Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Via Thich Nhat Hanh Quote Collective / FB
Via FB // ~from Karen Armstrong's The Spiral Staircase, pp 293-297
Via The Tricycle Community // Daily Dharma: Meditating on Difficult Emotions
Helpless, Not Hopeless
By Kurt Spellmeyer
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Via Daily Dharma: Meditating on Difficult Emotions
Via White Crane Institute // JOHN LYON BURNSIDE III
JOHN LYON BURNSIDE III died on this date (b: 1916) He was the inventor of the teleidoscope, the Darkfield Kaleidoscope and the Symmetricon and, because he rediscovered the math behind kaleidoscope optics, for decades, every maker of optically correct kaleidoscopes sold in the U.S. paid him royalties. He was the life partner of Harry Hay for 40 years, from 1962 until Hay's death in 2002. John lived in San Francisco, California until his death from complications of brain cancer, aged 91.
Burnside and Hay formed a group in the early 1960s called the Circle of Loving Companions that promoted gay rights and gay love. In 1966 they were major planners of one of the first gay rights march, a protest against exclusion of homosexuals from the military, held in Los Angeles. In 1967, they appeared as a couple on the Joe Pyne television show. In the late 1970s, they imagined the Radical Faeries along with Don Kilhefner.
He and Harry were seen as such a singular unit that he became known in some circles as “n’John” as in “Harry ‘n John”” A sweeter man I have never met.
Via White Crane Institute // ALEXANDER HUMBOLDT
ALEXANDER HUMBOLDT, German naturalist and traveler, born (d: 1859). This is one of my personal favorite discoveries in the development of this LGBT history project. One of the geniuses of the 19th century, he made so many contributions to science there is no way to do justice to him in this space.
From 1799 to 1804 he made an expedition with A.J. A. Bonpland to Central and South America and Cuba a journey reputed to have laid the foundations for the sciences of physical geography and meteorology. Humboldt explored the Orinoco and Amazon. He ascended the Andean peaks of Peru to study the relation of temperature and altitude, made observations leading to the discovery of the periodicity of meteor showers and the fertilizing properties of guano.
In 1808 he settled in Paris and published his findings in 23 volumes. During this period, he also established the use of isotherms; studied the origin and course of tropical storms, the increase in magnetic intensity from the equator to the poles, volcanology and pioneered the investigation of the relationship between geographical environment and plant distribution. All this before middle age. He was extraordinarily handsome according to pictures rendered of him throughout his lifetime.
He was always thought to be homosexual, with the rumors having begun with the suspicion that he and Bonpland were lovers. What was suspected seemed to be confirmed in the minds of his contemporaries when he named his valet Seifert as his sole heir.
Via White Crane Institute // THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES
This Day in Gay History
September 14
In ancient Greece, this was the first day of the ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES, during which the sacred objects were brought from Eleusis to Athens. The Mysteries were based on a legend concerning Demeter, the goddess of life, agriculture and fertility. According to the legend, Demeter's daughter Persephone was gathering flowers with friends one day, when she was seen by Hades, the god of death and the underworld. Hades fell in love with Persephone and kidnapped her, taking her to his underworld kingdom.
Distraught, Demeter searched high and low for her daughter. In her distress, she neglected her duties; this caused a terrible drought in which the people suffered and starved.
According to the myth, during her search, Demeter traveled long distances and had many minor adventures along the way. In one instance, she teaches the secrets of agriculture to Triptolemus. Finally, by consulting Zeus, Demeter reunites with her daughter and the earth returns to its former verdure and prosperity: the first spring. Before allowing Persephone to return to her mother, Hades gave her seeds of a pomegranate.
As a result, Persephone could not avoid returning to the underworld for part of the year. According to the prevailing version of the myth, Persephone had to remain with Hades for four months while staying above ground with her mother for a similar period. This left her the choice of where to spend the last four months of the year and since she opted to live with Demeter, the end result was eight months of growth and abundance to be followed by four months of no productivity. These periods correspond well with the Mediterranean climate of Ancient Greece.
The four months during which Persephone is with Hades correspond to the dry Greek summer, a period during which plants are threatened with drought. After the first rains in the fall, when the seeds are planted, Persephone returns from the Underworld and the cycle of growth begins anew.
The Eleusinian Mysteries celebrated Persephone's return, for it was also the return of plants and of life to the earth. Persephone had gone into the underworld (underground, like seeds in the winter), then returned to the land of the living: her rebirth is symbolic of the rebirth of all plant life during Spring and, by extension, all life on earth.