because God counts her tears.
The woman came out of a man's rib.
Not from his feet to be walked on.
Not from his head to be superior,
but from the side to be equal.
Under the arm to be protected,
and next to the heart to be loved.
First, it made me think of a verse from the Bible:
Treat her with understanding as you live together.
She may be weaker than you are,
but she is your equal partner in God's gift of new life.
If you don't treat her as you should,
your prayers will not be heard.
- 1 Peter 5:7 (NLT)
Finally, it made me think of , or Holy Death.
Here is some information on her:
There is more information on the link. Also, the La Llorona link points to one of the most creepy websites I've ever visited.SANTISIMA MUERTE
MOST HOLY DEATH,
MICTLANTECUHTLI:KEEPER OF MEN'S FIDELITY
I first met La Santisima Muerte -- "The Most Holy Death" -- in Austin Texas, down at Cantu's Herbaria. I saw a row of statues of what seemed to be a typical European "Grim Reaper" rather unexpectedly holding a balanced pair of scales and standing with one foot upon a stylized Aztec . Underneath the figure, when i picked up a statue, i could see an assortment of embedded lucky charms: , grains of wheat, and a . 
Another statue had a
, some rice, and a pinch of inside. I was intrigued by the lucky charms encased within what seemed to be a dire and forboding figure, and so i asked who "he" was, but i was quickly corrected: La Santisima Muerte is a SHE. I was then given a long story of how she keeps men faithful to their wives and will judge and kill men who violate the sanctity of marriage if called upon to do so, because her husband was unfaithful to her, causing her to commit suicide, and to hate and punish all unfaithful men.
The shop owner, Mrs. Cantu, even took me in a corner, away from my husband and taught me how you perform a seven-knot spell for La Santisima Muerte -- it's virtually identical to the nine knot spell for a , but you keep the knotted string that has been smeared with tied around her statue, for safe-keeping. The statue is actually designed with a groove around the base to accept the wound-up string.After that, she gave me a Santisima Muerte holy medal as a gift and told me with smiling eyes to not let my husband see it.
Later, down in San Jose, California, at Dos Aguas Botanica, where i bought my first statuette of Santisima Muerte, i was told that "women perform a novena to her to keep men faithful."
And in Sebastopol, California, at the Flea Market, where i first encountered her image on a novena booklet, i asked the old woman selling it, in my broken ugly Spanish: "La Santisima Muerte -- la razon por la que?[gesture of praying hands] Por que ...
oracion?" -- and she replied, "Matrimonio" -- marriage.
So who was this Holy Death?Where did she come from? Why does she judge men and protect women's marriages?
One occult shop owner without much knowledge of Mexican folk culture loftily explained to me that she is "The Angel of Death," a European or Judeo-Christian concept that accounted for her skeletal visage, but certainly did not explain why Mexican gardeners were gravely showing me the Santisima Muerte holy cards in their wallets and telling me that "She is The Virgin Mary as a skeleton" -- which itself begged the question -- "Why on earth would folks want to depict the Virgin Mary as a skeleton in the first place?"
Eventually i ran into the true story, as least as scholars of Mexican culture present it these days: La Santisima Muerte is a "banned saint," the Roman Catholic "cover" for an ancient Aztec goddess named Mictlantecuhtli, a death goddess and co-ruler, with her husband, of the underworld.
Mictlantecuhtli is the sister to the Aztec heavenly goddess Tonantzin, who has been syncretized with the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe. That's why Mictlantecuhtli became "Most Holy Death, The Virgin Mary as a Skeleton."
As to the idea that this goddess was a living woman who committed suicide when her husband proved unfaithful, i am not so sure. I consider the stories of her death and subsequent haunting of the living to be similar to, or influenced by, the folk tales of La Llorona, the weeping woman who mourns for her dead children, and who is a cautionary popular figure along the Texas, Arizona, and California border. In other words, the goddess is thus demoted to the status of a ghost.
Jesus is often refered to by the Vikings as the "White Christ". Thor was called "Red Thor." Thor is easily enough figured out.The term for "White Christ" or Hvítakristr came into currency among the heathen Icelanders at the time when pagan and Christian religions were in conflict with each other. A direct reference to this is made in the Flateyjarbók: "Þeir sem þann sið hafa, taka nafn af þeim guði, er þeir trúa á, er heitr Hvítakristr." That the Christian god was called Hvítakristr was originally probably due to the fact that the newly baptized converts were obliged to wear white robes (i hvítaváðum) during the first week after the baptism.He has a red beard. But Christ? Certainly not all that "white".
He was a Palestinian! I've heard Christ got his nickname "White Christ" for the white robes Christian converts wore. Is that true?
The adjective hvítr when applied to Christ was not meant to describe his physical appearance. At one time in the development of Old Norse, the term was used of either sex to denote someone who was blonde and/or pale-complected.
However, by the Viking Age, the term hvítr had acquired a perjorative connotation.
To call a man hvítr was to say that he was cowardly, effeminate, and guilty of argr. (See the Viking Answer Lady's on homosexuality in the Viking Age for more information on the term argr and how it was related to to the concept of cowardice by the Vikings). A related phrase was to say, "your liver is white" meaning again, a coward.
.. which is almost identical to modern English usage, "lily-livered" with the same meaning.
(Modern usage also uses "yellow" in this sense.)
In stark contrast to the peace-loving Hvítakristr, who was considered by a pagan warrior culture to be effeminate or cowardly, the Vikings revered their manly, virile god Red Thórr, red not only for his red beard and flashing red eyes, but likewise for the blood that a warrior spills.
The conflict between pagan and Christian views crystallized around the dichotomy of Hvítakristr and Red Thórr, becoming a recurring theme in saga events near the time of the Conversion, as in this scornful poem by Steinunnn, mother of Refr Gestasson, describing how Thórr wrecked the ship of a Christian priest, Thangbrand, showing to Steinunn that Christ therefore was the weaker god:
| Þórr brá Þvinnils dýri Þangbrands ór stað longu, hristi borð ok beysti barðs ok laust við jorðu; munat skíð um sæ síðan sundfært Atals grundar, hregg því at hart tók leggja, hánum kennt, í spánu.
| [Thórr altered the course of Thangbrand's long horse of Thvinnil 1, he tossed and bashed the plank of the prow 2 and smashed it all down to the solid ground; the ski of the ground of Atall 3 won't later be buoyant on the sea since the baleful gale caused by him splintered it all into kindling. |
| Braut fyrir bjollu gæti (bond ráku val strandar) mogfellandi mellu móstalls vísund allan; hlífðit Kristr, þá er kneyfði knorr, málfeta varrar; lítt hygg ek at Guð gætti Gylfa hreins at einu. | The killer of ogresses' kin 4 pulverized fully the mew-perch bison 5 of the bell's guardian 6 (the gods chased the steed of the strand 7) Christ cared not for sea-shingle stepper 8 when cargo-boat crumbled; I think that God hardly guarded the reindeer of Gylfi 9 at all.
|
| |
Jewellers at this time were hedging their bets by making molds for casting crosses and Thórr's Hammer's simultaneously, as is shown by this tenth-century soapstone mold, found at Trendgården, Jylland, Denmark.
Other amulets were hybrids representing the Cross and the Hammer simultaneously, as in the silver pendant, found near Fossi in Iceland, shown below.
The perjorative sense which became attached to hvitr was not associated with other words meaning white, including bjartr, "bright", bleikr, "wan, pale" or ljóss, "light".
For a full discussion, see:
Sturtevant, Albert M. "The Contemptuous Sense of the Old Norse Adjective Hvítr, 'White, Fair'." Scandinavian Studies 24(3): 119-121, 1952.
What is an evangelist?
Someone who tells the story of Jesus! In the New Testament, there is not just one but four different books that tell the story of Jesus’ life.
These books were written by four different men, whom we honor as saints. They are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
 MATTHEW Saint Matthew was Jewish, like Jesus, but he worked for the Roman government as a tax collector. That made him very unpopular with his fellow Jews. One day, he was at work when Jesus passed by. Jesus called him, saying, “Follow me. ” And without a moment’s hesitation, Matthew did! ( .) ( .) |
 MARKSaint Mark was a young boy when he became a follower of Jesus. Though he was not one of the twelve apostles, he was a disciple of Jesus and an eyewitness of many of the things Jesus did. Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the four. It’s a fast-paced, exciting telling of Jesus’ story. Mark writes almost like a newspaper reporter, telling all the facts. (Matthew and Luke both consulted Mark’s gospel in writing their own accounts.) |
 Mark's symbolIn art, Mark is shown with a lion, because his Gospel begins with John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness. ( ) |
 LUKESaint Luke’s gospel is longer and more detailed than Matthew’s or Mark’s. In Luke’s Gospel, we learn a lot about Mary. ( .) There are also a lot of great stories that we don’t hear anywhere else, like the story of the Good Samaritan. ( ) It is thought that Saint Luke was a physician, because he has so many stories about Jesus’ power to heal sick people. (R .) |
 Luke's symbolIn art, Luke is shown with an ox, because his Gospel begins with Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, offering sacrifice in the temple at Jerusalem. Sometimes he is shown painting an icon of Mary and Jesus. |
 JOHNSaint John was the younger brother of Saint James, for whom our Cathedral is named. John’s gospel tells the story of Jesus in a different way from the others. John’s gospel is less about facts than about symbols. He doesn’t tell the Christmas story as the others do; instead, he begins his gospel with a beautiful poem about what happened at Christmas: the word became flesh, and dwelt among us. ( ) John doesn’t tell the story of the Last Supper; but he is the only one to tell about Jesus’ washing his disciples’ feet on the night before he was crucified. John was thought to be the youngest apostle, so in art he is shown as a young man, without a beard, in contrast to the others. |
 John's symbolHis symbol is an eagle, because his writing “soars” to the mystical heights of heavenly things, and doesn’t spend much time on the ground! |
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