Charles Walker
Charles Walker
The Charles Walker Collection of Mystery, Myth and Magic available at www.TopFoto.co.uk
The Charles Walker Collection of Mystery, Myth and Magic available at www.TopFoto.co.uk
Alchemy
alchemical instruments, and laboratory systems. Alchemy as the puffers art and alchemy as the spiritual science of inner development are portrayed. Subjects include salamanders, mer-men, kings and queens, double-dragons (nodal dragons), green lions, ouroboros serpents, androgynes, and so on. The alchemical imagery and diagrams used so widely in Rosicrucian books and manuscripts are widely available, including some rare hand-coloured prints from the Pansophus treatment of alchemical cosmologies. A certain number of Fludd diagrams, and many of the alchemical images deriving from the school of Frankfurt in the seventeenth century, including the remarkable reincarnation-images which Welling derived from van Helmont jnr.
The Charles Walker Collection of Mystery, Myth and Magic available at www.TopFoto.co.uk
Astrology
and modern architectural zodiacs, and zodiacal details, found in European cathedrals, churches and buildings, such as Chartres, Vezelay, Paris, Sagra di San Michele, Florence and so on. Among the pictures from manuscripts and books is a selection of melothesic images (zodiacal men), the so-called labours of the month and planetary children, hand-coloured zodiacs (both tropical and constellational), personification of planets and planetary systems, relating mainly to the Ptolemaic system, and a wide range of less traditional images, including planetary nodes (such as the Arabian zawzahr), astrolabes and other instruments. A number of portraits of well-known astrologers is also available, together with a large number of astrological diagrams, sigils and horoscopes.
The Charles Walker Collection of Mystery, Myth and Magic available at www.TopFoto.co.uk
Demons
coloured mediaeval prints relating to different types of demons, including the Dante demons, the Enochians, the Solomonics, the Biblical demons and dragon-demons, fallen angels and images of the Antichrist, the succubus and incubus and so on. Also available are mediaeval demons in stone and metal from walls, facades and doors of churches and cathedrals in Europe, along with a number of guardian demons from Far Eastern temples. Among the images derived from modern sources is a fine collection of paintings by Fay Pomerance, specialising in the Lucifer and Lilith themes, and astral and demonic paintings by Austin Spare.
The Charles Walker Collection of Mystery, Myth and Magic available at www.TopFoto.co.uk
Divination
every period, a number of occult divinatory diagrams, such as those used in the popular Chinese I Ching (Book of Changes), including some Tai Chi and yin-yang symbols, and dragon forms relating to Feng Shui. In the European tradition there are images from genuine geomancy, and from the so-called geomancy derived from the Chinese Feng Shui, including some lay-line orientation images. A few images relate to rune magic and autoscopic devices. A selection of mediaeval palmistic diagrams, and a number of hand-reading images, derived from the consulting rooms of modern palmists, tarot-readers, cartomancers, and so on.
The Charles Walker Collection of Mystery, Myth and Magic available at www.TopFoto.co.uk
t is said that when they materialise on the physical plane, fairies adopt
the traditional thought form created by humans as their vehicle. Hence many of the pictures in this delightful collection appear as delicate creatures with wings. According to the clairvoyant Gardner, fairies are alert and observant but have the intelligence of a pet dog. From the 1875 edition of Richard Doyles Fairyland, to the 1909 edition of Helen Strattons Cherryblossom and Other Stories from Grimm, Arthur Rackhams wonderful illustrations for Peter Pan, A Midsummer Nights Dream etc., fairies and fairytales are well documented through paintings, drawings, statues, stained glass windows and wood engravings..
The Charles Walker Collection of Mystery, Myth and Magic available at www.TopFoto.co.uk
Herbal/medical
correspondences from mediaeval sources, some apothecary figures, skeletal charts, bathing regimes and a few decorative title-pages from important medical or herbal text books. Most of the material is linked in one way or another with the hermetic tradition - for example, the bloodletting charts are linked with astrological melothesic man, and so on, while the images of mediaeval spectacles and eye-charts are linked with the planetary rulerships of sun and moon. The collection is being constantly updated by the addition of images relating to New-Age and Alternative medicine.
The Charles Walker Collection of Mystery, Myth and Magic available at www.TopFoto.co.uk
Magic Symbols
of demonic and astrological sigils, to the more easily identified symbols from the magical tradition such as the pentacle, the pentagram, the seal of Solomon, Dees monad, magical gems, talismans and so on. A number of symbols derived from the hermetic tradition, including some of the ritual diagrams for the late Rosicrucian movements, such as the Order of the Golden Dawn.
The Charles Walker Collection of Mystery, Myth and Magic available at www.TopFoto.co.uk
Mystical sites
subjects linked with the Mystery Wisdom of the past, such as the sacred sites of Egypt, Knossos, and the oracles of Greece, etc. Many of the important Greek and Roman temples, theatres and religious sites are included. The mystical sites of Europe are well covered as, for example, in the ancient stone circles of Britain, and pagan cult sites such as the outcroppings at Meteora, Green, the Externsteine stones of Germany, the Capo da Ponte stones in Italy and such centres as the Brimham Rocks in England, the Aphrodite rocks near Paphos in Cyprus, and so on.
The Charles Walker Collection of Mystery, Myth and Magic available at www.TopFoto.co.uk
Practical Occultism
of the I Ching, the tarot cards and ordinary cartomancy. Images of astrologers, radiesthesists, and palmists at work are included in the collection - for example, a series descriptive of making a palm print. There is also a selection of photographs and hand-coloured prints of esotericists, occultists, astrologers, alchemists, Rosicrucians, and so on. Pictures of relics of modern witchcraft, in the form of witchbooks and ritual implements, including skulls formerly used in black magical praxes can be found under this section..
The Charles Walker Collection of Mystery, Myth and Magic available at www.TopFoto.co.uk
Witchcraft
to the supposed activities of witches such as transvection, preparation for, and attendance at, the Sabbat, the use of magical unguents, and so on, can be found. The collection includes woodcut prints from English witchcraft trials, and a selection of images relating to sites where witchcraft flourished for example the cities of Bamburg in Germany, Loudon and Tiffauges in France, Bottesford and Pendle in England, Pittenween in Scotland, Ephyra in Greece, etc. Included are a number of witchcraft relics, such as spells, wax images, poppets and witch bottles. Illustrations from a number of witch books, some deriving from the Aradia tradition fostered in modern times by Gardner and Crowley, are also available, along with ritual subjects such as swords, rods, spellbooks and other devices.
The Charles Walker Collection of Mystery, Myth and Magic available at www.TopFoto.co.uk
N O S T R A D A M U S
these verses is mediaeval French, but Nostradamus wove into their structures Latin, Greek, Provenal and a secret alchemical code, called the Green Language. In the past 500 years, a good many of these prophecies have come true; however the prophecies extend well into the next 300 years, and so many are still to unfold. Among the more interesting prophetic verses are those relating to French, English and American history. For example, Nostradamus predicted the death, in a joust, of his patron, Henri II of France, the coming of the Nova in 1572, the Great Fire of London (1666), the coming of Napoleon and his dynasty, the Battle of Trafalgar, the Civil War in Spain, the dates of the opening of the Second World War, the successful landing on the Moon and the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York.