In which I vlog about the Sun / Venus transit which is taking place on June 5th / 6th 2012, and present a Graeco Egyptian Invocation of Aphrodite, which I previously featured on my website.
Category Archives: Comment
Hecate: More Cognitive Dissonance
Line-drawing of a recently re-discovered Defixion or curse tablet.
A slow day on Planet Sumner today, which is why I was forced into reading the Daily Mail, where lo and behold, I uncover a story about an ancient “Defixion” or “curse tablet.” There have been defixiones before but this is particularly interesting because it was recently re-discovered after having been lost for a hundred years.
The Defixion in question seems to be a binding spell against an unfortunate chap called Psellus. Intriguingly, a feminine goddess appears to be invoked: the Italian scientist interviewed tentatively suggests that it might be Hecate.
Hecate
Now I can think of one good reason why it might not be so: the female figure depicted on the Defixion has none of the known traditional symbolism. However, the Fluffy-Bunny Brigade have taken to the comments section denying that it is Hecate, because they can’t believe that she would ever curse anybody.
Sigh. It doesn’t take five minutes to come up with the most sympathetic description of Hecate from ancient times, namely Hesiod’s Theogony:
Whom she will she greatly aids and advances: she sits by worshipful kings in judgement, and in the assembly whom she will is distinguished among the people. And when men arm themselves for the battle that destroys men, then the goddess is at hand to give victory and grant glory readily to whom she will.
It ought not to take a genius to realise that if Hecate is gracious enough to grant victory in “the battle that destroys men,” to her faithful followers, it is not beyond her scruples to see their enemies defeated, i.e. destroyed.
So, whether or not the female figure on the Defixion is question is Hecate, would she realistically have been willing to curse someone anyway? In the right circumstances yes she would – because two thousand years before the invention of fluffy-bunnyism and political correctness, that is how ancient people viewed the gods and goddesses.
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Public Challenge to David Griffin
Stop all your verbal attacks against Chic, Tabby, Nick Farrell, Pat Zalewski, the SRIA and all the rest, and use your supposed EU trademarks to stop the neo-nazis in Greece from bringing the “Golden Dawn” name into disrepute.
If you want to be remembered for doing something good for the Golden Dawn community, that is.
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The Curious Case of the Glastonbury Skeletons
A skeleton in the High Street – from “Glastonbury People”
News today that skeletons have been appearing on the streets of Glastonbury! I.e. in the form of graffiti. It is an utter mystery why they got there. Which is as much to say that I just had a quick squizz at Banksy’s website and he’s not admitting responsibility … yet.
Anywow, assuming that it is one of the denizens who either lives in or regularly visits Glastonbury, it occurs to me that there is a good chance that I am already “friends” on Facebook/Twitter/etc with the perpetrator! If so, feel free to drop me a private message fessing up. 🙂
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Witchcraft: Punishing the Innocent Along With The Guilty Part 2
You can tell it’s been a slow-news day for me when I lower myself to reading something in The Independent, but here here goes.
Not long ago I reported on the successful conviction of Magalie Bamu and Eric Bikubi for the murder of Kristy Bamu. It now appears that in light of this, police are to be given specialist training to help child victims of “witchcraft.”
Well, I can confirm that I will not be the course-tutor for them, but if I were, here is the first piece of training I would give them: you can start by stop calling it “Witchcraft!”.
This is really just irrational “Fear of the Other.” Here is something they do not understand – a belief system from outside what a Middle Englander would call spirituality – so, being impoverished in terms of their vocabulary, the only name they can call it is “witchcraft.” Whereas we occultists know that witches are in fact quite nice people who do not practice any of the behaviours complained about.
Now, I’m no fan of political correctness, but I have to say that the Independent is being remarkably crass in its attempt to turn misunderstanding of a foreign culture into a salacious news story. Worse though: by labelling a violent and illegal activity or set of activities with the term “Witchcraft” they are managing to invent a whole new prejudice: WICCAPHOBIA.
Please, British newspapers! For once in your life try to educate and inform, instead of using every desperate measure to boost your circulation!
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Witchcraft: Punishing The Innocent Along with the Guilty
In which I vlog about how the conviction of Eric Bikubi and Magalie Bamu for the murder of Kristy Bamu has been portrayed in the press.
What the stars have in store for The Sun On Sunday
Rupert Murdoch and his son James
The world was in mourning yesterday when Rupert Murdoch, to absolutely no-one’s surprise at all, confirmed that The Sun newspaper would be launching a Sunday edition. Vigilant web-observers had reported that the domain name had been registered the very day after the closure of the News of the World was announced last year. What is news however is that the date of the first issue has been confirmed as Sunday 26th February 2012.
I have therefore taken it upon myself to cast a horoscope for the paper, in order to see how Murdoch’s latest enterprise will fair. As the paper is based in London, and will be available from midnight onwards, I have taken 12am London, UK, on Sunday 26th February 2012 as the time, date and place for the chart.
Birth chart for The Sun on Sunday courtesy of Astrodienst.com
The genesis of the idea
Rupert Murdoch probably decided the launch date for the Sun on Sunday two weeks previously (12th February) – which just so happened to be the date the Sun announced that he was due to fly into London (Moon is two degrees past Venus in a Cardinal sign and a succedent house). No surprises that it comes about as a direct result of the trials he has been going through recently (Moon opposite Saturn). That the Moon is in the fifth house AND in conjunction with Venus indicates that Murdoch was probably being over-dramatic in doing so, acting from romantic notions about what should become of the new paper.
“Birth-chart data”
The paper has Sun-Pisces and Scorpio-Ascendant. The latter indicates that the face the paper presents to the public will be overly concerned with both Sex and Death, whilst the former indicates that its attempts at factual reportage will be marked by flights of fantasy, wishful thinking, and a tendency to adopt a dreamy view of the world as opposed to one which is strictly accurate. The fantasy / wishful thinking aspect will also be evident through its writing style, and the editorial will be forthright in putting forward the paper’s “beliefs” (Mercury in Pisces).
The paper’s sun sign, being on the IC, indicates that its primary focus will be to establish a safe and solid house style which will see it through the long-term. Given that its sun- and mercury- are both trine to the ascendant, this indicates that the paper will be successful in integrating its fantasy / wishful thinking style with its Sex / Death subject-matter.
Prospects for the future
The paper will generally do well at least for the first twenty-one months of its existence, but will face a severe crisis in November 2013, which is when Saturn transits the paper’s ascendant. The edition of Sunday November 24th 2013 will be a time of particular difficulty for the paper. The paper will be forced to face up to its responsibilities and adopt a serious tone – a significant number of staff will be forced to leave as the paper tries to slim down. This does not necessarily entail fatal consequences for the paper, as it will be able to put across its position to the general public very well (Mercury is transitting the paper’s ascendant at the same time).
Conclusion
The stars are all lining up to suggest that the new Sun on Sunday will conform to everyone’s prejudices of how it is likely to turn out!!! Generally speaking I predict that if the paper can survive the crisis in November 2013 it will mostly do well. The circumstances of its birth – i.e. the memory of the closure of the News of the World and how its journalists were treated by Murdoch – and are being treated by the Leveson Inquiry at the moment – will affect the general atmosphere in the news room for a long time.
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Live! At The Witch Trials
Burn her anyway!
I read today in the Daily Telegraph of how authorities in Germany are reviewing the 400 year old case of a woman burned for witchcraft. What gets me though is that instead of just giving her a posthumous pardon, they are actually “resuming her trial.” 😮
Why??? As I said in a comment to another post, if modern standards of justice were applied to all those of accused of witchcraft in the past, they would all be acquitted, or their cases would never have come to trial in the first place, because (a) their acts would not nowadays be classed as crimes; (b) their confessions were obtained by torture (and hence would be inadmissable as evidence); and (c) it is doubtful that the allegations would be treated with anything other than scepticism anyway. I suppose that because of (stereo)typical German efficiency they have to go through the rigmarole of re-trying the woman in order to exonerate her.
However, before Wiccans start rejoicing, one should note that the present case is taking place not because of the efforts of a pagan activist but those of an evangelical pastor and religious education teacher. Therefore his agenda is not to prove that as a pagan she was not guilty, but as a Christian she was not guilty. The argument being that – like almost all of the 25,000 people accused of Witchcraft between 1500 and 1782 – they were almost all not Pagans, but Christians who had been wrongly accused.
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Alex vs the First Amendment
At times when I am desperately bored I read the UK’s comedy newspaper, the Daily Mail, looking for some badly written news article … and just today I find one entitled Pagan mother’s fury after son brings home Bible from school but witchcraft books are banned. It tells of a Pagan woman who was outraged when her son brought home – of his own accord, mind! – a Bible from school, which was one of a consignment donated by the Gideon Society. So incenced was she that such scurrilous literature was available at the school, she tried to bring in a load of spell-books to distribute to the pupils… but was declined.
This story is remarkable for a number of reasons. For a start, this is the first time I have heard of a Pagan giving her books away for free, given that Llewellyn usually charges top-dollar for all kinds of rubbish 😉 . Secondly and more to the point, though, American schools apparently have an all or nothing approach to religion based upon an interpretation of the First Amendment. This is alleged to be part of a successful “grand experiment” to avoid religious trouble which has happened in e.g. Germany and Ireland. This of course plainly ignores the fact that such trouble has not happened in the UK, which operates a Church-of-England-by-default-but-you-can-opt-out-of-it-if-you-want type of system. Maybe this system works in the UK because the Church of England doesn’t count as a proper religion!
Anyhoo, in the all-or-nothing debate, I am backing the “All” option – for the simple reason that if it goes through, I intend to found my own religion! That way people will be forced to read my books! (Actually I don’t mind if they don’t read them as long as they pay for them 😉 ).
Incidentally, I note from another article on the same news story, that the day the School Board is meeting to decide whether to allow Pagan Books in schools is February 2nd. Oh the irony!
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Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 
Happy Birthday, Rest In Peace
A couple of years ago, an astrologer I know gave a talk in which he demonstrated the natal chart and death chart of the same person. Lo and behold the planets in the latter made a whole load of transits (mainly conjunctions) with those in the former! Curiously though these conjunctions were not to my mind associated with death in particular – it was just, so this astrologer claimed, the fact that there were a lot of them.
I scoffed. “If there were anything to this,” I said, trying to do a reductio ad absurdum, “that would mean that there is an increased likelihood of dying on your birthday, because that is the one transit with your natal chart – the Solar Return – which happens to everyone every year!” How I laughed…
… Until today when I read this morning’s Daily Telegraph, in which there was an article entitled We are more likely to die on our birthday than any other day.
According to the article,
However the article also adds, rather disingenously,
Well no shit Sherlock! That couldn’t be anything to do with old age, could it? Even so, it is nice to see science actually backing up astrology for a change.
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Tagged as Annals of Epidemiology, astrology, daily telegraph, University of Zurich