Tag: Religion
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Sacredness
Banyan trees are often considered sacred. I think this is because they are really awe-inspiring, like the gods themselves. Standing face to face with an extraordinary tree, a towering Sequoia, a corpulent Baobab, a wrinkled olive tree, a ramified Banyan, we easily fall silent. These are creatures that are somehow beyond our comprehension. Maybe that’s…
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Ambrosia
According to one creation myth of ancient Mesopotamia, the gods created humankind because they were fed up of having to look after their own food. Yes, gods also need food to survive, and they want man to provide it. As we can see here, man, religious man, still acquits himself faithfully of his task. This…
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The joy of sex …
… is of all time. This lovely scene was immortalized in stone 1000 years ago. It is part of hundreds of erotic sculptures that adorn the ancient temples of Khajuraho (India), a Unesco World Heritage Site. Rightly so! Photo of the week: Lakshmana temple, c. 1000 AD, Khajuraho, India 2007
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A child is born
every quarter of a second. Happy Christmas. Photo of the week: Christmas, Mumbai, India 2014
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Convent of S. Marco, Cell 39
Around 1440 the artist and Dominican friar Fra Angelico, aided by his pupils and assistants, painted 45 frescoes in the cells and corridors of the Convent of S. Marco in Florence. In the Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance (Thames and Hudson 1981) we read about him: “He is one of those rarities among artists, monastic…
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Lingam novelty
Can an old dismantled water pump and the drainage space around it be regarded as a lingam and yoni? A certain resemblance cannot be denied. The person who has placed the tiny flower in the middle of the pump plate has nicely made his point. For the last 8 weeks I have taken you on a…
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In all shapes and sizes
The creative presence of Shiva can be felt anywhere in nature, not just in the temples and shrines dedicated to him. A rock can inspire to cut a relief of a lingam and yoni as we see in the photo above, complete with worshipping devotees on both sides. Any smooth natural stone can become a…
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Lingam cult
The lingam and yoni is worshipped in thousands of temples and shrines dedicated to Shiva all over India. Devotees come, present flowers and other offerings, do puja, pray and go. Sometimes they bath the lingam in milk, rub it with ashes and other ingredients, pour water over it, load it with flowers and leaves, while…
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Showing off
This priest can boast of looking after the biggest lingam and – matching – yoni in Hampi, once the capital of the old Vijayanagar Empire. It looks as if he is suffering under the heavy responsibility on his shoulders. At the Kalinjar Fort in Uttar Pradesh (see earlier post) I once let myself be talked into…
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Lingam and yoni
or Shiva and Parvati The blissful union of Shiva and Parvati finds its ultimate expression in the combination of their sexes. In an earlier post you can read a short citation from the Brhaddharma Purana explaining the essence of the lingam and yoni idea. It is the form in which life, creation, the universe, is venerated by hindus…
καιρός remembered 