Full Description
Explores the role of magic and the occult in art and culture from ancient times to today
• Examines key figures behind esoteric cultural developments, such as Carl Jung, Anton LaVey, Paul Bowles, Aleister Crowley, and Rudolf Steiner
• Explores the history of magic as a source of genuine counter culture and compares it with our contemporary soulless, digital monoculture
Art, magic, and the occult have been intimately linked since our prehistoric ancestors created the first cave paintings some 50,000 years ago.
In this deep exploration of "occulture"--the liminal space where art and magic meet--Carl Abrahamsson reveals the integral role played by magic and occultism in the development of culture throughout history as well as their relevance to the continuing survival of art and creativity. Blending magical history and esoteric philosophy with his more than 30 years' experience in occult movements,
Showing how art and magic were initially one and the same, the author reveals how the magic of art can be restored if art is employed as a means rather than an end--if it is intense, emotional, violent, and expressive--and offers strategies for creating freely, magically, even spontaneously, with intent unfettered by the whims of trends, a creative practice akin to chaos magick that assists both creators and spectators to live with meaning. He also looks at intuition and creativity as the cornerstones of genuine individuation, explaining how insights and illuminations seldom come in collective forms.
Exploring magical philosophy, occult history, the arts, psychology, and the colorful grey areas in between, Abrahamsson reveals the culturally and magically transformative role of art and the ways the occult continues to transform culture to this day.
Contents
Foreword by Gary Lachman
1 Contra Contra Means Pro
2 Splendor Solis
Lebensreform and Sexual Vitalism in Germany
3 Abstraction Made Concrete
The Occultural Methods and Mutations of Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth
4 Over the Moon and Back Again
5 Pokémon Go Away
6 What Remains for the Future?
An Initial Attempt at a Comparison between Aleister Crowley and Rudolf Steiner
7 Paul Bowles
Expat Magic
8 Tangible Evanescence
9 Anton LaVey, Magical Innovator
10 Carl Jung, Mythmaker
11 The Imaginative Libido
12 Formulating the Desired
Some Similarities between Ritual Magic and the Psychoanalytic Process
13 Zine und Zeit
14 The Mega Golem Is Alive and Well
15 Sexual-Dynamic Polarity as a Magical Formula
Aleister Crowley's Views on Gender and Transcendence
16 The Economy of Magic
There's No Free Lunch or Free Magical Success
17 The Magic of Dreams Made Real
18 Collective Mysticism
It's Probably a Myth
19 Challenging Inertia and Entropy
20 Memes or Schemes
21 Intuition as a State of Grace
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
