Occult Spells A Nineteenth Century Grimoire 1st Edition by Frederick Hockley ISBN ‎ 978-0933429178 ‎ 0933429177

Hardcover. No dust jacket issued. Small Quarto. 208pp. Black cloth, gilt sigil on upper board, blind rules, and gilt title on the spine. Library-quality paper, sewn, Color frontispiece. A limited numbered edition this copy out-of-number series. Nine page introduction followed by a 72 page typeset transcription of the text of the grimoire, w/ explanatory footnotes, translations of the passages in Latin, etc. and a 120 page facsimile of the original manuscript, printed on special photograph paper. Frederick Hockley (1809-1885), was an occultist and Freemason with an interest in Spiritualism who in later life was associated with the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Occult Spells is an esoteric commonplace book in which Hockley recorded material on different spells, talismans, charms and such-like that he came across in rare books and manuscripts in the course of his researches. The sources that Hockley used ranged from occult classics such as Saunders’ Physiognomie, and Chiromancie, Metoposcopie (1671), John Heydon’s Theomagia; and Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1651), to obscure works like Pettigrew’s Bibliotheca Sussexiana (1827), and grimoires like the Petit Albert. The spells and talismans vary as much as his sources: from Enochian invocations, through folk magic, and into the darker realms of necromancy. This is the first ever publication of Occult Spells and includes an Introduction and transcription of the text by Silens Manus, a Hockley scholar works who, in addition to checking and restoring illegible words or phrases from original sources, Manus has added footnotes explaining obscure terms, deity names etc, and translates most of the less common non-English phrases and passages. Where possible Manus has added plates which Hockley omitted. Occult Spells offers a rare insight into the occult preoccupations of this interesting figure, whose work arguably had a profound effect on the late nineteenth century Occult Revival.