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“If I Had a Heart”
The Cultpunk force is strong in this song by the Swedish band Fever Ray.
“High Weirdness Then and Now: The Occult Revival in the ’70s and Today”
Author and countercultural religious studies scholar Erik Davis speaks on one of his pet topics, the occult revivals of the 1970s. See Techgnosis.com for much more of his work, including the always interesting, often fascinating Expanding Mind podcast.
“American Jedi”
A trailer for the 2017 documentary American Jedi, which is available to stream via various platforms. Here’s an in-depth interview with Jedi Knight and Deacon Alex Bird, explaining his devotion to the philosophy/quasi-religion of Jediism: But your myth doesn’t reach back to any time that’s actually real. That’s true. I mean that it has to speak … Read more“American Jedi”
“Faerie Tales” (1992)
A ’90s-vintage documentary on the Radical Faeries, a queer spiritual counterculture dating back to 1978-9.
History of Ideas: Rituals
The School of Life offers insight into the history, meaning and value of ceremonialism, concluding that a sane and kind future will require the creation of new rituals.
The Marketplace of Religions (“Franklyn”, 2008)
Masked vigilante/private investigator Jonathan Preest, the last atheist in Meanwhile City, prowls a literal Marketplace of Religions in this scene from the flawed but fascinating 2008 movie Franklyn.
“Work hard; increase production; prevent accidents, and be happy.”
Worker THX-1138 confesses to the prophet OMM in this scene from George Lucas’s 1971 dystopian science fiction movie THX-1138. The Amazen Kiosk, a very widely lampooned 2021 publicity stunt mental health initiative from Amazon.com, Inc.
The Oscar Wilde Temple
Artist Peter McGough explains the Oscar Wilde Temple, a secular “celebration of the creative process through which experience is transformed into art and reality abstracted into revelation.” For more information on this project, please see the Oscar Wilde Temple website.
Dear Guardians: A Burning Man Short Film (2014)
From the creator’s website: In 2011, I stood in the shadow of the Temple of Transition. I taped a photograph of my wife’s recently deceased father to the inside of an archway. I roamed her hallways, silent. I witnessed a beauty that brought me to my knees, as Mike Ventimiglia writes: “I don’t know if I’ve ever … Read moreDear Guardians: A Burning Man Short Film (2014)