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

In the realm of the planetary spheres my vote this week must go to Mars for the most gorgeous landscape. Check out these Martian dunes on BoingBoing. Absolutely stunning.

• Rob, in Another Nickel in the Machine, writes about the early career of occult writer Colin Wilson in “Hampstead Heath and the Rise and Fall of the author Colin Wilson“. It’s a wonderfully photo-rich piece. (Who knew Wilson was such a looker in his youth?)

• Chas Clifton, in his blog Letters from Hardscrabble Creek, wrote an interesting post recently considering whether or not contemporary Pagans could be considered indigenous. His answer is no, and his reasons make sense. The comments section breaks it down further, asking some interesting questions.

• Nicole Pasulka interviewed Peter Ross for TheMorningNews.org. Ross took a series of photographs of “William Burroughs’s Stuff“, “a selection of weird, touching, and often unexpected possessions found in Burroughs’s windowless New York City apartment, preserved since his death in 1997.” It’s an odd collection.

• In Magic of the Ordinary, Peregrin has written an excellent post titled “Golden Dawn Blogs and Tradition” that covers more than it implies. Peregrin’s summary of the commentary surrounding one’s Holy Guardian Angel, for example, is spot on. Check it out.

• LAShTAL.com has the latest catalogue from Starfire, Kenneth Grant’s publishing house. Check it out for titles which have recently been issued, and what’s coming later in 2010. Several reprints, but some new material too, including a compilation of two grimoires by Austin Osman Spare.

I’m trying out delicious.com, a social bookmarking tool. It looks a little more complicated than the last time I logged in – they seem to have added a ton of new features in the past year.

This is to replace the 902834029834 some odd tabs I currently leave open in Firefox for compiling these Saturday Signal posts, but this little laptop, she cannae take it anymore. So, I’m experimenting once again with delicious. (There’s even a Firefox add-on for it.)

One of the great things about it is that you can tag your bookmarks and share them with other people. So, for example, if you tag a site “ahrfoundation” I will be notified. Why is that so nifty? Because it makes it really easy to share cool sites.

If you use delicious, and you want to highlight something cool that you think should be included in Saturday Signal, tag it “ahrfoundation” and I’ll add it. It’s an experiment. Let’s see how it works.

For those who are interested in stalking my path across the web, or, you know, simply getting the first crack at what may find its way into the Saturday Signal, my account there is, of course, plutopsyche.

Hidden Publishing has just released a new book edited by Dr Dave Evans and Dave Green, Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon.

Can you believe it’s already been ten years since Ronald Hutton first published The Triumph of the Moon?

Ten Years is “a collection of researches inspired by, deriving from or just celebrating the immense impact of [Hutton's] seminal book”. From the website:

The topics cover many historical periods, many academic disciplines and it provides a wealth of information of use to academic scholar and interested freelance reader alike. Includes an extended essay by Ronald Hutton on the history of such scholarship, the state of it today and some of his thoughts for the future.

I haven’t been able to locate a contributor list, but it’s suggested that there are “big names” and “those newer to the field” who collectively bring “nearly two centuries of hands-on pagan research experience between them”. Which sounds kind of impressive.

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

It’s been a weird week for news from beyond our atmosphere.

NASA bombed the moon, Guy Laliberté is the first clown in space, and only fat American children know the truth: Pluto is still a planet.

It’s a strange world we live in when what’s happening at McDonalds makes more sense than with NASA.

• Eimear O’Hagan decides that Pagans, or “new witches” are “Kooky, sexy, cool” in an article for News of the World, and provides three attractive young women as examples. Though, at one point O’Hagan does call one of them bonkers. Aren’t these affectionately deranged portrayals of modern Pagans a little early? Usually they sprout like mushrooms around Hallowe’en, and this one’s from early September.

• In “Eye Exam: Perverted Tactics“, Jason Foumberg writes about paintings on view by William S. Burroughs, including his abstract portrait of Aleister Crowley.

• The William Blake Archive describes itself as “an online hypermedia environment that allows its users to access high-quality electronic reproductions of a growing portion of Blake’s work”. Neat.

• There’s a new six part interview with Peter Lamborn Wilson, better known to many as Hakim Bey, from May of this year on YouTube by redpharmacist. The series is titled “Communities of Resistance“, and the full list is posted in one place on arthur. Spotted on mutateweb.

As always, if you find something weird, cool or otherwise noteworthy, please e-mail me about it. If you’re pro-promotion, include your name and website for extra credit. Thanks!

Reading The Globe and Mail this weekend my husband came across an article about this improbably titled musical.

My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding was written by David Hein and Irene Carl, and first debuted at the Toronto Fringe Festival in July, and seems to have been a hit with Eye Weekly and NOW Magazine. It’s now has been picked up by David Mirvish for a four-week commercial run at the Panasonic Theatre in November.

The authors are self-described “cashews” (Catholic Jews), and the musical is actually based on the true story of Hein’s mothers. Their interview with the Globe describes a bit about their process, Hein’s mothers, and what it was like for him growing up: Continue reading »

Hey, kids! Remember this?

Saturday Signal is ahrfoundation.org’s weekly round up of neat stuff found on the occult Internet. Though as it’s been on hiatus for a bit, I’ve decided to highlight a few nifty things you may’ve missed in that time.

As it was in the past, so shall it remain: if you find something weird, cool or otherwise noteworthy, please e-mail me about it. If you’re pro-promotion, include your name and website for extra credit. Thanks!

So, let’s see what we’ve got this week… Continue reading »