Monday, July 26, 2010

As I cannot to work under “my” scientific texts because of fucking terrible heat in Moscow (+35), these days I constantly read the downloaded book of Francis King – “The Secret Rituals of the O.T.O.”, published in 1973 in the U.S.A. and previously concerned the initiation Rites of Ordo Templi Orientis during its Thelemic period. At the present moment I’ve red only until the end of the Third Degree, but I’m already must to say, that this book is very interesting. Firstly, because of its beginning chapters about the O.T.O.’s history. Secondly, because of demonstration of the strictly Masonic elements in the Initiation structure and Rites. And thirdly, because of my wishing to find out the similarities (and, maybe, visible contradictions) between the Rites of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and the O.T.O. itself.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Russia as fascistic and clerical state.

Church and state in Russia
Art under arrest
A blasphemy trial shows the limit of Russia’s cultural freedom
Jul 1st 2010

Avant-garde Samodurov under guard

A CONTEMPORARY work of art can provoke outrage disproportionate to its artistic merit. In Russia it can also herald a change in the course of history. In 1962 the then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev famously denounced and banned an exhibition of avant-garde artists in Moscow, saying his grandson could paint better. This marked the end of the short post-Stalinist thaw and ushered in the period of “stagnation”. Khrushchev himself was deposed two years later.

Nearly 50 years on, Russian prosecutors are demanding a three-year jail sentence for the organisers of a contemporary-art exhibition in Moscow. The verdict, expected on July 12th, could have an impact far greater than the exhibition itself and determine the balance of power between ultranationalist religious radicals and secular pragmatists in Russia.

More:

http://www.economist.com/node/16490095?story_id=16490095