Accelerated Thinking

This month I have mostly been thinking about how magickal authors should face the emergence of artificial intelligence in the coming years. As an Esoteric Accelerationist I am in no way against the idea of a truly sentient machine spirit, though that said the current crop of chatbots are little better than glorified search engines with algorithms designed to mimic personality. And while the content they create is increasingly flooding the lower end of the spiritual discourse through mass market digital magazines and lazy YouTube influencers, it will be a long time before a server can out Crowley the Great Beast himself. So unlike some of the more alarmist voices out there this is not a rallying call to support your local author, nor do I have a dystopian view of the current media situation either. Honestly, as long as you can write better than ChatGPT, your position within occulture is safe.

Empowered Words

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”
— Francis Wayland Thurston, The Call Of Cthulhu

Occult Almanac

We start November with the Third Quarter on the 5th and New Moon on the 13th, before the First Quarter on the 20th. Then the Dark or Ivy Moon ends the cyclic lunar observances for the month on the 27th. Jupiter is at opposition on the 3rd, and Uranus is also at opposition a couple of weeks later on the 23rd. The Orionid meteor shower that started in October finally finishes around the 7th in the Southern Hemisphere, though it continues in the Northern for the rest of the month and a little into December too. Finally, the Leonid shower is visible from the 6th until the 30th, again to the North. For observances, the 1st is both All Saints Day and the Day of the Children, while the 2nd is at once All Souls Day and the Day of the Dead. Demonolaters make note of the 13th as that is the second rite to Lucifer. The 5th is also Bonfire Night in the UK, when the sky is lit up by innumerable fireworks and the air is thick with soot and ash. A perfect current to piggyback fire based magicks on, as well as an excuse to create change through explosive means. Much like the original gunpowder plot which is commemorates, though that was obviously a purely mundane and ultimately doomed affair.

Necronomicon Mortui

A list of notable members of the occult, paranormal and Fortean community, ordered by date of death as opposed to birth. Edward Kelley, Medium, born 1st August 1555, died 1st November 1597. Mina Crandon, Medium, born 1888, died 1st November 1941. Charles Honorton, Parapsychologist, born 5th February 1946, died 4th November 1992. Henry Percy 9th Earl of Northumberland, Alchemist, born 27th April 1564, died 5th November 1632. Theodore Flournoy, Parapsychologist, born 15th August 1854, died 5th November 1920. Lawrence LeShan, Parapsychologist, born 8th September 1920, died 9th November 2020. Evangeline Adams, Astrologer, born 8th February 1868, died around November 12th 1932. Mary Ann MacLean, Mystic, born 20th November 1931, died 14th November 2005. Albertus Magnus, Alchemist, born either 1193 or 1206, died 15th November 1280. Robert George Jahn, Parapsychologist, born 1st April 1930, died 15h November 2017. Rosemary Isabel Brown, Medium, born 27th July 1916, died 16th November 2001. James W. Moseley, UFOlogist, born 4th August 1931, died 16th November 2012. Adam Weishaupt, Illuminati, born 6th February 1748, died 18th November 1830. Charles Manson, Musician, Born 12th November 1934, died 19th November 2017. Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, Magickian, born around 11th January 1854, died around 20th November 1918. Sylvia Browne, Medium, born 19th October 1936, died 20th November 2013. Jacques Bergier, Author, born 8th August 1912, died 23rd November 1978. Covington Scott Littleton, UFOlogist, born 1st July 1933, died 25th November 2010. Peter Underwood, Parapsychologist, born 16th May 1923, died 26th November 2014. Donald Edward Keyhoe, UFOlogist, born 20th June 1897, died 29th November 1988.

Memento Magus

The catalyst for a series of violent murders during the Sixties, Charles Manson (Born 12th November 1934, died 19th November 2017) is cited by some as single-handedly ending the Summer of Love. A highly adversarial figure, Manson gleefully accepted the role of bogeyman for an America looking to step back from a hippie aesthetic that was already wearing thin. Supposedly involved with the Process Church and a student of L. Ron Hubbard, at least in the minds of numerous outraged Christians, his much discussed links to the occult and influence on Satanic groups such as Radio Werewolf were both spurious and purely reflective. In truth Manson was a manipulative charlatan who held court over a number of damaged outcasts, and for a self described beatnik the New Age trappings of that later generation would only ever be a means to an end.

Grimoire Guides

Irving Finkel is that rarest of scholars. At once both intellectually engaging and genuinely warm in his delivery, it is a real treat to hear him discus the mythology and folklore of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians via the various lectures available online. Yet to really get swept up in that distinct narrative voice, and appreciate the almost bottomless depth of learning that churns beneath, there is no better vessel than The First Ghosts. A detailed historical evaluation that looks at the spiritual side of the earliest civilisations through the lens of surviving cuneiform inscriptions and myth cycles, the book also highlights a number of expertly translated incantations to keep the dead where they belong without accidentally joining them. A work of peerless historical and folkloric rigor, Finkel’s masterpiece is destined to become a core text in every historically minded necrourge’s arsenal.

End Notes

And there we have it then. The latest entry in the Vulpine Occulture literary universe ready to go. New this month is the Memento Magus section, a permanent addition to the newsletter designed to offer a quickfire upskilling on the lives of some of the people referenced in the Necronomicon Mortui list. Either Media Magick or Audio Sorcery will likely return alongside it next month, though that will depend on what I consume in the next thirty days. And for those wondering, nope, I am no longer bothering with social media for the foreseeable future as I prefer to prioritise the act of writing over the promotion of those words. It is not so much a time sink as a murder hole, and I have no interest in engaging with such a sour current at the moment. Which makes your role as my readers all the more important, because every like and share goes a very long way.