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Callum James

@callum-james

Callum James: poet, writer and bookseller. 'The South Downs. Paths of the Dead' (Broken Sleep Books) Queer. Story. Landscape. Magic.

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16.11.2024
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Latest posts by Callum James @callum-james

"If a gay man of my generation didn't strike out for the horizon, then he performed a small betrayal. It was a duty for those of us marked as 'different' to lead adventurous lives."

Derek Jarman in "Smiling in Slow Motion"

09.03.2026 11:45 ๐Ÿ‘ 6 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Fire stains on shingle

08.03.2026 23:01 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The Sea Kale is sprouting from its rough, swollen root.

08.03.2026 21:49 ๐Ÿ‘ 5 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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"An Essay on Witchcraft"
Ink and kraft card

#asemic #asemicwriting #asemicart #sigilmagick

08.03.2026 21:35 ๐Ÿ‘ 13 ๐Ÿ” 2 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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My catnip is foylesforbooks.bsky.social at Waterloo...

08.03.2026 11:47 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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I would encourage everyone to become an artist" -- Derek Jarman

04.03.2026 22:17 ๐Ÿ‘ 9 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Quite a good book haul lately, both new and secondhand.

03.03.2026 21:44 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Oystershell, driftwood,
Charred circle, and nails

03.03.2026 19:37 ๐Ÿ‘ 9 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The beauty of burnt driftwood.

02.03.2026 19:13 ๐Ÿ‘ 8 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Have a thing for standing up driftwood. Making driftwood guardians

02.03.2026 13:52 ๐Ÿ‘ 8 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Sigils on the shoreline!

01.03.2026 23:09 ๐Ÿ‘ 9 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Bloomsbury on a damp Sunday morning.

22.02.2026 22:11 ๐Ÿ‘ 6 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Pamela Colman Smith's hearth at Treadwells bookshop in London now a low key shrine to her memory and legacy.

22.02.2026 21:50 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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"Three Seals"
Ink and acryllic on kraft card.

19.02.2026 23:30 ๐Ÿ‘ 8 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

...Every angel bears a true thought. They are the bees of infinity, the messengers of Lady Wisdom. Their thoughts are honeyed sweet. Dead souls,' they whisper. Wisdom is opaque, indistinct, only discovered by an archeology of soul."

19.02.2026 23:24 ๐Ÿ‘ 5 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Derek Jarman died #OTD 32 years ago.

Just completed a twenty day piece of writing using "Modern Nature" as a touchstone.

" Angels do not wish to dispirit you with the primal black of the void. They are he light in that dark, the star swarm, singing the music of the spheres...

19.02.2026 23:24 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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If you have any opportunity at all to see Mรกm by Teac Damsa do so. It is a powerful, wicked, irish ceilidh or wake presided over by the horned god in the form of a virtuoso accordianist. Every dance veers to madness, myth or mystery. Driven and wild and full of witchcraft!

17.02.2026 23:09 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 2 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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'Sweeter as the Days Go By'
Derek Jarman
Mixed media, 1988.

16.02.2026 20:22 ๐Ÿ‘ 23 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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"Joy and grief make glory
As yellow and blue make green."

I remember this moment on my walk of The South Downs Way so well.

Nearly expiring, coming to a summit out of a humid, dark, green, wooded path... into a view of sea, sky and hills open for miles.

16.02.2026 15:26 ๐Ÿ‘ 5 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I can still remember the sensation!

16.02.2026 15:25 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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A mini pilgrimage yesterday to Highcliffe where, in the 1930s and 40s a small group of imaginative and free spirited people formed the first Wiccan coven. Gerald Gardner's house now has a blue plaque, and Mill House in the grounds of which the coven first met has a special atmosphere still.

03.02.2026 21:44 ๐Ÿ‘ 10 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Jarman describes a dream "a conversation on a red bus with a naked youth who declares he is Dionysus on his way to an orgy celebrated in his honour."

I am thinking about the difference between recording a past event, and a dream that otherwise would have no presence in the world

03.02.2026 21:34 ๐Ÿ‘ 5 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Derek Jarman would have been 84 today. Two birthdays recorded in his journal, Modern Nature.

31.01.2026 17:04 ๐Ÿ‘ 8 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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At the shoreline this evening.

28.01.2026 23:57 ๐Ÿ‘ 11 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Twelfth Night collage poems. Torn, abraded, layered, half-there... read what you can.

28.01.2026 22:56 ๐Ÿ‘ 14 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Loving every word, every jot and tittle of Derek Jarman's Modern Nature. This snippet, a fairy tale and a synchronicity...

28.01.2026 22:42 ๐Ÿ‘ 7 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Yes indeed, my visit was in fact at research for a friend writing a story on these very themes!

28.01.2026 22:41 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I mean, that's class!

23.01.2026 21:46 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Re reading Modern Nature by Derek Jarman in anticipation of his birthday on 31st January. I am constantly affirmed in my feeling it is one of rhe most spiritual books I have ever read.

23.01.2026 21:44 ๐Ÿ‘ 16 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Ritual Instructions.

21.01.2026 20:35 ๐Ÿ‘ 8 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0