Preternature Volume 3:2. Old Gods and Ancient Ones [Call for Papers] Call them pagan or ancient, earth-based or demonic, or by names like Hekate, Isis, Poseidon, Ereshkigal, Loki, and Anath, the Old Gods have been topics of energetic scholarly discussion, literary recreation, and artistic depiction for decades. As supplanted as they might seem to historians,…
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The International Gothic Association
Yes, there is an International Gothic Association! It’s an academic society for the study of everything Gothic with a peer-reviewed journal Gothic Studies. According to their website: The International Gothic Association unites teachers, scholars, students, artists, writers and performers from around the world who are interested in any aspect of gothic culture: fiction, drama, poetry,…
Monsters Need Your Help
Call for Papers for Preternature 2.2: Monstrophy: The Academic Study of Monsters ”Monstrophy” is a term referring to the academic study of monsters as representational and conceptual categories, which has gained recent currency in several related fields of study (literary and cultural history, sociological theories of identity and difference, et al.), as well as in…
Magic, Witches and Parapsychology
Books received for review: Butler, Alison, Victorian Occultism and the Making of Modern Magic: Invoking Tradition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) Description In the midst of increasing secularization and the birth of scientific naturalism, a curious group emerged in Victorian Britain. From 1888-1900, hundreds of men and women were initiated into the Hermetic Order of the Golden…
Spiritualism and the Golden Dawn
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the most important magical society of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was established on the basis of spirit communication with supernatural entities. Known as the ‘Secret Chiefs’, these entities provided the source of authority for the leaders of the Order as well as later becoming the…
Reinventing the Renaissance Occult
Review of the ‘Reinventing the Renaissance Occult in Modern and Postmodern Culture’ conference accepted by the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition (JWMT) for the forthcoming edition, vol. 2, no. 20. Will post link when the journal is published.
Haiti Article
My article on Haiti and Robertson’s Devil-pact comments will appear in a forthcoming issue of Paranormal Magazine.
Hexen – Mythos und Wirklichkeit
Interesting new exhibition on witchcraft: Hexen – Mythos und Wirklichkeit 13. September 2009 bis 2. Mai 2010 Das Historische Museum der Pfalz widmet sich in der Sonderausstellung „Hexen – Mythos und Wirklichkeit“ der Bedeutungsvielfalt des Hexenbegriffs. Dabei stellt die Ausstellung das Stereotyp „Hexe“ auf den Prüfstand. At the Historisches Museum der Pfalz Speyer until 2…
Reinventing the Renaissance Occult
The aim of the day was to explore the different ways in which modern culture has returned to Renaissance esotericism. Some have been drawn to the intriguing remoteness of such teachings from our own more scientific and sceptical age. Others, by contrast, have sought to discover unexpected points of contact between the mysteries of the…
Spells for Halloween
Many people celebrate Halloween by honouring the dead, strengthening family ties, and using scrying mirrors, spells and magic to find future happiness and love. Some of my Hallowe’en research has turned up at something called Suite101.com in an article entitled ‘Spells for Halloween: Celebrate Halloween with White Magic Scrying, Spells and MagicRead’. You can read…