SAJ1 contributor Dr Justin Woodman will be presenting the first in a series of what are sure to be enlightening talks at Treadwells books, 34 Tavistock St., Covent Garden WC2E 7PB. These are sure to be popular sessions, so book now!
H.P. Lovecraft and the Occult: A Series With Dr. Justin Woodman
Dr. Woodman lectures in anthropology at Goldsmiths College, Birkbeck College, and the University of Westminster. He has contributed articles on Lovecraftian themes to Strange Attractor Journal and The Journal for the Academic Study of Magic.
Evening One: The Man, the Myth, the Magic 17th January (Wednesday) 7.15 for 7.30pm start £5
Treadwell’s presents Dr. Justin Woodman’s series of four talks analysing aspects of H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937), the author best known for the creation of the Cthulhu mythos, a fictional mythology detailing monstrous powers “from beyond”. Tonight, Woodman casts a critical eye on the “magical” context of Lovecraft’s life and work. He then explores some of the myths surrounding the man and his fiction. This first talk also begins to examine the powerful influence that Lovecraft’s unique literary creations have exerted over the contemporary occult imagination.
BOOKING: Please book in advance via info@treadwells-london.com or Tel. +44 (0)20 7240 8906. Map on our website, www.treadwells-london.com. Note: all events start promptly and latecomers are not admitted. Wine is, however, served from 7pm on nights when the events commence at 7.30pm. All Treadwell’s evening talks are followed by a drinks party.
Evening Two: Legends of the Necronomicon
31st January (Wednesday) 7.15 for 7.30pm start £5
In part two of this series, Justin Woodman explores the history of the legendary Necronomicon in fact and fiction, and ponders its continuing relevance to contemporary occult cultures. Penned by the Yemeni poet and mystic Abdul Alhazred circa 700 CE, the dreaded Necronomicon is perhaps one of the most powerful and alluring of H.P. Lovecraft’s creations: a grimoire able to rend apart the very fabric of reality and bring forth the Great Old Ones themselves. Although a work of fiction, the Necronomicon has yet achieved a social and physical reality with more than twenty versions having been published since the 1960s.
Evening Three: Chariots of the Dark Gods
14th February (Wednesday) 7.15 for 7.30pm start £5
Many of H.P. Lovecraft’s best known tales of the Cthulhu mythos intimate that the human species is nothing but a by-product of extraterrestrial interventions in Earth’s prehistory. His idea predates the “Ancient Astronaut” theorists and “alternative archaeologists” by over thirty years. Woodman demonstrates that Lovecraft is a pervasive (but often unacknowledged) influence upon ufology and UFO religions. In the second part of the lecture, Woodman speculates further on the relationships that have developed between imaginative fiction, Forteana and contemporary occult cultures.
Evening Four: Chaos, Cthulhu, and Contemporary Consciousness
28th February (Wednesday) 7.15 for 7.30pm start £5
Tonight’s talk concludes the series exploring the relationship between Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos and contemporary occult cultures. Woodman here focuses on Chaos magic and other recent movements, and considers the claim that Lovecraft was a “mythographer of modernity”. It can be argued that he was a writer whose enduring vision is consonant with the claims of cutting-edge magic and theoretical physics; moreover, Woodman suggests, his work intimates something about the current trajectories of Western culture and consciousness.
