6.23.2006
(Pagan) News of Note
My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.
Since I mentioned comic books yesterday, Neilalien has pointed out another Pagan-friendly comic in his round-up of favorite books at this years MoCCA Festival.
"From the website: "The WEIRD SISTER anthology contains three stories about Daleth, a modern witch who finds herself alone in a hostile Brooklyn. Luckily, she's got a host of the old gods and a grumpy black ghost dog at her side." Neilalien enjoyed this book- although he'd probably like to see more interesting powers than "one big move that takes out the baddie and ends the story", although that might not jive with Daleth's values to only use her great powers under extreme duress. (Also more God- and context-specific manifestations: if the action takes place on a dock on the water, Neilalien would rather see summoned ondines or Poseidon instead of a fireball from Diana (although Diana/Artemis does protect children, so some context is in the story).) This book is a perfect smallpress recommendation for the many people in that apparent Venn-Diagram overlap of Dr. Strange fans, horror fans, walkers of pagan spiritual paths, etc."
The Guardian lets us know that Stonehenge is a boring place to visit (unless you happen to be a Druid).
"The main problem is that they made it too small. "Bloody hell, is that it?" said my traveling companion recently, as we drove along the A303. "It's like a miniature model of Stonehenge". Pyramids, temples, famous people, they're always disappointingly small, but Stonehenge is especially so, I think, because of pictures in schoolbooks of hairy dudes hauling massive rocks along on tree-trunk rollers. The problem used to be surmountable, because wandering among the stones, they did indeed seem massive. And there was a magic about the place - you could touch the same cold stone the hairy dudes touched more than 5,000 years ago, admire the beautiful lichen, feel the power. Not any more though, unless you're a druid, an official modern-day hairy dude. I know it's for all the right reasons that visitors aren't allowed among the stones, but looking at it from behind a fence, with a bunch of scary-looking guards making sure you don't make a run for it, is not the same. It's the difference between seeing an animal in the wild and an animal at the zoo. Oh, and the noise of all that traffic doesn't really help either."
Darn those preservationists!
The Financial Times looks at the cultural (and pre-Christian) history of the drink mezcal.
"Like agave, the indigenous people of Oaxaca are tenacious. They have held on to their ancient culture despite centuries of hostility from church and state. In remote villages no Spanish is spoken, and 16 native languages are still in daily use by almost half of the population of Oaxaca, an area roughly the size of Portugal. The city of Oaxaca is one of the most perfectly preserved and architecturally harmonious colonial cities in Latin America. Once a year groups representing all parts of the state come together here for the Guelaguetza Festival to honour Centeotl, the goddess of tender maize. For two weeks in July an intoxicating mix of music, song, and dance take over the elegant plazas and shady parks of the city."
In "Da Vinci" news, conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute has reprinted an article from The National Review by Michael Novak that claims the novel by Dan Brown (and the movie inspired by it) is trying to replace typical monotheism with a new form of monotheism.
"But Brown has yet more to lay out in his book. "The quest for the Holy Grail is literally the quest to kneel before the bones of Mary Magdalene. A journey to pray at the feet of the outcast one, the lost sacred feminine"--to kneel as in a new religion, a pre-Jewish, pre-Christian religion. Miraculously, Brown keeps for this new religion a characteristic that no other pagan religion ever shared: It is monotheistic, and radiates a powerful unifying truth...One of the most sophomoric parts of The Da Vinci Code is Brown's patronizing advice to Christians: Well, if that's what you believe, that's true for you; if that's the sort of dependency you need, go right on leaning on it. And get over the idea that Jesus is God. In other words: Learn from me, ye Christians, that your faith is in vain. The religion of the Sacred Feminine is the coming attraction. Good luck with your new religion, Mr. Brown."
I would say that this is a new opinion, but Steven I. Weiss at The Canonist blog has been all over the "new religion" springing forth from "Da Vinci" meme for a while now.
"The Da Vinci Code's theories will outshine its critics' as the flick comes out in May, and we'll hear of at least one group actually taking up the religion."
Finally, in a sad bit of news, I recently learned that blogger and cultural mythologist Maggie Macary has passed away.
"I am so very very sorry to be writing you this news. Maggie has died. I discovered her on the bedroom floor Monday afternoon. A coroner still has to establish cause of death. The emergency services surmise she died sometime in the wee of Easter morning. Family tell me the body will be cremated and flown back to CT for burial with ancestors. Everyone is in shock just now."
Her intelligent and insightful voice will be missed. May the gods bless her and keep her.
That is all for this edition. Have a good day.
Labels: Paganism
Comments:
Hello Jason and all,
Most have totally missed the point that the Hebrew and Gnostic texts and others are making. First, they refer to symbolic males and females, hence the philosophical masculine and feminine nature and character. All the Gnostic texts are philosophical and symbolic treatises, not literal narratives. When you try to interpret any of these ancient texts (including the Bible) as literal, you will always come to the wrong conclusions.
Mary and Sophia are parallel symbolic allegories and personifications of the feminine nature of wisdom and the Seven Spirits of God, which are the philosophically feminine character (not literal). This is the point that all of these texts and hidden codes are alluding to. The creator is properly viewed as philosophically feminine in nature and character (truth, wisdom, compassion, freewill, etc.), not as masculine, which includes greed, materialism, force, and coercion.
Likewise, the symbolism of Mary as a prostitute flows from discussions of wisdom becoming the harlot, hence ancient wisdom and philosophy being recast as religion over the ages. As in the symbology of the Apocalypse, women are wisdom-philosophy focused organizations and harlots symbolize religions that have chosen money and power over wisdom and compassion, hence the three faiths of Abraham. Mary's daughter's name Sarah is actually referring to Sirach and symbolizing the Gnostic movement that grew out of the Yahad/Essene movement after Rome scattered them from Judea (to Egypt and elsewhere).
You will not initially agree with everything I reveal, but please be a little patient with my long-winded presentation of what I have waited a very long time to be able to say. I promise to amaze and enlighten.
Pay close attention, profundity knocks at the door (again), listen for the key. Be Aware! Scoffing is blindness...
Read verse twelve of the Gospel of Thomas to understand who I am...
Contrary to those who strive to assert that the DaVinci Code created the term, symbology is an ancient philosophical technology and I am a real life symbologist. Likewise, the upper-level members of secret societies such as Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Illumanti, and the Vatican are symbologists. Keeping their "craft" secretive and misunderstood is a purposeful ploy designed to hide the truth about ancient wisdom and the symbology used to model, encapsulate, and encode it. The title "mason" is itself a symbolic allusion to those who work with the "Philosophers' Stone" which is the symbolic name given to an ancient body of symbology, hence "mason" refers to workers of symbolic "stone."
Read Proverbs 9:1 below to better understand this situation.
Wisdom has built Her house. She has carved out Her seven pillars.
Notice that "wisdom" is referred to as "Her" and "She", as in Sophia and Miriam (the Magdala), and that "She" has "hewn" "Her" "seven pillars" (of stone)? Read my Home Page to see what those seven pillars of "stone" have always referred to, contrary to what religions and mysticism have said for millennia. Do a search through Proverbs for wisdom, she, and her in a searchable Bible and compare these to the Dead Sea Scroll (4Q184) (Seductress) on page 195 of Geza Vermes "The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English." There are similar allusions in other books and texts. You can see the transformation of the feminine wisdom/compassion (Sophia, Miriam, Kuan Yin, etc.) into the Seductress/Harlot of this Dead Sea Scroll and the Apocalypse (Revelation).
Not only do I talk the talk, I walk the walk...
Here is Wisdom!!
Revelations from the Apocalypse
Peace...
Enough co-incidences here to take a note of I think. Check out my blog @ http://tenthousanddays.blogspot.com/
Am working on a book about contemoprary paganism, if you're interested.
Post a Comment
Hello Jason and all,
Most have totally missed the point that the Hebrew and Gnostic texts and others are making. First, they refer to symbolic males and females, hence the philosophical masculine and feminine nature and character. All the Gnostic texts are philosophical and symbolic treatises, not literal narratives. When you try to interpret any of these ancient texts (including the Bible) as literal, you will always come to the wrong conclusions.
Mary and Sophia are parallel symbolic allegories and personifications of the feminine nature of wisdom and the Seven Spirits of God, which are the philosophically feminine character (not literal). This is the point that all of these texts and hidden codes are alluding to. The creator is properly viewed as philosophically feminine in nature and character (truth, wisdom, compassion, freewill, etc.), not as masculine, which includes greed, materialism, force, and coercion.
Likewise, the symbolism of Mary as a prostitute flows from discussions of wisdom becoming the harlot, hence ancient wisdom and philosophy being recast as religion over the ages. As in the symbology of the Apocalypse, women are wisdom-philosophy focused organizations and harlots symbolize religions that have chosen money and power over wisdom and compassion, hence the three faiths of Abraham. Mary's daughter's name Sarah is actually referring to Sirach and symbolizing the Gnostic movement that grew out of the Yahad/Essene movement after Rome scattered them from Judea (to Egypt and elsewhere).
You will not initially agree with everything I reveal, but please be a little patient with my long-winded presentation of what I have waited a very long time to be able to say. I promise to amaze and enlighten.
Pay close attention, profundity knocks at the door (again), listen for the key. Be Aware! Scoffing is blindness...
Read verse twelve of the Gospel of Thomas to understand who I am...
Contrary to those who strive to assert that the DaVinci Code created the term, symbology is an ancient philosophical technology and I am a real life symbologist. Likewise, the upper-level members of secret societies such as Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Illumanti, and the Vatican are symbologists. Keeping their "craft" secretive and misunderstood is a purposeful ploy designed to hide the truth about ancient wisdom and the symbology used to model, encapsulate, and encode it. The title "mason" is itself a symbolic allusion to those who work with the "Philosophers' Stone" which is the symbolic name given to an ancient body of symbology, hence "mason" refers to workers of symbolic "stone."
Read Proverbs 9:1 below to better understand this situation.
Wisdom has built Her house. She has carved out Her seven pillars.
Notice that "wisdom" is referred to as "Her" and "She", as in Sophia and Miriam (the Magdala), and that "She" has "hewn" "Her" "seven pillars" (of stone)? Read my Home Page to see what those seven pillars of "stone" have always referred to, contrary to what religions and mysticism have said for millennia. Do a search through Proverbs for wisdom, she, and her in a searchable Bible and compare these to the Dead Sea Scroll (4Q184) (Seductress) on page 195 of Geza Vermes "The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English." There are similar allusions in other books and texts. You can see the transformation of the feminine wisdom/compassion (Sophia, Miriam, Kuan Yin, etc.) into the Seductress/Harlot of this Dead Sea Scroll and the Apocalypse (Revelation).
Not only do I talk the talk, I walk the walk...
Here is Wisdom!!
Revelations from the Apocalypse
Peace...
Enough co-incidences here to take a note of I think. Check out my blog @ http://tenthousanddays.blogspot.com/
Am working on a book about contemoprary paganism, if you're interested.
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