Latest Books

CLOTH EDITION

* ISBN : 978-0-9568285-5-2

* Price : £39.95 (Approx US$65.00) plus P&P of £10.00 airmailed

* Pages : 208 H/B width d/w
* 70 illustrations, 22 half-tone plates
*25 x 18 cm

* Published: 30 November 2012

Feng Shui History

The story of Classical Feng Shui in China and the West
from 221 BC to 2012 AD

Feng Shui History tracks the evolution of feng shui in detail in China from 221 BC till the present day, and then its spread throughout SE Asia, and finally to the rest of the world in the last 35 years. This has never been done before in English. The only information on the history of feng shui occurs as scattered chapters in a number of books, but these books often repeat the same tired generalisations, and include many largely erroneous statements such as:

1. "Feng shui is 6000 years old." In fact the characters 'feng shui' were not used in this context before 320 CE. Even the older names (ti li, kan yi, etc.) for this practice do not occur in any surviving texts before 221 BC.

2. "Feng shui derives from the Yi Jing." In fact, apart from the 8 trigrams being used as basic directional indicators, no feng shui compass shows the 60 hexagrams till 1600 CE, and not the full 64 hexagrams till 1824.

3. "The feng shui compass derives from a magnetised spoon revolving on a plate." In fact this incorrect deduction made by Wang Chen-To in 1946 (and later reluctantly repeated by Needham) was completely discredited by several researchers in the 1990s.

This book has been meticulously researched, from authoritative Chinese texts and the analysis of many antique lo p'ans, and gives the real history of feng shui. It contains the biographical details of many masters, and tracks the developments and people involved in propagating feng shui in the US, UK, Europe and China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, in the 20th and 21st century, right up to date in 2012. It clearly shows the different feng shui methods and masters, and how they relate to each other.

CLOTH EDITION

* ISBN : 978-0-9557387-7-7

* Price : £59.00 (Approx US$96.00) plus P&P of £10.00 airmailed

* Pages : 680 H/B with d/w,
* Illustrations: 26 B/W

* Published: 28th September 2011

Dr John Dee's Spiritual Diaries (1583-1608)

Being a reset and corrected edition of a
True & Faithful Relation of what Passed for many Yeers between Dr John Dee...and Some Spirits...

Preface by Meric Casaubon
Edited by Stephen Skinner

This is a completely revamped and reader-friendly edition of A True & Faithful Relation of what passed for many Years between Dr. John Dee... and some Spirits, transcribed and prefaced by Meric Casaubon in 1659. Now edited by Stephen Skinner, with a detailed introduction, appendices, extensive footnotes, supplementary texts, additional illustrations, and a Dee timeline.

This book contains John Dee's Spiritual Diaries for 25 years (1583-1608), now made available for the first time in an organized and readable form. For any scholar or practitioner of magic, easy access to Dee's Enochian system is one of the most important parts of the Western Esoteric tradition. This book covers Dee's invocation of the angels, the reception of their Enochian system of magic, his experiments in alchemy, and experiences in the courts of the crowned heads of Europe.

This book has been totally re-set, re-formatted and updated, incorporating corrections from the original notes of Meric Casaubon, Elias Ashmole and William Shippen, with reference to the original manuscript written by Dee. Sections which were originally missing from Casaubon's edition have been added. Angels, spirits, people, places, dates and times have been fully footnoted, and many of Casaubon's errors corrected. The reader will find this a much more accessible entrance to the world of Dr Dee's conferences with angels and spirits, and a welcome improvement.

Stephen Skinner was responsible for initially stimulating the renewed interest in John Dee and Enochian magic by first re-publishing Meric Casaubon's True and Faithful Relation... in 1973.

CLOTH EDITION

* ISBN : 978-0-9568285-5-2

* Price : £39.95 (Approx US$65.00) plus P&P of £10.00 airmailed

* Pages : 308 H/B with d/w

* Due to be Published: 30th November 2012

Key to the Latin of Dr John Dee‘s Spiritual Diaries

The Key to the Latin is a full translation of the more than 50,000 words printed in Latin in Dee's Diaries originally published in 1659 by Meric Casaubon as A True & Faithful Relation..., and fully corrected and republished by Golden Hoard as Dr John Dee’s Spiritual Diaries (see above).

Many of the insights provided by this text have never been picked up, or remarked on, by Dee's biographers in the past. This volume should be read in conjunction with the edited version of Dee's Diaries, illustrated below, which is available direct from www.GoldenHoard.com or from Llewellyn Books Worldwide.

CLOTH EDITION

* ISBN : 978-0-9568285-0-7

* Price : £46.00 (Approx US$75.00) plus P&P of £10.00 airmailed

* Pages : 348, HB with d/w
* 57 Illustrations, many in colour
* 23 Tables

* Published: 28th September 2011
* SWCM : Vol. 8.

The Magical Treatise of Solomon or Hygromanteia

Translated and edited by Ioannis Marathakis
Foreword by Stephen Skinner

This is the true ancestor of the Key of Solomon. Containing the full translation of the Hygromanteia, a Solomnike. This book is sometimes called the Hygromanteia, and this book has hidden behind the mistaken idea that all of it is a work on water divination, a scholarly mistake that has hidden the true value of this book for centuries. Throughout history thousands of people have been fascinated by the grimoire the Key of Solomon. This is the original Greek book of magic that was the source of the Key of Solomon, and in turn the ancestor of most of the grimoire-based ceremonial magic practiced in Europe and the US today.

This is a ground-breaking work. For the first time (outside of a handful of pages in academic works) the full Greek original of the Key of Solomon appears in English.

Contrary to popular opinion the Key of Solomon was not translated from a Hebrew original. During the gradual decline and fall of the Byzantine Empire, this precious text, along with many others, was taken to Italy. This may even have happened when Constantinople was sacked in 1453. It is quite likely that it was taken to Venice, where parts of it were translated into Latin and Italian.

Abridged Latin copies entitled the Clavicula Salomonis circulated in Europe, going through many changes, languages and versions to become the Key of Solomon as we know it (some of those manuscripts are published as Volume IV of the present series). Now for the first time you can read the whole text (large portions of which were left out of the Latin translations) arranged clearly in the order in which it was meant to be read.

324 pages, 176mm x 250mm

52 illustrations + tables

many diagrams, 10 tables

Price: £39.95

(Approx US$65.00)

plus P&P of £10.00 airmailed

ISBN: 978-0-9557387-0-8

Published: 28th September 2011

Geomancy in Theory & Practice

Stephen Skinner

The most complete history of geomancy in any language.

Geomancy - divination by earth - ranks alongside the tarot, astrology and the I Ching as a major form of divination. Since the Renaissance it has largely fallen out of favour for want of generally available information on its practice. This is the first and most comprehensive book in English to cover the full historical background and practice of divinatory geomancy, and will therefore be invaluable to all those interested in divination, magic and astrology. It is the only complete history in any language, covering geomancy's various manifestations in different cultures, as well as being a practical manual showing how to cast and interpret geomantic figures.

Drawing on material from Latin, French, German and Arabic manuscript and book sources, Stephen Skinner explores the roots of geomancy in the Islamic raml divination of northern Africa, which lead to Fa, Ifa and voodoo divinatory practices on the West Coast and sikidy in Madagascar. He examines the impact Islamic geomancy had on medieval Europe, where it rose to prominence and became, after astrology, the prime method of divination. It even resulted in the creation of an amazingly complex brass 12th century geomancy calculator. The part it played in Renaissance thinking and in the great astrological revival of the nineteenth century is followed by an examination of its use in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and its declining influence in the twentieth century only to be revived again in the last decade. This western geomancy is not, and has nothing to do with, feng shui.

The second section of the book is concerned with the practice, manipulation and generation of geomantic figures as standardized in Europe, and gives practical examples as a guide to the interpretation and practice of the art. Also covers astro-geomany which relates astrology and geomancy as shown in the cover picture.

CLOTH EDITION

* ISBN : 978-0-9568285-2-1

* Price : £39.95 (Approx US$65.00) plus P&P of £10.00 airmailed

* Pages : 200, HB with d/w

* Illustrations : 13

* Published: 28th September 2011
* SWCM : Vol. 7.

Liber Lunae - Book of the Moon
& Sepher ha-Levanah

Edited by Don Karr
Translation by Calanit Nachshon

Liber Lunæ is a composite text containing three major sections:

• The Mansions of the Moon, describing the operations of the 28 constellations of the lunar zodiac, their magical virtues and their names.
• The Hours of the Day and Night, describing the operations of the 12 hours of the day and the 12 hours of the night, their names, virtues, talismanic images, and angels to invoke.
• The Figures of the Planets, describing each planet's magic square, virtue, suffumigation, magical directions, and inscription.

Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic Series - Volume VI

CLOTH EDITION

* ISBN : 978-0-9557387-3-9

* Price : £39.95 (Approx US$65.00) plus P&P of £10.00 airmailed

* Pages : 264 pages, 176 x 250mm, 5 illustrations, 2 tables

* Published September 2010

-------------------------------------------------

LIMITED EDITION

250 half leather hand bound

Price £72.00 P&P of £10.00

ISBN: 978-0-9557387-5-3

Sepher Raziel – a 1564 grimoire

Don Karr & Stephen Skinner

Sepher Raziel - also called Liber Salomonis — is a full grimoire in the Solomonic tradition from a rare sixteenth century English manuscript. It is completely different from the Sepher Raziel ha-Melakh published by Steve Savedow, and is the oldest grimoire so far published in the Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic series, and shows clear signs of it Hebrew and Greek roots, quoting both Solomon and Hermes.

It contains seven treatises:

• Clavis, concerned with astrology and its use in magic, with precise interactions between planets, Signs, and Houses;
• Ala, outlining the magical virtues of stones, herbs, and animals;
• Tractatus Thymiamatus, which deals with incense, and perfumes used in the Art;
• Treatise of Times detailing the correct hours of the day for each operation;
• Treatise on Preparations on ritual purity, and abstinence;
• Samaim, on the different heavens and their angels; and finally,
• Semiforas or a Book of Names and their virtues and properties, being seven semiforas attributed to Adam and seven semiforas attributed to Moses.

Sourceworks of Ceremonial Magic Series - Volume V

CLOTH EDITION

200 Copies

96 pages, 176mm x 250mm

11 full colour illustrations,1 table

Price: £39.95

(Approx US$65.00)

plus P&P of £10.00 airmailed

ISBN: 978-0-9557387-1-5

Published: 2009

The Grimoire of St. Cyprian - Clavis Inferni

Stephen Skinner & David Rankine

The Grimoire of St. Cyprian - There have been many grimoires attributed to St. Cyprian of Antioch due to his reputation as a consummate magician before his conversion to Christianity, but perhaps none so intriguing as the present manuscript.

This unique manuscript (unlike the more rustic examples attributed to St Cyprian of the Black Books of Wittenburg as found in Scandinavia, or the texts disseminated under his name in Spain and Portugal) is directly in line with the Solomonic tradition, and therefore relevant to our present series of Sourceworks of the Ceremonial Magic.

It is unique in that instead of being weighed down with many prayers and conjurations it addresses the summoning and use of both the four Archangels, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel as well as their opposite numbers, the four Demon Kings, Paymon, Maimon, Egyn and Oriens. The later are shown in their animal and human forms along with their sigils, a resource unique amongst grimoires.

The text is in a mixture of three magical scripts, Greek, Hebrew, cipher, Latin, (and reversed Latin) with many contractions and shortforms, but expanded and made plain by the editors. The title of the manuscript, Clavis Inferni sive magia alba et nigra approbata Metratona, literally means ‘The Key of Hell with white and black magic as proven by Metatron’.

100 pages, 176mm x 250mm

Price: £39.95

(Approx US$65.00)

plus P&P of £10.00 airmailed

ISBN: 978-0-9557387-2-2

Published: 2010

Michael Psellus on the Operation of Dæmons

translated by Marcus Collisson. Introduced by Stephen Skinner

Michael Constantine Psellus (1018 – 1178 C.E) was one of the most notable writers and philosophers of the Byzantine era. The Byzantine domain was effectively the eastern Greek speaking part of the Roman Empire centred on Byzantium (Constantinople, modern Istanbul) which split off from the Latin West in 364 C.E. Its intellectual legacies helped lay the foundations for the Italian Renaissance.

It was the fall of Constantinople in 1453 that released a tide of Greek reading scholars into Western Europe, particularly Venice. With them came much of the magical and Hermetic knowledge which the Greeks in their turn had inherited from the Egyptians. The Key of Solomon was one such text. It is therefore essential to the understanding of such magical texts that one understands exactly how the Byzantines understood the nature of daemons. Psellus forms the bridge between the ancient world, Byzantine Greek, and the grimoire conception of the nature of daemons.

Hailing from Constantinople, Psellus’ career was an illustrious and practical one, serving as a political advisor to a succession of emperors, playing a decisive role in the transition of power between various monarchs. He became the leading professor at the newly founded University of Constantinople, bearing the honourary title, ‘Consul of the Philosophers’. He was the driving force behind the university curriculum reform designed to emphasize the Greek classics, especially Homeric literature. Psellus is credited with the shift from Aristotelian thought to the Platonist tradition, and was adept in politics, astronomy, medicine, music, theology, jurisprudence, physics, grammar and history.

The Veritable Key of Solomon

Stephen Skinner & David Rankine

The Key of Solomon is the most important and influential of all European grimoires. This is the most beautiful and detailed version of this grimoire ever published. With a comprehensive introduction by Stephen Skinner and David Rankine. This is a book that every practicing magician or scholar of the occult must have. The source is two French manuscripts scribed for a French aristocrat in 1796. This is not the earliest, but it is the most detailed version of the Key of Solomon. The book contains three separate versions of the Keys, in order to cover as much of the material as possible. It is much more complete than the Mathers’ edition. It includes a full commentary on all the 144 extant manuscripts of this grimoire, including illustrations from the earlier Greek manuscript precursor of the Key of Solomon, which is also published by Golden Hoard (see The Magical Treatise of Solomon elsewhere on this site).

NB: there are TWO editions of this book, one in the US and one in the UK. Both have 448 pages, and the same text content, but the US edition is black & white, while the UK edition is printed in Colour.

1. UK version with all the pentacles in full colour as in the original manuscript published by Golden Hoard Press.

448 pages, 176mm x 250mm
US$65.00
ISBN: 978-0-7387-1453-0

Published in the US by Llewellyn, and available from your usual US supplier.

2. US version published in black and white by Llewellyn.

A Complete Compendium of Classical feng shui

448 pages

hardback with dust jacket

65 tables, 174 illustration

32 colour pates

Price: £46.00

reduced to £39.95

ISBN: 978-0-9547639-9-2

Guide to the Feng Shui Compass or lo p'an :

a Compendium of Classical feng shui. Including a history of feng shui, a detailed description of 75 rings of the lo p'an, and a feng shui time line.

Stephen Skinner

Material never before available in English…and difficult to find even in Chinese

How to read the San He and San Yuan lo p'an, with an explanation of each ring in detail, the history and background of feng shui and the lo p'an (luo pan).

This large book is 448 pages in size, and packed with detailed information which is very clearly explained, so that after reading it anyone should be comfortable reading even the most complex lo p'an. This book is the result of 30 years of research and practice. More than 50 rings are illustrated, tabulated, and classified by Plate and School, with their use and history. Anyone reading the book can go from being a complete novice to complete familiarity with any lo p'an, ancient or modern that they may pick up. It clearly explains for the first time in English how feng shui developed and the relationship between the San He and San Yuan Schools.

There are 65 Tables, 174 illustrations, and 32 full colour plates. These include rare pictures and analyses of Ming and Ch'ing (Qing) dynasty lo p'ans.

Every technical term, book title, or person's name, is carefully footnoted in traditional Chinese characters with supporting pinyin and Wade-Giles transliterations. There is a also a detailed feng shui history time line.

The book may not be available through bookstores.

"No Classical feng shui practitioner can afford to be without this book.”

Partial List of Contents

A Short History of Feng Shui

History of the Compass - Misconceptions

The Shih Board

The Chai Ching Earth Plate

Reading the Lo P’an

How to Align the Lo P’an

Tricks of the Trade

How to Buy a Lo P’an

Physical Structure of the Lo P’an

The Rings of the Lo P’an

Rings, Plates and Needles

Mistaken Western Identifications

The 4 Seasons and Celestial Animals

The 8 Mountain Killings or yao sha

The 8 Wandering Stars of the 8 Mansions

The 9 Flying Stars or fei hsing

The 9 Numbers of the Lo Shu

The 10 Heavenly Stems or t’ien kan

The 12 Earthly Branches or ti chih

The 12 Jupiter Years or tz’u

The 12 Life Stages Palaces or kung

The 12 Provincial divisions or fen yeh

The 12 Sovereign Hexagrams or p’i kua

The 12 Yellow Springs or huang ch'üan

The 24 Heaven Stars or t'ien hsing

The 24 Mini-Seasons or chieh ch’i

The 24 Mountains or shan

The 24 Robbery Sha or chieh sha

The 28 Lunar Mansions or hsiu

The 60 Earth-Penetrating Dragons or tou ti lung

The 60 Root Hexagrams or pen kua (San He)

The 60 Sexagenary Combinations or chia tzu

The 60 Uneven Dragons or ying so

The 64 Hexagrams or kua

The 72 Mountain-Piercing Dragons

The 120 Golden Divisions or fen chin

The 240 Golden Divisions or fen chin

The 360 new Western degrees or hsien tu

The 365.25 Chinese day-degrees or tu

The 384 Hexagram lines or kua yao

The 940 Degrees of the Complete Calendar or shou shih li

The ‘Alphabet’ of Feng Shui

Chinese Dynasties and Feng Shui Chronology

The Schools of Feng Shui

Catalogue of Common Lo P'an Rings

The Complete Magician's Tables

Stephen Skinner

The Complete Magician's Tables These more than 800 magical tables are the most complete set of tabular correspondences covering magic, astrology, divination, Tarot, I Ching, Kabbalah, gematria, angels, demons, pagan pantheons, religious and mystical correspondences ever printed. They are more than four times larger and more wide ranging than Crowley’s Liber 777.

The source of the data in these tables ranges from unpublished manuscript mediaeval grimoires and Kabbalistic works, Peter de Abano, Abbott Trithemius, Albertus Magnus, Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Dr John Dee, Dr Thomas Rudd, Tycho Brahe, MacGregor Mathers (and the editors of Mathers’ work, Aleister Crowley and Israel Regardie),  to the most modern theories of prime numbers and atomic weights. The sources include many key grimoires such the Sworn Book, Liber Juratus, the Lemegeton (Goetia, Theurgia-Goetia, Almadel, Pauline Art), Abramelin, and in the 20th century the grimoire of Franz Bardon.

All this material has been grouped and presented in a consistent and logical way covering the whole Western Mystery tradition and some relevant parts of the Eastern tradition.

Partial List of Contents

Alchemy and Alchemists

Angels: Biblical and Gnostic

Astrology: Zodiac, Planets, Decans, Mansions

Fixed Stars and Constellations

Buddhist Meditation

Colour Scales

Demons

Dr John Dee’s Angels

Emblems

Feng Shui and Taoist Magic

Gematria

Geomancy

Grimoires

Herbs

Isopsephy

Kabbalah

Letters, Alphabets & Numbers

Magic and Sorcery

Natural Magic: Plants, Stones

Orders, Grades and Officers

Pagan Pantheons     

Perfumes & Incenses

Planetary & Olympic Spirits

Questing and Chivalry

Sacred Geometry     

Tarot

Timeline: Magicians, Kabbalists, Alchemists, Astrologers, Knights Templar

Vedic and Hindu Meditation and Magic

Wheel of the Year: Hours, Months, Seasons, Festivals

Yi Jing / I Ching

The Goetia of Dr Rudd

Stephen Skinner & David Rankine

The Goetia is the most famous grimoire after the Key of Solomon. This volume contains a transcription of a hitherto unpublished manuscript of the Lemegeton which includes four whole complete grimoires:

Liber Malorum Spituum seu Goetia

Theurgia-Goetia

Ars Paulina (Books 1 & 2)

Ars Almadel

This manuscript was owned by Dr Thomas Rudd, a practicing scholar-magician of the early seventeenth century. There are many editions of the Goetia, of which the most definitive is that of Joseph Peterson, but here we are interested in how the Goetia  was actually used by practising magicians in the 16th and 17th century, before the knowledge of practical magic faded into obscurity.

Many practical techniques used in the past have since been forgotten. The authors restore these using Dr. Rudd's manuscript. For example, to evoke the 72 demons listed here without the ability to bind them would be foolhardy indeed. It was well known in times past that invocatio and ligatio,  or binding, was a key part of evocation, but in the modern editions of the Goetia this key technique is expressed in just one word  ‘Shemhamphorash’, and its use is not explained.

This volume explains how the 72 angels of the Shemhamphorash are used to bind the spirits, and the correct procedure for safely invoking them using dual seals incorporating the necessary controlling Shem angel, whose name is also engraved on the breastplate and Brass Vessel.