The Galloway Chronicles

Would have accepted jenkum as a consolation prize.

2011-10-27T18:30:00.005-04:00

Image by Kathryn Andrews, via defacedbook.

Alchemy in the news!

U.K. Man Sets Fire To Apartment Trying to Turn Feces Into Gold.

...the process involved leaving feces, along with fertilizer, on top of a heater. While this process did not manage to transmute the feces into gold, it did manage to transmute his entire apartment into a blazing inferno. Upon his arrest, [the would-be alchemist] admitted to arson and endangering the life of fellow residents in the building by starting the fire, which is estimated to have caused £3,000 worth of damage. Judge McFarland who presided over the case commented that Moran’s endeavors were an “interesting experiment” but that they were obviously doomed to fail. He then proceeded to transmute the next three months of Moran’s life into jail time.

2011-07-26T03:19:00.004-04:00

From Dear Coke Talk:

How do you find purpose and meaning in a life that might be/is inherently meaningless?

Find out where you are on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Aim higher.

Though I prefer Grant Morrison's Magic = Life + Significance.

Oh, happy day!

2011-07-04T14:22:00.000-04:00

The homunculus came home today. Right now he lies in peaceful contemplation.

Happy Independence Day and covert fire festival to one and all. I leave you for now with a wonderful post by Rufus Opus.

2011-06-23T22:31:00.003-04:00

"Watercolor Box" by Stephanie Levy

"I firmly believe that lifestyle designers and hard-core minimalists are magicians in their own right." -The Unlikely Mage.

New Bob Ross of Magick Shows Us A Nice Easter Spell.

2011-04-24T23:08:00.000-04:00

We like Inominandum's T-shirt which subtly evokes a clerical collar, and the occasional glimpse of his cat. Video content good also.

We're still alive, we're still alive...

2011-04-24T22:39:00.000-04:00

Been out searching for Lost Worlds. We expect to be home more often now, as is necessary for the creation of a homunculus.

2010-05-11T01:17:00.000-04:00

"Fallen Lemon." Original digital painting. 2010.

2010-05-08T23:21:00.000-04:00

The Garden. Original digital painting. 2010.

2010-05-06T17:05:00.000-04:00

"Bones." Original digital painting. 2010.

2010-05-06T16:51:00.001-04:00

"The Visitor." 2010. Original digital painting.

2010-05-06T15:26:00.000-04:00

"Color Experiment: Thursday." Original digital painting. 2010.

2010-05-06T14:45:00.000-04:00

Color Experiment "Whatever." Original Digital Painting. 2010.

2010-03-14T00:48:00.001-05:00

Desert Woman. Original Digital Painting. March 2010.

2010-03-13T22:01:00.002-05:00

"Yeah, It's Like That." Original Digital Painting. March 2010.

From Zen to Qabalah.

2010-03-13T18:55:00.002-05:00

In just a few steps.

2010-03-06T13:09:00.000-05:00

Untitled. Original Digital Painting. March 2010.

2010-03-04T15:14:00.001-05:00

Complete works of Friedrich Nietzsche online.

2010-03-01T23:28:00.005-05:00

"Be Ready To Fly Or To Smite!"
Original Digital Painting. March 2010.

A great image of Horus.

2010-03-01T15:32:00.002-05:00

CAI-CG61022-Paherypedjet-D21a-TT320-TOL8_9-Horus-son-Kebechsenef-bust-SVI0107-web, originally uploaded by CESRAS.

2010-02-27T19:57:00.001-05:00

"Orange Room." Original digital painting. February 2010.

2010-02-25T13:00:00.006-05:00

Discovered the paintings of Claude Verlinde. More can be found here.

2010-02-24T22:42:00.000-05:00

"Dragon Asana." Original digital painting. 2010.

2010-02-22T21:14:00.001-05:00

"Nina's Room." Fake comic book cover. Original digital painting. 2010.

2010-02-17T14:03:00.005-05:00

My contribution to this discussion:

Yes, the Golden Dawn was historically exclusive and elitist. The original group was so exclusive and elitist that their teachings were almost lost when the group broke apart. Who would have carried this spiritual knowledge to the next generation if Crowley and Regardie had not gone ahead and just published the Golden Dawn material for everyone to read? Had it not been for that, chances are that few people reading or posting on this website would ever have come into contact with this material.

Remember, even Dion Fortune was rejected from one of the post-G.D. groups for not having the right symbols in her aura. ("A perfectly unanswerable charge.") And Fortune had her own issues with mental illness. Would you have kept Dion Fortune out of your group too?

A lot has changed in the last century or so, and going crazy just ain't what it used to be. In fact, it's much more common, and it is foolish to pretend to understand all of the reasons for this societal shift. The very drugs demonized in these posts are the ones most frequently prescribed by doctors today.

Philip K. Dick said that sometimes going insane is the only sane response to an insane society. He was a visionary, too, but I doubt he would have been able to live up to these standards, either. Another potential G.D. reject!

Though Crowley was barely out of school when he joined the Golden Dawn, he immediately observed that "the members of the Order were as vulgar and commonplace as any other set of average people." Elitism be damned. We all start out as lead.

2010-02-10T17:47:00.000-05:00

2010-02-05T17:01:00.001-05:00

found text 3

2010-02-01T01:41:00.002-05:00

The rituals described also share another trait: they all seem to go horrendously wrong. Grant calls this a "tangential tantrum," but I can think a stronger words to describe one's students dying or going insane. Alleged instances include a trapeze artist falling off a giant Tree of Life framework into an open well, aquarium monsters emerge to have sex with a Priestess, and an Indian temple baboon dissapears into a column of purple smoke never to be seen again. To be sure, some people derived benefits from these rites: one woman supposedly became a great dancer after she sucked off a giant Mayan squid-bat in an abandoned chapel in Wales (pp. 243-6)!

(from a review of the work of Kenneth Grant)

2010-01-27T16:38:00.001-05:00

"In Her name." Original painting by Soror Phineas. Digital. January 2010.

found text 2

2010-01-27T16:29:00.003-05:00

"[name redacted] - will you please stop replying to yourself? It's dishonest. We all know that both you [and name redacted] are the same poster. I've told you once before (when you were pretending to be your wife, and you deceased), that your writing style is rather too distinctive to get away with this sort of deception, and it is no doubt feeding your continuing delusions of grandeur also.

Are you an A.:A.: master this week, or a dragon lord fighting level 3 demons and destroying covens? Whatever the latest salve to your ego is, it's nothing to do with Sunshine, and you're hardly qualified to tell other magickians about the adorations."

Raising the dead -- apparently, it's a cinch.

2010-01-17T12:16:00.006-05:00

Raise The Dead

Check out this video on...I don't know what to call it.

We are free!

2010-01-04T21:39:00.003-05:00

Via Comically Vintage.

DISCLOSURE

2010-01-01T20:12:00.001-05:00

What you must not do is react.

Basically there will not be disclosure.
Surely you've heard all the theories about TPTB fooling us into leaving the planet
and then disposing of us.

I doubt that I can contact the ETs directly.
The best minds believe they don't exist.

Original poem, in the "cut-up" style of the Beats. 2009.

SETI

2010-01-01T20:07:00.003-05:00

I've heard before that SETI isn't a reputable organization.

They are monsters.

They are ugly.

Come on, infinite probabilities people!

This earth alone demonstrates an array of lifeforms,

That all seem alien to one another.

Original poem, written in the "cut-up" style of the Beats. 2009.

What does life after death really mean?

2009-12-16T20:41:00.006-05:00

The Love of Souls by Jean Delville (1867-1953). Via decadenthandbook

On the one hand, the evidence for continuity of personality is, in my opinion, very strong; thousands of mediumistic communications attest to it, and I find many of these communications persuasive. On the other hand, who wants to survive as a bundle of quirks and worries and petty grudges? Wouldn't it be hell to be trapped with your chattering "ego-mind" forever? Sweet oblivion would be preferable.

From the wheat and the chaff, an excellent blog post from Michael Prescott.

2009-12-15T00:11:00.000-05:00

Self-portrait. Dec 2009. Digital.

2009-12-14T22:38:00.000-05:00

Death. 2009. Digital.

2009-12-13T21:50:00.003-05:00

image via Gorg

"For, as Freud has shown, we remember (in the main) what we wish to remember, and forget what is painful. There is thus great danger of deception as to the "facts" of the case; but our memories indicate with uncanny accuracy what is our true will. And, as above made manifest, it is this true will which shows the nature of our proper motion." -The Confessions of Aleister Crowley

2009-11-27T09:35:00.004-05:00

image via papertissue

"Hitherto I had encountered only the brick wall of traditional views, but now I came up against the steel of people's prejudice and their utter incapacity to admit unconventional possibilities...

...I realized that one gets nowhere unless one talks to people about the things they know. The naive person does not appreciate what an insult it is to talk to one's fellows about anything that is unknown to them...I came to see that a new idea, or even just an unusual aspect of an old one, can be communicated only by facts." - Carl Jung.

From Memories, Dreams, Reflections.

2009-11-26T19:55:00.002-05:00

Mary Magdalene.

Found Text 1

2009-11-23T22:15:00.000-05:00

Is Emily Miller a victim of sexism or her own abrasiveness

2009-11-23T21:46:00.001-05:00

Sullen guy. Digital. 2009.

This guy has extreme power. It is just. Nobody has recognized it yet.

Another painting of a great medium.

2009-11-23T20:40:00.002-05:00

Moina Mathers. Digital painting. 2009.

Might do the Fox sisters next.

Useful cliches.

2009-11-23T11:28:00.003-05:00

Get out of your own way.

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

2009-11-22T18:59:00.000-05:00

Om. Digital sketch. 2009.

A portrait of my sister.

2009-11-21T22:06:00.001-05:00

Jane. Digital painting. 2009.

2009-11-21T17:04:00.002-05:00

E.W. Digital. 2009.

This is a portrait of one of my oldest friends.

My portrait of Dion Fortune.

2009-11-21T15:25:00.002-05:00

The Medium On Her Wedding Day. Digital. 2009.

Baby don't hurt meh!

2009-11-21T01:53:00.003-05:00

Woman in tube, posted in memory of Mac Tonnies. He was collecting images like this not too long ago.

2009-11-20T22:04:00.002-05:00

Star Ruby

A sketch I did tonight, playing with a new piece of software.

Hidden writing on the Shroud of Turin.

2009-11-20T20:14:00.005-05:00

Like the image of the man himself the letters are in reverse and only make sense in negative photographs...

Dr Frale said that many of the letters were missing, with Jesus for example referred to as "(I)esou(s) Nnazarennos" and only the "iber" of "Tiberiou" surviving. Her reconstruction, however, suggested that the certificate read: "In the year 16 of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius Jesus the Nazarene, taken down in the early evening after having been condemned to death by a Roman judge because he was found guilty by a Hebrew authority, is hereby sent for burial with the obligation of being consigned to his family only after one full year". It ends "signed by" but the signature has not survived.

From Times Online.

A new crescendo of meaninglessness.

2009-11-20T14:35:00.005-05:00

"So what if Sarah Palin didn't write this book? Even God used early scribes to write the Bible." -Moe Lang, Amazon.com commenter.

Via Jezebel. Art by Man Ray.

A page from Jung's secret notebook.

2009-11-19T12:52:00.000-05:00

It's a secret to everybody

2009-09-18T03:28:00.001-04:00

It's a secret to everybody, originally uploaded by Ethan Hein.

Another...

2009-09-10T12:13:00.001-04:00

smile in mountain, originally uploaded by phitar.

Every great smile is a spiritual teacher.

Summer's End

2009-08-22T06:53:00.008-04:00

Water is the softest and most yielding substance.

Yet nothing is better than water,

For overcoming the hard and rigid,

Because nothing can compete with it.

-Tao Te Ching

Image via papertissue

"Ra"

2009-08-21T08:41:00.001-04:00

Ra, originally uploaded by moufle.

More in a series of great smiles I am finding.

2009-08-20T20:53:00.006-04:00

"God knows I love you. Now you do too." by Mark Warren Jacques

The highest good is not to seek to do good,

but to allow yourself to become it.

The ordinary person seeks to do good things,

and finds that they can not do them continually.

-Tao Te Ching

“Oh yes, they were sexy, these voluptuous ancient sea people!” -Richard Shaver

2009-08-20T18:42:00.007-04:00

Antediluvian "Rock Book" painting by Richard Shaver (of "The Shaver Mystery"). See more here. You can buy them, too. If you're rich.

THIS IS THELEMA.

2009-08-20T16:41:00.005-04:00

Click here to see.

It's cool.

Via KillStopGo.

For Magicians Considering Redecorating

2009-08-20T15:50:00.005-04:00

Bibliodyssey has a showing of alchemists' laboratories that may serve as inspiration. Add an Eames chair and you'll be thoroughly modernized.

"Transzendenz"

2009-08-18T01:26:00.001-04:00

Transzendenz, originally uploaded by -fritzi-.

2009-08-12T01:04:00.000-04:00

"Man is so infinitely small,

In all these stars, determinate.

Maker and master of them all,

Man is so infinitely great."

-Aleister Crowley

"Fast Ink"

2009-08-12T00:46:00.001-04:00

Fast Ink, originally uploaded by .unsuono..

"Thoth on my Bed"

2009-08-12T00:41:00.001-04:00

Cartas na Cama / Thoth on my Bed, originally uploaded by CAFÉ TAROT.

The Great Hydra Tell-Off

2009-08-12T00:25:00.001-04:00

Images of the Occult, originally uploaded by phoenixxx9000.

The Art of Linda Macfarlane

2009-08-10T00:06:00.000-04:00

This is a portrait of Marjorie Cameron, companion to the famous magician and rocket scientist Jack Parsons. Click here to see more of Macfarlane's images of magical women.

2009-07-22T07:31:00.000-04:00

Posthuman Blues turned us onto The New Post-literate, an extraordinary website on asemic writing.

R.I.P. John Keel.

2009-07-07T01:13:00.000-04:00

"The UFO manifestations seem to be, by and large, merely minor
variations of the age-old demonological phenomenon."

One of the greats.

Any Good Magician Could...

2009-07-03T13:01:00.000-04:00

"Over Eye" by Bernhard Fruehwirth.

Do whut?

Click here for a list.

Via Plutonica's Saturday Signal.

Esoteric Alphabet

2009-06-30T10:18:00.001-04:00

Any alphabet that contains the word "menstrual blood" over and over again is bound to be pretty good. Done by Annie Murphy.

Via the venerable Phantasmaphile.

2009-06-29T08:56:00.000-04:00

This item kindly passed to us by our agent-on-remote, who is currently stationed in Inner Mongolia:

This is an anecdote I’ve carried in my mind for years:
I have a Buddhist friend who was visiting monasteries in Nepal a few years ago. One day, he got a rare invitation to witness a “sky burial” — the funeral of a monk, held on a mountaintop, culminating in the dismemberment of his body and scattering of his flesh and bones to feed birds of prey and other animals. (This ritual, also known as “giving alms to the birds,” has practical roots as well as spiritual resonance. Much of Tibet is above treeline, so cremation is difficult, and it’s generally too rocky for burial.)
My friend hiked for hours to get to the site, and when he arrived, the ceremony was already in progress, punctuated by the overtone singing and thigh-bone trumpets of the monks. In the center, a man was ritually slicing into pieces the body of the old monk who had died.
My friend looked closer and saw that the man doing the cutting was wearing a t-shirt: Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

By Steve Silberman. Originally found in the Buddhist magazine Shambhala Sun.

2009-06-29T01:27:00.001-04:00

"But it only just now became clear to me how split Jackson’s personality had become. As his public but nonperformance persona grew more and more infantile, his onstage presence became more sexual and more angry. Jackson never spoke much about the allegations against him, and spoke only a few times about his abusive past. But his music and performances had a clear message…I just never knew how to read it."

Click here to read more from Dream's End on the passing of Michael Jackson. (R.I.P.)

2009-06-29T01:15:00.000-04:00

"One of Dion Fortune's readers...returned a well thumbed copy of "The Winged Bull" to the publishers for fear of corrupting the scavengers if it ended up in the trash can..." -Gareth Knight

2009-06-23T03:04:00.000-04:00

"To fight the Empire is to be infected by its derangement. This is a paradox: whoever defeats a segment of the Empire becomes the Empire; it proliferates like a virus, imposing its form on its enemies. Thereby it becomes its enemies." -Philip K. Dick

2009-06-23T02:53:00.000-04:00

"La lettrice"

Click here for a nice commentary on the painting.

2009-06-23T02:28:00.000-04:00

Many a classic work of art could be improved upon by adding a battalion of flying saucers, as demonstrated here by Banksy.

2009-06-16T08:44:00.000-04:00

One more from the same site, because I couldn't choose between them.

2009-06-16T08:40:00.000-04:00

One of several fascinating art pieces at Beyond The Limits of Reason.

Literally, a resource, for once.

2009-06-16T01:47:00.001-04:00

Esoteric occult PDFs by Crowley, Blavatsky, Frater Achad, Dion Fortune, and so on. Good stuff. Click here.

2009-06-14T01:31:00.001-04:00

The demand to be safe in relationship inevitably breeds sorrow and fear. This seeking for security is inviting insecurity. Have you ever found security in any of your relationships? Have you? Most of us want the security of loving and being loved, but is there love when each one of us is seeking his own security, his own particular path? We are not loved because we don't know how to love. -Krishnamurti

2009-06-14T01:05:00.000-04:00

Found this late, but it's worth it.

2009-06-13T23:29:00.000-04:00

Lest we forget, Arlen Specter has been involved in conspiracies for a long time, and Lee Harvey Oswald remains on his mind.

"I am almost getting used to all this para in my normal."

2009-06-13T00:01:00.000-04:00

Dream's End is back.

2009-06-12T23:06:00.000-04:00

"Forever's Gonna Start Tonight" by Maya Hayuk

Via Phantasmaphile

2009-06-12T07:40:00.000-04:00

Via Saints, Tigers, Lovers, Flowers, Art

Strange "twilight language" around the death of actor David Carradine.

2009-06-10T17:00:00.000-04:00

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman weighs in here. Fascinating article.

Remember, kids: Reality is consensual and no means no.

2009-06-09T19:02:00.000-04:00

We didn't have to make this up. Mainly because somebody else did.

Are the First Family clones?
"Human genetic material, largely undamaged after 2,400 years, has been extracted from an Egyptian mummy and has been grown in the laboratory. One 2,400-yr-old mummy of a child was found to contain DNA that could be molecularly cloned in a plasmid vector. These analyses show that substantial pieces of mummy DNA can be cloned and that the DNA fragments seem to contain little or no modifications introduced postmortem."
New York Times
April 16, 1985

Click for original collages of Barack as Akhenaton and Michelle as some other ancient Egyptian.

"Prepare for a bit of disappointment."

2009-03-21T01:02:00.000-04:00

Holes on Mars!

Keeping in mind that The Chronic is Fortean, not Freudian: holes are almost always disappointing.

CONSPIRACY WORLD ROCKED: Elders of Zion Abandon All Sense of Protocol

2009-03-13T08:26:00.000-04:00

The Elders of Zion, the venerable and shadowy Jewish organization that controls the international banking industry, news media and Hollywood, has announced that it is disbanding so that members can retire to Florida and live out their golden years on the golf course.

“We had a good run,” said one senior Elder, reminiscing over old photographs of world leaders in his musty, wood-paneled office at an undisclosed location. “Maybe we ran the world for just a little too long. Anyway, now it’s Obama’s problem.”

Read the full article here.

Via Covert History.

A Manson Family Creepy Crawl?

2009-03-13T02:32:00.000-04:00

Eerie video posted by Chronic hero Adam Gorightly.

2009-03-04T01:06:00.000-05:00

"The three stages of the neurosomatic circuit - 13. Hippy, 14. Yogi, 15. Tantric - are body-oriented and involve a deliberate symbol-stupidity. It is understandable that the five-brained person reacts against the insectoid-cyborg materialism of larval technology, the scientism that produces plastic consumerism, military-industrialism, assembly-line anonomie, and polluted over-population. But the rejection of scientific inquiry becomes a know-nothing smugness. Occultists become long-haired rednecks."-Timothy Leary

2009-03-02T22:28:00.001-05:00

2009-02-28T01:03:00.000-05:00

"I am a pioneer of a new kind of writing that instead of heroes and villains will have floods and bugs and stars and earthquakes for its characters and motifs." -Charles Fort

THE CHRONIC is back.

2009-02-28T00:21:00.000-05:00

A brief contact with old school chums via Facebook prompted a lengthy hospitalization. But we're better now.

Only 1,392 shopping days till December 21, 2012!

The Chronic Staff

2009-01-26T22:56:00.000-05:00

The Norman Rockwell Code

2009-01-02T11:08:00.000-05:00

Apropos to nothing.

2008-11-24T00:38:00.000-05:00

Words from a priest of the Goddess Cloacina.

2008-11-08T21:31:00.000-05:00

2008-11-03T19:42:00.001-05:00

Barack Obama Captures Coveted Peruvian Shaman Vote

2008-11-01T15:14:00.000-04:00

Via Wonkette.

Even at this late date, Mongolian shamans still silent on their presidential choice. DEVELOPING HARD...