Mostly history

Three archers, Japan, ca.1860-1900

Okay, this is a NEW post showing the complete list of everything I have included on this blog so far. Additions, editions, and new content will be listed on this page.

Abrahamic Religions:

Judaism -Orthodox (Yeshivah, Hasidic/Haredim, Breslov, Chabad) -Conservative -Reform -Reconstructionist -Humanistic -Kabbalah (Mysticism) -Karaism (Lithuanian) -Shabbetaianism -Misc.: Abayudaya, Afghani, Amazigh, Ashkenazi, Bebe, Bukharian, Bulgarian, Cochin, Eritrean, Ethiopian, Igbo, Iranian, Iraqi, Japanese, Kaifeng, Libyan, Moroccan, Sephardi, Tunisian, Yemeni

Christianity -Eastern Orthodox (Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Greek, Oriental, Romanian, Russian, Serbian) -Catholicism (Ambrosian, Chaldean, Chinese, Coptic, Croatian, Ge’ez, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Maronite, Melkite, Syro-Malabar; Nueva Jerusalen “cult”) -Protestantism (Amish, Anglican, Christadelphian, Disciples of Christ, Episcopalian, Holy Ghost People, Hutterite, Lutheran, Mennonite, Moravian, Pentecostal) -Adamites -Bardaisanites -Brethren of the Free Spirit -Christadelphianism -Christopaganism -Christian Science -Ebionites -Jehovah’s Witnesses -Millerites -Mormonism (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) -Nestorianism -Quakers (Religious Society of Friends)

Islam -Sunni (Hanabali, Hanafi, Maliki, Shafai’i) -Shi’a (Alawites, Alevism, Ismaili, Twelver, Zaidi) -Ahmadi Muslims -Ibadi Muslims -Khajirite -Moorish Science Temple of America -Mourid -Quranist -Sufism (Mysticism- Bosnian, Chinese, Cuban, Japanese, Macedonian, Mexican) -Wahhabism 

Druze

Babism

Baha’i

Samaritanism

Marian Religions: Collyridianism, Ebionism, Helvidianism, Nestorianism, Valentinianism

Dharmic/Indian Religions:

Hinduism -Shaivism -Vaishnavism (ISKCON) -Shaktism -ISKCON (Hare Krishna) -Samkhya -Mimamsa -Misc.: Bali, Cham (Vietnam), South Africa, Thailand

Buddhism -Mahayana (Huayan School, Nyingma School, Pure Land, Sakya School, Tibetan Buddhism, True Buddha School) -Theravada -Vajrayana (Tantra, Tibetan) -Zen/Chan (Chinese, Japanese) -Falun Dafa/Falun Gong “cult”

Jainism -Digambara -Svetambara

Sikhi (Sikhism) -Akhand Kirtani Jatha -Brahm Bunga Trust -Dam Dami Taksal -Gurdwara Tapoban Ontario -Happy Healthy Holy -International Institute of Gurmat Studies -Kes Dhari -Namdhari -Neeldhari Panth -Nihang Akali -Nirankari -Nirmala -Radha Soami -Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee -Sikh Dharma International -Sindhi -Udasi

Mahima Dharma

African/African Diaspora Spiritual Traditions & People:

Akan (West African- Ghana & Ivory Coast)

Ancient Egyptian

Atenism (Ancient Egyptian monotheism)

Berber (Moroccan- Amazigh)

Bori (Nigerian)

Bororo (Cameroon)

Candomble (Brazilian- diaspora)

Galla (Ethiopian)

Hoodoo

Kemeticism (Egyptian revivalist)

Moorish Science Temple of America

Obeah (Caribbean- diaspora)

Quimbanda (diaspora)

Rastafarianism (Jamaican)

Santeria (Cuban- diaspora)

Suri (Ethiopian)

Tuareg

Umbanda (Brazilian- diaspora)

Voodoo/Vodoun (Haitian, Benin)

Yoruba (Nigerian)

Misc.: Efe, Ibibi, Luba, Yaka, Zulu

Asian Religions & People:

Bon Po (Indigenous Tibetan religion)

Caodaism (Vietnamese)

Chinese Popular(Folk) Religion

Confucianism (Chinese, Korean)

Dao Mau (Vietnamese)

Hmong (China, Laos, Vietnam)

Ifugao (Philippines)

Juche (North Korean ideology/”cult”)

Kejawen (Javanese)

Muism (Korean)

Onmyodo (Japanese)

Phillipines: Indigenous

Ryukyuan (Okinawan)

Sanshin (Korean)

Sarnaism (Indian)

Shinto (Japanese) -Jinja -Konkokyo

Shugendo (Japanese indigenous- syncretic)

Tana Toraja (Indonesian)

Taoism/Daoism -Wu Wei

Tengriism

Vedic Religion (ancient Indian)

Vietnamese Folk Religion

Wuism (Chinese)

Yakut (Siberian)

Yiguandao (Chinese)

Australian Cultures & People:

Australian Aboriginal

Yolngu

European Religions, Mythology, & People:

Arthurian mythology

Asatru (Nordic)

Baltic mythology

Celtic mythology (Irish, Scottish, Welsh)

Church of the Last Testament (Russian cult)

Damanhur “cult”

Dievturiba (Latvian)

Druidism (Neo-druidry)

Etseg Din

Finnish mythology

Greek mythology

Hellenism (ancient and revivalist Greek & Roman religions)

Icelandic

Kukeri (Bulgarian)

Mari (Russian)

Minoan (ancient Crete)

Mithraism (ancient Roman cult)

Norse mythology (Nordic)

Religio romana (Roman religion/paganism)

Rodnovery (Slavic: Russian, Ukrainian, Polish)

Roman mythology

Romani

Romuva (Lithuanian)

Sami (Indigenous: Scandinavia, Russia)

Sicilian Folk Religion

Stregheria (Italian witchcraft)

Mesoamerican Religions & People:

Aztec

Curanderismo

Huichol

Maya

Mexican Folk Religion -Narco -Santa Muerte

Nahuatl (Aztec, etc.)

Zapotec

Middle Eastern Religions & People:

Ashurism (ancient Sumerian)

Babylonian mythology

Canaanite mythology

Collyridianism (pre-Islamic Arabia)

Ebionism (heretical early Christian movement)

Etseg Din (eastern Iranian folk)

Kalash

Mandaeism

Manichaeism (ancient Gnostic Persian religion)

Mesopotamian mythology

Pre-Islamic polytheism (ancient Arabian paganism; Wathanism)

Ugaritic (ancient Syria)

Valentinianism (heretical Gnostic)

Wathanism (ancient Arabian paganism)

Yazdanism (Kurdish: Yarsanism) -Yezidi/Yazidi (people)

Zoroastrianism (Persian & Parsi)

North American People & Cultures:

Aleut

Apache

Cahuilla

Cherokee

Chumash

Comanche

Dakota

Haida

Hopi

Inuit

Iroquois

Kiowa

Lakota

Maricopa

Midewiwin

Mohawk

Native American Church

Navajo

Nez Perce

Ojibwe

Peyote

Pueblo

Seminole

Sioux (Dakota, Lakota, Nakota)

Ute

Yup’ik (Alaskan)

South American Religions & People:

Incan

Kyikateje-gaviao (Brazilian)

Mapuche (Chile & Argentina)

Munduruku (Brazilian)

Q’ero (Peru)

Quyllurit’i (Peru)

Santo Daime

Yanomamo (Venezuela) 

Misc.: Candomble, Santeria, Umbanda

Polynesian Religions & People:

Hawaii’an

Maori (New Zealand)

Polynesian mythology (Maori)

Others:

Agnosticism

Astrology

Atheism

Christopaganism

Dadaji

Deanism/Filianism

Discordianism

Eckankar

Elevationism/ International Church of Cannabis

Folk Religion: China, Congo, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Japan, Korean, Kyrgyzstan, Lakota, Laos, Mexico, Ossetia, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Seto, Sicily, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thaliand, Ukraine, Vietnam

Freemasonry

Gnosticism

Humanism

Luciferianism

Magic

Mysticism

Omnism

Paganism (Neo paganism)

Philosophy

Rosicrucianism

Satanism -Demonolators -Devil Worship -Duotheism -Laveyan -Luciferianism -Theistic Satanism

Shamanism

Thelema

UFO Religions: Aetherius Society, Church of the SubGenius, Heaven’s Gate, Nuwaubian, Raelism, Scientology

Unitarian Universalism

Wicca

Witchcraft

If you see anything missing that you’d like added to the blog, please let me know! I’m constantly trying to find new content for this blog; this is my passion <3

The Tibetan goddess White Tārā, a representation of the Healing Mother archetype or else Mother of all Buddhas.~

Devī Daśabhuja Mahākālī

A ten-armed, ten-faced form of the Goddess Mahākālī

Amulet depicting Lamashtu

Assyrian, Mesopotamia, 883–612 B.C. (Neo-Assyrian Period)

Polished black stone medicinal amulet incised with an image of the lion-headed, bird-clawed demon Lamashtu, filled with reddish-white paste. Such amulets were worn by pregnant women to protect them from the demon Lamashtu, who was believed to kill newborn infants and take them for herself. Expectant mothers bribed her away with small offerings of combs and fibulae (brooches shaped like safety pins). These gifts and a clay image of Lamashtu were ritually set adrift in a model boat that, it was hoped, would take her back to the Netherworld. This amulet shows Lamashtu, pregnant herself and suckling a dog and a pig, sailing away on her boat and holding her new comb and fibula. 

Temples with & without ziggurats were built at Assyria.  But by the late Assyrian period, palaces were much more important & more numerous, emphasizing the monarchy’s importance.

In the 800’s BC, Ashurnasirpal II restored & enlarged the city of Nimrud, and had a palace built within its walls.  The north-west wing was the most public, and at the north was a large public outer court. A suite of apartments (including for the women) was on the east side, and a series of large banqueting halls on the south side.

This would become the traditional Assyrian palace plan.  Palace remains at Nineveh, Nimrud and Kouyunjik, built during the 700’s & 600’s BC, have similar plans, and are built on elevated platforms, surrounded by terraces.

Ashurnasirpal II’s palace.  Three huge doors on the outer court’s south wall led to the throne room, which was long & narrow, and ran nearly the whole width of the courtyard.

A flight of steps led to the palace, and the main entrance was guarded by lamassu – winged stone bulls made of stone.  They protected the gates from evil, with a lion’s fierceness, an eagle’s far-sightedness, a bull’s strength, and a human’s intelligence.

Lamassu at the palace entrance (destroyed by ISIS in 2015).

Below is a drawing of what an Assyrian palace may have looked like. This palace has an elevated, buttressed terrace, a flight of steps lined with carved figures as homage to the king, an open upper storey to admit light, and a roof ridge with battlements.

Assyrian bas-reliefs depicted powerful, life-like men and animals. The sculptors were knowledgeable of anatomy & movement, and how to carve it; at the same time they stylized the subject for ornament.

Orthostats (large stone panels) were arranged in tiers on high walls, and as friezes on low walls.  Fierce beasts, bulls, griffins and lions were common subjects.  Sometimes the king was shown killing them, to demonstrate his bravery, and symbolizing the triumph of good over evil.

Pavement slab from the North Palace at Nineveh.  The outer border is decorated with a pattern based on the lotus flower, similar to Ancient Egyptian ornamentation.  Narrow bands of circular rosettes divide them from the inner border of stylized flowers, and another stylized flower in the centre.

Sculptured ornamental border from Nineveh.  It depicts lamassu and stylized plants, which are perhaps a sacred tree.  Borders of flowers & animals were sometimes painted on ceiling beams, with gilding & precious stones to add richness & contrast.

Sculpted panels in the ruins of the Palace of Nineveh show some of the architectural details made by the Assyrian builders (or possibly Greek builders).  On of these details was voluted capitals (capitals with a spiral, scroll-like ornament on top), and they looked similar tot he Greek Ionic & Corinthian capitals, which also had volutes.

An Ionic capital on the Treasury Building (Washington D.C., USA).

The Obelisk of Divanubara (Nineveh, c.800 BC) was built with sun-baked and kiln-burned bricks.  It tapered towards the top, with stepped layers on top.  Carvings and inscriptions showed that it had a funerary purpose.

Ethiopian forces, assisted by St George , win the battle of Adwa in 1896. Painted 1965–75