Lovecraft Country

 

Interesting that I started this Audible version during March which is Black History Month. Yes the story does have Lovecraftian themes. In fact the tales start off with Atticus Turner driving up to Illinois to see his father and uncle. Atticus is using a travel book that lets him know which businesses with do business with African Americas. This was set in the 50’s when discrimination was rampant. African American could get stopped for no reason and even shot by the police for no reason. Hotels and restaurants would not accept African American patronage. Atticus has his road troubles and difficulty finding roadside assistance due to the prejudice. The first story has him track his father down who is being held in a house owned by Braithwaite who is the leader of the Order of the Ancient Dawn. At first it seems almost resort like until they find out they are supposed to be sacrificed. What ensues is a a daring escape attempt with the assistance of Caleb Braithwaite the cult leaders son.

After the first episode the family of Atticus Turner has constant contact with Braithwaite and the Order of the Ancient Dawn. In one instance one of Aticus’s sisters somehow gets up the money for a house . The house is haunted with a statue of Hekate. The spirit that lives there is Hiram Winthrop. In another instance Hypolita opens up a cosmic doorway that takes her to the far end of the universe. On this far end are servants of Caleb Braithwaite and they have been there for some time. Another female is chosen to take a potion that makes her look like someone named Hilary. She is able to spy on other members of the Order of the Ancient Dawn and report back to Caleb Braithwaite.

Through there adventures the Turner family finds out that a female ancestor of theirs was connected to the Braithwaite. Her name was Hannah and was owned by the Braithwaite family. They seem to be forever connected and it is a connection they want to break.

Braithwaite has the Turners break into a museum to steal a magical book. Caleb is fighting a magical war within the confines of his order. He sends to the Turner family into the realms of the dead to retrieve more magical books of Hiram Winthrop. This of course will be used to the Turner family advantage as they fight for freedom against the magical tyrants.

The Arab Kingdom of Hira

 After the damn of Marib burst in Yemen several Arab tribes migrated away from that area and settled elsewhere. One of those tribes was the tribe of Lakhm. They migrated to an area in the Persian gulf near Oman ,Persia and in modern day Iraq. Arabs had been arriving to live in that area since Babylonian times and the Arabs that settled there were called the Nabat.

Among their neighbors were Arab tribes, the Persians and the Romans. The Persians always looked down on the Arab tribes and the Arab tribes looked down on the Persians. Persia wanted control of that area but were constantly harassed by raids. The Persians permitted for a truly independent Arab kingdom to dwell there as they would fend off the border attacks. It was a symbiotic relationship.

Later the Romans  would help set up the Ghassanids. They were Jacobite and Syrian Orthodox connected to Byzantine. They would wage wares against the Lakhmids. The Lakhmids were Pagan Arabs but many of their number adopted Nestorian Christianity.

The Persians had their own faith issues with Mazdeanism and Zoroastrianism competing for favor. The Persians were wary of Christianity as that was the Roman religions. Many wives and mothers were Christian in the Lakhmids court, bu not the men. That would have caused friction with Persia. The Lakhmids by an large were pagan Arabs who worshipped Allah, Al LAt, Uzzah and the other daughter. Their court was famous for opulent living, wine drinking and poetry.

The Lakhmids kingdom fell after three hundred years. Their last king was Nuuman. He was assassinated by Kisa Parviz. THe Lakhmids kingdom was a jewel of the Arab world. Later when the Abbasid conquered Persia the capital city Hira would be their base.

Great book.

The Mystery of Aleph

 A nice work of historical fiction set against the backdrop of extremely tumultuous times in London. The inquisition against the Jewish people was in full force. Many Jews fled to England. Many Sephardic Jews fled Amsterdam to Britain to escape the inquisition. The years are 1665 to 1666. Two controversies are raging through the Jewish community. The first is the expulsion of Baruch D Espinoza from the Jewish community for saying that G-d equals nature. The other conspiracy is the spread of the heresy of Shabbtai Tzvi the false messiah.

Flash to London , 2001 where a newly wed couple purchase a house and when they fix it up they find a cache of documents , Jewish documents. Written in Hebrew, Ladino and Spanish. Helen Watt and Aaron Levy from the university are sent to examine them before Sothebies comes by to purchase them. Aaron is American and Helen a stuffy Brit. Their relationship at the beginning is a clash of cultures . Everyone has their story.

The writing are from Rabbi Mendez Ha Cohen. A blind Rabbi and former teacher of Baruch Espinoza. He is also an opponent of the heretical Sabbatians movement. Living with him are Rivka and older house keeper and Ester Melendez, a refugee from Amsterdam. Ester is a free spirit who has a heart that is too free to be bound by tradition. Her reputation is marred by her mothers behavior .

The Rabbi had a scribe who left only the initial Aleph. Helen and Aaron come across this and devour the letters day and night in the effort to find who aleph is . The letters and writing give a window into what life was like for the Jewish community. The politics and intrigue along with threat of antisemitism. The narrative center around thee household of Ha Cohen. Ester has limited funds and prospects. Her parents having died in a fire accidentally caused by her brother. A wealthy Jewish family enlists Ester to chaperone for their wayward daughter Mary. Mary a bit rebellious herself takes Ester to the theater where they meet two non Jewish men. They have trysts and good times. Drinking wine and immersing themselves in philosophy.

Aaron has romantic issues with a girl named Marisa who moves to Israel after a one night stand. Aaron still has feelings for her but Marisa is intent on not reciprocal things. Helen who is ill in health has memories of an Israeli she fell in love with , Dror. The memory of how they broke it off can never leave her.

THe plague comes and changes everything. Fortunes are overturned , people die . Everything is topsy Turkey. The ending is ironic. Sad to say. If you want to know the identity of aleph you will have to read the book yourself.

The Origins of Wicca

The origins of Wicca are surrounded in mystery. Already obscured by the sands of time or swirls of mist lie the origins of Wicca. Gerald Gardner , the father of Modern Witchcraft , retired from working in the Far East and retired near New Forest. It was here that he linked up with a local group whom he called witches.His book maintained that the witch cult had been kept alive for generation being practiced in the shadow.<br /><br />Recent research by the likes of Ronald Hutton and others have found that the ancient witch cult might not be that ancient at all but rather what was witnessed was the birth of a new religion based on ancient principals. The debate is not dying out. If one were to ask author Philip Heselton is this a new religion or the remnants of a dying witch cult. His answer would be yes and yes.<br /><br />The author in this work goes back to the origins of the New Forest coven which initiated Gerald Gardner. It must be noted that Gerald met these witches at a Rosicrucian meeting and they were off my themselves. The author looks at all the members of this “Coven” he gives a biography of who they were and their spiritual interests. ‘Dafo “ or Edith Grimes Woodford was most likely the one who had the most active role in initiating Gardner to the craft. She was his main contact. They may have been lovers. She taught drama and speaking. She may have used her talents in the birth of the new religion. Dorothy Clutterbuck Fordham made her fortune by falsely marrying a married man with a mentally ill wife. After he dies she inherits two houses which she she lets out to various groups. She has written poems about nature themes that may have made their way into the craft. The Mason family was involved with photography. Their spiritual interests would include psychic ability and involvement with Co Masonry. Katherine Oldham wrote many books with fairy themes along with other magical elements. Perhaps the witches of them was Rosalind Sabine. She was involved with magic, Rosicrucianism and divination . She may have been the witch queen or high priestess.<br /><br />This group may or may not have been a coven but they were a ground that met together and perhaps not all met at the same time. Some may have believed they were witches and others not. It would seem that there were groups of people practicing ancient witchcraft traditions or there were bit and pieces lying around that could be formulated into a tradition. No less each of these spiritual seekers brought something to the table in all their backgrounds included Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, Ceremonial Magic and interest in psychic ability and diviniation. All this was brought together to form an old/new religion of tradition.

The Tribulations of the Night Stalker

 

This serial killer strikes a personal note with me for a couple of reason. Beginning in the summer of 1984 a satanic serial killer terrorized the greater Los Angeles area including the San Fernando Valley. This was where I worked and lived but this is not what made it personal. For that year that he went on his killing spree starting with two young ladies in an apartment wearing an AC/DC cap he went from that apartment to randomly eying people and deciding on their fate right then and there. Veteran homicide detective Frank Salerno teams up with Gil Carrillo a young rising star in the force to stop this sadistic and satanic killer. He ended up with 19 counts of homicide. Over the year 1984 to 1985 he broke into houses and killed 19 people. 

 

Richard Ramirez did not just murder these people, he often raped and sodomized the women before violently beating them to death. This killer would break in to houses and use a .22 to shoot the man. Then he would ask the women where the money was before violently beating them to death. Some women he left alive after the ordeal.

He made his away around by taking buses and stealing cars. Often times he did not bathe which gave him an identifiable body odor. Another feature on this guy was that his teeth were all messed up. After his kills he would pay a prostitute for a foot fetish and then stay in one of the rat infested hotels in Down Town Los Angeles.

WhT made tracking him down so hard was that first the composite sketches looked nothing like him. Second was that police officers in different precincts do not share information because they want to be the ones who get the credit. Richard Ramirez also struck Monrovia, Ventura Country, Riverside Country and even San Francisco.

Breaks in the case happened along the way. The police knew the .22 which connected the crimes and the Avia sho print. The press would ruin these advantages but in the end it was a fence that worked with Richard that gave away his identity.

In the end it was not the police that caught him but rather the citizens in a local neighborhood that caught him and almost tore him to shreds. Richard would snarl at people during the trial and refuse to take part in the sham trial. He would also get a bunch of female groupies that were just crazy about him.

How did Richard Ramirez get so crazy. His father Julioan Ramirez thinks it was the marijuana and the heavy metal music. There are other things which may have messed up little Richard. The area where he was born an coincided in the Texas/ New Mexico area there were nuclear tests. In this area lots of babies were born with birth defects. Two of Richard’s older brothers had learning disabilities and one had bone growth issues. Another thing is that Richard’s mother worked in a leather boot factor and she was breathing in fumes that made her sick. Growing up Richard Ramirez had epilepsy.

The author does a very thorough job of covering the Night Stalkers killing , his upbringing , capture and trial. You will get a full picture. After hearing about is past especially about his cousin Michael you will look at this psycho a bit differently.

Now as to what made this so personal to me was that during that year I was in an actual feud with a devil worshipper . I got into a fight with this guy and won and it was a bit before the Night stalker killings. I also know one of the night stalkers victims. He was a w

The Battle for Civil Rights In Israel

 

Jews came from all over the world to live in Eretz Yisrael. Some Jews had an easier time adjusting while other’s experienced more difficulty. The modern state of Israel was founded by Ashkenazi Secular Jews with leftist leanings who wanted to create the state in their own image and create a new Jew. The founding fathers believed in socialism more than the torah or Jewish law. Their vision of a modern civilization was mid 19th century Europe. The new Jew would shed his religion. The founding fathers wanted to emulate Europe. The vision of Zionism faced the west although they were located in the East . This view point locked out anyone with a traditional view or middle eastern cultural outlook.

The Jews from the Middle East, the Mizrachim , were torah observant and held in esteem a different form of Zionism.

Upon their arrival the Mizrachim were forced into the less desirable parts of the country.  They were herded into tent camps called Maabarot. Later these would get upgrade to tin shacks. These camps were like prisons. Guards at the gate and barbed wire fences they could not leave the camp without permission. Like military prisoners. Ashkenazi from Europe got better housing, better jobs and more access to a good education. The Mizrachim in many instances did nit get the same passage. They did not take this lying down and they fought against it in a variety of ways.

Their first method was non violent protests. They would post themselves in front of government offices and camp offices asking for better housing and jobs. These protests were often brutally suppressed by the police. Golda Meir would later adopt the tactic of selecting a delegation from the protestors who would then air their grievances. Meir made them promises she never followed through on.

The police were a tool used by the state in order to suppress the Mizrachim. The police would hold educational events and other kind activities for the Mizrachim. Mizrachi Jews were also shoved into police work. As the oppression worsened the riots would get more violent. Things would eventually escalate into breaking into offices and smashing things up. There were also fights between different ethnic groups situated in the camps. To counter the oppression these Mizrachim would join opposition parties hoping for better treatment.

Two major rebellions stand out. The first is the Wadi Salib rebellion of 1959. This started out with a Moroccan Jew being drunk and disorderly the police arrived and fired warning shots in the air that managed to hit the guy in the spine. He was crippled for life. This sparked violent protests filled with anger at the abusive treatment by the Ashkenazi elite. The second was the Hatikvah Rebbellion of 1965. This was caused by the Dan bus line not extending their service to this town. Lack of services sparked riots and drag racing.

In Israel there is a two tiered system for the countries Jews. On tier one you have Ashkenazi Jews that have access to better jobs, better housing, more political right. The second tier is for Jews of the Middle East. They have menial jobs, stuck in substandard housing, lacking educTion opportunities etc. many Middle eastern Jews wanted to emigrate elsewhere.

The Plight of Single Mizrachi Mothers

 Vicki Knafo made history with her famous march to Jerusalem to protect Netanyahu’s austerity measures. These measures cut the welfare allowance for singe unemployed mothers. This brought the plight of single mothers into Israel’s national spotlight. The authoress ,Smadar Lavie, is a university professor with a doctorate. She studied this movement and lived it. Professor Lavie is a single mother in Israel who also is part Yemenite. Single mothers have it tough but if you are a Jew if middle eastern descent it is even worse.

Smadar writes about the feeling of waiting hours in line only to be told that she has to go to another office to collect her check, which means more hours in line. There are times when she would be sent to this interview for this job or that many of which she was over qualified for. The clerks who run things sometime take advantage of these desperate single mothers. The buracracy is an instrument of torture.  The clerk if they are well intentioned thinks they are helping the single mother. It is just torture.

The cards are stacked against the Mizrachi Jews, those Jews who hail from Middle East. Originally they were brought here for labor so the pioneers from Europe would not have to rely on Arab labor. As cheap labor these Jews were abused by their fellow Ashkenazi brothers and sister. It persists to this day as Mizrachi Jews do not earn as much as their Ashkenazi counterparts. They are pegged into low paying manual labor jobs. Mizrachi Jews comprise well over 50 percent of the population yet they only occupy a small minority of white collar jobs. There are no Mizrachi professors who made it on their own steam. The ones who made it are married to Ashkenazi husbands or wives.

The country was founded by leftist, secular Ashkenazi Jews and they still hold the power. There are femsist organizations among both Ashekanzim and Mizrachi. The Ashkenazi ones are more international and focus on the rights of women elsewhere, especially Palestinians yet they ignore the plight of Mizrachi women. The Mizrachi women are fighting this on their own. The system is against them. They can be punished for protesting by denying checks or if they demonstrate lack of ability to care for their children then the children can be removed. Ashkenazi women have funds and connections so it will not effect them that much.

Many Mizrachi Jews vote for Likud or the right. It was the Mizrachi vote that got Menachem Begin voted in. They feel and rightfully so that the left took advantage of them and abused them. It was the Likud that focused on their plight. But alas things never end. No systematic change is on the horizon.