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Mandrake Speaks Newsletter
Edited by Mogg Morgan
No 226
Monthly info for friends of leading occult publisher and bookseller Mandrake of Oxford
info on ours and other interesting publications, reviews and events.
All inquiries and contributions and are welcome if sent to: mandrake-owner@yahoogroups.com
Unless otherwise stated please do repost in whole or part to other lists including our byline
- Mandrake Speaks (mandrake-subscribe@yahoogroups.com).
send an email to same if you'd like to become a regular subscriber to this free transmission.
Also take a look at www.ombos.info for much Egyptian and Sethian material.
Contents
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Aleister Crowley: A Modern Master - New Title
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Jean Overton-Fuller (Obituary)
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A Shadow Magick Compendium (Review)
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Equinox Festival (Review)
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Lectures Talks
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Groups Meetups
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Conferences & Exhibitions (click to view)
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Ombos Archive On Scribd (click to view)
Thelemic Symposium
| Saturday 26th September 2009 |
GOLDEN DAWN OCCULT SOCIETY
|
Holywell Music Room, |
The author, biographer, and Theosophist Jean Overton Fuller was born on 7th March 1915, of Captain John Henry Fuller and the artist Violet Overton Fuller. The posthumous child of her father, who was killed in East Africa in the winter of 1914, her mother brought the young Jean up, with an entourage of intellectuals and artists.
Jean Overton Fuller is known in the field of Ripperology for her book Sickert and the Ripper Crimes. A study of the enormously talented Edwardian painter Walter Richard Sickert, in which, using her artist eye she scrutinises the paintings he produced for clues about the 1888 Ripper murders. Sickert found thrill and inspiration in the music halls, and the murky regions of the demi-monde and its inhabitants. The man was an enigma, his obsession with the Ripper murders, and the atmosphere of impending gory death, with the nudity, garishness, the strong scarlet hues, and the threatening shadows depicted so disturbingly in The Camden Town Murder series of his paintings, have raised questions and suspicion about the nature of Sickert’s fascination.
Jean, through her mother, was a contemporary link to these events, and with. Sickert and the Ripper Crimes had generated a considerable amount of interest from the public as well from among her fellow writers, such as for instance the American best-selling author Patricia Cornwell and her contribution to the subject with her Portrait of A Killer: Jack The Ripper, Case Closed.
Paul Begg and Adam Wood of Ripperologist had invited Jean Overton Fuller to speak at the 2003 Ripper Conference in Liverpool. Mogg drove from Oxford to Wymington, a small locality in Northamptonshire to collect Jean.en route to the Conference. This weekend in August was one of the hottest in the year. After the nightmare journey of the A5 to Liverpool with cars slowly moving head to tails, they were rewarded and arrived at the gigantic and labyrinthine Britannia Adelphi Hotel, a venue specially chosen for this Conference because of its Ripper connection. Jean greatly enjoyed this event and the very good and erudite company of the international Fraternity of Ripperologists. The late Jeremy Beadle was the Master of Ceremony and introduced Jean to the audience, and she came alight on stage and spoke entertainingly for about half an hour, without notes.
This was one of Jean’s last public engagements. The last being Jean’s talk on C.W. Leadbeater, at the 2005 Theosophical History Conference in London.
Jean was hard of hearing which at times made her appear distant. She was a great English eccentric, humorous, kind, highly intelligent with a far ranging culture. She was extraordinary.
Her friends and those who met her will remember her with great warmth and affection. When you met Jean, even though the age gap, there was no sense of an age barrier. She was a rare soul.
Dear Jean rest in Peace and enjoy Devachan with your loved ones who departed before.
‘Om Mani Padme Om, the Sunrise comes!
The dewdrop slips into the shining sea!’
(From The Light of Asia by Sir Edwin Arnold)
Jean Overton Fuller,
Author, Astrologer, Artist, Biographer, Theosophist, Ripperologist,
Born London, 7th March 1915, Died Kettering, Wednesday 8th April 2009.
"Equinox" Festival (review)
I had a great day at this event and wished I could have stayed the whole weekend. I was lucky enough to get a concessionary ticket
for the saturday speaker session, which at £15 was a bargain. I arrived just in time to hear Robert Wallis talking about some of his research on the Saxon "Nine Herb Spell" - to be published shortly in Mark Pilkington's excellent journal "Strange Attractor". What caught my attention was his connecting of Saxon Aelf-Side (Elf or Faery magick) with Nordic Seidr (Seething) - an interpretation that may annoy some of the born-again Odinists, who seem to dislike more "shamanic" interpretations, perhaps because they bring in too many "Eastern" influences.
I watched Robert's talk from the darkened and deserted gallery of Conway Hall and wondered if I had sneaked into the supposed VIP area, advertised on the website - if so - there seemed to be very few takers and in fact I was later to bump into the "only" VIP - perhaps this idea of VIP areas doesn't sit well with the British occult scene - but there again . . .
I moved downstairs for a very engaging talk by American NLP practitioner and magi, Philip Farber, chatting with him later over a coffee - actually he had a vegetable soup. He is busy on several projects including an excellent novelisation of his ideas which are a much needed continuation, perhaps upgrading, of the late Robert Anton Wilson's discordian project. For a flavour of his non fiction teaching check out his various videos on "Youtube". Who was it who said to me - if you haven't been "Youtubed" these days you're nothing - Gary Lachman maybe.
I should say that the whole day there were multiple choices between smaller workshops and films. So it was with regret that I had to skip the very personable David Beth's (whose recently published book is already out of print) presentation of Voodoo Gnosis, in favour the show's organiser Raymond Salvatore Harmon's set on the main stage. He mixed sounds and images via a gizmo projecting the very spacey result on a screen. Meantime a trumpeter improvised stuff a bit like Charles Ive's "Unanswered Question" - not quite as good - but there again what is? The images were interesting but the sound was a little too shrill for my hearing and the unpleasant reasonances drove me out although the otherwise packed audience stayed and enjoyed.
I bumped into people with happy faces coming out of David Beth's talk and heading for one of the day's many high points: Robert Ansell's illustrated lecture about Austin Spare and his communion with monstrous entitites from the otherworld. Happy faces apart from one, a member of an occult fraternity who was hurumphed by yet more obscure magical orders rearing their heads - seems to be a trend, what with World of Witchcraft's ever growing ranks of hereditary, "dark" and traditional practitioners; the occult's previously unknown and unheard of magical orders. Robert's talk was quite deep, with material about epistemology and judging by the scrum at the Fulgur's bookstore for copies of Robert's new book on Austin Spare "Borough Satyr " - it certainly struck a chord with the audience.
My final session was Erik Davis, author some years back of "Techgnosis". Yet another well presented, illustrated lecture, this time of the history of the "Phantasm" - kind of cultural history stuff I suppose about the way the collective unconscious, doesn't need much prompting to manifest those monsters from the Id. Erick drew our attention to an obvious but perhaps overlooked fact that in every stage of the development of photography and the camera, the device was used to present images of the occult and paranormal. Thus early "Magick Lantern" shows was just that - images of witches, ghosts, ghouls, fairies etc - almost as there is an unconscious need for these things to be shown.
Well it was a stimulating day and I felt the need for some calming Indian vegetarian food at the Hari Krisna Restaurant, Govinda's in Soho square. It was a great event and I certainly hope the organisers made back their enormous investment of time and money. The only thing that was missing for me, was maybe more on Aleister Crowley and indeed some informed material from my beloved Egyptian magical-religion - but there again - for that you need the Thelemic Symposium in September. [Mogg]
Shadow Magick Compendium
by Raven Digitalis
ISBN 978-0-7387-1318-2
Published by Llewellyn
223pp /$17.95 paperback
Raven Digitalis is a popular American author of the bestselling Goth Craft - who is obviously trying to bring a more sophisticated view of the western occult tradition to a popular audience. This sequel extends this project with a whole range of material not normally seen in Pagan books aimed to a wider range of readers.
Thus we have chapters on various aspects of the "Jungian Shadow" from a more occult perspective, and these deal for instance with Crowley, Chaos Magick, the Dark Moon, Lunar and Solar Eclipses, the Black Sun; Halloween; Herb Craft & Wort Cunning, the Wyrd Sisters, Dark Magick and spirituality past and present-
I suppose one has to acknowledge that in UK at least, Llewellyn titles tend to be associated with middle of the road, fairly unchallenging fair, aimed as a mass market. Raven's book goes some way to dispelling those perceptions. So bearing in mind that the target audience, perhaps the neophyte dark mage, the material is mature and well thought out. There's is definitely an "American" look to their product; it's often said that there is a big difference in design aesthetic between both sides of the "pond". Even so, I have to say I'm full of admiration for the design and feel of Raven's books, lots of purple and black thoughout.
The content too looks stimulating and in terms of its target audience ground breaking. One example that struck me was his attempt to give some meaning to Solar and Lunar eclipses, an area of magick often overlooked. We all love the spectacle but what does it mean? Personally I follow the ancient Egyptian view that all lunar omens, and this would include eclipses, are essentially bad news, trick is know for whom the bell tolls. . .
So Raven's views may differ slightly to my own, but so what, it would be unPagan to suppose there has to be just one view. So all in all, a useful addition to those books aimed at the burgeoning Goth and Emo audience.
You can check out Raven's website http://www.ravendigitalis.com
[Reviewed by Mogg Morgan]
Aleister Crowley : A Modern Master
By John Moore
978-1-906958-02-2
216pp £10.99
http://www.mandrake.uk.net/johnmoore.htm
Placing the Beast in his cultural background
Aleister Crowley’s appeal on the level of popular culture has been well catered for by a number of biographies that have appeared in recent years, but the more intellectual side to him, which is equally fascinating, has not received so much serious treatment.
Crowley, a Modern Master is neither an account of his life, nor a straightforward presentation of his teaching, but an attempt to place him clearly in the context of modern ideas as well as a number of older traditions.
The Author:
Born in 1948, John S Moore is a freelance writer and independent scholar living in Islington, North London. He studied philosophy at King’s College, University of London from 1966 to 1969. He has published several papers on Nietzsche and other figures like Crowley (an interest which goes back over 45 years), Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Schopenhauer and Wittgenstein, as well as 3 volumes of poetry.
Contents:
Introduction / His Life / Crowleyan Romanticism / Crowley and Protestantism /
/ Repression / Directions / & Liberty / Raw will / Value of Catholicism / Self negating decadence /
French perspectives / Decadence / Persecution / Luther / Calvin / Myth / Modern applications / England / Russians /
Morals / Wesley / Aleister Crowley and Philosophy / Kabbalah / Magick / Philosophy proper /
Crowley and Imperialism / Crowley’s Sexual Stalinism / The Abbey / For all? / Cocaine / Liberation /
Womanhood / Conclusion / Aleister Crowley As Guru / Bibliography /
Inquiries:
mogg morgan
Mandrake.uk.net
Publishers
PO Box 250, Oxford, OX1 1AP
+44 1865 243671 homepages:
http://www.mandrake.uk.net
http://www.ombos.info
Lectures
Details of venues locations below
| Date |
Speakers & Topics (Locations can be found in the Venues Details section, further down this page) |
Events
|
| 26th August 2009 | Aleister Crowley: A Modern Master Lecture by John Moore: Aleister Crowley’s appeal on the level of popular culture has been well catered for by a number of biographies that have appeared in recent years, but the more intellectual side to him, which is equally fascinating, has not received so much serious treatment. Crowley, a Modern Master is neither an account of his life, nor a straightforward presentation of his teaching, but an attempt to place him clearly in the context of modern ideas as well as a number of older traditions.
|
Moot with no Name, Upstairs at the Devereux Public House, London |
Organisers & Venues Locations Details :
Bath Omphalos |
Bath Omphalos Omphalos Magickal Moot is an independent group open to people from all magickal paths. Meetings are on the second Sunday of each month, upstairs at the Huntsman, 1 Terrace Walk, North Parade, Bath (on 'Bog Island'). Check our postings regularly for updates, as there is often a guest speaker (when a donation of £5.00 will be asked for to cover expenses). Suggestions for discussion topics are welcomed - prior knowledge of a topic is not essential as we can all learn from each other. The Huntsman serves food, the upstairs room is large and atmospheric, and the whole place oozes with history. The Huntsman Inn The Huntsman Inn weblink is Bath omphalos website: http://www.omphalos.org.uk/
|
London Earth Mysteries Circle |
London Earth Mysteries Circle 7.00pm Tuesdays (2nd 4th in month) Venue:
|
| London Secret Chiefs |
SECRET CHIEFS Alternate Wednesdays, 8p.m. talk starts 8.30p.m. Admission £2.
|
MWNN |
THE MOOT WITH NO NAME
|
Treadwells Bookshop |
Treadwells Bookshop Full descriptions of all events are to be found now on Treadwells website |
|
|
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Conferences & Exhibitions
| Sunday 13th September 2009 |
Doreen Valiente DayThis is advance notice that Atlantis Bookshop is organising an event to mark the 10th anniversary of Doreen's passing. It's going to take place on Sunday 13th September 2009 at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, and it sounds as if it will be an event to remember! Full details will be available later in the year, but put the date in your diaries :)
|
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London |
|
September 19th & 20th |
Esoteric Book Conference 2009 |
Seattle, WA |
| Saturday 26th September 2009 |
Nu Thelemic SymposiumGOLDEN DAWN OCCULT SOCIETY Saturday 26th September Venue: The Holywell Music Room, Holywell Street, Oxford, UK Programme: John Moore: Aleister Crowley: A Modern Master Workshops more to be announced... Evening social at The Winchester Club (8pm – 2am)
The Nu Thelemic Symposium 2009 venue building is in the city centre right next to all the original University Campus buildings and Ashmole's original museum. That area is all laid out in the Alchemical design using Hermetic conceptualisation. There will be plenty of pubs and restaurants nearby too. I hope the day time event to start arround 10:00a.m. and go on till the early evening when we will move to a seperate venue for a social, much like the old Symposiums but hopefully about double the size. Check out the following links for updates on the Symposium http://www.dowhatthouwilt.com/symposium http://www.mandrake.uk.net/ogdos.htm Here is the Wiki entry for this very famous building:
|
Holywell Music Room, |
Groups Meetups
'Oxford Talking Stick |
Meets every Thursday at The Angel Greyhound Pub (St Clements st) Oxford. See also below: |
LAESO (London) |
email for details to: lawbright@... |
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