A Walking Flame

Nearly 40 nearly forgotten essays on magic and esotericism by Ithell Colquhoun.

Writer, artist, and wilfully dissident surrealist Ithell Colquhoun (1906–1988) invested her unique works with magical learning, esoteric lore, and a palpable sense of mystery. Despite having published widely on esoteric and occult topics during her lifetime, Colquhoun was never to produce a single book-length edition of her magical writings. As a result, many of her essays were lost or neglected.

A Walking Flame: Selected Magical Writings Of Ithell Colquhoun gathers nearly 40 texts by this unique artist and magical practitioner, and displays cohesively, and for the first time, the impressive breadth of Colquhoun’s magical interests and expertise, and how these came to inform her singular works. Ranging from early encounters with the Kabbalah and esoteric color theory, to Celtic mysticism and alchemy, this volume, edited by Colquhoun scholar and folklorist Amy Hale, promises to shed a necessary light on an integral body of Colquhoun’s thought that has remained occluded for too long.