Innovative history of the popular magical imagination and ordinary people's experience of urbanization in nineteenth-century England.

The knowledge and use of magical images was once a closely guarded secret of initiates and adepts in the Mystery Schools. Gareth Knight gives easy-to-follow classifications of the various kinds of magical image, along with instructions for their use as agents of self realisation and spiritual service. Indispensible for beginners and advanced practitioners alike, this book presents the theory and techniques of creative visualisation and meditation. These practical teachings range from the circulation of force within the aura for the purpose of balancing the personality to the development of a full magical system of pathworking, enabling deep contact with inner sources of wisdom. Now in its third edition, a new section is included on the magical images of the Tarot, plus an extensive chapter on Qabalistic pathworking in the Western Mystery Tradition.

Imagination is our inner vision, our human skill to see different realities. It can take us to the throne of God, it can connect us to the stream of infinity and allow us to see the universe for what it really is. Controlled use of the imagination is fundamental to magical practice, and this comprehensive study by an experienced practitioner provides the keys to understanding and using these powerful inner techniques. Based on Nick Farrell's previous book Magical Pathworking, this greatly revised and expanded edition includes new chapters which further develop the techniques of pathworking for magical and spiritual purposes. It covers group work, divination, visiting other inner world dimensions and working towards what Farrell calls objective pathworking. "Even if you think you know all about visualisation, pathworking and the magical key of imagination - even if you teach the subjects - this book will astound you. Nick Farrell explores magical imagination with depth and discernment, revealing principles and methods that will enrich and transform your magical and spiritual practice. Quite simply, this book is the best of its kind and extends the magical use of imagination to new heights and insights. It is an essential book for all magicians, Pagans and anyone who works with the inner realms." - Peregrin Wildoak, author of By Names and Images.

"Because of the combination of information, understanding and insight on which it is founded, The Magical World of the Inklings is more than outstanding. It is not in the same league with anything else I have come across." - Owen Barfield The works of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams and Owen Barfield have had a profound impact on the contemporary world. Together they were The Inklings, a small literary group of friends who set out to explore the 'mythopoeic' or myth-making element in imaginative fiction. The Magical World of the Inklings reveals how each of these writers created a 'magical world' which initiated the reader into hidden and powerful realms of the creative imagination.

A historical and interpretive study of three aspects of Western esotericism from the Renaissance to the twentieth century.

In recent decades, there has been a growing recognition of the significance of the supernatural in a Victorian context. Studies of nineteenth-century spiritualism, occultism, magic, and folklore have highlighted that Victorian England was ridden with spectres and learned magicians. Despite this growing body of scholarship, little historiographical work has addressed the Devil. This book demonstrates the significance of the Devil in a Victorian context, emphasising his pervasiveness and diversity. Drawing on a rich array of primary material, including theological and folkloric works, fiction, newspapers and periodicals, and broadsides and other ephemera, it uses the diabolic to explore the Victorians' complex and ambivalent relationship with the supernatural. Both the Devil and hell were theologically contested during the nineteenth century, with an increasing number of both clergymen and laypeople being discomfited by the thought of eternal hellfire. Nevertheless, the Devil continued to play a role in the majority of English denominations, as well as in folklore, spiritualism, occultism, popular culture, literature, and theatre. The Devil and the Victorians will appeal to readers interested in nineteenth-century English cultural and religious history, as well as the darker side of the supernatural.

In these talks, written and presented to a variety of audiences between 2001 and 2010, John Michael Greer explores the forgotten history of occultism and its unexpected possibilities in our time. From practical methods of occult training to the politics and metapolitics of magic, from the shadowy world of Victorian sex magic to the alchemy of initiatory ritual, from the complex origins of modern Neopaganism to the approaching twilight of Neopagan pop culture and what comes next, the talks collected in this book seek to inspire curiosity and reflection, not to set out an ironclad case for this or that point of view. This book is an extraordinary insight into the life and work of a working magician and occultist.

This book provides an in-depth exploration of the Qliphoth or Shells and looks at the Shadow or unbalanced aspects of the Tree of Life. It is centred around a fascinating practice of alchemical transmutation which brings these Shells into balanced relationship with what has been described as "the great bundle of the living". The Tree of Life and Death will show readers how this was central to the work of Dion Fortune and Aleister Crowley. It identifies the historical root of this work in Ancient Egypt contemplating the concept of Maat or Truth and looks at how this principle becomes pivotal in the development of the Qabalah in working to transform the Qliphoth using the ancient Egyptian forms of the holders of Maat - the Eloquent Peasant, the Good Shepherd and the Silent Sage - seeing them as key images that enable us to embody truth and balance and promote that quality in all that we touch.

This book charts the history of modern magic across India, China and Japan, analyzing representations in the cultural imagination of the West.

With more than 40 illustrations and an entertaining informative text, this elegantly designed book captures the scope, powers, and romance of the Tarot throughout the ages. "Excellently researched, entertainingly and compellingly written".--Booklist.