+ Welcome to QUEEN CALIFIA-ORNIA - The Legendary Black Death Warrior Goddess Who Builds Cities by the Sea +

+ Welcome to QUEEN CALIFIA-ORNIA - The Legendary Black Death Warrior Goddess Who Builds Cities by the Sea +

Watch out - She's a hottie, rrrrr...

Califia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Califia (aka Calafia) is the name of a legendary Black Amazon warrior queen, associated with the mythical Island of California. The US state of California is thought by some to be named after Queen Califia (see Origin of the name California).

The legend of Queen Califia appears to date back to the novel Las sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián), written around 1510 by the Spanish writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo:

It is known that to the right of the Indies there exists an island called California very near the terrestrial paradise; and peopled by black women among whom there was not a single man since they lived in the way of the Amazons. They had beautiful robust bodies, spirited courage and great strength. Their island was the most impregnable in the world with its cliffs and headlands and rocky coasts. Their weapons were all of gold . . . because in all the island there was no metal except gold. And there ruled over that island of California a queen of majestic proportions, more beautiful than all others, and in the very vigor of her womanhood. She was not petite, nor blond, nor golden-haired. She was large, and black as the ace of clubs. But the prejudice of color did not then exist even among the most brazen-faced or the most copper-headed. For, as you shall learn, she was reputed the most beautiful of women; and it was she, O Californias! who accomplished great deeds, she was valiant and courageous and ardent with a brave heart, and had ambitions to execute nobler actions than had been performed by any other ruler — Queen Califia.

This document helped to precipitate the Spanish hunt for gold in North America. In 1536 when the explorer Hernán Cortés landed with his crew in what is known today as Baja California, they believed that they had arrived in Califia's land. A portion of the original of this document Las sergas de Esplandián was translated by Edward Everett Hale for The Antiquarian Society, and the story was printed in the Atlantic Monthly magazine in 1864.[1] By 1770, the entire Pacific coast controlled by Spain had been given the name California, and the Spanish speaking people who lived there were called Californios.

California Amazons

Dora Beale Polk, The Island of California, A History of the Myth, page 126:

In describing his California Amazons as "mujeres negras" Montalvo was following the color prejudices of the period. In his time, and in some places still, black describes any complexion other than white. John Mandeville describes a tribe neighboring his Amazons as "black enough and more than black . . . and they be clept Moors." When the explorers met the inhabitants of what they believed was "Ind," they lumped them automatically into the dark-skinned category. Attitudes from the New World, the Crusades, and the invasion of the Moors were fused in Montalvo's California Amazons.[2]

A 1926 portrayal of Queen Califia and her Amazons is found in a mural in the Room of the Dons at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, California. It was created for the opening of the hotel in 1926 by Maynard Dixon[3] and Frank Von Sloun.

The Spirit of California, Califia, depicted in a mural on the show building of the Golden Dreams attraction at Disney's California Adventure.

The Spirit of California

"Golden Dreams" was a 23-minute film showing the history of California through several recreated scenes, narrated by Whoopi Goldberg as Califia, the Queen of California. The attraction, atDisney's California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, opened with the park on February 8, 2001, and closed on September 7, 2008. It is open only to school groups until April of 2009, when it will be demolished to make way for the construction of a Little Mermaid dark ride.

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Origin of the name California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This 1562 map by Diego Gutiérrez was the first map to print the toponym California.
The toponym California is currently used by three North American entities—in the United States, by the state of California; and in Mexico, by the states ofBaja California ("Lower California") and Baja California Sur ("South Lower California") (collectively, these three areas constitute Las Californias)—and shared by many other places in other parts of the world whose names derive from these.

Alta California ("Upper California") was the name of the State of California when it was still part of Mexico, and the Sea of Cortés is also known as theGulf of California.

Several origins have been suggested for the word "California", includingSpanish, Latin, South Asian, and Aboriginal American origins. All of these are disputed.[1] The following paragraphs illustrate some of the extant claims.

California originally referred to the entire region composed of the Mexican peninsula now known as Baja California and land in the current US states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming, which was eventually distinguished as Alta California. In even earlier times, the boundaries of the Sea of Cortés and the Pacific shore were only partially explored and California was shown on early maps as an island.

The island of California, from a map circa 1650. Restored.

In the minds of European explorers, an island populated by Amazons off the coast of the Indies was a long-established expectation. The earliest known application of the name "California" to this island of the Amazons was in the romance novel Las Sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián) by Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, whose earliest surviving edition (but not first edition) is from 1510. The book described the Island of California as being east of theAsian mainland, "very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by blackwomen, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons." The Island was ruled by Queen Califia. In his work, the author drew on a long-standing European belief in such an island.

Know that on the right hand from the Indies exists an island called California very close to a side of the Earthly Paradise; and it was populated by black women, without any man existing there, because they lived in the way of the Amazons. They had beautiful and robust bodies, and were brave and very strong. Their island was the strongest of the World, with its cliffs and rocky shores. Their weapons were golden and so were the harnesses of the wild beasts that they were accustomed to domesticate and ride, because there was no other metal in the island than gold.

–Las Sergas de Esplandián, (novela de caballería)
by García Ordóñez de Montalvo.
Published in Seville in 1510.

Since then, that unknown Amazon's Island came to be known as California.

Some scholars speculate the Song of Roland, an 11th century Old French epic poem, may have served as the inspiration for the nameCalifornia. It refers to the defeat suffered August 15, 778, in the retreat of Charlemagne's army at the hands of the Muslim army inBattle of Roncevaux Pass in the Pyrenees. On line 2924 of the poem, which is in verse number CCIX (209), the word Califerne is one of the lands mentioned, with no indication of its geographic location. It is, however, named after a reference to Affrike, or Africa.

Morz est mis nies, ki tant me fist cunquere
Encuntre mei revelerunt li Seisne,
E Hungre e Bugre e tante gent averse,
Romain, Puillain et tuit icil de Palerne
E cil d'Affrike e cil de Califerne.
My nephew's dead, who won for me such realms!
Against me then the Saxon will rebel,
Hungar, Bulgar, and many hostile men,
Romain, Puillain, all those are in Palerne,
And in Affrike, and those in Califerne;

–Song of Roland, Verse CCIX (i.e. 209; lines 2920–2924), 11th c.

"Since the Roland poem concerns the "evil" Saracens, it's possible that the poet derived Califerne from caliph. Montalvo might also have been influenced by such similar names as Californo and Calafornina in Sicily or Calahorra in Spain."[2]

This notion of a place of women without men echoes a passage from the diary of Christopher Columbus's first voyage:

The Indians told him that along that route he would find the island of Matinino, which they said was populated by women without men, to which the admiral replied he wanted very much to bring five or six of them to the king and queen… but they said that it was certain that they [the women] existed and that at a certain time of the year men came to them [women] from the aforementioned island of Carib, which they said was ten or twelve leagues away, and if they gave birth to a son they sent it to the island of the men, and if a girl, they kept her with them.

The lure of an earthly paradise, as well as the search for the fabled Strait of Anián, helped motivate Hernán Cortés,[citation needed]following his conquest of Mexico, to send several expeditions in the late 1530s and early 1540s to the west coast of New Spain. The first expedition reached the Gulf of California and Baja California, and proved that California was in fact a peninsula. Nevertheless, the idea that California was an island persisted for well over a century and was included on many maps. The Spanish gave the name "California" to the peninsula and to the lands north, including both Baja California and Alta California, the region that became the present-day US state.

Fourth carta de relación of Hernán Cortés

In his fourth carta de relación (a letter to Spain narrating events of the conquest), datelined Mexico (meaning what is now Mexico City)15 October 1524, Hernán Cortés wrote to the king of Spain about certain information about a legendary island, information that had been brought to him by the captain who had achieved the conquest of Colima.

And in the same manner I was brought a story from the men of the province of Cihuatlán, which reinforced completely that there is an island populated by women, without a single male, and at certain times men come from the mainland, who are granted access by the women… and if they give birth to women [sic], they keep them; and if men, they throw them out of their company; and that this island is ten days journey from this province; and that many of them have gone there and have seen it. They tell me also that it is very rich in pearls and gold; I will prepare myself to know the truth and tell it at length to your majesty.

–Hernán Cortés. Fourth carta de relación.

The name of California is applied

The name California is the fifth-oldest surviving European place-name in the US and was applied to what is now the southern tip ofBaja California as the island of California by a Spanish expedition led by Diego de Becerra and Fortun Ximenez who landed there in 1533 at the bequest of Hernando Cortes.[3]

Cortés, on his third journey of exploration (1535–36), tried unsuccessfully to establish a colony at La Paz near the southern tip of the recently discovered Baja California Peninsula under a royal charter granting him that land.

Hernando de Alarcón, sent by the viceroy Mendoza—an enemy of Cortés—on a 1540 expedition to verify Cortés's discoveries, referred to the inhospitable lands as California, after the imaginary island in Las Sergas, discussed above. There is no question about Hernando de Alarcón's use of the term, nor about his allusion to Las Sergas, but there is question as to whether this is the first use of the name to refer to those lands and whether he intended the name as mockery. Alarcón provides a clear link from the literary, imaginary California to the real place, but his usage cannot be proven to be the actual origin, in that the name might predate him.[4][5][6]

Today the name California is applied to the Baja California Peninsula, the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortés), the US State of California, and the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur.

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Queen Califia's Magical Circle Garden

Escondido, California

Queen Califia’s Magical Circle garden is a definite must-see in a tour of weird Southern California attractions.

Huge sculptures are covered with thousands and thousands of bright shimmering glimmering pieces of colored and mirrored glass.

Queen Califia is the legendary Amazon queen that California is named after. She is 11 feet tall and stands atop a 13-foot tall eagle.

That's tall!

The eagle is cool! It has 5 legs and a mosaic night-sky dome under its belly. So look up when you walk under the eagle!

There are tall totems surrounding the queen and eagle. They have a variety of all sorts of different creatures and symbols on them. The artist, Niki de Saint Phalle, took a mix of legends and myths from many different cultures all over the world and put them together in bright colorful totems.

This is the only sculpture garden in the U.S. by Niki de Saint Phalle. Her other sculpture garden The Tarot Garden, is in the Tuscany region of Italy.

Queen Califia's Magical Circle garden is tucked away in an undeveloped portion of Kit Carson Park in Escondido, California.

Directions: From I-15 in Escondido, take the Via Rancho Parkway exit east. It becomes Bear Valley Parkway. Turn left at Mary Lane. (The San Pasqual High School is on the right where you're supposed to turn.) Follow this almost to the end (straight across is the path to the garden) and there's parking off to the right. It is about 1/4 mile walk to Queen Califia’s Magical Circle garden.

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and then we have the Original KALI -


Kali is a destructive and devouring Hindu goddess. She is a terrifying aspect of Devi, who in other forms appears as peaceful and benevolent. Kali is commonly associated with death, violence, sexuality, and, paradoxically, with motherly love. Noted for killing the demon Raktavija, she is usually depicted as a hideous, black-faced hag smeared with blood. In her four hands she holds, variously, a sword, a shield, the severed head of a giant, or a noose for strangling. Nearly naked, she wears a garland of skulls and a girdle of severed hands. She is often shown standing or dancing on her husband, Shiva. Until the 19th century the thugs of India worshiped Kali and offered their victims to her. In the late 20th century she became a symbol of feminine empowerment in some circles.

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Kali
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kali


Kali (Sanskrit: Bengali: both Kālī), also known as Kalika(Bengali: Kālikā), is a Hindu goddess associated with eternal energy. The name Kali means "black", but has by folk etymology come to mean "force of time (kala)". Despite her negative connotations, she is today considered the goddess of time and change. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilation still has some influence. More complex Tantric beliefs sometimes extend her role so far as to be the "ultimate reality" or Brahman. She is also revered as Bhavatarini (literally "redeemer of the universe"). Comparatively recent devotional movements largely conceive Kali as a benevolent mother goddess.
Kali is represented as the consort of god Shiva, on whose body she is often seen standing. She is associated with many other Hindu goddesses like Durga,Bhadrakali, Sati, Rudrani, Parvati and Chamunda. She is the foremost among the Dasa-Mahavidyas, ten fierce Tantric goddesses.[1]

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More later on how CONAN THE BARBARIAN (in his 4th movie) defeats CALIFIA (by slashing her 'in half', not unlike the current budget) and 'takes over' her ISLAND!!! What a kawinkydink!!!