Tag: religion

unsentimental hygiene

  1. I was already a member of this religion, and I just didn’t know it. I am quite serious, actually. I don’t feel that gathering in groups and acting like a religion makes too much sense, but all along the one thing I’ve known is that I don’t know anything.
  2. TABLETOP VIBRATOR FOR OFFICE USE. Actually if this thing worked better than most conference phones it’d be sorta cool.
  3. Meet John Rendon, the secret master of spin.

Attacking the darkness.

So here’s the plan. I’m going to sell Dungeons & Dragons, specifically I think “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons”, as a cult. The idea is that the D&D books, while masquerading as a game, are actually the keys to an ancient and powerful spiritual tradition. And I alone am the chosen one who has been given the burden of showing Mankind the Way. The adventures, and monsters, and character types, and spells, and all of it are Tarot-like symbols that point inward to a hermeneutic tradition that has been suppressed for five thousand years.

The (expensive) services will be of course D&D games. As the supplicant’s character increases in level, more bits of the inner truth will become apparent, or be revealed by the treasures and monsters that are encountered. Higher level characters will be given the ability to buy magic items, spells, weapons etc. The opportunities for religious consumerism will be endless here: dice, dice bags, books, etc. At a certain level, the supplicant may be invited to become a game master at a low level. And after years and years, the top level (probably 33rd as in Masonry) could be achieved, after about $150,000 and a lot of work. The mysteries of character generation, character types, alignments, and the existence of “dungeons” could be explained in stages of symbolic meaning tuned to the supplicant’s level.

So I could fuse pop culture, childhood nostalgia, Scientology, the New Age, shopping mall “wiccan” distaste for Christianity, the will to power, consumerism, multilevel marketing, geek culture, the current Tolkien mania, and every mythic tradition that D&D itself grave-robbed.

And if there’s girls there, I’m going to do them.

That old time religion.

Nayagarah (Orissa), Nov 4 (PTI) Three persons were today arrested on the charge of killing a seven-year-old girl to appease Goddess Kali on Diwali at Nagajhar village in Orissa’s Nayagarh district, police said. The three – Braja Pradhan, Sudam Pradhan and Akhila Pradhan – were later produced before the court of the First Class Judicial Magistrate, Ranapur, who remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days.

Another person, said to be a ‘tantrik’ (one who performs cult worship rituals to invoke the deity) and wanted in connection with the incident, was absconding.

The girl Susha, daughter of one Biranchi Pradhan of Bimbadharpur village was sacrificed before the goddess at the local Kali temple at Nagajhar under Ranapur police station after being kidnapped.

All the three have confessed that they had committed the crime , the sources claimed.

Susha, had been kidnapped by the accused persons, as guided by the tantrik, while playing with her friends on the evening of Diwali. Her father had lodged an FIR with the police after she went missing.

The body was found floating in a pond yesterday after which the police was informed. A case had been registered and further investigation was on, the sources said.

Local people also staged a protest yesterday demanding the arrest of the culprits.

It was alleged that in the 1980s a young boy had been sacrificed at the nearby Maninag temple, which is located on a hill top.

From NewKerala.com via robotwisdom.com. More disturbing detail in this story.

Literature in these here now United States

sandpooper
ABOUT THIS BOOK

Christy Castleman, a pretty, young novelist, has made a name for herself writing books about mystery and intrigue. The Sassy Snowbirds, a group of lively ladies, spread fun, friendship, and good deeds around the seaside town of Summer Breeze. Everyone is content in their cozy world–until a message is found in a small Victorian glass bottle half buried in the sand.

“Call the police. Someone is trying to kill me.”

Believing the note to have been written by a missing realtor, the Sassy Snowbirds jump into the mystery with Christy. Using her research and know-how as a novelist, the young woman and her unflappable friends succeed where a team of forensic experts stall. But solving real life crimes is much more dangerous than writing them, and Christy must fight for her life when she uncovers a shocking truth and a real murderer.

A contemporary Southern cozy mystery with a touch of romance, When the Sandpiper Calls is a fast-paced and inspirational look at life choices, consequences, second chances, and deepening faith.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peggy Darty has published 26 novels, numerous articles and short stories. An award-winning author, her novels, A Mountain to Stand Strong and Angel Valley, were CBA best-sellers, along with numerous novellas. She has worked in film, researched for CBS and has been a popular speaker and workshop leader around the country. She and her husband spend their summers in Colorado and winters in Alabama.

Mahalia Jackson, he’s not.

Music for Maniacs is a fine mp3blog for aficionados of outsider music and other oddities. Today’s post revealed one of the main problems “New Religions” or “Cults” have; their gospel music blows chunks.

Submitted for your consideration, L. Ron Hubbard’s music from 1980 for Battlefield Earth. Both of those tracks were intended as “soundtracks” to the novel.

One can easily picture the great man bent over his synthesizer, getting the evil laughter, boop-beep sounds, and ominously cheesy organ sounds just right.