Book Reviews

Dreams come in many types and forms. Whilst all types of dreamwork are effective analytical tools, lucid dreaming — a condition in which you become aware that you’re dreaming whilst in a sleep state, is a particularly powerful way of drilling down into the workings of the subconscious. An Inner Guide Clare R. Johnson has studied lucid dreaming for over 20 years and is currently …

The vagus nerve is part of the autonomic nervous system of the human body. It not only regulates the way our internal organs work – and specifically the stomach, lungs, heart and liver, but is also closely affiliated to our emotional behaviour and ultimately our state of overall physical health. In Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve, body therapist Stanley Rosenberg proposes a …

Despite its constant ascertion that it is not a secret society, Freemasonry is, nevertheless, a society with secrets. For this reason, above any others, most outsiders are deeply suspicious of its methods and motives: for it is one of the few spiritual disciplines that cannot be properly understood or practised by anyone other than its members. A Clean Broom A great deal has changed in …

What exactly is Thelema? Is it a religion? Is it a philosophy? Is it a cult? Was Aleister Crowley truly the ‘Wickedest Man in the World? Colin D Campbell is well placed to comment upon Thelema. He has been studying and teaching elements of magickal practice for over twenty-five years and is the author of the universally credited commentary on Aleister Crowley’s 1904 – 1911 …

It is difficult to find anyone today who has not, at some point or other in their lives, been firmly and squarely bitten in the proverbial backside as the direct result of some innocent use of one drug or another. For James W Jesso it was the after effects of his initial consumption of the psilocybin mushroom that initiated him into a state of consciousness …

The Tarot has developed greatly over the past few decades and its exponential rise in popularity has meant that it has become the definitive teaching system for most students who are working within the sphere of magick and the occult. At some point in their studies of the Tarot most readers begin to notice that not only do the cards reveal the future but that …

Few things are quite so beguiling or fascinating as one’s first look at an astrological natal birth chart. Whether you believe in the ability of the planets to influence our lives or not the first sight of the map of a horoscope with its technical data and esoteric symbolism is a humbling and moving experience. Natal birth charts are used to represent a point in …

Tracking the retrograde motion of the minor planets is a lesser-known aspect of modern astrology – which is rather surprising given that they offer the opportunity for a richer appreciation of the subtle, but nevertheless significant effect that planetary motion has on us. The term Retrograde is one that is used to describe the apparent appearance of a backwards motion of any planet. It is …

Born in Paris, France, he became totally blind as the result of a school accident at the age of eight and he spent the rest of his life learning to adapt to the circumstances that having no vision brought to him. Whilst many disabled people during that era were drawn to live very limited lives with equally self-limiting concepts about what they could do, this …

Few areas of modern spirituality have changed quite so fundamentally iver the past few decades as that of dream work. For a long time the common understanding regarding dreams was limited to that of a passive state. That is to say that the general belief surrounding dreams was that they were something strange, inexplicable and often the result of eating too much cheese for supper …

If you really want to know what exactly is going on in your life then take a look at your dreams, for within them are contained the residue of your past, the true reflections of your present and the seeds of your future. Not only do dreams express an arcane language of their own, complete with cryptic messages and their own syntax, but they also …

The roots of the various Illuminati factions and groups are to be found in the initial secret society that was founded on May 1776 by Adam Weishaupt (1748–1830). Little is known about this essentially anarchistic and disparate group of Freemasons who were deemed to be spiritual in their aspirations and whose name is derived from the Latin word for ‘enlightenment’. It is stated that the …

When Aleister Crowley’s personal secretary, Israel Regardie, died in 1985, his passing marked the end of an important era in English occultism. The impact that Regardie had when he rather contentiously brought the secret teachings of the Golden Dawn Society to a wider audience has ensured the survival of the tradition, even up to today. However, Regardie was born into a quite different spiritual environment …

Oneirology is the Greek word for the study of dreams. The fact that the Ancient Greeks had a word for the practice indicates that it is worthy of everyone’s consideration! There are so many benefits to taking a little time each day to reflect on the important messages sent from your subconscious mind whilst you are asleep. For those who study dreams (oneirologists), dreams regularly …

Most of the beginner guides to learning the Tarot focus upon the task of getting the student up and running as quickly as possible, All too often, though, this is at the expense of teaching key Tarot philosophy concepts. In her book Holistic Tarot, Benebell Wen takes this same traditional approach to teaching students the basics of Tarot card divination but significantly expands upon its …

The city of Berlin in the 1930s was fertile ground for advante-garde philosophers, artists, musicians and freethinkers—but it did not remain that way for long. By the end of the decade, it had turned very dark and the city that had once personified the very essence of social freedom was transformed into the epitome of political insanity. In those few, precious years of personal and …

As a society, we no longer really mark the transition points in life with due respect to our psycho-spiritual selves. Initiation, in the sense of marking a transition point in our lives, has, today, mainly become a byword for getting very drunk on the occasion of a birthday or being super-glued to a streetlamp in the nude on your stag night. From a spiritual or …

Learning different Tarot spreads is probably one of those areas of Tarot divination that students of the cards probably focus on least. Other than the Celtic Cross Spread or 3 and 5 card spreads, it is relatively rare for even professional Tarot readers to use the more advanced spreads. This is a pity as many Tarot readers are missing out on a powerful area of …

The Western Mystery Tradition has always considered the Sun, our life-sustainer and spiritual illuminator, to be masculine in nature. However, for many of the World’s ancient cultures the Sun was more usually understood to express feminine rather than masculine characteristics. Drawing Down the Sun: Rekindle the Magick of the Solar Goddesses by Stephanie Woodfield examines these ancient traditions to see what, if anything, they might …

Kabbalah, for those who are unfamiliar, is an illuminating spiritual system that has become adaptable to many modern spiritual applications without losing much of its inherent value. Daily Kabbalah: Wisdom from the Tree of Life is a collection of 365 nuggets of wisdom, drawn from this ancient esoteric tradition. The idea is that you reflect on one per day. Each saying or quotation is from …

In those far-off days when rational philosophical debate was the order of polite society (before celebrity tittle-tattle and petty consumeristic concerns became the order of the day), groups of socializing people would discuss the essential themes of humanity and the core meaning of life. Invariably, these would focus on what it means to be human, the true nature of reality and what, if anything, awaits …