{"title":"Weirdiana","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn exploration of the mystical, the spiritual, the occult and the out there.  A collaboration with Marshall Rare Books.  \u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"llull-ramon-libro-del-ascenso-y-descenso-del-entendimiento-1753-2884","title":"Libro del ascenso, y descenso del entendimiento.","description":"\u003cp\u003eCompuesto por el Illuminado Doctor, Y Martyr de Jesu-Christo el Beato Raymundo Llull Mallorquin de la Tercera Orden del S.P.S. Francisco.\u003cbr\u003eMallorca: En la Oficina de la Viuda Frau. 1753.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eTHE LADDER OF UNDERSTANDING\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst vernacular edition. 4to. 195x140mm. pp.[viii], [2] plates, 252. Folding table of contents and folding woodcut illustration preceding A1, woodcut vignettes to text. Title-page trimmed and extended at lower margin (probably to erase inscription), a couple of pages lightly browned. Contemporary Spanish limp vellum, title in ink to spine, lacking ties. Some internal cracking at the hinges and the usual warping. An excellent copy of a very rare book. Worldcat locates seven copies in Spanish libraries but only three in the US and one in the UK (BL). We can find no copies at auction.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003eFirst vernacular edition. The Catalan philosopher and missionary Llull (c.1232–c.1316) is best known for his 'great art', a theory of logic which, he believed, united all strands of knowledge under one universal method. This elaborate, mystically inspired universal system of knowledge was intended to convert unbelievers. The present text is a prefiguration, written in 1304, of his grand theory elaborated a year later in the Ars magna. It proposes that there is a 'ladder of understanding' of eight entities and twelve questions, representing the hierarchy of Creation through which the intellect can arrive at knowledge of each entity. This process is illustrated and tabulated in the two plates preceding the text; the illustration exemplifies Llull's use of the figure of the wheel, for which he became famous. First published in Valencia in 1512, the Liber de ascensu et descensu intellectus (as it was entitled in Latin) was republished in the city of Llull's birth, Palma de Mallorca, in 1744. This Spanish translation followed soon afterwards. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003eSarton, G., Introduction to the History of Science, 3 vols, Baltimore 1927–48, ii 908; DSB: Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 16 vols, New York 1981, viii 547–51.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003eRef. 2884\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LLULL, Ramón","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":12232438481007,"sku":"2884","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/products\/RCH_3752.jpg?v=1529679803"},{"product_id":"harris-frieda-bump-into-heaven-n-d-1957-8-4399","title":"Bump into Heaven","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: The Mitre Press. n.d. [1957\/8].\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\"What has been done was done by fate\". Thelemic poetry by Aleister Crowley's artist and disciple.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo 183x122mm. pp. 64. Original bright blue cloth lettered in gilt with original illustrated dust jacket. Some very minor marking and rubbing to the jacket and slight soiling to the spine. Internally there is some mild foxing in one or two places but overall a very good copy. Rare in commerce and with eight copies recorded institutionally. \u003cbr\u003eFrieda Harris was, in the words of her husband \"an artist and a good one. She takes her art seriously, in fact works at her painting seven days a week and generally twelve hours out of the twenty-four. She has had an immense output of pictures\". She is best remembered today as a devoted colleague and disciple of Aleister Crowley for whose deck of Thoth Tarot cards she produced the paintings. Both Harris and Crowley were perfectionists and the whole project took five years. Although the pictures were frequently shown in galleries and The Book of Thoth was published in 1944, no complete, full colour pack of cards was produced during Harris or Crowley's lifetime. \u003cbr\u003eHarris's poetry represents the more secretive, private side of her life. The work collected in \u003cem\u003eBump into Heaven \u003c\/em\u003eis spare, simple and spiritual, much influenced by nature, religion, the world of dreams and India which became her home from 1952 until her death in 1962.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 4399\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HARRIS, Frieda","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55124576141689,"sku":"4399","price":750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/P1030545.jpg?v=1748862556"},{"product_id":"jones-edmund-a-relation-of-apparitions-of-spirits-in-the-principality-of-wales-1780-4461","title":"A Relation of Apparitions of Spirits, in the Principality of Wales","description":"\u003cp\u003eto which is added the remarkable account of the apparition in Sunderland, with other notable relations from England; Together With Observations About Them, And Instructions From Them Designed To Confute And To Prevent The Infidelity Of Denying The Being And Apparition of Spirits; Which Tends To Irreligion and Atheism.\u003cbr\u003en.p. [Trevecca?]. 1780.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\"a farrago of the most astonishing superstitions\". The author's copy\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo in 4s. 188x117mm. pp. viii, 134, [2]. Nineteenth century half calf, marbled paper covered boards, slightly bumped and rubbed. Internally a little browned but overall a very good copy of a rare book. We have traced only two at auction, eight copies on JISC Library Hub, and a further five in Worldcat. Tipped in are two manuscript documents (seven pages in total) by Jones himself. The second of these (frayed at the edges with loss of some text), headed \"Edmund Jones his book\" has a pencil note stating that it is the \"Autograph of the author of this book - Edmund Jones\" and was \"removed from a very dilapidated copy of Dorrington's View of the Principles of the Lutheran Churches 1714\". This note, which touches on Lutheran and Calvinist soteriology appears to have been prompted by something in Dorrington's book. The first, longer note (in the same hand) seems to have been extracted from a notebook as it is not complete but it is an interesting discourse on the figure of Gaius mentioned in Acts and two of Paul's Epistles. \u003cbr\u003e\"Edmund Jones was a man of dual personality - fearless in preaching and in founding new churches, a zealous evangelical and a firm Calvinist, yet frightened of apparitions and terrified by bad omens\". (Annie Grace Bowen-Jones, \u003cem\u003eDictionary of Welsh Biography). \u003c\/em\u003eBorn in 1702, Jones's only education was thanks to the local curate. He then spent the rest of his long life (he died in 1793) repaying this by embarking on a punishing regime of itinerant preaching together with the founding of numerous Independent chapels. He was said to be a more enthusiastic Calvinist than Calvin himself and was certainly ferocious in his opposition to the Established Church. However, he is probably best known today for this book. \u003cem\u003eA Relation of Apparitions of Spirits, in the Principality of Wales \u003c\/em\u003ehas been described as \"a farrago of the most astonishing superstitions, in all of which he firmly believed\". It is certainly an extensive collection of tales from the spirit world but Jones's purpose was not to amaze and frighten. It was to \"convince all the Saducees and Atheistical men of the age of the being of Spirits, and of their appearance in the world\" for, in order to believe in the truth of the Resurrection one must believe in spirits \"for why should the body be raised if there is no Spirit of life to dwell in it?\". A mixture, then, of the highly orthodox born out of the wildly unorthodox.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 4461\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[JONES, Edmund]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55124579582329,"sku":"4461","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/P1030679.jpg?v=1748875410"},{"product_id":"huges-hugo-bart-homo-sapiens-correctus-1964-4512","title":"Homo Sapiens Correctus","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmsterdam: n.p.. [1964].\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eExpanded consciousness.\u003cbr\u003eThe rare English edition of the first manifesto for trepanation.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003ePaper scroll (2760x430mm) with a facsimile (translated into English) of Huges's manifesto, written while in prison, for an expanded consciousness achieved through the control of blood to the brain. which gives the work its alternative name: The Mechanism of BrainBloodVolume (BBV). The original manuscript of Homo Sapiens Correctus was written in Dutch in 1962. In 1964, a facsimile was issued in both Dutch and in an English translation. The text, which is organised in nine sections (with titles such as \"Chemical\", \"Osmotical\", \"Brain Metabolism\" is arranged around ten coloured diagrams showing how blood is distributed between the brain and the heart. Apart from the occasional chip and a few closed tears, this copy is in very good condition, with the illustrations especially clean and fresh. At the foot of the scroll is written: \"Amsterdam, Bart Huges. Made in prison. Copy rights fl.100.000,-\". Institutionally rare, OCLC records only four copies of the version in English. And of those sold at auction in the last twenty years, all but one have been in Dutch and it seems that the English version is considerably more scarce. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eHuges is probably the most celebrated enthusiast for trepanation, a procedure which he performed on himself on 6th January 1965 using a dentist's drill. Huges's auto-surgery was a long time in the planning. As a medical student in the late 1950s and early 1960s he developed the idea that as humans walk upright, blood drains out of the brain. Furthermore as we move from childhood to adulthood, our cranial sutures close, cutting down the flow of blood to the brain. Huges started to work on ways of recovering our childlike state. Drugs were a significant part of his method - he was an enthusiastic user of marijuana (his daughter was called Maria Juana) and LSD - and it was while on mescaline that he first understood how trepanation might work to reduce the volume of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain thus increasing the volume of brainblood. Homo Sapiens Correctus explores a number of alternatives to drilling a hole in his head (\"Physical\", \"Brain Metabolism\", \"Psychovitamins\") which is just as well as it is a spectacularly gruesome procedure. But there is no doubt that Huges's principal contribution to the expansion of consciousness and the returning of our minds to their childlike states lies in his evangelical adoption of trepanation. Huges (who was still a medical student at the time) has said that he wrote this scroll to educate doctors about the benefits of the procedure. \"I visited about twenty professors, of psychiatry, anthropology, neuro-anatomy etc. and their reactions were without exception negative\". So, not a success medically, but this extraordinary scroll has secured its place as a key work of the 1960s counterculture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 4512\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HUGES, Hugo Bart","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55124580827513,"sku":"4512","price":6500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/71.Trepanning.jpg?v=1748863836"},{"product_id":"davenport-adams-w-h-dwellers-on-the-threshold-or-magic-and-magicians-1844-4546","title":"Dwellers on the Threshold or Magic and Magicians","description":"\u003cp\u003ewith some illustrations of human error and imposture\u003cbr\u003eLondon: John Maxwell and Company. 1844.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. From the Library of the Theosophical Society in England. Two volumes. 8vo. 187x125mm. pp. xx, 315 [1bl]; xv, [ibl], 308. Publisher's green cloth, lettered in gilt to spine, with library shelfmark at foot of spine. Front pastedown has the bookplate of the Theosophical Library. Some rubbing and bumping to extremities. Internally very good. \u003cbr\u003eDavenport Adams is said to have been a voracious reader as a child and this book suggests wide and, it must be said, somewhat directionless reading. It is a history of magic, a biography of magicians and people with magical powers (Paracelsus, Henry Cornelius Agrippa, John Dee and Mesmer appear) and a study of alchemy, divination and witchcraft. He roams widely and entertainingly. Davenport Adams must have been entertaining company. His range of interests was vast. He published an edition of Shakespeare, books about English monarchs, works of military and naval history, natural history and a two volume study of \"English Party Leaders\". Presumably he got the idea for this from his work on the fakes and frauds he encountered in \u003cem\u003eDwellers on the Threshold\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 4546\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DAVENPORT ADAMS, W.H","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55291527496057,"sku":"4546","price":225.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/20250625_111551.jpg?v=1750853740"},{"product_id":"le-fanu-j-s-the-wyvern-mystery-a-novel-1889-4554","title":"The Wyvern Mystery. A Novel.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Ward and Downey. . 1889.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eFrom the Libraries of Barry Humphries and Montague Summers.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst single volume edition. 8vo. 191x125mm. pp. vii [ibl], 351 [1]. Six engraved plates by Brinsley Sheridan Le Fanu. Publisher's decorated cloth. Slight bumping and rubbing to corners and to head and foot of spine which is a little rubbed and darkened. Hinges weak and some minor marking but otherwise a very good copy of the first single volume edition of the novel initially issued in three volumes in 1869. The front pastedown has the striking St Jerome bookplate of Alphonsus Montague Summers designed by Eric Gill, together with the bookplate of the comedian Barry Humphries. It is unsurprising that the darkly gothic Le Fanu should have appealed to Summers who has been described as \"arguably the most seminal twentieth century purveyor of pop culture occultism.\" Nor that Summers, with his theatricality and taste for adopting multiple personalities, should have appealed to the flamboyant Humphries.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 4554\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LE FANU, J.S","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55291527659897,"sku":"4554","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/4554.Lefanu_1.jpg?v=1749122187"},{"product_id":"webb-jane-mrs-jane-c-louden-the-mummy-a-tale-of-the-twenty-second-century-1827-4592","title":"The Mummy! A Tale of The Twenty-Second Century.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Henry Colburn.. 1827.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eScience fiction, feminism and reanimation. The first appearance of the Mummy.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. Three volumes. 12mo. (185x113mm). pp. viii, 300; [ii], 348; [ii], 303 [1, publisher's adverts]. Bound without half-titles in volumes II and III (volume I was issued without a half-title). Tan half calf, marbled paper covered boards. Spine with green morocco label, lettered in gilt. Some repairs and strengthening to joints, head and foot of spines and corners. Slight scuffing to spines and rubbing to boards. Internally there is some cracking to the hinges of volume one with gathering H torn at the foot and a little loose. Some foxing and marking and a small black ink stain between pp 239-244 and 251-261 of volume III. Otherwise in very good condition throughout. Front pastedowns have the bookplate of Charles William Orde of Nunnykirk. He was a breeder of racehorses who ran his stud operation from the family house, Nunnykirk Hall. A nice copy of a rare book which has appeared in the auction records only five times in the last 100 years. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Mummy! \u003c\/em\u003erepresents the mingling of two cultural currents. The first is the early nineteenth obsession with ancient Egypt inspired by the work of French archaeologists and scholars following Napoleon's invasion in 1798. Of the many manifestations of contemporary Egyptomania, perhaps the most bizarre were the public \"mummy unwrappings\" which took place in 1821 in a Piccadilly theatre. The second is Mary Shelley's \u003cem\u003eFrankenstein, \u003c\/em\u003ethe begetter of reanimation novels. Jane Webb's (she became Louden on her marriage in 1831 to John, the botanist and early fellow of the Linnean Society) \u003cem\u003eThe Mummy!\u003c\/em\u003e tells of the Pharoah Cheops brought back life in 2126. Unlike Frankenstein's monster, Cheops is essentially benign dispensing wise advice and benefactions along with observations along the lines of \"Human nature is still the same even in this remote corner of the globe\", the banality of which evaporates into despair when one remembers that the person uttering these words is nearly 4700 years old so has, presumably, seen a thing or two. \u003cem\u003eThe Mummy!\u003c\/em\u003e is, however, more than just a work of Gothic early science fiction. By setting the novel in a far distant future ruled by the absolutist Queen Claudia, Webb can hold up a satirical mirror to contemporary society. Her critical standpoint is broadly conservative by the standards of the time (she was no Mary Shelley) save for her belief that the world (or at least England) was better and more peaceably governed by a woman than by a man, thus making \u003cem\u003eThe Mummy\u003c\/em\u003e! something of an early feminist novel. As remarkable are Webb's uncannily accurate predictions of life in the future: coffee machines, smokeless cities a form of internet and AI doctors and lawyers. And although the mummy is now a staple of horror films and novels, one must not forget that Webb's novel marks the emergence of the \"mummy genre\". It is an extraordinary work. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 4592\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[WEBB, Jane (Mrs Jane C. Louden)]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55371988795769,"sku":"4592","price":25000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/20250610_151941.jpg?v=1750784679"},{"product_id":"frazer-j-g-the-golden-bough-1911-13-4595","title":"The Golden Bough","description":"\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Macmillan \u0026amp; Co, Limited. 1911-13.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eEdward Clodd's copy of The Golden Bough. Presentation copies with a letter from Frazer to Clodd.\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003ePresentation copy to Edward Clodd. Third edition. Eleven volumes, without the Bibliography and General Index, but with a copy of volume III of the 1924 The Belief in Immortality with an ALS from Frazer to Edward Clodd. Original publisher's green cloth (although volumes 5-8 are in blue cloth). Upper cover is decorated with a mistletoe design in gilt. Spines lettered in gilt. Volume 3 (Taboo and the Perils of the Soul) has been repaired at the head of the spine (with a very slight loss of the gilt lettering). Some bumping to head of spines and slight chipping to head and foot of spine of volumes 10 and 11. Some slight marking and shelfwear. Internally very good and overall an excellent set of this vast and far-reaching study on comparative myth and religion. Few books have had so significant an influence on twentieth century culture. Wittgenstein, Freud, Jung, Eliot, Hemingway, Lawrence, Graves, Paglia and Coppola all fell under Frazer's spell.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003eVolume 1 (1911): The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings (Part 1). pp. xxxii. 426 [2pp adverts]. On the front pastedown is a review from \u003cem\u003eThe Saturday Review\u003c\/em\u003e of the first three volumes of this edition of \u003cem\u003eThe Golden Bough\u003c\/em\u003e. \u003cbr\u003eVolume 2 (1911): The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings (Part 2). pp. xii, 417 [1bl], [2pp adverts]. \u003cbr\u003eVolume 3 (1911): Taboo and the Perils of the Soul. pp. xv [ibl], 446, [2pp adverts]. Tipped in and pasted in at the beginning and end of the book are three newspaper articles about The Golden Bough. Clodd has made some notes in pen and pencil referring to a conversation with Frazer (\"Frazer told me that obscurity invests the causes of imitation customs\") and to an article that he (Clodd) had written on \"Pre-Animism\". \u003cbr\u003eVolume 4 (1911): The Dying God. pp. xii, 305, [1bl], [2pp adverts]. Three newspaper articles are pasted in and tipped in. \u003cbr\u003eVolume 5 (1914): Adonis, Attis, Osiris (Part 1). pp. xvii [ibl], 317 [1]. [2pp adverts]. Three newspaper articles are pasted in and tipped in. Stamp of the \"Library of the Rationalist Press Association Ltd. 'Let us reason together'\". Edward Clodd was the Chairman of the Rationalist Press Association between 1906 and 1913.\u003cbr\u003eVolume 6 (1914): Adonis, Attis, Osiris (Part 2). pp. x, 321 [1bl], [2pp adverts]. On the front pastedown, a newspaper article has been pasted in. \u003cbr\u003eVolume 7 (1912): Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild (Part 1). pp. xvii [ibl], 319 [1bl]. Two newspaper articles are pasted in. Stamp of the \"Library of the Rationalist Press Association Ltd. 'Let us reason together'\". \u003cbr\u003eVolume 8 (1912): Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild (Part 2). pp. xii, 370 [1bl], [4pp adverts]. \u003cbr\u003eVolume 9 (1913): The Scapegoat. pp. xiv, 453 [1bl], [2pp adverts]. Three newspaper articles are pasted in.\u003cbr\u003eVolume 10 (1913): Balder the Beautiful (Part 1). pp. xx, 346, [2pp adverts]. Three newspaper articles are pasted in. One of these is by Clodd himself. Stamp of the \"Library of the Rationalist Press Association Ltd. 'Let us reason together'\". \u003cbr\u003eVolume 11 (1913): Balder the Beautiful (Part 2). pp. xi [ibl], 389 [1bl] [2pp adverts]. \u003cbr\u003eIn seven of the volumes there is a note \"with the Author's Compliments\". On it, Edward Clodd has signed his name. In the other four volumes, Clodd has signed his name. \u003cbr\u003eThe Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead. Volume III. The Belief among the Micronesians. London: Macmillan. 1924. pp. ix, [ibl], 326, [2pp adverts]. Tipped in is a note \"with the author's compliments\" and tipped in on the front pastedown is a letter by Frazer to Clodd dated 5th January 1925. \u003cbr\u003eThe eleven volumes of The Golden Bough and the additional, later, book were a gift from Frazer to Edward Clodd. Clodd is a fascinating and somewhat unlikely figure. He had a forty year career as a London banker but spent much of his time in Aldeburgh where he gathered around him, at celebrated Whitsun weekend parties, groups of artists, writers and intellectuals. Frazer was part of this circle but he and Clodd seem to have had a deeper friendship (they corresponded extensively over many years) forged by their shared interests in anthropology and belief systems. In the late nineteenth century, Clodd wrote on \"Myths and Dreams\" (1885) and on folk-lore and legend. He shared so many intellectual interests with Frazer that it is unsurprising that they should have become friends. They were both sceptical about the claims made by and for established religion. This is apparent from the fascinating letter from Frazer in the copy of \u003cem\u003eThe Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead.\u003c\/em\u003e \"I quite agree with you as to the tragedy of seeing multitudes daily passing behind the veil in the sure and certain hope of drawing prizes in the great lottery. We cannot follow them behind the veil, but we suspect (if I may speak for you also) that all the lots in the lottery are blanks. However, if we are right, the multitudes will not be aware of their disillusionment.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"FRAZER, J.G","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55371993809273,"sku":"4595","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/4595.Frazer_1.jpg?v=1750784176"},{"product_id":"francis-marianne-four-channelling-typescripts-1965-1966-4637","title":"Four channelling typescripts.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTraunesian Woods and Garden Grove: Marianne Francis. 1965- 1966.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eTelethought channelling\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFour typescripts by Marianna Francis. \u003cbr\u003e1. 2nd May 1965. Garden Grove. \"From Divine realms of spiritual manifestation I greet you\". Two leaves typed on recto only. \u003cbr\u003e2. 29 Aug. 1965. Traunesian Woods. \"Korton: Greetings in the Light of our Radiant One\". One leaf typed on recto only.\u003cbr\u003e3. 30 April 1966. Traunesian Woods. \"Greetings, our brothers, our sisters of Earth\". Five leaves typed on recto only.\u003cbr\u003e4. June 25, 1966. Traunesian Woods. \"What is Truth? A lecture given by a Brother from Mars\". Four leaves typed on recto only with some manuscript annotations in red biro. At the end is the handwritten note \"Received at Solar Light Center, 25 June 1966, through telethought transmission. Channel: Marianne Francis\".\u003cbr\u003e5. Undated single typed sheet. \"We have to go up the mountain once...\".\u003cbr\u003eAll in excellent condition, this is a very good collection of early texts in which Marianne Francis channels communication (by means of Tele-thought) from Venus, Mars and Divine realms. Francis was born in London where she first became fascinated by UFOs. She moved with her husband to California in 1954 where they sought to make contact with non-earthly beings. In 1966, she founded the Solar Light Center in Oregon which makes the typescript of June 25th 1966 one of the earliest written examples of her telethought channelling at the Center. In 1975 changed her name to Aleuti Francesca which is how she is best known today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 4637\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FRANCIS, Marianne","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55926531883385,"sku":"4637","price":300.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/FRANCIS_Marianne.jpg?v=1792763081"},{"product_id":"crowley-aleister-the-diary-of-a-drug-fiend-1923-4934","title":"The Diary of a Drug Fiend","description":"\u003cbr\u003eNew York: E.P.Dutton \u0026amp; Company. 1923.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eFirst US edition in the scarce dustjacket\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst US edition. 8vo. 185x125mm. pp. [8], 368. Black cloth, lettered in red to upper cover and spine. Original dustjacket. Repaired closed tear to fold of dust jacket at spine and upper cover and small tears at the fold with the flap on the lower cover. Chipping and creasing to edges of jacket including head and foot of spine but overall in very good condition particularly given that it is hard to find the jacket at all (only one copy of the first US edition with the jacket appears in the auction records). Internally very good. \u003cbr\u003eCrowley described this highly autobiographical novel as \"a true story. It has been rewritten only so far as was necessary to conceal personalities\". The novel treats of two of Crowley's favourite subjects, drug use and the occult. It describes the descent of Sir Peter Pendragon and his wife Louise into heroin and cocaine addiction and their eventual cure and redemption following their stay at the Abbey of Thelema in Sicily. Here, under the guidance of Basil King Lamus (a thinly disguised Crowley), they are initiated into the occult, discover their True Will and are freed from the chains of addiction. \u003cem\u003eThe Diary of a Drug Fiend\u003c\/em\u003e enjoyed an early succès de scandale principally due to its unsparing account of drug use and abuse but Crowley's real purpose was to show how his particular strain of magic and the occult could transform even the most difficult lives.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"CROWLEY, Aleister","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57193329557881,"sku":"4934","price":5500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/4934_1.jpg?v=1777655314"},{"product_id":"shelley-mary-frankenstein-or-the-modern-prometheus-1831-5134","title":"Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus","description":"\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. 1831.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eThird edition published with the first illustration of the Dr Frankenstein's monster\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eThird edition, published as volume IX of Standard Novels series issued with the first part of The Ghost-Seer. 162x100mm. pp. xii, 202; [2], 163 [5]. Frontispiece and illustrated additional title page. Black half calf, marbled paper covered boards, spine lettered and decorated in gilt. Housed in a green cloth covered dropback box. Rubbing to boards and scuffing to head and foot of spine. Corners bumped. Internally very good but with some foxing and slight soiling. The frontispiece and illustrated title page are somewhat browned. Blank preliminary with a contemporary gift inscription and a later ownership inscription.\u003cbr\u003eThis is the first Bentley edition, the first to appear in one volume and the first with any illustration. The frontispiece, engraved by W. Chevalier from a painting by Theodor von Holst, shows the monster emerging from a skeleton while Dr Frankenstein runs of the door in horror. Holst (who was the great-uncle of the composer) studied with Fuseli and illustrated many important literary works especially those of the German romantics and the European gothicists. No-one was better qualified to produce the first illustration of the great gothic monster. Montague Summers, A Gothic Bibliography, p330.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"SHELLEY, Mary","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57193337815417,"sku":"5134","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/5134_1.jpg?v=1777655614"},{"product_id":"stoker-bram-draculas-guest-and-other-weird-stories-1914-4935","title":"Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories","description":"\u003cbr\u003eLondon: George Routledge \u0026amp; Sons, Ltd. 1914.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003ethe first appearance of a new Dracula story\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo. 182x120mm. pp. [8], 200. Red cloth, decorated and lettered in blind on upper cover. Spine lettered and decorated in gilt and blind. Illustrated dustjacket in a later state with the price of 1\/3net replaced with 2\/- but in all other regards the jacket is the same as that of the first impression with its chilling illustration by Handforth. There is a split to the cloth at the joint with the lower cover and some fading to spine. The jacket is chipped at head and foot of spine and there is some creasing to top edge and chipping at the head and foot of the folds with the flaps. Internally there is a some foxing and marking but overall a very good copy in the rare and striking dustjacket.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eDracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories\u003c\/em\u003e was published two years after Stoker's death. As his widow Florence explains in the preface, Stoker had, at his death, three collections of short stories planned for publication. This was one of them although Florence did add to this set the long title story which she describes as \"an hitherto unpublished episode from \"Dracula\"...originally excised owing to the length of the book\". She hopes that the story \"may prove of interest to the many readers of what is considered to be my husband's most remarkable work\". This is thus the first appearance of this additional Dracula story.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"STOKER, Bram","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57193338405241,"sku":"4935","price":6500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/4935_1.jpg?v=1777655651"},{"product_id":"sepharial-a-manual-of-occultism-1914-4799","title":"A Manual of Occultism","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: William Rider. 1914.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eThe Astral Tramp\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eSecond edition. 8vo. 184x122mm. pp. xiii [1bl], 356, [4pp publisher's adverts]. Original green cloth decorated with the image of a temple printed in white and then, in blind a sacrificial tripod and bowl. Title and author stamped in blind to upper cover and in gilt to spine where the cover design is repeated in white and gilt. Corners a little rubbed and bumped. Some small tears to head and foot of spine. Internally, there is some toning to the edges but otherwise a very good copy of this encyclopaedic study of the occult. All editions are rare in commerce and and they are often found in poor condition. This is a particularly good copy. Front pastedown has ticket of \"Theosophical Book Shop 42 George Street, Edinburgh\". Ownership inscription of \"R. Lidstone, H.M.S. Constance i.viii.18\". Sepharial (1864-1929) was born Walter Richard Old in Birmingham, England. He studied medicine, psychology, astrology and numerology and in 1886 wrote an astrology page in the \u003cem\u003eSociety Times\u003c\/em\u003e. He was one of the founders of the Theosophical Society in England and Madame Blavatsky called him \"The Astral Tramp\". Sepharial was the first president of the British Astrological Society and seems to have been regarded as the doyen of the occult. His nom de plume Sepharial was the name of an angel in the \u003cem\u003eBook of Enoch\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 4799\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"\"SEPHARIAL\"","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979978551673,"sku":"4799","price":350.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/47.Sepharial1.jpg?v=1792760711"},{"product_id":"5182","title":"The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts","description":"\u003cp\u003eIncluding the rites and mysteries of Goëtic Theurgy, Sorcery, and Infernal Necromancy.\u003cbr\u003ePrivately Printed. 1898.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eA rare limited edition\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. Large 8vo. 252x185mm. pp. xvi, 297 [1]. Frontispiece and nine plates printed on blue and pink paper. Original black buckram, repair to head and foot of spine. Boards and spine rubbed and scuffed and with some marking and a scratch on the lower cover. Internally a little toned at the edges, and there is some slight creasing and chipping to edges of front free endpaper but overall in very good condition. Front paste down has the bookplate of A.R. Patey. Although there was a trade edition published by George Redway (also in 1898), this privately printed first edition is rare, issued in a run of only 500 copies for subscribers and found in two libraries in the UK (BL and Manchester) and one in the US (Trinity College CT).\u003cbr\u003eArthur Waite (1857-1942) has been described as the first person to \"attempt a systematic study of the history of Western occultism—viewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of protoscience or as the pathology of religion\". He also devised the Rider-Waite Tarot. \u003cem\u003eThe Book of Black Magic and of Pacts \u003c\/em\u003eis an historical survey of a wide range of grimoires and other literature of ceremonial magic. It contains much detail on how to carry out and perform various rituals, how they work, what they mean and how they might operate as a single system.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5182\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WAITE, Arthur Edward","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979978944889,"sku":"5182","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/54.WaiteBookofBlackMagic_b1ff3c5a-d1d9-4e7b-876a-6f7116f1bcd8.jpg?v=1792760603"},{"product_id":"5236","title":"Hypnotisme Religion.","description":"\u003cp\u003ePreface de Camille Saint-Saens.\u003cbr\u003eParis: Librairie C. Reinwald.. 1897.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eArthur Waite's copy\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo. 181x115mm. pp. [4], viii, [2], 317 [1bl]. With drawings by A Collombar. \u003cbr\u003eBound with DAREL, Th. De la Spiritualisation De L'être, Aperçus Philosophiques. Paris: Chamuel. 1898. pp. 334 [2]. Inscribed on the half title \"a Monsieur Dawson Rogers. Hommage respecteuse de l'auteur\". Edmund Dawson Rogers was a journalist and spiritualist from Norfolk and one of the founders of the British National Association of Spiritualists and the Society for Psychical Research. Rare, Worldcat locating only six copies. \u003cbr\u003eBound in red cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Boards rubbed and marked and spine faded. Corners bumped. Some foxing but otherwise very good. Front pastedown has the book plate of Arthur Edward Waite and Alan Gauld. The latter has inscribed his signature with the date March 1981 on the front free endpaper. \u003cbr\u003eFélix Regnault was, principally, an anthropologist with an interest in prehistorical cultures. \u003cem\u003eHypnotisme Religion\u003c\/em\u003e is an extraordinary, encyclopaedic survey of the wilder shores of religious sensibility. What polite society sees as inexplicable disorder - hysteria, dreams, miracles, vatic utterances, hypnotism and other altered states - Regnault sees as evidence of a spiritual engagement and insight. \"Religion\", he says, \"was the first science, the first attempt to explain the incomprehensible\". Darel's book inhabits similar territory but attempts a more philosophical investigation into the \"action of the invisible world on the visible world, of the spirit on matter\".\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5182\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"REGNAULT, Dr Félix","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979979075961,"sku":"5236","price":350.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/44.Regnault.jpg?v=1792760515"},{"product_id":"5239","title":"The Book of Pleasure (Self Love). The Psychology of Ecstasy.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Printed by the Co-operative Printing Society Limited. 1913.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eWhat is there to believe, but in Self?\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. Folio. 390x260mm. pp. [4], 59 [1]. Illustrated with 18 full plate prints and with numerous images in the text. Black cloth lettered in white on upper cover. Some marking and rubbing to boards and joints. Extremities bumped and rubbed. Internally very good with only the occasional spotting and toning. A nice copy of Spare's extraordinary work of art, magic, the occult, sexuality, religion and the use of sigils. The Book of Pleasure is regarded as Spare's most concise and important expression of his philosophy. Originally intended as a collection of illustrations Spare came to realise that his ideas could not be expressed in images alone but would require text. Spare was a devotee of automatic drawing and his art and writing inhabits the space between the conscious and the unconscious. Spare defines Self Love as \"a mental state, mood or condition caused by the emotion of laughter becoming the principle that allows the Ego appreciation or universal association in permitting inclusion before conception\". Whether Spare's text illuminates the brilliantly and wildly imaginative drawings is unclear but what emerges from \u003cem\u003eThe Book of Pleasure\u003c\/em\u003e is a mind and spirit of limitless richness.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5239\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SPARE, Austin Osman","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979979272569,"sku":"5239","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/49.AOSpare1.jpg?v=1792760393"},{"product_id":"5241","title":"\"Is Spiritualism of the Devil?\"","description":"\u003cp\u003ewith an introduction by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.\u003cbr\u003eBeverley: Wright and Hoggard.. [1917].\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eA rare pamphlet on Christian-spiritualist ecumenism\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 184x124mm. pp. 27 [1bl]. Original printed wrappers. It has been folded in half (vertically) and has a crease running along the centre but otherwise in very good condition. This little pamphlet reproduces a lecture given by The Reverend Fielding-Ould to the London Spiritualist Alliance on March 22nd 1917. The introduction by Conan Doyle is a letter to Fielding-Ould praising the lecture. The text is a rather clever and delicate attempt to marry mainstream Christianity to the fashionable spiritualism of the day. In answer to the question of the title, Fielding-Ould concludes that it is \"neither divine nor diabolic: it is an instrument, a means, an open door through which in the past have come both good and evil\". Fielding-Ould was an important figure in spiritualism and Conan Doyle was a loyal supporter of his Christian tempering of the movement. Rare, Worldcat locating only three copies.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5241\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FIELDING-OULD, Rev. F","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979979436409,"sku":"5241","price":350.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/18.Fielding-Ould.jpg?v=1792760309"},{"product_id":"5242","title":"Der Lange Verborgene Freund","description":"\u003cp\u003eoder getreuer und christlicher Unterricht für Jedermann, enthaltend, wunderbare und probmässige Mittel und Künste sowohl für die Menschen als das Vieh.\u003cbr\u003eEphrata, PA. J[oseph] B[auman].. 1828.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003ePow-wow\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eSecond edition. 158x95mm. 8vo in 4s. pp. 94. Marbled paper covered boards, backed in brown morocco. Edges worn and rubbing to spine and head and foot of spine chipped. Foxed and browned with the occasional marking but overall a very good copy of the second edition (the first appearing in 1820). Not common institutionally and rare in commerce, the last copy of this edition appearing the auction records in 1963.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eDer Lange Verborgene Freund \u003c\/em\u003e(The Long Lost Friend) is a form of grimoire, a collection of folk remedies and spells underpinned by Christianity compiled by Johann Hohman who was a celebrated Pennsylvania Dutch\/German pow-wower. Pow-wow (Braucherei in the original language) is a form of Christian folk practice developed by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the eighteenth century, having been brought to the new country from central Europe. The book brings together European grimoires, folk tales and remedies and mainstream Christian texts. The term pow-wow does, of course, have its origins in Native American culture where it means \"priest, shaman, healer\". This second edition of Der Lange Verborgene Freund was published by Joseph Bauman who was associated with the Ephrata Cloister spiritual community noted for its Fraktur, music and esoteric texts concerning astrological, alchemical and folk magic. Hohman's book was enormously important for 19th century Appalachian and Ozark societies and Hohman himself has been described as \"intentionally or unintentionally, a mystery man, one of the most influential and yet most elusive figures in Pennsylvania German history\",\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5242\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HOHMAN, Johann Georg","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979979927929,"sku":"5242","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/27.Hohman.jpg?v=1792760248"},{"product_id":"5245","title":"A Review of the \"Spiritual Manifestations\" read before the Congregational Association of New York and Brooklyn.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Thomas Bosworth. 1853.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003ePresentation copy\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst UK edition, published the same year as the first US edition. 8vo. 170x105mm. pp. xxxii, 93 [1], [2], 14pp adverts. Publisher's brown cloth (binder's ticket - Westley's - on rear pastedown), decorated in blind and lettered in gilt. Spine has a paper label with the title and author written in pencil. Presentation copy from publisher, inscribed in ink on the front free endpaper \"with the publisher's compliments\". Front pastedown has bookplate of Alan Gauld and T.J. Ring. With the library stamp of \"The Greater World Association, 3 Lansdowne Road, Holland Park London W11\". \u003cbr\u003eCharles Beecher (1815-1900) was the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and, like her, an active abolitionist. Although he was a minister in the Presbyterian and, later, Congregationalist Churches, he was barred from ministering in 1863 for heretical teachings about the human soul and Christ's divinity - he thought Jesus was an angel. We don't know but rather suspect that this little book investigating pneumatism, apneumatism, daimonia and other spiritual phenomena might have raised some doubts as to his ministerial suitablility.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5245\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BEECHER, Charles","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979979993465,"sku":"5245","price":750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/3.Beecher.jpg?v=1792759058"},{"product_id":"5265","title":"Of credulity and incredulity, in things natural, civil, and divine.","description":"\u003cp\u003eWherein, among other things, the sadducism of these times, in denying spirits, witches, and supernatural operations, by pregnant instances, and evidences, is fully confuted: Epicurus his cause, discussed, and the jugling and false dealing, lately used, to bring him, and atheism, into credit, clearly discovered: the use and necessity of ancient learning, against the innovating humour, all along proved, and asserted.\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Printed for T. Garthwait.. 1668.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\"Unadvised belief\".\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo. 175x110mm. pp. [16], 316, [4]. Complete with imprimatur and errata leaves. Contemporary calf, boards ruled and decorated in blind. 35mm split to upper joint and some slight cracking. Extremities a little rubbed and internally a little spotted and foxed in places but overall a very good copy. Rare in commerce. \u003cbr\u003eMeric Casaubon (1599-1671) was a theologian, classicist and priest who moved in Royalist and High Anglican circles. Among his early works was a translation of Marcus Aurelius's \u003cem\u003eMeditations\u003c\/em\u003e. Of credulity and incredulity is a defence of the existence of witchcraft, demoniac power, magic and the supernatural, a defence first mounted by Casaubon in his 1659 edition of John Dee's \u003cem\u003eConversations with Spirits\u003c\/em\u003e. Casaubon's argument, supported by extensive testimony, is that religious faith, dependent as it is on the notion of the spiritual and the otherworldly, has to acknowledge all manifestations of the supernatural, even those, the belief in which might be \"unadvised\". If one rejects the possibility of the existence of witches and magic, then one might be more tempted to reject the existent of other realms of the apparently incredible.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5265\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CASAUBON, Meric","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979980157305,"sku":"5265","price":3500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/9.Casaubon.jpg?v=1792758853"},{"product_id":"5293","title":"Collection Complete. Des hauts Grades, Ou quatre ordres Superieure. Professes par Le fr. O...: de France. Enrichie et Augmentee.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrance n.p.. c1812.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eAn extensive manuscript on French Freemasonry\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eAn extensive and detailed French masonic manuscript. 340x215mm. pp. 220. Red-orange morocco, backed in deep red morocco. Spine lettered and decorated in gilt. Marbled endpapers. Corners and edges worn. Internally very good, written in a clear and legible hand. \u003cbr\u003eA brief introduction explains that the Grand Orient of France was founded in 1772 out an older Grand Chapter which traced its origins to 1721. This makes the Grand Orient the oldest Freemasonry order in Continental Europe. It describes itself today as \"the first Masonic obedience in France, a direct descendant of the Age of Enlightenment. It works for the material and moral improvement, the intellectual and social perfection of Humanity\". \u003cbr\u003eThe manuscript is divided into four sections. outlines the rituals of diverse masonic orders\/ temples\/ lodges.. The first section deals with the \u003cem\u003eHaut Grades de Rit Francois d'Elu\u003c\/em\u003e, the oldest of the Continental Masonic Rites with its roots in the ideals of fraternity, equality and moral progress. This is followed by the \u003cem\u003eGrade D'Ecossais ou deuxième Ordre, \u003c\/em\u003eScottish masters first appearing in French Freemasonry in 1743.\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003eThe third Order is \u003cem\u003eGrade de Chev. D'Orient\u003c\/em\u003e, and the fourth (the longest and most detailed) \u003cem\u003eGrade De Rose-Croix. \u003c\/em\u003eEach section provides details of the practice of each order including how the Lodges are to be decorated and laid out, the regalia to be worn and used and the rituals to be adopted. The fourth part also contains a detailed description of \"Des Privilèges des Rose-Croix et des autres Grades dits Superieurs\". These \"Grades\" include Grades des Dames, Grades Cabalistiques et Ethnetiques, Grades de L'Apocalispe, Maconnerie Jesuitique, Grades Weishautienne, Grades de L' Illuminisme, Maconnerie Africains, Ecossisme de Baron Tschoudi, and Grande Elu Kadosh (Aigle Noir \/ Aigle Blanc). \u003cbr\u003eAt the end of the manuscript are four illustrated pages of \"Hierogliphe Des Haut-Grades\". These include Alphabets of letters and numbers of the Rose-Croix and other orders as well as eight triangles described as a Key to the \"Caracteres des Illuminés\". \u003cbr\u003eWe have dated this extensive manuscript to 1812 on the basis that this is the last date mentioned in the book. Three pages have the light small stamp of \"Philippe - Capitaine au 8 Cuirassiers.\" The 8th Cuirassiers were a cavalry regiment created during the Revolution. We can find no trace of this manuscript having been published. It seems likely that it is based on the 1801 \u003cem\u003eRegulateur des Chevaliers Macons\u003c\/em\u003e which has the same four divisions but is much shorter. French Freemasonry is rooted firmly in the principles of the Enlightenment and the Revolution and even today wears its secular, eighteenth-century heart on its stylish, well-upholstered sleeve.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5293\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Le Grand Orient de France","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979980353913,"sku":"5293","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/LeGrandOrientdeFrance.jpg?v=1792761324"},{"product_id":"5294","title":"Rock-Climbing in North Wales.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKeswick, Cumberland G.P.Abraham. 1906.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eAleister Crowley's copy with his annotations.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo. 228x150mm. pp. xxi [i], 394, [4pp adverts]. Twenty nine black and white photographs. Nine full page line maps and diagrams and ten drawings in the text. Original black cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Top edges gilt. Rubbing to edges, head and foot of spine bumped and rubbed. Some marking to boards. Internally very good with only some very slight foxing to the edges. One of the blank preliminaries has the pencil inscription \"Aleister Crowley 1906. Bought at the request of Oscar Eckenstein\". Annotated throughout in pencil by Crowley. Eckenstein was one of the great pioneering mountaineers and a friend and close climbing associate of Crowley. The two men were part of the first serious attempt to climb K2. \u003cbr\u003eGeorge and Ashley Abraham were central figures in the development of British rock climbing. Their book on the subject in North Wales is a classic of the genre notable for its superb photographs taken by the two brothers - their father was a photographer and they took over the family shop and studio. \u003cbr\u003eIt is tempting to see Aleister Crowley's interest in mountaineering as standing apart from the other, more controversial, aspects of his life. But, in fact, it was central to his thinking and personality. Mountain climbing involves living and operating on the edge (both literally and figuratively) and has always attracted outsiders, free-thinkers and pantheistic spiritual seekers: \"Up in the mountains, there you feel free\" as Eliot was to write. It is no coincidence that one of the most important conversations of Crowley's life - a discussion about alchemy with the chemist Julian Baker - should have taken place in Zermatt in the shadow of the Matterhorn. On his return home, Crowley began moving in occult circles and was, that same year (1898) initiated into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. \u003cbr\u003eThe handwritten comments in this copy of \u003cem\u003eRock-Climbing in North Wales\u003c\/em\u003e, offer an insight into Crowley's combative nature and it is probably fair to say that you wouldn't want to be stuck up a mountain with him. There are sharp asides on the Abraham brothers' grammar (as well as an unfortunate comment on their race) and jibes about their skill as climbers. Exclamation and question marks abound although there are some grudging words of praise for the Abrahams' courage - quite a few cries of \"Good God\" when they describe a fearsome manoeuvre. And in one amusingly succinct comment, where the brothers describe a very difficult climb but then say that it is so dangerous that they will not say where it is, Crowley merely observes: \"Shit\".\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5294\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ABRAHAM, George and Ashley","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979980648825,"sku":"5294","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/1.Abraham.jpg?v=1792758703"},{"product_id":"5296","title":"The Other World; or, Glimpses of the Supernatural.","description":"\u003cp\u003ebeing facts, records, and traditions Relating to Dreams, Omens, Miraculous Occurrences, Apparitions, Wraiths, Warnings, Second-sight, Witchcraft, Necromancy, etc.\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Henry S. King and Co.. 1875.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eOn an eternal supernatural and supersensuous, life lies the basis of all pity and mercy and sympathy among men.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. Two volumes. 8vo. 188x125mm. pp. ix [v], 291 [1]; [6], 241 [1bl], 36pp adverts. Publisher's brown cloth illustrated on the upper cover with a sunburst and three hands emerging from the clouds with, on the lower cover, a strange creature which seems to be a cross between a wasp and a bat. Upper cover and spine lettered in gilt with the word \"Glimpses of the Supernatural\" printed in a faint, ghostly fashion to suggest \"the other world\". Spine has had some repair and strengthening. Some light shelfwear and fading and marking to boards but otherwise a very good copy and internally excellent. Both copies have the ownership inscription of C. Davidson. Rare in commerce, only one copy appearing in the auction records, in 1913.\u003cbr\u003eFrederick George Lee was an Anglican priest, very much on the high side. He founded both the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom and the Order of Corporate Reunion which sought closer links between the Church of England and Rome. His approach to religion was broadly ecumenical and The Other World indicates a broad minded approach to the supernatural and paranormal. It is essentially a compilation of stories and reports of phenomena from The Other World. The book includes chapters on Witchcraft and Necromancy, Second Sight, Spectral Appearances and Haunted Houses. But, as Lee explains, belief in the supernatural is part of an orthodox faith in God and the Divine. \"The Supernatural must work in a supernatural manner, if the great Creator takes any active part in the permanent government of the order which He has been pleased to call into being\".\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5296\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LEE, The Rev. Frederick George (ed)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979980714361,"sku":"5296","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/34.Lee.jpg?v=1792758638"},{"product_id":"5297","title":"Witchcraft, Magic \u0026 Alchemy","description":"\u003cp\u003ewith 10 plates in colour and 366 illustrations in the text.\u003cbr\u003eLondon: George G. Harrap \u0026amp; Company. 1931.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eThe iconography of occultism\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 278x215mm. pp. 394 [2]. Illustrated throughout in the text and with the ten colour plates called for. Black cloth, lettered in gilt. Original illustrated dustjacket. Chipping and tears to head and foot of spine of jacket and to corners with some loss and two small holes in lower cover of jacket but otherwise a very good copy and internally excellent. \u003cbr\u003eThe book is described thus on the front cover: \"This unique book is a collection of the iconography of occultism, presenting with full explanations a large number of pictures selected from the most curious, characteristic, and rare illustrations to works on sorcery, magic, astrology, cheiromancy, cartomancy, alchemy, etc., including works in manuscript and incunabula forms\". Which pretty much sums it up.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRef. 5297\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DE GIVRY, Grillot (tr. J. Courtenay Locke)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979981500793,"sku":"5297","price":750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/16.GivryWitchcraft.jpg?v=1792758567"},{"product_id":"5309","title":"OAHSPE: A New Bible in the Words of Jehovih and His Angel Embassadors.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA Sacred History of the Dominions of the Higher and Lower Heavens on the Earth for the Past Twenty-Four Thousand Years, together with a Synopsis of the Cosmogony of the Universe; the Creation of Planets; the Creation of Man; the Unseen Worlds; the Labor and Glory of Gods and Goddesses in the Etherean Heavens; with the New Commandments of Jehovih to Man of the Present Day. With revelations from the second resurrection, formed in words in the thirty-third year of the Kosmon era.\u003cbr\u003eNew York and London: OAHSPE Publishing Association.. 1882.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003ethe sum of corporeal and spiritual knowledge\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. Large quarto. 293x225mm. pp. xii, 890. Folding plate. Pink Hints to the Reader leaf and Index tipped in at the beginning. Illustrated throughout. Contemporary half calf, cloth covered boards. Recent and expert repairs to joints. Slight marking to boards. Some foxing (especially to the endpapers) and soiling in places and minor worming to the fore-edge of the first few leaves. Overall a very good copy. Rare in commerce, only four copies appearing in the auction records in last century. With pencil notes and annotations throughout, probably by the H.F.Watson whose ownership inscription is on the front free endpaper. \u003cbr\u003eJohn Ballou Newbrough (1828-1891) was a dentist and spiritualist who wrote this extraordinary work by means of psychography (or automatic writing) caused by a bright light enveloping his fingers and forcing him to write. Hard to define succinctly or with any meaningful degree of accuracy, it is a mixture of ethics, theology, cosmogony, theomachy, prophecy, ritual, history and the relationship between angels and humans. The strange word OAHSPE is defined as \"sky, earth (corpor) and spirit. The all; the sum of corporeal and spiritual knowledge as at present\". A New York Times article of 21 October 1882 recounts the launch of OAHSPE at which Newbrough said that his intention was \"not to supplant other Bibles and religions but to set forth a history of all religions going back 24,000 years\". Two academics were present to authenticate some of Newbrough's claims and to confirm that \"a man could not produce such a work\" and that it had to be \"the work of supernatural agents\". Newbrough's OAHSPE attracted both attention and money and one happy outcome of this bizarre book is the proceeds of its sale were to be used to establish kindergartens for orphans in New York.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRef. 5309\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NEWBROUGH, John Ballou","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979981926777,"sku":"5309","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/39.Newborough.OAHSPE2.jpg?v=1792758493"},{"product_id":"5321","title":"A Book of Spectres","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Dow \u0026amp; Lester. n.d. [1909].\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eHow to see a ghost\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003e184x117mm. pp. [2], 23. 25 colour plates. Original blue-grey cloth lettered in black and illustrated with a silhouette of a skeleton (one of the images from the book). Some soiling to the boards and slight rubbing to the corners and head and foot of spine. Internally very good but with some offsetting from the images. \u003cbr\u003eRare, only one copy (Ricky Jay's) appearing in the auction records. It seems to have been first published in New York in 1908 with a London edition issued in 1909 and then again 1915. Worldcat records eleven copies of all three editions (six of the 1909, one of the 1908 and four of the 1915). \u003cbr\u003eThe purpose of this strange little book is to demonstrate \"how easy it is for anyone to see a spectre\", Roger's argument being that \"many so called ghosts have originated as complementary color images\". This is the familiar optical illusion created by looking intensely at an image for about a minute and then averting ones eyes to a blank white space such as a wall. The colours from the image then appear in their complementary form - red to green, blue to orange etc and vice versa. It is true that images so produced do have a spectral quality but what lends Rogers's book its particularly weird flavour is his choice of pictures to demonstrate the theory. Here be skeletons, witches, ghosts, devils, genies and owls. Bizarrely entertaining.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5321\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ROGERS, W.S","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979981959545,"sku":"5321","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/46.Rogers.Spectres.jpg?v=1792758429"},{"product_id":"5322","title":"The Real History of the Rosicrucians","description":"\u003cp\u003eFounded on Their Own Manifestoes, and on Facts and Documents Collected from the Writings of Initiated Brethren.\u003cbr\u003eLondon: George Redway.. 1887.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eA great cloud of unknowing\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo. 191x125mm. pp. viii, 446. Publisher's blue cloth, upper cover decorated with a red border and with gilt insignia. Spine lettered in gilt and decorated in red. Some soiling and an old label mark to spine and creasing to lower cover. Corners a little rubbed and head and foot of spine. Some light foxing but otherwise a very good copy. \u003cbr\u003eArthur Waite was a member of the Societa Rosicruciana in Anglia. He took his Rosicrucianism very seriously as this long, details book attests. Waite examines three central texts: the \u003cem\u003eFama Fraternitatis\u003c\/em\u003e, the \u003cem\u003eConfessio Fraternitatis\u003c\/em\u003e and the \u003cem\u003eChymical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz\u003c\/em\u003e. As well as reproducing these works, Waite provides a detailed history and analysis of them as well of Rosicrucianism more generally. He also surveys the literature of those who wrote about Rosicrucianism including Thomas Vaughan and John Heydon whose utopian Voyage to the Land of the Rosicrucians is included here. The problem with Rosicrucianism is that although there were plenty of documents purporting to be Rosicrucian texts, no actual Rosicrucians ever came to light. The whole subject is shrouded in a great cloud of unknowing which Waite does an excellent job in trying to clear away. In particular, he addresses some of the conspiracies and sensationalism peddled by Hargrave Jennings's 1870 \u003cem\u003eThe Rosicrucians, their Rites and Mysteries. \u003c\/em\u003eWaite's approach is serious, rational and respectful and successfully disentangles the myth from something approaching the reality.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5322\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WAITE, Arthur Edward","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979982123385,"sku":"5322","price":750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/57.WaiteRosicrucians.jpg?v=1792758314"},{"product_id":"5329","title":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes. Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis","description":"\u003cp\u003eBeing a translation of the Extant Sermons and Fragments of the Trismegistic Literature, with Prolegomena, Commentaries, and Notes.\u003cbr\u003eLondon and Benares: The Theosophical Publishing Society.. 1906.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\"I found greater pleasure in the spiritual considerations which insistently imposed themselves upon my mind\".\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. Three volumes. 8vo. 230x140mm. pp. xvi, 481 [1]; xi, [i], 403 [1]; xii, 371 [1bl], [7, 1bl, adverts]. Loosely inserted leaf of handwritten notes. Beige cloth, upper cover and spine lettered in gilt. Some soiling and rubbing and the head and foot of spines are bumped and rubbed. Spines darkened and that of volume III is soiled. Internally, there is some foxing and the blank front free endpaper of volume one is loose. Overall a very good set of this comprehensive survey of the Hermetic literature attributed to the Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus. Mead states in his introduction that his \"sole object was to render the more important of these beautiful theosophic treatises into an English that might, perhaps be thought in some small way worthy of the Greek originals\". The work then expanded to include a wider range of texts, particularly the Trismegistic Sermons, and scholarly commentary. As Mead says, \"I found greater pleasure in the spiritual considerations which insistently imposed themselves upon my mind\". All of this makes Mead's study perhaps the most complete, and certainly the most erudite, introduction to the Hermetic tradition. \u003cbr\u003eGeorge Mead (1863-1933) was one of the most influential members of the Theosophical Society. His interest in the esoteric was sparked when, as a classics undergraduate at Cambridge, he read Alfred Sinnett's Esoteric Buddhism. Mead became Helena Blavatsky's secretary in 1889 and then the General Secretary of the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society. Mead took a much more intellectual and objective approach to Theosophy and esotericism and his growing frustration with Blavatsky's dogmatism led to a split in 1909 when Mead founded the Quest Society. This was much more in the way of a learned society devoted to the study of comparative religion, philosophy and science. Through its programme of lectures and its in-house quarterly review, the Quest Society had a wide influence on figures such as Jung, Hess, Yeats and Pound.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eref. 5329\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MEAD, G.R.S","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979982156153,"sku":"5329","price":750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/36.Mead.jpg?v=1792757802"},{"product_id":"5331","title":"The Ghosts of my Friends.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Dow \u0026amp; Lester.. [1907].\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eEarly twentieth century fun with smudgy signatures.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003e163x95mm. Unpaginated. Frontispiece, title page and 46 leaves. 29 of the leaves have been written on. The idea of The Ghost of my Friends is one asks one's friends to write their signature in fountain pen ink along a crease that runs vertically in the middle of the leaf. The leaf is then folded along that crease, the ink smudges and blots and when the page is unfolded a ghostly image emerges that represents, if the title of the book is to be believed, \"the ghost of one's friends\". The images produced resemble Rorschach tests and in the same way that the interpretation of these are said to reveal the psychological state of the beholder, these weird, blotchy signatures provide a window into the soul of the writer or perhaps the reader. Or perhaps it tells us nothing at all. It is all very entertaining though and these were very popular in the early twentieth century from which this example dates, the earliest \"ghost\" having been created on 23rd September 1907. Half the signatures are from 1907 and 1908. There is one from 1927 and one from 1964 and then thirteen from 1972. The remaining leaves are blank for a new owner to continue the fun. Rather amusingly, one of the more recent signatures has been written in unsmudgeable biro which rather misses the point.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5332\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[HENLAND, Cecil]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979983008121,"sku":"5331","price":300.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/25.Henland.jpg?v=1792757740"},{"product_id":"5332","title":"An Essay on Evil Spirits;","description":"\u003cp\u003eor, reasons to prove their existence: in opposition to a lecture, delivered by the Rev. N.T.Heineken, in the Unitarian Chapel, Bradford.\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Printed for the author.. 1825.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eA counterblast to a \"disgusting heterodoxy\".\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eSecond edition. Enlarged and Corrected. 12mo in 6s. 176x105mm. pp. [4], x, [11-13], 14-176. Blue half calf, marbled paper covered boards. Spine decorated in gilt. Label in the second compartment is missing. Rubbing to joints, edges and head and foot of spine. Corners worn. The last thirty leaves have water staining to the bottom edge affecting only the margin and not the text. Otherwise a very good copy.\u003cbr\u003eWilliam Carlisle's aim in this book is set out with admirably forthright clarity in the preface. He tells us that he went to hear a lecture by Mr Heineken \"in which he endeavoured to prove the non-existence of an evil spirit, called the Devil, or Satan\". This \"disgusting heterodoxy\" is, says Carlisle, \"more dangerous than a draught of the essence of hemlock\". Heineken's lecture is \"contrary to every principle of philosophy, and the plain language of the Scriptures\". Carlisle explains that his intention in this essay is to defend the doctrines of the Gospel \"against the injudicious evasions, wild reveries, bombastical assertions, and sarcastical animadversions, of those men who would rob Christianity of its glory, blast our hopes, and make this world one vast scene of misery and chaos\". An ambitious little book then. And scarce.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5332\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CARLISLE, William","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979983597945,"sku":"5332","price":375.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/8.CarlisleEvilSpirits.jpg?v=1792757688"},{"product_id":"5334","title":"Pheneas Speaks. Direct Spirit Communications in the Family Circle.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: The Psychic Press and Bookshop.. n.d. [1927].\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\"Love, not fear, must reign in each heart\".\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. Published at the same time as the George H. Doran edition in blue cloth. 186x125mm. pp. 216 [1, 3pp adverts]. Publisher's pale blue wrappers. Spine toned and some soiling to wrappers. Slight chipping to, and small tears to joints at head and foot of spine. A little foxed and browned but otherwise a very good copy. \u003cbr\u003ePheneas was a communicating entity who became the principal spirit guide of Conan Doyle and his family. Pheneas first appeared through Conan Doyle's mother on 10th December 1922 and, as the online Arthur Conan Doyle encyclopaedia says, \"he functions as the principal voice through which Conan Doyle presents a vision of posthumous life, spiritual hierarchy, coming world change, and a religion centred on love, Christ, and communication between the visible and invisible worlds\". Pheneas is said to have lived in Arabia thousands of years ago, before the time of Abraham. His early appearances were through automatic communications and then through writing and finally through \"semi-trance inspirational speech\". Conan Doyle did not regard Pheneas (or other spirit guides) as divine but as offering a path to the divine. Pheneas was a step on the way to Christ and God, a way of receiving \"new right understanding of God\" and learning that \"Love, not fear, must reign in each heart\".\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5334\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CONAN DOYLE, Arthur","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979984155001,"sku":"5334","price":375.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/PheneasSpeaks.jpg?v=1792757627"},{"product_id":"5335","title":"Personal Memoirs of H.P. Blavatsky.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Rider \u0026amp; Co.. 1937.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eIn the rare dust jacket.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. Large 8vo. 230x145mm. pp.323 [1bl], 16pp adverts. With twelve illustrations. Blue cloth, lettered in gilt to spine. Original dust jacket. Toning to spine and edges of jacket. Internally excellent. A near fine copy in the scarce dust jacket. \u003cbr\u003eMary Neff (1877-1948) was born in Akron, Ohio where she became a teacher. She joined the Theosophical Society in 1908 and three years later went to work for the Theosophical Publishing House at Adyar where she was also the private secretary to Charles Leadbeater. She worked in theosophical schools in India and as a lecturer for the Australian section of the Theosophical Society. Few people, therefore, can have been better placed to compile, from Blavatsky's writings and hitherto unpublished records, a work that is, from its first person point of view, \"virtually an autobiography\" containing \"a great deal of new information concerning little-known periods of her life, filling in many mysterious gaps\".\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5335\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NEFF, Mary K","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979984908665,"sku":"5335","price":650.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/38.Neff.jpg?v=1792757506"},{"product_id":"5336","title":"Twixt Two Worlds: A Narrative of The Life and Work of William Eglinton.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: The Psychological Press.. 1886.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eThe life of a chancer\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 285x220mm. pp. [4], 196. Frontispiece portrait of William Eglinton, eight full page chromolithographs and thirty-three illustrations in the text. Original grey cloth, lettered and decorated in red and black and in gilt on the spine. Soiling to upper cover and spine. Head and foot of spine rubbed and corners a little worn. Some foxing and the occasional marking but otherwise in excellent condition and the chromolithographs are very good indeed. \u003cbr\u003eWilliam Eglinton (1857-1933) was, even by the standards of the circles in which he moved, something of a chancer. With the assistance of Madame Blavatsky, he forged a number of letters claiming them to be by Mahatmas. He was rumbled by Eleanor Sidgwick (no less) for faking slate writing and his public demonstrations of \"spirit materialisation\" were shown to be fraudulent when an audience pulled the fake beard of the \"spirit\" known as Abdullah. Even though most of the psychical and spiritualist community distanced themselves from the roguish Eglinton, he did find a supporter in John Farmer (and, perhaps surprisingly, Charles Richet) who defended him enthusiastically in this book, providing evidence for his \"direct writing\", apparitions and materialisations. Farmer was, as the editor of the journals \u003cem\u003eLight\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003ePsychological Review\u003c\/em\u003e, a serious figure in the spiritualist movement. He was also the author of a seven volume dictionary of slang.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5336\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FARMER, John S","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979986153849,"sku":"5336","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/17.Farmer2.jpg?v=1792757401"},{"product_id":"5337","title":"La Grande Esperance.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eParis: Éditions Montaigne.. [1933].\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eWhy do you exist? \u003c\/em\u003eInscribed by Richet\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo. 188x120mm. pp. 292, [2], 16pp adverts. Original red wrappers. Fading to a small strip at the top edge of the upper wrapper. Some slight fading and creasing to spine. Pages uncut. A very good copy of Richet's last work, representing the final working out of his parapsychological ideas. Half title is inscribed \"À Madame H. Salter, en respectueux sympathie Charles Richet\". Madame Salter was Helen de Gaudrion Verall, the wife of William Henry Salter, who was, like Richet, the President of the Society for Psychical Research. Inside the front wrapper is the small ex libris ticket of Alan Gauld. Charles Richet (1850) was a scientist, the winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Medicine, and an all round polymath writing works on history, philosophy, theatre. He was also a pacifist and eugenicist. \u003cbr\u003eMuch of his later career was devoted to the paranormal and he worked closely with leading occultists and spiritualists and was a supporter of the disgraced William Eglinton. Richet invented the word ectoplasm, believed in ESP and the existence of a sixth sense. La Grande Esperance opens with the question: \"Pourquoi existes-tu?\" and ends with the, perhaps surprising, answer that \"ton espérance\" is \"Pour exister et pour avoir des enfants\". This rather sweet hope of an old man was fulfilled by his son and grandson following him into the world of medical science where they, too, became professors.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5337\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RICHET, Charles","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979986907513,"sku":"5337","price":350.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/45.Richet.jpg?v=1792757353"},{"product_id":"5341","title":"L'Avenir et la Premonition.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eParis: Éditions Montaigne.. [1931].\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eInscribed by Richet\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo. 188x120mm. pp. 248, [2], 6pp adverts. Original red wrappers but the upper cover and spine have faded. Creasing to upper wrapper, spine and to some of the pages, particularly towards the end. Pages uncut and last two leaves unopened. Some foxing and toning but overall a nice copy of Richet's penultimate book. \u003cbr\u003eFront free endpaper is inscribed \"à Madame Salter, Respecteusement, Charles Richet\". Beneath this is the ownership inscription of \"W.H.Salter, The Crown House, Newport, Essex\". \u003cbr\u003eMadame Salter was Helen de Gaudrion Verall, the wife of William Henry Salter, who was, like Richet, the President of the Society for Psychical Research. Salter was the author of two books on the subject and was clearly a close colleague and friend of the brilliant, polymathic Richet. Inside the front wrapper is the small ex libris ticket of Alan Gauld.\u003cbr\u003eAfter a highly distinguished career in medical science, Richet began to develop an interest in the paranormal, the last few years of his life being taken up writing on the subject. \u003cem\u003eL'Avenir et la Premonition \u003c\/em\u003eis a complex, learned study of time and consciousness and concludes with the idea that the future is determined and that premonition is no more incomprehensible than monition.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRef. 5341\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RICHET, Charles","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979987530105,"sku":"5341","price":350.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/Richet_L_Avenir.jpg?v=1792757288"},{"product_id":"5342","title":"Signatura Rerum: or the Signature of all Things.","description":"\u003cp\u003eshewing the sign, and signification of the severall forms and shapes in the creation: and what the beginning, ruin, and cure of every thing is; it proceeds out of eternity into time, and again out of time into eternity, and comprizeth all mysteries. Written in High Dutch, MDCXXII. by Jacob Behmen, alias Teutonicus Phylosophus.\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Printed by John Macock for Giles Calvert.. 1651.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\"the first German philosopher\"\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. Small 4to. 178x130mm. pp. [8], 224. Collates A4-Ff4. Contemporary calf, double fillet borders in blind. Rebacked to style with red morocco label lettered in gilt. Corners bumped and worn and edges rubbed. Internally, there is some browning and foxing especially to the edges. Title page has the ownership inscription \"Wm. Dyer. Feb 1774\" and a previous owner has inscribed \"Translated by J. Ellistone\" at the foot of the title page. Some marginal handwritten annotations. Overall a very good copy of a rare and important book.\u003cbr\u003eJacob Böhme (1575-1624, the name is anglicised to Behmen) was a shoemaker and glover. But this does little justice to his intellectual significance. He is regarded as the founder of Christian theosophy, reflecting his coupling of orthodox Lutheranism and visionary mysticism. In 1600, an encounter with a beam of sunlight reflected in a pewter dish revealed to him the spiritual structure of the world, the relationship between God and man and between good and evil. Ten years later, another vision revealed the unity of the cosmos. His first book, Morgenröte im Aufgang (\"Dawn of the Day in the East\"), appeared in 1612 but was attacked as heretical. Chastened, Böhme descended into self-imposed silence only starting to write again in 1618. Between 1620 and his death in 1624, Böhme published twenty-five works including \u003cem\u003eDe Signatura Rerum. \u003c\/em\u003eBöhme's doctrine of signatures is a belief that God marks all objects with a signature indicating their purpose. In Böhme's words, \"to that Signature, his inward form is noted in the form of his face; and thus also is a beast, an herb, and the trees; every thing as it is inwardly [in its innate virtue and quality] so it is outwardly signed\". Put more simply, a plant that has characteristics resembling the body parts of a human being will be useful for healing that body part. In essence, it is a belief in the interconnectedness of all things which formed the core of his earlier mystical experiences. \u003cbr\u003eIt is a beautiful idea and it, and Böhme's writings more generally, have had a huge influence on western thought. Hegel described him as \"the first German philosopher\" and he was a key figure in the early workings out of German Romanticism. In turn, the English Romantics, especially Coleridge and Blake, drew heavily on his ideas. And poets and novelists from Milton and Yeats to Joyce and Cormac McCarthy have all been inspired by Böhme. But it is probably in the more counter-cultural mystical, esoteric movements that Böhme's influence is most obvious. Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, Millenarianism, Martinism, Gurdjeff's the Fourth Way and Radical Pietism have all borrowed from Jacob Böhme's extraordinarily fertile spiritual mind.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5342\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003eESTC: R19165\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BÖHME, Jacob [BEHMEN, Jacob]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979991921017,"sku":"5342","price":3500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/Bohme1.jpg?v=1792756578"},{"product_id":"5372","title":"Spiritualism. Its History, Phenomena and Doctrine.","description":"\u003cp\u003ewith an Introduction by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Cassell and Company, Ltd.. 1918.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eSigned by Conan Doyle.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo. 204x130mm. pp. xxii, 270. Blue cloth, lettered in dark blue to upper cover and gilt to spine. Fading to spine and some marking to boards, corners a little worn. Head and foot of spine slightly bumped. Joints a little tender but otherwise a very good copy of this celebrated and important introduction to spiritualism which ties together various themes and loose ends from his four previous books on the subject. Signed \"A. Conan Doyle\" on the title page.\u003cbr\u003eHill investigates the Biblical and classical origins of Spiritualism, the roles of Swedenborg and Mesmer, the work of the Society for Psychical Research, ghosts, the idea of Spiritualism as a religion and theories of life after death perhaps appropriately given that Hill is said to have invented the term \"out of body experience\". \u003cbr\u003eIn his fulsome introduction, Conan Doyle analyses the essence of the book as being an attempt to recover the spiritualist origins of religion, origins that have been ignored, lost or eroded by organised religion.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5372\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HILL, J. Arthur","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979992379769,"sku":"5372","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/26.Hill.Spiritualism.jpg?v=1792756181"},{"product_id":"5375","title":"Manuel à l'usage des actionnaires des loteries, royale de France, de Colognè, d'Offenbourg, et des Pays-Bas Autrichiens.","description":"\u003cp\u003eou, Calculs indubitables et combinaisons savantes trouvées dans les papiers du célèbre Cagliostro, lors de son arrestation à Rome.\u003cbr\u003eParis: Chez Granion.. 1791.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eThe Quack of Quacks\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo in 4s. 198x115mm. pp. [10], 1-33 [32], 34-152. Frontispiece. 32 pages of tables, one folding leaf, 15 pages illustrated with 90 vignettes]. At the beginning is a leaf entitled \"Combinaisons de Jeux des Loterie Royales\" with a newspaper clipping pasted on the verso. Bound in at the end is \u003cem\u003eHistoire de la Loterie depuis la première jusqu'à la dernière Loterie La Loterie des Lingots d'or par Alexandre Dumas fils.\u003c\/em\u003e Paris: Chez tous les libraires. 1851. Bound in green half cloth (but with corner pieces missing), marbled paper covered boards. Spine lettered in gilt. Corners and edges a little rubbed, slight bumping to head and foot of spine and some scuffing to boards. Some light foxing in places and a damp stain to the edge of the first six leaves. Otherwise an excellent copy of a rare book, Worldcat locating only two copies, at the BNF and the Kress Library at Harvard and with no copies appearing in the auction records.\u003cbr\u003eIn 1776, Alessandro Cagliostro (1743-1795) arrived in London after several years dodging creditors and the law on the continent. He was a rich man with no visible means of support. But London, then as now, asked few questions as to the source of his funds which were, for the record, swindling, pimping his underage girlfriend and forging bills of exchange. What Londoners really wanted to know (then as now) was how to get rich quick. So, Cagliostro, with the help of mysterious manuscripts stolen in Rome, started to predict the lottery numbers. He became a sensation: the frontispiece to this extraordinary book shows our man, described as a \"cabaliste\", being consulted by three English ladies. Cagliostro pulled similar stunts in other major European cities, and encouraged publishers to print his predictions and the extraordinary methods he used to divine them. The main market for them was France but this dried up when, in 1793, the Revolutionary government put an end to the Royal Lottery. When the French lottery was restarted these \"lottery prediction\" books were published in vast numbers. \u003cbr\u003eBut this is an early one. Printed in 1791, this is an early \"lottery manual\" and the first to include Cagliostro's name and almost certainly the only one carrying his name that was printed during his lifetime. It is, accordingly, the best guide to Cagliostro's methods and provides a fascinating insight into his occult mind. The book contains cabalistic tables, mathematical martingales and other \"mystic manipulations of numbers\". There is a section on how predict lottery numbers through the interpretation of dreams. 90 images showing dream subjects are shown alongside the number that the dream signifies. There is a table explaining how the timings of sunrise and sunset affect the numbers. In short, the whole book is an entertaining farrago of fakery and magical flummery. Cagliostro was a proper rogue, constantly in and out of prison, an enthusiastic Freemason and with a nice line in alchemy, psychic healing and mesmerism. But he strutted on a big stage: Goethe wrote a play about him and Carlyle called him \"the Quack of Quacks\".\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5375\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[CAGLIOSTRO, Alessandro]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979992674681,"sku":"5375","price":4750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/6.Cagliostro.Lottery3.jpg?v=1792755914"},{"product_id":"5382","title":"Index to Venman's \"Notes\" on the Occult.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003en.p.. 1875.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eA manuscript index to a vast, unfinished occult encyclopaedia\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eA manuscript notebook dated 1875 setting out a detailed index to Hezekiah Venman's extensive \"Notes\" on the Occult. 322x130mm. 77 pages of manuscript bound in vellum and with the title written by hand on the front cover. Somewhat soiled and marked and rubbed at the corners but this was clearly much used by Venman. Internally very clean and clear, written in a large, legible hand. An attractive book and an interesting insight into Venman's working methods and how he planned to organise his monumental study of the occult. The first page is entitled \"Plan for an Occult Encyclopaedia\". This is followed by an index set out A-Z covering every from Alchemy and Amulets to Zoraster via Gnomes and Lucky Planets. Venman has, with some of these entries, indicated the page number of the encyclopaedia where the relevant entry will be found. There then follows Venman's chapter by chapter table of contents for the encyclopaedia. It was to run to 31 chapters (and over 900 pages) on subjects such as \u003cem\u003eFolk-Lore and Rustic Sorcery, Modern Spiritualism, Mesmerism, Somnambulism, Trance \u003c\/em\u003eand\u003cem\u003e Un-Conscious Cerebration.\u003c\/em\u003e There is then a section entitled \"Contents of Appendix\". Venman has also included a \"Notice\" (dated 1895) in which he claims copyright to his \"Classification of Phenomena opposed to or contravening natural laws as held by Scientists\". These \"Classifications\" are to be supported by \"Narratives of Typical Cases\". There follows seventeen pages of notes headed \"Provisional Classifications\" beginning with \"Abnormal Sounds\" and going on to \"Phenomena of Movement\", \"of Ponderability\" and \"of Resistance\". \u003cbr\u003eHezekiah Venman (d.1899) was a chemist and an associate of the Society for Psychical Research. His interest in the paranormal was more than just a part-time hobby for he collected a huge archive of articles documents, letters and manuscripts on all aspects of the occult. Venman never published the fruits of his extensive labours but it seems that he intended to do and this rather wonderful document gives us a clear picture of how his extraordinary encyclopaedia would have looked.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5382\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VENMAN, Hezekiah","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979992936825,"sku":"5382","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/52.VenmanMS.jpg?v=1792755798"},{"product_id":"5383","title":"Dealings with the Dead: The Human Soul, its migrations and its transmigrations. Penned by the Rosicrucian.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUtica, N.Y. Published by M.J. Randolph. 1861-62.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\"It is of my death that first I wish to speak, and of what took place thereafter\"\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 181x110mm. pp. [2], 268 [4pp adverts]. Brown cloth, blindstamped decoration to upper and lower covers and lettered in gilt to spine. Corners bumped and rubbed and some wear to edges and head and foot of spine. Joints a little tender but holding. Some soiling and marking to the edges but overall a very good copy of a book that is extremely rare in commerce, none appearing in the auction records. The rear endpaper has the ownership inscription of William Herbestrom of Blandford. On the final advertisement page is inscribed M.J.Randolph New York. Mary Jane Randolph was Paschal's wife and the publisher of his books. She sold them by mail order along with a variety of herbal remedies and Native American medicines. \u003cbr\u003ePaschal Beverly Randolph (1825-1875) was born in New York to a mixed race mother (a barmaid) and a white father (a plantation owner) to whom she was not married. Randolph's father abandoned them and then his mother died of smallpox. The young Randolph lived by begging on the streets before running away to sea, working his way backwards and forwards across the Atlantic before being injured and being forced to return to dry land. There were two main strands to his life. The first was his work as an abolitionist, recruiting black soldiers for the Union Army and then educating freed slaves in Louisiana at the Freedmen's Bureau schools. \u003cbr\u003eIt was through his friendship with Ethan Allen Hitchcock (who would become a leading Civil War General) that Randolph was introduced, in 1850, to Rosicrucianism which opened up the path to what would become his life's work. He spent the next decade studying spiritualism, magic, clairvoyance and other aspects of esoterica. He tied these in to radical ideas on the role of race, sexuality and gender (earthly gender being \"provisional\" and God being both male and female) to formulate a somewhat \u003cem\u003esui generis\u003c\/em\u003e form of the occult. In 1858, Randolph became the Supreme Grand Master of the Fraternita Rosae Crucis but he was always his own man, and his incorporation of \"sex magic\" into his occult ideas was particularly controversial and with something of the 1960s sexual revolution about it. A man apart from and ahead of his time. \u003cbr\u003eHe died in tragic and uncertain circumstances of a gunshot wound, possibly by his own hand. But death was always in his thoughts. As he writes in \u003cem\u003eDealings with the Dead: \"\u003c\/em\u003eIt is of my death that first I wish to speak, and of what took place thereafter - of where and how I found myself as soon as the icy hand of Death had touched my heart\".\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eRef. 5383\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[RANDOLPH, Paschal Beverly]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979993461113,"sku":"5383","price":4000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/43.Randolph.DealingswiththeDead.jpg?v=1792755194"},{"product_id":"5384","title":"After Death: The Disembodiment of Man.","description":"\u003cp\u003ethe world of spirits, its location, extent, appearance; the route thither; inhabitants; customs; societies; also sex and its uses there, etc. etc.; with much matter pertinent to the question of human immortality.\u003cbr\u003eBoston: Randolph and Company.. 1870.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eThank God for Death.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eThird edition, revised, corrected and enlarged. 202x130mm. pp. [2], 6, 9-260, [6]. Black cloth, decorated in blind, spine lettered in gilt. Some rubbing and bumping to extremities and slight marking to boards. A little foxed and soiled internally but overall a very good copy of a commercially rare book, none appearing in the auction records. \u003cem\u003eAfter Death\u003c\/em\u003e was first published in 1866 with a second edition appearing in 1868 and then this third, expanded edition in 1870. A fourth edition was published in 1873. \u003cbr\u003eThe introduction to \u003cem\u003eAfter Death\u003c\/em\u003e, by a fellow Rosicrucian, describes Randolph as \"a mystic in the true sense of the word, and a mystic of the very loftiest order\". Randolph's notion of the mystical lies in his interest in \"the great unknown Beyond\". He was obsessed with death, or more correctly, the new life after death. At the beginning of this book he exclaims: \"Thank God for death! and thank him for the life beyond the gloomy sea!\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5384\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RANDOLPH, Pascal Beverly","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979994083705,"sku":"5384","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/42.Randolph.Afterdeath.jpg?v=1792755123"},{"product_id":"5394","title":"Ophiolatreia:","description":"\u003cp\u003ean account of the rites and mysteries connected with the origin, rise, and development of Serpent Worship in various parts of the world, enriched with interesting traditions, and a full description of the celebrated Serpent Mounds and Temples, the whole froming an exposition of one of the phases of Phallic, or Sex Worship.\u003cbr\u003en.p. Privately printed. 1889.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003ePhallism\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo. 194x122mm. pp. 103 [1bl]. Original cream paper covered boards, decorated with a red caduceus and lettered in red. Bevelled edges. Some slight soiling to boards, spine darkened and corners bumped. Internally very good. Edges uncut, offsetting to endpapers. Front pastedown has bookplate of Barry Humphries. \u003cbr\u003eAlthough published anonymously, Ophiolatreia is known to be the work of the Hargrave Jennings (1815-1890) who began his career as a writer with maritime fantasies and three-decker novels which combined his nautical and spiritualist interests. It is for the latter that he is now best known. A Rosicrucian and Freemason, he wrote widely on the occult and comparative religion. His principal contribution to these fields was a serious and important study of Rosicrucianism. Alongside this, Jennings developed the theory that all religions have their origins in the phallic worship of sun and fire. \u003cem\u003eOphiolatreia\u003c\/em\u003e is one of a number of books in which he expanded on this idea. Here Phallic or Sex Worship is found to lie at the root of Serpent Worship, an application of the theory which at least has the merit of some element of nominative determinism. Jennings's theory of \"phallism\" found few followers but he was a well known figure in Victorian London and is thought to have been the model for the Ezra Jennings, the part narrator and anti-hero of \u003cem\u003eThe Moonstone.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRef. 5394\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[JENNINGS, Hargrave]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979997720953,"sku":"5394","price":600.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/30.Jennings.Ophiolatreia.jpg?v=1792754403"},{"product_id":"5395","title":"Die Phanomene des Mediums Rudi Schneider.","description":"\u003cp\u003evon Dr Med. A. Freiherrn von Schrenck-Notzing aus dem Nachlaß herausgegeben von Gabriele Freifrau von Schrenck-Notzing mit einer Einleitung von Professor Dr Eugen Bleuler.\u003cbr\u003eBerlin und Leipzig: Verlag Walter de Gruyter \u0026amp; Co.. 1933.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eRudi Schneider's own copy inscribed to him by the author's wife.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. Front free endpaper is inscribed, \"Dem lieben Rudi, zu Weihnachten 1932. Gabriele Freifrau von Schrenck-Notzing\". 8vo. 232x152mm. pp. viii, 170. With a frontispiece and five plates of black and white photographs, illustrations in the text. Black cloth, upper cover and spine lettered in gilt. Rubbing to extremities and some marking to boards. Internally there is some foxing, especially to the title page. Overall a very good copy. Albert von Schrenck-Notzing died in 1929 and this study of Rudi Schneider was brought to press posthumously Gabriele von Schrenck-Notzing who shared her husband's interest in spiritualism, conducting sittings and experiments with him. The record of the sittings investigated and recorded by Schrenck-Notzing have pencil annotations alongside them. The front pastedown has the book label of Alan Gauld, the parapsychologist and historian of hypnotism and mediumship.\u003cbr\u003eRudi Schneider (1908-1957) was an Austrian spiritualist and medium, closely associated with many of the leading figures in paranormal research. He held his first seance at the age of eleven although his work was soon investigated by physicists and found to be based on trickery. Schrenck-Notzing then spent five years looking into Schneider's work and recorded dozens of sittings which form the basis of this book. Among those attending Schneider's sittings were Thomas and Katia Mann (on 2nd November 1924) and C.G.Jung (on 21st June 1925). Schrenck-Notzing was sympathetic to Schneider but several other psychic investigators were more sceptical, regarding him as a fraud. Among them were Harry Price, the nemesis of William Hope and Conan Doyle and Alan Gauld, the previous owner of this copy and, generally, a committed medium-sceptic. Schneider, no doubt tiring of the constant speculation, retired from mediumship to become a car mechanic and driving instructor. As to Schrenck-Notzing, he seems to have been more than usually as virtually all the mediums and spiritualist he investigated with positive results were later found to be frauds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5395\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"von SCHRENCK-NOTZING, Albert Freiherrn","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979998278009,"sku":"5395","price":475.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/53.Schrenck.jpg?v=1792754349"},{"product_id":"5479","title":"Tumba Semiramidis Hermeticè sigillata, Quam Si Sapiens aperuerit, Non Cyrus, Ambitiosus; Avarus, Regum ille thesauros, divitiarum inexhaustos, quod sufficiat, inveniet.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003en.p. [Germany]. 1674.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\"the perfect Cure of all Diseases\". The search for the Philosopher's Stone.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 12mo. pp. [10], 37 [1bl]. Text in Latin. Bound in 19th century decorated cloth covered boards. Some scratches to the covers and browning to the text but otherwise a very good copy of a rare work, Worldcat locating 12 copies and no copies appearing in the auction records. \u003cbr\u003eThe book opens by stating that \"nothing hath been deeper buried, nor hitherto more desired by all than the knowledge of that great Mystery of the Philosophers, which by a known word is called the Philosophers-Stone\". This mythical substance was capable not only of alchemising base metal into gold but could also confer eternal youth. The search for the Philosopher's Stone lay at the heart of alchemy but was also taken up by more mainstream religions which saw it as an allegory of the divine. \u003cbr\u003eAllegory is the method applied in this short but influential work. The title translates as \u003cem\u003eThe Tomb of Semiramis Hermetically Sealed, Which if a Wise-man open (not the Ambitious Covetous Cyrus) he shall find the Treasures of Kings, inexhaustible Riches to his content. \u003c\/em\u003eIt was Plutarch who first recorded the inscription on the tomb of the Assyrian Queen Semiramis which promised these \"inexhaustible riches\" to anyone who successfully broke into it. Plutarch also noted that Darius had broken into the tomb where he had found not great wealth but merely another inscription which read \"if you were not a wicked man with an insatiate greed for money, you would not be disturbing the places where the dead are laid\". In other words, the search for the riches hidden in Semiramis's tomb is as difficult and,ultimately, as fruitless as the search for the Philosopher's Stone. However, even if one cannot entirely uncover the secrets of the Stone, this little book is a helpful guide to Philosopher's Stone, what it is, how to prepare \"philosophical fire\", how to make the Stone and how to use it once you have it. H.V.D. concludes by prescribing one grain or two \"in a draught of warm Wine\" in order for it to work as \"the perfect Cure of all Diseases\". Which is probably better than \"inexhaustible riches\".\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 5479\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"H.V.D","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979998671225,"sku":"5479","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/HVD.jpg?v=1792754234"},{"product_id":"5489","title":"Thesaurus Exorcismorum atque conjurationum terribilium","description":"\u003cp\u003ePotentissimorum, efficacissimorum, cum PRACTICA probatissima: QUIBUS SPIRITUS MALIGNI, Daemones Maleficiaeq[ue], omnia de Corporibus humanis obsessis, tanquam FLAGELLIS FUSTIBUSQUE FUGANTUR, expelluntur, doctrinis refertissimus atq[ue] uberrimus: Ad maximam EXORCITARUM commoditatem in lucem editus \u0026amp; recusus: Cujus Authores, ut \u0026amp; singuli tractatus, sequente pagella consignati, inveniuntur\u003cbr\u003eColoniae [Cologne]: Lazarus Zetzner.. 1608.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eThe complete guide to exorcism\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition thus. 8vo. 152x92mm. pp. [16], 1272, [46]. Bound by Hatton of Manchester (ticket on front pastedown) in nineteenth century tan half calf, cloth covered boards. Spine with five raised bands, second compartment with red morocco label lettered in gilt. Front pastedown has the bookplate of the Macclesfield Library and the shelfmark handwritten on the front free endpaper. Rubbing to edges and some wear and scuffing to spine. Internally there is some foxing and browning, particularly to the edges but otherwise a very good copy of an important book which collected, for the first time, a set of six late sixteenth century exorcism manuals written by Franciscan monks. These manuals were originally intended by the church as guides to help exorcists in the battle against the devil. However, as fighting the devil means invoking him, exorcism manuals were sometimes used as grimoires to summon up evil spirits with the result that many were added, somewhat paradoxically, to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. \u003cbr\u003eThe six books gathered here are:\u003cbr\u003eI. \u003cem\u003ePractica exorcistarum\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eDispersio Daemonum\u003c\/em\u003e by Valerio Polidoro\u003cbr\u003eII. \u003cem\u003eFlagellum Daemonum\u003c\/em\u003e and\u003cem\u003e Fustis Daemonum\u003c\/em\u003e by Girolamo Menghi\u003cbr\u003eIII. \u003cem\u003eComplementum artis exorcisticae\u003c\/em\u003e by Zacharia Visconti\u003cbr\u003eIV. \u003cem\u003eFuga Satanae\u003c\/em\u003e by Pietro Antonio Stampa\u003cbr\u003eThey cover almost everything that the working exorcist might need: how to recognise demons and demonic possession; guidance on how to conduct oneself including how to dress for an exorcism; the prayers and blessings needed to rid a house of demons and how to make herbal remedies to expel spirits from the \"indaemoniati\". The final work (\u003cem\u003eFuga Satanae\u003c\/em\u003e) by Pietro Antonio Stampa who was regarded as one of the leading figures in the sixteenth century fight against the devil, is particularly celebrated, not least for its list of names for the devil and his assistants alongside details of the Biblical books needed to combat each demon.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRef. 5489\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"POLYDORO, Valerio et al","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64979999424889,"sku":"5489","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/Polydoro1.jpg?v=1792754023"},{"product_id":"great-metropolitan-spiritualist-association-archive-of-material-relating-to-the-founding-of-the-association-1934-4661","title":"Archive of material relating to the founding of the Association","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon. 1934.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eMoon Trail and White Hawk. Messages from the Spirit World.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eAn archive of manuscript and typed material relating to the Great Metropolitan Spiritualist Association (GMSA).\u003cbr\u003e1. Eleven typed transcripts of addresses and messages from the spirit world. These are from spirits known as Moon Trail and White Hawk. One was channelled through a Mrs Hambling and the others are, given the provenance, probably through Harold Jones himself as he was a well known medium. The earliest is dated July 13th 1930 and the latest January 1943. \u003cbr\u003e2. Minute book of the Finsbury Park Church of Spirit Teaching. Central Council. January to March 1934. pp87. 225x170mm. Maroon cloth bound exercise book. This body quickly fell into debt and was wound up. To set matters on a more formal and professional footing an incorporated body known as the Great Metropolitan Spiritualist Association Ltd. was then established. \u003cbr\u003e3. Minute book of the Great Metropolitan Spiritualist Association Ltd. Incorporated May 3rd 1934. (329x203mm brown cloth). pp177 of handwritten and typed minutes of meetings of the Association from 1st May 1934 to 29th January 1935. \u003cbr\u003e4. Typescript of the \"Inaugural Meeting and Dedication Service of New Healing Sanctum by Meughli (Through Mrs. Esta Cassel) and Moon Trail. (Through Mr H.S.Hambling). Title page and seven typed leaves (on recto only - 255x190mm). October 26th 1934\"Bound in brown card wrappers, stapled at left edge. Final page of text has a repaired closed tear. Upper cover is illustrated with the symbol of the Association above which is handwritten \"Record of Dedication Service Held on Friday, October 26th 1934 to Inaugurate the Healing Services of the Great Metropolitan Spiritualist Association Ltd.\" \u003cbr\u003e5. A collection of 100 letters to Harold Jones from 1936 to 1941. Jones was the founder and President of GMSA. This extensive correspondence reflects his vast array of contacts and his central role in the British Spiritualist movement. \u003cbr\u003e6. Two complete copies of \"Psychic News\" (dated December 31st 1938 and September 1940). And four extracts from copies of \"Psychic News\". All have articles by Harold Jones (including one entitled \"Is Spiritualism in Decay\") or about him and GMSA. \u003cbr\u003e7. Four insurance policies for GMSA. \u003cbr\u003e8. Five notices published by GMSA entitled \"Syllabus\" giving details of services, healings, seances and other events organised by Spiritualist Associations affiliated to GMSA. \u003cbr\u003e9. Miscellaneous documents including a newsletter, poem, drawing and newspaper cuttings. \u003cbr\u003e10. Two photographs mounted on card. One of them shows a large formal dinner. On the back is inscribed \"Pembroke County Club, 19th Annual Dinner, Holborn Restaurant London March 2nd 1912\" and then the names of various members of a \"Jones\" family. The other photograph is of a group of men. Perhaps these are all Joneses. It is not clear that these are related to the Spiritualist material save for their presumed connection with Harold Jones. \u003cbr\u003eGreat Metropolitan Spiritualist Association was a network of Spiritualist Churches and Centres based in and around London. Founded in 1934, it quickly expanded, bringing a large number of Spiritualist Associations under its umbrella.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 4661\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Great Metropolitan Spiritualist Association","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64980001030521,"sku":"4661","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/22.GreatMet1.jpg?v=1792753763"},{"product_id":"housman-mrs-three-letters-to-a-friend-1833-4361","title":"Three Letters to a Friend","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Printed by A.J.Valpy. 1833.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eImpious\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst and only edition. 8vo. 208x130mm. pp. 155 [1bl], [2]. Four tipped-in slips of text. Eight plates, two of which are hand-coloured and one diagram in the text. Contemporary red morocco, gilt decoration to boards, spine lavishly decorated, and lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. Some wear to joints, corners very slightly bumped and rubbed. A tear to p17\/18 at gutter but it is still attached and there are two ink corrections in the text but otherwise a very good copy of a rare book, Worldcat locating six copies. \u003cbr\u003eCatherine Housman was an indefatigable creationist, challenging scientists, historians and theologians whose writings failed to demonstrate a strict accord with the literal word of the Bible. The aim and subject matter of Three Letters is set out in a prefatory statement. \"The First chapter of Genesis by which is revealed to us the creation of only one earth, one sun, and one moon: the truth of which is verified by Moses, the Prophets, and Apostles, and now placed in the balance against the delusive hypotheses of Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton, and their Epicurean followers; who impiously treat of invisible atoms forming themselves by the imaginary principles of attraction, repulsion, and condensation, into millions of systems of suns, earths, and moons\".\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eRef. 4361\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HOUSMAN, Mrs","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64980001390969,"sku":"4361","price":400.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/28.Housman.jpg?v=1792753681"},{"product_id":"huges-hugo-bart-homo-sapiens-correctus-dutch-text-1964-4635","title":"Homo Sapiens Correctus (Dutch text)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmsterdam: n.p.. 1964.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eInscribed by Huges: the Dutch version of his trepanation manifesto.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eInscribed by Huges - \"Voor Peter - van Bart\" with a stylised diagram representing the brain. Paper scroll (2760x430mm) with a facsimile, in the original Dutch, of Huges's manifesto, written while in prison, for an expanded consciousness achieved through the control of blood to the brain. which gives the work its alternative name: \u003cem\u003eThe Mechanism of BrainBloodVolume (BBV)\u003c\/em\u003e. The original manuscript of Homo Sapiens Correctus was written in Dutch in 1962. In 1964, a facsimile was issued in both Dutch and in an English translation. The text, which is organised in nine sections (with titles such as \"Chemical\", \"Osmotical\", \"Brain Metabolism\" is arranged around ten coloured diagrams showing how blood is distributed between the brain and the heart. This copy was given (and inscribed) to Peter who is Peter ten Hoopen, a writer and artist who, during the 1960s translated many works by leading figures of the psychedelic counterculture including Timothy Leary and Alan Watts. \u003cbr\u003eSome chipping, creasing and a few closed tears to the edges and traces of pinholes at the corners and edges but overall this copy is in very good condition, with the illustrations especially clean and fresh. At the foot of the scroll is written: \"Nadruk verboden. Rechten fl.100.000. Amsterdam, Bart Huges\". Institutionally rare, OCLC records only two copies of the version in Dutch. \u003cbr\u003eHuges is probably the most celebrated enthusiast for trepanation, a procedure which he performed on himself on 6th January 1965 using a dentist's drill. Huges's auto-surgery was a long time in the planning. As a medical student in the late 1950s and early 1960s he developed the idea that as humans walk upright, blood drains out of the brain. Furthermore as we move from childhood to adulthood, our cranial sutures close, cutting down the flow of blood to the brain. Huges started to work on ways of recovering our childlike state. Drugs were a significant part of his method - he was an enthusiastic user of marijuana (his daughter was called Maria Juana) and LSD - and it was while on mescaline that he first understood how trepanation might work to reduce the volume of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain thus increasing the volume of brainblood. Homo Sapiens Correctus explores a number of alternatives to drilling a hole in his head (\"Physical\", \"Brain Metabolism\", \"Psychovitamins\") which is just as well as it is a spectacularly gruesome procedure. But there is no doubt that Huges's principal contribution to the expansion of consciousness and the returning of our minds to their childlike states lies in his evangelical adoption of trepanation. Huges (who was still a medical student at the time) has said that he wrote this scroll to educate doctors about the benefits of the procedure. \"I visited about twenty professors, of psychiatry, anthropology, neuro-anatomy etc. and their reactions were without exception negative\". So, not a success medically, but this extraordinary scroll has secured its place as a key work of the 1960s counterculture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRef. 4512\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HUGES, Hugo Bart","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64980001751417,"sku":"4635","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/HUGESHugoBart.jpg?v=1792760841"},{"product_id":"pavitt-william-thomas-kate-the-book-of-talismans-amulets-and-zodiacal-gems-1914-4807","title":"The Book of Talismans, Amulets and Zodiacal Gems.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: William Rider. 1914.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eIf these stones could speak\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo. 217x135mm. pp. xix, [ibl], 292. Coloured frontispiece and ten black and white plates. Original blue cloth, illustrated and lettered in gilt. Some rubbing to extremities, slight fading to spine and a mark on the lower cover. Internally very good. \u003cbr\u003eA nice copy of this extensive and important study of the symbolism of precious stones. It examines the Hindu, Jewish, Chinese, Egyptian, Roman, Gnostic, and Christian lore of gems. The final section discusses the astrological connections of key gems, sign by sign.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRef. 4807\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PAVITT, William Thomas \u0026 Kate","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64980002177401,"sku":"4807","price":275.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/Scan_20260613.jpg?v=1792753211"},{"product_id":"waite-arthur-edward-the-mysteries-of-magic-1897-4798","title":"The Mysteries of Magic.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA Digest of the Writings of Éliphas Lévi. With biographical and critical essay.\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner \u0026amp; Co.. 1897.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eSecond edition, revised and enlarged. 8vo. 190x125mm. pp. xvi, 523 [1]. Bright blue cloth, upper cover with a red border and a central design in gilt of \"The Pentagram of Faust\" and lettered \"Tetragammaton\". Spine lettered in gilt. Bumping and some wear to head and foot of spine and slight rubbing to corners. Slight soiling to boards. Some pencil marks to the text. Hinges a little cracked but overall a nice copy of a scarce book, nine copies recorded in JISC Library Hub and only one in the auction records. \u003cbr\u003eArthur Waite (1857-1942) has been described as the first person to \"attempt a systematic study of the history of Western occultism—viewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of protoscience or as the pathology of religion\". He also devised the Rider-Waite Tarot. In 1881, he discovered the writings of the French nineteenth-century esotericist (and former priest) Eliphas Levi whose work he translated and anthologised. This digest, first published in 1896 and then revised for this edition, covers a huge range of subjects: occult force, Kabbalistic Pneumatics, Ceremonial Magic, the religion of magic and thaumaturgical experiences.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eRef. 4798\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WAITE, Arthur Edward","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64980002799993,"sku":"4798","price":800.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/56.WaiteMysteries2nded.jpg?v=1792752958"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/collections\/Weirdiana_Page_01.jpg?v=1792761570","url":"https:\/\/voewoodrarebooks.com\/collections\/weirdiana.oembed?page=3","provider":"Voewood Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}