Featured article

Anubis is the god of funerary rites, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld, in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head.

Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed different roles in various contexts. Depicted as a protector of graves as early as the First Dynasty (c. 3100 – c. 2890 BC), Anubis was also an embalmer. By the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BC) he was replaced by Osiris in his role as lord of the underworld. One of his prominent roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife. He attended the weighing scale during the "Weighing of the Heart," in which it was determined whether a soul would be allowed to enter the realm of the dead.

Anubis is one of the most frequently depicted and mentioned gods in the Egyptian pantheon, however, no relevant myth involved him.

(Full Article...)

Did you know...

The Set-pig

• ... that the decan Aryt is depicted as Set in the form of a pig?
• ... that the Three of Cups tarot card is favorable for health?
• ... that Libra is the only zodiac sign represented by an object.
• ... that Bad Lord Soules is said to have defeated a Northumbrian giant, The Cout o' Keilder?
• ... that The Satanic Bible has sold over 1 million copies?
• ... that the angel Adnachiel governs the human thighs and buttocks?
• ... that Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot took five years to complete?
• ... that Egyptian astrology is keyed to the cycle of Sirius?

This month in history Saint Joan of Arc May 2 - Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft. (1536) May 2 - German Jesuit scholar and author Athanasius Kircher is born. (1602) May 4 - Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance. (1415) May 7 - Argentine folk saint Eva Perón is born. (1919) May 8 - Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans, turning the tide of the Hundred Years' War. (1429) May 9 - Austrian painter Christoph Haizmann successfully retrieves his diabolical pact from Satan with the help of an exorcist. (1678) May 9 - Doug Headrick, a 12-year-old boy, disappears from Devil's Gate Dam in Pasadena, California. (1960) May 10 - Antoine Court de Gébelin, author who wrote an early treatise on the Tarot, dies in Paris. (1784) May 13 - Psychic Jeane Dixon predicts the assassination of John F. Kennedy in an issue of Parade Magazine. (1956) May 15 - French author Jean-Baptiste Pitois, who coined the terms Major Arcana and Minor Arcana, is born. (1811) May 16 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc. (1920) May 19 - Arthur Edward Waite, creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot, dies. (1942) May 23 - A merchant of Shiraz, the forerunner of the Baháʼí Faith, announces that he is a prophet and founds a religious movement. (1844) May 23 - German physician and astrologer, Franz Mesmer, is born. (1734) May 24 - Nicolaus Copernicus dies. (1543) May 26 - Nicholas II becomes the last Tsar of Imperial Russia. (1896) May 31 - Occultist and author Éliphas Lévi dies. (1875)

Featured image Santa Muerte is a female deity and folk saint in Mexican folk Catholicism and Neopaganism. A personification of death, she is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees. Despite condemnation by the Catholic Church, and more recently Evangelical pastors, her cult has become increasingly prominent since the turn of the 21st century. Iconographically, Santa Muerte is a skeleton dressed in female clothes or a shroud, and carrying both a scythe and a globe. Santa Muerte is distinguished as female not by her skeletal form but rather by her attire and hair. The latter was introduced by a believer named Enriqueta Romero. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons (More Images)

Featured Quote "Magick is the art of causing changes in consciousness to occur in accordance with the will." - Dion Fortune

More info

• About the Occult Encyclopedia
• General disclaimer
• Copyright issues