Tag Archives: Feral House

American Grotesque

American Grotesque: The Life and Art of William Mortensen, with Larry Lytle, A D Coleman and Michael Moynihan, due in November from Feral House, may be of interest.

“American Grotesque is a lavish retrospective of grotesque, occult, and erotic images by the forgotten Hollywood photographer William Mortensen (1897–1965), an innovative pictorialist visionary whom Ansel Adams called the ‘Antichrist’ and to whom Anton LaVey dedicated The Satanic Bible.

Mortensen’s countless technical innovations and inspired use of special effects prefigures the development of digital manipulation and Photoshop. Includes a gallery of more than one hundred striking photographs in duotone and color, many of them previously unseen, and accompanying essays by Mortensen and others on his life, work, techniques, and influence.”

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Omnium Gatherum: July 25th, 2014

An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for July 25th, 2014

The Mark of the Devil by William Mortensen at The Grotesque Eroticism of William Mortensen’s Lost Photography — Larry Lytle, VICE

Here are some top gatherum posts from the BBS this week:

Excerpt from Hugo Gernsmack’s The Scientific Adventures of Baron Munchausen quoted at U-Boats, Spies, and White Magic: The Invention of Wireless Cryptography — Grant Wythoff, Gizmodo

“When one contemplates the marvel of sculptured sound on a graphophonic record, and realizes that from the cold vorticity of line there may magically spring the golden lilt of the greatest song voice that the world has ever heard, then comes the conviction that we are living in the days of white magic.”
Bringing Back a Lost Museum — Laura C Mallonee, Hyperallergic

“In 1945, workers at Brown University’s biology department were clearing out storage space when they stumbled on a giant trove of natural and ethnographic specimens and artifacts. The collection had belonged to the Jenks Museum of Natural History and Anthropology, founded at the school in 1871 and dismantled in 1915 to make way for new classrooms. Inexplicably, the workers drove 92 truckloads worth of the carefully curated objects to the banks of the Seekonk River, where they unloaded them into a common dump.

Now, the collection has been resurrected from that mire by “The Jenks Society for Lost Museums” — a group of students and professors from Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design — with the help of artist Mark Dion. Like previous attempts to reimagine destroyed museums, their three collaborative installations, on view at Rhode Island Hall, recreates parts of the museum while challenging assumptions about permanence in museum work.”
The Grotesque Eroticism of William Mortensen’s Lost Photography — Larry Lytle, VICE

“Don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of him—he was written into a footnote by the “straight photography” school of the 1950s, and referred to as “the Antichrist” by Ansel Adams, a tag that stuck after Anton LaVey dedicated The Satanic Bible to him. Primarily known as a Hollywood portrait artist, he developed a myriad of pre-Photoshop special effects to craft grotesque, erotic, and mystical images. This fall, Feral House will release [American Grotesque: The Life and Art of William Mortensen], a monograph on his occult photography.”
Haiti Doesn’t Have a Vodou Problem, It Has a Christianity Problem — France François, Ebony

“Contrary to the Cardinal’s statement, Vodou is not Haiti’s problem; Christianity is. No push to spread Vodou ever wiped out entire “savage” indigenous peoples. Vodou has caused no wars due to a desire to convert as many people as possible. Vodou doesn’t tell “saved souls” that they must be complacent, accepting their lot on Earth for the potential of future salvation in heaven. Vodou never told Black people they were a curse or 3/5ths of a person.

Vodou is of the belief system that sustained our ancestors across the Middle Passage, during the brutality of the plantation, and through the victories of slave rebellions. Haiti should never apologize for it.

Christianity and the West’s real problem with Vodou is that, like the Maroons who practiced it, it remains elusive to those who would aim to profit off of it, package it, and control it.”
Newly-discovered records show history of black Masonic lodge in Winfield — Dave Seaton, Winfield Daily Courier

“A treasure trove of Winfield history was recently discovered in the dilapidated two-story building at 1307 Main, just north of the Dawson Monument Company.

Realtors Jeff Albright and Jeff Everhart found a trunk upstairs full of records and memorabilia from the former black Masonic lodge here. They also found the lodge’s gavel.”

“In its heyday, the Winfield lodge hosted a gathering of individual chapters of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Kansas, the organization of black Masonic lodges in the state. The event took place Aug. 20-21, 1917. An estimated 200 Masons attended from around the state.”
From the Introduction by Henrik Bogdan and Jan A M Snoek to Handbook of Freemasonry from Brill

“With roots going back to the medieval guilds of stonemasons, Freemasonry is the oldest initiatory society in the West not dependant on a religious institution. Having lodges in virtually every major city in most parts of the world, it has changed from an originally British institution to a worldwide phenomenon with a wide range of local idiosyncratic features and characteristics. Numbering millions of active members it is also the largest fraternal organization in the world, still managing to attract new members in the postmodern society of the twenty-first century. The continued presence and development of Freemasonry with its rich diversity in practices and interpretations, raises the question what it is that makes such an old phenomenon seem relevant to so many diverse people for over three hundred years? There is no single answer to the question, but part of it surely rests on the fact that despite its emphasis on tradition, transmission and authority, Freemasonry has always been a non-dogmatic organisation in the sense that its rituals, symbols and practices have not had official and final interpretations. On the contrary, Freemasonry is characterised by a striking diversity of interpretation—it is thus possible to find purely moral interpretations of its central symbols, but also scientific, psychological, esoteric, political, philosophical, religious etc. interpretations of the same symbols—a fact that will become more than apparent by reading the various chapters of this handbook.”
Bible Cross-References — Chris Harrison [HT Hemant Mehta]

“He described a data set he was putting together that defined textual cross references found in the Bible. He had already done considerable work visualizing the data before contacting me. Together, we struggled to find an elegant solution to render the data, more than 63,000 cross references in total. As work progressed, it became clear that an interactive visualization would be needed to properly explore the data, where users could zoom in and prune down the information to manageable levels. Together, we struggled to find an elegant solution to render the data, more than 63,000 cross references in total. As work progressed, it became clear that an interactive visualization would be needed to properly explore the data, where users could zoom in and prune down the information to manageable levels. However, this was less interesting to us, as several Bible-exploration programs existed that offered similar functionality (and much more). Instead we set our sights on the other end of the spectrum – something more beautiful than functional. At the same time, we wanted something that honored and revealed the complexity of the data at every level – as one leans in, smaller details should become visible. This ultimately led us to the multi-colored arc diagram you see below.”
An Incredible Interactive Chart of Biblical Contradictions — Hemant Mehta, Friendly Atheist

“Now, computer programmer Daniel G. Taylor has taken all that data and turned it into a visual masterpiece.

His website, BibViz (Bible Visualization), gives you the same linking arcs as before, but when you hover over one of them, it lights up and tells you in the upper right-hand corner of the screen which verses are being linked together. Click on an arc and it takes you directly to those verses as compiled in the Skeptics Annotated Bible:”
Routes of Wholeness: Jungian and Post-Jungian Dialogues with the Western Esoteric Tree of Life — Lloyd Kenton Keane, a thesis

“This thesis compares and contrasts what could be considered two psycho-spiritual traditions: analytical psychology and the Western Esoteric Tradition. A common link between these two traditions is the use of symbols and metaphors of wholeness, specifically the sefirot of the Western Esoteric Tree of Life.”
Meet the electric life forms that live on pure energy — Catherine Brahic, New Scientist

“Unlike any other living thing on Earth, electric bacteria use energy in its purest form – naked electricity in the shape of electrons harvested from rocks and metals. We already knew about two types, Shewanella and Geobacter. Now, biologists are showing that they can entice many more out of rocks and marine mud by tempting them with a bit of electrical juice. Experiments growing bacteria on battery electrodes demonstrate that these novel, mind-boggling forms of life are essentially eating and excreting electricity.”
Baleen and sperm whales are ocean’s ‘ecosystem engineers,’ new study says — James Maynard, Tech Times [HT Slashdot]

“Baleen and sperm whales act like ecosystem engineers in the global ocean, according to a new study from the University of Vermont. Whales help maintain the global ecological balance due, in part, to the release of vast quantities of feces.

A new study examined decades of research on the marine mammals and their role in maintaining the balance of life in oceans.”
Rupert Sheldrake quoted at Scientific Heretic Rupert Sheldrake on Morphic Fields, Psychic Dogs and Other Mysteries — John Horgan, Cross-Check at Scientific American [HT Boing Boing]

“We both agree that science is at present limited by assumptions that restrict enquiry, and we agree that there are major unsolved problems about consciousness, cosmology and other areas of science… I am proposing testable hypotheses that could take us forward and open up new frontiers of scientific enquiry.”
Aleister Crowley: Legend of the Beast (Review) — Blacktooth, Horror Society

“What astounds me is how ignorance has played into turning Aleister Crowley into a myth instead of a historical figure. Instead of being known as a educated man who was a freethinker that went against the norm he goes down as a Satanist […] This is due to how close-minded the masses are now and how they were then. That is why this bio-pic is so brilliant and powerful. It sheds light on one of the most misunderstood figures in history.”
Avoid the Uninitiated Mob — Michael Gilleland, Laudator Temporis Acti

“Disregard the angry clamour of the lying masses; avoid the uninitiated mob, and you will know happiness and the truth that is revealed to few.”
Libraries Are Not a “Netflix” for Books — Kelly Jensen, Book Riot

“It is not the goal of the library to make money. Nor is it the goal of the library to create levels of service so that those who can afford to indulge will receive more while those who can’t, don’t. Instead, libraries work to ensure their services reach as many facets of their community as possible. Libraries want to offer what they can to those who have nothing and those who maybe have everything.

The library is the center and the heart of community.”

If you’d like to participate in the Omnium Gatherum, head on over to the Gatherum discussions at the Hrmtc Underground BBS.

Love Sex Fear Death

Hermetic Library fellow T Polyphilus reviews Love, Sex, Fear, Death: The Inside Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment by Timothy Wyllie, edited by Adam Parfrey, from Feral House.

I had previously read W.S. Bainbridge’s study of the Process Church, titled Satan’s Power, in my quest for information on this fascinating cult with roots in Scientology, Christian apocalypticism, and Western occultism. While Bainbridge’s book was helpful, and probably the best account in print at that time, the Feral House multiple memoir and archival anthology Love Sex Fear Death totally puts it in the shade by furnishing insider dope from a variety of personal perspectives, along with organizational literature, glossy color propaganda reproductions, and photos of key players.

The words of the title, while seeming to offer two independent clauses in the imperative mood, were titles of four themed issues of The Process magazine, which have their cover art and various contents reproduced in the second part of this book. Roughly the first half of the volume is the Processean memoir of Timothy Wyllie, onetime designer and editor of The Process, an early and enduring member who was part of the group’s inner circle, but who—according to his own account—always occupied a marginal position relative to the group’s social core and theological identities. Following Wyllie’s piece are an assortment of shorter reflections and reports from former Processeans. Between these and the archival reprints, there is an essay by Genesis P-Orridge regarding the Process Church influence on TOPY, and the ways in which TOPY history reflected its predecessor.

Reading these stories certainly de-glamorized the Process for me to a considerable degree, I had less sympathy for their internal practices and mores than brief previous exposures had led me to think I would. The Process Church of the Final Judgment is a sort of “kissing cousin” to Thelema, as demonstrated by their harmonization in TOPY, and by the fact that the first chartered master of an O.T.O. camp of my acquaintance was a former Processean with very fond memories of his time in the Process. They paid their wry respects to the Beast in various events and publications, and their psychological theories were keyed to the work of Adler, whom Crowley noted as the best of the psychoanalytic pioneers of his own period. The Process was also a notable feature of the Chicago counterculture, having had a conspicuous presence in this area from their first efforts to spread in the US (circa 1970) until the eventual quiet implosion of their successor group the Foundation in 1976.

Still, the old Process literature continues to impress with its bravura. The archival materials here also include sheet music for some charming Processean liturgical tunes, like “Christ and Satan Joined in Unity.” The varied memoirs, while sometimes pointing up the shortcomings of the organization and its leaders, still show the nobility of the aspirations among the membership, and their ability to benefit from radical social experimentation. This is an excellent collection for anyone interested in new religious movements generally, and the countercultural moment of the 1960s and 70s particularly. [via]

Omnium Gatherum: Feb 12th, 2014

An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together …

Hermetic Library fellow David Richard Jones‘ The Circumference and the Hieroglyphic Monad, part III of his In Operibus Sigillo Dei Aemeth, and is based on an observation by Clay Holden, of The John Dee Publication Project, that “the geometry of the Monad as analyzed and expected in Theorem XXIII when applied to a circle subdivides the circumference of a circle into seven equal divisions with almost perfect elegance.”

Lon Milo DuQuette’s “I’m Scared” is a new political single.
Aleister Crowley’s invocation to coffee, recorded in his diaries, was recently a randomly popular old post.

“O coffee! By the mighty Name of Power do I invoke thee, consecrating thee to the Service of the Magic of Light. Let the pulsations of my heart be strong and regular and slow! Let my brain be wakeful and active in its supreme task of self-control! That my desired end may be effected through Thy strength, Adonai, unto Whom be the Glory for ever! Amen without lie, and Amen, and Amen of Amen.”
“Earliest footprints outside Africa discovered in Norfolk” — Pallab Ghosh, BBC News; from the wonder-what-the-sea-washed-away-the-other-291999999-days-we-weren’t-watching dept.

“The footprints are more than 800,000 years old and were found on the shores of Happisburgh. … The sea has now washed away the prints – but not before they were recorded”
Lake of beer prayer attributed to St Brigid, via T Thorn Coyle; from the has-Ra-finally-gotten-Sekhmet-to-chill-out-yet dept.

“I’d sit with the men, the women of God
There by the lake of beer.
We’d be drinking good health forever
And every drop would be a prayer.”
“Archaeologists Have Found the Oldest Roman Temple” — Alice Robb, New Republic; from the exploring-ancient-temples-hidden-under-watery-depths-in-spite-of-Lovecraft dept.

“Archaeologists have long suspected that the oldest Roman temple lay at the foot of the legendary Capitoline Hill, but it’s only recently that they’ve managed to excavate the waterlogged Sant’Omobono site with modern techniques.

‘The temple’s much more interesting than anybody expected,’ said Albert Ammerman, an archaeologist at Colgate University who worked on the dig. ‘It’s beautiful down there.'”
“Mysteria Misc. Maxima: February 7th, 2014” — Sarah Veale, Invocatio blog; from the πάντα-ῥεῖ dept.

“This will be the last MMM for the foreseeable future. … So please join me in bidding a fond adieu to the MMM and enjoy this final link round-up…”
“On the Arbitrary Appellation of Magic in Antiquity” — Sarah Veale, Invocatio; from the i-am-large-i-contain-multitudes dept.

“While a good definition suggests that magical practices are rites and rituals that exist on the margins of cultural norms (Dickie, 38), the point is that, when we look at the evidence, what is labelled magic is a moving target. The label stays the same, but the content changes depending on the situation at hand. The label is not so much about the practices themselves, but rather about the status of those practices.”
“The Ritual of the Duck” — Sarah Anne Lawless; from the together-with-all-the-appurtenances-thereto dept.

“Yesterday I made Aves Flying Ointment. A recipe I created a couple of years ago combining the traditional herbs with the more grisly shapeshifting ingredients of bird fat, bird bone dust, and feather ashes.”
“Tveir Hrafnar: Sorcery in Silver” — Sarah Anne Lawless; from the my-precious dept.

“SAL: Your work is a wonderful rarity in that it caters to occultists, sorcerers, and traditional witches who most jewelers ignore in favour of the much bigger market of neopagans. Was this intentional or were you simply following your influences and passions?
AW: Mostly following my passions and influences. I am self centered in my art and would rather make what speaks to me than what I think the market would buy. It’s a ‘go for what you know’ kind of thing. Hopefully there are enough folks out there with similar aesthetics and interests to keep things rolling.”
“Read Sappho’s ‘new’ poem” — Tim Whitmarsh, The Guardian; from the he-said-she-said dept

“They whose fortune the king of Olympus wishes
Now to turn from trouble
to [ … ] are blessed
and lucky beyond compare.”
“A New Sapphic Poem ~ Wading into the Morass” — David Meadows, rogueclassicism; from the he-said-she-maybe-said dept.

“In case you haven’t heard, Dirk Obbink has recently announced the discovery/publication of two ‘new’ poems by Sappho and they’re causing quite the flurry of activity on blogospheres (as you may have already seen), twitterspheres (ditto), and no doubt, in private emails and departmental coffee lounges around the world.”
“Charlemagne’s bones are (probably) real” — The Local; from the dem-dry-bones dept.

“Researchers confirmed on Wednesday evening — 1,200 years to the day since Charlemagne died — that the 94 bones and bone fragments taken from the supposed resting place of the King of the Franks and founder of what was to become the Holy Roman Empire came from a tall, thin, older man.”
“Charlemagne’s bones found in his coffin” — The History Blog; from the in-the-last-place-you-looked dept.

“That may seem obvious, but given how often he was exhumed and reburied and parts of him given away as relics, it’s actually quite notable that the collection of bones in the Karlsschrein, the Shrine of Charlemagne, and other reliquaries in the Aachen Cathedral all appear to come from the same person who matches contemporary descriptions of the Frankish king.”
“Babylonian Tale of Round Ark Draws Ire From Christian Circles” — Alan Boyle, NBC News; from the ark-you-glad-you-to-see-me-or-is-that-a-clay-tablet-in-your-pocket dept.

“A recently deciphered 4,000-year-old clay tablet from ancient Mesopotamia is putting a new spin on the biblical tale of the flood and Noah’s Ark — and that’s causing consternation among some Christian fundamentalists.”
Hermetic Library anthology artist Arthur Loves Plastic‘s new Get Happy.
Cranky Roman Guy on The Golden Globes; from the plus-ça-change-plus-c’est-la-même-chose dept.

“If you doubted that this is the age of Discord reigning supreme, you have an annual rite in which you give #GoldenGlobes to beautiful women.”
“A Preliminary Analysis of the Botany, Zoology, and Mineralogy of the Voynich Manuscript” — A O Tucker et al.; from the-effect-of-gamma-rays-on-man-in-the-moon-marigolds dept.

“We note that the style of the drawings in the Voynich Ms. is similar to 16th century codices from Mexico (e.g., Codex Cruz-Badianus). With this prompt, we have identified a total of 37 of the 303 plants illustrated in the Voynich Ms. (roughly 12.5% of the total), the six principal animals, and the single illustrated mineral. The primary geographical distribution of these materials, identified so far, is from Texas, west to California, south to Nicaragua, pointing to a botanic garden in central Mexico, quite possibly Huaztepec (Morelos). A search of surviving codices and manuscripts from Nueva España in the 16th century, reveals the calligraphy of the Voynich Ms. to be similar to the Codex Osuna (1563-1566, Mexico City). Loan-words for the plant and animal names have been identified from Classical Nahuatl, Spanish, Taino, and Mixtec. The main text, however, seems to be in an extinct dialect of Nahuatl from central Mexico, possibly Morelos or Puebla.”
“Norse Rune code cracked” — Medievalists.net; about “Ráð þat, If You Can!” — K Jonas Norby; from the missed-it-missed-it dept.

“‘It’s like solving a puzzle,’ said Nordby to the Norwegian website forskning.no. ‘Gradually I began to see a pattern in what was apparently meaningless combinations of runes.’

However, those thinking that the coded runes will reveal deep secrets of the Norse will be disappointed. The messages found so far seem to be either used in learning or have a playful tone. In one case the message was ‘Kiss me’. Nordby explains ‘We have little reason to believe that rune codes should hide sensitive messages, people often wrote short everyday messages.’

In many instances those who wrote the coded runes also left comments urging the readers to try to figure it out. Sometimes they would also boast of their abilities at writing the codes.”
“O D fuckin abbot.” — Medium Ævum; from the orking-cows dept.
“Hollywood Calls” — Feral House; from the your-name-will-go-up-in-bright-lights dept.

“Since we’re in Hollywood we’ve signed an option agreement for a Sundance Channel television series based on the Feral House book, Sex and Rockets, about the occult rocket scientist Jack Parsons.”
“The end of Yeats: work and women in his last days in France” — Lara Marlowe, Irish Times; from the speak-before-your-breath-is-done dept.

“Like his alter ego Cuchulain in the play he had just written, Yeats was dying surrounded by women.”

Thee Psychick Bible

THEE PSYCHICK BIBLE: Thee Apocryphal Scriptures ov Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Thee Third Mind ov Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, the 2010 paperback from Feral House, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.

“Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) will be remembered for its crucial influence on youth culture throughout the ’80s and ’90s, popularizing occult investigations, tattooing, body piercing, acid house raves, and other ahead-of-the-curve cultic flirtations and investigations. Its leader was Genesis P-Orridge, co-founder of Psychick TV and Throbbing Gristle, the band that created the industrial music genre.

Thee Psychick Bible is an extraordinary collection of ‘occulture’ texts and images from the TOPY period and today. We have to agree with Genesis when he said that this book may be ‘the most profund new manual on practical magick—taking from its Crowleyan level of liberation and empowermeant of the individual to a next level of realization that magick must then give back to its environment, its community…'”

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.

Secret Agent 666

Hermetic Library fellow T Polyphilus reviews Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult by Richard B Spence, from Feral House:

Secret Agent 666 is a terrific read. Author Spence is no kind of expert on occultism, and seems basically unperceptive on even such related topics as Freemasonry. But he does have useful expertise on British espionage in the first half of the 20th century. Although Spence has documentary support for Aleister Crowley’s status as an asset of the British intelligence apparatus, he also uncovers evidence of apparent “scrubbing” throughout the archives of various UK and US agencies. Much of the narrative he presents, then, is admittedly speculative.

The best-supported details for Crowley’s career as a propagandist agent provacateur are those for the World War I period, and perhaps as much as half of the book focuses on that interval. Spence’s references are far-ranging, and include sources of dubious value, but the conclusions he draws from them are still credible, and framed with appropriate caveats. His most important source throughout is Crowley’s Confessions (and not just the published version), to which he brings vast amounts of missing context by identifying the political allegiances and intelligence activities of Crowley’s many associates.

The presentation refrains from any attempts to interpret Crowley’s “Secret Chiefs” as his superiors in espionage. In fact, his supervisors were more likely to appear in the form of his A∴A∴ pupils, such as Gerald Yorke. Still, anyone interested in the intersection between occultism and international politics would be well-served by placing this book on a reading list just next to K. Paul Johnson’s works on the Theosophical Masters.

Spence is in no hurry to make Crowley either a villain or a hero. He does opine that the Beast was always a loyal Englishman, who relished clandestine intelligence and propaganda work, and had a long history of doing such work. Also, he disclaims any reductionism with respect to Crowley’s occult activities: The fact that a particular magical retirement might have have been opportune for a certain spy operation does not mean it wasn’t also a genuine spiritual undertaking. For those already familiar with Crowley’s general biography and magical accomplishments, the result is the restoration of missing pieces of the mage’s career, with reasonable explanations for many previously-murky travels and initiatives. [via]

Transhumanism: A Grimoire of Alchemical Agendas

You may be interested in Transhumanism: A Grimoire of Alchemical Agendas by Joseph P. Farrell, PhD, and Scott D. de Hart, PhD, from Feral House.

“The ultimate question is no longer “who am I” or ”why am I here.” These questions were answered in the earliest civilizations by philosophers and priests. Today we live in an age of such rapid advances in technology and science that the ultimate question must be rephrased: “what shall we be?”

This book investigates what may become of human civilization, who is setting the agenda for a trans-humanistic civilization, and why.

The modern Victor Frankenstein holds a high political office, carries diplomatic immunity, and is most likely funded by the largest corporations worldwide. His method is ancient: alchemy. His fraternities are well known and their secrets are well kept, but his goal of times past and present is the same; he dares to become as god, genetically manipulating the seeds of the earth, the beasts on the fields, and to claim legal ownership over humanity by re-creating it in his own image. This is no fairy tale, science fiction, or conspiracy theory … it simply is!

Transhumanism, a Grimoire of Alchemical Agendas by Dr.s’. Joseph P. Farrell and Scott D. de Hart lifts the veil from the macabre transhumanistic monster being assembled and exposes the hidden history and agenda that has set humanity on a collision course for the Apocalypse.” [via]

Ritual America

Ritual America Trailer – New Feral House Book! from Feral House on Vimeo.

“Just five or six decades ago as many as a third of all American males belonged to a fraternal order.

The substance of so-called secret rituals could easily be purchased in cheap paperback books. The true secret of these fraternal orders may be that all the classified information was hidden in plain sight.

Secret societies had extraordinary influence on practically everything in our culture, from business networking, entertainment, friendships, life insurance, and the structure of the government to the nuclear family itself.

The pomp and circumstance, the patriarchy, the racism, the misogyny … it’s all revealed in Ritual America with more than 400 rare images, and strange and humorous text that goes far beyond impenetrable esoterica or near-psychotic conspiracy theory.

This expansive visual guidebook unveils the strangest sort of American history accessed from personal scrapbooks, snapshots, news service photos, lost era magazines, internal documents… Here’s a way of “coming to grip” with the strange phenomenon of fraternal organizations in America, both yesteryear and today.” [via]

The Hermetic Library Blog

Faint gibbering heard from somewhere near the restricted stacks