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The Frank’s Box
By Brian Leighton and Job Mesick The topic of the day is the Frank’s Box. This is a device that goes by many names: phone to the dead, shack hack, etc. I’d like to clarify that what I write is my opinion. If you don’t agree with me that is your right. Also, if you have your own theories we would love to hear them. Let me begin by going over the need for such a device. As a paranormal investigator, we collect hours upon hours of possible evidence on every investigation. Approximately 90% of what we catch is audio responses, such as noises or an answer to a question that was not heard during the time of the recording. Why this happens remains unexplained. One theory is that spirits communicate in a frequency that is either higher or lower than the frequency that we can hear with our ears. We use software to try and “see” what frequency our recordings are in. We use several tools to catch possible EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon). Our most basic tool is a simple digital recorder. We have ways to modify these recorders to help catch recordings, which we will explain in more depth in future articles.
The Gods and Me
By Star Foster I am a "hard" polytheist. I believe that the Gods are sentient, individual beings of great power and wisdom, who are not all-powerful, all-knowing, or all-loving. They are incorporeal beings who can take corporeal form, and have the ability to wield energy and matter. They did not create the Universe, but they guide its evolution. They did not create energy or matter, but they did make the abundant diversity of the natural world in the same way a blacksmith wields air, fire, and ore to make steel. They are not supernatural, but an expression of the natural. I believe chaos and order form the primal polarity of the Universe and the Gods are those that gained sentience through the tension of chaos and order. They can wield these primal powers and thrive in the tension between them. The impetus to order is the more visible and easily identifiable of these primal powers. From the chaos of the Big Bang, the glorious dawn of the Universe, all matter and energy flowing outward away from chaos were drawn to order, forming galaxies and interdependent relationships. From the beginning, this ebb and flow has given shape to the Universe, interacting in increasingly complex ways over time. Energies evolved to form fixed yet dynamic states, which while interacting with matter never lose their unique composition. In short Gods, souls, and spirits came into being.
Once Upon A Time There Lived A Witch
By Frater Barrabbas There has been a long tradition in modern witchcraft to spin the origins of that religion, to make it seem antique and ancient. When I became a witch many years ago, we called it the Old Religion because it was believed to be traceable all the way back to paleolithic times. Witchcraft was the supposed religion of our prehistoric ancestors, or so we thought. Most of the books published on witchcraft back in the those days had this historical perspective, and we all bought into it, believing that it was an obvious truth. Yet over time this whole perspective changed dramatically. This was due to the intrusion of real academics and historians who scrutinized our historical claims and beliefs, attempting to determine if there were any real historical antecedents to modern witchcraft. They found nothing to indicate that modern witchcraft was the rebirth of humanity’s oldest religion. We were guilty of unwittingly perpetuating an urban myth. Modern witchcraft was not the Old Religion after all. Not everyone in the various craft communities have taken the opinions of the historians to heart. There are still many individuals who believe that witchcraft, as an alternative pagan religion long suppressed, existed since the beginning of humanity. They believe that it survived through the dark ages and the reformation until the present times. What the historians have actually found out is much more complex and a lot less romantic. Modern witchcraft is a modern religious invention, while ancient witchcraft was a system of performing magic that incorporated many cultural and religious sources.
Poetry as Spiritual Practice
By Ali All poetry begins in the dark. In the cave of memory, the new poet lies awake, wrapped in the simple, loose-fitting shift of a sleeper, listening to the echoes of her own breathing and the whine of her own blood in her ears, the only sounds. The close stone walls are damp with her exhalations, sighs of longing or uncertainty, muffled sobs or murmured joys. She can see nothing in the darkness, not even the low ceiling above, but in that senseless obscurity her memory moves, conjuring up fleeting images of apricots, water spigots and firelight, half-heard sounds of bare running feet or the rubbing of tree branches against brick. Sometimes the dank, unmoving air of the cave seems to bring her scents of autumn leaves rotting in the riverbed, or tangled woolen yarn, or muddy earth turned over and mixed with the smell of blossoms. These memories are in her, and they are the beginning of her art. She must seek out the language and -- its rhythms and articulations, the shapes of its vowels, the teeth and tongue of its consonant stops -- seek out the words that evoke and mirror sensation. In the unlit recesses of the cave, her mind works as her body lies still, remembering. The small round stone rests heavy on her belly -- she can feel its weight through the soft fabric and the way it rocks gently as each breath lifts it and lets it drop again. Her mind travels the stumbling, sometimes frantic pathways of the past, aflame with inspiration; she brings it back again, turns it over and over to the weight and solidity of the stone. Fire in the head, anchored in the earth. When the night is over, the waking world will come for her. She must find a way to bring poetry into being, to carry it forward, to bring it from the empty depths of the cave into the morning sunlight. To carry it like the stone: concrete, real, substantive in her hands. Light moves behind her eyes, and the stone wobbles on her solar plexus. All poetry begins this way: an image in the mind, a feeling in the gut, a moment in the dark.
Classifying Witchcrafts
By Isaac Bonewits As with the words "artist," "doctor," "scientist," or "diviner," the word "witch" is almost meaningless without some sort of qualifying adjective in front of it. Here is a brief review, in alphabetical order, of the classification system I have created to distinguish the various European and American sorts of witches from one another. Note that several of these categories are capable of overlapping and/or of being mixed by living individuals. Anthropologic Witchcraft Anything an anthropologist calls "witchcraft," usually referring to either or both of the following meanings: 1. The practices of independent (real or supposed) magic users who are suspected of at least sometimes using their magic outside of their society's accepted cultural norms 2. A perceived state, often involuntary, of being a monster who can curse people with the "evil eye" Christian Witchcraft, a.k.a. Christo-Wicca The beliefs and practices of those who mix Neoclassic Witchcraft (see below) and/or Neopagan Witchcraft (Wicca) with a liberal form of Christianity, thus creating new Mesopagan versions of Wicca. Those who do primarily the former are often believers that "witchcraft is a craft," not a religion. Those who do primarily the latter are looked at askance by most Wiccans, who are inclined to think of them as "heretics." Naturally, all but the most liberal of Christians consider people doing any flavor whatsoever of witchcraft to be heretics, since Christian priests, preachers, and ministers are supposed to have a complete monopoly on all performances of magic.
The Origins of the Platonic System
Platonisms of the Early Empire and their Philosophical Contexts Reviewed by Ryan C. Fowler This 23rd volume in the Collection d’Études Classiques series contains seven articles that examine the trend by Plato’s followers of systemizing Plato’s philosophy from the 1st c. BCE onward. This process followed a variety of directions and was subjected to a number of philosophical influences, especially Aristotelian, Stoic, and Pythagorean. The result was a broad variety of “Platonisms” without strict orthodoxy, a situation that would change only with Plotinus. The editor’s introduction (p. 1-2) grounds the task as an attempt to determine precisely the contribution and content of “the key moments that together make up the long history of Platonism.” For the editors, the moment in which devotees of Plato became Platonists and started to look for doctrines that could be organized into a systemized whole is of major importance . This endeavor (“arguably”) started at the end of the Hellenistic era, “but especially in the early days of the Empire” (2). Much of what shaped this period, beyond the systemization itself, was due to the fact that many key doctrines were still undecided even after centuries of debate. No less significant were the other forces with which Platonism was confronted: a renewed interest in Aristotelian texts; a renewed Pythagorean tradition; the continued importance of Stoicism; and the integration or rejection of the Hellenistic (New) Academy, the Platonism of which was almost unrecognizable as such (beyond its extreme aporetic stance). What follows is a brief review of each of the studies in the volume.
Lessons from Broadway: The rain in Spain
By Tim A large part of Paganism involves the rejection of mainstream values and beliefs. Our parent culture looks down upon the use of idols as objects of worship, Goddess worship, the practice of magick, premarital and homosexual sex, polytheism, and – in some cases – direct access to the Divine. Pagans, however, embrace all of these things in one way or another. You could even say that our faith involves a hefty portion of rejecting what we have been taught. According to Ronald Hutton, the roots of modern religious witchcraft run directly through the revival of the Greek god Pan in the 19th century. Smack in the midst of the industrial age, when smoky factories and urban living were beginning their relentless march into the human lifestyle, Pan stood for the radical idea the “nature is good.” He was the embodiment of the rejection of modern life who stood for free love, fun, happiness, and nature instead of cold, smoky industrial, toil – all of which were, by default, supported by the dominant Christian church. As one of the most cited Deities in 19th century English literature, Pan’s stand against rationalism an industrialism is a bold statement that forms the core of modern paganism: we reject a lot about mainstream society and religion. In the classic musical My Fair Lady, we see a similar competition between traditional- and counter- culture. As Professor Higgins, the paragon of high society attempts to train low-born Eliza Doolittle how to speak and behave in polite society, there is an echo of our struggle between traditional and self-directed learning.
Keeping an Altar With Kids in the House
By Larisa It can be difficult to keep an altar, when you have little kids running about. Even slightly older children (8 or 9) get curious, want to play with the things you have up there, etc. And, animals too can get in the way and/or hurt themselves on what you have on your altar. The first thing you can do, to help with these concerns, is put your altar up on a higher surface (fireplace mantle, etc.). I have mine on top of a rather high dresser in my room. Given it's height and location within the room, items are kept "out of sight, out of mind" for the most part, and it's too high to encourage the kids to play with it, or the cats to jump all the way up there when there are other surfaces, closer to the window. ;) Another thing you could do is to place your altar in a location not easily accessible to children. For instance, if you have your office closed most of the time, with a child gate up so that your toddler can't play with your computer or the plugs.
Sacred Pilgrimages: Lake Tahoe
By Athmey M. Richter I recently had a chance to visit one of the most gorgeous natural wonders of North America, one which despite a loaded ancient past, is often ignored as a site of Native American importance: Lake Tahoe. Nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains of northern California and Nevada, Lake Tahoe and its surrounding smaller lakes were created through a combination of fault line activity between the geological plates of the earth’s crust and the eruption of the nearby and now extinct Mount Pluto, which dammed up a large portion of the northern end of Lake Tahoe, resulting in the Lake’s particularly unique size and depth for the region. It is, in fact, the sixteenth deepest lake in the world, and the second deepest in North America. Lake Tahoe is surrounded by ridiculously majestic mountains and strands upon strands of alpine trees. It is a place both of great beauty and abundant resources. It is no wonder that when mankind first migrated across the northern icy land bridges and into what is now the continental USA; many of them lingered by Lake Tahoe, refusing to follow their brethren farther south and east across the wider North American plains as indicated by the antiquity of the local dialect and its unique place within the linguistic branches of Native American culture. Classified in antiquity variously as the Martis complex and then the Kings Beach complex; when white settlers arrived in Lake Tahoe approximately 300 years ago, the local people called themselves the waashiw, which means ‘the people from here.’ A fitting term for a group who had indeed been ‘here’ as long as being there was humanly possible. Waashiw in turn was transliterated into the modern name for the group: the Washoe. The Washoe furthermore divided themselves up, not into tribes, for they did not consider themselves a tribe or to have smaller tribes within itself, but rather family units who associated themselves specifically with a particular side of the Lake. In my exploration of Lake Tahoe, I particularly explored the sacred sites round the south end of the Lake, the sites of the Washoe who called themselves Hanalelti.
Witches on Witchcraft
By Damon Leff In its review of Malawi's Witchcraft Act the Malawi Law Commission asked eight questions for further discussion. I'll answer the first two and last questions posed by the Commission from the point of view of actual Witches; Does Witchcraft exist? Does the law need to change the legal assumption that witchcraft does not exist? If the law recognizes the existence of witchcraft, would it mean that the law is legitimizing witchcraft? "There are more Witches in the Pagan movement than there are other Pagan practices, but we are only one among a variety of religious paths that I think fall under the term Paganism". Aline O'Brien, better known to Pagans internationally as M. Macha NightMare, describes herself as a Priestess and Witch. O'Brien is the President of the Board of Directors of a U.S. Pagan seminary, Cherry Hill Seminary. "My religion is not a faith, as other religious persons define this term. It is experiential. In the world of interfaith relations in which I am active, we distinguish between revealed Abrahamic religions and experiential religions of the Pagan religious movement. In the context of interfaith, I call myself a Pagan. In the academic field of religious studies, Paganism is considered a new religious movement (NRM), meaning that it is fewer than 200 years old. We share this NRM category with Latter Day Saints, Baha'i, Scientology and others. I hasten to emphasize that we Pagans draw upon a rich heritage. However, as a sociological phenomenon that arose primarily from the counter culture of the 1960s and '70s, we are an NRM."
Wicca in Movies: The Craft
By Zan In the promotional art, the Four stride toward the watcher with pantherine presence. They appear to have marched out of some portal in the time/space continuum, which crackles with cosmic energy behind them. Their dress is what I would call Goth-Catholic School-Girl; their progress seems as invincible as that of the Chariot in the Tarot. It is almost as if they are issuing a prophecy: Prepare! We are the Wicca Generation and we are coming- The time is 1996, and these are the young women of The Craft. The Craft (Wicca’s “Coming Out” movie; the first movie- not counting brief sections of Oliver Stone’s 1991 The Doors- to feature Wicca in its plot) seems prescient now in ways that were not readily apparent at the time. The Mean Girl Syndrome, which features so heavily in Rochelle’s story-line, had not yet entered the public consciousness; now of course we regard such bullying, harassing, combative behavior a serious social issue. (The Craft’s solution to smug, self-satisfied Mean White Girls? Use Wicca to make that Bitch’s pretty blonde hair fall out- shows her.)
Stregheria and Vernacular Magic in Italy: A Comparison
By Nola The distinction between contemporary Stregheria and traditional Italian magic, healing and spiritual practice has lately been the subject of lively debate on a number of listserves and websites. In this brief essay, I will attempt to summarize some of my academic publications on this theme for a non-scholarly audience, and to encourage further research, questions and discussion on this topic. I should state at the outset that my approach is academic: as an anthropologist and folklorist, I consider both Stregheria and Italian vernacular magic as important facets of culture in their own right. My intention is not to support or deny the authenticity of either, but to help readers understand both in the contexts in which they developed, and how the former grew from the latter in the context of the Italian American diaspora. *Stregheria* is an Italian American variety of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft. It owes its origins to Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches (1889), a collection of spells, rhymes and legends which amateur folklorist Charles G. Leland claimed came from a Florentine fortune-teller named Maddalena. According to Leland, Maddalena belonged to a family of witches who practiced a form of pagan religion centered on the worship of the moon goddess Diana. Leland interpreted the materials he collected according to popular folklore theories of the late 19th century: as survivals of ancient pagan religions, specifically those of the Romans and Etruscans, whose civilizations had once dominated central Italy. He dubbed witchcraft la vecchia religione (the old religion). Right from the start, Leland’s work was controversial. Some of the materials in it – the conjuration of lemons and pins, for instance – have analogues in Italian folklore. Other snippets appear to be versions of popular Italian children’s rhymes, rewritten to suit Leland’s ideology. And the character of Aradia does seem to be based on a figure from medieval Italian folklore: the biblical Herodias (Erodiade in Italian), popularly believed to fly through the air at night at the head of a ghostly procession. But these bits of folklore do not appear anywhere else in Italian tradition as part of a single text. If The Gospel of the Witches had been an authentic document from a folk tradition, some other version of it would have been collected at some point by Italian folklorists or historians. Yet no other similar text has ever been found by Italian ethnologists. For that reason, Leland’s Aradia has always been suspected to be a fake. More recently, historian Robert Mathiesen has proposed a new explanation: that Aradia be interpreted as a dialogic and intersubjective text – a product of the close interaction between Leland and Maddalena, during which Maddalena selected and re-interpreted bits of folklore in ways that would interest her wealthy patron. The result was a document that incorporated many elements of folklore, but strung them together in unusual ways, giving them a unique and atypical interpretation.
Shamanism: is it a religion?
By Michael Berman The question of whether Shamanism is a religion, a way of life, or a methodology will be considered, and the implications that this has on the attitude towards, and serious study of the subject. Even acknowledged experts in the field appear to skirt the issue of whether Shamanism can be regarded as a religion or not. It would seem that for some people the word religion has negative connotations and they do their best to avoid it at all costs – partly perhaps because it is unfashionable, partly perhaps because it is so difficult to define. The intention in this paper, however, is to tackle the question head-on, in the hope of contributing something new to the discussion. The Pagan Federation defines Paganism as the practice of polytheistic or pantheistic nature-worshipping religions, and includes Shamanism under its umbrella. It will be argued, however, that whether Shamanism is actually pantheistic or not is debatable, and perhaps something that needs to be reconsidered.
The Temple of High Magic, by by Ina Custers-van Bergen
Reviewed by Rebecca Elson Obviously I’m no expert on the Western Esoteric traditions, because let’s face it, I’m not an expert on anything, but I will dare say that this is the best introduction to the subject matter I’ve ever seen, or possibly that’s ever been published. My introduction to the subject matter was the book “Magick for Beginners” by J.H. Brennen, which I still highly recommend to anyone looking for a tiny taste of Western Occult practices. In writing him a letter (yes, I liked the book so much that I wrote the author), he suggested looking at Dion Fortune and Israel Regardie. Fortune and Regardie are both respected pillars of the ceremonial magic community but their works are dense and difficult for a beginner to wrap their brains around, or at least for this beginner they are. If only “The Temple of High Magic” had been available then! Bergen’s book thoroughly answers the question, “What are the Western Esoteric traditions all about?” Seriously, if some random person I met on the street that I had never seen before in my life went, “Hey stranger I’ve never seen before, what is all this Western Occult/Mystery stuff like?”, I would say not a word and put “The Temple of High Magic” in their hands.
Triangle as the Magickal Gateway of the Mysteries
By Frater Barrabbas I have previously discussed how the Cycle of the Hero is also the transformative process of transcendental initiation, and you can find it here. The fact that the twenty-two stages which Joseph Campbell assembled to illustrate this worldwide mythic template also matches the twenty-two trumps of the Major Arcana of the Tarot was a major revelation for me. As you can imagine, I have found all sorts of uses for that comparative analogy. However, my next objective is to show how this process can be integrated into one’s magickal workings, thereby acquiring the ability to trigger the process of transformation. Keep in mind that transformation is not something that can be thoroughly controlled or contained. One can unleash it, but then it finds its own resolution. Transformation is still something that occurs practically unbidden, but often happens to the candidate when he or she has surpassed and outstripped what was known and accepted, and enters into the domain of the unknown and the unexpected.

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