Category Archives: Hermetic Library anthology

Anthology news, 9dec2023

A bundle of early presents for you!

Kim Cascone’s Silent Records just released Citalá, River of Stars by Robin Parmar

PsuedoNovalis has a very limited run of a 80-page book-zine PixArt VIRTUALIA™ on pre-order

Daemonia Nymphe / Spyros Giasafakis released Seikilos Epitaph (feat. Evi Stergiou) “The ‘Seikilos Epitaph’ is the oldest surviving complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world. This is our first ever interpretation of this ancient song using only an ‘ancient’ Greek lyre, kymbala (‘ancient’ cymbals) and vocals (female & male) recorded 23 years ago.” “Released for the first time on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music and other digital platforms, enjoy!”

Dvar released a video for inni uumi from Madegirah II

Secret Archives of the Vatican released Winter Chalice

By the by, I noticed that National Cynical Network, who was a content partner on my now sadly defunct RADIO @ HRMTC project, can be found, in addition to other places they already were, streaming on Slack Radio weekly each Sunday from 7pm until 2am the next morning. And, if you enjoyed NCN, you might also enjoy other stuff on that web-based radio station, which is Church of the SubGenius related or adjacent.

And, last but not least, if you’re in the Los Angeles area, Blasting Rod will be making their “one and (so far) only North American live appearance” at Redwood Bar and Grill on Jan 6, 2024, with Vie Jester, and Power Falcon. So, go and say hello to them for me!

That’s what you get this time around. Well, okay, I’ll toss in a big lump ‘o coal, just because.

But, of course, be sure to check out the entire anthology project at Hermetic Library, Itch, Bandcamp, and in all the digital streaming and online shops.

Heart Girt With A Serpent

Heart Girt With A Serpent by The Gray Field Recordings from Magick, Music and Ritual 18

The Heart Girt With A Serpent
(Loftiss/Crowley)

Music by R. Loftiss. Opening lyrics sung in Enochian. Words from the Holy Book of Thelema spoken by Aedria Bright, Soror Sekhet Bast Ra.

The Gray Field Recordings was formed by R. Loftiss, who creates music with a wide range of instruments … potentially anything that makes a sound. She is world-weary and tired and believes that in the end talking animals will lead us home by the light of the moon.

She has been joined, on albums and live performances, by violist David Salim and violinist Justin Jones. The latest Gray Field Recordings album, “She Sleeps to the Sound of Knives”, features the talents of Alan Trench (Orchis, Twelve Thousand Days, Temple Music) Frank Suchomel (Inalonelyplace, Language of Light), and Mike Seed (The Chasms).

She has appeared on several compilations including Gold Leaf Branches (Foxglove/Digitalis) and Lead into Gold (Rebis Records).

R. has collaborated with a number of artists including Language of Light, Eyes of Wood, Ctephin, Anvil Salute, frogtoboggan, Spagirus, Techix, Inalonelyplace, Cousin Silas, Mike Seed, and Temple Music. Her other bands are, with Alan Trench, The Howling Larsons and from Athens, Greece, Black Lesbian Fishermen.

Follow The Gray Field Recordings via Anthology profile.

Space Dreamtime

Space Dreamtime by Kevlar Nuckler from Magick, Music and Ritual 18

Space Dreamtime
(Nuckler)

A synth bathed spacey ambient guitar instrumental with a beat.

Kevlar Nuckler is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer known mostly for his guitar work and vocals in Mars Cantina and Ophwurld and bass and vocals with George Orwell Experience. This is his solo recording project.

Follow Kevlar Nuckler via Anthology profile.

Biting Through

Biting Through by Black Lesbian Fishermen from Magick, Music and Ritual 18

Biting Through
(Fokas, Trench, Loftiss)

Music by Nikos Fokas, Alan Trench, and R. Loftiss. Melody conjured by tarot. Words inspired by the I Ching and Ahmed III’s Sadâbâd Palace gardens.

On the path
On the travertine path
By candle light
By tortoise light
With the hills all on fire
With the mountain burning so bright
Through fields of poppies
Straight through the night
I’ll find you little trembling light
I’ll find you little trembling I

If forever is an ever-land
Even if a never, then
I’ll find you
I’ll find you
I’m biting through
Lalalala lalala lalala

On my way
On my lumbering way
By bird song
By glittering caged birds
While the mountains are all on fire
While the world so slowly burns
Through mirrored paths
Through twisting turns
I’ll find you just by these words
I’ll find you with shimmering words

If forever is an ever-land
Even if a never, then
I’ll find you
I’ll find you
I’m biting through
I’ll find you
Lalalala lalala la

“Without being overly opulent, their ritualistic, always slightly folky colored psychedelia brings together the most diverse elements, elements that should actually seem heterogeneous and bulky, but always harmonize in a wondrous way.” – African Paper

Black Lesbian Fishermen is an experimental/drone/ambient group based in Athens, Greece. The group members are from the USA, England and Greece and all have backgrounds in different aspects of esoteric practice.

As well as contributing to a number of compilations, they have released two full length albums – Ectopic Apiary in 2015 via cryptanthus and Reverb Worship, and The Metaphysics Of Natron via Underflow in 2019. They are currently working on a third.

Black Lesbian Fishermen are:

Nikos Fokas (GR) – Keyboards, Synths, Modular Synths, Treatments. Also known for Vault Of Blossomed Ropes, his solo work, and collaboration with Arve Henriksen

R Loftiss (US) – Bowed Guitar, Glass Flute, Vox, Synth, Sound. Also know for The Gray Field Recordings, Language Of Light, Howling Larsons, Anvil Salute

Stelios Romaliadis (GR) – Flute. Also known for LÜÜP and Vault Of Blossomed Ropes.

Stratis Sgourelis (GR) – Bass, Treatments. Also known for Vault Of Blossomed Ropes.

Alan Trench (UK) – Guitar, fx, Vox. Also known for Temple Music, Howling Larsons, Twelve Thousand Days, Orchis.

Follow Black Lesbian Fishermen via Anthology profile.

The Scourge

The Scourge by The Photoelectric Defect on Magick, Music and Ritual 18

The Scourge
(Rossitter)

Written, Performed, and Engineered by Johnathan Rossitter

Lyrics:

I feel the wrath of God upon my skin
He tears the flesh again, again, again.

I am the hand, I am his Instrument
I must endure, this loving discipline

This scourge will purge the torpor and the dross
The pain sustains the circle and the cross

I bear the scars of God upon my skin
The searing lash again, again, again

The trials of flesh eroding the facades
To purify this wight before the gods

The dark and I await your sweet caress
And strike the blows across this stubborn ass

Wretch! Wretch! Wretch! Wretch!
Wretch! Wretch! Wretch! Wretch!
Wretch! Wretch! Wretch! Wretch!
Wretch! Wretch! Wretch! Wretch!

I feel alive (in these moments)
We are One

We are born to Die (in these moments)
We are One

God is Silence
God is Violence

Crack the Whip!
Crack the Whip!
Crack the Whip!
Crack the Whip!

The Photoelectric Defect is a creative musical project by Phoenix-based musician and producer Johnathan Rossitter.

Not to be pinned down by genre, The Photoelectric Defect explores many musical themes including nordic-folk, metal (black and death), spoken word post-rock, and industrial. Lyrically the music is heavily themed on ideas of spiritual growth, exploration, and illumination; mixed with notes of the occult, Kabbalah, Thelema, and general Western esotericism.

Follow The Photoelectric Defect via Anthology profile.

Arzel

Arzel by Children of Osiris on Magick, Music and Ritual 18

Arzel
(Rance)

My name is Marc, I first encountered esoteric ideas when I was 15 years old in a book called The Black Arts by Richard Cavendish, It was not until I was 17 that I was introduced to the ideas in the Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley (especially The Tarot and Animism) . I am now 45 and have related to various esoterica through music, art and personal practice during the intervening time. From Psychic TV and Coil to The shamen and Goa Trance via Throbbing gristle and everything in the Rave scene from the late eighties onwards. It seems impossible to fill this space with all my influences from the world of musick.

My process to create starts with words, I use keywords and expressions around an intention and cut up the ideas until they give birth to something that intuitively feels correct. I then paint the assemblage of language into a montage of symbolic images and colours. After this I charge the image through acoustic percussion and mantra (traditional or otherwise). Once I have obtained communication with my project and entered into a contract with it I move to my PC maintaining the state of trance and interaction in order to assemble a sonic tapestry of samples and sounds that reflect or are guided and informed to be representations of my communion with my work, I then edit and restructure. (Though not always) The sound has to be a reality of the contract/contact those are the terms and conditions.

I compose sound under three names Wolven Angel (Inspired by T.A.Z), M.A.R. and Children of Osiris, These personas/conditions/constructs serve different attitudes of purpose in order to guide certain aspects of my projects. Each set of conditions forms a set of temporary expressions recorded.

Follow Children of Osiris via Anthology profile

Anthology news, 4dec2023

I know that many people got an email or something when it happened, or should have, but I have to mention it again, as I’m contractually obligated to do; or else the library cats will disown me, or … something worse? Yeah, but, yesterday, I released, on the anniversary of the library’s birthday in 1996, this year’s anthology Magick, Music and Ritual 18!

You can now get it as a digital download on Bandcamp or Itch. If you’re a Subscriber on Bandcamp, you already have MMR18 and TINAHLAA-5 added to your collection, and if you aren’t then this is your last chance to get all five TINAHLAA releases and MMR18 for just $12 before I close the option to Subscribe on Bandcamp forever. If you’re a Patron on Patreon, at any support tier, you have a special link to grab the gratis download of MMR18 at any time until the next release, and another link to download TINAHLAA-5 until the end of the calendar year (after which it becomes a Digital perk with the other TINAHLAAs).

PANICMACHINE released Hidden Universe by P Emerson Williams

Worms of Earth’s label Arcane Dirge released Etterath by Subverge, and they’re running a 50% off sale on their compilation from earlier this year Arcanum Vol. I

Wolven Angel released Silent Ashes

Johann Heyss released Akhnaten (Remix)

Phil Legard’s Hawthonn released Coil Covers Coven by Hawthonn and Borehole

Check out dreams. by snow

And, gander at Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye by HIBUSHIBIRE

Also, icymi, “The KLF launch new ‘KLF Kare’ website and share remix. ‘KLF KARE may have the care home for you'” Listen to the track. (Or, hint hint, if you inspect the player code on the page, you can easily find the direct link to the mp3.)

And, that’s it for now! Until next time!

But, of course, be sure to check out the entire anthology project at Hermetic Library, Itch, and in all the digital streaming and online shops.

Magick, Music and Ritual 18 cover artwork

The cover for Magick, Music and Ritual 18 includes an untitled acrylic on canvas painting by John Griogair Bell, the Librarian, for this current year in the Thelemic Calendar, An V:ix (2023 e.v.), which represents the docosade of Atu V, the Hierophant and the year of Atu IX, The Hermit.

Included with the album download at Bandcamp and Itch are a larger size cover and an image of the full canvas of the cover painting.

Magick Music Ritual 18 John Griogair Bell Untitled 1111px

John Griogair Bell is the enigmatic super-villain, known only, to some, as Librarian.

The Hermetic Library Anthology Album – Magick, Music and Ritual 18

Magick, Music and Ritual 18, the Hermetic Library Anthology Album issued for 2023, Sun in Sagittarius, An Vix, from the Hermetic Library Anthology project is now released for immediate digital download at the library’s Bandcamp and Itch profiles.

<a href="https://hermeticlibrary.itch.io/magick-music-and-ritual-18">The Hermetic Library Anthology Album – Magick, Music and Ritual 18 by Hermetic Library</a>

The full tracklist for the 2023 anthology album consists of 10 tracks by 8 artists:

Children of Osiris – Arzel 03:48
The Photoelectric Defect – The Scourge 03:57
Black Lesbian Fishermen – Biting Through 05:02
Kevlar Nuckler – Space Dreamtime 05:56
The Gray Field Recordings – Heart Girt With A Serpent 06:16
Brian Redfern – Cursed 03:12
The Photoelectric Defect – The Phial 04:18
Children of Osiris – Pazuza 04:35
Logickal – Rust Study 07:48
Nikos Fokas – The Wrath of God 03:45

Magick, Music and Ritual 18, the anthology album release for 2023 from the Anthology Project, is being released for anniversary of the December 3, 1996 birthday of the Hermetic Library, with a playlist of 10 tracks by 8 artists, new and returning voices, for this Hermetic Library Anthology Album.

The cover includes an untitled acrylic on canvas painting by John Griogair Bell, the Librarian, for this current year in the Thelemic Calendar, An V:ix (2023 e.v.), which represents the docosade of Atu V, the Hierophant and the year of Atu IX, The Hermit. Included with the album download at Bandcamp and Itch are a larger size cover and an image of the full canvas of the cover painting.

Please join the Hermetic Library in promoting these artists who have contributed their work to this benefit anthology album project. Please also spread the word about these anthology albums to people you think may be interested in the work of artists who combine magick, music and ritual.

The best way to add this anthology, as well as previous releases and future Hermetic Library albums, to your personal music collection is becoming a Patron of Hermetic Library. New Patrons receive a gratis download code for a previous anthology release of their choice in addition to all the other patronage rewards they may receive. Consider becoming a Patron today!

The Hermetic Library at Hermetic.com has an overall vision of Archiving, Engaging and Encouraging the living Esoteric Tradition, Hermeticism, Aleister Crowley’s Thelema, and more through Open Access Occultism for over 25 years.

I started the benefit anthology project to help promote newer works in the Esoteric Tradition to the audience of the Hermetic Library and beyond. The anthology project also further raises awareness about the corpus and culture of magick and ritual. The site itself was started in 1996 and has ever since consistently been an extremely popular resource for students and researchers interested in the Esoteric Tradition. I encourage you to check out Hermetic Library and everything in the collection there, if you aren’t already familiar with it, as that’s the reason this project exists and may also offer inspiration to you.

Hermetic Library
Anthology Project
Become a Patron

Production and Design by John Griogair Bell

Cover painting by John Griogair Bell

Sneak peek at Magick, Music and Ritual 18

You can now get a sneak peek at The Hermetic Library Anthology Album – Magick, Music and Ritual 18 , the upcoming release due December 3, 2023, on the anniversary of the library’s birth back in 1996. Get a gander at the cover, track list, and more. Check out the artists that participated this year, and follow through the links to find out even more about each of them.

I’m still in the process of getting this ready for release, but thought I’d share this preview with you, for funsies.

The Hermetic Library Blog

Faint gibbering heard from somewhere near the restricted stacks