When the killing starts again this is what it's all about: "These are the high-flying cranes and their intercession is to be hoped for."
When the killing starts, when the mobs rampage, when the fires burn and the people bleed, that is what you can look to as the cause of it all: "These are the high-flying cranes and their intercession is to be hoped for."
Meanshile you can buy a tee-shirt or other things, if you wish, from an enterprising gal whose address is below.
.
The Goddesses Al-Uzza, Al-Lat and Menat formed a triad in pre-Islamic Arabia. They were widely worshipped: from Nabatean Petra in the North to the legendary Kingdoms of Arabia Felix in the South, including Saba, the Biblical Sheba; as far east as Iran and Palmyra; and the three of them were very popular Goddesses in Mecca at the time of Mohammed. From left they are: Al-Uzza, whose name means "The Mighty One", the Goddess of the Morning Star; Al-Lat, the Mother, whose name means simply "The Goddess", as Al-Lah simply means "The God"; and Manat, Crone-goddess of Fate or Time. Sometimes the three of them are referred to as the daughters of Al-Lah; sometimes Manat and Al-Lat are considered daughters of Al-Uzza.
Al-Uzza, "the Strong One", was one of the most venerated Arab Deities, and the Goddess of the morning and evening star, Venus. She had a temple at Petra (though which one that was has not been determined), and may well have been the patron Goddess of that city. Isaac of Antioch (a writer of the 5th century CE) calls Her Beltis ("Lady", a title shared by many other Semitic Goddesses), and Kaukabta, "the Star". He also says that women would invoke Al-Uzza from the rooftops, a form of worship appropriate to a Star Goddess. St. Epiphanius of the 4th century CE calls Her the mother of Dusares, the local mountain God, calling Her by the title Chaamu or Chalmous, meaning "young girl or virgin". She has connections with the acacia tree, and Her sanctuary at Nakhlah had three acacias in which She was believed to descend. She has much in common with Ishtar and Astarte as Morning and Evening Star Goddesses—they all have aspects of both Love and War Goddess, and big cats were sacred to Them. She is shown here armed as a bellatrix, standing before an acacia tree, with a caracal, or desert lynx. She was associated by the Greeks with their Aphrodite Urania, "Heavenly Aphrodite".
Al-Lat, whose name is a contraction of al-Illahat, "the Goddess", is mentioned by Herodotus as Alilat, whom he identifies with Aphrodite. She is sometimes also equated with Athene, and is called "the Mother of the Gods", or "Greatest of All". She is a Goddess of Springtime and Fertility, the Earth-Goddess who brings prosperity. She and Al-Uzza were sometimes confused, and it seems that as one gained in popularity in one area the other's popularity diminished. The sun in Arabia was called Shams and considered feminine, and may represent an aspect of Al-Lat. She had a sanctuary in the town of Ta'if, east of Mecca, and was known from Arabia to Iran. Her symbol is the crescent moon (sometimes shown with the sun disk resting in its crescent), and the gold necklace She wears is from a pendant identified to Her. As a Fertility-Goddess She bears a sheaf of wheat; and in Her hand She holds a small lump of frankincense, as Her emblem is found carved on many incense-holders.
Manat or Manawayat derives Her name from Arabic maniya, "fate, destruction, doom, death", or menata, "part, portion, that which is alloted". She is a very ancient Deity and Her cult may precede both Al-Uzza's and Al-Lat's. Her cult was widespread, though She was particularly worshipped as a black stone at Quidaid, near Mecca. She is connected with the great pilgrimage, as Her sanctuary was the starting point for several tribes. She is known from Nabatean inscriptions, and tombs were placed under Her protection, asking Her to curse violators. She is accordingly a Goddess of Death, and Maniya (Death personified) is mentioned in poetry as actively bringing a person to his or her grave, holding out the cup of death. She is shown as an old woman with a cup, and the symbols at the bottom of Her gown spell Her name in Sabaic (which does not use vowels and is written right to left), M-n-t. The waning moon is shown over Her head as the symbol of the Crone-Goddess of Death.
www.thaliatook.com/I've also done another piece of art of Al-Uzza, as part of the Goddess Oracle Deck.
Now available as a greeting card set, t-shirt, calendar print, &c. over at the Cat and Cauldron
I'm not in the advertising business, but any girl who puts her neck out like this deserves some applause if nothing else. and good for Sir Salman.
8 comments:
Great article, Dag.
When the killing starts, when the mobs rampage, when the fires burn and the people bleed...
Hopefully in a few years we'll be able to ease a wire into your head and project your political thought process on a wall. Horribly violent and unpredictable, it'll make for a strange B-movie. Keep up the good work.
na
na, you really out-did yourself this time. It's not just a parody of the Koran, which you seem not to be at all a familiar with, though that never prevents you from expressing you opinions as if they have some weight, it also refers not to me or to us but to the riots in Pakistan against Denmark's cartoons and the riots in France. What the-- fuck if --anything are you thinking?
You don't have to stick a wire in him; you can see the very thing in many places right now, just get off the couch. Dag's been there.
Who doesn't have violent thoughts? So should we hide them or speak about them (maybe to dissipate or defer them)?
The one thing than any serious political thought must include is a recognition that the human condition is inherently conflictual and always will be. The true enemy of humanity is the utopian who denies this, denies his own resentment, and causes various troubles because of it, sometimes very bloody. Our inevitable conflicts need not entail violence, but so far we have yet to put war in history's dustbin.
The question of the matriarchal foundation that was never fully erased by Islam, what is often all too simply described as a patriarchal religion, is a serious question needing to be addressed, along with analysis of the hysterical, but only a few like Rushdie have had the nerve.
I think NA is too stupid to relize he just read the "Satanic Verses." But no, he's likely not that stupid at all, just so mired in his own pettiness and sneering Cheshire cat face that he can't see anything else.
That's atypical pose of the ones I referred to below as imitation conformists. They don't care at all about anything but the pose.
I've tried to be pleasant with NA, but I'm pretty fed up. There are millions of normal people who actually did pass out of junior college, and we don't need that fool hanging around us.
No coffee for you, NA, not even water.
Well, I'm willing to meet with anyone at least once. There are some things that we can only communicate or grasp in face-to-face experience. Dag may be one of them.
I mistook someone’s else’s apocalyptic vision for your own. My stupidity on this one.
na
Na thinks it necessary to insert a wire into Dag's brain in order to see the "strange B movie" that unfolds as reality before us.
A movie in which members of the audience, incredulous of the actors ingnorance are accused of an "apocolyptic vision."
No wire is necessary. Read the script. In verse 9 of the koran, unbeliever does mean you.
Post a Comment