Estelle Ana Baca

Month: March 2011

  • Antonio Canova

    Folks, I’m exhausted. I wrapped up the first draft of the trilogy in which our dear friend Nadiel has a starring role a few days ago, and I just don’t have a tale for you to read this week. “All” of “us” here are tired. Sorry.

    Detail of the Angel from the Cenotaph for Maria Christina of Austria by Antonio Canova
    The angel from Antonio Canova’s Cenotaph for Maria Christina of Austria in the Augustinerkirche

    In the interests of giving you something to check out in the meantime, I’d like to let you know about a phenomenal and under-appreciated sculptor whom I came across while I was researching the Augustinerkirche in Vienna, which is adjacent to the Hofburg, for the trilogy. Antonio Canova (1757–1822) was the Venetian sculptor responsible for the exquisitely mournful and beautiful Cenotaph for Maria Christina of Austria that is within the Augustinerkirche. As is the case within all his sculptures, his subjects feel as if they’re alive and breathing, as if remaining motionless were a matter of conscious choice. I also love his Cupid and Psyche.

    Nadiel says hi, by the way, and she wanted me to point you in the direction of “The Marketplace of Limoges” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. (It’s another version of the Key of Inspiration, she says.) Me? I’m all about Gratitude right now, so if I had to give you something to listen to this week, I’d point you in the direction of the Largo from George Frideric Händel’s Xerxes, also known as “Ombra mai fu.” For my money, no one sings it better than Anne Sofie von Otter.

    Thanks for understanding and being patient, loyal readers. We’ll be back when we’re back with more stories.

    ♥

  • On Time: The Hours

    Nadiel is still away this week. Sorry.

    One of the greatest discoveries that we humans made during the 20th century was the concept of relativity. To describe part of it very, very simply, imagine you’re on a train that’s travelling over a bridge spanning a river at a rate of 50 mph/80 kph. Are you passing over the river, or is the river passing under you? Because you don’t actually feel as though you, personally, are travelling at 50 mph to cross the bridge with such haste, chances are that you’ve rather unconsciously decided that the river is travelling underneath you. That’s not really what’s happening, but that’s what it feels and looks like.

    Space and time are inextricably bound to each other in this Universe, and the angels, having designed them to function together, experience time as it is relative to space, so that time on any point on Earth is unique to that particular point on Earth.

    Nadiel has expressed to me a remarkable amount of bemusement at the idea of time zones and the much hated daylight saving time. I tried explaining to her that we, as a species, standardized time for a few reasons: 1) we needed consistent schedules for people in different parts of the world; 2) we needed to measure longitude; and 3) it’s just easier for us. She thinks it’s cute.

    How the angels handle time is ridiculously complicated to humans because we have neither the mental capacity nor eons’ worth of experience with spacetime to perfect the sorts of calculations they perform to measure time like they do. But, if we were immortal, we’d have a different way of looking at time, too.

    After Nadiel tried explaining it to me a few times, she agreed to help me locate tools on the internet to help me calculate how they measure time, so that I wouldn’t have to bother her about it constantly. The smallest unit of time that we humans have is the second; the smallest angelic unit is the hour. Nadiel said that to the angels, hours are ludicrously short enough not to have to divide them into even smaller units, and if you were older than time itself, an hour would seem like a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of second.

    The angels’ day begins at sunrise, the night at sunset. The day has twenty-four hours: twelve hours of the day and twelve hours of the night. How the angels calculate each hour is by dividing the whole of the day and the night respectively into twelve, so that each hour is then one-twelfth of the day or one-twelfth of the night. We humans used to mark the day like this, too, but we got rid of it when we wanted schedules. Humans who practice magics are known to divide the hours like the angels despite the precision of our time pieces, for they find that it is useful in helping them to achieve a specific result with their spells. Further to this, there is a curiosity known as Oxford time in which one of the colleges at the University observes the hour five minutes later than the standard GMT, which is actually in accord with relative time.

    So—how would you be able to convert our time into the angels’ hours for today, March 15, 2011? First you need to find out what times the sun rises and sets to know where to start. The Astronomical Applications Department of the U.S. Naval Observatory can help you find out what time the sun will rise and set where you are, and if you need to find your latitude and longitude, you can find out here. Nadiel is presently located at 36°11′55″ North and 105°53′19″ West, where the sun rises at 7.15 AM and sets at 7.11 PM Mountain Daylight Time.

    Next, you can either find the sum of all the minutes in the day and divide by twelve, which is a recipe for a migraine, or you can go to a site that will calculate the planetary hours as are used by magicians and alchemists. Simply enter the sunrise and sunset times where you live, and it will do the calculations for you. Once that’s done, you simply disregard the planetary name of the hour and replace it by numbering the hours from one to twelve for the day and night respectively.

    Thus, the hours for today, provided you are at 36º11′ North and 105º53′ West, are:

    1st hour of the day – 7:15 AM to 8:14 AM
    2nd hour of the day – 8:14 AM to 9:14 AM
    3rd hour of the day –  9:14 AM to 10:14 AM
    4th hour of the day –  10:14 AM to 11:13 AM
    5th hour of the day –  11:13 AM to 12:13 PM
    6th hour of the day –  12:13 PM to 1:12 PM
    7th hour of the day – 1:12 PM to 2:12 PM
    8th hour of the day – 2:12 PM to 3:12 PM
    9th hour of the day – 3:12 PM to 4:11 PM
    10th hour of the day – 4:11 PM to 5:11 PM
    11th hour of the day – 5:11 PM to 6:11 PM
    12th hour of the day – 6:11 PM to 7:11 PM
    1st hour of the night – 7:11 PM to 8:11 PM
    2nd hour of the night – 8:11 PM to 9:11 PM
    3rd hour of the night – 9:11 PM to 10:11 PM
    4th hour of the night – 10:11 PM to 11:12 PM
    5th hour of the night – 11:12 PM to 12:12 AM
    6th hour of the night – 12:12 AM to 1:12 AM
    7th hour of the night – 1:12 AM to 2:13 AM
    8th hour of the night – 2:13 AM to 3:13 AM
    9th hour of the night – 3:13 AM to 4:13 AM
    10th hour of the night – 4:13 AM to 5:14 AM
    11th hour of the night – 5:14 AM to 6:14 AM
    12th hour of the night – 6:14 AM to 7:14 AM

    As we’re pretty close to the equinox, the hours here have a pretty uniform length, because the length of the days and nights are almost identical. When the days are significantly longer or shorter in the months surrounding the solstices, the difference between the lengths of the hours of the day and night is more pronounced. Bear in mind, however, that this is all dependent upon whether you’re in an area above or below the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, where the lengths of days and nights wax and wane depending on the season. If you live in an equatorial region, the lengths of the days and nights are rather equal all year round, and the angels’ hours are similarly regular year round. More relativity.

    But of course, this is only a tiny part of the angelic reckoning of time. There are Archangelic rulerships of hours, too, which we’ll get to when Nadiel’s got another week off.

    Have a great week!

    ♥

    UPDATE, January 6, 2013

    OK OK OK What I should’ve written before is that there are twelve months in the angels’ year, with one Archangel ruling over each month. Within each month, the days are ruled by the Archangels, and each Archangel rules over an hour of the day and an hour of the night. Moving on…

    Now that we’ve done all the math above, let’s go back and finish converting March 15, 2011 at Nadiel’s location in Dixon, New Mexico, at, say, 2:54 pm into Angelic time. If you go to the Calendar Page, you can see that March 15 (regardless of the year) corresponds to the 25th day of the month of Barakiel, which is a day of Sachiel. 2:54 pm falls during the 8th hour of the day above, which, if you go to the Hours Page, corresponds to the Hour of Michael.

    Therefore, March 15, 2011, 2:54 pm, in Dixon, New Mexico, converts to 25th Barakiel, Day of Sachiel, Hour of Michael. 25.12.1.1.29.23

    “But what about leap years? And feast days? What do we do for those?!”

    The Angelic Year starts on the first day of the Vernal Equinox. A year in which you’d use the leap year dates would start the year before we’d mark it, e.g. March 21, 2011 to March 20, 2012 is an angelic leap year. That means that December 7, 2011 corresponds to a Day of Camael. The angels’ leap year would then continue past our new year, so that February 15, 2012 would be a day of Metatron, a feast day.

    Feast days mean that you use the second table on the Hours Page, and not the nice, standardized version that you get on all the normal Archangels’ days.  Then you have to know which day of Metatron you’re dealing with… ::siiiigh:: This is why Nadiel says that most mortals avoid dealing with feast days.

    Let’s convert 11:29 am on February 15, 2012 for Dixon, New Mexico. Using the same tools we employed above, it corresponds to the 6th hour of the day, 26th Cassiel, a day of Metatron. After some more ludicrous calculations that only some of the angels care about, you’ll arrive at the conclusion that it’s the 1st day of Metatron, in which the 6th hour is ruled by Dirachiel.

    So, at long last, February 15, 2012, 11:29 am in Dixon, New Mexico, converts to 26th Cassiel, Day of Metatron, Hour of Dirachiel. 26.11.2.2.30.23

    I know, I know. It’s ridiculously complicated. If you’d rather have someone do the work for you, head over here and I’ll convert it for you.

    ♥ EAB

  • Musical Interlude #2: Joy

    As I mentioned in a previous post, angels’ Keys are the core of their Graces. It’s part of what makes them immortal, and on a certain level, it operates as a guiding principle. If we humans were able to sense Graces and detect the Key beneath them, they would sound distinctly musical. Nadiel has described the music within them as reminiscent of a humming, chanting engine at work, and the angels refer to this audible quality of the soul as the Magnificat. I’ve always imagined that a Magnificat might sound like a large stadium crowd in which, if you listen carefully, you can pick out various bits of speech. Since Keys are related to Graces, Keys are the music within those Graces, or the song that’s sung by the most hopeful person in that crowd. If you aren’t listening for it, you won’t hear it, but it’s there.

    Each of the twelve Archangels has a different Key with Graces that correspond to it, which isn’t the case with the other angels in all the other Orders. Some angels have Graces and Keys that don’t quite match up. For example, the Watcher Kivati, who had a role in Nadiel’s most recent tale, has a key of Freedom with the Graces of Sympathy, Mercy and Interdependence, which can seem a little contrary.

    The Key that’s associated with the Archangel Camael is Joy. Ironically, if one were to seek expressions of Camael’s brand of Joy within music, one of the last places I’d look would be Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and its Ode to Joy. I invite you to disagree with me, but Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is anything but joyful, for it is a devastatingly beautiful piece that is marked by alternating passages of angst and triumph. Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is about the search for joy in adversity, which isn’t quite the same thing as Joy for Joy’s sake. If I were to identify a piece that embodies Camael’s Joy, it’d have to be Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Pick any part of it, and it’s joyful. Yes. The whole thing. He wrote it while he was still a newlywed, after he had a child who survived infancy and while was enjoying a more than decent amount of acclaim in Vienna at the time. It’s easy to infer that he was expressing his joy within the music of that entire opera. Even the tense parts of the opera can’t refrain from expressing Joy. I invite you to have a listen to the Overture. You’ve probably heard it before somewhere, and this particular version features an orchestra that’s about the same size as would have played in Vienna when the opera opened in 1786.

    But what if you were looking to listen to something composed within human memory? Well, the Beatles are a good band to listen to if you want to hear some Joy. I recommend earlier Beatles, though. They stopped being explicitly joyful around the time of Revolver. If I had to choose one song, though, it’d most definitely be this one.

    Nadiel has informed me that she might be going away for spring break next week. If she’s isn’t, you’ll get a fresh recollection from her. If she’s out of town, you’re stuck with me for another week. Either way, have a great one!

    ♥

  • Astaroth’s Wager, the Conclusion (Really!)

    Back to Astaroth’s Wager, Part XVI.

    The police were there, and they were asking questions about what had happened. They wanted to know why the stove hadn’t been repaired. They wanted to know why Thomas hadn’t been at the office when they called. They wanted to know why his wife and infant child were still sound asleep in their beds when the fire took hold at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. They wanted to know why the neighbors had said that his deranged sister was always screaming in the night. They wanted to know if she’d started the fire, or if it had been he, who had been fired from work that day for stealing. They wanted to know why one of the items he’d been accused of at work stealing had been recovered at the scene. In fact, it was the only thing that had survived the entire blaze: a gold lighter that seemed untouched by the flames.

    He vociferously denied everything when they carried him away to the police station and booked him.

    He sat in the cell that night. There was a great part of him that didn’t feel as if it had been real. It had been too much to happen in one day. Too much loss. He couldn’t process it. It was simply unbelievable that everyone he loved and everything he had was gone.

    He returned to the thought that he had felt truly ruined at 24, but he was more than ruined. He was irreparably fractured. There would be no healing. He’d had so much, and it was gone. All of it was gone. He collapsed underneath the weight of his grief and wept in his cell all night.

    The next morning, he met with his court appointed lawyer. The police believed that he’d murdered his sister, his wife and his child, and burnt down his home, and all on the day that he’d been caught stealing from work. There was no evidence to prove that he hadn’t been there. As far as the State of California was concerned, he was guilty. He was a dead man walking. The lawyer said it was inevitable.

    And when he lay on the cot in his cell that night, one thought was set to repeat in his mind. “It’s hopeless. It’s completely hopeless.”

    *          *          *

    “You weren’t supposed to win this one, Astaroth. I’m not ceding my Estate,” Sitri said.

    “You will cede your Estate to me. I killed an angel, a Nephil and six primates in this wager. I won. Thomas Carver is a broken man, and Michael isn’t darkening your doorstep to seek revenge for his fallen brother. And if you don’t, remember that I am now Queen of Greece and Anatolia. I will bring down upon you the fury of Asia Minor if you don’t relinquish your lands.” Astaroth said.

    “Svipul?” Sitri asked in desperation.

    “You offered her your Estate for your mistakes. You never should have offered it up if you weren’t willing to part with it. Take what she gives you,” Svipul said.

    Sitri couldn’t afford to wage a war against Astaroth when his own Estate claims were in question, so he relinquished his claims. Astaroth had become Queen of Britannia, too.

    Astaroth was relatively benevolent, and she bestowed upon Sitri the Estate of President of London and the Home Counties. She made Svipul the Princess of Athens, and Caius became an honorary Knight.

    The Gas Chamber at San Quentin Prison, California.
    The very same gas chamber in which Thomas Carver died. He was executed in February 1939.

    *          *          *

    Up until day the State of California executed him for the murders of his wife, his child and his sister, Thomas never knew another shred of hope. But as he prepared to inhale the noxious vapors that would kill him, he discovered a shimmering, lost thing. Because he believed in his innocence, he hoped that after his heart had stopped and his soul had left his body, that he would see Adelaide and Hank and all his other loved ones again.

    Estelle will be taking the reins next week. I need a break after this one. Dominus vobiscum.

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