WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM - Supersonic Festival 2011

Straight after completing the "Celestial Lineage" US poster, the band approached me about designing another poster for their appearance at the 2011 Supersonic Festival in Birmingham, UK. Whilst the brief still centred around around concepts specific to Celestial Lineage, I was keen to produce a piece that stayed true to these themes but that could also act as a contrast and counterpoint to the poster that preceded it.

Whilst the previous US tour poster had portrayed the new aristocracy of the emergent "Cedar Cult" - a priestess releasing her familiar to explore the newly discovered territory of the sky, I was keen to reference the Earth worship found at the foundations of this new society. The concept of "Subterranean Initiation" lies at the heart of this design. In the poster before it, the staff of the priestess (as Hierophant) spans the length of the frame, touching both earth and heavens, representing the desire for dominion over both land and heavens. 

Here the male satyr-like figure looks down instead of up, instruments of ritual laid out before him. His staff points to the North-East, traditionally a dividing line between light & darkness in many ancient cultures. This in turn is related to the concept of the four cardinal directions which are often found in varying forms of ceremonial magick (and on Celestial Lineage itself). The shadowed figure here is perhaps the guardian of this place of initiation, at the foot of stairs ascending to the North Watchtower.

Sigils created in relation to the concept of the cardinal points in relation to stars found in the night sky. Going clockwise from upper right, the symbols here represent Alderbaran, Regulus, Antares and Fomalhaut. The black sun of Sol Niger appears overhead once again.

3 colour Screenprint (metallic silver / gold / black)

18 x 24". Printed by Broken Press. Edition of 100.

(Artist copies are signed, but not numbered - limited number available online from scrawled.bigcartel.com)