After last week’s rant about Pluto, Sarah kindly pointed me in the direction of The Pluto Files, a PBS special hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The website has all sorts of great info about our favourite planet, including an mp3 (with transcript) of Alan Stern, head of NASA’s new mission to Pluto, defending the “little guy”, as they put it.

There’s an interactive bit where scientists give a thirty second promo for their favourite planets, and then readers are invited to cast their votes for the best planet in our solar system. Currently Earth is in the lead, but Saturn’s a close second. Poor little Pluto ranks fifth – surely we can do better than that?

The best part of the whole site, however, is the hate mail from third graders outraged over Pluto’s demotion. Hells, yes.

There’s lots of other great stuff on the site, too. Check it out.

Now on to your signal: Continue reading »

I recently began reading The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. It’s been on my shelf for years, but I’ve only just picked it up in preparation for reviewing Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon.

Edited by Dave Evans and Dave Green, Ten Years is a collection of academic essays inspired by Hutton’s groundbreaking work. Hidden Publishing provided me with a copy for review, but of course this necessitates first reading Triumph. And so here we are.

I’m finding it a fascinating read, and certainly as important as the hype that surrounds it has suggested. At the moment I’m still in the pre-Pagan stages of its history, covering the Golden Dawn and high magick, and this particular quip from Hutton seems a rather accurate summation of how magick is often approached:

Traditional scholarly magic was at basis an elaborate way of ringing for room service.

The reference is in regards to the Holy Guardian Angel, commanding spirits and demons, and much of the ritual work that was reintroduced in the occult revival at the turn of the last century.

It struck me that work with the Goetia hasn’t change substantially since that time, and, for good or ill, certainly many people seem to treat their HGA experiences this way.

How relevant is this observation today? In seeking experiences with entities outside ourselves, are we only “ringing for room service”?

Last week, Alan Chapman and Duncan Barford of The Baptist’s Head and Open Enlightenment were kind enough to answer several questions I put to them.  I have edited the questions for the sake of brevity and to make myself look less a twit.  Initially only Duncan was had agreed to participate in the interview, leading to a change in tone of my questions.

Duncan and Alan both demonstrate a lot of growth in their thought, and I believe many points I touch on rely on legacy material. I hope you enjoy.