Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Jericho

This is a Muslim Six pointed Star from the eighth century C.E. in Hisham palace (Khirbet El-Mafjar) located 3 km north of Jericho. 

Picture is courtesy of "markuscuel" who published it on Flickr. 

This is not the only hexagram in Hisham's Palace:

a. K.A.C Creswell shows in his book (Early Muslim Architecture, Vo. I part 2, Oxford, 1969 p. 558) a window-grille reconstructed from fragments which had been printed red or brownish-gold, drawn on equilateral triangles network. There are several hexagrams and a six petaled rose in each of them.
b. In p.572 there's another photo of a grill from diwan of bath dated to 739-43 C.E.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Most Complexly Emotive of All Jewish Symbols

In The Age Website Chris Evans wrote on May 4, 2004 an article about a controversial artwork on display in Flinders Street in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The work shows a large Star of David painted on a wall along with Red text including statistic data concerning Israel's behavior towards the Palestenians.  

David Bernstein wrote on May 6 on the same Website: 
…the use of the Star of David in an indisputably hostile context was deliberately provocative. The Star of David is the most complexly emotive of all Jewish symbols: it has profound, ages-old religious significance as the most ubiquitous and recognisable of such symbols.

Dutch Navy

Mark Sensen wrote on Flags Of The World website about Command and Rank flags in The Dutch Navy since 1815
A Lieutenant-Admiral has four white sixpointed stars in the red stripe near the hoist of the tricolour…
A Vice-Admiral has three …A Rear-Admiral has two (side by side) …A Commodore has one.

He doesn’t explain why the Dutch Navy chose this shape and not any other shape.

Seal from Sidon

My Traffic Meter told me that my blog address appeared today on a Christian Forum. So I clicked the link and saw that "diamondjoust", who is a Junior Member in this Forum, asked:
Why do Jews use the symbol of a hexagram or Magen David?

and "baraqemet", who is a regular member in this Forum, mentioned in his answer the seal from the seventh century B.C.E. found in Sidon and belonging to one Joshua ben Asayahu which is mentioned in Gershom Sholem’s classical article about the Star of David. baraqemet commented:
All we have is a statement by someone [Gershom Sholem], who is into kabbalah, who did not supply any proof to support their theories. 

I don't want the bother of registering to the above-mentioned Forum but I happen to know the missing source:
David Diringer, Le Iscrizioni Antico-ebraiche Palestinesi, Pub; Icazioni Dell'Universita Di Firenze, Facolta' Di Lettere E Filosofia; 3, Firenze: Le Monnier, 1934, P. 187
Check it out!

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Jali

Hexagram surrounded by six hexagons in a grid called Jali (indian term of "mashrabia").
Picture (taken at Humayun Tomb, India) is courtesy of "mattlogelin" who published it on Flickr.

Ten Thousand Years Old Yantra

Yantra HexagramPicture is courtesy of Suzanne Olsson who published it her Website together with an article about THE STAR OF DAVID where she wrote:
The above yantra was carved nearly 10,000 years ago into a rock near Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka. Adam was thought to have visited there, and Noah was believed to have brought the remains of Adam and Eve on the Ark for reburial. If the star was first associated with Hebrews that far back, then Solomon was not the first priest-king to continue it as a family symbol. This leaves several ways the Star symbol was brought into India and became the yantra.

I sent her an email asking for the sources for this photo and she answered me:
I have lost the source that dated the black rocks in Sri Lanka and India...I recall it was the Department of Antiquities in India....it's been about five years since I first came across the information...I wish I had saved the sources...You might be able to recover them eventually through internet searches...

Six Is the Number of Man, Seven Is the Number of God

"Whtstealth" published a very elegant and ORIGINAL graphic explanation for the meaning of the shape of the Star of David on Youtube.
Here are some interesting excerpts from the debate that was developed after he published the clip:
"upsilone" commented (1 month ago)
The Star of David exists for more than 5000 years ago. It existed even before the ancient Hebrew letters were invented…

whtstealth’s Reply (1 month ago):
So what is your point? We do not live in that time now, furthermore 'Do you actually have proof of the origin of the Star of David?' 

I sent the link to this clip to my friend Craciun Lucian and he commented:

That's not a "seven", that's a Gimmel. Plus the two big Daleths ==> 6*3+2*4 = 18+8 = 26, the numerical value of the Tetragrammaton. Also, six Gimmels + six little Daleths = 6*(3+4) = 6*SEVEN = 42. (Six=man; seven=God).
…Arabic numerals, adopted relatively late in human history by Europeans & Middle-Easterners. [The Jews had one numerical system, the Latins another, and the Greeks had equivalents for both -- but something like ten-base Arabic numerals were inexistent (not that there aren't similarities, but these similarities do not account for the number seven having that particular form {"7"}, neither do they permit a summing of the ciphers of the number, since they {Latins, Greeks, Jews} didn't have ciphers, but reserved different letters for -let's say- 6, 60, 600; or 9, 90, 900)].