Friday, December 16, 2005 B

"Imagining"
8:38pm

"Holidailies 2005"

Just Imagining...

This was prompted by the Friday Illo theme of "Imagine".

I'm pleased with it, but I'll wait until tomorrow to place it and possibly the 'Surprise' image in the gallery. An early bedtime is appealing to me!

Saturday, December 17, 2005

"As a Bonus"
6:38pm

"Holidailies 2005"

This is just a quick posting before we go to Julia's employee dinner. I may get double portion steak! (The second piece to be saved for later, of course!) I'm not entirely sure what will be on the platter. Hopefully, there will be a fish option for Julia.

By day's end, I will have accomplished three of the four things I set out to do today. (No, finishing the Christmas cards was not one of those three!)

But as a bonus, I did feel inspired to do another Set drawing:

Set facing you...

I realize some of you dear readers may not understand why I persist in drawing this particular Egyptian god, or any god, for that matter. Unless you feel a similar attraction, I may not be able to explain it! But I try! Anyway, I hope you will humor me if this is all 'bizarre' to you.

Moving from the Egyptians to the Romans, Julia informs me today begins the Saturnalia. "Happy Saturnalia!" Or as they would say, "Io Saturnalia!"

Sunday, December 18, 2005

"Happy Holidays!"
1:24pm

"Holidailies 2005"

I got the Xmas cards ready to send. Let me know if you want one. (They are storebought ordinary cute kitties and such.) Meanwhile I have this 'card' for you all:

The 'Generic Genie' wishes you "Happy Holidays!"...

Monday, December 19, 2005

"Shopping"
8:25pm

"Holidailies 2005"

I discovered a new shop in town after hearing an ad for it on the radio. Tara's herb shop has been in town for quite a few years, but it's the first that I've been there. A pleasant smell of incense fills the air in this small shop. A black cat freely roams. Julia found some lovely blue/green earrings and a small vial of rose scented oil. I found a much needed deodorant crystal, and a tiny covered brass dish that is decorated with jewels. When I do a full cleaning of my altar, I will rearrange everything, and this piece will be part of the arrangement. Until then, the dust grows. But at least I have the Christmas cards mailed out.

I did have the new Set picture printed out and framed. However, this revealed the picture's flaws. I fixed the digital versions, but must wait to have another good glossy printed up. Until then, a Set with very 'bad' hair looks out at me from above the computer. He seems to 'say', "Will you do something about my hair?" Soon!

We also bought lots of groceries tonight. We got the basics of bread and soymilk. We got frozen cooked shrimp, 'tail-on' because 'tail-off' were unavailable. I got a small summer sausage. Julia picked a 'broccoflower' and some yams. We got canned beans of every kind, canned figs, dried figs, dried cranberries, ginger, oh, all kinds of delicacies, even 'vegan' chocolates. I ate four of them as dessert after our spinach salad and ciabatta bread supper. The chocolates were dark and tasty.

So the house is full of goodies. I look forward to an early night and much needed sleep.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005 A

"A Set Sighting"
6:48am

"Holidailies 2005"

Time, how it flies, and yesterday went by without an entry. I forgot! Therefore, today, I will aim for two to make up. Last night, a post on the Shemsu Set list got me curious and I went off Googling for proof. That led me to all the Caroline Seawright articles on Set. One interesting photo of stylized lettuce with a link to a museum led me to the online archives of the Petrie Museum. From there, I went searching all images with religious significance.

After about going through 500 images, mostly of rather worn and crude amulets, I was rewarded with a bonified Set Sighting, which I am sharing share as the Museum website declares, "Images may be freely used (with acknowledgement) for non-profit educational purposes."

To easily find it in their archives, use UC14447

Using the catalogue number ought to bring it right up.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005 B

"As a Bonus II"
9:59pm

"Holidailies 2005"

I played with the stela image, and restored it a bit:

I tried to undo some of the damage which was caused on purpose 'in antiquity'. (Set's later bad reputation ellicited much image destruction, and hence for a God who was once so popular, his images are now very rare to find.)

However, there are quite a few artists now who are doing their best to change this paucity. The artist who designed the stamp below might have been inspired by the Naqada stele:

(One of my Christmas cards arrived with this lovely stamp!)

Thursday, December 22, 2005

"Raw Form"
9:09pm

"Holidailies 2005"

I'm tired, hope I'm not coming down with a bug. Julia has a bad sore throat, and was barely able to eat her 'harvest grain' soup, though the Dos Equis amber beer went down easily. My spanish rice soup was spicy and good. The pumpkin pie sadly was store bought, but it wasn't too bad. In any case, it was good to get out for a bit at a local restaurant.

This exercise in daily entries has been most interesting. I fear I am offering a 'brain dump' of whatever I've been thinking about, and not an 'elegant refinement', or at least a pruning. Yes, this means you poor readers get treated to yet another post I made to one of my discussion groups.

One member asked about the connection Set has 'to do with "the world of matter", perhaps pondering a similarity between Set and the Gnostic's 'Demiurge' which focuses solely on material reality and on the "sensuous soul". After being assured by another member that the Gnostics were QUITE different than the ancient Egyptians, I tried to recall everything in my reading which could support this 'world of matter' connection.

I thanked the querant for helping me to focus more clearly for a better understanding and got into the 'meat' of the matter':

Not only TeVelde speaks 'The world of matter', but other scholars do as well. TeVelde speaks of the duality of course, but also John Anthony West speaks of it, in his "Serpent in the Sky" as he quotes H. Frankfort: "The embodiment of the two Gods (Seth and Horus) is another instance of the pecular dualism that expresses totality as an equilibrium of opposites."(pg 34)

TeVelde in "Seth, God of Confusion" speaks of this duality in terms of the eye of Horus and the testicles of Set, the eye representing 'light', and the testicles representing 'sexuality', ('darkness?') He speaks of how it is thought where one is, the other cannot be. Although he is careful to mention the Egyptians do not have the idea that later cultures had, that sexuality is 'evil'. The duality of 'light' and 'sexuality' can be reconciled. The 'light' can be seen as 'spirit' and the 'dark sexuality' as 'matter'.

TeVelde speaks of the connection of Set with a god called Baba, or Babi. TeVelde says that 'Baba' has to do with the 'erect phallus', and quotes the Coffin text, "My phallus is Baba, I am Seth,"(pg 54) as the speaker wants to ensure his virility in the afterlife.

West has another look at this Baba/Babi aspect regarding the 'world of matter' in a skillful translation of an early dynasty test, Spell 316. Each previous attempt by others was gibberish until he carefully assembled the symbolism behind the terse wording.

In spell 316, "The power of Ba-bi is invoked to open the two shutters to heaven (as opposed, perhaps, to its being used in the generative sense of compelling reincarnation and the return to bodily existence).(pg 144) Later, he explains Ba-bi's connection with Set, "Going back to our Pythagorean principles, the Primordeal Scission results in duality, and each new entity partakes of the nature of the 'one' and the 'Other'. Set is a principal aspect of the 'Other', and Ba-bi may be a generative aspect of Set, opposed as such to the reunion with spirit, or One."(pg 142).

So in this aspect, Set would be having to do with the 'world of matter'.

Also, I recall another interesting tidbit. As I found the stylized lotus blooms, both in the Naqada Set stele and of the man offering a lotus with perhaps symbolic testicles?, the very lotus itself is embued with symbolism, as Bridget McDermott in Decoding Egyptian Hieroglyphs informs us further:

"The lotus had an important symbolic role in religious life. The blue lotus, which opens with the first rays of the sun, and the white lotus, which opens only at night, were associated with the sun and moon, and the opposing forces of light and dark...The lotus became a symbol of rebirth after death" and is "also linked to fertility and was a sexual symbol."

So then the white lotus (along with the symbolic testicles honoring his power) would be offered to Set, as it speaks of rebirth, 'return to bodily existence'. (In contrast, catalogue number UC14695 at the Petrie Museum shows a blue lotus being offered to Horus, without 'Set's set'.)

I really enjoy how gradually I am coming to understand these weird mysteries a little better. I do think with some more research, greater clarity and serious editing, this might someday be the basis of a decent article. Meanwhile, you get this raw form, which may generate odd results in Google, turning up in people's search for certain 'raw' items. They won't quite get what they hope to find!

(Erm, ya think this is gross, ya probably don't want to know the origins of the Christmas pine tree and Attis.)

Oh, I will speak of something 'lighter', even Christmas-y without anything gruesome. Below you see a small bit of Christmas-y deco that is hanging on the side of the wall between the living room and the kitchen:

Small round brass plate with mistletoe deco

But Julia and I do not go through a frenzy of Christmas decorating. Once something gets pinned up, it usually stays there. True confession, that little plate has become year round deco!

I figure if it's pretty this month, it will be pretty all twelve months.

No, we don't have a perennial tree! But we may have been saved from this simply by lacking room for one!