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NEW BOOKS: FULGUR, STARFIRE, THREE HANDS PRESS

EDGE OF THE CIRCLE BOOKS
IS PROUD TO PRESENT 
THE FOLLOWING 
NEW TITLES:





TOUCH ME NOT
Edited by Hereward Tilton and Merlin Cox
Standard Edition, Hardback, – 160 pages – Fulgur Ltd.
A full-colour facsimile of an infamous Austrian manuscript compendium of the black magical arts, completed c.1795. 




Unique and otherworldly, it evokes a realm of visceral, dark magic. A star of social media, it is published here for the first time.

List Price: $69.95

FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Touch Me Not is an Austrian manuscript compendium of the black magical arts, completed c.1795. Unique and otherworldly, it evokes a realm of visceral dark magic. As the co-editor Hereward Tilton notes, the manuscript ‘appears at first sight to be a ‘grimoire’ or magician’s manual intended for noviciates of black magic. Psychedelic drug use, animal sacrifice, sigillary body art, masturbation fantasy and the necromantic manipulation of gallows-corpses count among the transgressive procedures it depicts. With their aid hidden treasures are wrested from guardian spirits, and the black magician’s highest ambition – an infernal transfiguration and union with the Devil – can be fulfilled.’

Hidden for decades within the Wellcome Library collection, Touch Me Not is published here as a full colour facsimile for the first time. We have commissioned a translation of the German and Latin texts from Hereward Tilton and Merlin Cox, scholars who have explored the sources for the various elements and provided copious references. There is also an introduction from Hereward that lays out the context for this extraordinary survival. Contents include:

On coagulation. Narcosis.
Compendium of the operation.
Names of the evil spirits to be conjured.
On the pact in nigromancy between the Devil and man.
On black magic in general.
On the cacomagical mirror.
He who has ears [to hear], let him hear.

Beyond its purely historical value, there is much in this curious manuscript to entice and inspire the contemporary practitioner of magic. No doubt each reader will find an intriguing reflection of their experiences or interests therein; I discovered my own among its list of psychoactive fumigants, which includes an entry testifying to the magical employment of an indigenous European source of the hallucinogenic compound dimethyltryptamine (DMT) – the rhizome of the ubiquitous common reed (Phragmites australis). Following the advice of Herpentil, I made my way to a remote cave, reed rhizome and Syrian rue potions in hand, to explore the infernal realms and contemplate the distinction between white and black magic. This seems to be as fine as a spider’s silk, as our manuscript asserts.”~Hereward Tilton











THE NINTH ARCH
by Kenneth Grant
Standard edition, bound in black cloth and priced at $69.95.
Starfire Publishing.

The Ninth Arch is the final volume of the Typhonian Trilogies. It comprises an extended analysis of and commentary upon Liber OKBISh, The Book of the Spider, a transmitted text which was received in the course of the Workings of New Isis Lodge in the 1950s. Grant’s novella Against the Light (Starfire Publishing, London; 1997, 2016) casts some of the themes of Liber OKBISh into fictional form. A brief account of the background to Liber OKBISh can be found here.

New Isis Lodge was the final name given to a magical group developed by Kenneth and Steffi Grant over several years in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The main body of work by New Isis Lodge extended over the years 1955 to 1962, and it was on the basis of his experiences within this Lodge that Grant was later to publish his monumental series of nine volumes which has come to be known collectively as the Typhonian Trilogies. Including several O.T.O. members from Crowley’s day, an insight into some of their methods is given in Hecate’s Fountain (Skoob Books Publishing, London, 1992; Starfire Publishing, London, 2014). Another transmitted text, the Wisdom of S’lba, together with several chapters of commentary amd analysis, is published in Outer Gateways (Skoob Books Publishing, London, 1994; Starfire Publishing, London, 2015).

From the author's account on the inside flaps of the dustjacket for the first edition of this book:

The Ninth Arch, comprising the Book of the Spider (OKBISh), is the final volume of a series of Trilogies which trace the emergence into historic times of an ancient body of occult doctrine known as the Typhonian Tradition.

In order fully to understand its purpose and content, The Ninth Arch should be scanned against the background of the larger canvas on which it is painted. Such an approach will facilitate insight into the Oracles of OKBISh and their accompanying comments. As an additional aid to focussing salient features of the Tradition, the author's Nightside Narrative, Against the Light (Starfire Publishing, 2016), should serve as a helpful and explanatory ‘footnote’ to the circumstances existing at the time OKBISh was ‘received’.

The Oracles were communicated audibly, and occasionally visually, to various members of New Isis Lodge (1955-62) and at certain stages of magical ritual. The Current which generated the material began, sporadically, as early as 1939, with the initial movement of a transmission which developed over the years into the text known as the Wisdom of S’lba (see Outer Gateways, Starfire Publishing, 2015). In 1945, the Wisdom – then in its nascent stage – was recognized by Aleister Crowley as an authentic communication. From that time, the Informing Intelligence went on to complete the Wisdom, and proceeded to produce the massive series of Oracles presented in The Ninth Arch. The mode of reception has been described in the Introduction. The method of documentation confirms beyond cavil the validity of serial qabalah, as used previously in analyses of the Wisdom.

The richly complex pattern of magical correspondences, in both cases, has proved of unparalleled value in determining genuine contact with occult forces possessed of Knowledge and Prescience concerning important terrestrial Events. That the pattern reflects direct contact with an indefinitely ancient yet ever new Typhonian Gnosis, is demonstrated by the application of relentless and rigorous qabalistic exegesis, as recorded in the comments.

For readers interested in significant relationships between Numerical (physical) and Magico-Mystical (metaphysical) concepts, The Ninth Arch contains an exhaustive thesaurus of the Typhonian Tradition. But beyond considerations of gematria, the Oracles of OKBISh adumbrate Events likely to overtake planet Earth within the lifetime of many of the book's readers; and – for individuals who are able to interpret the Oracles in terms relative to their own magical universe – they issue warnings of the dangers that lie ahead of those unprepared to invoke the Sign of Protection against the oncoming wave of Outer Forces set to assume control of the planet. Now, at the turn of a millenium, it seems appropriate to release this Knowledge.

The book is republished in a fresh typesetting, incorporating corrections made by the author in his own copy of the book. Artwork has been rephotographed where possible, and presented in colour where appropriate. Six of these plates are new for this edition, and are taken from an illuminated calligraphic manuscript of The Book of the Law executed in pen, ink and watercolour by Steffi Grant in the mid 1940s.












VENEFICIUM
Second and Revised Edition
by Daniel Schulke, Art by Benjamin Vierling
(Three Hands Press)
Trade Paperback: $24.95, 192 pages with 4 page color insert, limited to 2,200 copies.
Standard Hardcover: $52.00, 192 pages with 4 page color insert, and dust jacket, limited to 750 copies.

First published in late Summer 2012, Schulke's book on esoteric toxicology Veneficium was an instant success, selling out in six months. Its principal concern is the intersection of magic and poison, originating in remotest antiquity and reaching into the occult traditions of present day. Beyond their functions as agents of bodily harm, poisons have also served as gateways of religious ecstasy, occult knowledge, and sensorial aberration, as well as the basis of cures. Allied with Samael, the Edenic serpent of first transgression whose name in some interpretations is ‘Venom of God’, this facet of magic wends through the rites of ancient Sumer and Egypt, through European Necromancy, Alchemy, the arcane the rites of the Witches’ Sabbath, and modern-day folk magic.

The second edition of Veneficium is now properly contextualized within a trilogy of forthcoming books entitled Triangulum Lamiarum (‘Triangle of the Witches’), each of which concerns a specific ontological aspect of witchcraft. Veneficium, of course, treats the occult parameters of poison, toxins, and venom, and their presence in witchcraft and allied magical arts.

Newly released, the second edition of Veneficium contains the first edition in its entirety, but there are some notable expansions and evolutions:

a new typographic design for the entire book, to be used for the whole of the trilogy
slight expansions of certain chapters
one additional chapter
additional images
a new title page illustration by artist Benjamin A. Vierling, as well as two new ornaments by the same
correction of typographic errors from the first edition, as well as footnote enumerations
index
an acknowledgments section.









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