Book Descriptions:

The Yazidis comprise an ancient ethnic religious group sometimes included amongst the Kurds, known to worship Malek Ta'us, the Peacock Angel. This enigmatic figure is often identified as 'the devil' or Satan -- hence the sect is known as Devil-Worshippers, and has long been persecuted. To some scholars, the Yezidi comprise a post-Islamic form of Sufism, for others they are a gnostic 'survival, ' from days of old. Some regard them as related to Mesopotamian or Harranian pagans, or as crypto-Manichaeans or Jews, or Mandaeans, or Zoroastrians, or crypto-Christians. They are clearly related to another Kurdish sect of 'angel-worshippers' called the Ahl-i Haqq, also known as 'The People of Truth.' Yazidis have been identified as Magians, Assyrians, Hittites, Mittani, Sumerians, and other ethnic and religious groups. In short, their origins are mysterious, inextricably bound with the concepts of heresy and heterodoxy that always accompany syncretic faiths. Cauda Pavonis is the study of the interior, esoteric dimensions of Yazidism, eternally embodied in the beguiling colors of the Peacock. It examines the sect's antinomian doctrines of opposition, its magical lore and taboos, and its fascinating relation to other occult traditions such as Alchemy. The book also contains the first English translation of the poetry of Caliph Yazid ibn Muawiya, venerated by the Yezidi as Sultan Ezi, and linked in some narratives to the origin of the sect.




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