Happy Halloween … in honor of the ancestors and remembering roots… Steven Moore’s readers guide published in 1982 provides the sources used by one of the first and most important American postmodern writers, William Gaddis, for his difficult-to-read masterpiece novel “The Recognitions” (1955)… “6.14] Pleiades [...] Mordad [ancient Iranian word for “mortality” while immortality is Amordad], and the angel of death: the Greek sailing season extended from the rising of the Pleiades in May…to their setting in early November. The many customs and legends associated with these stars are recorded in Olcotts Star Lore of All Ages… the relevant portions from which read: Memorial services to the dead at the season of the year when the Pleiades occupied a conspicuous position in the heavens are found to have taken place, and to have been a feature in the history of almost every nation of the earth, from remote antiquity to the present day. [...] Among the Aztecs of South America we find the Pleiades the cynosure of all eyes, a nation trembling at their feet. At the end of every period of fifty-two years, in the month of November when the Pleiades would culminate at midnight, [Aztecs believed the world would end]… Far removed from the Aztecs we find the people of Japan in their great national festival, the Feast of Lanterns, a feast that is alive to-day. [...] The Persians formerly called the month of November Mordad, meaning the angel of death, and that month marked the date of their festival of the dead. [...] [note, Iranians still have the month of Mordad in their calendar; the original New Year celebration of antiquity for Iranians was beginning of Fall before it shifted to Spring about 2500 years ago with the rise of the first world Empire under Achaemenid dynasty; what remains of the ancient Fall celebrations still takes place known as Mihregan in honor of Indo-Iranian divinity Mithra associated with the sun-n-lion as seen in this 1965 Iranian stamp iranstamp/images/uploads/nf1290.jpg; one of 6 sacred ancient Iranian Zoroastrian feasts is celebrated and known as Hamaspathmaidyem Gahambar or “Feast of All souls”] [J. F.] Blake tell us [in his Astronomical Myths] that the first of November was with the ancient Druids of Britain a night full of mystery, in which they annually celebrated the reconstruction of the world. Although Druidism is now extinct the relics of it remain to this day, for in our calendar we still find Nov. 1st marked as All Saints Day, and in the pre-Reformation calendar the last day of October was marked All Hallow Eve, and the 2d of November as All Souls, indicating clearly a three days festival of the dead, commencing in the evening, and originally regulated by the Pleiades.” ~ as part of collective consciousness ancestral connections and legacies still survive – even if indirectly or hidden -- aggressive religious conversions and indoctrinations, historical revisionism, and political manipulations in maintaining at least control over 60% of world population and their resources…
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 18:59:17 +0000