The Guild has always been a bookish body. It was founded in a bindery, by a binder and a scholar, to test what was written in old books. This page describes what the Guild has written, what it keeps, and what of it may be read by those who are not members.
The Common Book
The Common Book is the collected instruction of the Guild: one hundred and forty-seven Papers in seven Books, one Book for each grade. It was first compiled by Imogen Castellane in 1979 and is now in its fifth edition, issued in 2019.
The Common Book is never issued whole. A member receives it Paper by Paper, as the work is done. When a Book has been completed its Papers are bound, by tradition with the member's own hands, in a simple sewn binding taught in the thirteenth Paper. Most members own nothing they value more.
The substance of the first Book is given on this website under The Daily Practice and Ceremonial Practice, and the plan of the whole under The Course of Study.
The Guild Record
The journal of the Guild has appeared each quarter since 1976 and has passed its two hundredth number. It prints papers by members on method and on history, the addresses given at the Convocations, reports of the Chapterhouses, and, in every number, one anonymous extract from a member's Record, printed with permission and without comment. A selection is published in the Journal pages of this website.
Printed works
The following have been printed privately by the Guild for its members. They are not sold.
| Title | Author | Issued | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Primer of the Art | The Council | 1980, revised 2012 | A short introduction for inquirers and petitioners. Its substance is now given on this website. |
| Tables of the Hours | Margit Anselm, continued by the Warden of the Lamp | Yearly since 1983 | Sunrise, sunset and the planetary hours for the latitude of every Chapterhouse. |
| Thirty Letters from Lantern Court | Imogen Castellane | 1989 | Letters of advice to Apprentices, written over fifteen years. |
| The Binder's Notebook | Ambrose Tolland, edited by Imogen Castellane | 1996 | Selections from the founder's working diary, 1951 to 1993. |
| The Four Gates: Text and Commentary | The Council | 2005 | The daily rite of the Guild with its history and a commentary. Given to each member on admission. |
| Fifty Years at the Bench | Edited by Ines Carvalho | 2021 | Papers from The Guild Record, chosen for the fiftieth anniversary. |
Libraries and scholars with a serious interest may ask the Warden of the Book for copies at book@sorcererguild.com.
The library at Lantern House
The library began with the shelves of Tolland and Castellane and now holds about 4,200 volumes on ritual, the history of magic and religion, astronomy, symbolism and the arts of the book. Members may read there by appointment, and may borrow by post up to three volumes for six weeks. The catalog is sent to members on request.
The archive of Records
By a custom that began with the founders, members may leave their Records to the Guild. More than three hundred have been deposited. Each is sealed for fifty years unless its writer directed otherwise. The archive is the ground of whatever the Guild can claim to know about what its methods do, and the Reform of 2003 was argued almost entirely from it.
Researchers may apply to the Warden of the Book. Access is given to extracts only, with every name removed.
On reading
The Guild issues no list of recommended books. New members are asked instead to bring to their first conversation with a mentor one book that has mattered to them, and to be ready to say what in it they have actually tested. For the rest, the advice of the Common Book has not changed since 1979:
- Read less than you practice.
- Prefer the oldest source you can understand to the newest summary of it.
- Distrust any book that promises results.
- Enter in the Record what you tried from a book, and what followed. A book that has left no entries in your Record has not yet been read.