Snake Handling: Seeking God Amongst the Serpents

Snake handling (or serpent handling), is a religious ritual practiced today in a small number of Pentecostal churches of the US (predominantly but not limited to Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Ohio) and a few areas of Canada, that first became popularized in the early 20th century in remote areas of the Appalachian Mountain region, which then spread to regional coal mining towns.  (Practitioners, or self-described “sign-followers,” prefer the term “serpent-handling” to “snake-handling” noting that they incorporate poisonous reptiles, not common snakes, into religious worship.)  Though snake handling plays only a small part in the religious services of such churches, the fact that followers routinely handle rattlesnakes, copperheads, water moccasins and other highly venomous snakes, has come to define them and their religion. And while always controversial, and in many areas illegal, the practice of snake handling shows no signs of disappearing from the traditional Appalachian landscape.  Read more . . .

Kosher, Iodized, Sea: What's the Salty Difference?

“Kosher” salt, (a term recognized as primarily American in usage), is a variety of edible salt with a much larger grain size than that of most common table salt.  Like common table salt, kosher salt consists of the chemical compound sodium chloride, but unlike table salt, kosher salt typically contains no additives such as iodine–although some brands include anti-clumping agents in small amounts. (The Salt Institute, located in Alexandria, VA, claims "Kosher salt contains no additives".)  Read more . . .

The Pros and Cons of Male Circumcision: the Debate Continues

If you’re one of those who thinks the need for male circumcision is a forgone, scientific conclusion, think again.  In fact, the issue of male circumcision is as controversial as it ever was, with a wider and wider gap forming between those health professionals who advocate it and those who don’t.  And while there are well-known religious, social, and medical reasons why circumcision is often recommended, most major medical societies have now taken an impartial view of the procedure, neither recommending nor renouncing the practice.   Read more . . .

The Practice and Method of Shrinking Heads

Thought to harness the spirit of an enemy and compel him to serve the desires of the “shrinker,” the practice of shrinking heads originally held a spiritual significance.  While head "hunting" is a practice documented in many areas of the world including ancient China, Mesoamerica, India, Japan, the Amazon, and various parts of Africa, the only known head shrinkers are a group of indigenous people from the northwestern region of the Amazon rainforest (Ecuador and Peru) collectively known as the Jivaroan peoples. Their most notorious tribe, the Shuar, live at the headwaters of the Marañón River.  Read more . . .

The Life of a Hermit

From the Latin eremita, meaning “desert dweller,’ a hermit is a person who lives to some degree in seclusion from society.  Often loosely applied to anyone living a solitary life-style, and used interchangeably with misanthrope and anchorite (someone who has chosen seclusion for purely religious reasons), hermits and anchorites were historically distinguished on the basis of physical location–hermits removing themselves to the wilderness while anchorites selecting a cell attached to a church or near a populated area.  In Christianity, the term hermit was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament (the forty years wandering in the desert that was meant to bring about a change of heart).  Read more . . .

The History of Gambling: Ritual Beginnings

The roots of gambling can be traced back thousands of years to religious ceremonies conducted by many pre-historic societies.  Wide-spread cultural evidence indicates that early man created many rituals specifically to foretell the future or explain what was beyond mortal comprehension.  Initially involving the casting of lots–throwing a random handful of small objects such as pebbles, sticks, bones, shells, or nuts–the end results were then counted to ascertain an “odd” or “even” number; even generally equated with a positive outcome, odd a negative one.  Over time this process became more complex, also including the interpretation of the patterns various natural objects made as they appeared in the environment.  Read more . . .

Who, Exactly, was St. Patrick?

St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Bannauenta, Britain, in about the year 389 (although both his place and date of birth are often disputed). Son of Potitus, a middle-class deacon and minor local official, Patrick was no doubt raised a Christian, but showed little interest in religious studies until later in life.  At the age of 16, Patrick was captured by a band of Irish raiders, quite possibly while taking part in the raid against the Irish king Niall Noigiallach who met his end in Britain in 405. Taken to Ireland to be sold as a slave, Patrick served as shepherd to a chieftain named Miliucc for six years, near the mountain called Slemish in County Antrim (Ulster). During this bleak period of time, religion became Patrick’s solace and focus in life.  Read more . . .

Rasputin, the So-Called "Mad Monk" Who Toppled the Romanov Dynasty

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (January 1869–December 1916) was born in the small village of Pokrovskoye along the Tura River in the Tobolsk guberniya (now Tyumen Oblast) in Siberia.   Often referred to as the "Mad Monk,” Rasputin was considered by many of his time to be a strannik (a religious pilgrim), and even a starets or "elder,” a title generally reserved for monk-confessors, believing him to possess psychic abilities and the gift of miraculous healing.  One often-cited example of these reputed powers occurred when Efim Rasputin, Grigori’s father, had one of his horses stolen and Rasputin was able to identify the man who had committed the theft by simply sensing it.  Read more . . .

Witch Hunts in America: America's Time of Darkness

As most everyone knows today, during the three centuries of witch hunts in Salem and in many other parts of the American colonies, hundreds of innocent men, women, and even children, were put to death.  According to official documents available to the public, once the accusation of "witch" was made, a process began during which the accused was confined and tortured, and it was only a matter of time before they were ultimately strangled, drown, or burned to death.  Once branded a "witch," tests were administered to prove guilt and allow the accused the opportunity to confess.  Among these tests were swimming, strappado, thumbscrews, the boot, and the Black Virgin.  These methods represent by far the more humane tactics used to extract confession, the more severe involving the tearing off of women's breasts, penetration of women's anal cavities, and spreading of the vagina using metal torture devices designed especially for this purpose.  Read more . . .

"Sex Pots" and the Moche Civilization

The Moche civilization, believed to have flourished in northern Peru from about 100 CE to 800 CE, is an ancient culture best known for the tens of thousands of ceramic “sex pots” they fashioned to convey what anthropologists believe was their societal view of various forms of sexual activity.  Considered by historians to be among the finest pottery of the ancient Americas, it is quite striking in its naturalistic style and refined craftsmanship.  Anthropologists believe Moche ceramics may have served as models (visual aids) for relating moral or political perspective which allowed older generations, perhaps community elders, to pass down essential knowledge. The so-called “sex pots” could have been used to teach about procreation, sexual pleasure, cultural and social norms, immortality, transfer of life and souls, or perhaps the relationship between nature and life.  Read more . . .

The Wodaabe: the Beautiful People of Northwest Africa

The Wodaabe, a subculture of the larger Fulbe-speaking Fulani, are a group of nomadic cattle-herders and traders who historically have been highly influential in politics and economics throughout western Africa.  Known to have existed for over one thousand years, the Wodaabe continue to play a significant role in furthering Fulani domination in the West African region.  Referring to themselves as Bororo, the Wodaabe migration area currently stretches from southern Niger to northern Nigeria, northeastern Cameroon to the western region of the Central African Republic.  In 1983, the number of Wodaabe was estimated at 45,000; a more current assessment virtually impossible due to geographic dispersal and cultural restrictions.  Perhaps the most visually striking culture compared to other indigenous groups of this region, the Wodaabe are known for their beauty (both men and women), elaborate attire, and rich cultural ceremonies.  Read more . . .

Angels Watching Over Us

The word angel comes from the Greek, angelo, which mean “messenger.”  For thousands of years, thousands of translations, countless written descriptions and oral accounts speak of divine winged messengers draped in pure, white robes, underscoring humankind’s ageless belief and fascination with angels.  Fundamental to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, the concept of angelic beings is very similar in all three faiths: spiritual beings created by God before the world was created, whose role is to glorify God, minister to God, and particularly, to act as God's messengers to humans in matters of great importance (such as the announcement to Mary in Christianity and the revelation of the Qur'an in Islam).  Read more . . .

The Palermo Stone: the Other Important Egyptian Stone Tablet

Though far less known than the famous Rosetta Stone, the Palermo Stone is no less significant, and in fact, reveals far more than its more celebrated stone cousin.  Essentially, the Palermo Stone is the oldest known history book of Egypt following the unification of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt.  Named for the museum in which it is housed, the Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum in Palermo, Italy, this basalt fragment, which was engraved toward the end of the Fifth Dynasty in the 25th Century BCE, provides records of the kings of Egypt from the First Dynasty through the Fifth Dynasty, a list of what is thought to be the mythical kings prior to the dynastic era, as well as information on cult ceremonies, sculpture, taxation, buildings, and public warfare.  Read more . . .

Sodom and Gomorrah: History or Allegory?

According to one of the earliest stories of the Bible, two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their inhabitants were destroyed some 5,000 years ago for not living up to the ethical standards of God.  But, did these ancient cities actually exist?  And if so, were they actually destroyed by fire and brimstone or is this purely a cautionary, anagogical tale as many stories of the Bible are thought to have been?  These are the questions believers and scholars alike have asked for centuries.  Read more . . .

The Rosetta Stone: the Key to Egyptian Hieroglyphs

The Rosetta Stone, an irregularly shaped slab of black basalt measuring 3’ 9” by 2’ 4 1/2", was found in the town of Rosetta on the left bank of the Nile, in August of 1799, by a Frenchman named Pierre-Francois Bouchard during the execution of repairs to the fort at St. Julian.  Subsequently passed into British ownership in 1801 during the surrender of Egypt by the French, it is currently housed in the British Museum.  Written in two languages and three scripts (Greek, hieroglyphics, and demotic), the inscription records the commemoration of the accession of the Pharaoh Ptolemy V Epiphanes to the throne of Egypt in the year 197–196 BCE, in the 9th year of his reign.  The son of Ptolemy IV Philopator and Arsinoe III of Egypt, Ptolemy V Epiphanes was the fifth ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, becoming ruler at the age of five when his father died and his mother Sosibius was murdered.  Read more . . .

The Yiddish Language

Yiddish is a Germanic language with about three million speakers worldwide, primarily Ashkenazic Jews (the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe and their descendants) residing in the US, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, and many other countries.  The name Yiddish is probably an abbreviated version of yidish-taytsh, which means "Jewish German.”  A hybrid of Hebrew and medieval German, Yiddish takes most of its vocabulary from German but borrows liberally from Hebrew and many other languages from the many lands the Ashkenazic Jews have lived through the centuries.  Although it has a grammatical structure all its own, Yiddish is written with an alphabet based on Hebrew characters.  Read more . . .

The Method of Ritual Magic(k)

For many aspirants of ritual magic(k), it is with the acquisition of ritual tools that the magic(k)al journal actually begins.  In that magic(k) requires a vast selection of highly specialized tools, each chosen specifically for one and one purpose only, this process typically takes many years to complete.  For many adepts, the acquisition of ritual tools becomes an ongoing, lifetime mission, with instruments of higher magnitude replacing lesser ones as fate provides. Thus, as any ritualist will attest, establishing the proper “thinking” behind choosing one’s magic(k)al tools cannot be simplified or overemphasized.  Read more . . .

The Laws of Ritual Magic(k)

Throughout recorded history, the ability to influence the forces of nature has distinguished our greatest leaders–tribal chiefs, religious figures, and trusted imparters of wisdom.  From Ramesses II  to Solomon, Leonardo to Pope Benedict XVI, those believed to possess the ability to reach through the veil separating the realm of the mundane from the otherworldly have been afforded particular status, authority, privilege, and often, power.  While in ancient times the practice of magic(k) was commonplace–magicians said to be on every street corner–it was often a matter of whose magic(k) was more powerful that ultimately determined societal ranking; those able to demonstrate their skills on command afforded more social clout.  Read more . . .

The Concept of Evil

One of the more interesting and perhaps revealing aspects of the concept of “evil” is that while the belief in its existence may be cross-culturally universal, how it manifests within a given culture relates directly to the norms and accepted moral standards of that particular culture.  Although seen as the opposing force of “good” by many cultures around the world today, by and large, evil has a regional definition that reflects types of behavior deemed threatening to societal stability.  Thus, what is perceived as evil in one cultural setting (the public display of breasts, for example, in Amish country, Lancaster, PA) is seen as a societal norm in another (such as on the beaches of Brazil or the French Riviera).  In Lancaster it represents an insidious “evil” that could taint and undermine long-standing cultural mores, while in France it is a healthy and normal interaction with nature that few people give a second thought.  Read more . . .

The Spiritual and Medicinal Uses of the "Magic Mushroom" (Psilocybe)

As evidenced by findings at numerous Maya sites in Guatemala where numerous mushroom-shaped stones have been discovered, dated to 1000 BCE, archaeologists now know that aptly-named “mushroom cults” of Mesoamerica held psilocybe, the so-called  "magic mushroom," in highest esteem for centuries.  In fact, the archaeological record shows that early Mesoamerica people not only regularly partook of psilocybe, but a number of other hallucinogenic fungi for ritual divining and healing--a practice continued today by the Mazatec people of Oaxaca, in Southern Mexico.  But, what are these so-called magic mushrooms all about?  Read more . . .