Lifestyle Magick

Ixaxaar, The Red King by Mark Alan Smith

I found this publisher very recently. A book published by them was available over Weiser Antiquarian and I got interested. So I googled the Ixaxaar Homepage and ordered two books of a Series. The ordering process was easy and I could pay via paypal which I really like to do. It took 2 days for Ixaxaar to react to my Order, but they reacted by a short note stating that the Books are on their way to me. Cool, that was easy.

Queen of Hell and The Red King by Mark Alan Smith arrived two weeks after I ordered. Both books are (obviousely) on the dark left hand path, just like Ixaxaar seems to be in general. The Books emit a distinct grimoire feeling, which is very nice for a “standart edition”. As stated on the Ixaxaar Homepage the standart edition has the following, perfectly met features:

The Standard edition is bound in shimmering midnight blue cloth and embossed with the seal of the Perfect Red King of Sulphur. Printed on thick high quality paper and finished with black endpapers. Fifteen beautiful full page illustrations. This edition will be individually consecrated by the author in order to fully awaken the spirits of Lucifer within each book.

Well … yes, the bounding is very well done, the thick paper is nice to touch and much better than I am used to! The Fifteen full page illustrations are inside, yes … but I (personally) do not like them at all. They make me feel like I am reading a special Edition of a Fantasy Roleplaying book by Gary Gygax (which sure is a good feeling, but just not what I wanted). Visionary pictures of others are interesting, sure, but here I would have prefered less stereotypical satanic fantasies! For me that is a real draw back, I have trouble taking the whole book for seriouse now.

Also I am not really sure what I shall make out of the “awaken the spirit of Lucifer within each book” bit. That seems to me like a nice feature for people who still think that the magick is inside a book, or that the sigil itself holds power, or that the right spell will do the magick. But apart from that nagging feeling that here a paradigm is employed I do not follow at the moment, it sure is nice that the Author is willing to send each book individually on its way. As a bibliophiliac I like that.

If I happen to meet the “fully awakened Spirit of Lucifer” in my library, I’ll introduce him to Beelzebub who seems to be dwelling in my Legion 49 Book by Fulgur .

So, in a nutshell I must say that the quality and the price (55€) of the books published by Ixaxaar is very, very good! I am still unsure about the editorial quality, maybe I am totally spoiled by the Artwork I found in the Fulgur Books or something, or maybe it was just not to my liking, maybe also I am just a dumbass and do not understand the deep Visions of Horned stereotypical Helldwellers surrounded by fire. But also Visions like that can be of high impact to me … as shown below:

Hieronymus Bosch - Tondal's Vision, detail of the burning gateway

… well … I do Like Hieronymus Bosch’s visions, so maybe its the Fantasy Roleplaying background I do not like to mix into the more seriouse research of the magickal World 🙂

:.

~ by Otto on March 12, 2011.

Posted in Art, Magick, Publisher
Tags: Art Review, Publisher, Review