“por las altas torres de San Francisco y de la isla de Manhattan,”

Mario Vargas Llosa
The War of the End of the World
Prov. 6:8
"Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest."

Climbing to New Heights
Fire Escape, Pau, France

Chess: “FH” “top”

“por las altas torres de San Francisco y de la isla de Manhattan,” JLB: Otro poema de los dones.

“Mario Vargas Llosa” “Antonio Consejero”

The War of the End of the World (1981) is a story of a revolt against the Brazilian government in the late 19th-century and the brutal response of the authorities. A religious fanatic, known as Conselheiro (Counselor), is followed by a huge band of disciples drawn from the fringes of society. Before the army of the Republic wins, the modern rational world suffers several humiliating defeats with the group of outcasts. Vargas Llosa uses Euclides da Cunha's account of the events, Os sertões (1902), as a source. One of the characters, a "nearsighted journalist", is loosely based on da Cunha.

consider her ways, and be wise:

Pacal
Palenque
Mark Anthoney
Pro 6:6
"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:"

Sunshine On My Shoulders...

Chess: "Pacal" "Palenque" "Marco Antonio"

The tomb of Lord Shield Pacal in the base temple was discovered in 1952 by Alberto Ruz L'Huillier. The temple was originally built between 672-682 AD. The pyramid is seventy five feet tall. (Fergson & Royce, 1977)

Pacal's sarcophagus lid

The large carved stone sarcophagus lid in the Temple of Inscriptions is a famous piece of Classic Maya art. The widely accepted interpretation of the sarcophagus lid is that Pakal is descending into Xibalba, the Maya underworld. Around the edges of the lid are glyphs representing the Sun, the Moon, Venus, and various constellations, locating this event in the nighttime sky. Below him is the Maya water god, who guards the underworld [3]. Beneath Pakal are the "unfolded" jaws of a dragon or serpent, into whose mouth Pakal descends. This is a common iconographic representation of the entrance to the underworld.

K'inich J'anaab Pakal (Gran Sol ? Escudo) (6 de marzo de 603 - 30 de agosto de 683), conocido también como Pacal II o Pacal el Grande, fue gobernante del estado maya de B'aakal, cuya sede era la ciudad de Palenque. Pacal II es el más conocido de los Señores de Palenque, por los niveles de esplendor y sofisticación que alcanzó B'aakal durante su gobierno, así como por su tumba, considerada uno de los hallazgos arqueológicos más importantes de Mesoamérica.

El 29 de julio de 615, Pacal II tomó el poder a la edad de doce años, cedido por su madre Zak Kuk; aunque se cree que ella continuó ejerciendo el poder de facto hasta que Pacal II alcanzó la madurez suficiente para gobernar. Durante el gobierno de Pacal II, la arquitectura y el arte en general fueron impulsados notablemente.

El reinado de Pakal, y de su descendiente (su hijo K'inich Kan Balam II -"Serpiente Jaguar orientado al Sol"-, que gobernó entre el 683 y el 702, y que mandó construir muchos de los grandes edificios públicos de Palenque), representa el mejor momento de su ciudad, habiéndose aliado ambos con otros señores de ciudades vecinas mediante matrimonio.

Su tumba, encontrada en el fondo del Templo de las Inscripciones, en Palenque en una cripta secreta, fue terminada de construir por su hijo mayor. Permaneció intacta por más de doce siglos, hasta que fue descubierta por el arqueólogo mexicano Alberto Ruz L'Huillier.

El acceso a la tumba de Pakal, una escalera que representaba la entrada al inframundo, estaba bloqueada por piedras y tierras que fue necesario retirar. Las labores de desescombro duraron cerca de dos años. Una vez dentro del habitáculo, se pudo apreciar el enorme sarcófago, de 20 toneladas. El sarcófago tiene un cosmograma donde aparece representado la muerte y la resurrección.

Snow Leopard

B.Russell
Snow Leopard
Cornwall
Tikal
St. Louis Arch
Psalm 27:5
"For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock."

Gigantic Gateway Arch Under a Minuscule Crescent of Moon

Symbolizing the door of the Western conquest, the arch has been designed by Architect Eero Saarinen, a native from Finland living then as a US Citizen, who among many other creations designed also Dulles airport in Washington DC; USA Missouri St Louis landmarks.

Death Valley

Death Valley

Cornwall:
Holywell Bay, England

Chess: "Cornwall" "Tikal" "Maya" "St. Louis Arch" "Snow Leopard" "Viena Circle"

"sober history provides no certain link between Arthur and Cornwall"- Hugh Hencken

Team

Outfit
Equipo
Arequipa
Prov. 28:25
"He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat."

Air Time

Chess: "outfit" "Arequipa" "equipo" "Team"

Hummingbird

Hawaii
Prov. 27:26
"The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field."

My backyard includes ...
Hungry Hummingbird

image from AllPosters.com

Chess: "Hawaii"

Quote: "Ua mau ke ea o ka aina I ka pono" ("The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness")

— Hawaii's state motto

Pele
Goddess of Fire

by Betty Fullard-Leo

Hawaii

Spotlight: What was the last state to join the US? Hawaii became America's 50th (and so far, final) state, fifty years ago today. The area Mark Twain once referred to as "the loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored in any ocean," Hawaii is a group of eight islands and many islets in the Pacific Ocean. It's the only US state located in the tropics, the only one with no territory on the mainland, and — because of active lava flows — the only state that continues to grow in area. Hawaii is known as the "Aloha State" for "aloha," the word that represents a spirit natives believe thrives locally: it exemplifies a feeling of good wishes, love, respect and consideration for others.

Mind your “P”s and “Q”s

Bouillaibaise
Spots
Jaguars

Prov.1:6

"To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings." 

6 animadvertet parabolam et interpretationem verba sapientium et enigmata eorum (de ellos) 6 per comprendere una sentenza e un enigma, le parole dei savi e i loro detti oscuri

Psalm 91:14
"Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name."



 14quoniam mihi adhesit et liberabo eum exaltabo eum quoniam cognovit nomen meum 14Puisqu'il m'aime, je le délivrerai; Je le protégerai, puisqu'il connaît mon nom. Ps.91: 14 Porque en mí ha puesto su amor, yo lo libraré; lo pondré en alto, por cuanto ha conocido mi nombre. 14Weil er sich an mich klammert^[b], darum will ich ihn erretten; ich will ihn beschützen, weil er meinen Namen kennt.” 14. Lo salverò, perché a me si è affidato; lo esalterò, perché ha conosciuto il mio nome. 14 Pentru că Mă iubeşte, şi Eu îl voi scăpa. Îl voi ocroti, căci cunoaşte Numele Meu.


Judg.14:14 : 
"And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days expound the riddle."

Joggers

Yankees vs. Twins 2009-05-16 310

Games of Summer, New Yankee Stadium, New York

Chess :  “Florence” “Pilot” “Lombardy” “Sprinklers” “Pyrenees” “Bouillaibaise” “Pile” (Baptismal) 

"P" "park"

How Much Power Does the Sun Produce?

About how much power does the Sun produce? The Sun's output is 3.8 x 10³³ ergs/second, or about 5 x 10²³ horsepower. How much is that? It is enough energy to melt a bridge of ice 2 miles wide, 1 mile thick, and extending the entire way from the Earth to the Sun, in one second. Dr. Louis Barbier

Alessandra Ambrosio

La escritura del dios

La cárcel es profunda y de piedra; su forma, la de un hemisferio casi perfecto, si bien el
piso (que también es de piedra) es algo menor que un círculo máximo, hecho que agrava
de algún modo los sentimientos de opresión y de vastedad. Un muro medianero la corta;
éste, aunque altísimo, no toca la parte superior de la bóveda; de un lado estoy yo,
Tzinacán, mago de la pirámide de Qaholom, que Pedro de Alvarado incendió; del otro
hay un jaguar, que mide con secretos pasos iguales el tiempo y el espacio del cautiverio.
A ras del suelo, una larga ventana con barrotes corta el muro central. En la hora sin
sombra [el mediodía], se abre una trampa en lo alto y un carcelero que han ido borrando
los años maniobra una roldana de hierro, y nos baja, en la punta de un cordel, cántaros
con agua y trozos de carne. La luz entra en la bóveda; en ese instante puedo ver al
jaguar.
He perdido la cifra de los años que yazgo en la tiniebla; yo, que alguna vez era joven y
podía caminar por esta prisión, no hago otra cosa que aguardar, en la postura de mi
muerte, el fin que me destinan los dioses. Con el hondo cuchillo de pedernal he abierto
el pecho de las víctimas y ahora no podría, sin magia, levantarme del polvo.
La víspera del incendio de la Pirámide, los hombres que bajaron de altos caballos me
castigaron con metales ardientes para que revelara el lugar de un tesoro escondido.
Abatieron, delante de mis ojos, el ídolo del dios, pero éste no me abandonó y me
mantuve silencioso entre los tormentos. Me laceraron, me rompieron, me deformaron y
luego desperté en esta cárcel, que ya no dejaré en mi vida mortal.
Urgido por la fatalidad de hacer algo, de poblar de algún modo el tiempo, quise
recordar, en mi sombra, todo lo que sabía. Noches enteras malgasté en recordar el orden
y el número de unas sierpes de piedra o la forma de un árbol medicinal. Así fui
debelando los años, así fui entrando en posesión de lo que ya era mío. Una noche sentí
que me acercaba a un recuerdo preciso; antes de ver el mar, el viajero siente una
agitación en la sangre. Horas después, empecé a avistar el recuerdo; era una de las
tradiciones del dios. Éste, previendo que en el fin de los tiempos ocurrirían muchas
desventuras y ruinas, escribió el primer día de la Creación una sentencia mágica, apta
para conjurar esos males. La escribió de manera que llegara a las más apartadas
generaciones y que no la tocara el azar. Nadie sabe en qué punto la escribió ni con qué
caracteres, pero nos consta que perdura, secreta, y que la leerá un elegido. Consideré
que estábamos, como siempre, en el fin de los tiempos y que mi destino de último
sacerdote del dios me daría acceso al privilegio de intuir esa escritura. El hecho de que
me rodeara una cárcel no me vedaba esa esperanza; acaso yo había visto miles de veces
la inscripción de Qaholom y sólo me faltaba entenderla.
Esta reflexión me animó y luego me infundió una especie de vértigo. En el ámbito de la
tierra hay formas antiguas, formas incorruptibles y eternas; cualquiera de ellas podía ser
el símbolo buscado. Una montaña podía ser la palabra del dios, o un río o el imperio o
la configuración de los astros. Pero en el curso de los siglos las montañas se allanan y el
camino de un río suele desviarse y los imperios conocen mutaciones y estragos y la
figura de los astros varía. En el firmamento hay mudanza. La montaña y la estrella son
individuos y los individuos caducan. Busqué algo más tenaz, más vulnerable. Pensé en
las generaciones de los cereales, de los pastos, de los pájaros, de los hombres. Quizá en
mi cara estuviera escrita la magia, quizá yo mismo fuera el fin de mi busca. En ese afán
estaba cuando recordé que el jaguar era uno de los atributos del dios.
Entonces mi alma se llenó de piedad. Imaginé la primera mañana del tiempo, imaginé a
mi dios confiando el mensaje a la piel viva de los jaguares, que se amarían y se
engendrarían sin fin, en cavernas, en cañaverales, en islas, para que los últimos hombres
lo recibieran. Imaginé esa red de tigres, ese caliente laberinto de tigres, dando horror a
los prados y a los rebaños para conservar un dibujo. En la otra celda había un jaguar; en
su vecindad percibí una confirmación de mi conjetura y un secreto favor.
Dediqué largos años a aprender el orden y la configuración de las manchas. Cada ciega
jornada me concedía un instante de luz, y así pude fijar en la mente las negras formas
que tachaban el pelaje amarillo. Algunas incluían puntos; otras formaban rayas
trasversales en la cara interior de las piernas; otras, anulares, se repetían. Acaso eran un
mismo sonido o una misma palabra. Muchas tenían bordes rojos.
No diré las fatigas de mi labor. Más de una vez grité a la bóveda que era imposible
descifrar aquel texto. Gradualmente, el enigma concreto que me atareaba me inquietó
menos que el enigma genérico de una sentencia escrita por un dios. ¿Qué tipo de
sentencia (me pregunté) construirá una mente absoluta? Consideré que aun en los
lenguajes humanos no hay proposición que no implique el universo entero; decir el tigre
es decir los tigres que lo engendraron, los ciervos y tortugas que devoró, el pasto de que
se alimentaron los ciervos, la tierra que fue madre del pasto, el cielo que dio luz a la
tierra. Consideré que en el lenguaje de un dios toda la palabra enunciaría esa infinita
concatenación de los hechos, y no de un modo implícito, sino explícito, y no de un
modo progresivo, sino inmediato. Con el tiempo, la noción de una sentencia divina
parecióme pueril o blasfematoria. Un dios, reflexioné, sólo debe decir una palabra y en
esa palabra la plenitud. Ninguna voz articulada por él puede ser inferior al universo o
menos que la suma del tiempo. Sombras o simulacros de esa voz que equivale a un
lenguaje y a cuanto puede comprender un lenguaje son las ambiciosas y pobres voces
humanas, todo, mundo, universo.
Un día o una noche —entre mis días y mis noches, ¿qué diferencia cabe?— soñé que en
el piso de la cárcel había un grano de arena. Volví a dormir, indiferente; soñé que
despertaba y que había dos granos de arena. Volví a dormir; soñé que los granos de
arena eran tres. Fueron, así, multiplicándose hasta colmar la cárcel y yo moría bajo ese
hemisferio de arena. Comprendí que estaba soñando; con un vasto esfuerzo me desperté.
El despertar fue inútil; la innumerable arena me sofocaba. Alguien me dijo: No has
despertado a la vigilia, sino a un sueño anterior. Ese sueño está dentro de otro, y así
hasta lo infinito, que es el número de los granos de arena. El camino que habrás de
desandar es interminable y morirás antes de haber despertado realmente.
Me sentí perdido. La arena me rompía la boca, pero grité: Ni una arena soñada puede
matarme ni hay sueños que estén dentro de sueños. Un resplandor me despertó. En la
tiniebla superior se cernía un círculo de luz. Vi la cara y las manos del carcelero, la
rodaja, el cordel, la carne y los cántaros.
Un hombre se confunde, gradualmente, con la forma de su destino; un hombre es, a la
larga, sus circunstancias. Más que un descifrador o un vengador, más que un sacerdote
del dios, yo era un encarcelado. Del incansable laberinto de sueños yo regresé como a
mi casa a la dura prisión. Bendije su humedad, bendije su tigre, bendije el agujero de
luz, bendije mi viejo cuerpo doliente, bendije la tiniebla y la piedra.
Entonces ocurrió lo que no puedo olvidar ni comunicar. Ocurrió la unión con la
divinidad, con el universo (no sé si estas palabras difieren). El éxtasis no repite sus
símbolos; hay quien ha visto a Dios en un resplandor, hay quien lo ha percibido en una
espada o en los círculos de una rosa. Yo vi una Rueda altísima, que no estaba delante de
mis ojos, ni detrás, ni a los lados, sino en todas partes, a un tiempo. Esa Rueda estaba
hecha de agua, pero también de fuego, y era (aunque se veía el borde) infinita.
Entretejidas, la formaban todas las cosas que serán, que son y que fueron, y yo era una
de las hebras de esa trama total, y Pedro de Alvarado, que me dio tormento, era otra.
Ahí estaban las causas y los efectos y me bastaba ver esa Rueda para entenderlo todo,
sin fin. ¡Oh dicha de entender, mayor que la de imaginar o la de sentir! Vi el universo y
vi los íntimos designios del universo. Vi los orígenes que narra el Libro del Común. Vi
las montañas que surgieron del agua, vi los primeros hombres de palo, vi las tinajas que
se volvieron contra los hombres, vi los perros que les destrozaron las caras. Vi el dios
sin cara que hay detrás de los dioses. Vi infinitos procesos que formaban una sola
felicidad y, entendiéndolo todo, alcancé también a entender la escritura del tigre.
Es una fórmula de catorce palabras casuales (que parecen casuales) y me bastaría
decirla en voz alta para ser todopoderoso. Me bastaría decirla para abolir esta cárcel de
piedra, para que el día entrara en mi noche, para ser joven, para ser inmortal, para que el
tigre destrozara a Alvarado, para sumir el santo cuchillo en pechos españoles, para
reconstruir la pirámide, para reconstruir el imperio. Cuarenta sílabas, catorce palabras, y
yo, Tzinacán, regiría las tierras que rigió Moctezuma. Pero yo sé que nunca diré esas
palabras, porque ya no me acuerdo de Tzinacán.
Que muera conmigo el misterio que está escrito en los tigres. Quien ha entrevisto el
universo, quien ha entrevisto los ardientes designios del universo, no puede pensar en
un hombre, en sus triviales dichas o desventuras, aunque ese hombre sea él. Ese hombre
ha sido él y ahora no le importa. Qué le importa la suerte de aquel otro, qué le importa
la nación de aquel otro, si él, ahora es nadie. Por eso no pronuncio la fórmula, por eso
dejo que me olviden los días, acostado en la oscuridad.
A Ema Risso Platero

French surfer Jeremiah Flores ducks into a barrel during this month’s World Surfing Games at Playa Hermosa

Jesus
Ra
Is Ra El 

Jer 31:31  
"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:"

San Diego Zoo: Flamingos in Love
Flamingo Love

Chess: "Paris" "Troy" "Horus" "Helen" "Is Ra El"

¡Oui monsieur! , francés ganó el Mundial de surf

Jeremy Flores cumplió su rol de favorito y ganó el oro en la categoría Open

Gabriel Villarán, único latino en la final, se adjudicó la medalla de bronce

The Champ Goes For It
French surfer Jeremy Flores ducks into a barrel during this month’s World Surfing Games at Playa Hermosa on the central Pacific coast. Flores won the men’s Open competition. The Costa Rica team did well also, coming in seventh overall among the 36 national teams participating in the event.

Capricorn

Leonardo's
Psalm 2:1
"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?"

Tropical Sunset

Soaking up the Sun

Chess: "Leonardo's" "Capricorn"

THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION
VOLUME TWO
THE LIFE OF GREECE
1939
by Will Durant

MY purpose is to record and contemplate the origin, growth,
maturity, and decline of Greek civilization from the oldest remains of
Crete and Troy to the conquest of Greece by Rome. I wish to see and
feel this complex culture not only in the subtle and impersonal rhythm
of its rise and fall, but in the rich variety of its vital elements:
its ways of drawing a living from the land, and of organizing industry
and trade; its experiments with monarchy, aristocracy, democracy,
dictatorship, and revolution; its manners and morals, its religious
practices and beliefs; its education of children, and its regulation
of the sexes and the family; its homes and temples, markets and
theaters and athletic fields; its poetry and drama, its painting,
sculpture, architecture, and music; its sciences and inventions, its
superstitions and philosophies. I wish to see and feel these
elements not in their theoretical and scholastic isolation, but in
their living interplay as the simultaneous movements of one great
cultural organism, with a hundred organs and a hundred million
cells, but with one body and one soul.......
..........

Excepting machinery, there is hardly anything secular in our culture
that does not come from Greece. Schools, gymnasiums, arithmetic,
geometry, history, rhetoric, physics, biology, anatomy, hygiene,
therapy, cosmetics, poetry, music, tragedy, comedy, philosophy,
theology, agnosticism, skepticism, stoicism, epicureanism, ethics,
politics, idealism, philanthropy, cynicism, tyranny, plutocracy,
democracy: these are all Greek words for cultural forms seldom
originated, but in many cases first matured for good or evil by the
abounding energy of the Greeks. All the problems that disturb us
today- the cutting down of forests and the erosion of the soil; the
emancipation of woman and the limitation of the family; the
conservatism of the established, and the experimentalism of the
unplaced, in morals, music, and government; the corruptions of
politics and the perversions of conduct; the conflict of religion
and science, and the weakening of the supernatural supports of
morality; the war of the classes, the nations, and the continents; the
revolutions of the poor against the economically powerful rich, and of
the rich against the politically powerful poor; the struggle between
democracy and dictatorship, between individualism and communism,
between the East and the West- all these agitated, as if for our
instruction, the brilliant and turbulent life of ancient Hellas. There
is nothing in Greek civilization that does not illuminate our own........
........
AS we enter the fairest of all waters, leaving behind us the
Atlantic and Gibraltar, we pass at once into the arena of Greek
history. "Like frogs around a pond," said Plato, "we have settled down
upon the shores of this sea." Even on these distant coasts
the Greeks founded precarious, barbarian-bound colonies many centuries
before Christ: at Hemeroscopium and Ampurias in Spain, at Marseilles
and Nice in France, and almost everywhere in southern Italy and
Sicily. Greek colonists established prosperous towns at Cyrene in
northern Africa, and at Naucratis in the delta of the Nile; their
restless enterprise stirred the islands of the Aegean and the coasts
of Asia Minor then as in our century; all along the Dardanelles and
the Sea of Marmora and the Black Sea they built towns and cities for
their far-venturing trade. Mainland Greece was but a small part of the
ancient Greek world.

Eph 5:29
"For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:"

Louvre, The Pyramids at Sunset
The Louvre Pyramids at Sunset, Paris, France

Chess:

The woman whom Jesus loved, already goes beyond anything we can infer for certain from the gospel text. But the enterprise was timely and is carried o

The Gulf
Galveston

Shorebirds along the Gulf of Mexico at sunset.

Chess:

From The Times Literary Supplement

August 5, 2009

The real Mary Magdalene

A new study of this important, ambiguous figure makes a case for reassessment

A. E. Harvey

All that is known about Mary Magdalene can be quickly told. She is mentioned in all the gospels as one of the witnesses to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, and once in Luke’s Gospel among other women followers of Jesus, where it is also said that she was a person from whom "seven devils had gone out". On one occasion only (though a highly significant one) she appears alone: it is she, according to a haunting passage in John’s Gospel, who was the first to encounter Jesus in the garden after the resurrection. From this meagre information the most it is possible to infer with any confidence is that she was Galilean (Magdala is on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee), that she had been cured through an exorcism (presumably performed by Jesus), and that she was one of a small group of women who were close to Jesus both during his ministry and at his death, and who also had an experience of the risen Jesus. Mary Magdalene is distinguished from the other women solely by the fact that in John’s Gospel she is vouchsafed a dramatic meeting with the risen Jesus on her own.

From these scanty sources two streams of elaboration have flowed, one within the Church and one among groups known as "Gnostic" and regarded as heretical by the Church Fathers. One of these took its departure from the two occasions in the gospels where we meet at least one other woman called "Mary": the Mary known as a prostitute who wept over Jesus’ feet and dried them with her hair at the Pharisee’s banquet, and the Mary of Bethany who brought expensive perfume to anoint him before the crucifixion. There is no evidence that these two Marys were the same as Mary of Magdala; but the temptation to assume their identity was very strong, and was yielded to decisively by church authorities in the sixth century, thereby creating an icon of the penitent sinner pouring out her gratitude for Jesus’ forgiveness in reckless generosity and rewarded by a privileged encounter with him at the resurrection. This iconic quality is captured by Donatello in his astonishing sculpture of a haggard Mary, her nakedness concealed, it seems, entirely by her long hair.

The other stream flows from the scene at the end of John’s Gospel, where Mary Magdalene is alone with Jesus, whom she mistakes for the gardener but then recognizes as the risen Lord whom she must not touch, but about whose miraculous resurrection she must immediately tell the other disciples. Did not this scene elevate Mary to a quite exceptional status in the narrative, making her a crucial witness to the resurrection and recording a uniquely privileged experience of the divine? Did not this one scene constitute a challenge to the otherwise consistent reports in the New Testament that it was only men who were the accredited apostles and witnesses to the resurrection? The prominence of women, and their sometimes surprising ease of access to and converse with Jesus, is a striking feature in the gospel narrative; even in Paul’s letters there are notable examples of women taking leading roles in the early Church. How did it come about, then, that apostleship became ascribed exclusively to men? (It was, and still is, arguable that the apparent exception, the apostle Junia in Romans 16:7, is a form of a Roman masculine name, Junias.) Might it not be that a male-dominated Church had deliberately downplayed her significance? Might it have been left to the so-called heretics to preserve her true dignity and importance, and thereby to recover an aspect of the life of Jesus – even an almost erotic intimacy with women, if not actual sexual love and marriage – which the main tradition of the Churches had suppressed in the interest of their disapproval of all expressions of sexuality other than within the marriage bond? It was a line of thought explored with vigour in some Gnostic circles. It has surfaced occasionally down the centuries until the present day; and now countless readers have been fascinated by the fictional exploitation of it in The Da Vinci Code.

Robin Griffith-Jones has rightly seen that, now that this alternative (and formerly heretical) image of Jesus has been given such a high profile in popular literature, it is time to subject the question to careful analysis, but in a form accessible to others besides scholars. His prose therefore runs easily, with an occasional touch of the rhetorical. But the research is serious and well presented, and his conclusions – and occasional refusals to come to a conclusion – deserve scrutiny.

As a prerequisite for assessing the strength of the alternative, "Gnostic", tradition, Griffith-Jones takes us on a journey through a selection of Gnostic texts. Gnosticism (a modern term) is notoriously difficult to define and characterize. A common but not invariable theme is the use of cosmic myths as well as gospel texts (particularly John’s Gospel) to help the devotee advance in the knowledge of realities beyond the material world and so achieve spiritual liberation from the constraints and temptations of earthly and carnal influences. Sometimes this led to extremes of self-denial and asceticism; sometimes to a degree of libertinism; and within the movement (if indeed it is correct to call it a single movement at all) there were clear differences over the status of men and women and their ultimate destiny in a paradise that would transcend all sexual distinctions. In this debate Mary Magdalene plays a notable part in some Gnostic texts, particularly the Gospel of Mary, which makes much of the privileged intercourse that Mary Magdalene had with Jesus after the resurrection, and portrays the male apostles as reluctant to acknowledge that such knowledge could have been vouchsafed to a woman. Do we overhear here a dispute about leadership in the early Church? Were women struggling to assert their rightful claims against an inveterate culture of male dominance? And may we find in this struggle against masculine pretensions a precedent, or even some authorization, for present male–female tensions within the Church?

All of this speculation hinges on the scene at the end of John’s Gospel, Mary’s encounter with the risen Jesus. Accordingly Griffith-Jones employs the same hinge on which to rest his argument. Claiming that he is offering a reading of John which has "hardly been seen in centuries", he seeks to show (in a mere dozen pages) that its intention is to lead the reader through successive stages of "knowledge" by means of the riddling self-disclosure of Jesus until the climactic scene (though in fact it is by no means the end of the Gospel) in which Mary Magdalen represents the reader having attained, not just certainty of Jesus’ resurrection, but a vision of the Holy of Holies (the tomb) and the Garden of Eden (the garden outside the tomb) where the new Adam (Jesus) and the new Eve (Mary) are – not united, for she must not touch him, but brought into an other-worldly intimacy of love such as the Gnostics envisaged being their destiny in paradise. It is this meaning, Griffith-Jones suggests, that is captured in Titian’s famous and perceptibly erotic depiction of the scene. "Mary, by her sensuous longing for Jesus, rises to heaven . . . while her Jesus gives himself to earth."

If we falter in our confidence in this reading of the scene, with its rich infusion of erotic imagery from the Song of Songs, we may begin to feel that the hinge has had too great a weight placed upon it. It is certainly true that this scene has fascinated generations of readers and inspired legions of artists; but does it really have such crucial significance in the Gospel? Is it really the case that the reader is intended to see in Mary the prototype and embodiment of the true "Gnostic", the one who is led to "know" a reality beyond the senses? The purpose of John’s Gospel, after all, is quite explicitly said to be that we should "believe", not that we should "know" (John 20:31). And the one truly "Gnostic" vision (angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man) is promised, not to a woman, but to a man (Nathaniel). For all Griffith-Jones’s protestations of a historian’s impartiality, his occasional references to contemporary Christian attitudes ("the solemn voice of a priest or minister browbeating us in church", etc) inevitably make one alert to traces of a hidden agenda.

Indeed, the subtitle itself, The woman whom Jesus loved, already goes beyond anything we can infer for certain from the gospel text. But the enterprise was timely and is carried out with style and much industrious research. It may not be the definitive study we might have hoped for; but it brings forward a case for reassessment which should not be ignored.

Robin Griffith-Jones
MARY MAGDALENE
The woman whom Jesus loved
286pp. Canterbury Press. £12.99.
978 1 85311 818 0

A. E. Harvey is a former Canon and Sub-Dean of Westminster. A revised edition of his Companion to the New Testament appeared in 2004.

Funny

Sand
El Libro de Arena
1Kings4:29
"And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore. "

29"И дал Бог Соломону мудрость(wisdom) и весьма великий разум, и обширный ум, как песок на берегу моря."

Ouroboros: Life, rebirth, and stuff

Chess: "sand" "las tablas" "materialismo dialéctico"

Materialismo dialéctico? No. [Claro que la "arena" es un material, y si de construcción hablamos, pues "Las Tablas" también son un material de construcción indispensable. y tal vez por ese dialéctica de materiales se produjo la debacle del Herediano con el "equipo cementero", el Cruz Azul, pero y la debacle de Liberia Mía con el Real España?] Pero sí es un ejemplo como un pequeño detalle-rellenar cuatro canales insignificantes- puede tener grandes consecuencias, en este caso, la pérdida de la arena blanca en Cancún. Uno de sus atractivos turísticos más importantes!!!!!1

Forget drugs... the new hot commodity in Mexico is sand

A tourist climbs over police tape after Mexican federal environmental authorities and navy sailors closed a section of beach built by illegally pumping sand from the ocean bottom to combat erosion at a hotel in Cancun, Mexico, Thursday, July 30, 2009. Five people were detained in the incident. While Cancun suffers severe beach erosion problems caused by recent hurricanes and storms, authorities say such unauthorized private efforts only worsen the problem. (AP Photo/Israel Leal)

The Associated Press reported Thursday that the beach at the Gran Caribe Real Hotel in Cancun had been closed by Mexican environmental enforcement officials after allegations that the hotel was illegally accumulating sand.

Having enough sand on Cancun’s beaches has been a problem since Hurricane Wilma struck the area in 2005. The Mexican government spent $19 million to pump sand from the sea floor onto the beaches, but the AP notes that much of that sand has washed away.

The hotel is accused of building a breakwater to retain sand on its beach and keep it from flowing naturally to neighboring beaches.

“Today we made the decision to close this stretch of ill-gotten, illegally accumulated sand," said Patricia Patron, Mexico's attorney general for environmental protection. “This hotel was telling its tourists: ‘Come here, I have sand ... the other hotels don’t, because I stole it.’”

Mexican sailors assisted the environmental officials in sealing off the beach with crime-scene tape.
The move irritated tourists staying at the hotel.

“They promised us a beach,” said Maria Bachino, a travel agent from Uruguay. “This is very unpleasant; we feel bad.”

Patron apologized for the inconvenience to tourists, but said the law must be enforced. Officials said the hotel had ignored requests that it remove the breakwater.

Thus far, hotel officials have been mum on the allegations. The company’s website continues to promote the five-star resort as “better than ever and stretching along a quarter mile of white sandy beach.”

Hotel officials did not return an offer to present their side of the story.

The breakwater at the hotel beach is nothing new. It was touted by the resort in May 2008 as part of the government's efforts to retain sand in Cancun.

In the early 1970s, before development at Cancun, the beach here was nearly 200 feet wide, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Beach erosion accelerated after developers filled in four natural canals that provided an outlet for large waves during storms.

Definición y Etimología del Cuento

El cuento es una narración breve de hechos imaginarios o reales, protagonizada por un grupo reducido de personajes y con un argumento sencillo. No obstante, la frontera entre un cuento largo y una novela corta no es fácil de trazar.

Etimología de la palabra cuento

Cuento: viene de la palabra latina «contus» tomada del griego y en su primitiva significación valió tanto como extremo y fin y así decimos cuento de lanza, cuento del cayado, de la bengala, etc., refiriéndonos al regatón o extremidad inferior de estos objetos.

Cuento también significa pértiga, varal, tiento o remo de barco que se gobierna con cuento o varal o pie derecho que se aproxima a lo que amenaza ruina y de ahí viene el proverbio andar o estar a cuentos que en lo antiguo significó estar en peligro y sustentarse con artificio y que hoy se dice del que cuenta patrañas o enredos para indisponer a unas personas contra otras o sea, intriga de baja ley.

Cuento es además un caso, fábula o especie novelesca, una anécdota o historieta gratuitamente inventada que es el cuento literario.

Ouroboros

The Ouroboros (Greek Οὐροβόρος or οὐρηβόρος, from οὐροβόρος ὄφις "tail-devouring snake", also spelled Uroboros in English pronounced /ʊˈɹɒbɔɹɔs/ or /ˌjʊəɹoʊˈbɒɹəs/), is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.

The Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end (See Phoenix). It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist's opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism.

Carl Jung interpreted the Ouroboros as having an archetypical significance to the human psyche. The Jungian psychologist Erich Neumann writes of it as a representation of the pre-ego "dawn state", depicting the undifferentiated infancy experience of both mankind and the individual child.