An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for November 15, 2020

Here’s a variety of notable things I’ve recently found that you may also be interested in checking out:

• “Contents of mystery box [claimed to have been] buried at Boleskine House [but was all but certainly a scam] revealed.” [fixed it]
• “Author Jeff VanderMeer Explores Absurdity and Politics in His New Young-Adult Novel.”—”This indulgence in absurdity is one of the highlights of A Peculiar Peril, which follows Jonathan Lambshead and his friends as they are drawn into the realm of Aurora and a war with a version of the notorious occultist Aleister Crowley and his shape-shifting familiar, Wretch.” About A Peculiar Peril [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Jeff VanderMeer—”A Peculiar Peril is a head-spinning epic about three friends on a quest to protect the world from a threat as unknowable as it is terrifying, from the Nebula Award–winning and New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer.” I was interested in this, but increasingly less so now. It isn’t clear to me at all that there is any story related reason for the character to be called Aleister Crowley, as there doesn’t seem to be any relation to the historical person, and library figure, Aleister Crowley, other than name. Might as well just go through the text using search and replace with “Boogeyman”.
• “Hinge: How This Lovecraft-Inspired VR Horror Game Wants You To Feel A Constant Sense of Fear.”—”Our game designer wrote over 100 documents and around 20 books specially for Hinge’s in-game environment. The information for these books was taken from real occultist’s books by Aleister Crowley and Alexandre Saint-Yves d’Alveydre.” The article goes on to mention about Crowley the Raoul Loveday death at Cefalu (see Chapter 96 in Confessions), Ozzy Osborne’s song, and other things, for context, but tangential to the game. Alexandre Saint-Yves d’Alveydre was a teacher of library figure Gérard Encausse, aka Papus.
• “Wiccan Devotionals Revisited.” Brandy Williams reminisces about, among other things, the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions, which was a centennial of the 1893 event when library figure Swami Vivekananda became well known to the world.
• “Slay the demon within. Free yourself of desire and ego. Let your spirit shine through.”—”So can you rise to heights of perfection.You are born with a unique gift, an exclusive talent, and an extraordinary ability. This is your svadharma, your own nature. The universe is tailored to help you blossom in that field. Oblivious of this, you get distracted, fall for temptation and chase mirages. Instead, you should look within. Identify your passion and invest in it.” Passing mention of Swami Vivekananda.
• “The ‘Lost’ Afterword to the Starseed Signals“—”Recently, we shared the never-to-be-RVP-foreword to Starseed Signals: A Link Between Worlds. And if that wasn’t enough, and of course it never is, I also penned an afterword for the RVP-never-to-be, which is a little dated in some regards, as it was composed in 2015”
• “Abramelin Adventures: Alchemy.”—”This post follows on thematically from Abramelin Musings: Square Dancing, which I wrote back in June, or as I call it, Day 53. In the previous post I suggested a method of how to verify the correct lettering of any given word-square, by skrying into it – an idea inspired by Aleister Crowley. I therefore decided to put my money where my mouth was, by actually trying this out myself, selecting the third square of chapter 7, book IV of the Book of Abramelin.”
• A Wondrous Spell: Necromancy in the PGM [Amazon, Publisher] by MHH—”Inspired by work with the Titans Hekate and Helios and various Necromantic workings both modern and archaic, MMH presents ‘A Wondrous Spell’ taken specifically from PGM IV. 296-466. This spell, like many found in the Greek magical papyri, contains rich examples of ritual techniques that were prevalent around the Mediterranean during the second century BC to the fifth century CE, and highlight the methods whereby the dead could be moved into action to achieve the goals of the sorcerer. In A Wondrous Spell: Necromancy from the PGM, MHH offers an analysis of the original spell including the materials used in it, as well as a revised version adapted for the modern magician.”
• “Clavis Goêtica – An Introduction“—”the Introduction of [Frater Acher’s] upcoming book Clavis Goêtica (Hadean Preass, 2021).” No direct links to the book yet.
• Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World [Publisher] edited by Benjamin Schliesser, Jan Rüggemeier, Thomas J. Kraus, and Jörg Frey, with the assistance of Daniel Herrmann, due January 2021. “Alexandria was a central hub of the Hellenistic world. Businessmen and migrants, scholars, philosophers, and the religious avant-garde flocked here. Hellenistic, Egyptian, Jewish, and early Christian identities coexisted and influenced each other in the metropolis. The present volume describes these processes of identity formation from an interdisciplinary perspective.”
• Scansion in Psychoanalysis and Art: The Cut in Creation [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Vanessa Sinclair—”Scansion in Psychoanalysis and Art examines a strain of artists spanning more than a century, beginning at the dawn of photography and culminating in the discussion of contemporary artists, to illustrate various psychoanalytic concepts by examining artists working in a multitude of media.”
• “Review: Can academic discussion meaningfully advance antiracist Paganism?” About Paganism and Its Discontents: Enduring Problems of Racialized Identity [Amazon, Publisher] edited by Holli S Emore and Jonathan M Leader—”Proponents of racist interpretations of pre-Christian Norse-Germanic spiritualities have claimed to be preserving ‘heritage,’ while others belonging to the contemporary Heathen movements have moved to distance themselves from ‘volkish’ thinking. Long-simmering just beneath the surface of American Paganism, racialized Heathenry was on full display in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. The contributions to this volume delineate between two communities that are using shared symbolism for widely different purposes. The book will serve to broaden understanding of the narratives in play here, resulting in mitigation of the rising tide of hate and racialized identity.”
• “‘The Tree of Science’ an English translation of Eugene Huzar’s ‘L’arbre de la Science’ [Part 1].” Also part two, posted this week.
• “Review: Convenient Amnesia by Donald Vincent.” About Convenient Amnesia [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Donald Vincent—”An old movie theme song once observed, “What’s too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget.” That sort of convenient amnesia is at the heart of this incandescent first poetry collection from Donald Vincent. Incandescent, because that’s the sort of light that is produced by heat, and there’s a mighty heat raging in these pages, producing a brilliance that illuminates a legacy of racism and violence and appropriation and disenfranchisement and, and, and…all those things we’d like to forget, ignore, disown. All that pain. This is, in other words, a document on the subject of getting woke. And what an awakening!”
• The Gospel according to H L Hix [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher], due in December—”That’s because Hix has gone back to the original source materials, both the canonical and noncanonical gospels and histories and stories of the life of Jesus, and created out of them a single, more comprehensive and nuanced narrative.”
• “Is There a Cure for Burnout? Anne Helen Petersen’s Can’t Even grapples with the miseries of millennial work.” About Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Anne Helen Petersen—”An incendiary examination of burnout in millennials–the cultural shifts that got us here, the pressures that sustain it, and the need for drastic change.” “Utilizing a combination of sociohistorical framework, original interviews, and detailed analysis, Can’t Even offers a galvanizing, intimate, and ultimately redemptive look at the lives of this much-maligned generation, and will be required reading for both millennials and the parents and employers trying to understand them.”
• “Can History Predict the Future? A historian believes he has discovered iron laws that predict the rise and fall of societies. He has bad news.”
• “‘Wagner Was the Original Canceled Artist.’ Alex Ross on the controversial composer and his own ‘ghost identity’ as an academic.” More about Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher]
• “Revealing the mysteries of music. A musician shares his passion.” About For the Love of Music: A Conductor’s Guide to the Art of Listening [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by John Mauceri—”With a lifetime of experience, profound knowledge and understanding, and heartwarming appreciation, an internationally celebrated conductor and teacher answers the questions: Why should I listen to classical music? How can I get the most from the listening experience?”
• “Fireball is Werner Herzog’s ode to space rocks. New Apple TV+ doc from German auteur examines how meteorites have shaped human history.” Also “Werner Herzog on Why He’s a Fan of Putin and How Democrats Neglect America’s Heartland. The legendary filmmaker opens up about his new Apple TV+ meteorite documentary ‘Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds,’ the 2020 election, and how the world will end.”
• “This farmer’s field was once a powerful stronghold in Iron Age Norway. We know about it all because a farmer wanted to dig a drainage ditch.” Also “Archaeologists in Norway find rare Viking ship burial using only radar.”
• “Egypt uncovers more than 100 sarcophagi in ancient burial ground. ‘It’s the biggest discovery of 2020, but we are not stopping here yet…'”—”Egypt unearthed more than 100 sarcophagi in Saqqara on Saturday, the same ancient burial ground where dozens of coffins were also found last month as the country continues to make major discoveries in its bid to lure back tourists.”
• Mars Clock is a Raspberry Pi project by an author of Mars stories.
• “Eerie Footage Captures Elusive Deep-Sea Squid Near Australia For The First Time.”
• “Scientists spot a ‘kilonova’ flash so bright they can barely explain it.”
• “Water Present on All Rocky Planets, Martian Meteorite Study Suggests.”
• “Astronomers Discover First BL Lacertae Galaxy at Cosmic Dawn: The Farthest Black Hole From a Rare Family of Galaxies.”
• “Martian dust storms parch the planet by driving water into space.” Also “Mars died billions of years ago and its guts are still spilling into space. The planet is still drying out today. And faster than expected.”
• “Ending greenhouse gas emissions may not stop global warming: study.”
• “Ancient Lake Discovered Under Greenland May Be Millions of Years Old, Scientists Say.”
• “Ancient life signs under dinosaur-killing Chicxulub crater.”
• “Computer Scientists Achieve ‘Crown Jewel’ of Cryptography.”
• “Newly Discovered Fossil Shows Evolutionary Changes in an Extinct Human Species.”
• “First murder hornet nest found to have 200 queens capable of spawning new nests.”
• “We’ll need more than one vaccine to beat the pandemic. All COVID vaccine candidates work in different ways; none will be perfect for all.”
• “It’s Time to Hunker Down. A devastating surge is here. Unless Americans act aggressively, it will get much larger, very quickly.”
• “The COVID-19 Risk Level For Group Gatherings In Each US County, Visualized.”
• “The COVID-19 pandemic hits new highs and new lows.”
• “Parents Tried to Cover Up a ‘Superspreader’ Dance. Disaster Ensued. A massive, unmasked homecoming party at a steakhouse in Missouri included a deliberate campaign to hide from pesky health officials and contact tracers.”
• Watch “10% of Secret Service Officers Sidelined by COVID: ‘These Are The Things They Did Not Sign Up For’.” Also tweet—”Secret Service signs up to take a bullet for the president but I don’t think they’re expecting the president to be the one firing the shots.” Also “More than 130 Secret Service officers are said to be infected with coronavirus or quarantining in wake of Trump’s campaign travel.” Also “Expansive White House COVID outbreak sidelines 10% of Secret Service. Spread linked to Trump’s campaign rallies and the White House itself.”
• “Under the surface: Covid-19 vaccine narratives, misinformation and data deficits on social media.”—”Libertarians, traditional anti-vaxxers, New Age groups, QAnon adherents and others are uniting around safety and necessity concerns of a Covid-19 vaccine. The combination of these issues alongside mandatory vaccines is bringing very disparate communities together to oppose a future Covid-19 vaccine.”
• “Normalizing Care.”—”Being careful saves lives.”
• Watch “Constantly Wrong: The Case Against Conspiracy Theories.”
• “QAnon’s Home 8kun Is Imploding—and Q Has Gone Silent. Trump lost, one of the administrators quit, and it’s far from clear who’s in charge.”
• Oh, now they’re willing to self-quarantine! Lots of news about Parler lately, also Odyssee. On the one hand, they’ll go away. On the other hand, they’re gathering together. This could be a welcome respite, but it won’t end well. “Social app Parler apparently receives funding from the conservative Mercer family. Downloads of Parler in app stores skyrocketed in the days after the US presidential election.”
• “Pandemic Panic has Increased the Demand for Astrologers, Tarot Readers and Energy Healers. Amidst rising uncertainty and stress, more people are counting on divine guidance to navigate this crisis.”
• “After an incarcerated firefighter was nearly killed on the frontlines, California delivered him to ICE. Bounchan Keola is facing deportation to Laos, a country he left when he was four, after helping to fight this year’s historic wildfires.”
• “The purposeful is political: Gen Z bowls over their doubters.”—”Now that the election is over and the doom scrolling has subsided, let’s give some well-deserved credit to Gen Z.”
• Tweet—”We have a planned economy its just planned for like ten people – the fact that we have reinvent the idea of public spending shows you how malnourished the national political imagination is. A house haunted by Reagan’s ghost.”
• “The economy as we knew it might be over, Fed Chairman says.”
• “Elon Musk’s Totally Awful, Batshit-Crazy, Completely Bonkers, Most Excellent Year. In 2020, the COVID-doubting, media-hating Twitterholic CEO became the third-richest man alive, SpaceX launched two astronauts into orbit, and Tesla became the most valuable car company on the planet. Inside the mind of Silicon Valley’s most vainglorious villain.” Also “Elon Musk Says He ‘Most Likely’ Has Moderate Case of Covid.”
• Trump the televangelist, a profession mainly about asking for blind brand loyalty and more money, so … “Scoop: Trump eyes digital media empire to take on Fox News.”—”Source tells me Trump plans to use vote-count rallies to “wreck Fox” so he can start his own paid MAGA channel, built from his campaign text-message database: ‘He’s going to spend a lot of time slamming Fox'” Also tweet—”The absolute least surprising exit strategy for Donald Trump was Trump TV. It was always this. Always. May justice and consequences sashay in, before more hate can be spread by these banal, amoral, tweeking douchebags.”
• “How Trump Almost Broke the Bounds of Reality. Even in the midst of a pandemic, the president set out to eliminate the drab and pain of everyday life from politics.”—”What Mr. Trump promised was the power to create imaginary worlds and the freedom to unleash a selfish and extravagant fantasy life, free of the constraints of political correctness or even good manners, the limits imposed by climate change and the international rules tying America to the ground.” “In the traditional way to think about freedom, we want to limit or even eliminate obstacles to individual choice, but ultimately we must deal with reality. Mr. Trump’s example is to take it an extra step: Why not be free from reality as well? Indeed, this may be the ultimate goal of contemporary America: a society that is pure fantasy life, free from reality.” Also Tweet—”Trump is ‘very aware there is not a path to victory,’ but he believes the 72 million who voted for him ‘deserve a fight’ so he’s battling as a form of ‘theater’ for them, a top White House aide tells me.”
• “Evidence suggests several state Senate candidates were plants funded by dark money.”
• “Donations under $8K to Trump ‘election defense’ instead go to president, RNC.”
• “Postal worker recanted allegations of ballot tampering, officials say.” Also “USPS ‘Whistleblower’ Told Agents Project Veritas Penned His Ballot-Tampering Claim.”
• “DeSantis pushes expansion of Stand Your Ground law as part of ‘anti-mob’ crackdown.”
• “The Ghosts of the Trump Presidency Will Linger Longer Than We Think.”—”If Trump’s body will soon leave the White House, his ghost will remain, haunting the Oval Office, and America at large, for the next four years—and probably more. Trump may very well go to prison after his term is over, but wherever he ends up, his movement will remain, casting doubt on facts, and this is Trump’s victory, his grand old party through America’s night. The movement may change its name, may quiet down for a bit, but it will be there, biding its time. Trump won, in the end, because he will still be with us after his loss—and to forget that is to already concede the next election.”
• “The Sore Loser, and the Malign Loser.”—”Trump is a sore loser. But the GOP is a malign loser. We can and should blame Trump for not conceding this election and starting the transition process to the Biden administration. But even more, we should blame and condemn the GOP for supporting and encouraging a position that endangers the county, internally and around the world. It knows better, and simply doesn’t care.”
• “Demons of the deep state: how evangelicals and conspiracy theories combine in Trump’s America.”
• “Imagining the Trump Presidential Lie-brary. The digital rendering, made by an anonymous New York-based architect, is complete with a COVID memorial, jail cells, and disinformation.” Also.
• Watch “Trump’s faith advisor goes HEAVY METAL!” Also “I Hear the Sound of Victory (Paula White) Drum Cover.”
• “The Case for Political Exile for Donald Trump. The country needs a clean break, Napoleon-style. And, hey, Trump might like his own island realm and an imperial title to go with it.”
• “10 things you need to know to stop a coup. While keeping people focused on a strong, robust election process is a must, we also need to prepare for a coup.”
• What a Biden-Harris administration should prioritize on its first day “—”Instead of allowing insiders to hijack the message sent by voters in both parties, we should listen to those voters and deliver real solutions to the problems we face.”
• “Why the ‘paradox mindset’ is the key to success. Although paradoxes often trip us up, embracing contradictory ideas may actually be the secret to creativity and leadership.”
• “The Distinguished Medieval Penis Investigators. In fourteenth-century England, one of the only ways a woman could get a divorce was if her husband was impotent. But first, she had to prove it in court.”
• More about this: “Wolfwalkers is the best animated film of 2020. The latest film from Cartoon Saloon is a masterpiece.”
• “Who Did This? Yet Another Amateur Art Restorer in Spain Has Absolutely Demolished a Once-Beautiful Artwork. When will the butchery end?” Also tweet.
• Wait. Did they hear about Juggalos via a telephone game?! “Leeds officer dressed as clown during five-year undercover police operation into ‘clown army’. Millions of pounds of public money was ‘misspent’ on undercover policing operations – which included an officer being trained as a clown, a public inquiry has been told.”
• “The ‘Panty-Preneur’ Queen of The Used Underwear Scene. Dalma Rosa, who hosts a podcast and online school all about the worn-items market, is building a panty-selling empire.”
• “Could a Peasant defeat a Knight in Battle?”
• “A Documentary Portrait of Environmentalist Greta Thunberg.” About “I Am Greta“, streaming on Hulu—”The story of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg is told through compelling, never-before-seen footage in this intimate documentary from Swedish director Nathan Grossman. Starting with her one-person school strike for climate action outside the Swedish Parliament, Grossman follows Greta—a shy student with Asperger’s—in her rise to prominence and her galvanizing global impact as she sparks school strikes around the world. The film culminates with her extraordinary wind-powered voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to speak at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York City.”
• “Karen Russo’s Films Explore the Manipulative Power of Nazi Imagery.”—”But Russo makes leaps to associate Third Reich ideology with not only art and mythology (known fundamentals of Nazism), but also the potential to lose oneself in fascination and obsession. Myths of the Near Future surpasses its own modest claim — “to explore the affinities between irrationality and nationalism” — and suggests that a marginal, isolated voice, an eccentric architect named Karl Junker, may have something in common with an oppressive ideology. The free-associative quality of the filmmaking draws connections that, though fuzzy, work wondrously on an intuitive level, producing a mythopoeic genealogy of German fascism with stimulating gaps in logic. When the smoldering streets of Germany appear in Russo’s films, these narrative lacunae fill with the depravity of the poetic imagination.” Karen Russo: Myths of the Near Future, an exhibit at Tel Aviv Museum of Art through early 2021. “Russo’s practice is informed, among others, by an eclectic range of sources, from architecture and science-fiction to psychology and criminology. She is intrigued by dangerous moments in history in which ancient myths and symbols merge with political ideologies to ground political narratives, often with disastrous consequences. The films demonstrate the failures of personal, artistic or national utopias, and the blurring of boundaries between history and fantasy.”
• Eight Digital Exhibition Spaces for the Second-wave Lockdown
• “When New Money Meets Old Bloodlines: On America’s Gilded Age Dollar Princesses.”
• “Netflix opts not to order more The Order.” Consider The Order on Netflix—”When Belgrave University student Jack Morton joins a fabled secret society, the Hermetic Order of the Blue Rose, he is thrust into a world of magic, monsters and intrigue. Out to avenge his mother’s death, he uncovers dark family secrets and lands in an underground battle being waged between werewolves and practitioners of dark magic. Assisting Jack in the fight is Alyssa, a tour guide at Belgrave and fellow member of the Order, which is led by Jack’s estranged father.” I only watched season 1, but I recall, after a slow start (which Sam Trammell carried pretty much single handedly), it actually got pretty good and better than I thought it would. Enough that I’d recommend it, if you stick through to the full season. Also, there’s tons of fun casting choices from the pool of Canadian luminaries, including Davinci’s Inquest universe alums and other neat genre cameos, not the least of which is Matt Frewer. Stand out for me was Devery Jacobs, and her character, who was pretty hilarious, to me, in everything scene she touched. On the bright side, they got three seasons, which seems to be about as long as a Netflix run as one gets these days.
• “Jane Austen Anthology Series in Development at CW.”
• “Come Away takes Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan on a grim escapist journey. Brave and Prince of Egypt director Brenda Chapman makes her solo live-action debut.” Also “‘Come Away’ Review: Peter Pan and Alice Are Brother and Sister in This Epic Downer. Good luck finding the magic in this inexplicably serious and mostly depressing mashup between the worlds of J.M. Barrie and Lewis Carroll.” Also watch “A diverse cast leads new film ‘Come Away’. Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland are played by multi-racial young actors in the new fantasy film ‘Come Away.'” Also Premiering now at home.
• Watch “Musou Black—The (New) World’s Blackest Paint Turns Anything Into A Shadow.”
• “Six-hour Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind kabuki stage play is finally coming out on home video.” Via Amazon JP: “A magnificent story of 7 volumes of the masterpiece manga ‘Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind’ by Hayao Miyazaki will be performed as a new Kabuki. Hayao Miyazaki’s work and Studio Ghibli’s first Kabuki stage production will be released on DVD and Blu-ray.”
• Watch “Mona Lisa Stolen: This Is How He Did It.”
• Watch “The 2020 Witchies Presented by Modern Witch“—”The Witchies are the first awards ceremony to focus on outstanding achievement and excellence in witchcraft and occult media and content creation. Our genres are generally so niche that creators are often intentionally excluded or overlooked by other organizations in the awards circuit; but that stops now! With The Witchies, our community finally has a place to gather and celebrate the amazing artists, writers, producers, and hosts who both represent our fields in the public as well as inspire us on our own journeys.” Open nomniations, so kind of a people’s choice awards. Sponsored by The Mystic Dream Academy, Weiser Books, and Llewellyn Worldwide. Find out more at Witches’ Sabbat.
• Watch “Daemonia Nymphe ‘Psychostasia’ unseen footage-behind the scenes”
• Watch “The Strange World of Breatharianism.”—”In 2013, a YouTuber named Naveena Shine documented her attempt to become a breatharian—a person who claims to nourish themselves on air and light, rather than food. Breatharianism has been operating in the far fringes of new age esoterica for decades, with its history of fraudulent gurus, public humiliation, and tragedy. ” I have a very strong memory from the 80s of some luminary of Beatharianism being found buying twinkies at 7-11. Oh, yeah, haha! Twinkies and a chicken pot pie! [Also, Also]
• “Can Free Will be Saved in a Deterministic Universe?“—”Physicists have a long history of sticking our noses where they don’t belong – and one of our favorite places to step beyond our expertise is the question of consciousness and free will. Sometimes our musings are insightful, sometimes incoherent, and usually at least somewhat naive. Which a fair description of this show, so of course Space Time needs to weigh in physics and free will.”
• Watch “What Did The Pope’s Librarian Say About Saturn’s Rings?”, a clip from an older QI, with Stephen Fry. At 02:46: “There’s a Socratic acceptance of the limits of one’s own knowledge, and there’s ignorance. I’m not saying which is which.” Also #NotAllLibrarians.
• “Why Are There 7 Days In a Week?“—”Why does everyone use a 7 day week, and where did it come from? Where do the names of the days come from? And who can we blame for Mondays? Here’s the true story of one of the oldest human customs still in use today. It gets a little weird.”
• Tweet—”I tell you what: You are wrong. You are already dead. All you are is a monster. All you are is full of yourself. No amount of rebirth will ever give you the sensation of immortality. The first step to true everlasting life is true annihilation.”

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