One-Eyed

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
One-Eyed: Like blindness, lameness, or having a humpback, having one eye usually signifies a limitation, but it also expresses capacities of a particular sort, such as unusually primitive powers (e.g., Cyclops, Polyphemus) or divine knowledge (e.g., Odin). (Herder)

The latest chapter of Heather Domin's Valerian's Legion: The Soldier of Raetia is now posted. Check it out!

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
Ox: In contrast to the steer, the ox is a symbol of peaceableness and good-natured strength. Ox and water buffalo are sacred and beloved sacrificial animals in the Far East and in Greece. In the Far East the water buffalo is the steed of sages...Like the ass, the ox almost always appears in depictions of the nativity of Christ. The ox is the second sign of the Chinese zodiac and corresponds to Taurus. (Herder)

Myths, symbols, and folklore
beans: As seeds of a prolific cultivated plant, they promise (especially in Japan) happiness, good fortune, and fertility. They also offer protection against evil spirits, illness, and lightning. (Herder)

Chapter Three of Valerian's Legion: The Soldier of Raetia is posted. Check it out!

The Word-Hoard: Chessiker

Chessiker: An unpleasant surprise. (R.L. Abbott's Manuscript Collection of Nottingham Words)

Acanthus

Myths, folklore & symbolism
Acanthus: It is a thistlelike plant found in warmer climes. The sinute, notched leaves of two kinds of acanthus in the Mediterranean region provided the pattern for a leaflike ornamentation, used particularly on Corinthian capitals; it was also used as a festoon. The symbolic significance of the acanthus probably derives from its thorns, signifying that a difficult task has been fully accomplished. (Herder)

The Soldier of Raetia, Chapter 2

The latest chapter in Heather Domin's Valerian's Legion: The Soldier of Raetia has now been posted. Check it out!

Myths, folklore & symbolism

"This is a sign for the letter or sound yod in the Hebrew alphabet...This sign is used in the Rider-Waite deck of Tarot cards. It is a symbol for spirit descending into matter."

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Beard

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
Beard A symbol of masculinity and strength, a long beard is often a symbol of wisdom. Gods, rulers, and heroes are usually represented with beards (e.g., Indra, Zeus, Hephaestus, Poseidon, the God of the Jews and the Christians). Even female Egyptian rulers were provided with beards as a symbol of their power. In antiquity philosophers and rhetoricians wore beards as a sign of their dignity. Christ, on the other hand, was usually depicted without a beard (i.e., as a youth) until the sixth century.

In many cultures it was a severe insult to cut of one's enemy's beard; as a sign of mourning, on the other hand, one sometimes cut off one's own beard. (Herder)

Another New Beginning!

First of all, I am beside myself with joy, pride, hope. What an amazing morning.

I wanted to let you all know about another cool new beginning: My good friend Heather has begun posting her novel Valerian's Legion: The Soldier of Raetia, online, for free!

I've been lucky enough to see early versions of this story and it's outstanding. Do yourself a favor and check it out!

Astral Dances

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
Astral Dances: "Ritual dances depicting the movements of the stars, they are found in many cultures and are usually an expression of the attempt to conjure the cosmic powers." (Herder)

Myths, folklore & symbolism

"One of the signs in medieval alchemy for glass."

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Andrians

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
Andrians: Inhabitants of the Aegean island of Andros, famous for its wine, and therefore a centre of the worship of Bacchus in antiquity. Legend told that the god visited the island annually when a fountain of water turned into wine. Philostratus the Elder describes a river of wine beside which the Andrians drank, danced, and sang, garlanded with ivy. Philostratus was known to high Renaissance Italy and the subject of the Andrians was interpreted afresh. Titian depicts a Bacchanalian festival with much drinking, beside a stream of wine. In the distance a river god reclines by the source on a couch of vines. Bacchus' ship is just visible, moored in the background. (Hall)

Superbia

Myths, folklore & symbolism
Superbia: The female personification of (spiritual) pride, one of the seven mortal sins, she rides on a horse or lion. The attributes of pride include the centaur, the eagle, and the peacock. (Herder)

The Word-Hoard: Puckfyst

Puckfyst: Thirsty. The puckfyst is a dried toadstool. Hence, "I feel puckfyst" [means] I feel as dry as a dried toadstool. (Appleton Morgan's Study in the Warwickshire Dialect 1900).

Echidna

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
Echidna: It is a monster of Greek mythology, consisting of a woman's body whose lower trunk is a serpent. From her were born various other monsters (e.g., Cereberus, the Chimera, Scylla, and the Sphinx). She is viewed as a symbol of the psycho-physical, spiritual-instinctual dual nature of human beings. Jung regards her as a symbol of tabooed incest wishes (i.e., the mother as a beautiful young woman whose lower body evokes associations of horror). (Herder)

Myths, folklore & symbolism

"This sign represented the king in the Hittite hieroglyphic system, and was sometimes used for fire in the antiquity. The vertical line, 1001b, signifying oneness, unique being, and authority, is combined with 2201 for power and divinity."

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Larch

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
Larch: It is a conifer of the northern temperate zone. In Siberia, the world tree was imagined to be a larch on which the sun and the moon ascended and descended in the forms of a golden and a silver bird. (Herder)

Alabaster

Myths, folklore, and symbolism
Alabaster: Powdered alabaster was formerly believed to have medicinal value when made up into an ointment, and was reputedly particularly good for bad legs. It was common for people to chip pieces off church statues for the purpose, with the implication that this holy connection would make the stone even more effective, and many ecclesiastical buildings show mutilated statues at ground level both inside and outside the building for this reason...the efficacy of powdered alabaster was recorded in a number of leech-books, as early as AD 900. (Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore)

Do you know of alabaster folklore from other countries?

The Word-Hoard: Airish

Airish: Cool, windy, damp; said of the weather; Missouri, Arkansas (Harold Wentworth's The American Dialect Dictionary, 1944)