joi, 23 februarie 2012

[Earthwise] Digest Number 2795

Messages In This Digest (2 Messages)

1.
A Place of Our Own From: Radiohawthorne
2.
BOOK REVIEW - Extreme Paranormal Investigations From: gleason.mike@comcast.net

Messages

1.

A Place of Our Own

Posted by: "Radiohawthorne" radiohawthorne@yahoo.com   radiohawthorne

Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:13 pm (PST)



Tradition says the on the 20th of February, the Romans celebrated a Feast of Ovens, which they called the Fornacalia. The Feast of Ovens celebrated an aspect of The Earth Goddess Who was recognized in the planted grain, which must first die in order to grow.

So, The Fonacalia didn't have much to do with Food, but as you know, Supper is a time to come together, to break bread and share the events of the day with family and to give thanks to Mother Earth. You can perform powerful magick by preparing and consuming your food with a magickal intent. We'll look at some ways that could be done.

Have you ever walked into a house or onto a piece of land and felt strong emotions - either a profound connection or a forceful revulsion? Have you ever traveled someplace and felt as though you'd come home - even though you've never been there before?
This is called Energy of Place and we'll talk a bit about how you can connect with it.

It's been said that good fences make for good neighbors, and the Roman God, Terminus, was the diety of Land Boundaries. His sacred day was February 23, when the Romans celebrated The Terminalia. I have a ritual you can do to bless your boundaries to help make your community stronger.

Drop me a line at spiraldance1@excite.com

Some of the music you'll hear on this week's show include; Jenna Greene: "Green Man; Wild Earth Child"; Carlton Walker: "Earth, Air, Fire and Water"; Peter Janson & Friends: "Welcome Guests"; Double Helix: "Beautiful We Are, Together"; Skyclad: "Fires Burn Within" and more.
Please listen to The Spiral Dance with Hawthorne each week. It's an online Pagan radio show (Webcast & Podcast). The podcast gives you the option to either listen to right from the website or download to your
computer. It's FREE and it's fun. Your suggestions and comments are welcome!

Each episode is approximately 75 - 80 minutes. Podcasts remain posted for about 4 or 5 weeks, so you can go back and listen to the other episodes for some great interviews, information and fun!

DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY?
Maybe you've composed a new poem and would like to hear it on the radio. If you want to submit audio to The Spiral Dance, send me an email. There are basically no rules - just no harsh language, no commercial
self-promotion and no Christian-bashing. Please let me know what you think about the show. I'm always open to suggestions; email spiraldance1@ excite.com/radiohawthorne@yahoo.com

You can also catch The Spiral Dance with Hawthorne webcast and Podcast by visiting my website to find the links.
www.thespiraldance.weebly.com/home.html

2.

BOOK REVIEW - Extreme Paranormal Investigations

Posted by: "gleason.mike@comcast.net" gleason.mike@comcast.net

Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:32 pm (PST)





Extreme Paranormal Investigations by Marcus F. Griffin © 2011 Llewellyn ISBN: 978-0-7387-2697-7 Paperback 288 pages $15.95 (U.S.) $18.50 (Canada)

Before I had read the first 25 pages of this book, my hackles had already risen, and that (I am sure) colored my expectations of what else I would find as I read the book. I already knew, just from the title, that this was not going to be your average paranormal investigation book. And, I knew that the author was a Witch (I had reviewed Advancing the Witches Craft by the same author last year). But I was not expecting the ATTITUDE displayed by the crew. They say that they use their abilities to punch "...a hole between the worlds of the living and the dead," and to force "...materialization and/or verbal communication with paranormal entities." I cannot express my consternation when I read those statements! The idea of forcing communication is counter-productive. Just think about it...if someone came into your house and demanded that you speak (or interact) with them, how likely is it that you would be on your best behavior? Setting up circumstances to ENCOURAGE such behavior is one thing, FORCING it is something else. In my opinion, such an attitude is irresponsible.

In the very first investigation recounted in the book the author is in a root cellar when he senses an "evil presence." His response is to pull out his ritual knife and use it to threaten the approaching, though still unseen, entity. At this point, I was tempted to put this book down and move on to another review book. I didn't however since I have an unfortunate tendency to want to give every book I read a fair chance.

The more I read, the less happy I became with the prevailing attitude of this team of "investigators." There seems to be a tendency to want to control all aspects of the investigation, which just isn't feasible in most cases. They picked up a phantom presence while on the way to another investigation, and the author wanted it exorcised before they began their work (to avoid contamination of their results, he says). I could easily understand asking it to leave, but exorcising it is, in my opinion, a little heavy-handed to start with.

Granted that this team is, apparently a low-budget operation (most are) with minimal equipment at their disposal, they seem have a penchant for turning on flashlights to check things out. In night-time investigations this results, at the very least, in a loss of night vision acuity for a time, thus compromising the ability to see other phenomena.

Their normal procedure, apparently, is to each investigate an area on their own, and then meet up later to compare notes. As most paranormal investigating teams will tell you, it is best to work in pairs, or at least within eye-sight of other members to be able to validate sightings or sounds heard. It just seems sloppy to me to not take every opportunity to back up occurrences.

Even though Mr. Griffin attempts to portray WISP as a professional team, their behavior betrays that allegation. They take far too many shortcuts; they fail to follow their own procedures; and they just generally come across as amateurs in this field. Which is not to say that amateurs have no place in the field of paranormal investigations, it simply means that they must be willing to admit that they are amateurs.

As a collection of ghost stories, it is interesting. As a record of paranormal investigations, not so much. I must admit that the author is honest enough to admit that personal experiences and feelings, although indicative that "something" was encountered could not be considered as proof of such encounters. I was hoping for a more balanced approach, but after reading the back cover ("Bizarre Dangerous Sometimes Downright Terrifying") I knew that this was going to be a fairly sensationalized account.

So, while I don't recommend it whole heartedly, it is an enjoyable book to read. If it were read under the proper circumstances, I suppose it might be spine tingling. Because of my training in the religion of Witchcraft and the field of magick I had trouble getting past some of the behavior of the team, others may not have those problems. On a scale of one to five (with five being absolutely top of the line) this one would get somewhere between a three and a four. There are better books out there, but there also a lot worse available.

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