Path: typhoon.sonic.net!pants.skycache.com!howland.erols.net!news.pbi.net.MISMATCH!cyclone.pbi.net!165.113.238.17!pln-w!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!enews3 From: Gnomedplume@cavecom.net (Gnome d' Plume) Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick Subject: Re: Defense of syncretism Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 02:29:14 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Lines: 48 Message-ID: <3885cf9e.23195898@cnews.newsguy.com> References: <38839C8E.6F8F@luckymojo.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: p-380.newsdawg.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451 Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.magick.tyagi:20924 alt.magick:175840 On Tue, 18 Jan 2000 01:35:01 GMT, catherine yronwode wrote: >RIKB2@aol.com wrote: > >> cat@luckymojo.com writes: > >> > syncretism on so vast a scale as attempted >> > by Crowley (remember, he also tried to map the Chinese I Ching >> > against the same Lurianic Tree of Life model!!!) is a spiritual >> > analogue to the British colonialism of his time. > >> I have a bit of a problem with this characterization, although I am >> sympathetic to some of the points you raise. The politics of >> "appropriation" are extremely complex and subtle, so I don't think one >> can really condemn syncretism in and of itself because there are >> ethically indefensible instances of it. In fact, I think one could >> make a case for Hinduism and Judaism (especially Hinduism) being >> themselves syncretic religions, as few belief systems fail to evolve >> over the centuries by incorporating fragments and structures from >> other belief systems. > >[several good examples snipped0 >(****rest snipped for brevity -- see previous post - G d' P) ****This is a great thread and the sort of thing we've really needed on alt.magick. In line with this theme I'd like to point out that magicians all over the world are the most "syncretic" of all practitioners (priests seem to be the least). Examples of this: the first proto-Gnostic document *The Aramaic-Demotic Pypyrus* from Elephantine Egypt circa 450 b.c.e. -- this crazy thing mixes Egyptian and Canaanite Gods & Goddesses in the same ritual, and is written in Aramaic cipher in demotic alphabet, and in archaic style for its period! (Like using thees & thous today.) And how about the Gnostics themselves? They borrowed from everybody. The Alexandrian Serapis was symbolic, clouged-up magical God. Let's look at the Sabians of Harran (see Planetary Invocations from Picatrix). These boys and girls used everything from everywhere in the same prayer! On top of that they opted for two "Holy Books" (gotta have 'um said the Emir, or it's Jihad time!), so what did they pick? The Pymander of Hermes and The Book of Enoch! And we (the O.T.A.) owe something to Voudoun. . . Magick, magicians and multi-cultural synchronicity. You gotta love it! **** http://members.aol.com/CHSOTA/welcome.html Gnome d' Plume