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Post by Charlotte on Jan 21, 2016 9:51:18 GMT -5
The current events, insanity and manipulation of minds ect. Everyone can see the current Human condition(ing) and chaotic World situation. The good news is that out of collective chaos comes order as in the individual: "You must have chaos in you to give birth to a shinging star". You know, the greater and lesser denoting the same principal. Sometimes I don't even know if my phrasing is correct, but anyone can correct what I mean with the English language. It's called reading my mind and could be taken as arrogance or just being upbeat happy laughing at myself.
I don't want to write about doom and gloom but let my thoughts wander a bit. Tomorrow is President Washington's Birthday and it boggles the mind how we came from the time of the Founding Fathers to Trump and Sarah Palin, that sinister character Ted Cruz, clueless Marko Rubio and other like-minded folk who are actually listened to and taken seriously.
Furthermore, how did we come from Knights thousand years ago to the utterly misguided men belonging to the KKK who call themselves Knights, those who dare call themselves "knights of the caliphate", and the criminal cartel of Mexico who have the audacity to even say the words "Knights Templar".
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 22, 2016 9:26:28 GMT -5
The Heart swells as the Peoples Cup runneth over
Alienating
Scientists have found that we can't find aliens because they're all dead.
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 24, 2016 10:19:12 GMT -5
Generally speaking, everyone who has fallowed the "progress" from the days of the Founding Fathers to where we are today, understands how we are where we are today. The real Patriots along the way are not seen but see and let the wagen run into the ditch and break apart because it must, while all People of good will built a new one constructed of the Evergreen Pine.
Speaking recently of Richard Wagner and meaning the Knights of yore journeying with Humanity, I went back to Walhalla, where some years ago, though not allowed, I sat down next to Ludwig I who had it built, hoping no caretaker would notice. Alone being in the House of Heroes is elating, one of them being Hermann von Salza.
The entry in Wikipedia states that Hermann von Salza "was the fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1210 to 1239. A skilled diplomat with ties to the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope, Hermann oversaw the expansion of the military order in Prussia."
A writer on a German site treating of the Knight has a few forewords saying: "Only with reasonable tolerance and diplomatic skill can the problems of our time be solved. Hermann von Salza practiced this principal all his life."
Apropos Wagner, Tannhäuser, whose name translates in the greater to 'he who lives in a house in the Evergreen Pine Forest', a Minnesänger and Poet of adventure and romance, is clad in the habit of a Teutonic Knight. The legend of Tannhäuser gained fame in Wagners Opera, the legend being that Tannhäuser "found the Venusberg, the subterranean home of Venus, and spent a year there worshipping the goddess."
"After leaving the Venusberg, Tannhäuser is filled with remorse, and travels to Rome to ask Pope Urban IV if it is possible to be absolved from his sins. Urban replies that forgiveness is as impossible as it would be for his papel staff to blossom. Three days after Tannhäuser's departure Urban's staff blooms with flowers; messengers are sent to retrieve the knight, but he has already returned to Venusberg, never to be seen again."
Good lesson there.
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 25, 2016 9:54:44 GMT -5
The perilous fight
O say can you see by the dawns early light
The dawns early light was at the founding of America, crafted in London a minor Phoenix cicle ago. Shakespeare layed the foundation for Liberty in America.
Though we think of the words of "The National Anthem" pertain to now, but seeing the mess we're in, it will take much more time before "the star-sprangled banner in triumph shall wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave
"when freeman can stand between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 26, 2016 9:26:15 GMT -5
Are the Teutonic Knights responsible for the animosity between the Bavarians and Prussian?
Been reading up on Germany's History of which we were taught practically nothing in the strict Catholic School I attended. I searched for the origin of this dislike of peoples north and south of the Danube, although Prussia proper is further north. Save perhaps with some individuals of which type I never met, I hasten to say that nowadays, we in Bavaria just joke about it and laugh together with Prussians over a Beer, save for the same nordish types who can't get over it, and like me, most of them don't even know how it started.
Presently, the general idea is that the Bavarians are boozy, slow, lazy, and dumm, as opposed to the superior intellect of the prim and proper Prussians.
And I'm out of time again.
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 27, 2016 8:54:48 GMT -5
The more recent "dislike" from about 1525 on, of Bavarians vs Prussians probably has to do with the Bavarians being Catholic and Prussians Prtestants. Again, it is a sort of superficial dislike without energy, save maybe some inflexible folk on either side.
I must say that in my Hometown there was only one Protestant family, refugees, from where or what I don't know. No one would have thought to do harm to them, on the other hand, no one associated with them either, except myself because I thought it unfair for them to be isolated for which I saw no reason, besides, two of the girls were great artists who drew beautiful, timely pictures on the large blackboard at school. The three girls were absent from the first hour in school which was dedicated to religious teachings by the Priest. They kept mostly to themselves but I visited occasionally to be in different company, recalling one time when I had a grease stain on my dress, probably from cleaning the chain on my bike, and went to the Lady to ask if she knew how to remove it before my Mother saw it. She did, with butter no less. As I see it now, with the town's people it was simply a sort of non-spoken collective agreement that Protestants were pagans and Catholisicm was the correct religion. I should also add that other than remarking "they are Protestants", I never heard a bad word said about them.
However, the Catholic Protestant circumstances might go back further. So far as I have read, the Teutonic Knights invaded Prussia to introduce Christianity because "the ruling knights found it easier to govern the natives when they were semi-pagans and lawless.
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 28, 2016 9:59:30 GMT -5
According to the writ, much fighting transpired in Europe and territories were granted and taken away from the Teutonic Knights. "In 1211, Andrew II of Hungary granted Burzenland in Transylvania as a fiefdom the the Teutonic Knights. In 1225, he expelled them again, and they had to transfer to the Baltic Sea. Konrad I, the Polish duke of Masovia, unsuccessfully attempted to conquer pagan Prussia in crusades in 1219 and 1222. In 1226, Duke Konrad invited the Teutonic Knights, a German military order of crusading knights, headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Acre, to conquer the Baltic tribes on his boarders. "The conquest of Prussia was accomplished with much bloodshed over more than fifty years, during which native Prussians who remained unbaptized were subjugated, killed, or exiled. Fighting between the Knights and Prussians was feroucious; chronicles of the Order state that the Prussians would "roast captured brethren alive in their armour, like chestnuts, before the shrine of a local god." I haven't come across who the ancestors of the Prussian tribes were, however, it is apparent that it was a war of converting them to the Catholic faith, the Knights being of the Catholic religious order. search.yahoo.com/search;_ylc=X3oDMTFiaHBhMnJmBF9TAzIwMjM1MzgwNzUEaXRjAzEEc2VjA3NyY2hfcWEEc2xrA3NyY2hhc3Q-?p=map+of+the+teutonic+empire+map&fr=yset_ie_syc_oracle-sCan't isolate the 'first' map giving a good view of the geography.
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 29, 2016 9:09:19 GMT -5
The native Prussians were subjugated, killed or exiled by the Knights who in turn were roasted alive. Nice going. The Knights "took the monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Under Hermann von Salza, its grand master in the early 13th century, the order moved to E Europe and rose to prominence." I wonder if the Valkyrs care for them in the Walhalla, but then, I'm thinking, there were true heroes among them.
"The crusading knights often accepted baptism as a form of submission by the natives. Christianity along western lines slowly spread through Prussian culture."
"The Livonian Brothers of the Sword were absorbed by the Teutonic Knights in 1237, after the former had suffered a devastatinf defeat in the Battle of Saule. The Livonian branch subsequently became known as the Livonian Order.
"Attempts to expand into Kievan Rus failed when the knights suffered a major defeat in 1242 in the Battle of the Ice at the hands of Prince Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod."
Comical Russian commercial remembering the battle, Steven Berger posted elsewhere some time ago.
By that time, the Catholic Church had seperated from the original Universal Apostolic Church, and Prince Alexander of the Russian Orthodox Church, canonized a Saint, stood his ground.
So much for a brief overview of what seems to be the friendly tribal fued between the Prussians and Bayuwaren as we still call ourselves still, with pride, nod our heads and smile when the Prussians of stiff upper lip call us boozy, lazy, and slow of mind. Even the Alpine farmers we call Almöe, have a deep-seated memory of the Bavarian Soul which cannot be communicated, they just sit silently in front of their homes amidst their splendid scenery.
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Post by daz407 on Jan 29, 2016 11:33:56 GMT -5
Without expanding on your thoughts, and taking into account the state of Europe as to recent weeks, I understand your concerns.
Daz
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 30, 2016 8:53:20 GMT -5
Hi Daz, The state of Europe, the state of America, the state of the World, a terribly problematic state. I think the bottom line for all the fighting is Power, because, "shall we say, (it) is so sexy", as stated here in a commercial, or Henry Kissinger's "Power is the greatest aphrodisiac". Think of the implication of the former quote in terms of rape and the helpless, the latter pretty much the same. Look at the ignorant, stupid, cunning Republican candidates for President, knowing not how the political and economical systems of the World work, they just want to be "the most powerful man on Earth", as is said of the American President. I should run and win, I'd send them all to the Moon to start a colony with dust, breathing and eating dust
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 31, 2016 10:09:47 GMT -5
For Prussian and Bavarian people who are indoctrinated in their respective Religions to the point of having no broad-based vision, the existing dislike or opinions are of their Faith. This was never a concern for me, though visiting a Protestant Church once in Salzburg I thought it was rather uninspiring and of a cold atmosphere. Opinions of folk from other European countries present an overview of the differences between Prussians and Bavarians, seems rather "researched", they look in but don't understand the heart and psyche of either. It's like me going to China, observe their comings and goings for a while and think I know what they are all about without knowing their cultural and innate mind, or judging a writer by reading a paragraph without knowing the 100 thoughts pre-seeding the writ. Then there is the general population of both North and South who doesn't much care of how the antipathy came about so long ago, for them it barely exists and is offset by jokes such as: "When a blonde from Berlin moves to Bavaria the collective IQ of both places go up", to which we Bavarians respond: "When Prussians come to Bavaria they are ennobled." Bavarians are said to call Prussians "Saupreussen", translates to "Pig Prussians", and Prussians call us Sau Bayern, which in the letter of the word is an insult. However, the term has a general application such as: es ist saukalt (cold), ich bin saumüde, I am sautired, er ist saudumm,(dumb). The expression can be extendet to "this is ja sauber", meaning something is good or bad. All in all, Sau Preussen and Sau Bayern can be likened to the Brits use of the word "bloody", not as interpreted of by modern intellectual types of Prussia
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 1, 2016 12:52:40 GMT -5
I searched for the ancestors of the Prussians again, but couldn't come to a somewhat clear conclusion to put in a sentence or two, but as I thought the Celtic tribes are mentioned. It is obvious from the last sentence of my last post that the the Bavarians, in this case me, enjoy satirical remarks about Prussians, the Prussians mock us a bit more severe, saying that when someone moves from northern Germany to south Germany, the south gains an engineer and the north looses an idiot. That hurts I found the observation of a French man, I think, in one comment agreeable: "I perceived", says the writer, "something of a love/hate relationship, very much tongue in cheek on both sides." Indeed, the rest are just stubborn or in a bad mood. "Historically there existed Bavariab enmity toward the upstart Prussians that shanghai-ed them into the Franko-Prussian war. But enmity toward the North excisted long before Prussia came into existence, Catholic Bavaria siding with the Habsburg emperor and Rome respectively in the religious schisms." I think the Gentleman refers to the Protestant Reformation, not the schism between the Orthodox Church and Catholic Rome ca 1000 rears ago, which I found very interesting and informative leading up to current differences. We lived to 2 years in Hamburg, and it may be the lack of Sunshine, many gloomy days, and continuous rain for weeks at times until I started crying, which makes the Prussians appear to be a cool lot, they are, because even when one becomes acquainted with them, they remain friendly but reserved, naturally. I do take exception to opinions that the Prussians are hard-working, practical, intellectual, industrialized and liberal, as opposed to Bavarians considered lazy hick farmers, backwards and racist. This view must come from a person who never saw hick farmers work fron sunup to sundown, backwards might be seen by the mechanical intellectual Prussian types as the Ancients are seen by academic scholars. As to rasists, they are all over Germany, some more aggressive, others may feel contempt minus energy. That the Prussians are a more aggressive folk is indicated with the joke about Bavarians in the trenches shouting to their enemies on the other side: "Hold your fire, the Prussians will be here in a few days." However, this can be interpreted as testing your fortitude in battle or they can be easier defeated than us Bavarians. The overall reputation of Bavarians are not that bad, opines one person, they are just crazy and not taken seriously. To such we just nod our head politely and smile. Fundamentally, we are a proud and easy-going People, industrious and responsible no matter the numerous Fests, keeping our word is a must, and as someone remarked, the real Germany is Bavaria and the center of Bavaria is München, the hub of Europe.
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 2, 2016 10:14:26 GMT -5
Peoples of different cultures than their own are rarely taken seriously as we can see, we simply acknowledge that "they" believe this and the other, or it's an old superstition from an unenlightened time. No matter, you mention Myths or Legends to someone and all you get is a kind and pityful look: seriously? Happened to me actually about a week ago when I bid a friend a good and safe trip to his native New Zealand, saying to him, as many times as you have been there you never brought me a souvenir'. 'What should I bring you', he asked, I said 'oh maybe a Hobbit or some other unusual thing'. The bystander smiled 'funny, how people believe this stuff rather than reality'. Today we have science, considering, I read this morning, that our Galaxy might already be dead, we just don't know it, similarely we can't find aliens because they might all dead too. Not that I spent much time searching, I found no direct reference apropos the ancestors of the Prussians. The old Prussians, I read, were an ethnic group of indigenous Baltic tribes, the Lugii came up, "covering most of modern south and middle Poland (regions of Silesia, Greater Poland, Mazovia and Little Poland)." The Lugii are either the same as the Vandals, or were absorbed by them, or: "in all likelyhood the Lugians and the Vandals were one cultic community that lived in the same region of the Oder in Silesia, where it was first under Celtic and then under Germanic domination." These regions east and southward of the Baltic Sea the Teutonic Knights sought to conquer. "A tribe of the same name, usually spelled as Lugi, inhabited the southern part of Sutherland in Scotland." All in all, I think the Prussians were of the Celtic Tribes as "some of the elements of the Lugii belong to the Hallstatt Culture of proto Celtic Tribes" of Indo-European origin. The great European Migration is very interesting, and complicated, and only a few month ago I read that DNA results show the Native Americans to be of Mongolian stock. This map shows all of Germany as Celtica en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts#/media/File:Map_Gallia_Tribes_Towns.pngSo I can answer my original question, viz., are the Teutonic Knights responsible for the animosity between the Bavarians and Prussians with yes, in great part, which, as the Gentleman remarked, is by now a love/hate relationship with tongue in check. Next time I meet a Preiss, I'll cautiously attempt a conversation about what little I've learned here and report back what happened. See, Deutschland is Bavaria, not the flatlands of Prussia. Couldn't help it
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 3, 2016 8:28:43 GMT -5
Looking at my last post, I eat my words "This map shows all Germany is Celtica", it's actually France.
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 4, 2016 9:09:25 GMT -5
Among those honored in der Wallhalla is the Venerable Bede, "the first and greatest of England's historians, the wisest man of his time, skilled linguist and translater, reciter of poetry in the vernacular". "Bede synthesised and transmitted the learning from his predessesors, as well as made careful, judicious innovation in knowledge (such as recalculating the age of the earth—for which he was censored before surviving the heresy accusations and eventually having his views championed by Archbishop Ussher in the sixteenth century—seebelow) that had theological implications. In order to do this, he learned Greek, and attempted to learn Hebrew. He spent time reading and rereading both the Old and the New Testaments. He mentions that he studied from the texts of Jerome's Vulgate, which itself was from the Hebrew text. He also studied both the Latin and Greek Fathers of the Church. In his monastic library at Jarrow were a number of books by theologians, including works by Basil, Cassian, John Chrisostom, Isedore of Seville, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, Pope Gregory I, Ambrose of Milan, Cassiodorus, and Cyprian. He used these, in conjunction with the Biblical texts themselves, to write his commentaries and other theological works." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BedeI am somewhat familiar with four Saints mentioned, so searched for writings of the Venearble Bede via Gutenberg, simply overwhelming. "St. Augustine, sent to acquaint Pope Gregory with what had been done in Britain, and asked and received replies, of which he stood in need of." Bishop of the Church of Canterbury, "Augustine's Second Question, -Whereas the faith is one and the same, are there different customs in different Churches? and is one custom of Masses observed in the Holy Roman Church, and anotherin the Church of Gaul? (124) "Pope Gregory answers._-You know, my brother, the custom of the Roman Church in which you remember that you were bred up. But my will is, that if you have found anything, either in the Roman, or the Galacian, or any other Church, which may be more acceptable to Almighty God, you should carefully make choice of the same, and sedulously the Church of the English, which as yet is new in the faith, whatsoever you can gather from the several Churches. For things are not to be loved for the sake of places, but places for the sake of good things. Choose, therefore, from every Church those things that are pious, religious, and right, and when you have, as it were, made them up into one bundle, let the minds of the English be accustomed thereto."
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 6, 2016 10:02:32 GMT -5
Looking at the list of honored Souls at Walhalla who sojourned with Humanity, I chose Otto of Freising, c. 1114 - 1158, Bishop of the small City, and chronicler "of the history of his own time." There are several reasons why I selected Otto of Freising. 1, Freising is only 20 km from my hometown, google automatically gave me the distance to where I live now, 9,630 km. 2, my Sister and I visitied graves of Family members I really didn't know several times, and Churches. 3, my Sister, her Husband, and I wandered through the spectacular Botanic Garden in full bloom, of which here are but a few pictures, minus beds of roses, marigold, dahlia, tulips, carnations etc. www.flickr.com/photos/74528046@N00/sets/72157601564043184/4, The Bishop's Family relations "to the most powerful families in Germany and Northern Italy", with notable European Persons, travels and achievments. Generally speaking, every time I learn something I am impressed anew of how members of Royal Dynasties associated and worked in unisome with Religious Institutions for the advancement or to the detriment of Humanity, and those who dedicated their lives to recording how it was with us in word, art, science and poetry, I hold in high esteem.
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 8, 2016 10:35:35 GMT -5
Little did I know how far reaching the horizon of Otto of Freising in religious and secular matters, must have a Kaffeeklatsch with my Sister next time I see her.
"A moral history of the world, Otto's chronicle depends upon St. Augustine's On the City of God and upon Aristotle's philosophy and ranks as one of the most remarkable creations of the Middle Ages."
A good contrast, St. Augustine and Aristotle, the latter chiefly the dictator "of sharp and strong wits, abundance of leisure and small variety of reading" in the Halls of Learning, writes Lord Bacon.
As with many an influential mind
"The notices of his life are scanty and the dates somewhat uncertain. He studied in Paris, where he took an especial interest in philosophy, is said to have been one of the first to introduce the philosophy of Aristotle into Germany, and he served as provost of a new foundation in Austria.
Having entered the Cistercian order, Otto convinced his father to found the Heiligen Kreuz Abbey in 1133, thus bringing literacy and sophisticated agriculture (including wine making) to the region that would become Vienna. He became abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Morimond in Burgundy about 1136, and soon afterwards was elected bishop of Freising. This diocese, and indeed including the whole of Bavaria, was then desturbed by the feud beween the Welfs and the Hohenstaufen, and the church was in a deplorable condition; but great improvement was brought about by the new bishop in both ecclesiastical and secular matters."
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 9, 2016 10:16:43 GMT -5
No less was I surprised that Bishop Otto belonged to the Cistercian Order and retained the habit of a Cistercian Monk until his death in 1158. Berhard of Clairvaux, contemporay of the Bishop, comes into view. The writings of Bishop Otto "tell of the preachings of Bernard of Clairvaux". One article states: "Otto studied at the University of Paris and about 1133 entered the French Cistercian monastery of Morimont in Champagne, whose abbot he soon became." Wikipedia: "One of the famous men who passed throught Morimond was Otto of Freising." This was apparently during his travels from Paris to Bavaria. I read on a German site stating, shortly translated, that before one can grasp Otto's theological credo in terms of history, one must consider an event of divining nature though not the only one of the time. Concluding his studies in Paris at the age of twenty years, at the most, he traveled with fifteen Clergy home to Germany. The Troup paused at the Morimund Abbey in Lothringen. We don't know details of what transpired during their stay which could not have been of minor importance, for all sixteen men entered the Order of the holy Bernard. This would agree with a passage from Wikipedia: "The name "Morimond" is from the Latin "mori mundo", or "Die to the world": all who entered these Cistercian abbeys in the 12th century renounced worldly life." Even though the Bishop remained a Cistercian, he did not favor members of this Order only, but invited men of the Augustine and other Orders. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morimond_Abbey
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 10, 2016 10:38:18 GMT -5
As my Philosophy Teacher would say: "Otto of Freising was really Somebody". I am omitting crusades, concentrading more on the Life and Works of Otto of Freising. "The first of his Chronica sive Historia de duabus (Chronicle or history of two cities), a historical and philosophical work in eight books, which follows to some extent the lines laid down by Augustine and Orosius. Written during the time of the civil war in Germany (1143-1145), it contrasts Jerusalem and Babel, the heavenly and earthly kingdoms, but also contains much valuable information about the history of his own time. The chronicle, which was held in very high regard by contemporaries, goes down to 1146, and from this date until 1209 has been continued by Otto, abbot of St. Blasius (d.1223). In the Chronica, Otto reports a meeting he had with Bishop Hugh of Jabala, who told him of a Nestorian Christian king in the east named Prester John. It was hoped that the monarch would bring relief to the crusader states: this is the first documented mention of Prester John." I have a fleeting memory reading of Prester John, but here it becomes very interesting because I think "Otto I" was also a Mystic. " Prester John (Latin: Presbyter Johannes) is the legendary Christian patriarch and king popular in European chronicles and tradition from the 12th through the 17th century. He was said to rule over a Nestorian (Church of the East) Christian nation lost amid the Muslims and pagans of the Orient. The accounts are varied collections of medieval fantasy, depicting Prester John as a descendant of the Three Magi, ruling a kingdom full of riches, marvels, and strange creatures." Fantasy only to interpreters of the dead letters of the word which are like tombstones, to my mind they are riches, marvels, and symbolic strange creatures of Christians of the time "lost amid Muslim and pagans", or 'hidden' until the storm calmed, which "Prester John" was privy to as he 'was said' to be a descendat of the Three Magi who brought precious gifts to the Christ Child from this Kingdom. "At first, Prester John was imagined to reside in India; tales of the Nestorian Christians' evangelistic success there and of Thomas the Apostle's subcontinental travels probably provided the first seeds of the legend. After the coming of the Mongols to the Western world, accounts placed the king in Central Asia, and eventually Portuguese explorers convinced themselves that they had found him in Ethiopia." The last remark about the Portuguese explorers convincing themselves they had found Prester John in Ethiopia has an air of musing, reminds me of the Pyramidiographia attributed to John Greaves, this enduring Mystery which tells that the King of Egypt who built the Pyramids, fetched massy stones from Ethiopia to build the foundations of the Pyramids. Presbyter is the title of the Priest of the Orthodox Church, the original Church, so the subcontinental travels of the Apostle Thomas provided riches and marvels for the 'legendary' Priest John, Christian Patriarch, who encountered "strange creatures" on the journey. Suggesting the importance of this 'legend', wikipedia provides an image of "Preste" as the Emperor of Ethiopia, enthroned on a map of East Africa in an atlas prepared by the Portuguese for Queen Mary, 1558. (British Library) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prester_John
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 11, 2016 9:56:38 GMT -5
Woven into actual historical accounts, the legend of Prester John playes a most important role as can be read in the previous link. History is replete with legends and myths to tell of things, which, when told directly, would be rejected as unbelievable, defeating the purpose of the Author, and some things cannot be told in words at all but can be gleaned by removing the tombstone = dead letter, or face value.
As Emperor of Ethiopia, the Emerald Scepter betokens the dignity of Prester John. The article states that Ethiopia was a powerful Christian Nation, hence, as mentioned in the aforementioned account, the Architect of the Pyramids fetched the massy stones for their foundation from Ethiopia, which Herodotus named so for all lands south of Egypt. To me, this means that the Nesterian (Church of the East)Christian Spirit permiated this region of the Earth as Shakespeare affirmed by Benedick offering "any service to the world's end", and "will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on. I will fetch a toothpicker now from the furthest inch of Asia, bring you the lenght of Prester John's foot..."
Also states is that "Wolfram von Eschenbach tied the history of Prester John to the Holy Grail legend in his poem Parzival", which brings in the Arthurian Legend, in which Parzival is not one of the original Knights of the Roundtable, rather his Father being an Arabian Prince who died while Parzival was still in his Mother's womb. This part of the legend was carried and incorporated, or came to birth in the Arthurian Legend.
Which brings us to Neuschwanstein where the epic journey of Parzival is depicted, his son Lohengrin, the Swan Knight, Apostele's and Angels, and in the Throne Saal the risen Christ. History and legendary Figures are painted on the walls of the corridors and rooms of the Castle by enlighted Minds "because a creator can only create of what he knows", else our Geist does not respond to it.
Then 'they' tell us that Ludwig II persued fantasies and was crazy.
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 12, 2016 10:52:48 GMT -5
It is really wonderful how Authors combine history and legend, and whatever other helpful notes they deemed would influence posterity. Prompted by Otto of Freising, honored at Walhalla, to Bernhard of Clairvaux, the mythical Emperor of Ethiopia, Prester John, to the "Enduring Mystery" of Egypt, to King Arthur's Court, to Ludwig II of Bavaria, who could count as the seventeenth member pausing with Otto at Morimond Abbey, from "mori mundo" - "die to the world", because that is what he did, regardless of all else connected with him and his Personality, saying he wanted "to remain an eternal enigma to himself and others". This part of a mighty unstoppable River with countless tributaries consisting of informed droplets mingling with useless ones which serve the good, still. "Otto wrote the Chronica sive historia de duabus civitatibus (Chronicle or History of the Two Cities), a history of the world in eight books covering events up to 1146." What an interesting read that would be, but I think it's in Latin and my Latin is not very good I presume that Otto's Works are preserved at Weihenstephan in the German language. Celebrated at Walhalla, and contemporaneous with Bishop Otto and Berhard of Clairvaux was Hildegard von Bingen, who corresponded with Bernhard. Early 11th century. A short century before, lived Pope Sylvester, 946 - 1003 "Pope Sylvester II, born Gerbert d' Aurillac, dies; however his teaching continued to influence thos of the 11th century; his works included a book on arithmetic, a study of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, a hydraulic-powered organ, the reintroduction of the abacus to Europe, and a possible treatise on the astrolobe that was edited by Hermann of Reichenau fife decades later. The contemporary monk Richer from Rheims described Gebert's contributions in reintroducing the armillary sphere that was lost to Europeans science after the Greco-Roman era; from Reicher's description, Gerbert's placement of the tropics was nearly exact and his placement of the equator was exact. He reintroduced the liberal arts education system of trivium and quadrivium, which he had borrowed from the educational institution of Islamic Cordoba. Gerbert also studied and taught Islamic medecine." Chinese, Persian, and Islamic works were studied, constituting "the roots of European Scholasticism are found in this period, the groundwork for the Renaisssance", and Marsilio shone the Light on it. But "everybody" knows that Knowledge of the heavenly and earthly Kingdoms goes back to remote ages, maybe they even knew about gravity waves by another name, but I haven't found a clue yet.
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 13, 2016 10:55:00 GMT -5
Though not at Walhalla, contemporay with St. Bernard was Hugues de Payens, co-founder and first Grandmaster of the Knights Templar, together creating the "Latin Rule", code of conduct for the Order.
Late 11th century the Troubadours of Italy and Spain appeared, the Minnesänger Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach, both at Walhalla.
"... those other minstrels who pioneer'd for us on the marches of heav'n and paid no heed to wars that swept the world around, nor in their homes wer more troubled by cannon-roar than late the small birds wer, that nested and coral'd upon the devastated battlefields of France.
Early 12th century Jacques de Moley spoke Truth to Power and paid with his life.
The world of those who stabilized our ground time and over again, parallel with the intrigues and wrangling of the other we call real.
Off to the Farmers Market.
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 14, 2016 9:38:59 GMT -5
Also at Walhalla is Hermann der Cherusker, Hero of history and legend, who handed the Roman legions their greatest defeat in "one of the most decisive battles in history."
Of Hermann the German's have a vague memory as he came up now and then during my school years and general conversation by likening the Battle or Hermann himself to a given occurrance or situation: this looks like the battle at Teutoburg, or in listening to someone: you sound like a Cherusker.
Arminius
"Arminius (18/17 BC - AD21) was a chieftain of the Germanic Cheruski who defeated a Roman army in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD."
"During the Unification of Germany in the 19th century, arminius became hailed by nationalists as a symbol of German unity and freedom. Following World War II, however, schools often shunned the topic since it had become associated with the militant nationalism of the Third Reich, and many modern Germans have not heard about Arminius."
Name
The latinized form Arminius probably reflects the Germanic element *ermin-, found in the tribal name of the Irminones, probably with an original meaning of "strong", whole".
"From the 16th century, possibly first be Luther, the name Arminius was identified as a latinized form of the name Hermann. Arminius is traditionally known as Hermann der Cheruskerfürst in German."
I don't really know what is meant by the expression "Herman the German" here in America.
Peculiar is that Arminius was "trained as a Roman military commander. He had lived in Rome as a hostage in his youth, where he received a military education, and obtained Roman citizenship as well as the status of equestrian (petty noble) before returning to Germania and driving the Romans out."
It may be altogether different, but handing the Romans "the most devastating defeat Rome suffered in its history", was Arminius' revenge for holding him hostage. Arminus also "challenged the Roman people not in its beginnings like other kings and leaders, but in the peak of its empire; in battles with changing success, undefeated in the war."
The video of the Teutoburg Forest is in German, though very little is spoken and the scenery is beautiful.
The following video is about the "secrets" and "legends" of the forest, of a culture studying astronomy, a ducumentary some 43 minutes, which I'll watch later in the day and relate what might be intersting, to me anyhow.
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 15, 2016 9:39:11 GMT -5
Old Norse sagas "In the early 19th century, attempts were made to show that the story of Arminius and his victory may have lived on in the Old Norse sagas, in the form of the dragon slayer Sigurd of the Völsunga saga and the Niebelungenlied. An Icelandic account stated that Sigurd "slew the dragon" in the Gnitaheidr—today the suburb Knetterheide of the city of Salzuflen, located at a stratigic site on the Werre river which could very well have been the point of departure of Varus's legions on their way to their doom in the Teutoburg Forest. Also one of the foremost Scandinavian scholars of the 19th century, Guobrandur Vigfussen, identifies Sigur with Arminius. This educated guess was also picked up by Otto Höfler, who was a prominent National Socialist academic in WW II." The Roman legions were considered a hostile dragon. This again brings Wagner into the picture; also the creator of the Arminius Memorial, Ernst von Bandel, met with King Ludwig I, Builder of Walhalla, who promised Ernst financial support. The Niebelungenlied is uralt-hoary in time and has connection with the Lorelei of the Rhine. It all hangs together. One of the secrets or uncertainties of the Teutoburger are the Externsteine. I watched the entire documentary and a few other videos, read in Wikipedia, and found things I didn't know, but could make connection to former times. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Externsteine_2011.jpg
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 16, 2016 8:46:03 GMT -5
Meantime, the long documentary in the German language which I post just for a general scope of the area, about 100 km, and the size of the statue of Arminius.
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 17, 2016 8:50:34 GMT -5
Couldn't find a good video in English, the narrator of the last documentary poses questions such as: was there an ur-old high German culture about the gigantic Extern stones which created an observatory to observe the summer solstice etc. A great deal of time is given to the nearby Wewelsburg, an occult centre of the SS, which Himmler thought should be "the center of the new world, after the final victory". There were or are stories that beneath the "Black Sun" on the floor is hidden the "Golden Fleece" and the Holy Grail. I think the German narrator stated that Hitler imagined himself to be the incarnation of Arminius. The massive stones, a natural outcrop in the area, however "have yielded some Upper Paleolithic stone tools dating to about 10,700 BC from 9,000 BC. Beneath a rock overhang on rock VIII, microliths from the Ahrensburg culture such as arrow blades were found. Evidence od fire sites were also found. The area was thus frequented by nomadic groups who used the stones as temporary shelter. "However, the first mention of the stones is in a document dated to around 1129, which refers to a farm "Holzhausen or Egesternstein". The abbot of Werden Abbey, which owned the farm, had been passing through and was housed there. It is possible that mass was celebrated at the Externsteine at that point. - However, an inscription in the main chamber of the grotto mentions a consecation in 1115 by Henrico, which is deemed to be a reference to Heinrich II. von Werl, bishop of Paderborn from 1084 to 1127. "Some authors have argued that the ecclesial carvings and alterations to the stones may suggest use of the site as a Christian sanctuary from the early 9th century. In particular, the Externsteine relief has been the subject of debate among art historians, formerly widely excepted as of Carolingian origin (9th century), scholarly consensus has placed it in the 12th century sinc the 1950s. From a stylistic point of view, historians today place the relief in the period 1160 to 1170. Even assuming a high medieval date, the relief represents the oldest monumental relief into a natiral rock face found north of the Alps." In any case, the region is very old and reminds of the disputed time in Egyptian history. The Atlantis crowd believes that the Priest Cast of Atlantis are responsible for the carvings. Naturally, since th consecration of the Arminius Memorial by Kaiser Wilhelm I, it is a tourist attraction, probably more so the Externsteine evoking thoughts of our mysterious past we need to know. One German scholar remarked that everybody sees something different in the formation of the Extern stones. I looked and saw forms which changed to other forms, as the Zen Monk says: its not the forms that change but your mind. The name Externsteine has Sterne, Stars, in it, regardless where the name is said to come from. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externsteine
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 20, 2016 9:51:17 GMT -5
Walhalla, wallen - a contemplative pilgimage to a sacred site. In the Walhalla, both Charlemagne, King of the Franks, and Alcuin of York, Charlemagne's leading adviser on ecclesiastical and educational affairs. Alcuin "was an English scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York. At the invitation of Charlemagne, he became a leading scholar and teacher of the Carolingian court, where he remained a figure in the 780s and 790s. He wrote many theological and dogmatic treatises, as well as a few grammatical works and a number of poems. He was made Abbot of Tours in 796, where he remained until his death. "The most learned man anywhere to be found", according to Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, he is considered among the most important architects of the Carolingian Renaissance. Among his pupils were many of the dominent intellectuals of the Carolingian era." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlcuinA few years ago I read up on Alcuin, posted a bit on this remarkable Man on FB, but got no 'like(s)' because, as Don told me that I'm talking to the wrong crowd. The Palace School of Charlemagne in Aachen was "founded by the king's ancestors as a lace of education of royal children (mostly in manners and the way of court). However, Charlemagne wanted to include the liberal arts, and, most importantly, the study of religion that he held sacred. - Alcuin taught Charlemagne himself, his son Pepin and Louis, the young men sent to be educated at the court and the young clerics attached to the palace chapel. Bringing with him from York his assistants Pyttel, Sigewulf and Joseph, Alcuin revolutionized the ducational standard of the Palace School, introducing Charlemagne to the liberal arts and creating a personalised atmosphere of scholarship and learning, to the extent that the institution came to be known as the 'school of Master Alcuin'." Alcuin wrote many letters to Charlemagne and others, "an important source of information as to the literary and social conditions of the time and are the most reliable authority for the history of humanism during the Carolingian age. - Alcuin transmitted to the Franks the knowledge of Latin culture which had existed in Anglo-Saxon England." Looking back on his life, Alcuin wrote: "In the morning, at the height of my powers, I sowed the seed in Britain, now in the evening when my blood is growing cold I am still sowing in France, hoping both will grow, by the grace of God, giving some the honey of the holy scriptures, making others drunk on the wine of ancient learning."
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 21, 2016 10:03:05 GMT -5
Umberto Eco passed on. The Author is connected to these posts via his novel "Baudolino".
The Plot summery "about the adventures of a young man named Baudolino in the known and mythical Christian world of the 12th century", in part.
"His story begins in 1155, when Baudolino - a highly talented Italian peasant boy - is sold to and adopted by the emperor Frederick I".
A bust of Frederick I, also known as Barbarossa, is at Walhalla.
"At court and on the battlefield, he is educated in reading and writing Latin and learns about the power struggles and battles of northern Italy at the time. He is sent to Paris to become a scholar.
"In Paris, he gains friends (such as the Archpoet, Abdul, Robert de Boron and Kyot, the purported source of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival) and learns about the legendary kingdom of Prester John. From this event onward, Baudolino dreams of reaching this fabled land.
"After the Emperor's death, Baudolino and his friends set off on a long journey, encompassing 15 years, to find the Kingdom of Prester John. From the moment when they depart eastward, the book becomes pure fantasy - the lands which the band travels bearing no resemblance to the continent of Asia at that or any other historical time, being rather derived from the various myths which Europeans had about Asia - including the aforementioned Christian myth of the Kingdom of Prester John, as well as the Jewish myth of the Ten Lost Tribes and the River Sambation. Baudolino meets eunuchs, unicorns, Blemmyes, skiapods and pygmies. At one point, he falls in love with a female satyr-like creature who recounts to him the full Gnostic creation myth; Gnosticism is a pervasive presence in another of Eco's novels, Foucault's Pendelum. Philosophical debates are mixed with comedy, epic adventures and creatures drawn from the strangest medieval bestiaries."
Again deemed as "pure fantasy", such accounts of Prester John, recountet by Eco in his novel Baudolino, who is told "the full Gnostic creation myth", and the rest of the last paragraph of Eco deriving the story from "various myths which Europeans had about Asia", is insulting the Author. It is not fantasy but great mysteries hidden and told in an incredible story, hence the land which Baudolino and his friends travel cannot resemble Asia which simply serves as a location. They traveled 15 years to find the Kingdom of Prester John, the lendary King of the Church of the East, I think it is the purpose of our sojourn here on Earth to find the Kingdom of Prester John.
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 22, 2016 11:35:14 GMT -5
The Catholic Church seperated from the One Apostolic Church in 1054, known as "the great Schism". Umberto Eco has Baudolino begin his journey in 1155 to the legendary Kingdom of Prester John, of whom Otto of Freising was also told. It is legendary because the journey to the Kingdom of Prester John is an interior journey. The "Church of the East", now the Orthodox Church of the Balcan States of southeast Europe, western Turkey, Greece and Russia, its history monumental. Baudolino was adopted by Frederick I, Barbarossa, who claimed to have established a New Rome in Aachen, whereas Constantine I established the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium. I have to repeat the dream I had many years ago, a time Religion was the farthest thing in my life, but was searching for rhyme and reason, namely, I was standing in an airport looking around, then saw these words in large letters: "If all else fails, go to Istanbul". It is where I am now, in Constantinople, so to say. Aachen in the West, Mesopotamia in the near East. In Charlemage's Palatine Chapel in Aachen: "There were multiple sculptures, made of bronze, including an equestrian piece probably meant as a parallel of a statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. In the forehall, there is a bronze sculpture of a bear, which was probably made in the 10th century, i.e. in Ottonian times. Opposite it is a bronze pine cone with 129 perforated scales, which stands 91 cm high (including its base); its date is controversial and ranges from the 3rd to the 10th century. Its base is clearly Ottonian and includes an inscription written in Leonine hexameter, which refers to the Tigres and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia. According to one view, the pine cone would originally have served as a waterspout on a fountain and would be placed in the atrium of the Palatine chapel in Carolingian times." Being in a chapel, it stands to reason it was Holy Water, out of a pine cone. Again, all Europe, Russia, and the near East meet and left hints how to get to the Kingdom of Prester John. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aachen_Cathedral
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 23, 2016 10:01:47 GMT -5
This morning I learned about the connection of Otto of Freising and the Castle of Reichertshausen, about 2-3 km from my hometown. We call the Castle "Wasserschloss" of which I wrote before, because Minnesänger's Wolfram and Walther lodged there during their wanderings, which I first learned from Dr. Hoeller, Gnostic Bishop here in Los Angeles. Can anyone imagine growing up in sight of a Castle and know nothing about it? It seemed almost anathema to even ask about it, and because of it I was intrigued as I walked by many times on my way to the forest, but the gate was always closed. Anyhow, on my visit to my hometown a few years ago, I asked my Sister if we could go and find out something about the history of the castle. The gate was open, but because it was private property my Sister hesitated to drive in, but I pleaded. We parked and walked toward the Castle where a little dog greeted us with barking, running back and forth. Presently a young man came toward us, we introduced ourselves and he said he was the nephew of the owner, Freiherr von Ceto. We asked if he could tell us a bit about the history of this place, would there be archives we might read. To his regret, he replied, that he didn't know about the Minnesänger 1000 years ago, or much of the Castle's history, but we could google and maybe find something. So I did and found that in 1060 the Hause of Babenberg, a noble family, ruled the town and the Castle. Stated in the beginning that Otto was related to the most powerful families in Germany and Northern Italy, being the son of Leopold III, he descended from the Babenberger's. "All the Babenberg dukes from Leopold V onward were descended from the Byzantine emperors—Leopold's mother, Theodora Komnene, being a granddaughter of the Emperor, John II Komnenos. Consequently, Leopold the V's younger son, Leopold VI, also married a Byzantine princess (Theodora Angelina), as did his youngest son (by Theodora), Frederick II, who married Sophia Laskarina.Frederick II also in the Walhalla. I spoke to my Sister last Saturday, telling her I'm learning about Otto of Freising, but didn't know about the Babenbergers, which I think she mumbled something about while speaking with the young man. This was interesting for me, especially the connection to Byzantium. A photo of the Castle de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Reichertshausen
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