Recently two publishers have come out against piracy, and my feedreader’s been awash with responses to it.

Yesterday Scarlet Imprint published a post titled “Tarnish” explaining their frustration shutting down distribution of pirated copies of their titles.

They’re not just concerned with their own works, however, they cite several other independent occult publishers: Ixaxaar, Golden Hoard, Xoanon, and the fate of the publishing industry in general:

Many illegal uploaders believe that they are providing a service, that they are disseminating knowledge for the right reasons. However their actions are destroying the marginal livelihood of the authors they are copying. They are seriously jeopardising any future work.

Lest you think this only pertains to small press, Donald Michael Kraig, blogging for Llewellyn, discussed this back in August as well in “A Humble Request“.

Authors don’t make much from their books. When you steal a book, it hurts authors, agents, editors, copyeditors, publishers, distributors, bookshops and more business and people than you likely realize.

This isn’t news. We’ve discussed it here before.

Over on The Wild Hunt, Jason Pitzl-Waters discusses its effects on Pagan culture, pointing out that this affects indie artists of all kinds in “Piracy and Paganism“, and on Dionysian Atavism Jack Faust is threatening to unleash a history of piracy and capitalism with the understanding that “the technology isn’t going away” so we’d better “find a way to use it for your benefit, or be crushed by reality”. Rufus Opus has also offered a few expletives.

Scarlet Imprint describe themselves as a “talismanic esoteric and occult publisher” – the value of their works isn’t solely in its text but the books as objects in and of themselves. Pirating their publications is cheapening their efforts however you look at it.

This isn’t about technology, it’s about integrity.

Image above provided by eyehook.com.

Saturday Signal: sifting the signal from the noise of the Internet’s occultural cacophony.

Hey! Good news! We may have an extra year!

That’s right, the civilization as we know it won’t end until 2013. Breath that sigh of relief.

NASA predicts that the sun will wake up “from a deep slumber” which will create massive solar storms which will disrupt communication devices and electronics causing major problems around the world.

This could seriously impact my vacation plans on Titan.

• Circle Sanctuary Nature Preserve has created Circle Cemetery, which is “America’s first National Pagan natural burial ground and contemporary Green cemetery to be platted and recorded in Wisconsin”, reports Jason Pitzl-Waters on The Wild Hunt. This is something we talked a bit about at the Toronto Pagan Conference a few years ago. I’m glad to see a dedicated space for Pagan burials.
  

• In a recent feature on Reality Sandwich Patrick Harpur reprints “Soul an Daimon“, an excerpt from his book A Complete Guide to the Soul. Angles, personal daemons, ka, muse – a variety of whats and whyfores regarding the soul and its function. Neat stuff.

• Nick Spencer at Guardian.co.uk writes that Richard Dawkins would like to set up an atheist free-thinking school. Somewhat ironically, Spencer seems to have his doubts about the viability of such an institution.

• Jason Miller, in his blog Strategic Sorcery, describes “How to make a Psionic Wand from a Toy Sonic Screwdriver“. Cool. Doctor Who fans take note.

On a more personal note, thanks for your patience these past few weeks. Things have been hectic as I recently resigned from my job and there were a lot of things to wrap up before my departure. But as of today I am officially a free agent, and a more regular posting schedule will resume.

I’ll keep you up to day on my progress when I have news that relates to occultural subjects. At the moment one of my projects is a book on tarot which has been in progress for a few years. It’ll be nice to finally be able to devote full time hours to finishing this up.

As always, if you come across anything nifty, please share it in the comments, or if you use delicious tag it “ahrfoundation” and we’ll take a look. Thanks!

Saturday Signal: sifting the signal from the noise of the Internet’s occultural cacophony.

I usually try and avoid the mush that is Valentine’s Day, it’s commercial and crass, but my cold dark heart warms a little when upon learning that science can break hearts. Isn’t that sweet?

But that’s tomorrow. Today is still Saturday, and that means we need signal:

• Jason Pitzl-Waters of The Wild Hunt has co-founded a new project, The Pagan Newswire Collective. The first dedicated blog for the Collective is Pagan+Politics, which will feature an additional seven bloggers. Given his history with the Wild Hunt, this new blog may be worth adding to your feed reader.

• Occultural Anthropology has posted a series of five videos titled “Myths & Logic Of Shaolin Monks” which is worth a look.

• Janelle Weaver wrote a piece for Nature.com titled “Brain surgery boosts spirituality“. A quote: “Removing part of the brain can induce inner peace”. The cynic in me isn’t surprised. (Via Technoccult.)

Ok, so it’s kind of thin this week. I’ve been kind of busy with the book club, which is really a lot of fun. I had to draw a picture of the website freehand and my attempt is spectacularly awful.

Found something nifty? Please share it in the comments, or if you use delicious, tag it “ahrfoundation” and we’ll take a look. Thanks!