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  1. Hail to the Mother of Contentment!

    I first came across a reference to the goddess Santoshi Ma as a colour postcard in a back issue of Azoth magazine, and was inspired to ‘work’ with her as part of a sadhana using the Empress Tarot card that I later used as the basis of a freeform pathworking at public workshops in the mid-90s. At the time, I assumed that Santoshi was one of the many Hindu devis I had not come across before, and it was only later that I discovered that she was considered by some to be a ‘new’ addition to the company of devis and devas. This essay was originally written in 2005 and is from the defunct London Tantra Discussion Group.

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    September 17th 2025

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  2. Book review Sri Krishna Prem: A Wing and a Prayer

    One thing that continues to fascinate me is people that have been influential in their own time but have dropped off the radar since and received comparatively little attention since. When a friend alerted me to Jon Chapple’s biography of Sri Krishna Prem, I knew this would be a fascinating read. An Englishman, born Ronald Henry Nixon, who served in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War. After the war, he became Professor of English at Lucknow and Banares Universities; and in his final incarnation, as it were, became Sri Krishna Prem – a Vaiṣṇava spiritual leader who attracted both Indian and western followers, including counter-cultural figures such as Timothy Leary and Ram Dass.

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    September 16th 2025

    Posted by in Book reviews, History, Occult, Reviews, tantra

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  3. One from the vaults: The Sugarcane bow

    I recently managed to nuke enfolding by trying to upgrade the php to a new version. A nice tech guy at my hosting company (Bluehost) got the site working – phew! Some functionality has been lost, however, such as the “wiki” pages. I did think about creating a new wiki with a paid plugin, but for the moment, I’m just reposting the essays and entries that I think are worth keeping. Of course, multiple links will have to be updated across the site, but that’ll happen over time. In the meantime, here’s The Sugarcane bow, a longish essay from 2011.

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    August 31st 2025

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  4. The Satanic Panic: an analysis – III

    In the previous post in this series, I briefly examined the North American “panic” over Dungeons & Dragons and other FRPGs that began in 1979. Now I’ll move to the case that triggered the main “Satanic Panic” – the McMartin Preschool case.

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    July 31st 2025

    Posted by in History, Occult

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  5. The Satanic Panic: an analysis – II

    In the previous post in this series I examined some of the factors that contributed to the North American Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Now, I’ll take a look at the Dungeons & Dragons “Panic”.

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    June 11th 2025

    Posted by in History, Occult

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  6. The Satanic Panic: an analysis – I

    A major theme in Delinquent Elementals, edited by me and Rodney Orpheus, is the British Satanic Panic of 1988-1992. For this series of posts, I’m going to examine the background to the “Panic” and various contributing factors. For the first few posts, I’ll concentrate on the North American Satanic Panic that preceded and influenced the British phenomena.

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    May 26th 2025

    Posted by in History, Occult

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  7. Out now: Delinquent Elementals

    If there’s one thing I’d like to be remembered for, it is Pagan News, the zine that occupied a central place in my life between 1988-92. Delinquent Elementals, edited by myself and Rodney Orpheus (my co-creator and co-editor), brings together a selection of the best content from Pagan News over the 36 or so issues. Six years in production, Delinquent Elementals features a selection of news stories, essays, interviews, tips on practical magic, and more. It is a fascinating window into the UK’s blossoming occult scene at a time of rapid social and political change.


    Looking back, I can only wonder how we did it. Of course, there were those at the time, that said we’d never keep to a monthly publishing schedule – producing a zine every three weeks. We developed a system – one zine on the street, one in production, and several in various stages of planning. There was a quiet satisfaction to be had in telling a potential contributor that the slot their submission would be published in was already full for the next three issues.

    Delinquent Elementals is available direct from Strange Attractor, or all good bookshops.

    March 25th 2025

    Posted by in Announcements, Occult, Pagan, Queer

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  8. Tales of Yoginis

    Back in 2018, I self-published a small booklet entitled Yoginis: Sex, Death, and Possession in Early Tantras. It was well-received, and I am currently working on a revised and expanded edition for Original Falcon Press. In addition to examining tantric scriptures and various purāṇas, I have also been reading tales of Yoginīs in texts such as the Kathāsaritsāraga and Rājataraṅgiṇī. Here is a selection of some of the Yoginī tales that will feature in the new edition.

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    January 28th 2025

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  9. One from the vaults: The Psychomanteum Working

    This account of ritual experimentation from the archives of the Nyarlathotep Coven was originally intended for inclusion in a sequel to my short book, The Pseudonomicon, but by the late 90s I’d more-or-less abandoned lovecraftian experiments in magic, so it never came to pass.

    The ancient Greeks created special places – often underground – where visitors could commune with the spirits of the dead. These places were called psychomanteums. The following is a description of the Nyarlathotep Coven’s experiments in recreating a psychomanteum for the purpose of two-way traffic with Lovecraftian liminal spaces and their denizens.

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    December 23rd 2024

    Posted by in Occult

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  10. Yaksinis – a brief explainer

    Yakṣiṇīs appear in Brahmanical, Jain, and Buddhist texts and iconography. They inhabit lakes, rivers, forests, and in particular, trees. They are said to be beautiful, but dangerous. Humans can form relationships with them (as sisters, wives, or mothers), but they are jealous lovers, particularly if a man takes a human wife. They often feature in tantric magic as bringers of wealth, power, or secret knowledge.

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    November 29th 2024

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