I have this crazy-mad theory about the Hidden History of the Black Madonnas that I’ve seen nowhere before and was feeling some doubts about.

Then, all of a sudden, the word SYNCRETISM was read and looked up and everything fell into place.

Syncretism :

1. the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought.”interfaith dialogue can easily slip into syncretism”
2. 2.LINGUISTICSthe merging of different inflectional varieties of a word during the development of a language.

Of course. That is what has happened with this subject.

SO – It has to be stripped back to the very beginning.

Everywhere you go you will read about the Divine Feminine, the Jungian Psychology, the Dark Mother, the Pre-Christian/pagan, the racial symbolism, the Catholic Control, the great and titillating mystery of these religious icons. Millions of words, thousands of ideas, hundreds of books.

For me it needed just three words.

Syncretism.

Khem/Kemit.

Romaic.

It takes me back to the old argument about the colour of Cleopatra’s skin.

Was she a black African/Egyptian or was she truly Greek?

Think outside the box? What box? There IS NO BOX :oO

I bought and read this book when it was first published.

This groundbreaking book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values. Writing drove cultures toward linear left-brain thinking and this shift upset the balance between men and women, initiating the decline of the feminine and ushering in patriarchal rule. Examining the cultures of the Israelites, Greeks, Christians, and Muslims, Shlain reinterprets ancient myths and parables in light of his theory. Provocative and inspiring, this book is a paradigm-shattering work that will transform your view of history and the mind.

Does every word and sentence sit well with me?

No!

But it’s a mind-expanding read :o)

I’ve just had an absurdly profound thought about Hidden and Twisted History.

Someone watched a video I’d posted ages ago about Vampires.

Sheesh. This has always been in my mind but only now has it made sense.

Vampires drink blood. I’ve written so much about Dracula and Elizabeth Bathory and Deviant Burials but….

THIS POST IS THE LINK.

26th of April 2019 : Wordless

From Nikitas Choniates, 12th century Byzantine writer:

Thus the wretched Andronicus was arrested, bound, and thrown into a boat together with the women…

He was confined in the so-called prison of Anemas with two heavy chains weighing down his proud neck, the iron collar used to fetter caged lions, and his feet were painfully shackled. Bound in this fashion he was paraded before Emperor Isaakios (Isaac II Angelos – his cousin)…

He was slapped in the face, kicked on the buttocks…his teeth pulled out…he was even battered by women who struck him in the mouth with their fists…

Afterwards his right hand was cut off by an axe, he was cast again into the same prison without food and drink, tended by no one.

…one of his eyes was gouged out, and seated upon a mangy camel, he was paraded through the agora.

…there was no evil which they did not inflict wickedly on Andronikus. Some struck him on the head with clubs…some using foul language reviled his mother and all their forebears. There were those who pierced his ribs with spits…pelted him with stones…

There was no one who did not inflict some injury on Andronikus.

To those who poured forth one after another and struck him, he turned and said no more than, ‘Lord have mercy,’

Removing the short tunic they assaulted his genitals. A certain ungodly man dipped his long sword into his entrails by way of the pharynx…

…raised their swords with both hands…they brought them down, making trial as to whose cut was deepest.

After so much suffering, Andronikus broke the thread of life, his right arm extended in agony and brought around to his mouth so that it seemed to many that he was sucking out the still warm blood dripping from the recent amputation.

From mysterioustimes.com  Jan 2019:

“On the Holy Shroud – the professor adds – I have counted 370 flagellate wounds, without taking into account the lateral ones, which the canvas does not offer because it only enveloped the anterior and posterior part of the body. But we can launch the hypothesis of about 600 hits. In addition, the three-dimensional reconstruction has allowed us to reconstruct that at the time of death, the man of the Sindone was bent to the right because the right shoulder was so severely dislocated that it had injured the nerves “

I have a 1991 paperback edition of Montaigne’s Essays – used for research into the mind of of the 16th/17th century person.

What this edition of mine completely lacks is any mention of the first translator of Montaigne into English and to whom he dedicated his works.

The translator was John Florio and he dedicated his work to two women…

Elizabeth Sidney Rutland and Penelope Devereux Rich.

:o)