WALPURGIS NIGHT

 

Saint Walpurga herself! 

Irish ale

 

A one-hour video about cryptids from the British Isles. As in: Britain and Ireland. Minus the Loch Ness monster and ABCs, so these are strictly speaking the *other* cryptids. It turns out to be a rather bizarre collection of tall tales. White dire wolves clearly inspired by "Game of Thrones", blue quaggas, a centaur running across the highway at night, a feline with four tusks and twelve fingers on each foot...you get the picture. 

The Irish guy in the video is a bit too credulous. What are the chances that a report about a horned hippo from a lake which can´t be located on any map isn´t a hoax? The blue quagga was only seen once - by a notorious con man - so the specimen on display in the UK c/o the same con artist was probably just a regular horse (with paint on it?). The "earth-hounds" that burrow in graves and eat the dead are obviously mythologized badgers, while the oversized "king hares" may actually be real hares. Some rabbits can actually grow to large sizes, so why not other Lagomorphae? 

More intriguing are sightings or remains of animals believed to be extinct, either in general (Irish Elk) or on the British Isles (wolves, bears). And then there´s the Wildman, the British "Bigfoot", which (who?) is indeed very difficult to take seriously, although I suppose it *is* interesting that legends of giants and pygmies exist all over the world. But without fossil remains or actual relict populations, a folkloric explanation is more likely. Well, I hope!

Good luck with this material. And be careful with the ale, guys. 

OK, Professor Langdon

 

This was actually quite interesting. An "occult" analysis of church architecture, arguing that it´s really a form of magic. Could very well be true. What kind of "magick" the content-creator practices is less clear. But he does reference the Golden Dawn and, ahem, a certain Crowley... 

The good old days

 

From the X account The Fourth Way, the self-ironic memes of which are often hilarious!  

Avignon

 

Did the Trump administration threaten to declare war on the Vatican and overthrow Pope Leo? This is getting more and more absurd. Although I suspect these reckless statements were similar in character to Trump´s grandiose verbal attacks on Canada or Denmark. Who are still at large as of this moment. So I don´t think Leo needs to fear an Anti-Pope on the Potomac. Or in Avignon, for that matter.  

Confirmed: Trump admin threatened to overthrow papacy

The thirteenth tribe is so back

 

A (probably correct) criticism of the Khazar theory. What a pity it´s written by an anti-Semite who wants to blame the *real* Jews for all of the world´s ills, but there you go. Of course, I´m so edgy that I linked to Keith Woods content several times before... 

Are modern Jews Khazars?

Schizos will schizo

 

A lot of self-proclaimed Christians are going apeshit over this quote by Netanyahu just now: "Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genghis Khan. Because if you are strong enough, ruthless enough, powerful enough, evil will overcome good." Not only is the quote taken out of context, they double down when this is pointed out to them.

Just another day on the Low IQ Interwebs.

[Added later:] There are also conspiracy theories about Netanyahu having died, including a (perhaps ironic) X account which purportedly tracks his movements to see if he really is dead?! I´m beginning to *really* suffer from Internet fatigue, and I don´t think it has anything to do with my age...

White as they come

 

Once, I asked a White supremacist (?) on YouTube if Albanians are White. He denied it.

The picture above shows the Albanian national hero, the Catholic crusader Skanderbeg. Looks White to me... 

Lördag

 

Fredag

 

Torsdag

 

Passport to the sky

 

Just some Wiki stuff for your perusal on a really gloomy Thursday afternoon...

Airship of Clonmacnoise

Magonia

Onsdag

 

Tisdag

 

Måndag

 

Salve Regina

 

Rock version of "Salve Regina". From the YouTube channel "Real Fake Music". 

Or maybe not? According to Wiki, this is actually "Hail, Holy Queen enthroned above", which is inspired by the medieval Marian hymn "Salve Regina". But not identical to it.

Thank you. 

Söndag

 

 

Serving idols

 

Who were the last pagans of Europe? Very interesting (and scholarly) discussion about Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Principally Estonia.  

Flashback to my own peregrinations over 20 years ago at the Religious Studies department of a certain Swedish university, where we learned about Uralic religions from all over northern Eurasia.

Interesting detail: it seems scholars have rescued the term "animism", which was considered very problematic during my student days. And the curious term "creolization" is really what used to be called syncretism. Who knows, maybe we can save "paganism" next? ;-) 

Current mood

 

Oh, Pashupati, reveal yourself to me in your peaceful form... ;-)

The forgotten branch

 

The quest for the only true religion continues...

This is a long presentation (taped on location in Oman) about Ibadism, the "forgotten" third branch of Islam alongside Sunnism and Shiism. Ibadism is the dominant form of Islam in the Sultanate of Oman at the Arabian peninsula.  

The Ibadis were originally something as strange as the moderate faction of the Kharijites (the "anarchists" or "ultras" of the Muslim world). Their most important doctrine was that Muslims who commit major sins or even repeated minor sins aren´t really Muslims and should therefore be excluded from the umma. This even goes for the imams - unless he is sinless, the imam can´t be a legitimate ruler. This marked the Ibadis out from both the Sunnis and the Shias. The former believed that even sinful rulers should be obeyed for pragmatic reasons, while the latter denied that imams could sin at all. It seems the purist attitude was balanced with a more tolerant-pragmatic one in practice, which distinguished the Ibadis from the Azariqa, the militant Kharijites who believed that all "Muslim" sinners should be killed?!

Today, the tolerant and supposedly peaceful side of Ibadism is emphasized, with Oman having freedom of worship for various immigrant communities and also for the Sunni and the Shia. However, the video says relatively little about modern Omani history, perhaps because it isn´t particularly "tolerant". Oman is an absolute monarchy and it´s interesting to note that the Sultanate was often in political or even military conflict with the Imamate, despite both nominally being Ibadis. The British Empire and the black gold (you know, oil) lurks in the background...

Still, an interesting contribution.