Tag Archives: Starfire Publishing

BLK Celebration 2022 featured performer – Kindle Cimmerian

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Our annual Black Lotus Kult Celebration will return this 5, Nov in London, where we will proudly present

One Beyond Ten

A Celebration of the works of Kenneth and Steffi Grant

At BLK Celebration 2022, Kindle Cimmerian will be one of our featured performers.

From her opening rituals to her solo and group performances, as well as collaborations to illustrate the lectures of Caroline Wise and Michael Staley at previous events, Kindle has enchanted BLK Celebration attendees from the start of these gatherings. She will bring the usual beauty, grace, and attention to “hidden” details for those who see to multiple performances at our London event.

Kindle Cimmerian consistently studies and expands her repertoire, always demanding more from herself while commanding the attention of her audience. She holds teaching certifications in the 8 Elements of Belly Dance, studying under Rachel Brice and the Dancecraft system under Zoe Jakes. She has learned various forms of folk dances, with extensive work within classical Indian, and Romany dances. Knowing the roots of these artforms (where they come from, why, and meanings of the steps) are just as important to Kindle as the technique itself. She prides herself in her continuing education of movement.

To book performances, classes and workshops with Kindle, please click HERE

We will converge on 5 November in Camden Town for an evening of discussions on aspects of and experiences with the Typhonian Current.

Due to venue considerations, the event’s location will not be published, and will be sent to those wishing to attend as demand or space allows. Please send an email to caroline@starfirepublishing.co.uk for specifics if you wish to attend.

Starfire is republishing the Typhonian Trilogies, and you can find those currently available HERE

BLK Celebration 2022 Speaker – Ariock Van de Voorde presents London Calling

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Our annual Black Lotus Kult Celebration will return this 5, Nov in London, where we will proudly present

One Beyond Ten

A Celebration of the works of Kenneth and Steffi Grant

BLKLOndon 

At BLK Celebration 2022, Ariock Van de Voorde will present

 London Calling

Books can change lives, and a copy of Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God found in a public library certainly did just that for Ariock Van de Voorde. He later opened an occult bookstore where Kenneth Grant’s titles were always featured, and where he founded a ritual collective loosely based on the Nu Isis Lodge.

AC and HG

Years later, Ariock co-founded Black Lotus Kult, which he runs with Kindle Cimmerian and Hagen von Tulien under the guidance of Michael Bertiaux. At this year’s BLK Celebration, Ariock will discuss his personal history with work in the Typhonian Current leading to the phone call he received regarding Kenneth Grant’s death 10 years ago, and where we go next on this journey.

DSCN7589

Ariock is a musician and writer currently living in the Mid-South region of the United States. Is a co-founder and director of Ophidian art collective Black Lotus Kult, and is a contributor to several books, journals and audio recordings under his own name, and under the occasional alternate nom de guerre.

Ariock is currently working on music albums with Black Lotus Kult, on a Bertiaux art/music collaboration with the reunited Wendy is Starting At Me, and on a collaboration with artist Charlie Martineau. His primary current writing projects include a book about Esoteric Zen and the Cosmic Dante Current and a short work on experience with the entity LAM.

He wants it known that his dog is better than yours.

dog

We will converge on 5 November in Camden Town  for an evening of discussions on aspects of and experiences with the Typhonian Current.

Due to venue considerations, the event’s location will not be published, and will be sent to those wishing to attend as demand or space allows. Please send an email to caroline@starfirepublishing.co.uk for specifics if you wish to attend.

Starfire is republishing the Typhonian Trilogies, and you can find those currently available HERE

Black Lotus Kult

BLK Celebration 2022 Speaker – Dr. Christian Giudice presents Drinking from Hecate’s Fountain

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Our annual Black Lotus Kult Celebration will return this 5, Nov in London, where we will proudly present

One Beyond Ten

A Celebration of the works of Kenneth and Steffi Grant

BLKLOndon

We are happy to announce Dr. Christian Giudice will return to BLK Celebration to present

Drinking from Hecate’s Fountain:

Kenneth Grant’s Typhonian Trilogies and the Fusion Between Literature and Practiced Magic 

Hacate

In this talk, Dr. Giudice will attempt to situate occultist and author Kenneth Grant and his peculiar blend of fictional occultism, represented by Grant’s Typhonian Trilogies (1972-2002) as one of the most recent practitioners, chronologically speaking, to blur the lines between literary fiction and magical practice. After a brief introduction to Grant’s occult system, Dr. Giudice will draw examples of the blurring of the lines between fiction and practice from his Trilogies, focusing on the text richest in examples of such experiments in fiction: Hecate’s Fountain. Through these examples, a general theory of Grant’s employment of instances of fiction and practiced magic, to constantly keep the reader in a liminal state of consciousness, will be attempted, with particular attention devoted to the British occultist’s use of ufology as a novel instrument to achieve his aims. By employing an old literary device, which he had certainly recognized as being used by previous occultists of the nineteenth and twentieth century, and enhancing it by using novel themes such as the Lovecraft mythos and extraterrestrial entities, Grant has succeeded in creating a vibrant mélange, where, once again, the lines between fiction and reality are constantly being negotiated.

Chris

Chris Giudice is an independent scholar, who has lectured widely on subjects ranging from 19th and 20th century occultism, to psychedelic new religious movements, to occultism in politics and avant-garde cinema. Having obtained a BA in Classics from the University of Oxford, he went on to achieve an MA in Western esotericism at the University of Exeter and a PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Gothenburg. For ten years he was the lead singer of eso-neofolk band The Green Man, publishing 3 albums and 1 ep and touring extensively across Europe. His latest book Occult Imperium – Arturo Reghini, Roman Traditionalism, and the Anti-Modern Reaction in Fascist Italy was published by Oxford Univeristy Press as part of their Oxford Studies in Western Esotericism series. Find it HERE

We will converge on 5 November in Camden Town  for an evening of discussions on aspects of and experiences with the Typhonian Current.

Due to venue considerations, the event’s location will not be published, and will be sent to those wishing to attend as demand or space allows. Please send an email to caroline@starfirepublishing.co.uk for specifics if you wish to attend.

Starfire is republishing the Typhonian Trilogies, and you can find those currently available HERE

Black Lotus Kult

BLK Celebration 2022 Speaker – Caroline Wise presents Kenneth Grant’s London Town

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Our annual Black Lotus Kult Celebration will return this 5, Nov in London, where we will proudly present

One Beyond Ten

A Celebration of the works of Kenneth and Steffi Grant

 

We are elated to have Caroline Wise return to BLK Celebration with an illustrated talk

 Kenneth Grant’s London Town

lime house 

When considering Kenneth Grant and place, one is likely to meander the vast ‘spaces between spaces’, or the Tunnels of Set, exploring inner space. As Black Lotus Kult visits London this year, Caroline will be looking at the London of Kenneth Grant, of the 50s, 60s, and 70s onwards; a world of pubs, art, Jazz, magic, and bookshops and of lifelong friendships emerging. A multidimensional London as the terra-firma from which magical universes can arise. A London where certain places evoked for him the ancient magics, nightside narratives, love, inspiration and poetry, as portals between the planes.

 

Caroline Wise works in esoteric publishing. In 1989 she initiated the republication of the books of Kenneth Grant, starting with Hidden Lore, the Carfax Monographs by Kenneth and Steffi, when at Skoob Books. She is a former owner of The Atlantis Bookshop and in the 1990s was the co-editor of the revived The Occult Observer. In 1993 she produced the then forgotten Ancient Egyptian themed plays of Florence Farr. From the 1970s she has been involved in Earth mysteries and her particular interests are in researching goddesses, and the mythology of London, She is co-editor, with John Matthews, of The Secret Lore Of London.

caroline_Nemi 1 

We will converge on 5 November in Camden Town  for an evening of discussions on aspects of and experiences with the Typhonian Current.

Due to venue considerations, the event’s location will not be published, and will be sent to those wishing to attend as demand or space allows. Please send an email to caroline@starfirepublishing.co.uk for specifics if you wish to attend.

Starfire is republishing the Typhonian Trilogies, and you can find those currently available HERE

Black Lotus Kult

BLK Celebration 2022 Speaker – Michael Staley presents The Magical Universe

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Our annual Black Lotus Kult Celebration will return this 5, Nov in London, where we will proudly present

One Beyond Ten

A Celebration of the works of Kenneth and Steffi Grant

 

We are pleased to announce that Michael Staley will once again be joining us and giving a lecture – 

The Magical Universe

Writing in Outside the Circles of Time, Kenneth Grant remarked: “. . . each individual must create his own magical universe and, by a kind of oneiric perichoresis, evolve his own qabalah and manifest his own truth (maat).”

The Magical Universe is our understanding of the world, our vision of reality, and how we communicate with it. It is something which develops with experience. We take inspiration from a variety of sources, transmuting it through the catalyst of our magical and mystical experience to distil an innate body of work. In this fashion our Magical Universe emerges. In this talk, Michael further discusses the significance of the Magical Universe, drawing on his own experience, as well as referencing the work of others, amongst them Kenneth Grant, Austin Osman Spare and Aleister Crowley.

Starfire Logo 

Michael Staley has been fascinated by the occult for as long as he can remember, and is particularly steeped in Thelema and Advaita Vedanta. Publishing the first issue of Starfire in 1986, he subsequently expanded it into Starfire Publishing, issuing Kenneth Grant’s work from the late 1990s, as well as books concerning Austin Osman Spare and Charles Stansfeld Jones. His most recent task has been the reprinting of the Typhonian Trilogies. To find out more about Starfire Publishing, click HERE

Michael Staley

Michael Staley

We will converge on 5 November in Camden Town  for an evening of discussions on aspects of and experiences with the Typhonian Current.

Due to venue considerations, the event’s location will not be published, and will be sent to those wishing to attend as demand or space allows. Please send an email to HERE for specifics if you wish to attend.

Starfire is republishing the Typhonian Trilogies, and you can find those currently available HERE

Black Lotus Kult

BLK Celebration 2022

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After years of COVID-relation travel restrictions, our annual Black Lotus Kult Celebration is back on this year in London.

We proudly present to you

One Beyond Ten

A Celebration of the works of Kenneth and Steffi Grant

BLKLOndon

We will converge on 5 November in Camden Town (with greatly appreciated assistance from our friends at Starfire Publishing) for an evening of discussions on aspects of and experiences with the Typhonian Current.

The Grant’s body of work, particularly the nine books which comprise the “Typhonian Trilogies” have become increasingly influential over the years. Further, they championed the works of the likes of Austin Osman Spare, Aleister Crowley, Frater Achad and others during times when they had mostly fallen out the of public eye. Additionally, they introduced many readers to the art and writings of more modern figures such as Michael Bertiuax, Nema, and Zivorad Mihaljovic

Due to venue considerations, the event’s location will not be published, and will be sent to those wishing to attend as demand or space allows. Please send an email to caroline@starfirepublishing.co.uk for specifics if you wish to attend.

Starfire is republishing the Typhonian Trilogies, and you can find those currently available HERE  

Starfire Logo

BLK Celebration 2019 – Michael Staley presents “Achad and the Aeon of Maat”

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At BLK Celebration 2019

Michael Staley

will present

“Achad and the Aeon of Maat”

maat1

Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones) announced the Inauguration of the Aeon of Maat in April 1948. The work of Jack Parsons was moving in a similar direction shortly before this time. In the early 1970s Margaret Ingalls received Liber Pennae Praenumbra, ‘The Book of the Foreshadowing of the Feather’, cast as a communication from Maat. Some years later, Kenneth Grant expanded on this in his book Outside the Circles of Time (1980), drawing parallels between the work of Achad and that of Margaret Ingalls, and tracing links with the Amalantrah Working of 1918.

Mick Maat.PNG

In this talk, Michael Staley looks back at Achad’s development and output, tracing the emergence of a current which takes in his work with Crowley as his ‘Magical Son’, his discovery of the Key to The Book of the Law, his divergence and subsequent estrangement from Crowley, and his work in the Universal Brotherhood, culminating in the incoming of the Aeon of Maat. He goes on to consider the relevance of this current today.

Starfire Logo

The Incoming of the Aeon of Maat:

Correspondence between Frater Charles Stansfeld Jones, Gerald Yorke, and others, 1948-49

will be published this year from Starfire. Click HERE for details.

Michael Staley

Michael Staley

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.

Michael lives in north-west London with his wife Caroline Wise.

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This year’s BLK Celebration will be held in Orlando, FL on Nov 1 & 2. For details, please click HERE

Tickets on sale NOW at – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/blk-celebration-2019-tickets-66741233827

BLKLV

BLK Celebration 2019 – Michael Staley presents “Austin Osman Spare & Kenneth Grant: Two Magicians”

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At BLK Celebration 2019

Michael Staley

will present

“Austin Osman Spare & Kenneth Grant: Two Magicians”

Austin Osman Spare
Kenneth Grant

Kenneth Grant first encountered the work of Austin Osman Spare in 1941, coming across The Book of Pleasure. By the time he met Spare in 1949 he had thoroughly steeped himself in Spare’s published work. Spare was then writing another book, and soon Grant was typing drafts for him, editing, and collaborating on some of the material. When Spare died in 1956, he left his manuscripts and papers to Grant. The material was eventually collated and edited in the early 1990s, and published in Zos Speaks! by FULGUR PRESS in 1998.

Drawing on unpublished typescripts and diary entries, Michael discusses Grant’s growing understanding and presentation of Spare across the decades, and the influence of Spare on Grant’s own work.

Michael Staley

Michael Staley

 

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. Starfire also published the lavishly-produced title Two Grimoires by Austin Osman Spare in 2011.

Michael lives in north-west London with his wife Caroline Wise.

***

 

This year’s BLK Celebration will be held in Orlando, FL on Nov 1 & 2. For details, please click HERE

Tickets on sale NOW at – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/blk-celebration-2019-tickets-66741233827

BLKLV

BLK Celebration 2018 – Caroline Wise presents “The Blood Red Cord of Isis”

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We’ve previously announced that Caroline Wise will be presenting “Nuit, Isis and the Nu-Isis Lodge” at this year’s BLK Celebration. We are happy to note that she will be adding a supplemental session,

“The Blood Red Cord of Isis”.

Kenneth Grant tends to get lumped in with H.P. Lovecraft and UFOs in the casual conversations of internet occultist. His work is far more complex and spans a wide variety of subjects.

Caroline will take us through a lesson on “the Goddess behind it all” as background to her talk on the Nu-Isis Lodge.

Caroline

Caroline in the Spare Room

Caroline Wise instigated the republishing of Kenneth Grant’s books at Skoob Esocterica in 1989, which led to previously unpublished works coming into the light, including Grant’s novellas. She co-edited ‘The Secret Lore of London’ with John Matthews (Hodder and Stoughton 2016) and has contributed to several books on the goddesses of the Ancient World; on Austin Osman Spare, tarot artist Pamela Coleman Smith, and on magician Florence Farr, whose Egyptian themed plays she produced at The Rudolph Steiner Theatre in 1993. She gives talks and workshops on the goddesses in Britain, and in USA, Germany and Italy. She works with Starfire Publishing and has a special interest in the work of Kenneth Grant.

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

 BLK Celebration

BLK Celebration 2018 – Q&A with Michael Bertiaux, Michael Staley and Black Lotus Kult

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BLK Celebration 2018 is coming next week to Chicago, IL – 14-16 Dec. Read further posts below on this page, or click HERE for details.

As part of the Centennial Celebration at the Occult Bookstore, we will see a special Q&A session with

Michael Bertiaux

MB at work2

Michael Staley of Starfire Publishing

Michael Staley

and members of Black Lotus Kult.

Isis

This is a unique opportunity to tap into these minds and learn about Occult Art, Writing and Publishing, Gnostic Voudon, The Typhonian Tradition, Austin Osman Spare and a variety of other topics.

This will occur late Friday evening, after the launch of Servants of the Star & the Snake

BLK Celebration 2018