I know you’ve been asking yourself “What would a teaspoonful of neutron star do to you?” The answer: bad things.

Or you may be asking “Where has Psyche gone?” The answer is: nowhere really. I’ve just been busy. (Sorry.)

As it happens I’m still around, often on Twitter and Facebook, and I recently joined Google+ – which is pretty nifty. I blogged my initial thoughts about G+ over here. (BTW: if you’re intrigued and want an invite let me know and I will hook you up.)

I’ve also been posting reviews on Spiral Nature (see below for the full list of new stuff), and I have a few pieces forthcoming in various occult journals – further details upon publication.

Neat stuff keeps happening, and I want to share it. I don’t know where the time goes.

Here are a few things I’ve found:

• John Coulthart shares HP Loevcraft’s favourite artists over on Tor.com. Among them are Henry Fuseli, Francisco Goya and Sidney Sime. Also included? Lovecraft’s first sketch of Cthulhu. Nifty.
• Kalagni has great advice for sex with angels over on Blue Flame Magick. All the stuff you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask. Pro-tip: plan for bukakke.
• On Enfolding.org, Amy Hale discusses Pagan “Elders”, and challenges the term, even as it’s usage is growing. I’m not a big fan of the term myself, especially when most Pagan “Elders” are self-proclaimed.
• In other news, NewScientist shares a field guide to bullshit in an interview with Stephen Law, regarding his new book, Believing Bullshit. Could be useful. *cough*
• In Austria a Pastafarian has wont he right to wear a pasta strainer in his driver’s license photo. It’s religious headgear, you see.

As mentioned above, since our last Saturday Signal, our sister site has posted a number of new reviews which may be of interest:

• Divine Duality, reviewed by Ryan Valentine
• Defense Against the Dark, reviewed by Gesigewigu’s
• Man-Made Monsters, reviewed by me
• Teachings of the Santeria Gods, reviewed by Lilith Saintcrow
• Gift of the Dreamtime, reviewed by L. D. Taylor
• Witch Hunts, reviewed by Mike Gleason
• Loneliness and Revelation, reviewed by me
• Swami Panchadasi’s Clairvoyance & Occult Powers, reviewed by Gesigewigu’s
• The Weiser Field Guide to the Paranormal, reviewed by Lilith Saintcrow

And that’s the signal for this week.

I’ve missed you guys. What’s new with you?

An amulet advertised by the Circle of Raphael has been banned after a reader “challenged the claims and said he wanted proof that the amulet worked”.

The ad for the amulet promised its bearer would be “blessed with the gift of Angelic good fortune, guidance and divine protection from all real danger, both physical and spiritual”, in addition to a number of other claims. (See the full article on the Telegraph.co.uk: “Amulet advert banned over claim of ‘divine protection“.

The Telegraph.co.uk pokes fun at these guys, and not without reason. The “talisman” is small – “the size of a 10p piece and which features an array of mystic symbols” – and expensive – “silver for £29 or nine carat gold for £120″.

On their website the CoR describe themselves as “the recognized world leaders in the ancient art of true talismanic magic”. I’m no expert, but I try to keep familiarity groups who become known, but prior to the rather amusing article that ran on Telegraph.co.uk yesterday, I never knew they existed. “World leaders”? Anyone else heard of these guys? Continue reading »

Saturday Signal: sifting the signal from the noise of the Internet’s occultural cacophony.

Holy cow. December was quite a month for holy days. (Though none, in fact, observed cows – as far as I know…?)

Hanukkah, Agnostica, Saturnalia, Winter Solstice, Yule, Natalis Invicti, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, Day of Ashura – and apparently December 12th, 2009 was also the 53rd anniversary of patenting the first hovercraft. (Who knew?)

It kept me busy. So did work on the (not so) Secret Project ™ announced on the Facebook group. Beta version to be released Monday.

Now, on to the linkage:

• In Papers Falling from an Attic Window, Dan Harms asks (and answers) a rather interesting question: “Why did the fairies shrink?” Apparently we can blame Paracelsus and Shakespeare.

• However, fairies can’t fly, so says Graeme Paton in the Telegraph, who also advises that angels can’t fly either. Paton writes: “A leading biologist has compared the physiology of flighted species with the representations of spiritual and mythical creatures in art – and found the angels and fairies that sit atop of Christmas trees did not get there under their own steam.” I know, deep down, you’re just as disappointed as I am.

• The folks at Students of Tarot have created eleven Flash jigsaw puzzles out of images from the 1918 Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck. Each puzzle piece is double sided, with an image from a major arcana card on each side.  I’ve done a couple of them. It’s pretty nifty.

• Winston Rowntree, who writes and illustrates Subnormality, a wonderfully weird comic hosted by a fake company called Virus Comix, reminds us why it’s ok to be weird as there’s no other way to be. Spotted on Mutate!.

Speaking of weird, after my festive Cthulhu-themed gift idea post I thought I’d also mention a search engine I found: Cthuugle, which bills itself as “the complete HP Lovecraft Search Engine”. Indeed.

That’s it for this week, folks. I still have half an hour to post this where it can still be considered Saturn Day, so I’d better make it quick!