Magick Matters

28.05.2021

“Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices” edited by Christian H. Bull, Liv Ingeborg Lied and John D. Turner

"Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices" edited by Christian H. Bull, Liv Ingeborg Lied and John D. Turner

"Mystery and secrecy were central concepts in the ritual, rhetoric, and sociological stratification of antique Mediterranean religions. That the ultimate nature and workings of the divine were secret, and either could not or should not be revealed except as a mystery for the initiated, was widely accepted among Pagans, Jews, and then Christians, both Gnostic and otherwise. The similarities and differences in the language of mystery and secrecy across religious and cultural borders are thus crucial for understanding this important period of the history of religions. The present anthology aims to present and analyze a wide selection of sources elucidating this theme, reflecting the correspondingly wide scholarly interests of Professor Einar Thomassen in honor of...>>

28.05.2021

“Star’s Reach: A Novel Of The Deindustrial Future” by John Michael Greer

"Star's Reach: A Novel Of The Deindustrial Future" by John Michael Greer

"More than four centuries have passed since industrial civilization stumbled to its ruin under the self-inflicted blows of climate change and resource depletion. Now, in the ruins of a deserted city, a young man mining metal risks his life to win a priceless clue. That discovery will send him and an unlikely band of seekers on a quest for a place out of legend where human beings might once have communicated with distant worlds — a place called Star's Reach."...>>

28.05.2021

“The Retro Future: Looking to the Past to Reinvent the Future” by John Michael Greer

"The Retro Future: Looking to the Past to Reinvent the Future" by John Michael Greer

"To most people paying attention to the collision between industrial society and the hard limits of a finite planet, it's clear that things are going very, very wrong. We no longer have unlimited time and resources to deal with the crises that define our future, and the options are limited to the tools we have on hand right now. This book is about one very powerful option: deliberate technological regression. Technological regression isn't about 'going back,' it's about using the past as a resource to meet the needs of the present. It starts from the recognition that older technologies generally use fewer resources and cost less than modern equivalents, and it embraces the heresy of technological...>>

28.05.2021

“The Long Descent: A User’s Guide to the End of the Industrial Age” by John Michael Greer

"The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age" by John Michael Greer

"The visionary classic that traces out the twilight of the petroleum age. In 2008, as the price of crude oil spiked to record levels, John Michael Greer's The Long Descent pushed past the stereotyped debates of the time to offer a harrowing but hopeful vision of the future of industrial society. As believers in perpetual progress insisted that something would turn up to replace depleting petroleum reserves, and believers in apocalypse insisted just as fervently that the spike in oil prices would send industrial society crashing down in ruin overnight, Greer's epochal book reframed the entire debate in terms of the great rhythm of rise and fall the marks the history of civilizations. This book...>>

28.05.2021

“The Weird of Hali: Innsmouth” by John Michael Greer

"The Weird of Hali: Innsmouth" by John Michael Greer

"Like every other grad student at Miskatonic University, Owen Merrill knows about the Great Old Ones, the nightmare beings out of ancient legend that H.P. Lovecraft unearthed from archaic texts and turned into icons of modern fantasy fiction. Then a chance discovery—a lost letter written by Lovecraft to fellow Weird Tales author Robert Blake—offers a glimpse into the frightful reality behind the legends, and sends Owen on a desperate quest for answers that shatters his familiar world forever. As he flees across the witch-haunted Massachusetts landscape toward the mysterious seaside town of Innsmouth, Owen finds himself caught up in a secret war between the servants of the Great Old Ones and their ancient enemies, a...>>