Where Do Demons Live?: Everything You Want to Know About Magic is a recent book by Frater U.’. D.’. released by Llewellyn Worldwide this time last year.

It’s written in a Q&A agony aunt style, in some ways reminiscent of Aleister Crowley’s Magick Without Tears, resulting in a collection of brief essays on a wide variety of topics.

I’m in the midst of reading it for review for SpiralNature.com, and and one of the questions concerns workshops, and one of the points of advice given reads as follows:

4. Pay close attention to the terms of cancellation; this is often the snag to such seminars. Although it is understandable that the event organizers should want to ensure a certain degree of commitment from the participants, it is nonetheless possible that a person might become sick or have another valid reason for cancellation. Only pay the full amount in advance as an exception and not as the rule; generally no more than half in advance is appropriate.

This surprised me, and I’m not sure if it’s a regional thing (Frater U.’. D.’. hails from Belgium), or something that’s more widespread?

In all the workshops I’ve attended and given myself, I always either paid or requested the payment up front.

Perhaps this is a strange thing to be hung up on, but it struck me as the first bit of odd advice in an otherwise excellent book. What’s your experience with this, do people not pay up front anymore?

Every solstice and equinox my husband and I host a large dinner party for our friends. Or, as near to the date as we can, usually whichever Saturday is closest.

This year was no exception, and though I failed to get a picture of it on Saturday, I did have a go at making Riz Aleister Crowley, Crowley’s recipe for pilaf.

Crowley’s original recipe doesn’t give quantities for the ingredients he lists, so I’ve made my best guess, and detailed my process here. It was delicious.

For the bakers among you, there’s also an awesome shortbread recipe you should totally try out.

My husband and I also woke up in the middle of the night to watch the eclipse. Continue reading »

Last year we looked at Mythos themed gifts in “Love that Lovecraft“, this year we’ll see what we can find for that special occultist in your life.

Sure, there’s the usual candles, incense, special rocks and precious metal plates, but what about the unusual?

Cards

The first place to start is, of course, acquiring your own set of OTO Greeting Cards.

This set of six blank cards are suitable for any occasion, and are available from the New Zealand OTO for NZ$20. Cards spotted on LAShTAL.com.

Gifts

AC action figure

Hierax brought this to my attention: a portly, bow-tied Aleister Crowley action figure. So cute.

Not sure where you can pick one up though. They don’t seem to be for sale anywhere. Perhaps eBay?

Baby Cthulhu

Continue reading »