Issue One – Autumn Equinox 2009

Treadwells and Fulgur are delighted to announce the first issue of our new esoteric journal ABRAXAS is now available. In keeping with our intent, writers and artists have kindly submitted material from across the globe: Australia, the United States, Mexico, Italy and the United Kingdom are keenly represented.

Nearly all the material is published for the first time. Here may be found inspiring essays from luminaries within the esoteric community, many of them written especially for the journal. Artists too are well represented, both established masters and emerging talents: a feast for the eyes and soul. Our poets include Allyson Shaw, Zachary Cox and, from beyond the veil, Aleister Crowley, whose evocative verse ‘Babalon’ finally finds itself in print more than sixty years after it was written.

Produced in a large quarto format, with 128 pages printed on high quality paper and richly illustrated in colour and monochrome, we hope Abraxas will offer you a strange mirror through which may be glimpsed the zeitgeist of the global occult community today.

Literary contributions for this inaugural issue include:

The Green Intercessor
Tutelary Spirits and the Transmission of Plant-Magic
Daniel A. Schulke

Caveat Anonyter!
A Study of Flying Ointments and their Plants
Sarah Penicka-Smith

Sorceries of the Threshold
Transgression into the Between States
Anon

The Uncertainty of Illumination
Gnosis and Epistemology in Traditional Craft
Stuart Inman

Lucifer by Starlight
An Interview with Francesco Parisi

The Third Eye
The Fantastic World of Lobsang Rampa
Phil Hine

Transmutations of Good and Evil
Alchemy, Witchcraft and the Graal in the Work of Arthur Machen
Edward Gauntlett

Skip Witches, Hop Toads
Stephen Grasso

A Dream of Witchcraft Turned to Nightmare
The Five Witches of Albrecht Durer
John Callow

On Sappho
James Butler

Ordering

Sales have been very brisk for the first issue, and currently we have less than 200 copies remaining. The deluxe has completely sold out. Plans are now in progress for issue No.2, which will appear in the September of 2010.

Issue One

Deluxe Issue
171 numbered copies with an ORIGINAL hand-printed wood-engraving by Francesco Parisi.
290mm x 232mm, 128 pages, hardcover, bound by hand in full grey cloth, endpapers, title stamped on spine, letter-press Manifesto.

SOLD OUT £70.00 (+p&p for non-UK orders)

Francesco Parisi is one of Italy’s most respected and critically acclaimed wood-engravers. His symbolist work has been secured by some of the worlds most prestigious institutions, such as the British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings, as well as musicians such as COIL. In offering us a hand-printed edition of ‘The Garden of Proserpine’ Francesco is therefore making a very generous gift in support of our inaugural issue. The original woodblock is reproduced opposite, before the delicate work of cutting the image is undertaken.

Standard Issue
290mm x 232mm, 128 pages, softcover
We might not be hand-numbering these, but then, we won’t be reprinting them either. There are less than you think, and included in every copy is a letter-press printed Manifesto.

£25.00 (+p&p for non-UK orders)

Customer Comments

“Yesterday I received the ‘Abraxas’ journal and I must say that it is one of the most beautiful publications that you’ve published. The pages are so tight, the artwork is so alive and the whole journal is vibrating with energy…”

“It is a sheer feast for the eyes alone!”

“It is truly beautiful. I have for a long time searching for something like this… I am of no traditional line of knowledge, more like the psychedelic free-form ritual of alone-in-the-dark-forest, make-your-own-way-through-the-chaos thingy. My mind has been through times of “are there no others, is all this my imagination?” … As time has passed, I have met the others, and I see now, that there are alot of us (and when we get down to the details, maybe all of us, reflecting each other?) This is a timely journal, highly sought after, at least by me and probably a whole lot of other people… it will be a pleasure to dig through this treasure trove.”

“I have recently purchased this! I have to say that the articles are fantastic. I am particularly interested in Schulke’s piece; I love working with plants! I have yet to read the rest, but I am looking forward to Stuart’s article; it sounds interesting! The artist in me salivated at the Surrealist approach to the ‘zine; I even felt a hint of Dadaism in there too! Anyway, I absolutely recommend buying it; it is well worth the money. I have yet to read a magazine publication on this subject that looks and feels like a glossy mag with the same content calibre as The Cauldron! This Mag is literally the only one that has that!”

“…the production value is fantastic, the articles of the highest quality & as a when-its-gone-its-gone journal it’s bound to leap to unobtainable prices eventually, so get it whilst you can!!!”

Reviews

Paul Feazey Lashtal.com

…And then the postman called and left me a rather splendidly wrapped work of such excellence that it became clear that the very technology that had led to the near-fatal malaise of the occult journal had enabled a publication of extraordinary beauty and remarkable content: ‘Abraxas’.

We all knew about the impending arrival of this new occult periodical, of course, as it had been trailed on a number of websites. What made these announcements special, of course, was the two names associated: Robert Ansell from Fulgur and Christina Oakley Harrington from Treadwells Bookshop. Fulgur, of course, is the publishing house that has produced works of enormous power and beauty and Treadwells Bookshop has become a salon of excellence, promoting lectures by the most prominent specialists working within the genre, a cavalcade of occult excellence.

So, what of ‘Abraxas’? Surprisingly little is given away in Robert’s Editorial about its objective and raison d’etre, so it becomes that which it appears to be: an occult journal par excellence. Its banner proclaims it to be “An International Journal of Esoteric Studies”, and that’s probably about as much as we need to know for the time being.

The journal is a large format paperback of 128 pages but that simple description doesn’t begin to do it justice. Its cover is skillfully laminated and it’s solidly bound: there’s certainly no fear of this one falling apart despite repeated readings. It uses a range of paper types and colours, including a substantial portion printed in black on dark grey paper: the fact that this section is not only legible but eminently so is testament to the typographic skills of the “Art editor”, Robert Ansell, who also contributes a photographic work and the Editorial. Questions have been asked about a twenty-five-quid price tag for a magazine, but it’s worth every penny with production qualities like this: besides which, I’d be surprised if there are many readers of this review that have lost money on the purchase of anything from Fulgur! Make no mistake, ‘Abraxas’ is physically the work of a publishing house at the absolute peak of its powers – it’s a magnificent production that owes more to the most up-market artistic and architectural journals for its inspiration than it does to its occult legacy.

Moving slowly past the achingly beautiful cover illustration by Francesco Parisi and, rather more rapidly, past the, ahem, “Manifesto” we arrive at the Editorial, which sets the tone, with its friendly welcome, although the mission statement on page 128 is perhaps rather more informative.

And, before we move on to Daniel A Schulke’s ‘The Green Intercessor’, it’s time that I make a confession: I’m not all that interested in witchcraft. There, I’ve said it: it’s a matter of record. And this journal – or, rather, this issue of this journal – is most assuredly about witchcraft. And yet… And yet, I was fascinated by every single article in this extensive collection of essays and artistry. Schulke’s piece on ‘plant-magic’ will enthrall all those that enjoy the works published by Xoanon: it’s well-informed, erudite and well-referenced. I enjoyed his account of a subject that I’d normally avoid.

Edward Gauntlett is up next with a fascinating discussion of witchcraft and “the graal” in the woefully overlooked fiction of Arthur Machen.

Now, poetry in occult journals is often best avoided or at least treated as an ordeal or peril on the path. ‘Abraxas’, however, has bucked this trend by including ‘Song for Sleeping Souls’, by the venerable Zachary Cox, and ‘Babalon’ from Aleister Crowley’s ‘Book Of Oaths’, both of which are captivating and worth reading. I’ll pass over the remaining poetry in this volume.

A beautifully illustrated interview with Francesco Parisi follows. His work, with which I was previously unfamiliar, is astonishing and Robert Ansell’s interview a respectful delight.

Sarah Penicka-Smith’s essay on flying ointments is a substantial contribution to a subject that has been covered extensively in the past but to far less effect. Her piece is impressive and wide-ranging.

Surrealist Stuart Inman’s article on “gnosis and epistemology in Traditional Craft” left me somewhat baffled but, given his obvious enthusiasm for his subject, this doubtless says more about me than him. As he writes: “You may chose [sic.] to disagree with what I have written here, after all who am I? On the other hand, can you really dismiss my argument? After all, who are you?” Quite.

“The anonymous author of Liber Niger Legionis” is up next with an intriguing and rather impressive piece of work that rewards multiple re-reads.

Author and lecturer John Callow’s lengthy essay on Durer is absorbing, as is James Butler’s ‘On Sappho’. Phil Hine – who will need no introduction to most readers of this – writes amusingly and sympathetically about Lobsang Rampa in what is one of the journal’s most impressive and entertaining articles.

I say, “one of the most impressive” because there’s an article that I’ve yet to mention. I believe it to be an extraordinary article that deserves to be reproduced widely. Stephen Grasso’s ‘Skip Witches, Hop Toads’ is really good stuff: informed, erudite and unpretentious. Every paragraph sings with an earnest comparison of witchcraft and magic by someone well qualified to write on both. Wonderful!

So, to summarise. Fulgur and Treadwells have combined forces to produce a book – sorry, a journal – with magnificent production values and, importantly, with contents that justify the effort. Quite simply, superb; I can’t wait to see future issues.

Plutonica.net

Ok, so I received this copy of Abraxas back in September during my visit to Treadwell’s. This review has been a long time in coming. What took so long?

Mostly, I wanted to do it properly. I didn’t want to rush reading bits and pieces here and there, I wanted to really sit down and savour it.

Abraxas isn’t just “An International Journal of Esoteric Studies”, this first issue is also an art book. At 290mm x 232mm it’s a large quarto, beautifully bound, and printed on high quality paper, including a handtipped sheet. Richly coloured paintings are beautifully reproduced, along with many lovely illustrations in monochrome. And then there’s the text.

This first issue focuses largely on witchcraft, and while I can’t detail every essay that appears, I would like to highlight several that I felt stood out in this already exceptional collection.

Stephen Grasso’s piece “Skip Witches, Hop Toads”, illuminates the difference between magickians and witches in a way that is raw and present. It almost makes me wish I were a witch. (Almost.)

An essay on flying ointments by Sarah Penicka-Smith, “Caveat Anonyter!”, discusses their origin and possible components using various historical sources. She also remarks on their rejection by practitioners of modern witchcraft and Druidry, along with other (unspecified) “illegal drugs” in favour of trance states achieved by other, often unspecified means.

Phil Hine’s informative and sympathetic account of the many (fabricated) adventures of Tuesday Lobsang Rampa and his more earthly counterpart Cyril Henry Hoskin is a fascinating read in “The Third Eye”. An alleged Tibetan Buddhist, Hoskin turned out to be an Englishman who’d never left the country of his birth. Many readers were genuinely inspired by his works, despite their dubious veracity and this is what Hine would have use take from his stories. It seems the best possible outcome.

Also included are the paintings and lithographs of Francesco Parisi are lovely, and his interview with Robert Ansell discuss Parisi’s influences, including Austin Osman Spare. As well as a previously unpublished poem by Aleister Crowley, “BABALON”.

It is expensive, yes, but gorgeous and decadent and worth it. If this is the future of occult journals, then it is in very capable hands. Pick it up while you can.

Abraxas Journal

---