The Western Gate

The White Magic Book
Mrs john Le Breton
Troy Books Publishing

I start to worry when the content of one of your favourite publishers keeps bringing out ‘facsimile’ of copyright free material, anything and everything related to witchcraft, but then again, they are quite novel. Novelty being the by-word.
There is, much like many of the late reprints of obscure classics offered from Troy Publishing, little or no information regarding the book, or the author who chooses to call herself by the subordinate and downtrodden moniker of Mrs, to a certain, John le Breton. Shame on you. However, a little digging reveals this Mrs, may have been a pseudonym of Sir Cyril Arthur Pearson, which would make sense. Some of the Introduction of lecturing notes in the Preface stink of a bloke’s writing, I can smell the cigars and brandy and leather upholstered chairs from the all-geezer members bar as I peruse the pages;- Pseudo psychology and an inference to that electrickery gadgetry, lamenting over the poor wretched characters who are there by virtue of being idle, yep, Victorian attitudes haven’t moved on in (ahem) Mrs John le Breton’s world.
This book, itself is a practical, and yes that word again-parlour-type, game book. Akin to somethin from a modern RPG, but for people ( i would say women but I think the author maybe ‘fluid’) who wear dresses’ down to their ankles and collars up to their chin, and dress in black until they pop their clogs should their husband ever part before her, ~God Forbid.
Practically, you pick a question from a list numbered 5-100 (?) then you turn to a 4×4 ~square box of 16 occult’y figures (See front cover of book illustrated above), close your eyes, yep! and point your white cottoned glove at the box, hopefully and squarely indicating a figure. You then go to the pages of guidelines, looking like a logarithm table, find your question number, then under the sign you’ve ‘blindly’ chosen will be given the page of the answer, go to the page and also where your symbol is will be revealed that crafty cunning resolution. AT last we get there in the end.
I imagine Maud, Hyacinth and Methabel gathered around the drawing room table having a wail of a time. Far better than getting stoned playing the algorithm of a PlayStation game. In fact, not in jest do I make that statement, actually true!.
I’m not sure about closing your eyes, mentally meditating on the question you’ve chosen works though, using your finger like a pin the tail on the donkey parade. The page and table is small, it would be easy after a few goes to mentally guess what’s, where. But then, we could choose to label each sign under a number and throw a 16 sided dice ala-RPG die ‘d16’, but this would infer luck? well ….we are using a 4×4 square and By Jupiter this arte the square of luck, chance and mercy.|
The answers are fickle and ambiguous, gibberish and , well,…funny, after a few G and T’s I can well imagine hearty belly chuckles and afternoon cakes being dropped in fits of loose gaiety. But lets be clear, the 95 questions allowed are of the, will I get married, woe is me, will I be a wallflower, does my bum look big in this variety. So ask a silly question, get a silly answer.
In amongst the highbrow and scholarly tomes of research and literature in my Occult library, it is scandalous for me to have this book amongst them, like a tacky plastic ornament of Muttley laughing amongst some fine Lladró. Well, it’s going there, because I love it.
Bit pricey for what it is, namely a reprint of a 1919 quirk, bit a mystery surrounding the alleged author, and not enough Info on the mentality of the time that would gift us such an offering. The book size is 203 x 127mm which is annoying because I like to keep my Troy Books together and they tend to be 234 x 156mm, but it’ll sit in there like a filthy thumb in the women’s institute prize winning gateau.
I might invest in some proper fairground machines, fortune telling, Zoltar, Magic dice…..or even their contemporary counterparts like a Scientologist E-meter.

What fun, what larks !

Header Image : Le Tricheur à l’as de carreau or The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds
by Georges de la Tour (c. 1635)