Astrology and Big Data

Stephanie Shea’s Rejected Religion[1]“Rejected” here meaning esoteric or occult. recently offered an episode, “Astrology and Data Science,”  on the The Ratio Project and its founder, Katy Bohinc.[2]Not to be confused with Microsoft’s Project Ratio, which is some attempt to categorize and cross-reference All That Is Known. Similar to the work of Michel Gauquelin, French statistician …

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Holli Emore Interviewed about Pagan ‘Ministry’

What is the difference between priest/essing  and ministry? What does a Pagan “minister” do? Holli Emore serves as executive director of Cherry Hill Seminary (since 2008). Cherry Hill offers a variety of programs that help Pagans become not only more effective group leaders and also qualifies them to work with anyone in crisis or transformation …

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Talking about Robert Eggers’ “The Northman”

In the spring of 2018, M. and I were preparing for a week in Salem, Mass., so we watched several movies about Salem, witch trials, etc. One of them was The Witch, directed by Robert Eggers. At the time, I had more to say about Three Sovereigns for Sarah, but I will admit that visually …

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Starring Ava Gardner as the Faery Queen

Ava Gardner (1922–1990) was one of the most famous American film stars of the late 1940s through the 1960s, probably best known for The Night of the Iguana (1964). She had moved to London 1968, which might be why she was cast in a movie that, given my interests, I am surprised to have never …

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The Making of an Ethnobotanist in a 1960s University Scene

One of the books on my ethnobotany shelves is Witchcraft Medicine:Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants, a colloboration between Wolf Dieter Storl, Claudia Müller-Ebeling, and Christian Rätsch, all three anthropologists and ethnobotanists. Müller-Ebeling and Rätsch are married and live in Hamburg, but Storl was born in Germany in 1942 and came with his family …

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Pop Vikings, Modern Animism, and the Raven Flag

From Danish writer and animist Rune Engelbreth Larsen The Viking Age seems to be undergoing a kind of global renaissance in various fields, spanning from popular culture to spirituality and even some misguided political trends. Often this “viking revival” manifests itself in ahistorical and superficial ways, but not always. Here I share a few thoughts …

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Wines for Esotericists

What has been happening over at the Winery at Holy Cross Abbey, down in Cañon City, Colorado? They have gone hermetic! M. and I celebrated equinox season today by attending the winery’s Harvest Festival. It was packed. SInce the focus is on wine, many attendees turned it into a picnic in front of the music …

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“Goodbye Jesus” — Writers Sought for Anthology

News release from Oberon Zell: Soliciting essays for “Goodbye Jesus” book Goodbye Jesus; I’ve gone Home to Mother! This is the title of an anthology for which I’ve been gathering essays over the past couple of decades. These are accounts of their journeys from former Christians—especially Clergy—who have left their churches and come over to …

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Neopagan Jewelry of 1951 and the Origins of the Tiki Bar

Back in 1951, when Wicca was first being introduced to the world, largely via Gerald Gardner and Cecil Williamson’s seasonal museum on the Isle of Man, a store in Arlington, Virgina advertised that “the neo-pagan influence on fashion is one of the style news notes of the Spring season.” Say what? Tim/Otter/Oberon Zell, who pushed …

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Forget Ecotourism—Try Fairytourism

Ecotourism often involves naturalist-guided tours of relatively wild areas, but also visits to small-scale agricultural producers, also called “agritourism.” Sometimes this operates in a B&B fashion. See, for example, the state of Vermont’s guide. But never mind milking cows and picking berries. Suppose you could offer encounters with the Other Crowd? Pat Noone, a Irish …

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