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He claimed he was descended from the Moors and was therefore of Arab lineage. He was born in the town of Figueres close to the French border. His father was a lawyer ... commonly known among many as the bottom-dwelling blood-suckers of our society. I, for one, do not subscribe to this theory. At least not publicly ... and certainly not if there are any lawyers reading this. Hey ... I love you guys.
In the seventeenth century Archbishop Ussher believed that the world began in 4004 BC and would endure for 6000 years. Nostradamus ... using Ussher's chronology and the belief that time was a one way river that flowed from past to present, predicted that Doomsday would begin in the year 1999 and would herald the beginning of the End of Time. This calculation was made by adding 6000 years from 4004 BC. For me the math comes out to 1996 ... but I would never be the one to quibble with the arithmetic of one so great as Nostradamus. Whether 1999 is truly the beginning of the End of Time is of course a bit moot ... for one does not truly know how long it will take for the beginning of the End of Time to reach the end of the End of Time.
Our Marquis had a younger sister named Ana Maria who wrote about her older brother. At 15 years old he had his first public exhibition of his charcoal drawings. At 18 he took up residence at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid. He was 5ft 7 3/4 inches tall and was already considered an eccentric with his long hair and sideburns who dressed in the fashion of the English aesthetes of the late 19th century.
The Mayans of Yucatan were obsessed with measuring time. They concluded that time had a cyclical rhythm to it and repeated itself every 260 years. So here it is: You want to know what's going to happen tomorrow ... read up on the same date going back 260 years ... and it will all be there for you to see in black and white. As to Brahmanic cosmology ... it goes like this: When Brahma awakens from his cosmic sleep and breathes out ... a new universe comes into being. 4,320,000,000 years later ... Brahma breathes in, returns to sleep ... and the universe ceases to exist. This leads to three interesting questions. One: Is Brahma truly awake for all this time? Two: Who's going to be around long enough to prove this theory wrong? And three: Who thinks up these numbers anyway?
Among the many forms of art created by our 1st Marquis of Púbol ... jewelry became one of his passions. I am sure you all know who he is by now ... but if you don't the image entitled the Eye of Time should remove any doubts. In any case ... let me know who you think he is.
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And there ya have it. That's it for this week folks. Catch you all next week. Benjamin Mark
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