Mandrake Speaks Newsletter

Songs of Witchcraft & Magic

Price: £14.00 (£13.00 plus £1.00 p&p)/Cheques made payable to 'The Museum of Witchcraft'

The Museum of Witchcraft

The Harbour

Boscastle

Cornwall

PL35 0HD

"Sex is Magick, mysterious and beautiful"

To celebrate the 60th. Anniverersary of the death of Aleister Crowley on the 1st. of december 2007. Seb Cox is having an erotic competition...

You may enter inspiring pictures, poems, stories, film, songs or a combination of these.
The winning six entries will recieve a cheques for £111. 6 runners-up will receive a Pantra Man Massager. All published entries will receive a copy of the Book, and a lucky cheque for £6.66. If you would like to offer a prize please contact Seb Cox.
Closing date for entries is 31st. September 2007. All entries should be emailed to dublinerx@... with a CC to lisatenner@...
More details at www.cumm.co.uk

Terra Incognita – The Foolish People –

491 Gallery, East London, 31st March/April 1st.
by Skratte

This March ‘Skratte’ were lucky enough to be invited by the Masque Noir ritual performers to participate in the Foolish People’s event ‘Terra Incognita’ in our role as practicing witches. Having heard all kinds of intriguing things about the Foolish People we were keen to accept this invitation and so packed our bags and left our secret location in the deserts of Avon and headed up to East London’s 491 gallery, where the party and play were taking place. Since our own role was to add power to the closing ritual, rather than as actors or musicians in this instance, our experience of the event was somewhat in between performer and observer. Thus we can tell you that the Foolish People were a great pleasure to work alongside and deserve heartfelt congratulations and recognition for the incredible amount of work that went into making this event happen. As audience, we offer these same congratulations in that we did indeed come away feeling like our heads had been turned inside out by about 1500 mics of L.S.D., despite the fact that we made the decision to remain completely sane and sober in order to know what we had really seen and what we had not. (We are glad that we did this, even though we are nevertheless still unsure as to exactly what we experienced at some points). All the cast were brilliant. Every one of them possessed their own unique star quality, which under the (sometimes brutal) direction of Mr. Harrigan were truly allowed to shine forth. There were also some fine musicians to entertain us, some incidental and others a part of the story, who would be well worth the travel to experience all on their own.
So as not to ruin things for anyone should there ever be a chance to see a repeat performance, we will not tell you too much about the plot of the play and its unfoldings. What we will say is that the crew all made great use of the space available to them, with the audience following characters from room to room as the tale took them from one place to another- although as one spirit pointed out to us as we passed them on our way, “You don’t have to go with them, you know…” Since different parts of the play were often unfolding in different parts of the venue at the same time not everyone will have the whole picture as to what the plot is anyway. Since there was no stage to divide the actors from the audience, it was a lot more like entering a different dimension than it was going to see a play at any normal theatre. We found ourselves quite at home, surrounded by spirits/figments of the main characters fracturing psyche/heightened consciousness. At times we were not even sure as to whether we had been sucked into the play and become ‘symptoms’ of their unsanity ourselves. At other times, we were fairly certain that we had been- which was a more than unsettling experience.
Observing the audience itself as much as the play offered another level of entertainment. Particularly memorable was to have seen their reactions to the very first spirit manifestation, a genuinely dark and disturbing figure that appeared seemingly from nowhere- thanks to some very clever distraction techniques?- and the fear on the faces of those he approached and interacted with. I suspect that some of them went away with their perceptions of ‘reality’ permanently altered. In a good way. We hope.
The Masque Noir themselves had their own contained space, within which they worked a continuous ritual creating a vortex through which further manifestations may enter our dimension. This was achieved through their own adoption of spirit personas, acting ‘as if’ until entering a generally prelingual condition and displaying some truly phaerie like behaviour- or perhaps even the behaviour of poltergeist, since they were both creative, destructive, quiescent and excitable by turns. One spirit was so badly behaved that we were given no choice but to beat them into submission with our walking stick- the smashed pieces of which were then quickly stolen by other spirits and added to the collaged sigil representing the vortex. That we are not normally aggressive in this manner, and that the fellow whose poltergeist behaviour had so provoked us showed no bruising or harm once leaving trance, is testament to the extremely bizarre atmosphere of this event.
We would also like to congratulate the 491 Gallery itself for playing such wonderful hosts, and for having the courage to allow an event such as this to happen in the very home within which they live. It was a highly challenging event. Blessings upon them all.
Those who were not in attendance have truly missed out on a uniquely mind bending experience. Shame on you. Make sure you catch the next one.

For further information on the Foolish People visit;
http://www.myspace.com/foolishpeople
For the 491 Gallery visit;
http://www.myspace.com/491
SKRATTE are magical musicians whose work is dedicated to the re-enchantment of the world. For further information please visit;
http://www.myspace.com/urbanwitchcraft

MTTV aka Rockbitch

For those who are curious, the band has produced a video which they have now uploaded to YouTube. It shows the girls, and their land in Florida. If you want to take a look, and hear their latest stab at a hit, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oXladJQB3I .

Lectures

Details of location below

Venues & Organisers: