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Saturday Signal: Signal: sifting the signal from the noise of the Internet’s occultural cacophony.

In the realm of the planetary spheres my vote this week must go to Mars for the most gorgeous landscape. Check out these Martian dunes on BoingBoing. Absolutely stunning.

• Rob, in Another Nickel in the Machine, writes about the early career of occult writer Colin Wilson in “Hampstead Heath and the Rise and Fall of the author Colin Wilson“. It’s a wonderfully photo-rich piece. (Who knew Wilson was such a looker in his youth?)

• Chas Clifton, in his blog Letters from Hardscrabble Creek, wrote an interesting post recently considering whether or not contemporary Pagans could be considered indigenous. His answer is no, and his reasons make sense. The comments section breaks it down further, asking some interesting questions.

• Nicole Pasulka interviewed Peter Ross for TheMorningNews.org. Ross took a series of photographs of “William Burroughs’s Stuff“, “a selection of weird, touching, and often unexpected possessions found in Burroughs’s windowless New York City apartment, preserved since his death in 1997.” It’s an odd collection.

• In Magic of the Ordinary, Peregrin has written an excellent post titled “Golden Dawn Blogs and Tradition” that covers more than it implies. Peregrin’s summary of the commentary surrounding one’s Holy Guardian Angel, for example, is spot on. Check it out.

• LAShTAL.com has the latest catalogue from Starfire, Kenneth Grant’s publishing house. Check it out for titles which have recently been issued, and what’s coming later in 2010. Several reprints, but some new material too, including a compilation of two grimoires by Austin Osman Spare.

I’m trying out delicious.com, a social bookmarking tool. It looks a little more complicated than the last time I logged in – they seem to have added a ton of new features in the past year.

This is to replace the 902834029834 some odd tabs I currently leave open in Firefox for compiling these Saturday Signal posts, but this little laptop, she cannae take it anymore. So, I’m experimenting once again with delicious. (There’s even a Firefox add-on for it.)

One of the great things about it is that you can tag your bookmarks and share them with other people. So, for example, if you tag a site “plutonica” I will be notified. Why is that so nifty? Because it makes it really easy to share cool sites.

If you use delicious, and you want to highlight something cool that you think should be included in Saturday Signal, tag it “plutonica” and I’ll add it. It’s an experiment. Let’s see how it works.

For those who are interested in stalking my path across the web, or, you know, simply getting the first crack at what may find its way into the Saturday Signal, my account there is, of course, plutopsyche.

My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding was so last week. This week we’re all about Tales of the New Isis Lodge.

English Heretic, the producers of this fascinating new musical, describe themselves as England’s “very finest occult archaeologists, astral geographers and mystical toponymists”. They aim to “help people decode and realise the alchemical ciphers and conspiratorial interplay of the buildings and landscapes around them”.

Somehow this translates into making a 65 minute musical of “lush and occult exotica issuing from a transplutonic transmitter”.

The English Heretic blog, maintained by “Dr Champagne”, describes the musical as

Drawing its structure from the ultra decadent and ornate rituals described in Grant’s book Hecate’s Fountain English Heretic guide you through Egyptian pre-history to the fungi of Yuggoth, re-imagine flower power in an Indian Tantric idiom, describe the workings of Chinese sorcerers, realise the neither-neither hidden within the jump rhythms of Count Basie and invoke Choronzon in the Crimson Desert. Aeons in its reification and packaged in delicious artwork, stylised as a homage to Grant’s Typhonian tomes.

Wow!

The CD is £8 and can be purchased from their online shop. James of Mauve Zone Recordings is already a fan.

Spotted on LAShTAL.com, and further encouraged by Nova at The Third Mind.

To commemorate the centenary of Aleister Crowley’s final acceptance of the Book of the Law and the release of the first issue of The Equinox, the Company of Heaven has produced a hundred miniature Stelae of Revealing based on Crowley’s design.

There are twenty-eight replica editions available through Weiser Antiquarian Books, and 72 magickal stelae available through the Atlantis Bookshop.

The stele comes in a lovely box, the one pictured left is mine, a replica edition. It just came in the mail today (numbered 12 of 28).

They were going quickly, but if you’re interested, try e-mailing Weiser Antiquarian to see if any more have come available, or try Atlantis (though they didn’t get back to me when I e-mailed).

For more information and purchase details see LAShTAL.com.

Thanks to Keith418 for mentioning it in his blog and passing on the link to LAShTAL.

It’s been interesting reading the responses to guest blogger Dr Dave Evans‘ review of the new Aleister Crowley film Chemical Wedding over the past week. In addition to responses posted here, there have been a number of positive (or at least amused) comments on private blogs and journals, and at several which have been more public.

Crowley forum LAShTAL.com has been collecting Chemical Wedding reviews from various media sources, comparing and contrasting them and commenting on what they find, including the one posted here. Dave’s replies to commentators on the forum explore the various positions from which he disliked the film.

Taylor Ellwood’s response in his blog Experiments of a Magician struck me as rather odd. Rather than taking an interest in the film itself, Ellwood seemed pleased the movie received a terrible review because he hates Crowley. Continue reading »