Now Damien Echols Will Teach You the Secrets of Magick

For The New York Times, Rachel Monroe profiles Damien Echols, a former death row inmate who was one of the Memphis Three, imprisoned for murdering three boys until DNA evidence helped free them. In prison, Echols engaged in magick to help him cope. Monroe writes, “That terminal ‘k’ is there to distinguish Mr. Echols’s practices – part of an occult spiritual tradition that incorporates Gnostic Christianity, Taoist energy practices and esoteric Judaism – from the cheesy pull-the-rabbit-out-of-a-hat illusion work that most people associate with the word magic.” Monroe adds, “Mr. Echols recently came to Brooklyn, where, dressed entirely in black and with arcane symbols tattooed on most of his visible skin, he spoke before a rapt crowd at the Brooklyn Bowl.”

Read at The New York Times

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