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 Radio1 - The Body
Provided By: Achriel
Composer: Searchers
Title: Love Potion Number Nine
Radio2 - The Mind
Radio3 - The Soul
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The most expensive bottle of wine was sold at an auction was £105 000 for a bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafitte claret with the initials of Thomas Jefferson. Eleven months after the sale, the wine spoiled, making it the most expensive bottle of vinegar!
-- Guinness book of records 1999
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· Spelling it like it isn't
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· Funding the pagans
(Mar 08, 2008)
· Giuliani gets Robertson Endorsement
(Nov 12, 2007)
· The Dangers Of Feminism
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· The secrets behind crazy airfare prices
(Aug 27, 2007)
· Petition To Rename Stretch Of 401 'Highway Of Heroes'
(Aug 24, 2007)
· Mummified Toronto child a newborn boy
(Jul 27, 2007)
· Quick Summer Meals without all the heat!
(Jul 18, 2007)
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Ancient Olympics - Games, Ritual and Warfare
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Monday, February 08, 2010 - 05:00 PM
18 Reads
by N.S. Gill
The Ancient Olympic Games Began as a Celebration of Death.It's a curious aspect of sports that even when they are part of a celebration of global peace, like the Olympics, they are nationalistic, competitive, violent, and potentially deadly. Substitute "panhellenic" (open to all Greeks) for "global" and the same could be said about the ancient Olympics. Sports, in general, could be described as ritualized warfare where one power competes with another, where each hero (star athlete) strives to defeat a worthy opponent within a setting where death is unlikely.
Rituals of Compensation for the Catastrophe of Death. Control and ritual seem to be the defining terms. In coming to grips with the eternally present fact of death (remember: antiquity was a time of high infant mortality, death by diseases we can now control, and almost incessant warfare), the ancients put on shows where death was under human control. Sometimes the outcome of these shows was purposeful submission to death (as in the gladiatorial games), at other times, it was victory.
Read the complete article: About
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Doubt, Skepticism, and Faith
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Posted by: Makarios on Monday, February 08, 2010 - 04:00 PM
19 Reads
By Fire Lyte
I just finished the movie ‘Religulous’ by Bill Maher, and I realized the guy has a point. Religion of any kind is illogical. It is. Think about it. Take any religion and break it down to its most basic premise; I’ll do the first one for you. (Yes, it’s probably the one you’d jump to first, too.)
Christianity: A guy who is also his son and a third thing that’s genderless got a girl pregnant without touching her and wants you to telepathically acknowledge his three-in-oneness so that you can join him in the sky when he blows everything up at the end of time. Which might be tomorrow.
Yeah, it’s easy, and it’s the first religion that everybody goes to. There are a lot of holes in Christianity, and most of them come from the disparity between the different books of the Bible and the sermons preached from modern day pulpits. Sin. Wrong-doing. Morality. The modern Christian church in America (and I want to specify America, as Christianity doesn’t have the hold on the rest of the world that it has here) has a monopoly, seemingly, on telling people how awful they are. It’s so easy to make fun of these beliefs, because thanks to recent interest by Hollywood and the publishing world, we all know about the aforementioned holes.
Read the complete article: Inciting a Riot
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Principles of Wiccan Belief Revisited: #4
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Posted by: Makarios on Monday, February 08, 2010 - 02:00 PM
29 Reads
By Sitara Haye
“We conceive of the Creative Power in the universe as manifesting through polarity — as masculine and feminine — and that this same Creative Power lies in all people and functions through the interaction of the masculine and the feminine. We value neither above the other knowing each to be supportive of the other. We value sex as pleasure as the symbol and embodiment of life, and as one of the sources of energy used in magical practice and religious worship.”
It’s impossible to discuss Wicca without discussing sex. Principle #4 has to do with honoring both the masculine and the feminine, and — because there is a difference between them — honoring the function for which that difference was intended. That function is creation. The generation of life. Whether you’re a Wiccan human or a non-Wiccan human, the minute you start talking men and women, male and female, the topic of sex is going to come up.
Polarity comprises a central (if not the central) Mystery within the Wiccan faith. Male-Female, Light-Dark, Above-Below, Sky-Earth, Active-Passive… the correspondences are endless. It can be very easy to pay too much attention to the poles: naming them, aligning with them, categorizing our experiences according to them. Yes, the poles are sacred. Masculine essence and Feminine essence are each, in their own right, to be honored and respected. However, the focus is on what they bring forth TOGETHER.
Read the complete article: Sitara Haye
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Pagan Origins of the Olympic Games
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Monday, February 08, 2010 - 01:00 PM
27 Reads
 by Patti Wigington
The Olympic Games are one of the most highly anticipated events in the sports world today. The Games are a huge event, attracting athletes from nearly every country. Although it has turned into a marketing and merchandising behemoth, the original purpose of the Olympic Games was a far less secular one. During the early years of the Olympics, events were held not as a way to collect multimillion-dollar endorsements, but to honor the gods of ancient Greece.
The early Olympic Games have been called the "total pagan entertainment package" by author Tony Perrottet, author of The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games. The Games featured art, poetry readings, writers, plays, painters and sculptors. There were street shows including fire eaters, jugglers, dancers, acrobats and palm readers. <snip>Around 400 c.e., the Roman emperor Theodosius decided the Olympic Games were too pagan in nature, and banned them completely. This was part of the Roman Empire's shift towards Christianity.
Read the complete article: About
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What You Need to Know about Skyclad
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Posted by: Makarios on Monday, February 08, 2010 - 12:00 PM
37 Reads
By Jamie Freeman
You know when people ask nervously if Witches dance naked under the pale moonlight? I always laugh and say no, but then correct myself and say that, well, some of us do.
Truth is, the founder of Wicca, Gerald Gardner, was a what they called back then a naturalist, which means he enjoyed being in the nude as often as possible. He incorporated nudity in his rites, and even the Charge of the Goddess says “and as a sign that you truly be free, you shall be naked in your rites”. Over the years, many covens have broken away and chosen not to practice skyclad, as the ritual nudity has come to be known.
Originally, skyclad rituals were meant to feel more natural and comfortable in the skins the Gods gave us. Some believe that clothing interferes with the magic you are building up. But also to remove any trace of rank, so that all present would be in the company of equals. Of course, there is a sexual element to it–not to gawk at each other, but to be comfortable around the nudity of others. After all, our bodies can give us pleasure, and there is no theological reason for us to not enjoy them. Working skyclad creates intimacy, and allows the participants to accept others as they are. Personally, I enjoy the wonderful variety of shapes and sizes, and seeing real people, not airbrushed models, makes me feel better about my own body. Not only that, but the sexuality of seeing someone naked wears off, which helps me to enjoy my partner more deeply later. After awhile, you get comfortable seeing people in the nude and wonder why people outside the ritual are wearing all those clothes!
Read the complete article: Witchful Thinking
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Psychic speed dating
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Monday, February 08, 2010 - 11:00 AM
36 Reads
It's different, it's new. Heather Smith, at the Sir Thomas Hotel, watches some black magic women - and men - attempt to tap off while tapping the tables.
Dream lover, where are you? You know, you ought to get out more. There's nothing or, crucially, NOBODY that can't be got from the mystic world. At least according to some psychics.
With a wave of a wand? Many years' professional experience has taught Claire Dawson and Reiki master Neil Atkinson that spiritual love conquers all. Together, they have launched Psychic Speed Dating, a unique matchmaking event that combines your extrasensory perceptions with what is already a common dating exercise.
Someone is trying to speak... It is just like speed dating, they say, but with crystal balls on. You have three minutes to speed date each of the partaking singles, looking out for that old devil moon. But here's the difference. Psychic mediums are then presented to offer individual insights into your future for love, relationships and more. Clairvoyant Cupids, if you will.
Read the complete article: Liverpool Confidential
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Divisions of Witchcraft
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Posted by: Makarios on Monday, February 08, 2010 - 10:00 AM
52 Reads
By Sarah
Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?
Tell any non-Pagan with a sense of humour that you are a witch and this familiar question from the Wizard of Oz is usually the response you receive. The familiar reply of Neopagans is “none of us are bad witches, we are only good! We worship the Earth Goddess, eat vegetarian, and hug trees!” Your average arm-chair Pagan with their nose in a book will say: “That’s just a myth, there are no divisions in witchraft and there’s no such thing as bad witches and there never were! Witches were village wise women and men, healers, diviners, and they would never hurt anyone!”
Well those are both lovely if naïve viewpoints akin to removing all the negative cards from a tarot deck and leaving only the positive ones –you can still perform readings, but they will not be complete, truthful, or balanced. A short peek into history as well as local folktales shows these viewpoints come up short on truth. Look to the classic works of the founders of modern witchcraft like Sybil Leek, Doreen Valiente, and Paul Huson and you will find the same warnings against dark sorcerers and black magicians as found in folktale. Legends, which are based on true events and people, all over the world also warn the listener of black magicians hungry to steal power from the souls of the living and curse their enemies; the evil sorcerers from Russian tales (i.e. The Frog Princess), stories of rival shamans from Siberia to British Columbia, Medea and Circe from Greek myth, Black Annis from British folklore, La Ianara from Italian folklore, and many more. By making poor choices in your life that degrade your soul and the souls of those around you, anyone can easily and unintentionally become a black magician, it is simply one of the pitfalls of walking this oft crooked path of witchcraft.
Read the complete article: The Witch of Forest Grove
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Pink Ouija Board Riles Critics
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Monday, February 08, 2010 - 09:00 AM
41 Reads
 By Joshua Rhett Miller
A pink version of the popular Ouija board game has some critics seeing red. The children's sleepover staple — sold by Hasbro since 1967 — now comes in hot pink, an edition released two years ago that gets tweens to call on "spirits" to spell out answers to life's pressing questions. It's designed for young girls ages 8 and older, but some say the mysterious product is a "dangerous spiritual game" that opens up anyone, particularly Christians, to attacks on their soul.
The game continues to be sold at Toys R Us locations in the U.S. and Canada for $19.99, although it's currently being "phased out," company officials say. "There's a spiritual reality to it and Hasbro is treating it as if it's just a game," said Stephen Phelan, communications director for Human Life International, which bills itself as the largest international pro-life organization and missionary worldwide. "It's not Monopoly. It really is a dangerous spiritual game and for [Hasbro] to treat it as just another game is quite dishonest."
Read the complete article: Fox News
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Beltane, by Erin O’Riordan
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Posted by: Makarios on Monday, February 08, 2010 - 08:00 AM
38 Reads
Reviewed by Bronwen Forbes
The general rule, used by book reviewers, literary agents and editors (and I’ve done all but be a literary agent) is that if the first chapter is good, the rest of the book will be, too. Conversely, if the first chapter stinks, it’s a fair bet there’s no point in reading further.
O’Riordan’s novel Beltane is an exception to this rule. The first chapter or so is rife with poor grammar, awkward sentences and more passive-voice. However, I was stuck in a personal situation with a lot of time and not a lot of reading material available, so I plowed through.
I’m glad I did. The story (and the writing) improves over the course of the book, and I found myself actually caring about the characters and what happened to them. The novel centers around twin sisters Allie and Zen, who have been raised Pagan. The book opens with Allie’s wedding, and hints that all may not be well between the bride and groom. Zen falls for Orlando, a married man. How this all plays out is revealed the next year at Beltane, when everyone lives happily ever after.
Read the complete article: Pagan
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Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, by Dubravka Ugresic
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Posted by: Makarios on Sunday, February 07, 2010 - 04:00 PM
65 Reads
Reviewed by Elizabeth Bachner
“At first you don’t see them,” reads the introduction to Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, Dubravka Ugresic’s contribution to Canongate’s Myths series, “….At first they’re invisible. And then all at once you begin to spot them. They shuffle around the world like armies of elderly angels. One of them peers into your face. She glares at you, her eyes wide, her gaze a pale blue, and voices her request with a proud and condescending tone. She is asking for your help, she needs to cross the street but she cannot do it alone… You feel a pang of sympathy for the old lady, you are moved, you do a good deed, swept by the thrill of gallantry. It is precisely at this moment that you should dig in your heels, resist the siren call, make an effort to lower the temperature of your heart. Remember, their tears do not mean the same thing as yours do. Because if you relent, give in, exchange a few more words, you will be in their thrall. You will slide into a world that you had no intention of entering, because your time has not yet come, your hour, for God’s sake, has not come.”
Read the complete article: Bookslut
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Meeting Fairies: A True Story, by Robert Ogilvie Crombie
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Posted by: Makarios on Sunday, February 07, 2010 - 02:00 PM
64 Reads
Reviewed by Mister Tarot
Robert Ogilvie Crombie (known as Roc to his friends) strolled through the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh in 1966 and made an astonishing discovery. ‘I saw a figure dancing around a tree about twenty yards from me - a beautiful little figure about three feet tall...it was a faun, the Greek mythological being, half human, half animal. He had a pointed chin and ears and two little horns on his forehead. His shaggy legs ended in cloven hooves and his skin was honey-coloured.’
The faun’s name was Kurmos, and according to Roc, he had an ‘infinite, mature wisdom - combined with the naiveté of a child.’ During their conversation, Kurmos stated that many of the nature spirits had lost interest in humans because they had been made to feel they were, ‘neither believed in nor wanted.’ One month later, in a nearby street, Roc felt the presence of Pan, the god of the fields and countryside, who was ‘radiating a tremendous power’ and who smelt of ‘pine woods, damp leaves, of newly turned earth and of woodland flowers.’ Roc’s meetings with Pan became more frequent and each visit led to a deeper understanding of the Horned God’s personality.
Read the complete article:
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Enemy of God, by Bernard Cornwell
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Posted by: Makarios on Sunday, February 07, 2010 - 12:00 PM
78 Reads
Reviewed by Gary Carden
<snip> Several years ago, when I was reading everything I could find about mythical figures such as King Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere, Tristan, Iseult and Galahad, I blundered on the works of a Romanian philosopher named Mircea Eliade. Eliade was also obsessed with mythology and one of his most famous essays, “The Eternal Return,” entertained the idea that all of the stories of legendary heroes and tragic lovers are still with us. However, the story’s basic elements (culture, physical characteristics, sex etc.) are constant changing. For example, the story of Tristan and Iseult could have been repeated last week in a Greek fishing village with Iseult is a waitress, Tristan might be an African fisherman and King Mark may operate a local grocery. Eliade thought that all of the great myths served as “ eternal templates” that were repeated endlessly throughout all time.
Bernard Cornwell has an interesting variation on Eliade’s theory. Instead of creating colorful alternative versions in different times and places, Cornwell radically alters the original story. In Enemy of God, not only is Arthur not a king, he has no desire to become one. Sir Lancelot, instead of being a courageous warrior and Queen Guinevere’s devoted lover, is a cowardly, vain and devious snake who plots Arthur’s death. Cornwell’s Guinevere is arrogant, ruthless and selfish - almost the opposite of the traditional virtuous wife who regrets her adultery, but is incapable of giving up Lancelot.
Read the complete article: Holler Notes
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The Tree of Enchantment, by Orion Foxwood
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Posted by: Makarios on Sunday, February 07, 2010 - 08:00 AM
76 Reads
Reviewed by Philip A. Bernhardt-House
Orion Foxwood’s The Tree of Enchantment presents a novel cosmology of modern fairy seership work, which is deeply rooted throughout in a series of practices and exercises to facilitate contact with otherworld beings and to continually allow a practitioner to align with their three states of being—referred to as the “threefold life”—that is inspired by certain aspects of premodern and folk traditions. It is a work that is poetic and beautiful in its imagery and its vision of divine symmetry and parallelism, and presents a coherent and internally consistent narrative of how these various aspects of the otherworld interact with and are related to one another, and to the seeker, at every stage of the process.
If that brief summary appeals to you, and describes exactly what you’re interested in reading about or studying or seeking, then this really is the book for you, and you should most certainly have a look at it.
Unfortunately, the above is not what Foxwood himself describes is the basis for this work. There are repeated claims that the practices and doctrines detailed in this book are from traditional beliefs, particularly of the Insular Celtic peoples, but this is rarely (if ever) substantiated with references to actual lore (folkloric or literary). There are a few occasions on which Foxwood states that academic study is part of this endeavor (e.g. pp. xiii, 8), but the only academic sources in his footnotes or bibliography are survey essays, several of which are outdated by a century or more. Several are referenced as easily available online, but they do not represent the best or most thorough views of these subjects possible, either in their theoretical subtlety or in their expansive knowledge of actual source materials.
Read the complete article: Pagan
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Heinz revamps ketchup packet for dippers and squeezers
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Posted by: Makarios on Sunday, February 07, 2010 - 06:00 AM
77 Reads
By Sarah Skidmore
For decades there was only one way to use the humble ketchup packet, and it was messy. Now, fast-food lovers have a choice: the traditional squeeze play - or the option to dunk.
You want fries with that, in the minivan? No problem.
The new ketchup pack, unveiled Thursday by H.J. Heinz Co., is shaped like a shallow cup. The top can be peeled back for dipping, or the end can be torn off for squeezing. It holds three times as much ketchup as a traditional packet.
Customers at a McDonald's in Covington, Ky., said they would welcome a redesign.
Read the complete article: Yahoo Finance
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A Taxonomy of Spirits
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Saturday, February 06, 2010 - 05:00 PM
92 Reads
From Postmodern Magic, by Patrick Dunn
<snip>In a conversation on magic, it is crucial to discuss entities with non-physical bodies—beings composed of pure meaning, in other words, spirits. Spirits are collections of symbols with self-awareness. Some mages debate whether spirits exist separate from us, or merely as aspects of our psyche. I assert that they exist as aspects of our psyches, but so do our neighbors, parents, and friends. It’s not productive to imagine spirits as being any less separate than the rest of the world in which we act. I have spoken with spirits who have told me things I did not want to hear. Spirits have also given me information I could not have otherwise known. They have lied and even broken promises. Spirits are real, whatever that means.
Enough spirits are willing to interact with the mage to justify a system for classifying them. To this end, I’ve created a taxonomy—a system for the ordering and identifying of spirits. Many such systems exist, but most often they seem to exist for the express purpose of ranking spirits in a hierarchy. I tend to be suspicious of hierarchy, so my system of classification will not drawn upon any “chain of being.” Nor does my system work like a scientific classification for animals, because there is no genetic relationship between spirits of different classes (as far as I can see). I will simply list types of spirits as I have perceived them. Qualities will be the means for identification.
Read the complete article: Llewellyn
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On Being a Spiritual Warrior
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Saturday, February 06, 2010 - 03:00 PM
115 Reads
by Gus diZerega
<snip>We Pagans do not regard embodied existence as a problem ultimately to be overcome, and have little difficulty pushing back against religious bigots and moral monsters when given a chance. Landing solid blows in whatever form the contest takes can be supremely satisfying. Seeing spiritual cowards (like "MM" in a previous set of comments) retreat in disgrace feels good. And there is the danger.
Alas, I think the Buddhist caution is not without weight. The excitement of battle, with lines clearly drawn, the support of allies and the adrenal rush of anger and righteousness are addictive. They are also dangerous. All this speaks the language of Power, and when isolated, Power depends on differentiation between the one who has it and the one who doesn't. Battle isolates Power from other contexts, for one either prevails or one does not. Other issues are set aside until later. In battle Power is all that counts, and so those addicted to Power thrive in battle. This is as true in battles on a blog as in physical battle in Iraq or Afghanistan, although the immediate stakes in the latter are far higher for all concerned.
Read the complete article: A Pagans Blog on Beliefnet
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The Study of Magic – The Amoebic Cabala
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Posted by: Makarios on Saturday, February 06, 2010 - 02:00 PM
87 Reads
By Patrick Dunn
<snip> The primary utility of the Cabala is as a system of classification, which might sounds rather lame — a Dewey decimal system for magic? — but is in reality foundational. The Cabala offers a system of symbols that interlock coherently. Obviously, any system of symbols could work, but just as one individual might find it hard to invent his or her own language (not impossible, mind you, but hard), so an individual might find it hard to invent a symbol system of such richness. If I take any two symbols from any two domains, I can relate them together in the cabala and figure out which shape in Plato’s cave they ultimately point to.
Think about the implications of that. Take a planet, a big gassy one with rings, orbiting out there at about the limit of our ability to see it. Take an herb, bitter, astringent — a gum actually, used as an embalming agent. Take a metal, dark, heavy, often used to seal containers in ancient times because of its low melting point. Take a grave. Take a womb. The Cabala tells us that all of these things are connected, that they all are reflections of the same shadowy shape in Plato’s cave of images: specifically, one named Binah. These are things that mark limits: the limit of our sight, the boundaries of life and death, the inside and outside of containers. Binah is about limits and boundaries. This Binah manifests in the world in numerous ways, but each shares some of that essence of limiting, and each is touching all the others in the world of ideas.
Read the complete article: Rending the Veil
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