Tag Archives: summary

Summary for two weeks ending Mar 10th, 2019

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.

Hermetic Library Robertson Marcus Aurelius promo March 2019

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!

Hermetic Library booklet stapler

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.

Hermetic Library brass library plate

Hermetic Library Abraxas paper embosser

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

Popular posts on social media

Summary for two weeks ending Feb 24th, 2019

Here’s a summary of activity for two weeks ending February 24th, 2019.

There’s been a slight uptick in the number of ideas for new work pitched recently, which is great news! I hope this continues, and we also see several new works this year make it entirely through the submissions process. I’m still looking for visual work, old or new, for inside and cover pages of a new zine issue that could release soon, if there’s enough to fill it with content!

In the last few weeks, I’ve been working with a volunteer, moreover a Patron of the library, who has been generous with their time, to help improve the current Magical and Philosophical Commentaries. This is a huge project, but we’re focusing on repairing some truncation that happened at some point in the past, so that these comments are complete; then, if we can get that done, we can then try to loop around and check all the content against the source materials.

Hermetic sections Crowley Liber AL vel Legis Book of the Law Magical and Philosophical Commentaries

This is something that I’ve long intended for these pages. And, it is part of the overall work of the library to do a close reading and correction of all pages compared to source documents across the site, and that has been an ongoing project from the beginning. But, it’s a lot of work that will takes me a significantly long time to do, so the help in focusing on these particular documents is so very much appreciated!

If you have a particular interest in and excitement about helping with any of the existing documents on the site, or want to tackle preparing and checking new documents which should be on the site, I’d welcome your help too!

I’m still trying to work out the next Postal Exchange and Publication Subscription mailings for Patrons, but haven’t got that sorted. I’ve got a couple ideas that haven’t come together yet. I’m hoping to get one of those ideas solidified soon. But, of course, I’d love to hear from anyone with an interest in sharing their eclectic, esoteric tchotchkes through the postal system, or anyone creating esoteric books, zines, music or soever, with Patrons of the library! (By the by, I was having a bit of nostalgia just now whilst gandering at the old Eclectic, Esoteric Postal Potlatch page at the library. Consider checking that out for a reminder of the idea when I introduced it! And the Hermetic Library stamp!)

Hermetic Library Eclectic Esoteric Postal Potlatch

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

Popular posts on social media

Summary for two weeks ending Feb 10th, 2019

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

Still, doing a lot of omnium gatherum posts. Don’t forget that you can participate by heading over to the omnium category on the BBS.

I’m currently also trying to work out the next Postal Exchange and Publication Subscription mailings for Patrons, but haven’t got that sorted. I’ve got a couple ideas that haven’t come together yet. I’m hoping to get one of those ideas solidified soon.

I’ve got a few other daggers in the fire, things I’m working on for the library site, as well, but for some reason things are all progressing slowly at the moment. I’m hoping things thaw and get moving faster soon!

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

Popular posts on social media

Summary for two weeks ending Jan 27th, 2019

Here’s a summary of activity for two weeks ending January 27th, 2019.

Welp. That’s it for Google+. I’ve stopped updating that social media account ahead of the entire service being shuttered.

And, IDEK, but I’ve done a lot of omnium gatherum posts in the last few days. I don’t think this means I’ll be doing them this often all the time, but for some reason a lot has caught my eye recently. Don’t forget that you can participate by heading over to the omnium category on the BBS.

You know, by the by, it’s still January, so it’s not too late to make it a New Year resolution to make it part of your daily practice to click on every link I post … you know, actually check out all the material and stuff I post from the library and beyond! … Pretty please?

Finally, it’s darned cold here, where I am. Wow. Hope you’re all staying safe and warm!

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

Popular posts on social media

Summary for two weeks ending Jan 13th, 2019

Here’s a summary of activity for two weeks ending January 13th, 2019.

There’s been a lot of recent escalation of ongoing tumult in social media services. Most notably, Google+ is shutting down, earlier than previously announced, and the API that allows external processes to post is shutting down even earlier. Tumblr has crumbled under to Apple’s removal of their app, which conveniently provided cover for the new ownership to crack down on content in general. Further, Flickr has recently changed ownership, and has announced new limits on basic accounts. With this in mind, I have stepped away from all of these services as places where I actively participate on behalf of the library.

I’ve also continued, over the years, to step away from being active on Facebook, which was a primary place I was active with posts about the library in early days; mostly because I have not, won’t, and never will pay to reach the audience who follow the page, even if I had the money to pay exorbitant and extortionate fees to reach those who are already fans of the page, and thus I rarely reach more than a increasingly vanishingly tiny fraction of those followers. I fear there will come a time when Facebook-owned Instagram, which I recently added to the mix, also begins implementing a similarly punishingly awful algorithm which submarines any and all posts when not being paid to promote them. But, for now, at least, Instagram has been a nice addition to the mix, and there’s been good engagement there.

For the most part, Twitter has been the social media account I have steadily used, but even there, of late, I have slowly been stepping back from being engaged actively. I miss it the most, but for every pleasant engagement I’ve had there have been a tumble of far too many negative and hateful encounters. More than anywhere else, though closely followed by Facebook, Twitter has been the place that has caused me to have extremely reduced levels of willingness to engage with awful or negative people on social media and to have a presumption of suspicion about engagements until they are proven pleasant that isn’t conducive to community or overall engagement.

All in all, I continue to engage through certain social media, but it is not any longer a primary focus for me, either personally or on behalf of the library. I miss the promise of it, but I don’t miss the actuality. The current state of affairs with social media all seems so disappointing to me at the moment.

As a reminder, I consider all social media to be supplemental to the site itself, places where I engage in the world on behalf of the library site. Certainly, the site itself is always at hermetic.com and I consider the site, and the library blog and BBS, the primary presence for the library online.

I’m happy for any and all positive and constructive engagement with the material at the library, and plan to continue to reach out in various places with reminders about the library. I’ll always link from the main library site to any active social media accounts or projects, so be sure to check there for that if there’s ever any question about where I’m currently active.

There’s recently been some encouraging increase in engagement over on the Discord-based voice and text chat service. Unfortunately, Discord is a centrally-managed service, much like the others, which is just as vulnerable to platform changes at the direction of corporate interests over those of users. But, it’s something that exists and is available.

Personally, I would much prefer people to become engaged and active over on the BBS, which is built on a self-hosted installation of Discourse, and thus is an independent place for Hermetic Library related activity, just as the blog and site itself are self-hosted. There are currently not enough active users for the BBS to be a self-sustaining place for community and conversation, but it continues to provide a place for certain things I feel are important enough to keep it going; primarily it is the commenting system for posts the blog. So while not currently an active place for users, it does have an ongoing and sufficient reason to exist.

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 drop a buck in the tip jar, 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

Popular posts on social media

Summary for the year 2018

Here’s a summary of Hermetic Library activity for the year 2018.

Every year there’s so much going on, I’m sure I’m going to miss some things. Consider going through all past summaries for more details about what was going on each week of last year. However, here’s some important things that come to my mind immediately.

Personally there was a lot going on for me. The place I had been living was sold. I moved across the country, with everything and cats, in almost an exact reverse of the historical Oregon Trail. I had my computer die, and went through a 4+ month ordeal of trying to get it fixed. And, all the sundry trials and tribulations one goes through …

The biggest project for 2017 was the switch from static, hand-coded HTML to the new wiki engine. I’ve made a lot of progress in 2018 on more of this, but I’m still working on it. Both old and new pages are constantly being worked on, and I think the library is already better than ever with this change. I knew that the transition was going to be a huge project, and require a lot of work; but, I honestly didn’t realize just how big and how much. I’m glad I did it, and there’s so many things that are better than they were, for me working on the site and for visitors trying to find things and navigate the site; but there’s still work to do. I feel so much gratitude for the support of my ongoing Patrons for making all this work on the library possible.

This year, I released Magic, Music and Ritual 14, the 2018 issue from the Hermetic Library Anthology Project. The newest release joins all the others, and they’re all great! Check them all out, and check out the anthology profiles for the artists who participate.

Magick Music and Ritual 14 The Hermetic Library Anthology Album 2018

Last year, I created a process to pitch ideas for submissions to the blog and the library. This hasn’t been as active as I had hoped. The only submission to make it through the process this last year was The Unknown Soror. There was only one in 2017 as well, but I’d hoped that there would be more. With the generous support from Patrons of the library, I did increase the available honorarium already, and this year I’ll be increasing that again to further encourage submissions.

I did have the opportunity to have a conversation with musician Jesse Heikkinen, who then went on to become an artist on the 2018 anthology. Perhaps there will be more conversations with others in this next year?

Hermetic Library has actively pursued its mission of archiving, engaging and encouraging the living Western Esoteric Tradition, Hermeticism, and Aleister Crowley’s Thelema for 20 years. Thanks to each and every Funding and Patron supporter of my work and the library for making the Hermetic Library possible for everyone, that mission continues!

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 drop a buck in the tip jar, subscribe on Bandcamp, or become a Patron.

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

Top 50 posts on the blog last year

Top 50 sections at the library

Top 50 pages at the library

Top 50 posts on the BBS

Summary for the week ending Dec 30th, 2018

Here’s a summary of activity for the week ending December 30th, 2018.

It’s a new year on the Gregorian calendar! I wish well and weal to you and yours! And, please join me in a toast to another great, bigger, and better year for the library!

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 drop a buck in the tip jar, 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

Summary for the week ending Dec 23rd, 2018

Here’s a summary of activity for the week ending December 23rd, 2018.

I wish well and weal to you and yours for this winter season for whatever festivities you enjoy and rituals you celebrate and into the new Gregorian year!

Also, check out this cool thing! The Librarian’s mother sent this gift for the library: an actual card catalog!

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 drop a buck in the tip jar 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

Summary for the week ending Dec 16th, 2018

Here’s a summary of activity for the week ending December 16th, 2018.

Got another round of envelopes out to ongoing Patrons with Postal Exchange and Publication Subscription perks. This one is a random selection of things I’ve found whilst unpacking after moving. I kept finding things in little caches that I’d saved for Postal Exchange, and put them in a pile as I found them. I got a bit distracted by flurries of snow and the flurry activity around releasing this year’s anthology, but finally got things sorted and in the post. Now it’s time to start thinking about what to do for the next one!

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 drop a buck in the tip jar 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

Summary for two weeks ending Dec 9th, 2018

Here’s a summary of activity for two weeks ending December 9th, 2018.

I’ve released Magick, Music and Ritual 14, the Hermetic Library Anthology Album for 2018! This album is now available for immediate digital download, and also as gratis downloads for Patrons on Patreon and Subscribers on Bandcamp.

Magick Music and Ritual 14 The Hermetic Library Anthology Album 2018

I’m amused at how much of a surprise it was for me that I’ve been super busy getting everything ready before and after the release of another anthology. This time I almost missed releasing it on Dec 3rd because I kept thinking I had a couple more days. Luckily, I had just finished getting everything ready on Bandcamp in time, so I could just flip the switch when I realized it was the planned day of release. But, then I still had to do a bunch of stuff with artist profiles on the library site and scheduled posts for everything on the blog. I mean: I’m surprised by it every year! But, it’s awesome to release another anthology and is always a highlight of the year for me to do and share with everyone.

In other news, there’s been some social media shake-ups. Apparently Google+ had another data leak, and with be shut down 4 months earlier than had been announced after the previous leak was belatedly revealed. Also, over on Tumblr there’s been a big kerfuffle when they implemented sudden and draconian and poorly-targeted censorship, likely triggered after Apple removed them from the walled-garden app store. Either way, I’m minded to remind everyone: you are welcome to join the Discord for text and voice chat or Discourse for BBS. But, certainly, the Hermetic Library site itself is always online and I consider that, and perhaps also the library blog, the primary presence of the library online. However, there will be authoritative links to any social media accounts or other projects I run for the library on the main site.

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 drop a buck in the tip jar 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