Auras are real

Hurrah! Auras are real (I knew that of course, but it's nice to see science catching up with magic). Humans glow in visible light.

The human body literally glows, emitting a visible light in extremely small quantities at levels that rise and fall with the day, scientists now reveal. In fact, virtually all living creatures emit very weak light, which is thought to be a byproduct of biochemical reactions involving free radicals. The researchers found the body glow rose and fell over the day, with its lowest point at 10 a.m. and its peak at 4 p.m., dropping gradually after that. These findings suggest there is light emission linked to our body clocks, most likely due to how our metabolic rhythms fluctuate over the course of the day.

(via Geekologie)

I can't see auras but I can feel them as heat.

Naomi and Ruth

I just put up a post at my other blog about Naomi and Ruth as depicted in art over the centuries (a search inspired by recent posts at Monkey Mind and Jesus in Love), and remembered the poem by John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale, that mentions Ruth.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

I particularly liked this painting, from a blogpost entitled Ruth and Naomi: The Bible on Lesbians. I like the pinky desert landscape. It looks as if they are just going to kiss...

Ruth and Naomi, Orpah departing
by Philip Hermogenes Calderon (1833-1898)

And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.

Ruth 1:16-17