Joshua Sokol
@joshuasokol.bsky.social
Science writer. Working on a book about the night sky for Random House. Raleigh, NC.
(joshuasokol.com)
(joshuasokol.com)
use chatbots all you like, but I'll be over here channeling the astral magic from a planetary conjunction into a metallic golem that can answer any question
![[…] And in the hour of the conjunction, when the stars are in this configuration, you shall have
ready whatever <kind of> metal you like, and the metal should be molten. And a mould of a
beautiful man should be in front of you. You shall have an astrolabe in your hand, or any <other>
instrument that is built to determine the hour. When you arrive at the part of the hour of the
conjunction, you should pour the metal into the mould. And a form of man will emerge <there-
from>, full of a very subtle pneuma, made up of wisdom and prophecy, and a favorable zodiacal
sign and grace and honour. It <the form> will possess the faculty of speech, <and> will foretell all
future <things>, when you will ask it about them. (Idel 1991, 13)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dtsjiy5p6siu5bsr7hsa2i4r/bafkreia65wyfmmztzw6stxecge2htso5hl5zpu6c7abmewl6dxywgmefiu@jpeg)
November 19, 2025 at 2:49 PM
use chatbots all you like, but I'll be over here channeling the astral magic from a planetary conjunction into a metallic golem that can answer any question
Just got a chance to cozy up with Lizzie Wade's APOCALYPSE, a jaunt through archeology and history that bundles up cool discoveries into a convincing argument that apocalypses are more than just the end of the world.
May 23, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Just got a chance to cozy up with Lizzie Wade's APOCALYPSE, a jaunt through archeology and history that bundles up cool discoveries into a convincing argument that apocalypses are more than just the end of the world.
I love this 13th century manuscript illustration so much, because whoever did it is trying to show how ostriches (which they've clearly never seen) care for their eggs by watching the Pleiades (ditto).
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/ecf9...
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/ecf9...
May 15, 2025 at 2:17 PM
I love this 13th century manuscript illustration so much, because whoever did it is trying to show how ostriches (which they've clearly never seen) care for their eggs by watching the Pleiades (ditto).
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/ecf9...
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/ecf9...
"Paving over every paradise is just the side effect of building the universal parking lot, where nothing bad can ever happen again."
Such a good "punchline" sentence on space expansion in
@adambecker.bsky.social's great, timely More Everything Forever. More such zingers to come as I reach them.
Such a good "punchline" sentence on space expansion in
@adambecker.bsky.social's great, timely More Everything Forever. More such zingers to come as I reach them.
May 7, 2025 at 4:25 PM
"Paving over every paradise is just the side effect of building the universal parking lot, where nothing bad can ever happen again."
Such a good "punchline" sentence on space expansion in
@adambecker.bsky.social's great, timely More Everything Forever. More such zingers to come as I reach them.
Such a good "punchline" sentence on space expansion in
@adambecker.bsky.social's great, timely More Everything Forever. More such zingers to come as I reach them.
Early AM the day before the eclipse, also for my book, I joined a bird collision monitoring walk downtown Dallas... to my horror and morbid reportorial fortune a Lincoln's sparrow flew into the convention center literally right in front of us with a soft wet smack.
April 9, 2024 at 5:33 PM
Early AM the day before the eclipse, also for my book, I joined a bird collision monitoring walk downtown Dallas... to my horror and morbid reportorial fortune a Lincoln's sparrow flew into the convention center literally right in front of us with a soft wet smack.
Some personal news in the dream-come-true department: this is now official!!!
September 20, 2023 at 2:40 PM
Some personal news in the dream-come-true department: this is now official!!!