Announcing The Book of Onei: An Antinomian Dream Grimoire

The complete Book of Onei is now available through LuLu in paperback and e-book format – including all the poems, spells, myths, and rituals excerpted here on this blog as well as many others. This book is the most personal work I have ever published and represents more than a decade of composition and revision and nearly two decades of active work in oneiromancy.

It reflects my love of visionary poets like William Blake and Li Ho, the influence of my father’s strange philosophy, and years of patient assistance and counsel from friends old and new. Without the extensive editorial assistance of Bob Giordano this book would not exist in its present form. Zoe Dantzinger also deserves special mention for reading over the final version of the book before its release. Finally, I’d like to thank Lorna Smithers, whose amazing review of The Book of Onei can be found here.

For readers of my Noctiviganti novels, this is a further and deeper exploration of night wandering and dream magic in a context that is not entirely fictional.

For readers familiar with Form is the Illusion: A Magical Philosophy, this is the application of the same concepts in magical practice.

Readers of my Gods and Radicals articles will recognize similar themes and images, as well as a few of the poems. This book, on the surface, is less political than my work for Gods and Radicals – but only on the surface.

More than anything else, this book is a record of my most personal work – the work I’ve been doing for many years now and expect to keep doing for the rest of my life. The poems, stories, and rituals in the Book of Onei are only a glimpse – Onei itself is limitless.

 

Paperback $6.99:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/christopher-scott-thompson/the-book-of-onei/paperback/product-23852094.html

 

PDF $1.99:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/christopher-scott-thompson/the-book-of-onei/ebook/product-23907818.html

Boneyard Goddess

The Book of Onei is an antinomian dream grimoire, providing deceptive yet true information about the art of Oneiromancy or dream magic in the form of poetry, fantasy, and intentionally ambiguous instructions.

Burn a black candle and visualize the long-haired goddess of the graveyard, she who crouches on a tomb with her face in shadow. Recite this charm to dream of the dead.

 

Goddess of the boneyard, hear me

Through these ghosts that hover near me.

Clear the way through clay and water,

Death’s companion, wisdom’s daughter,

Clear the way that I may travel

Through this sand and rock and gravel,

Through this soil as black as midnight

To the place that knows no sunlight,

Only starshine always gleaming,

To the dead where they lie dreaming,

Bound by death’s white silken tether.

They and I have work together.

 

Thou and I have work together!

 

– from the Book of Onei, Part III: The Powers of Onei

 

Image by Carlos Schwabe

The Man Who Learned to Love the Law

The Book of Onei is an antinomian dream grimoire, providing deceptive yet true information about the art of Oneiromancy or dream magic in the form of poetry, fantasy, and intentionally ambiguous instructions.

 

I closed my eyes on all I saw.

And when I opened them, I’d learned to love the Law.

I found the garden where the shadows grew,

And look, I brought some home for you.

 

I closed my mouth on all I’d said.

I traveled west and south, and glorified the dead,

To taste their waters and to know if they were mine,

Or something else I’d lose in time.

 

I took my hand from all I’d held,

And offered recompense to dreams that I had felled.

They said I bore no guilt at all,

But still they’ll watch me when I fall.

 

I closed my ears on all I’d heard.

The things I’d loved the most all died with just a word.

I kept them close to me for years,

Till they could be reborn as fears.

 

I took my mind from every scent

And none could ever find the places that I went.

The place in Avalon where Mordred grew.

And there was something there for you.

 

I’ve brought a chalice made of things I’d set aside.

I’ll share this cup with you, and you can be my bride.

We’ll drink the thunder and we’ll ride the rising night,

And you can help me learn to love the light.

 

– from the Book of Onei, Part III: The Powers of Onei

 

Image by Konstantin Makovsky