The Dark History of the Occult
Magic, Madness and Murder

This was a very thorough overview of the sinister side to the occult. The author presented clear information starting with the concept of Satan and his perception through Christianity/Islam. Next was the history of magic from ancient Mesopotamia through the Greeks. The chapter on witchcraft was very......more

I had a feeling the author was somewhat out of his element in the beginning of the book when talking of the origins of magic. But when he gets to all of the interesting events and characters in the world of the occult, it is here that this book shines. If you are interested in the workings of magic,......more

Picked this up at BAM for a good price. I do believe it gives a good overview throughout time and of the major “players” involved with the occult, but I just found the majority of this book to be a bit boring. The 2nd half of the book was more compelling, and gave a great summary of Crowley, Anton L......more

The sort of unashamed slightly rewritten cash grab that is full of random articles that are vaguely connected to an idea and genuinely includes a Wikipedia page as a Primary Source, bland and superficial and seemingly written to a page count with little knowledge of the subject.......more

A coffee table book of the occult. I found this in a goodwill of all places and read about half out of curiosity. The talks of templars, cathars, and king solomon are very interesting. I stopped reading after Aliester Crowley appeared. The modern era is just filled with melodramatic social pariahs a......more