Here’s a summary of activity for two weeks ending July, 2019.

Oh, wow. I just realized that I put June as the month on the last update, even though it was July. I don’t even know what, but that I’ve been so frazzled because of all the work being done. Still being done. It’s been almost a month now. I don’t see the end yet, and almost nothing that’s been started has been completed. Everything is in turmoil, but I’ve been getting work done on the site in the mornings before the contractors get here.

By the by, I’ll be making my list of all current Postal and Subscription Patrons for the next mailing soon! My schedule for that got all off as I’ve been flummoxed. But, I’ll be doing that list, and then plan on sending something out in the first few weeks of August to everyone.

Welp, I finished a bunch of new pages, and the contractors have arrived as I’ve been writing this. So, it begins again!

Don’t forget! I’ve posted the call for submissions to Magick, Music and Ritual 15, the anthology for 2019.

I’m obviously looking for audio tracks, but also cover artwork, and other bonus downloads! Will you participate this year? Know someone who might want to participate? Let them know about it and have them get in touch with me!

Still looking for help and others to join me in a working community around the library, of course.

Lots of new pages and work on old pages on the site, which is pretty much every week, really. You can always check the front page of the site which shows the most recent changes and new pages, or check out the Recent Changes special page for a full list.

Want to join me on this blog and create new art or writing for Hermetic Library? Pitch your Idea.

Help get some conversations started over on the BBS and in Chat.

Be sure to check out the actual Hermetic Library, and subscribe on Bandcamp or become a Patron.

Here’s a summary of posts on the blog from these last few weeks

• The Occult Experience — Review
• Shut up! How can you be so bad at secret societies? You’re in two of them! — Quote
• The Occult and the Third Reich — Review
• One church was sufficient for all. They knew nothing about heresies and schisms but assembled together to hear a simple story simply told. — Quote
• The Nine Doors of Midgard — Review
• Sometimes the Gods used Henry. It seemed like a fair trade-off. He had been known to use them, too. — Quote
• Forged — Review
• She had just, through dwelling on the shite of modern life, taken her seat in the waiting room for death. She spat on the ground and swore under her breath. — Quote
• Mention My Name in Atlantis — Review
• ‘Where there’s a key,’ he said to himself, ‘there must be a lock nearby.’ — Quote
• Briar Rose & Spanking the Maid — Review
• Trust me, The Librarian’s no Willie Wonka. — Quote
• Black Helicopters — Review
• I looked to the back of my eyeballs as I tried to drift off in the waking darkness of my insomniac night, and then, it may seem crazy, but I popped out of my body as if on an elastic band. — Quote

Here’s a summary of activity for two weeks ending July 14, 2019.

I’m in the thick of house rehab now, so just a short and belated summary for these last two weeks. Everything is moved around, and under sheets to protect it from dust from the work being done. It’s been ongoing and will continue for some time. Except when the power is shut off, for a short period or all day one day this week, I am able to get a good chunk of work done in the early hours of the morning before the workers arrive, but then I have to retreat. The library cats are freaked out, but doing okay, all in all. The struggle is real, but the work on the library continues in spite of adversity!

Don’t forget! I’ve posted the call for submissions to Magick, Music and Ritual 15, the anthology for 2019.

I’m obviously looking for audio tracks, but also cover artwork, and other bonus downloads! Will you participate this year? Know someone who might want to participate? Let them know about it and have them get in touch with me!

Still looking for help and others to join me in a working community around the library, of course.

Lots of new pages and work on old pages on the site, which is pretty much every week, really. You can always check the front page of the site which shows the most recent changes and new pages, or check out the Recent Changes special page for a full list.

Want to join me on this blog and create new art or writing for Hermetic Library? Pitch your Idea.

Help get some conversations started over on the BBS and in Chat.

Be sure to check out the actual Hermetic Library, and subscribe on Bandcamp or become a Patron.

Here’s a summary of posts on the blog from these last few weeks

• The Dark Labyrinth — Review
• In making love with yourself, dedicate your pleasure to the Spirit. At climax, place the image of deity at the crown center, and open yourself to the sense of presence. — Quote
• The Gospel of Philip — Review
• Odd Jobs: so called not because they were varied or petty but because they could only be collectively described as odd; Missions into a world of mysticism, the occult and sometimes even the horrific and nightmarish. A world beyond a war, beyond man and his understanding. — Quote
• The Wizard and the Witch — Review
• Echoing all that has been written on and in favor of women, I am only trying to say that in the mystical and initiatory world “they do exist” also. — Quote
• Omnium Gatherum: July 9, 2019
• Hermetic History — Erase It or Face It — Review
• In every dictatorship which is tottering, there is an urge towards destruction. Of self, if that only is possible. Of the world, if that is. — Quote
• Gates of Light / Sha’Are Orah — Review
• There is a ghost of a moral in the story of a sensual Caliph going to the bad, as represented by his final introduction to the Halls of Eblis. — Quote
• Paths of Wisdom — Review
• It’s like meeting yourself again and again, at the back of every dream, the author of every trip. We find each other and know each other over and over. — Quote
• Astrology and the Seventeenth Century Mind — Review
• Well, at some point, you almost just have to choose what you are going to believe or not believe. — Quote

Here’s a summary of activity for two weeks ending June 30, 2019.

Lots of disruption around here lately as there’s been contractors working on necessary things. Fixing plumbing issues, mostly, right now. Though, yesterday, they did also knock off the top of the old disused chimney as well. So, lots of coming and going and banging and hullabaloo in the library bungalow. But, in spite of that, I’ve been able to continue working on things. Mostly my strategy has been that I get up really early, when it is quiet and less hot. I kinda do that anyway, but the “quiet and less hot” part is a particular bonus right now.

At some point, I’m going to have to, and it pains me to even think about this, pack up the entire library again so that I can move it out of the way for work on replacing ancient wiring, and on the walls and ceilings. I … feel like I had finally gotten to unpacking the library onto shelves just yesterday. But, not burning down like Notre Dame seems like a good thing devoutly to be wished.

I talked before about how I’d been thinking about, and ultimately decided on, closing the voice chat server. You can go back and read my thoughts about that, but I had decided to close it at the end of June. So, I did that. I close the server and put up a note that everyone should head over to Hrmtc Underground BBS instead.

Don’t forget! I’ve posted the call for submissions to Magick, Music and Ritual 15, the anthology for 2019.

I’m obviously looking for audio tracks, but also cover artwork, and other bonus downloads! Will you participate this year? Know someone who might want to participate? Let them know about it and have them get in touch with me!

Still looking for help and others to join me in a working community around the library, of course.

Lots of new pages and work on old pages on the site, which is pretty much every week, really. You can always check the front page of the site which shows the most recent changes and new pages, or check out the Recent Changes special page for a full list.

Want to join me on this blog and create new art or writing for Hermetic Library? Pitch your Idea.

Help get some conversations started over on the BBS and in Chat.

Be sure to check out the actual Hermetic Library, and subscribe on Bandcamp or become a Patron.

Here’s a summary of posts on the blog from these last few weeks

• Byzantine Magic — Review
• As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport. Thunder again; words that proclaimed themselves true—truer somehow than truth itself. — Quote
• Music and the Occult — Review
• In magic—and in life—there is only the present moment, the now. You can’t measure time the way you measure the distance between two points. — Quote
• Western Mandalas of Transformation — Review
• I have been forced by extraordinary evidence to credit that which ran counter, diametrically, to all my theories. I have been made the dupe of a preternatural conspiracy. — Quote
• Alchemical Works — Review
• all symptoms are purposeful, whether they are positive or negative. — Quote
• Tetragrammaton — Review
• Is the progressive part of the world going to wait until the legally appointed guardians of the truth have found out the true value of the treasure in their possession? — Quote
• Music in Renaissance Magic — Review
• Knowest thou not that there is a belief in many parts of our native land that at particular seasons certain doomed men throw off the human shape and take that of ravenous wolves? — Quote
• Summoning Spirits — Review
• But, hey, this kind of thing’s going on in libraries everywhere, you know. More or less, that is. — Quote
• Omnium Gatherum: June 17, 2019

Here’s a summary of activity for two weeks ending June 16, 2019.

Over the last two weeks, I had family visit for a week (Hi, mom!). That was fun, and I ate out a lot, and, had a lot of good dark beer, around town and down in nearby Columbia.

But, as fun as that was, I also had contractors on site, looking at Hermetic Library World HQ … and, yeah. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done, and lots that should be done. Remember how Notre Dame went up in flames because of old wiring? Yeah, so, the library’s electrical is original, old, obsolete knob-and-tube wiring. Old wiring that is inefficient, ungrounded, and unsafe to be sure. There’s also work needed on the roof, a sewage leak, and structural issues. That’s just the stuff that needs to be done to be safe, up to code, and insurable.

Even though the library and my office where I work on the library takes up about 50% of the house, I really hesitate to do something like setting up a separate fundraising campaign to help with the house. But, wow, help would be amazing. To be honest, I really wish I had more Patrons to support the work I do every day. It’s been a struggle. I haven’t ever gotten to the sustainability goal I set that would help me be able to keep going, but I’ve still kept going, even still. If you’ve considered supporting the work, please do. Become a Patron on Patreon or a Subscriber on Bandcamp. I could really use the support and encouragement.

To be honest, I also have been really needing new glasses as well. My current prescription and glasses are all almost 10 years old. I did get an eye exam, and I’m still able to get to 20-20 with correction; but I haven’t been able to afford the cost of new glasses. I don’t live in a state with medical support, and even when I did, glasses weren’t covered. I do wonder about that as a separate campaign, an “Occulus Reparo” fund, if you will. I wonder if people would be willing to help with a pair of everyday glasses and maybe a spare with a reading prescription.

I’ve also dreamed off and on, on occasion, about what I could do with a Cricut or Glowforge or 3D printer, making things for Patrons as part of Postal Exchange, like vinyl cut sigils, Enochian chess pieces, and more. That seems like something, and I wonder if people would be interested in a crowdfunding campaign related to that, with perks that I’d make with those things; but that I could use to continue to provide nifty things.

Ugh. So many things I feel I could do that are just out of reach right now. I’ll keep thinking about those ideas, as I continue to be focused on doing the ongoing daily work of the library, improving existing pages, adding new content, and sharing links to all these resources with people following the library online.

Yeah, these things have been on my mind this last two weeks. But, wait! There’s more! (It’s been a busy two weeks!)

Welp, I did decide that I’d go ahead and close the voice chat server at the end of June. I think and feel like I should focus on the BBS for the kind of community activity that’s split between the two now in one place instead. Also, always big in my mind, is that the BBS is run on open source software and is self-hosted, which means, generally, that it is more likely to be sustainable and less subject to the vagaries of platform changes. So, do be sure to check out the BBS!

I’m still considering whether to move the Zine and submissions process into a mailing list or two for Patrons. I still have some thinking about that to do, including how best to organize it and host it, and if it makes sense to add that to the work I do every day on the library. It seems like it would be nice to have that going, but I’m still contemplating the idea. I think I also have to be honest and say that I have a mailing list already which I’ve not used much, and didn’t end up finding a place in my work flow; most of the things that I think about doing with the existing list, I’m doing elsewhere; so, I need to be sure that if I implemented a new list that it had a reason to exist, a purpose, and that it fits with everything else in a well rounded and well crafted way.

Oh, right! I did also get a Postal Exchange mailing on its way to Patrons with that perk. And I’ve got some other things in mind for the next thing!

Don’t forget! I’ve posted the call for submissions to Magick, Music and Ritual 15, the anthology for 2019.

I’m obviously looking for audio tracks, but also cover artwork, and other bonus downloads! Will you participate this year? Know someone who might want to participate? Let them know about it and have them get in touch with me!

Whew. I’m sure I’ve forgotten things that happened, and that I should mention as well, but there it is.

Still looking for help and others to join me in a working community around the library, of course.

Lots of new pages and work on old pages on the site, which is pretty much every week, really. You can always check the front page of the site which shows the most recent changes and new pages, or check out the Recent Changes special page for a full list.

Want to join me on this blog and create new art or writing for Hermetic Library? Pitch your Idea.

Help get some conversations started over on the BBS and in Chat.

Be sure to check out the actual Hermetic Library, and subscribe on Bandcamp or become a Patron.

Here’s a summary of posts on the blog from these last few weeks

• Access to Western Esotericism — Review
• You and I have both known him, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say it’s an experience we shan’t ever forget. And even when he and I met in the middle of China, with his mind a blank and his past a mystery, there was still that queer core of attractiveness in him. — Quote
• The Complete Golden Dawn Cipher Manuscript — Review
• Riches she possessed, but that which enriches them, the participation of affection, was wanting. All that they could purchase for her became indifferent to her, because that which they could not purchase, and which was more valuable than themselves, she had, for their sake, thrown away. She discovered, when it was too late, that she had mistaken the means for the end—that riches, rightly used, are instruments of happiness, but are not in themselves happiness. — Quote
• The Cube of Space — Review
• Sitting around all night in a dark apartment with the TV and computer screens providing all the ambient light is bound to affect your perception after a while. — Quote
• Omnium Gatherum: June 11, 2019
• Byways of Esoteric History — Review
• The passionate ecstasy that engendered his poetry was excited by the stark, pagan purity of his sensuality, which found its talismanic representation in the tower struck by lightning. — Quote
• Robert Fludd — Review
• I moved forward and out of my embracing surroundings, taking in a deep breath, knowing I was being admired by both good and evil. — Quote
• The Manual of Harmonics of Nicomachus the Pythagorean — Review
• I curse the engineer who thought this was a problem in need of a solution. — Quote
• Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition — Review

Here’s a summary of activity for two weeks ending June 2, 2019.

New servers continue to hum along. I’ve seen much increased performance across the site since the migration, and that’s fantastic. It really was getting bad there in a number of ways, and this new server is so much better! The stress and pain of moving seems to have been completely worth it.

A stack of The Essadi Emissary newsletter from the Mahmoud Memorial Itinerant Temple, currently in Thailand, arrived at the library, and I’ve got those ready to head out to Patrons with the Postal Exchange perk, as of the end of May, and will be sent via post this week.

This last week I also announced the call for submissions to Magick, Music and Ritual 15, the Hermetic Library Anthology Album for 2019. Every year, to be honest, feels special, and these are one of the highlights of my year; but, this year, is the 50th anniversary of my birth and the 10th year I’ve been Librarian of Hermetic Library. I feel like this issue of the anthology is really a celebration for me of all that’s happened to get to this point, all the hard work, all the setbacks, all the successes. It’s been, as they say, a long strange trip. I hope the journey with the library continues another 10 years!

I already had one submission, which arrived before the call posted, so I hope that bodes well for participation this year!

Another small milestone is the 5 year anniversary of Hrmtc Underground BBS. I talk about that and a little bit of shuffling of categories in a post to Meta. BBS still doesn’t have a critical mass necessary for a thriving community, but it does serve several purposes, not the least of which is as a discussion area for posts on the Hermetic Library blog.

The fact that the BBS has an ongoing purpose has had me thinking a bit more about the Chat server I’ve been running for a while. I’m thinking of closing that down. It isn’t really being used much and just doesn’t serve a purpose. I had fun ideas for the voice chat space that would have been self-sufficient reasons to exist but those never panned out. But, to be fair, there’s more activity there now, comparatively, than there has been. So, I’ve struggled over whether to give it more time.

Ultimately, I suppose it could continue as a space for chit chat, but pretty much anything that the chat server is doing right now can be done on the BBS. The only truly unique thing is the ability to do voice chat, which I’d always hoped would become a space for live conferences, presentations, interviews, classes, and soever. But, I’m coming to realise that just isn’t going to happen, as I tried in the past to facilitate and encourage in the past but haven’t tried to do again. I think I should focus on the BBS.

To be clear, I’m not concerned about popularity, but the purpose of the place to the overall mission of the library. I mean, let’s be honest: if popularity were my goal, then I took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

So, I think, unless I’m convinced otherwise, I will be closing the chat server at the end of June and encouraging everyone there to head over to the BBS instead! The BBS is where it’s at! Long live the BBS!

Still looking for help and others to join me in a working community around the library, of course.

Lots of new pages and work on old pages on the site, which is pretty much every week, really. You can always check the front page of the site which shows the most recent changes and new pages, or check out the Recent Changes special page for a full list.

Want to join me on this blog and create new art or writing for Hermetic Library? Pitch your Idea.

Help get some conversations started over on the BBS and in Chat.

Be sure to check out the actual Hermetic Library, and subscribe on Bandcamp or become a Patron.

Here’s a summary of posts on the blog from these last few weeks

• A Natural History of Hell — Review
• Hermetic Library album call for 2019 submissions
• The Last Days of Magic
• Finding the right expression is always a fight: The writer in him wages battle against the editor; one is bold, the other—doubtful. They struggle inside him for control of his pen; one—to write, the other—to cross out. — Quote
• Omnium Gatherum: May 30, 2019
• Tarot Tales — Review
• Staying with the Trouble
• King was never anti-American; he was always anti-injustice in America and anywhere else. Love of truth and love of country could go hand-in-hand. — Quote
• Blood in the Aether — Review
• Omnium Gatherum: May 27, 2019
• No one had ever managed an accurate count of the cats. — Quote
• The New Satanists — Review
• From the very existence of these books he learned one primary truth: that everything in the world was enveloped in great skeins of mystery into which one could bravely probe but which one could never fully untangle. — Quote
• Omnium Gatherum: May 23, 2019
• The New Satanists
• “Are you denying what I have said?” the Major asked. “You have a handful of facts, Major, and from them you have made ridiculous conclusions.”
• The Necronomicon Files — Review
• Omnium Gatherum: May 20, 2019

Here’s a summary of activity for two weeks ending May 19, 2019.

Big news this last two weeks is that I spent an entire week migrating everything to new servers, including one fully 12 hour day, and other grueling and worrying staged step-by-step days along the way. That’s totally behind the scenes stuff for the most part, so I’ll spare lots of the details, but the site should be noticeably faster, and several issues with indexes and searches should be resolved.

Server migrations, all things considered, are not the worst thing in the world, but, damn, y’all, it sure seems like the worst thing in the world whilst you’re doing it.

The new server is Abraxas and is dedicated to the library proper, by itself. I also migrated a bunch of things to server Buer, which is where the library blog and other things reside, and is steadily handling the additional load. Stolas, the server for the BBS, which took over from Barbelith a while back, is doing fine, thank you very much. There’s also another new server, Marbas, which is a place for other stuff I was still hosting for others, and not properly something library things runs on. Anyhow, everything seems happy and all are humming along so far.

Huzzah! And, whew!

In other news, this week thunderstorms caused a blackout at here at Hermetic Library HQ, but only long enough for me to fix lunch and then pull out enough candles to last at least a full month (I exaggerate, but only a little) … and, just an hour later, power was back. Though Internet was out for a bit longer. Slightly disappointed.

Everything gets so very nice, calm, and quiet when power goes out; with no buzzing, beeping or humming. Definitely advocate for “power down days” in general.

On the other hand, on the bright side I didn’t have to try to eat everything in my fridge before the end of the next day, and I briefly got re-acquainted with my massive CD collection whilst the power was back, but Internet still down.

Holy moly rock n’ roly! It’s only a few days until I post the call for submissions to Magick, Music and Ritual 15! Are you ready?!

By the by, as a reminder, May is the month of the anniversary of my birth. I’ll be 50 this year! Also, later this year, in September, will have been 10 years that I’ve been Librarian of Hermetic Library. Wild, and funny, both milestones will occur this year. All I want for my birthday and anniversary is a bunch more Patrons so I can keep doing all this and do more. Become a Patron so I can send you gifts for my birthday!

Still looking for help and others to join me in a working community around the library, of course.

Lots of new pages and work on old pages on the site, which is pretty much every week, really. You can always check the front page of the site which shows the most recent changes and new pages, or check out the Recent Changes special page for a full list.

Want to join me on this blog and create new art or writing for Hermetic Library? Pitch your Idea.

Help get some conversations started over on the BBS and in Chat.

Be sure to check out the actual Hermetic Library, and subscribe on Bandcamp or become a Patron.

Here’s a summary of posts on the blog from these last few weeks

• The Myth of the Eternal Return — Review
• The Mystery of the Grail — Review
• The Mysterious Stranger — Review
• Omnium Gatherum: May 13, 2019
• The Modern Witch’s Spellbook — Review
• The Masters Revealed — Review
• Omnium Gatherum: May 10, 2019
• The Key of Evolution is Right Variation — Quote
• Omnium Gatherum: May 9, 2019
• The Masks of Odin — Review
• The New Aeon will have a foundation of Happy Women — Quote
• The Magick of Thelema — Review
• Joy is replaced by drudgery and individuality surrendered to the social collective. Thus is life passed in stupidity. — Quote

Here’s a summary of activity for two weeks ending May 5, 2019.

I’m procrastinating over moving the website to a new server. The blog and BBS are on their own separate better servers from the website already, but that last time I tried to move the website was a bit of a technical fiasco and didn’t end up happening. It’s such a pain to do, and so many fiddly bits. But, those performance issues are real, and a struggle that is also too real. So, I’ve got to do it. Ugh.

But, I got Postal Exchange and Publication Subscription perks out to ongoing Patrons! This time with zines and tchotchkes from Praeterlimina.

Those are, even now, winding their way to Patrons in four countries across our wide earthy globe!

By the by, as a reminder, May is the month of the anniversary of my birth. I’ll be 50 this year! Also, later this year, in September, will have been 10 years that I’ve been Librarian of Hermetic Library. Wild, and funny, both milestones will occur this year. All I want for my birthday and anniversary is a bunch more Patrons so I can keep doing all this and do more. Become a Patron so I can send you gifts for my birthday!

Still looking for help and others to join me in a working community around the library, of course.

Lots of new pages and work on old pages on the site, which is pretty much every week, really. You can always check the front page of the site which shows the most recent changes and new pages, or check out the Recent Changes special page for a full list.

Want to join me on this blog and create new art or writing for Hermetic Library? Pitch your Idea.

Help get some conversations started over on the BBS and in Chat.

Be sure to check out the actual Hermetic Library, and subscribe on Bandcamp or become a Patron.

Here’s a summary of posts on the blog from these last few weeks

• Sacred Mysteries — Review
• The mind must make the heart articulate, and the body the temple of the soul. — Quote
• Swords’ Masters — Review
• To hell with this Verbotenism! — Quote
• Dore’s Illustrations for Rabelais — Review
• They bore witness, in a serious and ceremonious manner, to the unravelling of this union. — Quote
• Holy Terrors — Review
• It’s not unfun, and it’s better than nothing, but it still ain’t the real thing. — Quote
• Mad Moon of Dreams — Review
• … it is no longer individuals only, or cities, that enrich themselves by distant commerce and export; but whole nations grow rich at the cost of those nations which lag behind in their industrial development. — Quote
• How to Meditate — Review
• “Everyone knows,” the guide threw back over his shoulder. “They’re just too frightened to say or do anything about it.” — Quote
• Cthulhu’s Reign — Review
• You help yourself by helping others. There are no hermits in the desert unless they are thinking big thoughts that will eventually help others. — Quote

Here’s a summary of activity for four weeks ending April 21, 2019.

Oh, wow. I really thought I’d done a summary for two weeks, two weeks ago. I completely missed it! So, this, of course, covers all the four weeks since the previous summary.

Don’t forget that there’s a new special offer in April for active or new Patrons of Hermetic Library, for an extra $99 off Carolyn Elliott’s INFLUENCE: the life-altering course on mastering practical magic. This 10-week course is intended to help people achieve dramatic positive change in their lives through shadow integration practices and applied occult philosophy.

Become a new Patron of Hermetic Library now to get your $99 off coupon.

Check out this course at INFLUENCE: the life-altering course on mastering practical magic

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to improve how I’ve been doing things for Patrons with Postal Exchange and Publication Subscription perks. Last summary, I talked about some thinking I’ve been doing, and am still doing. I’ve also mentioned in some places I got a new booklet stapler, and I’ve been trying out making chapbooks. But, I’ve not been happy with the quality of the printing from my basic printer. So, one thing I’ve done in the last couple of weeks is to get a new laser printer.

There it is: a tale of two printers. The new one is monochrome. But, I’ve still got the other one if I need to do anything in colour. But a laser printer will have an overall better quality, and prints probably a bit more longevity.

Which is as much to say that Postal and Subscription perks are still coming, but have been held up as I’ve been sorting through how and what to do for them. I’ve pulled the list of everyone with perks as of March, through today, and will be getting something to everyone as soon as possible.

The past few weeks, in addition to other things, has seen lots of work on Magical and Philosophical Commentaries, with missing text from I and II newly transcribed and restored, with III on the way.

I’ve also started, as you may have seen, if you’re following on social media, changing up how I’ve been doing calendar events. For the past two years, I’d been posting those directly to social media; but this year, I’m folding those into new Hermeneuticon event pages for each day of the year. I’ve also started to include posts to social media about the recommended readings and correspondences from the Thelemic Tephilah.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been noticing some performance issues with the main library website. The overall site itself has been seeing some performance bottlenecks and within the site there’s some issues with some indexing of tags and issues with search indexes. So, I really need to migrate the site to a different underlaying platform, a different server. That’s always a huge pain. But, it’s something that needs to happen. Over the years, I’ve migrated the site several times, but, and I did actually try once previously but there were issues that required I abort that at the time, the site as it is right now, built on the Dokuwiki engine, is even more complicated than previous migrations. However, it’s been a nagging issue for a while, and recently seems to be even more pressing. I’ll keep on that as a project that’s coming soon.

By the by, as a reminder, May is the month of the anniversary of my birth. I’ll be 50 this year! Also, later this year, in September, will have been 10 years that I’ve been Librarian of Hermetic Library. Wild, and funny, both milestones will occur this year. All I want for my birthday is a bunch more Patrons so I can keep doing all this and do more. Become a Patron so I can send you gifts for my birthday!

Still looking for help and others to join me in a working community around the library, of course.

Lots of new pages and work on old pages on the site, which is pretty much every week, really. You can always check the front page of the site which shows the most recent changes and new pages, or check out the Recent Changes special page for a full list.

Want to join me on this blog and create new art or writing for Hermetic Library? Pitch your Idea.

Help get some conversations started over on the BBS and in Chat.

Be sure to check out the actual Hermetic Library, and subscribe on Bandcamp or become a Patron.

Here’s a summary of posts on the blog from these last few weeks

• Nietzsche Against the Crucified — Review
• The following excerpt is taken from a thirty second YouTube video simply entitled, ‘How to Start a Mob’: — Quote
• Omnium Gatherum: April 20, 2019
• Lion in the Valley — Review
• Omnium Gatherum: April 19, 2019
• Preparing for a threesome is a bit like preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. You don’t need to bring more than a bottle of wine, but you have to be ready for whatever happens. — Quote
• The Goddess’ Son — Review
• Let’s just agree to disagree. — Quote
• Omnium Gatherum: April 15, 2019
• The ceremony took place in the tabernacle, upon a wooden stage with a background painted to look like drapery. Strang sat upon a throne made of wood, covered in cloth and stuffed with moss. He held a wooden scepter and wore a bright red robe trimmed with white, perhaps looking a bit like Santa Claus. An entourage of men with various church titles surrounded him, like dukes, earls, and barons at a court. — Quote
• Faith of Tarot — Quote
• Most translations have caught meanings in their net, but prosily, letting the beauty slip through. And in poetry, beauty is no ornament; it is the meaning. It is the truth. We have that on good authority. – Quote
• The Golden Dawn Source Book — Review
• Omnium Gatherum: April 11, 2019
• You adapted, and you made sacrifices. You did it for your children or for love. You did it because of illness or because of an accident. You did it because you had new dreams — Quote
• The Western Way — Review
• American Cosmic — Review
• Omnium Gatherum: April 6, 2019
• If we could overcome Civilization and establish social harmony, we’d see the Boreal Crown shoot forth a coherent laser-like 1000-hued ray of pure aroma, or stellar jizm — Quote
• The Delights of Anna — Review
• It began as so many tales do: a one-eyed hunchback was bleeding out. — Quote
• Stars of Black — Review
• McReady was a figure from some forgotten myth, a looming, bronze statue that held life and walked. — Quote
• Special offer for an extra $99 off Carolyn Elliott’s INFLUENCE online course on practical magic
• Learning to Die in the Anthropocene — Review
• To all the monsters hiding in this world, I hope the children will skin you alive. To the children in the world, let no one say you can’t make your monsters bleed. — Quote
• Omnium Gatherum: March 30, 2019
• My definition of good management is the achievement of objectives through the manipulation of others. — Quote
• Vision of Tarot — Review
• It is to be well noted that the Great Women of History have exercised unbounded freedom in Love. — Quote
• Omnium Gatherum: March 26, 2019
• Strange Stars — Review
• The ‘company of heaven’ is Mankind, and its ‘unveiling’ is the assertion of the independent godhead of every man and every woman! — Quote

Here’s a summary of activity for two weeks ending March 10, 2019.

This last week I decided to try something new, and that I hope to do more. This week I announced a special offer [also] for active or new Patrons of Hermetic Library, for an extra 15% off Donald Robertson’s Marcus Aurelius: Life and Stoicism, a 4 week intro to Stoic philosophy and psychology course, which begins March 17th, about how to build emotional resilience and develop a more meaningful life, from Marcus Aurelius.

I’ve actually been thinking about doing something like this for a long time. I’ve always tried to help pay it forward to bring some of the attention that is afforded to me to other people doing great and interesting things, and I continue to do that in various ways. But, I’ve also tried to create more value for those willing and able to support the work I do and that help me keep this overall project going by becoming Patrons. Of course, I have kept the Hermetic Library site itself available online as an open access resource for everyone. But, I’ve also been trying to create neat and fun and interesting additional content for those that make the extra commitment to support that work and the site.

One of the ways that I feel would be a great way to add extra value, for those helping to keep the library online and supporting my ongoing work maintaining and improving the site and projects, is to team up with other creators doing cool things to make special offers for Patrons of the library.

Recently, Patreon created a new tool to help creators make special offers, certainly not the only way to do it, but it’s there in my toolbox. And, while I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, I happened to notice that Robert Donaldson was starting up a new online course on Stoicism. Well, I decided it was time to put the peanut butter with the chocolate, reached out to Robert, and we agree to try this idea out!

This is the first special offer. I’d like to do more! If you’re a creator making things or online classes or soever, and want to team up with me to develop the second special offer, get in touch!

I have a new booklet stapler! This is something that arrived at the library recently, and I’ve been trying it out. What this does is help to staple the center of booklets and pamphlets together, since regular staplers don’t really have the reach for that. This means that I can much more easily create things for Patrons with Postal Exchange and Publication Subscription perks. I don’t have one ready to go yet. I’m still futzing around, but it’s something I’m hoping to do for real.

My current ideas are to do pamphlets from the material at the library, reprints of old out of print zines, an even doing some new actual physical zines. Or, heck, anything I can think of! If you’ve got old zines or ephemera that you’ve created, or even new stuff, I’d love to talk. Even if it’s not about doing limited reprints that I could create, I’d love to talk about preserving those materials, or even just information about them. Check out some of my thinking along those lines over at The Serapeion Project: Occult ’Zine, Journal and Ephemera Preservation. Preserving, cataloguing and making accessible archives of occult ’zines, journals and other ephemera as cultural artifacts of the living Western Esoteric Tradition is something that I’ve wanted to do actively, but haven’t been able to do much about yet. Want to help? Get in touch!

Thinking about zines, my mind comes around to the Zine. I was able to pull together two issues back in 2016, but, for various reasons, there hasn’t been another issue since. I have almost everything I need to do a new issue, except that I don’t currently have any visual work for inside pages or the cover. It’s been so long that some submissions have been in the pool for over a year or more, but I’ve been asking for participation on the next issue since the last one released.

My main idea for the Zine was to create a wild and wooly whatever of occultura and esoterrata compiled together, generally related to Hermetic Library’s overall mission of archiving, engaging and encouraging the living Western Esoteric Tradition, Hermeticism, and Aleister Crowley’s Thelema. My hope was that the Zine could become a place for submissions on no particular topic, theme, style, or soever. I’d be able to accept new and old material of pretty much any kind, as long as it can be included on pages in the Zine. But, that just hasn’t happened. I haven’t had enough material to do a full issue.

So, I’m thinking it might be time to change things. If I don’t get enough participation to do a full issue of the Zine, then maybe it’s time to deconstruct the idea of doing complete issues. I’m thinking that “zine” becomes a category on the blog instead. I really like the idea of doing full issues of the Zine, but if that’s not possible, maybe separately publishing pieces of zine material to the blog would be another option.

I shared to the library’s Instagram account some pictures of a box of belated winter holiday gifts from my mother. I didn’t share everything that arrived, but there were some fun library-related things I thought you’d be interested in seeing, including a brass plate with “LIBRARY” on it, a paper embosser with the library’s Abraxas, and more.

Still looking for help and others to join me in a working community around the library, of course.

Lots of new pages and work on old pages on the site, which is pretty much every week, really. You can always check the front page of the site which shows the most recent changes and new pages, or check out the Recent Changes special page for a full list.

Want to join me on this blog and create new art or writing for Hermetic Library? Pitch your Idea.

Help get some conversations started over on the BBS and Chat.

Be sure to check out the actual Hermetic Library, and subscribe on Bandcamp or become a Patron.

Consider also checking out what I’m up to on my personal blog and at Odd Order.

Here’s a summary of posts on the blog from this last week

• Special offer for an extra 15% off Donald Robertson’s Marcus Aurelius: Life and Stoicism
• Omnium Gatherum: March 6, 2019
• Omnium Gatherum: March 5, 2019
• Omnium Gatherum: February 28, 2019
• Ashenden, or The British Agent
• Othon & Honorata

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