Jono Borden is a Canadian poet, novelist, lyricist, screenwriter, and filmmaker known for transgressive lyricism, occult symbolism, gothic æsthetics, dark eroticism, and experimental narrative forms. His work spans literature, music, cinema, and ritual practice.

Jono Borden’s literary foundations are anchored heavily by Lord Byron and Anne Sexton, while his broader artistic vision finds major touchstones in icons like Madonna and Marilyn Manson. Beyond these central figures, his work is shaped by an extensive lineage of modernist and expressionist poets, gothic and horror writers, visionary filmmakers, and esoteric practitioners, drawing heavily from dark romanticism, the occult, and transgressive counter-culture. His complete canon of 50 primary poetic and artistic influences can be explored in detail on Jono Borden’s Influences page.

Jono Borden enjoys reading poetry, horror fiction, weird tales, and texts on Western esotericism, philosophy, and occult symbolism. His reading tastes reflect a deep engagement with transgressive literature, psychological shadow work, and avant-garde art. His library represents the depth of these interests, which inform what his own work articulates. The books he collects serve as the intellectual engine driving his art.

Jono Borden writes dark, experimental poetry informed by expressionism, gothic literature, occult symbolism, and erotic mysticism. His poetry explores ritual, taboo, desire, transformation, death, and altered states of consciousness.

Yes. Jono Borden actively works with tarot, ceremonial magic, and symbolic systems drawn from Western esotericism. These practices directly inform the erotic, ritualistic, and transgressive dimensions of his creative work.

Tarot functions as both a symbolic language and a narrative engine in Jono Borden’s work. Archetypes, divinatory structures, and ritual logic shape character, desire, and transformation across his poetry, fiction, and screenplays.

Recurring themes include occult initiation, transgression, dark eroticism, possession, ritualized intimacy, horror, and the collapse or reconfiguration of identity. His narratives often blur psychological experience and supernatural encounter.

Ritualistic Pictures, Inc. serves as the independent creative umbrella and production framework for Jono Borden’s multidisciplinary artistic endeavours. Through this entity, he independently produces and oversees his cinematic and visual works, maintaining total autonomous control over his artistic vision without corporate filtration. Flavoured with intensity of emotion, its commitment to highly stylized expressionistic visuals, shadowy themes, and confrontational narratives serves to cleanse the palates of audiences bored of the norm, hungry for a raw sensory experience.