Ksitigarbha is a bodhisattva, or “saint,” primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism and usually depicted as a Buddhist monk. In Japanese culture, where Ksitigarbha is known as Jizō or Ojizō-sama, he is the guardian of children in limbo. Jizō is also the patron deity of children, expectant mothers, travelers and aborted/miscarried fetuses. Jizō statues are a common sight in Japan, especially by roadsides and in graveyards. Ksitigarbha means “womb of the earth” and this deity is known for his vow to take responsibility for the instruction of all beings in the six realms between the death of Gautama Buddha and the rise of Maitreya, as well as his vow not to achieve Buddhahood until all hells are emptied. He is therefore often regarded as the bodhisattva of hell-beings, or savior of hell’s torments.
Jizō Bodhisattva is one of two garden sculptures in our backyard. Jizō, which I purchased as a gift for my wife, is a 15.5″ figure made of volcanic stone with an antique brown finish. My two-year-old daughter refers to the dense Jizō statue as “the heavy baby.” The other sculpture, Saint Francis of Assisi, is a 20″ white stone/resin sculpture that was in the yard when we bought our house. Alongside these two sculptures is our 10″ plastic garden gnome of many travels, Dingledodger VonFefferhedge. Together they preside over our backyard cat cemetery, which includes the recently deceased The King. Happy New Year!
Saint Francis of Assisi (born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone) was an Italian Roman Catholic friar and preacher who renounced a wealthy lifestyle to embrace a life of poverty and aid the poor. He is one of the most beloved religious figures in history. Francis founded the men’s Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of Saint Clare, the Third Order of Saint Francis and the Custody of the Holy Land. Pope Gregory IX canonized Francis in 1228. Along with Saint Catherine of Siena, he was designated the patron saint of Italy. Francis is also known as the patron saint of animals and ecology (or natural environment). It is customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of October 4. Francis was born in 1181/1182 and died on October 3, 1226.
Pope Francis, who has turned out to be a remarkably progressive and humane leader, was the first pope to take Saint Francis of Assisi as his namesake. From my perspective, it was a very appealing and revealing choice, and Pope Francis is representing the name well. In our backyard garden, we have two statues. One is of Saint Francis holding a small bowl/birdbath; it’s a 20″ white stone/resin sculpture that was in the yard when we bought our house. The other sculpture, Jizō Bodhisattva, is one I purchased as a gift for my wife, Heidi. Jizō is a 15.5″ figure made of volcanic stone with an antique brown finish. Alongside these two sculptures is our 10″ plastic garden gnome of many travels, Dingledodger VonFefferhedge. Together they preside over our backyard cat cemetery, which includes the recently deceased The King.
Kwaku Anansi is the West African spider god. He often takes the shape of a spider and is considered to be the spirit of all stories, as well as the god of lies and mischief. Anansi is one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore. He is the first spider, but often acts and appears as a man. The Anansi tales originated from the Ashanti people of present-day Ghana. The word Ananse is Akan and means “spider.” Anansi is depicted in many different forms. Sometimes he appears as an ordinary spider, sometimes he is a spider wearing clothes or with a human face, and sometimes he looks much more like a human with spider elements, such as eight legs.
Prester John is one of my favorite historical/mythological figures. The legends of Prester John were popular in Europe from the 12th through the 17th centuries, and told of a Christian patriarch and king said to rule over a Christian nation lost amidst the Muslims and pagans in the Orient. Prester John was reportedly a descendant of one of the Three Wise Men and presided over a realm full of riches and strange creatures, including unicorns. His kingdom contained such marvels as the Gates of Alexander and the Fountain of Youth, and even bordered the Garden of Eden. Prester John was first imagined to reside in India, as tales of the Nestorian Christians’ evangelistic success probably provided the first seeds of the legend. After the coming of the Mongols to the Western world, accounts placed the king in Central Asia. But as the Mongol Empire collapsed, Europeans began to shift away from the idea that Prester John had ever really been a Central Asian king. Eventually, Portuguese explorers convinced themselves that they had found him in Ethiopia. The legend of Prester John affected several hundred years of European and world history by encouraging generations of Europe’s explorers, missionaries, scholars and treasure hunters to venture into India, Asia and Africa.
Prester John, the fabled king/priest invented by Crusader kingdoms, is basically the Forrest Gump of the Middle Ages (1100s-1500s). Dude was everywhere. For example, during the Mongol Empire, Prester John was identified as both Genghis Khan and a Nestorian Christian monarch defeated by Khan. The myth of Prester John was a comforting (if ethnocentric) symbol to European Christians of their religion’s universality, transcending culture and geography to encompass all humanity. Even the boneheaded Christopher Columbus cited the discovery of Prester John’s kingdom among the goals of his travels. Despite centuries of European exploration in search of treasure—and evangelizing the locals—the quest for the fictitious kingdom remained unfulfilled. But the legend served many medieval Christian kingdoms, and the Catholic Church, handsomely.
Metatron is an archangel in Judaism. According to Jewish medieval apocrypha, he is Enoch, ancestor of Noah, transformed into an angel. There are no references to Metatron as an angel in the Jewish Tanakh or Christian scriptures (New and Old Testament). Although he is mentioned in a few brief passages in the Talmud, Metatron appears primarily in medieval Jewish mystical texts and other post-scriptural esoteric and occult sources. In Rabbinic tradition, he is the highest of the angels and serves as the celestial scribe.
While he does have a cube (for understanding the tree of life?), Metatron is not to be confused with the sentient robotic lifeform Megatron (of Transformers fame), though both are described as having formidable power. Metatron can also be found in Megami Tensei role-playing video games. Happy New Year!
Saint Nicholas was a 4th-century saint and Greek bishop in Myra (modern-day Turkey). Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for Santa Claus (whose modern name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas).
Itzamná is one of the most important gods in Yucatec Maya mythology. His name in the Mayan language means caiman, lizard or large fish. Thought to reside in the sky, he was considered the god of creation, the inventor of writing and was also worshiped as the god of medicine. In his human form, Itzamná is portrayed as an old, wise priest often wearing an elaborate headdress. In modern culture, Itzamna has shown up in the Earth-616 universe of Marvel comics.
Happy 12/12/12, numerologists! Today is the last repeating date for 89 years. Some people think December 21, 2012 (or December 12, 2012) is going to be a big day. Nine days from today, on 12/21/12, the ancient Maya calendar will end its current cycle and a new cycle will begin. That’s right, folks, the count is starting over again. Misinterpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is the basis for the popular belief that a cataclysm will take place on December 21, 2012. While the Maya calendar is simply advancing to the next b’ak’tun, don’t let this fact stop you from fawning over dreams of your long-awaited apocalypse of choice. Maybe you should learn to swim?
Sedna is the mermaid goddess of the sea and marine animals in Inuit mythology. The creation myth of Sedna describes how she came to rule over Adlivun, the Inuit underworld. As the sea-mother and provider of food for the Inuit people, she is the patron of fisherman and hunters. Sedna is known by other names in Greenland and Canada, including Arnakuagsak, Arnapkapfaaluk and Nerrivik.
Heidi and I are currently in beautiful Reykjavík, Iceland. This is the third day of our vacation in Europe.
Astronaut Jesus was conceived in 2004 by Argentine design collective Doma. A limited edition, five-color silkscreen poster exclusive to Andr8id was printed in 2004 and a matching vinyl toy was manufactured by adFunture in 2005. The visually striking toy is a 9.5″ (24 cm) figure with a removable helmet and a swiveling right arm. Doma is best known for their visual designs and installation arts. According to the Astronaut Jesus collectible packaging, “[AstroChrist] is an elite member of the astronaut gods that have come to our planet since the beginning of time to shape our civilization and the world as we know it.”
I am amused by the concept that Jesus has been in outer space overseeing the world and will one day return to fix our problems. It would be fun to have my own Astronaut Jesus figure, but only a few hundred exist in the world, so I’m not holding my breath. After the original run of 500 Astronaut Jesus figures, six small limited edition runs were manufactured in different colors during 2005 and 2006, including a hot-pink flocked Wooster Collective Edition.
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus’s most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Mary’s presence at the crucifixion and tomb of Jesus is consistent with her role as grieving wife and widow. But we’re pretty sure she was just a trusted disciple. Unless she totally was his wife, or a concubine, or prostitute or some other appropriated mythological archetype.
In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is often portrayed as the son of the goddess Venus, with a father rarely mentioned. His Greek counterpart is Eros. Cupid is often portrayed as a nude (or sometimes diapered) winged boy or baby armed with a bow and arrows. These days we know him as a symbol of a certain commercialized holiday popularized by a greeting card company.
A Mesoamerican deity whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and means “feathered serpent.” The worship of a feathered serpent deity is first documented in Teotihuacan about 2,000 years ago. Among the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl was related to gods of the wind, of Venus, of the dawn, of merchants and of arts, crafts and knowledge.
I’m not sure I can call this 8-bit representation of Quetzalcoatl a success since my girlfriend referred to him as “a cat-dinosaur-flower.” Her description seems pretty accurate, really. Since today is the Chinese New Year, perhaps we can call him a dragon.
Mama Quilla is the moon goddess, according to the Inca mythology. She rules marriage, the lunar calendar and the menstrual cycle, and is considered a defender of women. The most common origin story says she is the daughter of Viracocha (the god of civilization) and Mama Cocha (the sea goddess). Inti (the sun god) is her brother and husband.
After 33 days in Peru, we are finally due to return home to Oregon on January 6.
Inti is the sun god, according to the Inca mythology, as well as a patron deity of the Inca Empire. The most common origin story says he is the son of Viracocha (the god of civilization) and Mama Cocha (the sea goddess). Mama Quilla (the moon goddess) is his sister and wife.
The sea and fish goddess in Inca mythology in the Andes region of South America. She is the protectress of sailors and fishermen. In one legend she mothered Inti and Mama Quilla with Viracocha, the Inca supreme god.
The great creator god in the pre-Inca and Inca mythology in the Andes region of South America. Viracocha was one of the most important deities in the Inca pantheon and seen as the creator of all things (the universe, sun, moon and stars, time and civilization itself). He was intimately associated with the sea and worshiped as god of the sun and of storms.
The “all knowing” decapitator god of the Moche people of northern Peru. The Moche Empire, a pre-Columbian tribe ruling a 220-mile coast and desert region between the Andes and the Pacific, flourished from about 100 AD to 800 AD. They preceded the Inca by 1,200 years.
In the Hawaiian religion, Pele is the goddess of fire, lightning, wind and volcanoes. She is a popular figure in many stories of ancient Hawai’i known as Hawaiian mythology. Legend has it that she is a fickle and dangerous lover who sometimes kills her husbands. She is believed to live in the Halema’uma’u crater of Kīlauea.
The falcon-headed Horus is one of the oldest and most significant deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion. He was often the ancient Egyptians’ national patron god and was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through Greco-Roman times. He was born of the goddess Isis and her brother Osiris, the god of the underworld.
Isis is a goddess in the Ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic. Her brother, Osiris, became her husband. After Osiris was murdered, she awoke him from the dead in order to impregnate herself, and later gave birth to Horus.
Note:Cleopatra represented herself as the reincarnation of Isis.
Jizō Bodhisattva – No. 948
Ksitigarbha is a bodhisattva, or “saint,” primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism and usually depicted as a Buddhist monk. In Japanese culture, where Ksitigarbha is known as Jizō or Ojizō-sama, he is the guardian of children in limbo. Jizō is also the patron deity of children, expectant mothers, travelers and aborted/miscarried fetuses. Jizō statues are a common sight in Japan, especially by roadsides and in graveyards. Ksitigarbha means “womb of the earth” and this deity is known for his vow to take responsibility for the instruction of all beings in the six realms between the death of Gautama Buddha and the rise of Maitreya, as well as his vow not to achieve Buddhahood until all hells are emptied. He is therefore often regarded as the bodhisattva of hell-beings, or savior of hell’s torments.
Jizō Bodhisattva is one of two garden sculptures in our backyard. Jizō, which I purchased as a gift for my wife, is a 15.5″ figure made of volcanic stone with an antique brown finish. My two-year-old daughter refers to the dense Jizō statue as “the heavy baby.” The other sculpture, Saint Francis of Assisi, is a 20″ white stone/resin sculpture that was in the yard when we bought our house. Alongside these two sculptures is our 10″ plastic garden gnome of many travels, Dingledodger VonFefferhedge. Together they preside over our backyard cat cemetery, which includes the recently deceased The King. Happy New Year!