Category Archives: Dark arts
Mysterious corners of shade
Occultist poet Berthe de Courrière, who died 100 years ago today
Places: a Turin trinity
A stroll through good and evil, light and shadow, life and death, genius and madness, heaven and hell.
Places: a Turin trinity
A stroll through good and evil, light and shadow, life and death, genius and madness, heaven and hell.
Places: (a bit of) Gustav Meyrink’s Prague
Three stations in the writer’s early life
Places: Crowley’s Berlin
The Great Beast witnesses the Weimar twilight
The jet propelled Antichrist at 100
“Waken, and do what you will”: Occultist/rocket scientist Jack Parsons, born in Pasadena in 1914
The jet propelled Antichrist at 100
“Waken, and do what you will”: Occultist/rocket scientist Jack Parsons, born in Pasadena in 1914
Waking the witch
A forthcoming documentary about Rosaleen Norton
Places: Clifton
In search of the Reverend Montague Summers
14 books for 2014
Books, books, books – dirty and otherwise
The Riddle
“Rampant within thy podex take this member, stiffer than a mast…”
Dress-down Friday: Diane de Rougy
A captivating Cantabrigian vision
Windows to the Sacred
“An exploration of the esoteric”, starting Friday
The Wormwood Star
Curtis Harrington’s rare film tribute to (oc)cult artist Marjorie Cameron
13 books for 2013
Swordswomen, working boys, crypto-fascist poets, bohemians, Decadents, Surrealists, occultists…business as usual really.
13 books for 2013
Swordswomen, working boys, crypto-fascist poets, bohemians, Decadents, Surrealists, occultists…business as usual really.
Dark Spirits
“Both were influcenced by witchcraft and the occult tradition of western magic, both utilised trance states, and both believed that the realm of the gods had its own intrinsic existence…”
Dark Spirits
“Both were influcenced by witchcraft and the occult tradition of western magic, both utilised trance states, and both believed that the realm of the gods had its own intrinsic existence…”
Speak of the Devil
The 1995 documentary Speak of the Devil addresses the life and lore of Satanist Anton LaVey, who died 15 years ago today.
Speak of the Devil
The 1995 documentary Speak of the Devil addresses the life and lore of Satanist Anton LaVey, who died 15 years ago today.
Pages: The Books of the Beast
This is a 1987 miscellany of pieces stretching back as much as twenty years prior. The title piece concerns the published works of Aleister Crowley, a figure of fascination for the author ever since he was disciplined at school for ordering The Great Beast.
Pages: The Books of the Beast
This is a 1987 miscellany of pieces stretching back as much as twenty years prior. The title piece concerns the published works of Aleister Crowley, a figure of fascination for the author ever since he was disciplined at school for ordering The Great Beast.
The Duck-Billed Platypus
“Dirt is matter in the wrong place./Thought is mind in the wrong place./Matter is mind; so thought is dirt.”
The Duck-Billed Platypus
“Dirt is matter in the wrong place./Thought is mind in the wrong place./Matter is mind; so thought is dirt.”
Circles: Evan Morgan
It is precisely the improbable contradictions Evan Morgan embodied in his life, the unlikely meeting of the most disparate worlds, which makes this writer/occultist/aristocrat/papal bigwig so interesting.
Circles: Evan Morgan
It is precisely the improbable contradictions Evan Morgan embodied in his life, the unlikely meeting of the most disparate worlds, which makes this writer/occultist/aristocrat/papal bigwig so interesting.
