The Doom that Came to Chelsea
catherine yronwode
> http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=8374
> Here's a very interesting article - discusses among other things the
> putting together of Simon's Necronomicon, the New York occult scene in
> the '70s, the OTO. Does anyone know who the author, Alan Cabal, is?
Yes, i do. Alan Cabal is a New York City journalist, who
was, as he explains, a former employee of Herman Slater's
Magickal Childe occult shop and at one time married to the
late Bonnie Cabal, nee Bonnie Wilford.
Bonnie Wilford worked as the traffic manager for Marvel
Comics during the 1970s, which is where she met her third
husband, Chris Claremont, who was a long-time Marvel Comics
author (of the X-Men, et al). Upon her marriage to Chris,
she took the name Bonnie Claremont. Chris was the nephew of
Stan Lee, the driving force behind Marvel Comics in the
1960s-70s, and a talented writer of adventure and super-hero
fiction in his own right.
Bonnie and Chris Claremont were quite active in the New York
City demi-monde of the 1970s-80s. Bonnie was a gifted artist
and jeweler, and she had her own coterie of friends in
Gardnerian Wicca as well. Chris enjoyed a certain amount of
celebrity at the time due to his comic book work and because
he was using the pages of the X-Men to introduce his own
interest in BDSM to comics, in the person of the "Black
Queen" persona of the X-Men character known as Jean Grey,
Marvel Girl, or Phoenix. Bonnie and Chris had an open
relationship, and in the late 1970s, Peter Levenda and
Bonnie were lovers, as is mentioned in the article by Alan
Cabal. Together they investigated psychedelics, as well as
neo-tantric and ceremonial sex magic.
In 1977, as assignments at Marvel were being shuffled, Chris
Claremont asked to be given the job of scripting "Dr.
Strange," Marvel's "Sorcerer Supreme" or magical hero. "Dr.
Strange" had recently come off a very impressive run of
issues under the hands of the occult-inspired scripter Steve
Englehart, but was faltering in direction after Englehart's
departure. Unfortunately, due to the popularity of Chris'
"X-Men" work and the perennial low sales of the
cult-favourite "Dr. Strange," it was decided by the
powers-that-be that Chris should stay with the better
selling titles, and thus "Dr. Strange" was languishing under
a series of short-term scripters, none of whom had any
background knowledge of the occult arts, even through
fiction.
Chris was disappointed, but he was a team player, and he
wanted "Dr. Strange" to succeed. Because i had a grounding
in occultism and had also written a series of essays on the
magical system utilized in "Dr. Strange" as if it were an
internally consistent real-world magical tradition, Bonnie
and Chris asked me to help any new scripters who got the
"Dr. Strange" assignment by giving them a crash course in
the history of the Western Esoteric Tradition, so they could
make appropriate in-group references, and to provide them
with copies of a booklet i had written called "The Lesser
Book of the Vishanti," which was an annotated index to the
internal continuity of magical tools, spiritual powers, and
chanted spells that had been published in "Dr. Strange"
comics from its outset in 1963.
I still treasure the little silver pendant that Bonnie cast
for a small group of us who were working behind the scenes
to keep the occultism out front in "Dr. Strange." It is a
thick pierced disk in the form of the window in Dr.
Strange's sanctum sanctorum -- a motif itself adapted by the
creator of the series, Steve Ditko, from the window in the
crypt occupied by The Spirit, a 1940s comic book character
created by Will Eisner -- for whom i was working at the time
as an assistant.
My "The Lesser Book of the Vishanti," whose title is, of
course, a nod to "The Lesser Key of Solomon," was written
and published around the same time as Simon's
"Necronomicon," with much the same impulse behind it,
although to a much smaller audience, given the ephemeral
popularity of the team-scripted Dr. Strange series compared
with the enduring strength of H. P. Lovecraft's works. It is
now online at
http://www.luckymojo.com/visanti.html
As Alan Cabal notes, "There has always been a very heavy
crossover factor between the Renaissance fair/Society for
Creative Anachronisms crowd, the science fiction fan
circuit, and the occult/wicca scenes." The 1977 publication
party and book signing for Simon's "Necronomicon," which was
held at a bar and club in Chelsea that was decorated with
demonic and hellish motifs exemplified this cross-over, for
it was attended by comic book professionals, people
associated with Herman Slater's Magickal Childe occult shop,
and members of the SCA.
Like Bonnie, i was one of a number of people who had a foot
in all three of those worlds, for, just as she marketed her
occult-inspired jewelry through Herman's shop, i counted
Herman among the wholesale customers for a self-interpreting
horoscope blank i had devised and sold under the Durga-Shiva
Augury Co. imprint. In addition, my co-parent and
about-to-become-ex-partner Peter Yronwode was, like me, a
veteran of the SCA and the Renaissance Faire, where during
the early 1970s we had demonstrated sheep shearing,
spinning, and tanning, as well as hawking a hand-lettered
and decorated cookbook i had co-written with my mother
Liselotte Erlanger Glozer, called "My Lady's Closet Opened
and the Art of Baking Revealed" by "Two Gentlewomen." (The
title was modeled on the 17th century cookbook "The Closet
of Sir Kenelm Digby Opened Whereby is Discovered Several
Ways for Making of Metheglin...")
Other people who attended that first "Necronomicon" party
from the field of comics included Tom Ozechowski, a Marvel
staff letterer, and Roger Stern, a Marvel scripter who was
then writing "The Incredible Hulk" and other series. I am
not sure if Conner "Freff" Cochran was there, but Cabal
mentions him as being part of the scene, and i suppose he
likely was in attendance.
The party itself was quite a bash, with Simon intoning
Sumerian and Lovecraftian god names in the performance space
while downstairs people freaked out on PCP and bad acid in
the kitchen and i sounded the rim of a Tibetan ghanta bell
to calm them down, which did work. (I found it interesting
that according to Alan Cabal, Bonnie later became a Tibetan
Buddhist -- i recall her immense pleasure at handling the
antique ghanta and dorje i had brought to the party to show
to Roger Stern, who was then on-deck to be the next writer
of Dr. Strange.)
Levenda, in his persona as "Simon," dressed and acted
exactly as Alan Cabal describes him -- straight appearing
and very reserved in a dark business suit and neatly trimmed
hair. He was, however, as Cabal implies, a private drug user
and heavy-duty psychonaut.
I could reveal more about the complicated soap operas
involved in people's lives at that time, but i don't think
this is a good venue to do so. Suffice it to say that Alan
Cabal explained that he impersonated Peter Levenda at a book
signing, that Bonnie and Chris broke up around this time,
that he, Alan, became Bonnie's fourth husband, and that they
too parted eventually but remained friends. He also
explained how Peter Levenda seems to have disappeared. He
could have revealed much, much more, had he wished, but i
leave that for him to do in his own good time.
I miss Bonnie --- and i can tell that Alan Cabal does too.
She was a wonderful woman, a gifted artist, and a very kind
soul.
cat yronwode
Hoodoo in Theory and Practice -- http://www.luckymojo.com/hoodoo.html
Karezza and Sacred Sex ------ http://www.luckymojo.com/sacredsex.html
David Cantu
Joe Cosby
<c...@luckymojo.com> wrote:
>To: alt.magick, alt.magick.tyagi, alt.lucky.w
>
>
>> http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=8374
>
>> Here's a very interesting article - discusses among other things the
>> putting together of Simon's Necronomicon, the New York occult scene in
>> the '70s, the OTO. Does anyone know who the author, Alan Cabal, is?
>
Does anybody feel like reposting that article? They want a login.
--
Joe Cosby
http://joecosby.home.mindspring.com
"When you were establishing your personal relationship with God didn't
He tell you that CLUELESS PEOPLE MAKE BABY JESUS CRY?"
-- Steve Sullivan
Martin Swain
> On Mon, 09 Jun 2003 02:16:27 GMT, catherine yronwode
> <c...@luckymojo.com> wrote:
>
>>To: alt.magick, alt.magick.tyagi, alt.lucky.w
>>
>>
>>> http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=8374
>>
>>> Here's a very interesting article - discusses among other things the
>>> putting together of Simon's Necronomicon, the New York occult scene in
>>> the '70s, the OTO. Does anyone know who the author, Alan Cabal, is?
>>
>
> Does anybody feel like reposting that article? They want a login.
>
Just this bit:
"No part of this website may be reproduced in any manner
without written permission of the publisher."
Didn't ask me for a login. Try Konquerer maybe.
Cheers,
Martin Swain