Concerning Witches and Apparitions

First edition, first printing. One of 160 deluxe copies in black linen with blindstamped titles to the spine and a blindstamped motif to the upper board, in dustwrapper. Housed in the original dark grey slipcase. Illustrated with black and white plates. 

Condition: Fine / As new.

"The mid-twentieth century witnessed the birth of popular occultism in the West, including an interest in witchcraft. At the forefront of popular witchcraft was Wicca, a recension of ceremonial magic and nature worship advanced by Gerald Gardner and Alex Sanders, now widely regarded as a religion. However, lesser-known streams of the witch-current thrived the shadows, having older historical roots, and linked to an ancient body of practice – witch-bottles, knotted cord spells, curses, exorcisms, sexual magic, and charms ranging from the conjuration of angels to protection of livestock and hearth.

This was Traditional Witchcraft, whose origin in part lies with the sorcery of the cunning-folk of Britain and Colonial America. Though largely avoiding the popular occult limelight, from 1970 onward, elements of Traditional Witchcraft experienced a partial emergence into the public through such publications as Paul Huson’s Mastering Witchcraft, the writings of Robert Cochrane and Evan John Jones, and Andrew Chumbley’s Azoëtia: A Grimoire of the Sabbatic Craft.

Based on over forty years of research and private collaboration with practitioners, Michael Howard’sChildren of Cain is the definitive history of Traditional Witchcraft and its key operatives in Britain and the United States. Supplemented with diverse photographs and illustrations, many appearing for the first time, the book artfully encompasses the unique legacy of Traditional Witchcraft - those who bear the Mark of the Exile as a sign of hidden power: the Children of Cain."

Deluxe edition. Hand-bound in full bistre goatskin with slipcase. Limited to 50 copies.

Condition: Fine / As new.

"THREE HANDS PRESS is proud to announce Penumbrae, a collection of thirteen works of Occult Fiction by some of that genre's great luminaries. The locus of this anthology lies in tales that embody a metaphysical position, as opposed to fiction that merely employs metaphysical trappings to enforce a materialist worldview. Occult fiction, by contrast, strives to evoke the energies that inform such symbols, and create a vital experience for the reader. Far beyond mere description, this is work that proves its value through its capacity to seduce, captivate, and incept states of magical consciousness. Like the practice of magic itself, the finest works of occult fiction will be distinguished by their power to evoke an embodied experience, and to tangibly compel shifts in consciousness while arousing the uncommon. It intoxicates the rite of reading as much as it permeates the spaces between readings.

Marriage between the objective and the imaginative often results in an enrichment of existence. All spiritual traditions stand upon a foundation of both worldly Act and transcendent Idea. Idea becomes Image, Image becomes Symbol, Symbol becomes Portal. Through the Act of passing through it, one is thereby transformed. It thus stands to reason that the annals of occultism are lush with fable, poetry, mythology, and tales. A delicate but highly potent quality of this work is the creation of a spirit-trap wherein the words and images themselves act as hosts to the experience itself. Under auspicious conditions, a reader may encounter a tale that hews so closely with their own interior universe that a Key is thereby given."

Penumbrae features a cover image by surrealist painter Mike Davis tales from the following authors:

• Kenneth Grant
• Richard Gavin
• Andrew Chumbley
• Daniel Schulke
• Dale Pendell
• Sun Yung Shin
• Hanns Heinz Ewers
• Lee Morgan
• Caitlín R. Kiernan
• Brian Evenson
• Don Webb
• Patricia Cram
• Michael Cisco

Essays on Witchcraft and the Sabbatic Tradition 

Quarto in quarto calf & dark grey, illus stamped cloth-backed boards. Comes in slipcase. Limited to 242 copies only.

Condition: Fine / As new.

Contains nine essays written between 1990 and 2003, including one previously unpublished. This volume also includes an Author’s Introduction never before published, as well as an expanded version of the interview with Chumbley in The Cauldron. The essays reflect a degree of magical insight, clarity of vision, and creativity seldom equaled in occult writing to this day.