The Man, the Ox, the Lion and the Eagle

  

From Hilary White at the Sacred Images Project:

There is a running internet joke going around about “biblically accurate angels” that usually involves sticking googly eyes and extra wings onto random objects until they become progressively more horrifying. Like most jokes, it exists because there is a grain of truth behind it. The heavenly beings described in Scripture are often deeply strange, covered with eyes, multiple wings and composite forms, sometimes not even remotely anthropomorphised and seem designed less to comfort than to overwhelm the human imagination.

We’re going to take a brief look today at the background for these images, and we’ll learn how Christian artists traditionally rendered as symbols some of the strangest passages in Scripture.

You’ve seen them hundreds of times if you’ve ever looked at medieval art, even if you never noticed them consciously. Whenever you see an image of Christ enthroned, surrounded by the mandorla - the “Christ in Majesty” prototype we’ve discussed, you also see these four strange beings: a winged man who looks like an angel, a lion, an ox and an eagle, usually all with wings and halos. And it’s in nearly every single depiction of it, from illuminated manuscripts and book covers to Romanesque frescoes and carved Gothic tympana over church doors. (Read more.)

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Tibet - Reincarnation With Communist Characteristics

 From AND Magazine:

During the recent summit with President Trump, Xi Jinping made clear his intention to “reunite” Taiwan, which is not historically part of China, with the People’s Republic. Another historically independent nation, Tibet, has already suffered this fate. Over a million Tibetans died in that “reunification” process, and for good measure, the CCP destroyed over 6000 Buddhist monasteries and temples.

But, if you want to get a full appreciation for what it means to be “reunited” with Communist China, you need to understand that Red China now presumes to control the succession of the Dalai Lama. Beijing has already occupied the physical. It now intends to occupy the metaphysical as well.

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. The current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso. He is 90 years old. He lives in exile in India, having fled the Chinese occupation of his country, but remains widely regarded as the symbol of Tibetan resistance to Chinese tyranny. Given his advanced age, the question of who will succeed him is more than academic.

The Tibetans employ an elaborate religious process to choose the successor to a Dalai Lama. In brief, it is believed that when a Dalai Lama passes, he is reincarnated immediately in the body of someone else. The process, then, is effectively a hunt for that new individual, usually a child.

To find the Dalai Lama, other high lamas consult oracles, watch the direction of smoke emanating from the cremation of the deceased Dalai Lama, take note of natural events, and even watch to see which way the Dalai Lama is facing when he dies. When a possible successor is identified, these lamas then interview possible successors and test them. Candidates are shown personal items belonging to the old Dalai Lama, as well as “decoys,” and must correctly identify the items that “belong” to them. This is all a matter of looking for signs and delving into a world of mysticism, faith, and ancient history.

None of which means anything to the Communist abomination that is modern China.

The Chinese have no intention of allowing a bunch of Tibetan monks to choose their spiritual leader. They have declared they will choose. They have a ministry for just this task, and, of course, they have rules and regulations. (Read more.)

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DNA Analysis of Christopher Columbus

 From Bored Panda:

Christopher Columbus may not have been who we thought, as researchers are closer to unraveling the mystery of his true identity. According to the widely accepted story about the famous explorer, he is a man of humble Italian origins. But a new genetic study has challenged this, saying he may be from a powerful and influential family elsewhere.

For centuries, history books have painted Columbus as a navigator of modest Italian origins.

Despite not being the first to make it to the Americas, he was the man credited with discovering the “New World” after convincing the Catholic Monarchs to finance a voyage that changed the course of history.

On August 3, 1492, he and his crew of nearly 100 people set sail from the port of Palos in southern Spain in three vessels: The Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria.

To find a route to China and India was Columbus’ mission.

But after 35 days at sea and growing frustration among his crew, he nearly turned back. But the cry of land being spotted was heard at around 2 a.m. on October 12. And thus, Columbus had arrived in the Americas. (Read more.)

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'Viva la Vida'

One of my sisters insisted to me that I listen to the Coldplay song 'Viva la Vida'. She said it was about Louis XVI. I doubted that anything with a Spanish title, written by a liberal like Chris Martin, with Delacroix's painting honoring the 1830 Revolution on the cover, could have anything to do with my beloved Martyr-King. But I listened to humor her. And then listened again and again and again. I am now convinced that, in spite of the title and revolutionary imagery, the song is an ode honoring the immolation of His Most Christian Majesty Louis XVI. I have pondered the lyrics and what they express about his life, his passion and his death. At my sister's request, I have jotted down my thoughts here. The lyrics are from the Coldplay website. The comments in bold are mine.

I used to rule the world

At his coronation on June 11, 1775, Trinity Sunday, Louis XVI was anointed with the holy oils, including the miraculous chrism from the Holy Ampulla. He was invested in the ancient royal regalia, including the sword of Charlemagne. As the Most Christian King, Louis was first among the rulers of the world.

Seas would rise when I gave the word

Louis XVI rebuilt the French navy, which defeated the British in the American War for Independence.

Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

During his trial in late 1792 and early 1793, Louis XVI was separated from his wife and family and was in solitary confinement in the Temple prison even on Christmas Day, when he wrote his Will. I am not sure what the reference to sweeping the streets means, except that Louis was treated by the Temple guards with insults and disrespect.

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy’s eyes

 Louis hated gambling, although it was rife at court. He did gamble when he chose to help the Americans, which was a successful gamble, and when he summoned the Estates-General in 1789, an unsuccessful gamble, which was used to overthrow him.

Listened as the crowd would sing
Now the old king is dead long live the king

Louis XVI was exceedingly popular when he came to the throne at 20 years old in 1774 at the death of his grandfather Louis XV.

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me

Louis was given the keys of the city of Paris when he formally visited in 1774 as Dauphin with his wife Marie-Antoinette, the city where he would eventually become a prisoner in October 1789.

And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

The "pillars of salt" I am guessing refers to the refusal of the court to let go of the past, and the resistance, even in the royal family, to the reforms of Louis and Antoinette. The "pillars of sand" must refer to the bankruptcy inherited by Louis XVI from the last two monarchs, which he had to deal with from day one, in spite of the demands of the people for a glamorous court.

I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing

Perhaps a reference to the heritage of crusader kings Louis VII and St. Louis IX. Louis XVI was named for the latter, with the saint's exact name of "Louis-Auguste."

Roman cavalry choirs are singing

The French monarchy was long regarded as a defender of the papacy and was thus given the title of Eldest Daughter of the Church.

Be my mirror, my sword and shield

Louis was gradually deprived of the splendor of his palace, his armed forces and his public worship of God. The "mirror" might refer to the famous Hall of Mirrors. Louis' "sword" I think represents the army he built up, and the "shield" means his Catholic faith, all of which were materially stripped from him. What did he have left until the last few months? His children, his sister and his wife. Marie-Antoinette was his mirror, sword and shield when all else was gone. And she defended him until the moment of her own death.

Missionaries in a foreign field

The Jesuit martyrs of North America are famous but people forget that Louis XVI sent out his own missionaries in the Lapérouse expedition.

For some reason I can’t explain
Once you’d gone there was never
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world

Louis XVI was plunged into an acute depression when his oldest son Louis-Joseph died after a painful illness in June of 1789, just as Louis had to deal with the Estates-General and the chaos that followed.

It was a wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in

Louis XVI would never have been king except that his older brother died of tuberculosis, a slow suffocation which people believed was caused by "bad" air. His son died of the same illness a few months before the mob broke into the palace and captured the Royal Family as prisoners.

Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn’t believe what I’d become

This appears to refer to the raids upon the Palace of the Tuileries in June and August of 1792, in which much damage was done. On August 10, 1792, the Royal Family fled the mob to take refuge with the National Assembly, where they were arrested. The Swiss Guards were massacred.

Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate

There were those who early on sought the death of the entire Royal Family. Louis, his wife and his sister, were guillotined.

Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?

When Louis was under house arrest at the Tuileries he was basically a puppet. In his Will he lamented the misfortune of being king.

I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can’t explain
I know St Peter won’t call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh

Hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can’t explain
I know St Peter won’t call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

  "For some reason I can’t explain/ I know St Peter won’t call my name." This verse breaks my heart because I think it is a reference to how Louis XVI was originally advised by clerics to sign the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which created a church independent of the papal supremacy. Louis felt so guilty he became ill, and when he eventually received guidance from the Pope on the matter he did everything he could to work against the document he had signed. Refusing to receive his Easter Communion in 1791 from a priest who had taken the oath to the government, he attempted to flee Paris with his family, to be captured at Varennes on the Feast of Corpus Christi. From the beginning of the ordeal, Marie-Antoinette refused to take the oath to the Civil Constitution and she and Madame Elisabeth, Louis' sister, arranged for secret Masses with priests who had not betrayed the papacy. Nevertheless, Louis' earlier perceived betrayal is the reason that has been given for why the Catholic Church, which he loved, has never beatified him.

"Never an honest word/ But that was when I ruled the world." Louis as ruler often had to go against his feelings and preferences. Although he was known to be blunt and forthright he had learned as a child to keep his thoughts to himself. Lies were told about him during his life: that he was an impotent imbecile under the thumb of his foreign wife. Lies are told about him to this day.

Anyway, this song captures the majesty of all that was great about the patrimony of the French monarchy, and how Louis had to take upon his shoulders the satanic rage of the fall of Christendom, while embodying in himself all the past courage, faith and mercy.

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Memorial Day, the Triumphal Arch, and the Veterans Suing to Block America's 250th Birthday Arch

 From Alexander Muse at Amuse on X:

On Memorial Day, the country pauses to honor the men who died in its uniform, and the men who came home and continued to serve the republic in quieter ways. It is a day for plain speech about loyalty, sacrifice, and the difference between the two. So it is worth being plain about the piece CBS News published this morning under the headline, “For a group of Vietnam vets, opposing Trump’s arch is about being ‘loyal to the country.’” The piece profiles Shaun Byrnes and Jon Gundersen, two of the Vietnam veterans who, alongside a third veteran and an architectural historian, sued in February to stop construction of the 250-foot Triumphal Arch planned for Memorial Circle on Columbia Island, the empty traffic circle between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. CBS frames them as career diplomats, decorated veterans, and reluctant non-partisans who have been roused from retirement by a uniquely alarming threat to the republic. The framing is the story. The men are props. And the framing collapses the moment one consults the public record.

Consider how the framing works. CBS allows Byrnes to compare the arch to the architecture of “authoritarian dictatorships,” which he says have “no rule of law, no consent of the governed,” and “monuments for the leaders.” CBS reports, with no audible skepticism, that both Byrnes and Gundersen view the arch as a monument to Trump rather than to the country’s 250th anniversary. The reader is invited to receive this as the sober judgment of patriots who have set politics aside. The reader is not told that Gundersen appeared in a 2020 video titled “Vietnam Vet and Ukraine Diplomat Talks Voting Against Trump as a Republican,” that he has spent years using his veteran status to attack the president’s Ukraine policy from a maximalist pro-Kyiv posture, or that Byrnes publicly attacked President Trump and Richard Grenell when they brokered the Kosovo-Serbia normalization, preferring the conflict to continue. The reader is not told that the burial threat in the piece, Byrnes saying he would “reconsider” interment at Arlington if the arch is built, is a rhetorical device, not a policy objection. The reader is told only what the framing requires. (Read more.)

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Audubon's 'Birds of America'

 From Country Life:

In November 2023, shortly after taking up the position of Heritage Lead at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Claire McDade, a woman who positively thrums with all the compact energy and bright-eyed good cheer of a goldfinch on a sunny spring morning, removed the dust sheet that for the previous 30-odd years had covered a waist-high cabinet, about the size of a foosball table or perhaps a little larger, in a corner of the college’s upstairs library.

What lay beneath left her speechless.

A first edition of the first volume of John James Audubon’s Birds of America. ‘I hate to use the word, but, honestly, I was,’ she told me, ‘gobsmacked. I thought, “We’ve got to do something more with this.” I made it my mission.’

By May 2026, with necessary funding secured and conservation work done, her mission was accomplished. As of this week, the college’s Audubon is, for a few precious hours every Monday, available for public inspection. (Read more.)

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Marie-Antoinette's Mantilla

Here is the veil the Queen wore at Mass, particularly on feast days when she received Holy Communion. It is kept at the shrine of Notre-Dame de Bétharram near Lourdes. 

Is the Duchesse de Berry wearing it, here?

And is Marie-Antoinette's daughter wear the same veil, here?

 

Here is a picture of the last Tsar's niece Princess Iryna Alexandrovna in her wedding dress. It is said her veil belonged to Marie-Antoinette. Share

Why SpaceX's S-1 Is the Century's Most Important Corporate Document

 From Alexander Muse on Amuse on X:

Yesterday, Starship Flight 12 lifted 45 tons of payload to orbit, the largest single launch by mass since the Saturn V hauled Skylab in 1973. Two days earlier, SpaceX completed its S-1 registration statement with the SEC, the document that will govern the company once it begins trading under the ticker SPCX on Nasdaq and Nasdaq Texas. Most readers will treat these as separate stories, one a feat of engineering and the other a paperwork milestone. They are the same story. The S-1 is the corporate-law expression of what makes Starship possible, and what makes Boeing’s Starliner an embarrassment. I spent several hours reading the filing and the two exhibits containing Musk’s compensation awards, and I want to explain why every serious founder taking a company public over the next decade should study this document the way constitutional lawyers study the Federalist Papers.

Begin with the basic architecture. Before the IPO, SpaceX has three classes of common stock, but the structure investors will actually buy into is cleaner than that. As part of the offering, all of the existing Class C shares will be reclassified into Class A, leaving the public company with two classes of common stock. Class A carries 1 vote per share. Class B carries 10 votes per share. The economics across the classes are identical, meaning equal dividends, equal liquidation rights, and equivalent consideration in any sale or merger. Public investors are not subordinated economically, not by a penny. What they do not receive is the right to overrule the founder on strategic questions. The exact ownership and voting percentages are left blank in the S-1 pending final pricing, but press coverage of the filing has reported that Musk will hold somewhere around 93% of the Class B shares and approximately 85% of the total voting power after the offering. Class B holders, voting separately, are entitled under the S-1 to elect a majority of the board, which the charter sets at 51% rounded up. Class B shares automatically convert into Class A on any transfer outside a narrow set of permitted exceptions, which means the supervoting control is personal to Musk and cannot be auctioned to the highest bidder. This is the dual-class structure Larry Page defended in his 2004 Google founders’ letter, refined and hardened. (Read more.)

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Earliest English Poem

 From Euronews:

A 9th-century manuscript held in Rome has revealed the earliest known Old English poem, Caedmon’s Hymn, hidden within a copy of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. In the archives of a Roman library, researchers have made an astonishing discovery: a 9th-century manuscript copy of the oldest known poem in the English language - missing, until now.

The lost copy of the Hymn of Caedmon was uncovered in the archives of the National Central Library of Rome. The author of the nine-line poem is said to be a cowherd from Whitby in North Yorkshire, who was inspired after a divine visitation. The composition praising God for the creation of the world, was composed in the 7th century, and survived thanks to its inclusion in some copies of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, an 8th century history of England written in Latin by the venerable Bede, a northern English monk and saint. (Read more.)

 

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