Crossing the Boggle Threshold
Adventures in Welshpool
This weekend, Course Leaders Dr Halo Quin and Sef Salem visited the Welsh Occult Conference with other Members of Star Club and had a jolly magical time.
Welshpool is a lovely town with a very good fish and chip shop, and the conference is set in the stately town hall amidst deep wood panels and expansive portraits. A 9.00am sharp start begins our day, and we wanted to offer you our separate perspectives.
Sef's Welsh Day Out
“O coffee!
By the mighty Name of Power do I invoke thee, consecrating thee to the Service of the Magic of Light...”
This is the third event in Welshpool I've attended and it hasn't gotten any closer to Bristol! Soror O.F. and I had an early start leaving our hound with friends and zoomed up the motorway by the power of caffeine.
We attended lectures and enjoyed hanging out with our Stellar compatriots. It's always nice to see the DragonOak Coven and Sian has done wonderful work with these events here and in Cardiff - tickets available for the October event!
After arriving and meeting old friends from occult and pagan groups from across the country, we settled in to listen to the lectures.
Morning Lectures
A Welsh Book of Knowledge - Andrew Phillip Smith
Andrew is an excellent speaker and author, and he has been working hard on translating the tome Saryddiaeth - Welsh for “Book of Knowledge” - which was printed in 1830 by a Robert Roberts after three generations of the Roberts family working on it. It was unclear why Roberts published it, having previous published geographical works, however he was an astronomer who dabbled in astrology. Roberts worked from an Observatory in Holyhead, which is one of my favourite Welsh magical destinations.
Saryddiaeth means astronomy and the work is a compendium of folk astrology, remedies, and a translation of the 4th Book of Occult Philosophy by Agrippa, including the magic squares and Heptameron. Translating this back into English provides a unique perspective on magical practices in Wales in the 19th Century, and we look forward to its publication soon. Until then, we recommend his other books on Gnosticism and Welsh folk magic practices.
The Cult of the Yew - Janis Fry
Janis Fry offered a fascinating investigation of the ancient history of Yew trees, discussing Yew staffs in the Abrahamic mystery tradition used by Moses, Jesus, and onwards, and the Triple Goddesses through the millennia. I learned that the average age of trees in Britain is 1,500 years old - deep magick all around us. Janis is a true avatar of the Yew tree and a joy to listen to in terms of her sheer passion and reverence.
For Star Club, the representation of the Yew tree in Egyptian and Mesopotamian magical depictions of immortality has a direct bearing on the inner mysteries of our initiations. The Q&A even featured discussion of Mithraic mysteries and the closeness of the Yew Aral to pomegranates and the possible bearing on the mytheme of the descent into the Underworld.
Place and Space in Magick - Dr Robert A. Plimer
Bob's lecture focused on Egyptian noetic practices which are key to the Neuro-Gnostic Model which underpins the Star Club Formula. The ability to move between the corporeal and mental states of the Nous is key to the night side of Typhonian systems and a foundation of Bob's teachings in his books. Covering ancient Egyptian Glyph activation and projection, as well as the Eidolon practice, the lecture took us through the magicians' training in temples and how they were tested to progress.
Bob’s discussion of the Hyperdoche (liminal space) has a direct bearing on Star Club’s use of the Enochian Chant to create magical space. It is of the utmost importance to not only work on the self, but on the magical space where we work our practice. The lecture closed by stressing the importance of developing an overarching philosophy and direction of Will, which is close to my own heart as a Thelemite and a believer in the power of magical practice to bring people together and achieve great things. I’m very excited to announce that Dr Plimer will be joining us for a workshop and Open Ritual in September - Dislimning for the Duat.
A Sunny Lunchtime
There are two certainties about lunch in Welshpool - that it will be gloriously sunny, and that I’ll order too much from the chippy. Lunch is a time to chat with friends and review the stalls, and inevitably spend too much money. We picked up artwork and books from Black Lodge, Hadean Press, and Magic Paintings, and caught up with more friends while making new ones.
We didn’t manage to take snaps of the other stalls including In Lumine Lunae and Pretty Wild Plants but we are always in favour of supporting magical businesses, we hope to see them all return at the October event.
Afternoon Lectures
Welsh Influences on Traditions of Modern Pagan Witchcraft - Mhara Starling
This could have been retitled Mhara Starling - Calling Bullshit on Modern Takes on Welsh Deities, and I loved every second of it. From Gwyn Ap Nudd acquiring antlers in modernity he never had, to Cerridwen being cast as a crone when her most famous tales are that of being a mother to Taliesin, and Arianrhod has somehow had everything thrown on top of her except for her actual attributions during the 4th Branch of the Mabinogion.
As a Thelemite, I was struck by the potential translation of Arianrhod’s name being “The Centre of the Wheel” which correlates with her pivotal role in these tales, and brings to mind Hadit, the Secret Centre and axle in the Wheel. I’ve nowhere near enough hubris to claim any deeper connection, but it’s certainly interesting.
Ecological Witchcraft - Sian Sibley
Sian’s book Unveiling the Green, available from Black Lodge Publishing
Siany organises the Conference, and I’m lucky enough to have known her for a decade now. She and I share a passion for seeing the wonder and animism in the world around us, and she eloquently demonstrated how militant rationalism sees the natural world as a resource to use. The thrust of her lecture was to challenge our magical practice regarding the impact on planet - how we consume crystals, resins, herbs, and essential oils is not perhaps the best way to honour nature.
Sian’s final peroration to vote and be loud and proud as a pagan is close to my heart, using census data to show that over 74,000 people in the UK declared themselves Pagan and thousands more as spiritual or shamanistic. I looked into the numbers of the 2011 census for an O.T.O. presentation and found there were 93,000 overall who might fit into some category of occultist or pagan, and the growth in pagan numbers alone means we should have a bigger voice politically and nationally.
When she mentioned the Gods in the land in her back garden, I immediately thought of a fun comic strip or short story to be written on a whole street of Deities neighbouring each other and making friends and sharing magical weapons over the fence. Wouldn’t we all act with more reverence for our Gods and our land if that was the case? I hope those present will all have as much food for thought as we did.
Ontological Flooding and the Occult - Dr Jack Hunter
When I first heard the title of this lecture, I immediately thought of the mytheme of the Flood across cultures throughout time… I was entirely incorrect!
Jack is an eloquent and passionate speaker with a PhD in Anthropology from Bristol University, and is an up and coming star of the intersection between the occult and the academy. His focus is on the academic approach to spirituality and the paranormal, and a radical attempt to engage with spirit contact on the inhabiting culture's terms rather than imposing a worldview of the academy. We learned about ‘bracketing’ which in itself is another layer of bias which is insidious because it convinces the academic they have removed bias, and the term “the boggle threshold” for the point at which you can no longer discount spiritual encounters.
As a Prof. Rupert Sheldrake aficionado it was heartening to hear more voices in the academy looking to slough off materialist dogma, and I look forward to seeing more from him in the future. This is a personal passion of mine and other close friends, and as we move forward as a community this recognition will be vital to enfranchising occultists, magicians, and pagans.
The Orphic Hymns & their use in Magic - Sara Mastros
Sara had come all the way from America and brought a high energy lecture with her, invoking Orpheus and bringing her passion for inspiration to the assembled crowd. Star Club has a close relationship with the Orphic Hymns in both invocatory work and our Sympathetic Praxis, so it was well worth listening for all our Members there.
There were some thought-provoking points during the lecture, such as the possibility that Eurydike was analogous to Hekate, and the comparison between Persephone and Eurydike as mythical women who attempted to leave the Underworld to be thwarted in different ways. My favourite take-home from the lecture was that writing is a new and state controlled technology, so there are vanishingly few primary sources the further back you go. Sara delved into the Ekstasis in Orphic worship - a key component of our Ecstatic Praxis, and the Orphic model of creating invocations is one of the suggested routes for students completing their Practitioner Cycle.
Overall, Halo and I were left with the inclination to organise a proper Bacchanal using all 88 Orphic Hymns for Saturnalia - watch this space!
Le Donne di Fora - Cristina Pandolfo
Rounding out the day was Cristina Pandolfo speaking on Italian folklore, Le Donne di Fora or Women from the Outside. This was a whistle-stop tour of the correlation between witches, fae women, and house spirits who were real but uncommon, noted as having a supernatural power to go out at night and dance with the people of the town. These reports varied from town to town and shared characteristics of beauty, playful natures, knowledge of healing and harming magic, and moved in groups with a Queen or leader.
These women were likely real and professional experts in medicine and childcare, were priestesses of women’s rites of passage, and who have been mythologised as witches, faeries, and nymphs. I’ve enjoyed Cristina’s lectures which offer a look into these practices, and her knowledge of Italian texts on such witchcraft compliments her deep understanding of herbcraft, which you can see in her botanica and perfurmery shop In Lumine Lunae.
Discussions and Diversions
As with all such events, once the lectures were complete we headed to the pub to celebrate and socialise. There are few things as enjoyable as the company of magicians, and we spent the evening in high spirits discussing the topics of the day and good times past. Sr O.F. and I made our way back to Bristol, with an unexpected diversion through Droitwich - thanks Mercury Retrograde!
Planetary cards, magical art, and a beautiful hardback grimoire
We have plenty of food for thought and a good haul from the stalls, so we want to give a huge congratulations to Sian and the DragonOak team for a great event, and thank you to all the speakers. We will certainly be there in October for the Cardiff Conference.
Between now and October, Star Club will be hosting monthly Open Rituals and socials, which you can find on our events page, and you can sign up for our newsletter to be the first to hear about our news and events below.
We’ll be sharing Halo’s thoughts in an upcoming blog post, and will have further reflections on the subjects covered at the conference in our Members’ Area. Until then, check out some of the links to authors and artists above and let us know what you thought of the event.