Alex Sumner's Blog, page 56

Solar Eclipse: Update

A photo of this Sunday / Monday’s eclipse, originally taken by Nasa

Following on from my post about the eclipse that occurred late last night / early this morning, here is a photo of the event originally taken by NASA. Thanks to Keith for sending it.

Filed under: Occult Tagged: annular eclipse, May 20th 2012, NASA, photograph

Public Challenge to David Griffin

Stop all your verbal attacks against Chic, Tabby, Nick Farrell, Pat Zalewski, the SRIA and all the rest, and use your supposed EU trademarks to stop the neo-nazis in Greece from bringing the “Golden Dawn” name into disrepute.

If you want to be remembered for doing something good for the Golden Dawn community, that is.

Filed under: Comment, Occult Tagged: chic cicero, Chrysi Avgi, David Griffin, Golden Dawn, Nick Farrell, Pat Zalewski, SRIA, tabatha cicero

The Curious Case of the Glastonbury Skeletons

A skeleton in the High Street – from “Glastonbury People”

News today that skeletons have been appearing on the streets of Glastonbury! I.e. in the form of graffiti. It is an utter mystery why they got there. Which is as much to say that I just had a quick squizz at Banksy’s website and he’s not admitting responsibility … yet.

Anywow, assuming that it is one of the denizens who either lives in or regularly visits Glastonbury, it occurs to me that there is a good chance that I am already “friends” on Facebook/Twitter/etc with the perpetrator! If so, feel free to drop me a private message fessing up.

Filed under: Comment

Where to market your ebook part 2

This is a follow-up to my last post. Just to demonstrate that I am prepared to put my money where my mouth is, I have now translated my About page (see the Alex Sumner link in the navigation bar) – which, coincidentally, is where you can find links to buying my books either in print or as ebooks, plug, plug – into five extra languages, to reflect the linguae francae of the non-Anglophone countries on my top ten list. To wit: German, French, Dutch, Spanish and Italian.

Unfortunately Filipino is not among them, as I fancy my proof-reading skills in Asian languages even less than I do in European ones!

Filed under: Publications, Site Update Tagged: deutsch, español, français, italiano, nederlands

Where to Market your Ebook

Instead of a post about occultism, for a change I will deal today with “Voodoo Statistics” (i.e. please don’t shout at me too much in regard to my methodology) – in order to answer the question, what are the Top 10 Countries in which market an ebook in the English language?

By my calculations they are (biggest potential market first):

Rank
Country
% of potential world market for English language ebooks


1.
United States
42%


2.
United Kingdom
10%


3.
Germany
8%


4.
Canada
4%


5.
France
4%


6.
Australia
3%


7.
Philippines
3%


8.
The Netherlands
3%


9.
Italy
2%


10.
Spain
2%

“Wait!” I hallucinate that I hear you ask. “Germany above Canada? How can that be so?” Quite simple: there are more people in Germany who speak English as a second language than there are in Canada who speak it as either a first or second language. This indeed is the reason why non-anglophone countries make it onto the list at all.

Other factors used to determine ranking include % of people with Internet access and relative poverty / richness. India for example has 125,000,000 English speakers, but because over half the population live below the Poverty line (defined by the UN as earning less than $2 / day) and only 7.5% have access to the internet, the potential market for ebooks must logically be a mere fraction of this number.

Of the countries of the rest of the world, most of the member states of the European Union ranked highly. The highest ranked country in Asia was Turkey at number 14. The highest ranked country in Africa was Nigeria at number 22, whilst Brazil was the highest ranked country in South America at number 23.

Filed under: Publications Tagged: Australia, Canada, ebook, France, Germany, Italy, marketing, Netherlands, Phillipines, Spain, UK, usa

Alex Sumner is back on YouTube

YouTube have seen the error of their ways and restored my channel! This means that my Lucid Dreaming video tutorials and animated Enochian keys are now back online, as well as my vlogs and the Ask A Wizard series. Although I am not giving up my Vimeo channel – just in case…

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Youtube

Solar Eclipse: May 2012

Solar eclipse

A rare astronomic event is taking place on 20th May 2012, starting at 23:50 GMT and ending just less that two hours later the next morning: a full Solar Eclipse, visible from parts of South-East Asia and the United States. Astrologically speaking, this means that for this brief period, the Sun, Moon, and Lunar Node will all be in perfect conjunction.

This reminds me of a theory I heard that this is the real meaning of the Osiris – Set – Horus myth. Osiris (the Sun) is killed by Set (the Moon passing in front of it) who is in turn avenged by Horus (note how the Sun emerging from behind the Moon looks like a giant Solar Hawk – the “jewel” of the ring being the Hawk’s body, with its wings stretching out to either side). See the picture to the left.

That was the good news: the bad news comes from a conversation I was having recently with an astrologer friend of mine. He pointed out that the last time such an event occurred, the countries from which the full eclipse was visible all suffered chaos and disaster within a few years of it taking place! Referring to the one which occurred on 11th August 1999, he pointed out that the course of the eclipse crossed most of Europe, the Middle East and Afghanistan, and what do you know, now we have the Eurozone crisis, the Afghan conflict and the second Gulf War.

To be quite frank, this reminds me of the story of the Buddha, who told the grieving widow: “I will raise your son from the dead if you bring me some Earth from a house where no-one has ever died.” However: let’s suspend our disbelief for a moment and look at what is occurring this May. The eclipse promises to start in China, go up via Japan (just missing South Korea), arc across the Pacific Ocean and hit the western seaboard of America, ending in Texas. Intriguingly, for the most part it will be following the course of the tectonic faultlines that circumscribe the Pacific.

Now, I’m not saying that China, Japan, and the United States are going to be destroyed in a conflagration of Earthquakes and tidal waves… BUT: the Egyptological myth quoted above may in fact point the way to how - magically speaking - these countries can escape or mitigate the Setian-destruction, i.e. to invoke Horus. Either that, or drop a reasonable contribution into the Alex Sumner Appreciation Fund and I can put you in touch with estate agents should you want to buy a holiday home in Europe.

Filed under: Occult Tagged: 20th May 2012, Apocalypse, astrology, Death, Destruction, Earthquake, Solar Eclipse, Tidal Wave

Witchcraft: Punishing the Innocent Along With The Guilty Part 2

You can tell it’s been a slow-news day for me when I lower myself to reading something in The Independent, but here here goes.

Not long ago I reported on the successful conviction of Magalie Bamu and Eric Bikubi for the murder of Kristy Bamu. It now appears that in light of this, police are to be given specialist training to help child victims of “witchcraft.”

Well, I can confirm that I will not be the course-tutor for them, but if I were, here is the first piece of training I would give them: you can start by stop calling it “Witchcraft!”.

This is really just irrational “Fear of the Other.” Here is something they do not understand – a belief system from outside what a Middle Englander would call spirituality – so, being impoverished in terms of their vocabulary, the only name they can call it is “witchcraft.” Whereas we occultists know that witches are in fact quite nice people who do not practice any of the behaviours complained about.

Now, I’m no fan of political correctness, but I have to say that the Independent is being remarkably crass in its attempt to turn misunderstanding of a foreign culture into a salacious news story. Worse though: by labelling a violent and illegal activity or set of activities with the term “Witchcraft” they are managing to invent a whole new prejudice: WICCAPHOBIA.

Please, British newspapers! For once in your life try to educate and inform, instead of using every desperate measure to boost your circulation!

Filed under: Comment Tagged: Kristy Bamu, The Independent, wicca, Wiccaphobia, Witchcraft

Goodbye YouTube Hello Vimeo

After being fucked about by YouTube yesterday, I have now set up a Vimeo channel instead. This has got most of my videos on it, with the exceptions of the series on “Lucid Dreaming” and the Enochian Calls. Grrr! YouTube will find to its cost that it is best not to mess with an arch-sorceror and world’s greatest expert on the occult! BTW, if you work for YouTube and you find yourself being savaged by a Phantom Hound which mysteriously disappears immediately after doing you terrible injury, I disclaim all responsibility.

Click here to visit my Vimeo Channel.

Filed under: Rant Tagged: Vimeo, Youtube

The Astrology of Earth Day

Earth Day was first instituted in the United States on April 22nd 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson, Representative Pete McCloskey, and a number of other concerned individuals including one Julian Koenig, a PR Executive. The idea was that every University and School would set aside one day each year exclusively for teaching its students about the Environment. Since its beginnings 41 years ago Earth Day continues to be marked as an unofficial Environmental awareness day.

Why, though, was it held on April 22nd? According to Wikipedia:

Senator Nelson chose the date in order to maximize participation on college campuses for what he conceived as an “environmental teach-in”. He determined the week of April 19–25 was the best bet as it did not fall during exams or spring breaks. Moreover, it did not conflict with religious holidays such as Easter or Passover, and was late enough in spring to have decent weather. More students were likely to be in class, and there would be less competition with other mid-week events—so he chose Wednesday, April 22.

It also happened to be Mr Koenig’s birthday!

However, when Your Humble Blogmaster first heard about this Earth Day business, I did not have access to the historical detail as related above. What I did see, however, was the influence of forces beyond mortal ken at work. Specifically: April 22nd is when the Sun first enters Taurus – the sign of Fixed Earth. So, either Senator Nelson was secretly into astrology as well, or in fact Earth Day is decreed by the stars!

Filed under: Occult Tagged: astrology, Earth Day