Aleister Crowley and the I Ching

April 22, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I was researching Emile Coue, a French ‘New Thought’ expert of the inter-war years, yesterday and remembered that I had first read about him on a skiing trip to Canada in the mid 70’s. The book was a madhouse collection of stray information called The People’s Almanac and I was consumed with it when I wasn’t on the slopes (my cousins will testify to this, I think, because I entertained them each night — I thought I was entertaining them, at least — with trivia and bizarre historical facts and figures from the text). It’s available online here; the Coue article is on page 561 and his most famous book, Self-Mastery Through Conscious Auto-Suggestion, can be downloaded here.

On page 562, though, was something much more interesting: a short piece on Aleister Crowley and his obsession with the Yi King, what is now referred to as the I Ching or The Book of Changes. More after the jump! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike

‘Twilight’ TV Series in the Works?

April 21, 2023 by 1 Comment

It sure looks like it! My man in the Twilight zone, James, wrote on a long abandoned thread to share that Lionsgate, the company which owns the film and teevee rights to the Meyer novels. See The Hollywood Reporter piece, ‘Twilight’ TV Series in the Works (Exclusive) — Lionsgate Television is in early development on a series that could bring author Stephenie Meyer’s book series back to life after the wildly successful movies.

James thinks this is the key paragraph in the article:

The timing of the Twilight series comes as HBO Max recently confirmed that it was in early development of a Harry Pottertelevision adaptation with plans for a decade-long run of J.K. Rowling’s beloved book series with the controversial author attached as an executive producer. Genre programming continues to remain in high demand as Amazon last year launched a new take on The Lord of the Rings, with Warner Bros. Discovery also planning on making new installments of the feature films based on the J.R.R. Tolkien works.

I get it! The timing more than hints that there is a link here, if only in why a Twilight teevee show rumor created sufficient cause to report it as a story.

I think the more interesting angle on the show’s possibilities, though, was this idea:

Sinead Daly, whose credits include Tell Me Lies, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Raised by Wolves, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and The Get Down, is attached to write the script for Twilight. Sources say Daly is working with Lionsgate TV to determine what the specific take on Twilight will be and if it will be a remake of Meyer’s books or a different offshoot.

Meyer is reported to be involved in the project (duh), and, given her penchant for Orson Scott Card, it would be credible to think this version of the story might be told from another character’s perspective, Edward and his ‘father’ being the most obvious choices.

I’m excited about this rumor, which I hope is true, because it promises, if true and successful (top those conditions!), simultaneously to revitalize interest in Meyers’ work, Twilight and beyond, and to generate small screen treatments of favorite series. I’m thinking of the Chronicles of Narnia and the Ransom Trilogy, but fill in your favorite multi-volume work here — unless you’re a Divergent fan and the mention of ‘Lionsgate’ makes you shudder from the memory of their failed promises.

Filed Under: Twilight

Shared Text: ‘Hogwarts and All’

April 19, 2023 by Leave a Comment

The Economist magazine published an article earlier this month on ‘School Voucher Schemes’ in the United States (they are profoundly skeptical, whence “schemes”). They titled it, ‘Hogwarts and All.’

There was not a single allusion to the famous school of witchcraft and wizardry in it, but the reference was meant to tease the Harry Potter fan into reading the piece and share its ‘warty’ conclusion.

Fifteen years after the publication of the last novel in the series, Deathly Hallows, in a world of ever-decreasing attention spans and cultural memory, the Hogwarts Saga — its characters, scenes, and events — remain a shared text across generations and all geography. No doubt the new teevee show will reinforce this social fact.

Filed Under: Shared Text

‘We Hymn Thy Resurrection, O Christ’

April 18, 2023 by Leave a Comment

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

Between services this Holy Week at St Philaret’s in Anderson, South Carolina, I had a discussion with a thoughtful young man, one who has studied Tolkien sufficiently, I think, to be able to read runes, about the parallelism of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I sent him the work done by Kelly Kerr and myself on this subject and he confessed to being astonished about the ring aspects of his favorite books.

That conversation reminded me during the celebration of Pascha of how this traditional story scaffolding permeates everything Orthodox Christian, holy scripture to services of the Church.

Several years ago I wrote a post here, ‘The Hymn of the Resurrection: Orthodox Hymnography and Ring Composition,‘ in which I parsed, in English and in Greek, the chiastic structure of a Paschaltide hymn sung by the Orthodox on the Feast of Feasts, during Bright Week, and on Sundays throughout the year. It’s worth a re-reading, I think, on this Bright Tuesday.

Enjoy, or, better, Rejoice!

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Guest Post: “What’s With Robin?”

April 12, 2023 by 5 Comments

Today’s HogwartsProfessor post is from a Serious Striker writing under the pseudonym ‘Albus.’ It is more a cry of the heart about Robin Ellacott’s choices in Ink Black Heart than an analysis of the mythic or anagogical content of Strike6 or speculation about The Running Grave, which is to say, it represents a departure from most of what we write and discuss here. I publish it with some misgiving; I do not find the interrogation of Pierce a lapse in ethics or morality, as ‘Albus’ does, Puritanical as I must seem to many. The decision to ‘bug’ the offices of a Parliament office not mentioned in this piece, seemed a far greater jump into illicit behavior than Ms Ellacott’s manipulation of a sleazy character to tell all.

That caveat aside, I offer ‘What’s With Robin?’ for your reflection on how one thoughtful reader experienced the sea-change of Robin Ellacott in Ink Black Heart. If you are like me after my first reading, you may suspect that this experience of disappointment and confusion may have been the point of Rowling-Galbraith’s choices with respect to this character’s story-arc, the hardening of Robin into someone less sympathetic and admirable by conventional standards, into a woman able to journey through the psychological forge of hell successfully. See the post on the Psyche and Cupid mythic backdrop of Ink Black Heart for more on that possibility.

I hope readers will respond in the comment boxes with their take-away with respect to Robin’s choices in Strike6, especially with respect to the Pierce interview. Are you more with or against Albus’ reading of the mystery? Was it an aberration and mistake on the author’s part or a calculated move to disturb and challenge the reader? Make the jump for Albus’ “What’s With Robin?” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Guest Posts