''The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love): Psychology of Ecstasy'' is a book written by

Austin Osman Spare Austin Osman Spare (30 December 1886 – 15 May 1956) was an English artist and occultist who worked as both a draughtsman and a painter. Influenced by symbolism and art nouveau his art was known for its clear use of line, and its depiction of ...

during 1909–1913 and self-published in 1913. The book could be regarded as the central text among his writings. It covers both mystical and magical aspects of Spare's ideas; as the modern ideas on

sigils A sigil () is a type of symbol used in magic. The term has usually referred to a pictorial signature of a deity or spirit. In modern usage, especially in the context of chaos magic, sigil refers to a symbolic representation of the practitione ...

(as now have become popular in

chaos magic Chaos magic, also spelled chaos magick, is a modern tradition of magic. It initially emerged in England in the 1970s as part of the wider neo-pagan and magical subculture. Drawing heavily from the occult beliefs of artist Austin Osman Spar ...

) and Spare's special theory on

incarnation Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It refers to the conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or the appearance of a god as a human. If capitalized, it is the union of divinit ...

are for the first time introduced in this book. There are some chapters in ''The Book of Pleasure'' that Spare has referred to within the text, but are omitted. It seems that they were destroyed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The book had originally been planned as a ''mutus liber'' of illustrations only – "the Wisdom without words",Semple, W. Gavin, ZOS-KIA, 1995, Fulgur Limited, page 8 but was expanded later. The book has been reissued several times: # Quebec: 93 Publishing, 1975. # Northampton: Sut Anubis, 1987 ( facsimile).

References

1913 books Occult books Self-published books {{occult-book-stub