An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for March 31, 2021

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

• Grand Lodge of Australia, OTO: Ora et Labora: An OTO Research Journal, Volume I [Bookshop, Amazon] and Volume II [Bookshop, Amazon], now available. “Distributed across two volumes, Ora Et Labora features new research, and previously difficult to obtain essays from Italy, Australia, Poland, USA, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Austria, Japan, Sweden and India. Vol I: In the Weaves of the Order – Frater Phanes X°, Typology of Will in writings of Aleister Crowley, Meister Eckhart and Carl Gustav Jung – Krzysztof Azarewicz, An Analysis of Liber Librae – Frater V.I.A., When meditation goes bad – Cynthia Crosse, Health in Thelema: The Stone of the Wise & The Holy Guardian Angel – Shawn Gray, Eros daimon mediator and Electoral College – Frater Ιαω Σαβαω, On the Epiclesis – Michael Kolson, Secret Light: Reflections on the Rosy Cross – Tau Nektarios, Eucharist: From Self to God – Padraig MacIain, The Proof is in the Pudding- Marko Milenovic, Baphomet – Frater O.I.P.; Vol II: Āmi Satya: Hallaj, Crowley, and the Baul Fakirs of Bengal – Keith Cantú, Carl Kellner – Patrizia Ebner, Freemasonry, the OTO, and Crowley – Robert Koole, Aleister Crowley: a K2 Letter – Clint Warren, The Spiritual Heritage from Egypt – Pontus Lindqvist, Notes towards a preliminary analysis of a peculiar motif in the Stele of Ankh-af-na-khonsu – Rev. Cosmé Hallelujah, The Birth of the New Aeon: Magick And Mysticism of Thelema from the Perspective of Postmodern A/Theology – Gordan Djurdjevic, Crowley, Conspiracy, Moral Panic and the Media – Brendan Walls, The Will of the Aeon – Frater A.B.H.S.” [via]
• Flaherty NYC: To Feel, To Feel More, To Feel More Than, Flaherty NYC 2021, Friday, April 2, 8pm ET & Saturday, April 3, 4pm ET—”The future remains uncertain, but the past persists. The abundance, excess, and indulgence of images, and access to information that simultaneously leaves us sick, overwhelmed, and uneasy, also brings us further away from oblivion. Despite the fiction of borders, race, gender, and time that many would have us maintain through both overt violence and covert forms of soft power, our interconnection to each other—the continuum of care that brings us together across generations—is visible through the ways we commit to each other through our screens. This program, developed as a final output of the Flaherty NYC programming team comprised of Alia Ayman, Devon Narine Singh, and Suneil Sanzgiri, looks at how media ecosystems, digital detritus, and cultural memory are navigated across boundaries, identities, and history. Can remembrance fix a broken world? If not only by an act of saving the memories from being encompassed by that world, but acting as beginnings for other possibilities? From children’s drawings collected by Frantz Fanon during the Algerian war, sci-fi allegories on toxicity, swimming, and e-waste, to a 1908 film effectively envisioning our obsessions with Zoom calls and Snapchat filters, these films question the human, our relationship to the natural world, to time, to technology, and to each other. Our title comes from a passage from Fred Moten’s Black and Blur, which asks if anything still remains of the human, and how we might enact that remainder.” Watch “To Feel, To Feel More, To Feel More Than” trailer.
• Crowdfunding, with 24 days to go: “Sefirot. A Tarot-based game for 1-2 players, featuring lavish art and three modes of playing and divination to explore.”
• The Eloquent Blood: The Goddess Babalon and the Construction of Femininities in Western Esotericism with Dr. Manon Hedenborg White via Zoom from The Viktor Wynd Museum & The Last Tuesday Society, £4.77 – £11.04, June 17 2021, 14:00 – 15:30 CDT. “In the first century CE, a beautiful, lustful woman astride a seven-headed beast appeared in the apocalyptic visions of John of Patmos, chronicled in the biblical Book of Revelation. In 1909, the Whore of Babylon, Mother of Abominations, re-appeared in the Algerian desert before the British occultist Aleister Crowley (1875–1947). For Crowley, she was the goddess Babalon — representing passionate union with all of existence and the sacredness of liberated (and especially feminine) sexuality. Join Manon Hedenborg White for an exploration of Babalon and her meaning in modern occultism as a goddess of ego-death, eroticism, and transgressive femininity. We will follow Babalon from Aleister Crowley’s mysticism and sexual magic, via the ‘Babalon Working’ of American rocket scientist John Whiteside Parsons and his lover, the artist Marjorie Cameron, through the Left-Hand Path Tantra of the enigmatic British occultist Kenneth Grant, up until the present, when radical occultists are reinterpreting Babalon as a goddess of feminine empowerment and queer liberation.”
• Phil Hine’s Choas Magick books to be released in Portuguese, by Oficina Palimpsestus: Tweet—”Yes, it is true! Following Austin Osman Spare, we’ll be publishing Phil Hine’s books – and I said “books”: “Prime Chaos”, “Condensed Chaos”, Pseudonomicon” and “Hine’s Varieties”.”
• Also, in other news, for pre-sale: Arte e Magia do Caos: obra reunida de Austin Osman Spare, Kit Arte e Magia do Caos: Livro + Cartas Surrealistas para Previsão de Corridas, and Cartas Surrealistas para Previsão de Corridas. “Serão aproximadamente 460 páginas de texto e 200 de imagens.” (There will be approximately 460 pages of text and 200 of images.) “Ensaios introdutórios de Alan Moore, Kenneth Grant, Robert Ansell, Rogério Bettoni, Octavio Stevaux e Lucas Fier. ” (Introductory essays by Alan Moore, Kenneth Grant, Robert Ansell, Rogério Bettoni, Octavio Stevaux and Lucas Fier.) “Obra escrita de Austin Osman Spare: Terra Inferno, O Livro do Prazer, O Foco da Vida, Desenho Automático, Anátema de Zos, Logomaquia de Zos, Grimório Zoético de Zos, Palavra Viva de Zos (com os textos “Sabá das Bruxas”, “Mente a Mente e Como” e “Axiomata”). Obra visual de Austin Osman Spare: Livro dos Sátiros, Livro do Êxtase Grotesco, Caderno de Desenhos Automáticos, Vale do Medo, Aventuras no Limbo, Ex-libris, além de imagens de “Dois Grimórios”, Revista Form, The Starlit Mire, Equinox, entre outras publicações, e uma ampla seleção de obras de arte de Spare. Apêndices: Notas de tradução e contextualização, cronologia, bibliografia e agradecimentos.” (Written work by Austin Osman Spare: Terra Inferno, The Book of Pleasure, The Focus of Life, Automatic Drawing, Anathema of Zos, Zos Logomaquia, Zoos Grimoire of Zos, Living Word of Zos (with the texts “Witches’ Sabbath”, “Mind to Mind and How” and “Axiomata”). Visual work by Austin Osman Spare: Book of Satyrs, Book of Grotesque Ecstasy, Notebook of Automatic Drawings, Valley of Fear, Adventures in Limbo, Ex-libris, as well as images from “Two Grimoires”, Form Magazine, The Starlit Mire, Equinox , among other publications, and a wide selection of Spare’s works of art. Appendices: Translation and contextualization notes, chronology, bibliography and acknowledgments.)
• Nefelibata (Portuguese): “(n.) lit. ‘cloud walker’; one who lives in the clouds of their own imagination, or one who does not obey by the conventions of society, literature, or art” [via]
• Runa: The Wisdom of The Runes by A D Mercer, in paperback, hardcover, and special editions. “‘Runa – Wisdom of the Runes’ presents what is, without doubt, the most misunderstood, probably the most cynically abused set of runes in the history of runology. The Armanen runes have been ignored by scholars, abused by right wing extremists, and largely forgotten by students of the occult. Nevertheless, the Armanen runes are in many ways the quintessential esoteric rune row. Originally conceived of by the nineteenth-century German mystic Guido von List, the Armanen runes offer us the most esoterically charged futharks ever encountered. As well as exploring their true history, Runa discusses the deeper significance of the Armanen runes with the intention of returning the runes to their rightful place at the zenith of true runic magic as well as their true meaning as symbols of transformation granting access into the deeper unconscious and what may lie beyond. Runa examines each rune in detail, before embarking on a detailed exploration of the relationship between the Armanen Runes and Yggdrasil, the Germanic and Nordic world tree directly link the two, in this respect Runa is a unique text, as it is the only text to directly link the two, exploring the importance of this connection, which cannot be overstated.” Watch a video introduction: “Runa – The Wisdom of the Runes – A.D. Mercer“.
• The Pathways of the Heart [Amazon, Publisher] by Vanessa Sinclair—”Vanessa Sinclair’s new collection of poems and collages is rooted in the dark earth of death, but to an equal degree it also celebrates the vibrant life-force that grows inside this eternal darkness, and the transformation, love and magic we all need to live. The constant interplay of motion and emotion filters fragments of questions we try so hard to avoid but always fail to. The Pathways to the Heart are many but they need to be trodden lightly, with love and deep appreciation. Once there, you can assemble the fragments of your life and see what they say – the poetry of an existence that is inevitable until it is not.”
• “Outside the Text. Jacques Derrida resists easy canonization in a new hagiography for the Left.” More about An Event, Perhaps: A Biography of Jacques Derrida [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Peter Salmon—”Philosopher, film star, father of “post truth”—the real story of Jacques Derrida”
• “How Animal Intelligence Helps Us Speculate About the Alien Mind.”
• “Night and the Spatio-Temporal Zone.” Excerpt from The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens—and Ourselves [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Arik Kershenbaum—”From a noted Cambridge zoologist, a wildly fun and scientifically sound exploration of what alien life must be like, using universal laws that govern life on Earth and in space.”
• “Hari Kunzru on Conspiracy Groups and Capturing the Slow Slide into Horror.” About Red Pill [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Hari Kunzru—”From the widely acclaimed author of White Tears, a bold new novel about searching for order in a world that frames madness as truth.”
• “Liberty or Death: On the Prophetic Visions and Unflinching Will of Harriet Tubman.” Excerpt from The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Dorothy Wickenden—”From the intimate perspective of three friends and neighbors in mid-nineteenth century Auburn, New York—the “agitators” of the title—acclaimed author Dorothy Wickenden tells the fascinating and crucially American stories of abolition, the Underground Railroad, the early women’s rights movement, and the Civil War.”
• “Empathy beyond Therapy.”—”What would it mean to make caring for others into an explicitly public priority, enabling disclosures that are spontaneous and free from rigid social conventions?” About What Are You Going Through [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Sigrid Nunez—”The New York Times–bestselling, National Book Award–winning author of The Friend brings her singular voice to a story about the meaning of life and death, and the value of companionship.”
• The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher, Inequality] by Chuck Collins, co-editor at Inequality.Org—”For decades, a secret army of tax attorneys, accountants and wealth managers has been developing into the shadowy Wealth Defence Industry. These ‘agents of inequality’ are paid millions to hide trillions for the richest 0.01%. In this book, inequality expert Chuck Collins, who himself inherited a fortune, interviews the leading players and gives a unique insider account of how this industry is doing everything it can to create and entrench hereditary dynasties of wealth and power. He exposes the inner workings of these “agents of inequality”, showing how they deploy anonymous shell companies, family offices, offshore accounts, opaque trusts, and sham transactions to ensure the world’s richest pay next to no tax. He ends by outlining a robust set of policies that democratic nations can implement to shut down the Wealth Defence Industry for good. This shocking exposé of the insidious machinery of inequality is essential reading for anyone wanting the inside story of our age of plutocratic plunder and stashed cash.”
• “I Have Come to Bury Ayn Rand. A prominent evolutionary biologist slays the beast of Individualism.”—”My sequel to Atlas Shrugged is titled Atlas Hugged and its protagonist is John Galt’s grandson. Ayn Rand was not a character in her novel, but since anything goes in fiction, I could transport her into mine as Ayn Rant, John I’s lover and John III’s grandmother. Rant’s son, John II, parlays her Objectivist philosophy into a world-destroying libertarian media empire. John III rebels against the evil empire by challenging his father to a duel of speeches. In the process, he brings about a worldwide transformation based on giving. Atlas Hugged is so anti-Rand that it isn’t even being sold. Instead, it is gifted for whatever the reader wishes to give in return. Eat your heart out, Amazon!” “Others can judge my talents as a storyteller, but Atlas Hugged is arguably the first science-informed novel of the Post-Individualism Age.”
• “On ‘getting’ poetry. On deriving pleasure from poetry.”
• “It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside of calamity to give advice and to rebuke the sufferer.”—Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound quoted at Easy.
• “Space Cargo Unlimited reveals the first results of the scientific research carried out on wine that aged more than one year on board the ISS, as part of Mission WISE. After 438 days and 19 hours on board the International Space Station, at an altitude of 400 km, and after a journey of 300,000,000 km (the equivalent of about 300 trips between the Earth and the Moon) at 28,000 km / h and in zero gravity, twelve bottles of 2000 vintage Petrus, deliver their first secrets.”
• “Curtin research finds first clues to start of Earth’s supercontinent cycle. Curtin University research has uncovered the first solid clues about the very beginning of the supercontinent cycle of Earth, finding it was kick-started two billion years ago.”
• “Why Animals Don’t Get Lost. Birds do it. Bees do it. Learning about the astounding navigational feats of wild creatures can teach us a lot about where we’re going.”
• “The mystery of how big our Universe really is. The cosmos has been expanding since the Big Bang, but how fast? The answer could reveal whether everything we thought we knew about physics is wrong.”
• “The Remnants of Theia May Still Exist Deep Inside the Earth.” Also “The Massive Remnants of an Alien World Are Hidden Near the Earth’s Core, Study Proposes. A new study suggests that an alien world that smashed into infant Earth and created the Moon might have left vast remains inside our planet.”
• “Scientists Built an Artificial Cell That Grows And Divides Like a Natural One.”
• Chimeras, hybrids, manticores, oh my! “First known gene transfer from plant to insect identified. Discovery that a whitefly uses a stolen plant gene to elude its host’s defences may offer a route to new pest-control strategies.”
• “This Wooden Sculpture Is Twice as Old as Stonehenge and the Pyramids. New findings about the 12,500-year-old Shigir Idol have major implications for the study of prehistory.”
• “Explorer Richard Garriott [Ultima’s Lord British] reads poetry at the bottom of the ocean (and in space).”
• From the אדמה dept: watch “We May Have Been Wrong About the Origin of Life“—”Life crawled out of the oceans onto land, right? New research suggests that this popular theory could be wrong.” Life’s a beach, I’ve heard it said.
• “The Rise of the Anti-Mask Influencer. After studying the origins and actions of several prominent Canadian anti-maskers, we can now offer you the definitive primer to becoming a conspiracy-baiting, immensely annoying influencer.”
• “Stanford Scientists Reverse Engineer Moderna Vaccine, Post Code on Github. The secrets of the Moderna vaccine are there for all to see, they run about two pages.”
• “Would the Pandemic Stop Paul Theroux From Traveling? No. Of course not.”
• “Why the Amazon union vote is bigger than Amazon. How it’s happening, what’s at stake, and why the repercussions could affect the US labor force.”
• “I Tried the App That ‘Makes You Trip’ – and It Was Surprisingly Good. A new app claims it can get you high, using just your smartphone. We tested it out.”
• “AT&T lobbies against nationwide fiber, says 10Mbps uploads are good enough. AT&T admits fiber is most “future-proof” but wants US to fund slower networks.”
• From the International House of Burgers dept: “VW changing to Voltswagen—early April fool or corporate rebranding? [Updated]. VW posted then deleted a press release announcing the name change, according to CNBC.” Also “Volkswagen admits ‘Voltswagen’ name change was a joke amid confusion. Company confirms name change on its US website but announcement is reportedly a stunt aimed at boosting new vehicle.”
• “After a Remote Year, Tech’s Shadow Workforce Barely Hangs On. As tech campuses became ghost towns, the people who kept them running—cooks, custodians, drivers—faced an existential threat to their livelihoods.”
• “The Hidden Hand Of Facial Recognition In The Capitol Insurrection Manhunt. The highly controversial tool isn’t just for the feds anymore. Online sleuths are quietly using it to hunt for rioters — like the man they’ve dubbed #NaziGrayHat.”
• “From Crypto Art to Trading Cards, Investment Manias Abound. Each market frenzy seems crazier than the last. But all have the same roots.”
• More about controversial Controlled Digital Lending: “Calls Intensify to Allow Libraries to Narrow Digital Divide.”
• More on Cictercian numbers, but DIY: “Cistercian Digital Clock”
• “Italy Can Evict Steve Bannon’s School for Far-Right ‘Gladiators’ From an 800-Year-Old Monastery, the Country’s Top Court Rules. The decision effectively ends a years-long court battle between the former Trump strategist and the Italian Culture Ministry.” Also “Steve Bannon loses bid to start right-wing political academy in Italy.” Also, in other news: “Bannon criminal probe in N.Y. includes embedded investigators from state attorney general’s office.”
• “Great Britain’s Long Search for a Role in the World. Brexit is a mistake that the UK will come to regret. The country’s illusions of greatness were outsized 65 years ago when it refused to join the founding members of the European Community. Now, it has made the same mistake again. Brexit is an empty promise to recast the future as the past.”
• “The Unlovable Vegetable, or: Kale Chips Are for Cowans.”—””
• “Texas prisons stopped in-person visits and limited mail. Drugs got in anyway. Guards smuggle in most contraband, people who live in or work at prisons say.”
• “One of World’s Greatest Hidden Fortunes Is Wiped Out in Days.”—”Even on Wall Street, few ever noticed him — until suddenly, everyone did.”
• Everyone’s talking about Satan Shoes and music videos turning kids gay, as if that’s how it worked. If you haven’t seen Lil Nas X – MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name), official video, check it out. Also, here’s a couple of takes you might not have seen yet: “Lil Nas X and the continued segregation of country music. What the musician’s exile from the country charts tells us about the genre’s relation to race.” Tweet—”I’m not one to call for teachers to be fired, but if you really think MSCHF is going to struggle to sell those Lil Nas X sneakers, maybe you should not be an Ivy League marketing professor.” Also “Lil Nas X ‘Satan Shoes’ Get Stamp of Approval … From Church of Satan—”The Nike lawsuit might have caught Lil Nas X by surprise, but he had to see this coming — the Church of Satan is throwing its support behind his new limited edition ‘Satan Shoes.'”
• People leaving churches? I wonder what the Venn diagram between this and Qanon looks like? “U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time.”
• “Vatican’s gay blessing ban stokes fear among African LGBT Catholics.”
• “No Good Has Come. Marilynne Robinson’s testimony for the white church.”
• “Cult classics: the faded glory of California’s fringe sects – in pictures. Fifty years after a golden age for the spiritual groups, many have disbanded. But pockets remain throughout the state.”
• “David Lynch’s Dune Is a Beautiful Sci-fi Disaster.”
• “Experience: I tracked down my impostor. I found a video clip of him at a conference, reading out a chapter I’d written. He was dressed like me. He had even copied my tattoos.”
• “Jessica Walter showed what can happen when Hollywood lets women thrive no matter their age.”
• “How Nature Helped Me Recover from an Eating Disorder. Outside correspondent Kate Siber learned to reinhabit her body by being outdoors. But she didn’t expect that healing would also bring a new perspective on nature itself.”
• Mentions of William Butler Yeats at Ireland Before You Die: “From legends and family ties to modern-day depictions, here is all you need to know about Cú Chulainn, one of the most iconic Irish mythical demigods.” Also “Glencar Waterfall: directions, when to visit, and things to know. From when to visit to what’s nearby, here is all you need to know about the magnificent Glencar Waterfall.”
• Product Review: For the Creatively Blocked Stoner, the Pilgrim Soul Creative Thinking Journal Can Unlock Self-Reflection—or at Least Inspire Some Cool Doodles. The cover of the book literally reads, ‘Please Use This Journal While You Are High’ in a font larger and bolder than any other text.”—”Right off the bat, a William Butler Yeats poem introduces the phrase Pilgrim Soul before 15 more pages outline the generalities of the creative process.”
• “The Irregulars: The Real History of The Golden Dawn and the Ipsissimus. The Irregulars’ Order of the Golden Dawn was a real occult organisation that began in the 19th century” Also “What Is The Golden Dawn In ‘The Irregulars’? It Was A Real Society.”—”Netflix’s The Irregulars does not precisely follow the Sherlock Holmes source material from which it’s drawn. … But that doesn’t mean the show doesn’t include other historically accurate details, like the belief in the occult or secret societies like the Golden Dawn.” Also “The Irregulars True Story: The Golden Dawn Secret Society Explained. The Irregulars episode 3 introduces viewers to the Golden Dawn, a real-life secret society that investigates paranormal activity and the occult.”
• “Munchkin: Critical Role puts a D&D spin on a classic party game. Kick down the door!”
• “Remember Fun? Here’s a Short History of the Best Parties in Recent-ish Memory. A rogues gallery of bon vivants recall their most memorable nights out on the town.”
• “Cozy Grove is like Animal Crossing, if it was haunted. Out now on Apple Arcade.”
• “Ford unearths $100K in leather during demolition at Dearborn facility.”—”Few, if anyone, had any idea what was in the basement.” Um. Cue horror movie soundtrack.
• “The Bizarre Story of the Montana Governor Shooting a Wolf From Yellowstone.”
• “Ronnie O’Sullivan Fastest 147 in History 5 minutes 8 seconds 1997 World Championship.”
• New track Baphomet Crown (or, sometimes it is being called Baphometh Crown?!) [YouTube, Spotify] From Venezuelan band Nocturnal Hallow’s upcoming Triumphantly Evil.
• “Tiny God: A Tiny Game of Two-Minute Mindfulness. You are bonded to a tiny god who follows you everywhere and is very interested in what you have to say. Your tiny god has a lot of questions–how will you answer them?”
• Here’s a tool for learning lines, whether for dramatic play or, you know, ritual and ceremony, that may be of interest: watch “‘StageRole’ demo – Worlds first voice recognition rehearsal and self-taping app for actors.” (From a company the makes immersive voice packs and voice control software for computer simulation games, including voices by some huge name genre actors.)
• Disney Silly Symphony The Goddess of Spring (1934) [Disney+, YouTube, IMDb, Wikipedia]. Also “Artifactual: The Goddess of Spring Character Model Sheet”

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