Explosive Fruit

Checking my blog visitor log the other day, I saw that someone had used Google’s translation service to read it in French. The phrase “originally published in The Pomegranate” had been translated as “? l’origine ?dit?es dans la grenade.”

“La grenade” . . . of course! The Engish word “pomegranate” comes from the Old French pom grenate. That connection trickled into my consciousness after a moment’s thought. (Hence “grenadine,” the syrup made from pomegranates or currants.)

But I still enjoyed the metaphorical possibilities: our journal–which is now at the printer–as a grenade tossed into seminar room of religious studies. It sounds like a poetic image by one of the more violent Futurists of the 1930s.

In early 20th-century American slang, small bombs thrown by hand or launched by a rifle have been called “pineapples” (cast iron fragmentation-style) or “lemons” (sheet metal fragmentation-style) — but not, so far as I know, “pomegranates.”

Explosive Fruit

Checking my blog visitor log the other day, I saw that someone had used Google’s translation service to read it in French. The phrase “originally published in The Pomegranate” had been translated as “? l’origine ?dit?es dans la grenade.”

“La grenade” . . . of course! The Engish word “pomegranate” comes from the Old French pom grenate. That connection trickled into my consciousness after a moment’s thought. (Hence “grenadine,” the syrup made from pomegranates or currants.)

But I still enjoyed the metaphorical possibilities: our journal–which is now at the printer–as a grenade tossed into seminar room of religious studies. It sounds like a poetic image by one of the more violent Futurists of the 1930s.

In early 20th-century American slang, small bombs thrown by hand or launched by a rifle have been called “pineapples” (cast iron fragmentation-style) or “lemons” (sheet metal fragmentation-style) — but not, so far as I know, “pomegranates.”

Why are you reading this?

The revolution will not be blogged, says Mother Jones writer Geoge Packer.

“The constellation of opinion called the blogosphere consists, like the stars themselves, partly of gases. This is what makes blogs addictive ? that is, both pleasurable and destructive: They’re so easy to consume, and so endlessly available. Their second-by-second proliferation means that far more is written than needs to be said about any one thing. ”

Well, that’s it. I’ll stop. I’m off to the low-rent coffeehouse in the Masonic temple building, a small town coffeehouse with no wireless Internet access and hence no one generating “little spasms of assertion.” And I will stop at the hardware store, the realm of the tangible.

Why are you reading this?

The revolution will not be blogged, says Mother Jones writer Geoge Packer.

“The constellation of opinion called the blogosphere consists, like the stars themselves, partly of gases. This is what makes blogs addictive ? that is, both pleasurable and destructive: They’re so easy to consume, and so endlessly available. Their second-by-second proliferation means that far more is written than needs to be said about any one thing. ”

Well, that’s it. I’ll stop. I’m off to the low-rent coffeehouse in the Masonic temple building, a small town coffeehouse with no wireless Internet access and hence no one generating “little spasms of assertion.” And I will stop at the hardware store, the realm of the tangible.

Why are you reading this?

The revolution will not be blogged, says Mother Jones writer Geoge Packer.

“The constellation of opinion called the blogosphere consists, like the stars themselves, partly of gases. This is what makes blogs addictive ? that is, both pleasurable and destructive: They’re so easy to consume, and so endlessly available. Their second-by-second proliferation means that far more is written than needs to be said about any one thing. ”

Well, that’s it. I’ll stop. I’m off to the low-rent coffeehouse in the Masonic temple building, a small town coffeehouse with no wireless Internet access and hence no one generating “little spasms of assertion.” And I will stop at the hardware store, the realm of the tangible.

Why are you reading this?

The revolution will not be blogged, says Mother Jones writer Geoge Packer.

“The constellation of opinion called the blogosphere consists, like the stars themselves, partly of gases. This is what makes blogs addictive ? that is, both pleasurable and destructive: They’re so easy to consume, and so endlessly available. Their second-by-second proliferation means that far more is written than needs to be said about any one thing. ”

Well, that’s it. I’ll stop. I’m off to the low-rent coffeehouse in the Masonic temple building, a small town coffeehouse with no wireless Internet access and hence no one generating “little spasms of assertion.” And I will stop at the hardware store, the realm of the tangible.

Counter-attack on The Da Vinci Code

Cronaca and Bookslut (27 April entry) both have entries on the flood of new books out to counter the spurious history, not to mention the “feminism, anticlericalism and pagan forms of worship” of The Da Vinci Code.

From the New York Times: “The Rev. James L. Garlow, co-author with Prof. Peter Jones of Cracking Da Vinci’s Code and pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, said: ‘I don’t think it’s just an innocent novel with a fascinating plot. I think it’s out there to win people over to an incorrect and historically inaccurate view, and it’s succeeding. People are buying into the notion that Jesus is not divine, he is not the son of God.'”

Author Dan Brown welcomes the controversy.

50th Anniversary of Witchcraft Today

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Gerald Gardner’s Witchcraft Today, a fascinating book, although flawed by the author’s pretense that he is a sort of anthropologist reporting on “them,” the witches, rather than in fact what he was–co-founder of the modern magical religion of Wicca.

An American edition was published later by Citadel, now part of Kensington Books. My old copy (4th paperback printing) is dated 1973.

Now Citadel has re-issued Witchcraft Today with the original text and illustrations plus additional annotation and four additional essays. Those new contributors are Judy Harrow, the project’s editor, plus historian Ronald Hutton, Wren Walker of The Witches’ Voice web site, and Tara Nelsen, a graduate student, bookstore owner, and Pagan activist from southern Illinois.

Harrow, in particular, has produced some fascinating work, tracking down nearly every one of the sources upon which Gardner drew (in his slapdash way), producing what amounts to an annotated bibliography of the original edition. In addition, she indexed the book–it always lacked an index–and wrote a second essay with reading lists, focused on all the themes, such as spellcraft, which Gardner touched upon.

Preparing annotated bibliographies may not seem as sexy as writing about spells or shamanism, but they provide a true service to future researchers. Like the centennial edition of Charles Leland’s Aradia: or The Gospel of the Witches, which I was privileged to write an essay for in 1999, the appearance of this edition marks one more step in the maturation of contemporary Paganism.

Absintheurs of the Web

When the snow melts, I know the wormwood will be flourishing. Perhaps it is time to think about absinthe — like this guy (See 31 March 2004 entry). Or there are the commercial versions.

. . . summer afternoons ahead . . .

April in the snow

Blogging is a bit difficult right now. Thanks to a major spring blizzard, my home has had no electricity since Thursday night, the 22nd, and telephone service was restored only yesterday. I might also credit the local rural electric cooperative, which has not had anyone trimming trees out our way for at least ten years. Now their guys have to be out in the knee-deep snow and rain, clearing the power lines. (In fairness, it looks like some utility poles snapped off out on the praire west of Pueblo as well.)

So just link dumps today, as I work at my office on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

The War of the Sweatshirts

Things are getting a little tense out there in Abrahamic Religions Land.

New papers posted on my home page

I will be putting some older essays and conference papers on my home page. For now, here are two:

“Fort Hood’s Pagans and the Problem of Pacificism” –Why Starhawk’s writings are not the best source for Wiccan attitudes towards war.

“If Witches No Longer Fly,” (104 kb PDF file) — An essay on contemporary Pagans and Solanaceous plants, originally published in The Pomegranate.