What fresh Hell is this?

Intellectual Property (IP) protected by law include; copyrights, design rights, patents. Property infringement means you used someone's trade name, trade mark and/or trade secrets as well as the same recipe, design, ect. Artist works are automatically protected by Intellectual Property law once something tangible is produced i.e. art, music, film, ect. Projects I'm working on, just in case you pharmaceutical-junkie-psychics are time-sharing. All Rights Reserved.

Portrait of a Goddess No. 1

Portrait of a Goddess No. 1 - Available now in my Etsy shop.

Astarte, the ancient goddess of fertility, motherhood and war. According to legend Astarte descended to earth as a fiery star. The Phoenicians portrayed Astarte with cow horns, representing fertility. The Assyrians and Babylonians pictured her holding child. Mother of the Universe, giver of all live on Earth. She ruled all spirits of the dead residing in heaven visible from earth as stars; hence came her name Astroarche, "Queen of the Stars."

Hand formed goddess figure - 7 inches - artist signature, LVNA.

Ocular Oracular ©

Photography is the latest obsession...my self published book is coming out soooon! Check out lulu.com. "Lulu leads the industry of publish-on-demand books because our authors keep 80% of their profits and publishing is free."

New video for 'Still Life' (Directed by Oliver Murray), from the new album - 'Skying' released on XL Recordings July 2011. 




‪http://thehorrors.co.uk‬

Moving Towards Light

David Ball — Moving Towards Light from Shaun Roberts on Vimeo.

Artwork by David Ball Produced and photographed by Shaun Roberts

Nachthex

Last night's magicks, cooking evil spirits with Sulphur and Pitch!



Here's a first look at my raku pit fired effigies. I'm firing them again tomorrow, adding scarlet/copper/azure metalic oxides!

Medicine Show No.1 - Cunning Wolf

Available in my Etsy shop. The Cunning Wolf, the hunter, trickster, emissary of Lucifer, and the Black Dog of the Wild Hunt. Wolf also offers guidance and protection for those who dwell in barren and lonely places. He will allow you to see your teacher within. In the aloneness of a power place, devoid of other humans, you may find the true you.

"Wolf is the Grand Teacher. Wolf is the sage, who after many winters upon the sacred path and seeking the ways of wisdom, returns to share the new knowledge with the tribe. Wolf is both the radical and the traditional in the same breath.
When Wolf walks by you-- you WILL remember."

creep

Renee from Ka Xiong on Vimeo.

by Renee 20 Covers Of Radiohead's “Creep,” Rated - Stereogum

Into the Menstrual Night I Go

Last nights blood divinations, inspired by the Victorian parlor game Blotto and the Rorschach inkblot test. A psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning. It has been employed to detect underlying thought disorder, especially in cases where patients are reluctant to describe their thinking processes openly. The test is named after its creator, Swiss psychologist Hermann Rorschach.

See also: The Surrealist parlour game, "The Exquisite corpse"

SANCTVM

I consider myself a Pagan Reconstructionist riding a wave of Heretical Gnosis. By comparative study, I've reduced the world’s various religions and spiritual paths to their essence. I have no solid belief system per say so my spiritual ideologies are constantly evolving. I'm free from the spiritual bondage that is dogma. My focus is on soul development, becoming, leading to the attainment of Divine Consciousness. I've found balance in the Wisdom of Nature and the Gnosis of the Universe. 'As Above So Below' which is essentially non-duality.

My practice can best be described as Magico-Religious. I employ traditional American Folk Magick and Medicine; Hexcraft rooted in Euro-American Witchcraft, Santeria, Pow-wow, Hoodoo, Gypsy and Granny Magicks. My foundation is laid in the Wheel of the Year, the annual cycle of the Earth's seasons: eight festivals throughout the year referred to as Sabbats. Magico-Religious Power is the the spiritual force called Mana, energy interpreted as "Chaos". Mana (spiritual essence) is in people, animals, plants and objects. The entire universe is alive and interconnected, everything possesses a personality and individual spirit. This belief is called Animism. Shamans and Witches have a deep relationship with the supernatural. Shamanic traditions are especially valuable in a time of crisis between humanity and nature. If we can learn to rediscover the way of the shaman, it may make a critical impact on how we live. Naturalist and Ecologists might study the relationships of living things to their environment differently. How we live individually and collectively can and will effect the future of the Earth and it's inhabitants.

Furthermore, I'm really moved by the "school of thought" that is Green Hermeticism. Not only does it resonate with my own belief that humanity needs to get back to the Esoteric roots of Medicine, this movement has started to establish a bridge between Alchemy and Ecology.

"it’s not clear whether you can make a leap or bridge from a scientific mentality to a Hermetic one; that is, whether conventional science can somehow become Hermetic, or whether—this not being possible—we are going to have to create a new science-art-spirituality working out of alchemy and Hermeticism on their own terms, thus renewing and re-imagining for our time the ancient sacred science of nature. In other words, perhaps it is in the nature of the project that the bridge will have to be built from Hermeticism to a new kind of science rather than from conventional science to Hermeticism."

The Alchemists' search for the Philosopher's Stone took a turn for the worse in Ancient Egypt when materialists developed the art of synthetic "wet" chemistry. Processes including but not limited to; extracting metal from their ores, making pottery and glazes, fermenting beer and wine, making pigments for cosmetics and painting, extracting chemicals from plants for medicine and perfume, making cheese, dying cloth, tanning leather, rendering plant fat into soap, making glass, and making alloys like bronze. By the seventeenth century, Occultist and Philosopher of Nature, Paracelsus, pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals for medicine. This was contrary to his hermetical views that sickness and health in the body relied on the harmony of man and Nature. Since then, a materialistic, capitalistic, anti-ecological, anti-Hermetic war was waged against humanity and the planet Earth. We've seen a rapid decline of spirituality and morality. And in opposition to this, a Romantic Nihilist movement. In spite of this, We are Green Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists. Hopefully at the end of this war, Holistic Dualists.

"The alchemists are people of prayer. They are dedicated selflessly to the transformation and redemption of society, the individual, and the earth itself."

Quotes taken from: "Green Hermeticism: David Levi Strauss in conversation with Peter Lamborn Wilson and Christopher Bamford"

Artist Occultist Sensualist

"Others praise ceremonial Magic, and are supposed to suffer much Ecstasy! Our asylums are crowded, the stage is over-run! Is it by symbolising we become the symbolised? Were I to crown myself King, should I be King? Rather should I be an object of disgust or pity. These Magicians, whose insincerity is their safety, are but the unemployed dandies of the Brothels." Austin Osman Spare

hallelujah!

Alexander - Truth

Jennifer Angus

“That insects are so vitally important. We need insects to pollinate flowers that, in turn, produce fruit. We need insects for decomposition. Without insects, I don’t think we could exist.” Jennifer Angus

"spellbound to her barren prison for too long"

"this is why I am all in rags now"

reclaimed vintage & tribal gypsy jewelry & accessories by Sparrow Salvage



Gibbous Fashions

EcoSphere

"EcoSphere is a delicate balance of earth, water, air and life--all parts of a working ecosystem. The coexistence of animal and plant life (red shrimp, algae and microbes) thrives in the handblown glass sphere of seawater. Light--the foundation of life. Sunlight provides everything your ecosystem needs; there's no feeding or cleaning required. Seawater --provides the backdrop for this educational, self-contained marine environment. Red shrimp --chosen for their nonaggressive tendencies towards one another, these tiny crustaceans live in perfect harmony with their mini environment. Algae --healthy growth sustains and nourishes shrimp by supplying food and oxygen. Microbes --to feed the algae. Other materials --Gorgonia sprig, gravel, shells and glass provide ample hiding places and smooth surfaces for microbes to attach themselves to and thrive. This technology was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists as part of a growing initiative to study our planet's biosphere. NASA was researching self-contained communities for space explorers to live in during long-term flights. Life expectancy EcoSphere has an average life expectancy of two years; however, in the right conditions some have lived for up to 10 years."

Foodism

Photography, Ditte Isager.

Maleonn

Maleonn

"Look at me, and remember me. Before everything shrivels, and turns into dust."

Ryan Matthew: Against Nature

Oddities ~ Against Nature NYC

"Till now, man has been up Against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature." ~ Dennis Gabor

Julia deVille ~ Home Sweet Home #8

Julia deVille

To the Madhouse

Agnes Richter, a patient in a mental asylum in austria in the 1890's, spent her days embroidering text on to the jacket of her hospital uniform in attempts to record her life story.

"What she has told us all a hundred times – That old, unwanted women can again Be hunted down, accused of pointless crimes And burned in the public square; that it is vain To plead – or prove – one's innocence; that men With solemn looks will come into the house, And say, fearing a scene, `You'll feel no pain;' `It's for your good;' `We're not ungenerous;' What she foretold, when we dismissed her fear Saying `You dreamed such things' – it now comes true: The door is open, and the men are here. Calmly they question her, and with a new Smiling indifference drag her from the room And through the streets to the expected doom." - Edward Lowbury

Silk Road Gypsy Talismans

Talisman available in my Etsy shop...measures approx. 5 inches and head on a woven leather necklace.

"Your hair was full of roses in the dewfall as we danced,
The sorceress enchanting and the paladin entranced,
In the starlight as we wove us in a web of silk and steel
Immemorial as the marble in the halls of Boabdil,
In the pleasuance of the roses with the fountains and the yews
Where the snowy Sierra soothed us with the breezes and the dews!
In the starlight as we trembled from a laugh to a caress,
And the God came warm upon us in our pagan allegresse."

- La Gitana by Aleister Crowley

In Support of Humanism

In Support of Humanism: as opposed to the Posthuman utopia or the ultimate scientific dictatorship. Tired of being fed alleged "Satanic" propaganda by mainstream culture monsters like Lady Gaga? A Brave New World? Blasphemous, I think not! Plastic surgery, Reproductive technology, Genetic engineering, information technology, and anticipated future ones, such as molecular nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. Political Scientist, Francis Fukuyama identifies transhumanism as "a strange liberation movement" that wants "nothing less than to liberate the human race from its biological constraints." Personally, I am in favor of Spiritual Evolution as opposed to "Human Enhancement Technologies". If having emotions is considered a biological constraint, I'll opt for staying a spiritual being having a human experience that is in harmony with nature and the Love Supreme!

"The environmental movement has taught us humility and respect for the integrity of nonhuman nature. (i.e. plants, animals) We need a similar humility concerning our human nature. If we do not develop it soon, we may unwittingly invite the transhumanists to deface humanity with their genetic bulldozers and psychotropic shopping malls."


"The time will come when my pictures will be understood, they are destined for the 21st century." Emma Kunz 1892-1963 - Artist, Researcher, Healer

I was just pondering all this while looking at the Sacred Geometry of Emma Kunz. (see above) She created mandala-like grids which she used as instruments of healing. Emma Kunz lived during the turn of the century, when Industry reared it's ugly head. At 18, she began to use telepathy, prophecy and divination. I was thinking about how several generations later, modern artists of this genre like Fredrik Söderberg and Louise Despont, have the same spiritual thread running through their bodies of work. So how has "Human Enhancement Technology" really benefited the Collective Consciousness or the Environment anyway? Think about it...


Fredrik Söderberg


Louise Despont

"Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable."

End timey music...

Those Poor Bastards "Prophets of Country Doom"



Sons of Perdition - Psalms for the Spiritually Dead

Las Pozas, a surrealist garden

Las Pozas is near the village of Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, a seven-hour drive north of Mexico City. Edward William Frank James was a British poet known for his patronage of the surrealist art movement. He "wanted a Garden of Eden set up . . . and I saw that Mexico was far more romantic”.

related links:
2012
Mayan Prophecy: New Civilization

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

Available in my Etsy Shop. A tiny antique tintype mounted on leather is paired with a hand stamped brass Beloved & Co. tag. Each "Memento Mori" necklace comes in a eco-friendly kraft gift box (80% recycled post consumer content) nestled in a bed of dried moss, with a vial of cemetery dirt from Wunder's Cemetery, Chicago.

Shop Update!

In addition to my handmade soap, I've added my new Rosewood Shea Butter Balm to my Etsy shop: 4 oz. of Love Magick! This is a great daily complexion regimen, you will never need another skin cream!

MEDICINAL and MAGICAL PROPERTIES:

*Rosewood oil stimulates new cell growth, regenerates tissue, and heps minimize lines and wrinkles. It helps balance both dry and oily skin. It can prove useful against acne.

*Shea Butter heals a number of skins conditions including blemishes, wrinkles and stretch marks. It also effective in treating severe skin afflictions such as eczema and dermatitis. Additionally, Shea Butter's anti-inflammation properties are beneficial in soothing insect bites, new tattoos, diaper rashes, sunburns and frostbites. Shea butter is an excellent scalp and hair treatment. Shea butter restores moisture to a dry scalp without clogging pores. Hair quickly absorbs shea butter, restoring elasticity.

*Rose Quartz: Each container of Rosewood Shea Butter Balm has a polished Rose quartz crystal to keep as an amulet. A pink quartz is often called the "Love Stone." Like Rosewood, it is used in love, beauty and health magick. It corresponds to the heart chakra and the planetary vibrations of Venus.

The Brothers Quay

The extraordinary Quay Brothers are two of the world’s most original filmmakers. Identical twins who were born in Pennsylvania in 1947, Stephen and Timothy Quay studied illustration in Philadelphia before going on to the Royal College of Art in London, where they started to make animated shorts in the 1970s.

Brimstone in the Ancestral Fire

Black Thorn Talismans coming soon to my etsy shop! Inspiration ➵ ➵ ➵ Desert Nomads, Wandering Gypsies, Tribes of the Apocalypse, Magick and Mysticism, Indigeneous Peoples, Mother Earth, Father Sky, Ethnobotany, Archaeology, Warriors, Shamanism, Revolution, Evolution, Prophecies of the Golden Age, my Ancestors, Earthships, Crop Circles, Visionary Art, Crystals, Pyramids, Recycling/Repurposing, Psychedelic culture, Alchemy, Love...2012

Good Twin, Evil Twin

"The puppet or doll figures (Effigies) were influenced by the idea of “homunculi.” They also reflect the idea of a narrative on the surface of the body that tells the life of the individual, much like scars or tattoos. Water Baby reflects the fact that negative impacts to the environment are also a negative impact within out bodies. Host figures found in Africa and Pre-Columbian Meso America are human forms with sacred or magical objects in the body cavity that reflect the idea that the body cavity is the center of the life force. Guardian Figure was influenced by these magical host figures. Good Twin, Evil Twin expresses the classic struggle between the opposing forces of good and evil, both universally and on an individual level. Just as human skin begins to reveal the spiritual and physical history of an individual, the sculpture's tattoos reflect a universal narrative of duality. This piece also addresses the enormous contention in contemporary society about whose ideologies are good and whose are evil." ~ Maryann Webster

The Black Broom

The Black Broom, statuary for the discriminating Occultist.

"Buer is a spirit that appears in the 16th century grimoire Pseudomonarchia Daemonum and its derivatives, where he is described as a Great President of Hell, having fifty legions of demons under his command. He appears when the Sun is in Sagittarius. Buer teaches natural and moral philosophy, logic, and the properties of all herbs and plants. He also heals all diseases, especially of men, and gives good familiars. According to some authors, he teaches Medicine and has the head of a lion and five goat legs surrounding his body to walk in every direction. In Grim Grimoire, Buer is summoned using the alchemy rune. Also, he discourages drunkenness."

Charlie Foster: Freedom Fighter

Charlie Foster ~ Gypsy vagabond...folk artist...magician/musician.



photo credit, above and below, Mike Brodie




Photo credit: Santiago Mostyn

"Freedom is free of the need to be free...Free your mind and your ass will follow...The kingdom of heaven is within" ~ George Clinton

related links:
Mike Brodie: Tones of Dirt and Bone
Monica Canilao: Dream Weaver

Gypsy Fingers

Beats and Magica Musica by SHUGMONKEY

New work by Miss Van...puuuur!

"After three years of absence from the French artistic scene, Miss Van has finally come back to her home country with a new series of works. Following her exhibitions in Los Angeles, Shanghai, and New York, Miss Van is taking a short break from her travels to show off her works in Paris. Miss Van, true feminine figurehead of street art, started her artistic career in the streets of Toulouse. Since those early days, her style has greatly evolved, her latest series being an ode to classical painting. She has gone from painting the curvy, enticing pin-ups in the streets of Toulouse, to painting the melancholic and subtle works of this new exhibition. Her various travels and encounters have enriched her already complex world."

you'll see him in your nightmares

THE GYPSY CHRONICLES by Alison Mackie

"She teased out of his guitar all manner of sound, the likes of which he never before produced. It was a fresh delivery; a brand new musicality was born through them, coming alive, changing them both. She was a conjure woman, at one with his element. Raising the flame of his fire and rushing the flow of his blood, she stimulated. She was at play, working his mind, his talent and even his heart; drawing out all manner of strum. Playing for, and with, and through her, Sabicas delivered a new form. It was an immaculate conception. The best days of his life were about to begin."



A fine read: The romantic and exotic tone of The Gypsy Chronicles is strictly fabulous. And the notion of charmed matrimonial beds? No reader could ask for more to spark so many levels of the imagination. Alison Mackie has created a mystical world, beautiful in its undertaking, that will lure even the most cynical soul to seek the mysterious ways of deep love and 'Gypsy' magic. ~ Meredith Blevins

Another recommendation: Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott
~ Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul

April showers bring May flowers

I'm working on some new jewelry for my etsy shop! Three signature Beloved & Co. pieces casted in recycled sterling silver. Coming soon!



The Manifesto of the Black Thorn League 'Shipwrecked' necklaces made out of old coins...inspired by my Spanish Moorish ancestors that were shipwrecked off the shores of Ireland.



New Supernatural 'pressed' Specimens...



Fern ~ Rain Making, Protection, Luck

But on St. John's mysterious night,
Sacred to many a wizard spell,
The time when first to human sight
Confest, the mystic fern seed fell.
I'll seek the shaggy, fern clad hill,
Where time has delved a dreary dell,
Befitting best a hermit's cell;
And watch 'mid murmurs muttering stern,
The seed departing from the fern,
Ere watchful demons can convey,
The wonder-working charm away,
And tempt the blows from arm unseen,
Should thoughts unholy intervene.