YouTube Channel Feature: Foolish Fish
A well-met return to another week of The Occult Library Blog. We are, as always, grateful for your readership. Of late, you will have noticed our emphasis on community features. This week, we’d like to continue on this thread by focusing on another section of our site, namely the YouTube Channels page.
Platforms like YouTube have placed the power of media expression into the hands of practitioners, scholars, thinkers, and educators. Numerous YouTube channels exist for nearly every aspect of the occult community. Below, you will find a selected list of occult-oriented YouTube channels containing links to the page of each creator.
Within our YouTube Channels page, which is found under our Multimedia section in the Community menu heading, a number of offerings can be found.
One of these is Denis Poisson’s Foolish Fish YouTube channel. It is Poisson’s outlet which we will be highlighting today.
Foolish Fish logo
Poisson’s Foolish Fish channel beckons users to:
“Join me as I show you the most beautiful and most helpful books the esoteric and occult industry is currently producing, from many publishers, large and small, and occasionally send you on white-rabbit chases through the world of esoteric spirituality, symbology, cosmology and other dark (and light!) secret areas of the human experience.”
The channel was founded in 2019, and during recent years it has come to assume the position of a staple in the occult publishing and review communities.
Foolish Fish YouTube homepage detail.
Poisson began his video series by reviewing and detailing classic stories found in deluxe editions. The very first video on the channel is a review of a select Barnes & Noble edition of Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland.
Soon the videos progressed to encompass esoteric and occult materials — those like as Alexander Roob’s seminal Taschen edition of Alchemy & Mysticism.
Later, Poisson began detailing fine and deluxe occult editions from numerous independant and small-press publishers. For example, an early Foolish Fish review covers Joseph Uccello’s Three Hands Press edition Occlith Labyrinthus Archidoxae Volume 0: Omniform.
Poisson soon began a bi-weekly series entitled Esoteric Saturdays in which specific topics in esotericism and the occult are explored with a number of critical lenses. Some of these detail selected literary materials which aid the seeker on a given path. For example, one of these features incorporates a ‘top 10’ lens, and covers 10 esoteric books on Herbal Magick and the Green Path.
Through these features and explorations, which reflect a literary authenticity and a genuine seeker’s approach, Poisson began to develop a large following. For many, these reviews and features no doubt served as the inroad for entering, exploring, and situating themselves within occult literary realms.
It is no surprise then that Poisson’s work led him into publishing his own editions through Black Letter Press. The press, which describes itself as “…a small independent publisher located close to Hannover in Northern Germany, founded by Alice and Claudio Rocchetti in 2018 in Turin,” has published a number of works authored, prefaced, and translated by Poisson.
The most notable of these is Hidden Paths, authored by Poisson.
Hidden Paths hardcover edition from Black Letter Press
Of the work, Black Letter Press notes:
“In Hidden Paths, you will find the transcripts of some of Foolish Fish's most enduring and well-loved videos, with everything from his account of the strange experience that set him off on this exploration of the Magickal traditions of the East and West, to advice for people approaching the topic with a desire to free themselves from unhelpful dogmatic indoctrination in mainstream organized religions to practical tips for growing your own surprising power to influence the probability of a desired outcome in the real world.”
The book arrives in three select editions: Paperback, Hardback, and Collector’s. Each boasts a unique sensibility and design.
The Collector’s edition finds expression in quarter-bound form, with cloth spines & gold-tooled titling, and marbled boards. As with many such works, this edition was limited to 150 hand-numbered copies.
Hidden Paths collector’s edition from Black Letter Press.
Along with Black Letter Press, Poisson has also been involved in two other Black Letter Press editions: he wrote the preface for the Christian mystical text The Cloud of Unknowing, and served as translator for a publication of René Guénon’s The Esotericism of Dante
In regard to Poisson’s independent efforts, Poisson runs a Patreon site with a number of tiers and features related to his video and written materials.
Poisson’s Foolish Fish project is a fine example of how a small project concerned with occult publishing can grow into something much larger and richer. It seems that when such efforts are carried out with the best intentions, they carry their creators to new heights in service of the community.
As a fixture in this milieu, many seekers, collectors, and practitioners new & old find grist for their mills in Poisson’s work. It is unique that such a project comes to encompass such a wide swathe while remaining true to its roots and aspirations.
For more on Foolish Fish and Denis Poisson, this interview via BiblioSophia — a project which is also found via our YouTube section — can be viewed alongside his most recent interview over on Glitch Bottle.
Poisson can also be found on Instagram via @foolishfishbooks.
Once again, we thank our readers for their engagement and time. We enjoy highlighting the folks in our community who have carved unique niches for themselves, and we hope that this feature leads you down new paths in the sphere of occult publishing.
Very best wishes,
— The Occult Library Staff