Letters from the Editor

Okay, I have been reading this for some time now, and I finally finished the book.

Pop Culture Magick

Go take a look and then go to Amazon and buy!

Taylor, congrats.

Today in the “Daven” household, things were pretty quiet. I did have some excitement though.

Mostly it was the shopping trip. It takes so little to make those we love so happy. I went grocery shopping with my wife. That was it. She was thrilled. Why? I have no clue. I think it was because we were spending time together, even though I was ranging around getting stuff and she was driving the cart from point A to point B. But we talked some and thought about things like we did when we were young (like year 1 or 2 of our 15 year marriage).

Then we got home and had dinner that she lovingly fixed for everyone, with help. Cookies came after dinner, again lovingly fixed by my dearest. If you ever get a chance to marry a Kitchen Witch, do so. You WILL NOT regret it.

While Saturday is “bonding night with the daughter” they had anime on that I didn’t like too much. So while paying about 20% of my attention to the TV and talking, I was reading on one of the review books, Taylor Ellwood’s “Pop Culture Magick”.

First approximation analysis? It is not a book for everyone. I remember the brouhaha when it came out several years ago. I managed to refrain from ripping it apart mainly because I had never read the book myself, and the concepts seemed somewhat “out there”. I met Taylor later that same year at a ball in Collumbus Ohio and was somewhat put off. It wasn’t anything that he did specifically, it was just something that rubbed me the wrong way.

However, these days he and I trade comments in our LiveJournals. I consider him a good acquaintance (and I won’t pretend to be more familliar than that), but I do respect him and his opinions and am honored when my comments provoke thoughts.

But the book itself so far is a good read. It is really an experimental concept book, and it is not for everyone, but in and of itself it is a very thought provoking read. I am looking forward to finishing it. I can already see a few concepts and thoughts in his writing being of immediate use to me. Anyone want to duel on the Astral Plane with Magic: The Gathering™ cards?

Then I was reading a post from Jason Pitzl-Waters in his blog, and it struck me as to why many fundamentalists see Harry Potter and non approved Christian material as so dangerous. It causes the reader to question themselves. It causes the reader to begin the process of asking questions of themself, looking for answers and not looking to the Minister or to God for those answers. Instead of seeking outside sources to tell them what to believe, they look internally and decide what to believe and thus start a whole cycle of changing absolutes which most often leads the person in question away from their faith, thus losing them the Kingdom of Heaven and their God.

Since the most terrible fate that is possible to be visited on someone is that very sundering of the ties to their deity, this is a terrible thing. Having gone through this, it is hard.

And the great irony is that most often those who are going through this questioning do so in an attempt to strengthen their own faith, and they end up losing it.

So instead of chaing the faith path to more accurately reflect that which is the actual problem, the fact that many funamdntal faiths don’t allow for individual expression of that faith or deviation from minor points of dogma, they attack and attempt to suppress the instruments of research that are seen by them as causing the initial quest in the first place, completely ignoring the fact that even without those items the changes would still occur.

It is definately a form of mindcontrol, self imposed and self disciplined.

Also, when laying out the cookies and milk for Santa, don’t forget that while that large elf may not drink all the milk, eat all the cookies or take all the carrots/apples for the reindeer, the local strays will definately eat the apples/carrots, the birds will love the cookie crumbs and the feral cats will enjoy the milk. Giving those food items to the local animal life is one sacrifice that I think everyone can get behind, and it shares the celebration with them as well.

Well, I’m now a published author. Not paid, not yet, but I am writing my series of articles on “The Witches Pyramid”. It’s at Rending the Veil. This is an interactive magazine for magickians and for those who work with magick.

I think this is one of the best articles I have written.

Go, register, comment and read. Tell me what you think. Read the other articles.

This is from the publisher of Gathering the Magic

Immanion Press/Megalithica Books has printers both in the U.S. and the U.K. That means that readers in both countries will have easy access and domestic shipping for all of our books. All titles are also available through all Amazon.com sites, again with standard shipping. We are also available through various pagan shops internationally; if your local shop doesn’t carry our books, have them contact orders@immanion-press.com for more information or visit http://www.immanion-press.com.

Just so you know. I forgot to update that earlier.

Okay, I’m going to guilt you out slightly. It’s a good one, probably blend into the background with the rest of the “Please Give” guilt you get this year, but I’m going to give this a twist.

Please do give to whatever charity you feel deserves your support. Don’t give because everyone else is giving, but because now is the time when 85% (more or less) of the operating budget of most charities and shelters is raised to carry them through the year. From beginning of November through Christmas, charaties and shelters get lots and lots of donations from people. And they need every dime to stay in business until they hit next November.

There are 11 other months out there. Giving now is good and it really helps. But after that, all the donations and voulenteers dry up in January, February and so on. The lines you will see pictures of with 25 workers and the Governor giving out turkey dinners to the homeless is good, but that drops to about 5 poeple in May and other months, and the numbers of people needing that doesn’t go down, it increases slightly because there are fewer services offering help. So the voulenteers are chronically overworked and they burnout.

Know what I wanted for my Birthday. I wanted to go and work at a shelter. I would take my family with me. We were there once and I didn’t want to forget that. Things happened though and we never made it and I still feel bad about that.

Yes, give generously now. That’s why the huge push happens now, it’s lots of little shelters and charaties competeing for too few dollars. So they all demand and some get. And maybe they will have money to help in April or August.

More than that, don’t forget that these groups still need help in other months. Go work, donate, give clothes and time. You’d be amazed at what a difference it makes.

Okay, remember this post? Well, it’s fixed now. Apparently there were some servers that decided to blacklist my email because it got spoofed by a lot of spammers.

So, feel free to email me again, I’ll get them.