In preparation for the numerous Hindu autumn festivals like Diwali, Dussehra or Durga PujaWorshipers world wide purchase flowers for ritual worship in temples, outdoor ceremonies, or on altars at home.

There are markets throughout India There are at all times flower sellers hereSale of freshly cut marigolds, roses and lotus flowers. Devotees offer flowers and flower garlands to Hindu deities reminiscent of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Ganesha, the obstacle remover; or the warrior goddess Durga.

India's richest temple, the Sri Venkateswara Temple at Tirumala in southern India, was used 3 tons of flowers during a flower bath and procession Ceremony in 2024. The demand for flowers within the service is so great that two sisters from Bengaluru, Yeshodha and Rhea Karuturi, began a subscription-based service in 2019 Provide fresh flowers for pujas or ritual services across India.

Hindu texts describe worship with flowers as considered one of 16 “upacaras” or “services” to the divine. During temple rituals, 'Pujaris', priests liable for presenting offerings to the deity, place flowers on the feet or drape them in garlands across the neck of the icon of the deity kept within the temple. Flowers are placed on a puja table on the feet of the image with the stems facing the devotee.

As Scholar of South Asian religionsI do know that stories within the “Puranas,” religious texts probably written between the second and tenth centuries, describe why gods and goddesses prefer certain flowers. The Puranas, loosely translated as “Ancient Tales,” contain popular stories about Hindu gods and goddesses, kings and queens, and sages and other cultural heroes.

Pleased by the gods

In her Examining the Use of Sanskrit Ritual Manuals in central India the Indologist Gudrun Bühnenemann noted that ancient and modern followers adhere to elaborate rules for the usage of flowers within the worship of specific deities.

For example, the manuals state that basil is favored by the Hindu god Vishnu, but should never be sacrificed to the god Ganesha. Lord Shiva bestows blessings on those that worship him by offering leaves from the crab apple tree. However, crabapple leaves should never be offered to Surya, the sun.

The “Skandha Purana” – the longest Purana with around 81,000 verses – is devoted to the deity Skandha, a son of the god Shiva and the goddess Parvati. The text offers a gradation of flowers culminating within the Superiority of Jasmine or “Jati” flower for the worship of Vishnu. “The jati flower is better than all other flowers… the man who duly offers me a magnificent garland of a thousand jati flowers… has lived in my celestial city for billions of kalpas (ages),” Vishnu explains within the text.

In her classic study “Offering flowers, feeding skulls: Popular goddess worship in West Bengal“, religious scholar June McDaniel discusses traditional practices of worshiping Kali, the fearsome and protective mother goddess, who is claimed to be decorated with red hibiscus flowers. Red flowers are widely believed to be sacred to Kali.

The 14th chapter of the “Shiva Purana” comprises a piece on “Instructions for the Worship of Shiva.” Those who desire wealth should worship Shiva with flowers or petals of “Kamala” or lotus flower, chrysanthemum or marigold. It is claimed that Shiva is worshiped with 100 flowers increase one's wealth and wipe away all sins.

Flowers can sometimes displease the gods

The Puranas also explain which flowers might displease the gods. Red flowers reminiscent of plumeria and people of the screw pine must not be offered to the god Shiva. The Shiva Purana actually explains why the “ketaki,” or screw pine flower, should never be offered to Shiva in worship.

Once upon a time, because the story goes, there have been the gods Vishnu and Brahma discussed which ones was the upper deity when suddenly a beam of blinding light appeared between them. They decided to research. Vishnu transformed himself right into a boar and dug a tunnel within the earth to go looking for the origin of the Lingam of Light. Riding on a goose, his divine vehicle, Brahma flew upward to find the extent of the sunshine.

After much digging, Vishnu stated that he couldn’t find the fatherland of the sunshine. However, as Brahma flew upwards, he encountered a Ketaki flower that had fallen from a close-by branch. Brahma convinced the flower to support a false claim that he had reached the highest of the beam of sunshine.

Just then, Shiva appeared from the sunshine and cursed each Brahma and the Ketaki flower for his or her dishonesty. Because of his arrogance and deception, Brahma now had few followers. Although the Ketaki flower is fragrant and pleasing to the attention, it’s cursed by Shiva never to be offered to him as part of formality worship.

However, Shiva later modified the curse to permit the usage of the Ketaki to worship him in the course of the popular festival called Great Night of Shiva or Mahashivratri. Due to increasing demand, prices of Ketaki flowers are increasing during this annual spring festival.

However, in one of the crucial popular Hindu texts, the flower offered is less vital to the deity than the attitude of the devotee making the offering. The Bhagavad Gita or Song of the Lord says: Deity Krishna explained that he’ll accept any sincere devotion, whatever the form of flower: “Whoever offers me a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or a water with sincere devotion, I will accept.”

Lotus for Lakshmi

During the upcoming fall holiday season, believers world wide will honor many deities, including the Mother Goddess, with flowers and other rituals. Prominent among the many deities shall be Sri Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and fortune.

Lakshmi is depicted sitting on a lotus throne while also holding a lotus flower in a single hand. The lotus flower grows in muddy ponds or ponds, but in addition blooms above water. The blooming lotus symbolizes most of the qualities related to Sri Lakshmi reminiscent of purity, prosperity and spiritual enlightenment.

As devotees the world over lovingly welcome the goddess into their homes on Diwali, the festival of sunshine, they’re sure to supply Lakshmi her favorite flower – the lotus.

Two years after the death of legendary French designer Thierry Mugler, his brand, now led by creative director Casey Cadwallader, continues to push forward Vision of the Creator from “A new woman… wild, sensual, powerful and enigmatic”.

Mugler became an icon of high fashion within the Nineteen Eighties, however it wasn't until the twenty first century that he shaped the mainstream imagination. He spent his last many years dressing mega-celebrities like Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, and in the method almost single-handedly invented the form of our current pop divas: what he called “that.”glamazon” see.

The classics include corseted waists, futuristic metal plates, exaggerated breasts and shoulders, insect- and reptilian-like garments, skin-tight bodysuits and lots of theatrical opulence. This look stays central to the Mugler brand and can likely be reflected within the designs of Mugler's upcoming Fall/Winter 2024-2025 show at Paris Fashion Week.

When Mugler died in 2022, it was said that he made headlines “Feminism sexy and powerful” and called him a “Visionary who’s serious about women”. However, originally of his profession, Mugler was often there Accused of sexism and from be offensive to women.

Despite the plain shift in public opinion toward his work over the past few many years, the vision that earned him criticism remains to be present in Mugler's brand identity and continues to merit closer examination.

Sex subjects or objects?

One of Mugler's last critics was feminist scholar Sheila Jeffreys, who accused him of reducing women “Objects for the sexual arousal of men”. His designs hindered respiration, distorted the body, hypersexualized women and portrayed them as insects. For Jeffreys, this was all evidence of this “extreme misogyny” and that girls are treated as things bending to the need of the (male) Creator, relatively than as human beings.

But many insisted this was a misunderstanding. Mugler harnessed femininity and made it a source of power relatively than subjugation. Feminist art historian Linda Nochlin said Mugler's approach was “so extreme that these women are not sex objects; they are sexual subjects”. The journalist Danièle Bott saw him not as a one that objectified the body, but relatively as “embark on a spiritual quest in search of perfection, a celebration of the body cult”.”

These designs sexualize women to the purpose where they turn from objects to subjects; so close that they will not be objectified but celebrated.

Last Dune: Part Two premieresAmerican actor Zendaya stunned fans in a vintage futuristic robot suit from Mugler's archives, complete with see-through buttocks and breasts. The actress was celebrated as “otherworldly”“metallic goddess”not only a sexual object.

Time and time again, Mugler's designs reach reviving an almost religious attitude of reverence towards women, giving them a robust feeling and appearance. But where does this power come from?

Divine things

One aspect of Thierry Mugler's creative genius was the range of characters that populated his shows: mermaids, dominatrixes, vampires, Amazons, cowgirls, ancient goddesses, bird women, insect women and space-age robots. There was all the time a brand new, exciting heroine to thrill his audience. But this diversity also reflected a fundamental principle of Mugler's vision: in all these manifestations, the Mugler woman is actually a fantasy, unreal and shape-shifting.

This ever-changing trait makes a Mugler woman an alluring mystery. That's why it's also necessary that her body looks not possible.

When Mugler designed an illusionary water-dripping flesh-colored dress for Kim Kardashian's 2019 Met Gala appearancethe result was so extreme People online wondered if ribs had been removed. But the painfully corseted Latex was essential. His strangeness transformed Kardashian from a person of flesh and bones into a robust one “Raindrop Queen”.

It is unclear whether that is the form of empowerment that feminists should strive for. The philosopher Simone de Beauvoir warned about this in The second gender: “As powerful as [a goddess] may appear, it is defined by ideas created by the male consciousness.”

With George Michael Too funky music video, it's Michael within the role of cameraman, watching these divine supermodels dominate the catwalk in Thierry Mugler's creations. Being a fantasy is an exhilarating experience but requires a spectator, a worshiper. And worship is a tough thing because the facility it gives is precarious and unstable.

Fashion critic Marylou Luther noticed that Mugler sent “Super supermodel Pat Cleveland designs heaven as the Virgin Mary One season she is (…) the next banished to hell as the bride of Lucifer.” In her eyes, this was just one in all him “playful disrespect”. But this oscillation is emblematic of the core logic of “woman as fantasy.” To remain a mystery, a stimulating enigma, she have to be an ethereal goddess one moment and a devilish vampire the following.

We needs to be careful here. Being a fantasy is a double-edged sword and accommodates the seeds of each adoration and deep hatred. Mugler's cult of girls as transcendental goddesses is dangerous because it may well quickly result in demonizing women and viewing them because the embodiment of evil. In fact, it requires this twist. At some point, even the brightest angel becomes boring and predictable.

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