Fantastic article by River Enodian from the Tea-Addicted Witch blog.
Explains how eclectic Wicca and initiatory Wicca are two different things; discusses cultural appropriation in Wicca; looks at the Wiccan Rede and the Threefold Law; and explains Wicca’s relationship with Crowley, Thelema, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. I’ve tackled some of these topics myself but this is an excellent overview.
The Occult Clerihews Challenge! Write a Clerihew about a famous occultist (and post it in the comments or link back to this post so I get a ping-back).
The only rule of clerihews is that they have four lines with an AABB rhyme scheme, and the first line ends with the subject’s last name. I’ve bent the rule slightly because it’s hard to find words to rhyme with Gardner and Valiente. Clerihews don’t have to scan, nor be a complete biography of the person they’re about, and they’re comic rather than serious.
Continue readingIncredibly clear, beautifully written explanation of the Hermetic Qabala and its inherent queerness, expressed in the idea that there are three pillars (force, balance, and form), and that the Divine includes all genders and sexualities.
Continue readingNew titles this year by Enfys Book of the Major Arqueerna blog, Casey Giovinco, Fire Lyte of the Inciting a Riot podcast, Aaron Oberon, Fio Gede Parma and Jane Meredith, Lee Morgan, Devdutt Pattanaik, Roberto Strongman, Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley, plus translations into other languages of Mat Auryn’s book Psychic Witch.
Check out the 2015 list, the 2018 list, the 2020 list, and the 2021 list.
Continue readingThe candle. September Pagan Challenge # 15.
Candles must be the most versatile magical thing there is.
The Book of Dreams was an unfinished typewritten manuscript by Mark Goddard. He had wanted it to be published, and gave it to his friend, Art Quester, who gave a copy to me after Mark was tragically killed in a car accident in 1988. It is now available as a hardback.
Continue readingI have started created a new website for the esoteric writings of Mark Goddard: The Book of Dreams.
The Book of Dreams was an unfinished typewritten manuscript by Mark Goddard. He had wanted it to be published, and gave it to his friend, Art Quester, who gave a copy to me after Mark was tragically killed in a car accident in 1988.
The book was intended as a linked series of visualizations and (if I recall correctly) was partly inspired by Mark’s spirit guide.
I only met Mark a few times but he was a friend of two of my dearest friends, and I know that he loved Jack Scout Cove in Lancashire, which is where I did my first ever Pagan ritual.
I sent it to a publisher in the mid 1990s but they said it was not commercially viable. I have kept it ever since, wondering what to do with it.
Finally it occurred to me that if he was around now, he would have put it all up on the internet.
I hope that he would approve of his writings finally being available in this form.
I’m still reading Gerald Gardner’s The Meaning of Witchcraft and it’s taking ages (it’s my bedtime reading and I am only getting a few pages read at a time. I very much enjoyed Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern-loved Gully by Amy Hale.
Continue readingI started the month with The Greater Trumps by Charles Williams but I just couldn’t get into it. Feeling nostalgic, I reread The Way of Wyrd by Brian Bates, and then Quantum Night by Robert Sawyer (for a reading group that I’ve started at work).
Dowsing for Divinity 