title: Levantine Arabic

text: , most Arabic satellite television networks use colloquial varieties in their programs, except news bulletins in MSA. The use of vernacular in broadcasting started in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War and expanded to the rest of the Arab world. In 2009, Al Jazeera used MSA only and Al Arabiya and Al-Manar used MSA or a hybrid between MSA and colloquial for talk shows. On the popular Lebanese satellite channel Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI), Arab and international news bulletins are only in MSA, while the Lebanese national news broadcast is in a mix of MSA and Lebanese Arabic.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Levantine is seldom written, except for some novels, plays, and humorous writings. Most Arab critics do not acknowledge the literary dignity of prose in dialect. Prose written in Lebanese goes back to at least 1892 when Tannus al-Hurr published , 'The tale of the drunken youth, or The story of Nassur the Drunkard'. In the 1960s, Said Akl led a movement in Lebanon to replace MSA as the national and literary language, and a handful of writers wrote in Lebanese. Foreign works, such as La Fontaine's "Fables", were translated into Lebanese using Akl's alphabet. The Gospel of Mark was published in Palestinian in 1940, followed by the Gospel of Matthew and the Letter of James in 1946. The four gospels were translated in Lebanese using Akl's alphabet in 1996 by Gilbert Khalifé. Muris 'Awwad translated the four gospels and "The Little Prince" in 2001 in Lebanese in Arabic script. The Little Prince was also translated in Palestinian and published in two biscriptal editions (one Arabic/Hebrew script, one Arabic/Latin script).


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Newspapers usually use MSA and reserve Levantine for sarcastic commentaries and caricatures. Headlines in Levantine are common. The letter to the editor section often includes entire paragraphs in Levantine. Many newspapers also regularly publish personal columns in Levantine, such as , in the weekend edition of "Al-Ayyam". From 1983 to 1990, Said Akl's newspaper "Lebnaan" was published in Lebanese written in the Latin alphabet. Levantine is also commonly used in zajal and other forms of oral poetry. Zajal written in vernacular was published in Lebanese newspapers such as "Al-Mashriq" ("The Levant", from 1898) and "Ad-Dabbur" ("The Hornet", from 1925). In the 1940s, five reviews in Beirut were dedicated exclusively to poetry in Lebanese. In a 2013 study, Abuhakema investigated 270 written commercial ads in two Jordanian ("Al Ghad" and "Ad-Dustour") and two Palestinian ("Al-Quds" and "Al-Ayyam") daily newspapers. The study concluded that MSA is still the most used variety in ads, although both varieties are acceptable and Levantine is increasingly used.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Most comedies are written in Levantine. In Syria, plays became more common and popular in the 1980s by using Levantine instead of Classical Arabic. Saadallah Wannous, the most renowned Syrian playwright, used Syrian Arabic in his later plays. Comic books, like the Syrian comic strip , are often written in Levantine instead of MSA. In novels and short stories, most authors, such as Arab Israelis and , write the dialogues in their Levantine dialect, while the rest of the text is in MSA. Lebanese authors Elias Khoury (especially in his recent works) and Kahlil Gibran wrote the main narrative as well in Levantine. Some collections of short stories and anthologies of Palestinian folktales (, 'heritage literature') display full texts in dialect. On the other hand, Palestinian children's literature is almost exclusively written in MSA.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Internet users in the Arab world communicate with their dialect language (such as Levantine) more than MSA on social media (such as Twitter, Facebook, or in the comments of online newspapers). According to one study, between 12% and 23% of all dialectal Arabic content online was written in Levantine depending on the platform.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Levantine phonology is characterized by rich socio-phonetic variations along socio-cultural (gender; religion; urban, rural or Bedouin) and geographical lines. For instance, in urban varieties, interdentals , , and tend to merge to stops or fricatives ~ ; ~ ; and ~ respectively. The Classical Arabic voiceless uvular plosive is pronounced (among Druze), (in most urban centers, especially Beirut, Damascus, and Jerusalem, and in Amman among women), (in Amman among men, in most other Jordanian dialects and in Gaza), or even (in rural Palestinian).


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Vowel length is phonemic in Levantine. Vowels often show dialectal or allophonic variations that are socially, geographically, and phonologically conditioned. Diphthongs and are found in some Lebanese dialects, they respectively correspond to long vowels and in other dialects. One of the most distinctive features of Levantine is word-final imāla, a process by which the vowel corresponding to is raised from to , , or even in some dialects. The difference between the short vowel pairs and as well as and is not always phonemic. The vowel quality is usually and in stressed syllables. Vowels in word-final position are shortened. As a result, more short vowels are distinguished.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: In the north, stressed and merge. They usually become , but might also be near emphatic consonants. Syrians and Beirutis tend to pronounce both of them as schwa . The long vowel "ā" is pronounced similar to "ē" or even merges with "ē", when it is not near an emphatic or guttural consonant.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Syllabification and phonotactics are complex, even within a single dialect. Speakers often add a short vowel, called helping vowel or epenthetic vowel, sounding like a short schwa right before a word-initial consonant cluster to break it, as in , 'very good/well'. They are not considered part of the word and are never stressed. This process of anaptyxis is subject to social and regional variation. They are usually not written. A helping vowel is inserted:


title: Levantine Arabic

text: In the Damascus dialect, word stress falls on the last superheavy syllable (CVːC or CVCC). In the absence of a superheavy syllable:


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Until recently, Levantine was rarely written. Brustad and Zuniga report that in 1988, they did not find anything published in Levantine in Syria. By the late 2010s, written Levantine was used in many public venues and on the internet, especially on social media. There is no standard Levantine orthography. There have been failed attempts to Latinize Levantine, especially Lebanese. For instance, Said Akl promoted a modified Latin alphabet. Akl used this alphabet to write books and publish a newspaper, "Lebnaan".


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Written communication takes place using a variety of orthographies and writing systems, including Arabic (right-to-left script), Hebrew (right-to-left, used in Israel, especially online among Bedouin, Arab Christians, and Druze), Latin (Arabizi, left-to-right), and a mixture of the three. Arabizi is a non-standard romanization used by Levantine speakers in social media and discussion forums, SMS messaging, and online chat. Arabizi initially developed because the Arabic script was not available or not easy to use on most computers and smartphones; its usage declined after Arabic software became widespread. According to a 2020 survey done in Nazareth, Arabizi "emerged" as a "'bottom-up' orthography" and there is now "a high degree of normativization or standardisation in Arabizi orthography." Among consonants, only five (ج ,ذ ,ض ,ظ ,ق) revealed variability in their Arabizi representation.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: A 2012 study found that on the Jordanian forum Mahjoob about one-third of messages were written in Levantine in the Arabic script, one-third in Arabizi, and one-third in English. Another 2012 study found that on Facebook, the Arabic script was dominant in Syria, while the Latin script dominated in Lebanon. Both scripts were used in Palestine, Israel, and Jordan. Several factors affect script choice: formality (the Arabic script is more formal), ethnicity and religion (Muslims use the Arabic script more while Israeli Druze and Bedouins prefer Hebrew characters), age (young use Latin more), education (educated people write more in Latin), and script congruence (the tendency to reply to a post in the same script).


title: Levantine Arabic

text: The Arabic alphabet is always cursive, and letters vary in shape depending on their position within a word. Letters exhibit up to four distinct forms corresponding to an initial, medial (middle), final, or isolated position (IMFI). Only the isolated form is shown in the tables below. In the Arabic script, short vowels are not represented by letters but by diacritics above or below the letters. When Levantine is written with the Arabic script, the short vowels are usually not indicated unless a word is ambiguous. In the Arabic script, a shadda above a consonant doubles it. In Latin alphabet, the consonant is written twice: , , 'a female teacher' / , , 'a school'. Said Akl's Latin alphabet uses non-standard characters.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: VSO and SVO word orders are possible in Levantine. In both cases, the verb precedes the object. SVO is more common in Levantine, while Classical Arabic prefers VSO. Subject-initial order indicates topic-prominent sentences, while verb-initial order indicates subject-prominent sentences. In interrogative sentences, the interrogative particle comes first.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Nouns are either masculine or feminine and singular, dual or plural. The dual is formed with the suffix . Most feminine singular nouns end with , pronounced as –a or -e depending on the preceding consonant: -a after guttural () and emphatic consonants (), -e after other consonants. Unlike Classical Arabic, Levantine lacks case marking.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Levantine lacks an indefinite article; nouns (except proper nouns) are marked indefinite by the absence of the definite article. The Arabic definite article precedes the noun or adjective and has multiple pronunciations. Its vowel is dropped when the preceding word ends in a vowel. A helping vowel "e" is inserted if the following word begins with a consonant cluster. It assimilates with "sun letters" (consonants that are pronounced with the tip of the tongue). The letter Jeem () is a sun letter for speakers pronouncing it as [] but not for those pronouncing it as [].


title: Levantine Arabic

text: For nouns referring to humans, the regular (also called sound) masculine plural is formed with the suffix -īn. The regular feminine plural is formed with -āt. The masculine plural is used to refer to a group with both genders. There are many broken plurals (also called internal plurals), in which the consonantal root of the singular is changed. These plural patterns are shared with other varieties of Arabic and may also be applied to foreign borrowings. Several patterns of broken plurals exist, and it is impossible to predict them exactly. One common pattern is for instance CvCvC => CuCaCa (e.g.: singular: , 'manager'; plural: , 'managers'). Inanimate objects take feminine singular agreement in the plural, for verbs, attached pronouns, and adjectives.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: The genitive is formed by putting the nouns next to each other in a construct called "iḍāfah", . The first noun is always indefinite. If an indefinite noun is added to a definite noun, it results in a new definite compound noun: , 'the book of the teacher'. Besides possessiveness, the "iḍāfah" can also specify or define the first term. Although there is no limit to the number of nouns in an "iḍāfah", it is rare to have three or more. The first term must be in the construct state: if it ends in the feminine marker (/-ah/, or /-ih/), it changes to (/-at/, /-it/) in pronunciation (i.e. pronounced as /t/): , 'New York City'.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Adjectives typically have three forms: a masculine singular, a feminine singular, and a plural. In most adjectives, the feminine is formed through the addition of -a/e. Many adjectives have the pattern ( / CCīC or / CaCīC), but other patterns exist. Adjectives derived from nouns using the suffix are called nisba adjectives. Their feminine form ends in and their plural in . Nouns in dual have adjectives in plural. The plural of adjectives is either regular ending in or is an irregular "broken" plural. It is used with nouns referring to people. For non-human, inanimate, or abstract nouns, adjectives use either the plural or the singular feminine form regardless of gender.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Adjectives follow the noun they modify and agree with it in definiteness. Adjectives without an article after a definite noun express a clause with the invisible copula "to be":


title: Levantine Arabic

text: There are no separate comparative and superlative forms: the elative is used instead. The elative is formed by adding a hamza at the beginning of the adjective and replacing the vowels by "a" (pattern: / aCCaC, e.g.: , 'big'; , 'bigger/biggest'). Adjective endings in (i) and (u) are changed into (a). If the second and third consonant in the root are the same, they are geminated (pattern: / ʾaCaCC). When an elative modifies a noun, it precedes the noun, and no definite article is used.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Levantine does not distinguish between adverbs and adjectives in adverbial function. Almost any adjective can be used as an adverb: , 'good' vs. , 'Did you sleep well?'. MSA adverbs, with the suffix -an, are often used, e.g., , 'at all'. Adverbs often appear after the verb or the adjective. , 'very' can be positioned after or before the adjective. Adverbs of manner can usually be formed using bi- followed by the nominal form: , 'fast, quickly', .


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Levantine has eight persons and eight pronouns. Contrary to MSA, dual pronouns do not exist in Levantine; the plural is used instead. Because conjugated verbs indicate the subject with a prefix or a suffix, independent subject pronouns are usually unnecessary and mainly used for emphasis. Feminine plural forms modifying human females are found primarily in rural and Bedouin areas. They are not mentioned below.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Direct object pronouns are indicated by suffixes attached to the conjugated verb. Their form depends on whether the verb ends with a consonant or a vowel. Suffixed to nouns, these pronouns express possessive. Levantine does not have the verb "to have". Instead, possession is expressed using the prepositions , (meaning "to possess") and , (meaning "to have on oneself"), followed by personal pronoun suffixes.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Indirect object pronouns (dative) are suffixed to the conjugated verb. They are formed by adding an ل (-l) and then the possessive suffix to the verb. They precede object pronouns if present:


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Demonstrative pronouns have three referential types: immediate, proximal, and distal. The distinction between proximal and distal demonstratives is of physical, temporal, or metaphorical distance. The genderless and numberless immediate demonstrative article is translated by "this/the", to designate something immediately visible or accessible.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Most Levantine verbs are based on a triliteral root (also called radical or Semitic root) made of three consonants. The set of consonants communicates the basic meaning of a verb, e.g. k-t-b ('write'), q-r- ('read'), -k-l ('eat'). Changes to the vowels in between the consonants, along with prefixes or suffixes, specify grammatical functions such as tense, person, and number, in addition to changes in the meaning of the verb that embody grammatical concepts such as mood (e.g., indicative, subjunctive, imperative), voice (active or passive), and functions such as causative, intensive, or reflexive. Quadriliteral roots are less common but often used to coin new vocabulary or Arabicize foreign words. The base form is the third-person masculine singular of the perfect (also called past) tense.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Almost all Levantine verbs belong to one of ten verb forms (also called verb measures, stems, patterns, or types). Form I, the most common one, serves as a base for the other nine forms. Each form carries a different verbal idea relative to the meaning of its root. Technically, ten verbs can be constructed from any given triconsonantal root, although not all of these forms are used. After Form I, Forms II, V, VII, and X are the most common. Some irregular verbs do not fit into any of the verb forms.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: The Levantine verb has only two tenses: past (perfect) and present (also called imperfect, b-imperfect, or bi-imperfect). The present tense is formed by adding the prefix b- or m- to the verb root. The future tense is an extension of the present tense. The negative imperative is the same as the negative present with helping verb (imperfect). Various prefixes and suffixes designate the grammatical person and number as well as the mood. The following table shows the paradigm of a sound Form I verb, , 'to write'. There is no copula in the present tense in Levantine. In other tenses, the verb is used. Its present tense form is used in the future tense.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: The b-imperfect is usually used for the indicative mood (non-past present, habitual/general present, narrative present, planned future actions, or potential). The prefix b- is deleted in the subjunctive mood, usually after modal verbs, auxiliary verbs, pseudo-verbs, prepositions, and particles. The future can also be expressed by the imperfect preceded by the particle or by the prefixed particle . The present continuous is formed with the progressive particle followed by the imperfect, with or without the initial b/m depending on the speaker.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: The active participle, also called present participle, is grammatically an adjective derived from a verb. Depending on the context, it can express the present or present continuous (with verbs of motion, location, or mental state), the near future, or the present perfect (past action with a present result). It can also serve as a noun or an adjective. The passive participle, also called past participle, has a similar meaning as in English (i.e., sent, written). It is mainly used as an adjective and sometimes as a noun. It is inflected from the verb based on its verb form. However, passive participles are largely limited to verb forms I (CvCvC) and II (CvCCvC), becoming maCCūC for the former and mCaCCaC for the latter.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: The verb , followed by another verb, forms compound tenses. Both verbs are conjugated with their subject.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Form I verbs often correspond to an equivalent passive form VII verb, with the prefix n-. Form II and form III verbs usually correspond to an equivalent passive in forms V and VI, respectively, with the prefix t-. While the verb forms V, VI and VII are common in the simple past and compound tenses, the passive participle (past participle) is preferred in the present tense.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Verbs and prepositional phrases are negated by the particle either on its own or, in the south, together with the suffix at the end of the verb or prepositional phrase. In Palestinian, it is also common to negate verbs by the suffix only.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: The lexicon of Levantine is overwhelmingly Arabic, and a large number of Levantine words are shared with at least another vernacular Arabic variety outside the Levant, especially with Egyptian. Many words, such as verbal nouns (also called gerunds or ), are derived from a Semitic root. For instance, , 'a lesson' is derived from , 'to study, to learn'. Levantine also includes layers of ancient languages: Aramaic (mainly Western Aramaic), Canaanite, classical Hebrew (Biblical and Mishnaic), Persian, Greek, and Latin.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Aramaic influence is significant, especially in vocabulary and in rural areas. Aramaic words underwent morphophonemic adaptation when they entered Levantine. Over time, it has become difficult to identify them. They belong to different fields of everyday life such as seasonal agriculture, housekeeping, tools and utensils, and Christian religious terms. Aramaic is still spoken in the Syrian villages of Maaloula, al-Sarkha, and Jubb'adin; near them, Aramaic borrowings are more frequent.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: Since the early modern period, Levantine has borrowed from Turkish and European languages, mainly English (particularly in technology and entertainment), French (especially in Lebanese due to the French Mandate), German, and Italian. Modern Hebrew significantly influences the Palestinian dialect spoken by Arab Israelis. Loanwords are gradually replaced with words of Arabic root. For instance, borrowings from Ottoman Turkish that were common in the 20th century have been largely replaced by Arabic words after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Arabic-speaking minorities in Turkey (mainly in Hatay) are still influenced by Turkish.


title: Levantine Arabic

text: With about 50% of common words, Levantine (and especially Palestinian) is the closest colloquial variety to MSA in terms of lexical similarity. In the vocabulary of five-year-old native Palestinians: 40% of the words are not present in MSA, 40% are related to MSA but phonologically different (sound change, addition, or deletion), and 20% are identical to MSA.


title: Eric Norris

text: Eric Scott Norris (born May 20, 1964) is an American former stock car racing driver and stuntman. He won the 2002 NASCAR Winston West Series Championship.


title: Eric Norris

text: Norris is also a director and directed several episodes of the TV-series "Walker, Texas Ranger", which starred his father, Chuck Norris.


title: Eric Norris

text: Norris was born on May 20, 1964 in Redondo Beach, California, the son of Dianne (née Holecheck) and "Walker, Texas Ranger" star Chuck Norris. Norris began racing in 1982 with his father in the SCORE Off-Road Series, but retired to study at Arizona State University.


title: Eric Norris

text: On September 27, 1985, "Invasion U.S.A." premiered with his father as the lead. In it, Norris is credited for stunts.


title: Eric Norris

text: In 1986, Norris played roles in "The Delta Force" and "Invaders from Mars". That year, Norris was a stunt player on "Avenging Force".


title: Eric Norris

text: In 1988, Norris was a stunt player for the motion pictures starring his father "Hero and the Terror".


title: Eric Norris

text: In 1990, Norris was credited for stunts in "" and "Necessary Roughness". That year, Norris got a stunt performer credit in "".


title: Eric Norris

text: On December 3, 1993, Norris played the role of a thug in the film "Rescue Me". That year, Norris is credited for utility stunt on "Benefit of the Doubt" and "Best of the Best II". Also that year Norris was as a stunt player for the films "Sidekicks", where he also played a biker, and "Three of Hearts".


title: Eric Norris

text: Norris' father went on to star in the long lasting hit tv show "Walker, Texas Ranger",(1993-2001) where, he acted in nineteen episodes, directed nine, and produced four.


title: Eric Norris

text: Norris made his Craftsman Truck Series debut in 1997, running five races in the No. 02 Wolverine Vinyl Siding Ford F-150 for Ultra Motorsports. His best finish that season came at Watkins Glen International, where he finished 13th.


title: Eric Norris

text: From 1998 to 2000, Norris worked with his father on "" (1998), "The President's Man" (2000)"," and "".


title: Eric Norris

text: Norris ran again in 1999, when he ran both races at Texas Motor Speedway. He finished 35th in the first race, which he ran with Ultra's No. 02 Ford, and 22nd in the second race, driving the No. 4 Coca-Cola Dodge Ram for Bobby Hamilton Racing. That season, he began running in the West Series full-time, finishing tenth in points.


title: Eric Norris

text: In 2000, Norris worked on the television film Also that year, he made one start in the No. 5 Ultra truck at Texas, but finished 35th after being caught up in a lap 2 crash. He also won his first NASCAR race at Mesa Marin Raceway in the West Series and finished seventh in the series points.


title: Eric Norris

text: Norris ran the No. 32 Jani-King Chevrolet Silverado for Matt Stowe in three 2001 races. His best finish of the season was a 17th at Texas. In the fall, a 23rd at California Speedway was the first time that Norris ran at a track other than Texas since 1997. He finished fifth in the standings in the West Series, but did not win another race. He won the championship by 119 points in 2002, winning twice and finishing in the top ten for every race during the season.


title: Eric Norris

text: Norris did not return to the Craftsman Truck Series until 2004, when once again, Jim Smith and Ultra Motorsports gave Norris a two-race deal. Norris was 36th in his first start at Texas, but in his next start at Homestead-Miami, Norris finished 14th.


title: Eric Norris

text: In 2005, Norris ran four races, all for Green Light Racing. In his first start of the year at Texas, Norris had his best career weekend to date, churning in his best career start and best career finish of 12th. There, he also led his first career lap. He only finished one of the other three starts, which was a 20th at Kansas Speedway.


title: Eric Norris

text: He made his Busch Series debut in 2005, running a pair of races for MacDonald Motorsports. He qualified 35th and finished 41st in his debut at California in February, after the No. 72 P4OT.com Chevy broke an engine. Norris then returned at Las Vegas, finishing 35th, ten laps off the pace.


title: Eric Norris

text: Norris returned to Green Light early in 2006, running their No. 07 truck at California. However, an early crash put him to 35th in the results. Norris competed in some more races for Green Light in 2006 with some good runs.


title: Eric Norris

text: Ever since, Norris consistently works in the stunt department in both films and television. Some these credits includes Mike Judge's "Office Space" (1999), Jon Turteltaub's "National Treasure" (2004), Ben Affleck's "The Town" (2010) among many others.


title: Eric Norris

text: In 2015, Norris was nominated at the 67th Emmy Awards for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Drama Series, Limited Series or Movie for his participation as a stunt coordinator on the hit show "Sons of Anarchy" created by Kurt Sutter.


title: Eric Norris

text: Norris and his brother Mike are the two sons of the union of actor Chuck Norris and Dianne Holecheck. Through his father, Norris is the nephew of Aaron Norris, the stepson of Gena Norris, has a half brother and two half sisters.


title: Eric Norris

text: Norris has lived with his wife, Stephanie, since circa 1993 and they have four children together: three daughters, Camrynn (born 1995), Chloe (born 1998) and Chantz (born 2000), and one son Cash (born 2010). The family lives in California.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Patrick L. Willis (born January 25, 1985) is an American former football middle linebacker who played his entire eight-year career with the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the 49ers in the first round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played college football for Ole Miss and received consensus All-American honors.


title: Patrick Willis

text: During Willis's senior season at Ole Miss, he received the Butkus Award and the Jack Lambert Award as the nation's top linebacker. A year later as a member of the 49ers, Willis led the NFL in tackles, earned first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors while being named the 2007 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. Willis made the Pro Bowl in his first seven seasons in the NFL, and earned All-Pro honors in his first six years. He won the college Butkus Award in 2006 while at Ole Miss and in 2009, he won the professional Butkus Award while with the 49ers.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Born in Bruceton, Tennessee, Willis grew up in abject poverty and had to take care of his younger siblings. By the age of 10, he worked full-time in cotton fields. At age 17, he left his home, a double-wide in a trailer park just outside Bruceton, with his brothers, Orey and Detris, and sister, Ernicka, when his alcoholic father turned increasingly violent. The siblings moved in with Willis's high school basketball coach.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Willis attended Hollow Rock-Bruceton Central High School, where he was a two-time All-State selection, Regional Most Valuable Player, and West Tennessee Player of the Year. He earned four letters in football and basketball, and three in baseball. He was also the first person in Tennessee state history to be nominated for both the Mr. Football Award for a Lineman (as a linebacker) and the Mr. Football Award for a Back (as a tailback) in the same season.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Regarded as a three-star recruit by Rivals.com, Willis was listed as the No. 60 linebacker prospect in the class of 2003. He chose Ole Miss over Memphis.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Willis attended the University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss"), and played for the Ole Miss Rebels football team from 2003 to 2006. As a freshman at Ole Miss, Willis played in all 13 games and made 20 stops. He received the Scholar-Athlete Award from the Ole Miss chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame.


title: Patrick Willis

text: As a sophomore in 2004, he appeared in 10 of 11 games and earned honorable mention All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) honors from the Associated Press. He recorded 70 tackles (54 solo), and led the team with 11.0 tackles for a loss and five sacks.


title: Patrick Willis

text: In Willis's 2005 junior campaign, he led the SEC in total tackles at 12.80 per game, which placed him sixth nationally. He finished season with 128 total tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, an interception, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. Willis was named SEC Defensive Player of the Year by CollegeFootballNews.com and Scout.com. He was also named as a first-team All-American by College Football News and the All-American Football Foundation. Willis earned first-team All-SEC honors from the Associated Press, SEC Coaches, CollegeFootballNews.com and Rivals.com.


title: Patrick Willis

text: During Willis's last collegiate year in 2006, he led the SEC in tackles once again with 11.4 per game and collected 137 tackles, 11.5 TFLs, seven passes deflected, three sacks, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. He was awarded SEC Defensive Player of the Year, first-team All-SEC, and consensus first-team All-American. He was the winner of the Jack Lambert Award and the prestigious Dick Butkus Award, given to the most outstanding linebacker in college football. He also won the Conerly Trophy, voted upon by the media in Mississippi and awarded to the best college football player in Mississippi. In addition, he was a finalist for the Bronko Nagurski Award and semi-finalist for both the Rotary Lombardi Award and the Lott Trophy.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Originally regarded as a late-first to early-second round draft pick, Willis improved his draft stock with an impressive performance at the NFL Combine; his 4.56 40-yard dash was one of the fastest among linebackers. He also posted a 39-inch vertical jump and recorded 22 repetitions of the 225-lb. bench press. Willis clocked in at 4.38 seconds for his 40-yard dash during his University of Mississippi pro-day workout. Analysts of "The Sporting News" compared him to Jeremiah Trotter. Willis also earned South Team Defensive MVP honors at the 2007 Senior Bowl.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Willis was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the first round with the 11th overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft, re-uniting him with the staff that coached his South Squad at the 2007 Senior Bowl. He signed a seven-year, $53.51 million contract with the 49ers in the 2010 season.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Willis was coached directly by Hall of Fame middle-linebacker/coach Mike Singletary (who later became 49ers head coach), and eventually started at inside linebacker, specifically the "Mike" position, in the 49ers' 3-4 defense. In his first NFL game, Willis recorded 11 tackles, including 9 solo, and a forced fumble as the 49ers defeated the Arizona Cardinals in dramatic fashion by a score of 20–17. For his effort, he won the Diet Pepsi Rookie of the Week Award. One of Willis's strongest performances came against the Minnesota Vikings, as he led the 49ers defense in containing Offensive Rookie of the Year, Adrian Peterson, who managed just 3 yards on 14 carries. Willis's most impressive statistical performance came in week 16 at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In this game he recorded 20 total tackles, two sacks, one forced fumble and one pass deflected in a 21–19 victory, earning Rookie of the Week honors for the fourth time. In addition to receiving the award in weeks 1 and 16, Willis took home the award in weeks 2 and 12. He was also awarded the GMC Defensive Player of the Week twice.


title: Patrick Willis

text: In a game against the Arizona Cardinals on November 25, Willis ran down wide receiver Sean Morey after a 62-yard, catch-and-run for the game-saving tackle in overtime. The 49ers eventually won 37–31.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Willis finished the 2007 campaign with an NFL-leading 174 total tackles, along with four sacks, two forced fumbles, and five passes deflected. According to the 49ers, however, he is unofficially credited with over 200 tackles during that season. As a result, Willis was one of two 49ers selected to the Pro Bowl along with punter Andy Lee. Other honors earned at the conclusion of his first professional season included being named AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, first-team All-Pro, and NFL Alumni Linebacker of the Year. He was the only rookie in the NFL to make the AP All-Pro squad and the first defensive rookie from the 49ers to make the Pro Bowl since Ronnie Lott in 1981. His season was capped by being named one of ESPN The Magazine's "NEXT" athletes of 2008, alongside Yankee Joba Chamberlain and Trail Blazer Brandon Roy.


title: Patrick Willis

text: In his second NFL season, Willis scored his first career NFL touchdown against Seattle, returning an interception for 86 yards.


title: Patrick Willis

text: On December 16, during another dominating season with the 49ers, Willis was named the starting inside linebacker for the NFC Pro Bowl team. In just two seasons, he established himself as one of the top linebackers in the NFL.


title: Patrick Willis

text: At the end of the year, Willis finished second in tackles and was voted to his second consecutive Pro Bowl, this time as a starter. He was also voted second-team All-Pro, barely missing the first team as Jon Beason of Carolina Panthers collected one more vote than Willis.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Willis started the season strong in the opener against the Arizona Cardinals. He recorded 14 tackles and an interception in a 20–16 win in Arizona. He also had a huge game in week 4 against St. Louis finishing with 8 tackles, 2.5 sacks and an interception return for a 23-yard touchdown.


title: Patrick Willis

text: The biggest improvement in his game from the previous year was the increased sideline-to-sideline range. Willis made 54 tackles on plays labeled as "Wide left" or "Wide right" which accounted for 35.5% of his total tackles. In that area, he led all inside linebackers by a large margin. He was also the league leader in impact plays with a total of 27.


title: Patrick Willis

text: At the end of the year, Willis accumulated an NFL-leading 152 tackles along with four sacks, three forced fumbles, eight pass deflections and three interceptions. He has now led the league in tackles in two of his first three seasons. Willis also earned first-team All-Pro receiving 49/50 votes from the AP and was voted to his third consecutive Pro Bowl. However, shortly before the Pro Bowl, which was set in South Florida, Willis decided to play it safe and opted not to play due to a leg injury he sustained. He stayed in South Florida for the game and stood on the sideline in support of the NFC team and 49er teammates Frank Gore, Vernon Davis, Justin Smith and Andy Lee.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Willis was named the 2009 NFL Alumni Linebacker of the Year, an award voted on by past NFL linebackers. Willis also became the second NFL player to win the Butkus Award since it was expanded in 2008 to include high school and professional winners in part to help end anabolic steroid abuse among young athletes.


title: Patrick Willis

text: On May 4, Willis signed a five-year contract extension worth $50 million, with $29 million in guaranteed money making him the highest paid inside linebacker in the NFL.


title: Patrick Willis

text: In 2010, Willis strengthened a dimension of his game, totaling a career-high 6.0 sacks. He played through the season with several injuries, playing a game against the San Diego Chargers with a cast on his broken hand. Willis was ruled out for Week 17 after undergoing a second surgery on his broken right hand. It was the first time that Willis had ever missed a game in his career. Willis had also made a habit of making it to the Pro Bowl. He had gone all four seasons of his NFL career and even with his tackle numbers down (largely due to offenses scheming against him), Willis still finished with the second-most fan votes for inside linebackers in the entire NFL. He now joins Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott as only 49ers to be selected to the Pro Bowl in each of their first four seasons.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Willis also earned first-team All-Pro from the Associated Press alongside Jerod Mayo of the New England Patriots. For the third time in his career, and the second year in a row, he was named Linebacker of the Year by the NFL Alumni Association.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Before the start of the 2011 season, Willis ran away from the field in the voting for the NFL's best linebacker on ESPN.com. "Nobody in the NFL plays their position better than Patrick Willis, and that is saying a lot," said Matt Williamson of Scouts Inc. "He is as good a linebacker as Peyton Manning is a quarterback, as Andre Johnson is a receiver, as Adrian Peterson is a running back. He has no weaknesses." Even 12-time Pro Bowler Ray Lewis, the dominant linebacker of his era, pointed to Willis as a worthy successor to his undisputed reign. ESPN's Dana Jacobson asked Lewis which young linebacker reminded him of himself. "I just love the way he plays the game," Lewis said. "He plays the game with a fire. He reminds me of myself—a lot, a lot, a lot." Willis also came in fourth in an ESPN expert vote for the NFL's 10 best defensive players, finishing only behind 2010 AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year Troy Polamalu, DeMarcus Ware, and Darrelle Revis. Also, when he was voted no. 10 players of 2012 (2011 season), Ray Rice and commentators noted the resemblance in playing style and techniques from Willis to Lewis from 10 years ago


title: Patrick Willis

text: In 2011, Willis led a top ranked 49ers defense which set an NFL single season record of not allowing a rushing touchdown until week 16. The previous record was held by the 1920 Decatur Staleys, who did not allow a rushing touchdown in a 13-game season. The 49ers' stingy defense ranked fourth overall and played a huge role in the 49ers finishing with a 13–3 record. This also marked the first time since 2002 the 49ers were division champs and back in the playoffs.


title: Patrick Willis

text: During a game against the St. Louis Rams in week 13, Willis landed awkwardly after missing a tackle and injured his right hamstring. Despite missing nearly four games due to the hamstring injury, Willis finished the season with 97 tackles along with two sacks, four forced fumbles, 12 pass deflections and an interception. He also improved his game significantly in coverage recording a career-high 12 pass deflections. Willis was named to his fifth consecutive Pro Bowl and becomes the first player in franchise history to make five Pro Bowl appearances to start a career. In addition, he earned first-team All-Pro from the Associated Press for the third consecutive year.


title: Patrick Willis

text: During the 2012 season, Willis had 120 combined tackles, two forced fumbles (one recovery), two interceptions, nine passes defended, and 0.5 sacks. He led the 49ers into the postseason for a second straight year. Willis recorded ten combined tackles as the 49ers lost Super Bowl XLVII to the Baltimore Ravens by a score of 34–31. Willis had 29 combined tackles and a sack during the 2012 postseason.


title: Patrick Willis

text: On August 5, 2013, Willis underwent surgery to repair a fractured hand he suffered during training camp. He started the first three games of the season, but then had a groin injury in Week 3. He would then miss the next two games. However, in a game against the Atlanta Falcons, he recorded 18 tackles. He ended the 2013 season with 104 tackles.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Willis played in six games of the 2014 season hampered by a nagging toe injury. He made the decision to end his season on November 11 and undergo season-ending surgery on his nagging left big toe, which bothered him for several previous seasons. The 49ers placed Willis on the injured reserve list soon after the surgery.


title: Patrick Willis

text: After struggling with a toe injury that kept him sidelined for most of 2014, Willis announced his retirement on March 10, 2015.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Willis was separated from his biological father at the age of 17, with his mother leaving him when he was a child, and along with his three siblings moved in with his parental guardians, Willis' high school basketball coach, Chris Finley, and his wife, Julie. Willis's brother, Detris, drowned in 2006 while swimming with his friends. His uncle, Arthur Willis, was a professional super middleweight boxer who later fought future world champion James Toney to a split decision.


title: Patrick Willis

text: Willis is a Christian. Willis says his grandmother told him about Jesus. Willis talks about his faith when he plays saying, "No matter the outcome of a game, my No. 1 goal is to glorify God. I always pray, 'Lord, I don't know what today's game is going to be like, but I pray that you bless me to go out here and play for you. Be a soldier for your army, go out here and lead this team the way you want me to lead it.'"


title: Startup India

text: Startup India is an initiative of the Government of India. The campaign was first announced by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi during his speech on 15 August 2015.


title: Startup India

text: An additional area relating to this initiative is to discard restrictive States Government policies within this domain, such as License Raj, Land Permissions, Foreign Investment Proposals, and Environmental Clearances. It was organized by The Department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPI&IT).


title: Startup India

text: A startup defined as an entity that is headquartered in India, which was opened less than 10 years ago, and has an annual turnover less than . Under this initiative, the government has already launched the I-MADE program, to help Indian entrepreneurs build 10 lakh (1 million) mobile app start-ups, and the MUDRA Bank's scheme (Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana), an initiative which aims to provide micro-finance, low-interest rate loans to entrepreneurs from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Initial capital of has been allocated for this scheme.


title: Startup India

text: Recently Indian Prime Minister announced "India will celebrate January 16 as ‘National Start-up Day". Hon’ble PM awarded 48 startups on the eve of first National startup day. This time from Pune, Maharashtra, four startups got the award.


title: Startup India

text: The event was inaugurated on 16 January 2016 by The Former Finance Minister of India Arun Jaitley. Among the attendees were CEOs, startup founders and venture capitalists.


title: Startup India

text: Entrepreneurship is made above posts like organized and policy pillar, opportunity of capital and entrepreneurial civilization. In an emerging society such as India, the government should regulate entrepreneurship and encourage commercialization of bright plans by imitating the startup environment in the expanded states.


title: Startup India

text: The Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Department of Science and Technology have agreed to partner in an initiative to set up over 75 such startup support hubs in the National Institutes of Technology (NITs), the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) and National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs).


title: Startup India

text: The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is mandated to coordinate implementation of Startup India initiative with other Government Departments. Apart from DPIIT, the initiatives under Startup India are driven primarily by five Government Departments viz. Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Bio-technology (DBT), Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) and NITI Aayog. Government of India has made fast paced efforts towards making the vision of Startup India initiative a reality. Substantial progress has been made under the Startup India initiative, which has stirred entrepreneurial spirit across the country.


title: Startup India

text: The Reserve Bank of India said it will take steps to help improve the ‘ease of doing business’ in the country and contribute to an ecosystem that is conducive for the growth of start-up businesses.


title: Startup India

text: Proactive action from state and central government is spurring growth and fostering the entrepreneurial culture in the country. The government initiatives and policies are creating a favourable environment for startups, enabling expansion of infrastructure, co-working spaces, incubators, accelerators and in certain cases access to funding and market.


title: Startup India

text: SoftBank, which is headquartered in Japan, has invested into Indian startups. The Japanese firm has pledged to invest . Google declared to launch a startup, based on the highest votes in which the top three startups will be allowed to join the next Google Launchpad Week, and the final winner could win an amount of in Google cloud credits. Oracle on 12 February 2016 announced that it will establish nine incubation centers in Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Trivandrum and Vijayawada. Rs 1000 crore Fund of Funds for startups are reserved for women-led startups.


title: Startup India

text: On fifth anniversary of the Startup India initiative, PM Modi announces Rs 1,000 crore 'Startup India Seed Fund'


title: Startup India

text: Kerala has initiated a government startup nodal agency called Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM). KSUM supports startup ecosystem by means of different components such as Infrastructure, Human Capital Development, Funding, Governance, Public-Private partnerships, Global collaborations, Scaling Existing, and Establishing New startup ventures from Startup-Boot Up-Scale up model for moving fast from ideas to IPO. The state also matches the funding raised by its incubator from Central government with 1:1.


title: Startup India

text: Telangana has taken “exemplary initiatives” by establishing the exclusive women’s incubator WE HUB, the Telangana Innovation Fund (T-Fund, an early stage investing vehicle in collaboration with global investor), and the government mentor program (GMP) to bridge the gap between states and startups.


title: Startup India

text: Andhra Pradesh has allocated a 17,000-sq.ft. Technological Research and Innovation Park as a Research and Development laboratory. It has also created a fund called Initial Innovation Fund of for entrepreneurs.


title: Startup India

text: The government of Madhya Pradesh has collaborated with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to create a fund of .


title: Startup India

text: Rajasthan has launched iStart Rajasthan & India's largest business incubation center - Bhamashah Techno Hub.


title: Startup India

text: In order to promote start-ups in Odisha, the state government organised a two-day Start-up Conclave in Bhubaneswar on 28 November 2016.


title: Startup India

text: Maharashtra State Innovation Society (MSInS) presented Maharashtra’s Startup pillars & best practices for the participating states, explaining the journey of building an innovative and entrepreneurial culture in the state. The state officials visited the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), an umbrella organization at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai for fostering entrepreneurship and nurturing tech startups. Field visits to Biomedical Engineering and Technology In Biomedical Incubation Center (BETiC), IIT Mumbai, and Research Innovation Incubation Design Labs (Riidl) were also conducted.


title: Startup India

text: Kerala Startup Mission, the state nodal agency for supporting technology startups in the state had envisaged and constructed the Technology Innovation Zone which is a 13-acre Startup Campus where multiple sector incubators and accelerators come together with industry participation. The state officials visited the Integrated Startup Complex, BioNest, and InQ Co-Working Space.


title: Startup India

text: Indian states with their own startup initiatives as of June 2017 include West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Uttarakhand.


title: Startup India

text: Department of Industry and Internal Trade based on the criteria of policy, incubation hubs, seeding innovation, scaling innovation, regulatory change, procurement, communication, North-Eastern states, and hill states.


title: Startup India

text: The second edition of the exercise was launched in 2019 and has now been completed with active participation of 22 states and 3 Union Territories.


title: Startup India

text: After the successful completion of a rigorous evaluation process, Shri Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, announced the results of the 2nd edition of States’ Startup Ranking on 11 September 2020, at an event held at the National Media Centre, New Delhi.


title: Startup India

text: As per the "Industry-Academia Partnership and Incubation" focus of the Startup India initiative, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has announced plans for the development of "Research Parks" to be created in partnership with higher education providers across India. An initial investment of Rs.100 crore, has been set aside for the program, which aims to provide students with access to funds and mentorship for startups.


title: Startup India

text: The Innovation in Mobile App Development Ecosystem (I-MADE) program was also rolled-out in February 2016. An initiative developed in partnership with The Department Of Telecommunications (Govt of India), Telecom Centers of Excellence (TCOE), EVC Ventures, and Unified, it aims to help Indian entrepreneurs create mobile app startups. The program is scheduled to last for 5 years, and has collaborated with 11 Indian universities.


title: Hungry ghost

text: Hungry ghost is a concept in Buddhism, and Chinese traditional religion, representing beings who are driven by intense emotional needs in an animalistic way.


title: Hungry ghost

text: The term is not to be confused with the generic term for "ghost" or damnation, "" (i.e. the residual spirit of a deceased ancestor). The understanding is that all people become such a regular ghost when they die, and would then slowly weaken and eventually die a second time.


title: Hungry ghost

text: With the rise in popularity of Buddhism, the idea became popular that souls would live in space until reincarnation. In the Taoist tradition it is believed that hungry ghosts can arise from people whose deaths have been violent or unhappy. Both Buddhism and Taoism share the idea that hungry ghosts can emerge from neglect or desertion of ancestors. According to the Hua-yen Sutra evil deeds will cause a soul to be reborn in one of six different realms. The highest degree of evil deed will cause a soul to be reborn as a denizen of hell, a lower degree of evil will cause a soul to be reborn as an animal, and the lowest degree will cause a soul to be reborn as a hungry ghost. According to the tradition, evil deeds that lead to becoming a hungry ghost are killing, stealing and sexual misconduct. Desire, greed, anger and ignorance are all factors in causing a soul to be reborn as a hungry ghost because they are motives for people to perform evil deeds.


title: Hungry ghost

text: It is likely that the idea of hungry ghosts originated from ancient Indian culture, where they were referred to as Preta. However, there are many legends regarding the origin of hungry ghosts.


title: Hungry ghost

text: In the Buddhist tradition there are stories from "Chuan-chi po-yuan ching" ("Sutra of One Hundred Selected Legends") that is from the early third century. Some examples of these stories are as follows:


title: Hungry ghost

text: One story is of a rich man who traveled selling sugar-cane juice. One day a monk came to his house looking for some juice to cure an illness. The man had to leave, so he instructed his wife to give the monk the drink in his absence. Instead of doing this, she secretly urinated in the monk's bowl, added sugar cane juice to it and gave it to the monk. The monk was not deceived; he poured out the bowl and left. When the wife died she was reborn as a hungry ghost.


title: Hungry ghost

text: Another such tale is of a man who was giving and kind. One day he was about to leave his house when a monk came by begging. The man instructed his wife to give the monk some food. After the man left his house his wife was overcome with greed. She took it upon herself to teach the monk a lesson, so she locked the monk in an empty room all day with no food. She was reborn as a hungry ghost for innumerable lifetimes.


title: Hungry ghost

text: Most times the legends speak of hungry ghosts who in a previous lifetime were greedy women who refused to give away food. Other stories in the Buddhist tradition come from "Kuei wen mu-lien ching" ("The Sutra on the Ghosts Questioning Mu-lien"). One of the stories tells of a man who was a diviner who constantly misled people due to his own avarice and is now a hungry ghost. There is another story in "The Legend of Mu-lien Entering the City and Seeing Five Hundred Hungry Ghosts". The story is about five hundred men that were sons of elders of the city they lived in. When monks came begging to the city for food, the sons denied them because they thought the monks would keep coming back and eventually take all their food. After the sons died they were reborn as hungry ghosts.


title: Hungry ghost

text: In Chinese Buddhism, The World of the Hungry Ghosts (鬼法界, 鬼界) is one of the six domains of the desire realm of Buddhism. There is a belief in the oral tradition of Chinese ancestral worship that the ghosts of the ancestors may be granted permission to return to the world of the living at a certain time of the year, hungry and ready to take what they can from there, if these spirits had not been given sufficient offerings by their living relatives.


title: Hungry ghost

text: A festival called the Hungry Ghost Festival ( is held to honor the hungry ancestor ghosts and food and drink is put out to satisfy their needs. The Hungry Ghost Festival is celebrated during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar. It also falls at the same time as a full moon, the new season, the fall harvest, the peak of monastic asceticism, the rebirth of ancestors, and the assembly of the local community. According to tradition, during this month, the gates of hell are opened up and the hungry ghosts are free to roam the earth where they seek food and entertainment. These ghosts are believed to be ancestors of those who have forgotten to pay tribute to them after they died. They have long thin necks because they have not been fed by their families. Tradition states that families should offer prayers to their deceased relatives and burn "hell money". It is believed that "hell money" is a valid currency in the underworld and helps ghosts to live comfortably in the afterlife. People also burn other forms of joss paper such as paper houses, cars and televisions to please the ghosts. This festival is one of numerous tantric practices from Chinese Esoteric Buddhism preserved in modern Chinese Buddhism after the various Buddhist traditions started to merge in the early modern period.


title: Hungry ghost

text: Families also pay tribute to other unknown wandering ghosts so that these homeless souls do not intrude on their lives and bring misfortune. A big feast is held for the ghosts on the 15th day of the seventh month, where people bring samples of food and place them on the offering table to please the ghosts and ward off bad luck. Live shows are also put on and everyone is invited to attend. The first row of seats is always empty as this is where the ghosts are supposed to sit to better enjoy the live entertainment. The shows are always put on at night and at high volumes, so that the sound attracts and pleases the ghosts. These acts were better known as "Merry-making".


title: Hungry ghost

text: The chief Taoist priest of the town wears an ornate crown of five gold and red panels, a practice borrowed from Buddhism. This represented the five most powerful deities (The Jade Emperor, Guan Yu, Tu Di Gong, Mazu and Xi Wangmu). He is believed to become their voice on earth.


title: Hungry ghost

text: A sacrificial altar and a chair are built for a priest either at a street entrance or in front of the village. The Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha sits in front of the chair. Under the chair are plates of rice flour and peaches. Sitting on the altar are three spirit tablets and three funeral banners. After noon, sheep, pigs, chicken, fruits, and cakes are donated by families that are displayed on the altar. A priest will put a triangular paper banner of three colors with special characters on every sacrifice. After the music begins to play, the priest hits the bell to call the hungry ghosts back to the table. He then throws the rice and peaches into the air in all directions to distribute them to the ghosts.


title: Hungry ghost

text: During the evening, incense is burnt in front of the doors of households. Incense stands for prosperity, the more incense burnt, the greater one's prosperity. During the festival, shops are closed to leave the streets open for the ghosts. In the middle of each street stands an altar of incense with fresh fruit and sacrifices displayed on it. Behind the altar, monks will sing songs that it is believed only the ghosts can understand. This rite is called "shi ge'r", meaning "singing ghost songs".


title: Hungry ghost

text: Fifteen days after the feast, to make sure all the hungry ghosts find their way back to hell, people float lanterns on water and set them outside their houses. These lanterns are made by setting a lotus flower-shaped lantern on a piece of board. Hungry ghosts are believed to have found their way back when the lanterns go out.


title: Hungry ghost

text: There are many folk beliefs and taboos surrounding the Hungry Ghost Festival. Spirits are thought to be dangerous, and can take many forms, including snakes, moths, birds, foxes, wolves, and tigers. Some can even use the guise of a beautiful man or woman to seduce and possess. One story refers to a ghost which takes the form of a pretty girl and seduces a young man until a priest intervenes and sends the spirit back to hell. It is believed that possession can cause illness and/or mental disorders.


title: Hungry ghost

text: During the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, children are advised (usually by an elder in the family) to be home before dark, and not to wander the streets at night for fear a ghost might possess them. Swimming is thought to be dangerous as well, as spirits are believed to have drowned people. People will generally avoid driving at night, for fear of a "collision", or spiritual offence, which is any event leading to illness or misfortune. While "ghost" is a commonly used term throughout the year, many people use the phrase "backdoor god" or "good brother" instead during the 7th month, so as not to anger the ghosts. Another thing to avoid is sampling any of the food placed on the offering table, as doing this can result in "mysterious illness". Any person attending a show at indoor entertainment venues ("getais") will notice the first row of chairs is left empty. These seats are reserved for the spirits, and it is considered bad form to sit in them. After an offering has been burnt for the spirits, stepping on or near the burnt area should be avoided, as it is considered an "opening" to the spirit world and touching it may cause the person to be possessed.


title: Hungry ghost

text: In Tibetan Buddhism, Hungry Ghosts (Tib. ཡི་དྭགས་, Wyl. "yi dwags", Sanskrit: "preta") have their own realm depicted on the Bhavacakra and are represented as teardrop or paisley-shaped with bloated stomachs and necks too thin to pass food so that attempting to eat is also incredibly painful. Some are described as having "mouths the size of a needle's eye and a stomach the size of a mountain". This is a metaphor for people futilely attempting to fulfill their illusory physical desires.


title: Hungry ghost

text: According to the History of Buddhism, as elements of Chinese Buddhism entered a dialogue with Indian Buddhism in the Tibetan Plateau, this synthesis is evident in the compassion rendered in the form of blessed remains of food, etc., offered to the "pretas" in rites such as Ganachakra.


title: Hungry ghost

text: In Japanese Buddhism, the Hungry Ghosts are considered to have two variants: the gaki and the jikininki. Gaki (餓鬼) are the spirits of jealous or greedy people who, as punishment for their mortal vices, have been cursed with an insatiable hunger for a particular substance or object. Traditionally, this is something repugnant or humiliating, such as human corpses or feces, though in more recent legends, it may be virtually anything, no matter how bizarre. Jikininki (食人鬼 "people-eating ghosts") are the spirits of greedy, selfish or impious individuals who are cursed after death to seek out and eat human corpses. They do this at night, scavenging for newly dead bodies and food offerings left for the dead. They sometimes also loot the corpses they eat for valuables. Nevertheless, jikininki lament their condition and hate their repugnant cravings for dead human flesh.


title: Hungry ghost

text: The Hungry Ghosts Scroll kept at the Kyoto National Museum depicts the world of the hungry ghosts and the suffering of these creatures, and contains tales of salvation of the ghosts. The whole scroll has been designated as National Treasure of Japan and it was possibly part of a set of scrolls depicting the six realms which was kept at Sanjūsangen-dō.


title: Hungry ghost

text: It is believed that the soul contains elements of both yin and yang. The yin is the "kui", or demon part, and the yang is the "shen", or spirit part. When death occurs, the "kui" should return to earth, and the "shen" to the grave or family shrine. If a ghost is neglected, it will become a "kui". The "shen", or ancestral spirit, watches over its descendants, and can bring good fortune if properly worshipped.


title: Hungry ghost

text: Hungry ghosts are different from the ghosts of Chinese which all people are believed to become after death.


title: Hungry ghost

text: According to the Nyāyānusāriṇī, there are three main groups of hungry ghosts, each of which are divided into three sub-groups:


title: Hungry ghost

text: Sixteen hungry ghosts are said to live in hell or in a region of hell. Unlike other hell dwellers, they can leave hell and wander. They look through garbage and human waste on the outskirts of human cities. They are said to be invisible during the daylight hours but visible at night. Some hungry ghosts can only eat corpses, or their food is burnt up in their mouths, sometimes they have a big belly and a neck as thin as a needle (this image is the basic one for hungry ghosts in Asian Buddhism).


title: Hungry ghost

text: According to the "Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna Sūtra", there are thirty-six different types of hungry ghost.


title: State of Vietnam

text: The State of Vietnam (; Chữ Nôm: 國家越南; ) was a governmental entity in Southeast Asia that existed from 1949 until 1955, first as a member of the French Union and later as a country (from 21 July 1954 to 26 October 1955). The state claimed authority over all of Vietnam during the First Indochina War, although large parts of its territory were controlled by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.


title: State of Vietnam

text: The state was created in 1949 by France as part of the French Union and was internationally recognised in 1950. Former Emperor Bảo Đại became Chief of State. After the 1954 Geneva Agreements, the State of Vietnam abandoned its sovereignty over the northern part of the country, which was controlled by the Việt Minh. Ngô Đình Diệm was appointed prime minister the same year and—after having ousted Bảo Đại in 1955—became president of the Republic of Vietnam.


title: State of Vietnam

text: Since the August Revolution, the Việt Minh had seized all of the territories of Vietnam. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam was established by the Việt Minh on September 2, 1945 (the same day Japan signed surrender documents with the United States).


title: State of Vietnam

text: By February 1947, following the pacification of Tonkin (Northern Vietnam), the Tonkinese capital, Hanoi, and the main traffic axis returned to French control. The Việt Minh partisans were forced to retreat into the jungle and prepared to pursue the war using guerrilla warfare.


title: State of Vietnam

text: In order to reduce Việt Minh leader Hồ Chí Minh’s influence over the Vietnamese population, the French authorities in Indochina supported the return to power of Bảo Đại (the last emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty), by establishing puppet states, including the State of Vietnam. Bao Dai had voluntarily abdicated on August 25, 1945, after the fall of the short-lived Empire of Vietnam, a puppet state of the Empire of Japan.


title: State of Vietnam

text: On June 5, 1948, the Halong Bay Agreements ("Accords de la baie d’Along") allowed the creation of a unified Vietnamese government replacing the governments of Tonkin (North Vietnam) and Annam (Middle Vietnam) associated to France within the French Union and the Indochinese Federation then including the neighboring Kingdom of Laos and Kingdom of Cambodia. Cochinchina (South Vietnam), however, had a different status, both as a colony and as an autonomous republic, and its reunification with the rest of Vietnam had to be approved by its local assembly, and then by the French National Assembly. During the transitional period, a Provisional Central Government of Vietnam was proclaimed: Nguyễn Văn Xuân, until then head of the "Provisional Government of South Vietnam" (as Cochinchina had been known since 1947) became its president, while Bảo Đại waited for a complete reunification to take office.


title: State of Vietnam

text: However, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam had declared the independence of Vietnam and had control of almost all of Vietnam's territory since September 2, 1945. Besides that, the DRV had also hosted the 1946 Vietnamese National Assembly election with the participation of 89% of Vietnamese voters (north and south). The Democratic Republic of Vietnam had officially become the constitutional representatives of Vietnam in 1946.


title: State of Vietnam

text: Since the Halong Bay Agreements resulted in many aspects—excluding the referendum—in the enforcement of the March 6, 1946, Indochinese Independence Convention signed by Communist Hồ Chí Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam and High Commissioner of France in Indochina Admiral Thierry d'Argenlieu, representative of Félix Gouin's Provisional French Republic led by the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), some regarded the State of Vietnam as a puppet state of the French Fourth Republic.


title: State of Vietnam

text: On May 20, 1949, the French National Assembly approved the reunification of Cochinchina with the rest of Vietnam. The decision took effect on June 4 and the State of Vietnam was officially proclaimed on July 2. From 1949 to 1954, after reunification with Cochinchina, the State of Vietnam had partial autonomy from France as an associated state within the French Union.


title: State of Vietnam

text: Bảo Đại fought against communist leader Hồ Chí Minh for legitimacy as the legitimate government of Vietnam through the struggle between the Vietnamese National Army and the Việt Minh during the First Indochina War.


title: State of Vietnam

text: The State of Vietnam found support in the French Fourth Republic and the United States (1950–1954) while Hồ Chí Minh was backed by the People's Republic of China (since 1950), and to a lesser extent by the Soviet Union. Despite French support, roughly 60% of Vietnamese territory was under Việt Minh control in 1952.


title: State of Vietnam

text: After the Geneva Conference of 1954, as well as becoming fully independent with its departure from the French Union, the State of Vietnam became territorially confined to those lands of Vietnam south of the 17th parallel, and as such became commonly known as Republic of Vietnam. Communist forces entered Hanoi on 10 October 1954.


title: State of Vietnam

text: The massive semi-voluntary migration of anti-communist north Vietnamese, essentially Roman Catholic people, proceeded during the French-American Operation Passage to Freedom from 1954 to 1955.


title: State of Vietnam

text: On May 27, 1948, Nguyễn Văn Xuân, then President of the Republic of Cochinchina, became President of the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam ("Thủ tướng lâm thời") following the merging of the government of Cochin China and Vietnam in what is sometimes referred as "Pre-Vietnam".


title: State of Vietnam

text: On June 14, 1949, Bảo Đại was appointed Chief of State ("Quốc trưởng") of the State of Vietnam; he was concurrently Prime Minister for a short while ("Kiêm nhiệm Thủ tướng").


title: State of Vietnam

text: On October 26, 1955, the Republic of Vietnam was established and Ngô Đình Diệm became the first President of the Republic.


title: State of Vietnam

text: In South Vietnam, a referendum was scheduled for 23 October 1955 to determine the future direction of the south, in which the people would choose Diệm or Bảo Đại as the leader of South Vietnam. During the election, Diệm's brother Ngô Đình Nhu and the Cần Lao Party supplied Diệm's electoral base in organizing and supervising the elections, especially the propaganda campaign for destroying Bảo Đại's reputation. Supporters of Bảo Đại were not allowed to campaign, and were physically attacked by Nhu's workers. Official results showed 98.2 per cent of voters favoured Diệm, an implausibly high result that was condemned as fraudulent. The total number of votes far exceeded the number of registered voters by over 380,000, further evidence that the referendum was heavily rigged. For example, only 450,000 voters were registered in Saigon, but 605,025 were said to have voted for Diệm. On 26 October, Diệm proclaimed the Republic of Vietnam—widely known as South Vietnam—whose reformed army, with American assistance, pursued the conflict with North Vietnam; the Việt Cộng replaced the Viet Minh, in the Vietnam War.


title: State of Vietnam

text: Following the signing of the 1949 Élysée Accords in Paris, Bảo Đại was able to create a National Army for defense purposes.


title: State of Vietnam

text: It fought under the State of Vietnam's banner and leadership and was commanded by General Nguyễn Văn Hinh.


title: State of Vietnam

text: The currency used within the French Union was the French Indochinese piastre. Notes were issued and managed by the "Issue Institute of the States of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam" ("Institut d’Emission des Etats du Cambodge, du Laos et du Viêt-Nam").


title: State of Vietnam

text: Following the creation of the State of Vietnam and the establishment of its government, the Chief of State Bảo Đại signed the two ordinances related to the administration and local governance of the State of Vietnam, namely Ordinance No. 1 ("Organisation and Operation of civil authorities in Vietnam") and Ordinance No. 2 ("Statutes of Government office"). These ordinances divided the State of Vietnam into three large autonomous regions, namely Bắc Việt (former Tonkin), Trung Việt (former Annam), and Nam Việt (former Cochinchina), the local government of each autonomous region was headed by a "Thủ hiến" (Governour).


title: State of Vietnam

text: On 4 August 1954 the government of the State of Vietnam enacted Ordinance No. 21 which abolished the autonomous status of the three regions and abolished the post of regional governour, replacing them with central government representatives in all parts of its territory. The three regions were renamed to Bắc phần, Trung phần, and Nam phần.


title: State of Vietnam

text: The "Domain of the Crown" (; French: "Domaine de la Couronne") was originally the Nguyễn dynasty's geopolitical concept for its protectorates and principalities where the Kinh ethnic group didn't make up the majority, later it became a type of administrative unit of the State of Vietnam. It was officially established on 15 April 1950 and dissolved on 11 March 1955. In the areas of the Domain of the Crown Chief of State Bảo Đại was still officially (and legally) titled as the "Emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty".


title: State of Vietnam

text: The Domain of the Crown contained the following five provinces established from the former Montagnard country of South Indochina:


title: Geomancy

text: Geomancy (Greek: γεωμαντεία, "earth divination") is a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground or the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand. The most prevalent form of divinatory geomancy involves interpreting a series of 16 figures formed by a randomized process that involves recursion, followed by analyzing them, often augmented with astrological interpretations.


title: Geomancy

text: Geomancy was practiced by people from all social classes. It was one of the most popular forms of divination throughout Africa and Europe, particularly during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.


title: Geomancy

text: In Renaissance magic, geomancy was classified as one of the seven "forbidden arts", along with necromancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, pyromancy, chiromancy (palmistry), and spatulamancy (scapulimancy).


title: Geomancy

text: The word "geomancy", from Late Greek "geōmanteía", translates literally to "foresight by earth"; it is a calque translation of the Arabic term "‛ilm al-raml", or the "science of the sand". Earlier Greek renditions of this word borrowed the Arabic word "raml" ("sand") directly, rendering it as "rhamplion" or "rabolion". Other Arabic names for geomancy include "khatt al-raml" and "darb al-raml".


title: Geomancy

text: The original names of the figures in Middle Eastern geomancy were traditionally given in Arabic, excluding a Persian origin. The reference in Hermetic texts to the mythical Ṭumṭum al-Hindi potentially points to an Indian origin, although Stephen Skinner thinks this unlikely. Having an Islamic or Arabic origin is most likely, since the expansive trade-routes of Arabian merchants would facilitate the exchange of culture and knowledge.


title: Geomancy

text: European scholars and universities began to translate Arabic texts and treatises in the early Middle Ages, including those on geomancy. Isidore of Seville ( 560 – 636) lists geomancy with other methods of divination – including pyromancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, and necromancy – without describing its application or methods. It could be that Isidore of Seville was listing methods of elemental scrying more than what is commonly known as geomancy. The poem "Experimentarius" attributed to Bernardus Silvestris, who wrote in the middle of the 12th century, was a verse translation of a work on astrological geomancy. One of the first discourses on geomancy translated into Latin was the "Ars Geomantiae" of Hugh of Santalla ( early 12th century). By this point, geomancy must have been an established divination system in Arabic-speaking areas of Africa and the Middle East.


title: Geomancy

text: Other translators, such as Gerard of Cremona ( 1114 – 1187), also produced new translations on geomancy that incorporated astrological elements and techniques that were, up until this point, ignored. From this point on, more European scholars studied and applied geomancy, writing many treatises in the process. Henry Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535), Christopher Cattan ("La Géomancie du Seigneur Christofe de Cattan" (1558)), and John Heydon (1629 – 1667) produced oft-cited and well-studied treatises on geomancy, along with other philosophers, occultists, and theologians until the 17th century, when interest in occultism and divination began to dwindle due to the rise of the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Reason.


title: Geomancy

text: Geomancy underwent a revival in the 19th century, when renewed interest in the occult arose due to the works of Robert Thomas Cross (1850–1923) and of Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873). Franz Hartmann published his text, "The Principles of Astrological Geomancy",


title: Geomancy

text: (English translation: 1889) which spurred new interest in the divination system. Based on this and a few older texts, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (founded in 1887) began the task of recollecting knowledge on geomancy along with other occult subjects, with them, Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) published his works that integrated various occult systems of knowledge. However, due to the short time the members of the Golden Dawn desired to learn, practice, and teach the old occult arts, many elaborate systems of divination and ritual had to be compressed, losing much in the process. In effect, they had reduced geomancy from a complex art of interpretation and skill in recognizing patterns to looking up predefined answers based on pairs of figures.


title: Geomancy

text: Like other systems of divination, geomancy has mythological associations. According to one Arabic Hermetic text, Idris (or Hermes Trismegistus) witnessed the angel Jibril in a dream. Idris asked for enlightenment, and Jibril proceeded to draw a geomantic figure. Upon being asked what he was doing, Jibril instructed Idris in the geomantic arts. Keeping this secret, he sought out Ṭumṭum al-Hindi, an Indian king, who then wrote a book on geomancy. This book was passed down through clandestine circles into the hands of Khalaf al-Barbarĩ, who traveled to Medina and was converted to Islam by the prophet Muhammad himself. Confessing to knowing a divinatory art, he explained that pre-Islamic prophets knew geomancy, and that by learning geomancy, one may "know all that the prophet knew".


title: Geomancy

text: Another mythological story for the origin of geomancy also involves Idris. After praying to God that He give Idris easily a means to earn his living, Idris rested one day, bored and without work, and began to draw figures idly in the sand. As he did so, a stranger appeared before him and questioned what he was doing. Idris replied that he was simply entertaining himself, but the stranger replied that he was doing a very serious act. Idris became incredulous and tried to deny this, but the stranger explained the significance of the meaning of the figure Idris drew. He then commanded Idris to draw another figure, and upon doing so the stranger explained the meaning and significance of that figure.


title: Geomancy

text: The pair continued this until Idris had discovered and understood the sixteen figures. The stranger then taught Idris how to form the figures in a regular manner and what the results meant, teaching him how to know things that could not be known with just the physical senses. After testing Idris' newfound knowledge and skill of geomancy, and revealing himself to be the angel Jibril in the process, the stranger disappeared. Idris, thankful to God and His messenger that he had learned this art, never revealed the art to anyone. Before he was risen to God, he wrote a book describing the art as Jibril had taught him, and from his successors.


title: Geomancy

text: Other tablets and records from antiquity identify Idris with the prophets Daniel or with Enoch. This was done in order to give geomancy a legitimate standing as a gift and skill from God, especially since one of the prophets had practiced it. However, those who argued against geomancy, such as Ibn Khaldun in his "Muqaddima" (1377), countered that it was a pre-Islamic system of knowledge, and that all such epistemologies were rendered obsolete with the revelation of the Qur'an.


title: Geomancy

text: Throughout the evolution and migration of geomancy, various tales and plays incorporated aspects of the art into their stories. In one story in "One Thousand and One Nights", both the African Magician and his brother use geomancy to find Aladdin in order to do him harm. Geomancy's first mention in print came in William Langland's "Piers Plowman" where it is unfavorably compared to the level of expertise a person needs for astronomy ("gemensye [geomesye] is gynful of speche"). In 1386 Chaucer used the "Parson's Tale" to poke fun at geomancy in "Canterbury Tales": "What say we of them that believe in divynailes as …geomancie…". Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were also known to use geomancy for comic relief. Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" (early 14th century) makes a passing reference to geomancy. In the first two stanzas of Canto XIX in the "Purgatorio",


title: Geomancy

text: Geomancy requires the geomancer to create sixteen lines of points or marks without counting, creating sixteen random numbers. Without taking note of the number of points made, the geomancer provides the seemingly random mechanism needed for most forms of divination. Once the lines are produced, the geomancer marks off the points two by two until either one or two points remain in the line; mathematically, this is the same as producing two dots if the number is even or one dot if the number is odd. Taking these leftover points in groups of four, they form the first four geomantic figures, and form the basis for the generation of the remaining figures. Once this is done, the "inspired" portion of the geomantic reading is done; what remains is algorithmic calculation.


title: Geomancy

text: Traditionally, geomancy requires a surface of sand and the hands or a stick, but can be done equally well with a wax tablet and stylus or a pen and paper; ritualized objects may or may not be desired for use in divination. Often, when drawing marks or figures, geomancers will proceed from right to left as a tradition from geomancy's Arabic origins, although this is by no means mandatory. Modern methods of geomancy include, in addition to the traditional ways, computerized random number generators or thrown objects; other methods including counting the eyes on potatoes. Some practitioners use specialized cards, with each card representing a single geomantic figure; in this case, only four cards are drawn after shuffling. Specialized machines have also been used to generate full geomantic charts.


title: Geomancy

text: The figures are entered into a specialized table, known as the shield chart, which illustrates the recursive processes reminiscent of the Cantor set that form the figures. The first four figures are called the "matres", or Mothers, and form the basis for the rest of the figures in the chart; they occupy the first four houses in the upper right-hand corner such that the first Mother is to the far right, the second Mother is to her left, and so on (continuing the right-to-left tradition).


title: Geomancy

text: The next four figures, the "filiae", or Daughters, are formed by rearranging the lines used in the Mothers: the first Daughter is formed by taking the first line from the first, second, third, and fourth Mothers in order and rearranging them to be the first Daughter's first, second, third, and fourth lines, respectively. The process is done similarly for the second Daughter using the second line from the Mothers, and so on. The Daughters are placed in the next four houses in order on the same row as the Mothers.


title: Geomancy

text: After the eight "matres" and "filiae" are formed, the four "nepotes" (or Nieces) are formed by adding those pairs of figures that rest above the houses of the respective Niece. Therefore, the first and second Mothers add to form the first Niece, the third and fourth Mothers add to form the second Niece, and so on. Here, addition involves summing the points in the respective lines of the parents: if the sum is an even number, then the resulting figure's line will have two points, and if the sum is odd then the line will have one point. Conceptually, this is the same procedure in mathematical logic as the exclusive or, where a line with two points is used instead of "false" and a line with one point instead of "true".


title: Geomancy

text: From the four "nepotes", the two "testes" (or Witnesses) are formed in the same manner as the "nepotes": the first and second Nieces form the Right Witness, and the third and fourth Nieces form the Left Witness. From the Witnesses, using the same addition process, the "iudex", or Judge, is formed. A sixteenth figure, the Reconciler or "superiudex", is also generated by adding the Judge and the First Mother, although this has become seen as extraneous and a "backup figure" in recent times.


title: Geomancy

text: The shield chart most likely provided an early visual guide to generating the figures, and the interpreted answer would center on the fifteenth and sixteenth figures, the Judge and Reconciler. Skilled geomancers observe the whole chart, interpreting (among other things) meanings of the figures based on where they place in the chart, the numerical significance of the total points, and the similarities produced by added figures. Generally, the Judge represents the answer to the question, the Right Witness describes the querent's side of the query, the Left Witness represents the quesited's side, and the Reconciler represents the effect of the outcome (or Judge) upon the querent. The skilled geomancer can deduce root causes to the situation, hidden influences, the outcome and its aftermath, and general trends and events in the querent's life through interpreting the chart.


title: Geomancy

text: One division of the shield chart for interpretation involves triplets of the figures called triplicities. Each triplicity contains two of the Mothers or two of the Daughters and the Niece that results from them. They can be interpreted in a manner similar to the Witnesses and Judge, in that the right parent represents the past, the child the present, and the left parent the future; another way to interpret such a triplet views the right parent as the querent's side, allies, resources, and opinions, the left parent as the quesited's side, and the child as the interaction of the two sides.


title: Geomancy

text: Another method of evaluating a geomantic chart involves taking the total sum of all points from 16 figures within the shield chart. In order to evaluate how quickly the queried situation would resolve, Pietro d'Abano suggested that the total sum be compared to the sum of all points in the sixteen geomantic figures, which is 96. If the sum of the chart is 96, then the resolution of the query will be "swift, and neither slow nor doubtful;" in other words, that all things that could be acted upon in the situation described by the query would resolve without delay nor ahead of schedule. If the sum is less than 96, then it will resolve quickly, and in a degree proportional to the difference between 96 and the total. Conversely, if the sum is more than 96, then it will resolve slowly.


title: Geomancy

text: European geomancers provided an alternate method of interpreting the figures through the house chart, which feature the twelve astrological houses. Here, they assign the figures from the shield chart to the houses in the house chart; the order used differs between different circles of occultists. While European geomancers still used the shield chart to generate the figures and provide most answers, they augmented geomancy with astrological techniques in the house chart. Based upon the query, they could provide a deeper insight into the querent's life, factors shaping the query itself, and the extent of the situations involved. They took note when several houses shared the same figure; as this figure passes from one house to the next, it generally indicates that the same situation or event affects each of those houses.


title: Geomancy

text: Pietro d'Abano discusses the primary modes of perfection used in geomantic interpretations with significators in his geomancy essay. In astrological geomancy, the significators are chosen based upon the identity of the querent and the identity of the quesited. Generally, except when the querent asks about a situation about a subject with no immediate connection to themselves, the querent's significator is located in the first house (see Derivative house).


title: Geomancy

text: The quesited's significator is identified based upon the focus of the query: this is based upon the relation of the query to the astrological houses. Some questions require more than two significators, such as in a query involving several primary factors (e.g., two parties quarrelling over an estate). Queries that have a yes-or-no, or possible-impossible, answer can easily be answered with these modes of perfection. If the chart perfects, the answer is "yes". Otherwise, in the case of denial of perfection, "no".


title: Geomancy

text: The nature of the figures themselves should also be considered. If a chart perfects with negative figures, for instance, the matter will resolve but the querent may not like the result. On the other hand, if the chart does not perfect but the figures are good, then the matter will not resolve even though the querent can make do successfully without it.


title: Geomancy

text: In addition to modes of perfection, geomancers often took note of aspects between those figures that passed to other houses, and especially ones that made aspects to the significators. Often, when a chart denied perfection, geomancers would observe how the significators aspected each other; the aspects here retain similar meanings from astrology.


title: Geomancy

text: Christopher Cattan advocates using the strength of the astrological houses in determining the resolution. By observing the nature of the figures (good or ill, depending on the query) and what type of house they fall in (angular, succedent, or cadent), he judges the total effect of the figures on the query. The figures that fall in cadent houses have little to no effect, those that fall in succedent houses have a transient effect, and those that fall in angular houses have the strongest and most lasting effect upon the query.


title: Geomancy

text: Other examples of astrological technique used in geomancy include assigning zodiacal rulerships to the geomantic figures, linking geomantic figures to parts of the body based on zodiacal rulers, and assigning planetary spirits, intelligences, and genii to the figures based on their ruling planets.


title: Geomancy

text: The four binary elements of each figure allow for 16 different combinations, each called a tableau. As each chart is generated from the four Mothers, there are a total number of 16, or 65,536, possible charts. Due to the mathematics of the chart, only figures that have an even number of points total can become Judges; each of the eight Judges then has 8,192 charts associated with it. Traditional practitioners of geomancy use this knowledge as a type of parity check on the chart to ensure that no mistakes have been made while computing the figures.


title: Geomancy

text: In each chart, if all sixteen figures are observed (the four Mothers, the four Daughters, the four Nieces, the Witnesses, Judge, and Reconciler), at least two of the figures must be the same. As the Reconciler is usually termed an optional figure, 16 combinations of Mother figures can yield a chart where the Mothers, Daughters, Nieces, Witnesses, and Judge are all unique.


title: Geomancy

text: Populus cannot appear in these charts, since mathematically it either requires two figures to be the same in order to be formed, or produces a duplicate figure when added to another figure. In such charts, the Judge will always be one of Conjunctio, Amissio, Carcer, or Acquisitio. The sixteen combinations of Mothers, in order from the First to the Fourth Mother, are


title: Geomancy

text: The Arabic tradition consists of sketching sixteen random lines of dots in sand. This same process survived virtually unchanged through its introduction to Europe in the medieval era, and survives to this day in various Arabic countries. Sikidy and other forms of African divination also follow techniques that have remained virtually unchanged.


title: Geomancy

text: In Africa one traditional form of geomancy consists of throwing handfuls of dirt in the air and observing how the dirt falls. It can also involve a mouse as the agent of the earth spirit. Ifá, one of the oldest forms of geomancy, originated in West Africa, and uses the same sixteen geomantic figures as in Arabic and Western geomancy with different meanings and names; the process is shortened to using only two figures. In China, the diviner may enter a trance and make markings on the ground that are interpreted by an associate (often a young or illiterate boy). Similar forms of geomancy include scrying involving the patterns seen in rocks or soil.


title: Geomancy

text: The Chinese divination practice of the I Ching has several striking similarities to geomancy. It includes a series of binary trigrams (as opposed to tetragrams used in geomancy) that are generated at random, the resulting figures of which are taken in combination. However, the figures are not added or reorganized as in geomancy, but are instead taken to form a single hexagram. While there are 2, or eight, trigrams, there are 2, or 64, hexagrams. This yields a smaller set of resulting charts than geomancy.


title: Geomancy

text: Vastu shastra is a traditional Indian system of architecture which literally translates to "science of architecture." These are texts found on the Indian subcontinent that describe principles of design, layout, measurements, ground preparation, space arrangement, and spatial geometry. Vastu Shastras incorporate traditional Hindu and in some cases Buddhist beliefs. The designs are intended to integrate architecture with nature, the relative functions of various parts of the structure, and ancient beliefs utilizing geometric patterns (yantra), symmetry, and directional alignments.


title: Geomancy

text: Vastu Shastra are the textual part of "Vastu Vidya", the latter being the broader knowledge about architecture and design theories from ancient India. Vastu Vidya knowledge is a collection of ideas and concepts, with or without the support of layout diagrams, that are not rigid. Rather, these ideas and concepts are models for the organization of space and form within a building or collection of buildings, based on their functions in relation to each other, their usage and to the overall fabric of the Vastu. Ancient Vastu Shastra principles include those for the design of "Mandir" (Hindu temples), and the principles for the design and layout of houses, towns, cities, gardens, roads, water works, shops and other public areas.


title: Geomancy

text: Kumalak is a type of geomancy practiced in Kazakhstan, Tuva, and other parts of Central Asia. Kumalak makes use of a three by three grid, wherein a shaman will ritually place up to 41 beads. These shamans use kumalak more to connect with their ancestors and spiritual guides than to obtain information through divination. Further, shamans who use kumalak must be initiated and taught how to perform the rituals of kumalak correctly. According to them, kumalak is an ancient system of knowledge reaching back to the roots of their civilization.


title: Geomancy

text: In Korea, this tradition was popularized in the ninth century by the Buddhist monk Toson(Doseon). In Korea, geomancy takes the form of interpreting the topography of the land to determine future events and or the strength of a dynasty or particular family. Therefore, not only were location and land forms important, but the topography could shift causing disfavor and the need to relocate. The idea is still accepted in many South East Asian societies today, although with reduced force.


title: Geomancy

text: In the 19th century, Christian missionaries in China translated "feng shui" as "geomancy" due to their observations of local shamans and priests manipulating the flow and direction of energy based on aesthetics, location, and position of objects and buildings. Although it stems from a distinct tradition, the term "geomancy" now commonly includes "feng shui". Similarly, the introduction of a similar Indian system of aesthetics and positioning to harmonize the local energies, "vastu shastra", has come under the name "geomancy". Due to the definition having changed over time (along with the recognized definition of the suffix "-mancy"), "geomancy" can cover any spiritual, metaphysical, or pseudoscientific practice that is related to the Earth. In recent times the term has been applied to a wide range of other occult and fringe activities, including Earth mysteries and the introduction of ley lines and Bau-Biologie.


title: Geomancy

text: In some fantasy literature, especially that which deals with the four classic Greek elements (air, water, fire, earth), geomancy refers to magic that controls earth (and sometimes metal and crystals).