EDGE OF THE CIRCLE BOOKS
IS PLEASED TO PRESENT
THE FOLLOWING NEW TITLES:
THE DEVIL’S NOCTUARY:
Being The First Song of Qayin
by Gavin W. Semple
Standard Edition Hardcover (Atramentous Press)
Silver foil block cover on black buckram, head and tail bands
Limited to 333 copies
List Price: $51.50
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
The book situates the reader in relation to Qayin by leading you through a diverse range of adorations, that when realised impart the structure of an overall Rite. This book is witty, clever in its structure, and with swift of hand delivers a beauty to an impossible dilemma.
Semple is a highly regarded author, artist, initiate and leading expert on the life and times of Austin Osman Spare, being an initiate of Cultus Sabbati, as well as one of the four original members of the Dragon's Column, the working group which led to Andrew D. Chumbley writing Dragon Book of Essex.
Author of Zos-Kia: An Introductory Essay on the Art and Sorcery of Austin Osman Spare; Two Tracts of Cartomancy; Study for a Portrait of Frank Letchford: Being a Brief Memoir of a Friend and Student of Austin Osman Spare, and editor of Book of Ugly Ecstasy by Austin Osman Spare...to mention just a few of his publications, he has kindly offered Atramentous Press the opportunity to publish a homage to Qayin, entitled: The Devil's Noctuary.
This is a quintessential contribution to both the Draconic and Cultus Sabbati currents. Having remained for over a decade locked away from prying eyes, this 52 page manuscript is one of the most important texts to have emerged since the passing of Andrew D. Chumbley in 2004.
**
PILLARS Volume 2, Issue 2:
Seeds Of Ares
edited by Evan Davies & Gabriel McCaughry
Standard Edition Hardcover (Anathema Publishing)
Hardcover Edition (Limited to 618 copies): 6.5 x 9.5 inches. 192 pages. Hardbound 90pts, Cialux 'Dark Brown' fine bookcloth, bronze foil stamp on rounded spine and on the cover; blind deboss on the cover and on the back cover; full colour interior, and 'Desert Tan' endpapers. Red & Black Headbands. Fine typography; illustrated thoroughly by various artists; printed on Cougar Natural 160M archive-quality paper. Hand-numbered individually.
List Price: $72.50
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
For some, the tenuous relationship between positive and negative forces, and this perceived duality, is a complex and evolving one. To find balance is one thing, but to embrace and work extensively within adversarial currents is to move boldly into stranger (and more extreme) territory.
This issue of PILLARS explores the ‘martian’ side of magickal practice, and analyze phenomena of psychic violence, what it means to engage in transgressive and subversive art, to dive deep into shadow-work, to embrace the unconventional and the radical, the vicious and immoral, perhaps even the damning, and the taboo. To understand one’s wrath and conditioning, and the fearlessness that inspires work with such currents.
What attracts some of us to these systems, and what benefits do they provide, if any?
The conversation is centered around how this work may lead to self-realization and actualization, and what kind of fulfillment one seeks. Or, if one plays the contrarian (which we also encouraged), are negative currents really all that 'negative,' or are we merely the product of modern life where so many people view the world in starkly black and white terms?
If anything, this particular issue of PILLARS is meant to be a thorough investigation of the human condition, what uneasiness or reassurance this thought may bring to the forefront of consciousness, and how one proceeds to harmonize these aspects of the Self through the usage of such polarizing angles.
Heed the Call!
O Filli et Filliae Sanguis!
We, the Seeds of Ares!
**
WOLFS-HEAD:
Óðinn, The Ecstatic God of Tethers and Skin-Turning
by Shani Oates
Standard Edition Hardcover (Anathema Publishing)
Hardcover Edition (Limited to approx. 700 copies): 5.25 x 8.5 inches. 240 pages. Hardbound 90pts, Tele Legatoria Setalux Shimmering ‘Ice Blue’ bookbinding Cloth from Italy. Gold foil blocking on rounded spine and Blind Deboss on the cover. B&W & Colour interior, with Eclipse, Coarse Grain texture, Endpapers. Illustrated throughout by Blood & Fire Ritual Art, Fine typography, printed on Cougar Natural 160M archive-quality paper. Individually hand-numbered.
List Price: $72.50
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
“As a transpersonal state, berserkergangr has attracted a host of theories that attempt to explain or rationalise it as a drug-induced frenzy, or insanity. Too few studies are open to the possibility of an enhanced state of spiritual intoxication, of ‘god possession.’ Being an ecstatic madness, that dedication to an extreme warrior code is more akin to the mysterious disciplines of the east that demand, privation, ordeal and self-sacrifice. It is the path of the zealot, the hero and the priest combined.”
Óðinn’s identity as the Ecstatic God of the Tethers of Law and Death, is least recognised through his Skin-Turning and Shape-shifting techniques as gifts of the highest craft he imparts to a shamanic warrior elite. Those themes are explored in this volume, alighting upon a wide range of magics and histories identified within the Óðinnic cultus. Medieval source materials yield a wealth of information relating to Totemism; Ritual Guising; the Berserkir and Úlfhéðnar as Óðinn’s True Wolf Warriors; Motifs of Magical
Beasts in Battle; the Wælceasega as Carrion Host; the Law and Covenants relating to Wǽr-loga; Outlawry; She-Wulves; The Red Thread of Wyrd, Warding and Binding the Dead, Varðlo(k)kur - the call to spirit; Dragons, the Wyrm, and finally, to the malefic sorcery of the Dog Heads of War, The Zmei, The Roggenwolf and the Bukka, whose presence in the wheat, rye and barley knots of the blessed harvest grains, all wend a path through to the real St George, to Green George.
Enchanted thread, girdles, withies and staves, seiðr and the völur are woven through the time-honoured mysteries shared by Beowulf, Grendel and his brimwylf (‘sea-wolf’) mother. Nordic culture drew inspiration and influence from the magical and martial disciplines of the Sámi, Slavic, north-European and Eurasian peoples. Invoking the divine ecstasy of creation, Shamen priests and warriors, stand ‘outside’ time. Óðinn’s antinomian challenges generated considerable friction within societal ‘law.’ The dehumanisation of the skóggarmaðr (wild men of the forest) outlawed for following his rule, rendered them indistinct from the forest-wolf’s status, and were perceived as equal quarry. Transpersonal experiences shaped their realities, relating to identification through a clan totem, namely the wolf, and later the dragon, wyrm and raven, not merely as wild beasts of battle, but of ancestry, mind, of wit and wisdom. Couched in ambiguities, the role of the Valkyrjur, the ‘handmaidens of Óðinn is re-evaluated, leading to a new conclusion for their association with (battle) carnage and the ‘Cult of the Dead.’
**
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