General Update: New Works Being Edited, etc

Just so people know what they're looking forward to here I figured it was time for another general update.

Having released half a dozen new works in alchemy, I think I've sated my appetite for the philosopher's stone for a while- I've proceeded to begin working on literally half a dozen works at the same time, in addition to Sickness in Hell (which is now roughly one third complete.) Because they are not all the same in length (especially considering format and the size of text used!) they will surely not all be done at the same time. Because I tend to do a massive amount of work on a text and, if it isn't short, subsequently lose interest for a while in the subject matter, I have a tendency to rotate the work that I do weekly, so that it stays fresh in my mind and helps my concentration.

Thus the following works are on my plate.

1. The Greater Key of Solomon: An extremely popular and important work compiling various Solomonic manuscripts together, originally released in its modern form by Mathers in the late 1800s. This grimoire is probably third in popularity only behind the Lemegeton and the Grand Grimoire. I can't get a good indication of its final length until I've gotten more of it done because the typeset used was tiny. I estimate 150 to 200 pages. I have completed everything up to the preliminary introduction of the first book.

2. Cultus Arborum: This one is shorter (about 100 pages) and was released in the same series as the Ophiolatreia. It concerns phallic tree worship. I've gotten about 10 pages of this edited.

3. The Book of Forbidden Knowledge: An early 1900s manuscript combining aspects of talismanic magic, folk rites, folk medicine, and fortune telling. It is quite dense, and will stretch to an estimated 80 pages, 15 of which are done now.

4. The Secret Book of the Black Arts: Not to be confused with Cavendish' work which comes a century later. I am 20 pages into this 200+ page work.

5. Secretum Secretorum: A roughly 70 pages pseudo-Aristotelian tract professing to be an antiquated work in which Aristotle guides Alexander the Great. In reality it is likely a Medieval tract simply attributed to the same. This one is fully formatted but it will take a long time to work through the extremely archaic English it contains.

6. Aurifontia Chymica: The second longest alchemical work I've seen, second of course to the Rosary of the Philosophers. At about 140 pages it will take a little time. I've formatted part of it and not yet begun editing.

A New Booklet I Obtained; And More!

I have obtained a copy of Dr. Pierces' "What your Neighbors Say about You." This long-running quack pharmaceutical pamphlet is half dream interpretation and half other material- the "other" category is mostly medical ads for quack healing but also contains some herbal at-home remedies, recipes, and other stuff. The particular edition I purchased from ebay isn't like any of those I have seen on the internet as pdf scans so I can only guess at some of the content.

Obviously I plan to scan this for the occult archive (as the first new file available there in several years! Huzzah!) as well as to create a paperback edition for others to purchase. The dream interpretation section appears to be almost as long as that found in Napoleon's Oraculum.

I am currently editing "The Hieroglyphical Fortune Teller" which is similar to the early 1900s Oraculum but has Hebrew lettering instead of nativity symbols and has several different questions and a dissimilar casting system. It will take quite a bit of time to complete despite its short length because I am simultaneously writing "Sickness in Hell" (I am now done with the epilogue and first three chapters!) and editing The 1875 work "The Secret Book of the Black Arts" (not to be confused with the similarly titled work by Cavendish much later.) It's a somewhat longer work (about 200 pages) so I will release three or four shorter manuscripts while editing it.