Tag Archives: Thelema

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Due to venue considerations, the event’s location will not be published, and will be sent to those wishing to attend as demand or space allows.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  

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BLK Celebration 2019 – Vadge Moore presents “The Thelemic Ordeals”

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At BLK Celebration 2019

Vadge Moore

will present

“The Thelemic Ordeals”

vadgejacket

Vadge Moore (photo by Justin Larwick/Larwick Photography)

 

The Ordeals are described in Liber AL vel Legis, and are given greater detail in James Beck’s Book of Codes (by way of Aiwass).

In this lecture, Vadge illustrates this path with reflections from his personal experiences.

vadge page

Vadge Moore’s musical career started in the Bay-area music scene in the 1980’s. This eventually led to his joining The Dwarves in 1988.

Vadge started creating art to express his other literary and esoteric interests via his Chthonic Force project. CF saw collaborations with cultural architects Monte Cazazza and Boyd Rice, as well as other figures who balance entertainment with controversy such as Thomas Thorn and Peter Sotos.

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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 2018 – Michael Bertiaux and Martin Starr!!!

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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

Chitown

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.

BLK Chi

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”

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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.

Michael Staley.jpg

BLK Celebration 2018 – Caroline Wise presents “Nuit, Isis and the Nu-Isis Lodge”

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We had the honour of viewing the Caroline Wise production of a Florence Farr play in Seattle, Washington and we later performed a special Elen of the Ways ritual for her at a past Black Lotus Kult Celebration.

It is our great pleasure to announce that Caroline will present at BLK Celebration 2018

She will bring to us – “Nuit, Isis and the Nu-Isis Lodge”

There has been speculation and misunderstanding about the Nu-Isis Lodge over the decades. Caroline discusses the rituals of the Nu-Isis Lodge, their structure and purpose. She also explores the goddesses Nuit and Isis through the Typhonian Thelemic lens, showing their relevance to magicians – especially women magicians – today. Will include a visualization exercise based on one of the rituals.

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

 

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.

Caroline

Caroline in the Spare Room

Brian Butler restores Kenneth Anger’s triptych version of ‘Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome’

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Anger is an energy.

Anger is an energy.

The restored and enhanced triptych version of Kenneth Anger’s Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome will play one night only (25/6/15) at the Max Linder Panorama in Paris. For those unaware, this classic occult film will interest Aleister Crowley/Thelema fans due to its content, as well as readers of Fulgur Limited’s recent Songs for the Witch Woman, as it features Marjorie Cameron as the Scarlet Woman.

News on Kenneth Grant’s Nightside of Eden

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“Despite appearances, and according to the author’s own testimony, the thesis of Nightside of Eden is basically simple.” -David Hall

After the hectic Seattle Esoteric Book Conference and BLK Celebration “season”, followed by a magical retirement, we are now settling back in, getting some work done, and getting caught up on affairs. From all this activity, are behind on reading, but we made the time to stop by the BLK Library this week to start on Beelzebub and the Beast by David Hall.

Beelzebub and the Beast by David Hall

Beelzebub and the Beast by David Hall

Hall was one of the founders and editors of the Thelemic magazine SOTHiS. Today Starfire Publishing posted a review from a 1978 issue of SOTHiS (Vol II, NO.2) where Hall tackles Kenneth Grant’s Nightside of Eden. The opening volume of the second of the Typhonian Trilogies,  Nightside was a turning point for many of Grant readers where they either “broke through” or lost the plot entirely. Hall’s review does well to right the path of the later.

 

See the full review on Starfire’s website at http://www.starfirepublishing.co.uk/Nightside_Review.htm

For more on Hall’s Beelzebub and the Beast,

see http://www.starfirepublishing.co.uk/beelzebub_and_the_beast.htm

We are also very excited to share the announcement that Grant’s Nightside of Eden will be republished later this year! Starfire has done an admirable job in getting Kenneth Grant’s work back in print, in beautiful enhanced editions (new typeset, errata from previous editions and corrections from Grant’s own notes included, rescanned artwork, etc)

Read more on this at http://www.starfirepublishing.co.uk/Nightside_of_Eden.htm and make sure you are on Starfire’s mailing list for pre-order announcements!

“Nightside of Eden is an explication of the Cult of Choronzon and an initiated exposition of the Mysteries of the Left-Hand Path in relation to Western Occultism. Here, for the first time, the head of a genuine Magical Organization reveals the esoteric doctrines of the ‘black’ magic of the Left-Hand Path, as well as the practical application of psycho-sexual formulae of which very little is generally known.” – from the Starfire preview.