Namibians Face Dog-Headed Pig Monster

Here's another gem out of Africa. Northern Namibia is apparently being plagued by what locals describe as a "Dog-headed Pig Monster." So far the creature has not been captured, but people in the area are sure of one thing - it must be the result of evil magick.

“This must be the work of black magic,” an official in the Oshana region of northern Namibia told the Informante newspaper.

Regional Councilor Andreas Mundjindi said residents have spotted the beast chasing dogs and goats, and a young man said it tried to attack him as he walked home.

Several residents said they are now too scared to walk alone. One theory has it that the beast may have come from the home of a local elderly man.

“Everyone believes it is his beast and even he knows that we think so,” an unnamed resident told Informante.

I'm hoping that these accusations don't lead to anything like mob violence. Odds are that this man has just made some enemies in his community who would be perfectly happy to have an excuse to drive him out or worse. On the other hand, if anyone out there knows how I could summon up a dog-headed pig monster feel free to share the spell. It would be quite the hit at parties.

Dog Sacrifices in Pennsylvania?

Last week animal protective services searched a home in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and discovered the bones of several dogs, along with a dog's head stored in a freezer. Police have put forth the theory that the house may have been the scene of ritual sacrifices, as a handful of occult books were found during the search. Whether or not this is the case remains to be seen. It appears that whoever lived in the home was in the process of covering over one of the skulls with gold-leaf, so perhaps this is more a case of twisted arts and crafts rather than anything occult. Still, the head in the freezer suggests that this individual may have killed at least one of the dogs, and as far as animal protective services is concerned it doesn't matter whether the goal was an art project or some sort of ceremony.

Rich Britton, a spokesman for the Chester County SPCA, said his agency was contacted by police yesterday and executed a search warrant at a home in the 2400 block of Wayne Avenue in Caln Township.

Britton said he and two animal protective-services officers entered the home's living room, where a gold-leafed animal skull was displayed on a coffee table, and a 10-inch animal vertebrae sat on a fireplace mantel. Also in plain view was a necklace that appeared to be made of canine teeth and four or five knives and machetes, Britton said.

Two more skulls that appeared to be canine were in the kitchen, along with a drawer of animal bones, four occult books, and a workbench with gold-leafing materials, he said. Investigators found the dog's head in the freezer, Britton said.

"I've never seen anything like this in my life," said Britton, describing the findings as "macabre and Dahmeresque" in a "nice, typical suburban" neighborhood.

Back when I covered that werewolf-BDSM case I noted that it was unlikely the woman in question was a real occultist because she only owned a handful of occult books. Some readers called me on that, pointing out that information could have been on her computer since so much stuff is out on the Internet these days. I stand by my assessment, though, because aside from a single title there wasn't anything that would be of much use in performing actual rituals. In this case, police found only four books on "witchcraft and the occult" and the article doesn't list the titles. That's a shame, because those titles would probably tell us something about whether or not the folks suspected of ritual sacrifices were performing them or not. If the books are, say, by Silver Ravenwolf, I'd say no. On the other hand, if they're on Palo Mayombe or some other system that incorporates animal sacrifice the likelihood of those charges being true rises substantially.

I'm really hoping that I never get accused of anything like this, because if the police were to search my home I can only imagine what they would make of hundreds of occult titles and collectible grimoires, not to mention my entire temple full of furniture, implements, and tools. They'd probably conclude that I was guilty on the spot, regardless of how ridiculous the charges were.

Google+ Integration

In theory I now have linked Augoeides into my Google+ profile so my posts will be distributed automatically to Google+ as well as Facebook, where they've been distributed for some time via NetworkedBlogs. Since Google+ doesn't allow aliases I believe it means that my posts and comments will now come up as Scott Stenwick rather than Ananael Qaa, but hopefully that won't cause much confusion around here since my real name is already prominently displayed on my book covers over on the right hand side of the page.

Since the main thing I use social networking for is distributing my blog posts this means that Google+ will now be a lot more useful to me than it previously has been, and hopefully it also means that I can expand my audience a bit. So for those of you who are on Google+ but not on Facebook, you should now be able to see my posts as I write them.

Enjoy!

Murder of Crows

Are crows drawn to magical or spiritual power? I have no idea whether or not that particular bit of folklore is true, but I sure have a lot of them living in my neighborhood. This video includes various shots of our local super-flock taken around Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis, where I live. My house is about two blocks from the Midtown tower that appears briefly in the video.

Praying Otters

There's nothing paranormal going on here aside from extreme cuteness, but try telling that to all of the religious folks getting in touch with photographer Marac Andrev Kolodzinski after he took this remarkable picture of two otters seemingly engaged in prayer.

The 49-year-old from Herefordshire, who spent two hours waiting in the freezing cold observing the otter and his friends before he caught the divine moment on camera, has been fending off calls ever since.

'I've had lots of religious people call me up, saying that I was a tool doing the Lord's work,' he added to the Daily Mail.

'There was a guy from a religious cult that called me once. He wanted me to come out to Switzerland and preach to all these people about how I felt, and what I experienced at the time.'

The Lord may work in mysterious ways, but in fact Kolodzinski has been trying to explain to everyone that the otters weren't praying, but rather playing with a stone. If you look closely you can see it between the paws of the otter on the right. On the other hand, how would we really know? Otter spirituality is one of those mysteries that we're not about to unravel any time soon.

It sure is cute, though.

Introducing the Heptarchia Mystica Forum

Ever since Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy was released readers have asked me where they could find a forum in which to discuss its contents. I've finally gotten around to creating one. You can find it here, or access it from the links in the upper left corner of the page.

What I've set up is pretty much just a standard Blogger page with comments. I'll be checking that page on a regular basis and answering questions as they arise in the comments section. Feel free to ask - I'm always happy to discuss my work and share perspectives with other workers of magick.

Longer Than You Think

Like the last one I came across, this latest ghost photograph out of England appears to be a normal person. In fact, looking at the picture it's hard to tell that there's anything unusual about it - just a man dressed in what looks like a maroon shirt and a blue cap standing on a pier. The only thing that is strange about the picture is how it was taken by photography student Matthew Hales.

Mr Hales used a time lapse technique to take a picture every 30 seconds over a 15-minute period and did not leave the camera during this time.

'When I went through the pictures I was surprised to see the figure of a man standing on the pier - it was almost like he was looking straight at me,' said the 17-year-old, from Yale, near Bristol.

'The technique I was using captures everything which happens for 30 seconds, so he must have been stood there for at least that long to appear in the picture.

'However, when I checked the frames before and after there was no sign of him or of the figure walking to or away from the location where I saw him.'

Fishermen, who are allowed on the pier 24 hours a day, seven days a week, have also reported seeing a ghostly figure.

The story sounds a little odd, but unfortunately for those of us who are into the paranormal skeptics would have a field day with this one. Maybe Hales didn't leave his camera, but it was early in the morning and I know that I can zone out or be easily distracted at that time. And thirty seconds is actually longer than you think. It's more than enough time for someone to, say, emerge from the building in the photograph, take a good look at the stranger with the camera taking pictures, and then go back inside.

My guess is that a solid investigation will turn up the man in the picture, and that he'll be found quite alive.

A Vatican Power Struggle?

Letters recently leaked from the Vatican suggest that a power struggle may be going among the various members of the College of Cardinals. The Roman Catholic Church has not disputed the contents of the letters, but claims that the media has vastly overstated their importance. The College of Cardinals is a secretive organization, and it may very well be that this sort of thing goes on all the time but is not usually reported to the public. Nonetheless, the documents contain some allegations that sound more serious than general, day-to-day operations.

The first missives to be published date from last spring. In them, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, at the time the deputy governor of Vatican City, fretted that he would be ousted after making enemies in his effort to combat overspending and cronyism in the awarding of contracts. He pleaded with his boss, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and the pope to let him stay on. Instead, Archbishop Viganò was named the papal nuncio, or ambassador, to the United States.

Letters and documents by other Vatican officials followed, including some that suggested that the Vatican was not adequately complying with international legislation to prevent money laundering.

One anonymous document published in a national newspaper last week cited reports that a Sicilian cardinal had spoken vaguely about a plot to kill Pope Benedict XVI before the end of 2012.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, called the reports “delirious and incomprehensible.”

One of the biggest problems with religious and spiritual groups, especially large ones, is that whenever a group of people get together you get politics. And politics are bad for spiritual realization. They detract from the group's true purpose and cultivate animosities that can lead to infighting. Aleister Crowley may gone a little too far in putting together his guidelines for A.'.A.'. when he stipulated that each initiate could only know one other person in the order, but there's certainly some merit to the general idea. As Crowley commented in Magick Without Tears, "I am afraid you have still got the idea that the Great Work is a tea-party. Contact with other students only means that you criticize their hats, and then their morals; and I am not going to encourage this. Your work is not anybody else's; and undirected chatter is the worst poisonous element in human society."

Wise words, those.