This one-volume guide to occult history and practices is an excellent resource and introduction to the subject. Dostoevsky said that if the Devil did not exist, mankind had created him in our own likeness. The author does not believe in a Devil, but he does believe that there are evil forces in the world arising from the dark side of human nature, which we have denied and disowned by projecting them onto the mythical figure of Satan. Duality is at the centre of the three major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but there is another way, that of the occultist. Starting with conceptions of Satan in the Talmud, Kabbalah, Book of Revelation, and Koran, the author moves on via the Templars and the Malleus Maleficarum to witchcraft, discussing famous instances such as the Salem witch trials, Aleister Crowley, whose voracious sexual appetite and sadistic streak finally discredited him, and the King of the Bexhill-on-Sea witches Alex Sanders, who was initiated into Wicca and never looked back after he inadvertently stepped into a coven led by his grandmother. Societies such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn included famous people among the membership, and the author examines the exercises promoted by the Dawn's megalomaniac founder who insisted on going by the name of McGregor Mathers, Comte of Glenstrae, based on a mixture of Rosicrucianism, eastern yoga, Egyptian ceremonial magic, and Kabbalah. Hitler and the Nazis used occult practices to reinforce their evil, including the quasi-religious rites of the Nuremberg rallies. The author also discusses H. P. Lovecraft, Dennis Wheatley and occultist rock bands such as Led Zeppelin. 256pp, paperback, illus.
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