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:...
The TOPY lecture/webinar is now online!
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...
webinar thanks!
My first webinar in the OCCULTURE lecture series (“The occultural methods and mutations of Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth/TOPY”) was a great success and made me feel very inspired about the forthcoming ones. Thank you, everyone who attended! I will announce the next webinar very shortly. And I will make the TOPY lecture available at Vimeo On Demand soon too. My book Occulture – the hidden forces that drive culture forward can be pre-ordered right HERE!
The Origins of the “An Art Apart” book
The following text constitutes the foreword to my upcoming book An Art Apart. It’s been a long and winding road through different media but now it’s all on course and quite soon docking in the harbour of your mind (I hope). An Art Apart In early 2013, I was sitting in a hotel room in Tallinn, Estonia, staring at an insanely ugly orange coloured wall. I was there to supervise the printing of an art book, feeling quite miserable. The book didn’t interest me at all and yet I had promised to deal with it. The printing, of course, did not go well. What to do? Dive into escapism, of course! Any excuse I could find to distract myself was more than welcome. The closest thing at hand was a small point and shoot camera that I’d borrowed from my daughter. Ugly wallpaper, ugly fridge, ugly bed, snap, snap, snap… After that, I was so bored I decided to try and shoot some video of myself. Boredom-infused narcissism! After a moment of hesitation and embarrassing silence I started...
