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In art

Devotional Images: Luxa Strata as Aphrodite

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

Behold, friends: Luxa Strata as Aphrodite.

Luxa Strata, on the off chance that you don’t recognize the name, is a chaote, artist, magician, and community leader. She is the host of the Lux Occult podcast and runs the Green Musheen Discord server and is knee-deep in a stunning number or related and unrelated magical projecets. You can check her various works out for yourself via her Linktree.

I’m so excited to finally be releasing these images from the third of July’s four photoshoots, the first of the two that I did with Luxa. As you may recall from my last two two, the Lavender Laura images, this adventure started with a post in Luxa’s Green Musheen Discord server, in which I asked for magical collaborators for a few occult-themed photoshoots. Of the themes I suggested, Laura was interested in showing off her “Wizard Rizz” and in conjuring spirits for me to try to capture in some old-school spirit photography. Luxa was also interested in spirit photography, and in embodying Aphrodite in this, my second devotional image shoot for that goddess.

Luxa visited me here in Kansas City in the last week of July, flying in Thursday afternoon and leaving Tuesday morning. The whole week was an adventure in and of itself, including a meet and greet with my Lunar Shenanigans Crew, a trip out to Gaea Retreat Center, a great deal of good food, and a whole lot of absolutely fantastic conversation and comradery.

We shot these images on Friday night, using two sets and four-ish costume changes. As usual, I shot with my trusty Nikon d3200; that night I used my Nikor 18-140 zoom lens. We shot in my home studio which was … just a little warmer than was comfortable, that day, at least for me. The lighting was more of a challenge than it should have been because I had misplaced the stands for my studio lights. I ran out of stamina before Luxa and I ran out of ideas, so I’m a little sad about all the images we could have made, but we also shot enough images – 218 – that editing them down to the final 54 was a more than adequate challenge.

Luxa called the goddess Aphrodite into herself. We opened with Armed Aphrodite, with a red cloak and a gladius for a bit of a Roman vibe, and just got slowly more sensual and less dressed over the course of the shoot.

Overall, I’m very pleased with how the shoot went. Luxa was a delight to work with, and the images came out fantastically. Culling the set was a real challenge. I’m still learning to use my new software (you may remember that I ditched Adobe back in April and started using DXO PhotoLab7 in July), so there’s the frustrating knowledge that these could be better if I were only a little more familiar with my tools, but … that’s the artist’s life in the age of subscription software, I guess.

Luxa, herself, had this to say about the shoot:

“When these pictures were taken, I was going through a transitional period having to do with leaving several toxic relationships. I had joined a magic group which turned out to be incredibly abusive and misogynistic. Although I had escaped that situation, I was still dealing with the heatbreak and other fallout. The experience of posing for these pictures helped me reconnect with something I had been suppressing; a “golden shadow” I’d been hiding away for safety’s sake. It was an important thing to rediscover, and I feel deep gratitude for having had the opportunity to do so. My overall takeaway from the shoot is that the Goddess is real, She is powerful, and She is here; in this world.”

I hope you all enjoy these images as much as we do.

In art

Spirit Photography I: Conjuring Alkes with Lavender Laura

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

For those who don’t know, spirit photography is an art almost as old as the camera. It purports (with varying degrees of skill and sincerity) to attempt to capture images of spirits on film. Obviously, inevitably, many famous exemplars have been cruel or even criminal hoaxes, and others merely artistic fakes. As a photographer and a magician, I have always wanted to try my hand at it, but while I’m a fine hand at being my own scryer, I’ve never figured out how to be both the conjurer and the photographer. So, finally, I asked for help.

I put out a bat signal on the Green Musheen discord server, run by Luxa Strata of the Lux Occult podcast. Lavender Laura was one of two occultists who volunteered, and it turned out that she lives close enough to me to make a nice roadtrip out of the photoshoot, so I fucked off to southwestern Missouri and spent a lovely weekend with her and her husband. We also did a glamour shoot, the first in what I hope will be a series called Wizard Rizz, but that’s not quite magical enough for this blog.

When it came time to shoot, the division of labor was absolute. The ritual was written and performed by Laura for her own ends. Invoking the Persian Royal Stars for the quarters and the goddess Hekate as intercessor, she called upon the star Alkes for its blessing and aid.

For now, she has this to say about the ritual:

“The humble magician begs to be noticed by the sublime Queen of the Chalice that sits upon the back of Hydra. By the flower scented amphora, a servant of Alkes appears. The blood and perfumed Waters pour down from the empyrean cup and give succour.”

and

“I had been craving an opportunity to grow closer to a celestial spirit and was ecstatic. I felt very dedicated and driven for the ritual and it has only come to mean more to me in the passing days. Looking back at the images I can see that emotion coming forth, and didn’t realize how much I have begun to look like my grandmother.”

The day was hot as shit, and the sun was bright as hell. We waited until the last possible minute to start the ritual, hoping for both some lovely Golden Hour light and a bit of break in the heat. The quickly-fading light made the shoot a bit of a technical challenge; the heat added a degree of physical difficulty, as well.

It was an interesting technical challenge to photograph the ritual without interfering. It was also a little surreal being on the outside of magic that I wasn’t participating in – I am very, very rarely a spectator to others’ work; I’m always either leading or participating. It was fun feeling the power rise, and seeing the spirits respond. But even though I could tell that the ritual was going well, from that perspective, I had no idea if I was managing to capture anything but cool ritual pics.

In the end, I got about a half-dozen images with discernible artifacts, all fairly classic “orbs”. Three appear in the above set; one was in a photo too terrible by every other measure to include; the rest are in a second set, to follow – not quite good enough for this set, or not quite the right vibe, but still too good not to keep and share. It is, of course, possible that these are simple lens flares. But they don’t look like other lens flares I’ve taken, and don’t seem to be in the right place relative to the light sources. I have, of course, edited the photos to make the flares a little more dramatic – they’re still photos – but nothing beyond basic photo development.

If I’m being 100% honest, I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get more dramatic apparitions. At the same time, though, I’m over the moon that my first spirit photography experiment was as successful as it was.

As I mentioned above, there are more waves of photos coming from from this session: a second set of the ritual that just didn’t quite fit in the tight drama of the above; and some of just the garden, and of the altar – occult themed still lifes of the kind you all know I love.

I said it before and I’ll say it again, it was an honor and a delight to work with Lavender Laura on this. I am unspeakably grateful for her collaboration and her hospitality. And I very much look forward to collaborating with her, again, in the future.