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❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
trying on a metaphor
blake kathryn
titsay
Keni
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
tannertan36
Misplaced Lens Cap
Kiana Khansmith
Sweet Seals For You, Always
Discoholic 🪩
Love Begins
DEAR READER
todays bird
YOU ARE THE REASON
Stranger Things
PR's Tumblrdome
Three Goblin Art
@theartofmadeline
seen from Australia
seen from Portugal
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from China
seen from South Korea
seen from United States
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seen from United States
seen from Ireland
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seen from Yemen
@laffertyartblog
The process of making these is:
Collect comics and beer labels, put the beer label on a piece of paper. (Peel it off while can is full)
Find comics and beer labels with similar themes or colors. This takes a while and involves comic book shopping.
Cut out comics into fun shapes.
To put it together I drink a ton of beer with my wife and sister listen to classic rock and do blow. It makes it a fun process and seems to dial in the art itself. Outlaw country!!!
Doodle
The Digital Academy
In the esoteric corners of YouTube, something remarkable is happening. While universities increasingly streamline their curricula toward market-driven disciplines, a new kind of academy is emerging—one built not in institutional halls, but in the intimate spaces of dedicated Discord servers and Patreon communities. Channels like Agrippa's Diary and Esoterica aren't just entertainment; they're becoming the custodians of humanity's most arcane and overlooked intellectual traditions. These occult histories have commonly been considered specialized, non-essential, or special interest classes at universities. Offered rarely as interesting electives usually filling a history slot taught by an eclectic professor.
The Great Academic Narrowing
Higher education is undergoing what we might call "the great narrowing." As institutions face budget constraints and market pressures, departments specializing in medieval philosophy, comparative religion, Western esotericism, and ancient histories like Assyriology find themselves on the chopping block. The study of Neoplatonism, Hermetic traditions, or Byzantine theology—long ago the very pillars of a comprehensive Western education—are increasingly relegated to the margins or eliminated entirely.
This isn't merely an academic loss; it's a cultural one. These fields represent thousands of years of human intellectual development, sophisticated systems of thought that shaped entire civilizations. When universities abandon them, we risk losing not just knowledge, but entire ways of understanding the world.
The Social media/YouTube Renaissance
Enter the digital scholars. Channels like Agrippa's Diary and Esoterica have stepped into this void with remarkable success. Dr. Justin Sledge's Esoterica, with its deep dives into Western esoteric traditions, presents complex philosophical and religious concepts with academic rigor that rivals any university lecture. Dr Sledge was recently let go from his university positron. Luckly his YouTube, Patreon, and bookstore are popular enough for him to build a platform to keep teaching. Platforms picking up what Universities are dropping.
Meanwhile, Agrippa's Diary illuminates the hidden corners of occult philosophy and historical mysticism with a scholarly approach that would be at home in any graduate seminar. Once the YouTube channel garnered enough followers a course followed, along with a Discord and Patreon, building a digital community around this work. Here on Substack, we have many book clubs and courses filling ever-growing gap of classical studies that universities students are not privy to in the usual university curriculum. For example, take The Modernity Machine II, and its wonderful book club. Just the first few months of this book club are incredible. https://contraptions.venkateshrao.com/p/contraptions-book-club
January: City of Fortune by Roger Crowley.
February: Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires by David Chaffetz.
March: Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition by Frances A. Yates.
April: Ibn Khaldun: An Intellectual Biography by Robert Irwin.
May: The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe by Elizabeth S. Eisenstein.
June: Monkey King: Journey to the West
Contraptionist History from 1200 -1600. Clearly there is a demand for deeper learning in these subjects that is not offered at most universities in subjects that the average business majors and nurses alike would not touch with a 10-foot pole.
What makes these channels revolutionary isn't just their content—it's their model. They've created something universities have struggled with for decades: genuine intellectual communities that transcend geographical boundaries. Their Discord servers buzz with substantive discussions about Plotinus, debates over the interpretation of alchemical texts, and collaborative research into obscure historical figures. These aren't casual comment sections; they're functioning academic communities.
The Patreon Paradigm
The economics are equally fascinating. Through Patreon, these creators have developed sustainable funding models that allow them to pursue pure research without the institutional pressures that plague traditional academia. They're not beholden to enrollment numbers, grant committees, or administrative demands. They can spend months researching a single esoteric text or exploring connections between disparate philosophical traditions—luxuries increasingly rare in university settings.
Their patrons aren't just passive consumers; they're active participants in the educational process. They fund specific research projects, request coverage of particular topics, and engage in ongoing scholarly discourse. It's a return to older models of scholarship—the patron-scholar relationship that funded much of Renaissance learning—but democratized through digital technology.
Beyond the Lecture Hall
What's perhaps most significant is how these platforms are reimagining education itself. Traditional universities rely on hierarchical structures: professor lectures, students listen, knowledge flows downward. But these digital communities are more participatory. Viewers contribute their own research, share discoveries, and engage in genuine scholarly collaboration. The comment sections often contain insights that would enrich any academic paper.
The community aspect extends beyond individual videos. Discord servers become ongoing seminars where discussions evolve over weeks or months. Books are read and discussed. Members share rare texts, translate obscure passages, and collectively work through complex philosophical problems. It's peer-to-peer learning enhanced by expert guidance, perhaps a more effective model than the traditional classroom in the 21st century.
The Custodians of Memory
As universities continue to prioritize practical STEM disciplines, these channels are becoming something unexpected: the memory institutions of our civilization's intellectual heritage. They're not just teaching; they're preserving. Every video on medieval magic or Byzantine theology is a small act of cultural conservation, ensuring that these traditions remain accessible to future generations.
Dr. Sledge's meticulous research into figures like John Dee or Giordano Bruno doesn't just educate; it keeps their ideas alive in contemporary discourse. Agrippa's Diary's explorations of occult philosophy and influence of Masonry, maintain connections to intellectual traditions that might otherwise fade into pure antiquarianism. This stuff is not on TikTok, a community college, and is at the very periphery of higher learning.
Challenges and Limitations
This model isn't without limitations. YouTube's algorithm can be fickle, potentially burying educational content in favor of more immediately engaging material. The platforms themselves are corporate entities with their own priorities that may not always align with educational goals. And there's the question of credentialing—these communities produce genuine learning, but not degrees.
There's also the challenge of depth versus accessibility. While these channels excel at making complex material approachable, the traditional university model allows for sustained, multi-year engagement with difficult concepts. The question remains whether digital communities can replicate that kind of intensive intellectual formation.
The Future of “Forbidden” Knowledge
Yet despite these challenges, something profound is happening. These channels and their communities represent a new form of intellectual institution—one that's more flexible, more responsive, and in many ways more democratic than traditional universities. They're proving that there's hunger for serious engagement with humanity's most esoteric traditions, and that sustainable communities can form around even the most specialized knowledge.
As higher education continues its market-driven evolution, these digital academies may become the primary custodians of our civilization's more arcane wisdom traditions. They're not replacing universities entirely, but they're filling crucial gaps and modeling new forms of scholarly community. Even when I was in college 10 years ago, no teacher introduced me to Yate’s Giordano Bruno and The Hermetic Tradition. Even The Canterbury Tales and the Divine Comedy were only briefly mentioned.
In an age when practical skills dominate educational discourse, channels like Esoterica and Agrippa's Diary remind us that some knowledge is worth preserving simply because it represents the full breadth of human intellectual achievement. Books clubs on Substack are doing the same, like the above-mentioned Contraption’s Modernity Machine II Book Club. They're keeping candles burning in corners that might otherwise go dark—and in doing so, they may be lighting the way toward the future of education itself.
The academic landscape is changing. Partially in response to the current administrations view on higher education, partially due to the tech-forward manner of the current career market. The question isn't whether these digital communities will replace traditional institutions, but whether traditional institutions will adapt to learn from what these creators have built. In the end, the preservation of knowledge—all knowledge, even the strange and forgotten corners of it—may depend on it.
Let me know how this reads as I wrote it on my phone and editing is…painful. I will revisit this for proper editing and linking of materials. I will be starting a book club for friends and any suggestions or additions, book or participant would be great. As highlighted the discussion and community surrounding texts and ideas are just as valuable.
( ____________________________________________________) Pages mentioned(I highly recommend checking out each of these and their respective communities.) Esoterica: Dr Justin Sledge’s Channel
I'm Dr. Justin Sledge and welcome to Esoterica: Where we explore the arcane in history, philosophy, and religion. This channel produces co
Agrippa Diary: This one is a bit more occult, but the presenter/writer lets folks know when a passage is conjecture or mythology (1) Agrippa's Diary - YouTube
Contraptions Book Club: What a list! https://contraptions.venkateshrao.com/p/contraptions-book-club
Not that bad
I always have a small bag on me with the essentials from sunglasses to weed. Wallet cellphone keys. Paper and more than one color of pen. A small book for reading or pressing flowers. A knife. Maybe one or two legendary Items. One of those jackets that folds up real small.
Jim Woodring
Wonderful
Traveler, former farmer, Cartographer, GIS Developer. I make visual art, write non-fiction, and will upload my funnier Google reviews in goo
Find me on here it's a little more clear.
Social media and the internet are the new hidden parents of the new funky millennium. Boomers had TV and radio. In the words of Homer Simpson on TV: “Teacher, Mother, Secret lover” Yes something like that.
The future has disappeared. In some ways we are trapped within the twentieth century still.” To be in the 21st century, he explains, is to have 20th century culture brought to us by 21st century technology. You might stream music from the cloud and into your ears through the latest Apple earbuds, but you’re still listening to a genre of music that was pioneered decades ago. - Fisher Ghosts of My Life
Books of the Week:
Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia This one was a bit slow at first but the ideas at the end involving alchemical immortality and mushrooms are thought provoking.
Kudzu - The Vine to Love or Hate - by Roy W. Beck and W. L. Brantley
Kudzu Is edible and a potential biofuel.
Powerful and fun 7a
Someone else did it without matching in the crimp after the pocket (or at least did that move, I didn't see them complete the full problem yet) but I couldn't do that. Maybe a future project.
Source details and larger version.
Some strange and unusual vintage diagrams.
Climbing stuff! From Ga to Minneapolis we be climbing 🧗♀️
A little compy move. I keep laughing at how I can’t control my following leg and that it defaults into gymnastics mode with the back leg drive for power. It makes it look like I’m adding a little split jump to the move 😂
