She Continues
In reading Alkistis Dimech and Peter Grey’s The Brazen Vessel, I have found myself venturing off onto adjacent tracks from where they’ve been going in the collection. One section that especially caught my attention came in “The witches’ dance” where they write of the “contrariwise” movement of many pre-modern dances, which they associate with the […] … Continue reading…Witches’ Mirror
It is a commonplace that ancient Egyptian religion and magic—and the Egyptians themselves—were “obsessed” with death and the afterlife. After all, we have all these mummies and tombs and Books about the Dead and Osiris being reborn and so on. However, while we like to distinguish the physical world from the spirit world and often […] … Continue reading…Shadow Magic
Every man and every woman is a star. —The Book of the Law Something happened on the day he died Spirit rose a metre then stepped aside Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried (I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar) —David Bowie, “Blackstar” Sovereignty has been a topic I’ve seen mentioned quite often […] … Continue reading…Jail-breaking Machiavelli 3: Every Person a Star
It’s interesting to note how quickly the European elite moved to demonize Machiavelli, mostly because he exposed the hypocrisy of political and ecclesiastical power, its violence and deceit. Magicians and witches may have reputations as charlatans, but Machiavelli showed how the same was true of kings and popes. As Alessandra Petrina argues, Machiavelli may have […] … Continue reading…Jail-breaking Machiavelli 2: Shakespeare & Gaming Kingship
I’m going to talk about corrupting sorcery here, I suppose. I really don’t want to use terms like black magic or nigromancy or anything like that because there’s too much uncritical cultural baggage there. And I’m going to get at this through the Scottish Play. In Macbeth, the play mediates and frames how we experience […] … Continue reading…Weird Sisters, Political Theater
Sundry notions below– I read Mircea Eliade recently—Myths, Dreams, & Mysteries and The Sacred & The Profane. I feel Eliade offers interesting notions that need grounding in political realities. Indeed, the kinds of arguments that Eliade makes about sacralization and ritual reflect what many others make, all the while folks claiming that, because their religions […] … Continue reading…[NB: Notes on Eliade, Politics, Sacred & Profane]
Energy work remains one of those things that I know I need to do, that I try to do, but that I feel I should do more of. That said, I also wonder about the tech behind energy work. I concur with folks like Jan Fries who observe that chakras and similar approaches to energy […] … Continue reading…Energy Work, Spirit Interaction, Self
Recent readings, spirit entanglement notions, books of spirits, and HGAs & Intermediary Spirits/Gods… … Continue reading…[NB: Recent Affairs & Notioning]
My polytheism recognizes that what we know of the past is grounded in the political—from what was allowed to survive for centuries (or millennia), to how it was recorded (audience, purpose, occasion), to how it has been adapted and historicized and represented today, to how I choose to use it. My polytheism recognizes that the past, that religion, that the present, that texts are always rhetorical—perhaps especially the inspired, channeled, or “spiritual” ones. … Continue reading…My Polytheism
I ponder the leviathan and myths and the Otherworlds. When you are working on your culture and your practice— Does it promote toxic masculinity (or toxic something-else)? Does it exclude other myths, peoples, art? Is it monological & promote instrumental reason? Does it treat the earth & people & nature with respect, even reverence? Do […] … Continue reading…[NB: Further Leviathanic Notes]