“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me, and when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there […]

I have written the following 24 declarations, neither as a citizen of any particular country nor a believer in any particular faith, but simply as a human being. Here’s what I’m doing my best to never forget, today and every day:

I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings about Fathers Day. It’s hard to say I’m thankful for my father. When I was a kid, the most positive male role model I had was a fictional character in ridiculous blue tights and a red cape. As I wrote once before, my brother and I didn’t need […]

“I cannot make liberty my aim unless I make that of others equally my aim.” — Jean-Paul Sartre WARNING: This article contains plot spoilers and possibly PTSD triggers. Please proceed with caution. I was already excited to see George Miller’s return to the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Mad Max after a 30 year hiatus, but when I read […]

Today, the world lost one of its best humans. Over the course of nearly 50 years as Spock on television and film, Leonard Nimoy had more to say about humanity while playing an alien, and said it with more profundity and relevance, than many actors have done playing human characters. And it should be noted that Nimoy did […]

“Whether ’tis Nobler in the minde to suffer The Slings and Arrowes of outrageous Fortune, Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?” — Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1 Growing up the middle child in a dysfunctional family gave me two intense compulsions to carry on into adulthood: 1) to always try to […]

Taylor Ellwood is a student of various occult philosophies and practices, and is an exploratory developer and practitioner of his own system of ritual magic. He is the author of Pop Culture Magick and the managing non-fiction editor of Megalithica Books, an imprint of Immanion Press. Recently, Taylor published an article on the growing phenomenon of communicating […]

“Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, ‘Understandest thou what thou readest?’” — Acts 8:30 (KJV) Darren Aronofsky’s latest film, Noah, an adaptation of the Judeo-Christian global flood myth, has garnered both admiration and condemnation from critics and audiences around the world. The film’s reception from the Christian […]

Certain Masonic lodges include a preliminary mini-ritual preceding the initiation of an Entered Apprentice. In it, the candidate is seated at a desk in a small room called a Chamber of Reflection, an allegorical representation of an ancient initiatory cave. He is instructed to solemnly contemplate certain things of importance relating to the degrees which […]

“Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon Photographer Bob Gruen remembered John Lennon as a man who could never be exposed in a biography nearly as well as he had exposed himself to the world in life. Lennon was unafraid to be naked and vulnerable to the […]