My name is Marco Visconti, and I am an author, educator, and longtime practitioner of the Western Esoteric Tradition, with a particular focus on Thelema, Aleister Crowley, ritual magick, and the initiatory currents that connect esotericism, mysticism, and lived practice.

I have spent more than two decades immersed in the international esoteric milieu, and much of my work has grown out of a desire to bring serious occult study out of closed circles and into a more open, contemporary conversation.

I am the founder of Magick Without Tears, an online school and community devoted to the study and practice of ceremonial magick, Thelemic spirituality, tarot, mysticism, and related currents of Western esotericism. What began during the lockdown years as a Patreon project, built around weekly livestreams and hundreds of written posts, has since grown into a dedicated platform offering on-demand courses, live intensives, workshops, and a private network of students and practitioners from around the world. Through this work, I have taught and guided hundreds of students in subjects ranging from foundational ritual practice to Thoth Tarot, the Holy Guardian Angel, Necronomicon-related currents, and Voudon Gnosis.

I am the author of The Aleister Crowley Manual (Watkins, 2023), Stars & Snakes: A Thelemite’s Field Notes (Chnoubis Imprint 2025), Aleister Crowley’s Mysticism: A Practical Guide (Watkins, 2025), and Black Stars in Dim Carcosa: The Necronomicon Field Notes (Chnoubis Imprint 2026). My work aims to combine textual rigour with practical insight, while resisting the temptation to reduce esoteric traditions either to self-help platitudes or to empty spectacle. I also translated Michael Bertiaux’s Lucky Hoodoo into Italian, helping bring one of the more singular and demanding bodies of modern occult writing to a wider readership.

From 2014 to 2018 I worked at Treadwell’s Books in London, one of the best-known specialist bookshops in the field of Western esotericism. My time there deepened an already serious engagement with occult publishing, rare and specialist books, and the many ways esoteric ideas circulate between scholarship, practice, and subculture.

Before turning fully toward writing and teaching, I spent over fifteen years in music and alternative culture. I am a founding member of XP8 and was a touring member of Faderhead from 2008 to 2018. I have also performed or appeared alongside acts such as Grendel, VNV Nation, Unter Null, and Dope Stars Inc. Under the name DJ Azrael, I played at venues and festivals including Slimelight, Club AntiChrist, Resistanz, Death Guild, Summer Darkness, Ritual, Decadence, and many others across Europe and the United States. More recently, I also wrote and produced music under the name Pylon People.

Alongside my writing and teaching, I have increasingly appeared in media as a commentator and consultant on esotericism and occult history. I have worked with Discovery Channel’s Expedition X as an esoteric consultant and on-screen contributor, and I have appeared in interviews, podcasts, livestreams, and YouTube collaborations that have introduced my work to a wider public. Through Substack, YouTube, live events, and guest appearances, I have tried to become a clear and accessible voice for those seeking a serious engagement with Thelema and the wider Western Esoteric Tradition.

I am also a Thelemite and Freemason, and for many years I have been involved in initiatory and ecclesiastical work across a range of traditions. I am the driving force behind Ecclesia Gnostica Universalis in Anglia, a Thelemic and Gnostic church independent of any single order or organisation. Across all of this work, my aim has remained the same: to make serious esoteric study available without diluting its depth, and to offer students a path grounded not in fantasy or personality cults, but in discipline, clarity, and transformation.