Mark Victor Hansen says : "Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful".
“possession or display of great skill or technique”
I’ve been creating mandalas since 1999. As a matter of fact this week is exactly 25 years since our trip to Egypt which ignited my passion for creating my own mandalas. Over the years I’ve explored several styles of designs: symmetry, asymmetry, hyperbolic tessellation, Tibetan, and abstract.
Also, I’ve explored a variety of media to use in…
Among the Dacians, the draco was undoubtedly seen by the army as a special protective symbol, while it also played an important role in the religious life of the people. The draco shows a religious syncretism between the wolf and the dragon as well as the serpent. It was supposed to encourage the Dacians and to scare their enemies.
The hollow dragon's head was mounted on a pole with a fabric tube affixed at the rear. In use, the draco was held up into the wind, or above the head of a horseman, where it filled with air and gave the impression it was alive while making a shrill sound as the wind passed through its strips of material.
Dacians marched into the battle accompanied by the howl of wolf-headed trumpets and following their sinister multicolored dragon-head standard. As intended, they made a terrifying audiovisual spectacle.
The draco first appears on Trajan's Column in Rome, a monument that depicts the Dacian wars of 101–102 AD and 105–106 AD. German historian Conrad Cichorius notes that, even though Dacians carry the draco, it was called the Scythian draco in Arrian's Tactica written around 136 AD. According to Ellis Minns, the dragon standards of the Arrian were those of the Dacians.
Some scholars such as Osborne (1985) and Ashmore (1961) consider that the draco was adopted by the Romans from the Dacians following their conquest. It became the standard of the cohort in the same way that the aquila or Imperial eagle was the standard of the Roman legion. The adopted standard in the Roman cavalry was borne by a draconarius. Later, the draco became an imperial ensign.