Starting in 1774 with Ann Lee, aka Mother Ann of the Shaking Quakers, he traces the American Occult movement through to the present-day New Age scene. Horowitz examines the influence of groups like the Freemasons, Rosecrucians, and Spiritualists on not only religion in America, but politics as well.
Victoria Woodhull
He frequently points to the close connections between the American occult, abolitionists and suffragette movements. Philosophies of equality, democracy and personal strength ran deeply through them all and have been part of American culture from its very inception.
Horowitz details the history of the Burned-Over District and the Psychic Highway. He introduces us to characters like Andrew Jackson Davis, the Poughkeepsie Seer, and Jemima Wilkinson, who was the first American-born woman to found a spiritual order.
Students of American social, religious or political history should take a look. But if you’re in the psychic or occult field, especially if you’re American, Occult America should be on your must-read list.
Not only are you likely to learn a lot, you’ll have a great time doing it.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. I just tried to keep it down to ten. And they’re all books I’ve read (or re-read) over this last year. It’s fresh in my mind how much I like them.
Here’s a holiday gift for every Tarot lover’s list!
Susan and the Mermaid is the rediscovered tale of a magic ring, an underwater kingdom, and a wise old woman who knew how to make her granddaughter’s dreams come true. And if that’s not enough to entice you …. it was written and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith!
Of course Tarot readers around the world know Smith as the illustrator of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, perhaps the most widely used deck in the world. But did you know she was a writer? In fact, by the time she was twenty, Smith had already published three critically acclaimed books.
Susan and the Mermaid was first published in 1912, three years after the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. It appeared in the Christmas edition of The Delineator, a woman’s magazine meant for mothers and their children.
This new edition reproduces the original text and images. It also provides a close-up look at dozens of full-colour illustrations Smith created to accompany the story. It looks great.
Tonight on Beyond Worlds we’ll be visiting with dream expert Paula Chaffee Scardamalia. Dream traveler, tarotist, author, and professional weaver, Paula shows women how to decipher their dreams, then tell their stories.
Weaving a Woman's Life
She’ll be teaching us about dream and tarot journalling. We’ll be learning to discover patterns and rhythms in creative cycles, developing creative resource material, breaking through blocks and fears, and accessing the Muse.
Come do some dreamwork with us! We’ll be live in the chatroom and would love to see you there. Or call in to talk to Paula – (646) 200-0765. If you miss the show, you can always listen later in the archives.
The original version has been hard to find for a while now. But the second edition is on it’s way. Signed copies are already available on Hughes-Barlow’s site.
I should have gotten a copy years ago. This time round, I’m definitely getting it.
Here he is again talking about Tarot and Butterflies. There’s more similarities between the two than you might think ….
And by the way, Paul Hughes-Barlow also wrote Beyond the Celtic Cross with the fabulous Catherine Chapman. It explores one real tarot reading, and develops it using Golden Dawn techniques. Another fabulous book!
Asked to create a duet for piano, Thomas Oboe Lee was initially inspired by numerology. He was reading Annemarie Schimmel’s, The Mystery of Numbers, when the number 22 especially drew his eye. That led him to the Tarot deck with its 22 Major Arcana and eventually to the creation of a piano opus dedicated to the cards.
Lee wrote The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards (22 Salon Pieces for 2 pianos), Op. 66 in 1996. Each piece was inspired by a different card starting with Il Matto. The Fool entertains the gathered guests with a tarantella, and ending with Il Mondo. The World would be a happier place if we all dance together. It’s like a musical Tarot deck.
Lee just posted this short video of a George Rhoads’ sculpture with his own Il Giudizio. On the Day of Judgement, the angels blow their trumpets… as soundtrack. The pianists are Robert Levin and Ya-Fei Chuang.
I’ve written about Cornell psychology professor emeritus Daryl Bem and his precognition experiments before. A former stage magician, mentalist and self-described sceptic, Bem has been researching human predictive capacity for two decades now.
His scientific paper, Feeling the Future, will be published in next month’s issue of The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. His focus has been on the human potential to anticipate future experiences. Are we able to know things that are going to happen before they do?
His research involved nine experiments and more than 1,000 university students. According to Bem, in all but one of the experiments, the hypotheses that psi exists is confirmed. He says, “the odds against the possibility that the combined results are merely chance coincidences or statistical flukes are about 74 billion to 1.”
Of course the next step is critical discussion of his work and replication. Bem acknowledges that most academic psychologists don’t believe psi exists. In fact, he claims they’re more skeptical than physicists. But he’s ready for their imput.
His intention has been to provide well-controlled demonstrations of psi, able to be replicated by independent investigators. To that end, Bem has been compiling replication packages for scientists interested in running the tests themselves. As he says, “that is the acid test of any surprising new finding: independent replication.”
This is a deck I drew a few years ago. Clearly based on Pamela Coleman Smith’s images in the Rider Waite Smith, I meant it to be fun, simple and bright. Not to mention, I wanted some cards I could publish without having to ask permission.
I recommend anyone interested in Tarot to draw their own deck based on one they find significant. It doesn’t matter if you know how to draw or not. I love the Stick Figure Tarot and certainly anyone who can print their name can draw a stick Magician.
And if you still don’t think you can draw (or in this case copy someone else’s drawings), get yourself The New Drawing on the Right Side of The Brain. In the first few chapters you’ll wonder that you ever thought you couldn’t.
The benefit of drawing your own Tarot deck is that you really get to know the images. Focusing on all the lines, colours, facial directions, expressions, objects you’ve never noticed before, it’s really quite amazing what you’ll see.
You may or may not include everything in your own pictures. But you’ll know a lot more about the deck you’ve drawn and probably the general system of Tarot than you did before you started.
Try one yourself! And let me know.
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click here to see my Toronto Graffiti Tarot (Ver.1)
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It’s not that the library or librarians think there’s anything wrong with these books. In fact they guard them carefully behind the front desk. It’s that when they lend books like these out, they don’t seem to come back.
The library used to buy two copies of the ones they thought might walk, but they don’t bother anymore. Apparently they’re so sure these books will be stolen that now they only purchase one for reference. And they keep their eyes on it.
Speculating on why people steal occult themed books, deputy director and reference librarian, Ellen Gilliam said she wasn’t sure how many are stolen because people want them versus how many are taken because people disapprove of the public library having them.
Teen Witch
Lisa Neal-Shaw is the Secretary of the Maine Library Association’s executive council. She says “It’s like you know as soon as you order them; it’s almost like you have a betting pool. Anything to do with Wicca, witchcraft, supernatural, things like that. Especially the spells.”
At her library, the Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library in Presque Isle, the occult books are often stolen off the shelf rather than checked out and not returned.
Neal-Shaw thinks some people might just be afraid to have other people think they’re into the ‘weird’ stuff. She thinks they’d rather steal a book than let a librarian know they’re looking at it, let alone have their reading choice on record.
All I’ve got to say to the book stealers is – whatever you’re reason, stop it!! Don’t be afraid of reading what you want and letting other people know. And certainly don’t be trying to stop anyone else from reading something you disapprove of.
We want these books available for everyone and libraries can’t afford to keep replacing them. Not to mention, I think it’s bad karma to steal. To steal something for the spirit seems especially dangerous.
As I wrote about yesterday regarding Jay-Z, J.K. Rowling has also been dealing with occult controversy for years. Ever since her Harry Potter first hit the streets, people have been tearing the books apart looking for signs.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Some Christians have slammed them as being a satanic influence on children and a stepping stone into the demonic world of the occult. Others have come to their defense, even going so far as to say that Harry is an allegory for Christ.
It’s possible that Rowling, a Christian herself, was trying to write Christian novels hidden in magical storylines. As far as I know though, she’s never said so.
Isn’t it more likely that she’s been using themes of death and magic to write stories about a good guy hero going through the trials and tribulations of growing up. Can’t we find similar stories throughout cultures and time? Hasn’t anyone read Joseph Campbell?
Harry is on the hero’s journey. Maybe his story sounds more Christian than not, but does it really have to be either biblical or satanic? A good story, like a good Tarot deck, can be read from many perspectives.
Unless Rowling comes right out and says “Harry Potter is Jesus” or a Tarot designer says “the Hierophant is the Pope”, why insist on locking it down?
Let a symbol be a symbol, and an archetype breathe. Name them if you like and learn from them, but don’t get hung up on which team they play. More often than not, they play for them all.
