Hermetic Library Newsletter #89
different from the usual and particularly fun
This weekend is going to be cold enough here at Hermetic Library World HQ that I got freeze warning alerts from the National Weather Service. So, I’ve put a goofy styrofoam hat on my outside faucet a few months earlier than last year.
For my Goetia and Tarot experiments I worked with the text and seal of Botis and The Tower card using MidJourney with 4-up images here, and I link to the threads on the library’s social if you want to see them all, individually posted.
Plus almanac, propaganda, a meme, zine, updates, quotes, reviews, and more!
And, as always, I worked on various other things on website, blog, and more … Enjoy!
MidJourney
This week I continued my experiments with text and image prompts for Goetia with the seal and description of Botis.
(17.) Botis. – The Seventeenth Spirit is Botis, a Great President, and an Earl. He appeareth at the first show in the form of an ugly Viper, then at the command of the Magician he putteth on a Human shape with Great Teeth, and two Horns, carrying a bright and sharp Sword in his hand. He telleth all things Past, and to Come, and reconcileth Friends and Foes. He ruleth over 60 Legions of Spirits, and this is his Seal, etc.
There’s three sets this week. I started doing the same usual two sets, ½ just pasting in the text of the description, the next ½ using the pasting text description with the visual hint of the seal image.
I kinda started to feel like these were too similar from week to week so I tried an experiment where instead of just pasting in the block of text from Goetia, I parsed it out as specific separate hints. Here's the first of these, and I mixed them in as I went. Anyhow, check out the description and you'll see where it gets some of these elements!
Those are different from the usual and particularly fun, aren’t they? I’m thinking I might just drop the one set I do that’s just plain text pasted in, and focus on the other two. We’ll see!
I also ran the experiment for Atu XVI, The Tower as if by Evelyn De Morgan. Find out more about Evelyn De Morgan, and for ½ of these I fed the generator a visual hint using Evelyn De Morgan's S.O.S.
Once again, I’ve been spreading these images out at a couple a day, so I just finished this week’s Goetia series but have more to post for this tarot card experiment in the coming days.
Anyhow, I’ve also gone and made new Hermeneuticon entries for Botis and The Tower.
Almanac
Here’s upcoming calendar and astronomical events, plus the daily Thelemic Tephilah practice for the coming week, October 7–October 14.
Calendar
Follow Calendar on the web, email, rss, and in the ‘verse. And, if you have a current or upcoming event to share, add it to the Hermetic Library Calendar!
- Lesser Feast of Aleister Crowley, born October 12, 1875 at Leamington Spa, United Kingdom
- Greater Feast of Anne Leah Crowley, Poupée, died October 14, 1920 at Palermo, Italy
And, check out this upcoming event posted to the Calendar blog.
Astronomical
- Draconids meteor shower, October 7–9
- Mercury at greatest elongation from the Sun, look low in the eastern sky before sunrise, October 8
- Moon, Saturn and Fomalhaut appear to form an isosceles triangle, October 7
- Look for Jupiter below the moon after sunset in the eastern sky and it travels to the west at sunrise, October 8
- Mars near Moon, rising in the evening and staying high in the sky at sunrise, October 14
- Full moon, October 9
- Jupiter’s Great Red Spot transits central meridian, visible for an hour around 10pm US/Eastern, but you’ll a telescope, October 10
- Jupiter’s Great Red Spot transits central meridian, visible for an hour around midnight US/Eastern, but you’ll a telescope, October 12
- Mid-northern latitudes will have about 40 minutes of good darkness, after twilight before Moon rises, October 13
Thelemic Tephilah
Follow Thelemic Tephilah on the web, rss, and in the ‘verse.
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 7, Sol, Liber VII, Cap. IV, 44-53
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 8, Sol, Liber VII, Cap. IV, 54-59
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 9, Mercury, Liber VII, Cap. V, 1-6
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 10, Mercury, Liber VII, Cap. V, 7-14
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 11, Mercury, Liber VII, Cap. V, 15-21
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 12, Mercury, Liber VII, Cap. V, 22-26
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 13, Mercury, Liber VII, Cap. V, 27-34
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 14, Mercury, Liber VII, Cap. V, 35-45
Zine
Follow Zine on the web, email, rss, and in the ‘verse. And, if you something you’ve created to share, send it in to the Hermetic Library Zine!
- Inspired from Within by SD Master
- Invocation of the Great Mad Goddess, Chaos by T.A.L. de Sacks
- The Undergroundlings by Chandor Gloömy
Things to check out at Hermetic Library
- I added Hermeneuticon entries for Anthroposophical Society, Ankh-af-na-Khonsu, Peyote, Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, American Society for Psychical Research, The Tower, and Botis.
- I added new tales, Little Moss Men on the Kahleberg Mountain Near Altenberg and The Shepherd and the Forest Woman, from Jürgen Hubert for this month.
- I updated a bunch of other stuff, including adding more images to the Unicursal RESTRICTION Propaganda page and making John Eberly’s The Flame of Love readable again.
And on the blog
- the last thing I recommend is chasing your own happiness. It may even do more harm than good.—Tom Rath, It’s Not About You: A Brief Guide to a Meaningful Life [Amazon] [Blog]
- Omnium Gatherum: 5oct2022—An irregular hodgepodge of links beyond the library curated together from @OmniumGatherum at Hrmtc I∴O∴ and more. Until this post becomes public in a year, to view this content on the blog, you must be a member of Hermetic Library’s Patreon. However, you can follow the raw feed (drink directly from the firehose!) by heading to @OmniumGatherum at Hrmtc I∴O∴ and participate with likes, boosts, and comments to help curate the best stuff for everyone!
- The Magic Order—Hermetic Library Fellow T Polyphilus reviews The Magic Order, Book One [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Hoopla, Local Library] by Mark Millar, Olivier Coipel, & al., volume 1 of The Magic Order series.
- Men like him cannot be happy as we understand happiness, for to be happy one must delight like nature in mere profusion, in mere abundance, in making and doing things, and if one sets an image of the perfect before one it must be the image that draws her perpetually, the image of a perfect fulness of natural life, of an Earthly Paradise.—William Butler Yeats, “The Happiest of the Poets” in Ideas of Good and Evil [Blog]
- We Are in a Book!—Hermetic Library Fellow T Polyphilus reviews We Are in a Book! [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library] by Mo Willems, part of the Elephant & Piggie series.
- Symptoms as such are not our enemy, but our friend; where there are symptoms there is conflict, and conflict always indicates that the forces of life which strive for integration and happiness are still fighting.—Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited [Amazon, Publisher, Local Library] [Blog]
- Ghost Story—Hermetic Library Fellow T Polyphilus reviews Ghost Story [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library] by Peter Straub.
And, elsewhere
- Anthology news, October 1 (Aaaaaaand, that's the deadline for this year of the Anthology Project!) [Bandcamp/Followers]
- Anthology news, October 5 [Bandcamp/Followers]
“Before he is accepted into the order he must go through the terrible ordeal of cutting off the head of the snake of envy”—Franz Hartmann, In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom
Hermetic Library Newsletter by John Bell the Librarian of Hermetic Library
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