rune logix

osama bin laden book club?

"should Oprah Winfrey be worried about losing her Amazon.com book-club presence?"

Link to story

Occult vs. Magick

Tim Boucher is one of my favorite bloggers, damn near daily reading of mine.  he posted a topic i wanted to link rune logix readers directly to: what the difference is between the occult and magick.  i wrote a quick opinion at his site which i thought i'd quote here:

"as a practicing magictian, you begin to realize that it dosen’t matter. carl jung described the “spiritual” and the “psychological” to be the same thing. think about that. if every thing in the human mind is in fact spiritual, the only proof you need to measure your actions is success. such is the underlieing (occult, if you will) inspiration of psychology. whither your life is in disorder or your job is unfulfilling: you are choosing or at some level allowing that to be.

failiure in any realm indicates your magick is (if i may call, pure will) ineffective. that does not mean you are executing your true will, whatever that might be. but if you are not living the life you want to live you are not a healthy individual. magick is about making that change. what gets interesting is thats some other changes come along too. difficult situations, mental lapses, hyper awareness of faults, voices and visions, the fantastic and frightening.

it’s a great work. the crown of a life well lived: there is nothing in the two bit realm of human affairs you are not god and master of. only the strength of your anchor will keep you from falling off the edge of the earth and into megalomania and insanity in a world that is already more insane and only slightly more megalomanic than you already. this path is the tao, the great all that oriental paths have veiled in words so perfectly.

on the path i walk it’s called love, but it can be called many things and in fact can be confused with any thing yet i’m only interested in a few particular things (my path being pretty joe blow). i havent found any more direct method to change myself than magick and i owe my life to guarding the path with barbs of steel to anyone who only thinks about magick: what a shame. where the mystic stops, the magick starts. by analogy, the only fool is the neophyte that has misplaced his crown.

93"

although certaintly not my final say about the subject, i'd like to welcome readers here to contribute to the disscution at Pop Occulture

umbria: total information awareness

i've noticed an interesting domain looking through rune logix: umbria.  Umbria touts itself as a:

"Umbria's primary product is the Buzz Report, a weekly or monthly marketing intelligence report that provides comparative insights for up to 5 topics.  Through a combination of technology and services, we look at both the speech (what is being said, how often, etc.) and the speaker (who is doing the talking).  Our technology first isolates the relevant comments by consumers, cleans the data, clusters it, and then classifies it.  While not all comments can be fully classified automatically, the sheer volume of discussion online typically yields enough data to provide solid directional insights about the topics of interest.  These insights include:

 

• Share of buzz
• Favorability
• Engagement level
• Acquisition of “new voices”
• Demographics breakdowns"

the fact that

"Umbria is a consumer intelligence company that analyzes and distills the opinions and perceptions of the online world – consisting of more than 22 million blogs, message boards, opinion sites and other public forums – into actionable insights about companies, products, people and issues."

is trolling around my site makes me uncomfortable due to the obvious nature of a wide spread domestic spying program in this country and a company that sounds to me more like a outsourced Total Information Awareness than a legit business.  that this company was started at about the same time TIA was defeated in Congress raises my eyebrow.
    
i would like umbria to stick their Share of buzz up a very small... [epithat's for human crevices removed] and never access this site again.  your buzz and consumer orientated marketing can stick it elsewhere.  you are not authorized to collect any information from this website for any purpose whatsoever and i demand a letter informing me of what content was collected from this site and the process how this information was destroyed from your property.  this is most dire.  thanks, and eat this trend.

project: make a care bear voodou doll of me

"we need to make a reverse voudou doll of you with a piece of your hair and a picture put on a care bear next to all the printers so your magick will make them work all the time."

-- coworker, commenting on my uncanny magick ability to fix things that are not working by my presence alone.

the unknown aleister crowley

studying crowley is like studying a poltergeist.  some aspects are really well known, some are obviously fictional.  the confessions that are published is an edited account of his life and missing in some very salient details. these are the interesting parts of the legacy of crowley i would like to know answers to:

1. what really happened to his body when he died?

2. what were the conditions and details of his second, and (I think there was a third) third, marriages? for that matter, is there any surviving marriage certificates? who, and what church, did the ceremonies?

3. what was he doing in the late 1930's?

4.  when was his first homosexual encounter? the confessions are vague about a tutor when a young man.

5. where are the cipher manuscripts purported in Liber 61 that authorized the G.'.D.'. to act for the mystical Anna Sprengal?

6. what actually transpired at his funeral that had the city council vow to never allow to have that kind of incident happen again?

7. if he was penniless as he was supposed to be, how was his books, manuscripts, and other magickal items stored?

8. where is a photocopy of the supposed Ministry of Intelligence paycheck that crowley was supposed to be on payroll?

9. what happened to the bulk of his magick weapons and paraphernalia?

10. where, if any, is rose crowleys account of her life and what actually transpired during April 8, 9, 10, 1904, Cairo?

if you have any ideas or theorys, feel free to post, or let me know by email.

michigan...

the great lake state, the land of automobiles, much bad music, and farmers without farms.  over the last three days the most common words in conversation has been jesus, george bush (in a positive sense), god the father, and what?  not necessarily in that order.  the last epithat is from the lack of hearing devices these baby boomers who think they're in their twenties don't think they need.  it is my newly found belief that all george bush supporters are deaf.  oh well.   

at least we have Monde.  living proof of intelligent life beyond thirtynine years, it's not entirly true you can't trust anyone over thirty.

but i digress.  i havn't been here in three years.  my hope is to keep breaking that record ;-)

i thought i'd share what a family relative sent me.  this picture has an uncanny resemblance to me when i was young (minus the bow tie, dress clothes had a way of being hidden in very hard to find places!).  on the far right is royal harrison, my great grandfather in the early 1900's:

q and a : cadeceus books : ben fernee

one of the most impressive array of rare occult books i've ever found is at www.caduceusbooks.com you will be amazed at all the stuff you will find in there, putting the reading list of rune logix pale in comparison.    ben fernee, proprietor of cadeceus books has graciously agreed to a q and a session to give you an idea of the inner workings behind one of the best distributors of rare books around.

>> Caduceus Books is probably the worlds largest distributor of rare occult books: how have you gotten to the point you're at today?

I am certain that I am not the largest, but I was smaller than I am now.
I started sixteen years ago in a model railway signal box. This is
actually and literally true. I had shared a space in a craft centre with
Jane who sold incenses and artwork. Previously the craft centre had been
a model railway exhibition centre and they retained the signal box where
from where an operator controlled the trains, that was my office where I
kept the scarcer books.

Now the main way I work is by issuing email lists. These go out to about
2000 people, I tend to advertise items by email first, then, if they do
not sell, put them on the website.

>> How long has this been an interest you have been pursuing?

I became interested in occultism when I was about 18

>> What are some unusual requests your clients have made in the past?

A copy of the first edition of the Book of Thoth bound in human skin was
one. It is not unusual to be asked for books that people have dreamed of
and they are unsure of the title - but that is fair enough I think.


>> You primarily operate out of the UK, do you get many orders from the rest of Europe? Which countries in particular?

I sell a lot to Scandinavia and Germany but all over bar Lithuania and
Latvia, no orders from there yet.

>> Any favorite titles?

Quite a few but I'll mention one to give you an idea:-

Ian Blake, Eight Arms to Hold You, An Epitaph for the Esoteric Order of
Dagon, Sepulchral Press 1993, 1st Ed No. Ltd Ed of 23. Card covers 36pp
Introduction an additional notes by Nina Crummett. Sublime piece about
sex with octopi. The E.O.D. rose again, but this remains a delicious  &
humerous gravestone to one of its incarnations.

The production is elegant but modest, the writer does fill 36 pages with
traditions relating to human-octopus sex from mythologies and so forth
which would be difficult even now, in the age of Google. The blend of
sincere belief that this is a significant occult insight and awareness of
the absurdity of the endeavor is a delight.

One, the Grimoire of the Golden Toad, by Andrew Chumbley leaps to mind
of course. Books born or rituals are always interesting.

>> No need to share any trade secrets, but how on earth has your collection gotten so extensive? Can people contact you to sell any out of print titles they have?

Well it is stock, not a collection. I try to keep it changing as much as
possible. I very much welcome people getting in contact to sell unusual
items.

>> Any texts in your collection you can't make heads or tails out of?

Occasionally, I recently had this one:-

Exact Thinker, The Craft of Thy Caduceus, Numbered Limited Edition of
1000, large format card covers 108pp Many illustrations. Examination of
mysteries of the religions of ancient Egyptian, Assyria, India,
freemasonry with other references. However the author would appear to be
in the maniac laughter mode of a quite serious form of insanity which
makes for one of the most obscure and bizarre texts ever encountered.
Covers very worn

>> What American locale orders more books, New York or California?

California, but I get orders from all over the U.S.

>> How does Cadeceus Books tie into your art gallery?

I do both, if someone buys something from the art gallery I sell it to
them through Caduceus Books

>> Any more original A.O. Spare's works for sale?

There will be three drawings in a list coming up.

>> Final comments you would like to share to our readers?

Well one thing is that things are changing. I have started to publish
items. First will be a facsimile of a 19th Century occult manuscript
which was circulating in proto-Golden Dawn circles though the text is
much older. I have set out to make the facsimile the very next best
thing to owning the original manuscript. Rather than looking like a
modern book with glossy photographs of an old manuscript it will
actually look like a manuscript in a sympathetic binding.

I have a number of other manuscripts lined up, one relating to mysteries
of Hebrew alphabet was probably influential on the Golden Dawn but  has
never been published, another is the inner workings of the Fratres
Lucis.

Also a typeset book, Grimoire to Invoke the Spirit of the Place. The
original 18th C. ritual gave rise which was bound in a particular manner
with a certain number of pages etc. I have followed all those
specifications as the text states that the original spirit promises to
send a minion to anyone who reads the conjurations  from the original
book or one like it. The text also describes how the grimoire is to be
baptized and treated as a child. It is quite dark but has a very
interesting viewpoints.

If anyone wants information about these items email me, I will add your
email address to those who receive my lists and so forth.

www.caduceusbooks.com

1954 home computer

1954 Popular Mechanics Magazine

i want a computer with a steering wheel.  i feel stymied without one. click on the picture to better read the caption.  i hope the archaeologists of the thirty first century have great debates over if 'made in america' means it must have a steering wheel 8-)

quote for the day

"the beatings will stop when morale improves."

--manager who will remain anonymous

unicursal hexagram ring

last night i had an interesting dream.  i was at a jewelery store my parents would go to when i was young (and which doesn't exist any more).   the owner was there, exactly what he looked like when i was growing up, and he had an employee that i was talking to, a german, who i detailed my plans of designing a unicursal hexagram ring, to wear on my right ring finger, and what kind of material and colors it should of been made from, etc.  there was a masonic square and compass ring in the store which i used to compare my design.  i'm not sure the meaning of the dream, but it comes after a deeper understanding of a few Class A texts yesterday evening.