American Medicinal Flowers: Now Available!

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This short bulletin is a handy little guide to North American species wild-gathered for medicinal purposes in its era. It has been illustrated by Rita Metzner because my own renditions would not be appropriate for a work meant to be roughly a short field guide. I've released a couple of these agricultural pieces before by the same author and have another lined up being edited as we speak.

The species are common; datura, elder, raspberries, and so forth; for each a basic description of usage is given- it should be noted that the apothecarian recipes derived from such herbal material are still in use in folk medicine, homeopathy, and in the third world.

29 pages.

Karma (Besant): Now Available!

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This is one of a series of four booklets written in the early 20th century by Besant to show the basic premises of Theosophy to newcomers. It was out of a realization, on her part, it seems, that much Theosophical literature was too long and/or obtuse to be understood unless a person was relatively highly literate or already trained in Theosophy.

It is an intermediate primer on karma and related topics from the Buddhist tradition as westernized (slightly) by the occultists of the era.

58 pages.

The Secret of the Success of the Ouija Board: Now Available!

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This short booklet is an exceptionally bizarre one in which a pair of women living in early 20th century Alaska utilized the then-modern Ouija Board and attempted to communicate with spirits, deriving two basic meanings: First, that the board works in part because of its occupation by what we would now call hidden folk (dwarves, elves,) and secondly that the Ouija Board is a "telegraph to God." This reference shows its age- a decade later it might have been called a telephone. In any case, it's definitely worth a read, and the rest of its technically folkloric content is, divorced of a Ouija Board, perhaps more authentic in manner.

27 pages.

Imperialistic Council of the Magi: Now Available!

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Of all of the odd arcana I've encountered during half a decade editing occult works, this takes the cake for the most odd of all. Invoking none other than Eliphas Levi, it purports to tutor the reader in how to become a magi. Here I insert an opinion; this work is typical of the era (and for a couple decades after) and is more like the Book of Forbidden Knowledge than it is a standard occult philosophy guide, only without some of the bric-a-brac inclusions and advertisements for crystals and self help guides.

That isn't to demean the work however- it's a fun albeit short read, and the various teachings it employs aren't inauthentic in and of themselves and roughly correlate to Theosophy and similar movements from the period. Highly recommended both for lore and laughs!

51 pages.

There Are No Dead: Now Available!

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This reasonably short work is a compilation of purported communications with spirits created by the notable Sophie de Meissner- whose own work stretched well beyond the spiritual and involved charitable work and many other literary forays.

Of significance here especially are several communications supposedly held with none other than the captain of the USS Titanic after its ill fated voyage, as well as numerous letters between the author and other figures, which regard the form and function of the afterlife and the importance, in their opinions, of the actual name of Jesus, among other things.

91 pages.

The Mystics of Islam: Now Available!

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This is a fine work from the golden age of academics when books treating on non-western groups weren't full of nonstop "noble savage" mythology which had been common before and has become common again in our current intellectual dark age. Dwelling relatively little on the whirling dervishes and the more well known practices of some Sufi orders, it instead focuses on some of its historical subgroups including certain libertine factions and some groups which essentially equate to a form of islamized gnosticism. Altogether extremely well written with a decent bibliography to boot.

125 pages.

Jewish Mysticism: Now Available!

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One of a number of interesting spiritual works released by the same publisher in the 1910s, Abelsons' treatment of mysticism within Judaism here is quite good, expansive, and sometimes dense, but technically an introductory overview of magickal concepts within Kabbalah.

Speaking of the Yetzirah and Zohar among other works, it is somewhat a work of linguistic anthropology, which makes sense, since a lot of the theological and mystic concepts of Jewish spiritual lore are fundamentally derived from the Hebrew language and number systems.

123 pages.

The Tree of Life, Physical Regenesis: Now Available!

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This work is the first of a number of quack medicine, herbal, and spiritualist works with pseudoscience that I intend to release this year; it's one of the strangest, suggesting overlap between the twelve signs of the zodiac and twelve inorganic materials that are used by cells (thus proving in the mind of the author, a spiritually significant connection.) Much like Dowers' explanation of "radium" and its importance spiritually, Carey likens the human being to a steam powered apparatus, with the pores as vents and other various miraculous similarities.

While thus hilarious at times, it also contains Careys' apparent post-revelational vision of utopia and a good deal of spiritual commentary on avoiding alcohol, overeating, sexual contact, and other corrupting forces in order to inevitably lead mankind to a higher plane of existence in which labor is automated and humans live a peace loving existence in visible company with angels.

52 pages.

Secrets of Black Arts!: Now Available!

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This interesting little volume is roughly similar in some ways to the Book of Forbidden Knowledge (which became and has remained one of my top selling titles.) It is a mix of different lore, delivered from a skeptical-but-not-atheistic position on subjects ranging from the divining rod (dowsing), to omens and apparitions, and the Salem Witch Trials- this last is covered in some degree of depth indeed, about 50 pages of content giving the backdrop, opinions of the era, and some of the names and trials of note from the entire series of events there.

A short treatment on Satan and demonology gives way to this more historical content and it is subsequently capped off with a two page ramble about the need to refute fire and brimstone ideology and irrational superstition. The original edition came with about ten pages of ads (removed in my edition) for other works which ranged from mesmerism and palmistry to brief annotated historical guides.

122 pages.

The Book of Halloween: Now Available!

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This fine collection of folklore, "The Book of Halloween" by Kelley, is primarily a work of European extraction but details the pagan origins of its obvious subject matter. Written at the dawn of the 20th century, it traces the history of Halloween, Samhain, etc, through to the then-modern era, providing numerous examples from folklore, poems, and historical materials of the lineage of what would eventually become our now-modern day of candy begging and pumpkins. Not surprisingly it mentions Grimm at several points.

Fairies, jack o'lanterns, and other topics are denoted in some degree of detail along with the usual departed spirits and witchery of that special time of year.

113 pages.

How to Speak With the Dead: Now Available!

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This work is very well crafted especially for its era; the author, known as "Sciens", manages to delve into science and spiritualism here somewhat seamlessly without mindlessly accepting either the spiritual or rational explanation for phenomena he visits within the manuscript.

The majority of its content deals with the structure of a seance and the philosophy behind the basic concept of communicating with the departed- helpfully, the work clears up some misconceptions about channeling and similar topics as well, debunking the idea that, for example, those gathered need to link hands for some electrical purpose. At the end of the work both skeptics and spiritualists are fairly reamed by the author for various excesses.

93 pages.

Demons and Tongues: Now Available!

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This booklet details the opinions of the Pillar of Fire order founded by Alma White at the dawn of the 20th century, regarding the then-growing Pentecostal movement and its belief in baptism by tongues. It additionally delves fairly deep into eugenics-era demonology and the nature of both demons and the Devil, and their constant quest to destroy the christian body in what White and others believed to be a period fairly close to the end times. It speaks about the vaguely eugenics-tinged christianity of its era and proposes that those who speak in tongues regularly are possessed not by the Holy Spirit but rather by the legions of Hell.

64 pages.