occult

Snip: "As with all anomalous entities, the very act of observing the particles disturbs them. Observer and observed, subject and object, cannot finally be distinguished. Particles whose existence is predicted obligingly turn up. If we didn't know better, we might almost say that they had been imagined into existence. The so-called New Physicists smelled a rat long ago. They began to compare the whole enterprise to oriental religion or to suspect that its reality is primarily metaphorical, not literal and factual."

Snip: "During the first half of the 1920s, a violent rivalry took place among the Occult Societies and Secret Lodges in Germany. In 1925, for example, Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the Anthroposophical movement, was found murdered. Many suspected that the Thule Society had ordered his assassination. In later years, Hitler continued the persecution of Anthroposophists, Theosophists, Freemasons, and Rosicrucians."

The Harry Potter series of books is a very moral and ethical tale. It cares about community, hope, and even faith -- a fath that the powers of good and order will triumph over evil and chaos: Christian values, some would say. Is JK Rowling spoofing us? Is Harry Potter crypto-Christian with its Messianic Harry? Well, they seem to believe so over at The Land of Unlikeness.