Hypnotic huckster

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. In his book Practical lessons in hypnotism & magnetism, L.W. DeLaurence states that “Occult force” is simply personal magnetism that if well developed is able to control man, woman, child or beast at will.  If a person possesses this occult force Read More

On the Money

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo collection. This edition of Jules Boissière’s Propos d’un intoxiqué has featured before in this space – see this post for a copy formerly owned by its illustrator, Tsuguharu Foujita. This copy, however, warrants revisiting the title. Every page of this 240-volume book Read More

The rituals of Illuminates of Thanateros

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. Liber Null, a book by Pete Carroll, was originally written as a sourcebook for the magical organization, Illuminates of Thanateros.  It includes spells and magical exercises ranging from mind control to transmogrification.  A warning at the beginning of Read More

Shall I read your future?

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Death.  Typically depicted as a skeleton with a sickle, one might suppose that if this card appeared in a tarot reading that you should prepare for an untimely demise, but it rarely signifies a physical death.  Tarot card Read More

Crowley and the Beast

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection.  The Santo Domingo Collection continues to bolster Harvard’s library of works by author and occult leader Aleister Crowley. These range from substantive books on magic to pamphlets containing individual poems (one of these, titled “Tyrol”, is a condemnation of Read More