Boleskine House was a place I had heard of but never really knew too much about. It’s a historic manor located on the southeastern shore of Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. The main reason I had heard of it was due to its association with Aleister Crowley, who owned the property from 1899 to 1913. When I thought of the house at all I thought of stories of occultism, dark rituals, and paranormal activity, partly due to Crowley’s own controversial reputation and the mystical nature of his practices.

However, I just learned via a recent episode of Essoterica that this historic property is on it’s way to a rebirth of sorts. After a couple of fires that destroyed much save the stone shell of the building, it is now in the hands of a charitable restoration group. Their plans for the property are pretty big and include a completely restored Victorian Manor house where they can host academic conferences, art festivals and dining opportunities.

As described by The Boleskine House Foundation:

Nestled along the ancient Farigaig forest along the banks of Loch Ness lies a remarkable eighteenth–century manor house that is the home of “a thousand legends.” Nearly lost to history after two devastating fires, Boleskine House and its estate is now owned and safeguarded by The Boleskine House Foundation, a registered Scottish charity.

Makes me wish I lived in Scotland.

This is fascinating.

“In the local language of the Kuuk Thaayorre, a group of Indigenous Australians, there is no left or right. Instead, they use cardinal directions (north, south, east, west) to describe almost anything: ‘The dog bit my eastern leg’, or ‘The boy standing south of Mary is my brother.’ Not only does this require them to always stay oriented, but interestingly, when they use their hands to gesture to the past or future, they do so depending on which direction they are facing, showing that the way we conceptualise time in language affects how we think about space.”

~ From the recent Dense Discovery Newsletter

From Robin Sloan's most recent newsletter comes this reminder that he does a public reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight every New year's Day. Putting this here as a reminder to myself as I want to listen int his year.

Longtime subscribers know that on New Year’s Day, I broadcast a live reading of the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I took last year off; this year, the poem gallops forth again.
My reading will begin at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. GMT, and run for a bit under three hours. Play it in the background while you relax or putter; it would be my honor to be invited into your home on the first day of 2024.
The broadcast is already scheduled on YouTube, and you can press a button over there to receive a reminder, if that’s helpful. I’ll send a quick newsletter on the morning of January 1 with another link.

The concept of witch hunts in the political sphere are all the rage right now, but they are nothing new. I watched a recent episode of Esoterica on YouTube and learned about the infamous Urbain Grandier. He was a French Catholic priest who lived in the 17th century, specifically in the town of Loudun. He is primarily known for his involvement in a famous case of alleged sorcery and possession, which became known as the "Loudun Possessions."

In 1632, several nuns from the Ursuline convent in Loudun claimed to be possessed by demons and accused Urbain Grandier of being a sorcerer responsible for their afflictions. The accusations against Grandier were partly due to personal and political conflicts in the town. He had enemies among the local clergy and was known for his criticism of the church's authorities.

The trials and accusations against Grandier were highly controversial and drew significant attention. Grandier vehemently denied the charges of sorcery but was nonetheless found guilty and sentenced to be tortured and then burned at the stake in 1634.

The Loudun Possessions and the trial of Urbain Grandier remain a notable episode in the history of witch hunts and witch trials and cab be seen as an example of how political and personal motivations can lead to accusations of witchcraft and sorcery during a time of heightened religious and social tensions. And as someone who lived through the "satanic panic" of the late 70s and early 80s and who now sees conspiracy theories run amok online, this really doesn't feel like ancient history to me.

New find:

There is something so appealing about those people who are not professional academics who pursue a particular intellectual hobby horse. One of the more well know of this type would be Keith Houston whose blog Shady Characters is all about punctuation- it's history, use and development.  It's a fascinating little niche topic that in his case spurred a multi book deal. But what I find particularly charming (romantic, odd?) about this, is that by trade he's a software developer.

This type of armchair academia brings things back to an almost medieval era of how intellectual progress was made. Not by credentialed experts, but by people toiling away in their spare time on topics that uniquely interest them.

I have recently come across another example of this, James Colton. His hobby pursuit?  Studying and writing about historical sword fighting systems. If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to use a longsword or rapier his site is worth a look. His interests are fairly diverse too, as he is also a self published horror and fantasy author who has literally created his own fantasy language for his books. Now that's a spare time intellectual hobby!

Links

Shady Characters- [shadycharacters.co.uk](https://shadycharacters.co.uk/)

James Colton- [www.jamescolton.com](https://www.jamescolton.com/)

One of the most revolutionary paintings was done in the 1500s by Dutch and Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Why? According to this [video](https://aeon.co/videos/why-european-artists-shifted-their-focus-from-power-to-peasants-in-the-16th-century) it's because it was the first popular painting to use regular people, just being themselves as it's subject matter. Super interesting 5 minute clip.