Month: December 2013

his-dark-side:

Grant Morrison writes about his ‘dark side’ (alter-ego) named King Mob:

“King Mob is a master of words and has a real knack for persuading people, either by speech or by violence. Everybody always seems to think he can handle anything and that he knows how to do everything.

This is, rather often, quite true, as King Mob is an expert occultist, driver, armed combatant, acrobat, demolition expert and accomplished thief. He is also a master of the unarmed martial arts of Silat. He also has a strong presence which makes him the natural leader of most groups.

King Mob is a high-spirited anarchist while at peace with himself. He’s also an excellent orator and is the type of guy to defeat an opponent with mere words.

King Mob practices yoga, meditation and psychedelic drugs and likes to cite literature. 

His attitude is extremely cocky, but also extremely charming. When on a mission he kills remorselessly while giving immensely brutal comments and puns.”

ihavenohonor:

Omens based on eclipses, Assyria, 7th century B.C.
London, British Museum, inv. K3561

The 20th tablet in the “Enuma Anu Enlil” series contains omens inferred from eclipses of the Moon. Given that the Babylonian calendar is based on lunar months, eclipses of the Moon can only occur around the middle of the month, between the 12th and 15th day. It was considered a bad omen for the Moon to set or rise during an eclipse. The movement of the shadow over the disc of the Moon was the most important factor in calculating which country would suffer the calamity foretold by the eclipse.

ihavenohonor:

Celestial omens, Assyria, ca. 7th century B.C.
London, British Museum, inv. K160

A text recording a sequence of omens based on observations of the sky. The omens are drafted as follows: “In month X, on day X, Venus disappeared in the West, it was absent from the sky for X days, and in month X, on day X, Venus became visible in the East”. This is followed by a forecast such as: “There will be rain and much water in spring; the kings will send messages of reconciliation to one another”.

ihavenohonor:

Fragmentary roll of magical-cum-religious papyrus, age of Rameses
Turin, Museo delle Antichità Egizie, CGT 54065

Dozens of fragments of papyrus have been gathered together in this extraordinary collection of magical-cum-religious texts drafted in hieratic script. On the recto (horizontal fibres) they describe the origin of the world and how to protect against the forces of evil. The famous Monologue of Atum is here too: the creator god emerges from the inertia of primordial chaos and, from his own being, he generates the elements of the cosmos in the shape of pairs of gods and of everything that exists, simply by uttering their names. Men (rm t), on the other hand, spring from his tears (rmwt). There follows the Ritual for slaying Apopis, a snake who embodies negative forces.

“I suppose you could say that it was my power, although that is not really accurate. Power does not belong to anyone. Some of us may gather it and then it could be given directly to someone else. You see, the key to stored power is that it can be used only to help someone else store power.”

I asked him if that meant that his power was limited only to helping others. Don Juan patiently explained that he could use his personal power however he pleased, in anything he himself wanted, but when it came to giving it directly to another person, it was useless unless that person utilized it for his own search of personal power.

“Everything a man does hinges on his personal power,” don Juan went on. “Therefore, for one who doesn’t have any, the deeds of a powerful man are incredible. It takes power to even conceive what power is. This is what I have been trying to tell you all along. But I know you don’t understand, not because you don’t want to but because you have very little personal power.”

“What should I do, don Juan?”

“Nothing. Just proceed as you are now. Power will find a way.”

Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan 

(via beyondgodandpatriarchs)

ihavenohonor:

Sarcophagus lid portraying the goddess Nut, Necropolis of Thebes, 740-700 B.C.
Turin, Museo delle Antichità Egizie, inv. C. 2220

The lid belongs to the sarcophagus containing the mummy of the “lady of the house” Tararo. An extremely beautiful portrayal of the sky goddess Nut adorns the outside of the lid to protect the deceased, ensuring that she will enjoy the eternity of the astral cycle. The goddess’s name is written in hieroglyphics above her head, the last sign depicting the vault of heaven. Above her head we see the Sun disc which Nut lifts up by raising her arms, evoking the Sun as it rises above the horizon. The goddess was often present inside sarcophagi in this period, in most cases with her arms open to welcome the deceased in what might almost be seen as an embrace. In her capacity as the “lady of the sky”, Nut enjoyed the closest connection with the Sun and its daily cycle from sunrise to sunset.