The Alchemy of Things Unknown (and a Visual Meditation on Transformation) at Khastoo Gallery (7556 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046 / (323) 472 6498 )

June 10 – July 31, 2010

Opening reception: Thursday, June 10th, 6pm – 8pm
With a film performance by Raha Raissnia, sound by Charles Curtis.

“After the cursing comes laughter, so that the soul is saved from the dead.”
– Carl Gustav Jung, The Red Book

This exhibition intends to examine and expose individual works of art in relation to theosophy, sacred tradition and devotional practice. From William Blake’s illuminated works of divine imagination to Carl Gustav Jung’s drawings of collective symbolic unconscious, the visual is undoubtedly an integral creative tool for reaching, exploring, animating and pervading the indefinable spaces beyond body and mind.

The artists in this exhibition, some more explicitly than others, sought after or seek spiritual truths through art making and employ an almost fervent and reverent experimentation to their practice, one that is both ritualistic and against the grain. This mystic behavior is what defines the show; the persistence on new and unorthodox visual experimentation reaches beyond the worldly sphere to heightened states of consciousness.

This exhibition is made possible, in part, by the generous contributions of William Breeze, Ordo Templi Orientis, Richard Metzger, John Contreras, Scott Hobbs, David Brafman, William Swofford Cameron, Hetty Maclise, and The Estate of Alfred Jensen.

More info : khastoo.com

 

Clip from Aleister Crowley: The Beast 666 a film by Donna Zuckerbrot, produced by Reel Time Images. More info here.

Aleister Crowley was an accomplished mountain climber, poet, chess player and writer. He is also the most well known and influential occult magician of modern times. His admirers saw him as the prophet of a new age, whose goal was a spiritual awakening for himself and all humanity. At times his unique message and unusual behavior led to misunderstandings and contempt. His detractors denounced him as a Satanist, a drug addict and a sex maniac. The tabloids labeled him a Black Magician, The Wickedest Man in the World and The Man We’d Like to Hang. The Great Beast, as he called himself, continues to be an influence on the spiritual world today.

 

Night on Bald Mountain
Galina Shakitskaya, Russia, 1998, 10 min

 

A fantasy based on Mussorgsky’s symphonic poem. « Bald Mountain ». This name has survived among the people as an echo of ancient mythical notions. It is a mountain where witches and evil spirits gather to cook magical herbs and make spells. And this « mountain » is none other than the sky itself.

Best of 2009
BOBBY BEAUSOLEIL ‘The Lucifer Rising Suite’
4 x Vinyl LP Box Set released by Anja Offensive

 
 

Remastered recordings spanning 11 years (from the ’67 recordings to the Tracy Prison recordings of ’78) in 4 full-length LPs worth of Lucifer Rising material with half being never-before-heard sessions personally selected by Bobby BeauSoleil + 9 new pieces of aft from Bobby (8 record sleeve panels and one 2′ x 3′ poster) + A much-extended version of the ‘Fallen Angel Blues’ piece by Bobby that originally appeared in the Kenneth Anger DVD set + more

 

Discogs

 

Lucifer Rising
Kenneth Anger, USA, 1972, 29 min

 

 

Bobby Beausoleil to act and compose the soundtrack. The film was abandoned in 1967 because Anger claimed the film footage had been stolen by Beausoleil. (Beausoleil and others said that Anger had simply spent all the money for the film).

 

Anger then used some of the existing footage in another short film, Invocation of My Demon Brother. Beausoleil was convicted of killing Gary Hinman under the orders of Charles Manson in 1970. Anger began filming again several years later, with British singer Marianne Faithfull appearing in the film. Chris Jagger, brother of Mick Jagger, had a falling out with Anger during the filming and most of his parts were excised from the final product. Beausoleil wrote and recorded the music in prison. – WIKI