Accelerated Thinking

This month I have mostly been thinking about the concept of balance. While the last person to fall back on karma as a model, I have bled for my magick enough over the years to realise that reality craves equilibrium. Everything we do is but a pendulum in motion, each ritual that falls in our favour accompanied by a counter-swing that is designed to right the universe in some small way. You get to keep what you cast for, of course, but the vacuum that theft creates within the weave will need to be filled, sometimes explosively. We rarely notice it happening, though. More often than not the person who pays the price is the total stranger who was cheated out of the job or relationship that we desired instead. But at other times it is the magickian who feels the icy whispers of Nemesis as a result of their sorcery, and must weather the storm while clutching their prize tightly against the howling winds of fate.

Publishing Updates

Announcing the full release for The Accelerated Necromancer, destined to be a sleeper hit among the magickal community this winter and long beyond. Over two hundred pages of necromantic insights and instruction all bundled together with a postmodern edge that is sure to keep even the most jaded of graveyard denizens turning the pages until the very end. Straddling the line between philosophical and practical, while also being designed to promote respectful but balanced interactions with the wandering dead, the contents of this easy to understand text are designed to empower those who have need of such incorrectly maligned teachings. It is currently available in paperback format from Amazon.com under ISBN 1912461609 and makes a perfect late Yule present for the more considerate sorcerer in your eternal unlife.

Empowered Words

“I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom’s realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer’s Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.”
— Conan, Queen of the Black Coast

Occult Almanac

New year, same old heavenly dance. As far as lunar observances go the First Quarter falls on the 6th, with the Full Birch or Cold Moon on the 13th and the Third Quarter on the 21st. Accelerated Necromancer’s celebrate the New Moon as the Miner’s Moon on the 29th, and take the time to remember those who died underground. Celestial sorcerers are spoiled for choice as far as planetary events to pin their rituals to go, With Venus at its Greatest Elongation West on the 10th and Mars at Opposition on the 29th. Plus the Quadrantids Meteor Shower is set to peak on the 3rd and 4th as well. Finally the Chinese lunar calender switches over from the Year of the Wood Dragon to the Year of the Earth Snake on the 29th, bringing with it a calm energy that hopefully ushers in a much needed aura of stability in the social space.

Necronomicon Mortui

A list of notable members of the occult, paranormal and Fortean community, ordered by date of death as opposed to birth. Arthur Ford, Medium, born 8th January 1896, died 4th January 1971. Derek Acorah, Medium, born 27th January 1950, died 4th January 2020. Eugen Grosche, Magickian, born 11th March 1888, died 5th January 1964. Dion Fortune, Magickian, born 6th December 1890, died 8th January 1946. David Bowie, Mystic, born 8th January 1947, died 10th January 2016. Robert Anton Wilson, Mystic, born 18th January 1932, died 11th January 2007. Michel Moine, Parapsychologist, born 8th March 1920, died 15th January 2005. Kenneth Grant, Magickian, born 23rd May 1924, died 15th January 2011. Frederic William Henry Myers, Parapsychologist, born 6th February 1843, died 17th January 1901. Jake Stratton-Kent, Magickian, born 27th April 1956, died 17th January 2023. Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1st Baron Lytton, Author, born 25th May 1803, died 18th January 1873. Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, Alchemist, born 18th July 1552, died 20th January 1612. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, Magickian, born 13th March 1911, died 24th January 1986. William Butler Yeats, Magickian, born 13th June 1865, died 28th January 1939. Zora Neale Hurston, Author, born 7th January 1891, died 28th January 1960. Ingo Swann, Psychic, born 14th September 1933, died 31st January 2013.

Vault Viewer

This month we travel back in time to June of 2017, where we see Fear The Reaper go live on the Nexus Newsfeed website. One of my older published articles, albeit first posted on a site that I would now avoid working with, it still remains a shining example of the kind of longform journalism that I really enjoy creating even now. The narrative dances deftly between social commentary and gallows humour, and was designed as a response to the ever present media scaremongering that seems to dog the field of paranormal investigation. It also offers some of the same common sense insights aimed at those who seek to explore the world of the weird that made their way into my recent book, The Accelerated Necromancer, too. The link above will take you right to it, and as with all the work reproduced on my portfolio website it is almost guaranteed to get you thinking.

End Notes

And there it is, the latest issue of my occult and paranormal newsletter posted at the end of one year ready for the start of the next. Biggest change this month is the addition of the Vault Viewer, where I can showcase my previously published writing in the hopes of sharing those damned insights with a fresh audience. These are hosted in a dedicated section of my portfolio website, and completely free to view. In other news, I am in the process of looking into creating printable pages for my fellow gravehounds to add to their own grimoires based on the content of my recent book as well. These will likely be offered through Gumroad at some point. All very up in the air so far, but if the demand is there I will definitely dig into the topic a little further. Going to be an interesting twelve months for sure, so watch this space to see where the project goes.