Correfoc
As I mentioned in a post yesterday, my neighbourhood - Gracia - is in the midst of the week long madness of the annual Fiesta. Last night I was due to go to a flat-warming at a friend’s new apartment and, as you do, I left around 10pm. As I hit the main drag I saw these suspicious characters fiddling about with something in the middle of the road:
August 16 2005 in Barcelona | Read More | Comments [0]
Other Beings…
I’m probably a bit late on this but there are a fascinating couple of posts on the nature of the Jinn in Islamic cosmology (and their relationship to Fortean phenomena) over at Fantastic Planet and the theme has also been taken up by Alchemical Braindamage and Tim Boucher.
August 16 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [0]
Festa de Gracia
This is a small collection of photos and brief comments from the Festa de Gracia in Barcelona: August 15th - 22nd 2005. The full photo sets may be found at the Anulios Flickr Gallery and I will add to these as the Festa continues.
August 15 2005 in Barcelona | Read More | Comments [0]
A Look
Later this week I want to write a bit about a certain aspect of Christianity (or perhaps, more correctly, an element of Gnosticism) but first I want to share some background in the form of the piece of writing that turned my thoughts in that direction. The piece is called A Look and is from Augy Hayter’s book Godbothering
August 15 2005 in Esoteric Christianity | Read More | Comments [0]
inTerjeCted
I’ve just checked my referrers and discovered a great new site that needs adding to the blogroll: inTerjeCted. This really is awesome and covers a wide range of material brilliantly. Btw, is it me or are really good Gnostic/Esoteric/Sufic blogs just appearing all over the place now or is it just that I’m only now noticing them? It feels a bit like we may be at the start of something here.
There’s a great post today quoting Corbin’s classic work The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism
“In Mandaean gnosis, every being in the physical universe has its counterpart in the heavenly Earth of Mshunia Kushta, inhabitated by the descendent of a mystical Adam and Eve (Adam Kasia, Eva Kasia). Every being has his archetypical Figure (mabda) there, and the latter communicates with its earthly counterpart. After the exitus at death, the earthly person abandons his body and takes on the subtle body of his heavenly alter ego, while the latter, rising to a higher plane, assumes a body of pure light. When the human soul has completed its cycle of purifications and when the realm of Abathur Muzunia bear witness to its perfect purity, it enters the world of light and is reunited with its eternal partner. “I go towards my likeness/ And my likeness goes toward me/He embraces me and holds me close/ As if I had come out of Prison”.
August 13 2005 in General Stuff | Read More | Comments [4]
Tweaking…
Decided to do a few more updates, add a few blogs and restructure the link categories.
I’m getting rid of the ‘Godbothering’ section because, well, it’s not such a good phrase is it really? And I’ve decided to spend a bit more time talking about Christianity - not just because it is a topic I love but because I have been accused of being variously a ‘loony fundie’ and an ‘infidel’ who talks too much about Islam. It really does feel good to have detractors - I wonder if it’s a sin?
Anyway, the erstwhile Godbotherers have now been split into their won categories of Christianity, Islam and Inter-Faith - have added a Barcelona section as well. Hopefully I’ll find some decent content to put there soon.
In the meantime, while I research this, I have added the following links in the new Christian section: Historical Jesus is a great blog that looks at the roots of Christianity through the figure of Jesus in a historical context. A similar site (but different!) looking at the same area but focussed on the roots and antecedents of Christianity is Christian Origins.
One other added in this category is The Polished Mirror which is a liberal blog of social justice and Christian contemplation.
Three other sites that are well worth checking out - in fact I urge you to do so - are Eternal Awareness, Other Thoughts and Taming Ego in the Inter-Faith category.
Please check these blogs out and say hello....they’re all great reads.....
August 13 2005 in General Stuff | Read More | Comments [0]
The Real Islam
Following on from the post below about literalism I just found a great article (courtesy of Rahul Jindalat Zombie World) that expands the theme that I was wittering on about far better than I ever could. There is also an excellent associated photo-essay.
August 11 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [0]
Literalism
It is rather fashionable these days to bash Islam - unfortunately this is true in a literal as well as figurative sense, I was reading today that since the London bombings violent crimes against Muslims have increased by nearly 600% - and there are many ‘experts’ that have emerged to do it that have created a new genre and cottage-industry in ill-informed and dangerous comment.
The antidote to the almost blanket saturation of these pundits is not (imo) to engage them in argument as such - they are not after all, very well-versed in their chosen subject - but rather to keep putting the facts out there and encourage open and free discussion in areas where the facts are not yet established. In line with this, I thought I’d address their favourite (only?) line of attack: Islam as barbaric/backward/evil religion.
August 11 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [3]
Last bit on Pi
The more I think about Life of Pi the more profound and speaking to my own personal situation I find it - maybe that’s what profundity is (or what we think it is) but whatever. It seems to me that the situation of being adrift in a life-boat is the archetypal metaphor for the mystic quest - as opposed to the religious mindset. The religionist never questions that he or she is is on ‘solid ground’ and life proceeds from there in quite an orderly fashion. Much like people who have no religion and who are satisfied with their state.
But the religionist can just as soon one day turn into the castaway - all it takes is the metaphorical iceberg, the small insignificant leak that grows ever wider, the drunken crew.......and then all is in the air - no more certainty. No more comfort. Just survival.
Of course in such a situation, one knows there is land out there somewhere - but one just as surely knows that the chances of ever reaching it are thousands to one against. The only chance is to forget about land and focus on the sea - the only source of nutrition. In fact that very action - the focussing on water rather than land - is the only hope of ever reaching land. Of course, deep down you realise you most likely will never make it but that’s not the point - you have to try.
But this is way the religious mind is not adrift - or perhaps, why the mystic is a not a religionist: because out there, bobbing in your solitary lifeboat - or, if you prefer, sweating and bewildered after your fortieth year in a desert wilderness - you cannot say that there is no such thing as land just because you’ll never see it. Just because everyday you stand up in your confined floating coffin and scan 360 degrees of blue-green nothingness as far as your eyes can focus.
These things make you realise there must be more. The boat swaying and sickening (tiger or not) screams deafening that there are states that are....different. By nature it is merely a means of conveyance. Something to launch from point A, protect during a journey and be abandoned at point Z. It is a means not an end.
Just because you’ll never make it to point Z means nothing at all. It doesn’t make the lifeboat less of a lifeboat. It doesn’t make it ‘home’.
August 09 2005 in Literature | Read More | Comments [6]
Tahir Shah Released
I post the following link without analysis but it will be of interest to those readers familiar with the work of Idries Shah - it is an article in the London Times detailing the recent harrowing ordeal in a Pakistan jail of Shah’s son, the writer and film-maker Tahir.
Thank God, he has been released safely. Here is the link to the Times Article.
August 09 2005 in Literature | Read More | Comments [0]
Articles
The following are a selection of articles by yours truly and carefully vetted associates hand-selected for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!
Christianity Before The Sands by Mr Max Gorman
August 08 2005 in General Stuff | Read More | Comments [0]
New Links
Just a quick not the say I have updated with some new links. Bad Christian is a great blog about liberal Christianity and it place in relation to the more often encountered right-wing version. Also added is Guruphiliac which is a real find as I have long been lamenting the demise of David Lane’s essential Scumbag Gurus.
Finally, I’ve made a great discovery in Andrew Magergut’s Almanac: New Middle Ages which is an excellent resource for Byzantine Christianity, mysticism and philosophy as well as touching on Islamic Art and related topics. There is a great article Islamic Asceticism up there as of now and it is an essential read for anyone interested in the early development of Sufi practice. It has inspired me to post a few things on early Islamic asceticism and its relation to Eastern Christian practices and the teachings of Saint Isaac of Nineveh - hopefully these will appear at some point next week if I get the time.
August 06 2005 in General Stuff | Read More | Comments [2]
Unreliable Memoirs #1
A blog is essentially quite a narcissistic entity and as I have writer’s block and can’t come up with anything to fill up the ‘writing’ category with I’ve decided to embrace this aspect of the phenomena and write a pseudo-biography - probably on an ongoing basis. Or if you’re lucky maybe just when I’m bored.
The first thing to bear in mind is that it will be a complete and utter fiction from beginning to end and contain barely a scintilla of truth, so any coincidence with events in the ‘real world’ is illusory. If anyone recognizes themselves, others or situations described anywhere here - don’t worry: it’s not real....
August 06 2005 in Literature | Read More | Comments [6]
Donkey
A neighbour came to Nasrudin, asking to borrow his donkey. “It is out on loan,” the teacher replied. At that moment, the donkey brayed loudly inside the stable. “But I can hear it bray, over there.” “Whom do you believe,” asked Nasrudin, “me or a donkey?”
August 05 2005 in Mulla Nasrudin | Read More | Comments [1]
Nasrudin Site
Just discovered this new site on the esteemed Mulla Nasrudin.
The site features the Nasrudin stories as told in the framework of marionette theatre by puppeteer Richard Merrill of Brooksville, Maine. There are some great stories - including some Zen Mulla-ized ones - and there is even a discussion forum. Check it out!
August 04 2005 in Mulla Nasrudin | Read More | Comments [1]
Links
Godbothering
Techieness &
Design
Mystic Mayhem
ParaPolitics
Everything Else
Archives
Recent Entries
Meta
