Alex Sumner's Blog, page 50

XX Bishops

Two years ago the Catholic Church ruled out the Ordination of Women as Priests: now the Church of England has ruled out the female bishops. Now the thing is that Bishops are traditionally the successors of the Apostles: hence if it had been the case there were female Apostles, then it is theologically correct to have female Bishops.

In a blog post I wrote two years ago, I advanced an argument to say there is scriptural evidence that there were indeed female Apostles! Note that this is nothing to do with revisionism, but the correct reading of the original scriptures.

I do hope, however, that the Church of England can sort this out in-house. There is a distressing number of people saying that Parliament should now overrule the General Synod. I hope this does not happen. As I understand the term, Freedom of Religion is supposed to mean Freedom from Government interference in Religion. If this is meant to be a human right – as the UN Declaration on Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, etc would suggest - then it ought not to be qualified by adding “… but only when you don’t do anything the Government disapproves,” otherwise it is not a real right at all.

Filed under: Comment, Religion Tagged: Anglican, church of england, Female Bishops, Freedom of Religion, John Welby, Rowan Williams, Synod

Review: “Adobe Photoshop Elements 11″

In which I review Adobe Photoshop Elements 11.

As a keen user of Adobe Photoshop itself to design the covers to my books I was curious to see what this software package had to offer. It incorporates features for those who want to manage their photo collections, but lacks some of the more advanced ones that serious illustrators would find most useful. Three out of five.

Filed under: Comment, Licence To Depart, Opus Secunda, The Magus, This Is Not A Fairy Story Tagged: Adobe Photoshop Elements 11, GIMP, Photoshop

Meteor Shower Tonight – A Spell

OK apparently the Leonid Meteor Shower reaches its peak tonight, and this has given me a great idea for casting a simple magic spell to make all your dreams come true. Here it is:

Make a list of all your wishes before going to sleep, and use the power of lucid dreaming to dream about the Leonid meteor shower from the comfort of your own bed!

This will be just as effective as actually watching it, and it has the advantage of being a lot warmer and more comfortable.

More to the point: it occurs to me that certain meteor showers occur every year with predictable certainty. Hence, if there is anything in this whole “wishing upon a star” business, there must be certain days of the year which are always bound to be luckier than others.

So for future reference, here are the known dates of prominent meteor showers for the rest of 2012 and 2013:

17/11/12
Leonids
115
18h13
  NE
Leo
Commet 55P / Tempel-Tuttle


21/11/12
alpha Monocerotids
4
12h00
  ENE
Monoceros



13/12/12
Geminids
120
22h44
  NNE
Gemini
Asteroid 3200 Phaethon


22/12/12
Ursids
10
17h04
  -
Ursa Minor
Comet 8P Tuttle


25/12/12
Comae Berenicids
5
15h45
  NE
Coma Berenicis



03/01/13
Quadrantids
120
10h46
  -
Bootes
Asteroid 2003 EH 1


08/02/13
alpha Centaurids
7
06h40
  SE
Centaurus



14/03/13
eta Virginids
2
16h39
  E
Virgo
Comet D / 1766 G1 (Helfenzrieder)


05/04/13
kappa Serpentids
4
14h30
  NE
Corona Borealis



22/04/13
Lyrids
18
15h34
  NNE
Lyra
Comet C / 1861 G1 Thatcher


23/04/13
pi Puppids
20
12h30
  SW
Puppis
Comet 26P Grigg-Skjellerup


07/05/13
eta Aquariids
85
13h49
  E
Aquarius
Comet 1P Halley


09/05/13
eta Lyrids
7
20h24
  NNE
Lyra
Comet C / 1983 H1 (IRAS-Araki-Alcock)


28/06/13
Bootids
10
02h10
  -
Bootes
Comet 7P Pons-Winnecke


28/07/13
South. delta Aquariids
20
19h17
  E
Aquarius



30/07/13
alpha Capricornids
4
06h26
  E
Capricornus
Comet 45P Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova


04/08/13
South. iota Aquariids
2
04h20
  E
Aquarius



13/08/13
Perseids
110
00h54
  -
Perseus
Comet 109P Swift-Tuttle


18/08/13
kappa Cygnids
3
06h03
  -
Cygnus



31/08/13
alpha Aurigids
10
17h33
  -
Auriga
Comet C / 1911 N1 Kiess


03/10/13
Capricornids
2
00h36
  E
Capricornus
Comet D / 1978 R1 (Haneda-Campos)


05/10/13
Camelopardalids
40
22h32
  -
Chamaeleon



08/10/13
Draconids
10
19h23
  -
Draco
Comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner


22/10/13
Orionids
30
02h59
  NE
Orion
Comet 1P Halley


06/11/13
Northern Taurids
4
12h55
  NE
Taurus
Asteroid 2004 TG10


06/11/13
Southern Taurids
7
12h55
  NE
Taurus
Comet 2P Encke


18/11/13
Leonids
115
00h22
  NE
Leo
Commet 55P / Tempel-Tuttle


21/11/13
alpha Monocerotids
4
18h09
  ENE
Monoceros



14/12/13
Geminids
120
04h53
  NNE
Gemini
Asteroid 3200 Phaethon


22/12/13
Ursids
10
23h13
  -
Ursa Minor
Comet 8P Tuttle


25/12/13
Comae Berenicids
5
21h54
  NE
Coma Berenicis





Filed under: Occult Tagged: astrology, leonids, lucid dreaming, meteor shower tonight, wish upon a star

Ask A Wizard: Ultra Zodiacal Astrology

Novelist and writer on the occult Alex Sumner discusses “Ultra Zodiacal Astrology” with tweep @IrisSchouten. This is the astrology of constellations which lie outside the Zodiac: although they are not used in conventional astrology, certain traditions both ancient and modern assign them magical and spiritual significance.

Filed under: Occult Tagged: Ask A Wizard, astrology, Draco, Golden Dawn, Hans Dieter Betz, The Great Bear, The Greek Magical Papyri In Translation, Ursa Major, Youtube

Thank you Jesus!

Why? What have I done this time?

This is a response to Peregrin Wildoak’s blog post, What the (magical) world needs right now.

With all due respect to Peregrin, the idea that Shame is enough to solve the perceived evils of the Mind Body Wallet phenomenon is far too simplistic. IMO, the roots of the problem lie in deeply held cultural differences between practitioners of magic. To wit:

In cultures within the sphere of influence of traditional Christian morality – even if not everyone within that culture is Christian per se – anything that deviates from a conventional notion of Authentic Spirituality is likely to be labelled Charlatanism.
However, in cultures outside that sphere of influence, Charlatanism is Authentic Spirituality.

To illustrate my point, let me relate the story of a talk I recently went to, in which the speaker described how he went to Peru to learn the ways of Ayahuasca. One of the key points he mentioned is that the Ayahuasceros – the ones who know the true way to partake of the Vine of Death in a proper ceremonial context – are all, to a man, complete and utter scoundrels. “That is why I resolved to cut off all ties from my spiritual teacher at the earliest opportunity,” the speaker said.

The magicians in these parts of the world make no bones about charging money for their services. It is common for them if, someone comes to them asking for help, to use the old line: “Ah, a rival Brujo has placed you under a curse! Fortunately if you pay me enough money I will start a magical war with this sorcerer.” Then, when the client gets worse, he or she goes to the next magician who in his turn says that the previous magician, far from helping, himself put a curse on them – and for the usual fee, etc etc.

Moreover, such magicians view apprentices with suspicion. Far from being motivated by a sense of passing on a noble tradition, they recognise that any apprentice they train up is likely to become a business rival. Hence, whilst they may be willing to initiate an apprentice (for the right fee), they will quite happily try to keep them in a subservient position, or steal their power from them, lest they ever look like becoming as skillful a magician as they.

Most importantly though, they periodically curse the local inhabitants and make sure they know about it – so that they regularly propitiate him. And you know what? The locals just lap it up. Because they have no conception of someone like Jesus who healed people out of the goodness of His heart, or magicians who take it as  a point of principle to give their services for free, the idea that a real magician should be anything other than an unmitigated rogue is completely alien to them.

There is a saying: “If you meet Buddha on the road, kill him.” Fluffy bunnies like to misquote this as “If you meet Buddha on the road and he gets in the way, kill him.” Many people say it means “kill him in your mind” but, given the reputation of spiritual teachers in South America, Africa, Asia, etc I say it means to literally kill him – because he is most likely to be an evil so-and-so who is up to no good.

Now let us look at Western consumerism. For a start it should not be called Western Consumerism at all, but just “Consumerism,” because it is the same in principle the world over. The only difference between a Brujo in the South American jungle and a New Age practitioner in the developed world is the technology to which they have access: however if you were to ask either of them whether it is right to charge money for what they do, they would both reply identically.

Marcel Duchamp invented the concept of Decommodification in 1917 when he announced: “This is a work of art, not a commode!”

As far as I’m aware, the idea of true spirituality being free was established in Europe because of the influence of Christian morality generally. It has its roots in Rosicrucianism – i.e. that none of them should profess anything except to heal the sick and that gratis – and was enunciated in the late Victorian occult revival by magicians under the influence of Christianity, even if they chose not to practice it conventionally or at all – not just the Golden Dawn, but on the other side of the English Channel, by the Martinists as well. It strikes me that by Decommodifying spirituality, they anticipated the Conceptual Art movement of the twentieth century! Moreover – by making initiation free, it removes the threat of an initiator trying to exploit and cheat his initiates – and of the latter wanting to set up in competition with the former once they have served their apprenticeship. However, once a magician moves outside the hegemony of the Christian / Rosicrucian paradigm, there is no reason to suppose that they will adhere to the moral framework thereof, nor that shame will drive them back to it.

 

Filed under: Occult, Rant Tagged: Ayahuasca, Decommodification, New Age, Peregrin Wildoak

The Truth About Dracula: A Halloween Special

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

So, everyone knows that Dracula is the most awesome vampire ever in English literature. And before anyone dares to mention Ed Cullen, I should point out that he fails to qualify both in terms of “awesome” and indeed “literature.” I actually have a niggling problem with Dracula though: it is this -

Dracula represents the fear of the outsider – fear of the foreigner. As a rich man he also represents the poor man’s fear that the upper classes are screwing him over. Given that he attempts to steal Jonathan Harker’s fiancée, he represents the fear of every man, that some stranger is giving your woman a far better time than you could possibly hope to achieve. He is, not to put to fine a point on it, Castration Anxiety personified.

Count Dracula is thus a perfect monster, but what he is not is a character. I say this because Dracula is aristocratic, rich, owns vast tracts of land, has a coterie of sexy lady Vampires with whom to share his enormous castle, and can snack on any of the local peasants whenever he feels hungry. Yet nowhere in Bram Stoker’s original novel is there any explanation as to why he would want to give all of this up, and move to Whitby – of all places!

Winona Ryder

Francis Ford Coppola sensed this fundamental flaw in the novel which is why he invented a back-story for Dracula for his film, namely that the Count was searching for his lost love. Given that she was played by Winona Ryder, he could have just done this by staying in Transylvania and following police-reports and in-store CCTV footage!

But was this what Bram Stoker originally intended? I mean about searching for a lost love, not about Winona Ryder, obviously. I discussed my concerns about Dracula with my fellow members of the Illuminati in the pub one afternoon. After recounting all the details to them, I asked: “So why would he want to move to Whitby?”

Inspiration seized one of my drinking companions. “They do nice fish and chips there!” he said.

“What?” I replied.

“They do nice fish and chips in Whitby! That’s why Count Dracula upped and moved to Yorkshire.”

So there you have it! For all the delights that rural Carpathia has to offer, the one thing that they have not is tasty battered (locally sourced) cod with chunky chips served with le purée de petit pois. I must say that given that I like a Fish Supper every once in a while – as well as liking Fish & Chips – I can to a certain extent sympathise with the old Count!

Filed under: Comment Tagged: Bram Stoker, dracula, Francis Ford Coppola, hallowe'en, whitby, Winona Ryder

Sumner Alex no hon wa, Nihon de hanbai sa rete i!

Japan

People of Japan! You now have the opportunity to buy my books in your country! Why not head on over to www.amazon.jp now?

The Magus
Print
Kindle


Opus Secunda
Print
Kindle


Licence To Depart
Print
Kindle


The Demon Detective
Kindle only


A Greater Power
Kindle only


Shall We Kill The President?
Kindle only


This Is Not A Fairy Story
Print – coming soon!
Kindle

As I believe the saying goes in your country: ( ^ _ ^ )

Filed under: A Greater Power, Licence To Depart, Opus Secunda, Publications, Shall We Kill The President?, The Demon Detective, The Magus, This Is Not A Fairy Story Tagged: "Alex Sumner's books are on sale in Japan", Google Translate, Japan

This Is Not A Fairy Story: Special Halloween Offer

Artwork © 2012, Alex Sumner

You can now download my latest novel, This Is Not A Fairy Story, for 50% off its usual price, from Smashwords.com. Halloween this year coincides with the half-term break in England, so what better way to celebrate it than with this fantasy thriller, which follows in the adventures of Guy Shepardson, the Demon Detective.

For a limited time (until November 4th 2012) you can download it for just $1 in just about every ebook format that there is: Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Sony E-reader and more. To take advantage of this offer, simply follow this link:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/208654

And enter promotional code NN85B when you get to the checkout.

Filed under: Publications, This Is Not A Fairy Story Tagged: ebook, EPUB, Kindle, Nook, pdf, smashwords.com

The Paradox of Christianity and Occultism

An intriguing use of the chequered pavement!

It’s getting to that time of year again when certain types of Christian pastor pop out of the wood-work and alternatively rail against the supposed pagan and / or satanic origins of Halloween, or more creatively try to put on their own alternate events. Mind you I did find it ironic that one town in Pennsylvania was putting on a series of events apparently without realising there is already a Christian holiday associated with the day (All Saints’ Day) - ”Fall Family Fun,” anyone?

I would like to give away one of the “greatest secrets” of occultism at this point. It’s not actually a great secret as far as occultists are concerned, but it is to many Fundamentalist preachers judging from their ravings, and even to some of the fluffier types of pagans. It is this: many occultists are in fact Christians themselves. Not Christopagans, nor even Gnostic Christians, but actual Christians. They tend not to draw attention to themselves, but they are there. These are the sort of people who join organisations like the Martinists, the Elus Cohens, the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross and other Qabalistic organisations which are sympathetic to Jesus Christ.

Reading the Hebrew letters from Fire going anti-clockwise spells “Yeheshuah.”

These are the sort of people who point out that the Pentagram is the symbol of the Pentagrammaton (“Yeheshuah”), the Qabalistic-spelling of Jesus: hence each time one performs the LBRP, one is actually invoking Jesus in the four quarters without realising it!

In fact, given that Neo-Paganism is predominantly a movement dating from the latter half of the twentieth century, the vast majority of the members of the original Golden Dawn and its offshoots were themselves Christian, and sought to incorporate Christian symbology into their Qabalistic practices.

I appreciate this will probably sound like the most outrageous heresy to Fundamentalist Christians. I believe the common attitude amongst such people is typified by the following:

The extent of occult involvement is universal.  Spiritual warfare is all around us, and if Satan cannot keep us from knowing Christ he will try containing us by drawing us into deception.  The Enemy is a deceiver, liar, tempter, and devourer of human souls…..

[...]

Actually, occultists’ practices are a counterfeit of God’s power, and as such they do reveal some amazing things — but these things are not the ultimate truth.  … [A]n increase in demonic activity is to be expected as a sign of the end times.

What is the Occult?

Pity the poor occultist! He or she is trapped in a real dilemma! If one invokes Satan, one is obviously Satanists, and if one invokes God, His Angels, or Jesus, etc – even in all apparent sincerity - one is still invoking Satan because the Father of Lies is pulling the wool over their eyes. One cannot win!

What these Fundamentalist Christians don’t realise – or they conveniently forget – is that Jesus Himself was accused of dabbling in the occult when He was alive! To wit:

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.”

So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.

“Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”— because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Mark 3:22 – 30

Replace “Scribes” in this passage with “Fundamentalist preachers” and you basically have the entire plight of the modern occultist who nevertheless professes to be a Christian. Logic would suggest – and Jesus Himself explicitly states here - that one cannot perform something which is objectively good and still be in thrall to the powers of Evil. So to address the quote from “What is the occult?” I would say it is seriously unwise to say that one should be careful of accusing an occultist of being deceived by Satan, because one might just be blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, i.e. committing the unforgiveable sin.

Filed under: Occult, Religion Tagged: Christian Esotericism, Christianity, Golden Dawn, hallowe'en

Jimmy’s A Vile…

Over here in Britain, everyone’s gone sex-mad and not in a good way. First there was a notorious story of a teacher who ran off with a 15 year old school-girl. Then there was the revelations about the deceased disc jockey Jimmy Savile who it is claimed had a fondness for girls who were not legally competent – either by reason of age or physical disability. Now the can of worms is well and truly open and it seems that every person in broadcasting, alive or dead, who ever had a peccadilo is having their past come back to haunt them.

What is wrong with Britain? And why is it happening now?

It occurred to the Sumner Family Brain Cell to look to the stars for guidance. The Jimmy Savile story first broke on 30th September 2012 in the form of publicity for a forthcoming reveal-all documentary. At the time, Venus, the planet of relationships, was in opposition to retrograde Neptune, the planet of deceit and shameful cover-ups. Meanwhile, square to both of them (and thus making a T formation) was Mars, the planet of widespread public anger. Venus was thus challenging Mars to stir it into action; Mars was challenging Neptune. If only one more planet moved into formation, then there would have been a Grand Cross, a pattern associated with all hell breaking loose.

The Grand Cross occurred on 3rd October 2012, when the Moon duly obliged. Coincidentally this was the same day that the exposé about Jimmy Savile aired on ITV.

Chart drawn up for 3rd October 2012, at 23.10pm

Let us postulate that this stellar configuration does indeed have something to do with the scandal then breaking. The question then arises, why should this involve Jimmy Savile in particular? And not some other seedy character with skeletons in the living room? For this I calculated Jimmy’s birth chart, and then looked at the transits made therewith by the chart for 3rd October 2012.

Outer ring: planets as at 3rd October 2012, 23.10pm.
Inner ring: natal chart of Jimmy Savile, 31st October 1929, Leeds (birth-time approximated).

As you can see, the four planets of the Grand Cross were transitting his natal Neptune. Venus – conjunction; Neptune – opposition; Mars (and Caput Draconis), as well as the Moon on the other side – both Square.

It is interesting also to note Savile would have been experiencing a “Uranus Return” – and the Sun was in opposition to both the natal and transiting planets. I notice that once commentary about natal Uranus opposite transiting sun is you will do things that may alienate people. So all in all, it seems quite natural for these revelations to have come out when they did.

Finally, it is worth noting that this was a deceased man we are talking about – yet the stars still seemed to be affecting him! An argument if ever there was one for leading a good moral life while alive, as dying is not necessarily a means of escape. As a wise man (I believe it was Lemmy from Motorhead) once said: your bones will turn to dust, your possessions will be taken by other people, your money will pass back into the system,  but your reputation is the only thing you leave in this world which will still belong to you after your death.

Filed under: Comment Tagged: astrology, Freddie Starr, Jeremy Forrest, Jimmy Savile, John Peel, Megan Stammers, paedophile