When I was editing the pages for Thelema Coast to Coast for addition to the collection I found myself gandering at the Postcards page and thinking that might be something fun and interesting to do, you know, before the postal system collapses or is defunded by congress. Why not fiddle merrily to pass the time while the system fails?
Here’s the simplest explanation of what I’m thinking: If people send me things then I’ll send them things. What arrives and what is sent would be up to those involved. I would never sell or reveal the participant list, but would use addresses of participants to merely to send occasional envelopes or packages, maybe once a month or quarterly. There would be two ways to get on the participant list, but this would be completely open to individuals, music groups, publishers, and so on:
- first, and simplest, is to send something in; For those sending things in, something reciprocal would be sent based on what I can afford to post or, better yet, on their SASE or how much postage they include inside for me to use on return post to them.
- second, and really great, is to become a supporter of the library. For supporters, depending on how much postage their support reasonably allowed beyond helping with hosting the site and so on, I would send quarterly or monthly something fun from the supplies donated and gathered.
Really any variety of interesting tchotchkes people sent in limited pretty much only by their imaginations and my ability to post those imaginations back to others. Also, I might be able to occasionally send supporters an Hermetic Library t-shirt or maybe some promotional books if I can interest any publishers or authors in contributing. But, really, who knows what fun we might generate with this? Let’s turn my office into an homage to what Archee McPhee’s would be if they were dabbling in the dark and esoteric arts!
So, one who is participating might variously send in and get things in return like:
- bookmarks
- stickers
- mix tapes
- CDs
- used books
- rituals, poetry, essays
- booklets, brochures, flyers
- …
I’m not looking to have sent to me or to resend things that evoke the black helicopters, SWAT teams or HAZMAT teams; but, just about anything else that the postal system will deliver could be part of this.
What do you think? Send me an email with comments or questions via the librarian alias. Or, better, why not go ahead an send me things via post which I can send to other people and then send me an email letting me know you’ve got something you’re contributing? If you’re really looking to help make this happen, why not sent me things to distribute and also become a supporter and give me your postal address in the comments field so I can send things to you?
I’m going to go ahead and add a postal address to the contacts page over at the library, but I’ll also post it here. I’m going to think about adding a special page about the idea somewhere, maybe under the contacts page. But, here’s the postal address where you can send things, if you want to participate; or where, you know, you can send stuff even if you don’t want to participate:
The Hermetic Library
PO Box 128
Washougal, WA 98671
US
Keep and eye on this page for updates and changes. Send emails with any thoughts and postal packages with fun, random things to get this going. Let’s have some fun!
