The Hermetic Library Anthology Album - Magick, Music and Ritual 6

The Hermetic Library Anthology Album

Magick, Music and Ritual 6

Winter 2013 / Album

Released: Feb 3rd, 2013

For full artist profiles and more, please head to Magick, Music and Ritual 6 at the Hermetic Library site.

This sixth issue from the Hermetic Library Anthology Project is being released on Imbolc in Winter 2013, at 15° Aquarius. This is the first album in the second full year of releases, planned for all four quarters in 2013. Magic, Music and Ritual 6 brings together 15 tracks, from new and returning artists, with over 2 hours of music spanning 2 physical CDs.

Magick, Music and Ritual 6 could be a story of a full night’s sleep, but this Winter album seems a fitful rest. There is a bit of tossing and turning here trying to get comfortable through the night. Some thoughts from the daytime of the year have stayed in mind and must be allowed to pass through our minds without attachment. No full story is without healthy variety, evidence of a life being lived.

Winter is a great time of year to contemplate ourselves, our relationships and the world. We can be thankful for the past, while still happily leaving it behind. We can be proud of ourselves and our lives, while still giving ourselves room to breathe, allow for change, and permission to rest. We can be part of the world and participate in seasonal celebrations which echo across the globe, while still choosing for ourselves what to hold close and what let go. Especially in Winter, we can contemplate a vision of what service we will offer in the new year to others that is also in service to ourselves, while recognizing what is not in service to either and rightfully refused. One of the fruits that can be savoured from all our preparations prior to the arrival of Winter is the luxury of time in this night of the year to contemplate and prepare for the coming year, the new beginning to come at the dawn that will be another Spring. This can be a personal ritual in liminal space where we can banish what needs to be past, evoke from ourselves an intentional future, and freely transform ourselves.

The artwork and design of this issue was created by Mustafa al-Laylah. This is the first of a full series of covers which will span the entire year. The cover design of this issue is the upper right quadrant from the full set of covers this year which can be combined to make a larger image, a collectable poster that combines the elements of all four seasons. The upper right quadrant, in this case, being related to a position on the wheel of the year and the typical correspondences between this time of year, this Winter season, and various things associated such as magical weapon, element, zodiac, cherub and so on. Mustafa has done a great job in combining various correspondences into a compelling and interesting image for this cover, and we can all look forward to seeing the whole image revealed through the rest of the year.

Please join the Hermetic Library in promoting these artists who have contributed their work to this benefit anthology album project. Please also spread the word about these anthology albums to people you think may be interested in the work of artists who combine magick, music and ritual.

Release Notes

The Hermetic Library at Hermetic.com has an overall vision of Archiving, Engaging and Encouraging the living Esoteric Tradition. I started the benefit anthology project to help promote newer works in the Esoteric Tradition to the audience of the Hermetic Library and beyond. The anthology project also further raises awareness about the corpus and culture of magick and ritual.

Winter 2013 marks the beginning of a new calendar year for the anthology album project. The entire last year was an amazing learning experience for the entire project, and the continued support from both artists and listeners has been amazing and heartening. Of course, this year is also the beginning of the Hermetic Library Journal, a new part of the anthology project, which I hope will do for written and visual work what these Hermetic Library Albums have done for inspired music. I feel that there is some phenomenal synergy between these two ideas, and indeed several of the tracks, in the past as well but especially this time around, have incorporated additional media, such as two tracks that have accompanying illustrations and one track which is based on the spoken word of a lengthy essay. The confluence of esoteric music and practice created and demonstrated over the last year with these albums will now participate in a much larger syncretic and emerging anthology with written and visual esoteric work offered across the entire project. I am personally very excited for the chance to be of service in this ongoing and growing project.

Before the new year, I put out the call for proposals from artists interested in working with me to create a series of cover designs that would be revealed throughout the year, and perhaps each of the quarterly covers could be elements that combined into a larger image, a poster. I received several excellent proposals, but one proposal in particular stood out and you can see the first result of that in the the artwork and design of this issue. The cover for this issue will combine with the others into a larger image, which could even be released as a poster if there is enough interest in that. It will be fun and interesting to see the whole image, a kind of advent calendar of magical symbolism and correspondences!

I encourage you to check out the Hermetic Library at Hermetic.com, if you aren’t already familiar with it, as that’s the reason this project exists and may also offer inspiration to you. The site was started in 1996 and has ever since consistently been an extremely popular resource for students and researchers interested in the Esoteric Tradition. You may also wish to check out other posts at the Hermetic Library blog and the Twitter and Facebook reflections to see how the library engages people in a living Esoteric Tradition. 

— John Griogair Bell

Production by John Griogair Bell

Artwork and Design by Mustafa al-Laylah

All songs used with permission. All rights reserved.