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Happy 2016!
Freyja: the Valkyrie Goddess?
The Norse goddess Freyja and the valkyries, choosers of the slain, seem to have a lot in common. Both can take bird-form, are associated with war, magic and death, and take mortal protegés and lovers. Add that to the fact that she and Odin took half of all slain warriors each, and many have concluded that Freyja was the leader of the valkyries, the valkyrie goddess if you will.
Crossing the Bar
This poem is a bit different from most – I put it in because my mom and my best friend like it. So this is for them.
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
(For the image at the top, click here.)
Beautiful Star of Bethlehem
Beautiful Star of Bethlehem
Shining afar through shadows dim
Giving the light to those who long have gone
Guiding the Wise Men on their way
Unto the place where Jesus lay
Beautiful Star of Bethlehem, shine on
Oh Beautiful Star (Beautiful, Beautiful Star)
Of Bethlehem (Star of Bethlehem)
Shine upon us until the glory dawns
Give us the light to light the way
Unto the land of perfect day
Beautiful Star of Bethlehem, shine on
Beautiful Star the hope of light
Guiding the pilgrims through the night
Over the mountains ’til the break of dawn
Into the light of perfect day
It will give out a lovely ray
Beautiful Star of Bethlehem, shine on
Oh Beautiful Star (Beautiful, Beautiful Star)
Of Bethlehem (Star of Bethlehem)
Shine upon us until the glory dawns
Give us the light to light the way
Unto the land of perfect day
Beautiful Star of Bethlehem, shine on
Beautiful Star the hope of rest
For the redeemed, the good and the blessed
Yonder in glory when the crown is won
Jesus is now that star divine
Brighter and brighter He will shine
Beautiful Star of Bethlehem, shine on
Oh Beautiful Star (Beautiful, Beautiful Star)
Of Bethlehem (Star of Bethlehem)
Shine upon us until the glory dawns
Give us the light to light the way
Unto the land of perfect day
Beautiful Star of Bethlehem, shine on
(Composed by R. Fischer Boyce. You can also listen to it it here.)
(For the image at the top, click here.)
Winter Heavens
Sharp is the night, but stars with frost alive
Leap off the rim of earth across the dome.
It is a night to make the heavens our home
More than the nest whereto apace we strive.
Lengths down our road each fir-tree seems a hive,
In swarms outrushing from the golden comb.
They waken waves of thoughts that burst to foam:
The living throb in me, the dead revive.
Yon mantle clothes us: there, past mortal breath,
Life glistens on the river of the death.
It folds us, flesh and dust; and have we knelt,
Or never knelt, or eyed as kine the springs
Of radiance, the radiance enrings:
And this is the soul’s haven to have felt.
PS – Also check out this article and this site for more on Meredith.
(For the image above, click here.)
Understanding whether Jupiter’s relative uniqueness is a real feature, or another product of selection effects, has real implications for our understanding of exoplanets.
Skadi: the Sources
The goddess Skadi has one main myth, but it is a well-developed story, spanning three generations, and involving the feud between the gods and giants. The actual story is scattered around through a variety of sources, but its outline is clear.
Bright star – Keats
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.
(For the image above, click here.)
Scientists think they’ve solved the mystery of what causes those weird bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres — and you may have a jar of it in your bathroom at home.
Source: Ceres’s mysterious bright spots identified as common bath additive – Technology & Science – CBC News
We Are Star Stuff 