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barry_x's review
adventurous
informative
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
4.25
I've recently enjoyed the tight focus of the 'Summoning' and 'Ritual' issues in Hellebore and I suppose because I have read a few in a short space of time, this issue has felt just a little lacking compared to other issues. The theme of this issue is 'Unveiling' and to be honest, it was one which seems right up my street, addressing the 'unveiling' of 'something' to be about creating that experience of being exposed to deeper, more spiritual truths. There is something in the notion of seeing 'beyond the veil' and revealing what was hidden that just seems so magical for me, and how there is this notion of a hidden world, either within, beyond or with us.
As always the art direction is superb and evocative and the essays are short enough to engage with, and a few demand longer works.
'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' by Katy Soar explores the link between Pan and 1960's psychedelia through music, LSD and the liberating era of the time via 'Wind in the Willows'. It's an interesting piece jumping through Syd Barrett and Brian Jones and their lifestyles and desire to create and experience. I can read about both the creative and artistic endeavours of the period with a dose of sex and drugs all day, and I do think in this period artists were really trying to experience things beyond what they thought was a mainstream way of thinking and being.
'The Third Eye' by editor Maria J. Pérez Cuervo is my favourite piece, exploring a book written by a Tibetan Lama in the 1950's who had trepanned his forehead when he was eight to open his third eye. The book sounds fantastic and covers astral projection, telepathy, meditation. The only thing is the Lama in question was a man in Devon who clearly had never ever been to Tibet, and worse, the publishers most likely knew before hand that this man was a fraud and published this book anyway which became a best seller. There is something to reflect upon here, in that the book met a need to learn the 'secrets of the Orient', and I am also drawing a link to the 60's article about music and worshipping / becoming Pan. It seems from the post-war period, but especially through the 60's and 70's in the West there was a desire to seek answers, and a longing for an Age of Aquarius. I am reminded of 60's musicians like the Beatles all rushing off to India for 'enlightenment' and what that says about the Western psyche. T. Lobsang Rampa (or Cyril to his friends) nevertheless managed to write a number of other books about his experience after his expose which makes 'the desire to know more', more important that the actual truth.
I learnt a new word in the next article of note - 'ethneogen'. It is a 'psychoactive substance employed in culturally sanctioned visionary experiences in ritual or religious contexts.' So, it's more than 'drugs to get high' and I guess excludes laboratory made drugs such as LSD and ecstasy, and importantly it has to have a link to a ritual, or religious experience. All the usual suspects are here from the poppy to cannabis to wormwood and mandrake. The focus is on the Northern Hemisphere and there seemed a few missing - but I guess it depends on whether there is any evidence about the link to a visionary experience. Where my mind was going with this is, that perhaps any psychoactive substance has the potential to be an ethneogen. I am reminded of raves with most of the audience on ecstasy and how the music builds to a crescendo of peaks and the communal nature of the worship of 'something' (whether that be music, love, community or something else). In altered states of consciousness, if the intent is there can any psychoactive substance meet that need?
There is an article on folk psychedelia which I wish was longer - the intersection of folk and psychedelia is ever blurring and even the distinction of 'what do we consider 'folk'? (or for that matter psychedelia) feels worthy of significant discussion.
So we have had lots about the intersection of music, art, psychoactive substances and seeing beyond our consciousness, but my second favourite piece in this issue is definitely John Reppion's 'Seeing Fairies'. It explores accounts of folklore about what happens when you see fairies when you really shouldn't and these stories and the consequences are well known (the courts are hidden for a reason everyone!). Where the article gets particularly interesting is the stories about 'fairy ointment' which, when rubbed on the eyes can give the recipient the power to see fairies as they really are. It made me smile, because the author, in a discussion with someone who hosted a talk on the subject, described a recipe for fairy ointment from a 17th century manuscript. Sadly the recipe wasn't printed in Hellebore for reader safety reasons and the person who shared it couldn't exactly replicate it anyway. For what it's worth one person who did use the ointment reported no sightings of fairies...
Lots more in here and plenty to get stuck into. Well worth a read.
As always the art direction is superb and evocative and the essays are short enough to engage with, and a few demand longer works.
'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' by Katy Soar explores the link between Pan and 1960's psychedelia through music, LSD and the liberating era of the time via 'Wind in the Willows'. It's an interesting piece jumping through Syd Barrett and Brian Jones and their lifestyles and desire to create and experience. I can read about both the creative and artistic endeavours of the period with a dose of sex and drugs all day, and I do think in this period artists were really trying to experience things beyond what they thought was a mainstream way of thinking and being.
'The Third Eye' by editor Maria J. Pérez Cuervo is my favourite piece, exploring a book written by a Tibetan Lama in the 1950's who had trepanned his forehead when he was eight to open his third eye. The book sounds fantastic and covers astral projection, telepathy, meditation. The only thing is the Lama in question was a man in Devon who clearly had never ever been to Tibet, and worse, the publishers most likely knew before hand that this man was a fraud and published this book anyway which became a best seller. There is something to reflect upon here, in that the book met a need to learn the 'secrets of the Orient', and I am also drawing a link to the 60's article about music and worshipping / becoming Pan. It seems from the post-war period, but especially through the 60's and 70's in the West there was a desire to seek answers, and a longing for an Age of Aquarius. I am reminded of 60's musicians like the Beatles all rushing off to India for 'enlightenment' and what that says about the Western psyche. T. Lobsang Rampa (or Cyril to his friends) nevertheless managed to write a number of other books about his experience after his expose which makes 'the desire to know more', more important that the actual truth.
I learnt a new word in the next article of note - 'ethneogen'. It is a 'psychoactive substance employed in culturally sanctioned visionary experiences in ritual or religious contexts.' So, it's more than 'drugs to get high' and I guess excludes laboratory made drugs such as LSD and ecstasy, and importantly it has to have a link to a ritual, or religious experience. All the usual suspects are here from the poppy to cannabis to wormwood and mandrake. The focus is on the Northern Hemisphere and there seemed a few missing - but I guess it depends on whether there is any evidence about the link to a visionary experience. Where my mind was going with this is, that perhaps any psychoactive substance has the potential to be an ethneogen. I am reminded of raves with most of the audience on ecstasy and how the music builds to a crescendo of peaks and the communal nature of the worship of 'something' (whether that be music, love, community or something else). In altered states of consciousness, if the intent is there can any psychoactive substance meet that need?
There is an article on folk psychedelia which I wish was longer - the intersection of folk and psychedelia is ever blurring and even the distinction of 'what do we consider 'folk'? (or for that matter psychedelia) feels worthy of significant discussion.
So we have had lots about the intersection of music, art, psychoactive substances and seeing beyond our consciousness, but my second favourite piece in this issue is definitely John Reppion's 'Seeing Fairies'. It explores accounts of folklore about what happens when you see fairies when you really shouldn't and these stories and the consequences are well known (the courts are hidden for a reason everyone!). Where the article gets particularly interesting is the stories about 'fairy ointment' which, when rubbed on the eyes can give the recipient the power to see fairies as they really are. It made me smile, because the author, in a discussion with someone who hosted a talk on the subject, described a recipe for fairy ointment from a 17th century manuscript. Sadly the recipe wasn't printed in Hellebore for reader safety reasons and the person who shared it couldn't exactly replicate it anyway. For what it's worth one person who did use the ointment reported no sightings of fairies...
Lots more in here and plenty to get stuck into. Well worth a read.
arthurbdd's review
4.0
By this point, Hellebore have pretty much set out what they are and are continuing to offer their usual blend of folk horror and occulture more or less to the standards set by previous issues. Solid, but as always one could wish they trimmed back some of the terser articles and allowed the deeper articles to sprawl a bit more. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2023/11/16/mini-review-hellebore-harvest/
bookishwondergoth's review
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Didn’t inhale this issue as fast as I usually do. I think a lot of the reason why I struggled is because I didn’t really understand some the articles due to having not read a particular book or seen a particular film. I really enjoyed the articles about seeing faeries and about Dante Rossetti and William Blake. Not my favourite issue but still very interesting.
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