Victor Neuburg had two claims to fame: he discovered Dylan Thomas, and Aleister Crowley once turned him into a camel. Obsolete Spells presents another side of Neuburg, through his own earthy-yet-diaphanous poems and the strange books of the Vine Press, a hand-operated imprint he ran from his West Sussex cottage between 1920 and 1930.
The Abbey of Thelema looks out on the wide Mediterranean. Italy has a long history of occultism and Crowley was likely aware of the various cults and religious sects that… Read more »
They are definitely not the first heavy metal act to sing about Aleister Crowley, but at this point in time, CARONTE are easily the most effective. “Wolves of Thelema” is… Read more »
“Aleister Crowley was a noted, sinister and controversial occultist who founded his own religious order and designed a set of tarot cards that are still used today… His links with west Cornwall were revealed and it’s believed the self-styled ‘Great Beast’ summoned up the very Devil himself in Carn Cottage and performed a black mass down the hill in Zennor’s church.”
‘Using previously unpublished letters and diaries, Churton explores how Crowley was initiated into the Golden Dawn’s Inner Order in Paris in 1900 and how, in 1902, he relocated to Montparnasse. Soon engaged to Anglo-Irish artist Eileen Gray, Crowley pontificates and parties with English, American, and French artists gathered around sculptor Auguste Rodin: all keen to exhibit at Paris’s famed Salon d’Automne. In 1904 — still dressed as “Prince Chioa Khan” and recently returned from his Book of the Law experience in Cairo — Crowley dines with novelist Arnold Bennett at Paillard’s. In 1908 Crowley is back in Paris to prove it’s possible to attain Samadhi (or “knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel”) while living a modern life in a busy metropolis. In 1913 he organizes a demonstration for artistic and sexual freedom at Oscar Wilde’s tomb. Until war spoils all in 1914, Paris is Crowley’s playground.’
Caduceus Books (in the UK) is selling a remarkable variety of books and original artwork by Michael Bertiaux. Regarded by many as the most significant living occultist, Michael Bertiaux travelled to Haiti in 1964 where he worked with Voodoo priests who were already operating a fusion of European and Haitian esotericism and who sought an ambassador to bring their teachings to an international audience. Michael’s crucial Haitian contact was Hector-Francois Jean-Maine, whose father Lucian-Francois Jean-Maine had travelled to Europe and the US where he worked with Papus and his milieu.
I’m pleased to pass on the latest update from the excellent Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Boscastle, Cornwall.
Crowley is notable as the first Westerner to attempt K2 (8,611 meters), in 1902, with Oscar Eckenstein, and for leading an attempt on Kanchenjunga (8,586 meters). The latter expedition, although… Read more »
Iconic American filmmaker Kenneth Anger has inspired generations of creative storytellers since the late 1940s. He is a unique visionary who drifts from pure poetry within his magical filmmaking to sardonic gossip in his bestselling “Hollywood Babylon” books.
Iceberg Projects and the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, Bloomington, are pleased to present Austin Osman Spare: Psychopathia Sexualis, the first solo exhibition for the artist in North America. This landmark exhibition celebrates the centennial anniversary of a rare folio of erotic drawings from the Kinsey Institute’s Collection.
In the spring of 1921, Paris bookseller Sylvia Beach boasted about her plans to publish a novel she deemed a masterpiece that would be “ranked among the classics in English literature”.
“Ulysses is going to make my place famous,” she wrote of James Joyce’s acclaimed and challenging novel, written over seven years in three cities depicting the events of a single day in Dublin.
And it did.
On 2 February 1922, Beach published the first book edition of Ulysses, just in time for Joyce’s 40th birthday.
The ‘wickedest man in Cornwall’ is a title strongly fought – infamous magician Aleister Crowley and the planner who gave permission for the first Greggs in Kernow could lay claim to the dubious honour.