Category: Organizations

Democracy Scorecard

by Administrator, posted in Organizations, Politics

As you’re hopefully aware, midterm elections are approaching. If you read my website regularly, we probably agree that politically things in the United States are not great. Now it is more important than ever to be an informed participant in all our elections, from local to national. There are many organizations that keep tabs on assorted political issues, and today I want to bring Common Cause to your attention.

Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. To that end, Common Cause released its 2022 “Democracy Scorecard,” a tracking resource with the positions of all members of Congress on campaign finance reform, ethics and transparency, and voting rights legislation. The 2022 Democracy Scorecard assesses U.S. Senators’ votes on and co-sponsorship of 15 pieces of legislation and other actions, including confirming Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, a nonpartisan investigation into the January 6 attack on our country, the DISCLOSE Act, and reforming the filibuster to pass voting rights. The 2022 Democracy Scorecard graded U.S. Representatives’ votes on and co-sponsorship of 18 pieces of legislation, including the impeachment of Donald Trump, creation of the nonpartisan January 6 Select Committee, the Protecting our Democracy Act, and the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act.

A few of the Scorecard highlights are that 101 members of Congress had a perfect score this year, a more than 70% increase over the number of members of Congress who had perfect scores (58) in 2020. Also, seven states have both U.S. Senators earning a perfect score: Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, and Vermont.

Want to see how representatives from your state scored? Just go to the Democracy Scorecard website and enter your address!

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The Little Book of Satanism

by Administrator, posted in Books, First Amendment, Magic/Occult, Organizations, Religion, Reviews

Not to sound too much like Jerry Seinfeld, but what’s the deal with Satanism? Particularly, what’s the deal with our culture’s hang up about it? The answer seems obvious to most. Satan equals evil, so Satanism equals bad. It appears to be basic math, but it’s not that straightforward when you look closer at the history of Satan and those who have chosen to ally themselves with the Devil. Fortunately, alternative culture journalist La Carmina has laid it all out for us in her book, “The Little Book of Satanism: A Guide to Satanic History, Culture, and Wisdom.”

It is no easy task to unweave the tapestry that creates what Satanism is today, but La Carmina does an excellent job untangling the web and laying out a timeline for us to follow. “The Little Book of Satanism” begins in a time when there was no Satan, takes us to Satan’s Judeo-Christian debut, discusses some name branding with Lucifer, explores how “others” were by default tools of Satan in the Middle Ages, more branding courtesy of Dante and Faust, the witch hunts, the Hellfire Club, Satanic Panic, and public practitioners and organizations of today. It is an interesting journey, and once given context from the author’s research, it seems inevitable that there would be Satanists today.

La Carmina’s work explains many of the common symbols and beliefs of the modern Satanist, and highlights individuals and organizations of the past and present. You’ll find LaVey and the Church of Satan, the Process Church of the Final Judgment, Aleister Crowley, and The Satanic Temple. In fact, Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves provides an elegant foreward for “The Little Book of Satanism.”

In “The Little Book of Satanism,” author La Carmina makes a compelling argument for modern Satanism and the role a modern take on Satan could play in your personal spiritual practices. If you’re even slightly curious, I highly recommend getting yourself a copy of this book.

You can learn more here.

Get your own copy here. (This is an affiliate link to my Bookshop, which supports independent bookstores throughout the United States. If you use this link to purchase the book, I will make a small commission at no additional cost to you.)

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The Bavarian Illuminati

by Administrator, posted in Books, Magic/Occult, Organizations, Reviews

In a world of sexy book porn, today we’re looking at some of the sexiest of sexy, “The Bavarian Illuminati: The Rise and Fall of the World’s Most Secret Society” by Rene Le Forestier and translated by Jon E. Graham. This is 912 pages of pulse pounding intrigue and yawn inducing bureaucracy that was originally published in 1915 and hasn’t been available in English until now. Until now!

Inner Traditions spared no expense in bringing “The Bavarian Illuminati” to English speaking audiences. The text is presented in hard cover, with a built-in ribbon bookmark. This book is informative, but could also be brandished as a weapon if necessary. But enough foreplay, let’s get into it.

Le Forestier utilized as much primary source material in researching this book as he could find. Bavarian academic Adam Weishaupt founded the short-lived Bavarian Order of the Illuminati in 1776, mainly as a reaction to the Jesuit stranglehold on education in Bavaria at the time and his disappointment in his attempts to join the Freemasons. An intelligent, but vain individual, Weishaupt’s grand design would have floundered and died quickly, but fortunately for him, Adolph, Baron von Knigge came along and helped organize the Illuminati first by applying his Freemason knowledge to the order and then creating the strategy of taking over Freemasonry from the inside out. Even with this, the order didn’t quite last 10 years.

Yet the idea of the Illuminati and their efforts to sabotage the Church and subvert the German Freemasons planted seeds that still bear fruit today of a global organization with its tendrils in everything from the government to the stock market. In reading “The Bavarian Illuminati” Le Forestier clearly presents the flaw in this conspiracy in the fact that the Weishaupt’s Illuminati couldn’t keep itself secret for a decade, let alone imagining this bickering hive of egos could keep a secret for hundreds of years.

“The Bavarian Illuminati” by Rene Le Forestier is not an inexpensive book. However, if you’re looking for a deep dive into the origins of the infamous Bavarian Illuminati and the assorted other secret societies of the era, this would be money well spent.

You can learn more here.

Get your own copy here. (This is an affiliate link to my Bookshop, which supports independent bookstores throughout the United States. If you use this link to purchase the book, I will make a small commission at no additional cost to you.)

Do you enjoy The Magical Buffet? Considering supporting The Magical Buffet on Patreon! For only $5 a month you’ll receive monthly tarot/oracle forecasts, classes, and behind the scenes updates! Https://www.patreon.com/magicalbuffet

Think Before You Pink 2021

by Administrator, posted in Events, Organizations

As most of you know, one of my favorite activist/charity groups is Breast Cancer Action. So, each year I promote their Think Before You Pink campaign. This is an annual event to bring attention to the Pinkwashing centered around October, aka breast cancer awareness month. Pinkwasher is a term coined by Breast Cancer Action in 2002. It is a company or organization that claims to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon product, but at the same time produces, manufactures and/or sells products containing chemicals that are linked to the disease. (Text from the BCA website.)

Susan G. Komen®, one of the largest breast cancer organizations in the world, has a history of minimizing the environmental harms linked to breast cancer — and their pinkwashing partners like Bank of America are fueling the problem.

Breast Cancer Action’s 2021 Think Before You Pink® campaign is calling out Komen’s partnership with Bank of America and the Susan G. Komen® Pink Ribbon Banking Program, which is comprised of both a credit and debit card. These cards use the goodwill of the breast cancer community to increase Bank of America’s profits, which fund the cancer-causing fossil fuel industry.

A Line of Credit or Pipeline to Cancer?

Every purchase made through the Pink Ribbon Banking Program goes toward the $1.5 million that Bank of America has pledged to Susan G. Komen® between 2021 and 2023.

Here’s the problem: These banking cards emblazoned with the notorious pink ribbon are a blatant example of pinkwashing.

Bank of America is a top financial contributor to the fossil fuel industry, an industry that increases our risk for breast cancer through environmental exposures produced all along the fossil fuel continuum. We are exposed to chemicals such as benzene, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dioxins, and PFAS along the continuum, from extraction to processing, to exposure to fossil fuel products and byproducts.

Susan G. Komen® is pinkwashing by accepting money from a Pink Ribbon Banking Program that also grows the profits of Bank of America, an institution that funds the cancer-causing fossil fuel industry. Susan G. Komen® cannot claim to care about ending breast cancer while pocketing MILLIONS from an industry that causes the disease.

Fossil fuel infrastructure disproportionately harms BIPOC and low-income communities. This is due to decades of racist urban planning practices, industrial zoning, and lending practices that lead to communities of color being disproportionately exposed to high levels of air, water, and soil pollution.

Bank of America currently finances a tar sands pipeline, commonly known as Line 3, which runs through Anishinaabe land in Minnesota and violates the treaty rights of many Indigenous folx. The pipeline, and the spills it has already caused in production, expose Indigenous communities, and all of us, to high levels of hazardous air and water pollution. Additionally, we cannot ignore the human rights violations that occur in erecting pipeline infrastructure.

Water protectors are over-policed, criminalized, and subject to state-sanctioned violence for protesting pipeline construction. Furthermore, under the oil boom, Indigenous communities have reported increased rates of human trafficking and missing and murdered Indigenous women in their communities.

Bank of America claims to care about the environment yet they continue to invest in this outdated, profit-driven energy source that is rapidly destroying our planet and our health. A recent report from Rainforest Action Network found Bank of America was one of the top three financial institutions to fund worldwide fossil fuel expansion between 2016 and 2020. In 2020 alone, Bank of America invested over $42.1 billion in fossil fuel projects.

The financial industry’s continued support of fossil fuel projects proliferates a legacy of climate destruction, environmental racism, and public health negligence. The Pink Ribbon Banking Program’s pink ribbon cards not only distract from the catastrophic devastation that is being caused; the program also exploits breast cancer for good publicity. But as always, we see right through it!

Card Declined: Stop Pink Ribbon Banking

Komen has partnered with the Bank of America for over a decade and has received more than $10.8 million since 2009. The bank is a National Presenting Partner of Komen’s 3-Day Walk®, Race for the Cure®, and More Than Pink Walk®. Komen’s continued partnership with a top fossil fuel investor exposes us to toxic chemicals, props up fossil fuel industries, violates human rights, and validates pinkwashing.

It’s safe to say that making money from an industry that puts profit before people and funds fossil fuels is fundamental to how Komen meets their budget goals, and it’s time for that to come to an end.

Komen has a new bold goal to reduce the number of breast cancer deaths by 50% in the United States by the year 2026. This is a meaningless goal if they continue to allow industries to CAUSE the very disease they claim to care about ending.

Susan G. Komen® claims to be “where the end of breast cancer begins.” If this is true, they must stop banking on breast cancer and divest from pinkwashing! Phase-out the Pink Ribbon Banking Program with Bank of America, a primary funder of the fossil fuel industry—an industry that’s fueling the climate and breast cancer crises!

Learn more about Think Before You Pink here.

Think Before You Pink 2020

by Administrator, posted in Organizations, Politics

Every October I highlight the work of Breast Cancer Action and their October “Think Before You Pink” campaign, and this year is no different. After taking on pharmaceutical companies and major manufacturers, Breast Cancer Action is taking on the federal government.

From Breast Cancer Action:

For 30 years, Breast Cancer Action has worked to address and end the breast cancer epidemic. We’ve pushed back on corporations, non-profit organizations, and government agencies that have lowered regulatory standards, undermined safety and efficacy in new treatments, spread misinformation, and empty awareness, and limited access to quality affordable healthcare. We have been doing this work and now it’s time for the administration to step up and do theirs!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an important time to examine what our public health officials are doing—and failing to do—to prevent and mitigate the devastation that breast cancer causes. The current administration, from the President down to agency leaders, has failed to take on the breast cancer epidemic. We see the far-reaching failures of the administration most notably in these four federal agencies:

The EPA focuses on profit at the expense of environmental and public health; the FDA is not doing enough for patients and consumers; the NCI ignores the environmental causes of breast cancer, and the DOJ intends to invalidate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) through a Supreme Court case that will be heard in November.

The federal government has an essential role in addressing the breast cancer epidemic and protecting women’s health, but instead of implementing real change, the administration implements only “pink policies.”

Pink Policies
Pink policies are political pinkwashing in action. They are policies, or a lack of policies, that fail to protect people living with breast cancer and increase breast cancer risk for all people, especially for women, people of color, and low-income people.

These types of “pink policies” are some the most unabashed and ultimately devastating forms of pinkwashing we’ve ever dealt with, in their far-reaching failures and systemic-level harms.

Join us to call out the administrations failures in leadership in addressing the breast cancer epidemic!

The Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency favors industry and ignores public health science. It has rolled back nearly 70 critical environmental and public health rules and regulations, with at least 30 more rollbacks in process this year. This blatant disregard for human health knowingly and directly increases women’s exposure to known and suspected carcinogens.

Stay tuned, action launches Monday, October 5th!

The Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration allows drugs, devices, and other consumer products to be rushed to market to benefit industry. Consumers, including breast cancer patients, who purchase FDA regulated drugs, devices, and products are misled to believe they are safe.

Stay tuned, action launches Monday, October 12th!

The National Cancer Institute
NCI’s purported mission is to lead, conduct, and support cancer research to advance scientific knowledge and help all people live longer, healthier lives. NCI’s website, accessible to both clinicians and the public, is a go-to resource for cancer prevention, but the agency leaves out critical information on environmental links to breast cancer and instead focuses on risk factors that are immutable, such as aging and family history of the disease.

Stay tuned, action launches Monday, October 19th!

The Department of Justice
The Attorney General is working to invalidate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in a Supreme Court case that will be heard in November, the impacts of which would be devastating for the 29 million people covered by the ACA, and the nearly 54 million Americans with preexisting conditions, including breast cancer. Instead of attacking our health care system we need leaders who push for ensuring universal access to affordable, high quality healthcare for all.

Stay tuned, action launches Monday, October 26th!

The Pink’d Administration
Breast cancer is a social justice issue and public health crisis that urgently needs to be addressed. We need our leaders to implement policies that will ensure fewer women develop breast cancer and that no community bears a disproportionate burden of diagnosis or death from this disease.

This administration’s aggressive deregulation efforts, lack of oversight, dissemination of misinformation, and efforts to dismantle access to quality and affordable health care exacerbate systemic inequities that are the foundation of American society. The administration’s paternalistic leadership reinforces systemic racism and gender oppression by putting forth policies that are especially dangerous for low-income women and women of color. These communities are already facing disproportionately less protection from toxic exposures, less support from healthcare systems, and less assurance that their breast cancer treatments will be effective.

The time to step up and take breast cancer seriously is long overdue! Take action and tell the administration that we need policies that support public health, not industry interests, anti-science approaches, and corporate profits.

Take Action: Tell the Leaders of this Administration We Can’t Be Pink’d! We need leaders, policies, and regulations that put women living with and at risk of breast cancer first. Join us in demanding our leaders stop minimizing the harsh realities of breast cancer, sidelining science, and reinforcing health inequities!

Learn more and take action here!

The Satanic Temple’s Reproductive Rights Campaign

by Administrator, posted in First Amendment, Organizations, Politics, Religion

Press release from The Satanic Temple

The Satanic Temple (TST) has announced that its religious abortions during the first trimester are exempt from state regulations that hinder access to pregnancy termination services and serve no medical purpose. TST has expressed concerns about the opportunity for its members to perform certain voluntary religious practices, specifically its abortion ritual. Currently, those seeking to terminate a pregnancy around the country may be required to endure unnecessary waiting periods, mandatory counseling, unwanted sonograms, and may be given unscientific reading materials that are designed to elicit shame and sway their decision.

TST argues that these requirements, as well as other legal obligations, are not medically necessary, and insists that Satanists are exempt from these regulations if they undergo first-trimester abortions in accordance with TST’s religious ritual. The satanic abortion ritual involves the recitation of TST’s Third and Fifth Tenets, which celebrate bodily autonomy and the adherence to best scientific practices, along with a personal affirmation that is ceremoniously intertwined with the abortion.

TST bases its assertions of abortion mandate exemptions on the protections provided by State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (RFRA), which generally prohibits the government from substantially interfering with a person’s free exercise of religion. This law was famously affirmed in the 2014 Hobby Lobby case, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, 573 U.S. 682 (2014). Hobby Lobby successfully argued that it did not have to cover the costs of certain contraceptives for their female employees despite being mandated to do so under the Affordable Care Act because its owners held a religious belief that the contraceptives were abortifacients.

TST’s reproductive rights spokesperson, Jane Essex, notes, “Many states have laws that interfere with our members’ ability to practice their religious beliefs. No Christian would accept a mandatory waiting period before they can partake in Communion. No Christian would tolerate a law that insists state counseling is necessary before someone can be baptized. Our members are justly entitled to religious liberty in order to practice our rituals as well.”

Essex adds, “The law is clearly on our side. If RFRA states do not want to recognize our rights, they will ultimately have to claim that our abortions are not satanic. Given that many people fanatically insist that all abortions are satanic, the states’ argument will be very unpopular. Not only will those who deny Satanists their religious freedom be denounced by defenders of liberty, but they will also be detested by those who demonize abortion. Hopefully, states will do the right thing and respect our legal rights.”

These kinds of hijinks that highlight hypocrisy are common of The Satanic Temple. They are probably best known for their work in attempting to get their statue of Baphomet displayed in states that erect monuments of Ten Commandments at court houses (in violation of the separation of church and state). This kind of declaration is all well and good, but it is when a member of the Temple tries to invoke it that the rubber meets the road.

About The Satanic Temple:
The mission of The Satanic Temple is to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate for practical common sense and justice, and be directed by the human conscience to undertake noble pursuits guided by the individual will. For more information on The Satanic Temple, visit https://thesatanictemple.com/.

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Grab Your Wallet

by Administrator, posted in Beauty/Skincare, Food/Drink, Organizations, Politics

Are you frustrated? Angry? Feeling helpless? I know I am. As an individual, I wield extremely limited political power, and as an average American I have more debt than available funds to spend for political influence. That’s why, shortly after Donald Trump was elected, I started following the Grab Your Wallet campaign.

Given that in our country corporations are people, these corporations basically power everything that happens in the United States. Our laws, our regulations, and our elected officials are insanely influenced by what these “people” want. As you might suspect, what corporations want is to make money, as much as possible. What Grab Your Wallet does is keep a real-time, publicly accessible list suggesting companies to boycott until certain specified actions are taken to get removed from the list. That’s right fellow flat broke friends, you can make a difference by joining others in NOT SPENDING MONEY!

To learn more about the Grab Your Wallet Alliance, I encourage you to visit their website. I went to reacquaint myself with where I shouldn’t be spending money and had a few shocks. Let’s just say my makeup and skincare dollars will be getting spent in a different way for the foreseeable future. Here’s a glimpse at some of what I found.

Estee Lauder (and its subsidiaries: Aerin Beauty, Aramis, Aveda, Becca, Bobbi Brown, Bumble and Bumble, Clinique, Darphin, DKNY, Donna Karan, Dr. Jart, Estee Lauder, GlamGlow, Jo Malone, La Mer, Lab Series, La Labo, MAC, Michael Kors, Origins, Rodin olio lusso, Smashbox, Tom Ford Beauty, Too Faced): In 2017 Ron Lauder who sits on Estee Lauder’s board gave $100,000 to Trump Victory in 2017. Grab Your Wallet until they fire Ron Lauder and state that remaining EL execs do not have plans to contribute to any of Trump’s reelection-related efforts, including inauguration celebrations, should he win a 2nd term. Statement can also say “any presidential candidate.” Should it fail to make such a stmt., company will earn a permanent spot on the #GrabYourWallet list.

Louis Vitton (and other LVMH brands: Guerlain, Acqua Di Parma, Parfums Christian Dior, Givenchy Parfums, Benefit Cosmetics, Make Up For Ever, Fresh, KVD Vegan Beauty, Fenty Beauty, Cha Ling, Marc Jacobs Beauty, Ole Henriksen, Bite Beauty, and Kendo Brands…..also, Sephora!!!!!): French businessman and chairman of LVMH—Bernard Arnault—did a photo op with the Trump administration at a Louis Vuitton workshop in Texas. Grab Your Wallet until LVMH issue a statement indicating LVMH regrets the decision to participate in a photo opp w/ the Trump administration & will refrain from participating in photo opps with political candidates / politicians for the remainder of the 2020 election cycle.

Muy! Companies (which owns KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut): Muy! Companies CEO James Bodenstedt has donated more than $400,000 to Trump reelection efforts. Muy! is the franchiser of hundreds of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Wendy’s locations across the United States. Grab Your Wallet until they fire Muy! CEO James Bodenstedt.

Wendy’s: The billionaire chairman of Wendy’s, Nelson Peltz, held a $10 million dollar fundraiser for Trump in February. Grab Your Wallet until, given that Wendy’s Chairman of the Board has already participated significantly in Trump’s reelection efforts, the only way for Wendy’s to get off the boycott list is for any top executive who has assisted and/or donated to Trump to no longer be involved w/ the company.

Wegman’s: They carry Trump wine. Grab Your Wallet until they stop carrying Trump brand goods.

You can find the full, up to date list here. They also provide guidance as to how to reach out to this companies to respectfully express displeasure, and a point of contact for any suggestions of other companies that should go on the list.

Do you enjoy The Magical Buffet? Considering supporting The Magical Buffet on Patreon! For only $5 a month you’ll receive monthly tarot/oracle forecasts, classes, Sarah Sundays, and behind the scenes updates! https://www.patreon.com/magicalbuffet

The Chocolate Scorecard

by Administrator, posted in Food/Drink, Organizations, Politics

A few days ago, I received a press release about 3 advocacy groups that put together a consumer purchasing guide for chocolate. Since I know that A LOT of you are chocolate lovers, I thought you’d want to see it.

Mighty Earth, Green America, and Be Slavery Free published a joint Easter scorecard, analyzing what the world’s biggest chocolate companies are doing to address social and environmental concerns. Godiva receives the “Rotten Egg Award” for its poor performance, and Tony’s Chocolonely receives the “Golden Egg Award” for its efforts to reshape the industry. The Easter scorecard has been published annually by Mighty Earth since 2018.

“Equipped with this scorecard, consumers can buy their Easter chocolates knowing whether their treats are likely tainted by deforestation and human rights abuses,” said Mighty Earth Senior Campaign Director, Etelle Higonnet. “Consumers’ purchases highlight that we, at a time of global crisis, are all truly interconnected and that we are in this together.”

The groups surveyed 13 chocolate companies and eight cocoa suppliers, examining their policies in six of the most pressing sustainability issues facing the chocolate industry: mandatory due diligence; transparency and traceability; deforestation and climate change; agroforestry; living income policies; and child labor, focusing primarily on child labor monitoring and remediation systems.

Godiva was given The Rotten Egg Award for failing to take responsibility for the conditions with which its chocolates are made, despite making huge profits off its chocolate. Godiva rated poorly across the board. In comparison to other chocolate brands, Godiva has made very little progress on social and environmental issues in the last few years.

Tony’s Chocolonely, which sources from the same supplier as Godiva, earned the Golden Egg Award. When comparing the two companies’ efforts, the differences are stark. Tony’s is working to demonstrate that an ethical business model is possible in the chocolate industry and works to support its supplier to improve its operations. Tony’s performed well in every category across the scorecard.

“2020 is a big year in the chocolate sector, two decades since the world’s chocolate manufacturers signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol, an agreement to clean up the industry. Sadly, very little has changed,” said Charlotte Tate, Labor Justice Campaigns Manager at Green America. “Nonetheless, the industry is recognizing voluntary initiatives are not working and more companies are calling for government regulation. Businesses are recognizing that they cannot solve these issues alone and need greater government regulation.”

Roughly 2.1 million children work in cocoa, 96 percent of whom are found to be in hazardous labor according to researchers at Tulane University. In recent years, research from the World Resources Institute found that there has been an increase in deforestation in top cocoa producing countries, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. Cocoa farmers often live in extreme poverty, despite chocolate companies raking in billions every year.

While progress is being made in the direct cocoa supply chains, there are still big concerns about the harmful impacts of companies’ indirect supply chains on the environment, particularly deforestation, and people. There is little transparency about what is occurring in the indirect cocoa supply chains. These issues demonstrate an urgent need for increased efforts to transform the cocoa industry into a sustainable industry.

You can learn more about Mighty Earth here.
You can learn more about Be Slavery Free here.
You can learn more about Green America here.

Do you enjoy The Magical Buffet? Considering supporting The Magical Buffet on Patreon! For only $5 a month you’ll receive monthly tarot/oracle forecasts, classes, and behind the scenes updates! https://www.patreon.com/magicalbuffet

EWG Tap Water Database

by Administrator, posted in Organizations, Politics, Science

I’m a skincare nerd. If you follow me on social media (particularly my personal Twitter and/or Instagram) you already know this. AND, if you’re that kind of nerd, like me, you’ve probably found yourself at the Environmental Working Group website. Why? For their Skin Deep Database (which analyzes the ingredients in skincare and cosmetics). And that’s how I became familiar with the EWG.

They recently released/updated a tool that I thought many of you would be interested in, a tap water database. After the danger with Flint, Michigan’s water supply captured international attention (and then disappeared from the headlines) we all became frighteningly aware that what we don’t know about our tap water can hurt us.

The Environmental Working Group analyzed 32 million water records from across the country to make an easy to use database. This short video discusses all of this.

By going to https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/ you can just type in your zip code and see the results. Better still, the EWG site discusses different types of water filtration methods you can use to help improve your water quality.

Witchcraft & Secret Societies of Rural England

by Administrator, posted in Books, Magic/Occult, Organizations, Reviews, Wiccan/Pagan

I was honestly not prepared for how amazing “Witchcraft & Secret Societies of Rural England: The Magic of Toadmen, Plough Witches, Mummers, and Bonesmen” by Nigel Pennick turned out to be. I was expecting a scholarly text, or perhaps some fantastical legends, but what I ended up with was a perfect mix of both.

Pennick paints a vivid image of an earlier time in rural England. A time when magic and daily life coexisted seamlessly. The line between trade organizations and magical societies were blurred to make the average person’s difficult life a little easier. Millers, gardeners, people who worked with horses, and more, all had their own trade guilds that also functioned as secret societies. Tricks of the trade, as well as beneficial magic, that would aid them in their craft were shared. Entrance into these groups was harrowing and the price of betrayal was potentially quite high.

“Witchcraft & Secret Societies of Rural England” pulls on extensive research as well as the author’s contact and participation with the modern-day remnants, and revivals, of these groups and practices. “Witchcraft & Secret Societies of Rural England” is a fascinating read that I cannot recommend enough.

You can learn more here.

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