Tag: history

Zenobia And The Temple of Bel

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The warrior queen Zenobia passed under that Zodiac dozens, maybe hundreds, of times. By the start of her reign in the 3rd century BC, the Temple of Bel in Palmyra was already 200 years old. Its fabulous portico with the seven planets personified, surrounded by the signs of the Zodiac, would have been a familiar part of the sacred furniture of the the queen’s great desert city. Subsequent generations of travellers to the Middle East crossed the desert to visit Zenobia’s city, inspired by the legend of the warrior queen and rumours of the romance of the ruins. Isobel Burton, writing in the 1870s, […]

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Were The Celts Astrologers?

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The Heraklean Way, one of the most ancient routes in Europe, runs from the Sacred Promontory on the Atlantic coast of Portugal to the Matrona Pass in the Alps. It’s both a real road – you can still drive along parts of it today – and a mythical one, for it is said that the hero Heracles himself created it as he strode across the continent. Its origins truly are lost in the mists of time, but it dates from at least the 5th century BC, well before the Romans had started their world-beating tour. Until the historian Graham Robb […]

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Solstice

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The darkest night of the year is almost upon us. The nadir, the bottom, the grave, the tomb — and the womb. We are sliding gently into this zero hour, lighting our candles and fireworks to keep away the creeping shadows. Christmas is a beautiful celebration, and a deep understanding, of the light within darkness. There is no greater light than a new life. Much of our Christmas — the tree, the reindeer, the candles, the Yule log — was imported from Germany and Scandinavia. And many of their Christmas traditions have their origins in the not very distant pagan past. One such […]

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Virgins, Black Power, African Liberation…

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The month of Virgo was beautiful here, one warm soft day follows another. But the weather was also strange and unseasonable. The nights draw in but the days are as warm as summer. It’s dreamlike. Being deep in the dream of Virgo this year — with the help of an opposition from Neptune in Pisces perhaps — I understood the sign in a new way*, and this, in turn has brought on some thoughts about our on-going aspect between Uranus and Pluto. Here’s a rather Neptunian train of thought. In ancient times, virgin was less a description of a woman’s sexual experience than a description of her social status. When […]

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Ancient Symbols of Power

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The four gospels surround the lamb of god.When a medieval craftsman lovingly carved a representation of the four gospels for the cover of this book, he was using symbols that had been sacred for thousands of years before the birth of Christ.The four go…

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A Brief Look At Virtue and Vice

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Francesco Pesselino – The Seven Virtues (male and female personificationsTo live a moral life, according to Plato, you needed the following qualities: justice, temperance, courage and prudence. These are the “cardinal” virtues and the foundations of a …

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The Resurrection of a King

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The Death of Arthur by John Carrick (1852). Mallory’s Le Morte D’Arthur (the main source for all King Arthur legends) was published a few weeks after Richard III’s death“And thus I clothe my naked villainyWith odd, old ends stol’n out of holy wr…

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