Topic: The Magickal Web

After working as a practicing physician for several years, I became a perinatologist and perinatal scientist, as well as a full-time faculty member at the Schools of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA. Then I became a director of maternal and child health for the California state health department. In that capacity, I learned that in the rural town of Madera, California, doctors had decided that they no longer wanted to attend births in the Madera County Hospital. They complained that it took too much of their time and didn't pay enough. So in 1968 the county recruited two midwives to fill the gap. After two years, the rate of babies dying around the time of birth in the hospital was cut in half. Alarmed that their style of maternity care was being made to look bad, the doctors in town agreed that they would once again attend births in the hospital if the two midwives were fired. The hospital fired the midwives, the doctors returned, and soon the rate of babies dying around birth rose to its earlier higher levels.

Part of it comes down to basic differences in religious structure. In Wicca and CM, both of which are heavily influenced by secular esoteric groups such as the Freemasons and Rosicrucians, the focal point of religious practice is magical work. Deities are abstracted to a high degree, often treated as thoughtforms, Jungian archetypes, or other types of psychological constructs- Wiccans and most neo-Wiccans are duotheist and treat all divinities as emanations of one God and one Goddess-, and practitioners often speak of "invoking", "dismissing", "working with" and "using" deities. Altars are viewed primarily as a workbench for magical ritual, and where better to keep your metaphysical wrenches and screwdrivers than on your workbench?

Back in '92, a guy named Andrew Chumbley published a few books privately, and they have all since gone on to become legend. From what I have gathered, Chumbley (a Brit) was a member of Kenneth Grant's Typhonian OTO (a story in itself; after Crowley died, several people claimed to be the designated heads of the OTO. Grant, a disciple of Crowley, lost out to a German, Karl Germer, whose OTO eventually became the accepted one. Grant started his own, making the case that Aiwass--the "intelligence" who gave Crowley the Book of the Law--was a form of Set, or Satan, or whatever). But Chumbley got kicked out under some kind of dark cloud. Hard to imagine...the Typhonians are already pretty dark.

Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have set up house in New Orleans, but is there another reason the super-start couple have settled in the 'Big Easy'? The National Enquirer is reporting that Angelina has a new hobby to help fill those precious empty seconds between saving the world, raising three children (soon to be four) and keeping hunky boyfriend, Pitt, happy. According to a report from Mike Walker she is studying Voodoo.

British teen star Daniel Radcliffe will complete his wizard's training as Harry Potter in the series' final two film installments.

Firstly, it means I now know not to go anywhere near Seven Hills train station that evening in case I bump into a bunch of aromatherapists with wands.

Secondly, it offers the perfect opportunity for me to write a column wreaking revenge on my pagan neighbours who once hung a wind chime made of animal bones on the fence and keep double-parking in the turning circle at the bottom of the street.

Witchcraft, and Wicca as a rule is a very simple (as they stated) and beneficial thing. Ceremonial Magick, or High Magick generally practiced by Magicians, tends to be a bit more serious. While witches and wiccans will occasionally touch into communing with spirits, be them dead humans or faeries, they do not however go into summoning demons. Most do not even believe in them. But Magicians and myself believe different. I mostly do because I know the universe is all about balance. If there’s nice spirits there are certainly nasty ones. I do not know very much about demons myself..good info’s hard to find, and it’s not entirely certain they are as christians think of them. Magicians are into deeper, more . . I hesitate to say it powerful or dangerous kinds of magicks. Their rituals are not simple. They are precise, complicated, and if any single componet of their spells or elaborate rituals are missing — especially when summoning anything, they’re most likely in deep trouble. This is why bad ones do not last very long — as the writer to aptly mentioned. It is true. The nastier the spirit the more underhanded their methods. Which is why Magicians are usually so intensely on their guards when summoning one. If you make a mistake with something nasty in the room with you, bang bang you’re dead. And not always very quickly.

The OAK system of magick recognizes 121 different primary magickal energies. Level one energy is "Absolute Light" or the "Photon State" and is the highest level possible. Level 121 is "Absolute Black" or the "void". These two levels are Cosmic power sources like the two poles of a battery. There is a tremendous voltage between these two levels and the magickal energy will take any pathway possible to go from one to the other.

To begin Women’s History Month, professor Mary Jo Neitz spoke about feminism and spirituality Thursday at Ellis Auditorium.

Women’s Center adviser Beth Pickens said Women’s History Month is important.

Long before Elysia Gallo identified herself as a neopagan, she felt drawn to mystical, magical things.