Richard Smoley, the former editor of Gnosis, was desperate enought to publish a few of my articles during the journal’s existence.

He has continued writing and editing elsewhere, and his most recent book was The Essential Nostradamus.

The five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack by Muslim fanatics on the United States has some people saying, “Nostradamus predicted that the Twin Towers would fall.”

Not so, says Smoley, in this online interview.

His assessment of the French prophet: By the way, when Nostradamus did try to forecast something specifically, he was usually wrong. . . .

The cause of his perennial popularity is that, although he was apparently of middling ability in most of the areas he worked—his astrological contemporaries said he didn’t know how to cast a chart—in his way he was a superb surrealist poet. There is something haunting and evocative in his verses, a continuation of the great apocalyptic tradition of Christianity and, before it, Judaism. These traditions are powerful, not as actual prophecies, but as glimpses into the collective storehouse of images, in which all of us, like it or not, share.

Tags: Nostradamus, terrorism, Islam

Professor deconstructs literature, philosophy, science–everything except careerism. Satire from Iowahawk.

While it has been tough at times, Grok says he has no regrets. “Western culture is a cancer, and I’m committed to wiping it out. Plus, the whole cave-dwelling thing should help with my promotion case and journal articles.”

This Sunday, Sept. 10, at 8 p.m. Eastern Time I will be kicking off the first of Cherry Hill Seminary’s online mini-classes with a real-time “lecture” on Paganism and nature religion.

Cost is $25. You do not have to be enrolled in any Cherry Hill classes to participate in my online lecture or in the following ones by Patricia Monaghan, Sabina Magliocco, and Nikki Bado-Fralick.

While I cannot put all of Her Hidden Children into it, I will covering the main points and answering questions afterwards.

Tags: Nature religion, Paganism

The Longmont Times-Call goes to some drum circles.

Drumming circles allow drummers of all levels to participate, and individuals walk away feeling enlightened, energized, empowered, cleansed and blessed.

“We’re just as passionate about our religion as anybody,” said Bob Anzlovar, who holds a monthly drumming circle, magical in nature, that draws upward of 100 people..

Tag: drum circle, drumming

Dancers who embody “the Goddess” at this page of QuickTime clips. (Work-safe, so far as I can tell. Downloads 10-15 MB)

When we say the Goddess is dancing, we are not simply talking about archetypical feminine qualities appearing in the human dancers. Nor are we referring to the women themselves as “goddesses.” What we feel in the Goddess’ dances is a very distinct, sublime Presence.

Do I want to get into the thealogical questions here? Not now. But I suspect that there was one goddess (or aspect, if you will) manifesting in particular, and Sappho knew her name.

First, there was the discovery that while I had assigned readings according to the page numbers of the 6th edition of a certain book, the bookstore had stocked and the students had bought the 7th edition. So I will spend tomorrow re-doing that syllabus.

Meanwhile, The Pomegranate’s copyeditor emails me from England with the unwelcome news that one paper scheduled for the next issue lacked a bibliography–which is my fault for forgetting to tell the author that we needed one. So I had to slam one together from her footnotes this evening, checking some of her citations against the WorldCat database.

I so love that kind of work!

You would think with footnotes that a bibliography is unnecessary for a short paper, but the publisher wants them anyway. It has something to do with other databases of citations in various journals.

From Witches’ Voice, an article on an eclectic Pagan circle among American service personnel in Baghdad:

Ours is a small group of soldiers; on a slow day we number around ten, but when we all show up, we are over twenty strong. We are a cross section of the militaries, Army, Airforce, and Marines; some of us do Intelligence work, some are network administrators, others mechanics. Still others go out on the streets and highways in an attempt to secure this nation. We are of various paths ranging from Greencraft to Asatru; in this place we form our eclectic Circle.

Tags: Military Pagans, Iraq

I do not do much interfaith work–I think that I have attended one such luncheon on my life–but some Pagans do, and they do it well.

Grove Harris is one of them, and here she reflects on her experience in an essay subtitled “Exclusions, Dualities, and Contributions.”

Hat tip: Arachne. Tags: Paganism, interfaith

It was like the Council of Nicaea, but for astronomers.

After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is – and isn’t – a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.

What will the astrologers do? Pluto for the last sixty years or so has been regarded as a marker of generations. (For instance, I would be in the “Pluto in Leo” generation.) Now it is a “dwarf planet,” like Ceres. Not quite the same thing.

In my vast esoteric library (north turret, third floor), I find Jeff Green’s Pluto: The Evolutionary Journey of the Soul. There is going to be some fast thinking in the astrological community, I suspect, but also an opportunity for re-definition and for being the first to say what Pluto “really” signifies.

Update: Salon interviews an astrologer about that very question. (Hat tip: Wild Hunt)

Tags: astrology, Pluto

M. and I finally got to see the new Beowulf and Grendel movie. (Earlier entry here.)

All right, it’s not the 8th-century poem we all know and love. There are new characters (the Irish priest, the witch, Grendel’s son) and new plot points.

But it is still a simply told tale, visually gorgeous, and tinged with the tragic overtone of the Northern tales–no victory is forever.

Tag: Beowulf