedral.

 

The battlements of the western towers, incomplete for several centuries, have been renewed to their original height and design, greatly improving the appearance of the exterior. Meanwhile, within the building, a number of important stone monuments have been displayed to advantage.

 

These include a possibly 7th-8th century cross-slab from Seaton (the only surviving evidence from Aberdeen of Christianity at such an early date); a rare 12th century sanctuary cross-head; and several well-preserved late medieval effigies of Cathedral clergy, valuable for their detailed representation of contemporary dress.

 

A notable modern addition to the Cathedral's artistic treasures is a carved wooden triptych commemorating John Barbour, archdeacon of Aberdeen (d. 1395), author of The Brus.

“SATURN APOLLO 501 IN HIGH BAY 1, WITH WORK PLATFORMS RETRACTED. VAB HIGH BAY 1.

5-24-67”

 

Note access arm No. 8 “Service Module (inflight)” directly behind the CSM. Access arm No. 9 “Command Module (preflight)” is to the far right. Speaking of the CSM, note also the lack of RCS thrusters on the SM. Kind of clue as to vehicle identification.

 

And, unless something else surfaces, maybe on the verso of a “S-67-XXXXX” version of this photo - if such exists - the following lame, I’m sure contemporary pablum is apparently what’s meant to pass as the official description/caption:

 

“This photograph depicts the Saturn V vehicle (SA-501) for the Apollo 4 mission in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). After the completion of the assembly operation, the work platform was retracted and the vehicle was readied to rollout from the VAB to the launch pad. The Apollo 4 mission was the first launch of the Saturn V launch vehicle. Objectives of the unmanned Apollo 4 test flight were to obtain flight information on launch vehicle and spacecraft structural integrity and compatibility, flight loads, stage separation, and subsystems operation including testing of restart of the S-IVB stage, and to evaluate the Apollo command module heat shield. The Apollo 4 was launched on November 9, 1967 from KSC.”

 

Surprisingly, the above, with a bullshit, probably arbitrarily assigned “NASA ID” of 6754387 is actually available at:

 

images.nasa.gov/details-6754387

 

Unfortunately, as with many others, the description has been propagated everywhere. While I’ve read MUCH worse, it’s merely a copy/paste from some Apollo 4 document, which doesn’t address the context of the photograph…that is, what’s actually going on…the REASON the photograph was taken.

 

With that, the recognition/correct identification of the content of this photograph, along with the date, hence its pertinence to the problematic history of the SA-501 vehicle, has been…take your pick: lost, overlooked, unrecognized, omitted…something unacceptable.

For starters, the NASA photo ninjas, especially at the time of the photo’s processing, i.e., 1967, should’ve recognized that the CSM atop the vehicle was NOT the flight CSM (CSM-017). It ALSO should’ve been easily/readily identified as M-11, the Flight Verification Vehicle (FVV), it having been photographed a bazillion times during 1966 as part of SA-500F photo documentation.

As if that weren’t enough, within the multiple regurgitations of the trials & tribulations of making Apollo 4 happen, there’s not a mention of M-11, other than within the following, which although incomplete, with its own errors, at least references it…ONCE:

 

“The third stage (S-IVB) was the first major component of Apollo 4 to be delivered at KSC. It arrived from Sacramento aboard the Guppy aircraft on 14 August 1966 and went immediately into a low bay of the assembly building for inspection and checkout. The following week the spacer and instrument unit arrived. On 12 September, as Peter Conrad and Richard Gordon prepared to blast off in Gemini 11, the barge Poseidon sailed into the Banana River with the first stage. Boeing gave it a lengthy checkout in the transfer aisle of the high bay before erecting the booster on 27 October. During the following week, technicians stacked the remaining launch vehicle stages, using the spool for the absent S-II. There were a few problems - the checkout of the swing arms took an extra two days and a cooling unit for the instrument unit sprang a leak - but the launch team, still counting on the mid-November delivery date for the S-II, hoped to roll the complete vehicle out to pad A by 13 January 1967.

 

By late November the Apollo Program Office had moved the S-II's arrival back to January, and the launch back to April. Since spacecraft 017 would not arrive for another three weeks, KSC erected the facilities verification model of Apollo on 28 November.

 

[The first linked black & white photograph by Cliff Steenhoff below, depicts such.]

 

This allowed North American to check out some of its spacecraft support equipment. The first week in December the memory core in a digital events evaluator failed after intermittent troubles; cracked solder joints were blamed. A hurried repair put the computer back on line.

 

The command-service module arrived at KSC on Christmas Eve and was mated to the launch vehicle on 12 January 1967. That tardy prima donna, the S-II stage, finally appeared on 21 January. Tank inspection, insulation, and engine work were in progress by the 23rd. Test crews found damaged connectors on three recirculation pumps and set about investigating the extent of the rework that would be necessary. While inspecting the liquid hydrogen tank on the second stage, the North American team found 22 cracked gussets. These triangular metal braces, used to support the horizontal ribs of the stage framework, had to be replaced. Plans to move the second stage into a low bay checkout cell on the 29th were temporarily set aside because of a late shipment of the aft interstage (the cylindrical aluminum structure that formed the structural interface between the first and second stages). The interstage arrived on 31 January, and by the end of the next day the stage was in a low bay cell with work platforms around it.

 

Despite the delay with the S-II stage, KSC officials expected to meet the new launch date in May. The fire on 27 January placed all schedules in question. Although Apollo 4 was an unmanned mission, NASA officials wanted to give command-module 017 a close examination. On 14 February, a week before the S-II could be inserted into a fully assembled vehicle, the spacecraft was removed from the stack and taken to the operations and checkout building. When inspection disclosed a number of wiring errors, KSC's Operations Office cancelled the restacking of the spacecraft. By 1 March electrical engineers had discovered so many wiring discrepancies that the test team stopped their repair work, pending a thorough investigation of all spacecraft wiring. Within two weeks the North American and NASA quality control teams recorded 1,407 discrepancies. While North American repaired about half of these on the spot, modifications, repair work, and validations continued into June. During the break technicians performed pressure tests on service module systems at pad 16. It would be mid-June, with the wiring modifications for the command module finally completed, before North American could remate the spacecraft and take it back to the assembly building.

 

As the extent of the wiring problems was not immediately recognized, the launch vehicle team forged ahead to recoup the time lost on the S-II stage. In mid-February Boeing's airframe handling and ordnance group removed the instrument unit and spacer from the 501 stack and on the 23rd erected the S-II. The operation involved incredibly close tolerances. To qualify crane handlers, Stanley Smith, Bendix senior engineer of the crane and hoist group, stated, "We give them a technical examination and then check their reflexes and response to commands in training sessions." During a mating, an operator and an electrician boarded the crane and another man helped guide movements from the floor by communicating with the operator via a walkie-talkie. Smith set a high goal for his team: "We strive to train our men to the point where they could conceivably lower the crane hook on top of an egg without breaking the shell."

 

After a stage was properly aligned on the Saturn stack, a crew of one engineer, two quality control inspectors, one chief mechanic, and eight assistants took eight hours to complete the mating. Three 30-centimeter pins on the second stage fitted into brackets located 120 degrees apart on the periphery of the first stage. Then the mechanics inserted 216 one-centimeter, high-strength fasteners into matching holes around the perimeter where the two stages joined. The team torqued the fasteners in a staggered sequence to secure the bolts evenly and ensure a uniform distribution of stress. The mating of the second and third stages was conducted in much the same manner. The 501 was now set up except for the missing CSM.

 

[This is where something about the FVV (M-11) being reincorporated into the stack should’ve been referenced.]

 

The lengthy delays with the flight hardware aided the Site Activation Board in its efforts to get LC-39 ready for its first launch. The board's first flow [see chapter 15-1] included firing room 1, mobile launcher 1, high bay 1, and the other facilities required for the support of Apollo 4 - 1,280 activities altogether. During the first quarter of 1967, PERT charts showed less than 1% of these activities behind schedule. The decision in mid-April to modify the LOX system on launcher 1 and pad A put five weeks of negative slack into the site activation schedule. The modifications were made necessary by excessive pressure in the LOX system. KSC engineers added an automatic bleed system, relief valve supports, and a block valve that prevented purging through the drain line. As continued vehicle problems further delayed the rollout, the five weeks of negative slack disappeared.

 

On 24 May the S-II stage was in trouble again. NASA announced it would be dismantled for inspection, consequent on the discovery of hairline cracks in the propellant tank weld seams on another S-II at the factory in California.

 

[The photograph is dated 5-24-67. If correct, then the image was taken as part of documenting preparations for destacking M-11 & the S-IVB in order to remove the S-II stage.]

 

Additionally, thanks to the remarkable “CAPCOM ESPACE” website:

 

“For Apollo 4, the M11 was placed on launcher 501 on November 28, 1966 and removed at the end of 1966 following delays in stage S2. It will be put back in place on April 6, 1967 and removed on May 26.”]

 

Above, along with much more good stuff, at:

 

www.capcomespace.net/dossiers/espace_US/apollo/vaisseaux/...

 

So, somewhere out there, there’s some documentation from which the above was gleaned. I probably don’t have it & certainly didn’t find it online.]

 

The additional checks were not expected to delay the flight of 501 "more than a week or so." By mid-June the inspection, which included extensive x-ray and dye penetrant tests, was completed and the stage returned to the stack. On 20 June, the command-service module was mechanically mated to the Saturn V, and 501 was - at last - a fully assembled space vehicle. A revised schedule on 21 July set rollout for mid-August. On 26 August 1967, the big rocket emerged from the high bay slightly more than a year after its first components had arrived at KSC, and a good six months after its originally scheduled launch date. It had been a year of delay and frustration, and the end was not yet.”

 

The above, other than the inserted (bracketed) astute comments, observations & additional useful links, at/from:

 

www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/ch19-3.html

 

Inexcusable, incompetent, confounding at least, considering the importance/significance of this vehicle. But then again, for an organization that seems to have “officially/formally” misidentified the Command Module on display at Expo ’67 – to this day – the oversight, ignorance & tacit mis/non-identification of a lowly FVV is both literally & figuratively a no-brainer. The buffoonery continues. At least this shit is so far back in the rearview mirror that no one remembers, those that did are probably dead, and no one now cares, or will in the future. No harm, no foul, all good. 👍

All in camera - single exposure. Please see ""Let's Glow More Sunflowers!" for images of the kit used.

 

This is the second in a series of light stenciled propaganda posters I'm attempting with the much appreciated help of the Hooded Accomplice.

 

For light stenciling, you build a foil box, put an image on the front of it, and fire a flash through it from behind. The flash lights the image and "stamps" it onto your sensor/film. Then you move the box, and let the rest of the scene burn in. If you're interested, I'd recommend you check out tdub303's excellent tutorial piece here.

 

I put some quick thoughts down in the first of the series (linked above) as to why on earth you would choose to do it this way, in camera, rather than using Photoshop. Certainly it takes a lot of time and demands you make a lot of cumbersome kit to burden yourself with. However, the challenges it throws up are worth confronting. This is how you learn about light and cameras.

 

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Using an ESP32 board to push images to a small TFT display. Will hopefully be able to make use of these in future buildings.

Sony A7RII +Techart Techart Pro M/E Autofocus Adapter* + Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH.

 

Handheld. Edited in Lightroom CC + VSCO.

 

From Hong Kong.

 

* Somehow the Techart Pro Adaptor will register as DT 40mm F2.8 SAM in the Sony A7RII...not sure if that will be fixed in future firmware release.

 

Press "L" to view large scale.

Again I was surprised by the colours of the background. I always look trough the subject to the background when taking pictures. I think that it often creates the atmosphere of a picture. Simple changes by position, a cloud, shadow etc. often shows a great different in a picture of the same subject. I never create a background or change colours til now by using software. Maybe I'll try in future,

 

Een heel goed week end.

Have a great week end.

Хорошего конца недели.

آخر هفته خوب است.

ونهاية الاسبوع جيدة.

 

**View On Black* (Please Press "L')

 

愛散發的溫柔在此刻用心感受

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QtkNKHD2bw&list=FLpt1qpOq9s5...

   

愛有夢才快樂

就算未來的路都不同

你在我心中到永久

   

When there's dream in love, there's happiness,

Even if we go our separate ways in future

You wil be in my heart forever

   

© All rights reserved Anna Kwa. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.

 

Pokot village.

 

The Pokot people are categorized under the larger Kalenjin tribes grouping of Kenyan Nilotic speakers because they have oral traditions of a similar origin. They speak the Pokot language. The Pokot people live in the Baringo and Western Pokot districts of Kenya and also in the Eastern Karamoja region of Uganda. The Pokots are dived into two main sub-groups depending of their location and way of life. The two groups are the Hill Pokot who practice both farming and pastoralism, and live in the rainy highlands in the west and in the central south. The second group is made up of the Plains Pokot who living in dry and infertile plains, herd cows, goats and sheep.

As a result of their nomadic lifestyle, adopted by most of the Pokot, they have interacted with different peoples in their history and therefore incorporated social customs of neighbors into their life. The Turkana and the Karamojong of Uganda, who they neighbor, appear to have had the most influence on the Pokot. Those who are cultivators mainly grow corn/maize. Nevertheless, whether a pastoralist or a farmer, wealth among the Pokot is measured by the number of cattle one has. The other major uses of cows are in bride price and barter trade. As long as a Pokot man has enough wealth in terms of cows to offer, marrying more than one wife is allowed.

Dairy products like milk are an important part of the diet of the Pokot. Porridge made from wild fruits boiled with a mixture of milk and blood, a repast rich in nutrients and iron is the staple of the Pokot diet. Using a special arrow, it's shot into the neck of a cow to drain blood without permanently causing harm to the animal.

The Tororot being the utmost god according to the Pokot, prayers and sacrifices are made to him during ethnic festivals and dances that are organized by their elders. Also, the Pokot have diviners who are in charge for maintaining the spiritual balance within their society. Being superstitious and believing in sorcery and sometimes calling on various forms of shielding lucky charms to ward off the ill will of any sorcerers is a part of their tradition. They also worship other deities like the sun, moon and believe in the spirit of death.

Governing within the Pokot community, is through a number of age-sets and association with any particular set is be determined by the age during which a Pokot goes through their initiation into that set group or society. It is typically between the ages of fifteen and twenty for the men while, it is around twelve, for the women. Matrimonial binds for the youngsters are allowed, once the initiation has been accomplished. As well, they begin taking part in the local economic functions. The bonds formed within the initiation groups, are close and are functional in future political ties as they progress through the positions in the tribal organization. At old age, they get a certain degree of status and the esteem that goes with it. Presiding over important tribal decisions, festivals and religious celebrations are the duties among others that elders are in charge of.

The Pokot are quite proud of their culture are bound to hold on to it in the future. Generally, Pokot women wear colorful necklaces and beaded headgears, brass jewelry and big loop type earrings whereas men wear just a few wrap garments and cowhide capes and shirts. They use beaded skirts to distinguish those females who have been initiated from those who haven't. Pokot warriors wear red clay on their hair, special headgears of feathers. Dances are an important aspect of their culture especially during social-cultural events.

 

Explored #141

 

Happy Sunday Everyone!

 

Hope more great luck in future.. '-) xoxo

Love Always...

 

Edit: I'm just shocked I got Explored last month and 2days ago! OMG I still can't believe that..

1. Hope and fear are inseparable, 2. Imagine, 3. You'll cry in spite of yourself ~People

4. flickr.com/photos/32804774@N06/3260374296/

In every spiritual tradition, we talk about basic elements that are material and energetic, but since we know that every manifested thing is a trinity of matter, energy, and Consciousness, then we have to understand that the basic elements are also elements of Consciousness, not just matter and energy. The four primary elements—air, fire, water, earth—make up everything that we are, on every level. The important question we need to answer practically in our lives is how the four elements relate to the fifth element. How are we working with the fifth element? That is what we talked about in the previous lecture. The fifth element, literally “the quintessence,” relates to the Akash, the ether. In Sanskrit terms, we can also say that it is Kundalini. It is the Prakriti, the root energy that in some religions is symbolized as the Divine Mother.. The Divine Mother is that creative force or intelligence in nature that gives life to everything. If we want spiritual life, we need to know our Divine Mother. Her active agent is the quintessence, which is an energy in us. We need that energy to be active, and right now it is not. In us, it is passive, latent, what in science we could call "static, non-kinetic energy." Aphrodite Urania, the pure light of the Divine Mother. The method to awaken that energy, to activate it, has been hidden in every religion and mystical tradition. In the West, it is most famously known in the tradition we call Alchemy. The entire tradition of Alchemy is a symbolic presentation of a practical science. Alchemy hides the knowledge of how to elaborate the full potential of the human being, which is hidden in all of our atoms and cells. To do that, we need to know about transmutation. The Divine Mother is the fire of the Tree of Life

This word transmutation gets utilized a lot in esoteric traditions, but it appears as if it utilized without much knowledge of what the word really means. So it is important that we analyze this word and understand what it means, where it comes from, and what it implies. The word transmutation came into use because of the tradition of Alchemy, and is derived from Latin roots. The implications of the word transmutation are far beyond what most esoteric traditions attribute to it. Trans means “thoroughly,” and mutare means “change.” To transmute means to completely change something. In the modern Gnostic movement, for example, most students use this word transmutation exclusively in relation to sexual energy, which is a valid use of the word, but it is not its full meaning and not its original use. The word transmutation originally applied to our entire being, to everything about us. Really, to transmute comes from that famous phrase from Alchemy, "to transmute lead into gold." It means to purge the lead, which is a dense, heavy, and impure metal, and reduce it into its quintessence—in other words, to reduce it to the most basic components that originally made it, and from that, to perfect it. Everything that exists is constructed out of the basic elements that we explained in the previous lecture. First is the Akash or ether, and that becomes particularized into air, fire, water, and earth. Those four basic elements, which are physical, energetic, and conscious, become everything that exists. Everything that we are is made of four elements arranged and particularized into particular sequences. Physically, we call this encoding DNA, which is not merely physical chemicals, but also encodes energetic and spiritual data, as combinations of elements. Those elements are physically sequenced in series combinations of molecules that are arranged in infinite combinations to create everything that we are. Those sequences of four are reflections of the four elements. Similarly, the four subtle elements are reflected in the four basic components of physical matter:“For the most comprehensive and lucid exposition of occult pneumatology (the branch of philosophy dealing with spiritual substances) extant, mankind is indebted to Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), prince of alchemists and Hermetic philosophers and true possessor of the Royal Secret (the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life). Paracelsus believed that each of the four primary elements known to the ancients (earth, fire, air, and water) consisted of a subtle, vaporous principle and a gross corporeal substance.“Air is, therefore, twofold in nature-tangible atmosphere and an intangible, volatile substratum which may be termed spiritual air. Fire is visible and invisible, discernible and indiscernible--a spiritual, ethereal flame manifesting through a material, substantial flame. Carrying the analogy further, water consists of a dense fluid and a potential essence of a fluidic nature. Earth has likewise two essential parts--the lower being fixed, terreous, immobile; the higher, rarefied, mobile, and virtual. The general term elements has been applied to the lower, or physical, phases of these four primary principles, and the name elemental essences to their corresponding invisible, spiritual constitutions. Minerals, plants, animals, and men live in a world composed of the gross side of these four elements, and from various combinations of them construct their living organisms.“Henry Drummond, in Natural Law in the Spiritual World, describes this process as follows: "If we analyse this material point at which all life starts, we shall find it to consist of a clear structureless, jelly-like substance resembling albumen or white of egg. It is made of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen. Its name is protoplasm. And it is not only the structural unit with which all living bodies start in life, but with which they are subsequently built up. 'Protoplasm,' says Huxley, 'simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. It is the clay of the Potter.'"“The water element of the ancient philosophers has been metamorphosed into the hydrogen of modern science; the air has become oxygen; the fire, nitrogen; the earth, carbon.” - Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages For us to become something new, we need to unzip the sequence that makes who we are, and reconnect it in a superior way. But how are you going to disarrange everything about yourself, and rearrange it? Especially when you are the one trying to do it. Not easy! But this is what to "transmute" really means. It means “to thoroughly change.” Gnosis is a science of transmutation. Yes, it begins with sexual energy, that is the root energy that makes the full and complete transmutation possible, but we do not seek to only transmute sexual energy. We want to transmute all of our matter, all of our Consciousness, our psyche, our soul: everything. We want to thoroughly change: to transmute. Interestingly, the result of that transmutation is a mutant. A mutant is someone who is different, who is changed. This word “mutant” has a negative connotation nowadays, but in reality every existing creature is a mutation, a mutant. What we want is a conscious mutation, a change for the better. We want a change towards something beneficial and positive, something useful, something that will bring harmony and peace, not discord and violence. We want a change that will bring about goodness, equality, harmony, love. For that type of change, we need to thoroughly change the causes of discord, the causes of suffering, and those causes are within us, in our matter, our energy, and our Consciousness. A genuine transmutation requires that the causes or the origins of problems and pain, suffering, are changed thoroughly, so that new effects can emerge. That change is not easy. If you consider how anything in nature changes, fundamentally changes, its a process of birth, growth, decline, death, rebirth, growth, decline and death. This is how evolution advances, through small mutations over time. If you have ever studied biology or evolution, you can see that this is how species grow. They grow because of the pressures put on them by their environment. They change, and adapt, and hopefully improve. We need the same thing. Unfortunately, we are not responding properly to the pressures that are upon us. In response to the psychological, material, social, and physical pressures that are on us now, we are not mutating ourselves properly. If we were, we would be transcending the problems. We would be adapting and overcoming them so that they would not be problems anymore. Instead, we see that the problems are deepening, that we are not changing fast enough, and in the right way. We need to know how to do it, how to transmute. Samael Aun Weor said:“No one can Self-realize without transmutation.” - Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah .In this context, he was not talking about sexual transmutation, he was talking about transmutation of the psyche, the mind, the heart, and the body: to change thoroughly. Stated in another way, you can transmute your sexual energy, but if you do not transmute your mind, you will not self-realize. three-pillarsWhen we study the Tree of Life, our primary interest is how it applies to us here and now. The Tree of Life maps all of the levels of existence. But those levels of existence are meaningless if we cannot access them. Studying and memorizing scriptures and teachings mean nothing if we cannot experience what they point towards. We need to examine this Tree of Life in relation with ourselves, and understand that these ten sephiroth relate to levels of being within us. Here on this graphic we see not only our physical state but our psychological state, so on this image while we see a physical body to remind us that this relates to us here and now, really all these spheres or levels show our levels of psychology. Symbolized here are two divisions, two sides. The superior part is related to the heavens or superior aspects of being. The inferior part that hangs below is called Klipoth or hell, and this aspect relates to the inferior or inverted aspect of our psyche. Everything on this map is composed of elements: air, fire, water and earth. All of this is suspended in or supported by the Akash.

So in this context, if we use our imagination and we look at how this applies to us here and now, everything about us is encoded, in elements. Here physically, we can sense those physical aspects: our physical body is an encoded series of elements, which is reflected in our DNA. But as well, our entire psychological make up is encoded in us. Sadly, we only hazily perceive it. We hazily perceive it as thoughts and feelings, and certain types of sensations physically. But we do not perceive or comprehend that all of the thoughts, feelings, and impulses are driven by matter and energy that is not physical. This is a real problem that we have. Really, open up your imagination, and analyze yourself: look at how you have a physical body here and now. This body is composed of a trinity of elements: matter, energy, and Consciousness. The Consciousness here is not awake, it is very asleep, but there is some degree of Consciousness or perception. Thoughts, feelings, and other impulses are more subtle that physical matter, but still we can perceive that they have some level of manifestation. We can verify that they are there, somehow. They also have matter, energy, and Consciousness, but not in the physical dimension. Those thoughts that you sense, and the feelings that you sense, are modifications of Consciousness that have matter and energy associated with them, but not physically. What we experience physically is their reflection, like light being bounced through a mirror. We have the mirror of our mind, which reflects the contents of our thoughts and feelings, but where are the thoughts? Where are the feelings? They are not in the brain, because you can experience thoughts and feelings when you are out of your body. So where are they? This is the problem we have: we do not know. The problem is compounded because we need to change. Rapidly. Otherwise, we are threatened with grave problems, even worse problems then we have now. We need to transmute all of these psychological elements, very quickly. How, if we cannot see them? If we cannot sense them, how can we change them? How can you work in the dark? How can a blind person create a piece of art if he cannot even see what he is doing? This is our fundamental challenge. Psychologically, spiritually, we are blind. How then can we create a perfect soul, if we cannot see what we are doing? How can we transmute ourselves into something better, if we cannot even see who we really are? For this, we need help. We need to understand how these elements work, in all of the levels of nature. So to remind you, these are the five elements. Space

Air Fire Water Earth All things are composed by these elements; understanding that, we need to look at how those elements manifest in us. We need to analyze our psychology, to see it for what it is. Let me remind you of the previous lecture: these elements do not refer to the literal physical aspects, they are psychological. Expansiveness Mobility

Temperature Fluidity Solidity In order to transmute yourself, you need to know what you are working with, you need to see yourself, you need to see how your mind and heart functions, how all of the sensations you experience flow. You need to see what parts of your psyche are expansive, what is the relative mobility of your thinking and feeling, what about its temperature? Its fluidity and solidity? In this way, you can analyze the elements that are involved. You can understand how to manage the elements in your experiences, psychologically. As we explained in the previous lecture, we get help with that process through what we call ordeals, psychological challenges that are given by our own Innermost, through our psychological trainer, who presents us with scenarios designed to bring out those parts of ourselves that we need to work on. If we are not prepared to see it, we will respond poorly, the way that we have been doing previously, and we will make our situation worse. If we are not psychologically trained to watch ourselves and look for the patterns in our psychology, we will not see what is really happening to us, and we will make mistakes. When you enter into this type of work and the process of starting to transmute yourself, you are given challenges, opportunities to see yourself as you are, and those opportunities will come every day. If you are really attentive, you will find that those opportunities are continually arising, all the time. We do not call them opportunities physically, we call them adversities, problems, suffering. We have all of our complaints. We have an old psychological habit that is a very serious obstacle in this type of study, this type of work. That is the habit of self-esteem. Its an old habit that thinks we deserve things that we do not deserve, and that wants things to be ideal, the way that we want it, and we get very frustrated and upset when things do not go the way that we want or expect. I am curious: what percentage of people listening to the lecture today are very disappointed they did not win the lottery last night? I would like to find that out, but I do not think anyone would tell me.

We all have this self-esteem, and it is in direct conflict with the Innermost, with the Being, because this “self” of self-esteem is the ego. The Being wants the ego dead. Dead. Dissolved. Transmuted...But we do not want to transmute it. We want things the way we want them, and when we do not get things the way we want them, what do we do? We complain. We complain in our mind, and we complain with our mouth. Many of us complain all the time. That is a sign, a very significant sign, that we are not transmuting. Another word for transmutation is transformation. We use that in a very important phrase in this teaching: the transformation of impressions. Someone who is transforming impressions has serenity, acceptance. In other words, they have no complaints.

So if we have a lot of complaints, we need to analyze the desires that are complaining: the complaining pride, the lust, the envy, the greed, the gluttony, the fear, the avarice, the laziness, all of those egos. And we need to analyze them in relation with the elements: space, air, fire, water and earth, to understand how they are made, how they work, how they function. In this work, we need to learn to not just go with the flow of our psychological river, but to fight it. The psychological river of our mind is flowing into hell. It is not taking us to God. To reach God, divinity, purity, you have to fight against everything that comes up in yourself that is impure, that is selfish. That fight is not easy. four-ordeals

The four elements are the basic tools that our psychological trainer uses in order to show us ourselves, to show us what we're made of—literally, what we (as a psyche) are made of. Not physically, psychologically. The physical part is impermanent and irrelevant. Spiritually speaking, we have had so many physical bodies in the past and may have more in the future, thus in the long term perspective the physical part is not as important as the psychological part, because the psychological part lasts, and is the determining factor as to whether we get more physical bodies, and what kind, and in what circumstances. Focusing on physicality is foolish. Focusing on psychology is wise. In the psychological point of view, what are we made of? We are made of these elements in different combinations, but unfortunately corrupted with desire. In order to transmute these elements, we have to break them down. Imagine if you were a weaver and you got really drunk and wove something, using up all your good cloth, your good fibers and materials; then you sobered up and realized that what you wove was a complete disaster and wouldn't do anybody any good, in fact it was a waste of all that material, but it was the only material that you had, and you need clothes... What do you do? You have to take it apart. You have to go back to zero. You have to be naked, and start again. We need to do that psychologically; we need to strip our identity completely: this self-esteem has to die. We have to renounce everything except God. To only hold fast to divinity. Nothing else. This is the only way that you can fully and completely transmute. Remember: transmute means to throughly change—thoroughly, not partially. Thoroughly, from the ground up, from zero. It is the only way to build something properly. This is why that Jesus told us that we need a new wineskin. “No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was [taken] out of the new agreeth not with the old. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.” - Jesus, in Luke 5 We need a new garment. A new mind. A new heart. A new body. That transmutation comes through these elements, so we are tested, every day, constantly, by our trainer, through these elements, to pull things out psychologically so we will see them for what they are. This is not for fun or games or just to punish us and humiliate us, it is not to make us suffer, just because we deserve it. It is to help us. It is the medicine we need; we are sick. To be healed, we need a very profound surgery, very deep, very painful. It is not easy. It is not easy to die psychologically. It is not pleasant. It is not something that you will enjoy. You will be in pain. You will cry. You will have regret. You will have remorse. You will be ashamed of yourself. And you should be. Don't avoid it. Embrace it, yet do not attach to it. Look squarely at the facts, accept them, and change. This is how you become spiritually mature. You do not avoid the facts. You look them in the face, you see them for what they are, and you change them. Thoroughly. When you are getting your psychological challenges every day, look them square in the face, accept them, accept responsibility for yourself, do not blame others, do not blame God, accept it, look at it and say, "I deserve this, I created this, now I'm going to change it". This is what a Master comes from. Everybody wonders, "How do the Masters become so beautiful? How do they become so humble, so pure?"... because they are honest. That is how. Because they are honest. They do not avoid the facts. They work hard to change, to become worthy of reflecting God.

The way that this is done is through this fifth element. Everything that we are is constructed of these basic elements. So our pride for example is constructed of the four elements. The humility of an angel is constructed from the same elements that your pride is made from. Isn't that odd? Its constructed of the same light, but arranged differently. The “pride” of an angel—that element, that light, that has to do with virtue of esteem or self nature—is not corrupted by desire, whereas ours is corrupted. What we call “pride” is a modified light that comes from the sun. It is the same light that shines in an angel, but in an angel it shines as humility. Its the same light, but in us, it is modified, corrupted. What shines in that psychological component is the quintessence. But in us, it is impure. In an angel, in a master, it is pure. The word quintessence comes from a root word which means: "To be":

esse "to be." Sanskrit asmi, Hittite eimi, O.C.S. jesmi, Lith. esmi, Goth. imi, O.E. eom "I am"The quintessence hidden in each element within us is the Being, the light of the Being, that shines through any psychological element. Everything that we are as a psyche is the light of the Being, but in us that light is trapped in corruption. If you want that light to shine pure, you need to break apart the lens and reform it to make it perfect, clean. This is the basic science of Alchemy: to purge the metals and make them pure. We could remove the word metals and instead use crystals or lenses, and it would mean the same thing. The quintessence is that light, what in Hebrew is called Shekinah, the light of the Divine Mother. That light shines through everything that we are, psychologically and physically. It shines as all of those elements arranged in all of those different patterns that make up all of the different people and things and plants and animals and minerals and everything that exist; everything is that light, but modified. What we are as a person is a huge complication of all those lights. “And אלהים Elohim said, Let there be מארת ma'owroth [lights] in the firmament of שמים shamayim to divide the day from ליל layil [night]. And let them be מאורת ma'owroth in the firmament of שמים shamayim to give איר owr [light] upon ארץ erets [the earth]...” - Genesis 1:15 We do not see the lights for what they are. We need to analyze ourselves physically, energetically, emotionally, intellectually, and consciously.

This graphic shows the basic psyche that we can perceive here and now, if we look. All of the psychological elements that we can perceive here and now are related to other forms of matter. Physically, we perceive our physical body. If you pay attention, you will recognize that this physical body has energy that allows it to be active and move, the energy of digestion and the circulation of blood, and the energy that flows through the muscles, in the senses and nerves. five-bodies. We also have energy that flows through the psyche, that let us us have imagination and memory and thought, feeling. All of those energies are related with the vital body, what in the Tree of Life is called Yesod (“foundation”). The vital body reflects the contents of thought, emotion, and will into the physical body. Everything we perceive physically is reflected, either through the five physical senses, or through the internal senses that we perceive inside. The vital body reflects those contents into our brain, into our heart. This is important to understand so that we have a clear perspective on how to analyze ourselves. When we are feeling emotions, those emotions do not originate in the physical body. They are not just imaginary. They are reflected forms of light. They are light that we feel and sense emotionally in the physical body, but is being reflected to the physical body from our Astral body, through the vital body. The light of emotion originates in the Astral body. That means that if we are feeling a negative emotion, full comprehension and elimination of that defect is only possible by working on it at that level, with the Astral body in the fifth dimension, where its originating. But how many of us have clairvoyance? How many of us are awake in the astral plane, in the fifth dimension, to work on that discursive negative emotion? None of us, we are asleep! Moreover, when we sleep at night and we are dreaming with those emotions, we do not remember them when we come back to our body. So our trainer has no choice but to give us ordeals in the physical world so that we can see and experience what is happening in that Astral body, so that it is reflected here physically, so that it can come up and we will work on it. Internally, consciously, we are asleep and enslaved, so to help us, our trainer gives us ordeals. Our trainer puts us in circumstances where we feel those emotions, so that our Consciousness, our willpower, can see it, and can respond consciously, not mechanically, but can comprehend and free itself. This is why we have ordeals. We need them. Do not complain about your problems. Learn from them. They are your path to liberation. In several places of the Bible it states very clearly: “For whom יהוה loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son [in whom] he delighteth.” - Proverbs 3:12 The chastisement or ordeals are given as help to help us and aid us, otherwise we will not see who we are, and what is stopping us from reaching God. So this applies to all of our emotions, all of our thoughts, all of our problems, all of our situations, all of our circumstances, everything thats bothering us or that we think is limiting us, or is a problem for us, is actually something that we need to take advantage of. That is why Samael Aun Weor said: “We must learn how to take advantage of the worst adversities. The worst adversities bring us the best opportunities. We must learn to smile before all adversities.” “People protest because of the difficulties that interaction offers them. They do not want to realize that those difficulties are precisely providing them with the necessary opportunities for the dissolution of their “I.” So why are all the spiritual students, including the so-called Gnostics , looking for easy lives? Students are trying to win the lottery, longing to retire in the countryside and grow sunflowers, longing to retreat from their problems. Listen: if you have an easy, laid back life, you will stagnate spiritually. You will rot. If you want to grow spiritually, you need to die psychologically. The only way you will do that is by seeing the garbage in your mind and in your heart. That is why we are given ordeals. “During times of rigorous temptations [ordeals], discouragement and desolation, one must appeal to the intimate Remembering of the Self.“Deep within each one of us is the Aztec Tonantzin, Stella Maris, the Egyptian Isis, God the Mother, waiting for us in order to heal our painful heart.“When one gives to oneself the shock of “Self-remembering,” then indeed, a miraculous change [transmutation] in the entire work of the body is produced, so that the cells receive a different nourishment.” - Samael Aun Weor. That is why Samael said:“We can disintegrate our defects and dissolve the psychological “I” only by means of this science of transmutations. We can modify our errors, transmute the vile metals into pure gold and command only by means of the science of transmutations.” - Samael Aun Weor, Tarot and Kabbalah. In The Gnostic Bible, The Pistis Sophia Unveiled, he said: “It is possible to crystallize the Soul within ourselves by dissolving the animal ego.“We need to dissolve the undesirable psychological elements in order to crystallize the Soul within ourselves.

“We must convert ourselves into pure Soul. With patience you will possess your Soul.“This is possible based on conscious work and voluntary sufferings. “The Souls of the people reside in a superior level of the Being.“The Soul is the conjunction of all the forces, powers, virtues, essences, etc., that crystallize within us when the entire animal ego has been dissolved.

“Each time that a psychological defect is dissolved, a virtue, a power, etc., crystallizes within our interior. “The complete dissolution of all the defects implies the integral crystallization of the Soul within ourselves. “If the water does not boil at one hundred degrees, that which must be crystallized does not crystallize, and that which must be dissolved is not dissolved.

“In similar form, we say that it is necessary to pass through great emotional crisis in order to dissolve psychological defects and crystallize the Soul.” Firstly, this is accomplished based on conscious work and voluntary suffering. Voluntary suffering means that we accept our suffering, we do not fight it, in the sense of resisting it or denying it or trying to change our physical circumstances all of the time. Instead we accept it, we do what we need to do in order to survive, and care for our responsibilities, and that's enough. The rest of our effort should be focused on changing ourselves. The soul is the conjunction of all the powers, virtues, etc., and they crystalize within us when the animal ego has been dissolved: that is transmutation. Each construction in the psyche is made of the elements. We dissolve each ego in order to liberate the light in each of the elements that are there, then automatically, spontaneously, the light emerges as the soul. In other words, the quintessence is freed. From there is a great range of potential. What happens with that energy next depends on the nature of our path. But whatever the nature of that path, it will be positive, since the light has been liberated. The other important point here is “if the water does not boil at one hundred degrees, that which must be crystalized does not crystalize, and that which must dissolve does not dissolve.” What is that water? Water is one of the elements. Where is the water in us? What water is it that must boil? Anybody know? Well, this is a sort of trick question, because everything about us is based on water. There is no exception. In the Hebrew letters are the three mother letters that we mentioned previously. mother-letters-three-brains..The element of water is represented by the letter Mem. The element water and the letter Mem are related with the vital body. That is the lower Eden or Mayim in the book of Genesis. “And אלהים Elohiym said, Let the מים mayim (waters) under שמים shamayim be gathered together unto one place…” - Genesis 1:9 yesod-body-croppedThe sephirah Yesod, the ninth sphere, is our creative waters, from which we create everything, physically, spiritually, psychologically. Those are our creative waters, the waters of Genesis within us. From Yesod, the sexual organs, was made our earth, our physical body. “And אלהים Elohiym said, Let the מים mayim (waters) under שמים shamayim be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry [land] appear: and it was so. And אלהים Elohiym called the dry [land] ארץ 'erets [earth, our body]; and the gathering together of the waters called he ים yam [seas]…” - Genesis 1:9-10 The physical body is mostly water. Without it we cannot live. The emotional body (Astral body) is very strongly influenced by water. Our emotions are a sea. The Mental body also is constructed with the element of water. The Causal body is made from the waters. Water is in everything. Everything that exists depends on water. Physically, energetically and consciously. So when the water must boil, that means that our entire psyche must boil. What is the boiling? The problems, difficulties. When you study how physics works, when you study how nature works, you find that crystallization and dissolution are very closely related. The entire science of Alchemy is based upon this understanding. This is why if you study any of the old alchemical texts, they always talk about the need to dissolve and coagulate or crystalize. The entire science of Alchemy is based upon that. One short example is from the Bosom Book of George Ripley (circa 1476): “Then mingle with this white calx [dusty residue remaining after a mineral or metal has been calcined or roasted] the fiery water [שמים shamayim], and distil it with a strong fire all off as before, and calcine the earth [ארץ 'erets] again that remaineth in the bottom of the still, and then distil it again with a strong fire as before, and again calcine it, and thus distil and calcine it seven times, until all the substance of the calx be lifted up by the limbec: and then thou hast the water [מים mayim] of life rectified and made indeed spiritual; and so hast thou the four elements exalted in the virtue of their quintessence. This water will dissolve all bodies, and putrefy them, and purge them: and this is our Mercury and our Lunary; and whosoever thinketh there is any other water than this is an ignorant and a fool, and shall never be able to come to the effect.”This is only one example of hundreds of writings like it. This excerpt explains that the process of purification and the elaboration of the quintessence is a process of dissolution and crystallization.

For centuries, foolish people lacking initiation into the actual science read these things literally and thought they were talking about literal water, literal physical mercury, literal physical elements. That is wrong. These scriptures are about the psyche, the mind. The dissolution is psychological, and it is accomplished through ordeals, through analyzing and dissolving impurities in the mind. Symbolically, we analyze the elements of the mind as having seven fundamental qualities, related to the seven lights that organize all things.

 

gnosticteachings.org/courses/alchemy/3076-transmutation.html

  

It is a long-distance lovely migrant bird and visit Taiwan.

Carry on my gear(15.5 kg).

About 1 km flat road, after that a vertical climbing a total of 2.4 km.

I suspect, the feet tell me and may have to strike for three days.

Need to go massage.. Lol..

Of cause, hard job will feed back,

have other good one, post after few days..

Thank you for the comment and Award with invite..

Have a nice day&night..

 

We know nothing of what will happen in future, but by the analogy of past experience.

~~ By from Abraham Li. ~~

  

Warm Kind regards

Aber

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_Bunting

 

Yehliu Geopark of Taiwan and welcome.

www.ylgeopark.org.tw/ENG/info/YlIntroduction_en.aspx

This was really amazing! It's a Blythe head on a Monster High body! She was so lovely!! I hope someone does more of these in future. :D

This is a product shot with extreme micro technique. Kenco extension tube having used.

 

The color are all natural. It is my intension to use the old watch for this shot.

 

You might wonder why I put this title!!

 

This watch is actually over 28 years now. it was given by my late father when I returned from Swansea; Wales; UK.

 

I have use this all the time except few occasion I use other branded watch for the VIP function.

 

In the old Chinese Saying:

 

The $ value is not as valuable then the thoughts!!

 

Especially, now My Dad's is already gone, whenever I see the watch, I think about him. & I missed him. Although when I was 12, he beaten me up until I wounded, & Again in 1990 after I my successful initialization of "Creating The New Excellence Philips Corporate Culture", then Philips disbanded my division in Telecom & Data System. When I return to S.E.A.. The 2nd Brother's in the family have set things up for both parents to dis-owned me.

 

I experience worst family wealth; money; politics & struggle in my life. The reason for me to walk away is because I just don't want to get involve.( It is the same in my careers with those multi-natinational corp as well.) In 1990 Nov, I attended Comdex & I wrote back to both the 38 points of the family trouble & my visions of what have become for the family in future. Then my mom's burn the letter upon receiving.

 

Before, both passed away, they looks back & think back for what have happening & the expel of me from the family, they are very much regret, especially their near death experience whereby the Yamas' (Emperors' of Hells) told them what is truth. However, it is too late.

 

Well, whatever happening, I still pray for them to rebirth in the higher plane. As the Buddha said Birth is suffering, all beings are suffering except become the perfect one; the excel one; the enlighten one -- that is become the Buddha oneself.

 

At the month of "Ching Ming" - Month of remembrance; let's pray & transfer merits to all our 3 births parents' ( That is Past Present & Future!!)

 

Satu; Satu; Satu...

  

Peace; Peace; Peace.....................

   

I know the new all singing and dancing flickr is with us; but should you want to see it large then click

here

   

Cwm Idwal shot earlier in the year. I forget what grad i used for this shot, i suspect it was a 1.2 lee soft grad on a 70-200 lens.

  

Also, my pro account runs out today, i doubt whether i will renew it; whilst i enjoy the community of flickr i dont like what flickr has become as a corporate body. In future i will be paying for a smugmug account. I will still load on here but the archives will probably be lost.

November 2025

 

Curator - An AI Photography Critique system

 

Caption: a city street with a bus and a car

Style: Street

Interestingness: 6.27/10 (★★★☆☆)

 

Critique: Overall, this image captures a typical street scene in an urban environment, reflecting the essence of city life with its mix of architectural elements and human activity. The main visual strength lies in the contrast between light and shadow, which adds depth to the photograph and highlights certain aspects while leaving others in darkness.

 

As for secondary observations, there seems to be room for improvement regarding composition; the image feels somewhat unbalanced due to an uneven distribution of subjects across the frame. Additionally, although it's a street photography style piece, one could argue that capturing more decisive moments or interactions between people would elevate its storytelling potential and potentially increase the score.

 

One actionable improvement is considering adjusting the framing slightly so as not to cut off parts of the buildings on either side, allowing for better visual flow within the image. Overall, while it's a snapshot with clear intentions, refining these elements could enhance both technical execution and narrative impact in future works.

 

Camera: Ricoh, GR III, lens:GR LENS 18.3mm F2.8, 18mm, f/5.6, ISO200

Day 53/365

 

"Equilibrium...The Art of Glasses"

This is my second art of equilibrium collection.

hobefully in future I will take it to wild level ;)

 

Abut this photo: this photo is colored!! its not black and white, its my first time that I beat the camera sensor in term of matching colors since the background is brown sheet and in the right is blue sheet and in the left purple sheet.

 

Strobist Info: 2x 580EX II one from the left and one from the right and both are in TTL -1 mode pointed to the background from behind the sided sheets.

Flash triggered via Pocket wizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5.

Rather than using a water bottle to make the drop I thought I'd use the tap this time. It made focusing a little bit easier but brought with it other problems such as poor light, difficulty placing the background, shadows...

 

I'll stick to a bottle in future.

Faux tilt shift of a river in the Dublin mountains. The original shot looked enough like a model to warrant me adding the effect (i like tilt shift in moderation).

 

The oversaturation is part of the effect :)

 

Best viewed Large On Black.

 

Please, if you're giving this photo a low rating tell me why. That way I can improve in future.

 

For more photos follow me on twitter, on my blog or on shuttrr.

 

This is the 112th Image in my 365 challenge.

Mission: Space...located in Future World at Epcot

I only discovered this company called Economy Waste a few months ago when I was out videoing some Central Coast residential trucks. I was stopped at a set of lights in West Gosford and next thing a beast 8x4 Kenworth with an open top bin on the back goes past me, surprisingly being a dino instead of the hook lift I first expected. While having a quick feed at KFC, I sussed out the company on Google, learning their yard was just up the road :D In the blink of an eye I was having a brief chat with the boss and got a little look at a couple of other trucks run by the business. The first fleet member to catch my eye was the pictured one with the bail hook sticking out of the frame rails, belonging to an awesome 1988 Kenworth L710. The next truck over is just a bare chassis Hino which I didn’t query, and behind that is a monster Kenworth marrel... I really want to check this fleet out more in future! Bugger I didn’t get a good photo (do a Google search) of the first Kenworth I spotted, but a rego check tells me it’s a 2002 K104 model, something I class as a damn fucking real truck after hearing the exhaust grumble. Economy Waste appears to have a decent local customer base on the Central Coast, but I also get the impression they subcontract to the bigger companies in the area. As per the mudguard, I believe the name “Calleija” also has some ties to the waste industry of the old days.