Gregory Maguire’s Wicked series of novels deepens L. Frank Baum’s classic Oz mythos by expanding their psychological, cultural, political and religious themes. In Baum’s stories, the only religious impulse even alluded to is a faith in Lurline the Fairy Queen, who was in a sense the creatrix of Oz in that she was responsible for … Read moreReligions of Oz
Speculations on the future of American religion in a post-United States: The fragmented, multipolar political landscape of future America will tend over time towards something like a feudal or tribal condition. As above, so below—polytheistic paganism will appeal in this cultural habitat in a way that it doesn’t under a more centralized and hierarchical social … Read moreAmerican Gods
In the futuristic world of Logan’s Run (1976), humanity – or at least that portion of humanity that the movie is concerned with – is sequestered away from the unknown “world outside”, living and dying inside vast Xanadu-like pleasure domes. Their lives and deaths are supervised by an AI who ensures that they want for … Read more“Renew! Renew!” The Cult of Carrousel in Logan’s Run (1976)
Mark Winegust interviews Martin Karlqvist & Patrik Andersson, who designed the elaborate rituals of the Hårga cult in the modern folk-horror classic movie Midsommar: MARTIN: It’s of course a lot of backwards engineering, because we knew what we had at an early stage, but it’s also highly influenced by my psychology studies,and the writings of … Read more“The Cult of Midsommar”
Richard Turner, a former cult member who is now a recovery therapist, explores how social groups that establish coercive control often don’t fit the “cult” stereotypes, and don’t need to, in order to pose a threat.
An intrepid reporter goes undercover to expose the bizarre “Bread and Puppet” cult in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom mountains … In actuality, the Bread and Puppet Theater is a venerable and beloved mainstay of the Vermont counterculture scene. Hats off to the vlogger for her hilariously convincing homage to conspiracy nut Alex Jones’ infamous “infiltration” of … Read more“The TRUTH About Bread and Puppet”
Religion is the emulation of the adult by the child. Religion is the encystment of past beliefs: mythology, which is guesswork, the hidden assumptions of trust in the universe, those pronouncements which men have made in search of personal power, all of it mingled with shreds of enlightenment. And always the ultimate unspoken commandment is … Read moreBreaking the Unspoken Commandment (Children of Dune, 1976)
There’s no cult like the cult of celebrity …
Jason Ananda Josephson Storm writes for the Center for the Study of World Religions on the short-lived new religion of Denshinkyō: Scholars dismiss The Religion of the Electric Gods as a byproduct of a 1945 Japanese law code that granted tax exemptions to religious institutions without specifying exactly what constituted a religion. Indeed, groups such … Read moreThe Religion of the Electric Gods
16000 years ago, the Mammoth Skull God Nunnyununni accompanies his tribe across the land bridge from Siberia to a new world in this mesmerizing sequence from American Gods.