In Spains Catholic religious capital Cathedral, Toledo, the burial places of Cardinals are marked by their hats being suspecnded from the ceiling above. The hats hang until they decompose. They add an eerie feeling to the cathedral as they gently swing in the silence.
they do not drip messy wax, they do not blow-out in the gentle church breezes, securely collecting donations, equal lights for each prayer, only the bulbs need replacing and the cover eases dusting and cleaning. These prayer installations were in both the Cathedrals I visited in Spain.
Progress?
The emotional, sensual, experience of an electric prayer barely touches that of lighting, smelling, watching real candles.
my father once mentioned that he has second sight. Apparently it runs in our family
“How do you know?” …he did not reply with…
‘how do you not know?’ …or question his role as my biological father…
He told me a story of how, as a teenager, he shook hands with a girl and foresaw her death. This had disturbed him so much that he avoided using his second sight, except, of course, in his job for divining.
Before retirement my father was responsible for the overhead and underground lines of a regional Electricity group before Thatcher sold them all off. Dad used his divining skills to pinpoint the location of underground electricity lines or other obstacles such as sewers when directing digging for repairs etc. Dad kept his divining rods in the house. As a child (5yrs, 1968) I would test him at the weekends. A fun game. The test involved him using his rods to find a single tuppeny bit hidden under reams of used computer paper I had liberally strewn across the living room floor. Dad used his divining rods to find the coin. I watched him intently to make sure he wasn’t feeling the coin with his feet through the paper or using some other cunning strategy.
Dad normally found the coin
then giggled
A fleeting moment where one of these men may be cross with the other, or one man crossed the other. The presence of a cross design in the forground seemed a subtle suggestion and reinforcement of their possible relationship.
Segue from Cross to Easter.
All websites that I found descrbing the origins of the Easter rituals superficially refer to pre-christian religiouns citing fertility and birth making the connection with eggs and bunnies. This website is exceptional because it provides more and plausible details of some of the pre-christian influences on our current Easter practices and words. For example the link to the word “East”, where the sun is reborn. Here’s a relevant paragraph:
The festival of Eastre was celebrated by the Pagans on the vernal equinox, the first day of spring. The Goddess was said to take the form of a Hare, so effigies of these animals were made to worship her, the origin of the good old Easter Bunny. The Goddess Eastre, the Teutonic Goddess of Fertility is in her aspect of mother to be. Her symbol is the egg, symbolizing fertility in nature and rebirth from the long winter months and the symbol of rebirth since ancient times. The Egyptians and Greeks would bury eggs in the tombs of the dead as a sign of resurrection, and the egg was especially important in the Pagan Eastre festival as a symbol of nature being reborn over again. Therefore, real eggs would be decorated and given as gifts on this day. The Goddess is fertile, rich with promise and potential life. (It is from the word “oestre” that we get the word “oestrogen” / “estrogen” – the female hormone). To the Saxons she was Ostara, in myth she is said to have amused children by turning her bird into a rabbit, the rabbit then laid colored eggs much to the delight of the children.
Church of England (C of E) Bishops taught me everything I know about upstanding moral behaviour. Hoorah! In this season of Jesus-birthday-induced-bravado things are wont to go a wee bit astray. The Bish’ of Southwark (pronounced suth-ark) was reputedly in high spirits….
The BBC reports that the Bishop of Sothwark got a tad tiddly when out drinking with the Irish. What a suprise.
Excerpt from witness at the scene:
Paul Sumpter was playing pool in a bar on, ironically, Crucifix Lane, in Bermondsey, when he heard his car alarm sound. ”I rushed out there and I saw an old looking guy with his legs hanging out the back of my car,” said the property developer. “My baby’s toys were in the back seat and I could see him chucking them all about the place.” There was even a Ruth Rendell novel — that was title End in Tears — which was quite ironic. After “dragging” him away, the man initially revealed himself as the Bishop of Woolwich before falling on the pavement and knocking his head which left him unconscious for about five minutes.
Excerpt from Bishop’s perspective:
“I told the police I arrived home without my briefcase and with bruising on my face and a gash on the back of my head. I went to the doctor the next day and was told my injuries were consistent with a blow to the head, so I assumed I had been mugged, but that’s a supposition. I am hoping the police will be able to be clearer.”
This photograph was taken in Soutwark Cathedral on my last UK tour, March 2005. It is the tomb of the Bishop of Soutwark who coordinated the writing of the King James Bible, completed 1611:
Party season and dressing-up time (tree and me) is here! Religious? Looks like religious consumerism frenzy with some Christianity thrown into the mix based on many diverse seasonal pre-Christian ceremonies and some generally bizarre behaviour. Seems like mostly well intentioned good fun. In the Wendy House:
Same tree as last year, wearing it’s party-best with an imposing new Angel atop
Same Wendy as last year, this year wandering around an EMP seasonal party armed with Camera, LaCroix, Bollywood fans and Russians, including a very creamy white one. I was tempted onto the dance floor by Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’, kept there by the Bee Gee’s “Saturday night fever” and the Village people’s “YMCA“. The DJ’s 80′s tunes mapped rather closely to my stereotype of ‘gay’ music. It’s possible that I was sending an unintentionally inaccurate message about my gender preferences by dancing to these tracks, they were familiar and FUN! While LaCroix put her colour theory and unique eye into picture action I tried to capture the atmosphere during a Bollywood style song:
it’s firework’s night in the UK, 401 years since the gunpowder plot. Below is a rhyme topical to the time of the event. Most contemporary English people know the first verse and if you say the first line out loud will join in for the second line. According to Wikipedia the latter verses were gradually lost to shared memory due to lack of use through content offensive to catholics:
Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,’twas his intent
to blow up the King and the Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below,
Poor old England to overthrow:
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
Hip hip hoorah!A penny loaf to feed the Pope.
A farthing o’ cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we’ll say ol’ Pope is dead.
Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah!
Bonfire night is an annual English event that, for me in the US, is emotionally replaced by July 4th (fireworks celebration) and US elections on November 7th. Today’s bang! started on the November 4th at a friend’s birthday party.
Hoorah!
(imagine a couple of Hip swings for good measure)
Fun and beer all around, in mouths and beards. Memories of fireworks from July 4th in the US that make me feel closer to the November 5th celebrations in the UK:
Even better, a present (US = gift) turned up in my post (US = mail). It isn’t even my birthday. It is, however, close enough to call this a surprise Birthday present 
US people ‘rest in a room’. It sounds meditative, contemplative, possibly even spiritual.
When tour de france cyclists take a forced break they “commune with nature“. This sounds even more spiritual than ‘resting’.
I tend to use the loo to have a pee or take a dump. It is probably a strikingly similar experience without the spiritually inspiring label. Maybe I need to put some religous symbols in my loo rest rooms to help local visitors feel rested.
US commenter’s fictional statement on a football match:
“previously an umotivated not pretty deadleg would streak into the box and step on an airborne bench, that’s a no-no, giving the opposition a P.K. History is against the bench”
The below commentary on American Broadcasting Company (ABC, US) Portugal vs England World Cup match commentator’s comments will help you translate the above fictional sentence.
go airborne. Another new euphamism! ‘we’ve seen a lot of players go airborne in these 21 minutes with some nasty landings’ go airborne = jump?
streaking. “Here’s Rooney streaking up the right side” In the context of soccer the word streaking is normally reserved for the nude people who dash across the pitch.
playing benches. “The benches might come into play” Can you picture it. Benches playing football. He must mean the players sat on the benches. The substitutes. Why not say substitutes?
not pretty. “English soccer is not pretty but its effective” Bollocks. Joe Cole’s footwork is as cute as a freshly baked cherry pie. That’s so cute it’s pretty. England’s playing may be sloppy at times, for international level play. These commentators crossed my offense-line when they called the English team’s playing ‘not pretty’ = UGLY. I suspect US sensitivities make it more polite to say ‘not pretty’ than ‘ugly’.
Dead legs. “There are a lot of dead-legs in that box” ‘The box’ refers to a marked area on the pitch immediately surrounding the goal. The ‘penalty box’ is generally considered the space from where goals can most easily be scored. A foul commited by the defending team in the box gives the attacking side a penalty kick, hence the name penalty box. The commentators used the verbal shorthand “P K” to refer to penalty kicks. I thought ‘Dead leg’ was a euphamism for someone useless. I like to believe the commentator was suggesting these people were tired rather than useless.
stepped. “Wayne Rooney just steps on him, the referee did a good thing he saw the step then he took him off” actually Wayne Rooney kicked him in the bollocks. “when Rooney stepped on him that was a big no-no”. These Amercan’s and their ‘polite’ euphamisms. ‘Stepped‘ “big no-no“, Hahaha.
motivating. The commentators suggested that England’s (ugly?) performance was attributable to Sven Goran Eriksson and the coaches style. ”I think the coach didn’t motivate the players” They suggested neither had adequate motivational discourses with the team. I’m assuming they mean US style ‘motivational’ perhaps they think that Sven’s not sufficiently ‘super excited’.
distraught. “Beckham is in tears on the sideline” Taken off in the 53rd minute due to injury. I cried at that point. People do cry at football matches. Audience and players, after misfortune and GOALS. I find it hard to think of the England team as lacking motivation when there are such clear physical displays of emotion and determination. Sadness is quickly and effectively conveyed by subtle positioning of facial musccles. Camera shots of England player’s faces after they lost the kick-off were strikingly different from earlier in the game.
UK based England fans. ”79% of people in the UK watched England Ecuador match that’s amazing that’s the difference between English and American Football” I like it when commentators throw in some statistics. I wonder how they could possibly know that – how was the information gathered? 79% is especially impressive because the UK includes Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The commentator didn’t mention this. British people appear to support which ever regional team is left playing. Scotland, Wales and Ireland teams have already been knocked out of the 2006 World Cup. An even higher proportion of English people outside of the UK probably watched the match. All my English friends in the US did. The dedication of the fan base is only ONE difference between American and English football. Not THE difference.
England fans in Germany. The commentators rarely commented on the fans in the ground. Exceptions included comments at the end of extra time like “Nobody in the stadium has sat down for an hour“. The English fan’s vocal and musical presence was a very strong part of the whole experience right from the beginning of the match. The commentators often had to ‘shout’ to be heard over the background noise of the England fans. The fans sang
After England lost the game the relative quiet was striking. The Portugeuse winning cheers were quieter than the England supporters’ encouraging chanting.
history. “History is against England” the commentators’ discourse implies that because England has never won a penalty kick-off in the World cup they are hampered in some way. Huh? Whether someone-else did or didn’t score a goal in a different competition will impact whether this player does or doesn’t score a goal? That’s just silly, silly silly. Scoring is completely attributable to the ability of the players (shooter and goalie) at the time they take the shot.
“previously an umotivated not pretty deadleg would streak into the box and step on an airborne bench, that’s a no-no, giving the opposition a P.K. History is against the bench”
translates, in Wendy-English, to
“previously, tired players have raced into the penalty box and kicked jumping substitutes in the bollocks, that’s a foul, giving the opposition a penalty kick and prompting disapproving ‘booo’s from the fans. It could happen again.
the word of Jesus brought to you from a microphone on a downtown Seattle street corner (Pike & 4th) highlighted by a road sign pointing the one way…
Jesus Christ’s Girls: http://www.jcsgirls.com/
Their mission includes: ”seek to share God’s message of hope and forgiveness by reaching out in a nonjudgmental way to those who are in the sex industry.”
Interviews with ‘JC girls’:
The existence of an industry that commoditises female sexuality for male consumption disturbs me. I am impressed by the proactive approach of these girls. I’m less confident that the message will actually have a significant impact on the existence of the industry, both have been around for a long time….
Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to assess the merits of this statement in less than 1,000 words with direct comparative reference to other belief systems such as religion, democracy, capitalism and the BMI.
Bonus points will be awarded for:
Points will be deducted for:
This blog entry will not self-destruct in 10 sec…
Happy mumzie day
The BBC explains the origins of the day:
Most Sundays in the year churchgoers in England worship at their nearest parish or “daughter church”.
Centuries ago it was considered important for people to return to their home or “mother” church once a year. So each year in the middle of Lent, everyone would visit their “mother” church, or the main church or Cathedral of the area.
Inevitably the return to the “mother” church became an occasion for family reunions when children who were working away returned home. (It was quite common in those days for children to leave home for work once they were ten years old.)
And most historians think that it was the return to the “Mother” church which led to the tradition of children, particularly those working as domestic servants, or as apprentices, being given the day off to visit their mother and family.
As they walked along the country lanes, children would pick wild flowers or violets to take to church or give to their mother as a small gift.
The US celebrates ‘Mothers day’ in May. This website describes the US history as:
In 1907, Anna M. Jarvis (1864-1948), a Philadelphia schoolteacher, began a movement to set up a national Mother’s Day in honor of her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. She solicited the help of hundreds of legislators and prominent businessmen to create a special day to honor mothers. The first Mother’s Day observance was a church service honoring Anna’s mother. Anna handed out her mother’s favorite flowers, the white incarnations, on the occasion as they represent sweetness, purity, and patience. Anna’s hard work finally paid off in the year 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as a national holiday in honor of mothers.
It’s not clear to me why it a, new, different day was required. This website mentions several different, non-christian, celebrations of motherhood. Wikipedia lists differnet days of celebration in different countries.
The British pagan goddess Brigantia, after whom Britain is named, is a mother figure celebrated long before christianity. I was suprised that my search didn’t easily find information on more diverse celebrations of motherhood being appropriated into the current ‘mothers’ days.
Apparantly this is a religiously sanctioned site.
Can you guess why I giggled? Can you? NAUGHTY you!
As if that wasn’t side-rupturing-snigger-good the site also claims that their members are endowed. Oh SHUSH, GETAWAY, pick me up off the carpet and put ear-mufflers on the kitties*….
W school-yard-humour-insensitivity-offense
Today I searched (Google) for “Angel of the morning star” who you all you Christians know is Lucifer.
The morning star is another name for ‘Venus‘ the brightest of the planets. It’s symbol is the symbol for ‘female’. In pre-christian Greece (Aphrodite) and Rome (Venus) the morning star represented the Goddess of love and beauty linked to marriage, motherhood and sex.
I’m curious about Lucifer’s role before his (gender?) fall from ‘grace’. I’m assuming there was a good reason that Lucifer was “second in command to God himself; he was the highest archangel in heaven“. This online version tells of how lucifer fell from grace before the creation of man. In summary, it suggests that God ran a totalitarian government that did not justify its actions. Lucifer convinced nearly half of the angels that this effectively made them slaves and insighted them to rebel. The key request of the rebels, lead by Lucifer, appears to have been
that angels needed no law but should be left free to follow their own will, which would ever guide them right; that law was a restriction of their liberty; and that to abolish law was one great object of his standing as he did. The condition of the angels, he thought, needed improvement.”
Other quotes imply that they wanted a justification for laws, they wanted reasons and the ability to question laws rather than obey unquestioningly. And of course Lucifer was bright and aspired to having equivalent status to God. There was a war in heaven and God won.
Interesting how Christianity associated a pre-christian female principle that forefronted the relationships between men and women (love, sex, marriage, children) with their ultimate bad-guy.
I placed & decorated an evergreen tree in my home this weekend.
Puuurrrr-itty
Christmastree.com suggests that a ‘christmas tree’ orginates from St. Boniface, a British Christian, trying to persuade some German Druids the Oak was not sacred. Meanwhile:
“Centuries ago in Great Britain, woods priests called Druids used evergreens during mysterious winter solstice rituals. The Druids used holly and mistletoe as symbols of eternal life, and place evergreen branches over doors to keep away evil spirits.”
I used to spend the second weekend of December in The New Forest gathering the Wiccan symbol of Holly to decorate our home. I miss the peaceful, social, activity of gathering natures wealth. Definitely preferable to ‘Shopping’! Mistletoe is more difficult to find. Neither decoration appears common in the NW US wild or stores.
Audrey overlooks 3 different trees…
W Miss-Tree
Wikipedia provides a good summary including the lyrics from the song of that name.
Basically, Christians celebrate for 12 days after Christ is born, not before. The 12th day after Christmas (6th Jan) is called ’Epiphany’. It is likely that this period was chosen by the Christian church to usurp pre-christian solstice celebrations. Evidently Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’ refers to the 12 days of Christmas.
it was a crime to BE a Catholic in England 1558 thru 1829.
The song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was possibly a Mnemonic used in England to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith. This carefully avoided written material that could lead to imprisonment or executed in very nasty ways. Though these tenets do not appear different from those of the Anglican church.
Codes used in the song include
True love = God
Me = Baptised person
Partridge in a pear tree = Jesus on the cross
2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the “Pentateuch”, which gives the history of man’s fall from grace.
6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments
8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle’s Creed
W must-finish-reading-Gods-secretaries…
"By the Monogram of Christ is ordinarily understood the abbreviation of Christ’s name formed by combining the first two letters of the Greek form… …The Greek letters XP combined in a monogram occur on pre-Christian coins (e. g. the Attic tetradrachma and some coins of the Ptolemies)"
"Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain"
Email from God? This should offend a few ‘religious’ people
http://spamusement.com/index.php/comics/view/137
Frog bashing? This should offend a few ‘Frog’ lovers and possibly Francophiles:
http://www.somethingwrong.co.uk/crazy_frog_baseball/
W
The BBC Reports that the Catholic Church in the UK is:
"launching a recruitment campaign that will use beermats in pubs and posters on the London Underground to promote the priesthood."
The proportion of Priests to Laity in the UK is good realative to other countries. But, the trend is towards a decline:
"We still have the third or fourth best ratio of Catholic priests to Catholic population in the world… " For example, comaprision with Brazil shows there is one "…priest for every 850 Catholics in the UK, compared to one for every 20,000 in Brazil"
"Ninety-nine percent of the church is the laity, they pay for everything."
The role of women in the Catholic Church in England and Wales is not clear from thir Catholic Organisation website. The Statistics are out of date and the only reference to female engagement with the Church is by counting members of convents. An earlier report by the BBC quotes Erin Pizzey the founder of the international women’s refuge movement commenting on the Vatican letter to Bishops "On the collaboration of men and women in the Church and the World.":
"I don’t think the Catholic Church – whose own priests and bishops cannot marry – is in a position to make such statements… …"It is one of the most emotionally illiterate organisations I know, and they need to put their own house in order first."
Quote from the CultFigurine:
More than 80 percent of the nearly 30,000 Catholics in lay paid parish ministry in the United States are female. They pastor priestless parishes. They serve as directors of religious education and family ministers. Seventy percent of the members of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains are women, too; they work in hospitals, hospices, universities and prisons"
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opbon194265631may19,0,4043636.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines
Charlotte, NC #13
The ‘Calvary’ church main chapel included 2 huge presentation screens either side of the main podium and an impressive looking control center on the 2nd Mezzanine. Apart from the ‘pew’ like nature of the seating this room felt more like a concert hall than any church I’d ever entered.
It wasnt clear if the Church also used a wireless network… certainly the pews were not wired…
Charlotte, NC #5
This church called ‘Calvary’ is beautiful, imposing, functional and BIG. It stands on US highway 51, the junction of Pine-Matthews & Rae Road. It includes playing fields (soccer, sand-pit, climbing frames etc), cemetery, book-store, chapels, security guards, café massive car parks, and probably much more than a visitor like me can find in 30 mintues!
UK Vacation 10
Passiontide is the last 2 weeks of Lent. Lent describes a 40 day period of ‘fasting’ before the Thursday prior to the Easter weekend. The 40 days is an acknowledgement of the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness. The word “Breakfast” is quite literally what is says ‘Break fast’ indicating that it is the first food after a ‘fast’. In this case the fast is the inactivity and lack of eating that happens overnight. In the morning we break our inactivity and fasting with a meal. Breakfast. During Lent the Catholic church covers its statues and crucifixes with purple linen cloths. The purple has been explained in different ways. It was an expensive dye, so it is often called the colour of Kings. In this context it appears to be a reminder to Christians that they should repent, called the colour of ‘penitance’. Covering the statues and crucifixes appears to serve the dual purpose of ’fasting’ of the eyes, and reminding worshipers that they should repent their sins. The picture below shows a covered statue in St Stephens College Oxford.
UK Vacation 8
In a tiny shop window a large banner declares that ‘Jesus Christ is alive today’. Minnie mouse flies by. A horde of Betty Boops’ unsuccessfully try to hold their dresses down from fictional wind gusts. Tweety-pie looks like he could eat a cat in one snap of his beak. There are no customers in this small shop. Its difficult to tell if its open or closed.
UK Vacation 3
This “Lord Mayor’s chapel” was originally built to service a hospital in the 13th century. It was bought by the City of Bristol and is the only chapel owned by a “city” (corporation). Rather than owned, for example, by a religious order or private family.
It clearly demonstrates the close relationship between local city administration and religion in Britain. Whether this close relationship is a good thing is open to debate. Id be curious about people’s opinions.
When I looked around the church I found the mix of old and new artefacts intriguing. Illustrated by the desk and computer photographed below.
The Flags look like they may show ‘coat of arms’ representing ‘sponsorship’ of this Church. The bristol city coat of arms, is one possibility. Other possibilities include families that have significant relationships with this church, for example the Dragoo family, professional Guilds, or oganisations (e.g. Universities). I wish I’d asked about them while I was there…
