Edge of the Circle Books Newsletter

HAPPY SAMHAIN!!!!   Samhain is a festival held on October 31–November 1 in Celtic cultures. The name Samhain is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end".  It's also celebrated as the Witches New Year. Samhain is sometimes considered sacred to Hecate and other Dark Goddesses. WELCOME to the 48 th edition of the Edge of the Circle Newsletter. This newsletter has come about as an effort to reach out to the Pagan/ Occult community (particularly in Seattle where we are based) to inform the community of what events are happening at our store. I've got great plans for this newsletter. Hopefully, as time goes by, it will only get bigger and better. Without further ado, welcome, and enjoy. Regards, Erica (Raven) Branch-Butler, Editrix golanv1@yahoo.com WHO WE ARE: Edge of the Circle Books is Seattle's resource for Paganism & the Occult. This newsletter seeks to provide the Seattle community with a place to list events, post articles, and do a...

ARCANA V:   MUSICIANS ON MUSIC, MAGIC & MYSTICISM   John Zorn (Editor) Paperback: 464 pages Publisher: Hips Road/Tzadik (July 31, 2010) List Price: $39.95 Including contributions from Seattle's own William Kiesel! http://www.bookarts.org/ BOOK BLURB: For centuries musicians have tapped into mysticism, magic and alchemy, embracing ritual, spell, incantation and prayer, and experimenting with esoteric approaches to harmony, pitch and vibration. In recent decades, avant-garde musicians have rediscovered these overlaps, as occultism has reinvented itself--through Buddhist and other Asian influences, Thelema and Chaos Magic--to accommodate cultural strains from psychedelica through Punk and Industrial music. This special edition of John Zorn's much acclaimed Arcana series focuses on the magical aspects of the act of making music. Neither historical overview nor musicological study, it illuminates the sympathies between music and the esoteric tradition with the help of ...

HAPPY MABON!!!! Autumnal Equinox/Mabon: The holiday of Autumn Equinox, Harvest Home, Mabon, the Feast of the Ingathering, Meán Fómhair or Alban Elfed (in Neo-Druidic traditions), is a ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and God during the winter months. The name Mabon was coined by Aidan Kelly around 1970 as a reference to Mabon ap Modron, a character from Welsh mythology.[14] In the northern hemisphere this equinox occurs anywhere from September 21 to 24. In the southern hemisphere, the autumn equinox occurs anywhere from March 18–22. Among the sabbats, it is the second of the three harvest festivals, preceded by Lammas/Lughnasadh and followed by Samhain. Origin of the Cornucopia:       Ovid, Fasti 5. 111 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : "On the first night I can see the star that serviced Jupiter’s [Zeus’] cradle. The rainy sign of Ole...