Invisible Links
and Book Reviews
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Our main interests here at Invisible Books are religion, mythology, mysticism and philosophy. We are always looking for people who can find that middle ground between absolute kooks who think Eleusis was all about magic mushrooms, and academic dust-bunnies who think Eleusis should be a vast list of intellectual scruples that keep us on the safe side of knowing anything at all. Needless to say, there aren't a lot of people who are both sane and well educated, so the sites we present are usually those of interesting or amusing nut jobs, or academics who have risen above their training to the extent of offering some useful resource.
Christianity
One of the more remarkable productions of religious folk art is this DIY Gaudi palace of God which Martin Sanchez has created in Riverside California
Ecstasy
The Zeitgeist Press has been publishing interesting and worthwhile books of poetry for decades now. It is they who brought Julia Vinograd to general attention. Their books are always worth a look, and often quite good. Considering how awful the common run of poetry books are, this is saying quite a lot. They are really in a class by themselves, and probably deserve to be called the best poetry publishing house in America today.
Egypt
Pharaonic Egypt, Andre Dollinger's site, is one of the most generally interesting, because of his social-history emphasis coupled with great intelligence and aesthetic refinement.
The Theban Mapping Project A really enthralling site, an incredible virtual tour of the Valley of the Kings.
The Egypt Store If you need to get some kitschy, made-in-China Egyptian Gods (and I have been guilty of this more than once), this store seems to have the best prices and selection.
The Egyptologists' Electronic Forum is the best place to start: the FAQ's (particularly Glyphs and Grammars) is indispensible. It's worthwhile to subscribe to the EEF e-list: the postings are srious, to the point and cordial (really, a model for how such a thing should be run.)
Egyptomania This is like the EEF, only in Spanish. I subscribed to their very well-run e-list since reading about Egytology in the language of Borges and Gongora was irresistible. De la Torre Suarez, who runs the thing, has created the best priced of the Hieroglyphic writing programs.
Etana is a very interesting library of free PDF format books maintained by the University of Chicago's ABZU project, and indeed provided the inspiration for the Invisible Books website. This is the wave of the future. After all, how can you say you believe in free speech if you make people pay to hear it? Of particular interest are the complete postings of Budge's Book of the Dead and Naville's Coffin Texts in Hieroglyphics.
The Annual Egyptological Bibliography is something you're going to need to have if you're doing any serious work in Egyptology.There's no other way of learning what's already been written on any given subject. The CD rom is a great deal, and these folks eminently deserve our support.
The Goddess
The Museum of Female Domination Art has an unparalleled selection of art in this particularly genre. I never bought a membership to the main collection, but there's plenty to see in the free galleries.What struck us was this collection of collage art by "Unknown 008". Clearly a labor of love, this artwork has a very Richard Hamilton humor about it (most likely unintentional). Well worth a look. The rest of the site is also of interest, but more for the content (if you like that) than the execution. The classics, Bruno Schultz, Bernard Montorgeuil and Eric Stanton are of course represented.
Lawrence Chin, a.k.a. Therapeuter, a.k.a. FeeFee has created a series of academically proficient painting that show the goddess Athena manifesting in various sceness from ancient Chinese history. All this is in the service of an elaborate theory of history based on the second law of thermodynamics. Chin's abstruse theorizing leads him to conclusions such as this: femal strippers are the end and telos of human evolution. There is a chart on his page Called "The Evolutionary Origin of the Striper. "(sic) He is actually a good academic painter, and reminds me of Richard Dadd in a number of ways. Well worth visiting at the Owl Gallery (
Hoodoo
Lucky Mojo An encyclopaedic resource on Hoodoo and Amulets, as well as my most trusted source for lucky oils, herbs and curios. Cat Yronwode's own book Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic is a masterpiece.
Magick
The Alchemy Website Adam McLean has provided this splendid and highly visual resource.
Robert North has a respected place in the ranks of post-Crowleyan occultists. His particular blend of Chaos-magic, sado-masochistic ritual, and religious experimentalism is unique and compelling. The antecedents and influences to his teatching include Mesmer, P. B. Randolph, and H.P. Lovecraft. His blogspot, The New Flesh Palladium, will given an introduction to his work, while his more recent researches can be found at his fascinating Maria de Naglowska blog, The Mystery of the Seven Palms. His books, The Secret of Aleister Crowley, a devastating psycho-zoological account of the Beast, and The New Flesh Palladium, a fascinating S&M tour of western magic from Mesmer to Lovecraft, can be had from the his Lulu store. Real rarities of lucid occult scholarship.
Outward Signs of Inward Grace
You need a beaded curtain, don't you? Nothing establishes mystical credibility as rapidly or well as the right decor.
Links of Underground Interest:
Mick Farren, cybyronic author of "The Last Stand of the DNA Cowboys," "Jim Morrison's Adventures in the Afterlife" and other SF classics, which we here at Invisible Books only wish we had the chance to publish, and member of the legendary proto-punk bank "The Deviants" has his own blogful of musings political and cultural, which we check into every so often to see what the dear boy is up to.
The most interesting thing we've seen recently was the British online journal Nth Position. A sophisticated and literate zine which gives outstanding access to what's happening in literature, art and politics.
E.J. Barnes, comix luminary of the marginals milieu, maintains a web presence and continues her work with mandalas, vevers, and illustrating the tales of Al Ackerman. Her site keeps one up to date as to her work and whereabouts. An interesting person interested in the genuinely interesting.
Moorish Orthodox Fatwah. No website qualifies as "hip" without the requisite Hakim Bey material. We fail of hipness by even this rudimentary measure. Nonetheless, because our hearts are truly in the right place, we post this curious Fatwah issued by the Moorish Orthodox Church, of which Bey is the deus otiosus. Invisible Books takes no responsibility for karmatic damage incurred by too careful a reading of this document.
Brett Rutherford, who appears in our Buried Alive anthology, has his own books available through The Poets Press Lulu Store.
We were very recently delighted to find that Frank Key has resurfaced in England: he is somewhere in the psychic geography between Robert Benchley and Trstan Tzara. His page is Hooting Yard, and contains many astounded hours of maniacal laughter.
Allright, this isn't literature, but you should visit it. The Lair of the Crab of Ineffable Wisdom Particularly check out "We Like the Moon," "Gay Bar" and "Deep Within the Secret Dome."