Category Archives: Shamanism

Pagan Heart of the West III & IV

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The Pagan Heart of the West
Volume III “Rituals and Ritual Specialists”
& Volume IV “Christianisation” (two volumes bound together)
Randy P. Conner PhD
ISBN-13: 978- 1906958893
£20.00+p&p / US$28.00+p&p

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Get Pagan Heart of The West Quartet for only £65.00 postage free / UK

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In these third and fourth volumes, Pagan Heart focuses on ritual specialists, including shamans and witches, and on the campaign of Christianization.

The Pagan Heart of the West challenges current academic notions that paganism died when Christianization occurred; that the transition from paganism to Christianity was a fairly easy, nonviolent one; that persons once pagan were happy to accept the new religion because it fulfilled them or because they viewed it as superior – as if the Inquisition never happened; and that all things pagan are in fact Christian prior to the mid-twentieth century, even though they demonstrate little or no connection to the Christian New Testament. Likewise, Pagan Heart challenges narrow conceptions of “the West.”

Applying Indigenous and decolonial theories, together with Michel Foucault’s conception of subjugated knowledge, Pagan Heart suggests that instead, paganism should be explored as an ancient and indigenous set of common beliefs and practices, at once ubiquitous and local, that includes the reverence of deities; the veneration of nature; rites celebrating the seasons and the life cycle; practices of healing, divination, and magic, often guided by ritual specialists; and arts and philosophies giving expression to pagan figures, concepts, and narratives.

In this first of five volumes, Pagan Heart focuses on the utilization of theories that contest absolutist language supporting the so-called death of paganism; and on the worship and veneration of ancient deities and kindred beings. Like the other volumes, this volume demonstrates that paganism has not only persisted over the course of millennia but that it has also undergone metamorphosis and innovation.

Most importantly, Pagan Heart emphasizes that the ancient gods did not die when Christian authorities forbade their worship and sought, in N. Scott Momaday’s terms, to commit deicide, but instead that they continue to exist and thrive.

Randy P. Conner, Ph.D., is the author of several works on the intersection of gender, sexuality, mythology, and the sacred. He teaches Humanities, including World Mythology, in the Chicago area.

Upperworld

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Shamanism and Magick of the Celestial Realms
Chris Allaun

Upperworld: Shamanism and Magick of the Celestial Realms
Chris Allaun
ISBN: 978-1-906958-92-3
Format: Softcover
£15.00 / US$24.00
Subjects: Angels/Magick/Shamanism/Myths/Healing/Spirituality

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The stars glow with their own special magick in the nighttime sky. For millions of years, the stars sent their light down to the earth. The same stars and planets we see today are the same bodies of light that ancient shamans saw around their campfires. Countless generations looked into the night sky and wondered about the magick above. It was the shamans who travelled in spirit to the Upperworlds to discover the secrets of the Universe. There are many ancient beings in the above worlds that can help us learn about the energies of the Universe and transform our lives for healing, power, and spiritual evolution.

As we journey into the Upperworlds, we will learn about the creation of the Universe and the energies that were formed from the first burst of energy and light. Shamans saw that these energies formed into powerful beings. Some called these beings angels, others called them ascended masters. Each of these beings has a divine purpose in the Universe and we will unravel these mysteries. We will learn to spirit travel into the many heavens from many different cultures. We will visit the heavens that were told to us in myths, as well as discover hidden parts of the Universe that await our arrival. We will also learn about the gods and goddesses and how to honour them in our daily magical practice. The gods are powerful and they can grant us many blessings. Through our magical practice with the night sky, we will use the magick of the stars and planets to transform our lives and the physical world around us.

“Like those before him, Christopher Allaun steals a little bit of the fire of heaven and shares it with his readers. While the underworld might be more in vogue these days, he tackles the rich lore of the heavens, and shares practical teachings that can be brought down to Earth for when you want to seek the stars.”
– Christopher Penczak, Co-Founder of The Temple of Witchcraft and author of City Magick, The Witch’s Shield and The Mighty Dead.

“Chris Allaun’s new book, “Upperworld”, is a very interesting and informative read. Consistent with his previous work, Chris focuses on the myths, legends and spiritual teachings of an eclectic mix of cultures from around the world, giving insights into their ways of viewing the “higher” realms. Chris gives information on the Shamanic worldview and the place of the Upperworld within it, detailing techniques to access and explore its various realms. Drawing on diverse sources, he not only describes the denizens of the various realms of the gods, angels, stars, planets and kabbalistic worlds but gives practical information on how to make contact and interact with them. There are rites of worship, magic, devotion, astral projection and healing that not only give an insight into the practical working of pagan, Shamanic experience but enable the reader to experience these themselves and take their own journey along the Shamanic path. This is an accessible and approachable work, both for the newcomer to the subject and the more experienced practitioner alike; both will derive benefit from reading this book.”
–Nigel G. Pearson, author of Treading the Mill: Workings of Traditional Witchcraft and The Devil’s Plantation: East Anglian Lore, Witchcraft, and Folk-Magick.

“Ancient shamans didn’t spend all their time journeying through the hazards of the underworld. They also took time to explore the heavens (or “Upperworld”), to learn the mysteries of creation, healing, and magick directly from the gods. It is refreshing, in this time when goetia is given so much focus, to see the author’s exploration of the concepts and spiritual beings of the celestial realms. Just as important, his focus upon lore, legend, and mythology in developing a true understanding of and shamanic relationship with these beings is vital, and often missed in modern Western occult texts.”
– Aaron Leitch, author of Secrets of the Magical Grimoires: The Classical Texts of Magick Deciphered and The Essential Enochian Grimoire: An Introduction to Angelic Magick from Dr. John Dee to the Golden Dawn.

Check out Chris Allaun’s news, classes, workshops and other events-
Chris Allaun: Author, Teacher, Healer
https://www.facebook.com/chrisallaun.author/?rc=p

 

Deeper Into The Underworld

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Death, Ancestors & Magical Rites
Chris Allaun


Deeper into The Underworld
Death, Ancestors & Magical Rites
Chris Allaun
Format: Softcover
ISBN: 978-1-906958-82-4
£15.00 /US $24.00
Subjects: Shamanism/Magic/Healing/Afterlife/Death Customs/Spirits Communication/Spirituality.

Deeper into the Underworld we go…

The Underworld is home to our beloved ancestors, those who gave us our flesh and blood and our breath. Their blood flows through our veins and contains great magick and power. They have the ability to help us heal old karmic wounds of the past and aide us in our spiritual development. They can teach us many things about the world of spirit. All we have to do is honor them. All we have to do is call to them.

The cycles of Life are sacred to our pagan and magical cosmology, but what of Death? As we honor life, so, too, must we honor the sacredness of death and dying. As we go further in our Underworld studies, we will learn about the Angel of Death and energetic process of dying. Death is not the end. It is a magical transition into the world of spirit where we are rejoined with our beloved ancestors. The Ancestors are our link to our past. We will learn to honor them and create a sacred shrine so that we may commune with them in a magical and healing way. By honoring the ancestors, we will strengthen our bonds with the spirits and learn to heal our family karma that began long ago and affects us even today.

By learning to work with the ancestors, we will learn to work with the spirits of the dead for magick and healing. We will learn how ancient cultures summoned the beloved dead to heal grief and say final goodbyes. We will also learn magical techniques to summon the shades of the dead and the Hidden Company; those powerful spirits that can teach us ancient wisdom of long ago that can help us tread our spiritual path to find balance and healing.

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Read Alanna Wright’s review of Deeper Into the Underworld: Death, Ancestors and Magical Rites, published in Spiral Nature Magazine
www.spiralnature.com/reviews/deeper-into-underworld-chris-allaun/

Deeper Into the Underworld: Death, Ancestors and Magical Rites
by Chris Allaun
Mandrake of Oxford, 9781906958824, 203 pp., 2018.

”Chris Allaun has released Deeper Into the Underworld: Death, Ancestors and Magical Rites as a follow-up to his first book Underworld: Shamanism, Myth and Magick. In this book, Allaun brings to life, or rather life after death, the powerful practice of ancestral spirit worship and highlights the immense spiritual benefits that come from learning to commune with the deceased. The theme of death runs strong through the book yet Allaun has presented the material in such a way that allows the reader to open to the power of Underworld forces in much the same way as shamans, witches, and magicians have for countless centuries — with the knowledge needed to access this realm, courage to face the reality of death and wisdom to tap into the spiritual power of this domain.

Written in a very straightforward and easy-to-read style, Allaun provides the reader with real-life experiential advice on how to work with ancestors as part of their magical practices. He explains,

“Honoring the dead is one of the most important parts of spirituality. We often honor our gods and goddesses and even nature spirits, but sometimes forget the most important spirits to honor; our beloved dead. Our ancestors are our family. They are our grandmothers and grandfathers and our grandmothers and grandfathers before that. They hold an energetic and magical link to us. We may not realize it, but there is a current of power that goes from us to our ancestors and from them back to us. It is strong. It is powerful. Is it the bond of family.”

In no way does Allaun skimp on ideas for how to establish and strengthen this connection to our ancestors. He offers a variety of methods that can be easily incorporated into one’s magic to help the reader open the channel to commune with their ancestors. Detailed is the way to set up an altar, created sacred space and maintain a daily devotional practice to honour loved ones who have passed on. Allaun highlights the importance of sustaining an ongoing relationship with our ancestors, rather than only honouring them sparsely through the year, as the way to truly bring them into your home and spiritual life. In this way, we can begin to communicate with our ancestors about day-to-day happenings and this in turn provides nourishment for them and us alike.

The reader is reminded this is not a one-way relationship as our ancestors benefit too from our offerings to them in the Underworld. Allaun explains, “On an energetic level, what is happening is that our prayers open our minds, energies and our spirits to our Ancestors and higher beings to establish a strong and powerful connection. Through the connection we make with the spirits, they are able to use this energy and power to help our Ancestors evolve to a higher state of being.” Later in the book, Allaun ties in how we also carry ancestral patterns that we can transmute and heal by working with ancestors in the Underworld directly.

Beyond ancestral knowledge, this book is a rich resource for information on death rites, rituals, and cultural perceptions of death that have been carried through the ages. Allaun provides insightful understanding of the way death is portrayed today in comparison to how cultures of the past understood working with the Underworld, death, and the ancestors. These include pages on Egyptian embalming and also the Eleusinian Mysteries of Ancient Greece. By going back in time, the reader comes to understand how human’s cultural relationship to death has been worshipped, revered, and also feared throughout time.

Throughout the book, Allaun provides many mythological stories that highlight the importance of the Underworld spirits and knowledge of how to navigate this tricky realm. These include the story of Baldur’s dreams in Norse mythology, Those Who Come From The Mountains in Japanese and Shinto mythology and Asclepius and Diana bringing back the dead in Greco-Roman mythology. Allaun does an outstanding job of providing many cross-cultural narratives involving death, so the reader has a widened perspective of a variety of spiritual understandings of the Underworld. This includes a passage of the Ghost Dance of Native Americans from the Plains region of the United States, where they were able to perform this dance to summon their ancestors and gain a personal sense of empowerment through the connection.

In sharing his personal experience, Allaun works to dissolve the fear commonly associated with death and the Underworld. A fantastic aspect of the book is the fascinating meditations provided that can be applied in a ritual setting to gain insight into the energy of death, access the Underworld, and work with ancestors. These meditations include performing a eulogy at your own funeral, graveyard meditations, tracing back family karma through lineage, and connecting with ancestors in dreams, and tapping into the blood. For those who practice traditional witchcraft, Allaun includes a ritual to connect with the Hidden Company to seek their spiritual knowledge and also Ritual of the Rose Castle to connect with the Goddess of Death.

Allaun focuses on sharing with the reader how the misconception of working with the dead became linked to evildoing with rise of Judeo-Christianity. Yet, he is honest about the association that has existed between necromancy and black magickdea intended to harm others. While he does not advocate using ancestors or magical connections made to the deceased in this way, he does acknowledge the existence and possibility of the misuse of spiritual power, which include bringing the dead back to life.

Above all, Allaun maintains that it is of the utmost importance to treat the dead with the kindness the reader would show any guest in their home. This means being welcoming and never making unfair requests. While the ancestors can be strong magical allies, Allaun makes it clear that we should never force our ancestors to do things for us. It is important that honour is always maintained, as the spirits can communicate, and being disrespectful towards an ancestor could hinder future relations.

The information in the book covers what the reader would need to know on all fronts to begin establishing a spiritual connection with their ancestors. Allaun stresses the importance of carefully selecting the spirits with whom you share energy. He acknowledges that certain spiritual entities many want to ask favours or cling on to the reader in order to gain energy. While this does not always happen, Allaun has given the reader techniques that can be used to make sure the reader remains protected and the sacred space clear of unwanted energy. The information provided includes numerous measures of protection that range from simple techniques to create clear energy to elaborate banishing rituals. It is obvious that Allaun has the reader’s interest at heart and wants to provide the most honest and accurate account of the possibilities that can emerge from working with the energies of the Underworld to ensure the reader is prepared.

There are only a few downsides of note in regard to Deeper Into The Underworld. The first being quite a few spelling and grammatical errors scattered through the book that can be distracting. The other is that there is no reference section or bibliography provided, leaving the reader to research and verify the information themselves.

Overall, Deeper Into The Underworld: Death, Ancestors and Magical Rites is a great read for anyone who feels a connection to working with the deceased. There is much to be gained from tapping into the Underworld and bringing the wisdom of our beloved ancestors into the physical realm. Consider this a go-to book from which anyone with an interest in ancestral worship or necromancy would gain something.”

Underworld

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Shamanism, Myth, Magick
Chris Allaun

underworld-big-titlelr

Underworld
Shamanism, Myth, Magick
Chris Allaun
Format: Softcover
ISBN: 978-1-906958-76-3
£15.00 / US $24.00

USA Edition

UK edition

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– Synopsis –
The Underworld has always been thought of as a place of darkness and despair. Even today there are many misconceptions about what the Underworld is and what awaits inside. We will learn how different cultures around the world viewed the Underworld and the afterlife. Some cultures have there own unique perspective, but surprisingly, cultures that had no communications with each other form across the world had similarities. Can this be a coincidence? Most importantly, we will learn how to journey there in the astral and map this incredible world. But be careful! Along with its many wonders and beauty, there are things that lurk in the dark that myths throughout the ages have warned us about. But for the Shaman or witch, are these warnings to keep us away or teach us how to commune with these ancient spirits and creatures?

As we journey deeper into the Underworld, we will discover places where the long-forgotten dead will rekindle our spirit and teach us the ways of magick. They have been waiting for us and have much to say. We only have to sit and listen to the wisdom of ancient times. We will also discover places of healing and rejuvenation. Places where ancient hags guard magick wells and the waters of life and death spring from a source so old, no one remembers where it came from. Along with these wonderful and beautiful places, there are places most dark and dreadful, the Hellworlds. These are the areas of the Underworld that test your spirit and what you thought was reality. You may never be the same, but you will be transformed, renewed, and more powerful.

The Underworld is strange and wondrous and cannot be contained. Sometimes, those spirits of the dead will not be bound in such a place and stay in the world of the living. The poor lost spirits stay with us for a variety of reasons. You will learn why the spirits of the dead are still here and how to help them journey to a place of rest. You never know, a spirit of the dead may be right behind you…

”Chris Allaun’s book, Underworld: Shamanism, Myth, and Magick is truly a masterpiece. Chris has thoughtfully taken a huge subject and separated it into readable and manageable sections and chapters. He clarifies –What is the Underworld? Who resides in the Underworld? Where is the Underworld? and Why does it exist?” — all questions that have fascinated mankind since the beginning of time. And Mr. Allaun gives the reader exercises to deal with the dark side of the underworld, practical ways to cope with exploring one’s own fears and terrors, along with ways to help others. He also includes an extensive bibliography, something very useful. From psychologists to ceremonial magicians to spirit workers, to people just trying to navigate today’s complex world, Underworld creates a clear path full of information and help, to guide us through these often troubling times. I highly recommend this book!”
– Janet Barres

Cover art/design Amanda Manesis

Chris Allaun: Author, Teacher, Medicine Man

Shape-Shifters & Their Stories

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The Golem; Lilith; Werewolf; The Dybbuk; Silkie; and more
Michael Berman

Shape-Shifters & Their Stories
Michael Berman
Format: Softcover/192 pp, 24 fascinating Illustrations.
ISBN: 978-1-906958-66-4
£15.00 / US$24.00
Subjects: Folklore//Myths & Magic/Fairy Tales/Shamanism/Spirituality.

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“Long ago the trees thought they were really people
Long ago the mountains thought they were really people
Long ago the animals thought they were really people
Someday, they will say
Long ago the humans thought they were really people”
Constance O’Day-Flannery, Shifting Love


Shape-shifting is a common theme in mythology, folklore, and fairy tales. In its broadest sense, shape-shifting occurs when a being (usually human) either (1) can change its shape into that of another person, creature, or other entity or (2) finds its shape involuntarily changed by someone else. If the shape change is voluntary, its cause may be an act of will, a magic word or magic words, a potion, or a magic object. If the change is involuntary, its cause may be a curse or spell, a wizard’s or magician’s or fairy’s help, a deity’s will, a temporal change such as a full Moon or nightfall, love, or death. The transformation may or may not be purposeful.

The desire to be different in some way to match some ideal promoted through advertising has become an obsession, especially for vulnerable younger members of society. Perhaps the pressure to conform to some unrealistic ideal has always been with us, but surely not to the extent that now is the case. And it is this desire that helps to account for the current interest in shape-shifting as it would seem to provide a means of achieving the goal to bring about change. However, as many of the tales in this collection show, it is only by coming to terms with who we are that peace of mind can truly be ours again.

Sacred Mountains

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Stories of The Mystic Mountains
An Anthology
Michael Berman

Sacred Mountains
Stories of The Mystic Mountains
An Anthology
Michael Berman
Format: Softcover
ISBN: 9781906958220
£15.00 / US$24.00
Subjects: Shamanism/Mysticism/Spirituality/Myths & Legends.

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On the mountains of truth, you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

What mountains mean to me: in one word, awe-inspiring. Although we can measure them, our minds are incapable of actually grasping the very small or the very large things in nature: neither atomic particles nor astronomical distances. How big is a mountain, how much does it weigh? Our limited minds can only cope with subjective assessments such as how difficult is it to climb, how dangerous would an avalanche be? So the feelings it produces are awe, a little fear, and possibly exhilaration if and when we think that we have conquered the mountain – but in reality we never can.
~ Professor David Hunt

All the stories presented in this collection contain shamanic elements, so the obvious starting point is to explain what is meant by this. The term ‘shaman’ is a controversial one. Initially employed by early anthropologists to refer to a specific category of magical practitioners from Siberia, the term is now widely used to denote similar practitioners from a variety of cultures around the world. This application of an originally culture-specific term to a more general usage has caused problems with regard to definition, with disagreements among scholars over whether certain features, such as soul flight or possession, or certain types of altered states of consciousness, should or should not be listed among the core characteristics of shamanism.
(Wilby, 2011, p.252.)

Introduction
What are Mountains for you?
Soul Captivation on White Bone Mountain
The Magic Brush and the Golden Mountain
The Legend of Amirani
The Story of Jumping Mouse
The Children of Hamelin: A Shamanic Journey into Mount Poppenberg
The Crystal Clear Waters of Mount Elbruz
The Vision Quest, Mount Sinai, and a Dream Fulfilled
Mount Ararat
Mount Koya-san, the Hermit’s Cave, and Fujiyama
Sacred Towers
The Fool on the Hill and the Book of Mysteries
The Tobacco of Harisaboqued
The Princess of the Tower

Appendix:
The Baal Shem Tov –
Rabbi, Religious Formulator or Shaman?

***
cover photograph by Joe Page shows Rennes Le Château seen from castle of Rennes Les Bains.

—
Launch 17th of January 2012 at the Georgian Embassy the author will talk about this book and give a reading. Starting promptly at 7.30 pm. The event is free and Georgian wine will be served at no cost too. The address is 4 Russell Gardens, West Kensington, London W14 8EZ. The hall holds about 60 people and we are hoping for a full house.
—

*************************************************************************************
RESOURCES FOR THE SACRED MOUNTAINS EXPERIENCE
Arts & Culture, Folklore, Myths & Legends, Food & Drink.
*************************************************************************************

Tbilisi Opera & Ballet Theatre
www.opera.ge

*

Georgia Cradle of Wine
www.georgia.gov.ge/5225

*

TAMADA,
Authentic Georgian Restaurant,
122 Boundary Road, St John’s Wood,
London NW8 0RH, UK.
www.tamada.co.uk


*

Visual Magick

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A Manual of Freestyle Shamanism
Jan Fries

Visual Magick
A Manual of Freestyle Shamanism
Jan Fries
Format: Softcover
ISBN: 1869928571
£15.00 / US$24.00
Subjects: Sigil Magick/Runes/Shamanism/Chaos Magick

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Suitable for all those inspired by such figures as Austin Spare and Aleister Crowley, and who feel the imperative to develop one’s own unique magick way. Visual Magick aims to build vision, imagination, and creative magick. It shows how magicians, witches, artists and therapists can improve visionary abilities, enhance imagination, activate the inner senses, and discover new modes of Trance awareness. The emphasis is on direct experience and the reader is asked to think, act, do, and enjoy as s/he wills.

More information

Visual Magick began as a small treatise on sigil Magick and automatic drawing circulated privately amongst members of the Maat network and is written for practising mind explorers of the unorthodox variety.
Review for Pentacle Magazine www.pentaclemagazine.org by Kate Hoolu

‘No matter what the medium, a talented priest can communicate … without preaching or didacticism. Art shows rather than tells. All great artists function as priests, whether they think of themselves as priests or not.’

If you are an eclectic magickian or shaman or have any interest in Austin Osman Spare, this is a book for you. Spare said, “All desire, whether for pleasure, knowledge, or power, that cannot find ‘natural’ expression, can by sigils and their formula find fulfilment from the subconscious”. This book is at least in part a modern view of the sigil magick that derives from AOS. But it is much, much more.

Fries has written on several subjects, including the Tao and Rune magick, but this work shows very good awareness and ability with Spare’s techniques, cross-fertilised with some of the more well-known methods of shamanism and his own innovations; hence the subheading.

Fries makes the important point that sigils can not only be designed by the operator (for whatever magickal purpose) but also RECEIVED from entities too… and in those cases, there is often a useful secret to be discovered within the sigil: “it should be noted that, while the sentience behind these sigils appears independent, their aesthetics are usually suited to the personality of the receiver. The best kind contains a blend of known and unknown…half-revealed and half-concealed”. This also stands as a beautifully short summary of perhaps what Aleister Crowley and the Book of the Law are about- obviously it is in AC’s writing style, but has so much more within… And Kenneth Grant’s work on the Tunnels of Set is supposedly largely based on received sigils.

Regardless of the occult debate about whether these received messages derive from a neurological or a non-human source, which is not within the scope of this review, it makes perfect sense for them to appear in this ‘mixed’ manner. If they were completely incomprehensible they would be ignored, and if they were completely ordinary and fully known already, then they would be un-remarkable and pass from consciousness as quickly as yesterday’s newspaper headlines. The half-unknown element makes them all the more tempting and interesting to the magickian, like a partly open door…

Avalanches of really good points are made by JF, which are eminently sensible, humorous and useful. Not for him is gibberish pontificating about very fine points of obscure theory; his stance is very much of the Chaos magician- ‘get off your ass, find what works, use it and keep trying new things and get out of your conditioned tunnel realities, rather than relying on dogmatic magickal techniques that often descend from book to book, unchanged and without ever being challenged. He makes the very important point that you must allow yourself to make mistakes, and perceive them like that, and not as something else that is kinder to one’s often bloated magickal self-view:

‘Failure’ is recognized as a threat to ego… the same ego that so happily pretends to have divine power and authority… and so the whole thing is usually considered a ‘challenge’ or ‘ordeal’ in such cases- anything rather than accept that one might be wrong” – Indeed: in magick, strange things happen, to the point where, as Ramsey Dukes has said (somewhere): “cock-up is the word of the Aeon”

As the title suggests, there is a distinct artistic bent to this work, but you don’t ever need to have sketched anything before to be able to join in with this stuff – it’s not the quality of what you produce, it’s the intent of the experiment: Fries encourages everyone to experiment with drawing sigils, automatic writing etc, but in all of this to take credit or debit for the works created (and the results of using the sigil magick method): “Frequently people need to insist on the ‘automatic’ origins of their creations (and behaviour) when they dare not assume responsibility for them. It’s so much safer to claim ‘I can’t draw but sometimes the spirit of Leonardo comes over me …’ as if that spirit has nothing better to do!… It’s always easier to blame some spiritual agency than to assume the responsibility of recognizing and developing one’s own talents”

Having dealt at length with visual methods, Fries then describes ”Chaos language”, a kind of glossolalia, which can be seen as a way of making auditory sigils with the voice. The book is worth the cover price just for this part. Awesome! Jan Fries:- add him to the growing list of ”people we like”. Superb, inspiring book.’ – KH
‘One of the best books on magick I have read in a long while.’Pagan News

‘A practical modern grimoire.’- The Cauldron

Egyptian Shaman

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Nick Farrell

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Egyptian Shaman
Nick Farrell
Format: Softcover
ISBN: 978-1-906958-42-8
£15.00 / US $24.00
Subjects: Ancient Egypt/Egyptian Magick/Shamanism.
–
The spiritual traditions of Ancient Egypt are well documented and are at the forefront of the Western Mystery and Magical Tradition. But they are a gloss over a more primal “shamanic” tradition which gets to the essence of Nature and its relationship with humanity, life and death.

This book is a practical manual for those who wish to explore that primal spirituality using Egyptian symbolism. As Egypt was one of the village cultures, so Egyptian shamanism was one of the first to operate in an urban environment, making its techniques suitable for modern times.

Egyptian Shaman paints the picture of what it was like to be a village priest in Ancient Egypt before describing the practical techniques which would have been employed during those times. These techniques, which have never been revealed before, have been adapted for modern minds with the intention of making this a practical spiritual path.

The book controversially contains a chapter on exorcism and dealing with the dead, which many have claimed are subjects which should not be published. It shows how later Egyptian texts, such as the Book of the Dead, were Shamanic guide books to the Underworld.This is a book containing the keys to transmute,not only the self, but the whole planet.


THE AUTHOR
Nick Farrell is a writer and journalist based in Rome. After a lifetime in the Western Mystery Tradition, during which he was taught by some of the luminaries of the Esoteric World, including Marian Green, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, David Goddard and Chic and Tabatha Cicero, he founded the Magical Order of the Aurora Aurea, which is a worldwide traditional Golden Dawn Order. He has also written several books on esoteric subjects including the esoteric classic Making Talismans, Magical Pathworking, and The Druidic Order of Pendragon. He has also written Mathers’ Last Secret and King Over the Water which deals with the Golden Dawn tradition.

The Wanton Green
Edited by Gordon MacLellan
& Susan Cross

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The Wanton Green
Edited by Gordon MacLellan & Susan Cross
Format: Softcover
ISBN:
£14.99 / US$23.00
Subjects: Contemporary Pagan Writings/Paganism/Spirituality.

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As our relationship with the world unravels and needs to take a new form, The Wanton Green presents a collection of inspiring, provoking and engaging essays by modern pagans about their own deep, passionate and wanton relationships with the Earth.

“Where do we locate the sacred? In a place, a meeting, memory, a momentary glimpse? The Wanton Green provides no easy answers and instead, offers a multitude of perspectives on how our relationships with the earth, the sacred, the world through which we move are forged and remade.” – Phil Hine.

About the editors:

Gordon MacLennan is a shaman, storyteller and artist whose work sets out to find ways of celebrating the relationships between people, place and wildlife. Gordon’s books include Talking to the Earth, Sacred Animals and Celebrating Nature (all with Capall Bann), StarMatter and the Piatkus Guide to Shamanism.

Susan Cross is a poet, heritage and environmental interpretation consultant and occasional pirate. About a decade ago she realised that she has probably always been some kind of animist mystic and since then has endeavoured to make that a more conscious, clearer and brighter part of her life.

The Wanton Green: Contemporary Pagan Writings On Place. Edited by Gordon MacLellan and Susan Cross (Mandrake). Since the 1970s modern forms of pagan witchcraft (Wicca) and the neo-pagan movement have defined themselves by an engagement and involvement with ecology, the environment and ‘green’ politics with their adherents claiming to be following a ‘nature religion’. This is a collection of essays on the genii loci, or ‘spirit of place’ in the natural world written by various Wiccans and neo-pagans including Shani Oates, Rufus Harrington, Emma Restall-Orr, Melissa Montgomery, Jan Fries, Julian Vayne, Barry Montgomery, Barry Paterson, Susan Greenwood, Mogg Morgan and others. The contents range from an experience of the faery folk in Devon to a psychogeographical guide to ‘occult London’. If you are interested in the non-traditional neo-pagan approach to nature and the environment then this book is recommended. – The Cauldron #144, May 2012.