The Occulted Anatomy: Magic, Medicine, and the Body in Pre-Modern Europe with Dr Alexander Cummins

 Date: Saturday, January 16
Time: 2pm- 4pm EST
Admission: $55 ( $50 for Morbid Anatomy Patreon Members, to become a member, click HERE)

This class will take place virtually, via Zoom. Ticket sales will end at 10.am EST the day of the lecture. Attendees may request a video recording AFTER the class takes place by emailing proof of purchase to [email protected]. Video recordings are valid for 30 days after the date of the lecture.

Ticketholders: a link to the conference is sent out at 11 am EST on the day of the event to the email used at checkout. Please add [email protected] to your contacts to ensure that the event link will not go to spam.

The influence of the magical world - the astrological forces of the shifting starry heavens, the impact of both helpful and haunting wandering spirits, and the myriad of stray witchcrafts - upon our physical bodies has been a perennial concern throughout human history.

In this class, professional diviner, magician, and historian Dr Alexander Cummins will take us through the history and magic of melothesia: the practice of understanding occult influences - from the stars to restless spirits and everything in between - upon the human body.

Such a study begins with the infamous "Zodiacal Man" diagrams so popular throughout Western magic, medicine, and astrology: that were used to chart the underlying causes as well as symptoms of various maladies, distempers, and dysfunctions. These maps of an "occulted anatomy" also provided schema for establishing therapeutic treatments and regimen, and even informed works of magical protection and prevention as well as cure.

Such a class aims not only to celebrate enchantment and magical ways of viewing the body, but also the actual anatomisation of occult philosophy and sorcerous activity themselves. That is to say, not only how magic could be located in the body, but how the body could inform and enrich our engagements with the spirits and sorceries of the world.

Dr Alexander Cummins is a contemporary cunning man and historian. His magical specialities are the dead (folk necromancy), divination (geomancy) and the grimoires. He received his doctorate on early modern magical approaches to the passions.

His published works include The Starry Rubric (Hadean Press 2012), on early modern astrology and astrological magic, A Book of the Magi: Lore, Prayers, and Spellcraft of the Three Holy Kings (Revelore Press 2018) and contributions to collections by Three Hands Press, Hadean Press and Scarlet Imprint. He is a frequent speaker on the international circuit, and co-hosts the podcast Radio Free Golgotha with Jesse Hathaway Diaz. 

Dr Cummins gives classes and workshops online and in person in the US and the UK. His work and services can be found at www.alexandercummins.com