Puckle's "Funeral Customs" is one of the more in-depth looks at death ever penned. Created in the early 20th century, it casts a rational and skeptical glance at the superstitions of burial practices and cremation alike, and lists in some detail the customs of death over time and changes to them during the black death and then-modernity among other eras. Not just a European work, it delves into Hinduism as well as Egyptian and Zoroastrian practices from antiquity. From the memento mori to funeral feasts, its pages are filled with interesting folklore, astonishing history, and more than a few...

"Vril; the Power of the Coming Race" comes from one of the stranger characters of the 19th century. Bulwer-Lytton's works then would proceed to inform, to varying degrees, many of the occult works and figures of the subsequent five decades, from Blavatsky on through to the now modern era with its UFOs and Antarctic expeditions. As a fictional work, this text is interesting- it is when the work is taken as a veiled reference to reality that we get two entirely different meanings- a symbolic work as Plato's Atlantis writings, on the topic of philosophy, or a reference to actual events as it is...

This little booklet was penned at the end of the 19th century, and ostensibly involves events mere years later. A work of political satire, it chastises the rise of socialism and populism, inferring their fictional rise here as disastrous and leading to chaos. It is of note here that this work, along with others by Lockwood, appear to prognosticate the current political climate of the United States and West at large- and for an apparent religious Catholic of his era, it is not altogether impossible that Lockwood- wittingly or unwittingly- tapped into some mystic forces. Regardless, it is an...

This short manuscript is an interesting work that combines Von Suchten's Theophrastus-derived observations about natural and chemical processes, with a fairly religiously involved metaphoric veil. Through the process here, the materials of alchemy are made. As a fairly typical work of alchemical lore, the metaphor must first be understood, but Von Suchten helpfully explains some of the basic chemical processes used in layman's terms.

The Biography of Satan is a lovely collection of lore, logic, and philosophy, dating to the middle of the rational days of the 19th century. Within this work, Kersey Graves lays waste to the doctrine of eternal Hell and the very concept of a Satan, claiming that it is, within proper tradition, the Christian god himself who is the architect of evil and suffering. With numerous references to linguistics, pagan lore, and then-modern historical science, Graves' work deserves far more attention from the world at large; and for those interested in the occult, and in magic, the comprehension of...