Abraham Lincoln the Practical Mystic: Now Available!

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"Abraham Lincoln, the Practical Mystic", is one of the most odd works I have come across. A fusion of anecdotes and folklore with Lincoln worship, WWI era Germanophobia, and some really great actual story-telling, it is very much worth a read for historical and occult reasons.

Lincolns' dream interpretation has been the subject in and of itself of multiple books; this work manages to take that concept and condense it along with his religiosity, while relegating Abe Lincoln to a sort of American demi-god, literally proclaiming him to be a Moses-like visionary.

52 pages.

Mehmet Alis Oriental Interpretation of Dreams: Now Available!

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This interesting work is partially a plagiarism of Napoleons' Oraculum (not the later Tousey version but the 1830s variant) but is nonetheless the best fortune teller work I have come across; at almost 180 pages in modern format it includes nearly 90 pages of (dense) dream interpretation, a full oracle system, sections on phrenology, lucky and unlucky days, dice, cards, simple charms, and phrenology. The oracle is ascribed to Count Bismarck which almost surely makes that entry a tongue-in-cheek swipe at the French attribution (to Napoleon) of that earlier, notable work.

It is of note that the dream interpretation differs somewhat from other contemporary systems and occasionally gives a double meaning (one 'source' claiming the dream means one thing, another 'source' another, etc.) The tea leaf section is definitely adapted from the Mrs' Bridget Fortune Teller or some missing link work between the two in date.

Extremely readable and useful. I use it in my own dream interpretation explicitly.

179 pages.

The Family Companion and Physician: Now Available!

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This semi-short work is a fine one, because it combines herbal remedies (the recipes thereof, that is) with what amounts to diagnosis, and bridges the gap between prior works (which tended to be quite superstitious) and latter ones (which were more scientific in the truly modern sense. In the mid 19th century, the scientific and the spiritual segued into one another seamlessly. The incantations of grimoires slowly got displaced by the apothecary receipts of the more recent era. It includes as well a short lecture on health which is at times hilarious, blaming "self abuse" (now known as masturbation) for lunacy and various developmental disabilities.

I cannot recommend the concoctions utilized here in this booklet but some of the species and preparations are indeed chemically active and at the time would likely have been tested with at least some degree of rigor. It is an interesting look at the eras' medicinal lore. One of the best, actually.

65 pages.

Fishes, Flowers, and Fire: Now Available!

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This is yet another of the infamous phallic works written during the late 1800s presumably by Hargrave Jennings, anonymously. The works at the time contained taboo materials, since they spoke of fertility rites, sexual symbolism, and feminine spiritual forces. While "Ophiolatreia" is perhaps the best known of the titles in this privately printed series, this one might be the most interesting.

The work contains three basic sections, as its title suggests; the use of fish as a sexual symbol especially as tired with Christianity would have been considered blasphemy in its era (even if accepted now)- flowers are a fairly obvious sex symbol, but the greatest bulk of the work regards fire worship. Here we see the interesting suggestion that those who "passed their seed (children) through fire to Molech" may have been not sacrificing them but rather ritualistically purifying them. An extremely good work.

115 pages.

The Black Pullet: Now Available!

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This work never got its own entry either. Now in a proper format, this work primarily revolves around the usage of a series of magical talismans, as part of a larger story (Napoleonic in origin and era) in which the author has been saved by a Turkish mage from an angry group of Arabs. The author then is instructed in magic, including how to raise a hen which will create eggs made of gold.

The invocations and talismans are meant to be considered literal and the back story appears to have been used to justify the odd content. It should be noted that ascribing works to Napoleon, a Napoleonic soldier, or related things, was common for half a century thereafter due to his fascination with pre-anthropological ruin-diving.

82 pages.

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

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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.

The Divining Rod: Now Available!

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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.

The Useful Family Herbal: Now Available!

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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.

Three New Works I Acquired

I was unable to obtain one of the works I had in mind for the archive and release; a scrapbook and partly hand-written civil war era medical quack work with various recipes and letters and other miscellaneous inclusions; the price quickly surpassed my willingness to buy a work I was not able to physically examine for condition.

However I did obtain three quack-era works related to medicine, including two on homeopathy and a third on the usage of gunpowder as a remedy. I will release these works as free scans for the archive as soon as I figure out my new printer/scanner combo and will also craft them into new editions.

from the ebay listing

Demonomania and Witchcraft: Now Available!

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This short but extremely interesting work is a historical view to the rationalism of the mid 1800s. Written by Joseph Workman (MD) an apparent specialist in insanity, it refutes and also draws from the Burning Times and the Salem Witch Trials. Filled with anecdotes, it is historically valuable both for its coverage of earlier events as well as its historical context in the early industrial era with the changing interpretation of witchery and demonology of that age.

24 pages.

The Stanzas of Dzyan: Now Available!

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The Stanzas of Dzyan are a short, purportedly Tibetan work which Helena Blavatsky claimed to have translated near the end of the 19th century from works she encountered in the far East. That it is essentially a short reworking of mundane Buddhist doctrine does not detract from the fact that this, above almost all other occult manuscripts, influenced the entire period of Victorian new agery- as such I decided to edit it, more as a work of historical rather than spiritual significance.

Helena Blavatsky was an interesting person; a chain smoker with the mouth of a sailor who indeed did travel far more widely than even the average socialite Victorian of her era; that she fused systems together into new rites and practices is generally seen as evidence of her being a fraud by most- I see fraud only in her seances and secret letters and relegate the fusion of systems to the most positive abandonment of moral traditionalism and the adaptation of what a hundred years later became the rudiments of the new, rising occult order which at least acknowledges the presence of each spiritual system outside of a vacuum.

26 pages.

The Book of Werewolves: Now Available!

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"The Book of Werewolves" is a slightly ominously-titled work from the mid 1800s by the somewhat eccentric genius Sabine Baring-Gould. It covers far more than just your typical tales of lycanthropy and delves deeply into berserker (bear-serker) lore, Hindu tradition, and cannibalism among other things, titillating the reader with rather lurid depictions of criminal behavior.

Baring-Gould helpfully acknowledges both the spiritual and secular explanations for various historical tales along these general lines and manages to cram an enormous amount of lore into this work- which might be the pinnacle of such literature in man's realm of study.

174 pages.

The Chaldean Account of the Deluge: Now Available!

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This short tract is an interesting primary source that led directly to the writing of Smith's longer "Chaldean account of Genesis." An archaeologist in the late 1800s, Smith was instrumental in some of the digs at Ninevah and elsewhere and was apparently self taught in cuneiform translation.

While this treatise, which translates what would become part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, was well received and widely read in its era, today only archaeology students tend to refer to it at all; which is sad since Smith could easily be given credit for helping to usher in the age of Victorian occultism- the Genesis-Gilgamesh overlay in his work is of such great importance in leading to what would become the Blavatsky-style spiritualism, scientific secularism, and (sometimes inaccurate) speculation of latter days on ancient man, that Smith deserves a spot in the spiritual hierarchy not even a step below Crowley or Paracelsus.

33 pages.

Letters on Witchcraft and Demonology: Now Available!

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This is one of the best single works of witch-and-demon lore ever created; dating to the end of the Enlightenment it is partially historical, partially philosophical, and is perhaps the most important work from Walter Scott, who himself is one of the most important literary figures of his era. This work is a compilation of ten letters written by Scott on the subject, intricately sourced to secondary texts, and is altogether a fine resource for any academic or occultist.

If you desire references to and anecdotes about illusion, possession, exorcism, the burning times, demon worship, or Satan, this is the work for you.

This edition has been rendered into modern English except for a few quoted passages from antiquated sources which Scott has used, which were retained for continuity.

269 pages.

Phallism (Crux Ansata): Now Available!

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This work is wonderfully well crafted- not simply fixating solely on phallic worship in the most literal sense, it also describes the typical pagan origins of the christian cross, the phallic inclusions into then-modern christian, jewish, and islamic architecture, and describes the rituals of Hinduism, Mesoamerican natives, and others with regards to the phallus.

A counterpart to Cultus Arborum and other works, and released by the same private printing firm, this Victorian work was created at the height of the British Empire and thus fixates predominantly (but not exclusively) on cultures studied by explorers, soldiers, and academics from therein. Its common debasement of paganism as debauchery when connected to phallism is relieved by its frank honesty about the same inclusions within Abrahamic lore.

It is a priceless academic text; and all that much more precious to me since it lists four additional works released by the same company that I was not formerly aware of; including one on the Rosy Cross; I intend to edit and release the entire series over time.

112 pages.

Three Works of Demonology For 2016

Because King James' Demonology has risen up so quickly in sales I have decided to expedite several other works on the topic of demonology and try to get a couple of them released before the end of the year alongside the work I need to do before Halloween; namely Sickness in Hell, Cultus Arborum, and the Greater Key of Solomon.

The first work is entitled "Demoniality" and was written in the 17th century by a "Father Sinistrari"- the work was translated from its original Latin in the 1870s, and is actually fairly short- which you wouldn't know looking at the nearly 300 page original; indeed, the typeface used and the fact that it combines, on every other page, the Latin original with the English, means that this work will probably be no more than 150 pages when properly completed. It ruminates on sex with corpses, Incubi and Succubi in general, stories related to the same, the nature of the Devil's Mark, witchery, and other related topics- it's quite good. I have already begun editing this particular manuscript.

The second is Robert Brown's "Demonology and Witchcraft." This work is substantially longer and was released in 1889. This is a much more christianized style of work than most I am used to editing but worthy nonetheless of inclusion into the growing occult catalog I'm fielding here.

The third is Walter Scott's "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft." This 1830 work requires little explanation due to its general notoriety, suffice it to say it covers just about everything that could possibly be related to demons and witches. It is a substantially long work and will take quite a bit of time.

Hieroglyphical Fortune Teller: Now Available!

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In a stroke of good luck I happened upon this work while researching the early 1900s Oraculum; the Dream Book version, as opposed to Tousey's far better Book of Fate version.

A slimmed down work, it contains an expansive oracle in place of Tousey's shorter oracle twain with other content. As a pure fortune telling manuscript, it revolves around asking one of 26 questions, then choosing one of 26 letters to represent the answer- this works better when ascribing the numbers 1 through 26 on a random number generator to this purpose, or when the letters have been placed on cards and turned facing down so the user is able to eliminate the possibility of guesswork based on prior usage (the original text merely instructs the user to choose a Hebraic symbol for their answer- useless if they have used it more than a few times.)

Altogether an interesting work.

35 pages.

John George Hohman's Pow Wows: An American Grimoire - Now Available!

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John George Hohman's "Pow Wows" is one of the best occult texts I've edited. Dating to the 1820s, it was spawned by the Pennsylvania Dutch folk traditions of the era, and may be variously seen as Americana, German-derived occultism, a grimoire, or a snake oil combination of herbal and prayer book.

Within this edition I retained the publishers' inclusions (which Hohman did not write) because they were present in the first edition, but removed the long and largely pointless running index, which for some odd reason was at the end of the work when it ought to have been included as a condensed table of contents.

The material covers herbal medicine, folk healing, prayers and invocations, a few magickal formulae, the construction of a couple of simplistic talismans (on paper) and protective spells, as well as hex breaking.

100 pages.

Hohman's Pow Wows (or; Long Lost Friend)

Now that the Universal Fortune Teller of Mrs. Bridget is complete, it's time for a new edited work; and thankfully this time it's in semi-modern English and comes from the United States.

Hohman's "Pow Wows" has nothing at all to do with Mesoamerican ritualism; which is funny given the connotations of the title- instead, it's a fusion system between German ritualism (influenced, as I will explain, by French ritualism) and Americana, a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition from the dawn of the 1800s.

The work itself is about the same length as, and contains some material similar to, the Petit Albert of 1700s era French renown- in my estimation the French cycle has influenced the content of this work, based on its eerie level of similarity- although it is within the realm of possibility that the similarities are due to traditions which were simply popular enough to have spread around Europe; after all, there's no certainty that all content in the Petit Albert originated in France (indeed, it mentions Hungary and other regions explicitly for a few of its passages.) It's broken into similar sections and covers similar maladies such as the bite of mad dogs (rabies of course) and headaches, hysteria, and other conditions.

One part herbal, one part prayer/incantation booklet, and one part folkish tradition, this rivals the Petit Albert for "most in depth ritual system" I have ever edited. It is likely that I will list this with the grimoires, since that is essentially what it is, even if it is also technically a work of folk magick.

I expect that it will be around 110 to 120 pages when completed, and it's quite a nice work.