Updates

I have a new post over at Gods and Radicals, "The Luck of the Times: A Ritual", in which I craft a ritual for the achievement of luck in dark times. In it I offer a call I wrote to the Roman goddess of luck, Temporum Felicitas i.e. "Luck of the Times", as well as using two rituals from the Greek Magical Papyri calling forth the Greek goddess of luck Tyche and the Agathos Daimon. The entire thing is book-ended by the assistance of the god Janus. Check it out, there is also a fair amount of investigation into the nature of luck, its connection to place, time, and the Good Daimon, as well as its distinction from Fate, Necessity, and Destiny. There is a lot more I wanted to discuss but the piece is probably already sufficiently packed with investigations into various more or less obscure occult and religious connections. However, I am tempted to pursue a future post, probably here, concerning the role of the serpent symbol in presenting both the goddess Ananke and the Agathos Daimon along with the interesting idea that the Agathos Daimon is potentially the serpent on the Rod of Asclepius, god of healing.

A Preponderance of the Dead

It's been a dark week and I feel drawn to offer some minor reflections on death. The horrors of three mass shootings in one day certainly makes its contribution to the darkness, but even before that there was a weight and shadow to this week that left me consistently a little breathless and disturbed. Teaching was difficult, I was distracted, there were voices on the wind. Then, this morning, I awoke to find this truly breathtaking piece by Rhyd Wildermuth over at the Wild Hunt: Gates of the Abyss:

"But under this all is Death, the pale voiceless corpse, our lost stories, our tales tapering off into silence not for lack of words but absence of tongue. What meaning can we derive from death, when it is itself the Abyss into which all meaning leaks out?" 

Historical image, Brown Lady Ghost photo. Originally taken in 1936 by Captain Hubert C. Provand (Indre Shire Inc.), and published in the magazine 'Countrylife' in the same year.