Brevans has created an Austin Osman Spare inspired absinthe.

According to the description on the website, the first batch was distilled on December 20th, Spare’s birthday, and made available for sale on April 3rd of this year.

The image on the label is Spare’s “Astral Body and Ghost” (click for larger image).

From the website:

The basis for the formula was taken from the well known book “La fabrication des liqueurs” from J. De Brevans dating back to 1897. As usual in the 19th century the formula has been slightly modified to gain a nicely balanced distillate. Oliver Matter just uses botanicals cultivated to eco standards from nearby or equally high quality herbs such as Anise e.g. Of course no sugar or any other artificial substances are used. Oliver Matter just uses herbs such as small wormwood, hyssop and others for colouring Absinthe. The result is a pretty complex yet smooth, harmonic and mellow Absinthe.

You can purchase Absinthe Brevans A.O. Spare at Absinthe.de. Unless you live in Canada. They won’t ship here. (I asked.)

Popularity: 17%

A friend of mine, Beth Wingarner, author of Sacred Sonoma: Sacred Sites and Alignments in Sonoma County, California is working on a new book about how young people, and teenagers in particular, come to the occult and why parents shouldn’t freak out about it.

Details below: Continue reading »

Popularity: 16%

A new collection from the UK’s Royal Mail titled Mythical Creatures artwork by Dave McKean.

The First Day Cover, Presentation Pack and presentation pack include very short stories for each stamp by fan-favourite Neil Gaiman.

The stamps began circulating on June 16th, and I’ve already received two birthday cards from Angleterre bearing the Fairies stamp pictured left. Though I rather think the Mermaid is my favourite.

The stamps feature various mythical creatures, including unicorns, giants, fairies, pixies, dragons and mermaids.

You can see them all, and their values, on the Royal Mail website here.

Popularity: 18%