‘Let there be songs to fill the air’

     
In my music tastes, I long ago left behind, but sometimes revisit, the sounds I enjoyed in my youth, and last night was one of those time-travel occasions. Robert Hunter, lyricist of the Grateful Dead, performed at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester. This is not the same as seeing the Dead, which I had on a dozen or more nights between 1983 and, maybe, 1991. Mr. Hunter is not dynamic; his performance: a man and his guitar. Never a powerful vocalist, his singing today is that of an elderly man who battled cancer and who wants to enjoy playing his music to audiences while he still can.

Robert Hunter at the Capitol Theatre
in Port Chester, New York last night.

It is unfortunate that his music and the entire Grateful Dead experience were made synonymous in most people’s minds with seedy hedonism: the rampant drug consumption, poor hygiene, and general annoyance of the locusts who followed the band around the country and even outside the country. (I make a distinction between genuine music-lovers who, however they made it possible, toured with the band in some culture of idealist escapism, and those who came along around the time that I did, but who were determined to become part of a world they didn’t understand. They were a “believing is seeing” kind of folk, born too late to be hippies and figuring they had to capture a lifestyle from an earlier time, to put it as gently as I can.)

Projection upon the theater walls last night.

Or maybe my grasp of that situation is lacking, but the point of this edition of The Magpie Mind is the spiritual content of Hunter’s music, something that doesn’t get a lot of attention. (I think it funny that the iconography of the Grateful Dead, which is dominated by enough skulls and roses to make a Rosicrucian’s head explode, seems never to spark any conversation in esoteric circles.) Let me cite this tiny article from the Summer 1994 issue of Gnosis magazine, the painfully missed quarterly periodical on spiritual and esoteric subjects, to lead into some samples of Hunter’s lyrics from the songs he performed last night. Excerpted:


Robert Hunter is primarily known as the lyricist for the Grateful Dead, but he has also recorded many albums of his own, and his songs have been recorded by the likes of Bob Dylan. While never quite identifying himself as an esotericist, Hunter has written a whole corpus of visionary verse to rival Coleridge, outlining way stations between death and rebirth (Terrapin Station), celebrating the breaking through of gnosis (St. Stephen, Scarlet Begonias), or warning the seeker of unrealistic expectations of the afterlife (One Thing to Try, Stella Blue). His lyrics, which he readily concedes as sometimes being the work of his muses, have weird ways of becoming self-fulfilling prophecies (Uncle John’s Band, Playing in the Band), and there’s no doubt that his songs have launched thousands of peak experiences, with our without chemical enhancement. His most famous work, Ripple, details the sweet electric shock of suddenly knowing that the Unnamable Presence is in the room:

If my words did glow

with the gold of sunshine

and my tunes were played

on the harp unstrung

would you hear my voice

come through the music

and hold it near

as it were your own?

Without preaching, without dogma, Hunter has provided the voice of the Spirit to a generation, many of whom could no longer find it in their received traditions. References to Christ are multidimensional:

What you gonna call that pretty baby?

You must call it one thing or another.

This one parted water

that one walked upon

Perhaps I’ll call this child

a Rose of Sharon.

While I’m at it, might as well explain the name Grateful Dead. From Funk & Wagnall’s New Practical Dictionary of the English Language, Britannica World Language Edition, Volume One, 1955. Click the image to enlarge.


Grateful Dead – The motif of a cycle of folk tales which begin with the hero’s coming upon a group of people ill-treating or refusing to bury the corpse of a man who had died without paying his debts. He gives his last penny, either to pay the man’s debts or to give him a decent burial. Within a few hours he meets with a traveling companion who aids him in some impossible task, gets him a fortune, saves his life, etc. The story ends with the companion’s disclosing himself as the man whose corpse the other had befriended.

But about the lyrics, just a few songs to consider:

Dire Wolf

In the timbers of Fennario

the wolves are running round

The winter was so hard and cold

froze ten feet neath the ground

Don’t murder me

I beg of you don't murder me

Please 
don’t murder me

I sat down to my supper

T’was a bottle of red whiskey

I said my prayers and went to bed

That’s the last they saw of me

Don’t murder me

I beg of you don’t murder me

Please
don't murder me

When I awoke, the Dire Wolf

Six hundred pounds of sin

Was grinnin at my window

All I said was “come on in”

Don’t murder me

I beg of you don’t murder me

Please
don’t murder me

The wolf came in, I got my cards

We sat down for a game

I cut my deck to the Queen of Spades

but the cards were all the same

Don’t murder me

I beg of you don’t murder me

Please
don’t murder me

In the backwash of Fennario

The black and bloody mire

The Dire Wolf collects his due

while the boys sing round the fire

Don’t murder me

I beg of you don’t murder me

Please
don’t murder me

Brokedown Palace

Fare you well my honey

Fare you well my only true one

All the birds that were singing

Have flown except you alone

Goin to leave this Brokedown Palace

On my hands and my knees I will roll roll roll

Make myself a bed by the waterside

In my time - in my time - I will roll roll roll

In a bed, in a bed

by the waterside I will lay my head

Listen to the river sing sweet songs

to rock my soul

River gonna take me

Sing me sweet and sleepy

Sing me sweet and sleepy

all the way back back home

It’s a far gone lullaby

sung many years ago

Mama, Mama, many worlds I’ve come

since I first left home

Goin home, goin home

by the waterside I will rest my bones

Listen to the river sing sweet songs

to rock my soul

Goin to plant a weeping willow

On the banks green edge it will grow grow grow

Sing a lullaby beside the water

Lovers come and go - the river roll roll roll

Fare you well, fare you well

I love you more than words can tell

Listen to the river sing sweet songs

to rock my soul

Ripple

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine

And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung

Would you hear my voice come through the music?

Would you hold it near, as it were your own?

It’s a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken

Perhaps they’re better left unsung

I don't know, don’t really care

Let there be songs to fill the air

Ripple in still water

When there is no pebble tossed

Nor wind to blow

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty

If your cup is full may it be again

Let it be known there is a fountain

That was not made by the hands of man

There is a road, no simple highway

Between the dawn and the dark of night

And if you go, no one may follow

That path is for your steps alone

Ripple in still water

When there is no pebble tossed

Nor wind to blow

You who choose to lead must follow

But if you fall, you fall alone

If you should stand, then who’s to guide you?

If I knew the way, I would take you home

All lyrics Copyright © Robert Hunter.

    

‘Occult Conference in October’

     

SOLD OUT

as of October 9

First, some clarity of the word “occult,” because there are too many people with Sunday school mentalities. From John Michael Greer’s The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Hidden History:

“Derived from the Latin word occultus, “hidden” or “secret,” the word “occult” was first applied to magic in the late Middle Ages. Until very recent times it was an adjective rather than a noun: the first recorded use of “the occult” in English dates from 1923, while “occultism” is only a little older, dating from 1881. Before then, magic and its sister arts, such as alchemy and astrology, were called “occult sciences” or “occult philosophy,” meaning simply that they were hidden and abstruse.”

Okay? In today’s usage, it is synonymous with esoteric.

Here now the news:

Next month, New York University will co-host, with Phantasmaphile and Observatory, a weekend conference to present a variety of scholars, researchers, and artists who explore various occult traditions. The Occult Humanities Conference: Contemporary Art and Scholarship on the Esoteric Traditions will take place October 18-20 at the Barney Building, the home of NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, located at 34 Stuyvesant Street in the East Village.

The Occult Humanities Conference:

Contemporary Art and Scholarship

on the Esoteric Traditions

October 18 through 20

New York University’s Steinhardt School

34 Stuyvesant Street, New York City

Three-Day Pass: $90 • Single-Day Admission: $50

Tickets are available here.

From the publicity:

Courtesy OHC

The arts and humanities at present are acutely interested in subjects related to the occult tradition. The tradition represents a rich and varied visual culture that displays a complex set of relations at once culturally specific and global in their transmission. Roughly defined, the occult tradition represents a series of culturally syncretic belief systems with related and overlapping visual histories. Though there are as many ways into this material as there are cultural—and personal—perspectives, universal occult concerns often include a belief in some sort of magic; a longing to connect with an immaterial or trans-personal realm; and a striving for inner-knowledge, refinement of the self, and transformation of one’s consciousness—if not one’s physical circumstances.

Intensely marginalized throughout most historical periods, these traditions persist and represent an ‘underground’ perspective that periodically exerts a strong influence on structures of dissent, utopianism and social change. Though history is marked with several so-called “Occult Revivals,” the contemporary digital age is a perfect confluence of several factors that make this moment prime for a re-examination of all of the esoteric traditions. While the information age has allowed for easier access to previously obscure writings, imagery, and social contexts, it alternately elicits a deep desire for sensorial experiences and meaning-making once one steps away from the screen.

The presenters at the OHC represent a rich and expanding community of international artists and academics from multiple disciplines across the humanities who share an exuberance and excitement for how the occult traditions interface with their fields of study as well as the culture at large. The small scale of this conference (approximately 100 attendees) will give ticket holders an intimate look at the presenters and their views.

The visually oriented presentations will be coupled with exhibition of artworks by several presenters and artisanal books from Fulgur Esoterica and Ouroboros Press. Books and editions from Fulgur Esoterica, Ouroboros Press and Catland will be available for sale throughout the duration of the conference.

The Presentations:

Like A Messenger to the Deep:

Deciphering the Occult in Leonora Carrington

The British-born Mexican Surrealist Leonora Carrington created a large body of work including paintings, drawings, sculpture, tapestries, jewelry, theatrical scenery and costumes, as well as a significant amount of fiction (short stories, plays, novellas). Much of the content of her work has been deemed undecipherable and has thus been relegated to the realm of nursery rhyme, surrealist fantasy and mythology. This presentation will use a previously unpublished drawing of Carrington’s as a jump off point with which to explore the artist’s occult interests, which were wide-ranging and actually clearly articulated in her work. The esoteric artwork of other Surrealists, many of whom were her friends, will be used as points of comparison.

Susan L. Aberth is Associate Professor of Art History at Bard College, Annandaleon-Hudson, New York. She teaches modern Latin American art, with a particular interest in Surrealism and religious traditions. She also teaches Latin American art at the Christie’s Education Master of Arts Program, New York. Author of Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy, and Art (Lund Humphries, London and in Spanish with Turner, Madrid, 2004); Agustín Fernández: The Metamorphosis of Experience (with Donald Kuspit, Rocio Aranda-Alvarado and Abby McEwen) (5Continents, Milan, 2012); and numerous other articles and catalogue essays. In addition to the art of Latin America, her teaching and research interests are in outsider art, fraternal orders, the occult, religion and popular culture.

Saturday Night Performance:

Occult Magic With Magician Acep Hale

Until modern times there was no division between the branches of magic. Acep Hale will be presenting a collection of classic street performing tricks that have been passed down through centuries in a continuous link from the times when magicians wandered the earth, entertaining, healing, and divining for the communities they traveled through.

Acep Hale is a street-performing magician, musician, traveler, and rogue gentleman scholar. Driven by the 19th century belief in propaganda by deed he performs daily on street corners everywhere to prove that magic still lives around every bend, you don’t need a nine to five to stay alive, and hope springs eternal between the cracks of every sidewalk.

Adventures in Limbo:

The Neither-Neither World of Austin Osman Spare

Austin Osman Spare was an English occult artist working in the early-to-mid 20th Century. In this 45-minute audio-visual journey, we are invited to explore Austin Spare’s approach to creating magical art through an analysis of his own words and images. His liminal methods are then compared with composers working during his lifetime. The lecture includes a soundtrack by John Contreras (of Current 93 and Baby Dee) that was composed uniquely for this presentation.

Robert Ansell is a publisher, art dealer, curator and scholar. His field of expertise is esoteric art of the 20th century with a specific focus on Austin Osman Spare. Through his company Fulgur Esoterica, he has represented esoteric artists in book form since 1992. In recent years he has also gained note as an independent art curator specializing in the esoteric. Robert is also the publisher and art editor of Abraxas Journal, which has been described as today’s pre-eminent voice for the serious study of occult and esoteric expression. His published work includes; AOS Ex-Libris (1988), The Book of Ugly Ecstasy (1996), Borough Satyr (2005), The Valley of Fear (2008), The Exhibition Catalogues of Austin O. Spare (2011) and The Focus of Life (2012). He has been interviewed for the BBC Culture Show, the blog Boing Boing, and Dazed and Confused.

Jesse Bransford:

The Planets, A Ten Year Working

In the summer of 2013 Jesse Bransford completed a long-term project involving a study of the seven planets of antiquity. Begun in late 2004, The seven celestial bodies, the Sun, Mars, Mercury, the Moon, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn were each taken in turn and studied for approximately a year. The research generated seven discreet bodies of work that trace the self-initiation of the artist into a much larger (and stranger) world.

Jesse Bransford (Conference Co-organizer) is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work is exhibited internationally at venues including the Carnegie Museum of Art, the UCLA Hammer Museum, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center and the CCA Wattis Museum among others. He holds degrees from the New School for Social Research (BA), Parsons School of Design (BFA) and Columbia University (MFA). An associate professor of art at New York University, Bransford’s work has been involved with belief and the visual systems it creates since the 1990s. Early research into color meaning and cultural syncretism led to the occult traditions in general and the work of John Dee and Henry Cornelius Agrippa specifically. His work is represented by Feature Inc. in New York and can be seen extensively documented on the website sevenseven.com, a site he has operated and maintained since 1997.

Elijah Burgher:

Topple the Table of Correspondences

Elijah Burgher will give an artist’s talk about his drawings and paintings. He will also discuss the influence of artist-sorcerors, such as Austin Osman Spare, William S. Burroughs, Genesis P-Orridge and John Balance, on his work.

Elijah Burgher (b. 1978, U.S.A.) is an artist and occasional writer, currently living in Chicago. He makes drawings and paintings that utilize ideas from magick and the occult to address sexuality, sub-cultural formation and the history of abstraction. He has exhibited in solo shows at Western Exhibitions, Chicago (2012, 2013); 2nd Floor Projects, San Francisco (2011); and Shane Campbell Gallery, Oak Park (2010); and two-person shows at Lump, Raleigh (2012); and Peregrine Program, Chicago (2009). Recent group shows include exhibitions at the Witte de With, Rotterdam (2013); H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art, Kenosha (2012); 92YTribeca (2012), Anna Kustera (2011), and Envoy Enterprises (2010), New York City; Famous Accountants, Brooklyn (2011); and Noma, San Francisco (2011). Burgher has taught in Contemporary Practices and Painting and Drawing since Fall 2010. Recent publications include Vitamin D2 (Phaidon, 2013) and AA Bronson.

Witch-Hunters in the Book-Shops:

The History of the Cornell Witchcraft Collection

(1866-2013)

That Cornell University Library has “the largest and most accessible collection on witchcraft in the world” is widely acknowledged in the academic community, but the whole story of why and how it was built (in the context of both scholarship and political activism) still needs to be told in details. Driven by their liberal/rationalist agenda and by their populist/sentimentalist interpretation of European witch-hunt, two historians, Cornell’s first President Andrew Dickson White (1866-1885) and librarian George Lincoln Burr (who retired in 1922), purchased the largest ensemble of witchcraft trial records and demonology treaties in one repository. Decades later, Cornell acquired the library on occultism of Kurt Seligmann, “the magic expert of the Surrealist group.” In this talk, Laurent Ferri will discuss the formation, use, and occasional misuse, of the amazing and still expanding Cornell Witchcraft Collection.

Laurent Ferri is the curator of the pre-1800 collections of rare books and manuscripts in Kroch Library, Cornell -- where he also holds the position of Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature and Medieval Studies. Prior to coming to New York State, he worked at the National Archives in Paris, and also taught at the école nationale d’administration in Rabat, Morocco.

Art as a Spell:

Resacralizing Urban Space

The word “pagan” means “of the country,” yet so many city-dwellers have magical inclinations and pantheistic leanings. How do we reconcile our metaphysical hunger with our decidedly industrial surroundings? In this meditation on the occult and urban living, with a special focus on New York City, Pam Grossman will explore the idea of art as a conduit between civilization and the divine.

Pam Grossman (Conference Co-organizer) is an independent curator, writer, and teacher of magical practice and history. She is the creator of Phantasmaphile, a blog which specializes in art and culture with an esoteric or fantastical bent, and the Associate Editor of Abraxas International Journal of Esoteric Studies. As co-founder of the Brooklyn arts & lecture space, Observatory, her programming aims to explore mysticism via a scholarly yet accessible approach.
Her group art shows, Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantasists, VISION QUEST, Alchemically Yours, and Sigils & Signs have been featured by such outlets as Boing Boing, Art & Antiques Magazine, CREATIVE TIME, Time Out New York, Juxtapoz, Arthur, 20×200, UrbanOutfitters.com, and Neil Gaiman’s Twitter.
She lectures on such topics as “The Occult in Modern Art 101,” and teaches classes on herbalism and ritual. Her writing has appeared in numerous mediums, including The Huffington Post, MSN.com, the Etsy blog, Sciences Occultes magazine, and various Fulgur press publications. As a featured guest on The Midnight Archive web series, Expanding Mind radio, Occult Science Radio, and the C-Realm, Psychonautica, and Labyrinth podcasts, she has discussed the role of magic in contemporary life.
Pam is a graduate of New York University, where she studied anthropology, art history, and comparative religion. A resident of Brooklyn, she lives with her playwright husband, Matthew Freeman, and their two cat familiars, Albee and Remedios “Remy” Varo.

More Brilliant than Crystal:

The Life and Work of Ithell Colquhoun

A Presentation by Dr. Amy Hale

This illustrated lecture will explore the rich artistic and philosophical legacy of Ithell Colquhoun (1906-88). Colquhoun, who was formally associated with British Surrealism for a short time in the late 1930s, was situated at the nexus of British esoteric thought and culture in the mid 20th century. Through her work we can examine the emerging social and cultural contexts of several strands of British esoterica, including Wicca, Druidry, traditionalist witchcraft, and Hermetic magic. Furthermore, Colquhoun anticipates, by decades, movements such as Goddess religion and British earth mysteries. Just as importantly, Colquhoun’s oeuvre provides us with a rare working record of a female occultist working in a male dominated milieu, who dedicated nearly her entire life to magic and the pursuit of enlightenment, always without compromise.

Amy Hale, Ph.D. (Golden Gate University) is an Anthropologist specializing in contemporary Celtic cultures with an emphasis on Cornwall and esoteric cultural history. She is the co-editor of New Directions in Celtic Studies (2000) and Inside Merlin’s Cave: A Cornish Arthurian Reader (2000) in addition to writing over 30 other articles ranging in topic from Neo Druidry to Celtic cultural tourism. She is the past co-editor of the Journal of the Academic Study of Magic (with Susan Johnston Graf), and is working on a biography and several other projects related to the life and work of of Ithell Colquhoun (Francis Boutle).

Alchemical Vessels:

Vehicles of the Hermetic Tradition,

A Presentation by William Kiesel,

Editor-in-Chief of Ouroboros Press

The Royal Art of Alchemy has a long tradition of transmutation. The literature is among the most artistic and thereby recognized, practices in the western esoteric tradition. Despite this fact, alchemy is also one of the most misunderstood arts in the tradition due to the confusion arising from the enigmatic language and imagery employed by its authors. A cursory glance reveals an apparent dichotomy between allegorical and practical methods as expressed by 20th century exponents of the art. Images in alchemy that depict specific alchemical operations along with allegorical references will accompany an explicatory presentation. As various operations in the tradition customarily take place in distinct vessels, ovens and crucibles, several images will be shown where the two methods work in concert.

William J. Kiesel is the director of Ouroboros Press, Editor-in-Chief at CLAVIS Journal of the Art Magical and the founder of the International Esoteric Book Conference. His personal research into variant currents of Western Esotericism and the History of the Book has been augmented by participation in the antiquarian and scholarly book trade dating back to 1991. A strong supporter of Book Arts, his role also includes independent scholarship, art curation and public speaking in the complex and intriguing world of esoterisicm.

Isis Resurrected:

How Madame Blavatsky Reshaped Our World,

A discussion with Gary Lachman and Mitch Horowitz,

moderated by Pam Grossman

Gary Lachman is the author of more than a dozen books on the meeting ground between consciousness, culture, and the western esoteric tradition, including Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality, Rudolf Steiner: An Introduction to his Life and Work, Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius, A Secret History of Consciousness, The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus, and mostly recently The Caretakers of the Cosmos. He is a regular contributor to several journals in the US and UK and regularly lectures on his work in the UK, Europe, and US. In a prior life Lachman was a founding member of the rock group Blondie and in 2006 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was born in New Jersey but since 1996 has lived in London, England. 

Mitch Horowitz is vice-president and editor-in-chief at Tarcher/Penguin, the division of Penguin books dedicated to metaphysical literature. He is the author of Occult America (Bantam), which received the 2010 PEN Oakland/ Josephine Miles Award for literary excellence. His new book, One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life, is forthcoming from Crown in January 2014. Horowitz frequently writes about and discusses alternative spirituality in the national media, including CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, All Things Considered, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and CNN.com. Visit him online at www.MitchHorowitz.com and on Twitter @MitchHorowitz.

Symbolic Devices:

On the Hieronymous Machine

and Other Magical Technologies

“If, as Arthur C Clarke famously observed, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, then can we accept that any sufficiently advanced magic is also indistinguishable from technology?”
In this illustrated presentation, Mark gives a historical overview of psychotronic devices—the radiant collision point of magic, art and technology. Psychotronic devices fuse aspects of vitalism, electromagnetic field theory and psychic sciences like telepathy, psychometry and dowsing. From an orthodox materialist perspective they are cargo cult technology, a fantasy of science. But it is too simple to reject all psionic devices out of hand as deceptions or slight-of-mind; Instead, we can perhaps best understand them as technological adaptations of ancient, sympathetic magical practices, a magic that feeds on, and is fuelled by, the conviction of both the practitioner and the subject. Mark will look the development of psychotronic technologies from the 19th century to the present, a journey that incorporates experimental medicines, science fiction fandom and some of the world’s most prestigious art galleries.

Mark Pilkington is the author of Mirage Men (now a feature documentary film) and Far Out: 101 Strange Tales from Science’s Outer Edge and has written for numerous magazines, anthologies and journals. Mark is the overmind at Strange Attractor, publishing books and curating events and exhibitions. When he’s not working with words you’ll find him fiddling with synthesiers and electronic sound making devices with a number of experimental music groups in his native London. www.strangeattractor.co.uk / www.radionicworkshop.co.uk

Shannon Taggart:

Physical Mediumship and the Search

for Ectoplasm in Modern Spiritualist Ritual

Shannon Taggart is a photographer and independent researcher based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been exhibited and published internationally. She curates a lecture series about the science and aesthetics of the miraculous. Currently, she is working on a book about Spiritualism and physical mediumship.

Opening Night Performance:

The Parlour Trick

The Parlour Trick is a “haunted chamber music” project, founded by Meredith Yayanos in 2006. Recently, she and fellow multi-instrumentalist Dan Cantrell released an LP of spooky seance songs under The Parlour Trick moniker called “A Blessed Unrest”. Thematically, the record is very much a Madwoman in the Attic affair, steeped in melancholy, decay, ritual, channeling, agoraphobia, laudanum abuse.... lots of Grimm, grinning stuff. Hear more at theparlourtrick.bandcamp.com.

Meredith Yayanos is a musician, writer, traveler, and the co-founder/Editor-in-Chief of Coilhouse Magazine & Blog. Her theremin, violin, and vocal work has been featured on tracks with artists including The Dresden Dolls, Beats Antique, Faun Fables, The Vanity Set, David Garland and The Walkmen. She has also done score work for film and television, most notably the Victorian ghost story puppet short The Narrative of Victor Karloch, and the full-length psychological thriller, Empty Rooms.
     

‘The Eleusinian Mysteries...in Brooklyn!’

     
It’s that time of year—fall equinox, colder days, longer nights, harvests, booths, leaves changing, etc.—when the mind turns to the connections to ancient ancestors by way of timeless ritual traditions which celebrate nature’s tireless, harmonious cycling.

The best known of the ancient mystery rites, unquestionably, are the Eleusinian Mysteries. For approximately two millennia, the small town called Eleusis, not far from Athens, was the site of a temple where the myth central to pre-Hellenic Greece’s spiritual understanding of autumn was imparted to initiates. That myth, of course, was the story of how Persephone came to live her dual life, dividing her time between the underworld and Mount Olympus. It is an allegory of the change of seasons, like most sacred stories key to the ancient mysteries.

You probably know the general story of this myth, but here it is with some detail, courtesy of Robert Graves’ The Greek Myths: Demeter (meaning Barley Mother), the goddess of the cornfield, with Zeus, bore a daughter named Core (meaning Maiden), and the two were very close. Hades, god of the underworld, fell in love with Core and asked her father/his brother, Zeus, for permission to marry her. Zeus, fearing Demeter’s reaction if he consigned their daughter to the underworld, declined either to grant or deny this request; Hades interpreted the ambivalence as a favorable decision. While making a rare visit above ground, Hades found Core one day while she picked flowers in a meadow, abducted her, and hastily raced his chariot back to the world of the dead.

Foregoing rest and refreshment, Demeter searched for her daughter for nine days and nights. After some investigation, she learned the truth: that Hades had absconded with Core, hereafter named Peresphone (meaning She Who Brings Destruction), to the underworld. Armed with the facts, Demeter was so angry and despondent that she continued to wander the earth, forbidding agriculture to grow. Mankind was at risk of extinction. Zeus made repeated entreaties to calm Demeter and to restore life to the trees and grain, but she was relentless. Messenger god Hermes brokered the deal: Peresphone may return to the world of the living on the condition that she has not yet tasted the food of the dead.

It was at Eleusis (meaning Advent) where Peresphone and Demeter were reunited, but it was revealed that the daughter had eaten seven seeds of the pomegranate—that fruit so prevalent and so symbolic in so many myths and faiths—while in the underworld. Because of this, Peresphone would not live her life above ground, and because of Demeter’s refusal to retract her curse upon the land, her daughter would not be sent to live in the underworld either. The commonly understood compromise consisted of Peresphone dividing her time equally between life above ground and life below ground denoting, respectively, the warm weather months of abundance and the cold weather months of deprivation and death. (The classical understanding of this schedule puts Peresphone in the underworld for only three months a year.) Placated, Demeter prepared to return home, but first initiated several of her allies, who had aided in the search for Peresphone, into her mysteries and worship. One of these, Triptolemus, son of King Celeus, was sent around the world to teach mankind the art of agriculture.

Triptolemus receiving wheat sheaves from Demeter, and blessings from Persephone, in this 5th Century BCE relief on exhibit at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Click to enlarge.

I won’t bother repeating the sparse information on the orgiastic doings of the Eleusinian Mysteries, but there is a brief sketch of the ritual published by John Michael Greer in his The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Hidden History. Excerpted:

“Initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries involved a strict process that took more than a year and a half to complete. Candidates first took part in the Lesser Mysteries, the Myesis, which was celebrated in February each year on the banks of the Ilissos River near Athens. Each candidate sacrificed a pig to the gods, bathed in the icy waters of the Ilissos, and received instruction in the myth of Demeter, the goddess of the earth, and her daughter Persephone….

“After the Lesser Mysteries, candidates had to wait until September of the following year before they could take part in the Greater Mysteries, called the Teletai. These rites formally began on the 14th of the month of Boedromion, when priestesses from Eleusis came to Athens carrying baskets. The baskets contained sacred objects that were stored in the Eleusinion, a temple in Athens; what those objects were, nobody knows. Candidates began fasting on the 10th, and on the 16th they marched in a procession down to the sea to purify themselves in its water, then went into seclusion for the next two days.

“At dawn on the 19th, the candidates gathered at the Painted Porch in the central marketplace of Athens, donned myrtle wreaths, and formed a procession with the priestesses and their mysterious baskets. They left Athens by the Sacred Gate and proceeded along the Sacred Road toward Eleusis. At a bridge they met priests who gave each of them a carefully measured portion of a beverage called kykeon (meaning The Mixture), containing water, roasted barley, and pennyroyal. At a second bridge, another detachment of priests tied a thread to the right hand and left foot of each candidate. Finally, around sunset, the procession reached Eleusis and marched by torchlight into the sacred precinct. They entered the Telesterion, where the Hierophant, the chief priest of Eleusis, sat on his throne just outside the entrance to the Anaktoron.

“It is at this point that most of the surviving sources fall silent....

“According to Clement of Alexandria, a Christian writer from the fourth century, initiates of Eleusis had a special password, the synthema: ‘I have fasted, drunk the kykeon, taken things out of the large basket, worked with them, put them into the small basket, and then back into the large basket.’ Comments from many initiates indicated that whatever they saw within the Telesterion freed them from the fear of death—a point that merely deepens the mystery that surrounds Eleusis.”

Where was I going with this? Yes! Brooklyn.

On Friday night, Observatory in Gowanus will host a ritual workshop led by Pam Grossman. From the publicity:

Autumn Descent and the Eleusinian Mysteries

Friday, September 27

7:30 to 9-ish p.m.

Observatory

543 Union Street, Brooklyn, New York

Admission: $20

You must RSVP to phantasmaphile(at)gmail.com if you’d like to attend, as space is limited.

Persephone’s descent into Hades, and Demeter’s subsequent mourning, were celebrated in late September in ancient Greece via a 9-day long series of elaborate rites called the Eleusinian Mysteries. Though relatively little is known about these rituals to this day, they mirrored the changing of the seasons, and allowed initiates to reflect deeply upon the cycle of birth, death, and resurrection.

So shall we celebrate this time when the world turns dark and our thoughts turn inward. This evening will be filled with myth, ritual, and meditation to prepare us for the colder months. We will journey to the underworld, and return with messages to help guide us in the coming seasons. Themes will include harvesting, giving thanks, honoring shadow, and letting go.

Please bring:

• Any altar objects you like. These can be decorative (Thanksgiving and autumnal décor of any kind is welcome), and/or personal objects which you’d like to have charged
• A candle and holder
• A cushion, pillow, or fabric, as we will be sitting on the floor (chairs will be available for those who need).

Note-taking is welcome. This workshop is open to men and women, novices and advanced practitioners alike.

Pam Grossman

Pam Grossman is a writer, independent curator, and teacher of magical practice and history. An initiate in the wise woman tradition, she is a graduate apprentice of the green witch, Robin Rose Bennett. She is the creator of Phantasmaphile, a blog which specializes in art and culture with an esoteric or fantastical bent, and Associate Editor of Abraxas Journal. She lectures on such topics as “The Occult in Modern Art 101,” teaches classes on herbalism and ritual, and is the co-organizer of the Occult Humanities Conference at NYU.

Her writing has appeared in numerous mediums, including The Huffington Post, MSN.com, the Etsy blog, Sciences Occultes magazine, and various Fulgur press publications. As a featured guest on The Midnight Archive web series, Expanding Mind radio, and the C-Realm, Psychonautica, and Labyrinth podcasts, she has discussed the role of magic in contemporary life. Her group art shows, Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantasists, VISION QUEST, Alchemically Yours, and Sigils & Signs have been featured by such outlets as Art & Antiques Magazine, Boing Boing, CREATIVE TIME, Time Out New York, Reality Sandwich, Juxtapoz, Arthur, 20×200, UrbanOutfitters.com, and Neil Gaiman’s Twitter. She is a co-founder of Observatory, where her programming aims to explore mysticism via a scholarly yet accessible approach.