BOOK AND PODCAST REVIEWS - NON-FICTION

The Magical Revival (1972) Kenneth Grant   The Real Middle Earth: Magic and Mystery in the Dark Ages (2002) Brian Bates   Grimoires: A History of Magic Books (2009) Owen Davies   The Book Of English Magic (2009) Philip Carr-Gomm and Richard Heygate    Aleister Crowley and the Aeon of Horus (2009) Paul Weston   There is no book quite like Kenneth Grant's Magical Revival . But what exactly is it? In some ways it is a conventional narrative of the 'new' Magical experiment that was introduced by the 'revelation' of Aiwass to Aleister Crowley in 1904. Grant takes us through to the Zos Kia Cultus of Austin Osman Spare who died in 1956. But this general narrative is overshadowed by the book's true purpose which is to do for Magic as a religious narrative what the Early Church Fathers did for Christianity - to express both its cogency and its mystery and so its high and serious purpose as a spiritual tradition, if not necessarily a religion in the formal se...

Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult (2008)   Richard B. Spence   Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics (2014) Marco Pasi I n Lobster , the premier journal of para-politics in the UK, I argued that more latitude should be given to historians when dealing with the shadowy world of espionage. I had an interest as someone initially trained as a historian, who had participated in a range of political projects and who often had had to deal with cases of political manipulation damaging the reputation of persons who were clients or friends of mine. The 'truth' about the grey world between official record and unrecorded action is generally handled in one of two ways. Professional historians will rely solely on the records available and refuse to speculate on what might be missing. This might mean that no lies are told but it might also mean that interpretations of events are incomplete or that we see historians unwittingly writ...

The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (1999) Ronald Hutton Everything Paganism Book (2004) Selene Silverwind Pagan Resurrection: A Force for Evil or the Future of Western Spirituality? (2006)  Richard Rudgley The History of British Magic After Crowley (2007)  Dave Evans What Do Pagans Believe? (What Do We Believe) (2013) Graham Harvey     The Secret History of the World (2007) Jonathan Black , Mark Booth   Triumph of the Moon is the near-definitive account of the new religions that emerged, largely from the UK, in the last century. Hutton is sympathetic but rigorously academic. He has swept away the traditionalist claims of some founders whilst ensuring respect and dignity for practitioners. It is the founding text for understanding the context for any further reading in this field.    Although very US-centred, the Everything Paganism Book is a good beginners text w...