We’re pleased to announce that Conjure Codex Issue 2 is now available. We’d like to thank those of you who pre-ordered. As a micro-press it’s our customer’s ongoing support that allows us to bring you varied and interesting new works. We are very grateful to the overwhelming response to this second issue and hope you all enjoy it and are looking forward already to the next one.
Next up is the long awaited Kissing the Devil’s Ass.
On 19 April the emerald issue of CONJURE CODEX bursts forth as green shoots of spring, thrusting up through the decay of western civilisation. Here we reveal the taproots of magic in a celebration of flourishing traditions, both old and new.
The enclosed articles do double duty; they are sufficient unto themselves while providing insights relating to wider topics. Susanne Iles elucidates the Grimoire of Armadel, an important text for which Mathers only consulted one manuscript. Here Susanne explains the omissions in the published text; note too the importance of the ‘First Character’ to the ritual process, mirroring the True Grimoire. Alexander Cummins, writing on the purifying herbs of the latter grimoire, demonstrates further inter-relatedness while his articulate commentary sets a benchmark for other authors. The blue grimoires, wrongly neglected by a previous generation of occultists, receive ample attention in this issue, with material relating to both the Petit Albert and Saint Cyprian. Two articles in this collection depict the quandary of urban magicians, offering solutions and implications. Meanwhile, the New World traditions are amply served by an account of Jesus Malverde, the so-called ‘narco saint’, and new magics are served by Kent Cockerell’s tale of cutting out deadweight, and what can grow when we do. Finally, the ancient roots of Western magic are represented by a readable and briefly commented version of the Testament of Solomon. This foundation text of Solomonic magic, a major portion of Western magic in general, is important in many respects; its C6th roots demonstrate the critical role of the ancient synthesis in shaping Western magic.
Becoming the Green Mystery
Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold
Jesus Malverde: Angel of the Poor
Jamie Alexzander
The Grimoire of Armadel: A Meeting with Betel
Susanne Iles
The Testament of Solomon
with an introduction by Jake Stratton-Kent
The Grimoire of Saint Cyprian or The Prodigies of the Devil
Translated and with an introduction by José Leitão
The Love Spells of the Petit Albert
Translated and with an introduction by Talia Felix
Cities of Life and Death
Gavin ‘The Fox’ Marriner
Against the Interim: A Guide to Cutting Out Bureaucracies with Cut-Up, Trance, and Pain
Kent Cockerell
The Three Purifiers: The Asperging Herbs of the True Grimoire
Alexander Cummins
The Saint, the Magus, and the Devil
Humberto Maggi
We are very pleased with this second issue of Conjure Codex, the ‘emerald’ issue, signifying a loose theme that developed shortly after we arrived in France at the beginning of last year, when our chrysopoeia resulted not so much in gold as it did green. Le monde vert exploded around us, offering new plant allies, clear night skies, and a binding connection to the spirits of this land. This issue is for them.
We hope you’ll support our small press by taking advantage of the pre-order option. This title will begin shipping on 19 April, 2013.
Conjure Codex Volume 1 Issue 2
ISBN 978 1 907881 29 9
Pb. 200 pages
Full Colour
We’re a bit late with this announcement–the holidays swept over us and carried us away to a land of feasting and drinking. We hope everyone had a joyous new year, and that the new year treats you all kindly.
December 27th saw the release of The Spellbook of Marie Laveau: The Petit Albert, available in hardback and digital editions. This title can be ordered directly from us at Studio Circle Six, or from other sellers online. Kindle users can also find it on Amazon.
The Petit Albert is a collection of recipes, talismans, and occult secrets attributed to several authors, chief among them Paracelsus, and compiled by a pseudonymous narrator who stresses that the secrets contained therein “do not in any way surpass the occult powers of nature; that is to say, of any of the known beings that are scattered throughout this vast universe, which are in the skies, in the winds, on the land and in the waters.” This cautious reminder did not change the opinion of the Catholic Church in regards to the Petit Albert–it was a book of black magic and therefore to be avoided at all costs, an attitude which assured the book’s popularity among nobles, farmers, and priests alike.
From its first printing, the Book of the Fantastical Secrets of the Petit Albert made its way into the most rural of French hamlets and eventually to the colonies beyond, where it became a great success in the Caribbean and North America–especially in Québec in the north and in New Orleans in the south. It is there that the Petit Albert was almost certainly used by the hoodoo and voodoo practitioners of the nineteenth century, including the Voodoo Queen herself, Marie Laveau.
In The Spellbook of Marie Laveau: The Petit Albert, translator Talia Felix presents the full text of the Petit Albert in the English language, and offers a compelling argument that the Petit Albert was most likely one of the spellbooks in Laveau’s arsenal, if indeed she was literate at all. At the very least, as Ms. Felix states in her introduction to the book, “it presents a period-correct view of the sort of magical knowledge that was likely to have influenced the real and genuine life and works of the famous Marie Laveau, and of New Orleans Voodoo as a whole.”
Like you, were are patiently waiting for the release of The Spellbook of Marie Laveau: The Petit Albert. We know we cannot release this book into the world until we’ve held the proof copy in our hands, but we also know that proof will be with us shortly. And today, for the first time in a number of days, the sun is shining here in our part of France. This has made us happy, and we’d like to pass some of that onto you.
We are therefore offering you the opportunity to pre-order The Spellbook of Marie Laveau: The Petit Albert — from now until midnight on the 26th of December, we are offering free shipping on this title to anywhere in the world. Please note, this title will not ship until its official release date of 27 December, 2012, when this offer will end.
The Spellbook of Marie Laveau: The Petit Albert does not yet appear in our catalogue. It can be pre-ordered directly from Hadean Press at Studio Circle Six.
This month will see the release of an English language edition of The Petit Albert, translated from the French by Talia Felix, author of The Conjure Cookbook and Conjurin’ Ole Time, who offers a compelling argument for the Albert‘s use by the Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau. Our thanks goes out to S. Aldarnay for redrawing the talismans inside, and for helping us clean up the rest of the images to present a clear, English edition of this famed grimoire.
We are currently waiting for the proof to land. Once it passes inspection, the book will be released in two editions: a hardback with dustjacket, and as an ebook in both mobi and epub formats.
We hope you enjoy reading (and using) the book as much as we have working on it. More information will follow soon.
More than one year ago we promised to make our Guides to the Underworld available in digital formats. We are very pleased to announce that we have fulfilled that promise.
Our Guides to the Underworld can now be purchased as .epub and .mobi editions. These editions are distinguished from the print editions by their red covers. The interiors are the same, and include all of the tables and images found in the print versions.
Currently 17 of our 21 Guides have been converted. The remaining titles will follow next week. Unless requested, we will not be converting Grimoire of the Sixfold Star as we do not believe the tables included in that pamphlet will translate well to digital format.
In addition to the Guides, we have also released Verse vs Nothing in a digital edition. This book was first released as a limited, handbound edition. The author requested we digitise the book to make the content more widely available. This title can now be purchased in .epub and .mobi formats.
We hope you enjoy these digital offerings from Hadean Press, and thank you as always for your patronage.
We are exceptionally pleased to announce the release of Alexander Cummins’ groundbreaking work…
Seventeenth-century England was a turbulent place to live. It was a century of civil wars, regicide, food riots and plague — a time of millenarian prophets and threatening witches, of radical sects and experiments in Commonwealth.
It was a revolutionary period. The lifting of printing press censorships created a veritable explosion of printed materials: from popular almanacs and calendars to handbooks of do-it yourself medicine, from vulgate Bibles to tomes of new, investigative natural philosophy and grimoires of occult science and ritual magic.
In the midst of all this, the astrologer-magicians of seventeenth-century England drew their charts of the heavens, divining answers and prescribing magical medicines.
In The Starry Rubric, Alexander Cummins shows how astrology and magic offered analysis, interpretation, and solutions — locating humanity in a shifting web of interrelation with the stars and, indeed, the cosmos as a whole. Through analysis and example, Cummins demonstrates the ways in which astrology and magic were crucial to early modern perspectives on human life, time, and meaning.
Alexander Cummins obtained his undergraduate and masters degrees in History at the University of Leeds. He is currently conducting his doctoral research into early modern magic and the emotions, as well as teaching at the University of Bristol.
He is Head of the Department of Historical Magic at Arcanorium College, as well as a published performance poet who runs creative writing workshops around the UK. He has written on topics ranging from 2012-centred apocalypse narratives to histories and philosophies of the cut-up technique.
Thanks to the dream hosting team and their support, the Studio Circle Six website is back online — just in time for the release of The Starry Rubric later this week. If you’ve sent a message to us via that website, please give us a day or two to answer as we’re swamped.
Thank you!
A kind customer let us know that the Studio Circle Six website (where our products can usually be purchased) is currently down. This is due to an internal server change and our host’s support team is aware of the issue. We can’t say when it will be resolved (soon, we hope), but we will report in when the site is working again.
If you placed an order with us before the site went down, please don’t worry. Your order has been logged and will be shipped out next week.
Thank you for your patience and continued support.
Erze & Dis
Now that we’re home, we are pleased to release our latest Guide to the Underworld: Saint Gabriel the Archangel by S. Aldarnay. This Guide made its first appearance at the Day of the Dead in Glastonbury, and due to the success of Aldarnay’s The Pentacles of Solomon, sold out almost immediately.
As a messenger of God, Gabriel is considered the patron saint of all aspects of communication, and is also one of the patrons of messengers and all people who relay information. In the hoodoo magical system, he can be called on to assist in matters of fertility and conception, and for help with dream interpretation and psychic matters. This pamphlet contains recipes for baths, mojo bags, and oils for working with the Archangel Gabriel, as well as an overview of his history and prayers and litanies to petition this most powerful saint.