Susan Pesznecker

Gargoyles: from the Archives of the Grey School of Wizardry Susan Pesznecker 1st edition

Picture an old, gothic cathedral. Now lift your eyes to the edges of the eaves and the peaks of the ridgelines. Look carefully, and you're likely to spot one or more creatures clinging to the side of the building or balancing atop a spire. Gargoyles!

These staring, startling, sometimes leering creatures have gazed down at us for centuries. Though they were most popular during the Middle Ages, many gargoyles endure today. And stonemasons and artists continue to embrace the craft and create new versions for our viewing pleasure.

Have you ever wondered why gargoyles were created, who made them, and how they got there? Many cultures throughout history have produced sculptures of fantastic creatures, figures that stir our imaginations, just as they stirred the imaginations of the artists and craftspeople who envisioned them.

Gargoyles takes you on a journey into a mysterious world, through bestiaries and traveling menageries, past grotesques and chimeras, through medieval cities and guilds and into huge stone buildings. Gargoyles are an embodiment of form and function serving a clear architectural purpose but also symbolically important. Whether warding off evil, frightening away fear, or showcasing human foibles, when a gargoyle was placed on a building, people noticed.

Gargoyles will introduce you to stone faces, doom stones, drinking heads, Sheila na gigs, hagodays, and other stony members of the gargoyle family. In doing so, it delves into historic models of arcane craftsmanship and architecture, considering the reasons that gargoyles came into being and hearing the legends of the gargoyle, both mythic and modern. It also covers the emergence of stone creatures into popular culture.

For modern magick users, Gargoyles explores the role of the gargoyle in magickal practice, including gargoyle use in elemental correspondences, stone magick, protection, warding, egregores, talismans, animal associations, ritual, and spell work. It also includes a "field book" of gargoyles, both old and new, that can still be seen and appreciated today.