Saturday, August 13, 2011

Druze Art

Druze religion is a marginal religion in the Middle-East with Islamic origins. A short excerpt from the wiki entry will tell you: "The Druze (Arabic: درزي, derzī or durzī‎, plural دروز, durūz, Hebrew: דרוזיםdruzim) are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism [a branch of Shia Islam]. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism and other philosophies. The Druze call themselves Ahl al-Tawhid (People of Unitarianism or Monotheism) or al-Muwaḥḥidūn (Unitarians, Monotheists) – the official name of the sect is al-Muwaḥḥidūn al Dururz (The Unitarian Druze)." In addition to this, they have some interesting ideas about reincarnation, where they claim that the soul is immediately reincarnated in another body upon the death of the old one. I always envision a Star Trek like replacement of the soul from one body to the next thinking about that. Anyway, not only are the Druze an interesting religious community, they make some good kitsch!

 Horsie!

 No religion where men have moustaches like that can be wrong!

 Ain't no player like a Druze player?

Another horsie! The lion and the horse though? Did the Druze substitute the lamb for a horse? Color preserved?

And yet more horsies!

I'm not sure what the horse is meant to represent actually. It appears enough times for me to suspect significance at least. In case you were wondering about the star though, wiki does say something about that: "Their symbol is an array of five colors: green, red, yellow, blue, and white. Each color pertains to a symbol defining its principles: green for Aql "the Universal Mind/Nous", red for Nafs "the Universal Soul/Anima mundi", yellow for Kalima "the Word/Logos", blue for Sabq "the Potentiality/Cause/Precedent", and white for Talī "the Actuality/Effect/Immanence".These principles are usually represented symbolically by a five-pointed star."


2 comments:

  1. How dare you mock such a beautiful religion, you stupid shit?

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    Replies
    1. Oh anon of 2014, this is hardly what I'd call a mockery. At all.

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