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Octblog 2023
Poem.
Having recently answered more or less the same question from four different interviewers I put the question and the answer (of sorts) into a brief ditty for the Solstice Eisteddfod at Grove.
Tell me O Sorcerer-Scientist
How does a purely physical mind
Affect the material world?
Well physical theories
Have metaphysics all of their own
Classical physics has cause and effect
Events have definite causes
Realism rules, and thus;
Things always exist as definite states.
Relativity just adds locality
So nothing goes faster than light
And everything consists of particles.
Democritus at least got that bit right.
But we have two physical theories
The quantum one seems rather weird,
It contradicts all the above
Events have probabilities,
Unobserved events remain indefinite,
Entanglement works instantly in time
And oblivious to distance,
And everything consists of waves.
Dirac and De Broglie intuited that.
Both theories seem true
From a particular point of view.
We can only measure the particle reality
We can only imagine the wave reality
If our epistemology reflects ontology
Reality needs both
To do anything at all
So how does a physical brain
Interact with a material world?
Classically, or Weirdly as well?
Can experiments tell
What theories work best?
Therein lies our quest!
Antimatter down.
Observation of anti-hydrogen made in particle accelerators has recently shown that it falls downwards as expected, and not up. If it had fallen upwards in response to gravity the physics community would have reacted with shock and horror rather than levity, and all sorts of paradoxes would have arisen. Both mater and antimatter react identically to gravity, but that still leaves conventional cosmology with the headache of trying to explain why a big bang did not produce equal amounts of both.
I suspect the answer to the question of why the universe seems matter dominated has nothing to do with the supposed big bang and everything to do with the chiral asymmetry of the weak force arising from the Majorana Fermion nature of the Neutrino, i.e., it consists of a single type of particle that can either spin clockwise or anticlockwise with respect to its direction of propagation and that alone determines whether we categorise it as matter or antimatter. Furthermore, various particle’s spins in higher dimensional spacetime account for their electromagnetic and nuclear charges and our attribution of matter or antimatter status to them. Work continues on this idea.
JWST.
The James Webb Space Telescope went up primarily to investigate the unexpectedly vast number of galaxies at extreme distances that the Hubble Space Telescope first caught faint glimpses of. The big bang hypothesis predicts or at least heavily implies that galaxies like our own fully formed one should not exist at extreme distances in space and time because they will not have had time to form since a big bang.
It becomes increasingly clear from the JWST data that galaxies just like our own seem to exist everywhere out to the present limits of observation. Hypersphere Cosmology predicts that the universe will appear isotropic and homogenous on the very large scale at all points in space and time. It will look the same everywhere and everywhen, once we have factored in the redshift and the gravitational lensing arising from a small overall spacetime curvature.
Meanwhile the LCDM big bang theorists strive to add yet another ad hoc patch to their creaking model, by modifying their hypotheses about galaxy formation.
Resisting AI in Magic.
I have just written a somewhat critical appraisal of a forthcoming book on the use of Artificial Intelligence in Magic, I have read a book on magic written almost entirely by AI, and I have also watched a colleague getting AI to create sundry invocations and incantations online in seconds.
Herewith my verdict: -
AIs scour the internet for material created by humans and then attempt to compound a grammatically correct mash up from what looks like the most the most popular or readily available material. AI does not seem capable of creativity or of differentiating between popularity and quality.
Consequently, what it produces seems lumpen, verbose, predictable, generic, derivative, and uninspired. Don’t expect it to come up with anything surprising, memorable, or quotable yet. It has no spark or bite to it. It currently seems best suited to composing dull advertising copy for dishwashers or creating rather run of the mill travel brochures.
AI generated material makes magic look ridiculously easy to do, and this will lead some to engage with it in a far too casual manner, and to get poor or negligible results. Internet-itis (decreasing attention span) will follow, leaving enthusiasts to drift from one passing fad to another. Never underestimate the value of the work that goes into designing your own spells and rituals and entities for yourself and launching them with Gnostic levels of mental intensity.
It seems likely that some of the magic pages of the internet will fill up with a blizzard of mediocre and formulaic AI generated imagery, text, and rituals, which will rapidly turn off all but the most dim-witted dabblers. The fightback against AI generated magic text and imagery will soon follow.
Arcanorium College may institute new protocols for the submission of Batchelor of Magic Theses. We may eventually require that candidates write them under examination conditions inside Faraday cages with quill pens, but presently AI generated material looks fairly easy to spot.
New Book (eventually)
Following the publication of ‘Interview with a Wizard’, I established contact with another writer (this time a practising Chaos Magician) who wanted to conduct a further interview. This second interview has mushroomed into another mega-inquisition with the simple ground rule that he cannot ask a question already asked in the first interview.
As we recently passed question one hundred and seventy, I enquired of Mandrake, the publishers of Interview with a Wizard, if a second long-form interview book would interest them. I got a very enthusiastic yes to that. So, when have done another hundred and seventy or so in another year or more, we will submit it for publication. Watch this space for ‘Interview with a Wizard 2’ or similar title.
Chaos Magic in Japan.
My colleagues in Japan (who I have yet to meet in person) have requested that I place two articles here which they will later use in a Japanese book on introductory Chaos Magic. As the discussion of magical and metaphysical concepts can present difficulties when conducted across a cultural and linguistic divide, I have kept this as simple as possible.
Utilizing the Chaosphere, its application, and the underlying theory.
The Chaosphere consists of a three dimensional representation of the Eight Rayed Star of Chaos.
The Eight Rayed Star of Chaos has manifold scientific-metaphysical, psychological, and magical meanings. It can support the imagination of many symmetries and dualities.
Herewith one from recent Chaoist research for my Japanese colleagues: -
In basic science the eight arrows can represent the four axes of ordinary three dimensional space and one dimensional time. These represent our degrees of physical freedom in a universe with a simple Newtonian metaphysic.
In advanced Quantum-Relativistic Hypersphere science the eight arrows can each represent the degrees of freedom in our universe of curved three dimensional space and curved three dimensional time. (We can usually ignore the curvature ‘dimensions’ of space and time on the human scale, but it does affect the spacetime topology of the entire universe and the likelihood of alien intelligences existing). In this representation, all of the eight axes lie orthogonal (at right angles) to each other, implying the full higher dimensionality of the universe.
Three dimensional time provides the key to understanding the quantum-probabilistic nature of our partly chaotic physical reality, and of how magic works.
In psychological terms, the Eight Rays represent the eight major impulses that we as biological organisms have evolved: Sex/Death, Fear/Desire, Love/Hate, Solar Ego/Magical Self.
In magical terms the Eight Rays represent the Eight Magics that derive from the human condition and which we can equate symbolically to Pagan Deities and their symbolic planets and colours.
Sex Magic – The Moon – Purple. Attraction, the inspirations of sexual desire and ecstasy.
Death Magic – Saturn – Black. The motivation that awareness of mortality brings.
Fear Magic – Orange – Mercury. Intellect, quick thinking, inventiveness, cleverness.
Desire Magic – Blue – Jupiter. Acquisition of wealth, power, status.
Love Magic – Green – Venus. Empathy, attachment, loyalty.
War Magic – Red – Mars. Vitality, aggression, competitiveness, combat.
Ego Magic- Yellow – Sun. Charisma, radiance, persuasiveness.
Pure Magic- Octarine- Ouranos. Magical research, esoteric and antinomian knowledge.
Chaos Magicians can place a Chaosphere on their altars to affirm their commitment to developing all of the powers and abilities latent within themselves.
A Chaosphere symbolises the random creative powers of the universe and of humans. The central orb represent the formless personal Kia or life force and the arrows represent its many possibilities of direction. The magician can impale various spells on the spikes.
Concentration upon the Chaosphere in thinking meditation can lead to new insights into the structure of reality and the human experience. Concentration on the Chaosphere in ‘no-mind’ meditation can lead to resonance with, and inspiration from, transpersonal and extraterrestrial sources of Chaoist insight and enlightenment.
How do you perceive Positive Thinking and the Law of Attraction?
People who cultivate many personal contacts and who remain open to new ideas and opportunities usually have better luck than others who do not. This seems more important than simply thinking positively and wishing for good luck.
The world has a lot of randomness in it, some of it can affect us negatively, some of it can affect us positively, but we can look for positive opportunities in whatever happens to us.
The subconscious and unconscious parts of our minds have a strong effect on what we do, and they can also have a direct magical effect on reality. If we keep thinking conscious positive thoughts these thoughts will gradually become part of the subconscious and unconscious mind. This can take a lot of time, but magical techniques offer some shortcuts.
Magical Spells, Rituals, and Invocations can achieve much deeper and quicker alterations to the subconscious mind than simply trying to think positive conscious thoughts for long periods.
Subconscious and unconscious desires have more powerful effects than conscious desires. Conscious desires tend to get mixed up with other thoughts and doubts, particularly if you keep consciously thinking about them.
Magicians should aim to concentrate their positive thinking into Spells, Rituals, and Invocations and then not consciously think about them afterwards and let their subconscious and unconscious minds create the magical effects.
Mandrakes.
In the greenhouses of Chateaux Chaos, ‘Boris’, one of the three Mandragora Autumnalis plants, has sprung from the underworld as the equinox passes and we enter autumn. Perhaps we shall see some mandrake seed pods later. The project to repopulate southwest England with them has fallen far behind schedule.
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Septblog 2023
Conspiracy Theory.
Illuminati update No 23. We note substantial incursions into the terrestrial noosphere at this time. These seem to originate from adolescent space lizards using the popular but frowned upon ‘Mayhem and Havoc’ Role Playing Game System here on Earth.
The three rules seem simple enough.
1) Pick a fairly primitive planet with only level three sentience, the sort of place where the inhabitants still believe in things like gods, money, nations, or the big bang hypothesis.
2) Select one or more inhabitants as avatars and see who can wreak the most mayhem and havoc.
3) Don’t tell your parents.
We currently seem to have six major players or teams of players in action experimenting with the following game challenges here on Earth: -
A) Reduce the most powerful nation to a laughingstock or to a civil war by using a single avatar that can only bluster bombastically and tell ridiculous lies.
B) Elevate the second most powerful nation to the top position regardless of internal and collateral damage, use a committee of avatars if required.
C) Use the third most militarily powerful nation to initiate major wars, and if possible worldwide war, using only a single misanthropic psychopath as avatar.
D) Using multiple avatars ensure that the planet’s potentially greatest alliance of nations descends into a corrupt ineffectual bureaucratic squabbling shambles.
E) Set the planet on fire, burn all the combustible deposits, wreck the climate, decimate agriculture and the population, use any number of avatars.
F) Pick a handful of major or minor religions or philosophies and see how much division, strife, and murder you can create with them, use multiple avatars.
All conspiracy theories, no matter how apparently absurd, reveal something about our responses to the order-chaos-disorder, and weirdness going on in our worlds. They usually do this by metaphor or analogy that displaces blame elsewhere because people do not wish to acknowledge or confront the more probable causes.
Hardline Christians started a Satanic Ritual Abuse scare some decades ago. Negligible real evidence of abuse ever appeared, but a tsunami of real evidence of abuse eventually emerged concerning, - you guessed it - Hardline Christians - both within the catholic church and within many protestant sects.
The professional and managerial classes in the USA have severely degraded the prospects of the children of the blue collar class, so we have a conspiracy about powerful satanic child abusers controlled by lizards.
When we perceive the rich and powerful screwing the poor more than usual, Antisemitism often rears its head, despite that Jews make up only a small proportion of the rich and powerful anywhere, and control only one government in a tiny nation.
When a culture war breaks out between factions of the professional and managerial classes, and they start demonising each other and trying to displace each other, we should consider the extent to which those classes have become severely overcrowded.
The popularity of lizard symbolism for demonic or hellishly immoral agents or agencies tells us something about ourselves and the primitive reptilian circuits that lurk in all our hindbrains.
A Fascinating Thesis. I have just received a PhD thesis from Vasilis Meletiadis of Bristol University, ‘The History of Chaos Magic 1976 – 2000’. He has conducted lengthy interviews with many of us that he writes about, and exhaustive research into the cultural milieu in which Chaos Magic arose. As a rather non-musical, and non-party person myself, I had not realised the huge extent of the overlap between Chaos Magic and the more extreme end of alternative popular music and clubbing culture, nor quite how dark the UK manifestation of Chaos appeared compared to its American cousin Discordianism. Nor quite the extent to which its spread depended on amateur ‘zines’, and the extent to which the advent of the internet changed its method of spread and its structure and practices.
Overall, the thesis seems fair, balanced, and exceptionally well researched and written. Historically it will probably take first place as the definitive history. As soon as it becomes published and in the public domain, I will provide a link to it.
I hope to see a similarly definitive academic history of chaos magic 2000 – 2024 emerge sometime from someone.
Parapsychology. Dr Dean Radin has a very high profile in the world of parapsychology, having presided over the Parapsychology Association for a number of years, written a number of notable books on parapsychology, presented many lectures on it, and worked with many experiments into it.
We finally got to talk at length and discussed such topics as the desirability (or not) of proving the existence of parapsychology to the satisfaction of scientists, the equations of magic, public belief in magic, Sheldrake’s experiments, the potential weaponization of psi, quantum physics and psi and the possible implications of the Tsirelson Bound, the measurement/observer problem, and the trade-offs involved between the magic friendliness and science friendliness of psi experiments – this last topic remaining a subject of ongoing discussions.
Citation 14/08/2023. Now in about its fifteenth year of operation, Arcanorium College proudly confers the degree of Batchelor of Magic upon a second alumnus!
https://www.specularium.org/arcanoriumcollege/item/273-arcanorium-college-department-of-magic
The course makes awesome demands upon the perseverance and dedication of applicants. Many come forward but few make the grade.
Global Warming. Whilst continental Europe has combusted, we have had a meteorologically lousy August here in the UK, - unseasonably dull, chilly, and often wet, plus one of my autumnal mandrakes (Boris) has woken up at least 8 weeks early and started to push forth leaf shoots, whilst Igor and Circe continue to slumber awhile.
My Sci-fi hobby.
The news that many hundreds of UK schools and public buildings will soon collapse if we don’t spend fifty or more billion pounds on them prompted research into precisely what material the hulls of the Lithonian and Skaron fleets consist of. Its apparently AAC, aerated autoclaved concrete - lightweight, cheap, not very strong, widely used for substandard dodgy building, and occasionally by sculptors. The massive demolition projects that will have to follow will likely ensure that plenty of the stuff ends up floating in Welsh watercourses and ultimately on the beach fronting the spaceship yards.
Herewith the new Lithonian Anti-Matter Dreadnought and its counterpart in the rival Skaron fleet. Both societies have created a single ultimate ‘deterrent’ in the form of a bomb with about a metric ton of antimatter in it – enough to trash a planet or an entire sector of space: -
As this seems to evolve towards an interplanetary game scenario with reaction thrust propelled ships rather than an interstellar one with warp drives, work has begun on a board/backdrop for interplanetary manoeuvring: -
On the larger map, silver washers show the last eight moves of the two planets in their orbits and the movement of a red ship from the red planet to intercept the green planet. One of the smaller maps shows the gravity well around the green planet and a ship launched from it to intercept the red ship in low orbit.
Obliterating the rival civilisation counts as only a minor victory, forcing its surrender counts as a major victory. Several varieties of a draw remain possible, some worse than others….the game basically models a nuclear standoff.
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Augblog 2023
Weird Physics. Herewith a result from evoking Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth simultaneously in an attempt to penetrate the mysteries of the cosmos; the Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics integrated with Hypersphere Cosmology.
The idea seems crazy, perhaps crazy enough to prove useful.
At the very least it may lend particle attraction a visualisable mechanism, confirm the conservation of the spins or whatever underlying fundamental quanta and the suspected immortality of the Proton, it may also partially resolve Loschmidt’s Paradox concerning the emergence of irreversible processes (such as entropy) from seemingly reversible processes - because particle attraction does not simply equate to time reversed particle repulsion.
For a fuller exegesis of the hypothesis see: -
https://www.specularium.org/3d-time/item/376-tiqm-and-hypersphere-cosmology
Arcanorium College Department of Magic Update.
The Batchelor of Magic Syllabus has some updates including additional page references for the new Classic Editions of Liber Null & Psychonaut and Liber Kaos.
https://www.specularium.org/arcanoriumcollege/item/273-arcanorium-college-department-of-magic
Sortition.
Elective Democracy seems increasingly beset with problems the classical Greeks identified two millennia ago, plus a few more of modern origin.
Political Parties rather than individual Elected Representatives now dominate the political landscape. This has led to increasing groupthink and polarisation. It has also made it much easier for minority interest lobby groups to exert disproportionate effects on party policy by making donations or skilful use of the media.
Increasingly intrusive media have now completely eroded the personal privacy of anyone entering politics.
Increasingly powerful media now seek to influence opinion rather than to reflect it and disinformation and propaganda now proliferate unchecked.
The pressure to conform to all party policies acts as a severe disincentive to people of integrity becoming professional politicians.
Election pressure frequently forces party policy in the direction of short term popularity rather than the long term interest.
The Classical Greeks recognised the corrupting potential of electing representatives, and they had a ready solution which they regarded as the genuine form of ‘Democracy’ – (rule by the people), they simply delegated the task randomly by lot amongst the people. That only included freeborn male citizens, a limitation we would not consider today.
A government selected randomly by lot would consist of 50% women and a proportional representation of all social classes and adult ages.
If it voted by secret ballot on any issue it chose to debate, it should prove corruption resistant. Paying delegated representatives a very generous salary and pension for turning up to debates and voting, and having severe penalties for any form of corruption or undisclosed interest should act as an additional incentive to integrity.
Because it remains vanishingly unlikely to become reselected it will likely choose to act in the best longer term interests of society.
A Sortition Democracy would eliminate political parties at a stroke. Few people really like political parties, fewer still actually belong to them, most people vote negatively to merely keep out the parties they most dislike.
The Greeks recognised that elective democracy lay vulnerable to oligarchy and the main political parties themselves have emerged as the oligarchs of political power.
Of course, a sortition government will contain five percent idiots and a percentage or two of selfish and evil people, but that seems a great improvement on what the current system produces.
Perhaps we could try out sortition to select the UK House of Lords for starters, and then think about extending it to reform the House of Commons.
My Sci-Fi hobby.
Down at our retreat on a remote shore in Wales, a rather dismal July and poor surf has occasioned the reopening of the spaceship yards.
Herewith the completed Detritus Squadron of the Skaron fleet (so named because a kind of Scrap-Dalek aesthetic seems to have inspired their design). Only stone from the beach, glue and leftover metal fitments go into their construction as the arms race between Lithonia and Skaron escalates to the point where I shall have to start work on the game rules and backstory.
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Julblog 2023
Liber Kaos, Chaos Magic for the Pandaemonaeon. The New Classic Edition.
First published by Weisers in 1992, this grimoire of magical theory, practise, and philosophy develops and expands the paradigm shift from the old ‘ancient wisdom’ approach to magic to something far more irreligious, powerful, and scientific. It builds upon the insights developed in the seminal first book of Chaos Magic – Liber Null & Psychonaut (~1980-7) through a decade of further intensive research and experiment, and now this updated edition comes with the benefit of a further two decades of work and contemplation.
Herewith the astonishing list of contents: -
Those unfamiliar with the concept of the Pandaemonaeon may choose to read these prophetic words: - https://www.specularium.org/wizardry/item/156-pandaemonaeon
Herewith a link to the availability of the book and some sample pages.
https://www.specularium.org/peter-j-carroll/liber-kaos
Knights of Chaos. Ukraine campaign.
A message from the Acting Marshal.
Most battles and wars begin with someone’s expectation of quick victory by manoeuvre, but most become settled by grim attrition. The war in Ukraine shows no exception to this.
On March 3rd, 2022, the KoC called upon the free world’s magical community to: -
‘Turn the people closest to Putin against him.’
https://www.specularium.org/blog/item/349-putin-s-war
Speculation surrounds the split between Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary army and Putin, yet there seems little doubt that the split has substantially weakened Putin’s political, military, and diplomatic position. We shall not have lasting peace in Europe until both Putin and dictatorship become rejected by Russians.
My thanks to the many who have already raised their wands and cast spells and sigils.
We ‘Enchant Long’ in this protracted struggle, and now as tide of war may begin to turn decisively, we need to redouble our efforts. KEEP THOSE CONJURATIONS COMING!
Book Review.
https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Mindset-Champions-Daniel-Domaradzki/dp/B0C6VWRGDC/
Crowley’s dictum that magic consists of the raising of the whole person to the power of infinity seems often ignored by the magical community. Crowley appears to have explored all forms of debauchery to extreme levels but he also free climbed Beachy Head and performed quite astonishing feats of physical endurance, self-discipline, and concentration. For those who think they may need a bit more of the latter (and particularly for those who don’t) this book provides an invigorating challenge to become stronger and more focussed.
Personally, I have always considered physical and mental strength and resilience an invaluable support in the development of magical power and knowledge, so I have gladly taken a few tips from Daniel as we discussed the application of magical and esoteric techniques to strength training in which he works professionally. Techniques from both traditions appear in the book.
Expect a boot camp of a book, written simply and directly with no compromises offered or excuses accepted.
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Junblog 2023
Travelogue, archaeology, cuisine, etc.
The month of May proved a splendid time for a visit to the Scottish Highlands and Islands. The hillsides around Loch Ness blaze with great lush thickets of vibrant yellow gorse, the midges have not yet erupted from the bogs and ditches to make hillwalking hellish when the breezes drop. The Scottish secessionist movement has thankfully imploded under scandal and infighting. Our kids and grandkids thrive. The Scots Steak Pies* remain the pinnacle of British cuisine. I had a splendid time.
(*The ubiquitous Cornish Pasties remain a severe downside to my life in the Southwest. Bakeries seem to serve little else here except these artless greasy pastries filled with ghastly shovelfuls of swede, turnip, and mean gristle, whereas the noble Scots Steak Pie contains nothing but generous portions of bovine muscle tissue in fine gravy.)
On the slopes above the Ness, I came across a rare patch of about twenty False Morels, Gyromitra esculenta: -
These strange fungi resemble something between blowtorched spaghetti and mummified brains. They can kill you if you eat them, they can also kill you if you merely try cooking them, as they then give off methyl hydrazine gas.
Mainland Orkney seemed even more heavily livestock farmed than when we visited it half a century ago. Barely a tree or hedge remains anywhere, just endless rolling slopes of fenced grassland and sad stinking barns full of livestock kept mainly indoors to fatten whilst machines plant, harvest, and fertilise the grass for them. (I had better check on the ethical sourcing of those pies.)
All the wildlife clings to the Orcadian coast, we saw plenty of seals and a splendid variety of seabirds. As I went beachcombing in heavy boots, three layers of clothing, woolly hat, and gloves against the chilly conditions, our three hardy oat-fed highland grandchildren stripped off and hurled themselves into the icy north sea to frolic in the waves, laughing at us soft Sassenachs.
Fairly recent archaeological discoveries on the Ness of Brodgar between the small stone circle of the Stones of Stenness and the huge stone circle of the Ring of Brodgar have led to some interesting speculations. The historian Neil Oliver has presented some rather grandiose ideas about their significance. Do the neolithic remains on the Ness of Brodgar imply that Orcadian neolithic culture predates and inspired the culture that built Stonehenge? Do these remains imply that a Neolithic Theocracy dominated Orkney and built the stone huts and stone circles as a centre of religious cult activities?
I rather doubt this. The stone huts do not seem that large or temple-like when you get close up. They probably built in stone because wood had become increasingly scarce. Neolithic cultures consumed huge amounts of wood for cooking and heating, tool hafting, and roof building. The small lathe and hide Neolithic boats could not have transported significant quantities of timber from mainland Scotland once supplies had become exhausted on Orkney. Orcadian civilisation appears to have gone into severe decline until the development of bigger boats in the iron age.
The Ring of Brodgar seems singularly unsuitable for religious or cultish rituals, or even as a ceremonial meeting place. It has a diameter of 340 feet, you cannot even shout across it in a slight breeze, and it does not seem to have any features in its centre. The ring seems more like an example of Clan Power Bling to me. It seems more likely that some local warlord had it built as a statement of authority, control, and ownership of the land and the people. The stone huts contained very few items that looked like they could have had a religious function, but they did hold a number of finely worked stone mace heads for cracking skulls and intimidating people.
Appeal
I had a very enjoyable and fascinating day at Joanna William’s Fire Iron Art forge and studio at Bristol Docks after receiving a voucher for a day’s blacksmithing experience for my birthday.
See Joanna here at work in her forge and studio: -
Joanna guided me through the basics of the blacksmith’s craft showing me how to heat iron in the forge and then shape it with hammer, anvil, vices, and tongs. Herewith my apprentice pieces made on the day, a selection of useful hooks and hangers with a pleasingly rugged antique aesthetic.
Towards the end of the day Joanna indulged my request to try and hand forge some esoteric instruments and she expertly guided me through the process. Herewith three forged iron Pocket Wands which can also serve to delineate Triangles of Arte in works of evocation.
I had a great day at the forge, and I commend the experience to anyone interested in developing their creative craft skills.
I have since seem Joanna exhibiting her own creations at various sculpture and craft events and her skill and dedication, and artistry never ceases to amaze. One day I hope to commission her to create splendid wrought iron gates for my home.
However, disaster has struck Joanna’s enterprise. A night-time arson attack on adjoining buildings in the Underfall Yard at Bristol Docks has also pretty much destroyed her forge and studio.
Here is a link to the crowdfunding appeal to help Joanna restore her facilities and continue to practise and teach the skills of blacksmithing and artistry in iron.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/fireironartblacksmith?utm_term=pWbX8gyJx
Please give what you can towards restoring her forge and studio after the tragic fire.
The CMBR
Hypersphere Cosmology has successfully explained most the data from which orthodox cosmology has cobbled together the conventional concordance model of LCDM Big Bang Theory and replaced it with a simpler and more elegant model that has no singularities, inflation, expansion, dark matter, or dark energy.
The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation alone remains not rigorously reinterpreted within Hypersphere Cosmology.
Within the LCDM model the CMBR consists of relic radiation from a period about a third of a million years after a Big Bang when the primeval fireball had expanded and cooled to a mere 3,0000 Kelvin and deionised to become transparent to light. Subsequent ‘expansion of space’ or the separation of gravitationally bound structures within the universe has supposedly stretched out and redshifted the wavelength of the 3,000K light to a wavelength corresponding to 2.70 Kelvin. We can make out a fairly credible mathematical case for this but at the price of assuming that the contents of the entire or observable universe once occupied an infinitely or insanely small volume at unrealistic temperature and density.
As Hypersphere Cosmology can provide an alternative interpretation for all the rest of the cosmological observational data without using the hypotheses of a big bang or an expanding universe then it requires an explanation of the CMBR to complete its case for a new paradigm.
Some cosmologists continue to wonder of the CMBR may arise from the redshifting of starlight from distant sources to the point where it thermalises into equilibrium with cold dust and gas in intergalactic space. In other words, the thin intergalactic medium has a basic temperature of only 2.70 K and once starlight has become redshifted to a corresponding temperature it continues to bounce around at relatively short ranges and remains at that wavelength, in thermodynamic equilibrium with the medium.
A couple of fairly recent papers explore this idea further.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/2197/1/012026/meta
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/478/1/283/4975800
Alternatively, Hypersphere Cosmology can perhaps supply a mechanism. As any gravitationally bound structure in the universe will rotate by hyperspherical vorticitation to its antipode position within the universe every 13 billion years, and any light emitted will also tend to reconverge in highly redshifted form on its antipode position in the same period, then the CMBR we observe may consist of light emitted from our own and nearby galaxies reconverging here 13 billion years later.
A redshift of 3.0000 K starlight by a factor of z = 1100 suggests that it may have come from a region of space about 1/1000 of the size of the universe. This corresponds roughly to the local group of gravitationally bound galaxies - our Milky Way, Andromeda, Triangulum, and a swarm of smaller ones. The power output of the local group roughly matches the power input of the CMBR; however, the photon count seems badly off.
All collaboration on this topic welcome.
My Sci-Fi Hobby.
The winter storms have washed up more insulation blocks on the shores of the Welsh hideaway that conceal the spaceship yards of Lithonia and other empires. Plus, over winter I have collected spent vape accessories, old electric razor components, discarded nitrous cylinders, and small bits of metallic scrap and junk from all over.
The Lithonian empire now faces a challenge from these dark dreadnoughts.
In time this may lead to a vast boardgame on the beach with a scale of a yard to ten light years, or perhaps to a novel about Artificially Intelligent ship-minds and their motivations as a metaphor for the great existential and political questions.