Can Occult Books Be Still Powerful? Fine Editions and Strategies of Regaining Value of Esoteric Printed Publications
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Through the 1970’s and 1980’s there was a massive growth in the occult publishing industry, with companies such as Feral House, Llewellyn and Weiser publishing mass-market, financially undemanding editions of magical and other esoteric texts by both older, and contemporary authors. The wide dissemination of esoteric knowledge and practices was further accelerated in the 1990’s by internet which provides even more free and unrestricted possibilities of sharing of occult information. As one of the results, for some esotericists this development, causing constant flux of esoteric information, could be seen as a possible devaluation of esoteric knowledge and loss of magical value and potency of the books. As Egil Asprem in his text Contemporary Ritual Magic (2015) notes, starting from the 1990’s, we can observe a counter-development of small-scale publishing houses putting out limited editions of well-crafted esoteric books, with special “deluxe” editions from precious materials (such as e. g. snakeskin binding) with prices up to 999 USD on top of that. In this small field of luxurious esoteric publishers such as Fulgur Press, Scarlet Imprint, Anathema Publishing Ltd., Fall of Man, Aeon Sophia Press, Ixaxaar, Primal Craft, Xoanon, Theion Publishing etc. (often connected to Left-Hand Path and “Traditional Witchcraft” milieux), value of a book might be further enhanced by ritual consecration, making it (as it is often in this field designated) “talismanic”. In my contribution, I would like to map this field of publishing houses and explore the ways through which occult books (re)gain their (magical) value and potency. |