Mandrake Speaks Newsletter

Edited by Mogg Morgan No 243

Book Reviews & Announcements

THE TAROT OF THE HOLY LIGHT (Review) Dr. Hyatt's Black Books Radical Desire: Kink & Magickal Sex Taromancy: Predict Your Future by Gerald Boak A Contemporary - Western Book Of The Dead Lectures, Conferences & Exhibitions (Josephine McCarthy, Pendle Witch Camp, Arte: An Elemental Happening, Pagancon & Pleasuredome) THE TAROT OF THE HOLY LIGHT
Reviewed by Paul Holman The Tarot of the Holy Light, currently available in an edition of some twelve hundred copies, is a deck designed and published by Christine Payne-Towler and her partner Michael Dowers. She has written extensively on what she terms the "continental tarot"---that is, decks in the tradition of Etteilla, Levi, Papus and Wirth---while he is an underground comic artist, editor and publisher. Stylistically, it pulls together two tendencies which have become increasingly prominent in tarots issued over the last decade or so: it is both a collage deck, as exemplified by the psychogeographical tarots of Paris and Prague---not to mention any number of mash-ups of non-copyright art---and one which draws upon imagery from the great era of alchemical publications, which puts it in the company of Robert Place's Alchemical Tarot, the Alchemical Emblem Tarot of F. J. Campos and Adam McLean, and Le Tarot des Alchimistes of Jean Beauchard. It is tempting to view such decks as evidence of a growing tendency for alchemical iconography to be perceived as a natural visual language for the tarot, as was once the case with the imagery of ancient

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Egypt. This goes beyond the recognition of both alchemical illustration and the tarot drawing upon a common emblematic stock, just as the various attempts to present the Book of Thoth in its original dress were far more literal minded than a mere acknowledgement that the visual language it employed had sprung from Horapollo. What is perhaps most interesting about this identification of alchemical imagery with the tarot is the evident lack of consensus on quite how these two systems, the interpretation of each of which is contested, should be mapped onto one another. A quick scan of the four decks I have mentioned reveals some interesting overlaps and disparities: the mermaid which one cannot but think of as the Starbucks logo, and which Place indeed identifies with the Star, is the Queen of Cups for Payne-Towler; her Empress is Diana of Ephesus, who also represents Isis (the Papess) in Beauchard's deck, and Strength in Campos and McLean's; Jupiter stands in as Payne-Towler's King of Swords and Beauchard's Adam (Emperor); while his Priesthood (Pope) is her Hermit: this last is the familiar image of Hermes Trismegistus bearing an armillary sphere. While Place and Beauchard redraw and rework figures and details from alchemical illustrations, and Campos and McLean recontextualise the original designs through their placement in the deck, PayneTowler and Dowers create collages that retain both the beauty and occassional stiffness of their source material, and make no attempt to smooth over the differences in style in their constituent parts. The resulting work is both highly referential and sensuous and, most appropriately, demands to be read as much as looked at. It is also very intensely coloured: the Tarot Balbi (which falls in the lineage invoked by Payne-Towler) is the only deck I can think of that delivers such a zing to the eye. The outstanding collage works of the twentieth century were the product of a culture in which some works on paper were zealously preserved and others considered ephemeral: the process of collage subverted the cherished originality of the first, and raised the status of the second to art. This distinction has ceased to apply now that collage has become the manipulation of digitised images: there can be no difference of value between one image file and another, although the ongoing corporate and governmental attempts to enclose digital information raise the possibility of the emergence of a value system based upon daring and the difficulty of access. It would be possible to playfully construct an argument that the alchemical books which this deck draws upon were themselves located in a kind of remix culture, rather than one based upon a concept of originality: leaving aside the many images which necessarily recur in slightly differing forms from book to book, many of the engravings from Maier's Atalanta fugiens and Symbola aureae mensae, and Mylius' Philosophia reformata---works which have a significant presence here---were resequenced to accompany fresh texts in the Viridarium chymicum of Daniel Stolcius. Perhaps a good way to give some impression of the deck would be to draw a trump at random. This exercise gives me Strength, marked with its standard Marseille number, 11 (unusually in Arabic rather than Roman numerals) and the astrological sign of Mars. Instead of a mild-looking young woman subduing an unmistakably savage lion, we have the wreathed lion (here a normal tawny specimen, rather than one "green of pelt") from Emblem 37 of Atalanta fugiens, standing solidly in front of the figure which Stanislas Klossowski de Rola identifies as Lady Alchimia, the embodiment of the Volatile Principle, from the frontispiece of Morley and Muykens' Collectanea chymica Leidensia. The background of the card is largely derived from Atalanta fugiens, with the "fetid water" of the original transformed into fresh blue pools and some variety added to the landscape in the form of an outcrop of rock, a church and an extra tree or two. There is no interaction between the two figures, which both face towards the reader. The lion is a herald, or a protector. In this version of the card the woman is, to an eye that does not interrogate the image for symbolism, frankly monstrous, which is not to deny her beauty: the lion, on the other hand, seems to possess both nobility and intelligence. This leads me to wonder quite how our interpretation of these cards should be informed by their models:

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do a woman and a lion automatically constitute a Strength card, to be read in the same way as it would be in a Marseille deck, or indeed the Rider-Waite-Smith, or is the defining factor the relationship between them: the subjugation of the strong by the apparently weak? Crowley and Harris's Lust card, showing the Scarlet Woman upon the Beast, is unmistakably a traditional Strength card, for all its Thelemic ramifications (one of the reasons why the Thoth is such an extraordinarily good deck is that, for all its intellectual and magical freight, it is built upon a solid appreciation of the traditional tarot). Interestingly, Place uses an image, which I assume to be derived from the Eleventh Key of Basil Valentine, that evokes both the Marseille card and the Thoth. So what does the reader actually see when turning over such a card? And what is s/he intended to see? The traditional image, the reinterpretation, or some synthesis of the two? If The Tarot of the Holy Light was designed as an art deck (and it makes a fine one), there would be no issue about its making a shorthand reference to the established form of the card through the transformation of its two dominant figures. If, on the other hand, it is an esoteric tarot, which clearly seems to be the creators' intention, it needs either to transmit the existing message of the card, which cannot be separated from the action portrayed upon it, or to signal that it has deliberately overwritten it. Curiously, Klossowski finds an inherent connection between the figure from Collectanea chymica and the Strength card. In the unmodified form of the design, a chameleon perches upon the lady's right hand: this has been obliterated by Payne-Towler and Dowers. Klossowski quotes Fulcanelli's Les Demeures Philosophales: "The Mercury of the Philosophers ... is nicknamed chamaileon---Chameleon or Crawling Lion [lion rampant], because he successively dons all the colours of the spectrum." With this in mind, perhaps the entire meaning of the card might have been contained in a single punning image. The minors are always problematic, as different people have different expectations of them. I personally tend to dislike fully illustrated minors, as I feel that they diminish the force of the majors: a problem that can be seen in the artwork for the forthcoming Mary-el Tarot, in which the quite magnificent minors leave the trumps looking rather wan and undistinguished. In The Tarot of the Holy Light, the minors are indeed pictorial, but are carefully differentiated from the majors: in general, I find their effect reminiscent of the decorated minors of a minchiate deck, or the symbolic designs of Eudes Picard, although they are far more lavish in detail than either. A few of them are modelled upon the altogether too familiar Rider-Waite-Smith pattern: the most interesting of these is the 4 of Swords, in which the effigy of a knight reclining upon his tomb beneath three suspended swords has been replaced by the crowned double-headed hermaphrodite from Philosophia reformata: the structure of the image is the same, but its implications have shifted. The User's Manual (little white book) which comes with the deck gives meanings of "meditation, retreat, repose, reconsideration" which seem to be a far closer fit to the card Payne-Towler and Dowers have taken for their model than the one they have actually produced, where the central image has unmistakably become one of rebirth. In contrast to the largely unpeopled minors, the court cards necessarily focus upon human figures: a degree of consistency is imposed upon the pages and the knights by each set being drawn from a single source---the four pages are all from Goossen van Vreeswijk's De goude leeuw, and the knights from the title page of the Musaeum hermeticum. As all the reviews of this deck which I have encountered, by Adam McLean himself, Bonnie Cehovet and the notable tarot bloggers LeFanu and Mr. La-Luna, have quite rightly been full of praise for it, I feel that I might permit myself to point out a couple of issues which, who knows, might even be smoothed away in future printings if somebody raised them now. The first point, which more or less everyone who has set eyes upon this deck has picked up on, is the mismatch between the box art, executed by the artist's brother, and the cards themselves. While this doesn't matter when the deck is being sold online, with sample images to refer to, it could prove to be a source of confusion as the deck moves further out into the world, as the box and cards really seem to

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belong to different decks. While there is no issue about the quality of Patrick Dowers' artwork, I must say that I personally would pass on a deck that sent out those particular signals. My second point, which bothers me far more, relates to the manner in which the cards are titled. This is done in an italic font, which strikes me as being too ornate for the purpose: I wouldn't, however, bother picking up on this if it occurred consistently as it does in the minors, where it is printed in the white lower margin of the cards---after all, tarot forums are full of the boasts of people possessed of nail scissors and strong nerves who took a dislike to the borders of their cards---but the titles and elemental, planetary and zodiacal attributions of the majors are printed directly, left-justified, over the images themselves. I can't believe that it is ever a good idea to superimpose lettering onto a design that is intended for contemplation, especially when the artwork is as dense as it is here, and I think its appearance makes the viewer far more conscious of the photoshopped nature of the images than would be the case otherwise. The different proportion of the images for the majors and minors makes me wonder if the majors were originally intended to be printed without text: whatever, I really hope that any republication of The Tarot of the Holy Light will do away with this intrusive lettering, as it is the one thing that mars a tremendous deck. The Tarot of the Holy Light is available from :THE TAROT OF THE HOLY LIGHT the price of the deck, including airmail shipping to Europe, is USD 37.50, payable by PayPal.

Dr. Hyatt's Black Books

What are The Black Books? They are a series of booklets from Dr Hyatt and the Extreme Individual Institute. Little can be said about the Black Book Series lest it give away its intention and reduce its impact. So say the publishers. This review will of necessity reveal a little...Mild excitation rather than full revelation. Half way into the first book I was sent for review there appears the page title World of MetaPuke a rather emaciated looking figure without hair is shown vomiting forth a stream of puke within which appears the words Wicca... Gnostic Mass... Everything happens for a reason... Divine plan... ...God's Will... Jesus loves you. it's a cartoon, and a rather memorable at that. But its tone is I suspect different to that normally adopted by British Occult Libertarians. It feels non-inclusive and in-your-face in a way that recalls to me the political cartoons of Gilray and Rowlandson or in more recent times Gerald Scarfe. They have all sorts of names for metapuke, the author of this piece Jason Black writes, religion, politics, beliefs - and they take a delight in being stupid. Who are they? Most humans love their metapuke: it organises and keeps their world stable even as they live in a mental toilet bowl. Try telling that to Wiccans at your local pagan moot or the Thelemites at the local Encampment, or your local church. Dr Hyatt's Black Books are now published by the Original Falcon Press, Tempe Arizona, USA, originally they were published under the auspices of the Extreme Individual institute, an organisation, which is no more in existence. They represent the concentrated thought and expression of Dr Hyatt and his associates. Each book bears the rubric on its title page Become Who You are- There are no guarantees

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The goal of the Institute was simple: to assist extreme individuals to become who you are. Moreover, This work was for the 10% of marginal people who desire to become greater than they are now. It was not a forum for discussion or argument. For those who wish to break out of the stultifying conformity of fixed belief there is a programme of self liberation. We are told that the extreme spirit fosters Self Determination, Self Interest and Action. There is in the American frame of mind, a great tradition of Self Help and Self Sufficiency. These virtues are admired in a way that would probably not happen in the more socially protected environment of Europe. The originator of the concept Samuel Smiles put it this way. Every human being has a great mission to perform, noble faculties to cultivate, a vast destiny to accomplish. He should have the means of education, and of exerting freely all the powers of his godlike nature. There is an echo of this frame of mind in the Black Books. Lists are produced of useful attributes Excellence...Enlightenment...Effectiveness... Efficiency... Expertness, and so on. Reading this, and parts like it, I mentally drifted back in time to some of the management training that I used to undertake whilst working for a public utility. Samuel Smiles and Management Development Days aside, do I like the approach of Dr Hyatt's Black Books? I do. What Dr Hyatt and his associates of the Extreme Individual Institute are trying to do is a difficult thing to accomplish. They want to take you the reader and persuade you to seek your own welfare, your own enlightenment.....This is it. What they are teaching is a difficult thing to do. Most individuals are social animals and they share not only the practical aims and objectives of those with whom they associate, but their ideas as well. If you belong to a group there are all sorts of pressures to take up the group's way of thinking, belief in a Great Goddess if you are a Wiccan, belief in the Holy Trinity of you are a Christian. Not to believe is to put yourself outside the comforting fold in which the group are contained. Even sceptics tend to believe in the scientific method and Richard Dawkins. The method of the black books is infectious. After reading a few of them, even a reviewer wants to put in a few heavy type admonitions. CONCENTRATE ON WHAT I AM SAYING accompanied by a cartoon of a man concentrating so hard his eyes are popping out. If you do not like that sort of thing Dr Hyatts Black books will be irritating to eyes and brain. For my part I like the way the books are laid out. It gives them a certain page turning zing. You never quite know what Dr Hyatt and his associates will throw at you next graphically or intellectually. As for the message. At first sight it appears simple. Become Who You are- There are no guarantees. The process of self becoming is all important. There are a number of ways of liberating yourself. If you don't respond to the method of one Black Book another may do the trick. In one of the later books Cirque Apokalypsis the books even turn on themselves. The headline

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DR HYATT IS BORING appears along with an appropriate bout of self laceration. However along with the self critical urge appear other admonitions of a more general nature, reflections on integrity, worthlessness and fulfilment. Volume five A Day at the Zoo takes an old theme, the lessons we can learn from nature and applies it in a novel and interesting way. Each book is a raid on a different area of consciousness. The project of self liberation is not one that should be undertaken lightly or inadvisedly. If you are going to do the job you need to think it through and come at it from as many angles as you can. The commitments that you have made to friends, family, job, religious or spiritual observance are as often as not real commitments that cannot be jettisoned easily. Undoubtedly the hardest part of self liberation is to get in the liberated frame of mind. Nothing may remain unquestioned. A general audit of opinions and attitudes is a must. Those dusty shelves of attitudes inherited from family, school, club, society or church must all come under scrutiny. The question must be asked, Is this holding me back? And perhaps more searchingly, Do these people really deserve my sympathy, my vote, my contribution or even my love. Even the family and loved-ones must come under question. Dr Hyatt's Black Books are a spiritual classic of a sort. Most books of this kind are in the business of offering consolation. The Black Books do not. They are relentless in their message of challenge and yet more challenge. But that is no reason to ignore them. You will do yourself good if you buy these books. If nothing else they are a good cure for lethargy and prevarication. The work of liberty often relies on one small change of mind or attitude to effect big changes. The Black Books raise your chance of making that change. (Michael Clark)

Radical Desire: Kink & Magickal Sex ISBN 978-1-906958-19-0 9.99/$14.00

Re-written with much new material Completely new illustrations & 3 bonus short stories The wit and wisdom of Mark Ramsden's illuminating text delivers a gripping journey through a rich seam of sexual expression. Read this book, enjoy this book, for it deserves your utmost attention. Over 40? Fat? The style gurus say you're not sexy, not horny, this book says Bollocks! An essential reference work... And bloody good fun too. John Carter Introduction /The Way In /The Death of Sado-Masochism. If Only /Safe Words /Adult Babies /An Evening At The Torture Garden /Piercing /Corsets /Rubber /Sex Accessories /Bisexuality /Footnote /Switching /Shakespeare And Radical Desire /The Dark Side Of Tantric Sex /Fetish Sex Work /Radical Desire And Media Disinformation /Scarification /The Law Of Diminishing
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Returns /What Trina Said /My Lord Lucifer /To The Devil A Daughter /FallenAngelBrewery.com /Sex Toys /Lovehoney.co.uk /Reggie Kray And Little Freddie /Vampire Eroticism:Rapidly Gaining Ascendency On The Scene /For Your Arse Only:Ian Fleming and Kink /Gordon Brown - A case for non-erotic asphyxiation /The Abba Test /The Rimming Machine /Short Stories Nick/Nicola /Mr Strict - The Diary of a Corrective Therapist /Madam Petra /21st Century Eddie Drood Charles Dickens Remixed /The Meaning Of Life /

Taromancy by Gerald Boak Predict Your Future

9781906958336 9.99/$15 210pp A simple set of 84 oracles, based on the Thoth Tarot, that one does not need a card deck or an experienced reader in order to consult! Simply think of a question, then either toss a coin or dice in the prescribed manner. Then read your answer. The 84 Taromancy oracles were first published in 1985. They were intended for the experienced hand at divination, and have remained in widespread demand ever since. This fully revised edition, contains the same oracles but in less technical language, will appeal to those only now setting out to explore fortune telling. After a quarter of a century in use, I believe their following justifies this major revision. Apart from their plainer style, a new Summary and in-depth Conclusion now accompanies each oracle. These replace the earlier and limited Notes, and explain even the smallest areas of interest. Together with extra and helpful background material in the first three chapters, I believe these sizeable additions will provide a more complete and user-friendly tool of divination. Finally, and on a purely technical note, the astrological aspects behind the oracles agree with the work of Aleister Crowley in his dictionary of correspondences, Liber 777 vel Prolegomena Symbolica ad Systemam (etc.) published privately in 1909 and adopted since as a standard work of reference. Two of those correspondences were amended in his 1944 edition of The Book of Thoth. In that book Crowley made a fundamental error in his Key Scale of the tables, incorrectly assigning Aries to tarot trump XVII and Aquarius to trump IV, whereas, and by his own admission, they should be counterchanged. Fearing m ore hawk-eyed diviners will question my choice of

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attributions, I thought it safest to explain in advance.

A Contemporary Western Book Of The Dead ISBN 978-1-906958-04-6 Charlotte Rodgers and Lydia Maskell
10.99/$14.99 I was musing on Singapore in all its affluent glory still having shrines for the dead on every street corner during The Festival of the Hungry Ghosts. Then I was musing on how the socially mobile of modern western society eschew death rites and grieving in the name of holding it together and being progressive. I thought of which civilisations are falling and which are rising again, and wondered whether acknowledging death and the ancestors is a vital part of a maintaining personal identity and our place in society. I remember how my grieving father mourned for all the information he had relied on his deceased wife remembering; information which was now lost. I recalled Michael Crichtons words If you dont know (your familys) history, then you dont know anything. You are a leaf that doesnt know it is part of a tree. Then I thought maybe someone should write about the cults of the ancestors and death, perhaps an anthology, perhaps cross relate experiences of loss to personal spirituality and magick and history. I know that years of working with the dead in the name of art and spirituality, didnt prepare me for the death of my mother. What helped me was the advice of someone from a long tradition of working with the ancestors. I think that collecting the experiences of spiritual practitioners in their working with grief and death is part of a living and necessary tradition that will give respect to the dead and strength, identity and support to our own personal spirituality. Within this book are rituals, stories, traditions and experiences of magicians scholars and artists who work with death. Som e of the contributors such as Nema, Mogg Morgan, Louis Martine and Nevill Drury (to name but a few) have helped define contemporary transformative spirituality. Others are less well known but just as learned. As there should be in such a collection there is comedy, anger confrontation and practicality. This anthology is about who we are, and where we come from. It is also about how we change. A Contemporary Western Book of the Dead contains voices and visions that acknowledge our past, feed our present and guide the direction of our future. Introduction Charlotte Rodgers /Loved One Nema /All a Do about Death
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Josephine McCarthy /Clans For The Memory Sarah Grimstone /Learning About Death Nevill Drury /A Thoughtful Wake Louis Martinie /Break On Through To The Other Side Louise Hodgson /Death the Final Frontier Sue Fox /The Bardo Thodol Bon Voyage John Power /You Only Live Twice Ode bi Tola /On Speaking with the Dead: The Cult of the Dead in Traditional Culture Michael Clarke /Body Mishlen Linden /The Great Western Hoax Ode bi Tola /The Book of Gates:4 A prose arrangement Mogg Morgan /Biographies of Contributors / Photographers: Sue Fox, Ruth Kenyon, Ariadne Spyridonos Xenou,

Lectures, Conferences & Exhibitions

Secret Chiefs, Monday, May 21st 2012

The Secret Chiefs presents: JOSEPHINE MCCARTHY DYNAMICS AND CONSEQUENCES OF WORKING WITH DEMONIC BEINGS Magickal speakers soirees in the heart of the City of London and the prestigious Chambers. Email: scsoirees@yahoo.co.uk THE SECRET CHIEFS, m eet on alternate Monday evening, Upstairs, at the Devereux Public House, 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, The Strand, London WC2R 3JJ. (Located between Middle Temple Lane and Milford Lane; from Victoria Embankment the nearest tube is Temple underground station, on the circle line.) Doors open 7:30pm / Starts 8:30pm. Admission is 2. All are welcome. Visit The Secret Chiefs Website http://secretchiefslondon.wordpress.com

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Friday, Saturday, Sunday, June 15 / 18th 2012

Pendle Witchcamp http://www.pendlewitchcamp.co.uk/ Tania Ahsan will once again be headlining the programme of talks, and our special guest speaker this year is Founder President of the British Psychical & Occult Society, David Farrant, who will be discussing his own 'Modern Day Witch Trial' in the mid-1970s. Other Speakers already confirmed are: Darren Deojee, founder of the People's Public Trust, Mogg Morgan, proprietor of Mandrake Publishing, Joel Biroco, editor of Kaos Magazine. Jackus will also be running a couple of Dream Healing workshops over the weekend. Story-telling has been popular at the Camp for the last couple of years; Mary Sharratt, the Author of 'Daughters of the Witching Hill' will be making a welcome return, as well as Ursula Holden-Gill (of Emmerdale Farm Fame), to enthrall us with their yarns. Ursula has also written a play, to be performed at the Camp, inspired by the story of the Pendle Witches, entitled 'The Secret Map of Pendle'. All this will be accompanied by an array of the finest acoustic folk musicians in the area. You'll get a warm welcome at The BBQ Cafe, which will be offering high-quality, locally sourced burgers and bacon butties. Earlybird tickets for the 2012 event, are available from this website and cost 45.

June 30th 2012

Arte: An Elemental Happening Oddfellows Hall, 20 West Park, Cotham, Bristol, BS8 2LT A Day of Magickal Ritual, Art and Performance by

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Misha, Jake and Charlotte. Thus far we have confirmed Mark & Ruth Ramsden talking on 'Radical Desire, Kink and Magickal Sex (Dark Tantra Tarot)' Spencer Kansa will be presenting an illustrated lecture on the American artist and occult icon, Marjorie Cameron (1922-1995), which will include film and visual works rarely seen in the UK. Matthew Levi Stevens will give a presentation on 'The Magical Universe of William S Burroughs' There will be a magickal open mike for all those who desire to share poetry, music or general creativity. These strands of spirit and art will be pulled together and presented by Jake Stratton Kent, who will also be ritualising the occasion in a suitably kinetic manner. The interactive art work created during the day will be either cut into sigils for attendee's at day's end or destroyed (depending on the power and intent of the work produced!) Art by John Power (artist author of 'The Nu Tantras of Uttarakaulas' )and Emma Doeve will be displayed and bookstalls will be selling new,used and classic books. There will be a licensed bar in the afternoon (with very reasonably priced drinks), a buffet lunch, and tea and coffee available throughout the day. Details of the Presentations. Mark Ramsden will be discussing Magickal & Erotic fact and fiction,Tarot (Mark and Ruth's 'Dark Tantra Tarot' is the world's first fetish deck) and music. He aims to have a forum focused on discussion rather than laying down The Law. Ruth Ramsden will also be there and will be

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responding to queries on art,erotic art, photography,and her book 'Blue Murder at the Pink Parrot'. (Cutting Edge Press) Mark Ramsden is a British writer, composer, producer and musician. He studied at Leeds Music College becoming a virtuoso saxophonist and flautist. Since finishing his education he has been active in rock and particularly jazz music, both as a performer and composer. http://www.MarkRamsden.moonfruit.com Ruth Ramsden is an artist and illustrator.Together with Mark Ramsden she has recently published a fetish-inspired tarot deck. The Dark Tantra Tarot. Blue Murder at the Pink Parrot is Ruths first book. http://www.DarkTantraTarot.moonfruit.com Spencer Kansa presents an illustrated lecture on the American artist and occult icon, Marjorie Cameron (1922-1995), including rare film and visual works rarely seen in the UK. Following the death of her husband, the rocket pioneer and Aleister Crowley devotee Jack Parsons, Cameron inherited his magical mantle and embarked on a lifelong spiritual quest, a journey reflected in the otherworldly im ages she depicted. A dark doyenne of Californias underground art and film scene, she starred in Kenneth Angers Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome and Curtis Harringtons noir-thriller Night Tide. Recently, her impressive artistic and performative career has achieved new recognition. Spencer has written for a wide variety of publications including Hustler, Mojo, Erotic Review and The NME. He is the author of Wormwood Star, a biography of the American artist and occult icon Marjorie Cameron (Mandrake of Oxford). His debut novel, Zoning, was recently published by Beatdom Books. His interviews with literary legends William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Bowles and

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Herbert Huncke feature in Joe Ambroses book Chelsea Hotel Manhattan (Headpress). http://www.spencerkansa.com Matthew Levi Stevens will give a presentation on 'The Magical Universe of William S Burroughs', taking in a lifetim es exploration as a Cosmonaut of Inner Space into Secret Knowledge, Control Systems, and Deprogramming Methods. Taking in: Abramelin Working, Astral Projection & Ayahuasca, Chaos Magic & Cut-Ups, ESP & EVP, General Semantics, Hieroglyphic Silence, Mayan Calendar & Mind Control, Pipes of Pan at Jajouka & Possession by the Ugly Spirit, Scientology, Shamanism & Sorcery, and much more! The talk will examine the Third Mind created with Brion Gysin, Ian Somerville & Others in Tangier, London, and The Beat Hotel Paris, that informs the writing, painting, film, and tape-recorder experim ents and the legacy that their program of a systematic derangement of all the senses has left behind for would-be artistmagician practitioners of The Other Method to explore Today. Born shortly before Midnight on the 31st of October, 1966, Matthew Levi Stevens is a writer, researcher, and some-time rare book-dealer; also a former musician, performance artist, and reality hacker, who usually looks younger and feels older than he is. His more recent works include articles on Aleister Crowley & the Yi-King, Remembering Frater Aossic, the late Kenneth Grant, AKEPHALOS for Occult Traditions, and The Sun At Midnight and Memento Mori (both with Emma Doeve). He is currently working on a study of David Curwen, as well as Operation Rewrite: The Third Mind & The Other Method about his experience & study of The Magical Universe of William S Burroughs & Others, and there is talk of A Book
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of Dark Things He long ago realised that he is the kind of person his parents warned him about. http://whollybooks.wordpress.com/ Details of Exhibiting Artists John Power. John Power holds a Master's Degree in Jungian Psychology and Art Therapy. He has taught Art in schools, colleges, prisons and for mental health organisations since 1973. He worked for 'Gandalf's Garden' Mystical Scene Magazine in the Sixties and began yoga practice there with Muz Murray and Ramamurti Mishra. He studied Astrology with Swami John Spiers of Kagglipura, South India, and Magick with Sri Dadaji Mahendranath, who initiated him into Tantrika of the Uttarakaula North Indian school in 1979, with the request that he kept a Westernised version of the Tradition alive. His Artistic influences are many but predominantly include the Symbolist and Surrealist movements, and Oriental Folk Art, especially of the Tantrik Tradition. His book 'The Nu Tantra's of the Uttarakaulas' was published in 2011. A volume on 'Essex Witches' is in preparation as are two contributions to anthologies on 'Art and Magick' and 'A Contemporary Western Book of the Dead'. A novel in the 'Beat' genre, 'Madaece', was first published in 1998, serialised in 'Global Tapestry' magazine, and archived on the Poetry Society http://www.johnpowerweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ Emma Doeve Emma Doeve was born in Surabaya, grew up in Holland, went to Leiden University, and after moving to England studied Fine Art at Hereford

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and then Cheltenham. Although her first loves are drawing and painting, she has experimented with performance, photography, print-making, and video. She has also made a short film, Man-Become-Animal, and published the dissertation Vampires and Shades: Art in the Shadows, Malaise in Modernism. With regard to my Art, I feel that what we now think of as the Arts all Dance, Poetry, Storytelling and Theatre had its origins in the Magical & Religious impulse, and the same is equally true of Drawing & Painting. Through archetype, myth, sign & symbol I seek to explore this. In 2011 she began a partnership with Matthew Levi Stevens, producing The Sun At Midnight (which they self-published) and Memento Mori on Death Rites & Burial Sites (for the forthcoming Avalonia anthology). Recently she has also started exploring software applications, and begun collaboration on a Graphic Novel which explores Voudon-related themes, amongst other things. She can be contacted via http://www.whollybooks.wordpress.com Tickets now available at the Apothecary! http://underworld-apothecary.com /new_events.php Underworld

Saturday, Pagancon July 7th Preston Grasshoppers Rugby Club 2012 Lightfoot Lane, FULWOOD, Preston PR4 0AP DOORS OPEN 10 AM Speakers thus far: Mogg Morgan (Kemetic Golden Dawn/Companions of Seth) http://www.shared-earth.org.uk/pagancon.htm

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July 21st A Pleasure Dome 2012 Brighton Saturday July 21 2012 11am to 11pm Tickets 15 in advance. Click here to purchase We decree a Pleasure Dome in the spirit of the visions of Coleridge and Kubla Khan. An opportunity to actively engage in the dreams and visions that will inspire a new generation's Jubilee. This year we focus on the visionary aspects of magic, from Anger to Jarman, cut-up to performance, possession states to poetry, surrealism to the sacred. A happening will unfold with an a stellar cast of magicians, witches and media manipulators. Check out the Scarlet Imprint website for programme details and to buy your tickets http://www.scarletimprint.com /pleasuredome.htm

Organisers & Venues Locations Details :

Bath Bath Omphalos Omphalos Omphalos Magickal Moot is an independent group open to people from all magickal paths. Meetings are on the second Sunday of each month, at St James Wine Vaults, St James Square, Bath BA1 2TW. Check our postings regularly for updates, as there is often a guest speaker (when a donation of 5.00 will be asked for to cover expenses). Suggestions for discussion topics are welcomed - prior knowledge of a topic is not essential as we can all learn from each

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other. The Huntsman serves food, the upstairs room is large and atmospheric, and the whole place oozes with history. The Huntsman Inn 1, Terrace Walk, Bath, Somerset, BA1 1LJ The Huntsman Inn weblink is http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s /84/8480/Huntsman_Inn/Bath Bath omphalos http://www.omphalos.org.uk/ website:

The Secret Chiefs London

THE SECRET CHIEFS Meet on Alternate Mondays, Upstairs at the Devereux Public House, 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, The Strand, London WC2R 3JJ 8p.m. / talk starts 8.30p.m. /Admission 2 / All are welcome. (nearest tube Temple, on Victoria Embankment). (Talking Stick began at The Plough on 14th February 1990, moving through the years to The Marquis Cornwallis, The Dog & Trumpet, the Black Horse to the Princess Louise, there becoming Secret Chiefs on 15th March 2000. Now at the Devereux). Check out dates and speakers programme on The Secret Chiefs' website http://secretchiefslondon.wordpress.com

MWNN

THE MOOT WITH NO NAME Wednesdays, 7.30 for 8pm. Upstairs, at Milford's, Milford Lane, Strand, London, WC2.5. (Unless otherwise stated.) F indicates an illustrated talk. Check out Moot With No Name website for speakers

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http://www.theatlantisbookshopevents.com /page2.htm Treadwells Treadwells Bookshop Bookshop 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1E 7BS, UK Full descriptions of all events are to be found now on Treadwells website www.treadwells-london.com

London Earth Mysteries Circle

London Earth Mysteries Circle 7.00pm Tuesdays (2nd & 4th in month) Admission: 4.00
Venue: The Theosophical Society, 50 Gloucester Place, London W1U 8EA. Nearest tube: Baker Street. For details and programme check London Earth Mysteries Circle website www.londonearth.com

Groups & Meetups 'Oxford Meets every Thursday at The Angel & Talking Stick Greyhound Pub (St Clements st) Oxford. Pub Moot' There is now a regular blog with summaries of past discussion and news of next session. Find us in Facebook

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Monthly info for friends of leading occult publisher and bookseller Mandrake of Oxford info on ours and other interesting publications, reviews and events. All inquiries and contributions owner@yahoogroups.com and are welcome if sent to: mandrake-

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