Calendrier Magique

Designed and published in Paris in 1895, the Calendrier Magique was conceived by Austin De Croze and illustrated by the Italian lithographer Manuel Orazi. While the history of these two individuals remains somewhat obscure, even a casual glance at the contents and illustrations of their unusual work shows that De Croze and Orazi possessed a sophisticated familiarity with the Esoteric traditions of the fin de siècle era. Every page of the Calendrier Magique evokes the decadent, occult Paris of Gerard Encausse, Oswald Wirth, and Karl Huysmans. The Art Nouveau illustrations of Orazi are especially evocative. Simon Finch writes that the work “was highly praised by Caillet as ‘fort original et d'une rare exécution artistique’; he added that no contemporary artist - save Félicien Rops - had managed ‘so felicitously to combine sadism, satanism and the macabre’.      The Calendrier Magique - so the legend goes - was published in a limited print run of 777 copies, making it quite a rarity among collectors.

Learn to love solitude, to be more alone with yourselves. The problem with young people…is their carrying out noisy and aggressive actions not to feel lonely. And this is a sad thing. The individual must learn to be on his own as a child for this doesn’t mean to be alone: it means not get bored with oneself, which is a very dangerous symptom…almost a disease.

“In our isolated culture, we turned to face paint to express ourselves, eventually developing complex heraldic codes. It became essential to know the difference between cobalt blue, symbolizing a love of cryptozoology, and midnight blue, symbolizing that the wearer wrote poetry.”

-QuietPineTrees

There’s a lot more to this story, and you can see it all, but only if you get the new Quiet Pine Trees book! Pledge now to help make it a reality, and you’ll get an exclusive hardback edition you won’t be able to get later! I can even sign it for you!

The Green Lion represents Vitriol, or sulfuric acid. The image of the Green Lion devouring the sun represents the stage of Dissolution, where the baser metals are represented by the sun, and are being dissolved by the Vitriol. on a spiritual/psychological level, this represents when a persons “consciousness [is] overwhelmed by violent, frustrated desires.”

Here’s the original image this seems to be referencing:

Ghosts ©Philomena Famulok

“Many alien species were glacially slow compared to humans. Statuesque species with silicon exoskeletons saw our fluid movements, and regarded us as shapeshifters. Species resembling trees and fungus were the slowest, barely able to perceive us. To them, we were magical things.”

-QuietPineTrees

Need some personal inspiration? We have implemented a new pledge level in the fundraiser for the new Quiet Pine Trees book! You can now get the chance to choose the topic of a custom microfiction that will be written for you and included in the book itself! And I promise, any stories thus created will get extra personal attention. Check it out!