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!

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

With all the news I post about space, how ’bout our home planet?  No, not Pluto this time: Earth. Apparently it’s missing two billion years. Kind of. Well, we are anyway, in that we have no idea what happened for that span of time. Theories abound.

Also, the solar system is about two million years older than we thought.

Science is cool.

• In her blog Know Thyself, T. Thorn Coyle reminds us that commitment and consistency are important in any practice, whether mundane or spiritual, in “Let’s Get Engaged“. You really do earn points just for showing up.

• Charlie Jane Anders asks, “Could self-aware cities be the first forms of artificial intelligence?” on io9. To which we respond, “the first” might be a stretch (servitors, anyone? or egregores, gods, etc?), but that cities can and do become sentient certainly seems reasonable. Let’s just keep an eye out for Skynet, ok?

• US Games, purveyors of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot Deck (amongst others), now blogs! Fool Stop Tarot Blog is run by Janet, their social media person, who also maintains their Twitter account and Facebook page. Everyone’s so Web 2.0.

• Sannion (H. Jeremiah Lewis) writes in The House of Vines, “Speaking about the unspeakable“, that the old mysteries are dead, and that’s ok. We can’t reconstruct the past as it was, and that’s fine. Learning what was is great, but it’s not where we are now. Live life. Great stuff.

I had tons more links to share, but time intervened, so next week’s Signal will likely be double-sized. You’re welcome.

As always, if you come across anything nifty, please share it in the comments, or if you use delicious tag it “ahrfoundation” and we’ll take a look. Thanks!

Back in 2007 I reviewed Sacred Land: Intuitive Gardening for Personal, Political and Environmental Change, by Clea Danaan for SpiralNature.com.

I gave it a favourable review (it was a great book), but I also mentioned my disappointment that it seemed solely geared for women.

Ms Danaan must have stumbled upon the review recently, because she posted an explanation in her Intuitive Gardening Blog, writing that:

When I originally wrote the book, it was intended as part of a series of books called the Goddess Guides. The first was called Goddess’ Guide for the Magical Bride and became my book Magical Bride. The second was about healing, and I haven’t written it yet. The third became Sacred Land. If you have read both Sacred Land and Magical Bride, you will know that I profile goddesses related to pertinent topics in each book. The series was meant to be geared towards women, on normal topics we deal with every day like marriage, gardening, raising children, and health. I wanted to include goddesses and women who inspire me on each given topic.

Danaan goes on to explain that it was retitled several times and all references to goddesses and sisterhood were removed from the title, but not from the text itself, which contributed to the odd female-centric feel of the book. It was, in the end, unintentional.

Another cool thing about the Internet: you can learn the stories behind books straight from the authors themselves.

Thanks for the clarification Clea Danaan!