It is said that history is an unrolled scroll of prophecy, and that without study and recognition, it unravels itself and we play out our fates unknowingly. But in learning our past—the seminal historical and impactful events throughout history, in recognizing the emergence of powerful civilizations and individuals, empires, tyrants, revolutionaries, and profound achievements—we can move forward with clarity and wisdom. Tradition helps us by keeping alive the old rituals and ancient understandings of the world around us. According to composer Gustav Mahler, “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”
Here we feature History and Tradition:
At the end of the 18th century, Great Britain and France were vying to dominate one another by colonizing several territories across the globe. The English were already ahead in this race – but only just. Egypt was a highly-valued land, insofar...
Of all the saints of the Christian church, one of the most anomalous must surely be St Cyprian who, after his martyrdom in the early 4th century AD, became known as the patron saint of sorcerers. Even more curious is the fact that some 1,700 year...
Mercenaries are soldiers who are paid for their martial services from the pocket of their employer and from the spoils obtained in war. Most mercenaries once fought in professional armies before joining the motley ranks of private forces for hire...
The word ‘magic’ makes us think of sleight of hand, tricks and illusion, but historically African magic was a way to achieve goals by harnessing the creative powers of nature, which were regarded and revered as supernatural entities. The conc...
In ancient Rome, ID-cards, passports and other modern forms of identification did not exist. How could a Roman citizen identify himself in a world without pictures, computers or biometrics? Ancient Rome being a slave-owned society, proving who yo...
Deep in the rain forests of darkest Africa close to the Equator, in the Central African Republic, the Ba’Aka tribe – formerly known as pygmies - have lived for more than 40,000 years. Elusive, hiding in the jungle as much as they have been hi...
The evolution of ‘higher education’ in the ancient world led to variations of standards in different cultures. In ancient Egypt, higher education originated from copying religious texts for use in temples which led to the development of theol...
Chief Michikinikwa, who is more popularly known as ‘Chief Little Turtle’ originated from the Miami tribe and was born in 1752, near the Eel River in what is today Union Township in Whitley County Indiana. His father’s name was Turtle and wh...
The first European records of gunpowder were written in the 13th century by Roger Bacon, the English philosopher and Franciscan friar who was believed by many to have been a wizard. In 1248, a missionary allegedly brought Bacon a device fr...
In 2010 the existence of a previously unknown archaic human population was revealed following the DNA sequencing of a finger bone over 41,000 years old. It was discovered in 2008 in the Denisova Cave, a Stone Age site located in the Altai Mount...
