quinta-feira, 24 de novembro de 2011

"The Octavo: A Sorcerer-Scientist's Grimoire" - Peter J. Carroll



A chaos magick theory of everything. Improbable? And therefore possible! Having followed Frater Stokastikos' journey to perceive the shape of the universe, I've found the developments fascinating, and also impatiently wondered how these new discoveries apply to magick exactly. Well, now I know. In The Octavo Peter J. Carroll expounds a new map of the universe providing no less than a map of magick and therefore reality itself.

Abandon your current perceptions, suspend your disbelief, and rejoice in a viable replacement for that absurd big bang theory: does an exploding singularity make a sound if no-one can hear it? I think not. If your present map of the universe does not get turned completely inside out, it will at least get redefined. But don't panic, because the very first magickal equation, the Spell of the Binding, reassuringly stops our worlds from literally falling apart. And neither will we imminently implode; cue the Spells of the Spinning which account for our ongoing dynamism.

But of course, if the shape of the universe seems so obvious after the first two chapters, why have we spent all this time getting it so wrong? The Spells of Illusion explain our civilisation's folly regarding our misperceptions to date. Then we find out that magick works in this universe because chaos exists. And the Spells of Subtle Magic explain why our whims don't materialize instantaneously.

The next two spells have the most familiarity to me as the core of Stokastikos' earlier published equation of magick: link * probability. Finally we have a practical magickal application for wave functions in the Spells of the Linking. The magickal link has probably suffered the most misunderstandings as one of building blocks in spelling, while the Spells of Impractical Magic show us just how much probability we need (and can do without) for our enchantments. Now that we have most of the theory, we can add the finishing components and put it all together with the Spell of Practical Magic.

The eighth and final spell brings us back to the map where we started. We can navigate any terrain more effectively the better our map. And the same applies to magick. The Spell of the Narration shows us the need to understand the boundaries and somewhat more esoteric equilibrium that ebbs and flows between entropy and negentropy. Only mere decades after Crowley lamented the lack of rigorous investigation into the properties of the aether, Frater Stokastikos articulates a delicious theory of how and why magick works. But this map leaves plenty of uncharted territory (finite but unbounded specifically) for the most adventurous explorers to venture into. Mind the beasties, especially ourselves. With the knowledge of the eighth spell, we can aim for a happy ending - no guarantees of course - but Stokastikos challenges us to ask ourselves what we use our magick for.

After the eight spells, the action doesn't stop. A call to arms no less to avert an apocalypse, or at least choose our preferred flavour. Do you have what it takes to transform into a Knight of Chaos? Add an invocation of Eris for chaotic inspiration, flex your strategic muscles in Sorcerer's Chess and we complete this whirlwind of rebel physics and rebel magick. I can't even begin to explain the maths and physics in the book, and happily I don't need to - Stokastikos does this expertly enough. If you think he has got it wrong, enjoy yourself trying to disprove it.

Of course, the very name of the book The Octavo comes from that parallel Pratchett universe the Discworld. Just as its namesake contains the eight spells which hold the Discworld together, so too does this Octavo hold us in Roundworld. But it also liberates us. What can one say about a book that redefines our understanding of our existence: original, essential, with far-reaching implications? All of the above and much more. Expect a journey through the aeons as well as around the universe, and a tantalising invitation to create our future. By the end of the book, phrases like "vorticitating hypersphere" and "immanentising the eschaton" will seem like your everyday vocabulary. But mind when and where you use them: don't forget what happened to those who first challenged the flat world theory.

Review by Star Anise (Australia), on Amazon.com

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sábado, 19 de novembro de 2011

"Pop Magic!" - Grant Morrison




POP MAGIC! by Grant Morrison.

This reproduction is faithful to the edition published in The Disinformation Book of Lies and is not intended in any way to infringe on copyright, but simply desires maximum exposure to those who might not otherwise come in contact with these ideas.

POP MAGIC! is Magic! for the People. Pop Magic! is Naked Magic! Pop Magic! lifts the 7 veils
and shows you the tits of the Infinite.


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"Talking With Gods - Grant Morrison" (Documentary)

Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods is a feature-length documentary that takes an in depth look at the life, career and mind of the Scottish comic book writer Grant Morrison. Talking with Gods features interviews with Morrison and many his most collaborators, such as artists, editors and other industry professionals.

Among those interviewed are Executive Editor of DC Comics Dan Didio, and Karen Berger - Executive Editor of DC Comics' Vertigo. Artists interviewed in the film include Phil Jimenez, Jill Thompson, Cameron Stewart, Frazer Irving, Steve Cook and many others. The film also features interviews with Morrison's collaborators Geoff Johns and Mark Waid, as well as counterculture personalities like Richard Metzger, Douglas Rushkoff and Jason Louv.

Sure, this documentary has scenes detailing the comic author's experiences with spellcasting, psychedelics, and alien abduction. But essentially it's about a quite ordinary fellow who wanted to make comics and succeeded like a madman. Grant Morrison doesn't fit the profile of your average comics writer, he dresses in very nice suits, looks like he's from the future, and talks freely about past drug use and his unabiding love for chaos magic.

He's ridiculously cool and could be a comics character himself - a feat he routinely pulls off by basing characters on himself and even appearing in one of his early comics. It is interesting the Idea of his work "The Invisibles", an assumed Hypersigil that he empowered while he began to live like the characters in his book. He went to the same exotic locales, imbibed the same substances, and went on adventures to the extent that the comic was as much a memoir as a book following a group of super hip magic anarchists could be.










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"Fahrenheit 666: TheOccult.bz Delusion"

In the now defunct ThePhoenix-Forums.com, in the last weeks, we could find many links to TheOccult.bz Exclusives, aka TOBZ Exclusives.

TheOccult.bz is a tracker, a bittorrent site full of ebooks and videos, primarily occult and spiritual. All torrent trackers are based in sharing, even with sharing ratio. But in TheOccult.bz, now known as TheOccult.BullshitZ, the sharing ratio is a paid service. And not only the ratio...

The group behind the tracker has a leader, Taj. Taj wastes most of his time being rude and unpolite with members. He even believe that scanning a book and producing a pirated copy make him the owner of the book! As a good lesson I'm sharing here links to most of the good books called exclusives, books that you need to pay to access. Unfortunately, most of these books are free from AvaxHome.ws, some darknets and other torrent sites like ThePiratebay.org.

If you partipaced in one of their group-buys then it's your right to know that your money was stolen. And if you scanned some of the exclusives below I have just one thing to say: SHARE NOW OR FUCK YOU!

We have some insiders in TheOccult.bz, including high rank members that will send more links and files then keep your eyes open and your minds hungry.

These are Pastebin lists, just click and download everything for free:

TheOccult.bz Exclusives Part 1:
http://pastebin.com/TLmZPwSe

TheOccult.bz Exclusives Part 2:
http://pastebin.com/AdGgwdG0

More can be found in draco218 blog:
http://draco218.blogspot.com/

Text credit:  Eyes of Eagle on Occult Paradigm blog

sexta-feira, 18 de novembro de 2011

Grant Morrison - Disinformation Lecture (Documentary)

Grant Morrison talking at the disinformation talk in about 1999. A fantastic speech by a brilliant character. He talks on The Invisibles, how to use magic to hack into the matrix of reality and expand your consciousness, magic, sigils, hypersigils, and a lot od metaphysical things. It is full of useful information, personal experience & humor which is great if you're interested in consciousness, spirituality, 2012, magic, quantum physic i.e..

I love this lecture. So refreshing and he has that childlike joy too. Brilliant!

Highly recommended!!

You can download the video lecture, and (or) the transcription of the lecture plus an interview on Grant Morrison by Richard Metzger.








Down Disinfo Lecture (video)

Down Transcription plus Interview

"Alan Moore on Austin Spare (2010)" - The Culture Show (Documentary)

Legendary graphic novel author Alan Moore explores the biggest public art exhibition of Austin Osman Spare for over 50 years, and discovers why Spare, an Edwardian virtuoso artist and occult magician has been left off art history's canon.

Austin Osman Spare (30 December 1886 – 15 May 1956) was an English artist who developed idiosyncratic magical techniques including automatic writing, automatic drawing and sigilization based on his theories of the relationship between the conscious and unconscious self. His artistic work is characterized by skilled draughtsmanship exhibiting a mastery of the use of the line, and often employs monstrous or fantastic magical and sexual imagery.
Details:

Duration: 00:08:05
File Size: 62.4 MB

Video Information

Video Codec: XviD
Video Bitrate: 945 kb/s
Resolution: 608x336
Frames Per Second: 25.000 fps

"The Grimoire of Vokaor" - Katara Zunmir

Now, this is a quite interesting work!

Vokaor is an original magical system using the "Primals" of Void, Chaos, Order, Energy, Matter, and Consciousness. This grimoire is intended to give any interested magician the tools needed to use Vokaor and a context for it, beginning with a cosmology and providing the building blocks for the system and how it can mesh with the Great Web of the universe.

I must say that this little book has in it pages, the true concept of what should be the true Chaos magick, since Ms. Katara Zunmir has created a brand new magickal  system. It is worth reading the introduction to understand some concepts that a lot of Chaoist says, but only a few really understand.






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"The Seven Seals: a Practical Occult Experience" - François Lépine

This book is about occidental occultism, such as Kabbalah, the Arbatel of Magic, and Elemental Magic. The Seven Seals is a metaphor of the occult tools we can aspire to develop, as a human, but also as a spiritual being. By observing nature, specifically the human nature, we have become masters at understanding how we work inside our minds, but also have we become adepts at hiding ourselves from the truth. Above power, there is truth.

Engulfed in this truth we cease to be simple human animals; we become filled with the essence that composes the whole of the universe, and we finally understand everything. Many paths point to the heavens, but all of them are challenging, either at the mental or the emotional level, some even at the physical level. In this book, we wish to guide you through a new occult experience. The material is presented in a specific order that should awaken you to spiritual concepts of occidental occultism. Once you have gone through the entire book, it will still be useful as a reference on occult correspondences. We will resume a few aspects of the occidental occult sciences, from different traditions, but mostly revolving around the concept of the seven seals.




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"A Psychonauts Guide to the Invisible Landscape: The Topography of the Psychedelic Experience" - Dan Carpenter




A bold cartography of the inner landscape visible only to those experiencing altered states

• Presents the psychedelic experience as an objective landscape that embodies the Other, rather than a subjective state of mind

• Provides corroboration of phenomena encountered by those who venture into this domain

Journeying into the invisible world revealed by his use of the dissociative psychedelic DXM (dextromethorphan), Dan Carpenter found that what he experienced was not simply subjective sensations and psychological states but an objective world of familiar, if inordinately odd, landmarks and characters. The running diary he kept of these voyages recounts impressions of a landscape charted by other travelers into this Inner Space and includes descriptions of many of the same phenomena recorded by such mind travelers as Terence and Dennis McKenna, Alexander and Ann Shulgin, and others who have experienced the hive mind - the pool of all consciousness. Into this territory where expression is like chaos theory, where oddly symmetrical order manifests out of the seemingly anarchic swirl of images and events, the author ventures with the mind-set of a naturalist, accepting whatever might be rather than what he hopes he might find.

What emerges is not a location crafted by subjective experience, but a landscape that embodies the Other and that represents a conscious state in which the barriers between the self and the not-self dissolve.


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"The Temple of High Witchcraft: Ceremonies, Spheres and The Witches' Qabalah" - Christhopher Penczak

Very interesting book.

It is obvious that the author makes a crossover between teachings from different magic systems. For instance, the material on the Qabalah follows orthodox Golden Dawn teaching very closely.
I say that this is a very useful book for those who are searching for a very easy to read accessible information.
However, I must say that this book does not offer very useful informations to experienced ceremonial magicians.

As a final comment, I really do not know why the title of the book is "(...) high witchcraft".




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"New Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot Keys to the Rituals, Symbolism, Magic and Divination" - Chic Cicero & Sandra Tabatha Cicero

This book uses the Ciceros' tarot as a way to introduce basic Golden Dawn ritual and divination. The book provides nothing new to advanced practitioners, but may be of interest to those trying to learn more about the approach taken by this organization.

The book consists of roughly three sections. The beginning contains the authors' approaches to the Golden Dawn teachings regarding the Tree of Life, a brief history of the Golden Dawn in the United States, and related topics. This is followed by a description of the cards (as the Golden Dawn saw them). These are followed by ritual discussions (LBRP and related rituals, opening by watchtower, etc). Finally divination is covered.

All in all, this book is a very good introduction to the Golden Dawn approach. It is more accessible than anything Regardie wrote, for example. All in all, I would highly recommend this book to those looking for such an introduction. (Review by Christopher R. Traver, on Amazon.com)




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terça-feira, 15 de novembro de 2011

"Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts" - Commented Edition (PDF & MP3's) - Donald Michael Kraig

"Modern Magick "is the most popular, most complete, step-by-step instruction manual on how to do real magick that has ever been published. Already over 100,000 people are using it.

Author Donald Michael Kraig wrote this after teaching the information in classes for ten years. It is refined, tested, and easy to understand. It is filled with exercises, techniques, and rituals to help you. It is presented in a series of eleven lessons. Follow the lessons, practice the rituals and techniques, and by the end of your work you will be a magician.

What does it cover? Rituals, healing, initiation, talismans, astral travel, creative visualization, psychic self-defense, evocation of spirits, the Kabalah, physical exercise, and magical tools such as wands.
Want more? You'll also learn the secrets of true meditation, how to use the Tarot, how to remember your dreams, how to do the rituals of Western Magick, including rituals of the Pentagram, Hexagram, Middle Pillar, Rose Cross, and Watchtower. You'll learn how to manipulate magical energy, secrets of relaxation, Wicca, pathworking, Tantra, and sex magick.

Once you have finished working your way through this book you will be an accomplished magician. You will be able to perform real magick. Then this book will become the most valuable reference tool in your collection of books.

What if you want to know even more about a subject? No problem. Each chapter has a bibliography so you can go even deeper into any topic. There is an annotated bibliography at the end with even more resources.
In the new, second edition the contents pages contain more information so it is even easier to find what you need, but there is also an entirely new appendix with answers to many of the most frequently asked questions that Kraig has received over the years. This book is a must!




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(Contains MP3 and PDF book)

segunda-feira, 14 de novembro de 2011

"Philosophy and Practice of Magick" - Peter J. Carroll


At any time in life, but most commonly in late youth, when we have the vague intuition that there is something profoundly bizarre and inconsistent about life, the universe, and everything, there may suddenly be a horrifying or ecstatic certainty that one's own self is illusory, and that reality is also an illusion.One's carefully defended identity seems to be a pointless pretence and an empty shell.The world becomes a cacophony of meaningless sensations.Most people will reject this initiation, and manage to fill their lives and identities with sufficient concerns until perhaps an awareness of mortality reminds them of it again.Those who do drink the poison must seek stronger medicine or become sick or mad. - Peter J. Carroll

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(Contains MP3 and PDF transcription)

"The Chaos Magick Audio CDs Vol 2 - Liber Bootleg"




This is an interesting CD set. It is a re-release of some out of print cassettes that were previously available. The first disc is introduced as being a collection of basic magick workings. Most of the rituals on this disc are protective rituals that can be used as alternative banishing rituals. The introduction suggests that some of them can be used for basic personal fortification, protection from nightmares, or from poltergeist activity. It also warns against attempting these rituals while heavily under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The first two rituals come from the Golden Dawn. The first being a version of the qabalistic cross, the second being a “Dispersion by Pentagram”. These are followed by “Mass of Chaos C” and a reading apparently from “Theogony of Hesiod”.

An “Asgard Pathworking” is next, which for me is one of the highlights of CD1 of this set. The pathworking takes you on a journey to Asgard where you must pass Heimdall before reaching Valhalla and having an audience with Odin. This is the easiest of the rituals to follow but some knowledge of runes would be of use to the listener.

Next is “Pillar of Chaos” which aims to improve visualisation and can be used to relax and recharge the individual at any point of the day it may be required. It is quite a simple techniques to follow and I certainly found it relaxing.

“The Mummy and The Mirror” is an interesting guided enegry movement, which uses Egyptian mythology and iconography to help one create a protective shell around oneself. I can myself using this ritual a lot as it is easy to follow and works with a paradigm I don’t normally use.

“Green + Black” is an odd ritual that could do with a lot more explanation before I could say much about it.

The cd finishes with a basic gnostic banishing ritual.

All in all I think this is a very interesting CD that could be very useful for the Chaote to get inspiration for new workings if they feel their practice is getting a little stale. The introduction to this cd gives the impression of being an introduction to magickal practice. I thing it does have the potential for this but most of the rituals are not fully explained, which would leave the novice wondering what is going on. If this had been accompanied by a short booklet explaining each track then I would highly recommend it to novices.

CD2 in this two CD set is much better in my opinion. The introduction gives much more insight into what is to follow. It states that the rituals presented are only presented as a historical record of the practices of the individuals at the time of recording. It also suggests that invocation and evocation are exercises not suitable for the beginner who should begin with the other disc.

The first ritual on the disc is “Mass of Chaos B”, which is the mass of Chaos published in “Psychonaut” by Peter Carroll. I always find it fascinating to hear others performing rituals that I myself have engaged in and this is no exception.

The next track is “The Enochian Call of the 10th Aethyr”, which is quite drawn out and is one of the least interesting tracks on this disc, though it may appeal to those iwth an interest in Enochian/John Dee.

“Disursus Cum Daemone” is an invocation of Choronzon to ask advice. Invocation is an area I haven’t yet experimented with so this made for interesting listening. This ritual and the one that follow it are the highlights of CD2, in my opinion.

The next ritual is “Evocation of Tiamat”. For me this is the best of the historical records on this disc. Tiamat is invoked to give advice for the Chaotes present. Tiamat comes across as quite funny and is obviously enjoying the experiment and amused by the humans. This track on the CD alone is worth the money for me.

“Target Practice” is another ritual that is not given much of an explanation but is an interesting listen all the same.

The CD ends with a “Chao/Runic banishing”, which is quite basic and could be useful for those looking for ideas for a personal banishing ritual.

This CD of the two probably offers the most to both beginners and old-hands at the magick game. With the fuller explanation at the beginning of the CD novices will have more of an idea of what is going on and be able to see what kind of things are possible if they stick to their magickal practices. More experienced magickians will get the benefit of hearing other people performing rituals that they may include in their own practice. They may even pick up some different approaches. A couple of the tracks are just entertaining hearing the interactions between the magickians and the invoked beings. I’m glad these cassettes have been re-released in cd form and are more readily available.

If I were to give this a mark out of 10 it would have to get a 7. This would be improved by the inclusion of a booklet explaining some of the nuances of the rituals presented.

Review by Spinal Nature

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"Nocturnicon: Calling Dark Forces and Powers" - Konstantinos

A Dark Neopagan, Konstantinos has been researching the occult and practicing magick for over fifteen years. Born and raised in Long Island, New York, Konstantinos now devotes his time to writing, singing Gothic rock music, and exploring nocturnal life in New York City

Dark Magick in the sense that it is not inherently evil, but something that alot of the contemporary wiccans would shun. So if you are looking for black magick, you will disappointed. Which is why I think the other reviewers wrote as they did.

His magick is usable, and is indeed different than modern magick. I do not consider this a weakness. There are Elements in these rites if you know what you are looking at. However, death, darkness and such are chaotic. Hence the chaotic way of forming the circle. Those who understand the balance of nature also understand that light=order and dark=chaos. These rites were refreshing, and interesting to read. Some people claim he is making his own kind of magick...but is that not we all do when we write our own spells and such? Some claim he is pandering to goth mentality. Well, I suppose you could say that any other wiccan or ceremonialist is pandering to the fluffy bunny mentality also. It is a matter of perspective.

Indeed, a very useful book!




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"Nocturnal Witchcraft: Magick After Dark" - Konstantinos



Nocturnal Energies differ from those of Daylight and Witches have long known how to take advantage of Lunar Powers and the spiritual entities that prefer the darkness for particular magical operations.

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"Summoning Spirits: The Art of Magical Evocation" - Konstantinos



Ancient grimoires say that spirits can grant magicians remarkable things—supernatural abilities, the location of hidden treasure, the admiration of others, and all forms of knowledge—making it clear why the practice of evocation has maintained its hold on the minds of magicians all over the world.

The truth, however, is that few practicing magicians actually do evocations. That may be because although many of the books talk about evocation, they don't describe how to actually perform evocations. For this reason, Summoning Spirits by Konstantinos is more useful than any other book, including the ancient grimoires, when it comes to evocation of spirits.

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"Sexual Alchemy: Magical Intercourse with Spirits" - Donald Tyson



Erotic unions with spirits have occured throughout history, but the methods have been suppressed and lost, save for references and fragments in ancient alchemical and magical texts. This book presents a magical system for initiating sexual unions with spirit beings and using the energy released from these unions for self-empowerment and personal transformation. It offers to show the reader: magical sexual practices and a sexual spiritual union to surpass the pleasures of physical sex; rituals to encourage the movement of Kundalini energy; magical uses for sexual fluids; techniques for creating a homunculus - an artificial human.

---

I have still not read this book, however, I have heard only good opinions about it. I am wondering if does it have anything to do with Phil Hine's "Cacodemonic Copulations" 


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"The Seven Faces Of Darkness - Practical Typhonian Magic" - Don Webb



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"Trance-portation: Learning to Navigate the Inner World" - Diana L. Paxson




Today, every city has a metaphysical bookstore, and "New Age" is a publishing category. In the sixties, when researchers such as Charles Tart were just beginning to explore consciousness, books imported
from England, the already venerable Weiser Books, and the newly founded Llewellyn were the only sources for material on the esoteric.

Those who wanted to learn trance work haunted used bookstores, hoping that some dusty volume by Dion Fortune or W. E. Butler would turn up in the bin. But the times were changing, and from the sixties to the
present an ever-increasing flood of material from a wide variety of traditions (and varying widely in value) has filled booksellers' shelves.

Just as the writings that came out of the Western Mystery Tradition from the thirties through the fifties tried to incorporate into their explanations of occult phenomena the new theories of psychology that were becoming popular, in the sixties, Timothy Leary's experiments with LSD inspired research (with or without drugs) into what scientists like Tart called "Altered State of Consciousness," or ASCs. This was a term for all those states of mind in which one feels not merely a quantitative change or shift in degree of alertness or other awareness, but also " ... that some quality or qualities of his mental process are different. Mental functions operate that do not operate at all ordinarily, perceptual qualities appear that have no normal counterparts, and so forth" (Tart, 1969). As he observed, Western culture has tended to view non-ordinary states as undesirable, if not downright pathological.

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"Something Wicked This Way Comes: Constructing the Witch in Contemporary American Popular Culture" - Catherine Armetta Shufelt






Perhaps this is one of the biggest problems that I see in most of people who does have interest in any field of study of the unconventional sciences: The lack of interest in other fields of study that could very useful and could help to keep the mind open.   
It is sad to see the people creating their own truth and  unfortunately, closing their eyes to other issues that could be very useful for the understanding of the world that surrounds us...


Therefore, every time  that I find some interesting and intriguing text - even if does not have anything to do with the occult - I will upload it here... This is the case of this Academic Dissertation from Catherine Armetta Shufelt. 



"Something Wicked This Way Comes: Constructing the Witch in Contemporary American Popular Culture" - Catherine Armetta Shufelt

What is a Witch?

Traditional mainstream media images of Witches tell us they are evil “devil worshipping baby killers,” green-skinned hags who fly on brooms, or flaky tree huggers who dance naked in the woods. A variety of mainstream media has worked to support these notions as well as develop new ones. Contemporary American popular culture shows us images of Witches on television shows and in films vanquishing
demons, traveling back and forth in time and from one reality to another, speaking with dead relatives, and attending private schools, among other things. None of these mainstream images acknowledge the very real beliefs and traditions of modern Witches and Pagans, or speak to the depth and variety of social, cultural, political, and environmental work being undertaken by Pagan and Wiccan groups and individuals
around the world.

Utilizing social construction theory, this study examines the “historical process” of the construction of stereotypes surrounding Witches in mainstream American society as well as how groups and individuals who call themselves Pagan and/or Wiccan have utilized the only media technology available to them, the internet, to resist and reconstruct these images in order to present more positive images of themselves as well as
build community between and among Pagans and nonPagans.

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