Book Review: Pagan Portals: Hedge Riding by Harmonia Saille

Tags

Harmonia Saille, Hedge Riding, Hedge Witch, Moon Books, Pagan Portals, Practical, Shamanism, Spirit Realms, Spiritual journeys, Witchcraft

Pagan Portals: Hedge Riding by Harmonia Saille

I have to make an embarrassing admission here, despite having read a couple of books on hedge witchcraft, I somehow never came across the term ‘Hedge Riding’; hedge diving  – yes – but that is a different story (and I hasten to add, not one usually found in books on esoteric themes!)  So it was with great interest that I picked up Harmonia Saille’s concise volume on that very subject (Hedge riding – not hedge diving – are you still with me?)

Anyway, digression aside, this is a very enjoyable and informative little book that packs a lot of useful and practical information into a small number of pages.  A great jumping off point for further study, this book introduces the reader to the tradition of Hedge Riding – an important aspect of Hedge Witchcraft.

The author explains how Hedge Riding can be used by the solitary practitioner to travel to the upper and lower realms to gain spiritual knowledge and connect with spirit guides.  She provides a concise description of the nature and structure the realms, from the divine spirit guides of the upper realm, through the middle every day realm the lower realm inhabited by animal guides, to the under world inhabited by the souls of the dead.

The author also delves into the history and place of Hedge Riding within Shamanic, historic and literary traditions.  She even manages to gently touch on the sometimes thorny issue of whether it is more appropriate to work with local deities and fauna or non-local traditions you may feel particular affinity with.  The book also contains a wealth of practical advice and personal recollections about embarking on Hedge Riding journeys.

There is a great quote in an old-ish Doctor Who episode “A door, once opened, may be stepped through in either direction” – it seems the same caveat could apply to  hedges as well  – from the outset the author is at pains to emphasize that it requires years of experience and a pretty thorough understanding of Shamanic practice before attempting this….however she does a good job in providing the reader with enough information and step by step guidance to set out safely on this fascinating and universal path.

Harmonia Saille has been practicing hedge witchery for 15 years, has authored a number of books and articles on the subject and also runs practical workshops.  She has also lectured on Modern Pagan Witchcraft at a UK university.

Pagan Portals: Hedge Riding by Harmonia Saille is published by Moon Books and is available on their website and Amazon:

http://www.moon-books.net/books/pagan-portals-hedge-riding

More info about Harmonia Saille can be found at:

http://www.moon-books.net/authors/harmonia-saille

 

 

Book Review: Trees of the Goddess by Elen Sentier

Tags

Awenyddion, British Shamanic Tradition, British Trees, Elen Sentier, Goddess, Moon Books, Ogham, Shaman Pathways, Tree Magic, Trees

Trees of the Goddess by Elen Sentier

Image taken from Moon Books website

Trees of the Goddess is a great little book, in only 101 pages Elen Sentier manages to introduce the main concepts of Ogham, the Celtic tree alphabet, and its application within the British Shamanic Tradition.

The book provides a primer for tree magic, and provides an explanation of the cycles of the sun and moon before covering the Ogham alphabet and ending with a series of deceptively straight forward sounding exercises and rituals.

As someone only vaguely aware of Ogham and aware of it only in the context of archaeological inscriptions, it was truly absorbing to find out more about the deeper more esoteric side of this alphabet.   The book sets out the 13 months of the year, alongside the Ogham symbol and the corresponding British tree.  A wealth of practical information such as etymology, history, identifying features of each tree,  medicinal uses and folk-lore  is complemented by thoughtful reflections on the deeper concepts at play within this tradition.

The influence of Robert Graves ‘The White Goddess’ is evident and where the author deviates from traditional she clearly indicates it and explains her reasoning. The author seems well aware of the academic debate about the origins and usage of Ogham and while acknowledging this debate, keeps wisely to her own path.

The writing style is fluid and engaging with occasional joyful bursts of very earthy wisdom.  All together I thoroughly enjoyed this book. For a very small book, clearly designed as an introduction to the subject, I felt that it packed in a lot of useful information. I can imagine dipping into this book again and again.  It certainly made me want to dig deeper into this area of study.

Elen Sentier. Image from Moon Books website.

Elen Sentier grew up on Dartmoor and the edge of Exmoor.  She grew up steeped in the British Native Tradition and now writes eloquently on the British Shamanic Tradition – both fiction and no fiction.  Trees of the Goddess is part of the ‘Shaman Pathways’ series published by Moon Books.

Trees of the Goddess by Elen Sentier is published by Moon Books and is available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shaman-Pathways-Trees-Goddess-Working-ebook/dp/B00KSNCS2W%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAIOJGEB6643FVTU7Q%26tag%3Dwwwobookscom-21%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB00KSNCS2W

 

 

 

Review: Thinking with Anne Armstrong: Witchcraft in the North East During the 17th Century by Prof James Sharpe

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Anne Armstrong, Insight Lectures, Newcastle University, Newcastle Witches, North East, Northumberland, Northumbria, Professor James Sharpe, St Andrews Church, Witch Pricker, witch trials, Witchcraft, Witches Sabbat

A Full House

The Witches’ Sabbath (oil on canvas) by Goya.

Newcastle University hosts a number public lectures as part of their Insights Series. I was fortunate enough to attend last nights lecture by James Sharpe, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of York, and author of a number of influential works on historical witchcraft (listed at the end of this post).  Whether it was simply down to the continued fascination historical witchcraft still holds on the popular imagination, or the exuberantly tabloid headline from the local newspaper a few days before, the lecture hall was packed to the rafters.

The talk was a lively and fascinating look at how witchcraft expressed itself in the North East of England, and whether in this region witchcraft was distinct from the rest of England. Professor Sharpe covered a lot of ground, in what is a very complex subject, in only an hour.  The talk highlighted some of the advances in the study of historical witchcraft in the past thirty years, some of which cast into doubt some of the received wisdom regarding the witch craze. Here are some of the elements of the lecture that I found particularly interesting.

The influence of Scotland in North East England

Burning a witch at the stake. 16th Century European Woodcut

One of the determining features Professor Sharpe identified in possibly distinguishing North East witchcraft and witch hunts from the rest of England,  may have been the region’s proximity to Scotland.  In Scotland, Prof Sharpe noted that there had been an aggressive Reformation which when coupled with a de-centralised judicial system (where the local laird or lawyer could be responsible for prosecuting accused witches, possibly for financial gain) may have created an atmosphere in which witch hunts thrived.  Historical records suggest 2000 witches were executed in Scotland (preferred method: burning), as compared to 500 recorded executions in England (preferred method: hanging) – basically you were 12 times more likely to be executed as a witch in Scotland than in England.  I have to say, I was surprised by the comparatively low figures for executions for England (and even Scotland) – Professor Sharpe quoted figures of 40,000 executions across Europe during this period (80% of which were women). There may be many people particularly in the Pagan community who may strongly disagree with these numbers; but it is worth considering that however many were actually executed, the fact that anybody was persecuted or executed for witchcraft is in itself a tragedy.

One possible example of the influence of Scotland on the North East of England can be found in a rather chilling footnote in relation to a case tried by the Ecclesiastical Courts in Berwick in 1599. A man was accused of fornication, his wife was accused of witchcraft, he was let off,  she was burned at the stake over the border in Scotland.  But perhaps Berwick, with its constantly shifting border was a special case.

The Newcastle Witch Trials

Nevertheless, Newcastle has the dubious honour of being the scene to one of the largest witch hunts in England in the seventeenth century (only Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne in Essex and East Anglia could boast a higher head count).  Perhaps this was indeed down to the proximity with Scotland.  And, lets face it, the authorities in Newcastle called a Scottish Witch Pricker to examine the accused witches – so there must have been links.  Professor Sharpe took the time to explain the famous image below which shows the Newcastle Witches being hanged.

The Newcastle Witches being executed by hanging. On the left is the bell-ringer who called for people to make their accusations while on the right, the witch pricker is being paid.

Anne Armstrong and the Witches Sabbat

Clearly the lecture was leading up to the eponymous heroine Anne Armstrong. In 1673 Anne Armstrong gave a startling account of a witches Sabbat to Northumbrian Magistrates, the account is utterly unique in English witch trials.

Anne Armstrong accused Anne Baites of Morpeth of bewitching her and of attending Satanic meetings at what is now the Wellington Pub in Riding Mill.  Anne also accused three other women of supping with ‘theire protector which they called their god in the Riding house.’  Anne’s account contains classic continental elements of dancing with the devil (in this case unusually called ‘protector’), shape-shifting, and an attempt to incriminate large numbers of others (both named and by description) as being present at the Sabbat. Interestingly the deposition also contains one of the earliest uses of the word Covey/Coven (a term only in use for about 10 years in Scotland/England at that time).

Early woodcut of a witches Sabbat

As quoted in the Evening Chronicle[1] Professor Sharpe said of Anne’s account:

“One of the big things that witches were meant to be doing outside of the UK at this time was having meetings where they got together in large numbers, they would fly there, have sex with the devil and eat the bodies of babies.

“It was a Satanic gathering.

“But this part of witchcraft is absent from England at the time, apart from in the case of Anne Armstrong.”

Frustratingly the historical record is fairly scant as to who Anne was, although it does appear that she lived in Birchen Nook near Stocksfield in Northumberland and was a servant girl at Burytree House.  Professor Sharpe considers that the evidence suggests she was quite young – probably a teenager – which fits the profile for a lot of accusers.  Her vivid account of a Witches Sabbat provides tantalising glimpse into the mind of a young girl who tried to start a witch hunt and it generates so many questions.  Was she local or did she come from Scotland? (Armstrong is a name found on both sides of the English/Scottish border).  How did a young servant girl in the North of England come up with this very continental account of a Sabbat? Was the reference to the Devil as ‘protector’ a sly dig at Cromwell The Lord Protector(!) We will probably never know – as Professor Sharpe commented – the historical record for this period of North East history is very patchy indeed.  One thing is for certain though, what ever other regional/national similarities or dissimilarities, this account of a Witches Sabbat is unique to the North East.

The difference between English and European Witch Hunts

One of the issues that came up in the lecture was: why wasn’t the continental model adopted in England and why didn’t the English witch hunts reach the staggering proportions of those elsewhere?   The view proposed was that England had certain differentiating features:  it was, officially at least, a protestant country and this may have made the parodying the Catholic Mass in a Continental Style Witches Sabbat less likely (a by-product of this would be fewer opportunities for the accused to counter-accuse and cause trials to mushroom as they did in Europe).

In relation to Scotland, England’s reformation had been gentler; and unlike Scotland, England had a centralised judicial system peopled by trained judges. In addition to this serious charges of witchcraft were tried in secular not ecclesiastical courts.  All of these factors combined to create a climate where, despite the belief in witchcraft being almost universal, there was less willingness for those in control to let witch hunts get out of hand.  In fact, Anne Armstrong’s colourful accusations did not result in the accused being executed.

Altogether, this was a fascinating lecture providing much food for thought.  On a parting note, one of the most poignant elements of the evening was seeing the burial list from St Andrew’s church in Newcastle; the list that named those executed for witchcraft in 1650 and who were buried in the Churchyard not a stones throw from where we were sitting.  England may not have had the large-scale witch hunts seen on the continent, or in Scotland, but that should not diminish the individual and communal tragedy that each of those names represented.

St Andrews Church, Newcastle. Last resting place for many of the Newcastle Witches. Image by Lenora.

The lecture was recorded and should be available soon on the Newcastle University Website or via itunes:

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/events/public-lectures/archive.php

Books and Articles about Historical Witchcraft by Professor James Sharpe

Instruments of Darkness; Witchcraft in England 1550 – 1750 (1996)
The Bewitching of Anne Gunter: a horrible and true Story of Football, Witchcraft Murder, and the King of England (1999)
Witchcraft in early modern England (2001: second edition in preparation)
In Search of the English Sabbat: Popular Conceptions of Witches’ Meetings in Early Modern England

Other sources

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/events/public-lectures/item.php?james-sharpe

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/sex-devil-dark-sorcery—8581831 [1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riding_Mill

 

 

Boulton and Park: a tale of Victorian cross-dressing

Tags

Boulton and Park, cross dressing, Ernest Boulton, Fanny and Stella, Frederick Park, gay, homosexual, Neil McKenna, police corruption, prostitution, sub culture, transvestites, Victorian, victorian theatre, victorian trials

Picking up Boulton and Park

As some of you may know, I have been a little pressed for time this year what with one thing and another, so for a well-earned break I recently took myself off to my local bookshop and decided to see if anything took my fancy. Needless to say I did not come away empty-handed (although empty was probably a good way to describe my bank account afterwards). It was on this foray that purely by chance I picked up ‘Fanny and Stella’ by biographer Neil McKenna. Mainly, I have to admit, because the cover image had more than a passing resemblance to Emily and Florence of Little Britain fame.

‘Fanny & Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England’ is a rippingly good read, by turns high camp, archly knowing, tragic, joyful, and utterly gripping from start to finish. McKenna has such a lively style of writing, getting into the mindset of all of his ‘characters’ often to great comic effect, yet not omitting the sometimes eye-watering details of their lives.  ‘Fanny and Stella’ reveals and revels in a vibrant Victorian sub-culture of cross-dressing ‘He-she ladies’, their amorous beaus and the ‘moral majority’ that was by turns horrified and fascinated by them.

Matt Lucas and David Walliams as unconvincing transvestites Emily Howard and Florence Rose from Little Britain

So, for your delectation, here is a brief jaunt through the lives of the glorious and irrepressible Fanny and Stella.

A Decidedly Theatrical Nature

Ernest Boulton was often mistaken for a woman in mens clothes.

From an early age both Ernest Boulton and Frederick Park exhibited a decidedly theatrical bent. Ernest was born in 1848 in Tottenham, son of a stockbroker, and grew into a beautiful boy, so beautiful that he was often mistaken for a girl. In fact he soon found that dressing up as a girl suited his style admirably. His doting mother considered it quaint and playful when he impersonated maids and even loaned him dresses, kept a photo album and joined in when his theatrical friends began calling him Stella. Little did she know that her blue-eyed boy was out on the ‘pad’ nightly, finding pleasure (and extra income) in the arms of rugged chaps from all classes of Society. Stunningly beautiful, Stella lived up to her name and became something of star of the cross dressing demi-monde. Willful, mercurial and petulant Stella was definitely high maintenance – nevertheless she eventually captured the heart of a peer of the realm, Lord Arthur Pelham Clinton and was able to restyle herself, Lady Clinton.

Fanny, standing, Lord Pelham Clinton, sitting and Stella kneeling.

The imperious Fanny Park

Frederick Park was born in the same year as Stella, son of a respectable Judge. Never a match for Stella’s extraordinary good looks, she made up for it with style and attitude. Fanny, as she became known, was imperious and haughty with something of the air of a duchess about her – and was fond of littering her speech with French phrases.

By the 1860’s Fanny and Stella had found in each other devoted sisters. Together they formed a theatrical duo. Stella would invariably play the beautiful ingénue, often bringing the audience to tears with her lovely singing voice, while Fanny would excel as the imperious, often comic, matron. Together they flirted, flounced and trolled their way around the West End of London with a band of equally flamboyant confederates such as The Comical Countess and Carlotta Gibbings.

Wild cross dressing balls were organised in particular, by Carlotta, who later turned out to be a very good friend to Fanny and Stella when things turned sour.  In fact one of London’s most famous male prostitutes of the day, Jack Saul, in his Sins of the City of the Plain (an early work of homosexual pornography) provides a vignette of Lord and Lady Clinton en amoureux at one such ball held at Haxell’s Hotel.

Fanny, right, and Stella, left, in theatrical mode.

A night at the opera

All might have carried on quite spiffingly for the flamboyant duo and their trail of lovers.  After all, London’s theatre land was full of eccentric, outre people out for a good time: the respectable classes rubbed shoulders (and other things) with ‘gay’ ladies (high-end female prostitutes), male prostitutes, men in drag and ladies dressed as gents. Unfortunately for Fanny and Stella, their very overt behaviour seems to have touched a nerve with Victorian Society (usually fairly good at living with double standards where sexuality was concerned).

As Neil McKenna so succinctly put it

“As sodomites, especially as effeminate sodomites, disguised as women, and prostituting themselves, Fanny and Stella and everything they stood for touched some of society’s deepest and darkest fears of dirt, degeneration, syphilis, excrement, poverty, violence and empheminisation.” [1]

On 28 April 1870, after a particularly drunken and lascivious appearance at the Strand Theatre, Fanny and Stella, accompanied by Hugh Mundell (one of their beau’s) were nicked by the police and hauled off to face charges.

 

Fanny and Stella arrested at the Strand Theatre

The arrest caused a sensation, equal parts horror and fascination.  The public was morally outraged and strangely titillated.  The unfortunate pair was dragged off to jail and subjected to a humiliating examination carried out without their consent, to ascertain if they had committed sodomy (which was at that time a crime).  The following day, at Bow Street Magistrate they were brought before the judge still in their female finery.  Huge crowds gathered outside the court and the newspapers eagerly reported on every salacious detail.

But Fanny and Stella were not hung out to dry.  Their good friend Carlotta Giddings moved quickly to try to protect them, she had shared lodgings with them and set to work removing evidence from their rooms, she also visited them in jail and brought mens clothing for them so they would appear less more conventional at their next appearance (much to the disappointment of the public who had come to gawp).

The Trial

After several terrible months in prison Fanny and Stella were released on bail and it was in May the following year that the trial was commenced.  They were charged alongside a number of others, some of whom had legged it well before the trial.  Lord Arthur Pelham Clinton, with whom Stella had lived as man and wife,  may be seen as a tragic fatality of the trial. He was said to have died of Scarlet Fever on the day he received his subpoena, but he may have committed suicide to escape the stigma of a trial for sodomy.  McKenna reports that at the time many people thought his death had been faked and he was in fact living abroad, one can only hope.

The Trial, Stella centre, Fanny, right.

Many witnesses were brought to trial to testify to the louche and raucous behaviour of Fanny and Stella, to demonstrate that these individuals habitually dressed as women and entertained men. The prosecution even pandered to the sensational element of the trial by bringing in Fanny and Stells’s extensive wardrobe of female dress (which oddly enough also included a false beard!)

Police raid Fanny and Stella’s wardrobe.

However, with a strong defending council in the form of Mr George Lewis, the prosecution was in the end ripped to shreds.  Not only that, but an alarming level of police corruption was revealed as well as  what could have amounted to an establishment sponsored conspiracy to make an example of Fanny and Stella as a threat to the morals of the nation (and as a warning to the others perhaps?)

One of the key pieces of evidence against the pair came from Dr Paul, with his specialism in identifying the signs of sodomy.  He had examined the behinds of the Boulton and Parks on the night of their arrest, and found unequivocal evidence of dastardly doings. For the trial further medical experts were brought in to back up these claims.  However, by the time the veritable coach party of eminent physicians got to poke and prod at the fundaments of the unfortunate duo, several months had passed thereby giving ample time for any physical evidence to become less obvious. This left the charge of sodomy very hard to prove.

Although sodomy was definitely illegal, simply dressing up as a woman and parading around the West End flirting with men was not actually a crime – however much the ‘moral majority’ might have wished it to be. After all, although Fanny and Stella dressed as women, they often made it very clear that they were in fact men so they could hardly be seen to by trying to trick unsuspecting men into committing the crime of sodomy against their will. Unlike Emily Howard’s constant refrain of ‘I’m a Lady’ in Little Britain, Stella actually wrote to one of her suitors, Hugh Mundell, explicitly stating that she was a man dressed as a woman (this did not put off this keen individual, he still fancied the pants of Stella, such was her charm).

This left the prosecution with the unenviable task of trying to make the nebulous charge of conspiracy to incite sodomy stick, as McKenna noted:

“Not to put too fine a point on it, the case against the four young men was all at sea…..Instead of being tried for the crimes they had committed, these four young men were on trial for crimes they had yet to commit, for crimes they might have thought about, or talked about, or imagined for a moment in their mind’s eye – or not, as the case may be.” [2]

As McKenna points out, this kind of unlimited thought policing was enough send a nervous shiver down the spine of a number of those present at the trial – ‘moral majority’ included.

The Verdict

With the prosecution in tatters, the tide turned in favour of Fanny and Stella (especially after a sterlingly sentimental performance by Stella’s devoted mother as a witness for the defence) and in the end the jury took only 53 minutes to acquit them of all charges.  They were free.

The Final Act

Despite their victory in the courts, both Fanny and Stella left England and headed, separately, to New York.  Continuing in the theatrical professions they found some measure of success but never achieved the stardom they had craved.

Sadly, both died young and probably as the result of syphilis. Fanny died at only 33 years of age, but she did find some kind of happiness across the pond. Stella carried on a trooper until long after her beauty had faded, and died in 1904 at the age of 56.

As part of the sometimes painfully slow road to toleration and acceptance of alternative lifestyles that many people in the west now take for granted (although a significant number still rail at), theirs is a tragi-comic operetta of a tale well worth recounting. Fanny and Stella chose to live their lives the way they (and a significant number of others at the time) wanted to, rather than acquiesce and live the narrow life prescribed for them by Society. They faced opprobrium and censure with great spirit and remained true to their own natures helping to pave the way for those that came after them and for that they should be applauded.  As Fanny in haughty duchess mode might have said – vive la difference!

Sisters: Fanny and Stella

Sources & Notes

McKenna, Neil, 2013, Fanny & Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England, Faber & Faber Notes: 1 [280] 2 [289]
Wikipedia, Boulton and Park, accessed 29/12/14
A Gender Variance Who’s Who, http://zagria.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/ernest-boulton-1849-and-frederick.html, accessed 29/12/14
Off the Pedestal, http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/offthepedestal/otp10.html, accessed 29/12/14
Penny Dreadful account of Boulton and Park, http://www.bbk.ac.uk/deviance/sexuality/anonymous/18-8-1%20boulton%20park.htm, accessed 29/12/14

Freedom by Luna Ballantyne – 50 Shades meets the Newcastle Witches

Tags

Erotic fiction, Freedom, gigolo, highwayman, Ingrid Hall, Luna Ballantyne, Newcastle Witches, Sensual Liaisons Series, time travel, twitter party

Freedom by Luna Ballantyne

This is just a quick shout out for my good friend Luna Ballantyne (aka Ingrid Hall) who is launching the first in her new series of erotic time-slip novels this weekend.

As Zara sets out on her ‘Freedom’ night – to celebrate her divorce from staid ex-husband Pete – she finds herself tangled up in the web of the mysterious ‘Max’ aka the Bastard of Bilbao. Pulled from the flames of a burning pub by a mysterious stranger Zara is whisked away on a raunchy week-long sexual odyssey of self-discovery. Zara soon finds that there is more to her rescuer than meets the eye. Raunchy sex, time-travel and a twisted love that stretches back into the dark days of the Newcastle witch trials – Zara’s life will never be the same again as she looks beneath the mask of the time-traveling highwayman.

The first in a series of erotic fiction, Freedom introduces the character of Giraldo de Logrono otherwise known as the Bastard of Bilbao a swashbuckling adventurer, sexual mercenary and time-traveling highwayman.   As the series unfolds, so does Luna’s unique take on the Newcastle witch-trials: as it is only by traveling through time seducing strangers that the highwayman can break the curse laid on him by the beautiful witch Elizabetha, and hope to rescue her from her fate at the hands of the evil witch-pricker!  Serious history it’s not, but it’s fun, fast paced and sexy!

Join the launch party on Twitter – October 19

If you want to join the fun this weekend, Luna will be having an over 18s only launch party on Twitter, complete with adult games and the chance to win some suitably naughty prizes.

Join Luna Ballantyne on Twitter for her Launch Party this weekend: October 19 between 4-6pm GMT. Use hashtag  #thehighwayman to join in the games.

You can also find Luna Ballantyne on Facebook

 

 

 

 

Floats the Dark Shadow…Gilles de Rais collides with Belle Epoque Paris

Tags

Belle Epoque, Floats the Dark Shadow, Gilles de Rais, indie authors, Joan of Arc, Murder, mystery, occult, Paris, romance, thriller, Yves Fey

Floats the Dark Shadow by Yves Fey

I couldn’t resist reviewing this delicious little indie-published mystery thriller from the very artistic pen of Yves Fey.

Floats the Dark Shadow is sub-titled ‘A Mystery of Paris’ and that seems apt as Fey has captured the romance and the contradictions of that famous city so well. The novel is set during the supreme decadence of the Belle Époque, the late 1890’s, when Paris having survived the turmoil and bloodshed of the Commune era, stood on the cusp of the modern age.

Theodora Faraday is a young American artist and feminist, living in Montmartre.  She spends her days  framing Montmartre in oils and pastels as she wanders the Bohemian streets accompanied by the Revenants – a group of poetic-types in search of inner darkness.  But be under no illusions, this is not a fluffy romance novel, this is a very dark story of murder and deceit… a serial killer is kidnapping and torturing children, reincarnating an ancient evil that stalks the gas lit streets of Paris.  Theodora soon finds that her friends are implicated in the killings and she must work with Michel Devaux of the Sûreté to investigate the crime and bring the killer – or killers – to justice what ever the personal cost.

Le Petit Journal – Incendie du Bazar de la Charité . Via Wikimedia

The first thing that stands out in this work is that Yves Fey knows Paris.  Her streets are real – the sights, sounds, smells and atmosphere are conjured skillfully.  She seems to capture the interleving of the beauty and sophistication of the city with its underlying menace.  All of  its blood-soaked history and its dirty little secrets mean that violence is never far from the surface in this glittering Fin de siècle metropolis.  From the obvious  horror of the murders of innocent children, to the political violence of the Anarchists that provides the introduction of Inspector Devaux to the plot, and the gender violence inherent in the tragedy of the Bazar de la Charité (where men fleeing the flames beat down women and children in order to escape – 126 died in total and hundreds were horribly injured).  In short – this Paris is not sentimental – it is a world where the weak are not safe and everyone has an agenda.

“Gilles de Laval, Lord of Rais, performs sorcery on his victims”, an 1862 illustration by Jean Antoine Valentin Foulquier via Wikimedia

Fire runs as a theme through this novel, the Killer believes that they are the re-incarnation of Gilles de Rais, right-hand man of Jeanne D’Arc; a man who following her death at the stake, became Frances most notorious child killer and occultist.  He is said to have killed between 80 -200 victims and was hanged for his crimes and then burned in 1440.

By the end of the novel – fire has touched everyone.

Throughout the novel Fey succeeds in hiding the killer from the reader, the dark shadow of suspicion fell on several of the characters, but I was still surprised when the killer was unmasked.  Like all good crime stories the clues are there if you can spot them…

This novel is also a romance of sorts and this element is important  – especially because it does not play out  conventionally.   Theodora is smitten with Averill Charron, her cousin, and one of the Revenants. Averill with his fallen-angel good looks and his sexual ambiguity seems to be the ultimate in Absinthe-drinking nihilistic doomed poet types.  Neverthless,  I actually found that the chemistry and sexual tension between Theodora and Devaux, was far more interesting than her mooning around over the slightly wet Averill!

Albert Maignan’s “Green Muse” (1895) via Wikimedia

Where the novel falls down is that the author almost tries to pack too much punch into it.  Perhaps showing off her knowledge of the dark side of the nineteenth century a little too precociously for one novel.  There are some almost set-piece scenes:  there is a trip to the catacombs, the Grand Guignol theatre, and an asylum where a public display of the newly invented vibrator is being given by the one of the characters (in itself a truly disturbing scene).  All of these are wonderfully written and observed but I quickly found myself totting up who and what was in Paris in the 1890’s and laying bets on whether they would turn up –  Oscar Wilde was mentioned and Occultists Moina and MacGregor Mather and the very esoteric WB Yeats all feature with various degrees of prominence and there was even room for an Anatomical Venus in the plot!

Despite this plethora of hammer horror scenes and famous names from history,  at times some of the more prominent characters seemed a little under-written.  I would have loved more involvement from the Criminal Mastermind Blaise Dancier, and his interactions with the detective Devaux.  However, I suspect Fey will be exploring this relationship further in future novels.

Despite, or even, because of its flaws, I still found myself utterly captivated by this novel.  Floats the Dark Shadow succeeds in evoking a dark and menacing yet enticing vision of Belle Époque Paris.  Fey has created a cast of memorable characters with plausible back-stories who I hope will be further developed in future stories.

You can find out more about the ridiculously talented Yves Fey at yvesfey.com and Floats the Dark Shadow is available at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Floats-Dark-Shadow-Yves-Fey/dp/1937356213

 

 

Book Review: Dark Messages by Daniel J Weber

Tags

daniel j weber, dark messages, horror fiction, Short stories

I have been busy the past few weeks catching up on some book reviews for http://www.ingridhall.com and one of my recent favourite’s was Dark Messages by Daniel J Weber.  Daniel is a Canadian writer whose oeuvre is horror fiction, in particular fantastical horror.  He is taking part in a year-long campaign to promote talented indie writers: Indie and Proud.

Dark Messages a short story anthology by Daniel J Weber

Dark Messages is a slender volume containing 6 tales of horror, fantasy and allegory,  many addressing issues of self-esteem and the omniscience of death.

The first thing I should say is that this is a very short collection, coming in at only 42 pages, but good things come in small packages, as they say!  Weber takes the reader on a dark roller-coaster of a ride, intense, surreal, visceral even visionary at times.  Yes, he uses some blood and guts horror, but a lot of the horror stems from the mind and how people perceive themselves, how they react to each other and their environment.

The first story, Undying Memories, depicts a grieving mother trapped in side her own grief and memories.  She appears as lost as her dead son, lying trapped beneath the waters of a lake.  The forest setting and the allegorical and  deadly wolf that stalks her, and the timeless quality of this story, create the atmosphere of a claustrophobic fairy tale where there will be no happy endings.

A Mile in My Shoes was another intriguing, almost surreal, tale of a man who inherits a collection of shoes and finds he can ‘feel’ the lives of those who wore them.  From the emptiness of his grandfather and his dead-mans’ shoes, to the shoes of a delinquent dispossessed boy; until he finds the shoes that really fit, and brings the story full circle.

My favourite story was Master of Death.  This was a surreal story where the narrator/observer watches a tattered man struggling through the desert in a final battle of wills with death.  The story is as wild and intense as the desert wind that whips through it, with Breughel-esque imagery repleat with lakes of blood.  My other favourite tale was They Know Not What they do, an odd choice for me as it has a very Christian theme.  Weber creates an emotional re-imagining of the crucifixion complete with warring demons scenting victory as the failed Saviour doubts himself on the cross.  Doubt, fear, redemption – it’s all there!

Asides from the exploration of self-esteem, one of the predominant themes in this collection was the power of death: always stalking you, seldom bested – a suitably dark message and one which was handled in a beautifully dark and Gothic, yet thoughtful manner.

Occasionally the stories were a little over-blown, and occasionally a bit opaque in their message, but overall I think this represents a very strong, thoughtful and gripping collection of tales, told in a very vivid and at times quite moving style.  My biggest gripe was that there were only 6 stories in the collection – I could easily have read more.

All in all a great short read!

Dark Messages by Daniel J Weber is available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Messages-Daniel-J-Weber-ebook/dp/B00G8OUI8G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391021938&sr=8-1&keywords=dark+messages+daniel+j+weber

Broken Mirrors Fractured Minds edited by Carmilla Voiez

Tags

anthology, book reviews, horror, indie authors, Short stories

Broken Mirrors Fractured Minds, edited by Carmilla Voiez was published in 2013.  Here is my review which was originally posted on www.ingridhall.com on 12 November 2013.

About the Author

Carmilla Voiez is an exciting new horror writer whose work often tackles taboo subjects from a distinctly female perspective.  She is the winner of the Horror Author of the year 2013 for her first novel Starblood.  In this anthology of horror, published by Vamptasy,  she brings together 21 talented horror writers, poets and artists from both sides of the Atlantic to create a unique collection of darkly disturbing tales.

Broken Mirrors Fractured Minds edited by Carmilla Voiez

This is a great little collection of thoroughly disturbing tales, poetry and art.  Less Twilight and more Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft. A boon for  horror fans fed up with mopey werewolves and angst ridden teen-vampires that have seemed to dominate the supernatural fiction market for so long.  These works grab you by the throat and take no prisoners – exploring the dark labyrinths of disturbed or damaged minds and tackling some very distressing subjects head on.  Murder, psychosis, child abuse and self-harm all form part of subject matter for these well executed short stories and poems.  The written horror is accentuated by the beautifully deranged art work whose tortured figures seem to illustrate the inner worlds of the stories and poems.

Because this collection contains the work of 21 writers and artists  it would be impossible for me to do justice to each one of them, so I will select a few of my favourites.

The first story that grabbed me, was ‘Just a Kiss Away’ by Jef with One F.  This is the tale of a man adrift after a divorce. His dislocation from real-life and  his growing obsession with a lap dancer called Dolly are explored.  One of the most exceptional things about this story was the character Dolly,  who could be viewed simply as a disturbing incarnation of woman as sex-object, but came across as an individual despite her extrordinary disability. That the author can make Dolly a believable character and persuade the reader to suspend disbelief is surely a sign of what an exceptional writer he is.

The next story that I particularly enjoyed was ‘Wand Therapy’ by Fred McGavran which was a terrifying and gory exploration of the deranged world of a Halcion popping retiree and the power he feels resides in a mysterious crystal wand purchased by his wife.   ‘Mouse and Katt’ by John Tucker was another story that particularly stood out for me as it created two dysfunctional but ultimately likeable protagonists in the story of an abused runaway hitching a ride with a strange travelling salesman – neither one quite sure who will be victim, who the killer.    The wonderfully Poe-esque prose of ‘Rainier Dreams’ by Marten Hoyle and ‘The Changeling’ a deliciously seductive tale by Carmilla Voiez were also stand out stories.

The poems were just as shocking and intense as the prose.  The angry intimacy of First Therapy by Nelson Mongiovi was a very powerful insight into the aftermath of abuse while the concise elegance of Life and Deathtrip by Stefy Janeva was darkly beautiful.

As I said, it would be impossible to do justice to every writer, poet and artist in the collection.  I thoroughly enjoyed (and was disturbed) by most of the works in this collection, every piece was well executed.  Some of the stories stayed with me well after I finished reading them, and I will definitely be re-reading this collection and seeking out further works by the featured writers and artists.

Broken Mirrors Fractured Minds edited by Carmilla Voiez is available from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Broken-Mirrors-Fractured-Minds-Carmilla-ebook/dp/B00EA9SCOI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384289592&sr=8-1&keywords=broken+mirrors+fractured+minds

The Earth, The Gods and The Soul by Brendan Myers

Tags

Brendan Myers, Druidry, Druids, history of pagan philisophy, humanism, modern pagan thought, neo-platonism, pagan philisophy, Pantheism, philosophy

The Earth, The Gods and The Soul was published by Moon Books on 29 November 2013 and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to review this book prior to publication.  My review was first posted on www.ingridhall.com on the 28 October 2013.

About the author

Brendan Myers is a Canadian author and philosophy professor who has worked in Canada and Ireland and has been a frequent visitor to England and Germany.  He has written on many topics including environmental ethics and climate change and his research into druidry won him the Mount Haemus Award from the Order of Druids, Ovates and Bards in 2008.  You can find out more about Brendan on his website: http://www.brendanmyers.net/wickedrabbit/

The Earth, The Gods and The Soul by Brendan Myers

The Sub-heading for this book is:  A history of Pagan Philosophy, from the Iron Age to the 21st Century – and it certainly does what it says on the tin!  This is a weighty book and yet it is also a very lucid introduction to a vast range of philosophers and proto-philosophers from the ancient to modern.  Myers traces the roots and branches of Pagan thinking and philosophy over several thousand years – analysing the various philosophical arguments and propositions presented in the various sources: from the Classical world and its renowned philosophers such as Plato and Socrates, through the lacuna in pagan writings during the Christian era, to the stirrings of pagan philosophy found in  ‘Barbarian’ works of the Irish Wisdom Texts and Poetic Eddas.  He follows the route of pagan thought through to the Age of Reason and to the Nature writers of nineteenth century America – who brought nature to the fore in their world view.

Myers explores the nineteenth and twentieth century revivals of paganism via Madame Blavatsky, James Frazer and Robert Graves, Aleister Crowley, Gerald Gardiner and Doreen Valiente and brings the work right up to the present day via the birth of modern Neo-Paganism.   Finally he considers whether Pagan Philosophy has developed a critical tradition (with argument, criticism, counter-criticism etc shaping and re-developing/re-interpreting ideas) whilst being effectively denied the institutional support of museums, universities and the like due to the ascendancy of Christianity for much of recent history.

I have to say, this book took me a while to read.  Although I had heard of most of the philosophers mentioned (and even read some of them) I have never studied philosophy so, frankly, don’t really understand it very much!!  Hence I was expecting to be just a bit out of my depth with this book.  However, I was happily surprised.  Myers is a very good writer and presents his arguments with passion and clarity.

Myers takes time to clearly lay out what makes a philosophical argument: basically asking really BIG questions and using ‘systematic critical reasoning’ to investigate them (N.B. but to avoid dogmatic ‘Answers’ as philosophy is an ongoing process!) He also outlines how he proposes to define ‘pagan philosophers’ as clearly many of the writers in the ‘Christian Era’ may have held more or less recognizably pagan views but would not necessarily have identified themselves as pagans.  To justify his choice of writers, he explains the three main strands of paganism that he considers are identifying factors in pagan philosophy:  Pantheism, Neo-Platonism and Humanism.

I could write A LOT on this book.  I found it utterly fascinating and extremely well researched.  The second half of the book, which deals with writers who may be more familiar to Modern Pagan readers (Blavatsky, Frazer, Graves, Crowley, Bonewits, the Farrer’s) I found to be easier to read simply because they were more familiar to me.   Myers also examines the influence of Feminist Philosophers (including the legendary Simone De Beauvoir) on pagan thinking, and the intersecting of eco-theory into the mainstay of pagan world views – I found these sections to be of particular interest as they seemed to show the beginnings of a critical tradition within paganism.

The history of Paganism and Neo-Paganism and its philosophical heritage deserve to be considered worthy of serious study.  Modern Pagan need to re-evaluate some of the ‘accepted truths’ of Neo-Paganism  – such as Murray’s surviving witch-cult; Daly’s ‘Burning Times’ – and consider that they are more akin to foundation myths rather than history.  However, as Myers notes, this does not diminish their importance because they still clearly have mythical and poetic truths contained within them. Nevertheless recognizing this will help in further developing a serious ‘critical tradition’ for Pagans which can only be a good thing. I think that Brendan Myers book is an important part of this growing trend for serious study of paganism and its philosophy.

The Earth, The Gods and The Soul by Brendan Myers was published on the 29 November.  It is available to order on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Earth-Gods-Soul-Philosophy/dp/178099317X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382987116&sr=8-1&keywords=the+earth+the+gods+and+the+soul

Art Preview: Hollywood Visions In Newcastle – from 21st November

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An interview with Patrick Snape, Art exhibitions, digital art, Hollywood visions of newcastle, Newcastle upon tyne, Patrick Snape, photography exhibitions, tyneside, tyneside coffee rooms

Hollywood Visions of Newcastle by Patrick Snape;  Tyneside Coffee room from 21st November – March 2014

Image copyright Patrick Snape

Hollywood Visions in Newcastle is the creative brain child of artist, poet, performer and general all-round creative type Patrick Snape.  Patrick hails from the West Midlands and has a liking for Pot Noodles and ‘oney (in his tea which must be black).  Forgoing the wilds of the West (Midlands), he headed up north during the reign of The Thatcher and forged an underground career as an artist: master print maker, digital artist, poet and Tom Wait and Bob Dylan influenced performer.

I love Newcastle but often focus my attention on his history and its elegant classical architecture.  I was intrigued when I found out about this exhibition Hollywood Visions in Newcastle which successfully juxtaposes the playful and glamorous with the stark and thought-provoking, in order to create striking and atmospheric images set in an urban lanscape. I caught up with the artist (digitally of course!) to ask him what it all means!

Clara Subway Vision, image copyright Patrick Snape

‘For the past year or so I have been photographing in and around the city of Newcastle. On one occasion I imagined the elegant and classic image of Rudolph Valentino appearing on a graffiti strewn wall. This led to a series of works beginning with Valentino and then embracing other actors and figures from the golden age of Hollywood; Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Bela Lugosi, Clara Bow.

With this series of digital montages I have been attempting to form a bridge between to the two eras; the Golden age of Hollywood and contemporary urban Britain; comments by association, a dialogue between the past and the present.’

Which artists have inspired you the most and how have they influenced your work?

Artists who have inspired me are Picasso, Braque, Miro, Matisse, and movements such as Pop Art, Dada, and in particular Surrealism with artists ranging from Magritte, early Dali and Max Ernst. The photographs of Man Ray and the films and drawings of Jean Cocteau still intrigue and excite me and photo montage and surrealism continue to exert a strong influence on my work which is evident in the Hollywood Visions in Newcastle both in technique and the use of unlikely juxtaposition of imagery.

I visit exhibitions regularly and occasionally see artists whose work inspires, motivates and influences my own approach (approach sometimes rather than style). A recent example of this was an exhibition at the Baltic art Gallery by Coventry based artist George Shaw noted for his highly detailed suburban landscapes, eerie paintings of the Coventry council estate where he grew up, devoid of people and bristling with atmosphere. Like the Belgium surrealist René Magritte Shaw creates mystery from the mundane, but unlike Magritte Shaw keeps it straight and factual, no juxtaposition of images, just eerie underpasses and deserted street corners. I always attempt to create atmosphere in my work, whether through the use of shadow and light or the choice of imagery, sometimes all those elements.

Hollywood Visions of Newcastle counterpoise the often decayed urban landscape with the glamor of Golden Era Hollywood – how do you feel this comments on post economic melt-down society?

The question underpins my main motivation for creating the Hollywood Visions in Newcastle. The Golden era of Hollywood was born in an age of economic depression and financial meltdown. In a sense I am creating a bridge between the two eras, allowing the characters from the past to speak to people today, a comment on our own economic depression. In one work Chaplin’s tramp from his masterpiece Modern Times is huddled in a H&M shop window whose message to the waves of passing public is a huge red and white sign announcing one word: SALE. I see the appearance of the figures from the Hollywood era as ‘projections’ of which the public are either aware of or completely oblivious (people, myself included, walk past or around homeless people, both seeing and ignoring). The appearance of the tramp and his girlfriend in the shop front is noticed but the flow of human traffic doesn’t cease. (It is important to remember that the actual members of the public who appear in my photographs are themselves oblivious to the fact they have become part of a tableau involving characters such as Valentino, Chaplin and Fred and Ginger!)

Modern Times, image, Copyright Patrick Snape

As a songwriter I became interested in the 1920’s, 1930’s period of music and wrote a collection of songs titled 3RD Degree, the song it’s self was influenced by the syncopated rhythms of  Fred Astaire’s Puttin’ on the Ritz. This in turn led to my first Hollywood Visions in Newcastle work inspired by watching the movies of Rudolph Valentino, in particular The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse in which Valentino performs a tango that today would terrify the Strictly come dancing audience! A powerful piece of drama, evocative and sensual.

Odeon Memories, Image copyright Patrick Snape

Looking at a series of photographs I’d taken around Newcastle city I imagined Valentino’s sullen beauty appearing in a subway and from that point on I created many Valentino works, watched his movies and researched his life, but then Chaplin appeared in a shop doorway advertising electrical goods, then Fred and Ginger danced in the sky above the Tyneside Cinema, Bela Lugosi trapped in a phone box, the Third Man in Grantham RD. and the three grizzled and gold hungry characters from the epic The Treasure of Sierra Madre emerged from the security grid of Reid & Sons Goldsmiths; the blur of a cyclist peddling past, two men lost in the business of communicating with the ubiquitous mobile phone, and the unintended irony of a hair salon positioned above the Goldsmiths (In an early scene in the Treasure Of Sierra Madre Bogart’s character Fred C.Dobbs visits a barbershop and receives a particularly severe haircut, considered one of the worst three haircuts in film history!)

Hollywood Visions of Newcastle utilises photography and digital techniques to create very atmospheric and striking images, how would you counter critics who think digital art is not ‘pure’ art?

I gave this question a great deal of thought and the best answer I can come up with is that all the artists from the past I’ve mentioned, Picasso, Man Ray, Magritte, Dali and contemporary artists such as the technology hungry David Hockney, would all and have been excited about the possibility of new digital technologies. I’m certain Picasso would have had a laptop in his studio along with his easel. Artists tend to avidly embrace any new medium that offers a new way of creating images and seeing the world in a new light. It’s the mind, the thought, the ideas that count, whatever the medium or media.
When photography first appeared critics thought it would spell the death of painting, but artists were freed from the tyranny of pure representation and made incredible leaps with movements such as Cubism, Futurism and Surrealism. conversely photography became seen as an art form and an important tool for artists. I find working on a laptop and experimenting and playing with various software and creative programs as satisfying and fulfilling as the traditional print mediums of etching, lithography and silk screen printing.

The Third Man, Image Copyright Patrick Snape

Being an artist is a bit like being Doctor Who; a constant cycle of regeneration, becoming a new version of yourself but retaining memories and mannerisms of the former self. Regardless of the sweeping and startling changes of style we see in Picasso’s massive output (the ultimate ‘regenerator’ and who in printmaking and sculpture ferociously embraced new technologies and techniques) his work is always identifiable as being the work of Pablo Picasso.
I can’t imagine not ever making another etching or drawing with pencil on paper, but right now digital art is my favoured medium.

Does your art have a political message?

The challenge I gave myself with both my songwriting and visual art has been to make works that have a social context and reflect on the times I live in, but at the same time are not overtly political in the sense that I’m telling people how to think or what party to vote! I see myself as part of a lineage of artists and musicians who combine the political and personal. As I pointed out earlier the Hollywood Visions in Newcastle do carry a social and cultural message; a fusion of the past and present rather than just nostalgic evocations of the past.

Details of how to visit this exhibition are found below.

Thank you to Patrick Snape for taking the time to answer my questions, and for allowing me to post a taster of his up-coming exhibition. 

Hollywood Visions in Newcastle brings together classic photography with contemporary digital technology to create a parallel world of urban cityscapes populated by ethereal images from the heyday of Hollywood:

The Exhibition begins on Thursday 21 November 2013 and runs until March 2014 at the Tyneside Coffee Rooms in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Image Copyright Google maps

Find out more about the art and music of Patrick Snape

https://www.facebook.com/snapemedia
https://soundcloud.com/the-dead-peasants
https://myspace.com/patricksnape/music/songs