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163-496: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson ; 22 February 1950 – 14 March 2020) was an English singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmissions artistic collective and lead vocalist of seminal industrial band Throbbing Gristle . They were also a founding member of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth occult group, and fronted

326-733: A cult band ; their audience was far larger than COUM. COUM continued to operate alongside TG, and in October 1975 they performed Jusquà la balle crystal at the Ninth Paris Biennale at the Musée d'art modern. The prestige of being invited to such an event led to the Arts Council awarding them a grant for £1,600, although only the first half of this was ever paid out. COUM's mail art had taken on an increasingly pornographic dimension, and in November 1975

489-578: A dominatrix at the dungeon, and Genesis was a visiting customer. The night they met, the two visited Paddles, an underground BDSM club in Manhattan. The two became a couple from that point forward. In January 1993, P-Orridge and Jaye moved to Ridgewood , Queens, in New York City. Here, they embarked on the "Pandrogeny Project"; influenced by the cut-up technique, the duo underwent body modification to resemble one another, thus coming to identify themselves as

652-503: A $ 1.5 million lawsuit against producer Rick Rubin and his American Recordings label for injuries sustained while trying to escape a fire at Rubin's home in April 1995. According to P-Orridge's attorney, David D. Stein, P-Orridge was staying at Rubin's home, as a guest of Love and Rockets , when the fire broke out. P-Orridge tried to escape the house by crawling through a second-storey window and fell onto concrete stairs. P-Orridge suffered

815-674: A Russian émigré living in the United States who founded the religion of Theosophy . The article was published in the American Spiritualist magazine, Spiritual Scientist . Various twentieth-century writers on the subject used the term occultism in different ways. Some writers, such as the German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno in his "Theses Against Occultism", employed the term as a broad synonym for irrationality . In his 1950 book L'occultisme , Robert Amadou  [ fr ] used

978-411: A broken wrist, broken ribs, and a pulmonary embolism , as well as a shattered left elbow that, according to Stein, prevented P-Orridge from playing bass or keyboards. They remained in hospital for a total of ten days. The jury found that the liability for the fire rested with Rubin and American Recordings, and awarded P-Orridge US$ 1,572,000 in compensation. Occultism The term occult sciences

1141-504: A concerted attempt to challenge societal norms and attracted the attention of the national press. COUM's 1976 Prostitution show at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts was particularly vilified by tabloids , gaining them the moniker of the "wreckers of civilisation." P-Orridge's band, Throbbing Gristle, grew out of COUM, and were active from 1975 to 1981 as pioneers in the industrial music genre. In 1981, P-Orridge co-founded Psychic TV, an experimental band that from 1988 onward came under

1304-518: A derelict Georgian warehouse in Prince Street, Hull. An example performance involved the group turning up to play a gig but intentionally not bringing any instruments, something P-Orridge considered "much more theatrical, farcical and light-hearted" than their earlier performances. On 5 January 1971, P-Orridge underwent a legal name change to Genesis P-Orridge by deed poll , combining the adopted nickname Genesis with an altered spelling of porridge ,

1467-461: A disenchanted world or, alternatively, by people in general to make sense of esotericism from the perspective of a disenchanted secular world". Hanegraaff noted that this etic usage of the term would be independent of emic usages of the term employed by occultists and other esotericists themselves. In this definition, occultism covers many esoteric currents that have developed from the mid-nineteenth century onward, including Spiritualism, Theosophy,

1630-556: A fan community after the departure. Having been encouraged by groups involved in propagating the moral panic about alleged Satanic ritual abuse , the Channel 4 1992 documentary show Dispatches claimed to have discovered videotapes depicting P-Orridge sexually abusing children in a ritual setting. Police from the Obscene Publications Squad subsequently raided P-Orridge's home, and confiscated several tonnes of art work. At

1793-449: A forum to facilitate discussions on occult ideas by like-minded people, and from its beginnings was understood by its founders to be a successor to the late 19th and early 20th century Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), especially as the latter had been run under Crowley's leadership. Evans described TOPY as "a 'fusion' organisation, creating a crossover of punk/experimental music with chaos magical thinking and practice", making particular use of

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1956-577: A group called the Knights of the Pentecostal Flame. The Knights undertook a happening on 1 June 1968 which they titled Beautiful Litter . Taking place in Mell Square, Solihull , it involved the three students handing out cards to passersby that had a series of words written onto them; "fleece", "rainbow", "silken", "white", "flower" and "dewdrops". Ensuring that the local Solihull News was informed of

2119-474: A group of friends, P-Orridge founded a 'free-form' student magazine entitled Worm which waived all editorial control, publishing everything placed into the magazine's pigeonhole , including instructions on how to build a molotov cocktail . Three issues were published between 1968 and 1970 before the Hull Student's Union banned the publication, considering it legally obscene and fearing prosecution. Developing

2282-494: A keen interest in poetry, P-Orridge won the 1969 Hull University Needler Poetry Competition, judged by Compton lecturer Richard Murphy and the poet Philip Larkin , who was then librarian at the university. P-Orridge became involved in radical student politics through their friendship with Tom Fawthrop, a member of the Radical Student Alliance who had led a student occupation of the university's administrative buildings as

2445-548: A local exhibition. Taking an increasing interest in infantilism , P-Orridge founded the fictitious L'ecole de l'art infantile and co-organised the "Baby's Coumpetition" [ sic ] at Oxford University 's 1973 May Festival, also producing material as the fictitious Ministry of Antisocial Insecurity, a parody of the Ministry of Social Security . Meanwhile, P-Orridge created the character of Alien Brain, and in July 1972, performed as

2608-534: A name adopted from one of P-Orridge's essays on sampling. In 1981, P-Orridge also founded a loosely organised network of occultists named Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY), with the aid of John Balance , Tibet, and a number of members of the Process Church of the Final Judgement , a group which had exerted an influence on P-Orridge's occult thought. TOPY was conceived not as an occult order of teaching, but

2771-556: A new home in Shrewsbury . Here, they volunteered as an office clerk in Ronald Megson's new business. On one family trip to Wales, P-Orridge was sitting in the back of the car, then "became disembodied and heard voices and saw the COUM symbol and heard the words ' COUM Transmissions ' ". Returning home that evening, P-Orridge filled three notebooks with artistic thoughts and ideas, influenced by

2934-592: A part of the worldwide student protests of 1968 . In 1969, P-Orridge attempted to reconstruct the occupation for a film, in the hopes that it would itself become a genuine protest occupation, but this venture failed due to a lack of participants. In 1969, P-Orridge dropped out of university and moved to London, and joined the Transmedia Explorations commune, who were then living in a large run-down house in Islington Park Street . The group, initiated by

3097-526: A police investigation. P-Orridge was subsequently cleared and Channel 4 retracted their allegation. As a result of the incident, P-Orridge left the United Kingdom for the United States and settled in New York City. There, they married Jacqueline Breyer, later known as Lady Jaye, in 1995, and together they embarked on the Pandrogeny Project, an attempt to unite as a "pandrogyne", or single entity, through

3260-556: A political "system of occulticity" that was directed against priests and aristocrats. In 1853, the Freemasonic author Jean-Marie Ragon had already used occultisme in his popular work Maçonnerie occulte , relating it to earlier practices that, since the Renaissance , had been termed "occult sciences" or "occult philosophy", but also to the recent socialist teachings of Charles Fourier . The French esotericist Éliphas Lévi then used

3423-518: A result of his particular interest in the experimental use of light and sound. Together, Carter, Christopherson, Cosey and P-Orridge founded a musical band, Throbbing Gristle, on 3 September 1975; they had deliberately chosen that date for it was the 36th anniversary of the United Kingdom joining the Second World War . The term "throbbing gristle" was deliberately chosen for it was a Yorkshire slang term for an erect penis. Throbbing Gristle, or TG as it

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3586-454: A revolutionary method of escaping current patterns of thought and developing something new. Following the break-up of Throbbing Gristle, in 1981 P-Orridge founded a band with Peter Christopherson and Alex Fergusson that they named Psychic TV. Involved in video art, they also performed psychedelic, punk, electronic and experimental music. The decision to name the band "Psychic TV" stemmed from P-Orridge's belief that while mainstream television

3749-574: A semi-erect penis formed out of the word COUM with a drip of semen coming out of the end, while the motto "Your Local Dirty Banned" (a pun on "band") was emblazoned underneath. Another logo designed by P-Orridge consisted of a hand-drawn seal accompanied by the statement "COUM guarantee disappointment"; from their early foundation, the group made use of wordplay in their artworks and adverts. COUM's earliest public events were impromptu musical gigs performed at various pubs around Hull; titles for these events included Thee Fabulous Mutations , Space Between

3912-406: A single pandrogynous being named "Breyer P-Orridge". In doing so, the pair spent $ 200,000 on surgical alteration, receiving breast implants, cheek and chin implants, lip plumping, eye and nose jobs, tattooing, and hormone therapy, while also adopting gender neutral and alternating pronouns. With this project, P-Orridge's intent was to express a belief that the self is pure consciousness trapped within

4075-600: A soundtrack to Gysin's Dreammachine by the Hafler Trio . In the mid-1980s, Psychic TV aimed to release a live album on the 23rd of each month for 23 months in recognition of the 23 enigma . The group did not reach its goal but still managed fourteen albums in eighteen months, thus earning them an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records . Following the culmination of Psychic TV but before embarking on Thee Majesty, P-Orridge and several Psychic TV musicians formed Splinter Test,

4238-750: A spontaneous unauthorised piece of performance art in Brook Green , Hammersmith ; during the performance, police arrived and put a stop to the event, deeming it obscene. In September 1974, COUM were invited to attend the Stadfest in Rottweil , West Germany , and they proceeded with a travel grant from the British Council . There, they published two performance art actions in the street, earning them praise from Bridget Riley and Ernst Jandl , both of whom were present. The acclaim that COUM received at Rottweil established

4401-446: A strict regime with the intention of deconditioning its members out of their routines and conventional behaviour; they were forbidden from sleeping in the same place on consecutive nights, food was cooked at irregular times of the day and all clothing was kept in a communal chest, with its members wearing something different on each day. P-Orridge stayed there for three months, until late October 1969. They left after becoming angered that

4564-508: A substantivized adjective as "the occult", a term that has been particularly widely used among journalists and sociologists . This term was popularised by the publication of Colin Wilson 's 1971 book The Occult . This term has been used as an "intellectual waste-basket" into which a wide array of beliefs and practices have been placed because they do not fit readily into the categories of religion or science. According to Hanegraaff, "the occult"

4727-471: A time lived in a caravan near to Epping Forest while the family house was being completed. The family then moved from Essex to Cheshire , where they attended Gatley Primary School. Passing the 11-plus exam, they won a scholarship to attend Stockport Grammar School , doing so between 1961 and 1964. After their father became the Midlands area manager of a cleaning and maintenance business, they were sent to

4890-652: A variety of different musical genres. P-Orridge received a number of threatening phone calls, proceeding to record them and use them as a backing track for the TG song "Death Threats". The final IR release was called Nothing Here Now But the Recordings , a best-of album taken from the archives of William S. Burroughs , who provided P-Orridge and Christopherson with access to his reel-to-reel tape archive. The final Throbbing Gristle live event, Mission of Dead Souls , occurred in May 1981 at

5053-464: Is "knowledge of the hidden". In common usage, occult refers to "knowledge of the paranormal ", as opposed to "knowledge of the measurable ", usually referred to as science. The terms esoteric and arcane can also be used to describe the occult, in addition to their meanings unrelated to the supernatural. The term occult sciences was used in the 16th century to refer to astrology , alchemy , and natural magic . The earliest known usage of

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5216-564: Is a ceremonial county in North West England . It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shropshire to the south; to the west it is bordered by the Welsh counties of Flintshire and Wrexham , and has a short coastline on the Dee Estuary . Warrington is the largest settlement, and

5379-459: Is a category into which gets placed a range of beliefs from "spirits or fairies to parapsychological experiments, from UFO-abductions to Oriental mysticism, from vampire legends to channelling, and so on". The neologism occulture used within the industrial music scene of the late twentieth century was probably coined by one of its central figures, the musician and occultist Genesis P-Orridge . The scholar of religion Christopher Partridge used

5542-563: Is a history of interaction between Cheshire and North Wales. The Domesday Book records Cheshire as having two complete Hundreds (Atiscross and Exestan) that later became the principal part of Flintshire . Additionally, another large portion of the Duddestan Hundred later became known as English Maelor (Maelor Saesneg) when it was transferred to North Wales. For this and other reasons, the Welsh language name for Cheshire, Swydd Gaerlleon ,

5705-421: Is almost entirely Triassic sandstone , outcrops of which have long been quarried, notably at Runcorn , providing the distinctive red stone for Liverpool Cathedral and Chester Cathedral . The eastern half of the county is Upper Triassic Mercia Mudstone laid down with large salt deposits which were mined for hundreds of years around Winsford . Separating this area from Lower Triassic Sherwood Sandstone to

5868-692: Is at Ellesmere Port. The oil refinery has operated since 1924 and has a capacity of 12 million tonnes per year. Crewe was once the centre of the British railway industry , and remains a major railway junction. The Crewe railway works , built in 1840, employed 20,000 people at its peak, although the workforce is now less than 1,000. Crewe is also the home of Bentley cars. Also within Cheshire are manufacturing plants for Jaguar and Vauxhall Motors in Ellesmere Port. The county also has an aircraft industry, with

6031-611: Is common. Cheshire West has a fairly large proportion of residents who work in Liverpool and Manchester, while the town of Northwich and area of Cheshire East falls more within Manchester's sphere of influence. All four local education authorities in Cheshire operate only comprehensive state school systems. When Altrincham , Sale and Bebington were moved from Cheshire to Trafford and Merseyside in 1974, they took some former Cheshire selective schools. There are two universities based in

6194-472: Is famous for the production of Cheshire cheese , salt and silk. The county has seen a number of inventions and firsts in its history. A mainly rural county, Cheshire has a high concentration of villages. Agriculture is generally based on the dairy trade, and cattle are the predominant livestock. Land use given to agriculture has fluctuated somewhat, and in 2005 totalled 1558 km over 4,609 holdings. Based on holdings by EC farm type in 2005, 8.51 km

6357-576: Is part of Liverpool City Region combined authority , which also includes the five metropolitan boroughs of Merseyside . A referendum for a further local government reform connected with an elected regional assembly was planned for 2004, but was abandoned. As part of the local government restructuring in April 2009, Cheshire County Council and the Cheshire districts were abolished and replaced by two new unitary authorities, Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester . The existing unitary authorities of Halton and Warrington were not affected by

6520-713: Is sometimes used. After the Norman conquest of 1066 by William I , dissent and resistance continued for many years after the invasion. In 1069 local resistance in Cheshire was finally put down using draconian measures as part of the Harrying of the North . The ferocity of the campaign against the English populace was enough to end all future resistance. Examples were made of major landowners such as Earl Edwin of Mercia , their properties confiscated and redistributed amongst Norman barons. The earldom

6683-781: The BAE Systems facility at Woodford Aerodrome , part of BAE System's Military Air Solutions division. The facility designed and constructed Avro Lancaster and Avro Vulcan bombers and the Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod . On the Cheshire border with Flintshire is the Broughton aircraft factory, more recently associated with Airbus . Tourism in Cheshire from within the UK and overseas continues to perform strongly. Over 8 million nights of accommodation (both UK and overseas) and over 2.8 million visits to Cheshire were recorded during 2003. At

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6846-656: The Church of England Diocese of Chester follows most closely the pre-1974 county boundary of Cheshire, so it includes all of Wirral , Stockport , and the Cheshire panhandle that included Tintwistle Rural District council area. In terms of Roman Catholic church administration, most of Cheshire falls into the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury . Cheshire has a diverse economy with significant sectors including agriculture, automotive, bio-technology, chemical, financial services, food and drink, ICT, and tourism. The county

7009-633: The Contemporary Artists reference book. The work meant that they had less time to devote to COUM but gained a wide range of contacts in the art world. During that year, COUM embarked on a series of five performance pieces which it termed Omissions ; these were performed across Europe. In March 1975, COUM performed Couming of Youth at the Melkweg in Amsterdam. Adopting a more violent stance than their previous work – in this reflecting an influence from

7172-753: The German Empire , Austria-Hungary , and the Kingdom of Italy . Unlike older forms of esotericism, occultism does not necessarily reject "scientific progress or modernity". Lévi had stressed the need to solve the conflict between science and religion, something that he believed could be achieved by turning to what he thought was the ancient wisdom found in magic. The French scholar of Western esotericism Antoine Faivre noted that rather than outright accepting "the triumph of scientism", occultists sought "an alternative solution", trying to integrate "scientific progress or modernity" with "a global vision that will serve to make

7335-563: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , New Age , and the left-hand path and right-hand path . Use of the term as a nominalized adjective ('the occult') has developed especially since the late twentieth century. In that same period, occult and culture were combined to form the neologism occulture . The occult (from the Latin word occultus ; lit. 'clandestine', 'hidden', 'secret')

7498-599: The Humber . Named the Ho-Ho Funhouse by P-Orridge, the warehouse became the communal home to an assortment of counter-cultural figures, including artists, musicians, fashion designers and underground magazine producers. At Christmas 1969, a woman named Christine Carol Newby moved into the Funhouse after being thrown out of her home by her father. Having earlier befriended them at an acid test party, Newby became P-Orridge's roommate at

7661-684: The Kezar Pavilion in San Francisco. Shortly after the San Francisco event, P-Orridge and Paula Brooking were married. During this period, P-Orridge befriended an English musician named David Bunting; P-Orridge already knew another man named David, so coined the moniker David Tibet , which Bunting adopted as a stage name. Through an introduction provided by Burroughs, P-Orridge met Brion Gysin in Paris, probably in 1980, coming to be deeply influenced by Gysin's cut-up method ; P-Orridge understood this to be

7824-538: The Middle Ages , for example, magnetism was considered an occult quality. Aether is another such element. Newton 's contemporaries severely criticized his theory that gravity was effected through "action at a distance", as occult. In the English-speaking world, notable figures in the development of occultism included Helena Blavatsky and other figures associated with her Theosophical Society, senior figures in

7987-984: The Peak District . The River Mersey runs through the north of Cheshire before broadening into its wide estuary; the River Dee forms part of the county's border with Wales, then fully enters England and flows through the city of Chester before re-entering Wales upstream of its estuary. Red Triassic sandstone forms the bedrock of much of the county, and was used in the construction of many of its buildings. The culture of Cheshire has impacted global pop culture by producing actors such as Daniel Craig , Tim Curry , and Pete Postlethwaite ; athletes such as Shauna Coxsey , Tyson Fury , and Paula Radcliffe ; authors such as Lewis Carroll ; comedians such as John Bishop and Ben Miller ; and musicians such as Gary Barlow , Ian Curtis , and Harry Styles . Most places are involved in agriculture and chemistry, leading to Cheshire's reputation for

8150-688: The Ritzy Cinema in Brixton, South London. It brought performers and audience together with literature, performance, film and music. PTV, Cabaret Voltaire , 23 Skidoo , Z'EV , John Giorno , William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin , Terry Wilson, Jeff Nuttall , and the Last Few Days participated to honour the cut-up techniques and theories of William S. Burroughs , Ian Sommerville , Antony Balch and Gysin. Video projection and early sampling were used here, as well as whispered utterances by P-Orridge reprocessed as

8313-701: The Wirral Peninsula and parts of southern Greater Manchester and northern Derbyshire, but excluded Widnes and Warrington. The landscape of the county is dominated by the Cheshire Plain , an area of relatively flat land divided by the Mid-Cheshire Ridge . To the west, Cheshire contains the south of the Wirral Peninsula, and to the east the landscape rises to the Pennines , where the county contains part of

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8476-475: The copyright symbol and its implications for art and society. Following continual police harassment, P-Orridge and Tutti relocated to London, moving into a squat and obtaining a basement studio in Hackney which they named the "Death Factory". After a brief correspondence, P-Orridge met American novelist and poet William S. Burroughs . Brion Gysin would become a major influence upon P-Orridge's ideas and works and

8639-679: The " Matterhorn of Cheshire" thanks to its distinctive steep profile. Cheshire contains portions of two green belt areas surrounding the large conurbations of Merseyside and Greater Manchester (North Cheshire Green Belt, part of the North West Green Belt) and Stoke-on-Trent (South Cheshire Green Belt, part of the Stoke-on-Trent Green Belt), these were first drawn up from the 1950s. Contained primarily within Cheshire East and Chester West & Chester, with small portions along

8802-594: The "Godfather of Industrial Music ", or in some later sources, "godparent". The first Throbbing Gristle performance was held at the Air Gallery in London in July 1976. At that point, Throbbing Gristle's headquarters was located at 10 Martello Street, Hackney, East London , the address of an artist collective. P-Orridge and Tutti's living and work space was the postal address of Industrial Records (IR). Throbbing Gristle released " Discipline " in 1980. TG came to be identified as

8965-513: The "traditional esotericism" which accepted the premise of an "enchanted" world. According to the British historian of Western esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke , occultist groups typically seek "proofs and demonstrations by recourse to scientific tests or terminology". In his work about Lévi, the German historian of religion Julian Strube has argued that the occultist wish for a "synthesis" of religion, science, and philosophy directly resulted from

9128-551: The 2011 Census. The population for 2021 is forecast to be 708,000. In 2001, the population density of Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester was 32 people per km , lower than the North West average of 42 people/km and the England and Wales average of 38 people/km . Ellesmere Port and Neston had a greater urban density than the rest of the county with 92 people/km . In 2001, ethnic white groups accounted for 98% (662,794) of

9291-481: The 20th century, the term 'occult' was used idiosyncratically by a range of different authors. By the 21st century the term 'occultism' was commonly employed –including by academic scholars in the field of Western esotericism studies – to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in the mid-19th century and their descendants. Occultism is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Qabalah , Spiritualism , Theosophy , Anthroposophy , Wicca ,

9454-485: The Canadian artist Clive Robertson to produce Marcel Duchamp's Next Work , which they premiered at an arts festival in the Zwarte Zaal Royal Conservatory of Ghent in Ghent , Belgium. COUM's next major work was Couming of Age , performed in March 1974 at the Oval House in Kennington , South London . After the show, they were approached by an audience member, Peter Christopherson , who shared many of their interests; P-Orridge and Tutti nicknamed him "Sleazy" because of

9617-407: The DNA-governed body. The couple adopted the term "pandrogyne" because – in their words – "we wanted a word without any history or any connections with things – a word with its own story and its own information". They also stated that: We started out, because we were so crazy in love, just wanting to eat each other up, to become each other and become one. And as we did that, we started to see that it

9780-477: The Funhouse, first taking the name Cosmosis, but latterly adopting the stage name Cosey Fanni Tutti after the title of Amadeus Mozart 's 1790 opera Così fan tutte . Joining COUM, Tutti initially helped in building props and designing costumes, and was there when the group began including performance art and more theatrical happenings in its music events; Evetts, aka Spydeee Gasmantell, after being expelled from Solihull School joined COUM. The three of them lived in

9943-454: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn like William Wynn Westcott and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers , as well as other individuals such as Paschal Beverly Randolph , Emma Hardinge Britten , Arthur Edward Waite , and – in the early twentieth century – Aleister Crowley , Dion Fortune , and Israel Regardie . By the end of the nineteenth century, occultist ideas had also spread into other parts of Europe, such as

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10106-402: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the New Age. Employing this etic understanding of "occultism", Hanegraaff argued that its development could begin to be seen in the work of the Swedish esotericist Emanuel Swedenborg and in the Mesmerist movement of the eighteenth century, although added that occultism only emerged in "fully-developed form" as Spiritualism, a movement that developed in

10269-457: The Psychic TV song "Joy", in which he recites the Lord's Prayer backwards. From 1988, the band came under the increasing influence of the acid house genre of dance music, and were responsible for helping the popularisation of acid house music in Europe. Psychic TV made its debut in 1982 at an event organised by P-Orridge, David Dawson, and Roger Ely, called The Final Academy . It was a 4-day multimedia celebratory rally held in Manchester and at

10432-494: The United States during the mid-nineteenth century. Marco Pasi suggested that the use of Hanegraaff's definition might cause confusion by presenting a group of nineteenth-century esotericists who called themselves "occultists" as just one part of a broader category of esotericists whom scholars would call "occultists". Following these discussions, Julian Strube argued that Lévi and other contemporary authors who would now be regarded as esotericists developed their ideas not against

10595-541: The Viennese Actionists – the performance involved self-mutilation, Cosey inserting lighted candles into her vagina, P-Orridge being crucified and whipped, and P-Orridge and Cosey having sexual intercourse. At Southampton 's Nuffield Festival in July 1975, COUM performed Studio of Lust , where P-Orridge publicly masturbated and all of the members undressed and adopted sexual poses. COUM were introduced to Chris Carter in 1975 through their mutual friend John Lacey. Lacey believed that Carter would be interested in COUM as

10758-422: The Violins , Dead Violins and Degradation , and Clockwork Hot Spoiled Acid Test . The latter combined the names of Anthony Burgess ' dystopian science-fiction novel A Clockwork Orange (1962) with Tom Wolfe 's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), a work of literary journalism devoted to the Merry Pranksters , a US communal counter-cultural group who advocated the use of psychedelic drugs . COUM's music

10921-414: The amateur quality of their work. They entered the National Rock/Folk Contest at Hull's New Grange Club with a set titled This Machine Kills Music , and organised events for Hull City Council 's celebrations to mark the UK's entry into the European Economic Community in 1973. They had also worked on solo projects, generating controversy in the local press over a conceptual artwork the artist entered at

11084-451: The article's author, Haydn Robb (nowadays known as Haydn Nobb), subsequently joined COUM, as did maths lecturer Tim Poston . In April 1971, COUM, consisting of P-Orridge and Gasmantell, broadcast their first live radio session, for the On Cue programme for Radio Humberside . Following up the press attention they received, they performed further happenings, including their first street action, Absolute Everywhere , which brought problems with

11247-480: The artist David Medalla and initially named the Exploding Galaxy, had been at the forefront of the London hippy scene since 1967, but had partially disbanded after a series of police raids and a damaging court case. Moving into their commune, P-Orridge was particularly influenced by one of the founding members of the group, Gerald Fitzgerald, a kinetic artist , and would recognise Fitzgerald's formative influence in P-Orridge's later work. The commune members adhered to

11410-406: The avant-garde art scene, accrued a cult following , and had been given the moniker of the "Godparent of Industrial Music". P-Orridge considered themself third-gender and used various gender-neutral pronouns. Genesis P-Orridge was born on 22 February 1950 in Victoria Park , Manchester, to Ronald and Muriel Megson. Ronald was a travelling salesman who had worked in repertory theatre and who played

11573-468: The background of an esoteric tradition in the first place. Rather, Lévi's notion of occultism emerged in the context of highly influential radical socialist movements and widespread progressive, so-called neo-Catholic ideas. This further complicates Hanegraaff's characteristics of occultism, since, throughout the nineteenth century, they apply to these reformist movements rather than to a supposed group of esotericists. The term occult has also been used as

11736-460: The band attracted the interest of music journalist John Peel , who publicly remarked that "[s]ome might say that Coum were madmen but constant exposure to mankind forces me to believe that we need more madmen like them." Gaining an Experimental Arts Grant from the publicly funded Yorkshire Arts Association, COUM described themselves as performance artists, being inspired by the Dadaists and emphasising

11899-517: The barons of Kinderton, Halton, Malbank, Mold, Shipbrook, Dunham-Massey, and the honour of Chester itself. Feudal baronies or baronies by tenure were granted by the Earl as forms of feudal land tenure within the palatinate in a similar way to which the king granted English feudal baronies within England proper. An example is the barony of Halton. One of Hugh d'Avranche's barons has been identified as Robert Nicholls, Baron of Halton and Montebourg. In 1182,

12062-788: The borders of the Halton and Warrington districts, towns and cities such as Chester, Macclesfield, Alsager, Congleton, Northwich, Ellesmere Port, Knutsford, Warrington, Poynton, Disley, Neston, Wilmslow, Runcorn, and Widnes are either surrounded wholly, partially enveloped by, or on the fringes of the belts. The North Cheshire Green Belt is contiguous with the Peak District Park boundary inside Cheshire. The ceremonial county borders Merseyside , Greater Manchester , Derbyshire , Staffordshire and Shropshire in England along with Flintshire and Wrexham in Wales, arranged by compass directions as shown in

12225-675: The change. Cheshire has no county-wide elected local council, but it does have a Lord Lieutenant under the Lieutenancies Act 1997 and a High Sheriff under the Sheriffs Act 1887 . Local government functions apart from the Police and Fire/Rescue services are carried out by four smaller unitary authorities: Cheshire East , Cheshire West and Chester , Halton , and Warrington . All four unitary authority areas have borough status . Policing and fire and rescue services are still provided across

12388-556: The character at an event entitled the World Premiere of the Alien Brain , at Hull Arts Centre. COUM also began publishing books; in 1972, they brought out the first volume of The Million and One Names of COUM , part of a proposed project to release 1001 slogans (such as "A thousand and one ways to COUM" and "COUM are Fab and Kinky"), while in 1973 P-Orridge published Copyright Breeches , which explored an ongoing personal fascination with

12551-609: The city of Chester is the county town . The county has an area of 905 square miles (2,344 km ) and had a population of 1,095,500 at the 2021 census . After Warrington (211,227), the largest settlements are Chester and Crewe . The south and east of the county are primarily rural, while the north is more densely populated and includes the settlements of Runcorn , Widnes , and Ellesmere Port . For local government purposes Cheshire comprises four unitary authority areas: Cheshire East , Cheshire West and Chester , Halton , and Warrington . The county historically included all of

12714-458: The commune's leaders were given more rights than the other members and believing that the group ignored the counter-cultural use of music, something they took a great interest in. Julie Wilson later stated that although P-Orridge's time at the Transmedia Explorations commune had been brief, "the experiences (they) had there proved to be seminal" to their artistic development. Leaving London, P-Orridge hitch-hiked across Britain before settling down in

12877-440: The concept of science. From that point on, use of "occult science(s)" implied a conscious polemic against mainstream science. Nevertheless, the philosopher and card game historian Michael Dummett , whose analysis of the historical evidence suggested that fortune-telling and occult interpretations using cards were unknown before the 18th century, said that the term occult science was not misplaced because "people who believe in

13040-401: The context of contemporary socialism and progressive Catholicism . Similar to spiritualism, but in declared opposition to it, the emergence of occultism should thus be seen within the context of radical social reform, which was often concerned with establishing new forms of "scientific religion" while at the same time propagating the revival of an ancient tradition of "true religion". Indeed,

13203-449: The context of theoretical frameworks that relied heavily on a belief in occult qualities, virtues or forces." Although there are areas of overlap between these different occult sciences, they are separate and in some cases practitioners of one would reject the others as being illegitimate. During the Age of Enlightenment , occultism increasingly came to be seen as intrinsically incompatible with

13366-466: The core group who went on to form Throbbing Gristle . Throbbing Gristle was formed in late 1975 as a four-piece band, consisting of P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti , Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Chris Carter . The name "Throbbing Gristle" was adopted after a Northern English slang term for an erect penis. P-Orridge's involvement in Throbbing Gristle led to the artist being regularly cited as

13529-410: The county as a whole. The Cheshire Fire Authority consist of members of the four councils, while governance of Cheshire Constabulary is performed by the elected Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner . Winsford is a major administrative hub for Cheshire with the Police and Fire & Rescue Headquarters based in the town as well as a majority of Cheshire West and Chester Council. It was also home to

13692-536: The county, the University of Chester and the Chester campus of The University of Law . The Crewe campus of Manchester Metropolitan University was scheduled to close in 2019. Cheshire has produced musicians such as Joy Division members Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris , One Direction member Harry Styles , the members of The 1975 , Take That member Gary Barlow , The Cult member Ian Astbury , Catfish and

13855-479: The distinction on Richard's fall in 1399. Through the Local Government Act 1972 , which came into effect on 1 April 1974, some areas in the north became part of the metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester and Merseyside . Stockport (previously a county borough), Altrincham , Hyde , Dukinfield and Stalybridge in the north-east became part of Greater Manchester. Much of the Wirral Peninsula in

14018-589: The drums in local jazz and dance bands. Muriel was from Salford and had first met Ronald after he returned to England after being injured with the British Army at the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940. As a child, they had a good relationship with their parents, who did not interfere with their artistic interests. Due to Ronald's job, the family moved to Essex , where they attended Staples Road Infant School in Loughton , and for

14181-554: The earldom forfeit and gave the title to Hugh d'Avranches (nicknamed Hugh Lupus, or "wolf"). Because of Cheshire's strategic location on the Welsh Marches , the Earl had complete autonomous powers to rule on behalf of the king in the county palatine. Cheshire in the Domesday Book (1086) is recorded as a much larger county than it is today. It included two hundreds , Atiscross and Exestan, that later became part of North Wales . At

14344-504: The early modern Lutheran thinker Jakob Bohme , and seeking to integrate ideas from Bohmian theosophy and occultism. It has been noted, however, that this distancing from the Theosophical Society should be understood in the light of polemical identity formations among esotericists towards the end of the nineteenth century. In the mid-1990s, a new definition of "occultism" was put forth by Wouter Hanegraaff. According to Hanegraaff,

14507-713: The emergence of both modern esotericism and socialism in July Monarchy France have been inherently intertwined. Another feature of occultists is that – unlike earlier esotericists – they often openly distanced themselves from Christianity, in some cases (like that of Crowley) even adopting explicitly anti-Christian stances. This reflected how pervasive the influence of secularisation had been on all areas of European society. In rejecting Christianity, these occultists sometimes turned towards pre-Christian belief systems and embraced forms of Modern Paganism , while others instead took influence from

14670-432: The energy and water sector and there was also a significant reduction in the manufacturing sector. The largest growth during this period was in the other services and distribution, hotels and retail sectors. Cheshire is considered to be an affluent county. However, towns such as Crewe and Winsford have significant deprivation. The county's proximity to the cities of Manchester and Liverpool means counter urbanisation

14833-515: The event, P-Orridge told reporters that the Knights wanted to ignite "an artistic revolution in Solihull, by making people aware of the life around them, its essential beauty and tranquillity." In mid-1968, Worm recorded their first and only album, entitled Early Worm , in P-Orridge's parents' attic in Solihull. It was pressed onto vinyl in November at Deroy Sound Services in Manchester, but only one copy

14996-658: The experimental pop rock band Psychic TV . Born in Manchester , P-Orridge developed an early interest in art, occultism, and the avant-garde while at Solihull School . After dropping out of studies at the University of Hull , they moved into a counter-cultural commune in London and adopted Genesis P-Orridge as their pseudonym. On returning to Hull, they founded COUM Transmissions with Cosey Fanni Tutti , and in 1973 they relocated to London. COUM's confrontational performance work , dealing with such subjects as sex work , pornography , serial killers , and occultism , represented

15159-468: The feature-length documentary titled A Message from the Temple , about Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth and P-Orridge. At 45 years of age P-Orridge met Lady Jaye (née Jacqueline Breyer) in a BDSM dungeon in New York City and would eventually marry for a second time. Jaye worked as a nurse during the daytime, providing care for children with terminal illnesses and disabilities. In the evenings, Lady Jaye worked as

15322-544: The first happening at the school, doing so under the auspices of organising a school dance. Brought up in the Anglican denomination of Christianity, P-Orridge became secretary of the school sixth form 's Christian Discussion Circle, in this position inviting members of other ideological positions – including a Marxist from the British Communist Party – to speak to the group. Aged 18, P-Orridge began helping to run

15485-550: The first half of a £1,500 grant. The money stabilised the group, which now included P-Orridge and Tutti as directors, John Gunni Busck as technical director, and Lelli Maull as musical director. During that year, they made use of various artist-run venues in London, most notably the Art Meeting Place (AMP) in Covent Garden , where they regularly performed during 1974. A number of these works entailed P-Orridge and Tutti exploring

15648-539: The floor. Exhibiting alongside the Viennese Actionists , P-Orridge came under increasing influence from these Austrian performance artists, adopting their emphasis on using shock tactics to combat conventional morality. P-Orridge's first film, Wundatrek Tours , was released in September 1973, and documented a day out to Brighton. Throughout the year the artist sent personally designed postcards to mail-art shows across

15811-572: The foodstuff which they had lived off as a student. The new name was intentionally un-glamorous, and they hoped that it would trigger a personal "genius factor". In February, COUM caught the attention of The Yorkshire Post , which featured an article on them that led to further media attention from national newspapers. They also featured in an article in Torch , the publication of the University of Hull's student union, entitled "God Sucks Mary 's Hairy Nipple";

15974-411: The former Vale Royal Borough Council and Cheshire County Council. Devolution talks for the county are scheduled for Autumn 2024. From 1 April 1974 the area under the control of the county council was divided into eight local government districts; Chester , Congleton , Crewe and Nantwich , Ellesmere Port and Neston , Halton , Macclesfield , Vale Royal and Warrington . Halton (which includes

16137-472: The former's particular interest in the sexual aspects of COUM's work. Christopherson began to aid them using their skills as a photographer and graphic designer, and would first perform with them in their March 1975 work Couming of Youth . In May 1974, COUM issued a manifesto published on an A3 double-sided sheet titled Decoumpositions and Events . In April 1974, the Arts Council of Great Britain gave COUM

16300-507: The founders of industrial music , although at the same time the academic Drew Daniel asserted that as a result of its eclecticism, their music resists clear analysis. Throbbing Gristle's best-selling single was " Zyklon B Zombie " (1978), the title being a reference to the Zyklon B poison gas used at Auschwitz extermination camp . With their album 20 Jazz Funk Greats they attempted to move away from their industrial sound, and produced songs in

16463-482: The gender balance, including concepts of gender confusion. In one performance at the AWB, which was titled Filth , P-Orridge and Tutti performed sexual acts using a double-ended dildo . COUM were frustrated with the restrictions imposed on them by the Arts Council as a prerequisite for receiving funding; rather than performing at Council-accredited venues, they wanted to perform more spontaneously. In August 1974 they carried out

16626-539: The group's reputation as "one of the most innovative performance art groups then on the London art scene", convincing the Arts Council and British Council to take them more seriously and offer them greater support. "COUM is not 'about' entertainment, it is coumcerned [sic] with direct, symbolic interpretation of actions to realise a uniquely personal perception." P-Orridge, 1974 In February 1975, P-Orridge gained their first full-time job, working as an assistant editor at St. James Press , in which they helped to compile

16789-521: The historic county of Cheshire was Black Hill (582 m (1,909 ft)) near Crowden in the Cheshire Panhandle, a long eastern projection of the county which formerly stretched along the northern side of Longdendale and on the border with the West Riding of Yorkshire . Black Hill is now the highest point in the ceremonial county of West Yorkshire . Within the current ceremonial county and

16952-466: The increasing influence of acid house . In 1981, P-Orridge co-founded Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth , an informal occult order influenced by chaos magic and experimental music. P-Orridge was seen as the group's leader, but rejected that position, and left the group in 1991. Amid the Satanic ritual abuse hysteria, a 1992 Channel 4 documentary accused P-Orridge of sexually abusing children , resulting in

17115-468: The judicial review it lost in October 2007. The appeal was dismissed on 4 March 2008. A plain of glacial till and other glacio-fluvial sediments extends across much of Cheshire, separating the hills of North Wales and the Pennines . Known as the Cheshire Plain , it was formed following the retreat of a Quaternary ice sheet which left the area dotted with kettle holes , those which hold water being referred to as meres . The bedrock of this region

17278-474: The land north of the Mersey became administered as part of the new county of Lancashire , resolving any uncertainty about the county in which the land "Inter Ripam et Mersam" was. Over the years, the ten hundreds consolidated and changed names to leave just seven—Broxton, Bucklow, Eddisbury, Macclesfield, Nantwich, Northwich and Wirral. In 1397 the county had lands in the march of Wales added to its territory, and

17441-545: The local Sunday school classes, but came to reject organised Christianity. Afflicted with asthma throughout childhood, P-Orridge had to take cortisone and prednisone steroids to control the attacks. The latter of these drugs caused their adrenal glands to atrophy as a side-effect, and so the doctor advised P-Orridge to stop taking them. As a result, aged 17, P-Orridge suffered from a serious blackout ; while in hospital recovering they decided to devote their life to art and writing. With Hermon and Wolfson, P-Orridge founded

17604-591: The mid-19th century and their descendants. Occultism is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Spiritualism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and New Age. A different division was used by the Traditionalist author René Guénon , who used esotericism to describe what he believed was the Traditionalist, inner teaching at the heart of most religions, while occultism

17767-737: The nineteenth century and their twentieth-century derivations. In a descriptive sense, it has been used to describe forms of esotericism which developed in nineteenth-century France, especially in the Neo-Martinist environment. According to the historian of esotericism Antoine Faivre , it is with the esotericist Éliphas Lévi that "the occultist current properly so-called" first appears. Other prominent French esotericists involved in developing occultism included Papus , Stanislas de Guaita , Joséphin Péladan , Georges-Albert Puyou de Pouvourville , and Jean Bricaud . The idea of occult sciences developed in

17930-820: The north-west, including the county boroughs of Birkenhead and Wallasey, joined Merseyside as the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral . At the same time the Tintwistle Rural District was transferred to Derbyshire . The area of south Lancashire not included within either the Merseyside or Greater Manchester counties, including Widnes and the county borough of Warrington , was added to the new non-metropolitan county of Cheshire. Halton and Warrington became unitary authorities independent of Cheshire County Council on 1 April 1998, but remain part of Cheshire for ceremonial purposes and also for fire and policing. Halton

18093-519: The older term occult , much as the term esotericism derives from the older term esoteric . However, the historian of esotericism Wouter Hanegraaff stated that it was important to distinguish between the meanings of the term occult and occultism . Occultism is not a homogenous movement and is widely diverse. Over the course of its history, the term occultism has been used in various different ways. However, in contemporary uses, occultism commonly refers to forms of esotericism that developed in

18256-398: The perspective of cybernetics and information technologies. Philosopher Eugene Thacker discusses Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa 's Three Books of Occult Philosophy in his book In The Dust Of This Planet , where he shows how the horror genre utilizes occult themes to reveal hidden realities. Cheshire Cheshire ( / ˈ tʃ ɛ ʃ ər , - ɪər / CHESH -ər, -⁠eer )

18419-513: The police charged P-Orridge and Robb with publishing an obscene advert, although the charges were later dropped. As they gained coverage in the music press, interest in the band grew, and they supported Hawkwind at St. George's Hall in Bradford in October 1971, where they performed a piece called Edna and the Great Surfers , where they led the crowd in shouting "Off, Off, Off". The following month,

18582-593: The police charged P-Orridge with distributing obscene material via in the postal system under the 1953 Post Office Act ; this trial was set for February 1976. They were prosecuted in 1975 for making collages combining postcards of Queen Elizabeth with soft-core porn, but the jail term and fines were suspended on condition they did not continue. Their Prostitution show, in 1976 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, included displays of Tutti's pornographic images from magazines as well as erotic nude photographs;

18745-433: The police. After performing another set, Riot Control , at Hull's Gondola Club, the premises were raided by police and closed soon after; most local clubs blamed COUM and unofficially banned them. COUM drew up a petition to gain support for the group, attaining a booking at the local Brickhouse; their first performance in which the audience applauded and called for an encore. The petition had contained their phallic logo, and

18908-413: The population, and 10,994 (2%) in ethnic groups other than white. Of the 2% in non-white ethnic groups: In the 2001 Census, 81% of the population (542,413) identified themselves as Christian; 124,677 (19%) did not identify with any religion or did not answer the question; 5,665 (1%) identified themselves as belonging to other major world religions; and 1,033 belonged to other religions. The boundary of

19071-469: The possibility of unveiling the future or of exercising supernormal powers do so because the efficacy of the methods they employ coheres with some systematic conception which they hold of the way the universe functions...however flimsy its empirical basis." In his 1871 book Primitive Culture , the anthropologist Edward Tylor used the term "occult science" as a synonym for magic . Occult qualities are properties that have no known rational explanation; in

19234-523: The privately run Solihull School in Warwickshire between 1964 and 1968; a period they would refer to as "basically four years of being mentally and physically tortured", but also a time when they developed an interest in art, occultism and the avant-garde. At age fifteen, they became a fan of "The Hundred Headless Woman," a book that contained surrealist collages by various artists, including Max Ernst . The book became an early source of inspiration, and it

19397-520: The production of chemicals, Cheshire cheese , salt, and silk. Cheshire's name was originally derived from an early name for Chester, and was first recorded as Legeceasterscir in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , meaning "the shire of the city of legions". Although the name first appears in 980, it is thought that the county was created by Edward the Elder around 920. In the Domesday Book , Chester

19560-413: The proposal to split two-tier Cheshire into two would proceed. Cheshire County Council leader Paul Findlow, who attempted High Court legal action against the proposal, claimed that splitting Cheshire would only disrupt excellent services while increasing living costs for all. On 31 January 2008 The Standard , Cheshire and district's newspaper, announced that the legal action had been dropped. Members against

19723-570: The proposal were advised that they may be unable to persuade the court that the decision of Hazel Blears was "manifestly absurd". The Cheshire West and Chester unitary authority covers the area formerly occupied by the City of Chester and the boroughs of Ellesmere Port and Neston and Vale Royal; Cheshire East now covers the area formerly occupied by the boroughs of Congleton, Crewe and Nantwich, and Macclesfield. The changes were implemented on 1 April 2009. Congleton Borough Council pursued an appeal against

19886-470: The religions of Asia, such as Hinduism and Buddhism . In various cases, certain occultists did both. Another characteristic of these occultists was the emphasis that they placed on "the spiritual realization of the individual", an idea that would strongly influence the twentieth-century New Age and Human Potential Movement . This spiritual realization was encouraged both through traditional Western 'occult sciences' like alchemy and ceremonial magic , but by

20049-436: The religious or philosophical belief systems on which such practices are based. This division was initially adopted by the early academic scholar of esotericism, Antoine Faivre, although he later abandoned it; it has been rejected by most scholars who study esotericism. By the 21st century the term was commonly employed – including by academic scholars of esotericism – to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in

20212-582: The show featured a stripper, used tampons in glass, and transvestite guards. Prostitutes, punks , and people in costumes were among those hired to mingle with the gallery audience. The show caused debate in Parliament about the public funding of such events. In the House of Commons , Scottish Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn demanded an explanation from Arts Minister Harold Lever and proclaimed P-Orridge and Tutti as "wreckers of civilisation". Fleet Street

20375-596: The sigilisation practices of occult artist Austin Osman Spare . Journalist Gavin Baddeley described TOPY as "perhaps the most influential new occult order of the 1980s". P-Orridge had never wanted to be seen as the leader of an occult order, although many of those involved in TOPY were frustrated that outsiders regularly described P-Orridge as the group's leader. Accordingly, P-Orridge separated from TOPY in 1991, although it continued as

20538-503: The sixteenth century. The term usually encompassed three practices – astrology, alchemy, and natural magic – although sometimes various forms of divination were also included rather than being subsumed under natural magic. These were grouped together because, according to the Dutch scholar of hermeticism Wouter Hanegraaff , "each one of them engaged in a systematic investigation of nature and natural processes, in

20701-472: The start of 2003, there were 22,020 VAT-registered enterprises in Cheshire, an increase of 7% since 1998, many in the business services (31.9%) and wholesale/retail (21.7%) sectors. Between 2002 and 2003 the number of businesses grew in four sectors: public administration and other services (6.0%), hotels and restaurants (5.1%), construction (1.7%), and business services (1.0%). The county saw the largest proportional reduction between 2001 and 2002 in employment in

20864-411: The start of the twentieth century had also begun to include practices drawn from non-Western contexts, such as yoga . Although occultism is distinguished from earlier forms of esotericism, many occultists have also been involved in older esoteric currents. For instance, occultists like François-Charles Barlet  [ fr ] and Rudolf Steiner were also theosophers , adhering to the ideas of

21027-594: The table. below. Cheshire also forms part of the North West England region. In July 2022, beavers bred in Cheshire for the first time in 400 years, following a reintroduction scheme. Based on the Census of 2001, the overall population of Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester is 673,781, of which 51.3% of the population were male and 48.7% were female. Of those aged between 0–14 years, 51.5% were male and 48.4% were female; and of those aged over 75 years, 62.9% were female and 37.1% were male. This increased to 699,735 at

21190-461: The term occultism can be used not only for the nineteenth-century groups which openly self-described using that term but can also be used in reference to "the type of esotericism that they represent". Seeking to define occultism so that the term would be suitable "as an etic category" for scholars, Hanegraaff devised the following definition: "a category in the study of religions, which comprises "all attempts by esotericists to come to terms with

21353-516: The term occultism is in the French language, as l'occultisme . In this form it appears in A. de Lestrange's article that was published in Dictionnaire des mots nouveaux ("Dictionary of new words") by Jean-Baptiste Richard de Radonvilliers  [ fr ] in 1842. However, it was not related, at this point, to the notion of Ésotérisme chrétien , as has been claimed by Hanegraaff, but to describe

21516-427: The term as a synonym for esotericism, an approach that the later scholar of esotericism Marco Pasi suggested left the term superfluous. Unlike Amadou, other writers saw occultism and esotericism as different, albeit related, phenomena. In the 1970s, the sociologist Edward A. Tiryakian distinguished between occultism, which he used in reference to practices, techniques, and procedures, and esotericism, which he defined as

21679-719: The term in an academic sense, stating that occulture was "the new spiritual environment in the West; the reservoir feeding new spiritual springs; the soil in which new spiritualities are growing". Recently scholars have offered perspectives on the occult as intertwined with media and technology. Examples include the work of film and media theorist Jeffrey Sconce and religious studies scholar John Durham Peters , both of whom suggest that occult movements historically utilize media and apparatuses as tools to reveal hidden aspects of reality or laws of nature. Erik Davis in his book Techgnosis gives an overview of occultism both ancient and modern from

21842-414: The term in his influential book on ritual magic , Dogme et rituel de la haute magie , first published in 1856. Lévi was familiar with that work and might have borrowed the term from there. In any case, Lévi also claimed to be a representative of an older tradition of occult science or occult philosophy. It was from his usage of the term occultisme that it gained wider usage; according to Faivre, Lévi

22005-517: The time of the Domesday Book, it also included as part of Duddestan Hundred the area of land later known as English Maelor (which used to be a detached part of Flintshire ) in Wales. The area between the Mersey and Ribble (referred to in the Domesday Book as "Inter Ripam et Mersam") formed part of the returns for Cheshire. Although this has been interpreted to mean that at that time south Lancashire

22168-422: The time spent at Transmedia Explorations. In November 1969, P-Orridge returned to Hull to meet up with friend John Shapeero, who partnered with P-Orridge to turn COUM Transmissions into an avant-garde artistic and musical troupe. They initially debated as to how to define "COUM", later deciding that like the name " dada " it should remain open to interpretation. P-Orridge designed a logo for the group, consisting of

22331-492: The time, P-Orridge was in Thailand undertaking famine relief work; fearing arrest and loss of child custody upon return to the UK, P-Orridge stayed out of the country for several years, settling in the United States. P-Orridge believed that the negative press and police attention were the result of a campaign organised by a Christian group. It was subsequently revealed that the footage obtained did not depict child abuse. Instead, it

22494-602: The towns of Runcorn and Widnes ) and Warrington became unitary authorities in 1998. The remaining districts and the county were abolished as part of local government restructuring on 1 April 2009. The Halton and Warrington boroughs were not affected by the 2009 restructuring. On 25 July 2007, the Secretary of State Hazel Blears announced she was 'minded' to split Cheshire into two new unitary authorities, Cheshire West and Chester , and Cheshire East . She confirmed she had not changed her mind on 19 December 2007 and therefore

22657-479: The unitary authority of Cheshire East the highest point is Shining Tor on the Derbyshire/Cheshire border between Macclesfield and Buxton , at 559 metres (1,834 ft) above sea level. After Shining Tor, the next highest point in Cheshire is Shutlingsloe , at 506 metres (1,660 ft) above sea level. Shutlingsloe lies just to the south of Macclesfield Forest and is sometimes humorously referred to as

22820-418: The use of surgical body modification to physically resemble one another. P-Orridge continued with this project of body modification after Lady Jaye's 2007 death. Although involved in reunions of both Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV in the 2000s, they retired from music to focus on other artistic media in 2009. P-Orridge was credited on over 200 releases during their lifetime. They were cited as an icon within

22983-401: The vacuousness of materialism more apparent". The Dutch scholar of hermeticism Wouter Hanegraaff remarked that occultism was "essentially an attempt to adapt esotericism" to the " disenchanted world ", a post-Enlightenment society in which growing scientific discovery had eradicated the "dimension of irreducible mystery" previously present. In doing so, he noted, occultism distanced itself from

23146-594: The west is a prominent sandstone ridge known as the Mid Cheshire Ridge . A 55-kilometre (34 mi) footpath, the Sandstone Trail , follows this ridge from Frodsham to Whitchurch passing Delamere Forest , Beeston Castle and earlier Iron Age forts. The western fringes of the Peak District - the southernmost extent of the Pennine range - form the eastern part of the county. The highest point (county top) in

23309-530: The world. "COUM enable all kinds of people to discover their abilities to express ideas through different media. COUM believe that you don't NEED special training to produce and/or enjoy, worthwhile, significant and unique works. COUM demonstrate that there are NO boundaries in any form. It has NOT all been done before, and that which has can still bear valid re-interpretation. Thee [sic] possibilities remain endless." COUM Manifesto, 1974 In January 1974, COUM returned their attention to music, collaborating with

23472-556: The writings of Aleister Crowley , William S. Burroughs , Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg and the music of Frank Zappa , the Fugs and the Velvet Underground . They became interested in occultism , and also asserted that their grandmother was a medium . In 1967, P-Orridge founded their first collective, Worm, with school friends Pingle Wad (Peter Winstanley), Spydeee Gasmantell (Ian Evetts) and P-Orridge's girlfriend Jane Ray. Worm

23635-453: Was "the principal exponent of esotericism in Europe and the United States" at that time. The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France, where it came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus , The earliest use of the term occultism in the English language appears to be in "A Few Questions to 'Hiraf'", an 1875 article by Helena Blavatsky ,

23798-472: Was a form of mass indoctrination and mind control, it could be used as an "esoterrorist" form of magick to combat the establishment's control. Historian Dave Evans described Psychic TV as "a band dedicated to musical eclecticism and magical experiment, their performances being in part ritual (ab)use of sound samples, the creation of 'auditory magical sigils' and the destruction of consensus language in order to find meaning". The band's first song, "Just Drifting",

23961-448: Was a video artwork titled First Transmissions that had been made in the early 1980s, partially funded by Channel 4 itself; the footage depicted sex-magic rites between adults, bloodletting performances, and scenes of the filmmaker Derek Jarman reading passages from the work of Geoffrey Chaucer . Embarrassed by these revelations, Channel 4 retracted its initial accusations. In 2016, the film director Jacqueline Castel began work on

24124-540: Was affecting us in ways that we didn't expect. Really, we were just two parts of one whole; the pandrogyne was the whole and we were each other's other half. During this era, a book was published of P-Orridge's writings, poems, and observations, called Ooh, You Are Awful ... But I Like You! . In the mid-1990s, P-Orridge collaborated with different people in music, including Pigface , Skinny Puppy , and Download . P-Orridge also performed with Nik Turner and other former members of Hawkwind . In June 1998, P-Orridge won

24287-629: Was allocated to dairy farming, with another 11.78 km allocated to cattle and sheep. The chemical industry in Cheshire was founded in Roman times, with the mining of salt in Winsford, Middlewich and Northwich. Salt is still mined in the area by British Salt . The salt mining has led to a continued chemical industry around Northwich, with Brunner Mond based in the town. Other chemical companies, including Ineos (formerly ICI ), have plants at Runcorn . The Essar Refinery (formerly Shell Stanlow Refinery )

24450-471: Was anarchic and improvised, making use of such instruments as broken violins, prepared pianos, guitars, bongos and talking drums. As time went on, they added further theatrics to their performances, in one instance making the audience crawl through a polythene tunnel to enter the venue. In December 1969, P-Orridge and Shapiro moved out of their flat and into a former fruit warehouse in Hull's docking area, overlooking

24613-421: Was at that time that they took on the name "P-Orridge." Unpopular with other pupils, they were bullied at the school, finding comfort in the art department at lunch-time and in the evenings. They befriended Ian "Spydeee" Evetts, Barry "Little Baz" Hermon and Paul Wolfson, three fellow pupils who shared their interest in art, literature, and poetry. They regularly discussed books and music, developing an interest in

24776-481: Was based on a poem by P-Orridge. For their first album, Force the Hand of Chance (1982), P-Orridge used a kangling , or Tibetan trumpet made out of a human thigh-bone; the instrument had been introduced to P-Orridge by David Tibet , and attracted attention to their music. P-Orridge had become acquainted with Anton LaVey , founder of the Church of Satan and ideologue of LaVeyan Satanism , with LaVey making an appearance on

24939-532: Was ever produced. A second album, Catching the Bird , was recorded but never pressed. In September 1968, P-Orridge began studying for a degree in Social Administration and Philosophy at the University of Hull . Hull was chosen in an attempt to study at "the most ordinary non-elitist, working-class, red brick university", but P-Orridge disliked the course and unsuccessfully tried to transfer to study English. With

25102-647: Was influenced by AMM and John Cage 's 1961 book Silence: Lectures and Writings . In 1966, P-Orridge, Evetts, Hermon, Wolfson, and Winstanley began production of an underground magazine , entitled Conscience . Forbidden from selling it on school grounds, they sold copies outside the school gates. Included in Conscience were various articles criticising the school's administration, leading to proposed changes regarding such issues as school uniforms and prefects (known as benchers) privileges. That same year, influenced by newspaper accounts of " Swinging London ", they organised

25265-437: Was not slow to pick up the story. The reviews were cut up, framed, and put on display for the remainder of the exhibition. This was also reported in newspapers, so cut-ups about the cut-ups were also put on display. COUM was found so offensive that it lost its government grant, and went on to become the private company Industrial Records . Toward the end of COUM, performances would often consist of only P-Orridge, Cosey and Sleazy,

25428-498: Was part of Cheshire, more exhaustive research indicates that the boundary between Cheshire and what was to become Lancashire remained the River Mersey . With minor variations in spelling across sources, the complete list of hundreds of Cheshire at this time are: Atiscross, Bochelau, Chester, Dudestan, Exestan, Hamestan, Middlewich, Riseton, Roelau, Tunendune, Warmundestrou and Wilaveston. There were 8 feudal baronies in Chester,

25591-447: Was promoted to the rank of principality. This was because of the support the men of the county had given to King Richard II, in particular by his standing armed force of about 500 men called the "Cheshire Guard". As a result, the King's title was changed to "King of England and France, Lord of Ireland, and Prince of Chester". No other English county has been honoured in this way, although it lost

25754-413: Was recorded as having the name Cestrescir (Chestershire), derived from the name for Chester at the time. Through the next few centuries a series of changes that occurred in the English language, which have included simplifications and elision , has resulted in the name Cheshire. Because of the historically close links with the land bordering Cheshire to the west, which became modern Wales , there

25917-463: Was sufficiently independent from the kingdom of England that the 13th-century Magna Carta did not apply to the shire of Chester , so the earl wrote up his own Chester Charter at the petition of his barons. William I made Cheshire a county palatine and gave Gerbod the Fleming the new title of Earl of Chester . When Gerbod returned to Normandy in about 1070, the king used his absence to declare

26080-637: Was the latter's primary tutor in spiritual magic . 1973 saw COUM take part in the Fluxshoe retrospective that toured Britain exhibiting the work of the Fluxus artists; it was organised by David Mayor, who befriended P-Orridge. At that year's Edinburgh Festival , P-Orridge undertook a Marcel Duchamp -inspired performance art piece, Art Vandals , at the Richard Demarco Gallery , engaging guests in unconventional conversation, and spilling their food and drink on

26243-404: Was used in 16th-century Europe to refer to astrology , alchemy , and natural magic . The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France , among figures such as Antoine Court de Gébelin . It came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus , and in 1875 was introduced into the English language by the esotericist Helena Blavatsky . Throughout

26406-427: Was used pejoratively to describe new religions and movements that he disapproved of, such as Spiritualism, Theosophy, and various secret societies . Guénon's use of this terminology was adopted by later writers like Serge Hutin and Luc Benoist . As noted by Hanegraaff, Guénon's use of these terms are rooted in his Traditionalist beliefs and "cannot be accepted as scholarly valid". The term occultism derives from

26569-459: Was widely known, was aimed at a wider audience than COUM, thereby aiming to work within popular culture rather than the elite realm of the art scene. COUM and TG were largely treated as distinct entities; the music press ignored COUM and saw TG as experimental art rock , while the arts press ignored TG, viewing COUM as performance artists. Despite their intention of operating within the realms of popular culture, TG never had chart success, and remained

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