Last year I acquired this biography on Paschal Beverly Randolph, 19th-century Black American trance medium, occultist, writer, and sex magician born October 8th, 1825. (Sun in Libra, Moon in Leo, and a Venus Jupiter conjunction in Virgo—fascinating given his work on the occult and sex magic!)
This biographic tome is dense and detailed, making it a slow read for me, but it's so interesting full of incredible accounts of Randolph’s life. John Patrick Deveney, an academic occultist, wrote in depth about Randolph’s spiritual and magical methodologies and philosophy in a scholarly yet accessible way. This biography (no, history book!) at 600 pages also offers mini-biographies of other spiritualists of his time, which shows the extent of the circles that Randolph participated in. Beyond scholarly, this is a historical and fascinating account of a mage whose work is considered to be the forerunner of modern occultism, along with Madame H. P. Blavatsky and Aleister Crowley, whose works & societies were in part influenced by Randolph.
1 Comment
|
|
RSS Feed
