Magick Matters

“Once Around the Sun: Stories, Crafts, and Recipes to Celebrate the Sacred Earth Year” by Ellen Evert Hopman

" An illustrated collection of stories and activities to celebrate traditional Pagan festivals and the changing of the seasons • Shares original stories, based on traditional folktales and designed to be read out loud, for each festival, such as Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Beltaine, Lughnasad, the solstices, and the equinoxes • Includes traditional games, hands-on projects special to each holiday, and seasonal recipes to enjoy the tastes and smells of each feast day • Discusses the sacred symbolism, magical lore, and cultural practices within each story and the healing and magical uses for the trees and flowers featured Once upon a time, when only candles lit the inside of homes and people traveled on foot or by horse, the...>>

“Summoning Azazel” by Jordan Tyler Quinn Farkas

"It's a good book on an experience of what NOT to do when calling a non-physical entity. Even though it has a proper ritual layout in it. Read it before summoning any being! Playing with Ouija boards is all fun and games until someone gets hurt. That is exactly what the author of this book found out the hard way. In Summoning Azazel American indie author Jordan Tyler Quinn Farkas recounts his personal experiences with a powerful and ancient entity. From erecting an altar and conversing with the being, to calling him down for a face to face meet and greet session, read about the entire series of paranormal happenings. Jordan hopes that his tale...>>

“Dark Mirrors: Azazel and Satanael in Early Jewish Demonology” by Andrei A. Orlov

"Dark Mirrors is a wide-ranging study of two central figures in early Jewish demonology—the fallen angels Azazel and Satanael. Andrei A. Orlov explores the mediating role of these paradigmatic celestial rebels in the development of Jewish demonological traditions from Second Temple apocalypticism to later Jewish mysticism, such as that of the Hekhalot and Shi'ur Qomah materials. Throughout, Orlov makes use of Jewish pseudepigraphical materials in Slavonic that are not widely known. Orlov traces the origins of Azazel and Satanael to different and competing mythologies of evil, one to the Fall in the Garden of Eden, the other to the revolt of angels in the antediluvian period. Although Azazel and Satanael are initially representatives of rival...>>

“Evidence for Psi: Thirteen Empirical Research Reports” edited by Damien Broderick and Ben Goertzel (incomplete)

"Psi is the term used by researchers for a variety of demonstrable but elusive psychic phenomena. This collection of essays provides a detailed survey of the evidence for psi at the level of scientific examination. Key features of apparent psi phenomena are reviewed, including precognition and remote perception (knowledge of future or distant events that cannot be inferred from present information), presentiment (physiological responses to stimuli that have not yet occurred), the effects of human emotions on globally dispersed machines, the possible impact of local sidereal time on psi performance, and the familiar feeling of knowing who is calling on the phone. Special attention is given to those phenomena that make it difficult for...>>

“The Scientific Counter-Revolution: The Jesuits and the Invention of Modern Science” by Michael John Gorman

"Jesuit engagement with natural philosophy during the late 16th and early 17th centuries transformed the status of the mathematical disciplines and propelled members of the Order into key areas of controversy in relation to Aristotelianism. Through close investigation of the activities of the Jesuit 'school' of mathematics founded by Christoph Clavius, The Scientific Counter-Revolution examines the Jesuit connections to the rise of experimental natural philosophy and the emergence of the early scientific societies. Arguing for a re-evaluation of the role of Jesuits in shaping early modern science, this book traces the evolution of the Collegio Romano as a hub of knowledge. Starting with an examination of Clavius's Counter-Reformation agenda for mathematics, Michael John Gorman traces...>>