Mother Bunch's Closet: Now Available!

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This little booklet is one of a number of "chap-books" reworked in the late 19th century from an earlier volume, with a very interesting origin; namely, a far older work dating back far further than the "Book of Knowledge" which I once personally believed was the origin of the Norwood Gypsy tale. It is mostly a series of fictional tales of "Mother Bunch" interacting with various youngsters, advising them on matters of courtship and marriage, being oddly foreword about the concept of premarital relations and adultery.

33 pages.

The Original Norwood Gipsy: Now Available!

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This little text is one of a number of divination titles ascribed to the infamous Norwood Gypsy, briefly mentioned in the Salem Witch Trials. It is a standard fortune teller, with tea leaf reading, physiognomy, lucky and unlucky days, and fortune telling using a deck of cards, all mentioned. It is brief but complete and may have been the basis for plagiarism from later works repeating it near-verbatim.

33 pages.

A Method of Chierognomy: Now Available!

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This heavily illustrated little work is a good fortune telling system mostly overlapping the practice of palmistry. It does not really mention the lines of the hand (except in terms of degrees of smooth or rough) but focuses mainly on finger and hand shape and size, and the various "mounds" of the hand used to determine various types and degrees of character.

40 pages.

Fortune Telling and Divination: Now Available!

 

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This collection of fortune telling lore is parsed into several sections and spans a couple of centuries. It is a compilation of materials from my own edited works on subjects such as dream interpretation, astrology, oracles, and other practices used to discern ones' fate. I wanted to provide as broad and lengthy an overview of these systems as possible in this excellent work, which is a companion to my collections on demonology and alchemy.

With a short suggested reading list and expansive preface, this work can be used by a modern audience just as it could in times past.

388 pages.

Telling Fortunes by Tea Leaves: Now Available!

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This excellent little fortune telling work is illustrated with examples involving the telling of fortunes by tea, using a Nelros cup (still available for sale, it was quite popular then as it is now.) About seventy pages of the content is encyclopedic and solely involves listing the meanings of different figures in tea cups, left over from loose tea brewing; one of the most common and popular fortune telling methods.

I highly recommend it for those intrigued by divination. While I gravitate towards dream interpretation more than tea leaves and tarot, it is at least very well written and fairly exhaustive.

139 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 Mystic Dream Book: Now Available!

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This book is the most in depth pre-modern work I have encountered on the topic of dream interpretation. Sharing overlap with the entries found in older works on the subject (or including the subject), it is properly a fortune telling work in the same rough tradition as the Universal Fortune Teller, Philosophical Merlin, and various others.

It is detailed and fairly lengthy; those intrigued by the idea of dreams in the occult (from the more literal perspective, as in, direct prognostication) will probably find this book fascinating.

138 pages.

The True Fortune Teller: Now Available!

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This is yet another of the fortune teller works I am so fond of. This one is quite short but dense and contains several novel inclusions- it is, as far as I know, the only work which prognosticates by nail shape and color (at least among works I've edited currently) and the tree picture is itself a sort of oracle used with a blindfold to tell general fortune.

It partly plagiarizes the 1790s Fortune Teller of Mrs Bridget and contains the same origin story and astrological section. The author is not known and the source work is not dated but I speculate it dates to shortly after the Philosophical Merlin and thus the 1830s or so based on the oracle type, the font and format of the initial work, and the obvious post-Mrs Bridget date.

I had help with the tree image from Sandra Kishi Glenn, whose website you can find here at this link. Many thanks for the rendering!

29 pages.

Signs, Omens, and Superstitions: Now Available!

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This is one of my favorite editing works so far; a massive collection of folklore, dealing with every sign and omen under the sun from a dozen cultures, multiple epochs, etc. From bad luck to good, from relationships to employment, Cielo's work has a little bit of everything. It is interesting to me that some of the content is familiar to me such as the common habit here in my own native New England of seeing barns with horse shoes nailed above the door, always open-end up to "keep in the luck."

The author, a skeptic, wrote this work in order, ostensibly, to mock superstition, but instead is likely to be heralded as a compiler of folklore- the rational minds of the era sought to dispel supernatural things but ended up cataloguing them instead for future generations; a testament to the abilities of the paranormal, of the occult.

121 pages.

The New Dream Book: Now Available!

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This work is a bit longer and more fleshed out than some (even some fortune telling works.) Primarily a work of dream interpretation, it also covers prognostication by moles and card throwing, and contains a very simplified, extremely short oraculum of sorts that nonetheless does not follow any other prescribed method; due to its date of manufacture it might actually be the first work to utilize a chart-like grid oracle, which was then improved upon later.

As with other works of dream interpretation prior to the late pre-modern period (the forties and fifties mostly) its interpretations are used for fortune telling instead of, as is generally the case in the present, psychology and introspection. All around a great occult work!

102 pages.

Secrets of Black Arts!: Now Available!

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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.

1900 Or: The Last President Now Available

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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.

Everybody's Astrology: Now Available!

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This booklet is a compact little guide to the basics of astrology both theoretical and pragmatic. Some of the content here is Magnus Jensen's own theory and opinion, the rest is fairly standard zodiacal lore.

It contains a pair of rising sign tables among other things as well as references to a half dozen other astrological works, admonishing that the world would be a far better place if astrology were more widely understood and practiced.

38 pages.

The Omnium Gatherum: Now Available!

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The Omnium Gatherum is a bizarre but interesting fortune teller. Written in the 1870s and pairing a social oracle with temperance propaganda, it is the offspring of JT Yarrington, who was an activist for this latter cause.

The social purpose is clear; get a group of people together to tell their fortunes with one another and subsequently ponder the evils of alcohol (the "grog sellers" and so forth!) It also contains a dozen testimonials from the press of its age. Indeed, the oracle can be used solo by making slips of paper for each possible answer to the questions but getting a group together really helps when your purpose is to get them talking about the evils of beer and liquor.

44 pages.

General Literary Update: Forthcoming Works

I will be attending a funeral this afternoon. As such my load of work for the day is essentially just an update for "The Piasa" later.

Over the last week I have obtained a large number of new works to work on. I never stick to a timeline and tend to bounce from work to work on a daily basis, to keep the material fresh and interesting and so I don't get bogged down or distracted. Here is a little list of some of the works I'll be releasing over time.

-The Omnium-Gatherum: A substantial oracle twain with pre-prohibition temperance propaganda.
-Modern Vampirism by Eaves: A work on psychic vampirism among other topics.
-The Golden Wheel: A lengthy fortune teller apparently based on Napoleon's Oraculum.
-Of Ghosts and Spirits: A very old (late 16th century) work.
-Witchcraft, the Art of Fortune Telling: A Norwood Gypsy-style fortune teller from the very early 19th century.
-The Origin of the Werewolf Superstition: A short academic treatise on the subject.
-Magic, Divination, and Demonology among the Hebrews: A self explanatory work.

Your Future Revealed: Now Available!

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This interesting work is one among many in the oracle tradition but with two neat twists; first, the oracle is set up to answer via some of the Greek deities, and second the oracle is in Shakespearean quotation.

This likely marketing strategy takes a straightforward, relatively simple oracle and transforms it into something a bit more snazzy. Thirteen questions may be answered by merely using slips of paper upon which the numbers of the gods (or their names) are placed. This system can be adapted for essentially any multiple choice query.

32 pages.

The Hindu Book of Astrology: Now Available!

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The Hindu Book of Astrology is slightly mistitled- it is indeed a Western astrological work with some Eastern fusion within its pages; that hardly detracts from the content, since texts from this era tended to do that quite often, especially with Hinduism.

It includes all the signs of the Zodiac, the cusps, the colors, gems, diseases, and so forth of each sign, within a fairly rudimentary framework, and then encourages the reader to relax and study other aspects of the occultism. The Zodiac may be seen as largely a positive one, which is more fixated on elaboration on the positive aspects than dwelling on the negative.

65 pages.

The Seaside Sybil: Now Available!

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The Seaside Sybil is a strange little work. Written in 1882 and almost entirely New York-centric in style, it proposes a rather simple oracle system; 100 possible fortunes are present, and the numbers 1 through 100 placed on slips of paper and one drawn at random to consult the oracle.

The oracle itself is what concerns, of course, the occult audience- also of interest here though is the addition of ads for quack medicine, often ads of a rather outmoded and at times hilariously bigoted nature; for example, an ad featuring a "chinaman" charicature eating a box of rat poison- the ad states "They must go!" It is not clear if the rats, or the chinaman, are the primary subject.

28 pages.

Divination, Fortune Telling, and Astrology Books for Sale

The following is a continuously edited list of texts related to fortune telling, prophecy, astrology, and prognostication, which I have edited and released. This list will be updated over time as new titles become available.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL MERLIN
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A British work from 1822 dealing with astrology and divination.

HIEROGLYPHICAL FORTUNE TELLER
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A lengthy oracle with no additional content. Circa the 1870s.

THE UNIVERSAL FORTUNE TELLER OF MRS BRIDGET (1790)
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A longer, earlier fortune teller including palmistry, astrology, card tricks, dream interpretation, and more.

THE UNIVERSAL FORTUNE TELLER (1860)
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A series of charms and astrological divination. Also Americana.

NAPOLEON'S ORACULUM
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An elaborate system of fortune telling, which also contains charms and divination-related practices which use nothing more than playing cards, dominoes, and other simple things. Pure Americana.

THE SEASIDE SYBIL
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A short oracle using slips of paper. Contains many vintage quack medicine and joke ads.

THE HINDU BOOK OF ASTROLOGY
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The twelve signs, the cusps, and various Western occult lore masquerading as Hindu.

YOUR FUTURE REVEALED BY THE GODS OF GREECE
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A simplified oracle in Shakespearean verse.

THE OMNIUM GATHERUM
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A social oracle paired with temperance era propaganda. Mostly relationship related.

EVERYBODYS ASTROLOGY
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A short astrological work mainly speaking of the signs and their meaning.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE STARS
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An excellent primer on beginner-to-intermediate astrology.

THE NEW DREAM BOOK
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An excellent, mid-length work of dream interpretation including moles and cards as used to prognosticate. Contains an early proto-oraculum.

THE TRUE FORTUNE TELLER
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A short work half plagiarized from the 1790 version. Includes prognostication by nails and a unique tree-oracle.

MYSTIC DREAM BOOK
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A lengthy list of dreams and their meanings, from a late 19th century perspective.

PLANTING, HARVESTING, ETC BY THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC
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A short work that subjugates crops and surgery to the movements of celestial bodies.

STARS OF DESTINY
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A work on astrology with the signs, houses, and hours as well as their various natures.

DREAMS AND PREMONITIONS
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A Theosophical work detailing how to remember dreams, some material about their meaning, and a large number of anecdotes about premonitions in dreams.

MEHMET ALIS ORIENTAL INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS
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A long, obtusely titled work of dream interpretation, phrenology, general divination, also with a full sized oracle system.

TELLING FORTUNES BY TEA LEAVES
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A comprehensive encyclopedic system of interpreting tea leaves, with a fairly large and illustrated section giving examples.

FORTUNE TELLING AND DIVINATION
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A collection of divination and fortune telling lore. Oracles, dream interpretation, tea leaf reading, and much more.

A METHOD OF CHIEROGNOMY
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A palmistry work focusing on the hands' shape and size, its mounds, and on finger and thumb types.

THE ORIGINAL NORWOOD GIPSY
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A short fortune teller with palmistry, tea leaf reading, divination by cards, lucky and unlucky days, etc.

MOTHER BUNCH'S CLOSET
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A short combination fiction story and fortune telling work re-edited from an even older work which might even predate mention of the Norwood Gypsy.

THE NATURE OF DREAMS
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A short work by Carrington categorizing dreams and speaking about how to remember them, some prognostication by dreams, and more.

PRACTICAL PSYCHOMANCY
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A short Atkinson work on crystal gazing, astral projection, and other associated topics, with anecdotes, and more.

HINTS FROM THE HORNOGRAPH
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A quasi-theosophical prophetic work using allegory and symbolism and linguistics to (correctly) predict the fall of the British Empire and rise of the United States.

General Update: Greater Key, Sickness in Hell, Phallism, More

It's time for another brief update, brief because I am still largely working on aforementioned texts.

The Greater Key of Solomon, Mathers' lighter, perhaps more then-culturally acceptable counterpart to the Lemegeton, is entering the final stage of editing; tomorrow I expect to complete this task and proofread it, probably in its entirety, before moving on to the illustrations. It is possible that to speed up the work and provide absolutely original illustrations, I will simply render, in far better quality, the original artwork in the first edition- this would shave a good week off the entire process and allow me to work at other endeavors while retaining the intent of the various seals, talismans, and such of the original copy.

As soon as the Greater Key is done work will begin on the Lemegeton; the most infamous of all magickal texts, bar none.

"Phallism" is coming along nicely; it is now definite that this and Ophiolatreia will both be available before Halloween.

I have gone back to writing on SIH having determined the course of the important 11th through 13th chapters- I completed half of chapter 11 today, and over the next two weeks the bulk of the rest of the story will be complete, after which the last three chapters wind down slowly as the segue into its eventual sequel is performed.

I have several alchemical works to edit also; and another fortune telling manuscript, this one twice as long as the Oraculum and far more in depth than any other; Wehman's "Witches Dream Book" from 1885. This work combines an expanded dream interpretation section with a tract on physiognomy largely adapted from the Secretum Secretorum, and then adds astrology, palmistry, some card-and-dice content from the Oraculum, Talismanic works adapted from the Black Pullet (a crossover that is echoed in the Book of Forbidden Arts) and adds tea leaf reading in brief along with a new "sybil" called the leaves of destiny using numbered slips of paper. This work, as far as my review of it so far, is both more deep and superior to even the Oraculum itself.