• A R C H I V E S •
• PAST •
The Black Moon Archives under the direction of Bate Cabal began collecting material in 1982 as a world wide magickal working. Over the 30 years of its existence it has worked to chronicle the experiments, the successes and, often more importantly, the failures of magickal operations. It was and continues to be anarchistic in method with no attempt being made to edit received manuscripts. Bate Cabal realized at the inception of the Archives that no one magickian or group of magickians could predict what was or would be of importance to the world wide Magickal Community.
In the later months of 1982, Black Moon purchased a Mita copier and offered the manuscripts in the Archives at 5 cents per page plus shipping. Catalogues of manuscripts in the Archives were mailed to magickians upon request. At the time, this was the most sophisticated way to make “material immediately available to the working occultist.” The Archives was referenced in national publications as “the largest open occult archive in the western world” and in 1988 was shipping over 50,000 pages of material per year. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and reduced the Black Moon Archives to a few shipping platforms of paper, ink, and fast growing mold. Due to the dedicated work of archivist Lacrimae Mundi and Marty Laubach, the Black Moon Archives in the spirit of the phoenix have shed the mold and began to assume a workable configuration in 2010.
• PRESENT •
We are no longer an alternative religion or spirituality. Paganism is the 7th largest religion in Great Britain and elects politicians to office in Italy. We are an archive of a recognized and growing spirituality and as such realize that it is more important than ever to maintain our anarchistic editorial policy. No attempt is made to judge or restrict the materials placed with the Archives. Secrecy serves many valuable functions in many magickal arenas, the Archives is not one of those arenas.As a growing community, we speak with many voices. Bate Cabal is happy to record this growing choir through the Black Moon Archives with the intention of adding an easily accessible memory function to the underlying group magickal psyche.We believe information best flows freely and that the materials on the Archives can benefit the Magickal Community, therefore the Archives is now distributing its materials digitally at no cost to the recipient.
• FUTURE •
Black Moon has begun working with Dr. Marty Laubach, Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Marshall University, to scan present contributions to the Archives. This is a massive undertaking and, that being said, is near completion. We are looking forward to quickly presenting and carefully preserving one record of the voice of the magickal community in whatever innovative technological formats may evolve to serve the magicks of this Working.Bate Cabal plans to include all media modes in the Black Moon Archives and is presently actively calling for video, musical, etc, contributions for placement in the collection.
