Author Archive | XOANON

Love-making and Weeping, Secret-telling and Laughter:
these Four Excellences I would place in the Quarters of my final hour.
—Andrew D. Chumbley, Khiazmos (1993–9)

At the twentieth anniversary of the death of Andrew D. Chumbley, it is with honour that the Cultus Sabbati, the brethren and sorors of the Sabbatic Tradition, celebrate his life and work. The labour he accomplished in his short life is astounding, both in private and in the public sphere; the high standards to which he held himself were driven by his knowledge of early mortality. This truncated incarnative cord re-cast his understanding of time, emphasizing its limited and precious nature—but also its powers in repose and activation. As he wrote in The Azoëtia:

‘The Great Sorcerer draws Power from his own Death. Now!’

These are not simply words in a book, they were lived practice.

Unique apprehension of magical time infuses the closed circle of the Sabbatic Cultus, and unites its brethren. Progressing from one magical event to the next, one sensation to the next, one realisation to the next, one is willfully cast though time in a Pilgrimage of Rememberings. The purpose is not only recollection, but resurrection: the embodiment of all that has gone before, within the Circle of the Present Moment. Because time is ever-being-born and ever-dying, each moment possesses unique, magical potential, if one chooses to acknowledge it.

In the great enfleshing of Now, it is not mere Memory which is brought forth. It is also Continuity, drawing together the blood of our past, and the blood of our future. Inscribing a circle upon the land, our steps become as links in a chain, each of which marks a time and place of our magical becoming, and whose unique power may be called forth into awakening in any subsequent moment. Such is the work of the Field-Remembrancer, the slaying and re-making of the World.

As a tree rooted in the underworld, the work of Alogos Dhul’Qarnen Khidir, as well as the ancestral retinue of brethren past, continues to bear fruit within the Cultus Sabbati. Though much of this work occurs in the private conclave of our Blessed Community, XOANON reiterates its commitment as the sole harbinger and light-bearer of the Sabbatic Craft, making the magical works of our brethren available to the public. In this, our sacred act of re-membrance, we shall soon forge new vessels for the Current, the living and future brethren, and of course, the Ingenium of Alogos.

I raise the Mask, that every hell be harrow’d,
Before me a thousand glamours cast:
Warded are the by-ways of the world-by-day.
Before the Image of the Wrathful
are mine enemies slain.
For the curse-vessel bound in thread-of-red;
As One I speak with the Tongues of the Dead,
Rous’d in might from the Graveyard of I.
Against all profane I raise the witching pale,
This hallow’d earth of our blood-pact bounded,
Silence my Word, and Mystery my Sign.

For three decades, Xoanon Limited has served as the voice of the magical order Cultus Sabbati, a bell resounding from the shadowed conclaves of spirit beyond …into the world of flesh. As such, its books are direct textual emanations of its active brethren, come forth in accord with the Design: the patterning of active rites, deeds, revelations, and magical originations of the unified body of Sabbatic adepts. Being an endeavour proceeding as Art, Craft, and spiritual self- determination, Xoanon is the monadic dissemination of many voices as one, a singular act of Authority crystallised in the baetyl, the celestial-born Stone also known as the ‘House of God’. Today, at the Greater Feast of our founder Alogos Dhul’Qarnen Khidir, we remember him and are honoured to continue to serve our mandate as the Sole Publisher of the Sabbatic Tradition.

Throughout eras of deaths and births, seasons of plague and health, feast and bitter ordeal, our work continues as a beacon to those souls seeking the ‘third way’ that wends between darkness and light. The coming three years will extend our work, the great Tree of Art bearing new fruit, as well as extending its branches and strengthening its roots. In addition to forthcoming writings of Andrew D. Chumbley, new works are scheduled by Soror S.I., Daniel A. Schulke, and brethren of the Serpent-Cross.

To those who have discreetly and privately supported our work in the past 30 years, concealed to the eyes of the profane, we extend our thanks. Humble in aspect, yet Royal in Spirit, it is for you our works go forth.

Standard hardcover editions of Via Tortuosa arrived today. They are currently being inspected, numbered, and jacketed, and will begin shipping December 11. All private subscribers who pre-ordered the standard edition directly from Xoanon can be assured of delivery before Christmas. Due to the additional time and labour required in creating the deluxe and special editions, these will be shipped in early February 2019.

At the Ides of September, Xoanon Limited reports the imminent announcement of a new book, to be released at All Hallows, 2018. Entitled Via Tortuosa: An Exposition on Crooked Path Sorcery, the book is co-authored by Daniel A. Schulke and Robert Fitzgerald, with eleven original images by Jim Dunk.

‘Crooked Path Sorcery’ is a term originating within the Cultus Sabbati, particularly within the ritual corpus of the Draconist, used to describe the antinomian and oppositional nature of its quintessence. This sorcerous ethos is extrapolated in such Cultus works as Qutub, The Dragon-Book of Essex, and Lux Haeresis, but its roots in fact are older, animating many historical strands of sorcery. Particularly relevant to witchcraft ritual and the perception-distorting powers of the Witches’ Sabbat, the book places especial emphasis on the ‘crooked’ figure of the witch and her Art, examining historical instances and their dispersion into the modern occult workings of the Sabbatic Current. Through the devices of magical analysis, exhortation and homily, the essence of the Crooked Path and its associated byways are directly explored, illuminating the mystical convolutions of the Arcanum.

Further information regarding this volume will be soon available to our private subscribership, with adverts soon to arrive through our postal mailing campaign. Quantities will be limited.

KHIAZMOS: A Book Without Pages, by Andrew D. Chumbley. Standard edition with letterpress dust jacket, featuring Chumbley’s image ‘Al Nasr Al-Aswad’. Originally written between 1993 and 1999, this book, which expounds the Sabbatic principle of transcendence through Opposition, is now published for the first time.

At its twenty-fifth anniversary Xoanon Limited, sole publisher of the Sabbatic Tradition, announces imminent publication of the grimoire Khiazmos: A Book without Pages by Andrew D. Chumbley, under the auspices of the Cultus Sabbati. Begun in 1993, emerging at the time of the completion of Qutub, the book was finalized in 1999. It has never before been published.

Khiazmos articulates the paradoxical arcanum of Opposition—an essential dynamic force of Sabbatic Witchcraft—which animates the Art of Magic itself, through aphoristic formulae. Like the mystical formats of the riddle, parable, and koan, the book utilises strategies of arcane, recursive exposition to embody transcendent truths about magic, the spirit world, the stance of the sorcerer, and the Sabbat of the Witches. The living book, as conceived in the Vision of the Scribe, possessed the power to transcend its material corpus, and simultaneously wrote and unwrote itself as it was read, creating the titular absence of pages. The magical insights expressed through the various modalities of the book are borne of dream and the contemplative nexus informing the stance in the midst of the cross-ways, the projection of the Sorcerous ‘I’ beyond the point at the Circle’s heart. In accord with the great magico-literary corpus of the Sabbatic Tradition, Khiazmos resounds with the voice of its author, in Speech and Silence, in Image and Sigil. The book is 88 pages, printed on heavy stock, with ten automatic drawings by the Author in full colour, and featuring an Afterword by Frater A.H.I. and Soror I.S. of the Cultus Sabbati.

The book is soon to be announced to our private subscriber list for pre-order. Standard editions will be released October 10, 2017, with deluxe and special editions following in November. A small number of copies may be available from our preferred booksellers. Please see our Ordering page for more information.

AZOËTIA, a grimoire of the Sabbatic Craft, by Andrew D. Chumbley. Special edition, number 22 of 22 slipcased copies hand bound in full white alum-tawed goat, each accompanied by a letterpress talisman concentrating the power of a single Azoëtic letter. In keeping with the traditions of Xoanon, all designs of the third edition are realized as a Collaboration of Art between Soror I., Frater A.H.I., Soror S.I., Frater A.Z., Frater A.A., and the Spirit of the Book. This photograph was taken just before the books were dispatched to their respective owners, encircled by the full talismanic ring of the Sacred Alphabet. 0 = 1–22: The Seal of the Work.

With the completion of the final impressions of the official run of the third edition, the Vox Baetyla utters the Oracle anew. In this, our twenty-fifth year of publishing, Xoanon marks the date as the Apotheosis of the Pentalpha, with several new publications. Please be aware that our titles are released in small quantities and offered first to our private subscribership. Those wishing to be added should write to our postal address.

Hallows-Emergent: Azoëtia, third edition: Special Edition in full white alum-tawed goat, slipcased and limited to 22 copies in total, each accompanied by a separate talisman bearing one of the twenty-two Holy Letters of the Sacred Alphabet.

The long-awaited deluxe and special editions of Azoëtia: A Grimoire of the Sabbatic Craft are now being released. The first copies of the deluxe edition will begin shipping to customers on Wednesday, July 29, and fulfilment of all pre-orders will be ongoing throughout the month of August. We thank all subscribers for their patience in awaiting these fine editions, and express our profound thanks to our binders at The Key in Oakland, California. Once all orders are fulfilled, Xoanon will announce another limited edition title to be released in Autumn 2016. Pictured here is the deluxe edition of Azoëtia in half crimson goat and slipcase, limited to 111 copies in total.