Jinn Boy part II

Earth Boy by Sami Shah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Pakistan is a place loaded with jinn. The author, Sami Shah, grew up in the midst of them, inundated with stories and tales. His sister at three would see the head of a jinn in her bathroom and scream. In their abandon Ned storage room their lived a jinn who would damage a TV set if it went on too late.

Enough on the author, Iblis the leader of the jinn had been cast out of heaven for refusing to bow down to Adam. It was not that Humans were inferior lumps of clay , but rather that they were given Allahs greatest gift, the power to create. For this he refused to bow and so he was exiled to the earthly plain banished from Heaven and the realm of the jinn. Once the quiyamat is over Iblis will burn in fire but ultimately he will be redeemed.

Dajal is a one eyed devil who longs for the destruction of mankind so he can return to then Earth and rule over it. He might not be a jinn but he is one powerful demon. Back in biblical times King Solomon had a ring that could control jinn. He used the ring to build Jerusalem and his temple. The Jinn were forever incensed about this. What would happen if the ring were go fall into the wrong hands?

Interesting questions. So Wahid hooks up with Iblis and together they venture the world of the jinn. Their first stop is a white mosque were Wahid must free someone who has been chained up a real long time. After freeing someone they meet Alexander the Great. They find Gog of Magog and realize they must get through where those warriors are imprisoned to get to Kaf, the fabled city of the jinn .

Iblis cannot go with him and Wahid does not get the welcome he so desired. He is still on his quest to free Maheen. Things do not go without a hitch. Someone is killing jinn and kidnapping them . First they thought it was Wahid, so then send him to find the jinn killer.

Wahid has adventures with jinn, the Pakistani secret service and raging zombies from the dead. In the end he finds out the mystery of his birth and how to use his powers. A couple of people from the first book make a reappearance. Professor Rahim who denied the existence of jinn and Badshah the seven year old king of Karachi. Remember never mess with the jinn. They can be tricksters with their own agenda.

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Jinn Boy part 1

Fire Boy by Sami Shah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fire boy

Wahid lead an almost typical childhood, growing up tall and lanky with a mop like hair style. Like for all teen ages it is still a challenge to chat up the girl he likes . Growing up with asthma makes things even more difficult. Being a total waste of introvert he plays dungeons and dragons with his friend Hamza and company.

Things change when driving back from a party with the girl and a drunk friend, their car is attacked by some very mysterious strangers. His friend dies and the girls soul is stolen by Jinn. While she lies in a coma, her general of a father wants him to pay. So away he goes to beach house to hide and to find a away to go to the world of the Jinn. So he asked around on how to find the Jinn.

While he is looking to find Jinn, the Jinn are hiring killers to kill him. The assassin mKes his living killing and torturing people. He kills Hamza in an attempt to find Wahid. In the mean time Wahid goes to a Sufi mosque and then meets the king. The jinn have fled to Kaf and Wahid is the reason why.

Wahid has a big challenge, to find Azazel and find a a way to Kaf. Written with excitement and he Mor this book will hook you and you won't put it down till your done. Somewhat like Neil Gaiman's writing.

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A Survey of the European Witch

The Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic by Owen Davies
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Owen Davies who has written several books on witchcraft and cunning folk has gone ahead and given an overview of magic and witchcraft going all the way back to Sumerian times up to the present, documenting how witches are perceived in the the movies. OOwne Davies has written two of the essays himself and the rest are drawn from contributing authors.

Going back to Sumeria, which was one of the first societies in general. It is in this society that that European or Western Magic has it's roots. There were alway evil spirits to look out for. THe Mesopotamians shared their space with these spirits and believed in placating them in order to be left alone. Good spirits also had to be placated. There was always the fear that someone would use magic against you. Magicians could be temple priests or wise men outside of the temple. The same held for Egypt.

The Greeks learned lots of there magic from the Egyptians, Phoenicians and Sumerians.They absorbed their ideas of astrology and took on a lot of their myths and made it their own. Greek magic used defixiones or lead sheets that were rolled up with an inscription and cast into the Earth or into water. It most be noted that during these Ancient times it was not considered bad to work magic. Witches and magicians were not considered bad. Magic workers were judged by the work they produced. There was n attitude against magic.

In Europe societies were magical as well. THe Norse deemed magic to be feminine and it was considered improper for men too engage in such practice. As Christianity rolled into Europe from the Middle East, not everyone came onto it automatically and dropped their old pagan religion. What happened was an amalgamation of Christianity and ancient pagan customs being absorbed by the new religion. Churches were built on top of old Pagan shrines.

The attitude towards magic was not negative although the church did try to stamp it pagan practices. What got someone into trouble was if they we're accused of using negative magic against someone. THis would result in a flogging or some minor punishment.

European contact with the Middle East via the crusade, 1492 brought Ancient Greek learning back. Too Europe along with many Islamic ideas on magic. This was also when witches were being demonized. Where as before magic was looked down upon now active witch hunts though the inquisition were rising up. People were put through such horrible torture that they often did not survive the investigation. If a witch survived the trial then it was proof that she was a witch.

The Catholic CHurch and the PRotestants would accuse each other of witch craft. Foreign ideas were threatening. Important to note is that the same things Romans said against Christians the Christians would now say against witches.

THe anti magic attitude would die down and magic would be more accepted . By the 1950's most of the anti magic laws we're gone. Some of the greats in magic would arise from the 1900's too the present. Crowley, Gardner, MEsmer to name a few. Former masn would join magic order not with the intent to manipulate the environment but to come closer to God and achieve perfection.
THe book finishes first with surveys on witches in the cinema and anthropology studies of witchcraft and magic.



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Tripping With Jesus

The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity by Jerry B. Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Psychadelic Gospels

A raging argument in the the religious scholar community is the debate about the role of ehtneogens or psychadelic drugs on the development of Christianity and other religions. Most religious leaders will try to deny the role of psychodelics in the religions development while someone more open minded might say there is quite a bit of eveidence pointing to the use of hallicinogens.
Starting off with the research of R.Gordon Wasson the author Doctor Jerry Brown and his wife Juliie go traveling to differnt destinations around the world to show the evidence of psychadelics in religious art work. Going through th world relgiions the authors discuss Soma in the classic Rigveda. It appeaers to be a hallucinogenic drink. It is drink that conveys wisdom. It also offers immortatlity. What made up this drink? Some artistic renditions show a mushroom lie fly agaric or Amanita Muscaria. This mushroom was also used by the siberian shaman. There art depicts its use. In fact the Santa Clause legend comes from this. The shaman would have reindeer pull his sled and from an opening in the yurt he would climb through and enter the house. THe Ancient greeks with thier rituals to demeter and the rights of Eleusisis. THe would take egort which grew on Barley and this took them to the underworld and gave them immortality. The art work depicts wheat stocks which is what Ergot grew off of.
R. Gordon Wasson, who was an assitant banker for JP Morgan , was the ametuer scientist who spear headed this movement and he wrote several books on it. His big claim claim to fame was meeting Maria Sabina and the exposure led to tourists combin the hills of Oaxaca looking for a psychadelic experience. This disrupted life for her and it caused enough commotion to/hve here son killed.
Mr. Gordon Wasson never dared to venture that psychadelics played a part in the developement of Christianity. Someone name John Allegro would make that claim and would ultimately be discredited for it. R. Gordon Wasson worked with the vatican and his role was to suppress this theory or information.
The authors Jerry and Julie Brown explored the churches of Europe and examined the art work in Frocault Church, Saint Martins and a few others. The illustration and carving clearly depict serveral mushroom like ilustrations. Juding from this it is easy to say that ethneogens played more than a small role in the developement of Christianity. After all they did play a role inthe developement of the other religions.
The Nag Hammadi Scriptures offer a zen like Christianity. Jesus lived in Egypt for a long time and he must have learned from the Egyptian mysteries. His deth and resurrection weere not literal but rather ppart of an ancient spiritual practice where the Shaman ventures tothe other side in search of gnosis. The Egyptians also used ethneogens.
MANY people have used psychaedelics including steve Job and other scientists. Time is coming to reexamine our relgions and philosophies and look for different interpreations.

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Commentaries on the Art of War

The Art of War by Sun Tzu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Learning the Art of War

This is one of the all time great military classics on strategy put out by the Chinese. The book comprising of 13 chapters was penned by Sun Tzu and has been studied widely both with in and without China. Even business men are reading this great book of strategy.

The subject of Sun Tzu can be rather nebulous. Some historians find that there's sources that mention Sun Tzu in context of some event and then there are other historical sources that mention him in the same context as not being there. There is some speculation about his existence. There is also speculation about his role in Chinese society. It is widely believed that he was a general and a noble.

This book is a translation of Sun Tzu's famous text yet it also proffers a historical background and commentaries on what Sun Tzu wrote. The commentaries themselves are rather informative and help to give the reader clarity and background. However, sometimes they are placed right in the middle of the quote which makes it difficult to get the whole gist of the quote unless you go back and reread what you just read.

The original work as noted earlier consists of thirteen chapters which tell about almost every aspect of military planning, execution and post victory. The first three chapter talk about planning a siege, attacking by stratagem and waging war. The next 4 chapters discuss tactical design, energy, finding the enemies weak points and maneuvers. Finally there is variations of tactics, marching the army , terrains, nine situations and the use of fire and spies.

For the master strategist or someone aspiring to be this book will have several nuggets of wisdom. The importance of knowing yourself and your enemy are vital to your success. Variate your tactics and keep your enemy confused never let the enemy figure you out. Keep them guessing as to your actual plans and intention. Not only should your enemy be in the dark but so should your subordinates. There is plenty of people nformation about how to treat the troops and more.

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