Canada has produced some great content creators on YouTube and one of my favourites is Shawn James and his dog Kelly, at their cabin in Northern Ontario. The Channel is called My Self-Reliance.
There’s allot to learn from this channel and it’s amazing to see so many people watch it and that Shawn has become a role model and inspiration for so many people all over the world.
Aside from sharing the tasks, tips and travails of living in the wilderness there’s much more to learn too about his consciencious lifestyle and why he decided to go off-grid and live off the land (as much as possible).
The production values are extremely high and the editing with music and intro and outro as well as the blending and merging of different shots and angles are extraordinaire. After having been a viewer for a couple of years I can see the improvement in the finished product.
Recently Shawn travelled to Alaska to stay 2 nights at his hero Richard (Dick) Proenneke the author of “Alone in the Wilderness”.
The series of Alaska wildlife on My Self-Reliance YT Channel and the commentary about living and lifestyle in the wilderness of Alaska are as good, in terms of quality of information, as you will find anywhere.
My lovely dog Victoria is now deceased and despite knowing for months that she was suffering from chronic bronchitis and not well at all, then given a few more weeks time by modern medicine and excellent loving care. Even knowing she was going to be leaving it still didn’t prepare me for the emotions I felt when I learned that she had officially passed over.
No amount of words will ever be able to express how this little dog won my heart and mind. Of dozens of dogs I’ve loved, my little Vee just won my heart like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I want to remember her here, since it was an auspicious beginning.
It was after dark in my Sao Paulo home when the phone rang to say that there was an abandoned puppy tied by string to the fence beside a building site in my neighbourhood. We were told that the security guard was leaving for the day and doesn’t know what to do with the dog but can’t take her.
When I found the little black puppy she was cowering with fear and dread, as the story unfolded I came to learn that she had been badly abused and was with pups, so we untied her, picker her up and carried her home asses the damage and feed and clean here. She had big brown eyes and softest demeanour I had ever seen, not even an ounce of fight in her.
We named her Victoria, for the honour of her Victory in surviving the horror of her early life experience. She was operated on by experts vets that worked in the favela and provided her surgery for a small donation, then with Frankenstein stitches across the pink belly where she had been shaved the skin, which was quite a contrast to her shiny black coat. If I had to say, she most resembled a black Cocker-spaniel, she slept for the better part of three days, after her surgery.
Victoria didn’t trust people at first, she’d been past the point of trusting anyone. Her sad face was of defeat, she didn’t know what was going to happen next. We tried to find a home for her and even had a potential new owner but that fell-through and then she started eating a little and began to respond to affection. it wasn’t more than a few days and her beautiful spirit had won everyone’s heart and it became impossible to give her away.
Victoria was sent to us, to teach us about compassion and love. We are forced to look deep inside of ourselves and ask why? How could it be…. how is it possible that an animal that can could mean this much? Who matters more to God, us or Man’s Best Friend? I already know the answer….
The coat of arms of Spain, flanked by the Pillars of Hercules bearing the motto Plus ultra
Are you the Optimist we are looking for?
<!– Optimistic thinkers never hide secrets in code–>
That’s what it says (above) in the source code of the home page of Plus Ultra Society, leaves little doubt that there is in fact a secret society behind the name. Plus Ultra moto is much older than the alleged secret society, of the same name that Nikola Tesla was supposed to have been a member of… the Plus Ultra Society.
The fact that I had never heard of the Plus Ultra Society before today, is further proof of how secretive it was, however there has been widespread speculation since 2015 and much awareness cast upon it by another site called Stop Plus Ultra Society. And even a movie to expose the idea further, the notion is that this was the original “White Hat” good guys, who were aware of the criminal cabal in the banking and government, so they needed to be deep underground and only had members of affluence and connection to power and money.
HOW DO WE KNOW?
Being a secret society, physical evidence of Plus Ultra’s existence is difficult to come by. In the century-and-a-quarter since its formation, references to it have largely been relegated to obscure volumes and whispered conversation. To Learn more visit Stop Plus Ultra
The Plus Ultra Brigade, composed of troops from five Spanish-speaking countries (Spain, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador), served in the Iraq War in 2003.
The motto is written on the wall tiles of the cloak room at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s retreat in Florida.
It is used in the manga and anime series My Hero Academia as the motto of the hero academy U.A. High School.
Plus Ultra Society is used in the 2015 movie Tomorrowland for the name of the group of people responsible for creating a better tomorrow, further beyond. The founding members of this fictional group were Gustave Eiffel, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and Jules Verne.
The motto is tattooed on the arm of one of the playable characters in the 2019 videogame Apex Legends, Octane. Additionally, Non terrae plus ultra is one of Octane’s possible voice lines for entering the battle.
Plus ultra (English: Further beyond) is a Latin phrase and the national motto of Spain. It is taken from the personal motto of Charles V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558), Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain (as Charles I), and is a reversal of the original phrase Non terrae plus ultra (“No land further beyond”). This was said to have been inscribed as a warning on the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar, which marked the edge of the known world. Charles adopted the motto following the discovery of the New World by Columbus, and it also has metaphorical suggestions of taking risks and striving for excellence.
Donald or Scrooge – A mural painted on a garage in an alley near Roosevelt Row in central Phoenix, Arizona. This location is just north of Garfield and 2nd Avenue, in the most colorful alley in town.
Now that I blog everyday, in freestyle mode, without a topic or agenda and with only one purpose, to improve my ability to write well. To write well is about using less words, not more, in order to articulate an idea. Most people write for money and never really learn to love the art of writing.
Like so many other things, writing comes natural to some people and is like pulling teeth for other people but for every single person alive, we all have the same ability to express ourselves and tell a story. Those people who choose to practice and hone their craft hold as much promise of a Pulitzer prize, as those that started with straight “A’s” in school and never stopped producing excellent written work.
Bottom line is that it’s the story itself that holds the attention of the reader and prompts one person to tell another person about a story. Sure if it’s poorly written the chances reduce of the story being shared, from one person to another. In today’s world where so many people have instant access to anything posted online and instantly can tell others, this is why good storytelling matters. It’s all about the story.
Common interests is what attracts a person to read your story, also most people naturally gravitate towards topics where they can learn something new and benefit from revealed knowledge. Intuitively we understand where a story is taking us, as soon as we begin reading, often it’s because of a title with a hook, some idea embedded in the title that promises to unlock a new neural pathway, which is a fancy way of saying that an idea connects dots that were already seeking clarity.
The idea of money is the single most alluring topic to everyone. Aside from sex and love no other topics have had so many words written about it. The most popular stories contain love, sex and money. However, the best seller of all time is mostly about temptation from evil. Billions of people pray each day for delivery from temptation and yet money is still the most effective distraction in all of human history.
Money is so abstract, when you think about it. You either have money or you don’t, those that don’t are obsessed with getting some and those who have plenty are obsessed with getting more, even though they have enough. Even the comic book of Donald Duck taught us as children that rich mega-rich people could have so much money that they could fill a swimming pool with it and it would be great fun to swim on the pool of money.
I wonder if anyone is free from want for money? History has shown us that most every institution and it’s leaders can be corrupted by money. Even Shakespeare wrote about the evil of money to corrupt, for example in the The Merchant of Venice, it’s an exploration of this very same topic.
So I ask myself if I am a hypocrite for praying to God to keep me from be tempted? It just doesn’t seem sincere that I want to avoid temptation and yet I want to own a nice car. Which is it? I’m in conflict from this idea by itself because I don’t need a car, since I live in a modern city, plus trying to reduce my carbon footprint, as well as reduce things that I own partly because I prefer to travel abroad than hang-out with my stuff.
Ever since I was old enough to drive, I’ve owned a car, except in the past couple of years, since I moved back to Canada from Brazil. In Sao Paulo it was necessary to own a car because the city is so vast and not well serviced by rapid transit, so it was clumsy, stinky surface buses. Whereas in Vancouver the city is a fraction of the size and completely covered by transit systems connecting water, rail, planes and buses, faster and easier than a car, however in both cases it’s the car you need for the access to the best recreation areas outside of the cities.
I’ll be honest that the reason I wrote about money today is because it was the first thing on my mind when I awoke. My personal knowledge of money is leading me into wisdom about the concept, after I changed the meanings in my mind, associated to money, towards becoming prosperous and affluent rather than rich and wealthy. I almost always feel rich because of my circumstance and environment but my point is this; by tweaking the way we think about the abstract concept of “money”…. we can improve our understanding of it.
As I’ve mentioned before in this blog, topics that are negative, mean-spirited, insulting to someone other than myself or instill fear, will be excluded because I don’t want to add to those thoughts and ideas. The weather was once the safest thing to talk about with anyone, not anymore, now that we’re in Grand Solar Minimum.
Since we live in a world of duality, every topic must have an issue of contention. The world is full of highly educated people, that are completely ass-backwards on a few facts. In some cases a lie has been perpetrated at such a high level, and to such a massive degree, and orchestrated with such finesse, to actually convince a majority percentage of global population, to believe in something that is just not true. Such as BH Obama being born in Hawaii and that climate change is man made. The bigger the lie, the easier to sell.
In the case of Obama, he said he was born in Kenya in his own Bio for his first book, which his handlers finessed to be a mistake of the editor. Many people had to die, like Loretta Fuddy, in order for the Hawaii story to stick. Then in a show of absolute power, an entire press conference, held by Sheriff Joe Arpio of Arizona, was ignored. In that non-partisan presentation, 2 separate (world renowned) document experts proved, to every major media outlet in the world, that the birth certificate was forged and a bad forgery. Oh well… doesn’t matter for the deep state.
To this day people say; why does it matter? he was already the President when they found out. Trump intended to expose the truth (in my opinion), then on the evening of his election victory, he met with the Supreme Court Justices and after that meeting his challenge of the Hawaii birth certificate and bet to pay $50M to BHO was dropped (unpaid). All BHO had to do was show the microfiche from the very department where Loretta Fuddy once worked.
Sheriff Joe Arpio had the entire U.S. Government against him and they went after his character with everything they could muster. A man who was trying to do the right thing and be an honest cop was run-over. However, Trump pardoned Joe Arpio and the whole huge mess has been swept under the carpet (for now). Mainstream media have worked overtime to plaster millions of words of content on this story, even turn it into a parody and comedy. Birtherism is now connected with mental illness
Trump wants to win that bet and Obama has never produced the microfiche
In a side note, it’s worth mentioning that the web is being altered and the search engines cleansed to re-write history. My guess is that the former president of the USA is spending more money than anyone in history, to change millions and millions of URLs that once provided facts. In each was edited with breadcrumbs leading elsewhere. For example, there’s often a list of who started the birther movement, it says Donald Trump started the birther movement, when in fact it was Bill Clinton who started the rumour that Obama was not born in the USA, not Trump. It began by Bill Clinton, while in Miami, and that slip caused death in Little Rock.
We live in a Post-Truth era. The enemy of truth now controls the media. History has been hacked.
The reason I mention the birth certificate in the same story as the climate change is because in both cases the information is so overwhelming that there are only a couple of reason why in our duality world, such a high percentage of very intelligent people believe the fabricated story. When you have the Pope pitching the Paris Accord you know we’re in trouble.
Two reasons why duality reigns and why so many smart people are wrong
They never got the facts, used critical thinking, with an open mind
They decided for personal reasons, to stick with their own beliefs
In both cases it’s not going to matter and that’s why I’m allowing myself to write about it now. I’ve actually come to the conclusion that we crossed an imaginary line in the time/space continuum where nothing anyone says will make much of a difference any more. People are going to know the truth soon enough, then all that matters is how they cope with it, and how they act towards other people.
Grand Solar Minimum is just a cycle, truly a wonder of nature and arriving at a more perfect time would have been impossible. Duality is doomed because of singularity, it’s just we’ve not had our shock and awe moment yet but we will, it’s foretold and obvious in the weather itself, and when we do have that come-together awakening, an entirely new consensus will birth the dawning of a new age of enlightenment.
I’m sure some of you are still convinced BHO is who he says he is and probably you’ll never read another word I say but before you go, there’s one thing that can bring benefit to your time, on the second topic, of which I can not be proven wrong. Have the intellectual courage to research the fact that Grand Solar Minimum is Climate Change (it’s not man-made).
It’s true Number Magic as All the people in the world are of the same age this year!
It’s amazing: this year all the people in the world are all in the same age group, all equal to 2019. Just like number magic, this year is special. It happens only once every 1,000 years.
This year your age + your year of birth, each individual is = 2019. For example, you are 55 years old and you were born in 1964, which adds up to 2019. Very strange, even the Chinese and foreign masters can not explain.
Please calculate and see if the answer is 2019. It’s a thousand-year wait! Good shot! Go to the circle of friends, let everybody calculate it!
The Pig (豬) is the twelfth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in Chinese zodiac, in relation to the Chinese calendar and system of horology, and paralleling the system of ten Heavenly Stems and twelve Earthly Branches. Although the term “zodiac”
(etymologically referring to a “[circle of] little animals”) is used in
the phrase “Chinese zodiac”, there is a major difference between the
Chinese usage and Western astrology:
the zodiacal animals (including the zodiacal Pig) do not relate to the
zodiac as the area of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or
south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun, the Moon, and visible planets across the celestial sphere‘s constellations, over the course of the year.
In Chinese astrology,
“zodiacal” animals refer to fixed cycles of twelve animals. The same
cycle of twelve is used for cycles of years and cycles of hours. In the
case of years, the cycle of twelve corresponds to the twelve-year cycle
of Jupiter. In the case of the hours, the twelve hours represent twelve double-hours for each period of night and day. In the continuous sexagenary cycle of sixty years, every twelfth year corresponds to hai, 亥 (the twelfth of the twelve Earthly Branches); this re-recurring twelfth year is commonly called the Year of the Pig (豬年).
There are five types of Pigs, named after the Chinese elements. In order, they are: Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth. These correspond to the Heavenly Stems. Thus, there are five pig years in every sexegenary cycle. For example, in the year 2019, the Earthly Branch is the twelfth, hài, and the Heavenly Stem is the sixth, jǐ己. The Chinese New Year in 2019 is February fifth: this corresponds with the beginning of both the sexegenary year of jǐhài and also the zodiac year of the Earth Pig.
According to the myths, the Pig was the last to arrive when the Jade Emperor called for the great meeting. Other sources said that Buddha called for a great meeting when he was about to leave the Earth. The Pig came in last.
Legend has it that just as the emperor was about to call it a day, an oink and squeal was heard from a little Pig. The term “lazy Pig” is due here as the Pig got hungry during the race, promptly stopped for a feast then fell asleep. After the nap, the Pig continued the race and was named the 12th and last animal of the zodiac cycle.
Other sources say that given his very stout form, he was just too
slow a swimmer, and thus he could not do anything against the other
animals.
Every day I ride my bicycle around the 1,000 acre park, it’s ten kilometres and takes about 45 minutes if you don’t stop. It’s my Recreation Addiction, probably a pro could ride the loop in half the time it takes me, since I intentionally ride to make it last and try to take as much time as I can. No two laps are the same but every time I attempt to re-create the feeling I had the first time, as an aspect of creation and the sheer joy, of being a creator in it.
A few years ago I got the idea to take a photo of the girl in the wetsuit bronze statue, which is about halfway around. I also take those photos because it’s captures North Vancouver in the background and over the girl’s shoulder you can see Lions Gate hospital where I was born, so each photo commemorates that moment in my life and keeps a time stamp of the occasion, it’s a ritual for me. I have over 500 now.
1. Creation is the sum of all God’s Thoughts, in number infinite, and everywhere without all limit. Only love creates, and only like itself. There was no time when all that it created was not there. Nor will there be a time when anything that it created suffers any loss. Forever and forever are God’s Thoughts exactly as they were and as they are, unchanged through time and after time is done.
2. God’s Thoughts are given all the power that their own Creator has. For He would add to love by its extension. Thus His Son shares in creation, and must therefore share in power to create.
What God has willed to be forever One will still be One when time is
over; and will not be changed throughout the course of time, remaining
as it was before the thought of time began.
3. Creation is the opposite of all illusions, for creation is the truth.
Creation is the holy Son of God, for in creation is His Will complete in
every aspect, making every part container of the whole. Its oneness is
forever guaranteed inviolate; forever held within His holy Will, beyond
all possibility of harm, of separation, imperfection and of any spot
upon its sinlessness.
4. We are creation; we the Sons of God. We seem to be discrete, and unaware of our eternal unity with Him. Yet back of all our doubts, past all our fears, there still is certainty. For love remains with all its Thoughts, its sureness being theirs. God’s memory is in our holy minds, which know their oneness and their unity with their Creator.
Let our function be only to let this memory return, only to let God’s
Will be done on earth, only to be restored to sanity, and to be but as
God created us.
5. Our Father calls to us. We hear His Voice, and we forgive creation in the Name of its Creator, Holiness Itself, Whose Holiness His Own creation shares; Whose Holiness is still a part of us.
I met a beautiful women from Beijing, at Kitsilano Beach. On an impulse I invited her to the Chinese Opera and to my delight she said yes. It wasn’t completely planned or by accident, the tickets had been given to me by friends, one of whom was singing in the cast of performers.
To protect the identity (of my date) I’ll call her Coco, as in Chanel. A striking beauty with business savvy and a background of distinguished achievement, associated with Beijing elite. Coco traded gilded luxury for the steep learning-curve of Canadian integration, so her daughter could benefit. However, the immersion wasn’t going to suit her Ex, so now he’s an Ex (lucky me : ).
Coco speaks Mandarin and could understand as much Cantonese language as me, zero.
We arrived fashionably late but in great style, since who knows how to dress for the Chinese Opera? Middle of July in BC dictates more casual attire, so we were a perfect match. Coco dressed in an off-white light linen top over matching long flowing skirt and leather shoes, earth tones, tasteful accessories and no gold, for an overall elegant look and sophisticated style. My trousers were off-white too, chic shirt and blazer, we looked like a set.
To use a Brazilian expression about Coco and I, she is too much sand for my truck…. Lol ! But how was I supposed to know how special she was in China? My power of intention works. So anyway, there we are, sitting in the best seats (for us) in Michael J. Fox Theatre in Burnaby, and neither of us can understand Cantonese. Fortunately there’s a giant screen over to the side of the stage, so we could read along to the words of the songs.
The spectacle and the music involved in Chinese Opera is certainly very cool and well worth witnessing, however it’s not something worth putting on your bucket list. Highlights are that you don’t have to understand what they’re saying in the songs, because the costumes and the mime acting to accompany the songs explain what’s happening. Good versus evil is the main theme, also the punishment of authority. In many ways the great characteristics of Chinese culture are the plots of the songs.
It’s the music that accompanies Chinese Opera that I like the most, I’m sure you have heard it before, just not aware that you have… but it’s found in Kung Foo movies, played in Chinese restaurants and interlaced into China culture like Reggae to Jamaica. One of the best things about the Chinese Opera in Vancouver is the live orchestra, in a pit stage-right.
Worthy mention on the costumes too, the lighting has a way of shinning on the sparkles in the headdress and hats of the leading characters. Sets remain the same and it’s the costumes that provide the big surprises at the right moments in the story. It’s rather memorizing and pleasant.
The reason the seats were the best seats for us, is that we were near the exit and able to split during the intermission. I really appreciate the Coco had the courage to grab me by the arm and slip us out the back-jack. See, truthfully just to experience one full set is maximum perfect. It was all I had ever dreamed of. If we had stayed until 11:30, and gone back-stage, as was the plan, it would have put Coco in an embarrassing situation. So instead, by 9 we were sipping champagne and critiquing the performance. Two thumbs up!
Coco was so gracious to explain some of the nuances of what happens among the divergent groups, found within her culture. China has over 30 distinct sub-cultures and Cantonese is just one of them. Beijing is famous for the Peking Opera, which obviously is not written in Cantonese. All Chinese celebrate the diversity of China but not always all want to socialize together. For good reason, to the lovely Coco, the idea of being foist into unknown social circles, with a completely older generation and crowd, speaking another language (yet from China) was not fun.
Watching the sunset as we cruised along Kingsway was fun. Laughing and smiling all the way back to the beach was fun. Seeing the marvel of the city that is Vancouver, sparkling on the horizon, that is fun. Since we live on the beach and even though we were 12 miles away, no GPS necessary, just drive towards the sun, all roads lead to the sea and back to Kitsilano Beach.
My entire life I’ve held a reverence for giant trees, even planted a couple hundred thousand seedlings in British Columbia, in hopes they would one day fill the patches that had been logged but always in my travels, I’ve been in awe of ancient trees. Today I was researching the Cedars of Lebanon to discover that on Wikipedia it leads to the Cedars of God.
Cedar of Lebanon and Entrance to the Walled Garden — James Madison’s Montpelier Orange County (VA) June 2018
When it comes to history the world we walk on is quite puzzling. Our “Scientific Dictactorship” will have us believe that they have all the answers, but when you begin investigating on your own you find that official explanations given to us about natural landmarks and natural landscapes don’t make much sense. Places like Devils Tower and other giant mesas may not be what we are told. They may just be remnants of what they once were. Why does the Grand Canyon look like an ancient city? Why do we have so many mud fossils that take on near perfect shapes of giants, flora and fauna? What really is the Eye of Sahara? These are just a few questions, but the real question is were there actually giant trees that have been cut down? Are the forests of today merely miniature reflections of what they were in the past? The earth is still full of mystery and the more people that we get looking into this, the more we find out. Without a video called ‘No Forests on Flat Earth’, many people, including me, would have never even looked at this and now it’s resonating with people everywhere. Was there really a giant tree at the center of all things called the Tree of life with more massive trees scattered all over the earth plane? We want to know all that stuff. Ancient Tree Research Project is a joint effort between myself, Rosette Delacroix, Shadie and CrackerWV. This is only part one so stay tuned for upcoming additions to the series. Thanks for watching. -ODD =) Rosette Delacroix: https://goo.gl/iTvWD2 CrackerWV: https://goo.gl/a97S6m And a special thank you our new friend Shadie, who’s love for his country fueled his research of Lebanon and taught us much about his beloved country. It truly is a special place. For the written article you can read it at Rosette’s website rosettedelacroix.com. Here is a link: http://rosettedelacroix.com/?p=12643 ———————————————————————————————————- Other Links: ARE THESE GIANT PREHISTORIC TREES? https://www.secretenergy.com/news/are… There Are No Forests on Flat Earth Wake Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHkiZ…
ODD TV / ODD REALITY
Byblos (sunset above), known locally as Jbeil and in the County of Tripoli as Gibelet, is the largest city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 8800 and 7000 BC and continuously inhabited since 5000 BC, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
Once upon a time, I was in Haight-Ashbury of San Francisco and bought a huge fabric mural wall hanging of Bob Marley with a smile, which adorns an entrance wall in my home. It completely covers the wall with Rasta colors, and has a Lion of Judah in each corner. The BobMarley.com brand and the Lion are inseparable and the history of King Solomon lives on through Rastafarian legend, as well as Ethiopian history.
The French inscription on the statue’s base reads: “To his majesty the King Tafari Makonnen/In remembrance of his coronation/The Franco-Ethiopian Railway Company” Tafari Makonnen was the given name of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I. He used that name until he was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia on November 2, 1930. The Franco-Ethiopian Railway Company was the successor to the Ethiopian Imperial Railway Company. The Ethiopian Imperial Railway Company was formed in 1894 to build a railroad from Addis Ababa to the Red Sea port of Djibouti in French Somaliland. When the Ethiopian Imperial Railway Company failed in 1906, the rails reached only from Djibouti to Dire Dawa in eastern Ethiopia. According to Wikipedia: “In 1908, the assets of the [Ethiopian Imperial Railway] company were transferred to a new firm, the Comagnie de Chemin de Fer Franco-Ethiopien de Jibuti à Addis Abeba [The Franco-Ethiopian Railway Company], which received a new concession to finish the line to Addis Ababa. After a year of wrangling with the previous financiers and their governments, construction began anew. By 1915 the line reached Akaki, only 23 kilometers from the capital, and two years later came all the way to Addis Ababa itself.” hence; “Lion of Judah” is one of the titles used by the Emperors of Ethiopia. That title harkens back to the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon in biblical times. The Lion of Judah symbolized the person of the emperor. It is also a national symbol of Ethiopia. In the collection of the National Museum, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Lion of Judah (Hebrew: אריה יהודה Aryeh Yehudah) is a Jewish national and cultural symbol, traditionally regarded as the symbol of the Israelitetribe of Judah. According to the Torah, the tribe consists of the descendants of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The association between Judah and the lion can first be found in the blessing given by Jacob to his son Judah in the Book of Genesis.
Large Lion of Judah ornament on a lion-fur cape. In paintings of battles, Ethiopian royalty are shown wearing lion-fur capes. The Lion of Judah symbolized the Ethiopian state and the person of the Ethiopian emperor. In the collection of the National Museum, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Lion of Judah is also mentioned in the Book of Revelation, as a term representing Jesus, according to Christian theology. The lion of Judah was also one of the titles of the Solomonic Emperors of Ethiopia. It was depicted on a map of the Upper Nile published in 1683 by the Italian Jobi Ludolfi describing the Lion of Judah symbol as the Royal Insignia of the Ethiopian empire. The Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia lasted three thousand years according and has its patrilineal origin in the Israelite Royal House of Judah.
Imperial Standard of Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
The Lion of Judah served as the hereditary title of the Solomonic Ethiopian emperors including Menelik and Haile Selassie and was depicted on the flag of Ethiopia from 1897 to 1974. Due to its association with Haile Selassie, it continues to be an important symbol among members of the Rastafari movement.
There’s plenty of incredible art and artifacts related to this big biblical cat, so I assembled a gallery of some of my favourites, here:
Lion of Zion make reference to a very specific place
Zion (Hebrew: צִיּוֹן Ṣîyōn, modern Tsiyyon; also transliteratedSion, Sayon, Syon, Tzion, Tsion) is a placename often used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the biblical Land of Israel as a whole. The word is first found in 2 Samuel 5:7 which dates from c. 630–540 BCE according to modern scholarship. It originally referred to a specific hill in Jerusalem (Mount Zion), located to the south of Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount).
Mount Zion held a Jebusite fortress of the same name that was conquered by David and was re-named the City of David; see Names of Jerusalem. That specific hill (“mount”) is one of the many squat hills that form Jerusalem, which also includes Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount), the Mount of Olives, etc. Over many centuries, until as recently as the Ottoman era, the city walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt many times in new locations, so that the particular hill known as Mount Zion is no longer inside the city wall, but its location is now just outside the portion of the Old City wall forming the southern boundary of the Jewish Quarter of the current Old City. Most of the original City of David itself is thus also outside the current city wall.
The term Tzion came to designate the area of Davidic Jerusalem where the fortress stood, and was used as well as synecdoche for the entire city of Jerusalem; and later, when Solomon’s Temple was built on the adjacent Mount Moriah (which, as a result, came to be known as the Temple Mount) the meanings of the term Tzion were further extended by synecdoche to the additional meanings of the Temple itself, the hill upon which the Temple stood, the entire city of Jerusalem, the entire biblical Land of Israel, and “the World to Come“, the Jewish understanding of the afterlife.
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