I’m currently finishing up my new solo album, called THE LARVAL STAGE OF A BOOKWORM. The album will be released by Highbrow Lowlife on January 18, 2018. This is the first little offering from the album: INSIDE YOU IS OUTSIDE ME. I hope you enjoy it. Carl Abrahamsson: Inside you is outside me from Carl Abrahamsson on Vimeo.
“Mishima battles with the enigmatic force field between words as conveyors of morals and spiritual values and their equally seductive power to entertain. This process being very much extended to and in the public persona of Mishima himself. In this strange mix between aspiration, body building, and a romanticized death wish, Sun & Steel is like an intellectual tornado of both a highly refined (wish for) control and a desperation to overcome weakness in order to meet the inevitable on one’s own terms. It is a way of cheating death, yes, but only by tricking it ahead of time through one’s own design.” From the chapter “Tangible Evanescence” in my forthcoming book Occulture – The unseen forces that drive culture forward (Inner Traditions , March 2018, available on pre-order HERE!
OCCULTURE: Anton LaVey – Magical Innovator Already in The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey had shown considerable creativity. Concepts like “Psychic Vampire” and “The Balance Factor” soon became household terms in America and the rest of the world. His description of the ritual space as an “Intellectual Decompression Chamber” also hit home outside the strictly Satanic perimeters. As did the slightly later term “Occultnik”, signifying a person who is lost within old structures of occultism without being able to see what’s really of use on a practical, material level. LaVey’s initial key works, The Satanic Bible and The Satanic Rituals, are great examples of creative appropriation and reformulation. But the two volumes of essays and maxims that followed much later, ie The Devil’s Notebook and Satan Speaks, genuinely contain the essence of LaVey’s wit and creativity. In these books, we find many fascinating topics:...
Art, magic, and the occult have been intimately linked since our prehistoric ancestors created the first cave paintings some 50,000 years ago. As civilizations developed, these esoteric forces continued to drive culture forward, both visibly and behind the scenes, from the Hermetic ideas of the Renaissance, to the ethereal worlds of 19th century Symbolism, to the occult interests of the Surrealists. In this lecture/webinar series exploring “occulture” – the liminal space where art and magic meet – I reveal the integral role played by magic and occultism in the development of culture throughout history as well as their relevance to the continuing survival of art and creativity. Blending magical history and esoteric philosophy, I look at the phenomena and people who have been seminal in modern esoteric developments. The occultural methods and mutations of Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) have left a legacy that continues to inspire. In this talk, I look back at my time...