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Categories:
Buddhism (general),
Highlights
T. Lobsang Rampa & Other Characters of Questionable Faith by R.B. Russell
£45.99
Limited hardback edition
T. Lobsang Rampa’s autobiography, The Third Eye was an international bestseller in 1956, but the author had to face some awkward questions from critics. There were two possibilities; either he really was a Tibetan lama whose third eye had been physically opened (and who could reveal secrets of levitation, invisibility, gilded extraterrestrials, giant temple cats, etc), or he was really the eccentric son of a plumber from Plympton in Devon.
Rampa would explain himself by discussing transmigration, and over the next quarter of a century (and in another eighteen books) he would reveal the secrets of the human aura, astral travel, UFOs, life on Venus, and the hollow Earth (and hollow Moon), among many other alternative, New Age ideas. For Rampa, there was no wild, left-field belief that was not true.
R.B. Russell has written the first definitive biography of Rampa (also known as Cyril Henry Hoskin). The identity of Rampa may have been conclusively debunked by anybody who knew anything about Tibet, Buddhism, or basic scientific principles, but he would always claim that everything he wrote was true, and until his death in 1980 he doesn’t ever seem to have come out of character.
Russell’s biography of Rampa is accompanied in this volume by three further studies of alternative belief systems that have fascinated him over the years.
Following the biography of Rampa, Russell writes about the Millenarian church, the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, who believed their leader was Christ and immortal, and that the world would end in 2000. (Spoiler alert: we are still here, and nobody has seen the leader for several years.)
A further essay is a brief look at one of the Church of Scientology’s techniques for recruiting members, the Oxford Capacity Analysis test. Russell argues that the test is based on a series of small, apparently innocuous lies, but he shows that they are indicative of Scientology’s complete disregard for honesty or integrity.
The final essay looks at the Temple of Psychic Youth, the knowing attempt by Genesis P-Orridge to create a modern cult. Was it exploitative and manipulative, or simply an ironic experiment? And how did it backfire when the 1980s tabloids created the Satanic Panic?
The painting on the boards of this book is by Les Edwards. It was first published on the cover of As It Was!, T. Lobsang Rampa, Corgi, 1976.
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The Holy Books of the A.'.A.' by Aleister Crowley
£69.99
This is the first and only "red letter reference edition" of the Holy
Books of the Great White Brotherhood.
Features include:
Smyth-sewn and bound in soft Italian imitation leather;
Printed in black and red on heavy octavo Quran paper;
Rounded corners and red page edges on all sides;
A black double-sided satin ribbon marker;
Two-column format with a 10pt Roman typeface;
Cross-references between all "Class A" texts;
Brand-new critical apparatus to Libri CCXX and CDXVIII;
A legible reproduction of the holograph MS of Liber Legis;
No Egyptian portals, post-Crowley imprimaturs, or unclassified comments
to distract the reader.
Original Rider Waite Tarot Deck
£19.99
The Original Rider Waite Tarot is the most popular and widely used tarot card deck in the world. First issued in 1910, each card is rich in symbolism and striking in its design. Divided into the Major and Minor Arcanas, the cards were designed by Pamela Colman Smith in accordance with A.E. Waite's instructions. An instructional booklet is included, explaining the tarot card meanings and how to use the cards for divination, with an introduction by Stuart R. Kaplan.
Ritual & Epiphany in the Mysteries of Mithras by Peter Mark Adams
£66.99
Fine Hardback edition, limited to 888 copies.
From acclaimed esoteric scholar Peter Mark Adams—author of The Game of Saturn, Mystai, Hagia Sophia / Sanctum of Kronos, Two Esoteric Tarots (with Christophe Poncet), and The Power of the Healing Field—comes a landmark study that redefines our understanding of Western Europe’s most enigmatic mystery cult.
Ritual & Epiphany in the Mysteries of Mithras – The Secret Cult of Saturn in Imperial Rome takes readers deep into the heart of the Mithraic mysteries, offering a profound exploration of the cult’s ritual practices and transformative visionary experiences. Blending cutting-edge scholarship with first-hand accounts of initiation and contemporary ethnographies of ritual performance, Adams provides an unparalleled glimpse into this ancient esoteric tradition.
Approaching the material from an emic (insider’s) perspective, the author examines the cult’s hierarchical grade structure, ceremonial roles, and ritual mechanics—revealing how initiates invoked the serpent power and encountered the awe-inspiring epiphany of Saturn-Kronos, the sovereign time-deity.
Through a richly interdisciplinary lens—drawing on Orphic metaphysics, Greco-Roman ritual theory, art history, and comparative ethnographies of initiation—Adams vividly animates Mithraic iconography, frescoes, and reliefs as ritual grammar encoding the lived phenomenology of participation.
Richly illustrated and deeply insightful, this volume revives the Cult of Mithras as Western Europe’s preeminent mystery tradition, offering readers both scholarly rigor and spiritual resonance.
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