The Black Book

Descending, with a Lamp in Hand

The first of these four-colour books is a record of descent, the nigredo, where I am honest about what years of reading the dark material did to me, the envy of the heretics' certainty and the pull of a magic button, before any washing has begun.

Borrowing only the form of Jung's Black Books and the alchemical nigredo, this book takes me down into the darkest reading on this shelf and names what stirs inside me, the envy of certainty, the wish for a magic button, the temptation to sneer, so that this honest descent becomes the condition for the washing in the next book, and tawhid stays the lamp I carry, not the one I leave behind.

Audiences:

• The reader who keeps company on the journey — Wants the honest texture of reading dark things for a long time, not a tidy conclusion.
• The student of the history of ideas who has read this shelf — Wants the synthesis of all these readings, not another one-by-one summary.
• The seeker afraid of dark reading — Fears that reading dark material will damage their faith.

Note: written from Indonesian operator context. Frameworks apply broadly to other emerging-market and SME settings.