The flags are all Greek to me

 

Only in America? YouTube clip above, link below. Beware, the flags are not what they seem... 

Pro-Palestinian protester rips down Greek flags

The lesser dependencies of Mauritius

 

You learn new shit every day. I´m a notorious "flag nerd", but I completely missed this one! The coat of arms of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) includes the Latin motto "In tutela nostra Limuria", which is supposed to mean "Lemuria in our trust"! 

Yes, Lemuria. The imaginary continent of Lemuria, here with the more unusual alternative spelling Limuria. The above illustration is from the website of the BIOT administration. 

Just this Thursday, the UK announced that they will hand over control of the BIOT (a.k.a. the Chagos Archipelago) to Mauritius...but the large US military base at the main island of Diego Garcia will remain for another 99 years. So nothing really changed. Except, I suppose, that this peculiar coat of arms is soon history...  

Runes of death

 

Interesting introductions to Nazi symbolism, including SS symbols. Note that the "rune of death" is identical to the later peace symbol used by the CND! Probably a co-incidence, right? 

Fel flaggstång

Bing AI fick väl inte heller till det...

Kanske inte världens mest intressanta information, men eftersom jag ofta skrev om flaggor på Amazon (och ibland gör det här också) så kan jag väl dela med mig...

Svenska flaggan hissas på "fel" flaggstång

Congratulations, squareheads!

 

MINNESOTA HAS A NEW STATE FLAG!!!

Red swastika

 

Not entirely confirmed, tbh, these pieces from the outer fringes of Wikipedia show Communist swastikas!

The flag above was (supposedly) used by the Tuvan People´s Republic 1921-26, while the badges below are from Kalmyk Red Army formations in 1919. 

Tuva and Kalmykia have "Tibetan Buddhist" populations, the swastika being a sacred symbol in Buddhism.  

The rock lobster is our strength

 

This must be the most original coat of arms in the world. The tiny island of Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory in the south Atlantic, adopted it in 2002. 

Note the bizarre supporters: two Tristan rock lobsters! Or perhaps St Paul rock lobsters - apparently scientists now believe that the Tristan variety isn´t a separate species, after all. 

The heraldic significance of the poor lobster haven´t saved it from apparently being the island´s most significant export product (for human consumption, obviously). 

Our faith in the rock lobster is our strength.  

Whoa!

 

You´ll never guess what this is...

Note the ouroboros encircling the Big Dipper. 

Cold, dark normality

 

Longest night of the year. Cold as hell, too. Still, gives me a sense of normality. Of course it´s dark and fucking cold. It´s the Winter Solstice, after all! :-)

The Secret Order of the Druze

“Sons of Abraham: The Secret Order of the Druze” is a relatively short documentary about the Druze, a peculiar religious minority in Lebanon, Syria and Israel. The documentary was originally released in 1984 and seems to be French, but in this version the narrator speaks English.

Since the Druze are organized as a secret initiatory order, we don´t learn *that* much about their actual teachings. The Druze religion originated in Egypt during the 11^th century. Its prophet was a man named Hamza, who preached the divine nature of al-Hakim, a Shia Muslim Fatimid ruler of Egypt. Muslims, Christians and Jews seem united in condemning al-Hakim as literally insane, but in the documentary, his destruction of religious shrines is rather seen as a form of theologically motivated iconoclasm.

The Druze seem to have a Neo-Platonist view of God or the Divine, and venerate Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Pythagoras as divine manifestations. Biblical characters also play a prominent role. The documentary shows Druze pilgrimages to the supposed tombs of Jethro and Job, the former being seen as the “initiator” of Moses. We also get to see a Druze marriage and a funeral. The Druze are most well known for their belief in reincarnation, explored more in detail in another documentary also available at YouTube, “To the ends of the Earth: Back from the dead”.  

A curious fact about the Druze is that their community in Israel supports the Jewish state, even to the point of doing military service in the Israeli Defense Forces, while the communities in Syria and Lebanon are pro-Arab and pro-Palestinian. “Sons of Abraham” claims that this is all a ruse – the Druze actually practice a higher-order form of taqiyya (the Shia tradition of protective dissimulation), all of them really being a single community mostly loyal to itself. The narrator claims that the supposedly pro-Israeli Druze mourned the death of Kamal Jumblatt, the prominent anti-Israeli Druze leader in Lebanon!

In passing, we also get to know the symbolism of the Druze flag. Its stripes symbolize the Universal Soul (red), the Logos (yellow), the cosmos (blue) and the material world (white), all united by a green triangle symbolizing Universal Reason (presumably God). I admit that the symbolism is pretty neat.

Since the Druze don´t accept converts, you will probably never learn the secrets of their religion. Nor will I. Nor, I suppose, did Soviet spy Stig Bergling. Unless, of course, we will be reincarnated as members of the Secret Order in some future life of ours…

Exoteric Olcottism

This is the so-called Buddhist Catechism, written in 1881 by Henry Steel Olcott, mostly known as Colonel Olcott. While the Catechism is apparently still used in Sri Lanka by Theravada Buddhists, Olcott himself was not an orthodox Theravadin, but a co-founder with Madame Blavatsky of the controversial Theosophical Society.

While the Theosophists did promote Buddhism in Lanka and elsewhere, their own ideas were really quite different and distinct from the Buddha´s religion as traditionally understood. Little of this is visible in “The Buddhist Catechism”, though. Most of it is standard Theravada Buddhism (“the Southern Church of Buddhism” in Olcott´s words), with all the usual contradictions of this creed.  There is an ecumenical attempt at bridging the gap between Theravada and Mahayana.

There are also some modern traits in the Catechism: idolatry and superstition are condemned, women´s equality promoted, while Buddhism and science are said to be compatible. Indeed, Buddhist parents are admonished to give their children a scientific education. The former Spiritualist Olcott believes that miracles, including those of the Buddha, can be explained in terms of parapsychology.

Some occult ideas have sneaked in too – the Buddha´s strange ability to remember his past lives (strange since Buddhism holds to “anatta” or “no-soul”) is explained in terms of accessing the Akashic Chronicles. Olcott designed a Buddhist flag, which is still widely used today, and since the flag´s color stripes symbolize the colors of the Buddha´s aura, a section of the Catechism is devoted to expounding on this theme.

In sum, “The Buddhist Catechism” is a relatively good introduction to Buddhism, but with a few Olcottian additions. Well, at least he didn´t mention the root-races, rounds and Stanzas of Dzyan…

*Really* Old Icelandic

My review of a very curious and narrow Amazon product. 

This is the flag of a small Icelandic group which promotes something dubbed “High Icelandic” or “ultrapurism”. Foreign loanwords have long been de facto banned on Iceland (at least until the advent of the modern computer age), but the High Icelanders want to go even further, purging even perceived Latinisms and Germanisms from Old Icelandic or Old Norse. The flag of the ultrapurists, Thorsfronve, shows Thor´s hammer (a “Viking” symbol) rather than the Christian cross, suggesting that this movement might have pagan revivalist traits. I´m not sure how active the High Icelanders are today, but old websites suggest that this really was their symbol. Based!

Holy irony

Yes, fam. Heligoland (Helgoland) has its own flag! That's ironic on so many levels. For starters, Heligoland is a cliff in the North Sea, about 1 square kilometer large (or small). Population: about 1,000. Imagine living on a cliff in the North Sea…

At the moment, Heligoland is controlled by Germany. Historically, it has also been Danish and British. Ethnically, however, it's Frisian. And now, the best part: when the island was British-controlled, a German bloke on holiday wrote “Deutschland über alles” there.

So the most notorious nationalist anthem in Great German history was written by a tourist on a visit to a British-controlled Frisian spa.

OK.

What level of irony is *the world* on?

Free Aceh

A little essay I posted on Amazon.

This is the flag of the so-called Free Aceh Movement (GAM). In Sweden, they use the designation National Liberation Front of Aceh Sumatra (NLFAS). Similar names are used in other foreign countries. The GAM is a separatist movement in the northern Aceh province of Sumatra, and fought a decades-long guerilla war against several Indonesian governments. Today, GAM has been legalized and has presumably given up its demand for independence. On leaflets passed out by this group in Sweden during the 1980's, all of Sumatra was indicated as the sought-after independent state, but in practice, GAM or NLFAS were only active in Aceh and express the aspirations of the Acenehse people. In Sweden, GAM participated in the Social Democratic May Day marches, presumably because Indonesia had an authoritarian right-wing regime which many Social Democrats and leftists would have been critical towards. GAM is really Muslim-nationalist rather than leftist, and one of its main brokers at the time was Gaddafi's Libya, which mentioned the group prominently in its “World Mathaba” propaganda organ (the World Mathaba was an attempt to create a kind of pro-Libyan international). The flag of GAM is inspired by that of the old Aceh Sultanate, which in turn is a typically Muslim banner.

Et in Occitania ego

A little essay I posted on Amazon. 

The flag of the historical region known as Occitania, which roughly corresponds to southern France, where various dialects of the Occitan language used to be widely spoken. Apparently, Occitan is close to Catalan. The banner features the Occitan cross, often wrongly called the Cathar cross. It was originally used by either the counts of Toulouse or the ditto of Forcalquier, and then spread across the region. The "heretical" Cathars probably never used it, according to one theory because they didn't believe Jesus was crucified! I assume the cross became associated with Catharism due to its use by Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, who opposed the anti-Cathar Albigensian Crusade for political reasons. Raymond was otherwise a Catholic. I've been looking for this flag for some time, and here it is...

Literally Mannerheim

Finland is probably the only Western democracy were the swastika is still used in some official capacities. Why the Finns steadfastly refuse to abolish it en toto is unclear to me. Some kind of ill-conceived traditionalism, perhaps?

The flag of the democratically elected president of Finland still shows a swastika in its upper hoist, if you look closely. It's part of the Cross of Liberty of the 3rd degree. Why the president's flag shows a 3rd degree cross and not, say, a 1st degree ditto, is unfortunately also outside my jurisdiction!

Swastikas became popular in Finland, and some other nations, before the symbol became associated with the Nazis, but everywhere else in the West their use has been discontinued, for rather obvious reasons…

All your hashtags are belong to us

15 of 138 people found this helpful on Amazon. People? Or frogs...

Believe it or not, but this is the flag of Kekistan, a non-existent mock nation promoted by Alt Right trolls on Twitter and elsewhere. Unless I'm mistaken, Kekistan was originally intended as a parody on the Alt Right, probably invented by a libertarian cyber-personality known as Sargon of Akkad. However, the meme was quickly taken over by Alt Right trolls according to the Gamergate principle “all your hashtags are belong to us” (bad grammar in the original).

At the moment, Kekistan is a borderline Nazi symbol, as can be seen in this flag, which is clearly based on Nazi German models. The green color comes from another popular Alt Right meme, Pepe the Frog (originally a non-political comic character). Pepe is sometimes referred to as Kek, really the name of an Egyptian god.

Are you following?

I find it curious that Amazon sells Kekistani products, while still banning the Confederate flag…

The Vyborg Blast

A mini-essay I posted on Amazon.

This is the flag of Vyborg, known in Swedish as Viborg and in Finnish as Viipuri. Currently Russian, the town has historically been on disputed territory and fought over by Sweden, Finland and Russia. It's situated on the Karelian Isthmus. Vyborg Castle was founded by the Swedes in 1293 during one of their Northern “crusades”, ostensibly to convert the heathens of Karelia, but actually to create a trading outpost and border fortress, directed against Russian Novgorod. The outpost eventually turned into a settlement, and got officially incorporated as a town in 1403. The coat of arms, showing the letter W and three crowns, is from the same period. The three crowns are an old symbol of Sweden.

Vyborg played an important role in Swedish history, indeed, it was often seen as one of the most important towns (despite a relatively low population) due to its function as a trade hub and potential launching pad for further military expansion eastwards. Various weird legends grew up about the Eastern Swedish bastion, for instance the claim that commander Knut Posse used black magic to defend it from a Russian attack in 1495! The event is known as the Vyborg Blast. While the Russians may indeed have been scattered by an explosion of some sort, the story certainly didn't lose anything in retelling... As in any good frontier town, Vyborg's population had the reputation for being constantly drunk, vulgar, prone to fights and sexually licentious. Priests were profaned in the middle of their preaching, and even the upper class ladies were notorious for heavy drinking and profanity (and for claiming that women could be priests).

The rest of Vyborg's tortured history need not detain us here, suffice to say is that it definitely became Russian after World War II, but still uses the Swedish-period coat of arms and a flag based on the same. Five stars!

Reconquista, when?

Welcome to Shangri-La

A little essay I posted on Amazon back in 2016. 

According to the website “Flags of the World”, this is not the correct flag of Hunza, but an erroneous version widespread on the web. The correct version can be found on the FOTW website. Hunza is a region in northern Pakistan, governed as a hereditary monarchy until 1974, when the Pakistani federal government stripped the local prince of all his power. The Hunza flag is associated with the princely state. As far as I can tell, it is not directly associated with the Burushos, a world-famed ethnic group which lives in both the Hunza Valley and some neighboring regions of Pakistan.

The Burushos speak a unique language known as Burushaski. Many are Nizari Ismailis, and hence recognize the Aga Khan as their spiritual leader. Ismailism is a branch of Shia Islam with an esoteric message similar to Neo-Platonism! According to local legend, the Burushos are descendants of soldiers from Alexander the Great's army. Romantic Westerners looking for “noble savages” have apparently written a lot of bunk about the Burushos in Hunza, claiming that they never fall ill, eat a lot of dried apricots and live until they are 120. Some believe (perhaps wrongly) that the Hunza Valley is the model for Shangri-La in James Hilton's novel “Lost Horizon”.

However, the most spectacular use of this small people came in 2008, when the Republic of Macedonia organized a visit of the Prince of Hunza and a Burusho delegation. The delegation was welcomed at the Skopje Airport by the country's prime minister Nikola Gruevski, the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church Archbishop Stephen and the then-mayor of Skopje Trifun Kostovski. The reason for this extravaganza was that the official state ideology of Macedonia claims that Macedonians aren't Slavs (despite speaking a Slavic language), but direct descendants of the ancient Macedonians (who according to this logic weren't Greeks). A virtual cult of Alexander the Great is being promoted in the Republic of Macedonia, and the visit of the Burushos was part of this. As already noted, they claim to be descendants of Alexander's army. The ideologists of modern Macedonia's governing party VMRO-DPMNE therefore see the Burushos as an ancient Macedonian remnant in far-away Asia!

While I don't rule out anything, not even that apricot-munching Neo-Platonists can reach the venerable age of 120 and counting, my favorite speculation about northern India/Pakistan is that the Kashmiris are the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, but YMMV. Besides, according to genetic research, the Burushos are more closely related to Gypsies than to Macedonians…

You're not laughing now, are you?

Remember the peculiar flag rules during the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm earlier this season? Yepp, the rules which prohibited regional flags, while allowing EU flags. I suppose the banner of St George was prohibited, then.

How ironic, considering certain later political developments...