Henotheism :- belief in one god without denying the existence of other gods. Coined by Max Müller.

That, of course, made me think of the Roman nomen gentile (clan name) Ahenobarbus, most famously one of Nero's many names. and which is not related to henotheism.

A coworker yesterday asked me out of the blue if I knew what Rudraksha seeds were. It turns out I'd seen them before, but didn't know what they were called. Rudra is another name for Śiva. Here's a picture. Rudra is cognate with English red. Aksha is cognate with English eye and means the same thing.

So they're the seeds you pop before taking the "red eye" flight so you can get some sleep? That link to the seeds looks like the old pawn shop symbol. Where'd that come from? How would an illiterate person know that three balls represented a pawn shop? (Yeah, off on a tangent - so what's new!)

Where'd that come from?

What, cum grano salis, Wikipedia has to say. Like most symbols (or signs) it's relationship to that which it represents is arbitrary.

Wikipedia says St Nicholas is the patron saint of pawnbrokers. So that's why so many people go into hock buying christmas presents!
cum grano salis? Heck, a whole box full!

The Wikipedia article said the seeds have a blue shell, but the picture was of red seeds. So I did some looking and found a different picture (second plant down, Elaeocarpus grandis).

Tinman

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman, January 06, 2007 15:59

quote:

Originally posted by zmježd:
Rudraksha

I was hoping it would have something to do with rākṣas राक्षस, a rakshasa or demon. Ah well.