Category: Spirituality/Paganism & Magick

An Iron Age chiseled stone slab found in Turkey indicates that ancients in that area believed in the separation of body and soul.

Archaeologists in southeastern Turkey have discovered an Iron Age chiseled stone slab that provides the first written evidence in the region that people believed the soul was separate from the body.

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A stone slab found in Turkey by a University of Chicago expedition reveals the first evidence for a belief in the region for the soul existing outside the body. People believed the soul lived in the stone.

November is National American Indian Heritage Month and author Laura Ramirez reminds everyone it's the perfect time to reflect upon the values that native people have contributed to mainstream society.

November is National American Indian Heritage Month and it's the perfect time to reflect upon the values that native people have contributed to mainstream society. Since these values are central to sound leadership, it makes sense to consider them as voters determine who will be the next president. Although these values are deeply rooted in native culture, it may be surprising to learn that they are the foundation for many of the mainstream beliefs held today.

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Laura Ramirez

Most of us know that nature provides us with plants to heal our bodies. What many of us may not know, she provides us with plants that can heal our souls as well. Nature, you see, is nothing if not holistic.

Since the beginning of human experience, plants have played a role in the evolution of our species, not only in the provision of food and medicine but in our deepest spiritual experiences and the development of consciousness. According to the shamans of the Amazon – one of Earth’s last (mostly) unspoiled areas and a bastion for deep and intimate plant knowledge – it was the plants themselves who taught us how to heal and know our souls.

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Ayahuasca being prepared in the Napo region of Ecuador.

In 2006, Peruvian shaman and visionary artist Pablo Amaringo wrote the foreword to Ross Heaven's book, "Plant Spirit Shamanism". After a lifetime spent working with plants and with plant spirit shamanism, what do plants mean to Pablo? This article is from the foreword.

The great visionary artist, Pablo Amaringo, was born in 1943 in Puerto Libertad, in the Peruvian Amazon. He was 10 years old when he first took ayahuasca - a visionary brew used in shamanism - to help him overcome a severe heart disease. The magical cure of this ailment via the plants themselves led Pablo toward the life of a shaman, which he pursued successfully for many years, healing himself and others from the age of ten.

In a follow-up to research showing that psilocybin, a substance contained in “sacred mushrooms,” produces substantial spiritual effects, a Johns Hopkins team reports that those beneficial effects appear to last more than a year.

Writing in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, Johns Hopkins researchers note that most of the 36 volunteer subjects given psilocybin, under controlled conditions in a Hopkins study published in 2006, continued to say 14 months later that the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction.

Celtic art, with it's mysterious symbolism and ancient history is capturing the interest of everyday Americans. This article reveals some of the meanings attributed to the most noteworthy Celtic symbols and gives some insight into the spirituality of these ancient people.

There is an undeniable aura that surrounds Celtic designs and Druid traditions. Although I have strong family ties to both Ireland and Scotland, you don’t need a Celtic heritage to be enticed by the culture. It’s been said that as long as you respect Mother Earth and feel an affinity with the Celtic people you too have a Celtic soul.

In the northern hemisphere June 21 is generally considered the longest day of the year, and traditionally it's the first day of summer - Summer Solstice. This is a bit of a contradiction, given that another of the day’s names is Midsummer - an ancient reference to the fact that this day is in the middle of Europe’s agricultural season. And there's yet another contradiction - the longest day on the annual calendar can sometimes fall a day or two later, depending on the year in question!

I am a Christian, and I’ve always been interested in Summer Solstice and the Pagan religion. I remember a horror film called Spellbinder, and the climactic scene was based around Summer Solstice. Since the advent of Christianity some 2000 years ago there is a view that ancient religions such as Paganism are inspired, controlled or even led by Satan. Thus solstice celebrations are rejected because they are viewed as Satanic in origin.

But this isn’t a true reflection of an old religion.

In Modern Magick, witches are not dark figures any more, but owners of their destinies and masters of their futures.

The term Magick, with the added k, was created by the very controversial Aleister Crowley. Despite the drama, strange hat and fuss over his life and career, Crowley was a real erudite and the first to establish the act of ritual as an act of the magician's will, instead than a favour from an invoked entity.

Author and editor Gwendolyn Toynton takes a look at how modern Shamanism compares with the role of traditional Shaman.

Traditional Shamanism is often thought of as a magico-religious tradition of the past, existing today only in indigenous populations. Whilst to many the practice of Shamanism is still limited to such areas, Shamanism itself has survived and perhaps even flourished under the blessing of a new incarnation. At the moment, the revival and new found interest in Shamanism is particularly predominant in the Western world. Finding themselves limited to the Western doctrine of Christianity, a number of people have rejected such traditional concepts and have either created for themselves new traditions, or, as in the case of Shamanism, revived a religion which predated Christianity.

Before ordering love spells from one of the hundreds of spell casting sites on the Internet,there are a few key essential things that someone looking for a love spell needs to know. Without knowing key information about real love spells and the different ways that a spell can be cast,you might just be throwing your money away.

Before ordering "self proclaimed" powerful love spells from the hundreds of spell casting sites that seem to pop all over the internet these days, there are a few key essential things that someone looking for a love spell needs to know.Without knowing key information about real love spells and the different ways that a spell can be cast (which directly effects the success rate of a love spell), you might just be throwing your money away.