The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love): The Psychology of Ecstasy: 1913 First Edition – Austin Osman Spare

Description

The foundational text of Austin Osman Spare’s magical philosophy, and one of the single most important and influential works of twentieth-century Western occultism. Self-published by Spare in 1913 at around the time of his break with Aleister Crowley, this is the book in which he first articulated the theory of sigils, the doctrine of the “Death Posture,” and his radical psychology of desire, belief, and the unconscious — ideas that would go on, decades later, to become the direct foundation of modern chaos magic.

Issued in an edition of only around 300 copies, it is illustrated throughout with Spare’s own extraordinary draughtsmanship — visionary, anatomically warped figures, automatic drawings, and sigils that scholars have since read as anticipating Surrealism by over a decade. Bound in the original black cloth boards, lettered in white to the front board, in small folio format.

A cornerstone work for any serious library of magic, sigil-craft, or the history of Western esotericism — Spare’s most celebrated and sought-after publication, and rarely found complete and in stable condition on the market.