Carl Abrahamsson: Meetings with Remarkable Magicians

An unconventional memoir of a man immersed in magic and the occult • Explores the author’s extensive connections with infamous occultists and organizations, including Genesis P-Orridge and Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth, Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan, and the Ordo Templi Orientis • Details the underlying occult impulses and magical experiences guiding the author’s artistic journey, his experiences in psychedelic culture and the punk subculture, and his experimentation with sex magic, occulture, and sigil magic What does it mean to live a life as an occultist? There may be no single answer, but for Carl Abrahamsson, it has involved work in music, art, and film as well as deep involvement with renowned occult figures and organizations for more than 40 years. Illustrating the possibilities of a life infused with magic, Abrahamsson reflects on his decades spent in the company of some of the most unconventional thinkers of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Revealing how his immersion in both the underground and above-ground world of art and the occult only grew through his adolescence and into adulthood, the author details his involvement with psychedelic culture, the punk subculture, and numerous occult figures and organizations, including Genesis P-Orridge and Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth, Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan, the Ordo Templi Orientis, and a branch of the American Golden Dawn. Interwoven with his occult experiences and meetings with infamous practitioners of magic, Abrahamsson describes his evolution as a multi-disciplinary artist, detailing his pursuits in writing, making music, and working as a photographer and filmmaker, always imbuing his diverse artistic practice with a developing occult philosophy. He also details his ongoing efforts to disseminate the occult arts via publishing companies like Psychick Release, Looking Glass Press, Edda Publishing, Trapart Books, and the occultural journal The Fenris Wolf—as well as fieldwork in Tibet, Nepal, and India through The Institute of Comparative Magico-anthropology. Through each encounter and reflection on the magical, shamanic, and mystical practices that have structured his own life, Abrahamsson richly illuminates how it’s possible to experience a rich, wise, and abundant life of wisdom and miracles.