This is not magic. This is the way the world is, only very few people take the time to stop and note it.
Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
Tag Archives: magic
Banner: Are you going to give me the old magic is science we don’t understand yet?
Strange: Has it occurred to you that science is magic we don’t understand yet?
dir. Mitch Schauer, Marvel’s Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell
Young wizards are always surprised to discover that magic doesn’t solve most of their problems.
Bill Kieffer, The Goat
“I don’t like to be a witch,” said Minx, unhappily. “I’d like to be just like other children.” “But don’t you know lots of magic?” persisted Jack. “I know some,” admitted Minx, rather proudly.
Anna Elizabeth Bennett, Little Witch
The difference between Cinderella’s story and mine is that there are no happy endings here. There is no Prince Charming, no magic pumpkin coach to spirit me away, no light at the end of the tunnel. There is only me, and I am royally shafted.
Harmon Cooper, The Feedback Loop
He had to be smarter. He had to use the magic with a little wisdom, instead of haphazardly.
Elizabeth Engstrom, Benediction Denied: A Labyrinth of Souls Novel
was it just an accident, or did we want so much to be magic we got that way, somehow?
Edward Eager, Half Magic
Magic and Masculinity
Magic and Masculinity: Ritual Magic and Gender in the Early Modern Era by Frances, part of the International Library of Historical Studies series, from I B Tauris, may be of interest. Dan Harms posted a review over on his blog.
“In early modern England, the practice of ritual or ceremonial magic – the attempted communication with angels and demons – both reinforced and subverted existing concepts of gender. The majority of male magicians acted from a position of control and command commensurate with their social position in a patriarchal society; other men, however, used the notion of magic to subvert gender ideals while still aiming to attain hegemony. Whilst women who claimed to perform magic were usually more submissive in their attempted dealings with the spirit world, some female practitioners employed magic to undermine the patriarchal culture and further their own agenda. Frances Timbers studies the practice of ritual magic in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries focusing especially on gender and sexual perspectives. Using the examples of well-known individuals who set themselves up as magicians (including John Dee, Simon Forman and William Lilly), as well as unpublished diaries and journals, literature and legal records, this book provides a unique analysis of early modern ceremonial magic from a gender perspective.”
Events at Treadwell’s through June, 2014
Here is a selection from the upcoming events at Treadwell’s Books in London for through June, 2014, which may be of interest.
Surrealism, Satanism and Witchcraft
16 May 2014
Dan ZamaniSurrealism celebrated Satan and the witch as powerful agents of social rebellion, and tonight’s speaker argues their inspiration came from Jules Michelet’s 1862 book La Sorciere, which was violently anti-Catholic as well as shockingly erotic. Some women Surrealists confidently cast themselves as witches, and the talk looks at three of them: Dorothea Tanning, Leonor Fini and Leonora Carrington. Dan Zamani is completing his PhD in art history at Cambridge; he returns to Treadwells by popular demand.
Price: £7
Time: 7:15pm for a 7:30pm start
Crowley’s Liber Nu
23 May 2014
Bob SteinTonight a longstanding magical practitioner of Thelemic magic examines one of Crowley’s most magnificent ritual texts, Liber Nu (‘The Book of Nuit’, a rite for attainment of the Goddess Nuit) and relates the extraordinary experience of preparing and then performing the rite at Gosse’s Bluff in Central Australia. He goes on to interpret Liber Nu as Crowley’s “how to write and do a high magic ritual.” Bob Stein has been a member of O.T.O. since 1983 and has been involved with the organisation since then in a range of capacities.
Price: £7
Time: 7:15pm for a 7:30pm start
Abraxas 5 Launch Party
30 May 2014Please join us for to celebrate Issue Five of Abraxas, the journal of esoteric studies issued jointly by Fulgur Ltd and Treadwell’s. We will have fascinating people, art, poetry and short talks. This issue has contributors worldwide on surreailsm, the Fellowship of Isis, Platonism, spirit-summoning, David Blank of the famed Oracle Magazine, an occult manuscript, Peladan, Bertiaux, and the wonderful ancient gods Antinous and Glykon.
Free, but please RSVP to info@treadwells-london.com
Time: 7pm to 9:30pm. Short talks at 7:45pm
Elias Ashmole: London’s Forgotten Adept
2 June 2014
Ruth ClydesdaleElias Ashmole (1617–1692) is famed for founding the first public museum, the Ashmolean, a fact that overshadowed his importance in the history of occultism. He was the astrological advisor to Charles II, an early freemason, an alchemical secret-holder. He collected rare esotericism texts and even saved a fellow astrologer from the gallows. Tonight revives him from obscurity, celebrating his secret life. Ruth Clydesdale is a writer and astrologer with interest in the history of astrology and its links to magic, alchemy and art.
Price: £7
Time: 7:15pm for a 7:30pm start
Walking Tour: Occult London
7 June 2014 (and again on July 5th)
Delienne ForgetLondon’s secret occult history comes alive as you traipse the cobblestone streets of the West End, and you learn the secrets behind some of the area’s past magicians, witches and sorcerers: some famous, some infamous. Delianne Forget is a London registered Blue Badge Guide with a solid grounding in London history. A white witch herself, she also knows her cauldron potions from her good-luck charms. These tours return after a two year hiatus, due to popular demand.
Price: £10
Time: 2pm to 5pm, starting at a central London tube station. Look for the lady in the witch hat.
Aleister Crowley on Rock’n’Roll
19 June 2014Join us for a summer party to celebrate the launch of Gary Lachman’s new book: Aleister Crowley’s influence on rock-and-roll giants from the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, to Black Sabbath and Blondie, of which Lachman was a founding member. Gary will give an informal talk for about 20 minutes at about 7:45, and as ever we give most of the evening over to socialising, book-signing and gentle revelry. Please join us.
Free, but please RSVP to info@treadwells-london.com
Time: Come anytime 7pm – 9:30pm. Short talk at 7:45.
Love Magic in Seventeenth-century England
20 June 2014
Alexander CumminsThis talk explores the occult theories and magical practices which grasped both the divinity and madness of love. Al Cummins takes us into the world of elemental humours, psychological notions of the passions, and the spiritual and physical mysteries of the heart. We will delve into the love magicians’ toolkit, examining means of seduction: from aphrodisiac herbs to conjuring matchmaking spirits … and onto bindings, leashes, and “erotic malefic” workings. A vibrant speaker, Alexander Cummins recently completed his PhD from Bristol: he is an historian of early modern magic, astrology and the passion. He is also a professional poet.
Price: £7
Time: 7:15pm for a 7:30pm start
And, Treadwell’s comes to New York!
New York City — The Night of the Witch
25 June 2014Two illustrated lectures on witchcraft in a vibrant double-bill. Witch Pictures — Pam Grossman and British Witchcraft — Christina Oakley Harrington.
Witch Pictures — Pam Grossman
The witch burst into Western art in the late 15th century and never left: the likes of Durer, Fuseli, Goya, and Blake used the image of magical women to titillate their patrons or reflect their own anxieties — with results both grotesque and beguiling. Then in the 19th century women took up the brush to create works inspired by personal occult experiences, reclaiming the witch, and we see a female ‘witchcraft’ in action in Abstraction, Surrealism, Modernism, making a corner of art history where craft and Craft are one and the same.
British Witchcraft — the Fifties to the Seventies — Christina Oakley Harrington
British Witchraft revived in the 1950s and 1960s. To the horror and fascination of the English press and public, some of these witches gave interviews and even allowed secret rites to be photographed. They wanted the world to know a non-Christian basis of ethics, a radical concept of the sacred, and the power of altered states of consciousness. Both tradition-based and forward-thinking, they were paradoxical yet compelling. Tonight’s speaker comes from the UK Wiccan community, and brings these characters to life and shares insights into their vision of the Craft.
Pam Grossman is the Brooklyn-based guiding spirit of Phantasmaphile, and was co-host of the 2013 Occult Humanities Conference at NYU. Christina Oakley Harrington is founder of London’s famed Treadwells Bookshop and a former academic; she also co-edits Abraxas Journal and gives occasional lectures.
Venue: New York City’s META Center, 214 W 29th Street. The talks will be followed by an informal social at a nearby restaurant: all are invited.
Tickets through Brown Paper Tickets
Time: 7pm – 9pm
Epoch
Epoch. The Esotericon & Portals of Chaos by Peter J Carroll and Matt Kaybryn, a new hardcover book and 55-card deck, published by Arcanorium College for Spring Equinox 2014, is available now, signed by author and illustrator, from Weiser Antiquarian.
This illustrated and “illuminated” hardback opens with a detailed historical resume of magical and esoteric thought before presenting the reader with three complete grimoires. From the publisher: “this superbly produced book contains extensive text by Peter J Carroll and over 50 large full colour illustrations from Matt Kaybryn, which are represented in the accompanying deck. Carroll’s text begins with a historical resumé of magical and esoteric thought before moving on to present the reader with three complete grimoires. The first grimoire of Elemental magic deals with modern practical magical techniques and the classical and modern interpretations of the traditional elemental symbolism. The second grimoire of Planetary magic deals with the Pagan and Neo-Pagan-magical archetypes or ‘god-forms’, their contemporary roles in the human condition, and how the magician can access them for their inspiration and to borrow their abilities. The third grimoire of Stellar magic deals with the ‘Elder Gods’, those foci of awesome and dangerous extraterrestrial knowledge and power that await us in the vast deep reaches of the cosmos. This grimoire constitutes the latest upgrade to the ever evolving Necronomicon. Complementing and supporting the grimoires, further chapters deal with the history of symbolism, the creation and/ or the evolution of gods and goddesses, and the physics of parapsychology and extraterrestrial communication. All in all this book contains enough to keep any wizard, magician, esotericist or natural philosopher entranced and busy for quite quite some time to come.” Accompanied by oversized deck of 55 cards, called a “Cartomagical tool for the 21st century, the Deck presents 54 Altar Icons spanning the three Spheres of Elements, Bi-Planets and Stellar god-forms.” [via]