Occult America could have more accurately been titled Occult Roots of the New Age. The focus of this book is on identifying progenitors of phenomena familiar to the mainstream, such as Ouija boards and the daily newspaper horoscope, rather than linking true twenty-first century occult to any historical American perspective. The expected cast of characters appears, including Joseph Smith, Mme. Blavatsky and Edgar Cayce, along with less familiar names such as mail order mystic Frank B. Robinson or scholar of ancient sciences Manly P. Hall.The foundation of the book is an in-depth look at the Burned-Over District, a swathe across New York State from Albany to Buffalo that was a magnet for unorthodox religious study for about 100 years, starting in the late eighteenth century. So many prophets, mystics, spiritualists, and firebrand preachers traveled through this area that it was said to be “burned over” with religious fervor. I recently made a brief foray into the Burned-Over District while publicizing my own book and I will probably at some point devote an entire post to the history of this fascinating area.Occult America also explores the occult influence in government, and it seems in this regard there is always something new to learn. Many people are aware that some of the Founding Fathers were Freemasons, and that Ronald Reagan took the advice of his astrological advisors very seriously, but the occult influence on the Lincoln and Roosevelt White House is less well known.Horowitz does not shrink from describing the unsavory side of spiritualist movements, especially the pro-fascist Silver Shirts of the Depression and World War II era. He gives a balanced view of Edgar Cayce, acknowledging the typically enlightened yet at times prejudiced nature of the material that came through him.In a chapter on the African American influence on New Age, Horowitz mentions the practice of hoodoo and nearly veers into actual discussion of the occult, but he pulls himself back in time. A person who can walk into an occult store and understand the uses of the various herbs and implements sold there might very well wonder what, if anything, this book has to do with them. The magical legacies of the Pennsylvania Dutch, or New Orleans Voodoo, or Southwestern curanderos are not discussed. The role of America in the popularization of witchcraft is dealt with in one dismissive page. The Goddess Movement is ignored completely. Horowitz is concerned with how the occult shaped conservative and mainstream America. The value of this book for someone with a more sophisticated understanding of the occult is that it shows some common roots to very disparate twenty-first century spiritual philosophies. It filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge. Though Witches, Pentecostals and New Agers see themselves as very different, they seem to have branched from the same tree.
New Review of Invoking Animal Magic
Invoking Animal Magic: A guide for the Pagan priestess is now reviewed at Medusa Coils.
Review: Paradise of the Birders
Watch Blue Bird of Paradise on PBS. See more from Nature.
Peregrinations
Peter Tongue Interviews Hearth on “Awakening to Conscious Co-Creation”
One hour on-demand interview about toads, mice, water snakes, werewolves and other under-appreciated animal allies.
Osprey Encounter
And then, as he looked after him Telemachus saw the stranger change in his form. He became first as a woman, tall, with fair hair and a spear of bronze in her hand. And then the form of a woman changed too. It changed into a great sea-eagle that on wide wings rose up and flew high through the air. Telemachus knew then that his visitor was an immortal and no other than the goddess Athene who had been his father’s friend.–The Odyssey (Padraic Colum, trans.)
I recently learned that the bird often referred to as the “sea eagle” in translations of Celtic, Norse, and Greek myth is the osprey. This is a large bird of prey that nests along shorelines. Like the bald eagle it prefers a diet of fish, and at a distance it is hard to differentiate the osprey from the eagle. The osprey has a white head like the bald eagle, but it has a brown stripe across its eyes and its underside is white. It is slightly smaller than the bald eagle.
Ospreys are fun to watch. I observed this pair fishing in Lake Champlain this past week, divebombing into the water and then heading back to the nest. The young, whom I could not see from the ground, squealed as the the fish was dropped from above.Eventually one of the pair – I could not tell if it was mama or papa – decided I had been hanging out near the nest too long and began swooping over me, probably intending to intimidate me rather than provide a photo op. While the osprey was distracted by my presence, two little birds decided to mob it in a surprise attack. Ospreys are not built for maneuverability; they are designed to pounce on prey from above. The big bird had no choice but to escape to the open water while I chuckled and got back in the car.Review: Namgar
At the edge of the mountain ridge pathThe orphaned white camel colt weeps.When the frost is so violent that trees crackThe white camel colt seeks for grass under snow where the herd has just passed…On a cold evening early last spring a few dozen people gathered in the village church to hear Buryat singer Namgar Lkhasaranova accompanied on traditional instruments by her husband Eugeny Zolotarev. It was a fantastic concert. Namgar has an amazing voice and the concert featured percussion and wind instruments I had never heard before.Buryatia is a large region in Siberia near the Mongolian border. It is in the Adirondack news periodically due to local residents traveling to the region and vice versa. This is not, as I would have guessed, for commiserating about long cold winters. Apparently both mountainous regions face similar ecological challenges, and contact over these issues has facilitated some cultural exchange.The concert sparked many questions for me, and I would have liked to have interviewed Namgar for this blog. I will probably get another chance to do so, however, because the children raved about Namgar’s school concert for days and they will no doubt lobby persistently to get her back. It surprised me that the children were so taken by Namgar, since her traditional style of music would be unfamiliar to them.After the concert I picked up Namgar’s CD, entitled “Nomad.” Although I’ve decided I like the CD, I was initially disappointed because it was so different from the concert, being a crossover album containing elements of traditional Buryat folk music and instruments combined with a jazz/rock style. A pamphlet is included with translations of the lyrics in English. In preparing this blog post I discovered that Namgar has released a new CD called “Dawn of the Foremothers.” I will try to obtain a copy to review here.
Book excerpt at Return to Mago blog
New Moon
mERCURY retroGRADE
About three times a year, the planet Mercury “goes retrograde,” which means from our perspective on Earth it looks like it is changing direction in the sky, moving east-to-west instead of west-to-east. This happens because Mercury and the Earth have different orbital patterns around the Sun, the Earth’s orbit being rounder while faster-moving Mercury’s orbit is more elliptical. Although in reality Mercury is moving steadily along its path, from our vantage point on Earth, Mercury seems to speed up, slow down, remain stationary, move backwards, remain stationary, then move counterclockwise across the sky once again.Mercury is conventionally believed to be the planet ruler of money, commerce, travel, health, literature, music, math, media, communication, technology, and mechanical objects. You might be wondering, what else is there? Well, there’s love, power, conception, parenting, values, death, grandparents, the occult – lots of stuff. But in modern Western society day-to-day survival depends upon the things that Mercury “rules.” Thus when Mercury does something dramatic, like change direction, we would expect it to have immediate noticeable effects.Astrologers disagree on what Mercury retrograde means, but all agree that its effects are significant. Conventional wisdom says that during Mercury retrograde it is more likely that cars will break down, mistakes in computation will occur, miscommunications will happen, health problems will become manifest, etc., etc. Often a period of meditation is prescribed while Mercury is retrograde, but I have found my meditation to be less focused and less productive during this time.I believe that in a general way Mercury influences productivity, however productivity is defined by the individual or society, and that when Mercury changes direction there is a shift in focus. Usually that shifting focus is towards something that has been neglected. This is why mechanical breakdowns and health concerns command attention for some during this time. This does not necessarily mean that the individual has been doing something “wrong”: attention cannot be spread everywhere at all times.The symbol for retrograde in astrology is Rx, which is also the symbol for a medical prescription. This is how I look at a retrograde, as a prescription for a problem, error, disease, or unknown need. In practical terms this can manifest in outward events that demand that we turn our attention to things we have deemed unimportant, like sleep or play, but often the effects are more subtle. We may naturally find ourselves catching up on reading, cleaning out a closet, or spending time in meditation.Under this interpretation of Mercury and Mercury retrograde, the difficulties I have had with meditation at this time make sense. Since meditation was something I found time for under normal circumstances, my attention needed to shift temporarily to other matters.Ultimately the seemingly unproductive downtime of Mercury retrograde keeps us moving toward our goals. Think of it as maintenance and accept the shift in focus, whether it comes from within or without.