Scarlet Imprint

The Mirror of Sacrifice

2012-02-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Alkistis Dimech's talk, The Mirror of Sacrifice from our 2011 Summer of Love event.
This extensive talk deals with butoh, possession work, dance, the witches' sabbath, mirror neurons and a mass of other material.

Here Alkistis Dimech articulates the occult anatomy of the dancer, exploring the mysteries of concealment and revelation through the body. Physical praxis, cross-tradition research and an appetite for the carnal, trangressive and irrational have led her to reorient the body as the primal present and archaic source of knowing. In 'The Mirror of Sacrifice' the dancer encounters self as sacrifice, the act as divine epiphany, and the manifestation of Life in Death. Among the themes covered may be: imitation and doubling; witnessing & the dynamic of an audience; and a disclosure of some techniques to create what she calls 'the lucid body'.

The talk was accompanied by an evening performance, which was intentionally not filmed.

Further stills from the performance can be seen on our flickr pages here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/babalon

Alkistis Dimech has essays exploring some of these themes in both Devoted and XVI with further work in progress.

Question 13 - The Future of Paganism

2012-02-01T03:10:00.000-08:00

Witchcraft is bound to ecology. Without this connection any talk of the craft is meaningless.

But can we find living examples of these ideals in paganism and witchcraft?

Paganism and witchcraft should be seething with green fire in the face of the ecological collapse, the extinction crisis and rape of the remaining resources. This is something we have been explicit about, see our previous interview with the Eyeless Owl.

We need to embrace a Deep Paganism, a Deep Witchcraft in the same way that we need to embrace a Deep Ecology.

This is something that we need to be united about, regardless of the other petty struggles that can dominate the Craft. It does not matter a damn who owns the real estate of what is or isn't traditional, or who initiated who, or what survived, if the planet itself is dead. We are in an ecological end game and it is time to take sides on this greater issue.

Witchcraft needs to rediscover its radical heritage and with urgency.

Our friend Nemeton was invited to talk about the future of the modern pagan movement in respected journal The Cauldron in an extensive interview for the February 2012 edition.

He covers the sexual revolution, radical thinkers and writers, Babalon, anarchism and ecology. It makes for a provocative and inspiring read, with enough jumping off points to create a social and ecological witchcraft reading list. As a veteran with over forty years experience, his is a critical perspective.

He chose to write to us to voice his concerns at the way in which the piece had been edited, or more particularly Question 13, the crux of the matter.

Of course we expect any piece to be edited for publication, after all that is our own profession. We also know that there is always going to be some creative tension between copy editor and writer.

What Nemeton was concerned about as he discussed the future of paganism was in particular that The Cauldron removed all four mentions of XVI and both quotes from us (Peter Grey and Alkistis Dimech).

It could simply be a coincidence that we were excised from the pages.

Yet, no other sections were cut.

We have highlighted the redacted text in RED to correctly reflect the views of the writer.

To us they seem integral to the argument, we present them so that you can make your own decision.

Though the writer has been assured that the uncensored version will eventually make its way online, we wanted to put the record straight ourselves right here, right now and in doing so raise once more these issues of the future of Witchcraft and the earth itself.

Question 13

Finally, how do you see the modern pagan movement developing in [the] future?

Before I write about the future of paganism let me consider how it came down to us through the ages.

Professor Hutton has done us a great service exposing, if not particular individuals or charlatans, the spurious claims to craft continuity in some quarters.

I am enough of a romantic to hold open the possibility of some family strands of craft tradition surviving, realising that Historians, limited by the written record could still, just as we archaeologists with our potsherds must as Sir Mortimer Wheeler wrote, 'sometimes discover the tub, yet miss Diogenes'. So much life, especially perforce secret life, must escape our methodologies.

Personally, I really like Prudence James’ views as expressed by Hutton in his acknowledgments to her in The Pagan Religions of the AncientBritish Isles. Jones talks of the re-establishment of concepts and values which had existed in the Ancient World and had survived vestigially in a form which is appropriate for the present day. Principally, a female aspect of Divinity, the Sacrality of Nature and the passing of the Seasons. She further points out that this continuity of experience in folk custom, though often coloured by Christianity, was just as important as any conscious re-creation.

Hutton accepts this as an alternative definition, which permits those of us who see it that way the 'freedom to dream.'

As to the revival, I shall repeat here part of what I wrote in a letter to the anthropologist Dr Helen Cornish in February 2006.

“My view of Gardner … is that he took all the pagan elements which he found in folk custom, in myths, even material from the Graeco-Roman Mystery cults, and High Magical sources such as the Key of Solomon, Freemasonry and A. Crowley, and put these things together under the controversial label of Witchcraft. Gardner’s role, aided by Doreen Valiente, was to bring a Pagan religion once more into public consciousness, and to give it some form and method. Of course he exaggerated the extent of the inherited material, (the New Forest coven), some of which in any case probably only dated back a few generations. Yet without G. Leyland, M. Murray, G. Gardner and D. Valiente would we see this great resurgence of Paganism? Perhaps not; though if my theory of spontaneous blossoming (of Earth Religions) is true, then others would have arose to initiate a revival.”

So then, for all their personal or scholarly flaws, they pioneered the revival, and for this we should be most grateful.

I was moving towards the practice of paganism through the 60s within the exciting mélange of radical and anti-establishment ideas and philosophies which [permeated?] Britain at that time, though my full commitment was only made at Samhain 1970.

The sexual revolution, the revival of the anarchist theories of Prince Kropotkin, of Proudhon, the CND and peace movement with which I was involved. What a mix of people we were. Even some Catholic clergy marched through the streets with us. A Dominican monk, Simon Blake, Fr. Bruce Kent and the ex Archbishop of Bombay called Roberts, a Jesuit.

There were the pioneering ecological ideas of Henry David Thoreau which resurfaced, we read the great American naturalist Aldo Leopold and our own Rachel Carson.

Many of us read the works of the Neo Marxist Herbert Marcuse and the more Dionysian Norman O. Brown. The Buddhist inspired Gary Snyder’s writings were valued as were those of Alan Watts and Theodore Roszak.

Even the revival of folk clubs for traditional folk music and song with their pagan undertones all played their part in directing my mind and emotions. And as we came into the 70s I became ever more aware of the women’s, though especially the goddess, movement, which infiltrated the somewhat conservative Wicca I was studying. All this enriched my own understanding, and brought a greater depth and relevance to paganism and the craft.

So, where are we now, as we move forward in this 21^stcentury?

Capitalism and market forces always find ways of infiltrating radical movements and corrupting them, and that courageous woman Monica Sjöö revealed to us how much the New Age movement has done exactly that; so that would-be witches feel thay cannot work without the expensive tools that come from very commercialised sources.

Of course, it is only right that true genuine handcrafted work should cost a fair rate, so that real craftsmanship will survive. That is, work such as that of Bell Bucca and Steve Patterson.

But it is not only the cost of factory made equipment which bothers me, it is the easy acceptance of a materialistic way of life, and the bland acceptance of the status quo which it implies.

Paganism and especially the Craft should be like ecology, a subversive force. Subversive of our exploitative societies which detract from our spirituality and is destroying natural world.

The future of Paganism?

Firstly, we need to understand that there are different Paganisms and for me the important distinction is not whether we are traditional, Wicca, Druidic or Northern etc but whether we are into what Michael York describes in The Pomegranate vol 6.1 as deep or natural paganism, or what he describes as nominal or blind Paganism in which he is happy to include Humanists and Atheists.

Deep paganism he describes as:

“Humanity’s spontaneous response to Nature, the world around us and our unaffected sense of the animistic or numinous.”

He adds that,

“this primordial paganism is atavistic and as such I am calling it root religion, the root of religion, the root of all religions.”

I think it must be clear from the forgoing that I must see myself within the deep or natural form of Paganism. That form of Paganism which as Michael York says:

“reaches into the earth to draw its fundamental nourishment … interconnecting with the natural and sensuous world.”

Now, in recent years, through books like Harry Potter and TV shows like ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’, many children and young people have been attracted into Witchcraft, and the PaganFederation have had greatly increased enquiries. Am I wrong in thinking that there is now even more recently a falling off in youthful enthusiasm?
This shows perhaps that such popular crazes rarely seem to stand the test of time.

To be sure, there are young people who were swept up in this magical re-awakening who have gone on to deepen their interest and knowledge, and who will go on to form our priesthood of the future. It warms my heart to know that we have them with us, in an increasingly secularised Europe.

My hope is that most of these as deep Pagans will use their faith and magical workings and lifestyle to heal our Mother Earth from the terrible abuse we are still inflicting upon her body.

We have to decide what kind of world we wish to live in:
Will technology be our servant or our master?
Are we commited to the beauty an dintegrity of the whole biotic enterprise?
Do our lifestyles and our spiritual and political activitiesreflect this commitment, and how best is all this achieved?

Some of my guides in recent years have been some of the brave and far-seeing women such as Nawak El Saadawi of Egypt, Vandana Shiva and Arundhati Roy, both of India. Edward Goldsmith’s magnum opus ‘The Way’ is possibly the most challenging work which tackles the problems of industrial and technological “progress”, and endorses chthonic Religion.

Our lifestyle, which we have exported round the world, is decimating myriad of Earth’s species. Try our Prof. John Spicer’s new book, Biodiversity, to see how serious it all is. The truth of world politics is detailed by Noam Chomsky, devastating stuff!

And what then of magic and paganism?

Well, in the practical magical sphere, Starhawk continues to inspire groups of activists, currently occupying Washington, where her experience of raising power in groups is used to great effect.

Here, in the South West, we now have ‘Pagan Pride.’ We are fortunate in having some very long-standing journals like The Cauldron, Pagan Dawn and our local Meyn Mamvro. In more recent years with the demise of Talking Stick, we have academic publications like Pomegranate and JSM Journal for the Study of Magic. I only wish I could afford their subscriptions!

The most radical pagan writings I have come across recently are in a volume called XVI from Scarlet Imprint, eds. P. Grey and A. Dimech. Some of theis stuff may indeed be too radical and on the edge for many; I find that it speaks to my deep soul and stimulates my instinctive radicalism. I’m so pleased to find for once someone has a good word to say for Jules Michelet’s intuitive writing on the Craft. Michelet could feel what it was like to live in the Middle Ages, when you were poor.

So I suppose if I am to attempt to look into the future for Paganism and especially the Craft, I would hope yes that our numbers would continue to grow, but more importantly, that enough deep pagans will achieve what is called ‘critical mass’ and thereby act as a healing organism together with all genuine folk of other faiths or none but who love and care for Gaia. From a university source I’ve heard rumour of a forthcoming volume called ‘Soldiers of Gaia,’ which sounds active enough perhaps, like the ‘Earth First’ movement, but make no mistake the task we face is huge. As Alkistis Dimech in XVI reminds us,

“The witch has always been on the threshold, in the liminal spaces, at twilight. And this is where precisely we find ourselves now, driven into the margins of life. The collapse of the oil economy [and I must now add, the whole economy], the poisoning of the waters and the catastrophic pillaging of the world’s remaining resources are plunging our present civilisation into meltdown … Recognising that we are all in this together, our arms linked in the great dance, because we face a common fate and a common adversary.”

Sex too has always been part of the Revolution, and so although we have the ordinary love of female and male which is a wonderful and noble thing, we also have the sacred whore of REVELATIONS, Babalon as P Grey in XVI says of her “the oracular spectacular Goddess of love and sex come to engulph the world, not a black or a white Goddess but a red Goddess,” and as Jack parsons wrote in ‘Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword’ (Parsons the outcast Pagan featured in XVI)

“She will come as a perilous flame … a voice in the judgment halls … She will come girt with the sword of freedom, and before her kings and priests will tremble and cities and empires will fall, and she will be called BABALON, the Scarlet Woman, for she will be lustful and proud; she will be subtle and deadly, she will be forthright and invincible as a naked blade. And women will respond to her war cry and throw off their shackles and chains, and men will respond to her challenge, forsaking the foolish ways…” (From The Woman Girt with a Sword.)

The plight of women throughout the world is like the plight of the Earth which longs for wholeness and freedom. We know from antiquity of the lusty Horned God PAN, the love of Sappho for her women, the worship of Ganymede by the God Zeus. Yet, all the varied sacred sexualities in our times so often seem reduced to commercialised violent vicious and degrading pornography.

What a demise of Pagan Gods and people. What a loss of sacred sexuality, sensuality and magic. Where is the respect, the compassion, the generosity of spirit, which lifts eroticism into a divine experience?

This commercialised degradation of sex reduces its potential to do its revolutionary work to redeem the world. And so as we look to the future let this heretic Jack Parsons take us to our roots.

“ We are the witchcraft. We are the oldest organisation in the world. When man was first born, we were. We sang the first cradle song. We healed the first wound, we comforted the first terror. We were the Guardians against the darkness, the helpers on the left hand side.”

And as our good Damh the Bard sings, “These are the things that I believe!”

Jo O’Cleirigh

Sometimes Magister of Cuilna Sidhe

Nemeton

Kernow Nov 2011

Postscript

We were pleased to meet with Nemeton when we spoke for the Pagan Federation South West Conference and found that we shared many ideas and reference points, including a shared delight in Jules Michelet and Jack Parsons. His enthusiasm was greatly appreciated, as has been the friendship and support of those in Initiated Wicca, Traditional Craft, Hedgewitches, Druids, solitaries et al to us over the years. We hope that this generation will birth a new and revolutionary spirit, that still burns in the hearts of people like Jo.

As radicals we expect opposition from the 'establishment', and take it as a sign that we going in the right direction. But our fight is not with them. What we desire above all is that we put aside our differences and look for what we share as a community. The earth and everything on her is not simply dying, but being murdered. The fight back must start here, with Witchcraft.
We have precious little time.

Red Blood of Passion

2012-01-23T02:33:00.000-08:00

Peter Grey and Alkistis Dimech interviewed by Karagan for Witchtalk in January 2012.
A wide ranging conversation covering Scarlet Imprint, Babalon, Jack Parsons, dance and ritual.

For those interested in more on Jack Parsons, see our youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/scarletimprint

Further information can also be found in our work on Babalon The Red Goddess

The essential work of Jack Parsons is Freedom is a Two Edged Sword though much of his work onThe Witchcraft can be found online. There are also two biographies, Strange Angel and Sex and Rockets.

We will also be posting the full talk by Alkistis on dance, butoh, possession and witchcraft from our Summer of Love event on our youtube channel and blog in due course.

Jake Stratton Kent at the Summer of Love

2012-01-04T03:03:00.000-08:00

Jake Stratton-Kent was lured from the West Country to talk on 'Familiar and Unfamiliar Spirits' at our Summer of Love event. This video shot by our friends at sittingnow.co.uk

Exploring the Lares Compitales, Viales and Familiaris as the origin of the Verum spirit and Kimbanda Exu crossover. A tour de force, combining his work on the Grimorium Verum, the origins of magic as expressed in Geosophia and their flowering in the cults of the New World.

For those interested in the ideas which Jake discusses see his True Grimoire and Geosophia. All essential reading for a full understanding of grimoire magic and the origins of our entire Western tradition.

This is part of an ongoing series of talks from the event, all of which will be appearing on our youtube channel: www.youtube.com/scarletimprint

Death Mask

2011-12-17T05:02:00.000-08:00

In response to several requests, this is the text of the presentation on Persephone which Alkistis gave at the Day of the Dead event in Glastonbury. We publish it now to mark the darkening into Solstice and Saturnalia.

DEATH MASK
Death, Wildflowers and Blood Mysteries
29-10-11

I
Descent, and the Sacred Way: Iera Odos

Let us begin with a journey, let us begin by taking the road that will lead us to the land of the Dead, where we will come face to face with the goddess of the Underworld herself.

The goddess of Death, who as Queen of Death is called Persephone, Persephassa, Persephatta …, yet when we first meet her is simply Kore, the maiden. It is also, on one level, an autoportrait – for death, and the dead, are personal.

I dedicate this talk to my dead, to my brother, my grandparents, Santa Teresa, and my friend Glenn, for they are the umbilical cord which, like Ariadne’s thread, returns me to the realm of the Dead where I may solve the enigma of my existence.

In the Greek myth, it is Alkistis the wife of Admetus, who sacrifices her life to save that of her husband – and in most accounts is returned to the land of the living by the hero Heracles. Her descent follows that of Persephone, and it is the pity of that implacable goddess that releases Alkistis from Hades. And I found it curious that while I was living in Greece, the house keeper, Ekaterina, called me Kore or its diminutive koritz – the girl – perhaps I was not quite human for her, a stranger, incomplete and without experience.

It seems then that I am destined to talk about Persephone and the descent, a voyage which fascinates me. And whilst I was initially intrigued by the myth as a psychological metaphor for cycles of depression and creativity, through repeated initiations in this cold fire, my understanding has matured and become one with my blood and bones. There is much more to it than a psychological reading will release, and Persephone herself is a recondite figure fraught with complexity and ambiguity.

So first, we must go down as the Kore once did, we must take the road to Hades.

This is the sacred way, the iera odos, the umbilical cord that is the road that the soul of the dead travels to return to the womb. The umbilical imagery is deliberate, as we shall see, when looking at the blood mysteries.

The sacred way is both an extension of the terrestrial road, and a reiteration of the initiatory path with its many bifurcations and crossroads, on which the initiand steps. The Orphic gold tablets tell the initiate that:

…once you have drunk you too will go along the sacred way by which the other mystoi and bakhhoi advance glorious, and afterwards you will reign with the other heroes.

This is also the way of wisdom travelled by Parmenides in the proemium to his poem:

The mares that carry me as far as longing can reach

Rode on, once they had come and fetched me onto the legendary

Road of the divinity that carries the man who knows

Through the vast and dark unknown.

Greek folklore and tradition has preserved the importance of the road in its mourning and funerary rituals. The road is itself symbolic of Death, (which is seen as a mutable state, unfixed, disordered, and marked by movement). Ghosts were often encountered on roads or at a crossroads; furthermore, there is a direct parallel between the traveller as messenger and the role of the dead, who function as intermediaries between their living kin and the distant ancestors. They are bringers of news, they deliver dream oracles and messages from beyond the grave.

And because this road has reality in both the material and immaterial worlds, it breaches the divide that would otherwise exile the dead in banishing them from their family or community; the journey along the road of the Dead is one that connects the familiar to the mythic.

So pervasive is the presence of the road that even the spoken and sung laments of the women’s mourning rituals echo it, effectively incanting the journey that the deceased is to make. Songs suffused with imagery that recalls journeys and the physical and emotional experience of travelling. For instance the description of being out of breath has the double meaning of dying, of losing one’s soul for the Greek word psyche means both breath and soul.

And it is meaningful that the shaman or psychopomp is always a singer or plays the pipes, for (s)he is a master of breath and flight who by virtue of walking the talk, that is, knowing the ways, leads the dead, and engages in diplomacy.

Thus the road is the way of the shaman and the initiate (mystes), it is the sacred way, the mystic way. What to an uninitiated person is exile and separation, is to one who has been initiated an ecstatic liberation, and leads to union with the divinity. The road of souls is a procession of the dead, of psychopomp and shaman, a masque of bacchants and mænads. And it is a road we have largely forgotten how to travel.

The road brings us to the Asphodel meadow where the dead, quenched on the waters of Lethe, roam like shadows. Here the dead remain, never to pass onwards to judgement, for these are the uniniated, the unheroic and the unlucky.

And it is a place like this – only in the world of light – where we encounter for the first time the maiden Kore.

II
Wild flowers

The Kore is gathering wildflowers with her companions – the full-breasted daughters of Okeanos – in a meadow. Some accounts say the Nysa plain, sacred to Dionysos, was the location; in the Sicilian telling of the myth, it is the plain of Enna where the abduction took place, its astonishing lushness evoked by Ovid in Metamorphoses:

Here flowers always bloom, winter never falls,

Here eternal spring smiles.

Meadows were liminal sites, places of ambivalence, danger and encounter. The Greek word used by the poet is leimon – which means a verdant or moist meadow, but is also used to denote the female sexual organs. The flowers are naturally emblematic of a sexual blossoming, and the meadow is the archetypical place of abduction and seduction. We may remember Odysseus, who came to Calypso’s cave in the extreme West – the womb or vulva of the sea; her abode was one of soft and flowering meadows, at once erotic and macabre. Even her name is from the Greek kalyptō – to hide or conceal.

Or, the cloven meadow of Aphrodite – in the words of Empedocles – who identified the love goddess with Eros himself, through whom alone can the path to knowledge be attained. The eroto-gnostic implications are apparent.

Allusions to the shedding of hymenal blood in the Hymn to Demeter, the virgin sacrificed to the Lord of Death, may be missed in translation but to a native initiate the words and images would have had deeper, chthonic, levels of interpretation.

The language used to describe the Kore identifies her explicitly with the wild flowers she is gathering: she is the blossom itself, fertile and blooming (thaleren), she has a flowers beauty (kalikopidi), is a sweet shoot (glykeron thalos), coming herself from the earth in spring time, she is called a great wonder (mega thauma) just as the narcissus is wonderful to see and the flowers she is picking are a wonder to see (thaumaston/thauma idesthai).

Of the flowers gathered by the Kore, all have aphrodisiac or medicinal properties and may well have formed elements of a pre-grain diet, whether by virtue of their fruit (rose, rhodon) or bulbs (krokos, hyacinthos, narkissos) or shoots. And there is evidence that Kore is a Hellenised version of an earlier Great Goddess whose origins lie in the pre-agrarian stage of human development. One can liken her to Cybele or Demeter’s own mother Rhea, archaic goddesses of the hunt, of the wild uncultivated mountains.

Interestingly, and more pertinent to the present context – which is erotic as opposed to nutritive – these blood-generated plants are born from youths whose sexual allure is outside the confines of marriage and is often counter to the strictly heterosexual procreative social norm: Hyacinthos and Krokos die in the midst of homoerotic play with the gods Apollo and Hermes, Narcissus is locked in auto-erotic obsession; Attis, in a mad frenzy, castrates himself beneath a pine tree just as he is about to marry – from his life blood spring violets; and Adonis, the fragile blood red anemone, fated never to be a wedded consort of Aphrodite, is gored to death by the boar.

These flowers are wild, uncultivated and we can deduce that their origin myths point to pre-agrarian cultures. Hence we have a pre-agrarian maiden, who has primacy over her ‘mother’ Demeter. I would also propose that Kore is herself, by being likened to the wild flowers descriptively, expressive of a liminal or dangerous state of sexual awakening – unsocialised, unknown, unfamiliar. Let us not forget that eros and thanatos were fatally entwined in Greek myth, and that the untamed maiden was herself a bringer of death.

All die at the height of their eroto-magical potential, their blood infused with the seminal potency of youth, giving them the power to regenerate and transform. Though they are mortal in life, through death they attain that immortality which is proper to vegetation. And the god of vegetation, the god of indestructible and endlessly renewing life, is Dionysos.

All these flowers Persephone gathers, until she picks the fateful narcissus:

… a marvellous, radiant flower. It was a thing of awe whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see: from its root grew a hundred blooms and it smelled most sweetly, so that all wide heaven above and the whole earth and the sea’s salt swell laughed for joy.

The Hymn even calls it a snare laid for her, and as she reaches to pluck it:

… the earth, full of roads leading every which way, opened up under her. [...] There it was that the Lord who receives many guests made his lunge. He was riding on a chariot drawn by immortal horses. The son of Kronos. The one known by many names. He seized her against her will, put her on his golden chariot, and drove away as she wept.

Who is Hades, the unseen, the one known by many names, who makes his dramatic entrance at this heightened moment of the Kore’s sexual awakening and self-awareness? It is of interest, especially in the context of the Mysteries, to read the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus, who wrote:

Hades and Dionysus, for whom they rave in bacchic frenzy, are one.

This is an esoteric understanding, a paradox which stresses a concealed truth. There is little in the archæological or literary evidence to suggest that the ancient Greeks accepted this identification, but it is telling that the mysteries of Dionysos were inextricably connected with the Underworld and the salvation of the soul after bodily death. Before the soul comes into the presence of Persephone it must have been liberated first by Dionysos, as the Orphic gold tablets instruct:

Tell Persephone that Bacchios himself has released you.

Both are referred to as sotir, saviour, in the gold tablets. The night revels of the bacchantes find a parallel in the tradition of conducting funerals at night, so that the soul of the deceased would be buried, and hence released, with the dawn.

There are many suggestive clues to this identification, even in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter itself, when Demeter is offered wine by her hostess, whilst grieving for her lost daughter:

Then Metaneira offered her a cup, having filled it with honey-sweet wine. But she refused, saying that it was divinely ordained that she not drink red wine.

In other words she cannot accept the gift of her daughter’s ravisher: Dionysos.

III
Blood Mysteries: Ieros Gamos

What then can we learn of the Kore, whose sexual awakening/initiation was marked by her recognition of her divine lover, and precipitated by her reaching for the narcissus? She was not always Demeter’s daughter. In Homer the spheres of the two goddesses never touch, and it is Persephone who is the older and more powerful of the two. Neither is there mention of Persephone’s abduction; in the Illiad and the Odyssey, Persephone is an Underworld figure, whose companion is sometimes called Zeus Katachthonios, sometimes Hades. Only later, in Hesiod’s Theogony, a summary of the Hymn’s story is given for the first time: Persephone, the daughter of Demeter and Zeus, is abducted by Hades.

Following her abduction, and plunged into a state of separation, of individuation and dawning self-awareness, Persephone takes one more irrevocable step. From Hades she receives the pomegranate seed which will bind her to the Underworld. The Hymn tells us she is deceived by Hades, and she herself later protests to Demeter:

...but he secretly put in my mouth sweet food, a pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my will.

I fear the Kore doth protest too much… it is as if she cannot, to her mother, admit that the subterranean desire that compelled her was her own.

There is an alternative form of the myth in which Persephone does not return. Virgil in Georgics tells us that: Prosperpine (did) not heed her mother’s voice entreating to return. Virgil is not innovating; the story is told elsewhere and seems to derive from an earlier poem. An even more radical account is that found in Lokri in Sicily, where there is no trace of Demeter in the myth, and Kore is simply the maiden before her abduction, rather than the daughter of Demeter.

In the Orphic gold tablets, she is referred to as the subterranean Queen, mother of the Erinyes, she is called Nestis – a cult title that bears the dual meaning of fasting and water, and is the divine name given by Empedocles to the root element water: And Nestis, moistening mortal springs with her tears.

Her association with water and moisture is another connection she shares with Dionysos.

Another epithet, Brimo (the strong one), she shares with Hecate, Zeus and Dionysos. Evidently she is no ordinary maiden.

By way of her abduction by Hades, her katabasis, she has become Queen of Death, though never is she described as his wife but as his bedmate (akoitis/parakoitis). The language of matrimony is absent and, striking in contrast to the imagery of the flowery meadow, their union is childless.

Here we are in the presence of the paradox of the goddess of Life and Death.

The honey-sweet pomegranate seed, a fruit which is so redolent of blood with its ruby juice is a fitting symbol for menstruation and fertility, yet the Greeks knew pomegranate as a birth control agent since before the archaic period. Its use and its association with the Love goddess is even older in West Asia, being depicted on cult objects, jewellery and figures of both Inanna-Ishtar Astarte and Aphrodite.

The knowledge and art of pharmakeia, the use of drugs to control birth and fertility, the power over life and death, marks Persephone as a manifestation of the Great Goddess.

The pomegranate is also the symbol of the sexual union between Persephone and Hades – the hieros gamos – the sacred mystery which lies buried at the heart of the Hymn to Demeter and the myth of Kore’s descent to the the Underworld. This would seem an unlikely context for such a rite, and as Jake Stratton-Kent observes in Geosophia:

This sexual union in death is largely absent from myth for an excellent reason, it is a Mystery. Although a secret of the Mystery religions, which it was forbidden to reveal, it is nevertheless not concealed entirely.

We cannot separate sex and death, the tomb is the womb where life is reborn. This is not simply a modern reading, as we would expect from a Bataille. Emily Vermeule writes:

It was a formal principle of Greek myth and literature that Love and Death are two aspects of the same power.

Eros and Thanatos cannot be separated.

Underlining this is the presence of a massive necropolis on the Enna plain, which is where Kore was taken down. Even today this region is known as the ombelico of Sicily, that is, the navel. The use of the term omphalos/navel for a place of worship derives from the ancient East, where it signified a bond between heaven and earth. A bond between the world above and the world below. This is made more dramatic when we realise that navel is a synonym for womb. And what is particularly striking about Enna is that people were being buried here in the necropolis since the late Paleolithic, explicitly to be reborn. As Penelope Shuttle wisely notes: The cults of the dead are the cults of the unborn.

Kore-Persephone may be the self-same silent goddess of Life and Death always worshipped in Sicily, and who is still worshipped there behind her Catholic mask as the (Black)Virgin. There are ancient cult images of her, called maschere or protomes, found at Lokri in Sicily, having an extreme archaistic style – some appear like death masks, cold withdrawn and with broken eyes, and others with an eerie archaic beauty, animated by an ineffably tender smile. Such images are profoundly evocative of the nature of the maiden.

But in Sicily and Magna Graecia a curious synthesis of two goddesses also takes place. Persephone is endowed with the attributes of Aphrodite, and identified explicitly with her, both iconographically, textually and in cult. These goddesses, who appear so far apart from each other, are almost as one in the Mysteries, with images of Persephone holding a pomegranate and lily with a dove in her lap or winged Eros between her breasts. There is much to pursue here. The identification of Persephone and Aphrodite is a central motif in my own magical Work, and functions as a camera obscura illuminating the mysteries of BABALON, a title of the goddess who Herself is in one sense the fusion of Inanna-Ishtar with Ereshkigal.

To conclude this brief portrait of Persephone, a complex and fascinating Goddess, who gives life to the living and liberates the dead, a goddess in whom death and the erotic are entwined, I want to return by the same route we took when we descended in search of her. For it is this sacred way, the path of souls, of blood and bones, that we open when we honour our dead. Persephone is the divine paradox that unites the mythic with the personal, and whose enigmatic mask – if we are wise, initiated, bold or lucky – will greet our own death mask with a smile.

Queen of the Fig Tree in Hell

2011-12-15T04:33:00.000-08:00

The fine bound Figueiro do Inferno edition of Pomba Gira and the Quimbanda of Mbumba Nzila has arrived. The speckled crimson leather looks very serpentine and the boards and slipcase are mesmeric in shot silk which shift from a dusky fig to wine as the light catches them. Inside a double gold marble swirls with the energy that is so characteristic of the Pomba Giras.

Our blessings to Pomba Gira, and our thanks to Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold and the aristry of our binders who have done her this great service.

We might have a copy or two of the fine edition left, drop us an email if you want to be added to the waiting list.

The fine edition joins the moire silk and letterpress Salve Regina edition of 769 copies which is still available here: http://www.scarletimprint.com/pombagira.htm

We also present her in Bibliotheque Rouge paperback and digital Maria editions so that she can offer her solace to all who seek her aid.

Pomba Gira and the Quimbanda of Mbumba Nzila is getting great reviews from devotees and those in the West who have been drawn to her mysteries and the vibrant lines of Brazilian witchcraft.

Sarava Pomba Gira!

Summer of Love part one

2011-11-22T09:53:00.000-08:00

The first episode of our Summer of Love event has now been cut edited and uploaded by the team at www.sittingnow.co.uk

We really appreciate the professionalism, time, energy and effort that Ken Eakins and his crew put into this.

The first episode showcases Ulysses Black grappling with the issues of identity, magickal names, performance art and authentic action.

We suggest you watch it through to the sticky end.

Future episodes will follow with Jake Stratton-Kent, Peter Grey and Alkistis Dimech.

We are pleased that we can share this with our international and absent friends.

Digital Revelations

2011-11-16T05:35:00.000-08:00

As book lovers producing real books as objects of magic and beauty we have done the unthinkable and gone digital.

We are obsessed and obsessive about books. When we call ourselves a talismanic publisher it is because we create magical objects to create change in the world. This is explicit in every step of the process, from design to typography to consecration. If you want a magical book, then there is nothing comparable to a hand bound edition in a mass production world. But we are not elitists. We intend to empower the next generation with these books in whatever format necessary.

We want the same information which is in our fine editions and hardbacks to be accessible. We have also struggled to buy books, pay rent and put food on the table whilst being committed students of magick.

We launched Bibliotheque Rouge to prove that esoteric knowledge should be available and affordable, not artificially scarce and expensive. Now Rouge will also be releasing e-books.

Our Rouge books are in a direct lineage from the Bibliotheque Bleue chapbooks which mass printed and produced grimoires (amongst other books) in Europe causing and fuelling an explosion of popular magical practice from the seventeenth century onwards. This gave us Red Dragon, Black Dragon, Grimorium Verum et al. It was a bold and brash move which put books that had often circulated as costly manuscripts into the hands of every man (and woman) confounding the censorious church.

Such a change is occurring again and we ally ourselves with it.

Magical books changed radically with the invention of the printing press, no longer hand copied and clandestine, these rough and ready inventions both preserved and spread dangerous ideas like wildfire.
Was their magic any worse for it being performed out of tatty blue pamphlets?

Magic is not just the book itself, but crucially what you do with it.
Attainment comes from the Work and not the object alone.

The printing press democratised and empowered practitioners and we are seeing an equally potent event now happening in the digital age. As a small publisher we are able to produce paperback editions in print runs or on demand in a way that does not bankrupt us. We like the fact that paperbacks do not simply fall out of print but continue to cause trouble in the world, just as they should.

Yet if the Devil is the god of the printing press, then Lucifer is surely the digital information revolution.

In the last year the landscape has radically changed. The digital book, whether on kindle or i-pad or sony reader has become ubiquitous. Information is now fluid, and any published book can and will be digitised. Content is agnostic, and it is foolish to pretend otherwise. Limitation is becoming a lie.

We know that occultists appreciate the art inherent in the book and will continue to cherish these living things and not abandon them for zeros and ones. The e-book is complimentary rather than a replacement for the physical form.

The e-book hopefully means more people will read books. That can only be a good thing. It also means that we can create affordable versions of our work so that readers can take the risk on new authors and unfamiliar subjects. You can dare to read and enrich yourself outside of your field, perhaps you haven’t encountered Pomba Gira or Palo Mayombe before, or you want to see if the poetry cuts it.

It allows you to travel with a library rather than dislocating your shoulder with a satchel full of books- as we often do. It makes unwieldy reference texts quickly searchable for research.

To this end, we are issuing all of our future paperback Bibliotheque Rouge titles in epub and mobi format.

Does this mean that we are starry-eyed converts, adoring the new format of the book? Far from it. The digital reader is both a technological inevitability and wedded to a clear attempt to control all of publishing by the Scylla and Charybdis of Amazon and Apple. This will maim publishers, bookshops and printers, large and small. This alas seems inevitable. Skills such as editing, layout and typography will continue to decline in the mass market. We know our readers will continue to act with discrimination and support small publishers by buying direct and knowing the value of the book itself.

The e-readers themselves are designed to die, in a cycle of fake upgrades, fashion and the component failure of built in obsolescence. You will keep having to buy more hardware and the third world will get more container loads of toxic junk in return. Digital information does not survive collapse in the resilient way that hard copy does. Let’s not pretend that the environmental impact is anything other than an ongoing catastrophe.

However, as the world enters into radical flux, magick responds.
Now, more than ever, there is an urgency to communicate and we hope that by embracing the digital revolution we can get these relevant voices of modern magick to the new generation.

We still hold firm to our commitment to the physical book as a repository of force and form.
There is something very special about the book, which will endure when the last kindle is thrown in a landfill.
(We will of course replace lost files for you free of charge as long as the lights stay on.)

Our books are specifically made to accomplish magical results, and digital books are simply an extension of that aim.
If you want a book that will potentially last as long as our species does, buy a fine or hardback edition.
If you want a book to underline, throw in your bag or take to the woods in the rain, choose a paperback.
If you simply want the raw data file, download an e-book.

We are daring to offering a free and unfettered choice.

Rushing after Roses

2011-11-14T03:17:00.000-08:00

Prints of the Red Goddess cover are now available in a limited run of 200 prints from the artist, retitled simply with Babalon. A striking modern icon:

The prints are $100 each, signed and numbered by Christopher Conn Askew.
Gorgeous quality, we just hope that there are enough left for our readers as desire for this has been overwhelmingly expressed.

We missed the announcement too, afflicted mercury seems to be causing some strife with communication. We thought this print was going to happen after the exhibition which has just opened at the Merry Karnowsky gallery in LA and have been so busy with digital editions that we have barely caught breath for the past month. Our congratulations to Chris on the show.

You probably want to make an order for your icon as quickly as possible as these will not be re-issued.

The link with order details is here: http://sekretcity.tumblr.com/

Good luck!

In Nomine Babalon

Peter Grey

Jack Parsons, Babalon, Witchcraft

2011-10-17T06:42:00.000-07:00

Jack Parsons is still a name that is not widely known in witchcraft. Despite pre-dating Gardnerian Wicca and the later traditions, his ideas and writings have not gained the recognition that they rightly deserve.

What is most striking is how modern Jack seems, a rocket scientist whose discoveries literally put man on the moon. His writing is clear and empassioned, and cuts to the core of what witchraft is. A free thinker, rebel and libertarian who argued for sexual freedom and women's rights before it was fashionable. A bohemian who experimented with drugs, new ways of living, and dared to dream of what human potential could acheive.

Jack Parsons is the bridge between the generation of Crowley and the revolutionary potential unleashed in the sixties. It seems that the same revolutionary spirit is returning with the occupy movement and the increased profile of the psychedelic movement. Jack would be in favour of the renewed vigour being felt in magick and wider culture in these critical times.

We discuss his work in The Red Goddess in relation to the Babalon Working and the emergence of Babalon into the modern world. His legacy has still not fully unfolded.

We've been talking for the past few years about Babalon, Jack and Witchcraft to audiences of pagans, witches and thelemites. This is a story that needs to be repeated. To that end, here is another field recording from Scotland this time made at the Wyrd Shop on Edinburgh's Royal Mile. A good introduction to Jack, and a different version to any of the writing that we have previously published on the subject. Again, we stress that this is a rough field recording made on simple equipment. We hope that the ideas presented in this way will impact upon more people and that both witchcraft and magic will acknowledge his ideas and take them forward.

Strewn with petals

2011-10-14T04:19:00.000-07:00

Today we unwrapped the Bibliotheque Rouge paperback proofs for both Datura and Pomba Gira.
The shocking pink of the Maria edition of Pomba Gira should enliven the most staid of occult bookshelves!

The sumptuous hardback edition of Pomba Gira is causing quite a stir, and the fine edition is in preparation with our binders. Our further congratulations are due to author Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold for creating this important work.

We are very pleased to be able to make Datura available in a paperback edition as poetry of this quality deserves a wider recognition and readership. The next volume in this series, Mandragora, is already flourishing in the care of our poetry editor Ruby Sara.

Both paperback titles will be ready to ship in another couple of weeks, we hope to have copies with us for the Day of the Dead conference in Glastonbury which we are eagerly anticipating..

Woodsmoke and Wormwood

2011-10-09T03:04:00.000-07:00

It was back in March 2010 when we went on a Black Pilgrimage travelling from Cornwall to Scotland. This was the first opportunity to put some of the ideas from XVI before different audiences.

We were told by the skeptics that these ideas were not relevant to magic. That the esoteric did not mix with ecology and politics and engagement with the world.
Others thanked us for putting it into words.
For daring to say it.

Now we can all see the fissures crazing their way across The Tower.
Europe is in disarray. Greece set to default. Italy a sham. Spain's youth taking to the streets. Wall Street is occupied. Oil spills and ecological disasters are multiplying. These are not the acts of some recession, depression or slump that we can print our way out of with paper promises.

You are watching a civilisation end.

It is not a banking crisis, it is the devouring of resources with the madness of any monotheism.
There is no infinite economic growth on a finite resource planet.

As magickians we need to engage with the raw forces unleashed in these moments.

Take action to direct where the cards will fall.

To that end I'm posting a set of field recordings of my 'Seeing Through Apocalypse' speech shot with a digi cam that eventually gets the focus right. It gives a feel for the crackling fire and the icy night in a Scottish farmhouse way out in the back of beyond. No fancy cut fades and edits, just a small group of individuals trying to understand what is coming through human psychology, the eschatology of John Dee, and the urgings of Babalon. The polished version is to be found bound into the book, but this document too says something of it and maybe that way the ideas will get out to more people, which is always our aim.

Summer of Love Trailer

2011-10-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

Magical bindings

2011-09-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

Our books are a pleasure for the few, desired by many.

We create books as magical objects, which carry not only the force of the words, but the charge and spirit which is inevitably lost in the mass-produced object.

Today we welcome two major accolades for our work.

Though our audience remain the serious practitioners within the occult community, we have gained recognition outside of these restricted circles for the quality of the work which we are creating in the perhaps even more arcane world of the fine book arts.

The creation of beautiful books is an art form in and of itself and in which we still consider ourselves neophytes. Each book has its particular spirit to embody and bind.

Beneath each book is a pyramid of artisans. We also want to give complete credit to the bookbinders, papermakers and artists who we work with to realise these visions.

Our Kill all Kings edition of XVI has been shortlisted for the Limited Edition and Fine Binding category of the British Book Design and Production Award.

The Awards is one of the most prestigious and popular literary events of the year that recognises, promotes and acknowledges the excellence of the British book design and production industry.

This is a major achievement, placing us alongside major players such as Penguin and specialist presses alike. No other occult publisher has ever made it to the shortlist.

The fine edition of XVI is an imposing slab of red leather in a dramatically incised slipcase with molten gold endpapers and charred edges. It is a dramatic and modern book which fuses traditional skills with bold design. The typography continues the drama with letters stacked into perilous towers that echo the substance of the text. Form meets function meets powerful prophetic writing.

Our nomination for the award is not for the content of the work, but it does remain strikingly apt as XVI deals explicitly with the need to artistically engage with a culture and civilisation in collapse. It asks what magick can, should and must do in the face of ecological, economic and intellectual disintegration.

The fine edition of XVI has of course sold out, but then that’s a good reminder to email us and join the subscriber list. Scarlet Imprint continues to gain momentum.

We’d further note that the linen cloth bound ‘standard’ edition of XVI is still available and uses materials which would make it a fine edition for any sane publisher. As for the recent red water silk Pomba Gira, she is beyond being simply a temptation, she is irresistible. We know that our readers appreciate beauty, just as the spirits also appreciate these offerings.

The recognition continues, Alkistis has been commissioned to design a binding for the British Library celebrating 1000 years of the Bookbinders Art. Another major accolade, with her described by our bindery, which is one of the most esteemed in England, as ‘the best contemporary book designer we work with… by some margin’.

We are proud to be part of this heritage and supporting the craftsmen and women who preserve these arts.

For those needing more bibliophilia, please see our website www.scarletimprint.com

With hooves of steel we race on the rocks...

2011-09-21T05:04:00.000-07:00

More upcoming events in the UK as we gallop towards the Autumn Equinox.
We are refreshed from pilgrimage, back in the office and wrapping, packing and sending out books.

Conference of Magic
Bournemouth UK
Saturday October 1
£10 advance tickets.

The Bournemouth Pagan society go from strength to strength presenting a wide spectrum of talks from Egyptian Daemonology, Haitian Vodou, herb lore, and some Greek necromancy from Jake Stratton-Kent.

Jake Stratton-Kent, Mogg Morgan, Hounsi Sophia, Sef Salem, Ivy Kerrigan & Simon Wood.
Plus workshops.

http://www.conferenceofmagic.co.uk/index.html

Pagan Federation 40
London UK
Saturday October 8
£20-£25 non members.

The Pagan Federation turns 40 and with witchcraft and paganism facing some critical challenges we are interested to see how this community is responding.It looks like they are pulling out all the stops for this one. We note that they have chosen to mark a Venus number.

Ronald Hutton, Mogg Morgan, our dear friend Dr Julian Vayne, Caroline Wise et al in a packed day and optional night.

http://40thpaganfed.eventbrite.com/

Day of the Dead Conference
Glastonbury UK
Saturday October 29
£20 with mexican buffet.

Botanica boys Jack and Jamie, will be hosting a Day of the Dead spectacular in Glastonbury.
Offerings will be made to the ancestors at a shrine to Santa Muerte and their are some dazzling talks promised. This is an important feast day and one that we are proud to support. Alkistis will be giving a new presentation and we are delighted to see so many strong women speaking in an often male dominated arena.

Alkistis Dimech, Jake Stratton-Kent, Paul Weston, Josephine McCarthy, Charlotte Rodgers, Kim Huggens, and Pam Walker.

http://theoccultconsultancy.com/day-of-the-dead-conference-2/

For those outside the UK looking for stimulation but lacking in real world events, we can recommend reading the collected Fenris Wolf http://www.fenriswolf.se/ edited by Carl Abrahamsson whose work also appears in our own XVI. The return of Fenris Wolf as a truly independent occult journal is very welcome. This edition is likely to sell out pretty quickly, pick it up from Midian in the UK/Worldwide and JD Holmes in the US.

More book news to follow this week with the Crossed Keys fine edition here and the Pomba Gira standard edition also due.

Brighton Occultists Rock

2011-08-28T04:02:00.000-07:00

The Occult revolution is upon us, you can feel it with every new event, each conjunction, that the energy is returning. We just celebrated another turn of the wheel in Brighton with the Summer of Love, orchestrating not a conference, not an event, but a happening.

It was a welcome return for Scarlet Imprint which was aptly founded in this Regency dream of pleasure and the collision of occidental and oriental opulence. Brighton has been smeared with the ash of Crowley’s cremation, pierced by the counterculture of TOPY, seen the Occulture Festival rise and fall, and proudly, queerly, keeps reinventing itself. We are part of that history. It is a city living out an eternal youth, open to all possibilities of transformation. It reeks of sin, but is self-possessed, dressed with feathers and glitter for an end of the world party, any day or night of the god damned week. My, what a perfect place to inaugurate a Summer of Love. Floating in an architecture of mirage and fantasy, the magical possibilities of such a place can be carved out of the air. We chose to do so, and Brighton, we will return.

The Greek temple façade of the Unitarian church faces the brothels-turned-bars, and the stables of the palace with their honeycomb tunnels for the facilitation of consort between princes and whores. Based on the Athenian temple of Hephaestus, it seemed a peculiarly apt for such a gathering of the children of Cain to hammer out their differences and forge new links. The message of the Unitarians is a welcome one, an inclusive post-Christian recognition that we can learn from all spiritual traditions. This is what we are intent on doing. A melting of misunderstandings, antagonisms, and misplaced scene elitism, like so much ice-cream in a skull cup. Perhaps we can learn to share our common experiences? This is the future, a wilful destruction of the artificial divisions between magician, witch, orders and the disorderly. Of course we can still disagree, debate and dispute, but we must also be able to dissolve like the proverbial LSD sugar cube on the tongue of a neophyte.

So we thank those came, the readers, the writers, the poets, the dancers, the musicians, the ritualists, the witches, the carcists, the wild women, the publishers, the book dealers, the whole panoply, friends in this endeavour.

To have Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold in England was a blessing. Having worked all Summer on his book under the spreading branches and dry perfume of the fig trees, they finally bore fruit. Perfect timing. The baskets of quartered erotic flesh that we served will make yet more sense when you read what Nicholaj has to say about Pomba Gira and the fig tree in Hell. When Nicholaj made his offering to Pomba Gira we must remember that this is still a city of whores, of free women, of knee-trembling back alleys and sexual adventures. When you read the accounts of Maria Padilha, you can also remember another Maria, Maria Fitzherbert, the uncrowned Catholic mistress of King George whose namesake pub was where we dashed to buy drinks between speeches. I remember my own offerings to Pomba Gira, not so far from this spot, and wonder what magical skeins connect them all.
Nicholaj is the real deal, a serious student and teacher with a vast working and comparative knowledge of Brazilian and Cuban cults, Tantra, Witchcraft and the Western Magical Tradition. He has put the time in, and it shows. Though we are waiting on the printer we were able to present him with one of the dramatic red moiré copies of his Pomba Gira which presided over the proceedings of the day from the stage. Today was another taste of the ripe fruit as we all wait hungrily for the book!

Jake Stratton-Kent continues to blaze through the implications of Geosophia for Western magic. This two volume work is going to gain momentum over the next century, and will be recognised as a key text for understanding all the magic that is to come. Jake writes prose like carving marble, and that makes demands on the reader which require commitment. Magic is Work. In the flesh, he is an electric imp, insistent, enthused, and obviously in command of his material. If you are a student of magic at whatever stage of your career, it would be worth paying attention to and engaging with JSK who rightly venerates the bones rather than just paying homage to the appeals of the ephemeral flesh.

Stephen Grasso was tempted down from his South London haunts to lay down some dapper patter. A psychogeographical tour through the magic of his city. A dérive that was not derivative, but reminded us of Ackroyd’s Hawksmoor and Alan Moore at his best. A claustrophobic clawing through the dirt and bowels of the city to find the magic in the urban overwritten city of the Moon Goddess. Props to Stephen for daring to compose literature and incant it over a live audience. For those who haven’t followed his work, there are essays in Devoted and XVI you may want to follow up. Watch this man.

In an horrific emerald frilled shirt I delivered a piece on Lucifer in relation to the grimoires and the ritual of the pact. This has been a subject which I have spent some years working on, and which notably the BlackDragon has elucidated further for me. Publishing for purely magical reasons has these results, as does sacrifice and ordeal. It seems that some of the speech appropriately eluded the camera crew, but a fuller printed version of this will be forthcoming from Scarlet Imprint.

Alkistis Dimech set herself a major task in The Mirror of Sacrifice. To communicate the essence of Butoh, an avant-garde Japanese dance form which she has practised for the last ten years, and to relate that to elements of shamanic training, magic, ritual and performance. It was a challenge which she rose to. We are pleased that amongst our audience and readers are a number of dancers who resonate to this body-based approach. Alkistis will be giving a further talk at the Day of the Dead in Glastonbury and is engaged in more writing work to follow her essay on witchcraft in XVI.

Ulysses Black is an unfamiliar name and deliberately so. His durational performance of black mirror staring lasted from event opening until he took the stage. His was the final striptease and reveal for the day event. Ulysses Black outed himself publically as the latest face and phase of the man born as Orlando Britts, whose Totemic Invocations written as Jack Macbeth is one of the most sought after of modern grimoires. A performance artist, his discussion of identity, ritual and action asked uncomfortable questions of all of us. Who exactly are we? On his evidence, Beuys and Nitsch should be recognised as part of the occult syllabus. It all came to a sticky end where the artist ate his own words. An important moment and another blurring of the lines between performance, ritual and magic.

The evening event gave Nous the chance to take to the decks. With all the talk of Assassins in the occult milieu we thought it best to have a genuine one to spin the tunes for the attending Templars and Witches. His brand of sonic heresy and desire for elusive perfection are close to our hearts. We also know him as a serious academic hermeticist which his essays in Howlings and XVI attest to.

Michael Azzato thrilled with his Egyptian dance. He demonstrated how to make an entrance in an unashamed clinging cerise number. A dance of hip shimmying virtuosity won over all present. Michael is not just eye-candy, but a talented performer and devotee. An exhuberant and uplifting performance in front of his magical peers which was greeted with appreciative ululation.

Alkistis enthralled with a virtuoso butoh dance. It was a privilege to watch such an intimate dance. I have never seen an audience so intent on catching every instant and nuance of a performance. A fragile, difficult and otherworldly experience unfolded. The emotional impact was profound. I lost track of the number of people who rushed up after the performance, compelled to hold her in the cathartic wake of their journey with her. We deliberately did not film this.

Stephen Grasso finished with his crate of voodoo vinyl and we were soon on the steps of our requisitioned temple drinking in the end of the night. Boundaries dissolved, ritual finished, glasses in hand. Three performers gyrated their hula hoop routine in the street for kicks not cash, a hybrid fusion of Pomba Gira and Rofocale. A good sign. The Brighton night is balmy and perverse enough to contain it all.

We have more to do, and yes, that is an account of just a hundred people in a hijacked church, of a vibrant collision of magic, music, ritual and performance. A moment, a happening, a what-the-hell was that? But those who are making the effort are shot through with the energy from it like a stick of Brighton rock. How many magicians does it take to create change, to make the grass green, the flowers grow?
The game is on.

Podcast of the speeches to follow courtesy of www.sittingnow.com

Tantalising Finery

2011-08-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

Magical publishing adds another skip load of imps to the already arcane world of printing press and binding bench. So we were delighted to receive two deliveries today in time for the full Moon, one van driver 'just happened' to pass our door today when he should have been making the delivery on Monday. With this post we can bring you two glimpses of tantalising finery.

Why tantalising? It is a woman's prerogative to make us wait, and we expect that from Pomba Gira! We worked through the nights to get the book to press. We sourced all the materials in advance so that they would be here for Nicholaj (in the brief window when he is in England rather than Brazil) for The Summer of Love. We approved the proofs, the book blocks were all printed and we opened the pre-order.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, the printer folded the sheets incorrectly and the whole lot has been destroyed. Are we downhearted? No! With sacrifice we know that there is something worth the effort, and this is a sacrifice willingly given. We often encounter resistance in magical work, and this we greet laughing. So, our thanks to those who have pre-ordered and are patiently waiting. You will receive your rewards. What we can give you is a glimpse of one of the three copies that they have hand sewn and bound up to show how she will look when she is properly dressed:

We have a feeling that this edition of 769 copies will be very sought after.
If you would like to add your praise to the lady, the pre-order is very much open here: http:www.scarletimprint.com/pombagira.htm

There is also still the opportunity to indulge in the fine edition here which promises to be even more sumptuous:

http://www.scarletimprint.com/pombagira_figtreeinhell.htm

Those coming to the Summer of Love can have a fondle of the merchandise, so to speak.
We will update you all when we have a shipping date.

Continuing with the theme, the first approval copy of the Sable et d'Or fine bound edition of Crossed Keys also arrived here today, coinciding fortuitously with author Michael Cecchetelli's birthday.
It is a magnificent beast.

This fine edition is entirely sold out, and the following picture perhaps explains why:

This edition will be presented in a leather bag rather than a slipcase.
Those who have ordered a copy will be notified as soon as the whole batch is bound and ready.
Full photos will follow to sate the scarcely concealed bibliophile in all of us.

A rose by any other name

2011-08-05T04:29:00.000-07:00

In my own journey to Babalon I came across Pomba Gira (or she came across me) a vivacious gypsy slashed with lipstick, trailing cigarette smoke and promises of witchcraft. My heart skipped a beat, as it should, as it must. Who was this beguiling beauty in red, the devil’s mistress who like all lovers seemed so immediately familiar and yet so impossibly other?

The thought occurred to me that perhaps there was a living cult of Babalon secreted away in Brazil. That Europe had not lost the love goddess, she had simply turned on her heels and left for the New World. If Pasadena, then why not Sao Paulo? If the jungle could engorge cities and civilisations and opera houses, then why not Babalon under an assumed name, wearing a feathered mask, darting glances from behind a fan? Brazil, offered that mixing bowl of blood to me, the abandon of Carneval, the collision of Catholicism with Congo and a wild strain of still recognisable European Witchcraft.

Both Babalon and Pomba Gira are concerned with human sexuality, both are clothed in diabolic imagery, both exhibit strong female red energy, both came demanding roses and respect. Perhaps this was not a fork in the road for me, but a crossroads. Could Pomba Gira answer some of the questions I had as I sought for the Beloved?

I dutifully tracked down the Antonio Alves Texeira book, still one of the few available on Pomba Gira in English (though that is something which we have now rectified). I performed workings, and sought connection to the spirit. The similarities between the two were welcome to me, as I was working with a Goddess in a culture hostile to her force and form, and with a barely articulated cult. This can be a lonely and difficult experience. The combination of isolation and longing seems to be the honest motivation behind many Western students’ careless confusion of spirits.

With Babalon, the sense of loss can seem insurmountable. This is always true on the path of the lover. Without the support of a functioning cult or a body of work, many look to what is superficially similar, and can be careless in understanding the inner truth. There is little reliable information out there, and few devotees who dare to truly work with Her or understand the level of commitment that is required. As devotees we are often very much on our own, but this too is a strength, if we can embrace the challenge it represents rather than clinging to the safety of cult speak or making sloppy approximations. Both are errors which I recognise that I have made.

In the West we have been prone to treating Goddesses as psychological constructs, and smudging the lines of kohl or chalk to suit our own designs. This too is a genuine attempt by a secular and disconnected culture to find a way back to magick. The revival of the grimoire tradition shows that an awareness is returning to magicians that the spirits are real and through trafficking with them, the world can be re-enchanted. It is inevitable given this history that our approach to the spirits of Kiumbanda will often be coloured by what we must honestly acknowledge as our inexperience. We are still finding our way.

Naturally I sought out practitioners who were working with Pomba Gira, and the universe placed them in my path. All were fraudulent, and this in itself is an appropriate warning to give. We should not be so eager to dance that we allow ourselves to be indiscriminately swept up in another’s scheme, simply because it is clothed in a pretty red dress. My intention was to witness a living cult working with the demonised aspects of sexuality, something utterly absent in the West. That seemed a better approach than making cult to the Magdalene, who was the patroness of a nearby church. Seeking to pull a concealed fragment of the Beloved free from the collapsing wreckage of Christianity would for me be futile. I am not a recovering Christian, apart from in the sense that we all are. Besides, the decay had set in, the heresy was no longer vital.

In my research it had rapidly become clear that the Western understanding of Babalon was dominated by the skewed perspective of Crowley to the detriment of Kelley and Dee and the Johns (both Parsons and of Patmos); perhaps Kiumbanda had better answers. Though wary of spiritual tourism, I even considered making the trip to Brazil to seek out a Terreiro and initiation. The workings I had found in Texeira had a direct honesty and a simplicity which profoundly touched me. So I did what I could, as honestly as I could.

In the West we have lost much of our folk magic, and Kiumbanda can help us regain a context in which we can rediscover an authentic spellcraft of our own. I did not find this in Wicca, which seemed too reliant on the least sympathetic elements of Solomonic magic, and Nuit cut and pasted from the Book of the Law as a generic ‘Goddess’. This seemed particularly ironic given that Crowley’s Nuit does not display any of the Egyptian cult characteristics but is rather Babalon in blue eye shadow. Despite the oblique references to Isis in Liber Al, with her hieroglyphic name ‘heart and tongue’ (1:32) , and spelt out by the capitals ‘Infinite Space, Infinite Stars’ (1:22), in truth we find a rather more carnally coloured manifestation. The stellar weft of Crowley’s Nuit is clearly shot through with Babalon’s DNA. In Liber Al 1:61 we read:

‘I who am all pleasure, and purple and drunkenness of the innermost senses, desire you, put on the wings, arouse the coiled splendor within you, Come unto me!’

What I find intriguing is that the purple and drunkenness are clearly drawn from the descriptions in Revelations 17 of Babalon, as are the exhortations to wear jewels and exceed the nations of the earth. A detailed exegesis reveals yet more traces of Revelations in the text, but neither my work, nor that of Babalon relies on the affirmation of Crowley. The line quoted here also made part of Gerald Gardner’s original Charge of the Goddess. Thus even Wicca can be seen to be drawing on and celebrating the energy of Babalon, however obliquely. This in part explains the shock of recognition that those from a witchcraft tradition undergo when they read The Red Goddess, but I digress.

The suggestions in Texeira, along with Maya Deren and my wider reading beyond the Western Tradition, helped me towards formulating my own spellcraft rather than simply the strictures of ritual magic that formed my core practice at that point. This has served me well and has been subsequently built upon with what I have learned through personal revelation and Work. Throughout this I never mistook one lady for the other. Those who have read my polemic ‘All goddesses are not one goddess’ will understand my position on this matter. Even without cult contact or initiation, Pomba Gira aided me in my own path to Babalon and I am sure will do so for others.

It seems very fitting that Pomba Gira returned swirling her skirts as we prepared The Red Goddess for publication in Her third limitless incarnation. Delays have conspired to bring the books on Babalon and Pomba Gira forth cusping on each other, and this is no mistake. Both texts can be considered as complimentary, though wildly divergent, and it is in this way that we must consider the relationship of Babalon and Pomba Gira. They are distinct, but not set in antagonism.

I am often asked by those approaching work with Babalon, or seeking to deepen their connection with Her, what they can do, or what they should read. I have recommended the Biblical texts, Tantric and Tibetan material as well as the paeans of writers and poets such as Genet, Miller and Bukowski to help them contextualise their own very personal discoveries. I can also commend approaching Pomba Gira, some will find that this is the spirit they sought, others will cleave to Babalon.

Kiumbanda has a wealth of experience that we can draw from as devotees of Babalon. I might mention the crises that the devotee faces in the pitfalls of obsession and passion which so often engulf the would-be lover of Babalon. These dangers are clearly spelt out in Brazil. The male devotee in Kiumbanda is counselled humility, something often sorely lacking in men when they approach Babalon, especially if they style themselves after Crowley and seek to dominate and constrain her flowering.

The female devotee must also look into her heart if she is to avoid what in witchcraft is colloquially referred to as ‘high priestess disease’. With Babalon this can lead to trying to fuck everybody into enlightenment, simply burning out by running constant current through an unprepared body, or vaingloriously deciding you are the one and only avatar of the divine. If your life is becoming a succession of sexual train wrecks, you will need to reassess, as I have.

Though we have possession and mediumship in the West they have been made taboo, first by scripture and then by science. In the fascinating Place of Enchantment by Alex Owen the schism between spiritualism and magic is discussed and this makes valuable reading. Spiritualism has not been developed and has fallen out of vogue since the table tapping and planchette mania. The parasitic television mediums are the last unpleasant vestige of this social role, perma-tanned necromancers whose connection is made through the ghosting away of credit card details from the grieving bereaved. Our current generation of pagans, witches and magicians will have to re-conquest the oracular connection which was severed by John on Patmos, and buried with scorn in the catacombs of Ephesus. Our role now is to experience possession and give voice to both the divine and the dead. This is sacred work. We can certainly avoid some of the obvious mistakes in this process by learning from Kiumbanda and Kiumbandeiros.

The question is for us, how do we approach this cult with respect? Frisvold in his first book on the subject, Kiumbanda (Chadezoad 2006) , which is superseded by his latest book, Pomba Gira and the Kiumbanda of Mbumba Nzila (Scarlet Imprint 2011), was direct in his criticisms of clumsy syncretism, baldly stating:

‘It is not enough simply to be fascinated with these cults, while lacking real knowledge of the language, culture, history and the land, which gave birth to the spirits of Kimbanda and Kiumbanda’.

Fascination can be a mark that you are being called by spirit, though a desire for plaster statues, tridents and trappings can be to mistake an aesthetic appeal for a genuine connection. You would be wise to keep your work more private than seeking approval for it on the shifting digital shores of fashion, or the back eddies of sub-culture. We already see many crass attempts to co-opt these spirits which do a great disservice to them and their lineage.

The need for spatial context is essential, as we have written ourselves on Witchcraft, the connection to the land and the spirit of place is needed to ground and manifest magic, otherwise we are engaged in spurious imagineering, which cannot have lasting results. One of the most important projects of modern pagan witchcraft is to engage with ecology, as we are the guardians of the landscape, plants and fauna which house the spirits we seek congress with. Some elements and specific spirits in Kiumbanda do have a connection back to European Witchcraft, and for this reason can readily accept us. However, we must not ignore that they have been much changed by their time in Congo and Brazil. In our pursuit of these spirits we must not neglect either the ground that we stand on, or that they are now rooted in.

Vital too is the issue of culture and language. Kiumbanda, as an operative magical system, is rooted in the community. To give an example from my own personal journey into magic, I read all of the classic texts on Vodou, looking for technology that we had lost in the West, but came to the conclusion that the tradition could not be field stripped. As I did not live in a community, whether Bristol or Brixton, it made no sense to appropriate their culture and invest what was essentially a pragmatic tradition with an artificial exoticism to spice up my own attempts at spiritual re-orientation.

Far worse would be to pay up for a round trip to a Haitian initiation supermarket as many Westerners choose to. This is not what Maya Deren underwent. Neither is this to deny that Westerners cannot achieve meaningful initiation into the diaspora cults, individuals such as Nicholaj Frisvold or Stephen Grasso are a testament to this. We also now have Botanicas springing up that genuinely serve their communities. Though the diaspora religions are syncretic and adaptable, that should not be confused with the idea that they are lacking cultural context.

In particular with Kiumbanda, we encounter the importance of ancestry, which is so neglected in the West. Without this firmly understood, any notion of working with Pomba Gira or Exu is meaningless. Again, I would unhesitatingly recommend Frisvold’s Palo Mayombe: the Garden of Blood and Bones (Scarlet Imprint 2011) for an understanding of the African and Congolese traditions of ancestry and the Misa Espiritual as a practice to carefully note. Babalon has a markedly different relationship to ancestry, as Her concern is with the distillation of the blood of the Saints, rather than their bones.

Frisvold contextualises these ideas for those of us who are of European extraction by examining the similarities the African ideas bear to the Greek tradition. The work of Jake Stratton-Kent, most notably Geosophia, also looks at re-forging this ancestral connection in the West through rehabilitating the maligned art of necromancy and tracing the line from Goes through the Graeco-Egyptian Magical Papyri and into the Grimoire tradition. The modern magical revival needs to deeply consider this. Another writer we highly recommend in this regard is Aaron Leitch.

These ideas have atrophied in our media culture, which adorns itself with skulls and memento mori whilst denying our elders death with dignity and meaning. The current magical revival, which has brought to light (and print) so much of our own hidden heritage, can repay the debt and reforge the connection to our ancestors by honouring the dead, and the dying. We can learn here from the examples of Africa, Greece and the diaspora. Buying unknown bones on the internet rather than respectfully visiting and caring for our local graveyard or relatives, exemplifies the current state of spiritual confusion we exist in.

In Kiumbanda, Frisvold explicitly criticised Thelemic attempts, however well-meaning, to turn Babalon into Pomba Gira and Exu into the Great Beast. His rebuttal is concise, and I am in complete agreement:

‘Exu and Pomba Gira were born on Brazilian soil amongst practitioners of the Art from Europe and Africa; to mix Thelemic gnosis, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the legions of Exu is downright absurd’.

This view from within the cult must be respected. We cannot expect our magical tradition in the West to be given credence if we make such hasty aproximations. Magick requires more precision than this. The Thelemic understanding of Babalon can be painfully limited. I know that this will be a bruising statement for some, but I am also sure that the confusion of Babalon and Pomba Gira comes from the honest reasons listed earlier. We are trying to make sense of our fractured identity, but simply creating a collage based on superficial understanding will not lead us forward.

We have also been starved of good information about Pomba Gira, and to that end I want to now outline the very clear difference in these ladies’ silhouettes and substance through point and counterpoint, as I understand them.

Pomba Gira is perhaps most properly described as a legion of the dead, she is a collective name for a class of spirits who form distinct lines under particular Queens.

Babalon is a distinct Goddess in and of Herself. She is annihilation. Though She can manifest in different forms (we consider Astaroth a lower octave of Babalon in our goetic work) and there are certainly sympathetic spirits, such as Madimi who grace us with their presence, there is no equivalence to the lines we find in Kiumbanda.

Pomba Gira was human once, as evinced by Maria Padilha and Maria Mulambo whose stories are retold in the cult.

Babalon is not a particular woman or women, though she has clearly come through Goddesses such as Inanna/Ishtar/Astarte, which I explore in The Red Goddess. More properly She is a force whose form is manifesting in all women.

Pomba Gira exists in relation to a King, she is a Queen without a crown who seeks to enslave Exu with her seductive powers. This is a mirror to the inequality of social gender relations with a proposed solution in a particularly Hispanic chivalry.

Babalon is crowned, and does not need a man to crown Her. The relationship with Beast, Dragon and Antichrist is very different to that of Pomba Gira and Exu.

Pomba Gira has a social function, as solace for the broken hearted. She operates within an existing cultural framework where she seeks to ameliorate the suffering of her devotees. She is the woman of the streets and the scorned mistress.

Babalon destroys the social fabric with that most dangerous of all things, Love. She brings with Her the full force of revolution. Babalon is present in the whore and the Empress, we would do well to see Her in all female things.

Pomba Giras are spirits concerned with human love and relationships.

Babalon is a Goddess of Love and War, the battlefield and bedchamber.

Pomba Gira is approached in a cult of possession which draws not simply on European spiritism as Kardec proposed, but on an African mediumship tradition.
This can at times be both prophetic and eschatological but is not always so.

Babalon requires to be embodied. Her lineage here clearly comes from the prophetic rites at Ephesus where the Priestess was Mystery. This is a Western tradition of possession work. There is no seal on the prophetess. Her pronouncements are revelatory and necessarily eschatological and apocalyptic. Her cult will come through the bodies of Her chosen devotees.

Pomba Gira accepts (amongst other offerings) thornless red roses.

Babalon desires everything and would appreciate the thorns left on Her roses, and a drop or two of your blood, if you please.

Pomba Gira is orientated to the North.

Babalon comes from the East, but is heading West.

Pomba Gira favours convolvulus, ipomea and the solanum as visionary plants.

Babalon mixes wine with hashish, henbane, mandrake, poppy, rue, datura, takes mdma, dmt, lsd, ayahuasca et al. She is Alkahest, the universal solvent. Her vision is a truly psychedelic one.

Working with both Pomba Gira and Babalon is possible, but these differences should be clearly kept in mind. There are many parallels and my hope is that this small essay has helped to draw them more clearly for devotees and aspirants on both sides and enable them to understand each other better.

As I am not an initiate of Kiumbanda, I very much welcome the comments, corrections and suggestions of those who are. For this reason I am publishing this essay in an open form online.

My wish is that by providing experience of my own work with Babalon in The Red Goddess and by publishing the work of Dr Frisvold in Pomba Gira and the Kiumbanda of Mbumba Nzila that these cults will both continue to flourish and bear roses whose beauty and scent will provoke our divine intoxication

Pomba Gira, the Keys to the Kingdom and the Sacred Harlot

2011-07-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

Crossed Keys is getting a very strong initial reaction.

Both the nature of the contents and the form of the book are attracting high praise.

Two contrasting and lively reviews may be read here: http://burn-victim.blogspot.com/2011/07/devils-days.html and here: http://ravenconjure.blogspot.com/2011/07/book-review-crossed-keys.html

Both are blogs worth following.

By producing a working version of the Black Dragon and Enchiridion, Michael Cecchetelli has demonstrated the applicability of grimoire magic to the modern practitioner. His own personal journey is a testament to this. These are not books designed to sit on shelves but as Jake Stratton-Kent has opined, should be slipped into one's pocket and carried to the cemetery.

Though it can be valuable to provide reproductions of manuscripts from the library vaults, and here we cite the excellent work of Golden Horde and that of Joseph Peterson at the Twilight Grotto, Scarlet Imprint is engaged in a quite different project. We intend to illustrate the practical magical work that these texts are capable of inspiring. For that reason the Black Dragon is supplied with the working corrected seals which bring it into line with The True Grimoire, and make it possible to work the texts in parallel rather than preserving them in aspic.

The grimoire tradition is our neglected Western hoodoo. It also has profound implications for our understanding of Witchcraft, as it is within the grimoires that we find the catalogues of spirits and familiars, as well as the spellcraft, tools and techniques that high magic has not preserved. Again, we wish to stress that the divides betweeen witchcraft and magic are largely artificial, and that both communities should be engaged in more open dialogue. The grimoires are one place that this can occur.

For those whose curiosity is piqued, Crossed Keys is available in an egalitarian paperback Bibliotheque Rouge edition though you may be unable to resist the charm of the Good Catholic edition hardback.

Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold continues to gain kudos for his masterly study of Palo Mayombe, The Garden of Blood and Bones. For a proper understanding of necromancy, this is an essential text. It is rare to gain such access to the inner workings of Palo, and as an initiate, Nicholaj has written a respectful and insightful book which is suitable for both Paleros and those outsiders who wish to learn about the real nature of Palo rather than simply the shock value of encountering skulls in iron cauldrons.

Nicholaj has a further work on Pomba Gira imminent from Scarlet Imprint.
Book lovers beware, this is a real piece of candy...
Subscribers will be able to pre-order this title on Friday July 29.
If you wish to be added to our subscriber list, email us.
Pomba Gira is already at the printers and will be published in time for his appearance at The Summer of Love.

The Red Goddess is in stock and shipping in Her Bibliotheque Rouge incarnation, graced with incredible artwork from Christopher Conn Askew, fresh typography and burning with vitality. This Love letter to Babalon continues to ignite the imagination and inspire devotion to the Sacred Harlot. The Love Goddess is revealed in all her apocalyptic fervour. From Babylon to Jerusalem, Patmos to Prague, this is the missing history of the Holy Whore.
Perhaps it is time you were seduced?

The Summer of Love is fast approaching. Make your plans to join the boldest souls of the modern magical revival for a day and night of revelry in high summer.
This is a very rare chance to catch Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold in the UK, who will be speaking on the mysteries of Pomba Gira, the devil's mistress.
Jake Stratton-Kent will be cutting his customary dash, with serious reviews for his game-changing Geosophia finally starting to see the light.
Peter Grey will be presenting fresh research on both Red and Black Dragon. Stephen Grasso brings the Brixton voodoo. Alkistis Dimech roots magick in the body of the dancer. Ulysses Black takes off the masks. With dance and ritual performances, djs and disorder, this is going to be a blast.
Tickets are available here

Our best,

In Nomine Babalon

Peter and Alkistis

Crossed Keys unlocked

2011-07-11T04:46:00.000-07:00

Crossed Keys arrived on Thursday and all subscriber copies have been sent.
Books have reached the United Kingdom already and should touch down in Europe and the United States before too long.

This is the first English translation of the Enchiridion of Pope Leo III bound with the Black Dragon.
Our congratulations to Michael Cecchetelli, who has written himself into the grimoire tradition with his dedication and fortitude. A living example of how the grimoire tradition continues to be relevant to the life, stuggle and triumphs of the modern magus.

These are the first pictures of the Good Catholic edition.

The shot black and gold bookcloth changes dramatically in the light, as befits this very curious prayerbook of the interwoven celestial and infernal influences which stand behind the grimoire tradition. An important pair of texts for those working with Red Dragon, Grand Grimoire and Grimorium Verum spirits.

The Good Catholic edition of Crossed Keys is available here: http://www.scarletimprint.com/crossedkeys.htm

The fine sable et d'or edition is fully subscribed and is in the process of being bound.
The bibliotheque rouge paperback edition is also now in stock, continuing our commitment to making these works available to all students.

Ink and Blood

2011-07-01T05:19:00.000-07:00

The sliver of an eclipse this morning ends a week of computer meltdowns, phonecalls to printers and paper merchants, editing and expresso. It has been a veritable week of ink and blood, and this blog is to bring you all up to date on where we stand across our forthcoming titles.

Crossed Keys
It has been a longer than usual wait for our subscribers on this title as the Italian cloth on the standard edition took an extra month to arrive. One of the challenges of being a small publisher is in sourcing the bespoke materials for our projects, and the unavoidable delays this can incur.
Today we approved the blocked cover, and have been admiring the shot black and gold cloth. As befits this pairing of infernal and celestial grimoires the character of the book changes as the light strikes it. Photographing it accurately might prove problematic, but that again underlines the difference between the digital facsimilie and the book itself as a magical object.
The stamped canting arms are balanced, the typography charming, and we are extremely enthusiastic about these curious texts, the Black Dragon and the Enchiridion, being made available in the English speaking world.
Book blocks are all printed gathered and sewn. Our prayers should be answered next week when the finished books arrive and we can get them packed and shipped to you all.
Again, our thanks for your patience. If you haven't pre-ordered, the Crossed Keys page is here: http://www.scarletimprint.com/crossedkeys_subscribe.htm

The fine Sable et d'Or editions is taking shape on the bindery bench, with the dragonskin leather having winged its way over from France, and one of our most spectacular bespoke marble papers to date. All copies of the fine edition are reserved or sold. This will be a treasure of a book.

Datura
In preparation for the arrival of our latest title(s) we have been through our stockroom, which is a suitably Raiders of the Lost Ark affair. There, nestling at the back were a few boxes of the platinum silk bound Datura's, which is great news for those who thought they had missed out on this title. If you would like to purchase one of these copies, email us at scarletimprint@gmail.com and we will organise an invoice for you. Datura is a serious work of poetry, lovingly edited by Ruby Sara and will be followed next year by Mandragora along with a rouge edition of Datura.

The Red Goddess
It has been a feverish process getting The Red Goddess ready for Her Bibliotheque Rouge incarnation. We want this edition to be rather special, so we commissioned a new cover.
We are going to be coquettish about it for a little longer, but we will upload an image when pre-order opens on July 7.
For now we thoroughly recommend looking at the website of Christopher Conn Askew www.sekretcity.com whose powerful iconographic work will grace the Rouge edition.
From the response we have been getting since the 7/7/7 edition sold out, this book will catch fire.

Full details on The Red Goddess pre-order will be sent out to our subscribers on July 7, if you are not already on our subscriber list, email us to be added at: scarletimprint@gmail.com

We hope you all enjoy your weekends, ours will be spent working on Pomba Gira, with the aim to have it ready for August and The Summer of Love. More ink, more blood...

It keeps getting hotter

2011-06-24T07:11:00.001-07:00

Stephen Grasso is a great late addition to the line-up for our Summer of Love on August 21 in Brighton, and a timely reminder to pick up your tickets as soon as you can.

Details of his talk below to whet your appetite...

Smoke and Mirrors

Writer and witchdoctor Stephen Grasso unveils the hidden occult landscape of the City of London. Dark rum hits old stone at the crossroads and we enter heavy Voodoo terrain, tuning into the dub echoes of history. The mysteries of the boneyard and the buried river slide into focus. The lunar temple of St Pauls Cathedral opens its doors for witchcraft, and the chained giants of the Guildhall break their bonds. The nefarious cyclopean towers of the square mile are struck by lightning and wicked houses are marched on by zombie chimney sweeps and the intranquil dead. Our Lady of the Thames pulsates outside of time bringing life and freshness, and opening the way to the rebel territories south of the river where sorcerers dream and conspire. The wanton Green pushes up through grey paving slabs and a parliament of trees sits in judgement. The primal jungle under London speaks its mind. Senses are washed clear and duplicitous spells are undone. All cities have magic.

We will also be rounding up some decks so that we can add Stephen to our DJ line up alongside Nous.

Les Mystères Soundsystem

Stephen Grasso digs through the crates and conjures fire in the dancehall with a selection of rare vinyl cuts from the African Diaspora magico-religoius traditions. Expect Haitian exotica, Cuban Lukumi mambo, Brazilian Orixa bossanova, New Orleans second line, Mardi Gras Indian funk and Obeah reggae. Yes, occult music you can cut
a rug to.

Stephen has of course graced the pages of both Devoted and XVI and many other publications, from Strange Attractor to Generation Hex. An engaging speaker and sharp dresser, we think he will be a great addition to throw into the mix.

More Scarlet Imprint updates very soon on Crossed Keys, which we expect from the printer next week. The Red Goddess is soon to go to press and further details on Pomba Gira.

Occultists and Fascists

2011-06-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

We were approached recently to contribute to Troy Southgate's Black Front Press whose last published work was a Crowley anthology.

After a little research, we were disturbed to find their rather murky history hidden beneath the anti-corporate, anti-capitalist and permaculture ideals.

Though we are very happy to promote the independent esoteric and occult authors and publishers whose work and dedication invigorate and stimulate our community, it is entirely another matter to contribute our energy to a project which would seem to be attempting to use a multiplicity of voices from the occult scene to promote the ideas of the so-called New-Right.

First port of call is Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Southgate

Of course, the accuracy of Wikipedia is always up for debate, but then there are plentiful online interviews:

http://www.extremepolitics.org/2009/01/13/interview-with-national-anarchist-troy-southgate/

Or perhaps this article on Co-opting the Counter Culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction:

http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=2439

We find it impossible to ignore statements like this on the main http://www.national-anarchist.net/ site:

"Race defines who we are, it provides us with an identity and exists for a damn good reason. Without maintaining this essential diversity, something you can find throughout nature, the world will become increasingly drab, standardised and monotonous and the only people left on the planet will inevitably form part of a coffee-coloured mush of uniform humanity. National-Anarchists wish to preserve the different races of the earth and believe that multi-racialism ends with the dissolution of all races. Racial separatism is the only way that the organic balance can be restored."

Our emphasis is in bold, and our disgust is profound.

What is clear in magickal history is that racial mixing has been incredibly beneficial. Let us consider the influences of Persian, Arabic, Chinese, Indian, Tibetan, Jewish and Greek magick that characterise the Western Tradition. Not to mention Africa, which has enriched Europe and the New World. This is proved by the material on Palo Mayombe, Quimbanda, Voudou et al. We could go on. Knowledge comes from exchange and inter-pentetration of peoples, cultures and ideas. And the mingling of knowledge and blood is as old as man and woman. The idea of purity of race and culture is a relatively recent innovation in the quest for meaning amongst the ruins.

We have sought to print writers, some of whom we disagree with, as we hold that there is much to gain from a plurality of voices, perspectives and experiences. However, this does not mean that we ever support giving fascists a platform, or having our own voices co-opted to that end.

To be clear we are not implying that those who write for this Press hold fascist views. Nonetheless, those who choose to write for these publications must be clear that they are providing an intellectual fig leaf for an ideology which would otherwise struggle to be taken seriously.

There is a Spanish proverb, 'Tell me who you walk with and I will tell you who you are'.

All blood is mixed in the cup.

In Nomine Babalon

Peter Grey and Alkistis Dimech

Summer of Love

2011-05-27T02:28:00.000-07:00

Scarlet Imprint present a veritable Summer of Love distilled into one brimful cup of intoxication, illumination and revelation.

Speakers, dancers, performance art, and ritual combine to create a truly magical happening in a secret, central and spectacular location from eleven until eleven.

This is a limited numbers ticket only event.

Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold author of Palo Mayombe: The Garden of Blood and Bones will be leaving behind the jungles of Brazil to make a rare UK appearance. He will be ritually opening the event, presenting and launching his new title for Scarlet Imprint: Pomba Gira & the Quimbanda of Mbumba Nzila.
(Pre-order and details of this title will be sent to our subscribers in July.)
ritual + presentation

Jake Stratton-Kent has been lured from the West Country to talk on ‘Familiar and Unfamiliar Spirits’. Exploring the Lares Compitales, Viales and Familiaris as the origin of the Verum spirit and Kimbanda Exu crossover. A tour de force, combining his work on the Grimorium Verum, the origins of magic as expressed in Geosophia and their flowering in the cults of the New World.
presentation

Peter Grey dissects one of the most notorious of the grimoire rituals, through Grand Grimoire, Red and Black Dragons, paring back the layers of artifice to a raw shamanic confrontation ‘In the skin of the Beast’. An exegesis with far reaching implications for grimoire magicians and their dealings with Lucifer.
presentation

Alkistis Dimech articulates the occult anatomy of the dancer, exploring the mysteries of concealment and revelation through the body. Physical praxis, cross-tradition research and an appetite for the carnal, trangressive and irrational have led her to reorient the body as the primal present and archaic source of knowing. In the ‘Mirror of Sacrifice’ the dancer encounters self as sacrifice, the act as divine epiphany, and the manifestation of Life in Death. Among the themes covered may be: imitation and doubling; witnessing & the dynamic of an audience; and a disclosure of some techniques to create what she calls 'the lucid body'.
presentation + evening performance

Ulysses Black is not a name known to the occult community, despite having generated, under different guises, considerable interest through much sought after publications and artwork. As Ulysses Black he assails the issue of identity through performance art and ritual action. From influences such as Joseph Beuys and Hermann Nitsch as well as the Western Magical Tradition he plots a return to mythical Ithaca.
presentation + evening performance

Michael Azzato, a devotee of Babalon, will be peforming an Egyptian Sha'abi Dance.
evening performance

Nous will be on decks and effects, unfurling Ismaili Gnostic soundscapes in a storm of sonic heresy.
evening performance

Tickets:
A day and night event ticket costs £15
A day ticket costs £10

Tickets are available here: http://www.scarletimprint.com/summeroflove.htm

E-tickets will be sent out with the location details and directions.
This is a zero profit event run for the magical community.

Getting there:
Brighton is an hour from London by train from Victoria or London Bridge station.
Brighton train station is five minutes walk from the venue.
Trains return to London until late.
http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/

The Pool Valley bus station is a five minute walk from the venue.
http://www.nationalexpress.com/coach/destinations/england/south/brighton/brighton-coach-station.aspx

Car share and accomodation offers and requests can be found on the Facebook event page. (live at the weekend)

About Brighton:
Brighton is the pleasure city of the Regency period and beyond. An artistic and bohemian idyll, the cremation place of Crowley, the ground zero of TOPY, queer, proud and vibrant. It abounds with bed and breakfasts, hostels and hotels for those who wish to stay overnight or make a weekend of it.
http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=Brighton

We look forward to seeing you there.

Daimonic Imagination

2011-05-19T05:46:00.000-07:00

The Academy seems to be caught in a moment between exhultation and crisis. Such was the frisson at the Daimonic Imagination conference hosted by the University of Kent. This is not simply because the door has come ajar and errant daimonologists such as ourselves can slip into the discourse complete with official name badges and wild ideas, nor because some of those within the Academy are finding the courage to come out as practitioners themselves. But because of more fundamental changes in the world, writ large in the troubling stars.

But let us not get ahead of the story, and first let us taste the exhultation.

If the esoteric community is guarded, so too is academia, and we were delighted to get a chance to see the academics in their own environment and not feel excluded, but rather welcomed. Aside from the overuse of the word ‘ontology’ and perhaps a little more agonising over the implications of Kant than practitioners care for, the same passion and engagement was present. So too was the range of experiences and approaches. Anthropologists, Jungians, philosophers and historians all rubbed elbow patches, and none questioned the existence of the Daimon, but rather how we can meaningfully discuss the experience. It was a delightful banquet of parthenogenesis and psychedelics, fairies and Ficino. Debate and conversation was lively and well intentioned, the boundaries between disciplines were found to be permeable. This is the same feeling we experienced at Breaking Convention,the psychedelic conference on the same campus last month, and that we are also experiencing in the global practitioner community. Something profound is changing.

But how long can we sup at this paradisiacal feast?

The hosting Centre for the Study of Myth’s Geoffrey Cornelius recounted how the department had been memorably described by a senior administrator as ‘one mumbo short of a jumbo’. This is where the bright colours begin to decay into a monochromatic scale. Myth is neither respectable nor respected, and those who have dared to pursue the mysteries and build mystery schools within the establishment have done so on perilous ground. Though the academics have made their subject fit the demands of the Academy and produced excellent work (which they may be surprised to find is widely read in our circles) the climate has changed. As one of our friends who has seen his own academic future dissolve puts it, ‘in five years all that will be left in teaching is shopping and woodwork’, that is, marketing and engineering. The Academy and its aspirations are no longer grudgingly supported by the State. The daimons and the fairies will be the first to melt away, like an LSD saturated sugar cube, and that perhaps is what we also were witnessing. Though big hitters like Hutton have tenure, we wonder how many more will be able to rise to his stature. This will be a loss for all of us, and we offer our support to all beleagured academics in increasingly dificult times, especially those who have been brave enough to come out as practitioners in a disbelieving or actively hostile culture.

For those who wish to walk on the wild side, the invitation is open to our own modest conference to be held in Brighton on Saturday August 20, we can promise a different experience, but the same welcome you had the courtesy to extend to us.

Mayimbe spreads her wings

2011-05-12T05:17:00.000-07:00

The fine bound Mayimbe edition of Palo Mayombe-The Garden of Blood and Bones by Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold is here.

Mayimbe is the vulture, whose brooding presence conceals one of the central mysteries of the cult.
It is brought to life clad in a quarter-binding of handboarded straight grain black goatskin which results in an irregular organic finish. The wings are fletched with a specially commissioned marbled paper. the fore-edges are stained red and upon opening, italian handmade endpapers display their sombre silver grey finery.
All copies come ribboned and slipcased and with a handcrafted bilongo/telesmata.

We will be packing and shipping all the pre-ordered copies over the next few days.

Our congratulations to Nicholaj on this important book.

The standard hardback is available here

The limitless paperback is available here

More pictures of our titles can be found on our flickr page here

Good Friday

2011-04-22T05:25:00.000-07:00

We have opened the pre-order for our latest title Crossed Keys today, being a chimeric binding of both The Black Dragon and the Enchiridion of Pope Leo III in a fresh translation by grimoire magician Michael Cecchetelli who was compelled to undertake this work in unorthodox circumstances.

They are complementary grimoires, spanning one of the very earliest examples of the genre to the late bibliotheque bleue period.

Together they comprise a wealth of spells, spirits, lore, talismans and psalm magic, with their head in the highest heavens and their feet in the deepest hells.

This is the first time they have been bound into one volume.

Extensively footnoted, the seals corrected re-drawn and restored, with excerpts and workings from the translator's magical record, this is a well armed and practical text which throws light on the Grimorium Verum, Red Dragon and Grand Grimoire. It is a vigorous text, designed to be put to use.

Those on our subscriber list will have received the links to pre-order both the standard and fine edition of this title. Please check your spam folder, as email filters can devour our messages.

If you wish to be added to the list, or your newsletter has gone astray, please email us at: scarletimprint@gmail.com

Happy Easter

Peter and Alkistis x

Myrrh, Frankincense and Pirate Gold

2011-04-18T05:08:00.000-07:00

A review of the Day of the Magi.

Something has changed. A tangible sense of community is being felt with every new event, and Day of the Magi continued that momentum. Rather than a magickal scene riven and divided into cliques and petty politics, everything is entering into a molten state where we are united by what we share. The false tribal divisions of the past are being put aside as a new magic is articulated. As Jake Stratton-Kent points out, we are in the process of a magical revival in the West. So when we talk of a new magic here, and of the magical revolution, we are not entering into another post-modern collage, neither whimsy nor sci-fi, rather we are honestly acknowledging both what we have, and what we have lost.

We were fortunate to have Stephen Skinner lecture, as there is no doubt that Stephen is the most important magician that we have in our community, whose unstinting work in manuscript research and publication is of the utmost importance to all of us. We acknowledge our very public debt of gratitude to him and the work that he has gifted us with. The work being produced through Golden Hoard is essential if we are to understand where our magic has come from, and the personal commitment Stephen has made to unearthing this is staggering. We do not envy him the task of deciphering Dee’s handwriting and restoring order to the drenched, misbound, shuffled folios, of arguing with Russian officials to let him see Solomonic books, of keeping his pledges.

Stephen spoke on the grimoire roots of Enochian magic, and the apocalyptic context of Dee and the Angelic transmissions. This is an important counterpoint to the idea that Dee’s work sprung from nowhere. This echoed many of the ideas I put forward in my essay Seeing Through Apocalypse in XVI. Stephen traced the entire history of magic through European history and, like Jake Stratton-Kent, emphaised the importance of Greek magic rather than the modern over emphasis of Cabbalah. He spoke of the steps of conjuration, of the shyness of spirits, of lost fay gates, of chinese sorcery and more. It was a tour de force.

There is certainly a difference of style between Jake, piratical and punkish, and Stephen’s measured confidence. But both these eminent magicians are telling the same story: There is gold in them thar grimoires...

photo credit: Mrs Midian

However, they emphasise different points; Jake as a necromancer is furious on behalf of the dead. That the dead have been excised from our tradition must be rectified, and Jake speaks here for the people of the cemetery as few people do. Jake stands at the crossroads of both ancient Greece and the modern African diaspora religions. Stephen has plunged into the library stacks of Europe and the operative magical cultures of the Far East. Both give us much to consider as we stand at our own crossroads, understand what paths we are on and which we must take.

We are not starting with a blank slate to scrawl on, we are not engaged in self-help psychology or NLP. We are the inheritors of a long-standing spirit tradition, but one of broken transmissions. The excitement of our time is that we have the available material to ressurect Western magic, and with the connections being made at these gatherings, this is exactly what is happening. We spoke with witches, wiccans, pagans, druids, members of the Golden Dawn, IOT, OTO, ceremonial magicians and cunning folk not in the language of cult speak, but as individuals learning from each other.

We must also mention Mike Slater who spoke on Bristolian legends of exorcism, poltergeists, demonologists and cunning folk. Charlotte Rodgers explored some of the sanguine themes of her latest Mandrake book, The Bloody Sacrifice. David Cypher on Franz Bardon’s spagyrics and what sounded a lot like proto-chaos magic. Most of all our thanks to the organisers (special mention for Michelle Newitt and Phil Cunningham) and all who attended both locally and from across England and Wales who made the event what it was and what our magic is becoming.

We will further be hosting a Scarlet Imprint happening on Saturday August 20 in Brighton, more details to follow and we hope to see many of you there to continue this fertile dialogue.

The Argo of Magic

2011-04-11T01:52:00.000-07:00

A new and extensive review posted for Geosophia at the Eyeless Owl blog:

“The word ‘goes’ relates to terms describing the act of lamenting at funeral rites; the mournful howling considered as a magical voice. These magical tones can guide the deceased to the underworld, and raise the dead. This is the root of the long connection of goetia with necromancy, which as come to be termed black magic.” - from the Introduction to Geosophia, by Jake Stratton-Kent
There was a time when laws were given through Divine inspiration, and those who spoke them were raised to the level of the gods they served. Perhaps the most familiar example of this in the Western culture is the reception of the tables of law given to Moses on Mount Sinai (or Horeb depending on the tradition), but this tradition exists in nearly every culture across the world. According to the scholar Peter Kingsley it was a common practice in the ancient world that such receptions were required to be heard in times of trouble. Whether it was disease, famine, or war, if someone came forward with a Divinely inspired revelation, irregardless of their social standing, that revelation was to be respected and given a fair hearing lest the society suffer further due to its neglect.

Such a practice has obvious problems for Imperial rule, or corporate oligarchy, and throughout history the role of the Prophet has never been without it’s attendant risks. When the ruling elite decides to ignore Divine decree those speaking with the voice of Divinity are quickly rounded up and sentenced to death, and the instruments and practices of cultivating Divine contact are fought with laws, taboos and mockery seeking to silence them. In the Western Tradition these practices have, since before the onset of the Roman Catholic Empire, faced this process of denigration. Starting with arguments against the folly of metaphysics by Greek and Roman rationalists, and continuing into laws against witchcraft and divination, these taboos have remained in place in one form or another for millennium.
While there are many downsides to the cultural confusion of our time, there are also benefits to the disintegration of boundaries and cultural unity. Jake Stratton-Kent’s study of the grimoire tradition presents one of the most cohesive examples of these benefits in it’s exploration of the ancient goetic practice and its roots in pre-Greco-Roman traditions and the Mystery cults of the ancient world. His latest work, Geosophia – The Argo of Magic, is a 628 page survey of the history, practice and continuation of the Goetic tradition. It forms the second part of his Encyclopedia Goetia, which began with the publication of The Encyclopedia Goetica Volume One: The True Grimoire, both available in multiple editions from Scarlet Imprint.
Stratton-Kent shares the drive to reinvigorate and actualize the Western tradition that Peter Grey and Alkistis Dimech, the proprietors of Scarlet Imprint, express in a previous interview hosted on The Eyeless Owl. He has spent nearly four decades studying the grimoire tradition first hand, both as a practitioner and scholar, and his expertise shines throughout the pages of Geosophia. While the book’s depth as a scholarly work is undeniable it contains no dry academic pretensions, it presents a vivid and living tradition.
“…the goal should be the acquisition of mastery of symbolic languages, in order to compose rites and texts for oneself. Misguided imitation of our predecessors, and purely retrospective approaches fall short of an attainment that, while devoutly wished for by many, is lost if this is not well understood.”
- from Geosophia, Jake Stratton-Kent

Despite it’s notoriety, the goetic tradition has roots in practices that were once central to the health and cohesion of society. Students of Philosophy inundated with the drudgery of the current academic interpretation of ancient thinkers will be surprised to find the names of Pythagoras and Empedocles along side John Dee and Edward Kelly as practitioners of the Art.
The role of the goes in ancient society was to be the mediator between worlds, similar to the shamanic practices found in Siberia, South America and Eurasia. What has fallen into disrepute when labeled as necromancy was once the auspicious role of ‘guide of souls’ in past cultures.
Given the ability to contact, and speak, with the recent and ancestral dead the goes was responsible for maintaining the integrity of the society through mediating the connections of past, present and future. Moving further along the horizontal axis of existence they were also responsible for maintaining relationships with the elemental and natural spirits. On the vertical axis the goes was given the task of maintaining a relationship with the cthonic and celestial entities that came to be defined as demons or angels in the Christianized tradition of the classic grimoires.
“In short, what I advocate is forming a similar relationship to the spirits of our magical traditions to that of our counterparts in other cultures. This is quite simply the most substantial means of revitalizing western magic available; infinitely preferable to the despicable procedures of the Goetia of Solomon, which simply reflect the spirit-negative attitudes of an outdated theology.”
- from Geosophia, by Jake Stratton-Kent
While most of Geosophia covers the development of the Greco-Roman traditions and their influence on European grimoires, Stratton-Kent’s cross cultural conversations imbue the work with a deeper connective value. The living Western tradition is in a state of flux, the majority of initiatic Orders are hesitant to acknowledge or embrace direct contact with the roots of practice, or have relegated much of it to rote routine or psychologized archetypal therapies. As he points out this is not a viable option for those who truly want to connect with the goetic tradition. In order to rediscover what lies at the root Stratton-Kent utilizes, but does not co-opt, the experiences of those who still follow traditions similar in nature to goetia, such as the African Traditional Religions and magical traditions such as Palo, Candoble, Voudon, and Hoodoo.
This cross cultural communication mirrors similar developments in the ancient goetic tradition. Greek religion went through many transitions as it moved into the Classical period that lead to the familiar state cults and Olympian pantheon that are the most familiar representations we hear about. Stratton-Kent details the emergence of the Mystery cults focusing on Dionysus, Orpheus and Attis that coalesced during the decline of the state religion. Through the influence of Thracian, Etruscan and Phrygian rites and Mysteries, these sects served to reinvigorate traditions predating the classic period.
Rene Guenon indicates that in folk traditions one can find active strains of past practices, and Stratton-Kent uses this to successfully uncover the active beliefs of goetic practice by comparing the textual evidence of standard western sources, such as Agrippa, Dee and the various Renaissance grimoires, with living traditions such as Hoodoo.
Although this may seem odd at first, Hoodoo classics such as the 6th and 7th Books of Moses are nothing less than goetic miscellanies. Through observing, conversing and understanding how contemporary traditions utilize these texts, Stratton-Kent opens the true nature of the grimoire work.
“Magic is not a no-risk vocation…Madness or other disasters may threaten; even destroy the unprepared magician who loses the golden thread. However, as a notorious magician once said, an initiatory ordeal that has no risk of failure is not an ordeal.”
- from Geosophia, by Jake Stratton-Kent
Drawing from these traditions brings goetia out of the standard taboos of diabolical practice, but it also brings to the forefront misunderstandings and racist fears plaguing African Traditional Religions in the West. While Western magic has had it’s teeth pulled by the psychologizing effects of Carl Jung, and the pacification of New Age corruptions, blood still runs hot in the veins that Stratton-Kent taps in finding the roots of goetia. It is in balancing this fact with an equally powerful wisdom tradition that Geosophia truly emerges as a profound work.
Through focusing on the deeper connotations of the traditions he explores, Stratton-Kent is able to bring out the gnostic elements inherent in the grimoires. Pointing to the initiatory nature of the texts and rituals, he successfully demonstrates that beyond the surface exists profound examples of techniques and meditations for fostering a fluid and unified consciousness.
Stratton-Kent provides a thorough study of the mytho-poetic elements of the goetic tradition which, as he states in the introduction to Geosophia, provides the basis for a true relationship with the spirits and entities encountered in the work. There is no sword waving coercion here, the focus in on an interpersonal dialogue with existence, and follows the more reverent practices found in grimoires such as the Sworn Book of Honorius, where we find goetic rituals attuned to Divine Union and participation rather than the demon baiting and uncritically malefic atmosphere that attends many of the later grimoires.
Another interesting exploration that moves throughout the work is the relationship of the goetic tradition to the ancient metal working sects. For those interested in the current resurgence of alchemical exploration Geosophia provides a valuable overview of the ritual, cultural and mythological settings of ancient metal working and gives strong hints towards the true nature of the Great Work.

Just as the Argo carried Jason and his companions on their quest to find the Golden Fleece, Geosophia – The Argo of Magic recovers the hidden tradition of goetia. This is a goetia that lives and breathes with the spirits it connects to.

This review has been reproduced with permission from the original on the exellent Eyeless Owl blog here: http://theeyelessowl.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/argo_of_magic

Palo Mayombe five star book review

2011-04-05T03:18:00.000-07:00

There are very few books in English dealing with the subject of the Congo-derived necromantic sorcery of Palo Mayombe, and the ones that are... are dreadful. The Montenegro money-waster is an odd mixture of Macbeth and folk magic, and the Baba Raul piece is evasive and bumbling. This new book by Nicholaj Frisvold however, is an absolute GIFT to anyone wishing to really learn about Palo that is unable to read any of the spanish texts.

The material is presented in a respectful manner that I have yet to see on Palo, and expressed through an obvious passion for the religion/cult. There is honesty and integrity in Frisvold's words, and shows quite clearly throughout the book.

While the book does present a lot (a brilliant and absorbing history tracing Palo Mayombe's roots, conversations on necromancy ranging from Greece to the Congo, Spirit Firmas, songs, chants, herbs, etc), don't expect this to be a book that you can purchase, read, and use to start practicing Palo in your shed. Throughout, the author stresses the importance of initiation- and will probably be able to convince most people (even those who usually forgo initiation-type rituals) that Palo Mayombe is not an overnight practice, and it would behoove you to seek out someone already practicing the religion. So, while oath bound from revealing some information, the information that IS presented is accurate and fuller than any previous treatment of Palo. The aware and watchful reader will also be able to see a lot more than what is presented forwardly if he reads between the lines carefully...

All in all this is a book that demands to purchased. From people interested in African/African Diaspora cultures to Voodooists, Necromancers, the eager Palo enthusiast, and actual initiated members, there is something important to be found here. Get it.

Also I feel like noting- if the hardcover edition is a bit too pricey for you (or happens to be sold out by the time you decide to buy this book), the publisher Scarlet Imprint has an unlimited (and much cheaper) paperback edition available at their website.The Garden of Blood and Bones is a well written, scholarly treatise on the Congo Spiritual practices. The author, an initiated Tata Nkisi gives a first had account of the religion and has a straight-forward, no nonsense style. The Firmas (Spirit Signatures) are fantastic, the 4 color plates of the author's Prendas and Palo de Muerto are a great addition, and the information is invaluable to anyone interested in the subject.

And another one...

The Garden of Blood and Bones is a well written, scholarly treatise on the Congo Spiritual practices. The author, an initiated Tata Nkisi gives a first had account of the religion and has a straight-forward, no nonsense style. The Firmas (Spirit Signatures) are fantastic, the 4 color plates of the author's Prendas and Palo de Muerto are a great addition, and the information is invaluable to anyone interested in the subject.

We were delighted to find these five star rated online reviews of Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold's work.
This is an important work, and it deserves the recognition that it is garnering.

The hardback edition is available here

The paperback edition is available here

(As a small publisher we very much appreciate people buying direct from us rather than the corporate bookselling industry.)

Cognitive Sovereignty: Breaking Convention

2011-04-04T03:57:00.000-07:00

A response to Breaking Convention: A multidisciplinary meeting on psychedelic consciousness at the University of Kent.

There is a revolution occuring in the field of psychedelics. This weekend brought together a global gathering of academics, clinicians, psychonauts, artists and visionaries. With over six hundred switched on attendees the sheer verve, enthusiasm and energy of the resurgent movement is impossible to deny. There is no place for the tired cliches of the war on drugs, these people are not rambling burn outs, they mean business, are highly educated, and have the hard science behind them as well as embodying the messages of the plant teachers. This marks the beginning of a rennaissance in the psychedelic movement, one which by its sheer scale surprised the conference organisers and attendees alike. We are back with a vengeance.

The psychedelic movement can see this event as a coming out party, a moment when we can all be honest enough to admit the transformative and positive impact of the psychedelics on our lives, and refuse to shut up. The revolutionary changes sweeping the globe are not confined to the Arab states, the fire is spreading. We were greatly impressed by the energy, diversity and intelligence of the conference and can confidently state that we are witnessing the long overdue rebirth of a movement.

We have been working to achieve this in our own sphere and will continue to state our position that Witchcraft is not witchcraft without the visionary plants, and that magick requires that we are in communication with extra-human entities. Our position on Witchcraft is clearly laid out here.

Our work consistently illuminates a continuous tradition of use of the magical plants in Europe. In particular we note that the use of psychoactive plants in the grimoires has not been realised by the wider psychedelic community. This is our sacred heritage. We go further and champion the use of all sacraments in our devotional work with Babalon. Everything is permitted.

We challenge the hypocrisy of those who deny the role of drugs in the magic and witchcraft traditions whether for tax status, societal acceptance, or to keep control over the aspirants and initiates in out-dated pyramid structures that drip feed gnosis rather than going direct to the source. The rhizomatic approach is the way forward.

From the conference we carry the fire back to our own community, just as we are sure that all the attendees will do so in theirs.

The conference showed that human history is the history of our interaction with drugs, from the entoptic grids and theriomorphs of cave art to the blue throated psilocybin peacocks of Shiva, to the DMT research of Strassman and his observation that over a certain dose of DMT ‘there are no atheists’. This is precisely the realm of magic, which demands experience as the only viable proof and renders faith absurd.

The overwhelming evidence is in. Global drug policy is not based on the scientific evidence of benefits vs harm. This was demonstrated by the firing of Dr David Nutt who had the temerity to present the scientific proof to the UK government that the issue is not LSD and Ecstasy, but rather is alcohol and tobacco. This is an issue that Dr Julian Vayne confronts in XVI. For those unfamiliar with the issue, the benefit and harm graph is provided below for a clear visual representation of the real impact of drugs. The research of Dr Nutt was backed up by all of the papers presented. It is essential that we propogate this knowledge.

We are not blowing holes in our brains, we are blowing holes in the body of propaganda, lies, fake science and scaremongering that has characterised the prohibitionist agenda. Not only does prohibition not work, it is the result of utterly unscientific moralism. By knowing the facts and presenting them openly we can challenge and change the position held by wider society and counter the propaganda of the state with aim of fatally undermining it. We will not be silent any more, we must speak up and speak out.

But let us not celebrate the victory of science without being aware of the vicious history of the repression of altered states. As Andy Roberts, the author of Albion Dreaming, pointed out, there is trouble ahead and trouble behind. The state seems utterly opposed to legalisation of the psychedelic state. This leads to sheer levels of insanity, such as attempts to ban DMT containing plants, when DMT is the most widely present psychedelic in the plant kingdom. Such a ban would tear up the most common ornamental plants and taken to its logical conclusion would mean the destruction of vast tracts of the environment. As the wags point out, we naturally produce DMT in our brains, so in theory we can all be busted for possession.

The approach of Andy Roberts was encapsulated in his blunt opinion that we need more chemists. Disobedience is the only option we have when we are faced with an ideological monolith. It is not incumbent upon us to insist that ‘nice people take drugs’ and politely remove our fangs and claws. That is not the argument.

The state is against us, and all of the scientific research in the world, and all the incremental wheedling and calls for patience by organisations such as MAPS or the Beckley Foundation will not lead to legalisation. At best, this will give the military industrial complex some more tools for dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the broken soldiers back from the wars for oil.
Or worse still, instigate some state sanctioned control of supply to recognised therapists and respectable religions. This is anathema to us. Though there is undoubtably valuable work being done by MAPS and the Beckley Foundation, we do not accept that these groups speak for us. Nor will we let them usurp that role.

A vital piece of the puzzle came from Graham Hancock who, still lit up with his road to Damascus encounter with the other world(s), pointed out: the State is in the process of catastrophic failure. Peak oil, the failure of capitalism, economically, socially and environmentally, means that our civilisation is in freefall. Our vision of this is also clear, for those unfamiliar with our work on this, the free pdf introduction to XVI sets it out. We need to be building and living an alternative to the failing systems of command and control.

Of all the speakers over the course of the weekend it was Graham Hancock who galvanised the audience, an unlikely Dionysos and heir to the puckish McKenna. We recommend his Supernatural without reservation as an honest account of the psychedelic experience and human adventure, even to those who may have reservations about his previous works on alternative history. This is already a classic, mercifully free of dogma and daring in scope.

Whilst recognising the diversity of the psychedelic movement, we can suggest crowning the new movement with one unifying concept:

Cognitive Sovereignty

The universal right to do and experience what we will with our minds.

This is a fundamental and irreducible principle, and one that should be at the top of any true declaration of human rights.

This is an issue Charlotte Walsh raised in reference to the monstrous sentence inflicted on Casey Hardison. http://www.freecasey.org/ and one which demands further legal challenges.

This is not even a ‘drug issue’ this is an issue of individual freedom.

We are not children to be ruled by external authority, we must be free to make our own choices, have direct contact with the numinous, and make our own mistakes.

We must not be divided into arguing about the merits of this drug or that drug, dispensed by this professional body or that church.

This is an issue of freedom, and we will continue to exercise it as our birth right.

We are out of the closet, just as the gay liberation movement has shown, it is the only way to gain acceptance.

We take drugs and will continue to do so as a core element of our spiritual and ritual practice.
We also recognise the right of others to choose to take drugs or not, for any reason they wish.

Furthermore we will continue to write, publish, speak and promote cognitive sovereignty as our core human right.

We congratulate the organisers and attendees of the conference. Now we must take it further, the time has come, as one speaker from the floor put it to rapturous applause, to take bigger doses.

To this declaration we sign our names.

In Nomine Babalon

Peter Grey and Alkistis Dimech x

SR5JF9YVTQUF

Friends of the Boscastle Museum of Witchcraft

2011-03-30T06:26:00.000-07:00

As a publisher we support the valuable work of the Boscastle Museum of Witchcraft donating our titles to their research library. They have also been kind enough to host our launch party for Datura and have been supportive of our work.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the Museum, and the 40th anniversary of it's move to Boscastle. The Museum is a valuable resource for the entire magical community. Archiving, cataloguing and preserving our witchcraft heritage as well as educating the wider public.

By becoming a Friend of the museum you can gain priority access to their extensive research library, get free admission and do volunteer work with them.

This is an important asset for all of us.

Those who have marvelled at The Occult Reliquary will understand that works like this would not be available if archives such as the Richel collection fell into private hands rather than being purchased by the Museum.

If you join or renew your membership before April 5 the Museum can claim Gift Aid and will also receive what is known as "Transitional Relief". This was an extra 3p in the £ that the government gave to compensate charities for the reduction in the basic rate of tax. From 6th April charities will lose the "Transitional Relief" but will still be able to claim some tax back.

If you join before 5th April 2011 it means the Museum gets an extra 60p in tax back on an Individual Membership.

Please consider sending in your membership forms and fees before 5th April. Every one the Mueseum receives before this date brings in at least an extra 60p per person on top of Gift Aid to support their work, and at no cost at all to yourselves.

To become a friend of the Museum please click here

Day of the Magi

2011-03-25T03:10:00.001-07:00

We will be attending The Day of the Magi in Bristol April 16th 2011.

Another one of the growing number of gatherings which are galvanising and energising the magical revival.

Jake Stratton Kent will be speaking on Necromancy as the full implications of Geosophia begin to reveal themselves, fresh from his enthused championing of the 'absent dead' at the Glastonbury Occult Conference.

An opportunity to see Stephen Skinner who is rarely in the country and speaks even more rarely, his last appearance was at the Occulture festival in 2009. Speaking on Angels and Demons of the Apocalypse.

The ever-engaging Charlotte Rodgers who appears in Devoted and has recently released a book on blood rites through Mandrake will be presenting on Blood Rites as Contemporary Devotional Practise.

David Cypher will be lecturing on Franz Bardon who is still unfairly overlooked in the contemporary magical discourse. David spoke engagingly last year at the Clun Grimoire Gathering on Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy.

Local piratical legend Mike Slater will also be shivering the timbers.

Ticket price of £15 includes a buffet lunch and the event promises to go long into the night.

Tickets can be bought online here

Crossed Keys

2011-03-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

Scarlet Imprint announce our forthcoming title Crossed Keys.
Comprising an important new translation by Michael Cecchetelli of The Black Dragon and the first English translation of the Enchiridion of Pope Leo III. The author notes that these translations were undertaken out of ‘...that obsessive desire to possess the unattainable’ and it is our opinion that they will enrich the living grimoire tradition.

The Black Dragon or to give its full title Le Veritable Dragon Noir: Les forces infernales soumises a l’homme is a French grimoire in the lineage of the bibliotheque bleue editions. A product of the heady diabolic atmosphere , this text illuminates both the Red Dragon/ Grand Grimoire and the Grimorium Verum, those working with them are commended to its study.
A truly infernal work, which contains both spirit workings and a clear operating system, it is also a compendium of eminently practical spells and counter spells which have been employed by the translator, who is a devoted practitioner of the arts.

In addition, the corrupted seals have all been sourced to their original texts, corrected and redrawn with the intent of making this a highly workable text.

Previously only available in the flawed IGOS translation and long out of print we are delighted to be making it available again.

The Enchiridion is by contrast one of the earliest grimoires with a first print date suggested as 1523, though notably adulterated with later material. Allegedly the book was presented by Leo III to Charlemagne and accounts for his victories and worldly power.

It is referred to repeatedly in the Black Dragon and as such can be considered an accomplice, hence they are united and bound into Crossed Keys.

The Enchiridion sets out what on the surface is a highly Christian system of litany, charms, spells and psalm magic guarding the bearer against poisons, perils, fire and tempest. However, psalm magic has pagan antecedents and magical heirs, a point often missed by modern magicians. The sacred technology once combined with the Black Dragon suggests that these are books to be used in a dangerous world and can still prove to be worth their weight in gold.
We will be announcing the subscriber pre-order for both rouge, standard and fine editions in early April.

If you would like to join our list simply send us an email to scarletimprintatgmaildotcom with the subject line ‘subscribe’.

Draco Edition

2011-03-03T03:50:00.000-08:00

The Draco edition of Geosophia is hand bound in quarter veiny vellum.
The differences in the arterial patterns ensure that every copy is unique.

The spine is illumintated with divine lightning revealing the weighty coils of the serpent, guardian of cthonic knowledge, from whom the golden fleece has been stolen.
The boards are finished with a sumptuous double marbled gold, purple and black paper.
The edition is ribboned and presented in a slipcase to form a set with its companion The True Grimoire.

All 54 copies have been reserved.

It only remains for each copy to be signed by the author Jake Stratton-Kent.
We will then send the books by courier to their destinations.
All books will be sent out in Mid-March.

Our readers in the United States will be aware that Homeland Security is causing delays to all inbound parcel post, however, this is not impacting on courier services.

We look forward to sending out these beautiful books.

Our congratulations once again to Jake Stratton-Kent for having the vision to pursue the grimoires back to their roots and produce a book which transforms our understanding of what the Western Tradition actually means.

Palo Mayombe and the barbarous civilisation

2011-02-18T05:05:00.000-08:00

Last month a mother was charged and indicted on charges of cruelty and neglect of a child she tried to rescue from death threatening illness. For her the solution was found in the traditional faith Palo Mayombe where body, soul and spirit were made subject for healing. As the sensationalist reportage tells, the mother ‘exposed her daughter to the bloody rituals of the Palo Mayombe faith’. The nature of these bloody rites consisted in receiving some cuts to the body where medicine was placed and to consume the heart of a chicken that had been offered to the spirit of healing. The child also witnessed ‘the decapitation of a goat’. When the police went to the paleros house they found the following horrors:

“Dolls, a shrine, religious statues, bones, machetes and bundles of sticks bearing numbers and names were among artifacts found at the home. The items, some of which had blood and animal hair on them”

The defence was of course one of religious freedom, which the judge denied. Instead it was all about the unsanitary conditions, the cruelty of exposing the child for a ‘primitive’ ceremony and the prosecutor was even making a point of the importance of having ‘paleros’ being given state licence to do their bloody rites in sterile surroundings.

The defence argued that what the child went through was as important as baptism for a Catholic, but to no avail. If we look at the comments given to this smear campaign there is one that is particular interesting, one reader suggests that African rites should stay in Africa and not enter the civilized world. It is quite absurd to see these colonial attitudes still in great vigour and how the people presiding over law are judging from xenophobia and prejudice – as they say because it is not civilized. Not much have changed in terms of attitudes since the middle ages. It is just that nowadays xenophobia is given other names and explained away in quasi academic dialogues as ‘something other’, that don’t belong. I want to remind that the Christian philosopher Montaigne already in 1580 writing about cannibals – a great horror amongst his contemporaries saw things different. He was of the opinion that consuming your enemy in an act of honouring the enemies memory and continue his life cycle was far less barbarous that burning people for religious and theological difference. As he said: "One calls 'barbarism' whatever he is not accustomed to". This is exactly what is happening with Palo Mayombe, in particular, these days. The other is seen as barbarous because the more the world is clashing in people gets saturated in xenophobia.

Vodou has over the years become more accepted because the community itself has contributed to this by sharing more, opening more and also academic studies upon the cult has helped in bringing some nuance to this distorted common consensus. It seems that the zombies and pins of Vodou have now been given to Palo Mayombe as the new holder of true evil. Some police departments are even training their officers particularly in persecuting paleros under the constant suspicion of performing human sacrifice at every opportunity they get. How foolish can foolish get – and how fearful can fear get? Pretty much it seems.

The news report itself is oozing of prejudice, just in the description of the paleros home where some of his horrible items, such as sticks, machetes and bones had blood and animal hair on them. This only speaks of xenophobia and a greater cultural alienation from nature. Maybe we should bring back as an value that you only eat meat if you have battled with the game? That is the reality of nature – while the sanitized civilization raises cattle with hormones and kills them without rite, without sense of sacredness. They are just bags of meat. For me that is quite disgusting – and if that is civilized, I prefer to be a barbarian that honours nature and all she gives by plant, animal and companionship.

This particular case is not only allowing us law murdering justice – but it also speaks about how progress is not a quality, but solely a movement in a given direction. When people say that African customs do not belong in civilization – I think this is more a consequence of our modern civilization not belonging in nature. We have created a fearful, paranoid social monster that constantly measures self in the condemnation of the other. We have progressed towards a world where bugs, leaves and the natural cycle of the world is turning more and more alien for people, a world where the majority of foolish opinions establish dictatorship in democratic condemnation of any minority That’s a great progress! If we don’t move ahead but stand still, we are per definition retrograde – and this is what has happened with tolerance and public opinion. It is still a xenophobic greedy mob that moves the minds of the majority, as is evident in this case – where this attitude was actually moving the whole proceeding. The case was really one between sanitized and sterile civilization vs. Brutal, dirty and cruel savages. It all was resting in prejudice and xenophobia, a foolish refutation of the other on accounts of its ‘barbarous’ ways.

The misconceptions about Palo Mayombe is graver than I thought and the barbaric foolishness amongst law enforcement and civilians at large scary in its proportions. It seems to me that this fear, paranoia and cruelty projected upon Palo Mayombe are a form of scapegoating. It has become a social symbol for wickedness and evil that upon attack gives naturally the opportunity of light the torch of fear upon all other ‘non civilized’ faiths. The situation is sad, troublesome and disturbing and I hope that by divulging the metaphysical concepts underlying the roots and practice of Palo Mayombe that I can contribute to turn this ill tide and make opinions less foolish and paranoid. At least this is how I see that I can better support a beautiful and intriguing cult and religion from defamation and distortion. I also believe the palo community need to consider that we might have contributed to these misconceptions by being too comfortable in our shadows and allowing idiots to do the propaganda.

Palo Mayombe can be ordered from Scarlet Imprint by a click.

The article in question can be read here:

http://www.northjersey.com/topstories/paterson/114408434_Mother__couple_to_face_trial_in_ritual_case.html

Cross posted from Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold's blog, the original article can be read here:
http://speculumcelestae.blogspot.com/2011/02/palo-mayombe-and-barbarous-civilization.html

Palo Mayombe - The Garden of Blood and Bones

2011-02-15T05:31:00.001-08:00

Palo Mayombe - The Garden of Blood and Bones by Nicholaj de Mattos Frivold

We are delighted to say that our latest title is in stock and ready to ship.

An initiates account of this much maligned religion and cult whose central nigromantic mystery is the prenda, the cauldron containing the human skull or bones, re-animated by living spirit.

Full details can be found at: http://www.scarletimprint.com/palo_mayombe.htm

The Eyeless Owl

2011-02-11T03:16:00.000-08:00

We have been interviewed for the always fascinating Eyeless Owl blog.
Covering witchcraft, art, the environment, sexuality and the future of magick, this is a wide ranging discussion.

http://theeyelessowl.wordpress.com/2011/02/09/if-the-land-is-being-poisoned-witchcraft-must-respond/

In Nomine Babalon

Peter and Alkistis

Occult Conference March 2011 Glastonbury UK

2011-02-01T03:07:00.000-08:00

The Occult Conference is back for a second year in Glastonbury and we are pleased to both support and speak at the event. A full day of speakers and stalls, a great atmosphere, and fast becoming an important fixture on the UK scene.

Tickets are selling fast, and it is worth booking them and your accommodation sooner rather than later. We look forward to seeing many of our readers there.

The Occult Conference
12th March 2011
Grail Centre, 24 Chilkwell St, Glastonbury

Tickets are £20 and now available online here:

http://theoccultconsultancy.com/the-occult-conference-2011/tickets/

The speakers:

Peter Grey and Alkistis Dimech
We will be discussing our work with the Goetia, in a presentation entitled Corrupted Spirits and Infernal Keys, destroying many of the misconceptions that surround the so-called Lemegeton or Goetia of Solomon the King.

Jake Stratton Kent
Jake Stratton-Kent – author of ‘The True Grimoire’, ‘Geosophia’ and other works – is a practicing conjurer on traditional lines, and amodern necromancer. In his talk he will be discussing the nature of spirits encountered in magical work, in particular how they have often
been disguised and misidentified in the source works, to the near exclusion of the dead from mainstream Western Magic. This process,which has taken place over many centuries, has distorted and reducedour magical tradition. Remedies and implications of this idea will be
presented, hopefully in the process of a dialogue with the audience.

DHR Balthazaar
A rootworker, santeria initiate and espiritista working from Amsterdam. He is also and avid blogger and contributor to the Hoodoo & Conjure Quarterly, as well as the forthcoming Conjure Codex: Red published by Hadean Press. He is particularly interested in the intersection between New World magic and the Western Tradition and what it means for the future of both.
His subject is Folk Technicians: Harnessing Sympathetic Material Processes in your Spell Craft.At the heart of many folk magical traditions we find the skilful use of of sympathetic magic. Unfortunately, sympathetic magic has frequently been misrepresented as crude or simplistic by western magical commentators when in reality extremely subtle and sophisticated technologies underpin folk magical forms such as hoodoo. Arguably, as subtle and sophisticated as any form of ritual magic can be.

Paul Weston
The author of Avalonian Aeon, Aleister Crowley and the Aeon of Horus, and Mysterium Artorius. Paul is talking on Jack Parsons and the Nag Hammadi Plasmate. Babalon: Perfect Mind. Placing the legendary Babalon Working and its later ramifications in the context of the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Gnostic texts as understood by Philip K Dick.

Kim Huggens
A freelance researcher specializing in Graeco-Roman malefic magic, necromancy, modern Vodou and Hoodoo Conjure. She is an initiated Hounsi Lave Tet in Sosyete Gade Nou Leve, a Haitian, Sanse and Dominican Vodou house run by Houngan Hector Salva, and a member of Ordo Templi Orientis. Kim's talk is, The Truth About Zombies. Or: How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse.
She examines the tradition of the Zombie in the context of Hoodoo Conjure, Haitian Vodou, and the ancient Graeco-Roman sorcerers. From necromantic rites and the dredging of a soul out of Hades, to psycho-spiritual Zombie effects and ethno-botanical studies.

Stalls include:

Scarlet Imprint Hadean Press Midian Books Witchcraft ltd Labyrinth Books The St Martha Botanica
We're very much looking forward to this.

Mandragora

2011-01-28T01:34:00.000-08:00

Following the success of Datura: An Anthology of Esoteric Poesis, Scarlet Imprint, talismanic publisher of fine editions for the contemporary occult community, is pleased to announce plans for a second collection of esoteric poetry, to be titled Mandragora.

We are currently fielding poetry submissions from the global occult, magical and pagan communities for this work. Continuing in the same luminous, bejeweled tradition of excellence found in Datura, this new anthology will likewise combine a sampling of the best poetic work available from contemporary practitioners, as well as additional essays about the practice/performance of poetry, the role of poetry in devotional and ritual work, and the artistic culture of magic.

Our focus is on work that is ecstatic, fresh, well-crafted, and cuts to the heart of the savage beauty that runs beneath the surface of the observable world. Divine inspiration is unquestionably something we are looking for, but preferably with the acknowledgment that just because something came down directly from the aether of limitless potential, does not mean that it cannot be revised - to be honed and burnished until it shines like the star it was meant to be.

Work from a wide range of traditions/practices will be considered - Witchcraft, Magick, Hermeticism, Reconstructionist and Traditionalist Paganism, Thelema, Gnosticism, African Diasporic traditions, Shamanism, Folk practice, Rootwork, etc.

As evidenced in Datura, we are looking for ecstatic verse, praise poems, hymns, paeans, prayers, and free verse. We seek work that is experiential, expository, and raw. Work that penetrates the soul and worries it with its honeyed teeth. We want the best - shattering imagery, unhindered emotion, exquisite word-choice and keen attention to sound and rhythm. We are open to rhymed and form poetry if it is stellar. Longer poems will be considered, but we are looking primarily for a maximum of 50-60 lines. Work can be submitted in languages other than English, but must be accompanied by an English translation. Original work only - please do not submit translations or any other copies/editions/pieces of other people's work.

Submissions will be read and selected by collection editor Ruby Sara. To submit work to this project, please send 3-5 pieces of your best work along with a cover letter via email to Ruby Sara at figsandhoney@gmail.com. Simultaneous submissions and previously published work will be considered - please include information of this nature in your cover letter. If you are interested in writing an essay for the collection, please contact Ruby Sara with a topic proposal.

The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2011.

Feel free to forward this call for submissions to any relevant community and/or any individual you feel would be interested.

Geosophia free pdf sample

2011-01-01T04:17:00.001-08:00

We would like to share the Introduction to Jake Stratton-Kent's Geosophia as a pdf.
This extract showcases JSK's formidable talent as scholar, writer and magician. An opening salvo in a major two volume work of epic scope.
It is our contention that Geosophia is a defining moment for the Western Magical Tradition, a text which asks us to fundamentally rethink our history. To seek an origin for our magic not simply in late Qabalah or the Golden Dawn and its offshoots, but in a far older strata which JSK convincingly argues has been transmitted to us through the Grimoires.

geosophia pdf

Wishing you all the best for 2011.

A year which promises radical change.

Going Postal

2010-12-29T03:53:00.000-08:00

Less of a blog and more of a quick update.
Xmas post and weather this year seems to be causing a lot of delays.
If you have ordered and received an email from us, rest assured your books are on the way.

Paradoxically enough it seems to be the books sent in the first wave which are taking longest to arrive. One of the delights of Mercury retrograde.

If you have any concerns about your books, do drop us an email.

For those on our subscriber list, expect an email on January 6 with details and pre-order for our latest title.

LATEST ON THIS:

Apparently the delay is with customs in the US who are only letting through packages slowly as they process them. This is a a real headache as it is the books which were sent first which are subject to the longest delays.

Our continued apologies but this is beyond our control.

Jake Stratton-Kent’s Geosophia: In stock and shipping

2010-12-14T04:26:00.000-08:00

First pictures of Jake Stratton-Kent’s masterpiece Geosophia.

Mask of Dionysos and the Mistress of Beasts

Spines

Full details can be found at http://www.scarletimprint.com/geosophia.htm

All pre-orders have been sent.
This title is in stock and ready to ship.

The House of God

2010-12-08T05:30:00.000-08:00

The war has begun. Those who engage with the astrology will calculate the ephemera around the arrest of Julian Assange. We are retaliating as only magicians can by engaging in a War of our own as the enemies which seemed so ephemeral have finally taken form in the triangle.

It is not enough to dither or ask What would Aleister Crowley do?
We are here NOW.
It is for us to confront this direct attack on our freedom.

This is a critical time, and magick, if it is to prove anything at all, is the art of applying leverage at critical moments in time, as the Temple of Psychic Youth would say:

To force thee hand of chance

Buckle up, this post is going to cover a lot of ground with enough links to keep you busy, those familiar with the ideas in XVI will already be ahead of the curve on this.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is the victim of the most coordinated attack on online freedom of expression we have ever seen. Regardless of your opinion on the rights and wrongs of Cablegate, or the character of Assange himself, this is a terrifying vertiginous moment where the allegedly free West has shown its true despotic face and the possible future being planned for all of us. The freedom of the internet, the freedom of expression, and the freedom of journalism to expose the wrongdoing of those in power is at stake.

Julian Assange has been arrested on what are entirely spurious rape allegations. As devotees of Babalon this is not something which we say lightly. Yet the facts in this case are clear, the allegations have already been thrown out by the Swedish Courts. The allegations are entirely politically motivated. This is further shown by the speed of the extradition procedure, the actions of Interpol and the refusal of the Judge to grant bail despite heavyweight support from (amongst others) John Pilger and Ken Loach, two of the last radically independent film makers and journalists. If you have doubts about the allegations, even the reactionary tabloid The Daily Mail is saying this.

For more on the collapse of investigative journalism we recommend Flat Earth News .

The speed with which Assange has been snared can be contrasted with the example of mass murderer Augusto Pinochet, a disgusting tyrant who the West seemed entirely unable to prosecute for war crimes. Pinochet and the South and Central American resistance to dictatorships and corrupt regimes also gives magicians ideas of how to act.

In regimes dominated by censorship, the writers and artists created magical realism, using the mythic and imaginal to respond to the challenge and ultimately destroy the oppressors.

This is magick.

We would do well to read Jorge Luis Borges, Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. For those unfamiliar with this tradition of literature look at Pan’s Labyrinth, and if you wish to learn from the history of the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia and Ken Loach’s film Land and Freedom.

What we are seeing with the attack on Wikileaks is as monstrous as the actions of any military junta.

We need to poison their dreams and replace them with our own folklore and fairytales, to answer them with magick.

Wikileaks are the victim of classic black-ops. Nothing has changed since Macchiavelli, the same strategies are used to protect power. We do not even need to enter into debate as to whether the women involved are CIA operatives, or to what extent Sweden is a puppet state. Assange is being smeared, and set up for rendition to the United States. For those who still hold any ideas about the United States being a force for good in the world I invite you to watch Taxi to the Dark Side.

I allowed myself a wry smile yesterday when in the background of the news footage shot outside the court a protestor was holding up a sign inscribed with the words: Witch Hunt.

This is indeed the inquisition in full cry.

The sex allegations against Assange are the same as those aimed at discrediting Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. The same forces of counter-revolution are behind them. The same inquisition. The same burners of books. The same destroyers of libraries. What we are seeing with the attack on freedom of speech is a continuation of the counter revolution which began in the 1960’s. This is not an idle metaphor, many of the same individuals are still in power, in particular we must cite the Chicago School and the Neo-Cons behind The Project for a New American Century.

(For more on the rise of propaganda to control the population we highly recommend the series of films by Adam Curtis. Please invest the time in watching them: The Century of the Self )

There are business and banking interests playing a long game behind the scenes and their interests are inimicable to freedom. I write this not as a conspiracy theorist, but from the perspective of a degree level education in politics, and as a trained professional journalist.

The wave of political assassinations in the United States was part of a deliberate strategy to prevent the social changes born on the wings of LSD and sexual liberation. As magicians we must also see this as an attack on the dawn of a new magical age whether you wish to characterise it as Horus or Aquarius. The war on (some) drugs is a war on consciousness, on magic and on ecstasy. Yet as magicians, we also know that the cult of ecstasy and the undying Dionysos will rise and destroy them. (For more on the crucial revolutionary role of female sexuality see our last public presentation PDF.)

What was a war on LSD and hashish and consciousness expansion has morphed into a war on information. Alex Jones in his sweaty Texan bunker is right on that point. Internet freedom is our LSD. This is where our generation draws the line in the sand and confronts Choronzon (or Ghoul). The internet has become our third mind. It is the realm of imagination and in that sense, the realm of magic.

We have been highly critical of those who simply live out lives online, and our criticisms still stand. The internet is not real life, it is largely Spectacle. A bread and circuses diversion that is plastic enough to mimic our desires and prevent us from actualising them. Often it is a debased game of like me, friend me, love me, love my myspace angle. The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord is essential reading to understand this, as is the whole corpus of the Situationist International who are one of the major inspirations behind Scarlet Imprint.

What the internet is good at is allowing the free flow of information. This is anathema to those who wish to conduct their business under the cowl of secrecy. If you wish to glimpse how far they are prepared to go to protect their interests we would like to suggest studying the hard physical forensic evidence of Building Seven and the Thermate residue. Many have taken the RED pill, and are no longer beholden to the matrix, the black iron prison, the world of the Archons. This is an opening up to the magical world, to other ways of seeing.

The internet is our weapon in this struggle, just as LSD was in the sixties. The war has begun in the virtual world and it will spill out onto the streets. The student uprising in England and the UKuncut movement are examples of how this will happen. If we are to be called terrorists for this, it is because we are facing an enemy whose advantage on the open field is overwhelming. Magic follows the path of least resistance.

Philip K Dick was right for his time, but what we are seeing now is that the Empire has ended. The global power structures are irredeemably fissured. Collapse is upon us, as we have stated with absolute certainty in XVI. For those who have not been paying attention to the omens, try this: 2o statistics which show that the wealth is being stolen by the elite.

The bankers are bankrupt, their currency is revealed as worthless.
You cannot eat money and you cannot buy love.
Neither can you run consumer capitalism post peak oil as business as usual.

As the old certainties fall and fail there is a final spasm of tyranny, an attempt to enforce global slavery which we must actively resist. What Wikileaks has done is to make the threat visible. It has a name, it has a face, it has a corporate logo.
This is when we must decisively strike.

Immediate action is indicated:

Close your Amazon account.
Close your Mastercard and Visa account.
Do not support the Corporations.
Support the hacker attacks of Anonymous (Nemo?)
Mirror Wikileaks.
But most of all, enchant for freedom.

This is a time for Witchcraft, for the birth of a rhizomatic underground of resistance.
This is the Witchcraft advocated by Jack Parsons in the face of McCarthyism.
This is the Witchcraft that has drunk wisdom from the bloody grail of mystery.

May this be a Saturnalia of fucking, fighting and feasting for you all.

We will use our art to envisage a different future.
We will take magic onto the streets.
We swear vengeance.
And we, we are Legion.

Ars Goetia

2010-12-06T03:08:00.000-08:00

A selection of images from the launch of Geosophia for those who could not make it through the ice and snow. Jake Stratton-Kent will be giving further talks in the UK in the Spring for those that missed out. Geosophia will be recognised as a truly transformative book which redefines the way in which we approach and Work goetic magic.

Opening with Liber Pyramidos

A working Verum altar

Jake reads from the /rouge edition of Geosophia

Johnny Jakobsson of Diabolical fame was on electrifying form

We would especially like to thank the Swedish contingent for coming over, Mrs Midian for the photographs and of course Misha for organising the event.

The /rouge edition of Geosophia is available and we hope the standard hardback will be with us soon, despite the delay with our printer. We will both blog and email as soon as it is in stock.

Bibliotheque Rouge Preview

2010-11-26T03:57:00.000-08:00

First glimpse of the Bibliotheque Rouge editions of JSK’s Encyclopaedia Goetica series..

More information on Bibliotheque Rouge can be found here:
http://www.scarletimprint.com/rouge.htm

Occult of Personality

2010-11-10T04:13:00.000-08:00

Scarlet Imprint are featured in episode 93 of The Occult of Personality podcast.

...Peter and Alkistis describe their magickal paths and how they arrived at the vocation of publishing fine books. They describe Scarlet Imprint and its purpose of producing magickal texts that are original, unique, and beautiful talismans. They discuss their dedication to providing quality texts to other practitioners and breaking boundaries.

This was an in depth discussion we were delighted to engage in.
We hope others find it equally stimulating.

The podcast can be listened to here: http://www.occultofpersonality.net/scarlet-imprint/

The topics covered range from Babalon to Thelema to ritual and with a particular emphasis on the radical ideas proposed in XVI.

We fully support the work of Greg in producing these podcasts which are a real asset to the global occult community. Do show your support by considering donating or subscribing to the podcast.

The Great Below

2010-11-09T07:20:00.000-08:00

This weekend we gave a warmly received presentation. Though speeches are by necessity not as detailed as the work we can put forward in essays for a more specialist audience, we would like to make the text of this available. This draws on ideas and material from XVI, as well as some previous presentations on witchcraft and discussion on the descent of Inanna.

Raw Power: Witchcraft, Babalon and Female Sexuality can be read and downloaded in pdf form here:

http://www.scarletimprint.com/pdf/Raw_Power.pdf