Occult Spells: A Nineteenth Century Grimoire

Hockley, Frederick (compiler). Occult Spells: A Nineteenth Century Grimoire. Edited and with an Introduction by Silens Manus. York Beach, Maine: The Teitan Press, 2009. First Edition limited to 500 Numbered Copies of which this is No. 453. Black Cloth with gilt sigil on front cover and gilt title to spine.

6¾" x 8¾". Introduction (xvi) + Transcription (71pp) + MS Facsimile) 118pp (208pp in total incl. frontis. titles et al). Colour frontispiece & facsimile of the orig. ms of the grimoire printed on special coated paper that gives a photograph like quality to the reproduction.

[This is the first ever printing of Occult Spells, a work that until now has existed only as a manuscript in a private collection. It is part of a rich legacy of carefully written manuscripts, left to the world by Frederick Hockley (1809-1885), an occultist and Freemason with an interest in Spiritualism who in later life was associated with the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Occult Spells is a sort of esoteric “commonplace book” in which Hockley recorded material on different spells, talismans, charms and such-like that he came across in rare books and manuscripts in the course of his researches. Hockley started compiling the book at about the age of twenty, and added to it throughout his life. The sources that he used ranged from “occult classics” such as Richard Saunders Physiognomie, and Chiromancie, Metoposcopie (1671) by Richard Saunders, Theomagia, or the Temple of Wisdome (1663) by John Heydon and Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1651) by Henry Cornelius Agrippa to relatively obscure works such as Bibliotheca Sussexiana (1827) by Joseph Pettigrew and notorious grimoires like the Petit Albert. The spells and talismans vary as much as his sources: from sublime Enochian invocations, through folk magic, and on into the darker realms of necromancy.
In addition to checking and restoring illegible words or phrases from the original sources that Hockley used, Silens Manus has also added footnotes explaining many obscure terms, plant and deity names and such-like, as well as providing translations of most of the less common non-English phrases and passages that appear in the text. Hockley had also left a number of blank spaces in the text of the manuscript in which he planned to eventually reproduce some of the tables and diagrams in the works from which he quoted. Where possible Manus has included these in the transcription.]

Fine Copy