Treasure of Egypt - The Enigmatic Symbols of Ancient Egypt Part III - the Misidentified Symbols of the Moon

The misidentified symbols of Ancient Egypt

Some of the greatest misinterpretations of the ancient hieroglyphic symbols concern those representing the moon. Previously, I have explained the origins of the Sphinx and the All-Seeing Eye as they pertain to the ancient Egyptians’ beliefs.

I discovered that there were several additional symbols which had seemingly been overlooked. The heavens played a large part in the ancient Egyptians’ beliefs, yet the moon and its symbols seemed scant, at best. To be one of the largest heavenly bodies, it has been largely ignored. One of its iconic symbols, that of the crescent, was used only rarely. The moon, it seems, was sadly neglected, or was it?

While researching the origins of the Sphinx and the All-Seeing Eye, it came to my attention that several symbols had been mistaken for other things, especially those that linked the role of the mother goddess to the ancient Egyptian’s belief in the afterlife.

The moon has symbolized the feminine in almost all of the world’s various ancient religions and mythologies, so why, then, is it so rare to run across it in the ancient Egyptian writings?

The five-pointed star, the Egyptian symbol of the priesthood (sacred knowledge) and adoration is shown here with half and full crescents above it. These symbols represented the half and full months on the lunar calendar.

And yet another, with what is thought to be the sun cradled within the moon’s embrace although this too I think could depict a new moon, eclipse, or lunar node.

Were these slim depictions, used sparsely at best, all that the moon merited?

In the year 391 A.D., Emperor Theodosius banned pagan rites throughout the Roman Empire and closed the non-Christian temples. Thus began a systematic purging of the ancient beliefs within all of the conquered lands. The lengths that the Roman Catholic Church went to in order to suppress these religions have been well-documented. Because of this, the Egyptian hieroglyphs remained silent until Jean–Francois Champollion deciphered the famous stone from Rosetta. Not all the symbols came to light, however. In 1827, when Champollion went to Egypt as part of the Franco-Tuscan Expedition, he was under an edict not to expose anything that may have been in conflict with the Church’s teachings at that time.

Not only did he not translate the dates on the Wall of Kings, but these restrictions also caused some rather unique labeling of some of the Egyptian symbols. It is my belief that Jean-Francois knew exactly what most of these hieroglyphs actually represented (due to the rather comical misidentification of some). Not wanting to open that can of worms, I believe he worked around them so as not to bring attention to something the Roman Catholic Church had so long tried to suppress, especially during a time of renewed interest in everything Egyptian.

Take the symbol of a half-circle, for instance. This hieroglyph represents the sound “T”. Champollion described this symbol as being a bun, and it is used to denote the feminine, or daughter. Could it be that this is, in fact, a half-moon?

Were any other symbols of the moon overlooked? The rising sun had a symbol that was very close to it. Why was this not a hot bun?

To better understand the ancient Egyptians’ hieroglyphic writing, we need to understand that the symbols not only phonetically, but also pictorially, represented a word. For instance, the symbol for life is the ankh.

The oval on the top represents woman, and the stem at the bottom man. The cross expresses the union of the two. Thus, it is man and woman together creating life.

The word itself is spelled by using the symbol “N”, a zigzag line, and a round circle with lines across it, which sounds like “kh”. Together, they not only phonetically sounded out the word “n-kh”, or ankh, but they also pictorially held meaning for the symbol of life.

The jagged line “N” represents water, in and of itself life-giving. The Nile’s sacred waters gave life to the land. The terms ebb and flow are still used today to describe life.

This symbol, a circle with lines running through it, is one that has been misidentified. When Jean-Francois Champollion translated the ancient symbols, he described it as being a ball of string, or a placenta. Oddly enough, the second suggestion is more correct, as far as its association with life is concerned.

This ball of string, however, represents something much larger. It does, in fact, depict the moon in all its phases.

The new moon is symbolic of birth, the waxing of the moon, youth. A full moon, our maturity, and the waning of the moon, our old age and eventual death, followed by rebirth. This connection with resurrection is why I believe its true meaning has been lost for so long. In many ancient cultures, the goddesses were worshipped for this most auspicious gift that included not only birth but also rebirth. This symbol of the striped ball is also quite prominent and is used in many cartouches, quite the honor for a little “ball of string”, wouldn’t you say?

There is one more symbol of the moon that illustrates the true meaning of the misidentified symbol above, the waning moon.

 I think it’s easy to see the similarities between the “placenta” above and this half-ball of string . . . I mean, waning moon.

Another symbol whose ties to the moon have been misidentified is the horns of fertility around the sun disc.

There is a tale of Seth killing his brother Osiris and scattering the pieces of his body. Isis, his sister/wife, gathered the pieces and, with the aid of Anubis, wrapped his body back together, missing only one unfortunate member, which she fashioned herself. Through her magic, Isis brought her husband back to life and was able to become pregnant with Horus.

The story illustrates the goddess’s role in the resurrection of the dead, which leads to yet another symbol that has been misidentified. The horns of fertility wrapped around the Uraeus, a symbol of royalty, was worn by Isis and Hathor, as well as the head priestess of Amun.

As pointed out in Parts One and Two of the Enigmatic Symbols of Egypt article series, Isis and Hathor share much the same place in the Egyptian Parthenon.

Understanding the many feminine associations with the moon—fertility; birth and rebirth; the goddess Wadjet and her connection with the Uraeus and the moon—it is easy to see that there could be a link of the disc to the harvest moon, full, ripe and potent. Yet another association of the disc within the horns may also be that of a comet. What is most definitely certain is that it is not the sun as has been postulated

To read more about the symbols of ancient Egypt, or to just enjoy a humorous action adventure/romantic comedy that has been described as being much like the new versions of the movies Sherlock Holmes, The Mummy (without the walking dead guy), and Indiana Jones, please click on the book.

-Author Barbara Ivie Green

Thank you for your readership.

To read the first chapter click here: Treasure of Egypt Sneak Peek

To view Treasure of Egypt's Amazon book page and start reading today!

For Amazon.com click here

For Amazon.de click here 

The adventure awaits!

To read the previous articles on The Enigmatic Symbols of Egypt, click below:

Part I - The All-Seeing Eye

Part II - The Origins of the Sphinx

Part III - The Misidentified Symbols of Ancient Egypt

Part IV - The Lost Symbol of the Sun and The Wings of Isis

Part V - The Unknown Symbol of Ancient Egypt

Website: www.barbaraiviegreen.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/barbaraiviegreen

Email: barbaraiviegreen@aol.com

Treasure of Egypt - The Enigmatic Symbols of Ancient Egypt- Part II - the Origins of the Sphinx of Giza

 

The Origins of the Sphinx

One of the greatest mysteries of the ancient world is that of the origins of the Great Sphinx of Giza. Even in antiquity, the Sphinx, one of the most recognizable symbols of ancient Egypt, was under a veil of secrecy.  Where did the image of the half beast - half woman come from, and why is there so much mystery surrounding her? In the original story of the Sphinx that guards Memphis, she has the form of a half lion - half woman who also has the tail of a serpent. This may make a little more sense at the conclusion of this article, but before I share my discovery, let us first take a look at what we know about this unusual goddess.

First, the word Sphinx actually comes from the Greek language. This is not so unusual as there was much trade between the two cultures going back into antiquity, not to mention the Ptolemaic Dynasty. To the ancient Egyptians, however, this fearsome goddess who lies at the foot of the necropolis was known as Sekhmet, the lioness who guards the entrance to the Amduat, the ancient Egyptian underworld.

To understand Sekhmet is to understand all of who she was to the ancient Egyptians. This lioness held a significant place of honor in the ancient Egyptian Parthenon. She was not only the guardian of the entrance to the Egyptian underworld, but also Hathor, the daughter of Ra. Known as The Eye of Ra and Lady of the West – the land of the dead, and worshiped as a funerary goddess particularly in Thebes, she is synonymous with Isis, holding the same power, but in other tales she is the daughter of Isis. Hathor was depicted as a cow goddess, wearing the horns or fertility in her benevolent form, but in her aggressive form she was Sekhmet, the lioness. 

Most of the statues of Sekhmet are of a lion-faced woman. This does make me wonder why the Great Sphinx wears a decidedly human one and possibly a male one at that. Could it be that a different face originally adorned the Great Sphinx of Giza? 

It has long been a point of speculation as to what face the Sphinx originally wore and whose face is it that it currently wears? Is it the Pharaoh Tuthmosis IV’s visage that we look upon? As a young man he heard the voice of the Sphinx in a dream while he napped beneath the exposed head and cleared away the sand so that he could rule one day. Or is it Djedefre, son of the Pharaoh Khufu, who built the Great Pyramid? This young Pharaoh ruled only for a short period of time before he died and his brother, Khafre, assumed the title and built the other large pyramid on the Giza Plateau.

            We know that during times of economic struggle that it was common for Pharaohs to recycle many of the statues, carving their own likenesses into them. Could this have happened? Did the Pharaoh Djedefre die too early in his reign to have a completed pyramid? Was the face of the Sphinx then retooled in his image?

Regardless of the face that now adorns the Sphinx, the practice of re-carving the image does not account for the steep slant of the forehead when compared to these Pharaohs’ other statues, an error that the ancient artisans would not have made on purpose.

The real controversy in regards to the head of the Sphinx is that it could be much older than either of these Pharaohs whose image it may now bare. There is some evidence to suggest that two of the temples that sit below the Sphinx, known as the Valley Temple and what remains of the Old Sphinx Temple, were built long before the pyramids. One argument for this is that the stone footings placed along the base of these buildings are much larger and unlike other structures of the same size built at that time. The Sphinx Temple was also constructed to have a nice view of the Sphinx, another indication that it existed before the Temple. There is also another strange anomaly about them. The stone walls are not adorned or decorated with hieroglyphs like the walls inside other temples built in that same period.

We can date part of the Sphinx. In the Fourth Dynasty, stones quarried from around the body of the Sphinx were used to build the pyramids that sit behind it. The head of the Sphinx, however, remains an enigma. It was most likely exposed long before the building of the pyramids on the Giza Plateau as the weathering of the stones does not match. True, it is of a harder deposit, but the head was exposed in the landscape not only in the tale of Thutmose but again when Napoleon and his group of scientists and artisans came upon it in 1800.  It is only the body that was covered for centuries and most likely the head was always above the ever-shifting sands.

It is easy to see that like many of the rock formations that dot the landscape in the desert, that also take the form of an animal, that the head of the lioness was already a prominent outcropping and was highly revered long before Amenhotep chose the area for the building of the pyramids. In fact, it may very well be because of the sacred spot it occupied that the famous architect chose the spot.

So how old could it be? There is an account in the ancient stories that tells us that all of the Pharoahs of Egypt were crowned in a ceremony held at this site. The Sphinx is known as the goddess that selected the new Pharaoh. In a procession that started in Memphis they approached the Sphinx from the Nile and on to Luxor in a coronation that transformed the Pharaoh from a man into a living god by his receiving the royal ka, or soul. What was it about this area that made it so auspicious that every Pharaoh was both taken there at the beginning of his reign and at his death?  The Opening of the Mouth ceremony also took place at the Valley Temple, preparing the Pharaoh after death for his journey through Amduat. This has also lead to speculation that the original face was that of Anubis, the god of embalming. So important was the site that Napoleon, Alexander the Great, and Cleopatra made sure to stand before its giant paws to claim their right to rule.

The other physical detail about the Great Sphinx that should not be overlooked is the folded headdress, or nemes, which adorns the megalith. It is the head covering worn by Shu, the god of the sky, atmosphere, light, and wind. He, too, is depicted as a lion along with his mate Tefnut, the goddess of moisture. The gold and dark blue stripes that decorate this particular headdress are associated with the day and night and were worn only by the Pharaoh as a symbol of power. Scientists have even found that the striped nemes which adorns the Sphinx was once painted gold and blue.

Looking further into the mythology surrounding this goddess gives us even more clues as to who she really was. One of the ancient stories tells of Ra calling upon Sekhmet to reap his vengeance on man for attempting to overthrow him. The lioness turned the fields to blood in her efforts, and it wasn’t until Ra took pity on man that he tried to pacify her blood lust with mead dyed by red ochre. Hathor, her human counterpart, also wears a red disk on her head between the horns of fertility.

A little known fact about ancient Egypt is that each area had its own version of the creation myth and a different set of gods that they revered. Powerful city states like Memphis and Thebes produced many of the Pharaohs that ruled Egypt, and it was the gods of these cities that were worshiped as the chief gods of ancient Egypt. These prominent gods eventually merged forming unions such as Amun-Ra.

Because of the amalgamation of the gods and goddesses in different areas, Hathor was known sometimes as the sister/wife to Horus, and in other accounts as his mother. In some tales she is the daughter of Isis and Osiris, yet still in other stories she is the mother of Ra. In poetry and at her temples in Dendera she was referred to as the Golden One and the Lady of Heaven. As Sekhmet she was thought to be a bringer of plague (no doubt due to the wiping out of mankind thing) and as such she became the goddess of medicine as the people tried to placate her. There are also magical connections. Statuary of her standing with the head of a lioness and the body of a woman holding magical serpent wands have been found in tombs. In Thebes the lion headed Goddess of the West, Amaunet, was the consort of Ptah, the Memphite god of the underworld. She was a primordial goddess, and part of the Ogdoad.

How do all of these various versions of Sekhmet relate to the Sphinx you ask?  It is time I think to unveil my discovery of the true origins of the Sphinx. Sekhmet, the guardian of the Amduat rules the sky from her mighty perch. Her image etched on the moon as it sets in the West is why she is known as the Lady of the West. To see her true image and the one that the Great Sphinx may have originally worn one must gaze up at the moon.

 It is Sekhmet’s image that rules the night as the moon sets.

. . . But she is not alone.

The images of the moon show the Sphinx transform into the very image of what she may have looked like originally.

To learn more about who else claims a place on this lofty throne please see the article entitled “The Enigmatic Symbols of Ancient Egypt – The All-Seeing Eye” below.

You can see now why the God of the Sky and the Sphinx have so much in common. The moon’s unique ability to be visible in both the day and the night sky explains why wearing Shu’s headdress with its strong blue and gold stripes is fitting.

This  also answers one of the perplexing questions surrounding the parentage of Khonsu, the lunar deity of Thebes. His father was Amun, but the contradictions regarding his mother are numerous.  In some tales she is Mut the sky goddess, in others the lion-headed goddess of the West, Amaunet, and in others still she is Wadjet, the cobra goddess.  Those of you who read the first part of the Enigmatic Symbols of Ancient Egypt will see the correlation of Wadjet and the Sphinx being linked in this manner and also the Sphinx in Memphis’s serpent-like tail.

It should also be noted that the red disk that Hathor/Sekhmet wears which rests between the horns of fertility is not the sun it has been confused with, but something else entirely.

Please join me next month when I  discuss the unknown or misidentified hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt.
                                                      Author -Barbara Ivie Green

You can read more about the Sphinx and the ancient gods of Egypt in my book, Treasure of Egypt, the first book in the Treasure of the Ancients series by clicking the book.

Thank you for your readership.

To read the first chapter click here: Treasure of Egypt Sneak Peek

To view Treasure of Egypt's Amazon book page and start reading today!

For Amazon.com click here
For Amazon.de click here 

The adventure awaits!

To read the other articles on The Enigmatic Symbols of Egypt, click below:

Part I - The All-Seeing Eye

Part II - The Origins of the Sphinx

Part III - The Misidentified Symbols of Ancient Egypt

Part IV - The Lost Symbol of the Sun and The Wings of Isis

Part V - The Unknown Symbol of Ancient Egypt

Website: www.barbaraiviegreen.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/barbaraiviegreen

Email: barbaraiviegreen@aol.com

Treasure of Egypt - The Enigmatic Symbols of Ancient Egypt - Part I - The All-Seeing Eye

The All Seeing-Eye

The All Seeing-Eye is one of the most recognizable symbols of ancient Egypt. It is known by many other names as well: The Eye of Horus, the Left Eye of Ra, Wadjet, and the Lady of Flame to name just a few.

How can this one symbol stand for so many different things, you ask? What could Horus, the golden falcon, have in common with Wadjet, the cobra goddess of Lower Egypt? And what does a cobra have to do with the All Seeing-Eye?

To start, Wadjet is also known as Udjat, Uadjet, Wedjoyet, Edjo, and Uto. But that’s not all, there’s more. . . . Wadji means the green one, and this has some correlation with Osiris, the god of the underworld. But wait . . . it gets better! To add to the confusion, this cobra goddess is also associated with Bastet, the cat goddess; Sekhmet, the lioness (Hathor’s alter ego when she’s not the cow); Tefnut, the goddess of moisture; and Mut, the mother goddess of the sky.

How can all of these different gods relate to the All Seeing-Eye? 

Our first step to understanding this symbol is to start with the language. Let’s start with Wadjet, the Egyptian “iaret,” means “risen one.” The cobra goddess was also called the Opener of the Way, and her enigmatic symbol, the All Seeing-Eye, was always painted on the part of the sarcophagus facing east.

        Taking a deeper look at this goddess, we also find that Wadjet is one of the earlier goddesses of ancient Egypt, a primordial goddess, meaning she existed from the beginning. In fact, this goddess was so important to the ancient Egyptians that her image of a cobra wrapped around the sun disk is known as the Uraeus

and holds a significant place in the symbols of ancient Egypt. Even the Pharaoh, seen as a living god himself and son of the sun god, Ra, was recognized only by wearing the cobra which adorned the crown as a sign of legitimacy.

Taking a look at the times that the festivals regarding the Lady of Flame were celebrated is also most illuminating. The Going Forth of Wadjet, an ancient festival, was practiced on December 25^th.. The annual celebration for Wadjet was also held on April 21^st, and yet again during the Summer Solstice. She was also assigned the fifth hour of the fifth day of the moon. I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to see a strong association with the goddess Wadjet and the ancient Egyptian’s understanding of the Heavens.

In order to shed further light we must look at the other gods and goddesses that are linked to this symbol. The tale of Horus being attacked and his eyes torn out by his uncle, Seth, the god of war, although gruesome, gets us even closer to the true meaning of the symbol. You see Seth had already killed his brother, Osiris, Horus’s father, because Seth coveted the throne. When Horus sought revenge, he, too, found himself at death’s door. He was nursed back to health by his mother, Isis, and his sister/wife, Hathor. His sight wasn’t restored, however, until Ra gifted him with his own left eye, the Eye of Ra.

Ah-ha! Ra’s right eye was known as the sun itself and his left eye the moon. And that is why the All Seeing-Eye, the Eye of Horus, is also called the Eye of the Moon.

     We can see now how the All Seeing-Eye could also be called the Lady of the Flame because it lights up the night sky, but what does this have to do with a cobra goddess?

Before I answer that, let me connect a few more dots. As it is, the moon lights the darkness of night, and as such it holds much power in the Duat, the Egyptian underworld. This is also its connection to green. Osiris is the God of the Underworld, and his resurrection was seen in correlation with the Nile and its effect on the land. He was depicted with green skin, not for death as one might assume, but for the fertile, lush, green growth that comes from the inundation of the Nile and the subsequent resurrection of the land.

The greenish-blue color may also be a clue. The lapis lazuli that the Egyptians so revered was a symbol of water and the heavens. This is an association to Tefnut, the goddess of moisture, and Mut, the mother goddess and goddess of the sky. We all know it is the moon that creates the tides, but this still doesn’t answer how a snake could be equated with the moon.

     In order to answer this, I shall share with you one of the secrets that is within my book, Treasure of Egypt. Wadjet was considered a primordial being from the beginning of time because her image was etched onto one of the greatest symbols of mankind, one that has been here from the beginning, the face of the moon itself.

Ruling from her mighty perch in the heavens above us is Wadjet, the All Seeing-Eye and the Opener of the Way, leading us into the night as she rises up in the east to guide us through the Amduat.

. . . But she is not alone.

All Seeing-Eye and the ancient gods of Egypt in my book, Treasure of Egypt, the first book in the Treasure of the Ancients series. Discover for yourself the origins of the Sphinx itself and several unknown or misidentified hieroglyphs while reading a tale sure to bring out a smile. :O)

- Author Barbara Ivie Green 

Thank you for your readership.
To read the first chapter click here: Treasure of Egypt Sneak Peek

To view Treasure of Egypt's Amazon book page and start reading today!

For Amazon.com click here
For Amazon.de click here 

The adventure awaits!

To read the other articles on The Enigmatic Symbols of Egypt, click below:

Part I - The All-Seeing Eye

Part II - The Origins of the Sphinx

Part III - The Misidentified Symbols of Ancient Egypt

Part IV - The Lost Symbol of the Sun and The Wings of Isis

Part V - The Unknown Symbol of Ancient Egypt

Website: www.barbaraiviegreen.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/barbaraiviegreen

Email: barbaraiviegreen@aol.com

The Formula and the Art of Writing Comedy

I don’t know if there is one really. I just thought that would be a cool title and fit in with the others I’ve recently written. :O)

The Formula

So if there is one what could it be? I did have my sister generously offer me her formula about how to write a compelling romance. Furious, fast action, get the hero and heroine together in the first few pages, and make it HOT. This advice, forged over a brilliant career of many bestselling novels, was apparently too hot for me to handle. This explosive piece of advice blew up in my face . . . several times. I needed something less volatile to work with—I needed my own formula and I needed it quick!  

I did devise a formula of sorts. It may not be brilliant, but it is more pliable for this girl to work with. Like Play Dough vs. plastic explosives. I love placing a character in an awkward situation and letting them react to it. I am not sure why I find this so amusing, but I do. In fact, I will spend most of my time on the antics and nonsense and completely forget that I have a budding romance to foster. It was because of this that my romantic couple didn’t even meet until the fourth chapter and he didn’t see her until the end of the sixth. Now there’s a humdinger of a tale about hot sizzling romance if there ever was one!

I obviously had my TNT rating set on low – maybe too low. My Gone with the Wind had blown away it seemed.  I needed something to keep the flow, boost interest, and keep them reading. Creating a certain amount of nonsense is a crucial part of my writing style, and highly addictive to write I might add. If I wasn’t pulling a punchline I was setting up the gag, but the romance and relationships had to mingle in with the history and madcap adventure schemes like a fine elixir.

So of course I almost forget the romance and have to go back and insert a little moment here and there because my husband, who was reading it was saying, “If this were me, I’d have stolen a kiss here.”

So it came to pass that my serious love story turned into a hilarious journey where my heroine became a woman of mystery and my side-kick stole the show. What had been a momentous story describing one of the greatest mysteries of the ancient world, complete with unknown and misidentified hieroglyphic symbols, became a madcap adventure. I remember when I first published it, I waited and waited for the accolades of my brilliance, my genius, to roll in. After all, I had just discovered the origins of the Sphinx for crying out loud and painted the picture! What would they say about my years of research . . . the result of my years of toil?

Well . . . I did get, “Funny beyond belief.” Hahahaha!

I’ll take it! In fact, I'm delighted by it. The whole idea that I can bring a smile to someone's face and brighten their day has actually given my writing a deeper meaning for me.

So there you have it. How my formula came to be. Take a historical mystery, add a dash of romance, along with a heaping dose of nonsense, and a quick stir with the chaos spoon and voila you have a madcap adventure.

The Art of Writing Comedy

So now I write comedies. Who knew, right? If someone had suggested that I would be doing this years ago I would have fallen over laughing and the real surprise is that this all came about through the most unlikely scenarios. You see, I used to bore people to tears. Not just mild disinterest either this was full out zombie like trances. My love of history was so great that I could send people running with my coma inducing fountain of knowledge. Hahahaha! I get this from my father I think.

My dad knew everything about the history of where I grew up in Utah, actually the whole United States, so you weren’t safe no matter where you went. You’d ask an innocent question regarding a dirt road and he’d tell you about the pass cut into the mountain, when it was built, who did it, where it went, and why–with the additional information about other mountain passes that were first used because they were at a lower altitude. See, exciting stuff, your eyes are already glazed over and you’ve forgotten to breathe as you looked for some type of escape from this paragraph. . . . I thought this was about being funny. . . ? I hear you thinking it!

In my own scientific research using this informational overload I conducted a few studies on innocent bystanders and other trapped guests. You know the ones who are politely listening until they have the ability to flee. It wasn’t done intentionally at first. I truly was trying to carry on an interesting conversation which I have discovered is all in the eye of the beholder, but this led me to experiment on just how much information could be given before their interest waned. How much can you impart, say on mummification, while eating birthday cake? Do people really want to know the sacred math used to make a key hole arched window while doing the dishes? No, I found, not really.

What is the fine art of creating interest? I tried other lures in the great game of, “Do I have your attention now?”  I overdid it at first. I always gave way too much information watching them sweat it out and squirm in their seats. I finally pared it down, delivering just a few key phrases to see if they had any interest whatsoever in my blathering. If they looked instantly bored or worse panicked – their eyes would dart around the room in search of someone to rescue them. I call this the life-line, the help, throw me the doughnut, look.

“She’s recounting early Mesopotamian history and if I have to hear about someone else’s Balls again I’m going to scream,” they silently plead.

“No, Baal is the god of . . . never mind.” I inwardly sigh, chalking up another experiment gone awry mark on my invisible historical facts sheet of how much they can bear it.

Even if you do have someone hooked on the end of the historical fishing line – which is rare – you must reel them in slowly or they too will balk, break the fragile thread and pick up their iphone in desperation. Like a call from your wing man if the date is going badly. “I must get this,” they apologize as they cling to the phone. “I understand.” I smile. And I do understand. . . . Remember my dad?

What I learned is this: What most people find interesting is themselves, their lives, not you. Asking questions and listening is probably the best way to keep a conversation going and if you’re lucky you may find something that interests you both or you’ll be the one looking across the room for your husband with that expression of, 'It’s time to go . . . I need a doughnut!'

So how, you ask, do you carry on a conversation in a book written long ago with someone who is just now reading it? How is that even possible? The true art to anything written, said, or drawn for that matter, is to engage the reader in such a way that they are able to participate. Have them visually become part of the action, see the comedy and don’t grind them down with too much information even if it is your idea of birthday cake. It is one of my favorite compliments when a reader says that they felt like they were there. I feel like I have accomplished my goal when that happens.

I must thank these poor unsuspecting people, most of them family members, who I may or may not be married to. They have helped me devise my brilliant comedic formula. To figure out how to tell a tale of history and yet keep it interesting even years later and after the twentieth telling. Okay – so that doesn’t happen, but my husband did teach me something so amazing, that I could see how, throughout the course of history, it has come into play again and again and it all centered around the kiss - that universal symbol of love. Talk about too hot to handle.  Yep, you got it – KISS . . . Keep It Simple Stupid . . . and be brief.

Being a comedian on paper is not for the faint-hearted, however, it may very well be the toughest things to write. Think about it. You will never hear the laughter after one of your punchlines. Talk about a tough room!  Did that work well? Did they laugh?  I know I’m laughing until I cried writing it, but I hear voices in my head and they sometimes argue so what does that mean? It happens when you have half-a-dozen characters in a room and they all want to talk at once. LOL! 

So this is for you my fellow authors of the humorous tale. Keep smiling and laughing at your own jokes – because you may very well be the only one, but don’t let that stop you . . . and to my dad who instilled in me the love of history and the ability to grin and bear it! :O)

To read a sneak peek of Treasure of Egypt click here: Treasure of Egypt Sneak Peek.

To read some of the historical discoveries mentioned click over to the Histories Mysteries part of my blog: Histories Mysteries with Barbara Ivie Green 

For those of you who love your comedy where anything of myths and legend can and probably will come true you can read the first chapters of my Paranormally Yours series by clicking here. Book 1 The Ghost Pirate's Treasure and Book 2 Cupid's Love Potion 

The Art of Realism

Serene Splendor is now available in print! Click here to view

     As an artist I have always been drawn to realism. Being able to portray something that looks as real on canvas as it does in reality has been a life-long dream of mine. I am still working on that ability and probably will be for the rest of my life. That being said – I want to say that I love and enjoy all forms and styles of art. I have always believed that it’s not about what style or medium you used or even how good you are as an artist, but how well you communicated. If a picture truly is worth a thousand words then I ask what are those words? Some of the greatest pieces of art have been done by children. You can feel the exuberance and delight in the piece. So it is prudent to ask I think as an artist, what did you feel and did I invoke within you a sense of the wonder I was feeling? To accomplish that is the act of the true master.

     It is important, however, to acquire some control over the medium and have the technical skill to create the artwork. I wanted to show something that brings a little more understanding to the art of the realist painter. For many years I think people have assumed that I just copied the images I painted. Transferring the information like a computer. Is it real or photocopied? On one painting I even had someone ask if I had découpaged the image of the wolf onto the canvas. Hahahaha!  One man rather snidely asked, why, if I already had the photo, was I painting it to look exactly like it?  So here is the answer to that, I rarely do, in fact, most of the time I change the image to create what I want to portray, although if what I want is the photo I can and have painted the photo – exactly.

Not everyone is a fan, however, one gallery owner groaned upon seeing my work and said, "Augh, photo realism." I looked around to see paintings of neon dogs and cowboys as well as a few images of dissected fruit parts, which I liked, but felt a little downhearted that my art wasn't considered valuable there. The truth is, is that all art is in the eye of the beholder. I have been in some of the most prestigious galleries and sold in shows before some of the biggest names in the business. I tell you this for two reasons. It shows how subjective art and its critiques can be, as well as, how important finding your own validations is. It is the only way to find your truth. The lessons that I was given by these stranger's comments were priceless as they helped me to claim ownership and see the value . . . but how I digress.

     Being "photo real" is not my goal, you see as a realist it is real life that I want to be able to express. The camera is an incredible tool, but it also has it's limitations. For instance we see with two lenses and the camera has only one. The challenge is to use it as a tool and yet see beyond it. In the two images above, you will see my finished oil painting on the left, and the reference photo I painted it from on the right.  This is something you will rarely see an artist share for obvious reasons. LOL! Now you can see for yourself my shortcomings and the place where my thumb wore away some of the photo ink at the bottom from holding it while I painted it.

     I wanted to use these images side by side to show not only the similarities, but to also point out the differences – some obvious and others more subtle. One, I did not copy this work by tracing or using a projector. I can paint exactly what I see before me, but more importantly I can change it. I loved the pose of the bobcat, but wanted it crouching over a creek – as if you had the rare opportunity to come across this scene in nature. (I have been doing this type of thing using the computer recently, drawing a sword – forging it in the computer and placing it in a setting using computer graphics – for instance, but this painting was done long before I had the ability to do that.)

     You will probably notice the difference in the lighting between the two images right away. I changed it to bring more focus onto the bobcats face using the lightest lights and darkest darks to pop it. Also in the reference photo the face of the bobcat is blurry and the back legs are in extreme focus. I switched this around, bringing more clarity to the eye and fur around the face rather than the back legs. The other changes are the extension of the branches and leaves in the background. Some are painted from reference photos I took out in the back yard, but most of the changes you see, including the lower portion, such as the rocks and creek, are from my imagination. Yes, you read right . . . they are from my imagination.  This is the point and reason I decided to post the original reference photo. To all of those who think that what they are seeing is just some enhanced photo or that painting an image to look like the real deal is easy or not a valid form of art - there is actually some skill involved. The other changes you might see are in tone, placement of plants, and lines were created to lead the eye throughout the canvas.

     Someone once explained to me that being able to copy someone else’s version of a photo or scene was the first level of skill. You may be extremely good at that, but when you go up to the next step, interpreting the photo yourself it will be harder to acquire the same level of artistic rendering. The next is painting the scene from life, without the use of a camera, analyzing the information yourself. Obviously, having the same skill level to do this is going to be much harder to accomplish. The next and final phase of course is painting from your imagination with the same amount of skill that you had when you copied another’s interpretation and that takes some mastery over the medium as well as artistic ability - and some might even call it art! Hahahaha!

    So this is for you, my fellow artists of realism, I feel you - keep seeing, keep dreaming . . . we are not just copy machines - and on another rather amusing note, the hardest thing to paint in this painting and make it look real was the dirt. :O)

NEW COVERS!

Same zany stories now with the covers to match!

To find out more about it or read a sample

click here

After much serious thought I decided that new covers and titles would better suit my new series. The cartooning was also a lot of fun to do - done in Word of course! LOL!

Turning Precious Photo's into Works of Art!

I have recently been having fun applying some graphic techniques to some precious family photo's!

Take Scrap Booking to a whole new level using Word... :O)