The book, the core of which is the correspondence between Gerald Yorke and Charles Stansfeld Jones (Frater Achad) in 1948 and 1949, was to have been published earlier this year, but has taken a lot longer to finish than I was anticipating. However, I am pleased to say that all is now ready to go to the printers early next week.
The book is 544 pages in length, with in addition a plate section of 32 pages, illustrated endpapers, a frontispiece, and an Index. Publication will be in April, with a timetable being set for the remaining stages of printing and binding once the printers' proofs have been successfully navigated. I've been proofing the plates myself over the past few days, having them printed at a local print/copy shop, so any issues at the printers' proof stage should be minimal.
Over the last few months I have become increasingly immersed in Achad's work, in particular the Word MANIO which he received in 1926, and the Lodge which he founded in 1936 to transmit the Word via rituals. Unfortunately, due to the dispersal of Achad's papers, it will be a while before too much more is widely known about these considerations.
In the Introduction, I have set out to show how rooted in Crowley's work was the work of Achad. Although in 1916 Crowley hailed Achad enthusiastically as his Magical Son, their paths began to diverge soon after, a divergence exacerbated when Achad began publishing his own work. This culminated in the Release of 1926, a legal agreement which dissolved all business affairs between them. Crowley re-opened correspondence in 1936, when he was preparing The Equinox of the Gods for publication later that year, and wanted to include an account of Achad's discovery in 1918 of AL as the Key to The Book of the Law. Alas, the 1936 correspondence ended in acrimony, but not before the exchange of some interesting letters.
I'll be posting more progress updates as the book goes to the printers and passes through the various stages to publication.
A fascinating investigation you've been drawn into with MANIO. As someone that enjoys Achad's work every mention of it has been an enticement for my attentions. While eagerly awaiting to learn more about what you're gathering this book of correspondences is on my 2020 list and will subscribe to keep up with the thread. Fantastic work, Mr. Staley.
the Word MANIO which he received in 1926
A mini- "discovery" I hope you find amusing:
"MANIO" (base 26 number) = 5492722 (decimal number)
5+4+9+2+7+2+2 = 31 🙂
Its all connected somehow.
Very much looking forward to this as well as the conversation it may bring to the table(s) here!
Its all connected somehow.
All numbers are infinite. There is no difference.
OK, cool. Its just my (slightly nerdy) attempt to reach out to Mr. Staley in the spirit of friendship as I have not really spoken to him before.
OK, cool.
You respect your elders, young man. Frater Shiva is simply trying to nudge you out of your comfort zone. Numerology without a larger practice is just schizophrenic.
As for the topic of the thread, I can't wait to read the book. Is the aside about MANIO a hint at some secret narrative in the epistles, or a portent of later publications? I hope to see before long.
You respect your elders, young man.
Ditto. 😉 I typed "OK, cool", I meant "OK, cool". No tone implied. Anyway, I'll continue to speak to Shiva however I choose to. 😛
Is the aside about MANIO ... a portent of later publications?
Possibly...
The journal succeeding Starfire will be Thelemic, and the primary focus will be the development of Kenneth Grant's work, but the eclecticism that typified Starfire - the convergence of Advaita and Thelema, for instance - will continue. For the last few months I have become very involved in Achad's work, and in particular with the Word which he received in 1926, MANIO. I anticipate that Achad's work will have a place in the new journal: one of several eggs in the nest.
OK, cool. Its just my (slightly nerdy) attempt to reach out to Mr. Staley in the spirit of friendship as I have not really spoken to him before.
Mixed meth-aphors. Hidden agendas. True Confessions of a Nerd.
I was not purposely detracting from your 5th ray work. As long as you keep pumping out meaningful coincidences, you'll have a job.
You said, "It's all connected somehow." My response about infinity and no-diff was to the last word, somehow. The how of it is that any thing or number can be demonstrated (on paper or screen, at least) to be related to, or equivalent to, or dependent upon, any other thing or number. Thus, Frater Elite can prove he is the tulku of Alice in Wonderland. RTC can prove that AC was a fakir. I can prove that I am The Avatar of Synthesis. I'm not, but I work for him, and I get to flash his QBL name once in a great while, the first three letters of which are M-A-N, which steers us back on-topic, sort of.
However, all these proofs are complex. It's called "AC QBL," and you get to do things like add an "r" to the end of Baphomet because it makes it add up to a significant total. I encourage you to maintain your purity in dealing with basic significant numbers (31, 418, etc) and words (OM, etc). In your travels, I would suggest keeping any of your three eyes open for 8, 80, 418, in reference to 61 or as a standalone equivalent of the Void.
For example, T+A+O = 80.
In relation to MANIO, MAN JI SAN, and The Aeon of Maat, we've had a few discussions here, about the Aeon part. It seems like we're all (humanity) in this together, but some cultures and individuals are still focused in what might be termed Really Old Aeons. We see the Isis era reflected still in some places where women rule the roost.Set still sits upon the throne of Osiris in most countries and cultures. Horus is running loose in lotsa badlands.If I read the signs correctly, this internal and international strife is "somehow" designed to hammer suitable individuals (those who survive) into real, self-reliant individuals.
Once that individuality is developed, I see no reason why any self-propelled unit could not take another step into the Aeon of Maat. We can forget the 2000 year restriction. In every pot of soup, every auto part, every Order of Spiritual Initiation, there is going to be conformity of chicken percentage, molecular bonding of elements, and passage through all 49 pylons ... except for that rare aberration.
"Look here, Joe. This rocker-arm has a tiny chunk of plutonium in it!"
I would suggest that Achad was a chunk of plutonium in a larger mass of uranium, you know, in the early days: The Equinox, the Spanish flu, the roaring twenties. The was proclaimed a Master of the Temple in the broadest and boldest possible manner. Then, by virtue of Therion's authority, he threw (expelled) a self-proclaimed Ipsissimus from the uranium pile ... because he was too hot to handle.
I was laughing in the aisles when I first read the complete Achad-Therion correspondence.
I've got one of my three eyes on this material, I'm not sure which one as they get to overlap each other, like Aeons, because when I first stated turning the crank on the Path, Achad was my hero. Achad, not Crowley. I never identified with Crowley, or Neuberg (burg), or Frank Bennett, or C.F. Russell, or even Aquarius.
I guess I'll have to render my resignation unto The Aleister Crowley Society.
Bottom Line: Anyone can attain to the level of consciousness, or phase of the ongoing evolutionary wave, such as the Aeons of Isis, Osiris, Horus, or Maat. To attain Maat, close your eyes, and say "Binah." Don't let the poof that whisks you away hit you in the posterior.
Looking forward to reading this one
Will there be lots of time spent on the type of stamps that were used, what his friends badgered him with when he was a kid, where he shopped for toilet paper ?
And after the reading, and after the congress with darkness is absorbed; will there be a follow up on the state of the dispossessed and disembodied; laden with the rich seed of the stars ?
Looking forward !
When Tiger is canonized, it may well be as St Tiger the Oblique.
the Word MANIO which he received in 1926
A mini- "discovery" I hope you find amusing:
"MANIO" (base 26 number) = 5492722 (decimal number)
5+4+9+2+7+2+2 = 31 🙂
Its all connected somehow.
Very funny! Do you mind if I use that in my act?
The book, the core of which is the correspondence between Gerald Yorke and Charles Stansfeld Jones (Frater Achad) in 1948 and 1949
Very much looking forward to reading this one, Mick. Thanks for the update.
Owner and Editor
LAShTAL
Pre-ordering is up.
http://www.starfirepublishing.co.uk/incoming_aeon_of_maat_advance.htm
"Bang Bang I got mine
Bang Bang and you are next in line"
Allo ma gars
In my french black metal style I am pissing on the floor in excitement.
I love Starfire.
I have nothing of use to say.
I am the friend in the corner that gives you nuggets of wisdom in dark times.
C'est le temps de noire et laissez nos livres pour le filles
I have already ordered mine from JD .
He is a nice man from the south of the United States.
Have fun,
Chris
Should i buy the 2020 video gaming device
or Tap into what was going on in the heads of the Adepts at the times ?
ok, Just ordered 🙂
Ditto. I typed "OK, cool", I meant "OK, cool". No tone implied. Anyway, I'll continue to speak to Shiva however I choose to.
I could say"chose wisely" at this point but I won't *grins
you don't mind if I watch how this one pans out for you, do you 😀
Achad.. hmm the man I hold solely responsible for the trend of teens "cutting" ..ok that was a joke.. sort of..
my thoughts and reads is Achad was no friend of Crowleys.. he thought he was better than the drug taking looseness that was crowley .. he played a part, to get what he desired, an hiership but just like that other airship the hindenburg, soon crashed when his facade exposed.
Achad walked the walk and talked the talk but Im not seeing it as coming from his heart, therefore his downfall and he answer to why he didn't quite make it.
It will be fascinating to see what he said about milady.
Achad.. hmm the man I hold solely responsible for the trend of teens "cutting" ..ok that was a joke.. sort of..
Perhaps you are thinking of Neuberg. He was the one posing for pics. Although, Jones did give himself some extra deep cuts for even possible failure.
my thoughts and reads is Achad was no friend of Crowleys.. he thought he was better than the drug taking looseness that was crowley ..
It's quite possible that he WAS! Although in the end, everything that rises must converge...and become ONE (ere None).
he played a part, to get what he desired, an hiership but just like that other airship the hindenburg, soon crashed when his facade exposed.
What “facade” is this? The word implies that Jones put up a false image of himself.
Also: did Jones “crash?” This is the first story I was told about this wayward disciple, a cautionary tale of hubris etc. Well, this was all from the pen of Crowley. If we follow the Achad story, we may find that Crowley was as much a planet orbiting Jones as Jones was a planet orbiting Crowley.
Achad walked the walk and talked the talk but Im not seeing it as coming from his heart, therefore his downfall and he answer to why he didn't quite make it.
I have found a LOT of “heart” in the work of Jones. Perhaps more than Crowley, himself. I don't see as much a “downfall” as a “departure” in this story-and I would ask: what was it he didn't “quite make it” to?
Also: did Jones “crash?”
He moved on. I know the feeling. A MahaGuruship does not sound exactly like a crash.
Crowley was as much a planet orbiting Jones as Jones was a planet orbiting Crowley.
Two Stars in Sight.
Achad.. hmm the man I hold solely responsible for the trend of teens "cutting" ..ok that was a joke.. sort of..
One of the plates in The Incoming of the Aeon of Maat is a photograph of Jones, circa 1913, showing his arm cut from Jugorum practise. This photograph had actually been printed as a picture postcard, the reverse having a written message from his wife Ruby explaining what the picture was about. The card came from the Jones collection of someone here in the UK.
my thoughts and reads is Achad was no friend of Crowleys
Actually he was. Their disputes notwithstanding, Jones retained a high estimation of Crowley, though he did make some criticisms. His esteem of Crowley, as well as his reservations, comes out in many of the letters to Yorke.
At the times of the correspondence published in The Incoming of the Aeon of Maat, John Symonds was working on his biography of Crowley, provisionally titled the Life. Ever eager for opportunities to cast Crowley in a bad light, Symonds had heard a rumour - or, perhaps more likely, picked it up from one of the scandal-sheets - that during his time in the USA, Crowley had served a prison sentence for sexual trafficking offences. Hearing of this, Jones wrote to Symonds explaining why this was not and could not be the case, and these letters are included in the book.
he thought he was better than the drug taking looseness that was crowley
I don't think he did. The focus of Jones was on the Aeon to follow that of Horus, which he didn't think was 2,000 years or so away but considerably closer at hand. In all the letters of Jones concerning Crowley that I have read, I don't recall any that criticized Crowley for any "looseness", drug related or otherwise. I don't think that Jones was minded to make such moral judgements.
he played a part, to get what he desired, an hiership
The "hiership" was Crowley's idea. In 1936, after ten years of silence, Crowley reopened correspondence with Jones since he was preparing The Equinox of the Gods for publication later that year, and wanted to include an account of Jones's discovery of AL as the key to The Book of the Law. He said in the course of the correspondence that he considered that Jones's work on plumbing the depths of The Book of the Law wasn't finished, but had further to go.
but just like that other airship the hindenburg, soon crashed when his facade exposed.
There was no facade. Jones saw things differently, that's all. The core of his work is, I believe, the Word which he received in 1926, MANIO, and which foreshadowed the Incoming of the Aeon of Truth and Justice in 1948. There was no crash. He left behind a rich body of work which is being continued.
Achad walked the walk and talked the talk but Im not seeing it as coming from his heart, therefore his downfall and he answer to why he didn't quite make it.
Over the years of working on this book, I've become increasingly drawn to the work of Jones, which I think did come from his heart. Over the last few months, I've become increasingly aware of MANIO as the core of his work, and I incorporate this Word into my magical practices. There's a great deal more to learn about his work, hampered as we are by the repeated dispersal of his papers after his death, and I look forward to finding out more over the coming months and years.
Michael, have you noticed the word MANIO are including in itself some of the words important to the Great Work (or, not to generalize, important in my own Great Work)?
MANIO
ON (Egyptian)
OM (Sanskrit)
IAO (Greek)
AMN (Hebrew)
Has Fr.Achad ascribed some specific meaning to the word MANIO?
Has Fr.Achad ascribed some specific meaning to the word MANIO?
Not any that I have come across so far. He referred to the Word in the course of his 1936 correspondence with Crowley, but didn't tell him what the Word was, let alone ascribe a meaning to it. It was not until 1948 that he realised its connection with the word Manifestation, which occurs twice in the first chapter of The Book of the Law, and which he came to see as the secret word of Nuit. Thus MANIO was a conjunction of the first and last elements. I'd love to know the circumstances under which this Word came to Jones. I'm sure that such documentation exists some where, or in several places, waiting to be pieced together.
I hadn't noticed the connection with the words you list, but it is interesting. My own particular interest has been in analysing the Word via gematria. The most straightforward spelling using transliteration of Hebrew letters is 107, taking O as Vav. Another correspondence with 107 is BITzH, 'egg'. This is especially interesting given Jones's role in the Amalantrah Working, in which the egg was a powerful theme. Since I have been very interested in the Amalantrah Working for many years now, and am convinced that Crowley's drawing LAM is connected with that Working, this connection with 107 has great resonance.
There is another spelling of MANIO, taking the O as Ayin, 70, thereby yielding 171. This is very meaningful for me since 717 is a number that for me has great significance, and with which I have long identified.
Yes, a fascinating Word, MANIO.
I found a few more (I cheated a bit with an anagram solver):
The "best" ones, using all 5 letters:
OMNIA - all things
AMNIO - "it's all in the egg" 😉
AMINO - the DNA stuff etc.
MINOA - A link between Thelema and Minoan religion would be really cool.
A few more:
AIM, AIN, OMNI
IMAN - if Arabic QBL is your thing you may find some more.
I liked this one: NAOI - plural of NAOS: The inner part of a Greek temple, a possible link with MINOA above.
Yes, a fascinating Word, MANIO.
I did some more of my quirky base 26 analysis on the word and got a couple more "interesting" results:
"MANIO" = 5492722
5492722 modulo 666 = 220
(in other words, that number divided by 666 gives 220 as a remainder)
5492722 mod 171 = 31
in 1916 Crowley hailed Achad enthusiastically as his Magical Son
One last one and I'll leave you in peace: 😊
"MANIO" = 5492722
"EGG" = 2866
5492722 / 2866 = 1916.51151430565
I found a few more (I cheated a bit with an anagram solver):
All good grist to the mill; thanks. It's a powerful Word, and I vibrate it daily.
I'd love to come across the papers he wrote for the Immanuel Lodge in 1936, founded to transmit MANIO ritually. Whilst waiting for that, though, I'll develop my own rituals.
Yes, a fascinating Word, MANIO.
What is its correct pronunciation, would you happen to know? ("Manny-owe"? "Mann-Yo"? "Man-eye-owe"? ...)
Norma N Joy Conquest
What is its correct pronunciation, would you happen to know? ("Manny-owe"? "Mann-Yo"? "Man-eye-owe"? ...)
I've not yet come across anything by Achad which comments on the pronunciation, though I feel sure that there are such documents somewhere. There's probably something in the rituals he devised for Immanuel Lodge, but they have yet to come my way, though I think they will sooner or later.
In the meantime, my own pronunciation is more like your third option. except that the I is pronounced "eee" rather than "eye".
My own intoning has been MAH NEE O. These three syllables have worked wonderfully at a gallop vibrating from the throat. As with many other chants, our ear may begin to hear new arrangements of the syllables. For myself, it has been as O MANI (with reference to the MANI STONE of the Buddhists). The Mani Stone expresses the 6 syllables of the Mantra OM MANI PADME HUM and MANIO, as a 3 syllable chant, easily (and powerfully) follows the same rhythm.
I'm fairly new to the "Aeon of Maat", I can see how it might confuse some and even irritate some to have a "rival" Aeon going on at the same time. I'm not too attached to the "Aeons" concept so I'm OK with it. I can see how an aeon of "truth and justice" may be more appealing than that of Horus. Once the discovery of the "Aeon of Maat" was made, it was released into "the ether", and won't easily go "back in the bottle". 🙂
My method of numerology (and numerology in general) may not be everyone's cup of tea. It does give some nice coincidences now and again:
"MAAT" = 210931. This number has the property that when its reversal is added to itself:
210931 + 139012 = 349943
it gives a nice palindrome, and so a representation of balance and the Scales of Maat.
A short form of "MAAT" is "MA" and this nicely gives us the number "312", twice 156 (Babalon). I see this number as the 78 cards of the Tarot multiplied by the 4 "states" each card can be in (upright face up, upright face down, reversed face up, reversed face down).
In the meantime, my own pronunciation is more like your third option. except that the I is pronounced "eee" rather than "eye".
That was my first, reflexive pronunciation of the word, upon first seeing it.
My own intoning has been MAH NEE O.
Yes, that would be exactly it, especially when vibrated.
I'm fairly new to the "Aeon of Maat", I can see how it might confuse some and even irritate some to have a "rival" Aeon going on at the same time. I'm not too attached to the "Aeons" concept so I'm OK with it. I can see how an aeon of "truth and justice" may be more appealing than that of Horus. Once the discovery of the "Aeon of Maat" was made, it was released into "the ether", and won't easily go "back in the bottle".
There's an excellent chapter in David Hall's Beelzebub and the Beast - his comparative study of Crowley and Gurdjieff - concerning the various systems of aeonology around, ranging from the Hindu yugas, which are held to persist for hundreds of thousands of years, to smaller cycles of a mere few hundred years. It helps to put Crowley's later concept of the Aeons, where he aligned them with the precessions of the equinoxes.
I say "later" because in the Old Comment to The Book of the Law, commenting on the aeon to follow that of Horus, he remarked that "it may be a hundred or ten thousand years from now, for the Computation of Time is not here as There". I think that Achad retained that earlier view.
My method of numerology (and numerology in general) may not be everyone's cup of tea. It does give some nice coincidences now and again:
Those of us interested in gematria develop our own approaches. For me, it arises essentially from my mystical and magical experience. For instance, I have long been fascinated by the Amalantrah Working, and there are certain numbers in there - 33, 151 - which have become meaningful, and which I notice when they occur. Again, the drawing of Lam, which arose from the Amalantrah Working, is associated with 71. A key number in what may be called "my mythos" is 717, which is the Hebrew letter Zain spelt in full. Thus when a spelling of MANIO enumerates as 171, that makes me sit up and take notice. Not that I avert my gaze from another spelling of MANIO enumerating as 107, since it too is full of interest.
Achad's own approach to gematria was predicated on the basis of events on the "inner" being reflected as events on the "outer". He had found, he said, that his major initiations had been accompanied by "external" - often metereological - events in this way. He also paid attention to the time he finished a document, for instance, rendering it as a number - 1:51, 1:52, 1:53 would become 151, 152, 153 etc which he would then use as oracles for entries in Sepher Sephiroth.
I see this number as the 78 cards of the Tarot multiplied by the 4 "states" each card can be in (upright face up, upright face down, reversed face up, reversed face down).
Two of the plates in The Incoming of the Aeon of Maat are a preliminary sketch and then the finished drawing of Achad's The Wheel of the Tarot diagram. Around the rim of the Wheel are the zodiacal signs, with the Aces, the Minor Arcana and the small cards being aligned with the signs and with the three decanates of each sign.
Thanks for all the information. There's relevance to "the time of finishing a document" in the modern day: the time you send an e-mail/make a post etc. gets recorded automatically so you don't have to keep an eye on it and can come back to it later. I sometimes use the time of a post/email for "magickal" purposes (or it could just be for amusement). As a rather lazy person I sometimes put the random numbers I find into Google and see what comes up in image search, sometimes its relevant (often not 😊 ).
the drawing of Lam, which arose from the Amalantrah Working
I have a vaguely humorous post on Lam planned for an appropriate date next week, something I noticed in the manuscript of AL in a "visual" approach, not a QBL one.
On the subject of Lam, you may be aware of the mysterious, seemingly random letters that some verses of the Quran begin with. One of the most common is "alif", "lam", "mim" (A, L, M), so maybe Lam has been hiding in this anagram form in the Quran of all places. 🙂
An overdue update on the publication of The Incoming of the Aeon of Maat. This book went to the printers at the end of March, and after a protracted stage of printers' proofs the book was printed earlier this month.
I received a sample of printed materials, as a result of which I was able to give the go-ahead (or thumbs-up, as I'm told you younger people say) for binding to take place. The books should be delivered to me a couple of weeks from now.
Manifestation!
hit me up
groovy
dig !
hit me up
Sorry, Tiger. I had no idea that you were one of the "younger people" I was referring to.
@michael-staley
Don't mention it comrade.
Just don’t bogart it
when it comes around.
I think the last time I've looked forward to a book this much was the upgraded re-release of Outside the Circles of Time!
He had found, he said, that his major initiations had been accompanied by "external" - often metereological - events in this way.
The scoffers would scoff at Achad, saying it could not be true.
I say, "Of course."
Initiations and meteor-logical events are a tradition in many traditions.
(or thumbs-up, as I'm told you younger people say)
"Thumbs Up" was a saying from WW2, as well as a Crowley poem/prose from that era. Although probably not a saying, it was a sign used it the Colosseum. Are you suggesting this is a cyclically-recurring phenomenon, or that today's younger generations invented it? Probably neither ... it simply being just what it is.
(or thumbs-up, as I'm told you younger people say) for binding to take place. The books should be delivered to me a couple of weeks from now.
Like thumbs up for victory, from Crowley?
Say, don't tell me you are older than him?
What's your secret?
Suvasini juice?
Looking forward to this mantric Maat melange.
Cheers for your work through the years.
Thats what I get for posting with-ought reading above.
Damn you for a cute little dog, Sheever
I'm delighted to say that the binding of the standard edition of The Incoming of the Aeon of Maat has been completed, and the books are due to be delivered to me tomorrow.
Looking forward to JD shipping this one off to me from WA after it gets to him
Thanks for all your hard work through the years Mick.
Safely recieved my copy, thanks.
i am looking forward to reading it.
at 478 pages or so and smaller in size - with a blue cover - it might be dubbed the ‘mini blue brick’
🙂
Congratulations and Much Thanks!
I have been waiting for today 8/4/2020 for years and years, so thus on an august forth that the Incoming has come, to so finally have balanced in my hands, this actually weighty tome, of what is but another excellent Starfire production...I am particularly impressed....to which by synchronicity in my random opening would land me upon a passage that speaks directly to my own work, of issues that would be the prompting to letters with Mr. Grant... due in ways to his explorations into Achad's work....and now I look forward to reading your introduction.
Regards,
HG
to which by synchronicity in my random opening would land me upon a passage that speaks directly to my own work, of issues that would be the prompting to letters with Mr. Grant... due in ways to his explorations into Achad's work....
Thank you for your appreciative comments, HG. I have been very gratified by the reception that this book has called forth. There is lots more to come, since one of the volumes of Henrik Bogdan's Collected Works of Achad will be devoted to selected correspondence. There is a great deal more that I would have liked to have included in Incoming, but it would have been at the expense of other letters. My fellow-editor, Michael Barham, did suggest extending Incoming to two volumes, but I decided against that.
Do I infer from your remarks that you corresponded with Kenneth Grant? That would interest me, since a few years ago I catalogued for Steffi Grant his extant correspondence, and am currently preparing for publication a multi-volume selection of his letters, the first volume of which covers the 1940s and 1950s. It was Kenneth's references to the Jones-Yorke correspondence of 1948/49 - particularly in Outside the Circles of Time - which aroused my interest, but it was only in the last year of preparation for publication that I started to gain insight not only into the essence of the correspondence, but also how there were echoes of it in more recent work on Lam. In my opinion Achad was tapping a rich current which will continue to be developed.
Anyway, I hope that you enjoy Incoming.
Congrats on a fine work indeed, Mick. Can't wait til I have time to start my copy.
Congrats on a fine work indeed, Mick. Can't wait til I have time to start my copy.
Thank you, Chris. I've been following the posts on Facebook as people in the USA have got their copies. As you may have gathered, there was considerable delay between the arrival of the consignment at the port of Baltimore, and its subsequent arrival by road at Holmes Publishing in Sequim, Washington. I assume that disruption due to the covid epidemic played a part.