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Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on November 21, 2012 at 10:54am

Nov 21, 1694:
Voltaire's birthday

On this day in 1694, Francois-Marie Arouet, later known as Voltaire, is born in Paris to a treasury officer and his wife.

Voltaire studied law but abandoned it to become a writer. He won success with his plays-mostly classical tragedies at first. He also wrote histories and epic poetry. His writing brought him some measure of success, and his wise investments made him wealthy in his mid-30s. However, his epic poem La Henriade, a satirical attack on politics and religion, infuriated the government and landed Voltaire in the Bastille for nearly a year in 1717.

Voltaire's time in prison failed to quench his satire. In 1726, he again displeased authorities and fled to England. He returned several years later and continued to write plays. In 1734, his Lettres Philosophiques criticized established religions and political institutions, and he was forced to flee once more. He retreated to the region of Champagne, where he lived with his mistress and patroness, Madame du Chételet. In 1750, he moved to Berlin on the invitation of Frederick II of Prussia and later settled in Switzerland, where he wrote his best-known work, Candide. He died in Paris in 1778, having returned to supervise the production of one of his plays.

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on November 7, 2012 at 11:59am

Nov 6, 1558:
Playwright Thomas Kyd is baptized

On this day in 1558, Thomas Kyd is baptized in London. Kyd created the "revenge tragedy," a popular dramatic form that gave rise to tragedies like William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Little is known about Kyd's childhood, but scholars believe he was educated at the Merchant Taylor's School in London and raised to be a scrivener, a professional trained to draw up contracts and other business documents. In 1592, The Spanish Tragedie, sometimes called Hieronomo, was entered in the Stationer's Register (licensing the publication of the work). The play, about a father who seeks revenge for his son's murder, became the most popular play in England during its day.

In May 1593, Kyd was arrested on suspicion of treason because heretical documents had allegedly been found in his room. Under torture, Kyd claimed the letters belonged to his former roommate, fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe, who was subsequently arrested. Marlowe bailed out of jail but died 10 days later in a bar brawl. Kyd died penniless the following year.

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on November 3, 2011 at 11:30am

n Britain 'burlesque' in verse and prose was first popularised in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer's satirical The Canterbury Tales Hence it is within the time period we are looking knowledge for. Any one?

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on January 19, 2011 at 2:50pm

Theban Script resources and mystic scrawlings...

http://www.psychic-revelation.com/miscellaneous/fon…
http://goldencupcafe.tripod.com/html/theban_script.…

http://www.google.com.au/images?q=theban+script&…

http://www.fonts.com/findfonts/detail.htm?pid=46540…

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/egyptian_hieratic.h…

Greek magical texts were often written in a combination of languages. The name of a deity (especially a non-Greek one), or a very significant word would be written in a different language.

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on January 19, 2011 at 10:24am

public domain/ online texts

http://www.sacred-texts.com/

 

books.google.com is an amazing resource. There are literally thousands of books in the common domain that one can find through this resource. Many current books are also readable through Googlebooks, although most copyrighted books will only offer partial views.

However, if you want to dig through older material -- and especially if you have some notion about the subject matter you want to research -- Googlebooks can keep you occupied for days.

Another amazing free resource is esotericarchives.com hosted by Joseph Peterson. This is more in the vein of occult history and ceremonial magic(k) but if you want to peruse well-researched and translated copies of the Heptameron, Agrippa's Three Books, or the works of Dr. John Dee, this is the place to go. There's an active chat on that site as well wherein you can often find some intriguing threads about magick, spirituality, and the history of the occult.

 

The gutenburg project has been putting books on digital for a long time. you can download them for free into whatever reader format you have, and most readers are free. http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Comment by wendy on December 3, 2010 at 5:02pm

Thank you for the invite, I am sure I will enjoy my time here.

Comment by terry ireton on November 21, 2010 at 2:09pm

thanks for the invite

Comment by ekim flow on September 18, 2010 at 12:11am

thank you for the invite,i've been off the site far too long and need to catch up with everybody.

Comment by Mystickal One on September 3, 2010 at 10:33am

Thank you for the invitation..awesome group

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