The Book of Swedish Black Arts
"Svartkonstböcker: A Compendium of the Swedish Black Art Book Tradition" Thomas K. Johnson
The late Thomas K. Johnson is something of an anomaly in the world of occult scholarship. His story is one of a man who started down a path, in his case to explore the history of vernacular works of black magic from his family's native land of Sweden. After a solid start he found himself distracted by some decades before he returned to finish the work as his PHD dissertation.
That dissertation "Tidebast och Vändelrot: Magical Representations in the Swedish Black Art Book Tradition" was a mammoth undertaking that delved into a class of occult book lore that had barely been scratched by academic research. When it first became public in 2012 it made quite a splash among serious researchers and practical magicians alike.
Johnson would go on to release the fantastic "Graveyard Wanderers", published by the always exceptional Society of the Esoteric Endeavor. But the full manuscript to his phd would long be only available as a pdf via proquest. Johnson's untimely death in 2014 made it seem likely the work would never see its way to print.
That is until now, with the Revelore Press release of the full manuscript as "Svartkonstböcker: A Compendium of the Swedish Black Art Book Tradition" in a beautifully designed tome, 666 pages giving the full English language translations of 35 "black art books" of folk magic.
Created by Swedish cunning folk or "wise ones" and spanning a period from the 17th to 19th centuries these works, often referred to as "black books", offer an insightful and detailed understanding of practical magic as practiced in Sweden over the centuries.
The black books of Sweden represent a vernacular tradition of manuscripts that give instructions for various forms of healing and hurting, including an array of spells and charms related to guns and hunting.
Johnson's work gives us a wide and extensive 200 page introduction, framing a context around the creation of the work and devising a methodology for deconstructing the various spells and charms.
With near to 2000 spells, charms and other recipes Johnson seeks to find some order, organizing the texts in ways that they can be analyzed and dissected. In the dissertation the original Swedish texts were shown with the translations, though unless one is familiar with the language it doesn't make much of a difference.
It is incredible to see contemporary publishers continuing to take chances on obscure texts that pose considerable challenges to publishing due to length and scope. Revelore are to be applauded for taking on this massive undertaking.
The volume was designed by Joseph Uccello, whose work needs no introduction. Wonderfully typeset with wide margins and clear fonts the design brings some order to the often overwhelming amount of information in this veritable tome of Swedish folk magic.
For students of folk magic, occult research, practicing magicians, witches or just the armchair curious the volume represents an unprecedented collection of spells and charms from the Swedish cunning folk themselves. An important addition to any library.
Get your copy from Revelore:
"Svartkonstböcker: A Compendium of the Swedish Black Art Book Tradition"
