Black Pearl now available for free download

[Jim Eshelman]

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

College of Thelema is pleased to announce that it's periodical Black Pearl is now available for free download. See: http://thelema.org/publications/bp.html

The files are high-quality PDFs, preserving the colored covers, and created to be completely searchable. As a result of these features, the files are pretty large, so allow generous time for the download.

There is no charge for these issues, but your U.S. tax-deductible donations are appreciated and help support the continuing work of College of Thelema. A PayPal link is provided next to the download links for your use, if you wish.

Black Pearl and In the Continuum cover 31 years of continuous publication and are the core of College of Thelema's educational heritage. We are very happy to make these valuable works available in this format.

[Poet]

I have heard much about these, and have wanted to get my hands on them ever since I did.

Thank you immensely for the time and effort taken making these available to us. It is much appreciated.

Looking forward to reading the V&V analysis!

[Jim Eshelman]

Let me know what you think.

And, also know that it "ain't nothing" compared to what's coming... because I'm now ready to announce (but quietly, just in this thread on another subject) that the book I've been sweating away on for the last few months and have almost finished is...

Vision & Voices
Aleister Crowley's Enochian Visions
with Astrological & Qabalistic Commentary

In other words... the series in BP, with another 10 years of perspective on the material, written for a larger audience, and supplemented with extras to make it more of a book than a magazine series. I mostly just have to finish the 30 or so pages of Introduction and the last 25% of the Glossary, and finish some layout issues, and it will be ready to go off to press.

Meanwhile... read what I'm now referring to as "the pilot study" ... the articles serialized in Black Pearl.

[kuniggety]

Awesome news! This is much appreciated. I also look forward to your book.

[Alias55A]

Trust me Jim, I do not have in physicality any of your work yet, but I'm sure I will make room somewhere on the shelf for your work somewhere between Crowley and Regardie.... Which are next to each other . But while the BP is free.... I'le just go ahead and click download . But seriously, thnx a whole huge bunch for the work you have done and are doing.

[Alias55A]

Another note, the Cover of the BP is F'ing Awwww! sooooo AWSOME!

[Alias55A]

Another note, the Cover of the BP is F'ing Awwww! sooooo AWSOME!

Wallpaper that S**T!

[Jim Eshelman]

Another note, the Cover of the BP is F'ing Awwww! sooooo AWSOME!

There is a different cover on every issue. You have 11 of them there! (But the "coat of arms" inside the cover of each is identical in every issue.)

I am particularly fond of the cover of No. 1, that was mostly my design. I also think No. 6 sizzles. And they're all pretty cool.

I think I made some JPEG scans of the covers when these were first coming out. They may not be very big, though. When I get a chance, I'll dig them out and see if they have any decent resolution.

[Alias55A]

Another note, the Cover of the BP is F'ing Awwww! sooooo AWSOME!

There is a different cover on every issue. You have 11 of them there! (But the "coat of arms" inside the cover of each is identical in every issue.)

I am particularly fond of the cover of No. 1, that was mostly my design. I also think No. 6 sizzles. And they're all pretty cool.

I think I made some JPEG scans of the covers when these were first coming out. They may not be very big, though. When I get a chance, I'll dig them out and see if they have any decent resolution.

Awsome, the cover of No. 1 is my favorite. Their is something mesmerizing about that hawk in the black sun!

[Avshalom Binyamin]

wow! really cool!

especially the searchable feature! w00t!

[PatchworkSerpent]

Fantastic. Both the long-awaited availability of Black Pearl and the announcement of your new book. Congratulations!

[danica]

I have problems with opening the issue No.8 - I'm not sure is the link broken or is it just due to my connection... help needed!

[kuniggety]

I just clicked on it and it worked me for me...could either be your connection or the host server was just temporarily bogged down.

[Jim Eshelman]

I have problems with opening the issue No.8 - I'm not sure is the link broken or is it just due to my connection... help needed!

I just downloaded the file and opened it. It works. But a slow connection will cause problems.

I recommend not opening it in the browser. Instead, right-click on the shortcut and pick Save Target As. Save it to your local machine without opening it first.

[danica]

succeeded. thank you. (it was a temporary connection problem)

[Jim Eshelman]

I've temporarily suspended the single-issue download, and have left the bundled sets. It seems this last gig or so of data maxed my web hosting space (once thought to be more than I'd ever use... live and learn!). So I deleted the single issues for now to free up a few hundred MB and keep all of these sites running.

[Alan Willms]

Why don't you publish a printed single volume edition of ITC + BP (well-edited)?

It would be awesome.

[Jim Eshelman]

Why don't you publish a printed single volume edition of ITC + BP (well-edited)?

It would be awesome.

Well, we did just publish it that way - electronically

Oh, not what you meant. Sorry.

I really don't believe there's a market for it, and we've moved past it. Humbly, I believe BP was leading edge for its time - 10 years ago. In a sense, making it available in the current form is also a way of saying we've moved on past it, and here is the original. My forthcoming new book supercedes the V&V study that makes up a substantial part of BP. I'm not sure that a bundled magazine makes a very good book except as a memorial. (And it would be very expensive to do it right. With new layouts the final product would probably cost close to $100 retail - not particularly the best service to the reader, and an investment by the publisher that could set back other plans for years.)

And that's just mentioning BP. Add ITC and (besides the several years that typesetting and editing would take), you couldn't fit it into a single volume. You're looking at perhaps a 2,500 page book (on crude estimate of converting those pages to typesetting).

[Alan Willms]

My {*******} businesses sense.



Anyway, we can read them.

[Tinman]

Thank you very much for making these available Jim (and team)!

They make me very excited in anticipation for the new book Jim, as the Aethyr stuff is a wonderful bunch of commentary with, seemingly, a very deep astrological viewpoint expressed throughout.

If the new book included some basics and need to know stuff on astrology (as an introductory chapter, or an appendix), I for one, would find that helpful...

Also, including some stuff on enochian such as the information you just shared regarding the 3rd and 4th aethyrs but in a more tabular format might also be useful for newbies like me. For instance, this paragraph of knowledge is awesome:

Each Enocian letter has an astrological attribution. P is Cancer (analogous to Cheth, The Chariot); A to Taurus (analogous to Vav, The Hierophant); Z is Leo (analogous to Teth, Lust). The name of the 4th aethyr, then, is Cancer and Leo (the houses of the Moon and the Sun) standing on either side of a Vav, which literally means "and" or a fastening, so that the 4th Aethyr is a vision of the intimate joining of the Sun and the Moon in the person of the two figures. But each planetary principle has both a positive and a negative expression in the Enochian alphabet, and P is the positive (increasing) aspect of the Moon, while Z is the negative (southern declination) aspect of the Sun, so the vision shows the two figures joined but each infused with the other's essential nature.

Thanks again.

[Jim Eshelman]

They make me very excited in anticipation for the new book Jim, as the Aethyr stuff is a wonderful bunch of commentary with, seemingly, a very deep astrological viewpoint expressed throughout.

Thanks

If the new book included some basics and need to know stuff on astrology (as an introductory chapter, or an appendix), I for one, would find that helpful...

Thanks for the input. At present, the emphasis leans the other way: Most magicians already have the basics of astrology under their belts (or should, since it's essential to right working), but almost no astrologers have the slightest background in magick or Qabalah. The Introduction gives a significant introduction to those last two topics.

There is still time to change my thinking on this, so let me share how I currently see it: Any non-trivial introduction to astrology would need to be a small book in its own right. If I stopped to add that, then it would delay the book about 6 months and add $10-15 to the cost (because of the larger content). It would still be a shallow overview. The final question, as always, is... what decision would serve the reader best?

IMHO anyone interested in magick should have several substantial books on astrology. I think that would serve far better than even another few dozen pages summarizing high points.

Also, including some stuff on enochian such as the information you just shared regarding the 3rd and 4th aethyrs but in a more tabular format might also be useful for newbies like me. For instance, this paragraph of knowledge is awesome:

Thanks. I think what you're asking for is already in the book. A table such as you describe is planned for the Introduction, and the sort of content you have requested is already in the commentary. For example, the paragraph from me you quoted is a chopped-down version of actual commentary on the 4th Aethyr.

[Jim Eshelman]

Here's a sample you might like from the 4th Aethyr. It is commentary on paragraphs 3-6.

These paragraphs show the central image or event of the vision, the ecstatic sexual union of the Sun and Moon. In Qabalistic terms, these are specifically the Yod and Heh-final of the Great Name YHVH, corresponding not to the Father and Mother, but to the Father and Daughter. She is the “soul of innocence” of Malkuth who, by her union with “the Son” – this refers to the Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, her wedding in Tiphereth – has been “placed upon the throne of her Mother” – borne all the way to Binah in the central event of these visions for Crowley, the crossing of the Abyss and the attainment of the Grade of Magister Templi 8=3. It is, then, her role to reawaken the youth of her father, the original Yod of YHVH who first begot her upon her mother.

It is, unfortunately, necessary to mention that this is allegory and we are not actively preaching father-daughter incest as the key to the redemption of the world. We must see this tale from the point of view of the Daughter. We are each the Qabalistic Princess-Daughter in the beginning of our journey; and it is as her that we finish it as well. The first step is to discover ourselves as we are. The next is the wedding and union with our Prince in the Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Following the life-metaphor, this matures us, and turns the girl into a woman. Her Prince-husband places her upon the Throne of the Mother, Binah (and probably upon a pedestal or two along the way!); but it is on her own throne that she finds herself. In her maturity, she is mate no longer of a boy, but of a man. With all of its blessings and curses, this ancient pattern remains prevalent in our society because it is structurally inherent in deep layers of our collective minds.

Beneath this is an allegory of our spiritual growth. In the final analysis, it is in Heh-final, Malkuth, Assiah, the field of our actions and senses, that we create the most perfect conditions for the creative expression of the central Seed-Will, the primal impulse of our inmost being. Persephone, the Daughter of Earth, is truly wed to Hades (= Hadit), the Inmost and Hidden One; and it is by her own will (by voluntarily eating of his seeds) that she remains in Hell, no longer as a captive slave but as its queen.

The enduring copulation of Yod (the Father) with Heh-final (the Daughter) is also the continuous pouring of yourself (your will, your fire: everything you are) into what you have conceived – your Malkuth (“Kingdom”), field of action, or dharma.

[Alias55A]

Jim, mabye after this book you could right a small one, or really small one, something like "jim's Sidreal for Dummies" or something.

[Jim Eshelman]

Jim, mabye after this book you could right a small one, or really small one, something like "jim's Sidreal for Dummies" or something.

An astrololgy book is planned, though not on a particular schedule.

The better deal for something QUICK is for me to find a free week to get solunars.org back online.

[PatchworkSerpent]

YES!