Richard Kaczynski

We finally made it to The Littlest Tea Room, a private tea speakeasy housed behind a Murphy door in Little Native Coffee Co. Their “exclusive littlest tea” includes a delightful selection of tea, a tower of treats, bubbly & little hats for photo ops. It’s easy to see why this cute place is in demand

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An overdue acquisition: In “The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity,” Stephanie Budin argues that the ancient practice of exchanging sex for money for a deity/temple did not actually happen, & that belief in this practice is the product of misunderstandings, wrong assumptions & bad methodology.

No visit to Portland is complete without a trip to @darkstarmagick.bsky.social.

At NOTOCON, I presented “Rosa Resurgens: The Life and Magick of Ouarda the Seer, Rose Kelly” on Rose’s personal & magical biography. Originally written for the delayed anthology “The Women of Thelema,” this was a magical gesture, hoping to grease the book’s cosmic skids.

📷: @maeviuslynn.bsky.social

Jon and I joked about that (of course). But that—plus books—would’ve made my checked bag too heavy

Ah, I hear what you’re saying. I thought you were describing the absence (omission) of that note. As the composer, you are certainly far better acquainted with the piece than I, and just as understandably sensitive to any unintended clam (which I can neither confirm nor deny).

It might have been one of my original pieces. Iceberg would be my guess. I tend to wear my influences—from Ravel, Bartok and Rachmaninov to Emerson, Moraz and (yes) Wakeman—on my ruffly sleeve.

Are you sure Jon wasn’t drowning me out (I mean that in a good way)? Because I recall sitting on that fermata wondering whether we were going to come out of it at the same time (individually, and in concert with the chorus entering 😁).

We didn’t have time to rehearse cues, but we flew pretty well by the seat of our robes.
📷: @maeviuslynn.bsky.social

I selected Satie’s “Premiere pensée Rose + Croix,” Henry Klein’s “Baisers de Flamme,” @isomeme.bsky.social’s arrangement of the Anthem, excerpts from Mussorgsky’s ”Promenade,” ELP’s “Take a Pebble” & “Endless Enigma,” UK’s “Rendezvous 6:02,” plus some originals.
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I was honored—& daunted—to be invited to provide musical accompaniment for the NOTOCON Gnostic Mass for 220 of my closest friends & siblings.
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On Saturday, @maeviuslynn.bsky.social addressed a full house for her first-ever talk at the USGL National OTO Conference (though she *did* present at last year’s European national gathering in Ohrid): “The Virtue of Doubt.” As ever, she was prepared, eloquent, and entertaining.

I created a new landing page for my course on my site with all the information. It's in my Linktree and my main homepage.

It always makes me giddy to see my books available in the wild, this time at the US Grand Lodge table at NOTOCON. I signed books this morning from 9-10 in the dealers’ room.

Feel however you want, but just know that most Thelemites do not consider the divine voices/spirits/parts of the subconscious speaking in the Book of the Law to be Egyptian deities. Thelema is not Kemeticism.

Weird scenes inside t̵̵h̵̵e̵ ̵g̵̵o̵̵l̵̵d̵ ̵m̵̵i̵̵n̵̵e̵ Portland.

@maeviuslynn.bsky.social and I catching up with @ericesoteric.bsky.social and @omenhawk.bsky.social IRL.

Bigfoot sighting at PDX.

Holy cow, PDX has an entire hallway displaying the miniatures used in Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio”! These photos are just a small sample.

Either one would be amazing!

The cover of Moïna MacGregor’s “Wholeness of Nature” reminded me that we see very little of her art, so I’ve collected a few images here for public enrichment.

Today is publication day for the long-awaited PAPERBACK edition of ‘Magic in Merlin’s Realm’, my book about the political significance of magic in Britain from the Middle Ages to modern times 📚🧙‍♂️🔮 @universitypress.cambridge.org www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...

Clarification: the essay is from the first issue of Anubis for 1903, the eighth issue overall.

From the ever-busy Occult Press, I just received this lovely chapbook: “The Wholeness of Nature” by Moïna MacGregor (Mathers), reprinted from the first issue of Anubis (1903). Limited to 100 hand-numbered copies, the cover features art by the under-appreciated Soror Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum herself.

Mystic South does not record the presentations, and the slides don’t contain the text of the presentation (which is geared toward a live audience). I imagine @maeviuslynn.bsky.social will be presenting this talk elsewhere, however!

Just received an email from Academia with the dystopian message “An AI created a podcast of your paper.” Curiously, this is based on an academic paper that’s literally 26 years old.

Presenting and signing books at Mystic South.

📷: @maeviuslynn.bsky.social

North Carolina really represented the ceremonial path at Mystic South this year: Ike Baker gave a top-tier talk on moving energy in ritual, from Western & Eastern perspectives; @maeviuslynn.bsky.social’s talk on Babalon was a tour de force; while I spoke on sacred sexuality in Victorian esotericism.

@maeviuslynn.bsky.social gave a superb presentation on Babalon at Mystic South, centering on the source material in Revelation, John Dee and Aleister Crowley, while acknowledging the extrapolations of Jack Parsons, Marjorie Cameron, Kenneth Grant and Phyllis Seckler.