biweekly links 9/11/2019

Author Paints Colorful Picture of JFK Assassination Conspirator in Debut Historical Novel: I’m unclear on the author’s take—is he promoting a conspiracy theory, or condemning conspiracy theorist Jim Garrison’s pursuit of his protagonist—but David Ferrie’s life certainly sounds like one that would lend itself to fictionalization.

The Czechoslovak Occultist Plot to Kill Hitler by Magic: while not the only alleged magical attack on Hitler, Jan Kefer’s efforts in 1938 may be the earliest. This article presents a nice snapshot of late 19th/early 20th century Prague occultism, but I wish it had references.

Prague 1606 / Multimedia view of Prague during the Rule of Rudolf II: speaking of the Czech Republic, I think I got a poster of Sadeler’s copperplate on my 2015 trip to Prague but it’s not 9 meters long or animated, so I think this City of Prague Museum exhibit might be worth checking out.

view of the City of Prague etching by Philip van den Bossche based on Sadeler
A feeble, web ready fragment of Sadeler’s Prague. Courtesy Wikipedia.
Area 51 is bracing for humans: Officials fear ‘Alienstock’ could cause county in Nevada to ‘go broke‘: I’m a bit fuzzy on whether “storm Area 51” is still happening: Alienstock’s website says yes and the Little A’Le’Inn is booked solid but Rachel NV’s website says it’s been cancelled altogether. Whatever ultimately ends up happening, this article illuminates the negative effect of UFO-themed tourism on a small community that is ill-equipped to handle so many visitors.

biweekly links 3-28-2018

Powerful Market for Magic Enchants Publishers: on the occult spirituality and historical shelves, at least. Most exciting for me is a new John Dee book, which I need like a fat hole in my head because I’m done researching, really and for true…

Bulgaria was the catalyst for Elizabeth Kostova’s “The Shadow Land”: I loved Kostova’s “The Historian” and this new book sounds unusual enough that I’ll probably give it a whirl but I’m a tad disappointed that she “[shies] away from [‘historical fiction’ as a category] because it’s gotten kind of a bad name” (??)

Speaking Martian: Dee and Kelley weren’t the only medium/interpreter duo to invent/discover/come up with a strange language. Hélène Smith produced “Martian” language over several years with the assistance of psychologist Théodore Flournoy. Being of a less wanting-to-believe ilk than Dee, Flournoy suspected glossolalia from the outset, though he never seemed to have discouraged or tried to cure Smith during their séances. His publication of his suspicions in the book “From India to the Planet Mars” was a shock to Smith and they parted company soon after. In the 1930s the Surrealists promoted her as a “muse of automatic writing” and she became a painter in her own right. An intriguing story I wish I had time to delve into further!

strange hieroglyphic-type figures handwritten with typed caption: Fig. 31. Text No 38 (March 30, 1899), written by Mlle. Smith copying a text of Ramié, who appeared to her in a visual hallucination (Collection of M. Lemaitre)
Example of Hélène Smith’s “Martian” script. Via.

biweekly links 9-21-2016

Brief this week as I’m prepping a scene for a live reading on October 8 (details to come):

biweekly links 9-7-2016

Mixed bag this week:

biweekly links 8-24-2016

biweekly links 6-15-2016

biweekly links 4-6-2016

biweekly links 12-9-2015

Infographic: Women Onstage and Offstage in Elizabethan England – includes Shakespeare’s “Dark Lady”, early actresses, and cross-dressing.

From Magic to Science: The Intriguing Ritual and Powerful Work of Alchemy – discusses the philosopher’s stone in the context of spiritual transmutation and eternal life.

More Bard: review of Ross Duffin’s “Shakespeare’s Songbook”. “Shakespeare’s audience would more likely have gained their knowledge of myth and history from popular song than from Ovid…” – parallels to the current popularity of the broadway musical “Hamilton”.

More magic: Academy of Arcana opens doors downtown Santa Cruz, aiming to be nexus for mystical community. Part school, store, library, museum, and salon, they provide “secular instruction in history, lore, [and] practice of mystical traditions”. And their proprietor bears a striking resemblance to Dumbledore/Dee.

drinking from the firehose

Research for the Great Work (TM) includes a wide variety of subjects to get the details of sixteenth century life in a gentry household just right. My grip on the architecture, food, household economics, technology, and day-to-day life is firm enough to get the story moving. However, a magical household isn’t ordinary. I’ve run into a topic that is impossible to crash-course: Enochian magic.

Dee and Kelley invented (or channeled, take your pick) an entire magical system during their years together. “Enochian” includes:

Prophetic and apocalyptic visions are sprinkled in throughout, and don’t get me started on the ritual furnishings…

I’m never going to get my head around this material. There’s so damn much of it, and I lack the necessary background in Renaissance occultism and numerology/mathematics to appreciate its context. As such I’m confining myself to identifying the different parts, creating a timeline of their delivery, and figuring out their supposed functions.

When were they building furniture? Would a certain table lend itself better to Kelley faking it, or being possessed as the angels speak through him? Which visions made the biggest impressions? What did they expect to accomplish with all this stuff? These are the narrative questions I need to answer even if I never understand how the system works.

I’d love to be able to describe spoken Enochian as dramatic and musical, but I can’t. Recordings of the calls [YouTube] sound so ridiculous I have no problem believing Kelley generated the language while speaking in tongues. My dreams of writing Kelley weaving elegant angelic poetry are dashed!

So I plow onwards through waking dreams, countless tables of strange characters and names I suspect no one can pronounce. It’s interesting but brain-breaking, so I’m rereading the Dresden Files as a well-deserved break.