I HAVE A NEW WEBSITE!

 

Hello everyone! I have just launched a new website. Eventually my blog will be hosted there, and I will transfer over there particularly useful entrees from this page. I am most excited that my new website features all the talks and classes I have given over the recent years along with links to purchase or view them. Check it out! 

www.starandsystem.com 

Consider coming to my class this Thursday: "Learning from Legendary Practitioners: Teiresias"

https://www.thecauldronblack.com/event-details/the-mighty-dead-class-series-learning-from-legendary-practitioners-teiresias-with-kadmus-march-11th-2020-7pm

Introductory Thoughts: Pagan Conceptions of the Self

On August 8th, at 10a.m., I will be teaching the class "Pagan Conceptions of the Self" at the Salem Summer Symposium. I hope some of you will consider joining me! Here I would like to offer some beginning provocations concerning the topic. 

On the Lion Skin Belt

While doing some research on pagan magic and necromancy I came upon some interesting texts that caused me to reflect upon the use of the Lion Skin Belt in the grimoire tradition (notably in the so-called Lemegeton or Lesser Key of Solomon).

Introductory thoughts: "The Role of Magic in a Pagan Cosmos" Salem Summer Symposium

What is magic? I will be giving a talk at the Salem Summer Symposium on this topic on Friday August 9th at 1 P.M. and would like to share a few introductory thoughts on the subject.

Salem Summer Symposium!

Come see me in Salem this summer at the Salem Summer Symposium! I'll be giving two talks. First, starting off the seminars on the morning of the first day of classes (Thursday August 8th) I will be talking about "Pagan Conceptions of the Self". Then, Friday afternoon, I'll be discussing "The Role of Magic in a Pagan Cosmos". I will also be in Salem all that week and will attend most of the events and classes/talks/seminars. I am very honored and excited to be in such amazing company, check out the list of other presenters! Hope to see you this summer, and many more updates coming soon!

New Podcast Interview and upcoming Conference

My appearance on This Podcast is Ritual was just posted. It was a great conversation, and the work Devin is doing is excellent. I really appreciated the chance to offer some perspective on my book, True to the Earth.

I will also be giving a talk at Rewriting the Future: 100 Years of Esoteric Modernism and Psychoanalysis at the end of May in Italy. The lineup is amazing and includes several of my favorite thinkers on the topic of the occult. My paper will expand upon some of the key ideas in True to the Earth and will be entitled "True to the Earth and a Pagan Conception of the Self". 

New Interview about my book "True to the Earth"

Hello everyone, as previously mentioned I have a book out that I am very excited about: True to the Earth: Pagan Political Theology An interview I did about the book was just published by Luna Luna Magazine, so if you want a bit more of a sense of what the book is up to check out the interview. Talking with Cooper Wilhelm for this interview was very enjoyable and a lot of fun. I may have a few added thoughts and comments extended on this I said in the interview to add here soon so keep your eyes open for them.

"True to the Earth" my upcoming book!

My forthcoming book from Gods and Radicals just went up for pre-sale! I am very excited about this and can't wait to hear what any of you think. Please consider checking it out, it is discounted until the official release on October 15th.

 from 12.50

190 pages, perfect bound, matte cover, B&W text.

Much more than traditions and customs are lost when an animist culture is suppressed or destroyed. Into the abyss of forgetting goes also an entire way of seeing humans, animals, gods, and the rest of nature, as well as the relationships these things constantly forge with each other.

These were also the worldviews of ancient Pagan cultures before the dominance of writing and monotheism supplanted them. Organic pluralism, an embrace of multiple, conflicting truths, and a deep understanding of the interconnection between humans and the natural world: all were core values of oral and animist cultures.

As global climate change and the collapse of Empire throw the earth and our modern societies into crisis, these core values are what humanity and the nature it destroys desperately need again.

In True To The Earth: Pagan Political Theology, author and professor of philosophy Kadmus weaves a narrative from the lore of Celtic, Greek, Norse, and indigenous traditions to show us how we once saw the world and how we can see it again. He unveils the modern assumptions which blind us from seeing the past and what we've lost, challenges the core foundations of literal, universalist thinking, and shakes us free from the unseen bonds monotheism has placed upon our understanding of ourselves and the world.

Well-researched and erudite, yet written in an engaging and accessible manner, True To The Earth offers back to us what we have lost, and gives us fertile soil from which a new earth-centered political understanding can arise.

https://abeautifulresistance.org/shop-1/true-to-the-earth-pagan-political-theology-by-kadmus

Review: Dr. Alexander Cummin's Geomancy Foundation Course

Sorry for my recent silence everyone, I have been working on editing my upcoming book about which I will have more information soon.

I recently took Dr. Alexander Cummin's "Geomancy Foundation Course" through Wolf and Goat and wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts about the course.

I'm on a podcast!

The amazing James Lindenschmidt put together an excellent podcast for Gods and Radicals on the topic of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and his Nazism. I'm honored to be in the company of Suzanne Claxton, whose book Heidegger's Gods recently came out, and Jeremiah Conway.

Taboo to Totem: Heidegger & the Seduction of Fascism

A Forthcoming Book and More

I've been quiet, I know, though I have had work popping up over at Gods and Radicals from time to time, like my recent review of Peter Mark Adams' excellent book The Game of Saturn. 

I'm writing now just to note that the cause of my silence hasn't been (at least not exclusively) laziness. I had been writing a book that should be coming out in the near future. I will share further details soon, but for now know that you can expect a book from me soon.

I've got some plans for future posts here as well, so stay tuned. Happy Dog Days everyone (yes, its early - yes, the dates are debated - but I can feel the energy pumping and so, for me at least, the Dog Days have begun)!

Updates

I have a new post over at Gods and Radicals, "The Luck of the Times: A Ritual", in which I craft a ritual for the achievement of luck in dark times. In it I offer a call I wrote to the Roman goddess of luck, Temporum Felicitas i.e. "Luck of the Times", as well as using two rituals from the Greek Magical Papyri calling forth the Greek goddess of luck Tyche and the Agathos Daimon. The entire thing is book-ended by the assistance of the god Janus. Check it out, there is also a fair amount of investigation into the nature of luck, its connection to place, time, and the Good Daimon, as well as its distinction from Fate, Necessity, and Destiny. There is a lot more I wanted to discuss but the piece is probably already sufficiently packed with investigations into various more or less obscure occult and religious connections. However, I am tempted to pursue a future post, probably here, concerning the role of the serpent symbol in presenting both the goddess Ananke and the Agathos Daimon along with the interesting idea that the Agathos Daimon is potentially the serpent on the Rod of Asclepius, god of healing.

"Pagan Anarchism" Review

I would like to take a moment to review the excellent book, Pagan Anarchism, written by my friend and colleague at Gods and Radicals Christopher Scott Thompson. 

I know it has been a while...

Hey everyone, I realize it has been a while - things have been very busy. Amidst the things that kept me busy was having an essay and poem published in Fenris Wolf 8. The essay is called "Neo-Chthonia" and I am very proud of it. Check it out if you get a chance. I have some future posts planned, both for here and for Gods and Radicals, so stay tuned. I've also received some very interesting questions in my email that I have unfortunately not had the time to fully answer - but I am thinking of a series of blog posts offering some thoughts on the topics. In the meantime, check out the memes drawn from some of my writings over at "Gods and Radicals"!

A Preponderance of the Dead

It's been a dark week and I feel drawn to offer some minor reflections on death. The horrors of three mass shootings in one day certainly makes its contribution to the darkness, but even before that there was a weight and shadow to this week that left me consistently a little breathless and disturbed. Teaching was difficult, I was distracted, there were voices on the wind. Then, this morning, I awoke to find this truly breathtaking piece by Rhyd Wildermuth over at the Wild Hunt: Gates of the Abyss:

"But under this all is Death, the pale voiceless corpse, our lost stories, our tales tapering off into silence not for lack of words but absence of tongue. What meaning can we derive from death, when it is itself the Abyss into which all meaning leaks out?" 

Historical image, Brown Lady Ghost photo. Originally taken in 1936 by Captain Hubert C. Provand (Indre Shire Inc.), and published in the magazine 'Countrylife' in the same year.  

New Post at Gods and Radicals

I have a new post up over at Gods and Radicals and am super excited that the Gods and Radicals journal, A Beautiful Resistance, is spreading its way through the world even as we speak including a piece by yours truly! I do hope you will consider checking the journal out.

My piece today in Gods and Radicals is entitled "Magic is the Revolution" and is a rumination on the revolutionary potential and essence of magical practice.

I am also cooking up some new ideas for some posts here, keep your eye open for them, as well as writing some material for another project I may be updating you about soon. Exciting things on the horizon.

Hekate, William Blake1795 

Happy Samhain!

Here's to wishing a very happy Samhain to you all! May you bring something of the unexpected and impossible into the world. May the dead walk with you. Joy to they who came before, they from whence we came.

"Reconciliation" A soul painting by Duncan Crystal

A Beautiful Resistance forthcoming

In a bit over a week the first issue of the journal of the Gods and Radicals website, A Beautiful Resistance, will be released. This issue is entitled Everything We Already Are and has many exciting contributions including an excellent forward by Peter Grey. You can read Rhyd Wildermuth's Introduction here to get a sense of what is in store for you as you dig into the text. I should confess that I also have a piece in it. You can order a copy or subscribe to the journal here. I do hope you will check it out. I have a bit of other news in the works, but will have to wait before I have more to share about that.

The Speculations of Kadmus: Escaping the Two Great Deceptions

0. The following is an experiment. It began as an attempt to construct a coherent metaphysics simply, directly, and briefly working from experience alone and using as few assumptions as possible. This view was then applied to key elements in the history of religion and philosophy. Having done this the basic ideas developed were used to reconstruct elements of occult philosophy, practice, and several forms of mysticism.

Nude Descending a Staircase #2 by Marcel Duchamp