Each author on this list either because either they, their work, or their practice is misleading, appropriative, harmful, biased, bigoted, misogynist, racist, etc. Each of these authors have published media that is harmful to our community, or were a part of organizations that are. Several practitioners still live and/or practice based off of a lot of these materials. Several of these authors are known for producing media that is intended for newer witches, which just propagates and sustains harmful narratives within our community. Many of these authors are Wiccan, but why that is an issue will be for another article. The names highlighted in red are either especially harmful or very prevalent.
A blacklist of authors is intended to highlight problematic individuals, and/or problematic publications. Unless otherwise stated, the authors in this list should be avoided until a level of discernment is acquired through experience and research. Personally, I’d recommend avoiding all Theosophy publications completely.
Adam Blackthorn: Misleading, appropriative, and misogynistic
Aleister Crowley: Literal horse shit, appropriative, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, racist, overall very harmful
Alfred Percy Sinnett: Theosophy
Amethyst Raine: Misleading, appropriative, biased, misogynistic
Ambrosia Hawthorn: Misleading, appropriative, biased
Anastasia Greywolf: Misleading, appropriative, biased, misogynistic
Asenath Mason: Misleading, appropriative, transphobic, super harmful (self harm, blood magic, etc.)
Athena Crowley: Misleading, appropriative, biased, misogynistic
Brittany Nightshade: Misleading, appropriative, neo-pagan, transphobic
Cassandra Eason: New Age, misleading, appropriative, transphobic
Catherine Yronwode: Misleading, appropriative, racist
Charles Webster Leadbeater: Theosophy
Christian Day: Mason: Misleading, appropriative, transphobic, racist
Christopher Penczak: Misleading, appropriative, biased, misogynistic, racist
Clara Codd: Theosophy
Damon Brand: Misleading, appropriative, transphobic, racist, harmful (classism)
Dante Abiel: Misleading, appropriative, transphobic, super harmful (self harm, blood magic, godphoning etc.)
Diana Paxson: Misleading, appropriative, xenophobe, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, neo-pagan, literal nazi, avoid at all cost
DJ Conway: Misleading, appropriative, transphobic, racist, neo-pagan
Donald Michael Kraig: Misleading, appropriative, biased, misogynistic, new-age, racist
Doreen Virtue: Misleading, appropriative, biased, transphobic
EA Koetting: Misleading, appropriative, biased, misogynistic
Edain McCoy: Misleading, appropriative, transphobic, racist, neo-pagan
Edred Thorsson: Misleading, appropriative, xenophobe, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, neo-pagan, literal nazi, avoid at all cost
Edward E. Beals: Theosophy
Erin Lale: Misleading, appropriative, xenophobe, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, neo-pagan, literal nazi, avoid at all cost
Frosts (Gavin & Yvonne): Misleading, appropriative, biased, misogynistic, new-age, racist
Galina Krasskova: Misleading, appropriative, xenophobe, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, neo-pagan, literal nazi, avoid at all cost
Gerald Gardner: Literal horse shit, appropriative, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, racist, overall very harmful
Gordon Winterfield: Misleading, appropriative, and misogynistic
Greg Shetler: Misleading, appropriative, xenophobe, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, neo-pagan, literal nazi, avoid at all cost
Jasmuheen: Theosophy
Janet Farrar: Misleading, appropriative, and misogynistic, transphobic, neo-pagan
Jiddu Krishnamurti: Theosophy
Jose Silva: New Age, Misleading, appropriative, biased, racist, generally harmful
Kenny Klein: Misleading, appropriative, misogynistic, neo-pagan
Kerr Cuhulain: Misleading, appropriative, misogynistic, neo-pagan
Heather Garnder: Misleading, appropriative, misogynistic
Helena Blavatsky: Theosophy
Henry Agrippa: Biased, misogynistic
Henry Steel Olcott: Theosophy
Holly Zurich: Misleading, appropriative, biased, misogynistic
Lisa Chamberlain: Misleading, appropriative, biased, misogynistic
Lisa Lister: Misleading, appropriative, biased, misogynistic
Lisa Marie Basil: Misleading, appropriative, biased, racist
Luna Sidana: New-age, appropriative, misleading
Mabel Collins: Theosophy
Marian Singer: Misleading, appropriative, biased
Mark Puryear: Misleading, appropriative, xenophobe, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, neo-pagan, literal nazi, avoid at all cost
Magus Incognito: New-age, appropriative, antisemitic, racist, overall super harmful
Mandy Morris: New-age, appropriative
Margarita Alcantara: New-age, appropriative, misleading
Michael W. Ford: Misleading, appropriative, transphobic, super harmful (self harm, blood magic, etc.)
Raven Kaldera: neo-pagan, transphobic, appropriative, racist
Raymond Buckland: Misleading, appropriative, biased, misogynistic, racist
Rhonda Byrne: New-age, appropriative, misleading, ableist,
Scarlett Wright: Misleading, appropriative, biased
Scott Cunningham: Misleading, appropriative, biased, misogynistic, racist, overall harmfull
Silver Ravenwolf: Misleading, appropriative, biased, misogynistic, racist, overall super harmful
Skye Alexander: Misleading, appropriative, biased
Sorceress Cagliastro: Misleading, appropriative, transphobic, overall terrible practices, super harmful (self harm, blood magic, etc.)
Stephen A. McNallen: Misleading, appropriative, xenophobe, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, neo-pagan, literal nazi, avoid at all cost
Stephen E. Flowers: Misleading, appropriative, xenophobe, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, neo-pagan, literal nazi, avoid at all cost
Stewart Farrar: Misleading, appropriative, and misogynistic, transphobic, neo-pagan
Suzannah Lipscomb: racist
Swami Bhakta Vishita: Theosophy
Swami Panchadasi: Theosophy
Tamara L. Siuda: Misleading, appropriative, and misogynistic, transphobic, neo-pagan, cult mentality
Talbot Mundy: Theosophy
Terence McKenna: New Age, Misleading, appropriative, biased, racist, generally harmful
Theodore Sheldon: Theosophy, New Thought
Theron Q. Dumont: Literal bullshit, theosophy
Three Initiates: Literal bullshit, theosophy
Trish MacGregor: Misleading, appropriative, new-age
Varg Vikernes: Misleading, appropriative, xenophobe, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, neo-pagan, arsonist, murderer, literal nazi, avoid at all cost
William Walker Atkinson: Literal bullshit, theosophy
Yogi Ramacharaka: Theosophy
Zanna Blaise: Misleading, appropriative, new-age, racist, classist
256 notes
·
View notes
William Johnson was a Black American painter born in South Carolina to a poor family.
He attended an all black school, and here the apocryphal, he may have been first introduced to making art by a teacher.
He practiced by copying cartoons out of papers.
He would move to New York, at 17, taking on a variety of odd jobs in order to pay for his education at the National Academy of Design where he worked with and studied under prestigious artists, particularly Charles Webster Hawthorne, even studying with him at the Cape Cod School of Art in Massachusetts.
So taken with William was Hawthorne, that when William failed to receive a travel scholarship, Hawthorne raised near $1000 in order for him to study outside the country.
He would go to France, and become exposed to Modernism. His work began to become more expressive, more colorful.
He would have his first solo exhibition in Paris at the Students and Artists Club in 1927.
He moved from Paris to Cagnes-sur-Mer and explored different mediums, Woodcuts, watercolors and serigraphy to name a few, using whatever he could get his hands on.
While abroad he would meet a Danish textile artist Holcha Krake. The two would fall in love and marry in 1930.
He would go between Europe and the US doing a couple exhibitions stateside, visiting his family, and making many, many new works of art before returning to Europe to rejoin Holcha to sign their prenuptial agreement and then marry. They would spend the majority of the 30's in Scandinavia, not returning to the US until 1938.
While there he developed a keen interest in folk art, and like his exposure to modernism, this too would inspire him and take his work to new heights.
But, as you may have guessed given the dates, the rising tensions and bigotry in Europe as the next World War hung on the horizon made staying there unfeasible.
His work by now had become colorful, bright, and powerful. he used strong shapes and a folk-like primative style to depict the lives of Black Americans in all their joyousness and melancholy. A celebration of the culture he belonged to.
It was 1940 and his style was solidifying, he had hit his stride in his art career.
But in his personal life, he struggled.
Despite the attention his work received. He was still not financially stable. Word had come from Europe that his brother in law had died after being interrogated by Nazi officers. His living in-laws had to endure the German occupation of Denmark.
In 1942 William and Holcha would move to a larger apartment in Greenwich Village, only to have the building catch fire a week later. Destroying art, supplies, and personal possessions.
Just two years later, in 1944, Holcha would die from breast cancer sending him into deep grief.
In 1946, he left the US for Denmark to be with his late wife's family, but his behavior had become increasingly strange and unpredictable.
William had syphilis, and this compounded by his own mental health struggles and his intense depression over his wife's death resulted in being institutionalized in Oslo the spring of 1947.
And then, sent back to the US by the US embassy.
With an attorney appointed as his legal guardian, his personal belongings were put into storage and he was put into Central Islip State Hospital on Long Island early December 1947.
He would spend the rest of his life here and did not paint. Dying in April of 1970.
We almost lost his work. In 1956 his caretaker declared him unable to pay for the storage of his belongings, including his art work. It would have been destroyed.
Thankfully, it was arranged that his belongings be delivered to the Harmon Foundation. Later the Harmon Foundation would give over 1000 works to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
It is a great tragedy that, like so many artists, William Johnson never knew financial security in his life. It is also a great tragedy, that like so many artists, he was almost lost to time with his work and tragic life story gone with him. We are all lucky though, that his works have survived and today he finally gets to recognition he deserved.
In 2020, in Florence, South Carolina where he was born, a statue was unveiled in remembrance of William, located on West Evans St and Breezeway.
If you'd like to see more of Johnson's work and learn more about his life:
Smithsonian American Art Museum - William H. Johnson
Smithsonian - William H Johnson World on Paper Album
William Henry Johnson Grant
Museum of Modern Art - William H Johnson
National Gallery of Art - William H. Johnson
Smithsonian Magazine - William H. Johnson’s Art Was for His People
6 notes
·
View notes
THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE (1959) – Episode 161 – Decades Of Horror: The Classic Era
“Dirty, stinkin’, slimy gators! You bit my hand off, didn’t you? I’m gonna spend the rest of my life killing gators. The rest of my life … killing ’em!” Maybe you shouldn’t have put your hand in the gator’s mouth. Join this episode’s Grue-Crew – Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff, Doc Rotten, and Jeff Mohr – as they take in a sweat-soaked Lon Chaney Jr. and the wonderful Beverly Garland in the story of a man-turned-gator as told in The Alligator People (1959).
Decades of Horror: The Classic Era
Episode 161 – The Alligator People (1959)
Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel!
Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content!
https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine
ANNOUNCEMENT
Decades of Horror The Classic Era is partnering with THE CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIE CHANNEL, THE CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE CHANNEL, and WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL
Which all now include video episodes of The Classic Era!
Available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, Online Website.
Across All OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop.
https://classicscifichannel.com/; https://classichorrorchannel.com/; https://wickedhorrortv.com/
A woman in a hypnotic state recounts to two doctors the details of a horrific experience from her past life that began with the mysterious and sudden disappearance of her husband.
Director: Roy Del Ruth
Writers: Orville H. Hampton (screenplay); Orville H. Hampton & Charles O’Neal (story by); Robert M. Fresco (uncredited)
Producer: Jack Leewood
Music: Irving Gertz
Cinematographer: Karl Struss (director of photography)
Editor: Harry Gerstad
Makeup Department:
Hair Stylist: Eve Newing
Makeup Artist: Ben Nye, Dick Smith (not that Dick Smith)
Special Effects: Fred Etcheverry
Selected Cast:
Beverly Garland as Joyce Webster – aka Jane Marvin
Bruce Bennett as Dr. Eric Lorimer
Lon Chaney Jr. as Manon (as Lon Chaney)
George Macready as Dr. Mark Sinclair
Frieda Inescort as Mrs. Lavinia Hawthorne – Henry’s Wife
Richard Crane as Paul Webster
Douglas Kennedy as Dr. Wayne MacGregor
Bill Bradley as Patient ‘Number Six’ (uncredited)
Hal K. Dawson as Train Conductor (uncredited)
Dudley Dickerson as Train Porter (uncredited)
John Frederick as 1st Male Nurse (uncredited)
Ruby Goodwin as Louann – the Maid (uncredited)
Ken Kane as Third Male Nurse (uncredited)
Boyd Stockman as Alligator-Headed Paul (uncredited)
Vince Townsend Jr. as Toby – the Butler (uncredited)
Lee Warren as 2nd Male Nurse (uncredited)
Calling all MONSTER KIDS! It’s time for the Grue Crew to head to the bayou alongside actress Beverly Garland in search of her missing husband in the B&W creature feature The Alligator People (1959). Let’s throw in some hilariously creepy – but still awesome as ever – Lon Chaney, Jr. for good measure. See a man turn into a gruesome gator – with pants! All kidding aside, this is a terrific B-Movie classic that should not be missed.
At the time of this writing, The Alligator People is available to stream from the Classic Horror Movie Channel and Wicked Horror TV. The film is also available on disc as a Blu-ray from Shout! Factory.
Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era records a new episode every two weeks. Up next in their very flexible schedule, as chosen by Chad, is This Island Earth (1955), two-and-a-half years in the making!
Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave them a message or leave a comment on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel, the site, or email the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast hosts at
[email protected]
To each of you from each of them, “Thank you so much for watching and listening!”
Check out this episode!
0 notes