Alex Sumner's Blog, page 49

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 28,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 6 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Filed under: Site Update

Ask A Wizard: “How To Break In A New Tarot Deck.”

In which I impart some advice to a tweep who has just received a Tarot deck as a Christmas present. This video contains the outline of a practical ceremony you can perform for breaking in a new tarot deck.

Filed under: Occult Tagged: Ask A Wizard, LBRH, LBRP, Opening by Watchtower, Tarot, Youtube

Enjoy “The Magus” this Xmas!

Front cover artwork © 2009 by the author.

You now have the opportunity to download copies of my first novel, “The Magus” at a special rate this Christmas season! This is a story of murder and black magick and the occult set in contemporary London, and contains authentic descriptions of gruesome occult practices. It is the first book in my “Magus Trilogy.

For the whole of the Christmas Holiday Period – i.e. from now until January 6th 2013 – you can download it from SmashWords, in whichever ebook format you prefer, for just $1 – i.e. 50% off the usual price.

To take advantage off this offer,

Click on this link to go to THE MAGUS on Smashwords.com

And use coupon PS33N at the check-out.

Thanks!

Filed under: Publications, The Magus Tagged: 50% off, christmas, ebook, EPUB, ibooks, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, pdf, Smashwords, special offer

Tithing: How Not To Do It

The Tree of Life

“Tithing,” or the giving of a tenth-part of what you have to a holy cause, has a long tradition behind it. In the book of Genesis, Abram (Abraham) gave Melchizedek a tithe of everything he had. In both Judaism and Christianity it became a moral obligation to give to charity or in the latter case, to the medieval church, where it became an early form of income tax.

Nowadays, when I note that self-help books advocate “tithing,” not to the Church or any religious institution in particular, but to charity generally, the idea being that by “paying it forward” one may expect future material benefits.

Needless to say, all these people have got the wrong end of the stick – and not least because giving anything to charity in the hope of gaining a reward therefrom is not literally “Charity.”

Man is both a spiritual and a material being. Now Qabalists are always saying that the Bible is allegorical, and in the case of the Abraham / Melchizedek incident, the real allegorical meaning of saying “Abram gave him a tenth part of everything,” is that he gave him a tenth part of all he had both spiritually and materially – in other words, a whole Sephirah! So if one assumes that to be Malkuth, it effectively means that Abraham did not give 10% of his goods to Melchizedek but his entire life on the physical plane.

Therefore, anyone who gives just 10% of his or her income to charity is in fact only giving 1% of all they have – a tenth of a tenth part!

To be honest, I personally do not advocate literally giving away everything that one physically possesses. The real key is to recognise that Charity – Agaph – is not what you give but why you give it, i.e. an inward disposition of your own soul. In this sense, being prepared to put all of your life on the physical plane at the disposal of “Charity” becomes a realistic proposition.

Filed under: Occult Tagged: Melchizedek, Tithing

Florida Grand Master Decides Pagans Can’t Be Freemasons

Over at the the Wild Hunt I notice that the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Florida has decided that certain named types of pagans – including Wiccans and Odinists – cannot be Pagans. Here is a scan of the edict:

Now, get this. As far as I understand Freemasonry, the authorities he has cited as part of his edict – the Landmarks, and the charge of a Freemason – are entirely correct. However he seems to have excluded a number of things from his consideration, to wit:

The Volume of the Sacred Law is not necessarily a specific book (e.g. the Bible), but that which constitutes the revelation from heaven which is binding on the conscience of the individual. Hence, it would be the Holy Book of the religion of the candidate being initiated – and indeed, non-Christians are allowed to swear their G.’. and S.’.O.’. on the Holy Book of their choice, e.g. the Tanakh, Koran, Zend Avesta, etc. It is my understanding of Freemasonry, therefore, that one may become a Mason so long as one believes in a God, who is the G.’.A.’.O.’.T’.’.U.’. from one’s own point of view,  and one is prepared in all good conscience to swear on a Holy Book of one of the world’s religions.

Furthermore, the GM of Florida has managed to discriminate against pagans, without exercising discrimination! Whilst Agnosticism probably isn’t compatible with the craft, Gnosticism and Paganism are far to general terms to bandy about and there is a lack of explanation as to what is exactly wrong with Wiccan and Odinism. The thing is, religious and political discussions are banned within craft lodges anyway, so once they are in, they cease to be members of different religions and are simply Brothers of one Craft. It is within my personal knowledge that there are many pagans who are Freemasons, though not within Florida in the United States.

Now let me tell you a little story. In my novella, Shall We Kill The President? I described a conversation between a taxi driver and a Vampire in the Deep South of America.

“The bus-boycott was when, exactly?” Elijah said.

“You’re from out-of-state, right?” the driver said. “Just cause it’s fifty years gone don’t mean attitudes change much in these parts.”

“Tell me about it,” Elijah muttered.“Like when I joined the Masons,” the driver continued. “Whenever I tried going to a Lodge in this state, immediately they go to ‘refreshment’ soon as I walk in the door. ‘So, Bros,’ I sez to ‘em, ‘when we gone from refreshment to labour again? Ain’t you got a ritual today?’ But they just plain ignore me as if I ain’t there. I gets the message real quick, and take mysel’ down to Prince Hall sharpish, if you know what I’m sayin’.”

“Huh!” Elijah snorted. He paused, before adding: “So how do you join the Masons? The Prince Hall ones, I mean.”

“Oh, you just need to believe in God and that you’re goin’ to Heaven when you die,” the driver said. “Why? Does that sound like something which appeals to you?”

Elijah frowned. “No,” he said.

The fact of the matter is that although dressed as fiction, the experience described by the taxi-driver is a real-life phenomenon experienced by African-Americans who are either Masons or who want to become Masons in certain parts of America. I know this because it was related to me by an American Mason - in the state of Florida.

That’s right: the unpalatable truth is that pagans might feel aggrieved because they can’t become Masons in Lodges warranted by the Grand Lodge of Florida, but black Masons have been discriminated against in the same state for far longer than just November 2012. The problem is far more serious than pagans seem to realise.

Filed under: Occult, Publications, Rant, Shall We Kill The President? Tagged: Florida, freemasonry, Odinism, paganism, wicca, Wild Hunt

Alex Sumner invades Canada! *UPDATED*

Canada

Oh Canada! You have given so much to the world, such as Ice Hockey, Neil Young, Donald Sutherland, David Cronenberg, *cough* Pamela Anderson *cough*, Canadian Club Whiskey, Maple Syrup, Mounties, Lumberjacks, etc, etc. So to say thank you on behalf of the rest of the world, I, Alex Sumner, am making my books available in your fair country.

And, I am happy to say, Amazon’s Canadian website is now catching up with its American counterpart! As of today, the following of my books are available:

The Magus Trilogy

The Magus – as a Paperback and via Kindle.
Opus Secunda - as a Paperback and via Kindle  *
Licence to Depart – as a Paperback and via Kindle *

* Amazon.ca lists these although the Paperback versions are currently (18.12.12) unavailable.

The Demon Detective, and other stories

All Kindle unless otherwise stated.

The Demon Detective
A Greater Power
Shall We Kill The President?
This Is Not A Fairy Story


Filed under: A Greater Power, Licence To Depart, Opus Secunda, Publications, Shall We Kill The President?, The Demon Detective, The Magus, This Is Not A Fairy Story Tagged: amazon, Canada, Dark fantasy, fantasy, Occult Fiction

Apocalypse is coming … A Week Early: Follow-Up

You now have the power to become fabulously wealthy – by listening to Alex Sumner when he gives Stock Market tips! Yes indeed, I, Alex Sumner, the world’s greatest expert on Financial Sorcery have scored a success, and consequently I am going to crow about it egregiously in a blatant bit of self-promotion. In my last post I said:

This is what happens when Jupiter Px opposes Mercury.

If I were to predict what will happen on that day I would say that probably there would be yet another dip on the stock market……

I therefore suggest the following course of action for the poor benighted inhabitants of this planet.

…

3. If you are an investor – go short on the stock market.

I wake up this morning and what do I find? The FTSE-100 is down 300 points! Hence, anyone who followed my advice and went short has now made tons of cash.

You’re welcome. Expressions of gratitude may be made to the Alex Sumner Appreciation Fund (link on my website), or here.

More seriously however, I note that the police have not announced any more arrests in Operation Yew Tree, as per my other predicition, which leads me to believe that given I was right about the first thing, then there is still a notorious sex-offender who is currently at liberty. Come on Police, get with it!

Filed under: A Greater Power, Licence To Depart, Occult, Opus Secunda, Publications, Shall We Kill The President?, The Demon Detective, The Magus, This Is Not A Fairy Story Tagged: FTSE 100, Operation Yew Tree, Stock Market

Apocalypse is coming … A Week Early

Good news: the world is not going to end on December 21st 2012, as the Mayans (supposedly) predicted. Yay!

Bad news: it’s actually ending on the 17th instead – next Monday.

The whole business about the hysteria surrounding the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar is based upon the idea that the end of the cycle is occurring at the same time the Sun, Earth and Galactic Centre are in alignment. Actually this is a gross over simplification. The whole business is actually based upon exploiting the pathetic neuroses of a large number of gullible people who feel their lives have no meaning if they aren’t looking forward to the end of the world. But I digress. The sun / earth / galactic centre coincidence is what is mainly fuelling the pre-occupation with the forthcoming end of the Mayan Calendar.

There is at least one problem with this however: the Sun, Earth and Galactic Centre won’t actually be aligning on December 21st – they will already have come into alignment four days previously: at 10.46pm GMT on Monday 17th December 2012, to be exact.

The exact position of the Galactic Centre is 17h 45m 40.4s of Right Ascension – which in terms of the Tropical Zodiac is equivalent to 26º 25′ 6″ Sagittarius. It is fairly easy to use astrology software to find out when the Sun will share the same degree of longitude, and hence mark the moment of the Sun – Earth alignment (see above).

But before we get too upset and be all doomy and gloomy, there are a number of reasons to say that even this will not mark the end of the world per se. Firstly, the Sun / Earth / Galactic Centre line up on a regular basis: once a year, every year, around about the same date. Hence, instead of looking forward to the end of the world just in 2012, we ought by rights to be looking forward to it every year!

Secondly, although the Galactic Centre is 17h 45m 40.4s Right Ascension, its Declination is -29° 00′ 28.1″. Note that because of the tilt of the Earth, the Sun’s own declination can never fall below -23º 30′, so in fact on the day of the alignment the Galactic centre won’t actually be completely aligned with the Sun and Earth but will appear (or would appear if it were visible) slightly beneath the Sun from our point of view. Five and a half degrees may not sound like much to you and me, but in terms of heavenly bodies, one of which is 27,000 light years away, the difference quite literally is astronomical.

Thirdly, were I to invoke astrology, I would say that looking at a chart drawn for the moment of the alignment does not actually show anything remarkable. If I were to predict what will happen on that day I would say that probably there would be yet another dip on the stock market occurring at the same time as yet another prominent public figure being revealed as part of a shady cover-up, leading to widespread public outrage. So in other words, just an ordinary day like any other – but crucially not the end of the world.

Horoscope drawn for the exact moment of Sun / Earth / Galactic Centre alignment 2012

Interestingly though, I have heard anecdotal evidence that there is a statistical correlation between when the Sun is aligned with the Galactic centre and an increase of psychic activity on planet Earth. I therefore suggest the following course of action for the poor benighted inhabitants of this planet.

If you are a magician – use the evening (Monday) for conducting magical rituals.
If you are a policeman – may I suggest there is another nonce waiting to be arrested as part of Operation Yew Tree, so please do so.
If you are an investor – go short on the stock market.
Everyone else – calm down, calm down!

Finally, as to December 21st itself, may I suggest that it probably won’t be the end of the world: it is however the last Friday before Christmas, so it is a perfect time to go out and have a party – which is probably how the Mayans would have celebrated the end of their calendar anyway.

Filed under: Comment, Uncategorized Tagged: 17th December 2012, 2012, 20121217, Apocalypse, astrology, december 21st 2012, end of the mayan calendar, Galactic Centre, Mayan, sun earth, tropical zodiac

Alex Sumner invades Canada!

Canada

Oh Canada! You have given so much to the world, such as Ice Hockey, Neil Young, Donald Sutherland, David Cronenberg, *cough* Pamela Anderson *cough*, Canadian Club Whiskey, Maple Syrup, Mounties, Lumberjacks, etc, etc. So to say thank you on behalf of the rest of the world, I, Alex Sumner, am making my books available in your fair country.

Or at least I will be just as soon as the new Canadian Amazon site gets its act into gear.

Apparently, only my first novel, The Magus is actually available in Canada at the moment, although this is no bad thing in itself! See, the thing is, though, I logged into Kindle today to see how fast my ebooks are selling, and apparently they are now collecting sales statistics from Amazon’s Canadian site. But my ebooks are not available on the Canadian site!

As no doubt a wise Canadian would say: “Eh?”

So, for now it’s just The Magus. Obviously I shall shamelessly plug the rest of my books as they become available in your fair country: or you could just import them from that country south of the border, or get them as ebooks from Smashwords.

Filed under: Publications, Rant, The Magus Tagged: amazon, Canada

Os ebooks de Alex Sumner: agora disponíveis no Brasil!

Brasil

Ah Brazil! You have given the world so many things! Like Pele, Capoeira, Bossa Nova, Samba, thong bikinis, Cachaça, the Rio De Janeiro Carnival, etc etc. So, to say Obregado on behalf of the rest of the world, I, Alex Sumner, am now making my Ebooks available in your fair country!

Please note that they are only in English – I have not yet translated them into Portugese. Head on over to my Brazilian page for more details!

Filed under: A Greater Power, Licence To Depart, Opus Secunda, Publications, Shall We Kill The President?, Site Update, The Demon Detective, The Magus, This Is Not A Fairy Story Tagged: Brasil, Brazil, Cachaça, Capoeira, Carnival, ebook, Girl From Ipanema, Kindle, Pele, Rio De Janeiro, Samba, thong