Hermetic Library Newsletter - Issue #49 (maybe don't make baby jeebus outta beef jerky next time)

Hermetic Library Newsletter - Issue #49 (maybe don't make baby jeebus outta beef jerky next time)
By John Bell the Librarian • Issue #106 • View online
This is the last Hermetic Library newsletter for 2021! So, thank you for subscribing to this. You help me be of service and make the work of the library meaningful. Especial thanks to each and every Patron, Subscriber, and Member for making the work of the library possible!
Hope your holidays, whichever soever you observe or celebrate are grand and great, and, moreover, I wish you and yours all well and weal in the new year!
(For me, personally, I’ve kinda of started to think of perihelion as my new year, but, hell, celebrate them all! Safely. Sanely. Relatively, at least.)
This week I’ve got the best, top 9, on Instagram, for 2021. With magical realism, and touto esti to soma mou! Also thinking about interviews, premieres, and podcasts, oh my! Plus runes, stuck in your chimney, daily practice, and myth work. Along with propaganda, memes, reminders, updates, quotes, and reviews!
And, as always, I worked on various other things on website, blog, and more … Enjoy!

Unicursal NEW YEAR COURAGE Propaganda
Unicursal NEW YEAR COURAGE Propaganda
Best, top 9 for 2021
I posted the best, top nine, on Instagram, from Hermetic Library in 2021!
Two of those snuck onto the list in the last week, so I ended up having to re-make that graphic, like, three times. Which is funny because as I was making it the first time I thought to myself how earlier posts probably had a big advantage because they could collect more likes. Welp, okay, then. I jinxed it, maybe.
You can go back to last week’s newsletter to compare the previous two years of best, top posts. There’s a distinct difference each year, for sure. (There’s also some definite overlap with this year’s top 5 from Tumblr!) This year, there’s only one propaganda poster, which have seemed to me, generally, incorrectly it turns out, the best performing posts.
Also, only two of the best, top this year are posts that are directly about content at the library. That’s a bummer, tbh. I mean, the reason for the account, all social media accounts, has been to try to directly engage people with content from the library.
I don’t know, really, what to do with that. I’ve kinda always known that if I were someone else, posting about something else, other than me posting about the library, probably, and apparently confirmed, I’d be a lot more popular. 🤷
I guess my hope is, if I continue to post the other stuff, that it floats all boats, so to speak, and also helps get the direct library stuff to people.
But, no matter how that goes, the only way I’m probably ever going to actually reach people that actively want to follow along is through this email newsletter. Social media is just awful as a tool to reach people. At least, that seems true for the way I use it, and, moreover, am willing to use it.
But, not to be a downer! These posts were fun! Crazy times when Bernie/Baphomit(tens), Stolas’ Daily Goetia Reminder, and Unicursal Pizza all seem to have been at least a decade ago, not simply earlier this year?! Plus all the other fun stuff that made and didn’t make this list!
Here’s to another new year of more success on social media for the library! (But, you know, also, consider helping me spread the word about this newsletter!)
::cringe::
::cringe::
Magical realism
You, alright?! I learned magical realism by watching you, Sesame Street! I learned it by watching you!
My new short duration magical motto is “anatem tenere non potes si ludere vis saxophonum” or something.
Touto esti to soma mou!
Georgina Rose 🔺☀️
I visited some relatives for christmas and one of the dogs tried to eat the baby jesus statue from the nativity scene.
Not very nice to call your relatives dogs! Also maybe don’t make baby jeebus outta beef jerky next time and your relatives won’t try and eat it. Also also, I hear consuming the eucharist is a big deal in some religions.
A hippothetical
A hippothetical
Interviews, premieres, and podcasts, oh my!
One of the participants (Hi, Blasting Rod!) on this years anthology got their track covered as by an online magazine (that does interviews, reviews, premieres, &c.) and included in a set of new music on a podcast / DJ set (that solicits submissions for promotion).
I was in touch with the online magazine about doing something to feature the new release this year from the Anthology Project (after all the 10th year of anthologies in the 25th year of the library is a pretty big deal!), but that didn’t end up happening. Also, I went through their archives and only saw one anthology artist ever mentioned by them, previously mentioned by me above.
I’ve been thinking about this.
I’ve done a couple of interviews over the years, and I’ve tried to set up a container for possible podcasts, which only ever ended up being a couple Reader’s Theatre events. But what if I tried to get more serious about it. Er, again.
Over the years, I’ve kept myself open to anthology artists that wanted to contact me with news and updates, and this last year I really started to use the Bandcamp community message tool to send out anthology related news.
But, I could do more, right? I mean, if people participate.
So, I’m going to be thinking more seriously about what that might look like, but at minimum, I’m thinking that I’m going to extend a more formal and explicit offer to all anthology artists, and maybe others, to do interviews and premieres about their work.
I’m not sure about the podcasts thing. What I’d love to have is some people making podcasts, of various kinds, not just music, that would like to be syndicated on the library blog. I don’t know that I’ll ever get back to Readers’ Theatre or any other podcast, myself; but I feel like I could do more to promote relevant podcasts others are making, if they want that.
I’ll tell you, I’ve also, secretly, wondered about setting up a hypothetical Hermetic Library Internet Radio Station. That’s completely up in the air, but it’s a thing that has popped up in my mind. I have a ton of great stuff from all the Anthology Albums I could have in a rotation, and then I’d have a place where I could host podcasts and DJ sets and other audio stuff. Might be too much to take on, tbh; but it could be something to consider doing at some point.
::stab::
::stab::
Runes
Apropos of nothing *cough* The Northman bad takes *cough* check out my personal Runes resources page.
If you’re looking for a quickly learned divinatory symbol set with which your self can talk to yourself, it’s a great one; especially if you want to see the symbols everywhere in nature (branches, rocks, &c.) or are interested in eucharistic baking or embodying some weird yoga-like movements.
Stuck in your chimney
Hey!
Santa, Krampus & I are stuck in your chimney with sacks of stuff. Not innuendo, an emergency! Been here for days now. Can’t reach milk & cookies. Call for help! Whilst waiting for rescue: Merry consumermas and a happy new acquisitions day! Hope you & yours do your patriotic part & down obscene amounts of things!
Also Krampus is getting kinda handsy.
I kinda like it.
Huh. Maybe this isn’t so bad after all. Cancel the rescue.
But, um, could you slide the milk & cookies a little closer?
Daily practice
Them: “Please help me have discipline to stick with my daily practice!”
Girl from Internet: “Are you sure?”
Back in the day, way back even before the beforetimes, I used to participate in the Reclaiming community, and took a lot of the various core classes multiple times. One of the consistently asked questions I heard through many of them was about daily practice.
If you’re struggling with daily practice. I’ve got good news and bad news for you.
The bad news is this: if you’re struggling to get a daily practice going, you might be working in the wrong tradition. If there’s practices in your tradition, and you’re not doing them, then maybe they don’t speak to you. In other words, these aren’t the practices you’re looking for. You may be in that tradition for some other reason. Worth considering that for a bit. Either recommit, get clear with yourself why you’re in it at all, or “move along, move along.”
The good news is this: You already have a daily practice. You’re soaking in it. You do things every day, like everyone does, that could and should have deeper meaning. Consider those things, which perhaps appear mundane and empty of meaning. Now, take a core question from the practice of Will, and ask it. “To what end?” Either you’re ultimately doing that mundane thing for or to enable a higher purpose. If not, why do it at all?
For me this exercise potentially does at least two things: 1) it is a test for to see if a thing being done has reason enough to continue doing it, 2) it clearly connects what appears to be mundane with its higher purpose. Literally, finding out why you’re doing some unnecessary mundane things at all is part of the point, but the other half of that is to consciously and intentionally elevate necessary mundane things clearly into part of your higher purpose.
Start doing this with one thing that you do every day, every day. Then, I suspect you’ll find that you can add additional practices to that foundation, but either way you’ve elevated your mundane tasks to part of a higher, greater purpose.
If nothing else occurs to you, and I mean, even heading to a coffee shop of caffeine is a good one, consider ritualizing your bathing as the mundane task on which to build this. Start with the question from Will, and then consider adding an additional ritual element, like a simple salt scrub, and so on.
Personally, especially after these plague years, I’ve personally started using a modified version of wudu. I mean, if I’m going to be washing my hands and face as often as all that, might as well turn it up with additional ritual meaning that speaks to me.
Less seriously, (but, you know, you could!) start a daily practice today of reading at Hermetic Library! Or, you know, just hang out on Twitter, like and retweet me blathering. Yeah, that’s not actually a recommended daily practice, for anyone, not really. (::using the voice:: do it.) (j/k) (Or, am I?)
Myth work
Want some practical advice about myth in practical and theoretical magical pathworking?
Carol S Pearson‘s books come to mind. Maybe Calvert Watkins’ How to Kill a Dragon for background on the role of PIE hero within myth.
Consider tarot and psychological alchemy … Pick a myth cycle, historical or constructed, find the concomitant rituals and enact them.
Read up on assuming god forms and consider what forms and ceremony your myth of choice suggests you work with.
Find ways to make your preferenced myth the lens through which you view the world for a period of time, and journal on’t.
Build an altar around your myth, figures & forms & intention, and propitiate / include it in your daily practice.
Reminders
Send something for the Zine
Send something for the Zine
Seeking submissions for Zine #5, the next issue, hopefully releasing for Perihelion in January, 2021. Yikes! That’s just days away now! I really don’t have nearly enough stuff for a full issue! Help! Send things!
Yeah, I’m going to be trying to put this together in the coming days, and I suspect there won’t be enough for a full issue. So, I’ll either need more stuff, decide to publish a smaller issue, or wait until Aphelion. Not sure yet which way this will go.
hermeticlibrary.typeform.com
Pitch an Idea
Pitch an Idea
Ongoing call to pitch your idea for creating new art, writing, video, or … something else for Hermetic Library.
hermeticlibrary.typeform.com
Doodles
Doodles
There’s nothing to see here because there’s no current doodles! This is an aspirational thing, which I’m starting to see if it takes off. If you’d like to participate, read more about what this is and then get in touch.
hermetic.com
Things to check out at Hermetic Library
Italy—1915
Italy—1915 from The International (Vol IX Iss 6, Jun ‘15) is credited to Aleister Crowley in the table of contents, but to George Sylvester Viereck on the actual page.
hermetic.com
The End of England?
The End of England? by Aleister Crowley from The International (Vol IX Iss 6, Jun ‘15). This is, I think, Crowley’s actual first appearance in the pages of The International, which would become a place with some very important Thelemic documents, including the first publication of the Gnostic Mass. I’ve come to call The International, at least to myself, but occasionally to others, like now, The Equinox Vol II. (All the important Thelemic work, and other Crowley and Crowley adjacent materials that appears in The International happens in the lacuna between The Equinox Vol I and Vol III, and Vol II never existed, canonically.)
hermetic.com
1066: A Study of the Ruling Class of England by Aleister Crowley from The International (Vol XI Iss 9, Sept ‘17) got lost from the indexing, or I forgot to add it there, but the document has existed for a while. Anyhow, I’ve added it to the main index now.
hermetic.com
I’ve made some updates to the index, and added some initial sub-indexing for Vol IX, Vol IX, Iss 6 and Vol XI, Iss 9. There’s a lot more to add, and still some improvements to make in the previously added material. But, I got some stuff done!
Honestly, I’m not sure if The International should still be a landing page under Aleister Crowley forever. Eventually, at some point, I might decide that the section should get promoted to a primary Form landing page, due to how much content there is that isn’t directly Crowley related. I suppose the same could, to a lesser degree also be said about The Equinox! But, of the two, I’m more likely to promote The International (and the other periodicals), especially if, some day, I go through and add all the old non-Crowley material to issues where he doesn’t or barely appears.
hermetic.com
And on the blog
“Porphyry ridicules the idea that gods, being wiser, more powerful, and superior to man, could be coaxed, persuaded or forced to do the will of man or conform to his desires. He repudiates the theory that clairvoyance, prophecy, etc., were the results of the inspiration by external gods, but says that they are a function of the Divine Spirit within man; and that the exercise of this function becomes possible when the soul is put into that condition which is necessary to exercise it. “The consciousness of man may be centred within or beyond his physical form; and according to conditions a man may be, so to say, out of himself or within himself, or ‘in a state in which he is neither wholly without nor within, but enjoys both states at once.” He also states that there are many invisible beings, which may take all possible forms and appear as gods, as men, or as demons, that they are fond of lying and masquerading, and of pretending to be the souls of departed men.”
“Porphyry ridicules the idea that gods, being wiser, more powerful, and superior to man, could be coaxed, persuaded or forced to do the will of man or conform to his desires. He repudiates the theory that clairvoyance, prophecy, etc., were the results of the inspiration by external gods, but says that they are a function of the Divine Spirit within man; and that the exercise of this function becomes possible when the soul is put into that condition which is necessary to exercise it. “The consciousness of man may be centred within or beyond his physical form; and according to conditions a man may be, so to say, out of himself or within himself, or ‘in a state in which he is neither wholly without nor within, but enjoys both states at once.” He also states that there are many invisible beings, which may take all possible forms and appear as gods, as men, or as demons, that they are fond of lying and masquerading, and of pretending to be the souls of departed men.”
Franz Hartmann, In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom
library.hrmtc.com
Omnium Gatherum: 29dec2021
An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for December 29, 2021
To view this content on the blog, you must be a member of Hermetic Library’s Patreon, or wait a full year for this post to become public so you can see what you’ve been missing.
Becoming a Patron is the only way to immediately enjoy new Omnium Gatherum posts on the blog, but an alternative is to become a Member of the Newsletter to get them delivered directly to your inbox.
library.hrmtc.com
The Hidden Dimension
The Hidden Dimension
Hermetic Library Fellow T Polyphilus reviews The Hidden Dimension [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library] by Edward T Hall.
library.hrmtc.com
City of the Beast or Warriors of Mars
City of the Beast or Warriors of Mars
Hermetic Library Fellow T Polyphilus reviews City of the Beast or Warriors of Mars [Amazon (1971), Amazon (2007), Publisher, Local Library] by Michael Moorcock, originally published as by Edward P Bradbury, introduction by Kim Mohan.
library.hrmtc.com
Also, elsewhere
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John Bell the Librarian
By John Bell the Librarian

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