Star.Ships
A defining text of the new magical renaissance, Gordon White’s Star.Ships: A Prehistory of the Spirits addresses the question of who we are now by tracing where we come from, and by drawing out the stories and the spirits that have journeyed and evolved with us.
8vo (240 × 170 mm)
312 pp
Photographs, maps, diagrams, tables etc.
Issued in 4 editions –
fine / standard hardback / paperback / digital
Fine edition
– sold out
Limited to 56 copies
Hand bound in quarter black rayskin, leather tips, marbled boards and endpapers, all edges gilt, finished with a silk ribbon and presented in a clamshell box.
Standard hardback edition
– sold out
Limited to 1000 copies
Bound in a fine sand cloth, stamped in black on front and spine, embossed deep blue endpapers, and hammered gold dustjacket.
Paperback
– £22.50
Unlimited
Sewn paperback, printed on 100 gsm paper.
Contents
Preface
The mission at the end of the world
One funeral at a time
The cathedral predates the city
Et in laurasia ego
Island of dragons
Star lore
How a world ends
Expulsion from Eden
The mirror of heaven
The tree of many branches
Children of the mother of heaven
Conclusion
Canopy of stars
Description
A defining text of the new magical renaissance, Star.Ships addresses the question of who we are now by tracing where we come from, and by drawing out the stories and the spirits that have journeyed and evolved with us. The goal is, as Gordon writes, the restoration of context.
To this end, White applies his globally-recognised data and demographics skills to realise a groundbreaking work of truly interdisciplinary research. Utilising mythological, linguistic and astronomical data to reconstruct palaeolithic magical beliefs, he maps them to the human journey out of Africa; explores which aspects of these beliefs and practices have survived into the Western tradition; and what the implications (and applications) of those survivals may be for us.
Written for a magically literate and operative audience, Star.Ships displays the flair, wit and engagement with evidence that adherents of Rune Soup have come to expect from Gordon. He deftly handles vast time scales and cosmologies to build his case; avoids the pitfalls of alternative historians with a refreshing absence of dogma or wishful thinking; and, in a masterful deployment of the latest research, simultaneously questions outworn dominant narratives and is not afraid to champion the work of independent researchers and entertain forbidden discourses. It is exactly what chaos magic should be.
Göbekli Tepe, the Pyramids and Sphinx, Nabta Playa, Gunung Padang, Easter Island and Sundaland are some of the points spangled across a work of truly cosmic scope. Star.Ships beckons those who are willing to engage in the adventure to follow the great river of history that flows into and out of an ocean of stars.
