Douglas Buchanan

Earlier this month a sixty two year old student of mine wrote a short appreciation of the Emerald Tablet for me. I was amazed at the new perspectives she brought to it. The Emerald Tablet as most of you will know is a one page summary of the most important principles of alchemy.

I learned it by heart when I began my interest in alchemy at age seventeen. I read it, contemplated it and repeated it at least once every day for ten years or so until I finally got what it meant. When I began my studies in mathematics I thought of the consummate genius Newton, who I knew was one of the last famous alchemists. I got hold of his translation and used that too. So when I read the report of my student I had thought about, read about, and contemplated the Emerald Tablet for sixty years. Her take on it was refreshing and contained all kinds of new dots and perspectives to connect.

continue reading "The Innocent Eye"

The last couple of posts have been poking around in Scripture and I don’t want to give the impression to casual visitors, who don’t check the archives, that Biblical stuff is all that is treated on this site. Here is a trifle as a goodbye to Bible discussion for a while.

These items have been in my notebooks for ages and I don’t know where any of them came from. Only some of the stuff about the number 153 is due to my own investigations.

continue reading "Biblical Trivia for the Believer and Non-believer"

The last couple of posts have been poking around in Scripture and I don’t want to give the impression to casual visitors, who don’t check the archives, that Biblical stuff is all that is treated on this site. Here is a trifle as a goodbye to Bible discussion for a while.

These items have been in my notebooks for ages and I don’t know where any of them came from. Only some of the stuff about the number 153 is due to my own investigations.

continue reading "Biblical Trivia for the Believer and Non-believer"

I was having a little discussion with someone who read my last postings and insisted, using Biblical references, that Satan and Lucifer were the same angel, and that Lucifer was thrown out of heaven because of his pride. Well we know how touchy the God of the Old Testament is about anyone else having a smidgeon of authority, or any other deity having any living followers, so the story has a ring of authenticity, mythologically speaking.

continue reading "Three colliding fictions: Lucifer, Satan and the Book of Mormon"

I was having a little discussion with someone who read my last postings and insisted, using Biblical references, that Satan and Lucifer were the same angel, and that Lucifer was thrown out of heaven because of his pride. Well we know how touchy the God of the Old Testament is about anyone else having a smidgeon of authority, or any other deity having any living followers, so the story has a ring of authenticity, mythologically speaking.

continue reading "Three colliding fictions: Lucifer, Satan and the Book of Mormon"

There are over 70 articles on this blog at the moment. To make it easier to see if there is something that may interest you, here is a list of the titles and the date. By cliciking on the appropriate date in the right hand Archives column on this page you can easily navigate to the one you want, or just put the title in the Search box.

2005
How to fill your life with Miracles 9/01/2005
Your Ancestors and the Runes 9/15/2005
Become a Magician 11/30/2005

continue reading "Articles so far, and where they are"

There are over 70 articles on this blog at the moment. To make it easier to see if there is something that may interest you, here is a list of the titles and the date. By cliciking on the appropriate date in the right hand Archives column on this page you can easily navigate to the one you want, or just put the title in the Search box.

2005
How to fill your life with Miracles 9/01/2005
Your Ancestors and the Runes 9/15/2005
Become a Magician 11/30/2005

continue reading "Articles so far, and where they are"

When I switched on my computer a day or two ago I followed a link that offered me Time magazine at amazing terms. I didn’t take the bait, but it did remind me of a day, over thirty years ago now when I was running a local newspaper in Chicago.

A friend of mine stopped by the office, handed me a March issue of Time, and destroyed my day. “Read the book review,” he said, “ I know you like Kipling.”. There was indeed a full page review of a book about Rudyard Kipling. To my absolute horror the review began with these lines from a poem:

continue reading "Are you in a knowing Minority?"

When I switched on my computer a day or two ago I followed a link that offered me Time magazine at amazing terms. I didn’t take the bait, but it did remind me of a day, over thirty years ago now when I was running a local newspaper in Chicago.

A friend of mine stopped by the office, handed me a March issue of Time, and destroyed my day. “Read the book review,” he said, “ I know you like Kipling.”. There was indeed a full page review of a book about Rudyard Kipling. To my absolute horror the review began with these lines from a poem:

continue reading "Are you in a knowing Minority?"

I saw the title quotation from the KJV John 8:32 on a poster in a Christian bookstore that I often frequented to see how the other half believed. It had a picture of a totally unhappy rag doll halfway through an old fashioned wringer. Underneath it were the added words…“but first it will make you miserable.” I bought the poster.

We all know things that are undoubtedly true but never get reported in the U.S. media. I read the news from European papers and am always astonished at how the Europeans always know more about what goes on here than the U.S. citizens who rely solely on the standard media. People here know all about the latest celebrity scandals which are worthless as valuable life data, and very little about how that blanket coverage of trivia is diverting our attention from really important matters, that the rest of the world hears about.

continue reading "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free"