Posts
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When asked about fate
Correspondence: A gift of solace, to a young relative My dear child, It is the year 1967. I am eighty years of age. I have lived through the dismantling of empires and the arrival of an age that moves faster than the human spirit was ever meant to travel. But I do not write to you about history. History is only the scenery that… -
When the Body Will Not Be Rushed
On effort, resistance, and the pace that remains when urgency stops working There is a specific kind of silence that arrives when you finally stop trying to outrun yourself. It isn’t the peaceful, curated silence of a meditation retreat or the heavy quiet of a house at night. It is more like the hum of a machine that has been unplugged but is still… -
The Occult
Reclaiming a Misunderstood Word Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Say the word “occult” and most people picture candlelit basements, whispered incantations, and something vaguely dangerous lurking at the edge of reason. The image has been shaped less by history than by horror cinema, sensational headlines, and the cultural aftershocks of moral panic. The occult has become shorthand for menace. Yet the word itself tells… -
Fortune Telling
History, Belief, and the Human Need to Know In a dimly lit parlour in late Victorian London, a woman sits at a small round table, her gloved hand resting lightly on a spread of cards. Across from her, a client leans forward, searching the symbols for reassurance about love, money, or a son posted abroad. Outside, factories roar and empires shift. Inside, the future… -
A History and Psychology of Automatic Writing
The Hand That Writes A pen rests on paper. The room is quiet. The writer claims not to know what will come next. Words begin to form, slowly at first, then in a rushing stream. When the page is filled, the writer looks down and reads what “someone else” has written. For some, this is a parlour curiosity from the age of séances. For… -
Scrying
Mirrors, Water, and the Discipline of Looking Long before crystal balls became theatrical props, people leaned over bowls of dark water and waited. In the ancient Mediterranean world, divination was woven into civic and religious life. Oracles, omens, dreams, and private consultation Scrying is an ancient divination practice that involves gazing into a reflective or translucent medium to receive visions, symbols, or insights from…
