The Book of Halloween: Now Available!

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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.

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!

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.