Assorted Cards
2013 Feb 13 – sent to Barham’s
Number 21
semiprime (product of two prime numbers)
properties of 21 in numerology are: Creation-Beginning, Destruction-Ending, Renewal-New Beginning.
Number representing the union of Trinity, whose result of their common action makes emerge the creation.
Number of the perfection by excellence, 3 x 7, according to the Bible.
Symbolic entry into adulthood
21-gun salute
February 21st was the day of the ancient Roman festival of Feralia celebrating the souls of the dead (the Manes)
Number 42
Sphenic number (product of three distinct prime numbers) and a pronic number (product of two consecutive integers)
it is prophesied that for 42 months the Beast will hold dominion over the Earth (Revelation 13:5);
It’s twice 21
The number 42 is, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, “The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”, calculated by an enormous supercomputer over a period of 7.5 million years. Unfortunately no one knows what the question is. Thus, to calculate the Ultimate Question, a special computer the size of a small planet and using organic components was created and named “Earth”.
Douglas Adams in turn got ’42’ from the time that it would take to traverse a ‘gravity train’ (42 minutes and 12 seconds). Lewis Carroll (who also makes ’42’ references) proposed the idea of a gravity train (without calculating 42 minutes) in 1893. (In 1966 Paul Cooper published a paper on gravity trains with the 42-minute calculation.)
The asterix (‘*’) is the glyph corresponding to number 42 in the ASCII character set.
Dia de los Muertos is the holiday on November 1 & 2 (’21’ backwards) during which deceased friends and family are remembered. Sugar skulls (calaveras de azucar) and marigolds are used to decorate private alters on loved ones’ graves. The alters often include the Virgin Mary (denoted by a blue mantle over a red shift and a crown of 12 stars).
In some religious traditions, Mary was at the local watering hole in Nazareth when the Annunciation occurred (when the Angel Gabriel told her that she would bear Jesus). The other water connection is to the House of Mary in the mountains of Turkey where some believe that Mary lived her final years (after fleeing Jerusalem in the wake of the execution or imprisonment of several Christian leaders: many healings and miracles are attributed to the water from the spring at the back of the House of Mary.
The Mexican marigold’s role as the flower of the dead predated the Spanish Conquistadors (and thus predated Christian traditions in Mexico). (The lily was the flower of the dead in Europe.) The flower’s scent is thought to attract and guide the spirits to the Dia de los Muertos alters. The English name ‘marigold’ is a reference to the Virgin Mary (‘Mary’s Gold’), and the European version of the marigold was used to decorate Christian alters. (Varieties of marigold are also used in celebrations in India, Nepal, Thailand, and Ukraine.) The botaincal name of Mexican marigold is Tagetes lucida; its Spanish name is calendula – not to be confused with the flower with the botanical name Calendula officinalis. In English Calendula officinalis is called calendula as well as English marigold or common marigold. Botaincally both Tagetes and Calendula along with sunflowers are members of the Asteraceae family.
Death in the form of the Grim Reaper is often depicted holding a scythe with which to harvest the souls of the dead.
Partrige in a pear tree
Rene Magritte – “…fell under the umbrella of surrealism. His work challenges observers’ preconditioned perceptions of reality.”.
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