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FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Tuesday, 28th September, 2010
The Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness lecture series, in association with the Scientific and Medical Network presents:
Drugs and Magic: The Chemicals of Chaos
Julian Vayne

Entry £7 /£5 Concessions, Arrive 6pm for a 6:30pm Start - Wine available
Please reserve your place as space is limited.
Email rentals@octobergallery.co.uk or call 44 (0)20 7831 1618

Julian Vayne

In this talk entitled 'The Chemicals of Chaos' Julian will introduce the heady brew that is bubbling in the cauldron of his next literary work. By exploring the Book of Nature, and privileging direct experience over scriptural knowledge, the magician, the artist and the scientist are all engaged in a radical project. This project is political dynamite, hence the necessity for secrecy and conspiratorial action. Chaos magic is an expression of this same drive for direct illumination, aiming as it does for gnosis through practices culled from many different spiritual traditions. The use of psychoactive chemicals are one such technique for plugging directly into the numinous that obviate the need for gods, guides or gurus, and this may be why both left and right wing governments want to see them banned.

So come and join in a mystical tour that starts in prehistory, shadows the story of the Knights Templar, hides in the Invisible College and finally bursts into view with the discovery of LSD. You have nothing to loose but your mind...

Julian Vayne is a practicing occultist and writer. His own journey has taken him through shamanism, Wicca, Druidry and Thelema but he is probably best known as a chaos magician. He is the author of the acclaimed and unique book on magic and drugs Pharmakon: Drugs and the Imagination, and has authored/co-authored several other books on the occult including Magick Works: Stories of Occultism in Theory and Practice and Now That’s What I Call Chaos Magick.

This lecture is part of a series to be held at the October Gallery on the last Tuesday of each month (excluding August). Please check back to these pages for further details of the upcoming programme or email drdluke@gmail.com to be added to the series' mailing list.


 
 
 

 

October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 3AL
Tel: + 44 (0)20 7242 7367 Fax: + 44 (0)20 7405 1851

Director - Chili Hawes; Artistic Director - Elisabeth Lalouschek; Special Projects - Gerard Houghton;
Curator/Sales & Marketing - Rosalind King; Registrar and Administration - Margaree Cotten;
Press Officer - Alana Pryce; Rentals Manager - Jo Walsh; Education Co-ordinator - Elizabeth Fraser-Betts;

The October Gallery is open from 12:30 to 17:30, Tuesday to Saturday.
The Gallery is closed during official holidays and for the entire month of August.

October Gallery Trust. Registered Charity No. 327032