Caduceus Books (in the UK) is selling a remarkable variety of books and original artwork by Michael Bertiaux. Regarded by many as the most significant living occultist, Michael Bertiaux travelled to Haiti in 1964 where he worked with Voodoo priests who were already operating a fusion of European and Haitian esotericism and who sought an ambassador to bring their teachings to an international audience. Michael’s crucial Haitian contact was Hector-Francois Jean-Maine, whose father Lucian-Francois Jean-Maine had travelled to Europe and the US where he worked with Papus and his milieu.
The original artwork which forms this grimoire was executed in a variety of techniques including pen and ink, papercuts and digital formats. Its spiritual and symbolic form is designed to enable the deeper realms of the unconscious and its attendant powers to be realised. Twenty five of the talismanic images in the book are manifested in metal, being blocked in silver coloured metallic foil upon a background of pure silk.
Half a century before Crowley a hitherto unknown “astrological professor and magician” was at work in Liverpool. England. He was also a herbalist and a galvanist. Like Crowley, he (and his associates, but especially him) were accused of practising and promoting sexual immorality and undermining religious propriety. He developed his own system for crystal skrying involving placing the skrying glass at the centre of “bonds” – diagrams with names of power. The bond for men and women were different indicating an awareness of tantric polarity.
