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EDGE OF THE CIRCLE BOOKS
IS PLEASED TO PRESENT
THE FOLLOWING
NEW AND COLLECTIBLE TITLES



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WITCHCRAFT AND SORCERY OF THE BALKANS
By Radomir Ristic

152 pages, with color and black and white illustrations,

Trade Paperbound Edition, List Price: $18.50

Hardcover Edition with dust jacket, limited to 300 copies, List Price: $46.00

Publisher: Three Hands Press, July 2015


FROM THE PUBLISHER:
With its geographic diversity of rocky edifices, deep river valleys and dense forests, Europe's Balkan mountain region has been characterized as a natural fortress. This natural multiformity is mirrored by an ancient admixture of magical beliefs and practices present in the region for thousands of years. Among the many specialist types of Balkan magic is Vesticarstvo, a sorcery drawing its power from Balkan folk belief, relict shamanism, and medieval heresy. This traditional magic, which has also been referred to as The Balkan Craft, is present today in many forms, and uses of thousands of charms, rites, and spells in the rural communities where it survives. A quintessential embodiment of this power is the zmajevit covek or ‘dragon-man’. Part human, part serpent, he possessed supernatural heredity and the power to curse, cure, and traffic with supernatural beings. Often incorporating the ancient powers of the pre-Roman Gods, the Queen of the Fairies, elemental spirits, and the ancestral retinue, the vital corpus of Vesticarstvo lore is a little-explored area of occult study. Drawing from both historical sources and present survivals, the present volume examines its history, beliefs, and rituals, including a complete English translation of De Intorkatura, an age-old rite of magical combat, as well as several other Balkan witchcraft rituals never before translated into English.



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ALCHEMICAL TRADITIONS:
From Antiquity to the Avant-Garde
Edited By Aaron Cheak, PhD.

Perfectbound Paperback: 684 pages ∙ 40 illustrations
Publisher: Numen Books (August 22, 2013)
List Price: $39.95

Spanning the world's artistic, scientific and religious traditions, alchemy has embraced and continues to embrace the complete spectrum of existence. From metallurgy to metaphysics, alchemy engages the technical, fine and hieratic arts in order to provide a living phenomenology of the one, single, elusive process that acts through all things. Ultimately—in its guise as ars transmutationis—alchemy penetrates to the heart of the transfiguring spiritual intensity that underpins the perfection of life, not only from 'mineral to man', but from humanity to divinity.

Despite this profoundly all-embracing purview, alchemy continues to be conceived as either proto-chemistry or proto-psychology. The present volume seeks to redress this false dichotomy by exploring alchemy as a quintessentially integral phenomenon. Opening wide the full spectrum of alchemy—from east to west, in history and practice, from antiquity to the avant-garde—our aim is to penetrate as deeply as possible, within the limits of a single volume, into the rich practical and experiential traditions of the alchemical mysterium.

Featuring both well-established scholars and emerging, cutting-edge researchers, this book synthesises a quintessentially high caliber of academic authorities on the vast and baroque heritage of the alchemical world. As a whole, the volume seeks to strike the perfect balance-the golden mean-between strict, historical objectivity and empathic, phenomenological insight. Drawn from international ranks (Europe, the Antipodes, the Americas) and cutting across disciplinary boundaries (Egyptology, Classics, Sinology, Indology, Tibetology, philosophy, religious studies, Renaissance studies, history of science, art history, critical theory, media studies), the contributors to this volume include some of the most gifted investigators into the world's esoteric lineages.

Featuring Aaron CHEAK ∙ Algis UŽDAVINYS ∙ Rodney BLACKHIRST ∙ David Gordon WHITE ∙ Kim LAI ∙ Sabrina DALLA VALLE ∙ Christopher A. PLAISANCE ∙ Hereward TILTON ∙ Angela VOSS ∙ Paul SCARPARI ∙ Leon MARVELL ∙ Mirco MANNUCCI ∙ Dan MELLAMPHY

Egyptian alchemy ∙ Greek alchemy ∙ Hellenistic alchemy ∙ Taoist alchemy ∙ Hindu Tantric alchemy ∙ Tibetan Buddhist alchemy ∙ Islamicate alchemy ∙ European alchemy ∙ Surrealist alchemy ∙ Erotic alchemy ∙ Laboratory alchemy ∙ Alchemy of the word ∙ Alchemy of the body ∙ Alchemy of the spirit ∙ and more.




TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Alchemical Traditions:
From Antiquity to the Avant-Garde


EDITED BY AARON CHEAK, PHD


Numen Book 2013
684 pages; 40 Illustrations

Table of Contents



FRONT MATTER


Acknowledgments
Peer Reviewers
List of Illustrations



PART I: CORNERSTONES


Ancient Alchemies, East and West


Introduction to Part One:
Circumambulating the Alchemical Mysterium
Aaron Cheak

1. The Perfect Black: Egypt and Alchemy
Aaron Cheak

2. Telestic Transformation and Philosophical Rebirth:
From Ancient Egypt to Neoplatonism
Algis Uždavinys

3. Metallurgy and Demiurgy:
The Roots of Greek Alchemy in the Mythology of Hephaestos (Discussions)
Rod Blackhirst

4. Taking from Water to Fill in Fire:
The History and Dynamics of Taoist Alchemy
Aaron Cheak

5. Mercury and Immortality:
The Hindu Alchemical Tradition
David Gordon White

6. Iatrochemistry, Metaphysiology, Gnōsis:
Tibetan Alchemy in the Kālacakra Tantra
Kim Lai


PART II: TRANSFORMATIONS


Alchemies of the Spirit, Body, and Word


Introduction to Part Two:
On the Origins and Nature of European Alchemy
Aaron Cheak

7. The Alchemical Khiasmos:
Counter-Stretched Harmony and Divine Self-Perception
Aaron Cheak & Sabrina Dalla Valle

8. Altus’ Ominous Aphorism:
Reading as Alchemical Process
Mirco Mannucci

9. Turris Philosophorum:
On the Alchemical Iconography of the Tower
Christopher A. Plaisance

10. Of Ether, Entheogens and Colloidal Gold:
Heinrich Khunrath and the Making of a Philosophers’ Stone
Hereward Tilton

11. Becoming an Angel:
The Mundus Imaginalis of Henry Corbin and the Platonic Path of Self-Knowledge
Angela Voss

12. The Kiss of Death:
Amor, Corpus Resurrectionis and the Alchemical Transfiguration of Eros
Paul Scarpari

13. Agent of All Mutations:
Metallurgical, Biological and Spiritual Evolution in the Alchemy of René Schwaller de Lubicz
Aaron Cheak

14. Take Two Emerald Tablets in the Morning:
Surrealism and the Alchemical Transubstantiation of the World
Leon Marvell

15. Incredible Lunatic of the Future:
The Alchemical Horticulture of Alan Chadwick
Rod Blackhirst

16. Alchemical Endgame:
Checkmate’ in Beckett and Eliot
Dan Mellamphy


END MATTER




**



OCCULT TRADITIONS
By Damon Zacharias Lycourinos (Editor), and the following contributors: Aaron Cheak, Christopher A. Plaisance, David Rankine, Ioannis Marathakis , Christopher A. Smith , Tess Dawson, Gwendolyn Toynton , Sorita d'Este and Melissa Harrington
Paperback: 308 pages
Publisher: Numen Books (May 12, 2012)

FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Occult Traditions is the manifestation of the endeavours of scholars and practitioners alike exploring and challenging both historical and contemporary perspectives on the occult arts and sciences. The title of this book serves as a testimony for the occult acting as a designation of currents and traditions of esoteric philosophy, and magic as a participatory worldview manipulated as an instrument by the active person through the execution of the art and science of ritual, which is an extension grounded in the belief in magical powers within the self and other.

Each page bears witness to aspects of occult traditions, which are in essence simultaneously meta-historical and dynamic, serving as an overall ordering force in service of the principles of the arcane correspondences that exist between the microcosm and the macrocosm. This book is an awakening to the occult reality that since the dawn of ages men and women have sought a glimpse of gnôsis within the awesome natural performance of ritual, the slithering flow of the elements, the sensational sounds of the spheres, the iconic form of dreams undreamt and now awoken, the irrational whispering of mystical verses, the silence of contemplation, and the passion drenched erotic thirst for life, death, and rebirth. Unlike the priesthood of sterile logic and doctrinal faith, these men and women have been a visible representation of spiritual virility, of the human condition, and many times the romantic ethos, which many have convicted as an antinomian ethos, refusing, adapting, and also enchanting the dictates of conventional society, morality, and metaphysical culture.

Thus, Occult Traditions invites the reader to journey along with the authors and conjurors, who have been generous enough to share their visions and gestures in this book, through various traditions relating to distinct historical developments, unique occult philosophies, and potent ritual practice. Here the reader shall encounter summoning magical assistants and the presence of the mystery traditions in the Greek Magical Papyri; deification through the arcane process of drowning in the Greek Magical Papyri; an exploration of occult theology as a continuation of Neoplatonism; a historical analysis of the grimoire traditions and a search for the original source of the Key of Solomon; the Icelandic tradition of magic as presented in an eighteenth century grimoire; a comparative analysis of medieval and Renaissance angel magic; Canaanite views of death and necromancy; an exploration of the use and attributes of incenses throughout history; a consideration of the science of divining the will of the gods; Seth as god of chaos and equilibrium; Julius Evola's ideas concerning the formula of sex, magic, and power; Buddhist 'wizards' at war in Thailand; a critical examination of the role of sex, magic, and initiation in the Wiccan Great Rite; the dynamics of altering consciousness within the spiral maze of Wiccan ritual; a restoration of the Rite of the Headless One from the Greek Magical Papyri; the elements of being and becoming in Conversation with one's Holy Guardian Angel; the Eucharistic Feast of Agathodaimon; the Rite of the Solar and Lunar Mysteries of the Altar of Eros for the Consecration of the Talismans of Helios and Selene; the Calling and Adoration of Aion, and the Spell of the Mystic Flame; and finally the Hymnic Adoration and Invocation of Thoth, to whom this book belongs, as He is lord of magic and scribe of the gods.


About the Author: Damon Zacharias Lycourinos has an academic background in the fields of anthropology and religious studies from the University of Wales, Lampeter, the University of Oxford, and the University of Cambridge. He is currently engaged in a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh exploring the meanings and weavings of ritual and magic in the West, both from a diachronic and synchronic perspective. Other current academic areas of research include paradigms of sex, gnosis, and liberation, the embodiment of states of consciousness, the notion of ritual body and performance, and the history, philosophy, and practice of magic in Western contexts and beyond. When not engaged within the arena of academia, he can be found embodying the Greek Magical Papyri through intense study and performance, wandering the wilderness, fighting, and indulging in rural wine. He currently resides in Britain, but when not he can be found in Athens or on the volcanic island of Thira overlooking the Aegean.




**


MYTHOS:
The Myths and Tales of H.P. Lovecraft & Robert E. Howard
By H. P. Lovecraft (Author), Robert E. Howard (Author), Gwendolyn Toynton (Editor), Gwendolyn Taunton, (Contributor)
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Numen Books; 1st edition (October 31, 2011)
List Price: $10.95

FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Mythos contains the key stories which make up the mythical world established by H.P. Lovecraft, and also contains works by Robert E. Howard written in this mythological framework. It also contains Lovecraft's essay on the the nature of the horror tale, and a new analysis written on the nature of myth and the occult in Lovecraft's work. In addition to this, Mythos also contains new tales of terror written in the same vein as Lovecraft..




**



TECHNIQUES OF SOLOMONIC MAGIC
By Dr Stephen Skinner
Hardcover: 378 pages
Publisher: Llewellyn Publications (July 8, 2015)
List Price: $72.00

FROM THE PUBLISHER:
The most detailed analysis of the techniques of Solomonic magic from the seventh to the nineteenth century ever published. This volume explores the methods of Solomonic magic in Alexandria, tracing how the tradition passed through Byzantium (the Hygromanteia) to the Latin Clavicula Salomonis and its English incarnation as the Key of Solomon.

Discover specific magical techniques such as the invocation of the gods, the binding of demons, the use of the four demon Kings, and the construction of the circle and lamen. The use of amulets, talismans, and phylacteries is outlined along with their methods of construction. Also included are explanations of the structures and steps of Solomonic evocation, the facing directions, practical considerations, the use of thwarting angels, achieving invisibility, sacrifice, love magic, treasure finding and the binding, imprisoning, and licensing of spirits.

About the Author:
Stephen Skinner began his career as a Geography lecturer and magazine publisher, but his long term interest has always been Western magic.

During the 1970s he was the driving force behind Askin Publishers, producing a number of classic magical works by Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, Austin Osman Spare, Aleister Crowley, and others. During the 1970s he co-wrote many books with Francis King, including the still popular Techniques of High Magic. Also with Francis King he wrote Nostradamus. His interest in prophecy stimulated by this book, he went on to write the best selling Millennium Prophecies.
Stephen is credited with bringing the art of Feng Shui to the West, and in 1976 he wrote the Living Earth Manual of Feng Shui, which was the first English book on feng shui in the 20th century.

Stephen has written more than 35 books, which have been published worldwide in 28 different languages. These books have had introductions by such diverse people as Colin Wilson, HRH Charles Prince of Wales, and Jimmy Choo, shoe designer to the stars.

Stephen lives in Singapore.



**


PENUMBRAE
An Anthology of Occult Fiction
Edited By Richard Gavin, Patricia Cram, and Daniel A. Schulke
Publisher: Three Hands Press, April 2015
Penumbrae is 192 pages, printed on heavy stock.
Standard Hardcover Edition
Brown cloth with full colour dust jacket.
Limited to 2,500 copies
List Price: $34.50

FROM THE PUBLISHER:
THREE HANDS PRESS is proud to announce Penumbrae, a collection of thirteen works of Occult Fiction by some of that genre's great luminaries. The locus of this anthology lies in tales that embody a metaphysical position, as opposed to fiction that merely employs metaphysical trappings to enforce a materialist worldview. Occult fiction, by contrast, strives to evoke the energies that inform such symbols, and create a vital experience for the reader. Far beyond mere description, this is work that proves its value through its capacity to seduce, captivate, and incept states of magical consciousness. Like the practice of magic itself, the finest works of occult fiction will be distinguished by their power to evoke an embodied experience, and to tangibly compel shifts in consciousness while arousing the uncommon. It intoxicates the rite of reading as much as it permeates the spaces between readings.

Marriage between the objective and the imaginative often results in an enrichment of existence. All spiritual traditions stand upon a foundation of both worldly Act and transcendent Idea. Idea becomes Image, Image becomes Symbol, Symbol becomes Portal. Through the Act of passing through it, one is thereby transformed. It thus stands to reason that the annals of occultism are lush with fable, poetry, mythology, and tales. A delicate but highly potent quality of this work is the creation of a spirit-trap wherein the words and images themselves act as hosts to the experience itself. Under auspicious conditions, a reader may encounter a tale that hews so closely with their own interior universe that a Key is thereby given.

Penumbrae features tales from the following authors:

Kenneth Grant
Richard Gavin
Andrew D. Chumbley
Daniel A. Schulke
Sun Yung Shin
Hanns Heinz Ewers
Lee Morgan Caitlín R. Kiernan
Don Webb
Patricia Cram
Michael Cisco
Dale Pendell
Brian Evenson
























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