Via REUTERS

A devotee in a state of trance mimics the creatures which are tattooed on his body during the annual Magic Tattoo Festival at Wat Bang Phra in Nakhon Prathom province, about 80 km (50 miles) from Bangkok March 7, 2009. Thousands of believers from across Thailand travel to the monastery to attend the annual tattoo festival to have their bodies adorned with tattoos and to pay their respects to the temples master tattooist. They believe the tattoos have mystical powers which ward off bad luck and protect them from harm.

Jung

umu: (n.b. that Jung spent his entire mature life at the head of a harem of young sex slaves.)

grisom:*What*?

umu: Jung was a notorious womanizer and polyamorist. After his mental breakdown / spiritual revelation, he gained a weird sort of charismatic magnetism, and he used it to fuck. His entourage were called die Jungfrauen.

grisom: HEEEHEEHOOHA oh my :)

umu: Jung is generally remembered as a psychologist, but it's probably more sane to regard him as the 20th century's most successful magician.

Dude looked like *this*, remember:

Our Glorious History, Part III

Part of a series!

<umumuntamku> Is there any way this could be further aligned with the Mayan "vague year," which is vaguely similar?

<grisom> Only if you explain it!

<grisom> *looks it up*

<umumuntamku> *gets back from the shower*

I'm glad you did that, because I have no idea where my Native American Mathematics book is right now. Probably buried pretty deep.

<grisom> 18*20, eh? Yeah, the Mayans *would* do it that way, wouldn't they?

Well:
- I'm not feelin' a change from the 12*30 system, which has the support of Ancient Egypt, the Gnostic Christians, and the French Republic, all of whom are officially Cool.

<umumuntamku> Indeed, I am in agreement with you here.

<grisom> - Kinda interesting that the days of the months are numbered 0-19 rather than 1-20.
- "Bricker (1982) estimates that the Haab' was first used around 550 BCE with the starting point of the December winter solstice." WIN

<umumuntamku> Hm!

<grisom> 'The five nameless days at the end of the calendar called Wayeb' were thought to be a dangerous time. Foster (2002) writes "During Wayeb, portals between the mortal realm and the Underworld dissolved. No boundaries prevented the ill-intending deities from causing disasters." To ward off these evil spirits, the Maya had customs and rituals they practiced during Wayeb'.'

I RECOMMEND that we accept the notion that the Uayeb is a time when evil deities prowl the streets, but that we consider that AWESOME.

<tezcatlipoca> I agree with all of this (:

<umumuntamku> Uhm... aren't we... coming up on the Uayeb, like, *immediately*? That would be December 27–31, right? *anxious look*

<grisom> No, if the year ends on the solstice we have already passed the Uayeb in safety :)

<umumuntamku> ...

Wait, have I been suffering the ill effects of the Uayeb? Is that why I've felt so horrible recently? When did it happen? When is the solstice?

<grisom> 21 December, so the Uayeb would've been approximately 16-21 December.

<umumuntamku> The 16th of December, Tuesday, was *exactly* when I first started falling ill—I remember this because my body began to feel withered and dead immediately after my Greek exam that day—and the 21st, Saturday, was *exactly* when I stopped feeling like I had some horrible disease—I remember this because Clair arrived that day, and I was relieved to find that I no longer felt unable to move.

On this basis, I propose that the period of 16–20 December was in fact the Uayeb, and the Uayeb was the reason I fell ill. I failed to protect myself against the spirit attacks that I am apparently especially susceptible to.

<grisom> Interesting!

<grisom> Hmm... Well, that does correlate with whatsisface's idea that the Haab' started *on* the Solstice, but I'll have to figure out how to square this with the idea that the last day of the world is (I think) on the solstice. If the 2012 solstice is actually Dec. 22 we have it made. Otherwise I'll have to figure out some kind of justification.

<umumuntamku> *uses a calendar converter*

The last day should be the solstice? Well, do you feel that the last day will be 12.19.19.17.19 or 0.0.0.0.0? Those will be Dec 20 and Dec 21, respectively.

<grisom> I'm told the last day is 13.0.0.0.0.

<umumuntamku> Aight. Then why do we want the 2012 solstice to be on the 22nd? Shouldn't it be on the 21st?

<grisom> Okay:
1. You say your spirit-sickness ended on the solstice, and that therefore the Uayeb was the five days *before* the solstice
2. The Uayeb being the end of the year, that makes the solstice the first day of the next year
3. The last day of this world's existence should be the last day of the year; that was the whole point to begin with
4. But if the end is actually *on* the solstice, and the solstice is the first day of the new year, then something in the above three points has to give.

<umumuntamku> Well, inre: 3, I question that—isn't the last day, 13=0.0.0.0.0, actually the first day of the new year?

<grisom> ...
Yes!

<umumuntamku> The end (which is, after all, just the beginning) takes place in the new year.

<grisom> You are an occult genius.

<umumuntamku> This would make it possible to have the solstice be the 21st, not to mention reaffirm my health-based assessment of the period of the Uayeb. :)

<grisom> Hurray!

<umumuntamku> Well, it's annoying that I have become enough of a brujo that this affects me. I suppose I will have to start adopting the Uayeb ritual practices every year. These apparently include not leaving the house and not combing one's hair, so, uh, I think I can handle it.

Citizen's Arrest

LAGOS (Reuters) - Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.

Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

"The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat," Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

"We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat," he said.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.