Grimoire Ulani is now available

Ten years ago, Storm Constantine published Grimoire Kaimana, a book that described the pop culture system of magic Dehara, based on her Wraeththu series. Grimoire Kaimana describes the basic concepts of the Dehara system and it helped create an active system of pop culture magic that is practiced by fans of the series. I was one of the people Storm collaborated with when putting together Grimoire Kaimana and I continued to do my own work in the Dehara system.

Earlier this year, Storm asked me if I'd helped her develop the sequel to Kaimana. It had been ten years since it came out and we both had continued working in the system. We decided to put together our notes as well as collaborate together once again to put the sequel together: Grimoire Ulani.

Grimoire Ulani is available in Paperback and in a limited edition hardback.

Grimoire Dehara: Ulani is the second volume concerning the pop culture magic system based on the mythos of Storm Constantine’s popular fantasy novels, the Wraeththu series. The focus of the system is the Dehara, androgynous deities that represent the alchemical rebis, the conjunction of male and female, spirit and matter.

Following on from Grimoire Dehara: Kaimana, this book explores Ulani, the second tier of the system, incorporating the levels Acantha, Pyralis and Algoma. The practitioner now accesses deeper realms of magical knowledge, utilising their creativity and imagination as a vehicle to study the self.

The book is fully illustrated by artist Ruby, with additional illustrations by Storm Constantine.

Grimoire Dehara: Ulani includes:

Working within etheric realms

Sikaara – the deharan version of the energy system of the body and the study of its centres

Xephelax – the deharan Underworld

The dehara of alchemy and alchemical transformation

The Constellati – beings of the cosmos

Divozenky – the mind of the earth

Creating a Spiritual Pearl

This book is an essential addition to the library of any experimental practitioners of magic interested in new systems, as well as fans of Storm’s work, who want to know more about the magic described in the novels.

Order the paperback version

Order the limited edition hardback version

Trans Pagan: Life at the Intersection of Faith and Gender Call for Papers

Trans Pagan: Life at the Intersection of Faith and Gender

Email for inquiries and submissions: dee@paganfm.com

Megalithica Books, an imprint of Immanion Press (Stafford, U.K./Portland, OR, U.S.A) is seeking submissions for Trans Pagan: Life at the Intersection of Faith and Gender

This anthology examines the interesectionality of transgender lives and Pagan faith. It will explore such questions as:

• What does it mean to be transgender?
• Why are transgender individuals drawn to a Pagan spiritual path?
• What are the implications for male-female duality in covens and groups that accept transgender members?
• How can the Pagan community support our Transgender brothers and sisters?
• What can the Pagan community learn about themselves from transgender individuals?
• How can we dispel fear and speak to intolerance in the Pagan community and beyond?
• What unique perspectives can transgender individuals bring to Pagan groups that permit all of us to better understand ourselves and the divine?
• What have been the experience of our trans allies?
• How can transgender experience help to inform the larger Pagan community?
• Ritual ideas for transgender groups, or for groups with transgender members.

The vision for this anthology is to include a combination of academic and personally inspired pieces that explore the experience of transgender lives within a Pagan context.

Here are some suggested topics to give you an idea of the focus of this anthology:

• Youthful experiences of Transgender Pagans.
• As a transgender individual, what drew you to a Pagan spiritual path? How does your gender inform your spiritual practice?
• How has intolerance of a non-traditional gender identity touched you or your loved ones, and how have you overcome it?
• Violence against transgender individuals.
• The effects of stigmatization on depression and suicide.
• Building a healthy and welcoming Pagan group.
• Seeing our Gods and Goddesses from a transgender perspective.
• Exploring the Native American concept of the 2-spirit individual.
• Initiation of transgender or gender-queer individuals in traditional Wiccan covens.
• The “othering” of transgender Pagans by some Pagan groups and its impact on the greater Pagan community.
• Stereotypes and prejudice and the impact on spiritual or magic workings.
• Being the only transgender person in a coven, group or community
• Accommodation of transgender individuals at Pagan conventions and events.
• How discrimination harms the Pagan Community, and how it shows up in the Pagan Community
• How can the Pagan Community export a welcoming and accepting attitude to our wider communities; how can we be a model for others.
• What has worked in our groves, covens and groups, and what have we learned as leaders – as individuals and as groups?
• Rituals, spiritual poems or songs that can be used in rituals, such as initiation or other ceremonies involving the transgender experience.

Rough drafts are due by September 1. These drafts will be edited in a back-and-forth process with the editor. Essays should be 1500-4000 words, although if your work falls outside those limits, do submit it – we can discuss this during the editing process. Drop us an email if you are unsure whether your idea fits into the content. The sooner you start the communication process the better, as after the deadline we won’t be considering additional ideas.

Essay requirements:

• Citations for all quoted, paraphrased, or otherwise unoriginal material • Bibliography of works cited • Prefer APA format

Write in your voice! If you’re academically inclined or trained, feel free to be as intelligent and technical as you like. If your work entirely talks in the first person about your own experience, please include this also. There is a wide range of voices, and we are interested in being as inclusive of style as possible.

Accepted contributors will receive a free copy of the anthology when it is published and additional copies sold at 40% off the cover price to contributors. All contributors will be provided with a contract upon final acceptance of their essays, not when they are accepted for editing. If your essay is not accepted for the anthology, we will tell you after the first round of edits.

The anthology will be edited by Deirdre Hebert. Deirdre is a transgender Pagan whose writing career ranges from technical writing to radio news copy. She is the host of PaganFM – one of the longest-running Pagan podcasts and radio programs. She was the editor of Wicca Revealed, the textbook for Magicka School, and is the author of The Pagan in Recovery: The Twelve Steps From a Pagan Perspective, a contributor to Out of the Broom Closet, and has authored articles for a number of Pagan journals and periodicals.

Deirdre can be reached at dee@paganfm.com which will be the email address for communications regarding this project.

Immanion Press is a small independent press based in the United Kingdom. Founded by author Storm Constantine, it expanded into occult nonfiction in 2004 with the publication of Taylor Ellwood’s Pop Culture Magick. Today, Immanion’s nonfiction line, under the Megalithica Books imprint, has a growing reputation for edgy, experimental texts on primarily intermediate and advanced pagan and occult topics. Find out more at http://www.immanion-press.com.

A Second Open Letter to Pagan Convention Organizers

In my previous open letter to Pagan Convention Organizers I made a commitment that I would no longer present at an event where it was expected that I would pay to present. I also made a request for transparency on the part of the Pagan convention organizers on how they select their guests of honor. I am an author with a small publisher, Immanion Press. I also am the managing non-fiction editor of Immanion Press. I have been a guest of honor and featured presenter in the past at a couple of Pagan conventions. However I had to approach those events and ask if it was possible to become a guest of honor or a featured presenter. So far as I can tell the opposite is usually true. The event approaches the presenter and tells them they are a guest of honor or featured presenter, and more often than not the presenter is with a big publisher.

Here's why I want transparency from you

Each year you select who the guests of honor are at your event, but you don't tell us how it happens. It's treated as a secret and it's time for the secrets to come out. I have queried different conventions about how they select their guests of honor and I usually don't get answers, but what I do notice is that the majority of the guests of honor are with big publishers. I also notice that in some cases you see the same guests of honor each year or every other year at the convention. It's like a revolving door which is accessible only to those presenters. The rest of us are pretty much ignored.

Now we'd like to know what your decision making process is for selecting guests of honor and comping them as well as why you only stick with certain guests of honor. Let us presenters know (and the Pagan community at large) what your process is for selection so that there's no esoteric mystery here. We have plenty enough of those in our spiritual practices.

I know that in some cases, publishers play a role in this process. A fellow presenter recently me that they were selected as a guest of honor for an event in March because their publisher sponsored that event. In other words, the publisher paid to have them become a guest of honor for that event. On the sponsor page of that event, there's nothing mentioned about guests of honor being included in the sponsor package. There's no transparency about how the guests of honor are selected or what criteria is used and because of that lack of transparency, what's created is a system where certain presenters are given priority over others by virtue of who/what they are connected to as opposed to what they bring to the convention (and don't get me wrong these presenters are talented and have a lot to offer...but so do others who aren't getting those benefits). I have a problem with that.

What we have here is a form of Nepotism

In the classic sense of the word nepotism refers to favors being granted to family members by other family members. For example, your uncle is a cardinal in the Catholic church and suddenly your granted lands because he uses his position to pull some strings and get you that land. You got that land because you were related to your Uncle and that's the only reason you got it.

Obviously in the case of conventions we don't have related people pulling strings for each other (so far as I know). But nonetheless something is happening where certain presenters are given priority over others and there's little to no explanation provided for why that is. That lack of transparency creates a dirty secret and most of the convention goers don't question it because they're not involved. They're attending the event and that's it but if you're a presenter you need to question it and demand accountability on the part of the organization.

This nepotism isn't always so blatant. There's a certain convention that occurs every February. At that convention most of the presenters aren't comped, but there's a dirty secret they won't tell you: A few of the presenters are! They aren't labeled as guests of honor, and its all kept very hush hush and swept under the rug, but nonetheless they are comped with flights and hotel rooms and why? Apparently because they're friends with the original organizer or because that was how the organizer got them to present in the early days of the convention. The convention is so big the policy has changed for other presenters, but these presenters still get comped when they come present. And if that's not problematic and indicative of the inequity that occurs with this system, I don't know what is.

What I want from Pagan Convention Organizers

I want you to be transparent about how you select guests of honor and featured presenters and what criteria is used for that selection and I want it written on the website of the convention where any presenter can see it.

If your expectation is that a publisher needs to sponsor your event in order to have a guest of honor into your event, then put that on the page so that we can at least query our publishers to do something (but also keep in mind smaller publishers don't have the same resources the big publishers have).

If your standard for a guest of honor or featured presenter is that they have public/national recognition and impact on the community, define what that actually looks likes so that if we contact you we can present proof to that effect and/or so that we can tailor our activities toward fulfilling those criteria.

Whatever your criteria is, I want you to put it on your convention website for all to see, so that we actually know what you're looking for. Let's stop playing guessing games here and get transparent so that all presenters have the opportunity to become a guest of honor or featured presenter.

I also want you to have consistent standards in terms of how guests of honor and featured presenters are comped. Tell us what a guest of honor actually gets or featured presenter actually gets in return for their contribution. And make sure its the same across the board. If there are choices then tell us what those choices are and make it so that the choices are still equitable across the board. I know this may seem like a lot to ask, but really we're just asking for some consistency and transparency.

And if you insist that presenters have to pay to present, then make that standard apply to all presenters no matter how famous or well known they are. Treat all of us equally.

And to be clear there are a few conventions that do this process right, but only a few. It's time to change that and I'm calling on you to change it.

What I want from Presenters

If you're a presenter, I want you to share this post and the previous one I wrote on your social media accounts and with the Pagan Convention Organizers you know.

I want you to write about your concerns as a presenter as well and make your voice be heard. The changes I'm calling for will not happen unless the convention organizers see we are a united front on this matter and consequently recognize they have no choice but to make changes to how they are running events.

Consider the possibility that in order to make some of these changes, we may need to boycott conventions. Remember they need us to present in order to get people in the door and while its true that other people might step up and do that in our place, if we are willing to show that we will boycott events due to the inequity in the system, we will also show we can impact their bottom line. If there are no presenters, it's a lot harder to have an event.

If you're one of the authors who's regularly a guest of honor at conventions, I want you to advocate for the authors/presenters who aren't getting that opportunity. And if you attend a certain convention that insists that presenters pay to present and you get comped, I want you to speak to the original organizer and tell that person that a change needs to happen and that it's not fair that you get comped while other presenters aren't. I know I'm asking a lot from those of you who get the benefits, but can you really justify to yourself getting those benefits while other presenters don't, especially when in some cases those presenters have written as much if not more books then you? I hope your answer is no you can't justify it and that you want equal treatment for all presenters regardless of who they are published with.

A final thought

I do love conventions. I love presenting at them. And I realize in writing this post and the previous one I may very well deal with consequences that include being banned from presenting at conventions. I'm willing to take that risk because I'm tired of seeing the current systems in place when it comes to how presenters are treated. I'm tired of seeing some people get opportunities on a regular basis and other people rarely if ever get those opportunities. It may not make me very popular with convention organizers, but I can live with that. If we presenters do not advocate for change, we will not get the change we deserve and we will not get the respect we deserve.

And convention organizers I realize that most conventions are non-profits, but regardless of whether its a business or not there needs to be consistency across the board when it comes to how presenters are treated.

An open letter to Pagan Convention Organizers

In my pursuit of self-respect, one of the realizations I've been having is that how I allow my work and myself to be treated professionally is indicative of the respect I'm giving to myself. And if I don't set standards and boundaries for that treatment then I'll get walked all over. That has happened during my journey as a Pagan/occult author, and so I've come to a decision that I'm holding myself to and I'm telling all of you about, because in telling you I'm making a commitment to myself and to all the people who like my work that I will treat my work and myself with the respect I deserve and expect that respect in regards to professional appearances that I do. I do this for myself and my fans, because I am always a better presenter when I am given my due.

My commitment is this: I will no longer present at conferences where it is expected that I will foot the bill to come and present workshops. I will no longer pay to present at a conference. What that really means is that I'm not going to pay registration and airfare and hotel and food to present workshops for your event and help get people in the door for your event. If a conference wants me to present then they need to offer something to me and not just free registration or a discount on registration. They need to show respect and help out with the costs. What that means is registration covered for the presenter, and at the least helping to cover travel expenses. And if you want to modernize like other conventions out there and actually pay your presenters, I'm sure all of us will be happy about that as well.

Why?

Because when I am a presenter at your event, I am marketing your event on my website, in my newsletters, and on my podcast. I'm marketing the fact that I'll be there, but I'm also promoting the event, which means you will get more people in the door because of my marketing. I'm doing that as a courtesy to your event, but also as a way to support it and who I'm marketing it to is all my readers and followers and anyone they share my work with, which means your event has the potential to get more people in the door.

I get that a conference isn't a non-profit, but you know what? Neither am I. Presenting workshops and selling my books is part of how I make my living and when I'm expected to shell out money to come present at your conference, the math doesn't add up in my favor. I'm usually in the red or I break even and that doesn't work for me as an author or presenter. I know you want to make money so you can put the event on again next year and so do I so I can continue to go to events, write, and do all the other fantastic things I'm doing.

It also tells me that the people putting on the conference don't respect my contribution. Perhaps they have an attitude or belief that they don't really need a presenter, but if you alienate enough presenters or we just get fed up enough to boycott your event, that changes things, because guess what? You do need us. Presenters help draw people to events. People look at programming to see who is presenting and what is being presented on and then they decide if they'll go. If enough presenters decide not to present at your event, your business model will be in the red as well.

In the past I have paid for air fare, hotel rooms, food, and registration to present at events (That can be between $700 and $1000 per event). I've done this for the dubious promise of exposure...but exposure doesn't pay the bills. And while I appreciate the opportunity to present to people, I also know there are other ways to get in front of those people that has little to no overhead for me. If you aren't willing to honor my contribution to your event, why should I honor your event and help you get more people in the door with my name?

The only exception I'll make to this expectation of mine is for local events and that's because my costs are low and I know the event can draw more people by bringing presenters in who aren't local, so I want to support that. (By local I mean an event that's only a half hour away in travel time and where I can choose to say in my home and not pay hotel or food costs)

If I am flying to your event or driving a fair amount, then you need to find a way to cover some if not all of the costs because what you're getting return is my name, my brand, and my marketing, free of charge, to help you turn your conference into a successful one.

And please stop making authors from the big publishers your only guests of honor or having the same authors year in and year out as your guests of honor. Not all of us authors and presenters are with big publishers or want to be and we have some excellent material that your convention attendees will enjoy (I know this because my presentations are regularly overflowing and I can attest to that for other authors who aren't published by the big publishers). Granted once in a great while you do make an author who isn't with a big publisher your guest of honor, but its few and far between. Let's level that playing field. Be transparent about how you select guests of honor, so all of us know how it works and get a chance.

I have three events I'll be presenting at in 2016. I've made that commitment so I'll be at those events, but after that I'm not presenting at an event where at least some of my costs (beyond registration) aren't covered. I'm worth that. So are the other authors that come and present at your events and aren't comped. And if as a result I don't get into so many events, I can live with that, because there are other ways to reach my audience. I would love to be at your event, so show me some love in return and we'll make it great.

Edited: I've since written a second open letter to Pagan Convention Organizers which can be found here.

Call for Papers: The Pop Culture Grimoire 2.0

Email for inquiries and submissions: Taylor Ellwood Megalithica Books, an imprint of Immanion Press (Stafford, U.K./Portland, OR, U.S.A) is seeking submissions for The Pop Culture Grimoire 2.0.

This anthology explores pop culture magic and Paganism in the 21^st Century. We invite you to share your pop culture magic practice, pop culture Pagan spirituality, and your experiments, spells, and other workings that have integrated pop culture into your spiritual practice.

Here are some suggested topics to give you an idea of the focus of this anthology:

• What is pop culture magic?
• What is pop culture Paganism?
• Pop culture spells
• Your experiences with a particular fandom
• Magic at conventions
• Cosplay magic
• Social media magic
• Blending older mythology with pop culture
• Your experiences sharing pop culture magic
• Video Game magic
• Pop culture music and magic
• Pop culture art and magic

Rough drafts are due March 15, 2015. These drafts will be edited in a back-and-forth process with the editors. Essays should be 1500-4000 words, although if your work falls outside those limits, do submit it – we can discuss this during the editing process. Drop us an email if you are unsure whether your idea fits into the content. The sooner you start the communication process the better, as after the deadline we won’t be considering additional ideas.

Essay requirements:

• Citations for all quoted, paraphrased, or otherwise unoriginal material • Bibliography of works cited • Prefer APA format

Write in your voice! If you’re academically inclined or trained, feel free to be as intelligent and technical as you like. If your work entirely talks in the first person about your own experience, please include this also. There is a wide range of voices, and we are interested in being as inclusive of style as possible.

Accepted contributors will receive a free copy of the anthology when it is published and additional copies sold at 40% off the cover price to contributors. All contributors will be provided with a contract upon final acceptance of their essays, not when they are accepted for editing. If your essay is not accepted for the anthology, we will tell you after the first round of edits.

The anthology will be edited by Taylor Ellwood and Emily Carlin.

Taylor Ellwood is the author of Pop Culture Magick, Magical Identity, and other books on magic. He is also the managing non-fiction editor of Immanion Press. He can be found online at http://magicalexperiments.com

Emily Carlin, author of Defense Against The Dark, is a Wellesley grad, lawyer, geek and specialist in Seattle haunted lore.  She presents regularly at PantheaCon, and teaches defensive and shadow magick at http://www.shadowkrafting.com

Immanion Press is a small independent press based in the United Kingdom. Founded by author Storm Constantine, it expanded into occult nonfiction in 2004 with the publication of Taylor Ellwood’s Pop Culture Magick. Today, Immanion’s nonfiction line, under the Megalithica Books imprint, has a growing reputation for edgy, experimental texts on primarily intermediate and advanced pagan and occult topics. Find out more at http://www.immanion-press.com.

Seeking Submissions for an Anthology about Pagan Traditions

Megalithica Books, an imprint of Immanion Press (Stafford, U.K./Portland, OR, U.S.A) is seeking submissions.

We would like to hear from founders and leaders of as many different traditions and organizations, established and brand new, as possible.

Deadline for submissions is March 1, 2015.

By no means can we capture a portrait of every Pagan path. What we are trying to do is give aspiring and knowledgeable Pagans alike a springboard for proceeding with their studies, with information and stories from a wide selection of Pagan traditions.

We are looking specifically for articles and stories from tradition/organization leaders and founders as well as other leaders who have a wider view of the Pagan landscape.

Below are descriptions of the concepts we would like to appear in articles submitted for the anthology. This is generally academic, but personal stories within the pieces are highly encouraged.

To ensure thorough and accurate descriptions of your path, what you see below are not so much suggestions for essay topics as they are questions that we would like answered within essays, so that all pieces are validated in the eyes of the reader, and because consistency lends itself well to comprehension and comparison.

For the well-established tradition leader (Gardenerian, Vanatru, Alexandrian, Correllian, Asatru, eclectic Wicca, Helenist and Celtic Reconstruction, Stregheria, etc) we would like to know the basic structure of the tradition you come from. What types of magic you teach? What are some of the basic tenants and values of your tradition? How are groups structured? How study might differ for a solitary practitioner? How you have adapted the path based on your own experiences to fit your lifestyle? Try to come at it from a perspective of teaching students. Please give us a clear portrait of your path, and a little of your personal story so readers can relate. If you can, cite various in-depth texts at least twice in your work. This opens the door for further study by the readers.

We also want to hear from the young traditions/organizations being created as we speak. This is the place for founders wishing for future students. What inspired you to create a new Pagan path? From what cultures, religions, and traditions do you gather your concepts from? How do your morals and values play into the tradition? What would be the structure of a participant’s studies? What are rituals like and what types of magic are practiced?  Please try to cite various in-depth sources of your concepts at least twice in the piece, for validation of where you are coming from.

There are many leaders out there who lead groups that are not strictly based around one tradition or belief system, or are just well-known voices in Pagan forums. Give us your perspectives on some various topics such as: the rise and fall of Pagan traditions in modern times; the levels of dedication needed for truly embracing a Pagan tradition and the various emotional, spiritual, and mundane changes they bring with them; a sense of Pagan demographics. If you can cite texts for validity, please do.

–We would like to hear from a few people who practice two greatly divergent traditions as part of their path. This could be Alexandrian Wicca combined with Chemetism, or other such combinations. You are charged with showing a reader that taking a road like this may be challenging, but it can be done well. Some of the questions we would like answered in these pieces are: How do the tenets, magical practices, spiritual tasks, and forms of study from two different traditions mesh together? How did you choose a road like this, and what are the challenges you face? Please cite two in-depth sources within your work, at least one for each of the different traditions you follow.

 What we are not looking for:

–We are not looking for spiritual awakening stories or stories of how you found Paganism. We also are not after how you take what you learn from established traditions and alter it in solitary practice, unless you are forging a new branch of that tradition and have well-formed practices, values, and ways for people to learn in place and can discuss them with clarity.

–We are not looking for specific rituals or spells.

 Essay requirements:

2500-5000 words, to ensure that there is sufficient knowledge and details presented.  If your piece falls outside these limits, come to us and we can discuss it.

• Citations for all quoted, paraphrased, or otherwise unoriginal material
• Bibliography of works cited
• Prefer the Modern Language Association (MLA) Style http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/mla
• A way to contact your tradition or organization so those interested may do so (if applicable).
• Send the file in RTF format.

Compensation:

Accepted contributors will receive a free copy of the anthology when it is published and additional copies sold at 40% off the cover price to contributors. All contributors will be provided with a contract upon final acceptance of their essays.

Rights:

This anthology will take nonexclusive first world rights for 6 months.

 Deadline is March 1, 2015.

For submissions and questions, please contact CJ Blackwood (cjblackwood90@gmail.com).  Please put “Immanion anthology submissions” in the subject line.

 Editors: The anthology will be edited by CJ Blackwood and Tara “Masery” Miller:

CJ Blackwood is a contributor for the Staff of Asclepius blog on patheos.com.  She also authors another blog, Tales of a Feminist Elemental Witch on WordPress.  She has been teaching crystal workshops at Pagan Pride events in Illinois for two years and will be presenting an “Awakening the Goddess Within” ritual from her own feminist elemantal tradition this year at Central Illinois Pagan Pride Day.  She writes fiction and poetry, and enjoys crafts, fishing, traveling, and spending time with friends.  She graduated from Illinois State University with a major in journalism and a minor in English.  She contributed to “rooted in the Body, Seeking the Soul: Magic Practitioners Living With Disability, Addiction, and Illness” under the name Lady Cedar Nightsong.

Tara “Masery” Miller is a panentheist Gaian mage who has a deep relationship with the Goddess Gaia. I’ve been involved with Pagan Pride Day, the Pagan Leaders Recommended Reading list with Elizabeth Barrett, and other wonderful magic circles over the years. She graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a degree in mass communications specifically media studies and research and a minor in religion. Part of her course work included an independent study of mysticism in Christian, Pagan, and Native American traditions and a paper on Witchcraft in Colonial America. She was the editor of “Rooted in the Body, Seeking the Soul: Magic Practitioners Living with Disabilities, Addiction, and Illness.” She is also the editor of the Staff of Asclepius blog. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/paganswithdisabilities/ Her personal website is http://taramaserymiller.com/

 Immanion Press is a small independent press based in the United Kingdom. Founded by author Storm Constantine, it expanded into occult nonfiction in 2004 with the publication of Taylor Ellwood’s Pop Culture Magick. Today, Immanion’s nonfiction line, under the Megalithica Books imprint, has a growing reputation for edgy, experimental texts on primarily intermediate and advanced pagan and occult topics. Find out more at http://www.immanion-press.com.

Call for Papers: Finding the Masculine in Goddess' Spiral: Men in Ritual, Community and Service to the Goddess

Megalithica Books, an imprint of Immanion Press (Stafford, U.K./Portland, OR, U.S.A) is seeking submissions for Finding the Masculine in Goddess' Spiral: Men in Ritual, Community and Service to the Goddess.

E-MAIL FOR INQUIRIES AND SUBMISSIONS: Erick DuPree:  please put “Finding the Masculine in the Goddess Anthology” in your subject line.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS:JULY 30, 2014. There is a movement among pagan identified men to step out on their own creating dialogues about their masculinity as men of the Goddess.  Men reclaiming their right to a sacred form of masculine, and are wondering, "what type of man am I supposed to be?"  How do Pagan men reclaim the overarching word’s expectation of what masculinity should be, in alignment with a Goddess centered faith?

This anthology will explore men and their relationship with the Goddess and the overarching Pagan community. We’re looking for essays and articles that detail personal experiences with the Goddess, How as men we come to know the Goddess, and ways you have worked through challenges and obstacles being a man within the Pagan movement. We’d like to see a combination of hands-on how-to, personally-inspired, and academic pieces that will offer readers the tools they can use in understanding the evolving role go masculinity in the Goddess movement.

We are looking for works from men, including the transgender community.

Essays and articles should be 1500-4,000 words.

We’re also looking for brief (500-1000 words) personal stories of how you reframe patriarchy, address feminism, and come into Goddess community.

HERE ARE SOME SUGGESTED TOPICS TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF THE FOCUS OF THIS ANTHOLOGY:

• Personal work and self-transformation while working with the Goddess
• The role patriarchy plays in coming to terms with worshiping the Goddess as a man.
• How to foster relationships with other men while still honoring women.
• What is the difference between sacred masculine and male?
• Does Paganism make assumptions about men and create stereotypes?
• Stories of inequality and/or discrimination when working in circles
• Rituals, practices, and experiences with or for the Goddess.

Submission Deadline is July 30, 2014. Articles should be 1500-4000 words, although if your work falls outside those limits, do submit it – we can discuss this during the editing process. Personal experience essays should be 300-2,000 words. Drop us an email if you are unsure whether your idea fits into the content. The sooner you start the communication process the better, as after the deadline we won’t be considering additional ideas.

Do write in your voice! If you’re academically inclined or trained, feel free to be as intelligent and technical as you like, and writing in the first person is fine as well. These drafts will be edited in a back-and-forth process with the editor. If your essay is not accepted for the anthology, we will tell you after the first round of edits.

ESSAY REQUIREMENTS:

Citations for all quoted, paraphrased, or otherwise unoriginal material Bibliography of works cited Prefer the Modern Language Association (MLA) Style http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/mla Send the file in RTF format

COMPENSATION:

Accepted contributors will receive a free copy of the anthology when it is published and additional copies sold at 40% off the cover price to contributors. All contributors will be provided with a contract upon final acceptance of their essays.

RIGHTS:

This anthology will take nonexclusive first world rights for 6 months.

Editor: The anthology will be edited by Erick DuPree, an Immanion Anthology contributor, and author of the popular blog Alone In Her Presence.

Immanion Press is a small independent press based in the United Kingdom. Founded by author Storm Constantine, it expanded into occult nonfiction in 2004 with the publication of Taylor Ellwood’s Pop Culture Magick. Today, Immanion’s nonfiction line, under the Megalithica Books imprint, has a growing reputation for edgy, experimental texts on primarily intermediate and advanced pagan and occult topics. Find out more at Immanion Press today!

Call for Papers for Pagan Leadership: An anthology on Group Dynamics, Healthy Boundaries, and Community Activism

E-mail for inquiries and submissions:  Shauna Aura Knight ; please put “Immanion Press Leadership Anthology Submission” in your subject line.

Megalithica Books, an imprint of Immanion Press (Stafford, U.K./Portland, OR, U.S.A) is seeking submissions for Pagan Leadership: An anthology on Group Dynamics, Healthy Boundaries, and Community Activism

Deadline for submissions: September 1 2014.

The words “Pagan Leadership” are often met with scorn and tales of failed groups and so-called Witch Wars. And yet, as our communities grow and mature, we find ourselves in dire need of healthy, ethical leaders. Anyone who has been in a group that said, “Let’s just not have any leaders or power issues,” has seen what doesn’t work. But what does?

This anthology will explore leadership for real Pagans and real groups. We’re looking for essays and articles that detail leadership success stories, best practices, and ways you have worked through challenges and obstacles. Our specific focus is on techniques to help Pagans build healthier, stronger, and more sustainable groups and communities. We’d like to see a combination of hands-on how-to, personally-inspired, and academic pieces that will offer readers tools they can use in their own groups.

What resources do you have now that you wish you’d had when you stepped into leadership? What problems have you faced and overcome? How have you faced the unique difficulties of grassroots Pagan leadership? What are tools and techniques that have worked? Essays and articles should be 1500-4,000 words.

We’re also looking for brief (500-1000 words) personal stories of what we might call leadership disasters—community blow-ups that you’ve personally witnessed or even mistakes you’ve made as a leader. With few exceptions, these would be published anonymously (not naming names/locations) in order to illustrate, through the personal voice of storytelling, the need for leadership education through the power of storytelling. These stories do not need to be formally written; they should simply tell a story about problems you experienced that caused a group to blow up. Note: We prefer shorter pieces for this, but up to 2,000 words might work.

What we are not looking for:

We are not looking for spells or rituals. We’d also prefer to not see generalized advice, like “leaders should delegate,” but rather, “Here’s how I learned to delegate in my group” or “here’s how a team I was part of successfully handled delegation.”

Here are some suggested topics to give you an idea of the focus of this anthology:

• Planning a successful Pagan event, or running a successful coven or circle, or—how those involve different leadership processes
• Skills to build community from the ground up, and skills to sustain a community long-term
• Organizational leadership techniques
• Transformational leadership and servant leadership
• Experiences with Pagan unity councils or other collaborative work between groups
• Dealing with local Pagan politics, including dealing with difficult, mentally ill, or abusive local leaders
• Dealing with difficult and disruptive group members, spotting predatory practices, red flags
• Gossip, bickering, rumors, and triangulation, ego and egotism, conflict resolution and personality conflicts
• Communication skills and techniques
• Personal work and self transformation required to be a leader, boundaries, dealing with personal burnout
• Administrative aspects of leadership, leadership structures like bylaws, mission statements
• Handling money in your group
• Ethics of leadership
• Delegation and dealing with volunteers dropping the ball
• Keeping people motivated, empowering group members and new leaders, passing on the reigns of leadership
• Creating a safe space
• Different leadership models (consensus, hierarchy, rotating leadership, democracy)
• Facing a leadership disaster/crisis

Submission Deadline is ____. Articles should be 1500-4000 words, although if your work falls outside those limits, do submit it – we can discuss this during the editing process. Personal experience essays should be 300-2,000 words. Drop us an email if you are unsure whether your idea fits into the content. The sooner you start the communication process the better, as after the deadline we won’t be considering additional ideas.

Do write in your voice! If you’re academically inclined or trained, feel free to be as intelligent and technical as you like, and writing in the first person is fine as well. These drafts will be edited in a back-and-forth process with the editor. If your essay is not accepted for the anthology, we will tell you after the first round of edits.

Essay requirements:

• Citations for all quoted, paraphrased, or otherwise unoriginal material
• Bibliography of works cited
• Prefer the Modern Language Association (MLA) Style http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/mla
• Send the file in RTF format

Compensation:

Accepted contributors will receive a free copy of the anthology when it is published and additional copies sold at 40% off the cover price to contributors. All contributors will be provided with a contract upon final acceptance of their essays.

Rights:

This anthology will take nonexclusive first world rights for 6 months.

Editors: The anthology will be edited by Shauna Aura Knight and Taylor Ellwood:

Shauna Aura Knight is an artist, author, community leader, presenter, and spiritual seeker who travels nationally speaking on the transformative arts of ritual, community leadership, and personal growth. She is the author of several books including The Leader Within and Ritual Facilitation. She’s a columnist on ritual techniques for Circle Magazine and writes frequent articles and blogs on the topic of Pagan leadership, and her writing also appears in several Pagan anthologies. You can find her site at: http://www.shaunaauraknight.com/books  and her leadership blog at: http://shaunaaura.wordpress.com and her email address for this anthology is ShaunaAura@gmail.com

Taylor Ellwood is the author of Pop Culture Magick, Magical Identity, and other books on magic. He is also the managing non-fiction editor of Immanion Press. He can be found online at http://magicalexperiments.com

Immanion Press is a small independent press based in the United Kingdom. Founded by author Storm Constantine, it expanded into occult nonfiction in 2004 with the publication of Taylor Ellwood’s Pop Culture Magick. Today, Immanion’s nonfiction line, under the Megalithica Books imprint, has a growing reputation for edgy, experimental texts on primarily intermediate and advanced pagan and occult topics. Find out more at http://www.immanion-press.com.

Manifesting Wealth: Magic for Prosperity, Love and Health is now available!

I'm pleased to announce that Manifesting Wealth: Magic for Prosperity, Love, and Health is now available!

To celebrate I'll be hosting a Virtual Book Release Party and FREE Workshop on Wednesday February 26th from 5-6pm PST. To learn more about the class, go here.

The book blurb is below:

In Manifesting Wealth: Magic for Prosperity, Love, and Health, Taylor Ellwood shares a holistic approach to wealth magic that focuses on all areas of your life. True wealth, while involving finances, also includes your health and your relationships. In this book you'll learn how to manifest wealth by exploring what wealth really means to you, as well as as how you manifest it in your life. You will learn:

• Financial tips and resources to reduce debt and improve investments • How to proactively plan for a happier, healthier life • How to define what wealth means to you and start manifesting it in your life. • How to create and sustain proactive relationships with the people in your life. • How and when to apply wealth magic to manifest prosperity in your life.

If you want to manifest wealth, you need to learn the skills that will help you proactively and holistically manifest it as an enduring part of your life. This book will teach you those skills and the magic to manifest prosperity, love, and health.

Manifesting Wealth: Magic for Prosperity, Love, and Health gives readers information that will take them from concept, to the reality of embracing wealth, to improve their quality of life. Taylor Ellwood has created a book that is full of ideas and information, pushing the reader beyond old ideals of wealth, to a more holistic sense of possessing great personal wealth. - Crystal Blanton Author of Pain and Faith in a Wiccan World

The Realities of Pagan Publishing and Publicity

I recently talked about the glamour of Pagan Publishing. I'm going to let you in on another dirty secret, something not really talked about, but nonetheless present in the Pagan news media, convention scene, and publishing world. If you're an author, and you're not with one of the bigger publishers, prepared to be ignored by the Pagan news media and publicity and convention scene unless you are willing to do a lot of work to make yourself heard or have such an interesting angle they can't ignore you without looking really bad for doing so. Don't get me wrong, all authors with publishers big and small have to do their marketing, but in general authors with bigger publishers get preferential treatment. Authors with smaller publishers that don't have the same resources need to advocate for themselves and prepare to be ignored a lot of the time because they aren't with a big publisher.

For example, a pagan convention recently had a featured guest appear. This author has written  few books and has been around for a while. His books are all from larger publishers, so there's some benefit for suddenly naming this author a featured guest. Now he may have asked to become such a guest, or not. I don't know if he did or didn't, but I'm going to guess he probably didn't. Yours truly, on the other hand, who is attending the same convention and has written more than a few books didn't even get contacted about becoming a featured guest. So what did I do? I emailed them. We'll see if I become a featured guest or not. But here's the ugly truth: When you are with a small publisher you better be prepared to ask for and advocate for what you want, because no one will give it to you. When you're with a larger publisher, you get some of the love from the news media and the conventions just because you're with that bigger publisher.

I've been writing books for ten years, have a dozen books to my name, with more on the way, and I can tell you it doesn't mean squat in and of itself. Books don't sell themselves....your publicity or lack thereof does and any author will tell you that you've got to be prepared to work that publicity for all its worth. However when you're with a bigger publisher doors open a lot easier. The same applies to getting into the Pagan news, becoming a blogger at one one of the Pagan news portals or one of the other outlets, etc. The bigger publishers command more respect, not because they've earned it per se, but because they've got the publicity and marketing resources that help with these kinds of things. I think it sucks, but there it is: the reality of publicity, the Pagan convention circuit, and Pagan Publishing. If you aren't with a big publisher, you have to work harder to get noticed and you should expect that even then you'll get brushed aside, or given delays or told that such and such author from a bigger publisher is the one they'll give the cover photo to. I've had all of that happen to me in the last couple years, despite the fact that I've been writing for a long time.

I'll admit this post is a rant and I'm sure some of you are thinking that I'm being a bit egotistical, but you know what? I've worked hard to get my name out there and that, in and of itself, does not guarantee success. I know this, because I know the realities of networking. In my day business, I do a lot of networking and I can tell you that the more well connected you are the easier it is to get access to resources you want. The less connected you are, the harder it is. I've been ignored and sidelined a lot over the years and its really frustrating. When I see certain authors favored over other authors and see that for the most part, they are with bigger publishers, what it tells me is that there is some bias in place in favor of authors with bigger publishers. Now it could be argued that I should just play the game, get published by a bigger publisher and then I'll get some of those doors opened, but I like the publisher I'm with and more importantly I'd rather kick the board over and reset the game and make it so that the pagans new media and the convention people actually recognize authors that aren't with the bigger publishers and spread some publicity love our way. I don't think it's unreasonable to want that, but I suspect that it'll only happen if issues such as these continue to be pointed out. So to those of you in the pagan news media and convention circuit, I have a simple request: Stop focusing on just the BNPS with the big publishers and start noticing some of us who are with smaller presses, but also have something equally valuable to share with the community.

The Glamour of the Pagan Publishing Industry

I came across this blog entry from S. Connolly about the future of esoteric publishing and found myself in agreement with what she wrote. I find the publishing industry to be a quixotic beast to say the least. You have larger publishers who focus on publishing books that will sell to a larger market. You have smaller publishers, which focus on more niche markets because they have smaller overhead, but also because it is for very specific audiences. I am not the bigger publishers' audience, though they might disagree and say I was. The majority of books the bigger publishers put out just don't interest me, and usually are written for an audience that is just starting out, or is at best, an intermediate audience. Much like S. Connolly, I am very picky about what I pick up. In fact, the last time I picked up a book from a bigger pagan publisher, it was Jason Miller's Financial Sorcery, which was in 2012. Since then I've picked up a handful of occult books, all of them from smaller presses. The majority of books I buy aren't even occult books anymore because most of its just the same old, same old, which I've already read. I want something different and I have to go elsewhere to find it.

Authors face a hard choice, I think, when it comes to publishing. Do you go with a larger publisher who can give you better royalties (maybe even an advance) but also be required to write books for that larger audience? Or do you write a book that's for a niche audience, which won't make as much money, but will provide you more artistic control over your voice? Some authors opt for doing both, while other authors choose to stick with one type of publisher or another. For a short time, I considered publishing one of my book with a larger publisher, but it didn't really work out. I decided ultimately that it was better to publish with Immanion. Yes the audience is smaller, the royalties are smaller, and I don't have access to some of the resources that larger publishers have (or at least I have to get creative to get in front of those resources). But I do have that creative control and I'm writing for a specialized audience. Most of what I write is something that'll be found by people looking for something specialized and specific to what they need.

For readers, I have the following advice. Ask yourself what you really hope to get out of a given book. What is it you really want? How will it contribute to your magical work, your spirituality, your journey as a person? Then look through the book and decide if its really what you want. Not all books are equal or worth it. What you really want is something that contributes to your life, your practice, etc.

I used the word glamour in the title. It's an apt word which describes just how much of an illusion the whole publishing world is. Yes we have our BNP's, oh so glitzy and fabulous, our publishers, our news media ready to put a spin on what's relevant or not to Pagans, but it's all just a lot of words, a lot of image. The reality is something else. It's something experienced each time you choose to apply magic to your life, each time you do the work and make it part of your being. Anything you get should really be about the relevance it has to your spiritual work. Because when you strip all the glamour away what you'll see is other people and you'll know if they're work has value only in relationship to the work you are doing. An author is only an authority because enough people find him/her relevant and think it worthwhile to read the books and attend the workshops, but that same author is only an authority to him/herself if s/he is really doing the work, as opposed to just talking a good game. So strip away the glamour and ask yourself: Would I really want to meet and work with the person who's written this book? If the answer is yes, buy the book and if not, leave it be...

Call for Writers for the Second Shades of Faith Anthology

Call for Writers– Shades of Ritual; Minority Voices in Practice

Email for inquiries and submissions: Crystal Blanton

Megalithica Books, an imprint of Immanion Press (Stafford, U.K./Portland, OR, U.S.A) is seeking submissions for a the follow up anthology to Shades of Faith, released in August of 2011.  This anthology will focus on people of color working in magical communities and their spiritual practices.  This anthology will provide another opportunity to get the voices and experiences of minorities within the Pagan community out to the world and address some of the challenges, stereotyping, frustrations and the beauty of being different within the racial construct of typical Pagan or Wiccan groups. These communities include (but are not limited to) groups and individuals working in Wicca, Voodoo, Umbanda, Shaman, and other Pagan paths.

As many of the roots of Paganism come from the lands of people of color, much of the color of Paganism is often forgotten in the cultural mainstreaming that often happens to ethnic cultures. Many people of color within Paganism walk between the worlds of their birth ancestry and culture, and that of their spiritual culture.  This anthology is meant to show how that might look within the spiritual practice of one’s home.

Here are some suggested topics to give you an idea of the focus of this anthology.

·         Rituals

·         Poetry

·         Your experience of integration into the Pagan community and how that might correlate with your practice

·         Magical work

·         Ancestor work

·         Deity specific practices and relationships

·         Integrating your birth culture with your spiritual workings

·         What magical work are you doing now? How do you describe it? Do you work alone, in a group, or in several settings?

·         Your birth culture and spiritual workings

·         Stereotypes and prejudice and the impact on spiritual or magic workings. Being the only person of color in a coven, group or community

·         Sharing your culture and history with other Pagans

·         Cultural history and how that plays a role in your spiritual practice today

·         Family culture and how that plays a role in your spiritual practice

·         Cultural appropriations and how that works in your practice.

Rough drafts are due August 15, 2013. These drafts will be edited in a back-and-forth process with the editor. Essays should be 1500-4000 words, although if your work falls outside those limits, do submit it – we can discuss this during the editing process. Drop us an email if you are unsure whether your idea fits into the content. The sooner you start the communication process the better, as after the deadline we won’t be considering additional ideas.

Essay requirements: • Citations for all quoted, paraphrased, or otherwise unoriginal material • Bibliography of works cited • Prefer APA format

Write in your voice! If you’re academically inclined or trained, feel free to be as intelligent and technical as you like. If your work entirely talks in the first person about your own experience, please include this also. There is a wide range of voices, and we are interested in being as inclusive of style as possible.

Accepted contributors will receive a free copy of the anthology when it is published and additional copies sold at 40% off the cover price to contributors. All contributors will be provided with a contract upon final acceptance of their essays, not when they are accepted for editing. If your essay is not accepted for the anthology, we will tell you after the first round of edits.

The anthology will be edited by Crystal Blanton. She is the author of two books with Immanion press; Bridging the Gap; Working Within the Dynamics of Pagan Groups and Society, and Pain and Faith in a Wiccan World.  She is also the editor of the first anthology, Shades of Faith; Minority Voices in Paganism. She may be found online at http://www.crystalblanton.org and her email address for this anthology is crystal@crystalblanton.com .

Immanion Press is a small independent press based in the United Kingdom. Founded by author Storm Constantine, it expanded into occult nonfiction in 2004 with the publication of Taylor Ellwood’s Pop Culture Magick. Today, Immanion’s nonfiction line, under the Megalithica Books imprint, has a growing reputation for edgy, experimental texts on primarily intermediate and advanced pagan and occult topics. Find out more at http://www.immanion-press.com.

Mote 2.0 Reminder

This is a reminder that the deadline for essays for Magic on the Edge 2.0 are due by October 15th. What I need is a rough draft. Right now I have approximately 9 essays, but I need more if this anthology is going to go to print. I've received one new essay and promises of other potential essays, but what I'd really like to see is a full set of 20 essays, none of which are by me. I do have plans to write an article or two for the anthology, presuming it goes through on some of my side projects.

Would you like to see an essay in Magic on the Edge 2.0? If so contact me via email and share with me a rough draft. If you aren't sure to write about, I'm happy to brainstorm with you. I am looking for essays between 2k and 5k in length and they should be on experimental magic, i.e. magical work you are experimenting on which is either entirely original or is an exploration of how a traditional technique can be taken in new directions. Again, if you want to bat some ideas around contact me.

Some thoughts about the Professional Magician

Both Jason and Frater Barrabbas have written some excellent post about the route of the professional magician. Frater Barrabbas notes that the professional magician route isn't necessarily for every occultist and that doing a job he loves is actually good for him in a variety of ways. I can appreciate his perspective, and its one reason I have a professional business that is not oriented toward magic. Jason also makes a good point, that you shouldn't go into magic with a focus on making money off of it, at least not initially, and that ideally it is a calling.

I agree with both of them and I probably fall in between the two of them. I don't offer to do spells for people, although I am happy to give readings and do spiritual coaching. I write books and help to publish other people's books on magic (including a few from Frater Barrabbas) and recently I've started offering a correspondence course (with more planned down the line!). That's likely the extent of what I'll do a professional magician. I don't want to cast spells for people because I feel they should solve their own problems using their own skills. But I also don't want to work at a corporate job. I think it's a dead end, unless you get into the right discipline and frankly the disciplines I've seen that are the right fits are ones that would bore me to tears. Plus I love being self-employed because I'm able to work on my own projects, and help people in the way I've been called to help them.

I do have another business and with both that business and Magical Experiments, I'm making some inroads, which are making my life better as a result, but its taken a lot of work. And in my opinion to be a successful professional magician you have to also be successful as a self-employed person. Not everyone is cut out to be self-employed, especially because you need to actively work on your business, as well as within it. And if its a service business, which professional magic would be, expect it to take even more work. Selling a product is easier than selling a service.

I think its good that magic is becoming more of a professional activity, in the sense that it makes it that much more acceptable in mainstream society. Such inroads are always useful, but its also important to continue to focus on magic as a spiritual path. The main focus of my work is exploration of magic as a spiritual and practical process for improving life, and that focus informs my work as a professional magician.

A word about copyright

I got a Google alert recently that showed that one of my books was available for free download on a site. I checked it out. I never put the book on that site and my publisher didn't either. So I sent them a DMCA takedown notice. Hopefully that will resolve the problem, at least temporarily. It's a good thing that I had an alert in place, because I doubt I'd find out otherwise. When I posted about this on some social networks, one person asked why I was concerned.

I'm concerned because I'm the author of that book. I spent who knows how many hours researching, experimenting, writing, and revising that book. And honestly, I'm not going to get a lot of compensation for the book. I'm writing for a niche audience within a niche audience. I get royalties and if I'm selling the book directly, I might make a bit more money then if the book is sold through Amazon or a bookstore, but either way I'm still not making a lot. But you know what? I want to be compensated for my hard work and effort. I want to get paid, even if its not a lot, for the writing I've done. I don't think that's unreasonable.

I know...some people will say: "Information wants to be free!" It's amazing how they have ascribed a desire to information, but as far as I know information doesn't give a flying fig about whether its free or not. Me, on the other hand...I care about the information I've compiled and written and put together and since I consider it to be my information, I can safely it doesn't want to be free. If it wants anything, it wants proper respect given to it and to the labors of someone who's worked to produce it.

I don't have a problem with Fair Use or a person quoting me (I do like proper attribution though!). I don't have a problem with a person writing about his/her experiences with my ideas and techniques. But I do have a problem when I see a site that offers a free download of my writing. My effort, my creation, my books deserve more respect. And its that same respect that I give every time I buy a book, quote and cite it, and for that matter review it, so others can get my take on it. That's why it concerns me...that's why it matters.

My books are now available on Kindle and newest radio interview

I'm pleased to announce that my books are now available on Amazon Kindle. We recently were able to work out a deal where we could get them  placed on Kindle. We'll also be converting other Immanion Press books into Kindle files as well, so be on the look out for those in the near future. My latest book, Magical Identity, is now available in print, on smashwords, and Kindle.

In other recent publishing news, I was pleased to hear that smashwords was able to come to an agreement with Paypal where paypal will continue to accept payments on books published on smashwords. It's definitely a victory for free speech.

I was recently interviewed on The Infinite Beyond radio show about my newest book Magical Identity. Take a listen. It was a fun show to be interviewed on, and we got into some interesting discussions about identity and magic.

A commentary on paypal and smashwords

Recently I learned that smashwords, which is an online e-publisher site is getting hit with possible sanctions from paypal, because paypal and credit card companies have decided they have a right to interject their moral codes on other people. Basically paypal is telling smashwords that they'll shut down the smashwords paypal account as long as smashwords publishes fictitious works that include sexual stories. You can read the article to learn more, but suffice to say I find the matter to be another example of how some people think its perfectly acceptable to impose their moral issues on other people. They want to censor people that don't comply with their perceptions, and in this case they're basically censoring fiction. So why should I care? I write non-fiction, so it doesn't effect me. That's true, but it does effect my small press, since publish fiction and some of what we publish fits in the categories they want to ban. But even if that wasn't the case, I'm opposed to censorship in general, on the basis that when a society bans what people can or can't write, discuss, etc., then it becomes a case where they are trying to limit essential freedoms. That's why I care. I like smashwords a lot. While Immanion Press is moving forward with converting books over to Kindle, I like knowing we have an alternative to amazon.

Those are my thoughts on the issue. If it bothers you, speak up and make your voice heard.

Magical Identity Pre-orders

Magical Identity explores magic from an ontological perspective, to show why identity is an essential part of your magical practice. In this book, author Taylor Ellwood explores how you can change your identity and why making changes to your identity is the most effective magical practice you'll ever learn. In this book you will discover:

• Advanced neuro-magic techniques for working with your body consciousness and neurotransmitter entities.
• The web of Time and Space, a space/time magic technique for changing your life.
• The key to successfully changing bad habits into positive habits.
• and much more!

Magical Identity challenges you to take your magical practice to the next level. You will learn techniques that will change how you think of magic and yourself and will show you how to create effective change for your life.

Here's what other authors are saying about Magical Identity!

Like Space/Time Magic and other of his works before it, Taylor Ellwood has filled Magical Identity with a potent combination of magical techniques for change, the neurological discoveries that explain how these techniques work, and accounts of how he has applied them in his own life. -- Bill Whitcomb, Author of the Magician's Companion

Throughout this book you'll find a sparkling clarity in the writing (seriously; no mystic mumbo jumbo, no obscure oh-so-spookyness). And when you've read this book the chances are that you'll have discovered an attitude to magic that is rich in new ideas and perspectives and will undoubtedly enhance your own approach, whatever your style or tradition. -- Julian Vayne, Author of Magick Works and Now That's What I Call Chaos Magick

Learning the answer to the question “Who am I?” may prove vitally important, at some stage of the game, for most magicians. Allow Taylor Ellwood to be your guide; his answers aren’t simple ones, rather, he describes a method for exploring the interconnectedness of human and universe in a way that promises to help you find your own answers. -- Phil Farber, author of Brain Magick

This book is now available for pre-orders. The book will be available in March 2012. The cost is $20.99, plus Shipping and Handling.

International orders

Domestic orders

Books will also be available on Amazon, Immanion Press and in your local Occult bookstore

Magic on The Edge 2.0 call for Papers

Magic on the Edge 2.0 is an anthology of experimental occultism, testing the cutting edges of magical practice to reveal intriguing experiments and new ideas, to push the future of magical practice forward and provide further inspiration for other practitioners. It is edited by Taylor Ellwood, the managing non-fiction editor of Immanion Press. It is a sequel to Magick on the Edge, which was published in 2006 by Immanion Press We are looking for articles 3k to 6k words in length on topics that can include the following:

• Innovative explorations of magical traditions
• Experimental techniques with contemporary disciplines such as space/time magic, internal alchemy, laboratory alchemy, ceremonial magic, neoshamanism, etc.,
• Creative meditation practices
• Unconventional approaches to ceremonial magic and other traditional practices of magic
• The blending of art or science with magic.
• Each article needs to include a practical exercise for readers
• Got an idea? Run it by me and I'll give you feedback (see contact info below).

The deadline for articles has been pushed back to October 15th. We are looking to publish this anthology in 2013.

For more information or questions contact Taylor

Call for Papers for Disabled Paganism Anthology

E-mail for inquiries and submissions:  tara.miller21 (at) gmail.com; please put “Immanion Press Anthology Submission” in your subject line. Megalithica Books, an imprint of Immanion Press (Stafford, U.K./Portland, OR, U.S.A.) is seeking submissions for a magic anthology from the perspective of practitioners with disabilities or developmental differences. This includes but is not limited to practitioners with mental, cognitive, emotional, physical or sensory impairments and/or practitioners who are part of the Deaf or Blind community.  We have not come up with a title for the anthology yet. That will hopefully present itself through the contributions.

There is much debate about how the words “disabled” and “disabilities”. For the purpose of this publication; however, we'll use the World Health Organization's definition: “Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations.”

This anthology is intended to explore magical, occult, and esoteric topics from the view points of practitioners who are disabled or part of the Deaf and Blind community. Equality and access within the magic/Pagan community and society in general are important issues. You can include them as a part of your submission but not the whole. Keep in mind that addressing such topics aren't the sole purpose of this anthology. When thinking about your submission consider what rituals and practices are or have been most beneficial to you. What mystical or magical experiences or knowledge shaped your life for the better? Contributers can be from any magical background or tradition. With all Megalithica publications, the intention with this anthology is to go beyond introductory matters whenever possible.

We are accepting:

essays (academic and personal)

short rituals, prayers, meditations, activities, or spells (not lists of correspondences)

We are especially interested in rituals that take into account limited mobility or immobility, sight impairments, and rituals for the Deaf and blind. Also, some practitioners with disabilities have limited attention spans and would benefit from shorter rituals that include minimal visualization.

Some suggested topics:

Practicing magic in hospitals or other facilities. How can you improvise while complying with facility regulations?

Is the state of the body and mind a reflection of a persons purity or power? Is it a sign of the practitioner working out past wrongs?

Psychological or physical emergencies as shamanic or magical breakthroughs.

Do we choose our bodies and experiences? Do the Gods/Goddesses or Divinity create our bodies or experiences this way for a reason?

Medical symbols and their Pagan history and magical properties. How to enchant and use these symbols.

Gods and Goddesses of Health- such as Asclepius and his daughters. For example: Hygieia whose name is the source of the word hygiene. There is a lot of Pagan history in the medical community.

How to discern spirits, entities and magical experiences when you are dealing with health issues that can impair judgment such as being on pain medication, dealing with mental illness, etc.

How a disability or impairment offers a new perspective on magic practice and theory.

How communing with nature has it's rewards (i.e. ecopsychology or closeness to a specific God(dess) etc.) and challenges (i.e.  mobility issues)

Working magic with companion and/or guide animals or stories about their spiritual significance.

What are some ways to find self-acceptance and empowerment?

Viewing scars from surgery, injury or otherwise as part of your story or “battle scars” or proof of survival.

From the first diagnosis of disease or disability to the loss of a physical function or independence, we feel grief. How can we cope with grief?

Ways to mend the fragmented self i.e. lucid dreaming, soul retrieval, astral travel.

Working with archetypes or mythic images.

These suggestions barely touch the myriad of possibilities. We're interested in any other topics contributors wish to explore. It's your voices that will make this anthology powerful and possible.

Requirements for submission:

Citations for all quoted, paraphrased, or otherwise unoriginal material

Bibliography for works cited

Use the Modern Language Association (MLA) Style http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/mla

Send the file in Word or RTF format

Do write in your voice! If you’re academically inclined or trained, feel free to be as intelligent and technical as you like. If your work entirely speaks in the first person about your own experience, that is also permissible, but please use a more formal writing style for as much as possible in your piece that is not quoted speech. Unless you do so sparingly, or define your terms (either in the main text or footnotes), DO NOT use lolcat-speak, text message speak, or anything else that could be considered para-English. Our lives are full of abbreviations and “lingo” which we understand but others may not, even people with different disabilities. Please define any “lingo” you use such as Talk Doc (psychotherapist) or P Doc (psychologist) or medical abbreviations.

Rough drafts are due March 01, 2012. These drafts will be edited in a back-and-forth process with the editor. Essays need to be 1500-4000 words, although if your work falls outside those limits, do submit it – we can discuss this during the editing process. Do drop me an email if you are unsure whether your idea fits into the content. We hope to include many voices and the sooner you start the communication process the better.

If your essay is not accepted for the anthology, we will tell you after the first round of edits. All contributors will be provided with a contract upon final acceptance of their essays, not when they are accepted for editing. Compensation will be a free print copy or an e-book of the anthology when it is published and additional copies sold at 40% off the cover price to contributers.

The anthology will be edited by Tara “Masery” Miller. Her blog, the Staff of Asclepius, is featured in the Pagan Portal at Patheos.com. It's for Pagans with mental, physical or sensory impairments; who are in recovery from major injuries or addiction; and/or who are members of the Deaf or Blind community. “It’s a place to share how a spiritual and magical life gives us strength or peace through all of life’s joys and struggles. There are also news updates and interviews with Pagans and experts on various topics affecting the community.”  http://www.patheos.com/community/paganswithdisabilities/  She has Turner Mosaic which created a massive failure of her endocrine system causing many health problems.

Immanion Press is a small independent press based in the United Kingdom. Founded by author Storm Constantine in 2003, it expanded into occult nonfiction in 2004 with the publication of Taylor Ellwood’s Pop Culture Magick. Today, Immanion’s nonfiction line, under the Megalithica Books imprint, has a growing reputation for edgy, experimental texts on primarily intermediate and advanced pagan and occult topics. Find out more at http://www.immanion-press.com.