The Terrible Tome of the Al Azif

Tales of the Al-Azif: A Cthulhu Mythos Anthology by C.T. Phipps
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Al Azif or the book of insects if a forbidden tome brought into human consciousness by the mad Arab Al Hazred. The Mad Arab picked it up in some divine revelation after being banished to the empty quarter in Yemen. The revelations are derived from the sound of desert Cicadas. Apparently insects are the oldest beings around and have seen everything since the beginning of time. Therefore they have wisdom.

Al Azif comes from the Cthulhu myths written by HP Lovecraft. It has such a following that systems of magic have been based on it and other authors have written their own adventures in the Cthulhu mythology. This book is a collection of such tales. The first story tells how the Mad Arab first obtains the Al. Azif with his uncle. Another story deals with Henry Stubbs in finding the Al Azif. Another story has Elizabeth Dee going to Cairo in search of the book and fighting a group of assassin to stay alive and get the book. Don’t think that Cthulhu is confined to the Middle East. There are cave in the New York Hills where a cult sacrifices people to be taken over by insects. Once again the Al Azif is a source of power.There is a story about a 7 foot wooden cockroach that people pay to see. Instead of just seeing a Steven foot cockroach they get possessed by evil insects. Finally there is an apolylyptic at the end.

The Al Azif is the forerunner to the Necronomicon. It can be used to grant wishes but like the monkeys paw it’s all twisted and comes with a terrible price. The book is indestructible and if the pages get destroyed then the information can travel to another book.

The Cthulhu mythology deals with evil but not demons and devils rather it is about like being coming from another dimension to take us over. Occult means can be used too stop them. But they are really alien like.

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Revival of Norse Culture

The Northern Dawn: A History of the Reawakening of the Germanic Spirit: From the Twilight of the Gods to the Sun at Midnight by Stephen E. Flowers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In modern times there has been a call to revive the ancient Germanic culture. By Ancient culture the Heathen or Pagan past is what is meant. So the research begins to recover this lost German past, before it was Christianized.

Has the Germanic culture been completely lost to the process of modernity and Christianization? Author Edred Flowers says no it has not been lost. In fact it has not even been buried. It is still alive and kicking.

One of the places it is still alive is in the literature and folktales. In the Ancient poetry, bard songs and even fairy tales the Germanic ideas still live on . Germanic Literature focused on heroism and overcoming great opponents. The literature put an emphasis on bravery and martial courage.

Christianity was not supposed to be a violent religion or at least not one of warfare. If so then where did the tradition and ethos of knighthood come from? From the Norse ideology, of course.

As Christianity crept into Europe it had to exist side by with Heathenism Often times Roman Christianity absorbed so much German culture that it became Germanized. One example of this is the Helmand which rewrites the story of Christ and his twelve apostle. In the Heliand Christ is depicted as a warrior.

Many Saxon laws originate from the Germanic time and in many an instance have remained unchanged. Customs and tradition of Ancient German culture were retained in the courtly and secular level.

It wont be hard to revive Germanic Heathen culture . It might not look the same as it once did but still there is enough of it alive.

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Mizrachi Spies of Pre-State Israel

Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel by Matti Friedman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

During the pre-state days of the Palestine Mandate, years before the creation of the Modern State of Israel there was constant fighting between Jews and Arabs. While during the day to day routine they worked and lived side by side but as things progressed relations began to deteriorate.

The Yishuv or prestate government ran the Jewish settlement and the Hagannah was the self defense force for the Jews. The striking arm was called the Palmach. By and large these Jews had socialist.communist leanings. They were secular and very European. Events in Europe propelled them to Palestine. Yet as fighting increased and more lives were lost the Zionists needed a set of eyes within the Arab world to gather intelligence and to commit acts of espionage.

To get those spies in on the Arab side the Palmach created a division to infiltrate the other side. This unit was called the “Dawn” it was comprised of Mizrachi or Middle Eastern Jews who could look and act Arabic. This unit would operate both within the Palestinian Arab community and within the Arab world at large. The book focuses on 4 of them. They formed Beirut unit and sent messages via Morse code. All 4 of them had family from the Middle East.

Among some of the operation they performed were 2 inside pre-state Palestine. One operation involved the attempted assassination of a terrorist leader/preacher, which ultimately failed but in the end scared the fanatic into silence. Another operation involved hearing about an ambulance that was going to be rigged with bombs and set off to blow up in the Jewish areas. They blew it up in the garage killing the mechanic and other Palestinian fighter.

Most of their action though takes place in Beirut where they assumed the identity of Palestinian refugees. They ran the Three Moon kiosk and gathered tidbit of information which they radioed back to Palmach. Among some of their exploits are blowing up a ship and attempting to blow up a refinery only too have it cancelled at the last minute.

The book gives good insight into their lives and backgrounds. The scene in Palestine is described as well. Great book and too bad it was not longer.

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Chaos Politics.

Hyperworlds, Underworlds by Jason Louv
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Have you ever read a book that has everything and also at the same time strips away the lies and leave the truth naked and bare? Jason Louv has done it with this book, composed mostly of essays published in various publications and at different times. The book covers, politics, social issues, Eastern spirituality and Western Magick. Reader beware you may be blown away and you may also at the same time find out that this stuff resonates with you because on some deeper level you know it is all true.
Mr. Louv will talk a lot about politics. Let’s face it the government is not on our side. Rather they are backing the big money, corporations. Corporate America sees the common man as nothing more than cattle and money making machines. Their goal is to make up like robot or slaves. It I a soft cell slavery where we are chained to a desk and computer while we mine away information for these companies. The information will be used for marketing. In a way we already are slaves, our work hours get longer and our pay becomes less. Benefits are being stripped away before our very eyes. We are not the only ones who are slaves.
Across much of the third world forced labor or slave labor is used. Kids as young as 12 are denied education so they can work for major corporation at 12 cents an hour for like 15 hours a day. We Americans love our gadgets and Iphones but think it is an open secret by now that these products we love are built off the back of children who are worked to death. That makes us consumer accomplices to the crime. Nestle is one of the biggest users of child/Slave labor.
The NSA has since 9/11 ben monitoring our internet usage. They see everything we do. Their purpose is to spy on us and take away our freedoms. Big corporation by information from internet biggies like Facebook and google. Congress allowed them to do so. The big corporations are at the top of the pyramid. As it stands right now the corporations are becoming more powerful than the government. There are international treaties being drafted that give major corporations the right to sue a government if it makes laws that hurt its revenue. This undermines a countries and governments soverenty.
Our government does lots of dirty things like spying on friendly countries via our embassies, something which does not make them too happy. The CIA has also sold drugs to finance its operations. Even on the streets of America, especially towards minorities. Our crimes against minorities and the underprivileged is being played out in the prison system wherein female inmates were pressured into being sterilized. Our world is in trouble as our artificial consumeristic lifestyle causes us to deplete the earth’s natural resources and overpopulation is bourgeoning. Pretty soon our planet will not be able to sustain us. The solution is to explore space while we still have fossil fuels. It is our destiny to colonize space .
Jason Louv talks lots on chaos magick which strips away al the finery and gives you nothing but the barebones of the matter. Lots of what goes on in the occult world is baloney . But he gives yu the real deal and wipes away the glamor of magic so that all you have left is what works. I have only scratched the surface.

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The Phoenician Jesus Conspiracy

The Phoenician Code: Unveiling the Secrets of the Holy Grail by Karim El Koussa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A church father calls together three individuals, one a historian, another an alchemist and still another an archaeologist. Together they are called upon to decipher an ancient tablet unearthed at the Phoenician city of Gebel. Central to this story is the building of Solomon’s Temple by Hiram Abiff. Hiram was Phoenician.

Before embarking on the church father’s quest , Paul the Historian, goes to a symposium on biblical archaeology. He gives a speech that denies the existence of Israel before the Babylonian exile. Citing the lack of archaeological proof as the reason why. He speculates that Ancient Israel was a historical hoax. Soon he is set upon by killers dressed in black suits. Turns out they are from the Babylonian Brotherhood.

This spirals Paul on a historical quest at the same time avoiding the Babylonian Brotherhood. Along the way he comes across documents explaining the Templar’s and their agenda and how it extends into the Scottish Right Masons. Documents that explain the real identity of Jesus and the real story behind the birth of Israel.

At the end he joins with the Great White Fraternity after he receives stolen document from Iraq. The author has a theory that many people will find wild. There is a lot we do not know about when it comes to Jesus or even that time in history. He may have been Phoenician or an Israelite following a Phoenician religion. Saying that Israel was created by the Persians after they sacked Babylon May come as far fetch but many aspects of Judaism were molded in a Babylonian exile.

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Travels of Alhazred

Tales of Alhazred by Donald Tyson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you are a Lovecraft fan fan you may find yourself enjoying these short stories about Alhazred, author of the Necronomicon . Donald Tyson is an accomplished occultist himself who has written both fiction and non fiction on HP Lovecraft’s Necronomicon. The book is comprised of short stories which mark their adventures. Alhazred is Joined by Martala, warrior woman and Necromancer in her own right, and Altrus , a mercenary .

The adventures take them across the entire Middle East practically. Some adventures happen in the Scholars Lane where he lives in Damascus. One adventure involves Moawiya a sultan who is set upon by an unknown assassin. It is up to. Alhazred to figure it out. Several adventures involve the Jinn and Ghouls. One adventure sends him and his crew to a cave of ghouls, his job is to rid the ghoul colony of something that is killing off their numbers. Another adventure involved a jinn trying to get Alhazred to free the jinn imprisonments by King Solomon. He frees them but is double crossed. Getting out of a double cross him in conflict with another half Jinn like himself. Many adventures involve raising the dead, murder, raiding monasteries etc .

If you are a Lovecraft fan you will enjoy this fair. I read the book in a matter of days. I consider it light reading and very enjoyable .

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