The Deceit is a work of fiction. However, I have drawn on many real, historical, archaeological and cultural sources for this book. In particular:
The Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage is a book of spells and curses, compiled by a Jewish Kabbalist, Abraham of Worms, in fifteenth-century Germany. Various versions of the text survive in libraries across Europe. In occult circles the magic of Abra-Melin is regarded as the most ‘dangerous’ of all hermetic rituals.
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) was a British mountaineer, adventurer, drug-addict and black magician, and for a time a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, alongside artists such as the Irish poet, and Nobel laureate, W B Yeats. In 1924 a disciple of Crowley’s died in Crowley’s house in Cefalu, Sicily – allegedly after Crowley had fed him the blood of a cat.
The little town of Akhmim is possibly the oldest inhabited site in Egypt. Regarded as the cradle of alchemy, and as one of the birthplaces of Gnostic and Coptic Christianity, Akhmim also, in antiquity, enjoyed a reputation as being home to the greatest magicians in Egypt. Despite its extraordinary history, Akhmim has never been properly excavated by archaeologists.
‘And the LORD brought us FORTH out of EGYPT, with a mighty hand.’
Deuteronomy 26:8
4. La Bodega bistro, Zamalek, Cairo
5. The Monastery of St Anthony, the Red Sea, Egypt
9. Zennor Hill, Cornwall, England
13. Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle, Cornwall
16. Carnkie, Cornwall, England
20. The Necropolis of Cats, Bubastis, Egypt
21. Bubastis, the city of cats, Egypt
22. Truro Police Headquarters, Cornwall
23. Chancery Lane, London, England
29. Police Headquarters, Luxor
31. The Tomb of Ramose, Valley of the Nobles, Egypt
35. The Monastery of St Tawdros, Malkata, Egypt