The Oracle and the Oral Tradition...

I just want to draw your attention to something that the delightful and delicious, Saz, at Fat, frumpy and fifty... said, but only a few moments ago...

"Are you ok, you haven't posted in 12 minutes...so I'm a little worried!!"

Such a cheeky, and yet winsome wench, she is!

I am being driven to madness and distraction by drills and hammers, and the bleaching cold of wind whistling through areas of my body gusts of wind should never have access to. It would seem that the like of my home has never before been encountered by my Knights With Shining Windows...


I have had more Inspectors through the place over these past two days than The Pink Panther!

I have had to deal with the damage which putting in new windows has caused to the plaster and fabric of my tumble-down home... I have just been at the portal, on the steps of Crawford Mansions, waving a fond farewell greeting to a lovely silver-haired and silver-tongued, Plasterer, who proceeded to tell me all about his back troubles... I almost resorted to showing him my staples and my fledgling scar... I did... nearly -


Only prudity, and the thought that Goddess Wiki would be looking on, saddened again by my bringing her into disrepute in such a way, stopped me in my tracks...

Suffice it to say that I am posting half of my piece today, if that's okay, mes darlings, and the remainder tomoz - For fear that I will never get my teeth to de-chatter, and my nerves to de-shatter... And the fact that some of my blogging gets kind of lengthy - I know... I know...

Some kind person (that is, other than Saz) said yesterday that I was a bit like an oracle... By which, I think they meant that I have a capacity to ramble on about anything and everything, (avoiding politics or other sensitive subjects, of course, at least at the moment, you might have noticed?)...

I love the thought of oracles; the mythology; the possibility; the potential... Time for me to slip in through the ancient portal of Goddess Wiki, methinks... SShhhhh, I knock softly... and she says:

"An oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion; an infallible authority, usually spiritual in nature. It may also mean a revealed prediction or precognition of the future from deities, that is spoken through another object or life-form (e.g.: augury and auspice)". I just love those words: augury and auspice - I am always in the flow of saying, usually while at work, "Oh, that doesn't augur well...!", and,

"All right, we'll do that then, under the auspices of ......(something along the lines of) saving the public purse..." Okay, it's that boring! Meh!




Don't get me wrong, I'm not a naysayer, a purveyor, or a harbinger of doom, and yet I do like to have an opinion on everything!



In fact, you might have noticed, from the variety of comments I leave on your very own blogs, and then I worry about what I've said afterwards... You see, I am prone to worriting, and swithering... I have a tendency to vex and to brood, to cark and to dwell, to fret and to mope about anything, about everything... I know most of us have a propensity to mull on things...

Hey, ho... " In the ancient world many sites gained a reputation for the dispensing of oracular wisdom: They too became known as "oracles," and the oracular utterances, called khrēsmoi in Greek, were often referred to under the same name — a name derived from the Latin verb ōrāre, to speak". And speak, we do and must, except here we call it 'blogging'!



"In China, oracles were common in many civilizations of antiquity. The use of oracle bones dates as far back as the Shang Dynasty, (1600–1046 BC). The I Ching, or "Book of Changes", is a collection of linear signs used as oracles that are from that period...



The I Ching has had a major influence on the philosophy, literature and statecraft of China from the time of the Zhou Dynasty (1122 BC – AD 256).





"In Egypt, the earliest known oracle was in the renowned temple of Per-Wadjet. The temple was dedicated to the worship of Wadjet and may have been the source for the oracular tradition that spread to Ancient Greece from Egypt. The later Greeks called both the goddess and the city Buto".



"The earliest tradition of oracular practice in Hellenic culture is from the archaic period shortly after arrival of the Hellenes in their current place of settlement c. 1300 BC. The oracle was associated with the cults of deities derived from the great goddess of nature and fertility, the pre-eminent ancient oracle—the Delphic Oracle—operated at the temple of Delphi". Now, that is the Oracle we might first think of, when there is mention of Oracles... in fact, that is where the English word comes from, and the apparently always-female priestess......



"The Delphic Oracle exerted considerable influence throughout Hellenic culture. The Greeks consulted her prior to all major undertakings, such as wars and the founding of colonies.
The semi-Hellenic countries around the Grecian world also respected her and came to Delphi as supplicants. Croesus of Lydia consulted Delphi before attacking Persia, and according to Herodotus was told, "If you cross the river, you will destroy a great empire. " Believing the response favorable, Croesus attacked, but it was his own empire that ultimately was destroyed by the Persians. She allegedly also proclaimed Socrates to be the wisest man in Greece, to which Socrates said that, if so, this was because he alone was aware of his own ignorance. After this confrontation, Socrates dedicated his life to a search for knowledge that was one of the founding events of western philosophy.



"This Oracle's last recorded response was given in 393 AD, when the emperor Theodosius I ordered pagan temples to cease operation". So, it's he at whose feet I must lay blame for the all but loss of our ancient Pagan beliefs and leanings...?





"In ancient India, the oracle was known as Akashwani, literally meaning "voice from the sky" and was related to the message of God. Oracles played key roles in many of the major incidents of the epics Mahabharat and Ramayana. In South Indian language Kannada, "Oracle" is mentioned as "Ashareeravani". In Tamil it is mentioned as "Asareeree". In Telugu, it is called "Deva Vaakku" or "Daiva Vaakku". It literally means 'Words of God'.



I am going to leave you champing at the bit for more at this point, mes chums in Blogland (I live in hope!) - 'Love you, and leave you...' as they say... I will witter more tomorrow, and hopefully make a little more sense, as I have something to say not only to round off on the subject of Oracles, but also to add some opinions about blogging guilt and 'Schadenbloggen', as I will name it... That is, the fear that everyone is better at blogging than l'il ol you... Or l'il ol' me... as it happens.

Such thoughts are is freezing us, and terrifying us, and there's no place for Schadenbloggen in Blogland... IMHO, of course, and you know that, around hereabouts, that counts for nowt!

Toodle-oo!