The year is 1979. A deep malaise stalks Jimmy Carter's America. In New York, the police have printed fliers warning tourists to stay off the streets after 6PM. Vigilantes keep the peace on the subway. Sid Vicious died in his hotel room last week. What a time to be alive.
New York was a breeding ground for the mystical and occult in the 1970s, and at the center of it was a magic shop called The Hidden Mirror. This shop, run by on-again, off-again lovers Harry Abel and E Krasinski, was the crossover point for astrologers, neopagans, Pythagorans, and all the other occult groups springing up in the Age of Aquarius.
On the evening February 15, 1979, 12 friends, lovers and acquaintances gathered in the home of Harry Abel and E Krasinski at 35 W 19th st.
Harry runs The Hidden Mirror, an occult supplier that serves as a focal point of New York's "New Age" scene, with partner E Krasinski. Harry has leveraged The Hidden Mirror's success into local fame and a substantial fortune, though he has a reputation for being cantankerous towards customers and ruthless in business.
A plays keyboards and guitar in the occult-themed heavy metal band Soft White Ünderbelly, best known for their controversial hit song "Suicide is the Answer", which A co-wrote with then-partner P Barnard. A is restrained but has an intensity boiling just below the surface.
B is a performance artist and radical sex educator, known for the off-off-off-Broadway show "The Sacred Prostitute" and "Talk Dirty to Me", a weekly sex advice and discussion radio program on WBAI. B is bubbly and brimming with energy.
C is a British comic book illustrator known for their "darker, edgier" take on Casper the Friendly Ghost. C is also a 7th-degree magus in the Cult of Pythagoras and contributed illustrations to S's Encyclopedia Necrotica.
E is Harry's shy and sensitive lover and co-owner of the Hidden Mirror. While H focues on the business side, E is the more spiritual part of the relationship. Formerly a Pythagoran, E is one of the founding members of Cosmos' Children, and commissioned G to design the Cosmic Tarot.
G is a theater technician and tarot reader who is a member of the newly-formed neopagan group Cosmos Children, and has designed their new tarot deck. As a teenager, G was a superfan of Soft White Ünderbelly and occasionally worked as a roadie when the band was playing clubs in the city in the years before they took off. G has a naive, "space-cadet" vibe but can be sharply insightful.
K is an experimental filmmaker known for their pioneering homoerotic themes -- as well as their subsequent obscenity charges -- which have helped established K as a countercultural icon. K is also a lifelong Pythagoran, and their films frequently include astrological and numerological symbolism. K has a decades-long one-sided beef with Andy Warhol (which Warhol has yet to acknowledge.)
M is a freelance journalist with a "beat" of New Age and occult culture, and hosts The Witching Hour, a weekly paranormal-themed call-in show on WBAI. M is also a practicing neopagan and has recently written the book "Here Come the Heretics", an introduction to neopaganism and modern witchcraft.
P is a poet and musician with the melancholy heart of a French Decadent. P acheived commercial success writing lyrics for Soft White Ünderbelly, and now has a successful solo career. After the one-two punch of a serious stage injury and the dissolution of their relationship with A, P is back with a new book of poetry & illustrations in collaboration with new artistic-and-romantic partner C.
Q is an elderly writer, model, bon vivant and queer icon recently transplanted from London to New York. Q acheived unexpected stardom late in life after their memoir, "I Reign in Hell", was adapted into a hit musical. Despite their newfound fame, Q is remarkably accessible -- their number is listed in the phone book and they will go to dinner with anyone as long as they're buying.
R is a photographer known for black and white portraits. R is a longtime friend and collaborator of P and works as the house photographer at The Black Hole, a notorious fetish club.
S is the mysterious author of the Encyclopedia Necrotica and founder of Cosmos' Children. Although S is a fixture of the occult scene, next to nothing is known about their personal life. Unlike most people in the community, S is never seen consuming drugs and is always dressed in fine business attire.