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Ira Cohen The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (1968)
‘A classic underground film made in 1968, it is divided into three parts, the Opium Dream, Shaman, & Heavenly Blue Mylar Pavilions. A unique film by the originator of mylar photography “Combines Kabuki and Dr. Strange in the mythical realm and alchemical journey by an arcane master” – Julian Beck
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Christopher Carrol
‘Christopher Carroll uses visual art as a way to physically and spiritually probe nature. He creates these “Magic Squares” through screenprinting and handcarving with a traditional lime fresco process. The process of these works parallels the traditional practice of using magic squares for occult purposes.’
BALAM (2016)
BEDSER (2016)
MALACH (2016)
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Genesis P-Orridge Moonchild (1984)
‘Moonchild is a long lost gem in the canon of esoteric cinema. The title references a 1923 novel by Aleister Crowley, and Genesis originally stated of the film, ‘Moonchild is a spell, to create a new person or a new stage in people, through compassion and through thought, and it’s a construct, just like a spell is. Moonchild was originally broadcast in 1984 on Spanish television show La Edad De Oro, alongside interviews with Genesis P-Orridge, filmmaker Derek Jarman, and musician and conceptual artist Jordi Valls, and performances by Psychic TV and Vagina Dentata Organ, which caused a forced shutdown of the network by the government at gunpoint.’ — Jacqueline Castel
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David Chaim Smith
‘David Chaim Smith is a New York-based artist that creates massive pencil-and-paper artworks inspired by the Qabalah, the Hebrew system of understanding the divine through numbers and letters. His works go far beyond the standard Tree of Life diagram you’ll find in nearly any occult book, sourcing both orthodox Rabbinical texts and an almost Cronenbergian “body horror” that turns the Tree into living biology.’
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Suzanne Treister
‘Since the 1980s, the British artist Suzanne Treister has blended history and speculation in ways that many are moved to call hallucinatory, if not slightly paranoid. Her paintings and pioneering digital works have drawn on her interest in systems of observation and belief, from surveillance to theoretical physics. Often diagrammatic and filled with wordplay, her early pieces anticipate the technopolitics of the twenty-first century and presage postinternet-era arcana like a future-tense Hilma af Klint.’
The Escapist BHST (Black Hole Spacetime) Constellated Interface (2019)
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Mohammad Ali Kariman Various (2015)
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Tabitha Nikolai
‘Tabitha Nikolai is a trashgender gutter elf and low-level cybermage raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, and based in Portland, Oregon. She creates the things that would have better sustained her younger self–simulations of a more livable future, and the obstacles that intervene. These look like: fictive text, videogames, cosplay, and earnest rites of suburban occult.’
Sex Temples Ver 0.8 Walkthrough (2019)
Ineffable Glossolalia (documentation) (2018)
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Valerie Hammond Various (2011 – 2017)
‘Layering is an essential aspect of my work. Whether this is seen or perceived as physical or contextual, my interest is in combining the literal and emotional qualities that are evoked through the physical process of layering. I begin by collecting ferns and other organic materials, transforming them through drawing and the printmaking process, creating images that marry the ferns with images of the body. These images reflect the uniqueness of individual hands, as well as reveal the tracing of the spirit. The process, in which the image itself is submerged in a tray of heated wax, metaphorically removes the image from the world of the living but paradoxically preserves it indefinitely. The images act as mechanisms to stop time-to document a moment in a person life-an open meditation on portraiture.’
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Angus MacLise
‘Chumlum’ (1964)
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Mikala Dwyer
‘Balancing Spell for a Corner (Aleister and Rosaleen)’ (2017)
‘Spell for a Corner’ (2015)
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Rosaleen Norton Various (1955 – 1964)
‘Rosaleen Norton was an Australian visionary artist, mystic and witch, daubed by the popular press of the time as “The Witch of Kings Cross”. At the peak of her artistic fame just before the rise of contemporary witchcraft in the 1960’s, her work was little known outside the confines of Australia. As such her contribution to pagan art was in many ways diminished by the likes of Austin Osman Spare.’
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Brian Butler Babalon Working (2013)
‘The film, which features Paz de la Huerta undulating sensually amid what feels like the cinematic manifestation of a terrifying acid trip, is inspired by elements of Enochian magick. Developed by Edward Kelley and Dr. John Dee in the 1500s, Enochian magick was used in a series of rituals performed by Jack Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard popularly referred to as Babalon Working. The ceremonies produced what Parsons believed to be a conjuring of the “Scarlet Woman,” a figure whom Aleister Crowley had thought would help to bring about the Aeon of Horus and put an end to bepenised rulers and religions all over the world. Babalon Working was filmed in Prague, at Kelley’s home, lending the whole thing a feeling of intimacy and familiarity with its source of inspiration that it couldn’t have gotten had it been shot anywhere else.’
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Leonor Fini en Corse (1966)
‘Throughout a long career, the canvases of Leonor Fini’s journey between the pains of despair and the serenity of enlightenment but remain polished with eroticism at every extreme. Driven by passion, liberty, and sexual experimentation, she was arguably the most rebellious, theatrical, and autonomous of the female Surrealists. Described by many to be particularly tall and commanding in physical appearance with very unusual cat-like eyes, in many ways she was more creaturely than human. Taking the artistic interest in the motif of an animal/human hybrid somewhat literally, she stood as an embodiment of feline transformation and metamorphosis, and came to accurately identify herself with the ancient figure of a Sphinx. Deadly in Greek tradition, whilst benevolent but ferocious in Egyptian stories, the appearance of the mythical creature is symbolic of Fini’s love for artifice and nature combined.’
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Jesse Bransford Various (2004 – 2019)
‘Bransford’s work has been involved with belief and the visual systems it creates since the 1990s. Early research into color meaning and cultural syncretism led to the occult traditions in general and the work of John Dee and Henry Cornelius Agrippa specifically.’
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Mark Titchner The Eye don’t see itself (2007)
‘The Eye Don’t See Itself is video projection as monument, mirrored in a black reflecting pool, referring to the Washington Monument. The video is a kaleidoscopic depiction of an unblinking eye against a phallic obelisk, on an endlessly shifting background. The background is based on a Rorschach inkblot commonly believed to represent the father. This video employs a flickering light at a frequency of 10Hz, in correspondence to the brain electrical activity in Alpha state in attempt to alter the perception of the viewer, which also references the work of W Grey Walter and Brion Gysin. Computerised Male and Female voices repeat a mantra to psychotic self-improvement… “If you don’t like your life you can change it.” “After all what good is life without conquest?” “If you can dream it you can do it.”’
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Scott Treleaven
‘Film for January 1, 2012’ (2012)
‘Last Seven Words’ (2009)
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Laura Battle Various (2006 – 2015)
‘I aspire in my work to a kind of mental concentration that leads to essential language, symbology, and form. The process is highly repetitive (some of the drawings have upwards of 4000 lines), yet it leads me in each piece to exciting optical effects and unexpected ends. A friend introduced me to the word “enantiodromia,” meaning something done to such an extreme that it produces its opposite effect. The combined complex geometries in my work result in a mental and physical space that hopefully one can indulge in in a mystical way.’
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Adam Cooper-Terán
“Shooting Columbus” (Excerpts, 2017)
Nelson the Kat (2008)
‘San Luis Potosí’ (2008)
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‘Photographer Shannon Taggart is drawn to what she calls “psychological spaces.” She describes these as “invisible realities, like an interior experience you can’t really see,” and relishes the challenge of making visuals to describe them. Taggart says she values photography’s ability to open up new worlds. Taggart first became aware of Spiritualism as a teenager, after a stranger somehow uncovered a family mystery: “My cousin received a reading from a medium who revealed a secret about my grandfather’s death.” As Taggart discovered, Spiritualism is an American-born religion that believes we can communicate with the dead. Later on, she set out to document Spiritualism around the world, a path that led her from New York to England, Spain, and France.’
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Curtis Harrington The Wormwood Star (1956)
‘The Wormwood Star (1956) is a short documentary film about Marjorie Cameron, an artist, occultist, and actress. The film is not a “documentary” in the traditional sense, but is more in line with the early avant-garde practice of pure cinema. Curtis Harrington, the film’s director, describes Wormwood as “a poetic tribute to Cameron.” The subject of the film is not explicit; Cameron’s biography is not explored nor is she presented amid her daily routine, and so there is no effort to humanize her through narrative. Rather, Cameron is presented in two distinct movements. First, she is shown in a series of tableaux. Time is frozen as she poses among occult artifacts. The camera frames her body and environment in fragmented and symbolic succession: her hand on a book next to a rose; close ups of her lips, her eyes. The camera then enters a mirror that reflects Cameron’s face and we enter the reflection of her being. The rest of the film catalogs a series of Cameron’s paintings with a voiceover of her reciting some original poetry. The paintings are very reminiscent of the work of Aubrey Beardsley, Gustav Klimt, Alastair, and Harry Clarke; a mesh of symbolism, surrealism, and the profane. Here, the occult seems to become a metaphor for the subversive, the outcast, the blasphemous pleasures of life, the dark “magic” of film, etc.’
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Ann McCoy Various (1997 – 2003)
‘Contemporary artist Ann McCoy’s artistic inspiration comes from “dreams, mythology, alchemy and her spiritual practices”. “The wolf is a big symbol in alchemy,” McCoy said. “I’m interested in mining and refining of ores and how this relates to processes in the psyche, and our spiritual transformation – Alchemy was a symbolic language that dealt with the inner life, and was often linked to the ores.”’
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Dressed in a crisp tuxedo, Swiss artist Kurt Seligmann stepped into a chalk circle lined with the names of archangels on the wood floor of his Manhattan apartment. It was May 8, 1948, and with sculptor Enrico Donati, he led his assembled party guests in a ritual to summon the dead. The performance recreated a rite by 16th-century magician John Dee and his medium, Edward Kelly, that had been included in Seligmann’s new book The Mirror of Magic. Seligmann was then a central figure to Surrealism in New York City, and the scene’s magic expert. The book compiled his extensive esoteric knowledge of the occult, magic, alchemy, and other topics, as well as his views on these subjects’ historical influence on art. He saw magic as connected to his art — not a deliberate part of each work, but rather a way of centralizing knowledge of the universe. As he wrote in 1946: “Magic philosophy teaches that the universe is one, that every phenomenon in the world of matter and of ideas obeys the one law which co-ordinates the All. Such doctrine sounds like a program for the painter: is it not his task to shape into a perfect unity within his canvas the variety of depicted forms?”‘
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Rik Garrett
‘I made a book (because I fixate on books) where I took this early 20th century astronomy book, and I started painting over the pages and adding my own photographs, adding found photographs of different things. So, it was kind of this wordless book that turned into something about going inside, both going inside of yourself mentally as well as going inside of the Earth using an outer space theme and turning it on its ear a bit.’
‘White Book’ (2009) and ‘Red Book’ (in progress)
‘Finis Gloriae Mundi’ (2011)
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Steven Shearer Various (2014 – 2017)
‘Music as inspiration. Black metal. Teen boy cutting his arms, keloid rhythms and not so rare topography of pale skin and paler releases- the theatre of hellish miasmas, implements of hell (Albert Fish). Cutting deeper, further sonorous invocations of an imagined demon brother. An occult Marlboro package crushed and in a rolled up “Show No Mercy” Slayer short sleeve. Long stays at the local fun fair carnival spent pissing in bushes and throwing rusty darts at balloons to win the King Diamond glass mirror- the strange and unfettered influence of the hyper-imagined body of Ray Brower versus the contempt for his pale blue skin in a movie cast with young men due to crumble unto the tempestuous ravine of an unholy and sanctimonious drug use-River Phoenix (Never rose from the ashes, did he) and that Corey that nobody really wanted to live over that other Corey whose destiny, after Lost Boys, was simply a faded coke-bloated and fatted version of his younger more attractive and sought after self.’ — Brad Feuerhelm
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Luigi Russolo Intonarumoris (1913)
‘Luigi Russolo created the mechanical sound synthesizer, the intonarumori, in 1913, inspired by occultism, which operated in tandem with contemporary scientific ideas about X-ray and wireless telegraphy—all with an emphasis on waves, vibrations, and their new communicative potential. Russolo’s noise aesthetic and its practical manifestation—the intonarumori—were for him, and for his Futurist associates, elements of a multi-levelled experiment to reach higher states of spiritual consciousness.’
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Karin Ferrari Various (2018)
‘Ferrari’s videos create suggestive causal chains made of collages from found footage and specially made animations. At the same time, however, they exaggerate the brilliance of the individual pearls of the chain of arguments to an extent that makes us reluctant to simply believe them, and the pearl thread is about to tear every moment: On the one hand, the detail-obsessed decoded scenarios unfold a seductive pull and on the other hand, they introduce in their gaps and smooth transitions, their underlying insane hubris. Also the voice-over links the images and unties them in the same breath. We hear the voice of the artist herself, in the style and color of a computer-generated voice ironically and in vain to approximate. The voice of Ferrari makes the big story oscillate between the poles of “the whole truth” and a medium for prompted ghost voices, that responds with astonish- ment to to their own statements while it reciting them. Instead of aiming for a decoding of the subjects as specified in the title, Ferrari’s work spells out the stylesheet of truth production and validation strategies on the net and asks which debates about our world the users on the digital platforms are actually conducting when they seemingly exchange about occult and extraterrestrial messages.’
THE iPHONE XS: A TECHNO-MAGICAL PORTAL
DECODING Katy Perry’s Dark Horse (THE WHOLE TRUTH)
DECODING US TV NEWS Intros
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Panos Tsagaris Various (2017 – 2020)
‘Fascinated with the Occult, spiritualism, mystical scientific principles, and states of consciousness, Panos Tsagaris makes art influenced by both current events and the relationship between the sacred and the profane. Through his work, he attempts to reveal symbols of the divine in the everyday and apply sacred themes to the modern world. Working with gold leafing as a symbol of divine emanation, purity, and luxury, Tsagaris recently covered front-page articles from the New York Times with gold foil. Leaving only the paper’s header and above-the-fold image (which documented riots in the wake of the Greek austerity crisis) visible, he sought to shift the focus away from the economics of the crisis and highlight its immediate impact on humans and communities.’
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Keralhala Occult Glitch Collages (2019)
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Marie Angeletti Saturnine (2016)
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Georgiana Houghton Spirit Drawings (1871)
‘In 1871, Georgiana Houghton debuted her “spirit drawings,” a set of abstract watercolors that she made with the encouragement of her “invisible friends.” People were scared: “What she put on display was unlike anything any Western artist had made, or any member of the British public had ever seen. The watercolor drawings, a little larger than A4, were intricately detailed abstract compositions filled with sinuous spirals, frenetic dots, and sweeping lines. Yellows, greens, blues, and reds battled with each other for space on the paper. The densely layered images appeared to have no form, and no beginning or end. There was no traditional perspective to enjoy. There was no mythological subject to interpret; no moral narrative to read, and no hint of portraiture or landscape to scrutinize.”’
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THE ANTI-GROUP Test Tones (2011)
‘TAGC are not affiliated to any one system of philosophy or epistemological paradigm or occult fraternity but are open more to individual systems and innovative thinkers Science, Sonology, Psychophysics, Visual Arts, Literature, Research & Publication are its main areas of focus. Over the years ideas and esoteric and occult philosophy of various individual practitioners have been a focus of exploration and research within TAGC projects, but there is always connections to other areas of research within those projects, in some our aim is to highlight and discover new connections and correspondences between systems of thought and the systems of technics similar to Bernard Stiegler’s concept of technics which has emerged recently as an important contribution to studies of the relation between technology, time and the human spirit by exploring the possibilities of the technology of spirit, to bring forth a new “life of the mind”.’
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Tom Sachs Satanic Ceramics (2014)
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Susan Hiller PSI Girls (1999)
‘PSI Girls presents five brief loop sequences of girls with paranormal telekinetic powers, depicted while concentrated in producing the movement of an object with the strength of their mind. The sequences are taken from five famous films (The Fury by Brian De Palma, 1978; The Craft, by Andrew Fleming, 1996; Matilda, by Danny De Vito, 1996; Firestarter by Mark Lester, 1984, and Stalker, by Andrei Tarkowsky, 1979), whose colours were altered by Susan Hiller. The artist transformed each film in a blue, yellow, red, purple and green monochrome. The original audio of the films was replaced by a single soundtrack, taken from the record of a gospel choir of St. George’s Cathedral of Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.’
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Gustave Dore The Dance of the Sabbath (1883)
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The Game Kitchen Blasphemous (2019)
‘Blasphemous draws from the deep well of Catholic gothic – ranging from Matthew Lewis’s Madrid-based novel The Monk (1796) to the action-adventure game Resident Evil 4 (2005), set in a nameless Spanish village and castle – in which the exploits of satanic priests and violent inquisitions have long been the stuff of horror. As a medium that often hinges on spectacle, the video game has become a comfortable home for these tropes. One of Blasphemous’s clearest reference points is the Dark Souls series (2011–16), produced by Japanese studio FromSoftware, in which enormous, European-inspired cathedrals are inhabited by monsters that bring to mind the punished denizens of Gustave Doré’s 1861 illustrations for Dante Alghieri’s Inferno (1320).’
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Bridget Bate Tichenor Various (1955 – 1982)
‘Bridget Bate Tichenor was born in Paris in 1917 and attended schools in England, France, and Italy. At the age of 16 she moved to Paris, where she worked as a model for French Fashion designer Coco Chanel. She was subject for the photographers Man Ray, Cecil Beaton, Irving Penn, John Rawlings, and George Platt Lynes. Bridget Tichenor’s mother, who was reputedly descended of George III and had highest connections, was the public relations liaison to the royal families of Europe for Coco Chanel. After an arranged marriage Bridget Tichenor moved to New York where she was a student at the Art Students League of New York. In 1945, after the divorce from her first husband, she married Jonathan Tichenor, an assistant of photographer George Platt Lynes. In 1953 she got divorced from her second husband, left her job as professional fashion and accessories editor for Vogue behind, and moved to Mexico, where she began her career as surrealist painter of fantastic art in the school of magic realism. Her works were inspired by her interest in occult religions and esoteric sciences, and the Mexican mythos. Bridget Tichenor died in 1990 in Mexico City.’
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Johannes Segogela Satan’s Fresh Meat Market (1993)
‘His iconic sculpture ‘Satan’s Fresh Meat Market’ is full of angels and demons and demonstrates very effectively his personal goal to ‘save the world from violence and horror’.’
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Ron Regé, Jr.
‘In 2008, the work of Ron Regé Jr. took a startling shift. Though still symmetrical and fine-lined—with forms incorporating both abstract and representative shapes—Regé began to make comics about occult ideas and esoteric mysticism. 2012 saw the release of the tall, dense Cartoon Utopia, its pages packed with comics about Regé’s studies in magical practice.’
‘The Cartoon Utopia’ (2012)
*
p.s. Hey. ** Bill, I think I might’ve glanced at Mars-Jones’ stuff back in the day and quickly determined it was not for me. I’ll look for that Amelie Ravalec book. That sounds fascinating, thanks. First! ** _Black_Acrylic, That is from ‘Pieces’. ‘Pieces’ is terrific. And it had such a good trailer with a sinister voice-over saying ‘Pieces … it’s exactly what you think it is.’ I always envied that. ** Steeqhen, Do whatever you think will help, obviously. If it takes meds, there are worse things. Hugs buddy. ** l@rst, That book club sounds very nice. Oh, yeah, Lispector, she’s terrific. Cool selections you guys have there. I don’t have anything for your zine, I wish I did, but I will pass that along. Everyone, listen to l@rst if you know what could be possibly good for you: ‘Oh hey … the next issue of my zine is open for submissions through March 20th. The theme is Time Travel… detail are on the skullhum.com website… maybe you have something lying around that fits the bill?’ ** Carsten, Nice line there. Enjoy the new surroundings, and I hope its real estate situation is conducive. It’s very slightly warming up here today. It might go up to 20 degrees by tomorrow. Wow. ** Hugo, I used to like jigsaw puzzles, but then I think video games stole their thunder for me. Luck with the writing magazine. University can be a fruitful time occupier for sure. You just have to use it right (or wrongly), I guess. ** Thom, Hey. ‘Banjo Kazooie’ … be still my heart. Jiggies! I guess they’ll never make another Kazooie game, and I guess they would probably fuck it up if they did. That collaborative zine project sounds like a ‘go’ to me. Just the collaborating part is so inspiring. Trust your instincts on the ‘how dark to go and where’ front, obviously. Take it from me. Just remember you could get stuck with your pseudonym forever. Which is not a bad thing necessarily. Tam Skott has a ring to it not to mention obviously fulfilling the uniqueness factor. I do like The La’s, yes, of course. That album is something. Plus they have the eternal Rimbaudian quitting mysteriously while you’re on fire aspect, which is charismatic. Enjoy your week too! ** HaRpEr //, All true about Power Pop, plus it’s also all about formalism and structuralism, which is a big lure for me. ‘Drool’, noted, great. Nice title, obvs. I like Cameron’s videos, although there’s always something about them I wish was a little more … something. The Krampus one is quite good. I got to see Melvins performing the scores live while the films were projected once. That was something. ** Laura, Thank you. I like puzzles in the context of video games a lot. I like when they’re imbedded in narrative, I guess because that adds some meat to the goal. I can’t get with Rush, but his voice is a kind of guilty pleasure. One of my favorite Pavement lyrics is about his voice. Of course I like that ‘TMS’ drives you nuts, haha. And thank you, of course. As I’ve said, editing is the opposite of torture for me. It’s an oasis. I do love ‘Buffy’. Niles’s house/apartment, or where those scenes were shot, is a block and a half from my LA apartment. The same building was also ‘Melrose Place’. Script draft is finished, and Zac is reading it. That’s all the news. Today … you mean yesterday? Not great, in the middle of my visa renewal, and there’s a big problem that’s too complicated to go into, and I’m hoping it will be resolved, but it isn’t yet. That was yesterday. Good whatever today ends up being to you. ** kenley, Hi, kenley! Visa stuff is not going well at the moment, but I’m ‘praying’ it will. You contributed lustrously. I hope today inspires you in, well, every way. ** darbbzz⋆｡°⋆❅*𖢔𐂂☃︎꙳, Well, you should learn video editing. Editing our films is the best part of making films. ‘Darby is amazing’, wow, score. Sounds like a very wise person. I’m pretty shy, so … I guess I try to ask lots of questions and listen attentively, but I don’t know if that helps. Have I gotten into having nookie with a friend … I think so. I think I was probably drunk or really high. My memory is that it can make things a little messy and complicated. Which could be an okay thing, I guess. Tricky. Trust your instincts? Dude, your competency is restored, that’s huge! Gigantic congratulations! Amazing! I’m so happy for you! <3 ** Uday, Your chest is very cooperative, excellent. No bronchitis for you. I think I know what you mean. Or at least I always feel more in the future than I do in the past. ** Okay. Do you feel like delving into some occult-y art stuff today? I hope so. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
Hi!!
Thank you for the occult fun today!
How are you? Has the constant rain finally let up there?
Going through the last few days’ PS sections, I noticed that Bill was reading Box Hill. Curiously enough, I’m reading it right now too. (Or maybe it’s not that curious. The movie Pillion is its adaptation, so I guess people are seeking it out now.) I don’t think I’ll abandon it, but I can’t shake the feeling that something is missing – some essential layer that’d make it come alive.
The latest episode of the “bizarre” true crime show I saw was about a high school principal who used to hypnotize students – until his “clients” started dying, mostly by committing suicide or getting seizures while driving.
Love sorting out your visa situation ASAP, Od.
Had a very brief dalliance with the occult back in my art student days, along with a short-lived Genesis P Orridge fixation. Still have a few little-read volumes of esoteric shenanigans here on my bookshelf. There’s a whole chapter of that book I’m reading about Industrial culture where folk from the scene get involved.
Watched Curse of Chucky last night and enjoyed it a great deal. Back to its horror roots and it did so quite effectively. Plus its main character Nica is a wheelchair user which to me is a good thing for any mainstream-adjacent Hollywood film. Don Mancini was again the auteur behind this one, and you had to respect the way he kept the franchise going.
oi Dennis!
ugh visa trouble… sorry about that =( that’s actually why i didn’t stay in the States a bunch of years ago, but i hope your trouble will become less troubling asap. if nothing pans out then there’s always the possibility of finding a nice EU friend to marry totally for real obvi? srsly i hope it all works out.
Geddy Lee sounds great! like a lifelong sort of great lol, don’t feel guilty, embrace it v sweatily and stuff ^_^
weirdly blissed that Buffy was actually in such close proximity to you back then! sick…
think i like reading about your character(s) playing video games more than i like playing them myself. like i love pentix, that’s a v pure and sincere love, i love Ultima 7 (and 6) bc my husband loves them and they’re almost cottage core but then they throw you these curveballs and they’re light years ahead of the puriteen stuff of today. like, nostalgic games which are actually from the future, where i’d like to be lol. then i like playing Street Fighter and stuff just to fuck shit up, but uh i’m sadly devoid of both knowledge and finesse, like in general. there are a bunch of interesting phenomenological, dream logic-esque games i’d like to play lately and maybe a horror one or two, but knowledge and finesse, alas.
what’s yr fav game and why? (p.o.v. you’re dreaming you’re back in school, it’s horrid obvi, and this is like 1/3 of your grade ok)
anyway, you don’t even tell me if i’m warm or cold re: my MS earnest investigations with a side of cavillation crap! so mean, Dennis =D like cmon i’m back in school here too, just a signal, a nod, a little breath (i recently nearly fucked up that song for myself bc of what i wrote it into lol).
about today’s post, sort of wondering if i should try and pull a Moonchild spell soon, like after Ramadan, duh. nothing Crowley sets me particularly at ease lol but i’m also Spanish, feel a vague sense of intergenerational responsibility here.
i tend to roll my eyes at people who call themselves elves bc uh, i mean..
but Tabitha Nikolai i’ll call whatever the fuck she wants, she’s fantastic and basically everything fun about the internet. like she’s turned up to 11 and i just adore her for it.
oi! the Surrealists produced at least one furry! this is def v interesting to me, must know more.
‘enantiodromia’ is a useful word, def looking forward to adopting it and like killing off some periphrastic bollocks lol. Laura Battle is v good! i look at her stuff and I’m not sure whether i’m looking at place of worship domes or insectoid (that’s not the word) carapaces and i can totally feel that.
Georgiana Houghton drawing sort of biblically accurate angels fucks, and i like that everyone was freaked out at the reveal lol, but my absolute fav entry here’s got to be Valerie Hammond’s joyfully… suicidal arms? stunning, ‘always look on the bright side of death’ stuff lol. like idk what her overt intent even was, but just such bloody… cornucopias. i throw my hands up lol, 10/10 no notes <33
editing is such a weird time for me fr. i’m def heartened it’s just straight up fun for you!
for me it’s so fucked up indeed, at first, up until i find the way in. after that it’s all great, absolute topspace lol. and smth awesome about the value of hard work, which i’m not traditionally into bc i don’t like working, only at this sort of thing, all the time.
oh btw you said the other day your film stuff contains women and this is true and good, i’m p intrigued and i want more! ^_^
remember the super nightmarish poetry group i sampled a while ago? well now i’ve got the chance to do part 2, prose edition, i’m a bit morbidly interested bc i enjoy discomfort and a spot of ‘you’re all morons and we’re all going to die’ after having to listen to a bunch of enlightened didactic people, but i’m probably going to spare us all this time. ^_^
the secret handshake rn seems to be ‘share a contextless line out of yr wip which will make everyone want to read it’ and there’s literally so much ‘i understood so i stayed in the sun, i stayed in the shadow and i anchored [insert accidentally pornstar-esque name] just like he once anchored me’. idt any one line of mine would make ‘everyone’ feral lmao, but if i had to supply one at present it might be this girl having a weird one and earnestly thanking her john (while in the thick of it) for sharing the skinny on some kid that he murdered back in the 80’s or whatever. this won’t make me go down well so v far away from home, but it might sift the 2.5 people who might want to read from the rest. lol. nah, fuck this, i’m selling myself short and humblebrags suck, make it 22.5 people. that i can live with.
another v ubiquitous prompt rn seems to be ‘what line from a book has stayed with you’ and tbh (hope this doesn’t hurt bad!) rn it’s smth by your George. like i’ve only ever read the one bit of a letter you shared when I Wished came out? but i thought he was great. like 15-16 year old kid smack in the middle of those ‘change yourself, change the world’ utopian years turning his back and going ‘we’ve got to accept it all for what it is’? brilliant. also, exceptional use of The New Sentence at the end of the letter. like, as much sudden aggression and mystery as in a soleá. again, hope the mention doesn’t fuck w you too much ya3ami. i just think he wrote v fascinatingly. so many layers of intent, too. quite beautiful.
me, i’m sort of holding my breath rn health-wise. smth might be shifting a bit for the better, but it’s still so fragile and such a major tease, i just don’t know. we’ll take it as it comes, what else is there:
hope Zac is reading w pleasure! a minute ago i was thinking of this bit from Like Cattle Towards Glow, this guy who speaks in v slow monotone and keeps insisting he’ll be dead in like two days? then he gets rimmed by some bloke who loves him but bruh is just like ‘if another man does this to me i swear’— one of yr funniest moments i think, and there are a bunch.
anyway, back to editing. ugh this gore party scene is really doing it for me.
many hugs!!
Hey Dennis,
Had a bit of a release today, and got some anti-anxiety meds for the next few days. I hope it’ll help me get by. The worst part is missing work as I feel terrible for not being able to help, and I’d love to be there. But I struggled to even leave my house without a panic attack so me being at work wouldnt be good.
Part of this is due to some obsessive compulsive behaviour really starting to become prominent; ever since I sorted out a lot of past issues, the intrusive thoughts and ruminating mind has become my biggest issue, stepping out of the shadows. In a rational mind I can see that I can sort out one or two things, have a conversation with a person, come to terms, etc etc. But because of the rumination, I just can’t escape. I’m considering deleting most socials for a bit too, not to like disappear but because it did me good last time I was like this to feel a bit smaller and less aware of everything.
I hope you’re doing good
OK now today’s post might not exactly be right up my alley, but it’s in the same zip code. Occultists tend to get a little silly & witchy in my view, & Crowley was mostly a bad influence on those with naturally pagan inclinations who fell under his spell. I always urge folks to go straight to authentic source texts, rather than bothering with some self-proclaimed sage to guide them along. Meaning: skip Crowley & the gurus, study the Egyptian “Cannibal Hymn” & Vedic “To the God of Fire as a Horse” instead.
That being said, lots of cool stuff up there. I remember David Ehrenstein talking about Ira Cohen a lot.
Re. “Moonchild”: “…which caused a forced shutdown of the network by the government at gunpoint.” Now that’s one hell of an endorsement no amount of critical praise can buy, haha.
And I’m glad to have encountered Bridget Tichenor here. I feel an obvious kinship with the surrealist artists who fell in love with Mexico. She seems to have moved in the same crowd as those other cool ladies I already knew: Leonora Carrington, Remedies Varo & Kati Horna
Moved another hour further east today to Xabia/Javea. The former is the Valencian name, the latter Spanish. Some beautiful nature here. Typing this in a motel-style place that only costs 40 bucks a night. If only long-term renting were as easy as finding a night’s worthy crash-pad… But yeah, soaking it all up to weigh my options later. Moving here after my current lease expires (end of June) is definitely a possibility.
Here’s a photo greeting from today’s tour: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FviaYzBV1/
Sorry to hear you’re having a visa headache. If there’s any way I can help or advise please let me know. I’m told I’m good with that shit.
@Laura: some day we’ll manage to meet up for sure. I’m not leaving Spain any time soon.
Any thoughts on Xabia/Javea? I liked what I saw today. Especially the more overgrown fringes of town toward Moraira.
Hope the visa issues are resolved soon to your satisfaction, Dennis.
This is quite a kaleidoscopic collection of occult art. I really like Valerie Hammond and Shannon Taggart, probably the discoveries of the day for me. Last time Scott Treleaven was in town (eons ago), I helped organized an event where he screened his shorts like “Last Seven Words” and “Salivation Army”, and also some Genesis P and Psychic TV shorts (including I believe Moonchild). Terence Hannum happened to be in town and performed at the same event. Back then it was very unusual for a lot of this stuff to be on youtube/vimeo (they were truly occult!), so people were super-excited to see (say) Salivation Army again.
Shannon Taggart’s work with the spiritualist references reminds me a bit of my friend Diane Fenster, whose photos have been compared to spirit photography: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cux32ysReUt/
R.I.P. Eliane Radigue.
Bill
Hello , lovely ! Occult ! Serendipity ? Yes !
I’ve just tunnelled from very cons-id-err’d engagement with occult myself ! Kaballah ! Tarot ! Qlippoth ! I’m writing a larger mosaic piece right now, a character for each letter of the alphabet, and have been using the structural fetishism of occult practices to lend towards ‘writing which decides itself’ –idk if this is close to what you, yourself, talk about with your own intricate structures?
I’ve been finding it a very generative process (!): if [character/event] sits [here] in ‘the structure’, then it needs to combine elements of [x] and [y] and [z]. Thinking of how these elements may combine, and how they may relate to other elements, has a very fabulous effect of the characters and situations taking a life of their own. I guess this is what the Oulipilo crew found so fun; I’m spending long hours in language which feels independent of me –it might also be the amphetemines, but its an engagement with language i feel has always been missing from myself.
What is your experience with the diagrams and intricate structuring and six-or-seven-ing with writing ? And, being anarchist/libertarian, how do you feel about the binds of it? (Poofter asks Dennis Cooper how he feels about bondage).
I should re-read period maybe.
I read a bolano story about eunuch boys in india that elucidated something about your work, i’ll have to come back to expressing it.
A’s death anniversary on saturday just passed. I read some work of theirs before it. Religious visions. There was something lonely, and something i recognised from myself –from experiences of altered perception, i guess — there that I couldn’t quite reconcile. They had a benign brain tumor; I have a genetic predisposition to schitzoaffective disorders; our experiences are/were likely very different, and its likely I’m projecting (what would anyone do otherwise to the dead?) –but, idk, I could have spoken to them. Now I can’t. (Barring that dusty old ouiji, i suppose)
Anyway !
Hope youre fabulous love !
Everyone’s Secret Valentine:
Diesel Clementine !
I hope the visa issue turns around positively. When will your next step take place?
I interviewed Angelo Madsen about his film A BODY TO LIVE IN today, for a piece Gay City News will publish next week. It went well – we only spoke for 25 minutes, but the transcript is 3,000 words.
Did the Spanish government storm the TV network as MOONCHILD was airing?
The after-effects of the blizzard aren’t too bad. After spending a boring day yesterday cooped up in my apartment, I finally made it out. There’s a lot of ice and slush, but it’s melting quickly, and it’s easier to walk around than I expected.
There used to be a Crowley-style magick practitioner with a blog about occult imagery in music lyrics and videos. It bore a resemblance to some conspiracy theory sites, but he thought that all this was quite positive. It was a great guide to finding strange music videos. Karin Ferrari’s video on “Born This Way” reminded me of it.
Hey Pal what’s up!? Great post to make a return to even tho I’m much more free love than occult these days which is nice. I was stunned and astounded war and violence didn’t rise up but quickly tuned into the higher frequency of love and light and all that new age mish mosh thats actually stunningly important right about now. Lots of new good music has been released I highly recommend Kim Petras and her new sultry and moody hits both are very my vibe you know obviously( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifOuca8eQ2g , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukNXJLYk9yQ ). I randomly finished this massive synthesis of what I like to call Closed Practice into something clear functional and useful and non esoteric or overtly scientific just applied thought feels good ill actually release it somewhere soon for sure and more! Omg I also just started talking to this boy with a thick like spray bottle of ed hardy cologne thick who’s super interested in stretching my very hungry yet probably tight from lack of use butt so pray for me cause he’s 6ft and im gonna let him haha. Last dessert you had and is French tap water good? I know nye water is fluoride rich and actually delicious so I was wondering Cali has soft water I dont mind to much I actually loved it when I visited Arizona once. Ill brb so ttylxoxo stay bright.
I really like that Valerie Hammond sort of cyanotype-looking one, very ethereal. Fascinating how what’s considered occult can range from methodical geometry and cymatics to more intuitive (at least I think of it as more intuitively occult) music and narrative imagery/gameplay.
Do you have any favorite occult urban legends or rituals? As a teenager I heard of saying Bloody Mary thirteen times into a mirror at midnight, but then I’d wonder how many other people in our timezone were doing that. Bloody Mary started to seem more like a supernatural switchboard operator or receiver of perpetual prank-calls who might never even have wanted that sort of afterlife, so to me that took both the fright and fun out of flirting with death.
I’m also thinking of like childlore incantations at stars and ladybugs to get them to grant some wish. The stars, sure, maybe, because stars are very far away and mysterious and have a lot of energy unless they’re already dead and we’re only seeing their ghostly afterimages…western ceremonial traditionalists got marvelously complicated with it (gotta harvest the wand-wood in the hour that Mercury is in so-and-so astrological house unless it’s square to Saturn or trine with the pleiades and blah blah blah) but I think the principle is the same…But to tell a ladybug that a house burned down, and then getting a wish for saying it – that doesn’t make sense. I guess it’s meant to be a sort of augury, but without the disembowelment and more on the observing the flight of something.
Hi Dennis.
I think I’ll be using my university time wrongly when I go there. If I don’t like the class or whatever, well, its london, so I can find and be with other people whom I actually enjoy being with. Speaking of, will you be showing RT in London anytime? My friends over there really wanna see the film, and I would be down to meet you and Zac again.
Also, what problems are you having with the visa stuff? I ask because I have friends who’ve been through it a million times, and if the problem is paperwork or something like that, I’m sure they could help. It’s a real bitch to get through, though, and I don’t envy your position. Regardless, I hope it goes well.
Lots of love from me!
Hey.
First off, RIP Eliane Radigue. I was just listening to the trilogy of death yesterday and she’s a mainstay in my rotation for just about any mood.
With that trilogy particularly she created a work so minimal but artfully wove in these textures that somehow made it sound like an odyssey in my head.
Obvious pick but my favourite occult work is probably Anger’s ‘Magic Lantern Cycle’. I do have a fair bit of a curiosity when it comes to this stuff, but more in a writerly way. Like, certain practices made their way into the book I wrote and the one I’m currently writing. I remember Coil got me interested in Austin Osman Spare but I never got around to reading him. Crowley can be very interesting and readable but I do think he was a bit of a quack, shaking money out of pseudo-bohemian rich people.
Somewhere along these lines, I recently watched this youtube video about a guy called David Woodard, who sold dream machines, knew Burroughs and Kenneth Anger, and invented a piece of music called a prequiem (a requiem for someone about to die rather than already dead). Apparently he was once let onto the grounds at a baseball stadium to deliver a bizarre prequiem for Joe Dimaggio who was in the hospital at the time, and became friends with Timothy McVeigh while he was on death row. He was also a neo-nazi who did some weird stuff in Brazil. He got some attention after paying a load of people to translate his wikipedia page into several languages, meaning he at one point had the most translated wikipedia page in the world. I think he’s got a reputation as an L.A. character, so maybe his name rings a bell?
Oh yeah, and he also claimed to have put a hex on Kurt Cobain who bought a dream machine from him, supposedly leading to his death.
Dennis, my visa is always at the forefront of my mind. Sorry that it is on yours now, too. That’s never pleasant. I like looking occult stuff over ocasionally as historical/art objects, but I’m more fascinated by the people who’re really into them, much like with fujoshis. Are you familiar with fujoshis? They’re being exposed to the mainstream now and I’m worried people won’t quite get them, but I never do give people enough credit so who knows. For example, I was worried about showing my friends Polyester but they laughed sort of all the way through. Also started a reading group, which is going decently well. All-round pleasant day.
Et le trou français, qu’en est-il ?