Book of the Black Dragon Volume 2: The Headless One – Peter Hamilton-Giles (Atramentous Press)

Entitled Book of the Black Dragon: The Headless One, the work examines the role of the Black Dragon’s sinistral horn as a physical and yet liminal position between physical and metaphysical realities. Building on the work of Volume 1 and Codex Althaeban Malik, Volume 2 underscores the development of telluric sorcery by addressing three primary totemic manifestations of telluric ophidian sorcery, these are the black bull, the raven, and toad. All three are presented among these forthcoming pages as aspects of the Black Dragon when contextualised by the sinistral horn.

Focused on crossing liminality, the work highlights a particular verse from the working grimoire and then explores an understanding of it. Divided further by the daemon emissary of the sinistral horn, the totems are accompanied by familiars who also take on the responsibility of conveying more subtle meaning to these motions, for when passing through the initiatory undergrowth onto the common ground, these are responsible for producing an open ritual expanse for summoning the Black Dragon.

A further device, one which hearkens back to the author’s involvement in the Dragon’s Column, is brought into relief by using physical points. In this way, the Black Dragon along with the relevant entourage are offered the temple of flesh as a site of congress, and yet in doing so the very visage of the Black Dragon manifests itself as headless. Thus, form is sacrificed for the formless, and in doing so the stage is set for what will be the making of the sorcerer through his or her disarticulation.