esoteric — Words — NYSSA GRAZDA

If I took a straw poll of which planet most closely corresponds to the concept of glamour, I imagine that the two top candidates would be Venus and Neptune. I’ve written about glamour and Venus in the past, calling out Venus’ counter-clockwise rotation and association with art, finance, and love; malleable constructs whose definitions shift with cultural tides. Venus IS a culture-maker. It makes concepts that would otherwise be taboo socially acceptable. Venusian sex appeal is sanctioned because Venus is a thing to covet. Is this a spell in itself? How come Venus gets to move all weird while Uranus’ sideways-rolling is highlighted as evidence of its transgressive nature?

Nyssa GrazdaJune 22, 2024Mercury, magic, magician, glamour, scholarship, middle ages, etymology, astrology, esoteric

Bedknobs and Broomsticks: A Modern Golem Tale?

Today I rewatched Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), which I viewed probably hundreds of times before age seven but never since, as we didn’t own the VHS. I can’t say that I’d recommend it to anyone now even though it’s technically a “classic” - it’s agonizingly long and the Portobello Road song sequence, while perhaps trying to do some sort of “It’s A Small World” schtick, comes off as deeply cringe. Also, this may be a small bone to pick, but the characters, who are living in WWII England during the Blitz, refer to football as “soccer”; a glaring faux pax. But the opening credits contained the below image, reminiscent of the Rider Waite Hermit, performing a gesture evocative of the sign of silence, and wearing a cloak of astrological symbols, so I kept on for two hours to see what else cropped up.

Nyssa GrazdaMay 19, 2024magic, esoteric, kabbalah, Abramelin, egypt, Golem, cinema, talisman

WORDS

Musings on astrology, the occult, and topics in the field of Western Esotericism