Cherotic Magic is a major attempt to introduce a powerful system of magic into our modern western everyday life, thereby explosively expanding such concepts as sex and human relationships. The clear, down-to-earth text is amplified by the non-linear trance illustrations by LaBash.
“Moore, paradoxically a severely disabled cerebral palsied human being, who cannot clearly utter a single word is simultaneously a clear and eloquent writer about a reality-shifting form of art he calls Cherotic Magic and a spectacularly courageous, ecstatic journeyer and practitioner of shamanic transformational art.
Reversing the ideas of normal causality, his book guides one towards powerful experiences of re-integration into a unified field of consciousness brought about by the apprenticeship. The radical purposes of the book initiate a teacher/student relationship more appropriately similar to a guru situation than the normal art student context which we all know can be one which borders on charismatic adulation. Rather, the relationship is intended to awaken and restructure the whole being with access to an interrelated “web of all possibilities,” a potentiated ground of existence, from which the student may return empowered with energy, vision and unflinching faith to change the so-called reality structure of this fragmented and specialized culture. The process is a form of magic, which inspires a sense of body wholeness and aliveness where the personal power is to be found. A manual of faith and a description of the nature of apprenticeship, the book is a clarification of the sort of contractual agreement one enters with a teacher, rarely stipulated but here clearly spelled out. This agreement is one of mutual responsibility where the risk is clearly seen to be taken by both parties.
“Moore himself raises the question of Shamanism /as art - /as performance - /as therapy. He cites performance as the bed of mystical initiation, rites of passage, mystical ceremonies where art/science, philosophy, and psychology and theology merge and become whole once again. Here, we may experience these things as at once ancient and strange. The breaking of restricting taboos and inner barriers moves towards a place not of isolated individualism, but one of connectedness both in the interior landscapes and with each other.”
- Barbara Smith, performance artist (read her full review here)
“Frank Moore’s Cherotic Magic presents an innovative and extremely individual view of magic wherein one will find little about candles, incense, and the like, but much about the structure of the universe and our ability to live within it as creatures of ecstasy. Moore is a well-known performance artist whose life has been a testament to the power of the magical path. Born quadriplegic, he has risen to a position of note in artistic circles and to a level of great sophistication as a teacher of the magical path. Now, in Cherotic Magic, the esoteric bases of both his art and his magic have been made available in written form.”
- Timothy O'Neill, Gnosis Magazine
Frank Moore was an American performance artist, shaman, teacher, poet, essayist, painter, musician, and internet/television personality who experimented in art, performance, ritual, and shamanistic teaching from the late 1960s until his death in 2013 in Berkeley, California.
Moore is well known as one of the NEA-funded artists targeted by Jesse Helms in the early ’90s for doing art that was labeled “obscene”. He is also well known for long (5-48 hours) ritualistic performances with audience participation, nudity, and eroticism.
Moore coined the word, “eroplay” to describe physical play between adults released from the linear goals of sex and orgasm. He explored this, and similar concepts in performance and ritual as a way for people to break through isolation, and connect on a deep human level beyond the social and cultural expectations and limitations.
Moore was born with cerebral palsy, could not walk or talk, and wrote books, directed plays, made award-winning films, gave poetry readings, played piano, sang in music jams, lead rock bands, and hosted a live variety show on his radical webstation, which he ran for 14 years. Frank's original oil and digital paintings have been shown across the United States and in Canada. Moore communicated using a laser-pointer and a board of letters, numbers, and commonly used words.
From 1991 to 1999 Frank Moore published and edited the acclaimed underground zine, The Cherotic [ r ]Evolutionary. In addition to his books, Cherotic Magic, Art of a Shaman, Chapped Lap, Skin Passion and numerous other self-published pieces, Moore was widely published in magazines and books.
In the 1970s, Frank Moore created the popular cabaret show, The Outrageous Beauty Revue. In the 1980s he became one of the United States' foremost performance artists. In 1992 he was voted Best Performance Artist by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. In 2001 he began producing shows for Berkeley's public access channel, and these shows continue today. In 2006, Moore became a write-in candidate for President of the United States in the 2008 election, qualifying in 25 states and receiving votes across the country. Since 2011, he has become internationally known for his performance/video archive on Vimeo.com which has been viewed by over 15 million people worldwide.
Frank Moore performed regularly in the San Francisco Bay Area up until his death.
His students and the people influenced by his life/work continue his vision.
You can also receive the book directly from us for a suggested donation of $10.00 plus shipping.
Please email us at fmoore@eroplay.com
You can also read the entire book on The Internet Archive here:
https://archive.org/details/frank-moore-cherotic-magic-revised/mode/2up
Other books by Frank Moore are available here.
