Occult & Esoteric Book Arts
[GRANT, Kenneth] Cults of the Shadow (Deluxe Limited Edition of 111 Copies SIGNED by Steffi Grant)
[GRANT, Kenneth] Cults of the Shadow (Deluxe Limited Edition of 111 Copies SIGNED by Steffi Grant)
London: Starfire Publishing, 2013. Enhanced and Corrected Edition. (first published in 1975). Deluxe edition limited to 111 copies, this being No. 10, SIGNED by Steffi Grant. Hardcover. Octavo. Quarter leather over marbled boards with dust jacket and housed in a slipcase. 250 pages. Illustrated with color and black and white plates. The book has been republished in a fresh typesetting, incorporating corrections made by the author in his own copy of the book. The plates have been rephotographed where possible, and some of the original artwork is now presented in color. Fine all around.
This is the author’s study of the Left Hand Path in magic, making reference to both Crowley and Spare’s work, as well as to Voodoo and Tantra. Kenneth Grant said that Cults of the Shadow explores obscure aspects of occultism that have been frequently, and mistakenly, associated with the negative and sensational phenomena of so-called ‘black magic’. In his magical mythos, the Left Hand Path is seen as having an ancient history, but has been shunned because it involves a use of the sexual energies as a means of awakening the Serpent Power or Fire Snake, the key to cosmic consciousness, and also of controlling and directing the occult forces of the subconscious mind. Present-day exponents, according to this book, include Aleister Crowley, with his Cult of the Beast and the Scarlet Woman; Charles Stansfeld Jones, with his curious Qabalistic researches; Austin Osman Spare, the artist who evolved his own system of sexual sorcery based upon ancient secrets of Witchcraft; and Michael Bertiaux, with his Cult of the Black Snake.