An Encyclopaedia of Occultism

Book excerpt: This "compendium of information on the occult sciences, occult personalities, psychic science, demonology, spiritism, and mysticism" was one of a kind when it was first published in 1920 and is still considered the best in its field today. Spence organizes a world's worth of magic -- from "Ab" (a magical month in the ancient Semitic calendar) to "Zulu witch-finders" -- into 2,500 dictionary-style entries that explore concepts and personalities both familiar (Freemasonry, Morgan le Fay) and obscure: palingenesy (a process by which plants or vegetables are destroyed and then "resurrected"), Leonora Galigai (a 17th-century Italian aristocrat who was burned as a witch). A delight for devotees of the weird and the strange, and a valuable resource for students of mythology and the evolution of scientific thought, this important volume is at home in the libraries of all book lovers. Scottish journalist and folklorist LEWIS SPENCE (1874 -1955) was a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, and Vice-President of the Scottish Anthropological and Folklore Society. He published more than 40 works on mythology and the occult, including History of Atlantis, An Introduction to Mythology, and Myth and Ritual in Dance, Game and Rhyme.