Tag Archives: shameless plug

Nixie The Cat gets her own Blog Post

OK, so tomorrow I will be in London doing research for the most awesome blog since Golden Dawn Manuscripts and Where To Find Them. This will probably be published in the New Year as it depends on the good offices of people who have already gone on the Xmas Holidays. *


* Update: actually I managed to get it out the day after. See here for more details.


In the meantime, here is a completely gratuitous series of photos in honour of the true star of my latest novel Taromancer, namely: Nixie The Cat, of whom Miranda is the human. 😉

"I read your fortune, but first: cross my paw with catnip."

“I read your future, but first: cross my paw with catnip.”

"You are going to have to sacrifice a lot in order to provide me with tuna."

“You are going to have to sacrifice a lot in order to provide me with tuna.”

carlandthewheel

“Your fortune will change for the better if you provide a black cat with a Forever Home.”

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December 18, 2013 · 6:29 pm

Alex Comes To Australia!

G'day, people of Oz!

G’day, people of Oz!

G’day. Those nice people at Amazon are starting up an Australian version of the site, which means that all my fans Down Under are now able to purchase my books! Who knows – if I sell enough I’ll be able to come over in person and visit!

For more details, click this link.

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Filed under A Greater Power, Books, Licence To Depart, Opus Secunda, Shall We Kill The President?, The Demon Detective, The Magus

Allegseu neun Daehan Minguk eul salang

Flag of South Korea

The Republic of Korea, aka South Korea

My regular readers will probably be aware that I have said enough rude things about Kim Jong Un to merit a swift appointment with an angry firing squad should I ever be in the neighbourhood of North Korea (e.g. see here and here). My regard for South Korea, is altogether more pleasant, the musical output of PSY notwithstanding. In the New York Times on Sunday I read that Korean executives often consult spiritual advisers before making major business decisions, and the belief in divination and shamanism is fairly mainstream.

Really, one should not be surprised about acceptance of such matters in South Korea. I mean, just look at their flag! The central motif is clearly inspired by the Tai Chi (i.e. the symbol of Yin & Yang), whilst surrounding it are four of the eight traditional Trigrams of the I Ching, to wit:

Top left – CHIEN – east – Awareness here means living in tune with the spirit of the time, the East.  The image is the night heaven.  The motivation is creativity.  The purpose of the I Ching is to merge with cosmic creativity.

Top right – KAN – south –  Soul.  The soul is between heaven and earth, spirit and body.  It is always in danger of stagnation, based on the six primary relations of the family:  Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Daughter, Son.  The Soul, like the river, has to flow from the source in the mountain to the sea, then be transformed, die, into clouds, and finally be reincarnated again as rain in the mountains.  The motivation is danger and the abyss.

Bottom right – KUN – west – Earth. The image is the vastness of our planet. The motivation is the receptive, to receive the germ and let it grow.

Bottom left – LI – north – Thinking. Thinking links up sense data with words, following the wishes or motivations and impulses. Thinking has a beginning and end, visualized in the image of burning wood. You should not think beyond the solution of the problem. The motivation is to attain clarity, unattached to the thought. Thinking, like dialogue, is not an end in itself.

Or, as another source has it, “Heaven, Water, Fire, Earth.” By comparison with “neo” Feng Shui, we may say that South Korea has chosen to invoke good luck in regard to patrons and benefactors (Chien),  careers (Kan),  Love and marriage (Kun), and recognition and fame (Li).

It is interesting to consider that conspiracy theorists strive to find occult symbolism hidden in the insignia of the USA, when by contrast it is open plain to see elsewhere in the world! Anyway, South Korean businessmen, please take note: if you are keen to expand your operations into the west and need a local astrologer and tarot reader for European office, I’m just saying that I’m available and my rates are very reasonable. 🙂

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Filed under Comment, Supernatural

The Age of Miracles

11 million adults in the UK are potentially interested in the Tarot! © Alex Sumner 2013

11 million adults in the UK are potentially interested in the Tarot!
© Alex Sumner 2013

News today that Britons still believe in miracles, angels and ‘spiritual forces’. From a sample of 2000 people, the following numbers were crunched:

% of the population who think spiritual forces have no influence on earth: 25%

% of Christians who think such spiritual forces can influence people’s thoughts or the human or natural world: 62%

% of non-religious people who think the same: 35%

% of people who said they or someone they knew had experienced a miracle: 16% – including 8% non-religious people.

(Source…)

More interestingly though (from my point of view), the full report also says:

Nearly a quarter (23%) of people say they have had their tarot cards read, whilst 17% have had their star sign read, and 12% have had a reflexology session.

  • Smaller numbers had experienced more esoteric spiritual experiences, such as having a reiki session (8%), having their aura read (6%), or healing with crystals (5%).
  • Women are considerably more likely than men to undergo these experiences (51% vs. 26%).
  • Interestingly, while 39% of the overall population admits to having undergone at least one of these experiences, so do 38% of the non-religious(compared to 40% of the religious). When it comes to these more obviously non-religious spiritual activities, there appears to be no difference according to whether someone is religious or not.

Source…

The United Kingdom is a nation of 63 million – including 49 million adults. Hence assuming that the sample reflects the nation as a whole, that means that 11 million adults have had or are likely to have their Tarot cards read. To those 11 million people I say: I can be contacted via this website and my rates are very reasonable. 😉

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Filed under Comment, Religion, Supernatural

Books: Saving the world from annoying music!

Books

You have the power to get annoying repetitive music out of your head – simply by reading a good book! So say scientists at Western Washington University. Incidentally, this story was reported in the Daily Telegraph only today, so it’s probably so ancient it’s already been peer-reviewed.

Anyhow: the trick is to provide the brain with a sufficiently tough challenge to engage the intellect – such as reading an interesting novel. This apparently gets rid of the said “ear-worms.”

Needless to say: I have a whole load of publications which I cheerfully recommend to this purpose.

Alternatively, getting involved with trying to work out anagrams is also alleged to do the trick. Well, meck fu! 🙂

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Filed under Books, Comment

Now available in Salem, Missouri!

News today that a Federal Judge has ordered the town library of Salem, Mo., to un-censor pagan and wiccan websites. This comes after a pagan lady attempted to use the public terminals to research death and death rituals in minority religions but was prevented from doing so, on the grounds that the Library’s filtering software had been set to prevent access to undesirable content. The Library staff refused to change the settings when the plaintiff complained to them.

The Judge however ruled that as a public body, the Library was obliged to abide by the First Amendment to the Constitution: the filtering employed by the Library discriminated against pagan religions, hence it was unconstitutional.

There is a happy side-effect to this! Apparently,

* The library’s board agreed Tuesday it would not place filters that blocked “occult” websites, among others, as it had done in the past.

This must surely mean that now, the good people of Salem, Missouri have the opportunity to visit my website as well! In which case I would like to extend my heartiest of welcomes to everyone from Salem visiting my site for the first time. I hope you enjoy your stay here, and I assure you that my occult thrillers are quite reasonably priced. 😉

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Filed under Comment, Supernatural

Ask A Wizard 4: Alex Sumner Plugs Coldplay’s new album “Mylo Xyloto”


To buy Coldplay’s new album from Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/3sweqtj

When Amazon Associates asked novelist and author on the occult “Alex Sumner” to plug Coldplay’s new album, in return for lots of affiliate revenue and the chance to win a Fender Stratocaster, Alex responded in his own inimitable style.

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Filed under Rant