{"id":1696,"date":"2010-06-26T21:19:51","date_gmt":"2010-06-27T03:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1696"},"modified":"2010-06-26T21:19:51","modified_gmt":"2010-06-27T03:19:51","slug":"street-kids-and-the-killer-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1696","title":{"rendered":"Street Kids and the Killer Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via Bayou Renaissance Man<\/a> (a former Catholic priest): an entire cosmology invented and\/or syncretized and\/or revealed by homeless kids in Miami.<\/a><\/p>\n

The homeless children’s chief ally is a beautiful angel they have nicknamed the Blue Lady. She has pale blue skin and lives in the ocean, but she is hobbled by a spell. “The demons made it so she only has power if you know her secret name,” says Andre, whose mother has been through three rehabilitation programs for crack addiction. “If you and your friends on a corner on a street when a car comes shooting bullets and only one child yells out her true name, all will be safe. Even if bullets tearing your skin, the Blue Lady makes them fall on the ground. She can talk to us, even without her name. She says: ‘Hold on.'”<\/p>\n

….<\/strong><\/p>\n

Folktales are usually an inheritance from family or homeland. But what if you are a child enduring a continual, grueling, dangerous journey? No adult can steel such a child against the outcast’s fate: the endless slurs and snubs, the threats, the fear. What these determined children do is snatch dark and bright fragments of Halloween fables, TV news, and candy-colored Bible-story leaflets from street-corner preachers, and like birds building a nest from scraps, weave their own myths. The “secret stories” are carefully guarded knowledge, never shared with older siblings or parents for fear of being ridiculed — or spanked for blasphemy. But their accounts of an exiled God who cannot or will not respond to human pleas as his angels wage war with Hell is, to shelter children, a plausible explanation for having no safe home, and one that engages them in an epic clash.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The reporter sees these “myths” as a response to the kids’ social distress. But do they also reveal an underlying predilection for a sort of cobbled-together Gnosticism?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via Bayou Renaissance Man (a former Catholic priest): an entire cosmology invented and\/or syncretized and\/or revealed by homeless kids in Miami. The homeless children’s chief ally is a beautiful angel they have nicknamed the Blue Lady. She has pale blue skin and lives in the ocean, but she is hobbled by a spell. “The demons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,77,124],"class_list":["post-1696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-gnosticism","tag-myth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-rm","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1210,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1210","url_meta":{"origin":1696,"position":0},"title":"The Not-Quite-Pagan ‘Pioneer Day’ Parade","author":"Chas S. 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Clifton","date":"December 18, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":". . . as evidenced by this story from an Associated Press contributor in Beirut.In an incisive bit of analysis, Lebanese sociologist Dala el-Bizri, a resident of Cairo, says male-dominated societies are to blame for making women cover up. \"When the condition of women on the street is unnatural, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Aphrodite\"","block_context":{"text":"Aphrodite","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=aphrodite"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8438,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8438","url_meta":{"origin":1696,"position":2},"title":"The Passing of S\u00e1ra Cunningham","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Another key figure in the American Craft Scene of the 1960s\u201370s slipped away in December 2016: Lady S\u00e1ra Cunningham(19352016).((Also known as Sara Cunningham Carter.)) It seems like almost everyone profiled in Hans Holzer's 1972 book The New Pagans((A important survey of the American Pagan movement at that time, it predated\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8438#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sara Cunningham and dog","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/perfumealchemy.weebly.com\/uploads\/8\/5\/0\/6\/8506707\/ladysaradog2_orig.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4562,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4562","url_meta":{"origin":1696,"position":3},"title":"Giant Green Goddess","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Northumberlandia is the name of a new sculpture made at the site of a former open-pit coal mine in northern England. The work is described as \"goddess-like,\" but please, not Pagan: There was no intention to make a Pagan figure or mimic any ancient fertility symbols, despite her breasts which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.telegraph.co.uk\/multimedia\/archive\/02322\/Northumberlandia-1_2322661b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.telegraph.co.uk\/multimedia\/archive\/02322\/Northumberlandia-1_2322661b.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.telegraph.co.uk\/multimedia\/archive\/02322\/Northumberlandia-1_2322661b.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12763,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12763","url_meta":{"origin":1696,"position":4},"title":"Starring Ava Gardner as the Faery Queen","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Ava Gardner (1922\u20131990) was one of the most famous American film stars of the late 1940s through the 1960s, probably best known for The Night of the Iguana (1964). She had moved to London 1968, which might be why she was cast in a movie that, given my interests, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/fairy_crew.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/fairy_crew.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/fairy_crew.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3740,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3740","url_meta":{"origin":1696,"position":5},"title":"Quick Review: “Dark of Moon”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"If you are a Pagan watching Dark of Moon, you probably will be thinking \"I know her! I've met them! I've been there!\" \u2014 even if, of course, you have not. You will probably be so pleased to watch a feature-length film that treats Wicca and Druidry as normal rather\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"movies\"","block_context":{"text":"movies","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1696"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1699,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696\/revisions\/1699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}