Some of my own books, the more unusual and interesting ones
Nigel Pennick - The Toadman, Lore and Legend, Rites and Ceremonies of Toadmanry and Related Traditional Magical Practices
The Toadmen were a clandestine rural fraternity famed for their mysterious powers, including the control over horses. The author first learnt of their powers form his grandmother as she recounted an incident from when she was a girl. She had heard how the horse-and-trap of a squire unpopular with the farmworkers was “reisted” ie stopped dead, so the horse would not be budge. The place chosen was a level crossing, where the road crossed a railway track. The horse-and-trap was run down by the Granville Special Express, a fast boat train and the squire killed. Such is the reputation of the Toadmen, who would both heal and hex, and whose path was considered particularly perilous,
Drawing upon folklore and other texts, and private communication from actual Toadmen Mr. Pennick describes the practice of Toadmanry and places it in the context of the toad in folklore, alchemy, medicine and European religion. All statements are carefully referenced to assist further research
I'm listing the following book at the top of the page in honour of it's author who sadly past away last month...
The Graveyard Wanderers : The Wise Ones and the Dead of Sweden by Thomas K. Johnson
This book is a work of art! it's made from bonded (recycled) leather with actual copper plates which are 3D! The book itself is printed on heavy cotton creme paper and certainly built to last.
The following is taken from the publisher's site.
The Physical
Manifestation of the Book
Printed on 180 gsm
Fabriano Ingres, a real laid paper, whereby the textures are natural product of
the pulp on wire mesh frames rather than being artificially embossed with a
pretend texture. The covers are bound in leather cloth, a binding material that
is 85% real leather and a sheet of copper, formed into skeletal hands. The Wise
Ones would pay for the services of the Dead by leaving in place of the bone, a
piece of metal in the form of a coin or a scraping from a church bell. Metal is
an ideal vehicle for the transmission of deathliness, Coffin nails were
recovered, sometimes to be entwined with horseshoe nails by a smith evoking
infernal beings, and put to magical use. Needles employed to sew a corpse into
its shroud were likewise sought after. Some of the charms in this book derive
from the black art book of a smith, nestling amongst mundane recipes for the
working of metals. But then metal is the zenith of man’s art. It’s mutability to
will and permanence makes it ideal for coin, offerings to the dead, and for
holding the form of skeletal hands in the binding of this book, so the reader
feels the shape of dead fingers interlaced with their own. Bones are the part
of us that persist after decay, and here the copper that forms their shape has
been patronised, whereby the natural oxidation process is accelerated and
stabilised. The result are iridescent colours, an effect referred to as the
“peacock’s tail” in alchemy, where it is identified with the stage of decay in
the Great Work. The patonised copper is then preserved with lacquer.
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