Pagan Occult Distribution System Network (PODSnet) was a

neopagan Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or family of religions influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Afric ...

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...

computer network A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ...

of Pagan

Sysop A sysop (; an abbreviation of system operator) is an administrator of a multi-user computer system, such as a bulletin board system (BBS) or an online service virtual community.Jansen, E. & James,V. (2002). NetLingo: the Internet dictionary. Netl ...

s and Sysops carrying Pagan/Magickal/Occult oriented echoes operating on an international basis, with FIDO Nodes in Australia, Canada, Germany, the U.K., and across the USA. PODSnet grew rapidly, and at its height, was the largest privately distributed network of Pagans, Occultists, and other people of an

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...

bent on this planet.PAGAN/OCCULT DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM (P.O.D.S) INFORMATION (Updated 5/11/92)
/ref>

Origins

PODSnet grew out of an Echomail area/public forum (Echo) named MAGICK on FidoNet, which was created by J. Brad Hicks, the Sysop of the Weirdbase

BBS BBS may refer to: Ammunition * BBs, BB gun metal bullets * BBs, airsoft gun plastic pellets Computing and gaming * Bulletin board system, a computer server users dial into via dial-up or telnet; precursor to the Internet * BIOS Boot Specificat ...

back in 1985.J. Brad Hicks FAQ
wb0111
/ref> MAGICK was the 8th Echo conference created on FidoNet. It quickly grew to 12 systems, and then went international when the first Canadian Pagan

, Solsbury Hill (Farrell McGovern, Sysop), joined. This was just a hint of its growth to come. Another early expansion was the addition of two more echoes, MUNDANE and METAPHYSICAL. MUNDANE was created to move all "chat"; that is personal discussions, and other conversations that were of a non-pagan or magickal nature. Simultaneously, METAPHYSICAL was created for long, "article-style" posts of information on full rituals, papers and essays of a Pagan, Occult or Magickal nature. These three were bundled as the "Magicknet Trio". If a BBS carried one, they had to carry all three. At its height, there were over 50 "official" echoes that were considered part of the PODSNet backbone, with several others available.

Structure

Similarly to FidoNet, PODSnet was organized into Zones, Regions, Networks, Nodes and Points; however, unlike FidoNet, these were not geographically determined, as the individual SysOp would determine from where to receive the network feed. Additionally, Points were more common within PODSnet due to the specialized nature of the network. Like many

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

and standards-based technology projects, FidoNet grew rapidly, and then

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods ei ...

ed. The addition of Zones to the Fidonet technology allowed for easier routing of email internationally, and the creation of networks outside of the control of International Fido Net Association (IFNA). As a number of associated Echos were added to the Magicknet Trio, the Sysops who carried them collectively decided to form their own network, the Pagan Occult Distribution System, or PODSnet. It asked for the zone number of 93, as the other popular occult-oriented zone numbers, 5 and 23 (see

Discordianism Discordianism is a religion, philosophy, or paradigm centered on Eris, a.k.a. Discordia, the Goddess of chaos. Discordianism uses archetypes or ideals associated with her. It was founded after the 1963 publication of its "holy book," the ''Pri ...

) were already reserved.

''PODSNet Book of Shadows''

One of the most enduring contributions to the online world was a collection of rituals, articles poetry and discussion collected by Paul Seymour of the Riders of the Crystal Wind, and often referred to as either the ''Internet Book of Shadows'' or the ''PODSNet Book of Shadows''.Book of Shadows download link
/ref>PODSNet Book of Shadows in its original WordPerfect 5.1 format
/ref> These volumes (there are seven in all) are, in fact, a collection of rituals, spells, recipes, messages, and essays from and among members of PODSNet. As PodsNet users came from various religious paths, from Asatru to Zen Buddhist, and their contributions as well as topical messages were compiled two to three times a year during the life of PODSNet.
Since the end of the BBS era, these files have circulated online on a number of services, often with introductory material stripped, and offered for sale on sites such as eBay.com. Charging money for the collection is in direct violation of the copyright notice within the volumes that the material is offered free of charge; additionally, portions of the content are under individual copyright by a variety of publishers, including Weiser, Llewellyn Publishing and others, as some texts were extracted in their entirety from published books. Other pieces have subsequently been formally published by their authors, including Dorothy Morrison,

Mike Nichols Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...

and

Isaac Bonewits Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits (October 1, 1949 – August 12, 2010) was an American Neo-druidry, Neo-Druid who published a number of books on the subject of Neopaganism and magic (paranormal), magic. He was a public speaker, liturgist, singer ...

, among others.

References

External links

{{external links, section, date=December 2021
Internet Archive of The PODSnet Internet home (official site temporary offline)

J. Brad Hick's Homepage

Jay was one of PODSnet's administrators. (Page retrieved from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine as IO.COM is no longer on-line.)
PODSNet Group Archive

PODSNet Alumni Group on Facebook

PODSnet "General Chat" Echo on Yahoo! Groups

Vice's article on PODSnet by Tamlin Magee

PODSNet modern forum
Bulletin board systems Modern paganism and technology Wide area networks Modern pagan websites 1980s in modern paganism