Feature Option: Listing Page Carousel

Dark Fairy Tales From Around The World, with Viktor Wynd – LIVE

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture at our museum – tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Absinthe

Doors open at 6:00pm and lecture starts at 6.30pm

Dark Fairy Tales From Around The World with Viktor Wynd – LIVE

Join master storyteller Viktor Wynd in the heart of the fairy tale world of his museum for a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Absinthe and listen to him telling tales. Be warned these are not the Ladybird or Disney versions and may not be suitable for the tenderist ears.

This evening Mr. Wynd will tells some his favourite tales heard around the world, from nasty Germans chopping up people and eating them to disgusting, macabre and delightful tales from Borneo, learn of the birth of the leeches, the reason mosquitos are always buzzing human ears, why it is best not to suckle caterpillars – or indeed strange babies and something about bedbugs that might give you nightmares.  Giant Octopuses, man eating pigs and a buried moon from Papua New Guinea, or possibly shapeshifting magickal creatures from Wales – the world will be your oyster.

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 repertoire includes tales from The Brothers Grimm, The Arabian Nights, Scandinavia, Russia, Italy, France, Ireland, Africa, Papua New Guinea & North America – so far.

We are unable to give refunds for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances

Devil’s Botany is London’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour & Cocktail Bar.

John Kruse – The Faes’ Anatomy

The Faes’ Anatomy

The peoples of the British Isles have lived alongside faeries for several thousand years and have accumulated a deep knowledge of their ‘Good Neighbours.’ We have become intimately familiar with the culture, morals and, even, lifecycle of the population that shares these lands with us. In this talk John Kruse will examine what we know about the anatomy and physiology of faery-kind:

· How closely related to us are they?

· Can they fall sick?

· What do they eat?

· Do they have wings?

· Are they immortal or can they be killed?

John draws on hundreds of years of folklore tradition to give sometimes surprising answers to these questions- and others.

Bio

John Kruse has been interested in faery-lore since his early twenties. In 2016 he started the British Fairies blog on WordPress and has since written nearly two dozen books on the subject, including Faery and Beyond Faery for Llewellyn Worldwide and British Fairies and nine other titles for Green Magic Publishing. He has also written several books on nymphs and other aspects of classical mythology.

Curated & Hosted by

Amy Hale is an Atlanta based writer, curator and critic, ethnographer and folklorist speaking and writing about esoteric history, art, culture, women and Cornwall. She is the author of Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern Loved Gully (Strange Attractor 2020) and is currently working on several Colquhoun related manuscripts. She is also the editor of Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses (Palgrave 2022). She has contributed gallery texts and essays for a number of institutions including Tate, Camden Arts Centre, Art UK, Arusha Galleries, Heavenly Records and she is a curator and host for the Last Tuesday Society lecture series.

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

The Satanic Panic: Its Roots and Branches – Peg Aloi

The Satanic Panic: Its Roots and Branches

Although the recent resurrection of the Satanic Panic discourse tends to locate this phenomenon in the late 1980s through the early 1990s (thanks to a storyline on the series Stranger Things), the roots of this cultural oddity go back decades further. Of course, one could argue that the fear of Satan and all his works has been part of human history for centuries, as long as Christianity remains a powerful religious influence in the world, that fear is likely to continue. But the late 20th century Satanic Panic marked a volatile confluence of factors: an occult revival in the 1960s followed by a rise in secularism in the 1970s, and increased religious factionalism combined with the rise of right-wing political movements in the early 1980s. By the early 1990s, the stage was set for a number of prominent events that later came to define the Satanic Panic era. This talk will explore a number of disparate but often related elements that converged to create the Satanic Panic of the 1980s-’90s, including Satanic themed horror films (such as Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and The Omen), the Manson Family murders, and the rise of the Moral Majority in the US.

Bio:

Peg Aloi is a freelance film and TV critic, a former professor of media studies, and co-editor (with Hannah Sanders) of The New Generation Witches: Teenage Witchcraft in Contemporary Culture (Routledge) and Carnivale and the American Grotesque: Critical Essays on the HBO Series (Macfarland). With Hannah she also co-organized two scholarly conferences at Harvard University on paganism, witchcraft and media. Peg’s forthcoming book The Witching Hour: How Witches Enchanted the World is a cultural analysis of the witch in contemporary media. Recently Peg was featured in the documentary film The Witches of Hollywood. She is currently editing a collection of essays for The University of Liverpool Press: Women in Folk Horror: Cradles, Cauldrons, Forests and Blood. Peg was also one of the co-founders of The Witches’ Voice and wrote about film and TV for the site for over a decade, and her long-running blog “The Witching Hour” can now be found on Substack. Peg also works as a professional gardener.

Curated & Hosted by

Amy Hale is an Atlanta based writer, curator and critic, ethnographer and folklorist speaking and writing about esoteric history, art, culture, women and Cornwall. She is the author of Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern Loved Gully (Strange Attractor 2020) and is currently working on several Colquhoun related manuscripts. She is also the editor of Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses (Palgrave 2022). She has contributed gallery texts and essays for a number of institutions including Tate, Camden Arts Centre, Art UK, Arusha Galleries, Heavenly Records and she is a curator and host for the Last Tuesday Society lecture series.

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

Hymns, Myths and Mysteries of Orpheus – Ronnie Pontiac

Hymns, Myths and Mysteries of Orpheus

Despite the immense influence of the Hymns of Orpheus, did Orpheus even exist? Were the Hymns of Orpheus a literary hoax, possibly perpetrated by Pythagoras? Why did Ficino, the father of the Renaissance, write that “No magic is more powerful than that of the Orphic hymns.” What were the allegedly Orphic death passports and what are the passwords one most know in the land of the dead? How did these obscurities influence, to name only a few, Plato, the troubadours, Dante, the Italian Renaissance, the history of opera, Agrippa, Shakespeare, the English Romantic poets, the Parisian magus Eliphas Levi, Aleister Crowley, Jean Cocteau, Rainer Maria Rilke, Jack Kerouac, Jim Morrison, and the current Broadway hit musical Hadestown? Who were the wandering poet priests of Orpheus and why did Plato and Euripides despise them? Significantly, how can we benefit from the work attributed to Orpheus today?

Bio

Ronnie Pontiac was esotericist Manly P. Hall’s research assistant for seven years. He’s the author of American Metaphysical Religion: Esoteric and Mystical Traditions of the New World and co-author of The Magic of the Orphic Hymns: A New Translation for the Modern Mystic, both published by Inner Traditions. He’s lectured for the Theosophical Society in America, Camp Chesterfield, the European School of Theosophy, and the Last Tuesday Society. He’s also guitarist of Lucid Nation which evolved from a riot grrrl punk band to an experimental rock group. He’s produced award winning documentary films including Viva Cuba Libre: Rap is War.

Curated & Hosted by

Amy Hale is an Atlanta based writer, curator and critic, ethnographer and folklorist speaking and writing about esoteric history, art, culture, women and Cornwall. She is the author of Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern Loved Gully (Strange Attractor 2020) and is currently working on several Colquhoun related manuscripts. She is also the editor of Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses (Palgrave 2022). She has contributed gallery texts and essays for a number of institutions including Tate, Camden Arts Centre, Art UK, Arusha Galleries, Heavenly Records and she is a curator and host for the Last Tuesday Society lecture series.

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

Formidable Warrior Women: Tales of the Amazons in Antiquity – Connie Skibinski

Formidable Warrior Women: Tales of the Amazons in Antiquity

Tales of the Amazons, a female-only society of fierce warriors, captured the imagination of the ancient Greeks and Romans. In antiquity, Amazons inspired a range of reactions – some saw them as a threat to the Greek patriarchal state, while others treated them as valiant heroes. This presentation examines a wide range of art and literature to trace changing attitudes towards these warrior women throughout Greece and Rome.

Bio:

Connie Skibinski is an Early Career Research having recently completed a PhD (Classics) at The University of Newcastle. Her primary research interest is Greco-Roman mythology and the adaptation of ancient mythology from the Medieval period to the contemporary era. Her doctoral thesis is a Classical Reception study of the Amazon Queen Penthesilea, examining written and visual representations from antiquity to the twenty-first century. Connie has published on the Amazons in contemporary media and is currently co-editing three edited volumes (on Xena, Wonder Woman and ancient women). She is also working on a contracted monograph on Amazons in Medieval literature, as well as a book chapter that examines the ancient Amazons through a queer theory lens.

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

Art of The Solomon Islands – Kevin Conru

Art of The Solomon Islands – Kevin Conru

“A place of tropical sun, aquamarine-blue sea, white-sand palm-fringed beaches and some of the friendliest people you will ever meet in your life – the Solomon Islands are the sort of South Pacific location that many of us dream of, but often know little about.”  Mark Cocker

The sea is the single greatest source of inspiration for the art from the Solomon Islands, which are located northeast of New Guinea. Artistic forms, embellishments, designs, functions, and materials are drawn from a watery canvas that are subtly nuanced, yet richly homogenous. In the art of the Solomons, there is a link between the visual and the practical. Objects are created with an understanding of pure, aquiline forms, and are shaped to give the most graceful outline and poised balance.

This book presents the Conru collection of art from the Solomon Islands, which encompasses a broad assortment of images, weapons, body ornaments and other artifacts. So numerous and diverse are the objects from this island group that it is difficult for a single collection to be totally representative. However, the collection approximates a representative status, comprising masks from Nissan and Buka, a large figure from Bougainville, as well as imagery and other artifacts from the western down through the southeastern islands. The artworks range from the eighteenth to the early twentith centuries.

Bio

Kevin Conru is known for his publications on Southern African art, on the arts of the Pacific Islands and on the photographs of Hugo Bernatzik. He has travelled extensively in the Pacific and is a member of the Pacific Arts Association and the Oceanic Art Society. He has an Arts Policy MA from The City University, London, and is an orchestral double bassist.  He has published online the South Seas diary of a turn-of-the 20th century Australian journalist, and has produced a major book on the art of the Bismarck Archipelago in Melanesia which was released in September, 2013.

This book formed the basis of the Rotterdam Wereld Museum’s Ring of Fire exhibition that took place in 2013-2014.

He has curated an important exhibition of Papua New Guinea masterpieces from the Royal Museum for Central Africa, which was held in Brussels in 2014.
Along with Robert Hales, he published a comprehensive book on the archive of William Oldman. His most recent books/exhibitions include Sepik/Ramun Art in 2019 and Polynesian Art in 2023 He has one of the most important private collections dedicated to the art from the Solomon Islands. He has one of the most important private collections dedicated to the art from the Solomon Islands

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

Darkling Shadows & Midsummer Madness: The Weird Fiction of R Murray Gilchrist – Daniel Pietersen

Darkling Shadows & Midsummer Madness: The Weird Fiction of R Murray Gilchrist

At the start of the 20thC Robert Murray Gilchrist was a celebrated if reclusive writer, able to count the likes of HG Wells amongst his friends and one of the rare few who found a home in the pages of the notorious Yellow Book. Yet, after his death in 1917, he was quickly forgotten and the strange vistas of his eerie tales faded rapidly from view. In this talk, Gilchrist scholar Daniel Pietersen will use newly-unearthed details of the writer’s life to explore this change in fortunes and why Gilchrist – a writer who explored the edgelands of Gothic, Decadent and what we would now call Weird fiction – is due a modern-day reader’s renewed attention.

Bio  

Daniel Pietersen is the editor of I Am Stone: the Gothic Weird Tales of R Murray Gilchrist, part of the British Library’s Tales of the Weird series. He is a writer and critic with an interest in how weird and gothic themes are represented across film, literature and videogaming. Daniel’s work has appeared in publications like Dead Reckonings, Revenant and Sublime Horror and he is a regular guest lecturer for the Romancing the Gothic project. Daniel lives in a very old house in Edinburgh with a necromancer and pet hellhound.
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

Brothers Zara and Raum: The Real Story of a Fake Buddhist Rosicrucian Order – Philip Deslippe

Brothers Zara and Raum: The Real Story of a Fake Buddhist Rosicrucian Order

In the early 1930s, two young men from Idaho took Buddhist ordination vows in San Francisco from a Japanese Rinzai Zen teacher named Nyogen Senzaki. Soon after, the pair left for an extended tour throughout Asia and were celebrated in the press as pioneering Buddhists, but were actually on their own mission for a mysterious Rosicrucian order with the aim to rectify the world’s religions.

This talk will tell the history of Francis Ormsby, Lewis Colburn, and their group, the Ordo Magiaro. It is a fascinating story of spiritual exploration, international travel, and imposture that included a coup and death by drowning, an affair that led to an international scandal, time in a naval prison, and pioneering treatment for alcoholics.

Speaker Bio:

Philip Deslippe is a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara who focuses on metaphysical, Asian, and marginal religious traditions in modern America. He has published in numerous academic journals and popular venues, and edited and introduced The Kybalion: The Definitive Edition for Tarcher/Penguin in 2011.

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

How to build a ghost, with Anthony Ryan – LIVE

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture at our museum – tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Absinthe

Bar open at 6:30pm and lecture starts at 7pm

How to build a ghost, with Anthony Ryan – LIVE

How do you build a ghost? In 1972, the Toronto Society for Psychical Research conducted a series of experiments to create a ghost. Tonight, find out how.

Anthony Ryan

Anthony’s life long interest in the strange and bizarre has taken him through a career in Mental Health, where his interest in depth psychology complimented his fascination with the Occult. His current interest area is the Cabbalah, and his fascination with John Dee doesn’t get in the way of his having a healthy relationship too much.

We are unable to give refunds for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances

Devil’s Botany is London’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour & Cocktail Bar.

World Cocktail Day: A Spirited History of Occult Cocktails & Drinking Rituals