Let Viktor Wynd share a nightcap with you, tuck you into bed and tell you Fairy Tales to send you into a deep sleep of strange dreams. Be warned these are not the Ladybird or Disney verisons and may not be suitable for the tenderist ears.
Ireland has some of the richest, most marvellous and most wonderful fairy tales – Viktor Wynd will tell you some more of his favourites, replete with supernatural beings and strange happenings.
Viktor Wynd, proprietor of London’s eponymous (nay infamous) Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History has spent the last twenty five years telling stories to audiences across the globe. Fascinated by traditional fairy tales his repetoire includes tales from The Brothers Grimm, The Arabian Nights, Scandinavia, Russia, Italy, France, Irieland, Africa, Papua New Guinea & North America – so far.
Watch a recording of This Lecture, & 100s of others, for free when you join our Patreon www.patreon.com/theviktorwyndmuseum
Two Part Course
Part One – Sunday 14th November 7pm-9pm
Part Two – Sunday 21st November 7pm-9pm
Ticket is both parts
We need Chaos Magick more than ever since the explosion of magickal thinking that has followed the lockdowns. People are getting into magick without a critical perspective, resulting in the current rash of deranged conspiracy theories. Chaos Magick provides multiple perspectives, a beacon of magickal sanity in a world gone mad.
Join this course and learn about belief as a technique, about the use of extraordinary states of consciousness (gnosis) and discuss theories old and new as to what makes magic work.
But mainly come along to learn what things we need in order to do magick, and then to do some!
This mini-course, two two-hour sessions, will include banishing, formulating magickal intentions, gnosis, evocation and invocation. Sigils are covered in the separate, complementary course Sigil Magick.
Dave Lee is a magician, breathwork coach and writer. He has spent over four decades exploring consciousness and changing realities, using techniques that include meditation, magick, psychedelics and energy work. He is a leading light in the Chaos Magic organization the Illuminates Of Thanateros and a Master of Rune-Lore in the Rune-Gild.
Join The Apothecary’s Daughter on this Vernal Equinox as she touches on the organs of elimination whilst discussing the merits of classic cleansing herbs, from dandelion to milk thistle, that encourage a lightness of being within the body and soul.
An equinox signifies an equal length of time between night and day, and is the ideal time to assess the equilibrium in one’s life: what needs to be eliminated and sacrificed to make way for the planting of new seeds.
This annual rite of spring extends beyond popular notions of detox, and is about living in tune with the seasons, recognising the wonder of weeds, and preparing rituals for self-care and nourishment.
Maria Vlotides began The Apothecary’s Daughter after completing a degree in Herbal Medicine at the University of Westminster in 2007. Having initially read PPE at Oxford University during the dark ages, she found herself hanging out with increasing regularity at the University’s Botanical Garden, fascinated by plant beds and the magic held within leaves and buds. She had a clinical practice until 2016 and has since continued to focus on teaching and writing. Her book Pharmapoetica in collaboration with poet and author Chris McCabe was nominated for the Ted Hughes Award in 2013. Visit www.the-apothecarys-daughter.com
In March 2020 Viktor Wynd’s book The UnNatural History Museum was published by Prestel, after a brief spur of delight the world moved onto other things. This is the lecture that would have happened accross the country in 2020 & will be illustrated from Mr.Wynd’s home not only with photos but also with extraordinary objects
Viktor Wynd, master of the contemporary Wunderkabinett, is back with a collection of artifacts and curiosities that are more bizarre and wonderful than ever.
For over a decade, from a tiny storefront in east London, the artist Viktor Wynd has been reinventing the cabinet of curiosities for the 21st century. The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History is now one of the city’s most tantalizing tourist destinations. Wynd first introduced his worldview in the book Viktor Wynd’s Cabinet of Wonders, which John Waters called »an insanely delightful how-to guide . . . told with lunatic humor and absolute joy.« In this new volume, he takes readers on a tour inside his mildly-twisted mind, delving deeper into his philosophy of collecting, and describing personal connections to the objects he treasures. Written in his trademark charismatic style, which blends whimsical stories with odd facts and obscure references, this book is filled with lavish and theatrical photographs and drawings. Loosely organized into thematic chapters, it ponders the beauty of skulls and masks; explores beasts, freaks, monsters, fairies, and mermaids; covers magical plants, hallucinogens, erotica, and dandies; and dips into the world of the occult. This might not be a book for everyone. However, it is a book everyone interested in cabinets of curiosities should have on their shelf.
Every year, as darkness falls upon woodlands, the nightingale heralds the arrival of Spring. For thousands of years, its sweet song has inspired musicians, writers and artists around the world, from Germany, France and Italy to Greece, Ukraine and Korea.
Passionate conservationist, renowned musician and folk expert Sam Lee tells the story of the nightingale. This talk reveals in beautiful detail the bird’s song, habitat, characteristics and migration patterns, as well as the environmental issues that threaten its livelihood.
This evening Ronald Hutton poses and answers the question of how and when the modern Western world came to have its most common image of what a goddess should be, as a divinity representing the natural world and the night sky in combination, often appearing in three forms, as maiden, mother and crone. He looks at the ancient sources for these concepts, and then at the way in which the image of the goddess in this form came to take over poetry and novels, and then visions of the prehistoric past of humanity. He goes on to consider the manner in which it became mixed up in feminist politics in the later twentieth century, with precisely opposite results among American and British radicals. Finally it asks what options, opportunities and personal choices this concept of the divine feminine provides for us.
Eleanor Tirtasana Chubb has spent much of her life exploring the curious world of the tortoise, including their often eccentric keepers and collectors, zoologists, vets, traders (legal and illegal) and conservation efforts both successful and hopeless. Her exploration has involved creation of and involvement in multiple conservation and welfare organisations, plus teaching, lecturing and attending world conferences. Her lecture will intertwine nuggets of historical trivia, stories of humanisation taken to the extreme, the characters making change, madness behind myth, political extinction threats and conservation dysfunction, among other matters. If you didn’t think tortoises where interesting, you will after this.
Scientific Monsters: Natural History, Teratology, and Extraordinary Biologies
January 9th
In this illustrated lecture Dr. Asma will explore the monsters of the modern era, specifically the natural history traditions from the Late Renaissance through the Victorian period. Focusing on the development of teratology, we will look at the medicalization of monsters and the reframing of monstrosity in evolution.
Watch a recording of This Lecture, & 100s of others, for free when you join our Patreon www.patreon.com/theviktorwyndmuseum
Medieval Monsters, and the Problem of Evil
November 15th
In this illustrated lecture Dr. Asma will examine the major kinds of medieval monsters that were feared but also “cavorted with” during the Middle Ages. Some natural monsters of the ancient period continued in the medieval, but also many demons and theological monsters emerged with unprecedented terror.
Watch a recording of This Lecture, & 100s of others, for free when you join our Patreon www.patreon.com/theviktorwyndmuseum
Ancient Monsters: Greek and Roman Traditions
September 28th
In this illustrated lecture Dr. Asma will explore some of the dominant types of monsters in ancient Western literature, natural history, and philosophy. We will learn about classic beasties like Cyclopes, but also lesser-known topics like Plato’s monster, and Aristotle’s theory of monstrosity.
Watch a recording of This Lecture, & 100s of others, for free when you join our Patreon www.patreon.com/theviktorwyndmuseum
