After a very long wait of six years Occulture has at last come back. The Solar Event was originally going to run till around 6pm, but an evening Lunar event was added later. I was asked to reprise my talk on the Tarot which I had done in 2003. Immediately I decided to name the talk Tarot Cabaret, which sound great unless you knew that my experience of cabaret is insignificant.
Paul discusses the Thoth Star tarot card at occulture
After arriving in the afternoon and going around occult bazaar catching up with long lost friends, we heading for the talks. We caught the last fascinating ten minutes of Dr Dave Evans talking on fraud in the occult community, which made us realise we should have got there much earlier.
The True Grimoire
Still, the previous evening saw the launch of Jake Stratton-Kent’s new book The True Grimoire or Grimorium Verum at Treadwells bookshop. Book launches at Treadwells are always something to look forward to, and this did not disappoint. We were looking forward to Jake’s talk at Occulture, where he discussed the magical use of incense when invoking spirits. I had not realised that discussion of spirits has been such a taboo subject in the occult world, particularly as I spent 25 years immersed in the world of spirits with my teacher Punditt Maharaj. Jake made a number of points that resonated with my own experiences, particularly the notion that working with spirits is a partnership, not some kind of abusive master/slave relationship.
Stephen Skinner
“The Roots of magic: using history to refine real magical techniques” took us through the origins of ritual from Ancient Egypt and Greece up to the 16th century. Stephen Skinner made the point that the Western magical tradition is fractured and lacks cohesion, unlike other parts of the world, particularly in Asia, where there are unbroken traditions of transmission of knowledge to this day. While I do not practice ritual magic, I have my own sufi tradition of working with spirits, and he reminded me of how rare such an ancient transmission of knowledge can be.
The importance of understanding and respecting the nature and direction of where a spirit will manifest, using the historical records was emphasized. Again, Stephen Skinner also seems to be on eggshells when talking about spirits. His talk started with various definitions of what magic is. I forget his definition, but it included working with spirits.
The Lunar event at The Foundry
The Foundry is a pub that features performance art, and fortunately it was only a minute’s walk away from the Courtyard Theatre. I was booked for 9.10pm so I had plenty of time to sit in the evening sun and chat with friends over a few beers. Just as I was starting to seriously think about what I was going to say half an hour before the talk, the stage manager asked me if I minded doing the talk an hour later, as there had been a few technical problems. Time for more beer! The new time came and went, and it was not until gone 11 that I finally did my severely truncated talk – only 20 minutes instead of 40. Doing a tarot demonstration reading 3 cards for members of the audience is entertaining, scary and a bit of a challenge. Jackie my partner, who knows nothing about the tarot had the job of going around the audience offering the cards, and telling me which cards had been picked, so it was a learning curve for her. We did about seven or eight readings, and significantly the Fortune card appeared no less than three times. Fortune is the card of magic and change. Time was called right at the start of my talk, so there was no chance of a winding down beer – the pressure of the talk had completely sobered me up.
Thanks to everyone who waited to the bitter end to see my talk – I hoped some of it made sense. we had produced some leaflets detailing the points I intended to make, so if you are interested, please contact me. Thanks to Jackie for getting me organised – it was her first experience of an occult event, and her debut on the stage – talking at Occulture is an exclusive club.
Occulture – what next?
There had been little time to really organise this years Occulture, and I guess the organisers were uncertain if people had long enough memories. However, as Geraldine Beskin of Atlantis Bookshops said to me, people still have a great affection for Occulture. The Lunar event was added at a very late stage, and it lacked the organisation and attention to detail shown by the Solar event. Traditionally the occult flourishes during a recession, and with longer notice, and more advertising I hope we can expect Occulture 2010.
Lifting Spirits at Occulture
After a very long wait of six years Occulture has at last come back. The Solar Event was originally going to run till around 6pm, but an evening Lunar event was added later. I was asked to reprise my talk on the Tarot which I had done in 2003. Immediately I decided to name the talk Tarot Cabaret, which sound great unless you knew that my experience of cabaret is insignificant.
Paul discusses the Thoth Star tarot card at occulture
After arriving in the afternoon and going around occult bazaar catching up with long lost friends, we heading for the talks. We caught the last fascinating ten minutes of Dr Dave Evans talking on fraud in the occult community, which made us realise we should have got there much earlier.
The True Grimoire
Still, the previous evening saw the launch of Jake Stratton-Kent’s new book The True Grimoire
or Grimorium Verum at Treadwells bookshop. Book launches at Treadwells are always something to look forward to, and this did not disappoint. We were looking forward to Jake’s talk at Occulture, where he discussed the magical use of incense when invoking spirits. I had not realised that discussion of spirits has been such a taboo subject in the occult world, particularly as I spent 25 years immersed in the world of spirits with my teacher Punditt Maharaj. Jake made a number of points that resonated with my own experiences, particularly the notion that working with spirits is a partnership, not some kind of abusive master/slave relationship.
Stephen Skinner
“The Roots of magic: using history to refine real magical techniques” took us through the origins of ritual from Ancient Egypt and Greece up to the 16th century. Stephen Skinner made the point that the Western magical tradition is fractured and lacks cohesion, unlike other parts of the world, particularly in Asia, where there are unbroken traditions of transmission of knowledge to this day. While I do not practice ritual magic, I have my own sufi tradition of working with spirits, and he reminded me of how rare such an ancient transmission of knowledge can be.
The importance of understanding and respecting the nature and direction of where a spirit will manifest, using the historical records was emphasized. Again, Stephen Skinner also seems to be on eggshells when talking about spirits. His talk started with various definitions of what magic is. I forget his definition, but it included working with spirits.
The Lunar event at The Foundry
The Foundry is a pub that features performance art, and fortunately it was only a minute’s walk away from the Courtyard Theatre. I was booked for 9.10pm so I had plenty of time to sit in the evening sun and chat with friends over a few beers. Just as I was starting to seriously think about what I was going to say half an hour before the talk, the stage manager asked me if I minded doing the talk an hour later, as there had been a few technical problems. Time for more beer! The new time came and went, and it was not until gone 11 that I finally did my severely truncated talk – only 20 minutes instead of 40. Doing a tarot demonstration reading 3 cards for members of the audience is entertaining, scary and a bit of a challenge. Jackie my partner, who knows nothing about the tarot had the job of going around the audience offering the cards, and telling me which cards had been picked, so it was a learning curve for her. We did about seven or eight readings, and significantly the Fortune card appeared no less than three times. Fortune is the card of magic and change. Time was called right at the start of my talk, so there was no chance of a winding down beer – the pressure of the talk had completely sobered me up.
Thanks to everyone who waited to the bitter end to see my talk – I hoped some of it made sense. we had produced some leaflets detailing the points I intended to make, so if you are interested, please contact me. Thanks to Jackie for getting me organised – it was her first experience of an occult event, and her debut on the stage – talking at Occulture is an exclusive club.
Occulture – what next?
There had been little time to really organise this years Occulture, and I guess the organisers were uncertain if people had long enough memories. However, as Geraldine Beskin of Atlantis Bookshops said to me, people still have a great affection for Occulture. The Lunar event was added at a very late stage, and it lacked the organisation and attention to detail shown by the Solar event. Traditionally the occult flourishes during a recession, and with longer notice, and more advertising I hope we can expect Occulture 2010.
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