Jennifer's Alternative Religions Blog August 2004 Archive

Woman suspected of practising witchcraft lynched
A widow, suspected of practising witchcraft, was lynched by her neighbours at tribal-dominated Kharibari village in Darjeeling district on Sunday, police said. 85-year-old Joba Hembron was killed at her West Gochia ... Read More

Tuesday August 31, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Many Sikh gurus, Bhakti saints behind Granth Sahib
The verses in the Guru Granth Sahib were composed by different Sikh Gurus and 15 Bhakti saints. The hymns are arranged according to the ragas or musical measure in which ... Read More

Tuesday August 31, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Reader Question:
Hi, my name's Ross Craig, I'm a stand-up comedian based in Edinburgh, Scotland who performs under the stagename/nickname 'Teddy'. Recently I fell out with a friend. She's very special to me, and ... Read More

Tuesday August 31, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Geology, myth, hikers and noodles converge along Fossa Magna rift
One of the most compelling episodes in classic Japanese mythology is that of Amaterasu-omikami (sun goddess) shutting herself up in the Heavenly Cave. The goddess had become so upset at ... Read More

Monday August 30, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Dung in the Gem Heap
Lionrhod at tweentheshadows.com has an entertaining list of Pagan/Magick books to avoid: "Every now and again, you're faced with the violent urge to take the book you're reading and throw it ... Read More

Monday August 30, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Of Human Bonding And Celebration
There is an ancient lore associated with the festival of Raksha Bandhan that is celebrated during the bright fortnight in the Hindu month of Shravan. The Bhavishya Purana refers to ... Read More

Monday August 30, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Sacred Fire of the Zoroastrian Faith
Fire has been revered and worshipped in ancient cultures worldwide. In Greek mythology, the Titan Prometheus, out of his great love for mankind, disobeys Zeus and steals fire from heaven ... Read More

Monday August 30, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Wiccans, Wizards, and Druids to Have Conference in Hoopeston
This Weekend Hoopeston will be the center of the Magickal world. Wiccan, Pagans, Druids and Wizards from all over the United States and Canada are attending a conference ... Read More

Monday August 30, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Did Potrayal of Knights Get Skewed in 'Da Vinci Code?'
You're probably familiar with caricatures of the Knights Templar, a group of 14th-century militaristic monks. In "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade," a Templar guards the Holy Grail -- the ... Read More

Saturday August 28, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

A Neo-Gnostic Rant Leviticus 20:27 says: A man or woman that hath a familir spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with ... Read More

Friday August 27, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

New at Alternative Religions
New in the Library: The Masonic Manual Macoy's Manual of Masonry, with complete illustrations Confessions of Leo Taxil A prank that still suckers the unwary... The Lost Keys of Freemasonry Manly P. Hall's classic ... Read More

Friday August 27, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Study: Protestant pastors often unfamiliar with such religions as Hinduism, Buddhism
Protestant ministers in the United States often have moderate familiarity with the core beliefs of Islam but little familiarity with religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Scientology or Wicca, according to ... Read More

Friday August 27, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

The Eternal Nature of Zoroastrian Thought
Zarathustra proposed the existence of One Supreme God, Ahura Mazda, and so exalted monotheism. Ahura Mazda is the pivot round which the whole of creation revolves. He is the ... Read More

Thursday August 26, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Kabbalists seek meaning in texts
A traditional Jewish education does not include Kabbalah study. Instead, it focuses on the Torah, the first five books of Moses, and sometimes, the Talmud, a collection of laws and ... Read More

Thursday August 26, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Art project raising questions
No one is sure why, but bottles with photographic images of hands have been drifting onto the shores of Clopper Lake in Seneca Creek State Park this summer. So far, rangers ... Read More

Wednesday August 25, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

No More Creeds: How the Gnostic Gospels Are Transforming Christianity
The morning she was told by doctors that her year-and-one-month old son Mark would need a lung biopsy, Dr. Elaine Pagels, a historian of religion, went to church. A few ... Read More

Wednesday August 25, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

The Fortune Tellers
Hindsight has perfect vision, but foresight is somewhat myopic. There’s probably not a person alive who hasn’t said, “If I’d known this was going to happen I would have ... Read More

Wednesday August 25, 2004 | permalink | comments (2)

Why is Rosslyn such a magnet?
THE TILLS ARE ringing at Rosslyn Chapel, probably the most extravagantly carved church in Scotland - and certainly the most fantastically endowed with myths, pseudo-history and controversy. A place of ... Read More

Wednesday August 25, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Inside the 'Ecclesia Gnostica Mysteriorum,' one of the few Gnostic churches in the country
The run-down, two-story building next to Albertsons on Palo Alto's Alma Street seems unremarkable at first glance. An abandoned first-floor storefront displays the corny cartoon of an enthusiastic man selling ... Read More

Wednesday August 25, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Dwindling Parsi community celebrate their new year:
The small and dwindling Parsi community here Friday celebrated Navroz, their new year, by visiting fire temples and devoting the rest of the day to greeting one another, feasting on ... Read More

Monday August 23, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

He's a rising star who is making infield plays like an Olympic gymnast and is a much-heralded candidate for National League Rookie of the Year. But spend some time with San ... Read More

Monday August 23, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

When the gods of antiquity were upset, they churned up a tempest or dispatched a few choice lightning bolts. The people who still follow them get a lawyer and grumble ... Read More

Monday August 23, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Neo-pagans look to pre-Christian cultures for their faith
This year, Andrea Berman is watching the Olympics for the first time in her life. But she doesn't care who jumps the highest, runs the farthest or swims the fastest. ... Read More

Monday August 23, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

The latest excavation in the northern gate of Takht-e Suleiman, an ancient Zoroastrian fire temple northwest of Iran, has revealed architectural relics dating back to the late Il-Khanid era (1256-1336). ... Read More

Monday August 23, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Wiccans explain their religious beliefs
Allison, 17, is a typical Indianapolis teenager in many ways -- she goes to school, works a summer job and hangs out with friends. But she lives in fear that ... Read More

Monday August 23, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Celebrating Feast, Iraq's Yezidis Fear for Future
Worshippers sacrifice fowl and offer dawn prayers to the angel Malak Taus as hundreds of members Iraq's obscure Yezidi sect gather at their Lalish temple to celebrate the summer feast. Families ... Read More

Wednesday August 18, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Who let the ghosts out?
From next Monday the streets, parks and temples of Keelung will be the center of attention as month-long celebrations centering on the Keelung Ghost Festival begin in earnest with the ... Read More

Wednesday August 18, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

About a dozen pagans gathered at Town Hall on Monday to show support for Great Falls resident Darla Wynne. Last week, Wynne returned home from dinner with a friend and ... Read More

Tuesday August 17, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

A father of four in Boardman says he's a witch, who doesn't wear black or sacrifice animals. But he believes his alternative lifestyle is the reason Youngstown State University no ... Read More

Tuesday August 17, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Gospel of Thomas Paintings
Beautiful illustrations of the sayings of the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas.

Monday August 16, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

83 bodies found in Nigeria shrine raids
Nigerian police have so far recovered a total of 83 corpses from an "evil forest" following raids on black magic shrines in the south of the country, the force said ... Read More

Monday August 16, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

The Divine Feminine
Riding the coattails of two widely popular and controversial media portrayals, local and national discussion about the historic role of women in the Christian faith tradition has burgeoned in recent ... Read More

Monday August 16, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Salem’s Premier Tour Company Introduces Witchcraft Hysteria Trolley Tour Salem Historical Tours announces the commencement of a one-of-a-kind tour to the old Rebecca Nuse Homestead in Old Salem Village. Continuing ... Read More

Monday August 16, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Da Vinci Code Reader's Guide


Monday August 16, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Peyote, Indian Religion and the Issue of Exclusivity
What makes someone a member of a religion? Is it something gained as a birthright, at a baptism, a result of devotional church attendance or even race? A case in ... Read More

Sunday August 15, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

The Goddess tradition is a path of mindfulness, of honoring the divine in ourselves and in nature. I know that there are many people who are afraid of the Goddess ... Read More

Sunday August 15, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

'Our Gods and Goddesses Are Closer to Us'
This year, Andrea Berman will watch the Olympics for the first time in her life. But she doesn't care who will jump the highest, run the farthest or swim the ... Read More

Sunday August 15, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Investigators have found 33 more bodies in woodlands near where a secretive cult is believed to have carried out ritual killings, police said Friday in raising the death toll in ... Read More

Saturday August 14, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Military casts Wicca in the shadows
A local story from my area: As members serve their country, they also battle the military to accept their faith After U.S. military personnel pelted American Wiccan servicemen and servicewomen in Iraq ... Read More

Friday August 13, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Monty Python? Nope....just Alabama
A hairstylist dressed as Jesus drenched himself in fake blood and mounted a 14-foot cross to attract attention to his hair salon. "You have to do things to shock people," Patrick ... Read More

Thursday August 12, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Introduction to Laboratory Alchemy- Applied alchemy
Practical alchemist Raoul Tollmann returns this week with part three in his introdution to laboratory alchemy, and describes the alchemical process.

Tuesday August 10, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

A GLOBAL campaign on the Sikh identity and ideology was launched today by the Culture and Heritage Conservation Initiative. Sikh children wearing Khalsa-style turbans held a demonstration against the ... Read More

Tuesday August 3, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Jesus & Mary Magdalene: The Sacred Marriage in Gnosticism
The astonishing success of Dan Brown’s bestselling book, The Da Vinci Code, and the radical overreaction to it by orthodox and fundamental forms of Christianity is revealing; obviously its subject ... Read More

Tuesday August 3, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Among the secrets revealed in this unusual history of alchemy is Leonardo da Vinci's recipe for making artificial pearls "as large as you wish" - take a small genuine pearl, ... Read More

Tuesday August 3, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

Among the secrets revealed in this unusual history of alchemy is Leonardo da Vinci's recipe for making artificial pearls "as large as you wish" - take a small genuine pearl, ... Read More

Tuesday August 3, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)

HE’S credited variously as Scotland’s first scientist, an alchemist, sorcerer and astron omer, a legendary figure of magic and mystery. However, few people have heard of our very own wizard, ... Read More

Monday August 2, 2004 | permalink | comments (0)