Magical Online & London Events in the Next Weeks

Here's a list of weird, wonderful and witchy events over the next week or so. Many are online, but an increasing number are in-person. I generally list events in the UK, especially in or near London, but some are outside that time zone. If you know an online or London-based event you want included, please email badwitch1234@gmail.com 

Wednesday 25 August (every Wednesday); Wellbeing Wednesdays with Nadine and Caitriona. Online event. Time: 12.30pm. Tickets: £22 per monthly subscription. https://behappiest.co.uk/ 

Wednesday 25 August; TROLLRÚN. Online talk by Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold via Watkins Bookshop. Time: 5.30pm. Tickets: free. https://www.meetup.com/WatkinsBooks

Wednesday 25 August; Magic from the Gospel of Aradia. Zoom workshop with Suzanne Corbie via Treadwell's Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £20/£18. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Wednesday 25 August; Chart Chat with Amanda Simon. Digital event organised by She's Lost Control. Time: evening. Tickets £25.  https://www.sheslostcontrol.co.uk/digital

Wednesday 25 August; The Witches Circle Monthly Class with Gareth Hughes. Venue: Kallima Wellbeing Centre, 8A Adam Business Centre, Cranes Farm Road, Basildon, SS14 3JF. Time: 7.30pm. Tickets: £14.61. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-witches-circle-monthly-class-with-gareth-hughes-tickets-146162063667

Wednesday 25 August (every Wednesday); The Witching Hour on the Witches Inn YouTube channel. Time 8pm. Free. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw4Kl-MbdjsApFvodCnvANA

Thursday 26 August (tbc); Work with Shamanism to Grow Personally and Professionally. Online event with Harriet Goudard every Thursday. Time: 10am. Free. https://www.meetup.com/awaken-the-inner-shaman-london/

Thursday 26 August; Midweek Meditation with the College of Psychic Studies. Time: 3pm. Tickets: free for members/£7.50 for non members. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Thursday 26 August (every Thursday to 30 Sept); History of Art course on Zoom by Peter van Breda, via Rudolf Steiner House. Free. Time: noon. https://www.meetup.com/rudolf-steiner-spiritual-science/

Thursday 26 August; Wolfs-Head and The Hanged God. Online talk by Shani Oates via Watkins Bookshop. Time: 5.30pm. Tickets: free. https://www.meetup.com/WatkinsBooks

Thursday 26 August; City Magic. Zoom workshop with Julian Vayne, via Treadwell's Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £20/£18. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Thursday 26 August; Witch Familiars. Zoom workshop with Suzanne Corbie via Treadwell's Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £20/£18. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Thursday 26 August; Online ASSAP talk. Time: 7pm. Free event. Tickets available to ASSAP members. To join for £5 per year, visit http://www.assap.ac.uk/

Thursday 26 August; Astro Magick - The Houses, with Tree Carr. Digital event by She's Lost Control. Tickets: £15. Time: 7pm. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Thursday 26 August; Shooting the Wild Witch Breeze. Facebook Live Chat with Rachel Patterson and Elen Sentier.  A new chat video usually every two weeks on a Thursday. Time: 7pm.  Free. https://www.facebook.com/MoonBooks

Thursday 26 August; Cunning Folk Reading Group - Red Shift. Time: 7pm. Free, but you must reserve a place. https://www.eventbrite.com/o/cunning-folk-7829505560

Thursday 26 August; The Pagan Federation Lectures: Talk 7: Thor - God of the Sea? Free  · online event. Time: 8pm. https://www.facebook.com/events/2957657607805669/

Friday 27 August (every Friday); Friday Live Chat hosted by Rachel Patterson, author of the Kitchen Witch series of books. Time: 9am. Free. https://www.facebook.com/RachelPattersonbooks/

Saturday 28 - Sunday 29 August; Artemis Online Market. Free  · online event. Starts 10am. https://www.facebook.com/events/391779302253970/

Saturday 28 August; Walking the Lost Waterways: the Fleet. Walk organised by Museum of London. Meeting details sent after booking. Time: 11am. Tickets: £22/£18. https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london/whats-on/

Saturday 28 August; Bee Experience Day organised by Aho Studio. In-person event. Venue: Near Hainault Station on the Central line. Time: 11am. Tickets: £50. www.aho.community 

Saturday 28 August; Sweat Lodge Ceremony organised by Aho Studio. In-person event. Venue: Berkeley Farm, a few miles outside London. Time: 1pm-6pm. Tickets: £80. www.aho.community 

Saturday 28 August; Rural Gothic: Harvest. Online conference with the Folklore Podcast via Zoom. Time: tbc. Tickets: £7.50. http://www.thefolklorepodcast.com/

Saturday 28 August; Spiritual Q and A online. Hosted by Cristina Popovici via Self-Development and Spiritual Workshops Central London. Time: 5pm. Tickets: £5. https://www.meetup.com/Self-Development-and-Spiritual-Workshops-Central-London/

Saturday 28 August; Stars - Story Circle with London Dreamtime (live outdoor event for adults). Venue: Secret location in Brockley. Time: 7.30pm. Free  https://www.londondreamtime.com/calendar/

Saturday 28 August;  Book Launch: A Brigit of Ireland Devotional - Sun Among Stars with Mael Brigde and Guests, Online, via Zoom. Time: 9pm . Free, register here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/sunamongstars/556582? An alternative is to skip registration and watch it on Facebook, live or later, at www.facebook.com/BrigitsPortal/

Saturday 28 August; Intuition Development Circle with Gemma Petherbridge. Digital event organised by She's Lost Control. Time: evening. Tickets £25.  https://www.sheslostcontrol.co.uk/digital

Sunday 28 August (tbc but usually every Sunday);  Kambo with Marco and Susie. In-person event organised by Aho Studio. Venue: 12 Old Manor Yard, London SW5 9AB. Time: noon. Tickets: £50. www.aho.community 

Sunday 29 August; She of the Sea – Film as Ritual Magic with  Lila Moore and Channeling Dreams and Creating New Realities: Modern Magickal Adaptations through Art with  Charlotte Rodgers. Summer Salon via Zoom, through the Magickal Women Partnership. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £10. https://www.magickalwomenconference.com/

Monday 30  August; Tarot Course for Beginners. Start of 8-week online course with Jane Meredith, author of Journey to the Dark Goddess and Aspecting the Goddess. Classes are Mondays from 10am UK time for 8 weeks. Cost: $500 (Australian dollars), concession: $350. Registration at: https://forms.gle/7T28VvZ2zC1d9Drg7 More details: https://www.facebook.com/events/191894102973419

Monday 30 August (every Monday); Mindful Still Life Monday Sessions with London Drawing, via Zoom. Two sessions: 12.30pm and 6pm. Free, but donations welcome. https://londondrawing.com/online-creative-sessions/

Monday 30 August (every Monday); Mindful Mondays with Caitriona of Be Happiest. Online event. Time 7pm. Tickets: £6 per session or £20 per month. https://behappiest.co.uk/ 

Monday 30  August; Elemental Magic Introduced. Earth, air, fire and water magics in theory and practice. Zoom workshop with Rebecca Beattie, author of Nature Mystics, via Treadwell's Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £20/£18. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Tuesday 31 August; Conscious Communication with Amelia Griffiths. Digital event by She's Lost Control. Tickets: £15. Time: evening. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Wednesday 1 September (tbc but usually first Wednesday of the month); Drumming and Meditation Online with Taz Thornton. Monthly event. Time: 7pm Price: free. https://www.facebook.com/TazThorntonOfficial#

Wednesday 1 September;  Book Club - Braiding Sweetgrass with Kasia Gwilliam and Lucy Porter. Digital event by She's Lost Control. Tickets: £20. Time: evening. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Wednesday 1 September; The Fool's Journey of the Tarot. Zoom workshop with Suzanne Corbie via Treadwell's Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £20/£18. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Wednesday 1 September; Witches of Zoom Gathering - September. Free online event by  Children of Artemis. Time: 7.30pm Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/598176234511070/

Thursday 2 September; Kenneth Grant and Cults of the Shadows. Online talk by Michael Staley via Watkins Bookshop. Time: 5.30pm. Tickets: free. https://www.meetup.com/WatkinsBooks

Thursday 2 September; Meeting the Fey: Folk Magic Methods. Two part Workshop, taught on the 2 and 9 September with Hannah Sanders via Treadwell's Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £40/£36. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Thursday 2 September; Virgo Season Release Ritual with Lucy Porter. Digital event by She's Lost Control. Tickets: £15. Time: evening. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Friday 3 September; Magic for the Month of September. Talk by me, Lucya Starza, about the festivals of September, the signs of autumn, and Equinox lore. Online on Facebook Live. Time: 4pm. Free.  https://www.facebook.com/events/593922601776840

Friday 3 September; Flower Essence Workshop with Bel Senlle. In-person event by She's Lost Control. Venue: She's Lost Control - Retail and Events, Broadway Market, London. Tickets: £35. Time: evening. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Saturday 4 September; Walking the Lost Waterways: the Tyburn. Walk organised by Museum of London. Meeting details sent after booking. Time: 11am. Tickets: £22/£18. https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london/whats-on/

Saturday 4 September;  Nunhead Cemetery Open Day 2021. Tours and talks of the Victorian cemetery, with stalls, food and drink on sale. Venue: Linden Grove, London SE15 3LP. Time: 11am to 5pm. Free entry. https://www.fonc.org.uk/2021-open-day.html

Saturday 4 September; Crystal Basics: From Science to Spirit. Online workshop with Nicholas Pearson via the College of Psychic Studies. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £80/360. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 4 September; The Thin Veil of London. An unusual walk around Holborn and Bloomsbury, with mysteries from the stories of Arthur Machen. By Minimum Labyrinth. Meet at The Queen's Larder, 1 Queen's Square, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 3AR. Time: 2.30pm. Tickets £12.50/£17.50. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/minimum-labyrinth-4600043469

Saturday 4 September; Ragnarok. Storytelling by  Jason Buck Storyteller. Online via Zoom. Tickets: £2.50-£10. Time: 7.30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ragnarok-tickets-154076176993?

Sunday 5 September;  Stories in the Garden with London Dreamtime (live outdoor event ). Venue: Southside House, 3-4 Woodhayes Rd, London, SW19 4RJ. Time: 2.30pm. Tickets: by donation (£10 suggested) https://www.londondreamtime.com/calendar/

Sunday 5 September; Dawn of the Oak. Pagan moot (normally on the 1st Sunday of each month). Venue: The Sir John Oldcastle, Farringdon Road/Greville Street, London EC1M 3JF. Time: 3pm-6pm. https://www.facebook.com/groups/dawnoftheoak/

Sunday 5 September; Woodspirits in September - Blackberry Harvest. Venue: outdoor location, meet at Cheshunt station. Time: 3pm. Free for members of Woodspirits group.

Sunday 5 September;  Celtic Goddess: Teachings of the Cauldron-Keeper Cerridwen with Sequoia Brittany and The Ancestor and the Womb: Representations of Magickal Black Women with Yvonne Chireau. Summer Salon via Zoom, through the Magickal Women Partnership. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £10. https://www.magickalwomenconference.com/

Sunday 5 and 12 September; Sigil Workshop with Chaos Magician David Lee. Two-part online event through The Last Tuesday Society and The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. Time: 9pm. Tickets · £5-£10. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619

Sunday 5 September; Tales of Wonder and Enchantment From The Arabian Nights by Viktor Wynd. Online event through The Last Tuesday Society and The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. Time: 7pm. Tickets · from £52.84. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619

Notes: I am not responsible for the content of these events except my own talk on Magic for the Month of September. Contact the organisers directly with questions. I generally list things in the UK, especially in or near London, but some are outside that time zone. Where a practitioner is offering information about magical wellbeing and healing, this is *not* medical advice.

Demetrius Lacroix: Haitian Vodou Cursing

Haitian Vodou cursing was the subject of one of the talks at The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic’s annual conference, Poppets, Pins and Power: The Craft of Cursing, earlier this month. 

The talk was by Demetrius Lacroix, an initiate of Haitian Vodou, Brazilian Quimbanda and Santeria, and a specialist on misunderstood cultures. I took a few notes during his talk and I've posted them here: 

Ekspedisyon, Dispatch, ak Pelene: The Art of Haitian Vodou Cursing

Vodou is a combination of family traditions from Africa that were brought to the New World. It is about being alive and ways in which people could continue to do their thing in freedom or under oppressive forces.

There is a history of oppression in Haiti. Vodou is the idea that: “No one will oppress me.”

In countries where justice does not exist, another force will take its place, such as magic.

During times of oppression in Haiti, people who lived in the mountains were hard to get to, but if they were caught they would be mutilated and left to die. However, if they got back to the mountains they would have a super connection to magic and to nature. This was the start of secret societies.

All these groups have different relations to spirits that allow them to do certain forms of magic. Forms of cursing that started in these groups then disseminated into public knowledge. Priests of Vodou don’t really do curses - they work with spirits. The use of dolls for cursing is by non-initiated members of the public.

A curse to make someone to die can be one of several things. It could be zombification or could actually make someone die.

Death curses
In the international cemetery in Haiti there are four trees. There are things nailed to these trees and some are curses to make people die. Gede are spirits lost in passage, their names are known. The Mother of Gede is the owner of these four trees. You could have a doll created from fabric or wax and nail it to tree and make an offering, perhaps a chicken; offer it to the Mother of Gede, then come back when the person has died.

Zombification
There are two ideas of zombification. One is to take their spirit if they are dead or if they are alive. The other is someone trapped in their own body.

The soul has many different parts – if you remove the part that makes a person an individual, that makes them a zombie.

Zombification is reserved for serious criminals. They live out their lives providing for the community by working in the fields, but are no longer dangerous. A famous study of zombies was done in The Serpent and the Rainbow, a book by anthropologist Wade Davis.

Curses

Haiti is a verbal country, everyone works the land. If you ask a spirit to do something, you have an obligation. Spirits can be bought too. For example, you could buy the soul of someone's grandmother and give them an intention – such as to show up in someone’s dreams.

Trees, earth and fire are very powerful. So, putting an object in a tree or burying it in earth is a very powerful thing to do. Lamps and oil are popular for curses as fire can be seen, but not touched. You can also tie body parts to affect their abilities.

Reversing curses

There are ways to reverse a curse. The main one is to attend a party that the spirits attend and they can help you break the curse.

The photo shows Demetrius Lacroix at the conference. I will be typing up more of my notes from talks at the museum's annual conference and posting them on my blog over the next few weeks.

Links and previous related posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2017/05/a-weekend-of-cursing-at-museum-of.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/02/focus-on-vodou-or-voodoo.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2017/05/mogg-morgan-apophis-mother-of-all-curses.html
http://museumofwitchcraftandmagic.co.uk/
@SalemDemetrius

Preparing for the Pagan Federation London Conference

Who is coming to the Pagan Federation London 2014 Conference next Saturday?

I've always enjoyed going to the PF London Conferences. Not only are they packed with interesting talks and workshops, entertainment and stalls to buy lovely things, they are also a great opportunity to meet up with other pagans in London.

This year, however, I have to admit I'm a little bit nervous - because I'm giving a talk there myself.  My talk is apparently timed to start at 11am, so at least it'll be finished by lunchtime and I can have a nice glass of wine in the bar to celebrate.

The title of my talk is Psychogeography: Pathways into the Visionary City and the short description that is going in the programme explains:

In paganism, the natural landscape of the countryside is often seen as more inherently magical than the built environment of towns and cities. The psychogeographer, by contrast, finds just as much wonder and mystery in the urban landscape. Lucya Starza, of A Bad Witch’s Blog, talks about the tools of psychogeography and what they offer the spiritual quester in London.

I'll be explaining what psychogeography is, its origins and history, how to do it - and why I think it is a magical way of exploring the city.

Although my talk is now written and slide show put together, I'm still a bit nervous so I'm going to practise going over it a few more times before next weekend. My biggest hope is that plenty of people come along to listen.

The conference runs from 10am – 9pm on Saturday 30 August 2014 at Leytonstone Business and Enterprise Specialist School, 159 Colworth Rd, London E11 1JD. The nearest tube is Leytonstone (10 minute walk). For more details and to book tickets, visit: http://london.paganfed.org/

Links and previous related posts
http://london.paganfed.org/
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2014/08/event-im-giving-talk-at-pf-london.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2013/06/the-pf-london-conference-2013-rites-of.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/09/gaia-fortuna-convention-2008.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/02/psychogeography-by-merlin-coverley.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2014/08/review-this-other-london-adventures-in.html

Alan Moore on magic, snake gods and reality

Alan Moore is best known as a comic-writing genius, the author of such classics as Watchmen,Prometheaand V for Vendetta. He is also a magician – and that was what he was talking about at pagan pub meet The Moot with No Name last week.

The weekly event which has lectures on occult subjects is very highly regarded and attracts some of the UK’s most experienced magicians - and the venue was packed to hear Alan Moore.

Alan turned up with a bad cold. He admitted he had felt too grotty to prepare his talk and had been going to wing it, but added: “You people know about magic, you won’t accept rubbish. This is about my magic, from my perspective.”

He said: “When I was a child, I knew what magic was – witches, wizards and spells – but when I got a bit older I realised that wasn’t in abundance. By school age, I thought that magic existed in a made-up way; no more real than Father Christmas. I still have doubts.”

“In my teenage years I thought magic was a palliative thing that cheered us up in a bleak world. No matter how many times you do incantations over a broom, it won’t multiply and clear up the rubbish. But, in the 1960s people were dabbling in magic. There’s an excellent although depressing book by Gary Lachman on the darker side of the occult in the 1960s [The Dedalus Book of the 1960s: Turn Off Your Mind.]”

“When I was much older I started to visit occult shops, but I felt that only I was rational. I felt other customers' needs were emotional rather than intellectual; the need to have secret knowledge to liven up a dull personality.”

“When I was in my late 30s, I read about John Dee. He certainly was not an idiot. He sounded like a genius, a mathematician and the man who invented the concept of the British Empire in the reign of Elizabeth I after studying mythology. But he spent a lot of his time talking to beings he called ‘angels’. John Dee probably had to call them angels; people were always wanting to prove occultists were flammable.”

It was after reading about John Dee that Alan Moore decided to take magic seriously, but his declaration that he was a magician – on his 40th birthday after a bit too much to drink – didn’t seem to surprise any of his friends. “Most people didn’t bat an eyelid,” he said.

Deciding to follow through on his drunken announcement, Alan talked to his friend Steve Moore (no relation, despite the surname, but a fellow comic-writer and an occultist).

Alan said that Steve, who honoured the moon goddess Selene, recommended choosing a god or goddess “because magic is an imaginary territory, so you need an imaginary friend”.

Steve told Alan: “Either choose a god, or let one choose you.”

In January 1994, at Steve’s house, Steve asked him if he had seen the Greek snake god Glykon and showed him a picture of a statue that had been discovered in the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Tomis, in Constanta, Romania.

He said: “It was a beautiful snake with a humanoid head and a face a bit like Paris Hilton. It was comical, beautiful, awesome – and smug. I thought I could relate to that god.”

Alan then asked Steve how exactly one should go about worshipping a god. They took some magic mushrooms – legal back in 1994, but now an illegal Class A drug. While waiting for the psychedelic substance to start working, they chatted about what form a magical ritual involving Glykon could take. They started to formulate a ritual using cut-up techniques to combine two sets of writing; one an evocation of the God and the second a piece of purposive magic.

Things started to get a bit weird. A conversation in which Alan translated “piece of purposive magic” as “evocation of the goddess” and Steve corrected him turned into a kind of Groundhog Day time-loop while the ceiling seemed to disappear and they felt the presence of entities watching from above. Alan said “it felt as though this was the body of Glykon, curving back on itself”.

Certainly it could have been the mushrooms, but Alan said: “If it was an hallucination, it was different from any I had had before – and it was a shared experience.”

He said: “I was in a peculiar state for several months, because I knew magic was real in a certain sense. I am a rational person and I like to think things through. There is no proof that magic affects physical reality, but it does affect immaterial reality.

“If something is happening in someone’s mind, we think it is not real. But are thoughts real? Wittgenstein said a thought is a real event in space and time.”

Alan expressed the opinion that science cannot really explain the human mind and that “psychiatry is occultism in a lab coat”. He pointed out that psychiatrist Carl Jung was accused of occultism, while physician and occultist Paracelsus came up with the idea of the unconscious mind even before Freud and Jung wrote about it.

Alan said: “We do not experience reality directly – our sensory organs send messages to our brain, which interprets them. Some scientists, such as behaviourist BF Skinner, say that there is no such thing as consciousness; it is all conditioned response. Scientists would like to be able to explain everything as biology, chemistry or physics. Thought messes up the rational universe.

“But what if there are two different sorts of reality; physical existence and the idea of things?

“The idea of a chair is more important than the physical existence of a chair because, if there aren’t any physical chairs we can always make some new ones so long as we have the idea of a chair.” Perhaps Alan was inspired in that idea by the immediate reality that he was giving his talk in a crowded pub room with a real shortage of chairs...

He went on: “Physical reality and immaterial reality are both real, but in a different way. We all have our own identity and our own mind space. The geography of the physical world is based on distance, but the geography of mind space is based on association. For example, Land’s End and John O’Groats might be many miles apart, but they are always close together in association.

“Time is also different in mind space and imaginary creatures can live there. Gods, monsters and aliens can all be inhabitants of mental space.”

Describing magical experiments he had taken part in to share and transmit images from one person to another in mind space, Alan concluded that magic was real.

“Magic has become an important part of my life,” he said. “Most of the stuff I have got out of magic has been a help to my work and well being.”

Pagan forum The Moot with No Name meets at the Devereux public house, 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2R 3JJ on Wednesdays from 7.30pm (although the meetings on 7 December and 14 December will be at The Cartoonist in Shoe Lane in London).

For further information about events run by Atlantis Bookshop visit http://www.theatlantisbookshopevents.com/

The picture top right is of Alan Moore. The picture bottom right is the cover of his graphic novel Promethea.

Note: The Bad Witch does not recommend drug taking. Magic mushrooms are illegal in the UK.

Links and previous related posts:
The Dedalus Book of the 1960s: Turn Off Your Mind (Dedalus Concept Books)

http://surprising-romania.blogspot.com/2009/03/glykon-snake.html

Promethea: Book 1
V for Vendetta: New Edition
Watchmen
Alan Moore's Neonomicon (Avatar)

http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2007/11/happy-birthday-paracelsus.html

http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/07/on-this-day-john-dees-birthday.html

Pagan events in and near London

Here are events in London and other parts of the UK that could be of interest to pagans. If you know of an event that you want listed, please email the details to me at badwitch1234@gmail.com. Please also email me if you spot any errors in my listings.

Tuesday 28 June; Firebreathing Dragons and How the Mind Shapes Myth. Talk by Jeremy Morgan at London Earth Mysteries Circle. Admission is £4.50, concessions £4, members £3, concessions are £4. Talks are usually held on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at 7.15PM at First Floor, 50 Gloucester Place, London W1U 8EA. http://www.londonearth.com/

Tuesday, 28 June; Spirit Revelations. Lecture by Nigel Peace at The College of Psychic Studies 16 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2EB. Time: 7pm - 9pm. Cost: £8/£12. Advance booking essential. Tel: 020 7589 3292. http://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/index.html
Wednesday 29, June; Trance-Formational Magic. Talk by Ursula James, author of The Source – A Manual of Everyday Magic, at Pagan forum The Moot with No Name, arranged through Atlantis Bookshop. Venue: Devereux public house (pictured), 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2R 3JJ. Meet from 7.30pm, event starts at 8pm. Admission £5.

Friday 1 July; The Power of Universal Energy. Lecture by Douglas Ballard at The College of Psychic Studies 16 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2EB. Time: 7pm - 9pm. Cost: £10/£15. Advance booking essential. Tel: 020 7589 3292. http://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/index.html

Saturday, 2 July, Talk by John Constable, author of The Southwark Mysteries and Secret Bankside, at the Urban Physic Garden, 100 Union Street, London SE1 0NL. Time: 1.15pm–2pm. This is a free event.

Sunday, 3 July, In Honour of John Michell presented by The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. John Constable will talk about Enchanting the Landscape in the Heart of London. Venue: The George Inn, 77 Borough High Street, SE1. Time: 1.45pm for 2pm start. Cost: £15/£10 concs.

Calling a ghost hunter names...

Christian Jensen Romer, a veteran ghost hunter who has worked on TV and radio shows including Most Haunted and who writes an excellent blog, is giving a talk this Saturday as part of the Cheltenham Paranormal Festival.

CJ, as he is nicknamed, has some interesting tales to tell, so I dropped him an email to ask if he wouldn't mind being interviewed for A Bad Witch's Blog. However, it seemed the first question I sent him was trickier than I suspected. Wanting to get my terminology right, I asked whether he preferred to call himself a psychic researcher or a parapsychologist.

CJ replied: "I rarely call myself either of those things!"

He emailed me explaining: "The term 'parapsychology' was first coined by Rudolf Tischner back in 1924, but no one actually called themselves a parapsychologist back then - outside Germany at least.

"The term most used in the UK and North America in the Victorian era was 'psychical researcher'. This was another neologism; 'psychic' simply means 'of the mind', so a new word was coined, 'psychical', for exceptional powers of the mind.

"I once challenged a skeptics organisation that offered a small cash prize to anyone who could demonstrate psychic powers, and proceeded to do so - I just did some mental arithmetic, and then claimed the prize, pointing out that any mental process was a psychic power. They never paid up though!

"However, I do often point out that we all have incredible psychic powers - but I mean memory, analysis, comprehension, etc.

"Anyway, the correct term historically was psychical researcher, and the emphasis of the Society for Psychical Research (founded in 1882 - http://www.spr.ac.uk/ ) up till the 1940s was in looking at evidence for life after death ('post mortem survival' as they would say back then).

"In the 1950s JB Rhine moved away from survival research - the haunted house and the seance room - and starts what is usually seen as 'modern parapsychology' with work at Dule University, North Carolina. This was lab-based research and rather than focusing on spirits or similar; it was very much based on the idea of extra sensory perception (ESP). This lead to the psi hypothesis."

Psi - Ψ or ψ - is the 23rd character in the Greek alphabet and the first character in the word psyche - defined in the Compact Oxford English Dictionary as "The human soul, mind, or spirit". It has become used in psychology, psychiatry and parapsychology as a term relating to anything to do with the mind, its powers and related phenomena.

CJ explained that this has become used as a general blanket term for anomalous processes within the study of the paranormal and is connected with a vast number of topics under the umbrella of parapsychology, including ESP, psychokinesis, telepathy, clairvoyance, near-death experiences - basically anything where the mind is considered to play a role.

He said: "What is going on here is something that happened in many academic disciplines from the 1920s to 50s - the emphasis on quantitative assessment of things, based on the triumphs of physics over qualitative research methods. We see the same thing happening in archaeology - amateur historians writing on the past slowly being replaced by modern archeology with an emphasis on careful forensic investigation of ancient sites.

"This new wave of psychical researchers called themselves 'parapsychologists', and strongly emphasised the laboratory study of phenomena. So-called 'spontaneous cases', stuff that happens outside a lab setting, like religious experience, magic and ghost stories, were downplayed or ignored.

"So we have a bit of a split, between psychical researchers who (generally) favour the idea of life after death based on their reading of the evidence, and parapsychologists who believe perfectly natural, but unknown, powers of the human brain were involved in these things - the psi hypothesis. Both parties included plenty who believed neither; skeptics who believed ESP stood for 'error some place' and felt the supposed evidence for mediumistic contact with the dead etc could be much better explained by simple psychological factors.

"To this day there is a public perception that parapsychologists are all believers - just as the public seems surprised to find an atheist religious studies lecturer, but from the earliest days the SPR had a strong skeptical community.

"Today the problem is further complicated by yet another label, as many of the more skeptical parapsychologists refer to themselves as researchers in 'anomalous psychology' - but they publish often in the same handful of peer reviewed parapsychology journals. The most important in the UK is the Journal of the SPR, but it is also well worth reading the European Journal of Parapsychology - http://www.ejp.org/."

I think I'll just stick to calling CJ a ghost hunter. It sounds more fun.

And after he has finished his lecture gig at Cheltenham I hope to catch up with him for a proper interview.

The Cheltenham Paranormal Festival runs until 6 February. Christian Jensen Romer's talk, Confessions of a Ghosthunter, is on Saturday, 5 February at The Playhouse Theatre, Bath Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL53 7HG. Time: 7.30pm - 8.30pm. Tickets £3. Phone the theatre on 01242 522852. For full details of the festival visit the website http://www.cheltenhamparanormalfestival.com/

Links and previous related posts:
http://jerome23.wordpress.com/
http://www.cheltenhamparanormalfestival.com/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Tischner
http://www.spr.ac.uk/main/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Banks_Rhine
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/06/medium-skeptics.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/09/ghosts-and-how-to-see-them.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/10/bad-witchs-guide-to-londons-ghosts.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/03/ghostly-image-photographed-at-remote.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/08/ghosts-and-grails-of-lewes.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/07/bad-witch-goes-ghost-hunting.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/04/hellish-nell-by-malcolm-gaskill.html

This week's pagan events in and near London

Monday 10 May; Shamanism, Healing and Consciousness. Seminar by Shaman UK at The Open Centre, 188 Old St, London, EC1V 9FR. Time 7pm - 9.15pm. Cost: £12 (£8 concs) booking essential. For further information and to book places contact info@shaman.uk.net

Monday 10 May; Adventures in Planetary Magic. Talk by Christina Oakley Harrington at Theosophical Society, 50 Gloucester Place, London W1U 8EA. Event starts at 7pm. Admission: Members £6, Concessions £4, Non-members £8 Non-Members Concessions £6. For more details visit http://www.astrolodge.co.uk

Monday 10 May; Fallen Angels 2 - This Time It's Personal! Lecture by Diana Allam at Pagan forum Secret Chiefs. Venue: Devereux public house, 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2R 3JJ. Meet from 7.30pm, event starts at 8.30pm. Admission £2.

Tuesday 11 May; 2012: Truths, Myths and the Fulfilment of Your Soul’s Destiny. Talk by Dr Christine Page at The College of Psychic Studies 16 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2EB. Time: 7pm - 9pm. Cost: £10/£15. Advance booking essential. Tel: 020 - 7589 3292. http://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/index.html

Wednesday 12 May; Anglo-Saxon Paganism: Archaeology's Evidence. Lecture by Dr James Holloway (University of Cambridge) at Treadwell’s, 34 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7PB. Time: 7.15pm for 7.30 start. Tickets £7, booking essential. Tel: 020 7240 8906. For more details visit the website http://www.treadwells-london.com/

Wednesday 12 May; Weekly pagan talk at The Moot with No Name. Venue: Devereux public house, 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2R 3JJ. Meet from 7.30pm, event starts at 8pm. Admission £2.

Thursday 13 May; Fierce and fearless Women. Talk by Janet Dowling at South East London Folklore Society (Selfs), The Old King's Head, King's Head Yard, 45-49 Borough High Street, London SE1 1NA. Talks are on the second Thursday of each month at 8pm. The cost is £2.50/£1.50 concessions.

Friday 14 May; Music and Mediumship - The Heart of the Earth and The Light of Spirit. Talk by Angela Watkins and music by Stephen Heath and Nicky Leader at The College of Psychic Studies 16 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2EB. Time: 7pm - 8.30pm. Cost: £5/£8. Advance booking essential. Tel: 020 - 7589 3292. http://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/index.html

Kitchen table webcast from Glastonbury

This Easter Sunday a live discussion will be webcast from Glastonbury to the world.

Called The Kitchen Table, the event aims to merge theatre and discussion and will be broadcast as it happens over the internet on April 4th from 1pm to 8pm GMT.

You can see it live at The Assembly Rooms, High St, Glastonbury, England, or watch it on the web at http://www.thekitchentable.tv

The organiser, artist and activist Brian Viziondanz, described the event as "pregnant with possibility". He said: "The Kitchen Table is a fully interactive participatory event, an experimental discussion forum."

The Kitchen Table will be a blending of theatre and discussion, where there is no audience as such, as everyone is welcome to be involved.

Those who are watching on the web at http://www.thekitchentable.tv will be able to interact with the discussions through twitter, which will be projected on a large screen in the venue. These contributions will be fed into the ongoing discussions and back out through the webcast, maximising the potential synergy of the event

At the event, a kitchen table will be situated in the centre of the floor surrounded by the audience. There will be 16 chairs at the table, which will be occupied by whoever wants to be there.

There will be a pot in which people can put subjects for discussion at the table. Every 30 minutes, one new subject will be randomly selected. Each person at the table can discuss the subject for 90 seconds then allow someone else to take it up if anyone wants to.

At the end of 30 minutes a five-minute summing up of the discussion will take place, then a new subject will be selected.

If the table is full and someone wishes to participate, someone at the table will be requested to surrender their place - drawing straws if necessary.

To create the feeling of a home kitchen table, participants are invited to bring food to share and there will be a bottomless coffee pot and teapot.

To cover expenses, a "magic hat" will be passed around for donations.

This is set to be the first of a series of experimental events in this genre. It will be videoed by five cameras and broadcast live over the internet. The video will also be edited down and distilled into capsules to be shown on Positive TV.

Positive TV is also encouraging people to host and video kitchen table events in their home town and upload them to the positive TV website.

To get more of an idea of what will happen , you can watch thee video: Pregnant with Possibility - The Kitchen Table at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=627BpGQg7Cw

See also: What is the kitchen table? at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Ut1YlD-4s

You can also follow on twitter https://twitter.com/kitchentabletv

This is a joint project between Gungho Media, positive TV, and World shift see:
http://www.positivetv.tv
http://gunghomedia.co.uk
http://worldshift2012.org

For more details, contact Brian Viziondanz on 07886009153

This week's pagan events in and near London

For details of future events visit my events page at http://paganevents.blogspot.com/, but here are this week's events of interest to pagans in London and other parts of England:

Now until 21 March; The Dark Monarch. Art exhibition named after an infamous 1962 book entitled The Dark Monarch: A Portrait from Within by Sven Berlin. It explores how folklore, mysticism, mythology and the occult have influenced British art in the past 100 years. Venue: The Towner Art Gallery, Devonshire Park, College Road, Eastbourne, BN21 4JJ. It is open Tuesday - Sunday from 10am - 6pm. For more details, call: 01323 434660 or visit the website http://www.eastbourne.gov.uk/leisure/museums-galleries/towner/exhibitions/

Monday 1 February; The Goddess Temple at Knossos. Talk by Simon Michel at pagan forum Secret Chiefs at its regular meeting time of every other Monday. Venue: Devereux public house, 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2R 3JJ. Meet from 7.30pm, event starts at 8.30pm. Admission £2.

Monday 1 February; Open Imbolc riutal at Joss Bay, Broadstair, Kent. Gather in the car park above Joss Bay beach, just below the North Foreland Lighthouse. The ritual will take place on the beach unless it rains, in which case it will take place in the Red Lion pub in Ramsgate. The event starts at 7.30pm. All are welcome. Call 01843 228011 for more details.

Tuesday 2 February; What is ‘The Magical Mystery Experience’? Masterclass with Tim Freke at The College of Psychic Studies 16 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2EB. Time: 7pm - 9pm. Cost: £8/£12. Advance booking necessary.http://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/index.html

Wednesday 3 February; Contacting your Daemon. Talk about the Fleet Street area of Old London by psychogeographer, film-maker and actor Robert Goodman at The Moot With No Name. Venue: Devereux public house, 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2R 3JJ. Meet from 7.30pm, event starts at 8pm. Admission £2. For more details, call Atlantis Bookshop on 020 7405 2120.

Wednesday 3 February; The Spirit of Diogenes and the Essence of Simplicity: Pagan Philosophy and Spiritual Ecology in Practice. An Illustrated Talk by Dave Sutch at Treadwells, 34 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7PB. 7.15pm for 7.30pm start. Entry £7, advance booking necessary. Tel: 020 7240 8906 or email: info@treadwells-london.com.

Thursday 4 February; Cinema of the Occult: Rituals, Perversion and Sorcery. Third of four fortnightly evenings of rare film with theoretical critiques by Patricia MacCormack, reader in Communication and Film at Anglia Ruskin University at Treadwells, 34 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7PB. 7.15 for 7.30pm start. Entry £10, booking essential. Tel: 020 7240 8906 or email: info@treadwells-london.com.

Friday 5 February; Understanding Your Psychic Mediumistic Human Nature. Masterclass with Gerrie March at The College of Psychic Studies 16 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2EB. Time: 7pm - 9pm. Cost: £8/£12. Advance booking necessary.http://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/index.html

Saturday 6 February; Beautiful Bridget - An Imbolc Experience. This workshop runs from 10am to 4pm at The Crystal Dragon, Caversham, Reading, Berkshire. Join with Vicky at the magical time of Imbolc to meet Bride, the patron Goddess of the festival of Imbolc. The workshop involves making Bridie's crosses and learning about her healing nature. It will culminate with a ceremony to honour the Lady of Spring. The cost is £35; concessions available. For more details or to book, call Vicky on 07792 279789 or visit the website http://www.sacredisle.webeden.co.uk/#

Saturday 6 February; Imbolc Fire Festival. This public event is said to be based on a 2,000-year-old Celtic celebration marking the first signs of spring. It features a procession, a fire circus, drama and music. The event Starts at Marsden Station at 6pm and continues in Marsden Village Centre, Marsden, HD7 6DU. Admission is free. For more details, visit http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/events/eventdetails.asp?evID=6179

Saturday 6 & Sunday 7 February; Imbolc - Earth, Health & Mystic Fayre at the Princess Pavilion, Melvill Rd, Falmouth, Cornwall, TR11 4AR. The doors open from 10am until 5pm each day. Admission is £2.50, OAPs get in for £1 and accompanied children under 16 will be admitted free. For more details visit the website http://www.mysticfayre.co.uk/eventsfeb.htm

If you know of any pagan events and want them listed on A Bad Witch's Blog, email me at badwitch1234@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

Pagan events, festivals and lectures

Monday 14 December; Shaminism and Time; Shaman UK discussion and social evening with a journey for those who want to make one. From 6.30pm - 9pm at The Open Centre, 188 Old St, London EC1V 9FR. Cost £9 waged, £5 unwaged. Booking essential. For more details or to reserve a space email Zoe on info@shaman.uk.net.

Wednesday 16 December; Saturnalia party at The Moot With No Name. Venue Devereux public house, 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2. Meet from 7.30pm, event starts at 8pm. Admission £2. For more details, visit http://www.theatlantisbookshopevents.com/page13.htm

18 -20 December; Midwinter Bear Feast. Festival inspired by Sub-Arctic animistic and shamanic traditions. This year's event is fully residential, with accommodation in a Celtic roundhouse and Viking longhouse. Rituals and performances will be held in a reconstruction of a Bronze Age tribal parliament from the Isle of Man. The location is in Cranborne, East Dorset, England. Tickets are £45 each and meals, entertainment and accommodation are included in the price. For more information and to book tickets, visit http://www.beartribe.co.uk/

19 & 20 December; Yuletide Fayre at Westgate Hall, Canterbury, Kent. Winter Solstice Celebration featuring traditional music, seasonal plays and festive food from 11am to 4pm. Entry free. For details visit http://www.magicalfestivals.co.uk/.

Pagan events, festivals and workshops

For details of future events visit my events page at http://paganevents.blogspot.com/, but here are this week's events of interest to pagans in London and other parts of England:

Wednesday 18 November; Rat Scabies will be talking at The Moot With No Name. Venue Devereux public house, 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2. Meet from 7.30pm, event starts at 8pm. Admission £2. For more details, visit http://www.theatlantisbookshopevents.com/page13.htm

Thursday 19 November; CoA Gathering, featuring talks, discussions, witchy competitions, entertainment and more organised by The Children of Artemis. Venue: Fairfield Halls, Croydon, Surrey. Time: 8pm start. Tickets cost £1 for CoA members and £2 for non-members. For more details, call 0870 442 290 or visit the website http://www.witchfest.net/

Sunday 22 November; Odin's Gateways: A Practical Guide to the Runes, by Katie Gerrard's through Avalonia. Press launch party organised by Treadwells, 34 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7PB. 2pm-4pm start. Entry free but booking essential. Tel: 020 7240 8906 or email: info@treadwells-london.com.

Sunday 22 November; Art from the Soul: Celebrating Autumn. Creative workshop using meditation and silence, music and colour, movement and stillness to meet the soul’s call for the season. The picture at the top of the page is by one of the previous participants of an Art for the Soul workshop. Venue is in Sutton, Surrey, and full details will be supplied on confirmation of booking. Time: 11am 6pm. Cost: £50.00 excluding materials. Bring food to share for lunch; alternatively, there are cafes and pubs nearby. A £25 deposit is required for confirmation. For details phone 07949 766634 or email cilla@cillaconway.com

If you know of any pagan events and want them listed on A Bad Witch's Blog, email me at badwitch1234@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

This week's pagan events in and near London

For details of future events visit my events page at http://paganevents.blogspot.com/, but here are this week's events of interest to pagans in London and south east England:

Monday 2 November, Talk on Druidry at The Red Lion pub, 1 King Street, Ramsgate, Kent, CT11 8NN. Tel 01843 586713. This is part of the Ramsgate Pagan Discussion Group and Social Gathering that takes place on the first and third Monday of each month. Time: 7.30pm. Contact: dennis@hoodedcat.co.uk

Wednesday 4 November; Dzyzlan, the Mother of Water: A Guided Visualisation through Abkhazia. Talky by Michael Berman about mythology and folklore about marriage between mortals and water-spirits at The Moot With No Name. Venue Devereux public house, 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2. Meet from 7.30pm, event starts at 8pm. Admission £2. For more details, visit http://www.theatlantisbookshopevents.com/page13.htm

Saturday 7 November; Witchfest International. Large pagan and witchcraft convention organised by The Children of Artemis. Venue: Fairfield Halls, Croydon, Surrey. Tickets cost £16 for CoA members and £20 for non-members. http://www.witchfest.net/

If you know of any pagan events and want them listed on A Bad Witch's Blog, email me at badwitch1234@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

The Necronomicon Lecture

I've just come across a podcast of a lecture given at Treadwells in May this year called Necronomicons: The Scariest Book in the World, which can be downloaded at Yog-Sothoth.com.

The Necronomicon is the name of a fictional book that appears in the stories by horror novelist HP Lovecraft. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story The Hound.

The Necronomicon was attributed to "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, although this name, like that of the book, was the creation of Lovecraft himself. Nevertheless, many people have since brought out books entitled The Necronomicon, some of which have inspired the idea that an ancient occult tome of that name really exists.

In the Treadwells talk, Dan Harms, author of Necronomicon Files: The Truth Behind the Legend and the blog papers falling from an attic window explains the true history of the numerous Necronomicons and the source material that inspired HP Lovecraft in writing his stories of the Cthulhu Mythos.

I'm not going to go into full details here, because it is much easier to listen to it in Dan's own words. The podcast can be found at http://www.yog-sothoth.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=60

Last year, on A Bad Witch's Blog, I wrote about a talk by Steve Ash on The Great Old Ones and reviewed The Grimoire of the Necronomicon.

Links:
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/10/blog-post.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/10/review-grimoire-of-necronomicon.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/10/steve-ash-on-great-old-ones.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/10/god-of-week-dagon.html
http://www.yog-sothoth.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=60
Necronomicon Files: The Truth Behind the Legend

This week's pagan events

For details of future events visit my events page at http://paganevents.blogspot.com/, but here are this week's events of interest to pagans in London and other parts of England:

Now until 13 September; The Truth About Faeries: From Midsummers Night's Dream to Lord of the Rings. Fairy art exhibition at Southampton City Art Gallery Civic Centre, Commercial Road, Southampton, Hampshire, SO14 7LP. Tel: 023 8083 4563. Email: art.gallery@southampton.gov.uk Website: http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/arts/sotonartgallery/exhibitions.asp

Thursday 13 August; The Peckham Ghost Trail. Follow the trail of the infamous Peckham Ghost with SELFS host Scott Wood, meeting other phantoms of Peckham and Nunhead on the way. Meet at Honor Oak Station, South London at 7pm. The walk ends at Nunhead Green approx 9pm. This is a free event. Contact scott@selfs.org.uk for more details. If it is raining, call 0795 201 2487 on the day to ensure the walk is happening.

Saturday 15 & Sunday 16 August; The Goddess Festival and Parade. Festival with music, workshops and stalls at Westgate Hall, Canterbury, Kent. Special guests: Janet Farrar & Gavin Bone. Events start 11am. Tickets adults £5, children £2.50, OAPs £2. For more details and to book tickets visit http://www.goddessfestivals.co.uk/#

Saturday 15 August; Drum Skills Training. Learn to play all types of drums in a regular weekly class. From 1pm - 3pm at Small Boat Owners Club, Guilford Lawn, Ramsgate. £2 per class. For more details call 07912746264.

Sunday 16 August; The Pendle Witches Tour. In 1612, the second largest execution for witchcraft in England took place at Lancaster. Find out how those accused of witchcraft came to meet their terrible fate 400 years ago on this tour through the atmospheric streets of Lancaster. The event is organised by Catwalks. The walk is up to 90 minutes and starts at 7.30pm, from Lancaster Castle’s John O’ Gaunt Gateway. The cost is £4 Adults and £1 Children – pay at the start of the walk. For further information, call 01524 792089 or visit visit http://www.lancaster.gov.uk/what-s-on/guided-walks-tours/

If you know of any pagan events and want them listed on A Bad Witch's Blog, email me at badwitch1234@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

Steve Wilson on Sex and Paganism at Gaia-Sol

Steve Wilson, pagan activist, writer and founder of PEBBLE (Public Bodies Liaison Committee for British Paganism) gave a talk entitled Sex and Paganism at the PF London Gaia-Sol convention at the end of June.

Of all the talks at the event, Steve's was the one I most wanted to hear. Obviously anything with the word “sex” in the title is likely to attract interest, but I also know that Steve is a great speaker. He is extremely knowledgeable about paganism and the occult, and is also not afraid to say what he thinks about controversial subjects. He is someone I have a great deal of respect for.

Steve explained that the basis of his talk on Sex and Paganism came from a project run with schools in a borough with a high rate of teenage pregnancy. Children were asked to come up with questions about sex and relationships, which were then put to various religious bodies to give that faith's views. Steve Wilson, as a member of PEBBLE, was asked to respond on the pagan perspective on sex and relationships.

He said: “To start with, I decided to talk about the importance of 'oath'.”

Most pagan traditions believe that oaths are very important. In relationships, this means keeping your word. For teenagers, this could be thinking very carefully about whether they believe the promises their boyfriend or girlfriend makes. For example, if they promise not to tell their mates about something, do you really believe they will be able to refrain from bragging?

Moving on to the subject of sex and paganism in general, Steve talked about how the pagan revival has suffered from a common view that as it was a fertility religion, it was therefore all about getting their kit off and having sex. Since the 1940s, newspaper reports concentrated on the fact that Wiccans perform their rites naked – or sky clad - and their highest ritual is the act of union between the high priest and high priestess – The Great Rite.

This view might sell papers, but it gives the wrong impression about paganism. Wicca might be a fertility religion, but that doesn't only mean having sex and procreating. For pre-Christian pagans, for example, fertility of the land was extremely important. Human sex might be used as a symbol of that, but the meaning behind it was to ensure good hunting and good harvests.

In Victorian times, much was written – and depicted – of paganism being all about sex, but this was quite often pornography in disguise as academia.

Steve said that even by the 1980s, those attitudes were looking very old fashioned. He said: “The idea that fertility is all about sex is an outdated concept.”

Through PEBBLE, Steve took on the task of putting in words the modern pagan view on sex and relationships.

For some religions, the official standing is based on what they see as the word of god as written in holy books. Pagans do not have official holy books. Modern pagan religions evolved through revivals of pre-Christian religions.

Pagans do have mythologies – stories about pagan gods and goddesses. However, Steve pointed out that these are not really morality tales. For example, Steve said, it would be silly to look at the story of Isis and Osiris and take the moral stance from it that: “If you want a child by your dead husband who has been chopped into pieces, make sure you find his cock.”

We often describe paganism as a nature religion. Many religions selectively use nature in arguments such as “homosexuality is not natural”. However, homosexuality is found in species apart from humans, so is quite natural.

Steve felt it was appropriate for pagans, as members of a nature religion, to look to nature to find sexual morality. He said: “From nature we get examples of a wide variety of sexual habits and activities.

“Humans are clearly sexual by nature and our sexuality is designed to restrict human population in that we can enjoy sex without procreating.”

Steve asked: “If nature only wanted us to have monogamous relationships for the purpose of conception, why do women have a clitoris? It is not an undeveloped version of a male organ, because all foetuses start female.”

He argued: “The clitoris can only have developed as a way for a woman to enjoy sex without necessarily having to conceive. Men have a prostate that can be stimulated, which is another way of enjoying sex without procreating.

“We have evolved to want sex more than most other species and can have sex frequently, but without that having to involve conception.”

This means that gay and lesbian behaviour are among of nature's ways that humans can enjoy sex without the risk of conception. The same can be said for masturbation.

Steve asked: “If sex without pregnancy wasn't intended by nature, why is it so enjoyable?”

According to studies of chimpanzees, and studies of Americans, both are less monogamous than was originally thought. One in four American men are bringing up children they did not father. It is a similar figure with chimps. Studies also show that female chimps will actively seek sex with males who are not the alpha male of the group.

Steve said: “This ensure a good genetic spread. Monogamy is less useful for a genetic spread.”

He pointed out that white people, with official religions that encourage monogamy, have spread all over the world, despite their calls for monogamy and sex only to procreate. This shows it isn't particularly good as a means of controlling population.

Steve summed up by saying: “The pagan message is, it is OK to celebrate our sexual nature in all adult consensual ways.”

The photograph above is of a solar goddess on the altar during the opening ritual of the Gaia-Sol conference

Links
http://www.pebble.uk.net/index.html
http://www.pebble.uk.net/news.html#sorb
http://pflondon.org/

The Charge of the Goddess Conference

If you are a witch, you probably won't want to miss The Charge of the Goddess Conference - a Day for Doreen on Sunday 13 September, 2009, in London. However, I have been told that tickets are selling out really quickly, so if you want one, you probably need to order it very soon.

The Charge of the Goddess Conference celebrates the life and work of Doreen Valiente, the Mother of Modern Witchcraft. It is being put on by The Centre for Pagan Studies in association with The Atlantis Bookshop.

Speakers will include Isobel Andrade, Geraldine Beskin, Zach Cox, Marian Green, Prof Ron Hutton, Fred Lamond, Mary Rands, Maxine Sanders, Kate est, Gavin Bone, Lois Bourne, Janet Farrar, Ralph Harvey, Will Kale, Morgan (PFI), John Belham-Payne and Jean Williams. There will also be stalls selling books, jewellery, ritual items and other witchy goods.

The conference takes place at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, Holborn, London, and starts at 10am. Tickets are £15 in advance, and £2o on the door - although it is extremely unlikely there will be any left for sale by that time. For more details and tickets tel: 07733 581504 or visit http://doreenvaliente.com/

For details of other pagan events, visit my events page at http://www.paganevents.blogspot.com/

This week's pagan events

For details of future events visit my events page at http://paganevents.blogspot.com/, but here are this week's pagan events in London:

Sunday 28 June; Gaia Sol Convention 2009. Festival and convention organised by Pagan Federation London at ULU, Malet Street, London. Time: 11.30am- 6.30pm. Tickets £10/£12. http://pflondon.org/

Sunday 28 June; The Centre for Wildlife Gardening 20th birthday celebrations at 28 Marsden Rd, London SE15 4EE, from 10.30am to 4.30pm. For more details, visit http://www.wildlondon.org.uk/ or call 020 7252 9186.

Monday 29 June; Shamanism and Death: Initiation into Reality. Seminar at The Open Centre, 188 Old Street, London EC1V 9FR. 6.30pm -9pm. Cost £12, £8 concessions. Booking essential as there is no reception on the door at the centre. Tel 07748 964 986 or visit http://www.shamanintheuk.blogspot.com/ or http://www.shaman.uk.net/.

Tuesday 30 June; The Ring of Cerridwen Moot. This is a social evening, so guests are welcome. Time: 8pm - 11pm. Venue: The Golden Grove Pub, Ruxbury Road, St Annes Hill, Chertsey.

Wednesday 1 July; Spiritual Runes. Talk by Harmonia Saille about connecting with your runes at The Moot With No Name, Devereux public house, 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2. Meet from 7.30pm, event starts at 8pm. Admission £2.

Wednesday 1 July; Fetich Sorcery in La Couleuvre Noire - Explorations within Bertiaux's System. Talk by David Beth (L.C.N) at Treadwells, 34 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7PB. 7.15pm for 7.30pm start. Entry £5, booking advised. Tel: 020 7240 8906 or email: info@treadwells-london.com. www.treadwells-london.com/lectures.asp

Friday 3 July; Demonstration of Mediumship. Demonstration by College of Psychic Studies lecturer Anthony Kesner at The College of Psychic Studies 16 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2EB. Time: 7pm - 8.30pm. Cost: £5/£8. http://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/index.html

If you know of any pagan events and want them listed on A Bad Witch's Blog, email me at badwitch1234@gmail.com or leave a comment below.