Basil

*

Basil

Fresh

home grown basil

Bountiful

Beautiful

Tasty...

 

Basil Pods

 

Basil Boat

 

Basil

cherry tomato

and

fetta

stacks

drizzled

with olive oil,

speckled with

freshly ground

peppercorns

and

rocksalt

 

Basil betwixt

briny fetta

and

blessed

tomato

I am besotted

by

Basil

*

Ma'at

*

Ma'at
Partner of  Thoth,
whom I adopted as
God of Blogging

Ma'at
pronounced Ma aht
means Truth

Ma'at
the Egyptian Goddess
represented truth,
order, justice
and balance
It was Ma'at's task
to prevent the world
from falling into chaos

Ma'at also helped Ra,
the sun God,
steer his boat
across the sky each day
guiding his direction

Ma'at is depicted as a woman
with a white ostrich feather
on her head
She carries a sceptre
in one hand
and an ankh
in the other

In the Hall of Judgement
Ma' at weighs the hearts of the dead
against her feather
If the heart weighs heavier
it is thrown
to the crocodile headed Ammut
to devour
If the heart weighs lighter
than the feather
the soul may cross
into the kingdom of Osiris,
into paradise



Notice in the image above
Thoth
on the right
recording his observations



Illustrations such as this
were common
in the Egyptian
Books of the Dead

The Book of the Dead
such as that of the Scribe Ani
written in 1240 BC,
which is called the Papyrus of Ani,
was a document
written for a particular person,
composed to assist the newly deceased
to negotiate the afterlife


These books included hymns
spells and instructions


It was common to also
include a list behaviours,
a code of ethics,
or commandments


sometimes called
Going Forth by Day

42 Negative Confessions from the Papyrus of Ani

1. I have not committed sin.
2. I have not committed robbery with violence.
3. I have not stolen.
4. I have not slain men and women.
5. I have not stolen grain.
6. I have not purloined offerings.
7. I have not stolen the property of the god.
8. I have not uttered lies.
9. I have not carried away food.
10. I have not uttered curses.
11. I have not committed adultery, I have not lain with men.
12. I have made none to weep.
13. I have not eaten the heart [i.e I have not grieved uselessly, or felt remorse].
14. I have not attacked any man.
15. I am not a man of deceit.
16. I have not stolen cultivated land.
17. I have not been an eavesdropper.
18. I have slandered [no man].
19. I have not been angry without just cause
20. I have not debauched the wife of any man.
21. I have not debauched the wife of any man.
22. I have not polluted myself.
23. I have terrorised none.
24. I have not transgressed [the Law].
25. I have not been wroth.
26. I have not shut my ears to the words of truth.
27. I have not blasphemed.
28. I am not a man of violence.
29. I am not a stirrer up of strife (or a disturber of the peace).
30. I have not acted (or judged) with undue haste.
31. I have not pried into matters.
32. I have not multiplied my words in speaking.
33. I have wronged none, I have done no evil.
34. I have not worked witchcraft against the King (or blasphemed against the King).
35. I have never stopped [the flow of] water.
36. I have never raised my voice (spoken arrogantly, or in anger).
37. I have not cursed (or blasphemed) God.
38. I have not acted with arrogance
39. I have not stolen the bread of the gods.
40. I have not carried away the khenfu cakes from the Spirits of the dead.
41. I have not snatched away the bread of the child, nor treated with contempt the god of my city.
42. I have not slayed the cattle belonging to the god.

It is interesting to read
this code of conduct
which precedes
the 12 Commandments
of Moses
by over a thousand years,
and to see which values
we maintain
as important guides
in our lives today...




I like # 26

*

No List, No Loss

I have no computer

I have taken no photos

I have had no time

and less energy

But today

I walked alone

into the National Park

fresh after heavy overnight rain

and I thought

I mused:

I am a list maker

lists of jobs to do

books to read

recipes to try

poems to dig out

projects to attempt

Lists of words

of ideas

tasks to complete on the new home

Even lists of lists

I am an inveterate list writer

But I realised

after reading your New Year posts

on my iphone

in the quiet evenings

by the ocean

(no TV either)

that it is most unlike me

to not have

a New Year's list

And it was such a freeing realisation

I have no list of challenges

no aspirations

no research to accomplish

no demons to purge

no plans, no expectations

no demands of myself

and I wondered

is this another one

of the joys

of getting older

that I can yield,

relent from attempting to harness

and hold back time

by filling my life

my days, my hours

I have no dreams

for the new year

no ambitions

no goals

no desires for myself

other than just being,

drifting in the current

feeling the rhythms of the seasons

the ebbs and flows

of the days

appreciating my blessings

enjoying my family and friends

If this is a benefit of getting old

I just love it

*

The helmsman

I am no longer

The oarsman

has retired

The boat

I never was

But the ocean

and the wind

the sun and the stars

the joyous kookaburra

in the scented eucalyptus tree

those I am

*

Behold

*

I existed

from eternity

and

behold

I am here

and I shall

exist till the

end of time

for my being

has no end

Kahlil Gibran

Single Unison

*

I clean my teeth in water
drawn from a cold well
And while I brush my clothes
I purify my mind

Then, slowly turning pages
in the Tree-Leaf Book,
I recite, along the path
to the eastern shelter

...The world has forgotten
the true fountain of this teaching
And people enslave themselves
to miracles and fables

Under the given words
I want the essential meaning
I look for the simplest way
to sow and reap my nature

Here in the quiet
of the priest's temple courtyard
Mosses add their climbing colour
to the thick bamboo

And now comes the sun
out of mist and fog
And pines that seem
to be new-bathed;

And everything is gone from me
speech goes, and reading
Leaving the single unison

Reading Buddhist Classics with Zhao at his Temple in the Early Morning

by Liu Zongyuan  773-819

Tang Dynasty writer

and master of free and simple prose

of the early Chinese philosophers

All artworks except the final image

are by Chen Jun

*

Proteas

Proteas...

I have posted on Proteas before
so I won't repeat myself


I suggest
for background information
you might like to visit
Gondwanaland


and for variety look at
and Protean Proteas

to accompany
this bunch of proteas
I offer you
these lines

of Persian poet
Mahmud Kianush
called

Of Life

Let your words
be like a wild flower

a smile of azure

with a tiny mouth of gold

in the naked sunshine
of a desert

as blissful as the kiss
of a mother

When you talk of life

it seems as if on the road

we are confronted
with a rock

unsightly and huge,

happened to be there

for no known reason,

unyielding to all solutions.

Let your words fly

lightly in the sun

like

butterflies.

*