Here's a fascinating set of photos documenting Asgarda, a group of women who have formed their own alternate society "based on the the tribal traditions of the Scythian Amazons of ancient Greek mythology."
Jezebel has an excellent roundup of information regarding Asgarda, including this excellent first-person account from the photographer.
Speaking of Jezebel, the above is an ancient seal that, based on the inscribed name and art, may very well have been that of the queen:
It is filled with the common Egyptian symbols that were often used in Phoenicia at this time.c At the top is a crouching winged sphinx with a woman’s face and (part of) a female Isis/Hathor crown. The body of the sphinx is a lioness (cf. Ezekiel 19), clearly appropriate for the seal of a queen. To the left is an Egyptian ankh, the sign of life. A line then divides these symbols from a lower register. Below the line is a winged disk (which, incidentally, also appears on many Hebrew l’melekh handles). Below this is an Egyptian-style falcon. On either side of the falcon is a uraeus, the cobra most commonly seen on the headdresses of Egyptian royalty and divinities. Each of these snakes faces outward. The serpent-like symbol beneath the falcon is actually a lotus, which refers to regeneration but also is a typical female symbol generally connected to women, but especially royal women. The densely filled space reflects the horror vacui (“fear” of empty space) that is typical. . . .
The double uraeus (cobra) at the bottom is a typical symbol of queens with prominent roles in religion and politics from the 18th Egyptian dynasty onward. Especially the Egyption queen Tiye seems to have functioned as a model for later queens. Often she is represented wearing the Isis/Hathor crown or the crown with double uraei. So, independent of the name of the owner, the iconography definitely suggests a queen. Although other individuals used the same symbols to indicate their closeness to the throne, no other seal uses them all.
I'm immersed in a project for work that has me thinking a lot about Hercules. Above: an ancient armband with a Herakles knot, said to have healing powers. Here's Pliny the Elder's sage advice:
To tie up wounds with the Hercules knot makes the healing wonderfully more rapid, and even to tie daily the girdle with this knot is said to have a certain usefulness, for Demetrius wrote a treatise in which he states that the number four is one of the prerogatives of Hercules, giving reasons why four cyathi or sextarii at a time should not be drunk.
New research positing that early humans ate Neanderthals has been making the rounds. Whether that actually occurred is open to debate; somewhat less disputed is that we apparently used Neanderthal teeth in our necklaces.
Below: more contemporary tooth necklaces from Marc Luscher:
A prehistoric pendant via the New York TImes:
Nicholas J. Conard, an archaeologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany, who found the small carving in a cave last year, says it is at least 35,000 years old, "one of the oldest known examples of figurative art" in the world. It is about 5,000 years older than some other so-called Venus artifacts made by early populations of Homo sapiens in Europe.
Another archaeologist, Paul Mellars of the University of Cambridge in England, agrees and goes on to remark on the obvious. By modern standards, he says, the figurine's blatant sexuality "could be seen as bordering on the pornographic." . . .
Its sexual symbolism should not come as a surprise, Dr. Mellars said, because at about the same time people in western France were chipping out limestone to represent vulvas. Nor were these Stone Age artists fixated only on female sexuality. Archaeologists in recent years have also found phallic representations carved out of bone, ivory and bison horn.
The Egypt fad inspired by the discovery of King Tut's tomb is a famous cultural moment from the 1920s. The ad copy points to somewhat less familiar but no less significant aspects of that era: new standards of cleanliness, a celebration of natural products, and the role of beauty & fashion in the promoting women's independence.
Want to understand today? Just go back to the 1920s . . .
I'm sure others will have pointed this out by now, but [these graffiti pictures] refer to a book by an Austrian mysticist named Guido von List, according to Wikipedia. The book, Das Geheimnis der Runen (ie, the graffiti in the first picture) continues to influence and inspire neo-Nazis, from which they derive the phrase "Sal und Sig" (the graffiti in the second photo) which I think means "Salvation and Victory."
Speaking of pagan decorations, King Arthur Pendragon, battle chieftain of the Council of British Druid Orders, has vowed not to leave Stonehenge until certain action is taken to improve access to the site & to certain remains that had been removed for study.
"We have opened a bottle of mead and we are drinking to Stonehenge," he said.
"I have done a short ritual and spell of protection, calling on the kings of old.
"I am still here, so I am in breach of the order as they see it, but I have as much right as anyone else to be here.
"I am not going to go, I am battening down the hatches and continuing my lawful right to protest and my equal right to religious practice."
For more on British druid practice, check out the Council's site. As the "About" page indicates, there's a fascinating organizational backstory here. Note how its statement opens:
We the undersigned Representatives of Orders and Officers of The Council of British Druid Orders, established 1989 (˜The Council), would like it known that we do not recognise nor permit the usage of, nor representation under, the name of the Council by any other Groups or Individuals other than those undersigned Orders and Individuals.
Neither do we recognise or support the usage and representation of our name by any group claiming to be a subsidiary or regional Council of CoBDO.
This ancient bowl, possibly from the first century C.E., appears to have been used for fortune telling. One suggestive clue is an inscribed reference to "the magician."
No big so far--soothsaying by reading the patterns of oil in water is a familiar ancient practice.
What has scientists and historians excited about this object is the rest of the inscription, seen above--"dia Christou"--"through Christ."
If this a reference to the Christ of the gospels, it's evidence of an admixture of Christianity and white magic dating back to the early years of the Christian church. As one scholar notes, reports of a wonder worker might have spread throughout the region and been incorporated into existing spiritual practices:
Bert Smith, a professor of classical archaeology and art at Oxford University, suggests the engraving might be a dedication, or present, made by a certain "Chrestos" belonging to a possible religious association called Ogoistais.
Klaus Hallof, director of the Institute of Greek inscriptions at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy, added that if Smith's interpretation proves valid, the word "Ogoistais" could then be connected to known religious groups that worshipped early Greek and Egyptian gods and goddesses, such as Hermes, Athena and Isis.
Hallof additionally pointed out that historians working at around, or just after, the time of the bowl, such as Strabon and Pausanias, refer to the god "Osogo" or "Ogoa," so a variation of this might be what's on the bowl. It is even possible that the bowl refers to both Jesus Christ and Osogo.
Fabre concluded, "It should be remembered that in Alexandria, paganism, Judaism and Christianity never evolved in isolation. All of these forms of religion (evolved) magical practices that seduced both the humble members of the population and the most well-off classes."
For the final game at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees allowed fans to walk the warning track in the outfield. TV footage just highlighted a fascinating scene: an outfield wall covered with the fans' handprints.
And so connection to a baseball team connects us to our past.
