Alex Sumner's Blog, page 58

An Open Letter to the UK Government, on behalf of all Authors

This was first written in January 2011. The law has not changed since then! Fortunately though, the UK Government today has another chance to get it right, as today Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne makes his Budget Statement.

To: the Rt Hon David Cameron MP, Prime Minister.

Dear Sir,

Firstly may I offer you my most sincere commiserations for the result in the Oldham By-Election last night. I appreciate you have a lot on your plate right now, and you are probably fed up to the back teeth with people adding to your woes by intimating that you may not have got it exactly right with the recent VAT increase.

Which is rather unfortunate as that is the precise reason why I am writing this letter.

However, I am not going to waste your time by going on a long rant about the fact that increasing indirect taxation only works during a time of economic prosperity because in a recession poor people don't have the opportunity to get a higher paid job in order to escape their increased costs of living. Instead – I would like to take issue with the status as regards to Books and Ebooks. The situation is basically this:-

Currently, printed books are not subject to VAT – but Ebooks are.

Ever since VAT was introduced back in the 70s, successive Governments have shied away from putting VAT on books because they did not want to be accused of placing a "tax on knowledge." Fair enough – but Ebooks contain just as much knowledge as print books, so on this basis they should be subject to the same preferential treatment, should they not?

Moreover – there is the environmental issue. Producing printed books entails chopping down lots of rain-forests, and is a far more costlier process than producing an ebook. Ebooks, however, can be sold at a far-lower price per unit than print books, for much the same reasons that it is cheaper to download MP3s than buy CDs – and no trees are hurt in the process. For a Government that is seriously committed to the Environment, surely the enlightened approach is to favour Ebooks over print-books.

IMHO, Ebooks are the future – especially when it comes to everyday reading. I can only think of two reasons at all why paper-books should continue to exist in the future. Firstly – Antiquarianism and the antiquarian book trade, for whom old editions of books and manuscripts are its raison d'etre. Secondly – gift books. After all, there is great value in getting a copy of a book autographed by the author – but unfortunately there is no comparable way to do this electronically.

There are some strange people who think they can't do without the "feel" of a book in their hands, but I have no sympathy for them. If they are so kinesthetically-oriented, perhaps they would like to imagine that they have the sap of innocent trees on their hands as well? (Hey, it's not quite as dramatic a metaphor as having blood on ones hands but give me some sort of credit!)

So to summarise – to recognise the increasing importance of Ebooks in the modern day world – and for environmental reasons – either put VAT on printed books but not ebooks (the reverse of the current situation); or abolish VAT on both books and Ebooks altogether.

Yours sincerely,

Alex Sumner

Filed under: Comment Tagged: books, Budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Cameron, ebooks, environment, George Osborne, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, HM Treasury, HMRC, Nick Clegg, Oldham By-election, rain-forests, VAT

Medical Research: the Acid Test

Jimi approves of this blog post!

Some time last year I suggested that if a psychedelic substance is alleged to have a medicinal or therapeutic use, we should be studying it scientifically, not prosecuting people who import it (see the post: Free Peter Aziz!). Now it appears that a load of scientist at Harvard Medical School have heeded my words and done just that! Either that or they have succeeded in convincing their University to pay for them to get off their faces for the weekend.

Apparently a "new" study in the Journal of Pharmacology suggests that LSD can be used to treat alcoholism – because the effect of going on a trip can cause the acid-head to re-evaluate his addiction from a Higher perspective. I say "new" but this is the Daily Telegraph we're talking about, and given their reputation for up to the minute scientific reportage it was probably published back in the sixties. Apparently, though, it was quite a party because they had 536 volunteers.

Lick here! You might be one of the lucky twenty-five.

Note: the basic principle – that a psychedelic agent can enable one to take control of an illness, by allowing one to view it from a state of expanded consciousness – is pretty much identical with the rationale behind Ayahuasca use. However, the difference would be that with one you would be sorting out your problems whilst listening to Jimi Hendrix and early Pink Floyd; with the other you would be doing so whilst chundering mightily.

At some point, however, all these scientists are going to get a clue that it isn't necessarily the drug but the psychedelic state that causes the beneficial effects: hence they should be working to induce the state without artificial means.

Filed under: Comment Tagged: Acid, Drop, Experience, Flash, Hawk, Jimi Hendrix, LSD, Lucy, Microdot, Paper Mushrooms, Pink Floyd, Rainbows, Smilies, Stars, Superman, White Lightning

Secret Chief Sweep-stake!

Nick Farrell has unearthed a hastily suppressed post by David Griffin claiming that the latter is going to name the secret puppet-master behind the Golden Dawn, but tantalisingly not revealing the name until the next post. Ooh, the anticipation! I was almost seriously tempted to subscribe to Griffin's blog to find out more …

… But then I had a much better idea! It is (drum-roll) THE SECRET CHIEF SWEEP-STAKE. We each come in by picking whom we predict DG is going to name as the Capo Di Tutti Capi. The prize for winning is that everyone else has to buy a copy of one their books.

Nothing personal against DG, but because he actually knows the answer he is excluded from the competition.

I go first: I bags Bob Gilbert.

Filed under: Occult Tagged: David Griffin, Golden Dawn, Nick Farrell, Secret Chiefs

Ask A Wizard 6: How To Rig An Election!

In which a certain "Vladimir from Moscow" seeks to engage the help of yours truly for rigging ahem I mean winning an election. Obviously not related to current events … much.

Filed under: Comment Tagged: 777, Aleister Crowley, Election, Moscow, Russia, Vladimir Churov, Vladimir Putin, vlog, Youtube

The Assumption of God Forms

This post is a reply to a comment of Facebook by Sorita D'Este regarding the Assumption of God Forms – specifically, how this is done in the Golden Dawn tradition. My position is: the assumption of a God form is a combination of both Invocation and Evocation – my reasons for saying so being as follows:

The actual technique in use in modern GD temples is confidential information, although a greatly simplified version is sort-of-alluded-to in Self-initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition by Chic and Tabatha Cicero. Essentially, the magician starts off by using a series of magical techniques to evoke an astral-form of the deity in question standing (or indeed sitting) in front of him- or herself. The magician then steps into the astral-form, as if wearing it – at the same time attempting to link his or her consciousness with that of the deity. This "linking of consciousness," I submit, amounts to invocation of the powers which the God-form represents. The magician would then do whatever he/she needs to do, such as perform ritual or meditate, before ending the session by de-linking, stepping out of the form, and absorbing it back into oneself.

This amounts to more than just "porting" an entity from one area of the individual's consciousness to another, in that one of the peculiarities of the Golden Dawn (specifically the Neophyte ceremony) the God-forms are evoked by one set of officers (the adepts) to be worn (invoked) by another (the floor officers). You might well think this is overly-sophisticated, but going through the whole procedure of building up a God-form and then assuming it does produce a palpable change in mental state, a magical state of consciousness, which cannot be dismissed lightly.

In my opinion, the old cliché about "invoking" being about calling something into something or oneself and "evoking" being calling something out of oneself is based on the fallacy that the Inside and the Outside are somehow detached from one another. In a Golden Dawn ceremony one can both Invoke an Evoked Power and Evoke an Invoked Power in the same ceremony, even switching between the two (e.g. the way that the Hierophant and Past Hierophant juggle god-forms during the Neophyte ceremony). I really think we should abandon the phrases Invoking and Evoking, and just call it "Voking."

Filed under: Occult Tagged: Golden Dawn, Sorita D'Este

Witchcraft: Punishing The Innocent Along with the Guilty

In which I vlog about how the conviction of Eric Bikubi and Magalie Bamu for the murder of Kristy Bamu has been portrayed in the press.

Filed under: Comment Tagged: daily telegraph, kindoki, wicca, Witchcraft

Shall We Kill The President? Available on Amazon Kindle

Artwork © Copyright 2012, the author.

You can now dowload Shall We Kill The President?, the new novella by Alex Sumner to your Kindle from Amazon. This features Guy Shepardson, star of The Demon Detective.

Jet-setting modern-day wizard Guy Shepardson takes a trip to Washington DC where he encounters a group of Vampires who come to him with an unusual request! However, enemies both old and new have plans of their own, and would dearly love Guy Shepardson out of the way. Can Guy escape from their clutches and use all his magical powers to stop a plot to assassinate the President of the United States?

NB: You don't need a Kindle device to read Kindle ebooks!

"Shall We Kill The President?" is also available in other Ebook formats from Smashwords.

Filed under: Publications

What the stars have in store for The Sun On Sunday

Rupert Murdoch and his son James

The world was in mourning yesterday when Rupert Murdoch, to absolutely no-one's surprise at all, confirmed that The Sun newspaper would be launching a Sunday edition. Vigilant web-observers had reported that the domain name had been registered the very day after the closure of the News of the World was announced last year. Whatis news however is that the date of the first issue has been confirmed as Sunday 26th February 2012.

I have therefore taken it upon myself to cast a horoscope for the paper, in order to how Murdoch's latest enterprise will fair. As the paper is based in London, and will be available from midnight onwards, I have taken 12am London, UK, on Sunday 26th February 2012 as the time, date and place for the chart.

Birth chart for The Sun on Sunday courtesy of Astrodienst.com

 The genesis of the idea

Rupert Murdoch probably decided the launch date for the Sun on Sunday two weeks previously (12th February) – which just so happened to be the date the Sun announced that he was due to fly into London (Moon is two degrees past Venus in a Cardinal sign and a succedent house).  No surprises that it comes about as a direct result of the trials he has been going through recently (Moon opposite Saturn). That the Moon is in the fifth house AND in conjunction with Venus indicates that Murdoch was probably being over-dramatic in doing so, acting from romantic notions about what should become of the new paper.

"Birth-chart data"

The paper has Sun-Pisces and Scorpio-Ascendant. The latter indicates that the face the paper presents to the public will be overly concerned with both Sex and Death, whilst the former indicates that its attempts at factual reportage will be marked by flights of fantasy, wishful thinking, and a tendency to adopt a dreamy view of the world as opposed to one which is strictly accurate. The fantasy / wishful thinking aspect will also be evident through its writing style, and the editorial will be forthright in putting forward the paper's "beliefs" (Mercury in Pisces).

The paper's sun sign, being on the IC, indicates that its primary focus will be to establish a safe and solid house style which will see it through the long-term. Given that its sun- and mercury- are both trine to the ascendant, this indicates that the paper will be successful in integrating its fantasy / wishful thinking style with its Sex / Death subject-matter.

Prospects for the future

The paper will generally do well at least for the first twenty-one months of its existence, but will face a severe crisis in November 2013, which is when Saturn transits the paper's ascendant. The edition of Sunday November 24th 2013 will be a time of particular difficulty for the paper. The paper will be forced to face up to its responsibilities and adopt a serious tone – a significant number of staff will be forced to leave as the paper tries to slim down. This does not necessarily entail fatal consequences for the paper, as it will be able to put across its position to the general public very well (Mercury is transitting the paper's ascendant at the same time).

Conclusion

The stars are all lining up to suggest that the new Sun on Sunday will conform to everyone's prejudices of how it is likely to turn out!!! Generally speaking I predict that if the paper can survive the crisis in November 2013 it will mostly do well. The circumstances of its birth – i.e. the memory of the closure of the News of the World and how its journalists were treated by Murdoch – and are being treated by the Leveson Inquiry at the moment – will affect the general atmosphere in the news room for a long time.

Filed under: Comment, Occult Tagged: astrology, Mystic Meg, News International, News of the World, Rupert Murdoch, The Sun On Sunday

Live! At The Witch Trials

 

Burn her anyway!

I read today in the Daily Telegraph of how authorities in Germany are reviewing the 400 year old case of a woman burned for witchcraft. What gets me though is that instead of just giving her a posthumous pardon, they are actually "resuming her trial."

Why??? As I said in a comment to another post, if modern standards of justice were applied to all those of accused of witchcraft in the past, they would all be acquitted, or their cases would never have come to trial in the first place, because (a) their acts would not nowadays be classed as crimes; (b) their confessions were obtained by torture (and hence would be inadmissable as evidence); and (c) it is doubtful that the allegations would be treated with anything other than scepticism anyway. I suppose that because of (stereo)typical German efficiency they have to go through the rigmarole of re-trying the woman in order to exonerate her.

However, before Wiccans start rejoicing, one should note that the present case is taking place not because of the efforts of a pagan activist but those of an evangelical pastor and religious education teacher. Therefore his agenda is not to prove that as a pagan she was not guilty, but as a Christian she was not guilty. The argument being that – like almost all of the 25,000 people accused of Witchcraft between 1500 and 1782 – they were almost all not Pagans, but Christians who had been wrongly accused.

Filed under: Comment Tagged: daily telegraph, Germany, paganism, Witchcraft

The Quadruple Goddess

Quadruple Goddess?

The "Triple Goddess" was an idea first proposed by Robert Graves in "The White Goddess" and nowadays taken as gospel by modern neo-pagan groups. However, I have a problem with it – for the following reason. The "Triple Goddess" supposedly represents three ideals of womanhood, Maid, Mother and Crone, or to put it another way:

In the first stage of her life, a woman is a chaste virgin (Maid);
Then as she enters adulthood, she becomes a dutiful wife and home-maker (Mother);
Then she becomes a nice old Grandma (Crone).

Seen in this way, the Triple Goddess, far from representing the ideal of womanhood, represents the apotheosizing of a patriarchal, sexist and chauvinistic male idea of what womanhood should be.

If, however, The White Goddess had been written by a woman, i.e. a woman living in the twenty-first century, I suspect that the idea of a "Triple Goddess" would not have been proposed at all. Rather, she would have come up with the idea of a "Quadruple Goddess," to wit:

Maid;
"Whore";
Mother; and
Crone.

I.e. to represent the fact that in between being a Maid and settling down to become a Mother, most young women – and certainly all those of my acquaintance – want to spend several years going out and having a good time.

I appreciate the fact a lot of people might attach stigma to the idea. Indeed, I was wracking my brains to find an appropriate word to describe stage two: most of the epithets of which I could think have been or are used perjoratively. So in the end I just said to hell with it!

Now before I start getting criticised by the fluffy-bunnies for coming up with an idea at such variance to their cherished beliefs, I would like to back up my claim with some evidence, to wit: the phenomenon of the "Love Spell."

I read a lot of neo-pagans say "Oh you cannot cast love-spells! It's dangerous! It's unethical! It would saddle you with lots of bad karma! It would mean interfering with someone's free will! Think of everything that could go wrong!" Etc etc etc. So if Love Spells are so bad, how come they exist at all??? Unless the old village wise-woman – who existed to service the needs of the Maid, Mother and Crone – also serviced those of the "Whore" as well.

Herodotus writes about "sacred prostitution" or rather "sacred-random-sex-encounters" taking place in temples of Aphrodite, whilst even the Old Testament uses the word "Qadeshah"  in some places to describe prostitutes – a word which literally means "a consecrated woman." (The context was a mitzvah prohibiting women from being Qadeshahs, but at least it points to their existence.)

Thus there is a historical precedent for claiming that the Goddess has a "Whore-aspect," yet a lot of neo-pagans are still buying into the Robert Graves inspired paradigm, thereby helping to stigmatise an aspect of feminity that many women want to indulge in.

Filed under: Occult Tagged: Fluffy bunnies, Happy Valentine's Day, Love Spells, paganism, Robert Graves, Sacred Prostitution, Triple Goddess, White Goddess, wicca