Friday, February 14, 2014

Temple of Love

"This was part of Sappho's art, to give herself so completely in lust and sweat and satisfaction, to allow herself to be contented and dependent on her lover. ... She hadn't yet learned that this art was a double-edged blade - one that would cut her again and again. It would lend heat to her passion and poetry, and it would eventually break her."

Sappho, the lyric poet whose life and lovers give us our current understanding of the word "Lesbian," was hailed as the Tenth Muse on her island home of Lesvos and all throughout Classical Greece. Her poems of passion and longing were directed at the men ... and women ... whom she adored and sometimes envied.

Like most girls of Lesvos, Sappho lived a life among women. After her earliest education, though, she rejects the traditional married life and gives herself in service to the temple of Aphrodite to become a priestess of love, beauty, and sexual ecstasy. Cloistered among the sacred courtesans, she opens her heart and body to love. But when Pittakos the tyrant and Alcaeus the poet vie with each other to be first in her heart, will she lose herself and all that she holds dear?

Laurelei Black, who is herself a priestess of Aphrodite, offers a unique and often erotic look into the passionate, tumultuous, and inspirational life of Sappho through the lens of service to the Goddess of Love.

asteriabooks.com/publishing/catalog/temple-of-love

Written and Edited by Laurelei Black

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Liber Qayin

Qayin-Azazel speaks! Hearken unto the words of Lilith and Ishtar.

This prophetic work is channeled from the Witch Father, Tubal-Qayin, and the Witch Mother, who is both Lilith and Ishtar. Hear now the Gospel of Qayin, the wisdom he brings to all Witches in this New Aeon.

Liber Qayin is a channeled book in three parts: The Black Book of Lilith-Sophia, The Red Book of Qayin-Azazel, and the White Book of Ishtar-Lilith.

40 pages, available in paperback or instant digital download.

asteriabooks.com/publishing/catalog/liber-qayin

Written/received by Laurelei and Natalie Black
Cover art by John Birkel

Asteria Book's Book of Shadows


Asteria Books has made available their entire current Book of Shadows in .pdf format.  There are over 100 original sheets made by Asteria Books/Blade & Broom. (This PDF version prints with a blank background so you can print on any paper you choose. The ones in the picture are printed on ivory parchment paper.)

These BOS pages are like no others that are available anywhere -- on or offline. These leaves from the Book of Shadows are pulled directly from the American Folkloric Witchcraft Tradition and are published exclusively by Asteria Books.

asteriabooks.com/publishing/catalog/book-of-shadows

The PDF copy is available for instant download from Etsy. You can print these on your own paper, or keep as part of your digital BOS.

Created by Laurelei & Natalie Black

The Witches' Key to the Legion

The Lesser Key of Solomon the King, the Goetia, is one of the most widely read (and feared) books known to today's magical practitioners. It has come down to us from no later than the 17th Century, and previous printings have been translated, edited, and commented upon by some of the most illustrious Mages of the last two centuries.

THIS book is the first to address Witches in regard to the Legion, and it is unique in its admonition of the spirit torture that has been the hallmark of previous editions. On these pages, you will not find tedious conjurations designed to threaten and bully spirits into cooperation. Instead, you will find a reasonable, direct approach to working with the 72 spirits of the Legion.

Witches have a long and storied history of spirit conjuration, and (most of) the Legion awaits a familiar relationship with today's Witches and Mages.

The Witches' Key to the Legion includes several essays on working with these spirits, discussions of the creation of the Legion and their seals, a complete Demonic DO NOT CALL list, two quick reference tables to help you easily find a spirit with whom you have affinity, alternate sigils for most and illustrations of several of the spirits, and updated descriptions of all 72 spirits as provided by the spirits themselves.

If the spirits of Legion were to write a book about themselves, this would be it!

asteriabooks.com/publishing/catalog/legion

Written and Edited by Laurelei Black
Illustrated by Natalie Black and John Birkel