I will go to a cafe with wi-fi and pay cash for a cup of coffee.
Your tax dollars at work in Eric Holder’s Department of Justice.
The “New Yorker rule”
M. and I work together on many editing projects. Yesterday, the author of a journal article, reading her galleys, said that she thought that expressions such as “sui generis,” “axis mundi,”* and “Weltanschauung” should be italicized as foreign expressions. (I had them in roman.)
I consulted the holy scriptures, where in chapter 7, verse 52, I read, “Foreign words and pases familiar to most readers and listed in Webster’s should appear in roman (not italics) if used in an English context. . . . German nouns, if in Webster’s, are lowercased.”
I assume that the online Webster’s is all right. But what about “most readers”?
I propose “the New Yorker rule.” Although The New Yorker is not an academic journal, its writers and editors seem to expect a level of comfort with common phrases from other major world languages (Chinese excepted, thus far).
Therefore, if The New Yorker puts a phrase like “sui generis” in roman, so shall we. A quick search of the phrase on their website will tell us. They do capitalize Weltanschauung when writing in English, however, which is a deviation from the true Chicago path.
* I have read too much Eliade to ever put axis mundi in italics anyway.
Do the Living Outnumber the Dead?
Did you ever get into a discussion of the possibility of reincarnation only to have someone announce, “Reincarnation is impossible because there are more people alive now than have ever lived”?
And then they sit back smugly. Or perhaps they quote George Carlin, the favorite sage of the Barstool Philosopher.
It is true that if you delve back into the mists of time, the population of Earth was tiny in comparison to today and logically it might seem plausible that the living outnumber the dead.
Picking the right starting point seems to be crucial, and there is a certain amount of hand-waving involved, but see for yourself.
Speed-Reviewing Pagan Musicians
At The Mead Muse, reviews of a different Pagan musician or group each day for 28 days during February.
First came Sharon Knight and Pandemonaeon, a solid choice.
Siberian Shamans and their Music
A short documentary on contemporary Siberian shamanism from the Russian television channel RT.
The interesting part is a young shaman and his friend composing a sort of “house” music (or so the narrator describes it) to try to bridge contemporary sounds with the shamanic tradition, which was almost destroyed by seventy years of atheistic Communism. A little throat-singing comes in as well.
“Music helps me withdraw from the [trance] state,” says the shaman-musician.
The relationship between the revival of Siberian shamanism and Michael Harner’s Foundation for Shamanic Studies is briefly hinted at.
Being a Wizard Today
This link will take you to six-minute video wherein Oberon Zell of the Church of All Worlds and the Grey School of Wizardry discusses the school and role of the wizard in the modern world, with cameo appearances by two of the students.
There is also brief mention of the “unicorn” era of the 1980s.
Although he cannot help being labeled a “real-life Dumbledore,” I do think that Oberon and his partner Morning Glory deserve some kind of Pagan Lifetime Achievement award. They have lived the life of priest and priestess, author, editor, teacher, artist, etc. for more than forty years, with a little help from their friends but while remaining firmly “alternative” the whole time.
More Reality TV Pagans
If you want, you can sign a petition against or about the treatment of contemporary Paganism on The Learning Channel and The Discovery Channel.
I’m glad that I don’t have cable TV, y’know?
Market Share of the Gods
A few weeks ago, I was looking at the Sacred Source catalog and wondered if it could not be treated as a primary source for the extent and type of polytheistic worship in the West — or at least the Anglosphere? — today.
They sort their statuettes, etc., into categories, and I have further divided those categories by gender and also into an animal/other category for non-human representations. I did break their “Americas” category in North and Meso-South.
I double-count Great Rite/conjoined images, and I also count Buddha figures, for although Buddhas are originally human, they are effectively treated by gods by some.
New: 2 male, 13 female
Goddess/Pagan: 8 male, 43 female, 2 other
Celtic: 6 male, 22 female, 3 other
Norse: 7 male, 6 female
Greco-Roman: 19 male, 32 female, 1 other
Hindu & Buddhist: 34 male, 30 female
Native American 0 male, 5 female
African: 1 male, 3 female
Neolithic: 1 male, 3 female
Middle Eastern: 2 male, 10 female
Meso/South American: 2 male, 6 female
Gnostic: 8 male, 15 female
Egyptian: 2 male, 10 female, 5 other
As my title indicates, I am assuming that these numbers reflect sales, not theology. Slow-selling figures are dropped, which is why you do not, alas, find the Emperor Julian in the lineup anymore. (I should have bought several!)
What else do they tell us? Comments are open.
More Pagan Narrow-casting
Modern Pagan TV is a show streaming on the Web, produced in Denver.
You can watch their first programs by visiting the archives at the website.
I’m sure that this is (part of) the future, but I am not going to stop blogging, me. For one thing, I don’t have to think about what I am wearing—although, contrary to the blogger cliche, I am not wearing pajamas at this moment.
Survey on Pagan Needs
Gwendolyn Reece, a librarian at American University in Washington, D.C., with a background in religious studies, is conducting a survey “to understand the importance of different practices to the Pagan/Witch/Heathen community in the United States and identify the needs, challenges, barriers, and perceptions of risk faced by Pagans/Witches/Heathens that influence their ability to practice, and whether there are variations within segments of the community. ”
I have not yet learned if she plans an academic paper or publication with the result, but I am attempting to find out.