Paul and co-workers

Friday, February 22, 2019

Vaticanus and 1 Cor 14:34-5

NTS has published my short article:

"Are There Distigme-Obelos Symbols in Vaticanus?" NTS 65.2 (2019) 246-251.

It can be accessed for free here. In it I argue against Philip Payne's 2017 NTS article, in which he tried to use symbols in the margin of codex Vaticanus to argue that 1 Cor 14:34-5 is an interpolation. Actually, I think that Paul probably did not write these verses, but not for the reasons Payne gave in the article.

The current edition of NTS also contains a further rebuttal of Payne's 2017 paper:

Jan Krans, "Paragraphos, Not Obelos, in Codex Vaticanus" NTS 65.2 (2019) 252-257.

Krans's article is broader in scope than mine. He and I worked independently of each other and there is little overlap in our material, but we come to the same conclusion.

The background to Galatians

My article on Galatians is now published, and can be downloaded for 14 Euros here. Sorry about the price.

"Paul, Timothy, Jerusalem and the Confusion in Galatia" Biblica 99.4 (2018) 544-566.

It is a provocative and potentially ground-breaking piece that challenges modern scholars' cherished beliefs that:-
a) there was a theological rift between Paul and the Jerusalem church leaders.
b) Paul wrote Galatians in anger.
c) Paul was uncompromising in his opposition to circumcision.
d) Galatians shows Acts to be unhistorical.
e) Titus and Timothy were different people.

In the process, I support the south Galatia hypothesis and a date of composition after the circumcision of Timothy. Here is the abstract.
Gal 5,11 is an embarrassment to conventional understandings of Galatians, yet the structure of the letter shows that it is of central importance: it is the clearest text that reveals the rumour refuted by Paul throughout the letter. Paul circumcised Timothy in Galatia and delivered Jerusalem’s decision that circumcision was not necessary. The agitators then encouraged circumcision by appealing to Paul’s authority, claiming that he now approved of circumcision, and that it was only to please the Jerusalem church leaders that he continued to preach a Law-free gospel in Galatia. Acts no longer contradicts Galatians but explains it well.

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Junia, Prisca, and sexism in Jerome's manuscript

Jerome wrote a list of New Testament proper names, with his (loose) interpretations of their meanings. It is found in Liber Interpretations Hebraicorum Nominum, also known as Liber de Nominibus Hebraicis. The oldest manuscript of this work is from the 9th century and its images are given below and can be found here (and a later manuscript is here). The text is conveniently given here and de Lagarde's edition is here. This blog post examines how this work of Jerome treats Junia (Rom 16:7), Euodia (Phil 4:3) and Prisca.

A sexist hand may have intervened in the compilation of Jerome's book in 388 A.D., for Junia and Euodia seem to have been removed from their rightful locations, and Prisca was made male.

Jerome organised the names by the books in which they appear. Thus, all the names in Romans are together. The next criterion for ordering the names is alphabetical order of the first letter, and the final criterion is text order. For example, all the names beginning with "A" are grouped together, but Aquila comes before Andronicus because Aquila is mentioned in Romans before Andronicus. But when we look at the names beginning with "I" we see some oddities. At the end of the "I" names we should expect to find Iunia (Julia), Iulia (Julia), and Iason (Jason), in that order, but they (and only they) are missing.

Even more curious is the fact that Iunia and Iason have been moved to the section for the epistle of James, though I counted 13 other names that have been moved (mostly from 1 Peter and among the shorter Pauline letters).

Furthermore Iunia there is given the interpretation "incipiens" (starting), which is precisely the interpretation that we should expect to be given to Iulia, since Jerome elsewhere gives that interpretation to Iulius (which is the male form of the same name). Indeed, we read the following:

Iael cerua uel coniugium ceruale siue incipiens
Iohel incipiens (twice)
Iohel incipiente deo siue est deus
Iulium incipientem

All these names begin with "I" and have an "L", not an "N". It seems that Iunia has been given Iulia's interpretation, "incipiens", and  the interpretation of Iunia's name has been lost. What is going on?

When Jerome collected and interpreted the names in Romans, we should expect him to have written the following on his piece of papyrus that he used for the names beginning with "I".

The words in normal font appear in the manuscripts, the words in grey are absent, and the words in blue appear in the section on James. Now for some speculation. All is explained if the bottom section of the papyrus broke off and found its way to the pile of sheets for the epistle of James. The scribe who copied all the sheets into a single continuous document would then have included Iunia and Iason in the section on James. The tear may have made illegible the name Iulia and the gloss on Iunia's name, so that the word "incipiens" was then ascribed to Iunia instead.

That is to say, everything is explained if the papyrus was torn, for example as shown above, with the bottom fragment finding its way to the James pile, which could well have been still on the desk, since James comes shortly before Romans.

In any case, Junia has been moved from her rightful place, and the interpretation of her name seems to have been lost. These things may have been done deliberately by a misogynist hand. He may have tried to make it look like an accident in case he was challenged on the alteration. We have no way to know that it was deliberate, but we should be suspicious because this was not the only time that Junia was a victim of misogyny. See my earlier post, which discusses the treatment of Junia in P46.

Phil 4:2-3 can be understood to mean that Paul commended Euodia highly, and Jerome seems to endorse such an interpretation, for he gives a positive interpretation of her name (Euhodiam adprehendentem dominum).  Now, she appears in the section on Philippians, as we might expect, but, curiously, she also appears in the section on 2 Timothy. Other duplications include Pontus, Cappadocia, Silvanus, and Marcus, all of which appear in the section on 2 Peter, as well as 1 Peter. All the duplications might be explained as dislocations that were later partly corrected. Thus an assistant of Jerome may have moved Euodia from the Philippians, perhaps objecting to Jerome's commendation of her. Note that Euhodiam is no longer explicitly female when she is dissociated from Phil 4:2-3. Later readers of Jerome's book may have copied Euodia back into the section on Philippians, where she belongs.

In that earlier blog post I presented three pieces of evidence that some tried to claim that Prisca was a man:
1) The masculine form of the name in P46
2) The masculine name, Priscus, in codex Sinaiticus
3) The claim in Index Apostolorum Discipulorumque, ascribed to Epiphanius, that Prisca and Junia were men.

While Jerome's work on names did not have the power to make Prisca a man, it does seem to have de-emphasised her female gender, by giving her name in its masculine form in the sections on Romans and 2 Timothy.

The name is Prisca in the section on 1 Corinthians, but in this manuscript she is curiously given a lower case "p". What to make of that?

Clearly a lot more work needs to be done on sexist alterations of texts in the early Christian centuries.

[This blog post is updated from a version posted 9 days ago]

Liber Interpretations Hebraicorum Nominum ascribes essentially the same meaning to Luke as to Lucius, providing further evidence, perhaps, that Luke is a short form of Lucius.
Dorcas is absent from the book, indicating, perhaps, that Jerome did not consider it to be another name used by Tabitha.

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Barnabas is female in P46 Gal 2:1

At Gal 2:1 Paul says he went to Jerusalem with Barnabas, having taken (μετὰ Βαρναβᾶ συμπαραλαβὼν) Titus with him. While Paul wrote "ΒΑΡΝΑΒΑ", which is the normal genitive form of the name, P46, the oldest manuscript of Paul's letters, adds a sigma to the end of the name to make: "ΒΑΡΝΑΒΑΣ".

Royse writes that this is “presumably an unusual genitive in –ας, for which there seems to be no parallel” (1). However, he must mean that there is no male parallel, for it is an ordinary genitive of a first declension feminine name (2).

The name is otherwise unattested as a female name, and the male form was extremely rare, with only two cases listed in the Lexicon of Greek Personal Νames, for example. It is therefore plausible that the scribe of P46 (or a predecessor) did not know whether to expect a male name or a female name, but they would know to expect a genitive. They would therefore know that if the name was female there would be a sigma following the final alpha, and there would be no such sigma if the name was male. It seems that, on finding the sigma they then naturally assumed that the name was female and took the word to end after the sigma, not realising that the sigma was the initial letter of the following word. The doubling of the sigma is therefore explicable if the scribe had no prior knowledge of Barnabas's gender.

Edgar Battad Ebojo did not consider the possibility that the scribe thought he was writing a female name, and wrote that the error resulted from "a visual difficulty with initial sigma immediately following an open vowel"(3). He cites 1 Cor 2:4 as another case where P46 doubles the sigma to create a text that makes no sense. However, this textual variant does not demonstrate a tendency of P46 since it is in the other early manuscripts as well. The only other example of P46 doubling an initial sigma is at 1 Cor 16:19, where the female name, Prisca, is changed to the (unattested?) male name, Priscas. As I mentioned in my last blog post, the name Prisca has an ambiguous gender in Rom 16:3 since it is in the accusative. Prisca there is mentioned before Aquila and is highly praised so a scribe might have made the sexist assumption that Prisca was male (even though it is a well attested female name) and, when reaching 1 Cor 16:19, the scribe would have been primed to read the sigma of σὺν as the last letter of Prisca's name, which precedes it.

There is therefore no tendency in P46 to double sigmas to make text that the scribe would have considered nonsense. We can therefore assume that at Gal 2:1 a scribe thought he/she was writing a woman's name, and at 1 Cor 16:19 a scribe thought he/she was writing a man's name. An interesting implication of this is that in neither case could the scribe have been familiar with the Acts of the Apostles, where the genders of the two people are unambiguous. The influence of Acts presumably explains why these errors are not seen in other manuscripts (all of which are later).

Barnabas's gender is unambiguous at Gal 2:13, but P46 has a textual variant there and things get complicated.

(1) James R. Royse, Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri, NTTSD 36 (Leiden: Brill, 2008) 332.
(2) Compare, for example, ΜΑΡΙΑΣ (Matt 1:16; John 11:1; Acts 12:12).
(3) A scribe and his manuscript: an Investigation into the Scribal Habits of Papyrus 46 (P. Chester Beatty II – P. Mich. Inv. 6238). PhD thesis. 275-7.

Monday, October 1, 2018

P46 presented Prisca and Junia as men

There seems to be a consensus that early scribes subtly altered the text of the New Testament to diminish the authority of women in the church. Back in 1984 Ben Witherington explored this phenomenon in the western text of Acts.[1] P46 is our earliest text of Paul’s letters and dates from around 200 CE and Edgar Battad Ebojo has recently shown that P46 has some textual variants at 1 Cor 11:9; 1 Cor 16:19, Gal 3:28; and Eph 5:24 that subtly reduce the standing of women in the church.[2] Dominika A. Kurek-Chomycz did a helpful study of the anti-Priscan tendency in the manuscripts.[3] Surprisingly, a comprehensive study of the phenomenon is lacking. In this blog post I will not attempt such a huge task, but will focus on Prisca and Junia in P46.

Name order reversals that demoted women

There are just 11 occasions in the NT when a woman is listed along with one or more men. On 4 of these occasions the woman is named last; “Aquila and Prisca” (1 Cor 16:19); “Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris” Acts (17:34); “Andronicus and Junia” (Rom 16:7); Eubulus and Pudens and Linus and Claudia (2 Tim 4:21). There are 7 cases where the woman is named ahead of at least one man:

1.     “Mary and Joseph” (Luke 2:16)
2.     “Prisca and Aquila” (Rom 16:3)
3.     “Prisca and Aquila” (2 Tim 4:19)
4.     “Priscilla and Aquila” (Acts 18:18)
5.    “Priscilla and Aquila” (Acts 18:26)
6.    “Philolous, Julia, Nereus and his sister …” (Rom 16:15)
7.     “Philemon … Aphia … Archippus” (Philem 2)

The Center for New Testament Restoration ( collates all manuscripts dating to before about 400 CE. They show only four cases of names being reversed in order:

1.     W – Codex Washingtonianus places Elijah before Moses at Matt 17:4. There is a simple explanation: after writing the phrase μιαν και, the scribe’s eye skipped to the second instance of the phrase and therefore he wrote the second name first.
2.     The same text promotes Andrew ahead of James and John at Mark 3:18, presumably to conform the text to that of Luke and/or Matthew, or to place Andrew with his brother.
3.    D – Bezae places Priscilla behind Aquila at Acts 18:26, where Priscilla (according to the original text) takes the lead in teaching Apollos, an educated man.

4.    P46 reverses Julia and Nereus at Rom 16:15, as well as Patrobas and Hermas at Rom 16:14 (see below).

It is surely no coincidence that 2 of these 4 reversals are among the 7 cases in the NT where women precede men, and that these two cases occur in manuscripts that are known for their misogyny. There are about one hundred opportunities for name switches in the NT so it is clear that woman have been demoted by the process disproportionately compared to men. I will discuss Julia in more detail below.

Women becoming men

In the text of Vaticanus, among, others, Col 4:15 sends greetings to “Nympha and the church in her house”. Νυμφαν και την κατ οικον αυτης εκκλησιαν. Most other manuscripts, however, change αυτης (her) to αυτων (their) or αυτου (his). It is very likely that the transmitters of the texts were uncomfortable with the idea that a woman led a house church, so they took Νυμφαν to be the accusative of the male name Νυμφς and altered the pronoun accordingly. Here is the text in Sinaiticus:
The Index apostolorum discipulorumque, ascribed to Epiphanius, identifies both Junia and Prisca as men (Ἰουνίας and Πρίσκας). Attempts to change the gender of Prisca were doomed to failure since Acts 18:2 is very explicit that Priscilla was a woman. However, P46, being a collection of Paul’s letters, contained no text of Acts and we do not know whether Acts was known to those who transmitted this text. At 1 Cor 16:19 P46 adds a sigma to the name Πρισκα making Πρισκας, which is masculine in form.
Prisca appears in Paul’s letters elsewhere only at Rom 16:3 and 2 Tim 4:19, but in both places the name is in the accusative (Πρισκαν) so its gender is ambiguous. The effect of the Πρισκας variant at 1 Cor 16:19 in P46 is therefore to make Prisca a man not only there but also at Rom 16:3.

In Romans Paul acclaims Prisca very highly and greets her ahead of her husband and indeed before anyone else. This would have been uncomfortable for misogynist transmitters of the text and they solved their problem in P46 by the simple addition of a sigma to Prisca’s name at 1 Cor 16:19. They may have assumed that Πρισκαν in Rom 16:3 must have been a man and, primed to read Πρισκας at 1 Cor 16:19, they may have been encouraged to do so by the sigma at the start of the following word (συν).

Kurek-Chomycz points out that the manuscripts are fairly evenly split over whether the name should be Prisca or Priscilla at 1 Cor 16:19. This demands an explanation since nowhere in Acts did the scribes change Priscilla to Prisca, and none of them change Prisca to Priscilla at 2 Tim 4:19. Even at Rom 16:3, where we are given a lot of information about Prisca, she is not changed to Priscilla until the seventh century, as far as we know. Why then is the form of the name at 1 Cor 16:19 so disputed among the early manuscripts? Kurek-Chomycz struggles with this question, but a possible answer can be offered. The Πρισκας textual variant at 1 Cor 16:19 would not have lasted long when the communities started to use Acts extensively, for it directly contradicts the clear statement of Acts 18:2. Scribes would replace Πρισκας with Πρισκιλλα or Πρισκα to remove that contradiction. I do not know whether the original text read Πρισκιλλα or Πρισκα, and it matters little. My point is that if the Πρισκας textual variant was widespread in the early decades of the church, it could have given rise to the even split that we see between the Πρισκιλλα and Πρισκα forms of the name. Is there a better explanation?

Another male version of the name Prisca is found in Sinaiticus, which has Πρισκον instead of Κρισπον at 1 Cor 1:14. Πρισκον is the accusative of the common male name Πρισκος (Latin Priscus).[4] It is hard to know how to interpret this variant. A second hand has corrected it by placing two letters above the line.

Junia and Julia
If the misogynists behind P46 were embarrassed by Prisca, were they also embarrassed by Junia, who was prominent among the apostles and was in Christ before Paul?
Whereas most manuscripts read οι και προ εμου γεγοναν, P46 reads ος και προ εμου γεγονεν. Thus, while the original text stated that Andronicus and Junia were in Christ before Paul, P46 says that only Andronicus was in Christ before Paul. James Royse writes, “Perhaps we have here a reluctance to include a woman among those who were “in Christ” before Paul.”[5] But there is more. P46 also changes Ιουνιαν to Ιουλιαν (Julia), and this is significant, as we will see, because this manuscript also messes with Ιουλιαν at Rom 16:15.

P46 has the names Ιουλιαν and Νηρεα reversed. It has also replaced the first letter of Ιουλιαν with an alpha and the first letter of Νηρεα with a beta. This corruption of the two names has recently been convincingly explained by Royse.[6] “In the exemplar the names were marked for transposition by the use of the letters A and B, as is known from other manuscripts.” The scribe then saw the letters A and B written above the start of the two names and misunderstood the intent of the corrector. He then replaced the initial letters of the two names with the A and B (just as someone copying Sinaiticus would convert Πρισκον to Κρισπον – see above). P46 also reverses the names Patrobas and Hermas two lines above, and it seems to me that we now have a likely explanation. The corrector who wrote the A and B, or someone else, wrote “switch the names” in the margin. A scribe did not know that this referred (only) to the names Julia and Nereus so he swapped Patrobas and Hermas as well as (or instead of) Julia and Nereus. The exchange of the names Patrobas and Hermas is likely collateral damage from an attempt (successful or otherwise) to switch Julia and Nereus. I am undecided whether the corrector who wrote the A and B was trying to move Julia behind Nereus or return her to her original position. Nor do I know whether he placed the A over the name that he wanted to come first or incorrectly over the other name (which could have caused the scribe’s confusion). In any case, at some time someone made (or intended to make) a manuscript that read Ιουλιαν και την αδελφην αυτου (Julias and his sister). The pronoun αυτου is gender specific and makes the claim that Ιουλιαν is the accusative of a man’s name (presumably Julias). By simply transposing the names Julia and Nereus someone has turned Julia into a man. This is important because it would have cast doubt on the gender of Junia of 16:7 (who has been transformed into Ιουλιαν by P46). Misogynists would have been able to say, “Andronicus’s partner was probably a man because his name appears later in the text as a man’s name. Even if it refers to a different person of the same name, it shows that it was a man’s name in Paul’s day and in Paul’s accent/spelling.” In their determination to cast Prisca and Junia as men, they were, it seems, undeterred by the fact that the masculine names Priscas and Julias were rare or unattested. In much the same way, some, to this day, see Junia(s) as a man, undeterred by the fact that it is unattested as a male name.

P46 made subtle changes to the text to cast doubt on the gender of both Prisca and Junia, who were the two women who most offended patriarchal assumptions. P46 could, theoretically, have added the sigma to Prisca at 1 Cor 16:19 by accidental dittography, but we should no longer give it the benefit of the doubt since the exchange of the names Julia and Nereus can only have been an attempt at deliberate deceit, because name switches did not happen without good reason.

[1] Ben Witherington III, “Anti-Feminist Tendencies of the ‘Western’ Text in Acts”, JBL 103 (1984), 82-84.
[2] Edgar Battad Ebojo, “Sex, Scribes, and Scriptures: Engendering the Texts of the New Testament” Journal of Biblical Text Research vol 36, 367-94. Here 386-7.,%20Scribes,%20and%20Scriptures%20(Edgar).pdf
[3] “Is There an “Anti-Priscan” Tendency in the Manuscripts? Some Textual Problems with Prisca and Aquila”, JBL 125.1 (2006) 107-127.
[4] The name is attested 228 times in the Trismegistos People database.
[5] James R. Royse, Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri (2008) 322 n690.
[6] Scribal Habits 333-4.

Friday, September 21, 2018

Euodia and Syntyche

Alistair Stewart and I have an article in the latest issue of ZNW, titled "Euodia and Syntyche and the Role of Syzygos: Phil 4:2–3". You can read this paper for free on the ZNW web site here. Alistair blogged about it here.

Enemies were trying to intimidate the believers in Philippi (Phil 1:27-30) so it was very important that they should stand united. However, their lack of humility towards each other was threatening this unity (Phil 2:1-5). Paul therefore called the Philippians to stand firm (Phil 4:1), and to stand shoulder to shoulder with their leaders (episkopoi), Euodia and Syntyche, in the same way that these two women had stood shoulder to shoulder with him (Phil 4:3). The phrase γνήσιε σύζυγε, often translated "true yokefellow" does not appoint someone to mediate a supposed dispute between Euodia and Syntyche. Rather it is a piece of "idealised praise" intended to cajole the congregation into being true yokefellows toward their two leaders.

Use the comments section if you have any feedback or questions on the paper.

The inspiration for my own work on Phil 4:3 goes back to a (no longer extant) blog post by Doug Chaplin, who proposed that "yokefellow" was not being called to arbitrate a dispute.

It is very probable that Euodia was the leadership name that was given to Lydia (Acts 16:15-16, 40). See here.

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Vaticanus paragraphoi and 1 Cor 14:34-35


Early theories of swingers sex and love

One of the first theories of sex and love was developed by Sigmund Freud. Of course, like any other relationships theories, this one is applicable to swingers relationships dynamic. As Freud so frequently attributed human nature to unconscious desires, his theory of love centered around the need for an “ego ideal”. His definition of an ego ideal is this: the image of the person that one wants to become, which is patterned after those whom one holds with great respect.

Another theory applicable to the swingers lifestyle was introduced by Maslow. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs places self-actualization at the peak. He maintains that those who have reached self-actualization are capable of love. We want to mention that the need for sex was placed by Maslow to the lowest basic level, close to the need for food and sleep. This places swingers sex and swingers by themselves to the very unique position of people who reach psychological stability by closing the very basic need in our society which places a taboo on any active sexual practices.

Yet another theory, one about being in love and sex, including swingers relationships, was developed by Reik. Being in love was said to be attainable for those who would love for the sake of loving people, not just fixing one’s own problem. We can mention here only one thing: at our swingers parties or at regular meetings at swingers clubs we always joining in idea to help each other.

When theories about love moved from being clinically based on being socially and personality based, they became focused on types of love and sex, as opposed to becoming able to love.

Of the multiple different early and later theories of love, there are two specific early theories that contribute to and influence Sternberg’s theory.

The first is a theory presented by Zick Rubin named The Theory of Liking vs. Loving. In his theory, to define romantic love, Rubin concludes that attachment, caring, and intimacy are the three main principles that are key to the difference of liking one person and loving them. Rubin states that if a person simply enjoys another’s presence and spending time with them, that person only likes the other. Here in swinging community, we are more free about this. However, if a person shares a strong desire for intimacy and contact, as well as cares equally about the other’s needs and their own, the person loves the other.

In Sternberg’s theory, one of his main principles is intimacy. It is clear that intimacy is an important aspect of love, ultimately using it to help define the difference between compassionate and passionate love.

The second is a theory—The Color Wheel Model of Love—presented by John Lee. In his theory, using the analogy of primary colors to love, Lee defines the three different styles of love. These include Eros, Ludos, and Storge. Most importantly within his theory, he concludes that these three primary styles, like the making of complementary colors, can be combined to make secondary forms of love. This theory is closer to the swinging lifestyle.

In Sternberg’s theory, he presents, like Lee, that through the combination of his three main principles, different forms of love are created.

Sternberg also described three models of love, including the Spearmanian, Thomsonian, and Thurstonian models. According to the Spearmanian model, love is a single bundle of positive feelings and you will agree that this theory very brightly describes how’s regular swingers couple life look alike (if it isn’t drama-lamas swingers). In the Thomsonian model, love is a mixture of multiple feeling that, when brought together, produce the feeling. The Spearmanian model is the closest to the triangular theory of love and dictates that love is made up of equal parts that are more easily understood on their own than as a whole. In this model, the various factors are equal in their contribution to the feeling and could be disconnected from each other.


Ancestor Rituals – Magical Tech For New Rites

So that said, on with the show!

Magic vs Religion (?)

A real den of magical iniquity.

Necromancy vs Sciomancy

ancestor rituals - zombie
We’d like to avoid this, thank you very much!

Thankfully, it’s the latter that I’ll be dealing with here.

A Magical View of Ancestor Cultus

1. Story

Meeting Halfway

Some Safety Mechanisms For Ancestor Rituals

Final Words

Sources (Not Linked)
Jake Stratton-Kent – Geosophia I
Gordon White – Chaos Protocols

Ancestor Veneration: Building a Shrine

shrine - ancestor shrine

I’ve mentioned this before, but when I was a kid we had a kind of unofficial ancestor shrine. Nobody called it that of course, but that’s essentially what it was. To most visitors it was nothing more than the corner of the living room.

shrine - photo
Someone’s ancestors (not mine).

It just happened to be filled with lots of photographs. However with our familial ties to Spiritualism, it had an extra layer of meaning for us (even if only subconsciously).

It was never worked like an ancestor shrine, but that doesn’t matter because it still did what it needed to. It provided a focus and gave them a place in our home.

Open Shrine or Closed? Some Considerations

My family’s unofficial shrine was open, any visitor could see it. However, you might want to take some time to think about how open you want your shrine to be. You see for some people, an open shrine is to be avoided. Visitors may not understand or respect it. They may even actively try to mess with it if they have a grudge. Some people feel that the ancestors prefer somewhere peaceful in the home, and some traditions simply prefer to maintain a degree of separation between the living and dead. Keeping your shrine away from more “public” areas of the home can be a way to protect and keep sacred what might be seen as the power of your family.

However for other shrine keepers, the shrine is best kept where it can serve as a daily focus for family rites. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the people who keep an open shrine don’t share the same concerns about visitors! However for these people, the focus is typically more on continued inclusion of the deceased in family life.

If you’re not sure whether to build an open or closed shrine though, it can be helpful to take some time to consider your perception of shrines and how they relate to the ancestors themselves. Do you believe they’re always present at the shrine or do they (hopefully) come for rituals/when called upon? Because if you think they’re always there at the shrine then you may want to opt for a closed shrine.

You can also take a mixed approach too, keeping an open shrine but with closed spirit houses/vessels. This is the approach I take. Others keep their shrines in public areas but cover them in some way.

Shrines as Storied Places

Ancestors are about story. We exist because of their stories, we build their stories into our lives, and we keep their memory alive in story. The ancestor shrine is no different in my opinion (though not all traditions agree). I look over at my family’s ancestor shrine and on one level I see a random collection of old photos and objects. However, I know that each of those objects aren’t just randomly selected, there are stories attached. So I guess what I’m saying here is that ancestor shrines can become quite busy. It becomes all too easy to add the old rosary of a beloved aunt or one of grandma’s crochet hooks. So be mindful of space. Unless you’re incredibly disciplined and/or already belong to a tradition that takes a more minimalist approach, you’re going to need enough space to really sink into this practice.

Ideally in my opinion, an ancestor shrine should be in either the west or north. shrine - sunsetMy reasoning for this is twofold. First of all, both of these directions have traditionally been linked with the dead in various folklores and mythologies. For example, the Old Norse Hel is said to be in the North (Simek 1993, 137), and multiple European mythologies depict the dead going over the seas to the land of the dead (which for many were in a westerly direction) (Heide “Holy Islands”). Secondly, I’ve always had greater effect when working with this directionality while working with the dead. Your mileage of course may vary.

Typical Items

So you have your space picked out, now it’s time to fill it. Before doing so though, I would take some time to cleanse and consecrate your space in whichever way is typical for your tradition or way or working. Because regardless of tradition, one of the keys to working with ancestors is cleanliness. So make sure that anything you use for the ancestors is clean first, in all senses of the word.

Once you have your space and it’s ready, it’s time to remember those stories I

mentioned before. In the beginning, you probably won’t have any spirit houses or vessels – they tend to come with time and after working with the dead. But that’s okay. Because you can make a good start with photos of deceased (no living!), candles, offering vessels, an incense holder, and some stones or soil from ancestral sites.

If you have anything of your deceased – those storied items – add those too. One rule that you need to keep in mind though, is that once something goes to their shrine, it stays with their shrine. So you really need to make sure that the offering vessels don’t get mixed in with your living family crockery. This can be

shrine - matrioska
Matronae statues are hard to get, but matrioska are pretty easy to find!

a little confusing if you use everyday-looking items as opposed to more obvious ritual bowls.

My ancestor shrine also contains a couple of Matronae representations, and if your tradition has a group of collective dead like that, then you may want to create or add a representation of them to your shrine. It’s worth noting here that I also have other representations of the Matronae, but this second set are for the worship of a more locally-based collective of Matronae.

Shrine activities

Once you have your shrine set up, you’ll most commonly interact with it in three main ways:

1. Cleaning/Maintenance

As I said above, cleanliness is key to working with the dead. You know that advice that you see in literally every ghost show ever to clean up your demon-infested hole if you want to get rid of them? Well, there are reasons for that. Ancestor shrines can attract some opportunistic entities that will mess with you – especially before they’re established. Once your shrine is fully established though, the shrine and the ancestors represented can serve as powerful protection against all kinds of nasty things.

For example, when I was pregnant (and therefore under magical taboo), some individuals decided to try starting a witch war with me. Sensing it coming, I went to my ancestors and basically gave them the heads up. One night a few days afterwards as I was lying in bed, I noticed the outline of a humanoid figure in my kitchen (which I could see from my bed). I knew it was someone creeping and so started trying to think of ways that I could get rid of them without breaking my taboo. However I need not have worried, because the humanoid was very quickly surrounded by a red mist and the buzz of voices that amplified before disappearing with a snap. They’d been escorted out of my home by the ancestors!

That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about here.

So you want to keep your shrine clean. None of this “doing so much work that the dust doesn’t have time to settle” mentality here. That doesn’t work here in my opinion. Keep it clean, keep it light, and keep it bright.

2. Checking In

The second main activity is simply checking in with your ancestors. This can

shrine - cake
Holy hell, how good does that look!! Are those some fucking Johanesbeeren there too? Damn, girl! Y’all know how to get me coming out, never mind the dead!

be as simple as lighting some candles and then sort of keeping them in the loop like you would living relatives that live far away, or making them and yourself some coffee and sitting down for a full on chat/advice session. You may not get a whole lot at first in terms of communication, but remember, dead communication can be pretty damn subtle. So be patient. If you’re really struggling, pull out some divination tools.

3. Offerings

Feeding your ancestors in an important part of ancestor cultus, however it’s worth bearing in mind that different traditions consider different things suitable/unsuitable for offering. For example, in some traditions, you don’t offer alcohol to the dead because it’s “hot” and will lead to restless dead. You want to only offer “cool” things like water. However in other traditions, alcohol for the dead is perfectly fine. There are also different protocols for how long food and drink offerings should be left out. Generally speaking though, it’s a good idea to only leave things out for a couple of days. Remember that cleanliness thing? You want to avoid things going nasty and moldy on there.
And again, don’t consume what has been given to them.

However, food and drink aren’t the only offerings that can be given to the dead. Flowers, candles, incense, songs, crafts and prayers can all play their parts too! Depending on what you’re offering, you may need to either burn or submerge your offerings in water. By fire or by water are the traditional pathways through which offerings may be gifted to the dead. After all, if the dead can reach the afterlife via water or fire, then your gifts to them can most certainly take the same routes.

So be creative.

Final Words

When you’re not used to working with the ancestors, it can be all too easy to feel self-conscious. It can be easy to feel like you’re not doing it right. Don’t worry though, they’re pretty used to us fucking things up. In my experience, they’re just glad you’re trying. So keep trying. Work with your shrine. Figure out what gets the best responses. Go with your instincts regarding placement of objects, ways to approach or leave, and what kinds of offerings are appreciated.

Just experiment for now.

Even if all you can summon is a big fat “I haven’t a fucking clue what to say”. Just sit there anyway. Say what comes to mind. Confess your fears and worries. This stage is all about trying to create and nurture that connection. Give it a month of checking in and making offerings every couple of days at least.

In the next post, I’m going to look at the nuts and bolts of ritual with the ancestors. Prayers, songs, all that jazz. So stay tuned.

Communicating With the Dead

Magic With The Dead

I shuffled the cards as best I could, laughing at myself and my cackhandedness. I’ve never been able to shuffle, and my knowledge of tarot is rudimentary at best. It just never spoke to me in the same way as it seems to speak to every other witch on the planet.

I’ve always been better with runes and ogham – especially when I’m trying to do my periodic ‘drunken and completely inaccurate’ readings over on my personal Facebook. Things can get somewhat uncanny with that.

But this time I had cards, albeit Magic: The Gathering cards.

I was at a Samhain event, and had been participating in a discussion on tarot.

“I hear you can read anything” I’d said, as I tried to shuffle the cards. “I’ve heard of a woman who used to read beer mats like tarot while in the pub. She was apparently super accurate.”

A couple of cards tried to escape the deck and I simply added them back in, laughing to myself as I continued.

“Some people think it’s the symbols, but others? They think the cards are more like props, and that they sort of draw out the psychic impressions the reader is getting anyway.”

Finishing my shuffle, I laid out three Magic cards as though they were tarot.

“And if I had that skill, I’d be able to give you a full reading off of these bad boys right here.”

I laughed again, and without really knowing why snapped a photo.dead - magic cards

“But I don’t have that skill, so all you’d get out of me is that there’s something to do with a train and movement, then an hourglass, and then this guy here who looks like a right dick.”

(Conversation paraphrased, this happened a while ago.)

Someone else at the table made a joke, and I put the cards away.

Later that evening though, I’d look back on this tomfoolery with different eyes.

Under Darkened Skies

It was dusk when we came to do ritual – the perfect time really for this kind of rite. We’d gathered around a blazing fire and sang the dead forth using an old dirge with psychopompic elements. We’d adapted it of course;we’d wanted to raise the dead, not lay them. The night darkened, the temperature dropped, and there was the distinct sense that we were no longer alone.

We’d gotten some attention.

But then again, we were using borrowed necromantic tech in Gettysburg of all places.

We set out a place for the dead and shared mourning cookies, offered food and clothing. Then we’d set out a bread man as substitute “sin eater” for those who felt the burden of sin too heavily to move on. That’s not uncommon for those who die in battle after a certain era. For all the talk of “glory”, war continues to torture and torment long after the guns fall silent and lungs empty.

I perceived a line of dead coming from the passage of trees to my right. I watched them as they wound a procession around the fire, each man taking his turn with the bread man. The temperature dropped further, and there was the sensation of a small breeze where they passed. (I would later find out that they had come from the direction of one of the battlefields that sits only a mile down the road.)

The ritual progressed and we asked for an omen, and this was where things began to get interesting.

The Dead Opine

The designated seer for the rite had chosen tarot, as it was not only potentially more recognizable to the dead than runes or ogham, but she also has the gift I lack with that medium.

“Is there anything you wish for us to know?”

That had been the question (or near enough). One by one, she laid out the cards, carefully positioning them in the firelight so she could read them.

The first was the Chariot reversed, which I’m told speaks of movement that is out of control and a need to regain control lest the wheel falls off.

The second was Temperance reversed that further underlined the lack of balance and control first spoke of by the Chariot.

And the final card was the Hierophant reversed, the card of a despotic leader.

The year was 2016, and that was when I knew Donald Trump would win the election.

But the weirdness would not end there. Because after the rite, when we’d returned to the warmth of our host’s house, I realized something about the cards the seer had pulled.

The images were basically the same images as I’d pulled from the Magic deck earlier.

It would seem the dead didn’t just have a message but had been screaming it all day.dead - tarot

The Dead v Our Ideas Of The Dead

There was an oddness to 2016 that I feel in this year too – albeit somewhat different; 2019 has its own flavor. Death came for many at the birth of the year. Terrifying clown sightings filled the news as the northern hemisphere moved into Fall only to stop before the election. And political campaigning took a turn for the nativist, throwing out appeals to history with abandon.

“Make America Great Again”

Like the “good old days”, just like “how our ancestors lived”.

As the living, we like to put a lot on the dead and our ancestors. We like to try and speak for them, we like to try and act in ways we think they would approve of most (even if subconsciously).

Every time you use that old family recipe or wear the jewelry your grandma died clutching. Every time you gather photos or go tidy up a grave site. All of it is a form of either engaging with ancestors or in the cult of the dead depending on what you’re doing). We just no longer recognize it as such.

How many times have you heard or thought people expressing the sentiment that by doing an action, they would make (dead person) happy (if they could see them)?

You see? We invoke the ancestors often.

Anthropologists have noted that this tends to lead to a more conservative society – especially when the veneration of ancestors is limited to only a few generations (Lehman and Myers 283-284).

But the dead are often not what we think of or assume them to be, and depending on which group of dead, can differ wildly from us in what they approve of (as opposed to what we might think they would approve of).

The problem here is communication, and this is something that we need to talk about before getting into ancestor veneration proper.

So how does a person communicate with the dead?

Communicating With The Dead

Contrary to popular media, one doesn’t have to be psychic in order to have meaningful communication with one’s ancestors or more recent dead. Often times, you just need to be able to recognize that communication for what it is.

dead - dreams
No accuracy guaranteed!

In many ways, the dead are far easier to communicate with than most people think. Moreover, there are a lot of tools that can help and mediums through which they can communicate.

One of the most common ways in which the dead can communicate is through dreams. This is something you see in pretty much every culture in which ancestor veneration exists.

This communication may be spontaneously obtained or via incubation practices. For example, ancient Greek seekers would go to a psychomanteion/nekyomanteion for this purpose. The nekyomanteions are thought to have mimicked the geography of the afterlife in some way, and often involved tunnels leading down into the earth, and bodies of water. Those wishing to communicate with their ancestors (either via speaking with a priest-oracle or dream) would make preliminary sacrifices and/or ingest narcotics (depending on the sought experience) before entering the sleeping rooms or tunnels.

In some ways, this mimics the Northern European practice of sleeping the night on a burial mound in order to gain wisdom or poetic ability from the dead. In both cases, the seeker goes to a place in which the underworld may be accessed in physical or symbolic form in order to sleep.

This is something that we too can make use of in our practices even if we don’t live near any burial mounds or grave sites where we may sleep without getting arrested, but I’ll get into that in a future post.

Divination Tools

As we saw in the story above, the dead can also divination tools (either ‘official’ or improvised) in order to communicate with the living. This was one of my first methods of communicating with the dead while still in the

dead - cards
“One of 54 Devils checking in for your middle school necromantic needs!”

equivalent of middle school. Only we used a set of regular playing cards for our seances with the school ghosts, and the suits and their colors were how we derived our answers. As unlikely as it sounds, we had some fairly strange things happen while experimenting in this way, and it was enough to concern our parents.

Unfortunately, the substitute activity my father asked me to use (the key and the bible) never got the same results (so I stuck to the cards).

In my experience, tools often take on a chill when used for relaying the messages of the dead. That’s probably good to know. As an aside, this is not so dissimilar from the manipulation of modern tech in order to deliver a message.

Ouija Boards

This is obvious and also probably something I’m going to catch heat for. However, there are ways in which you can use a Ouija board safely, and conveniently, most of those ways also correspond with general spirit etiquette and psychic hygiene.

I’ll write more about Ouija boards in another post. But for now I’ll just stick with saying that if you’re absolutely terrified of these things, keep away from them. You already lost the head game.

(If you can’t wait until I finally get round to writing about ouija, this post is great.)

When you start associating with different groups of ancestors, you might find

dead - clock
“Maybe it’s ancestors, maybe it’s Maybelline.”

things pertaining to them cropping up. For example, when I was working particularly closely with my Irish ancestors, I began to randomly win Irish-related things. Information that led me further into connecting with them better also just sort of landed in my lap. Often it can feel as though you’re being pushed along when this stuff happens.

Manifestation And Apports

dead - white feather
“Whatup sis! I’m doing good. Got myself some new threads and everything!”

Finally, sometimes the dead can be pretty direct. They can appear, and they can cause other things to appear. Like the white feather that appeared in the air and fell into my mother’s lap when she was thinking about her deceased brother and feeling sad. Or disembodied voices speaking with my native accent and dialect in a place separated by thousands of miles from any other speakers. Or that deceased relative stood by your bed when you wake up from an awful nightmare. The nightmare may have been awful, but when you fall asleep again it’s but a lovely dream.

Well, you get the idea…

Next Time

In the next few posts, I’m going to start getting into the meaty bits of this topic. First I’ll be covering the different conventions for setting up an ancestral shrine. Then I’ll take a look at the pros and cons of doing so. I’ll also be discussing some of the ways in which you can work at your shrine. This will include offerings, prayers, songs, and anything to help you get your dead on. Then, I’ll be taking a look at the different mediums through which the ancestors may be contacted.

Ancestor Veneration: Three Modern Pitfallls

An Uncharted (Ancestor) Land

When you think about it, modern ancestor veneration is kind of like trying to navigate a territory that was once known but long abandoned. Maps are not ancestor - mapeasy to find now, and the only thing we have in our favor is some acquired knowledge of similar landscapes. So it’s no wonder that we encounter pitfalls.

However, there are three main pitfalls in this ‘landscape’ that I can warn you of, and that is what I’m going to be covering today. (Warning folks, this is going to get pretty salty.)

1. A Lack of Proper Boundaries

The first and biggest pitfall in this Valley of Death is becoming overly familiar with the ‘locals’. The dead are not the same as the living, and while this valley can be undeniably beautiful and familiar-feeling, it is not a place where you can become too familiar.

Because those who become too familiar with it tend to become a part of it.

For the ancient Greeks, this was expressed by the concept that the dead were polluted, and that pollution could spread to the living (and eventually cause sickness and death). The Norse were more direct in their beliefs, simply believing that the walking dead brought disease. In both cultures, a level of separation (albeit differing) was observed between the living and dead.

ancestor - skull
Danger danger, high voltage!

It should be noted here though, that not all human cultures observe such separation from the dead. For example, while the Greeks took extensive precautions to ensure that separation, practitioners from cultures with non-dualist worldviews often frequent places thick with the dead to no ill effect. As always, consensus reality must be taken into account, and we inhabit a consensus which oscillates wildly between extreme taboo and over-familiarity towards death and the dead.

In other words, our boundaries here (as in so many areas of life) are FUBARed, and no one needs to go for a night out on the graves with non-dual checks their asses can’t cash.

So caution it is.

When it comes to the dead there is a simple rule to remember: the greater the proximity to physical remains, the greater the power and greater the caution required.

This means that those of you who are inspired to take up Cult of the Dead graveside practices, or work on battlefields filled with remains or burial mounds, will need to observe a greater level of purification than those of you simply honoring your ancestors at a home shrine with no physical remains.

Purification can be as simple as washing your feet off (you can leave your shoes on) with water when leaving a place of burial/death, or taking a pinch of salt between three fingers, then putting it on your tongue and drinking it down with clean water. I do both and recommend both as initial practices (trust me, you’ll feel better for it). You can also take a bath with purifying herbs, or showering with soap made with purifying herbs. This is also a good option, as is the use of récels (purifying smoke, incense). Good herbs to use here are mugwort, rosemary, vervain, juniper, and hyssop. I also make an oil of hyssop, rosemary/vervain/juniper + a little something from the Testament of Solomon oil for on the go that I’ve had great success (and great reviews for).

But if you bring nothing else with you to the place of the dead, bring water and salt. Those are your basic necessities. Something of iron is also good to carry with you – just in case the dead get a little…testy.

The home shrine is a more relaxed affair, but still some taboos are best observed. These can vary wildly too – in some cultures, ancestor shrines are kept hidden from all but family and closed off in some way. In other cultures, the shrines are open and a part of the home. This second model is the one that I follow as I have no physical remains and well, that’s just what I grew up with. Still, despite my more relaxed approach here, I observe certain protective measures. For example, I keep to the rule that what is used for and given to the dead is theirs and no longer for living use. I keep it clean, and don’t allow offerings to rot. And if I’m actively calling upon them for counsel, I do so using a variation of the Art Armadel (basically summoning their spirits them into a bowl of water and then scrying the answers) so that they remained more contained and manageable. Prayers are family events as the level of interaction is far less intense than when I’m actively engaging with them using more sciomantic ritual tech.

One final thing I’d like to mention before moving onto the next point though, is that when I’m done with my interactions at the ancestor shrine, I end by walking three steps backwards and bowing before moving on with my day. It’s something that my ancestors told me they wanted me to do, and it has become habit in other settings too. As I would go on to discover, not turning your back on the dead is a common practice among some groups.

The dead often lie, but the elevated ancestors often have good advice. Discernment is key.

Judging the Actions of Our Dead

For the vast majority of European-descended peoples, it’s an undeniable fact that many of our dead did some really shitty things, things that may make us have some pretty uncomfortable feelings. Some of us might tell ourselves that those things were “just the way things were”, or that “it was conquest, and that shit just happened”, and yes, that might ease those feelings somewhat. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, when we cling to excuses like that, we’re only doing so because deep down we know that what was done was wrong. We’re just seeking an escape from the feelings.

Now don’t ‘at’ me on this. As the daughter of a nation that fucked with all but something like 22 countries in the world (and adopted daughter of a nation currently racking up its own score), I know this one really well. And I’m coming to tell you that if you’re doing this, you’re only hurting yourself in the long run.

Because in order to cling to those excuses, you need in some way, to continue to hold the cultures that were harmed by the actions of your ancestors as being somewhat lesser – “deserving” of it maybe even. And well, where does that get you? That lands you on a train that will probably eventually take you to

ancestor - train

‘Racist Fuckhead Town’.

But here’s the thing about racism: it’s not about power. Well, it is in one sense – the sense of having power over somebody. You may even get that. But it doesn’t empower you where it counts, because people only usually want that kind of power over others because they’re scared on some level.

The sad truth about racism (if I’m being extremely charitable), is that the vast majority of racists are shit scared of people who are different from themselves. They cling to the differences and find ways to shift blame to recast themselves as victim. They cling to the things that enable them to avoid those negative feelings.

And they create a world of angry, sick ghosts in the process.

On the flip side, you have what is referred to as “cancel culture”, and when it’s applied to ancestor veneration, this is just another form of putting your head in the sand. Sure, these people feel the wrongs of their ancestors deeply. However, “canceling” those ancestors is nothing more than an easy way out. Humanity can be monstrous, we can be the most evil beings in existence. “Canceling” ancestors not only enables us to avoid grappling with the fact that we are all capable of some truly terrible things given the right (or wrong) circumstances, but limits our ability to engage with our feelings on the harms of our ancestors to a surface, mostly seemingly performative level.

“See?! I’m one of the *good* ones! I cut all the bad ones out!”

In my last post, I talked about the effects of our ancestors upon us. If they can affect our crops, our fertility, and prosperity (as people believed), they can affect us in other ways too. You ever wonder why we never seem able to move on as a society from the same old bullshit over and over again?

The dead affect us regardless of our feelings about them, and you’d better believe they have opinions and want to work their will in the world!

But you can’t lay those ghosts if you ignore them or take them for something they’re not.

An Obsession with the Ethnicity or Culture of One’s Ancestors

The final pitfall is something we see so much of in modern Heathenry (but also in other forms of Paganism), and that’s an obsession with the ethnicity and culture of one’s ancestors. This is the most toxic potential endpoint of ancestor veneration, and if I’m being truthful, we let it go too far and fester for far too long.

Okay, a bit of real talk here.

Modern Heathens spent way too long pretending that Folkish Heathenry was the weird (but kindly) uncle that said sort of fucked up shit at Thanksgiving that we’re all so apparently used to ignoring from relatives. Because of this approach, the rot took root, and it’s going to take an extremely concerted effort to kill that I honestly don’t see from most modern Heathen groups. We called it ‘folkish’ and ignored the racialist-then-nazi roots of that term. We ignored the work of people like Mattias Gardell back in two-thousand-and-fucking-THREE that demonstrated the nazi-fapping, white supremacist fuckery of it all. We pretended that it was ‘just a different POV’, and came out with the bullshit Jarnsaxa scale as though it was some kind of sexuality or gender spectrum instead of calling it for what it was.

And then we all screamed like it was a big fucking surprise in 2016 when the AFA came out of the white supremacy closet and opened the floodgates.

I mention all of this, because these people trade in a jaded and perverted view

ancestor - fantasy
The good old days!! *fap* *fap* *fap*

of ancestor veneration. It’s one of their biggest hooks in a society full of people looking to feel rooted and belong. They cloak themselves in cultures that are no longer theirs, and make themselves gatekeepers because some of their ancestors hailed from some of the places they associate with their favorite fantasy of “greatness” (which when you get down to it isn’t all that different from the sword and sorcery fantasies of the 80s).

But this isn’t really about ancestors or ancestor veneration. Because if it was really about ancestors then they wouldn’t fixate on the culture and ethnicity of a relatively small percentage of ancestors so much. (It’s a little “one drop rule” if you hadn’t already noticed>)

Ancestor veneration is about people, not race or culture. It’s a human story, and most of those humans in all of our lineages, when you go back far enough, had different levels of melanin in the skin, different languages, and different cultures. Moreover, we’ve been sleeping with whoever looked good since fuck knows when (which is how most of us have a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA btw). Boom chika wow wow.

When we focus on anything other than that, when we extract and isolate our favorite bits from the story of our ancestors and make those small pieces the whole, we’re not engaging in ancestor veneration. That’s nothing more than wish fulfillment and yearning for a “halcyon” time (for white men mostly) that never existed because the modern world can be scary. That is not taking the ancestors as they are. That is not honoring them. That is using them as a tool.

An Uncharted Land is a Hard Land

As these pitfalls demonstrate, ancestor veneration is not an easy practice – especially in our broken society, and especially when you have a shitload of ancestors who most likely did some really awful things. However, we live in a world of ghosts – of dead who both affect us and have some pretty strongly held opinions about current events – and we lack both the resilience and ritual tech to mitigate their negative effects on our reality. In my next post, I’m going to share an account of an ancestor veneration rite in which the dead made their opinions on current events strongly known and share some ways in which you can begin connecting with the dead and ancestors.

Ancestor Cult is Not Saint Cult (And Other Stories)

ancestors - gallery

ancestors - bird

European-Descended Pagans and Ancestors

Ancestors -letter

1. Individualism vs. Collective

ancestors - elves

Fucking Augustine.

ancestors - relic

The Unwell or Angry Dead Can Fuck With The Living

Ancestors - outhouse

Final Words

That’s one hell of a deep well, isn’t it?

Free Your Magic!

magic - community

Work to Recognize the Patterns

Sounds like a lot of work, right?

Real compassion takes courage.

‘We’, Not “I”

magic - mall
Ever notice how these places are kind of trance-inducing?

Build Community

Stay With the Trouble

Witch Wars: Survival Tips

The Fear Response

Attacks Are Often Multilayered

Fucking horrible, right?

Destroy Connections

Freeing the Mind

This is something you need to resist; but how?

Tu Quoque

See what I mean?

Neoliberalism and Spirituality

neoliberalism - puppet2

Defining Neoliberalism: The Roots

Curious, no?

Defining Neoliberalism: The Ascent

-Milton Friedman

Defining Neoliberalism: Dominance

is neoliberalism.

Neoliberalism and Spirituality

– Me

That’s powerful.

This influence can be seen in two main ways.

neoliberalism - smudge
Exhibit A

neoliberalism - yoga

Thinking With Motivation

neoliberalism - LARP

Final Words

reality - cat

Reality is a funny old thing, isn’t it? For starters, everyone thinks they know what it is. We all have clearly defined ideas of what is ‘real’, and what is ‘a bridge too far’, and while there is some degree of variance between individuals, on the whole there is still something of a consensus.

This my good people, is what is known as “consensus reality”.

Examining Consensus

I’ll admit, the first time I heard the term “consensus reality”, it somehow managed to make all the sense in the world, and also sound like bullshit all at the same time. It just sounds like one of those terms that crazy people make

reality - VR
Another wonderful experience in a human-created reality! Thank you for trusting Rekall for your memory needs!

up, that sound scientific, but really are not.

However, when you think about it, and especially in the context of what we know about how the brain perceives and stores information, it makes a lot of sense.

You see, consensus and prior experience (which is also subject to consensus) provide the framework for how we perceive and remember the world around us. This is part of why the Overton Window is such a big deal. Because if you shift the consensus, then you shift the very framework through which people perceive and interact with the world. (Those “culture wars” don’t look so fucking stupid now, do they?)

But how does this all work?

From Senses to Storage

Our senses take in a lot

of information per second. According to the Hungarian-American psychologist, Prof. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, we take in around 2 million bits of information per second through our five senses. Now that’s a massive amount of information, and so it’s probably no surprise that the brain cannot store it all. After all, the brain is like any other storage device – it has finite capacity.

So what does the brain do?

Well, this is where the conscious mind steps in and basically edits, deletes, distorts, and generalizes this information down to a more reasonable 134 bits per second.

Or does it?

There is some disagreement as to the amount of compression taking place here, with the Encyclopedia Britannica citing a compression ratio of 11 million bits of information perceived to 50 bits stored. Which suggests that we remember even less about what we perceive than believed by Prof. Csikszentmihalyi.

The Editing Room

So how does our conscious mind decide what to store and what to dump?
Multiple studies suggest that interpretation and storage of information is massively influenced by prior knowledge and experience. In other words, we interpret what we encounter and build a complete picture of our world, from within the framework of what we think we already know.

This is also where consensus comes in, as part of that prior knowledge is informed by consensus. It is quite literally the ‘style guide’ for your brain’s internal editor.

So when I see arguments online about “reality” that are largely based in the enforcement of the scientific materialist consensus that has dominated for so long, I can’t help but roll my eyes.

reality - fairy
Unbelievably, Pixabay has no images of fairies wearing roller skates with neon signs. I am disappoint.

Because if you hold to that consensus strongly enough, a fairy could literally skate by you wearing a tutu and leg warmers, with big, flashing lights saying “I’m here!”, and it wouldn’t matter because your brain would just edit it out anyway. It would just be another bit of information out of 2-11 or so million that just gets edited out within less than a second. You wouldn’t even know you’d seen it. Hardly makes you an arbiter of reality, right?

Let’s not kid ourselves here, there is no objective reality when it comes to your senses and what is stored. If anything, the consensus that people cleave to is probably best thought of as being something akin to the Matrix. So why not go ahead and trust your senses (after you’ve ruled everything else out)? Well you know, as long as they’re not leading you to do something harmful to yourself or others…

Hacking ‘Reality’

However, unlike the Matrix, both the brain and consensus are somewhat “hackable”. All you really need to do is just change the narrative and keep repeating the same narrative until it becomes the prior knowledge that “everyone knows”. This is basically how people like Donald Trump get entire groups of people to believe in things that would have been considered too ridiculous to consider even five years ago.

This is also how you can consciously choose to change your perception. Ever wonder why some people always see weird shit and others don’t? It’s all down to perception and the ‘style guide’ your conscious brain editor is working to.

In my opinion, this is a big part of why you see some of these ‘trends’ in the kind of phenomena that people report experiencing around the same time that entertainment media is focusing on similar things. Are people really seeing that stuff, or are those things arising from the energy and belief of the consensus and becoming entities in their own right? Who knows? It’s kind of like Schroedinger’s cat in that we just don’t know and cannot know without somehow opening “the box”. But ultimately it doesn’t matter either – especially for magic workers. Because we tend to have to work with what we encounter, in the form in which we encounter it, and at the time when we encounter it regardless.

(As an aside, this is also why it doesn’t matter what fairies originally were. If you don’t work with what they are now, learning from the people who have continued to experience them, then you’re not only being an arrogant dick to the cultures in which these beliefs still survive, you’re also probably going to run into trouble sooner or later. That is if you’re actually encountering them, of course.)

To return to the main point though, this is also how you can work to hack your brain to see more stuff that you may not otherwise see. And you do this by repeatedly and consistently setting down the layers that change your ‘prior knowledge’ about the world and what is possible. In other words, you demolish that “bridge too far” brick by brick.

Unpacking Realities

All of this talk of a somewhat malleable consensus reality though, does beg the question of whether or not there is an absolute reality that is untouched by consensus. A reality that exists regardless and that serves as the foundation upon which all else is built.

Personally, I think this is something that is self-evident. After all, if we are editing things out to fit in with this created reality of the consensus, then it’s

reality - elephant
“Is it me, or is this reality thing a little cold, hard, and wrinkly?”

logical that the unedited version is the absolute reality, or at least as much as a human can perceive of it. Moreover, if dogs can smell more than us, and mantis shrimp can see colors we cannot even conceive of, then we can infer that this absolute reality is also beyond human concepts.

But what is this absolute reality?

I don’t know, but I personally believe it is one that is interconnected – that we are all connected in a tapestry of energy, consciousness, or whatever other word best fits here. And that the interplay between absolute and consensus realities is best imagined as being like a glass of milk with melted butter floating on top.

This absolute is beyond concepts and limitless. It is also a state in which a magical practitioner who is able to perceive and manipulate even the smallest portion, would not only have greater wisdom, but also possibly the ability to do some truly wondrous stuff.

There’s just one catch though: if this absolute reality is one of interconnectedness, then if you ever get to that level, it’s a cookie either poisoned or blessed by your actions that we must all ultimately eat.

Thank goodness for that psychic censor, right?

Witch Wars: Diagnosis

witch wars - magnifying glass

Finding the Right Balance

Belief in being cursed or being subject to magical attack, can become a curse in of itself – especially when you’re already encountering a run of bad luck. So it’s important to have the proper perspective when it comes to the subject of witch wars - balancemagical attack. Because if you place too much belief in the possibility of being cursed or attacked, then it’s all too easy to see malefic magic and psychic attack at every turn and become paranoid. There’s also a lot to be said for self-fulfilling prophecy here – especially with the more magically-minded. But if you refuse to even consider the possibility, then you run the risk of missing some of the earlier warnings and allowing things to become far worse.

I’ve been that person in the second category, and I’m coming to you from the future to warn you about that very thing.

I messed up a lot in my early 20s with this, and a whole lot more. So trust me when I say that if you write everything off as being “just a run of bad luck”, then things can get really bad and in really unbelievable ways too.

So how do you find the right balance with this?

In truth, unless you have physical evidence that someone is working against you, you need to be looking at multiple factors. But what are they?

The most obvious thing that is going make you suspect attack is a run of bad luck that just doesn’t seem to end. But sometimes shit just happens! So how do you figure out if it’s regular old run-of-the-mill shit, or magical shit?

witch wars - horseshoeThis is where it gets pretty tricky, and also why you shouldn’t just rely on one thing when assessing whether or not you’ve been cursed. However, a good starting question to ask yourself is if what is happening is logical given the surrounding causes and conditions. For example, if you happen to lose your job and your house is foreclosed on during a time of economic downturn, it’s easy to see the circumstances at the root of your situation.

However, if (for example) you find yourself applying for a college hardship fund and being rejected for being “too poor” after a run of being told you’re overqualified for student jobs you’ve applied for as a student, then something is probably going on. (It was. Those were some “fun” times.)

See what I meant when I said “unbelievable”?

For a lot of people, dreams are just randomness bundled up with a combination of wish-fulfilment and stress. However, for magical practitioners dreams are a hell of a lot more. That’s not to say that we don’t also get the stress dreams about being late for French Literature class at college (or…you know…). But for us, dream can often also turn out to be a place of entrance into the Otherworld, or a common ground upon which we may interact with Otherworldly beings.

And other practitioners…

See the problem?

So if you’re not keeping an eye on your dreams, especially around the 15th lunar day, you’re missing out on one of the biggest canary warnings you could possibly have. Dreams on this day that include arrows, snakes, or any form of attack really, can be indicative that someone is working against you. Moreover, it’s often possible to divine the person (when a human is doing the cursing, but that’s another story) attacking you, and what their beef is (beyond simple ego).

For example, you may find that the attacks in your dreams are conditional on you avoiding or carrying out a certain behavior. For example, if someone wants to keep you in what they see as ‘your place’, then the attacks in the dream may only happen when you disobey instructions to not cross a boundary.

So pay attention to your dreams!

Feelings and Foreign Thoughts

Strange emotions and thoughts can come from any number of sources, especially if you’re empathic in any way (and if you are, you might want to check out this post for some handy tools). Moreover, our brains can be pretty weird places just in general. Which can make it quite difficult to figure out if a new crop of negative emotions and strange thoughts are from you, picked up witch wars - fallenby accident from others, or the result of a curse directed at you.

But what do I mean when I say “negative feelings” here? Generally speaking, the kind of negative feelings that come with an attack are an impending sense of doom and dread, and a nose dive in self-esteem. Depression is also common, as is a feeling of helplessness.

And I know, I know. Who hasn’t felt those things? I mean, for goodness sake, we live in the monstrous shitshow that is 2019!

However, when you take the time to examine why you normally have those feelings, you can usually point to concrete reasons why. Maybe it’s all the plastic in the sea? The climate crisis that is going largely ignored? The internment of asylum seekers and attendant human rights abuses? Or maybe it’s just down to the simple yet highly stressful economic insecurity that most of us experience on the regular?

The point though, is that when you get down to it, when you take the time to examine these feelings, you generally find causes that are usually highly logical (and not the result of outrageously abnormal examples of bad luck).

This is part of why meditation is important – because it gives you the tools to carry out that kind of introspective examination.

But most importantly, meditation helps you get to know your own mind. This is incredibly important when you’re subject to this kind of attack. After all, how else will you recognize which thoughts are truly yours, and which belong to a hostile party? However, for all the danger of implanted thoughts (especially the kind that ensnare the mind and have you picking out a death day on autopilot), this is also often the area where a lot of attackers ‘overplay’ their hands and give themselves away.

As the old adage says, “know thyself”.

In the Old English sources, the concepts of ‘health’ and ‘luck’ (as well as wholeness and holiness) are expressed by the same word – ‘hælu’. This collocation of concepts into a singular term tends to make great sense to anyone who has worked extensively with either the paranormal, Good Folk, curses, or all of the above. Because it’s never just luck that tanks, but personal health too. For some of the more metaphysical (and scholarly) reasons for this, you can check out this essay here.

However, for the TL;DR version, let me just say that both curses and interference from the Other have very similar effects on the body, and especially the torso. So keep an eye out for gastric and other torso-related issues that are accompanied by a loss of physical energy – especially if medical investigation leads nowhere.

Dying Plants and Eggs

Finally, a lot of witches look to their plants. If a lot of your plants suddenly start witch wars - eggsdying off, then there’s a chance that someone is working against you. This is especially the case when this happens in conjunction with any of the other factors mentioned here. Some folks also keep an egg on their altar as a kind of hex alarm and watch for it breaking. Of course, you may go through quite a few eggs, and will need to remember to change them out if you opt to do this.

Being Off-Balance

Find yourself taking more trips and falls recently? Perhaps you’re experiencing the kind of clumsiness that you only normally get before your period (if you have those), but at the wrong time?

It’s not uncommon for people to experience more falls and injuries when subjected to psychic attack – part of this is down to that luck thing.

But in my opinion, there’s also a wider theme of keeping you off balance here too. This is something you may also see reflected in your thoughts. You may find yourself fixating on something or someone completely random and illogical – just out of the blue, to the point where it’s taking over everything to a really unhealthy degree. And it’s smart too – part of keeping you otherwise occupied so you can’t do the things you need to to fight back.

Now I’m not saying that every weird crush or obsession with a thing or person is the result of magical attack (especially if you’re already predisposed to obsessive behaviors). But it’s another factor to take into account along with everything else.

Next Steps

So what do you do if you suspect that you have been hexed by another practitioner (or even the Other)?

Your first next step is to perform divination and find out if your suspicions are reflected in a reading. Depending on what’s been done to you though, you may find yourself unable to read for yourself (assuming you could do it before), and in these cases you will need to get a reading done by someone else. Honestly though, regardless of whether or not you can read for yourself, it’s advisable to get a reading done by a trustworthy person anyway. In my experience, the role of divination in the diagnosis and management of malefic attacks is one that iswitch wars - tarot often forgotten. And I get it, it’s easy to lose your head when you suspect that magic is being thrown around – especially if you’re already a little battle-scarred before figuring out what’s going on. However, if someone is working against you and you give into that fear, you help them in their cause.

Divination can provide a chance to catch your breath and at least run your thoughts by another human. This is important for two reasons: firstly, running it by another person can provide a valuable “checksum” that you’re not experiencing some kind of mental breakdown; and these kind of experiences tend to be pretty isolating (which is never good when you’re vulnerable). Most importantly (?) though, divination can help you take stock of the situation, and may sometimes even give you information on how best you can defend yourself or otherwise end the attack. In other words, it’s a critical first step on the path to resolution and healing.


Botox & Xeomin

What is Botox or Xeomin?

Injectable cosmetic treatments are widely popular and for good reason! Facial wrinkles, fine lines, crow’s feet and even migraines are some of life’s aggravations and injectable treatments such as Botox or Xeomin (pronounced zee∙o∙men) are safe and easy remedies. Many years of multiple facial movements cause the skin to contract, stretch, or fold in various ways, and as time marches on, the effects of these micro-movements become manifest in more permanent ways. There is not one specific age when those physical signs of furrowing decide to appear, and regardless of when those signs become apparent, most of us still hope to preserve a more youthful appearance. Botox and/or Xeomin can help!

How Does It Work?

The active ingredients in these injectables treat facial lines by acting on the small nerve endings in muscles to prevent the muscle fibers from contracting, essentially paralyzing them. The relaxed muscles can no longer stretch or crimp the skin in the injected area. As a relatively painless procedure requiring no to minimal recovery, people throughout Utah are turning back the clock on nature’s aging process. Patients may once again look as young as they feel, maybe even younger!

Available at South Valley OrthoMed

With a simple 10-minute treatment, you could be on your way to smoother skin with fewer lines. Results become noticeable in as little as 24-48 hours and the results are predictable and subtle.

Enhancing and reinvigorating natural beauty is a common desire for our patients here in the heart of South Jordan, and all throughout Utah. With Jenee Parker, our full-time Master Esthetician, we are ready to help patients bring out their true, youthful appearance once again. Most importantly, we understand that every patient is unique, and we tailor every treatment to each patient’s specific needs. Wherever frown lines, facial wrinkles, or crow’s feet appear, our goal is to help you flatten the furrows and smooth the skin.
The effects of aging eventually catch up to all of us in one form or another. With Botox or Xeomin, you can overcome those effects for many years, letting your youthful, vibrant self shine through once again and regain the essential glow.

Injectibles Pricing

$12 per unit

$10 per unit


A new cure for cancer: the drug has destroyed cancer cells in a patient

The vaccine being tested at Mayo Clinic kills cancer cells in a patient diagnosed with breast cancer.

Фото: Depositphotos

According to Fox NewsFlorida resident Lee Merker became the first patient to take part in a clinical trial of a new vaccine after being diagnosed with an early stage of the disease in March 2019.

According to her, she has breast cancer of the “zero stage DCIS”, that is, cancer cells have not yet spread. She was offered three options: to undergo a lumpectomy with the removal of cancer cells, undergo a mastectomy with the removal of the breast, or join a clinical trial of the vaccine to destroy the cells and prevent their appearance.

“I signed a dashed line that day,” Merker said of the 12-week trial in Jacksonville clinics.

On the subject: How to beat cancer: five scientifically based reasons for optimism

“The vaccine is supposed to stimulate the patient’s own immune response so that immune cells such as T cells can penetrate and attack the cancer,” said Dr. Saranya Chumsri, an oncologist at the world famous medical center.

Merker said the process entailed a series of analyzes and trials.

“They always did a blood sampling, then a medical examination followed, and after the injection right on the spot,” Merker said.

“This time everything was done in a row, with alternating hands, four injections with an interval of two weeks,” she added.

“It is assumed that in the future everything will be similar to whether you get a flu shot or a pneumonia shot,” said Chumsri.

On the subject: What cannabidiol treats (CBD), and why everyone talks about it

The publication notes that Lee Merker still needed to have a mastectomy to make sure everything was deleted correctly. Researchers can scan breast tissue to find out how the vaccine works.

Treatment also applies to another patient. It is reported that treatment gives positive results.

Chumsry added that clinical trials for patients with other stages of cancer also show good results.

ForumDaily previously wrote that American scientists using a new procedure managed to save a woman from breast cancer who has passed into the terminal stage. As part of a new therapy, 90 billion of immune cells were pumped into the blood of a woman.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Trump legalizes the use of experimental drugs

Where to buy affordable drugs in the US

Why are the medications too expensive in the USA?

Now we want to ask YOU for support.

Always yours, ForumDaily!

Miscellaneous In the U.S. cancer breast cancer medicine medication

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Lesen Sie untenstehend unsere letzten Pressemitteilungen und Beiträge. Nehmen Sie bei Fragen gerne Kontakt zu uns auf:

Dr. Felix Marcinowski
+49 89 4141 860 28

OMMAX successfully advises Bregal Unternehmerkapital

The multi-generational family-owned business Bregal Unternehmerkapital (Bregal) has announced an acquisition of shares of trendtours Touristik GmbH (trendtours) as part of a successful takeover agreement. Within this transaction, OMMAX advised Bregal on a digital due diligence project on all relevant information of the digital performance, the digital market and competitive landscape as well as the potential of the digital channels.

Evaluating the digital sales, marketing and business KPIs, OMMAX provided a detailed overview of all commercial numbers to assist Bregal to have a deep understanding of trendtours and its subsidiaries. This data-driven advice supported both Bregal and trendtours to have a clear overview of the current digital KPIs and their potential in the future.

"We are delighted to be part of this great success story. We appreciated the open and cooperatively working environment of Bregal and trendtours on this intense project. By analyzing the online digital market and its competitors plus shares as well as the e-commerce performance, including all digital channels and keywords, we accomplished a detailed report for both parties. We are excited about this successful transaction and looking forward to the future of this strong cooperation”, Dr. Stefan Sambol, Managing Partner at OMMAX stated.

Bregal Unternehmerkapital is part of a family-owned business and currently manages around EUR 2 billion in overall assets. trendtours Touristik GmbH, based in Frankfurt am Main, is one of the leading German direct tour operators and compiles individual, varied travel programmes. Together, Bregal and trendtours are about to generate further growth.

OMMAX is a digital strategy consultancy based in Munich, Hamburg and Berlin, specializing in sustainable digital value creation whilst catering to an array of mid-sized companies, large enterprises and more than 30 PEs around the world. Composed of +100 international experts and +500 realized digital projects in the fields of digital strategies, digital operational excellence, data science and transaction advisory services, OMMAX is a forerunner concerning holistic data-driven strategy consulting and execution of digital solutions.


Craig Goodwin

CSA19 - Craig Goodwin

Craig is a great, motivational leader who has reorganised a disparate group of people into a strong Digital Hub. He manages a large group of people, and yet has managed to build a cohesive and efficient team with great team spirit. They are constantly being used as an example of good practise in terms of smart working, and photos of their team meetings and working are always used in wider staff meetings.

His approach of supporting and inspiring others has created a great place to work. His work in refining and pushing the Wales Brand has led to the team's content being recognised around government, and also more widely throughout the tourism sector. Craig's team is often asked to present their social media and web content strategies and go through how they create content at external events. All of this work is monitored by and led by Craig. He has also implemented a new 'create once, publish everywhere' model approach to creating content, reducing duplication and increasing staff efficiency.