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If all your DNA is stretched out, it would reach to the moon 6,000 times. |
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How a shy poet was spellbound by the Beast
Reads: 371 |
Posted by Isis on Sunday, July 20, 2008 (CDT)
 It was among the unlikeliest literary friendships of the 20th century. On the one hand, Fernando Pessoa, the painfully shy Portuguese poet, master of pseudonyms and melancholy, whose literary genius went all but unrecognised in his lifetime. On the other, Aleister Crowley, the flamboyant, self-publicising British mystic and occultist who earned the title of 'the wickedest man in the world'.
Yet for several years these two very different men kept up an extensive correspondence that is now at the centre of a potentially explosive literary controversy. The Portuguese government is deciding whether to step in to prevent an auction of more than 2,000 pages of documents kept by Pessoa, an official source in Lisbon confirmed. The documents include 800 pages of letters and other papers relating to Pessoa's friendship with Crowley.
This singular literary trove is due to go under the hammer at a photographic gallery and auction house in Lisbon known as P4. Luis Trindade, the founder and director, told the Agencia Lusa news agency: 'There is still not an exact date.' But, he said, he was aiming to sell the documents in October.
(Read More... Mysticism & the Occult | Word Count: 824 | comments? | Score: 0) |
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Knights Templar: The Last Charge
Reads: 601 |
Posted by Thoth on Friday, March 21, 2008 (CDT)
 The accountancy firm that looks after children's entertainers the Wiggles is not an obvious place to search for the Holy Grail, but that's where the trail led last night. It started with a simple quest - what on earth is a large advertisment headlined "The Ancient & Noble Order of The Knights Templar" doing in the Daily Telegraph? - and it led your intrepid investigator to the wilds of west London and then all the way back to the 12th century.
It was around 1118 when the order of the Knights Templar was founded in the Holy Land by Hughes de Payens and eight other French knights to protect pilgrims and defend Jerusalem, which had been captured by the Crusaders in 1099. Over almost two centuries, the order grew into one of the most rich and powerful institutions of the era. It all came crashing down when the Pope burnt the Templars' last grand master at the stake in Paris in 1314. The order seemed to have disappeared - until yesterday, when this tantalising advertisement appeared.
Apart from the odd misplaced apostrophe and various arcane references to "annulling the bull", the advert gravely announced that the Knights Templar would petition the Pope to "restore the Order with the duties, rights and privileges appropriate to the 21st century and beyond".
(Read More... Mysticism & the Occult | Word Count: 1349 | comments? | Score: 4) |
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Mirrors Reveal Codes in Da Vinci Art, Book Says
Reads: 1605 |
Posted by Thoth on Friday, January 11, 2008 (CST)
 Another Da Vinci code is emerging from Leonardo's masterpieces, according to a forthcoming book by group of Da Vinci theorists who believe that biblical images are hidden within the master's artworks. Worthy of a Dan Brown novel, the claim identifies Leonardo's mirror writing as the key to unlocking the code.
The Renaissance genius, who lived between 1452 and 1519, filled thousands of manuscript pages with a unique handwriting that flowed from right to left and reversed all the letters. Scholars have believed that the artist developed this impossible writing simply because a left-handed Leonardo would have evolved a style of handwriting efficient for him.
But, according to Hugo Conti, a self-taught Argentinian historian who leads a mysterious group called "The Mirror of The Sacred Scriptures and Paintings," the writings conceal much more -- a key to secret images. "It is easy to find invisible images in Leonardo's paintings. Many of his characters seem to be staring into space. In reality, they are indicating where one must place the mirror to visualize the images," Conti told Discovery News.
(Read More... Mysticism & the Occult | Word Count: 891 | comments? | Score: 4.4) |
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Well-known local medicine man shares his story of Navajo culture
Reads: 761 |
Posted by Thoth on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 (CST)
 It starts with the sprinkling of corn pollen. The yellow powder slips between Francis Mitchell's fingers as he stretches over a makeshift altar in a small bedroom in his Farmington home. Feathers, crystals and arrowheads are precisely set on the carpet.
Mitchell, a Navajo medicine man, sits cross-legged in the corner, a yellow bandana tied around his head and turquoise bracelets circling his wrists. A patient and his son — travelers from the Jicarilla Apache tribe — perch on sheepskins nearby. They are victims of a curse or evil spell. "I'm going to say a prayer and make an offering," Mitchell says. "I'm going to ask the deity to take the bad thing away."
Tendrils of smoke rise from a nest of smoldering incense, and Mitchell fans the sweet odor with an eagle feather. The extraction ceremony will take about two hours, he says. Tthen he will dismiss his visitors with a protection prayer. "The extraction ceremony is performed when someone is approached by a sorcerer or someone who has done something evil," Mitchell says. "Someone has put a spell on another because of prejudice or jealousy."
(Read More... Mysticism & the Occult | Word Count: 2738 | comments? | Score: 4) |
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Richard Leigh: 'Holy Blood and the Holy Grail' author dies
Reads: 916 |
Posted by Thoth on Sunday, December 02, 2007 (CST)
 The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail is one of the most successful and controversial non-fiction books of recent times, having sold more than two million copies since its publication in 1982. Written by Richard Leigh, Michael Baigent and Henry Lincoln, it tells the story of secret documents found during the late 19th century by Bérenger Saunière, a country priest at Rennes-le-Château, who subsequently became extremely wealthy.
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail – and its 1986 sequel, The Messianic Legacy – advanced the theory that Jesus did not die on the cross but instead went on to marry Mary Magdalene, have children and live in southern France. This knowledge, both books propose, was carried down the centuries by a secret society known as the Priory of Sion. Anthony Burgess, reviewing the book in The Observer in 1982, remarked: "It will seem to some a crackpot exercise, but these young men are no fools; they have learning, energy and enthusiasm tempered by scepticism."
Richard Leigh was born in New Jersey in 1943 to a British father and Austrian mother. After studying at Tufts University in Boston and the University of Chicago, he obtained his doctorate from Stony Brook University, New York. He arrived in London in 1974 having originally intended to write literary fiction. Instead, he encountered the Rennes-le-Château material for the first time and met Michael Baigent.
(Read More... Mysticism & the Occult | Word Count: 870 | comments? | Score: 3.33) |
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