$36.00

A Wheel of Small Gods

Poems by Brian Wilkins | Art by Brennen Reece

112 pages / 8 Aug 2022 / Hardcover 9781947544369

Created in three years of ritual, A Wheel of Small Gods is gateway to working with the 36 Decan Spirits of the Egyptian Zodiac . Rooted in tradition and profoundly experimental, the book offers to restore to readers the healing magic that is their birthright through art and inspiration. These 41 poems and talismans offer nothing less than the secret of magic: you can change your life.

The companion Oracle of Decans sold separately.

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Modern medicine was born in the healing temples of the Hellenic world. Within their grounds, doctors like Hippocrates and Galen performed surgery, provided plant-based medicines, and promoted health with exercise. And while we have continued their legacy, we have forgotten something they knew to be true: the mind, body, and spirit are inexorably linked. To heal the whole person requires more than a prescription—it takes ritual, art, and spirit. It takes magic.

In A Wheel of Small Gods, Brian Wilkins and Brennen Reece offer a guide to reintroducing ritual healing by engaging with the 36 decan spirits of the Egyptian zodiac. Created within the sacred timing over a three-year process, these poems and images are talismans intended to connect you to those spirits of health and restoration. Through their many names, their sacred symbols, and the lyrics they inspire, their message is clear: you can change your life.

We created The Oracle of Decans—amulets, a deck of divination, and icons for your altar—as a portable temple. These cards come closest to the traditional method of engaging with these spirits: carried objects engraved with their image and sybilline fragments. Be inspired: make your own magic.

To enjoy the companion divination to this book, visit The Oracle of Decans.

It is imperative we engage in ritual imaginative processes, in magic, to better heal ourselves. It is an important part of the understanding of medicine that we’ve lost. And I think that art is the first place to start with that engagement with ritual. You can contemplate a picture and read a poem. You can believe in the power of that to help you heal. And you should, because it does.

Ritual healing works in the way medicine works: it engages with circumstances that increase your chance to heal. And like medicine, if improperly administered it can hurt. The good news is that the process is simple. Expect healing. You will raise the odds of recovery. The lack of specificity and control with art, the attempt at general uplift, is one of its advantages in many circumstances.

These poems and drawings are ways to connect to spirits. These spirits heal. Whether you draw inspiration from the method, find your own better answers, or use it in contemplation, the goal is to help you engage with magic.

What you see here is filtered through our experience—this is a field guide, not channeled material. I am not presenting poems that are the voice of the decan. I am showing you my notes on what I found traveling in that country.

The poems are narrative and imagistic scenes,not invocations in the traditional sense. Rather than call down powers and bind them with formulae composed of angelic names, fumigations, and drawn circles, I am offering a way into an ecstatic state that allows a chance for meeting. I am writing you a letter of introduction to some good friends.


About the Poet

Brian Wilkins is a poet and magician. He received a MFA in Poetry from the University of New Hampshire, where he worked with Charles Simic, David Rivard, and Mekeel McBride. He created the first literary magazine for the iPhone, Scarab. He has also been a finalist for the teleplay competition at the Austin Film Festival. You can find more about his work at www.wilkinsbrian.com

About the Artist

Artist, author, and musician Brennen Reece has been reading tarot since he was 12, and drew his first SATOR square soon after. In addition to studying jazz guitar with Steve Giordano and Pat Martino, he has certificates in Advanced Design Thinking from IDEO, Mastering Design Thinking from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and Systems Thinking from Cornell University. In 2019, he received a Gold ENnie Award for his cover art for Harlem Unbound (Darker Hue Studios). He is the author of Productivity for the Depressive Polymath, and illustrator of The Retromodern Tarot.

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