The Associated Press has a profile up of spiritual tours of Egypt that cater to New Age and Pagan clients. The article interviews Heartlights/Wonder Egypt Travel (who work together organizing tours) about their business, and talks to various clients, some who’ve made the journey several times.

“Diane Winkey, 61, who describes herself as 27 at heart, has traveled to Egypt eight times. She keeps returning because she says the ancient sites awaken a dormant part of herself. She describes a moment entering the Temple of Karnak in Luxor and feeling as if Isis, ancient Egyptian goddess of motherhood, was sending her a message. Tears started rolling down her face, and she says was taken back by her strong emotions.”

While an interesting article, I’m disappointed that they didn’t explore the tensions created by a predominately Muslim country hosting “pagan” tour groups who dance, sing, engage in trance-work, and even lay in sarcophagi. We’re only given a small hint that these tours are unpopular with the locals.

“In this predominantly Muslim country, Egyptologist and spiritual tour guide Amro Mounir, 34, said he encounters many Egyptians who criticize his tours for practicing a form of paganism. But Mounir says the tours are about tapping into the energy of the earth and helping people find the truth.”

We have to remember that Egypt is still a place where you can be put to death for the crime of “sorcery”, and Islamic fatwas threaten the safety of the country’s rich archaeological heritage. Are we headed for an international incident if someone decides the “shirk” (polytheism) being tolerated during private tour groups is too great an offense to be ignored? Will the lucrative government-approved tourist trade in Egypt eventually clash with the Muslim leaders who want to see all signs of “paganism” destroyed? It is certainly an issue that needs to be explored.

There aren’t many stories from the ancient world more famous than that of Cleopatra, the last Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. A canny politician, she had two remarkably famous love-affairs, first with Julius Caesar, and later with Mark Antony. The tale of her (and Mark Antony’s) downfall has been told and retold in a variety of formats. Now we can add “movie musical” to that very long list of adaptations.

“[Director Steven] Soderbergh explained at length how this bizarre sounding project ended up on his plate: ‘I’ve always wanted to do a musical. All the ones that were coming along just weren’t for me. I wanted to do a real rock n roll musical like ‘Tommy.’ During my research it appeared that most were female driven. So I started thinking about female protagonists. I was thinking about Catherine. It doesn’t take too long to think about Catherine and famous female historical figures to get to get to Cleopatra.’”

The (tentative) cast of “Cleo”.

The musical, which is due to start filming in April, will (allegedly) star Hugh Jackman as Mark Antony, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Cleopatra, and Ray “Robin of Sherwood” Winstone as Julius Caesar. Soderbergh says the project will be “a period story all the way” that will (allegedly) feature a soundtrack by Robert “Guided by Voices” Pollard. Oh, and did I mention that it’s going to be filmed in 3D? Because it is.

“With a four-hour Che epic, a top-shelf legal thriller and a porn-star-led comedy all ahead of him, Steven Soderbergh’s next movie had to be big if he wanted to keep up the attention he’s received in recent years. And big it is. The director has tapped Catherine Zeta-Jones, Hugh Jackman and disbanded indie-rock outfit Guided by Voices for Cleo, a 3D rock musical about Cleopatra and her lover Mark Antony.”

Will “Cleo” be the Pagan equivalent of “Jesus Christ Superstar”, or will a project laden with so much pop-culture excess collapse under its own weight? I suppose only time will tell. In the meantime, you can speculate what exactly a rock-opera about Cleopatra would sound like.

An interesting story, with some pre-Christian overtones, has been simmering in the back of my mind since I first saw it yesterday. The Brooklyn Museum of Art is going forward with a show that will highlight the fact that one third of their Coptic sculptures are fakes.

“A third of the Coptic sculptures at the Brooklyn Museum of Art are modern fakes. Its collection of late Egyptian sculpture was, until now, the second largest in North America. Brooklyn curator Dr Edna Russmann, who is concluding a study of the works, warns that other museums which acquired Coptic sculptures in the past 50 years are likely to face similar problems.”

The “Coptic” era generally refers to the time of early Christian dominance in Egypt (and the decline of pre-Christian religion), from the 4th century until the Arab invasion of the late seventh century. Works from this era are highly prized for their insights into early Christianity and the transitions between Christian and pagan eras of Egypt. It is because of this eagerness by curators for early Christian treasures that a presumably large number of fakes were easily distributed and sold in the sixties and seventies. Many of them placing a heavy (and often historically incorrect) emphasis on Christian imagery.

“The fakes were mainly bought in the 1960s and 70s, and can be traced back to major antiquities dealers in New York and in Switzerland, to where they were shipped from Egypt. Dr Russmann believes that the dismissal of these works will encourage scholars to “re-evaluate Coptic art”. What is striking about the fakes is that they place a greater emphasis on Christian iconography than the authentic works. This reflects market demand for such imagery in Europe and North America.”

In addition to the ten outright fakes, several other authentic pieces show evidence of modern alterations. Fewer than ten works seem wholly untouched. Worse, scholars have known about these fakes since the seventies and this is the first time the general public will hear about the “Coptic controversy”.

Why the secrecy? Reputation mainly. Many museums in the past have dealt with Coptic fakes by quietly “retiring” them from display, avoiding scandal and bad publicity for their curators. Another motivation (largely left unspoken), is that if a large number of Christian-oriented Coptic sculptures are found to be fakes, it could spell trouble for the current narrative about the cultural dominance of Coptic Christianity in Egypt, and the decline of Egyptian paganism. While the pagan temples were closed in 384 ce, it is known that Egyptian paganism was active well into the sixth century. Indigenous Egyptian religion was still troubling to monotheists (Muslim, this time) in the 10th century, and the remaining physical remnants still trouble some extremists today.

Whatever the reason for the hush-hush, this is a brilliant example of how bad ideas and forgeries manage to survive even in the supposedly hostile environment of a museum filled with academics and scholars. An eagerness to fulfill a desire for a certain sort of object, or to validate a theory, creates a blindness to the possibility that what we have obtained is too good to be true. Perhaps this openness by the Brooklyn Museum could open the floodgates of related fakes and “alterations”, and could cause some scholars to reevaluate the Coptic era in Egypt.