1.28.2008
Slow Time and Secret Societies
A couple of interesting book-related articles to check out this morning, the first comes from the San Francisco Gate, who interviews Pagan author Waverly Fitzgerald concerning her new book "Slow Time: Recovering the Natural Rhythm of Life".
"Spiritual teacher and author Waverly Fitzgerald believes we'd all benefit by changing our ideas and relationships with time. In her new book, "Slow Time," Fitzgerald, who has written for Beliefnet and Sage Woman magazine, provides exercises and ideas intended to inspire people to align themselves with nature's natural rhythms - night and day, the monthly lunar cycle and the yearly solar round - rather than living their lives to the frenzied beat of industrial time."
For Fitzgerald, connecting religiously with the changing seasons is one way to "slow" your conception of time from the "frenetic" pace of our industrialized world.
"Most of the major religions have a seasonal liturgy, even though it may be sort of buried. If you look at Christianity, with the Easter cycle and the Christmas birth, there is this lovely use of the seasons to tell a story, and the same is true in the Jewish religion. And, of course, the pagan religion really works with this notion of the seasons and the cycle. So there is a very deep connection between this notion of cyclical time and spirituality. And there is a message of hope that things will come around again, that we may feel despair but spring will come again. It is a pretty profound metaphor that is embedded in our lives."
Meanwhile, over at Salon.com, Laura Miller rips apart Mark Booth's uneven examination of the history of the world through the eyes of esoteric secret societies.
"...you might conclude that "The Secret History of the World" is a truckload of drivel, and you would be right. It is a mess of a book, disjointed and rambling, rife with puzzling non sequiturs that are obviously meant to be suggestive or evocative but that more often read like the symptoms of an advanced case of Attention Deficit Disorder ... Booth is forever intimating that he's about to explain something important to the reader and then abruptly dropping the subject. He has all the smoke and cymbals of the Great and Terrible Oz, but can rarely muster even the fake disembodied head as a crescendo ... Furthermore, much of the "information" Booth chooses to supply is either incorrect or, frankly, untrue. Some of these errors seem to be the result of simple ignorance."
So if you are looking for the inside scoop on the importance of secret societies, and what they believed, "The Secret History of the World: As Laid Down by the Secret Societies" may not be the book for you. You might be better off with a work like "Hidden Wisdom", by former Gnosis editors Richard Smoley and Jay Kinney, if you want to understand what contributions esoteric secret societies have made to our culture.
Labels: books, Freemasonry, gnosticism, Mark Booth, Paganism, Salon.com, secret societies, Waverly Fitzgerald
8.06.2007
Pagan-Friendly Films
Time for a quick look at upcoming films that may appeal to a Pagan/occult audience.
Those of us who are fans of "The Wicker Man" (the original of course, not that abomination starring Nicolas Cage) should be pleased to learn that Robin Hardy (who directed the original film) is planning to start filming "Cowboys For Christ" (a sort-of sequel/re-imagining of "The Wicker Man") in September.
"That long-awaited "Wicker Man" re-imagining - same story, different backdrop - is finally (this thing has been a long time coming) about to get underway. "Cowboys for Christ", from writer/director Robin Hardy (the chap that brought us the original "Wicker Man" - not the mind numbing remake), has set itself a September 10 start date. Its booked locales in Scotland and Texas to shoot. Starring Christopher Lee and Faye Dunaway, the film tells of a Christian singing star and her chaste fiance, a Texas cowboy, who travel to Scotland for a music festival that is merely the curtain-raiser for a horrific pagan ritual of sacrifice and murder, and it's uncertain if the power of the Americans' Christian faith will be strong enough to survive the assault of the pagans."
They are still looking to cast the leads (the Christian couple), so if you can sing very well, know how to ride a horse, and can convincingly fake a Texas accent, why not audition?
The film "Stardust" (adapted from a novel by Neil Gaiman) is opening in theatres on August 10th. Considering a good part of the story is set in the lands of Faerie, and with Michelle Pfeiffer playing the evil witch Lamia this is sure to be a treat! Plus the trailer looks quite fun.
No word yet if Tori Amos will be the voice of a red-leafed talking tree that Gaiman based on the singer-songwriters.
In October you have the film adaptation of the beloved (and pagan-friendly) young-adults novel "The Dark Is Rising", but as mentioned previously on this blog, there are some serious fears that the movie has been "sanitized" of all the great pagan content. Some fans of the books are not happy at all with the announced changes.
"I am spitting chips and blood. I am crackling with furious static. Any minute now, small pieces of paper, coins and pens are going to drag themselves across the tabletop, bent and pulled towards me by the immense, bending-the-laws-of-physics fury I'm experiencing right now."
I guess we can only wait to see how much damage has been done to this classic.
Also of interest is the November release of "Beowulf". With a screenplay partially written by Neil Gaiman and directed by Robert Zemeckis, this film adaptation of the ancient English epic mixes live action with heavy computer animation to give it a unique look/feel. You can watch a teaser trailer for the film, here. I have no idea how "pagan" this adaptation will be (unlike the recent "Beowulf and Grendel" which was chock-full of pre-Christian elements), but the cast is certainly an interesting mix.
Finally, in December we will see the film adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel "The Golden Compass", part of his highly acclaimed "His Dark Materials" trilogy.
Due to the Gnostic themes within the novels, some have labeled it the "anti-Narnia". But fans have been worrying for some time now over the removal of religious themes to be replaced with a anti-fascist/control storyline. But the trailer itself looks exciting, plus, witches!
That is all I have for now, see you at the movies!
Labels: Beowulf, Cowboys For Christ, gnosticism, His Dark Materials, movies, Paganism, Stardust, The Dark is Rising, The Golden Compass
