Tuesday, June 25, 2019

The True Fortune Teller: Now Available!



This is yet another of the fortune teller works I am so fond of. This one is quite short but dense and contains several novel inclusions- it is, as far as I know, the only work which prognosticates by nail shape and color (at least among works I've edited currently) and the tree picture is itself a sort of oracle used with a blindfold to tell general fortune.

It partly plagiarizes the 1790s Fortune Teller of Mrs Bridget and contains the same origin story and astrological section. The author is not known and the source work is not dated but I speculate it dates to shortly after the Philosophical Merlin and thus the 1830s or so based on the oracle type, the font and format of the initial work, and the obvious post-Mrs Bridget date.

I had help with the tree image from Sandra Kishi Glenn, whose website you can find here at this link. Many thanks for the rendering!

29 pages.

Saturday, June 22, 2019

Karma (Besant): Now Available!



This is one of a series of four booklets written in the early 20th century by Besant to show the basic premises of Theosophy to newcomers. It was out of a realization, on her part, it seems, that much Theosophical literature was too long and/or obtuse to be understood unless a person was relatively highly literate or already trained in Theosophy.

It is an intermediate primer on karma and related topics from the Buddhist tradition as westernized (slightly) by the occultists of the era.

58 pages.

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Devil Worship in France: Now Available!



This is a more or less full length work and one of incredible value. Technically just a refutation of Leo Taxil (who recanted, proving Waite correct, only a year later!) it provides a broad overview of various alchemical and demonological content, mentions and fleshes out a dozen or so major actual occult figures, speaks of the freemasons, and describes then-modern Satanism as it was in the more theistic sense.

Waite was a literary genius first and foremost. His work here is verbose and written with a bit of theatrical archaicism. I cleaned and modernized the language a bit but left some of his word-invention intact because of the subject matter. Altogether a great work, one of the greater within its era on any occult subject.

168 pages.

Friday, June 14, 2019

A Brief Course in Mediumship: Now Available!



This little work is quite interesting, partly because it is only partly about mediumship and is more a general, broad collection of philosophy and secondary sources regarding what we now typically term "psychic phenomena." Chanelling, trances, telekinesis, and more, are all spoken of here, and an attempt is made to differentiate between purely spiritual, purely physical, and combined phenomena. It is well written although the author utilized a lot of shorthand that had to be corrected to modern spelling.

72 pages.

Thursday, June 13, 2019

General Update Time!

Alright everyone!

I have gotten back into the swing of editing. I am currently working on Waites' "Devil Worship in France" which is a great book- after that I have several dozen more works planned. Happily, I have someone looking at illustrating a pair of herbals and a work by Manly Hall.

That will round of the work through July, probably. I need to go on a hunt for new literary material due to a glaring oversight on my part for years which has handicapped me- let's just say I am not an expert with regards to pdf files! This is a happy thing though; the amount of material I can work with has at least tripled upon recognition of this "misfortune."

Soon I plan on making two new sections on the literary blogs, because the amount of work has become too large for the current categorization system.

Happy times!

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

A Compendium of Heathen Mythology: Now Available!



This is a rather short work, one written in the middle of the 19th century. Marketed to young, middle and upper middle class females, it is a sort of pagan primer- one which outcompeted contemporary works by amusingly including Hindu and Egyptian material alongside the then-standard Greek and Roman.

This amusing aside does not detract from the content- it is as good as any similar work. I like it slightly more because of those asides. It ought to be noted that a lot of the Hindi words had to be modernized (IE Seevah to Shiva.)

46 pages.

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

A Treatise on Magic: Now Available!



This fairly short work is a nice example of early 19th century Christian rationalism. Penned by a Lutheran, it accepts the basic concept of Biblical spirituality while expressing deep skepticism of magic generally (of the superstitions of its era)- notably the work derives a lot of its content from the concept of the Biblical Witch of Endor. It speaks in some degree of detail of the Devil, and deviates from the fire and brimstone of both prior and latter Christendom.

67 pages.

Monday, June 3, 2019

Editing Begins Anew!

Alright everyone!

I have finally begun editing new works; I decided to start with a basically rationalist work entitled "A Treatise on Magic" and will proceed through dozens of works through the year. I'd like to have released the 250th edition before New Years' day.

Some of these works will be illustrated- a couple of herbals, a work by Hall, etc. I am proceeding in whatever order I feel appropriate but there will be a large amount ahead.

Praise Stolas!