A Vision of the 18th Aire — ZEN — A first-hand Enochian skrying vision of the 18th Aire (ZEN) by David R. Jones, with fourteen scholarly annotations drawing on Qabalah, Thelema, and comparative religious sources. Includes a Tarot-to-Tablet-of-Union correspondence table.
Arthame — The Ritual Knife — A scholarly lexicographic essay by Dan Clore on the term arthame — the black-handled ritual knife of Western witchcraft — tracing its contested etymology from the Key of Solomon and documenting its usage in Grillot de Givry, Clark Ashton Smith, and Gerald B. Gardner. From alt.magick, July 2005.
Egregore — The Occult Thought-Form — A scholarly lexicographic essay by Dan Clore on the term egregore — the watcher-angel of the Book of Enoch reborn as the purposefully created magical thought-form — tracing its passage from Éliphas Lévi through H.P. Blavatsky, the Simon Necronomicon, Peter Carroll, and John Wisdom Gonce III. From alt.magick, August 2005.
Esbat, Estbat — The Local Witches' Gathering — A scholarly lexicographic essay by Dan Clore on the term esbat — the local witches' periodic meeting as distinct from the Sabbat — tracing its etymology from Old French and documenting its usage in Margaret Murray, Montague Summers, H.P. Lovecraft, Ira Levin, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Donald R. Burleson. From alt.magick, March 2004.
Introduction to alt.magick — A scholarly introduction to alt.magick, the central Usenet newsgroup for Western occultism from the early 1990s through the mid-2000s — the largest and most heterodox forum for serious magical discussion in the pre-social-media internet.
Open Source Magick — An essay by Fr. A.o.C. of the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn applying the nine principles of open source software to magical tradition — arguing that the future of occultism lies in freely shared, openly modifiable systems.
Opus Operandum — On Superstition and Magic — A philosophical essay by Joe Cosby distinguishing magic from superstition through the concept of opus operandum — arguing that true magic is never a mechanical act but always a relational one, and that mystery traditions protect against superstition by requiring the practitioner to understand what they are doing.
Scin-lāca — The Shining Corpse — A scholarly lexicographic essay by Dan Clore on the Anglo-Saxon term scin-lāca — the shining corpse, the astral body — tracing its etymology and documenting its usage through Bulwer-Lytton, H.P. Blavatsky, Arthur Machen, and Aleister Crowley. From alt.magick, January 2004.
The Bayani Talisman — Theophanic Representation of the Perfect Human — Nima Hazini's explanation of the Babi pentacle-mandala talisman: its dual function as protection and meditation object, the cosmological system encoded in its concentric circles, Quranic verses, and magic squares, and the Neoplatonic theology of the First Primal Volition.
The Construction and Use of Alphabetic Magick Squares — A complete system for constructing personal magick squares from the Tree of Life's sixteen 'wings,' developed by occultist Josh Geller as an alternative to the Abra-Melin squares.
Turanian — The Pre-Aryan Race in Occult Tradition — A scholarly lexicographic essay by Dan Clore on the term Turanian — the Ural-Altaic peoples of Victorian ethnology, the pre-Aryan dwarf race of fairy lore, the shamanistic substrate of Asia — tracing its appearances from Blavatsky and Firdausi through Arthur Machen, Lovecraft, and Robert E. Howard. From alt.magick, March 2004.
Walpurga, Walpurgis — The Witches' Sabbath of May — A scholarly lexicographic essay by Dan Clore tracing the term Walpurgis — the orgiastic Witches' Sabbath of May Day Eve — through English literature, from J.S. LeFanu and Aleister Crowley to H.P. Lovecraft, Thomas Pynchon, James Joyce, and Robert Anton Wilson. From alt.magick, April 2004.