So these are some of the sources that have really informed my understanding of the teachings in Phantom and/or my spiritual and magical practice. That doesn’t mean I necessarily agree with everything they say or argue %100, but they’ve all given me a great deal to think about and challenged me to think more deeply!

Note, the info for the sources listed here is given in more or less APA (American Psychological Association) citation style, because, so far at least, it’s the format I find the most user-friendly. Thus, sources are listed by the author’s or hosts last name, followed by their first name (though, if there’s more than one author/host, I’ve listed second and beyond host’s/author’s names normally), in alphabetical order. Doing it this way also makes it easy to add new listings! Oh, and apologies for any weirdness with changing fonts. Many of these were copied directly from my dissertation bibliography.

Adler, Margot (1979, 2006). Drawing Down The Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess Worshippers And Other Pagans In America Today. Penguin Books.

In this monumental work, which was apparently originally Adler’s doctoral thesis, the author gives an overview of the many Witchcraft and Neo-Pagan movements that have emerged since the middle of the twentieth century.

Auryn, Matt (2020). Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide To Meditation, Magic and Manifestation. Llewellyn Publications.

In this excellent book, Auryn does a very comprehensive job giving the fundamentals of magic. He leads you through the basic psychic skills that underlie effective magical practice, and gives exercises to help master them. His section on shadow work is especially helpful!

Clare, Eli (2017). Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling With Cure. Duke University Press.

This book is amazing!  As superb as Exile and Pride (see below), and perhaps even finer although that’s saying a lot!  In it, Clare blends life-writing (his own experiences), history, informed imaginative extrapolation, and critical theory to explore the ideology of cure – the conviction that some body-minds are broken and need to be fixed.  Clare explores the complexities of cure – how it saves lives, but also prioritizes certain lives over others, brings healing, but simultaneously is used to justify eugenic violence.  And as usual, he does this with unparalleled skill, nuance and compassion, allowing his own positions to be unsettled and refusing quick, easy answers.

Clare, Eli. (2015) Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation. Duke University Press.

There simply aren’t enough words for awesome in the English language to describe this book! This is actually the third edition of a work originally published in the late 1990s. And it was 20 years ahead of its time then, and, for my money, it still is now! In it, Clare weaves together his own life history as a Trans man with a rich understanding of Disability as a social process, not merely a biological fact, and grounds it in a deep sense of ecology while he’s at it. Seriously, go by your fastest modality and read or listen to this book! Because, it’s also available in an excellent audiobook!

Davis, Lennard J. “Bodies of Difference: Politics, Disability, and Representation”. In Snyder, Sharon L, Brenda Jo Brueggeman and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson eds. (2002) Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities. Modern Language Association of America, New York. pp 100-106

In this article, Deaf scholar Lennard Davis traces the concept of “normal” as it emerged in the 19th century. He examines how it came to the fore as part of the development of the capitalist nation-state, functioning as a key source of legitimacy for both the notion of the citizen and that of the interchangeable worker.

Dick Wound and minimus maximus. Off The Cuffs: A Kink And BDSM Podcast. Podcast Jukebox Network. OCP Productions LLC.

On this often hilarious show, Dick and max interview folks from all over the Kink and BDSM spectrum, proving that it truly does take all kinds to make a world LOL!! Because, whether you’re into what they’re talking about or not, you always learn something and gain a new perspective on pleasure, the erotic, and even the spiritual.

Duggan, Lisa and Nan D. Hunter (2006) Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture. Routledge.

This fabulous book traces the history of the so-called “sex wars” – a rather bitter period of strife within the Feminist movement that took place in the 1980s and early 1990s over the political implications of sexual activities. It lays out the various lines of that conflict and what was at stake, and explores some of the victories and defeats on all sides.

Erevelles, Nirmala. (2011) Disability and Difference in Global Context: Towards a Transformative Body Politic. Palgrave MacMillan.

In this excellent work, Erevelles explores the material conditions of Disability – the physical conditions that create it, such as war, trans-Atlantic slavery, segregation, environmental racism, exploitative working conditions and poverty, and the ways in which Disability therefore intersects with neo/colonialism and capitalism. She challenges us to imagine Disability beyond its conventional representation as/by the congenitally disabled, but otherwise perfectly “healthy”, buff white guy in a wheelchair.

Erickson, Loree L. (2015). Unbreaking Our Hearts: Cultures of Un/Desirability and the Transformative Potential of Queercrip Porn. Ph.D. dissertation in the Faculty of Environmental Studies (now Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change”, York University. Toronto, Canada.

Here, Erickson explores what she terms “cultures of un/desirability” – that is, how some bodies are labelled by society as either desirable or undesirable both erotically and economically. She explores the intersection and interaction between economic and erotic un/desirability, and how they reinforce each other and white-supremacist, heteropatriarchal, imperial capitalism. Finally, she explores Feminist, Queercrip porn as a site of resistance to this de/valuing of bodies and lives.

Erickson, Loree. (2007) “Revealing Femmegimp: A Sex-Positive Reflection On Sites of Shame as Sites of Resistance For People With Disabilities”. Atlantis: A Journal of Women’s Studies 32:1.

In this wonderful article, she explores shame, not as a private emotion, but as a political process by which stigma and codes of “normalcy” are internalized. And she also explores how the very sites where this process of shame is imposed can be turned into sites of resistance through performance.

Erickson, Loree dir. Want.

 

This awesome film by Loree blends porn with Disability activism. Juxtaposing the Disabled person as a full, sexually active human-being against the barriers she faces to her full participation in society, Want challenges you to think about access in whole new ways. And it includes a descriptive track for the Blind too!

Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. (1997) Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability In American Culture and Literature. Columbia University Press.

 

This book is one of the germinal works in the field of Critical Disability Studies. In it, Garland-Thomson explores the emergence of the idea of the Disabled/Deformed body in North American culture, and how that idea intersects with developing conceptions of race and gender. She does this by examining a number of key works of literature, as well as cultural practices such as the “freak show”.

Grossman, Pam (2019). Waking The Witch: Reflections On Women, Magic, and Power. Gallery Books.

In this delightful book, Grossman explores the Witch, both as an archetype and as a modern spiritual practice. She explores the historical context of the emergence of the figure of the Witch in Western culture, and explores the Witch archetype in art and popular culture. But, she does so from the deep love of some one who is herself a proud, practicing Witch. Also, the book is available in a superb audiobook read by the author herself!!

Grossman, Pam. The Witch Wave podcast.

“Where art is magic, and magic is real” On this delightful show, Grossman interviews all kinds of practicing Witches and Witchy/Witch-adjacent artists, including some of the drag performers who inspired me to get started!!

Gurza, Andrew. Disability After Dark podcast. Cripple & Co Productions.

On this show, Andrew talks about the Disabled experience, including sexuality, Queerness, and all the aspects of that experience that we don’t usually talk about openly. He also interviews all kinds of awesome Disabled creators, artists and activists! He’s even recently interviewed a number of Disabled drag performers!!

Harrington, Lee (2016). Sacred Kink: The Eightfold Paths Of BDSM And Beyond. Mystic Productions Press.

As the title suggests, in this book, Harrington explores the relevance of Kink and BDSM to spiritual practice. He and the fellow authors he features explore how various kinds of BDSM practices and techniques can be safely used to achieve altered states of consciousness and/or ecstatic states in order to connect to the Divine.

Jeffreys, Mark. “The Visible Cripple (Scars and Other Disfiguring Displays Included)”. in Snyder, Sharon L, Brenda Jo Brueggeman and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson eds. (2002) Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities. Modern Language Association of America, New York. pp 31-39.

 

In this piece, Jeffreys explores the body as a site of more than just representation. He explores how various practices do, indeed, attempt to “normalize” the Disabled/Deformed body, but can never entirely succeed because those bodies have their own ways of asserting themselves. He argues that the physical realities of bodies must be taken into account in our Critical Disability work, not just the ways in which bodies are visually and rhetorically represented.

Kafer, Alison. (2013) Feminist, Queer, Crip. Indiana University Press.

In this book, Kafer explores the politics of “the future”. She considers what futures we consider desirable and why, and which we consider undesirable. She asks who is – which kinds of bodies are – included in the futures we consider desirable and who is excluded from our imagined positive futures, both as experienced individually and at the level of society more broadly. She asks why, for example, the future we want is nearly always represented by the image (for example in political messaging) of a white, “healthy”, able-bodied, usually male child, but rarely ever by that of a Black, Brown, female or Disabled child.

Kay, Susan (2005). Phantom: The Story Of His Life. Llumina Press.

Considered canon by many Phans, this vast novel tells the story of Erik’s life before becoming The Phantom of the Opera and meeting Christine. It’s often drawn on by Phanfic authors for back-story material. Warning, you will very likely need Kleenex or something similar for tears. Also, content warning for moderate descriptions of violence and abuse, including sexual violence.

Kendall-Tackett, Kathleen (2018). Phantom of the Opera: A Social History of the World’s Most Popular Musical. Praeclarus Press LLC.

This highly entertaining book traces the history and development of Phantom as a cultural phenomenon, beginning with the original stage-musical, and proceeding to discuss the 2004 film and Love Never Dies (Lloyd Webber’s much vaunted sequel).  The author also explores how the emergence of the internet and social media have changed the relationship between producers and audiences by tracing the impact of grass-roots Phan campaigns on the development of Love Never Dies.  My one qualm with the book, however, is that, by social history of Phantom as a cultural phenomenon, she mainly means the history of the production process, although she does discuss divergences in reception between critics and audiences as well.  However, she does not discuss the phenomenon of the Phandom until the very last chapter, and she leaves it at an observation of its similarity to that of Trekies or the Star Wars fandom.  She does not, alas, (and this would have been extremely interesting to have read given her background in psychology) explore the particularities of the large and loyal cult following that has grown up around Phantom over the past 30+ years. I think this short shrift comes from the fact that she herself does not identify as a Phan, and so is writing from outside that experience of intense love for the show and story. I do appreciate, though, her refusal to pathologize the Phandom.

Lefebvre, Henri (1957). “Revolutionary Romanticism”. Nouvelle Revue Francaise no. 58. in/from Grindon, Gavin trans. (1971). “Le Romantisme Revolutionaire”. in Au-Dela Du Structuralisme, Editions Anthropos. Paris, Fr. pages 27-50

In this essay, French Marxist Henri Lefebvre argues for a new romanticism which draws on the past for inspiration, but rejects nostalgia and looks to the possibilities of the future. He offers this as a position from which artists and intellectuals can honestly engage as allies of the working class when they are not from that class themselves, and as an alternative to enui and cynicism.

Leroux, Gaston. (1911, 1988) The Phantom of the Opera. Alexander Damatos translator. Unicorn Publishing House.

Of course, I have to include the book that started it all!! This novel by early twentieth-century French author Gaston Leroux is what inspired every incarnation of the Phantom story since, including the Lloyd Webber musical (although, many if not most incarnations since the novel take extreme liberties with its plot and structure). Note, this version, translated by Alexander Damatos, is the most widely known and available. But, it’s notorious among Phans for leaving out large passages of the original French text.

Lorde, Audre and Cheryl Clark. (1984) Sister Outsider. TenSpeed Press.

This is another work for which there just aren’t enough synonyms for awesome! It’s basically Lorde’s and Clark’s extended letter to the Feminist movement in which they lovingly, but pissedly, call it out for its refusal at the time to recognize the struggles of Black/Of Colour/Queer women as being integral to Feminism. Their essays “The Uses of Anger”, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” and “Uses of the Erotic” have been especially powerful for me in the development of my work with POTO.

McRuer, Robert and Anna Mollow , eds. (2012) Sex and Disability. pp. Duke University Press.

This excellent and powerful anthology explores various ways – legal, educational, rhetorical (literary and visual), etc, – in which the Disabled body is set up as out of bounds sexually and reproductively, and the ways in which this framing both reinforces and is reinforced by systems of racism, classism, hetero/sexism and ideas of nationhood. The authors in this work also, however, explore ways in which this framing is being and can be resisted, especially using the arts. (Note: I disagree, however, with some of what is argued in the essay on HIV and disclosure.)

Mingus, Mia (2011). “Moving Toward The Ugly: A Politic Beyond Desirability“.

In this blog post, Mingus talks about desirability – that is, the ability to attain certain standards of attractiveness based on whiteness, cis-passing, affluence and able-bodiedness – as a commodity or form of capital that can be exchanged for advantage or even mere survival. She discusses how this both reinforces and is reinforced by white-supremacist, heteropatriarchal, imperialist capitalism. And she argues that movements for liberation must reject assimilation into desirability, both because the protections it offers are ultimately false, and because it always leaves some body out.

Morrigan, Clementine. Fucking Magic (issues 1-15). www.clementinemorrigan.com

This zine changed my life, and I don’t say that lightly! In it, Morrigan describes her journey of survival and political and spiritual awakening to become the awesome anarchist Witch that she is! Note, apparently the issues are also now collected together as a book, and both book and print zine (at least the most recent issues anyway) are available in both print and digital forms. Which is great, because being available digitally as well makes them more accessible, which I hugely appreciate!!

Morrigan, Clementine (2020). Trauma Magic. www.clementinemorrigan.com

This zine collects together a series of essays on trauma as both a political and spiritual process and space of resistance.

Morrigan, Clementine . Fuck The Police Means We Don’t Act Like Cops To Each Other (issues 1-3).

This zine, now also collected together as a book I believe, offers a Left critique of cancel culture rooted in profound love and compassion and the conviction that no one is disposable, even those who have caused harm. It is also deeply rooted in her experience of transformation in twelve-step programs, both her own and having witnessed other people’s.

Morrigan, Clementine and Jay Lesoleil. the Fucking Cancelled podcast.

This awesome, daring podcast expands on the Left critique of cancel culture put forward in the We Don’t Act Like Cops zine. Both hosts draw on their own experiences of cancellation and also of twelve-step recovery to offer an alternative vision for Left politics rooted in the refusal to treat anyone, even those who have caused harm, as disposable. They also interview artist and thinkers from all over the heterodox Left in order to invite different perspectives.

Moscicki, Olivia (2022). “Imagining A ‘Gothic Disability’: literary genre, political theory, and living disabled in Riva Lehrer’s portraiture”. Disability & Society.

This extremely cool article explores the concept of “Gothic subjectivity” as a way to resist simplistic binaries of good and evil, hero and villain, etc, and as a resistance to simplistic triumphalism both in literature and politics. The author then goes on to explore what a Disabled Gothic subjectivity might look and feel like, and what it’s implications might be.

Perry, George. (1987) The Complete Phantom of the Opera . London: Pavilion Books Limited.

 

This wonderful work traces the development of the story of the Phantom of the Opera from the building that inspired it – the Palais Garnier aka the Paris Opera, through various film versions, to its ultimate triumph in the Lloyd Webber stage musical. It contains lots of great pictures for those who can see them, and even the full original libretto! (Note: I understand there’s been a new version done for the 25th anniversary, but I gather from Phans that it’s not as good. Apparently, it doesn’t contain much new information except on the Gerik (aka the 2004 movie of the Lloyd Webber musical) and Love Never Dies {Andrew Lloyd Webber’s POTO sequel}).

Piepzna-Samarasinha, Leah Lakshmi (2018). Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice. Arsenal Pulp Press.

The author explores questions of what care is and how it can be provided in ways that are just and ethical. She explores how intersections of racism, the gender binary, neo/colonial capitalism and ableism impact care, and how these might be resisted through a Disability Justice framework.

Siebers, Tobin. (2008) Disability Theory. University of Michigan Press.

Like Jeffreys’ article, this work seeks to put forward an understanding of Disability that takes into account both the physiological and the sociopolitical. He explores Disability as being relational between the body and its environment, but not just physical environment – social, political, economic and ecological environments as well. His chapters on sex and Disability and on Disability and masquerade were particularly interesting from a Phanship perspective!

Starhawk (1993). The Fifth Sacred Thing. Bantam.

This amazing novel, sometimes credited with launching the “solar punk” genre, imagines a near-future conflict between a community that has succeeded in transforming its society and economy into one of justice and equity rooted in respect for life, and one that operates on undisguised principles of patriarchy, hierarchy and greed. And it imagines how non-violence and Witchcraft might be used to win such a conflict. Oh, and it’s also available as a truly superb audiobook!!

Starhawk . (1999). The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth Of The Ancient Religion Of The Great Goddess. (Twentieth Anniversary Edition). Harper Collins.

This book was and remains one of the germinal texts of Feminist Witchcraft! One of the fabulous things about this twentieth anniversary edition, though, is that the newly added chapter notes show how Starhawk’s thinking has evolved since the book first came out in 1979, especially with regard to gender.

Walker, Pete M.D. (2014). Complex PTSD: From Surviving To Thriving. Lafayette, Ca. Azure Coyote.

I discovered this trauma therapist’s work through Clementine Morrigan’s zines. And I’m hugely grateful for that!! His work has really deepened my understanding of the effects of compound trauma, which has been both profoundly helpful to my own healing journey and also powerfully relevant to understanding Phantom and its teachings! Oh, and it’s also available as an excellent audiobook!

Walker, Pete M.D. (2019). The Tao Of Fully Feeling: Harvesting Forgiveness Out of Blame. Tantor Audio.

In this excellent book, also available as a first-rate audiobook, Walker explores how and why we repress or disavow certain emotions and how to unbury them. He also explores how to acknowledge and express even so-called “negative” emotions in healthy, life-affirming and relational ways so that they neither get repressed nor take over and rule your life.

Whitmore, Hilary, Kanani Soleil and Courtney Weber. That Witch Life podcast.

On this often hilarious show, these delightful millennial Witches discuss living as a Witch in the modern world. They also interview all kinds of awesome, creative, artistic and magical types! Plus, they host two virtual conferences each year: their big So Mote That Con in October, and their one-day Mini-Con typically in April. They’re well worth attending, and they offer scholarship tickets for those experiencing financial hardship! It works on an honour system, too, so no, you don’t have to disclose your situation.