'The Life and Death of Count Cagliostro and His Egyptian Rite' is the sub-title of this first English translation of the Egyptian Rite ever published. It tells the extraordinary story of a cult figure of European society in the tumultuous years leading up to the French Revolution. An alchemist, healer and Freemason, Count Alessandro Cagliostro inspired devotion and ridicule as well as novels by Alexander Dumas, a drama by Goethe, and Mozart's opera 'The Magic Flute'. Cagliostro's sincere belief in magical powers including immortality, conferred by his Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry, won him fame but made him dangerous enemies too. His celebrated travels through the Middle East and the capitals of Europe ended abruptly in Rome in 1789 where he was arrested by Inquisition and condemned to death for heresy. The authors examine the case made against him, that he was an impostor as well as a heretic, and find that the Roman Church and history itself have done Cagliostro a terrible injustice. They draw on new documentary evidence to prove him a genuine visionary and a true champion of Freemasonry, and his teachings have much to reveal to us today not just of the secrets of Freemasonry, but of the mysterious hostility the movement continues to attract. Cagliostro is remembered for his alchemical operations and there is an account of how on the 7th June 1780 he transmuted base metal into silver during a visit to a Masonic Lodge in Warsaw - see page 46. With 16 pages of photos, many in colour, there are 36 plates in total plus 11 illustrations including the magical consecration of a sword from the Key of Solomon, Vitruvian Man by da Vinci, the Alphabet of the Magi, and Cagliostro's Magical Seals. 317pp in large softback by the famous occult publisher Watkins.

Five strips on a sturdy spiral binding can be flipped to any page and to create any number of weirdly wacky spells. Show of hands and sand of witch, transform your dad into a rubber-limbed sprout mender or flan handler, or dog wobbler or dung monkey or gutter muffin... Spine of book and oil of baby, magic your Gran into a fungus-loving ferret wrestler. Hours and hours of fun as you cast spells on your worst enemy, enchant them, hex your household, transform your friends with this wickedly wonderful book of over 60 million combinations of the silliest spells ever. Let the magic begin! "For ages 4 to 104" it says on the back cover.

Quick, Simple, and Practical Magic for Every Day of the Year, this cheerful, practical book does what it says on the cover: each page is devoted to a day of the year, with instructions for a spell to improve happiness and contentment. Although some of the spells are tied to a specific date, for instance "Summer Solstice Power Spell" or "Autumn Equinox Spell for Balance", most of them are designed to be used at any time in a wide range of situations. The equipment needed is mostly what can be found in the household cupboard or local shop. A Mother and Child Bonding Spell for 12 May, around the time of Mothering Sunday, requires an orange candle, two quartz stones and a white lily in a pot. The candle is lit, the spellcaster focuses mentally on his or her own parental relationships while holding the quartz stones, and then they are pressed into the soil of the lily pot for permanence. Most love spells tend to relate to other people, but a rather original 14 February entry here is a "Valentine's Spell to Love Yourself", involving a bag of candy hearts and a mirror, where you read out to yourself the message on the heart. The New Year's Day spell for starting afresh requires a purple candle and your favourite incense, to reinforce the message to yourself that you can and will become a new person. For the "Spell to End the Old Year" you need a pen and some fireworks, and you are going to write on the fireworks all the things you want to eliminate from your life, then light them and send the bad stuff shooting off into space. 384pp, softback, drawings.

Two leading Wiccans combine to provide different perspectives on Wicca in this volume of practical aspects of the craft. Shawn Robbins contributes her psychic gifts and her experiences as a practitioner of magic directed towards the healing of the mind and soul, while Charity Bedell is a student of the Feri tradition of witchcraft and has particular interests in trolldom, runes, druidism, kabbalah, shamanism, ceremonial magic and Egyptian magic. To complement this she runs an online store of herbs that she uses spiritually in her practice. The book's chief focus is on the power of holistic healing. An introduction on the differences between traditional and modern witchcraft explains that the inflexibility of traditional spellcasting is now being widely replaced by a more flexible approach. Although some witches work with negative energy, others with positive, the rule of thumb is never to perform magick to change a person's free will, not only because it is wrong in itself but also because spells always bounce back on their creators in some way. Common herbal remedies are listed, for instance the power of mugwort, chamomile or nettle, with a chapter on aromatherapy, crystal alignment and chakra balancing. A final section on a range of potions is accompanied by Wiccan recipes, including Imbolc Cake and Muffins for Beltane. 307pp, drawings.

The popular blonde TV presenter travels around England and Wales to visit the spookiest locations that nation has to offer, uncovering gems of Britain's haunted history. Featuring interviews and first-hand accounts from historians, paranormal experts and the general public, all have witnessed what they believe is something supernatural and extraordinary. At St Osyth and Bromley Michaela visits a coaching inn where multiple ghosts have been seen over the years, and an Essex cottage in which there have been reports of wall-scratching and bloodied floors. There is a tour of Berkeley Castle Gloucestershire, and the George and Pilgrim Hotel in Glastonbury which are believed to be haunted by the ghosts of priests and monks. Here is the story of the Pendle Hill witch trials of 1612, the landlady in Monmouthshire who recounts her spooky encounters, and Michaela explores the violent past of St Briavels Castle in Gloucestershire. She then heads to Shropshire where she visits the Feathers Hotel in Ludlow and Shrewsbury's Prince Rupert Hotel which is rumoured to be haunted by a maid and a coachman. In the last of the six films she visits the Ribble Valley and Preston and the Sun Inn in Chipping which is reputedly the most haunted pub in Lancashire and she takes a tour of Samlesbury Hall. All in colour, 138 minutes.

Who are the Freemasons? A powerful and shadowy elite who have manipulated world history through the ages, or a more mundane fraternal society devoted to charity, good works and the mutual support of members? Today Freemasonry is a worldwide organisation, yet secrecy is still demanded of its members, and from the outside its obscure rituals often seem pointless, baffling and even sinister. Freemasonry is a topic that polarises opinion and much controversy still surrounds the subject. Examples of Masonic-type groups can be found throughout the world. During initiation ceremonies, candidates are commonly asked the ritual question, 'What is Freemasonry?' The answer generally given is 'A peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols'. Freemasonry also states that its three grand founding principals are 'brotherly love, relief and truth'. The origins of the Craft are obscure and uncertain and there are often disputed claims that it is directly linked to the Knights Templar. Perhaps less well known is that many thousands of Freemasons were amongst those persecuted and killed by the Nazis during WWII and that Hitler attacked the Freemasons in Mein Kampf. In more recent times Masonic-type groups such as P2 in Italy have been involved in corruption scandals. Topics covered are the Great Architect, Temple of Solomon, Hiram Abiss, Pythagoras, Medieval Stonemasons, The Priory of Sion, Rosicrucians, the American Revolution and more. A much reprinted classic, 160pp in paperback.

Paganism, Witchcraft and Wicca are quite distinct. Wicca is a nature-based religion and followers live and breathe true kindness and compassion, empowering themselves and others around them, worshipping elements of our earth such as the Moon, Sun, the universe, nature and the magick that they bring to us. They teach tolerance and diversity and acceptance. 'The magic we produce comes from within and around us, not from looking at the correct way or having the fanciest tarot cards.' To the author it is a religion that promotes equality in everyone regardless of gender or race and now Wicca has entered the online world making it easier for everyone to learn. There are amazing communities of Wiccans posting about spells, their journeys, teachings and even online covens, divination, spell and ritual work and what to read. The author outlines the basics from her own experiences, study and day-to-day practices and she teaches us how to cast spells, start your own Book of Shadows, join a coven and feel empowered on a path that feels good for you. 229pp.

Why did flight MH370 fall from the sky, lost without a trace? Was Donald Trump elected President of the United States with the help of Russians? What are the theories surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center? Unpack some of the most complex conspiracy theories in this book, whether that is exploring the Illuminati, questioning who shot John F. Kennedy or asking if Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, ran the company as a 'non-state hostile intelligence service'? One chapter will dive into the existence of secret societies, from the Catholic Church and its Knights Templar (an underground order of warrior monks based in Jerusalem during the time of the Crusades), to the Bilderberg Group, an organisation whose members are some of the most powerful men and women in the world including Henry Kissinger and Paul Wolfowitz, as well as Rockefellers, Fords and Agnellis. Transport yourself to Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk during the early hours of Boxing Day morning in 1980 where an American Air Force Base tracked an unidentified aircraft on its radar and, after a patrol was sent out, men saw the bright beams of red and blue light shining from a metallic craft. Uncover whether the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler escaped the allies at the end of the Second World War as only a few bones were found after he shot himself in the Führerbunker. This guide will walk readers through one of the most bizarre conspiracies: Project MKULTRA, a CIA experiment between the 1950s and 1970s which explored the possibility of mind control through the use of drugs such as LSD and mescaline. This is the book for anyone who asks whether crop circles are the result of alien visitor or local hoaxers, whether the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995 was a cover up, or if Edward Snowden was right to say that there is a global conspiracy to spy on friends and foes. Paperback, colour images, 128pp.

'Tales and Poems of the Gothic' is the sub-title of this uncanny, mysterious and eerie collection. It draws us in with its air of mystery and repels us with its violence and darkness, but who were the first practitioners of the now-prevalent Gothic genre? This curated book collects the work of such masters as Edgar Allan Poe, Christina Rossetti and Mary Shelley, who with flickering candles, mysterious castles and chilling ravens first frightened and delighted readers. In 1764, an astonishing and disturbing manuscript was brought to life, first printed in Naples in 1529. It had been translated into English and published under the enticing title The Castle of Otranto. Revelling indecently in fear and transgression, it opened with a young prince crushed to death by an immense helmet on the morning of his wedding. It was an instant sensation across Europe but it was not however an ancient document, but rather a novel by the MP for King's Lynn, Horace Walpole, who feared causing a scandal but observing its popularity, hastily claimed ownership. We can enjoy the feeling of delicious unease which gives off the Gothic sensation like a faint mist rising from the pages, a cold hand reaching out and grasping your hand and tugging you in. This curious volume holds the key to a cabinet of gothic curiosities and begins with The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning, The Song of Wandering Aengus by W. B. Yeats, The Wedding-Knell by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy, The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell. There are extracts from The Castle of Otranto, Northanger Abbey, Frankenstein plus The Dream Woman by Wilkie Collins and The Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti among the 17 curious volumes of lore. 266pp.

Many histories of inns, taverns and the English public house have been written over the past 150 years, but the name the Seven Stars stands out as a special case. Compared to many other images used for pub signs, the depiction of seven stars has a wide range of cultural and literary associations. They appear in religious and astronomical context, in the Bible, have been adopted by the Freemasons. This special book traces the meaning and origins of the sign back 1,500 years to the legal codes of the Anglo-Saxons and beyond that to the mythological astronomy of the ancient Mediterranean region. It is believed that the sign of the Seven Stars originated in the star cluster of the seven Pleiades which was considered to be a bunch of grapes in the sky in a Dionysian and Bacchic world view, and therefore used as a suitable tavern sign. The first half of the book briefly tells the history of public drinking and the oldest and most interesting Seven Stars pubs going back to the 14th century. The first image is of Ye Olde Seven Stars, Withy Grove Manchester in 1908, a half timbered house displaying the sign 'The oldest licensed house in Great Britain licensed over 540 years.' The second part of the book is a discussion of the various meanings that have been proposed, many based on ideas from ancient astronomy. The distribution of the older pubs with the name is closely related to the areas of the Saxon and Mercian law codes that were in operation after the Danish invasions of the 9th and 10th centuries. The conclusion is that the symbolism involved retains surviving ideas from the mythological astronomy but were lost in the areas dominated by Scandinavian values where the social and political role of drinking establishments was distinctly different. Featuring rare archive photographs of interiors decorated with clocks and badges and banners, the book delves into religious symbolism and the Immaculate Conception, the Book of Enoch, the Masons, the solar system, the Seven Stars of Taurus, stars and monasteries and how the hexagram or six pointed star was a symbol for beer in parts of Germany in the Middle Ages and still found to the present day. Beautifully illustrated in colour throughout this large format 240 page softback.