Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

The Gay Ghost of the George Hotel

Monday, November 26th, 2007

Someone recently sent me a humorous article from gaywired.com about a group of paranormal investigators that looked into some ghostly activity at The George Hotel in North Norfolk (UK).

The article reads like every other ghastly investigation and mentions the normal EMF meters, laser thermometers, camcorders, and of course night vision. It talks about whether or not specks of light were orbs or dust, hair standing on end, and even the tugging on belts and hair. Ya know, the typical ghost hunter type stuff.

Near the end they talk about a waiter that when attempting to get into the dry storage room some ghost starts yanking on the zipper of his pants. Enough to give a snicker, right?

You betcha! Especially when the article ends with the undead culprit being a male that used to work in the bakery…apparently trying to get a piece of tail, even in the afterlife.

I wonder if anyone would be willing to give it a go on some reality show for the playboy channel, or maybe even Gaywired.com. While I’m not all that interested in homosexual activity, though ghostly activity is something I like, so I would like to know the outcome of such an event ;) Of course, I’d not mind finding a straight ghost willing to tug on my trousers…

School and Pagan Holidays

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

Marshall University, a college in Huntington, W.Va., recently became the first college in the country to grant pagan students excused absences for celebrating pagan holidays.

While many colleges have policies allowing students to miss any class for religious reasons, no other school has recognized paganism by specifically granting students permission to miss class for pagan holidays, The Associated Press reported.

I’m simply thrilled by this news, as it’s one step closer to making the various pagan faiths once again mainstream…something that has not been done for generations. And while I am not really sure of the specifics of it all or which holidays they are allowed to miss, I really do feel that this is a step in the correct direction. Now if all goes well other schools will follow suit, and then maybe rather then closing the school down for the Christian holidays they will close them for government holidays (veterans day, in service, boss’s day, etc) and then allow the students on an individual level leave when they need to observe something for religious reasons.

Luckily many of the holidays are pretty close to one another, if not on the same day, so such a transition should not be all that hard of one.

Superstitious?

Saturday, November 10th, 2007

I recently took a trip to Knoxville to McKay Books, a simply FANTASTIC used bookstore. I do my best to make it over there at least once every few months and would like to go more but generally do not have the money. They sell high quality, but used books that are generally at least 50% off of the cover price, though even better deals can certainly be found.

In the past I have gotten several magickal text, a few craft/project books, and even a gardening book. I generally head out there with my Most beloved, but sometimes I’ll head out there with her daughter, which is who I went with this last time. She got a few novels of the time travel/paranormal variety, and I got three books on superstitions.

  • The Encyclopedia of Superstitions, by E. and M. A. Radford [Barnes & Noble, 1961]
    370 pages of information on European and American superstitions complete with a decent bibliography and a handy index for cross-referencing. Well worth its $7.50 price tag.
  • Dictionary of Superstitions, by David Pickering [Cassell, 1995]
    It has 294 pages with more entries then the previous book, but less information for each one of them. It offers no other perks, but is still rather handy as an A-Z guide for it’s topic. Certainly a good starting point, and I’m glad that I got it for $5.25.
  • A Treasury of American Superstitions, Claudia De Lys [Bonanza, 1948]
    This little gem has 484 pages, a bibliography, and a decent index. It is not an A-Z guide however and finding things quickly could prove difficult without it’s index. It is well written, easy to follow, and has more information then either of the other two on the topics that it covers. One nice thing is that it focuses on American traditions, though many did come from over seas originally.

I plan on writing up several articles on what can be had in all three books so stay tuned to both here and the main site for updates concerning superstitions. To get a small taste of what is inside the three books check out these Occult Corpus discussions for superstitions for the entire week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

I banned Geraint Evans!

Wednesday, October 17th, 2007

Geraint EvansBack in 2005 when I was a full fledged member of Occult Forums we got a loony that made an account named “Jack Blade”. Half of this members posts seem to claim he had some affiliation with Satan. The other half had him claiming that he was Jesus Christ.

Through some twist of normal logic he claimed that there was proof of his divinity on his birth certificate. (exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C), and his twisted logic is thus:

Technically look at it.. My mother’s name is Caroline Rosser.. Carol as in the song.. See sign’s C.Rosser like Jesus died on the cross.. Which made God crosser.. Then my father’s same Stuart Evans.. Stu Art.. As in the Devil makeing art of food.. Art of you.. You become the Devil’s toy an he ain’t human.. I got all nature im like a wild animal when i want to be.. An then he sign’s S.Evans As in Seven spirit’s of God.. An also like the film Seven which show’s how dark my metality goes.. Understand if it exist’s it exist’s in me an my head.. Makeing it my metality an memory’s.. Then we have me my name is Geraint David Evans.. Which break’s down into G Re Ain’t Vaild Heaven’s.. Why ain’t Re correct or vaild.. Because Jesus was God an Devil.. Not just God.. Jesus was the man with the spirit of the Universe.. Makeing him both God an Devil.. Then my birth date prove’s this.. 21 April 1983.. 21 as i said is the number.. An even my birth year add’s upto it.. 1+9+8+3=21.. 3×7=21.. 7 an 21 are the Alpha an the Omega of the last chapter of the bibel Jesus is coming.. Jesus say’s he the Alpha an Omega would return then i turn up haveing the number’s which prove me to be the Alpha an the Omega of that chapter.. See i said i would return an i have.. An the fact that my number’s prove God as similer number’s to Devil prove’s they are one an the same.. Just different side’s of God’s metality.. An the fact that the number’s is proved by the supposedly holy bible.. Prove’s it is from God.. No matter what crap they pull.. If they think im nothing but the Devil then i would not be connected in such a way to the bible.. A book you claim is so holy.. Yet it was wrote by them ba*tards who killed me.. Holy i think not.

Post after post of bad poetry and random biblical ramblings followed and proceeded that revelation to the point that the member had to be banned for breaking several of the forum rules and regulations.

Almost two years later he was accused of killing Father Bennett, a Vicar at St Fagan’s Church. While this is a story out of the UK, it crossed over to the states when the news had an image of the forums he was a member at. Oddly enough, they equated the forums with Satanism and other evil things, where that was not really the case. Either way, the publicity of the event has forced the current administration to ‘archive’ the posts of the member, so I’ll not be sharing anything more.

But if you would like to know more of the story from the media you can check out this story, and this video.

The Apple Of My Eye

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

bobbing for apples My birthday is in October so inevitably my birthday parties always had a Halloween theme to theme. That’s not a bad thing mind you, I love that spooky holiday. But it’s not always about the tricks and treats or the goblins and ghosts. It’s about other fall festivities like Hay Rides and Bobbing for Apples. Of course I had no Idea that Hay rides derived from such simple pleasures as this being the time of year and such hay pulling NEEDED to be done. Of course I also had no idea that Bobbing for Apples and the use of apples in general were ancient Celtic traditions that could foretell who I was going to marry. Had I paid more attention I could have saved myself some heart ache and just gone for the loving bliss I’ve found here in Tennessee.

As many of the older traditions started based on the needs of daily life, its no wonder that fruit, specifically apples, became an integral part of the harvest festival we have come to know as Halloween. In the beginning of early pagan traditions, apples were believed to hold special powers, not only were they a symbol for the female gods, but when an apple is split in two through its center, it will reveal a five-pointed star at the center. I mean, how cool is that? Not to mention tis the season for apples and of course how yummy they taste.

Unwed folks used to compete to see who could bob for an apple or bit a hanging apple from a string. The first to get their teeth marks into it would be the first to marry.

Peeling apples in front of a mirror in candle light can supposedly produce the image of ones future spouse. This is rather humorous, especially as, if it took a while to bring about the image you could then divine just how long you would live. According to tradition by comparing the length of the peel to your average life expectancy you could divine the rest of your time. The longer the peel, the longer you’re here.

I’m sure the list is much longer then that, but I’d just assume eat apples then use them in any ritual that’s too long (and as such keeping me from eating them).