Tag Archives: librarian

New peepers for reading

Today I got my new reading peepers. I picked out Warby Parker’s Chamberlain in jet black. Kinda retro nerd frames, but new? I got a strong reading lens good for close up stuff, like, well, reading; less for computer work, unless I kinda lean in a bit. (Then it’s super clear!) But, holding and reading books again without eyestrain from my old prescription will be nice. Also, progressives would have at least tripled the cost, so screw that! Can’t afford that, and, besides, this way, I get different frames to wear. That’s both a fashion win, but also a question of not putting all my eyeballs in one basket, in case the basket breaks or gets stepped on, or summint, right? Although, I may actually need a 3rd pair for that safety net, since, you know, if my daily drivers get crushed, I’m not going to be able to wear my readers around on the regular, am I?

My new peepers arrived in the mail today, so I opened them!

Hermetic Library Mail Call New Peepers for Reading 26aug2023 Postal Box

Hermetic Library Mail Call New Peepers for Reading 26aug2023 Postal Box Open

In the box was a box and in that box was a case. These new reading peepers came in the same style storage case as my earlier new daily driver pair, with a cleaning cloth.

Hermetic Library Mail Call New Peepers for Reading 26aug2023 Inner Box Open

Hermetic Library Mail Call New Peepers for Reading 26aug2023 Case Open Glasses Revealed

And here they are! They are darker and taller frames than my first pair. I figured having them be taller would give me more chance to see the bottom of book pages without the frame getting in the way. Idek. Maybe? I’ll see! (Or, I won’t. ::whomp whomp::)

Hermetic Library Mail Call New Peepers for Reading 26aug2023

Hermetic Library Mail Call New Peepers for Reading 26aug2023 Glasses Compared

The Unbearable Gullibility of Fraternity

by John Griogair Bell

I have witnessed, been the target of, and, I’m sure, at least once been guilty of the Unbearable Gullibility of Fraternity. I hope, and trust, that I have not leveraged it myself, and I sincerely do not recall doing so.

I am naming this phenomenon for what happens when someone within fraternal bonds tells another something and it is believed without questioning the message, messenger, or target. The message might be a claim about something that someone did that is a completely made up Internet Fact, or it might be something with just enough verisimilitude to make made up parts of the message easier to believe. Or, the message might be a catastrophized interpretation by the messenger about the target that is based on an unfair and untrue reading of events. The messenger might be unconscious or consciously deceptive about those events or the target or their motivations. The messenger isn’t questioned or interrogated about their claims, but is presumed to be communicating in good faith about reasonable interpretations of things they actually observed, whether they actually observed anything or whether their interpretations are reasonable instead of attempts to catastrophize or whether the messenger is actually acting in good faith without ulterior motive themselves. Often times the target of the message is also not asked about these things, and is presumed to have done them in the exact way the messenger says they did and for the motivation attributed by the messenger. This is all the more egregious when the target is in the same organization having the culture of that organization weaponized against them.

This seems to me to be a form of social proof that is common in groups where there exists authoritarian hierarchies around information. When there are, within any group, sub groups that have more authority and control over information, it becomes harder to both escape the tendency to believe those on equal or higher levels of the organization or to verify the information without violating those boundaries of authority and control; and this is, I think, especially true in groups with shared experiences of imprint vulnerability, either through things like, generally negative, trauma or, generally intended as positive, rites like those of passage and initiation.

One possible way to approach this effect is to apply the scientific method. Look for experimental observation that verifies and reproduces the claims about the target, in the message, by the messenger. Have you checked with the target themselves or did you act on the presumptions formed by others telling you about the target without checking your data?

A form of this kind of pitfall is a whisper network of gossip. Hopefully your group has methods and tools designed to help avoid propagation whisper network of gossip and enabling whisper network of gossipers. But, you should also consider how you can also avoid the diffusion of responsibility about checking for the validity of data and seeking whether the information is reproducible outside the influence of the messenger, essentially a form of scientific method in a kind of laboratory conditions. Keep both the soldier and the hunchback on guard to test information that seeks entrance to your mental camp.

In particular, I want to moreover call out the way that this kind of effect is acted on. When the message is accepted without question and then someone determines a course of action based on that message, their actions are tainted at the source. In my personal experience, I’ve had people approach me saying that they heard I did something and have already decided what to do that affected me based on that. Demonstratively, the message in this case was wrong, the messenger was not acting in good faith, and I was never asked about either until after action was determined. I’ve also had people approach me and say they are doing something that affects me, without saying anything about how they arrived at that decision, and I have been extremely suspicious that they have based their determinations on faulty indirect evidence they aren’t sharing or checking. Actions taken on tainted information is itself tainted, and the contagion spreads to others when not contained.

In addition to the, I hope, self-evident disfunction of the Unbearable Gullibility of Fraternity, I want to point out the danger of how this can potentially also be evidence of a group’s vulnerability to conspiracy thinking. The same kind of unverified messages about specifically unreproducible and indirect evidence communicated with appeal to authority, protected by boundaries of control, and within a group socially conditioned with presumption of good faith by group members are foundational elements to the success of misinformation groups like Qanon.

The Unbearable Gullibility of Fraternity is bad, per se, but it can also get worse.

Consider developing or further exercising good information practices for yourself, whether or not you’re in an authoritarian hierarchical fraternal group or not, but a fortiori if you are. When hearing something, especially before making determinations or acting on them, consider what is being communicated, who is communicating, why they might want to communicate it to you for you to believe without direct observation, give pause to acting on presumptions based on indirect information, and consider testing burden of proof whilst also not accepting or making conclusions that are not based on empirical evidence.

On the other hand, if your response to all this is to ask “but, why would I have any reason not to believe and act on what I’m told by someone I trust in the bonds of fraternity?” then you are part of the problem. Also, meditate on that, won’t you?

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

Hermetic Library Zine John Griogair Bell Librarian the Unbearable Gullibility of Fraternity

Daily drivers

On a personal note, you probably don’t know, but for over the last decade, I’ve been wearing the same prescription and essentially the same glasses. I’ve had the same daily drivers since 2010. I got my first eye exam as an adult just a few years earlier, and was then able to splurge on a bunch of frames. I’ve been wearing them ever since.

I had previously first gotten glasses as an adult whilst in graduate school because I was struggling to see as I was reading. Being able to see clearly was a revelation, in several ways. I was definitely surprised at the difference, and realized just how much my eyesight had affected my reading habits, both before and after the new glasses. I don’t really even recall where I got my eyes checked then (somewhere in Olympia, WA, where I was living then, I presume), and I’d have to go back through old photos to even know what my frames looked like. They did what they were supposed to do, and I was glad of it. But, no more than that. That’s as far as it went.

A few years later, back in 2010, I knew that my eyesight had changed a bit again, and I needed to get my eyes checked; but I was also heading out for a trip to visit several cities and new friends along the East Coast, and I had a particular Task to do that I wanted to do in DC at the Capitol Building and National Cathedral, after not really being back since I lived there for a few years as a kid (though I recall I did travel back to DC for an ALA conference at one point, but didn’t do anything but man the booth for the nonprofit I was at, at the time). As I was contemplating new eyeglasses, I started to pay attention to looks that I liked. I saw a few frames being worn in some movies that really struck me as nifty, and strangely enough a notable few turned out, on research and going on a search safari, to be frames from a company called Moscot. When I looked into them I discovered they’re a family owned, 5th generation shop, and they’ve been in their Orchard Street location since 1915! Nifty!

As I was getting ready for my trip I remembered that Moscot was in New York City, so I planned to go there when I was in town. Well, I sure did go there, and I got a bunch of frames, but I was really into the Lemtosh. I had no idea which ones I would like to wear, so I got a variety. Since I was traveling across the country at the time, I didn’t get my eye exam there, but would do that when I got home.

When I got back from my trip to Portland, OR, where I was living at the time, I got my eye exam, to send for the frames I got, at Blink PDX, which apparently is still there in the same location. Along with my exam I got one more set of frames from them, this time a design from Götti in Switzerland.

Well, ten years later, and the two Lemtosh frames from Moscot and the one Götti design from Blink PDX have been my daily drivers. I just couldn’t really afford new glasses, and time flies, and so on. But I really wore them and wore the out! Seriously, it isn’t just my old prescription that is now ready to retire, and how!

Getting a new eye exam in a small town that didn’t cost an ungodly amount of money was an insurmountable barrier, so I recently travelled for an entire day to another town in order to get an exam at a reasonable price from someone that would even tell me how much the exam would cost. (Seriously, to make a long story short, I really tried for a while, but all the local shops are apparently so addicted to sweet, sweet insurance money that they wouldn’t even tell me the cost up front nor agree to getting consent before adding procedures that would result in extra charges, even when they had appointments open that weren’t months out. What a racket!)

With new prescription in hand, technically only my third ever as an adult, I placed an order for new glasses through Warby Parker. Hey, frankly, I’m not flush enough now to do anything more. The cost of my new glasses, frames and lenses, was all less than a fraction of what any the local places would have charged me for the least flattering frames in their shop. I can even now get several pairs for what I would have paid for a single pair elsewhere, and I settled on Warby Parker because the designs seemed a pretty good match to my taste. Plus they donate a pair to those in need for every pair they sell. I went with the Wilkie in Whiskey Tortoise.

My new pair arrived this last weekend. Here’s my daily drivers old and new.

Hermetic Library Daily Drivers Old and New

I absolutely loved my Moscot Lemtosh frames to death. I was wearing a pair during my IIIº initiation in OTO (“He experiences Death.“). Also, they practically died from wear and tear.

Hermetic Library Daily Drivers Moscot Lemtosh

When my other frames started to wear out more than I could handle on the daily, I ended up wearing my Götti frames from BlinkPDX constantly, and came to really love them too. When I was in NYC, one of the various things I did was to see Wicked on Broadway. These frames have a hint of Wicked Witch green in them, you see?

Hermetic Library Daily Drivers BlinkPDX Gotti

And, here’s me wearing my new frames now, in 2023! Proof of life? Hey, I can actually see again! Wow!

Hermetic Library Daily Drivers Proof of Life

Being able to read is kinda good for a librarian, even if, as Librarian and as a supervillain, I’m only semipro, amirite?!

And, if you’re in New York, visit Moscot. If you’re in PDX, visit BlinkPDX. Say howdy for me, though I doubt they’d remember me now. And, if you’re anywhere else, consider Warby Parker, especially if your local options are as awful and extortionate as mine.

(This probably should have been on my personal blog, but I haven’t posted anything there since 2018. ::sad trombone::)

Edging

by John Griogair Bell

Talking about isolations as a natural flow from stress to unstress and back, I want to draw your attention to where those isolations most usefully occur.

In the example of asana yoga practice, ideally we is working at the edge of what we can do. A common specific practice is in the asana Downward Facing Dog, one can cycle one’s feet, stretching the left hamstring whilst relaxing the right, and vice versa; with the goal of doing more and more toward having both feet flat on the mat. If one is doing the work only where it is comfortable that’s just moving without resulting in any development; conversely, if one is doing the work only beyond the edge of what the body can manage that is liable to result in injury. The sweet spot in to dance on the edge of what is comfortable, and this is what allows for real progress over time.

So, the location where the isolations most usefully occur is at the edges of endeavour.

In Star Trek s01e01 “Where No Man Has Gone Before“, the character Gary Mitchell is transformed by the passage through the Galactic Barrier into a god-like menace. They went into the beyond too far too quickly!

I’m reminded of Thomas Kuhn’s discussion in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions of how paradigm shift is brought on by the development of new science, as opposed to the rote science that maintains the current paradigm, when experimentation at the edge of the current paradigm occurs.

Thinking of How to Kill a Dragon by Calvert Watkins, moreover, The Anger of Achilles by Leonard Muellner and Arjuna in the Mahabharata by Ruth Cecily Katz, in Indo-European mythology and epic poetry, the hero has a particular role as a demi-god that both upholds but also challenges the cosmic order, these heroes exist neither fully as humans nor fully as deity, but have a unique set of tasks that is both human and divine at the edges of both.

Of course, there’s edging in sex and in various forms of sex magick, which aides in trying to reach heightened sexual experience and/or consciousness. (Moreover, as practitioners of asana yoga will likely all attest, when you’re playing on the edge, parts of your body will shake on their own; things that can equally said about sex and sex magick. Various things will start to vibrate on their own.)

“Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein! But exceed! exceed! Strive ever to more! and if thou art truly mine—and doubt it not, an if thou art ever joyous!—death is the crown of all. Ah! Ah! Death! Death! thou shalt long for death. Death is forbidden, o man, unto thee. The length of thy longing shall be the strength of its glory. He that lives long & desires death much is ever the King among the Kings.” — Liber Legis II, 70–74

Consider the practice of edging in various forms and of various types to be about becoming more and more comfortable with being uncomfortable in order to become more and more. Strive to exceed by dancing at the edges of your ever more refined raptures, in your endeavours of body, mind, and spirit.

Hermetic Library Zine John Griogair Bell Librarian Edging

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

Isolations

by John Griogair Bell

When I was a kid, I got introduced to the martial art Aikido with a demonstration intended to illustrate the concept of the flow of Ki. The demonstration consisted of trying to hold one’s arm as strongly in place as possible. At first one, probably, tenses every muscle in order to prevent one’s arm from moving, but when someone presses on the arm it moves surprisingly easily. Then, one is instructed to think of the arm as a firehose with water flowing through it, and in comparison to the first try one’s arm is much harder to move. Without need to resort to the idea of Ki energy (I understand even in the Aikido community there’s a divide between the Ki Aikido people and those who are not; and if you’re a BBJ person, try to suppress a superior sounding snort, as I’m mostly talking about the philosophy and practice not making claims about martial effectiveness), in the first case one is fighting against themselves by tensing muscles everywhere, including those that are in opposition to other muscles. In the second try, one is isolating the muscles necessary to hold the arm still without fighting against that purpose at the same time. I only practiced Aikido for a short time (my Aikido practice succumbed to the one-two-punch of moving often and also noticing that too many of the people I knew who had been doing it for a long time all had strange internal organ injuries …), but it was formative.

In the US and the West, with which I’m culturally familiar, I think it is quite common to think of strength as being a hulk, bodybuilder, or kayfabe wrestling pose, gritting one’s teeth and rippling every muscle, or needing to harden one’s entire body, everywhere all at once; showing instead of doing. Opposed to this is the idea of focusing on using what is necessary in isolation, working smarter not harder, and so on; doing instead of showing. (The dark side of doing instead of showing might be taking this to mean a focus on stark “scientific” management’s efficiency instead of a wholistic ethical effectiveness, but that’s probably a whole other conversation.)

As an aside, much later, I was given tickets by a Russian who wasn’t using them to a professional ballet performance in the US, and afterword was asked what I thought. My response was that it seemed to me one point necessary to the magic of ballet is to do amazing and hard things but make those things look like they don’t take effort; and at the performance I saw, whilst they did do some pretty good stuff, it also looked like it took effort. They did but also showed. By the by, the Russian who gave me the tickets agreed.

Back to my youth, even earlier, I was introduced when very young to yoga. I grew up in the 70s (’nuff said?!), so I distinctly recall early memories of yoga as a kid and also practicing along with Lilias, Yoga, & You on PBS. One of the core principles of Yoga is the ebb and flow of stress and relaxation. This occurs within poses where one is flexing one part of the body whilst relaxing another. Also breathe, in and then out … not at the same time, but in isolation and, yet still, together. Move and breathe, not just in each moment, in each pose, but coordinated also across time, across the session, and not only where one is doing flow that consists of poses and releasing them, but also the traditional position of yoga as preparatory to meditation. This is a point that seems often to be missed: yoga isn’t a self-contained 80s aerobic all-out push, but part of preparing to meditate, doing yoga asana to get the body ready before formal sitting meditation practice. In other words, if you aren’t doing an actual meditation session after yoga, you’re really missing the point.

So, within yoga asana do one thing, then the other; each thing being a focus on the ebb in one part of the body and flow in another. Then, following naturally in time, continue the ebb and flow by sequencing asana with sitting practice. Ebb and flow, flow in the moment and across time. This wave through both small and large time together is like edging a cosmic orgasm, and is the small parts of everything participating in a collective universal Big Bang.

In college acting classes, we had an extensive warm up routine that consisted of one part physical followed by vocal isolations; moving our body parts and tuning our vocal instrument before performance. We did a physical warm up and moved each part of our body in isolation, then moved our vocal instrument through various techniques and recitations that required isolations to do cleanly and clearly. We used isolations to become ready to do the work of honing our craft and to maintain the performance of our physical and vocal instrument.

I’m reminded of the Zen Buddhist proverb: “After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” Not only is there work in the world around spiritual practice, but the suggestion is to focus on one then the other; and moreover one thing at a time; enlightenment then be in the world; but also chop then carry. Each thing in isolation in and through time.

Compare the idea of Flow introduced by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which is a timeless-feeling state of hyperfocus that results in genuine satisfaction and fulfillment. To achieve this flow state, one needs to be prepared by effective practice over time, within the sweet spot of being both skilled at something but also challenged by it, and then to immersively focus on doing that activity, whether it be work, art, or play.

Of course, Crowley writes in Liber CL vel לענ, A Sandal, De Lege Libellum: “In our holiest Book it is written: ‘Thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay.’ Write it also in your heart and in your brain: for this is the key of the whole matter. Here Nature herself be your preacher: for in every phenomenon of force and motion doth she proclaim aloud this truth. Even in so small a matter as driving a nail into a plank, hear this same sermon. Your nail must be hard, smooth, fine-pointed, or it will not move swiftly in the direction willed. Imagine then a nail of tinder-wood with twenty points–it is verily no longer a nail. Yet nigh all mankind are like unto this. They wish a dozen different careers; and the force which might have been sufficient to attain eminence in one is wasted on the others: they are null.”

With all due respect, I part ways where some take this to suggest people only have one focus ever, across all time. Crowley himself was an example of having many different directions throughout his life. As Heinlein, in Time Enough For Love, has his character Lazarus Long say, “specialization is for insects.” The point, I think, for me, is, in the ebb and flow, focus on one thing at a time with skill and art. “Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein! But exceed! exceed!”—Liber Legis, Chapter II Verse 70.

In Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, Julian says, “You should only, ever, do what is necessary.” And Liber Legis, Chapter I Verse 41, says, “So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will.” And also, “For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.”—Liber Legis, Chapter I Verse 42–44.

Whatever is in front of you, from Andy Weir’s book The Martian, “Work the problem.” And from the movie adaptation: “… get to work. That’s all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem… and you solve the next one… and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to come home.”

Do what you are meant to do, in each moment, not burdened by purpose, but isolated effort that includes facility, focus and flow; then move on to the next thing.

Hermetic Library Zine John Griogair Bell Librarian Isolations

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

Electoral College as a model for a Thelemic course of study

by John Griogair Bell

In Aleister Crowley’s technical book Liber CXCIV An Intimation with Reference to the Constitution of the Order, there is a putative description of necessary qualifications for those volunteering to be considered for selection from within Ordo Templi Orientis to the Electoral College, a Thelemic governing body.

“This electoral college consists of Eleven Persons in each country” “Persons who wish to be appointed to this College by the Supreme and Holy King must volunteer for the office. The appointment is for Eleven Years. Volunteers must renounce for that period all further progress in the Order. They must give evidence of first-rate ability in

(i) Some branch of athletics.

(ii) Some branch of learning.

They must also possess a profound general knowledge of history and of the art of government, with some attention to philosophy in general.

They must each live in solitude, without more than the necessary speech even to casual neighbours, serving themselves in all respects, for three months continuously, once at least in every two years. The President will summon them at the four seasons of the year, and if necessary at other times, when they will deliberate upon the affairs placed in their charge.”

This suggests to me a model for a Thelemic course of study, not just for those interested in Electoral College service, but any Thelemite. (Although, on reflection, given the lengthy period undertaken, with the suggestion of taking a magical oath, and no specific syllabus, I might have called this a journey instead.) This is example of what a Thelemic exemplar should embody. Of course, I submit, not even actual members of the Electoral College (neither in the past, present nor future) necessarily do embody these things, per se; so, this is not an end but a process, thus, again, this suggests a course of study to undertake.

Consider the particulars.

“consists of Eleven Persons” — Find the Others. Organize yourself with others into a lodge, coven, or revolutionary cell; or at least into a study buddy group.

“Persons … must volunteer” — Check with your self and Self that this is what is right for you. “So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will.”—Liber Legis, Chapter I Verse 42–44.

“for Eleven Years” — This is a period of time one might commit to undertaking this course of study. Make it a serious magical oath to yourself to commit to a meaningful period of time, and in which you will naturally experience both progress and setbacks but continue in spite of both.

“renounce for that period all further progress” — I would suggest loosely reading into this course of study that one should not be attached to progress, but undertake the study for its own sake. This course of study is not an end or an attainment to achieve, but a process to experience and embody. One might suggest approaching this course of study “unassuaged of purpose”—Liber Legis, Chapter I Verse 42–44.

“give evidence of first-rate ability in (i) Some branch of athletics. (ii) Some branch of learning.” — Here, I think, is the meat of the matter. Also, a place where I will remain vague. You are on your own path. I need neither to know nor to care what that path is for you, but you probably do. What branch of athletics will you take as your focus on your path of practice and improvement? What branch of learning will you take as your focus on your path of practice and improvement? As part of your own experience, perhaps you will find that you need to experiment (à la Cole Porter) with various types of athletics and learning to find the one you will focus on. Perhaps you will realize that the particular branches of athletics and learning are not the point, but that you are pursuing them is; and therefore, perhaps, your focus changes, but all within the scope and period of your magical oath.

“also possess a profound general knowledge of history and of the art of government, with some attention to philosophy in general” — The particular branches of athletics and learning you have chosen as a focus are not in isolation. Stay engaged in the world, as generalized from Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Engaged Buddhism but also “Now think not to find them in the forest or on the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there shall ye find them.”—Liber Legis, Chapter II Verse 24. Also be grounded in the real experience of life on this planet. I’m reminded of Heinlein writing the character Lazarus Long saying “specialization is for insects” from Time Enough for Love, and the summary of the competent human as having a broad base of real-world knowledge and ability. Do not neglect, whatever your specific rare esoteric pursuits, also being a functioning competent person in the world.

“live in solitude, without more than the necessary speech even to casual neighbours, serving themselves in all respects, for three months continuously, once at least in every two years.” — Within this course, you should include periods of regular self-reflective practice. Perhaps you can manage a lengthy retreat into full silence and solitude, or some other form that works for you. Perhaps that’s for three months every two years, or some other periodic pattern that works for you, but include this in your course and oath to pursue it.

“at the four seasons of the year, and if necessary at other times, when they will deliberate upon the affairs” — At seasonal milestones, take time to include bringing the work you’ve been doing into the world. What that looks like could vary greatly depending on what branches of athletics and learning you are pursuing, what you’ve discovered during your periodic reflective practice, and so on; but, like the heroic monomyth, come back to the world changed and changing the world should be part of your course of study. Remember that even though this course of study is your particular path, you’ve undertaken it to generally be in service to others.

Become the scholarly and athletic knight-monk of the rosy cross you want to see in the world.

Hermetic Library Zine John Griogair Bell Librarian Electoral College as a Model for a Thelemic Course of Study

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

Hermetic Library Zine 6, Aphelion, July 2023

Introducing Hermetic Library Zine, Aphelion, July 2023, Issue #6, a publication of Hermetic Library.

Hermetic Library Zine 6 Aphelion 2023 Cover

Contents of this issue are:

All work presented is copyright original author and artists, and used with permission.

An iconoclastic meditation on the Stèle of Revealing

by John Griogair Bell

In this meditation we’re going to notice the difference between an object and our thoughts about it. For this example, we’ll use the Stèle of Revealing as our object, and slowly separate our thoughts, feelings and labels from it.

Prepare by finding a physical replica Stèle of Revealing, if you have one or access to one, or an image of it from one of the many places its image has been visually reproduced, such as should be included in any place where the Book of the Law has been printed, with the text of CCXX, the manuscripts of XXXI, and the images of the Stèle. Or, if none of that is available to you, use your imagination to picture a replica or reproduction as vividly as you can in the last place you saw one.

Once you have a Stèle of Revealing in mind, prepare your space and yourself for a comfortable sitting practice, as you do them. Perhaps you have a yoga mat, sitting cushion and meditation shawl, or soever … Begin by sitting for the practice. Soften your gaze, or close your eyes if you prefer. Breathe deeply in … and out. If you prefer to do pranayama, consider starting with a cycle of 6 breaths using the pattern of breathe in for 6, hold for 6, and breathe out for 6.

Visualize in your mind the Stèle of Revealing as you’ve just seen it or as you remember it. Allow your mind to have thoughts about all the things you’ve read, thought, and felt about it; maybe in classes at a local lodge, or with others in discussion, or on your own. Let those come and go, without holding on to them. As they occur, notice that they occur, and then let them go.

Hermetic Library Zine John Griogair Bell Librarian an Iconoclastic Meditation on the Stele of Revealing Full

Breathe deeply in … and out. If you prefer to do pranayama, consider a cycle of 6 breaths using the pattern of breathe in for 6, hold for 6, and breathe out for 6.

Consider that the name Stèle of Revealing is not part of the idea of this object, which existed before being given that name. Let that name separate from this object, like peeling off a layer, and float away, out of notice.

Breathe deeply in … and out. If you prefer to do pranayama, consider a cycle of 6 breaths using the pattern of breathe in for 6, hold for 6, and breathe out for 6.

Consider that the museum catalog number on the top back was added to this object, which existed before being labelled and catalogued. Peel that layer from the idea of this object and let it float out of notice.

Hermetic Library Zine John Griogair Bell Librarian an Iconoclastic Meditation on the Stele of Revealing No Number

Breathe deeply in … and out naturally.

Consider the various translations made of the hieroglyphic text on the back, and the lines of shapes that make up that text itself. Peel that layer from the idea this object and let it float out of notice.

Hermetic Library Zine John Griogair Bell Librarian an Iconoclastic Meditation on the Stele of Revealing No Back

Breathe deeply in … and out naturally.

Consider the various translations made of the hieroglyphic text on the front, and the lines of shapes that make up that text itself. Peel that layer from the idea of this object and let it float out of notice.

Hermetic Library Zine John Griogair Bell Librarian an Iconoclastic Meditation on the Stele of Revealing No Front Text

Breathe deeply in … and out naturally.

Consider the various interpretation made of the inner tableau on the front, and the colours and shapes that make up that tableau itself. Peel that layer from the idea of this object and let it float out of notice.

Hermetic Library Zine John Griogair Bell Librarian an Iconoclastic Meditation on the Stele of Revealing No Inner Tableau

Breathe deeply in … and out naturally.

Consider that you’ve learned to think of the winged solar disk as Hadit. Consider that you’ve learned to think of the image as a winged solar disk. Peel that layer from the idea of this object and let it float out of notice.

Hermetic Library Zine John Griogair Bell Librarian an Iconoclastic Meditation on the Stele of Revealing No Hadit

Breathe deeply in … and out naturally.

Consider that you’ve learned to think of the figure of the arched blue woman as Nuit. Consider that you’ve learned to think of the image as the figure of an arched blue woman. Peel that layer from the idea of this object and let it float out of notice.

Hermetic Library Zine John Griogair Bell Librarian an Iconoclastic Meditation on the Stele of Revealing No Nuit

Breathe deeply in … and out naturally.

Consider that you’ve learned to think of this object as representing something, as representing anything. Peel the layer of the idea of this object and let it float out of notice.

Hermetic Library Zine John Griogair Bell Librarian an Iconoclastic Meditation on the Stele of Revealing Nothing at All

Breathe deeply in … and out naturally.

Consider that the replica or reproduction is not the actual object.

Peel away the idea from the object and let it float out of notice.

Breathe deeply in … and out naturally.

Consider a time when paints were mixed, and the surface of the actual object was painted by a person.

Peel that layer from the object and let it float out of notice.

Breathe deeply in … and out naturally.

Consider a time before the actual object was painted, when it was just a blank surface of white plaster, in someone’s hands considering what it would become.

Peel that layer from the object and let it float out of notice.

Breathe deeply in … and out naturally.

Consider a time before the actual object was plastered, before the plaster was mixed, when it was just wood, in someone’s hands.

Peel that layer from the object and let it float out of notice.

Breathe deeply in … and out naturally.

Consider a time before the wood was cut by someone, when it was just a tree.

Peel that layer and let it float out of notice.

Breathe deeply in … and out naturally.

Consider a time before that tree grew from a seed, or any of that at all.

Peel that layer and let it float out of notice.

Breathe deeply in … and out naturally.

Peel away this practice and let it float out of notice.

At your own pace, come back to your normal awareness and return to your self and surroundings, as you do at the end of your sitting practice.

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

Devotional scapular for Thelemites DIY

by John Griogair Bell

Hermetic Library Zine Bell Devotional Scapular for Thelemites DIY 1111px

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N.B. A full size PNG and PDF version of this DIY sheet is on offer on the library’s digital publications site, and also as a gratis digital perk for supporters of the Hermetic Library on Patreon and Ko-Fi.

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

Devotional scapular for Thelemites

by John Griogair Bell

I’ve been known to say “The worst of Thelema is Plymouth Brethren for assholes; the best of Thelema is Roman Catholicism for sex addicts.” One of the things that I’ve seen people adopt and adapt, at least in major part, if they’re honest, from Roman Catholicism in their Thelemic practice is the use of rosary. Among others who have done workshops and articles, there’s T Polyphilus’ A Magick Rosary which has an example for the construction and use of a Thelemic rosary.

Hermetic Library Zine Bell Devotional Scapular for Thelemites Aphelion 2023 Devotional Prayer

Within the Roman Catholic tradition, the use of the rosary is sometimes naturally paired into a kit with wearing a devotional scapular. Whilst you might have a pretty good idea what a rosary looks like, and how it is used; you might be much less familiar with the scapular if you’re not Roman Catholic or other sect that uses them, and even then, maybe not.

The devotional scapular is a kind of wide necklace that drapes over the shoulders and has pendants in front and back, typically rectangular cloth suspended from bands, and worn under the top layer of clothing, as opposed to being outerwear. The device is used to symbolically both show others and remind the wearer of a pledge, vow, or way of being. The rectangular cloth can be decorated with images or verses related to one’s intention in wearing.

The scapular (from L. scapulae “shoulders”) was a piece of clothing that may have developed from an apron-like outer garment worn by medieval monks into both the monastic scapular and the devotional scapular. Typically the monastic scapular is worn over the shoulders and draped in front and back by those in monastic orders, and you’ve certainly seen images of monks and nuns wearing them. Originally a development from a practical piece of clothing, the monastic scapular has even become required kit for some.

The scapular is described is as both scutum (L. “shield”) and jugum Christi (L. “yoke of Christ”). The term shield might bring to mind St Patrick’s Breastplate (“Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left,” &c.) which has some striking similarities to, and I’ve suggested an influence on, the Kabablistic Cross (“Before me Raphael; Behind me Gabriel; On my right hand Michael. On my left hand Auriel” &c.) as in used by the Golden Dawn, in Liber O, and so on. The term yoke might bring to mind the thought of Yoga (Sk. “yoke”) and the etymology of religion (L. re-ligio as “re-link” or, if you will allow, re-yoke).

The scapular (long, hanging open at the sides) is not a tabard (short, also having open sides) or surcoat (long, closed at the sides but split in the middle for riding). Two images that might come to mind are the white garment with a red cross of a Knight Templar, or what sombunall celebrants at Gnostic Mass wear in the role of child or deacon. (In the lodge where I was most active, we had them and called them, it turns out incorrectly, tabards. However, I’ve also seen other kits use white, black and gold scarfs or stoles instead.) The Knight Templar is probably wearing a proper tabard or surcoat. And, the participant in Gnostic Mass is probably wearing essentially a monastic scapular.

Whilst the monastic orders had their scapular appropriate for their use, the devotional scapular is appropriate for others not in orders. One might say, given the relation to vocation, that at a certain point members of EGC might best wear an actual scapular, but the adopting and adapting the use of a devotional scapular as symbolic statement and reminder seems useful in a number of ways.

One can actually find rosary and devotional scapular kits in various places, but I’m going to suggest that both are easily made, and being made are more meaningful. Plus the making can be a whole thing to make into an intentional ritual operation as well.

Rosaries and devotional scapula are made of many kinds of materials, like beads, leather, metal, and so on. You can, of course, get as fancy as you like, but keep in mind that you can also make them plainly and even DIY. For example, grab some paper and string, a pen and scissors and tape/stapler; make your own scapular right now. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Just be intentional about it.

Here’s some ideas for what you could do right now. Head to the Liber Legis pages at the library and print out the images of the front and back of the Stele of Revealing, and use those for the front and back. You could go really wild and use a bead loom to create representational patterns of stele or tarot or so on. Or, go entirely simple and just write 93 and 93s on the paper, cut it out, and hang them on some yarn.

Hermetic Library Zine Bell Devotional Scapular for Thelemites Aphelion 2023 Simple DIY 93

One other thing I’ll suggest as an idea is to borrow the symbols and meaning of the pentagram and hexagram from LBRP (“For about me flames the Pentagram, And in the Column stands the six-rayed Star.” &c) and the robes of the A∴A∴ probationer; with the red 5 pointed star on the front and the red and blue triangles in the shape of a six pointed star on the back; a design you’ve probably seen and realize has meaning.

Hermetic Library Zine Bell Devotional Scapular for Thelemites Aphelion 2023 White Robe Red Star Probationer Tau

Of course, one could also tattoo. You’ve no doubt been around Thelemites without shirts and seen how they often have a variety of more or less ornate pectoral stigmata tattoos, but, as far as I recall rarely if ever do they have a matching dorsal tattoo to make a pair. So, maybe there’s something there to explore by your own ingenium.

Although a permanent tattoo might be interesting and serious, the ability to wear different devotional scapular depending on the current season, moon phase, ritual operation, or so ever, might be a really good reason to start creating and collecting. Start building a set of scapular with all the tarot cards and use each of them when you find them appropriate to what’s going on for you. Or, take a magick oath and make a scapular as a statement and reminder of that current operation.

What designs might you think of and for what ritual or devotional purpose will you use them?

Hermetic Library Zine Bell Devotional Scapular for Thelemites Aphelion 2023 Ritual

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