RIP Peter J. Carroll

Peter J. Carroll, one of the founders of chaos magic, passed away earlier this week. Carroll was the author of Liber Null and Psychonaut in 1987 and Liber Kaos in 1992, two books that would define the chaos magic system for a whole generation of practitioners. Carroll's death was announced on his blog Specularium on April 25th.

The Wizard has gone.

The celebrated occultural author, teacher and innovator Peter J Carroll passed away unexpectedly in the early hours of Wednesday 22nd April 2026. He was a star whose books and ideas changed the lives of millions. He was instrumental in the birth of Chaos Magick, one the most significant new magical/philosophical streams of thought of our times.

He is survived by a wife and two daughters. Pete will be cremated in a simple private ceremony for close friends and family. He leaves a great legacy which will be the subject of a longer eulogy and memorial in due course.

An online memorial page will be hosted on this site in coming days.

Chaos magic brought an innovative, experimental approach to magick theory based on chaos theory and the manipulation of quantum uncertainty. Liber Kaos in particular was a big influence on several key aspects of my approach to magick. It highlighted the importance of experimentation and exploring magick in as scientific a manner as possible.

On this blog I have written about my operant equation, a calculation adapted from Carroll's work. As you can see from my explanation of its terms I do not agree entirely with Carroll's version, but the original idea was his and it was Liber Kaos that first got me thinking about the factors that go into a successful magical operation in this particular way.

Another big influence chaos magic had on my work is in how I structure rituals when using the Thelemic or Golden Dawn ritual forms. I open a space, invoke energies, build my intent, and then disconnect from it in order to release it into the universe rather than banishing my way back "down" following the operation. This structure is inspired by the vortex - sigil - banish by laughter structure from chaos magic, and in my experience it works a lot better than the traditional method.

Finally, chaos magick brought the discussion of chaos theory and quantum physics into esotericism. While I realize many New Agers throw "quantum" around these days like a synonym for "awesome," I am of the opinion that (A) magick must operate by manipulating probabilities and (B) these probability shifts must occur at the quantum level of reality. Liber Kaos introduced those ideas to my model of magick, and they have served me well ever since in my attempts to unravel that nature of the paranormal.

Unto Peter J. Carroll, from whose eyes the veil of life hath fallen, may he be granted the accomplishment of his will, yea, the accomplishment of his will.

Tour Boleskine House!

Boleskine house, the Scottish mansion once owned by Aleister Crowley, has been restored. Not only that, it has made the list of top ten tourist destinations in Inverness after being open only one week. The mansion was was nearly destoyed by a fire in 2015. It has been painstakingly restored by the Boleskine House Foundation and opened to the public. From the photos the restoration looks amazing.

Dating back to the 1760s and known for its notorious previous ownership, Boleskine House — located near Foyers — opened to the public for the first time in 260 years earlier this month, with more than 600 people attending the inaugural weekend.

The mansion, which was previously owned by occultist Aleister Crowley and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, was purchased and restored by The Boleskine House Foundation after seven years of hard work.

Now the charity running the venue has announced that, in just the first week after the Grand Opening, Boleskine House achieved a perfect 5-star rating on TripAdvisor and has entered the platform's rankings as one of the top 10 Things to Do In Inverness.

Reviewers praised the quality and care of the restoration, the warmth of the staff and volunteers, the beauty of the grounds, and the rich history of the house itself.

One visitor remarked, “From the moment we arrived, it was clear how much care, dedication, and thought had gone into every detail," while another called it “truly a magical place."

Aleister Crowley originally purchased Boleskine because it fits all the criteria laid out in The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, the grimoire from which Crowley adapted the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. He completed the first half of the Abramelin operation while living there before being called away by the Golden Dawn drama that led to the "London revolt" against MacGregor Mathers.

Crowley never finished the Abramelin operation itself, but adapted it into Liber Samekh, a ceremonial version of the working based on the Stele of Jeu from the Greek Magical Papyri. He eventually sold the mansion in 1913, but it retained a spooky reputation. Some sources alleged that Crowley called up demons in the house and never properly banished them, though such stories, true or not, were commonly written about him in the tabloids of his day.

In fact, The Book of the Law mentions Boleskine and predicted that it would burn in a fire. Chapter II, verse 34 reads in part "But your holy place shall be untouched throughout the centuries: though with fire and sword it be burnt down & shattered, yet an invisible house there standeth, and shall stand until the fall of the Great Equinox; when Hrumachis shall arise and the double-wanded one assume my throne and place." Boleskine stands today, and judging from vistors' reactions it is anything but invisible.

If you're ever in Inverness, be sure to add Boleskine House to your itinerary. The restored mansion is beautiful and has an amazing history, especially as relates to Crowley's work and the practice of magick in general.

Impersonating a Wizard Detective

SFGate reported Monday on a bizarre story in which a man claiming to be wizard detective Harry Dresden of urban fantasy fame threatened the residents of a home, all of which was captured on a Ring camera. The man then proceeded to break into the house and terrorize the family inside. From the video, the man can be seen wearing a trenchcoat and sporting menacing eyebrows. However, he appears to have forgotten his hockey stick and talking skull.

The 30-year-old man is facing multiple felony charges stemming from the April 7 break-in, including assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, first-degree burglary and vandalism, according to jail records. While in custody, he later received an additional charge of annoying or molesting a child under 18, Fairfield police said in a release. Officers were dispatched to the 1700 block of Burbank Court at about 9 a.m. after reports of an unknown man attempting to force his way into a home where a woman and child were inside, police said. Video from the home’s Ring camera shows the man at the front door, initially asking to be let in before becoming increasingly aggressive.

“Open this f—king door. Where’s your daughter, man?” he can be heard shouting, kicking the door and demanding entry. The homeowner repeatedly tells the man to leave, saying, “You have nothing to do with my house. Can you leave my house? Please.” The suspect, wearing a trench coat and flip-flops, continues to escalate, at one point leaning into the camera and declaring, “My name is Harry Dresden, motherf—ker. … This is my neighborhood. Open the f—king door. Now, or I will f—king end you.” The name seemed to reference Harry Dresden, the wizard private investigator from “The Dresden Files” by Jim Butcher.

Police said the man kicked the front door and, when unable to get in, entered the home through a sliding glass door. The homeowner’s husband, who had been watching the situation unfold on a security camera, returned home and confronted the man with a shovel. A physical fight followed, leaving both men with head injuries, police said. Officers arrived within minutes and found the suspect outside the residence, where he was taken into custody without further incident, officials said. He was transported to a hospital for treatment before being booked into the Solano County jail.

Police said a witness later came forward reporting an encounter between the suspect and a child days before the break-in. Detectives determined there was probable cause for an additional arrest on a child-related charge. Authorities said no further details would be released due to the involvement of a minor. The homeowner, police noted, “worked to protect his family while officers were responding to the scene.”

This situation was very scary, and it should be pointed out that nobody was killed or critically injured during the incident. But it also raises a lot of questions about what was going on in this guy's mind. He obviously was suffering from some sort of delusion, convinced that he was a fictional wizard detective. And it also should be pointed out that kicking a door while wearing flip-flops is not a sign of being in one's right mind.

The real Harry Dresden, of course, would have just unlocked the door with a spell. He also probably would have shorted out the Ring camera before any conversation could take place because he's magical enough that he messes with technology just by being in its presence. He might have left the talking skull at home, but he never goes anywhere without his hockey stick. And was that thing with the bell supposed to be casting a spell? If so, it didn't work.

I'm glad the family is okay and "Harry" is in custody. Hopefully he can get whatever help he needs, because it sure looks like he needs a lot of it.

No More James Arthur Ray

I am pretty late to the party on this story, which actually took place January of last year. Self-help author James Arthur Ray passed away on that date at the age of 67. Ray was famous for being convicted of negligent homicide for three deaths that occurred at a "sweat lodge" retreat that he ran - and charged students big money to attend. I covered that story here on Augoeides back when Ray was found guilty in 2011. Ray would go on to serve two years in prison and resume his self-help industry career.

The sweat lodge deaths occurred after dozens of people traveled to a scenic retreat just outside Sedona in October 2009 for Ray’s five-day “Spiritual Warrior” event. The sweat lodge was the culminating event, touted as “hellacious hot” and a chance for participants to have powerful breakthroughs. Two people — 38-year-old Kirby Brown of Westtown, New York, and 40-year-old James Shore of Milwaukee — died inside the sweat lodge and 18 others were injured. Another person, Liz Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minnesota, fell into a coma and died after more than a week in the hospital.

At trial, prosecutors said Ray ratcheted up the heat to dangerous levels, ignored pleas for help, and watched as overcome participants were dragged out of the sweat lodge. A jury acquitted Ray of more serious manslaughter charges and convicted him of three counts of negligent homicide, for which he served concurrent sentences for the deaths. He was released in July 2013. Ray had acknowledged that he was responsible for the deaths but offered no excuses for his lack of action as the chaos unfolded at the sweat lodge.

After leaving prison, Ray remained active in the self-help industry. He frequently posted videos on social media of himself and his wife, Bersabeh Ray, offering advice. The couple also hosted a podcast, Modern Alchemy, and maintained a website where Ray offered one-on-one video sessions up to 90 minutes for $2,500.

I also recall seeing footage of Ray in a documentary on the self-help industry, pitching his trainings to audiences for the low, low price of $45,000.00 - with financing in the back. Knowing Ray's history, it amazed me that he was back to grifting so hard. His basic pitch was that he had lost everything and made it back again, so he was the guy anyone looking to succeed should study with. When he "lost everything" because he killed three people.

Waffle House Teleportation

According to online memes, Denny's is Waffle House for people who don't know how to fight. Living in Minnesota where Waffle House does not exist, I have no personal experience suggesting this is necessarily true. However, I am assured by friends who grew up in the south that the statement is one hundred percent accurate. Apparently fights at Waffle House are common to the point where jokes about them have become cliche. And according to a top Fema official, fights aren't all that happen at Waffle House. Teleportation does too.

Gregg Phillips, who in December was appointed to lead Fema’s office of response and recovery, has spoken on “multiple podcasts” about being teleported against his will, CNN reported on Friday.

On a January 2025 podcast appearance, Phillips claimed that his car was “lifted up” while he was driving and transported 40 miles (65km) away into a ditch near a church. And in another instance on the same episode, Phillips said he was teleported 50 miles away to a Waffle House in Rome, Georgia, CNN detailed in a deep dive into Phillips’ past public statements.

“I was with my boys one time, and I was telling them I was gonna go to Waffle House and get Waffle House. And I ended up at a Waffle House – this was in Georgia, and I end up at a Waffle House like 50 miles away from where I was,” Phillips said on the podcast Onward, co-hosted by rightwing activist Catherine Engelbrecht.

Phillips added: “And they said, ‘where are you?’ and I said, ‘a Waffle House.’ And: ‘a Waffle House where?’ And I said: ‘Waffle House in Rome, Georgia.’ And they said: “‘That’s not possible, you just left here a moment ago.’ But it was possible. It was real.”

But Phillips did warn about the dangers of teleportation. “Teleporting is no fun,” he said “You know it’s happening, but you can’t do anything about it, and so you just go, you just go with the ride. And wow, what just an incredible adventure it all was.”

One of the rules I practice magick by is that if something can happen, it can be done with a spell. In particular, if a person can randomly be teleported to a Waffle House, it stands to reason that a "Teleport-me-to-Waffle-House" spell must be possible. I totally want to learn it. It's not as useful as it could be if I lived someplace other than the Upper Midwest, but I do visit places with Waffle Houses when I travel. The spell could save me half of the trip even if I need to get back home by mundane means.

General car teleportation is more useful, since driving anywhere involves a car or truck by definition. But if the landing is so imprecise that my vehicle could end up in a ditch, the effort would be wasted because there's no point in doing forty miles of a road trip in an instant if your transportation is disabled moments later. Maybe with a formal spell the control would be better, but that likely will require significant experimentation to get right.

Let me tell you, I don't believe in magical secrecy. So if I ever figure these spells out and get them to the point where I can teach them to others, all my readers will be the first to learn. If not, maybe Phillips is just out of his mind. And I say that as a guy who casts spells.

Yeti Blood Oath

For the last couple of years I have been remiss in reporting much of the weird news that I used to cover here on Augoeides. This story, though, grabbed my attention and would not let go. It has seminarians, cryptids, and a bizarre ritual all mixed up into one of the weirdest accounts that I have ever come across.

In January 2024, seminarians from Denver’s St. John Vianney Theological Seminary were taken on a ski trip at which they were encouraged to make individual “blood oaths” to a yeti-like figure. The Archdiocese of Denver dismissed the actions as an “inappropriate prank,” while also removing the priest responsible from their leadership position. Father John Nepil, who was charged with responsibility, spoke to The Pillar and acknowledged his wrongdoing by again asserting that it was a “prank” that took a bad turn.

As 15 seminarians slept in their retreat house, they were suddenly awakened and invited into a trailer to meet Nepil and a man dressed in a yeti suit – along with a dagger stained with a substance resembling blood. Video obtained by The Pillar shows that a seminarian was told that the oath was a part of a “sacred tradition” and how this was the only way he could “enter the family.” “The way it works, the only way you can enter into this family, is you got to make a blood oath,” a seminarian was told. “If you enter into this family, there’s no going back.”

An investigation found that the "blood oath" was indeed a prank, something akin to a fraternity hazing. No blood was drawn and no actual oaths were ever sworn. But I still want to know who came up with the idea. Was it Nepil himself? If so, he would seem to possess a uniquely twisted and singularly hilarious mind. Because I can't imagine for the life of me what would prompt him to come up with this as some sort of "initiation" for seminarians. The Yeti costume alone is flat-out inspired.

In fact, maybe the "prank" angle is all spin. Could Nepil be the founder of new Yeti religion? Stranger things have happened, and some of them are almost this funny. The idea of new religious movement build on simulated Yeti blood oaths is something I will for sure cover here on the blog if anything like it ever comes to light. The whole idea is inspirational, at least when it comes to inspiring laughter.

InfoWars to Remain Fake News

The long saga of Alex Jones and InfoWars appears to be coming to an end. After declaring bankruptcy in response to the billion dollar judgment leveled against him by the parents of children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, InfoWars and its assets were put up for auction. In a delightful turn of events, the winning bidder was veteran fake news purveyor The Onion. You, from back when fake news was fake news, not just whatever news coverage folks like Jones don't happen to like.

The Onion’s monumental media scoop was made in partnership with the families of Sandy Hook victims, whom Jones owes at least $85 million after he lost a $1.5 billion case for claiming that the massacre, which claimed the lives of 20 first graders and six adults, was a hoax.

Ben Collins, The Onion’s CEO, playfully shared the news on social media, asking if anyone needed “millions of dollars worth of supplements.” As the news broke, The Onion—in true form—published an article by Bryce P. Tetraeder, the so-called CEO of Global Tetrahedron (The Onion’s “parent company”), in which the faux executive praised the conspiracy network as an “invaluable tool for brainwashing and controlling the masses.”

“With a shrewd mix of delusional paranoia and dubious anti-aging nutrition hacks, they strive to make life both scarier and longer for everyone, a commendable goal,” the satirical piece read.

Congratulations to The Onion for successfully taking over the dubious operations of InfoWars and kicking Jones to the curb. Bad fake news is all Jones knows and he will undoubtedly set up some other platform from which to broadcast his nonsense, but it's also true that judgments cannot be discharged in bankruptcy and whatever new platform he sets up is going to be more marginal than the one he spent decades building up. And maybe, just maybe, he'll think twice next time about setting his rabid followers loose to harrass a bunch of grieving parents.

Actually, That's Ra-Hoor-Khuit

Here's a weird vaguely Thelema-adjacent news article from Texas. A woman was struck by a snake that fell from the sky. She called out to Jesus for help as the snake attacked her, and then a hawk came at her, grabbing the snake and flying off with it.

Peggy Jones was mowing her lawn in Silsbee, about 100 miles northeast of Houston, on Tuesday when out of nowhere, a snake plummeted from the sky before landing on her arm and wrapping itself around her limb, she told Houston-based NBC affiliate KPRC-TV. As the snake tightened around her arm, a hawk suddenly swooped down from above and started attacking Jones as it tried to pry the serpent away from her.

“The snake was squeezing so hard, and I was waving my arms in the air. And then, this hawk was swooping down clawing at my arm over and over,” Jones, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News, told KPRC. “I just kept saying, ‘Help me, Jesus. Help me, Jesus',” she said. She said the hawk came at her at least four times before it finally managed to get hold of the snake and fly away.

In Thelema, the serpent is Apep or Apophis, the god of darkness and disorder. The falcon is both Ra and Horus, who are merged together as Ra-Hoor-Khuit or Ra-Horakhty, the solar god who was the sworn enemy of Apophis and did battle with him on a nightly basis.

So this bizarre event essentially re-enacts this mythic battle between light and darkness. Jones was attacked by Apophis, but the serpent was defeated by the falcon, Ra-Hoor-Khuit. It also strikes me as relevant that when she called on Jesus, it was Ra-Hoor-Khuit who answered. After all, folks, we're living in the New Aeon now.

Good News for Christian Furries

An article from Religion News Service about Christian furries has been making the rounds lately on the Internet. Apparently, Christian furries worry about their religious communities rejecting them because they are furries, and at the same time fear the furry community rejecting them because they are Christian.

All the same, Christians in the furry community are cautious about who knows about both their furry and faithful selves. Christian furries interviewed for this story, including leaders of the group that calls itself the Christian Furry Fellowship, asked to be anonymous, fearing “doxxing” from within the largely secular furry community for their Christian identity and ostracization from their professional lives for their furry hobby.

“My furry friendships are a blessing,” said one CFF organizer with a red fox fursona who asked to be called “F.” “And for that reason, I am sad to see so much grief within the fandom that could be helped by the knowledge of the Lord.”

Founded in the late 1990s on internet chat forums, CFF is a ministry that views furry fandom as a mission field. In 2010, CFF members converged on Anthrocon in Pittsburgh. Another leader, who asked to be referred to as “AD,” described the 10 days he spent picking up members in their hometowns to share the event with 4,000 other furries in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center as one of his “most dear memories.”

While I'm not that familiar with furry fandom, from the perspective of being an occultist I think that have some good news for these Christian furries. A similar dynamic exists in the magical community. There are occultists who are down on Christianity, and others who point out that much of the Western Esoteric Tradition is rooted in Christian ideas - even though it generally rejects Christian orthodoxy.

So here's the good news as I see it - nobody really cares that you're Christian. If you've explored various spiritual traditions and have decided that Christianity is right for you, that's great. Go for it. Practice your religion as you see fit. But there is a caveat - nobody wants to be evangelized or preached at or have to deal with conversion attempts. That's as true for occultists as I imagine it would be for furries.

When you are "sharing your faith" with others and that faith happens to be conservative Christianity, what you are literally saying is "I can help you, but only if you follow all the rules of my religion." According to the article, many furries are LGBTQ+ folks, which means that those rules are going to require them to reject who they are. And I'm sorry, but nobody is going to be down for that. As a Christian, the best thing you can do in those situations is nothing at all.

The basic problem with conversion-oriented Christianity is not that it's Christian, but that it's annoying. If you really feel like a fundamental tenet of your faith is to recruit everybody, those beliefs essentially turn you into that friend who's in an MLM and wants you for their downline. And just like with MLM's, most of us who aren't already involved really aren't interested.

Not That Kind of Bomb

Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney is one of the few Republicans in congress willing to stand up to Donald Trump. While I disagree with her on almost every issue, I will say that I respect her for doing what so many others in her party refused to do, both in standing up to the former president and serving on the commission investigating the events of January 6th. For anybody who doesn't know, Liz Cheney is the daughter of former Vice-President Dick Cheney who served under George W. Bush.

Another fact I know with great confidence is that she's not a witch.

Apparently, though, a fan of Cheney described as "crazy" by Wyoming law enforcement thinks she should be. A suspicious package recently arrived at Cheney's office, and her staff feared the worst. The bomb squad was called in to check the package for explosives and found nothing. When the package was opened, it contained a book on witchcraft and another book on "absolute power" along with a newspaper article and two weird handwritten notes.

Cheney’s Riverton employee on June 30 received a package addressed to Cheney, according to a report by the Riverton Police Department. The employee, whose name is redacted from the report, originally thought nothing of the package, until she noticed a strange message scrawled on its outside.

“Pelosi/Cheney 2024 ‘To win a sword fight you must not care if you live or die’ Lancelot-First Knight Movie released 1995,” read one of the cryptic, hand-written messages on the package. “A Special 4th of July Surprise. Pitcher Get Ready, Batter up. Not Guts No Glory AOC Knows!” the writing also said. Cheney’s employee brought the package, which had been in the back of her car, to the police department. Adjacent businesses were evacuated. RPD redacted the sender’s name from the police report but included a harsh assessment of him from Montana law enforcement.

Magicians Are Not Criminals

One of the most disturbing events in the recent history of esotericism was the so-called "Satanic Panic" of the late 1980's and early 1990's. Back in 2015 I covered a bizarre law enforcement training video from the period that associated nonsense like graffiti pentagrams (that is, stars) with serious criminal activity. The period was a disaster for anybody who had even a passing interest in the occult and caught the eye of investigators. As just one prominent example, in the HBO documentary series Paradise Lost you can see courtroom footage of Damien Echols of the West Memphis Three being convicted of murder on the basis of merely having an interest in Aleister Crowley.

DNA evidence eventually showed that the murder committed by someone else entirely, but the West Memphis Three nonetheless spent eighteen years in prison - all because of the idea that people who use magick are criminals, so evidence of interest in magick is evidence of a crime. And that brings me to today's story out of Phoenix, Arizona. A new initiative is underway to help law enforcement identify occult practices employed by Mexican drug cartels. While it is true that cartels use magick, this quote from the article makes me nervous.

"They use prayer, icons or candles as a tool to facilitate criminal activity such as for drugs, human smuggling and weapons," Almonte tells the Tribune. "Officers frequently run into these icons and items of their spiritual underworld and they don't know what they're dealing with. We want to make officers aware of these indicators of criminal activity so they can know what to look for that also can lead to other avenues in an investigation."

The Tribune notes that as recently as last month, Mexican drug cartel violence was found in the Valley when a 38-year-old illegal immigrant was found beheaded in his Chandler apartment after stealing 400 pounds of marijuana from a drug cartel. Candles and a Ouija board were reportedly found at the scene, which -- along with the beheading -- Almonte says is "just another day at the office."

The problem here is not that cartels don't really make use of occult practices - it has been thoroughly documented that they absolutely do. The problem is treating anyone who has items related to esotericism as a criminal. Magical items are not "indicators of criminal activity." They are elements of spiritual and religious practice and need to be treated as such in the eyes of the law. If police searched my home, they would find more magical paraphernalia than you can shake a stick at. Does that make me a cartel member? Of course it doesn't, any more than somebody who spray-paints a pentagram on a tree is engaged in human sacrifices.

#WizardLife

I know that usually I post serious magick articles on Mondays, but this story was too good to pass up. When you're out on the town and feel like trespassing at a hotel that you previously have been banned from, make sure to pack your wizard wand. You know, because reasons. I should also add that even though this is a local story, I have never heard of this person and don't know who they are.

A Twin Cities man faces assault and trespassing charges after threatening a hotel employee with a “wizard wand,” court documents show. Skylar Eros Dupree Thomas, 29, of Woodbury is charged with fifth-degree assault and trespassing, both misdemeanors, according to a criminal complaint.

Just after midnight Friday, Bloomington police responded to a Hyatt Place hotel on a report of a person with a weapon. The suspect, identified as Thomas, told police he had a “wand.” “From previous calls, [the officer] knew that the defendant was referencing a stick that had been fashioned into what looked like a wizard’s wand,” the complaint states.

Investigators said the wand was about 16 inches long and “had a hard, pointed metal part at the end and it has a knife-like appearance.” The employee who was threatened told police he immediately recognized Thomas when he walked into the hotel, because Thomas had previously received a trespass notice. The employee asked Thomas to leave, “but [Thomas] argued with him and called him racial slurs.”

Eventually, Thomas left the building, with the employee following. When they made it outside, Thomas pulled out the “wand” and approached the employee. The employee pulled out a handgun, for which he had a conceal and carry permit, the complaint states. Thomas eventually fled the scene. He is due in court next month.

Due to the difficulty of casting instantaneous magical effects, bringing a wand to a gunfight is never smart. Sure, you might be able to get off a curse or two, but that usually won't prevent you from getting shot. Your opponent will just regret it later - you know, as long as you survive.

Threatening people with magick is also entirely other than smart, whether you have a wand or not. Any time I get threats from another magician it immediately tells me that they're completely full of it, because if they could really do what they were threatening they would just cast and be done with it. That's what I do.

I've seen some complaints lately to the effect that social media has been diluting magick to the point where there's whole a lot of dumb, useless, and potentially dangerous advice out there - and while I don't think practicing magick is nearly as dangerous as some folks claim, any advice that tells you to counter a gun with a wand clearly falls into the "dangerous" category.

At this point I have no idea what Thomas was trying to do, or why he thought his wand would be effective in this situation. If I do find out, though, you all will be the first to know.

This Occult Cold Case Also Wasn't

Vice posted an article last week on one of the most influential cold cases in British history that was attributed to "witchcraft" and somehow went on to fuel a pop culture sensation. In 1945, a 74-year-old farm worker named Charles Walton was found murdered outside the town of Lower Quinton in England. Because his body was found in an odd position, police decided that occultism had to be involved - and the media ran with it. Let's just say that the United States in the 1980's and 1990's wasn't the only place where law enforcement liked to connect anything remotely weird at a crime scene with witchcraft, magick, satanism, or whatever the paranormal flavor of the day happened to be.

Lower Quinton subsequently gained a new level of media attention, and the newspapers relished in turning the story of Walton’s death into an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery about backward-thinking, sun god-worshipping rural folk. Salacious headlines about human sacrifice were abound, and the local Coventry Telegraph referred to the case as a “whodunnit witchcraft murder”.

“The then 87-year-old Margaret Murray [author of the popular but much maligned The Witch-Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology] believed the Walton murder was likely a ritual act, performed with the purpose of replenishing the soil,” explains Darren Charles, a historian from the Folk Horror Revival project. Touching on some of the wilder rumours that circulated, he says: “Apparently the year before Walton’s death proved to be a difficult harvest and the beer brewed from those crops was undrinkable. Walton was seen as an unusual fellow, who had bred Natterjack toads in his garden and tamed wild dogs with just his voice.”

Although this might all sound far fetched as a motive for murder, Charles says it was much more logical in the context of the time; of a remote region re-connecting with its ancient superstitions amid the dread and fears of World War II. To some locals, unsure of the future, looking backwards, and outside of the Christian church for philosophical guidance, was far more appealing. “Near [to where Walton’s body was found] is the Rollright Stones [an ancient stone monument] and the Burhill Iron Age Hill Fort, which give the whole region a sense of being ancient, magical, and strange,” adds Charles.

The crime remains unsolved, giving it a certain mystique to filmmakers, and arguably acting as a nucleus for the booming folk horror genre. David Pinner’s 1967 novel Ritual was loosely based on the Walton murder. When it was adapted into 1973 cult classic The Wicker Man, the idea of a rural town harbouring pagan beliefs and merrily sacrificing dissenters solidified itself as a narrative device in horror cinema, with a through line that can be traced all of the way to Ari Aster’s Midsommar (2019) and Ben Wheatley’s In The Earth (2021).

And here's the thing - it's very unlikely that Walton's murder had anything to do with magick or witchcraft, just like the also-famous and also non-occult murder of Jeannette DePalma that took place in the United States in 1972. As in the DePalma case, police looked at the Walton crime scene and decided that there had to be a sinister occult motive behind the crime. This was because he was killed with farm implements (that he might have just been carrying with him, since he was a farm worker) and had a mark like a cross in his chest (when any two intersecting cuts form a cross).

Baptism Fail

I often have noted here on Augoeides that religions who claim to be opposed to magick use magick themselves, all the time. The simple act of praying for a particular outcome is exactly the same as what we do when we call on deities to accomplish particular things, and in some situations that can involve intercessory entities like saints and/or angels. That's magick, and as far as I can tell the only reason religions are opposed to magick is that they want to uphold their monopoly on it.

But here's a really weird story out of Phoenix, Arizona. Apparently, Roman Catholic ritual isn't just magick, it's basically Harry Potter magick. That is, one wrong word and it doesn't work. I have noted on a number of occasions that this isn't true at all about ceremonial magick, horror movie tropes notwithstanding, so it's surprising to find it in the Catholic system.

A Catholic priest has resigned after a church investigation found he performed invalid baptisms throughout most of his more than 20-year career, according to Bishop Thomas Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix. Father Andres Arango, who performed thousands of baptisms, would say, "We baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." But Olmsted explained the words "We baptize" should have been "I baptize" instead.

"The issue with using 'We' is that it is not the community that baptizes a person, rather, it is Christ, and Him alone, who presides at all of the sacraments, and so it is Christ Jesus who baptizes," Olmsted wrote in a message to parishioners posted last month. The error also means that because baptism is the first of the sacraments, some people will need to repeat other sacraments, according to the diocese webpage for frequently asked questions. CNN has reached out to the diocese for comment on other sacraments.

Arango resigned as pastor of the St. Gregory Parish in Phoenix as of February 1. "It saddens me to learn that I have performed invalid baptisms throughout my ministry as a priest by regularly using an incorrect formula. I deeply regret my error and how this has affected numerous people in your parish and elsewhere," Arango wrote in his own message on the site.

I guess he needed to say it levio-SAH, you know? This seems to me to be a pretty fine distinction. We-singular has been used by royalty for a very long time, and isn't Jesus supposed to be the King of Kings in the Christian system? That would certainly imply that the word doesn't necessarily have to connotate the community. "We" could also refer to Jesus doing the baptism and the priest making the motions. For example, I use "our" in the elixir rites even when it's just me working, because "our" still refers to myself and the conjured angel.

My guess is that this isn't actually a magical problem, but a bureaucratic one. I am highly confident that any Thelemic baptism I might perform would be an effective ritual even if a few of the words weren't the same as the official script. Real magick is actually pretty tolerant that way. Spirits can read surface thoughts, after all, and divine your intent, and this is just as true if not moreso with respect to deities. In fact, in the Christian system, Jesus as one member of the trinity is officially omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. So there's that.

This demonstrates a big problem with the idea of trying to standardize magick - and I say that as someone who has devoted a fair amount of time to developing modular templates and so forth for both Thelemic and Enochian magical work. As with anything, it's possible to go too far and the real test of any operation should be whether or not it works and how impressive the results are. While I do understand that "works" is a difficult thing to measure with a ritual like baptism, it seems to me that it's ridiculous for a single pronoun to negate the whole thing.

Still Against Fiction

Christian book-burners are at it again. Do they ever stop? For a little while there it seemed like the more dramatic stunts had dropped off, even if schools were still receiving plenty of requests to have books removed from libraries by a lot of the same folks. But controversial Tennessee pastor Greg Locke held a book-burning event just last week, in an effort to save his religious beliefs from the scourge of fictional magick.

Greg Locke, head pastor at Global Vision Bible Church, held a book burning event Wednesday night, and urged followers to burn “evil garbage” like young adult fantasy books, tarot cards, “voodoo dolls and crystals.”

“Bring all your Harry Potter stuff. Laugh all you want haters. I don’t care. IT’S WITCHCRAFT 100 PERCENT,” Locke said in an Instagram post Monday. “All you ‘Twilight’ books and movies. That mess is full of spells, demonism, shape-shifting and occultism.”

In a video livestreamed on Facebook, churchgoers hurl books and other items deemed associated with “witchcraft” into a massive bonfire on the church’s parking lot in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. The burning begins about an hour into the livestream. At least one counterprotester claimed to throw a Bible into the flames, Nashville Scene reported.

“We have a constitutional right and a Biblical right to do what we’re going to do tonight,” Locke said in the livestreamed video. “We have a burn permit, but even without one a church has a religious right to burn occultic materials that they deem are a threat to their religious rights and freedoms and belief systems.”

Now J. K. Rowling has shown herself to be problematic of late, and Twilight is just plain bad. Still, I'm absolutely and unswervingly opposed to book burning regardless of content, and as a practicing worker of magick I can also assure everyone out there that both the Harry Potter and Twilight series are fiction. The "spells, demonism, shape-shifting, and occultism" portrayed in those books has nothing to do with magick in the real world.

And these folks honestly have to know that the magick in these books is actually 100% fake and poses no real occult threat. The reason they persist in this nonsense is that to some kinds of Christians - to be clear, the wrong kind - there's nothing more dangerous than imagination. It's no wonder that so many young people who grow up in those churches leave. I have trouble contemplating an existence in which no one is safe even in their own thoughts, and can think of few things more existentially depressing.

Obviously, a belief system that awful is under threat from anything fun. It's not just fantasy fiction, which remains popular because people like it, but anything at all enjoyable. As I see it, joy and spirituality should go hand in hand, and any belief system that can be destroyed by something as trivial as fantasy fiction should just be destroyed and get it over with.

California "Shaman" Charged for Wildfires

If this article is to be believed, it sounds like Florida Man has some competition. A self-proclaimed "shaman" from California is being charged with starting several of the wildfires that have recently been ravaging the state. According to court documents, she was trying to boil bear urine - so she could drink it. She claims she was unable to start a fire and drank the urine anyway, while authorities allege that she did start a fire and it got out of control. You can't make this stuff up, folks.

Alexandra Souverneva, 30, could be sentenced to up to nine years if convicted of starting the Fawn fire, according to officials. The blaze has destroyed roughly 41 homes and 90 small structures while endangering another 2,340, officials said.

Souverneva pleaded not guilty but is now reportedly thought to have ignited several fires across California. The self-proclaimed shaman said she had been hiking to Canada as the blaze approached Shasta County on Wednesday, documents noted.

When she became thirsty and approached a puddle of what she claimed to be bear urine, she told forest officials she attempted to make a fire to purify it. The wood she hoped to use was "too wet for the fire to start," documents said. Souverneva then drank the animal urine and proceeded on her journey, according to the report.

She allegedly became caught in some brush and had to call the local fire department for assistance. The firefighters requested she empty her pockets and fanny pack, to which she presented CO2 canisters, a lighter, and "a green, leafy substance she admitted to smoking that day," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officer Matt Alexander said.

One of the things that drives me nuts about New Agers and "shamanism" is that the term has shifted from meaning a particular style of magick to meaning drug use. That's not to say entheogens have no place in magick, even if they aren't my thing. But just getting high is not the same thing. Magick is a specific technology employing consciousness to accomplish particular objectives - and I'm pretty sure there aren't a lot of situations where that objective should have anything to do with drinking bear urine.

QAnon Has Lost Its Shaman

This article is from a week ago, but with Donald Trump's second impeachment trial not yet underway, it's still relevant to current news events. After not receiving a pardon for storming the capitol on January 6th along with a violent MAGA mob, the (apparently now former) "Q-Shaman" has announced that he is willing to testify against the former president.

"QAnon Shaman" who was seen in pictures of the Capitol riot wearing horns and red, white, and blue face paint is willing to testify against former President Donald Trump — because he feels "betrayed" he didn't receive a pardon for what he thought was following Trump's orders. Jacob Chansley, of Arizona, is accused of breaking into the Senate chamber and leaving a threatening message for former Vice President Mike Pence — who became a target of the rioters' wrath due to his refusal to overturn the election certification using a fringe legal theory.

"Lawyer Albert Watkins said he hasn't spoken to any member in the Senate since announcing his offer to have Jacob Chansley testify at Trump's trial, which is scheduled to begin the week of Feb. 8. Watkins said it's important for senators to hear the voice of someone who was incited by Trump," said the report. "Watkins said his client was previously 'horrendously smitten' by Trump but now feels let down after Trump's refusal to grant Chansley and others who participated in the insurrection a pardon. 'He felt like he was betrayed by the president,' Watkins said."

One of these days I hope to be able to quit posting about all this QAnonsense, but it's important to keep it in perspective at the moment. The fact that people believe in it at all is ridiculous, and I should point out that "Q-Shaman" must not have believed it that much if he's now willing to excuse the child-torturing and adrenachrome-huffing that he was advocating against only weeks ago. Is he now suddenly okay with torturing children?

I mean, so much of this QAnon stuff isn't really happening, but it's a serious question. If he really believes it's a thing, or even really believed it was a thing, would he just give it up the minute he felt betrayed by his beloved president? I think - or at least hope - that on some level a lot of the people involved realize it's not happening and were just pushing the narrative because they thought it helped Trump, the focus of their obsessed personality cult.

Every movement has dead-enders, and I expect QAnon will be no exception. But if the whole thing really was mostly a cynical ploy to demonize liberals, at least it means a lot fewer people have completely lost their damn minds - even "Q-Shaman," who sure looks like he has in the footage from the insurrection.

Against Monoliths

I want to start out by saying that I really have tried over the last month to avoid posting on every story I see about Christians being jerks. There have been a lot of them lately, especially surrounding the election, and I have made a conscious effort not to add to that noise. Augoeides is not a political blog, and I try to concentrate only on those areas of politics and public policy where they overlap with religion and the paranormal.

Some background on the story I am covering today. Recently several mysterious monoliths have shown up around the world. While there was a bit of initial paranormal speculation surrounding them, it quickly became clear that they were some sort of art project. And they caught the world's attention, because they were weird and interesting and funky. It left everyone wondering where the next one was going to appear.

But here's the sad bit - Christians who are apparently against... monoliths? A group of these idiots went out and destroyed the California monolith and put up a ramshackle cross in it's place to show how much they "love Jesus Christ." Seriously?

In a video, which was livestreamed and posted online, the group of young men drive from southern California to tear down the structure. Under cover of darkness, they hike up to the structure and tear it down while chanting “Christ is king!”. They then erect a homemade wooden cross in its place and drag the remains of the monolith down the mountain to their car.

During the video, the men also make offensive comments and drink substantial quantities of energy drinks, while also referencing Donald Trump and the QAnon conspiracy theory and their mission is to demonstrate “how much we love Jesus Christ”.

The vandalism angered local officials. “We are upset that these young men felt the need to drive five hours to come into our community and vandalize the monolith,” Atascadero’s mayor, Heather Moreno, said in a news release. “The monolith was something unique and fun in an otherwise stressful time.”

I also want to make it clear that I'm not lumping all Christians in with these folks - many of them are entirely reasonable, decent people who don't care about ruining other peoples' fun. But Christians like these are the exact reason that I will never support politicians who back the conservative Christian agenda. That sort of Christianity is not about spirituality or devotion or even salvation, really. It's about posturing and tribalism and basically wrecking things for anybody who's not part of their club, just because.

It should be obvious that nothing about a featureless, metal pillar in the middle of a desert is in any way prohibited by the Christian religion. The entire fact that it's featureless means that it has no symbols on it that might represent a competing religion - which, while still awful, might at least explain some other reason for doing besides simply being terrible people. But no, it appears that them being terrible people is in fact the real explanation.

Devil Masks

No, not the kind of devil masks that Anton LaVey once recommended purchasing in large numbers from drug stores on the day after Halloween. Today the masks I'm talking about are regular masks, the kind you wear to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The Elmbook school district in Brookfield, Wisconsin has decided to re-open in September, with the requirement that everyone wear masks and practice social distancing. The debate over whether re-opening schools is a good idea, even with masks, is ongoing. Where it falls into Augoeides territory is the claim made by a parent that wearing masks and "six-foot distance" are "pagan rituals of satanic worshippers."

 

The Elmbrook School District will reopen five days a week to in-person learning. The decision came after three and a half hours of discussions by school board members.

 

Along with returning to in-person learning, the board also made a decision on requiring students to wear masks. However, not everyone liked that idea.

 

“Six-foot distance and wearing masks are pagan rituals of satanic worshipers,” said parent Heidi Anderson. “My kids are Christian they are not subject to wearing masks.”

This sounds really dumb to any normal person, but it makes sense to Poor Oppressed Christians because they seem to have this idea that actions and objects have immutable "essences" that cannot be changed. An example of this is yoga - Poor Oppressed Christians think it's evil even if you remove all of the Hindu context and do nothing but stretching.

That's because those particular postures are somehow immutably Hindu and therefore pagan. The corollary is that they can't do a stretch that is used in any yoga routine - in any context, knowingly or unknowingly - without committing the sin of idolatry.

Trump's New Covid Expert

Just like my post the other day about Christians protesting dishwasher detergent, the whole religious conservative universe seems determined to degenerate into self-parody. Stella Immanuel is apparently a new "coronavirus expert" supported by Tea Party conservatives and the Trump administration.

Also a relevant point: if these really are the sorts of experts Trump is listening to, the executive branch response to COVID-19 is likely doomed. At the very least it's going to involve somebody stepping up and making a point of ignoring these yahoos. I have to say, this development makes me even happier that Minnesota's governor is a former science teacher who has been handling the pandemic reasonably well.

And look, I know full well that I'm a political lefty and don't like Trump, so I'm biased. But I dare anybody of whatever political persuasion to read this and still stand by Immanuel's claims.

I'm going to quote pretty liberally - no pun intended - from the original article, because, well... it's a whole lot of crazy to unpack. And understand that even with that, I'm going to gloss over some of it.

Immanuel, a pediatrician and a religious minister, has a history of making bizarre claims about medical topics and other issues. She has often claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches.

She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. And, despite appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on Monday, she has said that the government is run in part not by humans but by “reptilians” and other aliens.

Immanuel gave her viral speech on the steps of the Supreme Court at the “White Coat Summit,” a gathering of a handful of doctors who call themselves America’s Frontline Doctors and dispute the medical consensus on the novel coronavirus. The event was organized by the right-wing group Tea Party Patriots, which is backed by wealthy Republican donors.

In her speech, Immanuel alleges that she has successfully treated hundreds of patients with hydroxychloroquine, a controversial treatment Trump has promoted and says he has taken himself. Studies have failed to find proof that the drug has any benefit in treating COVID-19, and the Food and Drug Administration in June revoked its emergency authorization to use it to treat the deadly virus, saying it hadn’t demonstrated any effect on patients’ mortality prospects.

“Nobody needs to get sick,” Immanuel said. “This virus has a cure.” Immanuel said in her speech that the supposed potency of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment means that protective face masks aren’t necessary, claiming that she and her staff had avoided contracting COVID-19 despite wearing medical masks instead of the more secure N95 masks.

There was early evidence from one Chinese study that hydroxychloroquine appeared to be effective as a COVID-19 treatment when combined with azithromycin, a common antibiotic. But a number of groups tried to replicate the study and failed to do so. Because this is science, that means there's no proof that it works. And it is known to have some serious potential side effects, so it's not like taking it is risk-free.