Cabinet of Curiosities

2012-02-08T13:52:00.001-08:00

art sanctifies...

2012-01-03T15:12:00.000-08:00

"I believe that Magic is Art and Art whether it be music, writing, sculpture or any other, is literally magic. Art, like any magic, the science of manipulating symbols, words or images, to achieve changes in consciousness... Indeed to cast a spell is simply to manipulate words, to change people's consciousness, and this is why I believe that an artist or a writer is the closest thing in the contemporary world to a Shaman." Alan Moore

What fresh Hell is this?

2011-10-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

Intellectual Property (IP) is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind. Intellectual Property laws gives the original creator of original works exclusive rights. Common types of Intellectual Property rights include copyrights, trade marks, service marks, patents, design rights and trade secrets.

BELOVED & CO.

Supernatural Specimens

Black Forest Relics

Woodland Echoes

Folklore

Esoteric Apothecary

Blackthorn

***************

ELIXIR

PARLOUR TRICKS

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SIN,
A Harlot's Handbook

VVITCH,
Feminist Witchcraft and Revolution

ESPERANZA,
The Magico-Religion of Lady Lavona

ARS MORIENDI,
Death and Culture

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Portrait of a Goddess No. 1

2011-08-21T11:56:00.000-07:00

Portrait of a Goddess No. 1 - Available now in my Etsy shop.

Astarte, the ancient goddess of fertility, motherhood and war. According to legend Astarte descended to earth as a fiery star. The Phoenicians portrayed Astarte with cow horns, representing fertility. The Assyrians and Babylonians pictured her holding child. Mother of the Universe, giver of all live on Earth. She ruled all spirits of the dead residing in heaven visible from earth as stars; hence came her name Astroarche, "Queen of the Stars."

Hand formed goddess figure - 7 inches - artist signature, LVNA.

Ocular Oracular ©

2011-08-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

Photography is the latest obsession...my self published book is coming out soooon! Check out lulu.com. "Lulu leads the industry of publish-on-demand books because our authors keep 80% of their profits and publishing is free."

2011-08-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

New video for 'Still Life' (Directed by Oliver Murray), from the new album - 'Skying' released on XL Recordings July 2011.      ‪http://thehorrors.co.uk‬

Moving Towards Light

2011-08-07T16:40:00.000-07:00

Nachthex

2011-08-05T14:12:00.000-07:00

Last night's magicks, cooking evil spirits with Sulphur and Pitch!

Here's a first look at my raku pit fired effigies. I'm firing them again tomorrow, adding scarlet/copper/azure metalic oxides!

Medicine Show No.1 - Cunning Wolf

2011-08-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

Available in my Etsy shop. The Cunning Wolf, the hunter, trickster, emissary of Lucifer, and the Black Dog of the Wild Hunt. Wolf also offers guidance and protection for those who dwell in barren and lonely places. He will allow you to see your teacher within. In the aloneness of a power place, devoid of other humans, you may find the true you.

"Wolf is the Grand Teacher. Wolf is the sage, who after many winters upon the sacred path and seeking the ways of wisdom, returns to share the new knowledge with the tribe. Wolf is both the radical and the traditional in the same breath.
When Wolf walks by you-- you WILL remember."

creep

2011-07-29T17:13:00.000-07:00

Into the Menstrual Night I Go

2011-07-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

Last nights blood divinations, inspired by the Victorian parlor game Blotto and the Rorschach inkblot test. A psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning. It has been employed to detect underlying thought disorder, especially in cases where patients are reluctant to describe their thinking processes openly. The test is named after its creator, Swiss psychologist Hermann Rorschach.

See also: The Surrealist parlour game, "The Exquisite corpse"

The Magico-Religion of Lady Lavona

2011-07-24T09:32:00.000-07:00

I consider myself a Pagan Reconstructionist riding a wave of Heretical Gnosis. By comparative study, I've reduced the world’s various religions and spiritual paths to their essence. I have no solid belief system and my spiritual ideologies are constantly evolving. I'm free from the spiritual bondage that is dogma. My focus is on soul development, becoming one with the BELOVED, leading to the attainment of Divine Consciousness. I've found balance in the Wisdom of Nature and the Gnosis of the Universe. 'As Above So Below, also known as the law of the Macrocosm/Microcosm which is essentially non-dual.

Through Magick I've found a way to organize magical theories and spiritual ideologies. My practice can best be described as Magico-Religious. I employ traditional American Folk Magick and Medicine; Hexcraft rooted in Euro-American Witchcraft, Santeria, Pow-wow, Hoodoo, Gypsy and Granny Magicks. My foundation is laid in the Wheel of the Year, the annual cycle of the Earth's seasons: eight festivals throughout the year referred to as Sabbats. Magico-Religious Power is the the spiritual force called Mana, commonly interpreted as "the stuff of which magic is formed", as well as the substance of which souls are made. Mana is in people, animals, plants and objects. The entire universe is alive and interconnected, everything possesses a personality and individual spirit/soul/force. Shamans and Witches have a deep relationship with Nature. Shamanic traditions are especially valuable in a time of crisis between humanity and nature. If we can learn to rediscover the way of the shaman, it may make a critical impact on how we live. Naturalist and Ecologists might study the relationships of living things to their environment differently. How we live individually and collectively can and will effect the future of the Earth and it's inhabitants.

Furthermore, I'm really moved by the "school of thought" that is Green Hermeticism. Not only does it resonate with my own belief that humanity needs to get back to the Esoteric roots of Medicine, this movement has started to reestablish a bridge between Alchemy and Ecology.

"it’s not clear whether you can make a leap or bridge from a scientific mentality to a Hermetic one; that is, whether conventional science can somehow become Hermetic, or whether—this not being possible—we are going to have to create a new science-art-spirituality working out of alchemy and Hermeticism on their own terms, thus renewing and re-imagining for our time the ancient sacred science of nature. In other words, perhaps it is in the nature of the project that the bridge will have to be built from Hermeticism to a new kind of science rather than from conventional science to Hermeticism."

The Alchemists' search for the Philosopher's Stone took a turn for the worse in Ancient Egypt when materialists developed the art of synthetic "wet" chemistry. Processes including but not limited to; extracting metal from their ores, making pottery and glazes, fermenting beer and wine, making pigments for cosmetics and painting, extracting chemicals from plants for medicine and perfume, making cheese, dying cloth, tanning leather, rendering fat into soap, making glass, and making alloys like bronze. By the seventeenth century, Occultist and Philosopher of Nature, Paracelsus, pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals for medicine. This was contrary to his hermetical views that sickness and health in the body relied on the harmony of man and Nature. Since then, a materialistic, capitalistic, anti-ecological, anti-Hermetic war was waged against humanity and the planet Earth. We've seen a rapid decline of spirituality and morality. And in opposition to this, a Romantic Nihilist movement. We are Green Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists. Hopefully at the end of this war, Holistic Dualists.

"The alchemists are people of prayer. They are dedicated selflessly to the transformation and redemption of society, the individual, and the earth itself."

Quotes taken from: "Green Hermeticism: David Levi Strauss in conversation with Peter Lamborn Wilson and Christopher Bamford"

Artist Occultist Sensualist

2011-07-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

"Others praise ceremonial Magic, and are supposed to suffer much Ecstasy! Our asylums are crowded, the stage is over-run! Is it by symbolising we become the symbolised? Were I to crown myself King, should I be King? Rather should I be an object of disgust or pity. These Magicians, whose insincerity is their safety, are but the unemployed dandies of the Brothels." Austin Osman Spare

hallelujah!

2011-07-15T21:07:00.000-07:00

Alexander - Truth

Jennifer Angus

2011-07-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

“That insects are so vitally important. We need insects to pollinate flowers that, in turn, produce fruit. We need insects for decomposition. Without insects, I don’t think we could exist.” Jennifer Angus

"spellbound to her barren prison for too long"

2011-07-10T11:42:00.000-07:00

"this is why I am all in rags now"

2011-07-10T11:03:00.000-07:00

reclaimed vintage & tribal gypsy jewelry & accessories by Sparrow Salvage

Gibbous Fashions

2011-07-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

EcoSphere

2011-07-08T07:00:00.001-07:00

"EcoSphere is a delicate balance of earth, water, air and life--all parts of a working ecosystem. The coexistence of animal and plant life (red shrimp, algae and microbes) thrives in the handblown glass sphere of seawater. Light--the foundation of life. Sunlight provides everything your ecosystem needs; there's no feeding or cleaning required. Seawater --provides the backdrop for this educational, self-contained marine environment. Red shrimp --chosen for their nonaggressive tendencies towards one another, these tiny crustaceans live in perfect harmony with their mini environment. Algae --healthy growth sustains and nourishes shrimp by supplying food and oxygen. Microbes --to feed the algae. Other materials --Gorgonia sprig, gravel, shells and glass provide ample hiding places and smooth surfaces for microbes to attach themselves to and thrive. This technology was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists as part of a growing initiative to study our planet's biosphere. NASA was researching self-contained communities for space explorers to live in during long-term flights. Life expectancy EcoSphere has an average life expectancy of two years; however, in the right conditions some have lived for up to 10 years."

Foodism

2011-07-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

Photography, Ditte Isager.

Maleonn

2011-06-22T16:55:00.000-07:00

Maleonn

"Look at me, and remember me. Before everything shrivels, and turns into dust."

2011-06-21T16:18:00.000-07:00

Ryan Matthew: Against Nature

2011-06-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

Oddities ~ Against Nature NYC

"Till now, man has been up Against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature." ~ Dennis Gabor

Julia deVille ~ Home Sweet Home #8

2011-06-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

Julia deVille

To the Madhouse

2011-06-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

Agnes Richter, a patient in a mental asylum in austria in the 1890's, spent her days embroidering text on to the jacket of her hospital uniform in attempts to record her life story.

"What she has told us all a hundred times – That old, unwanted women can again Be hunted down, accused of pointless crimes And burned in the public square; that it is vain To plead – or prove – one's innocence; that men With solemn looks will come into the house, And say, fearing a scene, `You'll feel no pain;' `It's for your good;' `We're not ungenerous;' What she foretold, when we dismissed her fear Saying `You dreamed such things' – it now comes true: The door is open, and the men are here. Calmly they question her, and with a new Smiling indifference drag her from the room And through the streets to the expected doom." - Edward Lowbury

Silk Road Gypsy Talismans

2011-06-07T12:11:00.000-07:00

Talisman available in my Etsy shop...measures approx. 5 inches and head on a woven leather necklace.

"Your hair was full of roses in the dewfall as we danced,
The sorceress enchanting and the paladin entranced,
In the starlight as we wove us in a web of silk and steel
Immemorial as the marble in the halls of Boabdil,
In the pleasuance of the roses with the fountains and the yews
Where the snowy Sierra soothed us with the breezes and the dews!
In the starlight as we trembled from a laugh to a caress,
And the God came warm upon us in our pagan allegresse."

- La Gitana by Aleister Crowley

In Support of Humanism

2011-06-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

In Support of Humanism: as opposed to the Posthuman utopia or the ultimate scientific dictatorship. Tired of being fed alleged "Satanic" propaganda by mainstream culture monsters like Lady Gaga? A Brave New World? Blasphemous, I think not! Plastic surgery, Reproductive technology, Genetic engineering, information technology, and anticipated future ones, such as molecular nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. Political Scientist, Francis Fukuyama identifies transhumanism as "a strange liberation movement" that wants "nothing less than to liberate the human race from its biological constraints." Personally, I am in favor of Spiritual Evolution as opposed to "Human Enhancement Technologies". If having emotions is considered a biological constraint, I'll opt for staying a spiritual being having a human experience that is in harmony with nature and the Love Supreme!

"The environmental movement has taught us humility and respect for the integrity of nonhuman nature. (i.e. plants, animals) We need a similar humility concerning our human nature. If we do not develop it soon, we may unwittingly invite the transhumanists to deface humanity with their genetic bulldozers and psychotropic shopping malls."

"The time will come when my pictures will be understood, they are destined for the 21st century." Emma Kunz 1892-1963 - Artist, Researcher, Healer

I was just pondering all this while looking at the Sacred Geometry of Emma Kunz. (see above) She created mandala-like grids which she used as instruments of healing. Emma Kunz lived during the turn of the century, when Industry reared it's ugly head. At 18, she began to use telepathy, prophecy and divination. I was thinking about how several generations later, modern artists of this genre like Fredrik Söderberg and Louise Despont, have the same spiritual thread running through their bodies of work. So how has "Human Enhancement Technology" really benefited the Collective Consciousness or the Environment anyway? Think about it...

Fredrik Söderberg

Louise Despont

"Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable."

End timey music...

2011-05-28T17:32:00.000-07:00

Those Poor Bastards "Prophets of Country Doom"

Sons of Perdition - Psalms for the Spiritually Dead

Las Pozas, a surrealist garden

2011-05-14T13:44:00.000-07:00

Las Pozas is near the village of Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, a seven-hour drive north of Mexico City. Edward William Frank James was a British poet known for his patronage of the surrealist art movement. He "wanted a Garden of Eden set up . . . and I saw that Mexico was far more romantic”.

related links:
2012
Mayan Prophecy: New Civilization

2011-05-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

2011-05-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

Available in my Etsy Shop. A tiny antique tintype mounted on leather is paired with a hand stamped brass Beloved & Co. tag. Each "Memento Mori" necklace comes in a eco-friendly kraft gift box (80% recycled post consumer content) nestled in a bed of dried moss, with a vial of cemetery dirt from Wunder's Cemetery, Chicago.

Shop Update!

2011-05-04T17:39:00.001-07:00

In addition to my handmade soap, I've added my new Rosewood Shea Butter Balm to my Etsy shop: 4 oz. of Love Magick! This is a great daily complexion regimen, you will never need another skin cream!

MEDICINAL and MAGICAL PROPERTIES:

*Rosewood oil stimulates new cell growth, regenerates tissue, and heps minimize lines and wrinkles. It helps balance both dry and oily skin. It can prove useful against acne.

*Shea Butter heals a number of skins conditions including blemishes, wrinkles and stretch marks. It also effective in treating severe skin afflictions such as eczema and dermatitis. Additionally, Shea Butter's anti-inflammation properties are beneficial in soothing insect bites, new tattoos, diaper rashes, sunburns and frostbites. Shea butter is an excellent scalp and hair treatment. Shea butter restores moisture to a dry scalp without clogging pores. Hair quickly absorbs shea butter, restoring elasticity.

*Rose Quartz: Each container of Rosewood Shea Butter Balm has a polished Rose quartz crystal to keep as an amulet. A pink quartz is often called the "Love Stone." Like Rosewood, it is used in love, beauty and health magick. It corresponds to the heart chakra and the planetary vibrations of Venus.

2011-05-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

The Brothers Quay

2011-05-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

The extraordinary Quay Brothers are two of the world’s most original filmmakers. Identical twins who were born in Pennsylvania in 1947, Stephen and Timothy Quay studied illustration in Philadelphia before going on to the Royal College of Art in London, where they started to make animated shorts in the 1970s.

Brimstone in the Ancestral Fire

2011-05-02T17:42:00.000-07:00

Black Thorn Talismans coming soon to my etsy shop! Inspiration ➵ ➵ ➵ Desert Nomads, Wandering Gypsies, Tribes of the Apocalypse, Magick and Mysticism, Indigeneous Peoples, Mother Earth, Father Sky, Ethnobotany, Archaeology, Warriors, Shamanism, Revolution, Evolution, Prophecies of the Golden Age, my Ancestors, Earthships, Crop Circles, Visionary Art, Crystals, Pyramids, Recycling/Repurposing, Psychedelic culture, Alchemy, Love...2012

2011-05-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

The Black Broom

2011-04-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

The Black Broom, statuary for the discriminating Occultist.

"Buer is a spirit that appears in the 16th century grimoire Pseudomonarchia Daemonum and its derivatives, where he is described as a Great President of Hell, having fifty legions of demons under his command. He appears when the Sun is in Sagittarius. Buer teaches natural and moral philosophy, logic, and the properties of all herbs and plants. He also heals all diseases, especially of men, and gives good familiars. According to some authors, he teaches Medicine and has the head of a lion and five goat legs surrounding his body to walk in every direction. In Grim Grimoire, Buer is summoned using the alchemy rune. Also, he discourages drunkenness."

Charlie Foster: Freedom Fighter

2011-04-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

Charlie Foster ~ Gypsy vagabond...folk artist...magician/musician.

photo credit, above and below, Mike Brodie

Photo credit: Santiago Mostyn

"Freedom is free of the need to be free...Free your mind and your ass will follow...The kingdom of heaven is within" ~ George Clinton

related links:
Mike Brodie: Tones of Dirt and Bone
Monica Canilao: Dream Weaver

2011-04-16T11:39:00.001-07:00

Gypsy Fingers

2011-04-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

Beats and Magica Musica by SHUGMONKEY

2011-04-15T12:17:00.001-07:00

New work by Miss Van...puuuur!

2011-04-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

"After three years of absence from the French artistic scene, Miss Van has finally come back to her home country with a new series of works. Following her exhibitions in Los Angeles, Shanghai, and New York, Miss Van is taking a short break from her travels to show off her works in Paris. Miss Van, true feminine figurehead of street art, started her artistic career in the streets of Toulouse. Since those early days, her style has greatly evolved, her latest series being an ode to classical painting. She has gone from painting the curvy, enticing pin-ups in the streets of Toulouse, to painting the melancholic and subtle works of this new exhibition. Her various travels and encounters have enriched her already complex world."

you'll see him in your nightmares

2011-04-12T22:58:00.001-07:00

THE GYPSY CHRONICLES by Alison Mackie

2011-04-12T09:47:00.001-07:00

"She teased out of his guitar all manner of sound, the likes of which he never before produced. It was a fresh delivery; a brand new musicality was born through them, coming alive, changing them both. She was a conjure woman, at one with his element. Raising the flame of his fire and rushing the flow of his blood, she stimulated. She was at play, working his mind, his talent and even his heart; drawing out all manner of strum. Playing for, and with, and through her, Sabicas delivered a new form. It was an immaculate conception. The best days of his life were about to begin."

A fine read: The romantic and exotic tone of The Gypsy Chronicles is strictly fabulous. And the notion of charmed matrimonial beds? No reader could ask for more to spark so many levels of the imagination. Alison Mackie has created a mystical world, beautiful in its undertaking, that will lure even the most cynical soul to seek the mysterious ways of deep love and 'Gypsy' magic. ~ Meredith Blevins

Another recommendation: Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott
~ Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul

2011-04-11T18:02:00.001-07:00

April showers bring May flowers

2011-04-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

I'm working on some new jewelry for my etsy shop! Three signature Beloved & Co. pieces casted in recycled sterling silver. Coming soon!

The Manifesto of the Black Thorn League 'Shipwrecked' necklaces made out of old coins...inspired by my Spanish Moorish ancestors that were shipwrecked off the shores of Ireland.

New Supernatural 'pressed' Specimens...

Fern ~ Rain Making, Protection, Luck

But on St. John's mysterious night,
Sacred to many a wizard spell,
The time when first to human sight
Confest, the mystic fern seed fell.
I'll seek the shaggy, fern clad hill,
Where time has delved a dreary dell,
Befitting best a hermit's cell;
And watch 'mid murmurs muttering stern,
The seed departing from the fern,
Ere watchful demons can convey,
The wonder-working charm away,
And tempt the blows from arm unseen,
Should thoughts unholy intervene.

Dystopia

2011-04-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

Wunderkammern by Santiago Caruso

beinArt Collective Group presents 'DYSTOPIA'

Guest Curator: Jon Beinart

Chaos and ruin. Technological trends corrupting. Deformation, anatomical abnormalities, degradation and displacement. Whether related to the human body and spirit or the human environment, it is the 'anti' utopia. The theme of this show, 'Dystopia', will place the viewer in a fictional world where personal and societal fears can be explored. Whether figuratively or more literally, the participating artists will present their own interpretation of 'Dystopia'.

Presenting the works of over 50 international artists. Each artist has been selected for their ability to express themselves imaginatively with exceptional technique and uncompromising individuality. The beinArt Surreal Art Collective is testimony to a huge international movement of figurative artists who have resisted current trends in the art world and remained true to their artistic vision.

The Wolf

2011-04-03T08:44:00.000-07:00

"More than 35 years ago, Congress banned the use of airplanes to hunt or harass wolves and other wildlife by passing the Aerial Hunting Act in 1971. But Alaska is exploiting a loophole in the federal law to resume the practice. The state’s aerial gunning program takes out wolves and bears in an attempt to artificially boost moose and caribou populations, often for the benefit of guided out of state hunters."

Most of you probably remember when Sarah Palin lifted the hunting ban. Palin's administration approved an initiative to pay a $150 bounty to hunters who killed a wolf and brought in their paw. The state responded that predators kill over 80 percent of the moose and caribou that die each year, while hunters and trappers kill less than 10 percent. However, Natural Science discredits this notion because wolf research has shown that wolves are, in fact, mostly scavengers. "Sixty to 70 percent of the moose they eat are scavenged, not killed." Haber

172 scientists signed a letter to Palin, expressing concern about the lack of science behind the state's wolf-killing operation. According to the scientists, state officials set population objectives for moose and caribou based on "unattainable, unsustainable historically high populations." As a result, the "inadequately designed predator control programs" threatened the long-term health of both the ungulate and wolf populations. The scientists concluded with a plea to Palin to consider the conservation of wolves and bears "on an equal basis with the goal of producing more ungulates for hunters."

Defenders of Wildlife is supporting the Protect America’s Wildlife (PAW) Act. Take Action!

* House of Representatives bill H.R. 3381
* Senate bill S.1535

Related links: Nature Whispers

Beloved and Co.

2011-04-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

My new stash of Supernatural Specimens available in my etsy shop!

witches not bitches

2011-03-28T00:22:00.000-07:00

So refreshing to see authentic witchery on the web, so many be perpetrating! Kudos to two of my sisters in the religion. Check out the natural magicks of Ms. Graveyard Dirt.

And the curious conjurings of Anathemum. She offers spiritual goods for the discriminating witch!

2011-03-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

poetics of light

2011-03-22T06:58:00.000-07:00

Kate Breakey (via Miniature Rhino)

2011-03-21T15:38:00.000-07:00

Kiki Smith: Tied To Her Nature

2011-03-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

Kiki Smith

The Words That Maketh Murder

2011-03-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

Ghost Stories

2011-03-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

coming soon...

Ghosts of forever ride the pale twilight
Teller of the tale lives beneath the ice
Shadow of the haunter creeps within our sight
As we lay sleeping …horror

“The Face of Oblivion” by High on Fire

Pressed Botanical Specimens

2011-03-04T14:40:00.000-08:00

I have cabin fever, I can't wait until Spring! I'm dreaming of pressed botanical specimens. Design Sponge has some simple tutorials for pressed flowers and ferns. A press is really easy to make but you can buy the Deluxe Flower Press Kit here.

Odyn Vovk AW 2011

2011-03-03T19:05:00.000-08:00

Odyn Vovk "Spiral" AW11

"Odyn Vovk explores the states of improvisation from which self-expression is discovered. The elements of this fifth collection is how the subconscious existence that drives thoughts, challenges reality and brings us to that place between sleep and awake; to that moment where dreams still live and life creeps in. This is realized further by images, sounds and emotion of the progression. This directly mimics the design process of Odyn Vovk season to season and is best exemplified by the approach taken with each garment. It is often only once the fabrics and textiles are in hand, that any garment is realized, dictated in part by the fabrics and textiles themselves."

Goddess Bless Odyn Vovk...with Godspeed.

related links: ONE WOLF

2011-03-03T18:23:00.000-08:00

Dominion of the Soiled Dove

2011-03-03T12:46:00.000-08:00

In the Dominion of the Soiled Dove, a tangible cautionary tale of debauchery and vice inevitably leading to Man's Ruin.

Coming soon! A new collection inspired by Storyville's "Soiled Doves" of the red-light district of New Orleans, Louisiana. From 1897 through 1917 the New Orleans city government studied the legalized red light districts of northern German and Dutch ports and set up Storyville based on such models. The District was set up to limit prostitution to one area of town where authorities could monitor and regulate the practice. Storyville blue-books, guides to prostitution, were available to visitors of the district's Houses of Ill Repute included house descriptions, prices, particular services and the "stock" each house had to offer. The Storyville blue-books were inscribed with the motto: "Order of the Garter: Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense" or Shame to Him Who Evil Thinks.

Sisters of the Cross of Shame
by Dana Burnet (1888)

The Sisters of the Cross of Shame,
They smile along the night;
Their houses stand with shuttered souls
And painted eyes of light.

Their houses look with scarlet eyes
Upon a world of sin;
And every man cries, “Woe, alas!”
And every man goes in.

The sober Senate meets at noon,
To pass the Woman’s Law,
The portly Churchmen vote to stem
The torrent with a straw.

The Sister of the Cross of Shame,
She smiles beneath her cloud—
(She does not laugh till ten o’clock,
And then she laughs too loud.)

And still she hears the throb of feet
Upon the scarlet stair,
And still she dons the cloak of shame
That is not hers to wear.

The sons of saintly women come
To kiss the Cross of Shame;
Before them, in another time,
Their worthy fathers came.…

And no man tells his son the truth,
Lest he should speak of sin;
And every man cries, “Woe, alas!”
And every man goes in.

2011-02-27T14:22:00.000-08:00

The Devil You Know

2011-02-25T17:48:00.001-08:00

The Devil You Know: An Introduction
~Erik Sanko and Jessica Grindstaff

she whispers...

2011-02-23T17:56:00.001-08:00

Alex CF

2011-02-23T17:37:00.000-08:00

Behold, the cryptozoological scientific specimens of Alex CF!

related links: Thomas Kuntz

2011-02-17T15:39:00.001-08:00

Ghost of Unborn Children

2011-02-17T14:16:00.000-08:00

Now available in my Etsy Shop! Inspired by folk ballads and cautionary tales told to warn its hearer of a danger. The narrative itself describes a sinful taboo or dangerous prohibition The character of the tale disregards the warning and performs the forbidden act. The violator comes to an unpleasant fate, which is frequently related in morbid, grisly detail. Your little ghost comes in a hand numbered wooden coffin. The Devil may care...

New Supernatural Specimens

2011-02-16T22:40:00.000-08:00

I'll be listing these in my Etsy shop by Noon on Thursday! xo!

Love is the Law, Love Under Will

2011-02-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

Taj Mahal, a temple of love built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. One of the Seven Wonders of the World, a symbol of eternal love. Happy Valentine's Lovers!

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." Jimi Hendrix

related posts: Strike, dear mistress and cure his heart...

Rapsodia Satanica

2011-02-13T22:07:00.000-08:00

Rapsodia Satanica, a masterpiece of Italian silent cinema, features film diva Lyda Borelli. She stars as the narcissistic Alba d’Oltrevita, a woman who makes a Faustian pact with the devil in exchange for the promise of eternal youth and the worldly pleasures it unlocks. The most persistent themes punctuating the film are Alba’s narcissism and her sensual manipulation of a thin, diaphanous veil in scenes of seduction, reflection and melancholy. Alba’s hands it is more introspective and eerie than seductive. It evokes the craze for exotic dances (inspired by Isadora Duncan) that swept the stage and screen at the turn of the Century.

Under a Scarlet Moon

2011-02-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

The incomparable Drikka of Magdalena Solis contacted me! Their second album, Hesperia is available for Pre-Order. The name of the band, Magdalena Solis, refers to the priestess of an obscure Mexican blood cult of the 1960s. "Hesperia" could be the soundtrack of this cult.

"and the sky was made of amethyst..."

2011-02-12T11:29:00.000-08:00

Adela Leibowitz

Bryan Ferry vs The Jelly Fox

2011-02-11T13:22:00.000-08:00

The sexy hilarious Noel Fielding of Mighty Boosh fame is currently showing "Bryan Ferry VS The Jellyfox at Gallery Maison Bertaux. His artwork is available through Hooligan Art Dealer, Tania Wade, who also represents Jonsi of Sigur Ros and Diva Zappa!

Spectre

2011-02-11T11:45:00.000-08:00

New work from Katy Horan! magick!

Dark Dark Dark

2011-02-09T17:16:00.000-08:00

coming soon!

2011-02-09T16:36:00.000-08:00

available soon in my Etsy shop...ghosts of unborn children.

Did you hear me crying in the night that lasts forever?
Did you see me reaching out from Never Never Land?
The kingdom of the blind, the damned; a bitter man; an also-ran.
The ghosts of unborn children stretch their hands and clutch at nothing...
Preconceived. Part of the plan that makes no sense and casts no shadow, no
Reflection in your mirror. Hiding right beneath your eyes... but so
Difficult to find, you gave up long before you started. What I'd give to
Be alive for just one second... ~ Legendary Pink Dots

"I've been looking so long pictures of you"

2011-02-09T11:39:00.000-08:00

I love these old photographs are juxtaposed! Check out Etsy's Cabinet of Curiosities newest team member "Diabolus" of Thanatos fame!

2011-02-08T10:35:00.000-08:00

Unicorn Travesties

2011-02-06T13:28:00.000-08:00

"First born unicorn, hardcore soft porn, dream of Californication" Anthony Kiedis

Unicorn Travesties by Coral Silverman

"In my Unicorn Travesties series I seek to explore the disregard we currently hold for the environment in the context of historical European iconography. Taking the medieval Unicorn Tapestries as my source, I have re-imagined their scenes as set within the modern world. Visually, I am very interested in the flat floral patterning that makes up the backgrounds of some of the tapestries. In many of my pieces I extract floral elements from their “mille fleur” backgrounds, subtly inserting within the works various pieces of urban refuse, such as cigarette butts, soda cans, smashed televisions, etc. I am using it as an ironic metaphor for the American way of life— a comment on our consumption, our disposable way of living, and ultimately our implication in the destruction of the environment."

American Spirits: Not Healthy and Not Native. Smokes for hipsters in headdresses! Another fine example of Native appropriation. Native Americans, despite the Tribal sovereignty that is supposed uphold their taxed exempt status, are being taxed on cigarettes to pay the American deficit!

"But what's left on earth that I haven't tried?" Prince Lír demanded. "I have swum four rivers, each in full flood and some more than a mile wide. I have climbed seven mountains never before climbed, slept three nights in the march of the Hanged Men, and walked alive out of that forest where the flowers burn your eyes and the nightingales sing poison. I have ended my betrothal to the princess I had agreed to marry — and if you don't think that was a heroic deed, you don't know her mother. I have vanquished exactly fifteen black knights, waiting by the ford in their black pavillion, challenging all who came to cross. And I've long since lost count of the witches in the thorny woods, the giants, the demons disguised as damsels, the glass hills, the fatal riddles, and terrible tasks; the magic apples, rings, lamps, potions, swords, cloaks, boots, neckties, and nightcaps. Not to mention the winged horses, the basillisks and sea serpents, and all the rest of the livestock." from The Last Unicorn

related posts:
1.) Little Feather Organics and the Hopi Prophecy
2.) Hipster Appropriation of Native American Culture for Fashion

Parrish Relics

2011-02-05T18:43:00.000-08:00

Parrish Relics

Uncontacted Tribes

2011-02-04T12:10:00.000-08:00

Natura Exenterata

2011-02-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

The Witch of Positano

2011-01-28T12:44:00.000-08:00

"Let it all be animal, my life and death, hard and clean like that, anything but human...a lot I care, me with my red heart in the dark earth and my tattooed feet following the animal ways." Vali Myers ~ 1963

""When Gianni first arrived in the valley of Il Porto at 18 years of age, the exotically beautiful Vali Myers, was the undisputed Queen of the wild canyon. Vali was an extraordinary artist and dancer. A free spirit, who found the Moorish pavilion and its walled garden whilst exploring the deep valley. She made her home there for more than 40 years, collecting a large and varied family of animals."

Shop Update Tomorrow!

2011-01-23T16:07:00.000-08:00

Love Talismans, love elixir and more! The above talismans are worn to attract love founded in honesty and truth. In Mexican Folk Magick, the Hummingbird aka La Chuparosa ((the rose sucker in Spanish)) is a symbol of love, fertility, sex and marriage. The indigenous veneration of the Hummingbird as a divine love deity, Divina Chuparosa, is widespread throughout the Americas. My favorite story is a Mayan legend says the hummingbird is actually the Sun in disguise, and he is trying to court a beautiful woman, who is the Moon. Below is a prayer to the Divine Hummingbird called "Al Poder de la Chuparosa", The Power of the Hummingbird.

Divine Hummingbird,
Who enriches and glorifies
Everything with your Holy Power,
I ask that you enrich my life and love
With your Divine Intercession
So that my lover
Will want only me.
In the same way that you extract honey from flowers,
Extract all misfortune and bad luck
From my life;
I pray you will not forget me,
So that my lover and I may share a relationship
That is honest and true

Good Journey Sister Moon

2011-01-22T02:36:00.000-08:00

Beautiful Trish Keenan of Broadcast passed away last week. saddness...

"It is with great sadness we announce that Trish Keenan from Broadcast passed away at 9am this morning in hospital. She died from complications with pneumonia after battling the illness for two weeks in intensive care. Our thoughts go out to James, Martin, her friends and her family and we request that the public respect their wishes for privacy at this time. This is an untimely tragic loss and we will miss Trish dearly - a unique voice, an extraordinary talent and a beautiful human being. Rest in Peace." ~ Warp Records

"[Psychedelia isn't] a world only reachable by hallucinogens but obtainable by questioning what we think is real and right, by challenging the conventions of form and temper… I discovered psychedelia and it seemed to have self-help properties that allowed me to let go of an immobilizing working class pride that was cementing a false identity into my psyche, stopping me from transforming." ~ Trish Keenan

related links:
Tricks and Treats
Tending the Soil and the Soul
Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age

2011-01-21T23:39:00.000-08:00

creepings...

2011-01-21T12:37:00.000-08:00

Artist: Scott Radke

magick and medicines...

2011-01-18T15:41:00.000-08:00

I'm working on new stuff for my Etsy shop. The girl that was working on my labels for Esoteric Apothecary totally dropped the ball so it really set me back. Que Sera Sera! I'm back in the saddle and have some finished products waiting to be labeled. Bath Salts and Love Butter Balms coming soon!

2011-01-16T20:13:00.001-08:00

Léonor Fini: Une Grande Curiosité

2011-01-13T00:32:00.000-08:00

Leonor Fini (August 30, 1907 – January 18, 1996) Surrealist...Sensualist...

“She is magnificent, perturbing, mocking enigmatic, terrible and compassionate. She is Leonor Fini; painter of the surreal, illustrator of books, theater. Her art is the crack in the mirror, the edge of the equation, the dream of tremendous important half-grasped upon awakening, whose meaning dissolves with daylight.” - Catherine Styles McLeod

My Key to Hell

2011-01-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

Sin is met by Satan at the gates of Hell in Book II of Paradise Lost. She holds the key to Hell's gate and opens the gate so that Satan (her father) can pass through on his way up to heaven. Sin has no mother but was born out of Satan himself at his rebellious assembly in heaven, both an allegorical representation of his sin against God and a parody of God's creation of the Son. Sin is 'woman to the waist' (II.650) and has a fish's tail, but she shifts shape and is constantly re-forming and breeding, giving birth to dog-like young. She has no control over these changes but is held captive by cruel pregnancies in a body in perpetual labour, cursed by her own fertility. Satan raped his daughter in heaven, and she gave birth to Death.

Babalon voluntarily decended into the underworld, to awaken the power of the Beast for the purposes of Initiation. So far as the ‘sinful’ nature of the Scarlet Woman is concerned, it is interesting to note that in Hebrew the word “sin” actually means “thorn” and “clay”. Thorny plants such as the acacia or rose symbolise the horns of the crescent moon. The moon itself, like the clay shaped by the hands of the divine potter, is a symbol of the body and the natural soul. Liber AL vel Legis describes the Scarlet Woman as being “a moon” (I: 16); as a moon, she is containment and receptivity, as well as the division into parts of cyclical, phasic existence.

Witcheries...

2011-01-06T16:48:00.000-08:00

I've been working on some new jewelry replete with magick! The one below was fun to make. It has a little protection spell in it to ward of demons: powdered asafoetida and dragon's blood resin kissed with sealing waxed! Hopefully I'll have my Etsy shop loaded up soon, but I have a mad stalker breaking into my etsy account. I been trying to communicate with "supportbots" for three weeks. The temporary numeric passwords they give me so I can reset my password don't work. Does anyone out there have any Etsy employee connects!? I can't log into my own frikkin' account!

I'm slowly getting all my magicka materia together to complete a body of work. I made a divination horn for scrying. I used a polished ram's horn stuffed with herbs and hazel twigs supplied by the lovely Witch of Forest Grove. Hazel is the Tree of divination and prophecy. The inspiration for this piece is rooted in Palo Mayombe and Bantu magic, medicine, religion.

Golden Gardens

2010-12-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

Dreamscapes and Anthems for Magical Minds

pipe dreams

2010-12-28T15:43:00.000-08:00

Maya Deren

2010-12-27T14:24:00.000-08:00

"I make my pictures for what Hollywood spends on lipstick."

Maya Deren (April 29, 1917, Kiev – October 13, 1961, New York City), born Eleanora Derenkowsky, was an American avant-garde filmmaker and film theorist of the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, poet, writer and photographer. Her social circle included Marcel Duchamp, André Breton, John Cage, and Anaïs Nin.

When Maya Deren decided to make an ethnographic film in Haiti, she was criticized for abandoning avantgarde film where she had carved her place, but she was ready to expand to a new level as an artist. The Guggenheim grant enabled Deren to finance travel to Haiti in 1947 and to complete her film "Meditation on Violence". She went on three additional trips through 1954 to document and record the rituals of vodoun. A source of inspiration for ritual dance was Katherine Dunham who wrote her master’s thesis on Haitian dances in 1939, which Deren edited. Afterwards Deren wrote several articles on religious possession in dancing before her first trip to Haiti. Deren not only filmed, recorded and photographed many hours of vodoun ritual, but also participated in the ceremonies. She documented her knowledge and experience of Vodoun in Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (New York: Vanguard Press, 1953), edited by Joseph Campbell, which is considered a definitive source on the subject. Deren filmed 18,000 feet of Vodoun rituals and people she met in Haiti. The footage was incorporated into a posthumous documentary film Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti edited and produced by Teiji Itō and his wife Cherel Winett Itō.

2010-12-26T21:11:00.000-08:00

Mood Board: The Loo #2

2010-12-22T04:38:00.000-08:00

Grow where you're planted? That's the question! Although I'd like to move to the West Coast for a while, but I figure I'll be in Chicago for a while longer so I'm going to finish fixing up my humble abode. You may remember my last bathroom Mood board...and here's the latest bathroom inspiration.

2010-12-21T12:44:00.001-08:00

Unica Zürn ~ Orakel und Spektacle

2010-12-19T02:43:00.000-08:00

"Unica Zürn (1916-1970), a German Surrealist painter/writer made a series of psychologically intense line drawings that combine Surrealist automatism with the mania of Outsider Art and a certain residue of contemporary experiments in psychedelic drugs. Erotic and trancelike, the works depict fantastic chimeras, bizarre creatures with double faces that represent multiplications of herself, either repeated across the page or set in intricate dream landscapes of mystic animals and otherworldly plant forms. Unica Zürn's “hallucinatory chimeras” prime examples of the surrealist technique of automatic drawing." A Stone for Unica Zurn

An excerpt from:
Dark Spring by Unica Zürn

Each time, she finds herself tormented by her terrible fear of the rattling skeleton of a huge gorilla, which she believes inhabits the house at night. The sole purpose of his existence is to strangle her to death. In passing, she looks, as she does every night, at the large Rubens painting depicting "The Rape of the Sabine Women." These two naked, rotund women remind her of her mother and fill her with loathing. But she adores the two dark, handsome robbers, who lift the women onto their rearing horses. She implores them to protect her from the gorilla. She idolizes a whole series of fictional heroes who return her gaze from the old, dark paintings that hang throughout the house. One of them reminds her of Douglas Fairbanks, whom she adored as a pirate and as the "Thief of Baghdad" in the movie theater at school. She is sorry she must be a girl. She wants to be a man, in his prime, with a black beard and flaming black eyes. But she is only a little girl whose body is bathed in sweat from fear of discovering the terrible gorilla in her room, under her bed. She is tortured by fears of the invisible.

Who knows whether or not the skeleton will crawl up the twines of ivy that grow on the wall below her window, and then slip into her room. His mass of hard and pointed bones will simply crush her inside her bed. Her fear turns into a catastrophe when she accidentally bumps into the sabers, which fall off the wall with a clatter in the dark. She runs to her room as fast as she can and slams the door shut behind her. She turns the key and bolts the door. One again, she has come out of this alive. Who knows what will happen tomorrow night?

Ödland

2010-12-08T16:23:00.000-08:00

Zoophyte is the first vinyl 45 turns of Ödland. It celebrates the two years of existence of the group, on December 13, 2010, magic day of the Holy Lucie. Animal kingdoms and plant are studied in this disc, are confronted, exposed their respective strategies to preserve the life vis-a-vis chaos. On the first face, Cecidomyiidae is a species of scabious flies which reproduce at a tremendous speed, formant of fantastic families of famished females of sheets. Over the second face, one learns that the Flowering of the bamboos takes place only once per century at certain species to protect itself from the predatory ones, by submerging them under too full with food. At the XIXe century, one called Zoophyte the living beings which one could not distinguish if they were Animal or Vegetable. This disc of Ödland is located on this border, where mix the rites, the fight for survival and sexuality under the eye of Darwin. A vinyl invaluable, cordial, where Activité and Passivity are measured. Each of the 200 specimens is numbered and signed by the group.

metamorphosis delayed...

2010-12-08T16:14:00.000-08:00

~ artist unknown