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  1. Bona Shamans

    With apologies to the shades of Kenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams, and Hugh Paddick.

    I’ve been doing Pagan workshops for some time now but recently attendance has dropped off. It’s as though Pagans aren’t interested in finding out about the role of the semicolon in the 300 laws of witchcraft anymore. So I thought I’d catch the current wave and reinvent myself as a Shaman. Picking up a copy of “Mystic Muscles” – I buy it for the gardening section – I saw, between notices for Aura Massages and Tantric Hand Shandy therapy, a small advert for Bona Shamans of Islington. So I thought I’d pop along and see what they could do for me. Continue reading »

    February 12th 2020

    Posted by in Pagan, Queer

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  2. Yakṣiṇī Magic now available!

    Copies of Mike Magee’s new book Yakṣiṇī Magic can now be purchased from my Twisted Trunk website. There are only two copies left, so act fast!

    February 2nd 2020

    Posted by in Announcements, tantra

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  3. Edward Sellon and the Cannibal Club: Anthropology Erotica Empire – III

    And so to Edward Sellon; libertine, atheist, orientalist, anthropologist, pornographer. For this post, I’m going to focus on Sellon’s pornographic productions and then will turn to his anthropological excursions in the next post. To some extent, this is a repeat of the approach I took in my first two essays on Edward Sellon (here and here) but I shall endeavour not to repeat earlier material too much. Continue reading »

    February 2nd 2020

    Posted by in History, Lectures

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  4. Beginnings in Tantra

    Here’s a short extract from my new book, Hine’s Varieties: Chaos & Beyond which deals with how I became engaged with Tantra as a subject and a means of practice. It’s a section of the introduction to three essays in the book which deal with tantra-related themes. Hine’s Varieties: Chaos & Beyond is available direct from Original Falcon Publications as both print and ebook. Continue reading »

    January 31st 2020

    Posted by in Occult, tantra

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  5. Edward Sellon and the Cannibal Club: Anthropology Erotica Empire – II

    Following on from the previous post in this series, I will now examine the activities of the Anthropological Society of London and its “inner cabal” – The Cannibal Club. Continue reading »

    January 2nd 2020

    Posted by in History, Lectures

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  6. Edward Sellon and the Cannibal Club: Anthropology Erotica Empire – I

    I have for some time been interested in how representations of India – particularly those related to sexuality – emerged out of the Colonial period and went on to influence twentieth-century stereotypes of India in a wide variety of ways. The ready association made between Tantra and sex, for example, is something I would argue, has its roots in this period, as does much of the romanticism about India as a land of enlightened sexuality. It is this interest that led me into a murky territory which is sometimes called ethnopornography – a shadow zone where a piece of erotic writing can disguise itself as a scholarly work – or a scholarly work can be read as erotica. Where the body of the native is portrayed as alluring or threatening – sometimes both, and colonial territories become both zones of sexual adventure and hearts of darkness. Continue reading »

    December 25th 2019

    Posted by in History, Lectures

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  7. Yogis, Magic and Deception – II

    In the previous post in this series, I briefly sketched out the orientalist position on yoga & yoga powers before outlining how the extraordinary abilities attributed to yogis became associated with stage magic and deception. Now I will take a look at how yoga powers were represented in the writings of the leaders of the Theosophical Society. Continue reading »

    December 4th 2019

    Posted by in History, Occult, tantra

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  8. Yogis, Magic and Deception – I

    This post is an extract from a recent lecture at Treadwells Bookshop, entitled “Flying through the air, entering other bodies: Yoga and Magical Powers”. The lecture examined the relationship between yoga and magical or extraordinary abilities. When I began reading for the lecture, I was very familiar with the anti-Yoga views of 19th century scholars such as Max Muller or H.H. Wilson, but less so regarding how attitudes to yoga and yoga powers intersected with popular culture. So here is a brief examination of how yogic powers became associated with stage magic, duplicity and deception. Continue reading »

    December 2nd 2019

    Posted by in History, Occult, tantra

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  9. Book Review: Early Poetic Works by Aleister Crowley edited by Christian Giudice

    The Early Poetical Works of Aleister Crowley as published here (Kamuret, London: 2019) comprise four of his earliest published books: Aceldama: A Place to Bury Strangers, Jezebel and Other Tragic Poems, Songs of the Spirit, and The Tale of Archais: A Romance in Verse. They are provided with a fulsome introduction by Chris Giudice. All four of these collections are near impossible to find in their original state, largely due to their limited original print runs. To be able to hold them all in hand at one time is a huge benefit to the student of Crowley and this volume should be hailed for that alone. Continue reading »

    November 5th 2019

    Posted by in Book reviews, History, Occult, Queer

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  10. Announcement: New book – Hine’s Varieties

    Hine's VarietiesOriginal Falcon Press has just published my new book, Hine’s Varieties: Chaos & Beyond. Its a selection of writings spanning 1985-2019, divided thematically into sections: Chaos Magic, Tantra, Sexualities, Practice, Paganisms, Histories, and Fiction, each section prefaced by autobiographical reflections and with some attempt at background context for each essay.
    It is available direct from Original Falcon Press as a printed book, or ebook in Mobi or Epub format. With a foreword by David Southwell, and internal art by Maria Strutz

    October 31st 2019

    Posted by in Announcements, Fiction, History, Occult, Pagan, Queer, tantra

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