No More Tears

Have a blessed and happy Samhain.

Attuning With The Dead

You can't really communicate with them, of course. If the dead exist at all in a spiritual realm, it is in the form of the pure energy which is the culmination of all their past hopes, fears, and other emotions. They are little more than creatures of instinct, reacting to familiar stimuli, yet incapable of progressing through the acquisition of new knowledge. Duh, like that would require a brain with brain cells, which they no longer have, right? As such, they can not carry on a conversation beyond what they knew in life. Forget about turning to them for advice or for the wisdom of the ages. Again, they no longer have the capacity to process new information, so any such attempt would be lost on them, even in the unlikely event they understood exactly where they were in relation to you.

Spirits exist on a plane of existence similar to a dream state, with about that much self-control, so learning anything from them is pretty much limited to what they knew in life, which may not be reliable. After all, memories fade. Try it some time. Rent a DVD of an old television series from ten, twenty, thirty or more years back, one you used to watch and enjoyed as a child. You will be amazed at how much you've forgotten and how much your memory changed in your mind. Some plot lines will now be seen as not nearly so important as you remembered them, while some lines will be totally different than you remembered them.

This is why any such information gained from so-called "spirit contact" is by it's nature unreliable, as is any alleged "past life" memories. People's memories change day to day, imagine what it must be like life to life. Only those things of vital importance will be carried over into a new life, a new body, and a new brain. Seemingly important matters in one life will become trivial matters at best with no place in even the deepest recesses of an unconscious memory.

How then does one attune with the spirits of the dead, and why?

You do it in honor of them and their impact on your life. Speaking to the spirits of departed loved ones, family members, and ancestors, is merely a matter of reaching down into the depths of that which made you what you are. And make no mistake, for good or for bad, no matter how many generations ago they might have lived, regardless of how trivial and unimportant their lives might have been or seemed, your ancestors did contribute in at least some small fashion in making you what you are today.

How much more true then is that of those with whom we have been close to in our lives who have now moved on, have passed away from this mortal veil.

In attuning with ancestors, and those dearly departed from our lives, that is what we are truly recognizing, honoring, and respecting and it is surely worthy endeavor for that reason alone.

Thanks for the picture goes to Danielle

The Nightwalker-Short Horror Film

The best short horror film I've seen so far, seriously scary and disturbing. If you ever seriously considered astral projection, or are now or have been seriously considering it, I promise you it will make you seriously reconsider it.

Seriously. Scary. Stuff.

Samhain Tarot Reading

HaHa bet you were expecting something cool, huh, like maybe The Devil, Death, or The Tower, but instead you get a mushy old love card, and for Halloween, for Samhain, a night of death. Is nothing sacred?

Well, yes, love is, or can be, and this card is a reminder of what the true meaning of Samhain is, which is to keep in mind all of those loved ones who are now departed but who nevertheless live in our hearts forever. They have always been a part of you. They will always be a part of you. You should attune with that, and appreciate that, and keep the spirits of their love alive in your heart.

Even if it hurts. Cos then, well, it maybe won't hurt so much anymore, and what's even cooler, it will help you to appreciate the love you have with you all the more while you still have it to appreciate. Nothing bad about that.

Astrological Aspects For A Blessed Samhain

A strange set of aspects due mainly to Mars in Leo, which is trine the Moon in Aries, and squared the Sun and Mercury in Scorpio-as is the Moon. It would seem then that the night is more auspicious than the day, which will be more hectic and bustling with activity and possibly some confusion, while the night will be more conducive to merry making and partying, as well as for ritual observances. This will be augmented by a trine of Venus in Libra to Jupiter and Neptune in Aquarius, highlighting a chance to make new friends and renew old acquaintances, though as usual one should be aware of deception, especially that of the self-induced variety. Meanwhile, Saturn begins it's sojourn in the sign of Libra, encouraging a lessening of the restraints previously afflicted on a playful and wanton Uranus in Pisces. Yet, the sextile of Mars to Uranus advises against throwing all caution to the wind.

Me, I'm just making me a new ritual altar. Who needs a lot of drama?

The Devils In The Details

At least that's what Pat Robertson would probably tell you about the following peanut butter candy recipe, at least if you prepare it and/or eat it during Halloween. I guess any other time it's all right. Got that? Thanks be to Sannion for this timely warning, as it has strangely disappeared from the CBN website where it was first discovered.

Be that as it may, I now present the following recipe for Peanut Butter Fudge. If you decide to make it during Halloween or the current or any following Samhain holidays, do proceed with all due appropriate caution as you prepare the following.

2 cups sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup marshmallow cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the sugar and evaporated milk in a saucepan and bring to a full boil, allowing it to continue at a full boil for five minutes, stirring constantly but gently to prevent sticking. At the end of the five minutes, remove from heat. Add the peanut butter, stirring until it has dissolved completely. Repeat this process with the marshmallow creme. Finally, add the vanilla extract. Pour into a shallow pan and allow to cool. Candy should gradually harden to a firm yet soft consistency, hard enough to cut into wedges or slices, and yet still soft enough to allow for the entrance of any demonic spirits in your immediate vicinity.

Enjoy this sinful pleasure during Halloween, or any other time.

Prison Break-From Death Unto New Life

When it comes time for a great television series to finally come to an end, it should end well, and Prison Break did that in perhaps the only way it could have. In the flash forward at the end to four years later to the lives of the major players, we see them all at the culmination of their individually wrought destinies.

Three of them would finally achieve the happiness and fulfillment they clearly deserved, while for two others, the ending would be more bittersweet. Still, in both these cases, love would manifest in new forms.

As for the others, their end would not be so lucky. One of them would have the rest of his life to sit and reflect on his mistakes and wrongdoings. Another would find himself forced to hopelessly try to steel his courage and resolve in order to face the judgment he had brought upon himself. Yet another would discover that finally achieving the authority, respect, and meaning in life he so desperately craved would necessitate his life turning full circle. And finally, one would learn that the acquisition of power and authority would never enable him to ever come close to escaping from his guilty conscience or fully making up for past crimes.

And of course, there was the one who made the ultimate sacrifice, yet for all his mistakes and miscalculations, did so selflessly.

The background music is Lay It Down Slow by Spiritualized.

Haunted House

Gregory House MD is in this clip from season five haunted by the spirit of Amber, or as House used to call her, "Cutthroat Bitch", for whose death he correctly feels responsible. Years of Vicadin abuse has caught up with him, and he is currently a kinder, gentler House. Prior to his detoxing, however, things came to a head when his subconscious feelings of guilt, longing, and Gods know what other emotions manifested in the form of the girl whose death he caused, a former colleague and fiance' of his best friend, Wilson.

And so it goes. Our most important relationships live on in our subconscious minds long after the people themselves have left this mortal vale, or at least our lives. They don't usually manifest in such an extremely profound manner as this, but they can, and with very malefic consequences to our psyches, especially when they are manifestations of our most base emotions brought about by heavy drug use. In them we can see our shame, our guilt, our lusts, our hatreds, and our most dreaded fears.

When she first appeared to House, it did not take long for her, this subconscious manifestation of House's most selfish inclinations, to lead him into commiting the attempted murder of another colleague, Chase. He realized then what an unhealthy relationship he had been toying with. Unfortunately, as seen here, this was one ghost who was not going to away easily into that good night.

Well, it's time to take a stroll through The Pagan Temple's Halloween House of Horrors. I wonder whoever we shall run into as we journey through the haunted mansion. Let's take a look inside.

Shall we?

Well, what do you know? It looks like our host is stepping forward to greet us. What a nice, kindly looking genrtleman.


HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAThis house has been foreclosed BITCHES!

Er, well, moving right along, let's step into the master bedroom and see what wonders await us there. Why, what a big bedroom. It's almost as big as a house itself, and look at all the fun toys and stuffed animals scattered to and fro. This must have been the bedroom of a playful, loving child. Wait. Who's this we see? Why, it's-


Would you like to stay for some milk and cookies, little boys, or would you prefer some Jesus Juice?










Man, what a scary place this is. I think we got out of there in the nick of time. Let's just stay here by this warm fireplace and figure out where we go from here, and-wait, who is that young attractive lady coming through the window with a rope and knife? You wouldn't hurt us would you, young pretty lady?


Look bitch, I ain't got no mercy for you.









Quick, everybody, run! Look, here's a closet, let's hide in here and-Oh my God, who's that hanging there with a cord around his testicles?

Would you like to tie some nuts, folks?









WHOA I think we'd best forget about touring new rooms. Let's just sit here in the drawing room and watch the haunted television for a while. It's all right, it looks like it's just a commercial. But what's the loud-mouthed gentleman going to try to sell us and-and-why is his hand reaching out of the television?



ACT NOW AND I WILL PERSONALLY DELIVER YOU A SECOND LINE OF COCAINE ABSOLUTELY FREE!









Screw this, let's go to the kitchen. Maybe the kitchen staff will have a nice snack for us, then we can get the hell out of here. Hey, look at the funny looking gentleman with the pie? Hey sir, can we have a piece please?


SURE HAVE SOME RIGHT IN THE FACE MOTHERFUCKER HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA










That did it, I'm getting the hell out of this place, it's dangerous here and it should be reported. Right there, there's a strong looking man who looks like a person of authority. He looks like he might have even been a cop in San Francisco at one time, so you know he has to be thick-skinned. Hey sir, can you please help us out of here? We'll pay you anything.


Is that so? Let me see your Master Card, motherfucker. You will never leave here without it!









Fuck you Karl Malden, I'm leaving here, and not only that, I'm taking that poor, frail, sick looking woman over there with me. Come on, guys, let's get her and take her with us. Come on lady, let's-oh no, it's-

Why are your pants wet, young man? I made you cum all over yourself, didn't I? You know you want me.









Actually, that's where I pissed myself when Susan Atkins came through the window, so fuck you, hag. I'm getting out of here. Hey, guys, let's see if we can catch a ride with that elderly, distinguished gentleman. I don't give a fuck if he is dog drunk. Hey sir, can I please ask you for a big favor?



You bitches need a ride home? Hop right in.









Fuck that, I think I'll hoof it.

Everybody Must Die

The Not So Secret Fraudster

The three people who died at James Ray's Sedona Arizona Sweat Lodge weren't the first deaths to happen due to this activity, but they have to be the downright stupidest examples of such a tragedy. Usually, when somebody dies, it's an Indian elder who dies voluntarily. On some occasions, the deaths are accidental, due to poor health. But the incident in Sedona is probably the first time so many people died at the hand of one misguided (at best) individual who put himself across as an enlightened expert at something he didn't know anything about.

That's the worse part of this. The deaths of these three people and the endangerment and injury of so many others were senseless. The ironic part is Ray is right in one regard. In a sense, they brought their fates on themselves. They plainly should have known better than to trust someone just a little bit of research would have told them might be just a little bit full of shit, and that it might not be such a good idea to fast for three days, including going without water, before piling into a sweat lodge with numerous other people adding to the heat. Yes, they all acted stupidly.

Well, that's Ray's philosophy, as espoused in his venture The Secret. Bad things happen to good people and to bad alike because of their thought processes, their attitudes, their negativity.

That's why 9/11 happened, according to Ray. That's also why, to his way of thinking, the Jews were victimized by the Holocaust.

Strangely, so far Ray has avoided assigning blame to the victims of this tragedy. He's too busy trying to dodge the blame himself-for organizing the event, and abandoning the participants while his crew refused to allow anybody to leave after it became obvious many were sickened by the experience, to the point in some cases of unconsciousness. And just think, they only paid nine thousand dollars for this experience-this once in a lifetime chance for spiritual growth.

Now three of them have died, there is already lawsuits pending and more expected, Ray's publisher has put a hold on any further books by the self-styled guru, and the entire incident is now being investigated as a homicide.

All because some jackass managed to convince a bunch of foolish, deluded people that the answer to all life's problems can be summed up with platitudes about positive thinking while leading them into rituals for which he had no qualifications to perform.

I think I'll just go off in a corner now and think some good positive thoughts, about life, death, and justice.

A Little Sarah For Your Trick-Or-Treat?

Hell, why not? I have an idea for what would probably be an award winning Halloween costume. Sarah Palin, of course, carrying Trig, dressed as-wait for it-

A Blessed Angel.

Yeah, I know, I'm a dick. Of course to make this work you're probably going to have to rent a Downs Syndrome afflicted baby, which shouldn't be that difficult. Steal one if you have to, most parents probably wouldn't mind. Your Sarah can give him adoring looks, then disgusted ones when she's playing the part of thinking no one's looking.

You can go all out and make it a family affair. Have someone dressed as Bristol with a basketball under her top, and Levi Johnson in the act of undressing for a Playboy shoot. For that matter you can have a Willow tagging along, being stalked by A-Rod. You can have the youngest girl licking her hand and slicking down Trig's hair. See, the sky is the limit with this stuff.

Hey, give me a break now, it's Halloween. So what if she called Trig a blessed little angel or a retard? I'm like one of the commentors at Wonkette. Maybe the truth is a strange mix of the two versions. Maybe she actually called him a "retarded little angel", or a "blessed retard".

Who cares? I just think it's funny. But then again, I thought it was funny when Mount Redoubt erupted during the height of the Palin Alaska lawsuit ethics charges controversy, then stopped erupting not too long before she resigned as Governor. Hell I'm waiting for it to blow again. And bear in mind that when I say that, I am a Palin supporter.

How To Be A Prick For Halloween

You dress as the Swine Flu of course. If you really want to be an asshole draw a star and crescent on the costumes chest. Who says Halloween has to be nice and wholesome?

Chipmunk WIsdom

Yo, we are all connected

Somebody Please Help, There's Democrats On My Face

Rob Taylor of Red Alerts has dug up the horror story to end all horror stories. Seems that a company called Neocutis has started making dermatological skin care and anti-aging cream from the stem cell lines of aborted fetuses, according to Christian watchdog group Children Of God For Life, which through a spokeswoman issued the following statement-

“It is absolutely deplorable that Neocutis would resort to exploiting the remains of a deliberately slaughtered baby for nothing other than pure vanity and financial gain,” stated Executive Director Debi Vinnedge. “There is simply no moral justification for this.”

I have to agree with Miss Vinnedge, and like Rob, I am appalled. Okay you women out there who might be tempted to use this product, it's time for some straight talk. We all know that the vast majority of fetuses aborted in America today are the spawn of Democrats and other leftists. Think about that, and ponder the potential implications.

Talk about every day and night being Halloween. Sure you might look good for a while, but later on down the road, do you really want to look like one of the women in the following photograph?



You have been warned.

In Bayside New York, there is a City Council race under that might see the election of the country's firs pagan council member, Jim Halloran-who also happens to be a Republican. A conservative Republican.

This story from the Village Voice seems to go to great lengths to try to dissociate Halloran and his beliefs from the more ominous racialist aspects that have ingratiated themselves into the modern Asatru-Theodish movements, particularly within the American prison system, where white supremacist gangs have formed around a concept of the worship of the old Norse Gods, such as Thor and Odin.

The practices and beliefs of this most racist group of pagans, or heathens, are known collectively as Wotanism, and was formed by a man named David Lane. The Voice story goes into great detail in trying to draw a distinction between the two while acknowledging the existence of the racists within the separate movement, but in doing so has drawn a great deal of ire from many, including Rob Taylor from Red Alerts, and from Jason Pizl-Waters of The Wild Hunt Blog.

I don't know, they both might be right. I might be hopelessly naive in wanting to give the Voice the benefit of the doubt and assume the author of the piece is just going way overboard to be objective in pointing out to excruciating detail that Halloran is not an adherent to the more racialist oriented sects within the Asatru-Theodish movement. I can see where others would feel differently, given the Voice's pretty clear left-leaning bent, that he might be trying to throw a monkey wrench into Halloran's candidacy for the benefit of his Democratic opponent.

But really, once the story of Halloran's religious beliefs becomes more widespread (and how could it not, seeing as how Halloran himself makes no attempt to conceal his path, and in fact openly and publicly proclaims it unabashedly), people are naturally going to become more and more familiar with the racist elements that make up a a segment of the heathen movement.

The Voice might then be doing it's readership, and Halloran, a service by putting all this information on the table and going to great lengths to absolve Halloran of any but the most tangential connections to them.

It's really not much different from that old saw about Wiccans and witches being, in the public mind, "devil worshipers". It's not true, and it's not fair, and it needs to be hammered home. Let's not shoot the messenger just because he doesn't necessarily follow the word-for-word script we would like him to pronounce. It would be pretty disingenuous for a writer to do a piece on Wiccans for the benefit of a general readership intended to be objective and yet make no mention of such fallacious beliefs. Talk about an elephant in the room.

I wish Halloran luck, and hope he wins. It is a great affirmation to me for a pagan to run for and potentially win elected office running on a conservative platform. And he well might win. He is said to be running a strong race.

But if he doesn't win, it would be kind of misplaced to blame the Village Voice for his defeat.

You Will Never Escape

This is really such old news I have to wonder why I'm even talking about it, but I feel compelled to address to some extent the trends in some communities to ban scary costumes for school Halloween celebrations.

No vampires, werewolves, witches, zombies, or anything remotely suggestive of any kind of weapon, murder, or mayhem. I mean, you can make a case for rules such as discouraging costumes that play on racial or ethnic stereotypes, to a point, and I at least can certainly understand the desire to discourage pre-teen girls, or even fully teen girls for that matter, from dressing as sexy French maids.

Still, as is usually the case, the worry warts tend to take their good intentions way too far, and in some cases are offering suggestions that would limit costumes to historical figures (presumably only the more wholesome or allegedly positive ones) or, in a suggestion that has got to be fraught with the possibility of sarcastic irony-wholesome foods and snacks.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not so sure if I had a twelve or thirteen year old daughter that I would particularly like the idea of her going dressed in a costume that looks like something that people like to eat, regardless of whether or not the food item in question was wholesome and nutritious, any more than I would want her to dress as Britney Spears flashing her vagina.

Let's just have a day, just this one day a year, where kids can have fun and be themselves by escaping from themselves and their mundane lives for just a few hours. Is anybody really so feeble minded as to think that a kid that dresses up as Jason Voorhees is a potential mass murdering psychopath?

Or has Halloween school celebrations become just another avenue for the indoctrination and brainwashing of American schoolchildren to make them adhere to the preferred social attitudes, mores, role models, and lifestyles of the day?

Don't they deserve a break from the bullshit every now and then? Don't we all?

A Beautiful Horror

The winner of this year's Halloween/Samhain photo is Tasca "Frantic Psycho" Sexton, of Paintsville Kentucky. I don't know whether she was actually trying to pose as a vampiress, a zombie, or maybe just a spaced out meth freak, but whatever it is, it works for me.

Her MyYearbook site. You might have to start a MyYearbook account before you can view her page, or anything else there, but hey, you should do that anyway.

When Every Day And Every Night Becomes Halloween

I recently had a discussion on Renegade Eye with a certain Daniel Hoffman-Gill, who insists that it is perfectly understandable why a person might choose to undergo gender reassignment, which of course is the modern euphemism for sex-change, doubtless an attempt to underplay the sexual components of the procedure.

Daniel, who seems to have taken to studying the Bible lately, insists that there are some unfortunate souls who are "born in the wrong body".

Of course, there is only one problem with that explanation. Daniel is-an atheist. Wrap your head about that one, if you can.

Now I'll admit, Daniel's views might be a bit more nuanced than I am giving him credit for-but I don't think so. As a general rule, a person who is an atheist doesn't believe in the soul. The body is all there is, and once that's gone, that's it.

That being the case, there is no possible way a person can be born "in the wrong body". The body is, in effect, the sum and substance, the total, of who he or she is.
To put it even more bluntly, a person who believes this, and yet also believes he or she was born in the wrong body is, in effect, suffering under a grave delusion that is almost akin to a psychoses. But hey-why stop with the atheists?

Daniel has stopped talking to me since I pointed all this out to him, but that's all right. He's studying the Bible now, after all. And in the meantime, should he ever find himself lonely and in need of female companionship, I have a pretty good idea as to who, and where-and to what-he might turn.



Well, we all want the things we can not have, right? If there is no other option, perhaps we can become that thing we most desire, as a last recourse.

Whatever the case, just remember, kiddies-once its gone, it can't grow back.

The WInchester Mystery

Of all the haunted houses in the world, none has a more remarkable story than the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose California, pictured above. It started out as a relatively modest eight room home, but when Sarah Winchester purchased the property in the eighteen hundreds, she added on to it continuously for more than thirty years, until her death in 1922.

She did this on the advice of a Boston medium who told her that she and the entire Winchester family was cursed by the many victims of the Winchester Rifle, developed and patented by her father-in-law. Driven nearly mad with grief over the death of a beloved daughter and then her husband, she turned to spiritualism as a refuge, and it became her prison. She moved to San Jose, purchased the property, and began construction, which went on around the clock, seven days a week. As soon as she died, construction halted immediately.

She was told that the spirits would never leave her in peace unless she did this. According to some sources, they instructed her as to how to proceed during the course of her nightly seances. According to others, she designed the home in order to confuse the spirits, and in the meantime slept in different rooms every night to throw them off the scent.

There are stairs that ascent to solid walls. There are doors that open up to sheer drops. One closet has no floor, and to step therein would lead to one being dumped unceremoniously into the kitchen sink below.

There is a winding staircase made up of 43 steps that ascend all of nine feet. Even that, however, is secondary to her lunatic decision to install a window-in a floor, thankfully in a small area cordoned off by a banister.

So what is the truth? Was Sarah Winchester stark raving mad, or perhaps clinging by a thread to her sanity, her tenuous grip on reality further debilitated by a severe arthritic condition? Or was this condition in fact the only thing that forced her to retain some small semblance of sanity?

Or, seeing as how it is highly unlikely that Sarah Winchester was truly haunted by what she believed was haunting her, is it possible she was the victim of a cruel and deliberate hoax by demonic entities-or perhaps by more human agents?

Well, what would be the point, if the answer were the former? My guess is, Mrs. Winchester was the victim of a series of cons that pretty much amounted to the most bizarre transfer of a personal fortune ever recorded.

By the time she died, she had spent all of 5.5 million dollars on the house, over a thirty year period.

Of course, we will probably never really know the answer for sure, but one thing we do know. The house was quite advanced in some respects. It contained one of the few existing examples of the day of indoor plumbing, featuring steam heat and heated showers, as well as push-button gas lights.

More impressively, it sits on a floating foundation, which has allowed it so far to survive two major earthquakes.

As if that were not enough, there might even be a ghost in the basement.

What more could you ask for in the way of a haunted house? If you do ever visit it, however, you are strongly advised to watch your step.