The third, actually two very short novels, Black Easter and The Day after
Judgement, were written using the assumption that the ritual magic for
summoning demons as described in grimoires actually worked. In the first book,
a wealthy arms manufacturer comes to a black magician with a strange request:
he wishes to release all the demons from hell for one night to see what might
happen. The book mainly consists of a lengthy description of the summoning
ritual, and the grotesque figures of the demons as they appear. The book ends
with Baphomet announcing to the participants that the demons can not be
compelled to return to hell: the War is over, and God is dead. The Day After
Judgment shows the characters from the first book, and the realisation that God
may not be dead, as something appears to be restraining the actions of the
demons upon Earth.
...

Sanderson Beck was born March 5, 1947 in Los Angeles. He earned a B.A. in
Dramatic Art from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. in
Religious Studies from U.C. Santa Barbara, Ph.D. candidacy in the Philosophy of
Education from U.C.L.A., and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the World University.
He was a Conscientious Objector during the Vietnam War. In 1982 he formulated
World Peace Movement Principles, Purposes, and Methods, and in 1987 he traveled
to 47 states and met with 600 peace groups to promote peace and disarmament. He
has been arrested many times for nonviolently protesting nuclear weapons and
military intervention and in 1989 was imprisoned for six months. Sanderson has
taught Philosophy and many other subjects at the World University since 1976.
On September 1, 2001 World Peace Communications was incorporated as a nonprofit
organization for educational, literary, and charitable purposes. Sanderson's
versions of the Wisdom Classics have been published as the WISDOM BIBLE, and
the first volume of his HISTORY OF ETHICS was published as Ancient Wisdom and
Folly and the second volume as Age of Belief. Sanderson recently published the
Nonviolent Action Handbook and GUIDES TO PEACE AND JUSTICE. He became an
official candidate for President of the United States in December 2002, and in
May 2003 he endorsed Dennis Kucinich.

...

Introduction to Boethius
www.san.beck.org/Boethius1.html

...The lifetime goal of Boethius was to translate the complete works of
Aristotle and all the dialogs of Plato, showing by his commentaries that the
two could be harmonized, because they agree at philosophically decisive points.
He did translate into Latin Porphyry's introduction to Aristotle's Categories
and all of Aristotle's works on logic, which later had a great influence on the
history of medieval philosophy, these being the most available works of
Aristotle or Plato in Latin. He also translated from Greek into Latin the
geometry of Euclid, the music of Pythagoras, the arithmetic of Nicomachus, the
mechanics of Archimedes, and the astronomy of Ptolemy. He could explain a sun-
dial and a water-clock.

In 510 Boethius became consul under the Ostrogoth Theodoric who had become king
of Italy. Although Theodoric was an Arian Christian, Boethius wrote Theological
Tractates on the trinity attempting to explain with logic the unity of God as
substance and the three divine persons in terms of relation, and to describe
the Christ as both human and divine by defining substance, relation, and nature.

About 520 Theodoric appointed Boethius the master of the offices, heading all
the government and court services. In 522 Boethius reached the height of his
fortune as his two sons became consuls together....

A 35-year schism between Rome and Constantinople had been resolved in 519, and
apparently Theodoric was fearful of the Eastern emperor. The senator Albinus
was accused of having written a letter to Emperor Justin, and Boethius openly
came to his defense. Boethius was charged with treason and also with practicing
magic or sacrilege.

In political life Boethius had often stood up for justice at his own risk. He
and Saint Epiphanius had persuaded Theodoric to remit by two-thirds the tax his
nephew Odoacer had imposed on the farmers of Campania. The eloquence of
Boethius had rescued Paulinus from the intriguers in the palace. He had
criticized the Goths Conigastus and Trigulla, and he had sided with the culture
of the larger Roman empire against the Gothicizing circle of Cyprian. Now
the "honorable" Basilius and Opilio were saying that Boethius had treasonous
designs.

Boethius was locked up in Pavia three hundred miles from Rome while a sentence
was passed against him and confirmed by the Senate, probably under pressure
from Theodoric. While Boethius was in captivity and deprived of the use of his
library, he wrote THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY.. In 524 a strong cord was tied
so tightly around his head that his eyes bulged out; then he was beaten with a
club until he died. Shortly after that his father-in-law, the senator
Symmachus, was taken from Rome to Ravenna and also executed.

The historian Procopius wrote how Theodoric was stricken with guilt soon after
this when the head of a large fish was served him, reminding him of the head of
Symmachus. Terrified he caught a chill, which piles of blankets could not
smother. He lamented the wrongs he had done against Symmachus and Boethius and
died in 526.

THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY became one of the most popular books throughout
the middle ages. It was translated into Old, Middle and Elizabethan English by
Alfred the Great, Chaucer, and Queen Elizabeth respectively.

The Pi and Theta represent the first letters of Greek words describing
philosophy from the practical to the theoretical. The Eleatic school of
philosophy was founded by Parmenides a little before Socrates and emphasized
the unity of being. The Academics were those who studied at the Academy founded
by Plato. The Epicureans followed the philosophy of Epicurus (341-270 BC) which
believed in maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. The Stoics included Zeno
of Citium, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. Anaxagoras was condemned for impiety
and exiled from Athens about 450 BC. Socrates was executed by the Athenians in
399 BC. Zeno of Elea was tortured for challenging the tyranny of Nearchus about
440 BC. Canius was executed by Caligula in 40 CE. Seneca was forced to commit
suicide by Nero in 65 CE, and Soranus was condemned to death by Nero in 66.