Firstly, Hail Dave!

Prime Minister UK, David Cameron, who has always seemed like a decent sort of chap and done nothing stupid so far, displays both statesmanship and tactical genius with his EU referendum proposals.

Vote for me and I’ll try and negotiate a more sensible deal with the EU and then we’ll have a referendum on the results.

He says he will campaign to keep us in, but of course he has left himself room and reason to change his mind if we don’t get a sensible deal.

He has wrong-footed the continental euro-federalists, for other nations will plainly join us in demands for reform.

So Britain can now either put the EU right or leave it. Splendid.

Cameron has also taken the wind out of UKIP’s sails for the time being. They have done a fair job of forcing this matter into the open, but they will probably always remain essentially a pressure group. Nevertheless I hope they stay in the game to prevent any backsliding on the renegotiation and the referendum.

The leaders of the illiberal dimocrats and the dreary spendthrift labour party don’t seem to have anything of substance to respond with. They effortlessly confirm their caricatures as a pair of whingeing twerps perhaps better employed as sociology lecturers at some obscure polytechnic.

We could end up with an EU that reverts to its original writ, as a free trade zone, in which case we should stay in it; or we could end up with an EU that develops into a full blown Non-Democratic Synarchist Totalitarianism, in which case we should not only leave it but also strive to destroy it.

In the meantime we need to prevent the vast influx of Bulgarians and Romanians into the UK that EU rules will allow next year. I’m sure they are all delightful people, but our housing stock, our benefits system, and our labour market cannot accommodate them. Neither can those countries afford to loose a whole generation of their younger, more mobile and ambitious people.  

Secondly, a Poem. Two years into Bardic studies and rhyme and rhythm still elude me, but here goes anyway……….

Snow

I awoke a bit early, it seemed strangely bright

And quiet, so quiet, an odd muted hush

Its happened its happened

I can hardly believe it

The ground seemed too warm the previous evening

But my gardens become a fantasy scene

And I feel like a child again

Sparkeling whiteness and patches of gloom

Brightness vies with the shadows of doom

It looks so fragile in its parts

Yet so awesome in its extent

Blanketing the lawns, the sheds, the car

All up the trees, over the hills and far away

Its eight miles to work and I don’t have to go

What the heck, any excuse to go and see this

On Henbury Hill I begin to have doubts

Its cold with a full facial blizzard

Vehicles aslew and abandoned

Driver’s curses and screaming engines

Made soft whispers by the whiteness

Falcondale oh Falcondale

Thy slopes make mockery of transport

Shadenfreude, I have good boots

But they have lousy tyres

They slip and they skid

And they bash their panels and lights

Residents set up tripods and cameras

To immortalise the folly forever

Then up on the Downs its so very pretty

When its all black and white

You notice the things you didn’t before

And the pavements are full for once

With chatty people and their children

Saying hello and helping each other

Its Blitz Spirit time

And we’re all having fun

Then down by the uni

Post modernist snowmen

Traditional snowball fights

Then down Christmas steps

We cling to the shopfronts

‘Gainst treacherous slush and the ice

It feels like holiday at work

We few, we happy few, that made it in

Getting home was a bastard

Uphill in now greying mush

But the weekend awaits

A walk in the woods on Saturday morn

My dog seems perplexed

Maybe stuff looses its smell under snow

But the woods look pure magic now

Stark trees hold impossible burdens

With patient sombre dignity

In the cold still air

Even the birdsong goes strangely quiet

White silence pervades like holiness.

Liber Pactionis, my original founding document of the Pact lies in the public domain as does its sucessor document 'The Book'. Thus I place this document in the public domain also, even though by doing so I effectively Excommunicate myself from my old order, so don't bother trying to discuss it with me, discuss it amongst yourselves, for reform seems long overdue. Choyofaque, Stokastikos.

Pact Structural Reform, some ideas for a ‘Liber Pactionis 2’.

Rationale.  ‘Liber Pactionis’, the founding document of The Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros contained some necessary compromises to allow an order to spring half formed across several continents from little more than a small temple in Britain and a couple of seminar meetings in Germany. The minor adjustments to structure introduced in ‘The Book’ do not seem sufficient to support a mature, vibrant, and expanding international order. See this paper: 

http://www.specularium.org/index.php?option=com_blog&view=comments&pid=78&Itemid=137

In my view the Pact now needs to clearly define what its Magical Grades mean so that members can progress thought them and value them (I offer some suggestions below on how we could define them.)  To do this the Pact would need to separate the Magical Grades from the Administrative Grades which should be open to election. This would give all members a chance to work towards all of the Magical Grades.

The Proposed Grade and Membership Reforms fit on a single page and consist of a proposals for the separation of Administrative Grades (mandated by Election) and Magical Grades (recognised by Peer approval).

Provisional draft of revisions for a new ‘Liber Pactionis 2’ document.

Administrative Gradesall remain subject to Election by electoral colleges of active members (of initiate or higher grade) at appropriate local or national or international level. Members may hold more than one position.

1) Grandmaster. International coordination and administration. Chairperson of Council of International Section Heads.

2) General Secretaries to the Grandmaster. International communications and publications and administration.

(2b) Past Grandmaster(s). Offer consultancy and continue to promote the order in their works.

3) National Section Heads. Supervise national sections.

4) Magister Templi of local temples. Run local temples.

5) Insubordinates to Magister Templi. Secretary and critic to MT.

Magical Grades.All subject to admission by Peer Review by committees of those holding that grade or higher grade.

Establish the principle that a Magical Grade means Personal Work in Progress.

(Novice), cancel this grade as a superfluous obstruction.

4.Neophyte. MMM under a Mentor. Admission to temples and meetings lies at the discretion of Mentor and Magister Templi.

3.Initiate. Participation at Temple. Learn some set rituals, including The Mass of Chaos B, and lead them. Work through Liber KKK, or similar.

2.Adept. Further temple work. Work with all 8 planetary Magics, either privately or in temple and show records of it. Work on an agreed project which could include Priest/Priestess of Chaos or similar. Write up an original ritual and a piece on some aspect of magic and publish it somewhere, if only to colleagues. Mentor a Neophyte.

1.Magus. Work on Projects and Quests and activities which the Magus should periodically discuss with other Magi. The Order expects its Magi to Teach, to do Research, and to promote the Great Work of Magic.

(0.Ipsissimus. Normally left vacant as an aspiration, possibly awarded posthumously.)

(Elder), cancel this grade as superfluous. If people want to partially retire they can do. If organisers of events want to invite them to events they can do.

Notes.

I would welcome comments on exactly what work should constitute the work of the Magical Grades, if anything a toughening of the specifications seems desirable.

I shall continue to argue against the idea that the work of the grades should remain very loosely defined, or largely defined by administrative responsibilities, for I consider this the main structural weakness of the IOT. 

Nevertheless it obviously remains desirable that higher administrative positions go to members with higher magical grades.

I would recommend that members holding grades that do not come up to the requirements that may become agreed, hold on to that grade for a period of one year to give them time to rectify the deficiency, or else consider dropping a degree.

I see my own role as that of Past Grandmaster, offering consultancy and continuing to promote the order in my works. I would like to offer myself for election to this post. I may even consider taking up invitations to attend Pact events if, and only if, suitable reforms become implemented.

Oops the universe appears to contain something too big, in apparent violation of the Cosmological Principle that it should appear homogenous at this scale.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130111092539.htm

I don't think standard cosmology has got the size far wrong but it has got the time wrong, in  Vorticitating Hypersphere Cosmology time appears 'Finite and Unbounded', and thus effectively unlimited, despite the temporal horizon, thus allowing such structures as the above to form.

The Pontifical Sexagesimal Nativity Address 2013.

From His Pestilence Stokastikos the First; upon the eve of his 60th birthday.

Fellow earthlings, firstly let me say to the majority of you who haven’t got there yet that 60 seems far more agreeable than I had anticipated. Perhaps as a result of self-employment, walking everywhere (acute Apophenia suggests I don’t drive), occasional punishing exercise, and a couple of books a week, I still have my own hair and teeth, a 32 inch waist, and still enough IQ to understand the limitations of IQ. I will perhaps live till 84, for a Uranus return. So the brief time remaining leaves me a hell of a lot to do, what with the global situation looking pretty shite, the Big Bang delusion still infecting cosmology, particle physics still in a state of confusion, a coherent theory of magic still in its infancy, my country still ensnared in the corrupt and undemocratic EU synarchy, EPOCH, the Esotericon and Portals of Chaos to complete, starships not yet invented, Svalbard and New Zealand amongst many places as yet unvisited, and grandchildren perhaps on the horizon in maybe 3 years time and maybe 10 years time.

You may have noticed that the world failed to end on the recent winter solstice. As a precaution I sent someone down into the vaults of Arcanorium College to dust off the old Achroniser and give the faintly glowing ruby reset button a good whack, this sent the entire universe exactly 63,081,429 years backwards in time, yes, the entire universe, lock stock and barrel, normal service of course resumes instantly, we usually only do this when the Jehovah’s Witnesses start playing silly buggers, but seriously..........

The survival of human civilisation, as we know it, for the next 24 years seems far from certain though. During my lifetime the world’s human population has almost trebled, a critical dependency on fossil fuels has developed, westernised economies have become addicted to growth, developing nations with huge populations now embark on the same course, and the climate has begun to go awry with the strong possibility that it will go much more seriously awry sooner rather than later.

The older westernised economies now seem likely to have few growth prospects for the next decade at least, and little appetite to invest wealth in remedying the medium term ills of the global situation. Everywhere the pressure to maintain if not increase fossil fuel and resource consumption remains paramount.

All in all, the situation looks very fragile. A modern city may look very solid and grand but its continued existence depends on inputs of resources from singular or highly interdependent sources.  Any interruption to its supplies of power, or fuel, or food, or information, would now reduce it to smoking rubble in a week.

Unless economic consequences force policy changes first, mega-deaths may have to occur before the socio-political will to address the problems of overpopulation, overconsumption, and climate change arises. A few billion untimely deaths would not in themselves matter much to the survival of our species, but a substantial loss of knowledge and technology could set the human adventure back several centuries or millennia into a new dark age. This planet lies littered with failed human civilisations and abandoned cities, but in the past failure tended to remain local, recovery from global failure would prove far more challenging. Save some real books, don’t commit everything to electronic media. Consider joining The Knights of Chaos, First Earth Battalion, we conjure actively against global catastrophe.

On a brighter note, two new courses begin on Arcanorium College in the 3^rd semester of out glorious seventh year. www.arcanoriumcollege.com

Semester 3.  16t January – 27^th February 2013

Dave: The Dragon-Eagle Working: Northern Magic models of energy and ecstasy.

Kite: Oracular Magic: Divination, Enchantment, Evocation

My own course, ‘Physics for Mystics and Magicians’ draws to a close after an intensive look at the questions implied by such established and speculative phenomena as holographic universe ideas, quantum-neuroscience, panpsychism, and the Drake equation.

Amongst the many books I received during the festive season I can recommend:

The Starry Rubric – Seventeenth Century English Astrology and Magic. By Alexander Cummins (Head of the Department of historical Magic at Arcanorium College) and Doctoral researcher at Bristol University.

This book really gives the reader an insight into how people actually used astrological and magical ideas practically in the 17^th century, and how much such ideas and practices affected people’s personal lives and even the destiny of the nation during the turbulent period including the English civil war. Deeply researched and brilliantly narrated.

Hadean Press. ISBN 978 907881 21 3.

By some strange coincidence I also received a 1783 copy of a Cornelius Agrippa and Peter de Abano book of 1555, in English, resuming the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, Geomancy, and The Arbatel of Magic, still in readable condition; this has proved a fascinating accompaniment to Al Cummings book above.

Also I must recommend ‘Antifragile’ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, published by Random House (USA), Penguin-Allen Lane (UK) ISBN 978 1 846 14156 0

The Sunday Times called him ‘The hottest thinker in the world’; they may well have a point.

In English, ‘Intellectual’ has strong connotations of ‘effete arts based leftie with head in clouds or up own arse, probably French, and best ignored by sensible pragmatic thinkers’. Taleb does not fall into this category. Rather he comes across as a muscular renaissance style polymath who has seen a lot and done a lot, and put his money where his mouth is, making a personal fortune in the process. Readers may remember his Black Swans and Fooled by Randomness books. He writes of living in a world of fundamental unpredictability, but a world in which we can at least respond, not by attempting to predict events, but by creating structures at all levels that improve rather than break under stress. He provides an illuminating swathe of examples of fragility and anti-fragility in everything from biology and evolution to personal and societal health, through engineering to economics and politics, with enlightening asides from classical philosophers to modern ones, and from a couple of characters that may well represent poles of his own extensive personality. He extols the virtues of chaotic inputs to various systems and pours vituperative scorn upon the ’fragillistas’ who end up wrecking things by trying to create false stability. All in all he has produced some thoughts of great practical value; some of them might just get the world beyond a number of its current crises.

Despite my attempts to remain animageous in the public domain, (I do not wish for disturbance whilst reading on public transport, or neighbors with brands and pitchforks, so I decline to confirm or deny that any of the confusing array of images purporting to portray me actually do so.), yet someone found a copy of a video interview I gave in the nineties in LA. Well it’s about 20 years old now and I’ve since redesigned my facial topiary, so I’ve let it pass. Perchance that the video interview contains any errors due to the jet lag under which we conducted it, I gave the publisher of it a long e-mail interview for edition 5 of his Chaosphere magazine, see magazine and video at:

http://www.chaosphere.org/

May I wish you a survivable Pandaemonaeon, as we move into the ‘interesting times’ of globalization and hyperscience, and towards perhaps some largely unpredictable mixture of enlightenments and catastrophes.

Pete, 7/1/13.