Adventures in Anatomy is a series which will explore different parts of the body, combining science, myth, history and folklore to look at the way our understanding of them has changed through time, and the part they play in culture and the way we look at the world.
Skeletons in the Closet: Bones
Bones are the framework of the body, the thing that keeps us upright. They are also usually the part of us that hangs around for the longest after our death. We tend to think about bones as inert and unreactive, but they are constantly responding to what we are doing. What can bones tell us about our lives once we’re dead? How have they caused storage problems over the years? And what can a graveyard tell us about the way our understanding of the skeleton has changed over time?
Bio
Cat Irving has been the Human Remains Conservator for Surgeons’ Hall since 2015 and has been caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for over twenty years. After a degree in Anatomical Science she began removing brains and sewing up bodies at the Edinburgh City Mortuary. Following training in the care of wet tissue collections at the Royal College of Surgeons of England she worked with the preparations of William Hunter at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University. Cat is a licensed anatomist, and gives regular talks on anatomy and medical history. She recently carried out conservation work on the skeleton of serial killer William Burke
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
See all the events in the series – Adventures in anatomy with Cat Irving
Adventures in Anatomy is a series which will explore different parts of the body, combining science, myth, history and folklore to look at the way our understanding of them has changed through time, and the part they play in culture and the way we look at the world.
Vision Thing: the Eyes
The eye is considered the window into the soul, and vision has often been considered a primary sense. But how do eyes differ between species, and why have people believed that eyes disprove the theory of evolution? And what on earth was Issac Newton doing when he pushed a bodkin round the back of his eye to see how it worked?
Cat Irving has been the Human Remains Conservator for Surgeons’ Hall since 2015 and has been caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for over twenty years. After a degree in Anatomical Science she began removing brains and sewing up bodies at the Edinburgh City Mortuary. Following training in the care of wet tissue collections at the Royal College of Surgeons of England she worked with the preparations of William Hunter at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University. Cat is a licensed anatomist, and gives regular talks on anatomy and medical history. She recently carried out conservation work on the skeleton of serial killer William Burke
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
See all the events in the series – Adventures in anatomy with Cat Irving
Adventures in Anatomy is a series which will explore different parts of the body, combining science, myth, history and folklore to look at the way our understanding of them has changed through time, and the part they play in culture and the way we look at the world.
Bare flesh: the Skin
Our skin is how we present ourselves to the outside world. People spend a fortune decorating it and trying to stop the signs of the inevitable progression of time. It also works hard as a formidable barrier between our inner organs doing their essential jobs, and the hazards of the germ-filled world outside. Learn more about anthropodermic bibliopegy, how we make permanent marks on our skin, and the host of creatures who make the outer surface of our bodies their home.
Bio
Cat Irving has been the Human Remains Conservator for Surgeons’ Hall since 2015 and has been caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for over twenty years. After a degree in Anatomical Science she began removing brains and sewing up bodies at the Edinburgh City Mortuary. Following training in the care of wet tissue collections at the Royal College of Surgeons of England she worked with the preparations of William Hunter at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University. Cat is a licensed anatomist, and gives regular talks on anatomy and medical history. She recently carried out conservation work on the skeleton of serial killer William Burke
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
See all the events in the series – Adventures in anatomy with Cat Irving
Adventures in Anatomy is a series which will explore different parts of the body, combining science, myth, history and folklore to look at the way our understanding of them has changed through time, and the part they play in culture and the way we look at the world.
Lifting the fig leaf: Reproductive Organs
Our genitals are usually hidden away, and words describing them are often considered the most offensive in our culture. They have been grossly misunderstood through history yet without them we wouldn’t be here. Discover where the womb was wandering to, why the castrati had such high voices, and why a woman shouldn’t touch a pickle when she has her period.
Bio
Cat Irving has been the Human Remains Conservator for Surgeons’ Hall since 2015 and has been caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for over twenty years. After a degree in Anatomical Science she began removing brains and sewing up bodies at the Edinburgh City Mortuary. Following training in the care of wet tissue collections at the Royal College of Surgeons of England she worked with the preparations of William Hunter at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University. Cat is a licensed anatomist, and gives regular talks on anatomy and medical history. She recently carried out conservation work on the skeleton of serial killer William Burke
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
See all the events in the series – Adventures in anatomy with Cat Irving
Old Norse Erotic Sorcery – Erik Storesund
They say that all is fair in love and war. Old Norse philologist Eirik Storesund, host and creator of the Brute Norse podcast, has translated a curated selection of charms, spells, and sorcerous recipes from Norwegian grimoires (the so-called “black books”) and vernacular tradition on the topic of eros, love and romance. Learn about the techniques that young women employed to divine the identity of their future spouses, and the various ingredients, rites and dirty tricks that people resorted to in order to twist the hand of fate, and fall in and out of love. Be prepared for a sweet and sometimes sordid lecture on the hopes and fears that marked the art of love in the pre-industrial north. Terrible advice for your love life guaranteed!
Bio
Eirik Storesund is a writer, artist and scholar of Old Norse from the saline, windy shores of Norway. He is the host and creator of the Brute Norse podcast, which seeks to celebrate the weirder aspects of Scandinavian cultural heritage, and instill upon his audience a general sense of chronological confusion. He also runs the independent imprint Troll Cat Press to serve as the physical outlet for his “Scandifuturist” propaganda efforts. His first book, Love Spells and Erotic Sorcery in Norwegian Folk Tradition is exactly what it says on the tin: a curated selection of charms, spells, and sorcerous recipes from Norwegian grimoires. The so-called black books
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
From the 1120s until the final conquest of the city of Acre by the Mamluks in 1291, the Templars and their sister order the Hospitallers played a significant role in the crusades and in the affairs of the so-called crusader states. They held many of the most famous crusader castles, and they took care of pilgrims to the Holy Places. They were also active in the crusades in the Iberian Peninsula, and had a presence in eastern Europe during the Baltic Crusades and in the south-west of France during the Albigensian Crusade. This talk will focus on the Templars: their beginnings, their role in the crusades and the crusader states, and their final heroic defence of Acre; and consider how far the fall of Acre in 1291 contributed to the destruction of the Templars two decades later.
Bio
Helen J. Nicholson has recently retired as Professor of Medieval History at Cardiff University. She has published widely on the military orders, crusades, and various related subjects, including an edition of the Templars’ trial proceedings in Britain and Ireland (2011), and a history of Queen Sybil of Jerusalem (2022).
Curated and Hosted by
Dr. Amy Hale is an Atlanta-based anthropologist and folklorist writing about esoteric history, art, culture, women and Cornwall in various combinations. Her biography of Ithell Colquhoun, Genius of the Fern Loved Gully, is available from Strange Attractor Press, and she is also the editor of the forthcoming collection Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses from Palgrave Macmillan. Other writings can be found at her Medium site https://medium.com/@amyhale93 and her website http://www.amyhale.me.
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
Did Albert Hofmann discover LSD by accident or was it the creation of an arcane order to bring a world at war to its senses? This lecture will explore the interesting history of theories and conspiracies surrounding the origins of LSD and early stories about its ability to power to mobilize or at least inspire the masses.
In 1933, ten years before Albert Hofmann supposedly accidentally discovered the hallucinogenic properties of LSD, a little-known book called ‘St Peter’s Snow’ by the Austrian author Leo Perutz was published as ‘St-Petri-Schnee’. In Perutz’s novel a landowning Baron has learned that ergot was the secret psychoactive sacrament of the ancient mystery cults, handed down through the ages as an esoteric secret. He employs the skills of a biochemist to extract the active principle from ergot. When he experimentally doses the local peasant population whom he has invited to a fete with his drug, he induces not a religious revival but a popular revolt!
This tale was forty-five years before ergot was proposed as the secret sacrament of the mysteries in The Journey to Eleusis, by Albert Hofmann, Carl Ruck and R. Gordon Wasson in 1978. In recent years, various theories proposing that ergot was a secret mystical sacrament handed down by illuminist secret societies have since circulated on the internet. This belief may have roots in the statements of the West Coast psychedelic elite of the fifties and sixties, that LSD was the creation of followers of the occultist Rudolf Steiner working at Sandoz in the forties to save a world plunged into a devastating world war. This lecture will untangle some of these mythic threads to look at their origins in legend and history.
Bio
Alan Piper took part in the psychedelic scene of the early nineteen seventies then like many others moved on into an exploration of religious and esoteric ideas. As an extension of his interests in cultural history, he graduated in the History of Ideas in nineteen eighties as a mature student. The growing profile of psychedelic guru Terence McKenna in the nineties renewed his interest in psychedelics, and he began to investigate the history of psychedelic culture. Since then, he has published several articles on the subject and a monograph on the interest of the radical right and conservative culture in psychedelics, as well as speaking at psychedelic conferences. His latest work, a collection of his essays on psychedelic culture, ‘Bicycle Day and Other Psychedelic Essays’, will be published in March 2023 by Psychedelic Press.
Curated and Hosted by
Dr. Amy Hale is an Atlanta-based anthropologist and folklorist writing about esoteric history, art, culture, women and Cornwall in various combinations. Her biography of Ithell Colquhoun, Genius of the Fern Loved Gully, is available from Strange Attractor Press, and she is also the editor of the forthcoming collection Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses from Palgrave Macmillan. Other writings can be found at her Medium site https://medium.com/@amyhale93 and her website http://www.amyhale.me.
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
Let Viktor Wynd share a nightcap with you, tuck you into bed and tell you Fairy Tales to send you into a deep sleep of strange dreams. Be warned these are not the Ladybird or Disney versions and may not be suitable for the tenderist ears.
This evening Mr. Wynd will tells some his favourite tales heard around the world, from nasty Germans chopping up people and eating them to disgusting, macabre and delightful tales from Borneo, learn of the birth of the leeches, the reason mosquitos are always buzzing human ears, why it is best not to suckle caterpillars – or indeed strange babies and something about bedbugs that might give you nightmares. Giant Octopuses, man eating pigs and a buried moon from Papua New Guinea, or possibly shapeshifting magickal creatures from Wales – the world will be your oyster.
Viktor Wynd, proprietor of London’s eponymous (nay infamous) Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History has spent the last twenty five years telling stories to audiences across the globe. Fascinated by traditional fairy tales his repetoire includes tales from The Brothers Grimm, The Arabian Nights, Scandinavia, Russia, Italy, France, Irieland, Africa, Papua New Guinea & North America – so far.
The History of the Cornish Language: From the Romans to the death of Dolly Pentreath in 1777
How and why did Cornwall change from being a place with its own distinctive language, to having an English-speaking population? This talk examines the political, social, and economic reasons why the Cornish language retreated; how events in wider Europe affected life in Cornwall; key moments in Cornish history which affected the Cornish language such as the 1549 Prayer Book Rebellion; and the roles individuals – including Dolly Pentreath, Edward Lhuyd and Daines Barrington – played in the history of the Cornish Language.
Bio
Kensa Broadhurst is a final year PhD student at the Institute of Cornish Studies, part of Exeter University. Her studies are funded by the Cornwall Heritage Trust and the Q Fund. Kensa is researching the status of the Cornish language between 1777-1904, that is, the period in which it is widely believed to have been extinct. A former modern languages teacher, Kensa is a fluent speaker of Cornish, a bard of the Cornish Gorsedh, and both teaches and examines the language.
Curated and Hosted by
Dr. Amy Hale is an Atlanta-based anthropologist and folklorist writing about esoteric history, art, culture, women and Cornwall in various combinations. Her biography of Ithell Colquhoun, Genius of the Fern Loved Gully, is available from Strange Attractor Press, and she is also the editor of the forthcoming collection Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses from Palgrave Macmillan. Other writings can be found at her Medium site https://medium.com/@amyhale93 and her website http://www.amyhale.me.
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
Let Viktor Wynd share a nightcap with you, tuck you into bed and tell you Fairy Tales to send you into a deep sleep of strange dreams. Be warned these are not the Ladybird or Disney versions and may not be suitable for the tenderist ears.
This evening Mr. Wynd will tell some of his favourite Welsh tales, the ancient tales from The Mabinogion featuring a maiden made of flowers, a horse that can not be caught, Arawn, Lord of The Otherworld, the beautiful Rhiannon and why she was smeared in dog’s blood, Branwen, the magical cauldron and why Bran’s decapitated head carries on talking, Pryderi, a blanket of mist and the hanging of a mouse….
Viktor Wynd, proprietor of London’s eponymous (nay infamous) Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History has spent the last twenty five years telling stories to audiences across the globe. Fascinated by traditional fairy tales his repetoire includes tales from The Brothers Grimm, The Arabian Nights, Scandinavia, Russia, Italy, France, Irieland, Africa, Papua New Guinea & North America – so far.
