Mysteria Misc. Maxima: May 17th, 2013

Mysteria Misc. Maxima is a weekly feature which brings together links on religion and esotericism from around the internet.

• Pope Francis goes nuts and starts making saints like crazy. (Guardian)
• Ever wonder why Jews can’t eat cheeseburgers? Try Paganism. (The Jewish Press)
• But you know what’s not Pagan? The magic word abracadabra. (Haaretz)
• With their numbers growing, British Pagans say they want some respect. (Chronicle)
• Should public schools hold their graduation ceremonies in churches? (LA Times)
• A look at five, uh, overlooked religions in Australia. (SMH)
• One apocalyptic cult recruits new members by appealing to their love of…Bob Dylan? (Vice)
• The Guardian pulled out this old interview with Slayer’s Jeff Hanneman where he talks about Satanism. \m/ (Guardian)
• The fictional world of Vril has influenced the non-fictional world of occultism. (Creative Reading)
• ContERN is hosting a panel at the upcoming ESSWE Conference, still aren’t as ridiculously good-looking as their NSEA counterparts. (ContERN)
• Want to learn an ancient language but don’t want to fuss with formal classes? Here’s how to figure them out on your own. (Graeco Muse)
• The BBC did a thing on Gnosticism. (PaleoJudaica)
• And if you want even more Gnosticism, try this conference. (Heterodoxology)
• The ever-wonderful Tanya McGinnity interviews Miguel Chen, a punk-rocking, BDSM-loving Buddhist. (Full Contact Enlightenment)
• Military veterans can now put Thor’s Hammer on their tombstone. (The Wild Hunt)
• This artist recreates the soul’s ascent to heaven in her work. (MyModernMet)
• And this one talks about what it’s like to grow up with parents who are into the occult. Spoiler: It’s pretty cool. (Straight.com)
• It’s an artist trifecta! This time Jorge Luis Borges and Xul Solar. (NYT)
• Tabatha Cicero provides a guide to the Golden Dawn Colour Scales. (HOGD)
• Here’s a list of the ten strangest places on Earth. (Live Science)
• Finally, Tim Lambesis, singer for the Christian metal band As I Lay Dying, was arrested after hiring an undercover cop to kill his wife. For crying out loud, my keyboard is in a dead heat between telling a Stryper joke or making a Varg Vikernes reference. Easy solution: Nickelback sucks.

Photo by Margaretkilljoy.

Mysteria Misc. Maxima: May 10th, 2013

Mysteria Misc. Maxima is a weekly feature which brings together links on religion and esotericism from around the internet.

• London Jews have a hotline they can call when they see someone dressed immodestly, eating a cheeseburger. (Jezebel)
• Take my husband—please? Muslim women find freedom in polygamy. (New Statesman)
• Another thing women are finding freedom in is Co-freemasonry. (Guardian via @paultoner)
• The Vatican Library puts its collection online. God still hates overdue books.  (Toronto Star via @djp1974)
• Latin makes a comeback thanks to Harry Potter. (Macleans)
• Tim Tebow is known for being a Christian, but what about Jason Collins, the first openly-gay NBA player? Yeah, he’s one, too. (Religion Dispatches)
• Why do the peace-loving Sikhs have a history of being military warriors? (BBC)
• The holy sacrament of a church in New Mexico is hallucinogenic tea. Carlos Castaneda nods his head in approval. (NPR)
• The Gospel of John has some similarities to tales of Dionysus. (Vridar via @skepoet)
• What makes the ideal sorceress? Claim your prize if you guessed awful gender stereotypes. (W. U Hstry via @ASNØC)
• The Current Pagan Studies Conference has issued its call for papers. (Letter from Hardscrabble Creek)
• Academics are writing blogs about magic in that  fun, jaunty way that only academics can write in. (Societas Magica)
• Does the Pagan Media exist? (The Wild Hunt)
• Thelemites who thought they had something in common with Jay-Z may need to reconsider. The celebrity obsession with the O.T.O. is probably not all that. (Sex Positive Thelema)
• Finally, one Englishman claims he found an eggplant that  looks like the Hindu deity Ganesh. The owner of the miraculous vegetable says he plans to worship it as befits a god by giving it a prominent place on their altar, not feeding it peanuts. (Sun)

Photo by NimahelPhotoArt.

Out and About: Toronto’s Alchemical Building

A recent letter from my old employer, the University of Toronto, reminded me of one of the city’s more interesting buildings: The Chemistry Department. Decked out in alchemical symbols, the building stands as a reminder of chemistry’s origins in the occult. (More on the controversial nature of that, shortly.)

I worked at the Chemistry department in 2010 before returning to school. Despite the outward appearance, I can confirm that, while the experiments inside were just as ambitious (e.g. curing cancer), no lead was turned into gold while I was there—at least that I know of!

In fact, the alchemical symbols were a bit of a sticking point for many of the scientists, who felt it had more to do with magic than their work*. Though some staffers (myself included) did enjoy the references.

I recently got together with a friend from the Chemistry department and had the opportunity to take some photos. Without further ado, here’s a tour of Toronto’s alchemy building!

Mysteria Misc. Maxima: May 3rd, 2013

Mysteria Misc. Maxima is a weekly feature which brings together links on religion and esotericism from around the internet.

• Taiwan held its first same-sex Buddhist marriage. Giggity. (CNN)
• How do leaders of different faiths define religion? (Ottawa Citizen)
• Catholics claim Jesus was a hipster, was into Christianity before everyone else. (CNN)
• Martine Batchelor recounts her pilgrimage to Buddhist temples in India. (Aeon)
• But some spiritual pilgrims never live to tell the tale. This unhealthy obsession with India has led some to dub the phenomena India syndrome. (Details via Gala Darling)
• Here’s a less lethal way to experience Indian tradition: Pulpy fiction novels based on Hindu myths. (Reuters)
• IO Pan Jesus! One Arizona winery has a priest bless its grapes every year. (AZ Central)
• Move over Nation of Islam, African-Americans are flocking to Judaism. (Religion in American History)
• Ancient Israelites thought polytheism was demonic. You say that like it’s a bad thing. (ASOR via PaleoJudaica)
• You know who else dabbled in the occult? Elite American colonialists. (Religion in American History)
• A review of the Sacred Lands and Spiritual Pathways conference. (The Wild Hunt)
• Joseph Thiebes presents a series of introductory lectures on Thelema and the OTO. I always find that Joseph does an awesome job articulating Thelemic ideas and suggest you give it a listen! (Speech in the Silence)
• Are you crazy upset over potential changes to the Book of the Law? There’s a petition waiting for you. (Change.org)
• Here are some ways for eclectic magical practitioners to not look like jack-asses. (Strategic Sorcery)
• Finally, those traveling in the U.S. might want to leave their juju jars with human skull remnants at home after Florida TSA agents confiscated the ritual items from two passengers. Designed to ward off evil spirits, the jars’ owners said that they were disappointed by the TSA’s actions as they were traveling to Baltimore and needed all the evil-spirit-warding-off that they could get. Reports suggest a subsequent trip to Detroit has been cancelled in the wake of the events. (CBS)

Photo by Khalil Sawant.

Intermediate Ancient Greek Study Tips

Last week I recapped my experiences in second-year Greek. This week, I want to provide some tips for getting through the “hardest undergraduate class” the humanities has to offer. Second-year Greek is a bit different than first-year: I found that some of my old study tricks no longer worked, whereas new ones were required to adapt to the relentless onslaught of new material. Intermediate Greek is way more challenging than the beginner level, but it’s totally conquerable with a bit of strategy and discipline.

I offer the following tips so that you can forge ahead fearlessly! Please keep in mind, I am not an educational expert—these suggestions are merely what I found works best for me. You may find that you learn differently, and therefore require a different approach. Fair enough. But for those who have no idea where to begin, here’s my advice…

1. Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number

Common sense says that adults really aren’t suited for learning languages. I’m here to say that’s not true. I am 38*. By all rights, my feeble brain should only be able to focus on things that involve Angela Lansbury. After all, how can I learn a language when I am busy eating prunes?

Obviously, this theory is hogwash. Really. New research into the plasticity of the brain suggests we can learn new things well into old age. Even languages. Studies have shown that not only can adults learn new languages, in many ways they even have an advantage over their younger counterparts.

So, no excuses! And hey, you can reward yourself with a little Matlock after studying. Win-win.

2. Summer

I spent a lot of time prepping for the upcoming year by familiarizing myself with new material and making vocab cards…for a book we stopped using. Waste of time. I had to start all over from scratch for the new term.

Bottom line: I should have been reviewing. If I had to do it over, I would have focused more on locking down the basics and translation.

3. Study Time

Last year, I studied Greek a minimum of 1.5 hours per day, often two hours Also, I always spent extra time on the weekends. This year, I made sure to do a mandatory 1 hour per day, with extra when time allowed. This, however, is a rough estimate. Some days I only did 30 minutes, and others five hours—hey it all balances out, right?

No it doesn’t.

I found that not concentrating my study time had a negative effect on my ability to learn and retain the material. One hour was simply not enough in an environment where everything seemed brand new. I wish I upped my study discipline from the get-go. Especially when, towards the end of the year, I was putting in 3 hours per day just to keep up.

3. Do it in the Morning!

I try my best to study Greek first thing in the morning. One, my brain hasn’t fully woken up, so it gets hit with a blast of alphabet soup and is forced to figure things out right off the bat. Two, Greek isn’t competing with a lot of other crap for valuable brain power. Three: It’s easy to push off studying the more the day wears on. Getting everything done right away helps to avoid the “I’ll study after work” (or dinner, or whatever) that can be the downfall of many a good intention.

3. Flash cards

Last year, I was a flash card maniac. I maintained this method until the middle of the year, when I became overwhelmed by having to learn three chapters of vocab per week. Looking to minimize some time-consuming prep-work, I dropped the flash cards and turned to the vocab lists in the book.

However, having the definitions right in front of me meant I wasn’t making the effort to memorize the vocab—I was rotely reading it while daydreaming about, I don’t know, being awesome at Greek. Luckily, I righted the ship tout suite and went back to flash cards, which is simply more effective because it’s interactive, even when you’re dozing off.

4. Personal Study Guide

Last year, I started making a personal study guide for the paradigms and material we learned. I found this was an easy way to keep track of the material, as well as provided a simple source for review and drills. I kept doing that this year, but I also began making my own study sheets when the book didn’t fully decline a word, or arranged material in a way that I just couldn’t wrap my head around.

Honestly, looking back, I should have just made my own study sheets for all the material. Making them forces you to engage with the material, and I could’ve saved myself some serious heartache with the declination patterns. Still, I highly recommend this technique, as it keeps all your core material in one place without having to hunt through the text book.

5. Podcasts

Last year, making my own podcasts helped me to learn the principal parts and all sort of other goodies. (Learn how to make your own podcasts here.) This year, there was simply too much material for this method to be effective. Good for vocab and principal parts, but not much else.

6. Drills

Every year I blow through multiple spiral notebooks as I drill paradigms. I find drilling completely essential to learning and retaining material (it also improves your penmanship!). I even make special drill sheets for things like principal parts, where quick recall is essential. You’d be amazed at how fast your brain will assimilate material if its actively thinking about and working with it.

7. The LSJ

In my house, it is not uncommon for the question, “What do you want for Christmas?” to be answered with “Books.” One such gift was the Middle Liddell, the mid-size version of the indisputable authority in Greek dictionaries, the Liddell & Scott Greek-English Lexicon. Yes, the font is tiny (Pro-tip: Get a magnifying glass!), but it’s indispensable for those words you can’t figure out or which simply aren’t glossed in the text book.

8. Greek Keyboard Stickers

I wish I got these earlier before bad habits set in! Basically, for ten bucks you can transform your keyboard into a bilingual monstrosity. It’s worth the splurge. Last year, I tried making my own stickers, but they just slid off. These stickers, though, are the real deal. (I got mine here.) If you go this route, start early: no matter how much I look at my newly tricked-out keyboard, I still confuse the θ/υ keys.

9. Have fun with it

Sometimes you need to mix fun and studying. For me, this often took the form of something I call Drunk Greek. It’s exactly what you think it is. A bottle of wine, some incense, and Greek exercises—the ideal Friday night! In my head, I am sailing the wine-faced Mediterranean Sea. In reality, I’m studying!**

Obviously, I don’t recommended doing all your studying tits-up drunk. You probably wouldn’t learn very much doing that. But once in a while, I do suggest letting go and having fun with it. For those who abstain, I also found relaxing music helped me trudge through my study hour without too much stress.

I hope these tips are helpful to those of you in the midst of Greek. For those of you considering undertaking its study, perhaps there are a few ideas here that will help you along. Greek is difficult, but not impossible. With trial and error, you too will figure out the best way to navigate the choppy waters of this ancient language and arrive at your destination in one piece!

–

*Yes, really. And thank you, I do look good for my age. My secrets are vegetarianism, exercise and witchcraft.

**This is a good pair of sentences for a μεν/δε construction. And, of course, I drink Thelema wine.

Mysteria Misc. Maxima: April 26th, 2013

Mysteria Misc. Maxima is a weekly feature which brings together links on religion and esotericism from around the internet.

• Congratulations, Jewish peeps, you are the best tippers. (Epiphenom)
• Damn, Jesus. Why you gotta be so white? (Aeon)
• The Vatican is keeping a close eye on those rebel nuns. (NPR)
• Scholars are still decoding the Voynich manuscript. (Tablet via @t3dy)
• Comparing mystical language in the Christian apocrypha. (Antiquitopia)
• For those who like to rock—But not too much!— the history of Christian rock. (Religion News Service)
• Inside the world of the Sufis. (The Grid)
• Are you a budding archaeologist who’s looking to get in the field? Try these suggestions. (Graeco Muse)
• People were using Stonehenge about 5000 years earlier than previously thought. (BBC)
• Also, Stonehenge is hiring a manager. Candidates should know the difference between inches and feet, not be combustible. (Live Science)
• The evolution of Santa Muerte, the goddess of death. (The Eyeless Owl)
• Freemasons are experiencing a membership renaissance. New members say they are attracted to the Society’s strong values, which uphold equality for everyone as long as you have a penis. (LA Times via @t3dy)
• Some movies are rated “R” for violence, others because they contain magic. (Augoeides)
• The elements throughout the ages. (Ankafnakhonsu)
• Want to avoid joining a sketchy magical order? Here’s how. (Nick Farrell)
• Scotland’s spookiest places. Yes, Boleskine made the list. (The Sun)
• Beltane is coming, why not celebrate nekkid? (The Used Key is Always Bright)
• Finally, those of you who need a little inspiration may take refuge in these Deepak Chopra Mad Libs. Just choose your favourite New Age buzzword, add a dash of quantum physics, and voila! enlightenment. Crystals, singing bowls not included.  (Calamities of Nature via @jmaccormac)

Photo by Dave Malkoff.

Classical Greek 2000

Many of you know that this school year was my second year of Ancient Greek. If you are a new student of Ancient Greek (it’s C’est Chic!), I recommend you read my post on Ancient Greek 101 to see what the whole thing is all about.

Despite having no expertise in pedagogy whatsoever, I’ll post some tips for surviving Intermediate Greek next week. But first I want to give a bit of an overview of what this past year was like.

Second-year Greek is a strange thing. Last year, we had about thirty people in our course, about half of whom finished. This year, we started out with four. The advantage of a small class is that you develop a close relationship with your classmates and professor. There aren’t any downsides. I’m an elitist—I would rather sit in a class of four engaged persons than thirty who check their Facebook and don’t do the homework.

My professor says that this course is the hardest undergrad class in the Classics. There is a lot of minutiae to cover, the grammar is confusing as hell, and you boot through a ton of material. This is not an exaggeration.

Now, I am a studious student. I made sure to keep up with my Greek over the summer, even working ahead a bit to prep for second year. However, this preparation was all for naught.

In short: We switched books.

This year we started using Athenaze. Not a bad book by itself, but one which took enough of a different approach from last year’s JACT text to throw me off balance. While some of my classmates liked Athenaze better, I personally didn’t get along with it too well. I don’t know why, it just gets under my skin for some reason I can’t articulate. I wish it didn’t because it is a much more “fun” book. Maybe I don’t like fun!

What should have been an easy couple of months of review, quickly turned into memorizing new vocabulary, introduction of new grammatical points, new verb forms, and a different declination method. One the one hand, I tried to welcome this as a welcome opportunity to gain some much-needed flexibility in how I approached Greek. In reality, it soon felt like my world had completely fallen apart. Also, the book had so much practice material that I spent all my time doing exercises and very little time drilling word forms, a method I personally find essential to my ability to retain material.

By the end of the year, we were cruising through six chapters of new material a month and I was putting in around three hours a day just to keep up. I was a total zombie: there were days where I woke up, but my eyes never fully opened. Scratch that: There were weeks when that happened.

But the work paid off. My grade came in as an A+!

In short, Intermediate Classical Greek is not an easy class. Of our four starting students, three finished—two ridiculously awesome Classics majors who obviously had some skin in the game and myself. This isn’t to scare you off, but I don’t think you can get through it unless you are dedicated. That said, it doesn’t take any special magic other than a lot of hard work.

Test results from left-to-right: 96%, 98%, 97.5%, 98%, 86% (Don’t judge!), 94%

Whereas last year I found Greek challenging, yet rewarding, I found this year to be nothing but punishment. We had a great professor, but the material was hard, dawg! Still, I find Greek strangely charming with its odd sentence structures and case-sensitive absolutes. Hopefully the love affair is far from over!