What is this?
Orbis Tertius is a periodical of eclectic esoterica, including essays on topics like mindfulness, literature, consciousness, and philosophy; as well as original fiction and discussion. Subscribe to join, and receive Orbis Tertius in your email, or check out some notable posts from the Archives at the bottom of this page.
If you want to help the publication, or you want privileged status in this strange club, share Orbis Tertius with a few people you know. It will enhance your reading experience, by pulling you into the community and creating someone to discuss with; and of course, it will help me out greatly.
Who are you?
I am nobody. I know a lot about nothing and I know a little about everything. I have no credentials or authority and no one cares what I have to say. As a result I am beholden to no man or institution, I am under no obligation to uphold any expectations of convention or decorum, and I am not afraid to broach the grandiose and the absurd. You will find no discussion of pop culture or current events here; in fact, if you spend enough time with me, you may forget in what era exactly you are supposed to be living.
Why “Orbis Tertius”?
It comes from a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. In the story, Orbis Tertius is the name of a secret society of intellectuals concerned with magic, writing, wisdom literature, and philanthropy. The organization’s main project, however, is the invention of an entire fictional planet called Tlön, which happens over the course of many generations. The mythical planet is developed in great detail. The people of Tlön believe in subjective idealism and use peculiar languages. There’s a sort of mediocre magic on the planet, where objects can be teleported or cloned as a result of people’s cognition.
I began to leaf through it and experienced an astonished and airy feeling of vertigo which I shall not describe... On one of the nights of Islam called the Night of Nights, the secret doors of heaven open wide and the water in the jars becomes sweeter; if those doors opened I would not feel what I felt that afternoon.
The book was written in English and contained 1001 pages. On the yellow leather back I read these curious words which were repeated on the title page: A First Encyclopedia of Tlön. Vol. XI. Hlaer to Jangr. There was no indication of date or place. On the first page and on a leaf of silk paper that covered one of the color plates there was stamped a blue oval with this inscription: Orbis Tertius.
At the end of the story, objects from the mythical world Tlön start appearing in the “real world.” This blog is sort of like an object from the world of the story that has appeared in our real world.
