An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for February 3, 2021

Howdy! Welcome again to a first Omnium Gatherum of the month; and to all Patrons, not just Omnologists and above, hope you enjoy this one! As always, and again, again, again, but never enough: thank you all so very much for your ongoing support!

Oh, right, and: Happy astronomical Imbolc!

Let me introduce you to the newest Hermetic Library Fellow Jürgen Hubert who is doing English translations for rarely translated German folklore tales!

Here’s a short video of me checking out the sample Unicursal DO WHAT THOU WILT Propaganda Poster mini art print, that was the first new Patron merch item for this year’s experiment. Let’s take a look at it together! What do you think?

Also, I posted about this separately yesterday, I just added a second and brand new merch item, the Berniemit(tens) / Baphomet meme as a 4 inch sticker. I’ve got a sample of that on order as well so we can check it out too. But it’s active now on the patronage campaign!

I’ve got my January list of active Patrons with physical Postal and Deluxe rewards, and I’m getting ready to send out the next mailing. Only, if I don’t get it out tomorrow, it may be a bit late. Where I am is about to get hit by a week-long (at least) Winter storm. I’ll try to get it all ready for the post tomorrow, but if I don’t … it will be delayed. But, it’s coming! This month I’ll be including another set of Goetic seals and I’m going to try out a colour printing for the brand new Unicursal Heart Serpent Blood Love Law Hexagram design. I have to use a different printer, so we’ll hope those turn out okay! We’ll see, won’t we?! I’ve had that design wyrming around in my brain for over a year, and I bashed it together just for Valentine’s / Lupercalia shenanigans.

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

• Doleful Lions released Singles Going Levitation
• Tales from Fiddler’s Green 1: Premiere Issue, due Sept 2021—”This 72-page collection features seventeen works on themes familiar to readers of Fiddler’s Green—including magic, folklore, and the power of personal choice—as seen through the lens of our talented group of short-story writers and poets. … Each copy of this premiere issue is emblazoned with red foil titling on the cover and is accompanied by a sunshine-tinted flexi-disc with a new song by Faun Fables. Tales from Fiddler’s Green is now available by pre-order and is planned for release this spring. The first 500 orders will mail with a special vinyl sticker featuring the magazine’s cover art.”
• Feb. 20 The Art of Interpretation: Finding Themes in the Horoscope, presented by Fernanda Paiva, via Kepler College—”This webinar explores the art of interpreting charts, finding themes in the horoscope, and the role of imagination in this process. DATE: February 20, 2021. TIME: 1:00 – 2:30 PM PDT / 4:00 – 5:30 PM EDT.”
• The Return of Holy Russia with Gary Lachman by Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Libraries. Explore Russia’s long history of mysticism and apocalyptic thought with author Gary Lachman. February 25, 2021, 12:30 – 13:30 CST—”In his latest book, The Return of Holy Russia, our guest Gary Lachman discusses this ‘occult revival’ with a look at Rasputin’s prophecies, Blavatsky’s Theosophy, Roerich’s Red Shambhala and the philosophies of Berdyaev and Solovyov.” About The Return of Holy Russia: Apocalyptic History, Mystical Awakening, and the Struggle for the Soul of the World [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Gary Lachman—”A history of how mystical and spiritual influences have shaped Russia’s identity and politics and what it means for the future of world civilization.”
• Stoicon-x Military Conference: Courage, Honor, and Stoicism, a virtual conference, Sat, May 15, 2021, 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM CDT. “Virtual conference on Stoicism and the military, open to everyone to attend.” “Approx. 5 hours of talks (plus 30 min break).”
• New Michael Idehall video Transient Anus.
• “YMC Serve Up Magick With Striking Spring/Summer ’21 Collection.”—”London-based imprint YMC are back with the release of their Magick-inspired Spring/Summer 2021 collection. YMC opt for an ethereal theme for the new range, which references British figures such as infamous occultist Aleister Crowley and mystic novelist Arthur Machen as part of a striking SS21 showcase packed with eye-catching transitional attire.”
• Three Books of Occult Philosophy [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, translated from the Original Latin Edition of 1533 by Eric Purdue, due November 2021—”Long considered an authoritative sourcebook on the practices and beliefs of Western Esotericism, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, first published in 1533, is an exhaustive compendium of ritual magic, astrology, kabbalah, angelology, ceremonial procedures, spells, and divination practices gathered from contemporary Eurpoean sources. Written from a scholarly perspective, rather than that of a mystagogue, Agrippa?s approach at the time was intellectual and philosophical, containing many approaches and analyses compiled from over 200 sources. These were synthesized into Agrippa’s own unique thesis on the nature of the world, science, and magic.”
• Tweet—”JUST ARRIVED: a 1533 first edition of Agrippa’s “Three Books of Occult Philosophy” — an innovative and highly influential synthesis of early modern occult and magical thought, now considered a foundational text of Western esotericism.”
• Medication and Witchcraft, an episode of Grunge Magick Podcast [YouTube, Spotify]—”In the witchcraft and occult community I’ve been seeing a lot of questions being asked like: will taking anti-depressants make me lose my psychic ability? Will taking medication make me lose my intuitive ability? Will taking medication affect my magick? Or even will taking medication affect my creativity? In this episode I discuss psychic ability, psychic exercises, how witchcraft influenced modern medicine and how to bring together modern medicine and spirituality. This episode is for any witch or occultist who suffers from a mental illness, physical illness, or disability and has asked the question about medication and spirituality. ”
• Tweet—”I made a new Essential Dignities table, because I felt most of the tables poorly explained how the bounds are split up, and lacked utilization of Chaldean and Triplicity Decans, so… Here’s my Table!”
• “Pollio. In my opinion, that religion is the best in which there is the least of fraud and violence, the most of forbearance and sincerity. Calvus. Wise and good-natured gods will never quarrel about the names they are called by. Do parents whip their children for imperfect pronunciation? Pollio. I would not be surety for morose and ferocious men, intoxicated by the wine-cup of their priests, keeping the peace toward you, if you declined their mysteries and orgies. They call you blind, and knock out your eyes for being so.”—Walter Savage Landor, “Asinius Pollio and Licinius Calvus: Second Conversation,” Imaginary Conversations, Vol. II, quoted at The Best Religion
• “Land of Faeries: Not a Figment of the Imagination.”—”We are taught and encouraged to think rationally and pragmatically to function well in the civilized world. However, it is perhaps more important to realize that rational ideas and their bi-products, namely inventions, are intrinsically part of the building blocks of the imagination.” Mentions W B Yeats.
• “Hunting for treasure in the small town book sales of the South Island.”—”The best thing I’ve ever found at the Balclutha sale is Moonchild by Aleister Crowley, from the “Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult”, inexplicably featuring a picture of a baby ceremoniously holding aloft a skull on the cover.” Moonchild, aka Liber LXXXI – The Butterfly Net, written in 1917, with an appearance of occult detective Simon Iff, of course, is at the library, but, I must confess, not with a groovy period pulp cover.
• “The Power of Magick: Why Materialists, Atheists, and Marxists Need It.” Quotes Crowley’s The Book of Thoth at Theory of the Tarot: “Magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the Will.” But, that’s it. No other direct mention.
• From the Green Fairy dept: “Visit London’s first ever absinthe distillery.” Passing mention of Austin Osman Spare &c. at “The walls of the converted terrace house are adorned by the left-field, archly cool works by artists including Mervyn Peake , Tessa Farmer, English-born Mexican Leonora Carrington, “Bright Young Thing” Stephen Tennant – who allegedly spent seventeen years of his life in bed – and proto-Dadaist Austin Osman Spare. Choice pieces include condoms purportedly used by the Rolling Stones and the alleged waste of Kylie Minogue.”
• “Letter: Grant is ‘an excellent investment in one of UK’s most precious local museums’“—”I am working on a biography of Wilfred Hanchant … [Wilfred Hanchant] was also a friend of the infamous Aleister Crowley, once described by the Sunday newspapers as ‘the wickedest man in the world’, and whose wife Crowley accused of trying to seduce Hanchant. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of London pubs.” Um, wait, did he mean that Hanchant’s wife accused Crowley of trying to seduce Hanchant, or ? Ah, I got in email contact with the letter writer. It was Crowley accusing his wife of seducing Hanchant. In a letter, around the time of the Boca do Inferno events, Crowley wrote to, then wife, Maria de Miramar: “Also you have been trying to seduce Wilfred Hanchant and I know not who else.” I’ll hope to have a reference to the finished bio of Hanchant when available.
• “10 Questions You’ve Always Wanted to Ask an Exorcist. ‘I’ve been attacked by powers, too. It’s difficult to describe.'”
• Crowley gets a mention in otherwise unfortunate, but not new new, news: “Evan Rachel Wood And Other Women Allege Years Of Abuse From Marilyn Manson“—”In the 90s, Manson’s music was a source of controversy for his gleefully provocative public persona, a millennial spin on the Aleister Crowley aesthetic of older acts like Kiss and Ozzy Osbourne. At the time, any attempt to critique his gleeful embrace of sex and violence was written off as prudishness and Manson became a star. He’s recently acted on shows like American Gods, Salem and Sons of Anarchy.”
• “The Direct Hits. The Broadway Recording Sessions.”—”They manage to steer into real Jam territory with ‘What Killed Aleister Crowley’ (my favourite track) with a great rhythm guitar and lots of changes in tempo and even some reverb.” About the track What Killed Aleister Crowley [Amazon, Spotify, Apple] by The Direct Hits.
• Emergence Magazine Podcast episode The Druid Renaissance – Lucy Jones: A Return to Druidry During the COVID-19 Pandemic?—”Even as the pandemic has isolated us from one another, it has also revealed new paths into deeper communion with and connection to the living world. From her home in the UK during lockdown, Lucy Jones endeavors to understand her lifelong, otherworldly experiences in nature.”
• “A Review of ‘The Colour Revolution’ by Regina Lee Blaszczyk.” About 2012’s The Color Revolution [Amazon] by Regina Lee Blaszczyk—”A history of color and commerce from haute couture to automobile showrooms to interior design.”
• “E.E. Cummings In Love And At War. A new biography offers insights into the early years of a valuable, albeit minor, 20th-century poet.”—”Rosenblitt argues that previous biographers have failed to take seriously Cummings’s relationship with a French prostitute called Marie Louise Lallemand, and that this relationship—his first love, Rosenblitt tells us—had a serious effect on his work.” About The Beauty of Living: E. E. Cummings in the Great War [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by J. Alison Rosenblitt—”An incisive biography of E. E. Cummings’s early life, including his World War I ambulance service and subsequent imprisonment, inspirations for his inventive poetry.”
• The New Enlightenment and the Fight to Free Knowledge [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Peter B. Kaufman—”How do we create a universe of truthful and verifiable information, available to everyone?”
• We Were Called Specimens: an Oral Archive of Deity Marjorie [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Jason Teal—”Fiction. Short Stories. Marjorie Cameron Parsons. Famed occultist, Thelemite, strikingly Iowan, Navy volunteer, poet, artist. This book has nothing to do with her. Or is it the key to the universe? You, reader, have summoned the Three, intertwining your fate with their own. Relationships are mutable and the world spins into another year. WE WERE CALLED SPECIMENS is Jason Teal’s first book of flash fictions. The collection centers on a mythical, supernatural Marjorie untethered to time and space. Follow her into the bleakest, harshest storms of humanity–and flee with her from the onslaught of dreamers and villains alike.”
• Burroughs & Scotland: Dethroning the Ancients/The Commitment of Exile [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Chris Kelso, due March 2021—”Chris Kelso looks at William S. Burroughs’ experiences in Scotland and the influence of Burroughs’ cut-up method on modern Scottish literature.” “Coming in 2021, ‘Burroughs & Scotland: Dethroning the Ancients/The Commitment of Exile‘ – an unexplored chapter in the life William S.Burroughs. Researched by award-winning, multi-translated writer and editor Chris Kelso (and fully-illustrated by Shane Swank), Burroughs & Scotland discusses the gentleman junky’s early impact on the Scottish literary landscape, his turbulent relationship with Alexander Trocchi, and his dalliance with the sinister Edinburgh Org branch of Scientology – plus many more stories of Caledonian mischief and anarchy.”
• “Meet the Nano-Chameleon, a new contender for the title of ‘World’s Smallest Reptile’.”
• “Wombat research that’s not to be sniffed at.”—”An international team of scientists have been able to replicate how a wombat produces square poo – and it could change the way geometric products are manufactured in future.”
• “Massive magnetic fossils are a climate-crisis time machine.”
• “Why Phoenix may be uninhabitable by the end of this century. Factors like climate change and the destruction of urban foliage are causing cities like Phoenix to overheat.” About Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World’s Least Sustainable City [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Andrew Ross
• “Yale researchers develop injection to treat skin cancer.”
• “New discovery for how the brain ‘tangles’ in Alzheimer’s Disease.”
• “Scientists Have Taught Spinach to Send Emails and It Could Warn Us About Climate Change.”—”When the spinach roots detect the presence of nitroaromatics in groundwater, a compound often found in explosives like landmines, the carbon nanotubes within the plant leaves emit a signal. This signal is then read by an infrared camera, sending an email alert to the scientists.”
• “Scientists jump-start two people’s brains after coma. ‘Stunning to see with your own eyes,’ says UCLA neuroscientist Martin Monti.”
• “Discovery could lead to self-propelled robots.”—”Army-funded researchers discovered how to make materials capable of self-propulsion, allowing materials to move without motors or hands.” Also “UMass Amherst Researchers Discover Materials Capable of Self-Propulsion. Research highlights how shape and environment can cause materials to move without motors or hands”
• From the Pierson’s Puppeteers dept, watch: “Spot’s Got an Arm!.”
• “Minoan Language Linear A Linked to Linear B in Groundbreaking New Research.”—”Dr. Salgarella explains that, perhaps most astonishingly, the internet itself may be the key that unlocks the link between the languages.” ““Cracking Linear B was a huge post-war triumph for Classics, but Linear A has remained elusive. … Dr. Salgarella has demonstrated that Linear B is closely related to its mysterious and previously illegible predecessor. She has brought us one step closer to understanding it. It’s an extraordinary piece of detective work.”
• “Thick lithosphere casts doubt on plate tectonics in Venus’s geologically recent past. A study of a giant impact crater on Venus suggests that its lithosphere was too thick to have had Earth-like plate tectonics, at least for much of the past billion years.”
  
• “Purported phosphine on Venus more likely to be ordinary sulfur dioxide, new study shows.”

• “New concept for rocket thruster exploits the mechanism behind solar flares.”
• “Successful Test Paves Way for New Planetary Radar.”
• Watch “How to land on the Moon.”
• “Collapse of Greenland ice sheet to raise sea level faster than expected.” Also “Sea Levels Are Rising Faster Than Most Pessimistic Forecasts.”
• “Dark matter halo found around ancient ‘cannibal’ galaxy.”
• “Ancient mummies with golden tongues unearthed in Egypt. Archaeologists have unearthed 2,000-year-old mummies with golden tongues placed inside their mouths in northern Egypt, the antiquities ministry says.”
• “Uproar after scholar bans excavation of Egyptian mummies. As Egypt carries out intensive excavation works, leading to major discoveries in recent months, an Egyptian Al-Azhar scholar stirred a heated debate after stating that displaying mummies is against Islam.”
• “Amateur Treasure Hunter Unearths Missing Centerpiece of Henry VIII’s Crown.”
• “Ancient Jersey teeth find hints at Neanderthal mixing.”
• From the Alexander Wept dept: Jeff Bezos stepping down as Amazon CEO, transitioning to executive chair roleBezos will step down from the role after founding the company more than 20 years ago, ushering in a new era for the e-commerce giant. Current Amazon Web Services chief Andy Jassy will take on the mantle of CEO.”
• “Caviar Shortages, Sewage Overload, and Country Club Trespassers: Inside COVID-19 Winter in the Hamptons. Winter quarantine is hard for those used to jetting off to Vail or St. Barts to break up the monotony. Citarella is out of caviar, old septic tanks are overflowing, and no one can find ammunition for the guns they panic-bought in March: ‘It fell off the market. It was gone,’ says one local.”
• “Doctors just found an even scarier new coronavirus infection.”—”Doctors from Brazil found an even more dangerous type of coronavirus infection, a dual infection with two separate strains. The researchers detailed two COVID-19 cases with people in their mid-30s who were infected with both the Brazilian mutation (P.2) and a different strain circulating in Brazil. These co-infections could lead to the creation of additional mutations, the researchers said.”
• From the Where Is Your God NOW?! dept, watch: “Revising God’s Prophecy!”
• “Know Your Enemy: Panic! In America, with the You’re Wrong About Podcast. A discussion on how moral panics fueled America’s right turn, with Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes.” Also “Moral Panics, Old and New.”
• “Wisconsin pharmacist who destroyed more than 500 vaccine doses believes Earth is flat, FBI says.”
• “Why Are Right-Wing Conspiracies so Obsessed With Pedophilia? The story is the same, from the day-care panics to QAnon: It’s not really about the kids. It’s about fears of a changing social order.”
• “‘You will face the wrath of me’: Pacifica Beach Yoga owner threatens compliance officer on voicemail.”—”I’m running another class right now. Putting it right in your f—ing faces. Every f—ing minute of the day, I’m going to stick it right in your f—ing faces, you lowlife scumbags. Shame on you. Come see me, bitches.”
• “The Science of Reasoning With Unreasonable People. Don’t try to change someone else’s mind. Instead, help them find their own motivation to change.” Adapted by Adam Grant from his book Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher]—”Think Again is a must-read for anyone who wants to create a culture of learning and exploration, whether at home, at work, or at school… In an increasingly divided world, the lessons in this book are more important than ever.”
• “Bonus episode: Inside the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency.”—”Trump was no longer focused on any semblance of a governing agenda, instead spending his days taking phone calls and meetings from anyone armed with conspiracy theories about the election. For the White House staff, it was an unending sea of garbage churned up by the bottom feeders.”
• “Hypocrisy and the Filibuster.”—”Pointing out his flip-flops doesn’t accomplish anything because he’s not actually switching his position! He didn’t really believe the thing he said before and he doesn’t really believe the thing he’s saying now. He just wants what he wants.”
• “German Romanticism and the Philosophy of Beauty.”—”It is not enough to add magic and mystery to the world through art, if that art is inauthentic and the magic and mystery is false.”
• “He Wants to Save Classics From Whiteness. Can the Field Survive?. Dan-el Padilla Peralta thinks classicists should knock ancient Greece and Rome off their pedestal — even if that means destroying their discipline.”
  
• “Museums as Monuments to White Supremacy.”—”Millions of items looted from Africa during the colonial era remain housed in private collections and museums around the world.”

• “Public Thinker: Katherine McKittrick on Black Methodologies and Other Ways of Being.”—”How might scientific storytelling, or stories of science, shape the struggle for liberation?”
• “Unearthing New York City’s Forgotten Past: Seneca Village the Life and Death of an African American and Irish Immigrant Community, Join us for a talk about Seneca Village and the research and primary sources that discovered its silenced history. Led by Mr. Herbert Seignoret, Director of Academic Advising at the Colin Powell School and Associate Director of the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History.” Free, Wednesday 02/03/2021, Time: 06:00 PM EST
• More about this: “GoT alums among announced cast for Netflix Sandman adaptation. Gwendoline Christie and Charles Dance join Tom Sturridge as Morpheus.”—”Dance’s Burgess is styled after real-life occultist Aleister Crowley and is Crowley’s arch-rival within the world of DC Comics. In Gaiman’s Sandman, it is Burgess who seeks to capture and bind Death and kidnaps Dream by mistake, imprisoning him in a glass globe—which then passes to the Order of the Ancient Mysteries and his son Alex upon his death.” Morpheus’ rival, I think that should have said? Loosely based, as ever, but obviously inspired by. But, I recall the character only appears at the beginning.
• “Napoleon’s Brother Lived in N.J. Here’s What Happened to the Estate. The site in Bordentown once harbored Joseph Bonaparte, a former king. A new partnership has ensured that its history won’t be forgotten.”
• Watch “Captain Sir Tom Moore dies with coronavirus.”
• Watch “CG short film on God testing a software.”
• Senet magazine, Issue 4: Spring 2021, “an independent print magazine about the craft, creativity and community of board gaming.”
• The Magus—”The Magus is a solo journaling tabletop RPG that takes you on a sweeping journey for power, ambition, and arcane mastery, at great personal and interpersonal cost.”
• Chill Out—”Chill Out is a solo tabletop roleplaying game about a calm, mythical drive through the United States during a summer night. The game is inspired by the KLF album Chill Out”
• Watch “The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse” an ASMR collab.
• Watch “МОСКВА Pussy Riot – RAGE”
• Watch a short clip about W B Yeat and Maude Gonne, as Gaeilge (in Irish), but it doesn’t get to the Golden Dawn or magical marriage parts: “Scéalta Grá na hÉireann | W.B.Yeats & Maud Gonne | TG4”
• Watch “How to play an ancient rock gong.”
• Watch “Daemonia Nymphe-Thracian Gaia (Live in Athens)”
• “Lego made a white noise playlist, and it takes me back to being a kid. Who knew the sounds of Lego bricks could be so relaxing.” [Spotify, Apple]

This post was possible because of support from generous ongoing Patrons and Members of the newsletter. Both Patrons and Members get access to Omnium Gatherum immediately and directly via web and email. On the blog, this will be exclusive to Patrons for one year, after which I’ll make it publicly available to everyone so they can see what they’ve been missing.