Time for Magic: Radical Change Through the Wheel of the Year

Punk meets Druidry in the only trade edition of Jamie Reid’s art, weaving c.180 radical art images into the structure of the pagan Wheel of the Year. The art is selected and introduced by curator Stephen Ellcock with notes on the seasonal celebrations by former Chief Druid of OBOD Philip Carr-Gomm.

Time for Magic offers an entrancing overview of Jamie Reid’s incredible art, structured around the eight seasonal festivals of the Wheel of the Year (the equinoxes and solstices plus Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain). Jamie observed these festivals, holding rituals at his allotment in Liverpool, and focused on this theme in his later paintings. This book features key Wheel of the Year artworks as well as famous earlier pieces, including the pre-punk, Situationist-inspired agit-prop and the work he produced for the Sex Pistols. Curator Stephen Ellcock has selected the art and in his own inimitable creative style arranged it into season-themed chapters, as well as finding images of Druidic ceremonies held by Jamie’s great-uncle, Chief Druid George Watson MacGregor Reid.

Stephen Ellcock in conversation with John Marchant introduces Jamie’s life, legacy and love of making trouble; John Marchant provides captions giving deep insight in Jamie’s work; and Philip Carr-Gomm writes about the Wheel of the Year and how it can help us find a new way of being in this era of climate crisis.

Jamie Reid is an artist and anarchist with a life-long interest in Druidry. Best for his work with the Sex Pistols and Suburban Press, his art has continued to develop many genres - music, publishing, performance. He responds to the ever-increasing attacks on our civil liberties and shared common spaces with passionate anger and savage humour. His current Lost Gardens of Heligan land art installation is a huge symbol mowed into a wildflower meadow, representing the eight festivals and changing through the year. His work can be found in the collections of MOMA New York, and the V&A and Tate in London, among many others.

Stephen Ellcock is an author, researcher and curator, whose bestselling books include All Good Things, The Cosmic Dancer and England on Fire.

Philip Carr-Gomm was Chief Druid of the Order of Ovates, Bards and Druids from 1988-2020. While his spiritual practice is rooted in Druidry, he is also a psychologist, Sophrologist and mindfulness teacher and the creator of an online school, The Art of Living Well, to offer courses that combine psychological and spiritual understanding. He is the author of many previous books including The Book of English Magic.