Accelerated Thinking

This month I have mostly been thinking about the gods of my ancestors, and how to honour them as the wheel of the year turns. My bloodline is a strange mix of Southern England and Northern Scotland, with a smattering of Nordic thrown in for good measure. Yet aside from the odd nod to Loki during my wilder years I feel very little affinity towards the Heathen pantheon, nor do I really care for their Anglo-Saxon equivalents either. And the spirits of my adopted Welsh home remain alien, despite Druidic training. No, I choose to go further back, to the animistic worship of the nomadic tribes who first colonised Northern Europe. I revere the cold sun, waxing moon and mist choked sky during Halloween. The dark and haunted woodlands at Yule. Boggy moorland and impossibly ancient stones through winter. These are the forgotten gods of my earliest ancestors, and deserve to be remembered still.

Publishing Updates

So all goes to plan this will be the last pre-release update for my new book on working with the dead as a modern Neopagan pathworking. The Accelerated Necromancer is now with the printers at last, and I am waiting on the proof copies via my publisher before I give the green light to summon those unfamiliar spirits and loose them on the wider word. Once that final technicality is dealt with it will be available in both digital and physical formats pretty much everywhere occult texts are sold, as well as some big name bookshops and the odd library as well. I will be going into more detail in a dedicated announcement post with regards to release dates and such once I know more, but I do want to reassure everyone that that my portfolio website will continue as is aside from a slight shift in menu structure. So yes, my previously published articles are now, and will always remain, free to read on here.

Empowered Words

“All this soon leads the magickian to the recognition that it is he who has effectively created much of his own universe by investing or withdrawing meaning or belief in various parts of the surrounding reality. This is likely to lead the magickian, particularly the younger magickian, into some fairly extreme forms of behaviour as he tests his mana against that of the arbitrary conventions in the environment. A certain perversity, iconoclasm and antinomianism is likely to colour his extreme individualism. He as likely to experimentally deify some rough hewn fetish as he is to desecrate what others hold sacred. To survive in this mode requires a considerable lightness of touch. A huge sense of humour is all that stands between the magickian and social ostracism or madness. He would be the first to proclaim that when the possibilities of common sense prove insufficient one can often make nonsense deliver the goods.”
— Peter Carroll, The Cthonos Meditation

Occult Almanac

October is a fascinating month from an astronomical perspective. The lunar cycle begins with the Micro New Moon on the 2nd. The First Quarter occurs on the 10th and the Blood or Vine Super Moon dominates the sky on the 17th, before the Third Quarter follows up on the 24th. For those who choose to utilise celestial energies in their spellwork, two meteor showers peak within a fortnight of each other, the Draconids on the 7th and Orionids over the 21st and 22nd. More general observances begin on the 27th, when those in the United Kingdom will see the end of British summertime, and the hour which folds in back on itself at 2am creates the perfect slot to hide those darker sorceries that have no business being dragged into the light. Finally we come to the big one, Halloween on the 31st. Celebrated as Samhain by the Neopagan community and with personal rites to Lilith, Eurynomous, Baalberith and Babel by many who walk the darker path of demonolatry, it is the time when the Veil between the worlds is at its thinnest. Darkness gathers, and the dead walk. Whether you choose to dance along with them or hide until they pass by is of course a personal choice, though paying your respects to long lost ancestors is pretty much expected.

Necronomicon Mortui

A list of notable members of the occult, paranormal and Fortean community, ordered by date of death as opposed to birth. Marsilio Ficino, Astrologer, born 19th October 1433, died 1st October 1499. Robert Orel Dean, UFOlogist, born 2nd March 1929, died 11th October 2018. Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, Mystic, born 18th January 1743, died 14th October 1893. Thomas Browne, Hermeticist, born 19th October 1605, died 19th October 1682. Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, skeptic, born 7th August 1928, died 20th October 2020. Gerard Encausse, Magickian, born 13th July 1865, died 25th October 1916. Murry Hope, Witch, born 17th September 1929, died 25th October 2012. Gilles de Rais, Magickian, born 4th September 1404, died 26th October 1440. Sybil Leek, Witch, born 22nd February 1917, died 26th October 1982. Thomas Townsend Brown, Inventor, born 18th March 1905. died October 27th 1985. Theodor Reuss, Magickian, born 28th June 1855, died 28th October 1932. Walter Raleigh, Alchemist, born 1554, died 29th October 1618. Anton LaVey, Satanist, born 11th April 1930, died 29th October 1997.

Grimoire Guides

Occult London by Merlin Coverly is a handy companion for both the esoteric historian and budding psychogeographer alike. More than just a collection of biographies, the otherwise academic information held within its sadly short page count is handled with an easily accessible tone that paints a picture of the magickal capitol of the world from the Elizabethan age to today. Dee and Hawksmoor get a mention due to their ties to the city, as do Crowley, Blake, Fortune and Blavatsky as well. But we also see the odd monster, such as Spring-Heeled Jack and the Highgate Vampire cut their way through the narrative, a Fortean nod that makes a pleasant change. The last section of the text is given over to appendices, including a very useful gazetteer of notable locations with an occult association and list of related websites too. All in all a great read regardless of your own place in the world.

End Notes

And there it is, the latest issue of my occult and paranormal newsletter ready to haunt the digital astral once again. As far as portfolio news goes, I have decided to drop the Memento Magus section as of this edition of Vulpine Occulture. Part of running a relatively popular blogspace is knowing what is and is not working for your audience, and I can take the hint. It was really just bloating an already dense narrative structure anyway, and had to go to free up space elsewhere. The temporary addition of Publishing Updates while my book on postmodern necromancy awaits a hard and fast release date takes priority for sure. Other than that I am going to take this last opportunity to wish my audience a very happy Samhain. May the Wild Hunt pass you by to seek more deserving prey. And above all I hope you remain safe as the moon rises over the cemeteries of the world this October 31st.