NEW
FROM HELLFIRE CLUB BOOKS!!
CUNNING MAGIC & CELESTIAL ART
by Robert A. Priddle
- Hardcover folio bound in full
Bordeaux book cloth, with illustrated title label on front, and gold
embossed spine - $82.50
Limited to only 200 folio copies bound
in full Bordeaux book cloth.
List Price: $82.50
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
This important new study focuses on the
origins of modern occultism in the ‘Cunning Traditions’ during
the transitional period of English magic, and the formation of a
global view of western esotericism.
There is one book that has had an
enormous impact upon occultism and esoteric philosophy in the modern
period, it is ‘The Magus’, first printed in 1801 by the English
magician Francis Barrett.
The continued popularity of
‘The Magus’ as a textbook grimoire for both the aspiring
occultist and learned magician is well known, its place in the
transmission of occult knowledge and practise from the ancient world
to the present day is beyond question, but how many of us really
understand the circumstances behind its actual creation and the
private influences and secretive individuals to whom Barrett went for
guidance?
England in the late 1700s and
early 1800s had a remarkably fertile and closely connected
constellation of wizards, herbalists and cunning men whose personal
guidance was sought in the context of the magical arts, many produced
manuscripts and talismans of their own and a few were operating so
publicly that their reputations were a household name: Ebenezer
Sibley, Dr. John Parkins, and a host of lesser known regional
characters who operated by private consultation.
Whilst copies of the ‘Keys
of Solomon’ were known to have circulated very early on in the
transition of magic from the middle ages up to the modern period, the
actual passage of the broader curriculum of occult studies from the
late 1700s and on (such as was largely codified in the creation of
the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the Outer in 1888) is less
clear. What is remarkable is that one book, and the single individual
whose brilliance created it, are responsible.
R.A.Priddle places Barrett
not only in the transmission of magical manuscripts in London,
through such well known personages as Ebenezer Sibley and John
Denley, but also within the context of such lesser known figures as
the Lincolnshire astrologer and cunning man Dr. John Parkins, the
person of one ‘Griffith’ who actually engraved the plates for
what was to become the first textbook of magic in English.
Deeply examining the
intellectual, economic and social context in which Barrett worked,
and showing conclusively that Barrett used the circumstances
surrounding him to the greatest possible advantage in the projection
of his new vision of occultism onto the world stage, the author of
this study R. A. Priddle brilliantly exposes how Barrett redefined
the context of magic in the modern world and thus changed the
relationship between man and the cosmos for the next two hundred
years.
Barretts life is examined in
detail and his association with one particular area of London, the
district surrounding Marylebone, is shown to have had a profound
influence upon him and his production of ‘The Magus’. Working
originally as an apothecary whilst writing the manuscript of his
book, Priddle suggests that the most likely tutor to the aspiring
young Francis Barrett was the astrologer and publisher Ebenezer
Sibley whose own production of esoteric manuscripts is now so well
known. Sibley and Barrett lived within a few hundred yards of each
other and the young man would almost certainly have sought him out as
a teacher, perhaps even attended meetings of the ‘Mesmer Harmonic
and Philosophical Society’ of which Sibley was an influential
supporter.
After the publication of ‘The
Magus’ in 1801 Barrett is supposed to have formed an occult school,
this fact is stated in the book itself, but the circumstances
surrounding Barretts stay in London, his association with Sibley,
Parkins and Griffith suggests that the esoteric school was well under
way in the 1790s probably at Sibleys home.
This small school of occult
students, through the popularity of ‘The Magus’, later influenced
European occultists and then American: the French magician Eliphas
Levi visited England in the 1830s, and by 1835 a copy of ‘The
Magus’ was lodged in the Philadelphia lending library.
To what extent the Mormon
movement of Joseph Smith was influenced by Barrett we cannot say,
although certainly a manuscript published as ‘The Edward Hunter
Manuscript’ of the ‘Key of Rabbi Solomon’ which originated in
Bristol and whose author travelled to America was certainly a Mormon
connection.
Such was the influence of
Barretts book (and a demonstration of the vivacity of esoteric
groups) that a later edition of 1875 added to the success of at
least two famous esoteric schools: the person responsible for its
republication, Frederick Hockley (1809-1885), used the original
engraved plates from the first edition, it is of great interest that
these plates were held by the occult bookseller John Denley who
bought them in 1818 and kept them privately until the grimoire was
ready to rise again.
A detailed analysis of the
contents and structure of ‘The Magus’ shows key differences in
the contents of Barretts work and those earlier authors (such as
Agrippa) to whom it is assumed he owes a debt. The originality of
Barretts contribution is defined in well structured discussions,
section by section, of the material. Most importantly it can be seen
that the often subtle changes Barrett makes to the literary
borrowings of the occult tradition (the raw material for his book)
are in fact drawn from contemporary practice, such as in the
formulation of the doctrine of the subtle medium (the governing
mechanics of the magical process) Barret uses an example from folk
idiom: the touching of a corpse to see if it bleeds in the presence
of a criminal (a practice known as the Bahr Recht or ‘bier right’)
which in this instance has a Welsh connection.
Barrett and his magical
associate John Parkins both had connections with the cunning
practices of Wales and the West Country, indeed the person of
‘Griffith’ who engraved the plates for Barretts published
manuscript of ‘The Magus’ was himself connected to a web of
country herbalists and almanac printers which spanned the countryside
of England from South Yorkshire to London in the south and
Herefordshire in the West. Whether there were any direct links to the
traditional herbalists and apothecaries of Myddfai in Wales we do not
yet know, but evidence is growing to support the thesis that there
was a perceived ‘ancient Druidic college’ of magic up to the mid
1800s to which many occultists of the modern period are indebted.
Subsequent to the influence
of the Cunning Tradition upon Francis Barrett and his work ‘The
Magus’ was the influence that the book had upon other cunning men,
such as the famous ‘Cunning Murrell’ or James Murrell of Hadleigh
in Essex (1785-1860).
Murrell was reported to be a
small quiet man who went about mostly at night, wearing iron goggles
and carrying a basket and a whale-bone umbrella. Making his living
chiefly as a shoemaker and chemists still-man, Murrell also practiced
astrology, veterinary surgery and exorcism.
In ‘The Wizard of
Yesterday’ (1900) Arthur Morrison provides a facsimile page of
Murrells own spell book, it is in fact a drawing copying one from
Book II of ‘The Magus’ proving its importance to the
dissemination of magical information to the Cunning Folk themselves.
Essential to an understanding of
Barrett’s influence here is the presentation of Cabala tradition in
his work to the occult and magical community of the 1800’s. Barrett
creates a wholly practical articulation of this often abstract
theological system, again it is Barett’s influence upon such people
as James Murrell that shows how effective his ‘cabala’ was to
become. Barrett condenses the complex system of cabala and does this
by showing his readers how to calculate the names of spirits but
leaves out the manner in which those names are obtained. It may be
that the method of obtaining the names of spirits was reserved for
private students of his esoteric school, perhaps this is Barrett
deliberately omitting certain secret formulae to restrict hem to the
initiated. In any event the processes he keeps secret are necessary
to an understanding and accomplishment of the work, Barrett must have
had them and whether he passed them on to Denley and thence to
Hockley, they undoubtably existed and were later adopted by esoteric
schools from the ‘Society of Eight’ in the 1860s and later in the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
**
THE SECRET WISDOM OF THE QABALAH
Being The Mystical Foundations Of
The World Order:
The Mystery Of Sex & The Birth
Of Evil
by John Frederick Charles Fuller
Ash grey book cloth hardcover, with
silver embossed front and spine.
List Price: $62.95
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
J.F.C. Fuller met Aleister
Crowley after writing his ‘Star in the West’ (1907) an
explication and elucidation of the importance of Crowleys poetical
and magickal work in the current of Thelema.
Fuller was a very early member and
supporter of Aleister Crowleys A:.A:. magickal order and worked
tirelessly to assist the ‘Great Beast 666’ in the editing and
publication of The Equinox to which he contributed the beautiful and
remarkable ‘Treasure House of Images’.
As well as writing numerous
important works on military strategy, the design and strategic use of
the tank in warfare, for which he was praised by Adolf Hitler, J.F.C.
Fuller was also a keen scholar of the occult forces that control
world events.
His work on the mystical
Qabalah shadows forth a strong belief in the presence and power of
evil in the world today, his experiences both with Crowley and with
the forces at work in Hitlers’ Third Reich before the outbreak of
World War II can be seen described in his book.
J.F.C. Fuller was an expert in
his field, with 45 books on strategy ( such as ‘The Organisation of
Force’ and the ‘Nine Principles of War’) he was a highly
prolific author whose ideas reached senior army officers on all
sides, as well as the European public.
He explored the professional
business of fighting, in terms of the relationship between warfare
and social, political, and economic factors in the civilian sector.
Fuller emphasised the potential of new weapons, especially tanks and
aircraft, to stun a surprised enemy psychologically, a facet of his
strategic thinking that was no doubt adopted quickly by the Fascists.
In fact the German Generals
Lutz and Guderian adopted the tactics described by Fuller in the
organization of the 1940 ‘Blitzkrieg’ attack on allied forces, an
horrific form of military extremism that Fullers own Allied Generals
were unwilling to adopt.
As well as his writings on
strategy and occultism, Fuller also wrote an excellent introductory
work on Yoga which is also of interest to students of the occult and
Crowleys work in particular.
In ‘The Secret Wisdom of the
Qabalah’ (1937) J.F.C. Fuller expounds a wealth of occult and
esoteric knowledge in a clear and intelligent style, each chapter
building a compelling picture of the hidden forces at work
historically, culturally and within the being of the individual.
What is most remarkable about Fullers
qabalistic study is that whilst it does not mention Aleister Crowley
by name at all, it is absolutely certain that his finely crafted
discourse points the student in the direction of the New Aeon and the
person of his teacher, Aleister Crowley himself (The Great Beast 666)
as the driving force behind all current manifestations of cosmic
power.
Though Crowley and Fuller were
later to separate, Fuller is noted as stating many years later that
he believed Crowley to be “a genuine Avatar”, a being of
supernatural origin manifesting in human form.
Fullers ‘Secret Wisdom of the
Qabalah’ reveals the hidden doctrines of mysticism and magick which
may be used for good or evil, and reveals the forces at work in the
occult sciences and shows how religious and societal movements
originate and why they decay.
This book is a veritable Key to
both past and future occultism, and consequently is of profound
significance in understanding the nature of those hidden forces,
particularly the forces of evil which today seek to control the
world.
Chapters include:
‘The Mystical Foundations of
the World Order’
‘The Evolution of Satan’
‘The Mystery of Sex’
‘The Creation of Hell’
‘Man the Instrument of
Redemption’
‘The Laboratory of Satan’
‘The Mystical Ordeal’
‘The Fourth Dimensional
State’
‘The Mystic Way’
**
LIBER PYRAMIDOS
Sub figura DCLXXI
~Being a facsimile of the Kenneth Anger
typescript, introduced by Frater Orpheus 7◦ = 4▫, together with
a critical text, commentary, and full color reproduction of
Aleister Crowley’s original illustrated manuscript
Clothbound, wine color, large format
hardcover, with gold embossed front and spine.
List Price: $97.50
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Included within this volume~
1) A newly photographed large format
facsimile of the original illuminated manuscript produced by Aleister
Crowley 666 in 1909 showing the true vibrant colours of the painted
pages
2) A full-colour facsimile of the
important annotated typescript of Liber Pyramidos kept by the cult
film maker Kenneth Anger between 1940 and 1950, this typescript given
to Anger by Jack Parsons. The typescript has annotations in the hands
of Crowley, Gerald Yorke and lastly Kenneth Anger himself, thus
revealing material lost in other copies which have faded over time
(ie Warburg).
3) An introduction to the history of
the annotated Anger typescript by Frater Orpheus 7◦=4▫. A
discussion of the origins and circumstances behind Crowleys
attainment follows: “Crowley’s journals from this working were
originally published in the work known as John St. John in The
Equinox volume 1:1 in 1909. In this journal, Crowley clearly
describes the working and re-working of Liber Pyramidos which he
refers to as the “perfect ritual of self-initiation” and even
further… “if one could only dare to hope it! – to thee 8=3
attainment”. It was during this 13 day Magickal working that
Crowley began to contemplate, among other things, the Dweller on
threshold and his motto as V.V.V.V.V. etc… In reading John St.
John one is able to detect a subtle shift in Crowley’s “thinking”.
This can be understood as that shift from John the man to John the
Saint. A hint to Crowley’s meaning behind the title John St. John.
In other words, it was during this period of time, while working
with Pyramidos, in conjunction with certain yoga practices focusing
on the Vishuddha Chakra, that Crowley first began to attain to the
Grade of 8◦=3▫, (the clues are always there for them whom have
eyes to see them).”
4) A structural analysis of the
manuscript rituals which compose the textual history and variant
practices of Liber Pyramidos and its relationship to the highly
secret A⸫A⸫ ‘ThROA’ ritual. The structural analysis of
Pyramidos is composed of the following main sources and numerous
secondary ones:
i) The manuscript at the North Western
Library
ii) The so-called ‘Frank Bennett’
version
iii) Liber ThROA
iv) The Magickal Record John St John
(Equinox I:1)
5) A working reflection of the
Pyramidos process by a brother of the Astrum Argentum and a
presentation of the ritual as a series of initiatic states.
“Within our Order, there are only two
official initiations, and both, regardless of the situation in the
past, are exclusively given in the form of self-initiation. Their
full value is in the Aspirant’s work with himself, as the
perfection of the ritual does not lie in the perfection of its
performance for it is unattainable. At the end of his Probation, if
he satisfied all the elements of his Grade, the Probationer is given
to pass the Ritual of the Pyramid, or Liber DCLXXI vel Pyramidos,
which confirms him as a Neophyte. In the same way, a Neophyte passes
through the Ritual CXX, of Passage through the Duat, or Liber
Cadaveris, which establishes him as a Zelator. It would be wrong to
assume whether the ritual of the Pyramid is the final act of the
Probationer, or it is the introductory chapter of a Neophyte. Perhaps
both conclusions are equally correct. These rituals contain the
mysteries that an Aspirant’s unconscious will roll and shape
further during the Grades, and it cannot be said with certainty what
kind of performance would be considered as appropriate.
The ritual of the Pyramid, or Pyramidos
hereinafter, is built on the basis of the dramatic ritual, where an
Aspirant assumes specific godly forms and passes through a certain
process of transformation. This process of change will accompany him
all along the region of the Golden Dawn, to the achievement of the
Adeptus Minor. This process will, of course, only modify its form,
depending on the Grade, but the same essence is present both in the
Probationer and in the Philosophus; it is about a subtle, inner
experience that initiates a major change, soon to be realized. It
should not be confused with Liber ThROA, which is a group ritual of
initiation in which, besides the initiate, roles also have officers
of the Order. But is there anyone else in the great Pyramid, except
an Aspirant? Is he not all alone, is the Pyramid not constructed for
him and himself only? Above all, the Aspirant should comprehend the
formula and essence of the ritual, and that his contemplation on all
this should be part of his work on the Grade.
Many discussions were conducted around
the secret word of a Neophyte. What can be found in public records is
the first and the last letter of that word, and the numerical value
of 93. M….M. Although every careful researcher will find how it was
derived, it is more important to outline the principle based on which
the whole thing works. The word is never pronounced in the outer, and
it is never transmitted in the way as it is done with other words.
Above all, one should take into account that M….M is not a word but
a formula, which only represents or resembles a subtle inner story,
and it is necessary to obtain it through one’s Zelator in its
proper form. The secret word is the axis of the whole of this
initiation, which is fully nourished by the vibration of that word.
It never gets transmitted, except to the Neophyte of the A∴A∴ and
there are strong reasons why it is so. First and foremost, the very
process of finding this word starts much earlier than in Pyramidos,
if nothing else then precisely at this point, now reading these words
represents the achievement and valuable process by itself. The very
word is the mental arabesque about settling the Aspirant’s soul
inside the Pyramid, imprinting his mind into its monumental heart.
This word is the formula of conversion of two entirely different
currencies; those elemental and those spiritual ones. This word is a
translator, which יהוה turns into
יהשוה, it is a formula that explains
life itself. This word, like magical words of the old times used by a
necromancer to raise the dead, will imprint the soul into dead things
and make them alive. It is symbolically responsible for our true
awakening, our true initiation. And as every Pyramid is a tomb of the
body, so it is equally a cradle of the soul. And here, a born man
occupies the place of other unborn.
The word is not hiding from the
Probationer, but from “his” Binah, and we will have an
opportunity to discuss more about this brilliant tale later. It can
be openly noticed that phenomenon of the words in the A∴A∴ has a
very special place. As a Neophyte, the Aspirant receives from his
Zelator the hidden word, then, as an accomplished Adept he receives
the name of his Angel, and finally, as Magus, he obtains the word of
Æon. All three Grades are pervaded by acceptance of certain words
which fulfill the utmost domains of human existence, the words under
which the whole Universe shakes, as the ether through which these
vibrations are transmitted, from Yesod to Chokmah.” (Frater
Aureus)
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