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What are you all reading?

Ex-User (9086)

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Thoughts on it? I remember reading it in 6th or 7th grade and finding it a bit pulpy. Still, that was a while ago, so I don't really remember it too well.
I enjoyed it quite a bit when I was in high school. I liked his descriptive metaphors and characters, they were real, devoid of needless glitter. I'd say sprawl trilogy is his best work from the world design and story perspectives. I read his later novels including the Bridge trilogy and it's more of his usual style, the ending in All Tomorrow's Parties was wishy washy and fell short of expectations. His style is a blend of cynical realism, random scatterings of technical details with an overarching philosophical or cultural theme that produces convention for a few scenes or chapters until he gets bored with it, oh and he overuses the butterfly effect to somewhat unhealthy levels.

Can you share what books you consider to be the opposite of pulpy or simply worth attention of a more discerning sci-fi fan?
 

Pizzabeak

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Ishmael
 

AndyC

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Some Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason.
 

xbox

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I'm reading a redbull magazine
 

Turnevies

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Recently started Hofstadter's 'Godel, Escher, Bach' and I don't regret it so far.
 

Interdimensionist

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Just finished The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac & Age of Reason by Satre, I love the sense of liberty Kerouac evokes with his stories about freewheeling bohemian bums travelling wherever on a whim. I'd love to strap on a backpack and trek across the world someday, when I was a kid I always dreamed about buying a catamaran and sailing the globe and I was pretty heavily into mysticism and such so probably explains why I relate to his work so much. Enjoyed the Satre novel as well although it would probably spark some controversy amongst the overzealous PC types nowadays.

Currently reading The Portable Karl Marx by Eugene Kamenka and a volume of poems by Yeats, my first foray into both.
 

Wolf18

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Just finished The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac & Age of Reason by Satre, I love the sense of liberty Kerouac evokes with his stories about freewheeling bohemian bums travelling wherever on a whim. I'd love to strap on a backpack and trek across the world someday, when I was a kid I always dreamed about buying a catamaran and sailing the globe and I was pretty heavily into mysticism and such so probably explains why I relate to his work so much. Enjoyed the Satre novel as well although it would probably spark some controversy amongst the overzealous PC types nowadays.

I assume you read on the road as well. Which did you prefer? Kerouac's a fascinating fellow. He was my grandfather's best friend, and that whole crew was very adventurous in their youth, but later in his life Kerouac really went off the edge, refused to see anyone, and pretty much never left his house until he died in (I think) '69. Strange how people change.

Sartre's on my bookshelf although I haven't opened it yet. Will have to soon.

I'm currently reading the second Dune book (Dune Messiah). So far I love how it pretty much turns Dune on its head. Frank Herbert has a remarkable ability to twist perspective that makes everything he writes seem very real.

And of course there's always Lovecraft.

:cthulhu:
Wolf18
 

Interdimensionist

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I read On the Road a while back; again my fascination with Hunter Thompson lead me there, but I was making an attempt to have a social life back then so I didn't have much free time to read so I got bits and pieces in when I could but I didn't really absorb anything I just kind of read it passively but reading Dharma Bums has inspired me to pick it up and give it a reread.

Considering I managed to fuck everything up with my social circle since then I'll have a lot more time on my hands to do so, until then I'm gonna say Dharma Bums simply because I'm hesitant to say much about the other novel because I don't recall much apart from thinking at the time that Dean Moriarty was a rather intriguing and tragically sad character forever trapped by the limitations of this material world when all he truly wanted was transcendence, I related a lot.

Reading Kerouac just makes me want to jump on the orient express, travel through Russia and get drunk on vodka, head to Asia, try some sake then mosey on over to Alaska and down to the US. I would love to recreate the trip from Fear & Loathing, some sort of puerile fantasy haha, then on to South America and on and on, never ending globetrotting, vagabond style...bliss.

Pretty cool that your granddad knew him, did he ever meet any of the merry pranksters, Ken Kasey, that whole gang? Sure he has some great stories.
 

Hadoblado

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Pact by Wildbow. Not as good as his other works so far, but there's a lot of imagination in everything that man does. He tries to convey far too much far too quickly in this series, with an enormous amount of information being dumped on the reader at once. I'm in about 10 chapters and he's still trying to bring me up to speed with how the pact world works.

The first chapter introduced you to every member of an extended family. As if anyone's going to remember that?

The second chapter dumped like five visions on the main character at once. I get that it's conveying the confusion the main character must be experiencing, but as a reader I felt bad, because I knew that this was important information I wasn't going to remember.

The chapter I just read literally had a lawyer hold them main characters hand through yet another information dump.

spoilers:
I really, really like the world. I like that practitioners of magic have to always tell the truth but are driven to mislead. I like that faeries are bored immortals who lie to themselves so often they're convinced, and thus not actually lying when they tell you untruths, and that their illusion magic works on the same principle. I like that there's this big karmic system that is super vague but in a consistent way. It's all really cool, but it feels like the story needed a slower pace to begin with so that the reader could keep up. Wildbow does a much better job of this in Worm and Twig.
 

PmjPmj

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Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock, and Messengers of Deception by Jacques Vallee.
 

Pizzabeak

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I assume you read on the road as well. Which did you prefer? Kerouac's a fascinating fellow. He was my grandfather's best friend,
So your grandfather was Neal Cassady?
and that whole crew was very adventurous in their youth, but later in his life Kerouac really went off the edge, refused to see anyone, and pretty much never left his house until he died in (I think) '69. Strange how people change.
Yeah I guess he was an alcoholic and died as such. Supposedly the fame took a toll on him and he felt the scene didn't understand the craze and became something else, which prompted a spiral into depression.. I guess he wanted something else. Kind of an interesting thing, he wasn't even 50.


I read On the Road a while back; again my fascination with Hunter Thompson lead me there, but I was making an attempt to have a social life back then so I didn't have much free time to read so I got bits and pieces in when I could but I didn't really absorb anything I just kind of read it passively but reading Dharma Bums has inspired me to pick it up and give it a reread.

Considering I managed to fuck everything up with my social circle since then I'll have a lot more time on my hands to do so, until then I'm gonna say Dharma Bums simply because I'm hesitant to say much about the other novel because I don't recall much apart from thinking at the time that Dean Moriarty was a rather intriguing and tragically sad character forever trapped by the limitations of this material world when all he truly wanted was transcendence, I related a lot.

Reading Kerouac just makes me want to jump on the orient express, travel through Russia and get drunk on vodka, head to Asia, try some sake then mosey on over to Alaska and down to the US. I would love to recreate the trip from Fear & Loathing, some sort of puerile fantasy haha, then on to South America and on and on, never ending globetrotting, vagabond style...bliss.

Pretty cool that your granddad knew him, did he ever meet any of the merry pranksters, Ken Kasey, that whole gang? Sure he has some great stories.

Btw, has anyone also read the scroll edition of OTR? I haven't yet. Supposedly kind of different, not sure which the fans prefer. They just use the real names and Sal's father dies instead of him finishing up his divorce.

I saw the new movie they did too, it was good enough besides some of the casting and should appeal to the masses generally. Only thing is they smoke lots of weed in it but in the book they drink the whole time and only get weed three times I think.. The first time it was bunk and didn't work and then at the end in Mexico when they get stoned with the kids but in the movie they smoke weed all the way and drinking isn't emphasized. Maybe he had to edit some of the weed stuff out the book but if this is artistic licensing then it may be for the better seeing as how pot is generally more safe than alcohol.
But it kind of misrepresents it.. Although pot was popular back then.

I actually recently finished Dharma Bums as well. Kind of liked OTR better since this was kind of a rehash plus a lot of the characters had weird names. It was probably kind of sad but more relevant or exciting back then, seeing as how it's partly based on a true story. There was some amusing dialogue but it was basically like a section taken out of OTR. Not mad that I read it but I wouldn't really re-read it or anything.
 

Interdimensionist

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I actually recently finished Dharma Bums as well. Kind of liked OTR better since this was kind of a rehash plus a lot of the characters had weird names. It was probably kind of sad but more relevant or exciting back then, seeing as how it's partly based on a true story. There was some amusing dialogue but it was basically like a section taken out of OTR. Not mad that I read it but I wouldn't really re-read it or anything.

I think the fact Dharma Bums seemed to touch more upon Jack's spiritual journey than OTR spoke to me quite a bit, as in he seems to be trying to make sense of the world around him a bit more whereas in OTR it seemed to just be mainly jumping from party to party, hustling for scraps and going wherever the action was. It's as though he's maturing and the novels are transitions between periods, strange because I first read OTR at a time where I just felt like doing the whole hedonistic thing and when I picked up Dharma Bums it was a few months after I decided to cool it and get back to studying and to start doing something more with myself, inspired me to try my hand at a novel based on some of my own experiences as a nomad.

Also just remembered I love the scene in the Jazz bar towards the end of OTR I think, where Dean just wants to stay and watch it get cranked up higher and higher and works himself into a frenzy with the band, I'm like this if I walk into a bar with live music. I just want to stay and experience it, like really soak it in, the atmosphere, everything, let the music wash over me in a dingy dive bar like Blues Kitchen in Camden, that place is great if overpriced and full of scenies.

Other than that the book gave me an idea for a cool high elf name on Oblivion: Bodhisattva.

That and Buddhism is just cool as fuck in general.
 

Pizzabeak

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Dharma Bums seemed to be more him being immersed in life and trying to learn, and also shadowing people with more experience in life. It seems like a decent thing to do at certain stages of life but ultimately seemed juvenile or irresponsible, although their incessant attempts at exercising American rights drove the plot. I went ahead and finished it because it was short and felt the ending unfulfilling. OTR was more of a coming of age deal. It also looks at friendships and how people in a relationship may use one another.

For me it was interesting to see the dawn of the hippies. I guess in the next decade LSD and the whole message became more popular giving rise to key characters and the hippie scene, which eventually dissipated as well, and nowadays we have hipsters; etc. He had some good ideas. It's mostly just people trying not to work as much as possible though. Not sure if I should read Big Sur or some of his other stuff, he's actually kind of a bad writer.
 

Sinny91

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Interdimensionist

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Pizzabeak

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Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock, and Messengers of Deception by Jacques Vallee.

I recently bought Hancock's newest book and shall start it soon.. Started Fingerprints in HS, I can remember well. It was very interesting and scholarly at the time, if not a bit sensational. Took a while to slog through though. And he asks more questions than he attempts to answer if I recall. Let me know what you think of it.
 

Brontosaurie

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So your grandfather was Neal Cassady?.

Didn't say the grandfather was Kerouac's best friend.

A star is likely the best friend of many people.

Welcome to INTP. Please learn the secret blessing of logical OCD.
 

xbox

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Reading "Flawless Execution"
 

Pizzabeak

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But which man was his grandpapa then? Also might doubt Neal would say Kerouac was his bestie. They met via mutuals such as Allan.
Things just weren't the same anymore after a while back then
 

PmjPmj

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I recently bought Hancock's newest book and shall start it soon.. Started Fingerprints in HS, I can remember well. It was very interesting and scholarly at the time, if not a bit sensational. Took a while to slog through though. And he asks more questions than he attempts to answer if I recall. Let me know what you think of it.

Will do, though progress is slow at the moment due to life.

In work, I also started reading The Conscious Universe and Biocentricity. Lighter reading for dinner breaks :)
 

Pizzabeak

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Is that Lanza's Biocentrism?
 

Brontosaurie

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Reread "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran

I'll be puking rainbows any of these days.
 

TBerg

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Archeofuturism, by Guillaume Faye.

Revolt Against the Modern World, by Julius Evola.

Ride the Tiger, by Julius Evola.
 

Sinny91

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A Guide to Tolkien by David Day.

I bought the LoTRs collection not long ago and tonight my little cousin came home with some books he'd been collecting in order to sell, he had this one, and so I bought it.

It's a pretty cool book, and will make a decent addition to my collection.
 

TBerg

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Modern Ireland, by RF Foster.

Gives an expansive history of what we can know about the period of Irish history that is the best-documented. I felt like I needed to understand Ireland if I want to understand the rest of what had been the UK. It is also interesting to understand what environment some of my ancestors had to endure, especially the privations and famines. It almost seems like a massive concentration camp at times, but some were able to flee.
 

Yellow

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I didn't realize this thread was here. I was about to start a "last book you read" thread, but this is basically the same.

I just finished Between Silk and Cyanide by Leo Marks. It's about his experience as a cryptographer during WWII. It rode the line between entertaining and dry, which I found appropriate (I wasn't looking for a spy novel). It was a good read, if you're into that kind of thing.

Now, I'm off to try out the Coldfire trilogy by C.S. Friedman.
 

TAC

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Booklist: (Title/Author/quick synopsis)
-Lords of Finance: Historical account of the post WWI international monetary crisis. Focuses on the heads of central banks to give insight into their character in the midst of economic chaos.
- Infinite Jest/David Foster Wallace: Follows several characters around a distopian North America. Canada and U.S are a conglomerate with defined borders as The great Convexity and the great concavity. Themes: Media/Entertainment and it's increasing effect on the human condition, Entertainment as tool for warfare, drug use, etc. Tough read, but worthwhile
-Proofiness/Charles Seife: Book that analyzes statistics and their use in various mediums. Exposes fallacies in areas such as political polling and advertising
-Fooled by Randomness/Nassim Taleb: Explores the problem of inductive Logic and various fallacies along with empirical proofs.
 

r4ch3l

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I am 75% done with Lanark by Alasdair Gray and think many on this forum would get something from it. Main character is likely an INFx. Definitely a new favorite, and I found it under strange circumstances...like I was supposed to read it...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/161037.Lanark
 

Sinny91

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It's time to leave the golden comfort Lothlorien, and once more set foot into the weary, winding wilderness :(
 

Creeping Death

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The Prince by Machiavelli, for the fourth time I think. I sleep with it under my pillow and carry it with me. You never know when you might need it.
 

Sinny91

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Alternating between:

voq7wO7.jpg

What's Happening? (Triggers upon Triggers!)
http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40135&start=1110

Return of the American Security Council
http://visupview.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/the-return-of-asc-part-ii.html?m=1

Rudolph Steiner, The Ahrimanic Deception
http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19191027p01.html

Excerpt


Many people have felt something of this sort. But there is not yet courage everywhere to come to an understanding with the historical impulses of the Christ, Lucifer and Ahriman in the urgent way that is necessary and that is emphasized by Anthroposophy.

Even those who have an idea of what is necessary will not go far enough. For instance, look at examples where there arises some knowledge that the secular materialistic science with this Ahrimanic character must be permeated with the Christ Impulse, and how, on the other hand, the Gospel must be illuminated through the explanations of spiritual science.

Consider how many people struggle to the point of really shedding light in either of these directions by means of spiritual-scientific knowledge! Yet humanity will only acquire the right attitude to the earthly incarnation of Ahriman if it sees through these things and has the courage, will and energy to illumine both secular science and the Gospel by the Spirit. Otherwise the result is always superficialities.

Think, for example, of how Cardinal Newman — who, after all, was an enlightened man, one who followed modern religious development — at the time of his investiture as Cardinal in Rome stated openly in his address that if the Christian Catholic teaching was to survive, a new revelation was necessary. We have no need, however, of a new revelation; the time of revelations in the old sense is over.

We need a new science, one that is illumined by the Spirit. But men must have the courage for such a new science.

Think of a literary phenomenon like the Lux Mundi movement that originated with certain eminent theologians, members of the English High Church, at the end of the eighties and beginning of the nineties of the last century. It consisted of a series of studies, imbued throughout with the endeavor to build a bridge from secular science to the contents of dogma. One might call it a floundering hither and thither, never a bold grasping of secular science, never an illumination of it with the spirit.

There was no unprejudiced examination of the Gospel with the knowledge that the Gospel of itself is not enough today, that it must be elucidated and illumined. But mankind must be courageous in both directions and say: secular science by itself leads to illusion, the Gospel by itself leads to hallucination. The middle way between illusion and hallucination is found only by grasping reality through the Spirit. That is the point.

We must see through such things as these today. Purely mundane science would make men entirely subject to illusion; in fact ultimately they would commit only follies. Quite enough folly is perpetuated today already, for surely the World War catastrophe was a great folly! Yet many people were involved in it who were thoroughly saturated with the official secular science of our time.

And if you notice what remarkable psychological phenomena at once crop up when some sect or other places one of the four Gospels in the foreground, then you will more easily understand what I have been saying about the Gospels today. See how strongly inclined to all sorts of hallucinations are sects that pay heed solely to the Gospel of St. John, or solely the Gospel of St. Luke! Fortunately there are four Gospels, which outwardly contradict one another, and this has so far prevented the great harm which such one-sidedness would cause. By being faced with four Gospels people do not go too far in the direction of the one, but have the others beside it.

One Gospel is read aloud on one Sunday and another on another Sunday and so the illusory power of the one is counterbalanced by that of another. A great wisdom lies in the fact that these four Gospels have come down to the civilized world. In this way man is protected from being caught up by some one stream, which will take possession of him — as in the case of so many members of sects — if he is influenced by one Gospel alone. When solely one Gospel works upon him it is particularly clear how this leads at last to hallucination.

In fact, it is essential today to give up much of one's subjective inclination, much of what one is attached to and thinks pious or clever. Mankind must above all seek universality and the courage to look at things from all sides.

Occult Yorkshire: Fabian Family Secrets and Cultural engineering in the UK
https://auticulture.wordpress.com/2015/11/05/occult-yorkshire/

Review: The Magical World of the Inklings, Gareth Knight
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magical-World-Inklings-Gareth-Knight/dp/1908011017

An informative review by.. err, hem.. Ashtar Command... I've been exploring the occult undertones (over-tones?) of Tolkien and the LoTR.

I think there is evidence enough to suggest that he was promoting Hermetic and Theosophical trains of thought. Which they (the Inklings) promoted, or justified, as Christian Esoterica... but I think he gives himself away by alluding to Aryan racial supremacy, amongst many other intriguing things, which are no doubt fun to explore!

Themes embedded in TLoTR: Reincarnation, racial supremacy, spiritual hierarchies, subterranean kingdoms, the white Brotherhood, the black Brotherhood, and Atlantis (Numenor)

The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria is an Arch with two pillars, enclosing 7 stars, a larger star and a crown.

The arch it's self is composed similarly to the Royal Arch of Freemasonry, and the Crown and the Star are an early emblem of The Fellowship of the Rosy Cross , off-shoot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, both orders to which Charles Williams (Fellow Inkling ) belonged too.

All 4 of The Inklings claimed to be Christian, but they entertained some rather unconventional and , er.. heretical beliefs , even by Catholic standards.. bearing in mind, the Golden Dawn spawned the likes of Crowley, The Beast, 666.

Although Tolkien never did "fess up" to being an initiate in the Golden Dawn, numerous witnesses have placed him there, and all the circumstantial evidence does seem to point there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVwu_ApNuxc&t=7s

Here John Todd levels the accusation that the Golden Dawn was the Rothschild Witchcraft church, and the information coming forth was directly from the Book of Shadows...

I'm yet to explore the inception of the Golden Dawn in depth, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was a Rothschild outfit.. just as The Process Church of Final Judgement is a tangible Rothchild asset.. both rumoured to be closely related , if not irretrievably intertwined, with the security/intelligence services... of course Crowley has long been rumoured to be an MI6 agent, and Jimmy Savile (Process Church) is also likely to have been MI6 , as he told Esquire; "The thing about me is, I get things done, I work deep cover"... "I've known the royal family for a million years"
http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/43798/How-Jim-really-did-fix-it

Of course, our security services have long since the days of John Dee employed magicians as spies.. or spies as magicians... why would today be any different?

Ahh..it's amazing how many seemingly unrelated subjects all lead down the same rabbit holes.

Doreen Valiente and the Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn

Doreen Valiente is a name that I am sure every reader will have heard of. This inquisitive, intelligent, writer and Witch was born in 1922, in Mitcham, Surrey, but lived for most of her life on the south coast of Britain. She had a keen interest in folklore, the Occult and Witchcraft and wrote several books on the latter subject. Always keen to expand her knowledge, she was involved with various different Witchcraft groups throughout her life, and worked solo magic too.

In 1952, The Illustrated1 printed an article about Witchcraft, based on an interview with Cecil Williamson, then-owner of the Witchcraft Museum on the Isle of Man. Upon reading it, Doreen wrote to Cecil who then referred her to Gerald Gardner who was at that time, the ‘resident Witch’ of the museum. Her subsequent initiation and involvement in the re-working and writing of pieces for the ‘Gardnerian’ Book of Shadows is well-known and something she talks about in her book The Rebirth Of Witchcraft.

In the same book, we also find Doreen stating ‘I had been a student of the Golden Dawn system of magic for years, long before I ever met Gerald Gardner.’2 Intrigued by this statement, I set out to try and find out more about Doreen Valiente and her connection to that premier Magical Order, The Golden Dawn.

The Golden Dawn has arguably been the most influential Magical Order ever to have existed. It was formed in 1887 by three Freemasons, Dr. William Wynn Westcott, Dr. William Robert Woodman and, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (who was the more magically-inclined of the three). Other well-known members included, ‘the Great Beast’ Aleister Crowley, the mystical A.E. Waite, the creative W.B. Yeats, the magical Israel Regardie and the gifted Dion Fortune.

The Golden Dawn’s grade system is based on Qabalistic structure and consists of an Outer Order composed of five grades; it is this part of the Order that was originally referred to as the ‘Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’. There is then an intermediary portal grade you have to pass through before moving on to the second, or Inner Order, called the Ordo Roseae Rubeae et Aurae Crucis (R.R. et A.C.) which translates to ‘Order of the Rose of Ruby and the Cross of Gold.’ It is in this Second Order where the real magical work of the Golden Dawn system starts. The First Order, Portal Grade and Second Order could loosely be likened to the three degrees found in Witchcraft with each being analogous to purification, consecration and amalgamation into the whole; although the hermetic nature of the Golden Dawn, tends to make it more cerebral than the Craft. There is a final, theoretical, Third Order that corresponds with the supernal triangle on the Tree of Life and it is said that no living person can enter this Order.

After making some enquiries, I have been unable to find anything to suggest that Doreen was a member of any Golden Dawn temple, or any of the related offshoot groups, that existed in England in the 1940s and 1950s. However, in a letter Doreen wrote to Rev. T. Allen Greenfield in 1986, she mentions that she owned some Golden Dawn notebooks that belonged to Frater Nisi Dominus Frustra. Evidence would seem to suggest that it was these original notebooks, (along with Regardie’s published Golden Dawn works), that she considered herself ‘a student of’. But how did Doreen obtain them?
http://www.thewica.co.uk/DV and the GD.htm

Oh, now the stuff Tau Allen Greenfield has come out with is just mind blowing:

Secret Cipher of the UFOnauts
Secret Cipher of The UFOnauts - Biblioteca Pléyades
www.bibliotecapleyades.net › archivos_pdf

Secret Rituals of the Men in Black
Secret Rituals of The Men in Black
www.bibliotecapleyades.net › cienciareal
 

Rixus

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Slowly reading through The Lost Fleet series.

And wow - from occult references in LotR to Jimmy Saville was an MI6 agent. And it made sense. I've been wanting to see a stoned brain dump - but disappointing ☺️.
 

Artsu Tharaz

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The book I'm going to have a go at is a maths book about Banach Spaces.

Just posting things to encourage myself to actually read it LOL
 

QuickTwist

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The book I'm going to have a go at is a maths book about Banach Spaces.

Just posting things to encourage myself to actually read it LOL

You need to let go of your frustration, man.
 

Ex-User (9086)

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I.K. Palace of Dreams, so far a great read

M.M. Society of Mind, interesting synopsis on symbolic logic and author's original theories

U.K.G. Lavinia, one of the most boring/forced books I've read

Welsh myths and poems
 

Turnevies

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The book I'm going to have a go at is a maths book about Banach Spaces.

Just posting things to encourage myself to actually read it LOL

I took a math course once containing some banach space stuff (it was a normed vector space that is complete, right?). Hilbert spaces are the most interesting and important ones to my knowledge.
 

QuickTwist

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Sinny, are you 21 yet?
 

Artsu Tharaz

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You need to let go of your frustration, man.

I either need more good things in my life, or I can be proactive about my future (such as having a look through a book that will likely relate to my future studies). Idk how to just let go of feeling frustrated.

I took a math course once containing some banach space stuff (it was a normed vector space that is complete, right?). Hilbert spaces are the most interesting and important ones to my knowledge.

Yep that's the one.

Sinny91 said:
Who was locked up in a mental institution, and kept away from the public.. Because it's far easier to remove difficult individuals than it is do deal with them.

Isn't it, forum?

Hear, hear.
 

Sinny91

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It completely escaped my attention the Tolkien had roots in Birmingham, I just assumed he was some toff from Oxford and yonder:

The Birmingham Tolkien Group

J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, is one of Birmingham's most famous authors.

The Birmingham Tolkien Group is working to promote the connection of Tolkien with Birmingham.

Tolkien's connection with Birmingham

J. R. R. Tolkien's family and parents came from Birmingham. He himself grew up in Sarehole, Moseley, King's Heath and Edgbaston in the years leading up to the First World War. He said that the beauty of the countryside there had a profound effect on him.

The landscape of the Shire, in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, was based on Sarehole Mill and on the farmland around - now the Shire Country Park. The hobbits, he thought, were like the people he met then, with greater gifts of courage than imagination. Tolkien left Birmingham when he was nineteen, but returned often to visit friends and relatives. Later in life he described both Birmingham and Oxford as his 'home-town'.

Visitors to Tolkien's Birmingham

Many people visit Birmingham because of their interest in Tolkien. Every year since May 2000 there has been a weekend at Sarehole Mill celebrating Tolkien's life and work. Those who come are from the local community, from the UK, and worldwide; for example in the last couple of years from Poland, Germany, the USA, Canada and Australia - usually about 10,000 visitors over the Saturday and Sunday. Comments overheard during the Weekend: Mummy, can we come early next year? and It's been the best day of my life.

The aims of the Birmingham Tolkien Group
To celebrate Tolkien's connection with Birmingham in his youth.

To contribute to the positive image of Birmingham by promoting this to a wider audience.

To develop a Tolkien Centre giving a focal point to Tolkien and his work, answering a need often expressed by visitors.

This would enable Birmingham to benefit as a city by developing a comprehensive package of activities for residents and visitors alike.
http://www.libraryofbirmingham.com/article/tolkien/brumtolkiengroup

That's so cool, because I was using the Birmingham landscape to picture The Shire... Birmingham is cooler than I thought.
http://www.libraryofbirmingham.com/tolkien

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Robert_S._Blackham

I already missed the moot
https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/yulemoot-2016/

Ha.
 

Rixus

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That's so cool, because I was using the Birmingham landscape to picture The Shire... Birmingham is cooler than I thought.
Ha.

He based a lot of the landscape on Wales because he (rightly) thought it was an epic country with beautiful scenery. Elvish is based on a cross between the Welsh and Finnish languages. :p
 

Sinny91

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Ha! A fucking United badge, never thought I'd see one of those here...

The land scape I was looking at whilst reading the LoTR

jbaNpMf.jpg
 

Rixus

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It's so flat. No real hills.
I will show you the landscape he based it on when it's light tomorrow. Hey, you might even get to see and cross them next year .
 

Sinny91

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Its flat because it's a basin in the valley. The Clent Hills were to my right, at a higher altitude.

Not that anyone could see them through the fog.

My home town is just 4 miles from where Tolkien was, so... He was looking in my direction.
 
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The body in pain-Elaine Scarry
The culture industry-Theodor Adorno

Also watching in a year with thirteen moons got me into Goethe's tasso
 

chalkdust

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three ancient colonies by sidney mintz

europe and the people without history by eric wolf

considerations on the rise and fall of the romans and their greatness by montesqeau

psychological types, psychology and religion, the zolfinga lectures.... by carl jung

odu ifa the ethical teachings by maulana karenga

marx and marxism by peter worsley

alienation marx's concept of man in society by bertell oleman

towards an understanding of karl marx by sidney hook


and one fiction: the last harmattan of alustine dunbar by syl cheney coker
 
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