Hermetic Library Newsletter #90
BEWARE
This week I added a new page for Village BEWARE OF ARTISTS Propaganda. I actually created and posted the poster to social media back in 2016 but apparently didn’t ever create a page at Ministry of Information for it. Well, I’ve fixed that now.
And it’s time again to beware of what might show up in your candy. Who knows? You might get lucky and find rainbows or red books!
For my Goetia and Tarot experiments I worked with the text and seal of Bathim and The Star 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, a meme, zine, updates, quotes, reviews, and more!
And, as always, I worked on various other things on website, blog, and more … Enjoy!
Beware
BEWARE: As Halloween gets closer, higher guardians are warning parents to LOOK at your child's candy before they eat it. What looks like some other innocent red wrapped candy is actually a Red Book, like Das Kapital, or Mao's, or Jung's, or, even, actually promulgating the Law of Thelema!
And, definitely don't discuss the contents, lest your children be shunned!
♬ Mommas, ♫ don't let your babies grow up ♪ to be Centres of Pestilence ♫
Wise to destroy any copy you find after the first reading.
Also, so that you are forewarned and four-armed (cuz having four arms would be cool!) here's a handy identification guide with a sample of a few dangerous red books with a red rock from Sedona.
MidJourney
This week I continued my experiments with text and image prompts for Goetia with the seal and description of Bathin.
(18.) Bathin. – The Eighteenth Spirit is Bathin. He is a Mighty and Strong Duke, and appeareth like a Strong Man with the tail of a Serpent, sitting upon a Pale-Coloured Horse. He knoweth the Virtues of Herbs and Precious Stones, and can transport men suddenly from one country to another. He ruleth over 30 Legions of Spirits. His Seal is this which is to be worn as aforesaid.
Following my observation that I was getting results that seemed maybe too alike week to week, I went way overboard and there’s four sets this time. I tried a mix of pasted block of text, parsed keyword text, and image of the seal for prompts to see how things came out. I hope I settle on fewer prompts soon, but I’m trying to find the right prompts for the most interesting results, as one does. Since there’s so many, I’m still posting these in the thread through next week.
For tarot, worked with Atu XVII, The Star as if by Méret Oppenheim. For more about Méret Oppenheim.
For these I used a mix of text and image prompts. The text was from the Book of Thoth. The images were either Oppenheim's Sun, Moon, Stars (which I really wanted to use but was nervous might not be hers since I had trouble finding it, but appears to be in a private collection, so it seems reasonably legit and verified) and one of the photographs of Oppenheim herself by Man Ray. Here’s the prompt images.
And here’s the four sets of 4-up results from MidJourney.
I also tried both Goetia and tarot in DALL-E. I didn’t like anything it came up with for Goetia, but here’s two images for a parsed text prompt based on the Book of Thoth description and the idea of The Star by Méret Oppenheim.
So, that was a lot of images generated this week! And I’m still posting both series to the threads on the library social. But, I’ve made new Hermeneuticon entries for Bathin (I keep trying to typo Bathim!) and The Star.
Almanac
Here’s upcoming calendar and astronomical events, plus the daily Thelemic Tephilah practice for the coming week, October 14–October 21.
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!
- Greater Feast of Anne Leah Crowley, Poupée, died October 14, 1920 at Palermo, Italy
- Greater Feast of Ida Craddock, died October 16, 1902 at New York, United States
- Greater Feast of Richard Francis Burton, died October 20, 1890 at Trieste, Italy
And, check out these upcoming events posted to the Calendar blog.
- The Official Witches’ Sabbat 2022: Touching the Divine — Nov 4–6, 2022, Online
- Stoicon 2022 — Oct 29, 2022, Online
- So Mote That Con — Oct 15–16, 2022, Online
- Kim Logan & the Silhouettes —October, 2022, UK & GB
Astronomical
- Look for Mars, brighter and more orange than stars, near waning gibbous Moon tonight, October 14
- Third quarter Moon, October 17
- Look for clusters , such as NCG 129 and NGC 225, at Cassiopeia, visible even with good binoculars, October 18
- Dwarf planet Eris at opposition, October 18
- Orionids meteor shower, October 20–22 (good time to view in the moonless pre-dawn on October 20, 5–20 meteors an hour)
Thelemic Tephilah
Follow Thelemic Tephilah on the web, rss, and in the ‘verse.
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 14, Mercury, Liber VII, Cap. V, 35-45
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 15, Mercury, Liber VII, Cap. V, 46-48
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 16, Luna, Liber VII, Cap. VI, 1-8
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 17, Luna, Liber VII, Cap. VI, 9-13
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 18, Luna, Liber VII, Cap. VI, 14-19
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 19, Luna, Liber VII, Cap. VI, 20-25
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 20, Luna, Liber VII, Cap. VI, 26-35
- Thelemic Tephilah, October 21, Luna, Liber VII, Cap. VI, 36-40
BEWARE: As the marriage of Peleus and Thetis gets closer, the oracles are warning the gods to LOOK at what gets tossed in the midst of the candy feast, lest there be a golden apple inscribed τῇ καλλίστῃ
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!
- The Poet Loses to Grief by Brandon Stanley
- Thought Crime by Jan Shaw
- Untitled by John Griogair Bell
Things to check out at Hermetic Library
- Added the next 5 stories to Tiny Tales of Nasruddin: What the Quarrel Was About, Nasruddin’s Sense of Economy, Nasruddin in the Dark, Nasruddin the Proud Father, and Nasruddin Digs a Hole.
- Added the next 5 stories to Tiny Tales from the Sufis: The King’s New Palace, The Palace with One Door, The Traveler and the Teacher, The Man without a Key, and Knocking at the Door.
- Created the new Village BEWARE OF ARTISTS Propaganda page for an old poster I’d posted missed adding to the list.
- Created The Star and Bathin entries in Hermeneuticon.
And on the blog
- Fanaticism—Hermetic Library Fellow T Polyphilus reviews Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library] by Alberto Toscano.
- if practised en masse, it would remake our world in the name not so much of economic and social revolution as personal happiness.—Luke Slattery, Reclaiming Epicurus [Amazon] [Blog]
- Omnium Gatherum: 12oct2022—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!
- A King Comes Riding and Other Stories—Hermetic Library Fellow T Polyphilus reviews The Chronicles of Kull: A King Comes Riding and Other Stories [Amazon, Abebooks, Publisher, Local Library] by Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Len Wein, John Jakes, & al., based on Kull of Atlantis of Robert E Howard, volume 1 of the The Chronicles of Kull series.
- Man owes himself to his family; his family owes itself to the fatherland; and the fatherland to humanity. The egoism of man merits isolation and despair; that of the family, ruin and exile; that of the fatherland, war and invasion. The man who isolates himself from every human love, saying, “I will serve God,” deceives himself.—Éliphas Lévi, trans Aleister Crowley, Liber XLVI The Key of the Mysteries [Blog]
- Utopia Avenue—Hermetic Library Fellow T Polyphilus reviews Utopia Avenue [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library] by David Mitchell.
- So in a sense it isn’t me; it’s something in me that even that thing Palmer Eldritch can’t reach and consume because since it’s not me it’s not mine to lose. I feel it growing. Withstanding the external, nonessential alterations, the arm, the eyes, the teeth—it’s not touched by any of these three, the evil, negative trinity of alienation, blurred reality, and despair that Eldritch brought back with him from Proxima. Or rather from the space in between.—Philip K Dick, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library] [Blog]
- Beyond the Fields We Know—Hermetic Library Fellow T Polyphilus reviews Beyond the Fields We Know [Amazon, Abebooks, Local Library] by Lord Dunsany, introduction by Lin Carter.
Also, elsewhere
- Anthology news, October 10 [Bandcamp/Followers]
“somehow red books with simple lettering just scream ‘read me’.”—dictvm
Hermetic Library Newsletter by John Bell the Librarian of Hermetic Library
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