Carl Abrahamsson's Blog, page 2

Keep calm and keep calm

In today’s WEEKLIES post at our Patreon, I write about brave attempts to keep calm:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/weeklies-keeping-139157702

”Certainty: what strikes a chord becomes immediate signal, and can be played with others as in proper music. One tone, two tones, several. A major or a minor key? These melodies are popular one day, and then comes a whole new style, inspiring people to dance together all the way to the grave (Saint-Saëns!). Can the harmony of the spheres ever be anything but? Can it ever be disharmonious? The Bard said it out aloud on the brightest night of the year, and in a dream no less: ”What fools these mortals be!””

#weeklies #vanessasinclair #carlabrahamsson

Memory is propaganda?

Just posted an appreciation of the Czech Aktual Art experiment. I love phenomena that strive for impermanence and fails (because of greatness of course!):

https://anartapart.substack.com/p/czech-dada-fluxus

”The tone fuses Dadaist provocation with the sober minimalism of Czech Brutalist architecture. The eighth thesis—memory is already propaganda—directly challenges the socialist injunction to create monuments to the glorious future. By refusing documentation, Aktual pre-empted both the state’s desire to archive (and thereby control) culture and the capitalist art-market’s need for commodifiable objects.”

#anartapart #aktualart #conecptualart #performanceart #carlabrahamsson

Praying to Maria

Just posted an appreciation of my fave saucy Russian lady:

https://thefenriswolf.substack.com/p/the-sexy-satanist

”Alongside her original writings, Naglowska rendered two key texts into French for the first time: the 13th-century Kabbalistic treatise Bahir and the anonymous English Rosicrucian manifesto The Cloud upon the Sanctuary. Her prefaces to these works are miniature essays in mystical erotics, arguing that both texts encode the same secret: the Shekinah exiled in matter can only be redeemed through erotic ecstasy. She also contributed a monthly column, “Sagesse Sexuelle,” to the journal La Flèche, edited by the surrealist Michel Leiris. In one striking article she interprets the Stations of the Cross as phases in the ascent of seminal energy: Jesus falls the first time when the libido sinks to the knees; Veronica’s veil is the diaphragm that receives the facial image of the divine; Golgotha is the skull where the serpent finally kisses the pineal gland.”

#mariadenaglowska #innertraditions #thefenriswolf #occulture #carlabrahamsson

Graduation Grease

In today’s Magic Monday at our Patreon, I write about the important ”graduation grease” of magical individuation:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/magic-monday-138585630

”When you eventually and thankfully leave the state of adherence to anyone/anything ”occult” (like a teacher, guru, order, cult, romantic gestalt/notion, etc) you will have taken a quantum leap forward. And you’ll be unique, as most people are trapped in occult illusions forever. 

The analogy to going to university or some other form of higher education is fitting. You have inclinations and talents of both nature & nurture kinds, and you want to hone and train them so you can forge a nice career and life based on the ideals and skills you have. But very few people stay on in these training grounds. If they do, they will have no choice but to be teachers or administrators within the same environment – a kind of meta-career.

I think that once you have graduated you should leave and get going. There’s a whole world of real magic out there, and to adhere to simple psychofantisms and loyalties other than to yourself will be wastes of time and energy.”

#magic #individuation #occulture #vanessasinclair #carlabrahamsson

Making a new movie

Ten years ago, I made a movie. This fills me with enormous pride as I’ve always loved movies, went to film school, did film studies etc. It was a dream that came true, basically.
The film is called ”My Silent Lips” and it tells the tragic story of an abused woman who, when pushed, compensates her sadness by acts of extreme violence. Not a happy story, but one of some retributional justice and thereby moral value.

I had scraped together money to buy the tech (cameras, sound equipment, a new computer) and set some aside for the actors, travel expenses, etc. We barely stuck to the budget, but in hindsight it’s remarkable what a little manic momentum can achieve.
After I had written the script, I started contacting the people I wanted involved. Lots of planning and logistics, lots of anxiety in approaching unknown terrains, all while the money was fizzling away.

I found the leading lady via a film workers’ site in Sweden. No good flick without a good chick. As she was in Stockholm, too, I met with her and explained that it would not be a pretty film in any way but that I felt she would be perfect for the role. I was very happy when she agreed and we had settled the financial details.

The rest of the people I had within reach, either through already existing friendships or extended networks. On the whole it was quite a smooth affair.

In the summer of 2015, we shot the movie in Sweden and Macedonia, with different crews. I was in paradise, albeit a stressed one. No producer, no shooting manager, no script girl/boy, just a buzzing brain and a friendly race with time and funds.

All of the involved plus some lovely extra helpers (gofers, cooks, drivers) pushed themselves to the limits to make it all work. And it did. For me, it was like being in a kind of unreal reality; being inside the film, yet on the outskirts, the unseen suburbs.

Making a reality – or at least a fictional one – out of horrendous violence was bizarre and taught me how hard it is to convey trauma in a believable way. Not that I was striving for super-realism in any way. The film’s mood or ”vibe” is considerably more nightmarish in a ”magical realism” kind of way. Meaning, there’s a very thin veil between harsh reality and compensation based in fantasy. That veil is actually even literally in the film’s dream sequences – something I realized post facto.

Many psychoanalytic perspectives are possible here. Why does one want to make a film of someone abused who goes psychotic in self-defense revenge sprees? What’s the story, and why? Or is it just an alignment to and with film history? I like a certain type of film and want to prove to myself and the world that I can make a similar one? Or is it that I like to make movies, period, and could equally well have made a rom-com or animated children’s story?

Here I think it’s best to not ask too many questions. The reason is simple: the pure joy lies in the creation of whatever it is or becomes in composite – not in the rational analysis of it.

This was a sweet and familiar realization when I recently re-watched the film. And wow… did that whet my appetite! Time to make a new movie. I already know what it’s going to be about and how to make it. It will be shot in Sweden next summer, and edited in the autumn. High time, ten years later!

Now I have a plan, and now you know about it. If you feel you want to be onboard, let me know. Time flies by quickly and planning is ”key.” Whether you are an actor, actress, tech person, sound/camera person, or have some money you want to support the fine cinema arts with, do let me know. I think the total budget for ”My Silent Lips” ended up at $15.000, but I’d like to go a little higher next time, mainly to pay people more for their efforts. It’s going to be a very strange and peculiar film, so it’s good if you’re not some kind of snowflake.

If you would like to watch ”My Silent Lips” it’s available on the An Art Apart Substack ( https://anartapart.substack.com , FILMS section), together with all my other films. I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I do.

Carl A, Vimmerby, September 2025

P.S. I would of course like to thank everyone involved in the making of ”My Silent Lips”, mainly Linn Sparrenborg, Robin Hayes, Robert Bolin, Thomas Gjutarenäfve, Katarzyna Jaskiewicz, Johan Hamrin, Stojan Nikolic, Vera Nikolic, Tea Shaldeva, Roy Sutherwood, Fredrik Åkerberg, Jane Altiparmakov, Agnieszka Lewalski, Andrew M McKenzie, Mikael Oretoft, and William Tottie. THANK YOU!

https://anartapart.substack.com/p/movie-magic-is-real

#anartapart #moviemagic #mysilentlips #carlabrahamsson

Occulturation!

Today I write about the delicate psychic balance between hidden and manifest in our contemporary occulturation processes:

https://thefenriswolf.substack.com/p/the-eternal-question

”The question remains: can the hermetic sphere maintain its transformative power while becoming increasingly permeable? Or must it, by its very nature, remain sealed to generate the psychological pressure necessary for genuine transformation? Perhaps the answer lies not in choosing between accessibility and concealment, but in recognizing that true esoteric knowledge has always had the capacity to hide in plain sight, revealing itself fully only to those who bring the necessary psychological preparation, regardless of how readily available its outer forms might be.”

#thefenriswolf #occulturation #occulture #magicoanthropology #carlabrahamsson

What do I know?

In today’s WEEKLIES at our Patreon I write about how much I enjoy teaching classes online, and how the tech behind it isn’t all bad:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/weeklies-we-and-138488183

”That said, sharing an actual virtual space with screens as inter-faces for the purposes of teaching and learning has been extremely positive for me. As I’ve grown less and less prone to move away from the homestead, technology compensates by smooth connections to students and fans. Without our contemporary connectivity, where would I be? Where would we be as a culture? The answer is of course ”somewhere else,” but we have no way of knowing what that means. It is very easy to be critical in volatile times like these when too many childlike beast-minds have too much say, perhaps especially when it comes to technology. But the truth of the matter is that the (potential) immediacy and success of our classes and posts etc would never have existed if it weren’t for the tech that so many of us are eager and quick to curse.”

#vanessasinclair #carlabrahamsson

Source Magic Mentorship

Interested in Source Magic Mentorship? I have time for new sessions now and throughout the autumn so please feel to get in touch. There’s usually a lot of flexibility in how we structure one or more sessions together, but in general I can say it’s a process that allows for you to look at yourself in a new light (or a current problem, or snag, or emotional hurdle). We will look at the issue from different perspectives and see what comes up in terms of paths of possible resolution. I am very much in favor – based on many years of experience – of deep, emotional conversations and expressions of potential change through creative endeavors. Although it is theoretically possible to highlight many things in just one session, it’s usually better to process issues over time.

I offer an initial 15 minute free consultation so that we can assess together what’s best for you. Usually, a session takes place via Zoom, with or without video (as you wish). Anything that is said during our sessions is of course strictly confidential. If you’d like, I can record our session(s) in order for you to be able to re-listen, but it’s not at all necessary for my work. Please contact me at: carl AT carlabrahamsson DOT com for more information.

Hans Bellmer!

Read all about Hans Bellmer in this exquisite essay by Robert Morgan:

https://thefenriswolf.substack.com/p/the-infestation-of-eros

”With Bellmer the question of sexuality was not simply an issue of the imagination; it became a spiritual necessity – a desire that needed an object of projection. Sexuality was not simply an imaginative fancy, but a reality of the mind perpetually in search of the corporeal substance of the body. Thus, Bellmer’s Dolls are not simply mannequins that signify the metaphysical condition of reality as they might be interprered in the paintings of De Chirico or Oskar Schlemmer; nor is the Doll a surrogate as in the pathetic case of Oskar Kokoschka after his affair with Alma Mahler. Bellmer was clearly aware of these antecedents when he adopted his lifelong motif at the beginning of the thirties.”

#hansbellmer #robertcmorgan #surrealism #diepuppe #thedoll #lapoupee #occulture #thefenriswolf #carlabrahamsson

Media Landscaping

In today’s WEEKLIES post at our Patreon, I write (again) about truth vs lies on our contemporary take away media menu:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/weeklies-and-but-137855796

”The human qualities being eroded are precisely those that evolved to help us navigate actual rather than virtual environments: skepticism, curiosity, stratification, discernment, the ability to tolerate uncertainty and contradiction. These cognitive tools, refined over millennia of engagement with an indifferent natural world, prove poorly adapted to an environment designed specifically to exploit our psychological vulnerabilities. We find ourselves like deep-sea creatures suddenly exposed to atmospheric pressure—our internal architecture collapsing under conditions we never evolved to handle.”

#vanessasinclair #carlabrahamsson