Persephone's Haven » Reviews

Book Review: “Shaping Formless Fire: Distilling the Quintessence of Magick”, by Stephen Mace

Vivienne — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:10:30 +0000

This is a very short book, only 90 pages, and it is composed of a series of essays the author wrote for various publications. Most of it is very basic and probably would not appeal to a more advanced worker, so I was a little disappointed. I was looking for something different and new, and something for the advanced worker. But scattered throughout the book are a few very interesting ideas that I have not seen anywhere else, and they inspired me to some new thinking. That is always what I am looking for in a book.

The reader can tell that the author was influenced by Crowley and Ceremonial Magick along the lines of the OTO and the Golden Dawn. Among the most useful ideas was chapter 5, on Banishing and Cleansing. I have made a variation of these ideas a part of my daily practice, which I spell out in detail in the 5 part series that I wrote, the email tutorial that comes with the subscription to the Persephones Haven blog. (See subscription button in the upper left hand corner of the web page). The author is also influenced by Austin Osman Spare and Chaos Magick, particularly the use of sigils, but the beginner will definitely want to read some books by Phil Hine about Chaos Magick first, because the little bit that Mace goes into is not enough at all to really teach anyone what Chaos Magick is about.

In fact, the book deals with too many beginning subjects for the advanced practitioner to get a whole lot out of it, though as I said, there are a few good ideas scattered here and there, throughout. Unfortunately, there is not enough for a beginner, either, because Mace does not go in depth into any one topic. I think that is because the book is made up of a series of short essays that were written as magazine articles, so they are extremely basic introductory ideas presented for people that otherwise would not know about them.

If anything, this is a good book for beginners to read through to make notes about all the different topics that he or she can research and explore in greater depth. The author is obviously very well read and very experienced as a practitioner, so I found myself wishing he had gone into much greater depth and detail on any one or two of the topics that he dealt with so briefly in his essays. I am definitely going to be looking out for more of his books. I am hoping that at least some of them are much meatier than this one. The publisher listed some related books as well, such as books by Phil Hine on Chaos Magick and books by Crowley and others on Ceremonial Magick. However, there is no formal bibliography, and I found myself wishing that there could be an extensive one.

Happy Reading!

BB,

Vivienne

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Gothic Beauty Magazine Issue 28 in stores

Vivienne — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:53:13 +0000

Gothic Opera — “Repo: the Genetic Opera”

Vivienne — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:53:09 +0000

Last weekend, my boyfriend introduced me to the most amazing movie musical I’ve seen in a long time. More accurately, it’s an opera — almost entirely sung in rich and powerful goth rock and with powerful themes to match any Greek Tragedy.

Set in a futuristic world (2040 A.D.), where a genetics company has become the most powerful entity on the planet, Repo: the Genetic Opera presents the premise that any necessary organ transplant is possible, cures for many life-threatening diseases are easily available, and even cosmetic surgery is so common that for many it has become an addiction. One character, Blind Mag, has even been given the gift of sight courtesy of Geneco — in exchange for which she has been contracted to a life of virtual slavery, singing each night in the company-sponsored “genetic opera” and serving as their prime spokesperson.

But there is an even worse catch — people unable to make the payments for Geneco’s transplant services are hunted down by “The Repo Man” — played brilliantly by Anthony Head (best known as Giles from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series).

In this world, the owner of Geneco, Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino) is the most powerful man in the world, and he has managed to get a law enacted that makes it legal for Geneco to repossess the organs of anyone who defaults on their transplant surgery payments.

This is invariably a cruel, bloody, grisly mess. Victims die in terror as the Repo Man glories in their torture and his own self-loathing for being a licensed serial killer. Scenes of his murders are reminiscent of Sweeney Todd, Phantom of the Opera, and Les Miserables all rolled into one.

This dystopia is brilliantly depicted in a truly beautiful Gothic style. The budget was not high ($8.5 million), but the production values most definitely are, and the artistic direction is superb. From the cemetery where the heroine passes her time in the crypt of her mother, to the tower room where her father keeps her locked away as an invalid, to the sordid back alleys where “The Graverobber” peddles a drug stolen from corpses, the sets are breathtaking in their dark beauty and surreal quality. The costumes are gorgeous, and several Goths of my acquaintance are already planning their own reproductions.

The music is brilliantly written, and surprisingly well sung — I say surprising only because I had no idea that Anthony Head had such a wonderful singing voice, or that Paul Sorvino had such a deep, rich operatic tenor himself.

Other surprises come from the casting. Blind Mag is played hauntingly by Sarah Brightman, her ethereal voice adding an achingly poignant quality to her role. Paris Hilton, of all people, plays the drug and surgery addicted spoiled brat daughter to Paul Sorvino. Not only does she sing well, she acts the part, which is more of a stretch than you might imagine because of the science fiction twists to a character that would otherwise be fairly close to her reality. I can only imagine that she wanted this part to show a certain depth of self-awareness, as well as a self-mocking commentary on the shallowness of her media image. At one point her newly transplanted face falls off — right in the middle of a stage performance being broadcast to millions — revealing the raw and bloody naked muscle beneath. The irony could not be more perfect.

This film, like any good opera, does NOT have a happy ending. The tragic flaws of its many players lead to death for some, and undeserved rewards for others. The heroine is left with grief and loneliness, but also a new life with the mixed blessing of knowing the truths that were hidden from her all her life by her lying, murderous father. Nevertheless, it is clear they love each other to the bitter end.

While this film will not appeal to everyone, it most certainly will appeal to most Goths. Deliberately released only to seven theaters, its makers fully expect its popularity to spread by word of mouth, and it is rapidly becoming a cult classic. People are already engaged in “shadowcasting” (a practice known from reenactments of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.) I highly recommend Repo: the Genetic Opera.

It’s home page is found at http://www.repo-opera.com/

BB,

Vivienne

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new vampire fiction in the PH Book Store

Vivienne — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:50:55 +0000

As I said in my previous post about adding some more non-fiction books to the book store, the bibliography of The Science of Vampires had so many interesting books listed that I’ve started searching for them at Amazon and uploading them according to category. I’ve just added a whole bunch to the “fiction: miscellaneous vampires” section. I can’t vouch for all of these, because I haven’t read most of them, and they are quite varied in premise, voice and style.

Carmilla, written by Sheridan Le Fanu even before Dracula, is also the first lesbian vampire story I’m aware of. It’s a very good read, and a must for someone interested in the classics and origins of the genre.

Children of the Night I didn’t like so much. It deals with post Ceauescu Romanian orphanages, AIDs, and is altogether too depressingly modern.

Salem’s Lot by Stephen King is one of my favorites. I know some people find it a little silly, but I avoided Stephen King for years and finally started reading him because of this book. It helps that I’m from New England so I like the flavor of the stories he sets there.

I saw the movie based on The Hunger but didn’t read the book. I didn’t care much for the movie, but books are almost always better than the movies based on them. I found the movie too bloody, the vampires too different from the archetype I was used to, and I was looking forward to seeing David Bowie in it, only to have him age and disappear from the movie about 20 minutes in! So I’m prejudiced. This book and its sequel, The Last Vampire, are considered classics of the genre however, and the author, Whitley Strieber, also wrote Wolfen.

I found out from Ramsland’s book that the TV series Nightstalker was based on the book The Kolchak Papers. I hadn’t realized there was a book behind that show, but I loved the show, so I’m curious to read the book.

Of the remaining books I am most interested in reading Varney the Vampire; I have been reading about this story for years. It was originally published in the Victorian era in the penny dreadfuls, and comes up in just about every non-fiction book about vampires and vampire literature ever written.

I would love to hear from anyone who has read some of the others on this list, and get your opinions. I would be happy to post any reviews you might want to write. You can leave comments on this post, or send me an email and I can upload a file.

There are still several novels from this bibliography that I need to add, but because they each belong to a series, I want to add each series or author as it’s own category. I’ll post here when I get some of those up.

Happy reading!

BB,

Vivienne

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Dante Valentine series by Lilith Saintcrow

Vivienne — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:45:14 +0000

I just posted about these books to my ile mailing list (an ile is a household in Lucumi (Santeria). The one I belong to meets at my padrino’s (godfather’s) house). They are new additions to the bookstore here at Persephone’s Haven.
I just finished the first one, Working for the Devil. The main character, Dante Valentine, is a necromancer who works with Anubis and the Egyptian pantheon. During the course of the novel she travels to Nuevo Rio, where there are many shamans practicing Santeria and Voudon. In one scene, she sees a woman has a drawn a veve (a voudon symbol) in the street. She describes how the chicken that the woman sacrifices keeps twitching after its dead, and as the blood pours onto the veve, Dante feels the rush of power flowing in. A few moments later, she sees someone resembling Baron Samedi (one of the voudon loa (spirits)) coming through the crowd, but she leaves the area after that.

I haven’t yet read the other books in the series, so I don’t know how much these traditions come into her story lines, but I was quite interested with her treatment of them in this book. If anyone else here has read any of them, please let me know what you think.

BB,

Vivienne

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The Science of Vampires – review

Vivienne — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:29:47 +0000

Lady Amethyst of Nephilim United and the Sanford Vampire Meet Up loaned me this book as a resource for the February meet up, which will be discussing vampire Awakening and whether Turning is possible (see my previous post for details).

The Science of Vampires, by Katherine Ramsland, Ph. D. covers a wide range of topics: fictional vampire characteristics, psychological illnesses and serial killers, vampire spirituality, the vampire subculture, the physical basis for bliss and the nature of evil.

Ramsland first discusses fictional vampires and how modern science might explain their abilities, using Dracula as a jumping off point. She points out how tuberculosis and decomposition might have once been mistaken for vampirism, and then goes into the cellular process of aging, and the properties of blood.

She goes next into how literary vampires have evolved in popular culture, discussing the many paradigms and types of vampires and vampire mythology that have blossomed over the last century. From this she leaps to quantum physics, psychology, psychic research, and a description of porphyria (an illness that has many symptoms in common with traditional vampire weaknesses, such as heightened sensitivity to the sun).

Next Ramsland discusses the bliss of a vampiric embrace in terms of certain brain functions, techniques such as hypnosis, meditation and trance, drugs such as DMT and LSD, and brain chemicals like endorphins (”inner morphine.”) In this same section she discusses the possible results of being “embraced,” or how a normal human might be “Turned” into a vampire. She suggests DNA and genetic mutation, viruses, and pathogens.

Next she goes into what I find to be the most disturbing sections of the book — a discussion of Vampire Personality Disorder, Renfield’s Syndrome, and a list of serial killers who may have fit these profiles. She chooses to follow this up with an explanation of how forensics and profiling might solve a “vampire” killing, but she uses as her example fictional vampire qualities. In other words, if Dracula really existed and really had the abilities he had, how might a CSI lab examine the crime scene, analyze the forensics, and profile the killer? I find it unfortunate that she chooses to confuse real life serial killers with an aberrant psychological disorder, with fictional or literary vampires as if they really existed and a CSI lab would be faced with really trying to figure out what was going on. I would have found it much more responsible if she had discussed how these forensic labs and profilers dealt with the actual crimes committed by the real life murderers.

Even worse, Ramsland then chooses to describe vampire hunters, and how to kill a (literary) vampire. I call these portions of the book the most disturbing, because I have no doubt there are confused individuals out there who will be unable to draw the distinction between the “fictional” or literary vampires she discusses, the real-life serial killers she catalogs with legitimate psychological peculiarities, and the modern vampire subculture. Oh, she throws a few lines in each time she begins to discuss the latter, stressing that they are not psychologically disturbed nor serial killers, but there are disturbed individuals out there who consider themselves to be self-appointed “vampire hunters,” and have attacked members of said vampire subculture. I can easily imagine such disturbed individuals taking Ramsland’s discussions of literary vampires and the detection of their “crimes” as “real,” equating them with the real-life serial killers she also discusses in such close proximity, and from there making the leap that members of the vampire subculture, are both “real” literary vampires and serial killers — especially since Ramsland jumps back and forth so frequently and freely between these three types in her explanations of various topics.

I was further disappointed that she chose to follow these sections with a discussion of psychic vampires and vampirism as a spiritual movement, while blending this with a discussion on the nature of evil and an analysis of Dracula as a dark shaman and alchemist. This unfortunately adds further credence to the idea that vampirism as a spiritual path is inextricably linked to the nature of evil.

Ramsland saves her “hook” for last — her discussion of vampires and sex is the next to last chapter of the book. She goes briefly into a discussion of whether vampires can breed with humans when she mentions the dhampir in the vampire hunter section (supposedly the offspring of a vampire and a human), but not until this chapter does she get into the mechanics and hydraulics of sex. She talks about the different vampire paradigms in various novels and explains whether their physiology would render them impotent, sterile, or capable of having sex and reproducing.

In this chapter she also discusses the attraction the vampire archetype has for the homosexual community, another so-called “deviant” or “outsider” community supposedly drawn to the similar status of vampires, who are seen as sexually uninhibited and similarly unbound by society’s sexual mores. She follows this up with a discussion of AIDs (a very real problem for sanguine vampires) and the cross over of the vampire subculture with the S&M/bondage subculture, including the shared attraction for dominance and submission role playing.

Ramsland closes by equating the dark allure of the mystery of the vampire, and its ever shifting and elusive nature, to the dark matter of the Universe that scientists are still struggling to explain. A bit of a stretch, but I like her poetic turn of mind when she makes such comparisons throughout the book, and her ability to think outside the box.

All in all, The Science of Vampires is extremely well researched. Ramsland does a pretty good job of keeping a wide variety of seemingly unrelated topics well organized, and she has a lot of fascinating information that should appeal both to fans of vampire fiction and to members of the vampire subculture alike. I do believe she tried to be responsible in her presentation of real vampires amongst discussions of evil, serial killers, and literary vampires. If you can overlook the dangerous potential that certain unbalanced individuals might get them all confused, you should find a lot of very useful information, as well as many resources for further research in her well-cited text and extensive bibliography.

If any of you have read this book I would be very interested in hearing your take on it, and whether your opinions jive with mine. Please do leave comments on this post and let me know what you think.

BB,

Vivienne

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Friday’s vampire and Shadowlore meet up conference call in information

Vivienne — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:19:19 +0000

You have been invited by viviennedavalon to join a live Community Call.

Sanford Vampire and Shadowlore Meet Up (Join in)
Host: viviennedavalon – vivienne_davalon@yahoo.com
Episode: EPISODE8 – Sanford Vampire and Shadowlore Meet Up – history and folklore

Well, we didn’t have access to the community room at Panera Bread last time until mid-way through the meeting, but hopefully that doesn’t happen too often. Otherwise, it has been working out quite well for us. It is quieter for our recordings, and Kirra continues to come through for us by bringing her great mike. Of course, it helps if I remember to hit the “record” button on Talk Shoe, so there is actually a podcast for people to access later! eep!

Last meeting’s topic was suggested by Vampiress, and she took the lead on this one. We addressed the relationship between vampire and donor, how to appropriately begin such a relationship, how to delineate the parameters of the relationship, spell out the responsibilities each has to the other, and avoid problems. It was a very informative meet up, and I am just kicking myself to here and back that I forgot to hit “record!” We will have to repeat the topic sometime down the line so we can have a podcast on the subject up for handy reference.

Our next meet up on October 3, 2008 is our last meeting before Halloween, so Mordred suggested we talk about history, folklore, and other topics that are usually addressed by Hollywood and TV documentaries during this month — facts and fallacies, near-misses, myth and legend, etc. If you have any books along the lines of the “Vampire Encyclopedia” and its ilk, please bring them with you for handy reference and to share around.

***

As our meet up matures, we want to continue to reach out to more like minded people in our area who need some networking and social acceptance, and who want the opportunity to learn and to teach. Our members have mentioned being rather insulated because of family issues, or the underwhelming enthusiasm of at least one local Wiccan group for vampires, or social drama online. We’ve been teaching specific topics and gotten some good discussions going, and want that to continue. We’re here to be an educational resource and support network, and the more talented people we get who are willing to share their experiences, the better that resource will be for all our members and for the larger community. There is a lot of creative cross-pollination going on, and I want us to continue to create a space and network that encourages productive, creative interaction, personal growth, and community cooperation to make great things happen! Looking forward to meeting more of you at October’s meet up.

BB, Vivienne
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Unique Creations

Vivienne — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:36:36 +0000

My friend Dorothy has a wonderful custom jewelry business, Unique Creations; she is in the process of getting her domain set up, and then I will try to get her hooked up with WordPress so she can blog and we can link to each other. I will post here again as soon as she is up and running, but I can’t wait to see her website!

BB,

Vivienne