Looking Back at the Year

I always felt that I’ve done less than half of what I could have done, but, looking back, this year was a fairly full one. I put out three Bardic Press publications. One of these was the first new Bardic Press book for a couple of years, Planetary Types: The Science of Celestial Influence, by Anthony Cartledge. Planetary Types looks at the human typology based on the characteristics and influence of the planets that was, in the twentieth century at least, first described by Rodney Collin, a pupil of P.D. Ouspensky. Cartledge describes the physical and psychological characteristics of these types, and their origin in the Fourth Way teachings, and then goes on to tie them in to the modern scientific exploration of astrology, particularly the unimpeachable statistical results of Michel Gauquelin, who found a statistically significant link between planetary positions at the time of birth and profession. So top generals or top athletes are more likely to have Mars in a particular range of positions in the natal horoscope than is allowed by chance. The author goes on to refine this connection and to suggest a possible mechanism by which the planets might influence character. The book is something of a sleeper, but I’m sure that it will have a significant long term impact.
The other two Bardic Press publications are the first two issues of The Gnostic, published in Spring and Autumn of this year. The Gnostic has been very well received and I intend to keep up the bi-annual publication schedule and to continue with a solid base of articles related to Gnosticism, along with other forms of spirituality, Gnostic-inspired creative work and whatever else takes my fancy.
A Dictionary of Gnosticism was published in November. I knew that there was a real need for this book—the first of its kind ever to be published—and I’m please to announce that it’s already on its second print run, and I’m very happy with the reception it has so far received. I’ve done several interviews on the book, and Fortean Times will be running a piece on me in the new year.
I’ve also contributed editorials, columns, reviews and articles for The Gnostic, plus a short story which looks at the emotional implications of carrying out the quantum suicide physics thought experiment as a piece of performance art! I do want to write more fiction in the coming year. I have plenty of ideas and I simply need to pick one of them and get down to it,

Among the non-fiction books I have been working on but haven’t completed are: a biography of Alan Moore (unauthorised), my longstanding biography of Rodney Collin, and a book about the Mandaeans. I have ideas for half a dozen other books, one of which is a short book on what we know of the lives of the ancient Gnostics, tentatively titled Ten Ancient Gnostics (or Eight, or Nine, or Eleven, or however many the final book contains.)
One of the most notable aspects of my spiritual exploration was a weeklong gathering of people who follow or are interested in the teaching of J.G. Bennett, a pupil of Gurdjieff, in Wales this August. My travels have taken me to Italy (for a wedding), Wales and Hungary, and as this blog post appears I’ll be back again in Budapest about to celebrate New Year with my best friend, Lala/Ashford.

So Happy New Year to you.