The Sons of Tannhäuser

The Sons of Tannhäuser are a secret society whose origins date back to the 15th century, around the year 1430, and whose members, among whom we suspect that famous celebrities such as Richard Wagner or Ludwig Bechstein have been followed in the footsteps of the legendary Tannhäuser.

Tannhäuser

Tannhäuser was a German poet and Minnesänger, born into a family of knights from the Salzburg area, the Knights of Thannhausen, who resided at his castle in Tannhausen, near Ellwangen and Dinkelsbühl.

Tannhäuser was an active member of the court of Frederick II of Austria, and according to the Codex Manesse would have taken the habits of the Teutonic Order, and participated in the Fifth Crusade.

After this he would have led a life as a wandering poet in Germany, composing lyric poems and songs (Tanzlieder).

At his death was born the legend according to which Tannhäuser would have found the Venusberg, the underground dwelling of the goddess Venus, where she would have spent seven years of her life given over to the pleasures of the goddess.

The Venusberg (in German, Mountain of Venus), is the name of a mythical mountain in Germany located between Gotha and Eisenach. The caverns of the mountain house the court of Venus, goddess of love, who was supposed to be perfectly hidden from mortals: entering there meant eternal damnation, and the ultimate erotic adventure.

According to the legend, after leaving the Venusberg, Tannhäuser had remorse and traveled to Rome to ask Pope Urban IV if it was possible to absolve his sins.

Urban replied that forgiveness was as impossible as it would be for his staff to flourish. Three days after Tannhäuser left, Urbano's staff blossomed. Messengers were sent to look for the gentleman, but this one already had returned to the Venusberg and never was seen again.

The Daughters of Venus

For the Sons of Tannhäuser the legend is true, though hidden behind metaphors that obscure the real meaning of Tannhäuser's discovery.

For the members of this organization, what really happened is that by chance Tannhäuser discovered a group of what they call "Daughters of Venus", female secret societies that coexist daily with the world without being discovered, and that live according to certain principles among which are the impossibility of refusing the wishes of any man who requires obedience to fulfill his carnal desires, the permanent care of his physical beauty to be irresistible to the opposite sex, and the desire to search for perfection through male pleasure.

For the Sons of Tannhäuser there are groups, such as the White Ladies, which make up what they call the Daughters of Venus, and whose existence is protected exclusively by anonymity.

The Sons of Tannhäuser maintain that the Venusberg is nothing other than the discovery of the existence of one of these groups, and that the man who manages to identify one of its members will be what they call the Tannhäuser Gates.

The man who manages to discover one of these groups of women would find a virtually inexhaustible source of pleasure, since he would obtain from them pleasure and obedience in exchange for his silence, which would be what Tannhäuser would have discovered.

The oath of the Sons of Tannhäuser is to seek these "Venusberg" and share it exclusively with the other members of his brotherhood.

Although there is ample evidence of the existence of the White Ladies, as well as abundant references to Tannhäuser and his followers, there are those who question the nature of the search for the Sons of Tannhäuser, and while there are scholars who prefer that the group maintains a search of metaphysical type, in pursuit of reaching the true Venusberg, others argue that it is more mundane and pragmatic objectives, the identification of the "Daughters of Venus" as a way to achieve physical pleasure, without other ulterior goals.

White Ladies: a female secret society

Last week I found a very interesting article in a German magazine, about a secret society composed exclusively by women that has been maintained through the centuries: the "White Ladies" or "Ladies of the White Rose".
I took the trouble to try to transcribe it.

The White Ladies is a female secret society whose origins can be traced back to the ancient world.

It is an organization composed exclusively by women, and its logo is a white rose, since in its early stages who belonged to this organization used this flower to identify themselves, and that would have given rise to its modern name.

While there are no documents to support its existence until well into the Middle Ages, there are indications that its beginnings are linked to the cults of Aphrodite in Greece.

The society would have persisted taking as an object of worship to Venus, already in Rome, and through it they would have spread throughout a good part of Europe.

However, it is not until the beginning of the thirteenth century that evidence can be found of the existence of this secret society, mentioned in documents of the period in which the house of Hohenstaufen the Holy Roman Germanic Empire, found in the monastery of Rupertsberg, in which it alludes to the "Ladies of the White Rose" (Damen der Weißen Rose), and stories are mentioned that would place the same Countess of Rheineck, Gertrude von Nordheim, a noblewoman famous for her great beauty, such as Große Mutter, Great Mother, of the Ladies of the White Rose.

The organization would be harshly persecuted by the Church, under the accusation of the practice of witchcraft, which is why it would be practically disarticulated, and the surviving members would disappear.

However, it is known that various groups would remain in hiding, and would no longer publicly identify themselves, maintaining the identity of their members in the strictest secrecy.

It will not be until the eighteenth century that there would be news of different groups of "Ladies of the White Rose" in countries such as Italy, Spain, Germany or England, although the existence of groups in most of the countries of Europe, and the emergence in the nineteenth century of similar groups in America.

The name "White Ladies" would be a variation suffered through the centuries of the "Ladies of the White Rose", although by the secret nature of these groups, and the long period of isolation due to the persecution suffered, they would have originated different denominations, being the best known: "White Ladies", "White Roses", "Ladies of the White Rose", "White Lodge" and "Lodge of Venus".

It is estimated that only here in Germany, Damas Blancas would have more than 2,300 members today, although this information has been questioned since there has been a debate between those who say that this organization has never existed and it is a question of popular tradition, who argue that it did exist but was dismantled during the Middle Ages, and who argue that there is evidence of various active groups to this day.

Do not confuse the White Ladies with the Ladies in White; the latter is about a Cuban anti-Castro organization that has no ties of any kind with the White Ladies.

The three fundamental reasons why women ask for a divorce

For a marriage to last over time, it is very important to have life goals similar to those of the couple. If this does not happen, it becomes the first cause of divorce. More than 43,000 women are enrolled in NextLove, the largest online dating network in Europe for divorced people and single mothers and fathers. The platform has asked its users the reasons why they broke their marriage. Some of them are physical abuse, infidelity or lack of privacy.

"The lack of common interests in a long-term life together can also be the cause of the second reason for this list," says Sigurd Vedal, CEO of NextLove and Victoria Milan, another dating website for married and divorced people looking for a affair "While infidelity is sometimes a very effective way to save some marriages, it can also be responsible for breaking others," continues Vedal. In fact, 29.2% of respondents cited infidelity as the second reason to leave their marriages. In the third step, 10.9% of the respondents affirmed that the constant fights and discussions were the main cause by which they broke their relationship.

The list is followed by a lack of privacy, which "can destroy a marriage and cause a couple to lead completely separate lives," says Vedal. Most women want excitement in their bedrooms and an active sex life and if they do not have this at home, they will look elsewhere. "In fact, we have seen that many of the users, both men and women, do it exactly for this reason: for taking time in a sexless relationship," explains the CEO of NextLove.

Another reason why women apply for a divorce is because of mental illness. Despite the efforts of the couple, the challenge of these types of illnesses can break the marriage. Although it is less frequent, 5.6% of the respondents affirmed that this was the main reason why they divorced.

The number 6 position on the list is the bad behavior on the part of the couple, either emotionally, financially or even physically. "Not helping with domestic chores, not worrying about their children or having bad character" are attitudes that "end up burning the couple", Vedal explains.

Boredom ranks seventh in this top. According to the dating platform, it is "a partner relationship killer" that has received 4.2% of the votes in this survey. Researchers from the University of Winnipeg say that the most common way for couples to describe their marriage is 'bland' or 'boring'.

Almost 3% of divorces due to abuse

The number 8 of the study is the physical abuse, a very serious issue suffered by 2.63% of women surveyed, which is 1,131 women in total.

To avoid this kind of abuses "in NextLove and in the rest of our online dating sites we make sure that there are no false profiles, and second that all members' conversations are absolutely healthy. In other words, our technology controls, through keywords, that users do not use bad words or that they can harm the person they are chatting with ", explains the CEO of the company.

Vedal says that, although it is "difficult" to control abusive behavior in offline life, when users leave our website, "all their platforms are designed so that no abuse occurs in them".

Other less important reasons that appear in the queue of the list are other domestic and economic problems. The CEO of NextLove believes that this top "represents quite well the reasons why many women decide to end their marriage and ask for a divorce" and celebrates that "after this process, they are usually quite open to give love a second chance" .

The Origin of Tarot

The origin of the tarot is dark. Perhaps, it goes back, like other playing cards, to the times of the ancient Egyptians, from the moment that scholars have recognized the major arcana in the hieroglyphics. On the contrary, other scholars have spoken about remarkable similarities of the playing cards with the first games and oriental idols. On the other hand, you can not exclude the average age as the birthplace of the tarot. We do not even know whether the major arcana, with their symbolic drawings and the minor arcana, with their well-known four suits, were created separately and later gathered in a single deck, by any genial mind, or if, on the contrary, they were born directly as a deck or deck of seventy-eight cards.

I will try to give the most plausible explanation about the origin of the normal cards of the game and the tarot in particular, following the chronological order and details of the first decks, similar to those of the tarot, which were popular in Italy during the 15th century, following them in its evolution until the definitive deck of the 18th century tarot.

The Egyptian Book of Thoth

In volume I of the work Le Monde primitif, of 1781, Court de Gebelin offers a convincing argument in favor of the Egyptian origin of the tarot cards. He argues that the twenty-two major arcana are an ancient Egyptian book, The Book of Thoth, saved from the fire that destroyed the temples. Thoth was the Egyptian Mercury, considered one of the first kings, and the mythical inventor of the word and hieroglyphics, letters inserted in a chain of mystical events. Many students of the occult sciences recognize in the tarot cards the pages of the hieroglyphic books, which contain, in a series of symbols and emblematic figures, the principles of the mystical philosophy of the Egyptians: Gebelin was convinced that the esoteric symbols of the Tarot spread throughout Europe from the nomadic tribes of the Gypsies or gypsies.

Chess

The Chaturange or game of the Four Kings, is very similar to the four-suit game cards. This oriental game, which dates back to the V-VI centuries, precursor of the modern game of chess, had originally the King, the General (the current Queen) and the Horse, as well as the Pawns or soldiers. At the beginning there was no Queen, since the presence of a female figure in a game that reflected the war strategy contrasted with the original idea of ​​decorum. It is probable that, at a certain moment, some Indian players would be left without a piece of Chaturange, they would cut out the missing figures using a tree bark or a paper, thus giving rise to a new game.

China - Chess - Dominoes - Dice

A type of Chinese cards has the same name as Chinese chess, Keu-ma-pou, or Cars - Horses - Rifles, so we can think that card games are derived from Chinese chess.

It is believed that the Chinese domino, punctuated as the dice - from which it seems to derive - was used at the beginning in the divinatory practices. It is composed of twenty-one pieces, which represent the combinations of the two dice. Some experts consider that the game cards derive, in the last analysis, from the dice, through the Chinese game of wooden dominoes.

Korean divining arrow

The eighty-letter Korean decks, called Htou-Tjyen, suggest the idea that Korean card games are derived from divining arrows. These letters are usually strips of paper, 20 cm long and 0.5 cm wide. The reverse is uniformly decorated with a feathered arrow. The cards include eight clubs. The letters present frontally bundles of stylized arrows that conserve, with respect to the different clubs, the symbolic meaning of the quiver. That is why it has been thought that these letters bring their origin from the divination arrows.

The Gypsies

Many associate the divining letters with the gypsies, native of Hindustan and expelled from Italy, at the beginning of century XV, by Timur Lenk, the Muslim conqueror of most of the Central Asia and the Eastern Europe. The Gypsies are universally recognized as the Cartomantes par excellence, since it is believed that they carry in their blood the divinatory virtues.

Tribes of Gypsies began to move towards the West around the year 1400, crossing the Indus, Afghanistan and the deserts of Persia and moving along the Persian Gulf, to the mouth of the Euphrates. Entering the great deserts of Arabia they found different roads to Europe. Small nomadic tribes had stopped in Crete, Corfu and the Balkans, before 1350. In 1417, a tribe of Gypsies arrived near Hamburg, in Germany. Other sources speak of Gypsies in Rome in 1422 and in Barcelona and Paris, in 1427.

Be that as it may, there is good evidence to believe that the Gypsies arrived in Europe only some time after the appearance of the playing cards.

Johannes, a German monk

In a letter sent by this monk to Brefeld, in Switzerland, he states that "a game called the game of cards (Ludus cartarum) has come to us this year of 1377"; but he adds that "he ignores when it was invented, where or by whom".

In his treaty, which is preserved in the collection of the British Museum in London, Johannes compares the game of cards with that of chess "since in both there are kings, queens, nobles and commoners".

Cards

One of the main arguments in support of the Saracen origin of the letters is the name that the Spaniards use to indicate the playing cards: cards, which could be derived from the word napa, used in Vizcaya and which means plain, uniform.

Some scholars believe that playing cards is a voice of Arab origin. The Hebrew word Naibes has similarity to the old Italian name of letters, naibi, and in both languages ​​means magic, clairvoyance and prediction.

According to another theory the word cards would derive from the initials of the inventor of the letters: N.P., a certain Nicolao Pepin. However, there is a lack of evidence in this regard.

Smell of luck

The last time I bought incense I did it in a supermarket, and besides looking very expensive, I have not been very satisfied with the aroma.

The truth is that slowly burning the chair in the living room would have been more or less the same, I paid for something that smells of burnt wood, despite the fact that the box presumed to be lemon.

It is clear that I have to buy another brand, of those that sell at fairs, but hey, if I do not even know when it's Thursday ..., like now, I just discovered that Thursday was yesterday.

The good thing is that only 6 days are missing for the next one, it's not so much.

But less than the day I remember the Thursday fair, and the incense sticks, much less!

The other day I was talking to my mother and I asked her if she would not have a wand that she could give me, and that same night I had 12 boxes full of incense of all the perfumes and colors at home.

That's a couple of days ago, and until now I opened a little box at random, I took out a wand, I lit it, and that's it.

But not today, today I'm a little more attentive to these details, and I've been given that I should choose an aroma that was with the moment.

And what is the moment? This moment? I do not know, no one worth remembering without hesitation.

I look at the boxes scattered on the trunk that serves as a small table, in front of the stove.

All bring out some very striking colors, large letters indicating the aroma, and smaller some enigmatic phrases, which I guess will serve to guide us on what wand, what aroma is appropriate.

Sandalwood - Meditation, Spirituality and Good Luck!

I am not too spiritual but good, I could serve, to meditate I am quite rotten, but good luck never hurts.

FengShui - To harmonize your home and office

That's good, with a wand I harmonize everything, that I have everything together, house and office let's say.

Jasmine - Enthusiasm, Pleasure and Attraction

It sounds great, the enthusiasm could help, but I'm worried about the attraction, how my things have been going lately, the most likely thing is that it attracts a lightning bolt, or a meteorite.

Today I pass.

Luna - Sensuality, Pleasure and Good Dreams

Sensuality ... ta barbaric if you come with company, sensuality to sit down to program php alone is a mess.

I do not know, che ...

There's the one that I think I need now: Sandalwood and Floral - Quick Luck.

I need luck urgently.

Although to be honest, it would be enough for me to smell good.

I went, I lit it, and there it is; It's pretty smooth, it's not bad, although it's been on for 40 seconds and I still have not won the lottery or called me the woman of my dreams.

You have to settle for the perfume ... it's not bad, it's not the eighth wonder, but hey, that's what it is.