scribblings of unknowing

Mammon Trumps Knowing

2009-07-03T07:11:00.003-06:00

As if the boys had not already "screwed" things up enough all by themselves. Where is Dan Brown when we need him?

NY Times | July 02, 2009
U.S. Nuns Facing Vatican Scrutiny By Laurie Goodstein
The Vatican is quietly conducting two sweeping investigations of American nuns, leaving some fearful that they are the targets of a doctrinal inquisition.

Project Book Listing with Amazon/Abebooks Links

2009-06-06T10:59:00.049-06:00

Purchases made through these links support this blog and slog effort. Both Amazon and Abebooks offer new books, but Abebooks offers more extensive access to rare and used books - some listed here might be a bit arcane. Kindly suggest additions.

    Abbot, Elizabeth A History of Celibacy Da Capo Press (2001) ISBN:0306810417
    Angier, Natalie Woman: An Intimate Geography Anchor (2000) ISBN:0385498411
    Bettelheim, Bruno Symbolic Wounds, Puberty Rites and the Envious Male Collier Books (1962)
    Bishop, Clifford Sex and Spirituality: Ecstacy, Ritual and TabooDuncan Baird Publishers (2004) ISBN:1844830187
    Blackledge, Catherine The Story of V: Opening Pandora's BoxPhoenix Paper (2004) ISBN:0753817764
    Blank,Joani FemaliaDown There Press (1993) ISBN:0940208156
    Briffault, Robert “ The Mothers; A Study of the Origins of Sentiments and Institutions original 3 vols: 1927) Paper abridged edition: The Kessinger Publishing(2004) ISBN:076618692X; Hard: Howard Fertig(1993) ISBN:0865273987
    Brown, Norman Oliver Love's BodyUniversity of California Press; a reissue of 1966 edition (1990) ISBN:0520071069
    Camphausen, Rufus The Encyclopedia of Sacred Sexuality : From Aphrodisiacs to Yoni Worship and Zap-Lam YogaInner Traditions (1999) ISBN:0892817194
    Camphausen, Rufus The Yoni: Sacred Symbol of Female Creative PowerInner Traditions (1996) ISBN:0892815620
    Cattrall and Levinson Satisfaction: The Art of the Female OrgasmWarner Books (2002) ISBN:0446530719
    Chalker, Rebecca The Clitoral Truth: The Secret World At Your FingertipsSeven Stories Press; ASIN:0965172597
    Clare, Daniel Odier Desire: The Tantric Path to AwakeningInner Traditions (2001) ISBN:0892818581
    Corinne, Tee Cunt Coloring BookLast Gasp Press (1988) ISBN:0867193719
    Danielou, Alain The Phallus: Sacred Symbol of Male Creative PowerInner Traditions (1995) ISBN:0892815566
    Dijkstra, Bram Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-de-Siecle CultureOxford University Press (1988) ISBN:0195056523
    Encyclopedia of Archetypal Symbolism (Vol 1) editor, Beverly Moon Shambhala 1997 ISBN:1570622507 An Encyclopedia of Archetypal Symbolism: The Body (Vol 2)editor, George Elder Shambhala 1996 ISBN:1570620962
    Fletcher, Alan The Art of Looking SidewaysPhaidon Press 2001 ISBN:0714834491
    Fontenrose, Joseph Python: A Study of the Delphic Myth and Its Origin University of California Press 1959 (Reprint 1980 ISBN:0520040910)
    Frazer, Sir James George “Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion” Kessinger Publishing Kessinger Publishing(reprint: 1927 edition, 732 pgs. 2003) ISBN:0766158128; abridged: The Touchstone Books(1996) ISBN:0684826305
    Friedman, David A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the PenisPenguin (2003) ISBN:0142002593
    Giedion, Siegfried, The Eternal Present (2 volumes) Volume I The Beginnings of Art; Volume II The Beginnings of Architecture Pantheon New York 1962
    Gimbutas, Marija The Language of the GoddessThames & Hudson (2001) ISBN:0500282498
    Gimbutas, Marija The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old EuropeHarperCollins Publishers 1994 ISBN:0062508040
    Graves, Robert The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic MythFarrar, Straus and Giroux; (1966) ISBN:0374504938
    Graves, Robert and Raphael Patai Hebrew Myths Paper: Anchor 1989 ISBN:0385263309 Out of print Hard: The Carcanet Press Ltd.2005 ISBN:185754661X
    Jaynes, Julian The Origin of Consciouness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral MindMariner Books 1990 ISBN:0395563526
    Mann, A. T. Sacred SexualityVega (2003) ISBN:1843335832
    Merritt, Natacha Digital DiariesTaschen (2000) ISBN: 382286398X
    Miles, Margaret R. Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness & Religious Meaning in the Christian WestVintage 1991 ISBN:0679734015
    Neret, Gilles PussycatsTaschen America (2003) ISBN:3822824607
    Neumann, Erich The Great MotherBollingen (1972) ISBN:0691017808
    Newman, Barbara From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval Religion and Literature (The Middle Ages Series)
University of Pennsylvania Press 1995 ISBN0812215451
    Patai, Raphel “Man and Temple” Ktav 1947
    Ridley, Matt The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human NaturePerennial (2003) ISBN: 0060556579
    Shlain, Leonard Sex, Time and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human EvolutionViking Press; (2003) ISBN:0670032336
    Shlain, Leonard The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and ImageArkana (1999) ISBN:0140196013
    Stevens, John The Cosmic Embrace: An Illustrated Guide to Sacred SexShambhala (1999) ASIN:1570621713
    Squiers, Jennifer Pearson Peek : Photographs from the Kinsey InstituteArena Editions 2000 ISBN1892041359
    Thompson, William The Time Falling Bodies Take To Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of CultureMacmillan (1996) ISBN: 0312160623
    Twain, MarkLetters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings (Perennial Classics)especially Letter 8, originally published in 1963; Perennial (2004) ISBN:0060518650
    Vermaseren, Maarten Cybele and Attis Thames and Hudson, 1977 ISBN:0500250545
    Walker, Barbara G. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and SecretsHarperSanFrancisco (1983) ISBN:006250925X
    Warner, Marina Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin MaryVintage (1976) ISBN:0394711556
    White, David Gordon Kiss of the YoginiUniversity Of Chicago Press (2003) ISBN:0226894835
    Wolkstein and Kramer Inanna, Queen of Heaven and EarthPerennial (1983) ISBN:0060908548

Cantos Cunnus 2005

2009-04-04T14:39:00.003-06:00

Open this publication - Free publishing - More goddess studies

Mami Wata

2009-04-03T22:32:00.003-06:00

New York Times "slide" show and article

Exhibition at the Fowler at UCLA

Bottle trees

2009-03-27T21:09:00.004-06:00

(Remember our Boots Atop Posts explaination??)

Jan Toorop's "De Drie Bruiden" 1893

2009-03-15T19:51:00.004-06:00

"In a letter to a friend, Toorop explained that he wanted to bring together the sentiments and ideas of ‘All-nature' in one grand form. The Brides are stylized expressions of the different mysteries in the shape of a human being. In this drawing Toorop, not for the first time, took up the old theme of Good versus Evil, in the form of asceticism versus lust, both in the figure of a woman. The young and naïve Bride, flanked by - in Toorop's words – 'the suffering of the soul which leads to the highest-purest, the mystical love” on the one hand – you can see this also in the bells at the topsides of the drawing, being held by the hands of Christ – and on the other side “the unquenchable thirst for deeply sensual and material longings', symbolized by the Bride who holds a cup which catches the blood that comes from a large urn. The urn is carried by the hands of women whose heads and bodies are being repressed by the Bride's other hand. They represent, in Toorop's meaning, 'the weak to eternal matter doomed world.'"

from a lecture by Francisca van Vloten, in the series related to the exhibition Masterpieces from European Artist Colonies 1830-1930 (Febr. 6 until May 22, 2005), Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, Atlanta GA, on April 19, 2005

"It is so beautiful outside of color, color, color and sun … One gets intoxicated. The quiet is beyond words here. Your inner beauty keeps you so occupied, and outside the sun is contending with all the autumn colors …"

These words. . .were written by the Dutch artist Jan Toorop (1858-1928) in the autumn of 1908. They were meant for his friend and colleague Kees Spoor in Amsterdam and referred to the small seaside resort of Domburg on the former island of Walcheren, in the Dutch province of Zealand.

Kimosabe, Zen Master

2009-02-14T00:42:00.010-07:00

The Lone Ranger and Tonto are camping in the desert. They set up their
tent and are soon asleep. Some hours later, The Lone Ranger wakes his
faithful friend. "Tonto, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

Tonto replies, "I see millions of stars, Kimosabe."

What does that tell you?" asks The Lone Ranger.

Tonto ponders for a minute. "Astronomically speaking, it tells me
there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.
Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Theologically, it's
evidence that the great Spirit is all-powerful, and we are all small and insignificant. Chronologically, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What
does it tell you, Kimosabe?"

The Lone Ranger is silent for a moment, then says, "Tonto, you
dumb-ass. Someone has stolen our tent."

Marina Abramovic: Balkan Epic

2009-01-24T16:01:00.008-07:00

from Amazon.com listing- "Marina Abramovic is a pioneer in the use of performance as an art form. The body has always been both her subject and medium. Exploring the physical and mental limits of her being, she has withstood pain, exhaustion, and danger in the quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. In her latest work, Balkan Erotic Epic, Abramovic creates new, surprising perspectives on archaic rituals that used erotic powers to influence fate and fortune. These powerful images talk to us about the disavowal of ancient practices, and about something buried deep in our consciousness."

The Balkan Epic- the interview, the book, the movie.

The Madonna Code

2007-07-21T14:44:00.001-06:00

Credits, left to right - Carlo Crivelli, The Vision of the Blessed Gabriele, about 1489, National Gallery, London, followed by detail; El Padre Anónimo, Eterno Pintando a la Virgen de Guadalupe. Siglo XVIII; Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe housed on top of Tepeyac hill, north of Mexico City.

The caption which appears with Carlo Crivelli's detail (center left, above) in the book, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols, by J.C. Cooper, Thames & Hudson, 1978 isbn 0500271259 states "In his Vision of the Blessed Gabriele, Crivelli encloses the Virgin and the Child in an almond-shaped mandorla formed by the two intersecting circles symbolic of each of the holy persons' all-perfection." Cooper continues under the entry 'Mandorla': "The vesica piscis or ichthus, the almond-shaped aureole, the 'mystical almond' which depicts divinity; holiness; the sacred; virginity; the vulva."

From an inquiry to the author, Rufus Camphausen, who also hosts Yoniversum, a vast site on yoni/vulva studies where the following letter and accompanying illustrations were first posted three years ago:

"Dear Professor Camphausen,

"In my research, I have noticed the affinity between the artists' rendering of the various apparitions of female saints and the vulva. Especially the Madonna herself, of which there have been over 3000 accepted appearances during the last 1500 years. With your encyclopaedic overview, has anyone posited such visual similarity? Certainly, there must be a DNA level remembrance at play in the artists' imagination. (I include the art historian's classic "face vase" visualization tool as an additional aid.)"

Respectfully,
Frater Gray Hölme

"Dear Brother Hölme-

"The Madonna images next to your black and white renderings and the Yonis are simply great ... the association does not surprise me - although I've not seen it visualized in that much detail. Personally, I've only made the connection between the vesica pisces shaped "halo" around some 'Mother of God' images and the Yoni. To my knowledge, it has never been visually 'spelled out' quite so convincingly as in the images you have sent ... just lovely! Your drawings make it much more clear than Dan Brown's theory in the Da Vinci Code that the Madonna represents a continuation of the millennia old worship of the Great Goddess - now hidden below layers of obscuration. I would like your permission to use them in our yoniversum pages. However, in order to avoid an Bible Belt equivalent to the Fatwa against you, do think about a nom de plume for yourself as the discoverer of this esoteric wisdom. Frater Matrix perhaps? Once it's ready, I will send the relevant URL to the Vatican."

Regards, R.C. Camphausen

NOTE: The above correspondence led to the accompanying gallery of revealing images which can be accessed by the daring from the menu below comparing illustrations from prayer cards with photographs of vulvas. The limited choices of photographs are from the book Femalia by Joani Blank. The selected photographs are used here with permission of Joani Blank and the photographers, Tee Corinne and Michael A. Rosen, who - naturally - retain their Copyright ©. The center drawings are by Frater Gray Hölme.

Drawing One
Drawing Two
Drawing Three
Drawing Four
Drawing Five
Drawing Six
Drawing Seven
Drawing Eight

Kerouac's Knees - the 1951 Scroll

2007-07-11T18:25:00.000-06:00

"My mother once said the world would never find peace until men fell at their women's feet and asked for forgiveness. This is true all over the world in the jungles of Mexico, in the back streets of Shanghai, in New York cocktail bars, husbands are getting drunk while the women stay home with the babes of their ever darkening future. If these men stop the machine and come home and get on their knees and ask for forgiveness and the women bless them peace will suddenly descend on the earth with a great silence like the inherent silence of the apocalypse."

from "On the Road: The Original Scroll" by Jack Kerouac - the 'legendary' first draft written in 1951 - to be published by Viking NYC on August 16, 2007 - isbn 067006355X - only 56 years too late, but better than Mark Twain's "Letters from Earth" - 60 years after its writing - see earlier blog here.

Crown of Thorns [Vagina Dentata]

2007-06-17T19:06:00.001-06:00

Don't be afraid - these are only artist's renderings - click to enlarge.
Left: Rolf Geissler
Center: Gretchen Schermerhorn
Right: Temple Terkildsen
More actual dentata photos at the Goddess Cafe.

DO BE very very AFRAID!! - this working version.

From Barbara Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, 1983-

"Toothed vagina," the classic symbol of men's fear of sex, expressing the unconscious belief that a woman may eat or castrate her partner during intercourse. Freud said, "Probably no male human being is spared the terrifying shock of threatened castration at the sight of female genitals." But he had the reason wrong. The real reason for this "terrifying shock" is a mouth-symbolism, now recognized universally in myth and fantasy: "It is well-known in psychiatry that both males and females fantasize as a mouth the female's entranceway to the vagina."

The more patriarchal the society, the more fear seems to be aroused by the fantasy. Men of Malekula, having overthrown their matriarchate, were haunted by a yonic spirit called "that which draws us to It so that It may devour us." The Yanomamo said one of the first beings on earth was a woman whose vagina became a toothed mouth and bit off her consort's penis. Chinese patriarchs said women's genitals were not only gateways to immortality but also "executioners of men." Moslem aphorisms said: "Three things are insatiable: the desert, the grave, and a woman's vulva." Polynesians said the savior-god Maui tried to find eternal life by crawling into the mouth (or vagina) of his mother Hina, in effect trying to return to the womb of the Creatress; but she bit him in two and killed him.

Stories of the devouring Mother are ubiquitous in myths, representing the death-fear which the male psyche often transformed into a sex-fear. Ancient writings describe the male sexual function not as "taking" or "posessing" the female, but rather "being taken" or "putting forth." Ejaculation was viewed as a loss of a man's vital force, which was "eaten" by a woman. The Greek sema ir "semen: meant both "seed" and "food." Sexual "consummation" was the same as "consuming" (the male). Many savages still have the same imagery. The Yanomamo word for pregnant also means satiated or full-fed; and "to eat" is the same as "to copulate."

Distinction between mouths and female genitals was blurred by the Greek idea of the laminae -- lustful she-demons, born of the Libyan snake-goddess Lamia. Their name meant either "lecherous vaginas" or "gluttonous gullets." Lamia was a Greek name for the divine female serpent called Kundalini in India, Uraeus or Per-Uatchet in Egypt, and Lamashtu in Babylon. Her Babylonian consort was Pazuzu, he of the serpent penis. Lamia's legend, with its notion that males are born to be eaten, led to Pliny's report on the sexual lives of snakes which was widely believed throughout Europe even up to the 20th century: a male snake fertilizes the female snake by putting his head into her mouth and allowing himself to be eaten.

Sioux Indians told a tale similar to that of the Lamia. A beautiful seductive woman accepted the love of a young warrior and united with him inside a cloud. When the cloud lifted, the woman stood alone. The man was a heap of bones being gnawed by snakes at her feet.

Mouth and vulva were equated in many Egyptian myths. Ma-Nu, the western gate whereby the sun god daily re-entered his Mother, was sometimes a "cleft" (yoni) and sometimes a "mouth." Priestesses of Bast, representing the Goddess, drew up their skirts to display their genitals during religious processions. To the Greeks, such a display was frightening. Bellerophon fled in terror from Lycian women advancing on him with genitals exposed, and even the sea god Poseidon retreated, for fear they might swallow him.

According to Philostratus, magical women "by arousing sexual desire seek to devour whom they wish." To the patriarchal Persians and Moslems this seemed a distinct possibility. Viewing women's mouths as either obscene, dangerous, or overly seductive, they insisted on veiling them. Yet men's mouths, which look no different, were not viewed as threatening.

"Mouth" comes from the same root as "mother" -- Anglo-Saxon muth, also related to the Egyptian Goddess Mut. Vulvas have labiae, "lips," and many men have believed that behind the lips lie teeth. Christian authorities of the Middle Ages taught that certain witches, with the help of the moon and magic spells, could grow fangs in their vaginas. They likened women's genitals to the "yawning" mouth of hell, though this was hardly original; the underworld gate had always been the yoni of Mother Hel. It has always "yawned" -- from Middle English yonen, another derivatave of "yoni." A German vulgarity meaning "cunt," Fotze in parts of Bavaria meant simply "mouth."

To Christian ascetics, Hell-mouth and the vagina drew upon the same ancient symbolism. Both were equated with the womb-symbol of the whale that swallowed Jonah; according to this "prophecy" the Hell-mouth swallowed Christ (as Hina swallowed her son Maui) and kept him for three days. Visionary trips to hell often read like "a description of the experience of being born, but in reverse, as if the child was being drawn into the womb and destroyed there, instead of being formed and given life." St. Teresa of Avila said her vision of a visit to hell was "an oppression, a suffocation, and an affliction so agonizing, and accompanied by such a hopeless and distressing misery that no words I could find would adequately describe it. To say that it was as if my soul were being continuously torn fro my body is as nothing."

The archetypal image of "devouring" female genitals seems undeniably alive even in the modern world. "Males in our culture are so afraid of direct contact with female genitalia, and are even afraid of referring to these genitalia themselves; they largely displace their feelings to the accessory sex organs -- the hips, legs, breasts, buttocks, etc. -- and they give these accessory sex organs an exaggerated interest and desirability." Even here, the male scholar inexplicably "displaces" the words sex organ onto structures that have nothing to do with sexual functioning.

Looking into, touching, entering the female orifice seems fraught with hidden fears, signified by the confusion of sex with death in overwhelming numbers of male minds and myths. Psychiatrists says sex is perceived by the male unconscious as dying: "Every orgasm is a little death: the death of the 'little man,' the penis." Here indeed is the root of ascetic religions that equated the denial of death with the denial of sex.

Moslems attributed all kinds of dread powers to a vulva. It could "bite off" a man's eye-beam, resulting in blindness for any man who looked into its cavity. A sultan of Damascus was said to have lost his sight in this manner. Christian legend claimed he went to Sardinia to be cured of his blindness by a miraculous idol of the Virgin Mary -- who, being eternally virgin, had her door-mouth permanently closed by a veil-hymen.

Apparently Freud was wrong in assuming that men's fear of female genitals was based on the idea that the female had been castrated. The fear was much less empathetic, and more personal: a fear of being devoured, of experiencing the birth trauma in reverse. A Catholic scholar's curious description of the Hell-mouh as a womb inadvertently reveals this idea: "When we think of man entering hell we think of him as establishing contact with the most intrinsic, unified, ultimate and deepest level of the reality of the world."

citation: Barbara G. Walker, "The Woman's Encyclopeadia of Myths and Secrets", HarperCollins, 1983, isbn 006250925X

First, the Dome, then the Minarets

2007-06-13T07:55:00.001-06:00

photo credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images, left, and Hameed Rasheed/AP

From today's New York Times-

June 13, 2007
Minarets on Shiite Shrine in Iraq Destroyed in Attack
By GRAHAM BOWLEY

One of Iraq’s most sacred Shiite shrines, the Imam al-Askari mosque in Samarra, was attacked and severely damaged again today, just over a year after the previous attack on the site unleashed a tide of national sectarian bloodletting.
Angry demonstrations erupted in Samarra following the attack, which destroyed the mosque’s two minarets. Security forces fired in the air, and the Iraqi government announced a curfew in Baghdad starting at 3 p.m. today.
Shiite leaders called for calm. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shiite cleric in Iraq, condemned the bombing, but appealed to Iraqis to show restraint.
It was unclear who carried out the attack in the predominantly Sunni town about 60 miles north of Baghdad. Iraqi security forces secured the area around the mosque and were investigating the cause of the explosion, the American military said. Iraqi police reported hearing two nearly simultaneous explosions coming from inside the mosque compound at around 9 a.m. today.
The official Iraqia television station reported that local officials said that two mortar rounds were fired at the two minarets.
The shrine was badly damaged in the February 2006 attack by Sunni insurgents, but the destruction of the remaining two minarets is expected to have powerful symbolic importance to Iraqis.
Radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr called for peaceful demonstrations and a three-day mourning period to mark the shrine’s destruction.
Senior American military commanders in Iraq have said recently that they feared just such an attack on a Shiite shrine to refocus Sunni attention on the country’s struggle between Shiites and Sunnis.
But they expected that if such an attack did occur, it would most likely come at one of Iraq’s three other most-sacred Shiite sites, not the al-Askari shrine, which was already badly damaged.
Since the attack in 2006, the shrine had been under the protection of local — predominantly Sunni — guards. But American military and Iraqi security officials had recently become concerned that the local unit had been infiltrated by Al Qaeda forces in Iraq.
A move by the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad over the last few days to bring in a new guard unit — predominantly Shiite — may have been linked to the attack today.
Speaking on Al Jazeera television, Abdul Sattar Abdul Jabbar, a prominent Sunni cleric, said the new guards had arrived at the shrine shouting sectarian slogans that may have provoked local Sunnis, in a sign that the attack was already being depicted as sectarian.
Gunfire was reported around the mosque last night, which may have been linked to the change of guards.
Attacks on Shiite holy sites have increased in the last two months and tensions in Samarra have also risen recently.
The attack in 2006 ravaged the mosque’s dome, which had been the defining feature of the shrine.
Before that attack, more than a million Shiites streamed into the mosque each year, visiting the graves of the 10th and 11th Imams. They also came to honor Muhammad al-Mahdi, who became the 12th Imam when he was only 5 years old, in A.D. 872.
Shiites believe that it was at the shrine that the Mahdi was put into a state of divine hiddenness by God to protect his life. Shiites believe that the Mahdi will return at the end of days, at a time of chaos and destruction, to deliver perfect justice.

John F. Burns and Damien Cave contributed reporting from Baghdad. Employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from elsewhere in Iraq.

SIDESHOW Here

Crown of Thorns [Rings of Stones]

2007-06-04T11:00:00.001-06:00

Rings of Stones continue our "Crown of Thorns" motif of vulvic circles of phallic points- [photo credits follow]

From Aubrey Burl's Preface, 1979- "In the years when Egypt was young, long before the pyramids, at time when the earliest forms of writing and numbering were being developed in the Near East and when pathless forests and swamps obscured most of Western Europe, at this time a group of people in the British Isles, somewhere, built a stone circle. Its very simplicity hinders our understanding of it. Upright stones as tall as a man around a space a person could stroll across in half a minute, a few bits of human bone, patches of charcoal, these are all that remain of a place that people struggled to build many years ago." -page 46, "It can be seen that the sacred circle, whether of earth or of stones [or of wooden posts - see next], had a long tradition behind it in prehistoric Britain, linked to cults in which human bones were used in rites so powerful that there had to be a barrier between them and the ordinary world of the living." -page 49 "At many megalithic rings. . .the circles had been found to stand on sites of earlier settings of posts, At the Sanctuary in Witshire four consecutive timber rings may have been put up and rotted before the concentric circles of stones were raised around 2300BC. Elsewhere in England other wooden rings have been discovered, at Woodhenge, at Arminghall and at Bleasdale. Others lie undiscovered, their postholes invisible beneath the grass." Citation: Aubrey Burl, Rings of Stone, Lincoln Publishers, 1979 isbn 0899190006 RINGS OF STONE

Which leads us to speculate, that in addition to the extremely necessary "rings of stones" by Tiffany for a mere $13,000usd, above right, popular culture still requires circles of vertical posts as a barrier between the dead and the living - new(er) and old(er) below.

Photos: left/top - Calanais, Isle of Lewis, Scotland by Chameleon; left/bottom - Swinside, Cumbria, England by Richard Mudhar; middle/top - Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, England by Nick White and drawing by English Heritage. Right above - "Celebration" diamond rings by Tiffany NYC. Second photo: cemeteries in Riverside, Californa and Silver Plume, Colorado by author.

Crown of Thorns Koan

2007-06-03T22:57:00.000-06:00

Borders and Boundaries

2007-05-13T12:11:00.000-06:00

From this morning's "The Fences That Could Set Global Neighbors Off" by Daniel Schorr on National Public Radio and from Louis Untermeyer, ed. (1885–1977). "Modern American Poetry", 1919.

64. Mending Wall by Robert Frost. 1875–1963

SOMETHING there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing: 5
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made, 10
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go. 15
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them. 20
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
He is all pine and I am apple-orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. 25
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. 30
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down!" I could say "Elves" to him, 35
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there,
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me, 40
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Front of One's Nose

2007-05-04T19:50:00.000-06:00

"To see what is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle."
--George Orwell

May Pole Diary

2007-05-01T22:05:00.000-06:00

Build your own Maypole. Why not? What ancient memories might be elicited upon viewing? And how would a May Pole in the flag waving western United States survive? First attempt, left above, at flying a neutral (non patriotic) tricolor - magenta, cyan, yellow - pole about 300 ft above the village ended in less than 24 hours with a group of 6 men (now known) dissembling the fabrics but politely laying the pole on top of the rock outcrop. Next attempt was to time the next pole construction with a more public local Irish festival (second above), then remove the Irish tricolor to the mountain; its deconstruction occurred about one month later by unknown ax wielding person(s) who removed the fabrics completely and placed the pole nearby on the ground. Pole was "re-clothed" with autumnal hops blossoms and re-erected (fourth, fifth above). De-construction of this version occurred about six weeks later after first snows and a six foot section (2M) was removed from the middle of the pole by a saw wielding (they are learning!) yet unknown person(s). The pole remains were removed for the winter into the village and then redressed in "legal" Christmas wreaths and re-positioned for Mayday / Beltain in photos below - after its first week, it remains, but a pre-emptive immolation is scheduled for proper Beltain fire on the evening of May fifth (Cinco de Mayo) - (Update: before weather permitted its immolation, person(s) unknown removed this fourth iteration on evening of May 20th) - photo of installation next.

From Wikipedia - Beltane

Beltane has a complex etymology and a resultant variety of different spellings.

The word Beltane derives directly from the Old Irish Beltain, which later evolved into the Modern Irish Bealtaine. In Scottish Gaelic it is spelled Bealltainn.[9] Both are from Old Irish Beltene ('bright fire') from belo-te(p)niâ. Beltane was formerly spelled 'Bealtuinn' in Scottish Gaelic; in Manx it is spelt 'Boaltinn' or 'Boaldyn'.

In Modern Irish, Oíche Bealtaine is May Eve, and Lá Bealtaine is May Day. Mí na Bealtaine, or simply Bealtaine is the name of the month of May.

In the word belo-te(p)niâ) the element belo- is cognate with the English word bale (as in 'bale-fire'), the Anglo-Saxon bael, and also the Lithuanian baltas, meaning 'white' or 'shining' and from which the Baltic Sea takes its name.

In Gaelic the terminal vowel -o (from Belo) was dropped, as shown by numerous other transformations from early or Proto-Celtic to Early Irish, thus the Gaulish deity names Belenos ('bright one') and Belisama.

From the same Proto-Celtic roots we get a wide range of other words: the verb beothaich, from Early Celtic belo-thaich ('to kindle, light, revive, or re-animate'); baos, from baelos ('shining'); beòlach ('ashes with hot embers') from beò/belo + luathach, ('shiny-ashes' or 'live-ashes'). Similarly boil/boile ('fiery madness'), through Irish buile and Early Irish baile/boillsg ('gleam'), and bolg-s-cio-, related to Latin fulgeo ('shine'), and English 'effulgent'.

All photos can be enlarged by a click. Note older posts' link - as each newer post builds on these before it, take a look from the beginning. Thank you and please comment.

Happy New Year - Miaos' Flower Pole

2007-02-22T11:26:00.000-07:00

From chinaculture.org- Flower Mountain Festival takes place during the two weeks following New Year's Day each lunar calendar year to pray for happiness of the Miaos and bless with safety and prosperity. During the festival, the Miaos get dressed up and go to the large lawn near the village. They play the Lion Lantern Dance, swing, blow bamboo leaves and play the bamboo flute. People erect in the mountain a "flower pole" dyed in red and blue in 12 segments to pray to the god for giving birth to children. Young men and girls riot in dancing and singing and seek their lovers. The entertainment lasts three days, and the Miao villages are filled with animated dance and songs.

On the very day, the erection of the Flower Pole is to precede the activity of the Flower Mountain Festival. The Flower Pole is the icon of the Flower Mountain. It is also the performance tool in the festival. It is made of straight and decorticated fir in several zhang (1 zhang = 3.3 m) high. Afterwards, people plant it in the middle of the Flower Mountain to form the center of the entertainment -- Lusheng ground. The Lusheng players play the Lusheng and dance under the Flower Pole with the contests of climbing pole when playing Lusheng, and climbing pole when playing Lion Dance. There are also programs such as the antiphonal singing, bullfight, horserace, bird match and various martial arts performances, which make the Miaos immersed in great happiness.

The festival not only provides all villagers with the festal gathering, but also the unmarried young people with the chance to seek their lovers. In the mountains south of Yunnan Province, the homemade telephones are installed to enable young men and girls, without knowing each other, communicate with each other or sing through homemade call before date. There is another interesting way of selecting lovers: the young men wander in the crowd. As he found his favorite girl, he will stealthily draw near to her. When he stands at her side, the young man will open the umbrella to cover the girl and sing to observe her reaction. At this moment, the girl keeps silent and skews at the young man. If she finds the young man unsatisfied, she will still keep quiet or refuse by singing. If she likes the man, the girl will look at the young man and sing a sweet song tenderly. As they feel satisfied with each other, the girl will offer her ring to the young man as the keep sack. When the Flower Mountain Festival ends, the spoony girl will follow her lover.

In the Flower Mountain, the most favorable young men are those fellows who climb the Flower Pole while heading down and taking up the Lusheng and pig head. He has to climb up and down keeping playing Lusheng, which can match with the acrobatics. The crowned young man is not only regarded as the hero, but also the icon among the girls. It is said if the young man courts some girl, she will surely fall in love with him.

NPR.org's Flower Mountain piece by Louisa Lim or listen to the story. Credit on photo above, also Louisa Lim.

Sam Harris, Messiah!

2007-02-16T21:46:00.000-07:00

Beyond Belief
Therareoften Blog
IdeaCity Online
Richard Dawkins

On a Sun's day morning, dear Teacher-

2007-02-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

When you get a chance, I am curious about the narrative of the dream that caused your recent contact. Also, any thoughts on my attempts at unlearning by means of this modern bile smearing bloggering - the "fool" in the "where angels fear to tread" - as Jesus Himself warned - "pray only in your closet" (Matthew 6.6) and stay off the street corners and infohighways.

I will ponder to dying day the proper direction and misdirection allowed to teachers by his/her conscience. I read today in his biography that even Julius Wellhausen had pedagogical misgivings- "Wellhausen received a professorship at Greifswald, [but] resigned in 1882 because he believed that his teachings were having a dire effect on theological students destined for the ministry, and because he had become a figure of controversy over his published views on the Old Testament."

By the late 1960s, not only had Wellhausen's now well developed "Documentary Hypothesis" (P-E-J-D sources) called into question the fundamentalists' understanding of authorship of Hebrew scripture, but Wellhausen's approaches to "biblical history" (1878) had also set off the largely failed attempts at "proving" Hebrew scripture through "biblical archaeology" - showing that any actual reality afforded Scripture before 1000bce was fanciful ethnocentric myth, at best, equal to Homer's stories - no Abram, no Issac, no Moses, no falling Walls of Jericho, no David, no Solomon, no Israel, not even a camel - and of all this, from my religious teachers, not one word.

Add to this, the wider body of huge mythological works produced between 1900 and 1960s- such as Fraser's 12 volume "Golden Bough"(1906-15); Briffault's 1800 page "Mother's"(1927); Graves'"White Goddess"(1948); and the early efforts of Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade. Again not one word. Perhaps to the odd high school bible student off to conduct a storefront evangelical series - a headsup might have been in order - a "look out for the truck!" or similar.

As a seven year old child, my father would pay me $10 to read small condensed volumes of a children's encyclopedia. His admonition was to "Skip over the mythologies, because they might cause one not to believe in Bible stories." Being an obedient child and seeing the shorter path to the $10s, I skipped the mythologies.

Now, as my own wandering muse, I am beginning to puzzle over the dynamics of "forbidden knowledge" and its dangers- "when to hold them...when to walk away". Silent knowledge surrounds us, as do severe reprisals for speaking. As a present example of the unspeakable, the last thing any of us in the United States are allowed to even ponder, during the Bushes' αρμαγεδδων, is the earlier question, "What Jewish homeland?" (above).

(And the mundane - even to suggest that wrapping evergreen roping around a bridge railing is an ancient vulvic/phallic exercise - this too is forbidden knowing - and never, ever suggest that a baseball cap, a pickup truck and the SuperBowl are the same compensatory symbols - be prepared for a bloody nose.)

Listen to today's NPR "Children of Abraham"
Further link to "what did the biblical writers know and when did they know it?" which in fairness to the "1960s" comment above, speaks of an ongoing controversy at present.
Image credit: Wm. Blake's Woman Clothed in the Sun

"One Man's Ceiling, Another Man's Floor"

2007-02-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

Photo caption reads: The swastika is a sacred symbol for Hindus, who are protesting its proposed ban in the EU. Here Hindus in India celebrate Diwali by lighting lamps in the shape of a swastika. Photo credit: Reuters

SPIEGEL ONLINE - January 17, 2007, 12:38 PM
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,460259,00.html
CROSSED SWORDS - Hindus Against Proposed EU Swastika Ban

European Hindus are opposing German calls for an EU-wide ban on swastikas, arguing that the Nazis hijacked the Hindu symbol which actually stands for peace.

Germany's plans to push for a Europe-wide ban on swastikas may seem reasonable enough to those who prefer not to see far-right extremists sporting Nazi symbols in public. Unless of course, you are a Hindu, for whom the Nazi era is just an unpleasant blip in the millennia-old symbol's history.

European Hindu groups have come together to oppose a German proposal to introduce a ban on Nazi symbols -- including the swastika -- within the European Union, arguing that the Nazis hijacked the Hindu symbol.

"The swastika has been around for 5,000 years as a symbol of peace. This is exactly the opposite of how it was used by Hitler," Ramesh Kallidai of the Hindu Forum of Britain told Reuters. The swastika is commonly used as a blessing in Hindu rituals such as weddings.

"It is almost like saying that the Ku Klux Klan used burning crosses to terrorize black men, so therefore let us ban the cross," he added. "How does that sound to you?"

Hindus from the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy want to form a pressure group in the European Parliament in May to oppose the ban. They plan to visit European Commission leaders and members of the European Parliament to put pressure on them to resist the German move.

Germany, which took over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU at the beginning of this year, wants to launch an initiative to make Holocaust denial and the display of Nazi symbols a crime across the whole EU. The swastika and other Nazi symbols are already banned in Germany.

"In Germany the fight against racism and xenophobia is both an historic duty and a current political concern," Germany's Justice Ministry said in a statement earlier this month.

Kallidai said Germany's initiative was probably well-meaning but said that Hindus had not been consulted.

"Every time we see a swastika symbol in a Jewish cemetery, that of course must be condemned. But when the symbol is used in a Hindu wedding, people should learn to respect that," he told Reuters.

"In Sanskrit it means May Goodness Prevail," he said. "Just because Hitler misused the symbol, abused it and used it to propagate a reign of terror and racism and discrimination, it does not mean that its peaceful use should be banned."

Even within Germany, the swastika ban can be problematic. There was an outcry last year when the owner of an anti-fascist mail order company in Stuttgart was fined for selling anti-Nazi merchandise featuring swastikas with a line through it.

dgs/reuters © SPIEGEL ONLINE 2007

Kissing the Shroud

2007-02-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

Photo by Max Becherer, appearing in the New York Times Travel Section, part of an article entitled "The Mysteries of Kabul" published January 21, 2007. This particular image is not part of the excellent NYT's "slide show" of Becherer's Kabul photographs.

Caption for the photo above reads "Shiite Muslims kissing a sacred shroud before prayer." For those following these "scribblings", this single image of the adoration of a wrapped pole is worth more than any 1000 word comment (- we are only the messenger!).

"Imbloc" aka "Groundhog Day", February 2

2007-02-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

Already half the way from solstice (December 21) to spring equinox (March 21), we reach the "quarter" holiday of "Imbloc" known only to those who do not accept the accepted "Groundhog Day". Why not?? perhaps a clue from the White Goddess site- but compare with Wikipaedia's Groundhog Day-

"Imbloc (Candlemass, Imblog, Imbole) - February 2nd Pronounced: EE-Molc

"This holiday is also known as Candlemas, or Brigid's (pronounced BREED) Day. One of the 4 Celtic "Fire Festivals. Commemorates the changing of the Goddess from the Crone to the Maiden. Celebrates the first signs of Spring. Also called "Imbolc" (the old Celtic name). This is the seasonal change where the first signs of spring and the return of the sun are noted, i.e. the first sprouting of leaves, the sprouting of the Crocus flowers etc. In other words, it is the festival commemorating the successful passing of winter and the beginning of the agricultural year. This Festival also marks the transition point of the threefold Goddess energies from those of Crone to Maiden.

"It is the day that we celebrate the passing of Winter and make way for Spring. It is the day we honour the rebirth of the Sun and we may visualize the baby sun nursing from the Goddess's breast. It is also a day of celebrating the Celtic Goddess Brigid. Brigid is the Goddess of Poetry, Healing, Smithcraft, and Midwifery. If you can make it with your hands, Brigid rules it. She is a triple Goddess, so we honour her in all her aspects. This is a time for communing with her, and tending the lighting of her sacred flame. At this time of year, we will light multiple candles, white for Brigid, for the god usually yellow or red, to remind us of the passing of winter and the entrance into spring, the time of the Sun. This is a good time for initiations, be they into covens or self-initiations.

"Imbolc (February 2) marks the recovery of the Goddess after giving birth to the God. The lengthening periods of light awaken Her. The God is a young, lusty boy, but His power is felt in the longer days. The warmth fertilizes the Earth (the Goddess), and causes seeds to germinate and sprout. And so the earliest beginnings of Spring occur.

"This is a Sabbat of purification after the shut-in life of Winter, through the renewing power of the Sun. It is also a festival of light and of fertility, once marked in Europe with huge blazes, torches and fire in every form. Fire here represents our own illumination and inspiration as much as light and warmth. Imbolc is also known as Feast of Torches, Oimelc, Lupercalia, Feast of Pan, Snowdrop Festival, Feast of the Waxing Light, Brighid's Day, and probably by many other names. Some female Witches follow the old Scandinavian custom of wearing crowns of lit candles, but many more carry tapers during their invocations.

"It is traditional upon Imbolc, at sunset or just after ritual, to light every lamp in the house - if only for a few moments. Or, light candles in each room in honour of the Sun’s rebirth. Alternately, light a kerosene lamp with a red chimney and place this in a prominent part of the home or in a window.

"If snow lies on the ground outside, walk in it for a moment, recalling the warmth of summer. With your projective hand, trace an image of the Sun on the snow.

"Foods appropriate to eat on this day include those from the dairy, since Imbolc marks the festival of calving. Sour cream dishes are fine. Spicy and full-bodied foods in honor of the Sun are equally attuned. Curries and all dishes made with peppers, onions, leeks, shallots, garlic or chives are appropriate. Spiced wines and dishes containing raisins - all foods symbolic of the Sun - are also traditional."

Further Imbloc / Candlemas links:
Wiccan Web Weavers
Candlemas, from a Roman Catholic view
The Light Returns

Local Pagans, Church Goin' Folk

2007-01-30T21:26:00.000-07:00

No one questions a wreathed vertical lamp post or wrapped VERTICAL STOP sign, or a wreath on a picket fence (Ménage à many) and wishful thinking, but wrapping a (horizontal) bridge with evergreen and ribbons? I had never seen this before. Perhaps a hint: In an article about a Neolithic village near Stonehenge in today's New York Times--

"In a teleconference conducted by the National Geographic Society, Dr. Parker Pearson said a circle of ditches and earthen banks at Durrington Walls enclosed concentric rings of huge timber posts — “basically a wooden version of Stonehenge,” he said.

"The excavations exposed not only the timber circle but also a roadway paved with stone leading to the Avon River, about 500 feet away, which was similar to a river road from Stonehenge. The evidence, Dr. Parker Pearson said, “shows us these two monuments were complementary” and that “Stonehenge was just one-half of a larger complex.”

"They said the road was paved with flint and led straight from the Durrington enclosure to the (River) Avon. A similar road at Stonehenge, discovered in the 18th century, is aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise, the archaeologists noted, while the one at Durrington lines up with the midsummer solstice sunset. Similarly, the Durrington timber circle was aligned with midwinter solstice sunrise, while a giant stone monument at Stonehenge frames the midwinter solstice sunset.

"Venturing into the bumpy field of Stonehenge interpretation, Dr. Parker Pearson suggested that the durable stones of the better-known site were a memorial and final resting place for the dead, and the wood architecture at Durrington Walls symbolized the transience of life. People from all over the region, he said, probably came there to celebrate life and deposit the dead in the river for transport to the afterlife."

Hmmm? a paved flint road leading from a circle of stones to a river? seems like our "post with vessel". Does it equals a bridge from the stone circle to the river of the Afterlife/HereAfter? Do wrapped bridges over a river equal a wrapped (vulvic) Phallus (Bridge) over a rebirthing (vulvic) River? I can only tell you that this Land's mundane folk will (unconsciously) always be streaming wrappings about phalli to their last breath - OK, perhaps too large a cognitive leap - here's a related but even greater reach, good luck! - does no one discern our (USAs) famous "star-spangled banner" with its streaming "broad stripes and bright stars"?--

thank you, Francis Scott Key-
"Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

"Sacred vessels" ATOP Posts, Page 14

2007-01-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

In my hurry to change subjects to the "crown of thorns" motif, my transitional wreath/tires atop post page reminded me that I had skipped an important wreath/post category above - the flowery captial atop the column (meaning that we will probably skip the newer Antebellum phallic columns that line the vulvic entrance porches of the Southern United States, but may not skip the more esoteric Boaz and Jachin of Solomon's Temple)-

from our trusty Encyclopædia Britannica - "CAPTIAL, in architecture, the crowning member of a column or other columnar form, providing a structural support for the horizontal member (entablature) or arch above.

"Two kinds of simple stone capital have been found in the stepped-pyramid complex at Saqqārah (c. 2890–c. 2686 BC). One, a saddlelike shape, suggests bent reeds or leaves; the other, an upturned bell, derives from the papyrus plant. Later Egyptian architecture used capitals derived from such plant forms as the palm and lotus,

"Three widely used forms of the capital were created by the Greeks. The Doric capital consists of a square abacus surmounting a round form with an egg-shaped profile called the echinus, below which are several narrow, ridgelike moldings linking the capital with the column. The Ionic capital—probably related to the volute capitals of western Asia—has a tripartite design consisting of a pair of horizontally connected volutes inserted between the abacus and echinus - its echinus is carved with an egg-and-dart motif. The Corinthian capital is basically an abacus supported on an inverted bell surrounded by rows of stylized acanthus leaves.

"Design of capitals in medieval Europe usually stemmed from Roman sources. Cubiform, or cushion, capitals, square on top and rounded at the bottom, served as transitional forms between the angular springing of the arches and the round columns supporting them. Grotesque animals, birds, and other figurative motifs characterize capitals of the Romanesque period. At the beginning of the Gothic period, exotic features tended to disappear in favour of simple stylized foliage, crockets, and geometric moldings, particularly in France and England." from "capital." Encyclopædia Britannica 2006

Notes on motifs used on captials atop columns above - generally, feminine; all - of regeneration and immortality:
reeds - Wilkinson, 1992 - the "emblematic" reeds or "sekhet" is "a symbol of 'that which is produced by the fields'. . .the sekhet is thus sometimes personified as a goddess bearing offerings" such as "ducks, goslings, eggs" and other "'food and provisions' for the god."
papyrus - Posener, 1962 - "the papyrus became the vigorous symbol of the world in gestation;"
palm - Chevalier, 1969 - "palms. . are regarded univerally as symbols of. . . regeneration and immortality". - Walker, 1983 - "the palm branch signified the virility of the god, Osiris, in union with his mother-sister-wife, Isis. . . or Tammuz, united with his mother-bride, Ishtar". Wilkinson, 1992 - "the palm branch was the symbol of the Egyptian god, Heh, the personification of eternity."
lotus - Walker, 1983 - "Before creation, the Hindus said, all the world was golden lotus, 'Matripadma', the Mother Lotus, womb of nature. In Egypt, the great goddess was called the lotus from whom the sun was born at his first rising." Chevalier, 1969 - "the lotus is pre-eminently the archetypal sexual organ or vulva, a pledge of the continuity of birth and rebirth." Wilkinson, 1992 - "as a symbol of rebirth, the lotus was closely associated with the imagery of the [Egyptian] funerary cults."
eggs and darts - Walker, 1983 "its original meaning was an endless line or circle of men (darts) and women (eggs). . .the ancient sexual connotations are even more clearly portrayed in the Egyptian versions which alternated downward-pointing phallic symbols with narrow oval slits each topped by a diamond-shaped 'clitoris'."
inverted bell - we have discussed the vulvic bell in earlier blog.
acanthus leaves - Chevalier, 1969 - "the acanthus motif was used extensively in funerary architecture to designate the trumphant conquest of the trial of life and death, symbolised by the thorns on the leaf of the plant. As with thorns in general, the acanthus is the symbol of . . .virginity - and that too implies another sort of triumph."

References above:
Jean Chevalier et al, Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, 1969 London isbn 0140512543
Barbara Walker, Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, 1988, Harper Collins San Francisco isbn 0062509233
Richard Wilkinson, Reading Egyptian Art, 1992, Thames & Hudson London isbn 0500277516