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Auditory processing disorder

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_processing_disorder

Auditory processing disorder
Other names	Central auditory processing disorder
Specialty	Audiology, neurology

Auditory processing disorder (APD), rarely known as King-Kopetzky syndrome or auditory disability with normal hearing (ADN), is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting the way the brain processes sounds. Individuals with APD usually have normal structure and function of the ear, but cannot process the information they hear in the same way as others do, which leads to difficulties in recognizing and interpreting sounds, especially the sounds composing speech. It is thought that these difficulties arise from dysfunction in the central nervous system. This is, in part, essentially a failure of the cocktail party effect found in most people.

The American Academy of Audiology notes that APD is diagnosed by difficulties in one or more auditory processes known to reflect the function of the central auditory nervous system. It can affect both children and adults, and may continue to affect children into adulthood. Although the actual prevalence is currently unknown, it has been estimated to impact 2–7% of children in US and UK populations. Males are twice as likely to be affected by the disorder as females.

Neurodevelopmental forms of APD are different than aphasia because aphasia is by definition caused by acquired brain injury. However, acquired epileptic aphasia has been viewed as a form of APD.

Signs and symptoms

Individuals with this disorder may experience the following signs and symptoms:

speaking louder or softer than is situationally appropriate;
difficulty remembering lists or sequences;
needing words or sentences to be repeated;
impaired ability to memorize information learned by listening;
interpreting words too literally;
needing assistance to hear clearly in noisy environments;
relying on accommodation and modification strategies;
finding or requesting a quiet work space away from others;
requesting written material when attending oral presentations; and
asking for directions to be given one step at a time.

Relation to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

APD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can present with overlapping symptoms. Below is a ranked order of behavioral symptoms that are most frequently observed in each disorder. Professionals evaluated the overlap of symptoms between the two disorders; the order below is of symptoms that are almost always observed. Although the symptoms listed have differences, there are many similarities in how they may present in an individual, which can make it difficult to differentiate between the two conditions.

ADHD	APD
1. Inattentive	1. Difficult hearing in background noise
2. Distracted	2. Difficulty following oral instructions
3. Hyperactive	3. Poor listening skills
4. Fidgety or restless	4. Academic difficulties
5. Hasty or impulsive	5. Poor auditory association skills
6. Interrupts or intrudes	6. Distracted
	7. Inattentive

There is a co-occurrence between ADHD and APD. A systematic review published in 2018 detailed one study that showed 10% of children with APD have confirmed or suspected ADHD. It also stated that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the two, since characteristics and symptoms between APD and ADHD tend to overlap. The systematic review also described this overlap between APD and other behavioral disorders and whether or not it was easy to distinguish those children that solely had auditory processing disorder.

Relation to specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia

There has been considerable debate over the relationship between APD and specific language impairment (SLI).

SLI is diagnosed when a child has difficulties with understanding or producing spoken language, and the cause of these difficulties is not obvious (and specifically cannot be explained by peripheral hearing loss). The child is typically late in their language development and may struggle to produce clear speech sounds and produce or understand complex sentences. Some theorize that SLI is the result of auditory processing problems. However, this theory is not universally accepted; others theorize that the main difficulties associated with SLI stem from problems with the higher-level aspects of language processing. Where a child has both auditory and language problems, it can be difficult to sort out the causality at play.

Similarly with developmental dyslexia, researchers continue to explore the hypothesis that reading problems emerge as a downstream consequence of difficulties in rapid auditory processing. Again, cause and effect can be hard to unravel. This is one reason why some experts have recommended using non-verbal auditory tests to diagnose APD. Specifically regarding neurological factors, dyslexia has been linked to polymicrogyria which causes cell migrational problems. Children that have polymicrogyri almost always present with deficits on APD testing. It has also been suggested that APD may be related to cluttering, a fluency disorder marked by word and phrase repetitions.

Some studies found that a higher than expected proportion of individuals diagnosed with SLI and dyslexia on the basis of language and reading tests also perform poorly on tests in which auditory processing skills are tested. APD can be assessed using tests that involve identifying, repeating, or discriminating speech, and a child may perform poorly because of primary language problems. In a study comparing children with a diagnosis of dyslexia and those with a diagnosis of APD, they found the two groups could not be distinguished. Analogous results were observed in studies comparing children diagnosed with SLI or APD, the two groups presenting with similar diagnostic criteria.As such, the diagnosis a child receives may depend on which specialist they consult: the same child who might be diagnosed with APD by an audiologist may instead be diagnosed with SLI by a speech-language therapist, or with dyslexia by a psychologist.

Causes

Acquired

Acquired APD can be caused by any damage to, or dysfunction of, the central auditory nervous system and can cause auditory processing problems. For an overview of neurological aspects of APD, see T. D. Griffiths's 2002 article "Central Auditory Pathologies".

Genetics

Some studies have indicated an increased prevalence of a family history of hearing impairment in these patients. The pattern of results is suggestive that auditory processing disorder may be related to conditions of autosomal dominant inheritance. In other words, the ability to listen to and comprehend multiple messages at the same time is a trait that is heavily influenced by our genes. These "short circuits in the wiring" sometimes run in families or result from a difficult birth, just like any learning disability. Inheritance of auditory processing disorder refers to whether an individual inherits the condition from their parents, or whether it "runs" in families. Central auditory processing disorder may be hereditary neurological traits from the mother or the father.

Developmental

In the majority of cases of developmental APD, the cause is unknown. An exception is acquired epileptic aphasia or Landau–Kleffner syndrome, where a child's development regresses, with language comprehension severely affected. The child is often thought to be deaf, but testing reveals normal peripheral hearing. In other cases, suspected or known causes of APD in children include delay in myelin maturation, ectopic (misplaced) cells in the auditory cortical areas, or genetic predisposition. In one family with autosomal dominant epilepsy, seizures which affected the left temporal lobe seemed to cause problems with auditory processing. In another extended family with a high rate of APD, genetic analysis showed a haplotype in chromosome 12 that fully co-segregated with language impairment.

Hearing begins in utero, but the central auditory system continues to develop for at least the first decade after birth. There is considerable interest in the idea that disruption to hearing during a sensitive period may have long-term consequences for auditory development. One study showed thalamocortical connectivity in vitro was associated with a time sensitive developmental window and required a specific cell adhesion molecule (lcam5) for proper brain plasticity to occur. This points to connectivity between the thalamus and cortex shortly after being able to hear (in vitro) as at least one critical period for auditory processing. Another study showed that rats reared in a single tone environment during critical periods of development had permanently impaired auditory processing. In rats, "bad" auditory experiences, such as temporary deafness by cochlear removal, leads to neuron shrinkage. In a study looking at attention in APD patients, children with one ear blocked developed a strong right-ear advantage but were not able to modulate that advantage during directed-attention tasks.

In the 1980s and 1990s, there was considerable interest in the role of chronic otitis media (also called middle ear disease or "glue ear") in causing APD and related language and literacy problems. Otitis media with effusion is a very common childhood disease that causes a fluctuating conductive hearing loss, and there was concern this may disrupt auditory development if it occurred during a sensitive period. Consistent with this, in a sample of young children with chronic ear infections recruited from a hospital otorhinolaryngology department, increased rates of auditory difficulties were found later in childhood. However, this kind of study will have sampling bias because children with otitis media will be more likely to be referred to hospital departments if they are experiencing developmental difficulties. Compared with hospital studies, epidemiological studies, which assesses a whole population for otitis media and then evaluate outcomes, found much weaker evidence for long-term impacts of otitis media on language outcomes.

Somatic

It seems that somatic anxiety (that is, physical symptoms of anxiety such as butterflies in the stomach or cotton mouth) and situations of stress may be determinants of speech-hearing disability.

Diagnosis

Questionnaires which address common listening problems can be used to identify individuals who may have auditory processing disorder, and can help in the decision to pursue clinical evaluation.

One of the most common listening problems is speech recognition in the presence of background noise.

According to the respondents who participated in a study by Neijenhuis, de Wit, and Luinge (2017), symptoms of APD which are characteristic in children with listening difficulties, and are typically problematic with adolescents and adults, include:

Difficulty hearing in noisy environments
Auditory attention problems
Understanding speech more easily in one-on-one situations
Difficulties in noise localization
Difficulties in remembering oral information

According to the New Zealand Guidelines on Auditory Processing Disorders (2017), the following checklist of key symptoms of APD or comorbidities can be used to identify individuals who should be referred for audiological and APD assessment:

Difficulty following spoken directions unless they are brief and simple
Difficulty attending to and remembering spoken information
Slowness in processing spoken information
Difficulty understanding in the presence of other sounds
Overwhelmed by complex or "busy" auditory environments e.g. classrooms, shopping malls
Poor listening skills
Insensitivity to tone of voice or other nuances of speech
Acquired brain injury
History of frequent or persistent middle ear disease (otitis media, "glue ear").
Difficulty with language, reading, or spelling
Suspicion or diagnosis of dyslexia
Suspicion or diagnosis of language disorder or delay

Finally, the New Zealand guidelines state that behavioral checklists and questionnaires should only be used to provide guidance for referrals, for information gathering (for example, prior to assessment or as outcome measures for interventions), and as measures to describe the functional impact of auditory processing disorder. They are not designed for the purpose of diagnosing auditory processing disorders. The New Zealand guidelines indicate that a number of questionnaires have been developed to identify children who might benefit from evaluation of their problems in listening. Examples of available questionnaires include the Fisher's Auditory Problems Checklist, the Children's Auditory Performance Scale, the Screening Instrument for Targeting Educational Risk, and the Auditory Processing Domains Questionnaire among others. All of the previous questionnaires were designed for children and none are useful for adolescents and adults.

The University of Cincinnati Auditory Processing Inventory (UCAPI) was designed for use with adolescents and adults seeking testing for evaluation of problems with listening and/or to be used following diagnosis of an auditory processing disorder to determine the subject's status. Following a model described by Zoppo et al. (2015), a 34-item questionnaire was developed that investigates auditory processing abilities in each of the six common areas of complaint in APD (listening and concentration, understanding speech, following spoken instructions, attention, and other.) The final questionnaire was standardized on normally-achieving young adults ranging from 18 to 27 years of age. Validation data was acquired from subjects with language-learning or auditory processing disorders who were either self-reported or confirmed by diagnostic testing. A UCAPI total score is calculated by combining the totals from the six listening conditions and provides an overall value to categorize listening abilities. Additionally, analysis of the scores from the six listening conditions provides an auditory profile for the subject. Each listening condition can then be utilized by the professional in making recommendation for diagnosing problem of learning through listening and treatment decisions. The UCAPI provides information on listening problems in various populations that can aid examiners in making recommendations for assessment and management.

APD has been defined anatomically in terms of the integrity of the auditory areas of the nervous system. However, children with symptoms of APD typically have no evidence of neurological disease, so the diagnosis is made based on how the child performs behavioral auditory tests. Auditory processing is "what we do with what we hear", and in APD there is a mismatch between peripheral hearing ability (which is typically normal) and ability to interpret or discriminate sounds. Thus in those with no signs of neurological impairment, APD is diagnosed on the basis of auditory tests. There is, however, no consensus as to which tests should be used for diagnosis, as evidenced by the succession of task force reports that have appeared in recent years.

The first of these occurred in 1996. This was followed by a conference organized by the American Academy of Audiology.

Experts attempting to define diagnostic criteria have to grapple with the problem that a child may do poorly on an auditory test for reasons other than poor auditory perception: for instance, failure could be due to inattention, difficulty in coping with task demands, or limited language ability. In an attempt to rule out at least some of these factors, the American Academy of Audiology conference explicitly advocated that for APD to be diagnosed, the child must have a modality-specific problem, i.e. affecting auditory but not visual processing. However, a committee of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association subsequently rejected modality-specificity as a defining characteristic of auditory processing disorders.

Definitions

in 2005 the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association published "Central Auditory Processing Disorders" as an update to the 1996 pulication, "Central Auditory Processing: Current Status of Research and Implications for Clinical Practice". The American Academy of Audiology has released more current practice guidelines related to the disorder. ASHA formally defines APD as "a difficulty in the efficiency and effectiveness by which the central nervous system (CNS) utilizes auditory information."

In 2018, the British Society of Audiology published a "position statement and practice guidance" on auditory processing disorder and updated its definition of APD. According to the Society, APD refers to the inability to process speech and on-speech sounds.

Auditory processing disorder can be developmental or acquired. It may result from ear infections, head injuries, or neurodevelopmental delays that affect processing of auditory information. This can include problems with: "...sound localization and lateralization (see also binaural fusion); auditory discrimination; auditory pattern recognition; temporal aspects of audition, including temporal integration, temporal discrimination (e.g., temporal gap detection), temporal ordering, and temporal masking; auditory performance in competing acoustic signals (including dichotic listening); and auditory performance with degraded acoustic signals".

The Committee of UK Medical Professionals Steering the UK Auditory Processing Disorder Research Program have developed the following working definition of auditory processing disorder: "APD results from impaired neural function and is characterized by poor recognition, discrimination, separation, grouping, localization, or ordering of speech sounds. It does not solely result from a deficit in general attention, language or other cognitive processes."

Types of testing

The SCAN-C for children and SCAN-A for adolescents and adults are the most common tools for screening and diagnosing APD in the USA. Both tests are standardized on a large number of subjects and include validation data on subjects with auditory processing disorders. The SCAN test batteries include screening tests: norm-based criterion-referenced scores; diagnostic tests: scaled scores, percentile ranks and ear advantage scores for all tests except the Gap Detection test. The four tests include four subsets on which the subject scores are derived include: discrimination of monaurally presented single words against background noise (speech in noise), acoustically degraded single words (filtered words), dichotically presented single words and sentences.
Random Gap Detection Test (RGDT) is also a standardized test. It assesses an individual's gap detection threshold of tones and white noise. The exam includes stimuli at four different frequencies (500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz) and white noise clicks of 50 ms duration. This test provides an index of auditory temporal resolution. In children, an overall gap detection threshold greater than 20 ms means they have failed and may have an auditory processing disorder based on abnormal perception of sound in the time domain.
Gaps in Noise Test (GIN) also measures temporal resolution by testing the patient's gap detection threshold in white noise.
Pitch Patterns Sequence Test (PPT) and Duration Patterns Sequence Test (DPT) measure auditory pattern identification. The PPS has s series of three tones presented at either of two pitches (high or low). Meanwhile, the DPS has a series of three tones that vary in duration rather than pitch (long or short). Patients are then asked to describe the pattern of pitches presented.
Masking Level Difference (MLD) at 500 Hz measures overlapping temporal processing, binaural processing, and low-redundancy by measuring the difference in threshold of an auditory stimulus when a masking noise is presented in and out of phase.
The Staggered Spondaic Word Test (SSW) is one of the oldest tests for APD developed by Jack Katz. Although it has fallen into some disuse by audiologists as it is complicated to score, it is one of the quickest and most sensitive tests to determine APD.

Modality-specificity and controversies

The issue of modality-specificity has led to considerable debate among experts in this field. Cacace and McFarland have argued that APD should be defined as a modality-specific perceptual dysfunction that is not due to peripheral hearing loss. They criticize more inclusive conceptualizations of APD as lacking diagnostic specificity. A requirement for modality-specificity could potentially avoid including children whose poor auditory performance is due to general factors such as poor attention or memory.Others, however, have argued that a modality-specific approach is too narrow, and that it would miss children who had genuine perceptual problems affecting both visual and auditory processing. It is also impractical, as audiologists do not have access to standardized tests that are visual analogs of auditory tests. The debate over this issue remains unresolved between modality-specific researchers such as Cacace, and associations such as the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (among others). It is clear, however, that a modality-specific approach will diagnose fewer children with APD than a modality-general one, and that the latter approach runs a risk of including children who fail auditory tests for reasons other than poor auditory processing. Although modality-specific testing has been advocated for well over a decade, the visual analog of APD testing has met with sustained resistance from the fields of optometry and ophthalmology.

Another controversy concerns the fact that most traditional tests of APD use verbal materials. The British Society of Audiology has embraced Moore's (2006) recommendation that tests for APD should assess processing of non-speech sounds. The concern is that if verbal materials are used to test for APD, then children may fail because of limited language ability. An analogy may be drawn with trying to listen to sounds in a foreign language. It is much harder to distinguish between sounds or to remember a sequence of words in a language you do not know well: the problem is not an auditory one, but rather due to lack of expertise in the language.

In recent years there have been additional criticisms of some popular tests for diagnosis of APD. Tests that use tape-recorded American English have been shown to over-identify APD in speakers of other forms of English. Performance on a battery of non-verbal auditory tests devised by the Medical Research Council's Institute of Hearing Research was found to be heavily influenced by non-sensory task demands, and indices of APD had low reliability when this was controlled for. This research undermines the validity of APD as a distinct entity in its own right and suggests that the use of the term "disorder" itself is unwarranted. In a recent review of such diagnostic issues, it was recommended that children with suspected auditory processing impairments receive a holistic psychometric assessment including general intellectual ability, auditory memory, and attention, phonological processing, language, and literacy. The authors state that "a clearer understanding of the relative contributions of perceptual and non-sensory, unimodal and supramodal factors to performance on psychoacoustic tests may well be the key to unraveling the clinical presentation of these individuals."

Depending on how it is defined, APD may share common symptoms with ADD/ADHD, specific language impairment, and autism spectrum disorders. A review showed substantial evidence for atypical processing of auditory information in children with autism. Dawes and Bishop noted how specialists in audiology and speech-language pathology often adopted different approaches to child assessment, and they concluded their review as follows: "We regard it as crucial that these different professional groups work together in carrying out assessment, treatment and management of children and undertaking cross-disciplinary research." In practice, this seems rare.

To ensure that APD is correctly diagnosed, the examiners must differentiate APD from other disorders with similar symptoms. Factors that should be taken into account during the diagnosis are: attention, auditory neuropathy, fatigue, hearing and sensitivity, intellectual and developmental age, medications, motivation, motor skills, native language and language experience, response strategies and decision-making style, and visual acuity.

It should also be noted that children under the age of seven cannot be evaluated correctly because their language and auditory processes are still developing. In addition, the presence of APD cannot be evaluated when a child's primary language is not English.

Characteristics

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association state that children with (central) auditory processing disorder often:

have trouble paying attention to and remembering information presented orally, and may cope better with visually acquired information
have problems carrying out multi-step directions given orally; need to hear only one direction at a time
have poor listening skills
need more time to process information
have difficulty learning a new language
have difficulty understanding jokes, sarcasm, and learning songs or nursery rhymes
have language difficulties (e.g., they confuse syllable sequences and have problems developing vocabulary and understanding language)
have difficulty with reading, comprehension, spelling, and vocabulary

APD can manifest as problems determining the direction of sounds, difficulty perceiving differences between speech sounds and the sequencing of these sounds into meaningful words, confusing similar sounds such as "hat" with "bat", "there" with "where", etc. Fewer words may be perceived than were actually said, as there can be problems detecting the gaps between words, creating the sense that someone is speaking unfamiliar or nonsense words. In addition, it is common for APD to cause speech errors involving the distortion and substitution of consonant sounds. Those with APD may have problems relating what has been said with its meaning, despite obvious recognition that a word has been said, as well as repetition of the word. Background noise, such as the sound of a radio, television or a noisy bar can make it difficult to impossible to understand speech, since spoken words may sound distorted either into irrelevant words or words that do not exist, depending on the severity of the auditory processing disorder. Using a telephone can be problematic for someone with auditory processing disorder, in comparison with someone with normal auditory processing, due to low quality audio, poor signal, intermittent sounds, and the chopping of words. Many who have auditory processing disorder subconsciously develop visual coping strategies, such as lip reading, reading body language, and eye contact, to compensate for their auditory deficit, and these coping strategies are not available when using a telephone.

As noted above, the status of APD as a distinct disorder has been queried, especially by speech-language pathologists and psychologists, who note the overlap between clinical profiles of children diagnosed with APD and those with other forms of specific learning disability. Many audiologists, however, would dispute that APD is just an alternative label for dyslexia, SLI, or ADHD, noting that although it often co-occurs with these conditions, it can be found in isolation.

Subcategories

Based on sensitized measures of auditory dysfunction and on psychological assessment, patients can be subdivided into seven subcategories:

middle ear dysfunction
mild cochlear pathology
central/medial olivocochlear efferent system (MOCS) auditory dysfunction
purely psychological problems
multiple auditory pathologies
combined auditory dysfunction and psychological problems
unknown

Different subgroups may represent different pathogenic and etiological factors. Thus, subcategorization provides further understanding of the basis of auditory processing disorder, and hence may guide the rehabilitative management of these patients. This was suggested by Professor Dafydd Stephens and F Zhao at the Welsh Hearing Institute, Cardiff University.

Treatment

Treatment of APD typically focuses on three primary areas: changing learning environment, developing higher-order skills to compensate for the disorder, and remediation of the auditory deficit itself. However, there is a lack of well-conducted evaluations of intervention using randomized controlled trial methodology. Most evidence for effectiveness adopts weaker standards of evidence, such as showing that performance improves after training. This does not control for possible influences of practice, maturation, or placebo effects. Recent research has shown that practice with basic auditory processing tasks (i.e. auditory training) may improve performance on auditory processing measures and phonemic awareness measures. Changes after auditory training have also been recorded at the physiological level. Many of these tasks are incorporated into computer-based auditory training programs such as Earobics and Fast ForWord, an adaptive software available at home and in clinics worldwide, but overall, evidence for effectiveness of these computerized interventions in improving language and literacy is not impressive. One small-scale uncontrolled study reported successful outcomes for children with APD using auditory training software.

Treating additional issues related to APD can result in success. For example, treatment for phonological disorders (difficulty in speech) can result in success in terms of both the phonological disorder as well as APD. In one study, speech therapy improved auditory evoked potentials (a measure of brain activity in the auditory portions of the brain).

While there is evidence that language training is effective for improving APD, there is no current research supporting the following APD treatments:

Auditory Integration Training typically involves a child attending two 30-minute sessions per day for ten days.
Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes (particularly, the Visualizing and Verbalizing program)
Physical activities that require frequent crossing of the midline (e.g., occupational therapy)
Sound Field Amplification
Neuro-Sensory Educational Therapy
Neurofeedback

The use of an individual FM transmitter/receiver system by teachers and students has nevertheless been shown to produce significant improvements with children over time.

History

Samuel J. Kopetzky first described the condition in 1948. P. F. King, first discussed the etiological factors behind it in 1954. Helmer Rudolph Myklebust's 1954 study, "Auditory Disorders in Children". suggested auditory processing disorder was separate from language learning difficulties. His work sparked interest in auditory deficits after acquired brain lesions affecting the temporal lobesand led to additional work looking at the physiological basis of auditory processing, but it was not until the late seventies and early eighties that research began on APD in depth.

In 1977, the first conference on the topic of APD was organized by Robert W. Keith, Ph.D. at the University of Cincinnati. The proceedings of that conference was published by Grune and Stratton under the title "Central Auditory Dysfunction" (Keith RW Ed.) That conference started a new series of studies focusing on APD in children. Virtually all tests currently used to diagnose APD originate from this work. These early researchers also invented many of the auditory training approaches, including interhemispheric transfer training and interaural intensity difference training. This period gave us a rough understanding of the causes and possible treatment options for APD.

Much of the work in the late nineties and 2000s has been looking to refining testing, developing more sophisticated treatment options, and looking for genetic risk factors for APD. Scientists have worked on improving behavioral tests of auditory function, neuroimaging, electroacoustic, and electrophysiologic testing. Working with new technology has led to a number of software programs for auditory training. With global awareness of mental disorders and increasing understanding of neuroscience, auditory processing is more in the public and academic consciousness than in years past.

Magic and religion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_and_religion

Belief in magic exists in all societies, regardless of whether they have organized religious hierarchy including formal clergy or more informal systems. While such concepts appear more frequently in cultures based in polytheism, animism, or shamanism. Religion and magic became conceptually separated in the West where the distinction arose between supernatural events sanctioned by approved religious doctrine versus magic rooted in other religious sources. With the rise of Christianity this became characterised with the contrast between divine miracles versus folk religion, superstition, or occult speculation.

Distinction

Early sociological interpretations of magic by Marcel Mauss and Henri Hubert emphasized the social conditions in which the phenomenon of magic develops. According to them, religion is the expression of a social structure and serves to maintain the cohesion of a community (religion is therefore public) and magic is an individualistic action (and therefore private).

Ralph Merrifield, the British archaeologist credited as producing the first full-length volume dedicated to a material approach to magic, defined the differences between religion and magic: "'Religion' is used to indicate the belief in supernatural or spiritual beings; 'magic', the use of practices intended to bring occult forces under control and so to influence events; 'ritual', prescribed or customary behaviour that may be religious, if it is intended to placate or win favour of supernatural beings, magical if it is intended to operate through impersonal forces of sympathy or by controlling supernatural beings, or social if its purpose is to reinforce a social organisation or facilitate social intercourse".

In 1991 Henk Versnel argued that magic and religion function in different ways and that these can be broadly defined in four areas: Intention – magic is employed to achieve clear and immediate goals for an individual, whereas religion is less purpose-motivated and has its sights set on longer-term goals; Attitude – magic is manipulative as the process is in the hands of the user, "instrumental coercive manipulation", opposed to the religious attitude of "personal and supplicative negotiation"; Action – magic is a technical exercise that often requires professional skills to fulfil an action, whereas religion is not dependent upon these factors but the will and sentiment of the gods; Social – the goals of magic run counter to the interests of a society (in that personal gain for an individual gives them an unfair advantage over peers), whereas religion has more benevolent and positive social functions.

Connection

This separation of the terms 'religion' and 'magic' in a functional sense is disputed. It has been argued that abandoning the term magic in favour of discussing "belief in spiritual beings" will help to create a more meaningful understanding of all associated ritual practices. However using the word 'magic' alongside 'religion' is one method of trying to understand the supernatural world, even if some other term can eventually take its place.

It is a postulate of modern anthropology, at least since early 1930s, that there is complete continuity between magic and religion.

Robert Ranulph Marett (1932) said:

Many leading anthropologists, including the author of The Golden Bough, would wholly or in the main refuse the title of religion to these almost inarticulate ceremonies of very humble folk. I am afraid, however, that I cannot follow them. [...] They are mysteries, and are therefore at least generically akin to religion. Moreover, they are held in the highest public esteem as of infinite worth whether in themselves or for their effects. To label them, then, with the opprobrious name of magic as if they were on a par with the mummeries that enable certain knaves to batten on the nerves of fools is quite unscientific; for it mixes up two things which the student of human culture must keep rigidly apart, namely, a normal development of the social life and one of its morbid by-products. Hence for me they belong to religion, but of course to rudimentary religion—to an early phase of the same world-wide institution that we know by that name among ourselves. I am bound to postulate the strictest continuity between these stages of what I have here undertaken to interpret as a natural growth.

Ernst Cassirer (1944) wrote:

It seems to be one of the postulates of modern anthropology that there is complete continuity between magic and religion. [note 35: See, for instance, RR Marett, Faith, Hope, and Charity in Primitive Religion, the Gifford Lectures (Macmillan, 1932), Lecture II, pp. 21 ff.] ... We have no empirical evidence at all that there ever was an age of magic that has been followed and superseded by an age of religion.

In ancient Egypt, the religion held that the gods' actions maintained maat and created and sustained all living things. They did this work using a force the Egyptians called heka, a term usually translated as "magic". Heka was a fundamental power that the creator god used to form the world and the gods themselves. Magic (personified as the god heka) was an integral part of religion and culture which is known to us through a substantial corpus of texts which are products of the Egyptian tradition. While the category magic has been contentious for modern Egyptology, there is clear support for its applicability from ancient terminology. The Coptic term hik is the descendant of the pharaonic term heka, which, unlike its Coptic counterpart, had no connotation of impiety or illegality, and is attested from the Old Kingdom through to the Roman era. Heka was considered morally neutral and was applied to the practices and beliefs of both foreigners and Egyptians alike. The Instructions for Merikare informs us that heka was a beneficence gifted by the creator to humanity "... in order to be weapons to ward off the blow of events". Magic was practiced by both the literate priestly hierarchy and by illiterate farmers and herdsmen, and the principle of heka underlay all ritual activity, both in the temples and in private settings.

The English word magic has its origins in ancient Greece. During the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE, the Persian maguš was Graecicized and introduced into the ancient Greek language as μάγος and μαγεία. In doing so it transformed meaning, gaining negative connotations, with the magos being regarded as a charlatan whose ritual practices were fraudulent, strange, unconventional, and dangerous. As noted by Davies, for the ancient Greeks—and subsequently for the ancient Romans—"magic was not distinct from religion but rather an unwelcome, improper expression of it—the religion of the other". The historian Richard Gordon suggested that for the ancient Greeks, being accused of practicing magic was "a form of insult". Pliny the Elder seems to acknowledge that Magi are priests of a foreign religion, along the lines of the druids of the Celts in Britain and Gaul.

Connotations of magic have varied from positive to negative at times throughout history, Within Western culture, magic has been linked to ideas of the Other, foreignness, and primitivism; indicating that it is "a powerful marker of cultural difference" and likewise, a non-modern phenomenon. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Western intellectuals perceived the practice of magic to be a sign of a primitive mentality and also commonly attributed it to marginalised groups of people.

Intersections

Even in places and times where magic and religion are considered distinct, separate concepts there have been numerous historical intersections where aspects from one would be syncretized with or borrowed from the other.

Rituals

Both magic and religion contain rituals. Most cultures have or have had in their past some form of magical tradition that recognizes a shamanistic interconnectedness of spirit. This may have been long ago, as a folk tradition that died out with the establishment of a major world religion, such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam or Buddhism, or it may still co-exist with that world religion. Coptic Christians were writing magical spells from the 1st to 12th centuries.

Names of the gods as true names

There is a long-standing belief in the power of true names, this often descends from the magical belief that knowing a being's true name grants power over it.

If names have power, then knowing the name of a god regarded as supreme in a religion should grant the greatest power of all. This belief is reflected in traditional Wicca, where the names of the Goddess and the Horned God – the two supreme deities in Wicca – are usually held as a secret to be revealed only to initiates. This belief is also reflected in ancient Judaism, which used the Tetragrammaton (YHWH, usually translated as "Lord" in small caps) to refer to God in the Tanakh. The same belief is seen in Hinduism, but with different conclusions; rather, attaining transcendence and the power of God is seen as a good thing. Thus, some Hindus chant the name of their favorite deities as often as possible, the most common being Krishna.

Magic and Abrahamic religions

Magic and Abrahamic religions have had a somewhat checkered past. The King James Version of the Bible included the famous translation "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18), and Saul is rebuked by God for seeking advice from a diviner who could contact spirits. On the other hand, seemingly magical signs are documented in the Bible: For example, both the staff of Pharaoh's sorcerers as well as the staff of Moses and Aaron could be turned into snakes (Exodus 7:8-13). However, as Scott Noegel points out, the critical difference between the magic of Pharaoh's magicians and the non-magic of Moses is in the means by which the staff becomes a snake. For the Pharaoh's magicians, they employed "their secret arts" whereas Moses merely throws down his staff to turn it into a snake. To an ancient Egyptian, the startling difference would have been that Moses neither employed secret arts nor magical words. In the Torah, Noegel points out that YHWH does not need magical rituals to act.

The words 'witch' and 'witchcraft' appear in some English versions of the Bible. Exodus 22:18 in the King James Version reads: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." The precise meaning of the Hebrew word mechshepha (root kashaph) here translated as 'witch' and in some other modern versions, 'sorceress', is uncertain. In the Septuagint it was translated as pharmakeia, meaning 'pharmacy', and on this basis, Reginald Scot claimed in the 16th century that 'witch' was an incorrect translation and poisoners were intended.

Worship of heavenly bodies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The worship of heavenly bodies is the veneration of stars (individually or together as the night sky), the planets, or other astronomical objects as deities, or the association of deities with heavenly bodies. In anthropological literature these systems of practice may be referred to as astral cults.

The most notable instances of this are Sun gods and Moon gods in polytheistic systems worldwide. Also notable are the associations of the planets with deities in Sumerian religion, and hence in Babylonian and Greco-Roman religion, viz. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Gods, goddesses, and demons may also be considered personifications of astronomical phenomena such as lunar eclipses, planetary alignments, and apparent interactions of planetary bodies with stars. The Sabians of Harran, a poorly understood pagan religion that existed in Harran during the early Islamic period (7th–10th century), were known for their astral cult.

The related term astrolatry usually implies polytheism. Some Abrahamic religions prohibit astrolatry as idolatrous. Pole star worship was also banned by imperial decree in Heian period Japan.

Etymology

Astrolatry has the suffix -λάτρης, itself related to λάτρις latris 'worshipper' or λατρεύειν latreuein 'to worship' from λάτρον latron 'payment'.

Ancient and medieval Near East

Mesopotamia

Babylonian astronomy from early times associates stars with deities, but the identification of the heavens as the residence of an anthropomorphic pantheon, and later of monotheistic God and his retinue of angels, is a later development, gradually replacing the notion of the pantheon residing or convening on the summit of high mountains. Archibald Sayce (1913) argues for a parallelism of the "stellar theology" of Babylon and Egypt, both countries absorbing popular star-worship into the official pantheon of their respective state religions by identification of gods with stars or planets.

The Chaldeans, who came to be seen as the prototypical astrologers and star-worshippers by the Greeks, migrated into Mesopotamia c. 940–860 BCE. Astral religion does not appear to have been common in the Levant prior to the Iron Age, but becomes popular under Assyrian influence around the 7th-century BCE. The Chaldeans gained ascendancy, ruling Babylonia from 608 to 557 BCE. The Hebrew Bible was substantially composed during this period (roughly corresponding to the period of the Babylonian captivity).

Egypt

Astral cults were probably an early feature of religion in ancient Egypt. Direct evidence for astral cults, seen alongside the dominant solar theology which arose before the Fifth Dynasty, is found in the Pyramid Texts. The growth of Osiris devotion led to stars being called "followers" of Osiris. They recognized five planets as "stars that know no rest", interpreted as gods who sailed across the sky in barques: Sebegu (perhaps a form of Set), Venus ("the one who crosses"), Mars ("Horus of the horizon"), Jupiter ("Horus who limits the two lands"), and Saturn ("Horus bull of the heavens.")

One of the most notable examples of astral worship in ancient Egypt is the goddess Sopdet, identified with the star Sirius. Sopdet's rising coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile, a crucial event that sustained Egyptian agriculture. The goddess was venerated as a harbinger of the inundation, marking the beginning of a new agricultural cycle and symbolizing fertility and renewal. This connection between Sopdet and the Nile flood underscores the profound link between celestial phenomena and earthly prosperity in ancient Egyptian culture. She was known to the Greeks as Sothis.

Sopdet is the consort of Sah, the personified constellation of Orion near Sirius. Their child Venus was the hawk god Sopdu, "Lord of the East". As the bringer of the New Year and the Nile flood, she was associated with Osiris from an early date and by the Ptolemaic period Sah and Sopdet almost solely appeared in forms conflated with Osiris and Isis. Additionally, the alignment of architectural structures, such as pyramids and temples, with astronomical events reveals the deliberate integration of cosmological concepts into Egypt's built environment.

Sabians

Among the various religious groups which in the 9th and 10th centuries CE came to be identified with the mysterious Sabians mentioned in the Quran (sometimes also spelled 'Sabaeans' or 'Sabeans', but not to be confused with the Sabaeans of South Arabia), at least two groups appear to have engaged in some kind of star worship.

By far the most famous of these two are the Sabians of Harran, adherents of a Hellenized Semitic pagan religion that had managed to survive during the early Islamic period in the Upper Mesopotamian city of Harran. They were described by Syriac Christian heresiographers as star worshippers. Most of the scholars and courtiers working for the Abbasid and Buyid dynasties in Baghdad during the ninth–eleventh centuries who were known as 'Sabians' were either members of this Harranian religion or descendants of such members, most notably the Harranian astronomers and mathematicians Thabit ibn Qurra (died 901) and al-Battani (died 929). There has been some speculation on whether these Sabian families in Baghdad, on whom most of our information about the Harranian Sabians indirectly depends, may have practiced a different, more philosophically inspired variant of the original Harranian religion. However, apart from the fact that it contains traces of Babylonian and Hellenistic religion, and that an important place was taken by planets (to whom ritual sacrifices were made), little is known about Harranian Sabianism. They have been variously described by scholars as (neo)-Platonists, Hermeticists, or Gnostics, but there is no firm evidence for any of these identifications.

Apart from the Sabians of Harran, there were also various religious groups living in the Mesopotamian Marshes who were called the 'Sabians of the Marshes' (Arabic: Ṣābiʾat al-baṭāʾiḥ). Though this name has often been understood as a reference to the Mandaeans, there was in fact at least one other religious group living in the marshlands of Southern Iraq. This group still held on to a pagan belief related to Babylonian religion, in which Mesopotamian gods had already been venerated in the form of planets and stars since antiquity. According to Ibn al-Nadim, our only source for these star-worshipping 'Sabians of the Marshes', they "follow the doctrines of the ancient Aramaeans [ʿalā maḏāhib an-Nabaṭ al-qadīm] and venerate the stars". However, there is also a large corpus of texts by Ibn Wahshiyya (died c. 930), most famously his Nabataean Agriculture, which describes at length the customs and beliefs — many of them going back to Mespotamian models — of Iraqi Sabians living in the Sawād.

Asia

China

Heaven worship is a Chinese religious belief that predates Taoism and Confucianism, but was later incorporated into both. Shangdi is the supreme unknowable god of Chinese folk religion. Over time, namely following the conquests of the Zhou dynasty who worshipped Tian (天 lit. "sky"), Shangdi became synonymous with Tian, or Heaven. In the Han dynasty the worship of Heaven would be highly ritualistic and require that the emperor hold official sacrifices and worship at an altar of Heaven, the most famous of which is the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

Heaven worship is closely linked with ancestor veneration and polytheism, as the ancestors and the gods are seen as a medium between Heaven and man. The Emperor of China, also known as the "Son of Heaven", derived the Mandate of Heaven, and thus his legitimacy as ruler, from his supposed ability to commune with Heaven on behalf of his nation.

Star worship was widespread in Asia, especially in Mongolia and northern China, and also spread to Korea. According to Edward Schafer, star worship was already established during the Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE), with the Nine Imperial Gods becoming star lords. This star worship, along with indigenous shamanism and medical practice, formed one of the original bases of Taoism. The Heavenly Sovereign was identified with the Big Dipper and the North Star. Worship of Heaven in the southern suburb of the capital was initiated in 31 BCE and firmly established in the first century CE (Western Han).

The Sanxing (Chinese: 三星; lit. 'Three Stars') are the gods of the three stars or constellations considered essential in Chinese astrology and mythology: Jupiter, Ursa Major, and Sirius. Fu, Lu, and Shou (traditional Chinese: 福祿壽; simplified Chinese: 福禄寿; pinyin: Fú Lù Shòu; Cantonese Yale: Fūk Luhk Sauh), or Cai, Zi and Shou (財子壽) are also the embodiments of Fortune (Fu), presiding over planet Jupiter, Prosperity (Lu), presiding over Ursa Major, and Longevity (Shou), presiding over Sirius.

During the Tang dynasty, Chinese Buddhism adopted Taoist Big Dipper worship, borrowing various texts and rituals which were then modified to conform with Buddhist practices and doctrines. The cult of the Big Dipper was eventually absorbed into the cults of various Buddhist divinities, Myōken being one of these.

Japan

Star worship was also practiced in Japan. Japanese star worship is largely based on Chinese cosmology. According to Bernard Faure, "the cosmotheistic nature of esoteric Buddhism provided an easy bridge for cultural translation between Indian and Chinese cosmologies, on the one hand, and between Indian astrology and local Japanese folk beliefs about the stars, on the other".

The cult of Myōken is thought to have been brought into Japan during the 7th century by immigrants (toraijin) from Goguryeo and Baekje. During the reign of Emperor Tenji (661–672), the toraijin were resettled in the easternmost parts of the country; as a result, Myōken worship spread throughout the eastern provinces.

By the Heian period, pole star worship had become widespread enough that imperial decrees banned it for the reason that it involved "mingling of men and women", and thus caused ritual impurity. Pole star worship was also forbidden among the inhabitants of the capital and nearby areas when the imperial princess (Saiō) made her way to Ise to begin her service at the shrines. Nevertheless, the cult of the pole star left its mark on imperial rituals such as the emperor's enthronement and the worship of the imperial clan deity at Ise Shrine. Worship of the pole star was also practiced in Onmyōdō, where it was deified as Chintaku Reifujin (鎮宅霊符神).

Myōken worship was particularly prevalent among clans based in eastern Japan (the modern Kantō and Tōhoku regions), with the Kanmu Taira clan (Kanmu Heishi) and their offshoots such as the Chiba and the Sōma clans being among the deity's notable devotees. One legend claims that Taira no Masakado was a devotee of Myōken, who aided him in his military exploits. When Masakado grew proud and arrogant, the deity withdrew his favor and instead aided Masakado's uncle Yoshifumi, the ancestor of the Chiba clan. Owing to his status as the Chiba clan's ujigami (guardian deity), temples and shrines dedicated to Myōken are particularly numerous in former Chiba territories. Myōken worship is also prevalent in many Nichiren-shū Buddhist temples due to the clan's connections with the school's Nakayama lineage.

The Americas

Celestial objects hold a significant place within Indigenous American cultures. From the Lakota in North America to the Inca in South America, the celestial realm was integrated into daily life. Stars served as navigation aids, temporal markers, and spiritual conduits, illustrating their practical and sacred importance.

Heavenly bodies held spiritual wisdom. The Pleiades, revered in various cultures, symbolized diverse concepts such as agricultural cycles and ancestral spirits. In North America, star worship was practiced by the Lakota people and the Wichita people. The Inca civilization engaged in star worship, and associated constellations with deities and forces, while the Milky Way represented a bridge between earthly and divine realms.

Indigenous American cultures encapsulate a holistic worldview that acknowledges the interplay of humanity, nature, and the cosmos. Oral traditions transmitted cosmic stories, infusing mythologies, songs, and ceremonies with cosmic significance. These narratives emphasized the belief that the celestial realm offered insights into origins and purpose.

Judaism

The Hebrew Bible contains repeated reference to astrolatry. Deuteronomy 4:19, 17:3 contains a stern warning against worshipping the Sun, Moon, stars or any of the heavenly host. Relapse into worshipping the host of heaven, i.e. the stars, is said to have been the cause of the fall of the kingdom of Judah in II Kings 17:16. King Josiah in 621 BCE is recorded as having abolished all kinds of idolatry in Judah, but astrolatry was continued in private (Zeph. 1:5; Jer. 8:2, 19:13). Ezekiel (8:16) describes sun-worship practised in the court of the temple of Jerusalem, and Jeremiah (44:17) says that even after the destruction of the temple, women in particular insisted on continuing their worship of the "Queen of Heaven".

Christianity

Crucifixion darkness is an episode described in three of the canonical gospels in which the sky becomes dark during the day, during the crucifixion of Jesus as a sign of his divinity.

Augustine of Hippo criticized sun- and star-worship in De Vera Religione (37.68) and De civitate Dei (5.1–8). Pope Leo the Great also denounced astrolatry and the cult of Sol Invictus, which he contrasted with the Christian nativity.

Jesus Christ holds a significant place in the context of Christian astrology. His birth is associated with an astronomical event, symbolized by the star of the king of the Jews. This event played a role in heralding his arrival and was considered a sign of his divine nature. The belief in Jesus as the Messiah, the anointed one, drew upon astrological concepts and symbolism. The incorporation of cosmological elements into the narrative of Jesus' life and divinity contributed to the development and interpretation of Christian theology.

Islam

Worship of heavenly bodies is in Islamic tradition strongly associated with Sabians who allegedly stated that God created the planets as the rulers of this world and thus deserve worship. While the planetary worship was linked to devils (shayāṭīn), abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi reported that the planets are considered angelic spirits at the service of God. He refutes the notion that astrology is based on the interference of demons or "guesswork" and established the study of the planets as a form of natural sciences. By building a naturalistic connection between the planets and their earthly influence, abu Marsha saved astrology from accusations of devil-worship. Such ideas were universally sahred, for example, Mashallah ibn Athari denied any physical or magical influence on the world.

Abu Ma‘shar further describes the planets as sentient bodies, endowed with spirit (rūḥ) rather than mechanical entities. However, they would remain in complete obedience to God and act only with God's permission. Astrology was usually considered through the lens of Hellenistic philosophy such as Neo-Platonism and Aristotelianism. As the spiritual powers allegedly emanating from the planets are explained to derive from the Anima mundi, the writings clearly distanced them from demonic entities such as jinn and devils.

At a later stage, the planetary spirits have been identified with the angels and demons. The idea of seven demon-kings developed under influence of Hellenistic astrological sources. In the Kitāb al-Bulhān, higher spirits (rūḥāiya ulia) are depicted as angels and lower spirits (rūḥāiya sufula) as demons. However, invocation of such entities would work only by permission of God. Permission granted by the angels is supposed to be required in order to receive command over the demon or jinn. A common structure around the spiritual entities and the days of the week goes as follows:

Associations
Planet	Day	Angel that monitors the associated ‘Afārīt (Arabic; Hebrew equivalent)	‘Afārīt		Type of madness (جُنُون, junūn) and parts of the body attacked	Remarks
Planet	Day		Common name	Known other names		Remarks
Sun	Sunday	Ruqya'il (روقيائيل); Raphael (רפאל)	Al-Mudhdhahab/ Al-Mudhhib/ Al-Mudhhab (المذهب; The Golden One)	Abu 'Abdallah Sa'id		the name "Al-Mudh·dhahab" refers to the jinn's skin tone.
Moon	Monday	Jibril (جبريل); Gabriel (גבריאל)	Al-Abyaḍ (الابيض; The White One)	Murrah al-Abyad Abu al-Harith; Abu an-Nur	Whole body	the name "Al-Abyaḍ" refers to the jinn's skin tone, however he is portrayed as a "dark black, charcoal" figure. The possible connection of this name is with another name "Abū an-Nūr" ("Father of Light"); his names are the same as whose applied to Iblīs.
Mars	Tuesday	Samsama'il (سمسمائيل); Samael (סמאל)	Al-Aḥmar (الاحمر; The Red One)	Abu Mihriz; Abu Ya'qub	Head, uterus	the name "Al-Aḥmar" refers to the jinn's skin tone.
Mercury	Wednesday	Mikail (ميكائيل); Michael (מיכאל)	Būrqān/ Borqaan (بورقان; Two Thunders)	Abu al-'Adja'yb; Al-Aswad	Back
Jupiter	Thursday	Sarfya'il (صرفيائيل); Zadkiel (צדקיאל)	Shamhuresh (شمهورش)	Abu al-Walid; At-Tayyar	Belly
Venus	Friday	'Anya'il (عنيائيل); Anael (ענאל)	Zawba'ah (زوبعة; Cyclone, Whirlwind)	Abu Hassan		It is said the "whirlwind" (zawba'ah), to be caused by an evil jinn which travels inside it.
Saturn	Saturday	Kasfa'il (كسفيائيل); Cassiel (קפציאל)	Maymun (ميمون; Prosperous)	Abu Nuh	Feet	His name means "monkey"

Nuit (alternatively Nu, Nut, or Nuith) is a goddess and the primary object of worship in Thelema, the speaker in the first chapter of The Book of the Law, the sacred text written or received in 1904 by Aleister Crowley. She is based on the Ancient Egyptian sky goddess Nut, who arches over her husband/brother, Geb (Earth god). She is usually depicted as a naked woman covered with stars. In The Book of the Law she says of herself: "I am Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof", and in other sections she is given the titles "Queen of Heaven", and "Queen of Space".

Within the system of Thelema, Nuit is one part of a triadic cosmology, along with Hadit (her masculine counterpart), and Ra-Hoor-Khuit, the Crowned and Conquering Child, which are depicted on the Stele of Revealing. Manon Hedenborg-White writes that "[...] Nuit and Hadit are constructed as gendered opposites in ritual and literature, and their divine functions and attributes are linked to their sex." She goes on to note the practitioners of Thelema may subvert this view through polytheism, incorporating deities such as Kali from Hinduism as well as the Greek god Pan to represent different forms of femininity and masculinity. She also notes that one of her Thelemic informants questions the gendering of Nuit, calling it "merely a convenient metaphor". Another called the model "overly simplistic" and has devised their own more complex gender formulation. Hedenborg-White goes on to note that "studying contemporary Thelema requires sensitivity to the fact that Thelemites are not passively bound to orthodoxy in their religious practice."

Astronomy and religion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy_and_religion

Astronomy has been a favorite and significant component of mythology and religion throughout history. Astronomy and cosmology are parts of the myths of many cultures and religion around the world. Astronomy and religion have long been closely intertwined, particularly during the early history of astronomy. Archaeological evidence of many ancient cultures demonstrates that celestial bodies were the subject of worship during the Stone and Bronze Ages. Amulets and stone walls in northern Europe depict arrangements of stars in constellations that match their historical positions, particularly circumpolar constellations. These date back as much as 30,000–40,000 years.

In many ancient religions, the northern circumpolar stars were associated with darkness, death and the underworld of the dead. For the Aztecs, the northern stars were associated with Tezcatlipoca. In Peking, China, was a shrine devoted to the North Star deity. Such worship of the northern stars may have been associated with time keeping, as the positions of the stars could identify the annual seasons. Likewise, as agriculture developed, the need to keep accurate time led to more careful tracking of the positions of the sun, moon and planets; resulting with their deification when they became inextricably linked with the means of survival. In the ancient Egyptian calendar, the date of the annual flooding of the Nile was predicted by observing the heliacal rising of a star. Indeed, the belief in a strong association between the events on the earth and in the heavens led to the development of astrology.

The first recorded conflict between religious orthodoxy and astronomy occurred with the Greek astronomer Anaxagoras. His beliefs that the heavenly bodies were the result of an evolutionary process and that the sun was a great burning stone (rather than the deity Helios), resulted in his arrest. He was charged with contravening the established religious beliefs. Although acquitted, he was forced to go into retirement.

As science expanded during the Renaissance, the secular beliefs of scientific investigators encountered the opposition of Christian orthodoxy. The most famous such conflict was that of Galileo Galilei, who was tried by the Inquisition on suspicion of heresy. However, many astronomers were also highly religious and attempted to reconcile their beliefs with the discoveries they made following the invention of the telescope.

Heliocentrism and Geocentrism

Heliocentrism is the idea that the sun is the center of the universe, and all the planets revolve around it. This is opposite to geocentrism in which the Earth is the center of the universe with the sun and all the other planets revolve around it. The geocentric model was the widely accepted model during the times of Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy, and other astronomers. This model was rooted in observations made by astronomers at the time as well as being rooted in religion. Nicolaus Copernicus followed by astronomers such as Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler suggested a different model with the sun at the center of the universe. This model was also based on observation but incorporated the use of the newly created telescope as well as several mathematical observations creating orbits in the shape of ellipses. These models were not accepted by society which at the time was dominated by the Catholic religion and these astronomers received harsh criticism both the church and those around them.

The argument by Tammaso Cassini was that the bible did not support the Earth revolving around the Sun. One example provided was in Joshua 10 when God stopped the Sun for Joshua. It was also argued that God would place his greatest creation at the center of the universe thus moving the Earth out of the center took away from the greatness of his creation

Galileo and Religion

The Sidereus Nuncius written by Galileo in 1610, approved by the Holy Office, attracted much attention. This writing documented his observations using the telescope, describing the Moons of Jupiter and the mountains of the Moon.

By 1616 the Holy Office also known as the Inquisition condemned the Copernican theory henceforth condemning the works of Galileo. If the science did not back up scripture, then it was not to be taught.

By 1633, Galileo's new best-seller Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems had been prohibited. He recanted his heliocentrism and was sentenced to home arrest for the rest of his life. Four hundred years after Galileo's death, Pope John Paul II set up a committee to look into the trial and Galileo was pardoned.

Newton and Religion

Isaac Newton was a Catholic. After coming to the conclusion that the Holy Trinity could not exist due to the fact that Jesus couldn't be equal to God, Newton chose to not become a minister. He still believed in the Bible so much so that the idea of going against the first commandment was worse than walking away from Cambridge. Newton didn't believe religion and science were mutually exclusive and used the Bible as a guide for his work. Despite his desire to connect the science to the scripture, he was attacked by society and the church in his writing of the Principia when he was studying astronomy and soon delved into other works after being incapable of handling the criticism from his peers. Newton turned to alchemy using Greek myths to guide his work and became known less for his work in astronomy creating the reflecting telescope and more for his work in developing a scientific procedure and his laws around gravity.

Line (poetry)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_(poetry)

A line is a unit of writing into which a poem or play is divided: literally, a single row of text. The use of a line operates on principles which are distinct from and not necessarily coincident with grammatical structures, such as the sentence or single clauses in sentences. Although the word for a single poetic line is verse, that term now tends to be used to signify poetic form more generally. A line break is the termination of the line of a poem and the beginning of a new line.

The process of arranging words using lines and line breaks is known as lineation, and is one of the defining features of poetry. A distinct numbered group of lines in verse is normally called a stanza. A title, in certain poems, is considered a line.

General conventions in Western poetry

Conventions that determine what might constitute line in poetry depend upon different constraints, aural characteristics or scripting conventions for any given language. On the whole, where relevant, a line is generally determined either by units of rhythm or repeating aural patterns in recitation that can also be marked by other features such as rhyme or alliteration, or by patterns of syllable-count.

In Western literary traditions, use of line is arguably the principal feature which distinguishes poetry from prose. Even in poems where formal metre or rhyme is weakly observed or absent, the convention of line continues on the whole to be observed, at least in written representations, although there are exceptions (see Degrees of license). In such writing, simple visual appearance on a page (or any other written layout) remains sufficient to determine poetic line, and this sometimes leads to the suggestion that the work in question is no longer a poem but "chopped up prose". A dropped line is a line broken into two parts, with the second indented to remain visually sequential.

In the standard conventions of Western literature, the line break is usually but not always at the left margin. Line breaks may occur mid-clause, creating enjambment, a term that literally means 'to straddle'. Enjambment "tend[s] to increase the pace of the poem", whereas end-stopped lines, which are lines that break on caesuras (thought-pauses often represented by ellipsis), emphasize these silences and slow the poem down.

Line breaks may also serve to signal a change of movement or to suppress or highlight certain internal features of the poem, such as a rhyme or slant rhyme. Line breaks can be a source of dynamism, providing a method by which poetic forms imbue their contents with intensities and corollary meanings that would not have been possible to the same degree in other forms of text.

Distinct forms of line, as defined in various verse traditions, are usually categorised according to different rhythmical, aural or visual patterns and metrical length appropriate to the language in question. (See Metre.)

One visual convention that is optionally used to convey a traditional use of line in printed settings is capitalisation of the first letter of the first word of each line regardless of other punctuation in the sentence, but it is not necessary to adhere to this. Other formally patterning elements, such as end-rhyme, may also strongly indicate how lines occur in verse.

In the speaking of verse, a line ending may be pronounced using a momentary pause, especially when its metrical composition is end-stopped, or it may be elided such that the utterance can flow seamlessly over the line break in what can be called run-on.

When verse is quoted within sentences in prose articles or critical essays, line breaks can be indicated by the forward slash (/); for example: "What in me is dark,/ Illumine, what is low raise and support,/ That to the height of this great argument/ I may assert eternal Providence,/ And justify the ways of God to men." (Milton, Paradise Lost). A stanza break can be indicated by the forward slash doubled (//).

Degrees of license

In more "free" forms, and in free verse in particular, conventions for the use of line become, arguably, more arbitrary and more visually determined such that they may only be properly apparent in typographical representation and/or page layout.

One extreme deviation from a conventional rule for line can occur in concrete poetry where the primacy of the visual component may over-ride or subsume poetic line in the generally regarded sense, or sound poems in which the aural component stretches the concept of line beyond any purely semantic coherence.

At another extreme, the prose poem simply eschews poetic line altogether.

Examples of line breaks

scolds Forbid
den Stop
Must
n't Don't

— E. E. Cummings

The line break 'must/n't' allows a double reading of the word as both 'must' and 'mustn't', whereby the reader is made aware that old age both enjoins and forbids the activities of youth. At the same time, the line break subverts 'mustn't': the forbidding of a certain activity—in the poem's context, the moral control the old try to enforce upon the young—only serves to make that activity more enticing.

While Cummings's line breaks are used in a poetic form that is intended to be appreciated through a visual, printed medium, line breaks are also present in poems predating the advent of printing.

Shakespeare

Examples are to be found, for instance, in Shakespeare's sonnets. Here are two examples of this technique operating in different ways in Shakespeare's Cymbeline:

In the first example, the line break between the last two lines cuts them apart, emphasizing the cutting off of the head:

With his own sword,

Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta'en

His head from him.
— William Shakespeare, Cymbeline

In the second example, the text before the line break retains a meaning in isolation from the contents of the new line. This meaning is encountered by the reader before it being modified by the text after the line break, which clarifies that, instead of "I, as a person, as a mind, am 'absolute,'" it 'really' means: "I am absolutely sure it was Cloten":

I am absolute;
'Twas very Cloten.
— William Shakespeare, Cymbeline

Metre

In every type of literature there is a metrical pattern that can be described as "basic" or even "national". The most famous and widely used line of verse in English prosody is the iambic pentameter, while one of the most common of traditional lines in surviving classical Latin and Greek prosody was the hexameter. In modern Greek poetry hexameter was replaced by line of fifteen syllables. In French poetry alexandrine is the most typical pattern. In Italian literature the hendecasyllable, which is a metre of eleven syllables, is the most common line. In Serbian ten syllable lines were used in long epic poems. In Polish poetry two types of line were very popular, an 11-syllable one, based on Italian verse and 13-syllable one, based both on Latin verse and French alexandrine. Classical Sanskrit poetry, such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, was most famously composed using the 32-syllable verse, derived from the Vedic anuṣṭubh metre called shloka.

English iambic pentameter:

Like to Ahasuerus, that shrewd prince,

I will begin — as is, these seven years now,

My daily wont — and read a History

(Written by one whose deft right hand was dust

To the last digit, ages ere my birth)

Of all my predecessors, Popes of Rome:

For though mine ancient early dropped the pen,

Yet others picked it up and wrote it dry,

Since of the making books there is no end.

(Robert Browning, The Ring and the Book 10, Book The Pope, lines 1-9)

Latin hexameter:

Arma virumque canō, Trōiae quī prīmus ab orīs

Ītaliam, fātō profugus, Lāvīniaque vēnit

lītora, multum ille et terrīs iactātus et altō

vī superum saevae memorem Iūnōnis ob īram;

multa quoque et bellō passūs, dum conderet urbem,

inferretque deōs Latiō, genus unde Latīnum,

Albānīque patrēs, atque altae moenia Rōmae.

(Virgil, Aeneid, Book I, lines 1-7)

French alexandrine:

Comme je descendais des Fleuves impassibles,

Je ne me sentis plus guidé par les haleurs :

Des Peaux-Rouges criards les avaient pris pour cibles,

Les ayant cloués nus aux poteaux de couleurs.

(Arthur Rimbaud, Le bateau ivre, lines 1-4)

Italian hendecasyllable:

Per me si va ne la città dolente,

per me si va ne l'etterno dolore,

per me si va tra la perduta gente.

Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore;

fecemi la divina podestate,

la somma sapïenza e ’l primo amore.

(Dante Alighieri, Divina commedia, Inferno, Canto III, lines 1-6)

Pioneers of the freer use of line in Western culture include Whitman and Apollinaire.

Characteristics

Where the lines are broken in relation to the ideas in the poem it affects the feeling of reading the poetry. For example, the feeling may be jagged or startling versus soothing and natural, which can be used to reinforce or contrast the ideas in the poem. Lines are often broken between words, but there is certainly a great deal of poetry where at least some of the lines are broken in the middles of words: this can be a device for achieving inventive rhyme schemes.

In general, line breaks divide the poetry into smaller units called lines (this is a modernisation of the term verse), which are often interpreted in terms of their self-contained meanings and aesthetic values: hence the term "good line". Line breaks, indentations, and the lengths of individual words determine the visual shape of the poetry on the page, which is a common aspect of poetry but never the sole purpose of a line break. A dropped line is a line broken into two parts, in which the second part is indented to remain visually sequential through spacing. In metric poetry, the places where the lines are broken are determined by the decision to have the lines composed from specific numbers of syllables.

Prose poetry is poetry without line breaks in accordance to paragraph structure as opposed to stanza. Enjambment is a line break in the middle of a sentence, phrase or clause, or one that offers internal (sub)text or rhythmically jars for added emphasis. Alternation between enjambment and end-stopped lines is characteristic of some complex and well composed poetry, such as in Milton's Paradise Lost.

A new line can begin with a lowercase or capital letter. New lines beginning with lowercase letters vaguely correspond with the shift from earlier to later poetry: for example, the poet John Ashbery usually begins his lines with capital letters prior to his 1991 book-length poem "Flow-Chart", whereas in and after "Flow-Chart" he almost invariably begins lines with lowercase letters unless the beginning of the line is also the beginning of a new sentence. There is, however, some much earlier poetry where new lines begin with lowercase letters.

Beginning a line with an uppercase letter when the beginning of the line does not coincide with the beginning of a new sentence is referred to by some as "majusculation". (this is an invented term derived from majuscule). The correct term is a coroneted verse.

In T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, where ambiguity abounds, a line break in the opening (ll. 5–7) starts things off.

Winter kept us warm, covering

Earth in forgetful snow, feeding

A little life with dried tubers.

Because the lines start with capitalized letters, Eliot could be saying "Earth" as the planet or "earth" as the soil.

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Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Signs and symptoms

Relation to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Relation to specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia

Causes

Acquired

Genetics

Developmental

Somatic

Diagnosis

Definitions

Types of testing

Modality-specificity and controversies

Characteristics

Subcategories

Treatment

History

Distinction

Connection

Intersections

Rituals

Names of the gods as true names

Magic and Abrahamic religions

Etymology

Ancient and medieval Near East

Mesopotamia

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Sabians

Asia

China

Japan

The Americas

Judaism

Christianity

Islam

Heliocentrism and Geocentrism

Galileo and Religion

Newton and Religion

General conventions in Western poetry

Degrees of license

Examples of line breaks

Shakespeare

Metre

Characteristics