IMAGO: Body. Vision. Magick.
by Robert Allen
In this groundbreaking work, Robert Allen restores the image to its rightful place at the heart of the Western esoteric tradition. He argues that the careful relation of image, vision and understanding holds the power to opening the portals to a magickal practice which is both initiatory and transformative.
Featuring an exclusive forward by Richard Smolley, IMAGO investigates the root of the magical tradition in early Neoplatonism, especially their use of images as magical symbols of transformation and shows how these ideas permeate the practice of radical avant-garde theatre artists like August Strindberg and Heiner Müller. Drawing on the work of occultists like Aleister Crowley and Austin Osman Spare as well as poets and radical artists, Robert Allen discusses the awesome power of the images and develops a practical step-by-step guide to vision magick as a foundation for all esoteric practice. Divided into chapters which themselves constitute a journey into how the magickal imagination can be rehabilitated, IMAGO is intended to function as a very real initiation into the nature of the imaginative process itself.
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Table of Contents
Foreword by Richard Smoley
Introduction
Chapter 1: Imago
Chapter 2: Alone and in the Dark: Reflections on Strindberg’s Last Play
Chapter 3: To Live in a Mirror
Chapter 4: The Memory Body: Its Use and Development
In Memory of the Body - An Afterword
Bibliography
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Full colour illustrations of the four elements by Constance DuQuette.
Cloth Hardcover Edition - Limited to 730 copies
192 pages. Printed and bound in Germany. Fine cloth binding, printed and embossed cover, lettering on rounded spine. Printed on high quality 150gsm wood-free Lessebo Design smooth natural paper, black Surbalin endpapers, headbands, black ribbon bookmark.
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Press, reviews, endorsements
Book Overview by Foolish Fish - watch on YouTube here
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About the Author
Robert H. Allen has been a practicing ceremonial magician for more than half a century; his life in magick began when he was 13 years old. In his late teens, he joined the Ordo Templi Orientis under the direction of Kenneth Grant, which is currently known as the Ordo Typhonis. He is also a senior member of the Temple of the Silver Star (TOTSS), a Golden Dawn patterned Thelemic Order, and an Instructor for the TOTSS academic track. In addition, Robert is an Initiate of the Jane Wolfe lineage of Aleister Crowley’s A.˙. A.˙.
On a more secular note, he holds a degree in fine art, and he is a former dancer, choreographer, physical theatre artist, and director, working with notable choreographers and directors in the United States and Europe. His current focus is on teaching and education, having taught at major universities in the US, and he is a published author on performance technique and visionary art practice. Robert is a certified teacher in the Krishnamacharya Yoga tradition, as well as in the Michael Chekhov acting method. More recently, he has been integrating theatre technique and magickal practice in a project called Performance Movement Magick. These workshops are ongoing and provide the practical foundation for his writing and pedagogy.