Category: Food/Drink

Canada, the Rum Lover’s Playground?

by Administrator, posted in Food/Drink

Readers may have noticed quite the gap between when I published my review of the book “Tea Leaf Reading for Beginners” and my interview with Magic the Cat. That’s because my husband and I hauled our asses to the farthest reaches of Nova Scotia, Canada for a wedding. While there I got to attend a big ol’ seafood boil that got me a plate piled high with lobster and crab along with tasting a red and white wine both made by one of the people in attendance. And although I did not get to try poutine while I was there, I did get to try mozza fries which is the same thing except the cheese curds are replaced with mozzarella cheese. Awesome! However despite how delicious all of those things were, there was one tasting that surpassed all others.

Rum. And not just any rum, Havana Club Rum from Cuba. With Cuba being the home of the mojito I’ve always wanted to try a mojito with Havana Club Rum. Imagine my surprise when I saw it came in varieties besides white or silver! I visited a local liquor store and of course checked out their rum selection. The guy working found it quite humorous that I was so excited about seeing a bottle of Havana Club Rum that I insisted on taking a picture of it! For those of you who don’t know, the United States has a trade embargo on Cuba which means that you can’t buy Havana Club Rum in the U.S. and also that I couldn’t buy a bottle to bring home with me. Many Canadians offered lots of suggestions for getting the illicit rum home with me, but as of late I’m pretty well convinced I’m one of the unluckiest people shambling around so I didn’t want to see what happens if you get caught at the border with Cuban rum. Fortunately my friend Greg, of What Greg Eats, bought a bottle for me to try while I was visiting. It was surprisingly smooth with just a touch of a burn at the finish, and it made an amazing Rum and Coke.

So as to not go home empty handed I opted to buy a bottle of Smuggler’s Cove Dark Rum. It’s from the Glenora Distillery which was right in the area we were visiting. When in doubt, buy local. At a glance I suspect it is going to be comparable to the Kraken Black Spiced Rum I have. They have a similar color and aroma. I haven’t had a chance to try it because I was vacationing with a failing gallbladder that hasn’t been removed yet, and I pressed my luck good and proper with the wine and Havana Club Rum, so this one can wait until after my surgery, which is (gulp) tomorrow.

Learning to Love Tea….and Their Leaves

by Administrator, posted in Books, Food/Drink, Psychic, Religion

Anyone who has read The Magical Buffet for a while knows that I love food and drink. When the opportunity presents itself to review a book that could potentially give me ideas of new things to eat or drink, I always go for it. And that is why I was thrilled that Llewellyn Worldwide sent me a copy of “Tea Leaf Reading for Beginners: Your Fortune in a Tea Cup” by Caroline Dow for me to take a look at.

There are a lot of books out there about tea leaf reading. For instance I own a copy of the second printing of “Tea Leaf Reading” by William W. Hewitt that Llewellyn published in 1992. My discerning teenage eye choose it because of the pretty gypsy woman peering into a tea cup on the cover. “Tea Leaf Reading” is a fine book. Total truth in advertising. Looking to learn about reading tea leaves? Try “Tea Leaf Reading”! However Caroline Dow gives you tea leaf reading and so much more!

Yes, “Tea Leaf Reading for Beginners” gives you everything you need to know to start attempting to read tea leaves. Part two of the book is an ample section on interpreting symbols, although Dow also encourages practice and intuition to determine what symbols mean to you personally. And let’s face it, that is the bulk of what most books about tea leaf reading are, a big ol’ glossary of symbols. Let’s take a look back at my “Tea Leaf Reading” book from the 90’s. It is 226 pages long with pages 25 to 205 being a glossary. I’m not complaining, I’m just pointing out what you can expect from most tea leaf reading books. “Tea Leaf Reading for Beginners” is 288 pages long with the glossary of symbols being pages 131 to 246. That leaves 128 pages of other stuff!

So what can you find in those other 128 pages? Tons. Of course there are the nuts and bolts of how to set up a reading, but there is also information about different types of tea, cups and saucers, herbal infusions and decoctions, tips for cooking with tea, suggestions for pairing different teas with food, ideas for tea parties and more! The first part of this book is so inspiring! I dare you to not be excited about tea after reading it!

Yet what I love best about Dow’s “Tea Leaf Reading for Beginners” is her overall attitude to the practice of reading tea leaves. It’s an event. It’s a magical experience, filled with wonderful stories. I’d say it’s theater, but I fear the jaded among you would then assume it’s a sham. It’s divination with a floor show. It’s a reason to get together with others and enjoy some tea.

Caroline Dow’s “Tea Leaf Reading for Beginners” is for those who want to learn to read tea leaves, but also for those who just want to learn to love tea.

I Am a Rum Drinker

by Administrator, posted in Food/Drink

I’m not a rum expert, I’m not a rum connoisseur, I am a rum drinker. When I drink, it usually involves rum. However, I’m also endlessly fascinated with religious practices and various observances of spirituality around the globe. When you combine these two you get one obvious result.

I needed to own a Haitian rum. Haiti is one of the legendary lands of Voodoo (or Vodou, or Vodoun), and I wanted to try a rum fit for both man and loa (the spirits of the Voodoo religion). Fortunately for me, research into this matter was quick. There is only one distillery in Haiti that makes rum, Rhum Barbancourt.

In fact, a Los Angeles Times article published on February 9, 2010 by Scott Kraft had this to say about Rhum Barbancourt, “And every voodoo priest and priestess in Haiti knows that soaking the ground with the golden rum — not the three-star version, mind you, but the five-star, aged twice as long — can raise the spirits of the dead. ‘It’s what they drink,’ Markendy Jean Batiste, a Voodoo priest, said with a shrug as if explaining the obvious. ‘You’ve got to keep the spirits happy.'”

That’s I how I ended up owning the most expensive bottle of rum I’ve purchased to date; Rhum Barbancourt Estate Reserve Aged 15 Years. Soon after, it also became a source of great embarrassment.

Look, I tried to be respectful. I know what it is I own. It’s like a big ol’ bottle of Haiti’s history, a source of pride for her people, and an internationally respected beverage. I enjoyed it as a sipping rum, with a splash of water, okay? I even busted out my crystal tumblers for it. See, respectful. But one day I was alone, looking at my pint glass filled with ice. I knew I should have been reaching for the bottle of Captain Morgan’s Private Stock to pour in the bottom of my glass, yet I couldn’t resist, instead I grabbed the bottle of Rhum Barbancourt. Quickly, as if I’d be caught in the act, I poured a shot glass worth of it into the glass and immediately filled it to the top with Coca Cola.

Yes, I know. Seriously, I know. What I did was wrong. It was an insult to Haiti and to true rum connoisseurs everywhere. I made a freakin’ rum and Coke using the finest rum I’ll likely ever own! You know what? It was the best damn rum and Coke I’d ever had in my life. Suck it experts, I’m drinking what I like, how I like it.

Rum Cake with Deborah Blake

by Administrator, posted in Books, Food/Drink

Readers may remember that back in December 2010 I listed Deborah Blake’s book “Witchcraft on a Shoestring” as one of my “favorite” things. In the little blurb I wrote about the book I was quick to point out that it contained a rum cake recipe that I had to try. Then in January 2011, when I tried out Dawn Hunt’s Shepherd’s Pie recipe, I again commented on how I still needed to try out Deborah Blake’s rum cake recipe from “Witchcraft on a Shoestring”. Well, that distant someday has become a reality. Finally, at long last, I tried out the rum cake recipe.

I haven’t baked anything cake-like in years. My husband doesn’t like cake, so if I bake a cake, I know it will be me eating the whole damn thing. Even I know that’s not the best plan. I didn’t even own the ubiquitous Bundt pan. However, I recently found myself with plans that involved going over to a friend’s house for dinner and I decided that for dessert I would bring over the rum cake. (For those of you curious, I picked up Jim a bear claw from Panera for him to eat for dessert while we ate cake.) The recipe was pretty simple and fairly straight forward. With Deborah Blake’s permission, I get to share the recipe from “Witchcraft on a Shoestring” with you!

Rum Cake

Notes: This is one of my favorite special occasion desserts. It takes a little more work than a regular cake, but the results are worth it! If you want to get really extravagant, you can substitute a chocolate cake mix for the yellow one, and Chambord black raspberry liqueur or Grand Marnier orange liqueur for the rum; they are both pretty pricey though. This cake is intended to be made in a Bundt pan, although you could probably use a regular pan.

Ingredients:
1 box cake mix with pudding in it (yellow or chocolate)
3 eggs
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup rum (for cake) plus 1/3 cup rum (for glaze)
1/2 cup pecans or sliced almonds
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup water (for cake) plus 1/4 cup water (for glaze)

Time for preparation/cooking: 1 hour 10 minutes (50-60 minutes of baking time)

Directions: Grease and flour a Bundt pan. Mix the cake mix, eggs, oil, 1/2 cup rum, and 1/2 cup water. Put nuts on the bottom of the pan, then pour cake mixture over them. Bake at 325 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. For glaze, mix sugar, butter, 1/3 cup rum, and 1/4 cup water in a saucepan. Boil for 2-3 minutes, then pour over cake. Let sit for a while so the cake can absorb the glaze.

As I already said, I didn’t own a Bundt pan, but I decided to go ahead and buy one. I couldn’t find a cake mix that explicitly stated it had pudding in it, so I opted for a yellow cake mix from Duncan Hines that was touted as “deluxe extra moist”. Instead of greasing and flouring the pan, we (because although he doesn’t eat cake, Jim still helped me make the cake) just sprayed some Pam butter flavored spray into it. I opted for sliced almonds for the bottom of the pan, and I used olive oil as the cooking oil the recipe called for. And last, but certainly not least, there was the rum to consider.

The friends who would be eating this cake weren’t any old ordinary cake consumers, they were rum enthusiasts, complete with one of them already having what is considered THE definitive rum cake recipe. Obviously I carefully considered my rum options. In the end I opted for Kilo Kai rum. The rum is so smooth and delightful you can drink it straight. And when I say straight I don’t mean if you slam back a shot you won’t be left coughing and sputtering, I mean you can actually sit back, sip, and enjoy it. Also, it makes a fantastic rum and Cokes. I highly recommend it.

The good news is, I didn’t screw up the cake! The top was little more brown, I suspect thanks to the Pam spray, and the sliced almonds kind of slid to the sides instead of staying on top, but the cake was baked through perfectly and came out of the Bundt pan with ease. I ladled the glaze evenly over the top and then poured the final bit out of the saucepan over it.

That said, my clever choice of Kilo Kai rum was perhaps not the best option. Everyone in attendance agreed that the cake was very good, even the owner of the “official” rum cake recipe, but it fell a little short. After careful discussion and consideration, we think that the Kilo Kai rum was actually too smooth for the recipe. The “definitive” rum cake recipe that my friend uses clearly states to use Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum and no other, and we all now see why. My rum cake was moist, sweet, and tasty, but it lacked that slight kick, that little bit of bite, that alcohol laced desserts need.

Overall, Deborah Blake’s “Witchcraft on a Shoestring” rum cake recipe was a big hit! If you try it out yourself, let me know how it turns out! Also, I can’t stress enough how great “Witchcraft on a Shoestring” is, even if you’re not “witchy”. I keep my copy in the kitchen with my cookbooks because there are so many simple recipes in it that I want to try: Tres Leches Pie, Prosperity Pie Quiche, Easy Garden Veggie Pie, Jhaea’s Minty Couscous Salad, Ellen’s Beer Bread, Morgana’s Tomato Pie, and many, many more!

If you don’t already own a copy, you can get yours here or at any cool bookstore.

Ostara Spinach Quiche with Dawn Hunt

by Administrator, posted in Food/Drink, Guest Authors, Magic/Occult, Wiccan/Pagan

By Dawn Hunt

Spring. Just the word on my lips seems like a sigh from deep within my heart. Warm breezes that hold a linger of Winter’s bitterness and evenings seem to hold off night just a touch longer then the night evening before. Even now, in the cold of late February, with snow and ice still piled out my window the sun seems stronger than just a few weeks ago. I even saw the first robin of the season just recently atop a huge pile of snow in a parking lot promising Spring will be here before we know it. Although, technically, the first Fire festival of Imbolc in Feb, signals the warming of the Earth most of us won’t really feel it until Ostara. By mid to late March the first tulips bravely poke their heads up from under the seeming dead ground a remind us of all the promise that Spring holds. You may even notice a bit more Fairie activity. If you do any Fairie Work, you know they become ever more active as the air warms and the flowers begin to bloom!

Unlike the Winter celebration of Yule most of us tend to not think of food by the time Spring shakes off the final bits of snow from her branches. Most people, me included, are regretting all the rich foods we have consumed over the winter months and dreading the warm months of tank tops and bathing suites. We no longer want to be confined to our homes under layers of sweaters and blankets. Like a brave daffodil we want to emerge from the blankets of cold and get out of the kitchen. But what we are forgetting is that Spring is the perfect time to celebrate Earth though Food!

Early Spring brings with her so many wonderful foods of the season. You will start to see asparagus on sale at your local grocery store and out of nowhere Cherries seem to take over the produce department! Some farmers markets open with offerings of lettuce and the first fresh herbs of the season. Now, I realize in today’s world that we can get these things any time at any large grocery store, but Spring is the time when these foods are natural and local to our region. Focusing on seasonal eating to stay connected to spirit and Mother Earth is not the only form of Kitchen/Food Magick there is, but I find it to be a very important part of my spiritual path and one that is very easy to share with others.

Ostara usually lines up with the Christian Holiday of Easter. Being raised in a traditional Italian Catholic home meant that Easter was solemnly observed. But one of the many things I never understood about the Holiday was what was the big deal with all the Eggs??? We would decorate them, hide them, eat them, bake wreath breads that looked like nests with eggs in them and the list went on. Why Eggs??? Eggs are a traditional fertility food. No surprise there! Eggs symbolize the fertility of Earth and encourage growth from within her sleeping belly to the new beginnings of growth. Eggs are one of the best foods to work with and eat at this time of year to help us bring forward all the seeds we have planted in the Winter months. Remember, fertility is not just about making babies, but about bringing forth new life in your job, relationship, personal goals, ANYTHING!

With so many wonderful foods to celebrate Spring it is hard for me to just pick one recipe to share with you. Ostara comes first, but just behind it is Beltane and I could talk forever about my most beloved Beltane! But first things first: Ostara sets the stage for Spring and below is a really quick and easy recipe from my cookbook, “Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery Cookbook”. Here I have combined the fertility of Eggs with Spinach. Spinach is a money food. That is right, a MONEY food. So this recipe is a great one for helping to bring growth to financial prospects or investments. It is also great if you are in need of a raise. Just remember to think clearly, meditate on what it is you need and that it harm none.

Ostara Spinach Quiche

9 Eggs
1/2 cup Milk
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 8oz package chopped Frozen Spinach thawed
1/2 Yellow Onion chopped fine
1 cup shredded Swiss Cheese
1 refrigerated Ready Pie Crust
pinch dried Parsley
Salt & Pepper to taste

Heat oven to 350. Form pie crust in 9″ pie pan and set aside. Beat together eggs and milk with wire whisk. Set aside. In a medium skillet, heat oil and sauté onion for 3 minutes or until tender not brown. Add spinach and sauté another 5 minutes. Add spinach mixture to beaten eggs and beat again until combined. Add salt and pepper. Stir in 3/4 cup of the cheese. Pour into prepared pie crust. Top with remaining cheese. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until center is set.

About Dawn:
Dawn Hunt is the owner/president of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery. Her products include everything from Herb and Energy infused olive oils to cooking tools. Her self-published cookbook has sold more than 250 copies in 6 months. She is currently working on a compilation Cookbook with Christopher Penczak and the Temple of Witchcraft called “Tastes of the Temple” due out in 2011. She teaches classes on Kitchen Witchery, Food Magic, and Seasonal Cooking on the East Coast. To find out more information, to purchase products, or for booking visit www.CucinaAurora.com.

Steamed Sponge Cake Pudding with Raisins and Further Adventures in Food

by Administrator, posted in Food/Drink, Geek Stuff, Television

In an attempt to not get flagged by every spam filter known to man I decided to call this post “Steamed Sponge Cake Pudding with Raisins” when there is really a better, more accurate, and funnier title out there on the horizon. Let’s just say, that this British sponge cake pudding is now called Spotted Richard by those who don’t wish to offend. That’s right, a chance encounter at a grocery store led me to have in my possession Spotted, cough, cough, “Richard” in a can! Better still, microwaveable! Oh, the wrongness doesn’t end there my friends…..

When visiting Rochester, NY my husband and I stopped in at one of the many Wegmans grocery stores in the area. I loved their international food section! After recently complaining of my inability to find hominy (dried or canned) I quickly snatched up a bag of dried hominy from their Latin section. Oh hominy, how I’ve missed you! Well as we wandered further down the aisle we came across a British/English section. And there is was…..Heinz’s Spotted Dick….in a can. Just in case that didn’t seem wrong enough, there was a proud oval on the can, proclaiming it….microwaveable! I had to have it!

Spotted Dick....in a can.

Now, as the owner of a canned Spotted Dick I set about preparing it. Let me first explain that I have never had Spotted Dick. Honestly, until seeing the can on the shelf I wasn’t even sure what Spotted Dick was! I’m going to guess that there is a proud Spotted Dick tradition in Britain, but this is America baby, so I bought my Spotted Dick in a can thanks to Heinz, and decided that the only appropriate preparation technique for this oddity would be the microwave. To the microwave!

Spotted Dick, under glass. How classy.

Preparing it was super easy. Open up the top with a can opener, turn it out onto a microwave safe plate, cover with a microwave safe bowl, cook on high for two minutes, then let it sit for two minutes.

And the big reveal!

A microwaved Spotted Dick.

It looks just awful, doesn’t it? I mean, unappealing in every way. Truth told, it wasn’t too bad. It tasted like a very moist, odd sponge cake variant of gingerbread with raisins. Also, crazy sweet. For about 5 minutes of effort, and weeks of Spotted Dick in a can jokes, it was a fantastic purchase. I’m not sure if I would pick up another one or not. Guess we’ll find out the next time I make it to a Wegmans in Rochester.

As long as we’re on the subject of British food, indulge me in a moment of BBC science fiction geekiness. I’m a big fan of the show “Red Dwarf”. While in college, I watched it every week with friends. I always tell my sci-fi inclined friends that I would suck up having to sit through “Doctor Who” so that I could watch “Red Dwarf”. And despite that my husband still married me, it must be love. Even more evidence of my husband’s love was that he bought me the whole series on DVD, which he watched with me.

One of his favorite characters, as well as mine, is Ace Rimmer, the heroic alternate universe version of Arnold Rimmer, the whiny, annoying regular character in the series. Ace Rimmer’s catchphrase is “Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast!” Like the geeks we are, my husband and I now frequently tell each other, “Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast!” So while on our cruise last year, when my husband saw on the breakfast menu “Smoked Kipper” he felt obligated to try it. Holy crap was it good!

So, inspired by my British food acquisition he decided to buy the things he needed to recreate his Smoked Kipper breakfast. It was tough, capers had to be bought, tomatoes had to be sliced and fried, potatoes cooked, and hardest of all was getting the smoked kipper. (In case the sarcasm wasn’t apparent, it was pretty simple.) In the end, our smoked kippers came to us from the exotic locale of Jersey City. Glad we hit the international food aisle!

Brought to you by Jersey City, NJ.

Anyway, here are the fruits of his labor. I know, it looks like the least desirable breakfast ever, but it tasted fantastic! Amazingly good! Give it a try sometime!

Sure, it looks like hell, but it tastes great!

Monster Energy Drink Logo Decoded

by Administrator, posted in Food/Drink, Magic/Occult, Symbols

Energy drinks have always scared me. I don’t know why, but I’ve always been nervous about trying any of them. Seriously, when did a breakfast of brownies and Mountain Dew stop being enough of a pick me up? Man, I miss my teenaged metabolism. So anyway, I’m a big energy drink ‘fraidy cat and I admit to it. However, if Suroh is to be believed, perhaps there is another more complex reason to explain my aversion to Monster Energy Drink.

Monster Energy Drink Logo Decoded

By Suroh
(Article was originally published on 12/4/10 at http://thesurohorus.tk/ and is used with the author’s permission.)
At some point, unbeknownst to me, Suroh’s website disappeared. However, we already had permission and the article so we have opted to still publish it. Update: The site is back up at this new address.

An Unholy Sacrament?Monster Energy drinks logo has deep roots in esoteric symbolism, if we examine the logo in total we will see how even a seemingly simple logo can hold vast amounts of symbolism. I would like to thank Freeman of FreemanTv.com for pointing this out to the public. After looking at the claws and noticing the hidden 666 symbolism I began to see much more hidden right before my eyes. I then decided to do a complete breakdown of the logo.

666 and the Claw Marks

When I first heard about the symbolism in the Monster logo, it was about a hidden 666 encoded within the 3 claw marks. At first this seems extremely far fetched and arbitrary, but when we examine the 3 claw marks which are glowing, they clearly resemble the 6th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet Vau (ו).

Vav

In the beginning of Creation, when Infinite Light filled all reality, G d contracted His Light to create hollow empty space, as it were, the “place” necessary for the existence of finite worlds. Into this vacuum God drew down, figuratively speaking, a single line of light, from the Infinite Source. This ray of light is the secret of the letter vav. Though the line is singular in appearance, it nonetheless possesses two dimensions, an external as well as an internal force, both of which take part in the process of Creation and the continuous interaction between the creative power and created reality.

The external force of the line is the power to differentiate and separate the various aspects of reality, thereby establishing hierarchical order, up and down, within Creation. The internal force of the line is the power to reveal the inherent interinclusion of the various aspects of reality, one in the other, thereby joining them together as an organic whole. This property of the letter vav, in its usage in Hebrew, is referred to as vav hachibur, the vav of connection”–”and.” The first vav of the Torah–”In the beginning G d created the heavens and [vav] the earth” serves to join spirit and matter, heaven and the earth, throughout Creation. This vav, which appears at the beginning of the sixth word of the Torah, is the twenty second letter of the verse. It alludes to the power to connect and interrelate all twenty-two individual powers of Creation, the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet from alef to tav. (The word et [which appears before the two instances of the word “the” in this verse, and is spelled alef-tav] is generally taken to represent all the letters of the alphabet, from alef to tav. Our Sages interpret the word in this verse to include all the various objects of Creation present within heaven and earth.)

To those who have no knowledge whatsoever of the Hebrew alphabet this encoded symbol would go unnoticed forever. It is also interesting to note that the letter Vau in Arabic looks like a 6 or 9 (و). In most ancient languages each letter had a numerical value and a symbolic value. In the case of the letter Vav its value is 6 and its symbol is Pin or Hook. As there are three claw marks or Vavs this can then be interpreted as “666″ numerically using classic Hebrew Gematria.

Here we have a simple rendering of the logo, but instead of the claw marks I remade the logo with the letter Vau. The similarities are extremely visible. The number 666 is associated with the Sun, as it is the Sum of all the numbers in its Magical Square. The glowing effect supports the Sun symbolism. Next I looked deeper into the meaning of the Vau. In Kabbalah each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is also associated with one of the 22 Trump cards of the Tarot. In the case of Vau it is associated with the Hierophant card.

V – The Hierophant

Path of Vau 16 in the Tree of Life Sun in Sagittarius as a symbol for the teacher of inner values, Jupiter in Pisces as the vision of eternity
Zodiac: Taurus
Tree of life: From Chokmah to Chesed
Element: Earth
Number: 5 as quintessence, the power that exceeds the four elements

The Hierophant is a symbol for a world of belief and confession, may it be a church, a sect or an occult society. He’s the pope, the druid or the High Priest in a system of creeds and dogmas. He represents the religious and intellectual tradition of a person, and may be the one the person is born to it or possibly the one who has chosen it by himself.

In the positive aspect, the Hierophant represents the search for knowledge and illumination, the desire to study creed and dogma instead of simply accepting them, to research and achieve further development. It also stands for the deep fulfillment someone can find when really trusting their own beliefs.

In a negative view, the Hierophant can stand for bigotry, the blind faith in dogma, intolerance towards everything different from the own confession. It can also mean gullibility, running to any kind of new belief just because the traditional one is suddenly considered boring or unsatisfying.

Stylized Letters

The first thing I noticed was the odd style of two letters in the word below the claw marks. The letter O in Monster has a t or cross over a U or half circle, this is to symbolize Saturn as it is an interpretation of the two shapes of the Saturn Symbol ♄. The symbol of Saturn itself can be broken down into two elements: a half circle and a cross. The half-circle meaning Soul (Spirit) and the cross meaning matter. As we move through the word the next letter that stands out is the letter “S”. This letter symbol is more apparent it looks very much like a “5″. On the Tree of Life the 5th Sephira is Strength (Geburah) which is associated with Mars and its attributes. In summary the word Monster contains hidden symbols corresponding to the planets Mars, and Saturn.

Planetary Energy

Here we have chart of the planets the associated correspondences (Sphere of Influence, Color Associations, and God Name).

Conclusion

By taking the above information into account we can now apply the symbolism to the Tree of Life and see the deeper meaning the symbol and the effect it is designed to create. The logo of Monster Energy drinks also has 3 hidden planetary glyphs aligning it with the Sun, Saturn and Mars which interestingly enough are all closely inter-connected on the Tree of Life. As we can see it forms a Triangle on the Left hand side of the tree which is the Negative or Baneful Side of the tree. Strength (Mars), 666 (Sun), Saturn (Material Power) and the Search for inner knowledge and enlightenment. All by simple changes in the letters and shapes which can and do go unnoticed by the everyday customer.

How good can this drink be for you after all?

Can the energies focused by the symbol on the cans influence the drinkers to be more negative and violent?

You decide!

To see more articles like this, visit http://suroh.tk/

Shepherd’s Pie with The Magical Buffet

by Administrator, posted in Food/Drink

I rarely do follow ups on stories we publish. I’m not certain why, but I suspect it has something to do with me being equal parts absentminded and lazy bastard. However, an invitation to my parents for dinner at our apartment presented me with a chance to follow up on an article written for The Magical Buffet by Dawn Hunt.

On December 19, 2010 Dawn Hunt, the fantastic lady behind Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery, offered up some thoughts on magical cooking and shared with us a recipe for Shepherd’s Pie. I decided that dinner with my parents would be a perfect occasion to try out her recipe.

When I woke up that morning our apartment smelled delicious. Wonderful meaty, rosemary aromas were wafting into every nook. Confused I wandered out to the kitchen to find that my husband was already cooking up the meat mix and making the mashed potatoes! He figured we’d make the two parts up in the morning, and then just put it together and throw it in the oven when it was close to dinner time. That worked out great, and even better for me because I ended up doing next to nothing for dinner aside from eating it!

Behold! There be Shepherd's Pie!

We all declared the Shepherd’s Pie a success, however everyone but myself found it to be a touch bland. Here’s the thing about that, I’ve been suffering from some extreme indigestion and heartburn lately so Jim cut back on the amount of onion and garlic that went into the dish. Given my body’s condition, the meal was great, but I suspect if he had used the full amounts of onion and garlic everyone else would have found it to be more flavorful. Sorry folks! My bad!

Anyway, I thought I’d let you know that Hunt’s recipe has now been taste tested and approved by The Magical Buffet! I’m hoping to have Dawn back again to share more kitchen witchery and recipes with us, until then, I really need to get around to trying Deborah Blake’s rum cake recipe…..

Geek Month in Review: December 2010

by Administrator, posted in Books, Food/Drink, Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Movies, Science, Television

By JB Sanders

All the Geek that’s fit to Ho Ho HO.

Virtual Worlds Made Easy
All you need to visit this virtual space is a web browser. Seriously.

Strange Terrestrial Life
NASA announced that a form of bacterium that uses arsenic instead of sulphur as one of its basic building blocks has been discovered. This is odd because no other form of life on the planet — not mushrooms, not bugs, not animals, not us, not anything (even slime-mold!) — is built that way. Freaky!

Fly-over of New York City
You’re expecting this to be some footage from 1982 or something, right? I mean, come on! Who can do a fly-over of NYC in this day and age? These guys, that’s who. In an RC airplane at 7am in the morning (when regular air traffic is light). And sure, the TSA and NYC police talked to them — but no arrests or nasty exchanges. Amazing!

Oh, and for the RC enthusiasts out there, a link to the setup they used.

New Leonardo DaVinci Codes Discovered
Well, not “new” exactly. “Previously unknown” is probably a better way to put that. Sill, Leonardo was one of the biggest geeks of all time, so any new codes from him is note-worthy. This is some more of his un-deciphered mirror-writing. Good stuff!

You Got Virus in My Battery!
Scientists are working on a way to take a virus that typically afflicts tobacco plants, coat the little beasts in nano-particles of metal and stuff them into batteries. Because there are so many of them and they’re so small, the coated viruses will provide much more surface area for the electrode, dramatically increasing the battery’s storage capacity. Nifty!

Real Light Cycle
So these guys built a real working replica of the Light Cycles from Tron (and not to be confused with the flyers from Return of the Jedi, like I did the first time I heard of these things). Neat looking, but it looks about as maneuverable as their movie counterparts.

Who Started It All?
Ever wondered who created the longest running science-fiction tv show? Want to see some still pictures of them? Click away!

If Day-Old Soup is Better … How Awesome is This?
Archaeologists in China uncovered 2,400-year-old soup. That’s right, it’s been stewing for 24 centuries. That’s some concentrated awesome right there. The soup was found still liquid in a sealed bronze container.

Burning Liquid Sulfur: Blue Flames!
Ever wonder what a sulphur mine inside a volcano might look like? Wonder no more — awesome photos ahead!

Lego Antikythera Mechanism*
That’s right, you read that correctly. Combine the worlds best make-it-yourself toy (Legos!) with an ancient device discovered in clay jars in a shipwreck. What’s the result? Pure concentrated awesome!

Lovecraft eBooks*
Did you know his stuff was public domain now? No? It is! Download away!

Map of the World: Facebook Style
Fancy ray-of-light visualization of all the users on Facebook, based on geographic location on the globe. Bonus: dense math explanation about how the map was generated based on friendship relationships. Neat!

Lost Your Head? Found!
Among the types of “antiques” and “collectibles”, a mummified severed head is not one that immediately makes my “must have” list. Anyway, what a great find to discover that your mummified head is Kingly. Woo!

What Happened to the Water??
Ever wonder what Niagara Falls would look like without all that pesky water everywhere? Wonder no more!! Bonus: grainy 60’s video.

Air Condition the Whole Outside
You’ve heard your Dad say it countless times, but now it’s Real. Some brain trusts have come up with a sculpture that produces cooler air simply by the nature of it’s structure. Oh, and of course, it’s made from 3D-printed sand. The idea being you set up a few hundred of these near buildings and micro-climate those hot days away.

Changing Wallpaper
You’re expecting some kind of funky, new-fangled “paper” that users computers and gizmos, right? Nope. It’s just standard-old wallpaper with various color images overlaid on it — and then depending on what light you provide, you get different images. It’s almost Victorian!

Fish Keys
Great little stop-motion animation of underwater zen — all done using various metal implements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CWOebTREVU

You Want Real Faces? You Can’t Handle Real Faces!*
Behind the scenes of the fantastic-looking, realistic faces in the new video game LA Noir. Figure out if someone is lying to you by actually looking at the character’s face in-game. Video link is a behind-the-scenes of the tech.

A Very Zombie Holiday*
Not sure about baking etiquette during a zombie outbreak? Have no fear, this instructional 1950’s-style video is here. Best line? “Kids? It’s time to give Gammy her Christmas gift.”
Bonus points for the Serenity/Firefly reference.

* These links thanks to Alex. Thanks, Alex!

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog: http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com

Hooters and Goddess Worship?

by Administrator, posted in Food/Drink, Mythology, Symbols

Here’s the deal folks, I like Hooters. The restaurant, not the anatomy. However I think we can all agree that Salma Hayek’s are quite magnificent. Much the way people say they read Playboy for the articles (and let’s all admit that occasionally they do have great articles), people say they go to Hooters for the food. And you know what folks? Holy crap is their chicken delicious! I never had an aversion to Hooters, but I had just never found the reason to go there to eat. Then one weekday afternoon while out and about with my boyfriend (who became my husband) it was suggested that we go to Hooters for lunch. We had a pretty waitress, who honestly was lacking a little in the hooter department, that I kept thinking must be freezing in her outfit. It was also a touch odd to realize I was the only woman that was a customer. I had their Buffalo Chicken Sandwich and proclaimed that it was in fact the finest Buffalo Chicken Sandwich I’d ever had. It was good enough that I’m actually bummed that there is no longer a Hooters restaurant in the area. Sigh….

Anyway, my affection for Hooters is why I was so intrigued when I found an article called “Hooters and Goddess Worship?” on the Surohorus website. (Update: The site is now found here.) Despite admitting to never going to a Hooters (a bit of honesty I appreciate), Suroh makes some interesting points with regards to some of the symbolism associated with the restaurant chain. And although I doubt that by frequenting the establishment you run the risk of “eating something inedible and dying”, I am amused to now associate Hooters with Athena. When you consider the level of influence some of those waitresses have on their customers, perhaps them embodying a bit of the divine isn’t as far off as previously thought.

Hooters and Goddess Worship?

By Suroh
(Article was originally published on 11/28/10 at http://thesurohorus.tk/ and is used with the author’s permission.)

Introduction

Hooters restaurant is a standard sports bar aside from one thing, the wait staff is primarily made up of extremely attractive women usually scantily clothed. I myself have never been to a Hooters before but I am more than sure most males growing up in North America have heard about the chain on TV or in the movies. The attractive women are more than capable to keep everyone minds occupied for the time within the doors of a Hooters restaurant as the “Customers” are kept in a daze fantasizing about the waitresses. Little do the men know they are taking part in an ancient rite of goddess worship.

Sexual Innuendo

The name Hooters is a term originally used to refer to an Owl. In the modern age it has been known to take a quite a different meaning…or is it just understood too simply?

Hooter
•One that hoots, especially an owl.
•hooters Vulgar Slang. A woman’s breasts.

Sex sells right? It is common practice for advertising and marketers to veil sexual innuendo to keep the prospective customers attention. Proof is this is the complete disconnect of commercials themselves and the actual product they are actually selling. It’s the old magicians trick. Occupy the mark (person) with something trivial that will draw them in order to manipulate them better towards your real goal. It happens every day. For example buy one get one free, 20% Off*On Selected Merchandise only. Almost always it comes with a catch where the deal is no where near as good as what was claimed. In my experience utilities (Phone and Internet) companies are the worse known for this. But that’s a whole article in itself.

The Symbol of the Goddess

The logo for the Hooters chain is an Owl. Owls have been identified with many ancient gods, for example Athena in Greek mythology the goddess of war, civilization, wisdom, strength, strategy, crafts, justice and skill. Hera, another ancient Greek goddess, is also associated with the Owl.

Hera (HEE-ruh or HER-uh), Roman name Juno.
Hera was the goddess of marriage, the wife of Zeus and the Queen of the Olympians. Enemy of Heracles, she sent snakes to attack him when he was still an infant and later stirred up the Amazons against him when he was on one of his quests. On the other hand, Hera aided the hero Jason.

In Greek mythology, Hera was the reigning female goddess of Olympus because she was Zeus’s wife. But her worship is actually far older than that of her husband. It goes back to a time when the creative force we call “God” was conceived of as a woman. The Goddess took many forms, among them that of a bird.

Then when we take a look at the symbol from a global perspective of all beliefs/symbolism about the Owl, a much different pattern is discovered. In many cultures including the Aztecs, Africa, and Arabia the owl is considered a unbalanced symbol or a “negative” omen as it is a creature of the night and thus darkness. In essence the Owl represents unbalanced Male force. This again supports the exact environment existing when inside a Hooters restaurant.

Conclusion

Almost every public place we go has currents of metaphysical energy brought about and utilized to create and encourage certain types or styles of behavior. In most cases this is not negative or positive, it just is, but most importantly in order for it to remain neutral it is good to be aware of the influences being pressed upon you just as you monitor the types of things you eat in order to not eat something inedible and die.

To see more articles like this, visit http://suroh.tk/.