1) Could you present Martinet Press to our readers?

Martinet Press was founded in 2014, as a joint initiative between a small group of LHP occultists based in the UK and North America. We’re all professionals and initiates from different backgrounds, but we find a certain unity in a shared understanding of the darker nature of the spiritual world.

2) What inspired you to create Martinet Press?

Two things, really. First, as we mentioned above, our editorial team holds to the believe that there really is are dark spirits at work in the cosmos, and for our own private reasons, we’re committed to aiding and abetting them. By “dark”, we mean that by human standards, they are malevolent and dangerous, and are involved in events that have been shaping the planet for years. We’re decidedly not conspiracy theorists, but we do think that a number of spiritual traditions indicate this in their own way, and they’re not wrong on this point. We’ve all come into contact with these spirits (or gods or demons, call them what you want), and we’re committed to assisting in their hostile takeover of the planet and cosmos.

Second, we’re deeply disappointed with the state of occult publishing. We have a deep admiration for some of the occult groups of the 20th century who published their materials online for free (i.e. the Order of Nine Angles) or for cheap (i.e. the Church of Satan). When you look at a lot of occult presses today, they’re charging people hundreds of dollars for books that just aren’t worth it. Occult publishing has become a big industry. Not so for us – we believe in publishing authors who are believers, not capitalists.

3) To quote you, you mentioned your desire to publish books that instruct, rather than entertain. Does it come from your vision of the current LHP milieu?

Yes definitely. If we’re honest, most LHP groups to be role-players who would be better served by joining an orgy group, rather than claiming to practice occultists. The modern LHP has been reduced to teen neopagans posting nude photos of Lilith and Satan, as if that stands for something by itself. Here’s our question – what is darkness? Is it merely a symbol of the unknown, or is it something more? Most spiritual systems have a concept of a place or dimension that is the source of all existence, but it’s somehow hostile to it at the same time. Magic is an effort to draw the power of that realm into our world, with dangerous and sometimes destructive side effects. Look at the evidence: how many practicing occults are stable? Stable meaning that they have a stable relationship, a stable income, a stable home, etc. Not many. The occult has become a crutch for people who can’t handle the real world. We reject that version of the occult world, and instead we’re committed to putting people in touch with the darkness so that they can experience what we have experienced. To do this, we can’t be bothered with entertaining – we need to

focus on instruction. We know that there are some serious occultists and LHP groups out there, but they’re not in the spotlight, and they’re not big on sharing their knowledge. So we’re trying to facilitate that for authors who have an inclination to share their knowledge and techniques.

4) The variety of themes addressed in your catalog is quite impressive, from Vaisnavism to Christian Gnosticism, Shaitanism or fictions, all permeated with a strong dark spirituality. How do you select texts / authors to publish?

Thanks for recognizing this – we agree, it’s a strange cross-section of authors. We’ve had a low-cost website for some time with a call for manuscripts and a contact email. Every month, we receive a number of emails with proposals and manuscripts. Some are just silly, so we delete them without a reply. Some are well intended but maybe even serious, but they just don’t have any spiritual voltage. Some people just want to make money, and that’s also not our thing. Finally there are a few like Iron Gates and the Devil’s Quran where you read a few pages, and the hairs on your neck stand up. Basically, if it presents a version of our world view, and we can sense the power in the text, we’ll offer to publish it. And you can tell when you’re reading a powerful text – it doesn’t need to be printed on black goatskin or whatever is the current craze – it just needs to have been written sincerely by someone who walks in both worlds.

5) Martinet Press has so far published two books, Iron Gates and The Devil’s Quran, and a CD, Gulag. Do you plan, in the future, to release works in other formats? DVD for example.

Thanks for asking. In terms of new releases, we just published a new work, the Ecclesia Mysteria, which is a very dark gnostic manuscript by Tau Constantine. It promises to turn a lot of heads, as it’s a really terrifying re-presentation of otherwise familiar spiritual themes and practices. We’re also working on the collected essays of the Vaisnava guru, Sri Rudra das Gosawmi, who writes about his own mentor, the recently deceased Sri Sankarsana das Thakura. That particular book is interesting because Sankarsana was the student of Sri Lalita Prasada, who was the brother of the guru of the guy that founded ISKCON. So it presents an entirely different look at contemporary Hinduism.

In terms of media – yes we’re open to new formats, and if any of the readers have audio- visual projects, we’d like to hear from them. Technology is getting more accessible to everyone, so there are a lot of exciting options right now.

6) In your opinion, what is needed to travel along the sinister and antinomian path? How this path influences your personal life?

Two things are needed: an instinct for it, and dedication. Instinct, first, meaning that you will know if this is the path for you. If you feel a tug towards real darkness and evil, you

won’t be able to deny it. Well, maybe you can, but you’ll know you’re lying to yourself. All of our group are people that have a genuine connection to the darker world, and it’s evident when you spend any amount of time with them. Not because they’re gothic or listen to death metal, but because they have that genuinely alien character, and it makes for a frightening kinship. Dedication is also needed – you need to have courage to walk this path. Dealing with dark gods won’t give you fun Friday nights (well, not always) – it means doing rituals and practices that can really hurt you, or hurt people around you. We work with spirits that don’t care about a lot of human concerns – those spirits might be just fine with what’s happening in Syria or Burma, for example. Our small circle also believes in reincarnation – so certainly in a past life we were demons, and we’re probably going to be demons in the next life as well. But these practices and experiences are necessary because they really do make you stronger, heighten your instincts, and help you to become more in tune with the invisible forces that are all around us.

7) How do you see the future of Martinet Press at short and long term ?

We imagine that the next ten years will see an expanded catalog. In a short time we’ve collected some really amazing authors, and we look forward to working with them. Practically speaking, by keeping our costs low, we’re able to produce new projects fairly quickly, and so even in the next five years, we would anticipate another 10-15 titles, maybe more. And as we noted above, we do believe in reincarnation. So this initiative is probably something that carries over from a past life, and it will carry over to futures lives in the same way. So the karmic connections we’re making with authors now is something that we will keep for this entire life, and it may result in good collaboration even beyond.

Thanks for interviewing us!

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