Magick Matters

“Predicting The Present: Twenty-two Fingers Pointing at The Moon” by Daniel Kelley

"Predicting The Present is a thorough examination of the Major Arcana of the Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot deck from an initiatic, developmental, and contemplative standpoint. Author Daniel Allen Kelley, himself an initiate of Western Hermeticism for over two decades, consolidates his vast experience and knowledge of the Grades of initiation, spiritual crises, and the Wisdom Traditions of the world using the twenty-two trumps Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot deck as a canvas. Drawing on the teachings of Aleister Crowley, Friedrich Nietzsche, Integral Developmental Psychology, Sri Aurobindo, Shree Rajneesh, Jiddu Krishnamurti, G.I. Gurdjieff, and the Knowledge and Conversation of his own Holy Guardian Angel, Kelley guides the reader through the “three ages of spiritual evolution” and...>>

“Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe” Stephen C. Meyer

🕵️🐷🕵️ zero-day🕵️🐷🕵️ "Beginning in the late 19th century, many intellectuals began to insist that scientific knowledge conflicts with traditional theistic belief—that science and belief in God are “at war.” Philosopher of science Stephen Meyer challenges this view by examining three scientific discoveries with decidedly theistic implications. Building on the case for the intelligent design of life that he developed in Signature in the Cell and Darwin’s Doubt, Meyer demonstrates how discoveries in cosmology and physics coupled with those in biology help to establish the identity of the designing intelligence behind life and the universe. Meyer argues that theism — with its affirmation of a transcendent, intelligent and active creator — best explains the evidence we...>>

“Gothic Music: The Sounds of the Uncanny” by Isabella van Elferen

"Gothic Music traces the sound of the Gothic from the eerie echoing footsteps that haunt gothic novels to the dark soundscapes that give contemporary goth nightclubs their dark atmosphere. This broad perspective enables Isabella van Elferen to widen the scope of gothic music which includes bands such as Christian Death, Bauhaus, The Damned, and The Sisters of Mercy from its roots in the contemporary goth subculture to manifestations in mainstream literature, film, television, and video games, while also offering a musical and theoretical definition of gothic music that is lacking in current scholarship. Bringing together versions of the Gothic in all media, van Elferen connects those to the subculture a historical and theoretical connection...>>

“Dangerous Spirits: The Windigo in Myth and History” by Shawn Smallman

"In the traditional Algonquian world, the windigo is the spirit of selfishness, which can transform a person into a murderous cannibal. Native peoples over a vast stretch of North America—from Virginia in the south to Labrador in the north, from Nova Scotia in the east to Minnesota in the west—believed in the windigo, not only as a myth told in the darkness of winter, but also as a real danger. Drawing on oral narratives, fur traders' journals, trial records, missionary accounts, and anthropologists’ field notes, this book is a revealing glimpse into indigenous beliefs, cross-cultural communication, and embryonic colonial relationships. It also ponders the recent resurgence of the windigo in popular culture and its changing...>>

“Good Thinking: Why Flawed Logic Puts Us All at Risk and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World” by David Robert Grimes

🕵️🐷🕵️ zero-day🕵️🐷🕵️ "Good Thinking is our best defense against anti-vaccine paranoia, climate denial, and other dire threats of today In our ever-more-polarized society, there’s at least one thing we still agree on: The world is overrun with misinformation, faulty logic, and the gullible followers who buy into it all. Of course, we’re not among them—are we? Scientist David Robert Grimes is on a mission to expose the logical fallacies and cognitive biases that drive our discourse on a dizzying array of topics–from vaccination to abortion, 9/11 conspiracy theories to dictatorial doublespeak, astrology to alternative medicine, and wrongful convictions to racism. But his purpose in Good Thinking isn’t to shame or place blame. Rather, it’s to interrogate our...>>