Last week’s rocks have faced the test of time and converted itself into sand. Now we pass to the Hourglass.
Indeed, before being associated with death, the hourglass has its roots in time. The falling of sand, one of the first measurements of time, symbolizes instability and the constant transformation of things. It’s natural then that this object would remind people of “memento mori”, i.e “remember you will die”.
The hourglass is the main attribute of the gods of Time, Chronos or Aion.
Yet, given that this object needs to be turned constantly, it also conveys the idea of a cyclic time – reenacting the constant return of things and actions.
The hourglass is also a reminder of measurement in the sense that one has to use time wisely, preserving oneself and not simply throwing away the gift of life. Ascetic figures are often depicted with hourglass in western tradition.
Now you take the floor, what do you associate with the hourglass?
Whenever I have the chance to look at an hourglass i am terrified how fast time can go away..the sand going minute by minute…there is nothing to do to make it stop…so it just urges me to life every minute to the full('carpe diem')…as every minute is a present of the Present(time).
thank you, georgiana
An Hourglass… this is an interesting concept.
It is mind boggling… I feel like there is big secret there, a key to unknown realms, in time and the hourglass, but I can’t figure out what it is.
Now, thinking about it, it signifies Change. If we are in the present, we are in the present, not in the past or the future.. for that present moment, neither past nor future exist.
Looking at the sand passing through the hourglass, it is in constant motion… it never stops.
Everything is in constant motion, even the cells in our bodies.
Except… God, or the soul?!
If we are in the present, we are changing with time, yet at the same time, are in the present…
It’s an illusion depending how you look at it. When one is in the present, no past or future can exist, therefore there is only the source, therefore we just Are, existing.
Time, precious time, to act upon our Divine mission, and realize our goals in life, with a smile on our face and a big open heart.
The hourglass has been an instrument for measuring the motion of Time since probably Man learnt to quantify time other than gazing at the sun and the Sun dial.
Sand has never been in no one’s grip always, or made a footprint last a lifetime. It has neither blown the way one wanted it to except what the Wind decreed.
The shape of the hourglass is figure 8. Maybe one can relate it to a woman’s or maybe not. 8 also stands for the mystic number.
To remind people of the essence that there is only one certainity in Life and that is to realise that what slips away through the hand and cannot be caught is gone for ever..
Nothing is permanent.
The Rock is broken down by the Wind into Sand and The sand will one day blow away as dust. Flesh and bones we stand and one day too the bones will rust and turn to dust.
Back to where we came from .
The cycle will never end.Because when you turn the houglass to its side.. it means so.. the symbol of Infinity! Two loops merging into one.. where does it start from where does it end.. No one knew , no one can tell..
The hour glass — the sands of time. Crystalline silicon on display within vitreous silicon. It has two lids or two bases or two components which can swap functions, depending upon one’s point of view.
The hour glass is a beautiful instrument. It’s curves remind one of a woman’s body, but it’s also beautiful because it’s an instrument which measures approximately, not exactly. Approximation is human and beautiful. Precision is sometimes useful, but it’s not human.
I asociate the hourglass with time, when I think of time I think is unstopable, you cannot stop time no matter what.
Dear Heart, i really enjoyed your post.. :):)
Once, i dated a man who was obsessed with time..so if i was late for a little, we would quarell..like squarells :)..
and for what??? for time..for some people, time is so precious..
or others say time is money…
Relax people..enjoy life..If you want to live, go slowly..
If you want to rest, go fast..
time is an invention man has made to organize his life and feel safer somehow..
Or maybe there was a king, and he had insomnia..and when the sun would rise he would feel exhausted..so instead he asked one of his associates to come up with an idea to brake up the day..so that he would count and he would finally sleep…
one past tewelve, 20 past twelve, 25 past twelve..this is really exhausting!!!!.and so he finally slept!!!!
But what i want to point out , is that it is really exhausting to chase time, and scatter yourself into piecies in order to make all the jobs done..
So we should come to terms with the time passing by…
We should come to terms with the fact that this is the way life goes on…So why not live this moment?? forget time…every moment is another new moment!! :)
Love and Graditude
Annie
Dear Heart,
You make me laugh..! I’d be crazy with all the tic-tic around!
Have a nice day.
As for Mary Baxter, the hourglass reminds me of boiled eggs for breakfast. We used a minute glass to time it in my family too. Now, what comes to mind, is my husband, who is a “clock-nut”. He collects antique clocks, and we have clocks on many walls, and have clocks in all shapes and forms all over our home, I don’t know how many. Every Sunday morning he winds the big old clocks, or they would stop. The ticking and dinging and danging sometimes is a bit too much. Still, I find them contributing to the soul in the house, as giving a rhythm to our life.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, above our television, we have a hyper modern atomic clock, which updates at any moment the correct time according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology Time and Frequency Division, which transmits the exact time signal continuously throughout the United States. Nothing less! Personally, I find men strange sometimes. A lot of the time.
One must pay attention and actively turn the glass for the future to occur in measurement of
hourglass time. How visually a minute flys!
How long a hour? a day, a life..how precious a moment. How short a thought! endurance
A single thing is sure: the future is various from the past. But the fundamental laws of the physical work in the same way in ahead or behind in the time, nevertheless we perceive sliding of the time in a single direction: towards the future. The time is asymmetric. What we have made in actions cannot be made on the contrary. We cannot transform omelette in an egg and we remember the alone the past and not future. (Sciences)
For me, hourglasses represent one’s rythm..ones’s life..One should not follow the others’ unless he has the same rythm, the same pace of life…
Also they remind me of a free fall..sand falls and keeps falling until there is no sand left to fall..so maybe i could relate to the sand one’s tears…
Also, i think of transformation, when i see an hourglass..the sand – can symbolize of a person – has changed, has moved, and gone to another place, but it is still the same sand..what has changed are the location of the grains of sand – of what a human is made of (emotions, experiences)-from the movement part..That process can depict the lessons he learns through life, and how he changes through that time.
Also i think that there is a pause , after all the sand has gone down..SOmething has ended..’ a little death’ and the hand is needed to turn the hourglass upside down..that Hand is God..is the Great Mother..setting the Universe into constant motion..And each one of us is a grain of sand..So small yet so important..
Love and Graditude
Annie
Dear Andreas,
I understand your opinion, and the metaphor of the book is peculiarly appropriate. Yes I think this is it. Though God may sometimes close the book quickly for annoying himself. And for others, He like to let them open, just to see until where love is going to grow, or until when stupidity could be written further.
Yes my last opinion came like that. I’m not sure about. But as a holy man thought before, I’m sure we could win through the death. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m too sad, that one day we’re not going to share with the people we love. That they’re still in our heart, so deeply, and even we hold our hand out to them, they are not here anymore, I mean, in flesh and bones.
That we need to hear their voices, and advices, as before, and curiously they’re here, but not. They stand just like a souvenir. But how great is this remembrance of all that great persons that passed into our life, and also, on earth…
Dear wanbliska
A living death, indeed. But in the positive way.
It’s just saddening to think nobody knows that i ever lived. Well, i just don’t want to be end up as an unknown.
hehe. You know, i had this imagination, we are books in God’s library. When God read a book, He become the character of the book *which is us* and read the book by living our lifes. So, God lives in us and live our lives. And when the story ended, the book won’t be destroyed, but will be safely keep in the library. Waiting to be read by Him again whenever He wants. It’s quite similar with returning to bodies concept, isn’t it?^^
well, it’s just me talking. Don’t take it too seriously.
hmm, i’m not quite agree with your last opinion. Oldness and death are not caused by measurement that man made. Hourglass is just a tool, without it we’ll still grow old and dying..
Dear Andreas
Thank you so much for your answer. I see! So I WILL have all my skills but won’t be up to use it. But if I have the memory about, it would be as a living death!
I prefer to think as Bouddhist that we could return to a body whenever we want.
I think I’m quite eye-opened to feel the difference between life and death, once I’ll be on the other side.
But maybe I’m too selfish indeed.
Love.
__
Hourglass as clocks and calendars are the most stupid things man invented to think he could measure the notion of time. That way, he invented oldness and death.