BJ Swain
“BJ Swain is the author of Living Spirits: A Guide to Magic in a World of Spirits, Luminarium: A Grimoire of Cunning Conjuration, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions. He was a contributing editor for Heaven and Hell 2018: The Grimoire Issue, and has had essays published in the devotional anthology for Persephone, Queen of the Sacred Way, and the short story collection, Tales of the Darkening Year. He runs the website, The Unveiled Sky, the blog Glory of the Stars, and hosted the podcast, In the Company of Stars.
He has been practicing magic for over 30 years. In addition to practical work with magic, BJ focused his education on Classics but also took several courses covering magic, the paranormal, mysticism, and mythology as part of his academic studies. He was trained in a branch of the A∴A∴, a hereditary line of witchcraft, and the Order of the Celestial Academy in addition to his own independent studies and explorations of the occult and Paganism.
BJ served as Deputy Master of an OTO body, a Priest in the Gnostic Catholic Church, and the Bishop of Maryland for the Church of Light and Shadow. He currently works with a small group of magicians who have completed the Abramelin working and who work to spread interest in more traditional magic and is organizing a Dionysian Mystery Tradition called New Orpheum. BJ was the 2019 recipient of the Black Crozier award, and his work has been nominated for other awards and repeatedly achieved top ten spots in Amazon category listings
Presentations planned for 2024 are:
Sacred Spaces and Divine Faces for Modern Life
Folklore and Animism in a Disenchanted World