Traditionalism and Islamic esotericism in Italy and in theory

A new issue of Correspondences has three articles of interest, all available open-access online. One deals specifically with the Ahmadiyya Idrisiyya that was established in Italy by Abd al-Wahed Pallavici, and two deal with the meaning of "esotericism" at a theoretical level.

The articles are:

• Francesco Piraino, "Esotericisation and De-esotericisation of Sufism: The Aḥmadiyya-Idrīsiyya Shādhiliyya in Italy."
• Liana Saif, "What is Islamic Esotericism?"
• Mark Sedgwick, "Islamic and Western Esotericism."

Lenin was a mushroom

One of those who founded the National Bolshevik Party together with Alexander Dugin was Sergey Kuryokhin (1954-96), famous among other things for his claim, made during one of the strangest television programs ever broadcast in the USSR, that V. I. Lenin was in fact a mushroom. The most important parts of these broadcasts, with English subtitles, are now available on YouTube: Part 1 here, and part 2 here. Thanks to Jesse Walker in Reason for bringing these clips to light.