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Category Archives: The Cadaver Synod

The Cadaver Synod: Esoteric Fiction and Fictional Esoterica

The Western Esoteric Tradition has influenced the work of many writers and the work of many writers have influenced the tradition. This section is a place to collect some of those works.

The Magician

Sunday, January 29, 2012

  Rex Ingram‘s The Magician based on W Somerset Maugham’s book. The character Oliver Haddo, which Maugham derived from the real-life Aleister Crowley, is portrayed by Paul Wegener.

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Aleister Crowley and his adopted pseudonym “Oliver Haddo” mentioned in a concert review

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Aleister Crowley and his adopted pseudonym “Oliver Haddo” [see, also], which came from the character in W Somerset Maugham’s The Magician, mentioned in a concert review at “Review: Ghost at Marquis Theater, 1/27/12“. The band Blood Ceremony finished their set with the track “Oliver Haddo”. “And what better way to end a set by a [...]

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Review: Mr g by Alan Lightman

Saturday, January 28, 2012

The archetype of Baphomet appears in a recent book, Mr g: A Novel About the Creation, reviewed at “Review: Mr g by Alan Lightman” by Michel Basilières. “Alan Lightman is the author of the bestselling Einstein’s Dreams and other novels, as well as being a theoretical physicist. His new book, Mr g, is so obviously [...]

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The White People and other Weird Stories

Friday, December 23, 2011

“The White People and other Weird Stories, By Arthur Machen” by Tim Cumming is a review of a new collection of Golden Dawn initiate Arthur Machen, The White People and Other Weird Stories (Penguin Classics). “Machen was a bestseller in his day, a member of the Golden Dawn, and intimately acquainted with the spiritualism, occultism, [...]

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De Profundis

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Quite a while ago actually, I wandered into a local game shop and happened to start looking through the small press roleplaying games. There were several that struck me as interesting, but one in particular not only struck me but has stuck in my mind. Thinking over the last month or more about ALA’s National [...]

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Etidorhpa or the End of the Earth

Monday, October 17, 2011

You may be interested in John Uri Lloyd’s Etidorhpa or the End of the Earth recently added to Project Gutenberg. This is an interesting book. The title is Aphrodite spelled backwards. There’s a lot of speculation about spiritual themes and also themes of drug use in the work. You may be interested in checking out [...]

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Sherlock Holmes: The Breath of God

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

So apparently there’s a new Sherlock Holmes novel out in which Sherlock and Watson consult Aleister Crowley. They also apparently consult with Algernon Blackwood’s John Silence. The first two chapters are up online, so you can check it out. Chapter one is an exclusive over at Fangoria. Chapter two is an exclusive over at IO9. [...]

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The Slayer of Souls

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

You may be interested in “The Slayer of Souls” by Robert Chambers, an occult romance which includes, among other things, a fictional reference to the “Yezidee” or Yezidi. The Yezidi are mentioned in various sources, not the least of which are in the works and life of Sir Richard Francis Burton, including The Kasîdah of [...]

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The Thing in the Attic

Friday, May 27, 2011

You may be interested in “Thing in the Attic” by James Blish which was recently added to Project Gutenberg. “The reputation that they had given him, too, had helped to bring him to the end of the snap-spine tether. They had given weight to his words among others—weight enough to make him, at last, the [...]

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Crowley and the occult is apparently part of the plot

Friday, October 9, 2009

Crowley and the occult is apparently part of the plot: “The Monster of Florence“.

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A new review of an old book with a character based on interviews with Crowley

Thursday, October 8, 2009

A new review of an old book with a character based on interviews with Crowley at “Book Review: The Devil Rides Out” “Here we are in wonderful October Country, so how about a Gothic classic?Dennis Wheatley was once one of England’s most popular writers of adventure and espionage novels. Today, when he’s read at all, [...]

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