I have the satisfaction of not paying that money to highway robbers, at least?

Howdy everyone! Here’s a public summary of my activity this week ending July 21, 2023!

This week I officially welcomed Sitting Now’s flagship podcast Right Where You Are Sitting Now, which I unofficially mentioned last week. And there’s even a brand new episode this week to check out.

I lost an entire day of my life this week having to travel to another city in order to get my eyes checked, and update my 10+ year old prescription. I got it done, and there’s zero indication of any issues, like my late grandmother’s macular degeneration, which I admit I was a little worried about. But, I had to head to another city because the only optometrist in town that would even tell me how much they charge (all the others are so addicted to sweet, sweet insurance money that they would only offer that the exam would “cost whatever it cost based on what the Doctor found” and wouldn’t even agree to ask for consent before adding elements to the procedure that incurred additional charges … how is any of that an acceptable business practice?!) didn’t have any appointments until August. So, I gave up and gave in to expanding the search elsewhere, and a while ago I finally found a place that had an appointment that was sooner than months out I could schedule and that would tell me their charges. That scheduled appointment was yesterday. By the by, the actual exam was even way cheaper than anything in my own small town, in fact; but after all I spent whilst traveling, for a full day there and back, it probably came out the same or more. However, I have the satisfaction of not paying that money to highway robbers, at least?

Apropos of nothing, you know what is probably going to finally kill off the small independent web? All the privacy policy, cookie consent, and other legal hoops that only sites run by companies with lawyers can manage to figure out how to comply with. I’m one guy working alone running some popular but not profit focused websites that naturally collect data, as all websites do, in the same way that all websites do; but, I also rely on a couple of ad networks to help pay the bills and use affiliate links with vanishingly small relevance. It all adds (ads?!) up to a mess of BS I will probably need to account for since people come to website and blog from anywhere in the world. If I had, maybe, at least, 3 times as many Patrons I could get rid of ads completely, but I’ve never yet reached a point where the expense and effort of running the site pays for itself. Being of service running the site and blog has always been more of a burden than it has been self-supporting. Complying with every requirement around the world is a level of complexity that a single person running a couple of sites, like myself, cannot reasonably be expected to manage. That complexity is going to suck the air out of the room, or fracture the web into regional services, between completely personal pages and big corporate sites where people like me try to survive.

Welp, I still did get some other work on the site and blog done, even with travel and recovery from all the “fun” in the sun this week. So, read on and enjoy!

Thank you for visiting and being a guest of Hermetic Library. You help me be of service and make the work of the library meaningful. Especial thanks to each and every ongoing Patron on Patreon, Subscriber at Bandcamp, and Member on Ko-Fi for making the work of the library possible!

Help me officially welcome to the library Sitting Now‘s flagship podcast Right Where You Are Sitting Now that explores the esoteric and offbeat side of the world. They interview luminaries of the counterculture, occulture, and fringe art. From fringe thinkers and The Occult, to UFOs and Cyber mysteries … basically, if it’s coming from a fresh, funny or different perspective, they are interested in it!

Almanac

Here’s upcoming calendar and astronomical events, plus the daily Thelemic Tephilah practice, for the coming week, July 21–28.

Calendar

Follow Calendar on the web and rss. And, if you have a current or upcoming event to share, add it to the Hermetic Library Calendar!

Here’s recurring calendar events in Hermeneuticon for this coming week.

• Greater Feast of Moina Mathers, Mina Bergson, Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum, died July 25, 1928 at London, United Kingdom

And, there was an event I posted to the blog at upcoming calendar events and on socials, but already happened as of this newsletter. But, I’ll still list it for completion. I try to post things with enough lead time to include them here, but sometimes that isn’t possible so I post them quickly to blog and socials.

• Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy — July 20, 2023, Brooklyn, NY, US

Astronomical

• Sun enters Leo, July 23, 2023, 01:51 UTC
• Moon enters Libra, July 23, 2023, 05:54 UTC
• Moon enters Scorpio, July 25, 2023, 16:56
• Moon enters Sagittarius, July 28, 2023, 00:24 UTC

Thelemic Tephilah

Here’s reminders for Thelemic Tephilah daily practice for this upcoming week, from the Hermeneuticon page for the month.

• Thelemic Tephilah, July 21: Fire, Liber LXV, Cap. IV, 23-24
• Thelemic Tephilah, July 22: Fire, Liber LXV, Cap. IV, 25
• Thelemic Tephilah, July 23: Fire, Liber LXV, Cap. IV, 26-27
• Thelemic Tephilah, July 24: Fire, Liber LXV, Cap. IV, 28-29
• Thelemic Tephilah, July 25: Fire, Liber LXV, Cap. IV, 30-33
• Thelemic Tephilah, July 26: Fire, Liber LXV, Cap. IV, 34-37
• Thelemic Tephilah, July 27: Fire, Liber LXV, Cap. IV, 38-41
• Thelemic Tephilah, July 28: Fire, Liber LXV, Cap. IV, 42-44

Things to check out at Hermetic Library

• I added a new Right Where You Are Sitting Now episode to the mirror: Episode 86 – Dark Magick of the Black Lodge revealed with Allen H. Greenfield. I also added it to the top of the main page, rotating the 5 featured there; and updated the episode index, as one might expect.
• I added Chapter III, Phaeton to The Diary of a Drug Fiend.
• I added more to The Winged Beetle, including Ave Adonai, The Camp Fire, Prologue to Rodin in Rime, An Hymn, Song.
• I did a bit of improvement to The Ordeal of Ida Pendragon by Aleister Crowley (writing as Martial Nay) in The Equinox I vi.
• I created an entry in Hermeneuticon for Vepar, with images from this week’s generator experiment.

And on the blog

All the quotes, reviews, &c. (But not OG, Events Calendar, &c.)

• Right Where You Are Sitting Now—Help me welcome to the library Sitting Now‘s flagship podcast Right Where You Are Sitting Now that explores the esoteric and offbeat side of the world.
• Isolations by John Griogair Bell
• Edgar held forth at length upon Art, passionlessly expository. “Art,” said he, “and do not imagine that Art or anything else is other than High Magic! — is a system of holy hieroglyph. The artist, the initiate, thus frames his mysteries. The rest of the world scoff, or seek to understand, or pretend to understand; some few obtain the truth. The technical ability of the artist is the lucidity of his language; it has nothing to do with the degree of his illumination. Bougereau is better technically than Manet; he explains more clearly what he sees. But what does he see? He is the priest of a false God. Form has no importance except in this sense; we must not be revolted by the extravagance of new symbolic systems. Gauguin and Matisse may live to be understood. We acquiesce in the eccentricities of Raphael.”—Aleister Crowley (as Martial Nay), The Ordeal of Ida Pendragon
• The Wisdom of the Desert—Hermetic Library Fellow T Polyphilus reviews The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton, New Directions Book 295.
• A ritual is not a melancholy formality; it is a Sacrament, a Dance, a Commemoration of the Universe. The Universe is endless rapture, wild and unconfined, a mad passion of speed. Astronomers tell us this of the Great Republic of the Stars; physicists say the same of the Little Republic of Molecules. Shall not the Middle Republic of Men be like unto them? The polite ethicist demurs; his ideal is funereal solemnity. His horizon is bounded by death; and his spy-glass is smeared with the idea of sin. The New Aeon proclaims Man as Immortal God, eternally active to do His Will. All’s Joy, all’s Beauty; this Will we celebrate.—Aleister Crowley, New Comment on II.36, Liber Legis, The Book of the Law.
• Vepar—Generated visuals for Vepar from Goetia using Midjourney from a mix of parsed text description & seal image prompts.