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Categories:
Magick & Occult,
Tarot & Divination Books
Terrestrial Astrology - Divination by Geomancy by Stephen Skinner
£60.00
Antiquarian / Second Hand
Published: Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1980
Condition: Very good, dust jacket unclipped. Binding firm, pages clean and unmarked.
"Geomancy - divination by earth - ranks alongside the tarot, astrology and the I Ching as an important form of divination. Since the Renaissance it has largely fallen out of favour for want, the author believes, of generally available information on its practice. This book is the first in English to cover the historical background and practice of divinatory geomancy, and will therefore be invaluable to all those interested in divination, magic and astrology. It is the only complete history in any language, covering its various manifestations in different cultures, as well as being a practical manual showing how to cast and interpret geomantic figures.
Drawing on material from Latin, French, German and Arabic sources, Stephen Skinner explores the roots of geomancy in the Islamic raml divination of northern Africa, which lead to the Fa, Ifa and voodoo divinatory practices on the West Coast and sikidy in Madagascar.
He examines the impact Islamic geomancy had on medieval Europe, where it rose to prominence and became, with astrology, a prime method of divination. The part it played in Renaissance thinking and in the great astrological revival of the nineteenth century is followed by an examination of its use in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and its declining influence in the twentieth century.
The second section of the book is concerned with the practice, manipulation and generation of geomantic figures as standardized in Europe, and includes comparisons with the earlier methods. It explains that geomancy, like the 1 Ching, relies on a form of binary mathematics, and gives practical examples as a guide to the interpretation and practice of the art which involves the inter-relationship between astrology and geomancy."
If you like this, you might also like:
The First Occult Tarot Book by Robert M. Place
£19.99
The First Occult Tarot as Envisioned by Louis-Raphaël-Lucrèce de Fayolle, comte de Mellet, in 1781
Before Aleister Crowley, before Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith, before the Golden Dawn, before Papus, Éliphas Lévi, and Etteilla, the first author to describe an occult version of the Tarot was Louis-Raphaël-Lucrèce de Fayolle, comte de Mellet, writing in Antoine Court de Gébelin’s, 1781, eighth volume of his monumental encyclopedia, Monde primitif.
The comte de Mellet associated the Tarot’s trumps with the Classical Ages of Man: the Age of Gold, the Age of Silver, and the Age of Iron. He correlated the Trumps with the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, he described the minor suits in detail, and he provided the earliest discussion of a divination technique for the Tarot.
Two Esoteric Tarots by Peter Mark Adams and Christophe Poncet
£30.00
A conversation between Peter Mark Adams and Christophe Poncet on the esoteric tarot, in relation to the elite and Saturnian Sola-Busca tarocchi and the popular and luminous Tarot de Marseille. The two leading researchers into the hidden legacy of the tarot discuss the significance of their discoveries, which overturn the prevailing academic orthodoxy, and in doing so transform our understanding of the role of tarot in Western esotericism.
Standard hardback edition limited to 800 copies.
Bound in mandarin cloth stamped in gold, black endpapers. Printed in colour on premium 150 gsm paper.
The Tarot of Marsilio (Down Here) by Christophe Poncet
£75.00
Down Here is the first of a meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated three volume work, The Tarot of Marsilio by Christophe Poncet; a landmark inquiry into the origins of the Tarot de Marseille. Against the prevalent view in the academy – that the tarot was never used, before the 18th century, for anything other than card games – Poncet argues that the Tarot de Marseille is a work of esoteric philosophy hidden in plain sight.
Through a careful analysis of artworks, philosophical texts, and the imagery and symbolism of the cards, Poncet places and dates the deck to Florence in the 1470s. Marsilio Ficino, translator of the Corpus Hermeticum and the complete works of Plato, is identified as the likely mastermind behind this tarot. In this first volume, the imagery and meaning of the Chariot, the Devil, the Lovers, Strength, the Hermit, the House of God, Arcanum XIII and the Fool are explored.
As readers of Two Esoteric Tarots will know, Poncet’s investigation is comparable to that of Peter Mark Adams in The Game of Saturn, shedding new light on heterodox thought in the Renaissance.
Christophe Poncet has been on a decades long quest to discover the truth about the Tarot de Marseille and the esoteric ideas encoded in the cards. The Tarot of Marsilio takes us on an extraordinary journey of discovery, from a lost masterpiece of Botticelli in a ruined castle, through the stacks of the Vatican library, artist’s sketchbooks, and works in the collections of the Louvre, the British Museum, and the National Gallery. Poncet brings us into the hermetic thought-world of the circle around the brilliant polymath Marsilio Ficino.
For the tarot reader and occultist, this work opens up a profound understanding of the cards, their history and the context of their creation. With these keys we can read the visual language of the trumps as they were intended, and play the game of Western esotericism at a deeper level. Whether enhancing our divinations or stimulating the practice of talismanic and image magic, Poncet changes forever our understanding of the most archetypal and iconic tarot deck.
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