In honor of Peter Carroll, we read Liber Null this week. Unto him may there be granted the accomplishment of his will!

Citizen Maxwell would like you to read the introductory pages (8-11) and the Wikipedia article on the IOT.

Yoko YOLO recommends:

Liber MMM (13-23)

Random Belief (73-77)

Alphabet of Desire (78-88)

Reincarnation (104-105) [mainly to speculate about Carroll’s possible attempts at immortality]

This coming Wednesday, at the recommendation of Frater Ex Nihilo – John Dee’s Five Books of Mystery, as edited by Joseph H. Peterson.

They request that you read the following pages:

42-46: Just pretty pictures of some of the tools of the art, what was known, and what was constructed.

56 – 86: Dee’s long prayer, receiving of most of the instructions for the magical instruments, getting a bit bitch slapped by the angels multiple times.

245-254: Lots of stuff, but this is where the shewstone materializes from the spirit realm.

If you have trouble with the first link, try this one. You can scroll down and manually load the PDF.

This week, we’ll have a look at Walter Benjamin’s On Language as Such and on the Language of Man, found on pp. 107-123 of this collection. Join us Wednesday as we attempt to elucidate this abstruse but tremendous meditation at the crossroads of theology, philology, and philosophy.

This Wednesday – John Dee and the Empire of Angels: Enochian Magick and the Occult Roots of the Modern World, by Jason Louv.

Please read Chapters 5 and 6, pages 100-127.

This week, an encounter with the legendary Hakim Bey, of doubtful reputation and indubitable brilliance. Please read the TAZ essay in preparation! Pages 95-132.

We will also discuss the Egg Rite. If you weren’t part of it, you’re still welcome to come and hear us.

We were so taken up with Egg anecdotes and Egg protocols in the last session, we didn’t have time to discuss the reading. Mr. Flowers deserves our attention, one feels!

So, again, some sections from Stephen Flowers’ Hermetic Magic: “Origins” (pp. 3-17), “Principles of the Hermetic Synthesis” (pp. 37-43), “Daimonology” (pp. 99-100), and “Magical Theories” (pp. 135-141).

Once again, the Berkeley Wizard Council invites you to join us in our simultaneous working of a week-long spell from the Greek Magical Papyri. We probe the mystery of the wonderful Egg of the Daimon. We begin at dawn on Sunday, March 29th.

In preparation, please read:

Sfinga’s artice, Meeting With Your Own Daimon, from the “With Cunning and Command” blog.

Some sections from Stephen Flowers’ Hermetic Magic: “Origins” (pp. 3-17), “Principles of the Hermetic Synthesis” (pp. 37-43), “Daimonology” (pp. 99-100), and “Magical Theories” (pp. 135-141).

Also recommended for context: the Wikipedia article on the PGM.

The script upon the egg:

Citizen Maxwell writes:

“Never let the facts get in the way of a good story”.

We continue our grim march through La-Bas. Some people like the baroque prose, some people admire Huysmans’ descriptive powers; I like that it’s an old work that touches upon diabolism. Whatever keeps ya reading, I suppose. 

I was wanting to go back and forth about Gilles de Rais’ guilt or innocence. Then I found a document that says in 1992 he was acquitted (https://dn721803.ca.archive.org/0/items/gilles-de-rais-de-montmorency-laval/Gilles%20de%20Rais%20de%20Montmorency-Laval.pdfl) in a French court. Things have a way of being anti-climactic like that. 

Durtal is as mistaken about Gilles de Rais as he is about women. I could see how a fictional character, for whom the author obviously did no research, could indulge in flights of fancy about old-timey aristocratic shit. What I consider offensive to my sensibilities is that no less a respected thinker than Georges Bataille bought into that same bullshit. Like ‘’what the hell Georgie? Your analysis of Fredrich Nietzsche is spot on, why you fumbling the bag so much on this?” The whole thing has me shook. 

Will our hero Durtal succumb to the enticements of the flesh? Will he run to church for forgiveness of his improprieties? Will he be led further down the path of unspeakable depravities? Find out next time in the next thrilling installment of La-Bas. 

Please read chapters 10-14 in La-Bas. Pages 155-209 in our edition.

Citizen Maxwell writes: “We continue La-Bas. Now that we are familiar with Durtal, I direct our attention to more ambiguous person: Gilles de Rais. Please read the chapter on Joan of Arc in Witchcraft & the Gay Counter-Culture (pages 19-29) online here.”

In La-Bas, please read chapters 8 and 9, pages 113-154.

Optional Supplement:

Citizen Maxwell explicitly does NOT recommend Aleister Crowley’s lecture on Gilles de Rais.

Again, La-Bas. Joris-Karl Huysmans on French Satanism. We proceed into chapters 5-7, pages 56-112 in the PDF.