“Israel Regardie & The Philosophers Stone: The Alchemical Arts Brought Down to Earth” by Joseph C. Lisiewski

"In this book, Dr. Lisiewski reveals the role Dr. Israel Regardie played in the world of Practical Laboratory Alchemy. Not the world of idle speculation and so-called inner alchemy, but the realm of the test tube and the Soxhlet Extractor. Revealed for the first time are Regardie's own private alchemical experiments, his intense interaction with Frater Albertus of the Paracelsus Research Society, and later, with the author himself. You will learn of the first meeting between Regardie and Frater Albertus; their involvement with the Rosicrucian Order; their years of struggle in Alchemy; and the alchemical work they and the author explored. Such work includes preparation of the Ancient Planetary and Antimony Tinctures, the Herbal Stone, ...>>

“The History of Hell” by Alice K. Turner

"In an arresting journey through the netherworld, Playboy fiction editor Turner explores the landscape and dynamics of Hell as envisioned by writers, artists, theologians and thinkers from Plato and Augustine to Milton, Calvin, Byron and T. S. Eliot. Starting with the worlds of the dead of the Sumerians, Egyptians, Zoroastrians, Greeks, Romans and Jews, Turner moves on to the sketchy biblical basis for Christian Hell and its increasing importance in thinking about the afterlife. After the fact of Hell was settled, it was up to writers like Bede, Gregory the Great and most of all Dante to give the graphic descriptions of an infernal region where the wicked endure torments. Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire poured ...>>

“Byzantine Magic” edited by Henry Maguire

"Written by specialists in several disciplines, this volume explores the parameters and significance of magic in Byzantine society, from the fourth century to after the empire's fall. The authors address a wide variety of questions, some of which are common to all historical research into magic, and some of which are peculiar to the Byzantine context. The authors reveal the scope, the forms, and the functioning of magic in Byzantine society, throwing light on a hitherto relatively little-known aspect of Byzantine culture, and, at the same time, expanding upon the contemporary debates concerning magic and its roles in pre-modern societies."...>>

“Perilous Enchantment: The True History of Faeries” by Sarah Clegg

"A compendium of fairies and fairy lore through the centuries, told through a magical year in search of the fae from the author of the "remarkable" (Literary Review) Woman’s Lore. Fairy stories and fae lore are ancient—yet fairy stories continue to transform and enthrall our imaginations generation after generation. From Tolkien’s elves to Sarah J. Maas’s high fae, storytellers have reinterpreted the same set of traditions and texts over and over again. Perilous Enchantment presents a definitive new cultural history of the fairy, from ancient times to now, across Europe and North America. By visiting a different fairy site each month—including fairy hills in Yorkshire, to a nymph’s cave in Delphi, to a contemporary ...>>

“The Magical World of Dr. Joseph Lisiewski” by Mark Stavish

"Few figures in modern occultism have garnered as much admiration — and vitriol — as Dr. Joseph Charles Lisiewski. Born in the coal mining regions of Central Pennsylvania, Lisiewski came of age as religious orthodoxy was waning, but before the world of the "Counter Culture Movement" had fully come full-term. After a terrifying magical evocation at the age of 17, he quickly found himself involved with two of the greatest occultists of the Twentieth Century — Israel Regardie and Frater Albertus. Having worked with both men for years, he detailed his unique relationship with them in Israel Regardie and the Philosopher's Stone (2008). Having myself worked with Lisiewski, I tell the story of our ...>>