In honor of the Bastards’ one-year anniversary, we revive The Headless One!

This week, we’ll discuss the origins of the Headless Rite and the forms it has taken across traditions and practices. First, take a look at Jake Stratton-Kent’s pamphlet on the ritual, The Headless One. Then look at the translations from the Greek and Demotic magical papyri: from the PGM, “The Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist” (pp. 103, PGM V. 96-172) and from the PDM (pp. 232, PDM xiv. 675-694).

The Golden Dawn adapted their own version of the rite, translated as “The Bornless Ritual”, found in The Golden Dawn, pp. 442.

Next we progress to Crowley, who first adapted the ritual as the “Preliminary Invocation of the Goetia”, and later expanded it as Liber Samekh. And finally, a new version many of us have celebrated to great effect, Frater Antichristos’ Satanized and fleshed out Liber Thagirion.

OPTIONAL READING IF YOU ARE A GLUTTON:

Wikipedia article on the PGM.

Israel Regardie’s comparative analysis of the versions of the ritual.

From Hans Dieter’s translations, the introductions to the Greek and Demotic papyri found at the beginning of the volume (pp. xlii and lv).

AVDIERVNT’s preferred version of the ritual: The Stele of Jeu (Rite of the Headless One) as it appears in Stephen Flowers’ Hermetic Magic (pp. 182-184).

And our Skeue Euphemeo developed their own new variant from Liber Thagirion for personal use: Skeue Euphemeo’s Headless Rite (with commentary).

Many thanks to Princess Dysnomia for text-wrangling!

Dear Bastards,

Slightly exasperated with Mathers, this week we will experiment with a new (2006) translation of The Book of Abramelin, compiled and edited by Georg Dehn, translated by Steven Guth, and with a foreword by Lon Milo DuQuette. We’re cutting to the chase and reading Book 3, pages 75-141.

Grace and Blessings,

Lord Grang

Congrats to all we tenacious Bastards! We have passed the one-year mark of our sinister cabal.

Welcome, meanwhile, to the new Bastards who will bring us to unforeseen horizons.

This week we will discuss the First Book of the Mathers translation of The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. That’s pages 3-46 in our edition.

Read it in good health and be fortified by it!

Love, Grang

Wednesday we’ll look at the introduction to S.L. Macgregor Mathers’ translation of The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. You’ll find it on pp. xv-xxxviii. See you then!

Unless the other Bastards throw me into the trunk of a car, and then drive the car into a marsh and abandon it to slowly sink into the mud as forlorn seabirds squawk in the distance, this is probably our last week for The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries! This Wednesday we discuss pages 163-225, from “VI. IN CORNWALL” to the end of Chapter II.

Meanwhile, we are swiftly approaching the one year anniversary of our illustrious organization! Suggestions for a celebratory reading are welcome.

Yours faithfully,

Grang

Hello Bastards! This coming Wednesday we’ll discuss pages 117-163 from W.Y. Evans-Wentz’s The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. Begin at “IV: THE ISLE OF MAN” and stop when you hit “VI. IN CORNWALL.”

Health and good luck to you until then. May you leap over the turnstiles like a gazelle!

Thanks to all for a delightful conversation this week. And now – onward and upward with with W.Y. Evans-Wentz’s The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries! This week’s selection: pages 69-116. (Begin at “The Testimony of a College Professor” and stop when you hit “IV: THE ISLE OF MAN.”)

Safe travels through the wyrding!

This week we continue with W.Y. Evans-Wentz’s The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. In preparation please read pages 17-69, from the beginning of Chapter II until you hit “The Testimony of a College Professor.” Grace and blessings upon you, Illegitimate One!

This week we’ll begin reading W.Y. Evans-Wentz’s The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. We’ll discuss the Introduction (not the Preface) and Chapter 1: Environment.

This Wednesday, the Bastards will discuss a selection from Emma Wilby’s The Visions of Isobel Gowdie. Pages 31-36 will furnish a bit of context about the alleged witch and the Scottish Witch Trials. The heart of the matter is the confessions themselves, pages 37-52. Please read through the confessions before coming, and attempt your own translation of some portion of the text. The Confessions are written in delightful but sometimes confusing 17th century Scots.