BOSCASTLE, Cornwall – The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic announced last week that they had “broken the internet” when they released admission tickets for purchase for the coming week. The demand for tickets was so large that it exceeded the available bandwidth of the museum’s host servers and ended up causing not just the booking pages to crash, but the entire site.
The Museum reopened to in-person visitors in May after being closed for and has been releasing tickets for sale only one week at a time in order to manage the number of people inside the museum and stay within the safety limits issued by the Health and Safety Executive Risk Assessment guidelines during the pandemic. Under normal conditions, the Museum releases booking options for the entire summer.
England and Wales had also just experienced a “pingdemic” as a result of a majority of restrictions being lifted on July 19 and more people interacting and traveling.
The term “pingdemic” refers to people being notified by the National Health Service’s COVID-19 alert system pinging their phones and mobile devices as having possibly come in contact with someone who had tested positive. Anyone pinged by the app is instructed to self-isolate for 10 days.
The impact of the “pingdemic” was that a large portion of the labor force, nearly 20% in some cases were asked to self-isolate, further crippling the financial recovery of the country.
The Museum will now be releasing the tickets for sale at an unspecified time on Thursdays or Fridays in hopes of preventing future disruptions and allow them to coordinate with staff availability.
According to the Museum, “The precise time will remain a mystery and just another well-guarded secret at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic!”
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AGIA ANNA, Greece – The wildfires raging through Greece have impacted Evia Island which is home to a horse and donkey sanctuary, Ranch-Eros Farms. A newly created Facebook group, Horses for Hekate is seeking to help the sanctuary by raising funds.
Tara Sanchez, a Gardnerian Witch, as well as a practitioner of a variety of other magical disciplines, wrote a blog post, The Rite of Hekate Eurippa – A response to the Greek Wildfires, calling for action to help save the horses at Ranch-Eros Farms. Sanchez outlined her experience of how she learned of the crisis facing the horses on Evia Island in the post and how quickly things came together for a response.
Sanchez wrote that during her weekly shopping trip, “There on the sanitation station was an ornamental key. I never ignore a key when it randomly appears in my life, especially one so bizarre as a small brass key in the middle of Aldi.”
She understood the key as a message from Hekate, and it was soon followed by a call from another priestess asking if Sanchez could help get the word out about Ranch-Eros. She wrote and published a dark moon ritual in addition to setting up the Facebook page and fundraising page.
So far they have raised almost £1000, double their initial goal. The fate of Ranch-Eros Farms is uncertain as there are still active fires in the area and they may be forced to evacuate, though it is unclear whether that will include some or all of the animals.
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CLEVELAND – A new exhibit is scheduled to open on August 17 at the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Cleveland, Ohio, in partnership with the Stephen Romano Gallery in Brooklyn. The exhibit titled, “Beyond the Pleasuredome: The Lost Occult World of Burt Shonberg” will be the first time Shonberg’s art will be displayed in over 50 years.
Shonberg is perhaps best known for the artwork he created for the Roger Corman movies, “House of Usher” (1960) and “Premature Burial” (1962) both based on Edgar Allen Poe stories. He also created art for California bands, like Spirit and Love, and illustrations for sci-fi magazines like Forrest J Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland.
He was also associated with the artist and occultist Marjorie Cameron, and it is likely she was the person who introduced him to the works of Aleister Crowley. Shonberg is also known to have participated in the experiments of the effects of LSD on the creative mind conducted by Dr. Oscar Janiger, an experimental psychiatrist and professor at the University of California Irvine in the 60s.
Exhibition curator, Brian Chidester wrote in an article for L.A. Weekly in 2015, “…Shonberg was too strange for even the ’60s California sci-fi world, and too far removed from the fine art establishment, to be embraced by either. Even today, when radical viewpoints are commonplace in the art world, Shonberg has yet to receive recognition. Meanwhile, a unique body of work remains hidden in plain sight.”
In 1958 in Laguna Beach, California, Shonberg in partnership with his friend’s television writer George Clayton Johnson and folk singer Doug Myres, opened the Cafe Frankenstein a beatnik coffeehouse. Some of the paintings in the exhibition at the Buckland originated from the Cafe Frankenstein.
The Shonberg exhibit runs through November 1, 2021.
Judy Hall – November 25, 1943 – August 5, 2021
Judy Hall, an internationally-renowned author, energy healer, and astrologer who was mentored by Christine Hartley (colleague and literary agent of Dion Fortune), crossed the veil last Friday after a long illness.
Hall held a B.Ed in Religious Studies and an M.A. in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology from Bath Spa University. She specialized in past life readings and regression; soul healing, reincarnation, astrology and psychology, divination, and crystal lore. She studied with Howard Sasportas and took an intuitive approach in her interpretations of astrological charts.
Hall is perhaps best known for her best-selling books on crystals, The Crystal Bible, Vol. 1-3, The Crystal Zodiac, The Ultimate Guide to Crystal Grids, and her most recent release, Judy Hall’s Complete Crystal Workshop. She was a prolific writer with over 45 titles that spanned a variety of Mind, Body, Spirit topics and translated into 16 languages.
In 2014, Hall was named Kindred Spirit, Mind Body Spirit personality of the year, in addition to being listed four times by Watkins’ Spiritual 100 as one of the most influential spiritual living writers.
Hall is remembered lovingly as evidenced by the outpouring of posts across social media platforms, many speaking to how her work changed their lives and their approach to spiritual practices.
What is Remembered, Lives!
In other news:
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- A coin that depicts the Roman emperor, Julian the Apostate was found near King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England. It is part of the discovery of 15 gold and 226 silver coins. Julian is considered to be the last Pagan emperor and was installed as caesar in 355 C.E. with the intent to reintroduce and restore Paganism in Rome. One of the coins found bearing his likeness had gouges around the eyes and there is speculation that it was deliberately defaced as an act of erasure, but a coin specialist with the Norfolk Historic Environment Service, Dr. Adrian Marsden disagrees. In a statement to the BBC Marsden said, “…it looks more like accidental damage as other Julian coins discovered in the hoard remain untouched.”
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- An upcoming comedy, King Knight written and directed by Richard Bates Jr. premiered on August 8 at Fantasia Film Festival. The synopsis for the movie: “KING KNIGHT is an outsider’s outsider comedy starring Matthew Gray Gubler and Angela Sarafyan as Thorn and Willow, husband-and-wife high priest and priestess of a coven of witches in a small California community. When Willow unearths a secret from Thorn’s past, their lives are thrown into turmoil in this kooky, clever treat, decked with a wild cast that includes Nelson Franklin, Johnny Pemberton, Barbara Crampton, Ray Wise, Andy Milonakis, and the voices of Aubrey Plaza and AnnaLynne McCord.” No full release date has yet been announced.
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- Indian Mounds Park in St. Paul, Minnesota will now feature new signage that helps visitors to the park understand the Indigenous heritage of the area. Some of the news signs will read: “This is a burial place, and our ancestors are still here. You are in a cemetery. It is a sacred burial ground that has been here for thousands of years.” The original signs which identified the mounds as the work of the mound builders of the Hopewell Tradition excluded the Dakota tribes. Crystal Norcross, board president of Oyate Hotanin and community organizer was part of a cultural landscape study that was done to help assess and realign the message and purpose of the park. “Being able to see it and know that they can come here and do ceremony comfortably is rare for a city to do something like that. It’s a first for the city of St. Paul to be working with tribes, the Dakota community, and neighbors, ” Norcross said.
The closing ceremony of the 202o Olympics in Tokyo utilized a little visual magic that was simply stunning. The light display was created by the Montreal-based Moment Factory and designed to represent all the countries and individual athletes coming together in unity.
It was only viewable via the TV broadcast and created using special effects. Those in attendance could not see it unless they were watching the event on a mobile device. It is unlikely that this type of technological display would have been used had it been normal Olympic games with a paying audience in attendance.
“Together, these lights rise to form a luminous wave — representing the Olympic spirit that lives within us all. As these lights take flight across the stadium, we remember the many people whose contribution made the Olympics possible, both near and far, as well as those who could not be here today,” Olympic organizers said.
The Olympic Games are like no other ✨#ClosingCeremony x #TokyoOlympics
📺 NBC
💻 https://t.co/MCUkP50oBx
📱 NBC Sports Apppic.twitter.com/LbhAlpmCzk— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) August 9, 2021
Tarot of the week by Star Bustamonte
Deck: Tarot Familiars, by Lisa Parker, published by Lo Scarabeo/Llewellyn Publications.Card: Queen of Cups
This week may hold elements of practicality and honesty that may not be immediately discernible. Pay attention to advice offered altruistically.
Conversely, beware of the functions of vice and those who are inconsistent in matters of honor and play fast and free with the truth.
Decks generously provided by Asheville Pagan Supply.
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