BLK Celebration 2018 – Ariock Van de Voorde

At BLK Celebration 2018, one of your hosts will be

Ariock Van de Voorde

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Ariock will act as the event MC throughout the weekend, will deliver two brief talks on. Friday will see “London Calling”, which will reflect on the influence Kenneth Grant has had on him. On Saturday, he will bring us “Chaud-Town”, a talk about his time spent in Chicago while writing “Meeting Le Maître: An Introduction to the Art of Michael Bertiaux” for Abraxas International Journal of Esoteric Studies.

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Ariock is a writer, artist and musician living in the US Southeast. In the 1990’s he owned and managed an occult bookstore, which hosted an experimental magick group loosely based on Kenneth Grant’s New Isis Lodge.

As well as his duties within Bertiaux’s esoteric and religious orders, Ariock is also working with Michael on an art sales venture launching in 2019.

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For more info, read the posts on this page, or click

 BLK Celebration

BLK Celebration 2018 – Michael Bertiaux and Martin Starr!!!

A very special event has been added to the Saturday portion of

BLK Celebration

“The Occult History of Chicago”

Featuring Michael Bertiaux and Martin Starr

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Martin and Michael will have a live discussion on Saturday entitled “The Occult History of Chicago.” Michael is internationally known through his books and art, but he was a young man with a dream when he arrived in Wheaton, IL in the 1960’s to report for his job with the Theosophical Society. He traveled frequently for lectures to Chicago, and fell in love with the city. Although readers of his work know about his Gnostic Voudon rituals, Church Orders and the work of the Ordo Templi Orientis Antiqua & La Couleuvre Noire and other groups he worked with over the years, Chicago’s occult history stretches back considerably further. Michael has an insatiable lust for knowledge, and being immersed in these bizarre legacies energized him and inspired him to discover more. Over the years, he has learned of the people, places and things of Hidden Chicago, and is eager to share these tales before they are lost.

This talk will cover the little-known “hot points” of the city’s esoteric history with a long-time participant/observer.

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Martin P. Starr is an independent scholar of Western Esotericism and New Religious Movements with four decades of research and writing on the English synthetic occultist Aleister Crowley and his disciples Wilfred Talbot Smith, Charles Stansfeld Jones, C. F. Russell and Kenneth Grant. His current academic interests revolve around the interplay of Neo-Rosicrucianism, Independent Eucharistic Church Movements, Theosophy, and Freemasonry.

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For more info, read the posts on this page, or click

 BLK Celebration

BLK Celebration 2018 – Michael Staley presents “Kenneth Grant’s New Isis Lodge”

We’ve known Michael Staley for over 20 years, and have had the honour of watching him speak on a variety of esoteric subjects.

At this year’s BLK Celebration, it is our pleasure to announce that he will present –

“Kenneth Grant’s New Isis Lodge”

In early 1955 Kenneth Grant launched New Isis Lodge, writing rituals, gradework, visualization exercises and instructional papers for the various Degrees, and later published the Manifesto of New Isis Lodge. At the centre of it was Nu-Isis, a compelling vision which was synthesised from Thelema, Advaita Vedanta, and Spare’s Zos-Kia Cultus, and which was subsequently developed throughout Grant’s Typhonian Trilogies. This talk examines the mystical and magical experiences out of which Grant fashioned his conception of Nu-Isis, and the structure of New Isis Lodge which he subsequently developed.

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Michael Staley is the founder of Starfire Publishing. He knew Kenneth Grant for more than forty years, becoming his publisher in the mid 1990s, and across a number of years republished the Typhonian Trilogies in new editions. He lives in north-west London with his wife Caroline Wise.

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Black Lotus Kult and The Occult Bookstore announce BLK Celebration 2018!

We are pleased to officially announce our annual BLK Celebration will once again be held in our planet’s Zothyrian Stargate – Chicago, IL, with events Dec 14-16.

We are producing this year’s event in partnership with The Occult Bookstore in celebration of their 100th Anniversary.

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Schedule of Activities

Friday 14 Dec at The Occult Bookstore

Servants of the Star & the Snake – We will celebrate of the publication of Servants of the Star & the Snake, a collection of eighteen essays by fourteen different writers on the work of Kenneth and Steffi Grant by Starfire Publishing. Publisher Michael Staley will be on hand to speak to us about this work. After this talk, attendees may has their copies signed by various contributors in attendance (including Michael Staley and Michael Bertiaux). See – http://www.starfirepublishing.co.uk/SSS_published.htm for more info on this work.

Centennial Celebration – We will then entertainment as we break for a toast to The Occult Bookstore’s 100th year in business! The oldest spirit shop in the world was founded in 1918, and has served the community for a century, including a present day staff who are skilled and experienced practitioners on the path of spirituality.

Q&A – We’ll end the evening with a question and answer session with Starfire, Michael Bertiaux and Black Lotus Kult

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Saturday 15 Dec at the Congress Plaza

Lectures – BLK is partnering with the Hyde Park Lodge to bring back a day of lectures in the tradition of the Beriaux/Lully seminars of the 70’s and 80’s. The line-up includes Michael Staley, Ariock Van de Voorde, Steven Slane Intermill, Caroline Wise and more.

Entertainment – Kindle Cimmerian will be enticing with Typhonian Tribal Fusion performances throughout the day.

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Kindle Cimmerian

 

Sunday 16 Dec Chicago, IL

A meeting of the Synod of Bishops of Ecclesia Gnostica Spiritualis – Private event.

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Please see the event’s Facebook page HERE to let us know you are coming and to read updates and details regarding these events.

Ontological Graffiti, “Primoirdial Parents”- New Michael Bertiaux Video

With The Ocult Bookstore hosting, members of the NU BLK Lodge helped produce the Chicago launch of Michael Bertiaux’s Ontological Graffiti last month. Already the fastest selling pre-order in publisher Fulgur’s history, all copies provided for the launch event sold out.

Yesterday, Fulgur announced the DELUXE Edition of this title, and it sold out within 12 hours!

For those who have picked it up, or who have marveled at the cover art, here is a lecture about Michael’s painting which was used for the book’s dust jacket.

BLK Lecture Series Featuring Michael Bertiaux -Doctor Kammamori

To celebrate Fulgur’s announcment of the Ontological Graffiti launch events, we present Michael Bertiaux’s talk on the mysterious

Doctor Kammamori.

 

Ontological Graffiti will be released Dec 2016 at two events:
Chicago Launch Event =
www.facebook.com/events/1041718379250621
London Launch Event =
www.facebook.com/events/161454500955822

 

The NU BLK Lodge will be present at the Chicago event – Hope to see you there!