Some Philosophy of the Hermetics: Now Available!

 

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This strange work was crafted by a man who, upon brief investigation, is one of the most enigmatic figures in the occult which I have encountered. A relatively high class lawyer of the 19th century, Hatch' best known work wasn't even written by him, and was made posthumously via automatic writing. This text contributes to the sense of oddity in the case of the author, since it claims to be hermetic but essentially smashes a dozen or so apparent occult ideologies together, openly professing that it is a symbolic work which must be understood in the non-literal sense, much like the Steganographia of Trithemius.

It is well written but highly theatrical in its language usage and flow, so those intrigued by plays and poetry will probably enjoy it more than those looking for a dry academic work.

57 pages.

Symbolic Mythology: Now Available!

 

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The author of this present work is notable for stream of consciousness style digests containing highly compressed information on spiritual subjects. This particular book is perhaps most useful for those interested in details about the symbolism of animals as applied to Judaism, early Christianity, and also, of course, Norse and Greek/Roman pagan systems. It contains as well a section on the use of rings as a symbol which seems to have spawned a full length title by the same author.

156 pages.

The Initiates of the Flame: Now Available!

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Manly P Hall is a fairly famous name in mysticism and was a prolific author, whose works were hashed around in various compilations and in stand-alone booklet form for a half century. This is his very first literary entry, penned when he was barely an adult, back during the roaring twenties.

It is essentially a broad work of philosophy and initiation and forms the backbone of his lifes' literary works- rendering everything to the occult, and to the overarching concept, we might say, of the great work itself. It is fully re-illustrated by our usual Rita Metzner, whose work can be seen here on her Instagram page. The symbols of Freemasonry and associated orders are, here, explained fairly fully, and it goes on to expound upon alchemy, among other topics. Highly recommended.

69 pages.

Fishes, Flowers, and Fire: Now Available!

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This is yet another of the infamous phallic works written during the late 1800s presumably by Hargrave Jennings, anonymously. The works at the time contained taboo materials, since they spoke of fertility rites, sexual symbolism, and feminine spiritual forces. While "Ophiolatreia" is perhaps the best known of the titles in this privately printed series, this one might be the most interesting.

The work contains three basic sections, as its title suggests; the use of fish as a sexual symbol especially as tired with Christianity would have been considered blasphemy in its era (even if accepted now)- flowers are a fairly obvious sex symbol, but the greatest bulk of the work regards fire worship. Here we see the interesting suggestion that those who "passed their seed (children) through fire to Molech" may have been not sacrificing them but rather ritualistically purifying them. An extremely good work.

115 pages.

Mysteries of the Rosie Cross: Now Available!

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This work comes from a rather expansive (and otherwise mostly one-minded) collection of texts from the golden period of both real and quack-like academia involving occultism, from that special era in the 1890s; specifically, this is one of the better titles within the Phallism series that almost certainly was created by Hargrave at the time. Unlike most entries in that series, this one has nothing to do with symbology and everything to do with the Rosicrucians' own then-translated purported literary history, with some alchemy and other subjects tossed in. The only other entry in the series that deviates from that one taboo subject of reproductive spiritual material is Ophiolatreia (which I edited quite some time ago.)

It's quite good, actually, despite the fact that parts of it are a bit dense and difficult to fit into a linear sort of system; most of the content here was copied by the author verbatim into the work; some of that content is quite strange and fantastical, almost Atlantean. Nonetheless it is academically sound.

134 pages.