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Alchemy & Hermeticism,
Fine & Antiquarian
The Golden Game by Stanislas Klossowski de Rola
£250.00
Published by Thames and Hudson, London, 1988
Hardbound, 320 pages with 553 b/w illustrations
Hardbound in red cloth with gilt lettered spine and decoration to front panel. Clean, unmarked text pages, firm binding, foxing to edges - in all a very good copy. Dust jacket with creasing at upper spine, else very good too.
Alchemy, the quest for the Philosopher's Stone, has been an "alternative" strand in the development European culture since antiquity. By the 17th century, the complex pictorial language of symbols which encoded its theories and secrets had reached a highpoint of elaboration and sophistication. With the spread of printing, the iconography of alchemy began to flower as never before. This text presents a selection of alchemical illustrations reproduced from originals contained in obscure works from the shelves of research libraries around the world. The author (son of the artist Balthus), investigates the origins of this visual tradition, interprets the symbols and provides information on the authors, publishers, patrons and engravers of these "hermetick emblems" and "hieroglyphicall figures".
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Sword of Song by Aleister Crowley
out of stock - £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’.
De Natura Rerum (deluxe edition) by Paracelsus
out of stock - £270.00
A deluxe edition strictly limited to 55 copies.
Printed in full colour on Munken Pure Rough 100gsm, bound in full black goatskin by Ludlow Bookbinders, with raised bands and hand-tooling, featuring Renaissance artwork in gold foil and a unique raised embossed pattern designed by the artist Kateryna Zubakhina.
The endpapers have been hand-marbled by Freya Scott at Paperwilds.
Presented with a black letterpress bookmark and a maroon ribbon.
NB: All copies of the deluxe edition will also include a letterpress broadside with the famous 1538 woodcut portrait of Paracelsus by Augustin Hirschvogel, printed on the luxurious Zerkall 225gsm paper.
Second volume in Aula Lucis Press' Mysterium Hermeticum series.
Including a Chymical Dictionary, Explaining Hard Places and Words met withal in the Writings of Paracelsus & Others, compiled by John French
First 80 orders will also include a letterpress broadside with the famous 1538 woodcut portrait of Paracelsus by Augustin Hirschvogel, printed on the luxurious Zerkall 225gsm paper.
With new Introduction by
peter hochmeier
¶ For the second volume in the Mysterium Hermeticum series, we present our readers with one of the most fundamental and most widely studied alchemical works of Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim, also known as Paracelsus (1493-1541). De Natura Rerum, or Nine Books on the Nature of Things, was composed in order to assist the aspiring alchemist and hermetic philosopher in recognising what lies hidden in Nature, and how to induce Nature to be helpful in the Art of Alchemy. Comprising nine tracts on the Generation, Growth, Preservation, Life, Death, Resurrection, Transmutation, Separation, and Signature of all natural things, it is a veritable treasure house of natural lore for all diligent students of the Spagyric Art to draw upon, and to apply in their practice.
¶ For Paracelsus, Nature is the greatest school of all, and everything that the alchemist does, he must do by her light, for “there is nothing in Man that does not flow into him from the light of Nature,” and “all things belonging to Nature exist for the sake of Man. And since they have been created for his sake, and since it is he who needs them, he must explore everything that lies in Nature.” This is the guiding principle behind De Natura Rerum, a book which Paracelsus dedicated in 1537 to his ‘dear trusted friend and brother’ Hans Winckelsteiner, an alchemist from the town of Freiburg, entrusting the manuscript to his care and urging him to keep it only for himself and his closest circle of collaborators. As a result, it was not until 1572 that the first German edition of this work emerged in print, comprising only of books 1-7, and a further twelve years before it was published in its complete form, including the eighth and ninth books. The latter tract, titled On the Signature of Natural things, is one of the most important expositions on the Paracelsian theory of Signatures, a subject which we will continue to explore in our future publications.
¶ The text of this edition is based on the 1650 translation by the English Paracelsian physician and alchemist John French (ca. 1616-1657), also known as the author of the famed alchemical compendium The Art of Distillation (1651). His excellent rendition, superior to that of A. E. Waite published two centuries later, has been faithfully preserved with minimal corrections to spelling, punctuation and certain obscure technical terms used by Paracelsus. We have also included our own translation of Paracelsus’ 1537 Preface to Hans Winckelsteiner, which was missing from the first English edition, as well as John French’s Chymical Dictionary, a complementary treatise which was bound together with his translation of De Natura Rerum. This being a lexicon of obscure Paracelsian and alchemical terms, it is a work of particular rarity and importance, as it covers a plethora of now forgotten and abstruse terms a reader may encounter in the writings of Paracelsus and other enigmatic authors.
¶ Finally, we are pleased to introduce to the English-speaking audiences Peter Hochmeier, a renowned Austrian alchemist, natural philosopher and expert in the theory of Signatures, who wrote an Introduction to this volume. Peter’s seminal work The Way of the Sun Spark: Alchemy, Spagyrics and the Art of Signatures, is currently being translated into English for the first time as a forthcoming Aula Lucis release.
Betwixt God and the Devil (Special edition) by Richard Ward
£140.00
Standard Hardback edition, limited to 60 copies
Richard Ward’s book ‘Betwixt God and the Devil’ was born of a lifelong interest in the folk magic traditions of his native Essex, an area long known as 'The Witch County.’ as such, it is key to the history and development of modern traditional Witchcraft.
Drawing on a wide variety of source materials, some of which are obscure and difficult to obtain, Ward demonstrates that the history of Essex magic is far more complex than it first appears. In doing so, he shows that attitudes which portrayed witches as purely evil and Cunning folk as entirely good were far from the truth, despite the opinion of the Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins and his ilk during the 17th century. Even the popular belief that witches were exclusively pagan is shown to have been incorrect, an ambiguity popularly known as the dual observance.
In terms of history, Ward’s study covers the period from the 16th century onwards, although it begins with an outline of the origins of this suitably nameless arte during the Anglo-Saxon era. This was a time of great change when anything deemed magic and the worship of pagan deities was outlawed and denounced by the newly adopted Christian Church, which they labelled as the Devil’s work.
In documenting the survivals of Essex magic during the 19th century, Ward includes detailed accounts of James Murrell, the last of the great Essex Cunning folk, and Canewdon’s George Pickingill. In particular, Ward’s book examines the myths that have built up around Pickingill, offering a significant reassessment of the Pickingill legend.
Ward also acknowledges the importance of incoming Romany clans that breathed new life into the county’s magical traditions and kept them alive well into the early to the mid-20th century.
Ward goes on to note the rise of Essex witchcraft in popular culture during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was at this time, according to some accounts, that Essex witchcraft became linked with the likes of Gerald Gardner and Aleister Crowley. On examination of the evidence, Ward has not shied away from challenging these and other dubious claims, some of which have been widely perpetuated by academics and popular authors alike. Ward’s history concludes with brief accounts of modern Essex-born practitioners, from the likes of witches Alex Sanders, Stewart Farrar and Paul Huson through to Typhonian magician Kenneth Grant and modern Cunning man Andrew Chumbley.
The second part of Ward’s book examines the county’s magical folklore, delving into such important areas as the true and multi-faceted nature of the Devil in Essex, its genius loci and familiar spirits, and the widespread belief in dreams, omens, and superstitions, whose observation was considered essential to the successful practice of magic in all its forms.
In the last part of his book, Ward reveals the magical practices traditionally used by witches and Cunning folk in Essex, such as charms and herbal remedies, methods of divination, curses and anti-curses. As he demonstrates that the core practices of Essex magic were longest preserved in remote farming communities, Ward includes a chapter specifically related to agricultural magic. This final section of the book also features accounts of the Horseman’s Word ritual, the related rite of the toad witch and the magical use of other bones and natural talismans within the county.
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