Today is the first day of Fall in the Northern Hemisphere, and the seasons are visibly (and in other ways) shifting. From my own perspective, within my own Way, this marks the unofficial beginning of Memoria; a festival of harvest and remembrance before the onset of the winter months. That festival will “officially” begin when … Read moreMemoria 2023
undertakingnoun Synonyms of undertaking 1a: the act of one who undertakes or engages in a project or businessb: the business of an undertaker2: something undertaken : ENTERPRISE3: PLEDGE, GUARANTEE I suspect that, had the technology been available, the Shugenja of ancient Japan might well have devised an experience akin to the drop tower towards training … Read moreDrop Tower Shugendō
Readers interested in my philosophy of Poetic Faith and in the many and varied potentials of “rational, anti-authoritarian, artistic religion” could do worse than to check out Alt-death.com’s new sister site, Cultpunk.art. The site aims to serve as an intersection for Poetic Faiths of all stripes as well as to foster a more popular appreciation … Read moreCultpunk
A close-up of the Ghost puppet from my late father’s Punch and Judy collection. Dad had been a Punch and Judy puppeteer (or “Professor”) as a young teen, touring around various New Zealand venues during the 1950s. He was popular enough that his high school principal was frequently contacted by prospective venues, so the principal … Read more“Look behind you!”
Any readers intrigued by the mostly inchoate phenomenon that I optimistically refer to as Poetic Faith – the notion and practice of creating one’s own religion, as a work of art – should track down Alan Moore’s story Grandeur & Monstrosity, which appears in the graphic narrative anthology “God is Dead: the Book of Acts; … Read moreAlan Moore’s “Grandeur & Monstrosity”
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My new art project, the Omar’s Rubaiyat Contemplation Cards deck, is now available. Oh, come with old Khayyám, and leave the Wise To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies; One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies; The Flower that once has blown for ever dies. ― Attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) … Read moreOmar’s Rubaiyat Contemplation Cards
I’m reading Carole Cusack’s excellent Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith and am delighted to have discovered the Hot Tub Mystery Religion, intriguingly described in this 2003 Reason.com article by Jesse Walker: Atheists have long regarded religion as, at best, a collective work of art, but in the last century that view has grown popular … Read more“Inside the Spiritual Jacuzzi”
Art critic Amanda Hess writes for the New York Times on the phenomenon of themed pop-up “museums”, “mansions” and “laboratories” that function mostly as Instagram selfie backdrops: The central disappointment of these spaces is not that they are so narcissistic, but rather that they seem to have such a low view of the people who … Read more“The Existential Void of the Pop-Up ‘Experience’”
In 2017, Burning Man’s theme was “Radical Ritual,” and the Burning Man Philosophical Center project produced a series of essays and interviews exploring the place of ritual in modern society. Here’s a section from Larry Harvey’s introductory essay: Is Burning Man a Religion? “The practical needs and experiences of religion seem to me sufficiently met … Read moreThe “Radical Ritual” Series