The 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the U.S. is rapidly approaching and there is no shortage of reminiscing about the events of that day. We all have stories to tell. Since this is a place that talks about science fiction, have you wondered what effect that day had on the genre? If you think it had none, then you'd be wrong. As many will tell you, science fiction is not about the future, but merely tells stories about today, but wraps them in the genre's tropes.  Since 9/11 and terrorism are from our time, they figure in plenty of science fiction stories, shows and movies. IO9 does a good job of summarizing the many examples of science fiction that is informed by that dark day. Have you noticed the rise of superhero movies since 9/11? It's no coincidence, as many have written, including the aforementioned IO9, but not quite as thoroughly as you'll find in this piece. While there are many allegorical takes on 9/11 in the movies or on television, few have actually portrayed the events of that day. Graphic novels have been less cautious on the subject as this list shows. In memory of 9/11, Den of Geek recently compiled a list of its 10 greatest sci-fi conspiracy movies. What I'm surprised at is no one mentioning, apart from the 9/11 conspiracy folks,  the pilot episode of The X-Files spinoff, The Lone Gunman. Six months before 9/11, the show featured a story of an attack on the World Trade Center with an airplane. The truth is out there!

“Live so that someone ignorant about Paganism would know from watching your life or visiting your home, that you followed an Earth religion." -- Chas S. Clifton (1) My Witchvox article about crystals has generated a lot of replies and many of them are from people trying to find ways to eco-up their nature-worship and Earth-honoring religious practices. That’s awesome! I also know how HARD it is to do, because I have been working on this for as while. So I thought I’d share what I have le ...

It was a beautiful late summer morning. The kind of perfect day with sweet air and deep blue skies. I was outside with my Arabian horse Hamdan early after leading him out of his stall. Over the next hour and half we stood together quietly, me feeding him the rest of a bag of fresh carrots. After the carrots were gone, we just stood near each other in the way that horses do with herd mates. The proximity of each other was all the comfort that each needed. Horses think that way you know. H ...

As I look around the room, it hits me how much I have related to Wicca. It has literally become a huge part of my existence. My focus is directed to a piece of amber crystal that I bought for fifteen dollars at a local shop. I now wonder to myself whether it was worth it but a bigger question arises from this. Whatever happened to down to earth practical magic? It’s no secret that most people live on a budget. Although I love those spiritual stores with so many wonderfully witchy objects ...

The ol’ Witch in the woods had a couple of beeswax candles, the Sun, Moon and stars and knowledge of the uses of herbs in her area to use in her practice. The modern Witch has the world at their fingertips at the click of a mouse button. Were things better in her time, without the cacophony of engine noise, the persistent hum of computers, and mobile phone signals that clog up the air? Or are we far better off out of the dark ages, living comfortable lifestyles without constant fear of persecuti ...

Once upon a time, My Children, a very long time ago, a woman was out gathering seeds and grains. Her children were close, helping her and gathering berries. Her youngest was in a leather sling at her breast. They had to walk a long way; the wild grasses she was concentrating on had mostly sparse heads of poor grains. Only occasionally was there one worth plucking; a fat one, a plump one, a full head of grain. As the day began to close, and they made their way home, her day's work was one, nearly ...

In pantheism it begins with the ALL, the pantheistic belief that all things are connected and all the realms of the multi verse are ONE spiritual being. ALL beings, every thing, every molecule of the universe has an energy like connection to everything else. We are connected to each other, to the plants, and animals, and stars, and they are connected to us. In pantheism this connection in and of itself is divine, the ultimate expression of true divinity IS the connection.The gods and god ...

What would you give to be able to never grow old? Be careful what you wish for, it might come true. In Drew Magary’s first novel, The Postmortal, he wonders what the world would be like if someone discovered a cure for aging. It sounds like it would be a great thing, but as the story unfolds, the reader quickly discovers it would be a nightmare. In the opening chapter, we meet our hero, John Farell, a lawyer who is paying a black-market doctor to have three simple injections which will keep his body from aging. He won’t be immortal, but as long as he doesn’t contract a fatal disease or get hit by a bus, he could potentially live hundreds or thousands of years. Eventually, the cure becomes legal, cheap and widely available. In no time, just about everybody is “postmortal.” The time and setting of the book is America of the near-future. As Farell ages, the book advances by decades and society gets progressively worse as a result of the cure. When a scientist discovers a sort of vaccine that prevents cancer and other deadly diseases, the world starts to go off the rails. The Postmortal is essentially a pre-apocalypse novel. The biggest problem the world faces with postmortals is the fact that most people get the cure when they are young and remain reproductively viable for much longer than normal. In other words, people can have as many babies as they want and it’s not unusual for someone to be married multiple times and raise multiple families. As for marriage, it seems that “until death do us part” is no longer part of the lexicon and people aren’t keen to spend a real eternity with someone else. The result is that divorce skyrockets and relationships are more dysfunctional in this future world. In many ways, The Postmortals is a story about the effects of overpopulation on the world and how it would lead to competition for resources that would ultimately lead to a breakdown of society. It might already be happening on Earth, but it’s happening over generations so we, as individuals, don’t notice it, but postmortals have the misfortune of living long enough to witness the decline. The hero of the Postmortal is not the most lovable character. He is a lawyer, which has negative connotations for many, but his career switch as an “End Specialist” makes him even less appealing. It seems that many people don’t want to live forever, so they call End Specialists to terminate their lives. Each person seems to have a unique request on how to do it along with different reasons why they want to die. At first Farell doesn’t pull the trigger on those who want to end it all. He’s there to act as a sort of official witness who interviews the clients and takes note of their final wishes. Eventually, the End Specialists have to carry out forced terminations where the government targets specific people to be killed. Farell is no longer just a witness, but now an executioner. He is conflicted about this turn of events and has to decide whether or not he should continue. The Postmortal is written in a first-person style and is formatted as a series of what appear to be electronic blog posts or journal entries. It’s a gimmick for the web generation, which I don’t think it’s entirely necessary. It doesn’t add or subtract to the story other than it indicates the passage of time. Magary has written a riveting book that will both fascinate and scare you and maybe make you glad that you will die some day before the world becomes an even worse place to live. Disclosure: An electronic review copy of the book was provided by Penguin USA.

I've been struggling with not feeling that I want to call myself a Pagan; that somehow I missed the cultural boat. This boat feels like something I will never understand nor connect with. Yet, my religion is Wicca, and I am a Qabalist, ritualist, and magick worker. I never towed the feminist political line enough for the Goddess community, wasn't political enough for others communities either. I've always been missing the Pagan cultural "norm" boat!I have finally come to a resolution for ...

Now, as we just discussed in my previous article, I don't really ascribe to needing to forgive every person in your life. If that person has crossed a boundary that is unforgivable to you and you no longer wish to have a relationship with that person and strive to have as little contact with that person as possible, congratulations! I will be more than happy to write you a note excusing you from having to forgive that person. So, we got through the first part where we've made that determ ...

To me this is something especially magickal about late August. The knowing of the great changes to come as the Autumn energies begins to fill your senses. The way the heat of the day has a power over the very soul of man for both good and bad. But most of all, I loved the evenings … those long hot and steamy evenings as the sun would just begin to set way beyond the mountains of my Great Grandmother’s farm. I lay on the ground underneath the Great Willow tree in my Great Grandmother’s ya ...

The ancients held natural cycles and rhythms of nature as symbolic keys to the great cosmic mystery. We do know that the ancients had great pagan centers of learning—the great mystery schools. Unfortunately, we do not know the exact nature of their teachings. They had a secret knowledge, which was not taught to the multitudes of people. There were two basic forms of religion in many pagan civilizations. There was the religion of the common individual, the worship of the gods and goddesse ...

How often do you think about the day you discovered Paganism? Not when you found it, at least not in my case—I have always been a Witch; I just didn’t call it that until I was teenager. Ironically, I saw my witchy light in a church…The church looked amazing. The altar was adorned with huge candelabras, white roses and tulips, and there were chains of white daisies draping from the back of every pew. My catechism instructor had told the class that Father Elias was going to marry a ...

Now let me start off with a disclaimer (yeah I know, annoying) but I have been out of the loop a bit for the last three years. Some older patrons might remember me posting from my high school and college years, but many probably do not. In my defense, it’s hard to keep up when you are on a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean three months at a time serving our country.I’m now stationed on land and I see some trends that worry me. When did those of us in Paganism become snobs? I ha ...

If you're like me, you've probably read a ton of stories that feature interstellar travel. Some of them may have actually included plausible science to explain how the heroes of the story travelled between the stars. If you can convince DARPA that some of those ideas are possible, you just may be able to make yourself half a million dollars. DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects) and NASA have teamed up to offer a $500,000 grant to an organization that wants to study the feasability of interstellar travel. Sounds like a cushy gig. It's the culmination of the 100-Year-Starship study which launched last year at a related symposium at about this time of year. The symposium is actually going to return again this year and the organization solicited ideas for presentations over the summer. Even if NASA and DARPA never get around to figuring out how to get us to the stars, private industry is aiming in that direction. SpaceX, a for-profit space company, is working on replacements for the American shutle program, but the firm's founder says his ultimate goal is to make man an interstellar species. How's that for a company mission statement! It certainly would be cool to see the day that man journeyed to another star, but I'd be just as happy to live long enough to see someone visit Mars, but have a sinking feeling I'll be six-feet under by the time that happens. Meanwhile, DARPA is not only dreaming of space rockets, but is building all sorts of technologies that you prove the agency's employees are hardcore science fiction fans.

In recent years, I've been trying to read the nominees for the best novel Hugo, but this year I found myself mired in one book, or make that two books, Connie Willis' Blackout/All Clear. I started with that book first since I pretty much predicted it would win once I read the list of nominees and didn't think I'd be able to read all of the books in time. As predicted, it won the best novel award this weekend. What's sad is that the Hugos are becoming so predictable that they aren't necessarily a measurement of quality that they once were, but are becoming a popularity contest. Willis has name-recognition that many of the other nominees lacked and Blackout/All Clear has received enough notice even in mainstream press that it I figured they'd win because of those factors. I haven't read the other nominees, so I can't tell you whether or not Willis is the deserving winner, but I can say that I was profounly disappointed by these books. I count Fire Watch, a related novella, and The Doomsday Book, another time-travel book among my favourites, but this book (it's really one story split into two volumes) does not live up to those. For one, it is overly long. I believe the story could have been told in half the telling. It is padded with a variety of scenes that may tell us that Willis has done her homework about World War II England, but doesn't really advance the story as much as they could. For those not familiar with the tale, it tells the story of a group of Oxford University historians from the future who travel back in time to World War II England. One is there to learn about the Dunkirk evacuation, another about the Blitz and a third about children who are evacuated to the north of the country. As their assignments drag on, each discovers that they are unable to return back to Oxford of the future because their time portals won't open. Aware of each other, they begin to seek each other out in the hopes of using the others' time portals. It slowly dawns on them that none of them work and they are all trapped in time, not knowing if they will ever escape. Much of the book deals with their daily lives during the war and exposes the reader to life during that time. Interesting, but there is just too much detail and too many scenes. At one point, it feels more like you are reading a historical novel than a time-travel story. I will admit that the story is compelling and the characters are sympathetic, believable and well drawn, but at one point, I found myself wanting to skip ahead to what I figured would be their ultimate escape from their predicament. Of course the paradox with time travel stories is that the future you will know that you were stuck in time and know your exact whereabouts and can go and rescue you at any time so there's really no need to be stuck in the past. Willis tries to explain that away, but didn't convince me. One of the preoccupations of the stranded time travellers is that they have somehow affected the outcome of the war which prevented their future selves from never materializing. I wondered why all of these time travellers were so focused on England. Weren't there German time travellers from the future going back to see how the Nazis did things? Maybe they would somehow affect the war's outcome. If you are a fan of time travel stories or Connie Willis, then you probably should give Blackout/All Clear a try. Otherwise, I'd only recommend it if you like overly long books.

No one ever believes this, but of all the religions out there, Heathenry/Asatru is my favorite. Not as it is actually practiced by many Heathens, but hey, that’s how I feel about most religions. I love the Nine Virtues, although I am shocked that wisdom is not one of them or even common sense. But I am going to run through the Nine Virtues and show how they could be a wonderful guide for people who are not forming libertarian militias with the hierarchy of biker gangs while playing Warlord video ...

Why do bad things happen to good Pagans? This is a touchy subject. It would be great if Pagans could just skip along lightly, hold some get-togethers every full moon, gently die in our sleep and head on to the next life after a brief stop in Summerland for some spiritual R and R. Life, however, is not that great.Stuff happens, sometimes very messy, very terrifying, very traumatic stuff. And if the only thing we’ve done in life is be good, help others, hug trees and donate to PETA, that s ...

When it comes to dating, disclosing the particular religion or spirituality you happen to follow would seem to be relatively unimportant. In the overall grand scheme of things, it would seem that having a basic connection is more important, and there are plenty of different topics to discuss before even thinking about bringing up the subject. After all, how often do religious views come into play during the first three dates? The first five?If I had to make a general estimate, I would sa ...

I turned on my computer this past Sunday afternoon and the first thing that I see is “True Blood” trending on Yahoo.com. So being a HUGE fan of the show I click on the link expecting to find an article about an episode coming on that night. But, to my surprise, I get to linked to an article and can’t believe what I’m reading. A Reuters’ online article called, “Real Witches Cry Foul at Portrayal on “True Blood”. The first thing I think to myself is “please don’t say what I think this will”, and t ...