Robert Bartlett
www.RealAlchemy.org | www.AlchemyStudy.com | www.AlchemyConference.com
Robert Allen Bartlett is a practicing alchemist, professional chemist and author. His interest in the sciences prompted him to construct his own home laboratory when only 9 years old. Robert’s interest in the ancient use of natural materials lead him to the study of alchemical works at the age of 12, and it has become his lifelong passion. In 1974, he left San Jose State University to pursue an intensive course of alchemical study at the Paracelsus Research Society (later Paracelsus College) under the guidance of Frater Albertus. In 1979, he received his B.S. Degree in chemistry and immediately began work at Paracelsus Laboratories as Chief Chemist. Working closely with Frater Albertus, Robert developed a wide range of mineral and metallic preparations following Western and Eastern alchemical traditions. Later, he was selected to become a Director of Research at Tristar, the future vision of Frater Albertus, which would combine the Paracelsus College, Paralab, and a Healing Arts Center into one complex. Unfortunately, with the death of Frater Albertus in 1984, both the college and Paralab closed their doors, and the Tristar dream was never realized.
Robert’s pursuit of alchemical research never diminished, as he continued his career as a research scientist and Chemistry Department Manager for a large materials testing laboratory. In this new environment, he has been able to document alchemical experiments using the very latest in scientific instrumentation.
Robert is currently living in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and two daughters where he has been teaching classes and giving workshops on practical alchemy since 2002. He is an instructor with the IAGonline Alchemy School as well as having a physical school in the NW, Spagyric Institute of Alchemy. He presents the Spagyrics Workshop at the International Alchemy Conference each year, and is also a keynote speaker. His books, Real Alchemy, A Primer of Practical Alchemy and The Way of the Crucible, are available under the Ibis Press.
Alchemy in the 21st Century
A brief look at the Laboratory Tradition of Alchemy and the resurgence of interest in this ancient Art. We will take a look at spagyrics and what that means; explore and learn the Secret Tradition behind it all.
Spagyric is a term coined by Paracelsus in the 16th Century meaning to separate and recombine. The Alchemist’s goal is to separate the plant or mineral into its basic Mind, Body, Spirit; perfect each portion; then resurrect it to a new and “living” tincture that works on the subtle as well as the physical body.
We will explore the history of Alchemy from its origins in Ancient Egypt (Khemia), and trace its trek through the Middle East and India, through the Golden Age, and explore the split between Alchemy and Chemistry that arose later. Take a look at the beginnings of the resurrection of Alchemy in the 1970′s with PRS and Frater Albertus and his vision of Tristar, which today is on the brink of being realized and manifested by serious visionaries working toward that goal. We will look at plates from various Alchemical texts showing laboratory methods and slides of minerals processed in the lab and explore the possibilities for future natural medicines and exotic materials and fuels.
Brian Butler
Brian Butler is a musician, writer, and filmmaker living in Los Angeles. He has written on occult related subjects for numerous publications including Dazed and Confused and Vestoj. His essay, Wormwood Star, which details the life of Jack Parson’s wife and muse Marjorie Cameron was first published in Disinformation’s Book of Lies (2003). He has appeared on television internationally as an expert on the occult and worked as a consultant for Showtime Networks Development on the biopic of Jack Parsons. He heads his own occult order in Los Angeles, which is based on these teachings and is in the process of publishing his extensive research on the subject.
He frequently collaborates with Kenneth Anger, recently producing the films Brush of Baphomet, Ich Will and Missoni. He also performs with Anger in the band Technicolor Skull. Butler recently directed the films Night of Pan, featuring Vincent Gallo and Kenneth Anger, and Loch Ness Magick, which was filmed on the grounds of Boleskine House, Scotland. His films have screened internationally — the National Film Museum in Beijing, ZDB Gallery in Lisbon, Festival Internazionale Del Film Di Roma, the Athens Biennale, Cannes Film Festival, and the Tate Modern, London.
Marjorie Cameron: The Rituals of The Wormwood Star
Known for her work as an artist, occultist poet, and actress, Marjorie Cameron was the wife of Jack Parsons and assisted him in one of the most important occult rituals of this century, the Babalon Working. Following the tragic death of Parsons, Cameron went on to perform a series of strange workings of her own design. These rituals were devised to invoke her Holy Guardian Angel and to create a Magical Child, sired by Parsons from beyond the grave. The resulting visionary states were reflected in Cameron’s art, poetry, and films.
Vere Chappell
Vere Chappell is a writer, photographer, and researcher specializing in sexuality and spirituality. He travels extensively, studying and documenting sacred sexuality in art, history, and culture around the world. A recognized expert on Ida Craddock, he is the author of Sexual Outlaw, Erotic Mystic: The Essential Ida Craddock (Red Wheel/Weiser, 2010) and editor of Craddock’s Lunar and Sex Worship (Teitan Press, 2010). He holds a doctorate in human sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, and is an international officer of Ordo Templi Orientis. He lives in Southern California with his wife and colleague, Lita-Luise Chappell.
Ida Craddock: Sexual Outlaw & Erotic Mystic
Ida Craddock was a late nineteenth century advocate for women’s rights who helped hundreds with her sex counseling and marriage manuals. She was also an avid occultist who reported having sexual intercourse with angelic beings. Her work was highly praised by Aleister Crowley, but condemned by moral purists of the time. Although suffering exile, commitment to an insane asylum, and hard labor in prison, Ida’s courage and refusal to compromise her beliefs would lead to her ultimate triumph, even in death. In this lecture we will explore the life of this fascinating woman and her writings on sex magick, mysticism, belly dancing, and intercourse with angels.
Barbara Cormack
Barbara Cormack is the primary editor of Ladies of the Lodge and has been working in the Golden Dawn system for ten years. She is a founding member of the OSOGD and currently serves as its First Adept and Cancellarius General. Barbara holds initiations in three different traditions of Wicca and has served the Pagan communities on the east and west coasts.
The Ladies of the Lodge: Women of Today’s Golden Dawn Speak on the Practice of Magick
Contributors from several orders and multiple nations address Golden Dawn magick and the place of women in the Order. The primary editor, the commissioning editor, Dr. Amy Hale, and several of the authors including Merilee Catero, Dana Alvara, Kat Lunoe and Brandy Williams, will be present to discuss their writings and the findings of this collaborative project.
Orryelle Defenestrate Bascule
SOLVE et COAGULA
Two special performances, ‘SOLVE’ and/et ‘COAGULA’, one towards the end of each day of the conference, will engage attendees in the process of metamorphosis of Orryelle’s sculptures on display throughout the Conference. Some of the sculptural transformations will take place during these musical and theatrical performances, but look out for progressive changes in the exhibition throughout the day also…
Orryelle’s other work being exhibited at the Conference will relate to this production too, being drawings from COAGULA (Fulgur Limited 2011) and SOLVE (Fulgur, projected for 2012). Thus the performances and metamorphic sculpture sit as a fulcrum between these alchemical tomes and the processes they embody (its chronology similarly reversed to demonstrate a progressive spiral).
The Ancient Greek bard Orpheus can never return to the Underworld after seeking his lost love there. Immortalised yet unable to appreciate His eternal body, he was torn limb from limb by the Maenads, wildwomen in the retinue of Dionysos. The disembodied head floated off down the river of Acheron, singing ever…
A head, alone on the currents, adrift on the elements, found by the Knights Templar and become their oracle…
A head, having learnt presence, disembodied yet with heightened senses, aware now of the power of the physical form in which it is forever encased, wise and carnal, desires to make a new body…
Featuring Orryelle’s new diSolve-ing and Coagula-ting life-size statue, ‘SOLVE’ et/and ‘COAGULA’ are intense pieces of Metamorphic Ritual Theatre reworking and entwining ancient myths in a new musical production with black-light theatre and kinetic sculptural installation.
It is part of an ongoing project which is aimed to culminate at the Grave of Orpheus in Bulgaria (Ancient Thrace) in 2012.
A small book with the verse of the production, written and illustrated by Orryelle, will be available at the Conference, also including full production credits and a CD of the music.
O Msenomyne
Memory
Begetter of Inspiration
Mother of Muses
Lover of Losers
Help us to reMember, to gather the Lost pieces
For when our limbs are sundered
Our body dismembered
Our head disembodied
Our ego maimed
Then may we remember
Our missing member
And the embers be blown back to flame
Gordan Djurdjevic
Gordan Djurdjevic holds a Ph.D. degree from the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. His main research interests are vernacular traditions of Yoga and Tantra, contemporary Occultism, Thelema, and comparative Esotericism. He is the author of Masters of Magical Powers: The Nath Yogis in the Light of Esoteric Notions (VDM: 2008) and India and the Occult: The Influence of South Asian Spirituality on Western Esoteric Tradition (Equinox: 2012, forthcoming), and he is co-editor, with Henrik Bogdan, of an anthology, Occultism in a Global Perspective (Equinox: 2013, forthcoming).
Making The Mundane Magical: Aleister Crowley’s Magus Initiation and the Practice of Esoteric Hermeneutics
Aleister Crowley inherited a model of spiritual attainment — with certain modifications — from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. According to this system, the three highest initiatic grades are the Magister Templi, Magus, and Ipsissimus. My presentation will take as a point of departure the particulars of Crowley’s Magus initiation, the major part of which occurred while he was living in New York City during WWI. The initiation took its definite form within the context of ordinary life, commencing with the perception that the women he was interacting with assumed the resemblance and role of hierophants wearing animal masks of the Egyptian gods. In a similar vein, Crowley’s choice between two particular lovers — an apparently mundane issue — assumed the nature of a magical test of his fitness for the grade. The underlying modus operandi of the initiation had its root in the Oath of the Magister Templi, which contained the clause: “I will interpret every phenomenon as a particular dealing of God with my soul.” This oath thus engages an esoteric technique that consists of the interpretation of everyday reality as spiritually meaningful and leads to the sanctification of the mundane. I elaborate on the Magus initiation explained as the ‘reading of reality’ by providing some cross-cultural instances of similarly conducted practice as it is done in Soto Zen (Genjo-koan), Sufism (ta’wil) and in Roland Barthes’ semiology. On the basis of these examples and their importance, I argue that hermeneutics, whether understood as reading of texts or of reality as a text, requires closer attention in the study and practice of esotericism.
John Major Jenkins
JohnMajorJenkins.com | the2012story.com
John Major Jenkins offers a breakthrough reconstruction of ancient Maya cosmology and philosophy in a body of work that spans three decades. His pioneering theories began in the 1980s and continued with Tzolkin (1992), Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 (1998) and Galactic Alignment (2002). His most recent work, The 2012 Story: The Myths, Fallacies, and Truth Behind the Most Intriguing Date in History, explores the ongoing reconstruction of Maya cosmology, myth and prophecy, firmly rooting it in authentic Maya traditions. John’s work also reveals an underlying current of perennial wisdom in Maya thought — the way that human beings on earth encounter transcendent wisdom and higher intelligences. He has appeared in major media outlets and documentaries internationally. An incisive observer of modern cultural trends, and a critic of both academic and popular misinformation in the 2012 discussion, John brings a discerning voice to complicated issues involving indigenous paradigms, shamanism, Maya astronomy, and 2012 studies.
Lord Jaguar and 2012: A Maya King Reaches Through Time
John will present new breakthroughs in understanding 2012, based on a 7th-century inscription carved by a Maya king named Lord Jaguar. Revealing of how 2012 was being used by the ancient Maya, and what it meant for them, Jenkins explains the startling evidence that Lord Jaguar intended to reach through the centuries and play a role in a sacrifice ritual intended for the 13-baktun cycle end-date, December 21, 2012. If, in his discarnate visitation, he can successfully perform that rite, transformation and world renewal will follow. But who will summon Lord Jaguar?
Justin Patrick Moore
Justin Patrick Moore is a dreamer, writer, radio personality, and artistic audio alchemist, who also dabbles in visual collage and other media. He is Hieromemnon of the Hermaphroditic ChAOrder of the Silver Dusk, a member of the Horus-Maat Lodge, and a student in the Robert Moss school of Active Dreaming. He has been a radio personality for over ten years, having his start with The Psychedelicatessin on the pirate station Anti-Watt. His current radio show, On the Way to the Peak of Normal, airs weekly on the community station WAIF 88.3 FM in Cincinnati, Ohio where he transmits Magick on the airwaves, broadcasting the best in independent and underground music. He is also a contributing writer for the website Brainwashed.com. He makes hearth and home in Cincinnati with his wife and children. Books have been very good to Justin who has worked in a Library for over a decade.
The Library Angel and Its Oracle
It is my belief that books are telepathic. As records of peoples thoughts and feelings, they act as intermediaries between people spread out across vast distances of time and space. Ideas mix, mingle, and often bear new children among humans who are avid readers. This is how books have learned to communicate with each other. For scholars, researchers, and writers, new ideas often arrive synchronistically when the right book appears to them at the right time. Information needed to pursue a given idea, or to help bridge ideas together is brought to writers who follow the helpful play of coincidence. Arthur Koestler described such occurrences as being the action of an Agency he dubbed the Library Angel, whom he said is ”in charge of providing cross references.” The Library Angel is at work when books fall off the shelf to help a person learn something they need to know, or when a discovery is made by finding a book shelved in the wrong place. The Library Angel provides the ultimate form of bibliomancy.
In the Qabalah there is an Angel known as Harahel (also Herochiel or Herachiel) one of the 72 names of the Shemhamphorae. This Angel is associated with archives, libraries, cabinets containing rarities, and publishing. Harahel is thus the name of the Library Angel, a being available to help writers, editors, and others involved in the book trade and the business of books. These themes are explored through history, personal and shared anecdotal evidence of Harahel in action, and dreams. The Library as a divine entity in its own right is also discussed. Consciously working with Harahel has interesting implications for Libraries, small and specialty presses and the Esoteric Book Community in general. The Library Angel is also a Literary Agent who can further invigorate the plethora of magicians, writers and presses working in the esoteric field.
George Sieg
Dr. George Sieg’s primary research interests in the field of esotericism have been occult warfare beliefs (on which he submitted his thesis at the University of Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism) and the sinister tradition in contemporary Satanism. His forthcoming articles include an article concerning the theme of occult warfare in the context of esotericism and politics, as well as an analysis of developments in Satanic groups inspired by the Order of Nine Angles. Currently an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico teaching living world religions and the history of western civilization, Dr. Sieg’s previous publications concerning esotericism include a consideration of antinomianism in Japanese Tantric Buddhism, published in Oracle, an analysis of the theme of detached action in the karma yoga of the Bhagavad-Gita in Scarlet Imprint’s Devoted, and an evaluation of the apocalyptic theme in occult warfare belief in Scarlet Imprint’s XVI. He has also written on the theme of conceptual horror in the post-modern philosophy journal Collapse.
Michael Staley
Michael Staley has been a member of the Typhonian Order for more than thirty years. He is the editor and publisher of Starfire, an occasional Thelemic journal which first appeared in 1986. The founder of Starfire Publishing, now in its 25th year, he has been for many years the publisher of the late Kenneth Grant. A collector of Spare’s art, and immersed in Spare’s work for many years now, Michael is particularly interested in how this work resonates with other mystical and magical traditions.
Transmitting the Sacred Fire
There is a mystical and magical vision, first articulated in The Book of Pleasure and subsequently developed in his art, which burns at the heart of much of Spare’s drawings and paintings. In this illustrated talk, Michael discusses Spare’s vision with illustrated reference to several pictures which communicate it particularly clearly, drawing in particular on the mature 1950s writings of Spare published in Zos Speaks.
Two early pen, ink and watercolour sketchbooks by Spare from 1905/6 are being published by Starfire Publishing as Two Grimoires, which has its international launch at this Conference.
Craig Williams
Craig Williams is an initiated member of La Societe Voudon Gnostique and Ecclesia Gnostica Aerterna. He is one of the few westerners to receive the prestigious Veda Kovid title from David Frawley and the American Institute of Vedic Studies, acknowledging extensive and initiated study of Tantra, Ayurveda, Vedic Astrolgy, Yoga and Vedanta. He holds Bachelor’s Degrees in Religious Studies, Philosophy and English Literature with a focus on Gnosticism and Eastern Religion, and holds a Master’s Degree in Oriental Medicine. Craig is a licensed acupuncturist and clinical herbalist in private practices, and is a professional member of the American Herbalist Guild and the National Ayurvedic Medical Association. Craig’s writings are featured in an upcoming release from Fulgur, Atua: Voices of La Societe Voudon Gnostique.
Voice of the Dark Goddess
This lecture will explore the various expressions of the Dark Goddess Kali and Her connection to western esotericism in general and the Voudon Gnosis current in particular. The talk will explore in depth the Tantric Goddesses Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, and Dhumavati reveal how They function as doorways to deeper levels of magical consciousness and liberation. We will explore the use of mantra in ritual work and examine the Tantric philosophy of the Dark Goddess as the revelation of Kosmic Gnosis. The presentation will include discussion of Goddess imagery, explanation of the use of specific Tantric mantras, history of the Dark Goddesses and Their connection to Voudon Gnosis.
Golden Dawn Prosperity Ritual
To be held at a separate location at the close of Sunday, before the EBC After Conference Reception. All conference attendees are welcome.
These days everyone could use a little help in the prosperity department. The classical Golden Dawn developed a powerful method for using the rites of the Neophyte Hall to do practical magick including talisman consecration, which we will apply to increasing prosperity for every one in the Hall. The Z-formula, as the method was called, was a re-writing of the rites for a single person, but the OSOGD reverse-engineered them back into a beautiful group ritual. We will be looking to the local GD lodges to fill out the officers (please be in touch!) and since the ritual is participatory, everyone will have something to do, if you wish, or you can just sit back and enjoy the spectacle.
The Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn is a group of Pagans who have come together since 2001 to study the Mysteries of Hermetic Magick. Our goal is to normalize adeptship: to make the art of magick more prevalent in the world.