Trying To Understand Celtic Cross History?

When it comes to the area of Celtic jewelry, the Celtic Cross is one of the most popular pieces, both for the look and feel of wearing it and for the attempts at understanding exactly what it represents. What follows is a brief description of the cross and the limited knowledge we have regarding its history.

Celt history is still an area that includes great differences in terms of understanding, but quite a few scholars trace it to Ireland and the time period of the ninth Century. The earliest forms of the cross have been named the recumbent cross-slab. These versions laid down flat, as opposed to being erected.

Later, a rounded top came into the picture as erected cross-slabs were now standing in an upright position. Whether or not they were lying down or standing erect, some similarities included decorative spirals, key designs, and the interlaced knotwork designs that so many contemporaries associate with Celtic designer jewelry.

What are called erect free standing Celtic Crosses came next. These also became quite elaborate and many different types of stone were used. A wider base was incorporated into this version of the cross and the effect was that of a taller cross as the head of the slab was cleared of rock.

The term “free” standing comes from the fact that the cross was now freed from the rock. Eventually, the inner areas between the arms and rings were carved into a more recessed design as the arms extended further beyond the inner ring.

It’s important to understand that the above history of the Celtic Cross is only one of many you may run across. Both Catholics and Presbyterians have claimed it as their own while those of Welsh, Irish and Scottish decent have claimed it as their own.

Irish Catholics claim that the circle in the Celtic Cross symbolizes eternity and how God’s love is endless. This interpretation is usually woven into the story of the crucifixion and the mystery surrounding the hope of salvation offered up by Christ through his resurrection.

Then again, you may also hear the account of how the cross was carved from the stones of the Druids and were carved in the form of a cross to hide the fact that they were really phallic symbols. The circle is said to represent the sun that was worshipped by the Druids.

Another legend, based in the Irish history, says that St. Patrick came up with the very first Celtic Cross when he drew a circle that represented the pagan moon goddess over a Latin cross. The legend says that St. Patrick converted old Druid practices into newer Christian practices as he converted Druids over to Christianity.

As one can see, it’s difficult to ascertain the exact history of the Celtic Cross. For many in our modern era, it’s enough to simply enjoy the personal interpretation of the emotional feelings that come with wearing this wonderful type of Celtic jewelry.

Are You Tired Of Hotline Psychics?

Most the time, you get what you pay for. When finding the best psychic mediums, this is often the case. This may or may not be the case. This may be true, but it should not be the sole determining factor for you. Allow me to explain… .

Although a dollar a minute psychic medium might seem like a good deal, those massive sites with cheap psychics may deliver poor results. Most of the time, it can take a period of time at the beginning of the second session while the psychic is tuning in to your vibration or energy. So, hoping to call-in to a hotline psychic and have all your questions answered in the first five minutes for five dollars is leave you frustrated. If you just watch the clock, rather than focusing on your reading, you’ll end up with a disappointing reading. You may actually block effective spiritual messages if you are too anxious about how much time you’re spending on reading, so, the messages that come through might not be accurate.

Even though some large websites may claim otherwise, the large dial a minute psychic sites do not test their psychics. The large websites are in business to make profit, and verifying all the psychic cost too much money.

This is not to say that hotline psychics themselves are bad. However, finding a high-quality psychic on one of these hotline websites may be a difficult task. In fact, you will probably find much more satisfying psychic readings using the skills of an individual psychic charges per session rather than per minute. It is a common misconception that the psychics are more expensive. You’ll usually find these types of sessions in 30 minutes or 60 minute sessions, rather than $1-$3 per minute.

When you purchase a session rather than racking up a minutes, it gives you the opportunity to be more relaxed and allow the spiritual messages to come through. Individual psychic consultants actually get to keep their money rather than paying most of it to massive company that owns the website. More money will go to the psychic who earned it, and you will actually end up spending less money.

Quick Look At Online Psychic Readings

Many students of history can prove that the prediction of the future goes back to the pharaohs of ancient Egypt and possibly before. Prior to the Internet one would often find psychic readings done in business locations of large cities and in small towns. Today, one can easily find online psychic readings online.

 

Advice and guidance from a psychic is taken very seriously by many people. Some would not consider making an investment without consulting their psychic first. Other individual contact their psychic weekly or monthly regarding personal problems or decisions to be made and have complete confidence in the psychic’s advice.

 

When one has a consultation with a psychic they are not required to give any information. Many psychics prefer to have very little information from a client. People normally seek a reading regarding a current issue or a future event. In many cases an individual will seek psychic consultation to validate a decision they have already made. Some people appreciate that their psychic is an unbiased party who has their best interests at heart and trust that the psychic will give them the information that they need to react positively in any circumstance.

 

When speaking to the psychic they may feel that the answer is just beyond their reach. The psychic will assist the person in reaching their own conclusion by offering advice and guidance that will be most beneficial to them in making a knowledgeable decision.

 

A psychic gift can be developed and enhanced and many psychics continue to develop their skills throughout their lives. Most psychics are very mindful of the effect that their advice and guidance may have on a client and are very careful before giving any advice that may not be accurate.

 

Having a psychic come to one’s home and spend time giving a reading was once something that was beyond the affordability of most people. However, it is now possible to get keen online psychic readings in the convenience of one’s own home. This allows an individual to talk personally with their psychic and take time to process information before they re-enter their busy lives.

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Gods, Goddesses and the Ancient Mesoamericans

It is important to note that the Mesoamerican concept of god and religion were very different to the current western concept.  To the Mesoamericans, everything, every element of the cosmos, the earth on which man lives, the sun, the moon, the stars, everything that forms part of nature such as animals, plants, water and mountains all represented a manifestation of the supernatural.

In Mesoamerica, gods and goddesses are often depicted in stone reliefs, pottery decoration, wall paintings and in the various Maya, Aztec and Mixtec codices.  The religious pantheon was vast and extremely complex.  Amazingly, many of the deities depicted are common to the various civilizations and their worship survived over long periods of time.  They frequently took on different characteristics and even names in different areas, but in effect they transcended cultures and time.

Great masks with gaping jaws and monstrous features in stone or stucco were often located at the entrance to temples, symbolizing a cavern or cave on the flanks of the mountains that allowed access to the depths of Mother Earth and the shadowy roads that lead to the Underworld.

Cults associated with the jaguar and jade especially permeated religion throughout Mesoamerica.  Jade, with its translucent green color was revered along with water as a symbol of life and fertility.  The jaguar, agile, mighty and fast, was especially connected with warriors and as spirit guides of shamans.

Despite differences of chronology or geography, the crucial aspects of this religious pantheon were shared amongst the people of ancient Mesoamerica.  And so, this quality of acceptance of new gods to the collection of existing gods may have been one of the shaping characteristics for the success during the Christianization of Mesoamerica.  New gods did not instantly substitute the old; they initially joined the ever growing family of deities or were merged together with existing ones that seemed to share similar characteristics or responsibilities.

View Mayan pottery, Aztec pottery and Mexico crafts at www.AncientMexico.biz

Mayan Pottery Scenes: Blood Rituals to Keep the World from Ending

Although the Maya practiced a similar sacrificial ritual as the Aztecs, by slicing open a victim’s chest and extracting the dripping heart to offer to the gods, they much preferred the rite of decapitation.  This, they felt was necessary to feed the gods and keep the world alive.

One priest oversaw the rite while four aged men called “chacs” in honor of the Mayan rain god held the body of the victim on a sacrificial stone.  A priest named the nacom cut open the victim’s chest and extracted the dripping heart to offer to the gods.

Little known is the Maya practice of auto sacrifice, or offering of one’s own blood.  The Maya used a string threaded with thorns to cut their cheeks, lower lips, ears and tongues.  They collected the dripping blood and smeared on images of the god or on their own body.  Men also used sharp knives or the spines of stingrays to cut and draw blood from their penises for offering. 

Among the Maya, ritual bloodletting of this kind was considered a privilege and was performed by members of the nobility.  At important times such as the passing from one calendar cycle to another, the king and his family would perform the ritual in honor of his ancestors and on behalf of himself, the city state and his people.

The Maya also sacrificed animals such as turkeys, dogs and on special occasions, jaguars.  Jaguars were considered sacred and thus only sacrificed on occasions such as the ascension of a king or when a great calamity occurred that needed the intervention and relief from the gods themselves.

Mayan pottery and codices are replete with illustrations of the gods themselves performing blood rituals in this manner.  Thus, man was expected to also perform them and feed the gods. 

View Mayan ritual items, Mayan masks and Mexico crafts at www.AncientMexico.biz

Obtaining An Online Psychic Reading

Selecting An Online Psychic Reading

When a individual finds that they require assistance finding some thing or basing a choice on an unknown long term occasion, they often do not know who to turn to. Getting an online psychic reading has only now become an choice for many people. These people are accessible to supply the kind of support that a individual needs at the time it’s required.

Gifted psychics are frequently individuals who could be hard to get. They don’t advertise and are recognized to others only via word of mouth. Till the web supplied a method to communicate with legitimate psychics, one needed to know somebody who had worked with one. For many people, the need for an immediate answer often created the time involved in discovering a psychic impossible.

If a individual has in no way worked having a psychic before, they will find that a reading can involve any issue or area. Some mediums can predict the long term while other people specialize in issues related to relationships. Regardless of where a individual lives, an online psychic reading is easily accessible who can quickly supply accurate readings too as guidance for a variety of issues.

When an individual needs general information concerning life changes or issues a psychic reading can take some time. The psychic will channel info from universal sources and share that info. Sometimes there will be several options concerning a choice or issue. The psychic will supply information and advice concerning each option the is provided.

When one is seeking the advice of a psychic it’s important that a connection be created that allows the exchange of energy easily. A gifted psychic can make their presence known to the person via this psychic connection.

In some instances an individual will wish to have their keen online psychic reading on a normal basis. They will find that the info supplied gives them the unbiased info which they need to make the very best decision concerning a specific issue.

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At Times, Free Online Psychics Can Make A Difference

For those out there who are curious about what the future may hold for them yet understand that they cannot know the unknowable without assistance, free online psychics can sometimes help. These very skilled and in tune people stand eager, in many cases, to help those who are anxious about something to take place or need some guidance or direction.

 

Believe it or not, but there are psychics out there who do not charge anything and who are more than willing to sit down and help people come to an understanding of what might be. There are psychic brokerage services, and their websites are easily found on the Internet. Not all are equal, though, and there are some that are better than others.

 

As far as gaining an understanding of these websites that help people come together with those who offer their psychic services, one wants to find a site that offers many psychics, each of whom might have a special expertise in the metaphysical world. These psychics include those who can read the Tarot cards, astrologists and clairvoyants.

 

It might not be the case that free online psychics are necessarily the best way to go at all times. For instance, many persons in need might require someone who is very skilled but is confident enough in his or her metaphysical abilities that they might charge a small fee for their services. This is perfectly acceptable, so look for a good quality site that might deal in a particular aspect such as love, for example.

 

They are might come a time when a person needs a quick horoscope created or needs a psychic to read them in order to come to a quick understanding about some issue. It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that all of the notable or top-quality psychics will need to ask for some form of financial renumeration. Regardless, good psychics want to help and generally don’t let money get in the way.

 

Taking all of that into consideration, some may feel comfortable with free online psychics while others might feel more comfortable making use of the services of a psychic who is so skilled that he or she can ask for some form of remuneration. In any event, always take some time to find a quality website that understands the needs of people and will help them find a psychic that can address those needs.

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Understanding The World Of Psychics And Mediums

People are increasingly turning to psychics and mediums to help bring a sense of order and balance to their emotional lives. With each giving a slightly different approach, it is important that differences are understood and precautions are taken.

 

Psychics are people who can channel the energies from other planes of consciousness. We are surrounded by these alternative conscious’s every minute of the day so are, in essence, all capable of being psychic. However, it is in channeling these energies that that few can master and even fewer can practice for others.

 

The difference with how mediums operate is quite obvious. Where psychics channel energies, mediums directly interact with the spirit world and interpret their commands and instructions into actions and messages that we in human form can understand and act on.

 

Because of the control spirits can have, it is important that only strong and well learned mediums practice their skills in the public domain. For example, recently deceased spirits are going through a tumultuous period, and are unstable; only immature or unwise mediums would consider delving into this world.

 

Both psychics and mediums can use many techniques to concentrate their powers. Many elect to use tarot cards for example, whilst others prefer to use tomes and runes. It is a very personal method.

 

Increasingly, readings can be conducted over the phone, though this is something that only well practiced and well learned members of this society should attempt. As it is open to abuse, it is important that only vetted and accredited persons are engaged with.

 

Fortunately there are services such as Keen.com which help us here; by acting as an introducer. Having checked out each psychics or mediums credentials, you can be safe in the knowledge that you will receive only appropriate and genuine readings.

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To die for a God: Aztec Pottery scenes of Blood Sacrifice

Aztec pottery often depicts scenes of blood sacrifices.  For the Aztecs, offering human blood in sacrifice was a religious duty, necessary to sustain the world by maintaining the fertility of the land and the power of the ruler.  It was also vital for satisfying the gods, who might at any moment, determine to bring the present age to a violent end.  Humans, gods and the natural world were part of a cosmic pattern of energy in which ritual and sacrifice were the means by which energy was recycled or passed on.  Among the Aztecs, the two most common forms of sacrifice were extracting the victim’s heart from his chest and burning to death.

Removing the Heart

The extraction of the heart was performed with distinguished ceremony on a special sacrificial block known as a quauhxicalli (Stone of the Eagle).  The stone was pointed in the middle, so that a victim thrown and twisted down on it would be forced to arch his back and so thrust up his chest ready for the sacrificial knife.

Naked victims were grouped at the foot of the temple as a priest descended from the heights of the temple with an image of the god in whose honor the sacrifice was being made.  He showed the image of the deity to each victim chanting, “this is your god”, before the victims were led up to the sacrificial stone.

Six priests often wearing Aztec masks portraying deities performed each sacrifice: four to hold each limb, one to hold his throat and one to cut his chest.  The lead priest garbed in a splendid red tunic and a helmet with yellow and green feathers then sliced the victim’s chest with an obsidian knife called a tecpatl.  The heart was then torn out of the chest often still beating, held up to the sun and cast still steaming before the image of the god.

Burning

Sacrifice by burning was reserved for ceremonies in honor of the fire god Xiuhtecuhtli, who was sometimes also worshipped as Huehueteotl (The Old God).  The rite represented the rebirth of the god, the rising of the new life from death in the same way as the sun is reborn each day.

View Aztec ritual items and Mexico crafts at www.AncientMexico.biz

Pamela Coleman Smith the Designer of the Rider Waite Tarot Cards Deck

Pamela Colman Smith (February 16, 1878—September 18, 1951) was a painter, illustrator, and author. She is most widely known for developing the Waite Tarot Cards.a divinatory tarot card deck for Arthur Edward Waite.

Smith came into this world in Pimlico, Middlesex (now London), England the daughter of an American merchant from Brooklyn, Charles Edward Smith and his American wife Corinne Colman. Due to her father’s job with the West India Improvement Company, the family often relocated, spending time in London, Kingston, Jamaica and Brooklyn, New York.

Smith’s mother died when she was just 10 years old, and she was often split up from her father because of his work, she was taken underneath the wing of the Lyceum Theatre group in London led by Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, and Bram Stoker. Her early teens years spent venturing around the country with the theatre group did much to influence her later artwork.

By 1893, Smith had moved to Brooklyn together with her father, where, at the age of 15, she enrolled at the relatively new Pratt Institute and studied art underneath the noted artist teacher Arthur Wesley Dow. She was graduated four years later, and coming back to England in 1899, became a theatrical designer for a miniature theatre and an illustrator. She illustrated Ellen Terry’s book on Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, The Russian Ballet, released in 1913. She joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1903 and met Waite.

In 1909, Waite commissioned Smith to produce a tarot deck with appeal to art, and the outcome was the unique Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck (Rider being the name of the publisher), this deck endured as the world’s most popular 78-card tarot deck. The innovative cards depict full scenes with figures and symbols on all of the cards including the pips, and with Smith’s distinctive designs they have ended up being the basis for the designs of numerous future tarot card decks.

Smith wrote and illustrated several publications about Jamaican folklore, including Annancy Stories (1902) which were about Jamaican versions of tales involving the standard African folk figure Anansi the Spider. She also did a great deal of illustration work for William Butler Yeats and his brother Jack, but apart from the tarot deck, her art found little commercial success. Several beautiful examples of her works done in gouache were collected by Sherlock Holmes stage actor William Gillette, and may be found today, prominently displayed in the permanent collection at his castle in East Haddam, CT.

She never wed. Following the end of the First World War (1914-18), Smith received an inheritance that enabled her to move to Cornwall, a region popular with artists. She passed on in Bude, Cornwall on the 18th of September, 1951. After her death, all of her personal effects, including her pictures and drawings, were sold at auction to satisfy her debts.

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