PART I : The Magicians

 

PART II : The Scientists

 

Secrets of the Occult
Dan Burstein, USA, 2007, 96 min

 

Secrets of the Occult explores the world of the occult from the ancient and modern magicians who practice it to the cutting edge scientists attempting to explain its mysterious claims. This program highlights the advances that have been achieved by innovators who challenged established reality like Newton, Galileo, Carl Jung and Einstein. The claims of the occult magicians are put under the microscope to reveal the fascinating interface between ancient Egyptian and Greek beliefs to modern discoveries of the mind and the physical world.

Angeli Bianchi… Angeli Neri (The Occult Experience)
Luigi Scattini, Italy, 1969, 95 min

A mondo style report of satanic rites from around the world. Includes devil worshipping, voodoo cults, church of satan, black magic, naked exorcism and pagan rituals.

 

My artistic activity is founded in painting. During the past years I have explored art’s connections to the occult world and to different esoteric traditions. Religion, religious experiences and meditation are important parts of my artistic work and of my life. My images are often based on existing images within the esoteric and mystical traditions and can be seen as a map-making of their symbols and archetypes. The metamorphosis and the generation of new meanings that takes place during the work process can be likened to a magical and alchemical work. I’m interested in re-organising and further developing these image-worlds and placing them in a contemporary context. Can artistic work function as a proto-science, like alchemy, to explore this? One of the potentials of art is that it can work as magick, in the sense that it deals with an apprehension of reality that claims you can affect the physical realm by having contact with the transcendental and metaphysical realms.

 

 

My images work both as magickal sigils and meditations but also as introductions to hermetic philosophies and methods, to present an esoteric way of thinking for the viewer. This combination, that the works function both as things to be used and as information carriers, is very central and important to me. I think it’s very important that artists try to create alternative environments and act in non-compromising and alternative ways. It’s important that art can be a mental free-zone, with time and space for contemplation and afterthought. The artistic work is therefore especially well suited for the exploration of dreams and visions of the mystical side of existence. These areas have always been very close to the esoteric and occult. Can art be used as a platform for the most important question that no-one can escape – what happens after death? And how should we relate to that during life?

 

 

 

FREDRIK SÖDERBERG
Born 1972, lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden

 

fredriksoderberg.org

Terence McKenna’s Alchemical Dream – Rebirth of the Great Work
Maxine Rochlin & Sheldon Rochlin, USA, 2008, 55 min

In the mid-1990’s Terence McKenna and Mystic Fire’s Sheldon Rocklin teamed up to make this rich and exciting film. Little did they know that this would be their last film. Originally titled Coincidencia Oppositorum: The Unity of Opposites and filmed in Prague with Terence portraying his usual erudite rendition of the Irish Bard, this filmed classic takes us on a journey into the alchemical renaissance of King Frederick V and his wife Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia. Playing the role of John Dee, court magician for Queen Elizabeth of England, Terence McKenna shows us how the promise of a return to the tradition of alchemy was almost instituted in Europe. He also shows us that this early attempt at the creation of an alchemical kingdom actually lead to the European Renaissance and the institution of Cartesian science and the beginnings of rationalism within the western mindset …