The Sacred Conspiracy

By Alastair Brotchie (editor), Marina Galletti (editor), André Masson (illustrator) , John Harman (translator) , Natasha Lehrer (translator)

Book cover of The Sacred Conspiracy: The Internal Papers of the Secret Society of Acéphale and Lectures to the College of Sociology

Book description

Georges Bataille's secret society, long the stuff of legend, is now revealed in its texts, meditations, rules and prohibitions

This book recounts what must be one of the most unusual intellectual journeys of modern times, in which the influential philosopher, cultural theorist and occasional pornographer Georges Bataille (1897–1962), having spent…

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Nadia Choucha

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This book traces the astonishing history and thinking behind the secret society called Acéphale created by Georges Bataille, known as the ‘dissident surrealist.' Secret societies were a feature of occultism throughout history (the word occult itself means 'hidden’). Acéphale was represented as a headless figure holding a burning heart, a dagger, and with a skull in the groin.

The members of the society would meet in silence to perform rituals beneath a lightning-struck oak tree in a forest outside Paris, evoking the ancient Druid rites described in Frazer’s The Golden Bough, blended with Nietzsche’s philosophy of the Death of…

From Nadia's list on discovering magic through the arts.