Servants of the Star & the Snake
compiled and edited by
Henrik Bogdan.
Servants of the Star & the Snake is a scintillant and substantial collection of writings in celebration of the work of Kenneth and Steffi Grant. Their diverse published work extends across six decades, taking in articles on Advaita in Indian magazines from the early 1950s; a series of illustrated essays, known collectively as the Carfax Monographs, from the late 1950s to the early 1960s; their magnum opus, the Typhonian Trilogies, from 1972 to 2002; studies of the work of Austin Osman Spare in 1975 and 1998; poetry collections in 1963, 1970 and 2005; and a series of novellas from 1997 to 2012.
Each piece of writing included in Servants of the Star & the Snake explores a different facet of this extensive body of work. Whilst the contributors have adopted different approaches to their subjects – ranging from scholarly discussions through to fictional narratives – what they have in common is an appreciation of the extraordinary work and legacy of the most influential couple in the history of modern occultism, Kenneth and Steffi Grant.
The pieces of writing which comprise this fascinating and inspiring collection include:
- Kenneth Grant: Servant-Satguru-Savant, by Martin P. Starr;
- From Zos-Kia to the As-If: Kenneth Grant and Austin Osman Spare, by Michael Staley;
- Advaita Vedanta in the Works of Kenneth Grant, by Henrik Bogdan;
- Kenneth Grant and Lord Kusum Haranath, by Ruth Bauer;
- From Central Africa to the Mauve Zone: Gerald Massey's Influence on Kenneth Grant's Idea of the Typhonian Tradition, by Christian Giudice;
- Lam and the Typhonian Tradition, by Michael Staley;
- Inside Outer Space, by Kyle Fite;
- The Other Woman: Babalon and the Scarlet Woman in Kenneth Grant’s Typhonian Trilogies, by Manon Hedenborg-White;
- The Nuclear Art of Steffi Grant, by Henrik Bogdan;
- The Art of Darkness: Kenneth Grant and the Unity of the Soul, by Vadge Moore;
- Kenneth Grant and Maat, by Nema;
- Clarity versus Weirdness: A Vital Tension Within Magical Culture, by Ramsey Dukes;
- Foundations of the Typhonian Trilogies, by Michael Staley;
- Beyond Crowley: The Foundations of Sexual Magick, by Jan Fries;
- Evocation of the Fire Snake: Kenneth Grant and Tantra, by Henrik Bogdan;
- The Magic in Fiction, by Alistair Coombs;
- The Role of H. P. Lovecraft in the Work of Kenneth Grant, by Stephen Dziklewicz;
- Shakti in Chinatown, by Michael Bertiaux.
Dustjacket designed by Maria Lindberg Bogdan, incorporating artwork by Austin Osman Spare. The image above left shows the front cover, whilst that to the right shows the back.