"What is beyond the sphere of the last stars?"
After the Flammarion Engraving, c.1888 · The question the 36 books circle but never answer
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Malawi · 2026 · @Hermes_Shinben_Musashi
Ben Panulo Junior
Nearly two decades. A Malawian poet, farmer, and student of every tradition the institutions said he should not read. The result is a work structured on the Magic Square of the Sun — a numerological architecture whose rows, columns, and diagonals all sum to 111.
Samples from across all three series. 5,184 more where these came from.
Each series addresses a different dimension of the human condition. Together, they form a single, irreducible argument about consciousness, faith, and what it means to be alive.
The Initiation Cycle
Mapped to the 22 Major Arcana and the 22 paths of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. From The Fool's first impossible step to the dissolution of the self in Becoming No-body — the complete arc of initiation. When all 22 front covers are assembled in a 2×11 grid, the Tree of Life emerges across them.
Browse Series I →The Heretic's Cipher
Eight books mapped to the seven classical planetary magic squares — Saturn, Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars — with the eighth as Sol Niger, the Dark Sun. Each front cover displays its full planetary magic square. From the inherited god through heresy, doubt, Kabbalah, and Nag Hammadi, to a faith finally chosen and earned.
Browse Series II →The Human Appliance
The human being as appliance — Manufactured, Installed, Operated, Malfunctioned, Maintained, and finally made Obsolete. Lowercase, spare, Bukowski-inflected. The thermodynamics of the soul. The Jungian shadow as a software problem. The answer to the warranty question is deferred to Book 37.
Browse Series III →Three series. Three different doors into the same house. Here is one way to choose.
If you want the complete arc
22 books. The full map from the first impossible step to the dissolution of the self. The most structured of the three series. Begin at the beginning.
Begin: The Fool Who Wasn't
If you want the raw argument with God
8 books of inherited faith examined, argued with, and rebuilt into something earned. The most accessible entry for someone who has never read poetry but has asked a hard question about God.
Begin: The God I Was Given
If you want dark humor and bruising truth
6 books. The human being as a device that was never properly tested before shipping. The shortest series. The most immediately funny — and then the most devastating.
Begin: Manufacture
All roads lead to the same question. The series you choose is the angle of approach.
"What is beyond the sphere of the last stars?"
After the Flammarion Engraving, c.1888 · The question the 36 books circle but never answer
Each cover carries its number from the 6×6 Magic Square of the Sun. Assemble all 36 in a grid — every row, column, and diagonal sums to 111. The total: 666. The Solar Number.
The Initiation Cycle
The Fool Who Wasn't
Book I of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Mirror of Becoming
Book II of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Architect of Illusion
Book III of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Rebel's Gospel
Book IV of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
Cathedral of Rust
Book V of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Nexus of Opposites
Book VI of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Veil and the Voice
Book VII of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
Collapse of the Tower Within
Book VIII of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
Sleep Is the Cousin of Death
Book IX of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Fire That Purifies
Book X of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Reckoning Ledger
Book XI of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
Poetry to be Murdered By
Book XII of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Problem with My Many I's
Book XIII of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Machinery of Belief
Book XIV of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Republic of Holy Liars
Book XV of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
Satan's Customer Service Dept.
Book XVI of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Initiation Trial
Book XVII of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Alchemical Return
Book XVIII of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Museum of Forgotten Gods
Book XIX of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Gospel of Reckoning
Book XX of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
The Gospel of Reckoning
Book XX of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
Poetic Theorems
Book XXI of XXII
The Initiation Cycle
Becoming No-body
Book XXII of XXII
The Heretic's Cipher
The God I Was Given
Book 1 of VIII
The Heretic's Cipher
Burning Bush
Book 2 of VIII
The Heretic's Cipher
Sabbath of Doubt
Book 3 of VIII
The Heretic's Cipher
The Heretic's Breviary
Book 4 of VIII
The Heretic's Cipher
The Gospel According to No One
Book 5 of VIII
The Heretic's Cipher
A Thousand Names
Book 6 of VIII
The Heretic's Cipher
Apostasy Is Another Word
Book 7 of VIII
The Heretic's Cipher
After All the Prophets
Book 8 of VIII
The Human Appliance
Manufacture
Book I of VI
The Human Appliance
Installation
Book II of VI
The Human Appliance
Operation
Book III of VI
The Human Appliance
Malfunction
Book IV of VI
The Human Appliance
Maintenance
Book V of VI
The Magic Square Puzzle
The gold number on each cover is its position in the 6×6 Magic Square of the Sun. Place all 36 front covers in a 6-wide by 6-tall grid — in order, reading left to right — and every row, every column, and both diagonals will sum to 111. The grand total of all 36 numbers is 666: the Solar Number of the ancient mystery traditions. The same pattern appears on all 36 back covers.
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Complete Collection
The complete work: The Initiation Cycle (22 books), The Heretic's Cipher (8 books), and The Human Appliance (6 books). The full Magic Square of the Sun.
$179.64 if bought separately
$89.99
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Series I
All 22 books of the Major Arcana cycle, from The Fool Who Wasn't through Becoming No-body. The full Tree of Life.
$109.78 separately
$59.99
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Series II
All 8 books of the planetary magic square cycle. From Saturn to Sol Niger. Archives of the inner rebellion.
$39.92 separately
$24.99
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Series III
All 6 books of the appliance cycle — Manufacture through Obsolescence. Operating instructions for a soul under warranty.
$29.94 separately
$19.99
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The Initiation Cycle
Book I of XXII
Before the fall there is the cliff-edge. 144 poems of departure and the first impossible step.
The Initiation Cycle
Book II of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book III of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book IV of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book V of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book VI of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book VII of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book VIII of XXII
The lion is already in the room. 144 poems of encounter and the taming that is not defeat.
The Initiation Cycle
Book IX of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book X of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book XI of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book XII of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book XIII of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book XIV of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book XV of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book XVI of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book XVII of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book XVIII of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book XIX of XXII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Initiation Cycle
Book XX of XXII
The trumpet is not calling you to account. It is calling you back to yourself. 144 poems.
The Initiation Cycle
Book XXI of XXII
A theorem is a truth you can prove. 144 poems using mathematics as spiritual proof.
The Initiation Cycle
Book XXII of XXII
The last book begins where the first ended: at the edge. 144 poems of dissolution and return.
The Heretic's Cipher
Book 1 of VIII
They gave me a god like a hand-me-down coat. 144 poems of inherited faith and its archaeology.
The Heretic's Cipher
Book 2 of VIII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Heretic's Cipher
Book 3 of VIII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Heretic's Cipher
Book 4 of VIII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Heretic's Cipher
Book 5 of VIII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Heretic's Cipher
Book 6 of VIII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Heretic's Cipher
Book 7 of VIII
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Heretic's Cipher
Book 8 of VIII
After all the prophets, a man in a field in Malawi at dusk, glad to be alive. 144 final poems.
The Human Appliance
Book I of VI
No one asked the unit whether it wanted to be made. 144 poems of origins and assembly.
The Human Appliance
Book II of VI
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Human Appliance
Book III of VI
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Human Appliance
Book IV of VI
The check engine light was on for years. 144 poems of breakdown and its strange revelation.
The Human Appliance
Book V of VI
144 poems. Part of a 36-book, 5,184-poem cycle structured on the Magic Square of the Sun.
The Human Appliance
Book VI of VI
The casing has cooled. The answer is deferred to Book 37. 144 final poems.
After the Hand of the Mysteries, from Manly P. Hall's Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928). The image that first showed a boy in Blantyre that the questions he was asking had ancient names.
The tradition does not end. It continues, one book at a time, from the red soils of Malawi.
"I did not write these poems for the market. I wrote them because the questions demanded it. Every tradition I studied, every farm morning, every country I passed through — they all left something behind. The poems are what that residue looks like when it has been left long enough to crystallise."
These books were written across six countries over nearly two decades — Malawi, Kenya, Ireland, Romania, South Africa, Bulgaria. Some were written in university libraries at night. Some on the farm before dawn. Some in countries where I was still finding my footing.
They are not academic poetry. They are not polished for approval. They are an honest account of what it feels like to ask serious questions about God, consciousness, and the nature of being alive — and to keep asking even when the institutions around you have stopped.
If even one of these 5,184 poems makes someone feel less alone in their questioning — that is the whole purpose. The rest is just numerology.
— Ben Panulo Junior, Malawi
"Raised inside certainty. Spent the years that followed reading his way out of every answer he was handed — and writing his way into better questions."
Ben Panulo Junior is a Malawian poet, entrepreneur, and founder of Maziko Athu Organic Permaculture Farms in Blantyre — where he produces cold-pressed oil, honey, cheese, tofu, organic fertiliser, and mushrooms grown in a small on-site lab. The farm also breeds fish. He has been farming most of his life, a gift from his father alongside an extensive personal library and a love of books that started before he could remember.
A student of medicine — one of the first in a class action now before Malawi's High Court, involving forty students denied degrees they had earned. He made his peace with it. He intends to complete his studies one day, though life has since offered him other purposes — the farm, the poetry, and everything else. A lifelong student of Hermetic philosophy, comparative religion, astrology, mythology, Kabbalah, Jungian psychology, and the Western esoteric tradition — studies that began in his teenage years and have never stopped.
The poems were written across six countries over the years — Malawi, Kenya, Ireland, Romania, South Africa, and Bulgaria — written while studying, working, or simply living. The project spans nearly two decades. Beyond writing, farming, and medicine, he is a biohacker, marathon and ultramarathon runner, triathlete, amateur astronomer, golfer, chess player, scuba diver, and student of music. He believes the future of humanity may depend as much on understanding the soil beneath our feet as the stars above our heads.
He writes under the pen name Hermes Shinben Musashi.
Every poem in all 36 books will be recorded by Ben Panulo Junior and released as audiobooks. In the voice that wrote them. From Malawi.
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Individual
Any Single Book
144 poems · Read by the author · mp3 + m4b
$6.99
Series I Audio
The Initiation Cycle
22 books · 3,168 poems · Complete series
$79.99
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Series II + III Audio
Heretic's Cipher + Human Appliance
14 books · 2,016 poems combined
$49.99
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Complete Audio Collection
All 36 Books
5,184 poems · All three series · Full library
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No spam. One email when the audiobooks drop.
Not answers. Not doctrine. Questions that sit at the edge of language — where every tradition runs out of words at the same moment, and the silence that follows is not empty.
If God is infinite,
what lies beyond the edge of infinity?
Can an omnipotent being create a mystery
even it cannot solve?
If all things are One,
who is asking the question?
The eye cannot see itself except in a reflection.
What is consciousness reflected in?
If the universe is a thought,
who is doing the thinking?
If God created man in His image,
who created God in ours?
The map is not the territory.
But is the territory a map
of something else?
What existed before the first beginning?
What remains after the final ending?
If time is real, where is yesterday?
If time is unreal, where are we?
A wave searches for the ocean
while never realising
it is already water.
The ancient alchemists sought gold.
The wise ones sought the thing
that believed itself to be lead.
Every answer eventually becomes a question.
Every question eventually becomes silence.
If consciousness survives death,
what survives consciousness?
What is the sound
of a prayer that was never spoken?
The self may be a temporary
agricultural phenomenon.
What grows in the field after the harvest?
The Fool reaches the end of the journey
and discovers the path was walking him.
What if enlightenment is not an answer
but the end of the need for one?
Some mysteries are not meant to be solved.
Only inhabited.
I did not set out to write 36 books.
I began asking questions. The questions multiplied faster than the answers. Eventually the project became larger than a single volume, larger than a single series, larger than I had planned or intended. It outgrew every container I built for it.
At some point I stopped trying to contain it and started trying to honour it. The architecture arrived later — the Magic Square, the Tarot, the planetary systems — not as a plan imposed from the outside but as a discovery made from the inside. The structure was always there, waiting. I was just writing long enough to find it.
36 is the number that closes the square. Every row, column, and diagonal of a 6×6 grid sums to 111. The total is 666 — the Solar Number of the ancient mystery traditions, the number of the Sun, misread for centuries as something else. I liked that. A number that the frightened called a curse turned out to be the mathematics of light.
The poems were written across six countries over nearly two decades. They were written while studying, while farming, while grieving, while moving, while staying. The number of books is not what matters. What matters is that the questions are honest and the work is done.
There is a 37th book. It was not written here. That is not an oversight. Some answers are larger than any book.
The work did not begin as a project. It began as survival.
Not a reading list. An archive of influences — the minds and works that made the 36 books possible. Each one left a mark that can be found somewhere in the work, if you know where to look.
The alchemists were dreaming the soul. He was the first to say it plainly. The Human Appliance would not exist without individuation — the long, painful work of becoming what you actually are.
The Secret Teachings of All Ages. A boy in Malawi found this book and understood for the first time that the questions he was asking had ancient names. Everything that followed is a footnote to that discovery.
He made the Eastern traditions available to a mind formed in the Western church — not as replacements but as corrections. The universe is not a problem to be solved but a happening to be experienced.
The tyger and the lamb from the same hand. Both burning. He proved that poetry was not decoration but a form of sight — that you could hold the entire cosmos in a poem.
The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao. The via negativa — the approach to the holy through subtraction — runs under every series like a waterway.
The question of what is real — not as paranoia but as genuine metaphysical inquiry — is the question the Human Appliance asks from every angle. He asked it first, with the most interesting answers.
That a single work could carry an entire cosmology — theology, ecology, and mysticism — without losing any of them. The ambition of the 36 books owes something to the proof that such ambition is possible.
The breaking of the vessels. The sparks scattered everywhere. The repair of the world as the work of every human act. The Initiation Cycle is built on the Tree of Life. This is the tradition that grew the tree.
He gave the planetary magic squares to the Renaissance. The 36-book structure is built directly on his planetary number system. The Magic Square of the Sun — rows summing to 111 — is Agrippa's gift, still radiating four centuries later.
Not the persona — the precision. The willingness to write about the actual life without the mythology. The lowercase poems of Series III carry his DNA.
The wine that is not wine. The beloved with no face. A Thousand Names — Book VI of the Heretic's Cipher — is the book that could not have been written without them.
A farmer near Nag Hammadi broke open a jar in 1945 and found the books that did not make the list. Split the wood and I am there. Some things cannot be burned completely.