Mysterious Monday: Pentagrams

A pentagram is a five pointed, star-shaped figure that is often—and wrongfully—associated with Satanism. In my research for my NaNo story, I discovered many things, including how little I know about higher math.

Now, a star is not a pentagram. A pentagram has the “drawing lines” as it were, bisecting the star shape. Similar, but not exactly the same, is the pentacle, which is a pentagram located inside of a circle.

Most pentagrams have what’s called a “golden ratio. A golden ratio states that, well, there are all these complicated mathematical ratios that I could go into, but I don’t want my head to explode at this particular point in time. So, since a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s the picture and explanation from Wikipedia.

Basically, a golden ratio states that:

Red/green = green/blue = blue/magenta = some symbol that seems to stand for the golden ratio. The significance of the golden ratio? Hell if I know, but apparently, it is something that makes things aesthetically pleasing to the human eye. It is found in nature, works of art, and even ancient buildings such as the pyramids.

Another cool thing that I found is something I wound up using in my NaNo novel. It is called, “Wu Xing”. Wu Xing is an Oriental methodology of healing, using the elements, only in Chinese lore, there are five elements instead of four: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. There are three “cycles” to Wu Xing—the controlling cycle, the generative cycle, and the destructive cycle. The controlling cycle is the one that seems to keep with the format of the pentagram. In the controlling cycle, wood breaks the earth, the earth absorbs the water, the water douses the fire, fire melts the metal and metal splits the wood.

It is this cycle I have used in my story to explain the Nephalim healing methods. The Nephalim lay a victim in a pentacle and place the five elements on the body part that is in the point of that element. They chant until the “session” is over, ancient words of power. When they are done, they take the elements with them. After five sessions (to match with the five elements), the victim is healed. If the trauma is severe, the healing may take up to five, five session healings.

So what do you think of when you see a pentagram? Do you have nightmares from Algebra class, do you think of Satanism, do you think of Wicca or the Christmas stars on Main Street or what?

Monday Myth: The Nephalim

My current NaNoWriMo story was going to be about angels, but my muse had other ideas. Apparently, she's in the mood for Nephalim right now.

What is a Nephalim? If you're a good Christian, or a good non-Christian, you may have heard of them. Fallen angels, the "sons of God", mated with human women; the product of this mating was the Nephalim. They were gigantic in stature, with some estimates putting them at thirty feet tall. May I just say "OUCH" to that birth?

The Nephalim are so shrouded in mystery that scholars cannot agree on the meaning of the word, even. Some say it comes from a word meaning "giants", other say it means "distinguished ones", and still others claim that it means "fallen". Pictures of this offspring between human women and the "sons of God" show that they supposedly had skulls like this:



Their fossilized bones:



Gracious me! I thought my boy was growing up to be quite tall. Can you imagine being the human who gave birth to something that grew into this? I'm not claiming that these pictures are either real or fake--just putting them out there for your interest.

Now, since I write romance and not horror, my Nephalim have to be a bit different. They look more like this:



(Drawing made by the extraordinarily talented Ester-Sanz on deviantART.)

As you can see, my Nephalim are hot and sexy; about the only thing they have in common with the ones you'll find in the Bible and scholarly works is that they are tall, and they are descended from otherworldly beings. In fact, my Nephalim come to Earth from a different planetary system.

Although it's hard to tell in this picture if he has them or not (personally, I can't get past those eyes!), I have given my Nephalim wings. The wings of a mature Nephalim are long and match their hair color; both are shot through with gold or silver. Hair color is any that you can imagine--my current hero, Gadri-el, has deep purple hair, with gold highlights. I saw the picture above and immediately said, "Azazel!" (Don't say, "Bless you!" That's my hero's best friend, who will have his own story soon.)

The skin of a Nephalim is a tawny golden color. Their eyes are large and slightly turned up, and are lined naturally with black; long, lush lashes make them impossible to resist. They stand an average of seven feet tall, although some top out at eight feet. They are no Ken dolls and are, ahem, properly proportioned.

Clothing is Greco/Roman in that they tend to wear togas that sit on their hips and drape over their shoulders (it's hard to find a proper shirt when you've got large wings on your back). Most of the time, they are barefoot. They have a higher body temperature than humans and so they can walk over ice and snow with little problem, even barefoot. The only time they wear anything different is when they don armor for battle and then they are even more fierce and stunning.

They have come to Earth because they are a dying race. One of their historians found a passage in an old book that claimed that their ancestors had mated successfully with the humans of Earth. Although they find the idea of mating with humans distasteful as a general rule, some are finding brides among the women of Earth (just a hint--my heroines are not petite). Oh, and our heroes are finding a new religion with their spunky women.