{"id":621,"date":"2006-02-25T00:19:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-25T00:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=621"},"modified":"2006-02-25T00:19:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-25T00:19:00","slug":"621","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=621","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Followers of the Peacock Angel<\/strong><\/p>\n

Traveler\/blogger Michael Totten visits the holiest shrine of the Yezidis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some quotes:<\/p>\n

Yezidis are ancient fire-worshippers. They heavily influenced Zoroastrianism, and in turn have been heavily influenced by Sufi Islam. The temple at Lalish is their \u201cMecca.\u201d Hundreds of thousands of remaining Yezidis \u2013 those Kurds who refused to submit to Islam \u2013 make pilgrimages there at least once in their lifetimes from all over the Middle East and Europe.<\/p>\n

…<\/span><\/p>\n

Small buildings that I first thought were houses surround the central courtyard. These small buildings are shrines. (Lalish isn\u2019t a village. No one actually lives there.) The shrines are sacred places dedicated to various Yezidi prophets who are said to help people with physical ailments. There is a shrine where you go if you have a back ache. There is a shrine where you go if you have a tooth ache. And so on. The soil inside and under the shrines is supposedly magic.<\/p>\n

…<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAre you friends with Satan?\u201d I said. \u201cSome Muslims have told me Yezidis are friends with Satan.\u201d I didn\u2019t tell him that my driver, who was standing right next to me, had said this only a half-hour ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not friends with Satan. This is a common point of confusion. They mean Malek Taus. He is the King of the Angels, and the Yezidis follow his way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malek Taus is some kind of celestial peacock. He supposedly said no to God, who did little more than create the universe from a pearl, when God asked all the angels to pray to Adam. \u201cAdam,\u201d he said (as in Adam and Eve) \u201cwas a prophet of God.\u201d But Malek Taus later repented and has been in God\u2019s good graces since.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s important about Malek Taus is that he (it?) was given the choice to follow good or evil, just as human beings are given that choice. Malek Taus chose the good path even though he did not have to. He sets the right example, then, for humans to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan someone from another religion become a Yezidi?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Baba Sheik said. He shrugged his shoulders and cocked his head. \u201cWe are the original people,\u201d he said and spread out his arms. \u201cWe can\u2019t become a cocktail religion like Islam.\u201d Everyone, including my Muslim driver and translator, thought that was hilarious.<\/em><\/p>\n

As the one comment indicates, the Yezidis are sometimes called “Satan-worshipers,” but in fact they are one of the more exotic ingredients in the stew of Middle Eastern monotheisms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Followers of the Peacock Angel Traveler\/blogger Michael Totten visits the holiest shrine of the Yezidis. Some quotes: Yezidis are ancient fire-worshippers. They heavily influenced Zoroastrianism, and in turn have been heavily influenced by Sufi Islam. The temple at Lalish is their \u201cMecca.\u201d Hundreds of thousands of remaining Yezidis \u2013 those Kurds who refused to submit […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-621","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":861,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=861","url_meta":{"origin":621,"position":0},"title":"Muslims attack Yazidis","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Followers of \"the religion of peace\" attack members of a religious minority, the Yazidis of northern Iraq. (This is what you can expect from them if you do not follow a \"religion of the book.\")Journalist Michael Yon recently visited a Yazidi village, where he was treated well.I had been hearing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Islam\"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=islam"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7475,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7475","url_meta":{"origin":621,"position":1},"title":"Responding to Attacks on Pagan Shrines","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"On the 20th of August, I posted about \"Khalid al-Asaad and the War on Pagan Idolatry.\" He was the Syrian archaeologist beheaded by the Muslim fanatics of the Islamic State, their reward for his devoting his professional life to preserving and studying the ancient (and Pagan) city of Palmyra. On\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"_85298986_palmyra_before_after_624","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/85298986_palmyra_before_after_624.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/85298986_palmyra_before_after_624.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/85298986_palmyra_before_after_624.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":907,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=907","url_meta":{"origin":621,"position":2},"title":"Some Shinto Priests","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A Dutchman has become the only (?) non-Japanese Shinto master in Europe.His house, which includes the Dutch Yamakage Shinto Shrine, incorporates a \"kami-dana\" household Shinto shrine and a \"shime-nawa\" (sacred rope). It is also home to the Dutch Shinto Association.\"When I was approved as a Shinto priest by the Rev.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7952,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7952","url_meta":{"origin":621,"position":3},"title":"More Links \u2014\u00a0Hand-Forged Ones At That","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 At Fay's Forge you may buy \"knives, swords, and do castings from the Celtic, migration, Anglo Saxon, and Norse cultures.\" Support your local shieldmaiden. \u2022 Probably it would be more accurate to say that the planned Black Mass terrifies some Christians in Oklahoma. And before you dump on Oklahoma,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/d2isyty7gbnm74.cloudfront.net\/unsafe\/646x646\/https%3A\/\/square-production.s3.amazonaws.com\/files\/503128fa04013403b87b1865a268b66a\/original.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13719,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13719","url_meta":{"origin":621,"position":4},"title":"The Small Gods of Editing","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me, preparing for an evening of copyediting articles for The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies. There is in fact a small shrine within arm's length of my desktop computer, but I usually don't have so many open flames on it. This image of the Roman official\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"France\"","block_context":{"text":"France","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=france"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/roman-scribe-at-altar.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/roman-scribe-at-altar.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/roman-scribe-at-altar.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/roman-scribe-at-altar.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/roman-scribe-at-altar.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/roman-scribe-at-altar.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5398,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5398","url_meta":{"origin":621,"position":5},"title":"Some Items of Interest","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Some Pagan, occult, and academic news items of interest: \u2022 I did not know that any of the \"Group of Seven\" were Theosophists \u2014 plus other influential Canadian Pagans and occultists in one list. \u2022 \"Unintended Consequences of the Affordable Health Care Act\" for part-time college and university faculty. In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621","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=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}