The Collections: Four Gates, a Tower, and the Waters

The Athenaeum is arranged as the legendary city was. Four gates lead to four literatures. In the middle of the room stands the Tower, our reference collection, and next door are the Waters, where the periodicals and ephemera are kept. The plan is easy to remember, and it puts neighbors where they belong: the grimoires near the astrology, the Hermetica near the Gnostics.

The plan of the collections

Place	Guardian	Literature	Shelf letter	Size
East Gate	Eagle	Mystical literature	E	About 1,900 volumes
South Gate	Lion	Occult literature	L	About 3,700 volumes
West Gate	Bull	Pagan literature	B	About 2,900 volumes
North Gate	Dog	Esoteric literature	D	About 2,100 volumes
The Tower	The beacon	Reference and bibliography	T	About 800 volumes
The Waters	None recorded	Periodicals and ephemera	W	About 2,600 issues and 38 boxes

The collections

• Pagan Literature

  The West Gate. Ancient hymns and myths, the Eddas and the Mabinogion, folklore, and the books of the modern Pagan revival.

• Occult Literature

  The South Gate. Ceremonial magic and the grimoires, astrology, alchemy, divination and tarot, natural magic, and demonology.

• Esoteric Literature

  The North Gate. The Hermetica, Gnostic scriptures, Kabbalah, the Rosicrucian manifestos, Theosophy, and the study of esotericism.

• Mystical Literature

  The East Gate. Plotinus and the later Platonists, the Christian contemplatives, the Sufi poets, Asian classics, and the comparative study of mysticism.

• Reference and Bibliography

  The Tower. Dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, general histories, critical literature, and language aids.

• Periodicals and Ephemera

  The Waters. Journals, newsletters, zines, and ephemera, with advice on preserving old newsletters at home.

How to read a shelf mark

Every book carries a shelf mark made of a gate letter, a class number, and the first letters of the author or title. L 4 MAI is Michael Maier, shelved with alchemy at the Lion Gate. D 1 COR is the Corpus Hermeticum, shelved with the Hermetica at the Dog Gate. The research guides on this site give the class for each work they discuss, so that you can walk straight to the shelf.

Why these gates?

The Picatrix names the four animals and their directions and says no more. The pairing of each gate with a literature is our own, chosen to be memorable:

• East, the Eagle, mystical literature. The east is the quarter of dawn, and the eagle was the bird said to look straight into the sun. The literature of illumination is shelved here.
• South, the Lion, occult literature. The south is noon and heat. The lion is an old emblem of the sun and, as the green lion of the alchemists, of the work itself. The practical arts are shelved here.
• West, the Bull, Pagan literature. The west is our own quarter. The bull was the great sacrificial animal of the ancient Mediterranean, and stands here for the religions of the old gods.
• North, the Dog, esoteric literature. The north is the dark quarter, and the dog is the keeper of thresholds, as jackal-headed Anubis guided the dead in Egypt. The literature of guarded teaching is shelved here.

For the legend itself, see The Name Adocentyn.

Using the collections

Everything is consulted on the premises: books in the reading room, and periodicals in the Waters next door. The open shelves hold about two thirds of the collection. The rest is fetched from the stacks on request, usually within ten minutes. Holders of a Resident or Lamplighter reader ticket may browse the stacks themselves.

The shelf list is kept at the desk, and a keeper will search it with you. We do not publish the catalog online. The subject tree is the public guide to what is shelved where.