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SEIZE THE DAY! |
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Helena Dreams of the Cross |
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St Helena (c. 255-c. 330 CE) was the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, he who switched to Christianity. She, too, was a convert, and much of her fame rests on the founding of the basilicas at the Mount of Olives and at Bethlehem, but moreso for finding the ‘True Cross’, bits of which found their way into churches all over Europe. She is cognate with the Elaine of Arthurian romance.
Henry of Huntingdon c.1129 wrote (Hist. Angl. I).that 'Helena the mother of Constantine was a daughter of Coel' ( King Cole, probably the king in the nursery rhyme), an early ruler of Colchester.
Although she never went to Britain (though the Roman author Polydore Vergil wrote in Historia Brit.,p.381: "Constantine, born in Britain, of a British mother, proclaimed Emperor in Britain beyond doubt, made his native soil a participator in his glory.”), her son was responsible for the renovation of many roads there, and somehow Helen/Elene/Elaine has become associated with some of them.
As Helen, she may be seen as a goddess of the holy road, in particular the four royal roads of Britain. In Wales, some causeways and roads are called Sarn Helen.
More on Sarn Helen
More
More
More
"Pomo myths say that Mount St Helena was the place from which coyote spoke to his people as the waters rose during the great world flood." Source
Mizusawa Komagata Matsuri, at Mizusawa, Iwate Prefecture, Japan (May 2-4)
A spring shrine festival featuring a mikoshi parade on the last day (May 4). There is a cavalcade and a children’s armoured-costume parade.
Feast day of St Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria (Charlock, Rhaphanus rhafaristrum, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint)
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Happy birthday to you! |
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1602 Athanasius Kircher, a probable one-time owner of the Voynich Manuscript, the mysterious and so far untranslatable 240-page medieval manuscript owned in more recent years by Wilfrid Voynich (Wilfryd Michał Habdank-Woynicz)
“He began life at three in the morning on 2 May 1602 (the Feast of St Athanasios) at Geisa near Fulda, just inside what is now East Germany.” Source
“Mysteries surrounding the Voynich Manuscript have puzzled researchers since the earliest surviving report in the seventeenth century: we have no clear idea of its date, its author, its provenance, the meaning of its script, or even the meaning of its drawings. The first known owner was the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612), who bought it from an unknown seller for 600 ducats. The author of the manuscript was then thought to have been the 13th-century monk and scholar Roger Bacon (1214?-1294?), but this attribution now appears to be much too early ...
“The text is written in a neat and clear script which has defied attempts at interpretation by some of the best cryptographic minds available including Athanasius Kircher; noted cryptologist Brig. John Tiltman, head of the British codebreaking establishment at Bletchley Park during World War II; and William F. Friedman, the famous American codebreaker who turned cryptanalysis into a science and led the team that broke the Japanese Purple cipher machine.” Source
More on the Voynich MS
And more
And more
Did John Dee really sell the Voynich MS to Rudolf II?
More at Wikipedia
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1892 Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the ‘Red Baron’, German WWI air ace
Who killed the Red Baron? |
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1903 Dr Benjamin Spock (d. 1998), controversial author of child care books.
Spock’s Baby and Child Care sold 750,000 copies in its first year and 4 million in its first six years.
“In 1972 Spock was the Presidential candidate of the People's Party and got more than 75,000 votes with a platform that called for free medical care, the legalization of abortion and marijuana, a guaranteed minimum income for families and the immediate withdrawal of all American troops from foreign countries.
“After the Vietnam War Spock continued to join protest around issues like nuclear weapons and cuts in social welfare programs. By the time he turned 80, in 1985, he had been arrested a dozen times. In 1978 he was arrested for trespassing at a protest at the Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire. In 1980 he was arrested for blocking an entrance to the Pentagon in an anti-nuclear demonstration. In 1981 he was arrested at the White House protesting proposed budget cuts. In 1987 he was arrested and charged with trespassing after demonstrating at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station against the test launching of a Trident 2 missile.” Source
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This day in history |
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1980 Pink Floyd’s hit single Another Brick in the Wall was banned in South Africa where it was becoming a black youth anthem.
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1982 The Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by the British submarine Conqueror off the Falkland Islands, with the loss of some 350 lives.
Margaret Thatcher: "Rejoice!"
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1997 Paulo Freire (1921-1997), Brazilian philosopher and educator, died of heart failure in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“Paulo, starting from a psychology of oppression influenced by the works of psychotherapists such as Freud, Jung, Adler, Fanon and Fromm, developed a "Pedagogy of the Oppressed." He believed that education could improve the human condition, counteracting the effects of a psychology of oppression, and ultimately contributing to what he considered the ontological vocation of humankind: humanization. In the introduction to his widely-acclaimed Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he argued that: "From these pages I hope at least the following will endure: my trust in the people, and my faith in men and women and in the creation of a world in which it will be easier to love". Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which has been influenced by a myriad of philosophical currents including Phenomenology, Existentialism, Christian Personalism, Marxism and Hegelianism, calls for dialogue and ultimately conscientization as a way to overcome domination and oppression among and between human beings.” Source
Tomorrow:
How the Southern Cross was formed (Aboriginal myth)
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