Sepher Yetzirah Magic by David Rankine

We are very pleased to announce the official release of Sepher Yetzirah Magic: Magic and Meditations derived from the first and greatest Qabalistic Work by renowned author David Rankine in paperback and ebook editions. The hardcover edition is expected in the warehouse on 9 November—all pre-orders will begin shipping then. The Kindle edition is available on Amazon.

David Rankine is an author, esoteric researcher and magician who lives in Glastonbury, England with his partner, artist and tattooist Rosa Laguna.  He has been making major contributions to the modern occult revival since the 1980s, through lectures, workshops, presentations, articles and books.  His esoteric expertise covers a wide range of topics, including the Western Esoteric Traditions, especially the Qabalah, the Grimoire tradition, Greco-Egyptian magic and Ceremonial Magic, as well as British Folklore and European Mythology.

David’s esoteric knowledge and scholarship can be seen in the thirty books he has authored, his essays in various anthologies, and hundreds of articles for magazines, journals, international part-works and websites.

His published work in recent years has been characterised by the publication of previously unavailable or inaccessible material on the grimoires and other areas of magic.  David has given lectures and facilitated workshops around the UK and Europe for the last three decades, concentrating on the subjects closest to his heart, including the Grimoire Tradition, Angelic Magic, Greco-Egyptian and Celtic Mythology and folklore.

Once again I must thank all of our customers for your support and enthusiasm for Hadean Press and the titles we release. You have kept us going through these dark times and we are deeply grateful.

ALWays,

Erze & Dis

Sepher Yetzirah Magic is a stand-alone work which requires no previous knowledge of Kabbalah, and presents a collection of practical magical and meditational techniques for solitary and group practice.

The Sepher Yetzirah stands as the foundation work of Kabbalah, a mystical and magical text which establishes the cosmology and roots of the tradition. The Sepher Yetzirah emphasises the symbol set of the Hebrew alphabet and expresses language as the liminal medium which unites emanation and manifestation. The divine force is given form in written language, the glyphs of letters being divine forms which act as receptacles of divine force and gateways to creating change. The expression of spoken language activates this divine force in innumerable permutations, expounded in this work through magical practices and meditational techniques drawn from the text and expressed through the voice of the practitioner.

From the Introduction:

Modern magical Qabalah, as with so many magical traditions, has changed greatly from its roots (in Jewish Kabbalah). I say changed not evolved, as the common presentation of Qabalah has narrowed its focus to such an extent as to exclude a huge body of significant works and material, and in so doing losing many useful techniques, ideas and perspectives.

As with many other magicians, my study of Qabalah began with works such as Fortune’s Mystical Qabalah and Mathers’ Kabbalah Denudata. The former work and Mathers’ lengthy introduction to the latter, combined with the correspondence tables popularized by Crowley in 777, have become the corpus of most modern Qabalah, centred around the glyph of the Tree of Life, and with an excessive focus on ‘path-working’ (i.e. guided meditations of inner mental landscapes).

Ongoing study inevitably leads back to earlier Kabbalistic texts, such as the Zohar, Bahir and Sepher Yetzirah. The Sepher Yetzirah is particularly important, not only for the wealth and quality of its text, but also in that it predates other Kabbalistic writings by many centuries, being the first known work on Kabbalah. Studying such texts opens a panoramic perspective from the narrow focus of modern Qabalah, and this work is offered with this in mind.

In Sepher Yetzirah Magic David Rankine covers the three Mother Letters, the seven Double Letters, the twelve Single Letters, the three Father Letters, and the 231 Gates, offering meditations, timings, and incense recipes, and a Rose Oil consecration.