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

-----------------------------------------

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...

----------------------------------------- 

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??)

Completed the collections (of what's published so far)

Picked up Frederick Hockley's - Invocating by Magic Crystals and Mirrors completing my collection of the Teitan Press' publication of Frederick Hockley's manuscripts.  

So far Teitan have published 6 titles, these are.

A Complete Book of Magic Science (Teitan Press, 2008)
Occult Spells. A Nineteenth Century Grimoire (Teitan Press, 2009)
The Rosicrucian Seer (Revised edition, Teitan Press, 2009)
Invocating by Magic Crystals and Mirrors (Teitan Press, 2010)
Abraham the Jew on Magic Talismans (Teitan Press, 2011)
A Book of the Offices of Spirits (Teitan Press, 2011)

Actually it's really five because  'Rosicrucian Seer' is  a collection of letters and other documents relating to Hockley,  interesting stuff nevertheless. 
Interestingly perhaps the most important Hockley manuscript was not published by Teitan. 'The Clavis or Key to the Magic of Solomon'  was published by Joseph Peterson/Nicolas Hays Inc

Teitan Press' website listed several planned new titles in the coming months (or years) relating to Hockley, but the one I'm most looking forward to is Hockley's Rudd/Goetia manuscript 'Dr Rudd's Nine Hierarchies of Angels'
I've always been fascinated by Rudd's material. Speaking of that brings me to my other completed collection; that of 'Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic Series' collection (again what's been printed so far) 'The Goetia of Thomas Rudd' is part of the collection.

The titles published so far are

SWCM 1 - The Practical Angel Magic of John Dee's Enochian Tables

SWCM 2 - The Keys to the Gateway of Magic
SWCM 3 - The Goetia of Dr Rudd

SWCM 4 - The Veritable Key of Solomon*

SWCM 5 - The Grimoire of St. Cyprian - Clavis Inferni
SWCM 6 - Sepher Raziel

SWCM 7 - Liber Lunae - Book of the Moon & Sepher ha-Levanah
SWCM 8 - The Magical Treatise of Solomon or Hygromanteia

* This one is a bit of mystery. The Golden Hoard Edition was initially only available as the the numbered leather bound edition with colour plate. The only 'standard' edition was published by Llewellyn, with black and white plates.
I first bought the Llewellyn edition then the Leather edition for the colour plates. Then the Golden Hoard standard edition was published complete with colour plates. There's also a 'super' limited leather edition with raised bands on the spine, Only seen that listed for silly money on eBay.

I must admit that I didn't buy either collection in the order they were released I bought SWCM 7 'Liber Lunae' to complete the collection this week (online order - now arrived) and Hockey's 'Invocating by Magic Crystals and Mirrors' today from good old Treadwells.
Unlike Teitan Press, there's no indication what the next title in the SWCM series will be on either Stephen Skinner's or the publisher Golden Hoard Press' websites. But given that Skinner has just completed the John Dee modernization project and published 'John Dee's Spiritual Diaries' I wouldn't blame him for taking a well earned break :)

 

Rebinding Dee's Five Books Of Magic

Although, as discussed previously there are several editions of True and Faithful Relation in print there are only 2 editions of the earlier material, the material that predates T&FR.
For those of you who are familiar with the diaries of John Dee you'll know what I'm talking about, but those who don't are probably thinking "Eh...?"

Let me quickly explain...
The Elizabethan, scientist, mathematician and all round brain box John Dee experimented with magic in an attempt to communicate with angels. The diaries of these communications were studiously kept by Dee in a series of note books. Following Dee's death some of the material ended up in the hands of Meric Casaubon who published them in 1659, essentially to 'show up' Dee as a fool and charlatan, However what Casaubon did was ensure that we would all be able to see what Dee was actually doing and Judge for ourselves the validity of his efforts.

The collected diaries and records that Casaubon had were put together and published under the title' A True and Faithful Relation of what Passed for Many Years Between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits' This rather lengthy title is usually shortened to True and Faithful Relation, or just T&FR.

The Original 1659 publication does popup for sale from time to time, however its price is normally around the £4000 mark! a bit expensive. (these's currently and edition on sale via ABEbooks for £4373.19 - why 19p?? )
Thankfully facsimiles of the original also exist, but most are also out of print and have prices ranging from £150+ for the Magickal Childe reprint to £500+ for the Antonine Full leather binding.
The God awful Kissinger publications have printed a softback and hardback copy too, unfortunately they chose to reduce the size of the text making it virtually unreadable in places. (There's also an edition by Apocryphile Press however their print is even smaller than Kessinger)

As I indicated in my previous post we can now purchased Stephen Skinners excellent  Dr. John Dee's Spiritual Diaries which essentially T&FR reset in a modern and highly readable typeface.
However T&FR/'JD's Spiritual Diaries' represent only a partial record of Dee's activities. The earlier efforts are missing. This is particularity a problem as the earlier diaries describe how Dee's set up is supposed to work.  Meric Causabon did not have access to the earlier material, but I don't suppose he really cared. These diaries had become separated from the T&FR published material. and did not appear in print until Adam Maclean published them in mid 1980's (please view Adam's site in my links section)

Unfortunately Adam's print runs are severely limited, mainly because he hand binds the books himself, and only 250 copies were produced. consequently they now sell for £200+ at least. Adam's hand bound books are fantastic and certainly look the part. bound in leather and gold embossed (I have a couple myself) but damn hard to get a hold of!

Thankfully, in more recent times Joseph Peterson has also published an edition of Dee's earlier diaries or 'The 5 Books of Magic' as are they are collectively known. However, this effort is, to me, spoiled by the fact that the Peterson book is only available as a paper back. A real shame.

Which brings me to my next project. Namely to rebinding of a copy of The 5 Books.

This seems particularly poignant as it would make a great companion volume beside Skinner's modern reset of T&FR (Like the new Skinner edition both Mclean's and Peterson's '5 Books' are set in modern fonts)

Stage one of the project was to remove the paper/soft back cover and size up the book block of it's new cover. The image below show the progress so far

The work begins...

...And that's all I've done so far. The next step is to decide which piece of leather I'm going to use. and whether is going to be a full leather or quarter leather binding, and which colour (although I'm leaning toward black to match the spine of the skinner book.

When I'm at the next stage, covering the cover, I'll upload some more images

*Apologies to anyone who's read the above in its 'first draft' form, there were quite a few errors (grammar, spelling and missing words)
That's what happens when you start a new blog entry at 2am!*

Dr. John Dee's Spiritual Diaries

While I've had a copy of the facsimile of the Meric Casaubon's 'True and Faithful Relation' for years (several different copies in fact - Antinone, Magickal Childe and the god awful Kissenger press) and I've always wanted to type it up into modern English, or at least a more readable version. There is a version on line at Archive.org, but the text and epub versions are largely unreadable.
Joseph Peterson's 'Twilight Grotto' site has some of it, but not much, so I was going to have a go myself, however, I soon realised this was going to be a monumental task and basically gave up.

So, I was really pleased to read that Stephen Skinner had had exactly the same idea! And, unlike me, he didn't give up. You can find the full details of the book here - Skinner - Spirit Diaries
As soon I read about it I had to order and went 'all in' and ordered the leather bound edition (not cheap!)

Not cheap indeed, but certainly worth it.
The book itself is huge measuring 35cms by 23cms by 5cms. making the second largest book I own (only Jung's 'Red Book' is bigger) and not exactly the sort of thing you can read on a train. Unfortunately this also makes it too big to fit on my book shelves, so I'm trying to find a home for it...

Anyway here's some images of the book itself.

Here's a side on view

 Note that it does look like Skinner's original release in the 1970's

And here's an of image of the all important text.

Same layout as original but in clear modern English

A closer look at the text

  Mightily impressive! and being able to easily read the text is fantastic, well worth the money.

Coming soon! - Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum

"The Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum is a major collection of English alchemical texts which encapsulate the arcana of the Magnum Opus in poetic form. Originally gathered from several rare medieval manuscripts by Elias Ashmole, the text represents the largest collection of verse treating of the production of the Philosopher’s Stone to be brought together in one volume.' 

- text borrowed from Ouroboros Press website. 

I ordered my copy back in December and am certainly looking forward to it's arrival!
The free 'Aurae Catena Homeri, - The Golden Chain of Homer', a reprint of the letterpress printed broadside arrived this week so I hope this means the actual book will be here soon too.

Ouroboros Press should be congratulated for their hard work in reproducing the important text as they've not just produced a facsimile of the text, they're modernized the text making it easier to read, and have made correction to the text as noted by the errata sheets at the end of the book.

The image below is taken from Ouroboros Press' website. Once my copy has arrived I'll post up a few more images

What's it all about

Welcome to the Ars Esoterica site.

Starting as a blog now but will hopefully grow into something bigger later.
I have always been fascinated by the occult, not as some 'dark practitioner of magic' (at least not any more) I explore the occult from a psychological and philosophical perspective, and plan to write about it here.

I also collect grimoires and books on the occult and will post here about them from time to time.
Lastly I also bind my own books. Printing out old texts and binding them up. I'll add photos of them, both as 'work in progress' and completed editions.

That's all for now.