Ineffable Type

The Mystery of the Angels of the Second Day

2009-02-23T09:27:00.000-08:00

The Rabbis have long held certain theories about angels that seem incongruous to the modern student. They reasoned from the Text that there are two species of angels: the named, immortal ones that we know, and another kind that is nameless and ephemeral, continually created and annihilated. They also allowed for some level of actual materiality for angels.

In Talmud - Mas. Chagigah 14a, we find the Rabbis in a sort of Socratic dialogue as they refine their understanding of these ministering angels. They speak of their continual birth and death:

Samuel said to R. Hiyya b. Rab: O son of a great man (lion), come, I will tell thee something from those excellent things which thy father has said. Every day ministering angels are created from the fiery stream, and utter song, and cease to be, for it is said: “They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:23)” Now he differs from R. Samuel b. Nahmani, for R. Samuel b. Nahmani said that R. Jonathan said: From every utterance that goes forth from the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He, an angel is created (not from the fiery stream), for it is said: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth (Psalms 33:6).”

Sefer Bahir (The Book of Brightness, the Midrash of Rabbi Nehunya Ben Ha-Kanah) is one of the earliest works of Jewish mysticism. It formed the foundation of early Kabbalistic thought. Its (12th-century?) author relates another dialogue in which the Rabbis determine that these nameless angels were created on the second epochal day, whereas the rest were created on the fifth:

21. Rabbi Yochanan said: The angels were created on the second day. It is therefore written (Psalm 104:3), “He rafters His upper chambers with water [He makes the clouds His chariot, He walks on the wings of the wind].” It is then written (Psalm 104:4), “He makes the winds His angels, His ministers from flaming fire.”

[Rabbi Haninah said: The angels were created on the fifth day, as it is written (Genesis 1:20), “And flying things shall fly upon the firmament of heaven.” Regarding the angels it is written (Isaiah 6:2), “With two wings did they fly.”]

Rabbi Levatas ben Tavrus said: All agree, even Rabbi Yochanan, that the water already existed [on the first day]. But it was on the second day that “He raftered His upper chambers with water.” [At that time He also created] the one who “Makes the clouds his chariot,” and the one who “Walks on the wings of the wind.” But His messengers were not created until the fifth day.

22. All agree that none were created on the first day. It should therefore not be said that Michael drew out the heaven at the south, and Gabriel drew it out at the north, while God arranged things in the middle.

It is thus written (Isaiah 44:24), “I am God, I make all, I stretch out the heavens alone, the earth is spread out before Me.” [Even though we read the verse “From Me” (May- iti), it can also be read] Mi iti - “Who was with Me?”

We also find these mortal angels of the second day in the Zohar (Bereshit 76):

76. This is the secret of the verse: “Who causes the grass to grow for the cattle” (Tehilim [Psalms] 104:14). This is the beast that crouches on a thousand mountains and for whom grass is grown every day. This grass refers to those angels who govern only for a specific time, but then must vanish immediately; because they were created on the second day, their dominion draws upon the left column that was created on the second day. In their
Dominion they wish to annul the right. They are destined to be food for this beast, which means that nothing of their illumination is drawn down to the lower beings. Only the feminine principle enjoys it, and then she burns and annuls them with it - as there is fire that consumes fire, which is the dominion of the left, called ‘Fire.’

In Jewish Mysticism, J. Abelson relates that at least some of the first-century contemporaries of Philo, a Stoic Alexandrian Jew, considered angels as physical:

But there are aspects of Philo’s angelology which are strange to Rabbinic modes of thought. One of the most interesting of these is his designation of angels as ‘Incorporeal intelligences’ and as ‘Immortal souls’ (On Dreams [That They Are God-sent], I. 20). The Rabbis obviously thought of angels as material beings. They even at times materialised the Shechinah, as will be mentioned in the following chapter. The sight of an angel was a physical phenomenon. Philo’s exegesis took quite a different turn.

The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary Zukav

Now we come to the most psychedelic aspect of particle physics. Below is a Feynman diagram of a three-particle interaction. In this diagram no world line leads up to the interaction and no world line leads away from it. It just happens. It happens literally out of nowhere for no apparent reason, and without any apparent cause. Where there was no-thing, suddenly in a flash of spontaneous existence, there are three particles which vanish without a trace.

[Diagram]

This type of Feynman diagram is called a “vacuum diagram.” That is because the interactions happen in a vacuum. A “vacuum,” as we normally construe it, is a space that is entirely empty. Vacuum diagrams, however, graphically demonstrate that there is no such thing. From “empty space” comes something, and then that something disappears again into “empty space.”

In the subatomic realm, a vacuum obviously is not empty. So where did the notion of a completely empty, barren, and sterile “space” come from? We made it up. There is no such
thing in the real world as empty space. It is a mental construction, an idealization, which we have taken to be true.

“Empty” and “full” are false distinctions that we have created, like the distinction between “something” and “nothing.” They are abstractions from experience which we have mistaken for experience. Perhaps we have lived so long in our abstractions that instead of realizing that they are drawn from the real world, we believe that they are the real world.

Vacuum diagrams are the serious product of a well-intentioned physical science. However, they also are wonderful reminders that we can intellectually create our “reality.” It is not possible, according to our usual conceptions, for “something” to come out of empty space, but, at the subatomic level, it does, which is what vacuum diagrams illustrate. In other words, there is no such thing as “empty space” (or “nothing”) except
as a concept in our categorizing minds.

Photons are force-carrying bosons that mediate interactions of electromagnetic particles, as gluons do for the strong nuclear force and W and Z bosons do for the weak. In Heim theory (Droescher), these force carriers are called “messenger particles.” Likewise, the theorized graviton might be the messenger particle associated with the force of gravity.

[To be completed later. I have been putting this off for a couple months. If I post it, I think I'll be more inclined to finish it. It'll go on to mention Stuart Hameroff, Evan Harris Walker (tangentially), and John Conway's Strong Free Will Theorem that I dropped in the Lucite.org PDF archive a while back. John Conway has just today (4/19/2009) received some traction from Boing Boing and Kevin Kelly. His paper has been remarked on at Slashdot, too.]

Lydia Agnes Price

2009-02-07T06:01:00.000-08:00

I am looking for information on my American Indian ancestors Mary "Polly" Cook and Lydia Agnes Price, through whom I am descended. I've found a little, but it's kind of a sad story. It seems she was made to be ashamed of her Lenni Lenape heritage.

Lydia Agnes Price, our great-grandmother, married Michael Heland Langley on 18 December 1850.

Lydia's parents were: William Price and Mary "Polly" Cook. She was 100% Native American (Delaware tribe).

Mary "Polly" Cook was a full-blooded Delaware Indian. Her parents were Obediah Cook and Sarah Cottingham. Many members of the Delaware tribe lived and adopted the white people's ways. They took English names, they farmed, or even went into business right along with white people. Some did not even consider themselves as anything but white people, and some even grew ashamed of their Indian blood. This is the category that Mary Cook belonged to. She married William price, a white man, on the 22 February 1827, and raised all of her children to live and think as "white." William and Mary had six children together: Isaac, born 6 January 1828 in North Carolina; Magdalene Sarah, born 13 november 1829 in North carolina; Lydia Agnes, born 7 February 1832, born in Madison Co. (Buncombe Co.) North Carolina; James Connor, born 16 february 1834 in North Carolina; Berry price, bor 15 December 1836 in South Carolina; William Harrison, born 8 October 1837 in North Carolina. William Price is listed in the 1830 census of Buncombe Co., North Carolina,with one male child under 5 (son, Isaac) and a female aged 15-20 (Mary Cook, William's wife). He does not appear in the census again with Mary. The William Price family is listed on the same page with Obediah Cook in the 1830 census of Buncombe County, North Carolina, and in 1840, Mary Price, as head of household, is situated between the households of Obediah Cook and Riley Cook. William Price died at age 33, in 1838, cause of death is still unknown.

(Excerpt from the Price Family Genealogy.)

In the Langley Family Tree, Lydia is also mentioned.

Michael Heland Langley, our great-grandfather, born 22 July 1818, in Ashe Co., North Carolina during the presidency of James Monroe. Michael lived there until he was 7 years old. The family moved to Campbell Co., Tennessee. His family and friends called him "Heland," pronounced "Hee-land." He left Tennessee at age 21, in 1839, to live with his sister, Nancy Jane gray and her husband Martin, and his wife Susannah in Nodaway Co., Missouri for awhile. He lived in Page Co., Iowa/Nodaway Co., Missouri area (which were abutting counties) for 8 years, moving back to Page Co., Iowa, where he lived for 12 years. At 32 years, Michael married Lydia Agnes price on 18 December 1850, in Nodaway Co., Missouri. She was a pretty, dark-haired, half-Native American girl of 18 years. They were pioneer citizens of Easton Township, Kansas, moving to Kansas in 1856. They came to Kansas six years before Kansas was admitted into the Union. They came in a covered wagon with their three children....

(Excerpt from the Langley Family Tree.)

I am now trying to find out more about Lydia and her mother. This all came up when a child of my brother's showed a genetic marker that is only found in children with Indian blood from both father and mother (his wife also has American Indian ancestors). We confirmed it with the above information. I wish I would have known about this when I was a kid.

I would have killed a lot more cowboys with my cap repeating rifle.

Five Monkeys and a Fishsquirrel

2009-01-06T02:34:00.000-08:00

Since (a.) the lucite.org site is essentially about deism/theism (angels), and (b.) no one visits lucite.org, I have added a lot of new content about atheism in order to please my readership. Books and articles about atheism, Dawkins, and modern cosmology can be found by selecting the appropriate folder from the drop-down list box at the lucite.org wisdombase, linked in the title above.

There is also a lot of new content on philosophy, physics, ontology, and theodicy throughout the wisdombase, so you might want to check again and see if there is anything you might like to read.

Incidentally, it occurred to me that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is necessarily a composite entity, and so the reductio ad absurdum fails. Its flight and constituents would have to be explained away as figuration to the point where it would become identical with G, our uncaused cause of maximal positivity. I believe the Invisible Pink Unicorn is also composite, as its pinkness implies its possible visibility.

Proof That God Exists

2008-12-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

William S. Hatcher applies his Minimalist philosophy to Avicenna's neglected ontological proof. Hatcher uses first-order relational logic, avoiding the existential pitfalls of modal logic (necessity, contingency, and manifold universes). Hatcher's proof, linked in the title above, lays an explicit foundation for the following excerpt.

We now have before us four empirically grounded, and therefore plausibly true, metaphysical principles (P.0-P.3). We list them together for easy reference in the ensuing text.

P.0. V is composite.
[V is reality entire: subjective, objective, abstract, and concrete.]

P.1. Every existing phenomenon B is either caused (other-caused) or uncaused (self-caused), and never both.
[The complete cause equals the initial phenomenon plus the efficient cause (CC=IP+EC). The straw that breaks the camel's back is the efficient cause. The complete cause also includes the rest of the straws, and maybe an affidavit from the camel's chiropractor.]

P.2. Suppose that A→B holds, where B is composite. Then A→E also holds where E is any part of B (i.e., where either E∈B or E⊂B).
[Signifiers: → causation, ∈ composition, and ⊂ containment.]

P.3. A→E cannot hold if E is a component of A.

Besides P.0, which is absolutely certain, none of the other principles makes any existence assertions whatever. P.1-P.3 are all universal conditional statements—propositions which affirm that, whenever and if ever certain conditions are obtained, then certain other conditions must be fulfilled. In other words, these statements in themselves have no existential import. However, in conjunction with P.0 (i.e., under the assumption that something exists), these principles have strong and somewhat surprising existential consequences.

Theorem. It follows from P.0-P.3 that there is one and only one self-caused phenomenon G. Further, this G is simple (non-composite) and is a (necessarily unique) universal cause (i.e., a cause of every existent phenomenon).

Proof. We begin by asking the question “What is the cause of the global phenomenon V?” By P.1, V is either self-caused or other-caused. Suppose for the moment that it is self-caused, V→V. By P.0, V is composite. Hence, there is some component E∈V. Therefore, by P.2, V→E. But this contradicts the limitation principle P.3 since E is a component of V. Thus, V cannot be self-caused. In fact this argument is applicable to any composite and establishes the general principle: that no composite phenomenon can be self-caused.

Applying P.1 to the above, we now conclude that V must be other-caused by some phenomenon G≠V, G→V. Now, every phenomenon is either a component or a subsystem of V (see above). We thus have G→V and G is a part of V. By P.2, we can thus immediately conclude that G→G (i.e., G is self-caused). This means that G is simple because if G had some component E, we could then conclude (by P.2) that G→E, contradicting P.3. Thus, G is self-caused and simple. The simplicity of G implies that G is an entity (and thus a component of V, G∈V).

Moreover, G→V and every phenomenon B is a part of V. Hence, by P.2, G→B where B is any phenomenon whatever. G is therefore a universal cause.

Finally, G is the unique uncaused entity. To see this, suppose that G'→G' for some phenomenon G'. Now, we have already established that G is a universal cause, so G→G' also holds. Thus, G' is both self-caused and caused by G. However, P.1 asserts that no self-caused phenomenon can also be other-caused. Thus, G cannot be other than G' (i.e., G=G'). Hence, the simple entity G is the only uncaused phenomenon in existence.

It is important to realize that, in the light of the minimalistic method we have employed, the above theorem is not an idle word game. We have showed that the existence of a unique, simple, universal, uncaused cause follows by pure logic from a few, broad, objective properties of reality. In more formal terms, the conjuction of P.0-P.3 logically implies that G exists: (P.0 & P.1 & P.2 & P.3)→(G exists). This proof is totally objective. In other words, it is literally impossible that P.0-P.3 be true and that G not exist.

Home Again, Home Again

2008-11-29T12:22:00.000-08:00

I am homeful again after a couple of distressing years. Mazinga and I are reunited and I have my stuff, too. It will still take some time to get my bearings, I think. The "resident" email works again, and my primary address is "lucite.org" at Gmail.com. No phone yet, and I may just get a Skype number since I am allergic to telephones anyway.

Lucite.org Going Dark

2006-08-10T19:33:00.000-07:00

Mazinga and Adrian will be moving at the end of the month, so Lucite.org, Winterkills.com and related services will be out of commission for a while. Lucite.org-related domains will be redirected to this externally hosted blog.

I can still be contacted via e-mail for the time being.

"A Mathematical Description of an Eight Dimensional Universe"

2006-07-11T01:29:00.000-07:00

The linked story above (also saved in the lucite.org archive under "quantum hermeneutics") describes a theoretical propulsion device in eight-dimensional Heim-Dröscher space... Exactly as developed in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension:

"After publishing the mass formulae, Heim never really looked at hyperspace propulsion again. Instead, in response to requests for more information about the theory behind the mass predictions, he spent all his time detailing his ideas in three books published in German. It was only in 1980, when the first of his books came to the attention of a retired Austrian patent officer called Walter Dröscher, that the hyperspace propulsion idea came back to life. Dröscher looked again at Heim's ideas and produced an "extended" version, resurrecting the dimensions that Heim originally discarded. The result is "Heim-Dröscher space", a mathematical description of an eight-dimensional universe.

"From this, Dröscher claims, you can derive the four forces known in physics: the gravitational and electromagnetic forces, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. But there's more to it than that. "If Heim's picture is to make sense," Dröscher says, "we are forced to postulate two more fundamental forces." These are, Dröscher claims, related to the familiar gravitational force: one is a repulsive anti-gravity similar to the dark energy that appears to be causing the universe's expansion to accelerate. And the other might be used to accelerate a spacecraft without any rocket fuel." (Visit the headline link for more from New Scientist.)

Joke

2006-05-31T20:44:00.000-07:00

A Kabbalist walks into a bar, and the bartender asks him, "Why the Long Face?"

John Annesley Company Cradled Panels

2006-05-22T10:49:00.000-07:00

I've received some custom panels from John Annesley Company, and now am experimenting with bismuth grounds in earnest. Of three 16"x20", one suffered a couple slight dings in transit, so that will be the one to begin with. A 4'x5' panel is on its way.

John has otherwise crafted the panels so well that it is a shame to put paint on them! I will be posting pictures of works in progress here; quite soon, I hope.

Angelic Iconography in the First Pre-Christian Century?

2006-05-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

The following fragments are from a corpus of works J. Strugnell called "The Angelic Liturgy," which describes angelic adoration and earthly worship as being concurrent and connatural. They are works of early Merkevah mysticism termed "Hekalot," or "Palaces," that aim to comprehend the environment of the Throne Chariot and the compartments/abodes of the angels, and clearly mark the coincidence of the Supernal with the mundane. "All that is above, thus also below."

In this respect, the passages may hint at the true configuration of the numinous Teraphim: sculpted, painted, or engraved representations of elohim (angels) fixed in alcoves in homes and places of worship... a functional prototype for Orthodox icons. Aniconism may also help to explain the dearth of explicit information about the manufacture of Teraphim, since they were regarded by some as an undesirable remnant of Aramaean paganism, while others venerated them on the same level as the priestly Ephod.

The passages are given as related by Geza Vermes in The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (note that "gods" is a literal translation of "elohim," or angels):

4Q405 14-15, i

... tongue of blessing from the likeness [of the gods] issues a [v]oice of blessing for the King of those who exalt, and their wonderful praise is for the God of gods ... their many-coloured ... and they sing ... the vestibules by which they enter, the spirits of the most holy inner Temple ... [And the likene]ss of the living 'gods' is engraved on the vestibules by which the King enters, luminous spiritual figures ... [K]ing, figures of a glorious l[ight, wonderful] spirits; [amo]ng the spirits of splendour there are works of (art of) marvellous colours, figures of the living 'gods' ... [in the] glorious innermost Temple chambers, the structure of [the most ho]ly [sanctuary] in the innermost chambers of the King, design[s of 'go]ds' ... likeness of ... most holy ... [the Temple] chambers of the Ki[ng] ...

4Q405 19 ABCD

The figures of the 'gods' shall praise Him, [the most] h[oly] spirits ... of glory; the floor of the marvellous innermost chambers, the spirits of the eternal gods, all ... fi[gures of the innermost] chamber of the King, the spiritual works of the marvellous firmament are purified with salt, [sp]irits of knowledge, truth [and] righteousness in the holy of [ho]lies, [f]orms of the living 'gods', forms of the illuminating spirits. All their [works (of art)] are marvellously linked, many-coloured [spirits], artistic figures of the 'gods', engraved all around their glorious bricks, glorious figures on b[ri]cks of splendour and majes[ty]. All their works (of art) are living 'gods', and their artistic figures are holy angels. From beneath the marvellous inner[most chambers] comes a sound of quiet silence: the 'gods' bless ...

University of Washington in Infrared

2006-05-07T22:53:00.000-07:00

May Eve

2006-04-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

Cop Car in Infrared

2006-04-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

Why are there two IR shadows beneath the cop car--to change traffic lights?

"Motives Surrounded the Painting with the Breath of the Precious One"

2006-04-22T14:20:00.000-07:00

Frau Dr. Renate Gold offers a rigorous look at the preparation of bismuth grounds in Painted Wood: History and Conservation, Part 3, from a 1994 symposium organized by the Wooden Artifacts Group of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.

"The magic wismutglanz shining through between the multicolored motives surrounded the painting with the breath of the precious one."

All Irregularities Will Be Handled by the Forces Controlling Each Dimension

2006-04-09T19:29:00.000-07:00

Lucite.org Bismuth & Amber Angelic Iconography
Lucite.org is currently writing icons according to time-honored Orthodox tradition, yet featuring novel developments particular to the veneration of angels. Such developments include resurrecting the hitherto lost art of treating artifacts with precipitated bismuth and employing non-denominational expression.

Examples of Lucite.org icons and other works will be found in the Atelier section of the site. In addition to works available on the site, commissions for writing icons of individual Holy Guardian Angels are considered, being fascinating to create for both artist and patron.

The icons are not consecrated in any way other than the extreme care in execution and choice of materials. Most Orthodox icons are effectively mass-produced and blessed to meet demand. For angelic icons that might meet a variety of faiths, solemnities are left to the receiver, as it is nobody's bismuth but theirs.

Iconoclasm and Aniconism
Throughout history, periods of iconoclasm and aniconism have emerged in each of the patriarchal religions. Even today, disputes develop about the differences between veneration, idolatry, and simple regard.

Lucite.org takes the position of an iconodule, and sees the pigment and substrate of an icon no differently than the ink and page of a holy book. Therefore, Lucite.org icons are are said to be "written" rather than depicted, much as a calligrapher might render a florid representation of the Basmala.

The Lustre and Magic of Bismuth
Bismuth is a non-toxic silver-white crystalline heavy metal with a cold pink sheen. It is brittle and has a white crystalline fracture. Bismuth crystallizes in rhombohedra belonging to the hexagonal system, having interfacial angles of 87° 40'. The tarnish of bismuth is iridescent. It oxidizes over time to a warm grey patina according to its exposure to humidity. Varnishing, especially with a fossil or alkyd resin, mitigates oxidation. Bismuth is too brittle to be applied as leaf, so it is applied either pulverized or in solution, and then burnished with a wolf tooth or agate to its characteristic sheen.

Antique objects with bismuth grounds or chasing generally show a dull metallic surface due to the yellowing of varnish linoxyns over time. Conservators might reverse this with the removal of varnish layers and oxidation and re-varnishing, or re-application of bismuth in extreme cases. However, the appearance of bismuth under aged linoxyns is generally agreeable, and few conservators would find it necessary to modify an artifact to such extent. Bismuth, as a surface coating, has proved more durable than silver leaf. Examples of bismuth decoration we can consult today are 300 years old or older, yet they still exhibit finesse of execution and the marvel of an unusual material, though the warm silvery finish and blue-red iridescence is ablated.

Over time, the art of bismuth decoration was utterly lost, and is now found only in rare artifacts that have survived lifetimes of use or hinted at in arcane alchemical texts.

Bismuth is the most diamagnetic of all metals so it is the most suitable material for magnetic levitation experiments.

Though brittle, bismuth is super-elastic and can be stretched 300-400% in length with gradual force.

The thermal conductivity of bismuth is lower than that for any metal except mercury. When ignited in the presence of oxygen, bismuth produces blue-white fire and yellow fumes.

Bismuth is highly resistant to electricity, and has the greatest increase in electrical resistance of any element when subject to a magnetic field ("Hall effect").

Bismuth is radioactive only in theory, with a half-life a billion times the current age of the universe, which is to say that it is inert for all practical purposes.

Rarer bismuth minerals include complex sulphides, copper bismuth glance or wittichenite, silver bismuth glance, bismuth cobalt pyrites, bismuth nickel pyrites or saynite, needle ore (patrinite or aikinite), emplectite, and kobellite; the sulphotelluride tetradymite; the selenide guanajuatite, and walpurgite.

The radio talk show host Art Bell possesses bismuth-rich material (coined "Art's Parts") purported to be from the skin of a UFO that some believe crash landed at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.

Bismuth is anecdotally said to neglect the laws of gravity in certain conditions that have yet to be seen in experimentation. Bismuth is related by elemental column to ununpentium, or eka-bismuth, a theoretical element (pending confirmation of its recent production at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory). This element, too, has fired the imaginations of both the science fiction and UFO research communities.

Bismuth In Antiquity
If the Ancients knew of bismuth, it may have been under a different name or mistaken for a different element, such as antimony, lead, or tin. Bismuth and its oxides were probably used as beauty products during antiquity, just as antimony is in the Book of Enoch. Indeed, the antimony of the Book of Enoch probably indicates bismuth rather than toxic stibnite, which would have been recognized as a poison like arsenic prior to wide adoption as a cosmetic.

The Hebrews may have called bismuth chashmal, which is otherwise translated as a celestial sort of "amber," or "electrum." The word is repurposed to mean "electricity" in Modern Hebrew, although the term most likely denoted fossil amber originally.

Incidental bismuth is found in a number of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age alloys in the region of the Taurus Mountains in present-day Turkey. Such alloys and artifacts diffused throughout Syria and the Levant thereafter.

The earliest examples of bronze-tin alloys containing bismuth come from Tell Judeidah on an east-west trade route about 250 kilometers southeast of mines at Bolkardag. They are thought to derive from the same source of ore, namely that from Aladag (Sayre et al. 1992).

Two examples in particular are a fragment from the electrum helmet on a maquette of a nude male warrior with mace and spear (Braidwood and Braidwood 1960:315, fig. 241, pl. 58), and one from an electrum torque on a female maquette. Spectrographic analysis of the two fragments revealed incidental bismuth included as a component of silver ore alloyed with gold and copper (Braidwood and Braidwood 1960: fig. 245, 315), while the maquettes themselves were of tin bronze (Braidwood, Burke, and Nachtrieb 1951).

Other Chalcolithic lead artifacts are thought to include the same silver-tin-lead-bismuth alloys, particularly an artifact from Tarsus (ancient Tarshish) and a curious lead coil dated to the Early Bronze Age (Goldman 1959:435:no.3). Excavations at Tell Raqa'i in Syria produced a copper pin and slag dated to the third millennium BCE that are also identified with Taurus ores.
An interesting archaic knife was forged by the occupants of the temple site in Macchu Picchu, Peru and found to be a bronze alloy incorporating 18% bismuth (Gordon, R., and J. Rutledge, 1984, Bismuth Bronze from Macchu Picchu, Peru. Science, 223: 585-586).

The Modern History of Bismuth
Bismuth is among rare elements found in the cobalt and nickel mines of Saxony, England, and Bolivia, and Peru.

The technique of bismuth painting originated in southern Germany and Switzerland in the sixteenth century. The relatively few extant examples of bismuth application include heirloom beech boxes, ornamental wooden plates, and altar decor. Bismuth was also manufactured as bright metallic ink for manuscript illumination according to early alchemical recipes.

In alchemy, the symbol for bismuth is the same as that for the zodiacal sign of Taurus. In cursive form, the symbol is like a figure eight with an open top loop.

The earliest examples of bismuth decoration date to around 1490, and by 1613 the governing council of Nuremburg had regulated the trade with the institution of a bismuth painters guild.

Basileus Valentinus (1565-1624) mentioned bismuth (wismut) as a metal in 1450 (noting a chronological discrepancy), and Agricola (1494-1555) and Paracelsus (1493-1541) mentioned it sometime afterward. Paracelsus remarked on its brittleness by terming it a "bastard" or "half-metal." In De natura fossilium Libri X (1546), Agricola marked bismuth (wissmuth, plumbum cineareum) as an "ash grey lead."

A document from a bismuth mine at Schneeburg is dated 1477, which attests not only to its identification at this early date, but also to its widespread use. Bismuth was classed with lead and tin as one of three types of lead. Since silver was often discovered beneath veins of bismuth, the folk belief arose that it was naturally transmuting into silver.

Edmund von Lippmann cited twenty-one different names for bismuth in his book on its history. Claude-François Geoffroy dit Geoffroy cadet offered the synonyms Demogorgon, Étain de Glace, Étain Gris, Glaure, and Nymphe in the Mémoires de l'académie française for 1753. His citations of Demogorgon and Nymphe are from Paracelsus' notebooks and may be epithets according to Paracelsus' view of bismuth as a bastardized compound, a chimerical metal. Geoffroy died the same year, losing all interest in research.

Johann Heinrich Pott (1692-1777) made a study of bismuth in 1769, as Exercitationes chemicae de Wismutho.

Torbern Olaf Bergman (1735-1784) recognized that bismuth was an elemental metal and noted the properties and reactions in his Opuscula.

In J. Carrington Sellars' Chemistianity, he calls bismuth Heyan, according to his own chemical nomenclature.

Nations of the Rephaim

2006-03-24T07:19:00.000-08:00

Lucite.org has created a versioned map of the ancient tribes of the Nephilim. This extraordinary rendition is a baseline for a chronological series of maps that will show the inexorable extension of an evil empire through the Near East. Of course, I mean that of the spooky Rephaim. You may also notice that this is a work in progress.

Immortal, Inbred, and Promiscuous

2006-03-19T23:08:00.000-08:00

The genealogies of the fallen Watchers are now available in GEDCOM 5.5 format for browsing in any current family tree software. The GEDCOM .ged file includes greater detail and annotation than the Visio diagram. The GEDCOM .pdf diagram is machine-generated from the .ged file and informs less than the Visio diagram, but may be a step ahead of the Visio diagram in terms of accuracy.

Since these fellows were immortal, inbred, and promiscuous, the GEDCOM file is a nice way to test the normalization of your favorite family tree software. The file was created with Family Tree Maker 2006, which appears to present convoluted relationships fairly well. It is unable to deal with dates prior to 100 CE, however, and these are included as notes when available.

Opening of the Gate

2006-03-16T21:40:00.000-08:00

My grandfather, Wayne Robbins, used to say: "A man can't do much when his brain is afire with agony, when his blind eyes are dangling down onto his cheeks, dripping blood and optic humor..."

He and his brother, Dane Gregory nee Ormond Robbins, wrote pulp horror and detective fiction in the 30s and 40s under a handful of noms de plume, before the wartime morality spike spiked a market for spicy stories that had carried the family rather well through lean times.

Lucite.org is in the process of rescuing the work of these two brothers from the ravages of acidic paper, cover art collectors, and even their perceived literary value. As time allows, I will offer some of these old, ignored pulp stories for your entertainment, plus several unpublished stories from the detective and shudder genres.

For now, Lucite.org presents "The Thing in Search of a Body," a charming tale of a rough-hewn hammer murderess. A list of the two brothers works are also available, as well as some of Wayne's correspondence in the Lucite.org archive.

If you are a pulp collector and think you might be able to help recover some of these stories or trade some doubles, please let me know.

The Generations of the Bene ha-Elohim

2006-03-13T14:55:00.000-08:00

These are the generations of the infamous Watchers, the Sons of God from Genesis 6 who took to wife the daughters of Cain and thereby begat a race of monsters and heroes. These genealogies are culled from Tanakh, Canaanite mythology, Jewish pseudepigrapha, the Kabbalah, the Quran, and other tales of the Djinn and mankind.

Relationships were originally set down from 1985-1990, and must be worked through again to add notes on nomeclature and cite references. This material looks forward to a comprehensive opus called Sepher Abdiel. There are liable to be a number of errors at the moment, yet work progresses.

The chart is already really fricking big, though, and that is what is most important. Use your Acrobat Reader to zoom to 200%, then move around with the "hand" tool and see if you can find Paris Hilton in there.

Smoking Out the Tenebrists: What Are Shadow and Light?

2006-03-05T14:42:00.000-08:00

Shadow is the absence of light and only arises from the oppositions of dense bodies, when opposed to luminous rays. Shadow is of the nature of darkness and illumination is of the nature of light. The one conceals and the other reveals. They are always joined together in company on bodies, and shadow is of greater power than light, because it banishes and completely deprives bodies of light, and light can never wholly chase away the shadows of bodies, that is to say of dense bodies.

Shadow derives from two things that are dissimilar to each other, because one is corporeal and the other immaterial. The corporeal one is the opaque body and the immaterial is the light. Thus light and body are the causes of shadow.

Shadow is a mixture of darkness with light and it will be of greater or lesser depth according to whether the light that is mixed with it is of greater or lesser strength.

--Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo on Painting, Ed. Martin Kemp)

Angeltech SOA Primer

2006-02-28T11:27:00.000-08:00

A Service-Oriented Architecture Primer is now available among the Angeltech Models. This short treatment offers general technical definitions of SOA and related concepts in order to better understand the Angeltech Visual Kabbalah (sm) analogies. The primer is written from a systems architecture POV.

Milton

2006-02-22T19:14:00.000-08:00

Milton saw a nine-day fall
To the deeps of Hell from Heaven's Hall.
See, nine days shocked, I got messed up
Ten worlds down and all dressed up.
And now I see that he was right,
But I can't say I see the light--
Just shadows casting shadows 'cross the sprawl.

Milton saw a nine-day fall
Through brawling Chaos and Night withal.
See, nine days rocked, I got roughed up.
Ten steps back, but still puffed up.
Milton's familiar angel,
That bright-eyed one named Abdiel--
He is the very one who took the call.

Milton saw a nine-day fall
Arc through the aether like a fireball.
See, nine days clocked. I'm so fucked up.
Tenfold crazed, all pride sucked up.
My Legion driven as foaming swine,
The Blessed pressed us to steep decline--
They hurled me headlong from the crystal wall.

Bridge:
Avengers on my heels all the way
With songs of Te Deum and Kyrie.

I lived by the word
And I lived by my sword.
I once loved a woman
And I once loved...

Ruskin as Artist

2006-02-18T17:53:00.000-08:00

Ruskin's Elements of Drawing

2006-02-11T10:35:00.000-08:00

"The Elements of Drawing is a searchable and browsable online version of the teaching collection and catalogues assembled by John Ruskin for his Oxford drawing schools..."

Descend from Heaven Urania, by that Name

2005-11-14T19:43:00.000-08:00

Lucite.org has a new song available in the War in Heaven collection entitled Descend from Heaven Urania, by that Name. It features harp, soloist, a guy that says "lucite," a sample of the theme from the 1968 Romeo and Juliet movie, and drum and bass. It's kind of a chill out tune.

Urania is the Greek muse of astronomy, and Milton applied her name to his inspiring imago. Apparently, his aims were somewhat higher than Calliope, the patron of poetry, could handle. He addresses her in Paradise Lost Book Seven, actually:

"Descend from heaven, Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
Following, above th' Olympian hill I soar.
Above the flight of Pegasean wing.
The meaning, not the name, I call; for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'st, but heavenly born:
Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed,
Thou with eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play
In presence of th' Almighty Father, pleased
With thy celestial song. Up led by thee,
Into the heaven of heavens I have presumed,
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,
Thy tempering. With like safety guided down,
Return me to my native element;
Lest from this flying steed unreined (as once
Bellerophon, though from a lower clime),
Dismounted, on th' Aleian field I fall,
Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn.
Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound
Within the visible diurnal sphere:
Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole,
More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged
To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days,
On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues;
In darkness, and with dangers compassed round,
And solitude: yet not alone, while thou
Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when morn
Purples the east. Still govern thou my song,
Urania, and fit audience find, though few;
But drive far off the barbarous dissonance
Of Bacchus and his revelers, the race
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard
In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears
To rapture, till the savage clamor drowned
Both harp and voice, nor could the Muse defend
Her son. So fail not thou, who thee implores;
For thou art heavenly, she an empty dream."

Anyway, I have no such lofty aims, no such muse, so there is just a chill out tune.