A Hiatus for the Blog
To live is to change; and to oppose change is to revolt against the law which we have enacted to govern our lives. To resent destiny is thus to abdicate our sovereignty, and to invoke death. Indeed, we have decreed the doom of death for every breach of the law of Life. — Crowley The blog [...]

Reevaluating Congregational Illuminism
Recently I was reminded of an email I sent last May. I was asked what I thought of Congregational Illuminism. My reply, given in full below, did not paint a rosy picture for the movement. In fact, in rereading the email, it occurred to me I was actually asking the wrong questions about Congregational Illuminism [...]

The Mystery of Filth and Opposing the Status Quo
The house was physically filthy and as the day wore on she [Jane Wolfe] became aware of a foul miasma enveloping the place that steamed to high heaven. […] Several years later she discussed this situation with O.P.V. (Norman Mudd), and he explained to her that Crowley was going through the “mystery of filth”. He [...]

A Lost Email
About a week ago, someone emailed me asking about the Amsterdam program I received my master’s degree from. I scanned it briefly with the intent of replying to it later. However it seems I screwed up and deleted the email without noting the person’s name or email address. If you sent the email and read [...]

The Shallow Engagement in the Occult and the Esoteric
Recently I co-authored a review of the video The Psychic City (Voodoo City) by the group YACHT. In the course of the collaboration, I described, to my co-author, the representation of occultism and paganism in the video and the groups ‘philosophy’ as shallow. In reply he asked what I meant by shallow—how can someone’s spirituality [...]