Happy Chinese New Year! The Year Of The Tiger~

Happy Black History Month!

Who created the manuscript?

 NO. 1

  Ever since the rise of modernism, it feels like people have only looked to see such medieval manuscripts in museums or hear about them in lecturers. The beginning of medieval, or illuminated manuscripts were beautiful but so very old and have to be handled with great care. Archaeologists and anthropologists have discovered and studied such manuscripts as a testament to keeping record of humanity’s past forms of writing. But would we ever get to such technological advancements, in forgetting our past, without it? This report explains the creation of how medieval manuscripts came to pass.

NO. 2

From the met museum, ‘Unlike the mass-produced books of our time, an illuminated manuscript is unique, handmade object. In its structure, layout, script, and decoration, every manuscript bears the signs of the unique set of processes and circumstances involved in its production, as it moved successively through the hands of the parchment maker, the scribe, and one or more decorators or illuminators.’’ Illuminated manuscripts began in Ireland after the fall of the western Roman empire. Christianity came to Ireland around 431 A.D, introduced by Palladius and reinforced by the ministry of a Roman Briton named Patricius, or St. Patrick as he’s called today. He was kidnapped at the age of sixteen, and spent six years in captivity before escaping back to Britain. Upon returning, he was met with ‘distrustful druids’, and ‘murderous bandits’, and by bribing tribal kings did he made it out alive.

 NO. 3

   Eventually, he came back to Ireland in the 5th century. The island became lidded with monasteries in the 6th, and in the 7th the scribes of these centers of religious life were experimenting with new forms of decoration and bookmaking, the better to reflect God’s glory in the written word.

          The first illustrated book to be found by archaeologists was the Egyptian ‘Book of the Dead’, a guidebook for the afterlife in which those in question would come to face-to-face with the jackal headed god Anubis, where he would balance their heart against a feather to determine what would become of them. A fortunate soul would either be in the Elysian paradise, the ‘Field of Peace’, or travel the night sky with Ra in his sun-boat, or rule the underworld with Osiris; those less fortunate would be eaten by the chimera looking god Ammit the soul-eater, for her body was part crocodile, lion and hippo. From Keith Houston’s, The Book, ‘’One of the main reasons the Book of the Dead is so well studied is because so many copies have survived, their colorful illustrations intact for Egyptologists to pore over endlessly. And though their subject matter may have been a little monotonous, it is clear that the ancient Egyptians were past masters at the art of illustrating books.’’

NO. 4

Under Charlemagne’s the Great Holy Roman Empire, politics, religion and art flourished. Monks filled their libraries with tens to thousands of volumes, where they borrowed and copied books to expand their holdings and occasionally to sell to laypeople, and those who wrote and collected realized the importance of illustration was towards a society of illiterate people. The monks who were in charge of the survival of Europe’s history were very vocal about physical maladies and working conditions. The dismal chambers were called ‘scriptoria’ or the writing rooms, which was the most important features of a medieval monastery, other than the Church itself. But society within the empire was transformed. Skilled peasants were leaving their rural homes for towns and cities, while the cities themselves, such as Johannes Gutenberg’s hometown of Mainz fought to eke out some measure of independence from the old feudal aristocracy.  Money was assuming a progressively larger role, and it spoke louder than an inherited title. Always a reflection of the societies that had made them, books were changing in response. Gutenberg’s printing press, which churned out books too rapidly for them to be illustrated by hand, is often blamed for killing off the illuminated manuscript.

Blog #2 : Sorry

Why is that some people in life, mostly me, have to say they're sorry for the smallest things in life? Like you've committed a crime for asking a person to open the door for you when you've forgot your keys to the dorm house (that's actually happened to me. Yesterday.) I'm trying to change, but change is hard. Sorry

Rest in peace.

Sacheen Littlefeather has passed away on October 2nd 2022 . While people remember her for her acceptance speech on behalf of Marlon Brando, know that she also ended the media blackout of the Wounded Knee occupation, won an Emmy & co-founded the American Indian AIDS Institute of San Francisco.

Thoth's Prophecy of Egypt

Who was Thoth? Thoth was the Egyptian god of wisdom and intellect, the creator of writing and hieroglyphics, science and magic, and is the representative of the gods. He is depicted human-like, but with the head of a baboon, his most sacred animal. Though Thoth is interesting to research, we’re more concerned with his prophecy for Egypt, located in the Hermetic texts. Every god has slight differences but overwhelming similarities. Hermes, the god of flight, was the Greek equivalent to Thoth.

What were the Hermetic texts? They were the philosophical texts dedicated to the Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus, found in pagan circles like Syria and Mesopotamia who never had to endure the rise of Christian Fascist suppression, which escaped Muslim persecution by the artful device of inventing or becoming the religious group known as the Sabians, named in the Koran, hence deserving of respect, as Sabians mean ‘people of the book’. Eventually, the documents ended up in Constinapole. ‘‘The work is basically a dialogue in question and answer form. The two chief interlocutors are the god Thoth and a disciple ‘who wished to know.’ Another God, seemingly Osiris, also speaks with a disciple. This literary frame might suggest a comparison with the Greek Hermetic writings, which are also teaching dialogues between Hermes-Thoth and disciples. This comparison would appear all the more legitimate than in the Demotic text, Thoth is once called wr wr wr, ‘the thrice great one’. ‘‘

Thoth’s prophecy is a description of the nature behind cosmology, on the nature of God, the cycles of life, and the nature of the world. Every culture has what is commonly expressed as philosophical teachings; sometimes they are shared, like Greece and Egypt. Except this Egyptian content was created more than 2,500 years before Greece’s literature on philosophy. ‘‘The Hermetica as a whole is plainly a product of Greek culture in Egypt. The famous case from Edfu of Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes, introducing himself and establishing his direct descendent from the supreme god Ra. In short, the occurrence of the ‘I am..’ formula in a text from Egypt is immediately suggestive of native religious traditions.’’ But what does the prophecy entail? Why the doom of Egypt of course. An excerpt from Acclepius III spins the tale of the fall of the city, of the people, of the gods, and of their empire.

‘‘Nay, it should rather be said that the whole Kosmos dwells in this our land as in its sanctuary. And yet, since it is fitting that wise men should have knowledge of all events before they come to pass, you must not be left in ignorance of this: there will come a time when it will be seen that in vain have the Egyptians honored the deity with heartfelt piety and assiduous service; and all our holy worship will be found bootless and ineffectual. For the gods will return from earth to heaven; Egypt will be forsaken, and the land which was once the home of religion will be left desolate, bereft of the presence of its deities. This land and region will be filled with foreigners; not only will men neglect the service of the gods, but ...; and Egypt will be occupied by Scythians or Indians or by some such race from the barbarian countries thereabout. In that day will our most holy land, this land of shrines and temples, be filled with funerals and corpses. To thee, most holy Nile, I cry, to thee I foretell that which shall be; swollen with torrents of blood, thou wilt rise to the level of thy banks, and thy sacred waves will be not only stained but utterly fouled with gore. Do you weep at this, Asclepius? There is worse to come; Egypt herself will have yet more to suffer.’’

Who created the manuscript?

     NO. 1

  Ever since the rise of modernism, it feels like people have only looked to see such medieval manuscripts in museums or hear about them in lecturers. The beginning of medieval, or illuminated manuscripts were beautiful but so very old and have to be handled with great care. Archaeologists and anthropologists have discovered and studied such manuscripts as a testament to keeping record of humanity’s past forms of writing. But would we ever get to such technological advancements, in forgetting our past, without it? This report explains the creation of how medieval manuscripts came to pass.

     NO. 2

From the met museum, ‘Unlike the mass-produced books of our time, an illuminated manuscript is unique, handmade object. In its structure, layout, script, and decoration, every manuscript bears the signs of the unique set of processes and circumstances involved in its production, as it moved successively through the hands of the parchment maker, the scribe, and one or more decorators or illuminators.’’ Illuminated manuscripts began in Ireland after the fall of the western Roman empire. Christianity came to Ireland around 431 A.D, introduced by Palladius and reinforced by the ministry of a Roman Briton named Patricius, or St. Patrick as he’s called today. He was kidnapped at the age of sixteen, and spent six years in captivity before escaping back to Britain. Upon returning, he was met with ‘distrustful druids’, and ‘murderous bandits’, and by bribing tribal kings did he made it out alive.

 NO. 3

   Eventually, he came back to Ireland in the 5th century. The island became lidded with monasteries in the 6th, and in the 7th the scribes of these centers of religious life were experimenting with new forms of decoration and bookmaking, the better to reflect God’s glory in the written word.

          The first illustrated book to be found by archaeologists was the Egyptian ‘Book of the Dead’, a guidebook for the afterlife in which those in question would come to face-to-face with the jackal headed god Anubis, where he would balance their heart against a feather to determine what would become of them. A fortunate soul would either be in the Elysian paradise, the ‘Field of Peace’, or travel the night sky with Ra in his sun-boat, or rule the underworld with Osiris; those less fortunate would be eaten by the chimera looking god Ammit the soul-eater, for her body was part crocodile, lion and hippo. From Keith Houston’s, The Book, ‘’One of the main reasons the Book of the Dead is so well studied is because so many copies have survived, their colorful illustrations intact for Egyptologists to pore over endlessly. And though their subject matter may have been a little monotonous, it is clear that the ancient Egyptians were past masters at the art of illustrating books.’’

NO. 4

Under Charlemagne’s the Great Holy Roman Empire, politics, religion and art flourished. Monks filled their libraries with tens to thousands of volumes, where they borrowed and copied books to expand their holdings and occasionally to sell to laypeople, and those who wrote and collected realized the importance of illustration was towards a society of illiterate people. The monks who were in charge of the survival of Europe’s history were very vocal about physical maladies and working conditions. The dismal chambers were called ‘scriptoria’ or the writing rooms, which was the most important features of a medieval monastery, other than the Church itself. But society within the empire was transformed. Skilled peasants were leaving their rural homes for towns and cities, while the cities themselves, such as Johannes Gutenberg’s hometown of Mainz fought to eke out some measure of independence from the old feudal aristocracy.  Money was assuming a progressively larger role, and it spoke louder than an inherited title. Always a reflection of the societies that had made them, books were changing in response. Gutenberg’s printing press, which churned out books too rapidly for them to be illustrated by hand, is often blamed for killing off the illuminated manuscript.

I pray in 2023 I am more organized, focused, driven, motivated, smarter, wealthier, and healthier. Do more things that feel fulfilling on a soul level. Alchemize every negative emotion and experience and trust it works out in my highest good. I romanticize life because the beauty we see in everything is a reflection of the beauty we see in ourself. 🍀

Tyre Nichol’s mother has set up a memorial fund to help pay for mental health services for his family and a memorial skate park in his name. If you cannot donate, please share.

Ra, the Sun Deity

There are many versions of Ra. ‘Ra’ is the Egyptian word for the sun, and since we are talking of the Egyptian pantheon of gods, he was the oldest of them all and later merged with others such as Horus, becoming Ra-Horakhty (the morning sun), Amun (as noonday sun), and Atum (the evening sun) associated with primal life-giving energy. As a solar deity, he was the sun riding in his ship during the day and descending into the underworld come night.

In Egyptian mythology, it is said he battles the giant serpent Apophis every time he goes to the underworld to start the end of the world and prevent the sun from ever-rising and destroying life on Earth forever. Ra was the most important god of Egypt and the most popular one, as he emphasized 'life-giving/bearing.' Worship of Ra was established in the Old Kingdom with the development of funerary rituals dedicated to the god. His image appeared on all royal monuments since the First Dynasty. Later emperors adopted the name “Ramses” as a religious title after the king's grandfather, who was also known as Ramesses I.

The most famous representations of Ra are is found on the Narmer Palette, a ‘‘hieroglyph of King Menes, which established Egypt’s first state religion around 3100 BC. The earliest known depiction of the god appears on one of the oldest surviving mummy masks, dating to the Middle Kingdom. This mask portrays the King wearing the headdress and chest ornaments that were worn by high priests of the temple of Ra during the Middle Kingdom period. Over time, the ram’s head symbol of Ra became widespread in Egypt, including appearing on the King’s banners and on temples as well as royal palaces.’’

Ra is a solar deity that is associated with light and rebirth. Throughout the history of mankind, the Sun has been considered the source of life for humanity, and therefore it has been used as a symbol by many religions to signify divinity. The Sun is associated with Ra because it is at his temple that the rays of sunlight would be most intense, shining on the statue of the god as if inviting him to shine on mankind. The ancient Egyptians believed that their civilization was founded by the gods of the sun. They associated the rising Sun with life and creation and used it to represent the passage of time – between each day and each month, the Egyptians measured the passing of time by counting the hours and minutes until the rising of the Sun again.