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The Witching-Other

"The Witching-Other" Peter Hamilton-Giles

The history of occult literature is one of retelling the same tales over and over. From folkloric story narratives to endlessly copied grimoires of practical instruction the occult tends to hold onto its past like a precious garb, one that it feels is necessary to its cause, yet may be wholly superfluous.

In that history there are rare jewels of original thought, works that, instead of recycling old claims and rituals, push the narrative of occult scholarship and thinking forward. Authors who, in their own quest for understanding, ask questions that are original and attempt answers that do not draw from the well of previous ideology.

Peter Hamilton-Giles is an author, academic, and musician whose previous works "The Baron Citadel" and "The Afflicted Mirror" on Three Hands Press explore his researches into Haitian magic and introduce concepts he will eventually explore in his latest work, which is altogether something different.

"The Witching-Other" has few predecessors in occult literature to draw easy comparisons. It is a work of philosophical inquiry, not an history, nor a collection of folklore, not a set of practical instructions. Instead is is a mature work of occult philosophy that explores the relationship a practitioner has to the nature of the "witch", that cultural image that is so firmly engrained in the visual and linguistic paradigm of 21st century western culture.

"Witching appears, in this light, to be a performative act whose primary focus is on achieving, or, at least facilitating a particular outcome." - PH-G

Hamilton-Giles seeks to question the epistemological currents that have shaped what he refers to as the "aesthetic witch" that, as our first exposure to the idea of the "witch" is in may ways the primary foci of common interest in the witch's path.

This "aesthetic witch" transcends the linear path of time. Where in our present we have access to the myriad facets of the witch as seen through history, we may focus on a particular set of variables or vectors that make up, to us, the concept of the witch. This internalize image of the witch becomes the "witching-other".

Hamilton-Giles is clearly influenced by 20th century French philosophers Ricouer and Bachelard, using their works to outline a hermeneutic approach to understanding the witching other. This phenomenological approach to the beyond is something that has long been missing from occult discourse.

In the Witching-Other the concept of the dream image and Chumbley's thoughts in that direction are repeated throughout. The witch is presented as an 'other', something the practitioner strives toward a unification with, but is separated from by the implicit language used to define the witch experientially.

"What sets the practitioner apart from other is the ability to cogitate existence and the thrust of continuity by incorporating coordinates deriving from beyond the physical veil." - PH-G

"The Witching-Other" is a profound work in the best way, one I will find myself reading again in the near future as I come to its questions from different angles in an attempt to suss out its ideas in full. Hamilton-Giles is a philosopher witch, bringing an English temperament to an otherwise unexplored terrain of existential occult inquiry.

The binding is a beautifully shaped object, dark green cloth with an impression to the front boards, a letterpress style dust wrapper with both gold and red metallic inks. Orangish coloured woodgrain like front papers and internal paper that is a smooth light cream, all topped by a frontispiece by Carolyn Hamilton-Giles and excellent design by Joseph Uccello.

A word of caution; this is not an introductory text for beginner witches. This is an advanced work suitable for those who are willing to look beyond the ceremony to the underlying structures of craft practice. A work for grownup witches willing to expend thought and time toward understanding what it means to be a witch.

Get your copy directly from Peter & Carolyn's Atramentous Press here:

"The Witching-Other" Peter Hamilton-Giles

Seeking the Writer’s Coven

Alkahest Press has received a handful of copies of Hentges' "Die Kröte, or the Toad" that had damage to the edges from shipping, nothing extreme just bumped beyond what we would consider offering to the public. If you are a writer/blogger with a sizable audience, preferably based in the UK, who would be interested in reviewing "Die Kröte" for your publication please get in touch via messenger or on tumblr.

In general we are looking to build a base of reviewers to help reach a wider audience for our upcoming publications. Suggestions for your favorite occult blogs and witch sites much appreciated!

Only 20 or so copies of "Die Kröte" left before it is sold out! Thanks to everyone who has gotten their copy and made our first publication a resounding success! The next release will be announced shortly.

Thirteen Rosehips Tea Hex

We make a tea, or so it seems, of thorny beauties luxury. A hollow bone for ancestors, a barrow of buried consequence. A pair of fungi, inscribed with titles, sigils, provenance.

Then bury the pair, on opposite sides, under a dead man's tree. Six rabbit bones to bind the wight, as it a heart protected. A snail shell to seal that shade which time somehow neglected.

A razor, sharp as cunning folk, a blade for death's undoing. Four henbane pods pregnant with seed, to soak them bittersweet. Thirteen sliced rosehips in a bowl, with henbane seed conceit.

The rosehips drink of love's despair, a curse of blood's imbuing. We sing three times the rhyme that follows, while the rosehips dry. That whomever takes of this tea, they must surely die.

"Bitter sweet the tears, never long the years. Drink deep of devil's fears, that [victim] disappears!"

Where the Devil Licked the Land

The call came particularly late at night, but an hour in which those who know me know that I am still up, reading some book or another. Recent events had conspired to reveal a plot of land formerly inaccessible. The wildfires that tore through the Portuguese mountainsides had opened up many nooks and valleys that had been festering with 3 meters deep of bramble, placing their hidden treasures beyond the reach of anything other than extensive land clearing. Such was no longer the case, though the land itself was charred to the ground and coated in ash.

My contact in the area had survived the fires relatively unscathed, their property seeing only superficial damage, but many had lost homes, towns without power or local mobile towers for days, sometimes weeks. Yet in his voice I could sense on the other end of the line an excitement.

16 hours later and I was standing in a queue at Stansted airport, hoping to be back before the end of the weekend. Over my shoulder my trusted leather bag with a change of trousers and a couple of clean shirts, as well as various tape measures, and other field instruments. I have always been one to travel light.

The winding journey to the mountainside to meet my contact involves subways, coaches, trains, and taxis all in a continuous stretch further into the wilds of Portugal.

Upon arrival the sun was just setting, and beyond a quick bite to eat I was exhausted from travel and turned in to bed unnaturally early, as has become my habit in readjusting my normally nocturnal habits to those of village people and farmers.

Early the next morning a car took us to the village nearest our rural destination. Access roads from the village were heavily blocked with fallen tress, their outsides covered in a coat of charred black. We instead walked over slanting grey lifeless terraces filled with holes that were once trees whose stumps had burned straight into the ground.

Eventually we managed to find ourselves in a valley, isolated from much of anything else, with steep sides and a winding nature down the mountainside carrying water from a small creek. Three buildings, which we had previously spotted from much higher up the mountain earlier in the year, were now fully exposed.

We trekked down the terraces into the valley, some which had beautiful ancient staircases made of thick jutting schist stone sticking out of the sides of the terrace walls, many other walls crumbling and broken with the traffic of boars.

The landscape around us was apocalyptic, blasted hillsides of crumbling terraces covered in the charcoaled remains of olive and fruit trees. Their skeletal remains like claws against the darkened winter sky. Winding snake like over the ground were black grape vines burned to a crisp. All of the standing fruit trees appeared to be dead, bark split open under the pressure of intense heat, exposing the bright cream insides of the woody flesh. The larger trees burned several meters up, with the ancient cork oaks likely the only potential survivors of this place where the devil had licked the land.

The first building was extensive, and while we poured over the stone we found almost nothing in the way of the apotropaic markings we hoped to find. The primary place they seem to often be is near the doorway, and the fire had gutted the roof off the building causing the front wall to crumble into a pile inward.

The second building yielded the kinds of vertical markings, a kind of counting system, that seem to date to the mid 19th century. There were only two stones with such markings, and one was irregularly place in the building low along the south wall, meaning it may have been reused from a much earlier structure.

It was near to the third building, which was not much more than a ruin, that we discovered something rather fantastic. Just before sunset we found a water mine, two meters high and 80cm wide or so roughly cut into the mountainside near a crumbling ruin. It was cut at a slant toward the north, its face coming open at an angle against a rough stone escarpment below the terrace of the ruin.

Near to the mouth of the entrance on the inside was a series of star shaped symbols scratched or carved into the natural schist wall of the water mine. A pentagram and a hexagram, both of crudely done character, along with a date of the year 1782. Unfortunately our cameras were of nearly no use, as the markings were far enough inside the water mine, and the day so late, that they were barley illuminated. I made some rubbings with a bit of charcoaled olive tree and a page from a notebook I brought along, though I am hoping to go back and get better images with artificial light.

The presence of sino-saimão symbols at the water mine is particularly exciting. Water mines are associated in Portuguese folklore with the mouros, or local fairy traditions. If such symbols are near to the entrance it is possible that the cavern holds even more interesting things within.

Much of the practical magic in the Book of St Cyprian centers around the concept of revealing hidden treasures and overcoming their guardians. The folk belief is that when the Moorish people were driven from the Iberian Peninsula they placed their treasures in hidden niches in the rock, under certain trees and in water mines, and then enchanted them with a mouros guardian to keep them safe.

Unfortunately my stay was only for the day, and the next morning I was headed back along that reverse path of taxis, coaches, trains, and subways to the Porto airport. Hopefully the land will stay relatively exposed with the coming spring and I will be able to dig deeper into the water mine mystery.

“Die Kröte” or “The Toad” preorders now open!

I am pleased to announce that preorders for the Alkahest Press release of my translation of Ernst Hentges' "Die Kröte" or "The Toad: The perspective of the occult and the history of culture" are now open!

This text, drawn from an obscure late 19th/early 20th century German occult publication, represents a fascinating look into the German cultural traditions, as well as those of neighboring European countries, surrounding the toad and its role in magic and the occult.

Limited to just 100 copies in its first printing "Die Kröte" is a 50 page chapbook style publication that is the premiere edition of Alkahest Press, a new publishing endeavor with which I am involved.

It is our hope that Alkahest Press will become a conduit through which we will publish various obscure and difficult to find texts. As well we will strive to keep the prices of our publications as low as possible in order to provide affordable access for all.

Die Kröte - 50 pages, black & white, illustrated. Paperbound in a green ragstock. £13

Copies are expected to ship the first week of February. It is entirely possible, given the enthusiasm of messages I have recieved about the work, that the print run will sell out in preorders. Get your copy before they are gone!

Gender, Sex & Magic

One of the most astounding things about the current generation of young people in their late teens and early 20s is that their attitude toward gender and sexuality is profoundly broader and more open minded than any generation before them. This is true in almost every place on the globe. From the streets of London, the fields of Idaho, the alleys of Tokyo, and the deserts of the middle east young people are awake to the reality of the gender and sexual spectrum that has so long been subjected to Abrahamic binaries.

Humans have never been purely male or female, as both physical self-identity and actual chromosomal variants exist widely throughout human history. Nor have we ever truly been "straight", "gay", or "bi" - humans develop on a long and complex socio-sexual path that is absolutely dependent on when variables of sexual awareness occur, at what age, and in what context.

Yet among certain niches of society we see a cluster of those who have, even in the most repressive of times, been more likely to express non-binary variables of gender and sexuality. Artists, for instance, have throughout history been more likely to be gay than the average of society, as have occultists.

When I look over the many readers who come to the pages of this site through tumblr I am not surprised to find a vast majority of them express non binary gender or sexuality. Young gay men, older gay women, and a vast ocean of pan and bi sexual, trans and other practitioners of all ages have found a community on tumblr that is vast. As well as a place to express themselves knowing they will not be entirely censored as they would be on other social media platforms, for sharing content deemed too sexual by the corporate hegemony of facebook and its ilk.

It is no surprise that so many young practitioners of magic are non binary. For this fluidity is at the very center of magical practice. Throughout history those who have practiced magic have often been seen as having a sexual or gender variation outside of social norm.

In the Norse magical practice of seiðr the men who were practitioners were viewed as "ergi" or effeminate. Ergi is often believed to be a negative or derogatory term, but I believe this view of ergi as a derogatory term is through the lens of a millennia of Abrahamic (particularly Christian) thought.

Ergi was a part of the seiðr transformation of the shaman/magician into a being beyond gender, a return to a state that is a manifestation outside of the human animal form. This transformation often involved completely changing forms to that of other animals (through projection and entheogenic use, not true metamorphosis).

The often talked about but rarely understood organization the Ordo Templi Orientis, whose famous member Aleister Crowley reinvented its structure around a more Masonic initatory framework, deals directly with sexuality and gender in its rituals. Crowley himself was openly bisexual, from consenting lovers to drug induced ritual transgressions Crowley push the boundaries of accepted sexual practice far enough that even governments got their feathers ruffled.

Even the cave drawings of ancient man have shown signs of gender ambiguity; at its core sexuality in relation to magical practice is part of an overall focus on breaking the bounds that tie us to our regular habits and instincts. It is a tool of taboo, that psycho-socio structure that Georges Bataille discusses in his groundbreaking "Erotism: Death and Sensuality":

"Eroticism differs from animal sexuality in that human sexuality is limited by taboos and the domain of eroticism is that of the transgression of these taboos. Desire in eroticism is the desire that triumphs over the taboo. It presupposes man in conflict with himself."

To be a magician of any type is to be an outsider, and to be already someone who is living in a still binary dominantly Abrahamic society as a non binary person is to already have one's foot out the door of accepted social norms. How much further one goes depends on the path one takes through their life.

Magicians, witches, shaman, sorcerer, healer, cunning; we exist beyond that boundary society has erected. Beyond the hedge, that Veil, we are more than that which is mundane. That our gender identity and our sexuality are non conforming is part and parcel for the world in which we traffic. We are aware of that spectrum of existence that has so long been closed off to the mundane world, no less when it comes to our bodies and the bodies that attract us.

The Bookshop as a Meeting Place

Treadwell's Books has been a part of London occult life for more than a decade. A center for London's disparate and motley occultists, witches, and magicians of every ilk and path to celebrate and meet.

Between weekly events, book launches and tarot readings Treadwell's is a home away from home for occultists the world over. From regular lectures and presentations by Phil Hine, Michael Staley, Hannah Sanders, Chris Josiffe, Robert Wallis, Owen Davies and dozens more to walking tours of the British Museum and Bloomsbury's occult history it's a place to linger, searching for that rare bit of booklore, meeting others on their own path. Some incredible people have found their way through Treadwell's door, a couple of friend's even found each other and eventually married because of Treadwell's. Its a magical place in many ways.

Having moved seven years ago from its first location in Covent Garden it is now tucked away down Store Street in Bloomsbury. A bigger space upstairs and downstairs lends itself to more events, with a comfortable downstairs that is even available for lettings for various group functions, public and private.

Behind Treadwell's is proprietor and "presiding spirit" Christina Oakley Harrington. In between her sold out Magical Bloomsbury Walking Tour and otherwise busy schedule I managed to chat with her about London occulture, her passion for books and running a bookshop in 21st century London.

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Christina Oakley Harrington of Treadwell's

While Treadwell's has only been in London since 2003 it seems to be a fixture that is much more firmly rooted in the occulture of London than its teenaged years belie. How have you come to be so central to the occult community of London?

Gosh, are we really? I have to give the credit to the wonderful people who've come through the doors of Treadwells for that. I've been hugely inspired by London's history of occult communities and in particular, the exciting occult renaissance of the 1880s and 1890s, when the Order of the Golden Dawn and the Theosophical Society had hundreds of members and there were gatherings, rituals and conversations happening every night of the week. I saw that such a renaissance might be possible in our own day if there was a bookshop which was actually a meeting place -- and I saw from history that such a place needed to offer a combination of hospitality, friendship-building and events space.

We hosted our first event within a few months of opening our doors. Since then, it's never been fewer than three nights a week that we're here. That's why we can't open any earlier than 11 am during the week and at weekends we certainly couldn't start any earlier than noon. All our late nights here!

What misbegotten adventure led you to opening an occult bookshop?

I got involved in paganism and the esoteric community in 1987 in the US, where I lived for eleven years. In 1989 I moved to London. It was the Atlantis Bookshop under the ownership of Caroline Wise which was the hub of activity and occult community creativity -- she was a force of nature, hosting conferences, promoting groups, advertising pub moots, and generally making me (and other young people) welcome and feel so inspired. Through her we got to meet magical orders, attend rituals, learn about magic from practitioners. She kept the channels flowing. If you went into her shop, she'd bombard you with recommendations, hand-made fliers, posters and postcards. So I opened Treadwells just as she was retiring from owning Atlantis, and felt that in that regard, she passed on the baton to us. Caroline's been a huge supporter of Treadwells and she's my personal inspiration of what an occult bookshop owner should be.

Do you collect books yourself?

I do! My collection is pretty eclectic. I don't have the completist gene, so I don't need to own full sets of things, mercifully. Then I get bored. I collected all of Dion Fortune's first editions, then once I had the full set, I didn't care anymore, so I sold them. I now have her work in paperback, which I've marked up with my marginal notes and personal opinions in the front and rear covers. So I work most of my books pretty hard. It's from my days as an historian, that I have opinions on what I'm reading and want to debate with the authors, or agree with them. So the margins of my books show that.

In the corner of my study is a shelf of books mentioning Treadwells, signed by their authors. Authors sometimes mention the shop in their novels, or in their guidebooks. Occasionally students and scholars mention Treadwells in the acknowledgments if we've helped them with their research - and that's so lovely. We have a commitment to assisting scholarly research where we can.

My collection is a working library of books containing ideas I love, historical research that inspires me, and lots of poetry -- which I use in contemplative reading and adopt into rituals I write. Big subjects I read are witchcraft, sapphic writers from Sappho through the 1920s, Renaissance planetary magic, and biographies of magicians of previous centuries. I've got an entire room for my books at home, and most often there are lots of them piled up on the desk with bookmarks stuck in, and intermingled are my various notebooks with quotes scrawled from the books I'm reading.

You mentioned a background as a historian, were you an academic before becoming a bookseller?

I was! I was a medieval historian. I taught for eleven years at a college of the University of Surrey. My PhD was at University College London with supplementary study at Jesus College, Oxford. The links between the world of scholarship and magical practice have grown wonderfully over the past fifteen years, so I relish reading the recent academic articles and studies of medieval magical texts and practice.

Do you recall the first book of, or on, magic you remember owning? Not a library book, but something that was your own?

I am sure I had children's books with witches as a very young child, as I was crazy about witches, and always wanted to try to do spells, and I even pretended to be able to fly (I had a children's storybook called No Flying in the House). However, I was very taken with a book whose name I can't recall, which I took from my parents' bookshelves, on superstitions and charms. I would copy the best charms -- in my opinion -- into a notebook, which I called my spellbook. I must have been about six, seven years old....

What rare items have come through Treadwells shelves over the years?

I'm so fortunate to see treasures coming through here. We have had a good smattering of Aleister Crowley first editions, Gerald Gardner first editions and books signed by Kenneth Grant. These are the staples of occult rare bookselling. But I love the offbeat stuff - we've got awesome zines. Zines are overlooked but are truly collectible as they're snapshots of the occult community at a particular moment, at the working coal-face, as it were. A faintingly exciting moment was when we got a very early Rider-Waite tarot deck, from a lady who had it in her attic, and had inherited it from her grandmother. We had people coming in just to look at it before we sold it to its current owner - during those two weeks we were honoured to be able to let tarot-lovers view it and appreciate it.

Some rare items are new - we've launched very limited edition items here -- nocturnal parties for books which are individually consecrated and inscribed and of which only one or two hundred copies are made. Those events are very magical, as it's just a small group of guests, lots of incense billowing, and good red wine flowing.

How has occult bookselling and publishing changed from your perspective over the last 14 years?

Bookselling now is a harder living than even twenty years ago, with London rents being high and with people having the option of purchasing on Amazon. But it's still vibrant, and getting even moreso. Reading occult literature inspires people to want to practice and meet others -- that's where the bookshop is crucial, and always will be. A bookseller is a curator, an advisor, and a bit of a therapist even, at times. I love that it's a continuity, a continuity of over 200 years.

Has the environment changed since the store moved to its current location several years back? Do you feel the community has grown?

We've been here at Store Street for seven years, having moved here after seven years in Covent Garden. I find it hard to believe we've been in Store Street just as long as we were in the old address. So uncanny! The community is different here than there -- and well, times change. In 2003 there was a tight connected community of people, and newcomers entered that network of people, socially. Now, it's much more open, less a community than a wider base of many many individuals who have overlapping interests. They will meet likeminded people at more niche events. I think it's because the era of subcultures is largely over, or so it seems to me. But Treadwells itself is a kind of community of regulars -- we get to know people whose vibe is in tune with ours and they keep coming back so next thing you know, we know all their kids' names and are invited to their art openings. But we are keen not to behave like a clique. So many occult-oriented people were outsiders at school that honestly, we don't need to replicate that in adulthood. A friendly gesture and a welcoming hello for our customers and new acquaintances: that's essential.

So many occultists I know scattered around the world have stories to tell about Treadwell's, visits on trips, meeting future spouses there, finding some bit of rarity they had long sought. Any insights into the future of occult bookselling in London and in general? Where does the plot take us from here?

I'm very excited about a new bookshop/occult event space in Seattle, Mortlake & Co, run by a wonderful chap named William Kiesel (of Ouroboros Press fame). It's got not only a range of rare books, but it also hosts intimate, intellectually-engaged soirees. I think occult bookselling is at its most exciting when it overlaps, not with the New Age, but with history and anthropology. By which I mean to say, when we widen our interest from the practice itself to include the people and the cultures that produced it. As an example, if you you love Enochian magic, check out Elizabethan court life. If you are drawn to hoodoo, learn about how African Americans lived in the era of slavery. If you practice traditional witchcraft, read a book on old cunningmen.

Any upcoming events or releases you would like to mention?

I'm particularly proud of our commitment to traditional, classic tarot reading. The art of reading the cards takes over a decade to master, but one can learn enough to have a meaningful experience in a single day. We offer one-day workshops, eight-week courses and even intermediate brush-up days. Tarot cards came out of the Italian Renaissance, so the symbolism is rich and deep, and it's the same symbol code you find embedded in Renaissance art. If you study the tarot cards, your trips to art museums suddenly become much more exciting.

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Discover Treadwell's Bookshop for yourself:

Treadwell's Books 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury, London www.treadwells-london.com/

Three Small Stones

"Three small stones an ancient river made, of mountains forgotten; time's somehow mislaid.

Three notes a flute of bone at sunrise does trill of sanguine melodies, lustful passions, and focused will.

A spirit offering is made of two fresh henbane blooms, beside a spider's corpse, as ever the sidhe assumes.

The molted feather of a crow, gnawed by insect tongue, to lift the wind before you as the spirits have begun.

Three rusted nails to seal the pact, a shadow soon unbound. As the spirits ride the earth to seek the sacred ground."