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Weekend links 204

RIP Steve Moore. We never met, unfortunately, but I was very pleased he asked me to create a cover for his unique occult novel, Somnium, in 2011. Prior to this we’d been connected by shared acquaintances, colleagues, and membership in the informal cabal that was (and maybe still is) The Moon & Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels. Steve’s long friendship with Alan Moore (no relation) is well-documented, not least by Alan himself who made Steve the subject of his Unearthing project. One surprising connection for me was that Steve also had a link to Savoy Books. In the late 1960s he was working for comics publisher Odhams where he was able to copy for David Britton some Ken Reid comic art which Odhams had refused to print. Dave published the forbidden pages in his first magazine, Weird Fantasy, in 1969. In 2011 Steve talked to Pádraig Ó Méalóid about Somnium, and also to Aug Stone at The Quietus. Aug Stone penned a few memorial words here.

• “People love using the word ‘porn’ as long as there’s a partner for it. Pair ‘porn’ with something else and it’s usually a good thing. A celebration of style and culture. But that word on its own? Well.” Porn star Conner Habib asks why people have such a problem with porn actors.

• Dave Maier‘s Russian cinema recommendations. Several favourites there including the magical and remarkable Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors (1964) which, as Maier notes, isn’t really Russian but should be seen in any case.

Shakespeare uses verbal magic, cantrips and ditties, nonsense songs and verses throughout the plays, but in Othello he gives a glimpse of how powerful a spell becomes when it’s no longer oral, but fixed in material form. The fatal handkerchief is no ordinary hanky; it’s a love spell, and it was made with gruesome and potent ingredients (mummified “maiden’s hearts”) by a two-hundred-year-old sibyl in Egypt—Egypt being the birthplace and pinnacle of magic knowledge.

Marina Warner on magic.

• Mixes of the week: an hour of electro-acoustics and contemporary classical recordings sequenced by Laurel Halo, and (from 2010) 36-minutes of “umbral electronic hypnagogia” by The Wyrding Module.

• “This is the book that, 10 years later, inspired Richard Hollis’s landmark design for John Berger’s Ways of Seeing.” Rick Poynor on Chris Marker’s Commentaires.

• Is the Linweave Tarot the grooviest deck ever made? Dangerous Minds thinks so.

• Bobby Barry talks to Holger Czukay about his 1969 audio collage, Canaxis 5.

• “What Happened to Experimental Writing?” asks Susan Steinberg.

• Aldous Huxley‘s lectures on visionary experience at MIT, 1962.

• Laura Palmer will see Agent Cooper again in just a few hours.

• Callum found a copy of The Gay Coloring Book (1964).

• Metal Cats

• Moonshake (1973) by Can | Lunar Musick Suite (1976) by Steve Hillage | Dark Moon (1993) by Holger Czukay | Boy In The Moon (2012) by Julia Holter

The art of Robert W. Richards

The latest interview at the essential BUTT magazine is Danny Calvi talking to ex-fashion illustrator and erotica artist Robert W. Richards about his life and work. I’d seen some of Richards’ drawings before but this is the first time I’ve seen him interviewed; one of the many commendable things about BUTT is the way they seek out people such as this to talk to, people who’ve been producing gay art for years but who the glossy, celebrity-obsessed mags will seldom mention. My only complaint is that some of their interviews aren’t longer.

As can be seen from the examples here, Richards’ career in the fashion world helped hone a technique and a command of line that’s very accomplished. When you’re this good it’s easy to stick to doing strictly commercial work, and avoid anything overtly explicit, gay or straight. Richards doesn’t seem to have been too worried about maintaining a sex-free reputation. BUTT has more examples of his drawings, as does Juxtapoz. There’s also a book, Allure, published by Bruno Gmünder. Stroke: From Under the Mattress to the Museum Wall, an exhibition of Richards’ art at the Leslie + Lohman Museum, New York, runs from March 28 to May 25, 2014.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive

The Horror Fields

Cover art: In the Palm of the Absinthe Woods by Aria/ShePaintsWithBlood.

Last year I was asked to contribute a piece of fiction to a rural horror special of Morpheus Tales. In time for the Spring Equinox, The Horror Fields, edited by Matt Leyshon, is now unleashed. Inside there’s my short story, Figures in a Landscape, plus contributions from Rosalie Parker, Don Webb, Edward Pearce, Murphy Edwards & Brian Rosenberger, James Everington, Richard Farren Barber, Ian Hunter, Justin Aryiku, and Rhys Hughes.

Two editions are available at Lulu: digest-sized, and A4 size; both editions are discounted until the end of the month. There should also be a Kindle edition soon so when I have details I’ll mention them here. I’d recommend reading this in a field at night but here in the northern hemisphere it’s still a little too cold for that.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Robin Redbreast by John Bowen
• Red Shift by Alan Garner
• Children of the Stones
• Penda’s Fen by David Rudkin

A triangular book about alchemy

Triangular buildings aren’t so very unusual, triangular books, on the other hand, are less common. This example is from the Manly Palmer Hall collection of alchemical manuscripts at the Internet Archive, not only a triangular book but one where most of the pages are written in a symbolic alphabet. A reviewer supplies the following details (which may not be accurate so the usual caveats apply):

“No. Soixante & Seize” de la collection maconnique du F… Ex Dono Sapientissimi Comitis St. Germain Qui Orben Terrarum Per Cucurrit ca. 1775. Hogart MS 209.

This manuscript bought from Frank Hollings, a London antiquary, after 1933 (he apparently was unaware of the Hauser St. Germain manuscript) came from the occult library of Mme. Barbe, who had it from the bibliographer Stanislaus de Guaita, who in turn bought it at the auction of the library of Jules Favre. It is a copy made from one of the magical texts in the possession of St. Germain by the owner’s permission. A number of such copies were executed for the members of his Masonic lodge in Paris, and the following manuscript, as different in style as it is, may be one of the copies too. It is unclear in both cases whether the Comte St. Germain wrote the magical formulae or owned a copy of an ancient text. This manuscript was made for Antoine Louis Moret, a French emigre to America active in Masonry and in politics.

Does the 76 on the cover refer to the year the book was made, or does it have some other significance? One of the meanings assigned to the number 76 in the Sepher Sephiroth is “Secret, put away; a hiding place”, so the latter is a possibility. See the entire volume here.

Continue reading “A triangular book about alchemy”

Tresham’s Trinities

Memorials of Old Northamptonshire (1903), a book edited by Alice Dryden, includes an entire chapter by M. Jourdain about Thomas Tresham’s Triangular Lodge. Descriptions of the building usually skate over the Catholic symbolism encoded in its structure but Jourdain goes into some detail describing the many inscriptions and numerological details. The engraved illustration is rather good as well, although it makes the lodge appear a more squat than it should be. The chapter also contains a description of further symbolism at Tresham’s Lyveden manor. Read it here.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Triangular Lodge again
• The Triangular Lodge