The Faceless God.
Munich: Theion Publishing, 2016. Auric Edition. Hardcover. Large octavo. 144pp. A spectacular production. Custom bound in full "hand-wiped chthonic" leather and housed in a hinged, velvet-lined black wooden box with gilt Egyptian-style illustration imprinted on the front. B&W illustrations by Mitchell Nolte, appendices, bibliography. Smythe-sewn. The deluxe "Auric Edition" limited to 49 custom bound, numbered & signed copies. Each copy of the "Auric Edition" includes a special extra page with a magic word and sigil in the hand of the author. From the publisher: "Dr. Vicente’s volume explores a sometimes overlooked tripartite influence on European witch lore, namely Lovecraftian, Egyptian and Sabbatic. Indeed, an initiated reading of Lovecraft’s fiction, with emphasis especially on the figure of Nyarlathotep, exposes certain hitherto unexplored connections between European witch lore and the Egyptian mysteries of Osiris and Anubis. Margaret Murray argued many years ago that witchcraft was an organized cult of pagan origin, which had somehow survived the processes of Christianization. The argument by Vicente is more subtle, and much closer in spirit to the more recent research of Carlo Ginzburg, author of "The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries". The most novel aspect of the book’s premise lies in the unearthing of the deep symbolic resonance between the lore of Witchcraft, relating to the black man of the Sabbath and the Goat of Mendes, and the archaic fertility cult of the ram-headed Banebdjedet, who was a totemistic representation of Osiris—or more precisely Osiris in union with Ra in his netherworld aspect, being the Black Sun. The figure of Nyarlathotep serves as a bridge between these esoteric currents. He is a fictionalized expression of the god of the depths, the dark psychopomp who reveals the mysteries of the Black Sun—the Egyptians knew him as Anubis, and in European witch lore, he is now described as the black man of the Sabbath, the initiator of the witch cult. There is a strong affinity between the material presented in this new book, and David Beth’s Kosmic Gnosis." From the collection of Clive Harper with his discreet book-label neatly tipped in at the rear. Harper is well- known as the bibliographer of Austin Osman Spare, for updating the Aleister Crowley bibliography in the 2011 Teitan Press collection of Gerald Yorke's writings, and as someone who has lent his expertise to numerous other publications. As new. Fine condition in Fine box. Item #66011
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