Memberparadoxosalpha

Real Name

Dionysius Rogers

About My Library

"A fool may buy all the books in the world, and they will be in his library; but he will be able to read only those that he deserves to." --Vivekananda

"After all, what is reading but a vice, like drink or venery or any other form of excessive self-indulgence? One reads to tickle and amuse one's mind; one reads, above all, to prevent oneself thinking." --Mr. Scogan

Most volumes in my library are seldom circulated, but also rarely crucified.

My copious reviews have been originally written for diverse audiences: scholars, occultists, freemasons, and thingamabrarians, among others. Have a response to one of my reviews? Please leave a comment below.

Some unusual tags defined:
au st and sb st indicate books whose authors and subjects (respectively) are saints of the Gnostic Catholic Church.
19c gd is the 19th-century manifestation of the Golden Dawn magical order, while neo-gd includes its putative successors and revivals in the 20th and 21st centuries.
While kabbalah is the Jewish mystical tradition beginning in the Middle Ages, cabala is its Christian esoteric derivatives from the Renaissance onward, and qabalah is the heuristic, non-doctrinal "hermetic qabalah" of 20th and 21st century occultists.
Alternate history is the sub-genre of science fiction and fantasy which deploys variants of historical settings (e.g. The Years of Rice and Salt), but alternative history is the field of historical speculation associated with popular revisionism and conspiracy theory (e.g. Holy Blood, Holy Grail).

About Me

I am not an Atheist in your sense of the word: your doctrine is too coarse for any known blasphemy to shame it.
I am not an Atheist in your sense of the word: fancy a Priest let loose on Society!
As long as men and women shall bury their own perfect natures in fear, guilt, and shame--I am against Atheism, and for the Mysteries.
Every "rational enlightenment" has engendered new superstitions.

What if the Apocalypse has already happened?

The last board game I played was:


My Other Reader is a professionally trained librarian, as I am not. I was already an avid book collector before we met. In 2006 her principal gift to me at the Winter Solstice was a LibraryThing lifetime membership, where she had already entered over five hundred of my books. She has never become as active on the site as I have.

My engagement with LibraryThing has developed gradually. At first, I was very focused on getting my actual collection cataloged. Only in later years did I start to use more of the social features beyond keeping a short list of friends and reading reviews. Now I'm active in the Deep Ones weekly group reads on The Weird Tradition group; and since summer of 2009, I have posted a review for every book I've read.

HOMO SUM, DIVINI NIHIL A ME ALIENUM PUTO.

There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.

Location

Domus Arcanorum

Homepage

http://hermetic.com/dionysos/main2.htm

Memberships

LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Also On

Amazon, BoardGameGeek, LiveJournal

Currently Reading

Anger: The Unauthorized Biography of Kenneth Anger by Bill Landis

The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric, and the Making of Images, 400-1200 by Mary Carruthers

The Book of the Law by (Aleister Crowley)

H.R. Giger Tarot by Akron

The Dragon Path: Collected Stories of Kenneth Morris by Kenneth Morris

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

Favorite Authors

Apuleius, James Branch Cabell, Italo Calvino, Mary J. Carruthers, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova, Henry Corbin, Ioan P. Couliano, Aleister Crowley, John Crowley, Samuel R. Delany, Jeffrey Ford, Joscelyn Godwin, Nick Harkaway, M. John Harrison, Robert Irwin, Anna Bonus Kingsford, Jeffrey J. Kripal, R. A. Lafferty, Tanith Lee, Fritz Leiber, Jean-François Lyotard, David Madsen, Ian McDonald, Maria de Naglowska, Friedrich Nietzsche, Marguerite Porete, Thomas Pynchon, Ishmael Reed, Lee Siegel, Clark Ashton Smith, Thomas Burnett Swann, Algernon Charles Swinburne

Favorite Lists

Baby's First Postmodernism, Best Books Involving Satan, Elevenses, Essential Reading for Continuing Professional Development, Recommended Faerie books, Simulated Reality in Fiction

Local Favorites

Bookstores: Alchemy Arts, Amaranth Books, Chicago Rare Book Center, Comix Revolution, Mutiny Now Art Books and Coffee, Myopic Books, Occult Bookstore, Quimby's Bookstore, Seminary Co-op Bookstore, Squeezebox Books & Music, , The Gallery Bookstore

Libraries: Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Henry S. Olcott Memorial Library, Miskatonic University Library, Newberry Library, Ordo Templi Orientis U.S. Grand Lodge Library, University of Texas Libraries - Harry Ransom Center

Member Connections

Friends

666777, ABAlexander, Aequinoctium, alclark0, AmaterasuBi, andrewlent, anna_graham, artturnerjr, AtemporalDrift, Atomicmutant, AumHaLodge, barbelo, Beebz, Beth.Kimbell, circusavatar, dayooper, dscottn, eevie, elenchus, Evil_Derek, FraterCerno, Ganeshaka, grizzly.anderson, IamSquid, iaosabao, isomeme, jasonpettus, jonpeters93, KathleenO418, KentonSem, Kikhos_ba-Midhbar, Kushana, lammassu, LiminalSister, Meretrix, Micko, omegabodhi, Ophiphos, panpiper, Phainolis, Phevos, PJMazumdar, plutopsyche, RandyStafford, rcc, sekhet_maat, SkottH, sphinxie, steve-adams, stevenryan, StormRaven, tandu, TheEphemeraRemix, thiebes, VenenumM, Vitriol418, workofwickedness, yuugen

Interesting Library

AnarchoHermetica, AsYouKnow_Bob, bibliorex, boris_balkan, camillahoel, carpentermt, ComtedeFortsas, DarthDeverell, DavidWineberg, DubiousDisciple, Ganeshaka, Glenn_Russell, hauptwerk, KateSherrod, Khem_Caigan, Korrick, leoden, LordBangholm, lukeasrodgers, marc_beherec, MeditationesMartini, Nicole_VanK, octafish, ossicones, pomonomo2003, quicksiva, Randy_Hierodule, ritaer, SeanSullivan, Seti_Scarabeus, setnahkt, southernbooklady, Star_Sapphire_Lodge, sturlington, tENTATIVELY, TomWaitsTables, veilofisis, zhukora

Contacts

Star_Sapphire_Lodge