Just posted an appreciation of the Czech Aktual Art experiment. I love phenomena that strive for impermanence and fails (because of greatness of course!): ”The tone fuses Dadaist provocation with the sober minimalism of Czech Brutalist architecture. The eighth thesis—memory is already propaganda—directly challenges the socialist injunction to create monuments to the glorious future. By refusing documentation, Aktual pre-empted both the state’s desire to archive (and thereby control) culture and the capitalist art-market’s need for commodifiable objects.” #anartapart #aktualart #conecptualart #performanceart #carlabrahamsson
Praying to Maria
Just posted an appreciation of my fave saucy Russian lady: ”Alongside her original writings, Naglowska rendered two key texts into French for the first time: the 13th-century Kabbalistic treatise Bahir and the anonymous English Rosicrucian manifesto The Cloud upon the Sanctuary. Her prefaces to these works are miniature essays in mystical erotics, arguing that both texts encode the same secret: the Shekinah exiled in matter can only be redeemed through erotic ecstasy. She also contributed a monthly column, “Sagesse Sexuelle,” to the journal La Flèche, edited by the surrealist Michel Leiris. In one striking article she interprets the Stations of the Cross as phases in the ascent of seminal energy: Jesus falls the first time when the libido sinks to the knees; Veronica’s veil is the diaphragm that receives the facial image of the divine; Golgotha is the skull where the serpent finally kisses the pineal gland.” #mariadenaglowska #innertraditions #thefenriswolf...
Graduation Grease
In today’s Magic Monday at our Patreon, I write about the important ”graduation grease” of magical individuation: ”When you eventually and thankfully leave the state of adherence to anyone/anything ”occult” (like a teacher, guru, order, cult, romantic gestalt/notion, etc) you will have taken a quantum leap forward. And you’ll be unique, as most people are trapped in occult illusions forever. The analogy to going to university or some other form of higher education is fitting. You have inclinations and talents of both nature & nurture kinds, and you want to hone and train them so you can forge a nice career and life based on the ideals and skills you have. But very few people stay on in these training grounds. If they do, they will have no choice but to be teachers or administrators within the same environment – a kind of meta-career. I think that once you have graduated you should leave and get going. There’s a whole world of real magic out there, and to adhere to...
Making a new movie
Ten years ago, I made a movie. This fills me with enormous pride as I’ve always loved movies, went to film school, did film studies etc. It was a dream that came true, basically.The film is called ”My Silent Lips” and it tells the tragic story of an abused woman who, when pushed, compensates her sadness by acts of extreme violence. Not a happy story, but one of some retributional justice and thereby moral value. I had scraped together money to buy the tech (cameras, sound equipment, a new computer) and set some aside for the actors, travel expenses, etc. We barely stuck to the budget, but in hindsight it’s remarkable what a little manic momentum can achieve.After I had written the script, I started contacting the people I wanted involved. Lots of planning and logistics, lots of anxiety in approaching unknown terrains, all while the money was fizzling away. I found the leading lady via a film workers’ site in Sweden. No good flick without a good chick. As she was in Stockholm, too, I...
