[Submission] Reframing The Occult: Ancient Spirituality in the Modern World
A review of Metamorphika’s The Coven: An Invocation of Pagan Rituals (2024)
Refuting a heretical context of the witch trials of Medieval Europe and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, Metamorphika’s The Coven: An Invocation of Pagan Rituals (2024) is a refreshing revival of the true roots of folk spirituality through art. Featuring works from Joseph Häxan and Runegraf, this exhibition reaches back through human history, challenging cornerstone cultural influences such as the Malleus Maleficarum (1486) and Michelle Remembers (1980), and puts into question the place of ancient ritual in modern society.

Joseph Häxan notes that ‘art and the occult are both the result of our collective will to transcend our material existence’ (Häxan, 20191). Taking his name from the landmark occult film, Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922), his work makes use of hyper-realistic, uncanny visuals to create a charged and eerie atmosphere which teases the presence of unseen forces. For The Coven (2024), Häxan presents The Black Rite (2022), a three minute film depicting a fevered ritual: naked figures writhe and twitch like wild animals, the blood of a black goat is consumed, a dark forest is scattered with runes and ceremonial artefacts. Set against a narrative background of falling comets threatening to eradicate human life, ancient folk ritual is naturalised as an innate response to impending extinction and thus imperative to human existence itself. Häxan’s hyper realistic frames revive European mediaeval ritual via a modern medium and reawaken an ancient spirituality buried yet still present within the modern psyche.
Dubbed ‘Primitive Postgraff,’ Runegraf’s work similarly calls into question the place of Pagan ritual in the modern world. Drawing upon the aesthetics of 1990s underground music and cinema, his abstracted works act as a type of occult Rorschach test: they require a heightened level of artistic interpretation, forcing the viewer to themself divinate meaning or, even, read the runes. In carving these symbolic designs in blood red ink, placing human hearts at their centres, and littering the space with sharp objects, Runegraf inspires a visceral reaction which ignites primaeval spirituality in the viewer through their very flesh.


Runegraf’s work also serves as a backdrop for a series of live tattooing sessions which posit human flesh as a site of ritual through an indelible act of pain, blood, sweat and art. Complete with live performances including haunting melodies from harpist Artemisia Nathair and the bewitching incantations of Samuel Suffer, the exhibition itself becomes a ritual experience; a veritable witches convivium.
Metamorphika’s The Coven: An Invocation of Pagan Rituals (2024) invites the viewer to indulge in primaeval beliefs intrinsic to human spirituality yet so often extinguished by the contemporary material world. Rebutting modern day conceptions of Pagan ritual and investigating the place of the occult in modern society, this exhibition calls upon an ancient spirituality dormant but not yet dead.






Esther Lundgren is a London-based freelance writer and Comparative Literature graduate. Her particular interests lie in esotericism and intersectionality. Please send all enquiries to estherlundgren1@gmail.com
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Via Häxan, J. (2019). Joseph Haxan - Artist Profile. [online] Artist Profile. 16 May. Available at: https://artistprofile.com.au/joseph-haxan/.