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A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
William Blake, English poet, born on November 28, 1757  

Art degraded, Imagination denied
War govern'd the Nations.

William Blake 

Poetry fetter'd Fetters the Human Race
Nations are Destroy'd or Flourish in proportion as
Their Poetry, Painting and Music are Destroy'd or Flourish:
The primeval state of Man was Wisdom, Art and Science.

William Blake; Jerusalem

Energy is eternal delight.
William Blake

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise.

William Blake

I have very little of Mr Blake's company. He is always in Paradise.
Mrs William Blake

 
By William Blake, from Jerusalem

From Jerusalem, by Wm Blake

Gaius also proceeded, and said, I will now speak on the behalf of women, to take away their reproach. For as death and the curse came into the world by a woman, Gen. 3, so also did life and health: God sent forth his Son, made of a woman. Gal. 4:4. Yea, to show how much they that came after did abhor the act of the mother, this sex in the Old Testament coveted children, if happily this or that woman might be the mother of the Saviour of the world. I will say again, that when the Saviour was come, women rejoiced in him, before either man or angel. Luke 1:42-46. I read not that ever any man did give unto Christ so much as one groat; but the women followed him, and ministered to him of their substance. Luke 8:2,3. 'Twas a woman that washed his feet with tears, Luke 7:37-50, and a woman that anointed his body at the burial. John 11:2; 12:3. They were women who wept when he was going to the cross, Luke 23:27, and women that followed him from the cross, Matt. 27:55,56; Luke 23:55, and sat over against his sepulchre when he was buried. Matt. 27:61. They were women that were first with him at his resurrection-morn, Luke 24:1, and women that brought tidings first to his disciples that he was risen from the dead. Luke 24:22,23. Women therefore are highly favored, and show by these things that they are sharers with us in the grace of life.
John Bunyan, Christian writer and preacher, born on November 28, 1628; from 'Encomium on women' in The Pilgrim's Progress, (Auburn: Derby and Miller, 1853), p. 146

If there's a man among ye, ye'll come out and fight, like the men ye are to be!
Anne Bonney, Irish pirate, convicted of piracy on November 28, 1720 (to her drunken crew, before their capture, attrib.)

M'lord, we plead our bellies.
Anne Bonney and Mary Read (attrib.)

Drain, drain the bowl, each fearless soul,
Let the world wag as it will.
Let the heavens growl, the devil howl,
Drain drain the bowl and fill!

Anne Bonney (attrib.)

Well, I must arrange my pillows for another weary night! When will this end?
Putative last words of Washington Irving, American author who died on November 28, 1859   Source

While I complain of being able to glimpse no more than the shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is taking shape at this very moment, since I have not reached the stage of development at which I would be capable of perceiving it. A few hundred years hence, in this same place, another traveller, as despairing as myself, will mourn the disappearance of what I might have seen, but failed to see.
Claude Lévi-Strauss, French anthropologist and writer, born on November 28, 1908; from Tristes Tropiques (1955), Chapter 4: The Quest for Power, p. 43 (This is the Penguin edition translated by John and Doreen Weightman.)

In the case of European towns, the passing of centuries provides an enchancement; in the case of American towns, the passing of years brings degeneration. It is not simply that they have been newly built; they were built so as to be renewable as quickly as they were put up, that is, badly.
Claude Lévi-Strauss; ibid, p. 95

If we judge the achievements of other social groups in relation to the kind of objectives we set ourselves, we have at times to acknowledge their superiority; but in doing so we acquire the right to judge them, and hence to condemn all their other objectives which do not coincide with those we approve of. We implicitly acknowledge that our society with its customs and norms enjoys a privileged position, since an observer belonging to another social group would pass different verdicts on the same examples. This being so, how can the study of anthropology claim to be scientific? To reestablish an objective approach, we must abstain from making judgments of this kind. We must accept the fact that each society has made a certain choice, within the range of existing human possibilities, and that the various choices cannot be compared with each other: they are all equally valid. But in this case a new problem arises; while in the first instance we were in danger of falling into obscurantism, in the form of a blind refusal of everything foreign to us, we now run the risk of accepting a kind of eclecticism which would prevent us denouncing any feature of a given culture — not even cruelty, injustice and poverty, against which the very society suffering these ills may be protesting. And since these abuses also exist in our society, what right have we to combat them at home, if we accept them as inevitable when they occur elsewhere?
Claude Lévi-Strauss; ibid, pp. 385-386

Enthusiastic partisans of the idea of progress are in danger of failing to recognize – because they set so little store by them – the immense riches accumulated by the human race on either side of the narrow furrow on which they keep their eyes fixed; by underrating the achievements of the past, they devalue all those which still remain to be accomplished.
Claude Lévi-Strauss; ibid, p. 393

 

 

November 28 is the 332nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (333rd in leap years), with 33 days remaining.
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Feast of Hathor as Sekhmet, ancient Egypt
"Lioness and Sun Goddess, Beer Goddess, the alternate of Bast, the Cat Goddess." 
(Source of date: The Phoenix and Arabeth 1992 Calendar)

"Sekhmet was a goddess of the Memphis triad, sometimes shown as a lion-headed woman. Sekhmet was prayed to by mothers who wished to nurse their children, as in the following incantation: O thou who lives on the water, hasten to the Judge in his divine abode, to Sekhmet who walks behind him, and to Isis, ruler of Dep, saying, 'bring her this milk.'"   Source

HathorIn Egyptian mythology, Hathor is the mother goddess and goddess of love of ancient Egypt. She was worshipped c. 2700 BCE or possibly earlier, to c. 400 CE, in a cult that flourished in Ta-Netjer ('Land of God' – modern day Dendera, or Dendara) in Upper Egypt, as well as Thebes and Giza, and her priests included both men and women.

Other names for Hathor are Het-Hert, Athyr and Hetheru. Her name appears to mean 'house of Horus', a reference to her role as a sky goddess, the 'house' denoting the heavens depicted as a great cow. (At the temple of Queen Nefertari at Abu Simbel, Nefertari is shown as Hathor, and her husband Ramses II is shown in one sanctuary receiving milk from Hathor the cow.) Hathor was often regarded as the mother of the Egyptian pharaoh, who styled himself the 'son of Hathor'. During the Old Kingdom she assumed the properties of an earlier bovine goddess, Bat. She is an ancient goddess and appears to have been mentioned as early as the 2nd Dynasty.

Read on at Hathor: Egyptian goddess of sky – and terror

 

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Hathor Rising


The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt


The Search for God in Ancient Egypt


A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses


Magic in Ancient Egypt


Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends


Egyptian Gods and Goddesses


Egyptian Paganism for Beginners


Bast and Sekhmet


The Goddess Sekhmet


The Great Goddesses of Egypt

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The Marriage of
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William Blake

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Blake, Jung, &
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The Book of Saints

Lots of things to waste time each day
Daily Everything

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Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

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Drawing Down the Moon

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Globalization/Anti-Globalization

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Body Wisdom

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How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World


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Stir Up SundayStir Up Sunday (Christian), Sunday before Advent

A note about the dating of items in Wilson's Almanac

The last Sunday in Trinity, and the last Sunday before Advent, is so called from the first words of the collect (short prayer) read in churches on that day: "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people."

Today is traditionally the time to get the Christmas plum pudding made – it's quite easy to see the punning application of the words of the collect as an injunction to start making "fruitful" Christmas puddings and pies (recipes here). Traditionally, these should be stirred clockwise with a wooden spoon, with the members of the family taking turns in the order of mother, father, children then visitors. Today tells British schoolchildren the near approach of the Christmas holidays.

More

History
"As with most things associated with Christmas, some suggest the pudding came from Germany with Prince Albert in the 19th century. Allegedly, he was very fond of this rich, dark dessert. Before that people in Britain did eat a form of plum pudding containing shredded meat (as mincemeat once did) as well as spices, dried fruits and alcohol. Plum pudding was so called because it had so many prunes in the recipe."

Early versions
"In old recipe books the pudding was a dark, rich affair. Eliza Acton's Christmas pudding recipe contains 2kg (4.5lb) of dried fruit and candied peel, 16 eggs, 570ml (1 pint) of brandy and 900g (2lb) beef kidney suet. She also recommends a lighter vegetarian alternative - "cheap and good" - which doesn't contain the beef suet but includes 450g (1lb) mashed potatoes, 450g (1lb) boiled carrots and just 900g (2lb) of dried fruit."

Source

 

 

The first Alfred E Neuman?

 

 

 

Fourth Sunday preceding Winter Solstice, First Day of Pagan Advent

 

Buy Nothing Day (date varies)

"Since its launch in the Pacific Northwest [USA] ... Buy Nothing Day has grown into a worldwide celebration of consumer awareness and simple living. Observed on the day after US Thanksgiving – America's busiest shopping day of the year – the campaign has sparked debate, radio talk shows, TV news items and newspaper headlines around the world. 

 

"People in more than thirty countries have made a pact with themselves and, as a personal experiment and public statement, stepped out of the consumer stream for 24 hours. The ways in which people have marked the event worldwide have been as diverse as the participants themselves. 

 

"The daredevils of the Ruckus Society, a California-based direct-action group, dropped a boxcar-sized banner ridiculing overconsumption smack in the middle of the Mall of America. Other more down-to-earth-types created and distributed the Gift Exemption Voucher – a polite way of saying, Let's not get each other anything this year, out of principle. In Seattle, helpful Buy Nothing Day celebrants offered a credit-card cut-up service outside a downtown mall."   Source

Runic half-month of Is commences
Literally, 'ice': a static period. 
Pennick, Nigel, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992

Goddess month of Astraea commences

Feast day of St Andrew

Feast day of St Andrew Trong Van Tram

Feast day of St Basil

Feast day of St Calimerius of Montechiaro

Feast day of St Catherine Laboure

Feast day of St Crescens

Feast day of St Crescentian

Feast day of St Cresconius

Feast day of St Eustace

Feast day of St Felix

Feast day of St Fionnchu of Bangor

Feast day of St Florentian

Feast day of St Gregory III, Pope
Gregory III (
731 - 741), a Syrian by birth, succeeded Gregory II in March, 731. He beautified Rome and supported monasticism.

Feast day of St Hilary

Feast day of St Hippolytus

Feast day of St Hortulanus

Feast day of St James of the Marches (James of La Marca) , of Ancona, confessor

Feast day of St James Thompson

Feast day of St Joseph Pignatelli

Feast day of St Mansuetus

Feast day of St Papinianus

Feast day of St Papius

Feast day of St Peter

Feast day of St Quieta

Feast day of St Rufus

Feast day of St Simeon the Logothete

Feast day of St Sosthenes

Feast day of St Stephen the Younger, martyr
(Variegated stapelia, Stapelia variegata, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

Feast day of St Urban

Feast day of St Valerian

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Independence Day (Dita e Pavarësisë; Albanian Flag Day), Albania (from Turkey, 1912)
This day, proclaimed by Ismail Qemali in 1912, commemorates the end of five centuries of Ottoman rule.

Independence Day, Mauritania (from France, 1960)

Independence Day, Panama Canal Zone

Accession of the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Bahá (Bahá'í Faith)
'Abdu'l-Bahá 'Abbás Effendí (May 23, 1844 - November 28, 1921) commonly known as 'Abdu'l-Bahá (abdol-ba-haa Arabic: عبد البهاء), was the son of Bahá'u'lláh, the prophet and founder of the Bahá'í Faith.

"The Master passed away on November 28, 1921 at the age of 77. He had shared in all of Bahá'u'lláh's exiles and had Himself been a prisoner for much of His life. He had tirelessly led the Bahá'í community and, when opportunities arose, made historic journeys through Europe and North America to spread His Father's teachings. He had been knighted by Queen Victoria for His humanitarian services in Palestine during World War I ... The commemoration of the Master's passing affords Bahá'ís around the world an opportunity to reflect on His life of service and sacrifice, and to rededicate themselves to emulating His example."   Source

Feast of the Holy Sovereigns, Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii
A tradition of the defunct Anglican Church of Hawaii, it is observed by the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii. The feast celebrates the founders of the Anglican Church of Hawaii (also called the Hawaii Reformed Catholic Church), Kamehameha IV and Emma, Queen Consort of Hawaii, the monarchs of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
 

 

 

1118 Manuel I Comnenus (d. September 24, 1180), Byzantine Emperor of the 12th Century who presided over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean

1489 Margaret Tudor (d. November 24, 1541), daughter of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York; her first marriage was to James IV of Scotland

 

Pilgrim's Progress

1628 John Bunyan (d. August 31, 1688), English Puritan Christian writer and preacher. Imprisoned several times between 1660 and 1672, Bunyan used these periods of isolation to write his two literary masterpieces, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666) and The Pilgrim's Progress (1678). It has been said that his famous allegory about Pilgrim on his journey to the Celestial City is second only to the Bible in number of copies sold through the ages and throughout the world.

Bunyan was a Dissenter, or Nonconformist, more specifically a Baptist, and thus a member of a persecuted minority. The Nonconformist denominations included the Baptists, the Wesleyan Methodists, Primitive Methodists, Quakers, Unitarians, Congregationalists, and Salvation Army. In Britain in 1662, the Act of Uniformity required episcopal ordination for all ministers. As a result, nearly 2,000 clergymen left the established church. The Test and Corporation Acts, which lasted until 1828, excluded all nonconformists from holding civil or military office. They were also prevented from being awarded degrees by the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. The term Dissenter came into use, particularly after the Toleration Act (1689), which exempted nonconformists who had taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy from penalties for nonattendance at the services of the Church of England (Wikipedia).

Bunyan died from a cold caught riding through the rain to reconcile a father and son.

The Pilgrim's Progress    The Holy War    More    More

 

1632 Jean-Baptiste Lully, (d. 1687) composer

1640 Willem de Vlamingh (d. ?), Flemish sea-captain who explored the southwest coast of Australia (then 'New Holland') in the late-17th century. On February 4, 1697, he landed at Dirk Hartog Island, Western Australia, and replaced Dirk Hartog's pewter plate with one bearing a record of both visits. The original plate is preserved in the Rijksmuseum.

1700 Rev. Nathaniel Bliss (d. 1764), British Astronomer Royal

 

William Blake and a detail from 'Urizen'1757 William Blake (d. 1827), English visionary poet (Songs of Innocence and of Experience) and artist who believed in a spiritual and artistic New Age, and produced books in a total celebration of self-publishing, including writing the text, making relief etchings of the text (as mirror image) and the illustrations, printing and hand colouring the pages.

In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Blake began to develop his own mythology, which included a pantheon of characters such as Orc, a messiah, and Urizen, a cruel Old Testament-style god. Blake himself remarked that he had to "create a System, or be enslav'd by another Man's".

Perhaps Blake's life is summed up by his statement that "The imagination is not a State: it is the Human existence itself".

"British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books. Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the 18th-century. He joined for a time the Swedenborgian Church of the New Jerusalem in London and considered Newtonian science to be superstitious nonsense. Misunderstanding shadowed his career as a writer and artist and it was left to later generations to recognize his importance.

"William Blake was born in London, where he spent most of his life. His father was a successful London hosier and attracted by the doctrines of Emmanuel Swedenborg. Blake was first educated at home, chiefly by his mother. His parents encouraged him to collect prints of the Italian masters, and in 1767 sent him to Henry Pars' drawing school. From his early years, he experienced visions of angels and ghostly monks, he saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary, and various historical figures."  
Source

Assorted images of his work

Blake resources

Blake Archive

More

A Mike Keith puzzle
"The poem [reproduced in part] below is a transformation of William Blake's 'The Tyger' via an unusual linguistic constraint. Your challenge is to determine the constraint, given the hint that strict application of the rule will invariably result (as it does here) in a composition containing exactly 109 words.

Hydra, hydra, looming bright
(Be calm now, O forest night!),
No man's art - so plainly, see -
Can ask, know, capture symmetry!

Translate, villain - can man feel,
Capture now Creator's zeal?
Gauntly go as sorrows brew,
Knowing, really seeing you? ...

Read the full mystery poem

 

1785 Achille-Léonce-Victor-Charles (d. 1870), 3rd duc de Broglie, Prime Minister of France

1805 John Stephens (d. 1852), archaeologist

1810 William Froude (d. 1879), engineer, naval architect

Friedrich Engels

1820 Friedrich Engels (d. August 5, 1895), German Socialist philosopher and the co-founder of modern Communist theory with Karl Marx. In 1848, they published The Communist Manifesto together. Engels edited several volumes of Das Kapital (Capital: A Critique of Political Economy) after Marx's death.

 

1821 Nikolai Nekrasov (d. 1878</