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Post by dem bones on May 19, 2009 11:19:22 GMT
Our [male] readers have always been appreciative, but many harrumph at the lurid and sensational cover photograph gracing June Johns' Black Magic Today. It's only when taken in its proper context - i.e., against the cover of Ms. Johns' earlier investigation of white magic - that you can begin to appreciate NEL's commendable restraint. June Johns - King Of The Witches (Pan, 1969) Blurb: A. master of the occult reveals the forbidden secrets of sorcery, witchcraft and black magic
KING OF THE WITCHES
Alex Saunders, the most powerful white witch in Europe, lays bare the true -rites and ceremonies of his craft, recounts his uncanny powers of healing and tells how he bargained for his soul with the devil.
Worldly success bought a string of mistresses, bizarre parties and satanic sexual rites.
Personal tragedy led Saunders to renounce the haunted world of black witchcraft and begin his constant battle with the forces of evil ....
"A range of clairvoyant and magical phenomena, exceptional even by the standards of Crowleyan achievement." - The Times Literary Supplement
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Post by Craig Herbertson on May 19, 2009 13:24:35 GMT
Call me old fashioned but the moment I see a group that encourages naked women I take a sympathetic and partisan interest.
I read a lot of Crowley a long time ago. Very interesting bloke, much maligned probably because he was malign in the context of the time. But I was always struck that his practice of yoga, his love of chess and mountaineering and the fact that his essential doctrine 'Do what thou wilt' is often quoted alone instead of with the follow on 'And love with all thy will.' suggests more than simple evil.
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Post by bushwick on May 19, 2009 17:17:58 GMT
A friend of mine sits at home all day reading about the occult (whilst his girlfriend goes to work). He knows quite a bit about Crowley. Did you know, he used to roll around in his own urine and excrement, in order to piss off his Higher Self?
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Post by dem bones on May 20, 2009 10:01:55 GMT
I read a lot of Crowley a long time ago. Very interesting bloke, much maligned probably because he was malign in the context of the time. But I was always struck that his practice of yoga, his love of chess and mountaineering and the fact that his essential doctrine 'Do what thou wilt' is often quoted alone instead of with the follow on 'And love with all thy will.' suggests more than simple evil. i'd go along with that, Craig. What does me in is when his whole 'The Great Beast' schtick is misappropriated by crap bands of the Beatles, Ozzy Osbourne and bloody Toyah persuasion to show how dead into the black arts and "dangerous" they are. Even the otherwise exemplary Rikki & The Last Days Of Earth made this same mistake on their Four Minute Warning album. Even were i able to make sense of them, the mere thought of reading one of Crowley's magickal tracts leaves me comatose (boning up on his incredible misadventures, be they sensationalised and unreliable - Wheatley - or generally sympathetic - John Symonds, Sandy Robertson, etc - is an entirely different prospect). My interest in the occult has always been superficial - i like the imagery, the gloating, laugh out loud funny News Of The World exposes and the paperbacks, mostly for their covers although sometimes, as is the case with the likes of Black Magic Today and the Peter Haining - A. V. Sellwood collaboration Devil Worship in Britain the written content is great fun too. Throw in the Hammer-propelled second coming of Dennis Wheatley and the cover of the first Sabbaf album and, for these dreadful reasons alone, the sixties & seventies remain the golden age of witchcraft and black magic for me. The only remotely good stuff i can think of since are the Wheatley 'eighties reissues with the young woman in peril from persons in unlikely fancy dress snapshots. The King Of The Witches cover is one of my least favourites . Saunders being involved, it's doubtless as staged as any of the Wheatley's but the overall impression is of the strangely disturbing naturist film that causes Bernard Breslaw to lose his ice cream down that big-titted bird's top in Carry On Camping. Gawg. Don't i go on?
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Post by franklinmarsh on May 20, 2009 11:11:58 GMT
[. Even the otherwise exemplary Rikki & The Last Days Of Earth made this same mistake on their Four Minute Warning album. Mwa-ha! Public schoolboy punks? It's a disgrace. This album could be the aural equivalent of The Dead Travel Fast. I had Ms Johns bography of Alexis Sandbag - fantastically unmemorable. Spot on about Camping - 'so unlike her previous holidays in Bournemouth' and 'You wouldn't get that at Wimbledon - open or not!'
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Post by Craig Herbertson on May 20, 2009 11:23:31 GMT
he used to roll around in his own urine and excrement, in order to piss off his Higher Self Bushwick
One reason for taking a merely academic interest in the occult.
There is worse- when he was at the Abbey of Thelema with his consort the Ape of Thoth...no I better not....
I like the imagery, the gloating, laugh out loud funny News Of The World exposes and the paperbacks, mostly for their covers Dem
Yes that sums it up. It's far better to watch The Devil Rides Out or read 'I was The Queen of Satan'. The element of wacky humour is missing in Crowley. The Carry On team, should have definitely made a Crowley film.
Yes and regarding the misappropriation of cool occult symbols by bands I couldn't agree more. The only exception I would go for is the Stones Sympathy for Devil in the film Circus. True cabaret of the best sort.
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Post by David A. Riley on May 20, 2009 12:08:01 GMT
It's far better to watch The Devil Rides Out or read 'I was The Queen of Satan'. The element of wacky humour is missing in Crowley. The Carry On team, should have definitely made a Crowley film. If you want to see some wacky Crowley I couldn't recommend anything better than watching the film Chemical Wedding. If you click on this it will take you to Play.com, where there's a preview available to watch. www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/5438754/-/Product.html?searchstring=chemical+wedding&searchsource=0I recently tried to read Crowley's novel, Moonchild, but I found it slow, boring, unbelievably self satisfied and pretentious. David
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Post by franklinmarsh on May 20, 2009 12:10:44 GMT
Excellent, David! I have to see this again. Simon Callow is hilarious - especially in his George Melly style purple suit and fedora.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on May 20, 2009 13:05:36 GMT
Thanks. Chemical Wedding looks like the next film I get out. Didn't know it existed.
The joy of coming to the vault. I was just reflecting on the number of covers that I don't recognise here. Given that from 1969 onwards I haunted book shops looking for horror, sf and fantasy I am still staggered by those unknown titles.
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Post by pulphack on May 20, 2009 17:43:22 GMT
i would heartily recommend Chemical Wedding - Simon Callow is wonderful and it's very funny indeed. i tried to read Moonchild once, but god does he go on. so much better to read about than to read. the Symonds biog is excellent, and i would also recommend Sandy Robertson, pausing only to note that another of SR's heores is Kim Fowley. there are some similarities between the two men in their own way, i think...
but a lot of it is tripe and dead boring really, isn't it, this magick lark. fit only for would-be goths who need a personality crutch. anything that works or has a germ of truth in it was long ago squeezed out. Sabbaff nicked it from horror movies and had that about right (but then, unlike the 'yes sharon' ozzy, early Sabs could do little wrong for me).
meanwhile, back in the world of trivia - Rikki and The Last Days of Earth! wah! not as good as Dead Fingers Talk, though... so many of those never-made-it punk bands sound better now than they did then to me, but i'm thinking that's just my age.
meanwhile, back on topic i picked up a nice little crowley volume of some testament of the will (or something) once for a mate i had who was really i to him. it was about forty pages of type, with a facsimilie of the handwritten original facing, and was remniscent more than anything of the Desiderata (sp?). pretty little volume, if a bit shallow. NOT how the beast would have liked it described, i'm sure...
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Post by dem bones on May 21, 2009 15:11:39 GMT
Oh yeah, the Sabs got the approach spot on in the early days - i just wish they'd broke up when Ozzy left the first time. It's amazing what imagery can do though, ain't it? Ozzy's lyrics are very pro-love and peace, devoutly anti-war, the sentiments of White Witchcraft not Black. Back to Alex and Maxi and the late Stuart Farrar, a serious occultist himself, tried his hand at documenting Alex and Maxine's activities in What Witches Do: The Modern Coven Revealed (Sphere, 1973). Predictably, it's disappointingly sympathetic and frightfully sober, but many moons ago i managed to tear my gaze from the eight page photo-inset (definitely more like it) for long enough to actually read it, quite enjoyed it too. The lack of index is a bit of a snag as i can't see me wading through the whole thing again any time soon just to see if there are any juicy bits i've forgotten about. Like Crowley before him, Saunders loved a publicity stunt, something which didn't always endear him to other genuine Kings of the Witches who weren't as adept as he at getting their faces-and-a-whole-lot-else-besides into the Sunday papers, and caused many to question if Mr. S. was the real deal or just another charlatan. You can see their point. On the other hand, one look at the yummy Miss Cauldron, 1971, on the cover of How to Become a Sensuous Witch is enough to convince that her integrity is entirely beyond reproach so we should definitely all read that instead.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on May 21, 2009 18:20:00 GMT
I could spend hours in silent contemplation and still struggle to think of anything better than a sensuous witch
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Post by franklinmarsh on Oct 2, 2009 14:58:04 GMT
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