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sábado, 23 de janeiro de 2010

The Mörksugga Guardian



The Mörksugga - whose name translates as "Sow" - is a Swedish folklore figure from Dalarna. Dalarna is a highly forested area dominated by mountains, foothills and the lake Siljan as well as a number of smaller lakes.

In this county of dark forests and swamps it's not hard to imagine that a figure of terror would emerge to scare children into safety, after all, we all had at some point in our infancies heard similar stories told to discourage us from unnecessary danger.
                                                                                                   The picture was taken from this website.

Dwelling in the darkness and on old cabins, the Mörksugga would act as a kind of "Boggey Man", a creature of darkness and danger to those that ventured in the night. A friend of mine reports that:

"I remember seeing a mörksugga at my grandparents when i was a kid, sitting up on an old cabinet in their living room. I remember the mesmerizing effect it had on me back then and I still think it has a nice, almost sinister feel to to it which makes it a interesting decoration in any house".

Eventually, in the 50's, an artist by the name of Birger Eriksson created what would become most famous Mörskugga - and the one my friend saw at his grandparents - and with this representation the Mörksugga no longer dwelled in the night to harm but in the home to protect and eat every and any dark powers that threaten the peace.

To keep up with the changing lore, the item I recieved was vivified as a foci point for a guardian, with the shape of a huge eggaloid sow, that stands proudly atop my dresser facing the windows ready to gnaw the unsuspecting trespassers.


quarta-feira, 13 de janeiro de 2010

Abraxas- "New independent journal of historical and contemporary occultism"

"Abraxas is a new independent journal of historical and contemporary occultism. Through its pages will be manifest the voices of working occult experience and the visions of esoteric artists, alongside keen insights of original scholarly research. Abraxas will offer the reader a rich resource of thought-provoking essays, vibrant art and poetic myth from some of the most inspirational thinkers, artists, writers, designers and practitioners working in the international occult community today. Here will be found perceptive articles, narratives of workings, mysterious photography, obscure magical text reprints, strange drawings and resonant lyric. Abraxas aims to be intellectually engaging, critically rigorous and visually inspiring. It will be a unique space where fresh insights emerge to feed the mind, imagination and soul. A joint venture between Treadwell’s and Fulgur, Abraxas is presented in a quality and format that reflects the high standard of the contributors and editors. Over nearly two decades the publishers Fulgur Limited have established a reputation for high quality book production within the esoteric genre. They also have a proven record in fostering the fine and visual arts: from established figures such as Austin Osman Spare, Michael Bertiaux and Steffi Grant, to gifted younger occult artists such as Andrew Chumbley, Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule and Barry William Hale. For its part Treadwell’s Bookshop has quickly become the most social of all London venues. Its panoply of lectures, events and book launches have made it widely known as a gathering place for lucid and lateral-thinking scholars on esoteric subjects. The best resources of both enterprises are therefore brought together in this stimulating new collaboration."

From: http://www.fulgur.co.uk/abraxas/

Some of the articles contained in this issue include:

The Green Intercessor
Tutelary Spirits and the Transmission of Plant-Magic
Daniel A. Schulke
Caveat Anonyter!
A Study of Flying Ointments and their Plants
Sarah Penicka-Smith
Sorceries of the Threshold
Transgression into the Between States
Anon
The Uncertainty of Illumination
Gnosis and Epistemology in Traditional Craft
Stuart Inman
Lucifer by Starlight
An Interview with Francesco Parisi
The Third Eye
The Fantastic World of Lobsang Rampa
Phil Hine
Transmutations of Good and Evil
Alchemy, Witchcraft and the Graal in the Work of Arthur Machen
Edward Gauntlett
Skip Witches, Hop Toads
Stephen Grasso
A Dream of Witchcraft Turned to Nightmare
The Five Witches of Albrecht Durer
John Callow
On Sappho
James Butler



A must have.

domingo, 10 de janeiro de 2010

Gifts Recieved and The Folk-lore of Plants, by T. F. Thiselton-Dyer

For Christmas a dear friend of mine from Finland sent me some straw crafts with which I became immediately in love with. In his package  there were several snowflakes and two olkipukki, straw goats.


 



Made with the intent of being used as Christmas tree decorations, I'm thinking of dyeing the goats red and use them as representations of the Lord of the Woods whilst the snowflakes will be used as decorations on the wall behind the altar space. (Thank you Jarno for the lovely pieces!)

Other than this little update, I bring you yet another book and this one you can get for free at the Project Gutenberg . This website features thousands of titles that are copyright free and together with Sacred Texts and Cornell's University Witchcraft Collection is one my most used web resources for research of folk-lore and traditional witchcraft practices and beliefs. I hope they can serve you well too.

The Folk-lore of Plants is a slim volume that amounts to not much more than 170 pages and is already a bit dated (1889) however its filled with information, as the author says:

   Apart from botanical science, there is perhaps no subject of inquiry connected with plants of wider interest than that suggested by the study of folk-lore. This field of research has been largely worked of late years, and has obtained considerable popularity in this country, and on the Continent.
Much has already been written on the folk-lore of plants, a fact which has induced me to give, in the present volume, a brief systematic summary—with a few illustrations in each case—of the many branches into which the subject naturally subdivides itself. It is hoped, therefore, that this little work will serve as a useful handbook for those desirous of gaining some information, in a brief concise form, of the folk-lore which, in one form or another, has clustered round the vegetable kingdom.




There is one great flaw in this title: it makes you hungry for more. Nevermind its small amount of pages. The sheer wealth of information and the varied topics it covers just makes me cringe at the fact that there is an end to the book. I am, in truth, at a loss of words to describe how phenomenal it  is and how rejuvenated i felt after reading it. Its more then just an amalgamae of information and accounts, its inspirational.

Learn about the doctrine of signatures; plant worship and sacred plants; plants in witchcraft, demonology and faery lore as well as their cerimonial and transcendental use;  the place of plant in folk medicine and in the calendar and how they were used to affect the weather amongst other topics of interest.

quinta-feira, 7 de janeiro de 2010

HOODOO HERB AND ROOT MAGIC - A Materia Magica of African-American Conjure by catherine yronwode

 I still don't have a camera available - and I blame C. for that - so I can't show the nifty stuff that has been boiling and rolling from the cupboard to the cauldron, so, here’s another book.

 For those that don't know, Hoodoo is a syncretic African-American folk magic tradition - do not mistake it for Voodoo, which is a religion - that has, at various points in its development, mixed African beliefs and practices with Native American, European- as the Medieval and Renaissance Grimoires became available to the general public in the beginning of the twentieth century- and, more recently, Mexican Brujeria and Espiritismo.With the advent of the Internet and the subsequent spread of information, interest in Hoodoo has grown exponentially in the Pagan community, an interest that, I believe, can be partially attributed to the fascination of actually learning a tradition that is living and thriving as opposed to trying to resurrect a certain religious movement that has been dead for centuries with all its difficulties and the large amount of guess-work that naturally ensues. Other than this obvious allure, Hoodoo is also a completely pragmatically paradigm that lacks any of the home-made makeshift morals that plague the Pagan community and that render nearly any magical activity pretty much ineffective due to the extreme amount of watering down whilst still maintaining, in itself, enough flexibility to be detached from any theological links and adapted to -if any exist at all - religious flavour that the practitioner might require.

 One of the main public figures related to Hoodoo - and a traditionalist to boot - is catherine yronwode (no, there is no typo, miss catherine really does prefer not to capitalize her name; yronwode reads as ironwood). She started to learn Hoodoo in her teens, being taught by people who used it on a daily basis near the place she lived and that weren’t shy to share. Nowadays she maintains a very large webpage full of resources for people who want to know more about this tradition. In her webpage you can find her store "Lucky Mojo", but also thousands of web archives that relate to the subject at hand. I highlight Hoodoo in Theory and Practice , an online book which is not yet completed; her correspondence course ;  her Hoodoo radio show, complete with archives from previous years and finally Southern Spirits - A scholarly online resource . There is much more to be found in her webpage. This lady truly does it out of love and devotion.

One of the names are that are used to refer to Hoodoo is Rootwork. Whilst Rootwork doesn't necessarily imply a different or more specific set of practices within Hoodoo, it does point to the importance of plants in conjure. Following the doctrine of signatures, which basically attributes magical significance to a plant's appearance and modus vivendi, Rootworkers build their formularies with a fix, or trick, for nearly any situation that may arise. This book focuses precisely on that. It contains nearly 500 herbs as well as animal and mineral curious which are also largely employed in conjure. Organized as a reference encyclopedia, each herb entry features its taxonomic name, its popular name/s, what its used for and how its employed, recipes and/or spells connected to it and, finally, other herbs that it interacts with together with the "how" and "where" that particular herb was first introduced to Hoodoo. But this is not all. catherine goes one step further in the series of herbals that are published each year and actually explains the context where those herbs are used and i am not referring to the black and white definition of uses but the practices and folklore behind it. Whilst not a how to book in anyway - praise the lord! - if this is your first contact with Hoodoo your basic education won’t be negliged. You will learn about Mojo Hands and how and why they are fixed; the importance of body fluids and what they are for and in what context they are used; how and what types of clothing play a part in conjure as well as other personal concerns such as nails, hairs, skin scrapings; measures, foot tracks, disposing methods et all.

Do not miss this one. It is certainly worth the money.

Happy conjurin'

terça-feira, 5 de janeiro de 2010

Deceiv'st thou me, mine eye? Lo! boon unsought!

Book stores are my temples. Within those sacrosanct commercial spaces my knowledge hungry mind finds the repose necessary to face the adversities of life in this Satan ruled world. For years I've stalked those aisles, either hunched or on tip toe, on the lookout for the next treasure to add to my piling collection of literary pearls. Both gold and excrement passed through my hands and ah! how delightful is the smell of the young printed page. In the likeness of maidens those books promise uncounted pleasures and in awe I caress their covers basking  in the glories that they disclose avoiding to the most facing my greatest, mortal rival.

Deception, lies, thievery haunts and block my way to my lovers. I fight with all my strength to liberate the Word to the world and become one with it in love, but to no avail.  He is always there. Always. I knew today, just as surely as I felt the lust for that green cover growing in me that I would never take it to bed with me. But, relentless and in love, I still tried and nothing prepared me for the shock. There he was, yet again, the fatal Price:


Greek Magic: Ancient, Medieval and Modern

J, C, B, (edited) Petropoulos
Editor: Routledge
Ano de edição: 2008
Tipo de artigo: Livro
ISBN: 9780415282321
C.I.: 00000206094
Em stock, enviamos em 24 horas.

Preço: 105,00 €





 I feel cheated. Anger boils deep within me. Thieves...Maggots...- I hiss - but to no avail. To the friend that comes with me I wave a  hand in dismissal - Don't look that way -  I tell him - It will only bring us sadness. I know a way...a way where the clutches of unchecked greed wont choke us.


Greek Magic: Ancient, Medieval and Modern

Add to basket | €63.27 - Save €3.51 (5%) - RRP €66.78

Saved...by the internets.