Masonic Odes and Poems: Now Available!

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This fine work is a volume of Masonic poetry and song- mostly of a spiritual nature, although there is some civic material here, especially praise for George Washington who, of course, was a Mason. The symbolism of Masonry is profusely utilized in these verses, and a few poems for initiates actually tell explicitly what the symbols represent- such as the ashlar, pillars, square, etc. The poetry is quite good, and comes from a large number of different lodges and figures within the society itself.

159 pages.

Lilith, the Legend of the First Woman: Now Available!

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This poetic volume is a telling of the story of Lilith (derived from Sumeria) from her incarnation as the compatriot of Adam, and the first female (prior to Eve being born) and her fall from grace, by desiring equality- then, her subsequent pairing with Eblis (or Iblis) and slowly becoming an enemy to mothers and infants. It is a romanticist work, and interprets this legend somewhat differently than certain works; Lilith may be seen as a tragic and largely unwilling participant in evil, or as a malevolent demonic force.

74 pages.

Israfel: Now Available!

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This little work is yet another A E Waite poetry compilation, mostly one long work, delivered in a series of "visions" and "letters", and dealing with the nature of the archangel of Revelation, of note within both Christian theology (sometimes under the title "Raphael") as well as within Islam. It is a very theatrical and romanticist work, sometimes near hyperbolic in its descriptions of glory and of the Avalon of Arthurian legend.

87 pages.

A Lyric of Fairy Land and Other Poems: Now Available!

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This is a second short collection of magic-related poetry by A E Waite. Unlike "Lucasta", which was named after his wife, this collection deviates from the more romantic side of poetry and is slightly melancholic in nature; one of the inclusions here is a sort of short stage play containing interaction between a man and a fairy, and appears to be a symbolic reference to the changing of the seasons and the death which comes with the entrance of winter. As his other poems, it is fairly obviously heavily influenced by mid 19th century romantic-era poetic works.

67 pages.

Lucasta; Parables and Poems: Now Available!

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This nice collection of magic-related poems comes from none other than AE Waite of tarot deck fame, notable as well for compiling English fairy lore, and for his famous Book of Ceremonial Magic. Most of these poems are quite good, and I have attempted to retain their format entirely. A few typographical errors were corrected and that is the only meaningful change save for the foreword and cover art.

The topics vary somewhat but every one of the pieces of poetry here is related to fairies or magic in some manner, and it is clear that Waite took significant inspiration from traditional romantic-era English poems.

70 pages.

Poems of Paganism: Now Available!

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This little collection of poems is essentially about romance and love and extols the virtues of the pagan; some of this is archaicism- the language used is deliberately made to sound older than the late 19th century, in which everything pagan (in the sense of the Roman, Egyptian, Greek, and Norse, mostly) was considered commendable.

The collection itself is quite good; the poetry is highly listenable and easy to recite should one be intrigued by the idea. Much like the fascination of occultists with theater in this same era, poetry was perhaps a close second right behind in terms of use.

59 pages.

The Supernatural In Romantic Literature: Now Available!

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This fairly short work was initially full length and 169 pages long; formatting in that era was often quite interesting. It's an extremely dense overview of many hundreds of bits of literature, the main point of which is to correlate and compare literary tropes, objects, and subjects across books and poetry. The author himself tries to restrain the lore to mostly the medieval and then-modern but gets dragged into some content from the Norse and Hindu systems of religion nonetheless.

As an occultist I see this as a very valuable work, more for its massive number of secondary sources to be used as a starting point to dig deeper into folklore and its cryptozoological and magical offshoots, than any value stemming from its own analysis; although the prevalence of Arthurian legend and the "Arabian Nights" and their enormous influence on then contemporary works is notable.

89 pages.

Poems of Paganism: Now Available!

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This little work is an interesting compilation of poetry (partially related to love, partially to nature) with a pagan twist- sometimes literally- included. The author crafted a number of poetic works in his era, and wrote this one under the pseudonym "paganus."

It isn't strictly pagan in the sense of epic poems about Valhalla, etc, much of it refers to cupid-style love and sometimes bereavement.

76 pages.

Superstition About Animals: Now Available!

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This is a great book of folklore; great instead of merely good, because it is actually entertaining, because much like my prior edited release on flower lore, it adds poetry and prose of various kinds (especially Keats, Shakespeare, and the biblical Psalms) in its various meanderings. About half the work deals with birds, which are highly present symbols within spirituality.

It covers good and bad omens among other things, and at times attempts to mock and dispel some of the superstitions it speaks of, although it notes that others are technically true; for example, a bee die-off indeed does correlate to farmers having bad years- because bee hives tend to die off far more commonly under adverse weather conditions not conducive to life forms thriving in general (prolonged drought, abnormal cold, etc.)

172 pages.

Flower Lore: Now Available!

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This is one of the most comprehensive works I've edited- a near 200 page compilation of lore all related to the botanical, paired frequently with poetry and Shakespearean verse, with more than a few references to civics (at the time the idea of a national flower was apparently hotly debated- it does mention my own state, Vermont, choosing the red clover as state flower- which it still is!)

The number of references within mythology are impressive- especially Greek mythology and some of the Christian iconography of yesteryear- including of course perhaps the most famous with Saint Patrick and the four leafed clover. As an interesting aside there's one little patch of white clover here on my property that spawns four leafed clutches at about a hundred times the normal rate (must be a mutant) and once I found one with seven in there. Altogether, this is a fine work, and right down my alley as a botanical enthusiast and lover of spiritual folklore.

190 pages.