Category Archives: History

GREAT PYRAMIDS OF GIZA – REMAINING WONDER OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

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The three great pyramids of Giza with towers of Giza and Cairo beyond.
The three great pyramids of Giza with towers of Giza and Cairo beyond.

It is amazing to hear how many people dream of seeing the pyramids. While they are worthy of a visit … a journey? After having spent a couple of weeks along the Nile, if not for a visit to the Grand Egyptian Museum – literally next door to the last remaining of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World – the wonders of further south near Luxor are where I would set my sights upon. But the pyramids are impressive – especially when you consider their age – and worth a visit if you are in Cairo. Coming to Egypt, I recommend you visit the Memphis necropolis at Saqqara and Dashur first, however, to give you a little sense of how the pyramids developed from much simpler burial tombs and where they went after the Great Pyramid era ended with the end of the Fourth Dynasty.

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BOOK OF THE DEAD AND OTHER EGYPTIAN MAGIC IN THE NIGHT

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Scenes from the Fourth Hour of the Amduat show Ra's progress through the Underworld.
Scenes from the Fourth Hour of the Amduat show Ra’s progress through the Underworld.

There is no single source for the various myths, allusions, gods, goddesses and religious practices found in the almost four thousand years of ancient Egypt. The foundations of Egyptian belief are found on temple walls. A few papyri roll that survived the many centuries and within the thousands of funerary tombs of royals and those not-so-royal.

Rituals, processions and magic spells always played significant roles in the carrying out of the varied practices ruling the life – and afterlife – of the ancients. Similar to what one finds in medieval Christian churches, paintings helped to tell the stories to those illiterate, which numbered most people. But the stories, rituals and spells also lay inscribed on the walls of the tombs and temples. Here, we can gain a more complete idea of belief systems in place. One of the most important aspects of Egyptian religious practices centered around death and the belief in an afterlife.

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JORDAN FINDS CATHOLIC REBIRTH IN THE WOODS OF LINN COUNTY

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Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes in Jordan. The simple chapel belies a complicated past.
Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes in Jordan. The simple chapel belies a complicated past.

1903 was a significant year in France for the Catholic Church. The church officially separated from secular government – catholic schools were no longer public schools, public monuments could not be religious in nature, and no taxes would go to the church. While there was not the level of anti-clericalism seen during the Revolution, that spirit still remained. Several religious orders became pressured to leave France for Canada or America. So the story of Catholicism in Jordan gained a second chapter.

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SAQQARA NECROPOLIS – OLD EGYPTIAN KINGDOM REVISITED

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Looking north at the Step Pyramid of Djoser at the Saqqara Necropolis.
Looking north at the Step Pyramid of Djoser at the Saqqara Necropolis.

Egypt was first united into one kingdom around 2950 BC under the rule of King Narmer – also known as Menes. He might have had a couple of predecessors coming close to uniting the country, but most scholars give Narmer the nod as becoming Egypt’s first pharaoh – though that title only utilized much later. Narmer came from the city of Abydos located about 15 miles north of the great Qena bend on the Nile. The city lay in a wide area of rich agricultural land on the west bank of the river. It was also the take off point from the water to a main caravan route leading to the oases of the Western Desert making Abydos an important communication center, as well.

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EGYPTIAN BASICS – to the Land of Pharaoh we go

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Camels, pyramids and the burgeoning metroplex of Cairo beyond.
Camels, pyramids and the burgeoning metroplex of Cairo beyond.

Egypt, the Land of Pharaohs and Pyramids. The Nile continues to attract visitors in large number ever since Napoleon “visited” in 1799. He, as we are still today, was moved by the sheer ancientness of the land – “From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.”

As a destination, Egypt winds up on many people’s bucket lists. It certainly appeared on my wife’s. She had been enthralled by the ancient civilization back to her days as a young teen-age student. So, even though the Nile did not show up in my bucket – even if I had one – I agreed to accompany her on a trip celebrating one of those decade birthdays.

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SISTERS OF ST. MARY OF OREGON – MAGIC FROM JORDAN

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Photograph from "These Valiant Women" book showing Jordan, Oregon in the late 1880s.
Photograph from “These Valiant Women” book showing Jordan, Oregon in the late 1880s.

In a recent post, I took a look at some of the present monastic institutions operating in the State of Oregon. Driving on the busy Farmington Road – Oregon Highway 10 – takes you past the looming structure of the motherhouse for the congregation of the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon. Like other Catholic stories here in Oregon, theirs begins in Germany – or at the time, Switzerland and the Hapsburg-dominated Duchy of Baden, both a long way from their eventual home in the rural Marion County hamlet of Jordan.

Sequoias line the entry road on the west side of the large grass field – the lawn brings memories of a Tualatin Valley losing more and more of its agricultural heritage every year. The Order today boasts on its ground’s schools ranging from preschool through high school, a care home for the elderly along with a memory care center. Everything has a beginning. The story underlying the Sisters is both unique and fascinating.

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DEVILS HOLE – SURVIVAL IN A DESERT CAVE

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Looking into the south end of Devils Hole, a collapsed cavern roof, home to one of the rarest vertebrate species in the world – the Devils Hole pupfish.

At the southeastern base of Deacon Peak, a crevasse in the rocks reveals the water-filled opening of a cave. Divers have descended to over 400 feet yet still have not discovered the cavern’s bottom. The water temperatures at the surface register a constant 92° F. Just below the water surface on the south end of the cave opening lying about one foot underneath is a rock shelf. The shelf measures 11.5 by 16.6 feet with the pool above measuring 11.5 by 42 feet. Welcome to the world of the Devils Hole pupfish – Cyprinodon diabolis.

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MISSION SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – SWALLOW MAGIC AND MYTHS

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Candles light memories at the back of the Serra Chapel.
Candles light memories at the back of the Serra Chapel.

Catholic priests ventured out into California to create missions in the 18th century from their Spanish bases in the Bajio of Mexico. Mission San Juan Capistrano is one of the best-known examples. Priests accompanied soldier-explorers who themselves were trying to duplicate the earlier exploits of Cortés, the brothers Pizzaro and many others. Fame and even more importantly, riches of untold amounts tempted them to push into the desert unknowns. But even as temporal gains pushed the main efforts, the spiritual mission remained an important sub context – natives to convert and to control.

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EWING YOUNG – WHISKEY, CATTLE EQUAL A NEW STATE

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Oregon White Oak marks the grave of Ewing Young in the Chehalem Valley.
Oregon White Oak marks the grave of Ewing Young in the Chehalem Valley.

Ewing Young lived a life of adventure. A major figure in the fur trade in the Far Southwest both as a trapper, but mainly as a leader. He migrated to the Oregon Country in 1834, where Young amassed a land claim of some 50 square miles. In his life, he figured big, but it was his early death at the age of 41 in the winter of 1841 for which he is best remembered. Dying without known heirs, local settlers came together to figure out how to settle his estate. That process is considered a germinal moment in the eventual founding of a local government in the divided Oregon.

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MONASTIC SPIRIT IN OREGON – CATHOLIC RIGOR IN THE BEAVER STATE

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Bell tower rises above the monastery chapel atop Mount Angel.
Bell tower rises above the monastery chapel atop Mount Angel.

Catholicism came to the Oregon Country as shown in an earlier post, in 1838 in response to the presence of Methodist missionaries who arrived four years prior and to a plea from local Hudson’s Bay Company employees allowed by the company to retire in Oregon with their Native American wives. The idea of monastic establishments – and here I will focus on Catholic monasteries – eventually followed though that was not well into the second half of the 19th century.

A quick aside, while most of the monastic communities are covered, there are the odd one or two missed – the small monastery just east of Eugene for several of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns. Also, one setting covered – the Grotto in northeast Portland – does include a monastery for men of the Servite Order, though since the order is a mendicant order – one who serves among the world as opposed to contemplative orders which try to isolate themselves – I am not sure of how much time those men housed here stay at home as opposed to using it more of a base to range out from.

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