Mar 20 2023 - Spring Arrivals

What is the significant Spring arrival this week?  Spring itself arrives today around 5:30pm DST.   A little Crocus tommasinianus is blooming in my garden, along with Iris Reticulata, Snow drops and Winter aconite.  That's the garden story.   Trump's arrest would likely be the big event. It is reported that he posted in all-caps on his Truth Social platform:  "ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK."  The prospect of Trump’s arrest—the first in history for a former president—raises questions about the process Trump would be subject to during his arrest and trial—including whether any extraordinary measures would be in place. TIME spoke to legal experts about each step of the process and outline it HERE.  Can you imagine Trump walking into the front entrance of a courthouse or police station?  Can you imagine jury selection?  Wouldn't the majority of people have some opinion? Or multiple opinions. So we await the revelation of the Trump prophecy. And for the equinox news?  It is pagan festival time. According to the BBC, "this turn in the seasons has been celebrated by cultures throughout history who held festivals for their gods and goddesses at this time of year. Aphrodite from Cyprus, Hathor from Egypt and Ostara of Scandinavia. The Celts continued the tradition with festivities at this time of year.  Today, Pagans continue to celebrate the coming of Spring" Ostara is continued to be used as its festival title today.  Poor Stonehenge - it is a commercialized tourist destination.  Look through all those tour listings.  The English Heritage website says that the Solstice will be celebrated at sunrise on Tuesday 21 March.   We can go to skycap HERE. This shows the ambient, skyscape and tour views.  Click on the about at the bottom left and find out about the website developed by English Heritage.

Here are the garden club spring gardeners on Saturday.  They are planting the pots that will hang along the main street in Grimsby.

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Feb 14 2023 - Valentine's Day - Pagans Galore

 

Valentine must have been a popular name as there are three different saints named Valentine.  They are noted as they were all martyred. And that salutation greeting - "From your Valentine" started with one of these. Of course, Valentine's Day starts as a pre-Roman Catholic Festival - these pre-Catholic festivals are all now referred to as "Pagan".  Somehow by the 5th century Pope Gelasuis declared February 14th as Valentine's Day.  That would be the pattern to Christianize a favourite festival. But how did Cupid get involved?  Isn't that a "Pagan" figure? Yes, Roman. The original Eros used golden arrows to incite love and leaden ones to sow aversion.  Later on he was portrayed as a mischievous, chubby boy. And another of course, religious countries would ban Valentine's Day.  Saudi Arabia - one of the most conservative countries in the world, Muslim countries - Indonesia and Pakistan see it as a Christian celebration and have made it  illegal.  Other countries include Uzbekistan, Malaysia and Iran. The principle is that people who are not married cannot mingle.  One site says that because Valentine's Day goes back to Roman times, not Islamic times, it belongs exclusively to the Christians not to Islam.  But it seems there is a distinct view that this time it is  the Roman Catholics who are the "pagans" on a holiday. Here we are in North America with a holiday that is commercially dominated.  No religious celebrations here.  I am told this is the one day that Cole's can count on men to come in and buy flowers.    A collage of hearts. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 22 2022 - The Longest Night Shortest Day

 

This is the year that I realized something about the expression "pagan".   To me it is a religious version of colonialism.  It is  like  "eskimo".  Everyone before the Roman Catholics was considered a pagan.  And here we are just having experienced Winter Solstice. And so our Longest Night of the year is a celebration originating with the pagans.  As compared to what or who?   Wouldn't it originate with any humans who could track the days and nights.  So wouldn't it be the Babylonians?  Yes, The festival began in Babylon with the birth day of the first sun god Tammuz on the ancient winter solstice on December 25th.The article continues: "Pagans still celebrate this original solar deity birth." And then continues with:  "The most important time of celebration for pagans (i.e., earth worshipers) is the Winter Solstice (Yule, Saturnalia or Midwinter). Yule is the northernmost point of their Wheel of the Year, which is a Witch’s Wheel that’s an annual cycle of seasonal festivals that serves to tether people to earth and earthly things."  This comes from sapphirethroneministries.wordpress.com and it is one of many like this.  At the other end of the spectrum, similar to secular Christmas descriptions: "The occasion is marked with sweet and traditional winter solstice rituals—from brewing mulled cider and eating winter solstice foods, to lighting lanterns, reciting winter solstice quotes, striking special yoga moves, and setting intentions for the season ahead." And in between are articles on the winter solstice celebrations that have been traditions for hundreds and thousands of years - the Hopi Indians of Arizona, the Persian festival Yalda, Into Raymi in Peru, and Dong Zhi in China.   So here we are finding our own balance in a diverse world. And the conclusion?  Most of us are just happy the dark days get shorter as the days go by.   Our picture today is the only winter layout I've ever  seen. Today's picture has to be the surprise abstract of the year.  This looks like an ocean beach landscape to me, with the waves on the shore.  The actual object is the entrance sculpture at the Horticulture Garden Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls.  It was a bright sunny day and the sun and clouds were reflecting in the wall.   The second picture shows the wall with the  the Niagara River in the background.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nov 28 2022 - Mithra's Christmas

 

Mithra(s) was a Roman god, and the subject of the December 25th festival.  History says that Mithra was the first immaculate conception and born on December 25th - the son of the Sun God, so also known as son of God.  The creation of the world is central to the Mithraic mythology.   This was a significant god and a significant Roman religion with its mysteries.  There were many temples and sanctuaries to Mithra, and Mithraism is viewed as a rival of early Christianity.   It is generally held that the Christians appropriated the festival of Mithras' birth celebration on December 25th - the winter solstice - with similar light metaphors and correspondence between Christ and the sun. Considering they were rival religions, the Mithraists faced persecution from the Christians in the 4th century when Constantine ruled. This religious community disappeared.   What fascinates me is how successful the Christians were at banishing all other religions.  They termed all of them as 'pagan'.   As a definition, pagan was rustic, unlearned, bumpkin, villager, country dweller, and so on.  It became an all-embracing, pejorative term for polytheists.  It was us vs them. This approach worked, but It brings baggage. That means that when today's biblical historians are tracing the roots of various holidays and festivals they always find themselves in "pagan" territory.  Remember John Milton who as a Puritan was part of the banishment of Christmas based on its origins as a "pagan" festival.   So any time you read about the Christmas traditions in those" four things you might not know about Christmas" articles on the internet, you will inevitably find Mithras in the mix of the discussion.   This motion blur image of birch trees seems to have the right tones for this time of year Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

March 29 2020 - Google's no Pagan Fool

Here's a question?  Is April 1st a pagan holiday?  Every holiday seems to have 'pagan roots'. The 'pagan' term comes from Christians describing the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism. Equivalent terms were hellen, gentile, and heathen.  So it is a label that Christianity applied to others. "Anyone not Christian" is how it started out.  So was April Fool's Day a pagan tradition? The first written reference to April 1st as a day of tricks comes from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.  This reference is disputed.  What is confirmed is the French poet Eloy d'Amerval refer to a poisson d'avail in 1508, considered the first reference to the celebration in France.  Wikipedia says this: "Although no Biblical scholar or historian is known to have mentioned a relationship, some have expressed the belief that the origins of April Fool's Day may go back to the Genesis flood narrative." Reader's Digest claims that the likely origins are the Roman Festival of Hilaria.  It took place around March 25 in honour of the first day of the year longer than the night (equinox).   Because the origins are unknown, there are lots of articles and sites who weigh in on their version. And so it goes.   However, with this year's Covid-19 concerns, there is April Fools' news!  Google has officially canceled its April Fools' joke. Here's the list since year 2000.  We'll have to revisit them instead of getting a new one.  This turns out quite fun. Google's first April Fools' Day hoax, the MentalPlex hoax, invited users to project a mental image of what they wanted to find whilst staring at an animated GIF. Several humorous error messages were then displayed on the search results page, all listed below: Error 005: KUT Weak or no signal detected. Upgrade transmitter and retry. Error 466: Multiple transmitters detected. Silence voices in your head and try again. Error 05: Brainwaves received in analog. Please re-think in digital. Error 4P: Unclear on whether your search is about money or monkeys. Please try again. Error 445: Searching on this topic is prohibited under international law. Error CK8: That information is protected under the National Security Act. Error 104: That information was lost with the Martian Lander. Please try again. Error 007: Query is unclear. Try again after removing hat, glasses and shoes. Error 008: Interference detected. Remove aluminum foil and remote control devices. Error: Insufficient conviction. Please clap hands 3 times, while chanting "I believe" and try again. Error: MentalPlex™ has determined that this is not your final answer. Please try again. And our image today is the flower 'Statice' - this came from the greenhouse tour last year (on this weekend).  This was the Prins greenhouse.

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