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reetings from Australia.
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We are now prepared to notice the use of the
human scapegoat in classical antiquity. Every year on the fourteenth
of March a man clad in skins was led in procession through the streets
of Rome, beaten with long white rods, and driven out of the city. He
was called Mamurius Veturius, that is, "the old Mars," and as the
ceremony took place on the day preceding the first full moon of the
old Roman year (which began on the first of March), the skin-clad man
must have represented the Mars of the past year, who was driven out at
the beginning of a new one. Sir James George Frazer (1854 - 1941), The Golden Bough, 1922, Ch. LVIII ... in the beginning of March, the
seventh night, or the fourteenth day, let [ie, spill] the blood of the right arm; and
in the beginning of April, the 11th day, of the left arm; and in the
end of May, 3d or 5th day, on whether arm thou wilt; and thus, of all
the year, thou shalt orderly be kept from the fever, the falling gout,
the sister gout, and loss of thy sight. Farewell Australia, you are a
rising infant & doubtless some day will reign a great princess in
the South. But you are too great & ambitious for affection, yet
not great enough for respect. I leave your shores without sorrow or
regret. |
The
Scapegoat
(detail), by William Holman-Hunt |
In his reception speech, Eliphas
Levi, to the great astonishment of his auditors, little inclined to
paradoxes, made the following statement: "I come to bring you your
lost traditions, the exact knowledge of your signs and emblems, and in
consequence to show you the aim for the attainment of which your
association has been constituted." He then tried to demonstrate to
his coreligionists that Masonic Symbolism is borrowed from the Cabala.
It was time wasted. No one believed him.
M Caudet, the Venerable (Worshipful Master) at Eliphas Levi's
Masonic initiation at the Lodge Rose du Parfait Silence of the Grand
Orient of France on March 14, 1861 in Paris; in Eliphas Levi, by Paul
Chacornac
Source
The release of atom power has changed everything
except our way of thinking ... The solution of this problem lies in
the heart of humankind. If only I had known I should have become a
watchmaker.
Albert Einstein, born on March 14,
1879
I am convinced there is only one
way to eliminate these grave evils [of capitalism], namely through the
establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which
would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of
production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion.
Albert Einstein; Monthly Review, 1949
The human mind is not capable of
grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge
library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many
different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written
these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the
languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite
plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order which it does
not comprehend, but only dimly suspects.
Albert Einstein
I know why there are so many people
who love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.
Albert Einstein
I want to know how God created this
world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the
spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts;
the rest are details.
Albert Einstein
I cannot imagine a God who
rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled
after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.
Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body,
although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism.
I do not believe in the
immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human
concern with no superhuman authority behind it.
If people are good only because
they fear punishment, and hope for a reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Albert Einstein
I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.
Albert Einstein
The word god is for me nothing
more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection
of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty
childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.
The contrast between the popular assessment of my powers ... and the reality is simply grotesque.
Albert Einstein
The fairest thing we can
experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at
the cradle of true art and true science.
Albert Einstein
It was, of course, a lie what
you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being
systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have
never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me
which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the
structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
Albert Einstein; from Dukas, H and Hoffman, B (Eds), Albert
Einstein: The Human Side, Princeton University Press, 1981
My work is done. Why wait?
George Eastman, photography pioneer who died on March 14, 1932; from his suicide
note
I
work best under duress. In fact I only work under duress.
Edward Abbey,
born
1927, died on March 14, 1989
Too
many of our poets, novelists and essayists seem to be taking the side of
the State in that ancient and inevitable conflict between the State and
the independent individual. This is wrong; that is not the natural place
for a writer. If it weren't for all these fools and fanatics running
around trying to make things better, then most certainly things would get
worse. We need this constant pressure against the barriers to change in
order simply to prevent a collapse into total evil. The tension against
wrong. To keep things from getting worse.
Edward
Abbey
One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast ... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breath deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.
Edward Abbey
March
14
is
the 73rd
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (74th in leap years), with 292
days remaining.
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Feast of the Mamuralia, ancient Rome
This festival was celebrated during the
time of the Republic.
A man clad in furs was beaten with rods and driven beyond the bounds of
the city, a practice said to have commemorated the expulsion of the smith
Mamurius Veturius from the city, as Rome had suffered because of a shield he
had provided. It seems that Mamurius represented the old year, depicted as the god of war,
Mars. This
festival also celebrates the art of armour making.
On this day, Frazer (Frazer, Sir James George (1854 - 1941), The Golden Bough, 1922, Ch. LVIII) tells us (originally the day before the traditional first full moon of the new year which began on March 1), a man dressed in goatskins would be ceremonially beaten with long white rods and chased out of the city in a rite of purification. Mamurius, representing the old year and all its troubles, is thus purged from the community.
Roman
festivals and notable days in the Book of Days
Mamuralia and the scapegoat
This ritual of scapegoating is not
uncommon in world cultures and religions – Frazer investigates some of
these – and may be said to find an echo in the passion and execution of
Jesus Christ. The Old Testament (Leviticus
16) deals with the concept of the scapegoat (literally an animal) and
prescribes the methods of ritual: But the goat chosen by lot as the
scapegoat [Azazel goat; pronounced in Hebrew as aw-zah-zale,
translated as scapegoat in the King James Version] shall be
presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending
it into the desert as a scapegoat (Lev. 16:10).
It seems
to your almanackist that there
might be a duality in the person of the scapegoat as both Christ and
Satan, beast and homo fabricus – man who imposes order on
creation, often to the detriment of Nature, for which atonement must be
made (Hebrews
9:28, NIV: so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the
sins of many people). For 1 Enoch
8:1,2 reveals (quite remarkably) that, like Mamurius, Azazel was a blacksmith: And Azazel taught men to make swords,
and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the
metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and
ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids,
and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures.
One might add that the association with the god of war is implicit, beyond Azazel's role as the teacher of manufacture.
Mamuralia and Todaustragen
The German
practice of Todaustragen
('carrying out of the dead'), performed on Mid-Lent Sunday, or Totensonntag (about the same time
of year), may be derived from rituals of the Mamuralia:
Generally a puppet, a figure of straw or wood, was carried about, thrown in water, a bog, or burnt; if the figure was female it was carried by a boy, if male it was carried by a girl. They quarreled about where it should be made and bound together. Nobody would die during the coming year in the house in which it was made. Those who had thrown away the Death, quickly ran away out of fear that he should arise and pursue them. If they encountered cattle while returning home, they beat them with rods in the belief that they [the cattle] would thereby become fruitful.
Jacob Grimm on Todaustragen
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Horse races were held in honour of
the god of war, Mars (whose month this was), at the Campus
Martius (the field of Mars). Romulus instituted this tradition to
herald the beginning of the sacral year. Purification rites were
held for the army, which must have taken a lot of energy and time. This is the second Equiria (or Equirria), with the first held on February 27. We know of the Second Equiria from Ovid's Fasti, ii.859, ii.519. If the Campus Martius was overflowed by the Tiber, the races took place on a part of the Mons Coelius, which was called from that circumstance the Martialis Campus. Four racing
factions were popular in Rome – the blues, greens, whites and
reds, the colours worn by the charioteers who often became the
wealthy sports superstars of their day. Portrayals of them in
sculpture, mosaics and moulded glassware have survived, sometimes
with their names. Roman
festivals and notable days in the Book of Days
Deities
of many cultures in the Book of Days
Festival of the god Mars, ancient Rome (Mar 1 - 19) Feast day of Kemet, ancient Greece Held to ward off poverty. Source: Earth, Moon and Sky Elaphebolion Noumenia, ancient
Greece (eve of Mar 14 - eve of Mar
15) Runic half-month of Beorc commences Feast day of the
god Tou Tei (Tou Dei; Toutei),
Macau Egyptian day (dies egypticus, dies ægypticus or dies mala), unlucky day in Medieval Europe. ("But, notwithstanding, I will trust the Lord" was the associated saying.) Feast day of St
Acepsimus, bishop in Assyria, Joseph, and Aithilahas, martyrs Feast day of St Ambrose Fernandez Feast day of St Boniface Curitan, bishop of Ross, Scotland Feast day of St Dominic Jorjes Feast day of St Giacomo Cusmano Feast day of St James of Viterbo Feast day of St Leobinus Feast day of St Matilda
(Maud; Mathildis), Queen of Germany Pilgrimage to the Dragon Pagoda,
Rangoon,
Burma Independence Days (March 14 and 15), Paraguay Todai-ji Shunie, Tōdai-ji temple, Nara, Japan, (Mar 1 - 14) Commonwealth Day (2005, second Monday in March)
White Day (Japanese holiday similar to Valentine's Day), Japan From Wikipedia: White Day is a holiday that was created by a concerted marketing effort in Japan. White Day is celebrated in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan on March 14, one month after Valentine's Day. On White Day, men give gifts to the women who presented them with chocolate on Valentine's Day. The holiday began in 1965, when a marshmallow maker started marketing to men the idea that they should pay back the women who gave them chocolate, and other gifts, with marshmallows. Originally it was called Marshmallow Day, and later it was changed to White Day. Soon, the chocolate companies started realizing that they could capitalize as well on this day, and began marketing white chocolate. Now, Japanese men give marshmallows, white chocolate, as well as non-white, edible and non-edible gifts to the women who were kind enough to think of them and give them chocolate on Valentine's Day a month prior. Those who didn't give or receive gifts on Valentine's Day or White Day, get together in commiseration on Black Day, April 14.
From Wikipedia: March 14, written 3/14 in the USA date format, is the official day for Pi day derived from the common three-digit approximation for the number π: 3.14. It is usually celebrated at 1:59 PM (in recognition of the six-digit approximation: 3.14159). Some, using a twenty-four-hour clock rather than a twelve hour clock, say that 1:59 PM is actually 13:59 and celebrate it at 1:59 AM instead. Parties have been held by mathematics departments of various schools around the world. This day has been celebrated in a variety of ways. Groups of people, typically pi clubs, give thought to the role that the number π has played in their lives and imagine the world without π. During such an event, pi celebrants may devise alternative values for π, eat pi (pie), play pi (piñata), or drink pi (piña colada). The "ultimate" pi day occurred on March 14, 1592, at 6:54 AM. When written in American-style date format, this is 3/14/1592 6:54, which corresponds to the ten-digit approximation of pi: 3.141592654. However, considering this was well before any kind of standardized world time had been established, and the general population, excluding mathematicians, scholars, etc, had no concept of π, the holiday went unnoticed. Pi Approximation Day is one of two days: either July 22 (written 22/7 — 22 divided by 7 is an approximation to π — in some date formats), or April 26, the day on which planet Earth completes approximately two Astronomical units' worth of its annual orbit: on this day the total length of Earth's orbit, divided by the length already travelled, equals π. The Ridiculously Enhanced Pi Page Pi Day in Maine with Dr Wilson's Memory Elixir Friends of Pi – Freunde der Zahl Pi A simple proof that 22/7 exceeds pi One Million Digits of Pi!!! (http://3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592.com/) See also: Newtonmas, Darwin_Day, Mole Day, Square root day
Steak and Blowjob Day, which was created to be the male equivalent of Valentine's Day Microsoft Excel, a popular spreadsheet program, uses March 14, 2001, in many recent versions as the sample date when editing date formatting
1804 Johann Strauß, Sr (Johann Strauss I; d. 1849), Austrian composer 1813 Joseph Philo Bradley (d. 1892), associate justice of the United States Supreme Court 1820 Victor Emmanuel II (d. January 9, 1878), King of Italy 1835 Giovanni Schiaparelli (d. 1910), Italian astronomer1853 Ferdinand Hodler, (d. 1918) Swiss painter 1854 Paul Ehrlich (d. 1915), physician, winner of the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1860 Arthur Rae (d. November 25, 1943), New Zealand-born shearer, journalist, labor activist, member of the New South Wales and Australian parliaments. He was an organizer for the Australian Workers' Union, editor of Hummer and Sydney Worker. On November 1, 1912, he became the first Senator suspended from the Australian Senate (only for the rest of the day's sitting) for describing a statement attributed to him by Senator Edward Millen (Anti-Socialist, NSW) as "a deliberate falsehood" and then failing to withdraw it. In 1892, he was involved with a terrorist bomb plot in Sydney involving anarchist Larry Petrie, Mary Gilmore (Australia's leading female poet of the first 7 decades of the 20th Century), and Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia (read more), but despite his colourful past, he became a Senator in the Australian Parliament for two periods: 1910 - '14 and 1929 - '35.
Lawson & Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson
1869 Algernon Blackwood (d. 1951), British writer
1879 Albert Einstein, (d. 1955) physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921
Einstein
was born in Ulm,
Baden-Württemberg, of Jewish parents, Hermann and
Pauline
Einstein. He was
apparently a late
developer, and it has been reported that he could not speak fluently even at age nine. His parents
feared he was 'subnormal' and he probably was dyslexic in early
childhood. According to his sister, he had a terrible temper: once
he threw a chair at his violin teacher. In 1952, he was
invited to be President of Israel. In refusing, he said, "I know a
little about Nature but hardly anything about men." At his own
request, his brain was removed for study after his death (April 18,
1955). It was forgotten for many years until a journalist for the New Jersey Monthly went looking for it in August 1978. He found it
in various jars in a lab at Wichita, Kansas. Einstein's Heroes Was Einstein a Space Alien? Einstein Archives Online
1885 Raoul Lufbery (d. 1918), World War I American flying ace 1887 Sylvia Beach (d. 1962), American expatriate publisher 1903 Mustafa Barzani (d. 1979), leader of Kurdistan Democratic Party 1912 Les Brown (d. 2001), band leader 1914 Bill Owen (d. 1999), British actor 1916 Horton Foote, two-time Academy Award and one-time Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated American author and playwright 1918 Dennis Patrick (d. October 13, 2002), American actor, television's first vampire (as Dennis Harrison) in a 1950 episode of Stage 13. At age 84 he died in a fire at his home in Los Angeles, California. 1920 Hank Ketcham (d. 2001), cartoonist (Dennis the Menace) Comix, comics and cartoons in the Book of Days 1923 Diane Arbus (d. [suicide] July 26, 1971), American photographer 1928 Frank Borman, astronaut and former Eastern Airlines president1933 Sir Michael Caine, British actor (Alfie; The IPCRESS File; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; |
The
second Equiria (
