Nephele

You mean Silki & Nikitah *or*? (Heheh, I contributed captions.) -- Nephele

That chick was creepy. Check out these Photoshopped Beauties. -- Nephele

Will you guys be wearing togas?

St. Atropina. (Nah, but I love the name.) Pertinax, I'm glad you brought up Culpeper. Here's a link where you can find a listing of many of Culpeper's herbs with their planetary influences: Culpeper's Herbs Culpeper no doubt based a lot of his ideas about plants and their planetary/deity assignments on much of the folklore that preceded him. St. John's wort, as you'll see in the list linked above, is governed by the sun. This herb was assigned by the Catholic Church to St. John the Baptist. Quoting from Hilderic Friend's Flowers and Flower Lore (originally published in 1884): "...for St. John is as intimately mixed up with heathenism as we found the Virgin to be; he has, in fact, taken a very similar position in relation to the old heathen gods as Mary took in relation to the goddesses. The Virgin...succeeded Freyja in the 'calendar' of Northern flowers. The two 'white' gods of Valhalla -- Baldur and Heimdal -- both of whom represent the sun, and whose peculiar epithet referred to the dazzling brightness of sunlight, were replaced in a similar manner by St. John the Baptist, whose midsummer festival is marked all over Europe by so many remains of solar worship... Flowers with large sun-shaped discs, either white or golden-yellow, were dedicated to Baldur, as the sun-god; and it was in this manner that the Hypericum became the peculiar property of St. John..." -- Nephele

Proof of what? That your Tsar Nicholas II wasn't a saint back in those centuries when folklore emerged from both pagan practices and the Catholic Church? Well, d'uh. -- Nephele

docoflove1974, you get a choice of crayons. You can either be the Spanish Verde Mar (Sea Green), or the French Marron (Chestnut). Your choice of names are... arhsarnohma = Rhosanah Mar Ashah Marron Personality Traits for Verde Mar (Sea Green): *cool* *crisp* *fresh* *close to nature* *immature* Personality Traits for Marron (Chestnut): *earthy* *not at all frivolous* *dislikes showiness* *dependable* *comfortable* Including your middle name in the mix, your crayon is Purple Heart, and your name is... zabrrmsahnehaoealith = Ambroziah Shanel Heart Personality Traits for this hue: *majestic* *magical* *visionary* *royal* *intuitive* So, which Crayola are you, DoL? ******************************************** G.O., did you want to be "done", as well? ******************************************** If the wax is hot, I'd say "very carefully". -- Nephele

Gaius Octavius, I'm talking about the floral calendar which is derived from the Catholic Calendar of Saint's Feast Days. Obviously no more than 365 plants attributed to no more than 365 saints taken from the Catholic Calendar were included. -- Nephele

Yet another example of pagan aspects co-opted by Christianity can be found in the Floral Calendar, which developed during the Middle Ages. The pagans often assigned specific flowers, plants, and trees to various gods as emblems of those gods. For example, the myrtle was assigned to Aphrodite, the olive to Athena, the oak to Zeus. In the Middle Ages the Catholic Church began to assign the same botanical emblems to their saints, and the Floral Calendar developed as each saint's feast day became associated with a specific flower, plant, or tree. Often flowers, plants, and tree boughs were used to decorate church altars on various saints' feast days, in the same way that symbolic flowers, plants, and tree boughs were used to decorate pagan altars. In many instances where a Christian saint took on the aspects of a former local deity (such as the example of St. Brigid cited earlier by Ursus) the floral emblems associated with that pagan deity were transferred to the Christian saint. For instance, in the Floral Calendar the snowdrop is assigned to February 2nd, which in the Church calendar marks the day known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin -- also known as Candlemas Day. The beginning of February also marked the Celtic pagan purification festival of Imbolc, associated with the goddess Brigid, who also had the snowdrop as one of her emblems. In addition, St. Brigid's feast day is celebrated on February 1st by the Catholic Church (again close to the original celebration day of the pagan goddess Brigid), and the bay laurel is assigned to February 1st in the Floral Calendar. Seeing as how the pagan goddess Brigid was also a goddess of poetry, and that the ancient Greeks crowned their poets with bay leaves, it seems fitting that the bay should be associated with St. Brigid's feast day of February 1st. -- Nephele

You're very welcome, Ursus, and I must say that you cut a handsome figure as a Crayola. In fact, you (crayon) wax eloquently. -- Nephele

Considering that Peach was formerly called Flesh in the Crayola history, I think the name suits a Carnalis. Ursus, your Crayola is Jazzberry Jam, and your name is... rjmamsajreebeey = Jaemes Berrey Jam Personality Traits for this hue: *hot* *energetic* *loud* *courageous* *powerful* -- Nephele

Who knew that those seemingly innocent crayons, we colored with as children, have a shocking history? Here's an amusing little video called The Crayola Monologues in which several anthropomorphized Crayolas get to voice their opinions on matters ranging from the elitism of the "Primaries" to the pain of knowing that political correctness is responsible for your family name change: The Crayola Monologues Additionally, the good folks at Crayola have assigned personality traits to their various crayon colors. If anyone here is interested in finding out your secret Crayola identity and personality traits, through the magic of anagramming, just provide a scramble of your name, and I'll provide you with your crayon. -- Nephele Carnalis a.k.a. "Sinnerella Peach"

I think I need subtitles. Who are those characters in your cast, G.O.? While I shan't audition for the role of "Lady in Servicing", I shall (in my capacity as Ars Magna sorceress) conjure up for you a lovely succubus to keep you warm this evening. Taking the words "A Gal for Gaius" as my conjuring ingredients, I thus anagramatically transform them into a statuesque beauty with the Bond girl style name of: "Gia Sugarloaf". (I'll leave the finer details of her appearance to your imagination.) Enjoy her! :wub: -- Nephele

"Here, kitty, kitty, ki-- Aaaaiiiiii *gurgle*" -- Roy Horn, of Siegfried and Roy

DecimusCaesar, you are a Dandie Dinmont Terrier, from kennel of Davon, named... dfdayd vsnae niaow = Davon's Dandie Waif Kosmo: "Ibizan night clubs" -- LOL! -- Nephele

Indeed he does, as well as the teu that carried over into proto-Germanic cultures and became Tyr, and the god that would become Indra in the Vedic religion. Linguistically, the gods have to be the same, stemming from the same source. Culturally, however, the sky gods became paramount only in the Greek and Latin races. When the Greeks took the Shining Sky Father of the Indo-Europeans into Greece, they came into contact with weather gods of West Asia, as well as kingly gods of the Near East. Both cultures exerted an influence on the myth and cult of dewos. And thus Zeus was born. This is why the Greek Zeus is different and more important than the Germanic Tyr or the Vedic Indra. That's precisely the book I'm looking for! Thanks for the recommendation. I'll be ordering a copy of this book. -- Nephele

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Kosmo, you are a handsome Ibizan Hound. Your name is "Cosmic Olav": Cosmin Zabalovici = "Cosmic Olav" Ibizan Yep, that's what ratters do. I have miniature pinschers, which are also ratters. Except my crew spend their time murdering garden moles. -- Nephele

I think that woman should've been staked out with mice stuffed in her undergarments, and left to a pack of starving rat terriers. Glad you're okay, Primus Pilus. Yikes, what a Valentine's Day. -- Nephele

UNRV, what a cool deed you did! But then, you UNRV administrators do a lot of cool deeds. UNRV is the best site on ancient Rome in particular and world history in general, in so many ways. Y'all rock! -- Nephele

Last Saturday I wrote in my UNRV blog about having gone to the Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC to meet the talent for this year's Westminster Dog Show. One little doggie aristocrat I met and mentioned was a springer spaniel named "Diamond Jim". I knew that boy had star quality. Well, I'm smugly pleased to announce that my pick, Diamond Jim, beat out all competition last night, to be crowned the reigning king of the Westminster. Saturday I took pictures of Diamond Jim outside his hotel. If only I'd put money down on him... -- Nephele

You bet your @$$ and the #*$%@! horse you rode in on! I actually got my Season Two Deadwood V-Day pressie a few days ago, and have been working my way through it each evening with great delight. Why shouldn't every day be Valentine's Day? -- Nephele

Gaius Octavius, what a cool deed you did! -- Nephele

Oh noooo! And here I was awaiting a full report as to whether my suggestion of champagne might have expedited events to a full romantic culmination. We got only a dusting of snow where I live. Not that it matters, as I received for my Valentine's present a DVD boxed set of Deadwood, and so we'll be watching that this evening. Then afterwards we'll be toasting Valentine's Evening with glasses of champagne in the backyard hottub... For starters. Thanks for the rose! May you (and everyone here) have your Valentine's Day if not on the 14th, then on a more auspicious day! -- Nephele

Such a vigorous display of affection. What a shame I've had to make that vet appointment... -- Nephele

"Relax, I can lose them." -- Princess Diana's driver "Nephele , a small fluffy spaniel would be quite sufficient, no need to disembowel the saluki." -- Pertinax