New or Recent Books of Interest

Beck, Roger, A Brief History of Ancient Astrology, (Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2007)

ISBN: 978-1-4051-1074-7

            A Brief History of Ancient Astrology explores astrology from Babylon to ancient Greece and Rome, looking into the link between astrology and astronomy in the ancient world while explaining the ancient understanding of the zodiac, the planets, and the circle of “places” around which these objects revolve.

Buescher, John Benedict, The Remarkable Life of John Murray Spear, (Indiana: University of Notre Dame, 2006)

ISBN: 978-0-268-02200-6

            The Remarkable Life of John Murray Spear is a biography of one of history’s most flamboyant spiritualists, inventor of “spirit machines”, and an advocate of free love, recreated in the form of a sympathetic character who is displaced from his own life by spirits.

Gallagher, Eugene V., ed., Ashcroft, W. Michael, ed., Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America Volume 1: History and Controversies, (Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2006)

ISBN: 978-0-275-98713-8

            A collection of essays from various authors on the topic of new religious movements in America which ranges from topics such as how law affects new religious movements, to the role of gender in these new movements.

Granholm, Kennet, Embracing the Dark: The Magic Order of Dragon Rouge-Its Practice in Dark Magic and Meaning Making, (Saarijavi: Abo Akademi University Press, 2005)

ISBN: 978-9-517-652513

            Embracing the Dark is a study of the magic order known as Dragon Rouge in terms of its organization, philosophy, and practices.  It also attempts to look at Western Esotericism in terms of recent societal change.

Gutierrez, Cathy, ed., The Occult in Nineteenth-Century America, (Colorado: The Davies Group, 2005)

ISBN: 978-8-885-70830-3

            A collection of essays from various authors, such as Arthur Versluis, John Kucich, Matthew deVoll, and Sheri Weinstein, The Occult in Nineteenth-Century America gives new insight into various esoteric movements of the 1800s.

Michell, John, Confessions of a Radical Traditionalist, (Vermont: Dominion Press, 2005)

ISBN: 978-0-971-20444-7

            Confessions of a Radical Traditionalist is a collection of essays written by English author and philosopher John Michell, originally printed in a monthly magazine titled The Oldie. Michell gives an orthodox viewpoint to many heretical topics, including the madness of modernity and the coming of the apocalypse.

Molinos, Miguel de, The Spiritual Guide, (United Kingdom: Athenaeum Press, 2006)

ISBN: 978-0-7188-3054-0

O’Meara, John, Prospero’s Powers, (Nebraska: iUniverse, 2006)

ISBN: 978-0-595-41000-2

            Prospero’s Powers is the third part of an analysis on Shakespeare’s plays, focusing on The Tempest, and contains  new insights into the mystery of the sacrificial death of the Sophia into human consciousness at the time.

Wilby, Emma, Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic, (Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 2005)

ISBN: 978-1-845-19079-8

            Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic contains the first ever comprehensive examination of popular familiar belief in early modern England, as well as an in-depth analysis of the correlation between early modern British magic and tribal shamanism.