She Continues
Introduction & As You Like It I’m going to talk about Shakespeare and enchantment. In particular, I want to talk about how enchantment comes through several of Shakespeare’s plays, and I’ll begin with my favorite comedy, As You Like It. I also talk about Much Ado about Nothing some. Now, as much as I am […] … Continue reading…Shakespeare and Enchantment 1
So, it is in all this that I was lying on the floor. I was stretching after one such walk where the crows wanted to show me a spot to check out and talk to the tree there. I lay there, pondering ka as relating to one’s ancestral “energy.” And after one particular stretch, I suddenly had a flash of lying in a dark place, many arms and hands holding me back, restraining me. Not foreign, unknown arms— … Continue reading…Forest of the Dead, Forest of Stories
I recently read Alexander Cummins’s new A Book of the Magi from Revelore, but this isn’t a review of that book. However, I was reading it as I was also pondering Jeffrey Kripal’s work, Paul Weston’s work, and I have a head full of witchy, imaginal, otherworldly stuff otherwise. Anyway, as I’m reading Cummins with […] … Continue reading…Imaginal Materials, Ritual Dramaturgy
Amongst other things, jinn have been near the edges of my awareness. Primarily, I mean as a concept, but then so has Malphas and St. Brigid and the Sibyl. While I wait for Scarlet Imprint to release Jinn Sorcery, I was reading Umar S. al-Ashqar’s The World of the Jinn & Devils. One of the […] … Continue reading…Hollow Vessels
It is Shakespeare’s (probable) birthday and death-day today. Born in 1564, dying in 1616. Author of 38-ish plays, two long form poems, at least 154 sonnets–the son of a glove-maker from Stratford. I’m of the Stratfordian school: I will argue Shakespeare was the author of his plays–in association with and collaboration with his colleagues in […] … Continue reading…Will Shakespeare
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
One of the things that tripped me up often over the years when I was out of practice was that I “realized” how so much of magic seemed to just be “bad poetry” one was supposed to recite for, boom, results.[*] And I thought at the time that, well, how can wishing accomplish magic? Of […] … Continue reading…Powerful Rhymes
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