Topic: The Magickal Web

"We all have addictions," says Dr. Kelley Otani, rehabilitation medical director at Enloe Medical Center. "It can be to drugs, to alcohol, to relationships, to material things."

Fanatics throughout the planet are pushing humanity toward a cataclysmic conflagration between religions and cultures. Ironically, each side thinks it is defending civilization from the evil "Other". But their perspectives are all based on the delusion of separateness, that somehow there is an "Other", when what they are seeing is really their projections of the Other. They betray, when they demonize others, the superficiality of their own mental conceptions of the so-called enemy, as well as their lack of understanding as to why others behave in a hostile manner.

But that doesn’t mean that Wicca can’t be sexist. A lot of Wiccans take an essentialist view of gender; women are a particular way, and men are a particular way, and that is that. Often, this essentialism is accompanied by a sincere effort to empower women, or to empower both women and men. You might call this “difference feminism;” affording equal dignity and value to both genders, while acknowledging essential differences.

Dr. Howard Posner, 66, of Merion, an internist, infectious-disease specialist, and authority on alternative healing, died of complications from pancreatic cancer Feb. 26 at home.

As the song commands us to do, "Let's talk about sex, baby!" Actually, that's not my job. The purpose of my column is to talk about religion, its many forms and the ways it affects people's lives. But honestly, sometimes the two topics intersect. Some religions have an incredibly morbid view on the subject, and some have no view. This week, however, I am going to discuss my experiences with a religion that has a positive view on sexuality and its purposes in human life. I am going to convert to Vajrayana Buddhism and utilize its Tantric practices.

Just as fashion magazines regularly christen every color of the rainbow to be "the new black" for the season, Hollywood A-listers seem to be saying so long to last season's Kabbalah and hello to Scientology. "Scientology is the Kabbalah of 2007," Jared Shapiro, news and entertainment director for Life&Style Weekly, told FoxNews.com.

Out of all the possible mystical paths to one's Godhead, the schools of Thelema and Kashmir Shaivism are two that concur on the fact that man's divinity is self manifest or preeminent, without struggle, process or need for technique. The Vashnava schools and the cult of Christianity use the crutch of dualism to uphold their false acquisition of power, over the minds of collective humanity. Truly if Shiva is everywhere, as the Shaivites proclaim, "Paramashiva", then god is everywhere, thus nullifying the need for a hierarchal system such as the church, which is at best a middleman between the aspirant and the divine. Similarly, in Liber Al, one of the main tenets is that "Every man and every woman is a star." This culminates in full expression in the act of living your life as a "Kingly Man". These two mystical approaches find validation in modern day quantum physics, where matter and consciousness are two sides of the same coin, like Shiva/Shakti and Nuit/Hadit. The two are married together in a deeper more subtle layer within the quantum field.

The Magga-vibhanga Sutta explains the Buddhist view of Right speech: "And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, abstaining from divisive speech, abstaining from abusive speech, abstaining from idle chatter: This, monks, is called right speech."

A Long Island elementary school teacher is suing the Hampton Bays school district after she was fired because her administrators allegedly believed she was a witch teaching witchcraft to her students. Her lawyer is calling the case a "21st century re-enactment of the Salem Witchcraft Trials."

Former Army Chaplain Don Larsen was originally a Christian minister who served in locales including Iraq. After a good deal of study, he developed both a good knowledge and a healthy respect for Islam, Buddhism, Hindu, and more. Eventually, he determined that the religion that best suited him as well as his willingness to honor the beliefs of others was Wiccan. The Army refused to let him change his denomination.