Widdershins Days
The winter has been productive but I fear not so much here on the pages of the Skeptical Occultist. While I have done some traveling, read many books, seen at least two incredible private libraries and handled a rare manuscript or two I have had little time to stop and write about it as I go. Tumblr's interface doesn't compile with my phone so posting in my chosen format is relegated to days where both charged laptop and internet access coincide.
In short I have been busy, serious life changes ahead only being accelerated by the recent departure of the UK from the EU. I have had just about enough of the entire lot of Tory cunt voters and we intend, after nearly two decades, to pack up for warmer shores before the summer ends. Britannia is sinking under the weight of its own grandiosity.
To that end a quick trip to Portugal to look over some documents allowed time to catch up with an old friend, an American painter who left London himself a few years ago. His reluctance to come down from his mountain cabin not withstanding he and I had coffee in a beautiful village not far from Coimbra.
While it was pouring down with rain outside we commiserated over various facets of politics, the state of occult goings on, and mutual friends who seem to be increasingly passing into the ether.
We spoke of my plans to come to Portugal and settle there for some time, a fascinating female folk artist whom I recently discovered not far from him, as well as books, which like myself he also adores.
I was reassured by his glowing opinion of the local mountain Portuguese. While during my own researches I was seen mostly as an outsider he has managed to settle in well with the locals, building a house in a quiet village.
The folk artist he and I discussed is something of an anomaly. A woman in her late 50s of Polish origin who has lived in Portugal since the late 1970s. I will write about her in more detail in a future post. She is an incredible spirit fetish folk object maker whose work will be featured in the next issue of Folkwitch.
Upon my return to London I am preparing Folkwitch Issue 2 to send off to the printers. Very pleased with the way this issue has come together, though as ever getting the final pieces from writers is much like herding cats. It has sold out in preorders once again, thank you to all of our fantastic readers and the positive feedback we have gotten.
I am pleased to say that we will be opening preorders for the next volume of the Skeptical Occultist Journal, vol five, sometime in March with copies shipping in May. 200ish pages, full colour, softbound. Early preorders get the handmade marbled jackets.
Now to dig into the Folkwitch editing, though I need to finish up reading and review Phil Hine's excellent new volume "Hine's Varieties - Chaos and Beyond" out on Original Falcon Press. It's a pleasant read that brings back memories of the occult journals and pagan groups of my youth.
-Eldred
