ombrello dodging in the street, friday the 13th and people who are different

Oh my goodness its been raining for days! I think I might float away. Or have seasonal affective disorder. Everyone seems pretty excited about almost being done and coming home though~ Its so funny, when you walk everywhere in a city, even a small one like Siena, it becomes necessary to doge people. Then add umbrellas to the mix and its ridiculous. I find myself weaving and ducking or twirling my umbrella up so as not to hit people. Walking down the street is like a video game...haha.

I forgot about a few interesting things to tell you...Real Da Vinci code stuff....
Friday the 13th!
So everyone has heard about Friday the 13th, supposed to be bad luck or whatever, well I figured out where it came from. There was a group of knights called the Knights Templar who I believe began in France, and were formed to protect religious Pilgrims. You may have heard of them from the DaVinci code, National treasure, Kingdom of Heaven, Indian Jones? Well they are real, and ended up being really powerful because they started some of the first banking systems in Europe. They would loan money, store money etc. They even kind of came up with the first travelers' checks/credit cards for Pilgrims. It was safer to have a piece of paper as a pilgrim that you could redeem places instead of carrying your entire wealth around with you. So they ended up getting too powerful the kings thought, they were actually lending money to the kings for wars. So at one point King Philip of France is in lots of debt to the Templars so he accuses them of heresy. They had secret ceremonies and initiations so that was the basis. Well the Church didn't agree and thought the Templars were innocent, but Philip and the other monarchs in debt to the Templar Knights persuaded the Pope to go along with it, and they were all condemned to death, and their assets seized. They were arrested Friday the 13th of October 1307. The ones who escaped went to Scotland, and alot in Tuscany. In two of the contradas here, there are Templar symbols everywhere and in one there is a meeting room where members still meet today. People think they helped found the first bank of Siena. Later lots of templars, still involved in banking, moved to the US. - I learned this in class, a girl did a research project on it.

Our professor made a great point, because for centuries it was thought that the templers were really condemned for heresy. "You have to read between the lines a little with history, sometimes the ones with the privilege to write the history, only tell you what they want you to know. Of course Philip and the other monarchs condemned the Templars simply because they couldn't pay back the money. But it was widely thought for a very long time that the Templars were rightfully condemned for their corruption." We may never truely know what happened sometimes in history, we can only know some one's version.

Alchemic symbols and Masonry
Alchemy, was as you may know the knowledge supposedly of turning other metals into gold. A study that later became Chemistry. What most people don't see is that the whole purifying metal into gold thing is more metaphoric than anything. The idea is to transform. To transform yourself in order to achieve and obtain enlightenment. It wasn't forbidden to try and perform Alchemy, just illegal to try and sell gold that you "made". Alchemy was banned and became chemistry in 1666, but masonry is connected to it. The free masons are a fraternal secret society, who gained quite a lot of money at one point and were formed on Christan principles. Their main symbols include, a triangle with an eye or light inside of it, and an eagle. Reminiscent of Ancient Egyptian symbols and appearing in other places throughout history. Where have you seen these? In your wallet perhaps? look on a dollar bill~ The eagle is particularly interesting, an eagle flies the highest and represents awareness and the ability to see, often it symbolizes Jesus or John the Baptist. You can find the eagle on various coats of arms, and it was often the symbol of great empires. It was used in Egypt, Persian Empire, Byzantine Empire, by Napoleon, By Rome, and you guessed it.......The United States of America. Interesting.

Etruscans
The ancient people who lived in Tuscany before the Roman empire, were super cool. Very Feminist, women had lots of equal opportunities in society and they had their own names not connected to their husbands or fathers. There were also matriarchal legacies. Its actually a tradition that has stuck in Tuscany some. My Professor Amanda when she was young had like 4 names, b/c she had bother her father and mothers surnames. Another really cool thing, some of their artifacts are really ancient. For example, something interesting. You know how some Catholic paintings and christian paintings in general have halos around some one's head to symbolize that they are holy or a saint or spiritual, well there are Etruscan artifacts with people with the halos, and there are even figures of a woman and child with the halos! This is a culture from like 800 bc. Kind of crazy.

Other great quotes from my professor Amanda, the one that lived all over the world and is now also our new director, she's cool, we all like her a lot.

"History comes from the winners, always be critical. Knowledge makes you free from everything, even yourself. Look, Observe, Connect. Always."

"Yah members of my family were accused of heresy, eh, its a good thing I live now, b/c if I lived then I'd probably been burned at the stake too" -Amanda

something like, "Its hard to be different, but you know, its important that there are people who are different in society. Sometimes there are people who are just ahead of their times. The people who are different help society progress, they push everyone else and shake things up. Its good to be different, because if we were all the same we would never move forward."

So be different, its ok. Really.
Have a great day everyone!- I will try to make myself do work now.