The lovely Bkwyrm, whose review site is now archived on Hermetic.com, has created a new forum for unconventional parents called Parentes Nefarii.

I got into magick predominantly in my teens, and it’s been interesting watching the transitions of various friends as they integrate their magickal practice and alternative spiritualities into the traditional life streams of school, work, families. Many are navigating the bulk of it alone, often with partners who are sympathetic, but not always practitioners themselves.

I guess that’s where forums like this can help, by providing a space where occult parents or anyone involved with kids can get together, chat, problem solve and/or gripe about issues that arise.

Parentes Nefarii is described as a place

for parents (or parents-to-be) who are involved in the occult to come and discuss issues specific to these topics, and the intersection of these topics.

It’s intended for “mothers, fathers, step-parents, non-custodial parents”, pretty much anyone “as long as there’s a kid in your life and it impacts your spiritual practice in some way”.

If this sounds like you, stop by and check it out.

Brendan Myers is running a contest for his latest book, Loneliness and Revelation, published by O-Books.

The details:

Brendan Myers, author of Loneliness and Revelation, is offering you a chance to attend any conference, convention, festival, sporting event, concert, theatrical performance, or community gathering of your choosing, anywhere in the world! Let Brendan know what event you have in mind, and if you win this contest, he’ll buy your ticket!

To enter, take a picture of yourself with the book, and share it with a link to the book’s website, lonelinessandrevelation.com, and let Brendan know where. For more information, see Brendan’s original post.

The first deadline has passed, but the contest has been extended to Saturday, April 30th, 2011.

It’s a great book, I’ve already read it and will be reviewing it (very  favourably!) for Spiral Nature in the coming week.

For those of you who remember, Brendan contributed an essay to ahrfoundation.org, “Magical correspondences and social values“.

It’s a weird world we live in when we learn that squid can fly. It’s true. Photographic evidence here.

Earlier we asked which colour was the least magickal, here’s a link to an article where you can train yourself to see impossible colours. Nifty.

As it’s been a while since I last posted one of these, I have an impressive backlog of links, but we’ll begin gently with the following signal finds:

• Erik Davis was interviewed by Klint Finley for Technoccult. They discuss spirituality and his new book, Nomad Codes.
• Over on Enfolding.org, Phil Hine has scanned and made available essays he wrote for Chaos International, as well as an essay on sigilization for White Dwarf.
• The Eyeless Owl writes about “Spiritism and the Singularity“, discussing the transference of consciousness into machines, and its implications.
• Kalagni on Blue Flame Magick explains “The Secrets of the Summoning Circle“, its history, and why it’s more than just a simple protective barrier.
• On the Llewellyn JournalCaroline Dow offers “10 Tips for Giving Dynamite Tea Leaf Readings“. They’re good tips, and most of them can apply to any kind of divinitory reading, especially tarot.
• And Ryan Valentine gives good book porn in “Spring Devils and Giving Hands“.

Over on our sister site, SpiralNature.com, we have some new reviews:

• The Three Rays of Witchcraft, reviewed by Mike Gleason
• Everyday Sun Magic, reviewed by Ryan Valentine
• Disciple’s Guide to Ritual Magick, reviewed by Mike Gleason
• Sun of gOd, reviewed by Gesigewigu’s
• Where Do Demons Live?, reviewed by me
• Thomas Berry, Dreamer of the Earth, reviewed by Ryan Valentine
• Feast or Famine, reviewed by L.D. Taylor
• Victor Hugo’s Conversations with the Spirit World, reviewed by Mike Gleason

As always, if you come across anything nifty, please share it in the comments, or drop me a line, and we may post it in next week’s signal – along with attribution, of course!