This work is one of the finest ever penned on the subject of lycanthropy and werewolf lore. Written in the mid 1800s by the rather eccentric Sabine Baring-Gould, it covers more than 1,000 years of lore from a half dozen paths- the berserker of Norse lore, French mythology, and then-modern anecdotes of cannibalism and madness. Not relegating the werewolf just to a secular and skeptical study, nor simply to spiritual banter, Baring-Gould manages to compress an enormous span of historical material into his work; a work which is no doubt of value to the academic and those involved with the occult...

The Stanzas of Dzyan were originally released by Helena Blavatsky as part of her Secret Doctrine in the late 1800s. Popular in the era regardless of her habit of being caught out conducting fraudulent seances, they purport to be of Tibetan origin. This rough esoteric doctrine, "translated" by Blavatsky, forms one of the many bases of Theosophy. It is a strange document with significant Eastern inclusions and indeed was influenced heavily by Buddhist scriptures and documents in that era. It is a worthy occult work; one which has a place in the history of modern occult development.

"The Occult Nature of God" seeks to detail, according to the existence of free will and other categorical concepts, elucidate the various states in which a divinity can exist. Rather than seek to prove a deity or deities do or do not exists, it focuses upon possibility within its logical framework. Through these categories, with few exceptions, virtually all theistic paths, including atheistic variants, can be categorized and described, and often ascribed to various cultures and time periods.

"Categorizing the Occult" is a system by which many aspects of human ritualism and practice can be set apart from one another on the basis of the internalization and externalization of occult or similar forces. Speaking of shamanism, mantras, invocation, exorcism, devil worship, totems, and much more, it delves into the subject and then fuses these two broad spectra of esoteric practice. Through this system of thought man's aspirations, hopes, and rites, can be detailed in some degree of depth based solely upon this selfsame system alone.

"Spirits of the Garden" is a cursory overview to multiple psychotropics which are commonly grown or which exist in the wild in many climates of the world. Combining the occult with the biological, the work seeks, in brief, to disclose the nature of some of these species. Speaking of plants such as morning glory and san pedro cacti, and fungi such as amanita muscaria (the fly agaric) it provides a shorter expose paired with the longer "Fruits of Eden; Herbalism and the Occult."

"Occult Memetics" is more than a description of the concept of information transfer. It is a brief hand guide to constructing and using propaganda in spiritual forms, and to manipulating reality. Those who understand the concepts within this work, should they choose to apply them, can potentially change the views of others without even a single spoken utterance. It delves well beyond merely propaganda itself into the nature of reality and its core form.

"Your Future Revealed" is a simplified fortune telling tract dating to the end of the 19th century. Alluding to the Greek pantheon, it is a simplistic system; slips of paper are numbered, the question is asked, and the God replies in Shakespearean verse. This same general process can be used to answer any number of questions. This specific mystic tradition, in its quasi-modern form, dates at least as far back as the mid 1700s and is useful within the occult to loosely determine a good course of action.

The Omnium Gatherum is a combination work from the 1870s. One part fortune teller and one part temperance tract, it was distributed (apparently widely) in this era, a full five decades before prohibition took hold. The actual omnium gatherum, the fortune telling system it contains, is simplified and crafted in such a way as to become a social activity. While not an occult manuscript in the most strict sense, the basic premise of the social oracle (as opposed to potentially solitary oracles) is a novel concept considering the content of comparable works of the same period and could be adapted...

"Cotton Mather and Witchcraft" is a somewhat more sympathetic look at this figure and his role in the Salem Witch Trials than most. A refutation of contemporary criticism of Mather, it seeks to defend him against such critics by questioning their veracity. It additionally contains a number of secondary mentions of notable sources on the subject, applauds Mather for his intellect, and goes into some slight detail about specters. A fairly good, if largely apologetic, manuscript.

"Pagan Ideas of Immortality" is an interesting look at the evolution of philosophical thought through the age of antiquity into the early christian era through the various mystery sects, cults, and philosophical schools of the time. Speaking of the Stoics, Skeptics, Platonists and more, of Mithra, Osiris, and various tales of the underworld and afterlife, this text is an invaluable occult and academic reference, delivered in the form of a lecture.