EDGE OF THE CIRCLE BOOKS
IS PLEASED TO PRESENT
THE FOLLOWING
NEW COLLECTIBLE TITLES
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THE CATALPA MONOGRAPHS
A Critical Survey of the Art and Writings of Austin Osman Spare
By Dr William Wallace, Foreword by Michael Staley
London: Jerusalem Press, 2015. Limited Edition of 900 copies only.
A fine premium cloth copy. Lithographically printed, custom end papers, Smythe sewn, and dust jacket.
There are three special color plate sections as well as over one hundred black and white images in the text.
List Price: $59.95
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Featuring 93 colour images and 50 unpublished artworks by Spare this book expands upon the books first publishing in the 1980s. The author returns to his earliest writing as the basis for a newly updated inquiry into the volatile essences of Spare’s art. This is a substantial and thought-provoking book by the most prolific contributor to Sparean scholarship.
Comprising a revised and much expanded republication of the long out of print books ‘The Early…’ and ‘The Late works of Austin Osman Spare’, it also includes 20 very early ink drawings from a recently discovered private collection. An extensive new introduction analyzes the themes and obsessions in Spare’s art; palimpsests and Realism.
Decades of fastidious research have yielded many insights and revelations which are now elucidated with many references to surprising source imagery. By immersing himself in Spare’s creative impetus Wallace has explored not only occult texts and alchemical art, but has also found a rich vein of reference and allusion to the biblical texts, and the art of Blake, Hogarth and Shakespeare.
Crucially the reader is now furnished with the solutions to several iconographical enigmas; there is an in-depth examination the Mrs Paterson myth, ‘Black Eagle’, and the first convincing decoding of the ‘L.C.O’C.S’ dedication of The Focus of Life.
Dr Wallace also comments on an unpublished early political cartoon of Chamberlain, as well as reproducing correspondence between Kenneth Grant, and an affectionate memoir of Frank Letchford.
The Foreword is provided by Michael Staley; the Afterword by Stephen Pochin, who examines Spare’s life-long appropriation of artistic motifs, from Egyptian to G.F. Watts, to Rodin and George Tinworth.
This vital new addition to Sparean scholarship confirms he remains at the top of his game.
**
Ludwig Klages and his Quest for the Pandaemonic All.
By Dr. Gunnar Alksnis, Edited and annotated by David Beth.
Publisher: Munich: Theion Publishing, 2015.
Limited edition of 720 copies only.
A fine premium cloth copy with embossed vignettes on front and rear panels, headbands, and smythe-sewn. Tall octavo.
208 pages printed on archival papers with eight grey-scale photographic reproductions.
List Price: $62.95
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
This new volume is the first authoritative work on Ludwig Klages and his pagan metaphysics. Without a doubt Klages is one of the most intriguing and enigmatic pagan thinkers of the early 20th Century. A figure of great controversy he radically rejected Christianity and Monotheism in favor of a pan-daemonic paganism. Advocating the return to primordial states of consciousness through magico-erotic encounters with the living powers of the ensouled cosmos, Klages was a driving force in a notorious Cosmic Circle of German mystics. Masterfully expounding his vision of daemonic Life in disciplines as diverse as philosophy, poetry, metaphysics, psychology and graphology, he influenced many important contemporaries such as Hermann Hesse, Walter Benjamin and the Frankfurt School, C.G. Jung, Martin Heidegger and others. The work of esoteric teachers such as Lama Anagarika Govinda, Michael Bertiaux and David Beth has been deeply inspired by the magical antinomian biocentrism of Klages. Misinterpreted, vilified and slandered, this great heretic and ‘high priest of the irrational’ remains virtually unknown in the English speaking world although his work may have never been more relevant. Edited and annotated by David Beth.
**
THE PLAY GOES ON:
The Rituals of the Rainbow Bridge.
By Cox, Williams, et al.
Publisher: London: Starfire Publishing, 2015.
A fine copy. Sewn paper edition with special heavy weight matte text sheet with many marvelous color images integrated with the text of the Rituals. 268 pages. Octavo.
List Price: $42.95
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
The Companionship of the Rainbow Bridge was founded in 1977 and their work was extant until 1994. It was described as an experimental ritual drama group and made no pretensions to be a Magical Order. Nonetheless, it certainly developed a magical dimension that provided opportunities for creative self-expression and self-transcending experiences. The Companionship has left a trove of over forty magickal rituals. This volume presents twenty-three selected Rituals to inspire a wider audience. The Rainbow Bridge was Apollonian in character, and in their magical rituals placed an emphasis on the beauty and rhythm of the language, and in particular, the importance of the use of music as a tool of the rituals.
“Although the authors come from a background of Gardnerian witchcraft, there are diverse influences informing what was effectively a ritual drama group, one of them being Crowley; indeed, for many years the authors used to put on Crowley's Gnostic Mass two or three times per year.” – Michael Staley.
The introductory section of the book describes the high ideals that formed its foundations and the general principles of its ethos and organization. A generous photographic section shows the symbolic weapons, officers’ robes and Temple furniture. The main part of the book presents the rituals, organized in five groups, each with its own introduction. The first, the Foundation Rituals, is comprised of the Opening and Closing of the Temple, and was used at every ritual meeting. Thus was followed by the Rite of Acceptance, an inspirational ritual for the induction of new Companions. Seven Rainbow Rituals form the second group, and each was based on the symbolism and emotional tone of one of the seven colors of the Rainbow. A photographic section, which contains representational concepts of each the Rainbow Rituals in the second group, was created specifically for this publication by the photographer, Ruth Bayer, who also designed the cover. The next two sections present compilations of the rituals of two Companions who found the Rainbow Bridge the ideal environment for their creative talents. Each wrote several rituals or path workings that were much loved. Sadly, both have since passed away but these two sections are a tribute to their unique visions. The final section comprises four individual rituals from the early years of this venture, written by members of the team involved in this compilation.
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