Walkie Talkies

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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby hvered » 5:07 pm

It would appear that pointy hats were quite common in many parts of the world including Japan. Although the one we usually think of is the 'dunce's' hat given to schoolchildren to wear.


In the witches' hats article the writer mentions 'Cone of Power' which I thought a tad grandiloquent and ultimately meaningless. But perhaps not. Conical hills are landmarks that stand out, often with the aid of a tower. If Michael aka Hermes is associated with high cone-shaped places, tall hats could be a pagan throw-back.

Dunce, meaning 'a stupid person', is said to have referred to followers of the Scottish philosopher John Duns Scotus who was famous for splitting hairs and rejecting new Renaissance-style ideas. But why pick on Duns and not Scotus? Surely the English would have delighted in a Scotus pun denigrating their Scottish neighbours.

The approved headgear for dons is a completely level mortar board, the opposite to a cone shape.

I don't know about Japanese dress code, in such a status-conscious society perhaps the higher the hat the more important the wearer? Japanese guides in London who wish to stand out generally brandish a certain insurance company's umbrella.
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby macausland » 11:57 am

I think the flat mortar board is for graduates. Post graduates with a Phd get to wear a frilly little number, round and flat on top with a frilly edging. A bit like an old mop cap.

Hats do tend to confer status. Before the current trend for baseball caps whether worn forwards, backwards or sideways there was a definite class bias in Britain at least.

Top hats for the top people, bowlers for the various levels of management and the flat hat for the plebs.

Although perversely real landed toffs like to wear the tweedy flat hat especially when out in the country.

Taoist monks and priests wear a kind of pointy mortarboard rather like a little black roof on the head.
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby hvered » 6:45 am

Taoist monks and priests wear a kind of pointy mortarboard rather like a little black roof on the head.

Interesting. Graham Robb in his excellent Ancient Paths remarks en passant that an absolutely level plain or horizon almost never exists in nature. This is a necessary requirement to measure angles using a theodolite ['origin unknown']. Priests, seers and the like are masters of all they survey as it were. One hopes.
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby macausland » 9:05 am

http://blog.oup.com/2009/05/theodolite/

Here's an interesting article on the origin of the word 'theodolite'. The author finishes up admitting that nobody really knows although to get there he puts forward several theories.

The Ordnance Survey makes use of pointy things on hilltops and other places for triangulation purposes.

I used to work for the Geodetic Control Section and although we were involved in that our usual work involved 'levelling' in which we worked from tide gauges connecting up to benchmarks we carved in unsuspecting churches and other long lasting buildings and every so many miles to more permanent 'flush brackets' embedded in similar walls.

Looking back I suppose we were latter day 'dodmen' stalking the countryside with staff and theodolite.

As for priests and seers I think there's a fundamental difference. A priest reads from a book and pretends to know. A 'seer' literally 'sees' what is to come. The Brahan Seer, Coinneach Odhar, was one such although there are suggestions that he was a nineteenth century forgery. That's the trouble with instant tradition some refuse to believe it.

Anyway the good Coinneach used to 'see' by means of a small stone with a hole in the middle which he used to look through to see the future. A kind of cosmic temporal theodolite perhaps?
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 12:27 am

macausland wrote:Looking back I suppose we were latter day 'dodmen' stalking the countryside with staff and theodolite.


Dear Mac, it's clear that you have continued a long and noble tradition.
Walkers, or Watchers, with staffs or wands, are a most ancient tradition indeed.
To survey and measure.
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby hvered » 9:49 am

Watkins used the word dodmen and no doubt was accused of inventing a concept as ridiculous as leys. But, reluctantly since etymology is a bottomless quagmire, it seems an appropriate term.

Dod in Hebrew means uncle but since Hebrew eschews vowels it is also written as David. There is a very close connection between family ties and surveying. [Dod might be related to dude, whose origins are assumed to be older than eighteenth century slang though admittedly 'unknown'.]
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby macausland » 10:49 am

I wonder if it's not too far fetched to connect Dod with the Egyptian Thoth?

According to Wiki one of his skills was to do with astronomy and surveying.

'He is credited with making the calculations for the establishment of the heavens, stars, Earth,[30] and everything in them.[29] Compare this to how his feminine counterpart, Ma'at was the force which maintained the Universe.[31] He is said to direct the motions of the heavenly bodies. Without his words, the Egyptians believed, the gods would not exist.[26] His power was unlimited in the Underworld and rivaled that of Ra and Osiris.[19]

The Egyptians credited him as the author of all works of science, religion, philosophy, and magic.[32] The Greeks further declared him the inventor of astronomy, astrology, the science of numbers, mathematics, geometry, land surveying, medicine, botany, theology, civilized government, the alphabet, reading, writing, and oratory. They further claimed he was the true author of every work of every branch of knowledge, human and divine.[27]
'

Earlier on the same wiki article links him with Hermes.

'The Greeks related Thoth to their god Hermes due to his similar attributes and functions.[17] One of Thoth's titles, "Three times great, great" (see Titles) was translated to the Greek τρισμεγιστος (Trismegistos) making Hermes Trismegistus.[18]
Depictions
'

If we are to accept that the megalithics traded with the near east it would be feasible to imagine the people of that region being keen to measure and map the places they went to as they had done in Egypt.

Thoth had connections with the dead and is it a coincidence that 'dead, tod, dood' etc from English, German and Dutch are so similar?

According to one dictionary 'tod' is also an old English word for a measure of wool.

'tod (td)
n. Chiefly British
1. A unit of weight for wool, especially one equivalent to about 28 pounds (12.7 kilograms).
2. A bushy clump, as of ivy
.'

Weighing wool may not be the same as land surveying but it is certainly to do with measuring.
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby hvered » 1:39 pm

That sounds plausible. So many connections! Words like dod and tot, as well as Thoth, are palindromes which has an echo of the Hermetic phrase 'as above, so below'. Surveyors used the above to depict the below.

The English "divide" is very similar to David. At any rate division of land seems to be tied up with animal numbers, how many furrows can be ploughed in a year etc.

I didn't know that tod is a wool measure, that's a great find. The woolsack is the seat of power of the Speaker of the House of Commons which is very Hermes-like, Hermes being the god of eloquence as well as the god of flocks and herds.

Image

Hermes traditionally had red buskins.

Tod is also a male fox or reynard. Red and cunning are very much Hermes attributes.
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby Boreades » 3:10 pm

That picture of the The Woolsack, as one symbolic emblem of power, reveals another as well.

Notice the chequered floor. Emblematic of the cycles of light and dark, and day and night. Significant in both Druidic and Masonic ritual.

By the way, Chequers, the country home of UK Prime Ministers, is on The Michael Line, with its own Druids Circle as well.
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Re: Walkie Talkies

Postby hvered » 4:14 pm

The footpath at Chequers goes dead straight to the entrance of the drive. By rights there should be a resident hermit or at least a man from M15 at the gate, nowadays it's CCTV. Other countries would surely have relocated the path.

Talking of the PM, one of the walks (not included) started from Chipping Norton which is home to a fine 'wool church' on top of a tumulus overlooking the market place and high street. It'd be interesting to know if other wool churches are similarly sited.
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