Digital Event Type: Workshops & Masterclasses

Intro to Chaos Magick 1: Spells and Sigils – David Lee – by Zoom

This mini-course consists of two two-hour sessions.

Part One – Wednesday 4th May 7pm-9pm

Part Two – Wednesday 11th May 7pm-9pm

Ticket is both parts

We need Chaos Magick more than ever since the explosion of magickal thinking that has followed the lockdowns. People are getting into magick without a critical perspective, resulting in the current rash of deranged theories about what is happening. Chaos Magick provides multiple perspectives, a beacon of magickal sanity in a world gone mad.

Join this course and learn about belief as a technique, about the use of extraordinary states of consciousness (gnosis) and discuss theories old and new as to what makes magic work.

But mainly come along to make spells using powerful sigils, in this two-part workshop with me. We’ll talk about what we need to do a spell then explore a variety of approaches to making sigils – including graphic mashups, mantras and the idea of the artwork as hypersigil.

BIO:

Dave Lee’s magickal practice began in the late 1970s with the multi-model approach known as chaos magick. He has spent over four decades exploring consciousness and changing realities, using techniques that include meditation, magick, psychedelics and energy work. He was a founder member in 1980 of the first ever working group of the Illuminates of Thanateros chaos magickal order, and still serves in that community as an Elder. He joined the Rune-Gild in 1996 and was recognized as a Master of Rune-Lore in 2007. His books include the ground-breaking Life-Force: Sensed Energy in Breathwork, Psychedelia and Chaos Magic. 

He publishes a newsletter very month or two with details of his forthcoming events and publications. All his public-facing links including the newsletter signup are here: https://linktr.ee/david23lee

The Mythologies of Death: Psychopomps, Liminal Spaces, and Underworld Realms with Joanna Ebenstein

6 week online course

May 4, 11, 18, 25 & 1, 8 June 2022 7:30- 9:30 pm GMT

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time

Taught interactively via Zoom to a small class by Morbid Anatomy Founder Joanna Ebenstein

Death is the great mystery of human life. Today, we tend to view death through the lens of science and rationalism. Our ancestors, however, experienced death as part of a rich, invisible world with its own personalities and terrains, with eloquent myths explaining the origin of mortality and what happens to our souls when the body dies. These world views—or cosmovisions–were replete with their own dedicated gods and goddesses; psychopomps who oversaw the journey through liminal space from the realm of the living to the realm of the dead; rites of passage to contain and define the journey; and detailed descriptions of the places where the souls of the dead traveled to when the stage of embodiment came to an end.

In this six week class–comprised of lavishly illustrated lectures, suggested readings, homework prompts and class discussions and presentations–Morbid Anatomy founder Joanna Ebenstein will lead students in a deep dive into the fascinating ways our ancestors understood and imagined death and its personages and terrains, with an eye towards commonalities, and how these ideas live on today in religion, psychology, and a renewed interest in the occult and the invisible realms.

Along the way, we will examine the differing ways in which matriarchal and patriarchal cultures viewed death, the roots of “good” and “evil,” death in cultures of balanced complementary duality instead of binary opposition, the ways in which dominant Christian beliefs differs from most cosmologies around the world, and Jungian notions of symbols and mythologies of death and the dead.

For a final project, students will create their very own death deity, psychopomp, or map of geographies of life and death. Students will also have an opportunity to give a class presentation on a death cosmology or deity of their choice, perhaps one from their own ancestral heritage.

CLASS STRUCTURE (order of topics subject to change)

Week One

  • Introduction
  • Death and Mythology
  • Ways to understand mythology
  • Myths of how death is enters the world
  • The Soul in a variety of traditions
  • Good, evil, and complementary duality in various cosmovisions
  • Life, Death, Rebirth: Fertility and Sexuality

Week two

The Journey: moving from the land of the living to the land of the dead

  • Pyschopomps: Guides to the journey
  • Messengers, arbiters, and angels of death
  • Liminal Spaces/inbetween realms
  • The Veil: That which separates the realms
  • Times when the veil is thin: visiting the dead

Week Three

  • Geographies of the dead
  • The Upperworld
  • Heaven, Hell, Purgatory
  • The Cosmic or World Tree

Week Four

  • Deities of the Dead
  • Staying in touch with the dead: Ancestor veneration, cadaver traditions, and Spiritualism

Week Five

  • Presentations

Week Six

  • Present final Projects

Image

Freya: Norse goddess of love and fertility, associated with sex, lust, beauty, sorcery, gold, war, and death.

Joanna Ebenstein is a Brooklyn-based writer, curator, photographer and graphic designer. She is the creator of the Morbid Anatomy blog, library and event series, and was cofounder (with Tracy Hurley Martin) and creative director of the recently shuttered Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn. Her books include Death: A Graveside Companion, The Anatomical Venus and The Morbid Anatomy Anthology (with Colin Dickey). Her work has been covered by The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired, National Geographic, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek and more. You can see her Tedx talk—Death as You’ve Never Seen it Before—here.

Make your Own Memento Mori: Befriending Death with Joanna Ebenstein

4 week online course

20, 27 November and 4, 11 December 2024 – 7:30- 9:30 pm GMT

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time

Taught interactively via Zoom to a small class by Morbid Anatomy Founder Joanna Ebenstein

Text Book: Death: A Graveside Companion (PDF to be provided)

Death is the great mystery of human life. Each of us – barring some medical miracle – will die. Foreknowledge of our own death is a defining characteristic of humanity; the ancient Greeks reserved the word mortal – meaning ‘subject to death’ – for humans alone. Some people believe that it is foreknowledge of our own death that drives all human culture, from religion and philosophy to mythology and art.

With the current global pandemic, our awareness of death is closer to us in the industrialized West than it’s been in over a century This historical moment will, for most of us, pass. This class seeks to use this moment to look death in the eyes, to get to know it, to create a closer, less fearful relationship with it. To make friends with it. And to create art from that encounter.

To do so, we will explore the ways in which death has been understood and represented in different times and places. There will be a special focus on imaginings of death manifested in time of plague—such as Memento Mori, Ars Moriendi (literally, The Art of Death) and the Danse Macabre, or dance of death—or when death is an unpredictable part of every day life, such as Mexico’s Santa Muerte, literally saint or holy death. A PDF of the book Death a Graveside Companion will be provided to each student as reference.

The class will consist of slide-illustrated lectures, readings and reading discussions, journal prompts, guided image collecting, meditations, and, if technology allows, special guests.

Students will draw on what they have learned for their final project: the creation of their own personal memento mori—an object intended to remind you of your own death to help you live your time on earth more fully. This can take the form of an image (painting, drawing), object (collage, mask, sculpture, talisman, icon, artist’s book, retablo, ex voto, graphic novel) short film, or even words (essay, creative writing). It will embody your unique vision of death, developed or clarified over the course of the class, be it a deity, a personal or impersonal force, a symbol, or something else entirely.

Students will leave this class not only with their own memento mori, but also with an enhanced understanding of the ways in which death has been understood and represented in different times and places, as well as a more nuanced and critical view of contemporary attitudes. It is also my hope that students will leave the class with less fear of death in these uncertain times.

Joanna Ebenstein is a Brooklyn-based writer, curator, photographer and graphic designer. She is the creator of the Morbid Anatomy blog, library and event series, and was cofounder (with Tracy Hurley Martin) and creative director of the recently shuttered Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn. Her books include Death: A Graveside Companion, The Anatomical Venus and The Morbid Anatomy Anthology (with Colin Dickey). Her work has been covered by The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired, National Geographic, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek and more. You can see her Tedx talk—Death as You’ve Never Seen it Before—here.

Wine Tasting at The Last Tuesday Society

About this event

The Last Tuesday Society invites you to join us on 28th July for a special tasting of one of our favourite tipples… wine! An indulgent selection of three outstanding and unusual wines have been carefully selected for the occasion.

The tasting will be led by master of wine, Philip Stephenson-Oliver, and hosted by the directors of the Society.

Tickets are required and spaces are limited.

We look forward to welcoming you at The Last Tuesday Society for this live event!

Dates:
31st Aug

Photo credit: Oskar Proctor

Oujia Board Class with Psychic Medium Patti Negri on Zoom

Learn how to use the Ouija board to communicate with spirit and show the existence of Life beyond Life. There is an impression of fear around the use of Ouija boards, but Patti believes, like any instrument, you just have to know how to use it properly. The Ouija board should be a tool and a point of focus to connect with spirit. It is all in the intent that you use with it. Patti will show you how to safely use this tool, just like you would use a pendulum, tarot cards, EMF meters or electronic ghost or spirit boxes to connect to the other side to receive spirit messages and guidance.

Patti has successfully used the Ouija or spirit board since she conducted her fist séance at 7 or 8 years old and is deeply knowledgeable on how to safely use this tool to connect with spirit in a positive and respectful way. She will also briefly explore the taboo, origin and a few of Patti’s personal lifetime “learning” experiences, from someone bursting into flames during a Ouija session at an infamous rock stars house to Patti being thrown into a chair so hard that the cartilage was ripped from her ribs by the ghost of the Black Dahlia killer. So, the infamous Ouija board. Are they really a door to the other side or a cheap parlour game? This class will give you all the insight you need to make your own decision.

Sigil Workshop With Chaos Magician David Lee – By Zoom

Learn how to make and use powerful sigils, in this two-part workshop with chaos magician Dave Lee. Starting with Austin Spare’s introduction of free-form sigilization, we’ll explore a variety of approaches to making sigils – including bindrunes, collage, graphic mashups, automated sigil generators and the idea of the artwork as hypersigil.

We’ll also cover the audial equivalent – mantras, and talk about how to get the best phrasing of your intentions. We’ll take a peek at the theory behind such magic and you’ll learn a few simple but powerful techniques for entering appropriate extraordinary states of consciousness.

Dave Lee is a magician, breathwork coach and writer. He has spent over four decades exploring consciousness and changing realities, using techniques that include meditation, magick, psychedelics and energy work. He is a leading light in the Chaos Magic organization the Illuminates Of Thanateros and a Master of Rune-Lore in the Rune-Gild.

His books include the ground-breaking Life-Force: Sensed Energy in Breathwork, Psychedelia and Chaos Magic.

Make your Own Memento Mori: Befriending Death with Joanna Ebenstein

4 week online course

April 7, 14, 21, and 28 7:30- 9:30 pm GMT

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time

Taught interactively via Zoom to a small class by Morbid Anatomy Founder Joanna Ebenstein

Text Book: Death: A Graveside Companion (PDF to be provided)

Death is the great mystery of human life. Each of us – barring some medical miracle – will die. Foreknowledge of our own death is a defining characteristic of humanity; the ancient Greeks reserved the word mortal – meaning ‘subject to death’ – for humans alone. Some people believe that it is foreknowledge of our own death that drives all human culture, from religion and philosophy to mythology and art.

Death and Resurrection As Muse: 4-Week Tarot Course with Laetitia Barbier

Death and Resurrection As Muse: Stirring Your Creativity in Times of Crisis with Tarot’s Forgotten Iconography, Symbolism and Storytelling Power

4 week online course

Saturdays 6, 13, 20 and 27 March from 3 pm to 5 pm

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time

Taught via Zoom by Morbid Anatomy Programing Director Laetitia Barbier

Why isn’t the Death card the last card of the tarot deck? Does the devil card announces damnation or celebrate irreverence? Is the Magician a creator, a shaman, a con-artist, or all of the above? The twenty two cards forming the Tarot’s major arcana have, for centuries served as a visual oracle, an iconic and adaptable muse to seekers, artists, occultists, film makers, pop-stars and high fashion, with influence stretching from the artworks of the Surrealists to TV’s Twin Peaks.

Mark Cocker Master Class On Nature Writing On Zoom

This is a four-hour seminar, split over two days in one week, to explore the techniques of nature writing. It builds on a previous, similar nature-writing course (on 6th & 13th March), but each 2-part session is entirely free-standing and independent. In these current sessions we will pay special attention to another of the essential parts of all good writing.

Nature is full of stories but how do you choose what to focus upon? How do you order the material to make it engaging, understandable and full of impact. The sessions will look very carefully at fixing your subject and setting the scene. It will look at how the writer creates a relationship with their reader and with their subject matter. Finally it will consider how you choose words to create the deepest emotional connection between those two parts.

This may be an exercise on nature writing, but it has relevance across the genres. All writers draw upon the landscape and the wider environment to create an atmosphere, to illuminate character and to move the narrative along. The class may be online but the aim will be being indoors as much of the outdoors as possible.

Instructor: Mark Cocker is a multi-award winning author and naturalist, whose 12 books include Crow Country, Our Place and Claxton. Over the last four decades he has also published more than 1000 essays on nature in national and international newspapers especially the Guardian.

A Beginner Zoom Course In Conjuring With Oliver Garwood

This Course Will Run over Four Wednesday evenings – the 24th of February, 3rd, 10th 17th of March from 7:30-9pm. Ticket price is for the full course

Join professional magician, Oliver Garwood, for a beginner’s course in the conjuring arts. Learn the secrets of prestidigitation and legerdemain. No need to buy expensive magic props, everything you need is probably already in a draw at home! Over four 90-minute sessions Oliver will teach you sleight of hand and presentation along with a bit of magical history and probably a story or two, or three. Effects taught will include card tricks, coin vanishing and penetration, rubber band magic and the famous cups & balls trick! If you have ever wanted to be able to amaze and amuse your friends then this is the course for you, or even if you don’t want to do that want to know how the tricks are done then this is still the course for you.

Week One – Card Magic

Types of cards – poker/bridge

Holding and shuffling

Injog/ False Shuffles (card controls)/ Breaks/ Double Lift/ False cut

Simple routine – card between jokers

Forcing – slip force, cross cut (time delay)

Reveals and making a routine (narrative) – ‘moment of magic’

Ambitious card – injog card add, false shuffle, double lift, card in centre final reveal.

Alternatives to cards – business cards, slices of cheese?

Week Two – Impromptu Magic

Betcha’s – fun games to win drinks! 3 glasses, impossible knot

Hunters knot – false knot then routine.

Coin vanish – French drop, retention vanish

Palming coins – classic, finger, Ramsay Subtlety

Pen vanish

Pen & Coin routine

Jumping Rubber Band

Week Three – Parlour Magic

Cups & Balls – history, performance, discussion on cups and ball choices

Paddle Move – knife and dry wipe marker

Grandma’s Necklace – shoe laces and handkerchief

Week Four – Balls and Mentalism

Tissue Paper ball vanish, multiply, ten step routine.

One Ahead Mind Reading Routine

Coin Stack Prediction – multiple out

Equipment Required

Pack of Cards

3 cups

Tin foil

Coins – I will advise on the preceding week what coins and sizes etc.

Handkerchief

Pen and notebook

Rubber band

Knife (not sharp!) – butter knife if possible

Shoelaces (pair of, long as possible)

Cotton thread

Tissues

Viktor Wynd met Oliver a few years ago when he took some lessons and found them wonderful. Oliver Garwood has been a professional entertainer for over 20 years. From managing entertainment in hotels and holiday centres across the UK and abroad he has performed for thousands of enthralled audiences, Oliver was also resident magician at a dedicated magic museum. Oliver has been a keen magician since the age of 8 when received a Paul Daniel’s Magic Set for Christmas, his work in various areas of entertainment has helped hone this skill which he is sharing with you in this beginner’s course in conjuring.