Author: cursedtraveler

The clay man-Golem- between tradition and fiction

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Today, I shall take you in trip in time, we will follow tradition and religion field. I’m not to much in to religion as you know but I do like traditions and to find out more about them.

So today we will travel and discover more about Judaic religion.  I shall tell you about a Judaic tradition. The tradition say if you in trouble and you are of Judaic religion .. well than you are in luck because the tradition says you can invoke a clay creature to come and save you from your foe. You may ask how come? What kind of creature is this does that really exist ?  Well until recently I never heard about it but it seems that this creature has a long history. Long enough that first time when is mentioned is in the book of books and that is in the Bible. Where it seems that us humans were seen by God as raw, unfinished creatures of clay.

We are supposed to be made out of clay considering religions ..even if science has an opposite view about this, saying that more likely we are made out of blood and flesh ( I tent to believe the seconds as hmm I never bleed clay but who knows:) ) 

Let’s get back to story so this creature that you can invoke when you are in big trouble and you need protection is a Golem. Golem in Hebrew means dumb, brainless. Getting back to Bible it seems that two words were characteristic for Adam the first man. I hope that they were wrong… In Talmud the book of books of Jewish there are also mentioned other guys that are made of clay and can’t really speak for themselves or so I heard.

What is supposed to be a Golem?  It seems a golem it is a clay creature that was created by someone in order to protect him or to protect the loved ones. Now you  will wonder how can we create a Golem? Well the tradition say first you should know some words in Hebrew as you will need to use them in your spell or prey, however you want to call it. Here in tis link you can see a picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem

  A known man that brought to life a Golem was the rabbi of Prague, Judah Loew ben Bezalel ( I hope I spelled right his name, he might send a Golem after me if I upset him even if he is from a long time passed on the other world), he brought to life the Golem in order to protect his community. As in those time the Jews were persecuted.  He brought it to life by sticking in his clay figurine the ” truth” word wrote in Hebrew. The Golem, protected them for a time until one day, Judah Loew ben Bezalel forgot to give indication to his Golem. So the golem started to attack everyone. The story says that in order to stop him from killing, other word had to put in his mouth, the word “death” in Hebrew.

What remained from this Golem was stored in the old Synagogue from Prague, in the attic. Those that are curious can go to look for it and see if the legend has some truth in it.

But have in mind that a few hundred year passed since than and also two wars so most likely the Golem if he was there probably was moved or vanished with time( clay can do that at times)

The legends about Golems are not just Prague, It seems another Golem was about to be born in Vilna, Lithuania around the 18 century, when the rabbi Chaim Volozhin tried when he was a boy to bring one to live but he received a sign from heaven to stop and so he did.

So we have at least two legends at least so far those that  I found. Maybe while we have this trip, maybe we will encounter other people that will know more about this legends. Or maybe you who have joined me, maybe you know more. If you do let me know 🙂

I hope you enjoyed this short trip and that you will want to follow me in other trips too.

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Crystal Skulls Quartz

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Today, I shall take you in a new trip. Grab my hand and let’s get lost into the history. We would try to find out why people are fascinated about skulls. Not any kind of skulls, crystal skulls made of quartz.

Around the 19 century the first skull appeared. The word came that  the skull could be from Aztec period. As Aztecs had the habit to gather many skulls and built them into a wall. This kind of wall was called Tzompantli. It was a  wall  full indeed of skulls but it wasn’t made of crystal skulls but from real skulls that with time dried into the wall. The Aztecs used to sacrifice people, getting their hearts off and keeping the heads for the wall. They were quite good with obsidian blades and very precise. I guess they were doing it quite often. This wall was dedicated to their war God.

Now let’s go back to the crystal skulls. Some skulls are part of museums collection. One is exhibited in the British Museum, you can see it on the link bellow.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/system_pages/beta_collection_introduction/beta_collection_object_details/beta_collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=20718001&objectId=662974&partId=1

Another one is in the Smithsonian Museum and you can also see it on the link bellow.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-smithsonians-crystal-skull-51638609/

There are also others crystals that are in the possession of private collectors. People are fascinated about the skulls also as a memento mori  always reminding us that death can come and also for some the crystal skulls seems to have also some powers or at least that’s what some are pretending. Some people think the skulls have a healing power. So if you touch them you might get healed( I wonder if they really do that, could be good for this season to heal all the flu, at least for sure I would need that to get rid of my flue 🙂 ) or you psychic abilities might expand in the presence of them. Some find the skulls like some kind of computers that  are already programmed, you just need to touch them. Others believed they can bring misfortune for some.

Nobody was able to find anything about their power scientifically. Except maybe the power to enchant the eyes with their beauty as they are really nice carved in Quartz.

They can’t be  dated, the date can be approximated by how they were made. The tools that were used to carve them. It seems probably this crystals were made somewhere in Germany most probably somewhere late in the 19 century . The  material probably came from Madagascar or Brazil. At first they were supposed to be from pre-Columbian period. But there were no such skulls in any excavations found.

Another famous skull it was supposed to be discovered in 1924 by Anna Mitchel Hedges, adopted daughter of Mitchel Hedges a British adventurer. This skull at first glance seems like a replica of the skull from the British Museum, a replica that is more intricate and with mobile teeth’s. It seems according to Anna that she found it buried into a collapsed altar inside a temple in Lubaantun in British Honduras now Belize. There are some proofs that the skull wasn’t fount there but bought by Mitchel Hedges at an auction in London, he wrote a letter to his brother were he mentions this fact.

Either way is a beautiful skull made of clear quartz having the same size as small human cranium, measuring 13 cm height, 18 cm long, 13cm wide with the lower jaw detached. at some point the skull was in the custody of  free lancer art restorer  Frank Dorland, he thought that the skull was quite old around 12000 years old, he thought that he couldn’t fine any tell-tall scratch marks except from mechanical grinding on teeth, thinking that it was chiseled into a rough form, probably using diamonds and the final polish using sand of a period of 150 to 300 years. While the skull was in possession of Anna Mitchel Hedges she refused other tests on the skull.

The skull is mentioned scarcely in the autobiography of Mitchel Hedges  without saying from where he got it. But he did claimed that it was at least  3600 years old, saying that according to the legend it was used by the Highest Priest of the Maya when he was performing esoteric rites. The Priest was using it when he wanted the death on someone  and the death would come. For that reason the skull was called also the Skull of Doom.

After Anna died the skull got into possession of her husband. He took the skull to the office of an anthropologist in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History for examination. There was carried a detailed examination of the skull using ultraviolet  light and high-powered light microscope and computerized tomography. A year later the skull was examined again for a documentary, on this occasion were made two sets of silicon molds  of surface skull marks for scanning electron microscope. It seems that  the skull was made with a high speed metal rotary tool coated with an abrasive such as diamond. This facts leads to the conclusion that most probably that skull was carved around 1930 probably as a replica of the one exhibited in the British museum. Interesting part of the documentary is that there was made a facial reconstruction after the skull and it seems it was a female skull with European characteristics. So most probably the skull was carved over a replica of an actual human skull. So most probably is not an ancient skull.

With or without special powers the skulls still remain beautiful carvings, even if most probably they are not ancient and probably not from Aztecs or Maya times, they are still beautiful, mysterious carvings.

Here is a documentary that I found on YouTube:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxEmA1rTQdk ;

I hope you enjoyed the trip with me and next time you will come to enjoy another trip on a interesting place.

Pigot Diamond

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Today I shall take you to a new trip in time we will follow the history  of another diamond.  A diamond that got lost in time.  So grab my hand prepare yourself and let’s get lost in history.

Our diamond is called Pigot Diamond or the Lottery diamond, this diamond had 47,38 carats, was without color, oval shaped cut brilliant, saw the light on Golkonda mine before 1763, to follow his history we shall go to India, to  Golkonda mine, than we will follow his history in England, where at that time it will be the largest diamond in Europe. Our diamond won’t stay long in Europe in 1820 he diamond will be found Egypt from where it will be lost.

Let’s follow his history closer. The diamond will be obtained by Sir George Pigot  when he was a guvernor in Madras. Probably he received it  as a gift from the Rajah, a gift that will bring trouble for Pigot as some will consider that he misused his powers to obtain it. Because of it Pigot will be imprisoned in 1776. Fortunately Parliament decided he wasn’t guilty and they passed two resolutions against his imprisoned. Even if Parliament decided in his favor he died in imprisoned next year. The Pigot diamond is passed to his family. As the value of diamond was quite big and they couldn’t obtain the right price they thought to sell the diamond in a new way.

They decided a lottery will be organized, at that time games of change were illegal in England, but they could obtain the Parliament  to agree with this lottery. There were 11428 tickets to be sold each  for two guineas. Diamond got in the end to Rundell and Parker. From this our diamond can be named Lottery diamond as you don’t sell diamonds in this way usually.

We will see as we follow his history that later Rundell and Parker will try to sell the diamond to France to the famous Napoleon Bonaparte, the only problem was that at time France and England were at war.  so the story goes that Napoleon started to think the diamond came from England so Rundell and Parker has to wait until Napoleon falls. It is bad to wait a fall of a man to get back what you own.

Rundell and Parker will file a lawsuit and recover their diamond.  The owners will be now Rundell and Bridge after Parker got out of the business, they will try to sell it , first they will be sending replicas of diamond all over the world to clients that can afford. It seems the diamond attracted many eyes the story goes in two different ways one says that the diamond attracted the interest of Pasha of Egypt who will buy it in 1822, the other story favors the an Albanian Prince who is supposed to buy it but they both had the same intention to give the stone to mighty Sultan. The first version of the story says that  when Pasha( he didn’t really obey the Sultan same as the Prince) was killed by Sultan men he told his best friend to smash the beautiful diamond. Ohers favors the rumors that the diamond is the Spoon diamond that lays in Topkapi Palace. But diamonds had different weights, the Spoon diamond being  bigger than the Pigot diamond.

Unfortunately we can’t follow more of this beauty history, we can only hope that the diamond wasn’t smashed and maybe is somewhere on a beautiful jewelry waiting to be admired by hungry eyes. I hope you enjoyed this trip in time and that you will again come with me to another trip.