Curses Possibly Foiled

…but we’ll never know.

Via Witchvox, we learn that the University of Leicester is displaying a curse tablet from circa 300 AD.  A common archaeological find in Roman-occupied areas, these were typically sheets of lead inscribed with an incantation, rolled up like a cigar, sometimes transfixed with nails, and inserted into a tomb, a cave, a river, or a well.  We can be certain that they exercised a malign influence upon others.  At least, the lead ones dropped into the drinking water did.

The tablet bears the name of Maglus, a Celtic god who, as this website helpfully informs us, is not known for much of anything.  (The power of the Web at work!)   Plus, it teaches us the names of Servatus and eighteen of his neighbors, and that Servatus probably had serious anger issues.

Those who want to read more, or read the same information without snarky commentary, should check out Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World by John Gager.

State of the Game: Call of Cthulhu

Though I do love Call of Cthulhu, I don’t talk about it much here, for reasons that most long-time readers have already figured out. Still, I was inspired by a recent thread at Yog-Sothoth.com discussing some of the recent decisions by Chaosium, the company that publishes the game. Instead of publishing your typical RPG softcover books, they have branched out in recent years to monographs (tape-bound books written and laid out by a single author), reprints, and, more recently, POD hardbacks.

The question is how much of this is a short-term strategy to get back on their feet after some bad luck/judgment, or if it heralds more trouble down the road. It’s often difficult to find data on private companies like most RPG producers, so all of this could be speculation. Nonetheless, I thought I’d try to get a sense of what’s going on from the available data.

To start, I took a look at their current top 15 sellers in gaming from their online catalog:

01. Parapsychologist’s Handbook (monograph)
02. Cthulhu Invictus (monograph)
03. Cthulhu Dark Ages
04. The Abbey (monograph)
05. Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37 (monograph)
06. Masks of Nyarlathotep hardback
07. End Time (monograph)
08. Call of Cthulhu
09. Ripples From Carcosa (monograph)
10. Caligo Accedendum Tournament (monograph)
11. The Keeper’s Companion vol. 1
12. Cthulhu Rising (monograph)
13. Mysteries of Morocco (monograph)
14. Raising Up (monograph)
15. First Book of Things (monograph)

Let’s toss out some caveats. First, we can expect that cheaper items will sell more units. Second, this listing apparently dates to the site’s foundation, so the numbers will skew toward the older items. Third, this only reflects website sales, which will emphasize items that are available only here (the monographs and hardcovers) instead of those available through regular distribution chains.

Nonetheless, it’s not an encouraging sight. Eleven of the top fifteen books are those cheap, tape-bound monographs only available through the website. You’ve got two rulebooks – the rating for Cthulhu Dark Ages is likely skewed, as Chaosium apparently reset the count for the CoC rulebook at a recent reprint. The other two items are reprints of older material.

Strikingly absent from this list are any of the more recent new releases – Secrets of Japan, Secrets of New York, Tatters of the King, and Secrets of San Francisco. I didn’t like all of these, but none was horrendously bad. Nonetheless, some of them have been around for quite a while, and none of them is listed in those top 15. That’s not just due to their new status, either – most of them have been around longer, and are cheaper than, the Masks of Nyarlathotep hardback reprint.

Based solely on the data here, it’s likely that those fans hardcore enough to visit the website are interested in cheap low-circulation works of low editorial quality (the monographs) and reprints of popular items. What we’re not seeing is the products that are most publishers’ bread and butter – new releases. Overall, this indicates to me that the present emphasis on other types of books being published will likely continue. Chaosium’s ongoing success might lie in becoming a sort of legacy publisher putting out works for a small fan base interested in simple presentation and/or collectibility, instead of embracing the three-tier publisher/distributor/ retailer model typical for the industry…

…unless the sales to retailers of the new items are impressive enough, in which case all the above was just pointless. So it goes.

Gamers, feel free to chime in.

Back

The Harms household has returned from the non-traditional Thanksgiving/birthday/ Christmas extravaganza! I don’t really think it was different from anyone else’s, save for the Settlers of Catan and the stream of gag gifts. My family doesn’t realize yet that, if they buy me a Boohbah or other such beast, it will take up permanent residence at the patriarchal demesne instead of coming with me.

On the down side, I got very little reading done, meaning that I still have the bulk of Olav Hammer’s Claiming Knowledge hovering over me like a 500-page dark cloud.   On the up side, I heartily recommend The Fast and the Furious:  Tokyo Drift for anyone who wants a hilariously bad driving movie.  And who doesn’t?

Back to other topics later.

In the News

John Symonds, Crowley executor, passed on yesterday at the age of 92.

I’m headed home for the holidays.  Blogging might get done, or it might not.  Take care, folks.

Gates of the Necronomicon: “Simon” and “Simon”, Part 2

I know you’re all dying to hear more from “Simon” about Gates, so let’s get to it.

Now, you’ve made some grand claims about the Necronomicon over the years, especially how it’s going to save the world from enslavement and death from Those from Outside.  To back that up, what would you say are your credentials as a magician?

The conjuration – or evocation, or summoning – to visible appearance is by far the splashiest aspect of ceremonial magick… Many authors in the past have avoided this area like the plague, simply because they have not performed these rituals and therefore cannot vouch for them or even profess to understand them…

We are not so timid. – Gates

A bold statement from “Simon”!  Magically, he walks where others fear to tread!  You armchair wizards and wannabes, you self-described “ceremonial magicians” and “pagans” – look out!  The monk is back, and he’s taking names, performing eldritch feats beyond your wildest dreams!  You’re on notice, you phonies!

Let’s go to our other guest.  “Simon,” in addition to being an International Man of Mystery, do you have any magical capabilities of which we should be aware?

I do not cast spells. I am not that kind of person. As a person, I’m more interested in mystical things, the mystical path of the Necronomicon. So I don’t sit and work spells to keep evil people away. – Coast to Coast

A bold statement from “Simon”!  No threat of danger can swerve him from his path!  He stands defenseless before his foes, knowing he could die at any moment but remaining completely unafraid and unswerving to the temptation to use magic!  You’ll never catch him hawking some “book of spells” in your local Borders!  He remains true to himself and the antient customs of his “kind of people” – whoever the hell they are!

More from “Simon” and “Simon” in later posts!

Project Update

It is about time, isn’t it?

My research has become more diffuse; instead of concentrating on the mid-Nineteenth century, I’m concentrating in on Alphonse Constant (Eliphas Levi) and outward to the early twentieth century, to that complex that covers Theodor Reuss, the OTO, and the German occult scene at the turn of the century. Thus, the two books currently occupying my attention are McIntosh’s Eliphas Levi and the French Occult Revival, which I just started tonight, and Goodrick-Clarke’s The Occult Roots of Nazism, which I’m re-reading after several years. I have to say it’s worth the effort – I’d forgotten about Lanz von Liebenfels, a former monk and Bible scholar who started a Templar order dedicated to saving the world from the racial depradations of rapacious love-pygmies.

I also took a quick peek at a work called The Great Secret, written by a “Church of England Clergyman” (I won’t even try a link for that one – even the big reprint houses have missed it). He knew Frederick Hockley, the famous crystal-gazer, and partook in a magical experiment from one of his manuscripts. At some point, I’ll have to hunt down the exact incantation involved, which the good minister indicates was printed somewhere, most likely in one of the Solomonic grimoires or Waite.

And for those of you who want a quick primer on Frederick Hockley and most of the occultism at his time, I highly recommend Joscelyn Godwin’s The Theosophical Enlightenment for fringe Masonry, crystal-gazing, blasphemy, the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, and all manner of curious goings-on that led to and followed Blavatsky’s society. It’d have been better off if I’d found it before researching my way around the same territory, but that’s writing for you.

From a technical standpoint, I’ve realized that I need to stop being such a damn perfectionist. This section of the essay is just an overview of the topic, so I don’t need to obsess over whether X or Y really was practicing ceremonial magic of a particular tradition, or order one of Guido von List’s books on Austrian eBay because I can’t get it anywhere else. I might just have to deal with the fact that I won’t know what the hell J.-K. Huysmans was really up to with the Abbe Boullan in the ritual department – or, more importantly, that I’ll miss something and get it wrong. I ran into this with the Encyclopedia as well – that level of detail makes for great books, but after a while, you have to know when to say when.

Night, folks!

Gates of the Necronomicon: “Simon” and “Simon”, Part 1

Let’s sit down for the first part of our debate. I’d like to thank… um, both of the participants for coming here and answering some questions.

We’ll start with you, “Simon.” Now, you’ve worked and written under a pseudonym in Gates. Can you give us some idea as to why you do that? Does its nature as a guidebook for spiritual enlightenment have something to do with it?

Basically, the data received from such journeys may be published, discussed, or otherwise disseminated if that is the consent of the secret society concerned; however, the identities of the individual members who have undertaken these “subversive” acts should be protected at all costs. Hence, the need for aliases and “Order names”: names taken by the individual members reflective of their “secret” identities and/or goals. – Gates

That’s pretty damn cryptic, but you seem to be suggesting that you’re taking on the name “Simon” due to some mystical society’s decision that you be compared with, I don’t know, Simon the Cat or Simon the Game or Simon the Chipmunk. Have you ever thought about ditching those bastards?

Never mind. Let’s move on to “Simon,” who has also written a book under a pseudonym. Why’s that?

The difficulty perhaps is not so much the church, of course, the church is an element of my concern, but it is the other people. I have been, since the Necronomicon I have been stalked, I have been followed on the streets by people trying to find where I live, what church I am with, all of these things. It has been a great deal of pressure on me since that time. So I have been very very jealous of my privacy and my security because only because there are many strange people who for their own reasons seem to be desperate to know more about me and I feel that’s not appropriate… – Coast to Coast

That’s certainly understandable…

It’s a matter of privacy and trying to separate one type of work from another I guess. – Coast to Coast

Stop right there, mister! There’s only one answer per “Simon” allowed. Besides, your first answer was a lot better. And what’s this “I guess” business? Shouldn’t you know why you have a pseudonym? Sheesh.

Luckily for you, our special color commentator has shown up. What about you, “Simon”? What’s your reason for hiding your name?

…I have always found spiritual “teachers” to be dangerous and have resisted the temptation to create a cult of my own, hence my anonymity and use of a pseudonym. – Dead Names

I see where you’re coming from – I keep having people show up at my door who want to enter into an abusive spiritual relationship with me. Well, they say they’re selling band candy, but that’s just a front. Handling it doesn’t require a pseudonym, though. Just tell them you appreciate their sincerity, but you’re trying to watch the puppet episode of Angel, so if they’ll go home and remove Keanu Reeves from the wicker man, you’d be grateful.

That’s all the time we have. Join us later for another exciting debate between “Simon” and “Simon”!

Gates of the Necronomicon: Announcement

I haven’t quite had it in me to critique Gates lately.  That’s largely because I’ve got work, plus the project (I should post an update), plus the excitement of sleeping on my office floor.  Besides, “Simon” has revealed in Dead Names just how biased I really am.

No worries, friends!  I’m bringing in some fresh blood.  In a few days, I will be conducting a discussion about some points in Gates with none other than “Simon”!

Of course, it’ll be necessary to bring in a counterpoint, someone who knows enough about the Necronomicon to be able to critique Gates from a position of authority.  So I’ve managed to secure, for a limited time only, the gracious services of “Simon”!

And, if we’re lucky and we can get everyone’s schedule to work out, we’ll hae a very special color commentator.  That’s right – “Simon” might be stopping by!

So, get ready for “Simon” and “Simon” – and maybe “Simon”!

The Debate Is… Re-Created

That’s right! The fight from our last post rages on, pitting those who believe the Wiccan pentacle should adorn the graves of their loved ones against the commentators who are desperately trying to create some important issue to talk about!

Daniel at Getreligion is the next to fill that vital need:

The problem with the article, as Eden noted to us, is that there is no mention of the possibility that widows and other family members of GIs might find a pentagram offensive…

Is this a perspective that ought to be addressed in the news story? Are there families of soldiers out there that would find it offensive to see a pentagram on the tombstone next to the one of their beloved one?

Indeed! Should the reporter have interviewed someone with a viewpoint that a guy on a blog just made up? What a burning question!

Now, there could be some person who has a valid reason to oppose this change. I’m not sure what it could be, but I’m open to hearing it. It seems, though, that some people want to inject some drama into this by trying to stir up some sort of controversy. It might make things more exciting, but I don’t find it particularly respectful to the soldiers or their families.

Fortunately, we do find a person in the comments who actually believes this is a bad idea and has a reason:

So “no pentagrams” is just another restriction by the government. If you want the free funeral you play by their rules. If you don’t want to play by their rules they don’t have to pay for your funeral.

You can understand his point. I mean, people risk their lives to protect their country, and some fringe nutjobs think that deserves special treatment. Next they’ll be wanting special “military funerals” or something.

Fear not, though! I will continue to sift through the news. If the VA or another group announces some valid reason that stems from actual conviction, I’ll let you know.

Update

I spent last night at work. On the plus side, I know that this is a really bad idea now. I stayed for the day, hit 3:15, and suddenly realized I was physically and mentally done. I saw a couple muddy spots on the road on the way home, but for the most part, the floods are gone.

Now I will be taking a nap.