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Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second smallest planet in the Solar System, after Mercury. Named after the Roman god of war, it is often referred to as the "Red Planet" because the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance. [https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Mars]

The Mars symbol (♂) is a depiction of a circle with an arrow emerging from it, pointing at an angle to the upper right. In old manuscripts, it is usually interpreted as the shield and spear from the war god Mars/Ares. It is used in many fields as a representation of things historically associated with the mythological figure. These include: In science: The male sex; The planet Mars; The chemical element iron. In mythology: The Roman god Mars or the Greek god Ares [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_symbol]

Tree of Life: Geburah – Severity

Symbols: Pentagon, Five-petalled Rose, Sword, Spear, Scourge, chain

Plants: Oak, Nux, Vomica, Nettle, Tiger Lily, Geranium, Cactus, Absinthe, Rue [The Weiser Concise Guide to Herbal Magick, Judith Hawkins-Tillirson]

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“The entire atmosphere was filled with her terrible noise, and with that measureless, overwhelming (noise) a great echo arose. All the worlds quaked, and the oceans shook. The earth trembled, and mountains tottered. … Mahisasura, having fumed in anger, “Ah, what is this?!,” rushed toward the sound, surrounded by all the Asuras. Then he saw the Goddess, filling the triple world with her radiance, causing the earth to bow down at the tread of her feet, scratching the sky with her diadem.”

- Animals as Religious Subjects: Transdisciplinary Perspectives by Celia Deane-Drummond (Editor), Rebecca Artinian-Kaiser (Editor), David L. Clough (Editor)

[Durgā steps on the figure of Mahiṣa, gouache painting on paper from an album of eighty-two paintings of Hindu deities, ca. 1850, Tamil Nadu, India]

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The Mountain Spirit (Sanshin), Korea's most important indigenous deity, personifies the veneration of mountains, also manifested by the powerful tiger that accompanies him. The Mountain Spirit is considered a protector of Buddhism and most Korean Buddhist temple complexes include a shrine dedicated to him. In the painting, Sanshin is depicted as an elderly sage, with his hair drawn in a topknot, covered by a transparent veil. He sits on a rocky precipice, stroking his long beard and holding a banana leaf, which has the power to dispel evil spirits. Alongside is his fierce tiger, considered a holy animal, and behind him is a pine tree, symbol of longevity. The Mountain Spirit gained popularity especially in the late Joseon period for his abilities to bestow such blessings as sons and wealth, peace and harmony. [http://museum.cornell.edu/collections/view/mountain-spirit-and-tiger.html]

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“First establish a firm foothold in daily activities within society. Only then can you cultivate reality and understand essence.”

- The Secret of the Golden Flower, Thomas Cleary

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Jivaka 耆婆 (Skt, Pali; Jpn Giba) Jivaka Komarabhacca, Doctor: The personal physician of the Buddha. The son of King Bimbisara and Ambapali and half brother of King Ajatasatru. Other sources say that he was an orphan raised by a certain prince Abhaya. Also known as the Father Doctor Shivago. In Thailand he is held to be the founder of the Thai system of medicine.

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Jivaka was a Sage, a Vaidya, Ancient Ayurveda physician, the disciple of the Great Sage Atreya. As the story goes, Lord Buddha who upon selecting his personal physician sent several physicians into the forest with the task of finding as many plants as they could with no medicinal value. Each physician brought back many samples of plants that they felt from their experience and meditations had no value. One Vaidya by the name of Jivaka came back empty handed. He explained his frustration to Lord Buddha. “I am afraid I have failed you, he began, I have spent much time in the company of all of the plants in the forest but their is none that I can find with no value to someone. ” Upon hearing this, Lord Buddha selected Jivaka as his personal physician. Indeed, Ayurveda recognizes that the earth is packed with medicines, every grain of sand can heal us if we cultivate our Inner Medicine resource. Not only do Nature’s plants and herbs and barks and tree-essences, plants, seeds, grains, and fruits heal us, but water, air, ghee, space, sound, breath, colors, aromas, and movement are all healing steps.

[http://www.wiseearth.com/jivaka-ancient-ayurveda-physician/]

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Legend has it that Shen Nong (神农), or ‘Divine Farmer’, was one of the Three Sovereigns, a group of mythological rulers and deities from ancient China circa 2852 to 2070 BC who established the Chinese life-arts. Said to have been born the son of a princess and a heavenly dragon, Shen Nong is believed to have taught the ancient Chinese their practices of agriculture, as well as the use of herbal drugs, which became the foundation of traditional Chinese medicine.

The earliest written record connecting Shen Nong to the practice of Chinese herbal medicine is found in the Huai Nan Zi (淮南子), or ‘The Masters of Huainan’, the Chinese philosophical classic from the Han dynasty in 122BCE. The text claims that Shen Nong transformed the ancient people’s diet from one of meat, wild fruits and clams by teaching them how to sow and harvest grains and vegetables. He is also said to have discovered and classified some 365 species of herbs and medicinal plants and is often referred to as the ‘God of Chinese herbal medicine’.

Tea is allegedly one of his great discoveries, as it proved to be the antidote for almost 70 varieties of poisons. Shen Nong discovered tea by accident when the tea leaves from twigs he was using for a fire rose up on a column of hot air and landed in the water he was trying to boil. Being a keen herbalist, he tasted the resulting brew and this became the origins of tea. Shen Nong tasted hundreds of herbs in order to determine their medicinal value.

The story of Shen Nong has been passed down orally for centuries and has been differently embellished throughout histories. Some versions even claim Shen Nong had a see-through stomach that allowed him to see the effects of various herbs on his internal organs. However, by all accounts, because of his tireless efforts, countless herbs are now commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine and knowledge about herbal medicine has been handed down for centuries.

Shen Nong is thought to have charted his long study of herbs in the text Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (神农本草经), which was published in English as The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica, but can be directly translated to mean ‘The Herbal Classic of the Divine Farmer’. Of the ten preeminent pre-modern classics of Chinese medicine, the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing is one of the two most important, as it is the locus classicus of Chinese herbal medicine (the second is Huang Di Nei Jing (黄帝内经), published in English as The Medical Classic of the Yellow Emperor, which is the authoritative text for Chinese medical theory, particularly acupuncture andmoxibustion). Because of Shen Nong’s efforts, numerous herbs became routinely used for health care.

Author: Gillian Daniel is a Graduate Trainee at the Wellcome Trust.

[http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2014/10/spotlight-the-legend-of-the-divine-farmer/]

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IX

Wander alone; bearing the Light and thy Staff. And be the Light so bright that no man seeth thee. Be not moved by aught without or within: keep Silence in all ways.

~ The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley

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“The spirituality of the man and the spirituality of the plant, being of one source and one existence, ineffably link together the two natures into the one great chain of life, offering to each a sympathetic perception of the other, joining both in the eternal kinship of Universal Nature.”

- Royal Dixon on ‘The Human Side of Plants’ in The Inner Lives of Minerals, Plants and Animals by Manly P. Hall

[Plate 7, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen]

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Dainichi Nyorai 大日如来 (Sanskrit = Vairocana or Mahavairocana) Central deity in many Japanese mandala. Buddha (Tathagata) Family; converts ignorance and bewilderment into the wisdom of primordial awareness, or the wisdom of universal lawfulness; Dainichi corresponds to the Historical Buddha's first turning of the Wheel of the Law at Deer Park in Sarnath (India), where Shaka Nyorai (the Historical Buddha) gave his first sermon after reaching enlightenment; the turning of the wheel is a metaphor for teaching the way of enlightenment;Dainichi Nyorai is known as the primordial or cosmic Buddha; Center or Zenith; White; also represents body, earth, and eye consciousness. Dainichi is the one from which “all things emanate,” the one who embodies all things, the one who represents the unity of all things; thus Dainichi encompasses the qualities of the four surrounding Buddha and is the supreme deity in esoteric Buddhism. Especially important to Japan’s Shingon 真言宗 sects; embodies realm of ultimate reality (Hokkai 法界).

[via: http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/godai-nyorai.shtml]

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Oxen memorialised at the top of Laon cathedral  [via: http://anitamathias.com/tag/laon-cathedral-france/]

"This was not an artistic contrivance but a tribute to the memory of the patient animals whose strength had contributed to the building of this great church." - The Inner Lives of Minerals, Plants, and Animals by Manly P. Hall

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The Beginning of Life - Frantisek Kupka [via: http://www.wikiart.org/en/frantisek-kupka/the-beginning-of-life]

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The Egyptian God of Silence. Harpocrates is Greek for the Egyptian Hoor (or Heru) -paar (or par/pa) -kraat (or kraath) and means "Horus the Child."

As One, Harpocrates is the first letter in the 'magical alphabet' (hebrew), Aleph, and represents: -the Male Principle -the First Cause -the free breath of Life

As 0, Harpocrates represents "the female Principle, the fertile Mother. (An old name for the card is Mat, from the Italian 'Matto', fool, but earlier also from Maut, the Egyptian Vulture-Mother-Goddess). Fertile, for the 'Egg of Blue' is the Uterus, and in the Macrocosm the Body of Nuith, and it contains the Unborn Babe, helpless yet protected and nourished against the crocodiles and tigers shown on the card, just as the womb is sealed during gestation. He sits on a lotus, the yoni, which floats on the 'Nile', the amniotic fluid".

Additonally, the element of air associated to Aleph connects Harpocrates with Zeus Arrhenothelus - Zeus being the "lord of air." "As Air we find the "Wandering Fool" pure wanton Breath, yet creative. Wind was supposed of old to impregnate the Vulture, which therefore was chosen to symbolize the Mother-Goddess." In Christian symbollism, Harpocrates is further identified as air with the "Holy Ghost" - "the agency of a Spirit -- Spiritus, breath, or air -- in the shape of a dove."

[via: http://thelemapedia.org/index.php/Harpocrates]

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A trikhep (Wylie: khri khebs"throne cover") from 19th century Bhutan. Throne covers were placed atop the temple cushions used by highlamas. The central circular swirling quadrune is the gankyil in its mode as the "Four Joys". 

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The gakyil or 'wheel of joy' is depicted in a similar form to the ancient Chinese yin-yang symbol, but its swirling central hub is usually composed of either three or four sections. The Tibetan term dga' is used to describe all forms of joy, delight, and pleasure, and the term 'khyil means to circle or spin. The wheel of joy is commonly depicted at the central hub of the dharmachakra, where its three or four swirls may represent the Three Jewels and victory over the three poisons, or the Four Noble Truths and the four directions. As a symbol of the Three Jewels it may also appear as the "triple-eyed" or wish-granting gem of the chakravartin. In the Dzogchen tradition the three swirls of the gakyil primarily symbolize the trinity of the base, path, and fruit.

—Robert Beer, The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols

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"One must be mad for God to believe beyond the sinister appearences that blind us, that crush us and that drive us to despair here below. So let him make us mad, so that we become wise and find the light of life that is never lacking for those who have once know it!"

- The Message Rediscovered, Louis Cattiaux

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"I am Shu, I draw Air from the presence of the Light-God. From the uttermost limits of heaven, from the uttermost limits on Earth and from the uttermost limits of the pinion of the Nebeh bird. May air be given unto this young divine Babe. My mouth is open, I see with my eyes."

- The Chapter of giving Air in Khert-Neter-The Egyptian Book of the Dead

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The name Shu means "he who rises up". As the god of air and a god of light, or of light personified, Shu was said to make himself manifest in the beams of the Sun by day and in the light of the Moon by night. He appears as rising up from behind the earth while supporting the sun with his hands similar to the way Atlas can be seen supporting the heavens on his shoulders. Shu is the son of Atum-Ra, the husband of the goddess Tefnut and father of Nuit and Geb. It is said that Shu was created by Ra by way of masturbation. "I had union with my hand, and I embraced my shadow as a wife. I poured seed into my own mouth and I sent forth from myself issue in the form of the gods Shu and Tefnut."

- Egyptian Story of Creation.

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Shu is the god of the wind, the atmosphere, the space between the heavens and the earth. As Lord of the atmosphere it is his duty to separate his children. Shu can be seen supporting the sky goddess and daughter Nuit above his head while his son and earth god Geb resides below his feet. It has been said that if Shu were to ever be removed from his place, chaos would come to the universe and all life would cease.

[via: http://www.goldendawnpedia.com/LiteraturePages/Egyptian/Shu.htm ]

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The ancients conceived the spirit of man to correspond with the color blue, the mind with yellow, and the body with red. Heaven is therefore blue, earth yellow, and hell--or the underworld--red. The fiery condition of the inferno merely symbolizes the nature of the sphere or plane of force of which it is composed. In the Greek Mysteries the irrational sphere was always considered as red, for it represented that condition in which the consciousness is enslaved by the lusts and passions of the lower nature. In India certain of the gods--usually attributes of Vishnu--are depicted with blue skin to signify their divine and supermundane constitution. According to esoteric philosophy, blue is the true and sacred color of the sun. The apparent orange-yellow shade of this orb is the result of its rays being immersed in the substances of the illusionary world. - Secret Teachings of All Ages, by Manly P. Hall

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Vrishabha

Satna (Madhya Pradesh), Chandella dynasty, 10th century Indian Museum, Calcutta

The word "vrishabha" means "bull," in this case the female counterpart of Nandi, as would be found in a Yogini Temple. In this relief, Vrishabha sits in Royal Ease, her lion vehicle beneath her feet. Her left arm cradles Ganesh. A Ganeshvari appears in the lower right corner, and possibly in the lower left corner (damaged) as well.

Satna is located about 75 mi (125 km) east of Khajuraho. [via: http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/81956435/original]