Sunday, December 31, 2017

Celtic Religion: Now Available!




This short but coherent work was penned back in one of my favorite eras and styles of literature- the academic theory and archaeological/historical thought of that happy period during the rampant social upheaval of the early technological era- with its tintypes, early moving pictures, and obsession with tombs and temples.

Divided into multiple sections, it has a bit of linguistics, a bit of ancient history, a bit of then-modern archaeology, and plenty of Druidism. While some of its academic content has been largely forgotten these days (especially with regards to its very proto-eugenic view of the progression of civilization) it is still a very good work. It contains a short bibliography with other texts as well for those interested in a larger look at the subject.

50 pages.

Friday, December 15, 2017

The Astrological Physician: Now Available!



This manuscript is honestly one of the most bizarre things I have ever come across and edited within the occult. A fusion of astrology and medicine, it proposes to diagnose and help treat ailments (often outdated ones with new names) by observing the planets so forth in their movements at the time of complaint and diagnosis. It also says it can determine whether a disease is being caused by witches or demons.

Equally at home as a quack/ folk medicine work and as one purely astrological, it's a strange but interesting fusion.

44 pages.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

General Update Time: Last Update of 2017!

At this time the illustrating process of the Ars Goetia is underway and everyone is getting visions of demons in their heads, severed feet hanging over the fire, and Satan Claus, so I figure it's time for one last update for this year.

First, as to my current editing, I am about halfway through hammering out the Astrological Physician; this strange 17th century work combines astrology with medicine and uses the theory of the humors to diagnose disorders and speculate the likely cause of complaints by observing the position of planets at the time of examination. The work is in exceptionally arcane English so it's a slow process despite a relatively short (40 to 50 page) overall length.

Second, once that is done, it's time to edit the Theurgia Goetia, the shorter counterpart to the Ars Goetia always paired with it in Lesser Key editions. It won't take long to edit the relatively small amount of actual text since the work is half illustrations- I'll be speaking to my artist about this once the Ars Goetia is complete. It will not be ready in 2017 though, for a certainty.

Third, I'll begin work on Morbid Stories II and once the entries themselves are made I have to figure out whether to increase its bulk substantially or lower the cost to all of you by moving some content from MSI to MSII and making two entirely new editions of a length just under that which causes a significant increase on Amazon and affiliated sites.

Happy Unholy days!

Saturday, November 25, 2017

Pagan Prayers: Now Available!




This short work was, in its original format, over 120 pages in length- so it is almost as important as an example of the strangeness of early 1900s book formats as it is a guide to some liturgies, prayers, poems, and rituals of pagan groups.

Marah Ryan's compilation here is derived from other sources and includes material from the Egyptian, Persian, Navajo, Hindu, and other paths; in most cases for this edition the Old English style of the prayers themselves was left intact because it had already been translated and transcribed and correcting it, if necessary to begin with, would have required the original sources. A fine collection of short pieces from these cultures- especially the Egyptian prayers and invocations.

37 pages.

Friday, November 17, 2017

Aula Lucis: Now Available!




This short tract was created in the middle of the 17th century- as a work of mostly physical alchemy, it's better than most, at least in terms of being understood; all alchemical works contain veils, metaphors, allusions, but Thomas Vaughan's work is less so than many. It alludes to the philosophic fire spoken of by Pontanus (literally, a heap of composting manure to supply indirect warmth without flame) as well as other topics.

25 pages.

General Update: Ars Goetia, Pagan Prayers, Morbid Stories, Aula Lucis, etc

It's been a busy last couple of weeks; the Ars Goetia has been completely edited and my illustrator has the plans for illustrating so it may not be long before the most infamous of all grimoires is released in a decent and inexpensive modern edition. In other news, I completed a short alchemical work yesterday entitled "Aula Lucis"- it's only 25 pages in length, but Thomas Vaughn did a very good job of generally being clear and not veiling his mostly-physical alchemical lore.

The new editing project is a compilation of prayers and invocations simply entitled "Pagan Prayers" and crafted at the dawn of the 20th century by Marah Ellis Ryan. The original format of this work is horrendous and half the pages are basically empty save for the titles of the subsequent very short prayers. The work will, due to major formatting overhaul, be reduced from about 120 pages to 40 or 50.

As before, Morbid Stories II is approaching the end of its first phase of development; the titles and rough outlines. These works involve my usual practice of entering a slightly berserker-like state where I am not completely aware of my writing and am mentally fixated on imagining the horrified reactions of people I dislike being forced to read the bizarre, grotesque stuff repeatedly. I am considering the possibility of compiling together all of the new entries with the old ones and splitting the categories themselves in half- thus technically MS II will contain some older entries while MS I will contain some new ones. Since I have to reformat the first volume, I will have to resubmit all the files anyways- I am considering the possibility.

Altogether this end year period will be full of work!

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Now Forthcoming: The Ars Goetia and More

It's finally that special time where I get to make a major literary announcement again; after completing my two short planned works last month it was time to move on to something I have spent two years delaying- an edition of the Ars Goetia (which will be joined by the Theurgia Goetia not long after.)

I have already begun editing the text of this work- it isn't all that difficult; the edition I plan will omit the critical commentary and institute a few entries of my own (it's always important to note that "N." stands for the name of the spirit within invocations, for example) and an expanded foreword. Since it will require full illustration well beyond my means I have contacted my usual artist for its eventual completion. Altogether it will be full length but since my goal is to hold the price down I will do what I can to keep the page length under the apparent threshold for Amazon to take it from the 5-to-7 dollar range up to the 11+ dollar range which is achieved by adding at most a dozen extra pages of material.

I have also compiled most of the entries for Morbid Stories II. I will release it as soon as it's done and re-edit MS I to share its same format.

Friday, October 27, 2017

Projection and Propaganda: Now Available!




This short work is a sort of wrap-up and short addendum to my other political releases; a treatment of some propaganda deployed by the corporate media, politicians, etc- dwelling on the behavioral. Within this tract I try my best to educate on this topic so people will hopefully be able to resist, to some degree, the same strategies.

26 pages.

Friday, October 6, 2017

Emotional Alchemy; Transforming Negativity into Ambition: Now Available!



This short booklet is one I wrote primarily for fans of my videos on Youtube; it combines some previously mentioned principles with some new ones and proposes a basic psychological system which extends upon previous topics like the transformation of guilt and fear to rid oneself of them and achieve greater things in life.

It draws a little bit upon the political, a little bit on the psychological, and mentions some brief anecdotes. Rather than extend it to hundreds of pages with filler I did what I always do; keep it short, and thus also less expensive. Just the content as it is, nothing more. I can't offer anyone a magic cure for what ails them, but I can offer here some suggestions and tell you what works for me.

30 pages.

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

October Projects and General Update!

Today in "general updates" I am working on a pair of fairly short authored works; one on the topic of overcoming adversity (and converting anger into ambition in a conscious, alchemical sense) and a second as-yet unannounced work. I figured I should crank out a few works of my own creation to balance the increasingly massive number of edited works here.

Subsequent to this (which will surely be well within the confines of this month) I'll begin editing the Ars Goetia and probably the rest of the works of the Lesser Keys. I have already contacted my artist on this token. Soon, the Goetia itself and the complete Lesser Keys will be available to everyone for a somewhat lower cost than in the past; that's my goal!


Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Concerning the Hermetic Art: Now Available!




This little text is more an academic study of alchemy than anything else; although it entitles itself after Hermeticism, the philosophical side of transformation is only half the content here; the other half details some primary sources of, and allusions to, physical alchemy, especially the composition of the green lion and the philosophic fire spoken of by Pontanus and others. It refers also to Flamel and Geber among others.

Altogether it's a good work; a bit on the dense side, but with several very literal, straight-forward passages with regards to the physical alchemical component that seems of greater interest to most. Importantly, the work echoes (multiple times from multiple sources) that alchemy is veiled and hidden from the unwise, and that multiple traps have been laid for those seeking to simply turn things into gold and become wealthy.

52 pages.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Witchcraft Detected and Prevented: Now Available!



This work is a bit on the odd side because the title is utterly useless in determining its content; reading the title (which proposes the work to purely oppose witchery) and the preface, one would assume it's nothing more than Christian zeal or, at most, white magick. It is in fact based partly on the work of Magnus, partly on the Petit Albert (or some intermediary text) and partly on the fortune telling tradition of the late 1700s with the Norwood Gypsy and other content. As such, it is a bric-a-brac, a gray magick grimoire, and a miniaturized compiling of herbal and folk lore and magic, all combined with some protective incantations and plenty of superstition.

In fact, altogether, it almost rivals the Petit Albert or Hohman's "Pow Wows" for interest in my own opinion- this kind of work is uncommon, and extremely interesting. It also contains some basic chemical works (alchemy!) and weather prognostication with astrological overtones.


92 pages.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Witchcraft, and Miracles: Now Available!



This work is something I do not necessarily agree with in an occult sense but, for historical reasons and because of its (extremely) interesting take on the Salem Witch Trials, it is certainly worthy of inclusion in the ever-expanding library of releases here.

Written by Putnam in the middle of the 1800s, it is notable in that it makes the claim (though not directly) of a new spirit age having dawned on the world in which spirits have begun to communicate with mankind in a manner not unlike the telegraph- predating theosophical claims of a similar nature by many decades. The author himself claims to have established the veracity of mediums and spiritualism personally, and remarks at length upon the different stages or categories of mesmerism and its abilities.

62 pages.

Monday, August 14, 2017

The Divining Rod: Now Available!




This short but interesting manuscript is a compilation of lore related to the use of the divining rod (or dowsing rod) and was created by Latimer in the mid 1800s- Latimer proclaims his own skill with the use of the same and seems to take it fairly literally (minus the new age usage of the same- namely as a homeopathic medicinal object for closing "negative energies" off to heal the sick.)

The manufacture, use, and history of the dowsing rod is all spoken of here, both by the author himself as well as from sources he has compiled- a nice work on the subject, arguably one of the few in depth looks at the phenomena at all.

56 pages.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Secrets of Black Arts!: Now Available!




This interesting little volume is roughly similar in some ways to the Book of Forbidden Knowledge (which became and has remained one of my top selling titles.) It is a mix of different lore, delivered from a skeptical-but-not-atheistic position on subjects ranging from the divining rod (dowsing), to omens and apparitions, and the Salem Witch Trials- this last is covered in some degree of depth indeed, about 50 pages of content giving the backdrop, opinions of the era, and some of the names and trials of note from the entire series of events there.

A short treatment on Satan and demonology gives way to this more historical content and it is subsequently capped off with a two page ramble about the need to refute fire and brimstone ideology and irrational superstition. The original edition came with about ten pages of ads (removed in my edition) for other works which ranged from mesmerism and palmistry to brief annotated historical guides.

122 pages.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Tarl Warwick Books: Now Also on Wordpress

Because Google has recently decided to join the increasing chorus of voices advocating the large-scale dumbing down of the internet I have decided to construct a wordpress blog for my literary work. Those of you who do not wish to partake in google services may use it at your leisure. It will take me some time to make the blog fully functional since I have never used wordpress before; but I did manage to import all posts.

Hysterically, both the generally right wing and the generally left wing are opposed to this new Orwellian tactic. I pride myself though on being one of the first to oppose this new tactic. I encourage all of my readers and fans to do the same.

Sunday, July 30, 2017

General Update Time!

Alright literary world;

It's time for a little bit of an update- I'm quite excited for the next three months, that happy period of time where summer winds down towards Halloween, AKA the greatest holiday of the year. After Halloween, there's nothing to look forward to until spring except stuffing yourself on Thanksgiving and Yule.

I have four works that I am definitively working on during this period; two herbal works (another government circular by the author of "Weeds as Medicine" and the South Sea Herbal) which will require illustration are on the docket, along with a short alchemical tract and the current work I am editing; "Secrets of Black Arts!" which is similar to other travelers booklets from the late 19th century and into the 1920s- these short works were part historical and part titillating grotesquery. Don't worry, those won't be the only works I release over this period; I have a half dozen others ready to format but I am not sure which of them will be completed- along with, I hope, the beginnings of SIH two.

That's about all. Don't dog-ear your books.

Saturday, July 29, 2017

The Biography of Satan: Now Available!




This work comes courtesy of the spiritualist movement of the mid and late 19th century. It is at once an academic work, a work of general demonology and Satan-lore, and a social tract aimed at the fire and brimstone preaching of its era. The elaborate synthesis of its sources and its authors' opinions make it an important work within the historical cycle of late pre-modern Christian philosophy.

For those interested in the occult, the practice of magick, and demonology in a stricter sense, this work is best seen as a refutation of some of the symbolism and meaning used by those involved in the same; if the basis is unsound the practice is unsound, and a great many practitioners continue in the delusion that brimstone-and-smoke filled hallways populated by leathery little creatures with Pluto-esque pitchforks are very much real, and that Satan is a historical notion as opposed to one adapted from paganism. I strongly suggest this work as well for anyone desiring to rid themselves of the fear or Hellfire, since it is meticulously debased here and more or less totally defeated.

112 pages.

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

An Explanation of the Natural Philosophers' Tincture: Now Available!




This manuscript concerns the chemical components of alchemy more than the actual crafting of any sorcerers' stone or elixir itself; indeed, it is the general recipe for the precursor materials needed to work the great work itself. The formula is fairly explicit but most of the secondary content used to "prove" the point is religious in nature and heavily metaphorical. Overall, a fine alchemical work of note, from one of the less well known figures within the period. It is slightly similar to some of Hollandus' work.

37 pages.

Monday, July 17, 2017

1900 Or: The Last President Now Available




This short work of political fiction (that to my knowledge hasn't been released in a new edition in over a century!) was crafted by Ingersoll Lockwood; a largely forgotten literary figure who has now come back into public notice for the apparent predictive qualities of his works both fictional and otherwise. Writing about religious, political, and fantasy topics alike, I can't deny this specific booklet was an interesting read for the story alone.

It's a work of political intrigue; but I am only interested in its prophetic component for the purposes of this blog and my edition of the work- for example, that it lists a "Pence" in the fictional cabinet of this last president, and presumes the rise of socialists and anarchists and others in the wake of a populist, working-class revolt against wall street and corporations.

It's a slightly disturbing work solely because it overlaps with the modern era so fully.

43 pages.

Saturday, July 15, 2017

Folklore, Cryptozoology, and Mythology Books for Sale

The following is a continuously edited list of books about folklore, cryptids, and mythology which I have edited and released. All links are to Amazon, where I have self published my works.

THE BOOK OF WEREWOLVES
Click to Purchase
A fine work by Baring-Gould on lycanthropes, cannibalism, and berserkers. 

LORE OF THE UNICORN
Click to Purchase
Shepard's great work on the history, symbolism, and legend of the unicorn.

THE MAGIC OF THE HORSE SHOE
Click to Purchase
An interesting folkloric look at the use of horse shoes, salt, and animals in superstition.

DRAGONS AND DRAGON LORE
Click to Purchase
An extremely good look at Chinese, Hindu, and European dragon lore.

THE BOOK OF HALLOWEEN
Click to Purchase
A good compilation of history and folklore related to Halloween and its prior counterparts.

MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES
Click to Purchase
A good look at the witch trials, cryptids, and ritual magick by Rydberg.

MESMERISM, SPIRITUALISM, WITCHCRAFT, AND MIRACLES
Click to Purchase
A nice work by Putnam on spirits, Salem, mesmerism, and other related paranormal topics from a dedicated spiritualist perspective.

ANIMISM THE SEED OF RELIGION
Click to Purchase
An interesting booklet categorizing the evolution of folklore and spiritual systems.

GHOSTLY PHENOMENA
Click to Purchase
A collection of ghostly reports by the author and others, with some opinions about psychic and spiritual phenomena like mediums and automatic writing.

WERWOLVES
Click to Purchase
A lengthy work containing dozens of folk tales on the topic of lycanthropes.


FLOWER LORE
Click to Purchase
An excellent work showing the use of flowers in folklore and religious myth.


SCOTTISH FOLKLORE
Click to Purchase
A collection of stories from the authors' childhood in Scotland, some with a religious or cryptozoological bent.


THE DWARFS OF MOUNT ATLAS
Click to Purchase
A short work dealing with reports of pygmies with magical properties in mountains central Morocco.


ANCIENT CURES, CHARMS, AND USAGES OF IRELAND
Click to Purchase
A rabidly pro-Irish nationalist text that contains spooky stories, proverbs, herbal remedies, and more.


SUPERSTITIONS ABOUT ANIMALS
Click to Purchase
A mixture of stories, poetry, and more, regarding animals often in supernaturalmanners, as well as some cryptids.


CELTIC RELIGION
Click to Purchase
A short work on the basics of the Celtic religion including the Druids.


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY
Click to Purchase
A somewhat linguistic work on Celtic spiritual systems.


APPARITIONS GHOSTS HOBGOBLINS AND HAUNTED HOUSES
Click to Purchase
An obtusely titled but excellent series of short tales involving various paranormal misidentifications and hoaxes.


SIGNS, OMENS, AND SUPERSTITIONS
Click to Purchase
A compilation of divination, simple folklore, good and bad luck charms, and much more.


MAGIC AND MYSTERY
Click to Purchase
A skeptics' look at homeopathy, fairies, and various superstitions.


THE VEIL OF ISIS
Click to Purchase
A lengthy expose on the Druids, Isis worship, Phallism and folklore from ancient and then-modern times.


THE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY OF SHAKESPEARE
Click to Purchase
A short work detailing the history of fairy lore as applied to Shakespeares' works.


THE POWER OF GEMS AND CHARMS
Click to Purchase
A laundry list of charms, talismans, and good luck symbols, and their usages.


A BOOK OF GIANTS
Click to Purchase
A work on giants in mythology from the Norse, Homer, the middle ages, and more.


THE SUPERNATURAL IN ROMANTIC FICTION
Click to Purchase
A very dense compilation of folklore, including Arthurian and ancient as well as then-modern.


POEMS OF PAGANISM
Click to Purchase
A compilation of poetry with a pagan twist. Mostly romantic and quasi-folkloric.


BIRDS IN LEGEND AND FOLKLORE
Click to Purchase
A long work compiling centuries of avian folklore from a hundred or more cultures.

POPULAR HOME REMEDIES AND SUPERSTITIONS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS
Click to Purchase
A dense collection of superstition, some derived from Hohmans' "Pow Wows" and the "Egyptian Secrets" of Albertus Magnus.

FOLKLORE, SUPERSTITION, AND CHARMS
Click to Purchase
A compilation of material from dozens of sources covering folk rites, hexes, talismans, folklore about luck and prognostication, and more.

SYMBOLIC MYTHOLOGY
Click to Purchase
A work on symbol usage in religion and spiritual systems, including lore about animals, pillars, rings, etc.

IN GHOSTLY JAPAN
Click to Purchase
A collection of folk tales, mythology, and proverbs from pre-modern Japanese culture.

A WORLD OF WONDERS
Click to Purchase
A compilation of folklore and myth ranging from alchemy to lycanthropy, from astrology to pseudoscience.

POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDERS OF SCOTLAND
Click to Purchase
A compilation of Scottish ghost stories, cryptozoology, and superstitions.

ENGLISH FOLKLORE
Click to Purchase
A collection of folk tales and superstitions, plus ghost stories and more, from peasant England.

FAIRIES
Click to Purchase
A slightly romanticist compilation of poetry and prose involving fairies, but also elves and other such beings.

BEGINNINGS: OR GLIMPSES OF VANISHED CIVILIZATIONS
Click to Purchase
A collection of lore from Greece, Rome, Egypt, Vedic writings, and the work of Donnelly, heavily related to Atlantis and seeking to describe the origins of civilization.

CONTENTIONS WITH GOD
Click to Purchase
A compilation of mostly humorous examples of people suing the Jewish god or complaining of contradictions in Torah and similar law.

AMERICAN INDIAN FREEMASONRY
Click to Purchase
A short booklet relating some native myths and their spiritual overlap with Masonic concepts.

ENGLISH FAIRY TALES
Click to Purchase
A work containing an anthropological dissertation on fairy folklore and etymology, plus some classic fairy tales.

FISHES OF FANCY
Click to Purchase
A compilation of aquatic folklore, from fishes and crabs to dolphins and more.

JEWISH FOLKLORE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Click to Purchase
A short work by Moses Gaster. One part short folk tales, one part analysis of the same.

CISTERCIAN LEGENDS OF THE 13TH CENTURY
Click to Purchase
A fine collection of Cistercian folk tales ranging from the pedestrian to the supernatural.

CURIOSITIES OF OLDEN TIMES
Click to Purchase
A large collection of interesting and strange folklore, by Sabine Baring-Gould.

HISTORIC GHOSTS AND GHOST HUNTERS
Click to Purchase
A compilation of spirits and ghosts in folklore. Strange stories.

Friday, July 14, 2017

Vril; the Power of the Coming Race: Now Available!




This interesting piece of science fiction literature from the middle of the 19th century is a bizarre fusion of modernism and sword-and-sorcery fantasy. Akin to any comparable Atlantis-and-Agartha style work, it's written well enough to be entertaining, and is actually a very good fiction read; but its importance, for occultism, is far greater than its fictional impact.

The author himself was assuredly connected to the spiritual- Blavatsky apparently was familiar with this work, and like other utopian novels it went on to directly inform the spiritualism and new agery of the next half century. This is not surprising, Bulwer-Lytton's various works also influenced the rise of Victorian gothic works. For those into subterranean fiction, it's a must-read. For those interested in the works that influenced 20th century occultism, even more so.

182 pages.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Apologies for the Hours-Long Image Issue: Photobucket Has Lost Their Minds

You may have noticed that the side images linking to the literary categories were messed up for half the day- thankfully I noticed this during my usual nightly "check the blog out of habit" run. Photobucket's geniuses of marketing have decided to charge money for third party embedding. Now, the idea of paying a few bucks to use a site for embedding wouldn't be a problem- sounds reasonable, hosting all that stuff costs money. As I clicked through to solve the problem by paying my due, I figured they had set up one of those sliding scale style services where the handful of images I have there would cost a few bucks a month at most- after all, photobucket would never consider extorting large sums from people who only use the site on rare occasions, unless they have a hell of a lot stored there, right?

399 bucks a year. 30 bucks for each image I actually need to embed.

Let me ask you this, photobucket staff- are you nuts? Did you take crack recently? You know how many red bulls I can drink with 399 dollars? Funnier still; I could pay for your third party embedding scam, but, why do that when I can just use another site altogether?

Any business owners, bloggers, etc, who require embedding can simply use this site, among others- you don't have to pay a cent, you can embed freely, and you don't need to register jack shit.

Friday, July 7, 2017

Short Update Re: Ebooks

It's time for a short announcement for several important pieces of information for my readers here.

1. I have transferred the files and information for the last 20ish works I have released to kdp. Soon they will be available on kindle as ebooks. I tend to drag my heels for months at a time on such things (because I myself do not like ebooks and tablets, I want physical copies of literary works) and then do them in spurts like this. This includes works like "The Piasa", "The Roman Index of Forbidden Books", and "Is the Devil a Myth?" among others.

2. Soon I will add links for both paperback and ebook copies to the category lists. For a few titles there will be no ebook because kindle's platform has slightly different terms of service from Createspace for paperback works.

3. I have obtained a dozen new works to work on; some titles on alchemy, a few psychic works, and some mesmerism and other pseudoscience.

4. The tenth category will soon be added; "Folklore, Mythology, and Cryptozoology." A new "Mysticism and Spirituality" category will absorb some works from other categories and replace the folk magic category.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Funeral Customs: Now Available!




This extremely interesting work is sadly little-known despite its scope; several thousand years of human history and a dozen or so cultures, with all funerary rites they're associated with- from the memento mori and then-modern practices back through embalming, interring, or burning corpses.

The greatest part of this work is its general mention of the slow (or occasionally mono-generational) process of change over time as applied to funeral customs. Nowhere is this as intrinsic as with the black death and the necessity of abandoning more elaborate and single-member graves and services in favor of mass burial, water burial, and expedited blessings.

238 pages.

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

The Joy of Obtaining New Source Materials

In the last 72 hours a number of things have happened that ought to vastly improve the nature of the work I am doing. I have acquired a brand new gaming laptop (programs like open office run instantaneously with almost no loading time at all on this baby... so does Minecraft!) as well as a bunch of literary source materials- a pair of new herbals, an old text compiling all of the four works of Geber (or pseudo Geber) on alchemy, and a few other odds and ends including a couple of grimoires I hadn't somehow obtained before.

Then to celebrate the occult birth of our country so many years ago, I got a copy of the Lesser Keys; I intend to cross-reference this vaguely critical, academic variant with other source materials as research, although I intend to release both the Ars Goetia alone and the Lesser Keys (Goetia, Theurgia Goetia, Paulina, Almadel, omitting the Notoria/Nova) as non-critical and simply inexpensive editions; trust me I am aware the world needs such a release!

Much work is to be done; happy work, culminating in I hope the 130th edition before Halloween.

Saturday, July 1, 2017

General Update For July

As of right now I am juggling several good projects; Puckle's "Funeral Customs" is first on the list, rapidly approaching completion, and will be available probably within a week, indeed possibly two or three more days if I continue editing at the rate I have been for some time.

I have obtained several new works that fit within the herbal and homeopathic category; I still have the South Sea Herbal to work on as well, so that makes three more entries within that category for the fairly near future; one is a longer work, the South Sea Herbal is rather short, and another that is about 60 pages in length, a simple hand guide to some herbal species.

The tenth category to be added to this blog (specifically for cryptids and folklore) will be made subsequent to the next title being finished that will fit into the same category. I may eliminate the folk magic category and create a new one specifically for mysticism which requires shuffling a few titles around as well- into that category will go works like the Sepher Bahir, along with a few works currently in the Divination category which are more spiritual as opposed to some of the routine fortune-telling titles.

Over the coming months I hope to return to works of divination and, once the South Sea Herbal is illustrated and released, it will finally be time to unleash a stand-alone variant of the Ars Goetia on the world and, after that, a version of the Lesser Keys of Solomon; the most famous of all grimoires.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Valuable Herbal Prescriptions: Now Available!



This homeopathic tract contains a number of remedies (technically late pre-modern folk remedies) for ailments ranging from dyspepsia to hysteria. It also contains a small amount of social reformist sentiment. As with "Weeds Used as Medicine" it was beautifully re-illustrated by Rita Metzner, whose instagram can be seen here.

Some of the weights and measurements used herein are archaic in form (such as the drachm) but overall it's an interesting piece of historical medical literature with quite a few botanical species of note.

56 pages.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Weeds Used as Medicine: Now Available!




This interesting booklet was released in the early 20th century as a helpful government bulletin designed to inform farmers that some of the weeds they were constantly removing from their land were medicinal in nature and potentially of at least enough value to make the work of exterminating them mildly profitable. It has been beautifully re-illustrated by the talented Rita Metzner. You can see some of her other works here.

It covers quite a few species; datura is here notable along with poison hemlock as plants that are no longer generally considered to be valid within medicine. Catnip is also mentioned somewhat amusingly here as more valuable on the medicinal end; these days of course its primary reason for sale is as a narcotic for peoples' miniaturized lions and tigers. The general medical use of each species, along with a description of its prevalence and appearance, is paired as well with some interesting asides regarding the commercial nature of early 20th century herbal medicine.

58 pages.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

The Art of Rita Metzner: Illustrator of "Weeds as Medicine" and "Valuable Herbal Prescriptions"

Some time ago I decided it was impossible to personally illustrate all of the herbal works I desired to release; I needed someone to do that part of the work for me, having edited or partially edited a half dozen or so works I couldn't complete. Rita Metzner had submitted a link to her art along with many others and was selected as the best possible candidate for an illustrator. Indeed, the result is very nice. As you can see, she doesn't do just herbal works, but also some rather fantastical (dare I say vaguely occult?) works as well.


Below I wanted to display a couple of the herbal pictures; the first from the (completed, processing) Weeds as Medicine, the second from Herbal Prescriptions, which should be complete before the beginning of July or just thereafter.

The Blessed Thistle.

Poppy Plant.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

The Book of Halloween: Now Available!




This fine collection of folklore, "The Book of Halloween" by Kelley, is primarily a work of European extraction but details the pagan origins of its obvious subject matter. Written at the dawn of the 20th century, it traces the history of Halloween, Samhain, etc, through to the then-modern era, providing numerous examples from folklore, poems, and historical materials of the lineage of what would eventually become our now-modern day of candy begging and pumpkins. Not surprisingly it mentions Grimm at several points.

Fairies, jack o'lanterns, and other topics are denoted in some degree of detail along with the usual departed spirits and witchery of that special time of year.

113 pages.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

The Only True Way: Now Available!




This very short tract is an excellent primer to alchemy; it's actually more an explanation of the veils and hidden meanings of the terms used by other works than it is a process in its own right- the author is anonymous, but Waite dug it up and managed to translate it. Altogether, when paired with other longer, more literal works, it's of far greater value than its general obscurity suggests.

24 pages.

General Update: Five Works Coming Down Fast

In happy news, I spent the last couple of days (due to excessive heat) not wanting to do any harder literary work, and as such I preferred to complete a short alchemical text (which will be available later this very same day) and to format three works in addition to the two edited herbals awaiting their artwork- when the artwork will be done I am not 100% sure, but I've seen the progress and it's coming along nicely.

To these other works (which I have already listed) will soon be joined "The Book of Halloween" by Ruth Edna Kelley- an interesting historical treatment of the various traditions involved on that special spooky day. I skimmed through a couple of the sections and was happy to see that it speaks of multiple cultures.

Secondly, "Aryan Sun Myths" by Nims and Knight- this work fits in with the time period well, and speaks of the solar origin of caucasoid religious forms. As with many such texts, the subject matter is taboo; all that much better, it means a lot of people aren't willing to release such works (even if they predate the second world war.)

Third, "The Divining Rod" by Charles Latimer; a sort of folkloric look at that general topic.

Obviously this amount of work necessitates delaying a few of the other works I've planned on editing; the Asuri Kalpa for example has been shelved now for four months!

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Freher's Process: Now Available!


Within the realm of alchemy a heavy amount of metaphor is typically used, but Freher's short tract here is exceptional perhaps for its willingness to state that the spiritual, here, and the chemical are deliberately overlapped- that isn't to say it's as transparent as glass; the text specifically (at the end, obviously!) says there is more that could be said, omitted because it's superfluous- a common cliff-hanger style in literature dealing with alchemy.

Though short, this work has as much detail on the rudimentary process of refining base materials into the stone of the philosophers (elixir)- here more a spiritual matter than physical, as the Rosarium Philosophorum.

36 pages.

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Dragons and Dragon Lore: Now Available!



This is one of the better and more complete works made on the subject of dragons through over a century of time; Ingersoll's work covers so many cultures that it would be fruitless to list them all, but the inclusion of the Hindu nagas and their lore is certainly worth mention.

As far as academic occultism goes this book is good; as far as cryptozoological primary sources go it's even better.

166 pages.

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Magic of the Horse Shoe: Now Available!



This is one of the greater compilations of folklore I have encountered; written by Robert Means Lawrence, it compiles an extremely long and detailed bit of information related to the symbolism and use of horse shoes in the context of good luck and superstition, along with elaborate side topics like the similar superstitious use of salt, or of animals.

Not content to study one culture or time period, Lawrence helpfully decided to span several thousand years of human history in this text, and ruminated on the similarity and overlap between such traditions in dozens of cultures both extinct and then-modern. Those interested in the history of witchcraft, or of certain cryptozoological aspects, will also find a great deal of compiled material here.

252 pages.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Lore of the Unicorn: Now Available!




This work is pure rationalism circa the early 20th century. Penned by Odell Shepard, it goes to great lengths in being as detailed as possible, not limiting itself by time period or region. Speaking of lore as separate as that of Africa and India, the tale of the unicorn (or alicorn) is rendered not simply to a misunderstood and real beast here, but takes on a wider symbology and meaning.

The most interesting component of Shepard's work here though is medicinal and related to medieval folklore; the unicorn horn (variously the horn of a rhinoceros or narwhal, and sometimes that of an antelope or even a chunk of petrified wood) was rumored in those days to sweat in the presence of any poison and to act as a souped-up sort of bezoar taken internally. The content is at times dense, and it draws on many primary sources both antiquated and then-modern.

216 pages.

General Update Time!

I have completed the editing of "Lore of the Unicorn" and it will be available today and of course posted about here. This is just the first of several more folklore-and-cryptid style works I wish to release in a fairly short span of time. Those two herbals have not been forgotten; I think I'll bend to pressure and pay someone a flat fee and put their name on the works in exchange for not having to draw up the illustrations there personally; it means it might take a year or so for the works to pay themselves off (they're not top tier works, popularity-wise) but it's worth it to have them done and to expand the herbal category.

Which brings me to the goal of creating a new category sometime this summer for a new style of work which doesn't currently fit in any other category; folklore and cryptozoology. This will likely be the last category created for this year, although I could plow away at some works on ghosts and psychic lore and craft that one as well. I haven't decided yet!

Good times ahead!

Sunday, April 30, 2017

Is the Devil a Myth: Now Available!




This work is a combination of demonology and devil lore with then-modern political and social discourse. Dwelling on the titles of, powers of, and form of the Devil, Wimberley's work also touches on temperance, the evils of illusionists and mesmerists, and the spiritualist movement.

It isn't quite as dense and difficult to comprehend as some similar works of the era on this and other titles; a refreshing fact, since some manuscripts on demons delve into minutiae or linger on quasi-medical topics associated with possession. It should be noted that Wimberley was surely a rather zealous protestant and so the work reflects this fact.

123 pages.

Monday, April 17, 2017

Quick Literary Update Time!

Alright everyone, I am steaming through a new work (one that will fit in the demonology category) written from a strictly christian perspective; "Is the Devil a Myth?" by Wimberley, an early 20th century writing of note within the realm of then-modern Victorian philosophy.

I have finished editing my two herbals; what then should I do? Part of me wants to set a couple of days aside and just illustrate them; as for having someone else do so, I'd feel bad not paying a decent total for the work, but these two minor titles are not likely to become large-scale in sales, and I could at best pay a pittance and justify the artistic work by putting the name of the artist on the work- I've had numerous people offer to illustrate for free but, it just doesn't feel "quite right" to take such an offer, even if the work would probably be better than what I can do.

I think I'll illustrate the works myself- it's just a matter of setting aside time to do so when I feel more artistic!

As for forthcoming works, I have acquired another slew of titles to edit and crafted several outlines for more works of my own manufacture, including one about a developmentally arrested caveman and his family and their adventures.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

The Roman Index of Forbidden Books: Now Available!



It should be said in the interest of full disclosure that this is definitely a Catholic-made and pro-Catholic treatment of the churches' old style tendency to forbid (and later merely reprove) literary works on a theological, ethical, and political basis. However, that does not render it uninteresting; the index here alone for its era of manufacture (of a large number of works the index listed at the time) is fairly good fodder for those who want to obtain material the papacy found objectionable; notably Darwin's work and a great deal of philosophical material. Oddly, this very work refutes the idea that the index provides any help to those seeking to read "anti-catholic" materials.

It goes through the elaborate process used to determine whether works shall or shall not be forbidden, and the spiritual implications of authors who accept or refuse the judgment, as well as listing the reading of such material as a potential mortal sin, as long as enough of it is absorbed.

55 pages.

Friday, April 7, 2017

Counterblast to Tobacco: Now Available!




This exceedingly short tract is of note for two reasons; its author and its early date for the content. Crafted at the dawn of the 17th century, it is the first anti-smoking tract, and was penned by none other than King James I himself, of "Daemonologie" fame.

Dwelling on both the humors and then-modern medical lore as well as the spiritual implications of smoking (it being according to his view a sin on several levels), the tract attempts to convince the population of James' time and lands to give up smoking except as a limited medicinal material, sarcastically declaring it miraculous that the same plant can cure sometimes congenitally opposed conditions.

25 pages.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

General Update: Herbals Forthcoming!

I have decided to fixate upon three medically related works for the month of April and, once they are done (could be soon, I might have to pay an illustrator, I'm tired of slowing my work down to draw up, scan, format, and re-edit interior images!) I intend to begin working on another manuscript of my own composition on the topic of robotics, automation, synthetic life, and similar topics.

These three works are summarized:

1. Weeds as Medicine: A government-crafted tract on the medicinal use, form, and habit of several dozen species considered at the time to be pests nonetheless worth harvesting to supplement the income of farmers. Things like foxglove, poison hemlock, and yarrow are mentioned here.

2. Valuable Herbal Prescriptions: A work I had already edited in January but never illustrated; a homeopathic work of sorts, combining the design of a short herbal into a medicinal form for basic remedies.

3. Counterblast to Tobacco: An extremely early public health manifest against smoking written by the infamous King James I, of "Daemonologie" fame, the lord of the burning times themselves.

If any artist I pay to complete the illustrations for the first two works quickly I may indeed also release the South Sea herbal, which at first appears freakishly short, but is actually about as long as the others, and merely in an old, compacted form as many herbals were prior to the enlightenment.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Extra Terrestrial Evolutionary Development: Now Available!




This is the final manuscript I had planned for March; two days early! Its content contains three essential points of note, combining different fields of theory to draw conclusions from their fusion (the main source of authentic occult knowledge, no less.)

First, that human development is largely able to be categorized into four and, soon, five epochs, using communication and focus as limiting factors.

Second, that extra terrestrials, which of necessity exist in competition along evolutionary lines, probably show similar responses to similar long term stimuli in their surroundings.

Third, that acknowledging these, a variety of conclusions about their likely features and behaviors can be drawn; simultaneously, we can predict the general form of the fifth and sixth human epochs to come. This work then combines linguistic anthropology, genetics, and exopolitics as well as robotic ethics.

38 pages.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Against Corporate Media: Now Available!




The third March manuscript I have constructed; a short tract detailing the evolution of, slow degeneration of, and various vices of, corporate media firms and their chosen platforms- their difficulty with the internet, their corruption and their fiscal and political backers' excuses for their constant propaganda.

Exposing truth is the best way to see that it is perpetuated; I am not satisfied with merely pointing to these things on the internet and decided the best way to further promulgate my ideological case against the MSM was through the use of a physical manifesto of sorts. The case I make here for resisting online censorship, decentralizing information dissemination, and ignoring corporate media is to the best of my ability succinct and complete.

38 pages.

Monday, March 13, 2017

Against Communism: Now Available!




This short work is a pogrom against communism, as well as its various offshoots and "allies"- anarchism, socialism, and so forth. I could have written a 900 page manifesto against the ideology itself with ease but figured that wasn't prudent.

Communism is best attacked not with vague moral arguments but with an eye to evolution and biology; paired with an observation of its brief and violent history over the last century, communism is just another pile of trash in the garbage heap of non-working systems.

36 pages.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

General Update Time: Upcoming Releases

Alright literary world!

I am approaching the end of two new short political works; "Against Communism" and "Against Corporate Media." As promised I have two other political titles I plan to release as well this month. I have decided to break apart my efforts into segments over the coming months also. April will be herbal month; two and possibly three new works will be edited then. In May, it's time to return to grimoires and work through the Ars Goetia (as a stand-alone release) and to begin working on the other books of the Lesser Keys. A modified version of my Ars Notoria will be wrapped up into this bundle.

June and July will bring a slew of psychic works and a new literary category. After that, I plan to return to my own titles and begin hammering Sickness in Hell II out.

These plans are malleable, but the year ahead looks like some good stuff.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Improving the State: Now Available!



This tract is one that I thought prudent to finally write; it won't be alone, either- I am working on new titles against communism and corporate media as well as on resisting propaganda, among other things. The time has come to write more of my own works in among those I am editing- especially since I have far too few political materials available here considering that's what so many people know me for.

The content of the work is primarily a guide to several relatively simple ways to improve the nature of states in general and of the United States in specific. It is a fusion system; one part constitutionalism to one part nationalism, in essence (of course I had to explain the difference between the latter and fascism, because they are often wrongly conflated.) I let myself go on a limited pogrom against communism as well, but had to save the really good criticism for my separate work on that subject more specifically. When I realized that we were three constitutional amendments from a substantially more stable and benevolent state I actually surprised myself slightly, considering the convoluted and strangulating nature of our current authoritarian-lite government style.

44 pages.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

The Magic of the Middle Ages: Now Available!




This work is Rydberg's finest- an academic compilation of subjects ranging from a treatment of the burning times, and of religious philosophy (dualism, specifically) to short passages on some cryptids of note, to various meanderings through the high ritual magick and alchemy of the era spoken of. Clearly hostile to Catholic lore, Rydberg manages to choke back his disdain of that church long enough to give it a fair shake at explaining its constant pogroms through especially the era of King James.

Its third section is a strange sort of quasi-fictional tale involving a group of men time traveling to the dark ages and confronting a sorcerer who is under the belief that he himself conjured them, written partly in the first person.

114 pages.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

General Update Time!

Tomorrow I anticipate finishing a very good academic work entitled "The Magic of the Middle Ages"- it combines some cryptid lore with a short of short story involving an alchemist and mage and a group of Victorian men traveling back in time with black magic. Added to this is an extensive treatment of the burning times especially the cultural and religious effects of the Malleus Maleficarum (the 'witch hammer'.) With some of the largely useless notes removed and in its new format it runs about 110 pages altogether.

I am also editing a work on Telepathy, and with a few more works along those lines the final category will be created; one specifically for the psychic arts and related concepts.

While these two works are being finished off I have temporarily halted the two herbals I have sitting there in different levels of completion; as the weather grows warmer I predict that I will have more interest in plants and botanical medicine and their related sub-topics, as my spring fever erupts in full scale.

The first two chapters of a political manuscript I have been working on are also complete.

Monday, February 13, 2017

The Petit Albert: Cloth, Leather, and Vellum Bound editions from Ouroboros Press: Pre-order Today!


I am extremely excited to announce that at long last, after centuries of waiting, the world will soon be able to enjoy a proper, physical, non-paperback edition of one of the greatest of all grimoires ever penned by mankind; the infamous, notorious Petit Albert; the Little Albert of Hand of Glory fame, now to be released by Ouroboros Press.

A thousand cloth-bound copies of this work are being printed along with 475 leather bound and 25 vellum-bound editions; this fully illustrated grimoire is somewhere just shy of the Grimorium Verum in terms of its diabolical nature, and contains a large number of folkish rites and practices which drew from cultures beyond the borders of France and were essentially cosmopolitan and eclectic. The content ranges specifically from obtaining love and sex, to talismans, to medicinal compounds, to (oddly enough) restoring the hymen and preventing your girlfriend from having sex outside of your relationship. Add this to its recipes for soap and liquors and you have a rather strange mix of magick from the period which would directly, it seems, inspire the late 19th centuries' recipe books and family "physician" manuscripts of such great lore.

For those who were interested in patronizing such a release, now it has finally come to be.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

The Useful Family Herbal: Now Available!




This little work manages to compact a large number of recipes (receipts) into a very small page size. Crafted in the early 19th century, it is semi-antiquated in word usage, but provides cures, preventions, and treatments for things common in the era, such as tuberculosis and palsy.

It should not be particularly surprising that a large proportion of medical recipes here contain wine or rum, or else are crafted into a sort of medicinal beer- while not all of the recipes are likely effectual (some aren't even remotely safe- lead is usually no longer used as medicine!) many of them certainly would have gotten the user drunk enough to forget their illness. It contains a short index of medicinal species as well and their properties.

30 pages.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

How to Speak With the Dead: Now Available!



This work is very well crafted especially for its era; the author, known as "Sciens", manages to delve into science and spiritualism here somewhat seamlessly without mindlessly accepting either the spiritual or rational explanation for phenomena he visits within the manuscript.

The majority of its content deals with the structure of a seance and the philosophy behind the basic concept of communicating with the departed- helpfully, the work clears up some misconceptions about channeling and similar topics as well, debunking the idea that, for example, those gathered need to link hands for some electrical purpose. At the end of the work both skeptics and spiritualists are fairly reamed by the author for various excesses.

93 pages.

General Update Time!

Despite not posting an update in a while be it known that I have been hard at work; I am very pleased to first announce that the process of re-submitting all the files for ebook releases is now done- all of the titles available as digital downloads on Amazon (90% of them roughly) should be in proper format. If you do find any stragglers left behind and still messed up please leave a comment on this blog or message me elsewhere. The entire process took more than a week.

In other news, "How to Speak with the Dead" is finished and uploaded and should come online later today- I have also begun editing several other works; "John Williams' Last Legacy" (a slightly notorious short herbal and medicinal tract) and Rydberg's "Magic of the Middle Ages" which is a somewhat longer text, and quite dense- that one is sure to go into the academic heading.

I am crafting as well a political work of sorts, one of my own authorship- I am not sure yet how long it will be when completed, but it's sure to fit in with the hyper-political climate of the current era.

Friday, January 20, 2017

Magic And Witchcraft: Now Available!

 


This fine work is the culmination of a great deal of study by John Taylor in the middle of the 19th century. As with many works from the period, it both lambastes prior christian populations for their superstition while exonerating them partly on the basis that their interpretation of christian dogma was, first, misled by the authorities of their age and, second, that this was partly the fault of primordial pagan influence and the working of sorcery in late antiquity.

Its primary content is related to the burning times, both with regards to conceptions of Satan and of witches and witchcraft in general, but it also manages to provide a few older examples including the rites of the snake cults of the near east and the topic of the infamous shape-shifting Lamia. It blames King James and his "Daemonologie" and the Malleus Maleficarum for many tens of thousands of deaths.

77 pages.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

The Process Begins on Improving the KDP Titles

This morning I finished "Magic and Witchcraft" and it is processing, but I figured I'd do a bit more and moved all five herbal titles to KDP (for ebook sales)- as always I don't really care much about ebooks because I prefer physical copies, but people keep asking me for digital versions of my releases so I figure I might as well have a full ebook catalog too.

Which brings me to the happy news of the day; I am fully aware that a few of the titles I have aren't properly processed there for sale as ebooks; when I released the first slew of digital releases I relied on Createspace to properly convert existing files and, of course, was let down; CS is great for paperbacks but has severe issues when it comes to processing uploaded files for release as ebooks; several titles were nothing more than the cover and one page of text, or four pages of badly formatted and massively cropped illustrations. I have to go back through and manually re-upload pdfs of each title to make sure they're all in proper working order since CS can't apparently handle it on their end; that means weeks more effort. I manually submitted the files for the five herbals so at least that category will be in proper format with no issues (I hope.) I'll get to work tomorrow with the four folk works, then after that spend a week or so on the rest and do as much as I can while also releasing the next herbal title.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Demons and Tongues: Now Available!




This booklet details the opinions of the Pillar of Fire order founded by Alma White at the dawn of the 20th century, regarding the then-growing Pentecostal movement and its belief in baptism by tongues. It additionally delves fairly deep into eugenics-era demonology and the nature of both demons and the Devil, and their constant quest to destroy the christian body in what White and others believed to be a period fairly close to the end times. It speaks about the vaguely eugenics-tinged christianity of its era and proposes that those who speak in tongues regularly are possessed not by the Holy Spirit but rather by the legions of Hell.

64 pages.

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Three More Works Coming Soon

Because I felt sick (and a little under the weather even after the sickness subsided) I didn't do much for a few days there, but now I'm roaring ahead and finishing up with three entirely separate works.

First, "Weeds as Medicine" which was actually put out under US government contract back at the dawn of the 20th century. Part of it is utilitarian but it is also an interesting herbal. It's about half done save for the illustrations.

Second, "Valuable Herbal Prescriptions" which is done except for the illustrations which I have not had the gumption to render yet; it's a 50-ish page herbal medicine tract.

Third, "Demons and Tongues" which is one part early 20th century demonology, one part anti-pentecostal manifesto, and quite interesting. I am almost 3/4 done editing this work which, thankfully, has no illustrations.

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Regarding A Few Anonymous Critics of my Editing

This post is partially an exercise in humor because those who have some degree of understanding of how the editing process works are already acutely aware of the work involved with releasing even already-written materials whether from an ages-old book or an ages-old book that was scanned into a pdf and then used as source material. In the last few weeks, a few (anonymous) individuals both on Youtube and elsewhere have attempted to insinuate that my releasing of edited works by other authors does not constitute work, or at least it that it doesn't constitute difficult work that, in their minds, could not be adequately done by any other average person. I doubt that these same individuals would be willing to confront me without anonymity, likely because they know that their tall tales would be mocked by even a half-assed English student.

I need to point out here first that my editions are physical softcover books and not pdf files. I have already stated that I do not personally endorse the selling of digital books and wish they were all free; I would not even sell ebooks if people hadn't constantly asked me to. Anyone claiming that I simply sell the same material "available on (insert site here)" is fooling themselves. Sure, you can read for free at the library- and that's great, but unless it's a very large library (or a specialized one) their occult section is likely limited to the Necronomicon and some Crowley works.

I have made one thing clear before; the major difference between my editions and competing editions within the same occult categories are twofold.

1. My works are edited by hand line by line. Other works are often facsimiles (exact replicas of old editions) or are slapped into a file and published without substantial editing.
2. My works are still usually the cheapest and when they aren't they're about the same price as the cheapest editions. Anyone claiming I take people for a ride hasn't done any price comparison.

Now then. Let me take you through the steps required for the three general types of work you will find on Amazon within the occult outside of modern editions:

For a facsimile, you scan the work (or obtain a scan of a work) and copy each page as an image into a word or pdf file. You then publish it. You are now essentially done with the work once the info is entered. The result will look like literal crap no matter how you accomplished this task.

For a crap edition, you use OCR on a scan or a pre-existent text file from a work and paste it into a word file. You probably make some attempt to make the format halfway decent. You then publish it. You are now essentially done with the work once the info is entered. The result will be readable but probably badly formatted and will look like it was cobbled together by a gibbon on crack cocaine.

For an edition like the ones I craft you can either take a book and start copying it line by line, correcting all mistakes, correcting for archaic language (for instance, thou to you, or chymicall to chemical) until you have replicated the entire document as though you yourself wrote it, or you can take a scanned document and basically do the same thing. Sometimes, it's possible to copy blocks of text and edit them which is a bit faster. But wait! What about documents that aren't in a proper format? Well, then you have to copy it line by line anyways just as though you were holding the book in your hand. And even if you manage to find a work in good enough condition to be copied paragraph by paragraph, this doesn't negate all errors in format, nor does it transfer some characters, nor does it necessarily mean spacing and format is proper. Regardless, you'll be fiddling with spacing, format, and grammar. Unless you have a (very) good vocabulary you're doomed (read; 95% of the population is not capable of editing 18th century old English. I'd be surprised if more than half could even read it. Don't even get me started on far older English.)

But wait, there's more! I also format the covers myself! Some sellers slap a scanned image of the cover of the original copy onto a pdf and upload it- which is funny since this often leads to people thinking that a softcover book is actually leather bound or in a cloth wrap. I don't have that problem. I also illustrate internally when necessary. Of all the things I do involved with editing this is probably the only point I concede to my critics; my artistic capabilities are limited.

There's also more though! A lot of book sellers on Amazon aren't single individuals, they're publishing houses or groups of individuals that do this for a living. Considering my own income selling copies at often substantially lower prices (and thus a lower level of income per copy sold) I estimate that some of the larger firms dealing solely in facsimiles make five figures a month easily. I am effectively competing not with individuals so much as corporate firms most of the time.

"But aha Tarl" some may say. "OCR is your friend, you must chuckle as you greedily rub your hands together using it and pretending this is work."

"Not remotely." I reply, waving my hands forth to reveal a crumpled document. "Take a look at this following picture from the Canadian Herbal. We'll OCR it and see what gets spit out."



And now the OCR result:

"around his nock. Previous to hia going over lb)^~,
baih, he should take one or two doses of the com*,.
pcsition tea, with the addition of cither No. 2, or 6,
p> both of them. While steaming in all cases the
interi„i jj^^f p^^j, j,(, higher than the external, by
repeating ,i,g above named doses—this prevenn
faintness, anu
-^njjjf, (he operation both safe aixl
easy to ihe paliei.-, ghould fuintness lake place n^
any lime while undex ^ „ ,jo„ ^f ,i,e steam,
after giving a s»ffi<='«"<5\--.ity of hot medicine,
the external heat mus be let W,.,
t, „ajhi„, A.
patient's face with a Imle cold ''"*W "^uJ,S»
be ineffectual, apply a little to the •«n>'^«!^X
faintness will subside. The patient may eo«!.t«8
ove the steam from fifteen to thirty ">'""'«•.
°T»J
the case may require. The steam may be wse^
or letdown at pleasure, by immersing small ho
stoneslnThe wat^er over ^hich the patent .s placed i
the Water should first be made
^}^'"eJ^°Xf^ 'H
steam raised high enough to bnng on a free pet
sp" ration with the help ol the h°'X '^"*'
^"l""'.
Vo high-as to burn the patient. When done st^w
W, the patient should be light.y «'»«h<«» «» ^^
cii spirits, vinegar, or cold '^=''«;^j'^^' ,^^'''jR
pores of the skin, prevents the d»ngf °f "^^8 "^
and refreshes the patient very much. W W«u
above named hot medicines '=«»»°' ''«
^'jf'^^^
may be substituted in their places, soch W m
pepper, summer savory, and 'ne."''.^:^„ -> ;, u_
The wav a steaming stone js preparea,_^f,j^^
heiti'ng rJtone in the fi^re till.near.y o^ jn>.'« -
hot; then immerse the stone m <=oW. "^"''WU^
nuit's hissbg; take it out <^^_:^^,^,^l,^^,
(but folds of linen ciotu, ^Vt<"'it^-- - :-_ q^ .wj
and one fold of a dry flannel cloi)x,|i«,r»p^?«JKW"


The fact that a great many pages in a great many scanned manuscripts are in this condition or nearly so entirely negates the usefulness of optical character recognition. Indeed, it's faster for me to type such a page from scratch than to correct all the errors. If I were less scrupulous I'd take that image along with images of the other pages, slap them into a word file, and be done in an hour with the entire document along with a title page and a cheaply made nearly blank cover.

It also bears note that I am not just an editor- I'm also an author. I've written a number of works myself.

To make a long story short, anyone claiming they can do what I am doing is, statistically speaking, probably lying, and if they are capable of doing so, and have done so, chances are they aren't the ones pretending the process of editing pre-20th century occult works is so easy a simpleton could accomplish the task. Unfortunately it is very unlikely that my critics will read this; odds are they're just frustrated at my political or spiritual views and seeking to shill, or that they're illiterate.