One of my favorite sayings is "If you want to understand the behavior of Secret Chiefs and their human representatives, think of the Secret Chiefs as being cats." Many people think that I am merely making a joke--I am not. It is a statement that I make in all seriousness. I don't think that a lot of people get my point. But if anyone gets my point (and the real useful advice that goes along with my statement), I suspect that Nick Farrell is one of them.
Recently Nick Farrell wrote a limited edition book called "What My Hierophant Should Have Taught Me." It consists of a series of aphorisms applicable to the occult path, along with a commentary for each one. Some of the aphorisms are:
*Magic is not a religion
*You crave power
*Understanding symbols is a key to understanding the universe
and my personal favorite:
*When things go wrong, do not panic
(which I tend to lump in with my own personal aphorism--When working with Sister Amy, have a fire extinguisher ready...honestly, do not let her near any open flames.)
This book is filled with useful advice, some of which I wish I would have learned sooner than I actually did. For the most part, I agree with the advice given in this book. There are a couple of things that I am going to have to experiment with (or pay more attention to) before I make a judgment on--mainly technical advice on working magic.
I imagine that a lot of people are going to judge this book harshly. Some of the advice is about the warning signs that a group (or a group leader) is not on the up and up. It has been my experience that such dubious people turn nasty when they believe that someone is talking about them in a negative light; after all, someone might actually listen and not pay them the dues or accolades that they so richly deserve.
Farrell also mentions advice about how groups react when someone leaves a group (either willingly or not)--this advice falls under the category of "Gee, I wish someone would have warned me about that sooner."
Overall, this is a very useful book--one that I wish I had much earlier in my occult and esoteric career. I give it five out of five stars.
What My Hierophant Should Have Taught Me (limited to just a hundred copies) is still available on Lulu.
[Disclosure: This review is based on an electronic file version provided by the author for review purposes.]
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
The top thirteen signs that a leader or esoteric group might be too rotten to bother with
[This article was written for the Hearthstone Community Church's February 2014 newsletter.]
The fields of magic, occultism and alternative belief systems are littered with minefields of dubious groups led by shady leaders attempting to fleece the gullible and the naïve for profit and pleasure. In a fair universe, the seeker after such things would be accompanied by a robot made out of metal drums and inner tubes, who would chant, “Danger, Seeker, Danger!” whenever one encountered a group or leader that one should avoid signing up with. Unfortunately, we do not live in a fair universe, and must rely on our own common sense to guide us though the fields littered with explosive cow patties.
Being an eager seeker of the strange and marvelous, I have encountered more than my fair share of dubious groups and shady leaders…some of which I have signed up with, only to regret it later. Given such experience, I have learned over the years to listen to my inner paranoid android – at least, pause long enough to think twice before signing on the dotted line. On a good day, I will run screaming to the hills upon encountering the warning signs. On a bad day, well, let’s just say that hindsight is twenty/twenty.
An item that is often on people’s warning lists is money – as in the group or leader charges money for one to be a member or student. Honestly, the exchange of money does not even make my top thirteen. There is this idea that teachers and writers of occult lore should not charge for lessons or books, that they should give their knowledge away freely to all that ask for it without collecting a single dime. This idea overlooks the simple fact that we live in a world where money is an absolute necessity.
We would not ask a plumber to work for free; we do not expect people to give us food and gasoline for free; yet for some reason, we think that our spiritual and magical leaders should provide their services and products for free. Too many of our spiritual and magical leaders rely on food stamps and food banks to ensure that they have something to eat; too many live in hovels; too many can’t afford health insurance. And don’t get me started on the occult writers, who quite honestly would make more money flipping burgers for minimum wage.
The brutal truth of the matter is that occult teachers and writers are spending time to provide a service. They are using up time that could be spent doing more profitable things. At the very least, we should make sure that they are not paying for the rent for the meeting spots, and the cost of candles, cakes and ale, out of their own pockets…if only because that is the equivalent of adding insult to injury.
Now that is not to say that there is no such thing as a teacher or group that charges too much for their services and products. Such leaders and groups do exist. Exactly what is a fair rate to charge is beyond the scope of this essay – and is something that each seeker must determine for themselves. But one should not complain about the lack of qualified teachers and spiritual ministers, if one had ensured that no one can survive on what we are willing to offer them.
Now, onto my top thirteen signs that a leader and their group might be bad news…
13. Boredom – this one may seem strange to put on a list of danger signs. But one of the things that I learned over the years is that if a leader bores me, odds are that the group is just not worth my time. This is especially true if the information just seems to be recycled or is repeated over and over. A boring leader leads to the membership creating drama to occupy themselves. A boring leader also indicates that the upper levels of a group are empty of actual content. A boring leader is the outer sign that a group has no spiritual or magical spark to keep it alive – it is just a group living a ghastly existence, not realizing that it is already dead.
12. Lack of a sense of humor and humility – a leader without a sense of humor and who full of hubris scares me. It is especially scaring if they try to pretend that they have a sense of humor and a modicum of humbleness. At the very least, a good teacher needs to be able to laugh about themselves. If a teacher cannot handle you making jokes about them – run away quickly! And if you catch them pretending to be humble, be warned that they might be a sociopath.
11. Sexual misdeeds – if you hear stories about the leader sleeping with student after student, get out of there! I am naturally suspicious of any group that stresses that they teach sex magic. Even if you are not the preferred gender of the leader’s advances, sexual misbehavior is always a sign that there is a high cost to advancing in an organization.
10. Lawyers and trademarks – there is only one reason to have a trademark, and that is if you are trying to create a monopoly; there is only one reason for an occult organization to regularly use a lawyer, and that is to beat other organizations into extinction in a court of law. Everyone occasionally needs a lawyer – it is another thing to be in one court battle after another. And the only reason to have a monopoly is so that you can charge more than fair market value.
9. Non-disclosure statements and/or absolute secrecy – having to sign a non-disclosure statement to join a group or attend a seminar, or insisting on absolute secrecy for one’s group just screams that there are misdeeds going on behind closed doors. In my mind, the only things that should be absolutely secret are the identities of members in sensitive occupations (ex. school teachers) and even they can be referred to by their mottos or magical names.
8. Claims of superior lineage and ultra-secret knowledge – it is one thing to claim to be the best informed group, and to have a myth of unbroken wisdom from the dawn of history; it is another thing to insist that it is absolutely true, and seek to silence anyone who says otherwise. These types of claims are especially troubling when combined with the aforementioned non-disclosure statements and absolute secrecy, and tend to be used to justify the use of secrecy to protect the superior wisdom, which more often than not, came directly from a book or the creative imagination of the leader, while the secrecy is actually being used to cover up the misdeeds of the leader.
7. Use of the degree system to maintain control – while the use of a degree system can help ensure that information is taught in a structured format, the unpleasant reality is that it can also be used to maintain control of an organization. The aforementioned sexual misdeeds often come as the result of the promise of special higher level teaching in exchange for sexual favors. And the degree system can lead to a lot of internal politics as the more ambitious people use favors and rumors to ensure that they advance; this often leads to the most knowledgeable and spiritual advanced members, who are not as good at playing politics, being stuck in the lower degrees.
6. Hiding of dirty laundry – any group or leader that hides its dirty laundry is bad news. Every group and every leader has committed mistakes; but if they do not admit to them, and in fact, do their best to erase all evidence that mistakes happened, it just leads to the possibility that they will become repeat offenders. In fact, the hiding of the dirty laundry may actually be evidence that repeat offenses may have already occurred. When one sees a perfect group or leader, one should scamper away, for there is no such creature.
5. Does not cite sources – magical and spiritual knowledge does not grow in a vacuum. A leader or teacher who never mentions who taught them or the books that they have read is guilty of trying to conceal their past. If they try to conceal their past, then what else are they hiding? Especially troublesome are those who claim that all their knowledge comes from Secret Chiefs that only they are spiritually and magically advanced enough to meet.
4. Exclusivity as a requirement for training – while there are good reasons to focus on one school of occult wisdom at a time, any group that makes it a rule that you are not allowed to be a member of other groups is trying to ensure that you do not compare their wisdom with that possessed by other schools. A good teacher does not care if a student is a student of another system, for they know that people drop the less valuable options as they advance in knowledge.
3. Claims lack of resources as an excuse for elitism – first off, it is a danger sign whenever a group states that the occult is not for the masses, but only for the elite. In all honesty, the elite are not drawn to the type of group that has to make such claims. The elite of today’s world are too busy making money. Second, the lack of resources that limit the ability of a group to deal with large numbers of members is always the sheer lack of high level members. If a group claims hundreds of members, but you can count the number of high level members on one hand, there are reasons to suspect that members are not being promoted for purely political and control reasons. Material resources necessary to deal with large numbers of members have never been cheaper – YouTube, online groups, and print-on-demand books can all be utilized to provide the service provided that the group has enough high level members to pick up the work load.
2. All expulsions are the other person’s problem – in no world are the problems that break up a relationship, even that of a student towards their teacher, purely the fault of the student. If a leader claims that every expulsion was the result of the student with no fault falling upon the teacher, then you know that the teacher is lying. This is especially troublesome when the brightest students are the ones being expelled. In a properly functioning system, occult students drop out when they reach the limit of their potential; they do not get expelled. Expulsion is supposed to be reserved for breaches of ethics and symptoms of sociopathic behavior, not simply to ensure that one remains at the top of the pyramid.
And the number one reason to run away…drum roll please…the teacher or leader is eager to have new students or wants large number of members. This is the ultimate danger sign where your shiny metallic friend should quit chanting “Danger!” and just drag you out of the room before you get burnt. The only people who volunteer eagerly when someone asks if someone can teach them are people who have never taught before, or those who plan on abusing the student-teacher relationship on some level. No true magical or spiritual teacher wants large number of followers; it interferes with the work, and guarantees that one’s own personal growth grinds to a halt. Yes, there are people who teach the occasional workshop who are good teachers, but workshops are short term commitments. In fact, anyone who is truly qualified to be a spiritual or magical teacher is going to do their best to make it hard to become their student – they practically force their students to drag them kicking and screaming to the chalk board…after all, teaching is the heaviest responsibility that one can shoulder, with not only one’s own spiritual advancement at risk, but one’s student’s as well.
[This essay is the signature essay for my latest Hearthstone Community Church collection: Thirteen Signs That Your Occult Teacher is Rotten--available from the following fine ebook retailers.]
Thirteen Signs That Your Occult Teacher is Rotten is available at many fine ebook retailers.
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Scribd
Smashwords
Apple
The fields of magic, occultism and alternative belief systems are littered with minefields of dubious groups led by shady leaders attempting to fleece the gullible and the naïve for profit and pleasure. In a fair universe, the seeker after such things would be accompanied by a robot made out of metal drums and inner tubes, who would chant, “Danger, Seeker, Danger!” whenever one encountered a group or leader that one should avoid signing up with. Unfortunately, we do not live in a fair universe, and must rely on our own common sense to guide us though the fields littered with explosive cow patties.
Being an eager seeker of the strange and marvelous, I have encountered more than my fair share of dubious groups and shady leaders…some of which I have signed up with, only to regret it later. Given such experience, I have learned over the years to listen to my inner paranoid android – at least, pause long enough to think twice before signing on the dotted line. On a good day, I will run screaming to the hills upon encountering the warning signs. On a bad day, well, let’s just say that hindsight is twenty/twenty.
An item that is often on people’s warning lists is money – as in the group or leader charges money for one to be a member or student. Honestly, the exchange of money does not even make my top thirteen. There is this idea that teachers and writers of occult lore should not charge for lessons or books, that they should give their knowledge away freely to all that ask for it without collecting a single dime. This idea overlooks the simple fact that we live in a world where money is an absolute necessity.
We would not ask a plumber to work for free; we do not expect people to give us food and gasoline for free; yet for some reason, we think that our spiritual and magical leaders should provide their services and products for free. Too many of our spiritual and magical leaders rely on food stamps and food banks to ensure that they have something to eat; too many live in hovels; too many can’t afford health insurance. And don’t get me started on the occult writers, who quite honestly would make more money flipping burgers for minimum wage.
The brutal truth of the matter is that occult teachers and writers are spending time to provide a service. They are using up time that could be spent doing more profitable things. At the very least, we should make sure that they are not paying for the rent for the meeting spots, and the cost of candles, cakes and ale, out of their own pockets…if only because that is the equivalent of adding insult to injury.
Now that is not to say that there is no such thing as a teacher or group that charges too much for their services and products. Such leaders and groups do exist. Exactly what is a fair rate to charge is beyond the scope of this essay – and is something that each seeker must determine for themselves. But one should not complain about the lack of qualified teachers and spiritual ministers, if one had ensured that no one can survive on what we are willing to offer them.
Now, onto my top thirteen signs that a leader and their group might be bad news…
13. Boredom – this one may seem strange to put on a list of danger signs. But one of the things that I learned over the years is that if a leader bores me, odds are that the group is just not worth my time. This is especially true if the information just seems to be recycled or is repeated over and over. A boring leader leads to the membership creating drama to occupy themselves. A boring leader also indicates that the upper levels of a group are empty of actual content. A boring leader is the outer sign that a group has no spiritual or magical spark to keep it alive – it is just a group living a ghastly existence, not realizing that it is already dead.
12. Lack of a sense of humor and humility – a leader without a sense of humor and who full of hubris scares me. It is especially scaring if they try to pretend that they have a sense of humor and a modicum of humbleness. At the very least, a good teacher needs to be able to laugh about themselves. If a teacher cannot handle you making jokes about them – run away quickly! And if you catch them pretending to be humble, be warned that they might be a sociopath.
11. Sexual misdeeds – if you hear stories about the leader sleeping with student after student, get out of there! I am naturally suspicious of any group that stresses that they teach sex magic. Even if you are not the preferred gender of the leader’s advances, sexual misbehavior is always a sign that there is a high cost to advancing in an organization.
10. Lawyers and trademarks – there is only one reason to have a trademark, and that is if you are trying to create a monopoly; there is only one reason for an occult organization to regularly use a lawyer, and that is to beat other organizations into extinction in a court of law. Everyone occasionally needs a lawyer – it is another thing to be in one court battle after another. And the only reason to have a monopoly is so that you can charge more than fair market value.
9. Non-disclosure statements and/or absolute secrecy – having to sign a non-disclosure statement to join a group or attend a seminar, or insisting on absolute secrecy for one’s group just screams that there are misdeeds going on behind closed doors. In my mind, the only things that should be absolutely secret are the identities of members in sensitive occupations (ex. school teachers) and even they can be referred to by their mottos or magical names.
8. Claims of superior lineage and ultra-secret knowledge – it is one thing to claim to be the best informed group, and to have a myth of unbroken wisdom from the dawn of history; it is another thing to insist that it is absolutely true, and seek to silence anyone who says otherwise. These types of claims are especially troubling when combined with the aforementioned non-disclosure statements and absolute secrecy, and tend to be used to justify the use of secrecy to protect the superior wisdom, which more often than not, came directly from a book or the creative imagination of the leader, while the secrecy is actually being used to cover up the misdeeds of the leader.
7. Use of the degree system to maintain control – while the use of a degree system can help ensure that information is taught in a structured format, the unpleasant reality is that it can also be used to maintain control of an organization. The aforementioned sexual misdeeds often come as the result of the promise of special higher level teaching in exchange for sexual favors. And the degree system can lead to a lot of internal politics as the more ambitious people use favors and rumors to ensure that they advance; this often leads to the most knowledgeable and spiritual advanced members, who are not as good at playing politics, being stuck in the lower degrees.
6. Hiding of dirty laundry – any group or leader that hides its dirty laundry is bad news. Every group and every leader has committed mistakes; but if they do not admit to them, and in fact, do their best to erase all evidence that mistakes happened, it just leads to the possibility that they will become repeat offenders. In fact, the hiding of the dirty laundry may actually be evidence that repeat offenses may have already occurred. When one sees a perfect group or leader, one should scamper away, for there is no such creature.
5. Does not cite sources – magical and spiritual knowledge does not grow in a vacuum. A leader or teacher who never mentions who taught them or the books that they have read is guilty of trying to conceal their past. If they try to conceal their past, then what else are they hiding? Especially troublesome are those who claim that all their knowledge comes from Secret Chiefs that only they are spiritually and magically advanced enough to meet.
4. Exclusivity as a requirement for training – while there are good reasons to focus on one school of occult wisdom at a time, any group that makes it a rule that you are not allowed to be a member of other groups is trying to ensure that you do not compare their wisdom with that possessed by other schools. A good teacher does not care if a student is a student of another system, for they know that people drop the less valuable options as they advance in knowledge.
3. Claims lack of resources as an excuse for elitism – first off, it is a danger sign whenever a group states that the occult is not for the masses, but only for the elite. In all honesty, the elite are not drawn to the type of group that has to make such claims. The elite of today’s world are too busy making money. Second, the lack of resources that limit the ability of a group to deal with large numbers of members is always the sheer lack of high level members. If a group claims hundreds of members, but you can count the number of high level members on one hand, there are reasons to suspect that members are not being promoted for purely political and control reasons. Material resources necessary to deal with large numbers of members have never been cheaper – YouTube, online groups, and print-on-demand books can all be utilized to provide the service provided that the group has enough high level members to pick up the work load.
2. All expulsions are the other person’s problem – in no world are the problems that break up a relationship, even that of a student towards their teacher, purely the fault of the student. If a leader claims that every expulsion was the result of the student with no fault falling upon the teacher, then you know that the teacher is lying. This is especially troublesome when the brightest students are the ones being expelled. In a properly functioning system, occult students drop out when they reach the limit of their potential; they do not get expelled. Expulsion is supposed to be reserved for breaches of ethics and symptoms of sociopathic behavior, not simply to ensure that one remains at the top of the pyramid.
And the number one reason to run away…drum roll please…the teacher or leader is eager to have new students or wants large number of members. This is the ultimate danger sign where your shiny metallic friend should quit chanting “Danger!” and just drag you out of the room before you get burnt. The only people who volunteer eagerly when someone asks if someone can teach them are people who have never taught before, or those who plan on abusing the student-teacher relationship on some level. No true magical or spiritual teacher wants large number of followers; it interferes with the work, and guarantees that one’s own personal growth grinds to a halt. Yes, there are people who teach the occasional workshop who are good teachers, but workshops are short term commitments. In fact, anyone who is truly qualified to be a spiritual or magical teacher is going to do their best to make it hard to become their student – they practically force their students to drag them kicking and screaming to the chalk board…after all, teaching is the heaviest responsibility that one can shoulder, with not only one’s own spiritual advancement at risk, but one’s student’s as well.
[This essay is the signature essay for my latest Hearthstone Community Church collection: Thirteen Signs That Your Occult Teacher is Rotten--available from the following fine ebook retailers.]
Thirteen Signs That Your Occult Teacher is Rotten is available at many fine ebook retailers.
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Scribd
Smashwords
Apple
 |
| Now available at your favorite online ebook retailer. |
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Tarot and healing
Welcome to the Tarot Blog Hop, Imbolic 2014 edition. Today's subject is Tarot, creativity and healing. In light of that I thought that I would talk a little about a healing effort going on in the ceremonial magic community.
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| Simple layout for Tarot healing spells. |
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| Donald Michael Kraig--author of Modern Magick. |
No, I am not suggesting it either. While I might be using Tarot cards in my spellwork, they are for focusing purposes. My personal opinion is that this is one working that it is probably safe to skip the divination on.
(For the record, healing magic can turn negative...let's say you save the life of the next Adolf Hitler, that's probably dark mojo there. Or a child abuser. Or a drug kingpin. Or a serial killer. You get the idea. But in general, most healing spells can be assumed to be white magic, or grey at worst. Generally, most of us don't sweat the idea that a healing spell can lead to bad things.)
The idea behind using Tarot cards in spell work is that just like we use the symbols of Tarot to communicate with the universe about events, we can also use them to communicate with the universe about what we want to happen. In practice, it is like playing a game where you present a situation and guess what cards (forces and events) would come up in a reading that would be read as representing that situation.
(Practical hint--if you have never done this before, buy a separate Tarot deck for your spell work. It has been my experience that spell work with a deck hinders its use in divination.)
The first card of the spread represents the client to be healed. In this case, I chose the Magician because Kraig is a ceremonial magician and a writer.
The second card of the layout represents the illness to be healed. This does not have to be a physical illness; this layout can also be used for emotional, mental, and spiritual illnesses. In this case, I was undecided what card to use, so I looked up the astrological ruler of cancer in Rex E. Bills' The Rulership Book. According to Bills, cancer is ruled by the Moon and zodical sign of Cancer. D'oh! He also suggests looking up the organ in question, which in this case is the pancreas, which is also ruled by Cancer. Being someone who still uses the Golden Dawn attributions for the Tarot cards, that means it would be represented by the Chariot.
(Interestingly, I understand cancer to be a set of cells that are growing out of control--therefore, the symbolism of the Chariot does seem to fit the issue at hand.)
The third card represents the healing force to be activated and used in the curing of the illness. Honestly, I am not sure what force to use (while I have Reiki, I only have the first level of it). In general, healers (including doctors of modern medicine) are ruled by Virgo. (Except for faith healers, who are ruled by Neptune--they pull power from above, aka God.) So I figure using the Hermit (Virgo in GD terms) would be the proper card to use. Kraig will be undergoing procedures with doctors, so hopefully it helps the procedures to take and put the cancer in remission.
The final card of the spread is the hoped for outcome. In this case, it is a personal choice. I feel like I owe Kraig a drink or three, and hope to someday be able to buy him a drink or three.
(This involves me also overcoming my own health issue of moving vehicles being one of my migraine triggers, as well as my budget problems--gee, this spell has two layers to it...scary, isn't it? Yes, I just realized that.)
The reason I feel like I owe Kraig a drink or three is the fact that I was reading his book, Modern Magick, when my Golden Dawn sponsor first spotted me. If it wasn't for that book, my sponsor and mentor wouldn't have spotted me, and I might have ended up being a self-initiate, rather than being a Vaulted member of one of the many branches of the Golden Dawn system of magic. So I figure that if I ever meet Kraig that I should buy him a drink or three, just for getting me entry into the Temple.
Pimpslap a numpty day
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| Pimpslap the numpty! |
In the case of the numpty that I want to pimpslap the most, I am not sure that it is actually possible to increase their intelligence. Why do I say this? Because I have been trying to teach them to be smarter for the last seven years. At this point, nothing less than a pimpslap to the moon is going to improve their intelligence.
The latest exchange was very special in that after school show type of way. In their efforts to make all other people as numpty as they are, they have started a series of questioning debates. They ask a question, typically one that actually has no official answer, and is actually impossible to answer without being a freaking deity. When presented with answers that agree with their opinions, they give the person a pat on the butt. When given an answer they do not like, or an answer from someone that they have tagged as an enemy, they answer the answer with THREE pages of follow-up questions for the person to answer, just to get the person to prove that they are willing to play with the numpty--by the numpty glorious rules of double standards. The numpty complains and cries when you do not play the game the way they want you to--they also whine and invite everyone that they can to their little arena, arguing that only they enjoy true honest debate...well, provided that you agree that the numpty is the most special person on the planet.
Recently, the numpty went and said, "Let's do something that no New Ager have ever done successfully before--let's define what type of magic is allowed to be cast if you are a person made up of unicorns and glitter." In my case, I stated that my position as a feared blogger speaking for the mighty Secret Chiefs that are my cats, that I was automatically condemned to give an answer that would get me convicted as a very evil magician that deserved to get burned at the stake--because even people made up of unicorns and glitter burn their enemies alive when you point out that it is ok to steal the boots from a dead man who no longer needs them. And the numpty responded by asking a dozen questions which included somehow knowing philosophy and the nature of good and evil from the viewpoint of the gods themselves. I refused to play, and chose to stay silent; after all, my ethics are situational and self-enlightened.
Then later, when the numpty was asked their own opinion, they said, "I am such a Big Giant Head that some people will automatically worship my answer, and others will condemn and burn me at the stake for giving an answer--therefore in my high numptiness, I respond with no answer at all."
When I pointed out that if I wasn't allowed to use the pre-judgment excuse to dodge follow-up questions, then they should state their honest opinion, the numpty responded with THREE more pages of questions. And a challenge to continue to try to prove that I was a bigger numpty than they were.
I am sorry--if you are so well known that you cannot give an answer for fear that people will attach additional weight to it because they know who you are, then there is no way that people will not have a bias about my answer. After all, my answer is that I am allowed to do any magic necessary to keep my cats supplied with a roof, warmth, tummy rubs, fish, and all the catnip that they can snort. I did mention that my ethics were situational and self-enlightened, didn't I? I also mentioned that I am feared blogger speaking for the true Secret Chiefs who teach the way of the true Mau, right? Good, I would hate for those facts to go unnoticed by the crazed dog-loving numpties that gathering their pitchforks and torches to burn the evil witch that dared mocked the royal numpty that leads their glittery unicorn rabble of a mob.
Therefore, we award this cute kitty pimpslap to you, all mighty and all knowing numpty chief in charge. Happy pimpslap a numpty day! You are the one that makes this day so holy to me.
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| Here is a pimpslap for you numpty! |
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Paganism 101--An Introduction to Paganism by 101 Pagans (quick and dirty book review)
When I first heard of this book, I muttered, "Do we really need another Paganism 101 book?"
After reading it, I have to say, "Hell, yes, we needed another one."
The concept behind the book is to have a 101 different pagans get together and write about paganism. Think of it as a big circle where various voices of the paganism came together to give a newcomer a broad overview of how varied the community really is. You may not agree with all the voices, but you have to remember that they are out there in the community.
The book is divided into three sections with multiple topics in each one. Twenty topics all together. Each topic has five writers committing on it. Plus there is an introduction...which is how the 101st pagan comes into the picture.
The first section is Who we are--Druid, Heathen, Witch, Wiccan, Shaman, Christo-Pagan, Goddess Follower, Eclectic Witch.
The second section is What we believe--Deities, Nature, Ethics, Afterlife, Ancestors, Past & Present.
The third section is What we do--Ritual, Magic, Prayer & Meditation, Healing, Herbalism, Celebrant Work.
No, I do not agree with everything said, but I do find it marvelous that we have such diverse set of voices in the community.
I highly recommend this book to both newcomers and to those who have been around the pagan block countless times. This is a wonderful book that I am going to end up re-reading several times, if only to remind myself how interesting our community actually is.
Five stars out of five.
[Disclosure: I received a pre-publication electronic copy of this book for review purposes.]
After reading it, I have to say, "Hell, yes, we needed another one."
The concept behind the book is to have a 101 different pagans get together and write about paganism. Think of it as a big circle where various voices of the paganism came together to give a newcomer a broad overview of how varied the community really is. You may not agree with all the voices, but you have to remember that they are out there in the community.
The book is divided into three sections with multiple topics in each one. Twenty topics all together. Each topic has five writers committing on it. Plus there is an introduction...which is how the 101st pagan comes into the picture.
The first section is Who we are--Druid, Heathen, Witch, Wiccan, Shaman, Christo-Pagan, Goddess Follower, Eclectic Witch.
The second section is What we believe--Deities, Nature, Ethics, Afterlife, Ancestors, Past & Present.
The third section is What we do--Ritual, Magic, Prayer & Meditation, Healing, Herbalism, Celebrant Work.
No, I do not agree with everything said, but I do find it marvelous that we have such diverse set of voices in the community.
I highly recommend this book to both newcomers and to those who have been around the pagan block countless times. This is a wonderful book that I am going to end up re-reading several times, if only to remind myself how interesting our community actually is.
Five stars out of five.
[Disclosure: I received a pre-publication electronic copy of this book for review purposes.]
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Limited editions have to be limited
The other day, I was reading the comments on a Facebook announcement about a new limited edition book. (Yes, a Nick Farrell limited edition book.) And one of the commenters said that perhaps in the future that the author would consider reissuing the material in another edition or perhaps even in ebook form. At this point, I must admit that I sadly shook my head because I realized that the commenter was overlooking a basic fact about the limited edition book market.
If "limited edition" is being used as a sales tactic, then the edition truly has to be limited.
Limited edition sales tactics depend upon just a handful of things to quickly and completely sell out their print run--a very limited number of copies, the author's authority, the rarity of the information, and keeping one's word about the number of copies that are going to be issued.
Limited edition sales tactics also can benefit from deluxe editions (fine leather covers, signed and numbered copies), but for the most part, it is the rarity of the limited copies that drive the success of the sales tactic.
The things that can hurt the success of a limited edition include poor information and burning your previous customers (there are some publishers that I will never buy a limited edition from ever again, simply because they seem to think slapping the words "limited edition" on poorly written and formatted crap ensures a steady income). Poor economic times can also hurt the success of a limited edition (heavens knows that I currently can't afford to buy any books--limited edition or not).
But the number one thing that can hurt the success of a limited edition is for the customers to believe that you are going to print more copies in the future. (I am not talking deluxe editions here, which go hand in hand with a regular edition--deluxe editions are brought often simply because they are a luxury or better printed than the regular version--no, I am talking about true limited "only X number of copies will be printed" editions here.) If the customer believes that you are going to later republish, either with more copies, or in a cheaper form, the urgency for them to quickly buy a copy fades.
And if the customer has been burned before by an author or publisher deciding to print more copies than they originally promised to, good luck at selling them anything that you chose to label limited edition.
It is the rarity that drives the sales of limited editions. Period. End of sentence.
Now, rarity is not affected by some things. For instance, piracy does not affect limited editions. (Or at least, no one has ever showed me credible research to prove that piracy affects limited edition book sales.) The initial rarity of a limited edition is not affected by piracy because there is no promise that a book is going to be scanned and uploaded to the pirate sites. And piracy (if it actually occurs) does not affect the long term value of a limited edition either, for the physical copy is actually king when it comes to the second hand and collectable market.
(For those who are curious, I used to be in the collectable market at one point both as a seller and a collector. The rules have not changed, despite the presence of ebooks and pirate sites, as a quick hunt on eBay shows.)
So the poor soul--and by "poor," I mean that their budget is like mine, without any room for luxuries--asking if someday the author might change their mind and print more copies, is barking up the wrong tree. No working writer with knowledge of the publishing field would dare break their word about the number of copies that they were going to print, especially in a niche market such as Golden Dawn (which has a couple thousand members who all know one another). Any author daring to break their word would rapidly destroy their ability to quickly move copies of any future limited edition. And no intelligent or hungry writer would want to do that injustice to their own writing career.
If "limited edition" is being used as a sales tactic, then the edition truly has to be limited.
Limited edition sales tactics depend upon just a handful of things to quickly and completely sell out their print run--a very limited number of copies, the author's authority, the rarity of the information, and keeping one's word about the number of copies that are going to be issued.
Limited edition sales tactics also can benefit from deluxe editions (fine leather covers, signed and numbered copies), but for the most part, it is the rarity of the limited copies that drive the success of the sales tactic.
The things that can hurt the success of a limited edition include poor information and burning your previous customers (there are some publishers that I will never buy a limited edition from ever again, simply because they seem to think slapping the words "limited edition" on poorly written and formatted crap ensures a steady income). Poor economic times can also hurt the success of a limited edition (heavens knows that I currently can't afford to buy any books--limited edition or not).
But the number one thing that can hurt the success of a limited edition is for the customers to believe that you are going to print more copies in the future. (I am not talking deluxe editions here, which go hand in hand with a regular edition--deluxe editions are brought often simply because they are a luxury or better printed than the regular version--no, I am talking about true limited "only X number of copies will be printed" editions here.) If the customer believes that you are going to later republish, either with more copies, or in a cheaper form, the urgency for them to quickly buy a copy fades.
And if the customer has been burned before by an author or publisher deciding to print more copies than they originally promised to, good luck at selling them anything that you chose to label limited edition.
It is the rarity that drives the sales of limited editions. Period. End of sentence.
Now, rarity is not affected by some things. For instance, piracy does not affect limited editions. (Or at least, no one has ever showed me credible research to prove that piracy affects limited edition book sales.) The initial rarity of a limited edition is not affected by piracy because there is no promise that a book is going to be scanned and uploaded to the pirate sites. And piracy (if it actually occurs) does not affect the long term value of a limited edition either, for the physical copy is actually king when it comes to the second hand and collectable market.
(For those who are curious, I used to be in the collectable market at one point both as a seller and a collector. The rules have not changed, despite the presence of ebooks and pirate sites, as a quick hunt on eBay shows.)
So the poor soul--and by "poor," I mean that their budget is like mine, without any room for luxuries--asking if someday the author might change their mind and print more copies, is barking up the wrong tree. No working writer with knowledge of the publishing field would dare break their word about the number of copies that they were going to print, especially in a niche market such as Golden Dawn (which has a couple thousand members who all know one another). Any author daring to break their word would rapidly destroy their ability to quickly move copies of any future limited edition. And no intelligent or hungry writer would want to do that injustice to their own writing career.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
A prayer for the asylum seekers down under
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| To magically affect the conditions in Australia. |
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| Night time satelite view of Australia. |
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| Australia--the land down under. |
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