Mysteria Misc. Maxima: February 15th, 2013

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

• The pope resigns, citing health reasons for the decision. This has nothing at all to do with the multiple scandals the Catholic church has been facing. (NYT)
• The Anglican church says women priests can attend some high-level meetings as long as they take minutes and get everyone a cup of coffee, sweetheart. (Guardian)
• We all know that the taxman is the devil, but one Christian quit his job when his tax forms came back labelled “666.” (Religion News Service)
• Here’s a shocker: School books in Palestine and Israel tend to demonize each other. (The Economist)
• A look at what goes on inside an atheist church, which meets in a real church. For crying out loud, can’t they just meet in Starbucks like all the other atheists? (BBC)
• Cambridge and Oxford Universities are working together to purchase the Cairo Genizah manuscripts, medieval Jewish texts which feature some magic spells. (Guardian)
• The top 100 Cunieform objects OF ALL TIME. (PaleoJudaica)
• What can the Goddess Hathor tell us about ancient Egyptian women? (History of the Ancient World)
• Hatshepsut’s temple to Amon-Re opens to the public. (The Egyptiana Emporium)
• Egypt trifecta! The role of the chantress in Egyptian religious ritual. (History of the Ancient World)
• Peter Forshaw presents a lecture on John Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica. (Ritman Library)
• Congratulations to Dr. Egil Asprem on receiving his PhD, a most salubrious occasion of meritorious felicity. (Heterodoxology)
• London’s Science Museum is doing a thing on alchemy. (Science Museum via @Phantasmaphile)
• These temples are built into the sides of mountains, which totally encourages large weekly turnouts. (The Chive, maybe NSFW)
• Witchy women in the media, from Samantha Stevens to The Craft. (The Wild Hunt)
• Ok, this isn’t magic-y, but it’s still cool: History has a hairdresser to thank for unraveling the secrets of ancient hairstyles. (Wall Street Journal via @anokte)
• Ceremonial magicians looking for a publisher may want to consider pitching their stuff to Llewellyn. (Gleamings from the Golden Dawn)
• Finally, since the pope is strategically resigning amid controversy retiring, here’s a look back at his more fashionable moments. And now, Pope Benedict, you must sashay away to wherever retired Nazi popes go. I presume it’s called Heaven or, more likely, the Bahamas.* (Buzzfeed)

Photo by greyloch.

*Actually, the pope will retire here.