When you least expect it! Now here is another jewel from this German band – in my mail today.
Unpacking is a pleasure. No note from the band just an envelope and the CD inside. Cover and backside are stamped with a traditional print, front showing the beautifully done band logo by Akherra Phasmathanas/Ars Leprosa. The seal on the back was created by the hands of Kitti Solymosi of Anatiummi Arts. (Will have to check her out!) The CD sporting the classic look of vinyl is another nice treat. Gray in gray, a simple and well-designed booklet with credits and another mysterious illustration of a devil’s hand, reminiscent in style of tantric artworks. The packaging alone would deserve a price.
But on to the music. So there’s two new songs. Putting them on you immediately recognise the band. They continue merging Western sounds with Eastern motifs. There’s always a bit of playful Roky Erickson, blending in broader stoner rock elements and making something listenable out of it. We don’t like genres. So for the sake of convenience I will just call this pop. (Pop can be good music also.)
The first song Veil of Gold is driving, pushing forward. They put quite a bit of force in the drumming and there’s a nice dirty solo, thrashing in the end, but still melodic and rounding this song off nicely. The second song Dawn of Saturn starts with a melancholic melodic guitar part, followed by a dark driving beat. There are certainly homages to the last the Devil’s Blood. Dark yes, heavy, but also somewhat self-effacing. They build up tension and you basically wait for the great culmination, but instead they tone it down again. It’s like a struggling for something, then radio-friendly, then again mystical. Waiting, tic toc, now, solo, beat, heavy, chorus – “The skies are burning. The dawn of Saturn comes. And on demon wings. On and on I fly…” swaying, “Till love will fall”, repeat, “till all will fall”, end. 5 minutes, 34 seconds. Neat.
Judging by the previous album Black Lotus, which I have had spinning many times and the music of which accompanied quite a few hours filled with working on art, I expect this little two-side single to be on rotation for a bit. Alas, I am thirsty for more already…
If you have also licked blood check out the Path of Samsara website. Besides they currently put down the prices on everything in their webshop so do not miss out on this chance to get some of the first shirts and records they printed as long as they are still available: http://pathofsamsara.bigcartel.com
I am in a small town with average middle class, one family houses. (The place reminds me of Pforzheim.) I am inside one of these houses, first downstairs, in the living room and then upstairs, in the attic. The attic is a single long room flooded with light. It is a warm and friendly atmosphere, sunlight illuminates the walls and floor. It is almost as if the roof was missing but then I see it is made of glass and held by a slender steel construction. I look at the wall to my left and see an old shower head, which looks as if it had been out of use for a long time. Around the shower the wall looks run down and the plaster has come off. Beneath the barren stone is covered in green moss or algae. The scene looks like a photo. Sunlight is shining on the spot, water drips from the shower in slow motion and the green is a nice contrast to the warm rust-colored wall. I am thinking how beautiful it is up here and that it would be worth to do some construction work and renew the room. But then I see at other the end of the roof that it is somehow merged with the town’s modern library building. The latter has ten stories but oddly it feels I am at the same level. Either way, for some reason it would make any construction work in here complicated. I turn around. And there I see at the back of the long room – which seems to have gotten even longer – right there, where I had stood before, a couple of fishes. I am not wondering how these may have gotten here nor how it was possible for them to float around in the room. I remember how I had observed them before from the corner of my eye: a mother with her siblings. The mother is about 1,20 m long and has a pattern similar to those of zebra sharks. Her back and large dorsal fin are a dark brown, which runs down her sides in a few wide bands that become narrower towards the belly. Her lateral fins are also dark brown whilst the belly is a bright white. Her young ones are smaller, about 30-40 cm long and of a lighter color, but already sporting a similar pattern. They will probably become darker with age. I remember how I had been watching them up-close, when kneeling beside a small ditch, holding my hand in the cool running water, the fishes however floating around me in the air. It feels like I am in a vacuum. Time seems to stand still. Only the fish and water from the shower head are moving. The former in what seems to be their natural tempo, the latter in slow motion. Then I remember there was another big fish and I am now holding this fish in both arms. I am actually embracing and cuddling it. I feel a great joy and the fish seems to enjoy it too. I look at its beautiful scales and form: the entire body and fins are a matte black with only subtle hues of blue or grey-brown. It has an almost perfect round shape in profile but is otherwise a slender specimen with a peculiar serrated dorsal fin, the edge of which is elegantly rounded off and flowing straight into the tailfin. The pectoral fins are rather small and the ventral fin is similar to the dorsal one. I think how beautiful this fish is. Then I am back in the living room. I don’t remember what I had just experienced. Instead I am worried. Looking outside through the windows, I am expecting a volley of gunfire to hit any second. Then I am somewhere out of town and looking at the houses my last thought is how vulnerable this beautiful place was. Then I wake up
First off thanks once more for all the lovely birthday wishes! It’s been some days ago, but so what… This year I celebrated with my childhood friend, watching “Zeit der Kannibalen” at the movies and at midnight having a glass of champagne – thanks to the waitor, who spontaneously donated it! The day was spent with my mum and dad and I actually used it for crafting the slip-cases you see here.
Now I’ve been fairly busy, creative but not very crafty during the first part of this year apart from some commission work. However this ought to change during the coming months. And to celebrate the summer’s solstice I am starting with the first card set of my plant sigils. 🙂 I actually brought these with me for the London Magical Arte event earlier this year. Back then I had printed the cards but not yet made a nice packaging for them. So… I made slipcases with paper bought from my local bookbinder. These look nicer than the previous boxes and are easier to store on one’s bookshelf. The first two card sets have been sent out beginning of this month, one went to Italy and the other to Australia. Now I am doing a small summer solstice edition, which can be ordered next month. If you wish to have one please message me at info@teufelskunst.com. The price is 31 Euro for one set consisting of 40 cards + 4 colored postcards. For more info see the website teufelskunst.com/art/card-sets….
What else is on? Beginning of July I might be involved in a photo-documention for an environmental assessment. This is something I am greatly looking forward to.
Until the end of this month I am also finishing my article and artistic contribution for Pillars 1.III – I can hardly await how the journal will turn out this year! So once it’s out I will also have new stuff to share here.
PS: Forgot to mention we spent a few days in Freiburg, checking out the historic parts of the town, the botanical garden and a handful of museums… (pics to follow). Meanwhile here’s me in the new dress that my mum tailored for me:
My boyfriend took the photo during our stay at the beautiful gardens of Kloster St. Lioba.
So long, thanks again for all your support! Have a nice summer and take care!
This book caught my attention a few weeks ago: it was on display in the window of an antiquarian bookshop in Dresden and I swore to myself, to return and I’d buy it. So I did.
The book is from 1926, published by Schwarzeck-Verlag Dresden. It contains information and references to herbals from the 15th century, which – thanks to the invention of letterpress printing – were for the first time available to a larger audience, especially since they were written not in Latin but in German language, so that common people could understand and use them. These herbals were richly illustrated with surprisingly accurate woodcuts depicting the plants. Both pharmacology and botany developed quickly during this time. Soon followed similar herbals in Belgium, Italy and England.
The first chapter gives an introduction to these early herbals, their authors and illustrators. Mentioned are among others: Conrad von Megenberg, Otto Brunfels (botanist and illustrator), Leonhart Fuchs, Hieronymus Bock, Petrus Andreas Mathiolus, Konrad Gesner, Tabernaemontanus. Publishing a book was not an easy endeavor at a time, when there were no laws yet on coyprights. Unauthorized reprints occurred within the same year as the original and neither the original publisher nor author could do anything about it. (Sounds familiar in times of the internet, doesn’t it?) In addition, there was fierce competition among publishers and prices were dumped, once a larger number of a similar book was available… The authors describe all of this quite vividly and so this short discourse, on the first herbals ever printed, is a pleasant read, spiced with examples and quotes from these very first herbals. Simultaneously we learn how the first volumes on botany and pharmacognosy came into being.
I cannot go into detail on each chapter. Instead I list the translated index for reference:
The Herbals of the Middle Ages
The Doctrine of Signatures
The art of distillation
The spice wars
The cultivation of drugs in Germany
The China-Bark
The Liquorice
The tropein-containing Nightshades
The Strophanthus
The noxious and innoxious types of Strychnos
The Elder
The Indian Hemp (Cannabis indica)
The Yohimbe bark
The Guajacum tree
The Sarsaparilla root
The Shepherd’s Purse
The Rhubarb
The Aconite
The Opium
The Cantharides
There are altogether 272 pages. Whenever I skim through, I find something new and interesting, which I have not read elsewhere. This book contains plenty of interdisciplinary references and I am glad to have bought it.
Spent all day in the garden, weeding, cleaning and preparing containers, pricking and repotting and doing this year’s first herb harvest! Due to the mild winter and early spring the green are exploding and everything seems to be one month ahead. Our cherry tree has already flowered, the apple tree is in full bloom as well as the lilac. The meadow is white with daisies and cuckoo flowers and the sweet woodruff is already flowering. The new additions to the garden planted last year are blossoming. But there are also some ‘wild’ additions, such as the common lungwort, which I spotted growing wild now on our meadow and which has been known as a medicinal herb for centuries. Below are some recent impressions of the Green and our garden. You see what has become of the seedlings I had posted a few weeks ago…
Chaos in my seed trays…
…morning glory already wrapping around my datura plants…
The ‘Queen’ to be
Northern Wolfsbane thriving
Valerian, planted out last year
– so big already!
The Poison Hemlock seems to like the moist place in full shade.
Red spots at the base of Conium maculatum plants
The bed in half-shade, which we dug out and manured with fresh compost soil last year – before weed had taken over the whole place, so we removed about half a meter soil, strained it and laid foil around everything.
Above: the bed in half-shade, which we dug out and manured with fresh compost soil last year – before weed had taken over the whole place, so we removed about half a meter soil, strained it and laid foil around everything. Now it’s filled with plants for study and pleasure. I start to worry though it may soon be too packed!
Below: a bed left wild and overgrowing; forget-me-not and hyacinths have found a new place there admidst ground elder unconquered. All attempts to weed it out were futile. Therefore I learned it has also some benific qualities and now would actually be a good time for harvesting and using it fresh in cooking… Besides the sweet woodruff has been expanding not only there but this year it also started taking over the raised bed! As you can see it is overflowing and it was high time to clear it and do a first herb harvest. Lets see what to do with all the woodruff and wormwood! Well, the latter I already know what to use it for… There is also our lilac tree blooming by the compost, spreading its sweet scent.
Ground Elder, Sweet Woodruff, Forget-me-not and Hyacinths
Sweet Woodruff taking over!
The raised bed overflowing – high time for weeding as well as a first harvest!
Lilac in bloom
The lovely lungwort with its multi-colored flowers
And there is also the lungwort, which I look forward to study more…
Esoteric art exhibition and talk event, St. Augustine's, London Hackney, 21st - 23rd of March 2014
This was an unusual art exhibition as well as an unusual occult gathering. This event was different in a number of ways. It was also a personal challenge.
If you would have asked me two weeks earlier about going to London and exhibiting my art there, I would have declared you insane. But it happened. All my concerns, about lacking the funds, health, whatever, and other obstacles magically vanished, just one week before eventually embarking on my journey to London. It would be the first time in seven years.
It felt like a tip on my shoulder, followed by a physical and mental boost. The next few days I was like a maniac, preparing prints, packing art, clothes etc. Everything had to fit into a board case. The woman at the print shop became my best friend. I booked the flights last minute and eventually, after days and nights of no-sleep and few hours of rest, I found myself on the bus to Berlin airport, feeling lucid yet focused, constantly going up and down mental check lists.
“A tower of an event…”
The tower usually evokes a dark and fearsome image. However, my journey went smoothly. When I say smoothly, I mean everything worked out perfectly. I was on time, did not forget a thing, did not loose anything, flights, buses, trains – whatever was needed to get to the place did not let me down. If I was lost for the way, people helped me find it. I was met with so much friendliness that I eventually started wondering whether any of this was real.
“A circular gathering…”
It is the day of the vernal equinox. When I arrive at Andrea Kundry’s place, the other guests are already involved in animated conversation. I know noone and expect to be plutoed as the ‘German girl’. Instead I am welcomed warmly and find myself instantly involved in creatively engaged talk. It is Charlotte Rodgers who takes the initiative; Glen Tomney and Roberto Migliussi join and a couple of minutes later we are talking art and meanings. It will continue throughout the event.
We have no time to loose and soon head straight to the location: St. Augustine’s tower appears as a solitary monument in the middle of London Hackney, medieval and out of place looking, reminding indeed of the tower tarot card. At the entrance, which is locked, we meet a little woman named Paula, who is dressed in hippie apparel. By little, I mean that she is maybe less than 5 feet tall. She has come here for the equinox and to light a candle in front of the tower, which she explains, is situated on the same ley-line as Stonehenge. She also tells us the tower was the oldest church tower of entire Britain and twelve monks had committed mutual suicide in this building. Her words sound like the perfect initiation into the event.
Unlocking the gate, we promise Paula to leave her candle burn, even though I wonder how any candle would remain lit under these conditions. This equinox comes rather as a late come-back of winter than a warm spring beginning.
Then we entered…
The tower’s inside is flooded with day light, shining through tall Gothic windows, illuminating layers of dust collected on cobwebs and the various artworks positioned on tables and hung on wire threads. In one corner, covering a wooden balustrade, hangs resplendent the large image of a black devil dancing on skulls and sticking out its tongue. It is painted by Dolorosa de la Cruz.
Passing art by Andrea Kundry and intricate sculptures by Charlotte Rodgers, we proceed up a narrow stairway and enter a small room that houses the tower’s clockwork. A reproduction of Amodali Zain’s iconic work is arranged alongside miniature paintings by Jezebel Halewood-Leagas, to be joined by various drawings and a goblin-themed assembly by Glen Tomney. In the same room I am later also setting up my long exposure nature photographs.
Crossing a small wooden bridge, we enter a second room with animal sculptures by Charlotte Rodgers. The iridescent black feathers of a winged corvid creature refract the daylight into its single parts. The bird resides over the talks, meditations and musical evenings taking place here.
We climb up to the last floor, the tower’s attic. In a dark corner presents itself an enormous vulvic shrine dedicated to Pomba-Gira. It consists of multiple ceramic and paper pieces, all created and set up by Angela Edwards. Two visitors are leaning thoughtfully over the installation. Later there will be Christian visitors inspecting the tower and wondering about the unusual happening and they will be shocked and confused by Angela’s work. But even esoteric folks visiting the tower for the exhibition will react ambiguous and unable relating to the presentation. It is the first time for me getting to know Angela and her work, and I too have to sort my feelings in regards to its provocative and violent yet strangely beautiful and enigmatic forms. I shall learn later, how much substance there is to it. Angela provides the viewer with candles and incense for paying respect to the spirits. So I light some, the rest remains an inner dialogue. Later I will spend more time chatting with Angela and without knowing or deciding on it, we are to stay in touch for years to come.
The inside of the tower is cold, electricity is not working properly and there are few facilities for hanging up our work, as it is forbidden to hit nails into the walls of the historical building. But somehow we manage by improvising: arranging our works in window frames, underneath timber beams, at the edge of protruding wall stones and on the wooden doors encasing the clockwork. At night we light candles to illuminate our artworks. The natural light and warmth of the candles creates a special and beautiful atmosphere inside this unique location. After three days at the tower none of the pieces would feel quite the same. Amidst cobwebs and dust centuries old they become charged with the special vibes of the place.
The following day we are greeted with storm and hail whilst the sun keeps on shining, creating a twilight mood, which again reminds me of the imagery on the tarot tower card…
Below is the view from the tower’s entrance towards the churchyard with its old gravestones. Rooted directly in front of the tower is a beautiful majestic tree, looking all the more dramatic against the scenery in the sky formed by dark clouds, sunshine and hail. Beneath, see also a sandstone relief mounted at the left side of the tower’s entrance, showing three skulls with triple crossed bones, hourglass and dragon wings – a memento mori, representing mortality, evanescence and resurrection.
Saturday is full-packed with talks, meditations and musical performances. On top of a busy schedule, Andrea, the organizer herself continues feeling (and looking) ill, despite hoping for recovery until the very last minute. As she can not attend her own talk, she asks me to jump in. Suddenly I find myself in the unexpected situation of having to talk in front of a foreign audience, in a foreign language, who are expecting in depth info and insights about the very location of this event, St. Augustine’s. Instead I fill the spot with talk about memes, the symbolism of plants and drawing, handing around my sigil cards for inspired conversation. Somehow we manage and my Sigilla Magica gain the attention of the audience.
Saturday evening ends with a jam session by Roberto Migliussi (vocals), Chris Chibnall (theremin), Gavin Semple (guitar), Mark O Pilkington, Glen Tomney and Freya Black (magic flute). The tower provides amazing acoustics and so we sit there, chatting and listening to the wondrous vibrations.
On the last day it is time to pack and leave. We say goodbye, exchange contacts and return to our homes. Some people I meet throughout the event, are probably of high relevance within the London/UK esoteric scene. But my mind is already overwhelmed with new impressions and my journey is not over yet, as I am invited to check out two esoteric book stores. I need to catch my flight though and so there is only time left for one. We check out Watkins Books, recommended by Roberto Migliussi. I am impressed by the beauty of the place as well as the sheer amount of esoteric books on the shelves. I don’t think something similar exists in Germany. Roberto also purchases the very first of my sigil card sets and simultaneously entrusts me with the task of coming up with a better packaging for them.
I will be attending and participating in the London MAGICAL ART/E, a circular tower of an event this weekend. The happening takes place at St. Augustine’s tower, Hackney, London, providing a unique location for performances and exhibitions. Coming with me are 20 photo prints from the Listen to the Silence series as well as prints of my drawings and abstract sigil art. Below is a photo of the tower.
I wonder if winter is yet to come or if it was simply cancelled for this year. Well, here are a few snapshots of the first spring bloomers of 2014 that popped up this week! With the crocuses you could basically sit beside the flowers and watch them opening one after the other…
