Matthew's bookshelf: all

Matthew's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 01 Apr 2025 10:46:46 -0700 60 Matthew's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Fiery Angel 241726 411 Valery Bryusov 1903517338 Matthew 0 currently-reading 4.08 1908

author: Valery Bryusov
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1908
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration]]> 1326184
Drawing extensively on alchemical allusions as well as on the practical and theoretical background of the art and its pictorial tradition, Linden demonstrates the pervasiveness of interest in alchemy during this three-hundred-year period. Most writers—including Langland, Gower, Barclay, Eramus, Sidney, Greene, Lyly, and Shakespeare—were familiar with alchemy, and references to it appear in a wide range of genres. Yet the purposes it served in literature from Chaucer through Jonson were narrowly satirical.

In literature of the seventeenth century, especially in the poetry of Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, and Milton, the functions of alchemy changed. Focusing on Bacon, Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, and Milton—in addition to Jonson and Butler—Linden demonstrates the emergence of new attitudes and innovative themes, motifs, images, and ideas.

The use of alchemy to suggest spiritual growth and change, purification, regeneration, and millenarian ideas reflected important new emphases in alchemical, medical, and occultist writing. This new tradition did not continue, however, and Butler's return to satire was contextualized in the antagonism of the Royal Society and religious Latitudinarians to philosophical enthusiasm and the occult. Butler, like Shadwell and Swift, expanded the range of satirical victims to include experimental scientists as well as occult charlatans. The literary uses of alchemy thus reveal the changing intellectual milieus of three centuries.]]> 373 Stanton J. Linden 0813119685 Matthew 0 to-read 4.11 2008 Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration

Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration

author: Stanton J. Linden
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Others Within Us: Internal Family Systems, Porous Mind, and Spirit Possession]]> 124947247
The Others Within Us

case studiesa detailed description of how to work with unattached burdens from an IFS perspectivean extensive survey of how people have worked with the others within in times past and in many cultures around the world.
The journey Bob has taken goes to the farther reaches of human experience. It has revealed insights and understandings that can't help but cause readers to expand their beliefs about the nature of mind and healing.]]> 504 Robert Falconer Matthew 0 to-read 4.64 2023 The Others Within Us: Internal Family Systems, Porous Mind, and Spirit Possession

The Others Within Us: Internal Family Systems, Porous Mind, and Spirit Possession

author: Robert Falconer
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Runaway Horses (The Sea of Fertility, #2)]]> 781506 Librarian note: An alternative cover for this ISBN can be found here.

Yukio Mishima’s Runaway Horses is the second novel in his masterful tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility . Again we encounter Shigekuni Honda, who narrates this epic tale of what he believes are the successive reincarnations of his childhood friend Kiyoaki Matsugae.
��
In 1932, Shigeuki Honda has become a judge in Osaka.�� Convinced that a young rightist revolutionary, Isao, is the reincarnation of his friend Kiyoaki , Honda commits himself to saving the youth from an untimely death. Isao, driven to patriotic fanaticism by a father who instilled in him the ethos of the ancient samurai, organizes a violent plot against the new industrialists who he believes are usurping the Emperor’s rightful power and threatening the very integrity of the nation. Runaway Horses is the chronicle of a conspiracy �� a novel about the roots and nature of Japanese fanaticism in the years that led to war.]]> 421 Yukio Mishima 0679722408 Matthew 3 book-club 4.18 1969 Runaway Horses (The Sea of Fertility, #2)

Runaway Horses (The Sea of Fertility, #2)

author: Yukio Mishima
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1969
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: book-club
review:

]]> Hidden Teachings of Tibet 1282542 treasures, are hidden by buddhas and other realized beings to be rediscovered at the appropriate moment by realized masters who have the mystical vision necessary to see them. Sometimes the termas are hidden in such unlikely places as a lake, the sky, or even a disciple's mind. These hidden teachings manifest at unpredictable times and places when sentient beings are in need of their wisdom. As such, the discovery of a terma always creates a fresh opportunity for spiritual renewal.

This significant book is the first of its kind to be published in the West. In it, the renowned Buddhist teacher Tulku Thondup tells the story of the special terma tradition initiated by Padmasambhava, the great ninth-century Indian Buddhist saint who established Buddhism in Tibet.]]> 304 Tulku Thondup 086171122X Matthew 0 to-read 4.32 1986 Hidden Teachings of Tibet

author: Tulku Thondup
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1986
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of The Fern Loved Gully]]> 45870676 303 Amy Hale 1907222863 Matthew 0 currently-reading 4.11 2020

Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of The Fern Loved Gully

author: Amy Hale
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Chinnamasta: The Aweful Buddhist & Hindu Tantri Goddess (Buddhist Traditions)]]> 1380654 162 Elizabeth Anne Benard 8120810651 Matthew 0 to-read 4.31 2010

Chinnamasta: The Aweful Buddhist & Hindu Tantri Goddess (Buddhist Traditions)

author: Elizabeth Anne Benard
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/16
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]]> A History of Magic 1851258 208 Richard Cavendish 0140192794 Matthew 3 esotericism 3.94 1977

author: Richard Cavendish
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1977
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/09
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: esotericism
review:

]]> ’Twixt Dog and Wolf 35456806 ’Twixt Dog and Wolf (1901), is one of the rarest and most sought-after volumes in the annals of weird fiction. Collected here are ‘The Message from the God��, a decadent paean to the Great God Pan; ‘Elizabeth��, a tale of witchcraft in medieval Germany that John Buchan called ‘one of the finest witch tales I know��; ‘The Four Students��, a story of black magic and alchemy in the bloody days of the French Reign of Terror; and a series of ten ‘Phantasies��, bizarre and hallucinatory nightmares in prose.

This first-ever reissue includes the unabridged text of the original edition, plus a new introduction and notes by James Machin.]]> 110 Charles Francis Keary 1943910758 Matthew 3 3.96 1901 ’Twixt Dog and Wolf

author: Charles Francis Keary
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1901
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/25
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: english-literature, decadence-symbolism
review:

]]> The Trumpets of Jericho 24783918 Unica Zürn (1916-70) was born in Berlin-Grunewald, Germany. Toward the end of World War II, she discovered the realities of the Nazi concentration camps-a revelation which was to haunt and unsettle her for the rest of her life. After meeting Hans Bellmer in 1953, she followed him to Paris, where she became acquainted with the Surrealists and developed the body of drawings and writings for which she is best remembered: a series of anagram poems, hallucinatory accounts and literary enactments of the mental breakdowns from which she would suffer until her suicide in 1970.]]> 55 Unica Zürn 1939663091 Matthew 3 surrealism 3.94 1991 The Trumpets of Jericho

author: Unica Zürn
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: surrealism
review:

]]> The Book of Coelius 16256868 148 Christopher Bradford 1907881204 Matthew 0 to-read 3.33 2012

author: Christopher Bradford
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Tower of Love 211200350
Time passes in alternating stages of mind-numbing monotony and bouts of horror as our hero struggles against the endless assaults of wind and loneliness, with only his duties, his mind fraying with guilt, and his mute companion for distraction. The sea evolves into a wild force and the lighthouse itself into a monster that Jean must tame if he is to survive.

First published in French in 1899 and never before translated, this gripping novel retains its shock value even now, and will be of keen interest to readers of Decadence, Symbolism, and Romantic horror fiction.]]> 176 Rachilde 1962728005 Matthew 0 to-read 4.07 1899 The Tower of Love

author: Rachilde
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1899
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/18
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]]> The Saga of Gösta Berling 6358385
A Penguin Classic

In 1909, Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Saga of Gösta Berling is��her first and best-loved novel—and the basis for the 1924 silent film of the same name that launched Greta Garbo into stardom. A defrocked minister, Gösta Berling finds a home at Ekeby, an ironworks estate that also houses and assortment of eccentric veterans of the Napoleanic Wars. His defiant and poetic spirit proves magnetic to a string of women, who fall under his spell in this sweeping historical epic set against the backdrop of the magnificent wintry beauty of rural Sweden.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800��titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the��series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date��translations by award-winning translators.]]> 399 Selma Lagerlöf 0143105906 Matthew 0 to-read 3.60 1891 The Saga of Gösta Berling

author: Selma Lagerlöf
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1891
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/18
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]]> The Aleph and Other Stories 5787 The Maker, which Borges wrote as failing eyesight and public fame began to undermine his sense of self.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]> 210 Jorge Luis Borges 0142437883 Matthew 4 book-club 4.43 1945 The Aleph and Other Stories

author: Jorge Luis Borges
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1945
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: book-club
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Magus: The Art of Magic from Faustus to Agrippa]]> 102189727
Magus details the arts and experiences of learned magicians including Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Johannes Trithemius, and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. Grafton explores their methods, the knowledge they produced, the services they provided, and the overlapping political and social milieus to which they aspired ? often, the circles of kings and princes. During the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, these erudite men anchored debates about licit and illicit magic, the divine and the diabolical, and the nature of "good" and "bad" magicians. Over time, they turned magic into a complex art, which drew on contemporary engineering as well as classical astrology, probed the limits of what was acceptable in a changing society, and promised new ways to explore the self and exploit the cosmos.

Resituating the magus in the social, cultural, and intellectual order of Renaissance Europe, Grafton sheds new light on both the recesses of the learned magician's mind and the many worlds he inhabited.]]> 304 Anthony Grafton 0674659732 Matthew 0 to-read 3.41 2023 Magus: The Art of Magic from Faustus to Agrippa

Magus: The Art of Magic from Faustus to Agrippa

author: Anthony Grafton
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[A Felt Sense: More Explorations of Psychoanalysis and Kabbalah]]> 49793678 123 Michael Eigen Matthew 0 to-read 5.00 2014

A Felt Sense: More Explorations of Psychoanalysis and Kabbalah

author: Michael Eigen
name: Matthew
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Psychoanalytic Mystic 2279310 220 Michael Eigen 1883881315 Matthew 0 to-read 4.25 1998

author: Michael Eigen
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Urkunden zur Geschichte der Zahirsage]]> 56859702
The original book itself is a handsome octavo edition, published first in Breslau, and reprinted in Berlin in 1935 under the direction of Dr. Julius Niemand, a close associate of Dr. Rudolf Steiner, who provided a few illustrations. Dr. Niemand added a few more references, including the celebrated “Weimar Bierstein des Weisen�� story, and insouciantly edited a few of the stories out of existence. These stories—all Jewish in origin—were later reintroduced for the third printing in 1953. Dr. Niemand—who would be arrested as a Nazi after WWII, was one of the “Spear of Destiny�� conspirators, and can be seen in a famous photograph along with his associates Karl Holz, Julius Streicher, Willi Liebel, Hans von Obernitz, and Dr. Benno Martin. This photo, from the Stadtarchiv Nürnberg, is the only known picture of Dr. Niemand, who hung himself during the trials.]]> Julius Barlach Matthew 0 to-read 5.00 Urkunden zur Geschichte der Zahirsage

author: Julius Barlach
name: Matthew
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/26
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]]> The Diary of a Country Priest 63672 312 Georges Bernanos 0786709618 Matthew 0 to-read 3.97 1936

author: Georges Bernanos
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1936
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/19
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]]> Faust 406373 Faust reworks the late medieval myth of a brilliant scholar so disillusioned he resolves to make a contract with Mephistopheles. The devil will do all he asks on Earth and seeks to grant him a moment in life so glorious that he will wish it to last forever. But if Faust does bid the moment stay, he falls to Mephistopheles and must serve him after death. In this first part of Goethe’s great work, the embittered thinker and Mephistopheles enter into their agreement, and soon Faust is living a rejuvenated life and winning the love of the beautiful Gretchen. But in this compelling tragedy of arrogance, unfulfilled desire, and self-delusion, Faust heads inexorably toward an infernal destruction.]]> 503 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 0385031149 Matthew 5 german-literature, faust 3.90 1808 Faust

author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1808
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/26
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves: german-literature, faust
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Cabin at the End of the World]]> 38359002 NATIONAL BESTSELLER!

BEST BOOK OF 2018 (Library Journal, NPR, Buzzfeed)

LOCUS RECOMMENDED READING LIST - 2018

JULY 2018 INDIE NEXT PICK!

SUMMER 2018 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY PICK!

“A tremendous book―thought-provoking and terrifying, with tension that winds up like a chain.�� The Cabin at the End of the World ��is Tremblay’s personal best. It’s that good.�� Stephen King

“A clinic in suspense, a story that opens with high-wire tension and never lets up from there.�� —��Michael Koryta

"I tore through it in record time. I just couldn’t wait to see where Tremblay was going to take me next.�� —��Victor LaValle

The Bram Stoker Award-winning author of��A Head Full of Ghosts��adds an inventive twist to the home invasion horror story in a heart-palpitating novel of psychological suspense that recalls Stephen King’s��Misery, Ruth Ware’s��In a Dark, Dark Wood,��and Jack Ketchum’s cult hit��The Girl Next Door.

Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road.

One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, "None of what’s going to happen is your fault". Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: "Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world."

Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined.��The Cabin at the End of the World��is a masterpiece of terror and suspense from the fantastically fertile imagination of Paul Tremblay.

“Read Paul Tremblay's new novel, The Cabin at the End of the World, and you might not sleep for a week. Longer. It will shape your nightmares for months �� that's pretty much guaranteed.�� �� NPR

“Gripping, horrifying, and mesmerizing.�� �� GQ

“A tour-de-force of psychological and religious horror.�� —BN.com

“A blinding tale of survival and sacrifice.�� Kirkus Reviews

“Tremblay has a real winner here.�� —T�ǰ�.��ǳ�]]> 304 Paul Tremblay 0062679112 Matthew 2 book-club 3.44 2018 The Cabin at the End of the World

author: Paul Tremblay
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: book-club
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Celtic Twilight: Myth, Fantasy and Folklore (Paperback)]]> 561195 121 W.B. Yeats 1853270296 Matthew 4 3.91 1893

The Celtic Twilight: Myth, Fantasy and Folklore (Paperback)

author: W.B. Yeats
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1893
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Godric: A Novel Publisher: HarperOne]]> 166598636 0 Frederick Buechner Matthew 0 to-read 5.00 1980

author: Frederick Buechner
name: Matthew
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hermann Hesse: His Mind and Art]]> 127792847 Book by Boulby, M. 0 Mark Boulby Matthew 0 currently-reading 0.0 1967

author: Mark Boulby
name: Matthew
average rating: 0.0
book published: 1967
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Against Therapy: Emotional Tyranny and the Myth of Psychological Healing]]> 18998984 212 Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson 1611873762 Matthew 0 to-read 3.82 1988

Against Therapy: Emotional Tyranny and the Myth of Psychological Healing

author: Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Faust 14704 752 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Matthew 0 currently-reading 3.97 1808 Faust

author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1808
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Cremator 15841762 192 Ladislav Fuks Matthew 0 to-read 4.03 1967

author: Ladislav Fuks
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1967
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul]]> 283672 206 Titus Burckhardt 1887752110 Matthew 0 currently-reading 4.33 1960

Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul

author: Titus Burckhardt
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1960
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/14
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Rosicrucian Trilogy: Modern Translations of the Three Founding Documents]]> 29657413 192 Joscelyn Godwin 1578636035 Matthew 4 alchemy, esotericism 4.19

Rosicrucian Trilogy: Modern Translations of the Three Founding Documents

author: Joscelyn Godwin
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/07
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves: alchemy, esotericism
review:

]]> Bloodletter 210199903 AS Horror Vol.2

With cover design, illustrations and Art Cards by Steven Purtill (Human Rights, Coyote, Small Talk at the Clinic etc.)

David Kuhnlein writes like he’s casting a spell. Bloodletter is entrancingly evil, every sentence a revelation and a curse: “How much can you care for someone if you can’t afford to dress them in a body bag?�� A grotesque world unfurls from his searing prose: “Ghosts reveal their measurements in smoke, different shades, more rings in the middle if they died long ago. Satan can’t keep up.�� Blood sacrifices have never been so beautiful. -- Danielle Chelosky

"Half our clothes are on the floor. The other half hang from the ceiling. Labyrinthine flesh-piles make a staircase. Polishing the soot off a breast with my sleeve, I dance horizontally. The band regurgitates into their instruments to slow the tempo, blowing catchy bubbles of sick. Sweat snows upward, stagnant when we see ourselves pooled within it, mosquitoes in a tin can. Vestigial, amoebic replications, abominable degenerations of the ape, totems fucked through stained glass. I toast the trash. Out of mounds, shaved together into a consciousness, a golden star excretes, floating toward me in a mist, apples singed in her teenaged hair, waist the width of a cigarette. I’m going to bugger her so hard they’ll have to put a serial number on the headstone. “If I’m to your taste, mister, this might spell the end for you.�� What more could I ask of a woman? A heart condition of a child, torqued to breed too soon. I offer dialectic fugues, press her forehead, cast a sigil tuned to the cacophony around us. Swaying, she enters a canyon trance, plummeting under magma. Beautiful funerals for all my friends. Remember me as an itch."]]> 114 David Kuhnlein Matthew 0 to-read 4.33 Bloodletter

author: David Kuhnlein
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Polemos: The Dawn of Pagan Traditionalism]]> 54457075
Polemos: The Dawn of Pagan Traditionalism, the first book of the two-volume work published in Russian in 2016, sets out not only to rediscover and redefine the pagan legacy, but to orient paganism’s understanding of the paradigms which have confronted it. Titled after the ancient Greeks�� divine representation of war, which the philosopher Heraclitus deemed “the father and king of all��, Polemos maps paganism’s positions on the battlefield of ideas between paradigms, polemics, and trends. From ancient rites and myths to contemporary technologies and socio-cultural dynamics, few stones are left unturned in this extensive articulation of the pagan worldview in the twenty-first century.]]> 402 Askr Svarte Matthew 0 to-read 3.82 Polemos: The Dawn of Pagan Traditionalism

Polemos: The Dawn of Pagan Traditionalism

author: Askr Svarte
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.82
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Reader's Library Classics)]]> 57734523 318 Jules Verne 1954839111 Matthew 2 3.30 1869

Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Reader's Library Classics)

author: Jules Verne
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.30
book published: 1869
rating: 2
read at: 2023/03/07
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: french-literature, book-club, science-fiction
review:

]]> The Master and Margarita 339472 402 Mikhail Bulgakov Matthew 1 russian-literature, book-club 4.18 1967

author: Mikhail Bulgakov
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1967
rating: 1
read at: 2023/10/10
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: russian-literature, book-club
review:

]]> Stranger in a Strange Land 40314509 Robert Heinlein's Hugo Award-winning all-time masterpiece, the brilliant novel that grew from a cult favorite to a bestseller to a science fiction classic.

Raised by Martians on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith is a human who has never seen another member of his species. Sent to Earth, he is a stranger who must learn what it is to be a man. But his own beliefs and his powers far exceed the limits of humankind, and as he teaches them about grokking and water-sharing, he also inspires a transformation that will alter Earth's inhabitants forever...]]> 608 Robert A. Heinlein 198480278X Matthew 1 science-fiction, book-club 3.51 1961 Stranger in a Strange Land

author: Robert A. Heinlein
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.51
book published: 1961
rating: 1
read at: 2024/01/30
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: science-fiction, book-club
review:

]]> Spook 125376135 210 Klabund 1645251292 Matthew 4 3.62 2009 Spook

author: Klabund
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/27
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: decadence-symbolism, german-literature, book-club
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hundred Years' War on Palestine]]> 52960854
Accepted interpretations of the confrontation tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same land. Drawing on archival materials and the accounts of generations of family members—judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists��The Hundred Years' War on Palestine instead shows that this war has always been colonial in nature, waged against the native population first by the Zionist movement and then by Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age.

Neither a chronicle of victimization nor a whitewash of mistakes made by Palestinian leaders, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine offers both a compelling family history and an original, illuminating view of the Middle East's most intractable conflict.]]> 319 Rashid Khalidi 1250787653 Matthew 2 book-club 4.45 2020

author: Rashid Khalidi
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/09
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: book-club
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes]]> 39208021 Neil Gaiman's seminal series, THE SANDMAN, celebrates its 30th anniversary with an all-new edition of THE SANDMAN VOL. 1: PRELUDES & NOCTURNES!

New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series THE SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision.

In PRELUDES & NOCTURNES, an occultist attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. After his 70 year imprisonment and eventual escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. On his arduous journey Morpheus encounters Lucifer, John Constantine, and an all-powerful madman.

This book also includes the story "The Sound of Her Wings," which introduces us to the pragmatic and perky goth girl Death.

Collects THE SANDMAN #1-8.]]> 240 Neil Gaiman 1401284779 Matthew 2 book-club 4.30 1988 The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes

The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes

author: Neil Gaiman
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1988
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/26
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: book-club
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Prisoner's Dilemma: John von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb]]> 29506
Should you watch public television without pledging?...Exceed the posted speed limit?...Hop a subway turnstile without paying? These questions illustrate the so-called "prisoner's dilemma", a social puzzle that we all face every day. Though the answers may seem simple, their profound implications make the prisoner's dilemma one of the great unifying concepts of science. Watching players bluff in a poker game inspired John von Neumann—father of the modern computer and one of the sharpest minds of the century—to construct game theory, a mathematical study of conflict and deception. Game theory was readily embraced at the RAND Corporation, the archetypical think tank charged with formulating military strategy for the atomic age, and in 1950 two RAND scientists made a momentous discovery.

Called the "prisoner's dilemma," it is a disturbing and mind-bending game where two or more people may betray the common good for individual gain. Introduced shortly after the Soviet Union acquired the atomic bomb, the prisoner's dilemma quickly became a popular allegory of the nuclear arms race. Intellectuals such as von Neumann and Bertrand Russell joined military and political leaders in rallying to the "preventive war" movement, which advocated a nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union. Though the Truman administration rejected preventive war the United States entered into an arms race with the Soviets and game theory developed into a controversial tool of public policy—alternately accused of justifying arms races and touted as the only hope of preventing them.

Prisoner's Dilemma is the incisive story of a revolutionary idea that has been hailed as a landmark of twentieth-century thought.]]> 294 William Poundstone 038541580X Matthew 3 book-club 3.93 1992 Prisoner's Dilemma: John von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb

Prisoner's Dilemma: John von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb

author: William Poundstone
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: book-club
review:

]]> Goose of Hermogenes 36213095 160 Ithell Colquhoun 072062021X Matthew 4 4.00 1961

author: Ithell Colquhoun
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1961
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/15
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: alchemy, decadence-symbolism, esotericism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)]]> 17934530 Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.

The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.]]> 195 Jeff VanderMeer 0374104093 Matthew 4 book-club, science-fiction 3.79 2014 Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)

author: Jeff VanderMeer
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/20
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: book-club, science-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil]]> 13642726
Drawing on insights from Jungian psychology, shamanism, alchemy, spiritual wisdom traditions, and personal experience, author Paul Levy shows us that hidden within the venom of wetiko is its own antidote, which once recognized can help us wake up and bring sanity back to our society.]]> 376 Paul Levy 1583945482 Matthew 0 to-read 4.22 2011 Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil

Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil

author: Paul Levy
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[White Moon on the Mountain Peak (Daoist Nei Gong)]]> 25904054
Drawing together a huge amount of esoteric material on the hidden aspects of Daoist practice, he presents theory and practice coherently for western practitioners. He offers his own experiences of each stage of attainment, describing the tangible results that should appear, and provides guidance on the practicalities and potential pitfalls of alchemical training.]]> 384 Damo Mitchell 1848192568 Matthew 0 to-read 4.71 2015 White Moon on the Mountain Peak (Daoist Nei Gong)

White Moon on the Mountain Peak (Daoist Nei Gong)

author: Damo Mitchell
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Piranesi 50202953
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.]]> 272 Susanna Clarke 163557563X Matthew 0 to-read 4.22 2020

author: Susanna Clarke
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Flowers of Evil: A Selection 128480

Flowers of Evil: A Selection contains 53 poems which the editors feel best represent the total work and which. in their opinion, have been most successfully rendered into English. The French texts as established by Yves Gérard Le Dantec for the Pléiade edition are printed en face. Included are Baudelaire's "Three Drafts of a Preface" and brief notes on the nineteen translators whose work is represented.]]> 168 Charles Baudelaire 081120006X Matthew 4 Flowers of Evil.

My favorite poems and passages from this collection were:

To The Reader
"If rape or arson, poison, or the knife
Has wove no pleasing patterns in the stuff
Of this drab canvas we accept as life -
It is because we are not bold enough!"

Jewels

The Mask

Lethe
"My doom, henceforth, is my sole desire:
As martyrs, being demented in their zeal,
Shake with delightful spasms upon the wheel,
Implore the whip, or puff upon the fire,"

Reversibility

The Sadness of the Moon

The Glady Dead

Heautontimoroumenos
"I am the wound, and yet the blade!
The slap, and yet the cheek that takes it!
The limb, and yet the wheel that breaks it,
The torturer, and he who's flayed!"

The Irremediable

The Gaming Table
"When these with passion their bright destruction bliss,
Who, drunk with the pulse of their own blood, preferred
Deep pain to death and Hell to nothingness."

The Martyr

]]> 4.14 Flowers of Evil: A Selection

author: Charles Baudelaire
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2019/11/09
date added: 2024/05/02
shelves: french-literature, decadence-symbolism
review:
I enjoyed reading these poems. I found Baudelaire's poems with religious themes to be the most memorable like "Reversibility", "Abel and Cain", and "Litany to Satan". I now want to read all of the poems from Flowers of Evil.

My favorite poems and passages from this collection were:

To The Reader
"If rape or arson, poison, or the knife
Has wove no pleasing patterns in the stuff
Of this drab canvas we accept as life -
It is because we are not bold enough!"

Jewels

The Mask

Lethe
"My doom, henceforth, is my sole desire:
As martyrs, being demented in their zeal,
Shake with delightful spasms upon the wheel,
Implore the whip, or puff upon the fire,"

Reversibility

The Sadness of the Moon

The Glady Dead

Heautontimoroumenos
"I am the wound, and yet the blade!
The slap, and yet the cheek that takes it!
The limb, and yet the wheel that breaks it,
The torturer, and he who's flayed!"

The Irremediable

The Gaming Table
"When these with passion their bright destruction bliss,
Who, drunk with the pulse of their own blood, preferred
Deep pain to death and Hell to nothingness."

The Martyr

]]> <![CDATA[Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream]]> 18617616
But there was a dark side to that scene as well.

Many didn't make it out alive, and many deaths remain shrouded in mystery to this day. Far more integrated into the scene than most would like to admit was a guy by the name of Charles Manson, along with his murderous entourage. Also floating about the periphery were various political operatives, up-and-coming politicians and intelligence personnel—the same sort of people who gave birth to many of the rock stars populating the canyon. And all the canyon's colorful characters—rock stars, hippies, murderers and politicos—happily coexisted alongside a covert military installation.

Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon is the very strange, but nevertheless true story of the dark underbelly of a hippie utopia.]]> 319 David McGowan 1909394122 Matthew 0 currently-reading 3.58 2014

Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream

author: David McGowan
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/26
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare]]> 26234 215 Michael A. Hoffman II 0970378416 Matthew 4
Hoffman II gives the reader so much to look into further. Looking forward to reading his sequel book, “The Twilight Language��.]]> 4.09 1992 Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare

Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare

author: Michael A. Hoffman II
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/14
date added: 2024/04/14
shelves:
review:
“When you start to see the pattern of coincidence and it becomes a language for you, you have to become either an initiate or a schizophrenic, take your pick, because you lose the protection of materialism - - our protection against the disordering of the arrangement we’ve given to the world to make it manageable�� (pg. 130).

Hoffman II gives the reader so much to look into further. Looking forward to reading his sequel book, “The Twilight Language��.
]]> <![CDATA[Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons]]> 241887 By day, Parsons�� unorthodox genius created a solid rocket fuel that helped the Allies win World War II and NASA send spacecraft to the moon. Co-founder of Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Aerojet Corporation, a lunar crater was named after Parsons.
By night, Parsons called himself The Antichrist when he performed Aleister Crowley’s Thelemic rituals to create a new sort of human being that would finally destroy Christianity.
In a Pasadena mansion, the dark, handsome Parsons hosted soirees for the emerging literature of science fiction, visited by writers such as Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and none other than L. Ron Hubbard, who later founded the Church of Scientology. With Hubbard playing his “Scribe,�� Parsons enacted dark “Babalon�� rituals to help foment a new occult age. Jack Parsons died suddenly in a huge, mysterious explosion that even today cannot be definitively explained. Was it murder? Suicide? Or just an accident?
Feral House’s paperback edition adds new photographs and an Afterword about Parsons�� “Black Pilgrimage.�� One of the inspirations for hit television series, "Strange Angels."]]> 239 John Carter 0922915970 Matthew 0 to-read 3.72 1999 Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons

Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons

author: John Carter
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Process: Archives, Documents, Reflections, and Revelations]]> 39284406 208 Alessandro Papa Matthew 0 to-read 4.25

The Process: Archives, Documents, Reflections, and Revelations

author: Alessandro Papa
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Xtul: An Experience of the Process]]> 10779588
Later that summer, a rebellious nineteen-year-old girl left her privileged background to join them. The search took the group to the Bahamas, then Mexico City, then a remote beach in Yucatn. They established an existence honed to essentials, survived a hurricane, and experienced bizarre psychic phenomena. The group was called, "The Process", the girl was Sabrina Verney.

An Experience of The Process unfolds like a mystery story. This first-hand account alternates with archival material that records the attitudes and preoccupations of Britain at that time, the volatile mid-1960s. A history of The Process, by Andy Roberts, complements the personal narrative."]]> 298 Sabrina Verney 1456042092 Matthew 0 to-read 4.27 2011 Xtul: An Experience of the Process

author: Sabrina Verney
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Harvest Home 816085
For Ned and his family, Cornwall Coombe was to become a place of ultimate horror.]]> 401 Thomas Tryon 0394485289 Matthew 0 to-read 3.82 1973

author: Thomas Tryon
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Spirite 1397898 224 Théophile Gautier 1873982968 Matthew 0 to-read 3.86 1866 Spirite

author: Théophile Gautier
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1866
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crowley's Apprentice: The Life and Ideas of Israel Regardie]]> 377499 188 Gerald Suster 0877287007 Matthew 0 to-read 3.90 1989

Crowley's Apprentice: The Life and Ideas of Israel Regardie

author: Gerald Suster
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Dybbuk 734085 148 S. Ansky 0871402629 Matthew 0 to-read 3.90 1914

author: S. Ansky
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1914
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Peter Schlemihl 6107201 125 Adelbert von Chamisso 1847490808 Matthew 0 to-read 3.33 1814

author: Adelbert von Chamisso
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.33
book published: 1814
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Green Child 771620
In genre The Green Child is perhaps closest to the French conte philosophique , yet the word "philosophical" suggests the abstruse, whereas this is a very moving and exciting story, alive with the poetry of living, and, at the same time, with a strange kind of other-worldly suspense. In his introduction Kenneth Rexroth speaks of the book's "unearthly, hypnotic radiance," and Graham Greene has said of "here Read conveys the private sense of glory, the same sense of glory that impelled Christian writers to picture the City of God." T. S. Eliot once told the publisher that he considered The Green Child to be one of the finest examples of English prose style of the century.]]> 194 Herbert Read 0811201724 Matthew 0 to-read 3.74 1935

author: Herbert Read
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1935
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Searching for God in the Sixties]]> 14523987 286 David R. Williams 1611493935 Matthew 0 to-read 4.67 2009

author: David R. Williams
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Franklin Cover-Up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska]]> 567746 Omaha World-Herald newspaper, a special Franklin committee of the Nebraska Legislature launched its own probe. What looked like a financial swindle, soon exploded into a hideous tale of drugs, Iran-Contra money-laundering, a nationwide child abuse ring, and ritual murder. Nineteen months later, the legislative committee's chief investigator died—suddenly, and violently, like more than a dozen other people linked to the Franklin case. Author John DeCamp knows the Franklin scandal from the inside. In 1990, his "DeCamp memo" first publicly named the alleged high-ranking abusers. Today, he is attorney for two of the abuse victims. Using documentation never before made public, DeCamp lays bare not only the crimes, but the cover-up—a textbook case of how dangerous the corruption of institutions of government, and the press, can be. In its sweep and in what it portends for the nation, the Franklin cover-up followed the ugly precedent of the Warren Commission.]]> 288 John W. DeCamp 0963215809 Matthew 0 to-read 4.15 1992 The Franklin Cover-Up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska

The Franklin Cover-Up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska

author: John W. DeCamp
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The CIA Doctors: Human Rights Violations by American Psychiatrists]]> 491287
Originally published with the title Project Bluebird]]> 352 Colin A. Ross 0976550806 Matthew 0 to-read 3.85 2000

The CIA Doctors: Human Rights Violations by American Psychiatrists

author: Colin A. Ross
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Maps of Narrative Practice (Norton Professional Books (Hardcover))]]> 891389 320 Michael White 0393705161 Matthew 0 to-read 4.34 2007

Maps of Narrative Practice (Norton Professional Books (Hardcover))

author: Michael White
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Necronomicon 58973
The book was originally released in 1977 by Schlangekraft, Inc. in a limited edition hardback printing, followed by a paperback release by Avon Books, and a subsequent paperback release by Bantam Books.

Levenda did acknowledge working on the book with Simon. Ian Punnett made a reference to interviewing "Simon" and mentioned similarities with Peter Levenda and asked Peter to "say hello to Simon for him, next time he saw him", to which Peter laughed and said that he would.]]> 288 Simon 0380751925 Matthew 0 to-read 3.20 1977 The Necronomicon

author: Simon
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.20
book published: 1977
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Mill: A Cosmos 59066745 88 Bess Brenck Kalischer 1939663717 Matthew 0 to-read 3.46 1922

author: Bess Brenck Kalischer
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1922
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Red Sorcerer 61026064
Perhaps the most spectacularly peculiar manifestation of Fabrice’s fervent desire to test and extend the limits of the permissible and the conventional in his fiction, The Red Sorcerer is a showpiece of crime and vice in which he removes the gloves of discretion completely, setting out to depict the world of prostitutes and their pimps with a frank and extreme brutality—so frank and so extreme, in fact, that it required a strange supernaturalization completely at odds with his supposed Naturalism. Though the novel is certainly very unsavory, it is also quite extraordinary and thus worthy of attention as a specimen of the Decadent world view, and of a grim and relentless authorial sadism that tempts the suspicion that a complex psychology must lie behind it.]]> 366 Delphi Fabrice 1645250938 Matthew 0 to-read 2.75 1910 The Red Sorcerer

author: Delphi Fabrice
name: Matthew
average rating: 2.75
book published: 1910
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Green Fly and Other Stories]]> 199533119 66 Robert Scheffer 1645251373 Matthew 0 to-read 3.67

author: Robert Scheffer
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Jung and the Alchemical Imagination (The Jung on the Hudson Book series)]]> 729910 288 Jeffrey Raff 0892540451 Matthew 0 currently-reading 4.26 2000

Jung and the Alchemical Imagination (The Jung on the Hudson Book series)

author: Jeffrey Raff
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Tartar Steppe 83017 198 Dino Buzzati 1567923046 Matthew 0 to-read 4.24 1940

author: Dino Buzzati
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1940
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Man of Jasmine & Other Texts]]> 55980578
***

In the 25 years since Atlas Press first published this account by Unica Zürn of her long history of mental crises, she has come to be recognised as a great artist at least the equal of her partner, the Surrealist Hans Bellmer.

Yet her work is barely comprehensible without the texts printed here, in which she demonstrates how her familiarity with Surrealist conceptions of the psyche allowed her to welcome the most alarming experiences as offering her access to an inner existence that was the vital source for her artistic output. The introduction here was the first study to consider her life and work from this perspective

Zürn’s initial mental collapse was initiated when she encountered her fantasy figure “the man of Jasmine�� in the real world in the person of the writer Henri Michaux. Her meeting with him plunged her into a world of hallucination in which visions of her desires, anxieties and events from her unresolved past overwhelmed her present life. Her return to “reality�� was constantly interrupted by alternate visionary and depressive periods, and her description of these episodes reveals how language itself formed a part of the “divinatory�� method that could aid her recovery or predict a new crisis. Her compulsion for composing anagrams allowed her to dissect everyday language so as to release from it an astonishing flood of messages, threats and evocations. This method, if such it can be called, and Zürn’s eloquent yet direct style make this book a masterpiece of literature as well as providing an acute first-hand insight into extreme psychological states.

In 1970 Unica Zürn committed suicide by throwing herself from the sixth-floor apartment that she shared with Bellmer.]]> 194 Unica Zürn 190056582X Matthew 0 currently-reading 4.23 1971 The Man of Jasmine & Other Texts

author: Unica Zürn
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1971
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Down Below 31171199 A stunning work of memoir and an unforgettable depiction of the brilliance and madness by one of Surrealism's most compelling figures

In 1937 Leonora Carrington—later to become one of the twentieth century’s great painters of the weird, the alarming, and the wild—was a nineteen-year-old art student in London, beautiful and unapologetically rebellious. At a dinner party, she met the artist Max Ernst. The two fell in love and soon departed to live and paint together in a farmhouse in Provence.

In 1940, the invading German army arrested Ernst and sent him to a concentration camp. Carrington suffered a psychotic break. She wept for hours. Her stomach became “the mirror of the earth”—of all worlds in a hostile universe—and she tried to purify the evil by compulsively vomiting. As the Germans neared the south of France, a friend persuaded Carrington to flee to Spain. Facing the approach “of robots, of thoughtless, fleshless beings,�� she packed a suitcase that bore on a brass plate the word Revelation.

This was only the beginning of a journey into madness that was to end with Carrington confined in a mental institution, overwhelmed not only by her own terrible imaginings but by her doctor’s sadistic course of treatment. In Down Below she describes her ordeal—in which the agonizing and the marvelous were equally combined—with a startling, almost impersonal precision and without a trace of self-pity. Like Daniel Paul Schreber’s Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, Down Below brings the hallucinatory logic of madness home.]]> 112 Leonora Carrington 1681370603 Matthew 4 3.78 1945

author: Leonora Carrington
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1945
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/29
date added: 2023/12/29
shelves:
review:

]]> Miserable Miracle 244977 Miserable Miracle, the great French poet and artist Henri Michaux, a confirmed teetotaler, tells of his life-transforming first encounters with a powerful hallucinogenic drug. At once lacerating and weirdly funny, challenging and Chaplinesque, his book is a breathtaking vision of interior space and a piece of stunning writing wrested from the grip of the unspeakable.

Includes forty pages of black-and-white drawings.]]> 200 Henri Michaux 1590170016 Matthew 0 to-read 4.05 1956 Miserable Miracle

author: Henri Michaux
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders]]> 325151 Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is a bizarre erotic fantasy of a young girl's maturation into womanhood. Drawing on Matthew Lewis's The Monk, Sade's Justine, K.H. Macha's May, and Murnau's Nosferatu as well as the form and language of the pulp serial novel, Nezval has constructed a lyrical, menacing dream of sexual awakening involving a vampire with a taste for chicken blood, changelings, a lecherous priest, a malicious grandmother desiring her lost youth, and an androgynous merging of brother with sister.

In his Foreword Nezval states: "I wrote this novel out of a love of the mystique in those ancient tales, superstitions and romances, printed in Gothic script, which used to flit before my eyes and declined to convey to me their content." Part fairy tale, part Gothic horror, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is a meditation on youth and age, sexuality and death �� an exploration of the grotesque that juxtaposes high and low genres, with shifting registers of language and moods that was a trademark of the Czech avant-garde. The 1970 film version is considered one of the outstanding achievements of Czech new-wave cinema.]]> 226 Vítězslav Nezval 808626419X Matthew 4 czech-literature
Great read, now I’ve got to see the film adaptation and research some of the works which influenced it.]]> 3.86 1945 Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders

author: Vítězslav Nezval
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1945
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/27
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves: czech-literature
review:
“Look harder, Valerie, there’s nothing so enchanting as a glimpse of the innumerable mysteries that surround us.�� (Pg. 194).

Great read, now I’ve got to see the film adaptation and research some of the works which influenced it.
]]> May 725268
Unlike the other seminal 19th-century European poets, Mácha's work has been largely ignored in English translation. The present volume, the only available in English, provides the original Czech text in parallel and includes a series of illustrations by Jindřich Štyrský specifically created for the poem.]]> 121 Karel Hynek Mácha 808626422X Matthew 0 to-read 3.55 1836 May

author: Karel Hynek Mácha
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1836
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil (Reve D'Une Petite Fille Qui Voulut Entrer Au Carmel)]]> 1850994 175 Max Ernst 0807610526 Matthew 0 to-read 4.24 1930

A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil (Reve D'Une Petite Fille Qui Voulut Entrer Au Carmel)

author: Max Ernst
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1930
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hebdomeros: A Novel 1327798 133 Giorgio de Chirico 1555540309 Matthew 0 to-read 3.57 1929

author: Giorgio de Chirico
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sword of Wisdom: MacGregor Mathers and the Golden Dawn]]> 6243110
An autobiography coupled with the only book-length biography of Golden Dawn co-founder S.L. MacGregor Mathers, this volume also covers such related personages as William B. Yeats, Algernon Blackwood, Aleister Crowley, Arthur Machen, and Arthur E. Waite.]]> 308 Ithell Colquhoun 039911534X Matthew 0 to-read 3.47 1975 Sword of Wisdom: MacGregor Mathers and the Golden Dawn

Sword of Wisdom: MacGregor Mathers and the Golden Dawn

author: Ithell Colquhoun
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.47
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Fragment of Life 310536 120 Arthur Machen 159818881X Matthew 3 3.68 1904

author: Arthur Machen
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1904
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/06
date added: 2023/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Agathe, or the Forgotten Sister]]> 44816833
Agathe is the sister of Ulrich, the so-called “man without qualities�� who is the major character in Robert �ѳܲ��’s great, unfinished novel of that name. Ulrich is intellectual and skeptical and rebellious and yet for all that rule-bound, held hostage by his attraction to the systematic, even if every existing system—political, ethical, metaphysical—strikes this onetime mathematician as fundamentally suspect. When, however, after many years Ulrich and his younger sister, Agathe, reunite over the bier of their dead father, a celebrated lawyer, both siblings are electrified. They are, for one thing, almost each other’s spitting image, while Agathe, who has just separated from her husband, is even more resistant to any kind of status quo than her brother. Engaging in a series of ever more intense and questioning “holy conversations,�� brother and sister progressively enlarge the boundaries of sexuality, sensuality, and identity, seeking to arrive at a new conception of reality that they are sure lies within each other to discover.

�ѳܲ��’s Agathe, or the Forgotten Sister is one of the most unexpected and breathtaking adventures of twentieth-century fiction, while Joel Agee’s new English translation captures all the nuance of �ѳܲ��’s famously acute and penetrating style.]]> 464 Robert Musil 1681373831 Matthew 0 to-read 4.10 2019 Agathe, or the Forgotten Sister

author: Robert Musil
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards]]> 6551807
�� Works with the original Marseille Tarot to reveal the roots of Western wisdom

�� Provides the key to the symbolic language of the Tarot’s “nomadic cathedral��

�� Transforms a simple divination tool into a vehicle for self-realization and healing

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s profound study of the Tarot, which began in the early 1950s, reveals it to be far more than a simple divination device. The Tarot is first and foremost a powerful instrument of self-knowledge and a representation of the structure of the soul.

The Way of Tarot shows that the entire deck is structured like a temple, or a mandala, which is both an image of the world and a representation of the divine. The authors use the sacred art of the original Marseille Tarot--created during a time of religious tolerance in the 11th century--to reconnect with the roots of the Tarot’s Western esoteric wisdom. They explain that the Tarot is a “nomadic cathedral�� whose parts--the 78 cards or “arcana��--should always be viewed with an awareness of the whole structure. This understanding is essential to fully grasp the Tarot’s hermetic symbolism.

The authors explore the secret associations behind the hierarchy of the cards and the correspondences between the suits and energies within human beings. Each description of the Major Arcana includes key word summaries, symbolic meanings, traditional interpretations, and a section where the card speaks for itself. Jodorowsky and Costa then take the art of reading the Tarot to a depth never before possible. Using their work with Tarology, a new psychological approach that uses the symbolism and optical language of the Tarot to create a mirror image of the personality, they offer a powerful tool for self-realization, creativity, and healing.]]> 552 Alejandro Jodorowsky 1594772630 Matthew 0 to-read 4.35 2004 The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards

The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards

author: Alejandro Jodorowsky
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Ancient Roots to Modern Usage]]> 141375 A profusely illustrated history of the occult nature of the tarot from its origins in ancient Persia

�� Thoroughly examines the original historical source for each tarot card and how the cards�� divinatory meanings evolved from these symbols

�� Provides authentic 18th- and 19th-century spreads and divination techniques

�� Reveals the divinatory meanings of the cards as understood by diviners in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

The origins of the tarot have been lost in the mists of time. Most scholars have guessed that its origins were in China, Egypt, or India. In Mystical Origins of the Tarot, Paul Huson has expertly tracked each symbol of the Minor Arcana to roots in ancient Persia and the Major Arcana Trump card images to the medieval world of mystery, miracle, and morality plays. A number of tarot historians have questioned the use of the tarot as a divination tool prior to the 18th century. But the author demonstrates that the symbolic meanings of the Major Arcana were evident from the time they were first employed in the mid-15th century in the popular divination practice of sortilege. He also reveals how the identities of the court cards in the Minor Arcana were derived from a blend of pagan and medieval sources that strongly influenced their interpretation in tarot divination.

Mystical Origins of the Tarot provides a thorough examination of the original historical source for each card and how the cards�� divinatory meanings evolved from these symbols. Huson also provides concise and practical card-reading methods designed by the cartomancers of the 18th and 19th centuries and reveals the origins of the card interpretations promoted by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and A. E. Waite.

]]> 335 Paul Huson 0892811900 Matthew 0 to-read 4.24 2004 Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Ancient Roots to Modern Usage

author: Paul Huson
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Twenty Prose Poems 50479 From the introduction by Michael Hamburger:
“Baudelaire's prose poems were written at long intervals during the last twelve or thirteen years of his life. The prose poem was a medium much suited to his habits and character. Being pre-eminently a moralist, he needed a medium that enabled him to illustrate a moral insight as briefly and vividly as possible. Being an artist and sensualist, he needed a medium that was epigrammatic or aphoristic, but allowed him scope for fantasy and for that element of suggestiveness which he considered essential to beauty. His thinking about society and politics, as about everything else, was experimental; like the thinking of most poets it drew on experience and imagination, rather than on facts and general arguments. That is another reason why the prose poem proved a medium so congenial to Baudelaire.��

Translation of selections from: Le spleen de Paris.
Original French text accompanied by English translation on opposite pages.]]> 81 Charles Baudelaire 087286216X Matthew 4 Baudelaire never misses. 4.34 1869 Twenty Prose Poems

author: Charles Baudelaire
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1869
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/30
date added: 2023/10/30
shelves: french-literature, decadence-symbolism
review:
Baudelaire never misses.
]]> The Forgotten Language 3322735
In this study, Erich Fromm opens up the world of symbolic language, “the one foreign language that each of us must learn.�� Understanding symbols, he posits, helps us reach the hidden layers of our individual personalities, as well as connect with our common human experiences.

By grasping the symbolic language of dreams, Fromm explains, we can then also understand the deeper wisdom of myths, art, and literature. This also gives us access to what we, and our society, usually repress. Fromm shares the history of dream interpretations, and demonstrates his analysis of many types of dreams.]]> 271 Erich Fromm Matthew 2 analytical-psychology
Fromm’s discussion of Bachofen’s theories about matriarchal religion was interesting but overall a fairly dry read. ]]> 3.72 1951 The Forgotten Language

author: Erich Fromm
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1951
rating: 2
read at: 2023/10/25
date added: 2023/10/25
shelves: analytical-psychology
review:
Compared to the amount of nuance Fromm had with Freud’s thought (generally accepting the idea of wish-fulfullment for dreams and challenging the idea of the Oedipus complex within the context of the Oedipus trilogy), his treatment of Jung’s thought was quite brief and superficial.

Fromm’s discussion of Bachofen’s theories about matriarchal religion was interesting but overall a fairly dry read.
]]> Ghouls in My Grave 3871908 Ghouls in My Grave you enter the dread world of the living dead where madness lurks and terror reigns. In The Gold Teeth, Abel, a "mining" man, who excavates gold from the dental ware of the dead, encounters a reluctant corpse one night in Abney Park Cemetery. In The Cemetery Watchman, a passing stranger, hired to guard the mysterious mausoleum of Duchess Opolchenska in Saint Guitton Cemetery has an unexpected visitor one night.

Contains:
1. Gold Teeth
2. The Shadowy Street
3. I Killed Alfred Heavenrock
4. The Cemetery Watchman
5. The Mainz Psalter
6. The Last Traveler
7. The Black Mirror
8. Mr Glass Changes Direction

Author's real name is Raymundus Joannes de Kremer. He also published work under the name John Flanders.]]> 144 Jean Ray Matthew 0 to-read 4.08 1929 Ghouls in My Grave

author: Jean Ray
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Talking to the Gods: Occultism in the Work of W. B. Yeats, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, and Dion Fortune (Western Esoteric Traditions)]]> 26760363 178 Susan Johnston Graf 1438455550 Matthew 0 to-read 4.00 2015 Talking to the Gods: Occultism in the Work of W. B. Yeats, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, and Dion Fortune (Western Esoteric Traditions)

Talking to the Gods: Occultism in the Work of W. B. Yeats, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, and Dion Fortune (Western Esoteric Traditions)

author: Susan Johnston Graf
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Last Barrier 6202115 183 Reshad Feild 0060625864 Matthew 3 3.82 1993

author: Reshad Feild
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/30
date added: 2023/08/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Alchemical Traditions: From Antiquity to the Avant-Garde]]> 18601578 684 David Gordon White 0987559826 Matthew 0 to-read 4.25 2013

Alchemical Traditions: From Antiquity to the Avant-Garde

author: David Gordon White
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity]]> 59790367 400 Wouter J. Hanegraaff 1009123068 Matthew 0 to-read 4.59 2022

Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity

author: Wouter J. Hanegraaff
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Goethe and the Philosopher’s Stone (Routledge Library Editions: German Literature)]]> 71932144 298 Alice Pearl Raphael 0367856581 Matthew 4 alchemy, faust 4.00

Goethe and the Philosopher’s Stone (Routledge Library Editions: German Literature)

author: Alice Pearl Raphael
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/06
date added: 2023/08/06
shelves: alchemy, faust
review:

]]> Oblomov 254308 586 Ivan Goncharov 1933480092 Matthew 0 to-read 4.09 1859 Oblomov

author: Ivan Goncharov
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1859
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Introducing Jung 1615971 175 Maggie Hyde 1874166056 Matthew 3 3.57 1992

author: Maggie Hyde
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2017/05/16
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:

]]> Poems by Hermann Hesse 22925868 79 Hermann Hesse Matthew 3 german-literature
There was a post card from Ramakrishna Temple Belur Math, Calcutta inside this second hand copy when I bought it which seems fitting.

From “In a Collection of Egyptian Sculptures��:

“But we, your younger brothers,
Stagger godless through a confusing life,
Our trembling souls stand eagerly, opened
To all the sufferings of passion,
To every burning desire.
Our goal is death,
Our belief a belief in what perishes,
��
Nevertheless, we also
Bear, burned into our very souls,
The sign of a secret affinity to the spirit”]]> 4.03 Poems by Hermann Hesse

author: Hermann Hesse
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.03
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/26
date added: 2023/07/26
shelves: german-literature
review:
Favorite poems were “Ode to Hölderlin��, “Lying in Grass��, and “In a Collection of Egyptian Sculptures��.

There was a post card from Ramakrishna Temple Belur Math, Calcutta inside this second hand copy when I bought it which seems fitting.

From “In a Collection of Egyptian Sculptures��:

“But we, your younger brothers,
Stagger godless through a confusing life,
Our trembling souls stand eagerly, opened
To all the sufferings of passion,
To every burning desire.
Our goal is death,
Our belief a belief in what perishes,
��
Nevertheless, we also
Bear, burned into our very souls,
The sign of a secret affinity to the spirit��
]]> <![CDATA[Angels, Demons & Gods of the New Millenium: Musings on Modern Magick]]> 962 192 Lon Milo DuQuette 157863010X Matthew 2 esotericism 4.09 1997

Angels, Demons & Gods of the New Millenium: Musings on Modern Magick

author: Lon Milo DuQuette
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1997
rating: 2
read at: 2022/10/18
date added: 2023/07/22
shelves: esotericism
review:

]]> Malpertuis 57129771
A reinvention of the Gothic novel and an established classic of fantastic literature, Malpertuis is as inventive and gripping today as when it first appeared in French in the dark year of 1943.

Malpertuis is a puzzle box of nested narratives wrested from a set of manuscripts stolen from a monastery. A bizarre collection of distrustful relatives has gathered together in the ancient stone mansion of a sea-trading dynasty for the impending death of the occult scientist, Uncle Cassave, and the reading of his will. Forced to dwell together for the remainder of their lives within the stifling walls of Malpertuis for the sake of a cursed inheritance, their banal existence gradually gives way to love affairs and secret plots, as the building slowly exposes a malevolence that eventually leads to a series of ghastly deaths.

The eccentric personalities it houses―which include an obsessive taxidermist, a hypochondriac, a trio of vengeful sisters and a former paint store manager who has gone mad―begin to shed like skins to reveal yet another hidden story buried in the novel’s structure, one that turns the haunted-house tradition on its head and culminates in an apocalyptic denouement.]]> 256 Jean Ray 1939663709 Matthew 5 4.13 1943 Malpertuis

author: Jean Ray
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1943
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/02
date added: 2023/07/22
shelves: belgian-literature, decadence-symbolism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Serpent of Paradise: The Story of an Indian Pilgrimage]]> 5078402 184 Miguel Serrano 0060902841 Matthew 4 esotericism 4.00 1963

The Serpent of Paradise: The Story of an Indian Pilgrimage

author: Miguel Serrano
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1963
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/20
date added: 2023/07/22
shelves: esotericism
review:

]]> The Occult: A History 6011369
In this book, Colin Wilson, author of The Outsider, has turned his attention to these and other questions of the occult. He writes: "The knowledge of his 'roots,' his inner world, is important to man at this point in evolution, for he has become trapped in his image of himself as a thinking pygmy. He must somehow return to the recognition that he is potentially a 'mage,' one of those magical figures who can hurl thunderbolts or command spirits�� Civilization cannot evolve further until 'the occult' is taken for granted on the same level as atomic energy."

In a departure Mr. Wilson's many readers will find startling, he states that magic is the science of the future. If the overdeveloped human Intellect is turned inward to strengthen the instinctive life, man can make contact with Faculty X, the sense of the objective reality of other times and places, a sense that will allow a fullness of individuality and a freedom never felt before.]]> 603 Colin Wilson 0394465555 Matthew 3 esotericism 4.06 1971 The Occult: A History

author: Colin Wilson
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1971
rating: 3
read at: 2023/04/12
date added: 2023/07/22
shelves: esotericism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[With the Adepts: An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians]]> 18796136 134 Franz Hartmann 1613420684 Matthew 3 3.00 1977

With the Adepts: An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians

author: Franz Hartmann
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1977
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/04
date added: 2023/07/22
shelves: german-literature, esotericism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties]]> 52588583
In 1999, when Tom O'Neill was assigned a magazine piece about the thirtieth anniversary of the Manson murders, he worried there was nothing new to say. Weren't the facts indisputable? Charles Manson had ordered his teenage followers to commit seven brutal murders, and in his thrall, they'd gladly complied. But when O'Neill began reporting the story, he kept finding holes in the prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi's narrative, long enshrined in the best-selling Helter Skelter. Before long, O'Neill had questions about everything from the motive to the manhunt. Though he'd never considered himself a conspiracy theorist, the Manson murders swallowed the next two decades of his career. He was obsessed.

Searching but never speculative, CHAOS follows O'Neill's twenty-year effort to rebut the "official" story behind Manson. Who were his real friends in Hollywood, and how far would they go to hide their ties? Why didn't law enforcement act on their many chances to stop him? And how did he turn a group of peaceful hippies into remorseless killers? O'Neill's hunt for answers leads him from reclusive celebrities to seasoned spies, from the Summer of Love to the shadowy sites of the CIA's mind-control experiments, on a trail rife with cover-ups and coincidences.

Featuring hundreds of new interviews and dozens of never-before-seen documents from the LAPD, the FBI, and the CIA, CHAOS mounts an argument that could be, according to Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Stephen Kay, strong enough to overturn the verdicts on the Manson murders. In those two dark nights in Los Angeles, O'Neill finds the story of California in the sixties: when charlatans mixed with prodigies, free love was as possible as brainwashing, and utopia-or dystopia-was just an acid trip away.

]]> 521 Tom O'Neill 0316477540 Matthew 4 manson 4.16 2019 Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties

Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties

author: Tom O'Neill
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/14
date added: 2023/07/22
shelves: manson
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health]]> 58412013 The #1 New York Times bestseller

With over 22,000,000 copies sold in 50 languages, and used in more than 176 nations, Dianetics brings dramatic and permanent improvement to people all over the world.

“While it’s true that Dianetics has become the self-improvement classic, there can be little doubt that what it has to offer is just what people are now looking for in ever increasing numbers. Reducing stress, achieving goals, improving relationships and striving to live up to one’s full potential is definitely the in �ٳ󾱲Բ�.�� (New York Post)

“Hubbard’s bestseller has helped millions, and it should be read and used by all who are searching for a true understanding of the mind and a solution to such problems as self-doubt, stress, anxiety and depression.�� (World Reporter)

“[Dianetics is] a new science which works with the invariability of physical science in the field of the human mind. From all indications it will prove to be as revolutionary for humanity as the first caveman’s discovery and utilization of fire.�� (Daily Mirror)

If you’ve ever felt there was something holding you back in life, ruining your plans and stopping you from being who you want to be, you were right.

The fact is, there is a single source of all your problems, stress, unhappiness and self-doubt. It’s called the reactive mind—the hidden part of your mind that stores all painful experiences, then uses them against you.

With Dianetics, you can learn to control your reactive mind—freeing you to live an extraordinary life and be your true self.

Don’t live with insecurity, negative thoughts, depression and irrational behavior. Use Dianetics to take control of your future.

Key discoveries contained in Dianetics:

Why do we give up on our dreams? What is the real cause of depression? Is there a cure for stress? How do you reach your full potential? Why do we hurt the ones we love? Why are some people prone to illness? How can you improve your mental health? Can you conquer your fears?

Start the adventure—of you. Buy and read Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.

About the author:
With over two hundred million copies of his works in circulation and dozens of international bestsellers, L. Ron Hubbard has inspired a movement spanning every continent on earth. All told, those works comprise some 5,000 writings and 3,000 recorded lectures and, as such, stand as the single most embracive statement on the human mind and spirit. His breakthroughs have helped millions lead more successful lives and achieve true happiness.

]]> 702 L. Ron Hubbard 1403153868 Matthew 0 to-read 3.64 1982 Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health

author: L. Ron Hubbard
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard]]> 28399018 Bare-Faced Messiah tells the extraordinary story of L. Ron Hubbard, a penniless science-fi ction writer who founded the Church of Scientology, became a millionaire prophet and convinced his adoring followers that he alone could save the world.

According to his 'official' biography, Hubbard was an explorer, engineer, scientist, war hero and philosopher. But in the words of a Californian judge, he was schizophrenic, paranoid and a pathological liar. What is not in dispute is that Hubbard was one of the most bizarre characters of the twentieth century.

Bare-Faced Messiah exposes the myths surrounding the fascinating and mysterious founder of the Church of Scientology - a man of hypnotic charm and limitless imagination - and provides the defi nitive account of how the notorious organisation was created.]]> 396 Russell Miller 1909269360 Matthew 0 to-read 4.25 1987 Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard

Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard

author: Russell Miller
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Modern Man In Search of a Soul]]> 6380697 A provocative and enlightening look at spiritual unease and its contribution to the void in modern civilization

Considered by many to be one of the most important books in the field of psychology, Modern Man in Search of a Soul is a comprehensive introduction to the thought of Carl Gustav Jung. In this book, Jung examines some of the most contested and crucial areas in the field of analytical psychology, including dream analysis, the primitive unconscious, and the relationship between psychology and religion. Additionally, Jung looks at the differences between his theories and those of Sigmund Freud, providing a valuable basis for anyone interested in the fundamentals of psychoanalysis.
]]> 244 C.G. Jung Matthew 4 4.16 1931 Modern Man In Search of a Soul

author: C.G. Jung
name: Matthew
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1931
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/15
date added: 2023/07/18
shelves: analytical-psychology, book-club
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fog: A Novel (Northwestern World Classics)]]> 32072611 Fog is a fresh new translation of the Spanish writer Miguel de Unamuno’s Niebla, first published in 1914. An early example of Modernism’s challenge to the conventions of nineteenth-century realist fiction, Fog shocked critics but delighted readers with its formal experimentation and existential themes. This revolutionary novel anticipates the work of Sartre, Borges, Pirandello, Nabokov, Calvino, and Vonnegut.
��
The novel’s central character, Augusto, is a pampered, aimless young man who falls in love with Eugenia, a woman he randomly spots on the street. Augusto’s absurd infatuation offers an irresistible target for the philosophical ruminations of Unamuno’s characters, including Eugenia’s guardian-aunt and “theoretical anarchist�� uncle, Augusto’s comical servants, and his best friend, Victor, an aspiring writer who introduces him to a new, groundbreaking type of fiction. In a desperate moment, Augusto consults his creator about his fate, arguing with Unamuno about what it means to be “real.�� Even Augusto’s dog, Orfeo, offers his canine point of view, reflecting on the meaning of life and delivering his master’s funeral oration.

Fog is a comedy, a tragic love story, a work of metafiction, and a novel of ideas. After more than a century, Unamuno’s classic novel still moves us, makes us laugh, and invites us to question our assumptions about literature, relationships, and mortality.
��]]> 188 Miguel de Unamuno 0810135361 Matthew 2 spanish-literature, book-club 3.99 1914 Fog: A Novel (Northwestern World Classics)

Fog: A Novel (Northwestern World Classics)

author: Miguel de Unamuno
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1914
rating: 2
read at: 2022/12/25
date added: 2023/07/18
shelves: spanish-literature, book-club
review:

]]> Timaeus and Critias 6061438 'The god wanted everything to be good, marred by as little imperfection as possible.'

Timaeus, one of Plato's acknowledged masterpieces, is an attempt to construct the universe and explain its contents by means of as few axioms as possible. The result is a brilliant, bizarre, and surreal cosmos - the product of the rational thinking of a creator god and his astral assistants, and of purely mechanistic causes based on the behaviour of the four elements. At times dazzlingly clear, at times intriguingly opaque, this was state-of-the-art science in the middle of the fourth century BC. The world is presented as a battlefield of forces that are unified only by the will of God, who had to do the best he could with recalcitrant building materials.

The unfinished companion piece, Critias, is the foundational text for the story of Atlantis. It tells how a model society became corrupt, and how a lost race of Athenians defeated the aggression of the invading Atlanteans. This new edition combines the clearest translation yet of these crucial ancient texts with an illuminating introduction and diagrams.]]> 233 Plato 0192807358 Matthew 3 book-club 3.78 -360 Timaeus and Critias

author: Plato
name: Matthew
average rating: 3.78
book published: -360
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/09
date added: 2023/07/18
shelves: book-club
review:

]]>