While you can encounter most of my writing via my blog, there are a few long-form pieces I’ve written and published elsewhere that I am also making available here.
The Kybalion’s New Clothes
For better or worse, I am perhaps best known for my work on The Kybalion. My 2013 article on the subject, published in the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition, was the first significant work to challenge this text’s claimed association with Hermeticism and sparked a growing tide change in contemporary occulture with respect to the perceived legitimacy of the text.
The primary location for the article is in the JWMT archives, found here. It is also mirrored below in PDF form.
The Kybalion’s New Clothes: An Early 20th Century Text’s Dubious Association with Hermeticism
In 2006, Lucas Moraes graciously translated this essay into Brazilian Portuguese. You can download the PDF translation here:
A Nova Roupa do Caibalion: Associação duvidosa de um texto do início do Séc. XX com o Hermetismo
As a companion piece to this article, which also reflects the ways in which my understanding of the Kybalion and its historical context has grown over the past decade, I refer the podcast listener to my interview with Douglas Batchelor on What Magic is This?
Coptic Names in the Golden Dawn
I authored this paper pseudonymously under the name Spencer M. Graves, and published it in the Summer Solstice 2016 edition of Nick Farrell’s Hermetic Tablet journal. This research represents my attempt to remedy the Coptic names of the Godforms used within the Golden Dawn tradition, as the names given both in Regardie and in Adam Forrest’s more recent work differ in many cases wildly from the historically attested forms of those names. In some cases the errors are unique enough to attribute to specific source texts, and in others one fails to comprehend any underlying rationale whatsoever. The Coptic language resources available at the time of the Golden Dawn’s founding were notoriously poor and scant, and this paper is my effort to bring this little area of Golden Dawn studies into the light of 21st century scholarship. The PDF of this article is freely available for download below.
Coptic Names in the Golden Dawn
Shining Forth Ḥeka
Ḥeka is the Egyptian god and principle of magic, and is perhaps one of the most important deities in the Egyptian pantheon, but has received almost no attention within the Golden Dawn tradition. This essay represents my own attempt to remedy this shortcoming, and consists of an introduction to the person and concepts surrounding Ḥeka as well as a discussion of what potential touchpoints Ḥeka has within the Golden Dawn current.
Shining Forth Ḥeka: New Perspectives on the Eldest Magician
Coffin Spell 261
Coffin Spell 261 is a spell to the Egyptian god Heka. As far as I am aware, this work represents the only full presentation of the spell in both Egyptian and in English translation, rather than a collection of mere excerpts. Coffin Spell 261 also features centrally in my own Invocation of Heka.
CryptoParty Like It’s 1499
This presentation was delivered at CypherCon 5.3 and addresses the intersection between Renaissance and Early Modern occultism and cryptography. The motives of alchemists, magicians, and other occultists are inferred from the manner in which each of the exemplars used cryptography. Both individual actors and the ciphers they used are considered, along with their cultural contexts. You can download the PowerPoint presentation (link below), and view the recording on the Hackers of CypherCon YouTube channel.