As today is a special day and many people are busy with celebrations and presents, I thought that I shouldn’t make it so difficult and with one post make me, and hopefully you, a pleasure. And it couldn’t be better than to grab one of the best-ever Christmas stories by Charles Dickens: the master of hearts.

He explained: In this Ghostly little book, I have endeavoured to raise the Ghost of an Idea which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. – Charles Dickens

Here I present an Oscar-Winning Animation of Charles Dickens’ Classic Tale, A Christmas Carol (1971). I have seen many different versions of his masterwork. However, this animation is unique in itself.

Let’s read a contribution about this brilliant work and the making of.

Some twenty years before Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, another animated entertainment injected “the most wonderful time of the year” with a potent dose of horror.

The 25-minute short features a host of hair-raising images drawn directly from Dickens’ text, from a spectral hearse in Scrooge’s hallway and the Ghost of Marley’s gaping maw to a night sky populated with miserable, howling phantoms and the monstrous children lurking beneath the Ghost of Christmas Present’s skirts:

Indeed I’m not the only child of the 70s to have been equal parts mesmerized and stricken by director Richard Williams’ faithful, if highly condensed, interpretation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.

Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread… This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. 

Producer Chuck Jones, whose earlier animated holiday special, Dr Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, is in keeping with his classic work on Bugs Bunny and other Warner Bros. faves, insisted that this cartoon should mirror the look of the John Leech steel engravings illustrating Dickens’ 1843 original.

D.T. Nethery, a former Disney animation artist and fan of this Christmas Carol, explains that the desired Victorian look was achieved with a labour-intensive process involving drawing directly on cells with Mars Omnichrom grease pencil and then painting the backs and photographing them against detailed watercoloured backgrounds.

As director Williams recalls below, he and a team, including master animators Ken Harris and Abe Levitow, were racing against an impossibly tight deadline that left them pulling 14-hour days and 7-day work weeks. Reportedly, the final version was completed with just an hour to spare. (“We slept under our desks for this thing.”)

As Michael Lyons observes in Animation Scoop, the exhausted animators went above and beyond with Jones’ request for a pan over London’s rooftops, “making the entire twenty-five minutes of the short film take on the appearance of artwork that has come to life”:

…there are scenes that seem to involve camera pans, or sequences in which the camera seemingly circles around the characters. Much of this involved not just animating the characters, but the backgrounds as well and in different sizes as they move toward and away from the frame. The hand-crafted quality, coupled with a three-dimensional feel in these moments, is downright tactile.

Revered British character Alistair Sim (Scrooge) and Michael Hordern (Marley’s Ghost) lent some extra class, reprising their roles from the evergreen, black-and-white 1951 adaptation.

The short’s television premiere caused such a sensation that it was given a subsequent theatrical release, putting it in the running for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject. (It won, beating out Tup-Tup from Croatia and the NSFW-ish Kama Sutra Rides Again, Stanley Kubrick had handpicked to play before A Clockwork Orange in the UK.)

With theatres in Dallas, Los Angeles, Portland, Providence, Tallahassee and Vancouver cancelling planned live productions of A Christmas Carol out of concern for public health during this latest wave of the pandemic, we’re happy to get our Dickensian fix snuggled up on the couch with this animated 50-year-old artefact of our childhood….

I wish you all, my dear friends, a lovely and blessed celebration and merry Christmas. With a hope for a better world in tranquillity and a good-hearted mind. May peace and love fulfil your life. 🙏💖🤗

With the help of. Open Culture

Today is the Winter Solstice, and as you see, I am making an extra post, not only because of this but also for the shortest day (what a day, I have the light on!) and longest night. This night in Iran is traditionally called Yalda Night: Shabe-Yalda. On Yalda night, the whole family gathers around the fireplace in the warm room, and the grandmother tells old legends and fairytales while cracking many kinds of nuts. I once shared an article on this topic; here. However, on these days and nights in Iran, there is no time for any celebration but fighting for their right to live in freedom; I, nevertheless, share this short manifest to send my prayers to them and keep the hope it will be celebrated in the next year.

I wish you all a peaceful, blessed winter solstice and a happy season.🤗💖🦋🌹🙏💖

Prologue! 😁

I have found that I am the only retiree in the world who is busier than he was at work! It might sound strange but believe me, it is true. As I was working, I knew I was at a job and took my hobby for enjoyment on the weekend. But now, I have to divide myself into at least three persons; the one who is a retired grandpa has unlimited time to help family and household. The second one is still a working-class hero to refresh my miserably low passion! And the third is the famous amateur writer who tries to keep himself and the name of an esteemed family of artists. It is hard; I even have an “end of work time” every evening! Nevertheless, I prefer to keep myself engaged with stress than to be an ordinary pensioner. May force be with me!

That’s Why, for my second post, I use (steal!) one of my beloved FB posts about one of the most prized and fascinating women in the world, Marion Woodman, which I took from her book, The Pregnant Virgin.

These words are simply from the section; Introduction of that book, but what makes it so appealing is this statement: The word “feminine”, as I understand it, has very little to do with gender, nor is woman the custodian of feminity. This made me think a lot about what she wanted to utter with that. And I came on the purpose of the Feminine is the leading form of our existence! If we look at the famous holy books, which all come from three prominent religions from the same area and are so familiar, at the same time full of hatred for each other: it’s said that God made the woman from the left rip of man. Doubting these words is not new, as we can almost be sure that these books have been rewritten many times in favour of men, but the subject is more profound than we might imagine. Isn’t it possible that the creation and genesis have no gender at all, and it can be summed up in one word; Feminine? I think this word does nothing to do with female or womanly; we must think more expended, more expansive: The Whole.

{And then I read Carolyne (Gold) Heilbrun’s review of Lyndall Gordon’s biography of Virginia Woolf. Heilbrun points out that Woolf was, like all women, trained to silence that “the unlovable woman was always the woman who used words to effect. She was caricatured as a tattle, a scold, a shrew, a witch.” Women felt “the pressure to relinquish language, and “nice women” were quiet. She concludes that “muted by centuries of training, women writers especially have found that when they attempted truthfully to record their own lives, language failed.” If that is true of the artist, it is no less true of any woman attempting to speak with her own voice. It is also true of the man who dares to articulate his soul process. The word “feminine”, as I understand it, has very little to do with gender, nor is woman the custodian of feminity. Both men and women are searching for their pregnant virgin. She is the part of us who is outcast, the part who comes to consciousness through going into darkness, mining our leaden darkness, until we bring her silver out.}

Marion Woodman, The Pregnant Virgin (introduction)

In the end, I will be proudly happy about the new revolution in Iran under the motto: #Woman_Life_Freedom; there is the only way to save our future!

Art at the head of the post: by zgul-osr1113, deviantart.

I might hang this post to my “Fifty Years…'”, but I think it isn’t only my memories but is more an analysis of my experiences on LSD, which I have told plenty in these Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 articles.

Since November 16, 1938, the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in the Sandoz (now Novartis) laboratories in Basel, Switzerland, and five years later, on April 19, 1943, the psychedelic properties were found, remained an unknown Med. for researching the psyche of human’s soul. However, I guess it may be studied secretly for millenarian uses.

In any case., I think Hofmann’s attention was not to make any weapon out of it. We, humans, are always searching for the purpose of our existence on this planet and to understand our inner beings. It has always been a complex process because the psyche is like a riddle. The unconscious wasn’t a new topic as Sigmund Freud began to handle with: The possibility of an unconscious mind can be traced back to Galen (c. A.D. 130–200), a Greek physician and founder of experimental physiology who recognized that we make unconscious inferences from perceptions (cf. Whyte, 1978, p. 78). The Roman philosopher Plotinus (c. 204–270) observed that we become aware of the thought process only when we attend to it. He likened attention to a mirror that, when properly positioned, reflected unconscious processes. The Christian philosopher St. Augustine (354–430) likened the unconscious mind to a ghost experienced as a felt presence, although invisible. St. Thomas Aquinas (1224–1274) developed a theory of mind that featured unconscious processing. The Swiss physician Paracelsus (1493–1541) recognized the role of the unconscious mind in the aetiology of disease. Whyte (1978) noted that Descartes (1596–1650) believed that all unconsciousness was physiological and therefore did not recognize an unconscious mind as such. His emphasis on the conscious mind may be primarily responsible for our contemporary conscious-centric psychology. (from the Author Warren W. Tryon)

Also, this is a long story. However, I think Dr Jung ended all speculations and opened the door to a cavern or crypt in our soul, which we must go inside to find the answers ourselves.

That is the point to which I want to refer. Space and Time belong to the eathy life; if we believe in the soul, the soul cannot share the requirements of earthly life. Human is more than what most people usually assume. As I heard and read from many brain searchers, our brain is not fully known as it must be. We may use a tenth of it. And to go inside to find out which function has remained careless, we need Hallucinogens drugs! And there, this will expand our imagination to begin our trip inside our soul.

It might be my opinion Al and I have experienced it nine-time, and every time, depending on the quality of the LSD, we had brought a discovery of one unknown corner of the soul. For example, in the fifth or sixth session, we both were the group’s leaders (to take LSD, it is essential to have an expert as a leader.) one of our members got afraid; he was uneasy, as I noticed, and I asked him what’s the matter, he said his heart is going mad. I let an MC cassette in the recorder to play one of his favourite music; then he got calm and sat comfortably. Here we notice how important the atmosphere can be for such a trip.

But I think the best trip we had was once we got an excellent quality LSD tablet, a so-called conical sugar pill, which we had no tension in our body, as we had most with the other sessions, and the trip was an extraordinary and strange one. I was the first one who noticed that something was not as usual. In the other sessions, we listened to music or watched famous paintings in books to enjoy them deeper than before, but I couldn’t find any enjoyment. My eyes and ears were unknown to me. I was shocked, of course, and the others didn’t want to accept my feeling. I felt I had separated from my body and wanted to travel away. I tried to explain my situation but couldn’t even speak. Though later, Al and the other friend, Mehrdad, joined me. There was nothing mattered! As we got down later from this trip and talked about it, we discovered that no object or material existed for us; you could be in a room or a jar, and there was no difference! The most significant discovery on this trip was we all were individuals there, and the so-called “group journey” on LSD, which we had heard about from West those days, turned out to be wrong.

Anyway, I don’t want to cause you any headaches! I know it is still unacceptable in our society to take drugs as a way of healing, but I do believe it is a crucial topic to work with. Keep curiosity alive🙏💖

It is not a ritual for me; as I mentioned before, his presence is perceptible daily. However, this day, his birthday, is a plea or fetch to share our common memories.

His birthday was yesterday, and I posted a few words for his celebration; nevertheless, I want to write more about him. No matter the day, there is no time and space in heaven!

I chose this picture above on purpose; our good and the careless time those days, as we were settled in Germany, in freedom, to practice our teenies ages even though we were in our thirties of life. He’d be 70 years old this time, and if his body were still in his earthly existence, we would have a big party together. And yet, I thought I celebrate his birthday in relation to Iran’s new revolution as I am sure he won’t stay calm and even might want to travel back there to participate in this fight for their right.

That is true. We were very active those days after Khomeini’s regime came to power because we knew he was another dictator even worse than Shah, but we were few. And then, there they come, the Kurds! Yes, as all the so-called intellectuals from left and right kept shut up to the Islamic regime, the Kurdish people from Mariwan raised against it. Al and I were working with one of the most famous magazines in this short Spring of freedom after the fall of Shah’s regime. This magazine was forbidden in his regime and could begin to work again after the revolution. I was working as a report collector and photographer; Al had a page called: A line of Nostalgia!
Al has had a beautiful writing style of his own; I think that you all, as writers, know what I am talking about, a unique style of writing in which the writer can assert her/himself. Like Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway etc. Al had gotten this magical style from our father. I am not talking about the excitement of the story a writer presents; I’m talking about the way of writing it; it takes you with the words on the waves of his/her thoughts’ floating and floating…

I want to share a piece of his written thoughts here; I tried translating it from Persian, hoping it achieved the goal! It fits the situation now as the new uprising in Iran began in Marivan, the Kurdish province.

When I say conspiracy, slander, false and baseless slander, everyone knows what I mean; Everyone understands that those shameless lies that we see on the walls of the city, in the alleys and streets, which show the new arrangements and new inventions of the defective and diseased reactionary and imperialist brain, are what I mean. I do not intend to defend those free and pure people who are attacked by the dirtiest and most disgusting types of conspiracies in existence. Because it is the stupidest thing in the world if I want to defend people whose clean and untainted hands have always been in front of the eyes of the informed and committed classes of our society in an obvious way. I don’t intend to stand up for defence because the vile and evil actions of those unknown people are the best reason for those who want to prove their innocence. The only thing that made me mention this issue is the similarities that we feel when we see those disclosures; for example, such lies remind me of childish tricks played on radio and television about forgery and distortion. Censorship of news, movies and other programs is expected. Or it is in the line of funny reasons and excuses that the former spokesperson (and some other ministers) used to cover up the officials’ actions.

Or, most of the time, I was reminded of that well-known and experienced TV showman who, in addition to running his shows, also works at the apparently respectable job of deputy minister when he is unemployed. I think these similarities cannot be so coincidental. Maybe if we sit and think, we can find out where the flow is coming from. For this point, many agree that the Kurdish people are the pride and cause of Iranian pride. So far, I have heard from many people who said how they were significantly affected by meeting and dealing with the ideas, thoughts and views of a Kurd. So far, I have seen their kind of behaviour and deep understanding of issues and personalities in very few people. I don’t know what the reason is… The environmental conditions and weather and basically the geographical coordinates of their land are the reason or maybe all the suffering and torture and or suffering that has passed on to them over the years and even centuries have made such extraordinary men and women. It is as if they have come to earth to teach us and others about freedom and Righteousness. What the people of Marivan showed cannot evoke any other idea in me. Every day and in any situation, we witness how people can lower their heads and bend down to the point where they can touch the ground with their forehead with no sign; this dedication and sacrifice of the people of Marivan is a great lesson. And it is shocking for all nations to learn how to maintain freedom and free thinking in the most awkward and difficult situations and not succumb to force and pressure. Such is the logic of being human and dying human. Those who, if they die, will die standing tall.

And here is a birthday present from me to Al; it is a selected quote from Al’s last novel, “Season of Limbo”, which was made by a highly adorable friend of mine, Petra Glimmdull. I am sure he will be delighted with that.

In ca. two years, I will reach his current age if I’d survive. No one knows; wait and see; in any case, I am very thankful, at least half a century, to be the companion of such a genius. Stay by me.

Horus, Hor, Har or Heru means “He who is above”. As such, Horus (Heru) represents the realized divine principle and Thoth god of writing, magic, wisdom, and the moon. And when such deities pour holy water over one’s (King’s) head, it must be a special present for purging the soul!

Image: Amenhotep II Being Showered by Thoth and Horus Ursula’s Weekly Wanders / & Wikimedia Commons

This tiny and precious statue shows how vital was such a divine act. And here, we read another brilliant article, by Marie Grillot, about this magnificent find. 💖🙏

via égyptophile

Amenhotep II receives, from Horus and Thoth, purifying water…

This statuary group of calcite (Egyptian alabaster) displays a beautiful balance and a neat composition. It brings together the gods Horus and Thoth, standing and in profile on either side of an elegant arch under which the Pharaoh Amenhotep II sits.

Horus, on the left, is represented in his hawk-headed form, that is to say, with a falcon’s head on a man’s body, while on the right, Thoth, responds to him in his ibis-head form, a man with the head of an ‘ibis.

They are simply dressed in a pleated loincloth, the shendyt, and their hair is what Georges Daressy calls the “striped hood”. They are each on a rectangular pedestal, adorned with a frieze composed of the three signs ankh-djed-ouas which rest on the basket-neb, a composition which can be translated as “all life-stability-strength”.

The arch they “frame” has a gently rounded top adorned with a winged disc. Their arms are raised, and they hold in both hands a purification ewer-nemset. “Purification rites required metal dishes depicted on the reliefs, and several examples have come down to us”, specifies Laetitia Martzolff in “The practice of the ritual in the Egyptian temple.”

The purifying water they pour thus flows over the uprights of the arch. It is “materialized”, symbolized by finely engraved ankh signs, which follow each other without interruption…

Amenhotep II, standing centre stage, is in the conventional walking attitude, left leg forward. His arms are stretched along the body, and his hands have the fingers pointing downwards. His face, with full cheeks strong chin, is full of seriousness. He wears a nemes headdress with a frontal uraeus and a curved false beard. His body, with perfect proportions, is dressed in a short loincloth with a very elaborate front. What emerges from this royal and divine representation is a very solemn aspect that befits this ceremony, which is both ritual and official.

This small monument (about twenty centimetres) is exhibited at the NMEC, in Fustat, in the window dedicated to the theme of “purification”. The cartel presents it thus: “Purification by water: On his arrival from the other world, the sun god purifies himself in the eastern horizon before shining in the sky, where the four gods “Horus”, the Lord of North, “Seth”, the Lord of the South, “Dewen-Anwy” the Lord of the East, and “Thoth”, the Lord of the West, pour upon him the water of life and power from the four corners of the universe. This rare statue represents King Amenhotep II, assimilated to the sun god in his brilliance at the moment of his purification on the horizon”.

Purification by water, called “libation” or “lustration”, is very often illustrated on the temples’ walls to affirm the king’s divine aspect; it is rarer to see it represented like this in the round.

In “Ritual waters in Pharaonic Egypt”, Marie-Ange Bonhême provides these details: “When the king arrived at the temple, in front of the door of the pylon, water from a gold ewer was poured over the sovereign by priests taking the role of Horus and Thoth representing the gods who personified the four cardinal points (BARGUET 1965, 313; GARDINER 1950) It is a question of washing the king of all defilement but also of conferring “life and prosperity” on him, that is to say, to regenerate it thanks to what could be the water of the Noun or the flood which is endowed with these qualities. Indeed, the water of lustration is often called ankh-quas, “life and prosperity”, when these signs replace the broken lines evoking the water coming out of the ewers; it is then designated metonymically by the expression recording its benefits… Libation water, like lustration water, both represented by the expression which qualifies the benefits that water brings and is often related to flooding and the consequent fertility of the country. Indeed, an abundant Nile is a source of satiety and, as such, is the object of worship practices expressing the adoration we have for it, even of a cult of the flood”.

This artefact comes from the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV 35), discovered on March 9, 1898, by Victor Loret. The funerary material he delivered was very important: accessories, clothing, food, jewellery, models, sculptures, statues, written documents, boats, etc. The floor of the funeral chamber “disappeared under a thick layer of broken objects, Funerary statuettes in wood and alabaster, pottery, vases, garlands,… More than “two thousand pieces were removed from the monument, some were shattered into a thousand fragments; of many of them only tiny bits remained”.

This is the case of this object which was found in a fragmentary state… and of which, we clearly notice today, the lighter parts which have either been the subject of a restoration or been added.

Two fragments have been referenced in the Journal of Entries of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, JE 32411 and JE 32523: they are presented under the references CG 24157 and CG 24157bis in the “General Catalog of Egyptian Antiquities of the Cairo Museum – Excavations of the Valley of the Kings (1898-1899)” by Georges Daressy under the title “Fragments of a group representing the purification of the king”. He brings up several interesting details… He describes, in particular, the statue of Horus, specifying that, on the file, he relies on, “we still see some signs of an inscription which has been scratched, and in which the name may have appeared of Maatkare”.

As for the arch, it indicates that “the uprights are hollowed out” and that one of the sides “is made of inserts brought back and glued: it seems that we had intended to bring the water to the vase, but the communication between this conduit and the vase has not been established, and the central hole of the vase is blocked by pieces of alabaster showing that we were content to simulate the trickle of water in stone”. From the statue of Thoth it would appear that only “two legs were found”. The reference CG 24157bis concerns only a “Bent left arm with the hand holding a stick”: rather than a stick, it was perhaps a tiny part of the amount of the arch…

The restorers, who knew how to find and interpret the spirit in which this representation was made more than 3200 years ago, have undoubtedly done a magnificent job that should not be overlooked…

Marie Grillot

Sources:

The cartel of the NMEC (National Museum of Egyptian Civilization) in Fustat

Georges Daressy, General Catalog of Egyptian Antiquities of the Cairo Museum No. 24001-24990 – Excavations of the Valley of the Kings (1898-1899), Fasc. 1, 1902 (p. 163) https://ia801301.us.archive.org/16/items/DaressyValleeRois1902/Daressy_Vallée_Rois_1902.pdf

Gaston Maspero, Visitor’s Guide to the Cairo Museum, 1902, French Institute (Cairo) https://archive.org/details/guidemuseecaire00masp/page/n6/mode/2up

Gaston Maspero, Ruins and Landscapes of Egypt, 1910

Isabelle Franco, Dictionary of Egyptian Mythology, Pygmalion 1999

Laetitia Martzolff, The practice of ritual in the Egyptian temple, Archimedes Archeology and Ancient History N°1. File Archeology of the ritual. Fall 2014 – p. 21 to 3 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01585343/document

Marie-Ange Bonhême, Ritual waters in Pharaonic Egypt, Archaeo-Nile Year 1995 5 pp. 129-139 https://www.persee.fr/doc/arnil_1161-0492_1995_num_5_1_1189

What does Orpheus actually do when he is not singing that higher powers suggest to him? When the German Literature Archive Marbach presented its spectacular new addition on Thursday, the estate of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, acquired from the private collection of the great-granddaughters, the longer the event lasted, the more clearly this question was raised. Rilke himself, with the “Sonnets to Orpheus” and his own statements about the creative frenzy in which the “Duino Elegies” were dictated to him by an inner voice, ensured that the formula “modern Orpheus” could be attached to him. Modern society is a working society, and the modern culture and literature business is a Perpetuum mobile of written production. SZ

As I know, there are many poets or poem lovers in my friend circle. Therefore, I thought I might share this with you in your interest:

Some days ago, I heard in the Geman news that more than 10,000 handwritten pages with drafts and notes by Rilke, testimonies to ever new attempts and constant self-revisions, go into the Marbach archive, well, in addition, he wrote 2,500 letters himself, and 6,300 letters addressed him.One hundred thirty-one previously unknown drawings, including children’s illustrations by the four-year-old. Much has been mocked about Rilke’s social existence as the guest of aristocrats and castles. His correspondence is already a focal point of the Rilke holdings in the Marbach Archive, which were considered even before this purchase; letters from and to Max Brod, Ellen Key, Anette Kolb, Karl Kraus and so on are now being added. Indeed, it is a valuable find, and I am sure that they are in good hands.

I am circling around God, around the ancient tower, And i have been circling for a thousand years, and I still don’t know if I am a falcon, or a storm, or a great song__ -Rilke

An Essential Move for the World Freedom. #IranRevolution2022

My thoughts are gloomy, and my heart is heavy. It is a sad, heartbreaking story for sure; however, a true and important one, and it will be an influential point in history.
Yes, my dear friends. What happened and still happening this last time in Iran has me entirely under control and demands my folly.

As the master says:

I’m such a conscientious person. I’ve always tried to do something good for everyone and spread a good mood. Therefore, I try to give an exciting and plausible report every week that brings joy or presents something new. But it doesn’t seem to be working for me at the moment. I sat in front of the screen for several hours and looked at the monitor like a fool. Nothing was in my head, no more muse!

How can one remain silent when one sees such pure beauty, which gets shot in the eyes or shot to death? Especially, The cultural tribes of the Kurds and Balochs. I didn’t have Baloch friends in those days in Iran, but Al and I have a lot of Kurdish friends, and we adored them for their intelligence and free brave hearts. No wonder Mullah’s regime is afraid of them. The Islamic regime has launched a military attack on them in the last few days, with heavy weapons against empty hands demonstrators. That is genocide! I will come back about them next.

Anyhow, I found no other way but to write about my feeling this weekend. Not only that, I present this post with my littleness to all the beautiful and brave women and brave young men in Iran. I said once that I give my best to help the Iranian youths reach their goal of overthrowing Mullah’s regime (I’m too old to hope to make any profits from it). It is not soo easy as democracy is something new for them, though stunningly, I notice how much they know and are hungry to catch it up.

I know that life is going on everywhere in the world, and everybody has their own trouble. Therefore I have no great expectations; I only want to let you know somewhere in the world, a great nation needs attention and compassion.

Now that I have poured out my heart for you, dear friends, I end my post with a song that may be one of the most beautiful songs about freedom in every society ever. Honestly, I am not a fan of Iranian music (only the very old traditional before Islam!), but this one has hit my heart of its melody and lyrics. It calls; For… (Baraye, in Persian), by Shervin Hajipour.

For… All!

PS: Rana Mansour has used a short part of a clip of Nika Shakarami, which I once could watch somewhere on the net. Nika was a talented entertainer with a fantastic voice. Her loss is a great pity!

For dancing in the allies and the streets
For the thrill and the fear of getting caught kissing
For my sister, my brother, and unity
For all the times we tried to change their minds and stale beliefs

For the loss of pride, for poverty
For the dream of just a normal life for you and me
For all the children who are starving for a loaf of bread

For the greed of politics and all the lies they spread
For all the mass-polluted air we breathe
For all the litter in the streets and all the dying trees
For all the animals who suffer from elimination
For all the cats and dogs who love us without no conditions
For all the tears that seem to never end

For all the images that keep on turning in our heads
For a simple smile, to last a little while
For the future generations fighting for their time
For empty promises of heaven in the after-life
For all the imprisonment of beautiful minds
For all the babies who are born and for the ones who died

For all the times you told the truth, and all the times you lied
For all the speeches that we heard about a million times
For all the shacks and shelters that were sold to make a dime
For just a glimpse of a peaceful life

For the rising of the sun after an endless night
For all the pills we pop just to get some sleep
For all mankind, and our country
For all the boys and girls who never knew equality
For woman, for life, liberty
For liberty
For liberty
For liberty

I think that for all of us dreams are always fascinating, and their interpretations are so more. My wife dreams a lot and can stunningly remember them most. I wish I could interpret them for her, but I must always pass! Although this ability is not unknown in my family, my mother and my brother Al could pull out some meanings, and one of my aunts (Rakhshi, the closest to us) was the master of interpretation.

I often have problems remembering my dreams, though a few strangely stayed remain in my memories. I write one of them down here; may one of the friends here can make a sense out of it.

I come into the kitchen the same as I live now, just with a difference, as the stove is not on the left of the wall but under the window in front of me. I look to the right, where the wall clock is hanging, to know how time it is, but I can’t because the watch is covered by aluminium foil. Suddenly I notice someone behind me outside the kitchen on the entrance hall. I turn and see an elderly dame with white hair and a walker-weal. (note: during my job, I have many such customers) I go to the floor and see that her eyes are covered with tiny white caps that people usually wear after eye surgery. I greet her, and she smilingly thanks me and gives me a key. That’s all; I woke up!

However, I try to learn from Dr Jung’s practice of Symbols and their meanings to fix my inability. Here, I present another capital from his book: Dream and Dream Interpretation; >dream symbols of the individuation process<: The Initial Dreams. Dream 21. I hope you will enjoy it.

Dream 21. Visual impression:

Nymphs surround him. A voice says: We were always there. But you didn’t notice us. (Fig. 1)

Here the regression goes further back to unequivocal ancient notions. At the same time, the situation of Dream 4 { in which many indefinite women surround him and a voice says: “I have to get away from my father first!] resumed, and with it, the rejection situation of dream 18 [ in this dream, a man offers him gold coins on his bottle hand. The dreamer, however, throws them to the ground indignantly and immediately afterwards deeply regrets his action. Then a variety show takes place in a separate area.], which had led to preventive enantiodromia in Dream 19 [A skull. He wants to kick him away but can’t. Gradually, the skull turns into a red sphere, then into a woman’s head emitting light.]. However, the image is amplified by the hallucinatory realization that it is a matter of a fact that is always present but has not been noticed until now. With this statement, the unconscious psyche is connected to consciousness as coexistent.

The phenomenon of the “voice” in the dreamer always has the definitive and indisputable character of the “antos epha; (suffer)” (he said so himself: This referred to the authority of Pythagoras.) That means the voice speaks the truth or is a condition that can no longer be seriously questioned. The fact that contact has been made with distant signs means that deep layers of the psyche are accepted by the dreamer’s unconscious personality and are communicated to consciousness as a relative feeling of security.

The vision in dream 20 [A globe, on which the unknown woman is standing and worshipping the sun.] represents the anima as a sun worshiper. She has stepped out of the sphere (or spherical shape) there, as it were (Fig. 25). But the first spherical shape is the skull.

According to an old belief, the head, or rather the brain, is the seat of “anima intellectualis”. Therefore, the alchemical jar should be round like the head so that what comes out of the jar should also be “round”, namely simple and perfect, like the “Anima Mundi”. (1)

The culmination of the work is the production of the “round”, which is at the beginning (as “materia globosa”; Fig. 26) and at the end (as gold). The hint of what has always been there should refer to this. The regressive character of the vision is also evident in the fact that, like in Dream 4, many female figures appear.

This time, however, they are characterized as ancient, indicating historical regression (like the sun worship in Dream 20). The disintegration of the anima into many means something like a dissolution into the indefinite, i.e. into the unconscious, so it can be assumed that the historical regression is accompanied by a relative dissolution of consciousness (a process that can be observed in the highest degree of schizophrenia). The dissolution of consciousness, the “abaissement du niveau mental”(lowering of the mental level) – to paraphrase Pierre Janet – fed on a primitive state of mind. A parallel to this nymph scene is the Paracelsian “regio nymphidica”, mentioned in the treatise “De vita longa” as the origin and beginning of the individuation process. (I refer to my remarks in Paracelsus as a spiritual phenomenon. CW 13, § 214)

(1) Paraphrase; (Cf. on this, Liber Platonis quartorum, in Theatrum chemicum, 1622, vol. 5, pp. 149ff. and 174. This treatise is an important Harranitic text for the history of alchemy, which is available in Arabic and Latin. The latter is, unfortunately, very corrupt. The constitution time of the original is probably the 10th century. Cf. Steinschneider: The European translations from Arabic, 1904/5, p. 44.)

Images credit: Joseph Tomanek (1889-1974) / Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

As I keep stumbling upon the gods and goddesses everywhere, I see a lot of similarities between them. I know I belong to the “different thinkers” and have odd ideas about our genesis. However, it is always fascinating to find all these connections and resemblances.

Here is the mighty goddess Nut (Nuit), the Egyptian sky goddess, born of Shu, god of air, and Tefnut, goddess of water and fertility. With her brother and husband Geb, the earth, she bore Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. No wonder, as Dr C.G.Jung says: The Animus is meant to be cosmic, and “The Anima is the archetype of life itself.”. Here we see another mighty Goddess from Magical Egypt.

Sarcophagus of Djedhor 200–150 B.C.
Djedhor was a royal scribe as well as a priest of Min and Hathor. Besides his name and titles, the inscription on his stone sarcophagus also mentions his mother, Tikas.

(The image on the top: Great goddess Nut with her wings stretched across a coffin By Jonat Thunder (Wikipedia) The quotes by Dr Jung: ~ Visions Seminar, Page 1228. & [CW 9i, par. 66])

Now let’s again read the story of stunning finds by a great genius, Jean-François Champollion & Co. A brilliant report by Marie Grillot.

Champollion and… The “King of Sarcophagi”!

On August 18, 1828, Jean-François Champollion and Ippolito Rosellini, at the head of the Franco-Tuscan mission, landed in Alexandria. Their mission is to visit the monuments of ancient Egypt and to buy objects for the royal collections. Champollion will devote himself, with an infinite passion, to monuments. Still, he will have just as much at heart to enrich the collection of the Egyptian antiquities division of the Charles X museum (future Louvre), inaugurated on December 15, 1827, and of which he was appointed conservative.

To carry the beautiful message of the greatness of Egypt within the Parisian museum, he will choose the most beautiful pieces… The sarcophagus of Djedhor is one of the most emblematic illustrations…

“I acquired in Cairo, from Mahmoud-Bey, the Kihaia, the most beautiful of the present, past and future sarcophagi; it is in green basalt and covered internally and externally with bas-reliefs, or rather cameos worked with perfection and an unimaginable delicacy. It is all that one can imagine being more perfect in this genre; it is a jewel worthy of adorning a boudoir or a living room, so much the sculpture is fine and precious. The cutlery bears, in half-relief, a woman’s figure of admirable sculpture. This single document would acquit me towards the king’s household, not in respect of gratitude, but in financial respect, for this sarcophagus, compared to those for which twenty and thirty thousand francs were paid, is certainly worth a hundred thousand. The bas-relief and the sarcophagus are the two finest Egyptian objects sent to Europe to date. It was right to come to Paris and follow me as the trophy of my expedition; I hope they will remain in the Louvre in memory of me forever.” These are the words, filled with admiration, with which Jean-François Champollion describes the sarcophagus of Djedhor in his letter dated September 15, 1829.

In “Champollion, a life of light”, Jean Lacouture indicates that the green basalt sarcophagus was bought – on the instructions of Champollion – by Alexandre Duchesne (one of the painters of the expedition) from the Minister of War Mahmoud Bey.

Champollion himself will see to the transport of the sarcophagus of “Zeher” and its “installation” on board “L’Astrolabe”, which, under the command of Verninac de Saint Maur, will sail to France, where it will arrive on December 23, 1829.

On December 26 from Toulon, where he is in quarantine, Champollion is still as enthusiastic about his acquisition as he describes to Viscount Sosthène de Larochefoucault. He also asks “that the corvette ‘L’Astrolabe’ on which these precious objects are embarked, be responsible for transporting them from Toulon to Le Havre as soon as the sea is tenable. By obtaining this decision from the Minister of the Navy, you would ensure both Mr Viscount’s conservation of these monuments and their arrival in Paris”.

Thus the graywacke sarcophagus of Djedhor arrived “safe and sound” at the Louvre, where it “thrones” since 1830!

Djedhor was a 30th Dynasty priest of Amun who lived near Memphis. He is shown in profile on the lid with the body of a bird. “At the bottom of the sarcophagus, the goddess of the West protects the dead; all around him, deities including Isis (at the feet) and Nephthys (at the head). Outside, the nocturnal journey of the sun, in which the deceased aspires to participate: a mixture of the Book of Secret Abodes, the Book of Doors and the Litanies to Rê” indicates the site of the Louvre to us. And, on the lid, there is a marvellous representation of Nut, the goddess of the sky, who holds the solar disk in her hands…

How not to agree with this subtle play on words by Jean-François Champollion: “This is not a king’s sarcophagus, but the king of sarcophagi!”

Marie Grillot

sources :

Sarcophage à cuve en cartouche Djedhor

https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010037229

Lettres écrites d’Égypte et de Nubie en 1828 et 1829, by Champollion the Younger, Publisher Didier (Paris), 1868
Champollion, a life of lights, Jean Lacouture, Grasset, 1988

The Harvest of the Gods, Jean-Jacques Fiechter, Julliard, 1994

“Sarcophage du prêtre Djedhor” (Louvre)