It's been a crazy week.... and this is just a short post!!

Is it the weather????

It's been absolutely frantic at work this week - haven't even been able to relax at home!!!! What IS going on???

Ooooh, maybe it's been far too much chocolate for everyone - could that be the reason they're so 'hyper'????

SEE, religion IS bad for you - if it wasn't for christianity, there wouldn't be all that chocolate in your face for months!!!

And can you believe this - chocolate coated potato chips!!!!

Don't you feel sick just thinking about it!!!!

And while I'm adding a graphic, here's another one from Care2's retro e-cards that really took my 'fancy'...

ANOTHER STOLEN FERTILITY CELEBRATION??

You have to admit, the christians are good at strategy - incorporate the symbolism and rituals of far more ancient beliefs and over the centuries they 'become' their own.

Here's just another example of a fertility celebration found the world over long before christianity reared it's ugly, violent head...

Eostre (pronounced East-ra) was the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn, from whom "East" (where the sun rises) and "Easter" got its name - as the fertility goddess (representng the sunrise, spring-time and fertility, the renewal of life) of the Northern European peoples, her legend was manipulated by the invading Romans - newly Christianised, they merged Eostre's spring legend to coincide with the time of Christ's 'resurrection'.

She is also goddess Ostara, the maiden, in German mythology, celebrated when night and day are equal and balanced (the spring equinox for the northern hemisphere). Interestingly, the word "estrus" (referring to an animal in heat) is also derived from Eostre as her consort was a rabbit with an extraordinarily high libido!

If you're interested in knowing more, check out Pagan Goddess.

There are so many views on where the term came from - here's another explanation from the Library of Halexandria

"The word Easter itself derives from Ishtar (aka Inanna ), the Babylonian and Assyrian goddess whom the Phoenicians knew as Astarte. [Obviously, moving the “e” from aft to fore, and dropping the “t” in Astarte's name yields “eastar”. This might also be written as “Ea-Star”, where “Ea” was the Sumerian god, Enki .]

More curious is the fact that Astarte was known in the Bible as Ashtoreth, “a non-name formed by misreading the goddess' name Athtarath with different vowels so that the word becomes ‘shameful thing'. What seems to have been shameful to the patriarchal hebrews was the untrammeled sexuality of the goddess, one of those who ‘conceived but did not bear' offspring for her partners.” In other words, the pagan Easter was to celebrate the rampant sexuality of the goddess – the same goddess who was known (along with her priestesses) as the “whores of Babylon .”

You can obviously tell I'm definitely of the belief that it was ripped off by christianity!!!!

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY (belatedly)

Well, International Women's Day has come and gone (2 days ago now just in case you didn't know) - 8th March... and I missed acknowledging it on the day... life's been a bit like that at the moment... an unwelcome intrusion from the past was a painful reminder of a nightmare from hell (oooh, really didn't need that)... I got not-so-encouraging news about a friend's health... I was ripped off... I'm pretty sure I've left something out there, I thought there were four major piss-offs in my week - so yep, you could say it's been one of THOSE weeks...

So, this is just a quick post to let you know I'm still around, and here's another 'retro' graphic to celebrate International Women's Day - it's from Care2 ...

if you want to read more about IWD check out Joyce Stevens' "A History of International Women's Day in Words and Images" or have a look at Isis Australia for some "herstoricals".