#pierre louys

[aesthetic---pleasures]

[oh-saturn-oh]

Marina Kozlovskaya.

« Quelle île nous conçut des strophes de la mer ?

Onde où l’onde s’enroule à la houle d’une onde,

Les vagues de nos soirs expirent sur le monde

Et regonflent en nous leurs eaux couleur de chair.

Un souffle d’île heureuse et de santal soulève

Tes cheveux, innombrables ailes, et nous fuit

De la nuit à la rose, arôme, dans la nuit,

Par delà ton sein double et pur, Delphes du rêve. »

Pierre Louÿs

[jasper-book-stash]

March 2026 Reading Wrap-Up

Been spending the past few days fighting my Internet with a rock, so this post is a bit delayed! Got some good reading in for March, with a total of eight books. Not bad considering I was also experiencing The Horrors through the month.

1/10 - Why Did They Publish This?

None applicable.

2/10 - Trash

None applicable.

3/10 - Meh

None applicable.

4 to 6/10 - Mid-Tier

The Songs Of Bilitis: Erotic Poetry In The Ancient Greek Form, Depicting Lesbianism And Illustrated In Neoclassical Art Deco Style | Pierre Louys, Alvah C Bessie (translator)

[Adult] [Poetry]

From a historical standpoint, The Songs Of Bilitis is fascinating, because the author invents an ancient Greek poet who does not exist, creates a false history for her, and provides "her" written works. However... This book does not shy away from topics like rape and young prostitutes, and frankly you should expect more of what we would describe as bisexuality over something purely WLW. As a piece of historical writing, it was fascinating, but as a reading experience, I'm going to give it a 5 out of 10.

7 to 8/10 - Good With Caveats

A Broom At Midnight: 13 Gates Of Witchcraft By Spirit Flight | Roger J Horne

[Adult] [Religious Text, Mythology, Occult, Magical, Spiritual]

This is a far and away better book, especially from an editing standpoint, compared to A Deed Without A Name. It's far more coherent and straightforward. However, I am docking points due to the typical "misuse of shamanism" stuff and for the Google translate Latin that genuinely doesn't work out.

And I can dock these points because I know someone who studies and uses Latin with an alarming amount of regularity. Some of the titles don't even line up with the content of the chapter - for example, Via Equarum was about broomsticks, stangs, hobby horses, and pitchforks as things to ride in spirit flight, which I guess could be batched together as the Road of the Mares, and Via Lapidum translates to the Road of the Jewels but is solely about hagstones.

Here are the chapter titles:

Via Equarum Via Arborum Via Lapidum Via Motruorum Via Veneficium Via Somnium Via Aquum Via Bestium Via Imaginibus Via Tempestatis Via Repetitio Via Flammae Via Umbrum

And here's the translations and commentary from said friend:

the road of the mares the road of the trees the road of the jewels the road of death [note it is plural here] the road to sorcery [? -> accusative makes it weird] the road to sleep [again, accusative] the road to water [accusative] the road to beasts [this is just. not a word that i can find? i am assuming it's trying to loan from bestia, ae (f) which means "beast", but the -um ending is really fucking bizarre here] the road to imagination [could be ablative instead of accusative, also plural but iirc imagination is one of those "always plural" nouns like darkness [tenebrae]] the road of the storm [and now we're back to genitive??? for no reason???] the road repitition [NOMINATIVE????? FOR NO REASON????????] the road of fire [and back to genitive??? or potentially dative, so "the road to flames" also works here. or it could also be plural nominative, so "the road flames"] the road to shadow [another word that technically doesn't exist??? umbra, ae (f) is a feminine 1st declension word. i have NO idea why they're slapping -um onto feminine words??? unless they're trying to make them "gender neutral" for some fucking reason by using the neuter accusative??????? genuinely baffled because you're preserving flammae and equarum???????????????]

It was very fun. And hopefully shows you just how bad Google Translate is for Latin. Overall, this is an 8 out of 10 book.

Random guess at the target demographic: Someone who is interested in Traditional Witchcraft and needs a 101 primer on spirit flight and doesn't want to have to rearrange the text like with the last book.

Bones, Shells, And Curios: A Contemporary Method Of Casting The Bones | Michele Jackson

[Adult] [Religious Text, Mythology, Occult, Magical, Spiritual]

This is an incredibly short book at 96 pages. The actual content of the book stops at page 49 because the rest of the book is dedicated to an incredibly thorough set of examples. Despite that, this book has a lot of actionable pieces and it was fun to compare it to Lupa Greenwolf's Pocket Osteomancy in the parts that it emphasized.

I grimaced a few times at some of the individuals mentioned, especially Catherine Yronwode's several references because the author kept referring back to one of her books in-text, and the misuse of the term shaman. I also took issue with inconsistent usage of the Oxford Comma and with the formatting...choices that meant that chapters started right after each other with no buffer space, making it harder to tell what was a chapter and what was a subchapter; especially because the subchapters are listed in the table of contents in the same way that the chapters are. Overall a 7 out of 10.

Random guess at the target demographic: An individual who wants to reconnect with their ancestors through bone throwing.

The Witches' Devil: Myth And Lore For Modern Cunning | Roger J Horne

[Adult] [Religious Text, Mythology, Occult, Magical, Spiritual]

Not much to say about this one that I didn't already say about A Broom At Midnight. The repeated ratio-ing of Margaret Murray was great, though my personal distaste for Charles Godfrey Leland made me grit my teeth a few times. A very well-researched book overall. Some Google Translate-ass Latin near the end. A few typos. Kind of what I've come to expect from Horne so far. Another 8 out of 10.

Random guess at the target demographic: Someone who enjoyed the previous book or enjoys books that spend their entire page count analyzing one particular entity in depth.

Blood Of The Kami | Baptiste Pinson Wu

[Young Adult] [Fantasy]

So we've got a historical fantasy novel set in an ambiguous part of Japan's past with a 17-year-old male protagonist and a lot more swear words than books I usually see on the Young Adult shelf. It was basically like reading The Lightning Thief but with more female characters in the cast from the get-go and just...the WORST road trip known to mankind.

I did wind up redacting points because of how the teenaged characters were described and how strange the usage of blood was after my own research into Shinto, but it still clawed its way out with a 7 out of 10. I will be continuing the series at some point, especially because book 2 was published recently.

Onmyōdō: Spiritual Traditions Across Asia | Zachary Gill

[Adult] [Religious Text, Mythology, Occult, Magical, Spiritual]

So this was a very interesting experience to read, not least of which because so many of my highlighters fucking died while I was going through it.

The good: The book was split between the history and known information about onmyōdō (with a bunch of citations) and how the author practices something like it. Overall very respectful of the practice and its origins, and quite knowledgeable.

The bad: WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOUR PAGE NUMBERS? HOW DID YOU ADD SO MANY COMMAS THAT EVEN I, COMMAS GEORG, HAD TO REMOVE SOME? YOU NEED TO DRAG YOUR EDITOR OUT BACK AND BEAT THEM.

Overall, 7 out of 10, very approachable.

Random guess at the target demographic: I feel like if you take one look at this book's title, you know precisely the target demographic. But to put it plainly, probably anyone who's actually interested in the interconnected history of niche-in-English-spaces practices.

9/10 - Very Very Good

Transgender History: The Roots Of Today’s Revolution, second edition | Susan Stryker

[Adult] [Nonfiction]

This was an incredibly eye-opening book about transgender history in the United States, particularly between San Francisco and New York City. The only thing holding it back from a full 10 out of 10 is that I am aware that there is a third, more modernized edition that came out last month and have yet to get my hands on. I still find the second edition to be incredibly valuable and will be comparing it to the third edition when I can.

10/10 - Unironically Recommend To Everyone

Sand Land | Akira Toriyama

[Young Adult] [Science Fantasy]

Look. I am Dragon Ball trash. But after binging the Sand Land anime, I wanted to read the manga too, and I'm impressed by how close the anime stuck to it for the first arc. The things that they changed near the end were good changes for moving to an animated medium. Rest in peace to the legendary Akira Toriyama, and thank you for all of this.

[mote-historie]

Pierre Louÿs, Citroën, 1923

[geekynerfherder]

'Aphrodite' by Robert Maguire.

Cover art for the 1957 edition of the novel, 'Aphrodite', written by Pierre Louÿs.

[drrestlesshate]

Milo Manara - Illustrazione per Aphrodite, di Pierre Louÿs

[surfingkaliyuga]

Louÿs P, Aphrodite, New York 1932 Cover artwork by Frank Buttera.

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Pierre Louys - Aphrodite - Illustrated Editions - 1932