Digital Event Type: Zoom Lecture

Dead Letters: Writers and Suicide

Writers have been killing themselves for centuries. From Petronius in ancient Rome to the 20th Century Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima, writers, more than any other kind of artist, have taken their own lives in an extraordinary number of ways. With bullets, poison, drugs and swords, poets, playwrights, novelists and philosophers have sent themselves off into the big sleep. Others, one step shy of that last exit, have made great literature about the urge to self-destruction. My talk, based on my book Dead Letters: The Dedalus Book of Literary Suicides, will look at the varied ways in writers have quite literally taken up the poison pen.

Bio

Gary Lachman is the author of many books about consciousness, culture, and the Western esoteric tradition, including The Return of Holy Russia, Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump, Lost Knowledge of the Imagination, and Beyond the Robot: The Life and Work of Colin Wilson. He writes for several journals in the US, UK, and Europe, lectures around the world and his work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. In a former life he was a founding member of the pop group Blondie and in 2006 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Before moving to London in 1996 and becoming a full time writer, Lachman studied philosophy, managed a metaphysical book shop, taught English literature, and was Science Writer for UCLA. He is an adjunct professor of Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He can be reached at www.gary-lachman.com, www.facebook.com/GVLachman/ and twitter.com/GaryLachman

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The Return of Holy Russia

At the turn of the 20th century, a period known as the Silver Age, Russia underwent a powerful spiritual and cultural rebirth. It was a time of magic and mysticism that saw a vital resurgence of interest in the occult and a creative intensity not seen in the West since the Renaissance. This was the time of the God-Seekers, pilgrims of the soul and explorers of the spirit who sought the salvation of the world through art and ideas. These sages and their visions of Holy Russia are returning to prominence today through Russian president Vladimir Putin, who, inspired by their ideas, envisions a new “Eurasian” civilization with Russia as its leader. Based on my book The Return of Holy Russia, my talk will look at the roots of Putin’s attempt to solve a post-Soviet Russia’s identity crisis through a return to its pre-Soviet past and how this is being acted out on a global geo-political stage.

Bio

Gary Lachman is the author of many books about consciousness, culture, and the Western esoteric tradition, including The Return of Holy Russia, Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump, Lost Knowledge of the Imagination, and Beyond the Robot: The Life and Work of Colin Wilson. He writes for several journals in the US, UK, and Europe, lectures around the world and his work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. In a former life he was a founding member of the pop group Blondie and in 2006 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Before moving to London in 1996 and becoming a full time writer, Lachman studied philosophy, managed a metaphysical book shop, taught English literature, and was Science Writer for UCLA. He is an adjunct professor of Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He can be reached at www.gary-lachman.com, www.facebook.com/GVLachman/ and twitter.com/GaryLachman

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Óðinn (Odin): The All-father of a Nordic Pantheon of Gods: Fact or Fake News?

This lecture will question the generally accepted idea that the Nordic god Óðinn/ Odin was viewed by the people of the pre-Christian Nordic countries as the ruler of a pantheon of Nordic gods living in Ásgarðr/ Asgard. Drawing on runic material, the Eddic poems, the Icelandic family sagas, the sagas of the Norwegian kings, the Icelandic Book of Settlements (Landnámabók), archaeology and place names, it will be argued that the idea of a pantheon of gods living together under Óðinn’s rulership apars to have been predominantly limited to the new central areas in which the new Nordic kings held court (and halls of warriors) in their own form of Ásgarðr. It was later disseminated by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century in his Prose Edda and Ynglinga saga, in spite of the fact that the evidence in Iceland suggests that Óðinn was little known there by most people. The lecture will argue that the evidence points to most people having worshipped a single all-purpose, all-class god (in Norway, Sweden and Iceland, Þórr/ Thor and Freyr), and having believed that the world of the afterlife was not governed by Óðinn (in Valhöll) but rather by a female figure such as Hel, or Freyja. It will end by discussing why the belief in a pantheon may have come about and the degree to which it may have been influenced by Christianity.

Bio

Terry Gunnell is Professor of Folkloristics at the University of Iceland; author of The Origins of Drama in Scandinavia (1995); and editor of Masks and Mumming in the Nordic Area (2007); Legends and Landscape (2008) and Grimm Ripples: The Legacy of the Grimms’ Deutsche Sagen in Northern Europe (2022).

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Rosaleen Norton: Pan’s Daughter: Presentation by Julia Phillips

“I have been described as eccentric, decadent, exhibitionist, crank, genius, witch, freak, and so on… well here I am at 38 … having packed more into that span than most people would normally live in a dozen lifetimes.” (Rosaleen Norton, The Australasian, 1957)

Rosaleen Norton (1917-1979), whose witch name was Thorn, led an extraordinary life. A visionary artist of exceptional skill, she was uncompromising in the subjects of her art and scathing of the ‘fig-leaf’ morality she observed in a conservative society that was at odds with her Bohemian nature. Norton’s reputation was such that Gerald Gardner was interviewed about her, and a piece of liturgy she wrote found its way into modern Wiccan ritual.

In this presentation, illustrated with her artwork, photos, video, letters, and newspaper clippings, Julia Phillips explores Norton’s early life, her artistic influences, and her fascination with psychology and the occult. She looks at her relationships with Beresford Conroy, Gavin Greenlees, Sir Eugene Goossens, and Wally Glover, and the Bohemian world of Sydney’s Kings Cross, where she became such a fixture that she was known as ‘the Witch of King’s Cross.’

Speaker Bio

Julia Phillips received her PhD from the University of Bristol for her research examining how witches and witchcraft were featured in newspapers in Victorian Britain. Her interest in Rosaleen Norton was inspired after encountering some of her art whilst living in Sydney in the 1990s, and hearing stories about this extraordinary woman from some of those who knew her.

Recent publications include: ‘Madeline Montalban: Magus of the Morning Star,’ in Essays on Women in Western Esotericism, Edited by Amy Hale, and ‘The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic: Toward a New History of British Wicca’ in Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft, University of Pennsylvania Press.

Image: Lucifer, by Rosaleen Norton. Photo by Julia Phillips.

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Scottish Fire Festivals

Fire retains its power, even in our world of light and technology. For as long as anyone can remember, fire has been part of human culture, lighting up the darkness at the turning of the year at Yuletide and New Year, the arrival of midsummer on St John’s Day, rites of passage, and for its cleansing properties. This talk looks at three contemporary fire festivals in Scotland – the Stonehaven Fireballs, the Burning of the Clavie at Burghead, and Up-Helly-Aa in Shetland. Beyond offering compelling imagery, these events bind communities together, define who belongs, provide an excuse for a little misrule, and light up the darkest time of the year, which in northern Scotland is dark indeed. We’ll be looking at the history of these events, their practice, and their meaning, function, and relevance in today’s artificially lit world.

Bio

Thomas McKean is a folklorist specializing in Scots and Gaelic song, along with custom and belief, community craft traditions and their relevance in today’s world, and fieldwork methodology. Of particular interest is the relationship of traditional practices to the individual, the role of creativity in tradition, and how traditional skills can help build individual and community resilience in challenging times. His research topics include ballad and song traditions, boatbuilding and other manual work, language and memory.

He is Director of the Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen, a centre for the study of Ethnology, Folklore, and Ethnomusicology with a remit to research, celebrate and promote the culture of the North-East and North of Scotland. The Institute works closely in partnership with community groups and individuals to draw attention to the cultural riches o the area.

As part of the James Madison Carpenter Project team, he worked with cylinder and disc recordings of North-East singers made between 1929 and 1935, leading towards publication of a critical edition of the collection. The project has been funded by the British Academy and the National Endowment for the Humanities under the auspices of the American Folklore Society, and in association with the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Ongoing research with boatbuilding traditions looks at the idea of ‘knowing by doing’: how people young and old learn embodied craft skills by imitation, proximity, and osmosis, and how these skills enhance people’s cultural confidence and self esteem.

In 1993, he established the North East Folklore Archive at Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire, as part of his work as Traditional Music Resident for Banff and Buchan District Council (now Aberdeeenshire), 1993–1996. The archive has continued to develop and much of the fieldwork material is now available on the web at the Banff and Buchan Collection.

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An Introduction to Witch Bottles: Decoys, Spirit Traps or Counter – Witchcraft Measure? by Wayne Perkins

The witch bottle is one of the most immediately recognizable magical objects found among the repertoire of intentionally concealed items. Archaeologists are now systematically recording ritual deposits comprising stoneware bellarmine (or bartmaan) jugs from ancient buildings contexts. Witch bottles are often found buried in the inverted position either under the fireplace hearth or under the principal threshold of 16th and 17th century buildings.

Their squat, anthropomorphic form, accentuated by the fearsome bearded face (or mask) gives the bulbous salt-glazed jug an almost human appearance.

Their contents, often comprising human urine and nail cuttings – combined with bent pins and nails – have all the hallmarks of a non-Christian, even heretical ‘ritual’ act. However, closer examination of their contents has shown that there is a far greater variety of constituent ingredients than hitherto appreciated. And it is the contents which provide a clue as to the agency behind their intended use…

The nature of the contents and the processes involved suggests that their creation would not have been undertaken lightly and it is likely that it would have required the engagement of a local cunning man or wise woman to do so.

Their association with the ritual protection of the house is clear – but was the intent that they were meant to act as a decoy to divert evil influences, to function as a spirit trap or to work as a counter-witchcraft measure designed to fend off the possibility of psychic attack or bewitchment?

This illustrated talk will act as both an introduction to the current understanding of their use as well as outlining a number of different ways in which they were deployed over time

Bio:

Wayne Perkins has been an archaeologist for over 22 years, seven of those spent excavating in France. He is a member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists.

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The Mother and the Monster: How Faked Images of Deformed Skeletons Turned Corseted Women into Criminals

Any woman who has attained the age of thirty years, from the day of the promulgation of this law, may wear a corset of such model as she pleases, except, however, during pregnancy.” So reads the second clause of a proposed law from the 1908 medical textbook Le Corset by Ludovic O’Followell, a doctor practicing in Paris. The exclusion of pregnant women from those who would legally be allowed to corset stems from the idea that the garment would be used to self-abort. Yet much of what O’Followell writes in the rest of his book has no basis in medical fact, nor in medical practices of the day. This talk will explore what O’Followell faked, and how the manufactured debate around the safety of corsets predicted the modern abortion debate.

Bio:

Rebecca Gibson’s published works include “Desire in the Age of Robots and AI: An Investigation in Science Fiction and Fact” (Palgrave Macmillan 2019), “The Corseted Skeleton: A Bioarchaeology of Binding” (Palgrave Macmillan 2020), and “Gender, Supernatural Beings, and the Liminality of Death: Monstrous Males/Fatal Females” (Lexington Books 2021). She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from American University, and when not writing or teaching can be found reading mystery novels amidst a pile of stuffed animals.

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