The Western Gate

Delinquent Elementals
Phil Hine & Rodney Orpheus
Strange Attractor Press

I wasn’t planning to buy books that day, I was just wandering aimlessly through the streets of bustling London, I knew I’d end up having a look in Watkins, just a peak, not with any intent or wish list…
Sometimes these unplanned exercises are the best to yield fruit.

I’ve never even heard of this book, let alone seen it advertised.
Essentially it is, a collection of ‘Pagan news’ magazines/Fanzines from the 80’s/90’s. Now, for me, that alone would have had me buying it. I remember those days, before t’internet got going. Snail mail. leaflets, handouts and handmade magazines. Moots with pagans/weirdos and the socially inept in pubs and meetings in anarchist bookshops, I don’t look back as many of my friends do and wish, we could return. I’ve never looked back with any more fondness than I have of the today, now. With the exception of the perception of time being faster the older you get, I actually like the moment now, as I did then.
It was a time when the momentum of the Satanic Panic was about to explode, when underground raves and acid house saw us do our own thing, until the corporates banned it and created their own, expensive, branded and ‘safe’ versions. The Poll Tax riot ! perhaps the last genuine act of rebellion from the British Public, No peaceful marching where the patronised marchers get a pat on their head, “good boy, good girl” and some dribbling maggot of an MP declares ” Of course we are listening, Of course we understand…” They’re not, and they don’t, and they never will.
What makes this anthology so special is much is still relevant, albeit we now live in a world of influencers and ego’s as opposed to those who wanted to mobilise and connect.
There are articles that deliver rituals in ways much better than a full blown book, and of course, humour, always humour and sarcasm, the staple diet and etiquette of any worthy British occultist.

Satanic Panic, showed, how a handful of people could influence a nation, by fear, by demonising everyone who is not, in their eyes, perfect. Geoffrey Dickens MP, Dianne Core, Rev.Kevin Logan, names I’d long forgotten, reappear throughout the book’s articles, and I remember them, to be fair I thought the whole thing was hilarious and didn’t for one moment concern myself or worry that my door was about to be kicked in because I’d bought a book by Aleister Crowley recently. If anything, had I met them I would have agitated the problem, made it worse, just to annoy them, I would have told lurid tales and fed their lust for stories of the perverted black masses I had attended.
I remember the Cook reports TV programme, a hatchet job. Chris Bray, the shop owner of Sorcerers apprentice was shown making a hasty escape avoiding questions. I couldn’t understand it, why. Chris Bray was always eloquent and I had bought many items from Sorcerers apprentice before, some with notes hand written by Chris. (There were reasons for this, much of which is included in a youtube expose of the episode, which I include here albeit they only uploaded the first part but well worth a watch-

Delinquent elementals, and Pagan News was great, it spoke in easy language, not because we weren’t intelligent enough to read word salad, but because we couldn’t be bothered to be impressed by long winded hyperbole. Andrew Chumbley however did have an article published in the newsletter, and it stands out, that long winded yawn of a dialogue. I don’t know why, I have letters from him that when speaking about current affairs, music or other things, it’s not full of that long winded expansion, but as soon as the subject of the occult comes in, bang, out comes the thesaurus and dictionary?

Although, primarily Delinquent Elementals is a snapshot of a time past, it is more than that. We don’t have to live in this fake social media bubble, nor wish we could get 1000 likes for our vlog reviewing a handheld vacuum cleaner,… because maybe we’ll get the next one free.
The occult world has become fractured. There are those who in a few short years have reached Ipsissimus, apparently, conjured up every demon and God as if they’re bubble-gum cards, and then upload videos about blowing Cinnamon into a doorway for protection, or how Moldavite has changed their life. The other side of the coin are the intellectuals who hide behind a bohemian façade, writing in that engineered nonsense, protected by whatever current flag or issue is being raised. It was never really that bad, back then. The moots, meetings arranged with fellow pagans in pubs drew an assorted crowd, usually alternative, gothy, punky, dress like Stevie nicks, lesbians and Gays who didn’t harp on about LGBTQ rights (didn’t exist then… we was all pagans, end of), the odd sexual deviant who believed the lurid stories of Rev.Kevin Logan and were desperate for a shag. In the main, we talked the talk anyone would in a pub, sometimes talking about comparative religion and ritual, but more often than not just putting the world to rights and taking the Piss out of Rev.Kev Logan.
The last time I went to a ‘Moot’ was about five years ago. It was mainly middle to upper class people, most spoke with their eyes closed as if they were drawing forward a dream or wanted to exact the conversation. Many squinted when they listened to you, to show they were deep in thought with what you were saying. In my broad cockney accent, amongst the high brow of Muswell Hill and Maida Vale I felt as welcome as West Ham flag in a pub in the Old Kent road. The conversation was different too, no piss taking, no humour. Everything was muted, serious, people side stepped issues if they were not considered appropriate. Everyone had to announce their solidarity with whatever, and preach and advocate with this and that, no problem there except it seemed false, and unnecessary. Most of the chat was about other issues, nothing to do with the esoteric or occult, books and authors and trends. I haven’t been back since.
The book is just a couple of pages short of 666! missed a trick there Strange attractor. And I flew through it, absolutely devoured the whole thing. If it were one long continuous story or praxis or on one subject, I probably wouldn’t have bought it. Yes, I’m a hypocrite, a slave to the five minute snapshot, the tiktok momentum of a quick glance. Its an ideal format, articles, short stories and gossip. It’s like being in a pub, in a moot, bored with one topic? don’t worry they’ll be another very shortly.
The underlying theme, because of the time, and recurring paranoia throughout the book is about the Satanic Cult Watch frenzy, the media up in arms, fear, lies, cover ups and what was it really to detract us from? At that time, mobilising on the streets in protest, mobilising illegal raves in disused farm buildings, creating underground literature, why did they want to kettle us in with this hash up, this lie?
CCTV, the internet and personal algorithms was around the corner, we never saw it coming. Its too late, they know everything about you already, The past was fresh, only that there was room to breath, but I will not fall in the curmudgeons trap and bemoan age and how much better it was back then, when ice cream was tuppence and we made a stuffed Guy Fawkes and begged for penny a guy. I prefer Now! faults and all, and I don’t care who knows what about me. Now is what I like and I wouldn’t go back if you paid me.

What a great read, and collection.

Header Illustration ‘Printing Press’ by Jost Amman (June 13, 1539 – March 17, 1591)