2023 IS RUNNING OUT

Just for a moment… while you still have time… where does your knowledge come from?

Put aside your scientific understanding about the formation of clouds and fog… and consider this image.

Explore. The image is no clearer than your understanding of what you will find hiking into this valley.  This was one of the Alpine experiences of Byron, Goethe, Tolkien and Franz Hartmann. 

Who is Franz Hartmann? And why does it matter? He wrote “The Foundation of Christian Mysticism”.

Occult is an interesting throw-away domain. It is like a trash can in the science and philosophy labs where everything, that doesn’t quite fit the ‘accepted’ science or philosophy, is dumped.

Franz Hartmann wrote biographies of Jakob Böhme and Paracelsus. He drew links between the past and present.

He was of the day (b.1838, d.1912) when doctors were theologians because in medicine, doctors encounter the unexplainable. And theologians deal all the time with those things unexplainable. So we end up with a theosophical trash can of unexplainables. And those things, the unexplainables, become the reason why we have faith.

As 2024 begins, do not forget to question your sources of knowledge.

As did CJ in Tangier Gardens, on sale, 75% off, til 2023 year’s end. Buy it @ Smashwords: https://bit.ly/3SIAfma

In Between?

Are you in between? That’s your affair–not mine.

Pumpkin, Butterscotch and Caramel Sno-Cone

The first snow fell and autumn color had not finished–in between fall and winter.

And my friend CJ has always been in between–in between cultures. See for yourself: Tangier Gardens at https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv

North Africa… 25 yrs ago

A curious geography, historically active with pirates, djinns and easy paths to drug use…

A strange place for an American college student to do his term abroad design study.

But Christopher Janus was fascinated with the Med, its sun, beaches and the Moroccan pedestrian towns and markets. CJ chose Tangier.

Read his flash fiction stories Thunderstruck, Steganophonic Streetlife and Cthulu 2000. Share his strange experiences in his series of 40 flash fiction stories entitled, Curious Tales.

Sample them for FREE at: https://amzn.to/41v2DNv

Autumn Unvarnished

Autumn IRL

Science has lost its magic since the covid. Academe has lost its magic since the wokeism. I fall  back into the era of Christianity and alchemy where nature and its connection to human emotion is magic, a gift from God… but life ain’t just a bowl of cherries.

Take me where it is real.

https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv

“Magical Realism”

I could never get “magical realism” until I spent too many years around the Rub al Khali–the Empty Quarter.

Then I met CJ. He was obsessed. About? I couldn’t figure it out–magical realism or the Empty Quarter.

He wrote: “How to beat, tame, survive–the Empty Quarter–life–magical realism?

Only by imagination.”

CJ tried…and got beat.

It all started in Morocco, Tangier Gardens, then KSA, Egypt and finally, the Empty Quarter.