Books
The Astrology Letters - A Skeptic's Review of the Less Wacky Literature
Julius Harlande didn’t take much interest in astrology until an accidental conversation with an old friend ended in a challenge to prove that it was nonsense. The unexpected advent of the Covid epidemic and its associated lockdown isolation in his remote Scottish island home, left him with lots of time, no real purpose in life and an increasingly desperate need to stay in touch with friends he was forbidden to meet.
This book takes the form of a literature search shared via a series of emails which, records a remorseless hunt for meaning and information, but is interwoven with his story of enforced Covid driven isolation.
None of the research recorded is original to Harlande, all he did was dig it out, quote it, interpret it, check its statistics and, if he could, talk to its originators, and incorporate their thoughts into a comprehensive logical framework which they had not tried to do.
To while away the dismal hours of enforced isolation that the masked, self-righteous and authoritarian Scottish government strictly enforced with deep Presbyuterian intensity, he undertook a survey of as much published material on astrology as he could find. [A lot of which was supplied by his good friends at Abe Books.] He summarized what he found and sent it to his friend in a series of emails.
This book documents those email letters, where he recorded his progress. His friend had set him a question to try to discover if there was any scientific justification for astrology and to explain why it survives as an almost acceptable belief in our modern scientific age.
"Was it pseudo-scientific twaddle or was there a real effect hiding beneath an encrusted veneer of ancient nonsense?" he asked himself. In this book he found himself forced to argue a case that an understanding of astrology is perhaps more important than any of us had realized and might even hold the clue to how modern humans evolved on this particular planet. It could even decide if we will ever be able to thrive on other planets in the future.
As he said, "The oracle of astrology hides behind a statistical veil. She will only reveal herself and speak clearly if asked a reasonable quantum question." But what sort of question can draw forth an unambiguous answer? Harlande thinks there are two possible questions astrology might be able to answer. What proportion of a group of people will be stimulated to act in a certain way by chains of cosmic radio pulses? And in which times and places will these pulses have their greatest effect?
He believes that "Until astrology faces up to the challenge of asking meaningful questions it will continue to wander in the wastelands of a discredited clockwork universe. Only by looking at areas of behaviour that science does not yet understand can it hope to progress."
So here is The Astrology Letters, the fruit of Julius Harlands' Lockdown Obession to find something to fill the long empty hours of enforced isolation.
"Stimulated by the unprecedented experience of the harsh Scottish Lockdown, Julius Harlande has struggled to understand the complex nature of what happened during the last few years. This book straddles two main intellectual themes; the astrological implications of predestination interweaved with the spiritual nature of being, and the more everyday topic of politics, or rather the consequences of bad politics. It is a work based on an exchange of emails between two intellectuals, and it brings to mind the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, and the deeper philosophical exchanges found in various epistolary works down the ages. Harlande has seen the universe in a different way and summarised new ideas in astronomy whilst driven to investigate astrology. " - Dr David Harrison, Author of Down the Rabbit Hole and The Origins of Freemasonry.
Outside The Gates of Eden - Life during the 1970s Cold War
There had always been a rumour that Julius Harlande had written a lost work, you would hear the rumours drift around on the wind, and fans of Harlande's work would hang on to those rumours in hope. When Dr David Harrison decided to venture into Masonic Fiction he set about making contact with Harlande see if he would write a foreword for Down The Rabbit Hole, Harrison's collection of Masonic Short Stories.
Julius let David read the long lost novel and he couldn't put it down.
It is a classic work, set in early 1970s with a powerful sense of time and place. Harrison persuaded Harlande to finally publish it.
So here is Outside the Gates of Eden, a long lost work that takes you back to the Cold War of the 1970s.
"Set a time of secret government projects and uncertainty, a time of darkness but a time of light. This book could be classed as horror fiction, a mystery novel, perhaps even science fiction. The book is typical Harlande, filled with strange twists and turns, and has that sinister feel in parts that suggests that man can be capable of dark thing" - Dr David Harrison, Author of Down the Rabbit Hole and The Origins of Freemasonry.
Darkness Visible - The Secret of the Vaults
Many people have speculated that Freemasonry has secrets, but what might these secrets be? What hidden mysteries lie buried within the Craft?
In this stunning novel, Ruth Staple, the daughter of a senior Freemason, becomes bound up in a global mystery - in which both her own life and that of her father are at stake. In a thrilling chase across continents she must unlock the secret of the vaults - before it is too late.
If you have ever wondered what Freemasons mean when they talk about the "hidden mysteries of nature and science" then you will enjoy this intriguing mystery with a disturbing twist in its tale.
"As good as Dan Brown - and a lot more believable." - Matt Lynn, author of the best-selling Death Force adventure thrillers.