Our family were living near the seaside at the time and it was during a late evening stroll along the beach that I first encountered a group of people in their twenties, sat near a little camp fire on the edge of the beach, all in a circle around something.  Usually you might see kids sharing a bottle of cider or roasting some fish they had caught, but I wondered what these ones were up to as they seemed to be chanting or murmuring low.  I didn’t want to go over to them to see, but came a little nearer, straining my ear to hear what they were saying.  A girl was quietly saying something that sounded like “If there is anyone there make contact,” and I guessed that they were having some kind of seance or something, and since that sort of thing spooked me I just continued on my way.  I didn’t think any of them had noticed me pass until a few weeks later.

When I finished my school day, I went home and changed my clothes and went out to deliver the Belfast Telegraph and magazine orders for a local newsagent.  It was when I was on my round that a guy called Trevor came out of his house to get into his car and when he saw me he just stood by the car, an old Austin Cambridge his father had given him when he was old enough to drive.  When I was about to walk past him he said “Hi.  Saw you on the beach the other Friday.”

We got chatting and he asked if I wanted to join their circle.  I told him that those things scared me and I wouldn’t really be interested, but he said that there was nothing to be scared of.  “It’s all just a bit of a laugh.  Think about it.  Come over and sit with us next time you see us down there.  We’re always at the back of the old grey house on the cliff.”  I nodded, more out of politeness and as a means to get away from him, back to my paper round and away out of that conversation before being coaxed into something I didn’t want to do.

However, my Dad didn’t nickname me “Nosey Rosie” for nothing, and I thought about what they were getting up to so often that I gave into temptation on a late summer evening in late September, just as the nights were drawing in and becoming cooler, and I went behind the old grey house on the cliff.  I didn’t go down there where their circle met.  Instead, I sneaked into the gardens of the old house through a small gap in the overgrown privet hedge which surrounded it, and down to a spot were I could lie on the grass and look down there on them.  I chose a place where there was long grass where the might not see me watching them.  I bought my Dad’s binoculars so that I could get a good close up look at what was happening.

The evening was a pleasant one and still light enough to see clearly enough though there was a glimpse of a few night stars in the sky.  The sea was calm.  There were seven of them.  Trevor sat between two blond girls and there was only one other guy there.  I knew him to see around the area but didn’t know his name.  Dark haired, fan of Elton John as he often blared his music when I passed his house delivering my papers.  On one occasion he made a rude comment to me, which I ignored.  Basically, in a lewd way he asked if I wanted to do something and being a shy virgin and not that kind of girl it had my face glowing red and I walked past with my head down, feeling uneasy.  No… I did not like that guy or people like him! 

The glow of their rock encircled camp fire made it easy for me to see what they were doing.  At first it didn’t look like much.  The skinny dark haired girl in a lime green caftan and jeans got something out of an Indian shoulder bag and placed it in the middle of the circle.  Raising the binoculars to my eyes I saw clearly that it was a Ouija board.  Now I have to admit I had been in kids houses where we had bits of paper which had letters of the alphabet written on them laid out on a table and an upturned glass in the middle and we all put our fingers on the glass and did that thing where some idiot is always spelling things out but you never know quite who.  That was just fooling around.  No harm in it.  Right?  Wrong!  It is just one step down from using a real Ouija board and opening yourself up to the occult.

In the light of the flickering campfire and in the still of the evening they began chanting in such a low voice that I could not hear what they were saying, but the noise was as ringing in my ears like Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. Listen to it now while you read on.

Their tinny chanting made me feel uneasy yet I was totally absorbed in what they were doing.  Clouds started to darken and the dark haired girl began taking the lead in what they were doing, murmuring what sounded like instructions.  At that point they were all holding hands in the circle and not touching the Ouija board.  They all had their heads bowed as they sat cross legged around it. She continued the deep murmuring, then took something else from beside her.  In the light from the crackling salty driftwood fire I saw the flash of a blade as she pointed it skyward, then suddenly plunged it into the ground. 

The group all raised their arms outstretched and skyward and there went out an indescribable oddly joy-filled loud communal and strange kind of praise where none of the words were clearly heard and nothing was intelligible.  This made my gut feel like butterflies were fluttering and dying in it.  I felt so uncomfortable I was about to slither backwards from my hiding place when I felt a presence behind me which arrested all my movements.  “Oh my God!“  I feared the worst!  Seconds of tension felt like minutes.  Rustling grass behind me to the left.  “Oh Jesus!”  I smelt a warm waft of garlic, like hot breath on my neck.  “Oh God, oh God oh God!“  My bladder started to feel as if I would wet myself if I looked around.  The circle leader was now standing and had her arms skyward, looking up and saying something about “Bide within the the law you must, in perfect love and perfect trust.”  I couldn’t focus on the words as the presence now slithering by my side was scaring the hell out of me. 

“Shh!  It’s only me,” the garlic breath whispered. I jerked my head round.  It was Giovanni, my brother’s school friend.  I slapped him on the arm. 

“You scared the sh.. out of me!” 

He grinned and nodded for me to watch.

“For tread the circle thrice about to keep unwelcome spirits out,” she chanted, upon which they all got up, joined hands and slowly circled the Ouija board three times.  “To bind the spell well every time, let the spell be said in rhyme,” and they all sat cross legged again with hands held as she chanted the rhyme.  I couldn’t make out all she said, but remember something about “Four times the major sabbats mark in the light and in the dark,” and something about wheels, seasons and her saying “Heed the flower, bush and tree, by the Lady Blessed you’ll be.”

Giovanni took a look through the binoculars then passed them back to me whispering “Do you watch these freaks often?” 

I just shook my head and put my finger over my lips to indicate that he should keep quiet.  I didn’t want to miss a thing. 

“Mind the threefold laws,” she was droning, “you should three times bad and three times good.”  I can’t remember the rest but by then Trevor was pouring wine into a silver goblet which they passed around the circle counter-clockwise, each taking a sip and returning it to Trevor who passed the remains to their leader for her to drain it. 

Then they began murmuring over the Ouija board with their fingers on the planchette as it moved slowly here and there.  I used the binoculars to try to see what was being spelt out but they were not a good set and I couldn’t focus in that far clearly, or maybe I just wasn’t doing it right.  Giovanni nudged me in the ribs wanting a look so I passed them to him.  He didn’t look long either.

The camp fire crackled and threw out sparks as burning sea salty driftwood usually does, but some of the loud crackles made me jump as I was in a state of high expectation and concentrating, listening intently to try to make out what they were saying.   Some of it sounded like foreign languages, yet guttural and alarming.  The fire threw up a sudden explosion of sparks which made my stomach churn.

“Do you see that?”

I saw nothing, just the group below continuing what they were doing.

“Jeez!  Do you believe it?”

I looked at Giovanni to see where he was looking.

“Man!  I think I’m on LSD!”

He wasn’t looking at the people in the circle, he was looking beyond them, so I whipped my head around to see whatever he was looking at.  Straining my eyes in the growing darkness, there they were.  Shapes, transparent, blurry, dancing shapes, swirling and misty.  “What the heck are they?”

I looked at Giovanni again, his eyes transfixed, mouth lying slightly open in amazement. 

When I turned again the shapes had suddenly become less ethereal and more formed.  Still misty and transparent but giving me the impression that whatever they were, they were somehow trying to solidify.  I’d had enough.  This was getting too scary.  I looked at Giovanni and indicated to him that I was going.  He shook his head and grabbed my sleeve wanting me to stay, but I frowned and whispered “No,” and slithered out of there, taking to my heels!

Back home and safely tucked into my nice warm bed, I tried to rationalise it all, telling myself that I was just winding myself up.  It could all be explained simply.  There had to be some rational explanation.  Mists rolling in from the sea?  The fire light playing tricks on it?  “Aw! It was nothing!“ 

I slept well and went to school as normal the next day, convinced that they were all into some kind of witchcraft and that I really didn’t want to get involved with them.

At the end of School Assembly when they gave out the notices for the week, the headmaster said “I have some sad news to impart.  I had a phone call just moments ago.  Many of you know Giovanni Campbell, who sadly passed away last night.  The School on behalf of its pupils have sent our condolences to Derek and Maria Campbell on the loss of their son.” 

In class a number of girls were weeping quietly.  Even the teacher broke down.  I couldn’t believe this was really happening.

When my brother and I met at break time we were both shocked and puzzled by this.  We thought maybe someone had made a prank call since I had been with him last night and when I left him, he was very much alive and well.  Neither of us could take it in as real.

At home, Mum told us that Maria Campbell had phoned her to let us know that Giovanni was dead.  He had not came home at 10pm as he usually did on a school night so his Father went out with the dog looking for him.  Knowing that us kids sometimes hung out behind the old house he went there to see if the boys had been having a sneaky drink of cider or something.  It was the dog which started straining on the leash and acting in a disturbed manner which led to him finding Giovanni slumped over against a tree trunk, wrists and jeans covered in blood.  He had slit his wrists. 

Why?  What had he seen which had driven him to this?  To this day we will never know. 

What really annoyed me was that the last time I was in Victoria Cemetery laying a wreath on my Mother’s grave I noticed that someone had vandalised Giovanni’s grave.  His Mother, being Italian had wanted him to have a traditional Italian headstone with a photo of him on it.  Some heartless vandal had chipped the photo off of the headstone.  Whatever possesses them to do such senseless acts of vandalism?

Some of you who have a basic knowledge of these two men may think that the title of this article is purely for shock value. Those who have that opinion would be wrong. This is a feel good article, not a religious debate, so please read on.

For those of you who do not know who these two men were, here is a very brief catch up. Saint Augustine lived between 354 AD and 430 AD, became a Christian in roughly 387 AD, became the Bishop of Hippo and wrote the major Christian theological work City of God. Aleister Crowley, who lived between 1875 and 1947, on the other hand became one of the greatest, or most infamous, depending on you spiritual views, occultists and mystics to ever live. Crowley wrote many books on the occult and mysticism. Crowley’s name has become synonymous with evil by the culturally and spiritually ignorant. Crowley held a dim view of organized Christianity.

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So why would one think that Saint Augustine, one of the founding fathers of Christendom, and Aleister Crowley, one of the founding fathers of modern occult mysticism, may be on the same page. Simple; because of the words they used. Words that in one instance are so similar they need to be pointed out. Saint Augustine said how to live a Christian life could be summed up in one statement “Love and do what you will.”. Aleister Crowley is perhaps most famous for his saying “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law, love is the law, love under will.” The similarity between these two philosophies can not be ignored. I am sure others have been aware of this link between these two men via words long before I became aware of it. I present it in this article for a slightly different purpose that has nothing to do with Saint Augustine or Crowley.

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I am presenting this to you all as a reminder to your inner self of who and what you truly are; a wake up call for your soul. “Do what you will.” and “Do what thou wilt” do not mean “oh just do what ever you want to do” in some careless fashion, on the contrary, it means create the reality that you want to live that is best for your soul. It is the same as Joseph Campbell saying “Follow your bliss”. It is what all religions and spiritual traditions have tried to teach people. We create reality.

That we should will the reality that we wish to be made; manifest it from a state of pure unconditional love. Pure unconditional love can sometimes appear harsh especially when coming from an iconoclast like Crowley. You may even come to understand Crowley’s actions in life were needed to get humanity back on track to understanding the truth that we create reality.

This understanding comes with great responsibility. The responsibility of a creator. Coming to this understanding will give you a soul in the way the Gurdjieff eluded to when he said “all humans are robots in search of a soul”, I may have paraphrased that a bit. So with great love in your heart accept your role as a creator and do what you will or what thou wilt. This awareness and acceptance of it will change your life for the better.

As for an answer to the title question, yes Saint Augustine and Aleister Crowley are most definitely on the same page. After you cut through all of the BS all philosophies are essentially after the same thing which is finding a way to improve existence.

Author’s note: No matter what your particular spiritual belief is, you may have preconceived prejudices against any of the philosophers mentioned in this piece, therefore I urge you, for your own sake to give up that negativity and get to know what they actually taught and why they taught it before you continue making judgments. Getting to know what any of the four philosophers mentioned in this piece, taught is an act that could take considerable time and effort. It is not something can be done with Cliff Notes, or second hand from books, or websites, who are attempting to refute or discredit any of these men. You have to read their works to understand them. I am speaking to those who hate Saint Augustine just as much as I am speaking to those who hate Crowley, Campbell, or Gurdjieff.

Related Links

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The science of today from atoms, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, botany, medicinal fields, surgical procedures, architecture, and other select scientific fields have been utilized for spiritual purposes and evolved into the great sciences of today. The ancient cultures of Greece, Egypt, Rome, and other influential advanced countries proceeded to push the boundaries of the physical properities of the world and exhalt them to the spiritual consciousness; signifying the adaptations mind of man has concieved to live more comfortably. The real aspect of magick, like anything, comes from beginning roots of the experimentation, results, and conclusions. When these practices have evolved and lost the spirituality aspect (due to more knowledgeable details and theories other scientists have added over the years) the morals and values have been drawn away from very thoughts the study originated.

The argument resides into the origins of Alchemy, some say its from Greece and others say its from Egypt. I have found Alchemy being translated into “from Egypt” and “Black Earth” in Egyptian and taught by Tahuti or Hermes Trismegistus. Khem was another name for Egypt and also a God. Khem was knows as the creator of man and god of fertility, but eventually evolved into Amen Re and had a significant role in the middle kingdom. Khem was percieved with black skin too. I have found from my experiences, so far, many people accept this fact over Alchemy stemmed from Greece. Even The Greek applied the meaning to “chemistry”. There are accounts that state China made alchemy in 2500 CBE. The teachings of Alchemy took the scientific aspects of transmuitation of metal to symbolize how man connects to the Divine and betters himself. It was in The middle ages the tranformation of Gold was taken literal, when it was an esoteric practice. Then Isaac Newton, scientist and alchemist, pushed the boundaries of his works for modern science with the thoery of gravity. It has evolved into medicine and chemistry. Alchemists Jābir ibn Hayyān and Robert Boyle are known as the fathers of Alchemy.

The Art of Hermeticism was the art of trans mutation of the Self and a form of spiritual alchemy; thus making Hermeticism a form of psychology. It was the genius Charles Jung who intermixed alchemy with psychology and this transformed into a new twist on the metaphysical in general. Israel Regardie pushed Charles Jung’s theories to the next plane of study by the application of the Golden Dawn and tradition of the scientific approach these group of educated men used in the metaphysical practices.

Astrology was an art that is basic and almost every culture in the world had their own version of this study of the stars. The studies of the stars and planets in the sky, including the sun and moon, were held sacred and a way of life. The reason the stars were used in ceremony and held to religious views were for their measurements of the seasons, years, days, and hours. Time of season dictates what plants should planted and harvested, obviously when something directs when to plant and harvest your food source then it will be exalted to the spiritual by means of survival. It was the men who took this spiritual study of with the movement of the sky, which ruled time and food supply indicators, to the physical study in depth. It was men like Galileo who did experimentation to prove the earth was round and an old thoery was wrong, thus evolving the old rites of magick into a science.

Numerology started out by spiritual means in the culture of the Chaldeans, Greek, Egypt, and so on with great philosophy. Most Ancient Egyptian Capitals were in the shape of an Enneagram, or 9 sided geometrical shape. The number 9 was representative of Horus to the Ancient Egyptians, 8 was Tahuti, 3 was Osiris, 2 was Isis, and other methods of counting. The Hebrews have thie own way counting as well called Gemetria, Rome used roman numeral, and so on. These many ways of counting were a kind of measurement, ways to organize for warfare and hunt, divide tribes, and served many other functions that are primal to nature. It evolved into weight, mass, liquid measurement, and distant to an exact degree; once again lost their metaphysical meanings an values that go with it.

These are a few examples to how magick has evolved into science and are ever changing. Magick will always be ever changing, it will be made into science, and also serve for spiritual functions. For this reason we are inspired to write down our results of magical experimentation, so our thoughts can evolve and carry on. Mankind needs magick to evolve and change in a healthy way to our psychological, spiritual, and physical functions we serve in the life we live. So to walk blindly in misconcieved judgment about what magick truly is maybe considerably ignorant. Magick is all around you if you look at these spiritual practices that became a relevant science. Observe and learn from magick. Be the magician to move mankind in a positive light, every written document and magical philosophical is important.

·         You also have an explosion of movies that deal with exorcism, demons, games with graphic images of violence, sex, and books that tend to be extremely descriptive.

·         Life, its anxiety and what will happen tomorrow, also makes people want to find out more. They go to astrologers, palm readers, clairvoyants and psychics for guidance. Despite the fact that we’re living in such economic times this is one profession that’s recession-proof.

·         Many people get sick and because they feel medical doctors can’t help them they go to traditional healers who use occult methods; a lot of them blame their illness on a curse or spell and they want it removed therefore they go to an occult practitioner who later demands a large payment.

·         Everyone wants to have some kind of protection and good luck and this is another very strong reason why they’re attracted. In some parts of Africa, villagers usually hire a “prophet” from a charismatic church to exorcise bad spirits from the community. They hold rituals, drink potions and the famous “holy water.” They even consult spirit mediums for good luck on a house or grave site.

·         Mothers also fear for the life of their children thinking evil spirits might harm the child, therefore they avoid going out at night and many tie strings of beads and shells to the wrists and ankles of their child to protect them from harm.

·         Another very strong reason why they consult with spirit mediums is to speak with their dead loved ones or know if they’re okay. British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lost his son, brother, brother-in-law, and nephew in World War I, he attended a séance along with his wife with the hopes he would speak to his son. This act of desperation is a result of what many traditional religions and Christian churches teach, the death of a loved one is the result of angry spirits and because of this belief man has performed many rituals to ward off more deaths from happening.

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·         I’m sure all of us have heard of the term “fear of the unknown.” Since many people don’t know the state the dead are in they’re also in fear. People nowadays have altars for dead relatives and even bring them food to the cemetery making it a special occasion, “Day of The Dead.” It’s sad to think in many lands rituals are held and people go to the extreme of injuring themselves to prove their love for the dead. There are also many cultures who wear black clothing for months and even an entire year, isolating themselves and avoiding dishes the deceased person liked. This often leads to depression, malnutrition and even death.

The occult is a powerful lure for many people but a person should be aware that Satan and the demons are behind this. When a psychic tries to tell them about their future, Satan is behind that, when they believe what their horoscope says, Satan is behind that, when they go to a palm reader, Satan is behind that; anything that has to do with spirtism, divination, astrology, numerology, palmistry, sorcery, communicating with the dead and even casting spells, Satan is behind that. You shouldn’t be surprised if the medium tells you something similar to your loved one or even yourself but you should be on guard and flee from such practices.

“And no wonder, for Satan himself keeps transforming himself into an angel of light. It is therefore nothing great if his ministers also keep transforming themselves into ministers of righteousness. But their end shall be according to their works.” 2 Corinthians 11: 14-15

People need to be assured they can no longer communicate with a loved one once they die. They need not fear they will be harmed or be a slave to mediums or anything that deals with the occult.

“For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they any more have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten.” Ecclesiastes 9:5

Hitler and the Nazi movement are interested in harnessing the prana power held within a master race left on the Earth supposedly passed down from ancient aliens, who imparted a chosen race of people with secret knowledge and means of great power to rule over lesser people. Given this belief system and fueled by the Vril society ideology, Nazi Germany suddenly went from a poor country on the verge of bankrupt to being transformed into a very powerful country. Germany became at least 30 years ahead of any other country around the world at that time. How could this have happened in such a short period of time? Some historians and UFO researchers have speculated that German scientists must have had some kind of help from somewhere from some source to achieve such an immense array of technology and overwhelming confidence?

The Vril society had many psychic members in its ranks and their leader was famous medium Maria Orsic and believed wholeheartedly that Hitler was the chosen one to bring Germany into a glorious future and they fully believed in the existence of extraterrestrial beings that could also bring about this unstoppable victory in their favor. There was no question that Hitler was a megalomaniac and discovering from psychics and astrologers that he was going to be commanding the most awesome power the world had ever known before was surely a confidence booster on his part. Making any decision Hitler made a monumental creation from the impossible to the possible.

There have been scattered documents from the Nazi Germany archives that were discovered that vaguely talk about an incident that occurred in 1936, about a strange crash that occurred in Germany in the Black Forest region. A disc shaped craft was recovered and speculated reports claim that Nazi German scientist tried to reverse engineer the technology. Hitler was obsessed at discovering any kind of advance technology for his country and achieving air superiority over the skies of the entire world by creating the ultimate flying machines. Hitler was highly confident that with secret ancient knowledge and revolutionary technology at his disposal that he could take over the world.

There were many ambitious projects the German scientists were working on before Allied forces won the victory over Germany in World War II. Germany was on the verge of commending the skies already with their V-2 rockets of destruction and with their ongoing research in powerful jet aircraft, the atomic bomb, and antigravity vehicles. Germany was successful in making jet aircraft prototypes that did fly during the end of the war period. However, German scientists shifted their plans to make an atomic bomb in 1939 which was a fatal mistake on their part giving the American atomic research scientists time to make their atomic bomb, but German scientists were gambling on their numerous top secret, revolutionary antigravity experimental flying craft projects to win the war, one of which was called “The Bell.” 

This particular super secret machine was initially speculated to be an antigravity vehicle in the shape of a huge bell and some even surmised that its applications could conceivably make this a sort of time machine. Using electro magnetism concepts to actually make a vehicle disappear into another space time continuum is theoretically possible. But by 1945 as the Soviet Union army invaded Germany from the East and Allied forces quickly came in on the west side, and with Hitler dead the war with Germany was effectively over.

The Nazis had effectively kept this entire secret to the very end of the war. Much of the technology of jet aircraft, stealth technology, swept wing designs, rockets, and antigravity UFO-like aircraft, all these documents were ordered to be destroyed and only a few remain for Allied forces to discover or confiscate. As soon as Hitler had died many top Nazi figures had simply vanished, never to be seen again and interestingly enough a lot of the psychic members among the Vril Society were missing and unaccounted for as Allied troops invaded Germany.

There have even been reports by witnesses of a UFO being seen over Germany at that time, and many UFO organizations and conspiracy theorists speculate that certain members of the Nazi party and the Vril Society might have sent out a departure message to escape from Germany using their advance antigravity technology and regroup at some isolated bases located around the world like hidden bases in Antarctica.

This is widely known in documents that the Vril society actually believes they were in contact with extraterrestrials psychically and were receiving detailed information to help them in Germany’s victory. Those in the Vril society actually believed these extraterrestrials would save them when the time came. It is still a mystery to what happened to these people at the end of the war for none were ever seen again.

For more interesting writing by this author:

The Rise of the Third Reich and Hitler’s Technology Obsession
Retired USAF Colonel’s Close Encounter With UFO’s
Nazi Germany and UFOs
Black Triangles and UFOs, Part One

T.S.Garp © Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved.

General Comments:

This is the user’s guide that accompanies The Fairy Ring oracle deck. First thing I need to note is that this deck is a surprisingly interesting collection of photograph manipulation, digital drawings, and a bit of pen and ink work. Generally, it has an organic feel to it, but I think that it is more then a bit forced in spots. It’s an over sized deck and a little difficult to handle. Some elements of the deck are surprisingly close to what the old legends describe but others are a bit too anthropomorphic and … well… pretty. It is not, fortunately, Victorian surfeit.

The user’s guide is fairly well written. It tends to gloss over a signifcant amount of the myths surrounding the figures included in this deck, but if you were not familiar with the myths you’d never know. It’s fairly clear that this is a condensing of a very large body of research. I’m rather disappointed because I suspect that the author could have put together a more extensive work and that the editors did not want that to accompany the deck. I chuckled at the renaming of several common tarot spreads for use with this deck, but I have no complaints on that front. On the whole, it accomplishes the goal of explaining the divinatory meanings of this oracle deck in concise and clear terms.

Useability: 4 /5

The binding on this book is sound and the pages are not showing any signs of real wear. This is a good thing, as I was given this set second hand and it is clear that it has seen use. As with other soft-cover books, there is some measure of curling of the covers in humid environments. Though it is not that bad with this book, which speaks volumes to the good care that the previous owner took of it. The typeface and page layout in this book are very good. Nice and large typeface is used that makes this easy to read, but it is not so overly large that it breaks up the flow of sentences or paragraphs. The black and white renditions of the cards are a tad dark, in my opinion, but these colorful cards would be difficult to render in gray-scale. This and the typeface used to present the name of the card one is reading about are my only real argument here.  That typeface is rather difficult to read and I suspect that if you were not intimately familiar with the English language and the English alphabet, you would not be able to decipher what you were reading. This is putting aside the fact that many of the card names are the Anglicized spelling of names in Welsh, Manx Gaelic, and Scots Gaelic.

Content:

The book does give a good overview of the meanings of the cards. I feel, however, that the detail material designed to acquaint one with the faeries that are referenced in this deck is lacking. I’m disappointed because there is too wide of a range in the format that information is presented. For some of the faeries, the information is presented as a telling of the most popularly associated version of the myth attached to them, such as the one for Tam Lin. For others, such as the Brownie, only a vague description of the myths associated are given. In those vague descriptions, I find there is a tendency to lean towards giving the rather censored Victorian niceties. I’ve got to say that it’s amusing in the light of those niceties that the author then recommends for the user not to engage in spiritual work with the more unsavory faeries presented.

It is rather entertaining, actually, to see that the content of Laurell K. Hamilton’s Meridith Gentry series does a better job illustrating the old legends, which this deck is presumabily drawing from. Hamilton’s work is unabashedly fiction. I also find that the fictional works of Hamilton give a more accurate rendition of the personalities traditionally ascribed to these beings then the rather large body of research done by the author after it has been compressed so very much. Here, honestly, I feel that the editors or whom ever else that had instructed the author to limit the entry has done the reader a huge disservice. If you’re going to begin work with a spiritual entity that you are not familiar with, wouldn’t it be wise to have as much information as possible? Using this oracle deck, you are attempting to do precisely that. The realities of working with these entities is frequently quite different from what the abridged version described in this user’s guide presents. I hope that there is a decision made at some point to republish this guide with more content to it.

Additional Notes:

This oracle deck is not one I would recommend for the serious practitioner of Divination. Upon extended use, it is a very shallow deck and tends to be rather trite. Stick with the old standard of the Rider-Waite tarot deck for anything more in depth then a quick chuckle and a casual fling.

One of the psychological models for how the Ouija works is the ideomotor effect, whereby an idea that appears in the minds eye affects the way that the body operates and make you move your fingers which move the planchette, which spells out the message. So start out by teaching your deep subconscious mind where all the letters are on the board that you have bought. Take your time over this, after all, you are learning a new skill. The neurosciences teach us that in order to learn a new skill, one must actually grow new brain cells, that occurs only through repeated practice and getting ones head around a task. To execute this properly, one needs 20 minutes practice a day every day for maybe 90 days. So why not sit with the Ouija on your lap whilst watching your favourite TV show and do the Ouija equivalent of hand writing practice and spell out words and sentences. Try sentences that have all the letters of the alphabet in them such as “the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog”, maybe some verses of poetry, maybe your shopping list. The important thing is to do it regularly and to give yourself practice in locating the letters, Initially consciously, just pushing the planchette about, but then after an extensive period of self training, you are ready to start contacting apparent consciousnesses.

There seem to be two main ways in which the planchette would or could move, firstly, it seems to move spontaneously, when in fact it does not, it moves because the ideomotor effect makes the planchette move, and the second way is that you feel an urge to move the planchette in a particular direction and you move it deliberately. What is not known, however, is whether the idea that makes the ideomotor effect work comes from within you or from outside. It is wise to keep an audio recorder or a web cam to hand to record the activity as it happens so that you can replay the séance and try and decode the messages that come out.

Sit in a comfortable position. Don’t strain yourself, but sit with the fingers touching the planchette lightly. If you can try and do the exercise in a mildly meditative state of mind or hopefully, if you are a religious person, in the state of mind of tranquil, reverent prayer. Don’t ask too many questions all at once, only ask one question at a time, after all you don’t want to confuse the apparent spirit. I have attended some seances in which the audience fired out too many questions all at once and as a result the answers that came though were either gibberish or rather angry. Stick to one question at a time. Take it easy and see what happens. You won’t always get results, but when you do, they may be intriguing and may make you wonder abut life outside the physical world.

Either way, don’t be frightened by the Ouija board, it is not at all evil. It is good to give people shared experiences, especially on Halloween night parties.

Through the nineteenth century throughout Europe, and especially in the separate Germanic states, unification and nationalism became prevailing political attitude and there was a mass transformation within the arts, philosophy and politics.  The century saw revolution in almost every nation state apart from Britain and a grand shift in artistic taste with the rise of the middle classes and the petit bourgeois.  The hierarchy of painting was questioned universally, and in Germany in particular this almost spelled the end for history painting as religious imagery and naturalist romanticism with spiritual overtones gave way for a social realist perspective and a more secular empirical imperialist attitude towards the arts.  The art of nationalism didn’t go unchallenged; however, it was the prevailing movement that was most successful at the close of the century.

Stephen F. Eisenman has observed that in Germany “no longer would there be Neoclassicists, living in Rome.  In their place there would arise naturalists such as Adolph von Menzel who employed what one contemporary called ‘daguerreotypical reality’ in his depictions of the life of Frederick the Great, such as The Roundtable of Frederick II at Sanssouci (ca. 1857).”[1]  Thus he observes the first transformation that was prevalent in Germany at the beginning of the century, and across Europe, a move away from the classical antiquity towards romanticism and an emphasis on spirituality through nature, and in Germany a revitalisation of medieval ideals of brotherhood.  Later on he states that “no longer would there be commited romanticists whose many grandiose murals for religious and state buildings in Munich were replete with the trappings of religious and historical allegory and symbols.  In their place would emerge Munich artists like the celebrated Karl von Piloty, whose at once idealizing and anecdotal scenes from German history … were derived from Delaroche’s bathetic genre historique.”[2]  Therefore in the second major change artist moved completely away from spirituality in every sense towards secular anecdotal narratives, which in the main represented the tastes of the low brow anti intellectual middle classes.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the various art schools within the Germanic states of northern Europe, in Berlin, Munich, Dusseldorf and Vienna, the students would follow the renaissance ideals of classical antiquity; Religious and classical history painting being top of the artistic hierarchy.  With the advent of Romanticism, born in Germany following periodicals such as Wilhelm Wackenroder and Ludwig Tieck’s Fantasies About Art, Artists such as Runge and Friedrich of Northern Germany, who were considered quite the spiritualists, engaged naturalism im a political contingent way.  The use of Christian symbols, ideological devices came as a precursor for nationalism.  Caspar David Friedrich’s The Chasseur in the Forest (1814) hones in on the Franco-Prussian war and the prevailing political attitudes in Germany, a xenophobia and anti-French feeling that would be uppermost at the end of the century.  However these schools, their teachers (Funge, etc.) and their students perpetuated the religious history painting as the highest form of art.

The Nazarene brotherhood surfaced in the 1810s, with its emphasis on medieval ideals of community spirit.  Their whole lifestyle was a self-consciously archaic and pre-Raphaelite.  Their very existence was a conscious reaction against the Neoclassicism of the art school institutions.  “The name Nazarene came from a term of derision used against them for their affectation of a biblical manner of clothing and hair style”[3] and the name derived from the patron saint of artists, St. Luke shows a definite religious overtone.  Certainly Friedrich Theodor Vischer thought religion and spirituality was the main influence on one of the foremost Nazarene artistis, Overbeck.  He wrote in 1841 in his essay ‘Overbeck’s Triumph of Religion’ that “Overbeck’s mild feminine genius shows itself in its element … Raphael had … more masculinity and completeness,”[4] thus showing that while Overbeck was spiritual even contemporary art critics were deriding his un-masculine approach to art, with the rise of nationalism calling for the emergence of stronger figures in the art community.  However, not all the Nazarenes were overly spiritual; Peter Von Cornelius whilst moving to the abandoned monastery in Rome with the brotherhood was more secular in his works.

Cornelius returned to Germany and in the 1830s became a tutuor at the art school in Dusseldorf whilst “Overbeck remained in Rome” and was considered by the rising apolitical middle classes as “unpatriotic.”[5]  What would arise in the middle of the century was a growing social awareness through social realism in painting, taking its cue from secular ideas and contemporary political philosophy that centred on the ideas of Marx and the like.  JB Atkinson and Theodor Lessing wrote that Wilhelm von Kaulbach, who had studied under Cornelius and fathered two more realist artists, produced works that were more “manly … and accurate” than all that had gone before.  This therefore was more in tune with the strong ideal of the nation of Germany that would become unified in 1871 under the chancellorship of Otto von Bismarck, following growing nationalist tendencies of the 1848 revolution which would see the rise of the beidermeider, the left wing liberal middle class, the petit bourgeois and industrialisation on a grand scale.

Adolph Menzel was the most commercially successful artist of the nineteenth century and provided new middle classes with that they wanted.  He left the “too political” The Lying-in-State of the Fallen March Revolutionaries (1845) unfinished and produced works such as The Balcony Room (1845) and The Flute Concert at Sanssouci (1852) which were completely secular, the latter being a historical picture that had no grandiose tendencies of past history painting.  It was merely a representation of an event.  Menzel’s commercially successful works represented the materialist ideals of the middle classes and the contemporary news stories they would be interested in.  The Iron Rolling Mill (1875) represented the growth of industrialisation, the end of the feudal system and a new German order under industry, medieval and Bavarian ideals of peasantry were ushered away and replaced by the muscled arms of factory workers and the scenes overseen by the middle class foreman rather than the upper classes and landed classes.  All his images are palpably real and along with Volkisch art which was to come a little later reflection current popular tastes, and the secular anecdotal narratives and anecdotal genre scenes embodied the shift away from romance and religion.  Menzel was celebrated by the establishment, Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II in particular “yet he never accepted the role of court painter or dynastic propagandist and stayed aloof from the academic establishments and political issues.”[6]

One of the foremost painters of the volkisch movement Liebl was said to have “had ability enough to give artistic attractions even to an ‘empty subject.’ … His themes – simple scenes of daily life – are a matter of indifference; the beauty of his pictures lies in their technique.  … Leibl’s mastery, which of itself resulted in an astonishing truth to nature”, Liebl represent the “footprint of change”[7] towards a naturalist, nationalist and socially conscious better art for Germany.

Towards the end of the century a distinct split emerged in the art community of Germany following the unification.  The symbolism movement was an anti-modern movement of artists that rejected the Kaiser’s imperial Germany as philistine, their pictures were spiritually rich and full of mythological scenes harking back to a past Germanic era, and like artists earlier in the century such as Alfred Rethel these artist were anti-revolutionary and showed and embracing and an engagement with art history.  The symbolist painters consciously opted out of politics, yet some pictures such as Thoma’s update on Lucas Cranach’s Adam and Eve (1897) had inescapable nationalist themes present.

The “philistine” painters, of which some would say Mezel belonged, represented Kaisereit xenophobia that was expounded by the victory of Prussia in the Franco-Prussian wars.  The triumph of Prussian materialism over France created an interesting national discourse in Germany. 

In conclusion the art in Germany in the nineteenth century was equally religious and secular, and it seems that the artists representing two ideals were always conscious of the other and in constant conflict throughout the century.  Politically, commercially and nationally the secular paintings of the so-called “philistines” created perhaps the most lasting impression on the country as it was their works that would be most celebrated in the following century and with the ideas of German nationalism and imperialism under Kaiser Wilhelm II and Adolph Hitler.

Bibliography

Stephen F. Eisenman, 19th Century Art: A Critical History, London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1994.

K. F. Reinhardt, Germany: 2000 years, Volume 2, London: Continuum International Publishing, 1981.

Friedrich Theodor Vischer, “Overbeck’s Triumph of Religion” in Art in Theory 1815-1900: An Anthology of Changing Ideas (Charles Harrison and Paul Wood Eds.), Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2003.

Robin Lenman, Artists and society in Germany, 1850-1914, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996.

Richard Muther, The History of Modern Painting, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1895.

[1] Stephen F. Eisenman, 19th Century Art: A Critical History, London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1994, p.225.

[2] Ibid, p.225.

[3] K. F. Reinhardt, Germany: 2000 years, Volume 2, London: Continuum International Publishing, 1981, p. 491.

[4] Friedrich Theodor Vischer, “Overbeck’s Triumph of Religion” in Art in Theory 1815-1900: An Anthology of Changing Ideas (Charles Harrison and Paul Wood Eds.), Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2003, p. 196.

[5] Wilhelm Lubke, Abriss der Geschichte der Baukunst, 1868.

[6] Robin Lenman, Artists and society in Germany, 1850-1914, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996, p. 33.

[7] Richard Muther, The History of Modern Painting, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1895, pp. 656-7.

In Tulungagung and Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia, cat-wedding ceremony is the tradition to express gratitude and pray for rainfall while dry season happens.

This picture is from kusnadiyono.blogspot.com.

People in Tulungagung and in Banyuwangi unite male and female cats in marriage ceremony. Before wedding ceremony, people bathe the cats with flower water in lake or spring. Wedding organizer presents offerings of food and flowers near the dais on which a man and a woman in Javanese traditional costumes sit, taking cat bridal couple on their laps. Old women sing Javanese child game songs with Javanese gamelan music while witnesses were holding the hands of cat bride and bridegroom. The elders pray for bless. The wedding organizer throws the bananas to the guests and they struggle to catch the bananas. The dancers perform Javanese traditional dance.

This picture is from budparpora.Wordpress.com.

  As history reflects on the causes and effects of World War II, there is now well documented evidence that Adolph Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebbel and Rudolf Hess were very involved with astrology and occult studies as they initiated their reign of terror dictating Nazi Germany and the creation of The Third Reich. In fact, most of Hitler’s closest associates within the Nazi party were involved with the Thule Society dating back to 1919. The Thule society translates as - ’The German Brotherhood of Death Society’ and historians speculate that Hitler’s indoctrinations from this secret society, although it is still unclear if he was an active member, led to his ultimate goal of implementing what is widely viewed as ‘The New World Order’.

  Hitler’s earliest known association with occultist and clairvoyant, Erik Jan Hanussen, dates back to 1926. The Flamboyant and mysterious Hanussen would become known as -  ’The Prophet of The Third Reich’. Erik Jan Hanussen was a Viennese Jew of Czechoslovakian descent and a very controversial figure within history during Hitler’s rise to power.

  Hanussen’s birth name was Hermann Steinschneider and he was widely known as a magician stage performer (by his alias Erik Jan Hanussen) mesmerizing audiences in Berlin with mind-readings, muscle-readings, hypnosis and captivating stage tricks. He became very popular among Berlin’s business socialites and Nazi military elite. With his popularity and personal magnetism, he amassed quite a financial fortune while releasing a magazine publication that focused on radical political propaganda columns regarding astrology, clairvoyance, occultism, predictions and spiritualism. With a clever and natural sense of entrepreneurship, Hanussen purchased a large manor creating a luxurious paranormal setting that included his own stage theatre and a personal salon dedicated to giving astrological readings and performing seances for large sums of money. He became very wealthy and settled into exquisite opulence.

  Hanussen became so popular and famous, he was often seen surrounded by beautiful actresses, personal bodyguards and other famous celebrities of Berlin’s decadent and avant garde sub-culture. Notorious for catering debaucherous, sexually explicit, burlesque-like soirees on his personal yacht, Hanussen’s reputation became even more inviting to Berlin’s socialite scene and Nazi insiders. He achieved fame and fortune but was seeking to be looked upon as a more serious minded man of the world and not as a charlatan or opportunist (which many others viewed him to be). As Germany became even more economically and politically unstable, Hanussen became wealthier and many Nazi insiders started to envy and become jealous of Hanussen. There were whispers that Hanussen was really of Jewish descent and not from Danish aristocracy, as he first claimed.

  Nevertheless, in the Spring of 1932,  Hanussen printed an outlandish and laughable political prediction in his occult publication regarding Hitler’s future as becoming the new leader of Germany. Many Germans gave no credence to this prediction, as Hitler and the Nazi party didn’t have the electorial seats in parliament that was needed to win the elections. Although Hitler and the Nazi Party had gained some political momentum, it was generally viewed that Hitler and the Nazi party had a very slim chance at best of seizing absolute power over Germany. But there were many Germans who felt very disgrunteled over the outcome of the WWI and the great depression made an enormous impact on the mind-set of Germans who were unemployed and shared a vehement hatred for the Communist and Jewish population within society. The Nazi Party also proliferated anti-Semite propaganda instilling fear among all of their adversaries.

  Suffering from severe depression and ravaged with anger, Hitler felt his efforts and pursuits of the Nazi Party were quite possibly becoming unhinged because of unforeseen political set-backs when losing parliamentary seats from the electorate. The future started to look bleak for Hitler and the Nazi Party. In June of 1932, Hitler met with Hanussen and seemed to be enthralled by the mystical soothe-sayer and his power of precognition. In the months to come, Hitler and Hanussen covertly met regularly regarding astrological predictions and the power of mysticism. Hanussen also started tutoring Hitler on mastering the power of oration emphasizing the importance of body language. Indeed, revealing how to intoxicate the public masses through dramatic and powerful speech presentations.

  Through the course of their relationship, Hanussen revealed to Hitler the power of the mandrake root and how it could be implemented as an amulet, wielding an ethereal energy giving Hitler an advantageous opportunity to seize power of Germany. Hitler asked Hanussen to find a mandrake root and bring it to him. Hitler then promised Hanussen that if he was successful in becoming leader of Germany through this charmed amulet of the mandrake root, he would grant Hanussen director of a college dedicated to the studies of occultism within this Aryan ideologue of racial purity, indoctrinations from the Thule Society.

  Hanussen trekked to Vienna and dug up a mandrake root from the backyard of a butcher at the midnight hour. It’s still not clear as to how Hanussen was able to find the exact location of this mandrake root, only to speculate that Hanussen did possess clairvoyant paranormal powers. On January the first of 1933, Hanussen presented the mandrake root to Hitler with a prophetic pact bonding them both to the mandrake root. Attached was a small vile of quatrains written by Hanussen essentially stating that Hitler would succeed in becoming leader of Germany in thirty days, as long as the pact stayed intact, by which protecting Hanussen from any Nazi persecution in the future. If Hitler stayed true to his word of this pact, Hitler and Nazi Germany would prosper with great fortune for many years to come. On January the 30th of 1933, Hanussen’s outrageous prediction came true to the day as Adolph Hitler became leader of Germany. Was this of pure coincidence?  Did Erik Jan Hanussen possess the power of precognition and harness the reigns for Adolph Hitler to command and orchestrate the trajectory of Germany and all of Europe? Was Erik Jan Hanussen able to predict his own future?

 Images - Germany’s Historical Archives

http://factoidz.com/heinrich-himmler-astrology-and-nazi-occultism/