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!

Mysteria Misc. Maxima: April 19th, 2013

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

• The Popemobile gets an eco-friendly makeover. (gizmag)
• Jewish women are challenging custom by praying at the Western Wall. (BBC)
• One Rabbi looses his credibility after an investigation discovers he’s been commenting on his own work pseudonymously. Also, he’s an ethics expert. (CNN)
• Authorial shenanigans are nothing new, however. Here’s a medieval astrological manuscript that’s full of scribal trickery. (British Library via @byzantinephil)
• Take a seat, Catholic Inquisition; the witch burnings might have been the result of neighbor disputes. (Salon via @davidbmetcalfe)
• University of Pittsburgh’s student newspaper fires a columnist for a conflict of interest: being in a secret society. (Chronicle)
• Meanwhile, Freemasons in Ohio seek tax-exempt status. (Medina Gazette)
• A mathematician estimates that we should experience approximately one miracle a month. Researchers at Jerry Garcia University put that number closer to a miracle every day. (i09)
• Some links to websites on magick. (DGMattichakjr.com)
•  A hearty “93!” to Peaches Geldof. (Daily Mail)
• Change not as much as the style of a letter? The O.T.O. announces an amended Book of the Law. (OTO HQ)
• Also, the O.T.O. is suing over the Thoth Tarot deck.  (The Wild Hunt)
• Perhaps they should call on Dikē, the goddess of justice? (Baring the Aegis)
• How to incorporate a seer into your conjurations. Angel sanctioned wife-swapping optional. (Head for the Red)
• Sick? Why not try a witch healer? (Daily Express)
• Finally, Buddhist monks in Bhutan are so stressed that they can’t think straight and are having sex despite vows of celibacy. Yeah, stress. That’s what it is. Other things that make people stressed: latex catsuits, chatroulette, and sexy tumblr nuns.  (Shambhala SunSpace)

Photo by Pierre -M-.

Mysteria Misc. Maxima: April 12th, 2013

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

• Canada lets non-Christian chaplains back into its prisons. Or four at them, at least. (CBC)
• The world’s best film critic and exemplary Chicagoan, Roger Ebert, passed away this week. So what was his religion? (HuffPo)
• Life in the Vatican: Prayer, penitence, and porn. Not necessarily in that order. (Gizmodo)
• The ESSWE 4 conference has been announced. Lingonberry and gravlax lovers will be happy know that it is in Sweden. For everyone else: Sorry, it’s in Sweden. (ESSWE 4)
• Raise your glass and drink to this: Electra journal did a whole issue on Dionysus! (Electra via @hermeticlibrary)
• King Tut’s curse turns 90 years old. (University of Manchester)
• Also timeless? Occultism’s fascination with Egypt. (Magic of the Ordinary)
• Here’s a fantastic way to learn Latin composition: by using it to create spells! Bonus: actual college course. (Old Gold and Black via @jgbell)
• The ten best pagan moments in pop culture. (Raise the Horns)
• Why is modernity obsessed with demon possession? (Antiquitopia)
• A chemist puts the Theosophical Society’s view of science under a microscope and finds some eerie coincidences. (Chemistry World)
• Golden Dawn luminaries Chic and Tabitha Cicero will be in Toronto in July to talk ritual and magic. (Gleamings from the Golden Dawn)
• Polyphanes did an intensive series on geomantic figures. Here’s a link to all of them. (The Digital Ambler)
• Thelemites looking to plan their next vacation might want to consider The Love Under Will Boat which will cruise the Caribbean next winter. Hopefully it will turn out better than the last time a Thelemite lent out their boat *cough* L. Ron Hubbard *cough*. (Love Under Will Boat)
• Ten ways to know when your magical order is dead. (Nick Farrell)
• Finally, researchers have found that the most effective hexes put their recipients in a state of helplessness by overloading them with information. In related news, I hope you enjoyed this massive round-up of articles which undoubtedly is more than a single person can handle in one sitting. (i09 via The Wild Hunt)

Photo by Ulf Bodin.

Paper: Orientalism in The Mysteries

Many of you know that this year I undertook a directed reading project on the Hermetica. My initial intent was to focus on ascent experiences in these texts and get into ideas of  gnosis in antiquity. However, an offhand comment about Orientalism changed all that.

Oh, Orientalism.

For those who don’t know what Orientalism is, this term refers to way the Orient is discussed and portrayed. These depictions often lend “the Orient” (places like Egypt and the Middle East) an exotic mystique which has little merit in reality. This is a problem. That said, I find Orientalism fascinating, especially because it’s so prevalent in occultism. Have you ever invoked Ra at daybreak to reinforce your secret pact with the gods? Does covering your head like King Tut make your ritual stronger? Or, I don’t know, do you enjoy gazing upon the Stelae of Revealing because those hieroglyphs clearly contain sacred power? If you’ve done any of these things (and really, who hasn’t!), you’ve done Orientalism. (Hail Ra!)

By now it should be obvious: My Hermetica research paper ended up not being about the Hermetica at all. Instead, I focused on Iamblichus’ On the Mysteries of the Egyptians and the Orientalizing discourses Iamblichus utilizes in his discussion with Porphyry.

So what is this paper about? This paper is about Egyptian religion, and it is not. It is about Platonic philosophy, and it is not. It is about theurgic practice, and it is not.

This paper is about what Iamblichus talks about when he talks about Egypt.

For those of you who have hung in thus far, here is a teaser:

            Egyptian religion was a mystery in the Greco-Roman Empire. For those outside the culture, Egyptian practices were a source of fascination and inspiration which fueled the imagination of Greek philosophers and historians. One philosopher who was taken with a fanciful view of Egypt was Iamblichus, a Syrian Neoplatonist best known for combining Platonic philosophy and Eastern ritual into a system called theurgy. His treatise, On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, is both a defence of theurgy as well as a reply to the major philosophical approach at the time, namely the hyper-rationalism of Porphyry and Plotinus which dominated Neoplatonic discourse in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Claiming to be able to understand and access the hidden meaning of foreign rituals, Iamblichus maintained that theurgy was a superior method of accessing the gods, especially in contrast to Greek rationalism. In making his case for his system’s validity, Iamblichus relies on an Orientalizing discourse which authenticates theurgy within Platonic thought. This can be seen in his explication of Egyptian theology and especially in his discussion of the so-called barbarous words.

In the following examination of The Mysteries, I wish to focus on how Egyptian elements function to create a specific style of discourse, one couched in a veil of “Oriental” secrecy which legitimates Iamblichan thought in the face of rationalistic Neoplatonic criticism. In The Mysteries, there are two social theories operating in tandem which serve to legitimate Iamblichan theurgy. On the one hand, there is the concept of Orientalism, the idea that Eastern locales—places like Egypt and Babylonia—are perceived as exotic worlds filled with mystery and special knowledge. On the other hand, there is the notion that this special knowledge can be used as a unit of social currency. Both these concepts suggest there is a possessor of information who maintains a privileged position through this possession. My argument is that, in The Mysteries, Iamblichus becomes this privileged possessor of knowledge by engaging an Orientalist discourse which designates his philosophy as otherworldly, privileged, and esoteric (i.e. limited to an in-the-know elite). This gives his ideas value against an opposing dominant trend in philosophy. By situating his system of theurgy as a continuance of ancient Oriental practices in line with Platonic thought, Iamblichus imbues it with an inarguable foundation. An examination of The Mysteries, specifically the discussion of Egyptian practices in Book VII, will serve to illustrate this.

These are the opening paragraphs. For those who wish to read more, the full paper can be found here.

Photo by Muninn.

Mysteria Misc. Maxima: April 5th, 2013

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

• Half of all Christians think Jesus is coming back, so start looking busy. (Salon)
• Some Nichiren Buddhists die while training for the priesthood, but this man lived to tell the tale of his 100-day endurance test. (LA Times)
• Publicly-funded charter schools in Arizona are in trouble for using methods taught by Scientology. (NPR)
• Scholars suggest the persecution of early Christians may have been exaggerated. (CNN)
• Meanwhile, one woman was shot at because she identifies as a pagan. (The Wild Hunt)
• Here’s a look at the holy side of Hogtown. That’s Toronto for those of you, well, anywhere but Toronto, really. (The Grid)
• The Naked Archaeologist has connected a militant medieval Christian order with the Talpiot tombs. He’s not saying it’s Templars. But it’s Templars. (Rogue Classicism)
• Do atheists need to drop the oppositional rhetoric and embrace ecumenism? (Religion Dispatches)
• A tourist was banned from Sri Lanka for having a tattoo of the Buddha. No word as to whether the tattoo was some cheap off-the-wall flash or a sweet custom piece expressing the owners’ deep spiritual insight. (BBC)
• Bikram Yoga™ becomes the latest organization to experience a sex scandal. (HuffPo)
• Physicists have made an invisibility cloak. Sort of. (CTV)
• Harry Houdini disliked psychics so much he once threatened to kill them. (Skepticblog)
• Teo Bishop talks about living inside the Pagan bubble–I think the insights here are important for those within these traditions as well as those who study them academically. (The Wild Hunt)
• From whence comes the tradition of the witches’ garter? (AFW)
• Still wondering which color-scale to visualize the sefirot in? How about taking a cue from the rabbis? (Practical Missionary Magic)
• Finally, Buddhist monks who think the iPhone challenges their spiritual conviction now have a special mobile phone which will accommodate the most ascetic of lifestyles. Actually, it’s just a phone made out of wood. Ta-da! Marketing! (Shambhala SunSpace)

Photo by kReEsTaL.

Mysteria Misc. Maxima: March 15th, 2013 On Vacation!

As the school year wraps up, Invocatio will be on vacation for a couple of weeks while I put together papers and presentations, and study for final exams.

In the meantime, why not enjoy some posts from the archive? Here are my top-five articles as chosen by people who obviously love Aleister Crowley…

• Five Reasons Aleister Crowley Remains Relevant
• Sacred Sexuality and the Hermetica
• The Morton Smith-Aleister Crowley Connection, Part I
• Aleister Crowley and His Views on Supernatural Entities
• The Morton Smith-Aleister Crowley Connection, Part II

I’ll be back on Friday, April 5th with more links and blog posts! See you then!

Sarah

Photo by Gerard Girbes.

Mysteria Misc. Maxima: March 8th, 2013

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

• If you want to be more liberal, try meditation. (Shambhala Sunspace)
• Passover is right around the corner, which makes it a perfect time for Egypt to be plagued by locusts. (Arutz Sheva via @paultoner)
• Also, Israel. Because God is pissed at everyone right now. (NYT)
• A fabled magic stone which helped the Vikings navigate turns to out be a real thing. (The Independent)
• Mormons admit their Egyptian papyri aren’t really Egyptian after all; and some other important stuff, too. (Religion Dispatches)
• A church had its dome painted…by a graffitti artist. (BBC via @anokte)
• One high-ranking Catholic says the church needs to expand the role of women. (Reuters)
• Visions of the Hebrew prophets and apocalypticism. (Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean)
• They are making a movie about the song ‘Hava Nagila’ which, aside from being chosen,  is the best reason to be Jewish. (NPR)
• Were the Delphic priestesses prophesying because they were totally high on vapours? (History of the Ancient World)
• You have no idea how much I wish I had a Snoop Dogg/Rastafarian article to follow-up with here. Wait, found one. (Inland Valley News)
• The esoteric meaning of Muslim prayer. (Ismā‘īlī Gnosis)
• The Canadian Theosophical Association has a bunch of old texts online. (CTA via Esoterica)
• The Centre for Pagan Studies wants to install historical plaques at landmarks of the modern witchcraft movement. First up, Doreen Valiente’s home. (CPS via The Wild Hunt)
• Finally, the Bible has its share of fantastic stories, but about about the ones left out? Here are five apocryphal miracles about talking dogs and flying magicians that will go toe-to-toe with that water-into-wine story any day. (Cracked via Apocryphicity)

Photo by swamibu.