The Book of Forbidden Knowledge: New Edition!

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This is a special announcement!

The Book of Forbidden Knowledge inexplicably became my all time best seller years ago- it is a bric a brac, likely with multiple authors, and compiles material related to charms, talismans, divination, black magic, spirit-rapping, and other oddities. A few entries appear to be tongue in cheek (curing someone of a gambling addiction by whipping them with a piece of leather from an executioners' whip for example!), and is a very good read all in all. This improved new edition corrects a few errors in the original, is fully reillustrated, and uses a more professional format. I also dropped the price; Amazon has become a landscape of price undercuts by people releasing cheap, crappy editions and taking advantage of the new pricing system.

It is truly one of the most inexplicably strange works I have edited.

109 pages.

Grand Grimoire, Imperial Ritual of Magic: Now Available!

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This is a very exciting work; it combines segments and content from a half dozen sources, and was allegedly crafted by none other than Rosicrucian heavyweight Swineburne Clymer at the dawn of the 20th century. Despite the "grand grimoire" label most of the interior material comes from the Clavicle of Solomon and a variant of the Black Pullet and deals with magical talismans and rings- it also contains a section on mediumship via planchette. It was presumably used as a companion to lectures or lessons as every other page was initially blank, probably for note taking.

It represents a fairly modern "true" grimoire since the compiled material here is fundamentally similar in style and structure to works such as the Petit Albert and Egyptian Secrets of Albertus Magnus.

89 pages.

Frays Golden Recipes: Now Available!

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At the dawn of the 19th century, most popular domestic tip books contained ritual magic or at least prayers and explicit superstition. By the time of this particular work in the late 19th century, those had disappeared leaving herbal medicine, simple tips, recipes, and so forth; indeed, the path from grimoire, to this type of text, to modern woodcrafting and recipe books is fascinating.

It contains a slew of herbal remedies for disease and injury, as well as tips for basic issues such as illness in livestock and so forth- although some of the remedies are not a great idea, some of them remain in alternative medicine even today. It ought to be noted that this booklet had a very long printing run; I have seen scans of editions post-dating this one by 20 years.

66 pages.

Albertus Magnus; Egyptian Secrets: Now Available!

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At long last I was able to get a copy of this work (published by deLaurence at the dawn of the 20th century) that was in workable condition. At over 230 pages in length it is a full grimoire initially in three volumes which were first available in the early 18th century in German. Borrowing heavily from the Petit Albert and in the same tradition and lineage as Hohmans' Pow Wows, it is comprised of two distinct types of material; that which is technically mundane (folk medicine mostly, but also some husbandry related entries) and that which is truly spiritual (prayers and, in a couple spots, incantations involving literal demons.) Wherever "t t t" appears it is assumed the reader ought to be making the sign of the cross.

The staggering number of actual entries here is only eclipsed by the strange content of some of the passages: Ever wonder how to prevent yourself from continuing to be infatuated by a woman lustfully? This book has a solution: Just work up a good sweat and drink some beer from your sweaty shoe. Rub some bat lard in your eyes to see in the dark and amaze your friends!

I attempted to correct some of the obvious spelling errors in the work especially in volume I, however since the initial deLaurence edition is essentially a translated reworking already I felt it necessary to leave the somewhat jolting flow alone.

233 pages.

Ars Theurgia Goetia: Now Available!

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And now it is time for my 155th occult work and the final work of 2018- the Ars Theurgia Goetia, which is the second book and a component of the Lemegeton AKA Lesser Key of Solomon which I released previously. It required some degree of reformatting since the work is shorter, but it's still its own technical stand-alone work. However, it should be noted that some content here explicitly requires the first book, the Ars Goetia, to function.

This particular part of the Lemegeton dwells on spirits which are less Hellish and strictly demonic than the former work, while naming some of them as largely malevolent. The number of purposes for these demons and their summonable dukes (and occasionally "under-dukes") are less than the arcane and strange Ars Goetia.

116 pages.

The Lesser Key of Solomon: Now Available!

 

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At long last it is time for the final literary release of 2018 and one of the most important grimoires ever concocted. Standing at 259 pages, it's also full length.

The Lesser Key of Solomon is actually a compilation of other works from the same era- the initial variant compiled by none other than Mathers and Crowley themselves contained five works- the Ars Goetia, Theurgia Goetia, Ars Paulina, Almadel, and the Ars Notoria (shortened to Nova in some variants.) The material is variable, beginning with the most demonic and then progressing through natural spirits, airy spirits, the angelic, and then the strictly divine.

Since the Notoria is actually centuries earlier I have omitted it in this edition. It has been re-edited with care and completely re-illustrated. I am quite happy with the final appearance. One of the most important occult compilations finally available here, reworked entirely, and for a cost significantly lower than the apparent competitors (please note that three of the Amazon titles under the moniker "Lesser Key" only include the Goetia, and are not complete works.)

Years End Petit Albert Update

As some of you may know, two years ago a hardcover and leather bound fine edition of the Petit Albert was produced by Ouroboros Press with yours truly having reworked the volume. The fact that a book bearing my name was truly, professionally produced in this manner is up there in the top five or so things I've accomplished that I am most proud of.

If you are interested in fine editions of this sort, the Petit Albert is one of the best grimoires- at once a compilation of folk spells and a receipt book (the predecessor of the modern term "recipe"- which originally included everything from folk medicine to culinary content to methods for removing stains or making candles or bird food) and comes from France, during the 18th century. It is a cosmopolitan grimoire, containing self-proclaimed foreign spells and tips of various sorts, and also touching on the hand of glory- one of the most famous (and diabolical) objects spoken of in any occult lore.

I have a copy of this work (one of only a few works I have physically obtained that I myself have worked on or released) and the quality is quite high. At 178 pages, it's a sometimes amusing, often thought provoking read.

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Ars Theurgia Goetia / Lesser Key Update!

It is with glee that I announce that I am now 50% done with the final image formatting for the Theurgia Goetia. This means there is a 99% chance it will be ready within a week or so. That means the Lesser Key can be released in time for Yule and the stand-alone edition (which will be around 100 pages in my format) in January alongside a second work (hopefully) on phallism.

That brings me however to one potential stumblingblock which is the full absorption of Createspace by Amazon; at this particular time I do not know fully how to load a paperback there and I am having difficulty figuring out the transition process for all of my paperback titles- when I attempt to use the link on KDP it only finds 5 works out of the over 160 that I have available, and I am unsure why- neither Createspace nor Amazon are logging my paperback sales despite them all being available so I cannot see my works to edit content if needed, and I cannot track my sales. I have contacted them so hopefully this issue will be resolved within a day or two. I only hope Amazon keeps the template generator on CS alive because I have no clue how to manually determine trim size.

Lesser Key Update!

It's time for a rather short update here as one of the most major occult works ever compiled nears completion- in the case of my edition, it is about 90% done as of now. The infamous Lesser Key of Solomon!

1. The Foreword is written, the Ars Goetia, Ars Paulina, and Ars Almadel are formatted with their new settings.
2. I am half done with the rough format of the Ars Theurgia Goetia.

Since I am slightly ahead of expectations for the end of November it should be done by the middle of December giving people time to grab a copy for Yule if they wish- but as always, I can't promise that because sometimes I get busy with side works!

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.

Arbatel of Magick: Now Available!

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This short grimoire is almost purely white magick; as a series of aphorisms in septenary form, it differentiates types of magick and some philosophy therein. This is one of the re-edited early works I crafted which needed a new format and never got an individual entry. It's well written, and due to its largely positive, angelic content, largely escaped censoring through time.

44 pages.

150th Edition Literary Update

Over the course of the next 48 or so hours I'll be completing another section of the Lesser Keys of Solomon (The Ars Paulina) and releasing it. This will be the 150th edition of occult literature I have released, between edited and self-written works, and so it's a fairly significant milestone.

It also means it's time for disclosing my subsequent plans!

For some time now I've let my files (pdfs, odt files, text file descriptions, illustrations, etc) build up in various folders, unsorted and so forth- I am going to take a day subsequent to the release of the Ars Paulina to simply organize my files. After that, I need to take a good couple of weeks for some other planned catching up for previous releases:

1. Remaking about three dozen covers, since I use a different, better font, trim, and logo.
2. A cursory grammar and spelling check for said releases.
3. Re-illustration of a few early works.
4. Completely re-processing every pdf file into an epub file so all the kindle ebooks will be 100% perfect in format. No more complaints about blank pages, etc.

This will occupy me probably through all of May and so, as such, after I link out the Ars Paulina there may not be any further updates until June. Releases will resume thereafter; I promised at least 200 editions, and it will almost surely be hundreds more over the years.

The Ars Goetia: Now Available!

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I am extremely pleased to announce that the Ars Goetia, arguably the most infamous of all demonic works, has been completed; this edition has been re-illustrated by the talented Rita Metzner and has had some changes made to its format over some editions (for example, giving each of the 72 demons its own page for ease of use; some editions place the Seals in alternating columns or put the description of the demon above, not below them.) Not meant to be superfluous and flowery but rather a functional edition, I omitted some of Crowleys' additions, which have technically nothing to do with the original literary tradition.

I am pleased to say my edition here is the apparently least expensive edition available anywhere in paperback format.

For those not aware of the content, it is summoning; specifically aforementioned demons, using a system involving a magical circle and triangle, various seals, and standardized invocations. These various grotesque demons can, the book claims, allow the Master to talk to animals, see strange visions, and generally gain power, love, wealth, and other things; the one working such rituals needs to be wary though, since some of these demons can cause illness just by being nearby, requiring a magical ring. Others are a bit less malevolent. This text is one of a number of works which was compiled into the Lesser Keys of Solomon, of Mathers and Crowley fame.

It should be noted that I intend to release the other books of the Lesser Keys of Solomon (minus the Notoria, which is not authentically part of the same period works) compiled together, but that the Ars Goetia is its own stand-alone work and needed to be released as such prior.

Stolas be praised!

106 pages.

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!

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

RESERVE A COPY: LIMITED EDITIONS AVAILABLE

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.

The Book of Forbidden Knowledge: Now Available!

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The Book of Forbidden Knowledge should in no way be judged based on its era and type of manufacture. A simple paperback released at the dawn of the 20th century, it's really more of a modern grimoire influenced by the Oracle/Napoleonic tradition than it is a hand guide of trickery typical of that late Victorian age.

Covering charms, talismans, fortune telling, prognostication, physiognomy, mesmerism, seances, and more, it's similar to Hohman's Pow Wows in the 1800s or the Petit Albert of the 1700s. That is to say, a compilation of many types of lore from multiple backgrounds; indeed the similarity it shares with these two works leads me to believe that it borrows some of its content from each. It's an extremely good work; far better than I expected when I first saw the cover and presumed it to be silly.

106 pages.

The Greater Key of Solomon: Now Available!

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The Greater Key of Solomon is one of about five grimoires of extreme import; along with the Grand Grimoire, Lemegeton, Black Pullet, and Arbatel. This work, which is technically a reworked compilation from seven distinct Solomonic, Renaissance-era manuscripts translated by Samuel Mathers at the end of the 1800s, is one of the longest and most in depth occult works that actually expresses the goal of being physically used for magickal rites.

The work is quite long for a spellbook; page after page of dense material, combining experimental rites related to invisibility and conjuring, with talismanic art as in depth as that of the Black Pullet. Altogether, while Mathers' work here is less diabolical than the Lemegeton, it is no less important. If an occultist desires a great deal of elaborate ceremony; this is the work for them. In one slightly diabolical turn it suggests that unborn parchment (made from the fetuses of dead pregnant animals) is useful for various rites.

This edition was additionally illustrated by the very talented Elisa Fousteris, as I do not possess the capability of rendering the type of intricate seals within this work on my own with any degree of speed. I only designed the cover and tables, in this specific work.

128 pages.

General Update (Last One for a While, I Promise!)

I know these updates can get a little repetitive so I will try to do at most one every two weeks just to let some of my more avid supporters know what's coming down the pipeline. This time though I couldn't wait any longer; too many exciting things are afoot!

I have increased, drastically, my work rate lately; I just feel more ambitious and driven, and the slightly cooler weather is giving me a case of the "need to do everything before winter"s. With both Ophiolatreia and Phallism done, I have begun to edit the Book of Forbidden Knowledge again; in fact, I'm a third done with it. This will be a good release; think of a late Victorian edition of the Petit Albert with British and American influence and some post-1800s fortune telling thrown in. Indeed, it's really a grimoire more than a typical occult manual from the era; it even has some talismans in it.

The Greater Key of Solomon is now 90% complete; I am waiting on my artist for the illustration plates- 15 of them in total- once those are put in all that remains is the cover art and it's ready; it's going to be a formidable addition to my catalog, I predict.

Having collected all of the texts released (possibly by Hargrave) in the late 1800s associated with Ophiolatreia et al, I have decided to release as many of them as I can before Yule; probably all of them, as well as a few other works such as the Secret Book of Black Art (not Cavendish' work) which is a combination of simple divination, illusion, mesmerism, and tricks with dice, cards, dominoes, and slips of paper.

I hope to release the Lemegeton as well before the year is out.

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.

Second Update: Turba Philosophorum Complete, SIH, More

It is an exciting time of year and Halloween is getting closer by the day- the slow decline of my garden and the beginning of changing color on the leaves of the trees is a fine thing to behold. It looks like this year, unlike last, I will have achieved my three main goals at least two weeks before that special spooky day; namely, the release of Sickness in Hell, the release of the Greater Key of Solomon, and the release of the Book of Forbidden Knowledge.

Sickness in Hell is now almost half complete- I topped off the eighth chapter today and developed an expanded, better plot for the ninth, which would have contained material from the 11th, 12th, and 13th chapters of the original manuscripts. I can now guarantee that this work will be done by late September unless I fall into a coma or off a cliff.

The Greater Key is going well, and I have compiled about a third of the material itself into proper form without editing anything beyond the introduction just yet. Once it's all in a good format and I get an idea of the length I can begin editing. I hope to have it done by the first week of October.

The Book of Forbidden Knowledge I haven't worked on in three days but no worries; it's far shorter than these other works.

In the meantime I have finished the Turba Philosophorum; which is probably as popular and important as the Rosarium Philosophorum and Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine. I've also formatted the Aurifontina Chymica although I have not begun editing it. For the time being I have stalled out on the Secret Book of the Black Arts although I hope to have this done in November at latest. As for Letters of Demonology and Witchcraft, it is a substantial work of about 300 pages so that will be a long time coming; maybe early 2017. I have work to do on Cultus Arborum as well.