A.D.Harvey was born and brought up in Colchester, read history at St John”s College Oxford, obtained a Ph.D. at Cambridge, taught there for some years, and later became an antiques dealer.He is the author of a number of historical works that were favourably reviewed in the national press and of the novels WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW (Bloomsbury 2000) and OXFORD:THE NOVEL (Brewin 2012).His short stories have appeared in LONDON MISCELLANY and CRITICAL QUARTERLY.
Anton Channing has practised meditation from 1985, began psychic training and tarot in 1990, converted from Catholicism for Paganism and Magick in 1992 and underwent simultaneous training in Natural Magic and Chaos Magic with two different groups from 1996. In late 2000 he wrote the manifesto for the Kaotic Illuminated Adepts, which was officially launched in early 2001.
In 2003 his book Kaos Hieroglyphica was published. Leaving Chaos Magic behind, but still greatly influenced by sorcerers such as Austin Osman Spare he formed a new group from the old KIA, which he called the KIA Illuminated Adepts. Like the orginal KIA this is a non hierarchical networking organisation rather than a magical order.
CARLOS ATANES (b. Barcelona, 1971). Is an essayist, underground filmmaker, playwright and seeker of the occult. He has always conceived his work, both fiction and non-fiction, as a tool to cleave and widen cracks in the walls of consensus reality. His encounters with Chaos Magic are both predictable and inevitable. Currently, he resides in Madrid and his website is Carlos Atanes, author and filmmaker
Cassandra uniquely became the first witch to register with the Inland Revenue in 1997. She served her community in the wilds of West Cornwall until 2010 when she officially retired from full time employment. However, she still remains the Village Wisewoman of Buryan and lives with her partner, Laetitia in their 200 year old Cornish granite cottage.
Charlotte Rodgers was born in New Zealand, received the PEN international young writers award for 1983 and after many years of travel, fast living and dodgy magick, now leads a life of quiet eccentricity commuting between England and Asia. She creates, exhibits, and occasionally sells art made from road kill and has had articles published in many magazines.
Charlotte Rodgers website www.perdurabu.com
Read an interview with Charlotte Rodgers on The Blog of Baphomet theblogofbaphomet.com/2017/02/20/an-audience-with-charlotte-rodgers/
Listen to Gordon White ”Talking Animism and Place with Charlotte Rodgers”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eh63XVJJvo
‘Charlotte at Play’. A film by Sean Kissling
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bUx5u7b0DA
(Author photo credit: Ray DeJongh)
Chris Allaun has been studying paganism and the occult since 1992. He is an ordained minister with The Brotherhood of the Phoenix and has been an initiate of Traditional Witchcraft since 2002. He is also a Native American Pipe Carrier and studies that path of the Red Road. He teaches classes and workshops on magick, healing, shamanism, and necromancy. He has taught at pagan festivals such as Pagan Spirit Gathering and Between the Worlds. He continues to study and teach the magickal arts to those who seek to balance the three worlds in their own lives.
Chris Allaun: Author, Teacher, Healer
www.chrisallaun.com
https://www.facebook.com/chrisallaun.author/?rc=p
He was a Wellcome research student at Oxford, where his teacher was the later Professor B K Matilal, a widely respected expert on South Asian rational thought. He has published several books, articles, and even the odd poem (see ASHÉ).
https://paypal.me/MandrakeOxford?country.x=GB&locale.x=en_GB
Posted on February 20, 2013
Christopher McIntosh describes himself as a romantic who has been in search of the “strange and bizarre things of life” since his childhood. To survive in the world of mammon, he became successively a publisher, a journalist, a United Nations official and a university lecturer, while continuing to pursue his quest by writing books. As well as fiction, his works include biographies of Eliphas Lévi and King Ludwig II of Bavaria, two books on the Rosicrucians and a study of sacred and symbolic gardens. Having travelled widely, he is now settled in Bremen, north Germany.
Christopher Todd is a Solitary Witch who specialises in religious and historical writing, especially regarding magical traditions.
“As a young boy, I was always interested in religions and magical traditions and I practised magic from a very young age. I was a Christian and an altar boy when I was very young but always felt more drawn to Witchcraft and spellcraft as I secretly practised them alone in my private time. All my experience and knowledge compelled me to write my Witchcraft book in later life.”
“Witchcraft is for me largely the religious and spiritual side of my life, whereas magic is something I utilise to enhance my life and achieve my goals.”
Dave Lee has over 20 years of experience in practical magick. An early editor of Chaos International Magazine, he is the author of Magical Incenses and the Wealth Magic Workbook.
He has worked with the Illuminates of Thanateros for many years, and presents workshops and lectures in the UK, USA and mainland Europe. Dave lives in England, and is engaged in continual magical researches which will no doubt find their way into print in one form or another.
Dave Lee’s CHAOTOPIA website www.chaotopia.co.uk
David Aronson lives and works in the Philadelphia area. His quirky, offbeat drawings, paintings and illustrations combine traditional media such as watercolor, ink, graphite and colored pencil with digital media and digital collage. His work ranges from whimsical to fantastic, from highly stylized to realistically rendered, and has been called unique and highly imaginative. It mixes lowbrow with fine art elements and often employs unusual juxtapositions. Thematically, David often delves into the realms of mythology and psychology.
He has created art for CD covers, music videos, magazines, books, music posters and tour t-shirts. David is also an oil painter and has completed several public and private commissions. His digital animation has been featured on MTV2 and Fuse, and his drawings and illustrations have appeared in Silkmilk, Ritual, Inside Artzine, Khooligan, Fugue and BigNews, as well as being exhibited nationally in galleries and museum shows. His work has been featured in a college level illustration textbook, and most recently in the book The Immanence of Myth.
David is an art teacher, working with both children and adults, teaching several different media. He was once the sole owner and operator of a small art school in the Philadelphia suburbs. He is also a certified hypnotherapist, professional astrologer, and published poet.
Reviews blurbs:
Aronson is one of the most powerful / disturbing living artists…putting an erotic spirituality, equal to that of William Blake, into a nightmare that is darker than H.R. Giger’s.
–Frank Moore, Cherotic Revolutionary Magazine
David Aronson’s work is nothing short of digital alchemy; a spiritual, energetic example of subversion that does not detract from the reverence for his chosen subject matter. To look upon his work is to see through the eyes of a man achingly familiar with a broad spectrum of emotion. It is, quite simply, Truth, filtered through a stained glass window in another world.
–Glossolalia Black, Odd Culture
If you were ever a fan of Omni magazine or Salvador Dali you will be thrilled by David Aronson’s work. He conjures up horrific psychological landscapes in his surrealist cauldron; personal exorcisms writhing with erotic fantasies. His work also possess a hidden warmth, an empathy, which is woven throughout his nightmares serving to make his work embraceable. Whether this is done intentionally or as a cathartic result of the art itself is a mystery. And this would be just one of many dark mysteries inspired by David’s art.
–Robin Parry, Origivation Magazine
David William Parry was born in Hampshire in 1958. After receiving a degree in religious studies from King’s College, London, he continued his theological research at Heythrop College. By profession he teaches literature and language. Since 1996 he has also given regular public lectures on metaphysical poetry, occultism and the problems of semantic theory. He lives with his partner in Clapham and visits Poland whenever the opportunity presents itself.
David Rankine is an author who has been practicing magick for 25 years, and is best known for his lively lectures and workshops. He has been involved with a wide variety of magickal groups and traditions,and draws on his extensive experience to convey the essence of magick in simple terms.
Diana Kreikamp was born in the Netherlands. She is an esoteric practitioner and a fully initiated member of the esoteric school of the Western Mystery Tradition, the Servants of the Light. In her life she has been on a grand quest to find answers to the questions; who am I, where do I come from and why am I here in this present life. In her search she examined various religions and philosophies as well as spiritual, occult and mystic traditions. She engaged in the Western Mystery Tradition and took practical and theoretical teachings in the esoteric sciences.
Eventually, she discovered her own way and focused all her attention entirely on the Ancient Egyptian Tradition. She investigated the myths of the Egyptian Gods, the tombs, temples and the lives of the ancient Egyptians. The original texts, like the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts and the Books of the Afterlife, are her main sources. She has studied hieroglyphs and made several trips to Egypt to examine the ancient sites, tombs and temples.
Diana has more than 30 years of experience with different meditation techniques, pathworking, trance and ritual work. In addition to her research, she used all of these techniques to explore the Knowledge of the Amduat. For a decade she meditated daily while focussing on the hundreds of Deities of the Amduat with the accompanying texts. This is where she discovered that the Amduat is in fact a spiritual system to transform your entire life in a very powerful and positive way. The fascinating experience of her journey through the Duat inspired her to share her knowledge in a book.
Her work as a visual artist is another aspect of her life. Her artwork consists of photographic drawings and portraits, realistic and free hand creations made in acrylic paint. She specialises in classic oil paintings while following the techniques of the old Masters of the Renaissance like Raphael, Michelangelo, Botticelli and Giotto.
As a psychic illustrator Diana creates Soul drawings with the help of a photograph of the person in question. With these drawings accompanied with a reading she offers a unique view into one’s inner soul and a better understanding of their potential.
Diti is an Aromatherapist, a Magician Artisan Perfumer, a Chaos Craft witch and a Jitterybug priestess. When I have time I hang out at the Apophis Club, and study at the Fox Magic Mystery School. I also make great apple cakes.
Eric Ratcliffe was born in 1918 at Teddington, Middlesex, saw military service in World War 2 as an ammunition examiner in the ‘Blitz’ in London before a posting to India. His scientific career includes many research papers on thermal conductivity. He founded and edited Ore Magazine, with Brian Louis Pearce as advisory associate.
His credo is opposed to mainstream material poetry and rooted in belief of an after-life. Myth, legend and ancient British history play a large part in his themes.
His poems Anthropos and Fire in the Bush : poems 1955-1992, both published by University of Salzburg Press. Reviewer have said of Fire in the Bush:
‘His poetry is a mystical celebration of life, remote and unearthly’- RICHMOND AND TWICKENHAM TIMES
…’vision in which Elemental presences are more real than so-called reality…it is in the company of Kathleen Raine and Charles Williams that Ratcliffe is to be considered’ – TEARS IN THE FENCE
‘Like the phantom arm that recovered Excalibur from the marsh, Ratcliffe plunges deep into the azure mire of prehistoric and pre-conscious history and surfaces clutching a handful of alchemical gems – chantoyant, crystalline and imperishable’- – ABRAXAS
‘The general vision is compulsive…the highly prophetic tone is awesome and apposite to our times’ – -IOTA
FRANCIS X KING
The late Francis King was a prolific writer and editor of several valuable magical books including The Grimoire of Armadel and Sexuality, Magick and Perversion (also available from Mandrake).
& His Parapsychological Theories
Born in Leipzig, his family came to Britain in 1936. A Biologist and Philosopher, he graduated from Queen Mary College, University of London with first class Honours in Mathematics, and then obtained a Ph.D. in Quantum Mechanics from the University of London. After working for a while in Theoretical Acoustics (horn design) with Tannoy Products, he was invited by (the later) Nobel Laureate Sir Neville Mott to join his department at Bristol as Research Assistant to Prof. Herbert Fröhlich FRS.
In his career the author did research in Quantum Mechanics, Theoretical Optics, Theoretical Developmental Biology, Theory of Evolution. Biophilosophy, Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Mind. He published many papers in prestigious journals (subject to peer review) and seven books. A Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and was elected in 1989 as a Fellow of the Institute of Biology and awarded a DSc from the University of London.
Professor Wasserman developed a major theory of paranormal phenomena which was published in the journal Nature, and later in book form as Shadow Matter And Psychic Phenomena and the sequel Consciousness & Near Death Experiences.
Mogg Morgan from JSM II
Gordon MacLellan is a shaman, storyteller and artist whose work sets out to find ways of celebrating the relationships between people, place and wildlife. Gordon’s books include Talking to the Earth, Sacred Animals and Celebrating Nature (all with Capall Bann), StarMatter and the Piatkus Guide to Shamanism.
Greg Humphries is an artist and magician who has over 15 years of experience exploring magical practices throughout the world. The work outlined within this book covers the years 1999 – 2002 and influenced his move to Cornwall, England where he currently paints happily in his studio at the bottom of the garden.
Check out Greg Humphries blog greghumphries.wordpress.com
Julian Vayne has been involved with the magickal world for over 20 years. He has published numerous articles, led a variety of esoteric workshops and courses and is a prominent figure in comporary British occultism. His interests include drugs and magick, permaculture and the politics of sustainability, teaching and graphic art. He lives in Devon where he tends his newly planted orchard.
Canadian author Jack Wolf has been a practicing pagan for over 30 years, walking a path that encompasses both his Northern European and Native American heritage. He counts the late E. Max Hyatt as one of his mentors.
An avid outdoorsman, Jack has spent a considerable portion of his life exploring the deep wilds of British Columbia, a vast province on Canada’s west coast. He brings a great deal of his wilderness experience to his spiritual path.
Over the past 15 years Jack has studied and written about a number of northern pagan traditions, having published for the most part in small journals or websites. Jack is also the author of Tales from the Thornwood and The Urban Tribalist: Discovering your Pagan Path in the Concrete Jungle (coming in 2013).
Spiritually, Jack identifies himself most as a Deep Tribalist; that is a person whose spiritual path involves questing for the First Knowledge – that held by our most ancient ancestors whose hearts and spirits were deeply connected to the land. As such he follows a Deep Tribal tradition (which some have, not inaccurately, described as a form of animist Odinism) – which he has practiced since the late 1980s.
Jack holds a degree in anthropology from the world-renowned University of British Columbia and has long held an avid interest in history, tribal peoples, spirituality and the reawakening of pagan traditions worldwide. He currently resides with his daughter and his wife and co-author Cassandra Wolf in Squamish, British Columbia.
For more information on the Thornish Tradition
www.thornwoodpress.com
thornwoodpress.wordpress.com
Jade Melany is an accomplished artist, natural psychic and tarot creator. She teaches healing, tarot, and spiritual / self-development. Each of the magical images and path-workings in the Initiate’s Way has been tried and tested in the small magical groups that Jade runs from her home in the lake district in Cumbria.
JAN FRIES
‘SHAMAN’ OF THE TAUNUS
‘Journey through the frozen land’ from Visual Magick
Jan Fries is the author five books and several articles that deal with some very interesting free-form shamanic techniques. Here’s what one of Jan’s students said about seething:
‘Seething is probably the most useful magical technique I have ever learned. I first was taken by the pleasure of it. My body felt warm and sensual, and seething in the hips felt quite sexual. I liked the feeling of my body taking over where the shaking was first voluntary – but I could still have some control, making the shaking stronger or more subtle. After a while I started to see visions – something that very rarely happens to me. I could see (with my physical eyes, not astrally!) the surface of the land in the centre of the circle rippling, like waves of energy. It was a really moving experience in a site that – until then – had not been particularly ‘special’ to me… it ..has had a major impact upon my magical work which used to be largely indoors, as at last I have found a way that I can work outdoors. This gives my magical work a potency that it simply didn’t have before.’
Jan lives in Frankfurt near the Taunus Mountains. He is a musician, artist and magician. I first met him sometime in the eighties at an ancient ritual site in Wiltshire called Silbury Hill. He was there along with several others to participate in a ritual with american sorceress Nema, author of Maat Magick. I heard from a friend about a short manuscript Jan had written on sigil magick. It was being privately circulated amongst the world’s ‘rosicrucian’ community and getting a very favourable response. I was immediately struck by its clarity, originality and above all humour. I asked if I could publish it and as it was a bit too short to make a complete book I suggested that maybe we could add some material from Austin Spare. But Jan would have none of that – he immediately went away and wrote enough for a full sized book – the result is Visual Magick – a manual of freestyle shamanism.
Jason Read has held a long and deep-seated interest in magic, yoga, occult philosophy and the martial arts. Jason began training in the martial arts in his early teens and it was there he got his first glimpse of the world of Far Eastern occultism.
Graduating from Southampton University in the 1990s with a BA in History, he took the unexpected step of joining the Royal Navy working as a language specialist in the Communications Technician department. As well as taking the opportunity to travel all around the world he learned to speak and write Chinese as part of his work.
On leaving the services as a lieutenant, Jason committed himself to study occultism and magic, initially in the Western Mystery Tradition. However, still, a passionate martial artist, his interests in magic were destined to fall eastwards. To this purpose, Jason lived and travelled in Asia for over a decade searching for a real teacher of martial arts and magic. He found it. Under the apprenticeship of a Maoshan sorcerer and martial artist, Dr. Liang, he studied many aspects of Chinese magic and alchemy which are still largely unknown to most western practitioners. This series of books aims to readdress that imbalance.
Today in his hometown, Jason is involved in business law and has established the Order of the Pagoda with friend and colleague of the Shingon and magical Mikkyo lineage of Japan to teach and disseminate the Chinese and Japanese mysteries of alchemy, magic and divination in a structured way.
– Writer, Biographer, Artist, Poet, Mystic, Astrologer, Theosophist, Ripperologist
Jean Overton Fuller is no stranger to controversy. For more than half a century she has been exploding myths in a manner than has often lead to a complete reappraisal of the establishment view. The only child of Indian Army Officer Capt J H M Fuller and the artist Violet Overton Fuller, she holds a degree in English from London University. She had a brief career on the stage and knew Victor Neuberg, (magical partner of Aleister Crowley) and his circle in the mid 1930s.
During World War II she used her eagle eye to search for espionage in sensitive postal communications. She later made researches into the fate of her friend Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan and other British agents in France under German occupation.
Jean Overton Fuller’s acclaimed biography Noor-un-Nisa-Inayat Khan (Madeleine) was first published by Victor Gollancz in September 1952, and because of the enormous public empathy to the heroic life and death of beautiful Princess Noor, had run into fourth impression by November of the same year. Several subsequent editions followed, including a Pan paperback entitled Born For Sacrifice, and a new hardback edition by East-West Publications in 1988.
Miss Fuller joined the Theosophical Society in 1940, and is a former vice-president of the Astrological Lodge of London. She was a regular contributor to the scholarly journal Theosophical History www.theohistory.org founded by Leslie Price and edited by Professor James Santucci. Jean Overton Fuller also contributed letters for ”Alpheus”, Govert Schuller’s excellent Theosophical website for Esoteric History www.alpheus.org
Jean was also well liked and respected among Ripperologists and she spoke at The Jack The Ripper Conference. See Mandrake Ripperology section for Jean Overton Fuller
https://mandrake.uk.net/sickert-the-ripper-crimes-2/
—
Check out these very good websites about Jean Overton Fuller
www.angelfire.com/va/violetteszabo/overtonfuller.html
www.jeanovertonfuller.com
www.rushdenheritage.co.uk/Villages/people/fuller-jean-overton.html
Joan Ann Lansberry received a BA from Northern Illinois University in 1981, with a double major in Art History and Studio Art and a minor in Philosophy. She became fascinated with Set, inspiring her to delve deeply into ancient Egypt in all its realms: historical, political, artistic, and religious, to gain a cohesive understanding of its culture. She continues her artistic endeavors via observational and intuitive art and is a published poet.
website: www.joanannlansberry.com
John Barber is a researcher and prolific writer. His popular and informative website, www.johnbarber.com features excellent articles on the socio-cultural history of Britain and its great metropolis London, interviews, bibliography, as well as showcasing a collection of absorbing murder mystery novels.
John Patrick Higgins is a writer and illustrator. He is the author of The Narwhal and Other stories
www.amazon.co.uk/Narwhal-other-stories-Patrick-Higgins-ebook/dp/B007N6KJW8
His second collection will be published later in the year. He writes art criticism for various magazines and is Creative Director of Shot Glass Theatre Company. See feature at www.culturenorthernireland.org/reviews/performing-arts/shot-glass
He lives in Belfast, which he continues to find extraordinary.
John Power, also known as Sri Vilasanath, bridges Eastern and Western esoteric traditions, blending tantra, surrealism, and introspective art. As head of the Uttara Kaula Fellowship, he promotes mental liberation through creative enjoyment, drawing on his roots in both tantric spirituality and countercultural movements like the 1960s Gandalf’s Garden magazine. His work spans various media, including exhibitions and books that explore symbolism, mysticism, and the divine feminine. Power’s teachings invite us to embrace a path of mystical insight and personal freedom.
For more, visit Uttara Kaula or John Power’s website.
Born in 1948, John S Moore is a freelance writer and independent scholar living in Islington, North London. He studied philosophy at King’s College, University of London from 1966 to 1969. He has published several papers on Nietzsche and other figures like Crowley (an interest which goes back over 45 years), Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Schopenhauer and Wittgenstein, as well as 3 volumes of poetry.
Judith Page was born in Sydney, Australia. She graduated from the Chelsea School of Art in London, and is a respected artist and painter in esoteric circles, with particular focus on Egyptian art.
Judith also designs her own one of a kind range of silver Setian jewellery, specially made to her requirements by Egyptian craftmen.
Julian Vayne has been involved with the magickal world for over 20 years. He has published numerous articles, led a variety of esoteric workshops and courses and is a prominent figure in contemporary British occultism. His interests include drugs and magick, permaculture and the politics of sustainability, teaching and graphic art. He lives in Devon where he tends his newly planted orchard.
website: theblogofbaphomet.com
17 NOVEMBER 1927 – 17 JANUARY 2009
Kamil Vaclav Zvelebil, Professor Emeritus of the Universities of Chicago and Utrecht, was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Professor Zvelebil was an ordained Buddhist and world-renowned expert on South Indian languages and culture. He wrote many books including The Lexicon of Tamil Literature. The Siddha Quest for Immortality makes available for the first time, secrets of Tantrik Sexual Magick and Alchemy to both scholars and general readers.
Professor Kamil Vaclav Zvelebil on http://www.tamilnation.org/literature/zvelebil.htm
Professor Kamil Vaclav Zvelebil on http://www.marketaz.co.uk/zveleb1.html
Katon Shual: pagan, researcher, author and sometime poet with an interest in folklore and sexual gnosticism. Sexual Magick, regarded by many as an innovative, compassionate approach to the subject of sexual gnosticism, is his only published monograph.
Kim Farnell is a professional astrologer, writer and biographer. She provides a range of services through her own consultancy and can be contacted via her personal website www.kimfarnell.co.uk
Kim Farnell is also a popular lecturer and a contributor to the scholarly journal Theosophical History founded by Leslie Price and edited by Professor James Santucci. Ms Farnell’s previous works include a biography of the influential esoteric astrologer Sepharial.
Lydia Maskell was one of the original members of Bath Omphalos. She loves animals and has made a special study of cats in Ancient Egypt. Her other interests include the therapeutic and magical use of aromatics and the lore and magic of canines.
From the highly popular author of Seeds of Evil and The Unquiet Dead, Gateway to Hell is Margaret Bingley writing on the top of her form.
www.margaretbingley.co.uk/
PROFESSOR MARK L. MIRABELLO
Dr. Mark L. Mirabello, a distinguished historian and author, is a Professor Emeritus of History at Shawnee State University and has served as a Visiting Professor at Nizhny Novgorod University in Russia. Known for his expertise in “outlaw” history, he delves into the fringes of human civilization, covering topics such as death and the afterlife, alternative religions, cults, secret societies, myths, and legends.
Dr. Mirabello has gained recognition for his media appearances, including discussions on “deadly cults” on the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens and America’s Book of Secrets. He has also appeared alongside Noam Chomsky in The Kingdom of Survival and been featured on Gaia TV’s Open Minds discussing afterlife concepts. His insights have been sought on prominent radio shows and podcasts, including Coast to Coast AM, The Conspiracy Show, and Darkness Radio.
As an author, Mirabello explores themes of the supernatural (The Traveler’s Guide to the Afterlife), the unnatural (The Cannibal Within), and societal rebellion (Handbook for Rebels and Outlaws). His academic credentials include a Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow, an M.A. from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. from the University of Toledo.
Dr. Mirabello’s work reflects a unique blend of historical scholarship and an interest in the esoteric, offering insights into the margins of civilization and the human experience.
www.markmirabello.com
www.shawnee.edu/academics/social-sciences/faculty/mmirabello.aspx
Mary Phelan was born in Dublin and she lived in Germany before settling in London. Today, she is a journalist and copywriter, design philosopher, photographer and art historian. She is an art history graduate of University College London, and has a Master’s degree in English Literature from the Open University. A committed copywriter, she has written hundreds of advertising scripts for companies and organisations. She has also worked as a tutor of English literature.
Mary Phelan was born in Dublin in 1960 and she lived in Germany before settling in London. Today, she is a journalist and copywriter, design philosopher, photographer and art historian. She is an art history graduate of University College London, and has a Master’s degree in English Literature from the Open University. A committed copywriter, she has written hundreds of advertising scripts for companies and organisations. She has also worked as a tutor of English literature.
Mary’s works of fiction include The Nightmare, Pandora’s Box, Artist Wanted and Beogga the Woodman. Her short story collection is titled 13 Stories and she is currently working upon another novel, The Infidel Dreams. You can find her Design Victim posts on http://maryphelan.blogspot.com where she blogs about the intricacies and annoyances of design in modern life and you can read longer, travel articles by her at https://hubpages.com/@maryphelan
Matthew Levi Stevens was born 31st of October 1966, shortly before Midnight. He is a writer, researcher, and online commentator. Awareness of the Occult and ‘chance encounters’ with certain artist-practitioners determined his path at a young age.
His published works include A Moving Target: Encounters with William Burroughs (Beat Scene Press, 2012), and in collaboration with C J Bradbury Robinson, A Way With Words (WhollyBooks, 2013.) In addition, he has written on Aleister Crowley and Kenneth Grant, and appeared in the anthologies Occult Traditions (Numen, 2012) and CUT UP! (Oneiros Books, 2014), and has also been a regular contributor to a number of magazines and online forums, including Beatdom, Beat Scene, Chaosphere, New Dawn, Reality Sandwich, Reality Studio and The Modern Review.
With his partner, the artist Emma Doeve, he is currently working on a Grimoire inspired by the Graeco-Egyptian Magical Papyri. They maintain an occasional blog together at whollybooks.wordpress.com
“What I have learned from my journey to the sacred mountain, and must now try to put into practice, is that instead of busying myself putting others down, which is what I have tended to do in the past, my time would be better spent helping those I criticise to rise up with me instead – that this is the secret to touching those I meet with goodness, and that this way we can live on in people’s memories, long after we leave this world, whether we are blessed with children of our own or not. This way we can all leave a mark.” ~ Michael Berman (From Sacred Mountains) (2013, 23)
Michael Berman’s published work includes The Power of Metaphor for Crown House, The Nature of Shamanism and the Shamanic Story for Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Shamanic Journeys through the Caucasus and Shamanic Journeys, Shamanic Stories for O-Books, Journeys outside Time for Pendraig Publishing, and Tales of Power for Lear Books. A Bridge to the Other Side: Death in the Folk Tradition and Georgia through Earth, Fire, Air and Water are both due to be published by Moon Books in 2012. ELT publications include A Multiple Intelligences Road to an ELT Classroom, In a Faraway Land (a resource book for teachers on storytelling), On Business and for Pleasure (a self-study workbook), and English Language Teaching Matters, written with Mojca Belak and Wayne Rimmer.
For more information please visit www.Thestoryteller.org.uk,
Michael E. Salihovich (Brahmananda) was a student of Yogeshwar Muni’s (Charles Berner) teachings since the mid-1980s. He was initiated into Sahaj yoga in 2011 and has been giving Enlightenment Intensive retreats, meditation seminars and individual counselling for more than 30 years.
The author has read, taught, and written about the Tarot for many years. He holds degrees in psychology and film studies from New York University. Previous books co-authored with Scot D. Ryersson include: Infinite Variety: The Life and Legend of the Marchesa Casati, The Marchesa Casati: Portraits of a Muse, and The Princess of Wax: A Cruel Tale. Also with Ryersson, he co-edited Spectral Haunts and Phantom Lovers.
Visit the official Heart Vision site
marchesacasati.wixsite.com/heartvisiontarot
Learn more about the author’s work.
Visit www.marchesacasati.com
I work for innovative ‘new edge’ publisher Mandrake of Oxford, recently described as a ‘respected literary catalyst’, and responsible for the discovery of many new authors, including his friend and onetime mentor Jan Fries.
I regard myself as a practitioner-cum-scholar of all aspects of occultism. I was a Wellcome research student at Oxford, where my teacher was the late Professor B K Matilal, a widely respected expert on South Asian thought. Over the years I have been exploring the connections between the popular magick of ancient Egypt and its continuation/crossover with the living magical traditions of the middle East, and the Kaula/witchcraft of south Asia and beyond
I have a particular interest in divination, dream interpretation and oracles. I’ve experimented widely in using some ancient oracles to address modern queries. Consequently I do sometimes prepare “horoscopes” in the original and authentic Egyptian manner. I also use dice oracles based on Greco-Egyptian and Tantrik sources. I interpret dreams and other omens. My direct email (mandox2000[@]yahoo.com)
Books, Ebooks, Bonus Essays, Lectures, Misc
Lectures & Podcasts (available for booking)
Discussion of Egyptian Magick Podcast (click on link)
Seething & Seidr (workshop)
Sexuality & Magick
Write & Find Ecstasy in writing: occult writing after the Witchcraft Act
Art & the Occult
Cult of the Hidden God
Egyptian Magick – General Introduction
Isis In India
Lunar Mysteries of Seth
Seth: personification of evil?
Abstract:
Contemporary magical practitioners have always been interested in the ‘problem of evil’ – the nature of good and bad action. Take for example Helena Blavatsky’s statement – ‘demon est deus inversus’ to be found in her highly influential and monument work ‘The Secret Doctrine’ (1888:1.411). This was later adopted by the poet W B Yeats as his magical motto in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Most practitioners believe that the ancient Egyptian god Seth is the prototype for the contemporary archetype of Lucifer, Satan or the Devil. I want to take a brief look, in context, at the famous image of Seth deriding Apophis, (the demonic / chaotic serpent of ‘non-being’) as a leitmotiv for the nature or ‘personification’ of evil in ancient thought.
View a short film on Typhonian Magick:
Nadia Choucha grew up in the Middle East and Scotland, and has a degree in History of Art from Edinburgh University and a master’s degree in Digital Humanities from King’s College, University of London. She lives in London where she currently works as an editor and digital strategist for an academic research organisation.
© Carl Holmes
NEVILL DRURY PhD is an independent historical researcher whose specialist interests include modern Western magic, shamanism, transpersonal psychology and visionary art. Born in England in 1947 but resident in Australia since 1963, Nevill has worked as an international art-book publisher, lecturer and magazine editor and is now a full-time writer. He is the author/co-author/editor of over sixty books and his work has been published in 25 countries and 18 languages.
His most recent publications include Stealing Fire from Heaven: the Rise of Modern Western Magic (Oxford University Press 2011); Homage to Pan (Creation Oneiros 2009), The Dictionary of Magic (Watkins 2005) and The New Age: the History of a Movement (Thames & Hudson 2004). He received his Ph.D from the University of Newcastle in 2008 for a dissertation on the visionary art and magical beliefs of Rosaleen Norton (awarded ‘Best Humanities Ph.D’. in that year).
Nevill died 15th October 2013 aged 66.
Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold is an anthropologist and psychologist with an inclination towards the metaphysics of faiths and cults of a traditional pedigree. He is a specialist in the works of Marsilio Ficino and is a practicing traditional astrologer. He has been deeply involved in the occult world with its orders and sodalities since the late 1980s. Since the turn of this millennium he discarded most modern occultism in favour of a focus on traditional forms of cult and faith, European and African. His involvement with Traditional Witchcraft leads to this presentation of Craft themes He is a sworn Brother of The Clan of Tubal Cain and Magister of the Lilium Umbrae Cuveen, its kinship group in the southern hemisphere.
Nick Farrell was born in the UK and raised in New Zealand. At the age of four he suffered from a series of night-time terrors. He saw things that were particularly frightening. He knew they were not dreams but they appeared real. These visions lasted until he was 17 when he bought his first set of Tarot cards and suddenly found himself in a Golden Dawn offshoot called Builders of the Adytum. Nick started to read everything he could find on the Golden Dawn and Magic.
Nick moved to Hawkes Bay where he hooked up with the former members of the last surviving temple of the Golden Dawn, Whare Ra. In particular he joined the Order of the Table Round which was a side order of the now defunct Whare Ra temple. The head of the order was Percy Wilkinson who, along with Jack Taylor, had implanted the Golden Dawn’s initiatory formula over the top of the original ritual. Percy and a few of the other elderly Golden Dawn adepts shared a lot of ideas with Nick who at the time was not really that interested in the Golden Dawn and had signed up to join Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki’s Servants of the Light School. Nick moved to the UK to take part in practical work of the SOL and found himself being trained by David Goddard.
In 1997, Nick visited the US where he carried out a few workshops and renewed his friendship with Chic and Tabatha Cicero and joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn forming a Temple of that Group in Nottingham. Around that time Nick wrote his first book Making Talismans which has turned out to be an esoteric classic. He moved to Sofia in Bulgaria where he wrote Magical Pathworking, The Druidic Order of Pendragon (with Colin Robertson), Gathering the Magic and Egyptian Shaman. He also began to work with the artist Harry Wendrich and his wife Nicola Golden Dawn Temple Tarot deck which is soon to be released.
In 2007 he wrote his first novel “When a Tree Falls“, which is an occult, fantasy based on his silly and at times black sense of humour. In 2008 he moved to Rome where he wrote two more books on the Golden Dawn “King over the Water” and “Mathers’ Last Secret“. Later that year he established the Magical Order of the Aurora Aurea which is a traditional Golden Dawn based order which already has five temples worldwide and a thriving correspondence course.During the day he makes money as a journalist for online technology magazines including Techeye and Fudzilla.
Nigel Bryant’s involvement with Arthurian matters is long-standing. As theatre director and radio drama producer he has worked on Arthur-related plays and series by writers including C.S.Lewis, Rosemary Sutcliff, Susan Cooper and Kevin Crossley-Holland, and as a translator he has published modern English versions of The High Book of the Grail (Perlesvaus), the Perceval of Chrétien de Troyes and its Continuations, Robert de Boron’s Merlin and the Grail and a new compilation of the medieval French romances, The Legend of the Grail: Nigel Bryant versus Dan Brown.
For more than two decades, Nikki Wyrd has been intensely involved in group magickal practices. A lifelong member of the Illluminates of Thanateros, she is a former head of the British Isles Section. An organiser of occult conferences, Vice Chancellor of Arcanorium College, and holder of a BSc in Ecology, this is her first published book. Nikki lives on the edge of a city, with water meadows at the end of her garden.
Paul A. Green has been exploring the interzones between magick, the paranormal and the edge-lands of science in drama, fiction and poetry over several decades – as
demonstrated in plays like The Dream Laboratory (CBC Radio), Ritual of the
Stifling Air (BBC Radio 3), The Voice Collection (RTE Radio Eire), The Mouthpiece
(Resonance-FM), Terminal Poet (New Theatre Works) and Babalon (Travesty
Theatre), which celebrated the life of Thelemite rocket scientist Jack Parsons. The mysteries of consciousness are also recurrent themes in The Gestaltbunker- Selected
Poems (Shearsman Books 2012).
His novel The Qliphoth (Libros Libertad 2007) – an occultural rite-of-passage saga in
a contemporary setting – fused speculative fiction and esoteric fantasy. The sequel
Beneath The Pleasure Zones, coming soon from Mandrake, takes
genre-mashing and reality-morphing even further in a post-apocalyptic alt.world of
neo-pagan cults, fundamentalist militias, and erotic cyber-punkettes…
His on-line presence includes audio pieces like Thanatron, Brother Thirteen, and BP Blues , featured on www.culturecourt.com, which also carries his articles on
Crowley, Burroughs and Colin Wilson, among others. Stories from his Radial City series can be found at Nth Position, The Recusant and Brand Magazine, and in the print collection Unthology 2 (Unthank Books)
Peter J. Carroll is one of the founders of The Magical Pact of The Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT) which he led for a decade. He has spent thirty-seven years in research and experiment and is the author of four other books; Liber Null & Psychonaut, Liber Kaos: The Psychonomicon, Psybermagic, and The Apophenion.
Peter J. Carroll Specularium website www.specularium.org
Peter Stockinger has studied astrology in Austria and in Great Britain and has been practicing this art for about 25 years. He trained as a Cosmobiologist and modern astrologer in Vienna.
In 1998 he moved to North Wales and continued his astrological studies there. Studying the works of the English master astrologers of the Renaissance and the 17^th century closely, he soon realised that these were holding the key to a more precise form of astrology. He found that this approach was perfectly suitable to provide answers to 21^st century’s everyday life questions. Consequently he decided to concentrate purely on traditional natal and horary astrology and has also specialised in working with planetary gemstones. Peter is particularly interested in the history of astrology and its reintegration into the magical arts.
For the last 30 years Peter has also studied with several esoteric schools teaching a variety of disciplines; he has a particular interest in retrieving the ancient wisdom of our northern European ancestors.
In his mundane life he enjoys visiting the ancient sites of his home in North Wales and, together with his wife Anna, performs spiritual healing for rescued and traumatized animals.
Visit Peter Stockinger Traditional Astrology Website for consultations
starsandstones.wordpress.com
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Philip H. Farber is a writer, hypnotist, NLP trainer, ritualist, and consciousness explorer. He is best known for his book on ritual magick, Future Ritual: Magick for the 21st Century and as the creator of Meta-Magick, a system of practice combining elements of magick, NLP, hypnosis, and more.
For news, events, seminars, workshops and online courses, please check out
Phil Farber’s Meta-Magick website
www.meta-magick.com
and also Hawk Ridge Productions
www.hawkridgeproductions.com
Ray Sherwin, born in 1952 in Yorkshire, England, is an English occult author and publisher. Together with Peter J. Carroll, he is one of the originators of the system of magical discipline called chaos magic.
In the late 1970s, he began publishing a magazine called The New Equinox, an irregular journal dealing with Thelemic magick, chaos magic and related subjects. He developed chaos magic theory and early rituals.
In 1978, he co-founded the Illuminates of Thanateros with Carroll, later publishing Carroll’s book, Liber Null. Also during 1978, Sherwin wrote and published The Book of Results. These two books, Liber Null and The Book of Results, were the first books written on the topic of chaos magic.
He is also the author of the magical texts The Theatre of Magick and Strange Smell in the Car.
(from Wikipedia)
RC MCNEFF was born in London. He is a published poet and short story writer, and has worked internationally in education and the art world. His interest in Crowley was sparked by contact with associates of the Beast at an early age.
Richard C McNeff’s early acquaintance with John Symonds, Crowley’s literary executor and biographer, sparked an interest that developed into the 1977 cult short story ‘Sybarite among the Shadows’. This grew into Aleister Crowley MI5. He is also the author of With Barry Flanagan: Travels through Time and Spain (the Lilliput Press), a memoir which grew out of his experience of curating shows for the sculptor, the Brexit satire, The Dream of Boris, and has written for the Guardian, Fortean Times, and Boulevard Magenta. He lived and worked in Barcelona, the Basque Country, Ibiza and Baku. His current home is London where he was born.
Robert studied biblical (better called “Helenistic” or “koine”) Greek in the early 1970s, also biblical Hebrew, Aramaic and Coptic. His professors were Margaret Howe and Ronald Veenker, both now retired. Neither of them endorse or approve of his theories, especially those in Jesus the Sorcerer. Robert made a detailed study of the Greek New Testament although he is agnostic about all supernatural claims. Our best surviving evidence on Jesus is that he was one of many local apocalyptic Jewish prophets, likely reacting to the presence of Romans and Roman influence in Palestine. Like similar figures, Jesus was an ecstatic performer who did healing and exorcism (a quintessentially Jewish preoccupation), and displayed other charismatic “gifts” such as mind reading as proof of his prophetic calling. He was, as Morton Smith pointed out, what both ancient and modern people would regard as a “magician,” but he preached the coming of an apocalyptic judgment that would come within his generation and that, obviously, did not happen.
Robert’s current focus is how the study of consciousness might increase our understanding of paranormal phenomena.
Podcast: 1. Magic in Christianity with Robert Conner – AeonByte’s library
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGRd14G6dmA
New essay from Scribd:
The Secret Gospel of Mark (Bonus Essay)
www.scribd.com/doc/36964375/The-Secret-Gospel-of-Mark-A-Letter-to-Theodore
The Shadow as a Magical Assistant (Bonus Essay)
www.scribd.com/doc/70353722/The-Shadow-as-a-Magical-Assistant
Robin Odell was born in Hampshire in 1935. After working as a university laboratory technician and completing his National Service, he developed an interest in crime writing.
His JACK THE RIPPER IN FACT AND FICTION published by Harrap (1965), is still regarded as a major contribution to the subject. In a writing career spanning more than thirty-five years, he has written or co-written sixteen books. He now lives in South Oxfordshire and continues to write and lecture on crime and criminology.
He acknowledges his debt to the researches of the late Dr Hubert Trumper, a medical practitioner in Hay-on-Wye, and the late Joe Gaute, distinguished crime historian and publisher. Their combined efforts sustained over several years brought many insights to bear on the life and trial of Major Armstrong.
Robin Odell won the Gold Medal at the 2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the True Crime category for Ripperology: A Study of the World’s First Serial Killer (Kent State University Press) and is a nominee of the Mystery Writers of America 2007 Edgar Allan Poe Awards.
Ron Wyman is an artist and writer who has brought the internal alchemical transformation process into a contemporary experience through his own undergoing of the Magnum Opus. He has set this into a methodical format for occult practitioners, or for anyone interested in the transcendental effects of internal alchemy. This is presented in a trilogy: The Black Toad, The Peacock’s Egg, and a further book to be published, The Dragon.
Alchemy, in this sense, can be groundwork for any type of spiritual or occult practice. This is so because the levels achieved through the opus magnum, experienced through three lengthy cycles here, coincide with the levels and abilities inherent in the psyche and spiritual body. These cycles of experience are also for the fairly serious practitioner, who is able to accomplish controlled dreaming, and work toward the attainment of the philosopher’s stone, which can involve some years of practice. This spiritual alchemy then adheres to extraordinary beliefs found within ancient systems, recorded in Egyptian and Chinese alchemy, and extending through Western Hermeticism.
The philosophical basis of this trilogy and its cyclical opus are set within the real and the psychical experiences of light and colour, and of shadow, and cosmos, of constellation, sun, moon, and classical planets. Visionary experience is emphasised as the practitioner undergoes the full alchemical dream process—and arouses the dragon, then attaining the vision of the coloured peacock’s egg, and purifies the alchemical vessel. Ultimately this leads to the latent dragon’s egg and the dragon’s planetary forces and metals.
The author also comes from a Continental Philosophy background, and writes about this transitional movement and re-centring of the psyche in relation to similar experience described by Jung, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and others; and the infinite space and time involved there. And he has his own fine art practice that attends to the metaphysical milieu of the modern art movement.
Author on Alchemy
This work is an abstract art associated with pittura metafisica, or metaphysical painting. It may be understood as an aesthetic structuralism that conveys a structural infinity. In this way it is archetypal and involves the Jungian archetype. It involves a philosophical perspectivism, and a ‘low’ or abyssal dionysian abstraction, which I bring into interiors, still life, landscape, and portraiture. I convey a sculptural figuration and also utilise the theme of the mannequin, as the psychic apparatus. Its figuration then involves a kind of realism, in an existential sense of realism. In general these originated from an interest in bringing the dionysian into graphic, perspectival, and figurative work, and from Heideggerian kind of experience of space, that contains a structurality. It is related to abstract surrealism and metarealism, but emphasises an essence or immanence, which I understand through the tragic, and the shadow, and an afternoon withdrawal.
Seán has been a practising Pagan for more years than he cares to remember and a follower of Dionysos for about 15 of those. He lives in the wilds of north Manchester with his wife and carer, Sara, children and pets and runs a local house moot. This is his first book and he intends to write another if he can squeeze it in between acting and musician jobs.
Shani Oates lives in Derbyshire (UK) where she is a devoted practitioner of the true art, a mystic, a pilgrim, artist, professional photographer and holistic therapist. She is also a life-long student and researcher of theology, philosophy and anthropology intrinsic to all praxes that engage the Mysteries proper. Providing valuable resources for her lectures at both moots and esoteric conferences, these disciplines serve to enrich her role and duties as the Maid of the Clan of Tubal Cain.
CLAN OF TUBAL CAIN WEBSITE www.clanoftubalcain.org.uk
As an author her published works are included within Hecate: Her Sacred Fires by Avalonia Press and other various popular pagan, folklore and occult publications for over a decade, including The Cauldron, Pendragon, The White Dragon, The Pentacle, The Hedge Wytch and The Wytch’s Standard. The second 2011 edition of Abraxas Occult Journal features her most recent contribution on the Mysteries. This, is her second book and she is currently busy on her fourth that continues to explore and explain the deeper aspects and histories of her Craft.
Snoo Wilson is a writer and playwright who presented an apologia for Aleister Crowley in the TV series ‘Without Walls’. His previous novels are Spaceache and Inside Babel (Chatto). His play, More Light, about the heretic Giordano Bruno, is published by Mandrake of Oxford. His latest project is a satyrical novel, The Works of Melmont, based on the life of Robert Maxwell and available from Mandrake.
Died suddenly of a heart attack on 5th July 2013
Spencer has written for a wide variety of publications including Hustler, Mojo, Erotic Review, Vox, Headpress, Hip Hop Connection and the NME. He is the author of Wormwood Star, a biography of the American artist and occult icon Marjorie Cameron (Mandrake of Oxford). His debut novella, Zoning, is published by Beatdom Books. His interviews with literary legends William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Bowles and Herbert Huncke feature in Joe Ambrose’s book Chelsea Hotel Manhattan. His latest work, Out There, is a biography of Burt Shonberg, L.A.’s greatest lost artist/muralist (Mandrake of Oxford).
For more info: www.spencerkansa.com
Read Spencer Kansa Zoning with The Beats
blues.gr/profiles/blogs/writer-musician-spencer-kansa-talks-about-burroughs-paul-bowles
Read Spencer Kansa’s feature on David Sylvian on Dangerous Minds website
www.dangerousminds.net/comments/david_sylvian_sleepwalkers/
All Material on this page copyright © Spencer Kansa
Steve Nichols, a successful tournament chess player in his youth, has edited a national Games magazine, studied Philosophy as an undergrad with AJ Ayer, developed a revolutionary Theory of Mind (M.V.T.), lost at table tennis to Arthur C Clark, discussed John Dee and Paracelsus with HRH Prince Charles, founded the Posthuman movement in 1988, published national magazines about board games and magick, run MENSA international occult SIG, studied Middle Egyptian language at Leiden University, gained an MSc in Neural Computing, practices psychotherapist and is Member BPsP (Brit. Psych. Soc). Steve has published strategy software including Shogi (which reached the Grand Final world Shogi computer championships in Tokyo) and Chaturanga in addition to Enochian Chess, and has authored books including The Primal Eye (MVT), The Magical Writings of Ithell Colquhoun, Taro of the Four Worlds, ZENET: Egyptian Game of Immortality, and Minor Arcanaii of the Four Winds.
A student of astrology since the early 1980s, Sue very soon became fascinated by the western predictive tradition. Having been introduced to the work of William Lilly (1602-1681) through Zadkiel’s bastardized version of “Christian Astrology”, she has continued to focus on the original text.
Her work in Traditional astrology has been published in a wide variety of astrological magazines and journals, and she lectures nationally and internationally. Research into and study of William Lilly’s work remains her passion.
She undertakes client consultations and has taught the art through her correspondence courses for over twenty years.
Sue Ward Astrology Website
www.sue-ward.co.uk
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Susan Cross is a poet, heritage and environmental interpretation consultant and occasional pirate. About a decade ago she realised that she has probably always been some kind of animist mystic and since then has endeavoured to make that a more conscious, clearer and brighter part of her life.
Timothy d’Arch Smith is a well-known bibliographer, reviewer and antiquarian bookseller with a special interest in the by-ways of literature, notably the occult and the curious.
For Aleister Crowley a book was a talisman and their every part right down to colour, dimension, and price was symbolic. He also used magical techniques to gain literary success–thus new editions of Crowley’s writing multiply daily, tantalizing the bibliographer. All the more indispensable is this authoritative guide to his magical first editions.
Timothy d’Arch Smith, widely acknowledged as a leading expert on Crowley and on underground literature, offers several shorter articles on:
*Oxford’s demonologist Montague Summers;
*R A Caton and his Fortune Press;
*Sexual prophet Ralph Chubb;
*Florence Farr;
*The British Library Private Case;
*and Timothy d’Arch Smith.
*For this new edition, he also adds an extra chapter on Crowley.
When Tom Bradley was a little boy he was given a gazetteer for Christmas. As little boys will, he looked up all the places in the world that start with the F-word. There were two, Fukien in China and Fukuoka in Japan. Little did he suspect that he would one day be exiled to both.
Tom is a former lounge harpist. During his pre-exilic period, he played his own transcriptions of Bach and Debussy in a Salt Lake City synagogue that had been transformed into a pricey watering hole by a nephew of the Shah of Iran.
He taught anglophone literature to Chinese graduate students in the years leading up to the Tiananmen Square massacre. He was politely invited to leave China after burning a batch of student essays about the democracy movement rather than surrendering them to “the leaders.”
Tom wound up teaching conversational skills to freshman dentistry majors in the Japanese “imperial university” where they used to vivisect our bomber pilots and serve their livers raw at festive banquets. But his writing somehow sustains him.
Tom’s latest books are Family Romance, a novel illustrated by Nick Patterson (Jaded Ibis Press), A Pleasure Jaunt With One of the Sex Workers Who Don’t Exist in the People’s Republic of China (Neopoiesis Press), Bomb Baby (Enigmatic Ink), Vital Fluid (Crossing Chaos), Even the Dog Won’t Touch Me (Ahadada Press), Hemorrhaging Slave of an Obese Eunuch (Dog Horn Publishing), My Hands Were Clean (Unlikely Books) and Put It Down in a Book (The Drill Press), which was named 3:AM Magazine’s Non-Fiction Book of the Year. Further curiosity can be indulged at http://tombradley.org.
Reviews and blurbs:
Tom Bradley is one of the most exasperating, offensive, pleasurable, and brilliant writers I know. I recommend his work to anyone with spiritual fortitude and a taste for something so strange that it might well be genius.
— Denis Dutton, Arts & Letters Daily
I tell you that Dr. Bradley has devoted his existence to writing because he intends for every center of consciousness, everywhere, in all planes and conditions (not just terrestrial female Homo sapiens in breeding prime), to love him forever, starting as soon as possible, though he’s prepared to wait thousands of centuries after he’s dead.
— Cye Johan, Exquisite Corpse
The contemporaries of Michelangelo found it useful to employ the term “terribilita” to characterize some of the expressions of his genius, and I will quote it here to sum up the shocking impact of this work as a whole. I read it in a state of fascination, admiration, awe, anxiety, and outrage.
— R.V. Cassill, editor of The Norton Anthology of Fiction
Upperworld: Shamanism and Magick of the Celestial Realms
Chris Allaun
ISBN: 978-1-906958-92-3
Format: Softcover
£15.00 / US$24.00
Subjects: Angels/Magick/Shamanism/Myths/Healing/Spirituality
Click HERE for Upperworld / UK
Click HERE for Upperworld / USA and AUS
The stars glow with their own special magick in the nighttime sky. For millions of years, the stars sent their light down to the earth. The same stars and planets we see today are the same bodies of light that ancient shamans saw around their campfires. Countless generations looked into the night sky and wondered about the magick above. It was the shamans who travelled in spirit to the Upperworlds to discover the secrets of the Universe. There are many ancient beings in the above worlds that can help us learn about the energies of the Universe and transform our lives for healing, power, and spiritual evolution.
As we journey into the Upperworlds, we will learn about the creation of the Universe and the energies that were formed from the first burst of energy and light. Shamans saw that these energies formed into powerful beings. Some called these beings angels, others called them ascended masters. Each of these beings has a divine purpose in the Universe and we will unravel these mysteries. We will learn to spirit travel into the many heavens from many different cultures. We will visit the heavens that were told to us in myths, as well as discover hidden parts of the Universe that await our arrival. We will also learn about the gods and goddesses and how to honour them in our daily magical practice. The gods are powerful and they can grant us many blessings. Through our magical practice with the night sky, we will use the magick of the stars and planets to transform our lives and the physical world around us.
“Like those before him, Christopher Allaun steals a little bit of the fire of heaven and shares it with his readers. While the underworld might be more in vogue these days, he tackles the rich lore of the heavens, and shares practical teachings that can be brought down to Earth for when you want to seek the stars.”
– Christopher Penczak, Co-Founder of The Temple of Witchcraft and author of City Magick, The Witch’s Shield and The Mighty Dead.
“Chris Allaun’s new book, “Upperworld”, is a very interesting and informative read. Consistent with his previous work, Chris focuses on the myths, legends and spiritual teachings of an eclectic mix of cultures from around the world, giving insights into their ways of viewing the “higher” realms. Chris gives information on the Shamanic worldview and the place of the Upperworld within it, detailing techniques to access and explore its various realms. Drawing on diverse sources, he not only describes the denizens of the various realms of the gods, angels, stars, planets and kabbalistic worlds but gives practical information on how to make contact and interact with them. There are rites of worship, magic, devotion, astral projection and healing that not only give an insight into the practical working of pagan, Shamanic experience but enable the reader to experience these themselves and take their own journey along the Shamanic path. This is an accessible and approachable work, both for the newcomer to the subject and the more experienced practitioner alike; both will derive benefit from reading this book.”
–Nigel G. Pearson, author of Treading the Mill: Workings of Traditional Witchcraft and The Devil’s Plantation: East Anglian Lore, Witchcraft, and Folk-Magick.
“Ancient shamans didn’t spend all their time journeying through the hazards of the underworld. They also took time to explore the heavens (or “Upperworld”), to learn the mysteries of creation, healing, and magick directly from the gods. It is refreshing, in this time when goetia is given so much focus, to see the author’s exploration of the concepts and spiritual beings of the celestial realms. Just as important, his focus upon lore, legend, and mythology in developing a true understanding of and shamanic relationship with these beings is vital, and often missed in modern Western occult texts.”
– Aaron Leitch, author of Secrets of the Magical Grimoires: The Classical Texts of Magick Deciphered and The Essential Enochian Grimoire: An Introduction to Angelic Magick from Dr. John Dee to the Golden Dawn.
Check out Chris Allaun’s news, classes, workshops and other events-
Chris Allaun: Author, Teacher, Healer
https://www.facebook.com/chrisallaun.author/?rc=p
Photo by Astrid Grunwald
Vincent Ongkowidjojo has been a long time student of Freya Aswynn and currently co-manages Freya’s School of Runes and Northern Mysteries. His vision is rooted in Western and Eastern esoteric philosophies. He practices and teaches Taiji and meditation. Vincent earlier published Secrets of Asgard, and Runen in de Noordse Traditie.
He graduated as a master in Assyriology, having studied both Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic. Visit Vincent’s website for latest updates on talks, courses and workshops in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands.
www.alhaz.be
And read these short essays on scribd reading site:
Some supplementary essays on Norse mythology on scribd.
Painter, Engineer of the INPG National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble, France, Professor of Electronics at the University of Montreal, Canada, President of the French Association of Industrial Advertising in Paris, Consultant in communication and behavior, Orleans, Xavier Bolot leads his research on the various problems of perception with the support of the National Fine Art School of Bourges in France. He publishes innovative books by L’Harmattan major editor in Paris, France:
Drawing in Real Perspective, The Neutral Light, Vision in Action, The Three Realities. He is a researcher at the CEAQ (Center of Studies on the Present and Everyday Life) University of Paris V Descartes Sorbonne.
