Index to Waite's "The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts" (Book of Ceremonial Magic).
Fremont, CA: The Technology Group, 1990. First Edition, Second Printing. Softcover. Quarto. 11 x 8.5 inches. iv + 57pp + (x adverts). Pages numbered and printed on rectos only. Pale purple card covers lettered in black on upper cover, black plastic strip binding. An index to the 1898 first edition of A. E. Waite's "The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts" compiled by Nelson H. White (Frater Zarathustra: 1938 - 2003) and his wife Anne White (Soror Veritas) in 1979. It comprises a short Preface with: "How to use this Index," "What this Index Contains," and "What this Index Does Not Contain." The authors note that "This Index does not contain references to the moderate amount of rather Christian propaganda and extremely credulous cautions and so forth, as well as fairly large amounts of other non-Magickaly important material. Only Magickaly important information has been listed in this index." Following the index itself there are 4 pages of Notes, Comments and Corrections and 10 pages of adverts which are largely devoted to the White's own publications at the rear. The Index can be used with any (facsimile) edition that retains the pagination of the original 1898 edition of "The Book of Black Magic and Pacts" (the title-page of this volume incorrectly gives the publication year as 1900). Despite the rather misleading title, it cannot be used with "The Book of Ceremonial Magic" which was a revised version of "The Book of Black Magic and Pacts" and is somewhat expanded and therefore has different pagination. Frater Zarathustra and Soror Veritas were active in the Southern California occult scene for over 20 years, and were instrumental in the formation and operation of several Esoteric Churches and Magickal Orders. For a time they were associated with Poke Runyon's Ordo Templi Astarte and in 1973 founded their own magical Order, the 'Temple of Truth' (T.'. O.'. T.'.), based in Pasadena, where they also ran the Magick Circle bookstore. In 1974 they began publishing the "White Light" - the Order's journal focused on ceremonial magic, which ran quarterly for some 15 years. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s they edited, wrote and published dozens of different books on ritual magick, the Kabbalah, and the occult in general. They were innovative in the use of technology: copying, word-processing, computing etc. and its application to the occult, preparing indexes to previously unindexed works like Barrett's "The Magus", Waite's "Book of Ceremonial Magic" etc. as well as in the production of facsimiles of grimoires, which probably explains the choice of the name of the imprint under which they published: "The Technology Group." The various editions and printings of The Technology Group's publications were tiny, so despite this being a "second printing" it is, like almost all their publications, genuinely uncommon. The production values are quite basic, with simple typography and layout, and reproduction by xerox, so in terms of presentation it is only a little better than a modern "fanzine." Very light signs of wear else a tight, clean VG+ copy. Item #66414
ISBN: 9780939856930
Price: $95.00