Tag Archives: solomon

The Testament of Cyprian the Mage book launch at The Atlantis Bookshop on Mar 1st at 7pm

The Testament of Cyprian the Mage book launch for the new volume from Jake Stratton-Kent and Scarlet Imprint at The Atlantis Bookshop on March 1st, 2014 at 7pm may be of interest.

“The Testament of Cyprian the Mage is a two-volume work by Jake Stratton-Kent, comprehending The Book of Saint Cyprian and his Magical Elements and an elucidation of The Testament of Solomon. It is approximately 600 pages endowed with charts, tables and seals and is punctuated by specially commissioned pen and ink illustrations by Oliver Liebeskind.

This work draws upon these texts to create a clear understanding of the practice of grimoire magic, not as a discrete or degenerate subset of ceremonial magic, but one which is integrated with folk magic and witchcraft. In particular we discover a shared dramatis personae, the infernal pact, and a common terrain of Wild Hunt and Sabbat.

Within the text we encounter the Chiefs, Kings and Queens of the grimoire tradition; the magical role of the Decans and their stones and plants; lunar magic and magical animals; the gods of Time; the Sibyl and the Hygromanteia; Asmodeus and Oriens; Angelology, Theurgy, Conjunction and the Pact, the Angelic Vice-regent and thwarting Angels; Asclepius, Iamblichus and Neo-Platonism; Paracelsus and the Elemental Spirits; Necromancy, and the principles of spell work.”

“We will be celebrating the launch at The Atlantis Bookshop on Saturday 1st March and you are most welcome to attend. Please RSVP to this email if you are able to join us. If you cannot attend, but would like an Inscribed copy, please drop us a line and we will happily arrange that for you.”

Solomon’s Secret Arts

Solomon’s Secret Arts: The Occult in the Age of Enlightenment by Paul Kléber Monod, from Yale University Press, is a recent release that may be of interest [HT Arts & Letters Daily, also].

Paul Kléber Monod's Solomon's Secret Arts from Yale University Press

 

“The late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are known as the Age of Enlightenment, a time of science and reason. But in this illuminating book, Paul Monod reveals the surprising extent to which Newton, Boyle, Locke, and other giants of rational thought and empiricism also embraced the spiritual, the magical, and the occult.

Although public acceptance of occult and magical practices waxed and waned during this period they survived underground, experiencing a considerable revival in the mid-eighteenth century with the rise of new antiestablishment religious denominations. The occult spilled over into politics with the radicalism of the French Revolution and into literature in early Romanticism. Even when official disapproval was at its strongest, the evidence points to a growing audience for occult publications as well as to subversive popular enthusiasm. Ultimately, finds Monod, the occult was not discarded in favor of ‘reason’ but was incorporated into new forms of learning. In that sense, the occult is part of the modern world, not simply a relic of an unenlightened past, and is still with us today.”