La Pensine

hellenismo: Women dancing before an image of Dionysos (From...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 14:26:39 -0400

hellenismo:

Women dancing before an image of Dionysos
(From Athens, early 5th century B.C. now in the Metropolitan Museum..)

abandonedography: Church of St. Casimir, Ryasna, Belarus by...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 14:13:20 -0400

abandonedography:

Church of St. Casimir, Ryasna, Belarus by zzuka

hellenismo: The Chaldean Oracles (a mystery-poem containing...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 14:07:41 -0400

hellenismo:

The Chaldean Oracles (a mystery-poem containing revelations from Hecate and other deities to a Julian, a mystic who accompanied the emperor Marcus Aurelius on his campaign against the Germanic tribes that had invaded the Empire, c. 2nd CE) «make Hecate the Goddess through whose grace the whole material cosmos was created and identify Her womb as the source of all life» (Sarah Iles Johnston).

(Hecate, armed with torches, and killing a giant; Christie’s, London, Catalogue des pierres graves antiques de S.A. le Prince Stanislas Poniatowski ([1830?]-1833), 51, Cornelian)

heaveninawildflower: Page from the ‘Carrara Herbal’ (between c....

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 14:06:50 -0400

heaveninawildflower:

Page from the ‘Carrara Herbal’ (between c. 1390 and 1404).

An Italian translation, possibly from a Latin translation, of a treatise orginally written in Arabic by Serapion the Younger (Ibn Sarabi, likely 12th century).

Wikimedia.

The Crystal Gazer, 1904, by Gertrude Käsebier

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 08:51:26 -0400

The Crystal Gazer, 1904, by Gertrude Käsebier

chasing-rose: In the 7th century, the Arabs invaded Kurdistan...

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 08:44:34 -0400

chasing-rose:

In the 7th century, the Arabs invaded Kurdistan to spread the religion of Islam. Although the Kurds put up a fierce resistance but could not stop the waves of Arab invaders, and eventually the majority were converted to Islam. Many of the converted Muslim Kurds, adopted Sufism teachings because it was compatible with the Kurds’ mystical nature. There are now large communities of Kurdish Sufis in Eastern and Southern Kurdistan, they gather regularly to perform their religious ceremony.

In Kurdish we call the Kurdish Sufis Dervishi’s, their ceremony resembles Kurdish folk dances, as they hold hands in a vigorous beat that will have every head in the place swaying to the beautiful sound of Kurdish daff and religious chanting. A Dervishi ceremony practises many rituals, with the primary ritual ordering it’s mystic followers to embrace Dhikr, involving the remembrance and gratitude of Allah with devotional prayers with physical exertion of dancing, head swaying and whirling.

hellenismo: Ὀγδόη Φθίνοντος/ Ὀγδόη μετ’εἰκάδας, XXIII day From...

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 08:39:20 -0400

hellenismo:

Ὀγδόη Φθίνοντος/ Ὀγδόη μετ’εἰκάδας, XXIII day
From today’s sunset: twenty-third day of Thargelion.
For today there are no other religious prescriptions, apart from the daily ones…

(Kybele on throne with lion underfoot, before Her standing Hekate and Hermes Kadmilos , from whose remained only leg and arm. Fragment of relief from Pireus, 390 BC. Now in the Pergamonmuseum, Berlin….)

centuriespast: Ibn Bakhtīshū˓, (d. 1058)Manāfi˓-i al-ḥayavā...

Mon, 27 May 2013 17:46:30 -0400

centuriespast:

Ibn Bakhtīshū˓, (d. 1058)
Manāfi˓-i al-ḥayavā (The Benefits of Animals), in Persian
Persia, Maragha, between 1297 and 1300, for Shams al-Dīn Ibn Żiyā˒ al-Dīn al-Zūshkī

the Morgan Library

biomedicalephemera: mysty-lee: biomedicalephemera: “Domestic...

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:28:08 -0400

biomedicalephemera:

mysty-lee:

biomedicalephemera:

“Domestic weasel” [Ferret] - Mustela putorius

Did you know that ferrets were domesticated over 2500 years ago? They were used in ancient Rome to hunt rabbits, moles, and other ground-dwelling animals, and the verb “ferreting” (as in ferreting out) came from their inquisitive and seeking nature.

Throughout the middle ages, they were used by the nobility and the gentry, but their use during the Renaissance decreased. Until the late-20th century, domestic ferrets were on the decline, but in the mid-1980s, their popularity as pets began to boom. Unfortunately, in some countries, such as New Zealand, feral ferret colonies have destroyed indigenous wildlife. In North America and Northern Europe, however, pet ferrets have continued to stay popular, and wild colonies have not been established thus far.

Top Image

Bottom Image

I miss my ferrets..

Sadly in the USA the black footed ferrets ( native ) are almost extinct.( once deemed extinct..

pet ferrets are spayed and neutered before we can get them unless you have a breeders license which is WHY they don’t have colonies.

but we should be saving the Black footed ferrets

Thankfully, black-footed ferrets are recovering fairly well…they’re no Canada goose, but they’re acclimating to reintroduction amazingly, considering that they’re carnivores. Carnivores are much more difficult to reintroduce than herbivores and omnivores, but the strategy being used is proving to create fairly good hunters, and the vast majority are surviving and reproducing.

As pets, they’re fun…but they steal everything shiny. Or soft. Or whatever they like, really. When I used to play viola, they stole my (non-shiny) chin rests ALL THE TIME and kept changing their hiding spots. Le sigh.

Photo

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 11:05:40 -0500

hellenismo: “Come on then, and welcome Dionysos, God of the...

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 10:59:31 -0500

hellenismo:

“Come on then, and welcome Dionysos, God of the Bacchae, and call upon Him in your streets with dances performed by people with ivy in their hair who sing ‘Euoi, o io Bakchos, o ie Paian!’ All over blessed Hellas…dithyrambs. Hail Thou, Lord of Health. - Ie Paian, come as Saviour, be benevolent and protect this city so that it may continue to prosper.”
Philodamos’ Paian to Dionysos XII

(Column-krater with a mask of Dionysos; from Attica, ca. 520-510 B.C. now at the Metropolitan Museum…)