Thanks to E.V. Escher for interviewing me on the 100th episode of The Disembodied Podcast: a non-religious tour of spiritual topics. I love talking about my favourite topics, ancient and contemporary Pagan religions, magic, and modern witchcraft. I've titled this post somewhat blatantly, because the internet is just getting so full of people competing for attention, I've had to up the ante for attention seeking. Listen to me rather than those internet poseurs! I'm actually knowledgeable.
I am a modern witch who studies ancient pagan religions. Through my tarot readings I provide guidance from the realm of the invisibles in order to help clients investigate their desires, make choices, create ways to move forward, and embrace personal transformation. I am a regular workshop facilitator on a range of magickal subjects, and also have a Doctor of Philosophy with a background in archaeology.
I first learned tarot in 1984. In the early 1990s I
worked as a professional tarot reader at a shop called Mythical Moon in St
Kilda, Melbourne, Australia. Now I work as a reader at Muses of Mystery, also
in Melbourne in the city. I'm there on Thursdays and Saturdays.
I own many decks but my deck of choice is the one I
learned on, the Crowley-Harris Thoth deck. I think it is the best tarot deck available. Recently I have become quite
interested in The Carnival at the End of the World deck and the Tarot of theDrowning World, both designed by Kahn and Selesnik, and with accompanying books
by Sarah Falkner, who channels Madame Lulu. I highly recommend them though, and the books
are excellent.
Of all the ancient Mediterranean Mystery Religions, those concerning the grain goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone were the oldest and most famous. Celebrated for over one thousand years at the Greek city of Eleusis and then suppressed during the Christian era, the Mysteries have again become the focus of Pagan attention. Occurring at both the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes, these secret rites dedicated to the Two Goddesses and their roles in the establishment of agriculture were an annual highlight of the ancient Greek religious calendar. This workshop focuses on the influence of the Eleusinian Mysteries on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and on their most notorious initiate Aleister Crowley, and explains how these magical trail blazers were inspired by the mysteries to design their own theatrical rituals. Through images, discussion, and practical exercises, contemporary approaches to dramatic ritual will be explored.
The presenter: Caroline Tully is interested in the practical side of magic and has been a modern Witch since 1985. She has written for many Pagan and occult publications and was a feature writer for Australia’s Witchcraft Magazine for six years. Caroline is also an archaeologist who studies ancient Mediterranean Pagan religions and their manifestation in the modern world.
Saturday 19th March, 11.00am - 3.00pm.
At Muses of Mystery Phone: 0488 139 435
I'm one of the organisers of this year's conference! Save the
date! The 38th annual Australian Wiccan Conference will take place on the
16th-18th of September on Victoria's Great Ocean Road. Tickets and more
information available soon.
Power Un/Dressing: Revealing the Goddess in Contemporary Occult Religion
The Ordo Templi Orientis, Wicca, and the Church of Satan are three new religious movements that are part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. Female nudity features prominently in their most important rituals. Priestesses disrobe in order to represent incarnate goddesses and become objects of worship. While unclothed in these rituals, the priestesses are not undressed; various supplements to the body are incorporated in their ritual costume such as veils, belts, jewellery and tiaras, and objects are held and carried. The adorned female body of the priestess situated within the ritual mise en scène is laden with symbolism and functions as a visual didactic assemblage that communicates essential tenets of the religions. Theories of glamour are used as investigatory lenses to examine the effects on ritual participants, and the wider public, of the occult priestess’s nudity-as-dress. The priestesses’ glamour is a form of powerful magic that enchants the viewer and an empowering feminist reclamation of the body as the locus of an immanent deity, simultaneously juxtaposed with the phenomenon of the glamour girl or pin-up and the objectification of women.
I'm also on a panel on 'Magic and Museums: Scholars and Practitioners' chaired by Amy Hale in the Contemporary Pagan Studies Unit at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting, Monday 22 Nov, 9:00-11:00am (CST).
I’m presenting at the Aegean Gestures conference on Saturday November 13th.
This is what my paper will be about:
Against
Nature: Tree-Shaking Action in Minoan Glyptic Art as Agonistic Behaviour
Minoan gold signet
rings are well-known for their depiction of ritual events. Thirty-one ring
images depict ritual scenes in which human figures interact with trees. The majority
of figures approach the trees in a calm and seemingly reverential manner;
however, eight examples depict the ritual participant clasping and vigorously
shaking the tree. These appear on gold rings from Knossos, Archanes, Kalyvia,
and Poros on Crete (LM IB-III); Vapheio and Mycenae on mainland Greece (LH
II-III); as well as an unprovenienced stone seal in New York. The figures all
display a particular body posture: standing with bent knees, sometimes bearing
their weight on one leg at the front, while their back leg is both extended and
supplying thrust, or kicked back and upwards. The pose is suggestive of active
movement and is also seen in glyptic depictions of agonistic scenes such as
warrior combat, boxing, weapon use, men in combat with real and supernatural
animals, bull-leaping, running, men striding with captured women in tow, and
hybrid figures such as Minotaurs, bird-men and -women. These iconographic
parallels suggest that the tree-pulling pose indicates a coercive or even
violent activity. These scenes may depict the attempt to ritually control the
natural world through aggression and domination, and to promote the idea that the
elite owners of the rings were supremely capable of establishing and maintaining
order.
