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 […]
“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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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
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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 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
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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
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A 17th-century wooden sculpture of Vishnu beginning the world. Symbolic features include the snake that Vishnu sleeps upon, the multi-headed Ananta, who has existed throughout the cycles of birth and destruction that permeate the universe. Also featured are seven sages so enlightened that they have transcended the episodic cycles of birth and decay, and nine
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In the environs of modern Iraq the Yazidi peoples have continuously practiced Sharfadin, an ancient and swiftly diminishing (because of horrific religious persecution) religion, for thousands of years. Although elements of the Abrahamic religions and Zoroastrianism appear in Sharfadin, it it a religion into its own self. It teaches monotheism, but also that seven angels
The “Peacock Angel” of Sharfadin Read More »
Structures known as Irish Round Towers, built from the late 8th-12th centuries CE, dotted the island in medieval centuries. The only monumental stone buildings in Ireland to come before the Normans invaded, the towers used to be thought to function as lookouts for Viking invasions. Historians now ascribe less martial functions to the buildings, thinking
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This painting from 1494 is possibly a depiction of the famed Lucrezia Borgia appearing as Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The oxymoronic nature of such a depiction is obvious if we have heard of the many legends (incest, poisonings, etc) of this _femme fatale_. Of course, many of the tales are completely unproven, and probably can
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When the artist Larry Harvey first set fire to a 9-foot wooden effigy of a man and began a ceremony now celebrated annually at Black Rock City, Nevada, he had never heard of the famous 1973 cult horror film, “The Wicker Man,” which took its cue from an alleged Celtic practice of human sacrifice. In
Human Sacrifice in Ancient Celtic British Life Read More »
Western History has no corner in the market for crazy leaders, as the example of Gao Yang (aka the Emperor Wenxuan) shows. Ruling for only nine years (r. 550-559 CE) in the tumultuous and short-spanned Northern Qi Dynasty, Gao Yang would have given Nero a run for his money. Known for his narcissistic, unpredidictable, and
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The writings of the Medieval theologian Peter Damian (d. 1072) reinforce the idea that the Middle Ages were an era with such religious devotion that all other sensibilities were eclipsed. In learning about the disdain for which Peter seemed to hold nearly everything unconnected to Christian doctrine, we can imagine that even his contemporaries would
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Maybe if you just ate you should skip on past this post, and don’t squint too hard at the image along the way . . . On the other hand (no pun intended), if you’ve decided to keep reading, then you might notice that the bright red figure on the bed is actually having his
The Flaying of Saint Bartholomew Read More »
Five thousand years ago, ancient Middle Eastern Mesopotamian civilizations developed the written word, and this invention galvanized other areas of culture such as literature and the visual arts. And so we see seals — such as the one here made of shell from the Akkadian period (2334-2154 BCE) — which often showcased religious and political
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The smallpox vaccination has been one of the greatest contributions science has made to better the human condition. Although Edward Jenner has justly earned credit for his development of the vaccine, an 18th-century British aristocratic woman named Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) also deserves recognition. Montagu was a “Turkophile,” and published many writings critiquing the confining
Mary Wortley Montagu and the Treatment of Smallpox Read More »
