About Sef Salem
Sef Salem is a leader and event organiser with over twenty years’ experience of personal and group magical practice. Initially trained as a Gnostic Mystic, he joined Ordo Templi Orientis in 2010 and founded the international group Gentlemen 4 Jupiter shortly afterwards, before taking on and running the Occult Conference in Glastonbury between 2014 and 2018. Since 2019 he has run Star Club, a modern magical order co-founded with Dr. Halo Quin, teaching a variety of esoteric practices within a Western Mystery Tradition framework.
Sef continues to work for the occult and esoteric community by running The Visible College with two Co-Directors, a non-profit based in South Gloucestershire which hosts events at a beautiful rural location, and facilitates events across Britain such as the International Thelemic Symposium in Oxford. He lives near Bristol with his fiancée and Priestess, and travels internationally to offer lectures and workshops to groups large and small, most notably a five-day programme as part of the Occulture Retreat 2024 in Italy. Learn more about the system he teaches at the Star Club website.
Lectures & Workshops by Sef Salem
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Societas Astris & Neuro-Gnosticism
Sef is the instigator and developer of Star Club, an anarcho-syndicalist approach to a magical Order which is founded on the Neuro-Gnostic Model.
The Eight Praxes of Star Club are taught with Dr. Halo Quin during a Training Cycle, and both are available to speak on these topics. Examples include:
The Mystical Mind · Creating Katabasis · How to Lose your Head
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Thelema & Crowley's Libers
15 years since his initiation into Ordo Templi Orientis, Sef is an active member of the Order and well-tattooed devotee of Babalon.
Passionate about helping others to find and do their Will, Sef’s lectures and workshops focus on attuning to the Thelemic current and how perform its rites. Examples include:
The Lance & the Cup · Crafting Group Ritual · The Mark of the Beast
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Angels & Conjuration
First picking up The Grimoire of Armadel at the tender age of 16, and a devotee of the Archangel Michael soon after, Sef has worked with magicians across the world to develop skills of conjuration and access angelic forces.
You can undertake The Path of the Rose through the site, or book his workshops:
Understanding Trithemius · The Path of the Rose (Weekend Intensive)
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Sorcery & Exorcism
Sef unintentionally fell into helping people facing strange and unusual problems early in his magical career, and has worked as an Exorcist across England and Wales.
His lectures and workshops on these experiences and his tips and tricks for witch-wars are both entertaining and helpful in a pinch! Examples include:
An Exorcist’s Go-Bag · Crisis-Point Magick · Changing the Past by Listening to the Future
Celebrating a Mass of Babalon at the International Thelemic Symposium 2024 e.v. with the Star Club ritual team
A classic shot of Sef on Glastonbury Tor for a Druid festival
Taking part in the ritual demonstration to complete the Grimoire Masterclass with David Rankine
Waiting to go on at the Magick, Art, and Alchemy Conference 2024
Celebrating Liber XV: The Gnostic Mass in Glastonbury
Teaching with Dr. Halo Quin at Star Club
Giving his lecture 'An Exorcist's Go-Bag'
Giving a lecture on Initiatory ritual at the Cardiff Occult Conference in 2024
Glass-walking at the Occulture Retreat in Italy, October 2024, after teaching a course in Thelemic Magick
An evening adventure to San Leo Fortress to pay homage to Count Cagliostro
Taking a break at the Occult Retreat in San Leo, October 2024
Hosting a film crew (and having a cameo!) producing an esoteric short film based in part on the work of Star Club
Further Information
Neuro-Gnosticism
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Over the last five years, Sef has created and led a magical group named Star Club including over thirty Practitioners and Initiates in Bristol. The Star Club Framework is based on the Neuro-Gnostic Model, a process for integrating the neurological and the mystical. In this lecture, Sef Salem will discuss its theoretical basis and magical application, then share illustrative rituals and life-changing results from Star Club Cycles past and present.
This Model was developed by Sef over years of working with adepts and experts in occult fields including Hermetic Qabalah, Enochian Magic, Thelema, and Chaos Magic, combined with his own research in neuro-linguistic programming and theoretical physics over twenty years of practice. The Neuro-Gnostic Model creates an operational paradigm for interacting with the Universe, drawing on Morphic Field Theory and Animism along with neurological conceptions of the way our minds interact with reality.
The Mystical Mind will elaborate on Sef’s Model of esoteric practice and demonstrate theurgic and thaumaturgic principles in action to create results in a modern magical order.
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What do the Oath of the Abyss, the Headless Rite, and Liber Reguli have in common? These and others are all methods for contacting forces outside of this world, to achieve an understanding of the Universe - leading to a truth greater than ourselves. Join Sef as he explores some of the techniques used to attune to these venerable cosmic entities, discusses his psycho-geographical odyssey of 2023, and shares his thoughts on Initiation through contact with Praternatural Intelligences. Safety not guaranteed, but why study the occult if you’re scared of losing your head?
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In this lecture, Star Club Founder Sef Salem and Course Leader Dr. Halo Quin will discuss the purpose and process of crafting an initiation for Societas Astris, and the ritual’s impact on initiates of a modern-day magical order.
While originally constructed as a group ritual system in 2016, the Star Club Framework and 8 Praxes became a training course for those who are new to occultism or who wished to broaden the scope of their knowledge and practice. By 2020 the first training cycle had been completed and participants desired to understand more about the mystical and gnostic under-pinnings of the system, and so Sef created the Star Club Initiation assisted by Dr. Halo Quin and Ben Dean.
The Initiation seeks to expand on the core concepts of Star Club via psychodrama and ritual - the ideas of an anarcho-syndicalist approach to a magical working group, the return of agency to the Candidate(s), and the apotheosis of the self via the Neuro-Gnostic Model.
Join Sef and Halo as they discuss the key elements of apotheosis, katabasis, and anabasis which run common to initiations throughout the Western Mystery Tradition, and why it was so important to turn some of these concepts on their head to create an initiation fit for Societas Astris.
Working with Spirits
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The Path of the Rose is a transcendental experience based on the Greater Seals of seven Archangels as contacted in the Grimoire of Armadel. This manuscript, translated by S. L. MacGregor Mathers, was located in the Library of the Arsenal in Paris, and was circulated amongst the members of his own magical Order the Alpha et Omega, following the break up of the Golden Dawn.
Francis King, in the introduction to the RKP edition of this work, notes that the seals were used as doorways or portals for scrying, not just for conjuration. First working with the book in 2002, Sefriel Salem has investigated and developed this landscape since 2012, running successful courses in Glastonbury, London, Dublin, and Bath to lead participants through the Path of the Rose to meet Archangels and change their lives.
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A well-known quick-start manuscript, Trithemius's Drawing Spirits into Crystals has been made popular by 20th century texts and is the subject of impressive and dedicated work by practitioners around the world.
You too can work with these spirits by joining Sef to deconstruct the tools, materials, and commands of this breathtakingly simple approach to conjuration. First offered in 2016, this workshop has had successes with groups of all levels of experience and familiarity with angels, and is available to you today.
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A key aspect of Sef's research and magical practice over twenty years has revolved around the embodiment of the Divine, within the self and others.
This lecture discusses the key moments and synchronicities which lead to something greater than UPG - Verifiable Inter-personal Gnosis. Drawing on the work of Sheldrake and Kripal, Sef discusses spirit work as an integral part of magical transmission between and amongst practitioners.
Thelema
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This lecture will outline the magick of the Eucharist as demonstrated by Liber XV: The Gnostic Mass. The Mass is the central public and private ritual of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), a Gnostic Neo-Templar order which was adapted and codified by Aleister Crowley in the early part of the 20th Century to promulgate his religion and philosophy Thelema.
Sef will examine the symbolic steps which the Priest and Priestess undertake assisted by the Deacon during the Mass, to create a sacrament using the Lance and the Cup. These magical tools are representative of deeper mysteries, and you will learn how to approach the divine by creating such a union within your own magical framework.
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Much of Thelemic practice is performed alone, such as Liber Resh or the Star Ruby, but what of those who find magick is more fun with friends? Join Sef to discuss the method of developing and adapting rituals for a group, using rituals from The Grimoire of Aleister Crowley by Rodney Orpheus as examples. This workshop will teach you key skills for making your own friendship group into a magick circle.
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Aleister Crowley constantly strove to prove that he could advance the rituals he had discovered or learned in his path through the Western Mystery Tradition. Here his determination to improve on the Pentagram ritual takes it light-years beyond the Star Ruby.
Liber V vel Reguli is an incredible piece of work which Crowley refined repeatedly, and produces an inestimable effect on the practitioner when performed fully and enthusiastically. Sef will demonstrate not only the proper form, but the underlying Thelemic conception of inner and outer worlds which are key to getting outstanding results from this Prince among rituals.
Sorcery & Exorcism
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What do you need before you leave the house?
Wallet, keys, phone, glasses...
Holy water, rosary, phurba, laser-pointer...
Years of magical misadventure and occult missions have left Sef with a few scars, a lot of equipment, and some damn good tales to tell. This exorcist show-and-tell will entertain and enthral, and comes with important dos-and-don'ts for the aspiring hex-breaker!
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Every split-second presents the sorcerer with a choice: to go with the flow of events, or do something about it.
In this lecture, first presented at the 2012 Conference of Magic in Bournemouth, Sef outlines this technique of living in the moment, but just far enough outside it to give a little push when necessary.
Synchronicity, intuition, and that tingle on the back of your neck. You'll know when the time is right to book this lecture.
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First offered in 2013 to the East Midlands Pagan Federation, this lecture discusses a novel approach to magick by revising our perspective on causality and time.
Drawing on the work of Rob Bryanton and factoring techniques from the Sefer Yetzirah, Sef outlines a practice of moving backwards and forwards within your timeline to create not just a better future, but a better present, and even offers the chance for Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
This technique has been taught successfully to Practitioners of Star Club with incredible results, so join the movement and enter your best possible world.
Videos of these lectures will be uploaded to our new media page here, along with our podcast, Sorcerous Intent! Have a peruse and stay tuned.
You’ll also find links to podcasts Sef has been interviewed for, with more added regularly.
Book a Lecture or Workshop today
There are many more tricks up Sef’s sleeve, and if you have a topic you’d like to ask Sef to speak on - or need an emergency speaker for your event! - get in touch by email below.