Paralibrum.
Independent reviews of bibliophile occulture.
‘IO Typhon’ by Harper Feist
From within its pages beats the vibrant presence of the encounters from which this book was born. This typhonic pulse is as unmistakable in Harper Feist’s book as it is in the works of Austin Osman Spare, Andrew Chumbley, Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule, or Gast Bouschet. IO Typhon is a donkey’s skull your thoughts feed with blood while reading.
‘Two Esoteric Tarots’ by Peter Mark Adams and Christophe Poncet
I would recommend this publication to anyone with an interest in the tarot, and it works well as both an introduction to the historical, cultural, and spiritual contexts of both the Sola-Busca and Tarot de Marseille. It is a triumph of two passionate and sincere researchers and a genuine benefit to an audience within and without the magical community – perhaps even art critics.
‘IO Typhon’ by Harper Feist
IO TYPHON is an exemplary literary and theurgical text; a striking and original expression of contemporary esoteric thought and praxis that unfolds in eight distinctive movements. Its combination of subject (the draconian current) and context (that of ritual invocation) provides compelling subject matter.
‘Blackthorn – Whitethorn’ by Nigel G. Pearson
The underscoring theme of Blackthorn Whitethorn is that precise in-betweenness, the position of not-this not-that (Sanskrit Neti-Neti), a concept and means of apprehending that is as elusive as the roebuck being pursued — or that pursues us — and as thorny as the entangled thicket. This concept — arguably a fundamental ethos of witchery — demands that we adopt an alternate way of approaching, through poetic inference; for it is ineffable in the truest sense, and thence a Nameless Art.
‘Goêtic Atavisms’ by Frater Acher and Craig ‘VI’ Slee
This book requires multiple readings to understand how deftly the various sections gel together, despite their differences, or because of them. “What you did as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Therein lies the key to your earthly pursuits” (C.G. Jung). This is one such puzzle of a book with which you could have hours of pleasure.
‘Cloven Country’ by Jeremy Harte
Cloven Country is several things at once; a travelogue of Devilish spoor, a meditation on the way landscape affects the human imagination; a historical feeling-out of folk-religiosity, word of mouth – and the way human changes in society and culture are reflected in the stories we tell ourselves.
‘Magic in Merlin’s Realm’ by Francis Young
No matter one’s views on politics, monarchies and the like, this book may very well start one wondering who exactly benefits from the myth of disenchantment, while at the same time surrounding us with images and branding drawn from the wildest dreams of propagandists, spin doctors and advertisers.
‘Hagia Sophia’ by Peter Mark Adams
Hagia Sophia Sanctum of Kronos: Spiritual Dissent in an Age of Tyranny is Peter Mark Adams’ third book in a series of writings on classical initiation and its survival into the Renaissance. According to Adams, the Hagia Sophia itself is the incarnation of the most important ideas of Hellenistic theurgy, or spiritual practice wherein identification with, and even possession by one’s chosen devotional deity was the ideal.
‘ANARCH’ by Gast Bouschet. Reviewed by Peter Mark Adams.
In essence, ANARCH documents an ongoing process of profound personal transformation mediated by a four year long retreat in a forested landscape. Captured in fine writing and immersive photography, I cannot sufficiently commend the profundity of conception and execution that characterises this work.
‘ANARCH’ by Gast Bouschet. Reviewed by Frater Acher.
ANARCH brings the spirit of Beuys down into chthonic depths; brings it to lie beside us, as it were, in a sacrificial pit. From there, Gast’s book buries us alive, takes us on a satanic–alchemical journey to leave us injured, wounded, and fully given over to transience as undead revenants in the 21st century in new and diabolical forms.
‘Effigy: of Graven Image and Holy Idol’ by Martin Duffy
Effigy is at first a rather daunting proposition and one is left wondering how the subject can be expanded into such a thick tome. However, the thoroughness of Duffy’s research and study, his diligent fact-finding and investigation into the historic and contemporary practical use of the idol is superb, revealing how mammoth a subject it actually is – masterfully handled and treated with care and consideration.
‘Nazarth: Pillars of Gladness’ by Alexander Cummins
[…] As Cummins suggests, the calls and figures as a whole might be deployed for various sorcerous reasons. Yet if there is one thing that remains constant with poetry, it is the ardency with which it is performed that makes it so evocative – even spoken softly, gently, soothingly, in tones of intimacy and friendship, there must be enthusiasm.
‘Against the Grain’ by Prema Goet
I recommend the devouring of this book, and a warning of side effects may also seem in order. What we hold in our hands here is immensely valuable from multiple perspectives. From the modern goês’ vantage point, Prema Goet offers us a veritable anti-grimoire. A book that contains no grammar, but pure visual poetry.
‘A Guide to the Zohar’ by Arthur Green
After more than twenty years of study of practical Kabbalah outside authentically Jewish circles, I commend Green's book as both the best written for beginners and a much-needed corrective for most advanced practitioners. May it appear on the bookshelves and curricula of all magical orders far ahead of the works of Adolphe Franck, Mathers, Crowley, or Papus.
‘How to Become a Modern Magus’ by Don Webb
Don Webb’s ‘How to Become a Modern Magus’ poses three interesting questions with its title. What is a Magus, what is magic, and is there a difference between a Magus and a Modern Magus? (…) A book that teaches all that deserves to be read, to be used and to be applauded!
‘Holy Heretics’ by Frater Acher
Frater Acher writes with very deliberate care for the reader. In a sense, this is a book about character, in terms of the symbols we use (and which also use us) to contour our perception and experience. It is also a study in contrasts, in order to explore what the author calls “the rainbow path” – which requires seeing through and behind caricatures. Whether those caricatures are those of the fanatical Christian extremist, the dissolute pagan, or the saintly hesychast, all are examined here with remarkable even-handedness.
‘Living Magic: Contemporary Insights and Experiences from Practicing Magicians’ by Frater U∴D∴ et al.
Living Magic is a most unusual book, and yet it should not be. As its subtitle says, it is a book entirely entrenched in and geared towards magical practice. Specifically, it breathes the kind of magic that does not walk cloaked in centuries of tradition, in garments of cryptic symbols and dead languages, peacock-like strutting out in leather-binding and emblazoned in claims of ancient lineages. Instead Living Magic is epitomising the kind of magic that nakedly stares you in the face and bluntly punches you in the stomach.
‘Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination’ by Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Hanegraaff's voice is not the only voice present in his text. As an attempt to produce a new narrative, I am not qualified to judge its effectiveness, but perhaps as a spell, I would hazard that it is more successful than not, for it leads to contemplation, and from there, perhaps the logos may lead the reader to that seeming boundary-cum-precipice where the curved-beak smile and tip of the hat may be taken as an opportunity to do the work.
‘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.
‘Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene’ by Donna J. Haraway
Haraway invites us, as readers, to spectate-and-speculate with the experiences she records and links together. It is not passive, but a participatory role which invites us to speculate-with-Haraway about our own experience. We are presented with the author’s oddkinnery and perhaps may begin to conceive of ourselves tentacularly; touched, grasped, tasted-with, made and making-with things beyond the boundaries of what we consider human or person in our lives.
