According to the Religion News Blog, Utah senator Bob Bennet is researching "whether the book Mormons believe was revealed by an angel to their founder Joseph Smith in the 1820s [the Book of Mormon] is authentic." By "authentic" is meant literally true, both in the information given in the book and in the way the book was given by an angel to the religion's founder. Normally I wouldn't mention this at all, but currently there is another discussion going on in the Mind-N-Magic Pagan Forums. In the "Pagan History" sub-forum there is a thread called "Repudiating Bad Wiccan History." This is a discussion concerning an article that appeared on The Witches' Voice (AKA Witchvox) with the same

Before the 1980s, most of the books on Wicca and Witchcraft talked about things you do. You go to a ritual. You do some magick. But in 1978, a sweet and for the time rather revolutionary book, Positive Magic, was published. Written by Marion Weinstein, it helped change the attitude of Witchcraft being something you do into being something you are every day of your life. It certainly influenced me and was one of the sources that led me to the conclusion that magick isn't something you do, magick is something you are. Positive Magic blended concepts of psychology, ethics, magick, divination, self-transformation and more. It's been through several editions and is still useful as both an

If you're in the Southern California area, please come down to the San Diego Pagan Pride Day event on September 12. The event is held on the west side of beautiful Balboa park at 6th and El Prado/Laurel. This is a family friendly festival and runs from 9 AM until 5 PM. There will be lots of speakers, entertainment, authors who will sign their books, booths of interest and delicious food. The event is free, but they request a donation to one of the charities they support: a non-perishable food item for Mama's Kitchen and their Mama's Pantry food bank or a monetary donation for the San Diego ASPCA Humane Society. Make a donation and you'll receive a free ticket for the door prize

I am lucky to have a friend who offers some great online classes in magick at her enochian.org website. If you're interested in classes in Goetic or Enochian magick, you might take a look there. However, the reason for this blog post is because she puts out a newsletter where she mentioned an event that sounds fantastic. The Esoteric Book Conference is taking place September 19 and 20 in Seattle, Washington, and I wish I was going. There are going to be a dozen smaller publishers of high-quality occult books in attendance. I can't think of any other place where you will find all of their published books in one place and where you can ask questions about these books. Workshop topics range