CAULDRONN OF THE GODS

Jan Fries
Living Midnight: 
three movements of the Tao

Anyone who has read Jan Fries's inspiring books - Helrunar, Visual Magick and especially Seidways: Shaking, Swaying and Serpent Mysteries, cannot have failed to notice that some of the magical techniques of the east and of the Taoist tradition are very close to his heart. Here you will find many practical exercises, I Ching divination in the mind, breathing experiences and visualisation of coloured vapours.

‘You can find the Immortals exploring the hidden delights of enchanted fairy grottoes, flower gardens, pine forests and pleasant autumn lakes. They walk on clouds, they sit in shady valleys enjoying the swirling mists and rest in the heart of the living midnight. You can meet them in the centre of yourself once you become empty enough. And you can meet them out here, walking in the world, disguised as mortals.’

‘May the high-born reader cast a benign and forgiving eye on this work, experiment with its humble methods and come to a higher understanding of the mysterious workings of the Tao.’ - Jan Fries

220pp 1869928-504 £10.99/$19.99 illustrated
 
 

Sexual Magick 
by Katon Shual

Sexuality is one of the keys to magick. In this book Katon Shual presents some of the secrets of a sexual gnosis of western magick - a system that is often misunderstood. The book begins with a look at the revival of sexual magick in the early part of this century, especially within the ranks of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and some of the post Golden Dawn magical groups such as Aleister Crowley's Thelemic cult. The book goes on the look at the modern fusion of western hermetic and eastern tantrik sexual gnosticism. On the way it discusses in a progressive manner gay, straight and solitary sexual magick. The book goes on to introducs the ancient diety Seth as an archetype of the sexual magician. The book includes an unpublished grimoire of sexual magick, as well as several other unusual sources, including an authoritative exploration of the chakra system, a magical approach to kundalini and an introduction to the relationship between sacred sexuality and the external landscape. The author is a founder member of the Oxford Golden Dawn Occult Society in Oxford and a member of the East-West Tantrik group AMOOKOS. He has edited several occult books and is co- editor of the leading non- sectarian journal of the Thelemic magick - Nuit Isis. He holds an advanced degree in oriental studies from Oxford University.

'Makes the subject of sexual magick accessible and lucid and above all relevant to contemporary magical practice'

Phil Hine reviewing in Talking Stick magazine

Some of issues delt with in Katon Shual's Sexual Magick are explored even further in Mogg Morgan's novel The English Mahatma (see next item)

The English Mahatma
By Mogg Morgan

(Author as 'Katon Shual' of Sexual Magick) ISBN 1869928-458 £7.99/$14 in paper
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The English Mahatma' was one of Aleister Crowley's many titles. In the 1920s a young seeker after religious enlightenment chanced to meet Crowley during one of his bruising court battles. The advice of the master was to quit England and seek illumination direct from the horse's mouth in India. In the twilight of his life, the seeker came to be known as 'The English Paramahamsa'.

By the end of the 1960s the magical revival had stalled, the victim of megalomania, lack of relevance or purpose. What becomes of those still searching in more cynical times? This fictional narrative gives one possible answer as it follows the first faltering steps of another simple man in search of spiritual enlightenment amongst an ancient Tantrik sect of the Tankhem tradition.

About the author:
Mogg Morgan has published numerous articles, short stories and books under various aliases. These include Ayurveda: Medicine of the Gods, and as ‘Katon Shual’ a modest study of east-west sexual esotericism entitled Sexual Magick.

Siddha Quest for Immortality 
Sexual, alchemical and medical secrets of the Tamil Siddhas, the poets of the powers
By Professor Kamil V Zvelebil

In South India there is a society where priests and lay people claim supernatural powers. Where a sophisticated medical system underlies a quest for physical longevity and psychic immortality. And where arcane and sexual rituals take place that are far removed from the Brahmanic tradition of the rest of India.

That society is the Tamil Siddhas. In the Siddha Quest for Immortality world Tamil expert K Zvelebil offers a vivid picture of these people: their religious beliefs, their magical rites, their alchemical practices, their complex system of medicine, and their inspired tradition of poetry.

 In the Poets of the Powers, Zvelebil introduced English speakers, for the first time, to the astonishing power of Siddha writing. The Siddha Quest for Immortality includes many newly- translated examples of poetry that is deeply religious but not without humour. But physical longevity was also central to Siddha belief, and fascinating chapters on Siddha medicine describe routines by which one can maintain health, and tell how drugs are created from such varied ingredients as cowdung, human urine, honey, oil, and milk.

K Zvelebil, (Professor Emeritus of the Universities of Chicago and Utrecht) is an ordained Buddhist and world-renowned expert on south Indian Languages and culture. He has written many books including the Lexicon of Tamil Literature. The Siddha Quest for Immortality makes available for the first time, secrets of tantrik sexual magick and alchemy to both scholars and general readers.

Part of a Tantrik-Siddha Ritual
'In the centre of a ritual circle...sits a chosen woman, completely naked, who symbolizes Devi, i.e., Sakti...caste or community is of absolutely no importance in the selection of this woman...This Sakti, thoroughly washed and perfumed all over her body with various perfums sits on a sort of pedestal with widely spread legs so that her yoni (vulva) is well visible. The leading Siddha will kiss the yoni, and bless various non-vegetarian foodstuffs through the contact with the yoni by touching and rubbing with them the vulva of the Sakti. Then these offerings are distributed among the participants and consumed...'

The Siddha Quest for Immortality
'While the non-Siddha proclaims that, in order to escape the wheel of birth-and-death the only course open to man is the attainment of spiritual freedom crowned by physical, bodily death, the Siddha maintains that one must overcome physical death in this life itself and 'live forever'...the great work that lies before man is to purify one's body and sanctify one's life, and integrate the two...into one eternal monad, so that body and life become identical.'

The Poets of the Powers
'Siddha writings are at once most thrilling, even sensational but at the same time the darkest and only very little-known texts in Tamil. They represent a complex and provocative puzzle: flashes of stunning intuition, knowledge, even deep wisdom as well as results of effective practice seem to be mixed with incredible naivete, hardly acceptable superstitions, and dark and amazing claims.'

Plagiarists and impostors?
'Even Indians themselves, when raised on the niceties of early twentieth century English or Anglo- Indian culture, described the Siddhas as "plagiarists and impostors", "eaters of opium and dwellers in the land of dreams, their conceit knowing no bounds."'

Siddha Iconoclasm
'You begging bullocks!
In ochre robes,
with matted hair,
with water-vessels,
rosary-beads and walking sticks,
you have forsaken your women
and roam about the country wide and large
begging for a grain of boiled rice!
Idiots!'

click here for a further extract

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Tantrik Astrology
by Michael Magee

'His remarks on prana, or breath, vis-a-vis planetary influences, are even more profound....all in all, this is fascinating material....' Abrasax 6

Medicine of the Gods: 
Basic principles of Ayurvedic Medicine
by Kris Morgan

80 pages. 1869928-377 £6.99/$9.99 dollars
Ayurveda is an Asian medical system which has its beginnings in the sixth century BCE and thrives even to the present-day. There was once a celebrated doctor called Caraka who lived in the second century of our era. He was one of the greatest physicians that has ever lived. He recorded the fact that the gods themselves were perplexed by the continued existence of disease, which was a hindrance to humanity's progress to enlightenment. These same gods, he says, therefore prepared the way for Ayurveda, which literally means the 'science of longevity' to be taught to the human race. Thus the title of this book is Medicine of the Gods. Medicine of the Gods is the first of a series that aims to introduce the physical and metaphysical concepts of Ayurveda to a non-specialist audience. Medical ideas underpin a great deal of Eastern thought especially Tantrism, alchemy, yoga and the science of love. The book is not intended as a series of health tips or as a textbook for the clinical practice of medicine, which in the Ayurveda tradition requires at least seven years intensive training. The book is aimed at students and lovers of South Asian culture, perhaps also anthropologists and others with a need for a straightforward introduction to the core principles of another scientific tradition. The author was for several years an advanced student in the department of Oriental studies in Oxford University where his teacher was the late Professor B K Matilal, one of the foremost experts on Asian rational thought and logic.

The Amoral Way of Wizardry

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