| Boulton, Richard, (1676 or 7- 1724?). A compleat history of magick, sorcery, and witchcraft : containing I. The most authentick and best attested relations of magicians, sorcerers, witches, apparitions, spectres, ghosts, daemons, and other preternatural appearances. II. A collection of several scarce and valuable trials of witches ... III. An account of the first rise of the magicians and witches ... IV. A full confutation of all the arguments that have ever been produced against the belief of apparitions, witches, &c. with a judgment concerning spirits, by the late learned Mr. John Locke. |
 Budge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir, 1857-1934. Amulets and superstitions; the original texts with translations and descriptions of a long series of Egyptian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Hebrew, Christian, Gnostic and Muslim amulets and talismans and magical figures, with chapters on the evil eye, the origin of the amulet, the pentagon, the swastika, the cross (pagan and Christian), the properties of stones, rings, divination, numbers, the Kabbalah, ancient astrology, etc., |  Thoth Tarot Cards. This tarot pack was designed by Aleister Crowley in conjunction with Lady Frieda Harris. |
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| Book 4: Part III, Magick in Theory and Practice / by The Master Therion
[Aleister Crowley] |
Book 4: Part III, Magick in Theory and Practice / by The Master Therion [Aleister Crowley] (Paris : 'Subscriber's Edition', 1929) |
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 Aleister Crowley was without doubt one of the most influential occult practitioners of the this century. Born in Warwickshire in 1875, he soon rebelled against the strict Christian-fundamentalist upbringing of his Plymouth Brethren family. In 1898 he left Cambridge University without taking a degree, and in the same year published his first book of poetry. It was also the year in which he joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a group given to the practice of ceremonial magic whose membership include the poet W.B. Yeats and a number of other literary, thespian, and artistic luminaries of the time. |  The Diary of a Drug Fiend. |
 Deamer, Dulcie, |  Robinson, William E. |
 |  Rosaleen Norton. Without doubt the most famous Australian occultist was Rosaleen Norton, the New Zealand-born artist whose occult interests and bohemian lifestyle earned her the title the 'Witch of Kings Cross,' and made her the regular subject of popular press attention throughout the nineteen forties to sixties. |
 | Despite some retrospective posturing (including claims to have been a practising occultist since childhood) it was not until the early nineteen forties that Norton began to actively involve herself with the occult. Her early influences were mainly Eastern and Theosophical, although above all she valued the writings of Carl Jung, and for some time regarded herself as more of a Jungian than a mystic or occultist. Slowly, however, she became increasingly interested in the Western esoteric tradition, studying and practising the Qabalah and Ritual Magic, and making use of a wide variety of texts: particularly those by Aleister Crowley, 'Papus,' Eliphas Levi, and Dion Fortune. She became an active proponent of 'sex-magic,' and also made regular use of a variety of drugs (chiefly 'speed') in her ceremonies. These ritual practices were allied to a cosmology that was distinctly her own, but which drew much from ancient mythology as outlined in Fraser'sThe Golden Bough (which was a favourite book), Theosophy and the Qabalah. |
 |  Zohar, Attila [Holledge, James]. Kings Cross Black Magic. (Horwitz, Sydney, 1965). 'Behind the glittering panorama of strip joints and all male shows the Cross has another facade .... mysterious sinister, that ensnares the unwary into Satanic seances and the depraved orgies of black magic. Frenzied sex rites take place which stun and horrify.' A mass-market and generally breathless account of alleged 'Black Magic' practices in 'the Cross,' which included a surprisingly well-researched and balanced chapter on Rosaleen Norton. |
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| Norton, Rosaleen. Supplement to The Art of Rosaleen Norton. Preface by Walter Glover. (Walter Glover, Bondi, 1984). A spiral bound booklet with tipped-in colour photographs of many hitherto unpublished works by Norton. It also includes the first publication of 'A Vision,' a prose composition originally written by Norton in the 1940's. Although it had a stated limitation of 50 copies, 70 were actually produced. | Besant, Annie, 1847-1933. Thought-forms / by Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater. (Adyar, Madras, India : Theosophical Publishing House, 1941). Annie Besant was certainly a more cerebral figure than Mme. Blavatsky, but it is not certain that she had mediumistic powers. However, in this book, first published in 1901, she attempted to describe and visualise the manifestations of "thought-forms" she experienced. |
 Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, 1844-1911. The gates ajar, or, Our loved ones in heaven. Mrs. Phelps was a American writer who specialised in spiritualist novels. This is perhaps her best-known work. |  Calvino, Italo. Tarots : the Visconti pack in Bergamo and New York /critical examination by Sergio Samek Ludovici ; text by Italo Calvino ; [translation by William Weaver]. (Parma : F.M. Ricci, 1975). This work was originally published in Italian as Castello dei destini incrociati. It reproduces the surviving cards from a tarot pack which was created in Italy in the fifteenth century for the Visconti family. |
 De la Transformation Metallique [18th century French manuscript volume]. Alchemy usually had as its aim the discovery of the "Philosopher's Stone" with which base metals could be converted to gold. Such knowledge was eagerly sought and was often written down in arcane terms with the details obscured in symbolism. This quest gave rise to legends such as Dr. Faustus selling his soul to the devil in return for such knowledge. |  Praetorius, Johannes, 1630-1680. Ludicrum chiromanticum Praetorii : seu, thesaurus chiromantiae .../ autoris M. Johannis Praetorii. (Jenae : Impensis Johannis Bartholom ... Litteris Caspari Freyschmidii, 1661). Chiromancy, or Palmistry has a long history. It appears to have been practised from very early times in India, and was known in classical Greece. Aristotle refers to long-lived persons having one or two lines extending across the whole hand. Pliny also refers to it, and quotes Aristotle as an authority when he asserts that broken lines on the palm fore-tell a short life. Juvenal includes palm reading among the forms of the occult pursued by fashionable Roman women in his time. |
 | Mediums caught in the act of creating "ectoplasm", From Regurgitation and the Duncan Mediumship., by Harry Price. He found that the mediums were concealing rolled-up strips of cheese cloth in their mouths or even their noses. These were treated with phosphorescent paint, and regurgitated with dramatic effect at key points in the seance. Some of the photographs from Price's book are reproduced on the screens accompanying this exhibition. |
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