The second volume of lore in Edward Farnsworths' three part series, "Heart of Things" is much like "The Deeper Mysteries." the content is a bit less variable and more focused on astrological, zodiacal, categorical materials. It speaks at some length on dreams, spirits, the meaning of life, the dimensions, and many other subjects, usually in three or four pages apiece.
This intermediate-length work is actually the third of three works written by Farnsworth over the course of a decade, containing various new age material from a surprisingly large number of sub-topics within the spiritual. It touches on Swedenborg, Blavatsky, levitation, the categorization of spirits and creatures, and many other tidbits. It should be noted that the author was...
This fairly short work was initially full length and 169 pages long; formatting in that era was often quite interesting. It's an extremely dense overview of many hundreds of bits of literature, the main point of which is to correlate and compare literary tropes, objects, and subjects across books and poetry. The author himself tries to restrain the lore to mostly the medieval and...
This work is actually a transcription of a series of lectures given by Charles Vail- notable as a minister, mason, and political figure in his era. The subjects of the lectures are all about Freemasons, but range from its symbols and their meanings, to its rites (especially of initiation) and the underlying history of the Masons in their modern incarnation dating to the 18th...
And now comes the first release in quite a while- a compilation of essays and speeches given by the author on medical subjects, mostly of an occult character- it's a fascinating book, with highly variable subtopics.
Perhaps the most interesting material here is on the history of the concept of the evil eye and counter-measures, but the history of the Knights Hospitaller and the...
I am now in the Netherlands, and taking a short break from actual literary work; having edited 250 different editions, I figure it's a good time to take a week or so to just focus on exploring a new and unfamiliar area. It's warmer here than in my native Vermont so I am enjoying an extended season of "no frost and daytime temperatures well into the 50s."
This is one of the foremost works of all Theosophy- from the well known Alice Bailey, an initiatory work which describes the various levels of spiritual refinement which are required on the path to Theosophical mastery. It should be noted that some of the obtuse terminology is explained at the end of the text in a decently sized glossary.
The notable L W deLaurence returns to this blog with another excellent work, this time compiling a laundry list of phenomena together (telepathy, spiritualism, somnambulism, mesmerism, and clairvoyance) to analyze them and draw them together while explaining, basically, their function and use. As usual, the notable (notorious?) author manages to remain collected enough to...
This intermediate length work is presented here partially for cautionary reasons; Mesmer and his school of thought were briefly accepted as miraculous and spiritually significant until the fraudulent nature of some of his practices were exposed. That being said, this text is mostly a compilation of testimonial work regarding the efficacy of magnetic bathing and associated...
Mythology and legend is a great component of the occult and the study of the same arguably one of the more enjoyable. What could be better than tales of Norse giants? Tales of Norse giants alongside tales of giants in Homers' works and in the middle ages, twain with a short but sweet section at the end of this work on "real" giants (some lore of which is perfectly accurate!)
And now the award for most obtusely titled booklet goes to!...
Zach Shed is an interesting individual; I can't seem to find any info about him other than that he authored this booklet at the dawn of the 20th century; originally, it was horizontally aligned (wider than tall) and its title beckons the question "why?" Nonetheless, it's a good work overall; it suggests the use of...
This intermediate-length work is the product of Alice A. Bailey, one of the more well known Theosophists of her era. Over her career she penned many works described as "received" (via channeling) but this very early work is of her own admitted manufacture.
Some of the content is quite as pseudoscientific now as it was before (man as a central radiation source comes to mind) but...
