© Copyright Midian Books 2012 | www.midianbooks.co.uk
Newsletter
Sign up below for regular emails detailing latest releases etc:
Also dealing in original art and ephemera
Site images courtesy Hagen Von Tulien
Available now:
THE CHILDREN OF CAIN
A Study of Modern Traditional Witches
Michael Howard
2011 344pp Three Hands Press h/b in d/w. Illus. inc. colour.
The mid twentieth century witnessed the birth of popular occultism in the West, including an interest in witchcraft. At the forefront of popular witchcraft was Wicca, a recension of ceremonial magic and nature worship advanced by Gerald Gardner and Alex Sanders, now widely regarded as a religion. However, lesser known streams of the witch current thrived in the shadows, having older historical roots, and linked to an ancient body of practice – witch bottles, knotted cord spells, curses, exorcisms, sexual magic and charms ranging from the conjuration of angels to protection of livestock and hearth. This was Traditional Witchcraft, whose origin in part lies with the corcery of the cunning folk of Britain and Colonial America. Though largely avoiding the popular occult limelight, from 1970 onward, elements of Traditional Witchcraft experienced a partial emergence into the public through such publications as Paul Huson’s Mastering Witchcraft, the writings of Robert Cochrane and Evan John Jones, and Andrew Chumbley’s Azoetia: A Grimoire of the Sabbatic Craft. Based on over forty years of research and private collaboration with practitioners, Michael Howard’s Children of Cain is the definitive history of Traditional Witchcraft and its key operatives in Britain and the United States. Supplemented with diverse photographs and illustrations, many appearing for the first time, th book artfully encompasses the unique legacy of Traditional Witchcraft – those who bear the Mark of the Exile as a sign of hidden power: the Children of Cain. £39.99
There will also be a strictly limited number of deluxe editions available, bound in heavy black linen and slipcased, available at £129.99
Three Hands Press
OPUSCULA MAGICA
Andrew D. Chumbley
The Opuscula Magica treats in four volumes the short exegetical works on magic by the British occult author Andrew D. Chumbley (1967-2004). The series presents his magical essays, homilies, and other obscure works which originally appeared in small-circulation occult journals now out of print. Each volume presents a series of collated works, some revised or updated prior to his death, as well as a number of writings and illustrations previously unpublished. Together with his grimoire-texts of the magical order Cultus Sabbati these ‘minor works on magic’ are the origination-point and foundation texts of Sabbatic Witchcraft and Crooked Path Sorcery, two of Chumbley’s most important contributions to the Art Magical. With the intent to make these works more widely available to scholars and magical practitioners, the series is printed and bound in a fine book format suited to their study and preservation. The series editor is Daniel A Schulke.
VOLUME I: ESSAYS ON WITCHCRAFT AND THE SABBATIC TRADITION
1st 2010 152pp Three Hands Press Hardback with dustwrapper. Illus.
Opuscula Volume One contains nine essays written between 1990 and 2003, including one previously unpublished. This volume also includes an Author’s Introduction never before published, as well as an expanded version of the interview with Chumbley in The Cauldron. The essays reflect a degree of magical insight, clarity of vision, and creativity seldom equaled in occult writing to this day. Ltd. ed. 726 copies. Last copies £49.99
Also available, ltd. Ed. 242 copes, Quarter Morocco edition in slipcase. £174.99
VOLUME II: ESSAYS ON WITCHCRAFT AND CROOKED PATH SORCERY
Andrew Chumbley
1st 2011 128pp Three Hands Press hardback in dustwrapper. Illus.
Opuscula Volume Two contains ten essays written between 1992 and 2000, including one previously unpublished. Expanding upon themes developed in Opuscula Volume I, the book also treats Crooked Path Sorcery, a transcendental ethos of traditional witchcraft having parallels in such traditions as Petro Voudon. Also new in this volume is an Author's Preface, as well as Robert Fitzgerald's rare 1996 interview with Chumbley in Esoterra. The 1999 article 'Gnosis For the Flesh Eternal' appears here for the first time, being a much-expanded version of 'Wisdom For the New Flesh' which first appeared in Starfire. For this second volume, we have also included nine Azoëtia-era illustrations which have never before seen print. Ltd. ed. 726 copies. £39.99
Also available, ltd. Ed. 242 copes, Quarter Morocco edition in slipcase. £129.99
A GATHERING OF MASKS
Robert Fitzgerald
1st 2010 128pp Three Hands Press hardback in dustwrapper. Illus. Ltd. ed. 462 copies.
Aleister Crowley’s obscure Liber 231 remains one of his most enigmatic received magical texts, and one whose genesis directly concerns the workings of astral magic and trance-mediumship. A Gathering of Masks is the summation of direct magical workings with the genii of the Domes, the spirits governing the revealed mystery of Liber 231, and serving as the wards of the Major Arcana of the Tarot. Fulfilled by the author over a period of a decade, the twenty-two evocations of the genii of the Domes reveal a patterning of power and gnosis heretofore little-explored in the practice of the art magical.
The book commences with the author’s Introduction, entitled “By Seal and Sphere: A Treatise on Astral Magic”. The heart of the work is comprised of twenty-two oracles, each of which is accompanied by a commentary and a unique Queen Scale sigil derived from the work. The book also includes several illustrations by artist-author Barry William Hale. Of interest to scholars of Thelema and practitioners of ceremonial magic, Gathering stands as an outré magical record of the divinatory art. Last copies. £64.99
THE OCCULT RELIQUARY
Images and Artifacts of the Richel-Edlermans Collection
With an Introduction by Graham King
1st 2010 216pp Three Hands Press hardback in d/w. Profusely illustrated.
The Reliquary presents a selection of images from the Richel-Eldermans Collection, an occult archive of some 2,000 images and artifacts housed in the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle, Cornwall. Situated at the crossroads of erotic magic, ceremonial angelic conjuration, and witchcraft, the images comprise, in part, a pictorial cipher of the rituals of Ars Amatoria, a European magical order using sex magic, and the lesser-known M.M. based in the Hague and Leiden. Also referenced among the collection are materials relating to the A.A. of Aliester Crowley.
The transfixing procession of images, charms, magical seals, and ritual objects in the Collection is the work of multiple artists, and displays a high degree of magical insight and creativity. It will be of interest to students of witchcraft, Freemasonry, the Goetia, sex magic, and early twentieth century occultism.
The Reliquary presents for the first time a selection of these magical images, many reproduced at full scale, and bound with the highest quality materials. The book has over 200 illustrations, 80 of which are in full colour. Printed in large-format on archival paper. Limited to 700 copies. £84.99
WELSH WITCHES AND WIZARDS
Michael Howard
1st 2009 182pp Three Hands Press trade paperback.
The widespread belief in witches and wizards in Wales reflects a land steeped in legend and myth since ancient times. The witch’s power to harm people, livestock and crops was greatly feared; for this reason country people consulted with so-called ‘cunning men’ and ‘wise women’ who had the power to negate their spells with counter-magic. Cunning-folk practitioners were also consulted for love spells, to find lost property or missing persons, exorcise ghosts and banish evil spirits. The figures of both witch and wizard form part of a broader folk-magic continuity in Wales. This popular belief in witchcraft bears little relation to modern neo-pagan Wicca, and there is little evidence of its linkage to a nature religion based on a pre-Christian fertility cult.
This book describes the historically-attested Welsh practitioners of folk magic and witchcraft – the Dark Sisters and the Toadmen, the Druids and Wizards, the Cunning Men and Faery Doctors – and the charms and spells they used. Also examined are surviving pagan beliefs associated with holy wells and the cult of the sacred head, and the mysterious and sometimes sinister ‘creatures of the night’ such as faeries, lake monsters, dragons and Black Dogs. It will be of interest to students of the occult and folklore, as well as those who have followed Mr. Howard’s fascinating work over the years. £15.99
Also available. Limited edition numbered hardback, one per customer £39.99
WEST COUNTRY WITCHES
Michael Howard
1st 2010 224pp Three Hands Press trade paperback. Illus.
In 1930 a correspondent writing to the Western Morning Post newspaper confidently asserted “We live in an age when those old twilight beliefs are disappearing”. The beliefs in question were various aspects of popular superstition and the supernatural once widely accepted by people in the West Country. In response to this assertion, a correspondent called Padely Silvanus said he lived on the border of Dartmoor and could introduce the previous writer to a haunted bridge that nobody would cross at night. He could also take him to a dell where faeries were still seen to dance, a place on the moor where an earthbound spirit dwelt and caused terrible accidents, introduce them to a well-known and universally respected lady who had seen a pixy and heard the Wish Hounds in full cry, and take them to visit a witch in her cottage, but at the risk of them being ‘overlooked’ (ill-wished or bewitched). Silvanus’ letter encompassed the surviving belief in ghosts, faeries and witches that for centuries has given the West Country its reputation as a place where the paranormal is an everyday event.
This second volume of Michael Howard’s Witchcraft in the British Isles series examines the sorcery and witchcraft of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset. Rich in magical lore and folk traditions, the West Country has always had an aura of mystery and magic, reflected in the various races and their spiritual beliefs who have occupied it down the centuries. £15.99
Also available. Limited edition numbered hardback, one per customer £39.99
THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS
Dale Pendell
1st 2010 72pp Three Hands Press small paperback. Illus.
Chance, the great beloved of gamblers, lovers, generals and kings, has long held sway over mortal affairs. Whether assuming the form of the goddess Fortuna and her ever-turning Wheel, or the abstract mathematic of 'randomness' , Her favour is universally sought, and Her displeasure feared. To the devotee of Chance, Divination may be regarded as Her secret liturgy, providing glimpses of the unknown to those she esteems. Into the retort of the alchemist-poet, Pendell compounds portent, omen, oracle, and the art of prediction to distill The Language of Birds, a reverie upon the nature of the Goddess of Fortune and the sacred function of Chance. Dale Pendell is the author of the Pharmako triad of books (Pharmako/Poeia, Pharmako/Dynamis, Pharmako/Gnosis), exploring the mystical poesis of psychotropic plants and the Poison Path. £9.99
Also available. Limited edition numbered hardback, one per customer £29.99
