METHE - a Journal of Magickal & Spiritual Drunkenness

Introduce me?

azarak — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:28:00 +0000

I am getting lost in the world of trying to work out which blogs I should be looking at, its all so distracting! So please, if you have a blog of an Magickal nature, please respond to this or email me with a link, so that I can make a list of the ones I like and would like to read? I will add everyone who makes the effort to my blogrol as a thanks.

Ludlow – Stephen Skinner!

azarak — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:33:14 +0000

They have a blog now with information on the conference and how to get tickets. I just got mine, but I think there will still be tickets available, though best to check.

http://esotericconference.wordpress.com/

“

In the hustle and bustle of online this, and online that, it may come as a surprise to some, but tickets to the conference are not available online!

Instead the organisers prefer the old fashioned way via the Royal Post, otherwise known as snail mail.

So send a letter along with your details and return address, including how many tickets (£15 each) you require and a cheque (made payable to Verdelet) for the correct amount to:

PO Box 82,
Craven Arms,
Shropshire,
SY7 8WG

FFI & enquiries from the online conference co-ordinator @: keltsrus@hotmail.com ”

A Pagan Dawn Yawn

azarak — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:06:31 +0000

When a friend reintroduced me to Pagan Dawn a few months ago, under a new editor, I had high hopes for it to be a new incarnation with new horizons and possible hope for a proper Pagan magazine in the UK which had the ability to go mainstream. But no, of course not. Whilst the first few editions had hope, with articles by some of the foremost researchers and writers of our age, things are already going backwards.

Whilst the covers of the previous few editions were not that great, but certainly an improvement on previous years, the latest one is just a plain weird photo which will probably scare little children and is so generic as to have puke value. Never mind. What were they thinking? Is that meant to be Hecate? Or what? If Hecate anyone could tell you the symbols are wrong! What are they trying to perpetuate or say which this? Then the content. Apart from the interview with Fred Lamond which is noteworthy of mention and the entire price of the magazine, the rest of the magazine is filled with self-indulgent information on gardening, which seems to have an agenda of some description as it is too basic to be of use to anyone who have even the most basic experience of gardening and those with no experience is better of reading a magazine on gardening which would at the very least be useful. And probably cheaper.

An offence to this Pagan, who will not be resubscribing.

Its been a while…

azarak — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:03:50 +0000

Whilst I haven’t been posting here for a while, I have been reading blogs on wordpress on a regular basis. I like the blatant honesty of some of the bloggers here, especially those blogging on magick. For me the Spirit rises higher each time a true word is written and perpetuated in the fight of the nonsense that is so often published on the internet and in books by the mainstream publishers.

I am currently reading Trader by Charles de Lint – and if you haven’t yet discovered de Lint, you probably want to make an effort to get something by this Canadian author asap. His books capture the essence of natural magick more than any of these books hedgewithes or natural magick. Its completely fictitious though. Or is it?

I am also looking forward to getting stuck into the The Alchemy Reader before making my way down to the Ludlow Esoteric Conference in May. I will try and find the details and post it here as it is the only conference worth going to in my opinion. Too much fluff everywhere else. Plus I heard they have Stephen Skinner confirmed as a speaker, which should be the experience of a lifetime to hear him speak. So really looking forward to it.

Witchcraft & Black Magic

azarak — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:06:19 +0000

Every now and then I like to reread an old book on magick, this time it was Witchcraft and Black Magic by Montague Summers. I have a cheap paperback copy which was published by Senate, but it does the job. Its a great book which looks into witchcraft in medieval life, and looks into many different areas of occult magick – from the Black mass through to poppets and charms.

Truth or Fiction doesn’t really matter, its a great inspiration and useful for ideas, and I love the style it is written in – books like that doesn’t make an appearance often these days. I am thinking of rereading The Roots of Witchcraft by Michael Harrison again soon too, as well as that old favourite of all British Witches Mastering Witchcraft by Paul Huson. Heard there is a new edition out too.

Brewing your own

azarak — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:11:48 +0000

I have been thinking about brewing my own wine for a few years now, but I always put it off. This year my apple trees are bearing a heavy load and all being well I should have plenty of fruit to use to make wine with. I bought some apple wine in a shop in somerset somewhere recently which I found surprisingly nice, first thinking it would be like a bad cider!

Now I am in search of good recipes and tips for making wine from apples. Can you help? Am I barking up the wrong tree and should I instead try and make some home brew Cider?

Amethyst. Amethyst.

azarak — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:57:19 +0000

I heard that the Greeks swore by it, so did some English men and women, so I took a big lump of polished amethyst with me to the party last night, I binded it to my belly button as instructed. It did nothing. I have the mother of hangovers this morning! New Age nonsense, right? No, apparently it was me, I drunk the wrong stuff, Amethyst only protects against drunkeness from wine, not beer and spirits.

I did leave it on overnight and did have a lot of very vivid dreams, could this be down to the stone, or just coincidence? I am planning on finding out, so do tell me if you had something similar, though I doubt somehow that many people go to bed with an amethyst strapped to them.

But do yourself a favour, go read the beautiful love story of Bacchus and Amethyst, how Diana turned her into a stone and Bacchus libated red wine onto the stone for his love, turning her purple for an eternity. At least the tigers didn’t tear her apart…

Right. Coffee. Something greasy. Lots more coffee. orange juice someone told me helps cure hangovers?

METHE is born

azarak — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:40:20 +0000

This is the new incarnation of my wordpress blog. The first one didn’t last all that much, born out of frustration of a much missed forum which had been closed and is still sorely missed I found a new outlet for my occasional need to rant rave and share my love of things related to the occult, magick, witchcraft and wicca. Best of all I just found that Sorita (the lady who ran the Avalonia Forums) also has a wordpress blog – http://unicursalstar.wordpress.com so that makes for more exciting news as I always enjoy reading her thoughts. I have also found blogs for many of my other favourite authors, here on wordpress and elsewhere, so I am hoping to discover more and more about the communities here. A brave new world. An exciting world.

A world full of drunken joy.

In honour of Methe.

The Roman Goddess and personification of drunkenness.

Hail Methe!

I forgot.

azarak — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:30:46 +0000

My weekend with friends all that time ago was so great that I completely forgot about my Magick Rants and the need I felt to change the name. So here goes.

MAGICK RANTS is now known as “Methe” which means “drunkenness”.

Please join me in the joys of drunkenness – friendship, love, conversation and good wine (or whichever spirit you wish to evoke) and join me on a new journey in honour of Methe, the Roman Nymph.

A drunken man can of course still rant, at least as much as he can love.

Rant Free.

azarak — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:59:21 +0000

Today I am feeling happy. It is Friday and I will be meeting up with some friends of mine later today for a journey out into the English countryside. We are planning a visit to Avebury, Silbury Hill and West Kennet’s barrows. This is something I am looking forward to very much and I can’t wait to spend some magical times with good friends. I realised that this blog might have the wrong name, so will ponder a new name for it over the weekend. I started it because I was angry at the loss of my favourite online forums, but have found this to be a great expression of how I am feeling and also find the feedback from other people on WordPress to be very encouraging. I further more enjoy reading other people blogging here. So its all good. No need for constant rants!

I do find it peculiar that whilst I can see the names of the people who write messages here, I can’t click on it to find their blogs. Is there a way of fixing this as I would dearly like to be able to read the blogs of people who come and read mine?

Have yourselves a great weekend.