With this issue, we enter our second year of publication. We have recently expanded our work on the Internet. In addition to the Caduceus web site at [old URL redacted], we have also started an electronic mailing list. This list is called “Praxis” and is oriented towards the practicing Hermetic magician and his or her work. It is envisioned as a place for magicians to share their techniques and to receive advice on practice or to share rituals or writings that they have created. There have been many places in the past for people to discuss magic on the Internet but non e of them have been dedicated to the actual practitioners of magic. As often as not, the members of these lists are academics of “armchair” magicians who will discuss various works, old and new, with great gusto but would not be willing to openly discuss their practices, if any. Often, people on these lists have seemed to hold actual practice in little regard in comparison to the completely intellectual approach to occultism and Hermeticism. Hopefully the Praxis list will change some of this and help support the Great Work amongst its practitioners, who are often isolated from one another. Individuals can subscribe by sending a message to [old list address redacted] with “subscribe praxis <your name>” in the body of the message.
In this issue, we are proud to present another article by Rawn Clark. As you may recall, he had an article two issues ago on the Hebrew in Mutus Liber. The piece in this issue is a more practical piece from the Hermetic organization of which he is a member. Continuing the emphasis on practice, we also have an article by Paul Hume on a ritual formula for working with the Zodiac. Mr. Hume is the master of William Blake Camp of the Ordo Templi Orientis in Washington, D.C., Our last article is a translation by John Michael Greer, the co-editor of this journal, of a little known manuscript attributed to Peter de Abano of Padua on geomancy which gives a different method of understanding the reading than that which has been commonly used since the time of the Golden Dawn.
As always, we look forward to receiving feedback from our subscribers and we are always interested in receiving articles for publication. If you have an article that you have written that you think is appropriate for our journal, please do not by shy in sending it to us. We would love to see and publish it.
Albert Billings and John Michael Greer