Cockney Visionary is new, lavishly illustrated monograph is set to accompany the Austin Osman Spare: Fallen Visionary exhibition at the Cuming Museum in London, on from September 14th to November 13th, 2010.

The book will contain an introduction by Robert Ansell, a cartographic study by Gavin Semple, a biographical essay by Geraldine Beskin, essays by curators Christopher Jordan and Stephen Pochin, and detailed commentaries on the works in the collection by Dr William Wallace.

From the website:

Sales of this publication will help to fund the exhibition. The deluxe edition will feature a Patron list. A list of those who purchased this volume and who therefore have directly supported the exhibition. Of course, if you so wish, you can purchase the deluxe without appearing on the Patron List.

There is an extra benefit attached to the purchase of this edition. You will be eligible to attend a special patrons-only private view of the exhibition. The date of this exclusive event will be disclosed to purchasers once orders have been processed.

However copies are not cheap. The deluxe edition is limited to 100 numbered copies signed by the authors can be purchased at £160. The standard edition is limited to 900 numbered copies and goes for £60 – or £74 including shipping to Canada. (Yikes!) Both copies will contain the DVD documentary The Bones Go Last.

For more information and to pre-order either edition, see the listing on Jerusalem Press.

Pricey, but so are all things Sparian these days. Want.

Spotted on LAShTAL.com.

Popularity: 13%

In July I posted about the one-man, one-act play written and performed by John Burns, Aleister Crowley: A Passion for Evil, which is showing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August.

LAShTAL.com hosts an in-depth review written by Frater FS, which is largely favourable:

Condensing any life, never mind Crowley’s into less than an hour requires some remarkably tight editing and Burns wisely chooses some key vignettes to give the broad strokes of the Crowley biography. Burns does this with remarkable intensity and effect, slipping into various characters on a minimal stage with nothing but a writing desk, a phone, a dagger and a wine glass for company (Burns plays Crowley in his 50s, balding and in bow tie and frock coat).

Check out the full review on LAShTAL.com, it sounds like Burns has done an excellent job – wish I was in Edinburgh!

I haven’t been able to locate many other reviews of the show, and none go as deep into it as Frater FS. (For example, EdinburghSpotlite.com gave it three stars in a review by Keith D, but without much analysis.)

The show is still on, and will be until August 28th, 2010. If you see it, I’d love to know what you think.

Popularity: 10%

New title edited by John Zorn,  Arcana V: Musicians on Music, Magic & Mysticism, published by Hips Road/Tzadik, July 31, 2010.

The first four volumes (Arcana, Arcana II, Arcana III and Arcana IV) are each subtitled “Musicians on Music”. This special edition is the first volume to break that trend.

From the Amazon.com description:

For centuries musicians have tapped into mysticism, magic and alchemy, embracing ritual, spell, incantation and prayer, and experimenting with esoteric approaches to harmony, pitch and vibration. In recent decades, avant-garde musicians have rediscovered these overlaps, as occultism has reinvented itself–through Buddhist and other Asian influences, Thelema and Chaos Magic–to accommodate cultural strains from psychedelica through Punk and Industrial music. This special edition of John Zorn’s much acclaimed Arcana series focuses on the magical aspects of the act of making music.

From the description on Tzadik.com: Continue reading »

Popularity: 13%

Khastoo, a gallery in Los Angeles, US, is showing works by various esoteric artists in their latest exhibition, The Alchemy of Things Unknown (and a Visual Meditation on Transformation).

Featured artists include Austin Osman Spare, Aleister Crowley, Kenneth Anger, JFC Fuller, William Blake, Paul Laffoley, Marilyn Manson (??) amongst others.

The exhibition’s been on for a week now (it opened on June 10th) and will continue until July 31st, 2010.

From the gallery’s description:

The artists in this exhibition, some more explicitly than others, sought after or seek spiritual truths through art making and employ an almost fervent and reverent experimentation to their practice, one that is both ritualistic and against the grain. This mystic behaviour is what defines the show; the persistence of new and unorthodox visual experimentation reaches beyond the worldly sphere to heightened states of consciousness.

For the full press release and directions click here.

Unfortunately the gallery’s website does not give an indication of what pieces will be there from each artist. If anyone in LA manages to make it down there, let me know. I’d be interested to hear what they’re showing.

Spotted on LAShTAL.com.

Popularity: 4%

Saturday Signal: Signal: sifting the signal from the noise of the Internet’s occultural cacophony.

In the realm of the planetary spheres my vote this week must go to Mars for the most gorgeous landscape. Check out these Martian dunes on BoingBoing. Absolutely stunning.

• Rob, in Another Nickel in the Machine, writes about the early career of occult writer Colin Wilson in “Hampstead Heath and the Rise and Fall of the author Colin Wilson“. It’s a wonderfully photo-rich piece. (Who knew Wilson was such a looker in his youth?)

• Chas Clifton, in his blog Letters from Hardscrabble Creek, wrote an interesting post recently considering whether or not contemporary Pagans could be considered indigenous. His answer is no, and his reasons make sense. The comments section breaks it down further, asking some interesting questions.

• Nicole Pasulka interviewed Peter Ross for TheMorningNews.org. Ross took a series of photographs of “William Burroughs’s Stuff“, “a selection of weird, touching, and often unexpected possessions found in Burroughs’s windowless New York City apartment, preserved since his death in 1997.” It’s an odd collection.

• In Magic of the Ordinary, Peregrin has written an excellent post titled “Golden Dawn Blogs and Tradition” that covers more than it implies. Peregrin’s summary of the commentary surrounding one’s Holy Guardian Angel, for example, is spot on. Check it out.

• LAShTAL.com has the latest catalogue from Starfire, Kenneth Grant‘s publishing house. Check it out for titles which have recently been issued, and what’s coming later in 2010. Several reprints, but some new material too, including a compilation of two grimoires by Austin Osman Spare.

I’m trying out delicious.com, a social bookmarking tool. It looks a little more complicated than the last time I logged in – they seem to have added a ton of new features in the past year.

This is to replace the 902834029834 some odd tabs I currently leave open in Firefox for compiling these Saturday Signal posts, but this little laptop, she cannae take it anymore. So, I’m experimenting once again with delicious. (There’s even a Firefox add-on for it.)

One of the great things about it is that you can tag your bookmarks and share them with other people. So, for example, if you tag a site “plutonica” I will be notified. Why is that so nifty? Because it makes it really easy to share cool sites.

If you use delicious, and you want to highlight something cool that you think should be included in Saturday Signal, tag it “plutonica” and I’ll add it. It’s an experiment. Let’s see how it works.

For those who are interested in stalking my path across the web, or, you know, simply getting the first crack at what may find its way into the Saturday Signal, my account there is, of course, plutopsyche.

Popularity: 6%