Categories:
Philosophy,
Secret Societies
£24.99
£30.00
Hardback edition, limited to 500 copies.
John Yarker was a Victorian Occultist, Freemason and esoteric Truth Seeker, who is now somewhat revered by both esoteric Freemasons and Occultists alike. He was born in Cumbria, but moved to Manchester, where he spent the rest of his life, and authored countless articles, short papers, and books that now fetch large sums at book auctions. He also collected together a number of Masonic and Oriental Orders, and he was said to have been the lynchpin for the founding of the O.T.O., a move that secured his Occult status. Indeed, Yarker was a strong influence on Aleister Crowley, introducing him to the Ancient and Primitive Rite.
This work is the first extensive biography written of John Yarker's life, and explores his early life, his Masonic career, and his eclectic collection of Rites and Orders, which include the Society of Eight, the Sat B'hai, the Swedenborgian Rite, the Ancient and Primitive Rite, Martinism and the Adoptive Rite, to name but a few.
The book also presents an examination of his extensive works, and looks at his legacy, focusing especially upon his collection of Rites and Orders, some of which survive today and are still practiced. The work highlights documents and letters from Yarker that have never before been published, including letters that chart the early beginnings of the Operatives and the O.T.O. The work also presents a deep insight into Yarker's life and legacy, especially examining how Yarker is still celebrated in certain esoteric lineages that exist today.
£63.99
Sasha Chaitow’s Son of Prometheus is the first scholarly study of the life and work of Joséphin Péladan that succeeds in placing it in the context of the history of Western Esotericism while also providing a clear roadmap to the entirety of Péladan’s initiatory teachings and philosophy of the esoteric power of art. Responding to multiple cultural shifts in fin-de-siècle French society, Péladan authored over a hundred novels and monographs in an attempt to bring about the spiritual regeneration of society through mythopoetic art underpinned by esoteric thought.
Best remembered for organising the short-lived, though influential Salons de la Rose et Croix in the 1890s, that provided a focal point for Symbolist art and sought to unite the arts into a revival of initiatory drama, Péladan’s enormous oeuvre of over a hundred books and several thousand articles, slipped into oblivion and has been overlooked ever since. Previous accounts highlight his eccentricity, or isolated elements of his work, but until now, none have explored the breadth of his work in its cultural context. Sasha Chaitow undertook to do this over the course of the last 12 years, and has produced a study that offers a solid biographical introduction which corrects long-standing misperceptions, followed by accessible but robust thematic presentations of the many facets of Péladan’s work, including many unpublished translated excerpts of his work. He called himself a novelist, a playwright, a philosopher, an art critic, a savant and a zelator; he was all these and more, predicting in an unpublished autobiography that one day he would be the object of detailed study. After a century of oblivion, that day has come. His work is of undoubted interest to scholars, artists, and esoteric practitioners alike. Chaitow’s approach is both interdisciplinary and reader-friendly, ensuring that Péladan’s vision for changing society through art and authentic living is accessible to all.
Illustrated by Chaitow herself, who undertook several artistic explorations of Péladan’s work alongside her research, the book features forewords by Professors Per Faxneld and Christopher McIntosh, and is endorsed by Professor Christopher Partridge.
About the author: Dr. Sasha Chaitow is a prolific lecturer, writer, and artist. One of the central foci of her research is the life and work of Josephin Péladan, one of the most important and colorful personalities of the French Occult revival. His importance for many modern esoteric movements incl. Rosicrucianism and Gnosticism cannot be underestimated – which makes the lack of available translations of Péladan’s work even more shocking. Sasha studied art, communication and English literature in Athens and after completing her Master in Western Esotericism at the University of Exeter she did her PhD on Joséphin Péladan. As a pre-eminent authority on Péladan, Sasha has been instrumental in bringing him to the greater attention of a contemporary esoteric audience.