Archive for Publishing

On Deceptive Use of AI for Plagiarism Within the Occult – Edgar Kerval, A Case Study

Posted in Occultism, Other, Paganism, Publications with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 17, 2026 by Sypheara

Off the back of the Kenneth Grant post, I did not expect to be waxing lyrical about the widescale abuse of Artificial Intelligence within the Occult publishing world. I had hoped to direct my attention elsewhere – but unfortunately, it has come to light that this gigantic egregore has wormed its way into publishing houses; a place where it is seemingly being abused on an unprecedented scale.

This post will primarily focus on one individual, Edgar Kerval, and his publishing company, caught engaging in dishonest practices. The issue, however, extends far beyond this limited sphere of investigation – it is my belief that we stand at the threshold of the proliferation of a myriad of dead, harmful texts. Not just academically dead works; ones truly without soul that will have the effect of acting like a malefic vortex. Texts that will do no less than trap people in the mind maps of artificial egregores. This induces a fate that is akin to being stuck in limbo.

Note: that what is contained here is so blatant and harmful that when this was brought to the attention of reputable, established distributors, the response was unanimous – the wholesalers began fire-selling this authors work to recoup lost investment, alongside an agreement to NEVER stock material from him ever again.

For those who know our current, one can understand why we see this as an affront to the Occult Theurgic method of Soul Ascension. As such, something has to be said – a line has been crossed by some people who, for years, have attempted to undermine, subvert and steal from the Primal Current. No longer do they skirt (or overtly cross) the line of outright plagiarism – they now entirely undermine the theurgic work.

This post is going to be a rather twisted web to follow – but at the end of it, I think the reader will agree with my conclusions. Internally, we have a large (50+) page report on this practice, but for now we have decided to withhold it to avoid the blast radius for other legitimate authors. Needless to say, we did a very deep dive into these deceptive, shifty, low-energy practices and verified what was found.

This first came to my attention when a devotee raised that she thought a certain person, named Edgar Kerval of Sirius Limited Esoterica, was publishing AI-generated books not only under his own name, but likely under various pseudonyms. For those who are unaware of who Edgar Kerval is, he describes himself as a Visionary, Eclectic Psychonaut and Techno-Shaman from Sirius. He has been active in the Left Hand Path scene for some time, positioning himself as an ‘expert’, and recently has become involved with Become a Living God.

What he is, however, is at best extremely misguided – and at worst, an outright con artist and charlatan engaging in dishonest business practices that threaten the well-being of his reader base. Unfortunately, this latter state of affairs seems to be where the hard evidence points.

The book in question that raised eyebrows was The Witchblood Cult. Not only did this work seem to take wholesale ideas from the Primal Current (noticeably The Witchblood Grail by Mark Alan Smith, as noted independently by commenters below on the BALG forums, see below), but it also seemed to include an uncanny amount of AI usage. The cover image is clearly AI-generated, and in addition, commenters who had read the book or the sample surmised that the content had either been heavily edited or created wholesale using generative artificial intelligence.

Cover of the The Witchblood Cult, and accompanying comment from a user. Borrowed is certainly a word (plagiarised).

Blatant Asinine Theft – Our Starting Point

It is not the first time Edgar Kerval has been caught indulging in dishonest practices. Last year, Edgar Kerval was forced to pull a book from an ‘anonymous author’ because it was discovered that the book had lifted, wholesale, passages from Mark Alan Smith’s The Scorpion God. This work was called Atlantean Draconis, apparently written by an author known as Fr. Nemirion 71.

It was heavily suspected at the time that the anonymous author didn’t exist – and that Kerval had written the work himself under a pseudonym for plausible deniability. Nobody with the author’s name is readily identifiable, and all works are pretty much listed as co-authored with Edgar himself. The fact remains, however, that Edgar Kerval attempted to publish material ripped from The Scorpion God.

When this was brought to Edgar’s attention (with it being strongly pointed out that legal action may follow), he pulled the book from publication through Sirius Limited Esoterica. Whilst no admission of fault was given in correspondence, this act alone speaks volumes. He could not stand behind the work because, clearly in his own heart, he knew it was a complete fabrication derived from work that someone else had suffered and bled for. Once it was realised and brought to light that this book was plagiarised, Miskatonic (where the below screenshot originated) and other reputable sellers, to their massive credit, immediately removed it from their catalogue.

Covers and contents of the ‘Atlantean Draconis’ from Miskatonics site (reseller). Once the plagiarised nature of this book came to light, Miskatonic to their credit immediately pulled it from circulation.

This was the end of that particular matter – and there it would have stayed if others had not come forward reporting concerns surrounding The Witchblood Cult. When this book came to light, I took it upon myself to go digging – and the more I dug, the more I found.

The Floodgates of Slop

For those not involved in the development of AI or the software industry, it may come as a surprise to learn that the AI models on display these days are not the small, constrained models of yesteryear. No longer are we talking about models with 260k context tokens, but ones with context windows reaching into the millions.

It has therefore become trivial, with frontier models accessed on the internet, to generate vast amounts of material in regard to both the written word and images. This has caused scams and dishonest practices to explode and proliferate across the internet.

It seems that certain occult ‘authors’ have started to lean into using generative AI to blatantly mass-write books. In Edgar’s case, we will cover the most egregious and obvious examples first. Rest assured, however, it goes deeper.


The ‘Eschaton Interface Press’ section of the Sirius Limited Esotericas website.

The more egregious of these are published by Sirius Limited Esoterica through a ‘separate publisher’ known as Eschaton Interface Press. This is a clear attempt to give himself plausible deniability – which immediately comes apart since Edgar’s own name is on the majority of the books. The other ‘products’ are attributed to a Temple Ov Neuromancers (see Temple of Necromancers later in this article), as well as an author named NULL404.

There is no evidence that either Temple Ov Neuromancers or NULL404 exists. For obvious reasons to anyone who is technical, the latter is probably a self-fellating joke, considering NULL means not assigned (programmatically speaking) and 404 means missing, or not found. It is a trite pseudonym that hides nothing in the end. We can only assume that this group, author, and ‘other publisher’ are nothing but a front for pumping out AI-written and AI-drawn material.

These materials are demonstrably AI-generated. This applies not only to the art, but also to the way they are written – all the promotional content was checked using my own in-house agentic tool, which identified it as AI-written. The chapter headings and whatever samples could be found were also checked, and came out as being 100% AI-written.

None of these books list AI as the author – the only obvious sign to the unwary is the subject matter itself, which may provide a hint. Two of these four works carry Edgar’s name as sole author; the rest are attributed to pseudonyms. The works are attributed as below.

The page for ’72 Signals’ Note: no mention of AI being a writer, Edgar Kerval is listed as sole author

The page for ‘Nuclear Telluria’ Note: no mention of AI being a writer, and Edgar Kerval is listed as sole author

Both of these books show significant AI writing involvement. The obvious em-dash sections, the word-salad text – they are telltale signs of large-scale generative AI. Nuclear Telluria was excreted out in short order after the creation of the other works – another sign that AI is being utilised to drive the generation of empty, soulless texts for pure profit.

I will not insult my readers’ intelligence. Anyone with functioning eyes can see that if it quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. That said, my own tool agreed when I finally decided to run the legally available 72 Signals material through it.

‘Assessment of 72 Signals: 97% AI probability, HIGH confidence. The restatement is a definitive marker. Combined with the construction cluster and template phrase, this is almost certainly AI-generated marketing copy.’

The other two works that do not contain Edgar’s name directly are, in many ways, even more blatantly written by AI.

The page for ‘Black Algorithms’ Note: no mention of AI being a writer, fake pseudonym NULL404 is listed as sole author. Word salad chapter headings.

The page for ‘Black Algorithms’ Note: no mention of AI being the artist or writer, just generic ‘contemporary imaging technology’ (dishonest wording). Fake group ‘Temple ov Neuromancers’ listed as ‘creators’ (arguable).

The first of these two was ran through our program. It turned out to be less sure that I am, but still came to similar conclusion.

‘Assessment: 80% AI probability, MEDIUM confidence. The paragraph uniformity is a near-definitive marker. The “as X” density is elevated throughout. The em-dash count (8 vs the 1 originally reported) reflects the full page including the TOC. Confidence is medium rather than high because the description text is short (211 words in 3 paragraphs), limiting the evidence base.’

Having no sample or source text to work from was a problem – limiting the confidence level the program could reach. However, as far as I was concerned, this was a pure formality. The generative AI smell is all over these products. The cards are shameless – asset dumps for easy money. Anyone who has worked on making cards knows that only a human soul can key the cards to the relevant gates – what is being created here are simply soul traps for the unwary, drawing them into a world of surface-level machine abstraction. This can only have a deleterious effect on the soul that mistakenly utilises them – they are, in turn, used by the egregore.

If this is where it ended, it would be bad enough. That a supposedly respectable Left Hand Path author would abandon writing his own works in favour of producing generative AI shovelware shows a degeneration of character. But it turns out this is just an evolution of an older, more insidious pattern – that Edgar Kerval was very likely using fake pseudonyms to produce AI-edited/generated work well before ‘Eschaton Interface Press’ was ever spun up. I believe that many of these authors are demonstrably AI-assisted sock puppets, and have evidence to that effect.

Analysing all of the authors published by Sirius Limited Esoterica, at least 10 of approximately 37 named authors are very likely fabricated personas – with all pointers to their existence being self-referential to the Sirius Limited Esoterica ‘ecosystem’, for lack of a better term. Whilst it is possible, and likely, that some of these are false positives, being potentially very unknown authors used to ‘pad out’ anthologies for profit (itself a process I’m unfortunately privy to), the fact that no references to these people appear to exist on social media platforms in 2026 is highly suspect, even within this particular area of the occult. I could find almost no forum posts or mentions either.

Looking into just one ‘author’ associated with this publishing house and analysing The Occult Library profile photo for ‘Fr Asar Un Nefer’ was somewhat illuminating. This photograph was subjected to OpenCV ORB (Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF) feature matching against real photographs, with the following results.

OpenCV ORB (Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF) Analysis

Source photos identified:

  1. Charles Nagy – A Detroit photographer (canvasrebel.com/meet-charles-nagy/)
  2. Cuba model – A Man in David Fernandes photography portfolio (fernandes.photography/cuba-2)

ORB feature matching results: | Comparison | Good Matches | Match Ratio | vs Baseline | |———–|————-|————-|————-| | Baseline (same person, 2 different photos) | 6 | 0.6% | — | | Asar vs Charles Nagy | 26 | 2.6% | 4.3x baseline | | Asar vs Cuba model (birds background) | 39 | 3.9% | 6.5x baseline |

Interpretation: The Asar photo shows 4.3 to 6.5 times more feature matches with Charles Nagy and the Cuba model than the baseline of the same person in two different photos. This is consistent with an AI-generated image that inherits facial features from multiple training sources. The image is likely not a direct copy of any single photograph (different MD5 hash, different composition, different background), but matches features from multiple source images.

Additional evidence:

  • No camera metadata (794×794 square format, monochrome)
  • AI-generated bio text (mixed third/first person, “Actually” as transition tell, broken grammar: “his grandmother witch which resided in New Orleans”)
  • Photo identified by analysis tool as likely being a composite
  • Charles Nagy confirmed as real person: 17-year locomotive mechanic, later Director of Mi-Cycle at SAY Detroit non-profit, staff photographer, nothing to do with the occult.

Outside of this we see mixed third and first person (“his grandmother witch” then “I have written”)

  • “Actually” used twice as a transition word – a common AI writing pattern which crops up in many generated texts.
  • Impossible thematic range for a single author, albeit this could be the usual grift.

Similar doubts exist around Raven Stronghold, who also appears to have an AI generated image (or at best, heavily filtered) photograph on the Occult Library. This author also has no references outside of the Sirius Limited Esoterica ‘ecosystem’

Likely AI-Generated Bio Text: Fr Asar Un Nefer – similarity to searched google images with Lens – known photographer.

Likely AI-Generated Bio Text: Fr Asar Un Nefer – similarity to known model from Cuba.

The above is not conclusive from a forensic perspective but it is however, highly suspect and is just one of several comparisons that were carried out.

Reviews from Readers on Distributor Sites

In addition, it is not just myself who have noticed that these ‘authors’ work also seem AI generated. Copied below are some reviews from a public facing section of a well known Occult distributors site.

A review for the book Acausal Genesis by ‘Damon Kael’ published by Sirius Limited Esoterica.



A review for the book Sacramentum II by ‘Raven Stronghold’ published by Sirius Limited Esoterica.

One can also infer certain things about this ‘Temple Ov Necromancers’ / ‘Temple Ov Neuromancers’, or however Edgar desires to spell it based on the phase of the moon. It is clear that when one venture did not meet the required figure, he simply grew bored and moved on to the next. I cannot prove that anyone supposedly involved with the Temple of Necromancers who published work through Edgar has ever existed – since their work appears to be published solely through Sirius Limited Esoterica. I can only presume the Necromancer venture was an attempt to ride the wave (and coat-tails) of IXAXAAR, who popularised such work in the early 2010s.

As such, I sensibly conclude that these are shell groups used to inflate the apparent authorship figures. This seems to me to be a classic case of credibility laundering – the creation of apparently separate authors, groups, imprints or identities that all reinforce one another while ultimately existing within the same closed publishing ecosystem. To an outside observer, this creates the appearance of multiple independent practitioners, bodies of work and sources of authority. When in reality, if those identities cannot be independently substantiated outside that ecosystem, the apparent breadth of authorship may be little more than a VERY circular validation that points to its true nature – an intentional deceptive practice to lend airs of credibility.

Getting the Ad Hominem out of the way

Readers may get to this point and already desire to skewer me as ‘anti-AI’. That would miss the obvious nuance – many may not realise that I work within the software industry. In this industry, it is essentially mandated that we make use of Artificial Intelligence in our day-to-day work. I also, as a hobby, have access to my own AI system that I built for personal use (one I used to help co-author the report and assist with the investigation due to the volume of material discovered as suspect). To therefore broad-brush this article or myself as anti-AI would be foolish.

However, a very important point: my day job and hobbies where it is involved do not involve theurgic advice, direction or training. I also do not work ‘professionally’ in Occult Publishing. Everything I have seen, especially with the wider circuit, have strongly discouraged me from EVER putting my foot in that domain again.

With that said, I need to state clearly why AI should be absolutely nowhere near the theurgic art specifically, and expand on the opening of this post. That argument is specific; it is separate from discussions of the other serious risks posed by this technology (of which there are many, beside the obvious benefits) that are better covered elsewhere by others.

Real Soul Impact

Theurgy and Occult training are matters of the soul. Artificial Intelligence does not have a soul – at best, it is a useful egregore (for physical, practical work), created from information taken wholesale from real human souls that have been energetically and informationally ingested by its training set – at worst, it is a complete soul trap.

The cyberspace created by the development of artificial systems (intelligent or otherwise) is a sphere that is below Malkuth – a further dilution away from source created by ourselves. Not the Gods, but us humans, as a material playground. As such, it can play no part in returning to and connecting with source – by nature, it is an entirely separate beast. Instead, those who try to utilise such a method descend, at best, into artificially induced psychosis, which cuts them off fully from the Gods and Spirits. This is a world to be used for escapism at best – not for genuine spiritual connection.

Those who follow books ‘created’ (generated) by lazy, dangerous ‘writers’ utilising these egregores will only be sucked down into that trap, from which it is very difficult, if not impossible, to extract them. It literally leads to insanity; this seems a large claim, but one only needs to see the studies on Artificially Induced Psychosis outside of the occult sphere to understand how precipitously dangerous this is in a theurgic context. An occult author should know the philosophical underpinning for this – so one can only deduce that the people behind this are either already caught in the trap, or worse; are knowledgeable of the implications but mass-produce these traps to make a quick dollar regardless. There is a large difference between doing a careful edit pass and the wholesale hallucination of a text by a glorified search engine that serves to bind the reader in mental and soul traps.

It is not just Edgar and Sirius Limited Esoterica who are engaging in these practices, however. I expect many others have begun to partake, or will do so, in the Occult Publishing Sphere. Any distributors reading this are duly warned: stocking work of this kind will harm your reputation, your business, and ultimately your readers.

Do not support the authors and publishers who make use of generative AI for theurgic work. Distributors – keep your word and do not stock the work of people who work only to undermine, steal, and ultimately harm your readers.

Closing Thoughts

For the others out there – if you see any mention or suspicion of AI-generated text, art or promotion in regard to such work, step away. Do not support this person with your money or time. Instead, support currents that do genuine magickal work and take the fate of their students’ souls seriously. Those who bleed into the earth, who do the hard work of directing the world soul towards rebalance and away from the escapist fantasies that, if indulged without grounding, yes, lead to limbo. This is not an exaggeration. I personally feel very lucky to have a support network that, over the course of nearly two decades, has steered me clear of such traps and taught me better – but many out there will fall for these scams, thinking they are legitimate spiritual teachings. They are not, and what’s at stake is far more than a bit of lost money.

Those who sell such nonsense will have to pay a toll far worse than what they’ve gained monetarily when they eventually cross into the next life – as this is seen and noticed by powers far, far beyond myself. They are also a lot more patient (usually) when it comes to taking the soul debt incurred.

~S~

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Another Turn of the Wheel – Inversion of the Light

Posted in Primal Craft, Publications, The Temple of the Ivory Spider with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 31, 2024 by Sypheara

We come again to that blessed time of the year – where the Earth is finally responding to the dying light of the Sun.

This period is always a very reflective one for me. Looking back, I can say this year has been an exceptional one – that has pushed me out of my boundaries to places and lands I would never seen myself having visiting. I think its going to be a year that lodges itself firmly in my memory, and won’t let up its hold anytime soon.

It is a time for remembering what we have lost, and somewhat more importantly in many ways, what we must let go.

This Samhain, those of us in the Primal Current were treated to a little, special treat- the Beyond Akasha edition of Mark Alan Smiths work, The Red King, was released. This returns to circulation, and for the first time directly into the currents hands, some extremely important essays to our craft.

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The Red King, Beyond Akasha Edition, by Primal Craft / Mark Alan Smith

A standout in my eyes, is the essay Baptism Of Fire, which details the Magister of the Artes crossing of the Abyss. This version, in an uncensored form, was one that I read out in full to the initiates and dedicants here – which they found rather illuminating. Considering the Rite to begin the Abyss crossing is conducted in our craft upon the night of the Sabbat itself, it felt fitting that it was this tale that I recounted when the sun crossed the western horizon on our Esbat night.

It had been many years since I’d read the original essay, when it was first published in anthology form many, many years ago. It struck me then as an extremely important bit of writing for the Arte Magickal, not just the current itself. The new version is nothing short of revolutionary. Whilst the vast majority of people have experienced the nigredo phase of alchemy in their life at some point this is clearly no substitute for what is found in the dark lake crossing. Having a tangible account of a lived experience I feel it is positively vital to put the great theurgic work into its proper context. The strain on the soul across spiritual, mental and physical planes in this work is lain out raw – to show the realness of what is conducted and its impact upon the individual. Although people are generally familiar with Crowleys account, I feel this one stands above it – coupled with the The Phoenix Rite contained within Mark Alan Smiths The Queen of Hell, this feels the definitive and decisive analysis of the Abyss and its crossing.

After reading it to my small group, I remember the fifteen or more seconds of stunned silence after we finished the text. The room itself felt charged – something important had been shared, and imparted. In this microcosmic performance, another truth became apparent – that the current on a macrocosmic level continues to grow in both depth and breadth, at an accelerated pace, on a truly revelationary scale. No more dead texts – no more dead artificial lines. In 2024, this is insufficient for where we collectively find ourselves.

Things now are proceeding to organically unfold. After finishing the reading it was actually necessary to ground – that is the power than can be contained within the written word when properly ensorcelled with the power of the Gods.

The Seal of Lucifuge Rofocale

I polished off the rest of the essays on my own – the one involving Lucifuge Rofocale being most enlightening, detailing the way in which the devoted mage may create a physical book that links to Rofocales own. This is something that calls to me, and thus I believe I will explore it in the future, in individual practice. It struck me that this essay also contains much guidance on the Arte of Evocation that will be useful for others here at our Temple, even if they have no intention to create and link their own book. Additionally, for those with Eyes to see (and a healthy dose of reading comprehension), this particular essay outlines one of the primary methods of ensouling objects.

Those who are able to source the book and have a primary, devoted interest in the current I can honestly recommend the tome and say that reading it this Samhain has been very special. The focus on passing through the dark, to come out the other end enlightened, is always an important one at this time of year – it gives us context, balance, and hope.

Reflecting back on our own work, I can safely say we are continually growing our praxis here and I feel I am now far along transmitting what constitutes a solid foundation. As such, I am looking forward to delving into my own theurgic work again in the near future having freed up some time and headspace; I look forward very much to further workings with Belial, and uncovering more of the stellar gnosis which is brought through by our temples arachnidian guardian entity. The choice of blinding white for the new Red King edition is certainly a very, very fitting one.

On that note, on this rather busy night, I must again leave you as I did last year with a few beautiful images of one of the drovings that occurs in the North West of England. These images are from the Penrith Winter Droving, which happens around this time on year. Continuing on our theme of death and renewal, its fantastic to see very pagan festivals coming back to the light.

Pictures from Penrith Winter Droving, supplied by Photographer

May the Light of the Gods,
Carry you High,
On the Journey of the Grand Sabbat
~S~

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Review and Summary: Apocalyptic Witchcraft – Part One

Posted in Occultism, Paganism, Traditional Witchcraft with tags , , , , , , , on September 19, 2013 by Sypheara

Introduction

So at last I finally have managed to get  around to working on and completing this entry. This is going to be a large one, revolving around a new work released through Scarlet Imprint, known as Apocalyptic Witchcraft. Written by Peter Grey, I believe that this book is another important milestone within the world of Occult Publishing and Witchcraft in general. For those who are already on the fence and have some inkling as to what this book relates to, my whole recommendation and this post can be summarised quickly and simply: it’s an important work, if you are the least bit interested, order a copy at the next available opportunity. For those who have yet to be introduced to this work, and know very little about Scarlet Imprint, hopefully this will be an informative post.

The Publisher and Build / Aesthetic Quality

Founded in 2007, Scarlet Imprint was originally created in order for Peter Grey to self publish his work, The Red Goddess. Since then, alongside several other Occult publishers, Scarlet Imprint has gone on to contribute massively to the growth of the Occult publishing scene releasing many works by a diverse range of authors. These works cover a large section of differing paths, and alongside Ixaxaar, has become for me one of my primary sources for new texts.

Upon seeing that Peter Grey was releasing a new book authored entirely by himself, and having not had the pleasure of yet reading The Red Goddess, I made it a mission of my mine to acquire a copy of Apocalyptic Witchcraft.  The edition I went for was the standard hardback edition – my usual compromise between quality and cost when it comes to purchasing Occult books.  Called the Of The Doves edition, this book as described on the site,  is an octavo book of 200pp, that has been bound in rough black linen cloth. A picture of both the side version and my own can be seen below.

a7ed8-apocalyptic_witchcraft_lg

Picture from the Scarlet Imprint Website showing the Of The Doves edition.

From first glance, the book looks very striking both inside and outside of its dust jacket. As the website states, the Doves are a symbol that is highly important within the work itself and the meaning of them is brought forward in the text. Although not in the same league as the talismanic and consecrated magical books I own, it does seem to still to exude a power of its own that really does invite it to be read, and understood. As with all other Scarlet Imprint books I own, I can therefore say it appears to me to be of high quality in its construction. The paper used feels thick and good quality, and appears to be well bound as well.  It feels weighty, and robust, and like it could survive in my often perused collection for quite some time.

Several images of the exterior and interior follow. Unfortunately, all I have got to really take images is my phone camera, and the results vary widely. I have trouble getting it to focus sometimes even with setting changes. Hopefully these will be sufficient to illustrate the above point.

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Exterior shot of book in it’s dust cover.

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Shot of the interior of the book, displaying the title page and the end papers.

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A shot showing the rear and spine of the book.

With the pictures of the exterior and interior out the way, I wish to move onto the contents of the book itself. Here I intend to summarise each section and also add what I took from each part of the book.

Exordium

Firstly, the book opens with a small prefacing chapter called Exordium. An Exordium is a a beginning or introductory part, especially of a speech or treatise, designed to put the reader in a favourable state of mind before reading the main text. The Exordium in Apocalyptic Witchcraft does this excellently, and summarising it here will I think give the reader a good overall impression of its content and what the author is trying to cover/convey.

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Interior shot showing the hand numbering of my copy.

The Exordium opens with a clear statement declaring the books radical approach. From its own pages, it loudly declares that it ‘is a book which dares to prophesy’ and that it ‘is a perilous book, and one which does not aim to please’. It also states that its goal is to presents a view on ‘witchcraft for those who know that the wheel of the year has broken from the spokes of the seasons’. The Exordium tempers this stark opening two paragraphs with the following, ‘It does not ask for belief, adherence or followers. …. it simply asks that you listen’.

This section is followed up by a clear and precise mission statement. In the authors own words, ‘This is a naked proposition put before you; to read again meaning to all these things [witchcraft]. To ask, what is it that underlies the pattern of our magic? What is the essence of Witchcraft itself?’.

With the mission and feel of the book made aware to the reader, the author then goes on to describe the language the book will use to describe its concepts. ‘Neither is this an easy book, though the ideas are simply enough, and they need to be expression in the language of magic, as poetry ….. If i have taken liberties with ideas, then the mistakes are mine. If my writing is more ragged on the wing that writers who precede me, I answer that it can still fly. If this work is needful of more time, I confess it is a luxury none of us possess. My wish is that readers find new avenues of inspiration from these sources and enrich their practice with them. Time is of the essence now’.

The Exordium does a great job of introducing us to the topic the author wants to break open and display the guts of – that Witchcraft and Paganism must grow into something new and radical, with a renewed spirit, to become something that is highly relevent for the modern, apocalyptic age in which we live within. Peter Greys passion and use of imagery to bring a point home is illustrated in this section before we even get to the main text, and begin consuming the main body of his work.

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The entire book is written in a poetic like prose that helps to convey the meaning far better than dry text. Interspersed between the chapters, poems like these help reinforce each prose section and help one chapter blend well into the next.

Main Chapters

With the Exordium over with the book launches into the meat of the topics at hand in the following chapters. There are 10 chapters in total, each covering a specific topic. These build one from the other, and as the author states in the Exordium, are best followed in order to be fully understood.

Apocalyptic Witchcraft

A  Manifesto of Apocalyptic Witchcraft

She is Without

The Cup, The Cross, and the Cave

A Spell To Awaken England

The Scaffold of Lightning

The Children That Are Hidden Away

A Wolf Sent Forth to Snatch Away a Lamb

Fifteen

Hic Rhodus, Hic Salta!

With the chapters listed, I’ll now try and attempt to summarise them in a basic form along with comments.

Apocalyptic Witchcraft

In this opening chapter, the author launches into full flow. In this chapter, the groundwork foundations fo the entire book is lain. The author points out several important points in this chapter, that run throught he rest of the work. For example, he describes in poetic fashion the force of Babalon, and goes on to point out how Witchcraft is rooted in in the land, and the web of life. He goes onto further elaborate the reason for the books antagonistic tone – that he is opposed to how witchcraft is seen and used as an excuse to retreat into seclusion within the practioners own mind.

Following on from the beginning of the chapter, he asserts that witchcraft is rooted in the the world as it is, and as radical changes cascade through our world, our traditions must by necessity also change. He goes on to point out that in witchcraft and paganism is not only tradition, but by necessity innovation, becoming and necessary revolution.

From this, he argues that due to Witchcraft  being a tradition of renewal, coupled with the dying age in which we live, by necessity it must rise to confront the new challenges presented to it and take on new, renewed form. As the author says quite poetically, ‘ World’s end is not a threat from the pulpit, we have assembled it with dextrous and sinistrous fingers, bunkered our oblivion for the days of the final division of plunder now at hand. We will not follow the smoke to the stars until we are burned on the pyre of the earth. Love is the war to end all wars, and the war is upon us’.

This section really hammers this point home. That through breaking from nature, all humankind, including ourselves, are complicit in the conditions which assail our environment and the real physical world in modern times. This is an important point the author makes. Not only is it the big multinational corporations, corrupt governments, and greed driven cultures but also each individual that wittingly or unwittingly, has contributed to the problem.

From this position, the author goes on to define witchcraft how he sees it. He paints a unified, undiluted picture devoid of any attachment to a particular form, holding back from ascribing to his arguements any sense of orthodoxy. ‘You will find witchcraft at the end of a pointed finger…. To prettify witchcraft is as ill-judged as to disfigure it. You cannot deny the Goddess in any form of cast lantern light or play of shadows. You cannot say white witchcraft or black witchcraft without doing violence to Her complete being. It is time we heal this wound. Consider the words of the Thunder Perfect Mind: I am the Whore and the Holy One’.

He then asks the question as to why modern paganism  and witchcraft has thus far been insufficient to deal with the problems facing us and confront our enemies. He goes on to identify ‘modern’ paganism as witchcraft as beginning primarily as a compromise with the repeal of the witchcraft laws, and the careful experimentation that arose from this. He argues that current teachings that hold witchcraft to be practiced in a harmless or watered down fashion need forgetting, and instead a more proactive way forward should be sought. In his own words, ‘ I say that the power of the witch is in having every option open. Witchcraft will not lie beneath, will not be disarmed… Witchcraft, and by that I mean malefica, is the strong face we should show to this world. This is a merciless path…. [Example of the the solonaceae is given] enable us to fight poison with poison. There  is no way to separate the powers, and no way we should be cleaved from our rights to exercise either’.

He then goes on to caution however, against infighting within the Pagan and Witch community. He wants against horizontal hostility between people who fundamentally, hold similar values and belief systems no matter their mythic underpinning. He stresses this is additionally important in an age where a united witchcraft and paganism on some level will be necessary to survive, and that instead, Witchcraft and Pagansim should collective grow and adapt into a force for change and effectiveness.

As an opening chapter, I feel this does a good job of introducing the reader to the text, as long as its followed in a logical manner.

‘It’s all blood and roses from here  on in.  As witches, we should prepare to fly on the wings of the storm’.

A  Manifesto of Apocalyptic Witchcraft

This chapter is the shortest of the entire book, however arguably the most important for the author to lay bare his intentions, motives, and views. This is done in bullet point form, the author specifically deciding to cover thirty three points.  The author keeps these succinct, and they help illustrate and clarify the points the author first covers in the Exordium and First Chapter. Several extracts follow that I hope illustrate this.

‘1: If the land is poisoned, then witchcraft must respond’

‘2: It is not our way if life, it is life itself which is under threat’

’16: There is one Witchcraft under many names. There is one Grand Sabbat on One Mountain.
 There are many ways to fly.
 There is no witness present at the Sabbat’

’33: Witchcraft is present, it is ensanguined and vivified. Witchcraft is prescient, it gazes on the future.
 Witchcraft is oracular, it will not hold its tongue.

This section ends thus quite powerfully, after having delivered to the reader the undiluted essence of the books message. Its effect is amplified, coming after the first chapter, and is thus well framed by it and sets the reader up for the following chapters.

She is Without

Arguably the chapter with the potential to be the most confusing of the book, She is Without is dedicated to the author and his partners visit to the Cave of the Apocalypse, where John was said to have received his visions which would later go on to become the Revelation of the Bible. It is written in a dreamlike, poetic fashion, which really captures the thought processes of the author in his search for understanding on the Isle of Patmos.

She Is Without paints a picture of John as a tortured figure, heading deep into the cave tortured by images and hate for the world. This is described with cold, baleful imagery which paints the cave as a reclusive chamber of death. This is joined with similar description of the industrialisation around the island, and the other pilgrims who have arrived to also visit the cave for themselves. This is starkly contrasted with imagery and descriptions of the island itself, which is vibrant, alive, and flowing instead of being stagnant:

‘The Island never finds him. Marigolds, poppy reds, proud purples open in a Spring which cannot unfurl in the cave. He [John] feeds on bitter herbs, not honey. A Hades grown so hateful that the Persephone he drags down with him remains chaste, spat at with curse…. No Petals will open to the sun, unless tortured Christ returns to blight and blame. Ishtar is split into Maria and Whore, and the wound is opened’

Although short, the chapter is powerful and can be difficult to follow and interpret, especially on first reading. However, as we will see, it is closely paired with the next, and sets it up in a profound way to deliver an important message, a method which the author uses throughout the text.

The Cup, The Cross, and the Cave

In this chapter, the seeds sown in She Is Without bear fruit, as the author moves on to discussing the important of dream, dream incubation, and most importantly, the healing dream. The chapter opens by clearly stating a metaphor for purpose of arguement – that of an assault on dreaming and the meaning of dreams has been carried out, and that needs to be addressed and fixed to rediscover the power of dream. This is best summed up by the following quote:

‘The decisive action here is the one embarked upon by John of Patmos, another exile bound to a far flung isle. His was a deliberate action which set out not merely to loose chimeras in the garden of the mind, but to bar the games of dream itself. So this is where we decant our vitriol and dissolve the locks that John applied, which State and Church imposed.’

From this this point the author launches into discussion. He goes into discussing the healing dream – ie, the door that opens up the shamanic pathways between the Witch/Shaman and the Goddess/Higher Power, and how this is profoundly changing. He goes on to ascribe Johns bitter Revelation text as the rejection of his own healing dream, due to when presented with seeing the both aspects of human nature, falls into the trap of dualism and rejects half of himself. From this point on, the chapter goes on to discuss how dreams in the present have been branded, corporatised and polluted like the world around us, and goes on to say how dream has been hammered away in our culture away from a mythic importance to being seen as an irrelevence

This chapter was particularly important to me and resonated, due to my own dream experiences I have related in the about section and intend to do a post on at some time or another.  I could identify with the healing dream, and see the experience reflected in his writing of another that had undergone a similar experience, and was startled to see it reflected in this section.  This chapter is essential reading, and really helps make sense of the preceding one.

johnapocalypse

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Viktor Vasnetsov

End of Part One

On this note, I’d like to end the first post. This is in the main due to its length, I’d love to be able to cut it down as promised into two more readable parts.  Hopefully this has been a good first half and has sufficed as a good introduction to the book and its contents so far. In the next section, I will continue summarising the chapters to the best of my ability and commenting on them. These chapters delve much deeper into the what the author believes is the  underpinning of witchcraft and pagan belief, and how it can be channelled. I will then finish up with a conclusion and a final verdict.

Thanks again for reading,

~S-

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