Dear Brothers & Friends,
Welcome to BROTHER BEASTUS 𖤐 GRIMOIRE!
For years, I’ve posted now and then on the blog about the people and muses who inspire it. I often hashtag them as 🖤. Here are some who have been featured:
There are more. In fact, I’m adding one more to the list today: Oliver Sacks. Besides being a genius and a scientist, he was also a gay Leatherman and a bodybuilder. You may know Oliver from famous books and movies like Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. More about him below:👇
Oliver Sacks—Gay Leatherman & Genius
To be completely honest, when I first read about Oliver Sacks, I was both intrigued by his mind and turned off by his gay self-loathing. In the early eighties, just as AIDS was emerging, he had had a liberated gay life with a lot of sex and a lot of drugs and a lot of motorcycling—about 100k miles.
But then he decided to take a break from having sex—and had become a fairly aggressive advocate of celibacy in interviews. I have no problem with celibacy, but his advocacy seems to come at least in part from a place of shame.
Nonetheless, part of Oliver’s genius is that he listens and keeps an open mind. To his credit, he later moderated his views based on new information. That takes a lot of humbleness. I respect him for that. I hope we all can do that.
Earlier this year, a new feature length documentary called ‘Oliver Sacks: His Own Life’ was released on American Masters on PBS from director Ric Burns, and it reveals more of his genius. It’s highly recommended and available at video stores and on demand.
This part of Oliver’s story is heart-rending: the story of a traumatic move to an English boarding school and how the extreme stress contributed to the deterioration of his brother’s mind.
Here’s what director Ric Burns says about working with Oliver on the documentary after Oliver’s terminal diagnosis.
This is from a YouTube series called ‘Call Me Ishmael,’ which is a call-in show where people comment on books. Burns’ comment starts about a minute in:
Here’s more about how Oliver’s drug experiences as a young adult may have helped his extraordinary ability to empathize.
What a blessing, what a beneficence, grace abounding, that he did not die back then in the early 80s, and that he lived on another 30-odd years, gradually but steadily untying the knots that seemed to bind him, re-visioning and coming to terms with his past demons, and finding and at long last accepting present love.
—LAWRENCE WESCHLER in ‘A Rare, Personal Look at Oliver Sacks’s Early Career’
Seen & Heard
Michael W. Ford’s Akhtya has been one of the most popular musicians featured on the blog (under #headphones). This weekend I’m featuring two 2020 releases from Akhtya that I think will be very popular. They are great for ritual-use or to create some moody atmosphere—just in time for Samhain/Halloween.
AKHTYA & EMME YA 𖤐 ‘NECROMANTIAE DAEMONIUM’ 𖤐 HYMNS OF DEATH & NECROMANCY 2020 𖤐 12 mins.
AKHTYA featuring EMME YA & NEGATIVEWAVE 𖤐 ‘INVOCATION OF AZAZEL (SAMAEL), LILITH & BAPHOMET’ 𖤐 INFERNAL TRIAD INVOCATIONS 2020 𖤐 28 mins.
Fodors features Satanist Chef of The Satanic Temple HQ in Salem, Mass.:
“I use shock value when creating food to liberate us from religious indoctrination,” Ostrofsky explains. However, there’s much more to Satanic cooking than microwaving Bibles (which he does on a TST TV episode, before teaching viewers how to make charred broccolini). As a chef and a Satanist, Ostrofsky has dedicated his life to affirming those who fall outside of conventional norms and advocating for social causes in a spirit of benevolence.”
Fodors: Salem’s Satanic Temple Has a Satanic Chef. And We Talked to Him. 𖤐
This will blow your mind about viruses and other Aliens of the Microcosmos from How the Universe Works S9E4. (A lot of this stuff about viruses was learned from HIV/AIDS research. Otherwise, scientists might still be trying to find the pathogen that causes CoVID.)
LOL of the Week
Email Ask Me Anything (AMA) starts now and continues all day tomorrow, Saturday 18 Sep 2021. The last time I did this it got a great response so I’m going to continue. To participate all you have to do is reply to this or tomorrow’s email. Suggested topics of discussion include: OnlyFans, Oliver Sacks, and Venus Satanas on Summoning Demons, but the floor will be open for anything. I will send out an AMA email reminder tomorrow.
Podcasts used in the production of this issue:
Never Stop the Madness: episode 491 (7 Sep 2021)
Housenation UK with Lee Harris: episode 176 (1 Aug 2020)
𖤐𖤐𖤐
Please enjoy the last weekend of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and winter down under. Celebrate Monday’s last Full Moon 🌕 of the season, and stay safe everybody!
From my grimoire to yours…. Infernal Blessings!
BROTHER BEASTUS 𖤐 SINCE 2016