Fellow Phantasmaphiles, I have two awesome upcoming events I'm hosting via my space, Observatory, and it would be great to see you at one or both of them:
Tuesday, December 14th: Haunted Houses: Photographs and Recordings by Corinne May Botz:
Haunted Houses: Photographs and Recordings by Corinne May Botz
Date: Tuesday, December 14th
Time: 8pm
Location: Observatory - 543 Union St (at Nevins), Brooklyn (Enter via Proteus Gowanus)
Admission: $5 cash
Presented by Phantasmaphile
Haunted Houses is a long-term project in which artist Corinne May Botz photographed and collected oral ghosts stories in over eighty haunted sites across the United States. The series was inspired by turn of the century spirit photographs and Victorian ghost stories written by women to voice domestic discontents. Haunted Houses traverses diverse fields such as photography, cultural history, architecture, folklore, and the supernatural. This evening, Botz will present photographs from her book, Haunted Houses, and discuss her experiences and findings. For the first time, she will also play excerpts from the archive of oral ghost stories that she collected during her travels. She is particularly interested in connection between ghosts and houses, and how current inhabitants negotiate the history of their homes when ‘living’ with a ghost. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
Corinne May Botz is a photographer and author who investigates the perception of space and our emotional connections to architecture and objects. Her photographs have been internationally exhibited including shows at Wurttembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart, Germany, Bellwether Gallery in New York, and The Center for Contemporary Art, Torun, Poland. She is the author of Haunted Houses (The Monacelli Press, 2010) and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death (The Monacelli Press, 2004). Her work has been reviewed by The New York Times, Village Voice, BookForum, and Modern Painters. More information is available at: www.corinnebotz.com
Sunday, January 9th: Occult NY: A Manhattan Walking Tour with Mitch Horowitz:
Occult NY: A Manhattan Walking Tour with Mitch Horowitz
(Back by popular demand!!!)
Date: Sunday, January 9th
Time: 1pm sharp - 3pm
Admission: $20 cash per person
Time Out magazine calls it a “can’t-miss event” featuring “seldom-told stories of New York’s mystical history.”
Presented by Phantasmaphile
*We will be meeting at 1pm at the front gates of Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue just north of East 29th Street, in front of the bronze statue of Norman Vincent Peale.
**You must RSVP to phantasmaphile [at] gmail . com if you plan on attending, as we have a 30 person maximum for this event.
Long before the “Aquarian Age” hit California, America’s laboratories of spiritual experiment were in the tenements of Hell’s Kitchen, the metaphysical churches built in New York’s old cow pastures, and the lodges nestled among Manhattan office buildings. Join Mitch Horowitz, author of Occult America, for a walking tour to explore New York City’s astonishing – and overlooked – role in igniting the occult revival and the revolutions in alternative spirituality that swept America (and the world) from the nineteenth century to the present day.
Discover little-known landmarks of our underground spiritual legacy, such as:
The New York New Church. This beautifully restored Renaissance-revival Swedenborgian church was a wellspring of supernatural ideas in America in the mid-nineteenth century, when its pulpit was presided over by Spiritualist minister George Bush – ancestor to the Bush presidential clan.
Fred F. French Building. This jewel of the art deco movement of the early-twentieth century is a landmark of esoteric symbols and hidden imagery, designed by an aficionado of the occult who left his mysterious markings on apartment and office buildings across New York City.
Marble Collegiate Church. From the pulpit of this Romanesque church (and one of America’s earliest congregations) the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale spread the philosophy of “positive thinking” throughout America – a spiritual system built on American mystical teachings.
Occult Grand Central. The crowning edifice of the beaux-arts architectural movement, Grand Central Station forms a temple of esoteric and mythical imagery (some of it hand-picked by the Vanderbilt family), including magnificent statues of Hermes, Athena, and Hercules, and a domed ceiling featuring one of the largest and most intriguing zodiac murals in the world.
Esoteric Lodges. The tour identifies and discusses remarkable and little-known spiritual lodges nestled along midtown Manhattan streets that many of us walk down each day.
Here is an unforgettable opportunity to experience a lively and up-close overview of the “secret history” found right in our own neighborhoods. Plus a few surprises along the way…
A widely known writer and speaker on the history and impact of alternative spirituality, Mitch Horowitz is the editor-in-chief of Tarcher/Penguin and the author of Occult America (Bantam), which The Washington Post Book World called: “Fascinating…a serious, wide-ranging study of all the magical, mystical, and spiritual movements that have arisen and influenced American history in often-surprising ways.” The book received the 2010 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for literary excellence. Horowitz has written for The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, and BoingBoing, and has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, and All Things Considered. Visit him online at www.MitchHorowitz.com
I truly can't wait for these, and look forward to sharing these occultariffic experiences with you.
. Privately printed in 1928 by a 27-year-old occult scholar named Manly P. Hall, the table-top sized volume – brimming with arcane diagrams, otherworldly illustrations, and detailed entries on everything from Pythagorean mathematics and Egyptian geometry to the origins of the Tarot and the secret authorship of the Shakespearean plays – became one of the most successful underground books ever published. Passing through many printings and versions, including a compact “reader’s edition” in the twenty-first century, it reigns as the Encyclopedia Arcana of the modern age – a must-read for every acolyte of mythical traditions, esoterica, and the occult.
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for the popular 33 1/3 series by Continuum books. He also hosts the popular net radio show Expanding Mind on the Progressive Radio Network. You can find out more about him at 
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