Scorpio, the scorpion of Pensilva

If the slope of a hill comes between the eye and the horizon, sloping towards the eye, while the eye is opposite the middle of the height of this slope, then that hill will increase in darkness throughout its length. This is proved by the 7th of this which says that a tree looks darkest when it is seen from below; the proposition is verified, since this hill will, on its upper half show all its trees as much from the side which is lighted by the light of the sky, as from that which is in shade from the darkness of the earth; whence it must result that these trees are of a medium darkness. And from this [middle] spot towards the base of the hill, these trees will be lighter by degrees by the converse of the 7th and by the said 7th: For trees so placed, the nearer they are to the summit of the hill the darker they necessarily become. But this darkness is not in proportion to the distance, by the 8th of this which says: That object shows darkest which is [seen] in the clearest atmosphere; and by the 10th: That shows darkest which stands out against a lighter background.

Leonardo da Vinci
Of Painting in a Landscape

The sun is in this sign from 24^th October to 22^nd November. A water sign.
Key words: creation, birth, death, sex, regeneration, passion, research, secretiveness.
Light or planet: Pluto.
Body parts: sexual organs.

Scorpio is one of the few constellations whose shape corresponds to its name. Scorpio is the scorpion which killed Orion the hunter at the command of Artemis, the goddess of hunting and the moon. The Scorpion was also thought to have stung the horses of the sun god’s chariot when Phaeton drove them, causing them to bolt and career through the heavens, drying up rivers and scorching the earth below. In around 5000 BC, this scorpion was sacred to the god of war and was a symbol of the darkness and decay of the waning year. A scorpion-man who guarded the gates of the sunrise challenged the hero Gilgamesh. For alchemists, November, the season of Scorpio was the busiest time of year. This was when spirit could be released and base metal could be transmuted into gold. The pincers of the original Scorpio reached as far as the present-day scales of Libra. The present Scorpio lies between Libra and the centaur Sagittarius. Alpha Scorpii is known as Antares meaning “against Mars” because its red colour rivals Mars. It is a red super giant of the spectral class M1 which changes its brightness irregularly from 0.9 to 1.1 Magnitude. Its diameter is about 950 million kilometres but its mass is only 15-25 suns, as a result the density of the giant is extremely low. In the open star cluster M7-NGC 6475 of total brightness 3.3 Magnitude, it is possible to see 50 to 80 stars, the brightest of which are of 7.0 Magnitude. It is about 800 light years away from us. North of the Scorpion’s tail lies the Butterfly star cluster, appearing to the naked eye as a fuzzy patch half the diameter of the full moon.

LIVE SHOWS COMING UP IN NOVEMBER 2011

12.11. 2011
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
at
Shiny Toys Festival
Moers
http://www.shinytoys.eu

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13.11.2011, 20.00h, tickets 10 eur presale, 12 eur on the door
aufabwegen presents:
Broken Sound #10

NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS (UK)
+
MOHAMMAD (GR)
+
KONRAD KRAFT (D)

Studio 672/Stadtgarten
Venloer Str.
50672 Cologne
Germany

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18.11.2011, 20.00h tickets: 10 eur
auabwegen presents:
geraeuschwelten #61

NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS (UK)
+
1000SCHOEN (D)


+
DAS MOLOCH (D)

Blackbox/cuba-cultur
Achtermannstr. 12
48143 Münster

www.aufabwegen.de

www.blackbox-muenster.de

Libra, The Scales of St Cleer

The scales are an analogue device that measures continuous information in an infinite number of possible values. The only limitation on resolution is the accuracy of the measuring device. By contrast, a digital system is one that uses discrete values, representing numbers or non-numeric symbols such as letters or icons, for input, processing, transmission, storage, or display.

The scales lie around Rosecraddock and close to the Wheal Tor Inn, the highest inn in Cornwall. The handle of the scales is formed by the road that runs from St Cleer through Tremar Coombe past Polwrath to Darite. From the church at Darite, through Crow's Nest to Higher Trethake runs the cord that suspends the northern scale which is formed by a system of fields on Fore Down. Below the northern Scale lies Newton Farm, this reminds us of Newton's discovery of gravity as the force that works the scales. The process of weighing is suggested by hamlet immediately below the scale, known as Wayland. The cord which suspends the southern scale is formed by the road that runs from St Cleer Post Office across St Cleer Downs, past the water works. The southern scale itself is formed by a complex of fields enclosing Trenabe and Treneath.

St Cleer is one of the larger Cornish parishes and has been inhabited for more than 6000 years. The village has two public houses, a post office and a general store. For thousands of years metal ores have been dug from the ground in this parish, first tin ores from open works and later copper ore from deep mines. In the nineteenth century 3000 men, women and children were employed in mining, a boom that led to the building of new villages like Darite and Minions. St Cleer Well, sanctified by St. Clarus, was said to cure insanity and blindness when a patient was ducked in the water.

Virgo, the Virgin of Dobwalls

The sun is in this sign from 24th August to 23rd September. An earth sign.
Key words: work, diet, natural, harvest, corn, animals, health, teaching, precision, analysis, handiwork, details, criticism.
Light or planet: Mercury.
Body parts: nervous system, intestines.
In mythology Virgo, the Virgin, is associated with the goddesses of justice or crops. Justice is symbolised by the adjacent scales of Libra, the crops are represented by the corn ears that Virgo holds in the area of the bright star with the Latin name Spica which means corn ear. Spica is known as Alpha Virginis, of 0.9 Magnitude, with variations of about 0.05 Magnitude and 1,600 suns in luminosity. Gamma Virginis, or Porrima of 2.9 Magnitude is a binary of a 171 year period. The components are closing in at present. Porrima was a Roman goddess of prophecy. The large cluster of galaxies in Virgo extends far beyond the boundaries of the adjacent Berenice’s Hair (Coma Berenices). The origins of the cult of the great goddesses, who was both virgin and mother, are prehistoric, but for recorded history she has been associated with Virgo, through which the sun passes around harvest-time. She is known as the ancient Babylonian goddess Ishtar, Queen of the Stars, lover of the corn god Tammuz. She mourns his death every autumn when he is cut down in his prime. During the winter, she journeys to the Underworld to bring him back after which he appears as new, green corn every spring.
Stories of the Roman Venus and Adonis and of the Egyptian Isis and Osiris, and the Asiatic Cybele and Attis are all variations on this theme. As Virgo follows Leo on the zodiac cycle, the chariot of Cybele is drawn by lions. Virgo is also Demeter, the goddess of the corn as well as her daughter Persephone who spends the winter in the Underworld and returns to earth each spring. Virgo is also Urania, the muse of astronomy, placed in the sky by Apollo, the god of music and prophecy. Virgo was known as Astraea, the goddess of justice and of the laws of nature, the last of the immortals to leave after the Gold, Silver and Bronze Ages gave way to the modern Age of Iron. Her promised return, and the imminent birth of a child who would restore the Golden Age, made it easy for the Christians to see Virgo as the Virgin Mary.

Imaginary Time

Friction and Dirt

Recorded in 1995.

Oscillators

A web-based sound sculpture at
http://www.nigelayers.com/oscillators.html