Episode Delayed
Yep. The Memorial Day weekend has delayed the episode. Sorry about that.
As a side note, this next episode will NOT be Magick and Conciousness. For reasons of schduling and the hopes of bringing in an expert, we’ve delayed that Episode until early June.
005.5: Listener Essays! Yay!
In this show:
- Kate brings us an essay called Lover as Divinity
- Candace (Vampire Kitten) of Vampires of Eternal Night brings us an essay called Therianthropy 101 (which Chris cannot seem to pronounce. Beware the idiot man-child).
- We hear from the Dragon Ritual Drummers with their song, Papa Legba, courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network
Join us on the forums! No, really!
005: Magick on the Edge of Science
Can magick be measured? Is it possible to take a scientific approach to magick, applying scientific method to test techniques and results? Should we pursue such ascientific approach to magick? Why or why not? Can the energies harnessed in magick be measured by any of the technology that we possess today? Is there some point in the future where we could invent a machine that could measure or record some aspect of the magickal arts? How much does this elide into psychic phenomenon — and is there really a line between some of what gets labeled “psychic” and some of what gets labeled “magick.” Why do we persist in the distinctions?
Featured Interview: Jason Augustus Newcomb is a writer and artist who has worked with the powers of the mind and consciousness-altering practices for many years. He lives in Los Angeles, but travels across the US giving lectures and workshops.
Note: This is a long one, folks. 2 hours, 13 minutes. Brace yourself…it’s quite a ride!
Show notes:
- 21st Century Mage: Bring the Divine Down to Earth
- The New Hermetics: 21st Century Magick for Illumination and Power
- Condensed Chaos: An Introduction to Chaos Magic
- Grant Morrison
- What the Bleep Do We Know!?
- The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
- The Elegant Universe (Link to PBS — Watch it Online!)
- Music: Mandelbrot Set by Jonathan Coulton
- Intro and Bumper Drumming: Wake the Dragon by The Dragon Ritual Drummers
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New posting schedule
Heya everyone…
I just wanted to let you know that Shadowdance episodes will, henceforth, be posted on Monday mornings or late Sunday night. The reason is that I need more time to edit it together. We record on Wed. nights, but coming home and pulling it all together on the same night is a bear.
So…starting with the next episode, you’ll be able to start your week with a little Shadowdance.
-Chris
As you may have guessed…
…there will be no show last week. No, really. Sorry…the week got away from me. We’ll pick up this week with Magic and Science.
-Chris
SP001: The PPP Beltaine Roundtable
For a little change of pace, we got together with some of our peers from the Proud Pagan Podcasters and had a little discussion about Beltaine, spring, and then, unsurprisingly, we wandered a bit. After the discussion, we hear a little appropriate music…a song called First of May by Jonathan Coulton.
On the Round Table:
- Chris and Michelle
- Lamyka from Lamyka’s Pagan podcast
- Sean from the Almost a Nurse podcast
- Emerald Deepwater from the Pagan Living podcast
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004.5: Surprise Altars, Common Sense Magic, Instant Magick, and Uncle Seth
It’s another off-week variety show, and this one has a bit more than usual. Siege gives us an essay called “Surprise Altars,” Michelle reads her “Common Sense Magic,” I have a review of Christopher Penczak’s Instant Magick, and we finish things off with Double-Double by Uncle Seth.
Show links:
- Instant Magick by Christopher Penczak
- Uncle Seth’s Double-double: A Waltz for Voice courtesy of music.podshow.com
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004: Fantasy and Reality, part II
Pop Culture, Myth, and Godforms Mythologist Joseph Campbell put out a challenge toward the end of the Twentieth century. He observed that all our myths had grown out-dated so that they no longer spoke directly to our experiences as modern people. In order to re-mythologize our culture, we needed powerful storytellers, using powerful mediums, to reinvent myths for the modern age. According to Campbell, George Lucas’ “Star Wars” saga was just such a reinvention. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series can be seen as a direct answer to Campbell’s challenge, restyling old gods into forms modern people could relate to as well as inventing wholly modern beings in the Endless. What other Pop Culture icons have started down the path of becoming gods? What are out modern myths – and how consciously have they been crafted? Should we take a more pro-active approach to reinventing our deities? Can this help us as a culture?
Show links:
- The Advanced Bonewits’ Cult Danger Evaluation Frame
- The Bomb: A Guide to Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles
- Disinformation: The Book of Lies
- Modern Magick
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003.5: Bottle Imps and Braaainnzz
Something a little different this week: a short story titled The Arrangement by Michelle, and Jonathan Coulton sings one of his new songs, RE: Your Brains.
Heya Tom, it’s Bob from the office down the hall
Good to see you buddy, how’ve you been?
Thing have been OK for me except that I’m a zombie now…
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003: Fantasy and Reality, part 1
We know that many people in the magickal subcultures are inspired by fictional works. In the past, it was sort of gauche to admit that you’d gotten into magick because you read Lord of the Rings, but those on the cutting edge of magick have taken a different stance, approaching fantasy, science fiction, and graphic novels in terms of myths, with characters as archetypes as valid as any other mythic face of deity. When we look at our fictional tales in terms of the ancient storytelling arts, they become metaphors, allegories of what could be, crumbs of insight along the path that can eventually lead to Truth. In the age o Harry Potter, we have to ask ourselves: does fantasy have a role in magick? And are we mature enough to draw the necessary lines between the stories we tell and the real experiences we have with magick?
