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Solstice
I meant to post an open thread yesterday for Solstice. I could have been on time had I used this handy-dandy equinox calculator--a calculator for those equinox geeks, but, alas, I'm not a great organizer so you're stuck with a solstice thread a day late. (I'm sure you'll survive the disappointment.)
You might want to know a few tidbits about the Solstice.
It's more than just the shortest day or the day with the least sunlight sourrounded by white H*ll--my pseudonym for snow or Winter Hell.
The Solstice has existed longer than anthropologists can figure out. It was believed, long ago, that the sun would not return unless the people intervened with dancing, manic-hyperactivity, and plenty of anxious celebration while waiting on pins and needles for the return of the sun.
In our family, we celebrate the Solstices and the equinoxes with our friends, traditionally with a huge bonfire and plenty of good spirits. We take the partying pretty seriously! But not half as seriously as the ancient people did. The ancient people actually built Stonehenge as an equinox marker and in fact it marks both of them perfectly!
In Ireland, Newgrange, another Solstice marker, was erected centuries before Stonehenge. Newgrange was so perfectly built that a tiny sliver of light at Solstice's dawn would enter a shaft in the circular monument, and that little beam would illuminate a stone basin below in a room full of intricate carvings -- spirals, eye shapes, solar discs.
The connection, the ties, between the Solstice and religious celebrations blossomed throughout Europe and can be seen in the architecture of its churches, observatories, and monuments. According to a book called The Sun in the Church, Catholic churches were intentionally built as solar observatories because it needed astronomy to predict Easter.
This is how it worked: Typically, they placed a small hole in the roof through which a beam of sunlight would trace a path along the floor. The path, called the meridian line, was often marked by inlays and zodiacal motifs. The position at noon throughout the year, including the extremes of the solstices, was also carefully marked. It is in that way that the church and astronomy converged, though it's fairly well known that astronomers were jailed when their theories cast doubt upon God's intrinsic placement of objects in the world,
Despite that odd couple, this linguistic puzzle describes the connection between Solstice and Christmas quite well. It goes: "The rebirth of the sun.The birth of the Son."
Actually, my boss reminded me that so many of the Christmas traditions and celebrations originated by the Pagans. Of course, being raised Jewish, I knew that many of the Jewish faith's traditions are much more closely aligned to the seasons. But I never considered the ways in which the Christian traditions are too. Things like Christmas wreaths, candles, feasting, and gift giving, etc...These Ukrainian pre-Christmas words describe a giving, generous God, one that includes the Pagan and Jewish representation of God (the sun.):Shchedryk (Generous one--God of generousity) Dazh Boh-the Giver God (which is the sun). You can see the similarity.
According to Candlegrove many people are looking to reclaim that connection now. Candlegrove gives the following examples of this relationship:
- Native Americans had winter solstice rites. The sun images at right are from rock paintings of the Chumash, who occupied coastal California for thousands of years before the Europeans arrived. Solstices were tremendously important to them, and the winter solstice celebration lasted several days.
- In Iran, there is the observance of Yalda, in which families kept vigil through the night and fires burned brightly to help the sun (and Goodness) battle darkness (thought evil).
- Winter solstice celebrations are also part of the cultural heritage of Pakistan and Tibet. And in China, even though the calendar is based on the moon, the day of winter solstice is called Dong Zhi, "The Arrival of Winter." The cold of winter made an excellent excuse for a feast, so that's how the Chinese observed it, with JuDong, "doing the winter."
- I'm certain there are other examples...I'm just starting to collect them. Candlegrove visitors have told me of celebrations among the Hopi and Iranians, among others.
- The placement of Hanukkah is tied to both the lunar and solar calendars. It begins on the 25th of Kislev, three days before the new moon closest to the Winter Solstice. It commemorates an historic event -- the Maccabees' victory over the Greeks and the rededication of the temple at Jerusalem. But the form of this celebration, a Festival of Lights (with candles at the heart of the ritual), makes Hanukkah wonderfully compatible with other celebrations at this time of year. As a symbolic celebration of growing light and as a commemoration of spiritual rebirth, it also seems closely related to other observances.
- In many cultures, customs practiced at Christmas go back to pre-Christian times. Many involve divination--foretelling the future at a magic time: the season turning of solstice.
- In Russia, there's a Christmas divination that involves candles. A girl would sit in a darkened room, with two lighted candles and two mirrors, pointed so that one reflects the candlelight into the other. The viewer would seek the seventh reflection, then look until her future would be seen.
- The early Germans built a stone altar to Hertha, or Bertha, goddess of domesticity and the home, during winter solstice. With a fire of fir boughs stoked on the altar, Hertha was able to descend through the smoke and guide those who were wise in Saga lore to foretell the fortunes of those at the feast.
- In Spain, there's an old custom that is a holdover from Roman days. The urn of fate is a large bowl containing slips of paper on which are written all the names of those at a family get-together. The slips of paper are drawn out two at a time. Those whose names are so joined are to be devoted friends for the year. Apparently, there's often a little finagling to help matchmaking along, as well.
- In Scandinavia, some families place all their shoes together, as this will cause them to live in harmony throughout the year.
- And in many, many cultures, it's considered bad luck for a fire or a candle to go out on Christmas Day. So keep those flames burning!
Solstice clearly is the link between all the religions and all the countries around the globe. So give, feast, celebrate, worship, or do whatever your tradition is. But most of all, accept the Solstice as the common bond between people around the world.
Perhaps celebrating solstice together is the means for peace.
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Apparently, depending on your time zone, Solstice was yesterday or today. You can find a Mehitabel9's diary at Kos about the solstice too. (A different type of essay.)
I awoke today longing for the light to come back into the world.
Raven, where are you?
We need more warmth and light. And some cash would be good too...
Are yall cold out there?
My neighbor the freak still has a whole crop of fresh greens in his garden.
I can not really ever think of another time I have seen gardens producing so late in the year.
It is 72 degrees here.
But if it is any comfort it will be cold here tommorrow.
High is expected to be at 54 degrees.
Burrrr.
Christy, is this a new form of torture that Bush and Cheney haven't discovered yet?
Because, your words brought me to my knees. I am now ready to confess to anything if someone will only turn the sunlamp on over here.
Global warming...YAY!
(You know I'm kidding about that, right?)
Christmas spirit:
You know I almost wish for snow, just to know it is a normal season.
It is warm here, but it has the animals confused. The birds did not migrate. I think they are nestng again, but that is so not suppossed to happen.
And the squirrels are having babies again. I saw a tiny one yesterday. I don't think they will survive January or February.
I do not ever remember a december more odd than this one.
The animals do not seem to realize they are not acting right.
On this winter solstice, sun didn't come up in San Fran until well after 7. Pretty odd by my Los Angeles standards, where I expect everything to be bright by 7 even now.
Christy - it will be chilly here (at least by my standards). Low 50s for high, and overnight it was close to freezing.
sparrow - thanks for sharing. I'm starting to get sick of all the Christmas carols and the shopping crowds, and I must be far from alone.
A new form of torture? No.
HAHA!
I know that is is not suppossed to be like this here. I do appreciate the warmth myself, but like I said, something is so not right.
I have been wondering lately how can it be that I had kids just in time to watch the end of the world?
And with a front seat view too.
Trust me darlin, the warmth is not really that comforting.
Ally...you on vacation in San Fran? How'd you get it to say "Ally McRepuke in San Francisco"?
The San Francisco area is definitely cooler than L.A. but there's a ton less smog too!
Christy,
Your story about the animals happened out here last year (or the year before). There were deer with fawns in January.
Um...Monkey...
I'm starting to feel like that from this.
128038~~Refresh~~128045~~Refresh~~128049~~Refresh~~128052~~Refresh~~...
If you have about 45 minutes to spare, listen to Naomi Wof's lecture. I don't think there is anything new here for most of us. You might want to send this on to others:
Judge seems wary of opening CIA inquiry
Government lawyers speak for first time about interrogation videos
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge appeared reluctant Friday to investigate the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes while the Justice Department is conducting its own inquiry.
U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy is considering whether to delve into the matter and, if so, how deeply. The Bush administration is urging him to back off while it investigates.
"Why should the court not permit the Department of Justice to do just that?" Kennedy asked at a court hearing.
The hearing marked the first time that administration lawyers spoke in public and under oath about the matter since the CIA disclosed this month it destroyed the tapes of officers using tough interrogation methods while questioning two al-Qaida suspects.
Government lawyer Joseph Hunt said the joint Justice Department-CIA investigation into the destruction of the videos will also seek evidence of whether the government violated any court orders. Hunt promised the judge that, when the investigation is complete, lawyers will tell the court if its rules were violated.
"It would be unwise and imprudent" for the judge to investigate further, Hunt said.
'We have a smoking gun'
The judge had ordered the government not to destroy any evidence of mistreatment or abuse at the Navy base in Cuba. Because the two suspects - Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri - were being held overseas in secret CIA prisons, however, they are likely not covered by the order.
David Remes, a lawyer for Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay, argues the destruction of the tapes may have violated a court order and may indicate that other evidence was also destroyed. Remes noted that the government was prohibited from destroying any evidence that could be relevant in a case, even if not directly noted in a court order.
"We have a smoking gun, as it were, with respect to the government's destruction of potentially relevant evidence," Remes said.
Remes urged the court not to take a back seat to the executive branch, which destroyed the documents in the first place.
more on...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22356191/
Thank Oncall.
I'm forwarding it on to my list of nonDCP'rs.
Christmas Gifts for the interested, the curious, the critical, the skeptical and the open-minded:
Naomi Wolf - End of America
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine
Greg Palast - Armed Madhouse
The Return of the Imperial Presidency (I forget the author)
I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday and both Wolf and Klein's books had sold out....
The Wexler petition:
128,195
signed up
and counting...
Hey Sparrow, speaking of Christian rituals and mythology, did you know our concept of 'hell' comes from Pagan Vikings and Germans?
Hel, is both the Underworld, and the name of it's queen. The goddess Hel. Why am I telling you this?
Before the Christians picked it up as a concept, instead of being a flame filled apocoliptic furnace... The original tales of 'Hel' was of a place built from ice and so bitterly cold no living thing could enter it without being frozen solid.
The original hell was made of ice, not fire.
The word itself is interesting, it was used 3 ways. The place, the goddess, and the conceptual meaning... Check out what wikipedia says...
"The old Old Norse word Hel derives from Proto-Germanic *khalija, which means "one who covers up or hides something", which itself derives from Proto-Indo-European kel-, meaning "conceal". The term may have later spawned the English word Hell. "
I am always amazed at my fellow Christians inability to tolerate paganisim. Since christianity itself is nothing if not a multipronged experiment in paganistic bastardization.
I know it probably won't make you feel any better to know you are in 'Hel', But it is something to think about while your toes are freezing.
Video
Congressman: ‘We’ve Ethnically Cleansed Most of Baghdad’
december 21 2007
Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA) on the decrease in violence in Iraq: "Sure, there's less violence, but that's because we've ethnically cleansed most of Baghdad."
Go Funk Yourself...
http://www.funkykidzmusic.com/
Sorry guys, here is the Link to ethnic cleansing
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6ab_1198192553
Speaking of Solstice, hear is a video about December 25 which may rattle a few people:
And Now back to reality
Exmas Greetings from Iraq.
Happy, happy, Xmas to the "civilized" world.
December 21, 2007
I have it fresh for you guys...
While you are doing your Xmas decoration and writing good wishes cards...
While you are on your usual bulimia of shopping and stuffing your frigdes and cupboards with more...
While you are arranging your, oh so sweet green Xmas tree and arranging for your Santa to stuff socks for your kids with all kind of goodies... How nice, how generous!
Stuff the socks and stuff the turkey, eat, drink and be merry...
Why not indeed. You deserve it. You are such a good people, with such a great conscience. Who could really say otherwise?
Well got news for you fellow "humans", I can say otherwise...
The latest figures from UNICEF on the children of Iraq reads as follows:
- 2 Million Iraqi kids this month are DIRECTLY threatened by disease, illiteracy, violence and famine.
- 25'000 kids are displaced each month and are susceptible to getting killed .
and do not forget the Bingo, Jackpot, Luck charm number for your holiday seasons,
-5 Million Iraqi kids are orphaned . OK Let me spell it for you again. ORPHANED. That means, they lost BOTH parents.
So when you are busy stuffing yourselves with more and more, remember those figures, for they are of YOUR doing. Yes, you read me right- Your own doing.
And since you are such forward planners and visionaries with agendas full with your 5 and 10 year plans and you can supposedly think and see beyond your navel and nose, do take 5 minutes of your precious time and envisage what the future of Iraq will look like with these numbers...
And do say hello to your lovely little ones will you ?!
And oops, I nearly forgot to wish it - Happy, happy, Xmas to the "civilized" world.
http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2007/12/xmas-greetings.html
Children pay the high price of Iraq violence: UNICEF
The lives of millions of Iraqi children are still blighted by violence, poor nutrition and disrupted education more than four years after the US-led invasion, UNICEF said on Friday. The United Nations Children's Fund said in a report that few teenagers took their final exams last summer, safe drinking water remained scarce and about 1,350 children were detained by the authorities in 2007. It also said that on average 25,000 children and their families were forced out of their homes each month to seek shelter in other parts of the country...
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hT94-6XOLhVvrUbhjx9xoo1uyfkA
VIDEO: Project Censored: Truthout Interview With Peter Phillips
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122107A.shtml
Truthout's Geoffery Millard talks with Peter Phillips, leader of Project Censored, a national research effort that tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters, and compiles an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country's major national news media.
That was a good video Oncall.
But I can see it rattles some people because it gives facts and makes those facts stronger than someone's faith.
I don't see why anyone should object to it being on Youtube. If they are allowed to post things of their faith, then why shouldn't this person be able to post the mythological stories associated with 'his faith'?
"While you are doing your Xmas decoration and writing good wishes cards...
While you are on your usual bulimia of shopping and stuffing your frigdes and cupboards with more...
While you are arranging your, oh so sweet green Xmas tree and arranging for your Santa to stuff socks for your kids with all kind of goodies... How nice, how generous!"
I have no decorations up, not even a tree. I have a wreath on my door that my neighbor gave me. Shes an art lover. Back in her heyday I suspect she was one hip chick. Her son just got back yesteday from GITMO.
No Christmas dinner will be cooked at my house. There are no stockings that will be stuffed, no turkeys to bake. My man and I never exchange gifts. Why on that day? We have so many other days full of gifts.
My cupbord is not overflowing, I cleaned out a lot of canned foods and gave them to my girls to take to their schools homeless hunger drive. The food will go to local soup kitchens.
Do you really think 'shame' is the key? It's not. I am ashamed of my country, but I do not feel personal guilt for what has happened here.
I can not stop them from killing in my name. I can not stop the lies of the most powerful men on earth. All I can do, all virtually ANY of us can do, is sit here, and wait for our nation to dissolve into a chaos so deep, the term 'civil war' can not even describe it.
Do you realize Iraq was never the true target? Iraq was the excuse, NOT THE PRIZE. They have plundered an empire without firing a shot. Not IRAQ....THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! The most desired war prize on earth.
You know what...for just a moment...forget Iraq. We are watching the death throes of a nation with THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION PEOPLE IN IT. And a sh*tload of THERMO NUCLEAR WEAPONS!
We are watching our empire die. Our nation is being ripped to pieces around us.
I feel horrible about what was done to the people of Iraq in my name, but most of us do not feel personal guilt because we OPPOSED IT every chance we got.
Other than killing our own, how were we suppossed to stop it? We tried so hard, but...you SAW how we were cheated. Time and time again.
I REFUSE to take the punishment for their CRIMES AGAINST US. I will clean up the mess, I will even apologize on their behalf, but I will NEVER take the blame for what has happened.
Shame won't work Rossi. Not now. Not anymore.
We are falling into a dark abyss. Iraq was just a waystop on a long, long fall into hell.
The fall started when the Towers fell. The lies of Iraq, were a deliberate distraction from the lies of 911.
By the time the truth does come out, it will already be too late.
Anyone half listening to Tony Snowjob already knows a holy war has began.
Not 'over there', RIGHT FREAKING HERE.
To the victor goes the spoils.
Rossi,
Those sentiments are America' current and future legacy in the Middle East and the Arab/Muslim world. Like Christy, I do not feel personally responsible for my country's misguided policies, but I am ashamed of those polices. As it is, our legacy has doomed us to becoming the world's outcasts. America is hated and rightfully so. Remember there were over fifty million people who voted to change America's policies. Yet, Americans as a whole are grouped together for the wrongs that our country has perpetrated. It is a terrible legacy; one from which we will never recover.
This is the first thing I saw when I turned on my computer just now. "Did he have a wife or anything?" asks my son.
Report: Hoover Had Plan for Mass Arrests
54 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had a plan to suspend the rules against illegal detention and arrest up to 12,000 Americans he suspected of being disloyal, according to a newly declassified document.
Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, less than two weeks after the Korean War began. But there is no evidence to suggest that President Truman or any subsequent president approved any part of Hoover's proposal to house suspect Americans in military and federal prisons.
Hoover had wanted Truman to declare the mass arrests necessary to "protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage," The New York Times reported Saturday in a story posted on its Web site.
The plan called for the FBI to apprehend all potentially dangerous individuals whose names were on a list Hoover had been compiling for years.
"The index now contains approximately twelve thousand individuals, of which approximately ninety-seven percent are citizens of the United States," Hoover wrote in the now-declassified document. "In order to make effective these apprehensions, the proclamation suspends the writ of habeas corpus."
Habeas corpus is the right to seek relief from illegal detention, and is a bedrock legal principle.
All apprehended individuals eventually would have had the right to a hearing under Hoover's plan, but hearing boards comprised of one judge and two citizens would not have been bound by the rules of evidence.
The details of Hoover's plan was among a collection of Cold War-era documents related to intelligence issues from 1950-1955. The State Department declassified the documents on Friday.
http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/general/2007/12/22/Hoover.Mass.Arrests/
georgie went through all that trouble to 'secretly' make large domestic prisons, in case of an 'immigration crisis...
Considering his grandfather made his money off of financing nazi death camps....
Is there anyone here that honestly believes they will NOT use those prisons?
They had a REASON...after next election... what? They just walk away and leave them empty?
Not bloody likely. They have been planning this for years.
I get the creepy feeling we won't even make it to the next election.
He only has to suspend them, to become a true KING.
Our chances look worse by the day.
Christy
I agree many of us individuals are not to blame for the war itself, especially if we tried to stop it from happening. I know that although most of us can't afford some type of sustainable-energy car (if that even really exists) & need to something to get to work (& we must work or at least do not probably live in independently wealthy households). I know that if we must pay taxes, we probably hate that it helps fund war. We do not make war policy though, and probably do not knowingly send people to office with our votes who will.
When I ever feel shame, it would have to be through someone's mistaken association where they get the wrong idea. I heard a long segment on NPR yesterday morning about how the "support the troops" idea has been used repeatedly by BushCo to make us feel like traitors when we question the mission. There was a retired military guy who said that the only way to really "support the troops" would be to redeploy them somewhere that isn't a failed effort. He had put alot of thought into it. Wish I had his words here.
The Arab woman blues thing sounds bitter and I don't blame her, but I'm only a few rungs higher on the ladder, and am aware that there are women walking around in America (and in other places such as Russia as well now) with purses that cost several thousand dollars. I've bought cards from Unicef but as for the whole inequality ball of wax and what to do, I dealt with that alot during my youthful spiritual journeys and it's been going on for thousands of years. The thing to blame is human nature. We all simply want to survive without alot of pain, but compassion and greed are both universal sides of human nature. That's in the essence of all the religions but especially Buddhism.
Shame will not work, because what we have done can not be forgiven.
It is too late for shame.
FBI Plans Vast Biometric Data Base
NEW ORLEANS, LA; ONE RIOT INSIDE CITY HALL AND ONE RIOT OUTSIDE CITY HALL; The NOLA City Commission decides to tear down HUD public housing projects.
Just went to the grocery store, so this rings true.
Nightmare Before Christmas
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122207F.shtml
Hey All:
Merry christams eve eve eve! Well, I never can post on the topical threads (my logon credentials don't take for some reason), but one the body-language thing, which is a really interesting thread, I do wonder about Governor Richardson -- on paper he comes accross quite well but on screen, well, to me anyway, and trying to be charitable, he does not come across presidential. I mean, I have colleagues at work that come across with more charisma. Personally, Biden seems the most comfortable in his own skin to me. (Aside to Karen: is that another way to say he seems cocky?) After Biden, I connect best to Clinton; she has some mojo. I thought I would like Edwards more on that basis but on the body-language basis for some reason it doesn't connect with me. Coltish for Obama is about right for me. My brother tells me his first autobiographical book is a very good read though (let's see if he sent me a copy for X-Mas). Pretty much all of my impressions on this come from debates that could be viewed on the web (I don't have cable or rabbit-ears). Those are my impressions anyway.
Chuck in Houston
~~New Thread~~
For Chuck and anyone else who wants to comment but can't make the magic box appear.