Famous comic illustrator, Jim Balent, and Hollywood actress, Tonya Kay, team up to create a story that will “break Medusa’s spell”.

Broadsword Comics (November 25, 2009) 34 pages The Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose comic series is the story of Tarot, a warrior witch, and her family, foes and Lovers. Featuring stories of fantasy action and adventure, frequent scenes of nudity have grown progressively stronger as the series has gone on. Each issue is backed up with interviews with actual magicians and spells written by actual witches, whom sometimes choose to pose nude themselves. One of the strongest aspects of the Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose series is the reader community which has developed around it. Community readers are often included in photographic as well as drawn-in publication.

In Issue 59, “Medusa’s Stare”, Tonya Kay, (featured in Stan Lee’s Who Wants to Be a Super Hero, and an actress and chaotic witch) finds herself trapped in a nether world of despair with Tarot. Queen Medusa rules in this underworld and intends to turn both witches to stone, preventing them from shining their inspiration and light to the waking world forever more. Surrounded by living stone serpents, the two witches must battle for their freedom or face eternity as statues by the magick of the Medusa.

More below.

Jim Balent, best known for his long run on Catwoman, only writes roles for unstoppable females. His popular comic, Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose, challenges socio-sexual stereotypes with its artistic nudity, gender equality and pagan storyline. Jim Balent felt that Tonya Kay’s life was already heroic and would inspire his readers.

Twice in its 9 years of publication, Jim Balent, the author and illustrator, has selected real-life public pagans to star as heroines in his comic series. The first tribute comic starred Australian Wiccan/ author/ recording artist, Fiona Horne, and the second tribute comic stars Tonya Kay, chaote/ Hollywood actress/ raw vegan activist. Tribute issues are special to Tarot’s community-building focus, as readers value strong, female role models and visibly public witches illustrated as heroines in their favorite graphic art series.

“I want to see every woman daring to be her unique self. Whether it’s biased news, an unrewarding job, a mediocre relationship or destructive marketing, women and men both find themselves trapped in unfulfilled lives — essentially; turned to stone” says Tonya Kay, whose real life is a courageous example of daring to be unique.

When she is not volunteering with endangered wildlife or writing on raw vegan health and nutrition, Tonya Kay is a film actress and television personality in high demand. This year alone, you have seen her on The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien, ABC’s Criminal Minds, Comedy Central’s Secret Girlfriend, Showtime’s Live Nude Comedy, the History Channel’s More Extreme Marksmen and she just shot a role on the Hallmark movie of the week.

“My dreadlocks used to keep me from booking, but I knew it wasn’t as simple as ‘cutting my hair’,” says Tonya Kay. “My uniqueness encompassed my spiritual beliefs, dietary choices and dangerous hobbies as well. I decided long ago that there is nothing wrong with me being bold, but rather there is something wrong with the uninteresting roles women are expected to play.” Tonya Kay’s choice to stay true to her self has rewarded her as Hollywood’s go-to girl for what she calls “the fun” parts. “I want to see the archetype of the unstoppable woman written into roles — written into society.

“I am grateful for how my acting career has skyrocketed, though I am still looking forward to a film/tv writer to be a visionary, like Jim Balent, and write a breakthrough role for an unstoppable woman like me,” says Tonya Kay, who feels that art and performance affect world consciousness. Tonya Kay feels it is essential, now more than ever, for women and men to live their dreams. And she’s not afraid to show them how.

Autographed copies of Issue 59 of Tarot are available online at http://kayosmarket.com. View photos of Tonya signing the comic here.

Immanion Press
Staffordshire, United Kingdom
Oregon, United States
editorial@immanion-press.com
http://www.immanion-press.com

For Immediate Release

Josef Karika and Immanion Press Bring Eastern European Perspective to Chaos Magic

Liber 767 vel Boeingus Full of Innovation, Humor

21 December, 2009 — Chaos magic has come a long way from its early, quantum-infused inception via Carroll and Hine, though some would say it’s courted stagnancy in recent years. Slovakian author Josef Karika has the antidote to that fear with his entertaining, irreverent, and wholly pragmatic text, Liber 767 vel Boeingus: Rough Experiments in Chaos Magic.

Karika takes chaos magic back to its experimental, exploratory roots with a wide variety of practices ranging from twisting the concept of servitors and sigils into new shapes (sometimes literally!), to both helpful and harmful applications of magic when dealing with other people. There’s also a hearty helping of pop culture magic a la Taylor Ellwood, and the integration of modern technology, most notably the easy to access cell phone, in on the go magical practice. And the psychological model of magic is much expanded in rather creative manners!

If you think chaos magic has jumped the shark, think again. Karika’s subversion of the proverbial box (as in, “thinking outside of the”) has produced a volume of practical, hands on, make-it-happen-dammit magic that anyone with a penchant for magical experimentation should take a good, close look at.

A Slovakian historian and publicist, Jozef Karika has been experimenting with magic for more than fifteen years, in ceremonial and chaos magic.

Immanion Press Publishes Anthology of Female Occultists’ Writing

Women’s Voices in Magic Shatters Gender Stereotypes

21 December, 2009 — Women are lunar and passive, men are solar and active. Women are witches, men are magicians. Women cooperate in groups, men explore new territory on their own. These and more stereotypes permeate the occult community even into the 21^st century.

Editor Brandy Williams and the contributors to Women’s Voices in Magic demonstrate just how limiting those stereotypes are. From chaotes to ceremonialists, Satanists to sex magicians, the vibrant array of essayists in this collection display their innovations, as well as share their experiences as female magicians in a largely male-dominated subculture. From the introduction by Williams:

This collection of women’s essays about our own magical work serves the same function as other histories or collections of women’s writings. It presents women as essential and integral parts of the magical communities in which we work, in the past, and in the present. It provides a place to speak, however, loudly or quietly, about whatever topic interests the writer. The contributors do not speak in a common voice, or even in a special woman’s voice, but from individual and unique perspectives. . . a literary community encouraging every woman to speak and to pursue any magical path.(12)

Featuring essays by Alison More, Amy Hale, Byron Ballard, Caroline Tully, Erynn Rowan Laurie, Grace Victoria Swann, Helen Honeycutt, Jaymi Elford, Kat Sanborn, Kayla Block, Kirsten Brown, Kris Leet, Leni Hester, Lesa Whyte, Lupa, Mordant Carnival, Shellay Maughan, Soror Inde Seraphina, Sybil Black, Teresa Garcia and Venus Satanas.

Immanion Press is a small publisher specializing in edgy, experimental magical texts. All Immanion nonfiction titles are available on the Immanion Press website, at http://www.thegreenwolf.com/books.html, Amazon.com (all sites) and select independent pagan and occult shops; distribution through Ingram, Baker and Taylor, and New Leaf (US). For more information please contact Lupa at the publicity department at whishthound@gmail.com

30 January 2009 — New mail links

We’re still officially on hiatus, and there will be no Imbolc issue. We hope to be ready in time for the Ostara issue. Send your submissions or inquiries to admin@rendingtheveil.com (the submission address is still good, too). We’re looking for articles, art, fiction, and reviews. If you have an interview to submit, contact Sheta directly at sheta@rendingtheveil.com.

Since the server change, and I just discovered this, we’ve been unable to reach the mail etc at the old mail.rendingtheveil.com address. For the time being, you may access the Rending the Veil “stuff” page at http://partnerpage.google.com/rendingtheveil.com; all other services are linkable from this page. Reach your RTV Email directly at http://mail.google.com/a/rendingtheveil.com, but if your bookmark works, just use that instead. This new address is for those who don’t have their mailboxes bookmarked.

Feel free to visit the forums and to leave comments on individual articles.

4 January 2009

Rending the Veil is officially on hiatus until we can get the bulk of the archives moved over. I expect it to take a couple of months, but that’s just an estimate. I’ll keep you posted here as I learn more. Meanwhile, enjoy the Yule issue, send your submissions for the next issue to submissions@rendingtheveil.com, and check out the forums! Happy new year!

31 December 2008

I’m thrilled to welcome you to the new look of Rending the Veil! We’ve put a lot of work into this new design, and while we’ve had to make sacrifices to get here, we hope you will enjoy the easier to use format. Please note that the old accounts are gone, and you must re-register to use the new forums. You may comment on any article simply by entering your name and email address — no registration is required.

We had hoped to move the old databases and blogs to this site, but the blogs really didn’t take off and the Elgg-based databases weren’t easily converted into WordPress compatible databases, so they have not been re-integrated. We are not offering blogs at this time, and our hope is that the forums will be of greater interest to our readers.

Everything else is in transition, and in a few days we should have more pages, archives, and/or forum functions to utilize, with additional progress occurring gradually in the coming weeks. Anyone wishing to submit content for future issues may send them (or any questions) to submissions@rendingtheveil.com, and anyone wishing to volunteer to help out in any way may contact us at admin@rendingtheveil.com. Suggestions, complaints, questions, or tech issues may either be emailed (to the same address) or posted in the forums.

I’d like to express my gratitude to each and every one of you, particularly those who read us regularly or who volunteer. Without you, we wouldn’t have made it through the last two years. Administrators learning by the seats of their pants make for a bumpy ride, and I’m impressed with the commitment and dedication demonstrated by everyone who has stuck with us in spite of the obstacles. You have my thanks.

Watch this space for updates!

©2008 Sheta Kaey

• Obituary — Robert Anton Wilson
• January Birthdays
• New Book Releases

Obituary — Robert Anton Wilson

Fnord By The Sea, January 11, 2007
Robert Anton Wilson 1932 — 2007
by Nicholas Graham

We have lost one of the great ones. At 4:50 a.m. local time on January 11, 2007, Robert Anton Wilson passed from this plane and into the realm of Pure Mind. Wilson has been a wide-ranging inspiration for those involved in psychology, occultism, literature, and the hard sciences due to his personal narratives of intensely spiritual experiences and bizarre reality fluctuations. He has proven to us that even after severe trauma, we can still live life with passion. RAW suffered polio twice, carrying with him a case of Post-Polio Syndrome which severely limited his mobility later in life. He lived to see one of his daughers killed in a robbery before reaching adulthood. He watched his beloved wife, Arlen Riley Wilson, pass on from this world. Yet through it all, Wilson maintained his love of life, his passionate optimism, his hope in humanity, and his unsinkable sense of humor. Robert Anton Wilson died as he lived: with hope in his heart and a joke in his brain. Our prayers go out to Wilson’s friends and family, but no sadness. We will smile in his memory!

RAW’s Works Include:

• The Illuminatus! Trilogy (with Robert Shea)
• Cosmic Trigger I : Final Secret of the Illuminati
• Prometheus Rising
• Everything Is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-ups
• TSOG: The Thing That Ate the Constitution

Read, enjoy, and remember: the Universe is full of Maybes.

Robert Anton Wilson’s website may be found at http://www.rawilson.com
RAW Memorial February 2007 — date to be announced

©2007 Nicholas Graham
Edited by Sheta Kaey

Donald Tyson turned 53 years old on 12 January.

Gerald del Campo turned 47 years old on 14 January.

If you know of any birthdays we should have on file, please write to admin.

New Book Releases

The Four Powers by Nicholas Graham

Megalithica Books
ISBN: 978-1905713042

For information see last issue’s News in Magick Order here or at major bookstores and online distributors such as Amazon.com.

Inner Alchemy by Taylor Ellwood

Megalithica Books
by Lupa — Immanion Press Publicity Editor
No ISBN# available at time of issue release
Ordering information is here.

In Inner Alchemy, you’ll explore spaces unknown and places unvisited, right within your own body! The alchemy of the body and all of its mysteries are a fascinating realm, but often people ignore this realm, taking for granted the miracle that that they have around them everyday.

Have you ever wondered how you could work with your senses more? Or have you wondered when you’ve been sick if what you’re feeling is remotely useful? Inner Alchemy answers these questions and more! Explore the depths of your brain and meet neurotransmitter spirit guides who will guide you to better physical and psychological health. Discover the miracle within your DNA. Learn about energy work and what it can offer you.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction by Lupa
• Foreword
• Chapter One — Inner Alchemy 101
• Chapter Two — The five senses
• Chapter Three — Body Basics
• Chapter Four — Body Fluids
• Chapter Five — Neurotransmitter Magic
• Chapter Six — DNA Magic
• Chapter Seven — Basic Energy Work
• Chapter Eight — Intermediate Energy Work
• Chapter Nine — Advanced Energy Work
• Chapter Ten — Textual Alchemy
• Chapter Eleven — Learning to be Conscious
• Epilogue — Tying It All Together
• Appendix A — Entheogens: Should You Use Them or Not?
• Appendix B — The Detachment Ritual
• Appendix C — Neuro-Sorcery by Zac Walters
• Appendix D — Kink Magic by Taylor Ellwood and Lupa (Sneak preview of our co-written book)
• Appendix E — Bibliography

©2007 Lupa
Edited by Sheta Kaey

The Pagan and Occult Author Resource Page

SEATTLE, WA — November 25, 2006

After several months of updates and design changes, authors Taylor Ellwood and Lupa would like to announce the rebirth of the Pagan and Occult Author Resource Page. Located at http://www.thegreenwolf.com/poarp.html, this is an extensive collection of resources specifically aimed towards writers in the pagan and occult nonfiction genres.

In 2004, Taylor published his first solo book, Pop Culture Magick. In the process, he realized that there was no central resource available to new occult authors navigating the ins and outs of writing, editing, publishing, and promoting nonfiction texts. He collected the resources he had gathered in his own research, arranged them online, and the Occult Author Resource Page was born.

Fast forward to 2006. Taylor and his new wife, friend and fellow author Lupa, decided to revamp the OARP. They moved everything over to their joint site, weeded out the dead links, and spent weeks adding even more essays, tips and links of interest to authors. Because the information was relevant to pagan as well as occult authors, the name was changed, and the OARP became the POARP.

Since then, Taylor and Lupa have been adding to the POARP on a consistent basis. The basics of the OARP have been retained: magazines and other publications for authors to submit their articles and review copies of books to, radio shows and podcasts aimed at pagan and occult listeners, and an ever-growing list of festivals and other events. New features include essays and tips on everything from editing to promotion and publicity, calls for writers, and a variety of links to valuable online communities and other resources.

The look and location may have changed, but the focus is the same: to offer both new and experienced authors in the pagan and occult non-fiction genres the information they need to write, publish and market that book they’ve been working on. New resources and essays are accepted and appreciated. And, as always, the POARP is entirely free of charge.

To find out more about the POARP, visit http://www.thegreenwolf.com/poarp.html.

Nicholas Graham Releases First Book

Megalithica Books
Immanion Press Publicity Editor

Nicholas Graham is proud to announce the upcoming release of his debut book, entitled The Four Powers (Megalithica Books catalog #MB0104 ISBN #1-905713-04-5). The Four Powers is the book that Nicholas Graham wishes he’d had when he was just discovering magic as a teenager. It’s a unique introduction to magic; rather than relying on the same rehashed Wicca 101, Graham goes into a variety of topics — the different areas of magic (Neopaganism, Ceremonial magic, Chaos magic, etc.), the various models of magic (spiritual, energetic, psychological, cybernetic), and applications of magic (evocation, invocation, divination), among many other areas of interest.

He also includes exceptionally useful exercises to help the reader apply what s/he has read and further determine where to put hir focus of study. The recommended reading is varied, and lacks the fluff that can mislead seekers for years.

Graham goes into realistic looks at real-world situations, too, such as coming out of the broom closet, deciding whether magic really is dangerous or not, and deciding what your personal morals will be. What is presented here is a no fluff, common sense look at being new to magic that shows the many avenues available while giving practical advice for figuring out where to start one’s own journey. This is an excellent book to give to someone just getting started on their magical journey, but it’s also ideal for someone who’s been studying and practicing one paradigm for a while and is feeling stuck in a rut.

For the time being, you can order The Four Powers here.

News in Magick appears as often as we receive press releases. If you’d like to send us a press release of potential interest to RTV readers, please email your materials to admin@rendingtheveil.com and be aware of our issue publication dates.