Editor's note: This
will
be a regular feature in Silver Star Journal. Any and all readers are
encouraged
to submit reviews that they feel pertain to the magickal community. We
also actively seek publications of all kinds for review in this space.
Send
submissions (or requests for a snailmail address for review books and
mags) to:aion@psychicsophia.com In this Issue we have reviews by...
Shade Oroboros - many many many astounding
reviews AND...
Papa Nick - MORE astounding book
reviews...
Aion - One More.....Hail Eris!
Reviews by Shade Oroboros
The Apophenion: A
Chaos Magic Paradigm by Peter J. Carroll,
Mandrake 2008, 160 pages, illustrated,
footnoted and indexed.
In the wide wonderful world
of Chaos Magick, it is kind of a big event when Peter Carroll writes a
new book. This one does of course have many magical elements, but it is
actually devoted to addressing profoundly fundamental issues: the
nature of existence, time and space, the structure of the universe and
the (un?)reality of the Self. The man has clearly been thinking vary
hard about stuff, specifically Relativity, Quantum Theory and Chaos. On
the way he discards the very notion of ‘being’ in favor of Panpsychism,
trashes the concept of any individual ‘consciousness’ by redefining
‘mind’ as a verb rather than a noun, proposes a new personal pantheism,
reexamines causality in magical terms, and completely blows off the
current theories of the Big Bang theory of the universe in favor of a
new physics model of Vorticitating Hyperspherical Spacetime. I am nowhere near doing
justice to his thesis, and definitely lack the math skills to grok his
appended equations. But as far as I can follow his thought, it seems to
make more sense than many other theories, largely works for me, and is
well worth some very serious consideration. I have the lurking feeling
this all this is important. Apophenia, by the way, is the
goddess of finding unsuspected meaning, patterns and connections.
Magic Words: A
Dictionary by Craig Conley,
WeiserBooks 2008, 352 pages, illustrated and extensively footnoted.
A massive and truly amazing
tour de force of linguistic dexterity, merging sorcery, etymology,
history, and literature into a global cascade of words of power magical
and otherwise, drawn from countless ancient and modern civilizations.
The art of Grammarye meets literary erudition, with each word examined,
explained, and illuminated by wild and witty quotations from countless
sources. Spells, mantras and Qabala meet slang, hokum and poetry.
Enormous fun, and about thirty pages devoted to aspects of Abracadabra
and its variants alone! Big fun! Hours of creative playtime!
Supernatural
Assault in Ancient Egypt: Seth, Renpet & Moon Magick by Mogg
Morgan,
Mandrake of Oxford 2008, 315 pages, illustrated, bibliography,
footnotes and index.
A stimulating study of some
of the magical aspects of life in ancient times, including protection
from demons and vampires, calendars of sacred festivals, almanacs of
dream interpretation and lucky or unlucky days, divination by lamps,
and other strangeness. Egypt is the true source of much of our magical
thought and technique, and drawing from original sources now being
studied by academics brings us closer to the wellspring of our gods…
and since academics often have cultural limitations, it is very good to
have magicians to interpret them. Mr. Morgan has also written
several other related works, including Tankhem: Seth & Egyptian
Magick, The Bull of Ombos, and the thought-provoking Sexual Magick
under the nom-de-plume Katon Shual.
Magick Works:
Stories of Occultism in Theory and Practice by Julian Vayne,
Mandrake 2008, 172 pages, indexed. Personal history, creative
Qabala, occult rituals to Ra-Hoor-Khuit, Brigit and Pomba Gira,
academic papers, psychedelic experiences, thoughts on pagan parenting
and permaculture politics, creating sacred space and wandering mythic
landscape, Techgnosis and Utopia merge in that all too rare occurrence,
a magical autobiography of sorts, a collected grimoire in a way, a
portent of things to come in Chaos magick, and a very diverse series of
thoughts well worth examination… There are still far too few
genuine magical autobiographies, one would have hoped (considering the
egos involved!) for an entire genre. Yet when I look at the literature,
about all I come up with are Crowley’s lurid Confessions and DuQuette’s
entertaining My Life With The Spirits…
Enochian Vision
Magick by Lon Milo DuQuette,
WeiserBooks 2008, 262 pages, illustrated and footnoted, bibliography.
…and speaking of Lon Milo
Duquette… personally, I have never delved too deeply into the realm of
Enochian Magick. At first, the Golden Dawn struck me as confused, and
even Crowley’s distillation more than a bit confusing. Gerald Shueler’s
renditions, frankly, failed to impress. Publication of more recent
and much better works (Enochian Evocation of John Dee by Geoffrey James
and John Dee’s Five Books of Mystery by Joseph Peterson) which drew
upon more of the original texts convinced me that there were indeed
serious possibilities, but I generally had rather more contemporary
pursuits. The Enochian system of
Angelic Magick was received by the famous Renaissance magus, spy,
diplomat and multi-disciplinary scholar John Dee and his shifty scryer
Edward Kelley, and still has quite a mystique in modern esoteric
circles. If this book had been written sooner, I might have changed
course. Informed by study, confirmed by practice, tested by study
groups (were there any survivors?), this appears to be the clearest and
most coherent manual for using the system ever produced. By many
accounts this tradition also appears to be one of those rare systems
with enough self-contained voltage to become prone to genuine results.
Mr. DuQuette is a very prolific, experienced and humorous (a sign of
sanity) mage and author; his classic Magick of Thelema and clever
Chicken Qabala are excellent places for any beginner to start, and he
never fails to enlighten.
Politics and the
Occult: the Left, the Right, and the Radically Unseen by Gary Lachman,
Quest Books 2008, 276 pages, extensively footnoted and indexed.
Yet another thoughtful and
significant work from Gary Lachman, whose A Dark Muse and Turn Off Your
Mind I have previously reviewed. This ambitious survey explores the
European and American history of heretical movements and occult
influences, and the ways that political thought has emerged from what
is now considered underground esotericism, even though most of it was
relatively mainstream in its own time. The usual suspects such as
Rosicrucians, Alchemists, Illuminati, Masons, Theosophists and
Traditionalists all have had huge social impacts. Theosophy was near
the center of the movement for India’s independence from the British
Empire; Spiritualism influenced generations and widely supported
Women’s Suffrage, and it has been suggested that as the majority of
mediums were women, this was perhaps a channel for their usually
suppressed voices to be heard. Much nonsense has been
published about Nazi occultism, but in the early days it did have some
surprisingly Green roots (Fascism sure seemed like a much better idea
before the experience of WWII!). The surge of Asian thought in the West
still sustains much of the New Age movement, and End Times
fundamentalist Christianity is weird as hell and still completely
infests the Far Right in America today. Ideas and revolutions have no
natural boundaries. It is important to note that
there are what we would now consider both left-wing and right-wing
strands weaving through this saga, and that both sides were often
involved in a fervent revolt against modernity. The academic world has
always had some very strange personalities. This is not the standard
Paranoid Conspiracy mish-mash, but fascinating and important history
that is seldom told, and truly engrossing reading. Inseparable from the
ideas are those who lived them, and this is largely a long series of
brief biographies of many amazing people, who tend to be connected in
very odd ways; among the more recent examined are Blavatsky, Besant,
Swedenborg, Gurdjieff, Roerich, Guenon, Evola, Steiner, Eliade, Jung,
Campbell and even a bit of Crowley.
The Encyclopedia
of Magic and Alchemy by Rosemary Ellen Guiley,
Facts on File 2006, 370 pages, illustrated, bibliography and index.
An excellent,
informative and wide-ranging reference volume, and a fine introduction
to many aspects of the arcane arts. It is especially good for the many
revealing biographies of our mages, martyrs, heretics and alchemical
philosophers, and hence useful for those seeking their romantic
previous incarnations. Great entertainment and gems of knowledge! The
prolific Ms. Guiley has produced several other fine encyclopedias on
themes including Witchcraft, Angels, Ghosts, and Vampires. I always
appreciate a body of condensed and organized information…
Ecstatic Ritual:
Practical Sex Magick by Brandy Williams,
Megalithica Books 2008, 2nd edition, 145 pages, bibliography, index.
A revised and expanded 20th
anniversary edition of one of the first truly useful works on sexual
magick in the West, informed by the Tantric techniques of the East, the
deities of the ancient Mediterranean cultures, and the secrets of Wicca
and Thelemic Magick. Largely made up of a diverse, clever and creative
series of exercises for both preparation (White Rites) and practice
(Red Rites), along with details of the history and sources as well as
thoughts on the ethics, aspects and implications of the sensual and
erotic sorceries that are now liberating our souls and transforming our
alchemical energies on the deepest and most human levels. She has also
rescued the useful title of Hetaera for the priestess of such
mysteries. This book is easily far more useful, grounded, and honest
than most of the utter nonsense one finds written on this subject.
(As an
aside, in my opinion the other most useful works on the subject for
hardcore Thelemic mages are probably Secrets of Sex Magick by Frater
U.D., Modern Sex Magick by Donald Michael Kraig, Demons of the Flesh:
The Complete Guide to Left Hand Path Sex Magic by Nicholas & Zeena
Schreck. and perhaps Sexual Alchemy by Donald Tyson.)
Totemism: Your
Personal Guide to Animal Totems by Lupa,
Megalithica Books 2008, 206 pages, bibliography, index.
This is a work of
considerable scholarship and the result of many years of magical (some
might say shamanic) practice with one of the very oldest mysteries of
humanity, the communion with animal powers and totemic spirits. We are
not alone on this planet, and the diversity of the species that
surround us is astounding. With the rise of Wicca and the New Age, many
attempts have been made to recover this wisdom, often raising thorny
issues. So-called Neo-Shamanism is not necessarily rooted in indigenous
cultures, and the appropriation and exploitation of Native American
tribal customs has been a rather offensive staple of the New Age long
before and after Carlos Castaneda. Many teachers have (sincerely or
not) marketed themselves and their generic spiritualities in ways that
do them very little credit. Lupa discusses this and many other issues
of ecology and animal rights and aspects of the Neo-Pagan movement, but
all that is in a sense a preface. More important is her
wide-ranging and creative exploration of the realities and options of
working with the living spirits of the species we share this planet
with, how we reflect them, and the ways we can transform ourselves
through such experiments. She explores many techniques like
shapeshifting and chemognosis, possibilities such as having
long-extinct species or food animals as allies, the modes of union and
creations of art. She surveys the literature and the various animal
card decks, and in several appendixes other voices are heard. Her work
opens and illuminates possibilities. All life on earth shares the same
DNA, and as the poet William Blake has said, ““For everything that
lives is holy, life delights in life”.
Creole Religions
of the Caribbean: An Introduction from Vodou and Santeria to Obeah and
Espiritismo
by Margarite Fernandez Olmos & Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert,
NYU Press 2003, 262 pages, illustrated, footnoted and indexed.
I like to throw in the
occasional academic work, and this is a very good one indeed: a
comprehensive guide to all the Creole or Afro-Caribbean syncretic
religions and their Diaspora, including those listed in the title along
with Regla de Palo, Quimbois, the Vodou and Abakua secret societies,
the Rastafarians This is the suppressed history of the pantheons, art
and rituals which have enabled some of the most oppressed people in the
world to survive. These are very rich and magical practices, and study
of their similarities and differences are quite illuminating.
Voudon Gnosis by
David Beth,
Scarlet Imprint 2008, limited to 555 copies, 90 pages, illustrated and
indexed.
This work has been greatly
expanded from an essay in the anthology Howlings, and is an
authoritative introduction to the works of Michael Bertiaux and his
Monastery of the Seven Rays. The few people who are aware of this order
have probably seen accounts in the writings of Kenneth Grant or read
Bertiaux’s own Voudon Gnostic Workbook (much sought after and recently
reprinted). Suffice it to say that this is one of the most damnably
strange and esoteric arcane systems ever conceived, birthed from
genuinely traditional Voudon and mutated by Alchemy, Thelema, Shinto,
Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, Quantum Physics, Lovecraft, and many other
influences. Almost impossible to describe, let alone understand,
without a guide to turn the key… and David Beth is that guide. He has
spent many years working with Bertiaux and his system, and his brief
but illuminating account of the essential aspects opens a window and
provides a map to an arcane and wonderful alternate universe. There is
also some very interesting art…
Pop Culture
Magick by Taylor Ellwood,
Megalithica Books, 2nd edition, 2007. 142 pages, bibliography.
This is my review of Taylor’s
book from several years ago: Here we have a remarkable
examination of the possibilities of developing a magical system based
on the active images of the 21st century. All Pop Culture is
essentially a form of outsider art, revolutionary by nature if not
always by intent, ripe for the exploitation of the Spectacle that
blinds the masses, but not yet absorbed into the mainstream. The
cliques of gamers and fanboys who explore comix, manga, Japanese anime,
role-playing or computer games are creating a whole new mythology, and
any archetype in new forms retains primordial power while providing the
thrill of novelty. Drawing on the surprising implications of
psychology, technology, Chaos and sigil magick as well as the work of
mages such as William G. Gray, Stephen Mace and Hakim Bey, Mr. Ellwood
has really produced some unique ideas, carefully and systematically
explored step-by-step. Jung’s Collective Unconscious just isn’t what it
used to be… Our reality is formed by our environment, and that
inevitably includes television and film, music and magazines, computer
and video games. Can we assume the god-form of Superman or Xena,
Warrior Princess? Do superhero costumes create effects through the same
color codes employed in sorcery? Can we weave sigils into our collages
and implant them into interactive gaming networks? Are the characters
in fantasy novels or the complex and occasionally inscrutable
metaphysics of anime now manifesting the spirits of old? Are the
magicks of media replacing the doctrines of religion? Are the cards of
Magic: The Gathering comparable to the Tarot? Strange thoughts for the
traditionalist, perhaps, but we live in times of rapid and radical
change. For the open-minded, this is an extremely thought-provoking
book. How modern can magick truly become?
The Pop Culture
Grimoire: A Pop Culture Magic Anthology edited by Taylor Ellwood,
Megalithica Books 2008, 157 pages.
And this is what Taylor hath
wrought: a movement, a paradigm, and a grimoire! Inspired by his
seminal book above, his other volume Multi Media Magic (reviewed last
issue) and his infamous essay Invoking Buffy (along with some
influences from Chaos Magick, and from Grant Morrison’s essay Pop
Magick! and the Invisibles comix series), the genie is out of the TV
and into the computer. There are some very
intelligent essays and entire new systems collected here, reflecting
the surge of mutations attendant upon the dawn of the new millennium.
Popular culture is not just a product of technology; Madame Blavatsky’s
books reignited wide interest in Atlantis. Symbols transmute, transfer
and transform. The ancient Greek hero Hercules is still making movies,
and Thor still has a comic book. Has anyone noticed the similarities
between Jesus and Superman? Both had fathers who sent them down from
heaven to save the world… and Superman was resurrected recently. I personally may not regard
online role-playing games like World of Warcraft or Vampire the Requiem
as synonymous with the astral plane, but many people are planting
interesting sigilic seeds in them. Japanese Anime may not be my idea of
shamanic initiation, but it works for some. Elvis and the screen
goddess Marilyn Monroe are archetypes now, and there are rituals to and
channeling from both included here. There’s also a Narnia rite, and
techniques for evoking the Pokemon deck as retinue of spirits. The huge
advances in special effects do indeed provide excellent templates for
creative visualization. As a surviving magical syncretism, Vodou easily
assimilates contemporary iconography; much of post-modern occultism
inevitably does the same. Patrick Dunn’s essay on The Critical Value of
Magical Thinking and high versus low culture is especially thought
provoking.
Jay’s Journal of
Anomalies (Conjurers, Cheats, Hustlers, Hoaxsters, Pranksters,
Jokesters, Imposters, Pretenders, Sideshow Showmen, Armless
Calligraphers, Mechanical Marvels, Popular Entertainers) by Ricky Jay,
Quantuck Lane Press 2003, 202 pages, beautifully illustrated,
footnoted, and indexed.
Ricky Jay is a well-known
stage magician, film star, and prolific authority on various scams,
historical oddities and freak-shows. This volume collects a wonderful
series of essays originally issued as deluxe broadsheets and covering
talking dogs, calculating pigs, flea circuses, midgets and fat ladies,
chess-playing automatons, early exponents of conjuring, con-games,
illusions, frauds and fads, fasting and self-crucifixions and nose
amputations, and even more indescribable delights. A veritable cabinet
of wonders profusely illustrated with countless and very rare period
portraits, playbills and advertisements. It is wise to recall that the
distinction between sleight-of-hand and occult magic is a relatively
recent innovation…
Before moving on
to some works of fiction, I would like to mention two volumes that have
been reviewed by Papa Nick below (this is not the first time we have
both reviewed the same books!).
DEVOTED is a wonderful anthology of
very personal and poetic accounts of forming relationships with various
deities, not a how-to book but a series of meditations on the process
and where it may take you. Magick and the Old Gods are to my mind
inseparable, and I was especially taken by the chapters on Loki, the
many aspects of the Dark Goddess, and of working with the Loa, but
every piece is a jewel whose facets shine light on the inner
transformations such devotions create, and give a real sense of the
rewards, ordeals and deep, primal urgency of Love. There is some truly
heartfelt and very lovely writing here, and real magick.
As for the Graphic Grimoire CONJUNCTIO by my friend Orryelle
Defenestrate-Bascule, it is indeed spectacular. I've always admired
Orryelle's gift for art and seeing it reproduced with such high
production values is a genuine pleasure. Among my favorite images are
his Shu and Tefnut, and Nuit and Hadit. Throughout the entire work the
essential pairing of images is striking, and it is very important to
keep turning the images around and viewing them from every angle (in
fact, one of my strongest memories from first meeting Nema back in the
1970s was the way she turned every piece of art we showed her upside
down). This is multi-dimensional artwork, meant to be seen from every
direction and serving as gateways to both dreams and reality. As a Grimoire it presents a
virtually kaleidoscopic pantheon of the Dual Aeon of the Twins
Horus/Maat, merging universal concepts originating in Egyptian, Hindu,
Babylonian, Celtic, African, Norse and other forms to depict the living
and cosmic archetypes which exist behind all their varied cultural
forms, with subtle and excellent text to complement the flowing astral
art which is rooted, as with so much of great art, in the stunning
miracle of the human body. It is absolutely one of the most magical
books I have ever seen, and I have seen a few... I cannot compliment
Orryelle enough for his Great Work.
Sybarite Among
The Shadows by Richard McNeff,
Mandrake 2008, 206 pages.
In 1936, on the day of the
Surrealist Exhibition in London, Victor Neuberg is wandering about with
a drunken Dylan Thomas and briefly reconnects with his old teacher and
lover Aleister Crowley. A very clever idea, fleshed out with wit and
style and an excellent sense of the times. They meet up with any number
of Crowley’s acquaintances and many other rather appalling denizens of
the demimonde, among whom the King and Mrs. Simpson are not the least
repulsive. There are also hints of the dark drama involving Crowley’s
lifelong career with British intelligence. This long dark night of
Neuberg’s soul ends with a dramatic invocation of Horus, who more or
less informs the Beast that he got it all completely wrong. This may
upset some devotees of Crowleyolatry, and I felt a bit of a twinge
myself, but then I thought about Aleister at that point in his life and
figured hey, by then Horus probably really was ready to smack him
upside his bald pointy head. Frankly, I believe the author caught the
various personalities involved pretty much spot on…
The Graveyard
Book by Neil Gaiman,
HarperCollins 2008, 320 pages, illustrated by Dave McKean.
This is a wonderful,
charming, amusing and heartwarming story about a boy adopted by the
dead and raised in a cemetery after his entire family is slaughtered by
a millennia-old conspiracy. "It takes a graveyard to raise a child.” As
with most classic fairy tales it has very dark elements, but becoming
an orphan neatly disposes of interfering parents in so many great works
of children’s literature, and winning this year’s prestigious Newberry
Award seals this tale’s lofty status in that category. The diverse ghostly community
is delightful, and the local vampire who becomes his guardian brings in
the necessities of life (books and fast-food). There are very funny
guest appearances by the slapstick ghouls from H.P. Lovecraft’s
Dream-Quest of Unknown Kaddath, and Mr. Gaiman’s usual light touch with
clever riffs on world mythology. This is a great adventure story, a
coming-of-age story, and ultimately a moving affirmation of life. Some
people leave the Christmas decorations up all year, but for me it is
always Halloween in my heart; and this is a joyous work of the
Halloween spirit that I can only compare with Roger Zelazny’s brilliant
A Night In The Lonesome October. In fact, I sometimes compare Gaiman
with Zelazny, both for originality of invention and the knack of
leaving many things unsaid, some details obscure, left for the reader
to fill in with full confidence that the writer knows all.
Gaiman’s other recent Young
Adult tale is Coraline (but let us take a moment to salute that shifty
Young Adult category: Alan Garner, Susan Cooper, John Bellairs, Edith
Nesbit, Lewis Carroll, Rosemary Sutcliff, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis,
J.K. Rowling et al!). Another darkly delightful delicacy, Coraline is
now also taking the world by storm in three forms: the original book,
the lovely graphic novel adaptation by P. Craig Russell, and the
remarkable 3D film animation (which did very well in the theaters!).
Each version reflects a multifaceted prism-view of a sinister
archetypical otherworld, a magical conflict between a young girl and
the grimly sinister Other Mother (now there’s a deeply disturbing
concept!). Again, they may be a bit scary for younger kids, but
necessary warnings (Stay out of the dark woods!) and dealing with fears
are essential parts of the old stories – and we should never
underestimate our children.
Conjure
Wife & Our Lady
of Darkness by Fritz Leiber,
various editions but recently Tor Books 1991, double edition, 347 pages.
Every now and then I like to
revisit the classics, and these are two of the greatest supernatural
novels of the 20th century. Fritz Leiber is perhaps best known for
creating the much-loved S&S characters Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser
(tales of wonder, daring and wit!) but he also wrote some of the best
horror ever (many were short stories, one of the best forms for
horror).
Conjure Wife (1943) relates a
college anthropology professor's discovery that his wife (and all the
other women in the world) are secretly using witchcraft, often against
one another and for or against their husbands. In a nightmare life or
death struggle (for chairmanship of the department!) he is forced to
shed all rationality and accept the reality of the supernatural. A very
clever minor detail that has always stuck with me: while making a
hoodoo charm bag, one of the ingredients is a virgin phonograph needle
that has only played one specific piece of music: Scriabin’s 9th
Sonata, the most evil piece of music ever… Conjure Wife was actually
filmed three times in some form or another: as Weird Woman in 1944; as
Burn, Witch, Burn! (aka Night of the Eagle) in 1962; and as Witches'
Brew (aka Which Witch is Which?) in 1980; it was also an episode of Rod
Serling’s Twilight Zone.
In Our Lady of Darkness
(1978) Leiber creates a new occult science called Megapolisomancy, the
art of predicting and manipulating the future through the arcane
qualities of vast mega-cities, their populations, and the physical and
psychological effects of the masses of concrete & steel,
electricity & paper, that breed strange new entities from them.
This “electro-mephitic city-stuff… has potencies for achieving vast
effects at distant times and localities, even in the far future and on
other orbs…” The dark science is the creation of the mathematical
sorcerer Thibaut De Castries, who arrived in San Francisco in 1900 and
founded an occult society, the Hermetic Order of the Onyx Dusk, and our
hero (based on Leiber himself) finds himself stalked by ‘paramental
entities’ and malign geomancies in a very clever modern take on the
classic haunting. Lovecraft would be proud… this novel won a World
Fantasy Award.
Dark Grimoire
Tarot/Tarot del Necronomicon, art by Michele Penco,
78-card deck with instruction booklet by Giovanni Pelosini, Lo Scarabeo
2008.
Dark indeed! Based largely on
Lovecraft’s Necronomicon but also inspired by all the goetic and
daemonic excesses of the medieval grimoires and their hellish
traditions, a twilight world emerges that seems devoted to or perhaps
cursed by intercourse with inhuman entities and alien gateways to
unholy dimensions. Non-Euclidean architecture prevails, and the theme
of the accursed tome constantly resurges. The traditional cup, wand,
sword and disk appear only on the court cards, but I doubt that the
type of deviant who collects this kind of stuff will mind… quite
atmospheric, and good unclean fun!
Heaven’s War by
Micah Harris, illustrated by Michael Gaydos,
B&W graphic novel, Image 2003.
One of the most famous
literary circles was a collection of Oxford dons known as the Inklings,
who included J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings), C.S. Lewis (Narnia),
and Charles Williams, a member of A.E. Waite’s late schism of the
Golden Dawn, whose series of clever and effective (if perhaps somewhat
Christian) occult novels are unjustly forgotten by many today. All four of these gentlemen
team up to prevent the Evil Awful Aleister Crowley from bringing about
the Apocalypse in this ripping and well-illustrated graphic novel,
which incorporates much of the Knights
Templar/Merovingians/Cathars/Priory of Zion/Rennes le Chateau mythos
with time travel and secret cults. Quite well done.
For those who enjoy such Da
Vinci Code/Holy Blood, Holy Grail (Holy Cow!) stuff, another such
phenomenon is the ongoing comix series Rex Mundi created by Arvid
Nelson, which is apparently reaching its climax shortly; the graphic
novel collections are already appearing. Set in an alternate historical
time-line, full of magick, swashbuckling and corrupt nobility, it is
another thoroughly engaging work of esoteric entertainment.
For that matter, those who
like their Chaos Magick mixed with alien sex, gratuitous violence and
automatic weapons might enjoy the adventures of Sergeant Major William
Gravel, a combat magician doing deniable Black Ops for the SAS. First
chronicled in a series of B&W graphic novels (Strange Kisses,
Stranger Kisses, Strange Killings, Strange Killings: Strong Medicine,
Strange Killings: Body Orchard, Strange Killings: Necromancer) and now
an ongoing color comic series called simply Gravel, our grim hero
unleashes high-caliber munitions and arcane mayhem. The series is
written by Warren Ellis, the prolific creator of The Authority,
Planetary, and Transmetropolitan series, and also of the bizarre and
acclaimed recent novel Crooked Little Vein, which may aptly be
described as Raymond Chandler meets William S. Burroughs (and things
does not end well…)
And if your tastes do run in
this direction, try the horrific series of Cal McDonald mysteries. Let
the titles of the Criminal Macabre graphic novels roll around on your
tongue: Last Train To Deadsville; Guns, Drugs & Monsters; Bubonic
Nights; Two Red Eyes; My Demon Baby; Savage Membrane; Dial M for
Monster… utterly ghastly and often very funny.
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES!
EXPLORE YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY!
(which often have graphic novels now…)
Book Reviews by Papa Nick
PRIESTESSES PYTHONESSES SYBILS -- The Sacred Voices of Women who speak
with and for the Gods Edited by Sorita D'Este, Avalonia
Books, London, November 2008.
Greece, 8th
Century BC. Within the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, a Sibyl known
as Pythia is seated on a curious throne: a large bowl supported by a
tripod. From below, hypnotic vapors rise from a cleft in
the earth. In her hands she holds laurel leaves and a bowl of
sacred water into which she gazes. Questions are posed, and this
Pythoness, in the voice of Apollo, speaks what she sees in the lustral
waters.
Fast forward to
the outskirts of London, 21st Century CE. A priestess of the
Scandinavian pagan path of Seidr is perched upon the High Seat,
entranced by the scent of smoldering sage and rosemary and the sounds
of low drumming and chanting. She is dressed in a blue robe, its
hood pulled down to conceal her face, and she holds a staff. The
Seeress sinks down through the earth to Helheim, the Norse Underworld,
there to converse with the ancestors and spirits. The congregants
gather 'round and pose their questions, and the Seeress responds,
channeling the voices of those beyond the veil of space and time.
These are scenes
from very different times and places, but are eerily similar.
Women acting as Oracles were commonplace in the pagan world, but Her
voice has been nearly silent for some 3000 years. Beginning with
Moses and his tablets of written laws from the One (male) God, there
was a concerted effort by the forces of patriarchal monotheism to
replace the sybilline Oracle with the male Prophet: he who shouts down
angry edicts from the sky, drowning out the she who channeled the deep
wisdom of the earth. Judaism, institutionalized Christianity and
Islam were very successful in this hostile takeover of the female
deities' domain. The Goddess did not fall -- she was pushed.
"Priestesses
Pythonesses Sybils" is a wonderful documentation of the many ways the
voice of the Sacred Feminine is re-arising around us. After
thousands of years of muteness, She is speaking again. It would
be wise for all of us to listen to that Voice: with the patriarchal
economic power structure crashing around us, we will need a holistic,
nurturing vision for the society of the future, and the Pythoness can
provide that inspiration.
Editor Sorita
D'Este has done a marvelous job collecting essays from 18 women from
many different Pagan paths that are some of the voices in this
chorus. Many of the authors describe entering the esoteric by one
or another path, then absorbing methods from other magical systems, not
finding them at odds with their basic perspective. I think this
is emblematic of the magical revival in the 21st Century: there seems
to be a "blending" of the esoteric systems from cultures around the
world, working towards a World Magick of sorts, a coat of many
colors. Each initiate wears the coat that fits them.
The essay by
Janet Farrar is a good example of this. She is most well-known as
a Wiccan in the Alexandrian tradition, but she has embraced Voudon and
Seidh in recent years because that is where she found real possession
taking place. She has incorporated techniques from these
and many other traditions into her current work.
Vivienne
O'Regan's first magickal mentor was Kenneth Grant, but it was only
after discovering the writings of Dion Fortune, in particular "The Sea
Priestess", that she saw the way to priestesshood. The Goddess
eventually led her to Olivia Robertson and the Fellowship of Isis.
Each author has
her own story, and unique journey, but more importantly describes what
it means to become a channel for the divine. Each has a somewhat
different approach: from Drawing Down the Moon and becoming the Goddess
incarnate, to travelling to the Underworld to capture the voices of the
shadows, to submitting to being the horse that is mounted by the lwa to
ride between the worlds, to incubating oracular dreams, or simply
dancing the dance of possession -- no words necessary. The
movement of the body speaks that which cannot be written.
The introductory
essays (Ecstatic Histories) should not be overlooked, as they set the
tone and timbre of what follows in the individual voices. Sorita
D'Este's "Mantic Voices" engages the question of what it means to be a
Sibyl or Pythoness in the modern age. "The Pythia" by Caroline
Tully explores what it meant to be an oracle at Delphi, and the
gender-politics involved: their speech (the voice of the male god
Apollo) was very welcomed, but they themselves wielded no real power or
authority. "Silent Priestesses" by Kim Huggens describes the
behind-the-scenes influence of female visionaries in the early days of
Christianity, something that remains a well-kept secret.
But it is in part
2 (Sacred Utterances) that the present-day Oracles speak. The
Delphic Oracle is not something that has been lost forever, it is here
today; maybe not at Delphi or Cumae, but in private and personal
temples and groves in Europe, the Americas and beyond. Women who
have heard the Sibyl's call will be inspired by these experiential
accounts from those who have already mounted the High Seat.
The gods and
goddesses of old were silenced for centuries by the madness of
monotheism, but they are reawakening, and their voices may still be
heard, and their dances danced, by their modern-day priestesses.
This is not a
book about dark deities, or a volume of ready-made incantations and
rituals. There are still plenty of introductory "how-to" manuals
on the shelves of the bookstores' occult section, but the most
satisfying tomes for those of us who have already mastered the
preliminaries are those that are based on experience. The new
generation of occult literature is not meant to teach, but to share the
forbidden fruit with the brethren; field notes from the fringe written
by the graduate students of the magical revival.
"Devoted" is an
exciting book: it throbs with passion and divine intoxication. It
is personal... even intimate, because it is essentially a collection of
lovers' diaries. The Beloved, in this case, is the goddess or god
that has chosen each of the 15 writers to be hir suitor. This is
bhakti yoga, the path of Devotion, in action. Here are the
piquant fruits that come after all the theory and practice, after long
years of blood, sweat and tears poured out to the hidden god/dess,
until finally the hieros gamos is consummated.
Evocation is one
thing, invocation is another. Evocation of, say, a Goetic daemon, is
meant to be a temporary transaction; a short-term contract.
Strictly business. Invocation involves commitment: surrender and
trust and the willingness to share one's darkest dreams, fears and
desires with the Other. It is an opening of the heart. A
relationship always requires sacrifice, and in the case of the
God/esses, this sacrifice is all-encompassing.
Some of the
devotees in this volume really do risk their health and sanity in the
name of Love. Skin is flayed, pierced and tattooed -- the body
will forever carry the scars of love. Poisons are injected --
walking the fine line between supreme intoxication and death.
Possession is invited -- knowing that if the deity decides to keep you,
you will lose your self forever. These are dangerous liaisons, the
reward in proportion to the danger involved.
The focus is
mostly on the Dark Goddess, in the forms of Ishtar, Babalon, Lilith,
the Yoginis, Tiamat and Hecate. The re-arising of the Sacred
Feminine is well represented. But "masculine" entities like
Dionysos, Loki, the Lwa and the spirits of the Goetia are here as
well. "Gender" is an ill-fitting term when applied to deity;
often a god, goddess or spirit is a mix of male and female
energies.
I believe
devotional work is an important and necessary step in the growth of any
initiate, and that the choice of deity should be based on an inner
calling. In a real sense, They choose You. Tara chose me
some 30 years ago when I found a reproduction of a Tibetan Tara Thangka
in an import store. I saw her, and it was love at first
sight. A short Astarte working followed, but She has been a
constant companion and comfort ever since. Sometimes, the first
love is the best love.
We are fortunate,
in this day and age, to have free access to information about the
myriad gods and goddesses of our pagan past. After centuries of
suppression, and although the sacred statues, temples and groves have
been largely obliterated, we have fragments -- tantalizing hints -- of
the nature of the Old Ones and what their worship required. It is
up to us to re-assemble these fragments and rebuild those Temples, and
call the old god/esses back to their rightful place, and that will only
be possible by getting to know them better.
Like a previous
Scarlet Imprint title -- Howlings -- there are voices here from the
many individuals and traditions that make up the 21st Century magical
revival. Crowleyan Thelema is, at best, tangential to these
discussions. Most of the authors are followers of the Witch
Craft, tantrika, Voodoo, sorcery or are simply eclectic magicians
weaving their web with the colors that suit them. The public face
of magick -- institutionalized Thelema and the various Mystery Schools
-- is only a small part of the picture. I believe the
de-centralization of magick is what will ensure its survival as the
walls of civilization come tumbling down.
CONJUNCTIO -- A Graphic Grimmoire Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule,
Fulgur Limited, London, Autumnal Equinox 2008 Limited edition of 720 copies. (available in the Americas from
http://www.jdholmes.com/)
Over the years I
have had many dreams in which I was searching for, or stumbled upon, a
rare and mysterious magical book. I didn't know the title, or
what it contained, but I just knew it was out there somewhere, and that
when I opened it, great mysteries would be revealed. Sometimes I
found it in dreamtime, and opened it, but I could never bring back to
waking consciousness what was contained inside. I have stumbled
upon some important books in dayside consciousness (like "Images and
Oracles of Austin Osman Spare" many years ago), but none of them have
quite lived up to the ineffability of my dream book.
With
"Conjunctio", I found that book.
The cover itself
lived up my subconscious expectations: on the front the symbol of Sol
in gold, and on the back a Lunar crescent in silver. Wrapped
around the spine, two intertwined Serpents, one gold and one
silver. All of this on a field of blood red. This simple
design is an elegant way of hinting at the book's contents: mirrored
pairs of Sacred Twins and Divine Lovers. When the book is closed,
these divine pairs are interlocked in embrace, like Shiva and Shakti
before the Cosmic Dance began. When the book is opened, these
couples part and are revealed as separate but complementary
energies. This aligning of images would not be effective if it
had been done in a shoddy manner, but Fulgur clearly took great pains
to do it right: the images line up perfectly. In many cases, part
of an image does not make sense in the context of that page, but when
the pages are brought together, all the parts snap together to reveal
the whole story. It is a wonderful concept, wonderfully wrought.
Among the pairs
revealed in art and words are Osiris and Isis, Lilith and Pan,
Cerridwen and Cernunnos, Mut and Amun, Babalon and the Beast, Sphinx
and Aion, Sekhmet and Ptah, Nuit and Geb, Shiva and Shakti, and Horus
and Maat.
But don't expect
a picture-book of gods and goddesses with the usual textbook
explanations of what these deities mean based on archaeological
research. This is not a slapdash repackaging of public domain
images and generic platitudes. Orryelle's artwork is alive,
vibrant, detailed and clearly based on his experience working with
these archetypes. Movement and energy are captured on the page,
and one gets the feeling that these images are ready to leap off the
page and into the waking world.
The written
passages, too, exhibit Orryelle's unique vision: he has not been
content to compartmentalize these deities in the usual fashion; often
they are fusions of energies from different traditions which reveal
deeper levels of the deity. For example, his Babalon is fused
with the Vedic Mother-Goddess Durga. His Cerridwen is merged with
the Norse Goddess Hela, and his Cernunnos with the Norse Tyr, as well
as Shiva and Rudra. I was personally intrigued by the number of
female goddesses bearing birds' feet, wings and/or serpentine bodies
that are normally not associated with that goddess. His Isis, for
example, has all of these features -- definitely not the pristine and
regal image we are used to seeing.
This is a book of
alchemy, but it is also a new Tantra. It's conjunctions are not
just about the union of male and female energies, but is also a weaving
of (seemingly incongruous) deities and images into new and evolving
forms, fitting for our evolution into new forms ourselves, in these
early days of the New Aeon.
A book Review by Aion
The
Illuminatus Trilogy (The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple,
Leviathan) by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson,
Dell Paperbacks (and other publishers)
I hesitate to say that the modern
occult movement, Chaos Magick and various other wild and fomenting
cults, sects and lord-only-knows-what cabals would not exist today
without
this seminal work, but none of them (or us) would be the same without
it. And we are so much the better for the erupting insanity and
creative chaos of Mr. Shea and, especially, Mr. Wilson. RAW has sadly
left this sphere, may his ignited and luminous Ka ever shine in the
many quantum dimensional universe! But his Star shines on here on
Earth. Aside from single- handedly reviving the worship of the wild and
ecstatic goddess Eris, who is likely very grateful, these books
introduced (and continue to introduce…) more people to a wide
variety of occult concepts and images than any other work of fiction. I
remember when they first came out (several decades ago) reading them
and thinking :” Holy shit! These people think like I DO!” As a feral
teenager immersing myself in the fuzzy and rather daunting chaotic
world of the occult at the time, there were few guides. I mean, the Key
of Solomon? Gerald Gardner? Crowley? For goddess sake, I remember
howling, what does all this have to do with rock & roll and the
upheaval of the ages???!!! Then ILLUMINATUS dropped from the churning
heavens like a giant nuclear golden apple- and I and my friends went
mad with delight. FINALLY, something to tie it all together (within a
patently absurd fantasy/sci fi/William S Burroughs-like morality
…um…immorality tale?) It blew our minds, altered out minds and changed
our very vocabulary. We had new heroes! ELF OM! Discordians! We never
looked back. Wilson’s follow
up ‘real occult secrets book,’ COSMIC TRIGGER : The Final Secret of the
Illuminati, simply laid out all the occult ‘truths’ behind (through?
Underneath??) the Illuminatus! Trilogy. For decades Trigger has been
the book I have handed newbies who want to know ‘what it is all about’
but it is the Illuminatus! Trilogy that REALLY brings it home.
Why? Because as ‘fiction’ it weaves an awesome mental/physical/emotive
program. It is reprogramming all the characters….as it reprograms the
readers. And as it gently pushes you over one cliff after another
something sparks in the inner mind….and grows into a blazing flame.
James Joyce, eat your heart out! What compelled me
to write this review now some 35+ years later is this: I decided to
reread them all and see if there was still a glow in the embers and lo
and behold, it still managed to rip open this jaded 3rd eye and inspire
me to further madness and creative insanity! Is it a bit dated in
places? Sure, but far less than you would think, and the reflection of
the fascist government he sketched when he wrote it and Bush’s Amerika
is downright spooky… Recently I was at
Pantheacon and was lucky enough to attend the ERISIAN HIGH MASS and as
we all screamed ALL HAIL DISCORDIA!!! Among other surreal insanities, I
thought : Bob, you would be proud. And: My goodness, what hath the
Goddess of Chaos wrought?!! If you have not read Illuminatus!
For goddess sake, turn this computer off and DO IT NOW! If you have
already read it, long ago I recommend that you give it another spin
around the galactic block. I think you’ll be pleasantly illuminated as
I was. It is good to be reminded that the conspiracy IS real and that
it is us.
