Topic: The Magickal Web

It always comes to one’s attention that when a story or narrative has a hero involved in it, there is always a moment where there is a downfall, a moment where a hero finds him or herself in the bottom, where he or she cannot go any lower, but these moments in the story usually tend to take to a rise and glorification, a vindication of their name and a solution to the seemingly impossible matter they couldn’t resolve. But surprisingly enough, it came to my attention that there are two literary works where this is not the case. The picture perfect happy ending does not fit the profile for Doctor Faustus in The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus, written by Christopher Marlowe and for Satan in Paradise Lost, written by John Milton. The common basis of the ‘tragic’ ending of these works is a fascinating point which deserves analysis. What similarities can be found within these two ‘heroes’ and which are the differences that make them so unique? What circumstances took them to their ultimate destruction?

After being accused of witchcraft, a trio of colonial era girls find themselves at the mercy of the local powerbrokers. These immoral louts visit the gals regularly, picking out one to take into the woods and rape. When they 'accidentally' cause the death of one of the women, the others swear revenge. They cast a spell that curses the community, guaranteeing retribution against anyone who harms the family ever again. Fast forward three hundred years, and poor, put upon Margaret is in deep denial. Her marriage to uncaring Howard is failing, and she feels unloved and unwanted for the first time in her otherwise privileged life. While on a business trip, she is kidnapped and murdered by a pair of carjacking psychopaths. It seems like the random act of a serial killing duo – or is it? In fact, it's quite possible that Howard played a part in his rich wife's death, and the slutty gal pal he's recently hooked up with may also be a catalyst for all this carnage. But remember – Margaret is protected by her familial legacy. She will gain her revenge on all involved, even if it's from beyond the grave!

French mail service La Poste is celebrating Harry Potter and friends with a set of stamps and stationery.

It is a certainty in the United States that no one knows or cares to know the exact value of the ecclesiastic demesne. We can, however, guess. In 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant said that taxable church property amounted to $1 billion. One hundred and one years later, in a 1976 study that has never been replicated or updated, researchers Martin A. Larson and Rev. C. Stanley Lowell found that total ecclesiastical property by 1906 came to about $1.3 billion. According to Larson and Lowell, by 1936 it was $3.8 billion. By 1964, it had risen to a spectacular $79.5 billion. When Larson and Lowell tallied their figures for 1976, real church wealth amounted to at least $158 billion, with churches the owners of an estimated 10 percent of all U.S. property. The figure adjusted for inflation today comes to at least $560 billion, likely the greatest non-profit wealth expansion in history (with the real value likely much greater). The reason for the accumulation transcends the giving of the flock: It is due, rather, to a systemic political bias in the form of the generous tax exemption traditionally afforded religious property and income, an arrangement that in Western history is as old as the Sumerian kings and the pharaohs of Egypt.

If you study the religious and secular holidays of all faiths and countries, you will find strong relationships between them and the changing seasons. Sometimes it is because they have evolved over time from one celebration into another, changed by changing cultural or geographical priorities or other more drastic events such as political conquest or the state's domination of the peoples' religious rights.

Throughout the past 20+ years of High Priestessing, the face of Craft (specifically Wicca) has definitely changed, not just because it has now become a cool thing to be in that Beatnik kind of way, but also because Craft has changed within our ranks.

A federal jury in Central Islip, N.Y., Tuesday swiftly rejected the claim of a former Long Island public school teacher that she had been fired because of false accusations that she was a witch.

HBO’s Bill Maher's "Real Time" live show had a good cross-section of guests, who dissected the unraveling of Iraq and our government's inability to face the truth and intelligently withdraw our precious manpower and wasted tax monies.

Molokai tells the true story of the Belgian Catholic missionary, Father Damien. As a young priest and missionary, Father Damien voluntarily agreed to go to the leper colony on Molokai and spend the rest of his life on the island caring for the forgotten victims of leprosy.

Alexandrian: Founded in England during the 1960's by Alexander Sanders, self-proclaimed "King of the Witches". An offshoot of Gardnerian, Alexandrian covens focus strongly upon training, emphasizing on areas more generally associated with ceremonial magic, such as Qabalah, Angelic Magic and Enochian. The typical Alexandrian coven has a hierarchical structure, and generally meets on weekly, or at least on Full Moons, New Moons and Sabbats. Rituals are usually done skyclad.