Write-Place

 Mind, Brain, Soul - Who we really are ... Most of us prefer to think that we possess something which is greater than the sum of our neurons; something which animates us and makes us the human individual we are. But much of what used to be classed as mind turns out to be brain and some part of all that must surely be the soul.  If we question who we are in these terms, we soon discover that we are not only our minds, but something else - and maybe everything else - at the same time. And is the soul one entity or are we all separate souls ? One of my favourite topics for questioning and discussion is memory, and how we define and recall our memories and many much greater 'minds' than mine have, over millenia, investigated and debated these issues.  A memory, at the cellular level, is a particular pattern of cellular changes on particular spots in our heads. A mood, however is a compound of neuro transmitters and if there's too much acetylcholine and not enough serotonin, t...

As I watch the funeral of Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church from 2013 to his death on Easter Monday 2025 play out across the world, I am drawn to the Vatican Obelisk in St Peter's Square. One of thirteen ancient obelisks of Rome, it is the only one which has never fallen.  Made of red granite it is 25 metres high and together with the cross and the base composed of four bronze lions, it reaches almost 40 metres. It is of Egyptian origin though hasn't any hieroglyphs and according to Pliny, comes from the city of Heliopolis - seat of worship of the sun god Re -  on the River Nile. Before coming to Rome in 40 AD it stood in the Forum Iulli of Alexandria. Emperor Caligula then had it placed at the centre of the Circus Nero, site of the modern day Vatican City. It was moved almost 800 feet in one day in 1586, at the behest of Pope Sixtus V.  The obelisk functions as a massive sundial, and each morning its shadow points towards one of the twelve Zodiac signs embedded i...

Which came first - Easter, the egg or the chocolate ? T he egg has long been a symbol of renewal and rebirth. Though the feast is a moveable one, Easter falls on the first Sunday after the full moon which occurs on or after the Spring Equinox. Lambs and rabbits are born, chickens and birds are hatched and new plant life growth is showing  after the cold dormant winter. Easter is a Christian celebration today, but has been adapted from older traditions. Symbols of rebirth and traditional sacrifice come from the Norsemen's Easyat, Ostara and Ostar and the pagan goddess Eostre, all involving the time of the growing sunshine and new birth. Ancient Egyptians, Persians, Phoenicians and Hindus believed that the world began with an enormous egg, and so the egg as a symbol of new life has been around for thousands/millions of years. The Easter Bunny most likely arose  as a symbol of fertility due to the rapid reproduction of rabbits. But what of the chocolate ? Painted and decorated eg...

  Posts From the Pasts - 20th November 2014 Three things have moved me to resurrect this blog today which has not been posted on since February this year. It's not that I have not been "moved" (insert as appropriate -  shocked, angry, happy, joyful,  thankful, grateful, upset, furious, insensed  ) for the last 9 months because believe me, I have. But the rapidly diminishing brain cells have often prevented me writing it down.  The other blogs / pages that I post are specific to a theme so that leaves me with  Write-Place  to well, write other stuff. I have checked back to the original gumph of what I said in 2008 that I intended posting on it and am pleased to be reminded that I said almost anything was appropriate, so here we  are.  I was brought up in a family culture that listened to and discussed the weather forecasts on the radio and then television and "lighting up time" was noted faithfully. Not that we ever had a car but cycling was a...

Sorting through my bookcase yesterday, I came across "The Golden Treasury of Longer Poems - selected and edited by Ernest Rhys" published in 1939 and reprinted in 1950.  This book is my Dad's copy, purchased for "3 and 3" (3 shillings & 3 pence) on  8/4/55 and is suitably annotated throughout in his neat, tiny handwriting. I think that if it was a font on a computer 'app' it would be size 8 ... without magnification of the screen or document. How he managed to write so clearly and accurately amazes me ; mainly with a fountain/cartridge pen and ink and only much later with a ballpoint or 'Biro', as we called them. I still do. My grandfather's handwriting was even smaller than this and I remember him clearly using a magnifying glass as he wrote - but this is a post for another time. Of course, once the Longer Treasury was in my hands it stayed there a while as I refreshed my mind on Gibson, Binyan Byron and many other of the "greats...

Since this post in 2012, many things have happened worldwide which could suggest that we are still in an end of days age.  Astrologers maintain that an astrological age is a product of the Earth's slow precessional rotation -    the 'gyration of the rotating axis of a spinning body about an intersecting axis' - and that this lasts for 2106 years, on average (a 25,920 year period period or great year, divided by 12 zodiac signs Astrologers maintain that an astrological age is a product of the Earth's slow  precessional rotation  and lasts for 2,160 years, on average (one 25,920 year period of precession, or  great ye ar , divided by 12 zodiac signs equals a 2,160 year astrological age) The  Age of Aquarius , in astrology  is either the current or forthcoming astronomical age  depending on the method of calculation. Astrologers do  not agree on when the Aquarian age will start or even if it has already started.   C...