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spinallyspiraling · 2 years ago

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The Sacred Bull and Orphic Egg

The ancient symbol of the Orphic Mysteries was the serpent-entwined egg, which signified Cosmos as encircled by the fiery Creative Spirit. The egg also represents the soul of the philosopher; the serpent, the Mysteries. At the time of initiation the shell is broke. and man emerges from the embryonic state of physical existence wherein he had remained through the fetal period of philosophic regeneration.

Among the ancients the sun was always symbolized by the figure and nature of the constellation through which it passed at the vernal equinox. For nearly the past 2,000 years the sun has crossed the equator at the vernal equinox in the constellation of Pisces (the Two Fishes). For the 2,160 years before that it crossed through the constellation of Aries (the Ram). Prior to that the vernal equinox was in the sign of Taurus (the Bull). It is probable that the form of the bull and the bull's proclivities were assigned to this constellation because the bull was used by the ancients to plow the fields, and the season set aside for plowing and furrowing corresponded to the time at which the sun reached the segment of the heavens named Taurus.

Albert Pike describes the reverence which the Persians felt for this sign and the method of astrological symbolism in vogue among them, thus: "In Zoroaster's cave of initiation, the Sun and Planets were represented, overhead, in gems and gold, as was also the Zodiac. The Sun appeared, emerging from the back of Taurus." In the constellation of the Bull are also to be found the "Seven Sisters"--the sacred Pleiades--famous to Freemasonry as the Seven Stars at the upper end of the Sacred Ladder.

In ancient Egypt it was during this period--when the vernal equinox was in the sign of Taurus--that the Bull, Apis, was sacred to the Sun God, who was worshiped through the animal equivalent of the celestial sign which he had impregnated with his presence at the time of its crossing into the Northern Hemisphere. This is the meaning of an ancient saying that the celestial Bull "broke the egg of the year with his horns."

Sampson Arnold Mackey, in his Mythological Astronomy of the Ancients Demonstrated, makes note of two very interesting points concerning the bull in Egyptian symbolism. Mr. Mackey is of the opinion that the motion of the earth that we know as the alternation of the poles has resulted in a great change of relative position of the equator and the zodiacal band. He believes that originally the band of the zodiac was at right angles to the equator, with the sign of Cancer opposite the north pole and the sign of Capricorn opposite the south pole. It is possible that the Orphic symbol of the serpent twisted around the egg attempts to show the motion of the sun in relation to the earth under sich conditions Mr Mackey advances the Labyrinth of Crate, the name theas, and the magic formula, abracadabra, among other things, to substantiate his theory. Concerning abracadabra he states

"But the slow progressive disappearance of the Ball is most happily commemorated in the vanishing series of letters so emphatically expressive of the great astronomical fact For ABRACADABRA is The Bull, the unly Bull. The ancient sentence split into its component parts stands thus: Ab'r-uchad-abra, e, Abt, the Ball, achad, the unly, &c. Achad is one of the names of the Sun, given him in consequence of his Shining ALONE - he is the ONIY Star to be seen when he is seen--the remaining ab'ra, makes the whole to he. The Ball, the only Rull, while the repetition of the name omitting a letter, till all is gone, is the most simple, yet the most satisfactory method that could have been devised to preserve the memory of the fact, and the name of Sorapis, or Senapis, given to the Bull at the above ceremony puts it beyond all doubt. This word (Abracadabra) disappears in eleven decreasing stages, as in the figure. And what is very remarkable, a body with three heads is folded up by a Serpent with eleven Coils and placed by Sorapis and the cleven Volves or the Serpent form a triangle similar to that formed by the ELEVEN diminishing lines of the abracadabra."

The Theogony of Hesiod contains the most complete account of the Greek cosmogony myth. Orphic cosmogony has left its impress upon the various forms of philosophy and religion--Greek, Egyptian, and Syrian--which it contacted. Chief of the Orphic symbols was the mundane egg from which Phanes sprang into light. Thomas Taylor considers the Orphic egg to be synonymous with the mixture from bound and infinity mentioned by Plato in the Philebus. The egg is furthermore the third Intelligible Triad and the proper symbol of the Demiurgus, whose auric body is the egg of the inferior universe.

Eusebius, on the authority of Porphyry, declared that the Egyptians acknowledged one intellectual Author or Creator of the world under the name of Cneph and that they worshiped him in a statue of human form and dark blue complexion, holding in his hand a girdle and a scepter, wearing on his head a royal plume, and thrusting forth an egg out of his mouth. (See An Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology) While the Bembine Table is rectangular-shaped, it signifies philosophically the Orphic egg of the universe with its contents. In the esoteric doctrines the supreme individual achievement is the breaking of the Orphic egg, which is equivalent to the return of the spirit to the Nirvana--the absolute condition--of the Oriental mystics.

"Yet another view held in primitive times was that the sky was a vast meadow over which a huge beetle crawled, pushing the disk of the sun before him. This beetle was the Sky-god, and, arguing from the example of the beetle (Scarabæus sacer), which was observed to roll along with its hind legs a ball that was believed to contain its eggs, the early Egyptians thought that the ball of the Sky-god contained his egg and that the sun was his offspring. Thanks, however, to the investigations of the eminent entomologist, Monsieur J. H. Fabre, we now know that the ball which the Scarabæus sacer rolls along contains not its eggs, but dung that is to serve as food for its egg, which it lays in a carefully prepared place."

In nearly all the sacred books of the world can be traced an anatomical analogy. This is most evident in their creation myths. Anyone familiar with embryology and obstetrics will have no difficulty in recognizing the basis of the allegory concerning Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, the nine degrees of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and the Brahmanic legend of Vishnu's incarnations. The story of the Universal Egg, the Scandinavian myth of Ginnungagap (the dark cleft in space in which the seed of the world is sown), and the use of the fish as the emblem of the paternal generative power--all show the true origin of theological speculation. The philosophers of antiquity realized that man himself was the key to the riddle of life, for he was the living image of the Divine Plan, and in future ages humanity also will come to realize more fully the solemn import of those ancient words: "The proper study of mankind is man."

The accepted theory that the serpent is evil cannot be substantiated. It has long been viewed as the emblem of immortality. It is the symbol of reincarnation, or metempsychosis, because it annually sheds its skin, reappearing, as it were, in a new body. There is an ancient superstition to the effect that snakes never die except by violence and that, if uninjured, they would live forever. It was also believed that snakes swallowed themselves, and this resulted in their being considered emblematic of the Supreme Creator, who periodically reabsorbed His universe back into Himself.

In Isis Unveiled, H. P. Blavatsky makes this significant statement concerning the origin of serpent worship: "Before our globe had become egg-shaped or round it was a long trail of cosmic dust or fire-mist, moving and writhing like a serpent. This, say the explanations, was the Spirit of God moving on the chaos until its breath had incubated cosmic matter and made it assume the annular shape of a serpent with its tail in its month--emblem of eternity in its spiritual and of our world in its physical sense."

The seven-headed snake represents the Supreme Deity manifesting through His Elohim, or Seven Spirits, by whose aid He established His universe. The coils of the snake have been used by the pagans to symbolize the motion and also the orbits of the celestial bodies, and it is probable that the symbol of the serpent twisted around the egg--which was common to many of the ancient Mystery schools--represented both the apparent motion of the sun around the earth, and the bands of astral light, or the great magical agent, which move about the planet incessantly.

The Pythagoreans were often undeservedly criticized for promulgating the so-called doctrine of metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls. This concept as circulated among the uninitiated was merely a blind, however, to conceal a sacred truth. Greek mystics believed that the spiritual nature of man descended into material existence from the Milky Way--the seed ground of souls--through one of the twelve gates of the great zodiacal band. The spiritual nature was therefore said to incarnate in the form of the symbolic creature created by Magian star gazers to represent the various zodiacal constellations. If the spirit incarnated through the sign of Aries, it was said to be born in the body of a ram; if in Taurus, in the body of the celestial bull. All human beings were thus symbolized by twelve mysterious creatures through the natures of which they were able to incarnate into the material world. The theory of transmigration was not applicable to the visible material body of man, but rather to the invisible immaterial spirit wandering along the pathway of the stars and sequentially assuming in the course of evolution the forms of the sacred zodiacal animals.

The most important of all symbolic animals was the Apis, or Egyptian bull of Memphis, which was regarded as the sacred vehicle for the transmigration of the soul of the god Osiris. It was declared that the Apis was conceived by a bolt of lightning, and the ceremony attendant upon its selection and consecration was one of the most impressive in Egyptian ritualism. The Apis had to be marked in a certain manner. Herodotus states that the bull must be black with a square white spot on his forehead, the form of an eagle (probably a vulture) on his back, a beetle upon (under) his tongue, and the hair of his tail lying two ways. Other writers declare that the sacred bull was marked with twenty-nine sacred symbols, his body was spotted, and upon his right side was a white mark in the form of a crescent. After its sanctification the Apis was kept in a stable adjacent to the temple and led in processionals through the streets of the city upon certain solemn occasions. It was a popular belief among the Egyptians that any child upon whom the bull breathed would become illustrious. After reaching a certain age (twenty-five years) the Apis was taken either to the river Nile or to a sacred fountain (authorities differ on this point) and drowned, amidst the lamentations of the populace. The mourning and wailing for his death continued until the new Apis was found, when it was declared that Osiris had reincarnated, whereupon rejoicing took the place of grief.

The worship of the bull was not confined to Egypt, but was prevalent in many nations of the ancient world. In India, Nandi--the sacred white bull of Siva--is still the object of much veneration; and both the Persians and the Jews accepted the bull as an important religious symbol. The Assyrians, Phoenicians, Chaldeans, and even the Greeks reverenced this animal, and Jupiter turned himself into a white bull to abduct Europa. The bull was a powerful phallic emblem signifying the paternal creative power of the Demiurgus. At his death he was frequently mummified and buried with the pomp and dignity of a god in a specially prepared sarcophagus. Excavations in the Serapeum at Memphis have uncovered the tombs of more than sixty of these sacred animals.

As the sign rising over the horizon at the vernal equinox constitutes the starry body for the annual incarnation of the sun, the bull not only was the celestial symbol of the Solar Man but, because the vernal equinox took place in the constellation of Taurus, was called the breaker or opener of the year. For this reason in astronomical symbolism the bull is often shown breaking the annular egg with his horns. The Apis further signifies that the God-Mind is incarnated in the body of a beast and therefore that the physical beast form is the sacred vehicle of divinity. Man's lower personality is the Apis in which Osiris incarnates. The result of the combination is the creation of Sor-Apis (Serapis)-the material soul as ruler of the irrational material body and involved therein. After a certain period (which is determined by the square of five, or twenty-five years), the body of the Apis is destroyed and the soul liberated by the water which drowns the material life. This was indicative of the washing away of the material nature by the baptismal waters of divine light and truth. The drowning of the Apis is the symbol of death; the resurrection of Osiris in the new bull is the symbol of eternal renovation. The white bull was also symbolically sacred as the appointed emblem of the initiates, signifying the spiritualized material bodies of both man and Nature.

When the vernal equinox no longer occurred in the sign of Taurus, the Sun God incarnated in the constellation of Aries and the ram then became the vehicle of the solar power. Thus the sun rising in the sign of the Celestial Lamb triumphs over the symbolic serpent of darkness. The lamb is a familiar emblem of purity because of its gentleness and the whiteness of its wool. In many of the pagan Mysteries it signified the Universal Savior, and in Christianity it is the favorite symbol of Christ. Early church paintings show a lamb standing upon a little hill, and from its feet pour four streams of living water signifying the four Gospels. The blood of the lamb is the solar life pouring into the world through the sign of Aries.

The goat is both a phallic symbol and also an emblem of courage or aspiration because of its surefootedness and ability to scale the loftiest peaks. To the alchemists the goat's head was the symbol of sulphur. The practice among the ancient Jews of choosing a scapegoat upon which to heap the sins of mankind is merely an allegorical.

The importance of the bull as the symbol of the sun at the vernal equinox is discussed in the chapter on The Zodiac and Its Signs. The bull and the ox are ancient emblems of the element of earth--consequently of the planet itself. They also signify the animal nature of man, and for this reason were sacrificed upon the altars of such ancient Mysteries as the Jewish and Druidic. Plutarch wrote: "The Apis ought to be regarded by us, as a fair and beautiful image of the soul of Osiris." Osiris represents the spiritual nature of the lower world which is murdered and distributed throughout the substance of the physical spheres; Apis is the emblem of the material world within which is the spiritual nature-- Osiris. The Apis is also the symbol of the exoteric (or profane) doctrine, in contradistinction to the esoteric (or divine) teachings represented by the uræus worn upon the foreheads of the priests. Front this is derived the mythological allegory of Serapis, who in a certain sense is not only the composite figure of Osiris and the lower world in which he is incarnated but also of the Mysteries, which are the terrestrial bodies containing the secret teachings, or the spiritual soul.

There are three distinct forms of the cross. The first is called the TAU (more correctly the TAV). It closely resembles the modern letter T, consisting of a horizontal bar resting on a vertical column, the two arms being of equal length. An oak tree cut off some feet above the ground and its upper part laid across the lower in this form was the symbol of the Druid god Hu. It is suspected that this symbol originated among the Egyptians from the spread of the horns of a bull or ram (Taurus or Aries) and the vertical line of its face. This is sometimes designated as the hammer cross, because if held by its vertical base it is not unlike a mallet or gavel.

There are four basic elements (according to both ancient philosophy and modern science), and the ancients represented them by the four arms of the cross, placing at the end of each arm a mysterious Qabbalistic creature to symbolize the power of one of these elements. Thus, they symbolized the element of earth by a bull; water by a scorpion, a serpent, or an eagle; fire by a lion; and air by a human head surrounded by wings. It is significant that the four letters inscribed upon parchment (some say wood) and fastened to the top of the cross at the time of the crucifixion should be the first letters of four Hebrew words which stand for the four elements: "Iammin, the sea or water; Nour, fire; Rouach, the air; and Iebeschah, the dry earth." (See Morals and Dogma, by Albeit Pike.)

That a cross can be formed by opening or unfolding the surfaces of a cube has caused that symbol to be associated with the earth. Though a cross within a circle has long been regarded as a sign of the planet Earth, it should really be considered as the symbol of the composite element earth, since it is composed of the four triangles of the elements. For thousands of years the cross has been identified with the plan of salvation for humanity. The elements--salt, sulphur, mercury, and Azoth--used in making the Philosopher's Scone in Alchemy, were often symbolized by a cross. The cross of the four cardinal angles also had its secret significance, and Masonic parties of three still go forth to the four cardinal points of the compass in search of the Lost Word.

~ Manly P. Hall; The Secret Teachings of All Ages

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davidaolson · 9 months ago

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Desert Revelations

The wilderness of antiquity was wild desert. And that’s where our philosophers and prophets went to meditate on mountains to abandon society for a while and sleep under the stars or within limestone caves.~Ken Layne Have you ever wondered why so many of those labeled prophets sought refuge in the desert? The desert is a spartan landscape where mere mortals including Zoroaster, Nabu, Moses,…

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#Ken Layne #Podcast

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ramrodd · 1 year ago

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What can you say on this side of man's understanding about history

Well, on this side of the January 6 Rebellion, Michael Steele and Mitt Romney are the last of the Party of Lincoln left standing. And Michael Steele is more woke than either Barry or Michele.

COMMENTARY:

Well, on of the things that is emerging from the archeology that has been loosely organized around the Dead Scrolls is that the nexus of folk lore, deliberate record keeping, scripture and cross-cultural pollination presents a stable and accurate cultural portrait of any singular figure that crosses that field.

We are going to understand whatever was going on on any day in any pace at any point of time into the present linguistic register, which is a useful anthropological framework that has emerged from the school of serious religious scholarship., specifically Christian and Canadian and beyond the spiritual corruption of the Total Depravity Gospel that pollutes American society.

In many respects, history is a record of social navigation that was able the result of sufficient variety in cognitive reality, whatever that is History is a map of human awareness that it ultimately recorded existentially as behavior. To get the the point where we could take an option of an intellectual property like a form of entertainment based on exchanging data as a capitalist tool. How did we get to this moment, where we ponder just what it is to invent history”

History is a paradox, the eye removing the mote it its own eye, much less the elephant in the room. But it cannot see the flavors and smells and Tygers from the dust of the dig.

The most important thing archelogy is adding to history is bringing kids from all over the world together to work at at scientific dig and spend a summer turning over the soil of a society. And live and work under that sun for 6 weeks, the length of time it takes to produce a Starship Trooper going through the Ranger School. They work all day in the sun, no air conditioning, but feeling alive and young and enjoying the discomfort as authentic and breaking bread and sipping local wines and that’s the secret password of Christianity: bread and wine. It’s the thing Melchizedek emphasizes to Abram and a reliable method of social navigation. This comes straight from Zoroaster by way of Enoch. Persia is where the Think Globally component of the self-aware organic society. Like a honey bee swarm.

In the ontology of Jesus, Yaweh, Queen of Battle is the Queen Bee of the Universe: She who must be obeyed. Pallas Athena. When you examine the psychology of the Greek Pantheon, there is a huge amount of useful categories of human experience that produced Athens. How did that happen? The Parable of the Cave is a racial memory of the moment in human social organization when the crack in the cosmic egg of the Neanderthal allowed the paradigm shift to Homo Sapiens. Like the Obelisk in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Before History was, narrative and theater emerged together around a community fire, telling stories and throwing shadows on a wall of a care or teepee. History emerged from those experiences. The narrative and theater was the history, then, some how, it got written down.

The thing history cannot convey is how it felt like to be there, to smell it, to touch it, to feel 6 weeks of sunburn as you stretch your shoulders at the end of the day against the fingernails urging you forward. This is when the anthropology of the present informs the history of Golgotha. Or Troy. Or Miller Time at Capernaum with the catch sold and the nets stored and a dineries in the pocket.

And that’s how History becomes the narrative figure moving against the sociology and anthropology of the eternal NOW of space and time. The importance of scripture to History is the anthropological pollen any narrative carries across any field. Scientific history began when the running narrative of any given zeitgeist drove a social bench mark that was unambiguous and existentially available sufficient to the protocols of Hume’s rules of evidence.

Persia is where the Act Locally part of self-aware social navigation of the organic society began to evolve what has become the social contract at the leading edge of the Enlightenment, the syndication of the Declaration of Independence and the Action Research of the US Constitution. History has made this possible and History provides the validation of the composite wisdom of the Founding Fathers.

And history tells us that Donald Trump and the John Birch Society are trying to blow it up.

Which is why I endorse Michael Steele as the Party of Lincoln Caucus of the GOP candidate in 2024. Based on the political history from inside the Beltway as a Chocolate City nigger lover since I got back from Vietnam, Michael Steele and Mitt Romney are virtually the last Jack Kemp/Eisenhower Republicans left standing. Michael Steele is more woke than either Barack or Michele Obama and his intuitive operational economic paradigm is the Salt Water Economics of Paul Krugman’s Peddling Prosperity as opposed to the Fresh Water Economics of the Young Americans for Freedom, Tommy Tuberville and the House Freedom Caucus, the January 6 Republicans, Donald Trump and the John Birch Society.

As well as the Fresh Water Economics of Vallarie Jarrett, Hillary Clinton, Barry and Michele. George and Dick, and the Public Choice School and commercial Fascism of the University of Chicago.

In terms of national security, Michael Steele shares the Salt Water Economics of Bill Clinton, William Cohen and Jesse Helms. And Jack Kemp. Jack Kemp was the Daniel Patrick Moynihan of the GOP. Kemp wasn’t the academic Moynihan was, but he created the play book that was consistent with Eisenhower’s process to transform the Military Industrial Complex to the Green New Deal. We have been a cunt hair away from achieving the critical mass in the social infrastructure to complete the paradigm shift to the Starship Capitalism of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Michael Steele is exactly that cunt hair for that paradigm shift.

And that’s how I see things on this side of history.

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mindful-mateo · 8 months ago

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Mateo rolled his eyes but it was mostly good-natured. "Of course you'd think of it that way. I'm not even surprised at this point." He shook his head, playfully swatting away the hand that pinched his cheek. "And? What's wrong with being fluffy? Soft and gentle has its place just like everything else." Mateo wasn't really ashamed of that. So what if he sometimes preferred just watching fireworks and getting coffee with someone over some sort of steamy rendezvous? Sue him, it was nice. "I have a guitar not a harp." Mateo mused, though he took the point and didn't think he agreed with it but there was likely no changing Byron's mind on that score.

At least they could agree on the wretchedness of Rhys' family and Rhys in general. "Probably her though it'd be close." That wasn't super fair to Rhys but he wasn't there to overhear them. "Who knows? I think it's just self delusion at this point." Rhys' family must know on some level no matter how disapproving they were. They were too smart not to have picked up on it. Mateo nodded in confirmation. "He sure did for like two months. But he's crawling back with gifts and pretty words and Rhys is already caving, it's just a matter of time." Rhys didn't see it as a green flag but he was too weak to Roland to fully keep him at bay forever. Mateo gave Byron a look that he would likely be fairly familiar with. "I always worry." The thunderbird blinked at the possibility of framing Roland for treason but didn't think he could really go through with it. It felt too underhanded. "I don't think we have to go that far." He muttered, just remembering the book in his hand that Byron had given him. Mateo opened it and snorted at the question even as he did. "Working, obviously. Why?" No doubt Byron would try to drag him off on some kind of hare brained scheme but seeing the book he'd given him now that the paper was off Mateo was considering letting him. There was a note of awe in his voice when he spoke."Where did you get this? It's practically impossible to find Fae memoirs from before they were cut off from the Faerie Realm." Yet, that seemed to be what he was holding in his hand, one written by Zoroaster Ambroise, no less, who Mateo had only seen referenced a few times in other texts.

Obviously Matty had missed him, and with good reason. If he didn't keep an eye on his two friends, they would fade into the background and slowly wilt. "And don't get me wrong, I love the whole control thing with you. Very hot, very daddy. But we both know you are painfully fluffy when left to your own devices. So cute!" He pinched Mateo's cheek affectionately. "You need a little bit of the devil to keep you from plucking your own harp too much." Matty viewed himself as the group protector, which was adorable considering he didn't even use his powers and Byron could teleport anywhere he wanted instantly. But the thought was the important part.

"Who do you think would clutch their pearls more, her or Rhys? You know he goes full Dame Judi Dench the minute he's around her. Cannot figure out how she thinks he's making the pussy pop. His socks match his fucking tie clips." More proof that the British as a culture were unnatural. "Wait, he ghosted our boy?" Byron was intrigued at this display of aint-shittedness. "Trust Soap to think that's a green flag. His abandonment issues are such a drag sometimes." This was not the end of the world that Matty thought it was. The longer Rhys was in a toxic relationship, the more Byron could get him to go out and make fun choices. It was just unfortunate that they'd have to deal with 'I have a boyfriend' Rhys in the meantime. He was going to be insufferable. "I'll think of something. Don't worry your pretty little head. We can always frame Councilman Houdini for treason if we have to." Somewhat drastic, but hey, sometimes you needed to take drastic measures. "In the meantime, what're you up to right now?"

#c: byron #byron1 #ignore his hands lol #pretend there's a book in them

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veramora · 3 years ago

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There are many points of resemblance between Christianity and the cult of Mithras. One of the reasons for this probably is that the Persian mystics invaded Italy during the first century after Christ and the early history of both cults was closely interwoven. The Encyclopedia Britannica makes the following statement concerning the Mithraic and Christian Mysteries:

"The fraternal and democratic spirit of the first communities, and their humble origin; the identification of the object of adoration with light and the sun; the legends of the shepherds with their gifts and adoration, the flood, and the ark; the representation in art of the fiery chariot, the drawing of water from the rock; the use of bell and candle, holy water and the communion; the sanctification of Sunday and of the 25th of December; the insistence on moral conduct, the emphasis placed on abstinence and self-control; the doctrine of heaven and hell, of primitive revelation, of the mediation of the Logos emanating from the divine, the atoning sacrifice, the constant warfare between good and evil and the final triumph of the former, the immortality of the soul, the last judgment, the resurrection of the flesh and the fiery destruction of the universe -- [these] are some of the resemblances which, whether real or only apparent, enabled Mithraism to prolong its resistance to Christianity,"

The rites of Mithras were performed in caves. Porphyry, in his Cave of the Nymphs, states that Zarathustra (Zoroaster) was the first to consecrate a cave to the worship of God, because a cavern was symbolic of the earth, or the lower world of darkness. John P. Lundy, in his Monumental Christianity, describes the cave of Mithras as follows: "But this cave was adorned with the signs of the zodiac, Cancer and Capricorn. The summer and winter solstices were chiefly conspicuous, as the gates of souls descending into this life, or passing out of it in their ascent to the Gods; Cancer being the gate of descent, and Capricorn of ascent. These are the two avenues of the immortals passing up and down from earth to heaven, and from heaven to earth."

...

Initiation into the rites of Mithras, like initiation into many other ancient schools of philosophy, apparently consisted of three important degrees. Preparation for these degrees consisted of self-purification, the building up of the intellectual powers, and the control of the animal nature. In the first degree the candidate was given a crown upon the point of a sword and instructed in the mysteries of Mithras' hidden power. Probably he was taught that the golden crown represented his own spiritual nature, which must be objectified and unfolded before he could truly glorify Mithras; for Mithras was his own soul, standing as mediator between Ormuzd, his spirit, and Ahriman, his animal nature. In the second degree he was given the armor of intelligence and purity and sent into the darkness of subterranean pits to fight the beasts of lust, passion, and degeneracy. In the third degree he was given a cape, upon which were drawn or woven the signs of the zodiac and other astronomical symbols. After his initiations were over, he was hailed as one who had risen from the dead, was instructed in the secret teachings of the Persian mystics, and became a full-fledged member of the order.

Candidates who successfully passed the Mithraic initiations were called Lions and were marked upon their foreheads with the Egyptian cross. Mithras himself is often pictured with the head of a lion and two pairs of wings. Throughout the entire ritual were repeated references to the birth of Mithras as the Sun God, his sacrifice for man, his death that men might have eternal life, and lastly, his resurrection and the saving of all humanity by his intercession before the throne of Ormuzd. (See Heckethorn.)

-Manly Hall

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cardest · 4 years ago

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Atlanta/Georgia playlist

Grab a peach and git up, git on down to this Atlanta/Georgia playlist. As you sing a long with the blues on your way to Zesto, watch out for the walking dead! Hope you love this playlist.

Any songs or bands I forgot, let me know! Add you songs! Make Diamond Dallas Page and play the songs here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-iHPcxymC18ZGfZ0xdhww0W7tFmuboS8

ATLANTA/GEORGIA

001 Mastodon - Where Strides The Behemoth 002 Sevendust - T.o.a.b. 003 Kylesa - Drop Out 004 Weird Al Yankovic - Gump 005 B-52s - 52 Girls 006 The Walking Dead Original Soundtrack - Theme Song 007 R.E.M. - Orange Crush 008 James Brown - Get Up Offa That Thing 009 Boz Scaggs - Georgia 010 Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down To Georgia 011 Ray Charles - X-Ray_Blues with Milt_Jackson 012 Baroness - Seasons 013 Royal Thunder - South Of Somewhere 014 Tom Johnston - Savannah Nights 015 Mighty River by Railroad Earth 016 Red Ryders - Savannah Slow Down 017 Alice in Chains - A Looking in View 018 Larkin Poe - Bleach Blonde Bottle Blues 019 Gladys Knight & The Pips - Midnight Train to Georgia 020 Dionne Farris - I Know 021 Primate - March of the Curmudgeon 022 The Keyboys - Savannah 023 Predator - No Face 024 GEORGIA SATELLITES - Keep Your Hands To Yourself 025 Vicki Lawrence - The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia 026 Wheeler Walker Jr. - Redneck Shit 027 Mastodon - Workhorse 028 Hard Times - Dr. Buzzards Original Savannah Band 029 The Pazant Brothers & The Beaufort Express - Back to Beaufort 030 King Hobo - Hobo ride 031 Kylesa - Tired Climb 032 Sevendust - Praise 033 Giraffe Tongue Orchestra - No-One Is Innocent 034 Daughters - Sweet Georgia brown 035 Lynyrd Skynyrd - Georgia Peaches 036 Baroness - Jake Leg 037 Yvonne Elliman - Savannah 038 Arbor Labor Union - Radiant Mountain Road 039 Johnny Paycheck - Georgia In A Jug 040 Silver Machine - Color of the Sun 041 The Coathangers - Parasite 042 Marshall Chapman - Somewhere South of Macon 043 Little Richard - Rip It Up 044 Royal Thunder - Floor 045 Stuck Mojo - Rising 046 Sadistic Ritual - Visionaire of Death 047 Zac Brown Band - Heavy Is The Head ft. Chris Cornell 048 James Brown - There Was A Time 049 JJ Cale w Eric Claptron - Heads In Georgia 050 Iggy Pop - Candy 051 Billy Joe Shaver - I Been To Georgia On A Fast Train 052 Bambara - Serafina 053 Larkin Poe - Trouble In Mind 054 Death of Kings - Shadow of the Reaper 055 The Allman Brothers Band - Hot Lanta 056 Steve Miller Band - Rock N Me 057 Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime 058 The Charlie Daniels Band - Georgia 059 Paul Weller - Moonshine 060 Clarence Reid - Living Together is Keeping Us Apart 061 Tommy Bolin - Savannah Woman 062 Gram Parsons International - Millers Cave 063 O.M.D - Georgia 064 Whores - playing poor 065 Johnny Cash - They Killed Him 066 Fabulous Wailers - Driftwood 067 Calvin Arnold - You Got To Live For Yourself 068 Soundgarden - Ty Cobb 069 Zoroaster - Black Hole 070 Harvey Milk - I Just Want To Go Home 071 The Allman Brothers - Whipping Post 072 Clutch - Gullah 073 Mastodon feat. Gibby Haynes - Atlanta 074 Neon Christ - The Knife That Cuts So Deep 075 Father Befouled - Mortal Awakening 076 Allen Toussaint - Southern Nights 077 B52-s - Butterbean 078 Captain Clegg And The Night Creatures - Macon County Morgue 079 Elton John - Georgia 080 Tony Joe White - Roosevelt and Ira Lee 081 Whiplash - Burning Of Atlanta 082 Hank Williams Jnr - All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight 083 Killer Be Killed - Wings Of Feather And Wax 084 Ray Charles - Georgia On My Mind 085 Joe South - Hush 086 Collective Soul - Shine 087 James Brown - Cold Sweat 088 Order of the Owl - Class War 089 Bad Company - 0h Atlanta 090 Ben E King- Moon River 091 The Group Atlanta - Atlanta Burned Again Last Night 092 The Spirit of Atlanta - Peachtree Street 093 Dickey Betts & Great Southern - Atlantas Burning Down 094 Dr. Buzzards Original Savannah Band - Sunshowers 095 Jucifer - Work Will Make Us Free - Throned In Blood 096 Cloak - To Venomous Depths / Where No Light Shines 097 Prince & the Revolution - Annie Christian 098 Tilly and the Wall - Bad Education 099 Eartha Kitt - Atlanta Blues 100 B-52s - Love Shack 101 Atlanta Rhythm Section - Doraville 102 Withered - Extinguished with the Weary 103 Zack Brown Band - Chicken Fried 104 West End Motel - Bite 105 Unpersons - Number 106 REM - Burning Down 107 Marty Balin - Atlanta Lady Something About Your Love 108 The Extra Lens - Communicating Doors 109 Dangerfeel Newbies - New Dawn 110 Palaces - One 111 Otis Redding - Hard To Handle 112 The Fabulous Freebirds - Badstreet USA 113 Baroness - March to the Sea 114 Sevendust - Crucified 115 Stevie Wonder - Happy Birthday 116 PRIMATE - Pride 117 Deliverance OST - Dueling Banjos 118 Otis Redding & Carla Thomas - Tramp 119 FOZZY - Wanderlust (feat. Zakk Wylde) 120 Duke Pearson - Los Ojos Alegres 121 The Doobie Brothers - Rockin Down the Highway 122 The Black Crowes - Remedy 123 Zesto Atlanta Promo 124 Johnny Mercer - Jeepers Creepers 125 Giraffe Tongue Orchestra - Everyone Gets Everything They Really Want 126 Europe - Cherokee 127 Climate Change - Jo Zav 128 Brian Fallon - Georgia 129 Motherfucker - Confetti 130 Johnny Paycheck - Im_the Only Hell Mama Ever Raised 131 Linda Ronstadt - Life Is Like a Mountain Railway 132 Merle Haggard - Cherokee Maiden 133 Herbie Mann - Rainy Night in Georgia 134 Outkast - SpottieOttieDopaliscious 135 Marion Brown - Maimoun 136 The Bee Gees - Down The Road 137 Hoagy Carmichael - Georgia on My Mind 138 Jamie N. Commons - Lead Me Home (The Walking Dead OST/ Season 3) 139 Black Tusk - Snake Charmer 140 Stone Temple Pilots - Atlanta 141 Curtis Mayfield - I Mo Git U Sucka 142 Combichrist - Every Day Is War 143 Widespread Panic - Up All Night 144 Millie Jackson - All i want is a fighting chance 145 Cat Power - Cross Bones Style 146 Abner Jay - My Middle Name is the Blues 147 Deerhunter - Helicopter 148 Gone Is Gone - Gift 149 Frankie Miller - High Life 150 Mastodon - Stargasm 151 James Brown - Super Bad, Pts. 1, 2 & 3 (Mono Version) 152 Little Richard - Keep A Knockin' 153 Rage Against the Machine - Wake Up 154 QUEEN - One Vision 155 Tetrarch - I'm not right 156 Jimi Hendrix - Mannish Boy 157 Kylesa - Scapegoat 158 Sevendust - Enemy 159 Comes With The Fall - Unbreakable 160 The Black Crowes - Twice as hard 161 Georgia Satellites - Battleship chains 162 Demonic Christ - Nocturnal Empire 163 Florida Georgia Line - Anything Goes 164 Larkin Poe - Mad as a hatter 165 Misfits - Land of the dead 666 Otis Redding - Ole Man Trouble

Thanks for listening!

#atlanta #Atlanta Playlist #Georgia playlist #atlanta bands #music from georgia #sevendust #mastodon #larkin poe #railroad earth #the walking dead #baroness #little richard #tetrarch #kylesa #martin luther jr #little five points

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entoman-created-by-the-tallgreys · 5 years ago

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Flaming Heaven - 🔥🌫🔥🔥🔥

Earth, is Going to Go Into a Fire age, and a the most Chaotic it has ever Bin,

Flaming rock’s from the sky all of the time, Solar flare’s and many other solar storm’s hitting the earth endless time’s, Gaia100% On Fire, all of the time Volcano’s Blowing all of the time, Living in Under Ground Cave’s, all of the time.

Hell of Humanity, Not so Bad For Us 🧚🏻‍♀️

A Better World, a Warm World, a Chaotic an dark Place, oooooooo Sacred !

A World that will test your Limit's a world that will beat the shit out of you and Kill off the weak a world where Gaia is the Arch Goddess of Law of the Jungle.

A world where only the Weak will die and your Smallest flute can lead your ultimate demise, a world seriously not for Pussy’s a world where only the Best of the best make it threw a world of Happyness, A world of fun and a world of Greatness i could do this endless life time’s -

A Playground of Chaos, and a Unholy world with endless sin and endless thing down wrong Went down in flame's ... A Holy Cleansing of the World threw sacred fire.

The world will Purge the Sin from Gaia as it will Clean the earth and Give us Life and Protect Us from anything the world that might hurt us.

ALL HAIL SACRED FIRE !!!

And many bad people did many bad thing's nd made many Awful thing's in the world, all Be Gone by Holy fire, many Land filled With Trash, ALL GONE BY HOLY FIRE !!!!

Many Place Land fill’s, ALL GONE BURNED AWAY BY THE DIVINE FIRE’S !!!!

Sacred Cleansing of the world ... And no one will be Able to Haunt the world what ever there Bonded to IT WILL BE GOND BY FIRE, AND THE FLAME WILL BE TOO HOT FOR HUMAN SOUL’S WAY, WAY TO HOT FOR HUMAN’S !!! AND MANY WILL THINK THERE IN HELL AND FLEE THE WORLD !!!

Zoroastrians believe that the elements are pure and that fire represents God's light or wisdom. Zoroaster placed less emphasis on ritual worship, instead focusing on the central ethics of 'Good Words, Good Thoughts and Good Deeds'. Zoroastrian worship is not prescriptive.

Thought, i Just Put that in there as a Nice Little touch.

My Over all Point is, it’s over for Humanity ... and i made a Post About this n reddit i’ll post it Here as the Next post’ i Need to War you it’s Extremely Long

Holy Sacred fire ... will Get rid of all that is Perverted or Wicked, on the Earth Not Wicked in term’s of Evil or dark but Corruption and all the bad Aura will be forced out and away from the Earth.

Earth Will Be 100% Purified from the fire and all the Chaotic will Save Gaia’s Soul.

Fire, Fire All Holy fire !!!

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aluoka · 4 years ago

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People's History Museum

”From violent protest to attic safety: The Vietnam War and a Hampstead Labour Party banner.What does the banner show? Working in the galleries you develop favourite objects, and in PHM’s current banner exhibition the one I return to again and again is the Hampstead Labour Party banner, on display in Main Gallery One. Dating from the early part of the 20th century, it is a stunning and unusual image, made all the more dramatic by being unfinished. In its unfinished state the main figure and the surrounding details give the impression of almost emerging into focus in glorious shining gold, bronze, blue, green and purple. The contrast between the vibrant colours and the stained backing cloth intensifies the banner’s impacts The banner shows a barefooted woman, walking across a ploughed field, sowing corn from a basket. She is accompanied by a cockerel and the main image is framed by a border of fruit and bunches of corn.Left to right, details of the Hampstead Labour Party banner's borders, showing the corn unfinished and Hampstead Labour Party Banner, around 1920 at People's History Museum How was the banner made? What artistic style was used?Although the banner was probably homemade, whoever stitched it must have been very skilled at needlework. The backing cloth is simple cream woven linen, showing water staining, and the border is made from blue linen. The images and text are exquisitely embroidered with silk threads.The composition and style were influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement. Reacting to the dehumanising effects of industrialisation, the movement was established in 1887 to promote traditional artistic techniques and skills such as woodworking, embroidery and calligraphy. Its members looked back to an idealised medieval world of greater simplicity and the main figure on the banner clearly shows this influence. She is dressed like a traditional peasant and is sowing the corn in a way that was already long out of date in the early 20th century. The text, picked out in red and green silk, uses a medieval style of calligraphy, found in the work of textile designer and writer William Morris. The movement’s first president was Walter Crane, the Manchester based socialist artist whose self portrait hangs close to the banner.What do the images on the banner mean?Political banners were a form of visual propaganda, intended to be carried and seen, and they were designed with specific messages in mind. The different images used by the artists of this banner show their skill, and also a deep understanding of the symbols and their political resonance.The most direct message is in the text towards the top of the banner, an unambiguous political slogan – ‘The Earth For All Not For The Few’. The focus of our attention is the woman, confidently walking across the field, scattering golden corn. The pleats of her skirt, outlined in gold and blue, give a sense of movement, not unlike that found in ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, and this classical theme is continued in the laurel wreath of victory that surrounds her head like a halo. Even her facial expression gives the impression of a classical goddess. In her actions she is symbolically planting the seeds of the new world, a point reinforced by the shining sun behind her head. The radiance of the new day is further shown by her companion, the cockerel – with his head tilted back in song he is literally announcing the dawn. The detailed embroidery on the cockerel is remarkable, the overlapping feathers of its tail showing great artistry. The woman also embodies ideas of fertility, both as a woman and through planting and producing food – the fruit and bunched corn in the borders, the rich produce of the earth; suggest plentiful food ‘for all not for the few’.Detail, Hampstead Labour Party banner, around 1920 ”

” People's History Museum given the date of the banner, and some other details of the woman’s representation, the imagery may also have a further hidden message. (She is wearing a cap of liberty) 😀I suppose to be Mithras

”The mysterious cult of Mithras first appeared in Rome in the 1st century AD. It spread across the Empire over the next 300 years, predominantly attracting merchants, soldiers and imperial administrators. Meeting in temples which were often constructed below ground, these were private, dark and windowless spaces. The mythological scene of Mithras killing a bull within a cave, the ‘tauroctony’ is at the heart of the cult, and its full meaning is subject of much speculationn ”

https://www.londonmithraeum.com/about/

”The term "Mithraism" is of course a modern coinage: In antiquity the cult was known as "the mysteries of Mithras"; alternatively, as "the mysteries of the Persians". ... The Mithraists, who were manifestly not Persians in any ethnic sense, thought of themselves as cultic "Persians". ... the ancient Roman Mithraists themselves were convinced that their cult was founded by none other than Zoroaster, who "dedicated to Mithras, the creator and father of all, a cave in the mountains bordering Persia", an idyllic setting "abounding in flowers and springs of water". (Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs, 6)[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithrais

”Based on dedicatory inscriptions for altars,the name of the figure is conjectured to be Arimanius, a Latinized form of the name Ahriman – a demonic figure in the Zoroastrian pantheon. ”

The original Greek word daimon does not carry negative connotations.[1] The Ancient Greek word δαίμων daimōn denotes a spirit or divine power, much like the Latin genius or numen.[2] The Greek conception of a daimōn notably appears in the works of Plato, where it describes the divine inspiration of Socrates.

Was the ancient cult something like that? or it was due to the fact that people then saw the world this way and, therefore, if they saw the world this way, then we see the world differently. We don't quite see it in the same vivid way, Living Bible to dead flat metaphors that we no longer recognize as metaphors. And this or feeling tragic that this is what, in parallel with the change of Consciousness and this is how I got interested, because it also speaks of the evolution of Consciousness, like this, influential in the spread of ideas

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diversegaminglists · 7 years ago

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Games I’ve finished in 2017

Firewatch

Epic Fantasy Battle 1

Epic Fantasy Battle 2

Spec Ops: The Line

Epic Fantasy Battle 3

Resident Evil: Revelations

Resident Evil 5

Epic Fantasy Battle 4

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

The Enchanted Cave

Resident Evil: Lost in Nightmares

Resident Evil: Desperate Escape

Barrow Hill: Curse of the Ancient Circle

CSI: Miami

The Blackwell Legacy

Blackwell Unbound

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen

The Age of Decadence

House of a 1000 Doors: The Palm of Zoroaster

Dark Strokes: Sins of the Fathers

Stray Souls: Dollhouse Story

Deadly Creatures

Mountain Crime: Requital

Frog Fractions

Weird Park: Broken Tune

King’s Quest 2: Romancing the Throne

Final Fantasy IV (Steam Version)

The Climb

Dex

Ashes of Immortality

Reverse Crawl

Blood Knights

Reigns

Hope Lake

Hexcells

Masques and Murder

Stories Untold

Dungeons 2 Campaign

Kronville: Stolen Dreams

Glass Masquerade

Aztaka

The First Templar

Barrow Hill: The Dark Path

Divinity: Original Sin 2

Pillars of Eternity

A Normal Lost Phone

Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition

Antihero

Vampire Saga: Pandora’s Box

White Day: A Labyrinth Called School (Remake)

Belladonna

#games played in 2017

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argentvive · 4 years ago

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Alchemy, How Many Stages: Four, Seven, Twelve--Fourteen?

One of the most confusing aspects of alchemy is that authors of the various treatises disagree on the number, and names, of the stages. In literary alchemy, it seems that most authors draw on George Ripley’s The Compound of Alchemy...the Twelve Gates, though they don’t necessarily include all twelve or put them in Ripley’s order. The earliest known manuscript of the Twelve Gates was written in 1471; it was published in London in 1592 and thus was most likely known by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

The earlier four- and seven-stage ideas remain important, however. So I thought it would be useful to set them all out in one post.

Four Stages

1. Nigredo (black)

2. Albedo (white)

3. Citrinitas (yellow)

4. Rubedo (red)

You can see the four colors in order on the breastplate of the Knight of the Double Fountain (Plate 3 of Splendor Solis).

The four colors correspond to the Four Elements--fire, water, earth air--first described by the Greek philosopher Empedocles (c. 494-c434 BCE). It’s unclear which color corresponds to which element. The treatise Zoroaster’s Cave links black to earth, white to water, yellow to air, and red to fire, But the nigredo (black stage) is typically dominated by water.(Lyndy Abraham, p. 78). So you have the Flood in Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage, for example.

Interestingly, the four colors also correspond to the four humours of Greek medicine: phlegm is white, blood is red, bile is yellow, sharp bile is black. Ronald Bilius Weasley, anyone?

In later alchemical treatises--Splendor Solis is dated to around 1600--the yellow stage was omitted, and there were just three: nigredo, albedo, rubedo, with the cauda pavonis (peacock’s tail) sometimes appearing before the albedo.

The three-stage version is one the author John Granger* has adopted in his analysis of Harry Potter and other works.

Seven Stages

There’s already a hint of the seven stages in the seven stars around the Knight’s head in the illustration above. The seven stages correspond to the seven heavenly bodies known to the ancient and medieval world, and their corresponding metals. From “lowest” to “highest”:

--Saturn - lead

--Jupiter - tin

--Mars - iron

--Venus - copper

--Mercury - mercury

--Moon/Luna - silver

--Sun/Sol - gold

From this you get the common idea that alchemists “turn lead into gold.” When actually what they did is create a Philosopher’s Stone, which could transmute any base metal, including lead, into silver or gold. The raw material they typically used, however, was antimony trisulphide, not lead.

Plates 12-18 of Splendor Solis show the seven stages of the Great Work. Here’s Plate 12: Saturn - Feeding the Dragon

Saturn in his chariot at the top presides over the operation in the flask. He holds a sickle, a curved blade just like the arakhs of the Dothraki in A Game of Thrones.

The dragon represents Mercurius, the base matter of the Work. Here the child simultaneously pours a liquid down the dragon’s throat and works a bellows on its stomach. These operations will “kill” the dragon as the initial stage of the alchemical process. Here’s the same idea in Aurora consurgens.

As I’ve written before, I believe Daenerys will have to master and tame, if not kill, her dragons to complete her alchemical journey of transformation in ASOIAF.

Twelve Stages

George Ripley’s twelve stages - “Gates” - describe the actual processes the alchemist should undertake, rather than listing colors or planetary influences. . Adam McLean reproduces the treatise on his site: https://www.alchemywebsite.com/ripgates.html

These are the 12 stages in Ripley:

The First Gate - Calcination The Second Gate - Solution The Third Gate - Separation The Fourth Gate - Conjunction The Fifth Gate - Putrefaction The Sixth Gate - Congelation The Seventh Gate - Cibation The Eighth Gate - Sublimation The Ninth Gate - Fermentation The Tenth Gate - Exaltation The Eleventh Gate - Multiplication The Twelfth Gate - Projection

One of J D Mylius’ emblem books provides a symbolic representation for most of these stages. Here is Separation, for example (”Separatio” in Latin).

The first Chemical Wedding occurs at the Fourth Gate, Conjunction, the final Chemical Wedding at the Ninth Gate, Fermentation. The Philosopher’s Stone is achieved at the Tenth Gate, Exaltation. The alchemist increases the quantity and quality of the Stone at the Eleventh Gate, Multiplication, and projects it onto base metals to turn them into gold at the Twelfth Gate, Projection.

Fourteen Stages

The English alchemist Samuel Norton (1548-1621) came up with a fourteen-stage scheme. According to Wikipedia, these are the stages:

1. Purgation 8. Conjunction 2. Sublimation 9. Putrefaction in sulphur 3. Calcination 10. Solution of bodily sulphur 4. Exuberation 11. Solution of sulphur of white light 5. Fixation 12. Fermentation in elixir 6. Solution 13. Multiplication in virtue 7. Separation 14. Multiplication in quantity

I am not familiar with this scheme but include it in the interest of completeness. You have to love having a stage that’s called “Exuberation” though.

*John Granger has written extensively about alchemy in the Harry Potter books. Unfortunately, he has relied on the same limited number of sources for the past couple of decades It’s almost as if he’d signed up for a course on literary alchemy, attended the first couple of lectures and absorbed them thoroughly--then dropped the course. I heard that he did finally acquire a copy of Lyndy Abraham’s Dictionary, so perhaps his next works will be better informed--understanding the centrality of the Chemical Wedding, for example.

#alchemy #literary alchemy #george ripley #the compound of alchemy #four elements #samuel norton #johann daniel mylius #splendor solis #daenerys targaryen #aurora consurgens #ron weasley #chemical wedding #la belle sauvage

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iconem · 7 years ago

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Memories of a travel a village and the Zoroastrian settlements of Akre.

Estimated reading time: 7 min. Lien vers la version française | Versione italiana

We’ve asked Yves Ubelmann, Iconem CEO, to narrate his travel to the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq, bringing us with him in those fascinating places through his stories. This first day, with Julien Buteau, from our partner Sensefly, they stopped in Akre, an old city in the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq.

At the top of the small village there is an abandoned Christian church. It was an amazing sight, very impressive. To reach it we have crossed many narrow streets and long stairways. The town is very old, and we were actually immersed in a labyrinth of traditional houses.

"The town is very old, and we were actually immersed in a labyrinth of traditional houses.”

Unfortunately, as our guide has pointed out, many of the old buildings have been replaced by new concrete structures. The old town is being transformed.

"An old guardian exceptionally opened the church for us”

We crossed the souk with its old stairs, always staring at the ruins of ancient settlements. When we arrived at the church, an old guardian exceptionally opened the building for us, otherwise it would have been closed.

Some of the walls and the roof are renovated, made up with concrete: the structure is relatively in good condition and still houses several original Christian steles written in arabic. Today it is an abandoned place.

"The interior is still original: the structure is relatively in good condition and still houses several Christian steles written in arabic.”

Right behind the church, we had a second surprising vision: a series of caves draws all the mountain profile, small dark holes carved into the stone. We were curious and decided to explore them, helping us to see in the dark thanks to some flashlight. A mixture of lights and shadows intertwines in their depths.

“A series of caves draws all the mountain profile, small dark holes carved into the stone.”

On the walls of these caves there were many Zoroastrian symbols. These monumental and ancestral places once housed indeed the Zoroastrian culture.

This ancient religion and philosophy was born in Persia in the 6th century BC and is based on the teachings of the Prophet Zarathustra (or Zoroaster). After the exploration of the caves we've continued our walk until the top of the mountain.

"These monumental and ancestral places once housed indeed the Zoroastrian culture.”

At the top of the mountain I saw all the magnificence of Zoroastrian ancient settlements: giant works directly carved out of the rock. The walls of the buildings are no more present, but the ruins we were able to observe are works carved into the mountain!

Two of these buildings, the largest, on the opposite mountain peaks, have been linked by a long trench excavated also in the mountain alive stone. It was probably a safe passage that made it possible to move unnoticed between the two parts of the stronghold.

"A long trench excavated also in the mountain alive stone.“

“ That's why we went there: to safeguard this exceptional archaeological site.”

Imagine the incredible work it took to build it all! This is a truly extraordinary place, with this unique Zoroastrian site perched on top of the mountain and the lower village which is both traditional but at the same time changes very quickly.

That's why we went there: to safeguard this archaeological site, threatened by both the extension and the modernization of the village. We will produce a 3D model of the village, the Zoroastrian site and the caves.

To the second part of the travel diary

You can discover every day our travel diary also on Instagram!

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doritspoetry-blog · 8 years ago

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I’ve become fixated on a dangerous idea. Whether its true or not doesn’t diminish its danger, it couldn’t possibly be true and yet it could make itself true. It’s a wider idea than I can think about at all at once. A little bit like the sun, but instead of hurting your eyes if you try to look at it isn’t there, because it covers everything. So here it is: the entire world is a video game or a simulation/, and I am the player, in a sense, even though the world is me, and I am trying to defeat my ‘self’ and graduate to the next level. Now you of course immediately summon a dozens iterations of this idea, The Matrix, Baudrillard, Plato’s Cave, Second Life, and I, we, should applaud ourselves for you thinking that so quickly. I never claimed to originate this idea, only obsess over it, and that response strengthens my argument. In this conception of being, everything that is noticed is significant, either as a clue or a red herring. The whole existence is working together to defeat itself by forcing the realization/ upon this selected sliver designated as me that ‘I’ have never existed and will never exist, just like the rest of everything. So every possible detail of anything I have ever noticed is either the world trying to suggest this to itself or deny it. Now you say this is solipsistic, which I can’t deny, but if everything is working in tandem like I say, you are I speaking through me trying to convince yourself this is either so or otherwise. You’ve already had every idea and every idea has already had you, with each one loosening or tightening me and you’s ‘I’, but we could be anyone, our identity will fade at the designated moment. Sometimes I think of the mechanical aspect of this idea, and what we actually or will be when this game is completed. I have nothing to go by other than how forcefully an idea has presented itself in the world and what I think of when I concentrate. The idea of the soul and how I feel it has never been adequately explained- because my true form cannot be reduced to the comparatively low resolution/ of this universe which can only display three dimensions in most situations. Or the concept of religion is actually keeping us here, with the subtle suggestion of the afterlife meaning that the rules that apply here carry over and are actually all that exists, and your personal skepticism coupled with a periodic strong attraction to religion that always fades just as quickly is a possible proof of falsity. That clause illustrates the danger nicely, you must only believe in something for it to be true, an idea you’ve always hated but could never stop from indulging. Speculation that the great figures of history, especially the ones that promoted transcendence, Buddha, Jesus, Zoroaster, L. Ron Hubbard, they are either you but your clock ran out, the high score board of this game, or a distraction from the true winners, the ones who faded away nameless and were not reincarnated. Also unclear if the player from outside the world that we are is is playing by choice or if they even have choice, if others of their kind have tried iterations of this universe that we have memory of or can never access, or if there is only one doing this over and over, perhaps in search of a purpose. Sometimes when I get in a delirious state of giving my idea for the world a lot of power, I can imagine where all the shapes, colors, sounds, tastes, sensations. ways of time that are relevant to solving the puzzle are displayed for an infinitesimal instant, the big band before the booting up of the universe. Why all the computer terminology? It’s only been getting more popular, so it’s an avenue worth pursuing. How to conceive of pain is different, haven’t you noticed your tendency to deny it though it clearly exists? The totality of suffering explained by a few splotches of color, the sound of screaming which can be dissociated from its emotion and become just another thing. Perhaps we are actually doing more poorly than any previous player, no one ever took longer than an organism with a few cells lumped together and the game is trying to end itself through increasingly elaborate means, maybe we are a criminal that is hiding here, the outside beings can’t end it because we are a master manipulator and they can’t enter the game because every time it gets close to the end we have a mechanism rigged to lie to ourself again to stay safe. This could explain the prevalence of ideas of sin, guilt, boredom, how negativity seems to win out. How pleasure is always assumed and often proven to have a foundation that is false or incomplete. Or even on a simpler level, the importance of shapes like the circle, triangle and square... but you see how this philosophy promotes the indulgence of itself by neatly explaining anything that every happened without having to catalog or even be aware of the pull toward the other side of an opening in brimming-with-flavor TMI Doritos

#doritos #poetry #doritospoetry #tl;dr #some people call me crazy but they don't know that i'm just full of jazz #lars explains it all

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cambridgealertmagazine-blog · 6 years ago

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Zoroaster talk about the superior man in the thought of Nietzsche

Zoroaster spent ten years isolated in his cave, immersed in contemplation and contemplation of the people he loved so much; he went to a forest far from his homeland and his lake to make them mad. Now he leaves his cave and pleads with the people, standing in front of a crowd and speaking to them, saying, “I come to you with the…

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richard1lauritsen-blog · 7 years ago

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Test Bank Landmarks in Humanity 3rd Edition

For Order This And Any Other Test

Banks And Solutions Manuals, Course,

Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, Exams,

Chapter 1

Origins: The First Civilizations

Multiple Choice

1. “Prehistory” may be defined as that period prior to

a. the Ice Age.

b. written records.

c. stone tools.

d. humankind.

Answer: b

2. The first civilizations appeared

a. in tropical climates.

b. on high plateaus.

c. in Western Europe.

d. on the banks of rivers.

Answer: d

3. Research into the origins of writing suggest that written signs derived from

a. hand signals.

b. markings on clay tokens.

c. images on cave walls.

d. Hammurabi’s Code.

Answer: b

4. The term Paleolithic is used interchangeably with the term

a. Old Stone Age.

b. New Stone Age.

c. Neolithic.

d. Mesolithic.

Answer: a

5. One of the earliest landmarks of Paleolithic culture is

a. cave-painting.

b. metallurgy.

c. stone circles.

d. farming.

Answer: a

6. The world’s oldest clay vessels appear to have come from

a. Egypt.

b. Mexico.

c. Israel.

d. Japan.

Answer: d

7. The landmark known as Stonehenge is located in

a. Iraq.

b. England.

c. Mexico.

d. Spain.

Answer: b

8. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are located in present-day

a. Israel.

b. Iran.

c. Iraq.

d. Syria.

Answer: c

9. Which of the following statements about the Epic of Gilgamesh is most accurate?

a. It originated in Egypt.

b. It was first written down by Neolithic communities.

c. It was passed down orally for centuries.

d. It was inspired by the Hebrew Bible.

Answer: c

10. Hammurabi was a ruler of

a. Uruk.

b. Sumer.

c. Assyria.

d. Babylon.

Answer: d

11. Hammurabi’s Code is significant chiefly because it

a. originated the idea that all subjects were equal under the law.

b. is the only example of cuneiform in ancient Mesopotamia.

c. is unusually comprehensive and extensive.

d. granted women the same rights as men.

Answer: c

12. The earliest discovered inscribed clay tablets come from

a. Sumer.

b. Africa.

c. Egypt.

d. Babylon.

Answer: a

13. The first literary epic developed in

a. India.

b. Egypt.

c. Mesopotamia.

d. China.

Answer: c

14. The Great Temple at Karnak was

a. dedicated to the sun-god Amon-Ra.

b. a landmark of Egypt’s Old Kingdom.

c. built by Indo-Aryan invaders in India.

d. built in honor of the prophet Zoroaster.

Answer: a

15. Which Iron Age sea-faring people created a non-pictographic alphabet?

a. Phoenicians

b. Persians

c. Chaldeans

d. Assyrians

Answer: a

16. The name Zoroaster is associated primarily with the history of

a. Persia.

b. Sumer.

c. Egypt.

d. Assyria.

Answer: a

17. The Egyptian pyramids functioned primarily as

a. temples.

b. tombs.

c. administrative centers.

d. gathering places.

Answer: b

18. The landmark known as the Book of the Dead is

a. a Hindu text on the afterlife.

b. the first Sumerian written document.

c. a set of Egyptian funerary prayers.

d. China’s oldest written religious text.

Answer: c

19. Akhenaten is associated with what religion or religious view?

a. pantheism

b. Daoism

c. Hinduism

d. monotheism

Answer: d

20. Jade artifacts, especially in the form of circular discs, are primarily associated with ancient

a. China.

b. Egypt.

c. India.

d. Babylon.

Answer: a

21. Zhou rebels justified their rebellion against the Shang dynasty on the basis of

a. Daoist principles.

b. the Mandate of Heaven.

c. the aristocracy of merit.

d. their interpretation of the Vedas.

Answer: b

22. In Hinduism, the Absolute Spirit is known as

a. nirvana.

b. karma.

c. Atman.

d. Brahman.

Answer: d

23. Taking its name from the term for “sacred knowledge,” which Hindu literature teaches worship through prayer and sacrifice?

a. Ramayana

b. Vedas

c. Upanishads

c. Mahabharata

Answer: b

Essay

24. Discuss any two of the following as landmarks of the ancient world, explaining why each holds the status of a landmark: The Babylonian Creation; the Epic of Gilgamesh; Hammurabi’s Code; the Egyptian pyramids.

25. Which landmarks do you believe are most representative of the key idea in this chapter, “origins”? In what way does each of these landmarks reflect a beginning point in the history of culture?

26. How do the landmarks of China and India differ from (or resemble) those of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?

#Test Bank Landmarks in Humanity 3rd Edition

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amoss245-blog · 7 years ago

Text

The Influence of Manichaeaism

Before we dive into Manichaean art history and interpretation, I have linked some folk music from the geographical area in which these ruins are found. Enjoy.

This project will explore the recently discovered Manichean temple sites in Turfan; looking at the art, structure and artefacts in these temples. It will examine how closely these artefacts resemble adhere to ‘classic’ Manicheism as opposed to how they might have been influenced or have influenced the local cultures or the other religions of the Silk Road. The presence of these Manichean sites of worship in Turfan demonstrates a level of organized practice of Manichaeism, as well as Manichean’s significance and popularity along the silk road. These sites of worship are placed in the context of other temples and shrines, demonstrating the religious plurality of the Silk Road. Manichaeism was not isolated in this religious dialogue, and in fact was perhaps the epitome of ancient pluralism, accepting many different religious ideas and symbols.

Some believe that Manichaeism to be a sect of Zoroastrianism that sought to synthesize popular elements of other religions to achieve success (Johnson 3). However, Manichaeism cannot simply be called a strategic amalgamation of beliefs and cultures, nor a mere branch of another tradition. Mani’s religion held cultural and religious sway during the Silk Road period, and while it did make significant use of the symbols and structures of other belief systems, it provided something larger than the sum of its parts. This delve into Manichaean art and textual sources seeks to show how Manichaeism did adapt parts many different aspects of several larger traditions. While also developing something new out of this amalgamation and finding its own particular art and scriptural style that allows it to be identified today.

Contextualizing Manichaeism

Manichaeism was a world religion that survived into the fifteenth century and yet exists today in near obscurity. Manichaeism was founded in modern day Iran in the third century A.D. It eventually spread West to Western Asia and even gained footholds in Europe and the Mediterranean. Most important for our purposes, Manichaeism found a lot of success in modern day China, particularly the Xinjiang province and Turfan (Huashan 268). Mani made a deliberate effort to spread his scripture as efficiently as possible, ensuring it was widely translated and distributed to many different cultures. The prime mover of early Manichaean doctrine were the Sogdians, a people who had also aided in the spread of Buddhism and Christianity (Grenet 464). It was not just the chance of time and culture that Manichaeism has faded so suddenly, but instead the work of political powers. The swift popularity and spread of Manichaeism was a threat to other established religions. There was a harsh movement to remove the influence of Manichaeism and strong state-sponsored efforts to convert Manichaean worship spaces.

These fears of Manichaeaism were not unfounded, as Manichaeaism was designed to be appealing to the members of the largest religions at the time. Namely, Christianity, Buddhist, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. Mani claimed that these religions were not contradictory to his cosmology. He claimed the world was inherently dualist and was created of the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of the Profane. These were also known as the Kingdom of Spirit and Darkness, respectively. He claims that the religious leaders of the other popular religions at the time (namely Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus) were true prophets and were right to be worshipped. However, their teachings had been warped through time as none of these men had writings of their own. Instead, it was generations of disciples later who recorded their words, and Mani claimed that by that time, the oral tradition had already distorted the original meaning. His teachings were merely returning the words of these great prophets to their original glory, Mani claimed to be the next in the great line of these prophets.

Figure 1: From the Bezekilk Caves, an example of Manichaeaism’s focus on cross-culture teachings. Here we see an East Asian and North Asia Monk exchanging the word of Manichaeaism (Le Coq)

His campaign was successful and so the backlash was harsh and much Manichaean art and texts were destroyed, today “the majority of ancient Manichaean art remnants derives from a ruined City in Turfan, often referred to by its historical name, Kocho” (Mirecki 177). For our purposes, we will refer to the entire site and the artefacts recovered as ‘Turfan’, though there are three grotto complexes that house crucial Manichaean relics and art. They are Tuyok, Bezeklik and Sangim and each holds dozens of Manichaean grottoes. Though some have been degraded to near obscurity, much like the religion itself, many have retained structural integrity and even their art. (Huashan 269). These grottoes have provided researchers with immense insight to the beliefs of Manichaeism, but perhaps even more importantly, it has given them immense insight to how Manichaeism was practiced at the local level and how it interacted with other religions.

Common Manichaean Motifs

A staple of Manichaean art is depictions of the Tree of Life which is also known as the Tree of Good. This symbol of light and purity sometimes shown with its twin, the Tree of Death (Huashan 274). Manichaeism main doctrine centres around this duality of life and death, bad against good. Mani claimed to have a twin which bestowed upon him the knowledge that he was a prophet meant to bring people to salvation. We see in Figure 2 a drawing of a fresco discovered in the Bezeklik grottoes, kneeling and praying to the Tree of life. Much of Manichaean art and writing is centred around the Tree of Life. Mani’s teachings claim that in order to return to the Kingdom of Heaven, his followers must not only believe but take on more ‘traditional’ monastic values, such as “severing with fleshly desires and being unable to marry or to produce offspring” (Huashan 283). We see Manicheans worshipping the tree of life in this illustration, knelt around it at a respectful distance, a common motif in the frescos and art found in these caves.

Figure 2: A rough sketch of a fresco inside one of the Manichaean Bezeklik grottoes (Huashan).

The Manichaean tradition held writing as an art form quite highly. Mani was very focused on writing down his thoughts and dispersing them widely, as one of his main concerns was with the distortion of the word of the prophet. Mani wanted to secure that no writings should come to light in the future and allegedly be traced back to him” (Klimkeit 1). Most Manichaean writings today are identified through their being written in a Manichaean script, a very illustrative script that is used to allow for a unique identifier of Manichaean scripture and for communication between Manichaeans of different cultures. From artistic choice to overall doctrine, cross-cultural compatibility was a priority for Manichaeism. There are signs in all forms of Mani’s conscious effort to ensure that Manichaeism did not invalidate any major belief system, but instead seamlessly incorporated them. The Manichaean script was another way to more effectively spread the doctrine, while other religions, such as Islam, might be restricted by a language barrier.

In Figure 3, there is a Manichaean artefact, remarkably intact and still legible. Klimkeit has translated the lines of 5-10 of the right column, which is an extract from the Manichaean hymn, “The Song of Mani” (49). The majority of the texts recovered from the Turfan grottoes were written in Turkish and different of Iranian script, though this hymn was originally written in Syriac (Huashan 294). Manichaean hymns commonly contain “supplication through prayer and ascriptions of praise” (Johnson 127), but this particular hymn pictured is slightly different. The hymn provides some context into how Mani saw himself as a prophet, his calling in life to his relationship with his spiritual ‘twin’.

Figure 3: A remarkably intact page from a Manichaean hymn book, excavated from the Turfan sites. (Klimkeit)

Buddhism in Manichaeism

Most Manichaean hymns held references to the religious beliefs of Buddhism, Christianity or other religions within the same chant. Johnson’s translation of one of the Turfan textual fragments demonstrates a mixing of terminologies, such as the Christian ‘heaven’ and the Zoroastrian ‘Vahman’ without any apparent internal contradiction (132). This inbuilt hybridity is very common in Manichaeism, as the tradition often co-opted language from other religions, using metaphors, similes and worship language in their own texts; blending them all into something new. Such is the case for the Buddhist metaphor of ‘sea filled with monsters’, which is used as an image representative of the tumultuous turn of the wheel of samsara. This specific image is referred to in a Manichaean hymn that reads as follows; “Who will take me over the flood of the tossing sea. […] Who will lead me beyond rebirths […] May I be saved from the terror of the beasts who devour one another” (Grenet 476). The clear reference to ‘rebirth’ only reinforces this idea that is it a Buddhist image being appropriated. In the rest of this hymn, the narrator is referred to as only ‘The Great Aesthetic’, a title that could belong to the Buddha as easily as Mani. These influences were not only one way, Manichaean ideas of the Buddha influenced local Buddhist communities too, even if they were not formally converted. These similarities are sometimes even more apparent in visual art, not just textual remnants of this tradition.

Since so much of Manichaean art and scripture was lost over time, whether as intentional sabotage or the natural wear of centuries passing, our sources are limited. This project has so far focused on Manichaeism’s similarities to Buddhist because the Buddhist-Manichean blend is one of the key features of these Turfan grottoes. As part of the concentrated effort to disenfranchised Manichaeism mentioned earlier, many Manichaean temples in Turfan were closed and converted into Buddhist temples. While some were completely restructured, many were left as they were due to the striking similarities in art styles and content, several grottoes “remained untouched, undoubtedly because their content was so close to Buddhist beliefs” (Huashan 293). In Figure 3, we see one of these examples. To someone unfamiliar with the Manichaean tradition, it might appear like a simple depiction of the Buddha. Perhaps one specific to a local tradition, as several aspects are unconventional in Buddhist iconographies, such as the hair.

Figure 4:

Mani as the Buddha is a well-used motif, Grenet describes a painting in which Mani is drawn and captioned as the ‘Buddha of Light’ who is preaching is a group of Western Barbarians he has just converted (475). He is also shown preaching to figures wearing the robes and symbols of Taoist aesthetics, converting very different groups of people. As previously demonstrated, Manichaeism focused on bringing in many cultures and belief systems under their umbrella of belief.

Other Traditions in Manichaeism

As easily as he took on the title of ‘Mani-Buddha’, Mani adapted the prophetic names from other religions. Mani often referred to himself and the apostle of Jesus (Burkitt 38), claiming a direct lineage. Not biologically, but spiritually. However, it is not just Mani’s adoption of other religions’ terms where we see the blend of cultures. In some Zoroastrian work, small details in are found, which are often inexplicable. In larger Zoroastrian carvings, some details do not fit properly with what scholars know of Zoroastrian practices. With growing awareness of and study into Manichaeism, scholars are beginning to understand such things as Manichaean symbols (Grenet 474). Hinduism also makes an appearance in Manichaean art and in a significant way. Hindu gods are often given places of important, taking the important role of a ‘divine audience’, their presence giving cosmological legitimacy to the proceedings. In Figure 5, four Hindu deities are depicted with halos, observing a Manichaean conversion ceremony (Gulácsi 73). The surrounding text is the names of the donors and the King who is going through this conversion. The two figures to the left are thought to be heavenly beings from a local Buddhist tradition.

Figure 5: This half of one of the most famous Manichaean art pieces clear shows a line of Hindu Gods, watching over a conversion ceremony for what seems to be a local king (Gulácsi).

‘Traditional’ Manichaean Art

Herein lies the difficulty of identifying ‘Manichaean’ art or tradition, as it was designed to be used by local cultures, to blend into their specific cultural brand of religious belief. As demonstrated, signs of Manichaeism are found in small ways throughout many traditions and often bore so many similarities to other traditions, the art was re-coopted by those religions. This can present a significant problem for identification of these artefacts and raises difficult questions about where one religion begins and the other ends, if that line exists at all (Mirecki 177). The problem is then as follows: If so much of Manichaean is similar if not nearly indistinguishable from Buddhist or other religious motifs, how might scholars note the differences? There are some ways to identify Manichean art that is rarely found in other styles.

The first major sign is, of course, the text. Manichaean text is distinct from other scripts at the time, and is an easy identifier of whether an art piece is Manichaean. Within texts, Manichaeism uses some distinctive artistic flourishes in the margins or surrounding the text. This is slightly apparent at the top of Figure 3, the sweeping red ink visually marks is as a Manichean text fragment. In his studying of various Manichaean textual pieces, Mirecki discovered a pattern of “decorative designs within Manichaean texts that are found along the margins of and within texts” (191). Looking through collections of text Fragments from the Manichaean grottoes, there is certainly a distinctive style of embellishment that are found across the fragmentary remains of Manichaean books (Weber).

Some other signs in Manichaean artwork have been identified as near exclusive to the Manichaean traditions; at least in the Turfan region. It is especially the case in a religious as diverse as Manichaeism that “arts undoubtedly took on local peculiarities” (Klimkeit 2). One consistent Manichaean motif is the presence of flowers or other foliage being held by donors or figures of significance. There are other small signifiers to the original style of depicting the elite in Manichaean art, such as white garments or the red string around the head (Mirecki 210). Disk Motifs are also very common in Manichaean pieces, which are subtly different from the halos often used to surrounded figures of significance. They are more details, often layered and used as a kind of framing device to surround scenes and divide one moment from another (Mirecki 197). Figure 6 depicts a very Buddhist looking figure surrounded by these disks, which circle out from being a halo to being a decorative indicator of ‘aura’ of this figure.

Figure 6: A figure in a traditional Buddhist pose and showing the stretched earlobes and hair knot, both of which are signs of an enlightened figure, or a Buddha (Gulácsi). The gold and red disks mark it as a Manichaean adaptation of Buddhist motifs.

Mani was an intelligent man, living in a cultural epicentre of his time, he sought to create a religious movement that incorporated many belief systems. That rendered them compatible with a new system, while not tarnishing the symbols or iconography of these religions. Manichaeism is an intelligent blend of many different traditions, more than obvious in the remnants found in the Turfan grottoes. Manichaeism was a Salvation religion that spread far across the Silk Road and up into China. Despite the intentional destruction of texts and worship spaces by Buddhists and other religious communities, some traces of Manichaeism survive to this day. They reveal the complex, layered practice of this brief religious monolith but Manichaeism was not just a patchwork of other traditions. It developed its own strong culture, influenced the traditions around it and even found its own unique art style. Things like the disk motifs, the Manichaean script, and the plurality of its art, set Manichaeism apart from other religions of its time and location.

Bibliography

Burkitt, F C. Religion of the Manichees. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1925. Print.

Grenet, F. “Religious Diversity among Sogdian Merchants in Sixth-Century China: Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Manichaeism, and Hinduism.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, vol.27, no. 2, Jan. 2007, pp. 461–476.

Gulácsi, Zsuzsanna. Manichaean Art in Berlin Collections. Turnhout: Brepols, 2001. Print.

Huashan, Chao. “New Evidence of Manichaeism in Asia: A Description of Some Recently Discovered Manichaean Temples in Turfan.” Monumenta Serica, vol. 44, no. 1, 1996.

Jackson, A V. W. Researches in Manichaeism: With Special Reference to the Turfan Fragments. Ner York: AMS Press, 1965. Print.

Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim. Manichaean Art and Calligraphy. Leiden: Brill, 1982. Print

Le, Coq A. Chotscho: Facsimile-wiedergaben Der Wichtigeren Funde Der Ersten Königlich Preussischen Expedition Nach Turfan in Ost-Turkistan. Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1979. Print.

Lieu, Samuel N. C., and Gunner B. Mikkelsen. Between Rome and China: history, religions and material culture of the Silk Road. Brepols, 2016.

Mirecki, Paul A, and Jason BeDuhn. Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources. Leiden: Brill, 1997. Print.

Weber, Dieter. Iranian Manichaean Turfan Texts in Publications Since 1934: Photo Edition. London: Published on behalf of Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum by School of Oriental and African Studies, 2000. Print.

#Final Project #RLG245

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