Steps to the Crown

Covent Garden, London: Philip Welby, 1907. Hardcover. Very Good. 4.5" x 7" Cloth. Top edges gilt. [2] works by the author, xvi, 230 p.p. plus [4] p.p. ads. Signed by Waite on half-title "To: T. Michael Pope, with warmest regards from the author." Some soiling to boards with rubbing to edges and extremities. Spine darkened, rubbed. Bottom corners slightly bumped. Light foxing throughout. Some sporadic pencil markings in the margins highlighting certain passages. Pages are trimmed, not affecting text. Light offsetting to endpapers. Else a very good copy of a lesser known work by mystical and occult writer Arthur Edward Waite [1857-1942]. A member of the Golden Dawn from 1891 until 1914, Waite wrote several books on ceremonial magic, alchemy, and mysticism. His work, The Book of Black Magic and Pacts [originally published in 1898, and distributed under the title, The Book of Ceremonial Magic in 1910] had inspired a young Aleister Crowley. Waite is also famous for being the co-creator of the Raider-Waite Tarot Deck that was published with his book, Pictorial Key to the Tarot in 1910. Steps to the Crown is divided into four parts: The Fashions of this World, Thresholds of many Sanctuaries, Shadows of Secret Light, and Consolations of the Greater Law. The aphorisms range from love, spirituality, morality, nature, and dreams to "express the moods of the mind almost in that language which belongs to symbolism..." [preface].