I Lost Count Of How Many Times I've Read Artie's Musings, Yet Every Time Is Pure Joy.

I lost count of how many times I've read Artie's musings, yet every time is pure joy.

Still Water Prose Poetry - Art Garfunkel

Your feline grace With your granite smiling face Through the sands of time Take me back to the Divine! When I see the Sun I'm bowing down to you, Huntress of the vile, Protector of the Nile, Rid my heart of fear, Bestow your strength in me, Seep into my soul, And feed me, Protect me, And guide me, And teach me, Embrace me, And touch me, And kiss me, again, again...

(Art by Carlos Bellón, lyrics from Sekhmet by Thea Crudi & Marianne Gubri)

Sekhmet

Importance of fragrance in Ancient Egyptian religion

Incense in myth

Egyptians believed that all beautiful scents originated from the bodies of the gods. They viewed resins and perfumes as tears, sweat, spittle or bones of the Netjeru. Fruitful trees were identified with mother goddesses and their resins could have been regarded as their menstrual blood. Those bodily fluids would be considered impure if they came from a human but coming from the gods they were beautiful, fragrant and sacred.

Some gods were associated with specific fragrances more than with others. One of such gods was Osiris - in the myths his son Horus offered him „his sweet smelling Eye, as a token of his victory over Set”. Egyptians identified the Eye of Horus with incense, particularly labdanum. Incenses could also embody Amun, „the hidden god” of invisibilie life force and air.

Egyptian pantheon included many patrons of fragrance: Merehet, goddess of unguents, Shesmu, divine patron of perfume production, Nefertem, god of incense and medicine, symbolized by a fragrant blue lotus flower, Hathor, luxury-loving goddess of femininity, joy and pleasure or even protective cat goddess Bast. Cultic importance of incense

The Egyptian word „snTr” or „s nTr” had two distinct meanings: 1) to cense, incense and 2) to make divine, to cause to make divine. Incense was thus used to provoke the manifestation of a deity during a ritual, cause them to be present there with their followers. It could also be used as a deifying agent in the process of mummification and in Opening of the Mouth ceremony (used to animate a mummy or a statue and enable them to use senses, speak and consume offerings). It is speculated that incese may not have been as much an offering to sustain the gods as a tool to feel their presence beside you.

“With all of the other senses, you think before you respond, but with scent, your brain responds before you think,” says Pam Scholder Ellen, a Georgia State University marketing professor. The sense of smell is also considered to be the most closely related to emotional reactions. The olfactory bulb is directly connected to the limbic system in the brain, which is the system related to immediate emotion in humans. 75% of emotions are generated by smell.

„To cause to make divine through smoke” by Renata Tatomir

Incense was utilised in large amounts in Egyptian temples. Plutarch mentions in his writing that frankincense was burned there in the morning, myrrh at noon and kyphi in the evening. Elliott Wise speculates that incense could be used to further vivify statues of the gods and imitate the sweat, tears and body odour of a living being, as much as to alter mental state of the ritual’s participants. Being a luxurious commodity often imported from distant lands it underlined the importance and influence of deities, giving them a perceivable aura of power. Censers used by Egyptians were often shaped like a human hand performing the gesture of offering.

Kyphi

A huge favorite of the ancients and the highest prized incense blend in Egypt was kyphi - or kapet as Egyptians called it. It was used for religious, magical and medical purposes since the Old Kingdom, first mentioned in Pyramid Texts as a substance that the king will enjoy in his afterlife. But it was more than just a luxurious and elegant offering to the gods. Plutarch appreciatively describes it’s relaxing properties and ability to “loosen daily sorrows” as well as mentiones that it was added to drinks to cleanse the body - kyphi was edible and sometimes used as a medicine. Writings mention two different types of kyphi - lunar and solar; their long and complex (28 and 36 ingredients respectively) recipes recorded by Paul of Aegina in the seventh century AD survive to this day.

Here are a few other recovered kyphi recipes: Edfu Temple

Edfu Temple kyphi was made of 16 ingredients over the course of 12 days, symbolizing 16 body parts of Osiris, gathered by Isis and Nephthys for 12 days.

The ingredients were: -raisins -wine -honey -frankincense -myrrh -mastic -pine resin -sweet flag -aspalathos -camel grass -mint -cyperus -juniper berries -pine kernels -pekers -cinnamon

Papyrus Ebers

-honey -frankincense -mastic -sweet flag -pine kernels -cyperus grass -camel grass -inektun -cinnamon

Papyrus Harris

-Raisins -Wine -Honey -Mastic -Pine Resin -Camel Grass -Mint -Sweet Flag -Cinnamon

Sources

„An Odor of Sanctity: The Iconography, Magic, and Ritual of Egyptian Incense” by Elliott Wise

„Perfume” by Lise Manniche

„Incense as a Transdisciplinary Vehicle in Ancient Egypt and Christianity. Similarities and Differences” by Renata G. Tatomir

„To cause to make divine through smoke: Ancient Egyptian incense amd perfume. An inter- and transdisciplinary re-evaluation of aromatic biotic materials used by the Ancient Egyptians” by Renata G. Tatomir

Laughed out loud.

But really, am I the only one who bought that silly book when it came out (pun intended)?

gayuncle of semen and gayuncle confirmed to be biuncle!

@froyo-ravioli Paul had it during the Wednesday Morning 3 AM photo sessions already, brought it to England and back. 😏 These are not the best pictures around, but the first I found rn just to show. Should be in cronological order, from 1964 to 1967:

1. Wednesday Morning session, 1964;

2. Club in England, 1965 I think;

3. Back to NY in Artie's apartment, late 1965/early 1966;

4. Whatever the hell is going on there, looks like a wedding picture to me - and a lovely one too;

5. Monterey.

And yes, I remember their whole mass of ridiculous photos pretty much by heart. 😅

Simon & Garfunkel

It's been a while since I reblogged some DW content.