Paralibrum.

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‘Three Books of Occult Philosophy’, Translated by Eric Purdue
Original Robert Podgurski Original Robert Podgurski

‘Three Books of Occult Philosophy’, Translated by Eric Purdue

In his recent rendition of the Three Books, Eric Purdue has consulted Vittoria Perrone Compagni’s critical edition, which is based primarily on the 1533 version, all the while carefully comparing and contrasting it to the 1510 first edition, and the 1531 2nd edition as well as the first manuscript version Agrippa sent to Trithemius.

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‘Trafficking with Demons’ by Martha Rampton
Original Jake Stratton-Kent Original Jake Stratton-Kent

‘Trafficking with Demons’ by Martha Rampton

This is, obviously, a new historical study, as such at points evidential conclusions arise which contradict or update comparatively recent scholarship. Martha Rampton, is a good example of a post-modern historian, explaining her evidence via the then dominant (and divergent) narratives, upon which she passes no anterior judgement. Her book is both definitive and interesting.

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‘Historiola: The Power of Narrative Charms’ by Carl Nordblom
Original Craig ‘VI’ Slee Original Craig ‘VI’ Slee

‘Historiola: The Power of Narrative Charms’ by Carl Nordblom

What Nordblom has done is provide us with a framework to discover our own relationship to the magical or sorcerous narrative within our own lives – a kind of praxis which enables us to think about word and image in a way which may be unusual to some moderns. […] we should thank the author for providing us with only a glimpse of the many worlds of the historiolae which may present the enquiring mind with rich alterities.

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‘The Cult of the Black Cube’, 2nd Edition, by Arthur Moros
Original Craig ‘VI’ Slee Original Craig ‘VI’ Slee

‘The Cult of the Black Cube’, 2nd Edition, by Arthur Moros

[…] This then, is where the Black Cube shines most darkly; for all that Moros presents us with scholarly analysis, and historic and new rites to encounter the Saturnine Deity in our own lives should we wish closer congress, it is his obvious intimate embrace of, and his deep suffusion in such a Saturnine Gnosis which wells up. 

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‘The Sworn and Secret Grimoire’ by Jake Stratton-Kent
Original Frater Acher Original Frater Acher

‘The Sworn and Secret Grimoire’ by Jake Stratton-Kent

Jake Stratton-Kent gently but decidedly brushes away the naive hope of offering the reader any sort of definite pathway, absolute truth or sanctified orthopraxy; instead, his book aims to create just about sufficient orientation points – as well as lazy readers’ trapdoors, one should add – so that each one of us can create, correct or continue to ruin their own ritualistic path.

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‘Rosicrucian Magic’ by Frater Acher
Original Stewart Clelland Original Stewart Clelland

‘Rosicrucian Magic’ by Frater Acher

Rosicrucian Magic raises the question of what kind of balance must be struck in both the practice and the study of esotericism in general. Acher’s answer is in a phenomenological understanding of the Rosicrucian experience, of the initiatic moment, with all its intentionality, temporality, and intersubjectivity, we might well find a sympathetic understanding – the internal connections the modern initiate is attempting to achieve.

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‘Stranger in the Mask of a Deer’ by Richard Skelton
Original Peter Mark Adams Original Peter Mark Adams

‘Stranger in the Mask of a Deer’ by Richard Skelton

Stranger in the Mask of a Deer is, perhaps, the single most impactful sequence of thematically-linked poetry to have been written in the spirit and celebration of a pure and unadulterated paganism that I have encountered; one that combines its sinuous diction with an essential and ageless metaphysics.

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