Magick Matters

06.12.2021

“Consult the Oracle: A Victorian Guide to Folklore and Fortune Telling” by Gabriel Nostradamus

Magick Matters

“If you sing before breakfast you will cry before supper...' In their own words, what it meant for Victorians to dream of actors, April Fools, herrings or a railway ticket – why it was advised to throw a black snail by its horns over the left shoulder for good luck – and why it is essential to inform bees of a death in the family. “If one drops a knife, a woman is coming; a fork, a man is coming; a spoon, a fool.” Tappings on tables, questionable curatives, old wives' tales and whispers from beyond the grave – Victorians were fascinated by the supernatural. Consult the Oracle was where they might have turned...>>

View

05.12.2021

“Cactus of Mystery: The Shamanic Powers of the Peruvian San Pedro Cactus” by Ross Heaven

Magick Matters

"The history of San Pedro and its uses for healing, creativity, and conscious evolution: • Includes interviews with practicing San Pedro shamans on their rituals, cactus preparations, and teachings on how San Pedro heals the mind and body • Contains accounts from people who have been healed by San Pedro • Includes chapters by Eve Bruce, M.D., and David Luke, Ph.D., on San Pedro’s effects on psychic abilities and its similarities to and differences from ayahuasca San Pedro, the legendary cactus of vision, has been used by the shamans of Peru for at least 3,500 years. Referring to St. Peter, who holds the keys to Heaven, its name is suggestive of the plant’s visionary power to open the...>>

View

05.12.2021

“The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross: A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East” by John M. Allegro (1974 revised ed)

Magick Matters

"Where did God come from? What do the bible stories really tell us? Who or what was Jesus Christ? This book challenges everything we think we know about the nature of religion. The ancient fertility cult at the heart of Christianity. The living power of cultic rites and symbols. The sacred mushroom as the emblem and embodiment of divinity. The secret meaning of biblical myths. The language of religion that links us to our ancestors. The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross sets out John Allegro's quest through a family tree of languages to find the truth about where Christianity came from."...>>

View

04.12.2021

“Dark Spirits: The Magical Art of Rosaleen Norton and Austin Osman Spare” by Dr. Nevill Drury

Magick Matters

"Although they never met, the Australian witch Rosaleen Norton (1917-1979) and British visionary artist Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956) shared many points in common. As occult practitioners operating within the Western esoteric tradition, both artists were well versed in the literature of Western magic, Theosophy, kabbalah, Eastern mysticism, and modern psychoanalysis. Fascinated by mediaeval magical grimoires, they also explored the 'seals' associated with elemental spirit-beings and developed unique forms of sigil magic. Perhaps even more significantly, Norton and Spare utilised their own personal techniques of self-hypnosis and trance in order to produce their distinctive visionary artworks. As this book demonstrates, there is a clear parallel between the trance states associated with the Zos/Kia cosmology of...>>

View

03.12.2021

“Okamoto Kido: Master of the Uncanny” by Okamoto Kido

Magick Matters

"Born just after Japan transitioned from the Shogunate to Meiji, Kidō grew up in a samurai-oriented world being transformed by the West in many ways. As a reporter he covered domestic development and overseas wars, while also marrying a traditional geisha, eventually becoming a playwright and author. In addition to a number of well-received plays, he also penned more than fifty horror stories over a roughly ten-year period starting in the mid-1920s. Just prior to this period, the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 destroyed almost everything in Tokyo that remained from the Edo era, and Japanese horror itself was transitioning from the traditional uncanny stories to more modern horror structures. While many of Kidō’s stories...>>

View