The Way to Life and Immortality: Now Available!

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This slightly odd text is another edition by Reuben Clymer, and proposes primarily that through proper practices (and preferably initiation into the "illuminati"!) life spans can be drastically expanded and mortality itself inevitably defeated. In one interesting turn, the kind of diet and lifestyle Clymer proposes for treating tuberculosis (consumption) would actually have been of use- much of the population was living on nothing more than bread and beer, and his proposed intake of food revolved around vegetables, which would have nourished the body substantially more.

Clymer actively predicts a coming era in which a combination of science and spiritual rigor will abolish death once and for all.

188 pages.

The Divine Spark: Now Available!

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This short work by Clymer is a set of two essays. The first section deals with increasing health and longevity (even to the point of immortality) through proper breathing. The second, and perhaps more intriguing section details the Great Pyramid and its rumored usage for priestly initiation rituals, then exhorting Masons and other groups to emulate the basic idea as laid forth.

38 pages.

Grand Grimoire, Imperial Ritual of Magic: Now Available!

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This is a very exciting work; it combines segments and content from a half dozen sources, and was allegedly crafted by none other than Rosicrucian heavyweight Swineburne Clymer at the dawn of the 20th century. Despite the "grand grimoire" label most of the interior material comes from the Clavicle of Solomon and a variant of the Black Pullet and deals with magical talismans and rings- it also contains a section on mediumship via planchette. It was presumably used as a companion to lectures or lessons as every other page was initially blank, probably for note taking.

It represents a fairly modern "true" grimoire since the compiled material here is fundamentally similar in style and structure to works such as the Petit Albert and Egyptian Secrets of Albertus Magnus.

89 pages.

Christ Or Buddha? Now Available!

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This short work of Rosicrucian lore essentially serves one purpose; to differentiate Eastern and Western occultism, favoring the latter and refuting the concept that- at least in the Rosicrucian path- Buddha or Eastern esoteric concepts held supremacy over the conception of Jesus Christ.

When we analyze this work it is important to note that it was a fairly common criticism of occult movements at the time that they were not Christ-centric enough; Heindel's prescribed work here (through Annett Rich) is an answer to the concerns of religious folk at the time. I must personally note that the initial manuscript was riddled with typographical errors and grammar mistakes and I redacted them all.

36 pages.

The Mystical Interpretation of Christmas: Now Available!

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This short work is another by Heindel, a decidedly Rosicrucian, and sometimes quite odd, title, comprised of five short lectures which range from a basic refutation of outright atheistic skepticism, to an embracing of the concept of earth spirits (salamanders, fairies, etc) a la Hermetic lore.

It is quite good; the symbolism of Christmas is covered in brief but comprehensive detail- the holiday of course goes beyond just its base pagan roots, as well as well beyond its Christianized form, either then in the early 20th century, or now in the early 21st.

29 pages.

Mysteries of the Great Operas: Now Available!

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This is one of the best works I have edited thus far; and since I am rapidly approaching 280 edited works in total, that's not insubstantial.

Max Heindel, a Rosicrucian when he wrote this work, needs little introduction since his name is up in the ranks of Crowley or Steiner in terms of notoriety; suffice to say this little volume provides interesting- it not always invariably accurate- analysis of the symbolic and spiritual meaning of five significant operas according to a generally Rosicrucian and always occult frame of mind.

These operas are all explicitly and objectively spiritual anyways, and Heindel has managed to show their symbolic overlap with his own metaphor-rich spiritual system.

115 pages.

Gleanings of a Mystic: Now Available!

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This book is a fairly comprehensive guide to the philosophical views of Heindel, of Rosicrucian renown. More a compiling of short essays than a single work, it was collected together posthumously, with subject material ranging from reincarnation and mortality, to initiation and enlightenment, as well as plenty of asides into the history of mankind and existence, Atlantis, and various post-Blavatsky lore involving the human race and its various cultural separations over time.

It's fairly easy to understand, not at all as dense as some contemporary works of the same basic subject material, and is therefore highly recommended for those intrigued by the Rosicrucians (or mysticism in general) but not yet fully versed in the same. It should be noted that the initial edition is far longer; I redacted about twenty pages of ads and blurbs about other works by the initial publisher as well as a (meaningless) index.

131 pages.

A Brief Course in Mediumship: Now Available!

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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.

The Aeth Mystery: Now Available!

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This is a nice little Rosicrucian work released a century ago by the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross- Clymers' order. As a slight aside the order still exists in Pennsylvania and their mailing address, though not the same as that given in this work, is on Clymer Road- just an interesting aside, since most orders do not last nearly a century.

The content here is somewhat vague because it is in part advertising initiation into the order and the availability of more advanced works- more generally it discusses a few basic bits of Rosicrucian philosophy- however it should be noted that the original cover insinuates that the mystery of sex is discussed while it does not actually contain any apparent literal allusion to the subject (potentially a bit of advertising to the male audience!)

50 pages.

The Divine Mystery: Now Available!

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This is an extremely interesting (and somewhat odd) little work that comes courtesy of the man who led the Rosicrucian FRC order (and fought with AMORC) for quite a large part of his life. Apparently interested in most sub-fields of occult lore, Clymer is known mostly for straight philosophical lore, but here has compiled three technical components into one work; a heavily altered variant of Sinistrari's "Demoniality", a short number of philosophical passages mentioning gnostic lore, and then a series of bits of actual dialogue between Jesus and the Virgin Mary on spiritual topics, which conforms to the FRC's own ideology. Altogether the work is well worth reading, and its insinuation that the Virgin Mary was impregnated by a salamander, (a fire spirit) is perhaps heretical to main line christianity but interesting nonetheless.

104 pages.

The Kybalion: Now Available!

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This fine work is quite well known and is a book I'd planned to edit for a couple of years, having heard of its existence but never actually read it. Well written if a bit dense, and quite enigmatic, the Kybalion purports to have been created by three initiates into the Hermetic secret, and contains multiple sections ruminating on the nature of existence, vibration of matter, the nature of thought, creation, and so forth. It's a philosophical work and claims itself to be merely the introductory text of this mystery tradition, passed orally from master to student since antiquity.

The author or authors of the work remain unknown and I am unsure any comprehensive study has attempted to compare its linguistic style to other contemporary individuals. Altogether, the work is quite good, and an interesting read- although its habitual use of upper case letters can be a bit jarring. I decided to leave that intact for authenticity.

115 pages.

Fama Fraternitatis: Now Available!

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And here it is; one of the most important works I never originally thought to release an edition of- the famous Fama Fraternitatis, first worked into English by Thomas Vaughan, that selfsame work which inspired occult changes in its own era and long after.

Containing a great deal of content in only a few pages, for someone like myself the most interesting inclusions are those which overlap it with the type of occult of Trithemius and Pontanus among others- with everburning lights and strange mechanisms and symbology. The Fama Fraternitatis formed the backbone of what was represented as an order so wise in its era that members could prolong human longevity to centuries, make gold, cure any disease, and speak with spirits.

24 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.

February 2018 Editing Update!

I am pleased to announce that at this time, the illustrations for my upcoming edition of the Ars Goetia have been completed by the artist (Rita Metzner, who has previously illustrated a couple of herbals for me.) The work is good and so far the formatting is going smoothly; the final edition should be a fairly standard length, perhaps a bit longer than some editions because I choose not to compress images to two-to-a-page so the finer lines are more easily legible. I expect to complete and release it this month; but it must be carefully done, because this is the ultimate big daddy of grimoires and will eventually be combined with the three other (authentic) works of the Lesser Keys in an edition of that as well.

I am also more than 80 pages into the Rosicrucian text I began editing in January; work has been slower since the beginning of chapter four, since now all remaining text is taken from other sources and compiled in this particular work by its author (read; it is in older English than the first two chapters with frequent quotations which are sometimes not entirely proper in format and must be reworked.)

Assuming both works are done before this month ends it will be time for a couple more herbal works I feel, and then work must begin on re-illustrating a half dozen prior editions.