Slynkycat’s Neighborhood

Snow @ Letchworth Garden City

Snow @ Letchworth Garden City

Some snow, followed by some more, has hit the area where I live - this is the view I saw from my house on Friday morning. 

There are however many evil heavy-snowfall deniers put there, especially colleagues in London, who still don't believe we received a large dose of the stuff out this way: Here is the proof!

Snow @ Sandon

Snow @ Letchworth Garden City

I must admit that while there was widespread snowfall the really heavy falls were localised - within the 10 mile radius of my town the depth ranged from an inch to impassable snow drift.

After a few days of cabin fever I finally dug my car out of the drive way and headed out to get some photos - and driving a turbo'd, front wheel drive car, on sporty tires, over a couple of inches of packed ice and snow can only be described as "thrilling"!

While I managed to stay awake all yesterday and get to sleep at a normal time I woke at 1am coughing (must have picked something up from a diseased co-passenger) and have failed to get back to sleep since.  :: YAWN :: 

Oh well, at least I am out of the office today so I can take it easy and grab a short power-nap this afternoon if I need to.  To those of you with young kids or routines that mean you regularly have to function on a couple of hours sleep:  I salute you!!!

Katoomba & Blue Mountains

Back from another trip down-under.  I did not get to explore anything new (I stayed put in Sydney) but we did manage to head out of the city to Katoomba to see The Blue Mountains.  It is well worth the 4 hour round trip on the train to see - the views are spectacular.

With mile after mile of dense trees you can see why the occassional uninitiated/inebriated walker goes missing...

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No Pain. No Gain.

After switching to new running shoes (ASICS Nimbus) I foolishly neglected taking it easy for a few runs with them - not so much to let them settle in but more to let my legs settle in.  The first run was great but after the second run I picked up shin and ankle pain.  So a few days of non-impact exercise and plenty of ice and heat are needed to get things back to normal.

Fingers crossed I am repaired in time to do several runs while out in Sydney - I love the run out from Milsons Point, over The Bridge, along the walkway above Circulay Quay, around the Botanic Garden, and back. Bliss!

Diabolical various
Introduction by Peter Grey
Edited by Alkistis Dimech and Peter Grey

Diabolical is a weighty tome of over 350pp.
With nine colour plates of original infernal artwork from Stafford Stone, Kyle Fite, Thomas Karlsson, and Johnny Jakobsson.
Bound in red cloth shot through with charred black.
The cover is stamped with the devil's verse in heavy black fractur.

It comes in an edition of 999 copies, hand numbered in dragon's blood ink.

A copy of the No Smoke Without Fire Edition can be yours for thirty-five English pounds.

The Grimoire tradition is being reinvigorated in the living practice of the carcists, magicians and sorcerors who dare to work with these books.

Those of us who do this work, regardless of whether we trepass amongst the angels or daemons, are often slandered as diabolical. Our books are also regarded as diabolical, being incomprehensible, demonic and without spiritual or practical value.

We throw this back at our accusers by demonstrating that these books are more complex than black and white theology allows, and as repositories of forbidden knowledge are worth their weight in gold. This is where the spirits lie.

We are upholding our side of the pact and continuing to produce the most groundbreaking and relevant titles of the modern occult revival. To this end, Scarlet Imprint have convened an international cabal of writers and artists from England, Poland, Holland, Sweden, Spain, Brazil, Canada and America.

Our writers for this project are:

Jake Stratton-Kent
Eric de Pauw
Aaron Leitch
Paul Hughes-Barlow
Mark Smith
Stafford Stone
Thomas Karlsson
Johnny Jakobsson
The Anonymous author of Pharaoan
Humberto Maggi
John J. Coughlin
Krzysztof Azarewicz
Donald Tyson
Kyle Fite

These individuals meet for the first time within the pages of our newest title, Diabolical and give tongue to their excursions into these texts and others:

The Red Dragon/Grand Grimoire
Grimorium Verum
Lemegeton
The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage
The Testament of Solomon
The Nightside of Eden
The Wisdom of S'lba
Qutub
Liber 231
Liber 325 The Bartzabel Working
The Holy Books of Thelema
The Voudon Gnostic Workbook
The Taufer books...

Substantial original essays and inspired original artwork, in a striking talismanic production, Diabolical will astound you.

More information at scarletimprint.com

Direct link to download .mp3 podcast file -- http://media.blubrry.com/occultofpersonality/www.occultofpersonality.net/wp-content/uploads/OoP_Podcast75_RobertPlace1.mp3

If the above link is not working, please try -- http://www.divshare.com/download/9070324-a2b

“Robert M. Place is an internationally known visionary artist and illustrator, whose award winning works, in painting, sculpture, and jewelry, have been displayed in galleries and museums in America, Europe, and Japan and graced the covers and pages of numerous books and publications. He is the designer, illustrator, and co-author, with Rosemary Ellen Guiley, of: The Alchemical Tarot and The Angels Tarot, which are both published by HarperCollins and have received international acclaim particularly for their skillful and illuminating graphics. He is the designer, illustrator, and author of The Tarot of the Saints, and The Buddha Tarot, which are published by Llewellyn. His fifth book, The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination, is published by Tarcher/Penguin. He has also authored Astrology and Divination, Magic and Alchemy, and Shamanism. His latest Tarot deck and book set is The Vampire Tarot, published by St. Martins Press.”

"The Vampire Tarot" by Robert M. Place

To begin episode 75, Robert describes the prophetic and synchronistic manner that he was introduced to the Tarot. As an artist, he was able to intuitively grasp the symbolism and levels of meaning portrayed in the Tarot images, allowing him to create “The Alchemical Tarot“, a very highly-acclaimed and beautiful deck. Robert then describes his latest creation, “The Vampire Tarot“.

Jonathan the Fool

As a Tarot scholar, his research into the history and folklore of vampires and the Dracula legend led him to the realization that this story was like an inverse of the alchemical quest. The Great Work is analogous to the story told by the Major Arcana of the Tarot. In his analysis of the Dracula legend, Robert realized that this story was also a quest for immortality but in a far darker and different way, replacing the spiritual with the material.

IV. The Count

Robert tells us how the vampire legends invoke the Jungian concept of facing the shadow or the other. The resurrection of these legends in literature coincided with the scientific revolution and Romanticism. The original vampire stories, like the unrefined unconscious mind were dark and frightening, but when examined in the light, by writers and artists, these same stories can take on an alluring quality. Robert explains this evolution from a historical, psychological, and artistic perspective.

XVIII. The Moon

We finish off the conversation as Robert describes how he views the Dracula legend as analogous to the quest for the Holy Grail. Dracula can be seen as the dark knight and those trying to defeat him as the Knights of the Round Table. His perspective on this legend and his beautiful artwork in “The Vampire Tarot” can bring forth yet another version of the archetypal hero’s quest, there all along and just waiting for us to discover it.

XIX. The Sun

When my running gathered momentum again I picked a nice 5K circular route and ran it slowly to get a base line time and set a target time for the route which was about 2 minutes faster than the base line.  I managed to hit that goal time within 4 weeks but then almost lost all motivation since I would get demoralised when I ran the route and failed to hit the target time each and every time. 

The first solution was to run the route "the other way" and this worked until I could hit the goal time in that direction too.  At this point I switched to another route and it made a massive difference to my motivation.  So now every few weeks I am switching to a new route, setting a new target time, and the moment I hit it I either start running the route in the opposite direction or choose another route. A simple but very effective way of keeping me motivated.

Now I am hitting longer distances fast it is time for new shoes - my venerable ASICS Kayanos are pretty much knackered (I must confess they probably were 6 months ago).  Mysterious light pain in my left shin/calf has made me take a look at my feet while running and it looks like my left foot/leg/knee is less stable than my right!  This is confirmed by the wear on my trainers - my right shoe is evenly worn, my left more heavily worn on the outside mid section.  Weird, perhaps I need a ASIC Nimbus for my left foot, and a Kayano for my right! :P

Since I am hitting the road harder than normal I may see how things go with a pair of uber cushioned Kinsei's... If I continue to get pain in my left, or the pain moves to my right, then it could be time to get some gait analysis done and see what is up.

For the last 3 months I have been hitting the road hard in the evenings.  I used to struggle to run in the evenings after work as I felt too tired to bother.  However, a new routine of eating earlier and running later has made a world of difference.  So now rather than heading out for a run around 18:30 and eating at 19:30, I am eating around 19:00 and running at 20:30.  The "boost" from a post work rest and a meal is amazing, I am usually looking forward to getting out on the road!

Running later also has the advantages of cooler conditions, less traffic, and cars are easy to spot because they have their lights on  - I can run down the middle of many of the side roads at this time of night!

Even the colder nights are not deterring me even though I hate running with lots of layers on especially the high visibility stuff.  Let's see how I fare when the frost and ice starts in a month's time...