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Azal, I don't recall another article, but there may well have been one. And no, I don't know of anything on veves and ruhaniya sigils, but it's a fascinating question. I would assume there's some crossover between modern ruhaniya and Zar practices, no? From what I know of it, Zar could legitimately be called Islamic(ate) voudon, insofar as its origins lie in the historical Muslim slave-trade and the integration of slaves from various parts of Africa. As for the sigils, the oldest examples of those in manuscript that I know of are in codices originating in Yemen. This brings to mind some researchers who have traced Zar to spirit-possession practices among Ethiopian Christians and Jews. Also, I know there's a great old book in French on Ethiopian magical sigils (Deleuze and Guattari draw on it in /Mille Plateaux/, so I'll have to check there to find the title). In any case, perhaps the nexus of all this runs across the Gulf of Aden? Just a thought. - Noah On 5/19/2012 3:17 PM, N.W. Azal wrote: > Hi Noah > > Memory is fuzzy, but wasn't there a similar article last year or the > year before in the UK Guardian -- or was that the Independent? -- > about something like this being uncovered in Britian itself involving > West African practioners? > > Also, is there anything published on Voudon veves and ruhaniya sigils > that you may know about? > > N > > > On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 6:59 PM, Noah Gardiner <[log in to unmask] > <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: > > From the Guardian: > http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/18/briton-arrested-thailand-babies-corpses > > "A British citizen has been arrested in Bangkok on suspicion of > smuggling human infant corpses for use in black magic rituals > after the bodies of six babies were found in a suitcase in a hotel > room, Thai police have said... Some of the remains had been > covered in gold leaf, said police, apparently for use in black > magic rituals... Black magic rituals are still practised > inThailand <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/thailand>, where > street-side fortune tellers offer ceremonies to reverse bad luck." > > Thoughts? I have to say that the part about Thai fortune-tellers > practicing 'black magic rituals' seems a bit non-sequitur to me, > though it's hard to know much from the scanty details in the article. > > - Noah > > -- > Noah Gardiner > Doctoral candidate, Dept. of Near Eastern Studies > University of Michigan, Ann Arbor > > -- Noah Gardiner Doctoral candidate, Dept. of Near Eastern Studies University of Michigan, Ann Arbor