Transcription
Hello everyone, welcome to another edition of the Foolish Fish Esoteric News, with your weekly updates on the worlds of esoteric and occult book publishing, and arts and events and paraphernalia. Thank you so much for joining me, and thank you so much to miskatonicbooks.com for sponsoring the show.
miskatonicbooks.com are a fantastic resource. If you live in the US, then they are the best resource that you have for getting a hold of books that have been published abroad; esoteric and occult books, difficult-to-find books, books that have been published in maybe just a few exemplars and that have been uh sold out for a long time; that kind of stuff. But also new books that have been published in Europe and things like this. H yeah, they have some very, very good resources, and if you're looking for a specific uh occult book or esoteric book, then uh you can, and if they happen to not have it on uh available, then you can uh just Reg to your interest and uh uh they will email you as soon as they have that book in store uh which U which uh happens all the time, right? Very, very lovely resource, and uh I just want to say thank you to miskatonic books for their sponsorship because it just means that we can keep going every every week doing these wonderful uh uh news updates. So thank you, thank you so much from me and from all of our viewers. Thank you, miskatonicbooks.com.
Okay, news from Black Letter Press. Uh, so this is a new translation of the *Hieroglyphica* by Horapollo. This is a a late Antiquity um gem that embodies the Twilight of Mediterranean paganism and gnostic philosophy. Um, frustratingly elusive, this extraordinary text offers a thrilling glimpse into a struggle to safeguard knowledge amid clashing worldviews and the fervent religio-cultural passions of its time. Echoing the harmonizing tendency of late Neoplatonism, its entangled strands of Greek and Egyptian thought and language do not vie for supremacy but merge in a battle for interpretation, reinvention, and survival. Now um uh until recently its legacy was muddled by errors in dating, authorship, and interpretation, and its significance was diminished by biased commentary. The scholarship itself demands a bold reckoning, entangled as it is in ethnocentric and colonialist lenses that still cloud this artifact's true significance. This new English translation by Sasha Chaito, right directly from the original Greek, opens a door for both curious readers and scholars alike, balancing rich context with a sharp, reliable rendering, sidestepping the pitfalls of past efforts. I'll let you read all the rest of this little blur uh in your own time, but I just wanted to draw your attention to how beautiful this cover already looks. Uh I I realize it's just a um a mockup for the moment, but isn't that gorgeous though? Isn't that absolutely beautiful? As expected, of course, from Black Letter Press. Um, but uh but yeah, I'm I'm I'm I'm a big fan of what I'm seeing right there, and thank you so so much to Black Letter Press for making this available and to Sasha Chaito, Dr. Sasha Chaito, for uh for her work in um yeah, bringing this text uh translation uh to modern standards. Very, very cool indeed.
We've got news from 9th Circle Press.co.uk. So this is *Hakma*, by Ian Chambers. I like what Ian Chambers does. This is focused on uh the figure of Judas, right, the biblical figure of Judas, um who was uh quite an important figure in some early Christian circles who saw him as absolutely central to the Christian narrative, being able to exist, right? So if Jesus hadn't been betrayed, then there would be no passion, there would be no um death on the cross and resurrection and all the rest, and therefore no salvation. And so uh people saw Judas as uh as having made a personal sacrifice, also okay. Um, and so this book explores that from the uh perspective of early, the first centuries of Christianity. There we go. Uh, but then also spanning um the Gnostic Cainites who kept the Gospel of Judas through the medieval period when the betrayer accumulated sins around him uh through folklore and custom. Judas has become synonymous with witchcraft and diabolism, charming and, most appropriately, cursing; in particular, curses laid upon books against theft. It's very interesting. So uh yeah, this is going to be available both as a standard edition, excuse me, and also as a special edition, excuse me. And the special edition is uh so the standard edition is for £50 and it is going to be stitched case binding with gold foil blocking to cover the spine to the cover and spine, excuse me, deep red red end papers, uh uh red and black head and tail bands with a dust jacket. Very lovely. And then the special edition for £40, uh limited to 50 copies uh with Winon leather, which is 85% recycled leather, keeping the price very reasonable, which is lovely, which is very, very cool, right? So I'll leave links to *Hakma* down in the description.
Next we've got news from Anathema Publishing, who are looking to um to print some super nice paperback editions of *Kurukulla*, which has been out of print for a while now. Uh, if you don't know about *Kurukulla*, go and check out my review of the collector's edition, I think it was. Um, so this is about the the Tibetan goddess of bewitchment; devotional path to the red enchantress of Udana, by Veronica Ras. So Anathema Publishing, being a small independent publisher with uh basically two people, um uh would ideally like to know how many people could potentially be interested in a paperback edition of *Kurukulla* before printing loads and loads and loads and then maybe finding out that they they printed more than there is interest for, or printing not enough, which would also be a shame, right? Uh, so because these are not print on demand, these are very, very high-quality beautiful paperbacks that are uh that are that are yeah produced and uh uh created and printed, right? Um uh using expensive processes, uh they would like to know ideally how many people could be interested and therefore they're asking for people to uh go over to various social media, either um Instagram or Facebook, which is where Anathema Publishing are the most um active if I understand correctly, and um yeah, just just register their interest by by liking the post or by uh leaving a comment or that kind of stuff. There we are.
Okay, let's move along. We've got news from Century Guild who are um making a a new collection of vintage witchcraft occult art from the 60s and 70s called *Spellbound*. So it's a hardcover book exploring witchcraft and the occult through vintage paperback cover art. Okay, so those of you who don't know Century Guild, they are the publisher who uh created or who who recently published uh beautiful edition of *L*, which is to this day one of the most beautiful books on my shelf, and um uh yeah, so this is this this is looking really, really cool. So very, very uh interesting. There's two different editions of the books uh of the book that I'll show you in a moment, but yeah, this this this art from those paperbacks from that period, very uh very specific, right? Very recognizable and uh yeah, really nice idea to bring them together in a in a nice hardcover book. Um, let's uh let's take a take a look at the two editions. So this is the the standard hardcover, um and this is what the special edition is going to look like, and I'm just such a sucker for a a quarter-bound um um uh cloth spine. I think that's so cool, and the colors just pop, don't they? They just just very, very nice. I think that's that regular edition looks very cool, but then uh yeah, I mean that's lovely, isn't it? Very, very nice. The uh uh price: yes, $65 for the standard hardcover and then um uh let's see, $129 for the slipcased edition. Then there's lots and lots of uh add-ons, uh so little the mini poster set, and then there's I think this is a pin, yeah, and then t-shirts, which is cool, and then you may recognize Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab who also occasionally do um perfumes for Sphere and Sury, and so they are they've made two perfumes for Century Guild uh to uh to add on. So there's one called *Sensuous Witch*, and the other one called *Age of Aquarius*, uh and then there are these um these these prints, which is just so lovely. I just want them all; they're so beautiful. Um, yeah, and you can get some of their back catalog as well, which is nice. So that's really lovely. I'll let you discover that Kickstarter page in your own time; links down below, of course.
News from Troy Books. They've got a paperback edition and a dust-jacketed hardback edition of *Numbers: Their Cult Power and Mystic Virtues*. So this is a 1911 book by William Wynn Westcott. Uh, the this is yeah, it's a it's a classic in the world of numerology. They've long held sacred and mysterious significance across civilizations, influencing philosophy, mysticism, and esoteric traditions. In this fascinating exploration of numerology and occult philosophy, William Wynn Westcott, a prominent figure in the Hermetic and Rosicrucian traditions, delves into the hidden meanings, symbolic attributes, and uh mystical applications of numbers. So yeah, I had been a little worried that Troy Books' back catalog, as in um not back catalog, but the number of pre-orders they had available versus uh how often they were actually releasing them for real was getting a little worrying, uh but I recently received Tad Kiel's *Dream Book*, which I need to review by the way, um it's a nice uh um special edition of that. Um, so yeah, anyway, uh just to say that my my worries are um being allayed somewhat, which is good.
Now there is news uh from Frat AKA about Three Hands Press and his *Olympic Spirits* book that is um that was due out more or less now, and that's being delayed. Okay, so uh um those of you who have been following Three Hands Press's excuse me, adventure over the past few years may be a little worried about this. Um um hopefully it is just as Frat AKA says, uh just a delay until May 5th. So we've got a very specific date um being shown here. This date is the standard hardcover and softcover editions, with the deluxe and special editions to follow in June. Uh, and so there's just a request that if you do already have a pre-order, then uh let them know if your address changes or if you expect it to change before that time. There is um uh uh also going to be a limited edition two-color letterpress poster featuring original Olympic Spirit artwork by Joseph Ellio, which is very, very exciting indeed. This I I just love Joseph Ellio's work; it's so so lovely. Um, and uh yeah, I'll just uh let you have a read of what's going on over here generally. I recommend when it comes to Three Hands Press, I love their work, absolutely love their work; it's always relevant, it's always high quality, uh but there is sometimes this worry of uh yeah, of of pre-orders not happening in a timely fashion, and so uh I generally recommend to wait until the books are uh are published already from Three Hands Press. That said, if you do wait until they're published, they're usually out sold out, so yeah, it's a gamble. Just letting you know that said, um there yes, there have been a couple of problems, but the vast majority of their books have been uh published without a hint uh so so yeah, it's going to be up to you to to make a decision on that front.
Good. We've got news from Mitch Horowitz: *Practical Magic: Ancient Tradition and Modern Practice*. So Mitch Horowitz uh is the author of of yeah, some modern occultism uh has been very, very popular, and uh so the idea here here is that Mitch Horowitz has been looking at esoteric and occult practices over the centuries and has distilled um the uh the the the knowledge, right? So, "Simplicity," wrote legendary occultist Jack Parsons, "has been the key to victory in all idea Wars, and at present magic does not have it." Well, that was Jack Parsons' writing that, and I think um maybe maybe some uh decades have gone by during which um simplicity maybe has been brought to magic. That said, Mitch Horowitz is uh adding his offering to the to the ring, uh drawing upon ancient Hermetic, Renaissance Era, and modern sources. Mitch dissects the building blocks of magic and provides formulas for of immediacy, simplicity, and potency. He also surveys the history of magic from deepest antiquity through the work of modernist intellects ranging from Newton and Schopenhauer to Crowley and Spare, finding connections to current studies in psychical research, quantum theory, and perceptual-based reality. So this is a number one bestseller in occult occultism. I'm wondering as opposed to what kind of occultism, unless they are two. No, no, it is one one category: occult occultism. Okay. Um, so let's see, Dan Akroyd, Duncan Trussell uh from the *Midnight Gospels*, Douglas Rushkoff, and David Lynch all clearly like Mitch very, very much, and his book is available in Kindle, paperback formats, and also as an audiobook, which is uh very good to know.
We've got news from Marco V. Visconti, who is launching a new series, it seems; *Dispatches from the Abyss*, and this is book number one: *Stars and Snakes: Aites Field Notes*. So this is um yeah, I'll just read it out for you. Uh, in this anthology, occult practitioner and writer Marco Visconti collects his dispatches from the front lines of spiritual exploration. Originally published on his widely read Substack, spanning the years from the platform's inception to the dawn of the Thelemic um holy season uh of uh 2025, these essays chart an evolving, unapologetically personal journey through magic theory, institutional critique, sociopolitical reflection, and direct lived practice. So yeah, I'm sure that's going to be very interesting for many Thelemites um watching right now. No gurus, no gatekeepers, no B for those called to the esoteric path by discipline or by rebellion, these writings illuminate the struggles, contradictions, and moments of clarity that define the Great Work today. So yeah, exciting stuff. Again, available as Kindle edition, paperback edition, and also hardcover edition. That's *Stars and Snakes* by Marco Visconti.
Oh my goodness, this one has me excited, folks! The *Nighthouse: Folktales, Rites, and Magic for the Wise and Wild*. All right, why is this exciting for me? Let me read the blur for you. "Fairy tales are more than mere bedtime stories; they are living, breathing repositories of ancient wisdom and magic." You know that I believe this, and that's what I based this Foolish Fish folk and fairy tale cards of fate and fortune, which I link down below. I do a shameless little plug for my uh my my own little deck of cards over here uh of oracle cards. There's a very good reason why I chose fairy tales for these cards. Check this out: In *The Nighthouse*, bestselling author and word witch Danielle Dulski peels back the layers of these timeless narratives to reveal their potent role as guides for navigating today's world. Historically kept and passed on by women, fairy tales are distinguishable from other types of folk tales by their supernatural elements, and because of this they were often dismissed as trivial fantasies for women and children. There's a nice conversation on the Foolish Fish Discord recently about the meaning of the word "fairy" as it relates to, for example, the Fairy Godmother of Cinderella, uh and the the the the fairies who attend the christening of Briar Rose in the uh the *Sleeping Beauty*, and whether we're really talking about Fay or Fair people, or if simply the word "fairy" is a replacement for the word "magic practitioner" or magic simply, right? And that is my absolutely my strong, deep belief. Uh, we're not necessarily talking about the Fay here; we're talking about simply magic. Danielle illuminates how this marginalization kept these stories safe from the witch hunter's noose and allowed women to safely store and transmit their sacred, age-old wisdom for new generations to uncover and explore. Of course, if you know what you're looking at, it's very clear that the the the the the ways of thinking, the processes that are described in these stories are are true; they're they're they they're good, sound magic, uh of course hidden under layers of narrative and hidden under layers of of how to say um just uh just caricature, right? But uh but but nevertheless, if if you if you set your expectations straight, there's some good magic in there. Her fresh and relevant commentary will support your kinship with the Earth, ancestors, and your own living myth. *The Nighthouse* shows how a single fairy tale is actually a treasure box of coded knowledge and magical practice that has remained largely intact, preserved under the floorboards of the yeoman's hut for us to find. This is uh extremely exciting for me. It's available as in Kindle and paperback, and it is published by New World Library. So that's um happening uh when exactly? Yeah, it's it's print; it's it's in print already; it's available from March 25th; that's just a couple of days ago. Very, very nice. *The Nighthouse* by Danielle Dulski.
Good. And then we've got this one: *Figmentism: Becoming Lucid in the Waking World*. I think this is self-published. This caught my attention, folks, uh because I I'm I rather like the idea of rebranding idealism. So not um not not what we generally call idealism, but the philosophy of idealism in which um the uh the the the building blocks of the universe is mind, and within mind the material world arises, as opposed to realism in which there's the building blocks of the universe are material and within the material world mind arises. Well, um the the author here has rebranded idealism as figmentism, and I'm not against this. I hate the fact that this, in my opinion, obv—well, it's the only obvious conclusion, right?—in my opinion, uh and I hate that it's branded idealism, right? It sounds like it's a just just a silly idea of someone who who doesn't have a clear grasp of reality. To call it figmentism, I think is a is a nice idea, right? So it's a philosophy that reality is fundamentally a dream. It suggests that the the external world is not separate from the mind but is instead a projection of thought, shaped by belief, perception, and intention. In this view, consciousness is the primary force that determines what is real, making reality more like a lucid dream than a fixed objective universe. Figmentism reframes ancient spiritual and esoteric ideas through a modern lens, seeking them not as a seeing them not as a supernatural myth but as an early understanding of how consciousness interacts with reality. I'm sorry about this; this is actually the second time that I'm recording this entire um news segment. I hadn't pressed the record button the first time around, but my voice is really suffering. Okay, so it bridges quantum mechanics, philosophy, and mysticism, presenting a structured way way to awaken within the dream and take control of it. Uh, so that's a potentially an exciting uh read, right? So 270 pages, very recently released, a couple of days ago, and also available in paperback and Kindle.
Okay, uh this is the tarot that I found this week on Kickstarter. I'm not sure it's uh quite accurate to call it a tarot, although it does share some resemblance with the tarot, though you'll notice that it's got 50 cards, so most definitely not a traditional tarot, a 15th-century masterpiece, though I can absolutely agree to. So this is the *Hone Tarot*, presumably. Um, I I I don't know if it but no, it's Italian, so I don't know. Rees—I'm not sure anyway. Um uh this has been restored, uh digitally restored by hand, by the way, uh and these uh very nice gold overlays have been added, making the cards look really, really nice. The uh the title of each card has been translated into English, and the number has been swapped from a Roman numeral to uh to the Arabic numbers like this at the bottom. Um, and yeah, and you can see the uh the process, right? The the the way that these kind of faded images have been updated. In fact, there's a a little GIF or GIF—I'm going to go with GIF—animation of how they have um uh restored these beautiful images. So there uh available in a couple of formats: first of all, in tuck box. Um, let me see, the tuck box has an early bird version for 49 euros. If you don't quite get the early bird, then you'll be paying €6 EUR more for that. There's a book that goes with it, and then there's this version with this lovely um uh solid box, which you'll get a view of in a few seconds, but first of all, let me show you the various collections of sets that are in this uh in this deck. Yeah, is it a tarot? Is it an oracle? I don't know; you'll judge for yourself. So the first set is the Conditions of Man: so beggar, servant, artisan, merchant, gentleman, knight, is that Doge I guess, king, emperor, and pope. And then you've you got um second set, which is Apollo and the Nine Muses: divine inspiration; so representing the divine spark of creativity and wisdom with Apollo down here, and then you have Calliope and Urania and Thalia and so on. And then you've got the Liberal Arts and Sciences: the foundations of knowledge, with grammar, logic, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, and so on. Then you got Cosmic Principles and Values: The Genius of the Sun, Genius of Time, Genius of the World, Temperance, Prudence. You can see this uh yeah, some of the major arcana are coming through here, right? Fortitude, Justice, Charity, Hope, um Faith. So it's not quite, but yeah, there are some ideas there, right? And then you got the Spheres: the moon, Mercury, Venus, sun, and you'll notice Mars is very clearly The Chariot, you know, and so on. Um, and then um yeah, and then you get a look at the construction of the deck: it's gold metallic shimmering ink on the back and on the front, gold foil edges, linen texture, very, very lovely. And then a look at this lovely rigid box, and it's just absolutely gorgeous. So yeah, I'm I'm really very, very impressed by what I'm seeing here, and uh I'm pretty sure many of you watching probably are too.
Okay, let's move on to news from Quä Publishing and Ted Hent Books, who are making available for free uh a a lot so far of the art of Stuart Littlejohn and Josephine McCarthy. And so you can see already everything that they've uploaded. You can, of course, download the the uh the the images that you like. If you can support Quä with a small donation, uh then please do. If you do intend to download any of these, they're just so gorgeous. That's just so gorgeous. A couple of weeks ago, I pointed out that Stuart Littlejohn's Redbubble account was being closed down because it was just uh not really doing anything, and so this is uh their way of um um yeah, making his art and Josephine's art available um for download, uh and yeah, and you can you can choose how much you'd like to donate, uh but uh if you'd like to make a poster, then yeah, you can download this high-definition image as a PDF and uh and make a poster out of it, or make a an altar print, you know, that kind of thing. They're just so beautiful, just absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous uh images. And you can see Josephine's water dragon over there and offering and uh and yeah, and the Dark Goddess from the process of creating the box for the Mr. Gogus deck uh which which resulted in this gorgeous uh Dark Goddess image just completely by freak accident. They they did a thing and they were like, "Oh, that's not what—oh my goodness, what is going on here?" And you can see what a what a fascinating uh design that is over there. Anyway, I'll let you explore in your own time, and uh yeah, do do do leave a a little donation uh if you do.
Then finally, yeah, I wanted to remind you that if you wanted to take part in the course that I'll be teaching from the 19th of April uh alongside Damen Eckles and Matt Orin and um Dr. Alexander Cummins and of course Carrie Paris herself, um then now is really the the final call, uh because we need to be able to send this um U it's called the *My Living Astrology Chart* um uh we need to send you this this this set basically. It comes with the uh a copy of Theresa Reed's book, um and then all these acrylic little tokens and also all these little charms and of course this uh this large board; it's a two-sided board, and we're going to be using these items during the course. So in order to be able to get that to you, um uh yeah, now really is the the final call. In fact, I might suggest that if you're based in Europe, you might be quite close to the edge right now uh if you're if you're thinking about it.
Know as the video is coming out, uh, but uh, uh, yeah, it's going to be a very, very exciting course, folks. Um, and uh, all the details are down over here. You'll be able to read everything uh that we're going to be doing. From me, I'm going to be teaching six of the of the lessons, and then Daman Eckles is teaching one of the lessons, and then uh Matt Orin is teaching uh at least yeah, at least one of the lessons, and Alexander Cumins is teaching too. Uh, yeah, very, very exciting stuff. And then there's going to be um a a a a bonus session with Carrie Paris. Um, and uh and also in between each session, there are going to be guided meditations with Gabriel Maru. Lots and lots of very cool stuff.
So if you wanted to join us for this course, it's a 10-week course, uh 10 lessons uh on making talismans and uh the the the art of of uh transmutation, alchemical transmutation in the context of uh creating magical objects. Uh, I think it's going to be a lot of fun. There we go.
And then finally, my uh board game of the week is Pirates of the High Tees. How could it not be? Of course, this is a a game that seems to be made for me. Um, so the game incorporates Pirates and high tea. I mean, how how how could this not be my board game of the week? Right? It looks kind of uh quite simple; it looks like um so it's ages 10 plus, 45 minutes, which is very, very nice. And then it plays uh solo uh or one to four players or two to four players. Um, but uh but yes, the idea is that you're Pirates doing your best to put on the best high tea you possibly can uh to make the perfect meal that is sure to win the captain's treasure. There we are. So um, little bit of silliness, but it looks like fun. There we go, folks. That's what I got for you for today.
I hope you enjoyed the video. Don't forget to hit the like button; it really makes such a difference when people hit that like button. So thank you so so much for those of you uh to all of you who who take the trouble to do that. Um uh only if you like the video, of course. If you hated the video, um then then hit the hate video, the the hate button. Um uh if you did like the video and you'd like to see more like this, then of course, the you know, do consider subscribing. And if you'd like to support the channel uh to uh to make these videos possible on the long term, then uh then really the Discord is the best way to uh make sure that these videos can continue being made. And I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who already does um contribute over on uh Patreon. Thank you so so much. There are links to all of that down below, and membership starts at just $2 a month, and that already gives you access to the Foolish Fish Discord uh server that I was talking about earlier on in the video.
Um, if you'd like to have a one-to-one conversation with me, then there are links to do that down below as well. You can uh just uh have a 1-hour video conversation uh where we'll talk about your particular spiritual path, what's going to be good for you going forward. Are you just getting started and wanting to know, you know, what would be a good idea? Are you on this path for a long time already and looking for clarification on maybe a thing that's happened or looking for some good book recommendations, that kind of thing? Then uh or maybe you'd just like me to read your tarot, and we can work out exactly where the universe is leading you. And uh um all of that uh those those links you can find them down below. So there we are, folks. Thank you so much once again for watching. Do take care of yourselves, do take care of each other, and I'll see you very soon with another video. Bye-bye.