A Kabbalistic Handbook for the Practicing Magician

Joseph C. Lisiewski New Falcon Publications, 2005

Reviewed by Tom Bland

Joseph Lisiewski has written an interesting and at times thoughtful study on the tree of life, and the way in which it can be applied to magical practice. Of course, Lisiewski is not proposing anything new, his mentor, Israel Regardie, wrote extensively on this. In fact, I found little new in this slim volume which I hadn’t already read in Regardie or the writings of Crowley or Fortune.

Lisiewski contends that something is wrong with the contemporary practice of magic. Like Lisiewski, I didn’t find the Golden Dawn material entirely workable or useful, but I always found it adaptable and changeable to circumstance. Regardie said something similar and spent a long time reworking the rituals of the GD, particularly as they might be employed by the solitary practitioner.

Lisiewski openly proclaims this and yet proposes a way of working with the material which he finds to be successful. Some of the advice is useful but at times obvious, for example, comparing different editions of the GD rituals as published in different sources. When I practiced the work of the GD, I would often do this, and found it very helpful. The best part of his advice is given in chapter 2 of his book, which is on the importance of research for performing rituals.

I liked Lisiewski’s emphasis on researching the symbolic structure of ritual in a twofold way: first through examining the symbolism in the teachings of the GD and in other resource books, such as Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Secondly by intuiting the symbolic meaning by relating to it on an inner level. In terms of occult literature, research is a subject which has rarely been touched upon in this way.

Personally I learnt research methodology from a study group on C.G.Jung’s writings at the Jung Club in London, which was led by a phenomenologist of religion, who specialised in esoteric currents in religion. I was taught the twofold method, first analysing a symbol through primary and secondary sources, and secondly through understanding symbols on an experiential level, where one relates the symbol to dreams and experiences. As such, this chapter really resonated and I found it to be the best part of the book.

The rest is not really needed, and chapter 2 could have been published in journal format. I found Lisiewski’s detailing of the symbolism for the tree of life was unnecessary in light of the number of books that already cover this subject. I strongly echo Lisiewski recommendion to go to the sources - Agrippa’s work, as well as Crowly’s 777 and Regardie’s The Tree of Pomegranates. The chapter on Agrippa’s planetary times for rituals could have been condensed to an appendix, and more or less summarised in a table.

Unfortunately what takes up a lot of space in the book, is the author’s recommendations of other books. These may be good books, but really that is what the bibliography is for? H a lso spends a lot of time being rather patronising to the reader, and trying to work out what the reader is thinking. It is a style which distracts from what is being said, and in my opinion does not necessary place the reader in a receptive state to learn.

All in all although this book is interesting and thoughtful there is not enough that is new. Most of it is a repetition of what we have read before. Lisiewski has a habit of falling into a prejudice on what he thinks magic is, dismissing magic as an art, and instead proposing it simply as a science.

I’m not going to argue with a physicist over what constitutes science, nor am I going to deny that magic has a scientific component to it, but then again, I’m not going to dismiss magic as art either. I certainly see many parallels to the way an artist and an occultist works. Both work with images, not because they stand for something, but because they have presence and substance. I see no reason to dismiss the reality of this, simply to advocate a narrow view of what magic might be.

Tom Bland is an independent researcher specialising in the esoteric arts. He has a special interest in the Kabbalah from a theoretical and practical viewpoint. He trained in humanistic and transpersonal facilitation. He currently leads a study group on the Kabbalah for the C. G. Jung Analytical Psychology Club in London. He can be contacted at inward@.... (http://members.lycos.co.uk/tombland/)

Treadwells and Secret Chief Talks

Treadwells

Here's a selection of talks at Treadwells. Full descriptions of all events are to be found now on website, http:www.treadwells-london.com

Treadwells, 34 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London WC2
Places booked on 0207 240 8906
or by email info@...

R J Stewart

R.J.Stewart is visiting Bath from America in March and holding a weekend workshop at Openings Saw Close. The subject matter will be The rivers of Blood and tears in the underworld , Prophecy and sacred springs. The Workshops will be held on Sat/ Sun 25/26 march Cost will be £100.

R.J is a skilled musician, and if the workshop is too expensive you might still enjoy his gig at B.R.L.S.I. in Queens square Bath on Fri 24th March. Cost for this will be £5.00 - for more details or workshop spec mail me on marue333@...

The Grammar Of Witchcraft - Part IV

© David Parry

Entering the overgrown two-acre garden felt like stepping into a haunted forest. The difference being that Caliban was instantly greeted by a drop-dead gorgeous waiter, holding a silver tray with brimming pink-champagne glasses. He must have been about twenty-four years old, with devastatingly handsome Italian looks, an athletic build and an extremely personable manner. His ponytail crowned a natural nobility, which was further diademed by expensive Gucci sunglasses. Caliban knew the boy wanted to talk, and only held himself back because of the black grease paint all over his face: a theatrical touch that strangely threw his pursed, sensuous, lips into an exaggerated, although sculpted, relief. It also seemed to magnify his piercing brown eyes, as oracular as Owls, to make manifest barely repressed bi-sexual sentiments. Aroused, the dwarf decided to break any uneasy ice: "What's your name young man?"

"Emiliano, Emiliano Klossowski", he smiled.

"That doesn't sound very Mediterranean", Caliban smiled back.

"It is useful as a waiter to sound-ah eastern European since political Enlargement".

"Very smart, does it work?"

"Yes usually, forgive me…..they-ah say….. you are a witch!"

"People say all sorts of things, however in this case they are indirectly correct. Actually, I am a physical medium, but why do you ask?" Again, Emiliano smiled, only this time his mouth betrayed a mixture of lust and longing.

"They-ah say…..when you have had a witch, no one else-ah will do".

"Sometimes what they say is right", Caliban replied, cautiously.

"Lets-ah walk together and talk about-ah the trees. Witches know a lot-ah about the verdant coppice and-ah the fertility".

"And you must tell me why the girls wanted their waiting staff dressed like a troupe of Mummers. Follow me to the Holly hedges over there". Caliban could hardly believe what was happening. As they strolled together he began to prove his Craft credentials to the young libertine.

"There are thirteen living consonants and five vital vowels to the Old Goidelic tree alphabet. The first organic letter of the series is the tree of inception, so-called because Birch is the earliest tree (with the macabre exception of the sinister alder) to sprout new leaves each year. It was said that to beat someone with birch twigs would expel the infirm spirits who continually delighted in causing insanity or mayhem: a method intimately connected with the practise of marking village boundaries with birch-rods. Increased clarity is therefore the key to its arcane properties, as well as the power of protection". Caliban pointed to a withered, pallid, Birch. They both took a sip of Champaign.

Still walking, Caliban then pointed to the other uncultivated side of the path, while admiring Emiliano's agility as he placed the tray gracefully down without any glasses falling over. The boy moved with a sinuous skill, like a sophisticated urban Fox on heat. "Wicked willow is the fifth tree to be catalogued by the occult sages of old, and accordingly Culpeper says the moon owns it. By this he seems to suggest that the willow always enjoyed a dread reputation, representing the forces of misery and bleak misfortune. Antiquarians further claim human sacrifices were offered to unclean spirits in baskets made of willow, while for centuries wearing a willow hat signalled the intense hatred of a rejected lover. Even today, the poorest families still hesitate to use it for domestic firewood. Its sap however is its secret, since this disturbing liquid can be used to spread communal discord and physical decay". Emiliano dreamily nodded towards the heavily shaded end of the path and started to unbutton his red, cotton shirt. "But it's the seventh tree", Caliban unflappably continued, " the alphabets royal Heart, whose anthropomorphic qualities constantly unsettle the simple-minded. This is due to the fact Oak shrieks and groans when felled. Midsummer kindling is nevertheless always Oaken, because its intoxicating smoke awakens physical strength as well as spiritual determination. Oak, I should add, has a wide range of potencies: its sap may be used to preserve youth or rejuvenate sexual vigour, and if an oak branch is made into a Will-Projecting Wand, it protects a witch from lightening, detection and exhaustion. Moreover, a bronze nail driven into the correct engrams inscribed on its regal trunk relieve a person of any physical pain, immediately curing minor ailments such as toothache. Oddly, even Farmers remain unaware that eyesight is extended when its powdered bark is brewed with soft poppy seeds and stale, necrotic, saliva, into a nocturnally administered tincture". They were a long way down the garden by now and far from the other guests. Caliban physically felt Emiliano's hot, bare stomach against his shoulders, and pausing briefly, they both savoured the seductive moment.

"As the ninth tree," Caliban said breathily while taking his own black silk shirt off, "hazel is held to be wisdom's emblem, since forked hazel spears (which must be cut on St. John's Eve) are used to look for lost treasure or employed to identify thieves and murderers. Additionally, hazel twigs are wielded by diviners when they are looking for hidden sources of water, metals buried beneath the ground, or dead bodies. There are even recipes for making oneself invisible by applying a magnetised herbal ointment over the body and carrying a Mandrake talisman with green hazel twigs inserted into it at the angle of deception. Folklorists occasionally recounted the phenomenon wherein decaying hazel twigs sometimes drip poisonous milk exuding paralysing vapours capable of killing untold thousands. It is said witches alone can safely approach the hazel during this period". Emiliano physically pulled Caliban into a secluded nook behind the Holly hedges, while rapidly stripping himself naked. He wiped away the grease paint with his vest and untied the rainbow ribbons damming a flood of long black hair. "I am-ah a political activist for-ah the Greens. We need-ah to remember the land and-ah its ways". Forcibly, he undressed Caliban. "We need-ah to honour muscle and-ah the blood in ourselves; to respect-ah the oxygen producing plants-ah and-ah the soil. To recover the-ah economics of Eden is not-ah the function of an impotent-ah body of representatives. All that can-ah be hoped-ah for, from such an-ah artificial organism, is that it-ah will represent the totality of-ah visceral reaction's proclaimed-ah by the people. The bad-ah airs we now-ah breath stink in our own lungs as-ah though we wanted to asphyxiate ourselves-ah with our own filth". Emiliano surveyed him sharply, waiting for a reaction. Under such scrutiny Caliban felt like a salted slug oozing its inadequacy in the dust before this magnificent man: an ugly creature encouraging loathing and disgust in the presence of a resplendent satyr. They were both further excited by this shared, abusive, impression.

Uncharacteristically, the dwarf stammered in response, "the tenth, tenth… shit… esoteric tree is the vine in its vintage season. It embodies joy, exhilaration and righteous wrath. Any, any, any student of Craft is alerted to the sorcerous properties of the vine, because of its traditional link with the devil. This, coupled with the f-f-fact that there is a lusty symbolism …oh!..surrounding the vine, offers valuable clues to its particular gifts: the primitive plea-sure of drunken violence as a means to achieve magical states of consciousness. For this reason Paracelsus writes that rituals worked with sour wine are unusually effective in raising power. Indeed, applied ceremonial contention may…shit… be used…shit boy,… to channel subtle energies in a highly concentrated way, as the well-trained practitioners of any martial art will readily testify". Adrenaline energised Caliban's blood stream. They found themselves naked, embracing, kissing.

Being literally brushed off his feet as they tried to hold each other down on the grass, Caliban pulled Emiliano's hair and mumbled, "Ivy in its flowering season is the eleventh esoteric tree. In ancient Rome Ivy was chewed by soldiers seeking homicidal rage from the toxicity of its leaves. Analogously, ivy-ale was considered one of the potions closely associated with ambrosia, and witches say that immortality may be found by those who work with its leaves". Caliban realised he was falling in love but, then again, he was always falling in love. Yet he darkly suspected it was true love when he saw the circling trees visibly cup together, protecting them both from view. "Mother Mage !", he caught himself chanting in gratitude, "Mother Mage !", sensing her smile in letters, colours and signs through distant Stone Henge teeth. Caliban knew he had mastered his Craft because these glyphs contoured this Organic Muse, mapping and explaining her moods. He felt the earth tremble with laughter until rivulets must have flowed from Britannia's lake district eyes. Caliban grunted some of this to Emiliano while they grappled together. "Look around you, this is the true pentagram. Her five digits are more difficult to read than human fingers, because at the top of this Glorious Star stands the mysterious Silver Fir of life: the tree of cyclical progress, having the gentle light of the moon in its atavistic bark". They bear-hugged each other into a shared guttural comprehension.

Emiliano rolled over, causing Caliban to painfully gasp as the boy half howled, "My brother has-ah Synesthesia, It is a positive-ah… form of Autism whereby-ah the brain awakes, "Stronzo"! to some-ah of its-ah hermetic potentials. Can-ah you imagine, "Figlio di puttana" ! aaah!, centuries… ago living in a remote-ah village with this condition? You-ah would have-ah been burnt-ah at the stake or revered-ah… as a Saint. I used-ah to tell-ah my brother he wasn't handicapped but-ah gifted, like Odin on the Ash tree seeing runes. I used-ah to tell… him about-ah Ramon Lull in Medieval Spain-ah, his calculations, and his-ah visions. "Troia"! What you say has-ah similarities. That is why the word-ah Savant is-ah appropriate for these-ah people, "Cazzo"!, Nearly exhausted, they stopped wrestling and held each other closely for a moment or two, thoughtfully, although uncontrollably agitated by the elements of this spontaneous tantric encounter. Caliban could only finish his sweaty sermon by masturbating with the boy: learning about him through semen and sinew. Their brief romance had become Craft.

Abruptly, the Holly hedges defensively tightened together; someone was approaching. Thankfully, they only heard Emily's clipped voice discreetly saying, " Praise the Mother! It's good to know our guests keep up Pagan Traditions. However, boys, we are about to cut the cake, so it would be neighbourly for everyone to be near the marquis". Caliban kissed Emiliano's penis and they hurriedly got dressed. However, before leaving their enclosure the dwarf gestured a precautionary glamour in order for them to outwardly appear like respectable guests. With this casting firmly in place, they ambled back down the garden, examining leaves and rubbing Forget-me-nots between their fingers. Caliban concluded their sport by politely discoursing, "The second point blossoms with the golden flowers of the Furze. During Spring Equinox, fires made of Furze wood should be lighted on every hillside to honour the re-born, Rational, Sun. Thirdly is Heather, which often surprisingly grows at the angle of delight. This midsummer tree burns scarlet with passion and is associated with love, virtue and inner-resolve". Finally, they reached the tent causing Caliban to exclaim, "Ah, the cake. It looks beautiful". Emiliano found another tray of Champaign glasses and handed one to his lover for the toast: "The happy couple!" The dwarf drank arm in arm with the Italian, although he spilt a little of his own drink on the ground in thanks and praise. After all, there were now two happy couples in attendance. Caliban spent the rest of the afternoon watching his boy work, while building up courage for the coach journey back to London.

Cunning Folk And Familiar Spirits

Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic by Emma Wilby

The majority of material for this book was compiled as a result of research interests developed whilst the author was working towards a Masters degree in the History and Literature of Witchcraft, undertaken at the University of Exeter. To my knowledge this is the only University in England that actually teaches the history of witchcraft in this specialised manner. Magic and witchcraft have presented our academic historians with many challenges and problems, and there have been only very few researchers with scope wide enough to make much sense of its countless dilemmas. On the whole academics have assumed that witches were either naïve and deluded, suffering from mental illness, pressured into misleading confessions twisted by elite paradigms, or as Professor Owen Davies put it in Cunning Folk, “hard nosed and cynical businessmen” telling deliberately misleading lies. Emma Wilby’s text is the first in academia for a long time, if ever, to suggest that there was something a bit more to it all than that.

Emma Wilby takes as her starting point the ‘encounter narratives’ (confessions of spirit contact) collected from magical practitioners in the early modern period of Britain, usually dismissed by historians as being the results of pressure and interrogation during trial. Many of these confessions contain details of journeys into Elfame, where the traveller might meet spirits of the dead and the King and Queen of Fairy, others tell of journeys to the Sabbat, where the traveller meets the Devil. For purposes of academic convenience she defines those of our culture who communed with fairy kind as ‘cunning folk’ specialising in benevolent magic, and all those who worked with devils and demons as ‘witches’ specialising in malefica. No doubt rightly, Wilby suggests that the second tradition continues many influences of the first and ‘grew out of’ it, yet to my mind these classifications were too arbitrary and muddy to be of much real use. Furthermore, it suggests that the way of the witch developed from the ways of the cunning, which is not so. Rather, the fairy beliefs absorbed and incorporated elements of Christian lore over time, as was inevitable. Thus both cunning folk and witches worked with fairy folk and goetic formulae. Also, many so called ‘imp familiars’ given by Devils gave knowledge of herbs and healing, whilst many fairy folk drank human blood and were extremely spiteful in their natures. The terms ‘cunning’ and ‘witch’ must have been interchangeable in themselves amongst the folk, anyway. By the late nineteenth century in East Anglia we were using the term ‘white witch’ to describe the people Wilby classifies as ‘cunning’. Furthermore one could believe in fairies, Angels, and the Devil all at once even as late as then.

To give Emma Wilby her dues, she does tackle this problem well, however. One thing she points out is that the shamanic cultures also tend to possess within their pantheons some ‘All Creating’ spirit not too dissimilar to the Christian concept of God. Such cosmologies, however, are not based upon ideas of piety and Redemption. Then again, as another writer concerned with ‘cunning’ and ‘witchcraft’, I’m going to have to gripe at something in this book. Although I had problems with these classifications, this did not distract from the overall conclusions and ‘! point’ to this work.

What is important to Emma Wilby’s work is the comparison between the ‘encounter narratives’ of our own culture, such as we find in both fairy and Christian/diabolist traditions, and those of shamanic practices found amongst tribes people studied within the past hundred years or so. In all cases there are tales of transportation to other realms, meetings with spirits of the dead, communication with powerful entities we might choose to call ‘gods’, and the giving to the traveller by these entities a ‘helpful servitor’ often in the form of an animal. Through observation of shamanic ritual we have learnt that such things- or their appearance to have taken place- are made possible through ‘trance journeys’. Wilby draws these parallels, and others, to conclude that the witch or cunning folk provided a similar role in early modern Britain to the role played by the shaman to their tribal community. Thus, she suggests that the witches and cunning folk fully believed in the magical realities to which they confessed during trial. Such events might have taken place as a part of ritual practices or deliberate and trained meditations, yet they might also be brought on by many of the stresses of daily life in Britain at this time. Such a people also had a firm belief in the existence of spirits, a perspective which is of course not acceptable as a paradigm in modern studies, although it might be pointed out that such beliefs have still not entirely died out today amongst the ‘folk’. More than this, Wilby goes on to suggest that not only did such practitioners possess integrity, but that their beliefs and experiences may have been of profound spiritual worth, despite their moral ambiguity.

As such I recommend this book without further reservations to anyone interested in the indigenous magical traditions of Britain, in any way. Perhaps one day such perspectives as this might become more common amongst those academics working towards the study and preservation of our witchcraft history.

Nathaniel (author of Witcha- A Book of Cunning, Mandrake of Oxford).

Journal for the Academic Study of Magic (JSM)

Call For Papers for Issue 4, deadline 21-6-2006

Issue 4 of the JSM, due to appear late in 2006, is now seeking contributions. Scholarly articles in English about any aspect of magic/occultism are welcome up to 8000 words in length.

After a brief hiatus – JSM 3 should be appearing early 2006 (see contents below) – Drs Dave Green (University of the West of England, UK) and Susan Johnston Graf (Penn State, Mont Alto, USA) are taking over as co-editors of the journal.

We wish to thank Dave Evans, founding editor, for all his wonderful work in getting the journal up and running and establishing its reputation. The new editors are also pleased to announce that The Mandrake Press is continuing its involvement with the journal as publishers.

Submission to the journal is by Email attachment, in Rich Text Format documents using Harvard Citation Style. Full submission details, an outline style guide can be found here http://www.sasm.co.uk/styleguide.html

Could all submissions now be sent to Dave Green David2.Green@...

Please feel free to contact Dave or Susan - sjg9@... - about the suitability of any proposed article, but in principle we aim to be as inclusive as possible, welcoming submissions from any academic discipline concerning any aspect of magic/occultism from any geographic region in any historical period. Academic articles from magical practitioners are also encouraged.

Deadline for submissions is 21st June 2006, with early submissions welcome.

Issue 3 Contents

£19.99, isbn 1869928962, 300pp

Hannah Sanders - Buffy and Beyond: Language and Resistance in Contemporary Teenage Witchcraft / Amy Lee - A Language of Her Own: Witchery as a New Language of Female Identity/ Dave Green - Creative Revolution: Bergsonisms and Modern Magic / Mary Hayes - Discovering the Witch’s Teat: Magical Practices, Medical Superstitions in The Witch of Edmonton / Penny Lowery - The Re-enchantment of the Medical: An examination of magical elements in healing. / Jonathan Marshall - Apparitions, Ghosts, Fairies, Demons and Wild Events: Virtuality in Early Modern Britain / Kate Laity - Living the Mystery: Sacred Drama Today / Research Articles: David Geall - ‘A half-choked meep of cosmic fear’ Is there esoteric symbolism in H.P.Lovecraft’s The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath? / Susan Gorman - Becoming a Sorcerer: Jean-Pierre Bekolo’s Quartier Mozart and the Magic of Deleuzian and Guattarian Becoming / Book Reviews

Events for Book of the Law feastday

10th April 2006 6.00pm – 7.30pm

Admission £5

The Book of the Law: Liber AL vel Legis Premiere of the new musical setting by Steve Tromans

Birmingham-based composer/pianist Tromans has set the three chapters of The Book of the Law (dictated to Aleister Crowley between noon and 1pm on April 8th - 10th 1904 in Cairo) for narrator, piano and drums/percussion. This is Tromans' lates! t major work since his 2004/5 HOWL Project.

Narration: Mike Hurley
Piano: Steve Tromans
Drums/Perc: Miles Levin

“From cacophony to lyricism, from fury to love…leaves audiences breathless and exhilarated in equal measure.” (Aldeburgh Poetry Festival 2005, re: Tromans’ HOWL Project)

For further information visit: www.steve-tromans.co.uk

Tromans studied composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire with the late John Mayer, pioneer of the fusing of Indian Classical music with various Western musics. After touring both India and Bangladesh with Mayer’s Indo-Jazz Fusions, Tromans graduated in 1997. Since then, he has been active on the burgeoning Birmingham creative music scene, leading a series of innovative bands and helping set up the www.fizzle.info improvisation club. His 2004/5 Howl - a musical setting of the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, has toured the UK at music and poetry festivals such as Cheltenham International Jazz Festival, Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, StAnza Poetry Festival in St Andrews, The Vortex Jazz Club, Glastonbury Festival and Between The Lines Festival in Belfast.

THE TREGERTHEN HORROR

Obtainable from Lulu.com http://www.lulu.com/lord-crashingbore

Summary
An offbeat investigation into the unexpected death of Katherine Arnold-Forster that took place in May 1938, in the remote hamlet of Tregerthen, near Zennor. The material is unusual and dramatic, covering magic, spying, the Walton murder and centreing on the exploits Aleister Crowley, D.H. Lawrence, Cecil Gray and Peter Warlock, but also including Dylan Thomas, Mary Butts and many well-known writers, mystics and painters. The result of a long and difficult investigation by the author, it is culturally fascinating and will appeal to a very wide readership, showing what lay behind the feverish speculation and introducing a host of outrageous, talented personalities who dropped in on the Cornish scene. It will tell you many things you didn't know and quite a few others that defy the imagination

Outline
Prior to the World War 2, West Cornwall generated a number of stories of a sinister occult nature. Foremost among them was that the Great Beast, Aleister Crowley, stayed at Zennor and founded a mainly female cult who danced naked around stone circles, took powerful narcotics and held orgies up on the moor. This was spread by word of mouth and by numerous 'horror' fictions penned by writers like A.L. Rowse, Denys Val Baker, Mary Williams and Frank Baker (who wrote a bizarre roman à clef on the subject). Some maintained this decadent coven was directly or indirectly responsible for the death of Katherine Arnold Forster, the former sweetheart of the poet, Rupert Brooke, who died in mysterious circumstances at an allegedly 'haunted' cottage near Zennor Carn in 1938.

In THE TREGERTHEN HORROR, these so-far unsubstantiated rumours are the subject of meticulous investigation by Paul Newman. Initially alerted by an anecdote (preserved in literature and living memory) of Crowley's influence tragically affecting the lives of a young couple who were living at Zennor, he starts out asking sceptically, "Why has no biographer ever taken this seriously?" But then he meets people who retain a living memory of the incident and is surprised to discover the association with Aleister Crowley and magical activities in Zennor date back to 1917 and the entourage of D.H. Lawrence which included the brilliant yet highly volatile musician, Philip Heseltine, and the babbling psychotherapist and ex-Crowley disciple, Meredith Starr, and his black wife, Lady Mary Stamford, both of whom fasted and undertook occult experiments in mines. Also present was the composer, Cecil Gray, who thought the region a 'spiritual black country'. Yet he managed to lure the poetess HD away from her husband and into the large house he rented there, resulting in the birth of a child, Perdita, who Gray quickly disowned. Both Gray and Heseltine later became involved with Crowley's drug-set and performed rituals to ensure the music they composed should attain the immortality they thought it deserved.

THE TREGERTHEN HORROR traces their personal histories, their occult and spiritualist obsessions, in and out of Cornwall, along with those of another group who gathered around Mousehole prior to World War 2 - literary notables like Dylan Thomas, Oswell Blakeston, Frank Baker and artists like Greta Sequeira and the bohemian hostess, Wyn Henderson. Tracing their pre-war and post-war lives, it lays bare a series of fantastic incidents involving a society scandal, a haunted cottage, a tragic death, a chronic case of insanity, wartime skulduggery and the sensational Walton Murder that was investigated by Fabian of the Yard.

Over all this intrigue looms the shadow of the 20th century Faust, Aleister Crowley whose magnetic malevolence sprawls and dominates the scene. Initially drawn to the Duchy by his young mistress and illegitimate son, Ataturk, his presence provokes gossip and unease amid the locals. Yet, oddly enough, after his death, his magical impedimenta finds its way back to Cornwall by way of the former spymaster, Cecil Williamson, who opened a Museum of Witchcraft at Boscastle.

Author
Editor of the literary magazine ‘Abraxas’ and author of a definitive ‘History of Terror’ and many other titles, Paul Newman’s writings have received much acclaim. His recent novel Galahad (2004) won the Peninsula Prize.

Book
The Tregerthen Horror is printed as a large (8.5 by 11 inches) soft back and is nearly 200 pages long, with many black and white photographs, printed for the first time. Presently it is a small exclusive edition available from the Lulu website and nowhere else. Price $25 or around £12.50

Legend of the Witches (Review)

• Written and Directed by Malcolm Leigh
• Produced by Negus-Fancey
• Edited by Judith Smith
• Lighting Cameraman: Robert Webb
• Border Film Production (London) Ltd
• Year: 1969
• Featuring: Alex and Maxine Sanders and their beautiful coven.
• Format: DVD

‘In the beginning was the Moon, Diana. Her lover was the Dawn, Lucifer - God of Light. They created man, and built the monuments, which tracked their paths across the skies. Now man could predict the movements of the Gods, he sought to control them, through priests and ritual…’

Originally X-rated, this newly released DVD, is a real period piece this, documenting the beliefs and practices of Alex Sanders and the circle of witches, which under his leadership, electrified the popular imagination and attracted many into the Wiccan path.

The film's leisurely pace requires the modern viewer to make some adjustment to their viewing habits. Nevertheless this is a minor masterpiece and really manages to tell one of witchcraft's many 'stories'. We've perhaps become a little too knowing to accept all of the certainties of 1960s Wicca - but nevertheless we can all agree, that this 'warts and all' view, really does capture the spirit of the time. It's a beautiful film, shot I think in 16mm black and white, which lends it a very artistic feel, reminding me most of the experimental films of Maya Deren or indeed UK classics of 'socialist realism' such as 'Night Mail', the 1936 movie by John Grierson, with music by Benjamin Britten.

The documentary begins with lovely sweeping shots of seascapes and ancient, elemental landscapes over which the film's narrator begins his tale of the ancient witch mythology, of the Goddess Diana and her consort Lucifer, the sun. Now whether or not one buys into this spirited mythology, we have strayed into controversy almost immediately. Who amongst the current glut of media witches even dares to mention that name - Lucifer?

Almost half the film explores these ideas, covering issues such the mysteries of earth energy, altered states, the pagan traces that survive in pre-reformation churches, the persecutions and the rebirth of the old religion. It's foundation myth, easy to sneer at, but strangely wonderful just the same.

Seamlessly, the film now deliverers us into the hands of a modern coven. We see them perform a variety of rites. First, an outdoor initiation. The candidate, referred to throughout as Michael, not because that's his real name but presumably because of the ancient folk myth of 'crazy man Michael', Britain's very own 'holy fool'. The priestess repeatedly calls 'Michael' to various encounters with elemental forces, the whole rite done at Alderley Edge in Cheshire, itself a place of power, just a stone's thrown from Lindow Moss, where in Iron Age times, other, darker rites were done by our pagan ancestors.

Now the action moves into the temple, after some exploration of the many cursing exhibits, still to be seen at the Boscastle's Witchcraft Museum, we are prepared for the notion that witches sometimes curse. The coven, prepare such a curse, using the traditional and extremely ancient technique, in which a poppet is given life through the agency of Alex and Maxine's act of sexual magick - fascinating stuff.

We even get to see something seldom alluded to these days - the so-called 'Black Mass.' completed with a very lifelike 'sign of Osiris slain' - . These witches, known these days as Alexandrians, do not see such as mass as any form of inversion of Christian principles. They knew something that we have all perhaps forgotten - there is no impervable barrier between primitive Christianity and classical paganism. It was around this time that Professor Morton Smith wrote his groundbreaking book Jesus the Magician. The 'Black Mass' is only 'black to the blind' - it is in fact a celebration of life in all is bounty.

The film concludes with a nod to the future, when the special powers of the witch will be understood more in terms of the newish science of ESP and indeed the 1960s first forays into the psychedelic, encounter groups and other techniques of obsession and transcendence. Of course some in the new millennial will find this all too embarrassing and bad for business - but what do they know? Who are then the true successors to Alex Sanders and the witches of the 1960s? If they were still here I'd say the Temple ov Psychic Youth would be a likely contender. The film will outrage some but inspire others to take up where they left off after a generation or more of stoney sleep. Buy this and be refreshed. - Mogg Morgan