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

With all the news I post about space, how ’bout our home planet?  No, not Pluto this time: Earth. Apparently it’s missing two billion years. Kind of. Well, we are anyway, in that we have no idea what happened for that span of time. Theories abound.

Also, the solar system is about two million years older than we thought.

Science is cool.

• In her blog Know Thyself, T. Thorn Coyle reminds us that commitment and consistency are important in any practice, whether mundane or spiritual, in “Let’s Get Engaged“. You really do earn points just for showing up.

• Charlie Jane Anders asks, “Could self-aware cities be the first forms of artificial intelligence?” on io9. To which we respond, “the first” might be a stretch (servitors, anyone? or egregores, gods, etc?), but that cities can and do become sentient certainly seems reasonable. Let’s just keep an eye out for Skynet, ok?

• US Games, purveyors of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot Deck (amongst others), now blogs! Fool Stop Tarot Blog is run by Janet, their social media person, who also maintains their Twitter account and Facebook page. Everyone’s so Web 2.0.

• Sannion (H. Jeremiah Lewis) writes in The House of Vines, “Speaking about the unspeakable“, that the old mysteries are dead, and that’s ok. We can’t reconstruct the past as it was, and that’s fine. Learning what was is great, but it’s not where we are now. Live life. Great stuff.

I had tons more links to share, but time intervened, so next week’s Signal will likely be double-sized. You’re welcome.

As always, if you come across anything 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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Over on The Great Tinines, Johnny Rapture asks “Who’s Pagan?“, inviting readers to post their definitions and lists of groups who qualify. I offered my definition, and in the course of discussion cartwheel asserted that:

No distinction between “magic” on the one hand and “religion” on the other has ever been made successfully.

This sounds like a challenge! The gauntlet has been thrown.

Back in 2008 we looked at various definitions of magick, but I still believe Crowley’s remains the most elegant:

Magick is the Art and Science of causing change in conformity with Will.

This simple statement was further clarified by an extract from Magick Without Tears:

Magick is the Science of understanding oneself and one’s conditions. It is the Art of applying that understanding in action.

This firmly places the onus of on the magus hirself. Whatever model one is using: spiritual, energetic, psychological, cybernetic or meta – it is the responsibility of the magickian to effect change.

Religion, on the other hand, relies on a relationship between the individual and some form of external supernatural power (think Wicca, Sentianism, kaballah).

It’s true, magick can be practiced within a spiritual framework, often in tandem with religion, but it is by no means necessary and conflation of the two is in no way desirable.

cartwheel raised an interesting question. This distinction works for me, what are your thoughts on this?

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

Last this week we had a guest post by Beth Winegarner – author, journalist and sociologist who is working on a guidebook for parents about teen culture, and a longtime Internet friend of mine – on the subject of occult profiling, and the harm it can cause.

Profiling is something we may not consciously reflect on, but it impacts how we live and what we do. For instance, I (rather obviously) use a pseudonym for most of my writing on esoteric subjects because I’m concerned about the impact it may have on my career in the world of finance. I don’t want that to be the case, but I understand that when I write about things like demons, Satanism, magick, and whatnot the average person isn’t going to be sympathetic to these subjects, and will likely have a negative view of them and, consequently, of me.

This is on the flip side, but if you didn’t get a chance to read it last week, check out “Occult Profiling: Where it comes from and why it’s worth fighting” now and please do share your thoughts and experiences.

Expanding our reception outside the confines of the blog, we find the following signals:

• Mercurius Politicus shows off a 1641 pamphlet with a handy “Protestant identification chart” illustrating several different types. Seems reasonably appropriate as the Christians are celebrating death at Spring, and I always get confused by which branch does which. They all worship Jesus, don’t they?

• Gyllene Gryningen has a post on “The Freemasonic origins of the Golden Dawn” with photographs and illustrations to elucidate various points.

• Dean Wilson writes about “Magical Literalism” in his blog Mishkan ha-Echad, specifically in regards to claims of invisibility. One might argue that the whole lot could be argued poetically, rather than absolutely. Where are the lines drawn, and why?

That’s it for this week, kids.

Found something fab? 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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Beth Winegarner is an author, journalist and sociologist who is working on a guidebook for parents about teen culture. For more on her work, visit bethwinegarner.com.

For the past couple of years, I’ve had a Google Alert set for the word “Satanic.”

I created it because I wanted to study how media use the word. Every day, news stories and links containing the word “Satanic” wend their way to my inbox. They range from articles about Salman Rushdie (all of which mention The Satanic Verses) to pieces about Toyota recalls, calling sticky gas pedals “Satanic.”

However, many are articles about crime. Big, gory, violent crime, and petty graffiti depicting pentagrams and other symbols. Continue reading »

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(click photo to enlarge)

@joeldey posted a TwitPic of the Flying Spaghetti Monster holiday treats he made.

They look incredible.

No news yet on the recipe, but they look awesomely delicious.

Update: Recipe found on EvilMadScientist.com (love the site’s name). Thanks Brent Friedman!

Spotted on BoingBoing.

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