Exorcism! C4 (25.2.5)

Well maybe not - after the big build-up - the spooky credits, dry ice and discordant musick, the stentorian tones of the presenter, author, so my informant tells me of several best selling 'self help' titles. Krisnan Guru Murti - strained and came forth . . . with a gnat. C4 late night exorcism was a bit of a damp squib. If you're going to scan someone's brain better make sure they got one.

Krisnan struggled to extract some blood out of the panel of stone faced talking heads - many of them sporting dog-collars or the earnest look of the recently delivered. It was definitely a case where the advert was more interesting than the product.

After all the recent publicity concerning the so-called god spot - one wonders if that theory is going to go the way of that other G? Take some fundamentalist Christians, with a few other Abrahamic types for 'balance' - then a willing subject - although this one found it hard to conceal the fact that he had rehearsed - well more than that actually - this was not his first exorcism - or 'deliverance' to use the nice new term suggested by the COE PR department. Our subject turns out to be well known to the exorcist - well his friend actually - having been exorcised for something or other most weekends at his local church - this week is was a nice gentle demon called 'paranoia' which duly upped and left at the first mention of 'the mighty name of Jesus'. Lest we forget that JC was first and foremost an exorcist. Thank your lucky stars it wasn't a more intractable 'demon' like 'homosexuality' or sparks really might have flown. Come to think of it might have been more interesting.

Those clever scientists had to work very hard indeed to find anything significant in those brain waves - other than the kind of changes that might occur possibly during meditation or even - dare I say it - the kind of changes in brain chemistry that might occur if someone touches you in a kindly way on the chest. (mogg)

"A Ghost Is....."

....a half-open escape-hatch from one's death throes....with greater scientific knowledge the "Bluebell Hill Ghost", to take a good strange example, could suddenly be walking around as a solid human being, saved from that car that crashed on the 19th of November 1965 and, according to the obituaries, killed an Australian girl due to be married the next day. More pretentiously put, but more according to Top Secret American understanding, she is a 'semi-realised rematerialisation', or to refer to that in depretentionised tones, the Bluebell Hill ghost is a 'semi-remat', which is a term more akin to that which a former MI5 agent had used for the dematerialisation experiments being shown off underneath the Pentagon, 'demat/remat',though I have to be careful as to how I refer to that source.

The most complex version of the Bluebell Hll ghost is that a few years later she is picked up by a driver, he talks with her including finding out her Maidstone address, she complains of being cold, he puts a coat around her shoulders, carries on focusing on the road, turns to talk to her again to find nothing there at all, finds her address the following day out of curiousity, the old couple who come to the door say, yes, we recognise her, she's our daughter who died X years ago (an ASSAP investigator checking this story out found that a few motorists had come to this old couple's door about the disappearing girl), this guy asks to see her gravestone, finds the graveyard, walks up and finds his coat flat out on top of that tomb.

Now, as a clue to what that is, I met a fellow called Bob Oechsler in Iceland in November 1993, in the Saga hotel we were both booked in at, I knew he had been rumoured to have been shown dematerialisation experiments 'underneath the Pentagon'. Bob is a typical loud American, and was refusing to stop smoking wherever he was, a chain-smoker who believed in the right to be so. I simply asked outright whether his work in NASA had led him to see dematerialisation as a form of eventual space travel when sufficiently developed, and his response, in my opinion, was a tad illogical.

"Nah, you guys donno what's goin' on with dematerialisation, ahm gettin' shown these experiments unnerneath the Pentagon, and we're stickin' a pack a cigarettes in there, between these two columns at one side a the room, an' they reappear between these two columns at the other side a the room, or we make it a few cigarettes, or a hairbrush or somethin' like that, nothin' serious, but we don't get full rematerialisation, it can come out with a corner missing and things like that, so we're naht about to stick a person in there an' watch them come out the other end minus a head or their molecules all jumbled up or somethin' like that. So I don't think we'll be usin' it for space-travel."

My logical objection at that point remained tightly within my skull, uttered only by a type of inner mouth our brains seem to possess - surely if you know we've gone that far, we will eventually master full rematerialisation? But feeling so lucky at having got a response that did sound sensational, I kept mum and kept him happy.

That the Bluebell Hill Ghost is a semi-rematerialisation is my belief, and that combimations of water +/or geological strata react with a mental vibration in an antenna-like manner, almost but never perfectly transmitting the ghost to another point in time and place, though the 'place' so far would seem to be necessarily referred to as 'relatively local' - the 'ghost' remains close to the occurrence of its death.

An Irish girl in London told me of an interesting variation on the Phantom Hitch-hiker theme - I sat there listening to her thinking she was telling me the same old usual hitch-hiker thing, and was feeling a bit bored, then when she got to the crunch-line, the guy who'd been the hitch-hiker got out the van to see THAT disappear....the driver had not said anything throughout the journey, and the hitcher claimed the dashboard appeared featureless, reporting the incident later.....I do not know how many people are aware of that incident, and have only heard of this from her....

I'll stick with things that are confidential to me, giving this article greater worth....now this family didn't want me to repeat this, so absolute pseudonimity will have to be maintained....the Winkle family lived next door to a guy working in Sandringham House in Norfolk....the story he told three years ago was that he'd expressed great frustration at the distance he always was having to walk, amongst an absolute MAZE of corridors, to deliver packages he would get handed from time to time, to the other side of that floor level....in one door, turn left, through that door, turn left again, turn right along that corridor then left again, then through the third door on your left....a highly convoluted journey was necessitated every time he went a message for his boss....

who then showed him this - "When I push on this side of the wall, it will move inwards on a central pivot, so I want you to step to one side once you're past the wall, then when I push it back flush with where it began, step right until you reach the point where you see the pivot of this section is...."

Montague told the Winkle family - "I did everything the boss said, stepped to the left then sidled right till I was just in front of the moving section of the wall - and I was right there! I didn't need to do any walking at all! I just suddenly appeared in the room I was to take the message to!"

Contemplating that in the garden outside, I thought back to meeting Bob in '93, and thought at my remembered image of him - "So they DID go further with demat/remat, exactly as one would have hoped they would if you were amongst that early '90s cognoscenti."

I like to think we might one day speak to the "ghost" of Bluebell Hill, and maybe a ghostly Roman or two, through sufficient technological development....giving some death-throes that weird etherial escape-hatch.... Yours truly, David Moncoeur

websites: surf.to/dangerousdave http://uk.geocities.com/ravemoncoeur www.cottingleyfairies.com

OMPHALOS MAGICKAL FAIR

Creative Magickal Expression
In Bath from April 25th to May 1st.
OPENING RITUAL
MOGG MORGAN

WORKSHOPS
JULIAN VAYNE AND GREG HUMPHRIES
MISHLEN LINDEN

PERFORMANCE
ANTON CHANNING
GAVIN SEMPLE
ORRYELLE DEFENESTRATE / METAMORPHIC RITUAL THEATRE

TALKS
LEVANNAH MORGAN
"MOVIES AND MAGIC"

PAINTING / SCULPTURE / TATTOO / ASTROLOGY / PHOTOGRAPHY / COSTUME.

ASTRID BAUER …....GREG HUMPHRIES……DAVE EVANS…….CHRiSTINA RICHARDSON...
ANN BRYN-EVANS….GERARD HUTTON……ROBERTO MIGLIUSSI ….JASMINE DEVILLE... ANTON CHANNING ….. MARK HURST…….. NATHANIEL HARRIS…….MISHLEN LINDEN.... CHRIS CHIBNALL……HAZEL MACLEAN……ORRYELLE DEFENESTRATE…..IAN SELBIE
MUSIC CHARLOTTE PUGH SULIS
FILM 'EARTH INFERNO'

CLOSING RITUAL MISHLEN LINDEN
For further information e-mail charlottejane@...
Or subscribe to the newsletter at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/omphalosmagickalfair
Sponsored by 'The Annual Witchcraft Seminar'

Becoming Magick
David Rankine

Becoming Magick: New Revised Magicks for the New Aeon

Drawing on over twenty years of magickal work in a variety of systems, this book is a forward-looking manual full of new material and techniques created to push the boundaries of contemporary magick. Inspired by the great magickal traditions of past millennia, Becoming Magick presents new techniques of sigilisation and gematria, as well as a new system of energy magick based on the Kalas, and Prime Qabalah, a new system of English Gematria. This volume also explores the practical benefits of less explored magickal techniques such as magickal ingestion and working magick during illness.

Biography
David Rankine is an author who has been practicing magick for 25 years, and is best known for his lively lectures and workshops. He has been involved with a wide variety of magickal groups and traditions, and draws on his extensive experience to convey the essence of magick in simple terms.

Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion (review)

Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion
Andy Worthington, Alternative Albion 2004 Isbn 1872883761, 14.95pounds

(the book is available from mandrake, plus a few independent
bookshops as well as AMAZON. But as is often the case you probably
won;t find it in one of the corporate bookstores)

'This innovative social history looks in detail at how the summer solstice celebrations at Stonehenge have brought together different aspects of British counter-culture to make the monument a 'living temple' and an icon of alternative Britain'

And indeed everything you could want to know about the stones from the Druid revival in the 18th century, Gerard Gardner's celebration of the 1951 repeal of the Witchcraft Act (complete with bagpipes), to the events of the Beanfield in 1985 (that's twenty years ago this year folks). The counter culture didn't end that day but rather it mutated into the Rave Party scene, the Road's protest and Neo-paganism. It's poised and ready under the banner of the Save Stonehenge Campaign to respond to government's latest scheme to run a dual carriageway just west of the circle.

They say history is written by the winners, and in this instance there are many who wish to claim the victory. As a pagan I was surprised to sense the animus among anarchists et al, against what they call ' uniformed druid hierarchy' (see Frazer Clark's Parallel Youniversity UP!223). How could it be that the druids are seen by many as the enemy of the counter culture? Surely it was not always so? Well read this book and you learn a little how a 'small section of the druids' (and indeed the pagan) movement appeared at times to support the establishment's attempts to ban free festivals and make access to sacred sites for a small self promoting elite only. But this isn't the whole story - these people are expert self publicists and in the absence of accurate information they managed for a time to monopolise the truth about places like Stonehenge. As Andy says:

Not all Druids are 'a bunch of middle class accountants and dentists'. The Druids at Stonehenge come in many forms. These include:

- The Ancient Druid Order, who may well fit your bill these days, but who were the original agitators for solstice access after the first fence was raised around Stonehenge in 1901.

- The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, founded in 1964 after a schism in the Ancient Druid Order, who abandoned Stonehenge on a point of principle after members of the public were prevented by the authorities from attending the solstice in the early 1960s. the original donor having stipulated full public access.

- A number of newer Orders, whose founders were part of the Stonehenge Free Festivals' vast congregation, and who campaigned for open access to Stonehenge after the festival was brutally suppressed at the Battle of the Beanfield in 1985, >> which i always refer to as the Beanfield Massacre a more accurate description, despite how half a dozen hardened mushy special brew nuts might have told it in the pub that night :)

- Arthur Pendragon's Loyal Arthurian Warband, the Secular Order and the Glastonbury Order.

Mogg PS: to see my pictures from the 1999 'Return to the Stones'
go to www.tesco.net/mogg.morgan/stonehenge.htm

The Song of Set: A Poem by Judith Page
special 61pp hardback limited to 149 copies
with tipped-in colour image of Set.
£28

These days there aren't too many people who choose to express themselves in narrative poetry. Perhaps there are even fewer who dedicate their art to the ancient Typhonian deity Seth. Even fewer who can bring it off.

The highly talented visionary artist Judith Page seems to have done all three. Judith is perhaps better known as a creator of a series of very painterly studies of Egyptian and Greek Gods. She is perhaps less well known as a devotee of Set.

The Persian scholar R C Zaehner wrote that poetry was not always the most direct means of describing a piece of religious mythology - admittedly an odd view for someone with a Sufi background.

Actually a well constructed narrative poem can be quite a useful and memorable way in which to lay out the story of an extremely archaic archetype such as Set. In the poem we learn how Set became a casualty of the so-called 'Neolithic revolution' , overwhelmed by the migrants of the 'dynastic race'. Then how he is fated to be the exemplar of that old maxim 'gods of one generation are the demons of the next'.

Receding into the shadows Set becomes the 'hidden god' whose ' servants be few secret: they shall rule the many the known.' (ALI.10) but re-emerge with particular poignancy in time for the new age currently struggling to arrive.

I really recommend this book. For copies, visit Judith's webpage www.judith-page.com and indeed for some of the enigmatic power objects of the great and hidden god.
Mogg

'Occult' Crime

As I write this a self-styled ‘satanist’ is in the news at the conclusion of his trial for the slaying his girlfriend. It is unlikely to be the last time such as crime is in the headlines (TheGuardian 22 Jan 05). Coincidentally it is also the week when a picture of prince Harry, an heir to the British throne is also on the front pages. His photograph in Nazi uniform together with friends, one dressed in the white sheet of the Ku Klux Klan, another as a ‘black and white minstrel’ has made quite a splash. I leave it to you to sort out what the theme of the fancy dress party might have been. Of course no-one ever thinks to link those kind of ‘occult’ images with violent crimes. But shock-rocker Marilyn Manson, that’s another story ain’t it? Psychopaths exist in all societies. Restricting the discussion of taboo issues such as sacrifice and cannibalism will not, in my opinion make the world a safer place. Afterall we’ve had the way of restriction for a long while now and the results are every where to be seen. So called ‘occult’ crime has its own causes one of them being ignorance. That’s why I’m particularly keen to discuss this material in an informed way. We may not be able to stop violent crime but perhaps we can discourage the psychos from traducing the ideals of magick. The Hidden God and some taboo practices is undergoing something of a renaissance. The stream of thought leads to the contemporary magical conclusion that there is no need for violent sacrifice. The most powerful of all magical sacrements is freely given and does not involve harm to the donor. - mogg

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Groups

Bath Omphalos, a Moot for LHP magicos in Bath area. For more details contact omphalospaganmoot@.... Essentially a discussion group at the moment, open to all. The first speaker meeting is

Conferences

Next Witchcraft seminar 23rd October 2005 - review of 2004

Gale force winds whipped around the battlements, rain lashed the windows. Marion Green was heard to say, 'if you really want to understand the elements go into the carpark.' Well that didn't really come out right but we knew what she meant.

Many were there to hear what turned out to be Maxine Sanders engaging description of the genesis of the Alexandrian movement. But first - in heavy chiaroscuro, choking clouds of incense rose from half a dozen censors, then Ralph Harvey's voice cut through the gloom - a voice straight from the hammer house of horror and long john silver - WITCHCRAFT!!!!! - the OOOOOLLLLLLLLDDDDDD religion.

Lots of hocum and wiccan foundation myth, of course, but all done with great panache and a final crescendo of passion that had many, myself included, in tears.

Was it that or Diane Firmin's earlier amazing talk about the magick of cats, where the speaker conjured a pathetic image of the witches on the gibbet, the family pet hanging and sharing their fate to the last. Its a very sad image that - and in the news this week it was confirmed -

LONDON, England (AP) -- A Scottish township plans to mark Halloween by officially pardoning 81 people -- and their cats -- executed centuries ago for being witches.

Well what a wonderful conference - perhaps the last to be held at that spooky venue - above is just a smattering of the many excellent speakers - some maybe a bit worse for wear from the demon drink on the evening before but otherwise as good as . . .

Star of the show i'd say the very understated but thought provoking piece from JSM editor Dave Evans which can be viewed at:

Well done Adrian and everyone involved

Omphalos

Bath is to play host to a Magickal Fair from the 25th of April to the 1st of May, 2005. This event is basically about having a platform to express magickal creativity. Part of this involves the creation of a magickal picture book. A key word is being sent to magicians from diverse cultural, geograpical and philosophical perspectives... This word will be interpreted and illustrated in either one image or a triptych. These examples of a linking of a collective magickal unconscious will then be assembled (in a simplistic format) and sold at the fair.

We cannot give any financial recompense for this, just a chance to be involved in something interesting and a copy of the resultant magazine. The deadline for submissions is the end of January. We'll need your name, the name you use to sign your work ,and a contact address...

The key word is Omphalos.

If you are interested in contributing and want further details please contact me at charlottejane2002@... Many thanks, and look forward to hearing from you! Charlotte