Infernal Geometry - bibliography notes

21 June 2020

When I originally prepared the bibliography for Infernal Geometry and the Left-Hand Path, I included notes about many of the works explaining their significance to Angular Magic and the book in general. I find this sort of annotation to be useful, because many times it’s not obvious why a particular book is cited, or easy to determine which other books should be more or less important to read as supplementary material. The Temple of Set’s reading list (an older version of which can be found Dr. Aquino’s two volume set The Temple of Set) gives short descriptions of all works...

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Grailstone

20 January 2020

Flegetanis the heathen saw With his own eyes in the constellations things He was shy to talk about, Hidden mysteries that trembling revealed it: He said that there was a thing called the Grail, Whose name he had read clearly in the constellations. Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival

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The Polarian Method

09 September 2019

The Polarian Method — as codified by Dr. Stephen Edred Flowers — is a primary tool for the recreation of traditional systems. (See his essay “How to Be a Heathen” for an example of the type of work from which this Method arose.)

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Bio From an Upcoming Conference

01 June 2018

Toby Chappell is a musician and writer currently residing in Georgia. He has been enamored with the esoteric and the strange for as long as he can remember, pursuing these as gateways into unraveling the mysteries of existence and self-awareness.

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Your First Thought Is Rarely Your Best

19 February 2018

https://fs.blog/2018/02/first-thought-not-best-thought/

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Starry Wisdom and the Left Hand Path, Part IV

19 February 2018

Part I Part II Part III

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Starry Wisdom and the Left Hand Path, Part III

14 February 2018

Part I Part II Part IV

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The Origins of My path

05 February 2018

My path to the Temple of Set could be summed up as: Teenage metalhead in the Deep South discovers Satanism, and imagines his favorite bands are really in league with the Prince of Darkness. Later finds out that for 99.99% of them it’s just a marketing gimmick, but thinks there might be something to this Satan thing anyway. Eventually discovers the truth is much deeper and stranger than he ever imagined.

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Starry Wisdom and the Left Hand Path, Part II

09 December 2017

Part I Part III Part IV

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Starry Wisdom and the Left Hand Path, Part I

06 December 2017

Part II Part III Part IV

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Words Run Amok

09 September 2014

[Note: This is an old post (ca. 2014) which is nonetheless resonant with my goals for this blog, so I’m republishing it here.]

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Regrouping

08 February 2014

I woke up one morning, took an unbiased look around my room, and realized that you’d be hard pressed to recognize me as much of a minimalist based on its appearance alone.

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Eyes of Ligeia Remanifests

07 December 2013

After a 6+ year hiatus, I’ve began making new music that I intend to release as Eyes of Ligeia, continuing somewhat in the atmospheric doom (with touches of black metal) style of 2004’s What the Moon Brings. (Excellent reviews of that CD can be read at http://doom-metal.com/reviews.php?album=623 and http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Eyes_of_Ligeia/What_the_Moon_Brings/44661/). To this style I am adding some of the electro-acoustic ambience from my Misdreamt project which has been where most of my musical output has come from the last 2-3 years (more at http://misdreamt.bandcamp.com).

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Apophenia released

02 July 2013

The new Misdreamt CD is now available!

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Connected?

30 June 2013

On July 2, the new Misdreamt CD, Apophenia -or- The Final Static That Can Never Be Removed, will be released digitally (via Bandcamp), and in a limited edition hand-drawn CD version. There will be a more widely available physical release soon after.

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Apophenia

27 June 2013

[ This is the first in a series of posts about Apophenia in its various forms, in preparation for my upcoming CD based on this phenomenon (to be released digitally on July 2) ]

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A Long Absence

06 March 2013

It has been quite a while since I’ve posted… and during that time I’ve spent a lot of time struggling to maintain the simpler, less cluttered life I had finally attained.

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Performance at HoneyWine Hollow House Concert

02 August 2012

HoneyWine Holllow is hosting their second annual house concert, featuring Toby Chappell (guitar, composer), Lucy Ralston (double bass), Anthony Barrese (piano, composer), Alison Moore (clarinet), and Elizebeth Tong (bassoon).

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The Sound of One Bag Traveling

12 June 2012

I’m currently on a business trip in Boston, arriving Monday afternoon and leaving Saturday afternoon.

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A Minimalist Approach to Music

28 May 2012

Sometimes simplicity takes a lot of work.

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Not Averse, Just Wary

21 February 2012

I have finally bottomed out for now on the number of possessions and attachments that I feel I actually need.

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Pickman's Model

28 December 2011

Over the last year, my efforts to transform my living spaces have been a reflection of my own path of change pushed on me from both within and beyond myself. During this time, I was literally living in a side room in a friend’s basement, with the rest of my possessions stored in the main basement. I have since shed the vast majority of what I moved into her house with (inspired by, but transcending, preparing to move somewhere else a month ago). I took that impulse of “Why do I have all this stuff?” everyone has at such times,...

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Settling In

06 December 2011

I am now officially moved as of December 4th.

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Nearing a Milestone

22 November 2011

Over the last month, since I decided to move and began to cull my physical possessions in earnest, I have given away or sold about 90% of my possessions in terms of number of items (CDs, DVDs, and books inflate that overall number quite a bit, of course).

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All I Want For Christmas Is...

15 November 2011

… nothing.

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A Problem of Privilege

14 November 2011

The need for trimming down the unnecessary possessions in life is a problem of privilege. The notion that one can, and more importantly has the opportunity to, accumulate too much stuff is only really possible in a consumerist society. But, not everyone within such a society has to hold the same values and goals.

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Trimming Down - Not Just For Home Anymore

06 November 2011

As I’ve worked to shed my life of the unnecessary (especially in terms of physical objects), I’ve been wrestling with how to apply that outside the space that is easiest for me to control (my living space).

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Impetus

03 November 2011

My efforts to slim down the things in my life are ongoing, but now I have a new force driving them: I’m going to be moving at the end of the month.

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What To Leave When Tearing Everything Down

18 October 2011

This is a new experiment for me: I’ve blogged before, rather sporadically, about my various musical exploits ( http://motiondemon.blogspot.com ), but have always done it in fits and starts (usually around the time a show or CD come out, when I expect to have some new visitors).

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Seeing the Forest for the Trees

18 October 2011

I first began to be seriously interested in shedding the unnecessary ‘things’ in my life when moving last November. I was moving somewhere temporary, of unknown duration, after splitting with my wife. A couple of boxes at a time, over the next several months I packed up and moved the things I had accumulated over the last 18 years since initially moving away from my parents, and most of the boxes ended up in the basement where I was staying. Unexamined, unfiltered, unprocessed, unvetted.

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Musical Consolidation

18 September 2011

I have made the tentative decision to retire the Saturnin Sektor moniker and fold that project into Misdreamt as the catchall for my musical explorations.

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Aftermath of the First Misdreamt Performance

12 September 2011

Friday night’s Misdreamt show went really well… the crowd was, how should I say, sparser than expected (possibly a casualty of the first bit of exceptionally comfortable evening weather in Atlanta in quite some time). But, the music seemed to go over extremely well and I’m sure this will be the foundation for further performances, and this proof of concept showed that the combination of film and live music (prerecorded electronics, live guitar) works very well.

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Misdreamt First Performance

11 April 2011

The first official live performance for Misdreamt will take place on September 9, 2011 at Kavarna Coffeehouse in Decatur, GA. This performance will be part of the City Skies electronic music series, and will be the opening performance for their Fall ‘11 schedule.

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Performance of "Faust" (1926) Soundtrack

20 February 2011

I will be performing a new original soundtrack for the 1926 silent film Faust (directed by F.W. Murnau of Nosferatu fame). The performance will take place at the German Cultural Center at Colony Square in Atlanta on March 5th.

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My Fifteen Most Significant Albums

29 August 2010

There is a meme floating around the interwebs (and the Facebooks) about listing 15 personally significant albums (and optionally the reason[s] for choosing them). There have been a number of albums which have completely changed my idea of what music could/should be, and here is a glimpse into how my tastes have changed over the years. These are not necessarily still my favorite albums, but they all still show up in various ways in either the music I create or listen to.

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Performance of "The Bone Season"

11 May 2008

“The Bone Season” will be part of a sound diffusion recital by Adam Scott Neal at the Sonic Arts Research Center in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The audience will be completed enveloped by the vast 40.6 surround sound system, and some may even live to tell about it.

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