Here’s a tchotchke I’ve kept from a tour of the East Coast, circa 2010. I happened to be in NYC when Lon Milo DuQuette was having a class at Tahuti related to Enochian Vision Magick. This was the DIY papercraft ring and lamen I made then. (Look, you don’t need anything fancy to do the work. Use what you’ve got. Make what you don’t with what you have.)
Greater Feast of Isaac Bonewits, died August 12, 2010, at Clarkstown, New York
Vudu Cartography: The Autobiography of Michael Houdeaux by Michael Bertiaux, the 2010 hardcover from Fulgur Limited, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.
Vūdū Cartography explores the mysteries of ‘Les Vūdū’ through chants, oracles, séances and a symbolic system of images—all connected by a descriptive narrative which leads us, like a dusty highway, through the shimmering landscape.
Drawn from his rich experiences in Haiti, Bertiaux’s own evocative voudon ‘art brut’ creates a map for those regions of ‘invisible power’, giving the reader strange ingress to the ‘mysteries and hiddenesses of an exotic theology, with its spiritist twists and turns and esoteric spaces.’
Moonwatch is a 2010 concept for a watch from Tom Allen and The Emotion Lab which primarily and plainly shows the current phase of the moon.
“Moonwatch was designed as a concept by The Emotion Lab to establish a relationship between the moon cycle and a person’s emotional states. It’s a new concept of time based on nature which invites people to reflect upon and gain a closer understanding of their mood and daily life on earth.
The moon has been a guide and object of admiration and mysticism during thousands of years. Agriculture, fertility, tidal patterns, human behaviour and many other activities have been linked to the different moon phases.
With Moonwatch, a person is always able to determine exactly what phase the moon is in. Clouds, pollution or a general ignorance to the moon cycle are no longer an issue. With time and observation, a person can find patterns which sync their behaviour or happenings to the different phases.
The Moonwatch also indicates the time with a user being able to switch between the two interfaces with a push of the button. During the day, the time is indicated with a black background and during the night the interface changes to white in order to improve visability.
A small solar cell helps to charge the watch; another analogy which highlights the relationship between sun and moon.
The watch’s simplicity and improvements with the interaction between watch and user complete the design, which fuses nature and technology to generate new emotions within the user.” [via]
A True & Faithful Relation Of What Passed For Many Years Between Dr. John Dee And Some Spirits by Maarten van der Vleuten, from the Netherlands, with graphic design and cover illustrated by Phil Legard, is a 2010 album inspired by the works of John Dee and Edward Kelly, which may be of interest.
The Shrine of the Golden Hawk by Florence Farr, a “commemorative script for the dramatic play performed at the second annual [Esoteric Book Conference]”, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.
Geosophia: The Argo of Magic I [also] by Jake Stratton-Kent, Encyclopaedia Goetica Volume II, the 2010 Bibliothèque Rouge paperback from Scarlet Imprint, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.
“Jake Stratton-Kent’s master piece Geosophia: the Argo of Magic traces the development of magic from the Greeks to the grimoires. This further volume in the Encyclopaedia Goetica series is both a scholarly and practical work for the modern magician. JSK takes the role of psychopomp, guiding us along the voyage of the Argonauts and fearlessly descending to the depths of Hades. His journey reveals a continuity of practice in the West which encompasses the pre-Olympian cults of Dionysus and Cybele, is found in the Graeco-Egyptian Magical Papyri and flows into the grimoires. his revolutionary thesis exposes the chthonic roots of modern magic so that we can reconnect with the very source of our ritual tradition.” — back cover
The Hermetic Library Reading Room is an imaginary and speculative future reification of the library in the physical world, a place to experience a cabinet of curiosities offering a confabulation of curation, context and community that engages, archives and encourages a living Western Esoteric Tradition. If you would like to contribute to the Hermetic Library Reading Room, consider supporting the library or contact the librarian.
The Magical Revival [also, also] by Kenneth Grant, the 2010 standard edition hardcover from Starfire Publishing, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.
“When the original manuscript of this book was submitted for publication the author was told he had provided ‘too much material for one book’. This proved to be correct. The work here presented—in an enhanced edition—became the first volume of three Trilogies. They deal with a detailed analysis of certain occult traditions which existed long before the Christian epoch, survived its persecutions and anathemas, and reappeared in recent times with renewed vigour.
The continuity of this magical current as reflected in the work of Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare, Dion Fortune and others is here traced through the Tantrik Tradition of the Far East, the Sumerian Cult of Shaitan and the Draconian, Sabian, or Typhonian rites of the ‘dark’ dynasties of ancient Egypt.
Sexual magick and mysterious rites have always been practiced; drugs and other substances have constantly been used to induce ecstasy, to produce visions and to facilitate traffic with the denizens of other worlds or planes of consciousness; but an initiated rationale of the process such as presented here has been rarely forthcoming.
The genuine magical tradition as revived by Adepts like Crowley is here related to its ancient sources and brought into line with phases of contemporary occultism that are evolving a New Gnosis to supercede the sterile superstitions bred of an aeon-long misunderstanding of the old.
As a contribution to occult lore, The Magical Revival and its companion volumes have become standard source-books in their special field.” — flap copy
The Hermetic Library Reading Room is an imaginary and speculative future reification of the library in the physical world, a place to experience a cabinet of curiosities offering a confabulation of curation, context and community that engages, archives and encourages a living Western Esoteric Tradition. If you would like to contribute to the Hermetic Library Reading Room, consider supporting the library or contact the librarian.
Silk Milk Spool #4, with the theme “Alchemy & Hermaphordites”, the 2010 issue from Oryelle Defenestrate-Bascule’s Inspiralink Mulimedia Press, with 70 contributors and a companion DVD, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.
The Hermetic Library Reading Room is an imaginary and speculative future reification of the library in the physical world, a place to experience a cabinet of curiosities offering a confabulation of curation, context and community that engages, archives and encourages a living Western Esoteric Tradition. If you would like to contribute to the Hermetic Library Reading Room, consider supporting the library or contact the librarian.
Conjuring Spirits: A manual of Goetic and Enochian Sorcery by Hermetic Library fellow Michael Osiris Snuffin, the 2010 hardcover from Concrescent Press, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.
“Sorcery, defined here as the art of conjuring spirits, is one of the traditional, core disciplines of magickal practice. It is highly admired and its practitioners accorded great prestige. While many of the old grimoires have baroque and elaborate procedures for conjuring spirits, Frater Osiris cuts through the Gordian knot of complexity and obfuscation to present us with a much more direct approach to evoking Goetic and Enochian spirits. It is simple, clear, practical and without mystification. It is highly accessible and designed to enable practitioners to assemble the few tools required, prepare themselves, and begin work almost immediately reaping the practical and spiritual benefits of sorcerous practice. Naturally, it is an approach that some won’t like, but many more will appropriate and tune to their own satisfaction. Anyone can get started here.” [via]
The Hermetic Library Reading Room is an imaginary and speculative future reification of the library in the physical world, a place to experience a cabinet of curiosities offering a confabulation of curation, context and community that engages, archives and encourages a living Western Esoteric Tradition. If you would like to contribute to the Hermetic Library Reading Room, consider supporting the library or contact the librarian.