Rainer Maria Rilke was born in Prague in 1875, then part of Austria-Hungary, into a family that quickly steered him toward a military career. Between 1886 and 1891, he attended military boarding schools in St. Pölten and Mährisch-Weißkirchen, but was dismissed in 1891 due to physical unfitness. He then studied commerce before returning to Prague, where he worked as a journalist. During this time, Rilke was already writing poems and short stories. In 1896, he moved to Munich to study philosophy and, in May 1897, met Lou Andreas-Salomé, who was thirty-six at the time, while he was just twenty-two. Lou was married to Friedrich Carl Andreas, whose name she carried alongside her own into posterity. A woman ahead of her time, Lou became a pivotal figure in Rilke’s life. She traveled to Russia with him in 1900 and advised him to change his name from René Maria to Rainer Maria. Their passionate love affair lasted three years. After their separation, their relationship evolved into a profound mutual bond and admiration that endured for the rest of their lives, as evidenced by their extensive correspondence. Lou’s marriage provided her stability, yet it was a union without physical intimacy. She remained a thirty-six-year-old virgin, convinced that spiritual fulfillment could only be achieved through the denial of physical passion. However, she gave herself to Rilke with fervor, and he affectionately referred to her as «my burning bush.» Lou guided him toward a minimalist approach to writing, and Rilke, in turn, transformed this «perfect intellect» into a woman, this «ice princess» into a passionate lover. Years later, Lou would write to him: «I was your wife for years because you were the first reality in which man and body were indistinguishable from one another.»

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a mystical text with biblical resonances, written as a counterargument to Swedenborg and admired by Gide for its sublime ambiguity. William Blake asserts the unity of humanity and challenges prudence and calculation in favor of the flourishing of the self, which reconciles desire, wisdom, and reason. Both love and hate are essential to life; it is the clash of opposites that gives rise to creative energy and the growth of the individual. Blake thus opposes reason to intuitive vision, favoring the latter.

« Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. These Contraries are what the religious call Good and Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason; Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven; Evil is Hell.»

« Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer, or Reason, usurps its place and governs the unwilling.»

Stendhal Syndrome is a psychosomatic disorder that manifests as rapid heartbeat, dizziness, breathlessness, or even hallucinations when individuals are overwhelmed by an excess of art and beauty. The condition takes its name from the French writer Stendhal, who experienced it during his visit to Florence in 1817. Far from alleviating his symptoms, Stendhal exacerbated them by reading a poem while seated on a bench in the square, allowing the cultural richness of his surroundings to overwhelm him further. He was both enraptured and debilitated by the abundance of beauty:

« I had reached that level of emotion where the celestial sensations of Fine Arts and passionate feelings converge. Upon leaving Santa Croce, my heart was pounding, my vitality seemed drained, and I walked in fear off collapsing.»

                                                                                                                                                                 — Rome, Naples, and Florence, Delaunay Editions, Paris, 1826, Volume II, p. 102  

Mithridatize

Mithridates VI, King of Pontus, who died in 63 BCE, is remembered for his prolonged resistance to Rome, which lasted a quarter of a century, and for his extraordinary immunity to poisons. This resistance was the result of his deliberate practice of consuming small doses of toxins to build tolerance, a process that inspired the verb »mithridatize.» When betrayed by both his army and his beloved son, Mithridates attempted to poison himself, but his immunity rendered the poison ineffective. In the end, he turned to a loyal companion and requested to be killed with a sword.

In the garden of the Church of Sainte-Claire in Avignon, Francesco Petrarch encountered the woman who would inspire his entire poetic work: Laure de Noves. The platonic love she awakened in him inspired numerous poems, including the Canzoniere, published in 1470:

« Laure, celebrated for her virtue and long sung of in my poems, first appeared before my eyes in the bloom of my youth, in the Year of Our Lord 1327, on April 6th, at the Church of Sainte-Claire in Avignon, in the morning.»

It takes a certain disposition toward Love’s Triumph to willingly place oneself, year after year, locked outside the closed gates of the Sainte-Claire garden at 6 a.m. on April 6th, standing in anticipation of the day’s arrival and the imminence of revelation. By 7 a.m., the world calls, leading participants to the bustling Halles of Avignon, where each guest temporarily steps away from the communal table for a solitary quest: to uncover symbolic and substantial elements for both body and soul. This improbable collection culminates in a banquet of love, where the heart of a lamb is carved, shared, and consumed to the accompaniment of poetry readings. As the morning fades and dreams dissipate, participants return with their emblems, embodying a journey into the ancient labyrinths of the mind. The day transitions into choreographed wanderings through these twists and turns, lasting late into the night—guided by the echoes of Ariadne’s tears, in a cellar, with wine and song.

Gortyne is a Greek city in Crete, located along the banks of the River Lethe and at the foot of Mount Ida. According to legend, it was in the meadows of Gortyne that the white bull, with whom Pasiphaë—wife of King Minos—fell in love, resided. With the assistance of the architect Daedalus, she is said to have mated with the bull, giving birth to the Minotaur.

The «labyrinth» at Gortyne is a quarry often considered to be the possible labyrinth of the Minotaur. It was constructed with great effort, based on a specific plan reminiscent of the myth of Ariadne’s thread. Centuries ago, it served as a refuge for the Cretans when the Turkish occupiers launched their raids. However, it is also possible that the labyrinth is merely the «accidental» result of random quarrying activities.

The Karens, referred to as Kariangs or Yangs by the Thais, are a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group, with approximately 10% residing in Thailand and 90% in Myanmar. They inhabit areas along the Thai border, centered around Hpa-An, their capital. After years of fighting for independence, Buddhist Karens have accepted the Rangoon regime and ceased acts of rebellion. In contrast, Christian Karens, who reside in refugee camps within the forests near the Thai border, have continued their struggle. Their population is divided into roughly 5–10% animists, 15–20% Christians, with the remainder being Buddhists. Both Buddhism and Christianity have gained influence among the Karens without entirely displacing their animistic practices. The Karens have a rich oral literature that has yet to be formally studied

The Karens believe in a soul—a vital force that animates living beings, objects, and natural elements like stones and wind—as well as in protective spirits. Animism aims to guide individuals toward an ideal ultimate state. Animists strive for a world balanced and harmonious with creation, which, in turn, fosters inner harmony. To achieve this, humans must act in alignment with spiritual powers. The soul is seen as united with the body, but it can leave during life, travel, and later share its experiences with the body. A supernatural, impersonal power is believed to reside in various objects, animals, plants, and certain humans, bestowing magical strength and authority. This force, while hidden, is perceptible and omnipresent. It is the vital force that exists in everything yet remains indefinable.

GAfter the Flood, the first humans began constructing the Tower of Babel to reach the heavens, but God disrupted their overly ambitious project by confusing their language and scattering them across the earth. The Tower of Babel is explicitly referenced in connection with Babylon in Genesis chapter 11.

Babylon is the first of the hierarchical and specialized societies, prefiguring all the following civilizations with their social classes. It is based on the retention of information and therefore value. Information and value are capitalized by the noble and priestly classes. The majority of the population receives simplified information, devoid of interest, ineffective, intended to produce an insane image of the world: superstition. The humans of Babel thus find their punishment in the system of power that they themselves invented. In the Muslim tradition, the Sunnah does not explicitly mention the myth of the Tower of Babel, nor the confusion of languages, nor the existence of any tower. What could be considered the Tower of Babel, is called in Arabic Palatinum and more commonly As-sarh, the definition of which corresponds to “a single house built solitary and robust, rising high into the sky; every high building being an As-sarh.” Babel is cited only once in the “Chapter on prayer in ruins and places of sorrow” of the important Authentic collection of Al-Bukhârî.

The desert is a vast, barren and arid place, but also, oddly enough, the place of many people from a spiritual point of view. According to The Dictionary of Symbols - Chevalier and Cheerbant, 1982 - the desert has two symbolic meanings. On the one hand, it is “principial undifferentiation” and on the other, it would be “the superficial, sterile extension, under which Reality must be sought”. Islamic culture considers the desert as a search for “the Essence” for those who commit to it. In the Holy Quran, the desert is mentioned explicitly only once. It is a sacred space where man participates in the cosmogony.

Everything is done in reference to the time of origins, where everything has meaning because each gesture updates harmony. It is therefore a retreat, what the Sufis later called khalwat. This term evokes the fact of withdrawing from a group, of clearing the air around oneself, of remaining alone, of isolating oneself and of separating. On the other hand, the desert is not only defined by its timelessness and its challenge to time, it is also a space where other laws are abolished. A place of perfect silence exposed to celestial grandeur, the desert never ceases to be this mythical space, with a metaphysical dimension, which predisposes the being to cosmic communions.

Among the Inuit Nation, the legend is told of a little boy blind from birth who asked his grandmother: “What must be done so that I can see the world?” His grandmother replied: “Pray to the Great Spirit and touch the water of the sea.” After several unsuccessful attempts, the little boy returns to talk with his grandmother. She then said to him: “Pray to the Great Spirit, Believe in HIM and touch the water and you will see the world as I see it.” The little boy began to pray even harder, believing with all his might in the omnipotence of the Great Spirit. He thrust his hands into the sea and immediately began to see the world. So the little boy asked his grandfather to show him how to fish for whales. His grandfather revealed all his knowledge to him and the little boy went to sea in his canoe. He was alone in the immensity of the ocean, he observed the waves as his grandfather had taught him. Suddenly a whale appears a few meters upstream. He threw his harpoon and the whale disappeared under the water. Strangely no resistance at the end of his line although the harpoon seemed to have inserted itself into the flesh of the whale. He felt a wave shake him slightly then the whale emerged from the water and placed itself alongside his canoe. Frightened to see her so close, he began to cry. It was at this moment that the whale addressed him in these words:

« Little boy, don’t be afraid, I came to you because you came to me believing with all your strength in ME. You will never have to fight to achieve your dreams again. »

Long before the arrival of the first settlers, the occupants of Manhattan Island were the Munsee Native American tribe, considered by the Dutch settlers to be violent and aggressive. The other tribes settled in the bays have some given names to some current districts of the city; we thus found the Hipsters in Brooklyn, the Matinecooks in Flushing, the Rockaways in Queens and the Wecquaesgeeks, Mohican tribes living in the Yonkers region.

Salmagundi or The Whim-whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq. & Others, is a satirical periodical created and written at the beginning of the 19th century by the American writer Washington Irving, also author of The Legend of the Headless Horseman. Salmagundi lampooned New York culture and politics. It was in the November 11, 1807 issue that Irving first associated the name «Gotham» with New York.

Gotham City is one of the two major cities in the DC Universe and DC Universe Online. Gotham is supposed to be the nighttime version of a certain idea of ​​New York, with Metropolis being its daytime version, according to the legendary Frank Miller.

The Iroquois also known by the expression Five Nations actually include five and then later six Native American nations of Iroquois languages ​​living historically in northern New York State south of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Most of the approximately 125,000 Iroquois live today in Ontario, Canada and New York State. Others live in Wisconsin, Quebec and Oklahoma. Only a small minority of the Iroquois today speaks one of the Iroquois languages, notably Mohawk in the village of Kahnawake, south of Montreal. Today the Mohawks refer to themselves by this Anglo-American name meaning “man-eaters” in the language of their Abenaki rivals. The indigenous term is Kanienkehaka meaning people of the stars. In 1990, the Mohawks believing that their ancestors had once been despoiled by the settlers who appropriated vast “lordships” to then resell them to the Whites, the natives went to war again to assert their territorial rights.

Partly coming from Kahnawake, Akwasasne and other provinces of Canada, the Mohawks, armed with AK-47, M16 automatic weapons and Browning M2 machine guns, occupied a pine forest sheltering an Oka cemetery, near Montreal. At the request of the Prime Minister of Quebec, the Royal - 22e Régiment - intervenes and establishes a real state of siege. On September 26, 1990 the “Warriors” laid down their arms. In February 2010, the Kahnawake reserve council decided to expel anyone who was not Mohawk, including those who had a spouse from that nation, and prohibited “foreigners” from settling on their territory.

« There is a certain charm in being near a dangerous being, especially when you feel him gentle and tamed. »

Prosper Mérimée, Carmen, 1845

How to adore Carmen? This sorcerer who does as she pleases and respects nothing? Because it is shown to us through the love of Don José, and his passion is contagious, admirably relayed by the magic of Mérimée’s words, then by that of Saura’s camera. Carmen is the myth of the free woman, all the more powerful and elusive as she is associated with a macho culture. Carlos Saura confirms his statement: “Carmen, in my film, she decides everything, right? «. She even decides to obey Antonio the choreographer in a fantastic scene, a real taming of the rebellious flamenco dancer. He makes her repeat a dance step which shows her more bull than woman, rushing headlong towards him, who provokes her like a true bullfighter. But make no mistake: this obedience is only a means to better control your body through dance, and thus to better dominate your life.

« One evening, in a wood... at the edge of a pond..., after a melancholy walk where her eyes reflected the sweetness of the sky, and where my heart was tense like the hell... [.] Get rid of this being without disrespecting him. What did you want me to do with her, since she was Perfect ? »

Charles Beaudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris, Portraits de mistresses, 1869

Moby Dick, published to indifference in 1851, became a universal bestseller. The American writer Herman Melville was inspired by the story of a survivor of the Essex, a whaler smashed by an enormous sperm whale in the middle of the Pacific in 1820. Four months of wandering in the ocean: eight members of the twenty-one crew of the Essex managed to return to land after wandering for four months in their boats. In Herman Melville’s book, the members of the Pequod crew appear as detailed paintings of archetypal human types and behaviors living in a closed and autonomous universe. It reflects an infinite variety of origins, destinies and languages. On a metaphorical level, the fight between Ahab and Moby Dick symbolizes that of Good against Evil but also the condemnation of pride and revenge. However, the relationships can be reversed depending on the point of view of either the captain or the sperm whale. Captain Ahab is obsessed with Moby Dick not only for the fame he might gain from it, but also because he wishes to take revenge on the animal. Thus the pride of the captain, whose leg Moby Dick tore off, and his quest for revenge will lead him to his downfall . Ahab quickly emerges as a capable captain and a source of immense respect from his crew. It is almost a question of a man who never set foot on land, who led numerous hunts on all the seas of the globe. However, Ahab very quickly reveals to his crew his only motivation: the killing of the white sperm whale with his own hands. Everyone follows him, fascinated by the horror that the beast evokes in them. Throughout the story the captain decays physically, consumed by the desire for revenge. Ishmael, silent witness and voice of the story, gradually realizes the madness of the company because it is governed by a mad man, and that the real danger is on board. Melville gives the whale the features of Ahab, it lives exclusively through its hatred, until its encounter where all this corrosive violence finally breaks out. At the time of the book’s publication, the question of species preservation did not arise. In Moby-Dick, however, Melville already raises the question of the consequences that intensive fishing could have on the cetacean population. He compares the supposed overfishing of whales with the great buffalo hunts organized on the plains of the American West. At the time, only a few voices were raised to denounce the impact of such an enterprise on the sustainability of the species. For a long time, critics thought that the white sperm whale existed only in Herman Melville’s imagination. On August 21, 1952, the Anglo-Norse, a whaling factory ship, captured a 55-ton white sperm whale, whose jaw was curved like a sickle.

«Here we stand with our bodies in the sun, like a palace filled with wonders. But you who seek truth, O grave and noble souls, descend beneath the foundations, from cellar to cellar. In the fierce depths of man’s proud construction lies the vast dwelling of vanished civilizations; there, his essential grandeur is rooted in darkness, with all its majesty: an ancient hero buried under the weight of centuries. The gods of the open heavens laugh at this king, prisoner to the collapse of his throne. Yet he, like a crouching caryatid, bears on his frozen shoulders the accumulation of the ages. Descend to him with the pride and sorrow of your modern soul, and speak to his old pride and ancient sorrow. Do you find your own drama reflected there? Yes, young kings, the wild old king already knew the eternally untamed secret of the human race.»

The Turks of the Seljuk and then Ottoman dynasty settled in Anatolia from the 11th century. But their story begins in the steppes of Central Asia. Chinese sources mention nomadic tribes as early as the 2nd millennium BC. BC in the north of present-day Mongolia. The first Turkic peoples are the Tou-kiu, transcription of “türük” which means “strong”. They are called “gok”, “Blue”, because they claim a celestial origin. A shamanic people, they consider the universe elaborated in three superimposed zones: the sky, the earth and the underworld connected by a cosmic axis-tree, the pillar on which the sky rests. The mountain touches the heavens and the well communicates with the underworld. In the mythology of Turkish origins and among the peoples of Mongolia, the wolf is a revered animal. The legend of Asena tells how the Turkish people were created: in northern China, the small village of Hiong-nu was attacked by Chinese soldiers, but a male baby was left alive. A wolf with a sky blue mane named Asena found him. She nursed him and offered him her den. Then she became his wife and gave birth to half-wolf, half-human beings. From their union was born the “strong” people, the T’ou-Klue, the first Turks. Later, in 1227, after the death of Genghis Kahn, those close to him would say that he joined the Blue Wolf, his ancestor, Bortà-Tchino, the Celestial Wolf, agent of the sky and husband of the Tawny Doe, the Earth. This is why all the peoples who have experienced Mongolian influence have kept the memory of the wolf, the memory of the ancestor. And when the hunt leads to the killing of a wolf, the hunter will pay homage to it and destroy the weapon that has become evil and which dealt the fatal blow.