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Alchemy & Hermeticism,
Fine & Antiquarian
Jocus Severus: A Serious Joke (black deluxe edition) by Michael Maier
out of stock
Full black leather, handbound with gilt title and device, raised spine bands, marbled endsheets and silk bookmark. Aviary folding plate. Fine typography with emblematic ornaments. Limited to 75 copies only.
Unread copy, "as new".
Jocus Severus was originally published in 1617 by Count Michael Maier and is here rendered into the English tongue from the Latin text by the remarkably able translator Darius Klein. Like his work on Giordano Bruno’s Cantus Circaeus, this is the First English Translation. In addition to the new translation, the Ouroboros Press edition of Jocus Severus distinguishes itself by employing new emblematic illustration work by Benjamin A. Vierling, who, in keeping with our publishing style, has produced fine illustrative ornaments and a fold-out plate depicting the aviary creatures of the text. These graphic elements complement the typographical details with an effect befitting a piece of fine Renaissance book art.
Michael Maier is well known in the historical milieu of alchemy due largely to his important work on alchemy and music, Atalanta Fugiens, yet his other works have remained obscure and unobtainable until now. An excellent biography of Maier can be found in the work of Hereward Tilton, The Quest for the Phoenix: Spiritual Alchemy and Rosicrucianism in the Work of Count Michael Maier (1569-1622). In the foregoing work, Tilton indicates the thrust of the Jocus Severus thus:
The Jocus Severus takes the form of a court of judgment upon the bird of wisdom sacred to Pallas Athena, the Owl – in this instance embodying chemia as the highest science. The Owl stands accused of a number of misdemeanours by an assembly of squawking and cantankerous birds, who represent the various critics of chemia. Council for the defense is the Hawk; presiding over the court is the Phoenix, the symbol of the Work’s perfection . . . . After facing her fellow birds’ accusations, the Owl and her Art are eventually vindicated by the Hawk’s expert defense, and she is adjudged Queen of the Birds by the Phoenix.
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Sword of Song by Aleister Crowley
£245.00
Out of print hardback edition, limited to 350 copies only.
Unread in very good condition, wrapped in protective cellophane.
Edited, annotated and introduced by Richard Kaczynski, this edition far surpasses that found in the Collected Works: red and black ink has been employed to capture the feel of the 1904 edition; a 50 page introduction by Crowley’s foremost biographer introduces the reader to the many themes to be found throughout the book; finally, copious end-notes further elucidate concepts and ideas in need of clarification.
From the introduction:
‘The Sword of Song is arguably the greatest story never told. It is a book of firsts: his first manifesto, his first talismanic book, his first mystical essays, his first nod to sexual mysteries, and an enticing preview of what was to come in The Book of the Law, the spirit-writing that would form the cornerstone of his philosophy’.
The True Grimoire (deluxe edition) by Jake Stratton-Kent
£595.00
'Fine edition' Limited to 72 copies
Handbound in full shrunken grain goatskin in deep bronze green, bevelled edges, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, and custom slipcase. Letterpress print of The Prayer of the Salamanders.
The first volume of Jake Stratton-Kent’s Encyclopaedia Goetica is a reconstruction of the Grimorium Verum from the corrupted Italian and French versions of the grimoire. The True Grimoire comprises a coherent and eminently workable system of goetic magic, with extensive commentary and notes by a practicing necromancer.
The second edition appears thirteen years after the True Grimoire was first published, in which time it has become a critical and foundational work of the current magical revival. As Dr Alexander Cummins observes in his Foreword, the True Grimoire ‘spearheaded a particular renaissance in grimoire studies towards more informed historical analysis and more engaged mythopoetic ritual praxis, all the while centring the realities of hands-on cunning.’
In his introduction and notes to the grimoire, Stratton-Kent elucidates the importance of this concise and comprehensive text to magicians and students of magic alike:
‘The grimoire deals with significant themes that other, often larger, texts have lost, omitted or obscured. […] It enables the persistent seeker to see, essentially, what many have failed to see, that underlying goetic magic is a hidden tradition of great depth and significance. It possesses a traditional methodology that confronts and deals directly with the same primal realities faced by our most remote ancestors; in which all later magic and religion had their original impetus, but which in the West is primarily preserved in goetic magic alone.’
We are given insights across the grimoire tradition into allied texts such as the Grand Grimoire and Red Dragon, the Key of Solomon, the Lemegeton, Abramelin, Honorius and the Black Pullet. This is a treasure trove for the student of magic. Stratton-Kent reveals a grimoire tradition with roots in the Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri and the necromancy of the goês.
The True Grimoire is an elemental and chthonic grimoire of conjuration, pact-making and spell-working. It clearly and concisely explains how to contact and build a relationship with the spirits, and the primary role of the intermediary spirit, whom JSK characterises as ‘akin in a real sense to the Holy Guardian Angel in the Abramelin system.’ The text provides the timing, tools and conjurations for what is an attainable and practical system of magic.
The new edition is augmented by two previously published and out of print essays by the author: ‘ The Spell for Success’ gives a comprehensive analysis of a key part of the Grimorium Verum ritual, which it shares with a number of other Solomonic works, but which originates conceptually in pre-Solomonic magic; and ‘The Conjuration of Nebiros,’ which details a complete conjuration from the author’s personal work, illustrating the entire process and contextualising it.
The book has been redesigned and typeset by Alkistis Dimech, with necromantic emblems by Artem Grigoryev. In addition, the hardback and fine edition are issued with a letterpress print of The Prayer of the Salamanders.
Goêtic Atavisms by Frater Acher & Craig Slee
£150.00
Out of print limited hardback edition.
Goêtic Atavisms is designed to be an uncompromising and challenging book.
Written in mutual exchange between practitioners Frater Acher and Craig Slee, two radical views and explorations of applied goêteia emerge. This tête-bêche book can be read from both sides; behind one cover containing the chapters by Acher, behind the other those by Craig Slee, and where they meet in the middle a preface by none other than Frater U∴D∴.
In their own unique voices, the authors draw the reader in and call on them to bring goêteia to life in their own flesh. Over twelve chapters, packed with historic detail and practical experimentations, the reader is guided to take a fresh look at such diverse bodies of goêtic work as Zosimos of Panopolis, Germanic and Old Iranian folklore, Goethe’s Faust and the Earth Spirit, Austin Osman Spare's œuvre, as well as modern forms of corporeality such as pornography, tattoo culture, and bodily disability. Goêtic Atavisms was written not only to be a sensual experience, but to facilitate magical touch.
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