“…farmers called police to County Road 28 and County Road 5 around 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and police said they found a package wrapped securely in black plastic and tied with yellow nylon ropes. Police said someone dug a small hole and left the package inside. Since officers couldn’t tell what was inside the package, they called out the bomb squad. X-rays showed no mechanical devices inside, so police opened the package and found some kind of flesh that had sutures in it. An anthropologist, who is part of the investigative staff identified it as a cow’s tongue.When officers opened the sutures, they found a photograph inside, writing in Spanish and what looked like different types of pepper, said Longmont Police Cmdr. Tim Lewis.Officers said they did some research and found a cow’s tongue is used in different types of rituals, including one that would make someone stop gossiping or talking about a person, which is what this appears to be, Lewis said.”

First of all, a bomb squad? I understand the need for caution, but who would bomb a rural cornfield? Also, since they uncovered that it wasn’t a bomb, and in fact no danger to the community, why was the press told? Further, they said they are trying to warn the person in the photo and bring in the spell-maker for questioning (though they admit they probably won’t press charges), escalating a simple bit of folk-magic into an ongoing drama.

An x-ray of a cursed cow-tongue.

If there is a lesson here, it is two-fold. First, magical practitioners need to be really, really careful about where they leave spells. Even if you’re doing a bit of non-malefic magic to stop someone bad-mouthing you, you better make sure that en-spelled cow tongue (that you bought at the butchers) or bottle full of pee and rusty nails is buried somewhere safe. Second, if no harm was done, and no charges are going to be pressed, then this should never have been a matter that made its way to the press. You don’t think the local papers aren’t going to want to follow up and see who did this? There is the very real possibility that a fragile  (or simply personal) domestic situation could boil over now that it’s splashed all over “news of the weird” sections across the country. As for the local papers, frankly, you’d think that with newspapers collapsing across the country, they’d want to save their payroll for issues that actually concern the public at large.

“Korem, who wrote about the phenomenon of spreading gangs in his 1994 book Suburban Gangs, The Affluent Rebels, identified four types of juvenile gangs. Ideological gangs include people with a particular worldview, such as neo-Nazis, skinheads, anarchists or even environmental extremists. Cult gangs get into Satanism or other occult activities. Delinquent gangs are packs of kids whose activities can start with graffiti and vandalism and escalate to theft, assault and even catastrophic violence such as school shootings. At the time Korem started studying the phenomenon in the 1980s for Suburban Gangs, these delinquent gangs were the most common type. As the population of teens contracted in the ’90s, delinquent gangs fell, then rose again as the population expanded in the mid-2000s. Street gangs are a subclass of delinquent gangs.”

Cult gangs! Yeah, you see those everywhere. I heard the other day where there was a drive-by spell-casting perpetrated by the East-side LaVeyans on the West-side Setians over control of a local occult shop. A dozen Wiccans were reportedly wounded in the astral cross-fire! I’m not sure about Todd Pitock, the author of this article, but when I’m looking for an expert to quote I check their background first. While I’m sure Mr. Korem is a capable and smart individual, an expert in gangs and profiling who doesn’t list his academic and practical training should set off red flags.

Turning from something that’s faintly absurd to something intentionally funny, the Scotsman’s Edinburgh Festival guide profiles “occult comedian” Andrew O’Neill.

“It is wholly personal, fascinating stuff, original and left-field to the point of bumping into the perimeter fence. He has a spirited discussion with himself about black metal, death metal and Swedish death metal and does a couple of knock-knock jokes before carrying on to The Satanic Bible and Aleister Crowley. I suggest you do not leave Edinburgh before hearing him on the subject of the trials and tribulations of being a vegan transvestite (loved the neon pink stockings, by the way). O’Neill is a charming, genuine stage presence. Most of the time he is anecdotal or enthusiastically explaining the benefits of the occult and black magic, about which he certainly knows his stuff. What adds an extra layer of enjoyment is that he can, out of the blue (or perhaps the black) be wonderfully punny one minute and thrillingly acid the next.”

You can find out more about O’Neill at his web site. You can see a clip of him mocking British astrologers, here. Is this the first stand-up act to self-consciously bill itself as “occult”? Could Andrew O’Neill be the start of a occult-flavored comedy underground? Will Discordians start sweating now that they have some serious competition as the “funny ones” at festivals? These, and other pertinent questions remain open.

In a final, somewhat frivolous, note, gossip tabloids are alleging that pop-star Jessica Simpson hired a Witch to curse her ex-boyfriend, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo.

“A source told National Enquirer magazine: “Jessica is normally a really sweet girl, but she still can’t believe Tony callously dumped her.” “She found a woman in California. The two met at the star’s Beverly Hills home where they lit a candle, burned some incense and performed a couple of incantations.” The scorned singer-and-actress hopes the meeting will also taint the sportsman’s career, and is waiting in readiness for his next match on September 13, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.”

I suppose interested parties can now check the sports highlights to see if Simpson got her (alleged) money’s worth. If it doesn’t work, maybe should hook up with some of the occult gangs hanging around in suburban neighborhoods, they are no doubt more “hard-core” for the down-and-dirty curse-magick.

That’s all I have for now, have a great day.

“In early 1871, the chamber invited the first woman to address a joint congressional committee. That winter day, it was a free-love advocate – and avowed trance medium – named Victoria Woodhull who took the floor. Poised and handsome, Woodhull delivered a rousing brief in defense of women’s suffrage, which she later said had been dictated to her in a dream by a ghostly, tunic-wearing Greek elder-a spirit guardian who had guided all of her public utterances ever since she was a young girl. By the time of Woodhall’s appearance, Spiritualism could not be hooted down, even in the Senate. Its acolytes included Mary Todd Lincoln and a range of industrialists, congressmen, and figures from everyday life. The year following Woodhull’s speech, suffragists nominated her as the first female candidate for president.”

“Occult America” sounds like it will not only be a fun read, but a welcome corrective to the idea that American history stayed well on the Protestant Christian theological straight-and-narrow until fairly recently. It brings to mind a book I’m currently reading, “Grimoires: A History of Magic Books” by Owen Davies. It too casts an entirely new light on “occult” and magical dealings through history.

“Davies traces the history of this remarkably resilient and adaptable genre, from the ancient Middle East to modern America, offering a new perspective on the fundamental developments of western civilization over the past two thousand years. Grimoires shows the influence magic and magical writing has had on the cultures of the world, richly demonstrating the role they have played in the spread of Christianity, the growth of literacy, and the influence of western traditions from colonial times to the present.”

You’ll hopefully be hearing more about “Grimoires” soon, as I’m in the process of trying to arrange an interview with Davies regarding the subject matter in his book. As for “Occult America”, it is being released September 8th in America and the UK. You can read more about Horowitz’s work at his web site, here. With this recent flurry of historical re-evaluation, how long before we see “America is an Occult Nation” bumper stickers?

“…it is contrary to authentic development to view nature as something more important than the human person. This position leads to attitudes of neo-paganism or a new pantheism — human salvation cannot come from nature alone, understood in a purely naturalistic sense…”

To be fair, he also criticizes the idea of nature as mere “raw material”, and promotes an end to “reckless exploitation”. In fact, if this were the extent of Bendict’s swipes at modern Paganism I might have left it alone, but he returns to the subject again later on in the work.

“There are certain religious cultures in the world today that do not oblige men and women to live in communion but rather cut them off from one other in a search for individual well-being, limited to the gratification of psychological desires. Furthermore, a certain proliferation of different religious “paths”, attracting small groups or even single individuals, together with religious syncretism, can give rise to separation and disengagement. One possible negative effect of the process of globalization is the tendency to favour this kind of syncretism by encouraging forms of “religion” that, instead of bringing people together, alienate them from one another and distance them from reality. At the same time, some religious and cultural traditions persist which ossify society in rigid social groupings, in magical beliefs that fail to respect the dignity of the person, and in attitudes of subjugation to occult powers. In these contexts, love and truth have difficulty asserting themselves, and authentic development is impeded. For this reason, while it may be true that development needs the religions and cultures of different peoples, it is equally true that adequate discernment is needed. Religious freedom does not mean religious indifferentism, nor does it imply that all religions are equal.”

Catholicism is the best! Paganism is the worst! Rah! Rah! Rah! Some religions are more equal than others, right Benedict? I love the scare quotes around religion when describing syncretic, magical, and occult belief systems, it really drives home that the current leader of the Catholic Church doesn’t see us as even practicing a valid faith (even if in error). I suppose I should be flattered that the Pope considers us enough of a going concern that we’re mentioned in an encyclical, but I doubt it’s a first step towards understanding or tolerance. After all, if we aren’t “equal” to Catholicism (and other faiths that the Catholic Church deems “real” religions), maybe we don’t deserve the same religious freedoms and protections.

I always expect a bit of triumphalism and rhetoric when a religious tradition talks to itself, after all, if they didn’t think they were the best faith ever why bother? However, some of the conclusions made by Benedict here could have some chilling repercussions for modern Pagans around the world. We are already seeing a rise in Catholic exorcists who see adherence to “New Age” or Pagan religions as a form of demonic possession, isolated instances of growing radicalism among Catholic youth, and a crack-down on practices like Reiki for being “corrupting” to your spiritual health, what actions could result from this latest encyclical where a hierarchy of religious freedom is subtly endorsed?

A CT scan of the Witch Bottle

“CT scans and chemical analysis, along with gas chromatography conducted by Richard Cole of the Leicester Royal Infirmary, reveal the contents of the bottle to include human urine, brimstone, 12 iron nails, eight brass pins, hair, possible navel fluff, a piece of heart-shaped leather pierced by a bent nail, and 10 fingernail clippings.”

While several old Witch Bottles have been found in the past, and recipes for how to make a Witch Bottle exist from folklore and old records, this is the first time an intact specimen has been available for study. According to Massey the bottle illustrates the extent that people during that time were wary of malicious magic.

“Massey believes witch bottles “emphasize just how frightened people were of the ‘black arts’ — the early settlers even took their superstitions to the New World with them as excavated witch bottles demonstrate.” The general time period of the bottle coincides with the Salem Witch Trials, which happened in late 1600’s America. Archaeologist Mike Pitts, the editor of British Archaeology, told Discovery News, ‘The discovery of something so apparently bizarre, indicating a clear belief in witchcraft and forces that have nothing at all to do with conventional, approved religion, remind us that early modern England did not belong to the same world we now inhabit.’”

One wonders how long before the exact receipe discovered here finds its way into a Pagan-written book. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the cool Pagan-looking bottle decoration is actually the face of Catholic Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino. If you want to know more about Witch Bottles, including how to make your own, check out this article by Faerie K. from The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum.

At 55, the Northampton hermit will take no more credit for the film than he did for From Hell, the screen adaptation of his Jack the Ripper comic book, which starred Johnny Depp, or for the anodyne film version of his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Moore’s name will not appear on the credits of Watchmen and his share of the cash goes to his illustrator on the series, Dave Gibbons.

So what? Aren’t “Hollywood botches the book” or “Hollywood cashes in against the wishes of the writer” stories a dime a dozen? What’s different is that Moore is, for all intents and purposes, “one of us”. By that I mean he’s an occultist/magician who possibly worships the “sock-puppet god” Glycon, and is currently hard at work writing a “a clear and practical grimoire of the occult sciences”. In addition, he also wrote an outstanding 32-issue comic series that doubled as primer in magic entitled “Promethea”. Yet, despite all that, Moore isn’t really a figure of much discussion outside the small subsection of comic-book collecting Pagans and occultists. Neil Gaiman in contrast, who has a comparable track-record of critical and mainstream successes, has a huge Pagan following. Perhaps it’s that Gaiman is far more outgoing, Internet-savvy, and willing to work with Hollywood? Whatever the reason, you’re far more likely to hear a Pagan talk about “Coraline” (which was great) than the fact that Moore’s upcoming “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” comic sequel (due out in April) will prominently feature fictional/literary versions of Aleister Crowley.

“…an apocalyptic plot masterminded by obscure W. Somerset Maugham villain Oliver Haddo, a parody of Aleister Crowley; it almost goes without saying that Moore seizes the moment to populate Haddo’s entourage with fictional creations of the actual, prolific Crowley, while steeping the diabolist’s scheme in arcana from Crowley’s 1917 novel Moonchild.”

So when you head off to the theatre to see “Watchmen”, keep in mind that what you see on the screen is merely an echo, a fannish recreation (warning: spoilers at that link) of a work specifically created for the comics medium. A work not intended to be adapted to big-screen action. Or better yet, why not spend the weekend (and the money you might have spent on admission, a large popcorn, and soda) getting to know one of most brilliant writers of his generation. A writer who happens to share with us an interest in the practice of magic. I think that in retrospect, historians of our wider religious and philisophical movement will pay far more attention to the influence of people like Moore than the dozens of “Wicca 101″ niche writers we currently argue and debate over. Perhaps it’s time more of us got a jump on those historians.

Above, the ritual.

Above, the interviews.

Thanks to MagickTV and Ed Hubbard for providing this first-hand coverage of the event. While I know it’s somewhat fashionable to poke fun at the Witch School folks, they really deserve a hats-off for their efforts to provide Pagan journalism with some first-rate source material. Be sure to also check out their recent coverage of the Livingston Parish win. If you have a YouTube account, I highly recommend subscribing to MagickTV’s channel.

The Washington, D.C. community of magical and spiritual progressives will join together on Monday afternoon, January 19th, at the Jefferson Memorial Plaza to sweep the town clean and welcome President-elect Obama and his administration to the White House. The Ritual of Unity and Blessing is organized by a triumvirate of native Washingtonians, one of whom is the great-granddaughter of slaves, one the great-granddaughter of slave owners, and one the daughter of a populist New Deal Congressman.  The ceremony will begin promptly at 2pm with a Witches’ Broom Dance, intended to cleanse Washington of the malfeasance, deceit and partisanship of the last eight years.

The main organizers of the event are Pagan activist Caroline Kenner (who organized the Veterens’ Pentacle win rally), Wiccan Priestess Katrina Messenger, founder of Connect DC, and Caroline W. Casey, founder of Coyote Network News. The main ritual will culminate in the charging of an obelisk-shaped crystal (like the Washington Monument) that will be dropped into (“sacrificed to”) the Tidal Basin so that its energies can “broadcast” over the festivities on the 20th. For more details check, here, after January 9th.

Speaking of the Washington Monument, obelisks, and broadcasting energies, some of you might be interested to learn that there will be an official Masonic Inagural Ball (the first ever, or at least the first one ever publicly announced) taking place on January 20th.

While other inauguration balls are costing $125-$500 or more per ticket, we’ve arranged for an evening with some amazing food, a great DJ, and brotherhood, all for $65 per ticket, we’ve also included an incentive to help pay the baby sitter, couples may go for just $120 a piece. All proceeds from this event will be donated to the Masonic Foundation of the District of Columbia.

I know there has been something of a mini-renaissance of younger people (and sometimes esotericly-inclined practitioners) joining up with the Freemasons in recent years, so this might be a good way to attend a ball and do some networking (cash bar though, pity). I’m surprised this hasn’t happened before considering the rich history of Masonic US Presidents.

If you have any information of any other Pagan, esoteric, occult, or magical events taking place over the inaugural weekend, feel free to plug them in the comments.

“Nancy and I were shopping for luck for our literary projects. “If you’re a writer, Mercury is your patron god,” Ricky said. “He’s all about speed, speech and commerce. New York is his city. There’s a big statue of Mercury at Grand Central station.” Our candles were selected by color, then spoonfuls of powdered incense were burned in the glass candleholders while Kathy and Ricky took out their daggers and carved “magickal seals” into our candles from a guidebook of drawings kept in plastic sleeves in a three-ring binder. Once the candles were carved, they put on latex gloves and rubbed custom oils and glitter into our candles.”

An employee at Enchantments also explains that despite the recent economic downturn, they haven’t seen any sharp decreases in business.

“A financial crash, Kathy agreed, is a good time to be in the occult business: ‘We’re always asked to do love stuff, but lately, it has been way more about jobs — people looking for work and protection of their monies.’”

These Witch/occult shops essentially fulfill the same function that botanicas do for Latino communities. They provide a way to exercise some control over forces in your life that can sometimes seem uncontrollable, and provide consolation and empowerment when you feel you have nowhere else to turn.

“I went. First I got a tarot reading from this absolutely stunning witch, with big blue eyes, tons of black hair, a thick Bronx accent and a huge pentagram necklace. I was weeping, and she was so comforting! So maternal! … This witch gave me an object to project power on, but what the experience really gave me was the ability to see how much power I had on my own. I didn’t need the guy. I got an idea of how to confront my own pain and darkness, and transform it into something positive.”

Let’s hope that all our little Pagan shops find themselves as resistant to our ongoing economic turmoil, and continue to service the needs of their communities, Pagan and non-Pagan alike.
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/12/non-pagans-at-pagan-store.html/feed 3 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/10/deryni-filming.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/10/deryni-filming.html#comments Sat, 25 Oct 2008 15:22:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/10/deryni-filming.html Hollywood Reporter brings us the news that Columbia Pictures has made a six-figure deal to bring the novel “Deryni Rising” to the screen, with hopes that it could become a successful fantasy movie franchise.

Deryni Rising cover art.

The Deryni novels are written by Katherine Kurtz, an esoteric Christian (founder of the Michaelines) who is remarkably Pagan-friendly. Back in the early 80s she wrote “Lammas Night”, a classic in the “Pagans save the world”* genre that artfully melds several Wiccan (and esoteric) myths concerning WWII (and adds in a healthy dollop of Margaret Murray’s “divine king” theory). So needless to say, many Pagans will be eagerly anticipating (or, given Hollywood’s track record, dreading) this film.

It should be interesting to see how they portray magic (especially ritual magic), the kingdom of Gwynedd (loosely modeled after Britain), and the Holy Church of Gwynedd (loosely modeled after the Roman Catholic Church). Will Catholic groups complain about the blending of esoteric practices into what is obviously their church? Will the religious elements get downplayed or watered down (as in the film version of The Golden Compass)? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

* My favorite “Pagans save the world” novel is Stewart Farrar’s “Omega” (which you can buy used for a PENNY at Amazon).
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