1.

What is attempted here is not a work of history. That is to say, it is not a systematic study using the methods of historical science in order to reconstruct the past as empirically as is possible, given the types of extant evidence. 

Rather, this is a writing project embedded within contemporary Western occultism; we shall no doubt say more about what is meant by occultism, and what “Westernness” might entail, if the concept has any remaining utility. 

The texts that are to follow here should – in a very broad sense – constitute a series of meditations on time. Or, more precisely, they are to be a series of meditations on multiple temporalities, which themselves may not fit together so easily. (To wit: the various antiquities, nostalgias, modernities, post-modernities, post-post modernities, early and late capitalism, the rather shocking present of resurgent fascism and colonial-style genocide [Gaza], golden ages, and future utopias.)

Given simultaneously the scope, generalness, and episodic character of what is planned, we should expect some odd effects stemming from the disjunctions that arise between aims and methods. (Those effects may well be the essential matter.)  

Nevertheless, for convenience – and as an aspiration – let us assume that all of the texts to follow will comprise a whole, and for that reason I shall refer to the texts as one – as a work. Then, I affirm that this is an occult text and, qua occult (in the sense of hidden because marginal), it is subordinate to the works of rigorous historical scholarship here taken as points of departure, operating in the shadows they cast. 

Hopefully, there is something useful to be found in these shadows.