Jack Faust brought to my attention the plethora of posts on magickal models lately surfacing. It seems to have cheesed him a bit.

After writing an earlier post for Rending the Veil, I was asked to explain about how a someone could possibly be both a magickian and an atheist and so wrote this piece in the fall of 2009, intending it for the Yule issue. I understand it got lost for a bit somehow over at RtV HQ, but it’s up now.

Frater U.:D.:’s “Models of Magic” essay has been floating around online for a long time, and was further expanded in his 2005 occult primer High Magic: Theory & Practice. It seemed a straightforward place to start, Continue reading »

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The comments section for “Sexism in contemporary occulture” and “Gender and the elements” have recently flared up again, and it’s clear that the larger conversation is far from over. If you haven’t read these posts yet, please do and share your thoughts in the comments.

Two new essays have appeared recently on this theme, and they bear a closer look.

In a recent essay on Enfolding.org titled ”Occult gender regimes: Polarity and Tradition“, Phil Hine gets to the heart of what makes so many uneasy broaching the subject in the first place. He writes,

the very act of questioning the inevitability of gender polarity is a radical step – and one which potentially shatters the foundations of the occult implicit-order – itself a reification of the wider gender-order of Western Culture. Gender polarity is often reified in occult texts as an earthly reflection of cosmic or otherwise essential principles – which are held to be inevitable and juridicial (“Laws”). Frequently it is asserted that gender polarity is inevitable because it occurrs on the “higher planes” or is a reflection of essential qualities of deities, archetypes, etc – it is universal and timeless – part of an unchanging/unbroken tradition which has only been challenged very recently…

Hine traces the origin sexual poliarty to Continue reading »

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

Six days out of seven this site really depresses me, but today it’s golden: http://isitsaturday.net/.

Lots of new blogs popping up lately. Is anyone keeping track? I’ve linked to a couple here, but if I’ve missed anything cool let me know.

I feel guilty when I miss these posts, but worse still I’ve been told you miss these posts too, that I’m making some of you into Sad Pandas. I don’t want you to be a Sad Panda, so here’s today’s Saturday Signal:

• Diabolical Discourse is a new blog which announces “events, lectures, and talks in the north of England featuring prominent members of the magical, mystical, and occult communities”. It just began life on April 1st (no joke), and looks like it could become an excellent resource.

• Cheerfully ripping off the wildly successful blog Stuff White People Like, Glaux, Laurelei and temperance have created Stuff Pagan Culture Likes. Samples: ” Herbal Remedies“, “Indiscriminate Blessings“, and “Mead“. (Doesn’t everyone like mead?) No updates since March, but hopefully this is a blog which will continue. There’s a lot of stuff to be made fun of here, folks.

• Sneaking in one of my own, my essay “Differing Models” is up on Rending the Veil in the Beltane issue. It discusses Frater U.: D.:’s “Models of Magic” and what it can mean for your practice.

I’ll also work on Saturday Signals for the weeks I’m in Paris.  Hopefully this will make for Happy Pandas.

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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Immanion Press has recently come out with two new titles that sound quite interesting.

The first, Liber 767 vel Boeingus: Rough Experiments in Chaos Magic, by Slovakian chaote Jozef Karika.

From the press release posted on Rending the Veil:

Karika takes chaos magic back to its experimental, exploratory roots with a wide variety of practices ranging from twisting the concept of servitors and sigils into new shapes (sometimes literally!), to both helpful and harmful applications of magic when dealing with other people. There’s also a hearty helping of pop culture magic a la Taylor Ellwood, and the integration of modern technology, most notably the easy to access cell phone, in on the go magical practice. And the psychological model of magic is much expanded in rather creative manners!

If you think chaos magic has jumped the shark, think again. Karika’s subversion of the proverbial box (as in, “thinking outside of the”) has produced a volume of practical, hands on, make-it-happen-dammit magic that anyone with a penchant for magical experimentation should take a good, close look at.

This summary doesn’t Continue reading »

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

Happy Samhain, kids!

Vampires are hot, hot, hot. Except in Twilight, where they’re just creepy and bizarre. Stephen Marshe suggests this is because young straight women want to have sex with gay men, whereas Charlie Higson thinks vampires are for girls and zombies are for boys. Even ABE is getting into it with a timeline of vamp lit – things even I haven’t read.

If you find all of this worrying, you can always pick up a nineteenth century vampire killing kit. I know I’d feel safer with one. My kitchen’s always running out of garlic.

• The latest issue of the online occult magazine Rending the Veil has come out, and Patrick Dunn has contributed an essay titled “Ritual and Myth” which looks at the role of myth in our lives and what that might mean.

• Joseph Merlin Nichter wrote about “Samhainophobia vs Samhainsensationalism” in his blog WitchDoctorJoe’s RattleBone. He discusses popular reactions to Hallowe’en, his his own family’s traditions. There’s also a picture of a stone monk in a pointy hat lookin’ fab.

• In a lengthly article in Reality Sandwich Paul Levy asks “Are We Possessed?” and responds with excessive quotations from Carl  Jung. The answer to the question seems to be “Probably”.

Also, Douglas Rushkoff intends to interview Robert Anton Wilson (1932-2007) on Monday. Could be interesting.

That’s it for this week, mes amis. Wear your costumes proud and practice safe hex.

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