"Right to Pray" Amendment Passes in Missouri

The state of Missouri just passed what on the surface seems like a relatively common-sense measure, but which in reality will likely be used to further marginalize religious minorities - the so-called "right to pray" amendment. Critics of the amendment also point out that it is unnecessary, as religious freedom is already protected by the Bill of Rights.

Although the measure does not (and, in fact, cannot under the US Constitution) single out any one religion, it was pushed by many of the same Christian groups that bizarrely believe the very existence of non-Christian faiths constitutes some sort of threat. Generally speaking, since these groups believe themselves to be constantly under attack, their ability to deal with religions other than their own tends to be quite limited.

The amendment’s official ballot title:

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to ensure:

• That the right of Missouri citizens to express their religious beliefs shall not be infringed;

• That school children have the right to pray and acknowledge God voluntarily in their schools; and

• That all public schools shall display the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution

Freedom of speech and religion are already protected under the Bill of Rights, and critics of the bill called it unnecessary and a push to trample religious minorities. Republican lawmakers pursued the measure as a clarification of doubt.

As I mentioned in a previous comment, I would so love to see a Thelemic kid decide to run with this and, say, recite Aleister Crowley's Prayer of the Aeon to open a school assembly - because then we would really see if the supporters of this amendment are serious about protecting religious freedom. My guess is that they would totally freak out on the spot and tip their hands.

Russian "Mole People" Cult Unearthed

Survivalists spend a great deal of time preparing for a future in which they imagine huddling in a bunker with stacks of gold and "survival seeds" will become a reasonable lifestyle. Recently a Russian Islamic cult was discovered putting this way of life to the test. Members of the cult and their families resided with their leader in an underground bunker for more than a decade, with some of the younger children having never seen the light of day.

The group - known as the "Fayzarahmanist" sect - was named after its 83-year-old organizer Fayzrahman Satarov, who declared himself a prophet and his house an independent Islamic state, according to a report by state TV channel Vesti.

Satarov was described as a former deputy to a Sunni Islamic cleric in the 1970s. His followers were encouraged to read his manuscripts and most were banned from leaving their eight-storey underground bunker which had been dug in the basement of a building, Vesti said.

Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the sect and have said it will be disbanded if it continues its illegal activities, such as stopping its members from seeking medical assistance or education.

Contrary to what you might expect from certain popular films, these Russian mole people are neither mutants nor cannibals, but merely normal underground dwellers - or, I suppose, as normal as one can expect underground dwelling religious fanatics to be. While I support religious freedom, it seems to me that any organization this extreme and controlling is pretty much by definition dangerous to its own members at the very least, if not to outsiders as well.

Sinister Kisses

Yahoo Answers can be a great source of amusement with all the strange and bizarre questions people are willing to ask once they have some degree of anonymity. While a lot of those questions are just plain dumb, a few describe situations that are downright weird - like this one. The person asking the question found a bag of candy on their doorstep, and wonders if it could be some sort of spell.

Is this witchcraft, a prank, or a gang initiation ritual?

I found opened Hershey's kisses in a plastic grocery bag on my doorstep this evening. Is anyone familiar with any kind of witchcraft (ranging from European, to African, to Latin American) or gang initiations? Is this considered a threat and should I be worried? I take things like this very seriously. I want to know the motive behind this so that I can have peace of mind. I always assume the worst, so I'm on the verge of calling the police to investigate this.

Additional Details

Yes, calling the police is something I am considering. If you knew where I lived and how malicious and envious people are of each other, you would too. I'm obviously not going to reveal where I live. I've had people break into my home before for no good reason. My home was just a target for gang initiation. I have all the right to be this paranoid. These godforsaken people have ruined my peace.

Wow. Wherever this person lives, their situation must be pretty darn awful. Still, calling the police over something like this is just going to get you laughed at. For better or worse, one of the advantages of using magick against enemies is that there are really no laws that apply to it unless the caster does something else illegal as part of the spell.

Don't Mess With Morgan's Secret Chiefs

Awhile back fellow magick blogger Morgan Drake Eckstein revealed a sinister secret to the Golden Dawn world - the Secret Chiefs of his magical order are in fact cats. Their influence can be felt everywhere, as they are now the most popular pets in the United States and one of the most common subjects of Internet memes, such as LOLcats. One might imagine their cute, playful, furry presence to be innocuous, but don't be fooled. These feline Secret Chiefs are ruthless murderers, as exposed by National Geographic's Crittercam project.

In a study of 60 cats fitted with cameras for seven to 10 days, a University of Georgia research team has found nearly 30 percent of them killed prey, ending the lives of two animals per week on average. Their prey? Unlucky lizards, snakes, and frogs accounted for 41 percent—but the cats ate only 30 percent of what they killed.

With the help of National Geographic Society's Crittercam project, the study also found the felines to be pretty adventurous, nearly half crossing roadways and a quarter eating and drinking things they found.

With 74 million cats in America, the potential amount of cat carnage is much higher than was earlier thought, according to the research.

One need only look into the cunning eyes of a cat to understand its capacity for evil. One of these diabolical Secret Chiefs has even taken up residence in my home, which means that nowhere is safe. Our only hope is to placate these creatures with offerings of fish, bits of string, and scritches and pray that their murderous intentions remain fixed on mice and other vermin - instead of us!

The Wrath of Mordor

New Zealand's beautiful terrain played a prominent role in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy. One of the locations that was extensively filmed during the production was Togariro National Park, which includes a volcanic mountain that has been dormant for the last century. Monday night, though, Mount Tongariro erupted, covering much of the park with a thick layer of volcanic debris.

Rocks and pumice erupted from Mount Tongariro on Monday night, closing roads and forcing people to flee while domestic flights across the country were also cancelled. The volcano had been inactive for more than a century before it exploded following weeks of increased seismic activity.

It was more like Lord of the Singe as winds scattered ash up to 100km (60 miles) away on the North Island and volcanologists do not know if it will erupt again. Layers of thick ash blanketed areas surrounding the popular tourist destination but fortunately the eruption did not cause any injuries or serious damage.

Witness Bryn Rodda, told New Zealand National Radio: 'I saw this beautiful, big cloud and I thought: "Gee that looks like a volcanic plume".'Just as I thought that there was a great big orange flash. It was quite impressive.'

Peter Jackson is currently working on his version of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit as a followup to Lord of the Rings, and it should be pointed out that the One Ring appears in that story as well. Maybe somebody managed to sneak it off the set, climb to the top of Mount Tongariro, and drop it in, triggering the eruption. So far there have been no reports of missing magical props, but let's face it - if it happened, it's not like that's something the film crew is going to share.

More Maya Artifacts, Still No 2012 Apocalypse

I've long been skeptical about the "Maya Apocalypse" scheduled for December of this year. My reasoning is pretty straightforward. With all the hysteria kicked up by New Age groups going on, researchers got in touch with some Maya daykeepers in Central America. In the Maya tradition, the term "daykeeper" refers to those who are trained to maintain and interpret the Maya calendar. The daykeeper line remained unbroken even during the Spanish conquest of Mexico and endures to this day, and what these experts from the actual Maya tradition had to say about the "apocalypse" date is that it has nothing to do with the end of the world, just the top date on the calendar flipping to the next highest number. In other words, people who thought that the transition from 1999 to 2000 would be apocalyptic for essentially the same reason are just at it again with a calendar that's unfamiliar to most Westerners. Didn't they learn their lesson the first time?

At any rate, a recent archaological dig has managed to turn up a Maya artifact with a reference to the 2012 date, but it unsurprisingly occurs in a non-apocalyptic context. The artifact, discovered in Guatamala, is a monument erected by a ruler who lived about 1300 years ago and wished to associate himself with the 2012 date. I imagine the monument inscription had a similar to meaning to someone declaring that their legacy would endure until the next millenium or something similar. Rather than apocalyptic, archaeologists believe that the reference is intended to communicate the endurance and continuity of the ruler's particular dynasty. 13 Bak'tun is the Maya date that begins on December 21, 2012.

Archaeologists working at the site of La Corona in Guatemala have discovered a 1,300 year-old year-old Maya text that provides only the second known reference to the so-called “end date” for the Maya calendar on December 21, 2012. The discovery, one of the most significant hieroglyphic find in decades, was announced today at the National Palace in Guatemala.

“This text talks about ancient political history rather than prophecy,” says Marcello A. Canuto, Director of Tulane’s Middle American Research Institute and co-director of the excavations at the Maya ruins of La Corona. “This new evidence suggests that the 13 Bak’tun date was an important calendrical event that would have been celebrated by the ancient Maya; however, they make no apocalyptic prophecies whatsoever regarding the date,” says Canuto.

Majority Religions in the United States

Here's an interesting map than I came across on Facebook showing the majority religions in the United States by county. You can click on the image to enlarge it and examine it in more detail. As I've mentioned in previous posts, the idea that Christians are oppressed in some mysterious way is not supported by any real data. All of the majority religions that appear on this map are Christian aside from whatever is lumped into the "Other" category - and as you can see there are only a handful of counties in the entire country in which that category constitutes a majority - and one of those in Minnesota is labeled "Other" because there's one county in which Lutherans and Catholics are tied for membership. For all the complaining that fundamentalists do about Pagans and occultists, even when you put the two groups together you get so few people it's hard to see how we could constitute much of a threat.

So Stupid It Burns

I sometimes wonder if show-stopping ignorance is a requirement for hosting Christian talk radio. You have the Harold Campings of the world, who insist that an apocalypse is just around the corner and that they can predict the exact date. You have the folks who support "creation museums," I suppose because there's nothing more awesome than Jesus except for Jesus riding a dinosaur. There was Jerry Falwell, who blamed the 9/11 attacks on "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians," and of course Pat Robertson, who's made so many bizarre statements over the years on his radio and television programs it's hard to pick just one.

But even compared to all those examples, this little gem pretty much takes the cake. If I saw it in The Onion I would have had a good laugh and that would be that, but it's apparently a real news story. Here's the background - the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain donates to organizations that oppose marriage equality for same-sex couples. Marriage equality supporters decided to boycott the restaurant, but the last straw was apparently that the Jim Henson Company withdrew from a licensing agreement with the chain for muppet-themed toys in solidarity with the boycott. For this betrayal, apparently the only remedy is that Kermit must die.