Magick: Decoding the Visual Culture of Sorcery with Thomas Waters - LIVE

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of . Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm

Join Thomas Waters for an illustrated talk to celebrate the publication of his new book Magick: Decoding the visual culture of sorcery, illusion and the paranormal.Combining powerful imagery of artworks and ritual objects with insightful analysis and expertly written text, Magick tells the visual story of the magical arts.
Magic appears in every era and culture, from 30,000-year-old wands unearthed in Wales to talismanic daggers of India and the horseshoe charms still worn across Europe. This eye-opening book explores the rich visual and material culture of magic in all its diversity and power, from personal superstitions and protective marks to cunning folk, enchanted grottoes, mystical spellbooks and secret ceremonies.
After a concise introduction that outlines what we mean by 'magic', the author investigates the magical arts in three broad sections: Low Magic, High Magic and Alternative Magic. Each section reveals not only the practices themselves but how magicians and ritual specialists have shaped society across time.
Spellbinding images of grimoires, spirit beings, esoteric diagrams and evocative artefacts amulets, crystals, magic mirrors and more bring these traditions to life, their symbolism decoded in vivid detail. Key magicians, rituals and enchanted landscapes are also profiled.
Readers will discover how everyday magic worked in pre-industrial Europe, what a visit to a cunning-woman or wise-man entailed, and how mesmerists, mediums and other modern practitioners forged new magical traditions. Wide-ranging and accessible, this book traces the evolution of magic from ancient worlds through the ages of science and technology to today's landscape of intuition, doublethink and conspiracy.

Thomas Waters is a lecturer in History at Imperial College London and author of Cursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times (2019) along with numerous articles about the history of witchcraft and magic. He read History at the University of Leeds and Oxford, and has been researching and teaching about the history of magic for over twenty years in universities and the wider community.

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The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society is London’s best award-winning alternative cocktail bar hidden within The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. A drinker’s cabinet of wonder filled curious cocktails & extraordinary elixirs —The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour is truly a hidden treasure of East London. Opened by collectors, drinks historians & absinthe experts — Allison Crawbuck (Brooklyn) & Rhys Everett (London) in 2016, the duo bring with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of spirits & the macabre.

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The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances.

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Host or Publisher The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities