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This work is quite a notable one, being written by Besant- one of the foremost theosophists of the movement, and once-adoptive mother of Krishnamurti himself. It contains a series of four lectures, two of which are basically about socio-political issues- these two are quite interesting because the criminal and societal reforms spoken of were indeed largely adopted by western...

This is of interest potentially to two groups of people; the occultist will here find some interesting folk tales and spiritual rites from cultures then being actively studied at the height of the colonial era, and the history buff will find in these pages an interesting but sometimes outdated colonial perspective on non-European cultures. It focuses mostly on African lore but...

This booklet is a detailed study of some of the spirits and demonic forces within the local lore of the Assam region of India- for the geographically uninclined, the region far to the East, near the borders of Bangladesh and Burma. The local lore is rife with strange creatures- some more malevolent than others, some more dangerous and some more easily pacified. It contains a...

Yet another early work with no individual entry!

This tract is quite interesting and revolves- you guessed it- around the concept of the afterlife, that which happens after one is dead. To the theosophists a fusion of eastern and western lore is the answer; especially a sort of eastern-ized conceptualization of purgatory. Having expounded upon the form of the spirit world,...

Of all the academic works I have edited thus far this is one of the most interesting of all; it dates to that sweet-spot period of occult study between the 1880s and the 1920s which I favor. This particular work delves fairly deep into Malaysian magic but it isn't just magic per se, in the sense of spells and such, but also religious ritualism, how it overlaps between, in the case...

This is one of the stranger works of the early 20th century. Written by the famous DeLaurence, it seeks to teach the reader how to use crystal gazing to contact spirits and help people with various issues, and to impart the secret of telepathy. It also covers the use of the seance to contact spirits, among other tricks within the spirit realm (while considering these spirits to be...

I figured it was about time for another update; as spring marches along I'm already requisitioning materials for my garden, so those of you who enjoy that series will get some new footage soon- along with massive improvements.

On the literary side, I am now about 75% complete editing DeLaurences' odd work "The Mystic Hindu Test Book"- this work covers astral bodies, spirits, crystal gazing,...

This short work is one of Kingslands' additions to Theosophy; an interesting little booklet which compares Christendom with the claimed mystery religion at the core of Theosophy itself.

The words of Jesus in the canonical scriptures, as well as of Paul and others, here, are used to show that Jesus was not a believer in the kind of legalistic superstition of quasi-modern church...

This work is one of the best academic treatments of religious history that I have encountered. It spans a dozen cultures and many centuries in its pages, going from Babylon, Egypt, and ancient India, up through Greece, Rome, and into the then-modern period of the late 19th century.

Most of the lore here is in the form of historical quotation from Tacitus, Pliny, Caesar, and others,...

This extremely interesting work is sadly little-known despite its scope; several thousand years of human history and a dozen or so cultures, with all funerary rites they're associated with- from the memento mori and then-modern practices back through embalming, interring, or burning corpses.

The greatest part of this work is its general mention of the slow (or occasionally...

This work is pure rationalism circa the early 20th century. Penned by Odell Shepard, it goes to great lengths in being as detailed as possible, not limiting itself by time period or region. Speaking of lore as separate as that of Africa and India, the tale of the unicorn (or alicorn) is rendered not simply to a misunderstood and real beast here, but takes on a wider symbology and...

The Stanzas of Dzyan are a short, purportedly Tibetan work which Helena Blavatsky claimed to have translated near the end of the 19th century from works she encountered in the far East. That it is essentially a short reworking of mundane Buddhist doctrine does not detract from the fact that this, above almost all other occult manuscripts, influenced the entire period of Victorian...