Wherein I talk about that which is going on.

I will likely need to expand the website at some point, as I have gone beyond the current main purpose of promoting my fiction writing. All the Devils are Here, the first book of the Machiavel Cycle, is still out there being looked at by the fantastically awesome publishing world, and books 2 and 3 have both been started. The Urban Fantasy Writer’s Guide to Classical Demonology is still in the works, and a version of it will also appear in the next issue of the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition. I’m working on a number of other projects as well, however. Beyond the continued publishing of the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition I am in the midst of organizing the JWMT’s first conference, to be held in Milwaukee, WI in July of this year. Look for a Call for Abstracts in the hopefully near-ish future.

On a somewhat more painterly note, I have recently begun to “write” (i.e. paint) religious icons, both for my own entertainment and interest as well as on commission. Photos of icons I’ve written, as well as other some of my other artwork, can be found in the art gallery. Related to this is the Neoplatonism Tarot project. In this I am designing a tarot deck based on the ideology of, well, Neoplatonism, and executed in the style of Greek Orthodox icons. At this point sketches for all of the major arcana and court cards have been completed and can be viewed here. I have a general ideology, based on an Neoplatonic interpretation of Pythagoreanism, for the minor arcana, though I have not yet begun sketching those cards. Once all the sketches are complete each card will be painted in acrylic on wood panel, with gold leaf used for the glories. I will, of course, write a book to accompany the deck, as many of the cards are to be interpreted differently from what is now common. For instance, the elemental attributions to the four suits are quite secondary in this deck, whereas they are generally of great importance to most forms of today’s tarot.

Finally, I am working on a non-fiction book tentatively titled Living Theurgy (with much indebtedness to Monseigneur Jordan Stratford’s Living Gnosticism). This is an exploration of the various Neoplatonic traditions, from Plotinus to Iamblichus and Proclus to Pseudo-Dionysius to Marsilio Ficino both in theory but in practice. The aim of the book is to provide a framework for Neoplatonic mysticism today, not only as individual practices of contemplation and theurgic ritual, but as a way to bring Neoplatonic philosophy into everyday life, making it a truly lived philosophy or way of living. I am also planning on writing, and possibly illuminating, a Neoplatonist’s Book of Hours.

Finally, for those interested in alchemy, I highly recommend picking up Jordan’s A Dictionary of Western Alchemy, if for no other reason because I wrote the forward.

Well, that’s it for the moment. I promise to try to post here more often about the various projects I’ve been working on. If you have been missing my regular company, please join me over on my facebook page or follow me on Twitter.