2b - Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum & Planetarium

Observation: What did you choose? What do you see or hear or feel or think of in the choice you made? What is the subject of the work? If you chose a 'thing' what is the work made of and what techniques (colors, lines, shapes, textures)does the creator use? Be specific in your description. If you chose a place, be specific in your description of what you see or hear. Talk to your reader as though they cannot see the item but somehow must draw a painting of what you see or hear. 1 point





The museum that I chose is The Rosicrucian Eqyptian Museum and Planetarium located in San Jose. When someone thinks of museums in the Bay Area it is not one that quickly comes to mind, yet it is a fascinating place to visit. The museum contains the largest display of egyptian artifacts in the western United States. The current building opened in 1966 and it is modeled after the Temple of Ammon, Karnak. The museum is divided into four galleries, The Afterlife, Daily Life and Trade, Kingship and Religion and Shrines. It also has a full scale tomb replica. The artifacts include human and animal mummies, jewerly, pottery, and sculptures.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PXIgzRe_AY (Museum Pieces)


Interpretation: What is your choice about? Give specific examples to support this statement in 2 sentences; do so in a way that teaches us something about your choice. Make Paulo Freire proud! .75 point





I found ancient history fascinating. To look at artifacts and see a way of life that is foreign to the present, makes us see how far we have progressed through the wisdom of our forefathers.







Judgment: What led you to your choice? What do you think or feel about this choice? Why do you feel this way? Support your thoughts with specific observations. .5 point








This museum is not well known and I feel that there is a lot of history and information here. It is very interesting to see these artifacts and imagine life at that time.








Questioning: What else would you like to know about this choice? When completing the question section, lead your audience into the question by stating a fact you do know, yet you still have the related question. This way, both your audience and you will have an educational experience. Example: I learned that John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath was based on his personal experience working with farm workers. I would like to know if the characters he used in that book are fictitious or are they people he met? .5 point





In researching the museum, I found that it was started by the Rosicrucian Order - AMORC (Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis). Their motto is "The key to Universal Wisdom, Discover how extraordinary you really are". The questions of this order relate to the Master of Life - Who am I, What is my purpose - It is not a religious group, in fact, they have no religious connection and people from all faiths join the order. I would like to learn more about the order and how they teach people to achieve a "happier and healthier existence".








Although I chose the Rosicrucian Museum for its history and artifacts, after reading about the Rosicrucian order, I felt a closer link to the humanities program with its relation to philosophy as well as non western culture. The order through its Mastery of Life Program is "a school of practical mysticism, which encourages you to be open-minded, questioning, and to test the value of the principles you are learning by actively using them in your daily life." This is what Paulo Freire taught - to question ourselves daily.









5. Using your classmates work from last week, tell us one thing you learned from 1 student. Is this one thing some common experience you share or some experience that is completely different than what you experienced? Is this one thing related to our class theoretical foundation and if so, how? Is that one thing related to historical or cultural context of this country or a different one? Link that persons blog to this entry (eg cut paste that blog entry here) . .5 point

I learned from Monica B's blog that during the 1950's in San Francisco, the coffeehouse culture was established and it played an important role in social movements of the 60's. Although I lived in San Francisco in the 60's I was too young to know what was going on. It would be very interesting to learn more about that exciting time in its history. This is very much related to the cultural context of this country. The social activists that came together during that time, had a profound impact on the future.






http://humanities7mon.blogspot.com/



http://www.egyptianmuseum.org/


http://www.rosicrucian.org/