I decided a while back that there would be no further issues of Starfire. Something new will take its place - there is a title which I have been rolling around the tongue for some time, and which will be revealed when the time is right.
I loved putting together the first five issues. Starfire started in 1986, in the days of copy and paste, and this remained the case for the first four issues. Really good fun - pasting the images into the page of text with cowgum, using snowpake to mask the edges, delivering the camera-ready copy to the printers - those were the days. I used to print out the pages of text using a Brother CE-70 electronic typewriter which was my pride and joy at the time, and which I purchased spefically to output text as camera-ready copy. The typewriter had daisy-wheel fonts, and the one I used was 'Anelia PS'.
Too much information, I expect.
I really like the combination of fiction and essays in Starfire so I hope something like that continues. The essays are always great in that they are geared towards Thelema and magick but also tie in with other traditions like Toltec, Sabbatic etc.
I recently read my first issue of Wyrd journal by Three hands press and was quite disappointed. I found it overly dry, academic and also lacking in a magickal feel of substance. It read like a current overly-PC college essay collection on fringe topics not related to the occult, such as is the Soma of the vedas actually marijuana? What does the feminine really mean in the concept of Babalon RE gender studies and feminism? etc etc.
Besides Starfire another journal I really enjoyed reading was the recent Fenris Wolf.
Good luck on your new endeavor Mick, looking forward to seeing.
Also that sounds like a lot of hard work re the typesetting, photo etc but very rewarding. I miss those days too, though the closest I got was making handmade books and my own 'bindings'
@christibranny
I recently read my first issue of Wyrd journal by Three hands press and was quite disappointed. I found it overly dry, academic and also lacking in a magickal feel of substance. It read like a current overly-PC college essay collection on fringe topics not related to the occult, such as... What does the feminine really mean in the concept of Babalon RE gender studies and feminism? etc etc.
Overly PC and feminism eh? Can't be 'avin feminism discussions in witchcraft journals of all things. I'm beginning to see where you're coming from on the political spectrum and it doesn't look too progressive.
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
I'm beginning to see where you're coming from on the political spectrum and it doesn't look too progressive.
This should come as no surprise if you have been paying attention- Chris makes no secret of his conservative politics. He is a Trump supporter.
But then, so were you, six months ago. So there's always hope.
So there's always hope.
Also there is hope and help in other topics. That is, topics other than politics and gender studies. These observations are acceptable in political and gender threads, but it seems (of late) that said subjects are popping up more and more.
As demonstrated by some brave soul, there is still an olden thread on politics available, which has not been locked, wherein said political inclinations would be on topic.
I am not simply being kranky. It has been shown that AC was not very political, so all this gov (or not) stuff is personal opinions. This tends to drift into "preoccupation with external circumstances," which is a hindrance to spiritual advancement.
"Is there a government?
I'm ag'in it."
No, Shiva, what has been shown in the "Politics Thread" (now, actually, and likely rightly, locked) is that AC was highly political, wrote often about politics, and supported:
- the divine right of kings (aka monarchism),
- Legitimism/Carlism,
- Traditionalist High Tory Conservatism,
- Nazism,
- Fascism,
- Soviet Communism,
- fraternal/monastic hierarchic/democratic communism,
- primitive communism,
- social anarchism,
- individualist anarchism, and
- several other extreme political views.
Often several at once.
See the key work on AC's political views and pronouncements, and their evolution and contradictions, Marcelo Pasi's masterful Aleister Crowley and the temptation of politics.
Quoting AC to support any political view is easy- all one need to do is ignore all the other quotes saying other things. It is a sucker's game to believe that one has found "the one true Thelemic politics" by mining AC's work to support pre-existing views. Drawing the target around the places the bullets hit makes sharpshooting easy (this is the "Texas Sharpshooter" informal logical fallacy, for those of you following at home).
However, i agree that david has recently shown the typical convert's zeal in his new-found leftism in perhaps over-broad fashion. This thread, for example.
Ignant I told you when I was a teenager we all had to write an essay on our all time favourite figures in history. I nonchalantly chose Mao whilst others chose Christ, Churchill, Mother Theresa and other obvious crap. I told you about my dad's views and my uncle. Thing is I am not totally against business and entrepreneurs. I'm open to their usefulness in the quest for a better society. Mao was also
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
Fine, so you are a Prodigal Son of the left returned to the fold, rather than a convert, but the fact is, six months ago you were equally enthusiastic about Trump/Thatcher/Reagan, and very skeptical that fascism poses any current threat, and now you keep chiming in with your new-old views.
Happy to have you back, comrade, but maybe ill-chay on the olitics-pay [seekrit Communist Code]?
Quoting AC to support any political view is easy- all one need to do is ignore all the other quotes saying other things.
That was, more or less, my point. The said locked thread had a lot of "My guess is that he would have ..." type entries. However, your point, with references, is well taken.
Mao was also
Mao brought illegal acupuncture back from exile in the rural areas. What a great thing to do.
Ok and christibranny is a Trump supporter eh? My mother is she thinks he's 'great'. However here's some of my mother's assertions;
On gender equality in the workplace;
Yeah women are like the n__ggers now always complaining aren't they?
On Disability Benefits;
Most of them there's nothing wrong with them they just won't work.
On the brain drain;
Oh great they all go abroad and leave us here with all the n____ers.
On Trump's sexual indiscretions;
My old mate (female) who works on the till in the supermarket said, "If I hadn't got a hand up my skirt by the age of 15 I would've thought that there was something wrong with me "
On welfare relief 'food banks';
"They're all queuing up in top expensive trainers"
On Corbyn;
"He looks like a creepy old man."
On Hilary Clinton;
"I hate her I hate her."
On homosexuals
"They're everywhere everywhere! Lesbians run the BBC"
On Jews;
"You never see a Jew in a factory and they all help each other. They wont go to pubs they go to parties at each other's houses."
My dad on Jews;
"They're all obsessed with money lad that's why Hitler threw them all in the ovens."
My dad on black men;
"They won't work they just won't work."
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
Your no doubt justified elision of some of the racist quotes from your very charming parents reminded me of the following anecdote from my teaching days:
I used to teach an Anthropology/Psychology/Sociology course called "Drug Use And Abuse" for many years. One requirement was that students interview at least three people in their neighborhood, and use the interviews to write a paper called "Drugs in my neighborhood".
When going through what i was expecting and how to approach writing this, i would always tell them to use spellcheck, but then to verify each claimed error one by one, rather than by hitting "Accept All Changes".
I would illustrate this by writing on the board an actual sentence from a student paper where the student hit "Accept All Changes" with unfortunate results to an interview quote: "The main problem in this neighborhood is naggers shooting other naggers over some bullshit." I taught at a college with a large majority of black and Latinx students.
Shiva will like this. My dad on Indians;
"Oh yeah they are healers lad."
My dad rejected the prevalent paradigm on evolution. He derived his theory from some book he had read in the 60s about how humans were birthed on some distant planet and they decided to make our planet their new home. The first step was to "send all the n___ers down there to test the inhabitability of the place. Once established that it's conditions were sound they then docked the white caucasions. There you have it the origins of man in a nutshell according to my dad an avowed Socialist. I've yet to find the title of that book. If anyone knows it let me know.
https://www.lashtal.com/wiki/Aleister_Crowley_Timeline
My dad on Indians;
"Oh yeah they are healers lad."
Well, yes, that's true. But then we must wonder why they have a modern medical facility on their nearby rez ... staffed by docs who are not of Indian decent.
If a toilet is flushed in the next stall over and there is no one to register it, was it done by a authorized or un authorized cisgender ?
ATTENTION
Let's sit here in this latrine and have a think?
Trump has made the economy stronger than ever, and *gasp* even the 'darkies' are warming to him as he actually is not racist like the Demo crap clan and he is open to all money and all comers. Its called open minded.
Silly Joe Biden has been exposed for corruption just like his 'friend; (who disowned him) Obama in regards to Ukraine corruption.
No one left to protect him.
If you want to bring up racist bull snip about the borders than you are forgetting about how many people, military, government agents, police and civilians are dying at the southern border. Look up last weeks news from Sonora.
But hes racist because he wants to protect it.
If you want to bring up religious crap, he obviously isn't but do you want to kill some babies?
What is wrong with people?
Love is the law, love under Will.
Once again, i have to wonder if you, chris, have any access to information that does not come from Fox News.
Every single fact you assert is dead false, as you would know if you regularly consumed any news outside the far-right reality tunnel. Most don't even debatably contain a bit of truth, as a good propaganda lie should. They are easily proven as untrue with any checking at all.
You are being taken for a ride, and sold a bill of goods, by your preferred media sources.
The US economy is doing well for anyone who does not work for wages or a salary- stocks are through the roof, wages are flat. Employment is up, but again, wages/salaries aren't, although worker productivity is way up.
Trump's popularity remains near zero with blacks; they are not "warming" to him. Use of racist language may violate the site terms, BTW.
There is not the least evidence of corruption by Joe Biden- among other things, the timing of the wackalooon Giuliani/Trump theory makes no sense. Why would Joe Biden be trying to fire a Ukrainian prosecutor for supposedly investigating his son's involvement in corrupt practices in Ukraine when the prosecutor was fired before his son was involved in Ukraine? Only a Republican could believe this- time normally flows in one direction only for the rest of us.
Obama has not "disowned" Biden, though he has not campaigned for him- he is staying neutral in the primary. Even the most insane Republican conspiracy-nut theories have not even accused Obama of any sort of corruption.
Few are dying along the border; illegal immigration is down. What does the murder of some Mormons in Mexico have to do with US politics?
Fox News et al. are lying to you all day every day, chris- it's their job.
What does any of this have to do with Starfire?
Hovering over the Lock key...
Owner and Editor
LAShTAL
I really like the combination of fiction and essays in Starfire so I hope something like that continues. The essays are always great in that they are geared towards Thelema and magick but also tie in with other traditions like Toltec, Sabbatic etc.
I meant to respond to this several months ago, but the hurley-burley took me elsewhere for a while.
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.