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

Last this week we had a guest post by Beth Winegarner – author, journalist and sociologist who is working on a guidebook for parents about teen culture, and a longtime Internet friend of mine – on the subject of occult profiling, and the harm it can cause.

Profiling is something we may not consciously reflect on, but it impacts how we live and what we do. For instance, I (rather obviously) use a pseudonym for most of my writing on esoteric subjects because I’m concerned about the impact it may have on my career in the world of finance. I don’t want that to be the case, but I understand that when I write about things like demons, Satanism, magick, and whatnot the average person isn’t going to be sympathetic to these subjects, and will likely have a negative view of them and, consequently, of me.

This is on the flip side, but if you didn’t get a chance to read it last week, check out “Occult Profiling: Where it comes from and why it’s worth fighting” now and please do share your thoughts and experiences.

Expanding our reception outside the confines of the blog, we find the following signals:

• Mercurius Politicus shows off a 1641 pamphlet with a handy “Protestant identification chart” illustrating several different types. Seems reasonably appropriate as the Christians are celebrating death at Spring, and I always get confused by which branch does which. They all worship Jesus, don’t they?

• Gyllene Gryningen has a post on “The Freemasonic origins of the Golden Dawn” with photographs and illustrations to elucidate various points.

• Dean Wilson writes about “Magical Literalism” in his blog Mishkan ha-Echad, specifically in regards to claims of invisibility. One might argue that the whole lot could be argued poetically, rather than absolutely. Where are the lines drawn, and why?

That’s it for this week, kids.

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Saturday Signal: attempting to sift signal from the noise of the Internet’s occultural cacophony.

This has been a crazy week: camping on the weekend, end of another fiscal quarter at work entailing many late nights at the office, treated with a delightful time at Cirque du Soleil‘s Saltimbanco yesterday, and I now find myself playing Internet catch-up this weekend in preperation for another busy weekend come Labour Day. Continue reading »

Saturday Signal: attempting to sift signal from the noise of the Internet’s occultural cacophony.

In our first Saturday Signal Beth asked “how our “fun day” (Saturday) got named after the least fun god/planet of the week”.  Last week we looked at one possible reason, and Gesigewigus commented on how the planetary hours align nicely with the days of the week: Continue reading »