Occult Conference

The Occult Conference January 9 2010 Glastonbury England


Glastonbury is the heart of the English Grail mystery. A collision of pagan sacred landscape with Christian heresy underwritten with richly veined energy lines. A result of this undeniable energy is that it has drawn in all the lost souls, bliss seekers and fuzzy minded. This has made magicians unwilling pilgrims.

Yet Glastonbury has an enduring magical history, one that predates the crop circle hoaxers and the black ops aliens.
It is here in the ruins of the Abbey that Edward Kelley found the book of St Dunstan and the red powder, the philosopher's stone which turns base matter into gold. Perhaps John Dee also found a Zodiac laid out in the hills, but the evidence for that has been spirited off. The Chalice Well still runs with blood at the base of the Tor. St Michael's dominating phallic tower remains an important point of power. These places can be deeply resonant for those engaged in active magical work.

Fittingly in the darker part of the year, when the town is not overrun with tourists, there will be an Occult Conference.
This is very much a grassroots event run on enthusiam. A sign that people are doing rather than talking, that there is life outside of London. It is time that Glastonbury was taken back by magicians. We support this action to the hilt, and hope that events of this kind will inspire others, both in England and abroad.

Peter Grey and Alkistis Dimech will be giving a talk entitled Seeing Through Apocalypse.
Jake Stratton Kent will be a gushing spring on matters necromantic as the second volume of his Encyclopaedia Goetica takes final shape. Other confirmed speakers in a full day and night of events include Nathaniel Harris, Kim Huggens and Andy Cooper.
Midian Books, Hadean Press, Hellfire Club books, Labyrinth bookshop and others will be attending to sate your desire for fine volumes.

For those within striking distance, tickets can be purchased here:

http://www.witchcraftshop.co.uk/store/index.php?search=occult+conference

The website is here:

http://www.theoccultconference.co.cc/

We look forward to seeing you there.

If you are visiting Glastonbury, either for the conference or in the future, we highly recommend Labyrinth Books, at the top of the High Street which is surely one of the best occult bookshops in England.

Dark Monarch, Absent thrones.

Dark Monarch Magic and Modernity in British Art
Tate St Ives until January 10 2010



It is unusual for a gallery as prestigious as the Tate to admit magic, but safely down in St Ives where the trees grow clawed right-angled by the ferocity of the wind, where the sea is churned jade, where the interior light pours from the granite with the clarity of mescaline, they cannot keep it out. The great bowed windows over Porthmeor let it all in.
But this exhibition reveals that they simply do not know what to do with it.

The exhibition lifts its title from the novel by Sven Berlin, which libelled the entire local artistic community with a flourish, and lead to his exile from the West, chasing the gypsies and leaving the sterile Hepworth set behind. And there is magic in the way his hands set to sculpt the hard granite, romance in how he lived. Yet in seeking a local justification, there is no true engagement with magic itself, it is seen as something peripheral to art when the two are inseparable.
Damien Hirst has his product placed in the entrance hall, The Child’s Dream, a unicorn in formaldehyde. This is the worst kind of shorthand, and a brazen attempt to make the exhibition seem relevant. The Brit-Artists show the loss of connection with magic, the craft of brand manufacturing over the exploration of the interior worlds, or the connection with external entities. This is the artist as marketeer, and art as a commercial. It may be what our culture deserves, but it is the antithesis of the path of the magical artist.
The show continues with bleak landscapes of rock, moor and jutting stones. Though they capture the raw elemental energy of Cornwall rather than the jostling harbours favoured by tourist daubers, can we consider this magic? The unspoilt Cornwall of the dark half of the year is worth being exposed to. That the spirits are more present when the walk to Men an Tol is done on sodden soil, or the Seven Sisters encountered in horizontal rain is undeniable. More magic art would be produced if magicians spent time in these elements, worked on landscapes and drawing from life.
Yet there are magicians exhibited. Austin Osman Spare, so over-exposed in the magical subculture, seems welcome here. Spare sits beside Ithell Colquhoun’s library, which does allow us a glimpse of what she was able to collect and distil through her Golden Dawn colour scales: an intriguing mix of texts on the devil, Kenneth Grant, Crowley, surrealism et al. Ithell deserves a room of her own where the repetition of her studies and an explanation of her occult colour theory could be placed. Ithell and AOS are described in the catalogue as having a ‘strong personal interest in mysticism and the occult’, this is simply insulting. By downplaying the fact that Spare was a sorcerer and that Ithell was a magician, the exhibition avoids confronting the magic which speaks in their work. Magic is not simply some bohemian toy, or a metaphor for the horror of the world wars, or a sense of general unease. As for the primitive colour riot of Crowley, or better, the skills of Frieda Harris, they are clearly missing. Despite the limitations of Crowley as an artist, he does have a strong local connection which the Tregerthen Horror by Paul Newman explores. Steffi Grant as an important connecting figure and artist in her own right should be included if this was to be considered a serious attempt at the subject.
There is little to recommend most of the modern exemplars who are exhibited. They are tangential at best. But who can we array against them? Derek Jarman makes a flickering appearance on a wall, Genesis P-Orridge gets as far as the exhibition catalogue. Yet where are the living British occult artists whose work is fit to display in a gallery?

Tate St Ives site

Diabolical - First Glimpse

Difficult to convey the flame and black shot bookcloth, but this gives some impression of the book. We're delighted with the reaction this text is getting and the new writers who have joined us for this project.
More on this title can be found at www.scarletimprint.com

New title DIABOLICAL available now

Diabolical various
Introduction by Peter Grey
Edited by Alkistis Dimech and Peter Grey

Diabolical is a weighty tome of over 350pp.
With nine colour plates of original infernal artwork from Stafford Stone, Kyle Fite, Thomas Karlsson, and Johnny Jakobsson.
Bound in red cloth shot through with charred black.
The cover is stamped with the devil's verse in heavy black fractur.

It comes in an edition of 999 copies, hand numbered in dragon's blood ink.

A copy of the No Smoke Without Fire Edition can be yours for thirty-five English pounds.

The Grimoire tradition is being reinvigorated in the living practice of the carcists, magicians and sorcerors who dare to work with these books.

Those of us who do this work, regardless of whether we trepass amongst the angels or daemons, are often slandered as diabolical. Our books are also regarded as diabolical, being incomprehensible, demonic and without spiritual or practical value.

We throw this back at our accusers by demonstrating that these books are more complex than black and white theology allows, and as repositories of forbidden knowledge are worth their weight in gold. This is where the spirits lie.

We are upholding our side of the pact and continuing to produce the most groundbreaking and relevant titles of the modern occult revival. To this end, Scarlet Imprint have convened an international cabal of writers and artists from England, Poland, Holland, Sweden, Spain, Brazil, Canada and America.

Our writers for this project are:

Jake Stratton-Kent
Eric de Pauw
Aaron Leitch
Paul Hughes-Barlow
Mark Smith
Stafford Stone
Thomas Karlsson
Johnny Jakobsson
The Anonymous author of Pharaoan
Humberto Maggi
John J. Coughlin
Krzysztof Azarewicz
Donald Tyson
Kyle Fite

These individuals meet for the first time within the pages of our newest title, Diabolical and give tongue to their excursions into these texts and others:

The Red Dragon/Grand Grimoire
Grimorium Verum
Lemegeton
The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage
The Testament of Solomon
The Nightside of Eden
The Wisdom of S'lba
Qutub
Liber 231
Liber 325 The Bartzabel Working
The Holy Books of Thelema
The Voudon Gnostic Workbook
The Taufer books...

Substantial original essays and inspired original artwork, in a striking talismanic production, Diabolical will astound you.

More information at www.scarletimprint.com

A Diabolical Evening

A Diabolical Evening

The Horse Hospital
Central London
Thursday October 29
Mass celebrated at 7pm sharp

Scarlet Imprint are hosting an infernal evening for their new title Diabolical at the Horse Hospital on October 29. This is no secular book launch. Please dress for the kind of deeply religious experience not seen since Loudon.
All demoninations are welcome.

Order of Service

Peter Grey and Alkistis Dimech will offer unholy communion to initiate the evening.

Startling new talent Johnny Jakobsson will deliver a sermon on how to form a Pact from his extensive work with the notorious Grand Grimoire. This is the most infamous aspect of the grimoire tradition.

Jake Stratton Kent with his hellfire and brimstone delivery will be preaching on the Grimorium Verum. As the most notorious conjuror in all England, we suggest you take note.

Our Organist, on decks and effects, will be experimental musician Nous playing a selection of hymns for the night.

A whole choir of our authors will be in attendance all well-scrubbed and cherubic, willing to divulge the secrets of necromancy to neophytes for a glass of ale. Or simply deflower your book.

There will of course be ample opportunity to waft your thurible and shake your cassock with the unruly congregation who you will be sharing pews and alcoves with.

To have your name inscribed in the very limited guests list, please rsvp to:

scarletimprint@gmail.com


For more information on Diabolical see www.scarletimprint.com

Seattle Esoteric Book Conference Review

We were delighted to be invited to speak at the Esoteric Book Conference in Seattle.

It unfolded into an inspiring event.

Rather than waiting for something to happen, William Kiesel (Ouroborus Books), Catamara Rosarium and Michael Kolson (Night of Pan) made magick manifest.

Over two days of talks and a night of ritual theatre, the attendees were captivated by a true representation of the diversity of the Esoteric Community. More than that, the event was professionally stage-managed and run, with a feast of books to browse and buy between talks. It was a triumph of independent small publishers who make books for love rather than money.

Of particular personal interest to us were Micheal Staley relating his experiences in the Typhonian Order, Amy Hale on Ithell Colqhoun, Thomas Karlsson of the Dragon Rouge, and Daniel Schulke of the Cultus Sabbati.
However, we attended almost all the talks and were favourably impressed by the entire roster of speakers.

The erudition of the audience was also impressive. It is a pleasure to find so many well-informed occultists who still have the passion to act. This energy is as infectious as fire.

What we found overwhelming was the warmth and openness of all who were there. Our thanks for the words of support, the conversations, the raw salmon, the red roses, and the gifts of books and knowledge.

The ideas which we presented will find fuller expression in Seven Heads and Seven Veils, a title which we hope to complete in the next year.

After a whirlwind visit we spent the Equinox being dragged through the time-zones and back to Europe.

Something has started.

For those within striking distance of Seattle, we suggest you make your plans for next year.

We intend to return.

In Nomine Babalon

Peter and Alkistis x

Tortured by the Muse

There is precisely one month left for those who wish to submit to our poetry anthology.
Still enough time to be included in what will be a revolutionary collection of work.

This new anthology will combine a sampling of the best poetic work available from contemporary practitioners with additional essays about the practice of poetry as occult art form, poetic spiritual devotion, and the artistic culture of magic.

We will pull from a wide range of traditions and focus 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.

We are looking for ecstatic verse, praise poems, hymns, paeans, prayers, and free verse poetic 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. 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 30-40 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.

Full information and the email details of our poetry editor can be found here


PS If you are a Subscriber, you should have recieved an email on Friday about our latest title.
Those locked in the grip of a particularly aggressive email filter may wish to check their spam folder.