Scrying

Scrying

Scrying, from the Old English word descry meaning “ to make out dimly”, is the divination of distant or future events based on an analysis of reflections in water, on polished metal, or on precious stones. This was practiced by early humans, who probably interpreted these phenomena as a vision of the spirit world. Scrying became widespread by the 5th century AD and was later condemned by the medieval Christian church as the work of the devil.

One of the earliest written works of scrying comes from The Shahnameh, a historical epic work written in the late 10th century. Used in pre-Islamic Persia the epic gives a description of the Cup of Jamshid or Jaam-e Jam, as a cup of divination which, according to mythology, was long possessed by the rulers of ancient Greater Iran. The cup was filled with an elixir of immortality and was used for scrying. Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda explains that one could observe all the seven heavens of the universe by looking into the elixir and the whole world was reflected in it. In popular stories such as The Heroic Legend of Arslan, the cup is depicted as a crystal ball. Helen Zimmern’s English translation of the Shahnameh uses the term “crystal globe”.

In 1958, Classical Greek archaeologist, Sotiris Dakaris discovered a scrying center near the Dodona oracle. This temple was described by Homer and Herodotus, as a place where people would sit in complete darkness while awaiting their turn in front of the oracle. An extensive maze led to a long hallway where the ‘gazing’ would take place. Dakaris found the remnants of a bronze cauldron ringed with a banister which made it appear that people stand around the cauldron and gaze into it’s contents for enlightenment or visions.

The Six Cores of the Enuma Elish

Artist Unknown, (The Six Cores of the Enuma Elish), Computer Graphics, Animation Gifs

The Enuma Elish, also known asThe Seven Tablets of Creation, is the Mesopotamian creation myth whose title is derived from the opening lines of the piece, “When on High”. All of the tablets containing the myth, found at Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh, Sultantepe, and other excavated sites, date to c. 1200 BCE but their colophons indicate that these are all copies of a much older version of the myth dating from long before the fall of Sumer in c. 1750 BCE.

The full translated text can be found at this site: https://www.ancient.eu/article/225/enuma-elish—the-babylonian-epic-of-creation—fu/

Thanks to http://mrdiv.tumblr.com

Mermen: Legends of the Sea

Mermen: Legends of the Sea Become Reality

Mermen are male equivalents and counterparts of mermaids – creatures who have the form of a male human from the waist up and are fish-like from the waist down, having scaly fish tails in place of legs. They almost always wear no clothing, no matter what the temperature of the water is, with the exception of armour or cloaks In times of war or as fashion. They are know to chase down naked swimming otters for the purpose of sex activities, mostly but not exclusively oral.

Asmat Tribe Ancestral Skull

Asmat Tribe Ancestral Skullwith Carved Bone, Feathers, Fibers and Seeds

The first apparent sighting of the Asmat people by explorers was from
the deck of a ship led by a Dutch trader, Jan Carstensz in the year 1623.
Captain James Cook and his crew were the first to actually land in Asmat
on September 3, 1770 (near what is now the village of Pirimapun).
According to the journals of Captain Cook, a small party from the HM Bark Endeavor encountered a group of Asmat warriors; sensing a threat, the explorers quickly retreated.

The Asmat are an Indonesian cannibalistic tribe on the island; Papua. The Asmat live in mangrove vegetation near the sea and rivers, on the south side of the western part of New Guinea. The Asmat venerated their ancestors by decorating and honoring their skulls. Asmat decorated skulls are displayed in sacred places inside Asmat domiciles.

Down by the Old Mill Stream

Photographer Unknown, (Down by the Old Mill Stream)

“Down by the Old Mill Steam”, written by Tell Taylor, became one of the most popular songs of the 1900s. The publisher, Forster Music Publisher, Inc., sold four million copies.

Taylor wrote the song in 1908 while sitting on the banks of the Blanchard River in Findlay, Ohio. It is said that his friends persuaded him not to publish the song, believing it had no commercial value. Forster Music published it in 1910 and introduced it to the public with performances by the vaudeville quartet ‘The Orpheus Comedy Four’. The group performed it at a Woolworh store in Kansas City, selling all one thousand copies of its sheet music that Taylor had brought to the event. It is now a staple song for barbershop quartets.

Assassination of Empress Elisabeth

Artist Unknown, “The Assassination of Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Geneva by Luigi Lacheni”, 1898, Le Petit Jounal, Issued September, 25, 1898

On September 10th of 1898, anarchist Luigi Lacheni used a tapered file to fatally stab Empress Elisabeth of Austria during her visit to Geneva. She and her lady-in-waiting countess Sztáray had departed their hotel on Lake Geneva to ride a paddle steamer to Montreux at the foot of the Alps. Since Elisabeth disdained royal processions, they walked without any attendants.

On the docks in the early afternoon, Lucheni approached and stabbed Empress Elisabeth below her left breast with a wooden-handled, four-inch file, a work tool used to file the eyes of industrial needles. Badly wounded, the Empress nevertheless continued walking, supported by two other people, a distance of one hundred yards to board the departing steamer.

Aboard the steamer, Contess Sztáray noticed Elisabeth’s bleeding and notified the captain of the steamer, who ordered its return to shore. Upon landing, the Empress was carried back to the hotel on a makeshift stretcher. Two doctors pronounced Empress Elisabeth dead with an hour of the attack.

The assassin Luigi Lucheni was apprehended upon fleeing the scene; and his weapon was found the next day. Lucheni told the authorities that he was an anarchist who came to Geneva with the intention of killing any sovereign as an example for others. He was tried in October and received life imprisonment, the death penalty having been abolished in Switzweland.