Shadow Magick in Llewellyn's Magical Almanac

No, I have not fallen off a cliff.  I'm still here and still writing when I can.  I've spent the last few months (and will be spending a few more) stuck up to my eyeballs in a huge project at work and it's pretty much sucking my will to do anything that requires more mental effort than looking at trees and going "Oooo, pretty."  So, unfortunately you won't be getting proper regular blog posts for a while.  Sorry about that, but I gotta pay the bills.

In much happier news, yesterday my contributor copies of the 2013 Llewellyn's Magical Almanac arrived!  I've got an article in this year's edition on basic Shadow Magick.

If you're a regular reader, then you'll be fairly familiar with the content of the essay, but it does encapsulate the important points of the basic practice all in one place.  I hope you pick up a copy when it hits the shelves later this season :)

(My article starts on page 298)

Oregon Vortex and House of Mystery

Last weekend I had the great pleasure of driving down to Ashland, OR to visit the magnificent Oregon Shakespeare Festival.   On our way south we decided to finally visit the Oregon Vortex and House of Mystery.

I'd been hearing about this place for years and had always been intrigued.  It's one of those places that has a house full of insane angles that creates insane optical illusions.  This place also claims to be host to an energy vortex that warps perception and mass.  I came expecting to enjoy the optical illusions and be sarcastic about the energy claims.  I was quite surprised to find out that there actually is an incredibly strong permanent energy vortex centered in the House of Mystery.   

We arrived shortly after noon, on the only sunny day all weekend, just in time for a tour (which took about an hour).  Our guide began by going into the history of the place which has accounts of odd phenomena going back to the Native Americans.  There are old stories of mammals not liking the area, so you don't see many squirrels or rodents in the Vortex - the area is famous for spooking horses.  People tend to feel odd there as well, experiencing vertigo, headaches, pressure, etc.  I found that as we neared the center of the vortex I could feel a palpable shift in the ambient energy; akin to moving from still water into a flowing river.  As someone who can channel energy quite well I just opened myself to let the energy flow in the way it wanted to and didn't feel any negative effects.

The House of Mystery itself is an old assayers office that fell down a slope during a storm and landed all akimbo up against a tree. If you let yourself be guided by the warped visual cues it gives you, you will feel the worst vertigo of your life.  Everything feels like it's going sideways.  (photo from http://news.opb.org/article/oregon-vortex-offers-spooky-mystery-all/)

It's in the house that things really get interesting because the center of that vortex is right inside it.  According to the guide, they were recently visited by a Celtic Shaman who said that the vortex was home to a portal of some kind.  Before the guide told us where it was I went right to a spot on the floor and pointed at it, saying "It's right there." The guide confirmed that it was the same spot the Shaman had identified (confirmation that my energy senses are on track is always nice).  I don't know where that portal goes but it's definitely there.   I didn't sense anything negative about it so I felt totally comfortable playing with all the fun ambient energies.

If you're every travelling on I-5 through Southern Oregon I highly recommend taking an hour and visiting the Oregon Vortex and House of Mystery.