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The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels


The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels is a group of occultists and performers including writer and magician Alan Moore, Bauhaus member David J, and musician Tim Perkins, who perform occult "workings" consisting of prose poetry set to music. Several of these "workings" have been released onto CD. It was also the name of the group's first performance piece which was released as a spoken word CD in 1996.

The group formed in the mid-1990s, as part of Moore's " "coming out" as a magician," described by Warren Ellis as "a return to his roots of performing from the days of the Northampton Arts Lab and the various bands along the way from there to here." David J and – particularly Tim Perkins provide "musical backdrop to Alan's monologues and verse... [sometimes] accompanied by a dancer." Some performances are recorded live, others are "recreated in the studio" after the fact.

The group's initial, self-titled "working" occurred in 1994. It was released on CD in 1996 on the Cleopatra label, (just a week after Birth Caul), and re-released in limited form in 1999/2000. The "most overtly occult," it was an exploration of magic, Glycon (a Roman snake deity) and "a tour of the wild magic of the London area the piece was being performed in."

Fellow writer Warren Ellis wrote in 2000 that parts of Moore's monologue "emerged first as introductory pieces to From Hell, [as well as in] the Iain Sinclair mockumentary-documentary for Channel 4... [entitled, "The Cardinal & the Corpse"; in which Moore appeared] as an occult fanatic trapped in a room with strange old books."

Tracks from the CD release have featured on other albums, with the first track – "The Hair of the Snake That Bit Me" – appearing in 1995 on Hexentexts, the Creation Books Sampler CD, for which Alan Moore drew the cover.

The trio's second performance (and technically their first CD release) was The Birth Caul (A Shamanism of Childhood), a spoken word piece by Moore with music by David J and Tim Perkins. The performance took place at the Old County Court in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on 18 November 1995, and was released on 5 March 1996 by Charrm (CHARRMCD22).


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