Saturday Signal: sifting the signal from the noise of the Internet’s occultural cacophony.

The first week of the Esoteric Book Club has had mixed results. We’ve started the first and second exercises, but participation hasn’t been as high as was suggested by the book club’s launch.

There’s still lots of time to join in. All forums will remain open indefinitely, and when a topic is replied to it shoots to the top, so we’ll see it and respond. So, if you’ve been thinking about it, but haven’t dived in yet for whatever reason, please do join us!

• Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, Terry Rey and Leslie Desmangles let us know “It’s Vodou, not ‘voodoo’” in the Chicago Tribune. (Via The Wild Hunt.)

• In Mary K. Greer’s Tarot Blog she discusses the “Oldest Cartomancy Meanings in English“- and apparently they predate Etteilla! It details meanings for a “regular” playing deck of Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds and Spades.

• Frater Barrabbas asks “Whence Cometh the Demons?” in his blog Talking About Ritual Magick. Judeo-Christian mythology have their guess, so do the ancient Greeks.

• Mike Jay‘s essay about “The Birth of the Illuminati Conspiracy” is worth a read on Reality Sandwich.

Found something nifty? Please share it in the comments, or if you use delicious, tag it “plutonica” and we’ll take a look. Thanks!

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Saturday Signal: sifting the signal from the noise of the Internet’s occultural cacophony.

Busy times, and it’s been a while since I last posted a Saturday Signal. Indeed, the last one was on Hallowe’en, that overcommercialized wreck of an otherwise excellent holy day.

The Onion is outraged, and takes pains to reminds us that “frightenin’ away demons is the reason for the season.” Which is pretty awesome.

It recently came to my attention that Earth’s Moon may be from Mercury. It’s a wild idea, and not universally accepted, but possible. Hey, at least Pluto’s still a planet, right? Right.

• Artist and magickian Danny Chaoflux wrote an interesting though unstructured piece titled “Style Sheet Witchcraft” discussing Aleister Crowley, chaos magick, Anton LaVey, memetics and art with some great design tips.

• How does this 1997 essay from Hakim Bey posted on Hermetic.com compare? Titled “Seduction of the Cyber Zombies“, Bey argues that “we are suffering from a crisis of overproduction of the image” which we cannot escape from, “media as ‘satanic mills’.” And…the message?

• An Italian inventor has created a holy water dispenser to help combat the spread of swine flu, so reports the Telegraph.co.uk. Apparently this thing’s a sacred cash cow. The designer is quoted as saying: “After all the news that some churches, like Milan’s cathedral, were suspending the use of holy water fonts as a measure against swine flu, demands for my invention shot to the stars. I have received orders from all over the world.” Well, why not? Though holy hand sanitizer would likely prove more useful in the long term. Any religious market for that?

Until next week, mes amis.

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Anton Channing is the author of Kaos Hieroglyphica and hosts the website for the KIA Illuminated Adepts. His blog is at serpent.antonchanning.com.

Publish and be damned they say.  I feel a bit like that with my book Kaos Hieroglyphica: Alchemy for the New Aeon.  I started writing this when I was just 23 and had finished writing it by the time I was 28.  It wasn’t published until I was 29, nearly 30.  I am now 35.  Inevitably my 35 year old self cringes at some of my decade old writing.   However, in the first article I ever had published, namely “Liber Minor 0″, I had enough sense to write one of the best sentences I have ever written, namely that ‘I reserve the right to disagree with myself at a later date.’

Well, here I am at a later date exercising my right to disagree with myself!  In particular I have cause to revisit the Psyche Magic chapter, in particular the ritual.  Rather than rewrite the ritual, I am going to tell the story of its actual performance, what lead up to it, and how the recipient has been empowered by it since. Continue reading »

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Saturday Signal: attempting to sift signal from the noise of the Internet’s occultural cacophony.

This has been a crazy week: camping on the weekend, end of another fiscal quarter at work entailing many late nights at the office, treated with a delightful time at Cirque du Soleil‘s Saltimbanco yesterday, and I now find myself playing Internet catch-up this weekend in preperation for another busy weekend come Labour Day. Continue reading »

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An American woman who levitated, demonstrated paranormal psychic powers and spoke foreign languages unknown to her was clearly demon possessed, according to a board-certified psychiatrist and associate professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College.

WorldNetDaily.com, “Real-life case of demon possession documented“

Richard E. Gallagher, a certified psychiatrist in New York and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at New York Medical College, documented the case in “A Case of Demonic Possession” for the New Oxford Review. The article is described as follows:

“Amid widespread confusion and skepticism about the subject, the chief goal of this article is to document a contemporary and clear-cut case of demonic possession. Even those who doubt such a phenomenon exists may find the following example rather persuasive. For clergy, or indeed anyone involved in the spiritual or psychological care of others, it is equally critical, however, to recognize the many and infinitely more common “counterfeits” (i.e., false assignations) of demonic influence or attack as well. ”

New Oxford Review, “A Case of Demonic Possession“

The woman is reported as having “a long history of involvement with Satanic groups”, though no specifics are given as to which brand of Satanism she was involved with.

She was observed levitating by priests, deacons, lay assistants, psychiatrists, nuns, while objects flew about the rooom.

“The exorcism began on a warm day in June,” Gallagher recollects. “Despite the weather, the room where the rite was being conducted grew distinctly cold. Later, however, as the entity in Julia began to spout vitriol and make strange noises, members of the team felt themselves profusely sweating due to a stifling emanation of heat. The participants all said they found the heat unbearable.”

It’s It would be a remarkable thing to see taken seriously, were it not for the points outlined by Mod in the comments section below.  Alas.

The full article is available for purchase for a mere 1.50$US from the New Oxford Review.

Thanks to Lex for bringing this to my attention last night.

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