#manual Samuel

[sendasan]

Death: Wait, doesn’t Fam know it’s yer’ joke? Pesto: It is my joke! But he’d turned it into a serious disease.

[krissiefox]

Games Starring The Grim Reaper

The other night Ashley and I were watching Ahriman play Vampire Survivors and got into a fun discussion were we tried to name as many games as we could think of that featured The Grim Reaper. I thought it would be fun to share the list we came up with! Full list below:

Castlevania

Conker's Bad Fur Day

Death Jr.

Discworld

Grim Fandango

Guitar Hero

Killing Floor

Manual Samuel

Shadowgate

The Sims 2

Vampire Survivor

[stealingyourbones]

Holy feces dude!

[saaron1234]

Art style challenge with Sam with Manual Samuel!

[jellazticious]

Would you guys forgive me if I start posting Perfectly Paranormal stuff sksksksk

[rald5in]

Floren, The Helping Hand Doctor

Samuel's adopted father (The brothers are now orphans...kind of-) as well as the teacher of medicine and healing.

He is quite famous in the land of Iris and has a complicated relationship with Soma.

Might make Samuel the older brother.

[faroresson]

As I'm reading through the GOmens tag on Ao3 back to front, I've taken a liking to the fics where one of the executions from the end of season 1 (or at least thats usually the excuse premise) being swapped from an Actual Execution to Turning One Of The Bastards Human (however temporarily (depends on the fic))

The stupid thing thats come from it is I've been qualifying this specific plot as The Manual Samuel AU, because they have to manage a Real Fully Human Body for the first time

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Sigal Samuel at Vox:

There’s a dominant narrative in the media about why tech billionaires are sucking up to Donald Trump: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, all of whom have descended on the nation’s capital for the presidential inauguration, either happily support or have largely acquiesced to Trump because they think he’ll offer lower taxes and friendlier regulations. In other words, it’s just about protecting their own selfish business interests. That narrative is not exactly wrong — Trump has in fact promised massive tax cuts for billionaires — but it leaves out the deeper, darker forces at work here. For the tech bros — or as some say, the broligarchs — this is about much more than just maintaining and growing their riches. It’s about ideology. An ideology inspired by science fiction and fantasy. An ideology that says they are supermen, and supermen should not be subject to rules, because they’re doing something incredibly important: remaking the world in their image. It’s this ideology that makes MAGA a godsend for the broligarchs, who include Musk, Zuck, and Bezos as well as the venture capitalists Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen. That’s because MAGA is all about granting unchecked power to the powerful. “It’s a sense of complete impunity — including impunity to the laws of nature,” Brooke Harrington, a professor of economic sociology at Dartmouth College who studies the behavior of the ultra-rich, told me. “They reject constraint in all of its forms.” As Harrington has noted, Trump is the perfect avatar for that worldview. He’s a man who incited an attempted coup, who got convicted on 34 felony counts and still won reelection, who notoriously said in reference to sexual assault, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” So, what is the “anything” that the broligarchs want to do? To understand their vision, we need to realize that their philosophy goes well beyond simple libertarianism. It’s not just that they want a government that won’t tread on them. They want absolutely zero limits on their power. Not those dictated by democratic governments, by financial systems, or by facts. Not even those dictated by death.

The broligarchs’ vision: Science fiction, transhumanism, and immortality

The broligarchs are not a monolith — their politics differ somewhat, and they’ve sometimes been at odds with each other. Remember when Zuck and Musk said they were going to fight each other in a cage match? But here’s something the broligarchs have in common: a passionate love for science fiction and fantasy that has shaped their vision for the future of humanity — and their own roles as its would-be saviors. Zuckerberg’s quest to build the Metaverse, a virtual reality so immersive and compelling that people would want to strap on bulky goggles to interact with each other, is seemingly inspired by the sci-fi author Neal Stephenson. It was actually Stephenson who coined the term “metaverse” in his novel Snow Crash, where characters spend a lot of time interacting in a virtual world of that name. Zuckerberg seems not to have noticed that the book is depicting a dystopia; instead of viewing it as a warning, he’s viewing it as an instruction manual.

Jeff Bezos is inspired by Star Trek, which led him to found a commercial spaceflight venture called Blue Origin, and The High Frontier by physics professor Gerard K. O’Neill, which informs his plan for space colonization (it involves millions of people living in cylindrical tubes). Bezos attended O’Neill’s seminars as an undergraduate at Princeton. Musk, who wants to colonize Mars to “save” humanity from a dying planet, is inspired by one of the masters of American sci-fi, Isaac Asimov. In his Foundation series, Asimov wrote about a hero who must prevent humanity from being thrown into a long dark age after a massive galactic empire collapses. “The lesson I drew from that is you should try to take the set of actions that are likely to prolong civilization, minimize the probability of a dark age and reduce the length of a dark age if there is one,” Musk said. And Andreessen, an early web browser developer who now pushes for aggressive progress in AI with very little regulation, is inspired by superhero stories, writing in his 2023 “Techno-Optimist Manifesto” that we should become “technological supermen” whose “Hero’s Journey” involves “conquering dragons, and bringing home the spoils for our community.” All of these men see themselves as the heroes or protagonists in their own sci-fi saga. And a key part of being a “technological superman” — or übermensch, as the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche would say — is that you’re above the law. Common-sense morality doesn’t apply to you because you’re a superior being on a superior mission. Thiel, it should be noted, is a big Nietzsche fan, though his is an extremely selective reading of the philosopher’s work.

[...]

The broligarchs — because they are in 21st-century Silicon Valley and not 19th-century Germany — have updated and melded this idea with transhumanism, the idea that we can and should use technology to alter human biology and proactively evolve our species.

Transhumanism spread in the mid-1900s thanks to its main popularizer, Julian Huxley, an evolutionary biologist and president of the British Eugenics Society. Huxley influenced the contemporary futurist Ray Kurzweil, who predicted that we’re approaching a time when human intelligence can merge with machine intelligence, becoming unbelievably powerful. “The human species, along with the computational technology it created, will be able to solve age-old problems … and will be in a position to change the nature of mortality in a postbiological future,” Kurzweil wrote in 1999. Kurzweil, in turn, has influenced Silicon Valley heavyweights like Musk, whose company Neuralink explicitly aims at merging human and machine intelligence. For many transhumanists, part of what it means to transcend our human condition is transcending death. And so you find that the broligarchs are very interested in longevity research. Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Thiel have all reportedly invested in startups that are trying to make it possible to live forever. That makes perfect sense when you consider that death currently imposes a limit on us all, and the goal of the broligarchs is to have zero limits.

Vox has an insightful article on the disastrous vision that broligarchs like Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, and Mark Zuckerberg subscribe to.

[jinro-88]

Henry's been the soft one for too long. Time for Hans to play the pretty damsel.

Wanna see Hans going wild with Samuel?Search this account on X (formerly Twitter): @wnlrml88

NSFW — please search manually, no direct links!

https://x.com/wnlrml88/status/1919441820125118567?t=yJpf-NBBwOKB01RLRFleeA&s=19

[maniculum]

For anyone who's enjoyed the recent posts about Tarot-as-a-game, in a surprising bit of kismet, our newest episode covers that topic as well as other matters of playing-card history.

We all like TTRPGs, but what about integrating other games into your tabletop play? This week, we're exploring the history of playing cards, their many variations and occult practices, and how you can utilize their unique history for your worldbuilding and campaigns.

Images and list of suits here.

Join our discord community! Check out our Tumblr for even more! Support us on patreon!

Get your copy of Marginal Worlds, a deck of 50 magic items pulled directly from medieval manuscripts, built for any TTRPG system here!

Socials: Tumblr Website Threads Instagram Facebook

Citations & References:

Berry, John. “Chinese Money-Suited Cards.” The Playing-Card, vol. 31, no. 5, 2003, pp. 230-6.

Caldwell, Ross Sinclair. “The Devil and the Two of Hearts.” The Playing-Card, vol. 37, no. 2, 2008, pp. 126-41.

Caldwell, Ross Sinclair. “The Proto-Historiography of Playing Cards: Early Hypotheses and Beliefs about the Origins of Cards and Card Games in Europe.” The Playing-Card, vol. 38, no. 2, 2009, pp. 92-118.

Chatto, William Andrew. Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards. London, 1848.

Culin, Stewart. Korean Games; with Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan. Philadelphia, 1895.

Decker, Ronald, Thierry Depaulis, & Michael Dummett. A Wicked Pack of Cards: the Origins of the Occult Tarot. St. Martin’s Press, 1996.

Dummett, Michael. The Game of Tarot: from Ferrara to Salt Lake City. Duckworth, 1980.

Dummett, Michael. “The History of Card Games.” European Review, vol. 1, no. 2, 1993, pp. 125-35.

Hargrave, Catherine Perry. A History of Playing Cards and a Bibliography of Cards and Gaming. Houghton Mifflin, 1980.

Janssen, Han. “The 14th Century and the Introduction of Playing Cards into Europe.” The Playing-Card, vol. 34, no. 3, 2006, pp. 173-80.

Lo, Andrew. “China’s Passion for Pai: Playing Cards, Dominoes, and Mahjong.” Asian Games: the Art of Contest, edited by Irving L. Finkel et al., Asia Society, 2004, 217-32.

Lo, Andrew. “The Game of Leaves: An Inquiry into the Origin of Chinese Playing Cards.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. 63, no. 3, 2000, pp. 389–406.

Lo, Andrew. “The ‘Yezi Pu' (Manual of Leaves): A Card Manual for Games of the Late Ming Period [1368-1644].” The Playing-Card, vol. 31, no. 2, 2002, pp. 86-96.

Maggio, Emilia. “Early Dragons.” The Playing-Card, vol. 45, no. 3, 2017, pp. 131-41.

Pollett, Andrea. “Tȗmȃn, or the Ten Thousand Cups of the Mamluk Cards.” The Playing-Card, vol. 31, no. 1, 2002, pp. 34-41.

Singer, Samuel Weller. Researches into the History of Playing Cards; with Illustrations of the Origin of Printing and Engraving on Wood. London, 1816.

Taylor, Edward Samuel. The History of Playing Cards, with Anecdotes of Their Use in Conjuring, Fortune-Telling, and Card-Sharping. London, 1865.

van Rensselaer, Mrs. John King. The Devil’s Picture-Books: a History of Playing Cards. New York, 1893.

Wilkinson, W. H. “Chinese Origin of Playing Cards.” The American Anthropologist, vol. 8, no. 1, 1895, pp. 61-78.

[joltning]

everyone go commission my friend Now

georgia rvb commission for @joltning because he is so very mean to me. i take commissions via ko-fi!

[saaron1234]

Perfectly Paranormal video games characters in South Park style!

[tllgrrl]

The Favor by @tllgrrl aka Nefertiri Jones

Sam touched the biometric pad on the case, and heard three soft clicks.

[“I called in a favor from the Wakandans.”]

The last time he was in Wakanda, he was on a battlefield just outside Birnin Zana: The Golden City.

He and his friends were fighting to save…everybody…everywhere…but before the battle he’d gotten a glimpse of the Blackest nation he’d ever seen.

A nation that had never been touched by colonization.

Sam also saw technology he’d thought only existed in Sci-fi movies and books…or maybe in Tokyo…but even more advanced than that.

T’Challa introduced him to General Okoye, leader of the elite Royal Guard known as the Dora Milaje.

Sam was also briefly reunited with Steve’s friend Bucky Barnes, who Steve had taken to Wakanda to see if they had the technological wherewithal to remove HYDRA’s super-assassin programming from his brain.

Apparently they did, they were successful, and two years later, there he was. With what looked to be a brand new arm, Bucky was joining the Wakandans and the Avengers in the fight against Thanos and his forces.

And Sam met T’Challa’s younger sister, Princess Shuri. A Black, teenage, African Princess tech genius who, with her team of scientists, doctors and engineers, freed the brain of mildly annoying, staring, grumpy supersoldier Barnes, who is now his “co-worker”.

(… and who is also now trying to aim those blue eyes of his at my baby sister!)

Shuri was also responsible for, among other things, developing the newest versions of T’Challa’s Vibranium-infused, nanotech, fighting suit.

[“I called in a favor from the Wakandans.”]

Sam thought about that battle. How it ended with half the universe, including him and Bucky, turning to ashes one minute, then waking up the next minute…

5 years later.

Like a film clip, images started speeding through his mind: Things he’d experienced, people he’d met, places he’d been from the moment he met Steve Rogers—as they both were doing their morning run around the reflecting pool at the Washington Monument in DC—to now.

All of that…ending up here, back in the house he grew up in, staring at this fancy, high-tech case.

[“I called in a favor from the Wakandans.” ]

(I’m actually gonna do…this.)

He opened the case and took a breath to steady himself.

There was a schematic on the inside of the case’s lid, and what almost looked like some kind of hieroglyphs. Sam couldn’t decipher it, but he immediately knew where it was from.

He lifted the piece of handwoven fabric that seemed to serve two purposes: beauty and function, as he could see metallic threads woven throughout the rich, surprisingly dense protective cloth.

The fabric had Vibranium woven into it, and under it there were three items:

A wing pack like his broken StarkTech one, but lighter in weight. By feel he immediately knew that these wings, like his shield, were made of virtually unbreakable Vibranium.

A neckpiece that was similar to the one he saw T’Challa wear, but not nearly as large, also far less traditional and ceremonial in design.

And inside a pouch made of the same fabric as the protective cloth, was a beautifully carved wooden box holding a bead bracelet like the kind worn by nearly everyone in Wakanda.

He also found a large envelope containing some official-looking paperwork, and a manual for the items in the case.

On the front of the envelope were Wakandan glyphs, and underneath them it read:

Samuel Wilson - Captain America

He read the opening paragraph of the manual, slipped the bead bracelet (called kimoyo) onto his left wrist as instructed…and shortly felt the beads lightly vibrate as his cellphone rang…

* * * * * * * * * *

Fan Fiction and Fan Art Submitted for the @samsseptember Samtember 2024: Day 3 -Costume, Day 19 - Wakanda. I honestly don’t know where this falls. It’s kind of about the costume but it is more about where and who it is from.

Happy Birthday Sam Wilson!

[overalls4all]

Jake, Samuel, and Aiden had been best friends since kindergarten. They have always done everything together. So of course after they graduated they hoped to get the same labor assignment. It was a long shot though, as the mandated manual labor program could place them at farms, factories, and work sites anywhere across the state.

The best buds were hanging around one the summer after graduation, only a week away from receiving their labor assignments.

"Man, I hope I get assigned to a work farm," said Jake, in the light blue flannel and black Carhartt overalls. "I love working outside."

"Me too," said Samuel, in the dark blue flannel and matching black Carhartts. "I always did well in our Agricultural Studies class." School curricula had changed a lot since the Overalls for All Act, with boys being required to take several vocational courses to prepare them for a life of manual labor.

"I don't get want I get assigned," Aiden, in the red flannel and dark brown overalls, said glumly. "I just want to get assigned with you guys."

Samuel put a comforting hand on Aiden's shoulder, "I hope so too, Aiden. But it's no guarantee. It's not up to us to choose our assignment."

"I know, I know. We have to obey what our leaders tell us. Believe me, I trust in their wisdom and leadership," Aiden said. "But we've always been together. I don't know if I go for two years of assigned labor without you guys."

Jake came over and placed a hand on Aiden's bib. "Dude, even if we are separated, we'll still be united in our overalls! That's why our leaders have us wear them. All men are united through our uniform, our labor, and our obedience to our leaders!"

Aiden felt a swell of pride in his chest as he placed his hand on Jake's bib. "You are totally right Jake! Overalls for All has made our country a better place. As long as we obey and wear our overalls, we'll always be together!" Aiden then placed both hands on his overalls straps, a standard salute, "Overalls for All!"

Jake and Samuel returned the gesture and said in unison, "Overalls for All!"

The young men had learned well in school to trust the new systems put in place. Their leaders had tirelessly worked to ensure all men have a future as long as they trust and obey the leader's policies. Overalls for All as one of the most sweeping and historic pieces of legislation in the country's history, but it's success had been even more monumental, with men across the country embracing their uniform overalls and labor requirements.

The friends would receive their assignments a week later and alas they did not receive the same assignment. Jake was indeed assigned to a work farm where he spent each day cleaning the pigsty, a dirty job he was honored to carry out. Samuel was assigned to a factory, helping manufacture products that would serve the whole country. And finally, Aiden was assigned to a construction site, helping build a new civic center that would offer the newly required masculinity courses that male citizens were mandated to take. But whenever Aiden, or Jake or Samuel, missed their old friends, all he had to was salute with both hands on his straps and say, full of masculine pride and conviction, "Overalls for All", and he knew somewhere out there his friends were doing the same.

[sophieinwonderland]

Endogenic Syscourse Primer

There is a whole lot of misinformation out there about endogenic systems and the history of the plural community, so I wanted to write-up this primer for people who are new to syscourse or otherwise uninformed.

What is Plurality?

This is a complicated place to start since different people have different definitions.

Pluralpedia describes plurality as such:

Plurality is the state of having multiple headmates collectively sharing a single body. A group of headmates is called a system. Plural experiences are extremely diverse. Systems may be spiritual in nature or secular, median or partitionary, small systems or ones with thousands of headmates. Headmates are generally assumed to have their own unique personality. They often have their own names, pronouns, goals, and preferences. Referring to the system they belong to is often done using plural pronouns like we, us, them, and they, although it is best to ask. They may want to be seen as an individual, a part of a whole, an accompaniment to the core or host, or any other state of selfhood. Plurality comes in many forms.

Headmates isn't a universally agreed-upon term but is a catch-all. My own simplified definition would be that someone is plural when they have multiple autonomous self-conscious agents occupying a single body. These agents may identify as headmates, parts, or something else entirely.

Plurality is usually categorized as traumagenic and endogenic. Traumagenic plurality is caused by trauma and most commonly associated with dissociative disorders. Endogenic plurality is caused by anything else. There are also Mixed Origin Systems which may be a result of different causes, Quoigenic Systems with an unknown cause or who refuse to share their origin, and many other less common origins.

Does Plurality Exist Outside of Dissociative Disorders?

The answer to this is spelled out in the World Health Organization's 11th revision of the International Classifications of Diseases, or the ICD-11. This is the diagnostic manual compiled by the World Health Organization used in most of the world.

As you can see, the ICD-11 uses the term "distinct personality states" synonymously with "dissociative identities." The example of mediumship is also important, as a common counterargument is that the second entry is referring to more general self-states, like how a person can have a work self and home self with different behavior patterns. This is very different from what's experienced by mediums, where spirits and deities communed with have their own distinct names, personalities, genders, etc.

The existence of non-DID plurality has also been affirmed by psychiatrist Eric Yarbrough in his book, Transgender Mental Health which was published by APA Publishing, the publishing arm of the American Psychiatric Association.

Other forms of plurality are actively being researched, such as in this article on tulpamancy by psychiatry professor Samuel Veissiere which was in a book published by Oxford University Press. (Tulpamancy is a process of intentionally creating headmates. It's usually psychological but a small percentage of tulpamancers take a metaphysical view.)

Consistently, non-disordered and non-traumagenic plurality is affirmed again and again by psychiatrists and psychologists. And these are not some fringe minority going against the grain. There are no counter examples. There are zero psychiatrists saying plurality without dissociative disorders can't exist or isn't real.

Who Can Call Themselves Plural?

We've now established endogenic and non-disordered plurality as a real phenomenon with support from psychiatrists across the board. Another common argument you'll hear is that the term plural can only be used by systems with dissociative disorders.

This one is actually very easy to debunk.

The first use of plural in this way was by non-disordered systems to separate themselves from clinical language. At the time, "multiple" was used much more frequently in the community.

We don't claim that every multiple system/household is a happy loving cooperative one. What we do question is the *identification* of "real multiples" with the characteristics or symptoms of a psychological disorder. We go further: we question by what right or authority doctors and therapists are given sole jurisdiction over the definition of "an individual".

This is one reason our clan encourages use of the word "plural" rather than "multiple". "Multiple", even standing by itself, brings to mind MPD/DID, "multiple personality disorder", "dissociative identity disorder", which are specific diagnoses created by the medical/therapeutic community. "Plural" is a much more neutral word, more commonly heard in the context of grammar than psychiatry. (The other reason, of course, is that plural can be construed to have a broader meaning, applying to anyone(s) anywhere on the continuum who experience themselves as plural in some way. )

Non-Disordered Systems Were Separatists, Not Invaders.

Going on from the last point, this is something that is often obscured when discussing the history of plurality and why so many words are shared.

There's a narrative that non-disordered and endogenic systems were invading the spaces of disordered and traumagenic systems. But as we can see in the above post, this is actually the opposite of the truth.

The articles I've posted showing research into endogenic plurality, as well as the ICD-11 entry, are all from within the last decade.

In the 90s, multiplicity was considered inherently disordered by the public. There were theories that there could be endogenous and non-pathological forms of plurality at the time, such as was referenced in this paper by Kluft from 2001.

But there weren't many people to study extensively because people without mental disorders don't usually seek out psychiatrists.

During this period, if you had multiple self-conscious agents sharing the same body, you were assumed to have MPD/DID. Actual research into non-disordered systems is a relatively recent phenomenon.

And even as these theories of other forms of plurality may have been discussed in academic circles, they didn't make it into the public consciousness.

So people who experienced plurality for other reasons, or their plurality wasn't a disorder, assumed they had MPD/DID and joined up with those communities. There just wasn't an alternative at the time. (Plurality is incredibly isolating, making it hard for plurals to find other plurals and meet up before the internet.) Then, as more people began sharing their experiences, some realized their experiences weren't a disorder and began to break away.

Terminology being shared is a natural extension of this process.

Many of the Terms Used by DID/OSDD systems were made by the endogenic and pro-endo community

Aside from the word plural, headmate was another word coined to differentiate them from the more clinical "alter." Fictive and factive originated with the endogenic soulbonders. If you've seen people policing system language from endogenic systems, like with the word plural, there is a good chance that the language being policed came from the endogenic and non-disordered community to begin with.

There is also a common myth you may have seen around suggesting the term system hopping originated with RAMCOA survivors in reference to travel between sidesystems. This claim only dates back as far as 2021, while system hopping has been traced back as far as 2005 by spiritual systems describing movement between different-bodied systems.

Resources like Simply Plural and Pluralkit are also pro-endo, with creators stating they can be used by anyone, and Simply Plural having links to endogenic resources.

Who Can Call Themselves A System?

System is a term that actually does have a long history of use within the DID community, originating from the psychiatric field.

But system has still been used by non-disordered systems for decades. Most of the people arguing over the terminology haven't been alive as long as endogenic and non-disordered systems have existed and been identifying as systems.

Transgender Mental Health uses the term plural system for both disordered and non-disordered systems alike, as have other recent academic papers that talk about endogenic/non-disordered systems.

Additionally, system has been used in similar ways to its use in discussions of plurality at least as far back as the 80s under the Internal Family Systems model.

Dissociative specialists Dolores Mosquera and Colin Ross have also referred to certain autonomous voices in psychotic disorders as dissociated parts of a person's system.

More recently, Dr. Michael Lifshitz, in an AMA discussing his fMRI study into tulpamancers at Stanford University, also refers to the subjects as "tulpa systems."

The word system was never treated as a highly specific term in psychiatry that could only be applied to DID and OSDD systems.

And as more research is conducted on endogenic systems, this research is continuing to refer to endogenic systems as being systems.

Conclusion

Endogenic and non-disordered plurality is a real psychological phenomenon supported by multiple psychiatrists, psychologists and the World Health Organization in books that and articles that have passed peer review through the most reputable and prestigious academic publishers, such as Oxford University Press and The American Psychiatric Association.

Non-disordered and endogenic systems have identified as systems and been part of the plural community since the 90s. Many modern terms in the plural community originated with endogenic and pro-endogenic systems.

And the term system has never been a DID/OSDD term, and is not treated as such in psychiatric circles.

If there's one takeaway for anyone who is reading this that's new to syscourse, it should be that bigotry against endogenic systems isn't based in science or reality. Like most bigotry, it's based on hatred for hatred's sake, and fueled by misinformation.

I hope this was able to clear up some misconceptions.

Thank you for your time and patience.

[alchemy-fic]

Bibliography:

Alchemy and the Occult:

Western:

Alchemy Unveiled, Johannes Helmond (Translated into English and Edited by

Gerard Hanswille and Deborah Brumlich); (1963)

Practical Alchemy, A Guide To The Great Work; Brian Cotnoir (2006)

The Black Arts (50th Anniversary Edition); Richard Cavendish (1968)

Alchemy & Mysticism: The Hermetic Cabinet; Alexander Roob (2009)

The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structures of Alchemy (2nd Edition); Mircea Eliade (1962, 1978)

History of Alchemy; M. M. Pattison (1902)

Alchemy (Revised Edition); E. J. Holmyard (1990)

Dictionary of Symbolism, Cultural Icons and the Meanings Behind Them; Hans Biedermann, Translated by James Hulbert (1994)

The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft, and Wicca; Rosemary Ellen Guiley (1989)

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits; Rosemary Ellen Guiley (1992)

Levantine:

The Jewish Alchemists: A History and Source Book; Raphael Patai (1994)

Ancient Magic and Divination, A Microhistorical Study of the Neo-Assyrian Healer Kiṣir-Aššur; Troels Pank Arbøll (2017)

Fuck Your "Magic" Antisemitism: A Lesser Key To The Appropriation Of Jewish Magic & Mysticism; Ezra Rose (2022)

“His wind is released” - The Emergence of the Ghost Ritual of passage in Mesopotamia; Dina Katz, Leiden (2014)

Cursed Are You! The Phenomenology of Cursing in Cuneiform and Hebrew Texts; Anne Marie Kitz (2014)

Egyptian Magic; E.A. Wallis Budge (1901)

Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology (Cuneiform Monographs); David Brown (2000)

Astrology in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Science of Omens and the Knowledge of the Heavens; Michael Baigent (July 20, 2015)

Ancient Jewish Magic: A History; Gideon Bohak (2008)

PERFORMING DEATH: SOCIAL ANALYSES OF FUNERARY TRADITIONS IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND MEDITERRANEAN; Nicola Laneri, Ellen F. Morris, Glenn M. Schwartz, Robert Chapman, Massimo Cultraro, Meredith S. Chesson, Alessandro Naso, Adam T. Smith, Dina Katz, Seth Richardson, Susan Pollock, Ian Rutherford, John Pollini, John Robb, and James A. Brown (2007)

Mesopotamian Conceptions of Dreams and Dream Rituals; Sally A. L. Butler (1998)

Forerunners to Udug-Hul: Sumerian exorcistic incantations; Markham J. Geller (1985)

Šurpu. A Collection of Sumerian and Akkadian Incantations; Erica Reiner (1958)

Mesopotamian Protective Spirits: The Ritual Texts; F. A. M. Wiggermann (1992)

The Alchemist's Handbook- Manual for Practical Laboratory Alchemy; Frater Albertus (1960)

Licit Magic: The Life and Letters of al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād (d. 385/995); Maurice A. Pomerantz (09 Nov 2017)

Further Studies on Mesopotamian Witchcraft Beliefs and Literature; Tzvi Abusch (2002)

The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture; Francesca Rochberg (2004)

Greco-Roman:

Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook; Daniel Ogden (2002)

Far East Asia:

I Ching; Fu Xi (~1000 BCE)

Myths, Legends, Religious Texts And Folktales

Levantine:

The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion; Thorkild Jacobsen (1976)

Persian Myths; Jake Jackson (2022)

Myths of Babylon; Jake Jackson (2018)

The Epic Of Gilgamesh (2nd Edition); Anonymous, Andrew George (????, 2000)

The First Ghost Stories; Dr. Irving Finkel (2021)

On Jewish Folklore; Raphael Patai (1983)

Sumerian Mythology, a Deep Guide Into Sumerian History and Mesopotamian Empire and Myths; Joshua Brown (2021)

Sumerian Mythology, a Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. (Revised Edition); Samuel Noah Kramer (1961)

Sumerian Liturgies; Anonymous, Stephen Langdon (1919)

Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart, Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna; Enheduanna, Betty De Shong Meador (1989)

Ninurta's Journey to Eridu; Daniel Reisman (1971)

A Sumerian Proverb Tablet in Geneva With Some Thoughts on Sumerian Proverb (2006)

Enki's Journey to Nippur: The Journeys of the Gods; Al-Fouadi, Abdul-Hadi A. (1969)

The Arthur of the Welsh: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature by Rachel Bromwich (1991)

Encyclopedia of American Folklore; Linda S. Watts (2006)

Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion; Joshua Trachtenberg (1939)

Amulets and Talismans; E.A. Wallis Budge (The copy I have was published in 1992 but he died in 1934. Not sure when the original work was created.)

Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews; Deatra Cohen, Adam Siegel (2021)

Encyclopedia of Catholicism; Frank K. Flinn (2007)

As Through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in Islam; Annemarie Schimmel (1982)

You Will Have Other Goddesses in Addition to Me: Polytheism Among Ancient Israelite Women; Liora Finke (2022)

Gods That Travel: On The Ritual Aspects of Divine Journeys And Processions; Klaus Wagensonner (2014)

NINURTA AND ENKI; A new divine journey of the warrior god to Eridu; Klaus Wagensonner (2013)

Jewish Music in Its Historical Development; Abraham Zevi Idelsohn (1929)

The God Enki in Sumerian Royal Ideology and Mythology; Peeter Espak (2010)

The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic & Mysticism: Second Edition; Geoffrey W. Dennis (2007)

Book of Jewish Knowledge: An Encyclopedia of Judaism and the Jewish People, Covering All Elements of Jewish Life from Biblical Times to the Present (03 May 1948); Nathan Ausubel

Encyclopedia of Judaism (Encyclopedia of World Religions); Sara E. Karesh & Mitchell M. Hurvitz (2006)

Aboriginal Australia: 

Gadi Mirrabooka: Australian Aboriginal Tales from the Dreaming; Pauline E. McLeod, Francis Firebrace Jones, June E. Barker, Helen F. McKay (2001)

The Two Rainbow Serpents Travelling: Mura Track Narratives from the 'Corner Country'; Jeremy Beckett, Luise Hercus (2009)

Mixed or Other:

Egyptian Myths & Tales; Japanese Myths & Tales, Aztec Myths & Tales, Scottish Folk & Fairytales, Viking Folk & Fairytales, Chinese Myths & Tales, Greek Myths & Tales, African Myths & Tales, Native American Myths & Tales, Persian Myths & Tales, Celtic Myths & Tales, Irish Fairy Tales; Anonymous, Flame Tree Publishing

Tales of King Arthur & The Knights Of The Round Table (Le Morte D’Arthur); Thomas Malory

The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore; Patricia Monaghan (2004)

Academic (Science including Psychology)

Stellar Alchemy: The Celestial Origin of Atoms, Michel Cassé, Stephen Lyle (2003)

Aboriginal Suicide Is Different: A Portrait of Life And Self Destruction; Colin Tatz (2005)

Fruit Domestication in the Near East; Shahal Abbo, Avi Gopher & Simcha Lev-Yadun (2015) 

Astronomical Cuneiform Texts: Babylonian Ephemerides of the Seleucid Period for the Motion of the Sun, the Moon, and the Planets (Sources in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, 5); Otto E. Neugebauer (1945)

Studies in the History of Science;  E. A. Speiser; Otto E. Neugebauer; Hermann Ranke; Henry E. Sigerist; Richard H. Shryock; Evarts A. Graham; Edgar A. Singer; Hermann Weyl (Compiled In 2017)

Studies in Civilization;  Alan J. B. Wace; Otto E. Neugebauer; William S. Ferguson (Compiled In 2016)

Astronomy and History: Selected Essays; Otto E. Neugebauer (Compiled In 1983)

The Encyclopedia of the Brain and Brain Disorders; Carol Turkington (2002)

The Encyclopedia of Poisons and Antidotes; Deborah R. Mitchell & Carol Turkington (2010)

The Encyclopedia of Suicide; Glen Evans, Norman L. Farberow, Ph.D. & Kennedy Associates (1988)

Academic (History)

Western:

Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes; Carl Waldman (2006)

Levantine:

Sounds from the Divine: Religious Musical Instruments in the Ancient Near East; Dahlia Shehata (2014)

Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia: The Gilgamesh Epic and Other Ancient Literature; Rivkah Harris (05/12/2003)

House Most High: The Temples of Ancient Mesopotamia; A. R. George (1993)

The Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East; Michael Roaf (1990)

The Meaning of Color in Ancient Mesopotamia; Shiyanthi Thavapalan (2020)

The Loss of Male Sexual Desire in Ancient Mesopotamia; Gioele Zisa (2021)

Materials and Manufacture in Ancient Mesopotamia: The evidence of Archaeology and Art. Metals and metalwork, glazed materials and glass; P. R. S. Moorey (3/1/1985)

Collections; Bendt Alster, Takayoshi Oshima (2006)

Political Agency of Royal Women; Paula Sabloff (2019)

Studies in Sumerian Civilization: Selected Writings Of Miguel Civil; Miguel Civil, edited by Lluís Felu (2017)

A study on the natural heritage and its importance in the Sumerian civilization in southern Iraq; Al-Hussein Nabeel Al-Karkhi, Isam Hussain T. Al-Karkhi (2021)

A Sumerian Riddle Collection; Bendt Alster (1976)

SUMERIAN “CHILD”; Vitali Bartash (2018)

The civilizing of Ea-Enkidu an unusual tablet of the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic; Andrew R George (2007)

Celibacy in the Ancient World: Its Ideal and Practice in Pre-Hellenistic Israel, Mesopotamia, and Greece; Dale Launderville OSB (07/01/2010)

House and Household Economies in 3rd Millennium B.C.E. Syro-Mesopotamia; Federico Buccellati ,Tobias Helms & Alexander Tamm (2014)

The Harps That Once… Sumerian Poetry In Translation; Thorkild Jacobsen (1987)

The Divine Origin Of The Craft Of The Herbalist; Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (1928)

Disease in Babylonia; Edited by Irving Finkel and Markham (Mark) Geller (2007)

Royal Statuary of Early Dynastic Mesopotamia; Gianni Marchesi and Nicolo Marchetti (2011)

Myths of Enki, The Crafty God; Samuel Noah Kramer, John Maier (1989)

Household and State in Upper Mesopotamia; Patricia Wattenmaker (July 17, 1998)

Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium; Albert Kirk Grayson (1987)

Gudea's Temple Building: The Representation of an Early Mesopotamian Ruler in Text and Image (Cuneiform Monographs); Claudia E. Suter (January 1, 2000)

Reading Sumerian Poetry (Athlone Publications in Egyptology & Ancient Near Eastern Studies); Jeremy Black (2001)

Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia; Stephen Bertman (2002)

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East; Amanda H. Podany (2022)

History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History; Samuel Noah Kramer (1981)

A History of the Animal World in the Ancient Near East; Edited by Billie Jean Collins (2002)

The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character; Samuel Noah Kramer (1963)

The Ancient Near East in Transregional Perspective: Material Culture and Exchange Between Mesopotamia, the Levant and Lower Egypt from 5800 to 5200 ... Sudan and the Levant; Katharina Streit (11/10/2020)

Colonialism and Christianity in Mandate Palestine; Laura Robson (September 1, 2011)

Poetic Astronomy in the Ancient Near East The Reflexes of Celestial Science in Ancient Mesopotamian, Ugaritic, and Israelite Narrative; Jeffrey L. Cooley (2013)

Hasidism, Haskalah, Zionism: Chapters in Literary Politics (Jewish Culture and Contexts); Hannan Hever (October 17, 2023)

Mourning in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible; Xuan Huong Thi Pham (1999)

Medieval Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Egypt; Joachim J.M.S. Yeshaya (2011)

The Land that I Will Show You: Essays on the History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Honor of J. Maxwell Miller; J. Andrew Dearman & M. Patrick Graham (January 9, 2002)

Jerusalem in Ancient History and Tradition; Thomas L. Thompson (2003)

Prisons in Ancient Mesopotamia, Confinement and Control until the First Fall of Babylon; Dr. J. Nicholas Reid (2022)

Prophets Male and Female: Gender and Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Ancient Near East; Jonathan Stökl & Corrine L. Carvalho (2013)

The Calm before the Storm- Selected writings of Itamar Singer on the late Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Levant; Itamar Singer (2012)

"Holiness" and "purity" in Mesopotamia;  E. Jan Wilson (1994)

The Material Culture of the Northern Sea Peoples in Israel; Ephraim Stern (2013)

Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant; Rainer Albertz and Rüdiger Schmitt (2012)

Scribal Education in Ancient Israel: The Old Hebrew Epigraphic Evidence; Christopher A. Rollston (11/2006)

Neanderthals in the Levant- Behavioural Organization and the Beginnings of Human Modernity; Donald O. Henry (10/2003)

Suddenly, the Sight of War- Violence and Nationalism in Hebrew Poetry in the 1940s; Hannan Hever (2016)

Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East; Victor H. Matthews, Victor H. Matthews, Bernard M. Levinson, Tikva Frymer-Kensky (1998)

The concept of fate in ancient Mesopotamia of the 1st millennium: Toward an understanding of 'simtu'; Jack N. Lawson (1992)

The Myth of the Jewish Race; Raphael Patai, Jennifer Patai Wing (01/01/1975)

The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492; Peter Cole (01/22/2007)

Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions; Raphael Patai (2013)

Hebrew Myths; Robert Graves and Raphael Patai (2005) 

Vast as the Sea - Hebrew Poetry and the Human Condition; Samuel Hildebrandt (12/05/2023)

Sex & Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature; Gwendolyn Leick (1994)

Far East Asian:

Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations; Charles Higham (2004)

Aboriginal Australia:

Aboriginal Peoples: Fact and Fiction; Pierre Lepage, Maryse Alcindor, Jan Jordon (2009)

Visions from the Past: The Archaeology of Australian Aboriginal Art; M.J. Morwood, Douglas Hobbs, D.R. Hobbs (2002)

Mixed or Other:

Early Civilizations of the Old World: The Formative Histories of Egypt, The Levant, Mesopotamia, India and China; Charles Keith Maisels (May 20, 2001)

20,000 Years of Fashion: The History of Costume and Personal Adornment; Francois Boucher (1967)

Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam; Chouki El Hamel (2012)

The Birth of Science: Ancient Times to 1699; Ray Spangenburg & Diane Kit Moser (2004)

The Architecture of Castles: A Visual Guide; Reginald Allen Brown (1984)

Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide; Leslie Alan Horvitz and Christopher Catherwood (2006)

Linguistic

Cuneiform; Irving Finkel, Jonathan Taylor (2015)

An Introduction to the Grammar of Sumerian; Gábor Zólyomi (2017)

Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian: An Introduction for Complete Beginners; Joshua Aaron Bowen, Megan Lewis (2020) Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian: An Introduction for Complete Beginners, Volume 2; Joshua Aaron Bowen, Megan Lewis (2023)

The Sur₉-Priest, the Instrument giš Al-gar-sur₉, and the Forms and Uses of a Rare Sign; Niek C. (1997/1998)

Sumerian Grammar (Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section One, the Near [And] Mi) (English and Sumerian Edition); Dietz Otto Edzard (2003)

A Late Old Babylonian Proto-Kagal / Nigga Text and the Nature of the Acrographic Lexical Series; Niek VELDHUIS -Groningen (1998)

Learning To Pray In A Dead Language, Education And Invocation in Ancient Sumerian; Joshua Bowen (2020)

Aboriginal Sign Languages of The Americas and Australia: Volume 1; North America Classic Comparative Perspectives; Garrick Mallery (auth.), D. Jean Umiker-Sebeok, Thomas A. Sebeok (eds.) (1978)

 The Literature of Ancient Sumer; Jeremy Black, Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson, Gabor Zolyomi (2004)

Sumerian Lexicon: A Dictionary Guide to the Ancient Sumerian Language; John Alan Halloran (2006)

A Sumerian Chrestomathy; Konrad Volk (1911)

Online Articles, Dictionaries And Other Resources:

https://nationalclothing.org/middle-east/305-traditional-clothing-of-mesopotamia-what-did-it-look-like.html 

https://www.getty.edu/news/meet-the-mesopotamian-demons/ 

https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub363/ 

https://ehistory.osu.edu/articles/marriage-ancient-mesopotamia-and-babylonia 

https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section5/tr561.htm 

http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/nepsd-frame.html 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Africa/Trade 

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2185/festivals-in-ancient-mesopotamia/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/well/family/cutting-out-the-bris.html 

http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/nannasuen/ 

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-idea-imprisonment-prisoners-earliest-texts.html 

http://www.mathematicsmagazine.com/Articles/TheSumerianMathematicalSystem.php 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ooHEYR30oNCdI4Xxop9qBjKQGnqTPwLHQzT8cvv5oxA/edit Sumerian Grammar Made Easy! (2022 Edition)

Historians, linguists, etc:

https://sumerianlanguage.tumblr.com/ aka http://www.jamesbarrettmorison.com/sumerian.html

https://sumerianshakespeare.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/DigitalHammurabi aka https://www.digitalhammurabi.com/

https://twitter.com/digi_hammurabi and https://twitter.com/DJHammurabi1 

Podcasts and online-exclusive documentaries, video essays, etc

8. The Sumerians - Fall of the First Cities (2020)

13. The Assyrians - Empire of Iron (2021)

The Complete and Concise History of the Sumerians and Early Bronze Age Mesopotamia (7000-2000 BC) (2021)

The Royal Death Pits of Ur (2022)

Gilgamesh and the Flood (2021)

The Birth of Civilisation - Rise of Uruk (6500 BC to 3200 BC) (2021)

The Earliest Creation Myths - Mythillogical (2022)

Enuma Elish | The Babylonian Epic of Creation | Complete Audiobook | With Commentary (2020)

 Eridu Genesis | The Sumerian Epic of Creation (2021)

 Irving Finkel | The Ark Before Noah: A Great Adventure (2016)

Cracking Ancient Codes: Cuneiform Writing - with Irving Finkel (2019)

Ancient Demons with Irving Finkel I Curator's Corner S3 Ep7 #CuratorsCorner (2018)

 How to perform necromancy with Irving Finkel (2017)

 Mesopotamian ghostbusting with Irving Finkel I Curator's Corner + #CuratorsCorner (2018)

Video Games

Sonic The Hedgehog Encyclospeedia; Ian Flynn (2021)

Direct Inspiration

The Golden Compass (1995), The Subtle Knife (1997); The Amber Spyglass (2000); Philip Pullman

The Last Unicorn; Peter S. Beagle (1968)

The 13 and ½ Lives Of Captain Bluebear: A Novel; Walter Moers (1999)

Allerleirauh; Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1812)

The Epic of Beowulf; Anonymous (c. 700–1000 AD)

The Writing In The Stone; Irving Finkel (October 10, 2017)