Category: Spirituality/Paganism & Magick

Sekhmet is the most prominent of the many lioness deities. Worshipped primarily in Memphis, she is the consort of Ptah and mother of Nefertum.

All the Gods of Electricity:
Frankenstein and the Myth of Modernity

I was thirteen when the great horror movie fascination took hold. Trying to understand fear, I proceeded to scare myself silly with an endless diet of vampires, werewolves, zombies, and all the other monster motifs the early sixties could provide. After a while, the make believe horrors began to pale. But, I can vividly remember one dark late night in front of the TV screen when I found something that really shook me.

The time period, between Oct. 31st and Nov. 2nd is one of the most widely celebrated ancient traditions. Samhain means "summer's end" in the Celtic tradition. The harvest is complete and the land will lie fallow for the winter months with the seeds of new life deep underground. Cultures worldwide have recognized this as a time to honor ancestors and loved ones who have passed on to the other side. The ancient cultures understood death as a natural part of the cycle of birth, death and rebirth and embraced the lessons of death as a part of life. It was not feared in the same way that it is now, but respected as all great mysteries must be. They knew that after the grain is harvested, the seeds will rise again in the early spring to bring new life.

Now for your personalized self-marketing forecast. One that you can be sure to count on with absolute certainty:

Do not expect clear skies.

The decision to self-market your dream will cloud you with confusion, thunder you with turmoil, and leave you wading chin-high through doubt pouring down in a torrent. Know now that weathering the daze of disappointment, frustration, and setbacks will not leave you toasty and dry, and it is not (repeat: not) for those individuals with weak mental and emotional resources. To take on the challenges and obstacles of self-marketing your dream, you must have the ability to work from the inside out in all ways, approaching each new day with a presence and consciousness that is catalyzed with patience, persistence, and perseverance. We promise you that no matter how great your intention, how sincere your aspiration, how exceptional your idea, without resolute steadfastness and purposeful determination, you will tangle yourself in nonexistent limitations and knot yourself in unfounded fears. Doomed by your own inaction, you will wimp out, abandoning the richer experience that awaits you, languishing in the repeated echoes of shoulda-coulda, the ultimate phantasm that haunts us all.

Saint Rémy de Provence; September 17, 12:00:10 am. . .
Dr. Strange's 418th Dream:

I was in bed asleep in the tower room of the Hotel les Antiques when something, some sound from outside, awakened me. The French doors to the balcony stood open and the curtains drifted slightly in the breeze. The air tasted of crushed sage and lavender, and the breeze did have a voice, whispering quietly as the edge of the lace trimming danced over marble. The window squeaked faintly, opening a little wider as the breeze stirred up from the town with a promise like a goddess' kiss.

The relationship of modern Paganism to ancient Egypt seems to be one of an evolution of fact and fantasy. We pagans, unfulfilled spiritually by existing religions, gravitate towards a past culture and body of knowledge independent of the Bible and the Koran. We look back to the earliest high culture, seeking connections with creation, the Divine and original knowledge. The architecture and art, mysteries and magic, wisdom and worship of ancient Egypt offer a fertile field in which we can cultivate this aspiration.

Dr. Strange runs the Voodoo down. . .
DANCING WITH THE DEAD:
Voodoo, Paganism and Possession

The drumming and chanting have been going on for hours. The final offerings and propitiations have been made, and now the tension mounts to its peak. The Spirit moves its host, performing an intricate and physically impossible dance. As full possession strikes, series of tests are performed by the Spirit to prove its authenticity. Then it speaks, answering questions and making pronouncements. When the Spirit is released, the host slumps to the floor, exhausted.

Nostradamus And The Islamic Jihad

by Robert A. Nelson

The 16th century French doctor Michel Nostradamus (de Notredame) is widely considered to be the greatest prophet of all time, though Christians balk at the claim (dogma rules that the Bible is foremost). Nostradamus began to discover his prophetic abilities in 1547:

“In 1554, I decided to give way and, by dark and cryptic sentences, tell of the causes of the future mutation of mankind, especially the most urgent ones... in a manner that would not upset fragile sentiments. All had to be written under a cloudy form, above all things prophetic...”

In 1926, a mysterious volume issued in a luxury edition of three hundred copies by a small Paris publishing firm known mostly for artistic reprints rocked the Parisian occult underworld. Its title was Le Mystère des Cathédrales (The Mystery of the Cathedrals). The author, “Fulcanelli,” claimed that the great secret of alchemy, the queen of Western occult sciences, was plainly displayed on the walls of Paris’s own cathedral, Notre-Dame-de-Paris.

The Four Suits of the Tarot:
Tools for Understanding the Elements

by Christine Hall

The basic building blocks of the Tarot are the same basic building blocks of all occult knowledge; the four elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth. These days, many people have a superficial knowledge of these elements because of the popularity of astrology. However, many astrologers get so caught-up in discovering the beauty and intricacy of the astrological system that they never give the study of the pure elements the attention they deserve, ending up with only a cursory knowledge of this basic ingredient of all spiritual knowledge. They know, for example, that people born under a Fire sign tend to be strong willed and volatile or that Water people are moody and emotional, but little more. An in-depth study of Fire and Water would do much to help them understand why.