"Hi" to anyone who's still reading my blog. Sorry I've not posted for nearly a year but several strange things have happened over the last year. However, I have been both buying and binding books in that time and will post some now book info...

Latest Acquisition

Recently picked up a copy of William Kiesel’s Magic Circles on the Grimoire Tradition.

I was quite surprised to find this for sale in one of London's occult bookshops. Normally I'd have to order it from the States, or at least from a UK based online bookseller. Finding it in a bookshop meant no postage to pay, which is good.

Not yet read it yet myself, so here's the write up from Wlm. Kiesel's website

Magic Circles have been depicted in popular expressions of magic and witchcraft as well as detailed with full rubrics in traditional manuals of magic such as the Clavicula Solomonis or Liber Juratus.  Using narrative, visual and textual material available from European grimoires and manuscripts, the author discusses the various forms and functions of this important piece of apparatus employed by magicians in the Western Esoteric Tradition, including their role in providing authority and protection to the operator, as well as examples of their use in divination and treasure finding.  Additionally, contemporary examples of the magic circle at work in modern esoteric praxis are provided and discussed in light of the traditional approaches they exhibit. This monograph serves to explicate this important tool of ceremonial magic and is valuable to practitioners of the art magical with its technical data, while also providing context in historical settings for the merely curious reader of occult subjects. Illustrated throughout.

As promised here's a list of the books I'm selling.
Not as many as I was going to. The more expensive books are mine, the others belong to a friend.

Praxis Magica Faustiana - Dr. John Faust  (click here to go to page)

THIS BOOK HAS NOW SOLD

From the publisher:

Anon. (attributed Dr. Johann Faust), Praxis Magica Faustiana, Society of Esoteric Endeavour 2011. Numbered limited edition of 180 copies. (38pp) printed in black and red on 160gsm Fabiano Ingres mould made paper (which has a natural texture – resultant from the production process). Substantial limp canvas binding in printed dustwrapper of archival glassine (a traditional translucent paper – so that the magic circle printed on the cover can be seen through the dustwrapper) 38pp, one foldout printed on 40gsm Bible paper. The endpapers are hand marbled by Zoe Bradley of Ann Muir Ltd. There are a number British craftsmen and women currently making hand marbled paper, this workshop excels in creating a wave effect in the design that can be achieved by thumping the sides of the trays whilst the design is being made. The nature of the book makes a place ribbon useful, it is made of pure silk, rather than the synthetics usually employed. The book is hand sewn and hand bound.

Voudon Gnosis by David Beth

I'LL RE-LIST THIS SOON 

The Very Rare First Edition of a limited print run of of 555 numbered copies. This being no. 466 Published by Scarlet Imprint in 2008

This is the original edition which includes the printing error with the index referencing Page 95 in book with only 90 pages!

This book is hand numbered, hardbound in rich dark cloth and in very good condition


Both books are on 7 day auction, both start at £99 which the cheapest listings for these titles currently on eBay.

Click here to view the other books I'm selling

Books

Just a quick post as I've not said much in a while...

A little 'heads up' I'm going to be selling some interesting occult books on eBay.
All quite rare and a couple quite valuable.

Music to listen to while reading the occult.

Well, I've been a bit quiet here not much to report.

I've not bought much recently and taken a break from bookbinding.

I've been trying to catch up on reading and wanted some music to read to, something 'atmospheric', something that captured the mood of the texts. I've been working through the books of the 'Source Works of Ceremonial Magic' from Stephen Skinner and wanted something to reflect the mood.

I'm a big fan of the German electronic musician Klaus Schulze, he's written some fantastic music, but none of it's really dark enough for reading the occult.

I 'found' an American group called Equimanthorn a few years ago. Sounds very much like occult rituals set to music. It great to listen to but too distracting when reading, not so good.

However I think I've found the perfect sounds.

Kammerheit is a Swedish artist "that paints lush soundscapes that are ominous, beautiful, and breathtaking. In Kammarheit's music, there's a lot of industrial and experimental noises." - (nicked from Wikipedia)

I downloaded Starwheel from iTunes and loved it, Particularly 'A Room Between the Rooms', fanatically atmospheric track. The title track is in two parts and is also great. So if you're looking for some great dark ambient music for listening to while you're delving into the dark worlds of arcane texts and occult manuscripts I heartily recommend these spooky tunes. 

You can checkout some of his music on his Myspace page, have a listen...

Kammarheit on Myspace

Kammarheit Website

Three posts in one Dee, Agrippa and Ashmole

One: I have now completed the recovering of Dee’s ‘Five Books of Magic’ and I’m pretty pleased with the results. of course, as usual, I’m not 100% happy and I don’t think I ever will be. The book block is not quite centred, it’s slightly closer to the bottom of the cover than the top. But the block is quite heavy and so pulls down on. I’ve tried a new technique for fitting the end papers. I securely stuck card to the cover and to the end of the book block. then used ‘sticky back vinyl’ in a strip to connect the two. seems to be holding well (so far away)

Making the raised bands on the spine

I then attached the leather to the spine

Then attached the cover boards

And here are the results of the endeavour

hand made label

The Cover (combination of Rexine cloth and leather)

And inside

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Two: On a recent trip to Glastonbury I picked up a bit of a bargain.  I already have the HB copy of Agrippa's Fourth book of Occult Philosophy published by Hays (Nicolas) Ltd but there’s a much rarer addition that formed part of the short lived Askin Publishers Ltd publication catalogue. 
It’s quarter bound in matt green leather with a gold guilt stamped image of Agrippa on the cover. This edition was limited to 500 copies and contains an exact facsimile of the original 1559 edition. I spotted a copy on the shelf in one of the two  second hand book shops in Glastonbury. I had in mind what I expected it would cost but was amazed to find it was about a third of that price! 
So over to the till I went with a smile on my face...

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Three: At last Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum has arrived!

Well done to all at Ouroboros Press for this excellent piece of work

The original Clavicula Salomonis

This is my latest acquisition and what can only be described as the pride of my collection.

 It is a 1909 ‘1st Edition’ Clavicula Salomonis.  This is the Kegan Paul edition, which was the first edition for public consumption. The actual first was a private printing by Mathers for friends and members of the Golden Dawn, but I’ve never seen that edition come up for sale, Although I’ve been informed that it has.

The first time I clapped eyes on this it was in the collection of a friend and I wanted to buy it of him as soon as I saw it (it was most certainly not for sale at the time!) The first opportunity did arise a few years ago when his laptop konked out and he needed money to buy a new one. Unfortunately for me I’d just forked out on a MacBook laptop myself, so funds were short.

However, fast forward a couple of years and the same thing happens. This time I was in a position to help. For reasons that would a take a while to go into I had a Sony laptop as well as a MacBook Pro. I was going to ebay the Sony but, for reasons unknown to me, I’d simply not got around to putting it up, which is odd as I’m a regular eBay trader. But the Sony simply sat there.

Maybe the Gods where smiling on me and saying “keep it” but, for whatever reason, I still had it. My friend needed a laptop for work, so I offered it in exchange for the book.

Now, I’m sure some out there would think I’m bonkers for offering a laptop for an old book, but those of us ‘in the know’ would know that this was a good deal, so we exchanged (along with an offer of technical support for the laptop - I do know a thing or two about getting a computer going, I’ve rebuilt this one, my PC, several times in the past, yeah I know A laptop, a PC and A MacBook! I’m a sucker for electronics- I’ve still got an old IBM laptop that’s a backup)

This edition has been recovered in quarter leather and cloth, they've done a good job!

Some foxing along the edge of the pages, but nothing too serious.

Note the images are on blue paper (My thumb nail has gone a funny colour??)