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"Special Teachings" is the first of three works in Farnsworths' series of occult compilations. The topics within are highly variable and presented from a Theosophical perspective. It notably includes content regarding Karma, Kali Yuga, the concept of time from an occult perspective, and various treatments on science and supernatural topics. It is, of the three works in the series,...

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...

This short work is partially about nothing more technically supernatural than the topic of sleep paralysis, also known in colloquial terms at the time as the night-mare. This frightening topic is, literally speaking, not yet even quantified fully by science so I suppose that element is still of occult import; but of greater interest here are two other subtopics; herbal...

This work is quite interesting; and at this point it takes quite a bit to trip my interest since I read and edit similar works all day. Written at the dawn of the 20th century, it is partly about how to mesmerize (theory and action both) and partly about mind reading and similar topics, but it meanders into the realm of sociology and begins, about two thirds of the way through, to...

This mid-length book is notable not so much for its application of the occult but its treatment of two individuals in particular (although it speaks at some length of others and of various phenomena); namely, the infamous Eva Carriere, and Rudolf Steiner, developer of Anthroposophy and, prior, prolific writer and notable Theosophist.

To the former, significant applause is given; it...

This work comes strictly from the rationalist camp of its era. Seeking primarily to discredit phrenology, dowsing, seances, and spiritualistic beliefs in general, Clodd managed to perform two tasks; first, to give a good cautionary warning to occultists, and second to categorize some interesting phenomena (including the legendary appearance of angels on WWI battlefields, aiding...

This particular work is written from the perspective of sometimes quite severe skepticism towards folklore of various kinds, from the disorganized and tribal (and often antiquated) to the then-modern, medical, and "scientific." Amusingly, some of its then-accepted scientific conjectures are now themselves classed as pseudoscience and hokum.

The span of subjects covered here is...

This short but interesting manuscript is a compilation of lore related to the use of the divining rod (or dowsing rod) and was created by Latimer in the mid 1800s- Latimer proclaims his own skill with the use of the same and seems to take it fairly literally (minus the new age usage of the same- namely as a homeopathic medicinal object for closing "negative energies" off to heal...

This interesting piece of science fiction literature from the middle of the 19th century is a bizarre fusion of modernism and sword-and-sorcery fantasy. Akin to any comparable Atlantis-and-Agartha style work, it's written well enough to be entertaining, and is actually a very good fiction read; but its importance, for occultism, is far greater than its fictional impact.

The author...

This is the final manuscript I had planned for March; two days early! Its content contains three essential points of note, combining different fields of theory to draw conclusions from their fusion (the main source of authentic occult knowledge, no less.)

First, that human development is largely able to be categorized into four and, soon, five epochs, using communication and focus...