Now this is unfortunate and also a little awkward. I discovered this publishing house because they published a book by Angel Millar. I ordered a few titles, but one item was out of stock. For a while I was inquiring about the last item and when I thought I could just buy a title that I wanted to get anyway and inquire again, this might help. It did! Good. Then I -quite by accident- run into a ‘blog’ saying that the publishing house will seize to exist because of financial problems…
Yep, Salamander and Sons will publish no more books. In fact, they will sell their leftover stock until 31 March 2016 and the remaining items will be destroyed. This is too bad, because Salamander and Sons published some interesting items on alchemy and a few similar subjects. The books look great and are not too expensive.
The present title is a lecture of the publisher that he held before his own Masonic lodge in Thailand. It is only just over 30 pages and Hardacre speaks about (not surprisingly) alchemy and Freemasonry. Only on a few occasions these two subjects seem to come together, but the little book makes a nice read to tell you a little about both subjects from the title.
Another small booklet of Salamander and Sons and, coincidentally or not, also translated and edited by Russell Yoder.
This time Yoder translated three texts, this time from the 18th century. The first, and nicest, text is Alchemy for the Behmenist Adept. Apparently in the 18th century USA there lived alchemists who were followers of Jacob Boehme (1575-1624). Boehme is more famous for his Christian, mystical writings, but he also wrote of alchemy. The compiler of the anthology even makes it seem as if Boehme writes of ‘physical alchemy’ and some remarks even suggests that he did practice this, or at least, saw it being practiced. The compiler made a nice text, mostly consisting of quotes from various works of the Teutonic philosopher.
Then follows an esoteric tale about an alchemist who found a “little farmer” who proves to be far superiour in knowledge to the traveller. So much even that the farmer does not give away his secrets.
The last translation is a number of texts from the Gold- und Rosenkreuzer (founded around 1760) who form one of the sources of German highgrade Freemasonry. The texts are also alchemical in nature.
68 Pages in, again, a relatively expensive title, but a nice read nonetheless, especially the first text.
A long time ago I ran into the publisher FBN Press. This must have been before June 2007 when I went from an html website to WordPress. FBN Press has a whole range (some 300) republications of texts of which the copyright has expired. Many of these texts are alchemical. I bought and ‘reviewed’ quite a few of these A5 photocopied and thin booklets. I have no idea if FBN Press is still running, but they do still have some sort of website.
A while ago I was looking to get the books of Angel Millar. One of these books is published on the Thai publisher Salamander and Sons. This publisher proved to publish a whole range of alchemical books too, of recent alchemists (Lapidus), but also of more famous, Renaissance alchemists, such as Heinrich Kunrath (1560-1605). The current title is a selection of the famous Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae (Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom). A very small selection too! The little book is only 38 pages, while the Kessinger reprint of the Latin version has 288 pages according to Amazon. The FBN Press booklets have similar sizes, but Salamander and Sons’ publications look a lot better. That shows in the price. It is $ 15,- (plus shipping) when you get it from the publisher, $ 20,- when you get it from Amazon. Quite a price for a 38 page book.
The anthology and translation is made by Russell Yoder who published similar works. He added another translation of his of the 1704 text From F.R.C., an alchemical, Rosicrucian poem.
Khunrath’s text is certainly what you can call a “Hermetic text” in the contemporary meaning of the word. It full of heap of symbolism, references, Latin phrases (usually not translated), with beautiful images in which he also uses different languages. In his text Khunrath continuously cross-refers to practical and philosophical alchemy. He describes how everything comes from “Hyleal, Pri-material, Catholic, or Universal Natural Chaos” and works towards perfection. The text is an amusing, but not easy, read; nicely published, but -like I said- in a fairly expensive little book.
This is Millar’s third (and currently last) book. For me, since it was the second one he published. Also it is the least easy to get. Salamandar and Sons sell their books themselves and through a handfull of bookshops that do not list this title on their websites. Getting the book to Europe, makes it quite expensive too. The publisher is a nice one to have a further look at though, especially when you have an interest in alchemy.
Millar’s first book is a nice, but nothing really new, history of Freemasonry, mostly in America. His other two books are also about Freemasonry, but about aspects written about less. Freemasonry and its influence in the Middle East in The Crescent and the Compass and Freemasonry and it relation to esoteric and occult societies in the current title.
Now of course there have been many spectacular books written about occultism and Freemasonry, but Millar’s book is more serious and leaves aside all the conspiracy theories and speculations. It certainly makes a nice read. Millar writes about the foundation and development of some of the High Grades, semi- and para-Masonic organisations and of course how things such as Alchemy and Kabbalah krept into Masonic symbolism in its developing days.
Millar is a Freemason himself, but he does not make value judgements on irregular branches of the Masonic family and treats them like their regular brother-organisations. The same with groups and people about whom a lot of nonsense has been written such as William Wynn Westcott and Samuel MacGregor Mathers and their Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley and the Ordo Templi Orientes and Gerard Gardner and the Wicca movement.
The book is hardly 170 pages (plus bibliography and index) and this includes two appendices with etchings (on unnumbered pages) of Hejonagogerus Nugir with explanations and some images referred to in the book. The chapters are about subjects such as Alchemy Cabala and Magic, Roman Catholic Mysticism, Rosicrucians (like the Gold- und Rosenkreuzer and SRIA), Golden Dawn, O.T.O., Wicca and a short chapter about Freemasonry and Northern European paganism (which was one of the reasons to write an article about this subject).
Millar managed to get some structure in the mess of early Masonic, semi- and para-Masonic organisations, Rites, grades and people who were involved in several of those. His unbiased writing style makes this a highly recommended book for people who are interested in the named organisations and in this lively time of early Freemasonry. Several of the subjects could use some more depth, so hopefully the author has not finished his investigations of those yet.
Now this is unfortunate and also a little awkward. I discovered this publishing house because they published a book by Angel Millar. I ordered a few titles, but one item was out of stock. For a while I was inquiring about the last item and when I thought I could just buy a title that I wanted to get anyway and inquire again, this might help. It did! Good. Then I -quite by accident- run into a ‘blog’ saying that the publishing house will seize to exist because of financial problems…
