Novblog 2023

Obituary. Ray Sherwin.

I understand from friends that Ray Sherwin died in Las Palmas (Canary Islands) this June past.

I shall remember fondly the year that my wife and I spent in his village of East Morton. We kicked around a lot of the ideas that would become part of Chaos Magic, Ray introduced me to Chris Bray of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and a number of people who would become leading figures in the Chaoist revolution. We had some splendid times trying out new rituals with friends in his attic, and up in the woods around Sunnydale Reservoir.

Ray did not wear his modest literary scholarship lightly, yet his pomposity and arrogance had an amusing and endearing quality to it which brightened many an evening spent in the Busfield Arms in Morton. I considered his attitude towards his longsuffering first Polish wife Marlena rather Neanderthal, even by 1980s Yorkshire standards, my wife considered it appalling. Marlena eventually left him but soon afterwards she suffered a catastrophic stroke.

Ray contributed directly to Chaos Magic mainly by turning his Thelemic fanzine into a Chaoist one called Chaos International and in showing me how to make an edition of Liber Null on a tabletop scale in the days before it became cheap and easy to self-publish books.

Ray’s written contribution to the annals of Chaos Magic remained rather modest at just two small volumes, The Book of Results and The Theatre of Magic. He also seems mainly responsible for a small 25 page book by ‘Paula Pagani’ called The Cardinal Rites of Chaos which details the seasonal rituals of a short lived group he assembled in Morton after I had left. The grandly titled ‘Cardinal Rites’ seem most charitably described as Discordian amateur dramatics.

Yet after he retired with a new younger wife to a small villa in the Canary Islands, Ray published two regrettable diatribes, Vitriol and Ouroboros, both full of conspiracy theory nonsense and invective against his former friends and colleagues and the IOT, despite that I had urged him to desist and check his sources. We never communicated again after he published them.

I rather suspected that he had lost his critical faculties, and friends have confirmed that both Ray and his wife had sunk deeply into alcoholism, poverty, and conspiracy theory, and that their young daughter had become their carer. Having watched my own father drink himself to death decades ago, I concluded that alcoholism results from a Failure of Imagination; failure to realise what it does to you, and failure to imagine doing something else instead.

So, a rather tragic and sad ending to a life, but thanks Ray for that entertaining and highly productive year in East Morton.

For a further commentary on Ray, Vitriol, and Ouroboros see: -

https://www.specularium.org/component/k2/item/226-two-reviews

Retroactive Enchantment!

“Our Gedankenexperiment thus draws a metrological advantage from effective retrocausation founded in entangled states. While PCTC simulations do not allow you to go back and alter your past, they do allow you to create a better tomorrow by fixing yesterday’s problems today. “
Nonclassical Advantage in Metrology Established via Quantum Simulations of Hypothetical Closed Timelike Curves. Available from:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374681474_Nonclassical_Advantage_in_Metrology_Established_via_Quantum_Simulations_of_Hypothetical_Closed_Timelike_Curves

Does Science become more mystical?

Have a look at this! Io Baphomet! Neo-Panpsychism? Morphic Fields Strike again!

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2310223120

Chaos Magic Anthology

One of my publishers has invited me to assemble a team to write an Anthology about Chaos Magic. I have already rounded up many of the veterans from the old guard and some of the more prominent figures from the new generations of Chaoists. We may have space for just one more to join our illustrious lineup, so let me know if you think of contributors I may have missed.

In other news: - The Apophenion, The Octavo, and The Epoch look set to appear in Spanish.

Samhain.  An Eisteddfod Poem.

Summer ends

The veil descends

Darkness begins

A time of fear

Illness, cold, and want

And thus,

A time to laugh at death

Yet the dead still live

Whilst still remembered

Fondly or otherwise.

Leaves fall

Like discarded ideas

I put them in

The compost bin.

Frontier Space War, version 8.

FSW8 represents the latest upgrade to this interstellar conflict system. I have used some high quality metallic spray paints on the card discs showing the star systems and the all-metal ships made out of nuts and bolts, ball bearings, plumbing fittings, masonry and plaster anchors, and some two-part epoxy resin as adhesive.

The five factions here represent: -

Imperials (I), Aquarians (A), Goths (G), Capitalists (C), Soviets (S).

Yet they can represent anything from Neo-Feudal Noble Houses to a variety of Alien Races.

The combat powers of units in attack A or defence D, appear as the type of dice used for such attacks or defences. Icosahedron 20, Dodecahedron 12, Pentagonal bipyramid 10, Octahedron 8, Cube 6, Tetrahedron 4. The system requires 3 sets of attack dice and two of defence dice.

b/3 means best of 3 dice rolls. (1/tn) means only one shot per player turn. (8*) means Destroyers engaged in rounds of combat with  Capital Ships denoted *, attack or defend at 8. # means craft may jump past enemy craft during movement, but not enemy # craft, otherise all other pieces must halt on encountering enemy pieces.

Unit.                        ATTACK    DEFENCE            COST     MOVE    

Capital City*                  -                  20                          -               0

Fortress*                         -                  20                         5               1 NR       

Battleship*                    12                 12                         5               2                              

Battlecruiser*               10                 10                         4               2                                               

Cruiser/Carrier             8                    8                         3              3#                               

Destroyer                       6     (8*)        6                          2              3#                                              

Frigate                           4                    4                          1              3#             

Fort                                -                     4                          -               0

Monitor*                       4                   20                         3               1 NR

Devastator(I)                12   (1/tn)     4                           2               3                    

Fighter(I)                       6                   6                         ¹/₃              0¹     

Attack Cruiser(G)        10                  6                          3               3

Heavy Gunship*(ACS) 20                 4                          5               2                           

Katusha (S)           b/3   10  (1/tn)       6                         2               3

Flagships*  as below

(I)(S) As for Battleship, but attack at 20 and add  +1 to all dice in flotilla A or D.

(C) As for Battleship, but may deploy its 2 fighters in addition to standard attack or defence 3:2 lineup.             

(G) As for Battleship, but b/3 to self and one other ship in flotilla, A or D.

(A) As for Destroyer, but b/3 to self and two other ships in flotilla, A or D.

All worlds must be occupied by a Fort for income. Any Fortress can produce units up to a total cost of 5 per turn. Unused income cannot be saved.  Any ship costing 3 or more may place a Fort on a world cleared of opposing forces at no cost.

Player turn: - INCOME(connected systems), PRODUCTION(at Fortresses), MOVEMENT, COMBAT(retreat, out of combat), (PLACE FORTS)

COMBAT – Risk Protocols, up to 3 Attack dice and 2 Defence dice. Attacker deploys first in each round, up to 3 pieces if available, defender deploys second, must place 2 pieces if available. Compare highest two dice throws in order, defender wins draws. Each side removes one casualty of choice for each loss. After one or more rounds of combat either side may elect to retreat 1 jump from the territory, if possible. NR means no retreat option for unit.

0¹ Fighters can only move in Carriers. Only one active producing fortress per system.

Start – 2 Player game - All pieces on board, at least one ship and a fort per system. Imperials pick 1 ally. Remaining 3 factions ally as Rebels. Alternate All Imperials then All Rebels. Combined ops in attack or defence.

3 Player game. Imperials versus 2 alliances of 2 others. No combined operations.

4 Player game. Imperials inactive due to internal collapse, no production, or movement, defence only. 4 other factions fight for supremacy.

5 Player game. All five factions strive for supremacy. Alliances may form and break but no combined operations except for conquered factions.

Victory Conditions. Eliminate enemy Capitals. Any remaining forces then become subsumed into an alliance with combined operations.

Income from star systems, Large 3, Medium 2, Small 1.    

Starting incomes. (I) 19   (A) 15   (G) 15   (C) 16   (S) 14

The following chart shows the ideological relationships of the five example factions.

                       (Individualist)

                                  l

         Goths               l              Capitalists

                                  l

(Mystical) ---------Imperials ------------(Rationalist)

                                  l                     

         Aquarians       l                 Soviets

                                  l

                         (Collectivist)