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Sacred Dance
Sacred dance is the use of dance in religious ceremonies and rituals, present in most religions throughout history and prehistory. Its connection with the human body and fertility has caused it to be forbidden by some religions; for example, some branches of Christianity and Islam have prohibited dancing. Dance has formed a major element of worship in Hindu temples, with strictly formalized styles such as Bharatanatyam, which require skilled dancers and temple musicians. In the 20th century, sacred dance has been revived by choreographers such as Bernhard Wosien as a means of developing community spirit. Purposes The theologian W. O. E. Oesterley proposed in 1923 that sacred dance had several purposes, the most important being to honour supernatural powers; the other purposes were to "show off" before the powers; to unite the dancer with a supernatural power, as in the dances for the Greek goddesses Demeter and Persephone; making the body suitable as a temporary dwelling-place ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bharata Natyam Performance DS
Bharata (representing either sa, भरत or , and occasionally rendered as ''Bharat'' or ''Bharatha'' in informal contexts) may refer to: * Bharata (tribe), mentioned in the Rig Veda * Bharata, an occasional epithet for the Vedic deity Agni Agni (English: , sa, अग्नि, translit=Agni) is a Sanskrit word meaning fire and connotes the Vedic fire deity of Hinduism. He is also the guardian deity of the southeast direction and is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu ... * Bharata (''Mahabharata''), a legendary king * Bharata (''Ramayana''), a Hindu deity * Bharata chakravartin, a figure in Jain mythology * Bharata Muni, an ancient Indian theatrologist and musicologist * ''Bhārata'', a term for descendants of any of the figures listed above * ''Bhārata'', a name for India See also * Bharat (other) * '' Bhārata Mātā'', the national personification of India as a mother goddess * Bharathan (1946–1998), Indian film maker * Bharathar, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and contains 15,693 lines in its most widely accepted version, and was written in dactylic hexameter. Set towards the end of the Trojan War, a ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Mycenaean Greek states, the poem depicts significant events in the siege's final weeks. In particular, it depicts a fierce quarrel between King Agamemnon and a celebrated warrior, Achilles. It is a central part of the Epic Cycle. The ''Iliad'' is often regarded as the first substantial piece of European literature. The ''Iliad'', and the ''Odyssey'', were likely written down in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects, probably around the late 8th or early 7th century BC. Homer's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceremonial Dance
Ceremonial dance is a major category or classification of dance forms or dance styles, where the purpose is ceremonial or ritualistic. It is related to and overlaps with sacred dance and ecstatic dance. Definition History Description List of ceremonial dances * Festival dance * Dance in ancient cultures ** Dance in ancient Egypt ** Ancient Greece ** Ancient Rome ** Indian classical dance * Ritual dance, Magic/Mystic/Spiritual dance ** Abbots Bromley Horn Dance ** Some Basque dances ** Căluşari ** Circle dance ** Corroborree ** Dances of Universal Peace **Kagura ** Long Sword dance ** Morris dance ** Rapper dance ** Religious dance ** Ritual dances of China ** Ritual dances of India ** Sema, or Whirling dervish dance ** Sinulog ** Sublî ** War dance ** Weapon dance A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Religious Ecstasy
Religious ecstasy is a type of altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness, frequently accompanied by visions and emotional (and sometimes physical) euphoria. Although the experience is usually brief in time, there are records of such experiences lasting several days or even more, and of recurring experiences of ecstasy during one's lifetime. In Sufism, the term is referred to as '' wajad'' and the experience is referred to as either ''jazbah (jadbah o jedbah for Maghreb)'' or ''majzoobiyat''. Context The adjective "religious" means that the experience occurs in connection with religious activities or is interpreted in context of a religion. Journalist Marghanita Laski writes in her study "Ecstasy in Religious and Secular Experiences", first published in 1961: "Epithets are very often applied to mystical experiences including ecstasies without, apparently, any clear idea about the d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecstatic Dance
Ecstatic dance is a form of dance in which the dancers, sometimes without the need to follow specific steps, abandon themselves to the rhythm and move freely as the music takes them, leading to trance and a feeling of ecstasy. The effects of ecstatic dance begin with ecstasy itself, which may be experienced in differing degrees. Dancers are described as feeling connected to others, and to their own emotions. The dance serves as a form of meditation, helping people to cope with stress and to attain serenity. Ecstatic dance has been practised throughout human history, including in classical times by the maenads, followers of the wine-god Dionysus. In the ancient and widespread practice of shamanism, ecstatic dance and rhythmic drumming are used to alter consciousness in spiritual practices. Ecstatic sacred dances are known also from religious traditions around the world. Modern ecstatic dance was revived by Gabrielle Roth in the 1970s and formalised in her 5Rhythms practice; it is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Findhorn Foundation
The Findhorn Foundation is a Scottish charitable trust registered in 1972, formed by the spiritual community at the Findhorn Ecovillage, one of the largest intentional communities in Britain.''The Dictionary of Alternatives: Utopianism and Organization'', by Martin Parker, Valerie Fournier, Patrick Reedy. Zed Books, 2007. . Page 100. It has been home to thousands of residents from more than 40 countries. The Foundation runs educational programmes for the Findhorn community, and houses about 40 community businesses such as the Findhorn Press and an alternative medicine centre.Findhorn.org Findhorn Official website. " elpunfold a new human consciousness and a positive and sustainabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sufism
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ritualism, asceticism and esotericism. It has been variously defined as "Islamic mysticism",Martin Lings, ''What is Sufism?'' (Lahore: Suhail Academy, 2005; first imp. 1983, second imp. 1999), p.15 "the mystical expression of Islamic faith", "the inward dimension of Islam", "the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam", the "main manifestation and the most important and central crystallization" of mystical practice in Islam, and "the interiorization and intensification of Islamic faith and practice". Practitioners of Sufism are referred to as "Sufis" (from , ), and historically typically belonged to "orders" known as (pl. ) – congregations formed around a grand who would be the last in a chain of successive teachers linking back to Muham ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whirling Dervish
The Mevlevi Order or Mawlawiyya ( tr, Mevlevilik or Mevleviyye; fa, طریقت مولویه) is a Sufi order that originated in Konya (a city now in Turkey; formerly capital of the Seljuk Sultanate) and which was founded by the followers of Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet, Sufi mystic, and Islamic theologian. The Mevlevis are also known as the "whirling dervishes" due to their famous practice of whirling while performing ''dhikr'' (remembrance of God). Dervish is a common term for an initiate of the Sufi path; whirling is part of the formal sema ceremony and the participants are properly known as ''semazens''. , headquarters = Konya, Turkey , founder = Veled , founding_location = Seljuk Sultanate , type = Dervish Order , membership = ca. 2,000 as of 2015 , leader_title = Makam Chalabi (Chief Master) , leader_name = Faruk Hemdem , leader_title2 = Wali , leader_name2 = ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winter Solstice
The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year, when the Sun is at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky. Either pole experiences continuous darkness or twilight around its winter solstice. The opposite event is the summer solstice. The winter solstice occurs during the hemisphere's winter. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is the December solstice (usually 21st or 22nd December) and in the Southern Hemisphere, this is the June solstice (usually 20th or 21st of June). Although the winter solstice itself lasts only a moment, the term also refers to the day on which it occurs. The term midwinter is also used synonymously with the winter solstice, although it carries other meanings as we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paampu Attam
Paampu attam (snake dance) (Tamil:பாம்பு ஆட்டம்) is a folk dance from Tamil country, India. Snakes considered as the protecting divinity which safeguards the health and prosperity. Snakes are also related to the Hindu deity Murugan. Usually girls perform this dance with a snake skin-like costume. The performer simulates snake movements, writhing, creeping and making quick biting movements with the head and hands. The hands are also held together to look like the hood of a cobra. In the classical dance form Bharata Natyam Bharatanatyam () is a major form of Indian classical dance that originated in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the eight widely recognized Indian classical dance forms, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of ... the snake dance is performed in a manner similar to the old folk dance. References {{reflist External linksPaampu attam or Snake dance [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spirit Guide
A spirit guide, in Western spiritualism, is an entity that remains as a discarnate spirit to act as a guide or protector to a living incarnation, incarnated human being. Description In traditional African belief systems, well before the spread of Christianity and Islam, Africans believed and continue to believe in the eternal and ubiquitous spirit of the ancestors and the Almighty God. The ancestors are thought of as the ‘living-dead’, who continue to show a compassionate interest in the daily lives of their living descendants. Ancestor spirit guides are superior to the living and may include deceased parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles or aunts. It is believed that because they have crossed over to the other side of life, the spirit guides act as mediators between the living and the Almighty God. This way of life is regarded as ancestor reverence, communication or remembering, and not as ancestor worship per se. According to Western Theosophy (Blavatskian), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kayan People (Borneo)
Being an indigenous tribe in Borneo, the Kayan people are similar to their neighbours, the Kenyah people, Kenyah tribe, with which they are grouped together with the Bahau people under the Apo Kayan people group. The Kayan people are categorised as a part of the Dayak people. They are distinct from, and not to be confused with, the Kayan people (Myanmar), Kayan people of Myanmar. The population of the Kayan ethnic group may be around 200,000. They are part of a larger grouping of people referred collectively as the Orang Ulu, or upriver people. Like some other Dayak people, they are known for being fierce warriors, former headhunting, headhunters, adept in Upland rice cultivation, and having extensive tattoos and Stretching (body piercing), stretched earlobes amongst both sexes. History They may have originated from along the Kayan river in the North Kalimantan province of Borneo. They live along the upper Kayan and the middle Kapuas River, Kapuas and Mahakam River, Mahakam r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
