An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for May 23, 2019

If you’d like to participate, head over to Omnium Gatherum on the BBS, or suggest something.

• Jinn, an ominous, supernatural teen drama, the first Arabic-language “original” for Netflix, due June 13

  “A group of high schoolers’ lives are disrupted when a jinn arrives seeking their help. High school will never be the same. Coming June 13. Only on Netflix.”

• His Dark Materials: Season 1, from BBC with two seasons funded, distributed by HBO, coming in 2020 [HT Michael M. Bind Trump Hughes]

  “Adapting Philip Pullman’s award-winning trilogy of the same name, which is considered a modern masterpiece of imaginative fiction, the first season follows Lyra, a seemingly ordinary but brave young woman from another world. Her search for a kidnapped friend uncovers a sinister plot involving stolen children, and becomes a quest to understand a mysterious phenomenon called Dust. As she journeys through the worlds, including our own, Lyra meets Will, a determined and courageous boy. Together, they encounter extraordinary beings and dangerous secrets, with the fate of both the living — and the dead — in their hands.”

• The House of Flames by Hermetic Library Anthology Artist Michael Idehall, limited edition of 23, on pre-order

  

  “The House of Flames contains two intersecting books: Tavulaxa and Glyphï. Tavulaxa details 11 mythological concepts of the Draconian current and navigational sigilisations that assist the reader in connecting the mystery to the accompanying sound composition. Glyphï consists of 23 channelings of automatic ink drawings and oracular texts. The third component is an indexing diagram called The Circle of Sight which is a matrix displaying how the different oracles, sigils, and sound compositions correspond to each other.

  This is an edition limited to 23 copies. The box set contains a hand bound book in quarter leather binding, one of the 23 original ink drawings featured in the book, a CD, and an LP. €170 + shipping. Place your order here: info@belzebez.se”

• Early Greek Alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity [also] by Olivier Dufault, from California Classical Studies [HT OlivierDufault]

  

  “Early Greek alchemy, Patronage and Innovation in Late Antiquity provides an example of the innovative power of ancient scholarly patronage by looking at a key moment in the creation of the Greek alchemical tradition.

  New evidence on scholarly patronage under the Roman empire can be garnered by analyzing the descriptions of learned magoi in several texts from the second to the fourth century CE. Since a common use of the term magos connoted flatterer-like figures (kolakes), it is likely that the figures of “learned sorcerers” found in texts such as Lucian’s Philopseudes and the apocryphal Acts of Peter captured the notion that some client scholars exerted undue influence over patrons.

  The first known author of alchemical commentaries, Zosimus of Panopolis (c. 300 CE), presented himself neither as a magos nor as an alchemist. In his treatises, he rather appears as a Christian scholar and the client of a rich woman named Theosebeia. In three polemical letters to his patroness, Zosimus attempted to discredit rival specialists of alchemy by describing them as magoi and demon-worshippers and by equating their techniques with Egyptian temple practice. In a subtler attempt to edge out his competitors, Zosimus pointed to their limited education and suggested that true alchemy could only be acquired by a meticulous interpretation of Greek alchemical texts.

  Extant evidence thus suggests that alchemical texts were first introduced among other Greek scholarly traditions when Zosimus annexed Egyptian temple rituals into the ambit of paideia thanks to the support and venue provided by his patroness.”

• Strange Angel Season 2 – Official Trailer from CBS All Access

  “… new season of Strange Angel, premiering June 13th …

  In season two, the U.S. is fully engaged in World War II, transforming Jack’s rocketry work into a lucrative business and further entrenching him in the military-industrial complex. While Jack’s career takes off, he and his wife Susan’s devotion to their new occult religion grows, leading them to invite the sex cult into their Pasadena mansion and Jack to forge a personal relationship with the group’s notorious founder, Aleister Crowley himself.”

• “Boleskine House: Former Highland home of occultist Aleister Crowley and Led Zeppelin founder is sold” — Alison Campsie, Scotsman

  

  “The former Highland home of occultist Aleister Crowley that was largely destroyed by fire four years ago has been sold.

  The new owners of Boleskine House near Loch Ness will be hoping for a new peaceful chapter in the property’s story with it understood the house is to become home to a charitable foundation and opened up to the public.”

• “Joaquin Phoenix and ‘The Gospel of Mary’: Gnostic fiction at a theater near you” — John Stonestreet and G. Shane Morris, Christian Post; about Mary Madalene directed by Garth Davis, with Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix, from IFC Films,

  

  “Remember that 1980s cough syrup commercial when Chris Robinson said, ‘I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV’? I wanted to paraphrase these immortal words when I read what actor Joaquin Phoenix of ‘Gladiator’ fame said about his role as Jesus in the movie, ‘Mary Magdalene.’ Phoenix is not the Son of Man, but he plays him on the big screen. His is a very different Jesus than the one we meet in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

  Judging by the trailer and the press roll-out, the movie drew heavily on a second-century Gnostic text known as ‘the Gospel of Mary.’ In a recent interview with Newsweek, Phoenix slammed early Christianity for not canonizing this and other apocryphal writings about Jesus, saying: ‘Why was Mary’s book not included in the Bible? The stench of blatant sexism,’ he says, is ‘inescapable.’

  Phoenix went even further in another interview: ‘Somebody made that decision to exclude [Mary Magdalene’s] observations and feelings about the life of Christ and her experience. There seems to have been an overt intention to exclude women from that process.'”

• “Muslims of Color Issue Call for Unity” — Hamil Harris, The Washington Informer
  

  “Noble Drew Ali was the Moorish American leader who founded the Moorish Science Temple of America. Considered a prophet by his followers, Ali founded the Canaanite Temple in Newark, New Jersey, in 1913 before relocating to Chicago, where he gained a following of thousands of converts before his death in 1929.

  ‘We organized as the Moorish Temple of Science in the year of 1925, and were legally incorporated as a civic organization under the laws of the State of Illinois, November 29, 1926,’ Ali once said in a statement. ‘The name Moorish Temple of Science was changed to the Moorish Science Temple of America, May 1928 in accordance with the legal requirements of the Secretary of the State of Illinois. The object of our Organization is to help in the great program of uplifting fallen humanity and teach those things to make our members better citizens.’

  Brother R. Jones Bey, Grand Sheik of the Moorish Science Temple of America Inc., told the gathering, ‘You must be the message that you bring. … I can’t lead anybody being a hypocrite, and if you are going to be real it has to begin with you.’

  Some of the toughest words were challenged issued by the Moorish Science brothers who have been instrumental in working with inmates across the country.

  ‘We separate ourselves because we don’t practice Islam the same way,’ said Brother Lomax Bey. ‘This ain’t about me, this ain’t about brother Yahya, it is about doing Allah’s work because he ain’t pleased in what we are doing. What we have to do is find our way back home.'”

• “The black Muslim female fashion trailblazers who came before model Halima Aden” — Kayla Renée Wheeler, Grand Valley State University, The Middletown Press
  

  “In the 20th century, black Americans were reintroduced to Islam through several people and organizations.

  These included the Moorish Science Temple of America and the Nation of Islam. The Moorish Science Temple of America was founded by a Moorish American, Noble Drew Ali, in 1913 in Newark, New Jersey.

  Drew Ali taught his followers that they were not Negros or Ethiopians, rather they were Moors and that Islam was their true religion. According to Drew Ali, Moors are descendants of the ancient Moabites who founded Mecca, one of the most important cities in Islam.

  …

  Clothing played a central role in constructing a unique black Muslim identity. Black Muslim women used their dress to challenge American beauty standards, which typically holds thin young white women as the ideal beauty. Their dress practices also challenged beliefs that Islam was only an Arab religion by encouraging members to develop their own local dress practices.

  In the Moorish Science Temple of America, male members wore fezzes or turbans and women wore turbans often paired with long shift dresses as part of their everyday wear.”