«The point is not to decode these fragments into a coherent worldview. It is to see that confusion itself was the method. … Robinson’s casings were less about explanation than performance: designed to bait, to mislead, to invite interpretation while refusing resolution.»

Got to visit my favorite brick-and-mortar occult bookshop today in Portland. Dark Star Magic.

A turtle I saw

Visual guide for using the BlueSky muted word list.

I recently uploaded a new blog post touching on how we should think about incorporating affliction into our magical practices www.photophrenic.com/a-voice-in-t...

I wonder at what point in studying Eastern religion that transliterations of Sanskrit terms and names stop bouncing off the "that's not a word" filter in my fore brains. I'm honestly finding that an audiobook version of the text is much better at teaching the terminology.

The Instant of Obsession — Austin O. Spare, 1909-1911

When the TikTok algorithm figures out you're Gardnerian...

I'm seeing more Jesus than 420 on my timeline. Mistakes have been made.

I lived in the first century of world wars. Most mornings I would be more or less insane The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories – Slowly I would get to pen and paper, Make my poems for others unseen and unborn. -Muriel Rukeyser #everynightapoem [Carel Willink, Bad Tidings, 1932]

Drop some HORNS😈📯🦄🖤 Art by Jenna Barton / @dappermouth.bsky.social / dappermouth.storenvy.com

Drop some HORNS😈📯🦄🖤

The Magician - Ink, collage and acrylic on wood. My tribute to H.R. Giger, and a re-interpretation of the tarot card of the same name. Prints available!

Darken your room, shut the door, empty your mind. You are still in great company. - Austin Osman Spare

Standing outside chanting "white rabbit white rabbit white rabbit" as smoke from the 6,000+ acre forest fire in the neighboring county blankets everything.

Author & artist Daniel Yates (@photophrenic.bsky.social) has new items for sale on his site. Notable is a bundle relating to Daniel Schulke's 'Green Mysteries' that includes the Vierling 'Arcana Viridia' folio of prints of which only 100 were produced. & more as well. www.photophrenic.com/bookstore

"we have yet to reckon both totally and personally with the fact that the smarphone is an anti-social instrument of control, surveillance, and self-annihilation." Thoughtful article by Kate Wagner that spans political action & personal, emotional wellbeing. www.late-review.com/p/the-eterna...

The Vagina Museum is just one month away from closing. Forever. A perfect storm of circumstances means that we may have to close our doors permanently and cease all digital activities. But we're not going to go down without a fight. Save the Vagina Museum. www.gofundme.com/f/btscc2

Who’s your ultimate dinner party? Six people, living or dead. You just get to watch. Or participate. Whatever. Gregory Bateson Anne Carson Hannah Arendt Austin Osman Spare bell hooks Michel Foucault

The old oak in the woods behind my Father's house, where I played as a child. Probably a holdout from when the land was pasture and fields, before it was carved into residential parcels in the middle of the last century. It seems little changed, while we move on rapidly.

I'm also naturally skeptical or doubtful. I am drawn to models that allow for belief as a temporary, at-need state. I like the idea of "enthusiasm" in its Greek roots - being filled by god(dess) in concert with the English sense of the word. The ability to suspend skepticism comes with inspiration.

Getting tired of posting book covers without context or comment. Feels exclusionary and capitalistic for no particularly good reason. I like to know why people find a book valuable, and I like to be invited into new ways of thinking or experiencing that don't rely on my Googling to 'get it' or not.

If you see this, quote it with what you're reading this weekend! Reading up to p37 of Daniel Schulke's 'Lux Haeresis' for book club. Poking idly at a PDF of Bataille's 'Erotism,' and I have 'The Other Battle' by Derrick Smythe (fantasy series novel) on audiobook while I do loads of housework.

I spent the whole day until about 2:45 convinced that it was Thursday. It's that sort of week 😔

Safety third!

It is a great pleasure to announce that my book Yearning for Immortality: The European Invention of the Ancient Egyptian Afterlife is now available in Open Access: bit.ly/3Xn9HfB Please download, read, and share with anyone who might be interested in new ways of thinking about Egyptian religion.

Bluesky esoteric book challenge. A book per day (it's okay to skip days if you're really busy), in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best occult books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews, just covers! #Books #Esoteric #Occult #esotericbookchallenge #Witchsky

Doing a little pre-planning this evening so that I can spend tomorrow without spending a dime.

Bluesky esoteric book challenge. A book per day (it's okay to skip days if you're really busy), in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best occult books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews, just covers! #Books #Esoteric #Occult #esotericbookchallenge #Witchsky

Bluesky esoteric book challenge. A book per day (it's okay to skip days if you're really busy), in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best occult books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews, just covers! #Books #Esoteric #Occult #esotericbookchallenge #Witchsky

Bluesky esoteric book challenge. A book per day (it's okay to skip days if you're really busy), in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best occult books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews, just covers! #Books #Esoteric #Occult #esotericbookchallenge #Witchsky

I found this Common Script Lichen (Graphis scripta) growing on the north side of a Tulip-tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) last week. The script-like pattern of its fruiting bodies has given it another name - Secret Writing Lichen.

Swartsel's reply thread to my depression-posting is worth a look, but I particularly like this idea: that we're in a rare moment of occult renaissance that won't last, and our varying expressions are all a part of that. The historical context helps make it all feel more valuable, somehow.

Bluesky esoteric book challenge. A book per day (it's okay to skip days if you're really busy), in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best occult books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews, just covers! #Books #Esoteric #Occult #esotericbookchallenge #Witchsky

I say stuff like this and then do the bsky occult book thing where I just show off expensive books. I'm such a fucking hypocrite. Honestly, to be on social media at all is the antithesis of witchcraft. Arguably, the heart of witchcraft is silent or at least without words we could speak here.

Seth and the Mystery of the Wꜣs Scepter open.substack.com/pub/ancientn...

Bluesky esoteric book challenge. A book per day (it's okay to skip days if you're really busy), in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best occult books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews, just covers! #Books #Esoteric #Occult #esotericbookchallenge #Witchsky

I missed here, getting a little too clever with mixing the "Desire" concept with "Will" & etc. Perhaps Chumbley is simply following desire backward out of the arising of self to its root - a metaphysical Ur-Desire. Thus a path to the unmanifest (or possibly to Quintessence, or both). #Azoetia

"The term ṭillasm (talisman) is musallaṭ reversed which means “that to which power over something is conferred.” -Dr. Liana Saif in “From Ġāyat al-ḥakīm to Šams al-maʿārif wa laṭāʾif al-ʿawārif: Ways of Knowing and Paths of Power in Medieval Islam”, Arabica, vol. 64

Going to amplify Phaedra's post, since this was on my list to share anyway!

One of the things I miss about old BSky is that even the popular posts that everyone was sharing could be engaged with in conversation. Now it's like everything already has a hundred replies (and most of them bad), and you can tell the author muted it long ago.

Bluesky esoteric book challenge. A book per day (it's okay to skip days if you're really busy), in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best occult books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews, just covers! #Books #Esoteric #Occult #esotericbookchallenge #Witchsky

I've committed the cardinal sin of reading Azoëtia, which is bringing in outside texts in an attempt to elucidate Chumbley's concepts. No matter how much Spare cosplay he does, he imbues the same words/style with different meanings. Attacking this passage in context is beyond a bsky thread, tho.

"Need not I - All Possibilities desire rather than return to Desire's root. I Insatiate - Need not become, but am Desire itself."

Bluesky esoteric book challenge. A book per day (it's okay to skip days if you're really busy), in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best occult books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews, just covers! #Books #Esoteric #Occult #esotericbookchallenge #Witchsky

I wrote a journal entry. My last one is dated Jan 20. I feel like I've lost 2 weeks. Trying to claw my way out of this hole and back to a place where there are moments of joy and meaning. These pages of writing are footholds as I climb.

how to do a yoga

Bluesky esoteric book challenge. A book per day (it's okay to skip days if you're really busy), in no particular order, until you've shared ALL of the best occult books in your personal library. No explanations, no reviews, just covers! #Books #Esoteric #Occult #esotericbookchallenge #Witchsky