A Wiccan Reality Show

Starting tonight, a new reality show called "Living the Wiccan Life" will be shown on the website Magick.tv. The show will consist of 10 to 12 minute episodes shown approximately once per week and is produced by the now famous online Witch School.

Witch School Reality Show Airs

Hopefully this program will broaden awareness of alternative spirituality and help to counter some of the negative press that is put out by conservative Christians. However, along those lines I do find it kind of disappointing that the PR release tries to equate the school with Hogwarts from the Harry Potter books and movies. Anyone who is familiar with the Potter series should realize that if this isn't mainstream media spin, it's a blatant attempt to cash in on a mostly unrelated pop culture phenomenon.

I've posted a couple of articles complaining about how Christians don't do their homework and try to claim that the Harry Potter series teaches children the Wiccan religion. It in fact does no such thing, and it's kind of sad to see the same sloppy thinking from the other side of the debate. In the Harry Potter universe, magic is a neutral technology with no religious component. Many Wiccans do practice magick, but so do some esoteric Christians. It's unclear whether Harry himself is religious at all - there are few references in the stories to any of his specific beliefs, and he certainly is not a Wiccan. Can you imagine what the "Threefold Law" would do to the Potter universe?

A real "magick school" like Hogwarts would teach spellcasting techniques without any sort of religious framework. The closest that I've seen to this online is probably Oberon Zell's Gray School of Wizardry which claims to teach the magical arts as a technology rather than a religion.

Occult Composition in Classical Music

It's not just heavy metal musicians who incorporate occult and magical themes into their music. Esoteric elements can also be found in some classical music. Gustav Holst's The Planets is quite popular with ritual magicians and I have used it myself as background music for certain magical operations, and while Holst was not an occultist he did make use of basic astrological archetypes to shape the various elements of his orchestral suite. More explicit occult references can also be found in modern classical pieces, such as the work of composer John Zorn.

From Silence To Sorcery

Zorn's latest album includes three tracks, Goetia, Gris-Gris, and Shibboleth based on magical themes. I should maybe see about picking up a copy of this album since I'm kind of curious if the Goetia track is good music for, well, Goetia. Zorn's previous albums also have interesting titles - Magick (Tzadik, 2004), Rituals (Tzadik, 2005) and Mysterium (Tzadik, 2005). I'm visualizing a bunch of folks in formal dress standing in a concert hall holding aloft lit cigarette lighters and making the "Sign of the Devil." If I ever wind up seeing Zorn's classical work in concert, I'll totally have to do that.

The Vampire Peacock Menace

According to an unnamed source in New York City, crafty vampires are now assuming peacock form and inspiring a new breed of vampire hunter. Recently, a vigilant search of the Staten Island Burger King uncovered the hiding place of one of these unholy monsters atop a car in the parking lot. The fearless vampire peacock hunter then moved in for the kill.

Man attacks 'vampire' peacock

The bird had been sitting on top of a car in a Burger King car park in Staten Island, New York. It was being fed bread by the restaurants employees when it was attacked. Onlookers watched in horror as the man grabbed the bird by the neck, hurled it onto the ground and started stamping on it. When asked what he was doing the man replied: “I’m killing a vampire!” Employees called police, but the man ran when he saw them.

Mysteriously, the vampire peacocks eat bread like normal peacocks instead of drinking the blood of the innocent and have no problem with sunlight, also just like normal peacocks. In fact, were it not for the supernatural senses of the peacock vampire hunter it would be easy to conclude that these "vampires" are in fact no different in any way from the normal peacocks whose shapes they cunningly assume.

Unfortunately for garlic-free loaves of bread everywhere, this particular vampire was put down in the usual way following the attack rather than stabbed with a stake through the heart. So it will be back.

"Trevor! I pine for you!"

Here's Another Case to Watch

Scientific Illuminists everywhere, here's a great research opportunity. In the African nation of Malawi traditional witchcraft is believed to be alive and well, and is taken seriously enough that practicing the magical arts is illegal. For a long time I have had a passing interest in African folk magick and have been curious how well it really works. Part of the problem with evaluating this is that even though legal trials and proceedings happen they are always after the fact and therefore scientifically meaningless. If a person happens to die mysteriously, there's nothing "paranormal" about speaking up and claiming that your magical powers were the cause - although you might wind up lynched by an angry mob.

One of the most basic concepts in science is the idea of falsifiability. For a hypothesis to be tested it is necessary to set up an experiment in which success and failure are possible and clearly defined. This makes any sort of evaluation of after-the-fact cases very difficult. What you really need is a case in which a magician claims that he or she will make something relatively unlikely happen, and then watch the future unfold to see if that event actually occurs. With most traditional systems of folk magick, such evaluation is difficult because the practice is fairly secretive and practitioners rarely explain what they are going to do ahead of time.

This story from last week is an exception, and as a result bears watching. A traditional witchcraft practitioner convicted for "pretending witchcraft" has claimed that he will use his magical powers to kill those who acted as witnesses in his trial, and that he will still be able to do this from prison.

Convicted Wizard Threatens to Kill Witnesses

So is it "pretending" if it really works? Anyone feeling like an enterprising paranormal researcher who has more free time than I do should take note of this case and keep track of the witnesses who helped convict this particular individual. If they die sooner than expected, that may mean that traditional African witchcraft is suitable for further study. Personally, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if this turned out to be for real. Magical practices are part of the human experience and are found everywhere, among all cultures and ethnic groups, and mere superstitious nonsense does not impart much of a survival advantage.

The Afterlife Gamble

So James Randi has decided to only allow "media psychics" (read: complete frauds) to compete in his million dollar paranormal challenge. What's an enterprising paranormal researcher to do? Why, set up your own paranormal challenge with the local bookie! A British paranormal investigator has bet 100 pounds at odds of 10,000 to 1 against that he will be able to prove the existence of an afterlife within the next year.

Paranormal's £1m Afterlife Gamble

This is a much better deal than Randi's actual challenge. Randi's rules pretty much guaranteed that anyone trying to win the challenge would have to spend several hundred dollars on expenses, if not more, and with the current value of the British pound the payoff is almost double.

Now let's see if he can actually do it.

"Secret" Criticism Gaining Prominence

Criticism of "The Secret" has hit the mainstream media. There's really nothing new here that Slate hasn't covered in their series, but it appears that now the Associated Press is taking interest. AP feeds a number of major media outlets, unlike Slate which has more limited exposure.

Critics of 'The Secret' Bemoan Claims

Yes, even if you see it on a DVD, just wishing for something doesn't make it automatically happen. This is even true for trained ritual magicians, let alone folks who just watch a DVD or read a book. Positive thinking is helpful and can improve your life, but it has its limits just like everything else.

Fraudulent Magician Busted

Beware of any professional magician who claims that you are under a curse that can only be lifted if you pay them a bunch of money. Actual curses cast by effective magicians are so rare that they might as well be nonexistent, and just about anyone who believes that they are under "psychic attack" has serious psychological problems. Nevertheless, con artists are quick to take advantage of these mentally ill individuals, at least those of them with money.

'Mrs. Grace' Sees Her Future in Jail

This "psychic" admitted defrauding clients of large sums of money claiming that she needed it in order to lift "destructive curses." Here's one area in which I agree with the Randi foundation - fraudulent magicians give all of us a bad name and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. One of the things that amazes me is the sheer amount of money some of these folks make even though they're complete frauds.

Prosecutors say the fortuneteller's clients included a 57-year-old Poolesville woman who gave Uwanawich more than $160,000 in cash and property over the course of a year. Their relationship began at a shopping mall, when Uwanawich approached the woman, who was depressed, and handed her a flier promoting her psychic powers.

I mean, does this really work? Should I hang out at malls and hand people flyers advertising that I can cast real spells and then quit my day job? Unlike the phonies, I can actually make stuff happen. Or is Aleister Crowley right when he comments in De Thaumaturgia that "man is so built that he will credit false miracles, and regard true miracles as false" and I'm therefore just out of luck? It certainly is true that I don't know of any genuine magicians who make a living at it, let alone a living like this woman did before she got caught.

Young Earth Creationists Starting to Implode

I don't have issues with Christians the way some occultists do. I was raised liberal Lutheran and didn't really study magick in order to rebel but instead to go further in terms of spiritual understanding than the Lutheran Church seemed to allow. I have met a number of Christians who are sincere and accomplished spiritual practitioners who are serious about living their beliefs, and I see this variety of Christianity as a valid spiritual path - but I do take issue with those who refuse to accept scientific discoveries that conflict with their dogma. To quote Liber Librae,

The sin which is unpardonable is knowingly and willfully to reject truth, to fear knowledge lest that knowledge pander not to thy prejudices.

I'm talking about Young Earth Creationists here - Christians who believe that the world was created in six literal 24-hour days about 6000 years ago. A belief in some form of "intelligent design" does not necessarily contradict current science (if, for example, you posit that apparently random events are actually part of some divine plan) but there is such overwhelming evidence that the world is more than 6000 years old that I find it hard to take the Young Earth adherents seriously.

Apparently there's trouble brewing in Creationist paradise. An Australian Creationist group is suing the American group that just opened its "Creation Museum" in Kentucky that depicts, among other things, dinosaurs and humans interacting. The lawsuit is unfortunately familiar - it's about money and group leadership.

Museum Group Sued by Fellow Creationists

It's kind of interesting to note how Young Earth Creationism has evolved (and yes, that's deliberate irony). The original creation date of 6006 BC was arrived at in the Middle Ages by combining the Genesis account with the statement in the Book of Daniel that "a day is to God as a thousand years are to man." Of course, that's silly because it places the creation of humans at around 1000 BC and we have recorded history older than that. So the 6000 number was kept for unknown reasons and it changed from 6006 BC to 6000 years ago, with the creation itself happening in six 24-hour days.

It's unclear why 6000 years is still so important to the more recent version, since if the creation actually happened in six 24-hour days the reference in Daniel becomes irrelevant. If you're a hardcore Young Earther, It probably would make more sense to drop the creation back to around the creation date from Egyptian mythology, 10,000 BC. Then you actually have a "great flood" at the end of the last Ice Age to correspond with the story of Noah, though it appears to have been confined to the Mediterranean basin.

We'll have to see how this all plays out. Maybe the Flying Spaghetti Monster will get in on the action soon.