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Maggie Tekla Cecilia Kastlund

@mkastlund

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🇸🇪 Historian of religions · PhD student researching 20th c. German esotericism
Music, books, powerbuilding, cats, and films

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Never stop the madness (the Beatles autism) by @mkastlund

This is the first edition of the eight letter, in a series of a total of ten “Magical Letters” (Magische Briefe). “Sexual-Magie” (Sexual Magic) was issued by the publishing house Verlag der Freude on behalf of the hugely influential German occult group Fraternitas Saturni (FS) in 1927.

It was written by the founder and leader of the FS until 1964, Eugen Grosche (alias Gregor A. Gregorius, 1888-1964). An object of controversy, the volume was seized for examinations shortly after its publication by the prosecution offices in Berlin as well as Braunschweig.

Later, in 1935, the Gestapo interrogated Gregorius and the owner of Verlag der Freude, Paul Zieger due to its contents, considered as hostile to the National Socialist State (“staatsfeindlich”). The text was later republished in the May 1953 issue of FS’s postwar monthly Blätter für angewandte okkulte Lebenskunst. by @mkastlund

Satanic panic in the 1950s: Here are some newspaper clippings presenting sensationalist accounts on the occult group Fraternitas Saturni, featured in the West German weekly 7 Tage in January 1955. by @mkastlund

One of my favorite things to do is going to the cinema, and my favorite cinematic experience is, without a doubt, screenings of silent films performed with live scores.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending such a screening of my favorite Weimar era film, and one of my favorite films in general, Nosferatu (1922, dir. F.W. Murnau).

The screening was accompanied by a brilliant score written by pianist August Holmgren, performed by him and his ensemble.

Discussing silent film scores in general, while the vast majority of silent films were not accompanied by a dedicated film score and instead relied on the efforts of individual cinema musicians, Nosferatu was an exception with German composer Hans Erdmann’s (1882-1942) score being written specifically for the film.

Given that all prints of the film were ordered to be destroyed almost immediately after its premiere following a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Bram Stoker’s estate, Erdmann’s score was, however, never widely distributed or performed.

His original score only survived in part but was later reconstructed, most importantly by Austrian composer Berndt Heller (1944-2018), beginning in the 1980s. This reconstructed score accompanies the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung’s restored versions (2006, 2013) of the film. by @mkastlund

by @mkastlund

Rock by @mkastlund

Delighted to have received my copy of Fraternitas Saturni’s recently published Festschrift, which commemorates the centennial of their founding on 8 May 1926. by @mkastlund

🦇 by @mkastlund

Enjoyed presenting parts of my PhD research at the 2026 EASR Conference in Bucharest, alongside taking part in others’ research, and leaving feeling inspired to get back to writing. by @mkastlund

🪐 by @mkastlund

by @mkastlund

Magical performance by Toody Cole in the same venue where I saw her and Fred almost a decade ago. Dead Moon forever by @mkastlund