[NSFW] The Singapore Occultists Thread

[chamfer]

 

 

[Huat Zai]

 

[chamfer]

 

[Huat Zai]

1 hour ago, chamfer said:

 

The theory is sound but I disagree with the methodology. One rarely talked about issue is maintaining the state of "no-mind" (aka silencing the ego), shock theory only works for a split second, but most humans will not be able to maintain it.

 

In our arts, there is one other method that is not mentioned in the video. Channeling a deity requires a practitioner to silence the ego, which is why almost every folk religion has some form of mediumship. The problem has always been that there hasn't been a systematic effort to study, improve and standardize the craft.

[Huat Zai]

 

[Huat Zai]

 

[Huat Zai]

 

[Huat Zai]

Iowa man accused of murdering mother for practicing witchcraft

 

DUBUQUE, Iowa-  A man in Iowa has been arrested for murder after allegedly killing his mother whom he accused of practicing witchcraft. When asked questions, the man reportedly laughed during his bond hearing.

Tyler James Dazey, a 28-year-old white male, is facing charges of first-degree murder. He was charged in the Iowa District Court of Dubuque County on Thursday, January 18, 2024.

At 8:50 a.m. on Thursday, Dubuque Police responded to a report of a “suspicious” death in the 1600 block of Avoca Street. Upon arrival, they discovered the lifeless body of a 46-year-old woman in the residence.

The victim was identified as Jennifer Ann Dazey, Tyler J. Dazey’s mother. Her body was discovered in her bedroom by the police with court documents revealing “numerous” and “significant” lacerations to her face, neck, and head. Additionally, some of her fingers had been severed from her hand.

Reports say that Police discovered Tyler J. Dazey lying naked in his room. According to officers, the suspect was “not overly responsive.” In the living room of the residence, police found the family dog dead from head injuries on the sofa. Tyler J. Dazey now faces an additional charge of Animal Abuse Causing Serious Injury or Death.

Tyler James Dazey (Mug shot: Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office)

 

Following the issuance of a search warrant, police found a tactical tomahawk in a bathroom of the residence and its sheath on the dining room table. A tactical tomahawk is a versatile hand tool that combines elements of a traditional tomahawk with modern features suitable for survival situations. It typically has a sharp axe blade on one side for cutting and chopping, while the opposite side may feature a spike or other tools. The handle often incorporates additional functions, such as a pry bar, hammerhead, or a grip designed for various tasks.

Tactical tomahawks are used by military personnel, law enforcement, and outdoor enthusiasts for a range of peaceful purposes, including chopping, cutting, and other utility tasks. They are designed to be durable, portable, and multi-functional, making them suitable for a variety of situations where a versatile cutting and chopping tool is needed.

Dubuque Police Department Lt. Brendan Welsh said the tomahawk was taken into evidence for processing at the state crime lab. Other evidence was also collected and sent for crime lab review.

“Investigators are still processing evidence found at the scene and sending items for further testing,” Welsh said.

Jennifer Dazey’s official cause of death cannot be released until after the completion of an autopsy by the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner.

Tyler J. Dazey was taken to hospital and upon his discharge, officers questioned him. According to documents, he claimed ownership of the tomahawk and asserted that his mother, in her bed, was practicing witchcraft against him for years.

No evidence has been provided that Jennifer Dazey practiced witchcraft.

When questioned about his mother’s injuries, Tyler remained silent and invoked his Miranda Rights.

Tyler James Dazey appeared in court on Friday for his bond hearing.  He laughed during the hearing and said it was “always a pleasure”  to Iowa District Associate Judge Mark Hostager.  Tyler James Dazey’s bond was set at $2 million payable in cash only. He remains at the Dubuque County Jail according to inmate records and is scheduled to appear in court again on January 29, 2024.

Iowa does not have the death penalty. The state abolished capital punishment in 1965. First Degree Murder is a Class A Felony which – except for juvenile defendants – carries a term of life in prison.

 

https://wildhunt.org/2024/01/iowa-man-accused-of-murdering-mother-for-practicing-witchcraft.html

[Huat Zai]

Sheriff: Texas man allegedly shot family members using witchcraft against him

HOUSTON – In a second similar story, a Texas man is in custody on suspicion of shooting two family members, alleging that he believed they were using witchcraft against him.

According to authorities, Wilman Sandoval, 23, reportedly assaulted a 26-year-old woman and a 17-year-old boy with a pistol in their Houston home on the afternoon of Sunday, January 14, 2024. The victims sustained multiple gunshot wounds and were promptly transported to the hospital. The man is described as being in “serious condition,” while the woman is in “very critical condition.”

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez confirmed in interviews that Sandoval suspected his family was placing a curse on him.

In a series of posts on X (formerly known as Twitter), Sheriff Gonzalez wrote on January 14, 2024, at 6:40 PM, that “units responded to a shooting at an apt complex, 7610 Fallbrook. An adult male allegedly shot two adult family members. Both wounded persons have been transported in critical condition. The alleged shooter is detained.” Sheriff Gonzalez posted a few hours later that “both victims are in fair condition and expected to survive. The alleged shooter, Wilman Sandoval (9-10-2000), has been arrested and charged with three counts of Aggravated Assault. The wounded included Wilman’s brother (17) and Wilman’s fiancée (26).”

Wilman Sandoval, 23 – January 2024 mug shot. Photo: HARRIS COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

 

Moments later the sheriff added, “It appears the suspect (Sandoval) was accusing both victims of committing witchcraft on him.”

On Sunday night during a press conference, Gonzalez re-stated that his investigators were working on the assumption that “the presumed shooter may have believed that his family members were practicing some form of witchcraft against him, and he was distressed by it.”

When questioned by reporters about additional emergency calls originating from the Houston apartment, Gonzalez mentioned that his deputies were looking into whether there were any pre-existing issues. At around 4 p.m. on Sunday, deputies attended to a 911 call reporting a shooting at the Houston apartment complex, as stated by Gonzalez during the press conference after Sandoval’s 7 p.m. arrest.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez [via HARRIS COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE]

Gonzalez also mentioned that five family members lived in the apartment together. Investigators have retrieved the gun and are conducting a search of the apartment complex for potential witnesses to the shooting.

Though some details remain unclear, court documents have now noted that Sandoval “got up off the couch” and walked toward the front door and kitchen then “began firing a black handgun” at his family.

In the early investigation documents and statements (as quoted above) misidentified and misspelled names causing confusion about Sandoval’s relationship to the two victims: Heidi Vázquez and Christian Vázquez. (Heidi Vázquez was initially identified by the sheriff’s office as Sandoval’s fiancée while the Harris County District Attorney’s Office identified her as Sandoval’s sister-in-law.).

Harris County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the names of the two victims and their relationship to Sandoval. Heidi Vázquez is Sandoval’s sister-in-law, and Christian Vázquez is his sister-in-law’s brother.

Sandoval purportedly directed the gun at Heidi Vázquez first, hitting her six times, before aiming at her brother, Christian Vázquez. Allegedly, he fired twice, hitting him once in the head, as stated in a narrative presented by prosecutors in a motion filed last Monday seeking bail. Reports also mention that Sandoval “pointed the gun at” another family member “but did not fire.”

Despite the Sheriff’s comments, Senior Deputy Thomas M. Gilliland of the Harris County Sheriff’s office said that the motive for the shooting remains “unknown.”

The Harris County District Attorney’s office also said that prosecutors have “no details about a motive.”

Investigators are reviewing the defendant’s history for mental health issues though none has yet been reported. Initial reports also said that Sandoval has no previous criminal record.

During Sandoval‘s probable cause hearing, a bond of $250,000 was set. Sandoval is charged with three felony counts of aggravated assault. The last update available on the victims is that they are still recovering.

 

https://wildhunt.org/2024/01/sheriff-texas-man-allegedly-shot-family-members-using-witchcraft-against-him.html

[Huat Zai]

Who was St. Brigid and why is she inspiring many 1,500 years after her death?

Devotees draw inspiration from Brigid the saint — and from Brigid the ancient pagan goddess, whose name and attributes she shares.

 

Dancers perform in front of an image of St. Brigid projected onto The Wonderful Barn in Leixlip, Kildare, Ireland, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023 during the Herstory Festival of Light. Devotees of St. Brigid in Ireland plan to celebrate on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024, with the scheduled return of a relic associated with the so-called “matron saint of Ireland” — about a millennium after her remains were removed from her hometown of Kildare. It's part of a series of observances in Ireland and around the world marking the 1,500th anniversary of her death. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, File) AP

 

Devotees of St. Brigid plan to celebrate her Sunday with the scheduled return of a relic associated with the so-called matron saint of Ireland. The festivities come about a millennium after her remains were removed from the town of Kildare, where she founded a prestigious abbey and inspired a host of colorful, miracle-filled legends.

 

The celebration in her hometown, southwest of Dublin, is part of Brigid 1500 — a series of observances across the world centered around the saint’s feast day of Feb. 1, marking the 1,500th anniversary of her death around the year 524.

 

In a sense, Brigid is on a roll. The commemorations come a year after Ireland began honoring her with an annual public holiday — the first Irish woman to be recognized with one.

 

While St. Patrick has long been the saint most identified with Ireland, Brigid has gained a growing following in the 21st century. Devotees draw inspiration from Brigid the saint — and from Brigid the ancient pagan goddess, whose name and attributes she shares — as emblematic of feminine spirituality and empowerment. This comes amid growing disenchantment with the patriarchal and historically dominant Catholic Church.

 

WHO WAS BRIGID?

 

First question: which Brigid?

 

Brigid was the name of a prominent goddess worshipped by ancient pagan Celts — the namesake of the saint who lived in the fifth and sixth centuries.

 

Brigid the goddess was associated with everything from poetry, healing and metal crafting to nature, fertility and fire. She was honored on the mid-winter holy day of Imbolc, still commemorated on Feb. 1, which also became St. Brigid’s Day.

 

St. Brigid’s father is said to have been a ruler, her mother enslaved. Though Brigid’s life story has been embellished by legends, she is believed to have been the abbess of a monastic settlement of men and women that became a center of arts and learning and that gave the town its name, Irish for “church of the oak.” One legend says that when the local king agreed to give her only enough land for her monastery that could fit under her cloak, she miraculously spread it across the surrounding countryside.

 

St. Brigid traveled, preached and healed. She’s often depicted with images of fire and light and is associated with fertility, care for living things and peacemaking.

 

According to another legend, Brigid gave her father’s jeweled sword to a needy man for him to barter for food.

 

WHAT RELIC IS BEING RETURNED TO KILDARE?

 

Brigid was believed to have been buried at her monastic church in Kildare. Around the ninth century, her remains were moved to the northern town of Downpatrick in hopes of avoiding the pillages of Vikings and others. That shrine was later destroyed by English troops during the Protestant Reformation.

 

Various churches on the European continent claim to have relics of St. Brigid. This includes a bone fragment from Brigid’s skull, which tradition says was brought to a church in Portugal by three Irish knights. A fragment of that relic was returned in the 1930s to Brigidine Sisters elsewhere in Ireland and is stored in a small metal reliquary, shaped like an oak tree, an image associated with Brigid. That’s the relic being returned to Kildare.

 

The relic’s new resting place will be the Catholic parish church named for St. Brigid, which plans to display it permanently.

 

WHAT IS A RELIC, AND WHY DO CATHOLICS VENERATE THEM?

 

Catholic canon law says the church “promotes the true and authentic veneration” of saints because of their pious examples. This can involve veneration of relics — which can include fragments of bodies of saints, as well as their clothing and other items associated with them.

 

“Veneration must be clearly distinguished from adoration and worship, which are due God alone,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

 

WHAT IS ST. BRIGID’S DAY?

 

St. Brigid’s Day and Imbolc, a pagan holy day associated with the goddess Brigid and heralding the coming of spring, both fall on Feb. 1, although Ireland is observing the public holiday on the following Monday.

 

WHY IS BRIGID GAINING A 21ST-CENTURY FOLLOWING?

 

Brigid’s moment is happening as many Irish are disillusioned with traditional Roman Catholicism and its patriarchal leadership amid a secularizing culture. Even many devout Catholics are dismayed over scandals including the cover-ups of sexual abuse.

 

Whether devotees honor Brigid primarily as a saint, a goddess, or some combination of both, they see Brigid as emblematic of feminine spirituality, environmental care, and artistic creation.

 

Brigid’s Day is “an invitation to stop the pointless millennia old war of Christianity versus paganism” and see “the wisdom and beauty in both lineages,” wrote Melanie Lynch, founder of Herstory, which campaigned in support of the new national holiday.

 

HOW IS ST. BRIGID’S DAY BEING COMMEMORATED?

 

The most dramatic event is the scheduled return of the relic to Brigid’s hometown, with a short procession to St. Brigid’s Parish Church from Solas Bhride — a Christian spirituality center led by Brigidine Sisters in Kildare with a mission of welcoming “people of all faiths and of no faith.” The procession is to be led by three girls riding ponies and dressed as the medieval Irish knights who, one tradition says, accompanied the relic to Portugal centuries earlier.

 

“What amazes me is, 1,500 years later, she’s still remembered with love in Kildare and Ireland,” said David Mongey, chair of Into Kildare, the local tourism board. “Her words, her wisdom, and her actions mean more today than they ever did, when you think about how we treat our land, how we treat our environment, how we treat our animals, how we treat each other, and how we treat ourselves.”

 

People participate in a candlelight pilgrimage walk that makes its way past an ancient well associated with St Brigid to the Solas Bhride Centre in Kildare, Ireland, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. Devotees of St. Brigid in Ireland plan to celebrate on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024, with the scheduled return of a relic associated with the so-called “matron saint of Ireland” — about a millennium after her remains were removed from her hometown of Kildare. It’s part of a series of observances in Ireland and around the world marking the 1,500th anniversary of her death. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, File)

 

Several events are being organized by Solas Bhride, Irish for “Light of Brigid,” including a noontime “Pause for Peace.” Thousands of students plan to mark the pause on the nearby Curragh Plains by making a human formation of a large St. Brigid’s Cross, shaped by a square with four symmetrical arms.

 

Others around the world are joining in the pause — a minute’s silence at noon local time — said Brigidine Sister Rita Minehan, one of the founders of Solas Bhride.

 

“We are sending out a message that we actively oppose warfare in our world and the proliferation of arms,” she said. “It’s rather frightening what’s happening in our world. It’s sorely in need of peace, and Brigid was renowned as a peacemaker.”

 

Other Kildare locations are hosting music, ecumenical worship and other activities.

 

The group Herstory, which uses arts and education to promote female role models, plans events around Ireland on the holiday and days afterward. These include dramatic lightshows in which artistic depictions of Brigid are projected onto historic landmarks.

 

Elsewhere worldwide, Irish-heritage groups plan to mark the day with concerts and cultural events. Churches plan Masses in honor of the saint, while Wiccan and other pagan groups plan meditations and other ceremonies in honor of the goddess and in observance of Imbolc.

 

https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2024/01/27/who-was-st-brigid-and-why-is-she-inspiring-many-1500-years-after-her-death/

[chamfer]

 

 

[Huat Zai]

Fellowship of Isis in Chicago celebrates 30 years

CHICAGO – In autumn last year, the Chicago chapter of the Fellowship of Isis celebrated their 30th annual Autumnal Goddess Festival with dances, oracle readings, lectures, and a sharing of cultural history on September 29th, 2023. They recently sat down with The Wild Hunt to talk about their mission and their accomplishments in their three decades of work. 

The Fellowship of Isis is a global organization that describes its mission as “honoring the Divine Feminine in all Her forms and the good in all faiths.” Its history at the intersection of Paganism and monotheism is a fascinating one, dating back to its 1976 founding by Goddess devotee Olivia Robertson, her brother Anglican priest Lawrence Alexander Durdin-Robertson, and his Quaker-raised wife Pamela Mary Durdin-Robertson. 

While Olivia felt that she had a calling from the goddess Isis as the embodiment of the supreme Divine Feminine in the Egyptian pantheon, Lawrence and Pamela came from progressive Christian traditions which had already begun to reject patriarchal Christianity and embraced the Divine Feminine and the potential legitimacy of diverse religious experiences. 

Today, many Anglican churches refer to the Holy Spirit as the “Sister” and “She,” describing Her as the feminine manifestation of a God that encompasses and transcends all genders. Similarly, many Quaker congregations admit Pagan members as the Quaker methodology of centering God’s ability to speak through each member of the community does not actually require that community members espouse Christian theologies. 

Despite its interfaith origins, the Fellowship of Isis has clearly set down its strongest roots in the Pagan community across the decades. Its rituals, liturgies, educational programming, and ordination program all make heavy use of polytheistic imagery and mythology as well as traditions drawn from polytheistic faiths. Many FOI clergy are multi-ordained, serving as clergy within the Fellowship and also within other Indigenous, Pagan, and African Traditional Religions traditions and organizations.

 

 

The Fellowship of Isis Chicago branch has been holding its Autumnal Goddess Festival annually since 1993, the same year Olivia Robertson played her sistrum, a musical instrument commonly used in ancient Egypt, and invoked a blessing of the Goddess on the first reconvening of the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1993. 

This year’s Festival drew upon diverse programming to honor and embody the goddess Inanna, who is the traditional focus of the Autumnal Festival, in many ways. 

Rt. Rev. Demetria Nanos opened this year’s festival with a recounting of the lineage of the Divine Feminine from the earliest known urban civilization, where Sumerian records name Ninhursag as “The Lady of the Sacred Mountain,” “the Mother of Mountains,” and the “True and Great Lady of Heaven.” 

Ninhursag may be part of a group of ancient goddesses in Mesopotamia and Anatolia. In this region, the concept of a ‘Mountain Mother,’ often represented by a woman seated on a throne with large cats by her side, seems to have existed before the advent of writing. When Inanna dethroned Ninhursag as the Queen of Heaven, lions became one of Inanna’s prominent symbols.

Inanna captivates modern Pagans and goddess scholars with her compelling blend of unabashed femininity, sexuality, and supreme power. Revered as the most formidable entity in the Sumerian pantheon for centuries, hymns dedicated to Inanna praise not only her feminine allure, beauty, and sexuality but also highlight her unparalleled strength in war, astute intellect, and her pivotal role as the progenitor of human civilization.

In Sumerian legends, it was Inanna who stole knowledge including knowledge of shepherding, kingship, priesthood, life, sex, and death from the other gods and gave this knowledge to humans to enable them to create civilization and exercise godlike power over nature using knowledge. 

“Goddess Inanna-Ishtar and the Sumerian pantheon are older than the Bible,” Rev. Demetria Nanos said in her talk. “Her cult continued around the Mediterranean until the Islamic era. She is the Divine Feminine emanation of the strong, intelligent, wily, passionate, independent woman who leads and doesn’t follow. The state of the world today needs her energy, drive, and feminism to impel the necessary changes in politics so that women’s rights are graven in stone – or on a clay tablet.”

 

 

Presentations segued from the deepest human history to local cultural history as Rev. Joan Forest Mage, the proprietor of Chicago’s Life Force Arts Center where the Festival was hosted, took over. She was among those who knew Olivia Robertson and Chicago FOI founder Deena Butta when they were alive. 

Rev. Joan shared stories of Deena’s famous hospitality and support for Chicagoans’ spiritual growth, and Olivia’s work to stretch the limits of global religious and interfaith communities to include Goddess worship. Attendees who have been involved in the Fellowship in Chicago for a decade or more shared their own memories of Deena’s home, the mystical rites she oversaw, and Robertson’s powerful presence when she visited the Windy City.

The next talk came from Lady Melanie Silver, a newly minted Master of the Fine Arts with a specialty in Art and Art History from Columbia College’s Chicago campus, who shared her presentation on Women and the Hidden Labors of Ritual. She focused on traditional arts with sacred meaning and tremendous economic value, such as beadwork and quilting, whose tremendous skill and time investments are often overlooked by Western and male economists and historians. 

She highlighted the extensive effort involved in crafting ceremonial beadworks and indigenous quilts, emphasizing the collaborative labor of women that spans thousands of hours. These creations intricately weave together patterns, colors, and symbols, each laden with profound meaning and a transmission of knowledge. Despite their rich cultural significance, these works have, at times, been unjustly disregarded by Western male scholars as mere frivolous ornaments.

One example Silver shared was that of Dr. Danielle Lussier, JD. In 2021 Lussier, a Red River Métis woman and citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation, successfully defended her doctoral thesis in Canadian law. Her final work product was a powerful discussion of the challenges faced when integrating indigenous tribal and Canadian legal systems. According to Dr. Lussier, indigenous ways of thinking and feeling may be harmed by Western demands that analyses must deconstruct living beings and conceptualize them as objects while treating relationships as abstract concepts. Meanwhile, Western law has a history of refusing to recognize indigenous ways of knowing as legitimate sources of information and truth.

Part of Lussier’s thesis was a series of beadwork pieces depicting plants and animals native to Canada, along with a mosaic of hearts of different shapes, sizes, and colors forming a larger heart that exhibited internal diversity. The beadwork integrated her central point: that traditional crafts hold power in their ability to represent beings, processes, and emotions but these methods are often not recognized as scholarly or valuable by Western legal and scholarly bodies. 

In Lussier’s case, though they were: she received her Doctorate of Law from the University of Ottawa for this thesis, and has since worked teaching Indigenous Legal Traditions at the University. As part of her work, she established a community beading circle where members came to know each other in a relational way while creating personalized regalia for indigenous graduating students to wear.

As part of the presentation, Silver also shared her own MFA thesis: an unconventional collection of beadwork that invoke the elements of nature using shapes, colors, and even the sounds of the glass beads rustling and tinkling together as they hung in leaf-shaped ornaments from the hood of the dark cloak she designed.

“My mom taught me beadwork as a child,” Silver told me in an interview after the event. “My favorite part is that I can take small pieces of glass and some thread and create all kinds of decorations, jewelry, and garments. The versatility of the medium can be used to make anything from two-dimensional images to three-dimensional items.”

Next came a performance that felt very ancient: Alice Liddell’s dance, “Rainbows of Glory for Inanna”. Alice, an author, artist, and performer, skillfully blended the aspects of power, dignity, and sexuality that were so frequently found together in ancient depictions of Inanna.

Liddell arrived in a white robe, wearing a queenly iridescent crown. But in the course of her dance channeling Inanna, layers fell away to reveal an iridescent chainmail bodysuit, flamboyant gold wings, and a tantalizingly split crimson skirt beneath the robes. The sparkling leaves of mail made the dance a clear celebration of the female form and of the power and beauty of sexuality. This mirrored the content of some of Inanna’s best-known myths and hymns, which have her explicitly celebrating the beauty of her feminine body and ritually disrobing as part of her journey to the underworld and her triumphant return.

I spoke with Liddell to learn about her thought process in crafting a stage presence that marries queenly dignity with sensual dance so seamlessly. Here’s what she had to say:

“I named the dance ‘Rainbows of Glory for Inanna’ because Inanna was a deity that was friendly with the LGBTQIA+ community. The rainbows also captured the exuberance and complexity of her story.

“I wanted to capture that she is a goddess that rides on a ship through the sky and works with the elements of air, water, and earth. This was the inspiration for my costume with the rainbow fans, the cloud and star-like crown, and the dress that could be read as a sunrise or sunset by the ombre colors. The sparkling body jewelry, the final part of the costume to be revealed, is to showcase that Inanna is very proud of her body and embraces her femininity.  I wanted to draw attention to my body and show that it is a beautiful thing to be proud of.”

Liddell asked the venue hosts to clear a large area of furniture or anything breakable for the dance, which involved embodying as well as honoring the goddess. Inanna is many things, but “tame” and “inhibited” are not among them.

“For the performance itself,” Liddell told me, “I always have touchpoints in the performance that are planned, and there is a lot of room around them for improvisation.  All my performances are loose this way so that I can let the excitement and connection with the deity take over and guide my movements, while still hitting the touchpoints to tell the story of the dance.”

After three decades of existence, the Fellowship of Isis in Chicago continues to be a vibrant hub, dedicated to the celebration and embodiment of ancient goddesses who predate patriarchal influences. Their festivals are a dynamic blend of multidisciplinary scholarship, rich oral histories, captivating visual arts, lively embodied dance, and mystical divination. Together, these elements create an extraordinary personal journey and foster a unique, culture-building space for all who participate.

 

https://wildhunt.org/2024/02/fellowship-of-isis-in-chicago-celebrates-30-years.html

[chamfer]

 

[Huat Zai]

 

[chamfer]

 

[chamfer]

 

[Huat Zai]

 

[Huat Zai]

 

[chamfer]

 

[Huat Zai]

 

The title is misleading, they are actually talking about Gnostic beliefs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism

 

[Huat Zai]

 

[Huat Zai]

Adocentyn Research Library reopens!

SAN FRANCISCO –  “After many years of preparation and the travails of a pandemic, we are very pleased to announce that the Adocentyn Research Library is finally open!” said Don Frew, in a press release to The Wild Hunt.  Frew currently serves as president of ARL.

The library is an extraordinary project with the ambitious goal of archiving, preserving, and disseminating all “available information related to Paganism—understood as all Indigenous, tribal, polytheistic, Nature-based, and Earth-centered religions, spiritualities, beliefs, practices, and cultures around the world and throughout human history.”

The ARL was designed for “researchers, scholars, and the general public” to use, and anyone can access its catalog online. It has collected occult and Pagan material from the Afro-Diasporan, Arabic, Asian, Euro-American, Indigenous, Inuit, and Pacific Islander traditions, among others.

In their press release to The Wild Hunt, the ARL said “The purpose of the Adocentyn Research Library is to collect, archive, preserve, and make available information related to Paganism—understood as all Indigenous, tribal, polytheistic, Nature-based, and Earth-centered religions, spiritualities, beliefs, practices, and cultures around the world and throughout human history. This includes a broad range of information on Pagan diversity, history, beliefs, adherents, organizations, and many related areas of study for use by researchers, scholars, and the general public.”

The library is an on-site use-only, multi-cultural, and inter-religious library serving the East Bay and the world.  Founded in 2011, we are a California Nonprofit Public Benefit 501(c)(3) corporation.  It is located in the San Franciso Bay area name derives from Latin, ad occidentem, or “to the West”.

As they write, “In the Hermetic dialogue called the Asclepius, Hermes Trismegistus prophesied that a time would come when the people would no longer worship Nature as a manifestation of the Divine and that the Gods would withdraw from Egypt to dwell in a city “to the furthest west from Egypt.”  ARL adds jokingly, “San Francisco is about as far west from Egypt as you can get.”

Their extensive collection currently holds some 17,700 books as well as other material of interest to researchers. Don Frew added “We also feature many Pagan periodicals and special collections – such as historic artifacts and Tarot & Oracular decks.  The Whealton collection on Egyptology is prodigious.  We welcome donations of books, periodicals, ephemera, art, artifacts, and funds!”

For the past few years, the ARL team has been upgrading its website and continuing their work of cataloging its collections.

Most importantly, ARL is one of the places that ensure that Pagan history is archived and kept alive.

Before the advent of the internet, Pagan communities had to find alternative means to engage with their members and establish connections with other individuals and organizations. Typically, our reliance was on either in-person interactions or traditional printed newsletters. Within those newsletters lay the beginnings of significant debates within the Pagan community. Regrettably, as people relocated, these newsletters and flyers often met with loss, disposal, or destruction.

Frew announced that “Our starting weekly hours are:  Thursday nights, 4-8 pm; Sundays, Noon-6 pm; and by appointment (email or phone below).”  He added that ARL’s volunteer cataloging days  will be “second Sunday, third Thursday, fourth Friday.”

Frew shared a virtual tour of the library’s reopening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frew announced that ARL is also waiving library access fees for a few months.

But maintaining the library is expensive and the ARL can use the community’s help.  As mentioned above, ARL welcomes the donation of material, but they also need funds.  They need help with rent as well as furniture and shelving.

The ARL team can be reached at [email protected] or by calling the Library at (510) 280-3911 – before dropping by.

Donations can be offered and library membership subscriptions acquired via Adocentyn Research Library’s website.

 

https://wildhunt.org/2024/02/adocentyn-research-library-reopens.html

[chamfer]

 

[chamfer]

 

[chamfer]