In a reply to Balkan's Blog on the topic of the annoyance of scalping, I wrote this:
What an interesting thread (personal wars aside). Apart from its own merits, it has elements in common with the thorny question of downloading pdfs when the books are no longer available from the publishers. Do you pay the scalper or do you pirate? Either way, the publisher loses nothing. Anyway, before I alienate everyone, let me describe my position;
I have a shelf of occult books, from Trident through Fulgur, Esoteric Endeavor, Scarlet Imprint, and several more. The value is astronomical at this point, compared to my other books, but these are a joy to own. Fulgur in particular fulfils my interest in all things Austin Spare, and its books are high-quality, even if they don't stretch to the luxuriousness of echt toadskin or - a particular weakness of mine - hand-marbled endpapers.
All of these publishers are performing an incredible service for booklovers everywhere, even those who might regard the subject matter as nonsense, from a scientific perspective. I did manage to avoid the SI injunction on 777 for Scarlet Goddess devotees only, but just because I'm not devoted daily to the Goddess, I am indeed devoted to this book, and have treasured it since.
I strongly believe that people who can afford these books should buy them from the publishers, even purchase in advance if it helps them to gauge demand and manage the budget. And I believe that to the tune of having bought at least 5 books direct from each of these publishers. However, times change, and so I have the following points to add:
(1) I have been known to buy spare copies here and there with the intention of later selling them - 1 x Picatrix from Ars Obscura, 1 Grimoire of Honorious from Trident I saw at a steal on Ebay, and a second copy of other books found at other sites when I thought these were being sold cheaply. So maybe 4 or 5 in total. Typically, I bought the book for $100, then sold for $300 2-3 years later. Yes, I have kept my own copies. The view I take is that a little reselling here and there ENABLES me to buy these books and thereby support the publishers.
(2) I do see some Ebay stores routinely selling occult books at high prices obviously bought for their stores. This angered me at first, but then, is this really any better than buying shares thinking that Apple might release a new phone and the price will go up? These arent SERIOUS shareholders; they are daytraders, dont care/dont know about the company, etc., but they do play some sort of arbitrage role in the market. Nobody likes carrion feeders, but they do have a role in the ecosystem. I'm not validating their actions here, but viewing it as a natural process, like many unpleasant natural functions. Ultimately (a) they do not take one penny from the publishers pocket, and (b) they do not drive the prices of the books up directly - if nobody wants to buy them, they will be stuck with them; the buyer, not the seller, determines the price. (c) Any half-intelligent book-lover will learn pretty quickly to go direct to the publisher.
(3) I did start collecting the deluxe version of Oryelle's Coagula series, but book II sold out so fast I missed it. Now I have Deluxe I and Regular II and III. So yes, it has affected me; and yes, I find it annoying in that respect. Some day I will indeed sell my Deluxe I and purchase a regular edition to even out the set.
(4) Piracy; my position has always been to buy from the producer where possible, but if one genuinely cannot afford to, it is permissible to make a copy for oneself; the logic is this; the publisher is not losing a sale, because I wouldnt have bought it anyway. I find copyright laws to be obscene in many other cases... people buying the rights for things they did not create. Back to the scalper question.
So in summary, I guess it comes down to principles rather than laws:
(1) Are you helping or hindering the publishers in their heroic work?
If you help where possible (when you can afford it) and do not hinder, I think its probably OK.
The answer to scalping is for the publisher to produce more books; perhaps 1,500 rather than 1,000.
As a practical matter, to avoid the publisher being left with unsold books, I think the practical solution is to announce the book months in advance, and to take orders from all interested. After a few months, the publisher can order that number, plus, say, 500 copies, and let the scalpers scalp who they may; the people on the mailing lists will have had their opportunity to purchase at the publication price, the publisher is supported (and in advance, a useful advantage), and a few casual people will also have been able to buy it at the original price. So the price goes up later. Such is life. It benefits those serious collectors who wish to sell later also.
Another solution is to let good customers have 2 copies, as a reward for their support. In a way, they are merely acting as minor distributors and helping to guarantee the sale of the print run in a timely manner.
So not a black or white response, but then, grey is the natural colour of magic :)
Monday, September 22, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
The Armchair Occultist
All too often, I read someone pouring scorn on those who read books and never actually get stuck in to calling up demons, or whatever the book calls us to do. This is as shortsighted as claiming that people who watch travel shows and never actually go anywhere are wasting their time.
While it is true that it is better to travel than to read about travel, nevertheless it is infinitely better to read about travel than not to even think about travel. As any occultist worth anything knows, travelling on the astral plane (including reading books about foreign places) has its value. Sometimes, in fact, the book experience can be even greater than the real thing; compare, for example, a tale of intrigue set in Venice by moonlight with sitting in St. Mark's Square surrounded by tourists. Now I have been to Venice twice, and I dearly love the place; there are real-life facets to the place that you will never find in books - sleepy squares with cats strolling across them, a child riding a tricycle that stopped me in my tracks - shocking me into realizing just how accustomed I had gotten to a life without traffic - markets bustling with strange fish - but nothing in real life Venice really compared with the mystique of books I have read and movies I have seen - Death in Venice, the comfort of strangers, and so on.
Having been to many rituals, I have to say most were a huge disappointment, not living up to my expectations by a huge margin. As I said before, clearly I dont have the right friends who invite me to the right sort of rituals. But then the alternative is to realize that the rituals conjured up by the books in my library are an unfair comparison. Simply put, reality cannot compete with the world of the imagination - of the magical. No matter how many kids buy "Harry Potter" magic wands (tm) and wave them in the air, nothing competes in that experience with reading the books.
Exploring the world of the imagination is in fact the very core of the magical experience, and you're far more likely to get joy out of that than standing in a chalk circle and gesturing at a triangle.
To those of course who succeed in calling up demons, I wish you the best. But not everyone has your skill. Reading books and conjuring things up in our imaginations is the farthest many people will ever go. But what a journey that is.
While it is true that it is better to travel than to read about travel, nevertheless it is infinitely better to read about travel than not to even think about travel. As any occultist worth anything knows, travelling on the astral plane (including reading books about foreign places) has its value. Sometimes, in fact, the book experience can be even greater than the real thing; compare, for example, a tale of intrigue set in Venice by moonlight with sitting in St. Mark's Square surrounded by tourists. Now I have been to Venice twice, and I dearly love the place; there are real-life facets to the place that you will never find in books - sleepy squares with cats strolling across them, a child riding a tricycle that stopped me in my tracks - shocking me into realizing just how accustomed I had gotten to a life without traffic - markets bustling with strange fish - but nothing in real life Venice really compared with the mystique of books I have read and movies I have seen - Death in Venice, the comfort of strangers, and so on.
Having been to many rituals, I have to say most were a huge disappointment, not living up to my expectations by a huge margin. As I said before, clearly I dont have the right friends who invite me to the right sort of rituals. But then the alternative is to realize that the rituals conjured up by the books in my library are an unfair comparison. Simply put, reality cannot compete with the world of the imagination - of the magical. No matter how many kids buy "Harry Potter" magic wands (tm) and wave them in the air, nothing competes in that experience with reading the books.
Exploring the world of the imagination is in fact the very core of the magical experience, and you're far more likely to get joy out of that than standing in a chalk circle and gesturing at a triangle.
To those of course who succeed in calling up demons, I wish you the best. But not everyone has your skill. Reading books and conjuring things up in our imaginations is the farthest many people will ever go. But what a journey that is.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Bookshelf; the perversions of a bibliophile
After a rather difficult year, I find myself doing one of my periodic life assessments - a magical retirement, or a period of silence, if you will; I am surrounded by the detritus of lives past and enticed by new interests. Should I write a fugue? Do more writing on my books, perhaps even finish one? Change careeers and sell more of my time for money? One of the events I see moving towards me is a change in accommodation at some time in the future, and so my library, once a comfortable nest to keep out the barbarians, is beginning to look a little like a heavy load I'm carrying around.
There is of course the expensive section, which will largely be retained no matter what. Quality books define something about me that has always been core to my personality. I have bought these when rich and when poor, and sometimes, buying a second copy and later selling it has even provided a little more cash to buy more. This section is largely populated by Grimoires, Austin Spare books and books that are best described as Sorcery, mostly recently published by publishers who take publishing such books very seriously, as indeed they should.
Then we have sections on Sacred Geometry, Myths, Psychology, Religion, Magical Languages and Symbols, the usual Aleister Crowley and Kenneth Grant, Shamanism, Mysteries of the Past, before we finally frill off into Kitchen Witchery and whatnot. Thats of course not counting my fiction and science sections.
Frankly, I believe that I could honestly lose about 60% of my books and retain a strong core. But of course writing books leads to the inevitable excuse "but I might want to consult that book someday". Then there are the books I just want to be around, all those cheap and rather repetitive and imitative sorcery books. Its just so hard to know where to start. Perhaps 10% of my collection I haven't even read yet, largely because although I want to know whats in them, they will take some slogging through - "The White Goddess" is a fairly typical example, as well as some books by Eliade, etc.
They will likely find my corpse under a mountain of books; probably those that find me will not know or care of the value the books hold, and donate them all to Goodwill or a public library, to be sold off as junk to Christians, who will buy them to burn.
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.
There is of course the expensive section, which will largely be retained no matter what. Quality books define something about me that has always been core to my personality. I have bought these when rich and when poor, and sometimes, buying a second copy and later selling it has even provided a little more cash to buy more. This section is largely populated by Grimoires, Austin Spare books and books that are best described as Sorcery, mostly recently published by publishers who take publishing such books very seriously, as indeed they should.
Then we have sections on Sacred Geometry, Myths, Psychology, Religion, Magical Languages and Symbols, the usual Aleister Crowley and Kenneth Grant, Shamanism, Mysteries of the Past, before we finally frill off into Kitchen Witchery and whatnot. Thats of course not counting my fiction and science sections.
Frankly, I believe that I could honestly lose about 60% of my books and retain a strong core. But of course writing books leads to the inevitable excuse "but I might want to consult that book someday". Then there are the books I just want to be around, all those cheap and rather repetitive and imitative sorcery books. Its just so hard to know where to start. Perhaps 10% of my collection I haven't even read yet, largely because although I want to know whats in them, they will take some slogging through - "The White Goddess" is a fairly typical example, as well as some books by Eliade, etc.
They will likely find my corpse under a mountain of books; probably those that find me will not know or care of the value the books hold, and donate them all to Goodwill or a public library, to be sold off as junk to Christians, who will buy them to burn.
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Solve
Following his Conjunctio and Coagula, Orryelle DeFenestre Bascule has now released the third book of his Tela Quadrivium. Printed mostly on black pages, this is a darker vision than presented in the first two books. My first impression is that this is not as good as the first two books, Conjunctio in particular. This is possibly because Conjunctio used a few works that Orryelle had made previously, whereas Solve appears to be mostly art prepared solely for this book. On the whole, I find his images fascinating, largely, to be honest, because he has no compunctions about presenting nudity and sexual images. I mean, let's face it, if you're an occultist of any worth whatseoever, you're going to want to deal with things that bring primal energies to bear, and sex certainly has a primal energy. However, its one thing to include sex, its something completely different to do it in a way that heightens the energy, not simply give cheap thrills. Orryelle in his books gives a flavor of his life as an artist, running amok across the globe, expanding his horizons in every direction possible.
Fulgur, of course, is the perfect publisher for this important work; they have pushed the limits of what it is possible to accomplish, in terms of using gold ink, black paper, and very much co-creating the works with Orryelle. In Solve, for example, I remember one page with shiny black ink on a more matt black page; you can only really see the text if you tilt the page. Robert Ansell is to be heartily congratulated on getting this together. Another fantastic collaboration.
I'm not going to comment on the text, because its going to take me some time to come to grips with the series. The images, however, sink easily into the layers of one's subconcious. Sabbaths worth attending. Note that the large bright patch in the image is an artifact of my photography; buy the book to see the unadulterated version.
Fulgur, of course, is the perfect publisher for this important work; they have pushed the limits of what it is possible to accomplish, in terms of using gold ink, black paper, and very much co-creating the works with Orryelle. In Solve, for example, I remember one page with shiny black ink on a more matt black page; you can only really see the text if you tilt the page. Robert Ansell is to be heartily congratulated on getting this together. Another fantastic collaboration.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Lux Haeresis
Once again, the wonderful folk (Daniel Schulke) at Xoanon have been perpetrating their own particular brand of Spare-ist confusion, this time resulting in the lovely shimmering gray LUX HAERESIS. If you go to the source, you may be able to find a copy for $100 plus shipping.
Like its forebears, this is no easy read, as the author loves writing in strange words. Something charming in "the Focus of Life" and "The Logomachy of ZOS", it is a habit that can get tedious when handled by lesser people. The late Andrew Chumbley was a master, where it comes across as a mask to hide the light from the unworthy, but for lesser mortals like Pharaon and others, it can come across as derivative and childish. Schulke treads a middle zone, sometimes getting it right, and sometimes appearing pretentious.
However, language aside, Schulke continues a very valuable tradition, that of the Cultus Sabbatai, which is more of a successor to Austin Spare than the late Kenneth Grant ever was with his qlippothic typhonian OTO - largely an exercise in turgidity.
There are few people out there who cater to intelligent adults, and Cultus Sabbatai is about the only one that I'm aware of (Clearly, I dont get invited to the right sort of parties). The rest are either PC or reactionaries with the mindset of rebellious teenagers.
My greatest regret is that Cultus Sabbatai is a closed order, so you can look but not touch (i.e., read, but not participate).
Unfortunately I cant recommend this book as a practical guide, anymore than I could the works of Austin Spare, due to the language barrier. However, it is a worthy grimoire, few indeed of which are being published these days. If you enjoy well-made books that are classics, and have the money available for this kind of purchase, I recommend buying a copy today, before it sells out and prices start escalating. Contact the publisher at the snailmail address they use, and take it from there, or find a good bookseller (they recommend Field's books in SF or Caduceus in the UK, both of whom I would also recommend) and pay a little more.
In rank, I'd place this after Azoetia and Viridarium Umbris, but before Ars Philtron which appeared somewhat clumsy by comparison (if more practical).
Like its forebears, this is no easy read, as the author loves writing in strange words. Something charming in "the Focus of Life" and "The Logomachy of ZOS", it is a habit that can get tedious when handled by lesser people. The late Andrew Chumbley was a master, where it comes across as a mask to hide the light from the unworthy, but for lesser mortals like Pharaon and others, it can come across as derivative and childish. Schulke treads a middle zone, sometimes getting it right, and sometimes appearing pretentious.
However, language aside, Schulke continues a very valuable tradition, that of the Cultus Sabbatai, which is more of a successor to Austin Spare than the late Kenneth Grant ever was with his qlippothic typhonian OTO - largely an exercise in turgidity.
There are few people out there who cater to intelligent adults, and Cultus Sabbatai is about the only one that I'm aware of (Clearly, I dont get invited to the right sort of parties). The rest are either PC or reactionaries with the mindset of rebellious teenagers.
My greatest regret is that Cultus Sabbatai is a closed order, so you can look but not touch (i.e., read, but not participate).
Unfortunately I cant recommend this book as a practical guide, anymore than I could the works of Austin Spare, due to the language barrier. However, it is a worthy grimoire, few indeed of which are being published these days. If you enjoy well-made books that are classics, and have the money available for this kind of purchase, I recommend buying a copy today, before it sells out and prices start escalating. Contact the publisher at the snailmail address they use, and take it from there, or find a good bookseller (they recommend Field's books in SF or Caduceus in the UK, both of whom I would also recommend) and pay a little more.
In rank, I'd place this after Azoetia and Viridarium Umbris, but before Ars Philtron which appeared somewhat clumsy by comparison (if more practical).
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Book Piracy
In response to a comment on "Satyr's Sermon" below, I tried but failed to leave a comment in reply. I'll have to work that out later. But here is my reply:
"Anonymous said... how do you come to terms with the fact that these kind of books are now being pirated as pdf versions?"
Mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, I generously support the publishers by buying these quite expensive books whenever possible. However, there is a problem when I want to read a book that is unavailable except at exorbitant prices - like "Qutub" was until a couple of years ago. I was grateful to stumble across a pdf, then went to some trouble to convert this to text and rebind, matching the upside-down and back-to-fronting needed to sew into signatures. By the time I was finished, I think this could be covered under "derivative works" use, but I figured nobody would mind as the publishers werent being put out (the book was out of print, so they werent losing a dime) and this was only for my personal use. When the new edition came out, I bought a copy for $100 or so.
Although I had some issues with Scarlet Imprint coming out with second editions of limited runs on a regular basis, I think they have solved the issue since - providing hardbacks for book afficionados, but with a cheaper paperback version for those who are purely interested in the text.
That to me could be applied to the general schism between the wealthy and poor; the poor are accommodated with basic necessities, while the rich get exclusive versions with a few extra knobs and whistles thrown in.
In short, pirating is OK in my opinion, so long as it does not interfere with the legitimate interests of the creator of the works. If you're not going to buy the work, because you cant, then it is pseudo-legitimate to obtain a crappy copy for personal use. However, if you can reasonably afford to purchase the product from the creator, one is obliged to do so or forego the privilege.
Legally, of course, corporations can and do patent the use of turmeric and other things they never created. I'm talking morally here, not legally. And the publishers I'm talking about here, in the main, are moral people who understand the issue.
A side issue is that some corporations like the OTO consider some books to reveal "their" secrets (although they did not write the rituals on which these are based). If someone writes something they have a right to restrict its distribution. If they inherit it, I personally feel not.
"Anonymous said... how do you come to terms with the fact that these kind of books are now being pirated as pdf versions?"
Mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, I generously support the publishers by buying these quite expensive books whenever possible. However, there is a problem when I want to read a book that is unavailable except at exorbitant prices - like "Qutub" was until a couple of years ago. I was grateful to stumble across a pdf, then went to some trouble to convert this to text and rebind, matching the upside-down and back-to-fronting needed to sew into signatures. By the time I was finished, I think this could be covered under "derivative works" use, but I figured nobody would mind as the publishers werent being put out (the book was out of print, so they werent losing a dime) and this was only for my personal use. When the new edition came out, I bought a copy for $100 or so.
Although I had some issues with Scarlet Imprint coming out with second editions of limited runs on a regular basis, I think they have solved the issue since - providing hardbacks for book afficionados, but with a cheaper paperback version for those who are purely interested in the text.
That to me could be applied to the general schism between the wealthy and poor; the poor are accommodated with basic necessities, while the rich get exclusive versions with a few extra knobs and whistles thrown in.
In short, pirating is OK in my opinion, so long as it does not interfere with the legitimate interests of the creator of the works. If you're not going to buy the work, because you cant, then it is pseudo-legitimate to obtain a crappy copy for personal use. However, if you can reasonably afford to purchase the product from the creator, one is obliged to do so or forego the privilege.
Legally, of course, corporations can and do patent the use of turmeric and other things they never created. I'm talking morally here, not legally. And the publishers I'm talking about here, in the main, are moral people who understand the issue.
A side issue is that some corporations like the OTO consider some books to reveal "their" secrets (although they did not write the rituals on which these are based). If someone writes something they have a right to restrict its distribution. If they inherit it, I personally feel not.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
ARARITA
A detailed breakdown of the Star Sapphire ritual, this is not a book for the novice. Detailed associations are drawn to the Tree of Life and the Tarot. The author, 'a Traveller in Darkness', ascribes the ritual to the general arena of 'crossing the abyss', giving large amounts of space to describing why that is so. For my taste, perhaps a little too much so, but then, to write a book about a one-page ritual, its necessarily going to go into a lot of detail.
Nevertheless, this book does what far too few others do: delve into the technical details of HOW the ritual works. It's not sufficient to say that a certain ritual is a "banishing" ritual, one should explain how it banishes, and, in fact, exactly what banishing is. How the material on the page is designed to affect the operator and why. Anyone attending a catholic mass, for example, comes out transformed, refreshed (depending on the skill of the priest), and that is because various elements in the mass were designed to create specific effects on the mind (perhaps also on reality, but as we cant know reality except through the mind, its irrelevant - if the mind has been changed, everything has been changed).
Anyone looking to put this ritual into practice is given specific recommendations as to how to perform it, whereas Crowley only gave veiled hints. These practical elements may go beyond what Crowley himself intended and performed, but they certainly appear congruent with Crowley's intentions, and if they do go beyond Crowley, I would suggest that the author has done a valuable service.
I concur with the author that various groups that claim to have inherited from Crowley may beg to differ, but if that us their position, the answer would be to develop their own expansion.
Blocked in genuine gold on purple cloth, this limited edition (250) book will also look somewhat grand on the shelf, all the more because its not draped in some crappy dustjacket that cant be thrown away because it would halve the value in years to come. Not for children.
8/10
Nevertheless, this book does what far too few others do: delve into the technical details of HOW the ritual works. It's not sufficient to say that a certain ritual is a "banishing" ritual, one should explain how it banishes, and, in fact, exactly what banishing is. How the material on the page is designed to affect the operator and why. Anyone attending a catholic mass, for example, comes out transformed, refreshed (depending on the skill of the priest), and that is because various elements in the mass were designed to create specific effects on the mind (perhaps also on reality, but as we cant know reality except through the mind, its irrelevant - if the mind has been changed, everything has been changed).
Anyone looking to put this ritual into practice is given specific recommendations as to how to perform it, whereas Crowley only gave veiled hints. These practical elements may go beyond what Crowley himself intended and performed, but they certainly appear congruent with Crowley's intentions, and if they do go beyond Crowley, I would suggest that the author has done a valuable service.
I concur with the author that various groups that claim to have inherited from Crowley may beg to differ, but if that us their position, the answer would be to develop their own expansion.
Blocked in genuine gold on purple cloth, this limited edition (250) book will also look somewhat grand on the shelf, all the more because its not draped in some crappy dustjacket that cant be thrown away because it would halve the value in years to come. Not for children.
8/10
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