DiscussMormonism.com

I feel a little better about posting here because I am not the first. I don't have a lot to say right now, but I did want to share with you guys something I picked up from Facebook. Nick Literski, an ex-Mo who is a knowledgeable historian, shared this video about Joseph Smith and Magick. I thought people here might be interested in what he had to say.

https://youtu.be/rCZOKsR3KYE

Ramus_Stein wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 28, 2020 4:33 pm

I feel a little better about posting here because I am not the first. I don't have a lot to say right now, but I did want to share with you guys something I picked up from Facebook. Nick Literski, an ex-Mo who is a knowledgeable historian, shared this video about Joseph Smith and Magick. I thought people here might be interested in what he had to say.

https://youtu.be/rCZOKsR3KYE

This is great stuff, Ramus Stein! Nick Literski really knows his stuff. I did not know he was now a Thelemite! Wow! He was a very effective researcher of Mormon history, and I thought he worked mostly on Freemasonic stuff. If I recall correctly, he and Cheryl Bruno have a book on Mormonism and Masonry coming out soon that Joe Steve Swick III was instrumental in as well. Poor Joe had a series of strokes, I think, and he has been out of commission ever since. That put the release of the book in question, but I guess Nick Literski came back to the project. The interesting thing is that it started out as HIS project, which he handed over to Swick and Bruno.

What is your interest in this material?

Kishkumen wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:05 pm

This is great stuff, Ramus Stein! Nick Literski really knows his stuff. I did not know he was now a Thelemite! Wow! He was a very effective researcher of Mormon history, and I thought he worked mostly on Freemasonic stuff. If I recall correctly, he and Cheryl Bruno have a book on Mormonism and Masonry coming out soon that Joe Steve Swick III was instrumental in as well. Poor Joe had a series of strokes, I think, and he has been out of commission ever since. That put the release of the book in question, but I guess Nick Literski came back to the project. The interesting thing is that it started out as HIS project, which he handed over to Swick and Bruno.

What is your interest in this material?

I am especially interested in the stuff about the angels on the magical parchments. There are symbols of five angels on the "Holiness to the Lord" parchment. I think one of these angels must be the first angel Joseph Smith saw. It was not "Moroni." Joseph Smith does not use the name Moroni until about seven years after the evidence for him talking about angels. I blogged about it.

https://steinramus.wixsite.com/restorat ... -after-all

Ramus_Stein wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:12 pm

I am especially interested in the stuff about the angels on the magical parchments. There are symbols of five angels on the "Holiness to the Lord" parchment. I think one of these angels must be the first angel Joseph Smith saw. It was not "Moroni." Joseph Smith does not use the name Moroni until about seven years after the evidence for him talking about angels. I blogged about it.

https://steinramus.wixsite.com/restorat ... -after-all

OK! Interesting! I will definitely check this out. It looks right up my alley.

Interesting article. What Joseph Smith and Mormonism more or less ignores and continues to ignore however is the incredibly rich and powerful visions of the world's mystics, prophets, and ordinary men and women in all ages, real visions of total light, glory, truth, knowledge and love. Mormonism to me appears to be too tribal, far too narrow to be be useful. Sure it tries to tie into the Hebraic/Christian stream, but that is not the only spiritual visionary stream in existence at all. Visions have never actually stopped anywhere in the world for the last 6,000 years. Mormonism ignores virtually 95% of the world's revelations. This is no surprise, as it considers everyone else in apostasy, a rather ludicrous thing once one begins seeing just how visionary and spiritual so many other movements have been through the millenia. Your research is interesting, thanks for sharing it.

Kishkumen wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:05 pm

This is great stuff, Ramus Stein! Nick Literski really knows his stuff. I did not know he was now a Thelemite! Wow! He was a very effective researcher of Mormon history, and I thought he worked mostly on Freemasonic stuff. If I recall correctly, he and Cheryl Bruno have a book on Mormonism and Masonry coming out soon that Joe Steve Swick III was instrumental in as well. Poor Joe had a series of strokes, I think, and he has been out of commission ever since. That put the release of the book in question, but I guess Nick Literski came back to the project. The interesting thing is that it started out as HIS project, which he handed over to Swick and Bruno.

Kind of off topic but just to make it clear, Nick did not really “come back” to the project after I finished the writing. I approached Nick about adding his name to the book because he did so much of the early research and preliminary drafts of some of the chapters. I wanted to honor his contribution. But the finishing of the book has never been in question. I did not require Nick’s assistance with this. I completed the first draft over a year ago, but it was very long and the final cutting and editing with Kofford has been a lengthy process.

This book would not exist if it had not been for Nick. However, I hope readers will not discount what was done after he handed it on. I would be so annoyed if people thought it was only coming out because Nick returned to the project.