This comes to you from my August retreat in Turin - an abandoned city, as everyone is away on holiday. I have indulged in a few oil and pastel drawings on some of that delicious Fabbriano black paper.

The week in Ollomont, high above Aosta - was very refreshing. The farmers were harvesting the hay - but due to a few light showers of rain before it was made into bundles - we heard that the cows had turned their noses up at the new hay.

The Alpine ecology is a perfect balance between architecture and nature as the houses are made from the same stone as the mountains in the background. Fresh mountain streams flow in abundance, roses and geraniums adorn every balcony of the chalet style houses. Heidi lurks around every corner. The silence at night is deafening - and I had difficulty in sleeping. Urban types consider this setting hell. Mountain hikers, their skin the colour and texture of dry pork crackle - marched past our balcony.

Sadly, the descent, by train to Turin - had a bad effect on me - and I had to spend a few days in the horizontal position to recover.

Now I am fully into work - with some creativity thrown in for good measure. My Hermetic needle stitches together a rich tapestry of threads - from James Hillman on Silver, to Lunar Frogs, Cosmic Trees, the Tree of Life in Jewish Mysticism and the Kabbalah, the symbol of the Liknon in the Dionysian Mysteries, the Hermetica, Hieroglyphics and Pagan Sacrifice in the Renaissance, the origin of the Caduceaus in Babylonian cyliner seals, Hercules, the Divine Androgyne, the Mysteries of the Kabiri, History and Bibliographical sources of Astrology; Hercules and Hephaistos, Tibetan Buddhism, anything and everything to do with Harran and the Sabians, C.G. Jung's Psychology of the Transference; Wittkower on The Symbolism of the Eagle and the Serpent, Serpents on Shrines in Pompei: The Bembine Tablet, and Alexander Krappe on mineral, animal and plant lore.

I managed to re-read a big chunk of Francis Yates ' The Art of Memory' - while in the Alps, a really dazzling piece of work. I remain, a complete devotee of the late Dame Francis Yates. And all the above activity lubricated by that marvelous Italian invention: aqua frizzante.

This newlsletter is by its nature, a Summer Holiday Affair - so no more. Thanks to all for the wonderful feedback and letters received from far and wide.

My Websites will be totally re-organised and updated later in the year.

The Programme for the eight-week workshop ARDERE E VERSARE [BURN AND POUR] at Arte Oltre here in Turin is already printed and will be posted out at the end of the month.

Love and Peace,

Samten

For those who attended the Mystery Island of Samothrace talk in Cape Town in May - here is some basic information and backgound on the Mystery Island.

"Nato regrets the inconvenience to ordinary Yugoslavian citizens..."

Dear Friends,

This comes to you from a very, very hot Italy. I hope that everyone is well and please do let me know your news. There have been some exciting developments here - potential for the next few months look very promising - but at the moment everyone is away in the mountains or at the seaside on holiday - or abroad - and I will indulge in a Summer Retreat here in Turin "house-sitting" and plant-watering - and working away on various Projects, as usual.

I now have a secure and private email address here in Turin - and will re-design my Webpage soon - and start to present further material from the archives. I have just managed to load my 250 MB onto this computer - and have just started work again.

At the moment I am moving in another direction - so the emphasis will be on digestion and production of research - so the momentum will be reflected in future Uroboros Newsletters - perhaps Monthly - and remember this TEXT -plus all your responses is posted on the ARCHIVES and YACK YACK Websites.

I recently read Roy, Arundhati, The God of Small Things, Flamingo, London, 1997 - while the last phases of the Kosovo war were in progress. It is an extraordinary novel - and the brilliant is in the details, the small things. She captures the textures and light of Kerala with the same tropical heat of India. It is a very liberating novel - in that language is played with creatively. There is a freshness to her work. Well worth a read!

 Thanks to Sam Hutchinson, I had the pleasure of trying out Via Voice - that miraclulous invention where you talk into a small microphone poised at the corner of your mouth - and your words appear magically on the computer screen! Hopefully they do. For questions of pronunctiation, speech patterns, dictation and dialect &c have to be taken into account. And so - some rather hillarious visual inteprretations of the words appear on the screen. I could not help but think that the consciousness of this programme and its programmers, sort of represents the state of mind of the materialism of the day. This observation made, be it noted, while Nato was bombing Serbia. So instead of the beautiful AMEN - I got ARMED MEN! PROPHET, naturally, to be expected, produced PROFIT. And GNOSTIC TEXTS came up as NASTY TEXTS. SALAMANDERS - became SHALLOW MEANDERS - and JESUS could only be CHEESES!

But very interesting was HERMES TRISMEGISTUS... Hermes is recognised but TRISMEGISTUS came out as TRANSMIT THIS TO US! Makes you think, does it not?

Yours sincerely, Love and Peace, Samten

Ronca, Italo, Religious Symbolism in Medieval Islamic and Christian Alchemy, In: Faivre, Antoine & Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (Eds.) Western Esotericism and the Science of Religion: Selected Papers presented at the 17th Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions, Mexico City. Peeters, Leuven, 1995. Pp. 97 - 115.

Italo Ronca demolishes certain symbols of Ibn Umayl, of whom he is a authority, treasured for centuries by alchemical transmitters, including C.G.Jung - by pointing out that the original translations from Arabic into Latin are so corrpupt as to be almost worthless.

The Astrological Journal January/February 1996 Vol.38,No.1 Below you will find extracts from the Astrological Journal. You may read them on-line or save this page for later reference. The Editorial of The Astrological Journal : January/February.. for a copy of: The Picatrix: Lunar Mansions In Western Astrology by Ian Freer : September/October 1995 Vol. 37, No.5

And while on the Subject of PICATRIX - I have a chance to study the magnificent work on Harran by Tamara Green. The Picatrix has been traced to the Sabians of Harran.

Green, Tamara M. The City of the Moon God ; Religious Traditions of Harran, Religions in the Graeco-Roman World [formerly EPRO] Vol. 114 (NY, Leiden, Koeln: E. J. Brill, 1992) A good recent book on Harran and it's astral cultus in the Later Roman Empire. Good bibliography.

Hopkins, Clark, Astrological Interpretations of Some Phoenician Bowls, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 24, 1965. 28 - 36

Hartner, Willy, The Earliest History of The Constellations in the Near East and The Motif of The Lion-Bull Combat, Journal of Near Eastern Studies , 24, 1965, 1-16.

Rochberg-Halton, Francesca, "New Evidence for the History of Astrology," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 43 (1984): pages 115-140 {The text of an Achaemenian period tablet BM36746 and an explanation of how it bridges gap between mesopotamian and Greek astrology. Very important! Rochberg- Halton has done path-breaking research in recent years on Mesopotamian scientific astrology, particularly with practices hitherto known only in Hellenistic versions.} [Notes by Lester Ness from his Bibliography of The History of Astrology.]

Righting Rites of Male Circumcision - Abstract Man's preconscious envy of woman's power to reproduce and interpret cosmic order underlies male genital cosmetics....

Merkur, Dan, Reflections on the Meaning of Theosophy, Theosophical History 7/1 (1998), pp. 18-34

The author very kindly sent me a copy of this paper - and it certainly helps to re-claim the word Theosophy from, as he says: "Blavatsky and Co."

Faivre, Antoine & Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (Eds.) Western Esotericism and the Science of Religion: Selected Papers presented at the 17th Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions, Mexico City, Peeters, Leuven, 1995. (Peeters, Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Leuven.) I managed to see a copy in Amsterdam University Library - and xerox a few articles.

Dr. Ulansey is a great authority on Mithraic Religion - and best of all is the Collection of LINKS to other sites that he has recommended! Welcome! ONE VISION Day and night, no difference. The sun *is* the moon: An amalgam. Their gold and silver melt together. This is the season when the dead branch and the green branch are the same branch. Nightmares fill with light like a holiday..

By Russell Connell, Fall 1996 and Laura Tewksbury, Fall 1997) Welcome! This page is essentially a massive list of links to sites about mythology, folklore, and..

I recently read a poem by Ted Hughes to a friend here in Italy - and decided to search the web for

A symposium paper: Ted Hughes and the British Bardic Tradition, presented at an international conference at the University of Cairo, December 1999.

Having been a Long Life Devotee of J.L.Borjes, the great Argentinian Master of Letters and Life, in its more cruptic form - I was glad to find these sites - and much more:

Patai, Raphael, The Goddess Asherah, JNES 24, 1965. 37 - 52.

Another brilliant addition to my xeroxes - from the same scholar who did the work on Maria the Jewess, the Mother of Alchemy.

 Ritner, Robert K. A Uterine Amulet in the Oriental Institute Collection, JNES 43 no. 3 1984. pp 209 - 221.

Witt, R.E. Isis in the Ancient World, The John Hopkins Prtess, Baltimore & London, 1997. [Isis in the Graeco-Roman World, Cornell University Press, Itaca, New York, 1971.]

AT LAST! This extra-ordinary Journey through the influence of the Egyptian Goddess on the Meditterranean World in Greek and Roman times. A real classic - now in a semi-available paperback edition - if you can find it - or demand your local Library to order a copy!

 AND ALSO ON ISAIC INFLUENCES....

I am also working on: The Bembine Tablet - which as you may know, is here in Turin at the Museo Egizio. Let me know if you are interested in more details.

Astour, Michael C. The Origin of the Terms "Canaan," "Phoenician," and "Purple" JNES 24, 1965. pp. 346 - 350.

Very important for a continuation of the History of the Colour Purple.

Recently went to see - Andy and Larry Wachowski's film, The Matrix

The Matrix - can be compared to Twelve Monkeys of Terry Gilliam, Luc Besson's The Fifth Element

In The Guardian Weekly, June 22 1999. Peter Bradshaw writes:

Morpheus reveals the reality about The Matrix

"...namely, that our waking lives are a gigantic, baroque dream implanted in our minds by a race of machine-monsters to whom we humans came second in a nuclear war, that are bodies are now being bred in darkness on intergalactic factory farms to provide "bio-energy" for the conqueror, and that we are kept docile with a virtual reality illusion of a rich, busy existence."

I enjoyed the film immensely, though not without admitting that it was a harrowing exeperience. The theme of 'The Matrix' could not but remind me of 'The Futurology Conference' by the Russian Science Fiction writer Stanislav Lem - where the same theme is developed, that we are living in an illusion, controlled, in this case by consciousness altering drugs in the air-conditioning.

In the same issue of The Guardian was an article about exploited Brazilian goldminers who are violated -and live in great suffering - while the massive profits are drawn off by United States and European multinationals. I could not help wondering if this is just another case of human beings being milked for their bio-energy. And what else is Mass Advertising but "..a virtual reality illusion of a rich, busy existence." Makes one think, (hopefully)! Not for the squemish - The Matrix is a pop classic of its kind and I appreciated its almost Buddhist speculations on the Illusion of Reality. The Oriental techniques for the fight sequences were coached by a master from China.

Dear Friends,

This is the last Email Newsletter from South Africa. As from 29th May - I will be relocating to Europe - with my base in Turin [Torino}, Italy, much closer to the War Zone! And possibly for the rest of this year.

 There has been a great deal of movement in my life over the past few weeks - in the inward as well as the outward sense - and some changes. Some of these changes, as evidenced in the astrological correspondences, have been rather radical. Radice - to go back to the roots - to the roots of being.

I was recently honoured to receive some material in the post [snail mail] from Dr. Dan Merkur in Toronto, and many Emails of support and encouragement have come in from the Tibetan Buddhist community, and other friends, in response to the publication of Sheila Fugard's book on Sister Palmo on our Website. In fact, I have never felt more positive - and at the same time, more negative. The conditions in which negative seeds [the weeds] and positive seeds [the fruits and flowers] germinate, are identical. It becomes our allotted tasks as Cosmic Gardeners to be able to weed out what is not necessary - and consign that vegetable material to the compost heap - where it can be recycled.

Likewise, in the Flood of Information, some of this Liquidity is a Fountain of Inspiration, other flows are of less value, and even contain pollutants.

Change, that difficult state of being, which most of us avoid like the plague, has always been my lot in life. One of the most touching pieces of evidence that qualifies my own life - is the Prefatory note by Magda Kerenyi to her husband, Karl Kerenyi's little book, Hermes: Guide of Souls [ Spring Publications, Dallas, Texas, 1976]. Here she writes about the predilection of Kerenyi and Thomas Mann to their favourite divinity, Hermes. Each and every time I pack up and prepare to move, Hermes, the "God of journey" comes to mind - and the entire spectrum of the Hermetic work is brought into sharp, omni-directional focus.

Then there are also the 'Other' Hermes People that are beginning to constitute a community across the globe. Alone - the deep sense of aloneness of the monarch with a broken heart - as Trungpa Rinpoche puts it - we felt fragmented, like solitary droplets of Mercurial Quicksilver. Now with that Most Hermetic Matrix - the Internet - we can keep in touch, and send the myriad of mercurial droplets shimmering across the Web, the Net of Jewels, the Indranet - as Erik Davis calls it. And our hearts shine with the connectedness.

In the light of the tragedies in Yugoslavia and Kosovo - many have attacked me for being out of touch with reality. The challenge is that these Hermetic occupations are perched upon some intellectual ivory tower. Perhaps, for some, they are.

But, the Hermetic Transmission, in all its modalities and manifested historical forms, is one of the most inclusive forms that have appeared on the human landscape. The Hermetic modus operandi - permeates every known stratification, dissolves every known calcification, and offers us a language that has flowed, unbroken down the Ages.

Unless the totality of the Human Condition is brought into focus - there will be no healing, or wholing.

Separation, separatio, the great exclusiveness of human activity - i.e. as manifest in ethnic cleansing, apartheid, is the exact opposite of the Hermes- Stream, and is qualified by Saturn/ Kronos - in the analogical system.

The central problem of our day, the mass materialism with which capitalism has enslaved us through television and other mediums of mass control - is all within the operational field of Saturn.

Unless these titanic reserves of selfishness and greed are dealt with - as manifest in the murders and genocide's of multinational corporations for the sake of profit - there will be no advancement of the human race. We will slip back in the barbarity already shown in graphic detail on out TV screens, and used in vast numbers by our children in violent slaughtering video games. And yet hardly a word is said about the violence of video games as a form of child abuse. Then we weep when trenchcoat gangs open fire in the schools.

There will be no truth without healing, or wholing. Depth psychology has also fallen prey to merely selling a product. We have to admit that the darker side of the human, psyche may be getting out of control - before the Pandora's box cannot be closed.

We have to see the Big Picture - and only then, can we proceed to deal with the details.

When depth psychology ["discovered"] the contours of the Unconsciousness, the individual Unconsciousness, it also opened the door to the Collective Unconscious. The Key Axiom of Hermetic work - is 'As Above, So Below' . The Internet offers such a Collective Mind - that is at the moment free of total control by vested interests.

I am convinced that though the tools are now in place - many of us are still operating with outdated response mechanisms. As brilliant as the Internet seems to me - it has still not realised its potential - in the Work that lies ahead.

From my side - in a practical sense - I have always had to labour until severe financial restrictions, often on the edge of economic ruin - if it were not for the patronage and sponsorship of a few friends.

But the next phase - marked by my move to Europe - will have to generate sufficient resources to push the Project into its next operation. My very nomadic lifestyle demands that I have as a tool - a laptop of suitable power - to allow me maximum mobility. I also need Web authoring tools - i.e. Front Page - to maximise the pace at which I can Webmaster. The finances for these desired tools are way beyond my present means.

It must be also remembered - that for example in my work on the Hypnerotomachia Poliphilo project - whereas many people benefited from the networking done - no income is generated from this work. And without academic qualifications I do not have a hope in hell of receiving any research and development grants.

Think about these problems - which I am sharing with you. Think about them in the context of Serving All Sentient Beings.

Then, I will also be free to travel around Europe and there are a few Workshops and Lectures that may manifest in the next year.

I also want to concentrate on writing - and hopefully complete the various books that have been marinating in the pipeline for decades. The first - hopefully on the Tarot.

This Letter - will be devoid of the usual list of Hot Websites to visit. Please forgive me if you think this is a bit of a rant and rave. I will be in travel mode from the end of May until mid-June - but retain my Email address - as usual:

Or, use the hotmail.com address as above. Also find my Postal address in Italy, and Telephone and Fax numbers above. If any friends are visiting Italy - or Europe - please keep in touch and we can meet up. The highlight will be the Ficino Exhibition in Florence after Summer holidays.

Yours sincerely,

In Love and Peace,

Samten de Wet.

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One book that came to my attention - thanks to Dr Dan Merkur - is:

Faivre, Antoine & Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (Eds.) Western Esotericism and the Science of Religion: Selected Papers presented at the 17th Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions, Mexico City, Peeters, Leuven, 1995. [Peeters, Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Leuven.]

"Out of every debate we should emerge stronger and more united."

Nelson Mandela in his Farewell address to Parliament.

 Dear Friends,

Gnosis, is in this sense, Higher Knowledge, or Insight, basically transcendental in frequency.

The entire reason for this Uroboros Newsletter has been to weave these Gnostic threads as they appear on the Web.

The YACK YACK Section is starting to produce some good feedback - so I have decided to POST the archives and responses on a new WEBPAGE at fortunecity.com. Fortunately, there are no pop-up-banners on this free site - but each page is burdened with a brash advert box. If you want to see yourself in Print on the Web - send me your comments - and they will appear in the YACK YACK Section of the NOTICE BOARD. The address is:

You can find this Newsletter there and all your kind comments.

An exciting discovery recently is this wonderful talk given by the great Umberto Eco: From Marco Polo to Leibniz: Stories of Intercultural Misunderstanding - A lecture presented by Umberto Eco - at The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, December 10, 1996.

______________________________________________________

_____________________

Meanwhile - at the moment there is something of a flourish of excitement around the emerging of esoteric material that has as it source the Work of two great initiates - R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, [..unarguably one of the greatest Hermetic adepts of our age..." says Joseph Caezza in the review.] and Fulcanelli.

"Fulcanelli 's highly acclaimed work, THE MYSTERY OF THE CATHEDRALS, explained the Gothic temples as textbooks of alchemy written in stone but this insight was stolen outright from Schwaller."

John Anthony West, " ...rogue Egyptologist, author of Serpent in the Sky: the High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt and other books, is also "... a student of the 'symbolist' school of Egyptology developed by the Alsatian mathematician and philosopher, R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, and developer of the controversial but geologically supported theory that the Great Sphinx of Giza was built, not by the dynastic Egyptians, but by an earlier civilization flourishing in Egypt around 12,000 or more years ago."

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Another stream of Fulcanelli influence is through Andre Vanderbroek:

At the bottom of this Newsletter, are some more Schwaller de Lubicz LINKS.

Click on thumbnail image to see full-size version.

Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 From: Marianne Greetings, In the last two issues of _The Stone_ there was an brilliant article (at least to me) on the relationships between Alchemy and the Hindu Yantras.

  The SPHINX Group -- Traditional Media Resources

Additions and corrections to Books Music Enter keywords... BOSTON GLOBE, October 23, 1991, p 8. BOTHMER, Bernard V. "Review of R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, 'Le Temple dans l'Homme'." JOURNAL OF ...

* Links followed by an asterisk have been chosen as Editor's Choice picks. Links updated March 1, 1999. EGYPTIAN ENIGMA LINKS... Age of the Sphinx Egyptian Miracle (R.A.

=========================

 Religious forces are needed to overcome the egotism that divides men. The common celebration of the great sacrificial feasts and sacred rites... was the means employed by the great rulers to unite men. The sacred music and the splendor of the ceremonies aroused a strong tide of emotion that was shared by all hearts in unison, and that awakened a consciousness of the common origin of all creatures. In this way disunity was overcome and rigidity dissolved.... Egotism and cupidity, isolate men.Therefore the hearts of men must be seized by a devout emotion. They must be shaken by a religious awe in face of eternity.

===============================

Dear Friends,

Sunday 16th May 1999 - The Theosophical Society, 3 Rheede Street, Gardens, Cape Town. 7.30 p.m. will be illustrated with slides of my journey to, and study of, the Mysteries of Samothraki. The date may change - but this is a first notice - will re-post the final details

There has been a great deal happening around various projects - I am maintaining a silence on these until a more mature phase has been reached. The main thrust is now on Web Publishing - and my entire archives are slowly migrating to the .html format. At the bottom of this letter you will find more news on the Hypnerotomachia Poliphilo. A NOTICEBOARD of interesting News will soon be set up on my Website/s - plus an ARCHIVE of all past Communications, and hopefully Feedback. I am also experimenting with a GUESTBOOK which you can sign - and a LIST you can join. Both are to be found at the bottom of the Opening page. [See above address].

In the meanwhile:

I have been reading an extraordinary book - Banaras City of Light, by Diana L.Eck, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1983. Banaras, Benares, or Varanasi - is known as Kashi - one of the oldest living cities in the world, and sacred to Shiva. I spent a few days in the city - and yearn to return. Banaras - is a living symbol, of the living wisdom and knowledge that still lives among us - that flame that we cherish and strive to keep alight in the sea of materialism that engulfs us. Spiritual materialism as well.

 ON YANTRA

Continuing my thrust of Web Publishing - [and available in print] - another section is being set up on YANTRA AND MANDALA. I am glad to announce that in this section, the work 'Yantra and Alchemy' by Joseph Caezza will soon be published. And in this context:

"The primordial mythological age, when men and women awakened to create of their dreams and visions coherent, transmittable reconings, the time when they gave names and shapes to the energies of nature and the cosmos, when the inexplicable and secretly felt gods were given faces and forms, that epoch of millennia has come to an end. The archaic myths were borne across vast geographical territories and transmitted through numberless generations. Superficially, these traditions transformed in response to history and geography; and in time - in our generation - it appears as though we are witness to the painful demise of the ancient gods. Nietzche's Zarathustra proclaimed the death of all the gods, and the obituaries of local deities can be read in our daily newspapers as the impact of Western culture is felt around the planet. Even as the old gods are diminishing, the seers and prophets of the ancient times are yet alive; and for a brief period, a decade, perhaps two, we can embrace the entire sacred history of our planet before it dissolves in the powerful presence of the biomechanical, transindustrial age that is now upon us. Tens of thousands of years of history, yet alive, but predictably to die - and this century is the threshold of its passing. And so we turn our heads to regard our living heritage, perhaps for the last time, to explore the lifeways transmitted to us from the healer-priests of the Palaeolithic, to know their traditions, and to be introduced to the lineage of primordial visionaries that is perhaps coming to an end - or perhaps to be renewed in a form not yet fully known." p. 31.

 Dear Friends,

I am pleased to announce the following information, received from John Hawkins, Director, Thames and Hudson Digital.

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 It is hard to believe that the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, printed by Aldus Manutius in 1499, one of the most famous books in the world, read by every Renaissance intellectual and endlessly referred to in studies of art and culture ever since, has never appeared in English. One reason, no doubt, is the length and difficulty of the text. It is a strange, pagan, pedantic, erotic, allegorical, mythological romance relating in highly stylized Italian the quest of Poliphilo for his beloved Polia. The author (presumed to be Francesco Colonna, a friar of dubious reputation) was obsessed by architecture, landscape and costume - it is not going too far to say sexually obsessed - and its 174 woodcuts are a primary source for Renaissance ideas on both buildings and gardens. In 1592 a beginning was made to produce an English version but the translator gave up after only a third of the text. Now, at last, the task has been triumphantly accomplished by Joscelyn Godwin, who succeeds in reproducing all its wayward charm and arcane learning in language accessible to the modern reader. Printed in the same size and format as the original, the book includes all the woodcuts and has a substantial introduction by Professor Godwin. After five centuries the English-speaking public can finally read this amazing work for themselves, a work that admits us into the springtime world of the Renaissance, of Mantegna, Botticelli and Alberti. Its appearance is a publishing event, filling a notorious gap in every academic library, in the collection of scholars and on the bookshelves of everyone interested in the history of Western culture.

With 174 illustrations

---------------------------

 To celebrate this Event I am setting up a Webpage to gather together various resources on the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili - this will also be a site where you are welcome to post your comments, research, 1) A area for academic and professional papers.

2) Links to other sites and related material on the Internet.

3) An experimental area for cross-cultural work.

4) A mailing list and discussion forum.

The Website will only be opened on December 5th 1999 - but developmental work will continue as from this date - and contributors will be able to view, advise and develop their material, on site - as soon as possible. The URL will be given upon receipt of material.

Yours sincerely,

Samten de Wet

The Androgyne, A Talk by Samten de Wet, Fiddlewoods, Observatory, Cape Town, 8.30 p.m. Thursday 25th February 1999.

THE MONDAY NIGHT GROUP is now closed and will be meeting in future at a private home in Rosebank. Email or telephone me if you need any further information.

 The Androgyne is particularly aimed at the Gay and Lesbian community - and is the external aspect of a range of research and projections that have not as yet, seen the light of day - due to their sensitive nature. I hope that this Project will be of some use in complementing the liberation of trans-gender issues, and assist in revealing the wealth of material that has remained suppressed to date... We have published and circulated extensive material on the Goddess for the past few decades, now it may be time to look at the Male Mysteries as well... which brings me to:

This is how it started. As part of the preparatory research for my workshop on Androgyny - and in particular, the section on the Phallus in Religion, I did a Websearch on Phallus and Phallic Worship. The yield is not exactly choice. But as usual, the labyrinthe yielded some choice treasures. At:

there is an: Annotated Bibliography on Phallicism in Religion. Here we find the classic Richard Payne Knight, A History of Phallic Worship, which I was lucky enough to find in London a few years back, in a facsimile edition by Dorset Press, New York. The Illustrations from the Secret Museum in Naples are very stimulating. Using the Return to Homepage Button from the above-mentioned Bibliography on Phallicism in Religion - I came to a section on World Religions, with a sub-section on: PHALLICISM AND RELIGION. To quote: "We have not yet had much success in finding sophisticated and appropriate net links for this subject. We would be very grateful for any help."

Then the following entry occurred. Quote:

This site presents the text of Mr. Kuhn's book of the same title. It contains a pontificating diatribe couched in archaic eloquence about and against the efforts of religious institutions to fetter the human mind by perverting our understanding of sexual symbolism and its significance. In particular, Chapter XIV, "The Language of Lingam and Yoni" and Chapter XV, "Phallicism Transfigured," should be entertaining and, depending on your own background, probably informative as well."

Unfortunately this was a flare. The hyperlink is broken, the site address has been reset - and was no other recourse but to resort to my favorite Search Engine, Metacrawler - and type in: Alvin Boyd Kuhn.

Here I found that Mountain Man Graphics in Australia, had published a text by Kuhne, The Great Myth of the SUN-GODS by Alvin Boyd Kuhn [1880 - 1963] - with a biography of the writer. Then to my joy - at the bottom of this document was the following:

"During the southern Spring of 1996, after making an extensive search of any reference to Alvin Boyd Kuhn, there appeared to be only one source of information - the web site of one Pharaoh Chromium 93.

For those who found the above article of interest, you will be encouraged to learn that pc93 has meticulously gathered and indexed a growing collection of the works of Alvin Boyd Kuhn. The following index, the individual items of which all point to the pc93 website, summarizes the content of the publications of A.B. Kuhn on the WWW at this time......"

Yes, and the Website of Pharaoh Chromium 93 - contains most of the works of Kuhn, and you can download all these texts at:

including the entire 'Sex as Symbol', 'The Esoteric Structure of the Alphabet', and many others. The site is a bit chaotic, to say the least - but there is some valuable material on Sir Francis Bacon.

Here you will find texts and links, amongst others of: A meditation on the name - by Abraham Abulfia; an excerpt from The Gate of the Holy Spirit , from the school of Isaac Luria; a Lurianic meditation before the saying of Baruch She` Amar. And the complete text of : "The Palm tree of Deborah, by Moses ben Jacob Cordovero. "

 HERE IS A Little LILLITH BIBLIOGRAPHY -

Graves, Robert and Raphael Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. Garden City: Doubleday, 1964.

Rappoport, Angelo S. Myth and Legend of Ancient Israel, with an Introduction and Additional Notes by Raphael Patai, 3 vols. New York: Ktav, 1966. (Reprinted: London: Senate, 1995, 2 vols.; I: 77-79.)

Patai, Raphael. Adam ve-Adama [Man and Earth]. Jerusalem: The Hebrew Press Association, 1941-1942. While we are on the subject of Jewish Myths - I have a copy of a most extraordinary text - Patai, Raphael, MARIA THE JEWESS - FOUNDING MOTHER OF ALCHEMY, AMBIX. Vol. 29, Part 3, November 1982

Patai dedicates this work to: " Sidney M. Edelstein, patron of Jewish alchemical studies..." and researched "... for this study in the Sidney Edelstein Collection of the Hebrew University Library in Jerusalem." Does anyone have information on Sidney Edelstein?

A TV Series with Bill Moyers, and a Time Magazine cover story on Genesis article - which both ignored Gnostic versions of the Genesis Myth - such as the material contained in the Lilith Material above - led Stephen Hoeller to write an article to correct these imbalances.

The Four Elements Workshop is due to start sometime in early - towards mid-January. RSVP if you are interested in attending The Gala Opening Night.

I have been very productive - with a complete re-organisation of my personal effects and archives, and a very promising start to the New Year in terms of energy and ideas.

Here are some stimulating Mind Links - that have been stimulating me to fresh levels of activity.

Love and Peace, Samten.

 ECO LOGOS

An article entitled - MONKS FIGHT OVER BOY-GOD OF TIBET, in the Saturday Argus of December 19/20 1998 is full of rather shocking inaccuracies. The story is about the conflicts surrounding the reincarnation of the 17th Karmapa. Two factions have claimed two incarnations - and both boys are now in their teens.

If you wish to follow the controversy it has been well documented on the Web. The Sharmapa Faction state their case, in all the sordid detail:

While snooping through my Buddhist Archives, I came across a Prayer Flag published in one of the issues of Maitri we did a few years ago. This little discovery will be re-printed with some updated material soon. In the meanwhile, you can learn something about Prayer Flags, and see some examples at this site:

I also remember having met Yogi Chen when in San Francisco in 1976.

DIAMONDS ARE A GIRLS BEST FRIEND - Written while listening to a SAaFm News item ... Poor Pricess Diana worked and lived I vain. Her efforts in Angola will be negated by the recent massive re-armament of Unita. Lest we forget that spirituality may itself be an escape for the responsabilities of looking after our world. On the SABC Radio news, December 16th 1998 - there was a report that civil war is breaking out and that Unita is "armed to the teeth" with cash from Diamond sales. The report mentioned an organisation called GLOBAL WITNESS - which challeges the Diamond Industry - and De Beers in particular for being in colllusion with this re-arming of Unita. You can download the entire text of the GLOBAL WITNESS Report called: A ROUGH TRADE - The Role of Companies and Governments in the Angolan Conflict - A REPORT BY GLOBAL WITNESS, DECEMBER 1998. ANGOLA: A BRIEF OUTLINE - from their Website at:

IBIS ART CENTRE, Nieu Bethesda, Box 8, Nieu Bethesda. Tel: Fax: (04923) 642

Eating and Accomodation at: The Village Inn - (04923) 667 and Stokiesdraai (04923) 711. The Exhibition continues next year at: The Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet - a vibrant young cultural activist, if there ever was one, whom I met this week at his Gallery for the first time.

Meanwhile - the Jurrasic Park of Art Galleries - still going strong is the:

Love and Peace, Samten

Well, here I am back from my holiday to East London, Hogsback, Nieu Bethesda and finally, Brenton-on-Sea, outside Knysna. I will save the lurid details for later.

I wish that I could wish you a Happy Christmas, but will refrain from doing so - and instead wish you a Happy Saturnalia. We might as well drop the deceit and call a spade a spade - and see December Solstice for what it is - a Pagan Celebration of the Return of the Light - and no much to do with the Birth of Jesus Christ. But this is suitable for the Northern Hemisphere - and we are celebrating a Mid-Summer Festival, hopefully with Salads outdoors and not a Roasted Lamb, indoors.

But at least Have a Happy New Year as well - the last for this millenium.

In early January - I will start the only Course to be given in Cape Town in 1999 - from January to March and perhaps a bit later - as I may be travelling for the rest of the year - nothing definite yet, but seems likely movement is in the air again.

The Course will be called: THE FOUR ELEMENTS - and will start with WATER AND FIRE - and underpin EARTH AND AIR as we go along. The focus will be on the Symbolism of Dreams, and especially in the WATER section, on FEELINGS and DREAMS - using the tools of Astrology and the Tarot, amongst others.

 While on holiday I read Kharitidi, Olga, Entering the Circle. Ancient Secrets of Siberian Wisdom Discovered by a Russian Psychiatrist. Thorsons, London, 1996.

Though extremely flawed on most levels, a few profound nuggets of truth shine through. e.g. For example: for...

"...spiritual knowledge to be truly alive, it must be continually integrated into the social lives of new, emerging cultures." p. 213.

 Kharitidi, who is a psychiatrist in Siberia, journeys into the Alati Mountains with friends, where she undergoes initiation of with an Altai woman Shaman called Umai. The gist of the book seems to try to suggest that the Altai Mountain range is the site of the mystical Kingdom of Shambhala. A search on Altai Mountains on the Web/Internet produced a few interesting hits. Another great Russian mystic, Nicolas Roerich, whose vision of a Pax Cultura had a profound effect on my personal development - has these words at the top on one of the Altai sites:

Strange and wonderful-praise to the Russian Altai is heard from everywhere: to beautiful mountains, amazing mineral wealth, torrential rivers and unheard- of flowers. Why does everyone revere Altai?

This led me to continue a search for Roerich material on the Web and the following came to light.

Then, Helena Roerich, the wife of Nicolas Roerich, also embarked on a career of receiving messages from the Masters - and this material, known generically as the Agi Yoga Teachings - also produces some extremely profound insights into deeper aspects of the evolutionary thrust of humanity. And certainly I gathered much nourishment from the material when I used it at 'Watersedge' during the days of Rosemary Vosse. I was happy to see that the Helena Roerich material also has a Site:

 Nicolas Roerich, also wrote an interesting book on Shambhala, and as those in the know, know, the Shambhala material emanates from the great Kalachakra Initiation, which is given, amongst others, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Rosemary Vosse and myself were fortunate to receive this initiation from the Dalai Lama, in Rikon, Switzerland, in 1986, with 6,000 other souls, including Richard Geer and other luminaries.

While on the subject of Spiritual Treasures - I was delighted to discover the entire text of :

A very basic and down to earth Introductory Article is also recommended.

When involved in the Buddhist Monk phase of my life, the later Sister Palmo highly recommended the Work of Father Thomas Merton - and I was also greatly rewarded by the wonderful Thomas Merton site called

There are such vast and rich resources for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Myths on the Web - but one of the really extra-ordinary sites is:

I am extremely grateful from the friends who have followed the Links and Benefitted from the material pointed to - I have started 1999 - with a thorough clean-out of dead wood, and a new re-classification of my Files, Directories and Archives - moving everything towards hypertext and hotlinked Menus. This is especially exciting in the Hermetic field of omni-directional analogies - and for example in the Tarot - where links in all directions are difficult to express in hard text.

 PRAGUE AND ALCHEMY

Michal Pober, who was one of the organisers of the Prague Alchemy Conference last year - has an interesting site of Things Bohemian, Czech Esoteric Links and much more. If you are planning to visit Prague - this is one of the places to go before you get your visa:

 I am reeading a remarkable book that had an influence on me a few decades agao: William Willeford, The Fool and His Sceptre, a Jungian overview of the Fool Archetype, the inhabiter of liminal zones and social margins. I indentify with this strongly as I drift towards social liminality myself - FOOL ARCHETYPE resources on the Web are vast - but a good start, with links, is:

 Not only that - but there is a wealth of material along those lines. Another interesting character met in San Francisco, was Jose Arguelles - who subsequently attracted much attention through his Harmonic Convergence Project. He then went on, from his book on the Mandala with his first wife Miriam, to things Mayan, and to developing the Planet Art Network - which is very inspired on the Pax Cultura ideas of Nicolas Roerich (see earlier posting) For many years there was contact between us - and some Spanish disciples in Madrid.

Arguelles is well represented on the Web - and you can find a stack of biographical and bibliographical material and all sorts of millennial and prophetic material as well.

 During my unconscious early Websearches I did not document the sites sufficiently well - to track the movements across cyberspace. Thus, I have a vast task of sorting through hundreds, if not thousands of selected sites to catalogue their URLS properly. One of the areas that I literally lusted for information - was the ancient Hermetic city of Harran - and its central deity - the God Sin. Sorting, selecting and digesting data has become a central activity. One such text, on the History of Sin [ the God, not the naughty things] - proved to be very erudite and rich in references - mainly to Briffault's The Mothers. I sailed off, in this case to New Zealand - where to my surprise an expansive and visionary site led me to its core - one called Chris King - an to an extraordinary Millennial Movement that he has set into motion. It was interesting also to find Charles Cameron, of the Magister Ludi - Glass Bead Game site and Listserve - here in dialogue with Chris King. I have been corresponding with Charles Cameron, on things Hermetic.

Two other Projects that are developing nicely - are Printout Portfolios on the archetype of DIONYSUS - (Which links to THE FOOL, see Above); and THE KABALA. These will be mailed out to subscribers. Plus there is a new Goddess Issue in the last stages of preparation. My printers ink ran out and I smart at the shocking price these precious inks cost. The iniquity of it all!

Against all odds, and totally irrational in terms of practicalities, I started painting again. What use the use, I say to myself - as they all end up in boxes and cupboards - or stashed in other peoples ceiling attics when I go away. A burden and a botheration. But trying to enter the Art Mafia is something I am incapable of doing.

But going back to the 1976 Sister Palmo connection, Sheila Fugard has given me permission to publish her book on Sister Palmo, 'Lady of Realisation' on the Web. Now, the one and only New Years Resolution - is to get Web Domain Space for Free - and master the FTP transfer to get various Projects out and about.