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NEW! 2020 Calendar: Meditations on Death & Impermanence

11/11/2019

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​On this day, to commemorate the 100th Armistice Day, Zeena issues a highly personal glimpse into her first hand experiences of death and impermanence. This limited edition 2020 calendar features solemn yet beautiful reminders of Impermanence in its many guises. Whatever your personal battles, great or small, we all experience the same pain, grief and suffering from death, loss and impermanence. Whatever your religion, sexual orientation, race, or political leanings, there is no escaping the one great unifier: Death.
​
Most prefer to look away from that truth, or conversely attempt to glamorize, parody or mock such uncomfortable realities. Yet this beautifully printed, gallery quality art calendar doesn't pander to the ironic or flippant but looks at the greater meaning of death and impermanence in a compassionate and bare manner.
 
Each image reveals Zeena's eye for minimalism, composition, symbolism and tableaux. Several of the artist's first-hand experiences from serving as death's midwife to humans and animals are conveyed. April hints at the life-long trauma to civilian children of war in a still life comprised of WWII souvenirs of the boy, Bernd-Peter S., who wrote in his Tagesbuch of the ordeals he and his classmates endured through the end of the war. In March, we see a religious funerary rite for a loyal canine, Manfred. In October the cremation of feline familiar Mephisto, captured on film, through the small cremation viewing hole. July was the birth month of Zeena's friend, the multi talented musician John Murphy; her stark portrait taken shortly before his untimely death. To all the aforementioned Zeena performed traditional Tibetan Buddhist death rites. These and all the other months are visual reminders on the constant, unpredictable and uncontrollable cycles of life and death.

This calendar is printed on fine art quality Premium Paper suitable for cropping and framing after use.
​Dimensions: 200x300mm / 8”x11½”

Personalized autograph option available in the drop-down menu at this link:
​

https://www.zeenaschreck.com/store/p46/2020-Calendar-Meditations-on-Death-and-Impermanence-by-Zeena.html

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Remembering Sir Christopher Lee on his Birthday (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015)

27/5/2018

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The Chiseler Online Magazine interviewed Zeena about her memories of actor Christopher Lee:

The interdisciplinary avant garde artist spoke exclusively with the Chiseler about the legendary actor.

Zeena “met Christopher Lee as a result of being co-producer for the CD ‘Christopher Lee Sings Devils Rogues and other Villians.’ Specifically, I first met him at the apartment in Los Angeles that Nikolas and I rented for him and his wife Gitte to stay in while we worked on the recording of ‘Christopher Lee Sings Devils Rogues and other Villains.’ ”

Long before Lee recorded with the symphonic power metal group Rhapsody of Fire, he was involved with “Christopher Lee Sings Devils, Rogues & Other Villains (From Broadway To Bayreuth And Beyond).“

“Nikolas knew of Lee’s love of classical music, opera and Broadway musicals. But at that time, the general public only knew Lee for his vampire roles and had little awareness of his musical talent and appreciation,” Zeena explained.

Lee maintained that his one regret was his decision not to become an opera singer.

“Nikolas conceived of the idea to spotlight Christopher Lee’s considerable singing talents,” Zeena said. “But he knew that to do that effectively, such a project would need to focus on musical selections one would automatically think of Lee singing, appropriately sinister villainous characters from Opera and musicals.

“Lee was very enthusiastic at the proposal. So it was through helping Nikolas with the planning, production and coordinating of that project that I got to know Christopher. We recorded it at a studio in Crossroads of the World in Los Angeles. A considerable amount of work and expense went into finding suitable, classically trained musicians and a musical director (Dean Shepherd, who was fantastic) who had the right skills and temperament to work well with Lee.”

The friendship endured long after the work was completed.

“We stayed in contact throughout the years following that album,” she said. “We’d see him whenever he was in Berlin for the Berlin Film Festival and the ‘Cinema for Peace’ benefit.”
[...]
“It goes without saying that Christopher was a very colorful person,” Zeena said. “But for me, the most interesting conversations with him revolved around his descriptions of his WWII work as a British Intelligence officer. He talked about parachuting into German enemy Waffen SS camps and, well, he did what the British government trained him to do, which was not pretty.”

“I got the impression he was still rather haunted, even decades later, by some of his experiences during the war. Even though he believed that what he did was for virtuous and just reasons,” she added.
[...]
“He definitely had an interest in magic beyond the roles he played,” Zeena said. “But we need to make a distinction between 'interest’ and 'involvement.’ He had no first-hand involvement in any magical, occult or satanic groups and even declined direct invitations from such groups.

“He liked horror fiction of authors like H.P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, Algernon Blackwood, etc. But that was purely a literary appreciation. He also had an interest in John Dee, The Golden Dawn and other 19th and early 20th century magical groups,” she explained.

“However, it should be stated that Lee had an interest in a wide variety of eclectic subjects, which had nothing to do with occultism. He was simply very well-read and inquisitive by nature,” she added.

Lee was in the enviable position to be able to satisfy his many curiosities.

“As a result of his years in British intelligence, he’d known figures like Dennis Wheatley, his cousin Ian Fleming, etc., and had heard of their experiences with Aleister Crowley. In fact he was lifelong friends with Dennis Wheatley and agreed with Wheatley’s views on the occult. But their friendship grew out of their mutual intelligence work, not because of occult or magical interests.

Christopher Lee was instrumental in getting Wheatley works to film. Wheatley’s The Forbidden Territory was made into a movie starring Ronald Squire as Sir Charles rather than Duke de Richleau in 1934.

“It was Lee who convinced Hammer films to buy the rights to Wheatley’s books for the films he would star in
,” Zeena said. “But it should be clarified that Lee was very dismissive and wary of occultists, black magicians or satanists.”

During Zeena’s involvement in the Lee album, she had the opportunity to ask Lee about the rumor that her father knew Christopher Lee.

“When Nikolas and I got to know Lee, we were able to discuss this rumor with him in detail,” Zeena said. “Both Lee and his wife Gitte refuted the rumor vehemently. Lee explained that, as a result of working on the U.S. TV movie Poor Devil, with Sammy Davis, Jr. (who became a Priest in the Church of Satan), Davis tried to ingratiate Lee into accepting an invitation at the behest of my father, offering Lee a copy of The Satanic Bible, personally inscribed and signed by my father.

“Lee still had the book in his collection and, on one of Nikolas’s visits to London for preparations of the CD, Lee showed Nikolas the book referring to it as a cheap paperback from the '60s witchcraft fads. Lee didn’t take it at all seriously,” Zeena said. “His wife Gitte recalled another time they visited Sammy and his wife Altovise in Los Angeles, when again Sammy tried to serve as middle-man between Dracula and the Black Pope, and again to no avail.

“Lee had no interest. He said Sammy was nuts about my father but Lee saw my father as a 'Johnny-come-lately opportunist and con-man’ within the occult. Lee expressed that he had no intention of ever meeting LaVey. Then, Lee pointedly looked me in the eye and said 'I’m very glad that you had the sense to get out of all of that destructive rubbish, expounding on what he called the ruinous effects of that type of belief system,’ ” she concluded.

The levelheaded enchantress also got to see the work that went into his actor’s preparation.

“Lee took personal responsibility to research his roles, to learn what he could about the characters and the historical context, in order to bring a more believable performance to each character,” Zeena said. “His interest in devilish and monstrous roles was purely a matter of aesthetics and literary appreciation - but not at all a personal lifestyle.

“I think he considered the villainous roles he played as having allegorical and moral significance. Sort of like morality tales for a new generation. I don’t think he expected to actually inspire people to want to become the characters he played. He was part Italian and had a very strong sense of religious moral ethics. So even though he befriended Wheatley and personally researched the villainous roles he would play, it was really out of a dedication to portray those roles in as real a way as possible, to understand those characters from their own points of view and to make them believable,” she said.
THERE'S MORE TO THE ARTICLE - READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

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Christopher Lee letter from 22nd of July [1996] "Dear Nikolas, First & foremost, my thanks to Zeena for her much appreciated letter & the enclosure of the contact sheets [photos for the CD], most of which are very good. It is good to know that dedication, determination and devotion (the three D's) are still appreciated in the downspiralling & diminishing & destructive (thee more D's) rush of our wretched industry; and that there are still artistic & professional people who understand & support that horribly misused word “Talent.” I greatly enjoyed my sessions & we have indeed created musical history, it was great fun, if at times almost beyond me....I still think you should make the high notes in the Credo sound as good as possible. I don't want to make ugly sounds. Vanity of course. You can use any or all of the pictures included, except those marked with a red X. Obviously the “burnt out” ones will need to be graded, if possible. And you can match the facial expressions to the arias concerned. I would like to have some myself! Best to you both from Gitta & me, Christopher"
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R.I.P., JUTTA WINKELMANN

25/2/2017

2 Comments

 
R.I.P. Jutta Winkelmann, German director, author and 1/2 of the '60s counter-culture creative partnership with photographer & twin sister Gisela Getty, both of whom were and are (respectively) my friends.
Lighting a candle on my shrine tonight for Jutta;
May she quickly reach the Pure Light of Nirvana.
May her loved ones, and everyone, have peace and freedom from the pain and suffering of loss
and this cyclic existence. May they have happiness and the causes of happiness.
OM AMI DEWA HRI
-ZS
This is Jutta Winkelman's last interview, from three weeks ago, for the German magazine Der Stern, 
Below is a short video clip about the two sisters, in English:
2 Comments

A Winter Solstice Message From Zeena

21/12/2016

5 Comments

 
"On this darkest night of the year, may all survivors of war and violence be blessed with strength, perseverance, peace and an end to suffering. 
May we take a moment of silent contemplation, during our Yuletide festivities, to honor those who have perished as the result of war and mindless violence."
-Zeena Schreck, Winter Solstice 2016

Photo of Gen. George S. Patton's dog, Willie, mourning Patton's death.
"How awful war is. Think of the waste." -Gen. Patton, moments before the car collision in Heidelburg, Germany that ended his life on Dec. 21, 1945.
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5 Comments

Noise Receptor: Interview and Review of John Murphy Memorial Tribute

27/6/2016

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Noise Receptor Issue #4 features an amazing in-depth archival interview with John Murphy from 2002 featuring lead photo by Zeena. You can pre-order this issue at the link below.
While you're at the Noise Receptor site, be sure to check out their excellent review of The Epicurean music label's John Murphy memorial compilation "All My Sins Remembered: the Sonic Worlds of John Murphy," a 3CD set featuring, among many contributions from diversified and noteworthy artists, a live track from Zeena's 2015 WGT concert with John.
Cover portrait of John to the CD booklet is by Zeena as well. 

Ordering info for Noise Receptor #4  @ https://noisereceptor.wordpress.com/physicality/noise-receptor-journal-issue-no-4/
Ordering info for The Epicurean's "All My Sins Remembered: the Sonic Worlds of John Murphy" @ http://www.transformed.de/theepicurean.html
Review: https://noisereceptor.wordpress.com/2016/06/02/various-artists-all-my-sins-remembered-the-sonic-worlds-of-john-murphy/

Images below by: Noise Receptor & Andrew King
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Photo: Andrew King
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COMING SOON from The Epicurean Record Label

6/4/2016

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COMING SOON: A live track from Zeena's 2015 WGT Sonic Magic Performance, featuring John Murphy, will be included on the forthcoming John Murphy memorial compilation and tribute album, "All My Sins Remembered - The Sonic Worlds of John Murphy," released by The Epicurean:
"This compilation is a tribute to the Australian musician John Murphy (who died 12th October 2015) and at the same time a charity project with all proceeds from the sales go be given to his widow. It features almost all of the project he was involved with - whether as solo musician, contemporary contributor, full band member or session musician - it covers a wide range of genres and styles, and allows a wonderful insight into John Murphy's rich and complex legacy."

For a listing of other major contributors to this compilation, please refer to the illustration below.
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John Murphy Retrospective curated by Zeena for Network Awesome

17/10/2015

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TODAY ON NETWORK AWESOME:
A Full Day of Programs in Tribute to John Murphy.

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On Monday, I posted a memorial to my friend and music colleague John Murphy.


As follow up to that memorial, I'm also paying tribute to John's life's work by curating a full day of programs and music clips, reflecting 36 years of John's career. 

As with any artist, I believe his work should speak for itself, without needless commentary.

My gratitude is extended to friends at Network Awesome, and in particular Cory Vielma (who performed with John and me this year at WGT), for featuring this retrospective in their programming.

The stream of programs will remain in the archives at Network Awesome at this link: http://networkawesome.com/2015-10-15​

~Zeena 

PROGRAM GUIDE:

Live Music Show:

SPK - Metal Dance live
John Murphy - My Father of Serpents
Krank / The Grimsel Path "Verdant Hum"
Last Dominion Lost "Towers of Silence"
KnifeLadder: Dervish - Live at Le Zebre de Belleville, Paris 06.10.12
KnifeLadder | Head Of The Serpent
DEATH IN JUNE- Come Before Christ and Murder Love
THE ASSOCIATES - KITES
Die Weisse Rose live at WGT Leipzig 2009 (2)
Recorded at Wave Gotik Treffen Leipzig
Special Guest this Evening : John Murphy on the drums!
Of The Wand And The Moon & John Murphy
NIKOLAS SCHRECK and JOHN MURPHY LIVE - 27. 09. 2014 Tower Transmissions Club Puschkin Dresden
Last Dominion Lost (Shell In The Chamber) on The Network Awesome Show
Zeena Schreck - Ritual Performance WGT 2015
Whitehouse: John Murphy + Konzetrat - Creativisme Clearance.wmv
Featuring John Murphy on percussion.
WHIRLYWIRLD - WINDOW TO THE WORLD (Dogs in Space tribute)
Krang - Quick warp ( 80's Industrial Noise John Murphy )
Last Dominion Lost – Stagma
Whirlybird - Boys of the Badland 
Andrew King with John Murphy: London
Andrew King - A Song for John Murphy (Schmerz) 




Art Film:
​

Beatup - A film about John Murphy in a squat in London 1980 with Nick Cave and Anita Lane. Music by Ollie Olsen. Made by Michael Buckley.


The Network Awesome Show:

John Murphy Taped Live from NK, Berlin.
July 23-27th, 2012
in Episode 7 featuring:
Last Dominion Lost live performance of "Whispers"
http://www.auditionrecords.com/ar072.php

​
Talk Show:

1. KnifeLadder - John Murphy interview from Heathen Harvest

2. John Murphy interview for Melbourne-based Ghost Productions


Documentary

Krautrock The Rebirth of Germany

Krautrock was one of many major influences on John Murphy's music. It is therefore fitting and poetic that John made his final home in Berlin, Germany.


Movie

Dogs in Space

Movie about Melbourne Post Punk scene (with John Murphy cameo credited as Leanne's brother, also seen playing keybord @ timecode 35:30)

This is an interview excerpt with John Murphy and Douglas P. [Death in June] talking about Dogs in Space:

DP:  Following on with that John, when I first visited Melbourne in the mid 1990s, which was probably our first live show with Boyd and yourself as a percussionist, your name and my association with it seemed to arouse a huge amount of curiosity.  What did you do in Australia before leaving for England?
JM:  Slept a lot!  [laughter]  I left on January the 1st, 1980 to go to England, in January 2nd I arrived in London, but I'd been involved since '77 in the local... we'll say the 'alternative music industry' in Melbourne, from mid '77 onwards.   I'd been involved in playing from drums in punk bands through to getting involved in early electronica and stuff with other local musicians and we did reasonably well, but we just thought the grass was greener elsewhere.  We just felt that we could only get so far up and then we hit a brick wall.
DP:  Is that the 10% that you allude to that still continue in music?  You said that 90% of the people you had worked with had fallen by the wayside.  These people like Nick Cave you worked with, and Roland S. Howard, didn't you?
JM:  Well I never actually worked with Nick Cave, but I knew him from '77 onwards, and Roland as well, but basically people like that I'd known from the beginning they'd continued on, but there was a lot of people who just were probably equally as talented in their own way, but just got fed up with literally banging their heads against the wall.  They felt that way and the just fell by the wayside, decided they wanted to go in other areas, but I kept on - I can't say much more than that.  For some reason I was just compelled to keep going, even if I was considered peculiar by a lot of the people back in Melbourne.  I didn't get a lot of appreciation, a lot of people actually were quite antagonistic as times, so at times it was difficult.
DT:  I'd imagine that through your involvement in the music scene, you led into involvement in the film Dogs In Space as well?
JM:  Well, yes, I got involved in that, because I sort of had known the director.  Back in '79 in the punk days, I appeared as an extra in his first ever film.  Then I met him again in '85 or '86 and I heard he was doing this film about the formative years of the late 70's/early 80's in Melbourne, and I heard he roped in this other person I know to do the soundtrack and he was getting all the information wrong, as I remember quite well before I left to go overseas.  So I sort of stuck my foot in the door and demanded to be involved with it, originally just as the musical advisor, but I eventually got to be assistant music director, and I wasn't meaning to be an actor in it.  He basically roped in everyone he could to act as extras, and I just played a few different roles, but he wanted me to play myself as a younger person which I found a bit difficult, and I tore the ligaments on my left knee the second day in the recording studio doing the soundtrack of the thing, so I ended up in the film playing a Hell's Angel on crutches!  [laughter all round]  And I actually was on crutches.. it was an amusing experince!
DT:  I watched it again recently, and I looked out for your name in the credits, and I guess it must have been you listed as "Leanne's brother", as well, and Leanne was Lucio's girlfriend, that fat chick that turned up at the house...
JM:  That was the Hell's Angel character, he was meant to be from the country, with the dorky brother who sort of demands....
DT:  Were you the guy with the beard, were you?
JM:  I was the sort of biker type on the crutches, you know....

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R.I.P. MUSIC LEGEND JOHN MURPHY

12/10/2015

13 Comments

 

John Murphy, pioneering music veteran of Experimental Post-Punk and Proto Industrial genres, shed his mortal coil on October 11, 2015. 

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Anyone who knew John Murphy, knew him as the 'quiet one', the one who was never arrogant or scene-stealing. He was happy to stay settled behind his drum set, playing for and collaborating with an array of artists. Although his musical career spanned four decades, one is hard pressed to find the same abundance of images of John as for other musicians.

He came out of the 70s Melbourne Little band scene and was instrumental in the development of experimental, post-punk and proto-industrial music. Although he was percussionist to many bands, a quick search through music videos shows that he's usually obscured or conspicuous by his absence. As a photographer, it was a rare opportunity and privilege for me to be able to capture John for an exclusive portraiture photo shoot last year. The session was at NK in Berlin during a rehearsal for an upcoming performance with Nikolas Schreck.

Some of the photos I took that day illustrate this tribute and memorial to John. You are welcome to share them, with photo credit to my name, Zeena Schreck. 
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Many who worked with John knew he had been struggling with illness for quite a long time. But he concealed exactly how ill he already was. Music was his entire life and it was clear that the thought of retirement, or resting out the illness, was not an option in John's mind. I was therefore very fortunate to have John perform with me earlier this year at WGT. It was a musical ritual invocation to Seth, the ancient Egyptian god who guides safe passage through death to immortality. It was to be John's second to last performance. 
On the night and early morning of John's passing, he was not alone. He was surrounded by a lot of love from his wife, Annie, and a small circle of close friends. I was among them. At his request, and according to his religious beliefs as a Gnostic Christian-Tibetan Buddhist, I conducted the customary Tibetan tantric Buddhist and ancient Gnostic Sethian transference of consciousness rites which bridged his passage from this waking dream reality into the ultimate reality of pure light. It was a peaceful process. John is now liberated from all pain and suffering. 
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Awake in peace, 
You-whose-Face-is-behind; in peace, 
You-who-sees-behind; in peace, 
Ferryman of the sky; in peace, 
Ferryman of Nut; in peace, 
Ferryman of the gods; in peace. 
John Murphy has come to you that you may ferry him in that ferry with which you ferry the gods
.


OM AMI DEWA HRI 

-Zeena Schreck
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13 Comments

INTERVIEW by the Chiseler: The Devil’s Daughter Remember’s Christopher Lee

2/7/2015

3 Comments

 
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The Chiseler Online Magazine interviews Zeena about her memories of actor Christopher Lee:

The interdisciplinary avant garde artist spoke exclusively with the Chiseler about the legendary actor.

Zeena “met Christopher Lee as a result of being co-producer for the CD ‘Christopher Lee Sings Devils Rogues and other Villians.’ Specifically, I first met him at the apartment in Los Angeles that Nikolas and I rented for him and his wife Gitte to stay in while we worked on the recording of ‘Christopher Lee Sings Devils Rogues and other Villains.’”

Long before Lee recorded with the symphonic power metal group Rhapsody of Fire, he was involved with “Christopher Lee Sings Devils, Rogues & Other Villains (From Broadway To Bayreuth And Beyond).“

“Nikolas knew of Lee’s love of classical music, opera and Broadway musicals. But at that time, the general public only knew Lee for his vampire roles and had little awareness of his musical talent and appreciation,” Zeena explained.

Lee maintained that his one regrets was his decision not to become an opera singer.

“Nikolas conceived of the idea to spotlight Christopher Lee’s considerable singing talents,” Zeena said. “But he knew that to do that effectively, such a project would need to focus on musical selections one would automatically think of Lee singing, appropriately sinister villainous characters from Opera and musicals.

“Lee was very enthusiastic at the proposal. So it was through helping Nikolas with the planning, production and coordinating of that project that I got to know Christopher. We recorded it at a studio in Crossroads of the World in Los Angeles. A considerable amount of work and expense went into finding suitable, classically trained musicians and a musical director (Dean Shepherd, who was fantastic) who had the right skills and temperament to work well with Lee.”

The friendship endured long after the work was completed.

“We stayed in contact throughout the years following that album,” she said. “We’d see him whenever he was in Berlin for the Berlin Film Festival and the ‘Cinema for Peace’ benefit.”
[...]
“It goes without saying that Christopher was a very colorful person,” Zeena said. “But for me, the most interesting conversations with him revolved around his descriptions of his WWII work as a British Intelligence officer. He talked about parachuting into German enemy Waffen SS camps and, well, he did what the British government trained him to do, which was not pretty.”

“I got the impression he was still rather haunted, even decades later, by some of his experiences during the war. Even though he believed that what he did was for virtuous and just reasons,” she added.

Zeena was present during the meeting of two masters.

“I remember a funny incident when Nikolas and I were having high tea with Lee at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. When we finished, we left the hotel to meet with Ferdy Mayne (Fearless Vampire Killers) who lived nearby. Together with Lee, we bumped into Bela Lugosi, Jr., whom we also knew (the attorney son of Bela Lugosi who’s a dead-ringer for his father),” Zeena said.

“To us, this was just business as usual. But then it dawned on Nikolas and me, that we must have known a lot of vampires, for the odds of that happening! Around the same time, Nikolas and I were also well acquainted with vampire actors Robert Quarry, Maila Nurmi, William Marshall, Barbara Steele and Ingrid Pitt.”
[...]
“He definitely had an interest in magic beyond the roles he played,” Zeena said. “But we need to make a distinction between 'interest’ and 'involvement.’ He had no first-hand involvement in any magical, occult or satanic groups and even declined direct invitations from such groups.

“He liked horror fiction of authors like H.P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, Algernon Blackwood, etc. But that was purely a literary appreciation. He also had an interest in John Dee, The Golden Dawn and other 19th and early 20th century magical groups,” she explained.

“However, it should be stated that Lee had an interest in a wide variety of eclectic subjects, which had nothing to do with occultism. He was simply very well-read and inquisitive by nature,” she added.

Lee was in the enviable position to be able to satisfy his many curiosities.

“As a result of his years in British intelligence, he’d known figures like Dennis Wheatley, his cousin Ian Fleming, etc., and had heard of their experiences with Aleister Crowley. In fact he was lifelong friends with Dennis Wheatley and agreed with Wheatley’s views on the occult. But their friendship grew out of their mutual intelligence work, not because of occult or magical interests.

Christopher Lee was instrumental in getting Wheatley works to film. Wheatley’s The Forbidden Territory was made into a movie starring Ronald Squire as Sir Charles rather than Duke de Richleau in 1934.

“It was Lee who convinced Hammer films to buy the rights to Wheatley’s books for the films he would star in,” Zeena said. “But it should be clarified that Lee was very dismissive and wary of occultists, black magicians or satanists.”

During Zeena’s involvement in the Lee album, she had the opportunity to ask Lee about the rumor that her father knew Christopher Lee.

“When Nikolas and I got to know Lee, we were able to discuss this rumor with him in detail,” Zeena said. “Both Lee and his wife Gitte refuted the rumor vehemently. Lee explained that, as a result of working on the U.S. TV movie Poor Devil, with Sammy Davis, Jr. (who became a Priest in the Church of Satan), Davis tried to ingratiate Lee into accepting an invitation at the behest of my father, offering Lee a copy of The Satanic Bible, personally inscribed and signed by my father.

“Lee still had the book in his collection and, on one of Nikolas’s visits to London for preparations of the CD, Lee showed Nikolas the book referring to it as a cheap paperback from the '60s witchcraft fads. Lee didn’t take it at all seriously,” Zeena said. “His wife Gitte recalled another time they visited Sammy and his wife Altovise in Los Angeles, when again Sammy tried to serve as middle-man between Dracula and the Black Pope, and again to no avail.

“Lee had no interest. He said Sammy was nuts about my father but Lee saw my father as a 'Johnny-come-lately opportunist and con-man’ within the occult. Lee expressed that he had no intention of ever meeting LaVey. Then, Lee pointedly looked me in the eye and said 'I’m very glad that you had the sense to get out of all of that destructive rubbish, expounding on what he called the ruinous effects of that type of belief system,’” she concluded.

The levelheaded enchantress also got to see the work that went into his actor’s preparation.

“Lee took personal responsibility to research his roles, to learn what he could about the characters and the historical context, in order to bring a more believable performance to each character,” Zeena said. “His interest in devilish and monstrous roles was purely a matter of aesthetics and literary appreciation - but not at all a personal lifestyle.

“I think he considered the villainous roles he played as having allegorical and moral significance. Sort of like morality tales for a new generation. I don’t think he expected to actually inspire people to want to become the characters he played. He was part Italian and had a very strong sense of religious moral ethics. So even though he befriended Wheatley and personally researched the villainous roles he would play, it was really out of a dedication to portray those roles in as real a way as possible, to understand those characters from their own points of view and to make them believable,” she said.

THERE'S MORE - READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

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Christopher Lee letter from 22nd of July [1996] "Dear Nikolas, First & foremost, my thanks to Zeena for her much appreciated letter & the enclosure of the contact sheets [photos for the CD], most of which are very good. It is good to know that dedication, determination and devotion (the three D's) are still appreciated in the downspiralling & diminishing & destructive (thee more D's) rush of our wretched industry; and that there are still artistic & professional people who understand & support that horribly misused word “Talent.” I greatly enjoyed my sessions & we have indeed created musical history, it was great fun, if at times almost beyond me....I still think you should make the high notes in the Credo sound as good as possible. I don't want to make ugly sounds. Vanity of course. You can use any or all of the pictures included, except those marked with a red X. Obviously the “burnt out” ones will need to be graded, if possible. And you can match the facial expressions to the arias concerned. I would like to have some myself! Best to you both from Gitta & me, Christopher"
3 Comments

    ZEENA 
    Art & Mysticism

    Official blog dedicated to Zeena's photography & graphic design, sound art, magic & mysticism.

    SUPPORT FOR WORKS IN PROGRESS
    Zeena is a self-funded, independent artist.
    Her livelihood and funding for current audio-visual projects rely solely on commissioned work, teaching, lecturing, performing, and fan-based support of her creative work, as well as donations from private patrons and sponsors. 
    If you would like to pledge your support towards the production costs involved in current works in progress, please use the PayPal donation button below.
    ​Thank you for your support of Zeena's work! 

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