New Kenaz Filan fan page on Facebook

In my latest Facebook experiment, I've created a Kenaz Filan fan page.  This includes a discussion forum where people can post questions concerning my books and a photo section where you can add pictures of altars, shrines and other Vodou items.  Interested parties are encouraged to join and post comment: like many other worthwhile things on the Internet, fan pages improve with community input. 

He's Mr. Lord of Misrule...

While I've become semi-famous for my work with Vodou, I also work with other spirits. A few years back I attempted to contact Freyja through a guided visualization, and discovered that I had already been claimed by another figure from the Norse pantheon... Loki.

Dealing with Loki is rather like sharing your living quarters with a foul-mouthed child prodigy with a bad case of ADHD.  You develop an instinctive terror of the words "I'm bored." You get to watch The Dark Knight over and over while Loki waves his "Joker" pennant and shouts advice at the screen. And just when you're ready to strangle him he does something that is utterly charming and thereby turns away your wrath.  (I can see why he got away with so much for so long...)

Loki's learning and erudition is phenomenal: he's got the proverbial silver tongue, and uses it regularly to explain why his latest scheme is an excellent idea. He also has friends throughout the Nine Worlds and many others that the Germanic shamans never got around to mapping.  Bearing his mark - I have his runes branded on my left breast - can get you in many places when voyaging. It can also get you kicked out of many places, but that's another story altogether. 

Since many of my other spirits have statues, Loki insisted that I get him one as well. This is the statue he chose.  He now wants two smaller versions, so they can accompany him when he sings the "He's Mister Heat Miser..." song.  He's also provided me a way of calling on him. It is an extended version of "The Aristocrats" which begins "Gerald Gardner walks into a talent agent's office" and goes straight downhill from there.  Let's just say that before it's done Silver Ravenwolf's Underworld Passage gets explored and R.J. Stewart shows us all what a real Scotsman wears under his kilt...

His relationship with the other spirits in the house can be... tempestuous.  Loki is the classic example of the "smart-assed masochist."  You might think that nobody would crazy enough to get on Danto's nerves when she's in a bad mood... but then, you'd probably think that nobody would be crazy enough to try shaving Sif's head.  He generally stays on our Ghedes' good sides by providing entertainment in the form of booze, dirty jokes and regular trips to the best whorehouse in the Nine Worlds.  (He once said of Harvey, "Watching his hairy ass pumping up and down was like watching a wolverine worrying an elk carcass." I'm not sure I needed that mental image and I'm pretty sure you didn't either).

And while I have your attention,  Loki would also like to voice his complaints about his portrayal in Marvel Comics. He doesn't have a problem with being called a supervillain, but he objects to wearing a silly hat. He also wants to know when Thor started using three-syllable words, but I'm not sure I want to go there.

Pat Robertson, Satan and Vodou

A great deal of attention has recently been paid to Pat Robertson's claim that

Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French ... and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, 'We will serve you if you'll get us free from the French.'" True story. And the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another.

Unsurprisingly, many people are outraged by Robertson's comments, seeing them as "anti-Vodou." Yet in many ways Robertson's worldview is not so different from that of a Haitian Vodouisant.

In the New York Times David Brooks, quoting Lawrence Harrison, said that "the voodoo religion... spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile." Both Brooks and Harrison miss the point: for most poor Haitians life really is capricious and planning futile. Vodou does not reinforce that message but acts as a practical counter to that harsh reality.  It offers the promise that you can better your position if you propitiate your spirits and seek their aid.  It postulates a world where spirit is intimately involved with matter and with believers. It does not present life as capricious: it claims that the spirits reward those they favor and punish those who do not pay them sufficient attention. And if you think that Vodou considers planning futile, you try putting a fet together sometime! 

Like Vodouisants, Pat Robertson believes that God is intimately connected with the mundane world. His God cares so much about his followers that he personally intercedes to cure hernias, hemorrhoids, varicose veins and flat feet. And his God punishes those who anger him. After the 9/11 attacks, during a CBN broadcast in which Jerry Falwell blamed pagans, feminists, abortionists, gays and lesbians and the ACLU for offending God, Robertson offered this prayer in an attempt to appease his angry spirit:

We have sinned against Almighty God, at the highest level of our government, we've stuck our finger in your eye. The Supreme Court has insulted you over and over again, Lord. They've taken your Bible away from the schools. They've forbidden little children to pray. They've taken the knowledge of God as best they can, and organizations have come into court to take the knowledge of God out of the public square of America.

Haitian Vodouisants believe that angry spirits may wreak vengeance on individuals who have offended them: in some cases, they may even take their wrath out on family members or loved ones. Robertson's spirit won't be satisfied with just killing your child or ruining your marriage: he won't rest until he kills thousands of your countrymen with an earthquake, rams a plane into your skyscrapers or smites your city with a hurricane. He may accuse Haitians of conspiring with the devil, but most Vodouisants would run screaming from the bloodthirsty djab he serves.

New Review on Amazon.com: Strategic Sorcery by Jason Miller

I have just posted a new (and very positive) review of The Sorcerer's Secrets: Strategies in Practical Magic, the latest book by Jason Miller, on Amazon.com. Jason is also the author of the highly-recommended Protection & Reversal Magic: A Witch's Defense Manual (Beyond 101) and is one of the few writers today offering solid, down-to-earth practical advice on magic for magicians. His work is the antithesis of fluffy: it's no-nonsense stuff which will help aspiring sorcerers to break out of the trap of talking about magic without ever accomplishing any.

Jason's material is accessible to intelligent newcomers but also contains plenty of thought-provoking material for more experienced folks.  His work is a purgative to all the pablum and silliness which clogs so many occult bookshelves and a ward against those who would turn sorcery into mental masturbation and wooly-headed thinking.   If you haven't read any of his books yet, you owe it to yourself to pick them up.

The Haiti Earthquake

I have not yet heard from the members of my house concerning their families in Haiti.  (Kathy and I have avoided calling them so as not to tie up their phone lines: we thought it would be best to give them time to contact their relatives and ascertain their losses before trying to contact them, and we know it is very difficult to reach Haiti right now).

Our thoughts and prayers are with them and with everyone else who has suffered from this tragedy. We will keep you informed as we learn more: in the meantime we would ask that everyone offer whatever help they can through the Red Cross or relief efforts of your choice.

Boy, I'm getting tired of eggs and cheese

In an effort to rid myself of those extra 4o pounds I've acquired over the past couple of years (or at least the 20 I've acquired since I moved to New Jersey), I've begun the Atkins Diet. In the past I've found this is an effective way to lose weight and stabilize one's eating habits: now that I'm eating meat again, I can use this until such time as I'm back to my fighting weight of 165 or so.

I am presently in the Induction Phase, which involves extreme limitation of carbohydrates until such time as your body goes into ketosis. It's working pretty well: I've lost about six pounds in the first week. (I realize that much of this is water weight). I can't wait until I've lost another 10-15 pounds, so I can start eating something besides meat, cheese, eggs, greens and cruciferous vegetables.

Taking white bread and rice out of the diet isn't that hard and I never had that much of a sweet tooth, but I miss potatoes (that Irish heritage coming out again). And let's not forget the joys of waffles, pancakes and other breakfast essentials. (Ah, for the simple pleasures of a blueberry muffin with my coffee). But overall this is an easier way to drop some unwanted pounds than other diets: carb cravings can be handled much more easily than food cravings. And I'm getting into the habit of drinking lots of water, which is always good and helps you stay more full.

Anyway, here's hoping my New Year's resolution to get back into shape pans out.

Vodou Money Magic is at the presses.

I just finished speaking with Inner Traditions: Vodou Money Magic will be going to the printers today and should be hitting stores soon. I am looking forward to its release - and the check which should be arriving in my mailbox soon thereafter!