Myth and Fairy Tale – A Slavic Angle
I have always adored myths and legends. Growing up, I was addicted to stories of the Greek Gods, King Arthur and other such tales. I also enjoyed fairy tales and read them avidly. My favorite was one called Rumpelstiltskin. Imagine being able to turn straw into gold? Just like an alchemist. Old Rumpelstilskin is depicted as an Imp or Goblin-type creature but the name is also reminiscent of the German words for a poltergeist. The girl eventually goes ‘deep’ into the woods where she watches him singing and reveals his name. According to some sources, this story or a variant of it could be up to 4,000 years old! Notice how the girl goes deep into the woods…..in order to earn the name of the Imp. Fairy tales and myths
Read More »Hostýn – Jesus as Perun?
I recently wrote a blog about Hostýn and noted that the imagery was, well, a bit strange. First, we have ‘Mary’ standing on the crescent moon depicted as a lunar goddess – actually something you see a lot in this part of the world – but then what is going on with baby Jesus? At the time, I pointed to Zeus as a possible analogy. Well, after some input from Sue Vincent and Stuart France, I was led to the Slavic God named Perun. He is the god of the sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility and oak trees in the Slavic pantheon. Having come up with that name, I googled it along with ‘Hostýn’ and I found myself back on the monument’s website and an obscure
Read More »Hostýn and a Strange Image of Jesus
Last weekend I managed a quick trip out to Hostýn about 100km from Brno. Svatý Hostýn or St.Hostýn is a hill in Moravia and a place of devotion to Mary. As per Wikipedia…. According to a traditional legend, first recorded in 1665 by the writer Bohuslav Balbín in his work Diva Montis Sancti, during the disastrous raid of the “Tartars” in the 13th century, people who were seeking asylum here lacked water and they prayed Mary for help. It is said that a stream of water came out of the ground and a powerful storm forced Tatars to retreat. That being what it may be, the site is very ancient and was once perhaps a Celtic fortress or settlement of some kind. Another article I found states that… Hostýn
Read More »The Hexagram
I’m unsure how many people may have read the book The Mystical Hexagram by myself and Sue Vincent, but I am sure its less than 100. Even I will describe the book as a strange tome but packed with magical information. The book came about as a result of my utter obsession with this occult symbol. While I was finishing the Servants of the Light first degree course, I kept on seeing the symbol in meditation. The inner contact that I had developed kept leaving me with tantalizing scraps of wisdom about it too. I found myself doodling hexagrams and pondering the correspondences of it. I recall one weekend retreat led by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki in which I showed her this huge diagram of the symbol and everything I could possibly
Read More »Plumbing
I’m not sure what consciousness is and apparently scientists are clueless too but, I do know that I am conscious – most of the time. Consciousness is associated with the brain – I guess people would argue as to whether the brain is an instrument of consciousness or actually creates the illusion of it. I prefer to believe the former of course. However, if you really think about what we are we are just brains on sticks. The stick is the spine of course but that’s pretty much what we are right? A brain on a stick. The rest of it is plumbing and a sack to hold it all in. The problem is that occasionally, the plumbing goes wrong. It did for me. About 18-months ago, my plumbing had
Read More »The Way of Wyrd by Brian Bates
Finally reprinted this is a true classic. At one time, this book used might sell for $500! Sent on a mission deep into the forests of pagan Anglo-Saxon England, Wat Brand, a Christian scribe, suddenly finds his vision of the world turned upside down. The familiar English countryside is not what it seems: threatening spirits, birds of omen and plants of power lurk in this landscape of fallen terrors and mysterious forces. With Wulf, a sorcerer and mystic, as his guide, Brand is instructed in the magical lore of plants, runes, fate and the life force until finally he journeys to the spirit world on a quest to encounter the true nature of his own soul. I can truly recommend this book. Amazon.com Widgets
Read More »Is There Life After Death by Anthony Peake – Reviewed
It’s a rare thing for me to rave about a book. I love to read and consequently, I read a lot of books and am often disappointed. Not so with “Is There Life after Death” by Anthony Peake. In fact, this was a book that I couldn’t and didn’t want to put down and yet had to just to think about its content. It’s well researched, well written and frankly well published in the sense that it’s a quality book too for the price. Peake has a slightly humorous writing style yet delivers on content and punch. So what is the book about? Well, it’s really not about life after death and to some extent the title seems an odd choice. Peake lucidly explores quantum physics, medicine, psychology, certain aspects
Read More »Science and Occult Worlds Collide?
More and more these days scientists are proclaiming ‘discoveries’ that occultists have held as truth for thousands of years. Recently there have been a spate of articles regarding hand shape and behaviour – none other than scientific endorsement of palmistry. Now there is research on the effects of meditation which scientists agree helps people cope better with depression and a range of other issues as highlighted in this BBC story. But the list is endless. Quantum physics, human psychology, astronomy… you name it and if you do your research we find that science is confirming many occult principles. It’s exciting to live in an age where occult principles are becoming more accepted not just by mainstream society but by science too which has long been at odds with the occult.
Read More »The Art of Dreaming
I love to dream. At least I love to dream good dreams and still suffer too many nightmares. Dreams provide a glimpse into the inner workings of the soul and are very much worthwhile recording. OK, some dreams are just a mish mash of nonsense but some hold deep significance. In my book, Inner Journeys, I talk about a dream that I still have periodically. My house dream. I can’t truly express how I feel about this house, well, sprawling mansion. I adore it with an intensity that defies description. Sometimes, the house seems partly unfinished, partly built and occupied and in other areas, partly ruined and left to the ravages of time. This house contains treasures beyond description and its nooks and crannies contain surprises; sometimes unpleasant surprises. In
Read More »The Shadow and the Occultist’s Trained Mind
One characteristic of occult training is a ‘trained mind’. Dion Fortune talks about that quite a lot in her works and it is certainly true that the work we do rewires the brain and results in a mind that is able to perform visualization and concentration on demand. I read last night with great interest in ‘Moon Magic’ how Dion’s character, La Fay Morgan, talks about building an astral temple using visualization and the trained mind. I can do this too these days and actually very easily when I put my mind and my training to it. But, that Shadow, he robs me of my ability to concentrate, to visualize – he utterly disrupts my ‘trained’ mind. How? It’s almost like the old idea of the devil on one shoulder
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