Golden Dawn

When The Painter, from Something Solid, went up on PennSound June 2022 (and also settled on Synchronized Chaos in May 2024), it carried an insignia that some might consider curious. My interest in the occult dates back to my adolescence; my interest in Aleister Crowley, and his Book of the Law, began in the early Aughts. In the poem, Book of the Law acts as a totem or talisman, connecting me to my higher Self, and the possible manifestation of my True Will (potentialities the book adumbrates). At the time of the inception of my relationship with Mary H, this was a difficult and messy procedure. Book of the Law, Satanic reputation aside, helped. For a time, my occult preoccupation became formalized in the mid-Aughts: I joined the Thelemic Order of the Golden Dawn. I'd already asked for, and received, access to their files earlier. Mary H witnessed me doing Bringing Down the Light, and other Golden Dawn rituals, many times, including blessings and incantations to her. The point of the E Sequence from Something Solid, which includes The Painter, is that, through a manifestation of collective True Will (doing our Will), many of us in Aughts Philadelphia were able to achieve a sense of oneness with the cosmos, or universe. On a profound level, we were there, in Philly, to manifest divine energies and co-mingle in divine ways. The reward we were giving for following through Higher Law was a shielded, deep-set sense of being at home both in our own skins and in our own lives. Worth noting that The Studio, here in AOP and on PennSound, mines similar territory to come to similar conclusions, as does Starlight.    

Genius Loci

 Another javelin hurled into the empty, sheltering space of West Philadelphia.

Javelins in Talking about Strawberries

Jenny Kanzler lays down the law and is going to kill you. Thanks to Malcolm Curtis. 

Turns Out

 Turns out, Mary was no stranger to darkness, too. 

Apparition Poem #1547 in Fixator Press

Many thanks to Jonathan Butcher for publishing #1547 in Fixator Press. 
 

The Creatrix

The idea of the Creatrix— the creative female goddess— followed Mary around. 

Key point: triad time

This Mary Evelyn Harju portrait of me was painted in late 2006, into 2007. I have now used it as the cover image for PICC. Worth noting: the way I take it, it's not exactly completely an affectionate portrait. The drab coloration, misshapen quality of my head and my hair, were deliberate on Mary's part. As, also, is the sense that my face, as it is painted here, is a little off. If you look closely at it, it is easy to discern that what you are seeing is my face, melded with Abby Heller-Burnham's face. Mary seems to be expressing a certain amount of righteous indignation that Abby and I, by then, had consummated an affair too. Even after I broke up with Mary at the end of '03, I was supposed to know that Abby was off-limits. And, as is generally known, Mary and I did reunite for a big chunk of 2007. So my sense of reuniting with Mary was not thrown off. But important that Mary seemed to see Abby and I together as demonic, or at least menacing. All the elements of the painting which could seem peculiar are no accident.