jburka@silver.ucs.indiana.EDU (Jeff Burka) (06/13/91)
Jorn writes: >Maybe we should all take a deep breath, hold hands, and chant "Om" or >something... Shouldn't that be "om mani padme hum"? (BTW, does anybody know exactly why KaTe used this in "Strange Phenomena"? The very first time I heard the song I got really freaked out 'cause either that day or the day before I'd finished reading Heinlein's _Fear No Evil_, in which the "om mani padme hum" mantra is used quite a bit. I'd never heard the phrase before, and it was just a bit too much of a coincidence to read the phrase for the first time and then suddenly hear it in a song about strange phenomena) Jeff -- |Jeffrey C. Burka | "Show what you are / Be strong, be true | |jburka@silver.ucs.indiana.edu | Time for you to / Be who you are." | |jburka@amber.ucs.indiana.edu | --Happy Rhodes |
scott@cs.heriot-watt.ac.UK (Scott Telford) (06/16/91)
In article <9106121704.AA26212@EDDIE.MIT.EDU> jburka@silver.ucs.indiana.EDU (Jeff Burka) writes: >Shouldn't that be "om mani padme hum"? > >(BTW, does anybody know exactly why KaTe used this in "Strange Phenomena"? ...And what does it mean, anyway? I never got any Latin at school 8^(... ...and, what about the Latin bits in "Waking the Witch" too? _____________________________________________________________________________ | Scott Telford, Dept of Computer Science, scott@cs.hw.ac.uk | | Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK. scott%hwcs@ukc.uucp | |_____ "Expect the unexpected." (The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy) ______|
padraigm@well.UUCP (Patrick McFarland) (06/17/91)
In article <3244@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk> scott@cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk (Scott Telford) writes: > >In article <9106121704.AA26212@EDDIE.MIT.EDU> >jburka@silver.ucs.indiana.EDU (Jeff Burka) writes: >>Shouldn't that be "om mani padme hum"? >> >>(BTW, does anybody know exactly why KaTe used this in "Strange Phenomena"? > >...And what does it mean, anyway? I never got any Latin at school 8^(... > >...and, what about the Latin bits in "Waking the Witch" too? "om mani padme hum" isn't Latin. It's Sanskrit. Probably the most well- known Hindu mantra, or chant. "om" and "hum" are "power words", which have no ordinarily recognized meaning, although "om" or more correctly "aum" supposedly represents the continuing process of creation, existence and destruction. "mani padme" means literally "the jewel is in the lotus". Symbolically, it represents union of the human with the divine. In some sects (no pun intended), it also represents sexual union, the jewel standing for the lingam, or phallus, and the lotus for the yoni, or vagina. BTW, "aum" is also used frequently as a mantra in its own right. As for the Latin in Waking the Witch, I have Hounds of Love on casette (sigh, I know. There's no excuse for not having CD now), and the lyrics aren't given. Perhaps I missed a post which listed them? Pat -- "And a thousand thousand slimy things lived on, and so did I"-STC "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro"-HST "You're either part of the solution or you're part of the precipitate-Wilbur "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing"-Me