It might look like ordinary garden decor, but this “Blue Bottle Tree” exemplifies a magical practice called Hoodoo – an African-American spiritual tradition from the U.S. Southeast. Hoodoo – not to be confused with Voodoo – originally grew popular among people of West African descent whom the dominant white culture had enslaved.Hoodoo, also called “rootwork” […]
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Who wouldn’t be captivated by the Homeric rendition of the Goddess Athena? (-or this fabulous 6th-c BCE painting of her on display at the New York Met?) The Ancient Goddess of wisdom got away with behaviors completely off-limits to actual Athenian women during the city’s 5th-century “golden age,” when those born with XX chromosomes were
Athena as “Mentor” in the Odyssey and Her Identity in Ancient Greece Read More »
Right now (fall 2024) at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, there is a fabulous exhibit on Tibetian Mandalas, and here is one that is perfect for the current Halloween season.Mandalas in Tibetian Buddhism are artistic representations of the spiritual universe, often comprised of geometric shapes and featuring specific deities that reflect different aspects
Historical hoaxes can be so much fun, and certainly the Kensington Runestone ought to count as one of the most whimsical and widely discussed frauds of all time. Google scholar lists 1,010 articles on the subject, and there are numerous books and dissertations about it. The city of Alexandria, Minnesota even has an enormous 28
Kensington Runestone Read More »
“To the one who knows how to look and feel, every moment of this free wandering life is an enchantment.”So go the words of Alexandra David-Néel, who led one of the most best possible lives (IMHO) in human history. She lived to be 100, and her life was so full that this one post cannot
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Here is Pearl Curran, one of the most famous mediums from the great age of American Spiritualism. From 1913 to 1937, Pearl channeled not just a spirit — one Patience Worth, who declared herself to be an American immigrant from 17th-century England — but also an author. In the decades of Patience’s communication with Pearl,
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The Austrian Room is a particularly lovely example of one of the many National Rooms found on the first and third floors of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning. Each of these thematic classrooms was funded by interested representatives of whatever ethnic or national group planning the room, and Austria’s was formally dedicated in 1996. The walls
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The Cathedral of Learning, aka “Cathy”, is one of Pittsburgh’s most iconic structures. Located in the Oakland neighborhood, the Cathedral forms the central building of the University of Pittsburgh’s campus.The towering skyscraper (535 feet/163 meters) is rendered in Indiana limestone, done in Late Gothic Revival style. You can see it from many parts of the
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_Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror_ is one of the world’s most famous films. Released as a silent movie with a musical soundtrack background, its portrayal of Count Orlok as the rat-faced, hulking vampire who brings death to the fictional village of Wisborg, Germany, is still easily recognized over 100 years later. (In fact, a remake
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You may have seen this terracotta plaque from Ancient Mesopotamia (1800-1750 BCE ) known as the Burney Relief in your art history classes or, if you are lucky, at the British Museum where it resides. Often the lovely animal-human hybrid figure is associated with Ishtar, but the case can easily be made that instead she
Ereshkigal and Other Mesopotamian Ghosts Read More »
The first known person to discover an element relied on pee and actually was looking for the Philosopher’s Stone. Henning Brand used up the financial resources of three people – himself, his first wife, and his second wife – in the focused pursuit of finding a way to turn base metals into gold. Alchemy favored
Alchemist Henning Brand and Phosphorous Read More »
In the Sufi tradition of Islam, the role of Satan takes a very different direction than other Abrahamic traditions. Called Iblis, this angel is a true monotheist – unlike all the other angels, Iblis refused to prostrate himself to Adam. True, God had commanded the angels to do so, but whereas in most branches of
Iblis Traditions of Islam Read More »
Statue of Shiva from West Bengal, 1100. The vertical third eye and matted hair are typical features of the Hindu deity – his face on the right represents benevolence, on the left fierce protectiveness, and in the center his serenity – when this universal aspect of Shiva is emphasized his title is “Sadashiva.” From the
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The Hindu Goddess Durga was the original demon-slayer. As this sandstone carving made about 750 CE (from India) shows, she has a multitude of weapons that help her take down her opponents – in this case, the buffalo-demon Mahishasuramardini. The legend goes that the buffalo demon – who represents ignorance – was destroying the whole
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This terracotta figure of a merchant dates from seventh-to-eighth century Tang China and is testimony to the role of long-distance trade along the Silk Road and other conduits. I also think this guy looks like Dr. Strange, so there’s that.
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The scholar-elite class of dynastic China were not always engrossed in studying or affairs of state. This gourd with ivory-carved lid held live crickets, who were set to fight in staged cricket matches for the amusement of the Chinese intelligentsia. From 19th-century Qing China, the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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This drawing shows Jesus as a child, taking the birds he has just shaped out of clay and turning them into real sparrows. It is a sweet story, part of a passage from a (possibly late first century) text known as “The Infancy Gospel of St Thomas,” never accepted as cannonical by the Church. We
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Eighth-century Spain witnessed the conquest of the Christian kingdom of the Visigoths by Muslims and the fracturing of the Iberian peninsula into various kingdoms. It was in this era the Spanish monk Beatus of Liebana (d. 785) wrote a book called _Commentary on the Apocolypse_, and depicted here is an extremely rare painting from a
Conquest of the Visigoth Christian Kingdom by Muslims Read More »
“Greek Fire,” the famous naval weapon of the Byzantine Empire, was a liquid projectile that burst into flames after spewing out of pressurized nozzles, and kept burning as it floated on water. This is a twelfth-century illustration of Greek Fire in action. The eleventh-century historian Anna Komnene has a great description of the theatrics involved
Greek Fire by the Byzantine Empire Read More »
What you see here is an example of the finest type of Anglo-Scandinavian sculpture known as “Hogbacks.” After the Scandinavian viking invasions, Hogbacks emerged in the tenth century as a style of grave marker that reveals the Celtic influences of the British Isles along with the Danish homeland of the recent settlers. You can make
Anglo-Scandinavian Hogbacks Read More »
