Author Archives: setemheb

On the Prince of Darkness: Etymology

The English phrase “Prince of Darkness” is a translation of a Latin phrase, princeps tenebrarum.  Princeps is a noun meaning “First one” or “Leader.” It would, in time, expand in meaning to include ideas such as “first in time or order; the first, chief, the most eminent, distinguished, or noble; the first man, first person.” InContinue reading “On the Prince of Darkness: Etymology”

The Secret Rule of Satan and the Witches

The expanding Church’s experience in the late Middle Ages created encounters with many hold-over features of pre-Christian tradition and many aberrations to the Faith due to isolated developments. This would coalesce at the start of the Early Modern Period into a concern about rural folk who were in league with the Devil, known as Witches.Continue reading “The Secret Rule of Satan and the Witches”

Saturday Quote

“Rather [Remanifest] invokes the dialectic idealism of Hegel, suggesting that the sort of evolution proposed by Xeper will actually occur in a series of syntheses. What differentiates Remanifest from Hegel, of course, is that Hegel offered his dialectic idealism on a universal scale, manifest among humanity as the state. [Remanifest’s Magus] states that, while the principle of dialectic idealism is correct, it isContinue reading “Saturday Quote”

The Early Modern Period and the Secret Rule of Satan

Some background is in order to get a sense of the world we are entering into in discussing John Dee. During the third period of expansion of early Islam, circa 661-750 EV, the entire extent of North Africa came under the control of the Umayyad Caliphate. From here, it became quite easy to stage anContinue reading “The Early Modern Period and the Secret Rule of Satan”

The Spectral Janitor of Academy 23 (i)

Since the fall I have been finding myself looking over the remains of “Academy 23,” the hypothetical school of magic inclusive of figured such as William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Robert Anton Wilson, and Genesis P-Orridge. It’s now roughly 23 months since P-Orridge’s death*, meaning the collapsed remains of the Academy has had some timeContinue reading “The Spectral Janitor of Academy 23 (i)”

Theoria: The Essentials of the Semiotic Theory of Magic

Acts of Magic, of whatever kind, are acts of Communication. A Basic Model of Communication    One of the most valuable communication models was proposed in 1954 by Charles Osgood and Wilbur Schramm. The most common in interpersonal communication is through language. Communication takes place between Interpreters with a cyclical exchange. In a single actContinue reading “Theoria: The Essentials of the Semiotic Theory of Magic”

Recovering the Hermetica

Byzantine emperor Alexios I faced a seemingly insurmountable challenge in the 11th Century. Despite being the heir to the Roman Empire, Alexios I saw his area of rule diminishing with the expansion of the Seljuq dynasty. The House of Seljuq was a Turkish family who practiced a Sunni variation of Islam that, in time, integratedContinue reading “Recovering the Hermetica”