We are pleased to announce that preorders for Folkwitch issue 4 are now open. A fantastic lineup of authors and our usual handmade covers make this our best issue to date. Limited to just 48 copies per issue, 40ish pages, a5, B&W, with some wonderful pieces that are sure to please our readers.

The Skeptical Occultist Journal issue five is now available for preorder. Quite an interesting volume it outlines the beginning of my adventures in folklore research in the mountains of Portugal, has an excellent interview with Cyprian scholar José Leitão, contains the Versitile Hagstone piece I wrote for my now out of print volume WYRDWOOD, my journey to Stockholm to obtain the rare manuscripts of the Three Books of Sorrow, an Essay on the Victorian era literary society the “Sette of Odd Volumes” as well as occult book reviews, spells, charms, and the rants and ravings of this old wizard.

As with previous editions the first 33 preorders of volume five will come with handmade marbled dustwrappers. A5, soft bound, 200ish pages, fully illustrated and in full colour.

Please note: If you are attempting to order and having issues with the checkout do try emptying your browser cache/cookies. This seems to be a common issue with paypal.

Skeptical Occultist and Alkahest Press are excited to announce the opening of preorders for Issue Two of FOLKWITCH. Our first issue sold out as preorders in a matter of days and this issue is expected to go just as quickly!

The FOLKWITCH is dedicated to folklore, witchcraft, and all things related to landscape magic. Spirit conjuration, traditional spiritual practices, and contemporary explorations of the magical landscape that surrounds us every day.

Like our first issue it will be chock full of incredible essays and pieces by some of the world’s great contemporary occult authors. With a limited edition of 48 copies per print run FOLKWITCH is meant to be for the discerning witch looking to read work by likeminded authors and artists who explore the path as an active participant in our world.

Our homage to the fanzine culture of the 19th & 20th centuries, FOLKWITCH comes in 40ish pages, black & white, with handmade covers in an edition of 48 copies. Each cover is unique, with a metallic stamped title to the front.

Reserve your copy from Alkahest Press as fast as you can as they will be gone like a spirit with a license to depart.

All forty eight copies of the Folkwitch have now been shipped, arriving hopefully before the holidays for those who have eagerly awaited our first edition. It’s a thing of pleasure, with green handmade covers seemingly dragged through an old forest on their way to the sabbat.

As far as first issues go it’s packed full of some of the best occult and magical writers out there, Dan Harms, Phil & Layla Legard, Anthony Nine, Jake Stratton-Kent, Charlotte Rodgers, and Humberto Maggi all bring curious and delightful pieces that ring of landscape magic, spirit conjuration, and folklore. I am rather proud of it, if I am able to say so.

Since we have been long delayed by author deadlines missed and printer shipping confusions we have already prepared for our second edition, with preorders for FOLKWITCH Issue Two opening this Saturday, 7 December. Again there will be just 48 copies available with handmade covers in the range of 40ish black & white pages. Shipping in mid February this will be our Spring “Vernal” edition, with the plan to make it a quarterly periodical.

The second edition will continue on with themes of landscape magic, folklore and all things folkwitch craft. Hopefully we will have the author list out before it sells out in preorders this time around!

Preorders for vol 2 open sometime mid day on Saturday, keep an eye out on our pages and those of Alkahest Press as they will surely go quickly, like a fox in the night.

Thanks to all for their support and encouragement, especially to the authors and artists who have made this adventure possible. The path is a journey, but it is reassuring that we are not traveling alone.

I am pleased to announce that we will be opening preorders to our new project FOLKWITCH tomorrow - 21 September, 2019. These very limited edition fanzine style publications are drawn from my continued fascination with 19th and 20th century occult periodicals, the radical left literature of the late 19th century, and the fanzine subculture of the late 20th century.

We will announce the confirmed contributor lineup later in the month with the first issue going out on the 31st of October. FOLKWITCH will be 40ish pages per issue, black & white, with hand made covers and will explore a range of topics related to folklore, folk witchcraft, and the various ideas that make up landscape magic.

Copies will be available from our shop, Alkahest Press’ shop page as well as from the FOLKWITCH website.

After a long conversation at the St Pancras crypt with an old friend and much further consideration I have decided to make available one of my spirit fetish boxes. These boxes, spirit vessels intended to house specific entities, are something I have created for many years as art, but rarely if ever shown to the public.

The role of the box as a spirit container is ancient, often the box itself is a container for another object that houses the bound spirit itself. In the case of the spirit fetish boxes I create the box is part of the binding apparatus.

This is a reclaimed pinewood handmade box containing a henbane root fetish, bound with two hare bones to a poisoner’s bottle the box is inscribed/burned with the sigil of Furcas, as well as on the exterior with the symbol of Saturn. The handmade leather hinge is tacked with steel pins.

“Bitter Henbane’s Saturnine Desires” (6.5x5x2 inches, wood/henbane root/glass bottle/leather)

£1200 (free international shipping)

We have been incredibly overwhelmed with the amazing response to our release of Stanisław Przybyszewski’s Decadent classic “The Synagogue of Satan.” In particular we have had an amazing amount of letters about the delicious, provocative illustrations by Félicien Rops, whose “Black Mass” illustration above is included with over 30 other illustrations. It seems as well that all of the effort and bother over our scarlet moroccan cardstock was worth the wait as readers love its texture.

Of the print run of 666 copies we are now down to less than a hundred copies, sure to sell out in the next couple of weeks at this pace. Positive feedback has come from around the world, including from Lucien Greaves the head of the US based Satanic Temple. We are humbled at your responses and thank every one of you for your dedicated readership and support.

The publishing of a provocative work of literature, particularly in translation, is a risky business. That so many have made it clear that this type of work, whose provenance is one of censorship and suppression, is not only sought after but cherished is encouraging. We look forward to bringing more obscure esoteric and occult publications into print in English and as well providing an outlet for some contemporary writers we feel are important.

Just in time for Lupercalia the first copies of “Die Kröte, or the Toad”, the premiere edition of our Alkahest Press imprint have now gone in the post! Its been an astounding response and the support is much appreciated. There are still another batch or two to take in the next couple of days as I can only carry about 30 of them at a time.

We are now down to only 30 copies remaining of Die Kröte, so fans of toad magic, its history and folklore in Europe are recommended to pick up a copy while they are still available. With the printing schedule filling up with projects for this year its unlike it will be printed again anytime soon.

From the intro:

“The role of the toad in the course of the history of magic is complex, interwoven into the fabric of world cultures. From the shores of the Mediterranean to the cold forests of the north the toad is found again and again in European documents of witches, alchemists, wizards, and their practices. This is a tale of a misbegotten creature, whose presumed unattractiveness casts it as an outsider, companion of the devil and his ilk. The toad dances with the witch at the Sabbat, wearing finery, and provides its milk for the witch’s ointments to obtain forbidden secrets.”

Get yours at Alkahest Press: