#year
#Bonfires are a Samhain tradition that are still part of celebrations on Halloween here in #Ireland to this day.
These bonfires and new #fires were lit for #protection - scaring off the spirits that resided in darkness. They also might have provided some reassurance in a time before electricity, symbolising the light and warmth of the sun that would return after winter.
Feasting
The fruits of the harvest were enjoyed at feasts around these fires, too. Livestock specially selected for the event were roasted, with some burnt on the #fire as offerings to the spirits. And unlike the one-night-only event of Halloween today, Samhain of long ago would have gone on for days and, according to some sources, up to a week! Quite the party!
#Samhain and the start of the #Celtic #New #Year
Samhain - The turning of the year
For our #ancestors, the new day began at #sundown. So Samhain began at twilight, Oíche Shamhna, on October 31st. With the sun's setting, the old year was seen to die, and the long dark of winter that started the new year was heralded in.
Livestock were brought down to winter grazing to keep them safe in the cold months. People retreated indoors, too, believing that the boundary between our world and the Otherworld, the world of the spirits, was at its thinnest point of the year. The dead were believed to cross into the world of the living, and spirits like the #banshee, #púca, and the Aes #Sídh roamed the land at this liminal time.
https://www.myirishjeweler.com/eu/blog/samhain-and-celtic-new-year/
#RgVeda and we want to be careful about whether this degrades everything:
93-94. (?) The Pitṛs named Ājyapās are the sons born of Pulaha who was born of Kardama, the Prajāpati. They reside in those worlds which can go wherever one desires. They move about in the sky in various forms and shapes. The groups of Vaiśyas who seek benefit worship these Pitṛs in Śrāddha.
Their mental daughter is well known by the name Virajā. She was the chaste wife of Nahuṣa and the mother of Yayāti.
The Pitṛs named Sukālas are the sons of the noble-souled Vasiṣṭha, son of Hiraṇyagarbha (Brahmā). The Śūdras worship them.
Those worlds where they stay in the #heaven are #Mānasa by name. Their mental daughter is Narmadā, the most excellent river.
She sanctifies the living beings as she proceeds along the Dakṣiṇāpatha (southern tract and territory). She was the #wife of #Purukutsa and the #mother of #Trasaddasyu.
It is after accepting these that Manu the lord of the Manvantara initiates the Śrāddha rites everywhere.
It's of course a little weird, hard to tell who is intended to be human. Maybe weirder to think of Arya kings as "wedded" to the southern #Narmada #River.
#Rudra is reborn in each of these #Manvantaras, and #Agni and the #Pitrs are the only thing that stays the same.
Individuals change names, classes change jobs, for example Sadhyas are now Adityas, everything else is a flux besides Agni and Pitrs.
So those are two branches that use his two wives, ##Svaha and Svadha, for the #ending of #mantras. They are his #power or, i. e. Svaha carries mantras to #Devas, Svadha to the Pitrs, Sraddha Rite, which upon examination is about #Time rather than #ancestors. Agni shows manifested units of time, the #day, #year, etc., whereas Pitrs are much like #Father-Time, duration in the abstract.
Most streams of Purana have dissipated all this, such as:
Sādhya (साध्य) refers to a group of deities that was once worshipped in ancient #Kashmir (Kaśmīra) according to the Nīlamatapurāṇa.—Various groups of the deities like #Ādityas, #Vasus, #Sādhyas, #Viśvedevas and #Maruts have their place in the #pantheon of the #Nīlamata but nothing significant is said about them.
Or they may be found shuffled in to #Shiva #Ganas that have nothing to do with this.
Where discussed, they may include:
Arthasiddhi
Brahmāṇḍa-purāṇa II. 24. 27; 38. 3.
and importantly:
Viṣṇu, Nārāyaṇa, lying in sleep in the vast mass of water.*
- Vāyu-purāṇa 23. 108.
live in Bhuvarloka; Nārāyaṇa, their overlord
in the [Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa] their world is said to be above the sphere of the gods; according to Yāska [Nirukta, by Yāska xii, 41] their locality is the Bhuvarloka or middle region between the #earth and #sun;
in the later mythology they seem to be superseded by the Siddhas
The easily-copied rosters of Sadhyas are:
Manas, Mantṛ, Prāṇa, Nara, Pāna, Vinirbhaya, Naya, Daṃśa, Nārāyaṇa, Vṛṣa, Prabhu
Mana, Anumanta, Prāṇa, Nara, Apāna, Vīryavān, Vīti, Naya, Haya, Haṃsa, Nārāyaṇa, Vibhu, and Prabhu
The latter, from #Brihadaranyaka #Upanishad, is in the context that they take birth at will, consciously. The same group of entities changes names and kingdoms; the twelve #souls have #continuity. And so they remember that they once were, on the ideal or ideational plane:
Prāṇa, Apāna, Udāna, Samāna, Vyāna, Cakṣus, Śrotram, Rasa, Ghrāṇa, Sparśa, Buddhi and Manas.
There for example is #Mind's Eye, #Caksus, which is unlike #Indra, because #ordinary #vision requires a physical #eyeball and a #psychological response to stimulus, may be easily tricked. This is i#ncorporeal vision that represents #Perfect #Sight.
"Later #mythology" means the Sadhyas appear in #Mahabharata numerous times, but, barely have any references in Bhagavata Purana.
" #Narayana" is in #Rg-Veda as the author of Purusha Sukta. That's it
#2023 smashes record for world’s #hottest #year by huge margin
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/09/2023-record-world-hottest-climate-fossil-fuel
Calls for Gaza ceasefire ring out as world enters 2024 | Al Jazeera Newsfeed
“No celebration until liberation!” As the world ushered in a new year, hundreds refrained from celebrating to instead call for a ceasefire in Gaza. As Israel...#2023 #2024 #AlJazeera #AlJazeeraEnglish #Gaza #Palestinians #alJazeera #aljazeeraEnglish #aljazeeralive #aljazeeravideo #aljazeeraEnglish #aljazeeralatest #aljazeeralive #aljazeeralivenews #call #ceasefire #celebrating #celebration #hopes #latestnews #liberation #new #newsheadlines #wishes #year
Calls for Gaza ceasefire ring out as world enters 2024 | Al Jazeera Newsfeed
One more war – the planning …
#One #more #war – the #planning … #US #China #West #2024 #year of #geopolitical #awakening #Russia #Asia #NATO #Israel
"aimed directly at at China. The US and the collective West are not going to for one moment accept equality and #multipolarity with the ultimate guide of the UN Charter as legal guidance. They will fight until they get annihilated or until they annihilate. This is not a task that anyone wants to take on, or something anyone wants to do with any amount of relish. Then again nobody wants to kill the whole of #Gaza and yet it is happening in front of our eyes."
[...]
Israeli state TV video shows children singing about Gaza | Al Jazeera Newsfeed
“Within a year we will eliminate them all.” A video by Israel’s public broadcaster of children singing about Gaza has caused a backlash online, including amo...#AlJazeera #AlJazeeraEnglish #Gaza #Israelis #Israels #alJazeera #aljazeeraEnglish #aljazeeralive #aljazeeravideo #aljazeeraEnglish #aljazeeralatest #aljazeeralive #aljazeeralivenews #all #backlash #broadcaster #children #eliminate #latestnews #music #newsheadlines #online #public #sing #singing #song #them #video #year
Israeli state TV video shows children singing about Gaza | Al Jazeera Newsfeed
It's that time of the #year where I make a #calendar for the next one. I decided the theme for next year would be #pollinators. All #photographs are by me and were taken either in our front or back #garden. I suggest you print the pages double-sided and comb bind them so that you can hang it up. Hope you like the pictures. You don't? Well never mind, you can print out just the months instead.
You can download the calendar here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CxmS099Xw0LbO29Ocvy6NLOP5zL9HbSX/view?usp=drive_link
Here are some reduced-resolution preview images.
#MyWork #MyPhoto #CCBYSA #DSLR #Nikon #D7000 #Horticulture #Insects #2024 #Cal24
Interesting #Photos
Determination is the key to success. The same holds true when it comes to making a successful image. This is why some great photographers have a lot of patience when it comes to capturing an image they have in mind. They are ever so willing to invest their time into capturing exactly what they have envisioned. #Photographer Giorgia Hofer took a series of #photos of the #moon throughout an entire #year, and ended up capturing this wonderful masterpiece:
moon cycle
“ #MoonCycle in One Image” by Giorgia Hofer (Via Reddit.
The image is a composite of 28 shots of the changing phases of the moon that she took over the peaks of the Cridola Group, #Italy. To #photograph the moon, she used her Nikon D750 with the Sigma 120-400mm lens at 400mm. For the landscape, she used her Nikon D750 with the Nikkor 20mm lens at 8 sec, ISO 800, and f/8. While you’d guess that it should’ve taken Hofer a month to capture this image, it actually took her almost a year in reality; the reason being unfavorable weather.
“The moons in the waning phase, on the left, were captured in January while the moons in the waxing phase, on the right, between July and December.”
The pattern formed by the moon in the sky is pretty interesting, and undoubtedly the focal point in this image. The pattern is actually termed #Analemma, and it is formed as a result of the tilt in the earth’s axis, and also due to the fact that our orbit it not perfectly a circular one
xD
Rant: year of Linux on the desktop
"Over the years there’s been many people telling me directly that Linux is silly or wrong or imperfect, or that free and open source software is foolish or pointless. [...] Over time, the goal posts of success keep being moved by the naysayers. I’m too tired to dig up all important milestones and dates, or references, but here’s highlights of the timeline as I have experienced it (years may be a little off)..."
