Sarah Darkly: Blackness and America’s Gothic Soul by Leila Taylor Darkly was an illuminating, insightful read that gave me pause with every sentence. Part personal memoir, part cultural critique, part valuable history lesson, Taylor meditates on the Black experience and gothic culture through a collection of observations on music, film, art, philosophy, architecture, decay, and […]
January 2021 Tarotscopes Witches and quantum physicists know that time is not linear. Our relationship with time is a complex one. We are both confined by and transcend time. All artists and magicians know that creativity allows us to collaborate with time, not lament it. What rituals, creative projects, and new years do is mark […]
Kristen J. Sollée is a Haute Macabre favourite, and for good reason. Her first two books, Witches, Sluts, Feminists and Cat Call, deftly weave pop culture with academia, social justice with humour, and research with memoir. They’re complex in the best way, but you’ll still attempt to devour them in one sitting. I love them. […]
Friends, I haven’t got a thoughtful intro for this 2020 year-end version of Needful Things. It was a crappy year. Today I am sharing with you a list of things, sometimes small, or mundane, or banal things, that made it better. To coin a phrase from Maika, “fingers, toes, and tentacles crossed” that 2021 will […]
I was recently reading a short interview with writer Claudia Rankine in which she’s asked about her ideal reading experience: she responded: “I love when someone enters the room when I am reading. I see their lips moving but I am now in another country, perhaps even in another century. I am fighting both to […]
This last gallery of visual phantasmagoria and fantastical ocular flotsam for the year is a bit more melancholic and moody than usual, as my mood in these final days of 2020 is especially dark. But that’s only what I see when I gaze upon these works, and I like to think that art is neither […]
“His body and mind went about their different business. The former freed from conscious instruction, breathed, rolled, sweated, and digested. The latter went dreaming. First, of Manhattan served on a plate, sculpted in perfect detail. Then of a waiter, speaking in a whisper, asking if sir wanted night; and of night coming in the form […]
Well, it wouldn’t be 2020 if we weren’t talking about Halloween perfume reviews in December, right? But around the shadowy and haunted corridors of Haute Macabre every day is Halloween– and so too is the case for the spooky scent sorcerors at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. And I imagine you might feel the same way, […]
The world is ending, the sky is dark, and as we pace between our too-few rooms from sunrise to sunset, the bedroom continually calls out in whispers. Respite, it promises. A new day. Or perhaps just a chance at temporary obliteration. Bedrooms are sacred, liminal spaces. They shock in the morning, alarms going off and […]
The truth is not finite. Once we come across one, we aren’t saved, we don’t stop questioning. The truth is mutable; Much of this month will be spent examining the function of the truth in your life. Does the truth limit, expand, or enhance your perspective? This month, the question isn’t what is the […]
The 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner by Modern Woman is now in stock in the Haute Macabre Shop! This magical planner follows the Gregorian 2021 calendar year, with all magic holidays, observed holidays & bank holidays for the USA (Northern Hemisphere). It also has every Moon phase and signs the Moon is in for 2021, […]
“History of Magic, Part II… Initiation” by Alison Blickle This installment of fantastical fodder for your eyeballs appears on a Monday morning, brimming with mystical, magical imagery to inspire your week. These visuals, by contemporary artists who reveal occult elements and philosophies through their creative gaze, all feature in The Art of the Occult, which […]
Whether the prospect of a Friday the 13th leaves you white-knuckled, triskadekaphobic, clutching at your lucky talismans, or if you consider it an auspicious date brimming with sanctified energies and bakers dozens, either way, there are vibes a-plenty. The vibe today, this Friday the 13th of November, in this strange sideways-smiling, bad-blooded hurricane of a […]
Frida Kahlo’s Garden Is Still Thriving—Six Decades after Her Death Aleister Crowley’s former home “The Boleskin House” is being restored, after going up for sale and then charred bits from the ruins wound up on eBay last year How to Visit the Graves of 75 Famous Writers Bees Survive Notre Dame Fire Ancient Rock Art […]
Reliving My Youth: The Craft & The Witches 2020 The Vampire’s Wife x H&M At Home with the Hogan McLaughlin Spring 2021 Collection What Does Outer Space Smell Like? New Sponsor: Frost Moth Apothecary Creature from the Vinyl Lagoon 31 Days Of Horror: Week One ARS INSPIRATIO: Perfumes inspired by S. Elizabeth’s new book, The […]
A small shop update, including household items and new book titles. It is an absolute honor to have signed copies of our own S. Elizabeth’s book “The Art of the Occult” available now. Beautiful resin celestial palm stands. Entering Hekate’s Garden: The Magick, Medicine, & Mystery of Plant Spirit Witchcraft Witches’ Cauldron Salt & Pepper […]
In celebration of The Art of the Occult: A Visual Sourcebook for the Modern Mystic, the aromatic adepts at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab have summoned forth a rare opulence of fragrances inspired by a handful of these curious images that transcend time and place. The Ars Inspiratio collection is comprised of five artful scents corresponding […]
The beautiful fall collection from Solstice Scents was released last month, with the inclusion of classic favorites and new additions. Below you will find some favorite selections, with notes embodying the essence of the autumnal season. The Solstice Scents fall collection is available now at SolsticeScents.com. Find Solstice Scents on Instagram // Facebook // Forum […]
We already know that November is going to be an intense month for us in the United States. There is the election. There is an increase in illness, death, poverty, and violence due to the pandemic and the government. There are the cold, darkening days. And, we will experience a Lunar Eclipse at the end […]
To make up for last week’s lackluster entry in this month-long series, I set out to make week four a collection to remember. And I think I succeeded in doing so. It’s an eerie extravaganza! A spooky spectacular! And much like last week, I am not certain if it makes sense to order the following […]
This weekend in the Haute Macabre Shop: The Haute Macabre Apothecary is accepting pre-orders for our exclusive collection of fragrances and hair glosses by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, with the addition of a brand new set: In the Shadow Room. The complete Crystal Collection is currently on sale through midnight tonight with code “Samhain” for […]
They say history is written by the victors, but they also completely fail to take into account those with paws instead of hands. Enter Baba — a beautiful and charismatic Domestic short-haired tabby cat with bright, pale emerald eyes, a passion for feline history, and an uncommon knack for posing in period costumes — and […]
I’ve been spending the past week thinking about what sort of introduction to pen for the following interview with Megan Rosenbloom about her debut nonfiction book, Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin. Intros are always the hardest part, aren’t they? How do you sum up […]
Week three was a bit of a bust, I’m afraid. I was overwhelmed and undermotivated and this led to me attempting to do a lot of things–probably too many things!– in uninspired, half-assed ways. However! I did try to fit something horror-related or at the very least horror-ish or horror-esque or horror-adjacent in where I […]
“Softly Spoken Magic Spells” by @brandimilne // Brandi Milne @ncwintersart // N.C. Winters @esao // Esao Andrews @ffo_art @quintanarte // Dan Quintana “Twilight in an October Garden” by @swallowsanddamsons // Anna Potter “Magickada” by @visualjamie // Jamie Wells “Una bambina Lunare” by @isajuna // Isa Bancewicz @nekotack // Miro Meguro Maria Germanova (commissioned by me!) by @handsomedevilspuppets A puppet-sizes version […]
Tomorrow, October 24th at 10am PST, Christina Mrozik is releasing a beautiful selection of new prints, which will be available here for pre-order. Everyone here at Haute Macabre gets excited when Mrozik announces new work of any kind. And, speaking for myself, I need all the transcendent, transformative beauty I can get right now. Mrozik’s […]
Day Eight: Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl. Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl is restrained, melancholy, and softly ominous drama, a sort of off-kilter romance with a gloomy, gothic 70s haunted house vibe plus a placid pace to test your patience. Adele is a quiet young woman who has the opportunity to escape her miserable home life for […]
Sarah Elizabeth answers your questions, and discusses such topics such as Trauma! Terror! Bad Career Advice! (And A Giveaway!)! I recently saw a YouTube video where the creator, in effect, interviewed herself, and I loved that idea! So maybe one day I will do that, but for now, I’ve reached out to *you* all for […]
I spent a season in a red room, a rich, deep, glowing red, where the shadows glistened as if they were soaked with wine. From this, the latest addition to the Haute Macabre collection by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab was born. Inky black pomegranate, blackcurrant, cassis, red sandalwood, ambrette seed and fossilized amber, pink peppercorn, and guiaicwood. […]
To commemorate the release of Sarah Elizabeth’s new book, The Art of the Occult, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab has “invited her to collaborate on a collection of art/scent pairings intended to serve as access points to occult inspiration, accompanied by short notes from S. Elizabeth explaining why she returns to gaze at these works again […]
