Chaos magic has a complex relationship with authenticity. It was born out of the postmodern rejection of metanarratives, it has a love of simulacra, of proxy. It was midwived into existence by Maggie’s Harrowing of The North. From cities like Leeds it first emerged as a big, psychic middle finger to a society that...
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Dr Hyatt spoke often about surrender. I wonder if this is where a lot of the magical resistance to Jesus comes? We don’t like it. A magical worldview leans more toward taking charge and doing things yourself. He was adamant we were missing out, however, and that surrender was a key part of spiritual...
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Make sure it is in the five months from the beginning of November. Want to know why? Because the British Museum is playing host to a “once in a lifetime” exhibition of the Ancient Egyptian Book of The Dead. When they say this, they mean it. They said it for the Hadrian exhibition -and...
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Definitely a bit of a a show and tell theme this week. Clearly some interesting things happened around the world that brush up beside Terra Magica. And check it out! I finally found a female wizard image for WWTM. The absence of one irked me on sexist grounds. Now, however, I’m not sure if...
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Here’s something I already knew. Some/most of my favourite historical personalities accomplished the things that make them my favourites whilst drunk. John Adams, for instance, liked to start each day with a couple of pints of cider. Even up until the 1820s, you wouldn’t be given water in London hospitals, you would be given...
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I may not have mentioned this before but I like to joke that I work for a wizard. The founder of the company is apparently Buddhist, he does a lot of free global event work for worldwide thought leaders (including managing HH The Dalai Lama’s last couple of visits to Australia), the logo and...
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I remember back in my teenage years when I started reading up on -and playing around with- the Golden Dawn system, wondering why Westcott chose to make Anna Sprengel a German. It just seemed like such an un-British thing to do. If you need to invent someone to provide a flimsy claim to antiquity...
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This mini-rant is part of a much larger rant about how Pagans seem to have confused ‘spirituality’ with ‘medieval reenactment’. But seeing as I brought up the ‘r’ word, let’s start with a little creative visualisation: I invent a time machine and take you back to the Kingdom of Wessex in the ninth century....
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