Bootlegged THE SOLAR GRID!

Imre Szeman, author of FUTURES OF THE SUN and one of the scholars on our THE SOLAR GRID panel at Petrocultures 2026 in Dresden, printed out the digital edition so he can read it that way in preparation for his presentation/commentary (which was so smart and immensely insightful). He made sure to have the pages printed on both sides, so his experience of the work would be the closest approximation to the intended format. And my, it's a big-ass motherfucker of a book, innit?

This is how I did much of my comics/graphic-novel reading in my late teens and early twenties, when my preferred comics-material was all too hard to come by in hardcopy formats in Cairo of the late-90s/early-2000s. So I have a strange affinity for that spiral-bound bootlegged home-printer aesthetic.

The panel was awesome! Super insightful (and embarrassingly humbling) presentations, great Q&A, and many exciting conversations thereafter. Several professors mentioned their plans to include THE SOLAR GRID in their teaching syllabi.

The air is refreshingly crisp in Dresden this time of year. Nothing quite like a midnight smoke out on the balcony in nothing but your underwear and a good German pilsner in hand.

#journal #work #tsg

In Summary: * Listening now to the Countdown To Kickoff Show on Steelers Nation Radio ahead of the Steelers / Bills game where I'll hear the call of the game courtesy of the Steelers Audio Network. So far I've got reliable free radio sources for following the Colts, Steelers, and Texans through the NFL Season. I actually follow the college games more than the pros, and finding free radio sources for them shouldn't be any problem.

And I should mention that my eyes continue to recover from Tuesday's injections. They're now operating at what has been my post-cataract-surgery normal. And I'm okay with that.

Prayers, etc.: * I have a daily prayer regimen I try to follow throughout the day from early morning, as soon as I roll out of bed, until head hits pillow at night.

Health Metrics: * bw= 225.53 lbs. * bp= 144/83 (64)

Exercise: * morning stretches, balance exercises, kegel pelvic floor exercises, half squats, calf raises, wall push-ups, BP breathing exercises, pilates

Diet: * 05:10 – 1 banana, 1 cupcake * 06:10 – pizza * 10:40 – 1 ham & cheese sandwich * 12:00 – beef chop suey, egg drop soup * 15:45 – 1 fresh apple

Activities, Chores, etc.: * 04:10 – listen to local news talk radio * 04:45 – bank accounts activity monitored . * 05:10 – read, write, pray, follow news reports from various sources, surf the socials, nap * 10:00 – load weekly pill boxes * 12:00 to 14:00 – watch old game shows and eatlunch at home with Sylvia * 14:10 – tuned into this afternoon's The Ride With JMV Show for Indiana sports talk. * 17:00 – tune into Steelers Nation Radio for pregame coverage then the call of tonight's Steelers game.

Chess: * 11:15 – moved in all pending CC games

If they are actually going to go through with the farce of renaming Lake Ontario; perhaps it should be named something relevant to him:

So, the classic famous words: “I’m going to look into the Qlippoth...” – preceding a disappearance for months.

As usual and to be expected in this shady twilight business, something else happened entirely. First, what there weren’t (for me, YMMV):

• No Grantian visions of elaborate tunnels of Set or similar exuberances, as per his wonderful traveller’s guidebook, Nightside of Eden.

• No massively apparent presence from each sigil – probably a skill issue; I’ve not been perceivably bargaining with eldritch entities in sunken or stellar halls, tunnels, chambers etc; I certainly didn’t get the full “Dungeons and Dragons 11th Edition” visions I’d been expecting/hoping for.

• Not really an observable harrowing of Hell that, by my own admittedly sometimes provincial “She’ll be right” spiritual ontology I could say “this has been my experience of the Shells of the Qlippoth, as per the Sigils of Liber 231”.

(Would we even know, amid the general uneven transition into hyper-accelerated, hyper-abundant technocapital singularity that the rest of the Western World is enjoying?)

Takeaway: Maybe this was attributable to loose and lazy technique, or just falling out of this particular current of highly imagistic, visionary magic.

At this stage of (my enjoyable, practical) life I’m far less drawn to the dramatic excesses and flourishes of the various Hermetic Orders of the Immaculate Vinegar Strokes.

What I did find, while not wandering around in Amenta:

• Consolidation: Fairly obsessive focus on old, unfinished pieces of business from earlier decades in my life. I don’t like the “psychological magic” paradigm, but there was a strongly autobiographical element to all of this.

• Closing loops: Specifically – lines of inquiry I opened at the beginning of my occult career, like completing professional certification in Neuro-linguistic Programming and Hypnotherapy.

• Physical metaphors: Health surprises – umbilical hernia surgery, a procedure I last enjoyed during a beautiful, terrifying, Year of Mahavidya puja. A strange dermatitis around my eyes. Also, diagnosis of wear and tear of a life lived deliciously.

• Opposites aren’t necessarily so: Returning to Michael Bertiaux’s cryptic riffs from the VGW, collapsing supposed dualities into a shattering, releasing delightful insight. Beyond/Within. The Archaic and the Futuristic. The Deep Ones and the Outer Ones – and the power, knowledge and gifts they offer.

Above all: renewed, albeit wearied, optimism

The time we’re entering has more possibility than we can ever imagine, accessible to any with the appropriate hunger. A series of momentous, speciation-level events are upon us. A time of quests, with promises of deep knowledge and starry wisdom.

The way is open, though there are deals to be done and oaths to be sworn. There will be costs. Not everyone will make it. But – the adventure is too exciting not to attempt.