Hear thou the voice of the Fire.

Just completed a re-set of William Wynn Westcott's edition of the Chaldean Oracles ("Oracles of Zoroaster") and uploaded to Scribd. This copy omits the rambling essay by Percy Bullock ("L. O.") which formed an introduction to the print edition. It may be restored in a later edition, but I doubt it; neither Westcott nor Bullock was even in the same league as G.R.S. Mead when it came to capacity for solid scholarship.

Now when will someone reprint (or possibly just pirate and place online) Ruth Majercik's edition of the Oracles which is practically unobtainable?

Verum sine mendacio, certum et verissimum

The re-set of Mead's Hermetica can now be read on Scribd, shorn of his waffling commentaries and most of the textual apparatus. The "alchemy session" line in the last post alluded to a remark which accompanied the original (?) web-posting of Mead's translation of C.H. I-XIII back in the late 1990s. Actually, sacred-texts put a complete HTML of Thrice Greatest Hermes up recently while I wasn't paying attention.

My head hurts . . .

In case anyone's in the middle of an alchemy session waiting for these, update re: the Mead Hermetica; currently done all of the Corpus Hermeticum and Asclepius and all bar the last three of the Stobæus excerpts; of course those "last three" include the Korê Kosmou which is one of the longest pieces in the whole collection. Should be finished in a few days.

Thought in me becoming on a time concerning the Entities . . .

After several months of slackness made a start on re-setting G.R.S. Mead's translation of the Hermetica. These were originally published in 1906 as part of a three-volume work under the title Thrice-Greatest Hermes: Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis (London and Benares: The Theosophical Publishing Society). At some point subsequently, Mead's Englishing of the Corpus Hermeticum and Asclepius or Perfect Sermon was extracted and issued in some form, shorn of apparatus and commentary, with an introduction by J. M. Greer. An electronic edition containing Greer's introduction and C.H. I-XIII only has been doing the rounds for some years; the present project should include not just the whole Corpus Hermeticum and Asclepuis but also the Hermetic excerpts from the anthology of Stobæus. In the meantime, I have placed page images of the three volumes of Thrice Greatest Hermes on Scribd: Vol. 1: Prolegomena Vol. 2: Corpus Hermeticum; Asclepius Vol. 3: Stobæi Hermetica; fragments and citations from writers of late antiquity

Another minor update

Finally found an image of the original front board design for Cultus Arborum, vol. 4 in the 1889-91 "Nature Worship and Mystical Series" (someone was selling a first edition with the front board intact, but the spine apparently gone as it seems from the photo to be held together with tape, on Ebay for US$20), so this has replaced the substituted cover on the Unspeakable Press (Leng) release.

I should also mention that a zip file with all ten volumes of this series (though not the latest releases because it's something of a pain to re-gen and re-upload the entire archive every time one gets changed) can be downloaded from Megaupload.

This month's excuse

Uploaded a slight fix to Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite to Scribd (dealt with a layout problem in the 3° lecture). This is one of a small selection of works of Masonic interest issued by Celephaïs Press / Unspeakable Press (Leng). While there are already many e-texts of this work on the Internet (contrary to the more idiotic statements of some of Pike's critics, the contents of this book were never a "secret" of the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction 32°, as the Preface makes clear), this one (a) reproduces page layout, all illustrations and text in exotic fonts and (b) includes the Index, a later but valuable addition, originally sold as a book in its own right before being bound up in later printings of Morals and Dogma.

The other Masonic works issued are:
Manual of Freemasonry by Richard Carlile. Early 19th-century English exposure.

The Craft Degrees Handbooks by J.S.M. Ward. Short esotericist commentaries on the English craft degrees (early 20th century); originally published as The Entered Apprentice's Handbook, The Fellow-Craft's Handbook and The Master Mason's Book.

The Lost Key by Prentiss Tucker. Early 20th-century esotericist commentary on an American working of the Craft degrees.

Lectures of the Antient and Primitive Rite, translated and compiled by John Yarker (comprises Lectures of a Chapter, Senate and Council and Masonic Charges and Lectures).

"The Antient and Primitive Rite" from Jeremiah How's Freemason's Manual; a short and uncritical account of this fringe "high-grade" system.

Omissions?

[The following is adapted from a note previously appearing on the CP Geocities site.]

Some of you (I occasionally like to delude myself that there are a few fans of CP out there) may have noticed a glaring omission from the materials I have posted on Scribd or discussed in this blog. Celephaïs Press editions of works by Aleister Crowley have not been uploaded to Scribd by me, or linked to here. These works are — certainly in the UK, and in the case of materials first published after 1923, in the US as well — still in copyright, and are so for another eight years. E-texts of several (including Equinox vol. I and vol. III no 1, Konx Om Pax, The Sword of Song, The Book of Lies, Book Four, Magick Without Tears, Liber Aleph, Tannhäuser, 777 Revised, Little Essays Toward Truth, The Heart of the Master and about 75% of the extant numbered libri) were prepared in the mistaken belief that the general policy of the holders to the copyrights in them was — with the exception of some works which were not written for publication in the first place — to tolerate non-commercial webpostings as long as their copyright was acknowledged; experience has shown that this is not the case, in fact it is within my knowledge that various website administrators, including the management of Scribd, have been requested to remove CP editions of Crowley’s works from their sites. Copies of most of these works still exist online in various places not under my control; however since about 2005 the only postings under my direct control have been limited to revised or corrected editions of works I had previously posted and not been reprimanded for or ordered to take down.