Meeting Le Maître
Fulgur Press posted an introduction to the Art of Michael Bertiaux, founder of the Gnostic Vodoun praxis, with an interview conducted by Ariock Van de Voorde. It begins:
“The occultist and artist Michael Bertiaux resides in Chicago and is something of a living legend. He is best known among fans and followers of the writer and Thelemite Kenneth Grant, who first brought Bertiaux’s Expressionist art and philosophical writings to wider attention in the third volume of his Typhonian Trilogies, Cults of the Shadow (London: Frederick Muller, 1975). Since the late 1960s, Bertiaux has worked with an idiosyncratic interpretation of Vodou that is commonly known as the Gnostic Voudon occult current. The first comprehensive collection of his thoughts and teachings on this subject was published as The Voudon Gnostic Workbook (New York: Magickal Childe, 1988). A strange and complex book, it fell out of print following the death of Herman Slater in 1992. Though Bertiaux continued to be active in Chicago, making art and teaching a few occult students, for more than a decade his work was overlooked by contemporary art and occultism. A revival of interest began in September 2004, when Robert Ansell made contact with the artist, undertaking the publication of Cosmic Meditation (London: Fulgur, 2007) as the first in a series of works, titled Bibliothèque du Verseau. This was soon followed by Weiser’s republication of the Voudon Gnostic Workbook (San Francisco, CA: Weiser, 2007) and the first full-colour book reproducing his art, Vûdû Cartography (London: Fulgur, 2010). Bertiaux’s magnum opus Ontological Graffiti was published by Fulgur in 2016. Forty years in development and a decade in production, this title is Bertiaux’s most substantial and important work to date.”
Read the whole schmear:
https://fulgur.co.uk/meeting-le-maitre/.
