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 »

[T]here [is] a type of occultist who believes that it doesn’t matter what you do in magic that “intention is everything”. I am a strong believer in the phrase “the path to hell is paved with good intentions” and think these types of occultists are more dangerous to the experimental magician because everyone thinks that they hold similar, sloppy views.
These occultists often call themselves chaos magicians or repeat Aleister Crowley’s much misunderstood phrase “Do what you will be the whole of the Law,” [sic] as if it gives them a wholesale license to bunk off from doing any work.

– Nick Farrell, “Experimentation as Magical Path”

I’m reading Magick on the Edge, ambitiously subtitled “An Anthology of Experimental Occultism”. The above quote appears in the first essay, which is otherwise quite good at making a decent case for “experimental” magick. (Though isn’t all magick experimental? Isn’t that the point of doing the Work?) Continue reading »