Mogg Morgan, of the occult publishing house Mandrake of Oxford, has generously allowed me to reprint his take on this case which originally appeared in issue no. 214 of the publisher’s online newsletter, Mandrake Speaks. Continue reading »

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While John Whiteside Parsons is best remembered by mainstream science as the inventor of the solid fuel that helped make space travel possible, occultists know Jack Parsons as a devoted Thelemite, chosen by Aleister Crowley in the early forties to lead Agape Lodge, an Ordo Templi Orientis lodge in California.

Parsons’ Freedom Is a Two Edged Sword contains the bulk of published writing, but a new book has been released by Teitan Press, titled Three Essays on Freedom, which contains a new essay not published previously.

From the book’s description: Continue reading »

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Fernando Pessoa is said to be one of the greatest Portuguese poets of modern times; indeed, some say the four greatest poets, due to his penchant for writing under alter egos with distinct literary personalities all their own. Though when he died in 1935 he was virtually unknown.

When the poet died in obscurity in 1935, he left a trunk full of documents that included extensive correspondence with the eccentric English astrologist and magician Aleister Crowley, a practitioner of the occult said to have inspired satanism in Britain.

- Independant.co.uk, “Portugal angry over sale of papers ‘vital to nation’s literary heritage’“

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It’s been interesting reading the responses to guest blogger Dr Dave Evans‘ review of the new Aleister Crowley film Chemical Wedding over the past week. In addition to responses posted here, there have been a number of positive (or at least amused) comments on private blogs and journals, and at several which have been more public.

Crowley forum LAShTAL.com has been collecting Chemical Wedding reviews from various media sources, comparing and contrasting them and commenting on what they find, including the one posted here. Dave’s replies to commentators on the forum explore the various positions from which he disliked the film.

Taylor Ellwood‘s response in his blog Experiments of a Magician struck me as rather odd. Rather than taking an interest in the film itself, Ellwood seemed pleased the movie received a terrible review because he hates Crowley. Continue reading »

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Dave, a British academic and magician, is the co-founding editor of JSM – The Journal for the Academic Study of Magic and is author of The History of British Magic After Crowley (Hidden Publishing, 2007) and several other books.

I’m just back from the late-night regional premiere of the new Crowley-based film, Chemical Wedding, here in England. Much anticipated, this film is the brainchild (or should that be Moonchild?) of Bruce Dickinson. He is apparently a long-time Crowley fan, and will be better known as the screaming front man of perennial stadium heavy-metallers Iron Maiden . Apart from a few peripheral references in recent mainstream film (one of the Hellraisers, Razorblade Smile etc), Crowley hasn’t really been touched on for decades – you have to go back to the often appalling sixties’ Hammer Horror stuff, based on Dennis Wheatley’s books, or the 1950s classic Night of the Demon.

The prospects here looked good, with a prominent Shakespearian/Dickensian actor (Simon Callow) in the lead role instead of some unknown no-hoper. The plot encompassed some science fiction angles (the film Weird Science from the 80s immediately sprang to mind) and it is set in a modern-day Cambridge University, with a chaos-mathematics/quantum physics slant on to proceedings. Crowley is essentially called back to life via virtual reality technology, and possesses the body of an elderly and befuddled professor, who suddenly becomes the Beast renewed (in a rather natty purple velvet suit). Sounded like a great premise, and the online trailer, released ages ago, was simply fabulous.

Well, now I’ve seen the film… Continue reading »

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