In Paraguay, the Roman Catholic faithful engage in the curious practice of donning bird-like costumes and parading through the streets to honor the memory of the 16th century saint St. Francis Solano and to entreat him for miraculous favors. Any… Continue Reading
The University of Pennsylvania Press, journals division released the 14th issue of Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft earlier this year; this is a triannual publication that comes out in the Spring, Summer, and Winter. The current issue addresses witchcraft in ancient cultures… Continue Reading
METAPSYCHOSIS Journal of Consciousness, Literature, and Art is posting episodes of the Chthonia podcast by Brigid Burke which explore the world of the Dark Feminine. The first episode is described thus: “We think of mother goddesses as being gentle and… Continue Reading
The publishing house Bloomsbury has published a fascinating new collection, Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan: The Invisible Empire edited by Fabio Rambelli. The publisher’s sites describes is thusly: “This book draws attention to a striking aspect of contemporary Japanese… Continue Reading
According to the Daily Mail, research implies that about eight million years ago, supernovas triggered lightning strikes that spurred ancient primates to stand upright. Forest fires happened, so our arboreal ancestors had to scuttle from tree to tree instead of… Continue Reading
The website of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences posted a paper regarding the analysis of human remains found in a mass grave dating to the third millenium BCE, located in current day Poland. The posting begins: “We… Continue Reading
The Library of Congress is making available online some 155 Persian texts from its collection in digital form. The collection’s page states: The Library of Congress is home to a noteworthy collection of rare Persian language manuscripts, lithographic books… Continue Reading
“The Poor Man of Nippur” purports itself to be the world’s first film in Babylonian. It was produced by with students and staff of Cambridge Assyriology. Go behind the scenes of this production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDudWUTPWCg&fbclid=IwAR0lR4PjON2poafFSgHkZK4NAItDWQw9rMGww5NreoRClr2SGMCW_UdEVWk. The YT page explains: “The Poor… Continue Reading
Some years ago openculture.com posted a full lecture and & reading list from our hero Sun Ra’s 1971 UC Berkeley Course, “The Black Man in the Cosmos.” If you don’t understand why this is pertinent – well, I could teach… Continue Reading
Last Summer, The University of Chicago Press published Thomas Shippey’s Laughing Shall I Die, a look at the “Jomsvikings,” a group better known in this country by their un-prefixed appellation. Basing his research on contemporary literature by Scandanavians as well… Continue Reading