The lunar situation is getting a bit complex, so let’s summarize. A Blood Moon is when a complete lunar eclipse makes the moon appear red. A Blue Moon is when an additional full moon occurs as well as the 12 usual full moons we have every year. As this only happens occasionally (like a Leap…
Category: rituals
Hand of Glory
If you thought that stuffing a chicken in a duck in a turkey after totally deboning them all like a sort of festive amateur surgeon to make a Turducken seemed like too much effort this year, or have been daunted by Delia Smith’s spaghetti sauce recipe with its four kinds of meat and three hour…
Halloween – the poet, the witch and the eel
Halloween is a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings are all abroad on their baneful midnight errands. This year was no exception, at our dark shrouded hovel. But why am I talking about it, when I should be poeming about it? Up in old East London Things roam on claw’d feet We dare…
Killing the Corn-Spirit or Hello, Dolly!
In the village of Siddington in Cheshire in the shadow of the monolithic radio telescopes of Jodrell Bank, lives a gentleman with an unusual hobby. Raymond Rush makes corn dollies, and at Harvest Festival time decorates the local church with over 1,000 of these sinister pagan relics. In his workshop next to an old hand…
Today the Gates of Hell open for Hungry Ghosts
The Hungry Ghost festival is held during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, on the first night of the full Corn Moon. This is when the gates of Hell open and Hungry Ghosts are freed from the lower realms to roam the earth, where they seek food and amusement. These Ghosts are believed to…
Blood & Chocolate – The Ancient Sacrificial Drink of the Aztecs
Back, way back, way back in time, the ancient Aztecs used cacao seeds for spiritual and ceremonial purposes, as when sacrificial victims were given cacao drinks mixed with human blood in order to prepare them to have their heart cut out and held up, still beating, to the Sun. For thousands of years cacao was…
A Flaming Fête With Flowers
Midsummer bonfire Flowers of flame flare out bright Live on as embers As the Sun passes over the Tropic of Cancer and hangs directly overhead, we celebrate with flowers which represent the Earth’s energies, water to represent the water sign Cancer, and fire which represents the Sun. While the mystical hordes gather at Stonehenge…
Speaking with Spirits via EVP
If I could talk to the other side, just imagine it? Chatting with a haunt in words ghostly Imagine speaking to a shadow, discoursing with a daemon What a neat achievement it would be! If we could talk to the other side, learn all their languages I’d take a PHD in EVP I’d study poltergeist…
Sapping Energy? Bring Back The Birch
Tír na nÓg are the islands of everlasting youth and beauty, not unlike Peter Pan’s fictional Neverland. Populated by gods and spirits who no longer have any connection to our world, it is possible for humans to visit, although returning is not usually easy due to the different way in which time passes there. The…
You’re Always After Me Lucky Leprechaun
Top of the morning to you! For St Patrick’s Day this year, let’s locate a leprechaun. Before you start arguing that you only find leprechauns in Ireland, consider that there are more Irish natives living in New York City than there are in Ireland. Naturally leprechauns will have emigrated along with the people and their…
The New City Witches Cocktail Coven 